Achilles Heel

Achilles Heel is the femslash ship between Pyrrha Nikos and Cinder Fall from the RWBY fandom.

Canon
In Volume 2, Cinder tells Emerald to add Pyrrha to "the list" meaning that she might have had some unknown plan for her. She then gets Mercury to fight against her to see what kind of semblance she has. When Mercury tells her about it she is impressed with the results. She later in volume 3 is responsible for orchestrating Penny's "death" and having Pyrrha be framed for it.

In Volume 3 Chapter 11, Ozpin sets up the transfer of the Fall Maiden powers from Amber to Pyrrha, to which Pyrrha reluctantly agrees. Suddenly though, Cinder enters the scene, kills Amber and disrupts the process, allowing her to get all of the Fall Maiden powers from her. When Jaune and Pyrrha try to fight Cinder, Ozpin tells them to leave and that he would deal with her. They both leave reluctantly while Cinder proceeds to fight Ozpin.

Pyrrha then decides to try and fight Cinder on her own in Volume 3 Chapter 12. During the fight, Pyrrha puts up a valiant effort but is eventually overpowered and outmatched by Cinder, who then shoots her in the heel with an arrow. Cinder then kneels in front of a hurt Pyrrha and mockingly tells her that the maiden powers were never hers to begin with, and that she will make better use of them. Pyrrha then looks up at her and defiantly asks her if she believes in destiny, to which Cinder responds "yes". She then kills her by shooting her in the heart with another arrow and disintegrating her body. Later in Volume 6, Cinder tells Neo that she believes in destiny, quoting Pyrrha's words to her.

Fanon
Achilles Heel is a rarepair in the RWBY fandom. Mainly because the two are enemies and Cinder is the reason for Pyrrha's untimely demise. It has a small fanbase on Tumblr. Some fans view these two as a tragic couple since Cinder killed Pyrrha. They also appeal as an opposites-attract ship due to being on opposing sides of the war and having drastically different personalities. But they also mirror each other, in that Pyrrha was supposed to become the Fall Maiden after Amber. Cinder instead steals her place. They are also both being used by the two opposing sides; Oz intends for Pyrrha to become the Fall Maiden without truly explaining to her what it means or what is going on, while Salem uses Cinder as her minion to do her dirty work.

In some works, they are paired together with Jaune. People who don't ship these two usually ship Arkos.

Fandom
FANFICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Their ship name comes from the Greek god Achilles who Pyrrha is based off of. Achilles was fatally shot in his heel which became his downfall, Pyrrha was also shot in her heel by Cinder, which became her downfall.