There's a moral to the story, we all need a taste of glory

No one said anything when Cinder ran out of the Gym. Not even Nick. He was too stunned by the outburst of emotions pouring out of the girl, and the stunning sincerity of her apology, to even think about trying to stop her.

The fact was, Cinder leaving left everyone a little bit rattled. Her cathartic revelation was shocking to anyone who bothered to listen to her, and the way she seemed shaken by everything that happened sent the message “Don’t follow me!” to everyone else.

Even Dawn, who wanted to support her friend, realized that it was likely better for all involved parties to just leave Cinder alone, and let her go down whatever path it was that she was intending to go down. After all… her friend was only one part of her existing self. Ella’s feelings, as important as they were, held a significant weight to them as well, and Dawn wasn’t sure how to accommodate those feelings, either.

“Cinder…” Dawn murmured as she watched the other girl leave.

Whatever it was that Ella had been hoping to gain from coming all the way to the Gym to work out… Dawn wasn’t sure if she had managed to accomplish it or not. But it sure didn’t feel like anything had tangibly changed.

Dawn just hoped that her friend would be satisfied once she regained control over her body.

…The chances of that happening were very unlikely, though.

Cinder stormed down the hallway of the hotel, fuming so hotly that it almost seemed like the sweat on her body was evaporating and turning into steam. She began grinding her lips together furiously, and muttered curses under her breath as she glared daggers at anyone who headed her way.

This ended up being mostly faeries. The little sprites who staffed the hotel all immediately picked up on the fact that being around Cinder was a risky move, and none of them wanted anything to do with the other girl. They all knew better than to venture close to her.

Not that Cinder gave a fucking damn about any of them. Why the hell should she care about something like that!?

The murderous rage rolling off of her was overwhelming, and anyone who got close was liable to be fended off by her fury.

“I can’t fucking stand this,” Cinder muttered venomously to herself. She balled up her hands into fists. “Why!? Why can’t I… just not make all these fucking mistakes!?”

Tears burned her cheeks. She hated this. She hated everything about how she was feeling right now. But… she couldn’t stop herself from feeling this way, either.

It was all too much. Too much for her tired, weary, exhausted body to handle. All that working out she had done… it had left her completely beleaguered and overwhelmed, and at this point, she could hardly even walk straight.

What did Cinder even want, at this point? Honestly, she didn’t even know. She just felt like garbage and rage and hatred and…

And…

It made her feel so empty.

Cinder stopped in the middle of the hall. She clenched her fists even harder until the pressure of her nails started to sting her palms. “…What was I supposed to do?” She asked herself quietly, trembling like a leaf. Cinder hung her head, and tears dripped from her eyes and onto the ground below. “How was I supposed to respond to that…?”

She wished she hadn’t made the choices that she made. But she had only made those choices because she thought that she had to.

When it came to properly expressing herself and her feelings, Cinder was at a complete loss. Her whole existence, it had just been one overwhelming emotional experience after another, and it her way of handling them had always been faulty and shoddy, but… that was part of being who she was! That was… part of what it meant to be Cinder.

And now, she was being asked to put all that aside, and stop being the person that had gotten her to this point, to stop being herself.

She… she couldn’t do that.

It just… wasn’t who she was.

It wasn’t what she had been created to be.

…Right?

“…I’m not her…” Cinder’s fists began to tremble. “I’m not Ella. I’m just… some figment of Ella’s imagination! I’m not real, I’m not… so why… why do I keep making things worse for Ella, then!? Why!? WHY!?”

She couldn’t confront the source of those feelings. She couldn’t confront her doubts, or her fears, or… or anything, really.

Because at her core, on some subconscious level that could never be directly acknowledged, Cinder knew…

She knew that… if she did… if she opened that door…

There would be no going back.

“I’m not real,” she whispered, almost as if she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. “I’m not… I’m not real… I’m not…”

Cinder shook her head over and over again in desperation to convince herself against a truth that she couldn’t hide from.

No matter how much she wished it wasn’t the case, Cinder WAS real. She WAS a real person, a fundamental part of herself, and Ella-

“Cinder?”

Cinder jerked her head up, and her amber eyes widened in shock behind her sweaty bangs. She clenched her teeth together tightly and glared at the figure in front of her. “You…” she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. “You, what… what are YOU even doing here!?” She demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at the white-haired girl standing in front of her.

Sylvia looked at Cinder with a shocked expression on her face. She slowly shook her head, not sure how to respond to the other girl’s statement.

“I… I don’t know what to say to that,” she sincerely replied, shaking her head. “I’m… just here, I guess. I mean, I… I don’t know, I’m just, uh… …Yeah. …I’m stuck on this island same as you, until the show ends, anyway.”

Unlike Cinder, though, Sylvia had nothing waiting for her back on earth. But she didn’t anticipate the irritated murderer to really give a damn about that. She wouldn’t, if she were in Cinder’s position, anyway.

Or would she?

“…I don’t care why you’re here,” Cinder muttered grimly, biting her lip. “Just… just fucking get the fucking hell away from me, you fucking bitch…”

She moved to walk around Sylvia, but Sylvia wasn’t going to let her get away with that. She stepped in front of Cinder to intercept her, and looked sharply into the dark-haired girl’s amber eyes without backing down.

“No, I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going to help you, Cinder, because I’m your friend!” Sylvia declared.

Cinder blinked.

Then, she blinked again.

…THEN, she burst out laughing. A harsh, bitter laugh devoid of mirth, even with the glee etched all over her face. Cinder held her sides and shook her head incredulously.

The laughter lasted for a few seconds more, before Cinder responded with an overwhelming burst of emotion that left Sylvia at a loss for words.

“…Are you fucking kidding me!?” She exclaimed, her eyes narrowing coldly. She grabbed Sylvia by the collar of her tank top, and shoved her backwards.

Sylvia staggered backwards, eyes wide. “Ci-Cinder…”

“Just leave me alone!” Cinder exclaimed. “I didn’t ask for your help! I didn’t ask for your comments! I didn’t, I… I just… I fucking hate you!”

Sylvia didn’t know how to respond to that, either.

“You hate me? Cinder, you barely know me,” she protested, crossing her arms over her chest. “Come on! At least be a little more honest with your statements, okay? You’re just mad, and you’re taking it out on whoever’s closest to you, and that’s fine. But you don’t have to be so mean about it. I get it, okay? Come on now.”

After all the emotional outbursts and abuse she’d suffered at Dakota’s hands, Cinder’s tantrums barely even registered to Sylvia at this point. She stepped forward with a brazen look in her eye, not giving a damn in the slightest about the other woman’s feelings, and narrowed her eyes.

The fury Sylvia saw in the eyes of the other girl had left her genuinely stunned for a moment. She didn’t know what to say at first. But now, she knew better. Now, she knew that she couldn’t just indulge one of Cinder’s tantrums.

It wasn’t fair. To either of them.

Sylvia didn’t deserve that, and neither did Cinder herself.

So… Sylvia would just have to push through the abuse the other girl was leveling at her. It was the only way that things would ever be settled for any of them, as far as she could judge the situation, anyway. And that left her feeling nervous and uneasy.

But… unwilling to back down, at the same time.

“Tell me what happened,” Sylvia calmly said to the other girl.

Cinder’s eye twitched. “No fucking way,” she spat at Sylvia, shaking her head furiously. “You think I fucking care what you have to say to me, you bitch?!”

Sylvia shrugged. “No, probably not,” she admitted. “But tell me anyway.”

That got pretty much exactly the response Sylvia had expected to get. Anger and foaming at the mouth.

But, Cinder didn’t try to punch her, or anything. So in that regard, at least, she was making progress. Minimal progress though it may have been.

“Why the fuck are you acting like this, huh!?” Cinder demanded, digging her heel into the ground and seething at the other woman. “Since when do you give a damn about anything, huh, Sylvia? Huh?!”

“What are you even talking about?” Sylvia demanded right back. “Of course I give a damn! Seeing you look like that… crying and everything as you’re walking down the hallway? Anyone would notice, even someone who was only made to host a show like Harem Hotel!”

A hush fell over the corridor. Cinder looked at Sylvia, and her mouth dropped open in shock.

“…What?” She shook her head slowly and brought her hand to her eyes. “…Crying!? I’m not crying! It’s fucking sweat, you bitch!”

Cinder didn’t cry! She wasn’t the crybaby! That- that was Ella! ELLA was the one who cried, not Cinder! Not… not Cinder… she… she didn’t… crying, that… that was…

“Shut the fuck up, you fucking bitch!”

This time, Cinder DID launch herself at the other girl. She grabbed onto Sylvia and brought both of them to the floor. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

“Okay, I think that’s enough of that.”

Sudddenly, a spectral force grabbed onto the back of Cinder’s soaked tank top like a hand, and ripped her away from the other woman. She was flung backwards and landed on her feet somehow, and staggered back, her eyes wide with shock.

Echo stood at the end of the hall, wearing a gleeful expression on her face.

“My, my, my,” she said, shaking her head as she approached the two of them with the practiced slowness of a predatory lioness or tigress on the prowl. “I thought I could amuse myself for a spell by watching the two of you bicker… but I never would have imagined things would progress in such a… spicy direction, like this,” she crooned gleefully, twisting her hands around her cane.

“Shut the fuck up!” Cinder roared. She struggled against the invisible force holding her back. “Let me fucking go, you fucking bitch!”

Echo blinked. “…Let you go? No, I don’t think I will,” she said, shaking her head. Her lips turned into a frown, while her eyes started to shine with mirthful glee. “After all, the way you just threw yourself at her like that? Attacking another contestant? You were warned SO many times by my predecessor, Cinder… and I have no interest in indulging your little violence streak any longer.”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head again. “Your role on this show is to be the spitfire, yes, but the producers have started to get exhausted with all this misplaced aggression of yours. It isn’t sexy at all to try to harm your fellow contestants… …At least, not the way you’re going about it, anyhow. No whips, no hot wax… this is a show about kinks, girl, not about satisfying your temper tantrums and indulging your worst impulses.”

“FUCK YOU!” Cinder shouted. She still struggled futilely against her invisible restraints, which just made them constrict tighter around her. “FUCK! FUCK YOU!”

“Echo, you’ve made your point,” Sylvia said, standing up and brushing herself off. She glared critically at the new host. “Just let her go. She was having a bad day, and I pushed her. It’s my fault she reacted like that.”

Echo turned to Sylvia with a condescending coldness in her eyes. “Oh, how sweet and understanding of you,” she mocked the other woman. “Sylvia, the benevolent hero, so kind and generous that she’s even willing to forgive a personal assault… …Well, you should know better than that, Sylvia, you really should. Harem Hotel has zero tolerance for violence of that nature, and anyone who violates that rule MUST be punished.”

“What!?” Cinder’s blood ran cold. Her heart slowed down, while at the same time, Sylvia’s heart started to race.

She knew what Echo was doing, and she could see how much the host was relishing in the power of doing it.

This wasn’t good. No, it wasn’t good at all.

“Echo, just stop,” she said quickly. “I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t give her a punishment transformation! I don’t want that!”

“As if I care what you wanted!” Echo sneered, her green eyes sparkling with amusement. “I’m sorry, but your opinion no longer matters, now that you’re not the one holding this cane! No, violence is absolutely unacceptable on this show, my girl, something that you yourself are well aware of.”

Sylvia grimaced. The worst part of this whole thing was that Echo was absolutely correct. It wasn’t acceptable for a person in Cinder’s position to attempt the thing that she did, even if it was in the heat of the moment. Other shows had punished their contestants for far less egregious offenses, and Echo had every right to lay down the law.

“…I’m not saying you can’t do it,” Sylvia said, giving a remorseful look over at the struggling Cinder. “I’m asking you not to. Please.”

“Hey, shut your fucking mouth!” Cinder snapped at her. She was too angry to care about self-preservation at this point. “No one asked you to butt in, bitch!”

“There, you see?” Echo raised her hand and gestured to Cinder. “She’s fine with it. Now, step aside, if you would…”

“No!” Sylvia had to put her foot down. “Listen, Echo, I’ve been in your position. I know what it’s like to feel the need to brandish your authority, to remind people that you’re the one in charge, and that you’re not to be fucked with. Believe me, I get it!”

Echo narrowed her eyes. “Oh, you ‘get it’, do you?” She scoffed, shaking her head. “I see.”

“I’ve even done it myself,” Sylvia confessed. “Because I thought that I had to. Because… it was an expedient way of resolving the conflict and putting the fear of the show into Daddy and the contestants’ minds. But… that wasn’t the right thing to do. That’s what I’m trying to warn you about, Echo!” She pleaded.

Cinder opened her mouth to scream at her again, but no sound came out. Echo had silenced her with a tap of her cane.

Now, the orange-haired host was giving Sylvia her full, undivided attention.

Sylvia let out a muted sigh of relief.

This was good.

If Echo was listening to her, then… there was a possibility that they could get out of this situation without any serious punishment for Cinder.

…On the other hand, it was just as likely that Echo was fucking with her, trying to give her hope before cruelly ripping it away.

Her own mother would do something like that. And Sylvia had no illusion that Echo was somehow a better person than her.

“Think about Ella,” Sylvia said carefully, trying to appeal to the rational side of the irrational host. “She’s a part of Cinder, too. And she hasn’t done anything to warrant a punishment transformation! If you punish Cinder, then wouldn’t you be unfairly punishing Ella, too?”

Cinder squirmed furiously, her eyes wide. She had been so angry that that consequence had completely slipped her mind.

“Only if you subscribe to the belief that Cinder and Ella are somehow distinct individuals,” Echo replied. “And that is not the case, as far as I and the producers are concerned.”

Sylvia grimaced. She figured that Echo would try to justify herself with a statement like that. Oh, well, it was worth a try.

She pivoted in a different direction. “Then… what about Daddy? Think about how he would respond to something like that happening?”

Sylvia didn’t know what had agitated Cinder like this, but she could guess. Cinder only reached this level of vitriol when Nick was involved.

In other words, something had happened between the two of them that had set her off, and Sylvia had ended up caught in the crossfire inadvertently.

Not exactly a fun place to be.

Echo smirked. “How considerate of you,” she mocked the former host. “Thinking about your ‘Daddy’ and how he’s feeling… that’s so like you, Sylvia. Weak. And pathetic, to boot.”

Sylvia scowled, but she didn’t deny the accusation.

“…Unfortunately for you and your ‘Daddy’, I don’t really care what Nick thinks about me,” Echo replied smugly. She raised her cane. “I do as I please!”

“Then… what about the audience?” Sylvia’s mind was racing now, trying to come up with any argument that might persuade Echo to stop. “Do you really think that THEY would be happy about you giving Cinder a punishment transformation over a mild little scuffle like this? You don’t think they’d see it as you being too harsh on her?”

Echo stopped. Now she was listening to Sylvia in earnest.

Well, it was a start.

“Cinder and Ella rose quite a bit in popularity this last round, didn’t they?” Sylvia pointed out. “That means they have fans. Fans who probably wouldn’t like it too much if you gave her a punishment transformation for such a minor transgression like this. As the host, it’s your job to take the feelings of the fans into consideration, isn’t it?”

Echo blinked. The look in her eyes went from smug and amused to cold and thoughtful, and she didn’t say a word.

Hope surged in Sylvia’s breast. She was getting through.

“…You’re right,” Echo admitted. “They probably wouldn’t be very happy about something like that, would they?”

Sylvia’s eyes widened.

“…But, then, I’m not a fan of being manipulated,” Echo said, narrowing her eyes coldly. “I’m not like that failure of a mother of yours. You can’t just bully me into doing whatever you want, Sylvia River.”

And with that, before Sylvia could plead her case for Cinder further, Echo raised her cane, and a black light flashed from the crystal embedded in it, engulfing the paralyzed woman who couldn’t even scream in response.