ALSO to add onto this: Pearl said outright that she would have fought to the death rather than be turned, and she's killed before so that's a real threat. She was on an incredibly low amount of hearts, which in universe means she was seriously injured a number of times, and was still throwing herself at fights because of what she believes in. She stepped in front of a blade to protect Cleo. She ultimately died executing Cleo's plan. Pearl has to abandon her life goal of avenging her parent's to be Oakhurst's guardian and prevent another massacre for eternity. That's not going to be easy for her.
Meanwhile, Cleo was a total coward. She never protected anyone, despite what she promised when talking to Pyro. She outright let Owen(I think?) kill Pearl at one point without stepping in because she wanted Pearl to learn not to come back to the castle. Cleo takes a lot of pains to not be on anyone's bad side if they can help it, even if it means being a duplicitous hypocrite (which I say with love, V!Cleo is my favorite Vampires character). They work with the coven, colluding to turn Pearl despite knowing Pearl doesn't want to be turned, being one of the only people to be happy that Avid was dead, antagonizing Apo, etc. They get Doc's hope up for a cure despite not believing one exists. They spill everyone's secrets constantly. Cleo's plan is the thing that saves everyone, and it requires sacrifices from a number of people, but notably not themself. They do have to sacrifice in the end, in that they have to abandon their promise to never kill again to kill Legundo, but their actual plan wouldn't require them to give anything up. Hell, Cleo could have been cured if they wanted, their sire was dead. They make the choice to stay with Pearl in the end, but we already know that Cleo sees being turned as an honor from their backstory, so they probably didn't want to be cured in the first place.
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