There were few things that made Cinder more uncomfortable then having to sit back and watch one of her friends get pumbled around like a rag doll, and yet as she watched Jaune get tossed into the air like a rag doll she knew that really was nothing more she could do but watch. Despite having taken a hit that had sent him flying Jaune managed to pull himself up once more and face Cardin, holding his shield in front of him while trying to catch his breath. But without missing a beat Cardin pressed the attack, mace flying in a dangerous arc directly toward Jaune, who only managed to avoid the powerful hit at the last moment by dodging to the side and moving back to the far end of the arena.
"Its a little sad isn't it?" Emerald watched the fight with half interest, trying not to be caught looking at her Scroll between glances at the fight. "Its like watching an overgrown ape beating up an immortal puppy."
Cinder raised an eyebrow at the analogy but couldn't find a flaw in it. The match was supposed to end when either fighter could get their enemies Aura level into the red, a common enough exercise for Hunter's to train them to always be aware of how much damage they could take and promote dodging and defensive movement to prevent their aura from falling too quickly. The problem in the current match was that Jaune had so much aura that despite having been hit by almost every blow Cardin could strike with his aura counter had only gone down by a small amount. Meanwhile the one or two blows that Jaune was able to get off by sheer luck had much more noticeable effects on Cardin's own aura.
Desperation drove Jaune into another attack, one which Cardin easily blocked with his mace. "This is the part where you lose." the taller boy sneered, sending a foot directly into the unarmored section of Jaune's stomach. The blow winded Jaune and caused him to drop to a knee with one hand over his gut. Cardin meanwhile took the opportunity to raise his mace up for a killing blow. With a mighty swing the mace flew down, but a flash of white exploded from Jaune's body right before he could be hit, throwing Cardin back a few feet and completely off balance.
Seeing an opening Jaune pushed himself forward and threw himself toward Cardin in a flying tackle, knocking both of them to the ground. Before Cardin could react Jaune's arm was pushing down on his shoulder while his sword was pushed against the other boys throat.
"Thats the match." Adam stepped onto the stage and watched as the two young men separated themselves. "Jaune I want to see you clock in an extra five hours in the practice room with extra focus on dodging and speed. Cardin do you know why you lost that match?"
The taller boy grunted and shot a glare toward Jaune. "Because he got lucky."
"Yes, but also because rather then capitalize on any of the advantages you had during the fight you chose to perform the fighting equivalent of playing with your food," he shook his head. "Your enemy only needs one chance to kill you, think on that with an extra three hours in the practice room with extra focus on flexibility training."
Cardin muttered something under his breath before turning away from Adam, making sure to shoulder check Jaune on his way off of the stage.
With a quick sigh Adam turned to face the rest of the class. "Take this as a lesson, showing off during a battle will lead to a defeat, doesn't matter if the opponent is lucky or skilled because no matter how good you are eventually your guard will slip in a longer fight." he pulled out his scroll and tapped the holographic screen a few times. "I have just sent fight recordings to each of your scrolls, watch them and write a two page essay on the fighting styles used by both parties and the roles they played in the final results of the fight. Class dismissed!"
People began to rise from the benches and talk with each other, discussing their assignments or the match itself as they exited the room. Cinder rose with the rest of her team and began to walk out.
"For a leader he certainly doesn't show any great talent does he?" Roman idly asked as they walked toward the next class.
Emerald rolled her eyes and looked over toward him. "I mean he won so what does it matter right?"
"It matters, without his unreasonable amount of aura he would have lost that battle about a hundred times over." Mercury shrugged and turned to look over at Cinder. "I mean Cinder is his girlfriend and even she has to admit that much."
"Its true he could hav-" Cinder paused as the sentence fully went through her mind and a wild blush caught her cheeks. "We are just friends, it isn't anything like that!"
Emerald leaned over to Mercury and stage whispered to him. "Shh Cinder doesn't like admitting she is crazy for vomit boy,"
Cinder's body exploded with a literal aura of flames as she glared to her teammates. "What was that now?" she asked in a dementedly sweet tone.
"Mercury run, we need to be out of the blast radius of her love explosion!" Emerald snickered and grabbed Mercury's arm, pulling him along into an uneven run.
"Oh neither of you is getting away that easily!" Cinder went chasing after them with a mad glint in her eye. "I am assigning both of you to room cleaning duty for the rest of the year when I catch up!"
Roman simply sighed and shook his head. "Am I the only sane person in this team?"
"You know sometimes it feels like you are the only sane person on this team," Qrow took another belt from his canteen as he looked around the church, covering his mouth with his sleeve to avoid breathing in the fumes coming off of the cult members as each one began to dissolve into black mist.
Neo quirked an eyebrow while she covered her own mouth with a gloved hand.
"Well you actually listen to my plans, I am still stuck in my rebellious phase where after I come up with a plan I break script and just do my own thing." as the black mist disappeared Qrow took a seat at one of the pews and looked forward toward the front. "Grimm cults like this are getting even bigger these days. I can't tell if Shade is involved in all of them or if people are just that stupid."
As if in reply Neo took a seat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder in a quiet show of support.
"Yeah maybe I am just being negative about it, but I can tell he is getting stronger. Even a year ago it had trouble taking over more then one combat form, now its able to divide a mind between an entire group and enhance them." he offered his flask to Neo, who took a swig of her own from it before handing it back. "If it can get the last artifact we might really be looking at a seriously bad time."
Neo didn't say a word, rather she simply blinked and changed her eye color from the usual pink and brown to true eyes, a clear and shining white. She placed one hand on his forehead and softly hummed a tune. After a moment Qrow began to cough violently, bits of black smoke coming from his mouth and swirling toward her eyes, polluting them with its darkness. Then with a blink her eyes changed back to their typical colors and she sat next to him, exhausted once more.
It took a moment for Qrow to catch his breath again, taking a long drink from his canteen until it was empty before tossing it to the side and standing up. "This was the last lead that we had, it looks like we are out of options."
Neo looked at him with an unreadable expression before giving a stiff nod and standing up.
"You know that if you don't want to come you don't have to right?" he put a hand on top of her head in a comforting manner. "That place is creepy for everyone, but I know that-" before he could carry on she punched him in the arm and shook her head. "Yeah I get it, don't worry we made a deal didn't we?"
She gave a single nod before moving toward the front of the building, shoulders slumped and with an air of melancholy around her.
Qrow sighed and ran a hand through the back of his hair. "Off to Wonderland then," he followed after her with a troubled expression, not seeing for a moment the miniature Nevermore watching from outside the window, crimson eyes burning against the darkness before taking off into the sky.
Yang cracked her knuckles and looked toward the red haired woman on the other side of the training mat. "I am telling you Carolina, you just can't beat me."
Carolina shot a death glare toward Yang and picked herself off of the training mat before charging directly at her, throwing forth a powerful series of kicks and punches so fast that most would have a hard time keeping up with watching them, much less dodging it. However Yang seemed at perfect ease with blocking and dodging, actually delivering a yawn after stepping back from a particularly brutal attack. "Why can't I hit you?!" she roared.
"A because I am better then you, and two because about eighty percent of me is laced with machinery provided by the princess." Yang casually gripped the skin on her arm and pulled hard, revealing shiny bits of metal directly under it. "I'm a freaking cyborg, and you are a merc with a team of idiots, guess which of us trumps the other?"
"Yang stop showing off to your girlfriend and start helping us finish the plan to re-recruit your girlfriend!" Ruby called from the other room in an annoyed fashion.
"Sorry sideshow, big girl talk in the other room." Yang left Carolina fuming, grabbing a towel for herself before entering the 'planning room' of their current base. Of course for a planning room it wasn't anything to write home about, it was literally a room with a desk, four chairs, and a white board. Ruby was however hard at work writing down words and drawing arrows between them. "So what does 'hotdog stand' connecting to 'aliens' have to do with getting Blake back?" Yang asked with a bit of humor in her voice.
"You just don't see the big picture," Ruby muttered as she continued her work, writing down more words before suddenly breaking into a coughing fit that knocked her off her legs and onto the ground. Yang was there in a second to reach down and help her up, but even then she was still shaky. Her hand was coated in a black substance from where she had coughed into it, which Ruby brought up to examine. "Whatever that kid did to me a month ago isn't sticking, Shade says I have another month at best. The 'good doctor' says I have maybe a week."
"Then we shouldn't be playing around, lets get as much power together as we can and bust Beacon's doors in." Yang's eyes flashed red as she was forced to witness her sisters pain. Even if she had to assault to school herself there wasn't a chance she was going to die if Yang could prevent it.
Ruby shot a glare at Yang and the blonde found herself thrown back by an invisible force that pinned her against the wall hard enough to leave a dent. "Do not order me," she said with dark tone, both the ring and the crown glowing with black power. "I don't need your help or pity 'sister'."
Yang looked toward Ruby with sad eyes, trying to look for a hint of mercy in the others eyes before simply lowering her head in submission. Despite being sisters in every definition of the word even she couldn't match the pure blood lust in Ruby's eyes. Ever since she had first put on the artifacts her mind had slowly twisted into a dark parody of herself, blood hungry and without a single care for a life that wasn't her own.
Weiss entered into the room and observed the scene with disinterest. "You know this isn't creating a very conductive meeting environment."
With a childish smile Ruby turned her attention away from Yang and threw her arms around Weiss with a childish smile. "Oh come on don't be like that, whats a little wanton murder between sisters right?" she flashed a grin toward the former heiress, who simply pushed her away with a roll of her eyes.
"And people call me a lunatic," the group turned as one to watch as an older looking woman entered in to the room, tan skin covered by a white lab coat spattered with crimson marks, long dark hair wildly going every which way that it wanted, and a pair of wire frame glasses covering blood shot eyes. "Not that they are wrong, but you people are clinical." a large wolf like tail rose to cover her mouth to stifle a yawn.
"And now that the good doctor Mangle has joined us we can begin the planning phase." Shade stepped out of the shadows of the room, this time wearing a fierce lion mask over his face. "Our three goals right now are to return the Black Fang to the fold, hold off Rose's untimely death, and of course to snatch the sword from Ozpin and complete the trinity."
"You make it sound so simple, yet last time I checked Beacon is still home to a small army of trained warriors, and the only method of preventing Ruby's disease from turning her inside into soup was a fluke fired off by a boy so green he could easily be mistaken for grass." Weiss took a seat at the table while sparing a glance toward the whiteboard.
Yang sighed and took her own seat. "Not to mention knowing Blake there is a zero percent chance she is going to come back to us, kitty cat has got major pride issues."
"Well when it comes to hunting cats you just need to know the right bait," Ruby walked toward the white board and gave it a spin, revealing a picture of a young girl with a date under it. "A member of the council who happens to be pretty anti-faunus civil rights is holding a big party for his precious little girl. Thanks to a little nudge from our mutual friend," Shade gave a bow to the women. "We know the Black Fang will be there."
"How does this help us again?" Mangle asked while resting her head against the table. "Just because we know she is going to attack doesn't mean anything. She kills a few humans and runs off into the night."
Shade and Ruby turned to each other, Ruby with a grin and Shade with the same unreadable mask. "Lets just say...they aren't the only party getting an invite."
Cinder walked the halls of Beacon with a worried look on her face, thinking back over the day and trying to figure out at what point things had really fallen apart. The meal break seemed like a good starting point, having to sit back and watch a fellow student get bullied wasn't any fun. Of course payback was quick and brutal after Emerald flashed a nightmarish image into Cardin's head and made biggest jerk in the academy scream like a school girl. Ooobleck's class was as usual nearly impossible to keep up with, but having to hear even more hate speech pumped into the world was seriously putting her on edge.
Growing up in the same house as Qrow had taught her a great many things, like responsibility and poise, but it had also taught her that the quickest way to let off steam was to train it out. The problem was that the training rooms were closed this late at night and most of her team was busy studying or writing out essays. Or in Emerald's case asleep and snoring loud enough to disrupt everyone else.
Before she could become much more enraptured by her thoughts however her eyes caught onto the form of another student in the halls, Pyrrha who appeared to be more then a bit disheartened by something or another. "Hey Pyrrha, you okay?"
Pyrrha looked at her for a moment, as if it took a bit of time just to recognize that she was being spoken too. "Hm, yes I...well maybe not," she looked away from Cinder, frustration and sadness building in her. "Its just...I want to help Jaune, but I can't seem to get through to him. He wants to do everything by himself and has this crazy idea that if he doesn't it somehow makes it invalid." her frustration just bled out, despite her desire to keep the entire situation as quiet as possible. Part of her hated reaching out, especially to Cinder because this was her teams problem. But Jaune was their leader, and if the other girl could do something she was willing to take a hit to her own pride.
Cinder blinked at the outflow of information while trying to figure out how to process it all. Something Jaune had done obviously had upset Pyrrha, which sounded utterly unlike him. Despite being a bit of a flake Jaune had never come across like the type who just randomly lashed out at people for no reason. "What were you trying to help him with exactly?"
At the request for more information Pyrrha quickly fell back to a more quiet mood. "Tell me is Jaune is your friend right?" she debated internally about the information she was about to hand over, but worry over what would happen to him if he kept going down his current path was winning out. He had showed great bravery and a tactical sense in the forest, but without skill and proper practice he wouldn't ever grow beyond his current level. And that only ended one way.
"Of course I am," Cinder raised an eyebrow, never before had she seen Pyrrha act so secretive. "No matter what I will do what I can to help." she had seven friends in the world, it wasn't like she was going to start turning on them now.
"Its Jaune he..." Pyrrha looked around for a moment before stepping forward. "He isn't supposed to be here."
For a moment Cinder was confused, but the true meaning fell into place after a moments thought. How awkward he was in classes and the fact that he seemed so unprepared for the work load that the average hunter class came with. She didn't need all the details, but there was already a basic picture of the entire situation in her mind. "I see," Cinder walked past Pyrrha and offered a smile back to her. "Let me see what can be done."
It was a quick walk to the roof access stairs, simply following the trail that Pyrrha's aura had left behind while leaving the area, seeing Jaune simply looking at the sky as with his back turned to her. "I told you I didn't want to-" Jaune turned and saw Cinder, a confused expression on his face. "Cin-" before he could finish his thought a blast of fire hit him square in the chest and nearly sent him off the edge before he could regain his balance. "What the he-" another blast of flame was fired directly at him, but this time he managed to dodge back onto the larger section of the roof before it could send him over.
Cinder focused her power in front of her and created a blade made of hardened obsidian, throwing it down at his feet before creating two more massive orbs of fire in either hand, converting both into blades for herself. "Two choices, protect yourself or die." without another word she charged directly at Jaune, who despite a panicked expression grabbed the weapon that had been tossed at his feet and took a defensive stance, blocking a dual strike from Cinder.
"What the heck are you-" despite being smaller in size Jaune was quickly learning that Cinder wasn't a lightweight, quickly losing the contest to stay in his position and giving ground to her, only just staying on his feet. "What heck are you doing?"
Without missing a beat Cinder slammed her twin blades together into a bow, drawing back an arrow of flames onto an invisible string. "You think this is easy?" she fired out the burning arrow, which split into three separate lines of flame, each slamming into Jaune one after the other. "Do you think any of us started as strong as we are?"
Jaune glared at Cinder with a look fit to kill, it was obvious that his stubborn pride was forcing him down an idiotic path. So Cinder would do what any good friend would in this situation.
She would shatter his pride until he accepted help.
Jaune charged directly toward her with a powerful downward swing. "Don't pretend you get everything that is going through my head." Cinder quickly blocked his stroke by converting her bow back into blades, easily holding him off. "No matter what I try, no matter how long I spend in the training room I can't get any better. I am so weak I can't even stick up for myself, I can't even stick up for a girl getting bullied." his eyes welled with tears and he put even more effort into trying to shatter Cinder's defense.
But no matter how hard he forced Cinder wouldn't budge, quickly moving one of her blades away and hitting him full in the stomach with another ball of flame, breaking his own stance and allowing her to deliver a powerful slash with her blade. It bounced off his aura but still staggered him. "You can't get better because you are weak, if you try and beat yourself you aren't going to get any better. You will just end up in the same pathetic condition," her words were cruel and without a filter, slamming into the walls of Jaune's pride. "Someone who climbs the same mountain over and over will only get better at climbing that mountain. Put them against something bigger and they will die."
Jaune tried to force himself up using the blade, but Cinder was merciless, moving over and kicking the sword out of his grasp and letting him fall to the ground. "So you are weak, so you can't do anything. Are you just going to sit and feel miserable about it until you die?" she looked down at him, the flames flowing off of her school uniform reflecting in her eyes. "Get up, I am not done yet."
Jaune slammed his fist into the roof and spat out a number of colorful curses, looking up at her with tears welling in his eyes. "I...am not done." he pulled himself up and drew in a number of pained breaths.
"Hm," Cinder let her swords scatter in the wind, before holding both hands close together and letting her power flow through her, unleashing more of it then she normally did and forming an intricate obsidian scythe, flames dancing along its body. "Still not done?"
Jaune's response was a simple glare and a nod of his head.
Cinder spun the weapon in her hands, making it dance around her before delivering a powerful blow directly towards Jaune's chest. However right before it could strike Jaune extended his hands in front of him, both covered in his shining white aura. Scythe and hand both met with each other, sparking red flame and flickering white light flowing in opposite directions as the two clashed. Both of the hunters in training let out a battle cry and put the entirty of their effort behind their attacks.
But in the end the stalemate was broken, Jaune's aura cracked and the force behind the attack sent him straight off the edge of the building, only a grasping hand keeping him clinging to the rooftop. Cinder walked over and looked down at him, about to fall from the high building with cool eyes. Jaune met those eyes for a moment and lowered his head in shame before moving his freehand into range so she could help him back onto the building, where he promptly collapsed on his back, body covered in sweat.
Cinder took a seat next to him, eyes trained on him to make sure she hadn't done too much damage. "That was terrible." she offered blandly.
"No kidding, I didn't stand a chance." Jaune closed his eyes and sighed for a moment. "So are you going to tell Ozpin I forged my way into Beacon?"
Cinder tilted her head for a moment as if she was internally debating the subject, but in the end simply shook her head in the negative. "You're here risking your life to try and do something good, that in and of itself tells me that you are either crazy or stupid. If we let you out of sight you will probably end up doing something stupid and getting yourself hurt."
Jaune closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "I hate it, being this weak."
She couldn't help but laugh at the irony of that, given his aura and the way he could rapidly take to things once he was backed into a corner he was already shaping up to become a high class hunter. The only thing stopping him was himself. "You know, back when I was first training I couldn't manipulate my aura for anything, couldn't even make a spark with all of the dust in the Torchwick company mines," she lifted a finger and summoned a warm flame, flicking it so that it landed just above Jaune's body. "It took a lot of effort, sweat, blood, but you know what it took more of then all of those things?"
Jaune's eyes went to the flame, and a shake of his head was the only answer she received.
"Help, I had so many great teachers who worked so hard to get me where I am today, and most of them had the patience of saints or else I wouldn't be half as strong as I am now. Power has been something I always strived for, power to protect all of the people I care about most in the world," she looked at him, the coldness that had dominated her eyes during the fight was gone, now replaced with a warm glow. "I'm strong, but I can't help everyone on my own, there is a reason hunters operate in four person groups. By ourselves we fall, together we soar."
Jaune looked over his weakened body and sighed. "But what if I never improve, what if I fall you guys despite everything?"
"If you couldn't advance you wouldn't have been able to stop my finishing blow for a second, if you are willing to advance you will."
The two of them sat in silence for a bit longer, simply looking toward the massive tower that made up the highest point in Beacon. It was oddly peaceful, a quiet night in a world full of chaos. A single moment.
"Well when you put it like that, guess I can't really refuse can I?" he smiled toward Cinder, but something about the smile was different. It didn't carry the usual childish innocent that usually came to Jaune's face with a smile. There was something a bit older about it, but also a bit wiser as well. Cinder offered him a hand and helped him back to his feet, before giving him a shove onto his back. "Hey what was that one for?!"
"For making your partner upset, you better come up with something to make it up to her." Cinder covered her mouth to prevent a smile from breaking out and ruining her serious expression.
Jaune put a hand against his head, after the fight had cleared his head it truly hit him just how much of an utter jerk he had been. "Crap, I was kind of an ass."
Cinder leaned down and helped Jaune back onto his feet with a shake of her head. "Well you know what they say, baby steps."
The two of them made their way back into the building, beginning their trek back toward their dorm rooms. A few students who happened to walk by the two would have some odd whispers in the morning about the two heavily breathing students with ruffled clothes wandering the halls with their arms around each other, but rumors came and went in Beacon.
What was another one for the fires?
Ozpin took a slow sip of his tea while looking over into the dark sky, admiring the view and wondering for the hundredth time if he should retire for the night. Despite it being late the headmaster was always able to justify another hour, another paper that needed to be looked over, another report that could be analysed. Another budget to balance another message to be written. It was hard to remember that he wasn't as young as he was before, pulling allnighters was a task best left to much younger men then himself.
But before his internal debate could get much further the elevator to his office gave a ding, the doors sliding open to let someone into his sanctuary. "If its another round of reports Glynda I was just about to get some res-" a dark chill back over him, and when Ozpin turned around it wasn't his second in command standing on the other side of his desk, but a tall muscular young man with both eyes closed and a twisted smile on his face.
"Oh poor Ozpin, you never did know when to quit did you?" Cardin's voice sounded nothing like his own, or rather it only sounded partially like his own voice. It was as if another voice had been layered right above it, giving an inhuman quality to the young mans voice. "Not when you lose, not when you win."
Ozpin fought the urge to reach for his cane and instead looked at Cardin with a nearly blank expression, cold eyes looking over the entire room as if awaiting a trap. "What are you doing in my school?"
Cardin moved a hand to his mouth in feigned surprise. "Oh really now Ozpin, is that anyway to speak to your oldest and dearest enemy, shouldn't there be a bit more snarling, a threat on my life?" Cardin tsked at the headmaster, a rather unnatural sound come from him. "Maybe old age is catching up with you."
It took everything had to prevent Ozpin from playing the game he was being baited into. "Let go of my student and leave my school. You have no real power here."
"Oh thats true enough," Cardin opened his eyes, revealing that both had been consumed by a pitch black coloring. A slow trickle of ooze slowly came from the eye, slowly moving down his face. "Even with all of the hatred and darkness in his soul I can't seem to get a proper grip on him, so sad. The bigger ones tend to last a bit longer before burning out." with a shrug Cardin put forward a hand, and just above Ozpin's desk a small black portal appeared, dropping eight white envelops with various names attached to each. "Invitations to a part the Black Fang means to interrupt. It would be such a shame if something happened to all of those innocent people don't you think?"
Ozpin examined the envelops and looked toward the boy. "What is your game, Shade?
"Game?" Cardin brought a hand to his mouth in shock. "Why dearest Ozpin we are talking about saving lives here, surly you don't doubt my good intentions so far as wishing to do an honest and good deed do you?"
Realizing that further investigation would only lead to further mocking Ozpin simply drew in a breath and directed his full attention to the overtaken Cardin. "Here you stand within my home, and now you are asked to go. You are not welcome you fallen shade, see yourself gone and never return."
Cardin collapsed to his knees, a mad laugh escaping him. "One to one Ozpin, winner...take...all." Cardin's body spasmed and he spewed forth a black and vile liquid onto the ground before collapsing.
Ozpin looked over the fallen student and then the invitations. "The times are changing."
And for the first time in what felt like ages, Ozpin had no idea if he would be able to stop what laid on the other side of that change.
It feels good to put this chapter behind me, mainly because it contains probably my least favorite episodes in RWBY. Jaune is probably my favorite character in the show, something that is easy to see from my writing history. But his arc made no sense to me, he needed to learn that he couldn't become better on his own, but the arc ends with him defeating a Ursa (from his perspective, he didn't know Pyrrha saved his bacon) and putting the bully into place. He needed a swift kick in the pants in my opinion, something to snap him out of his idiocy and make him realize that he needed his friends.
But anyway a party is being planned and darkness is just over the horizon. Tune in next time for the prelude to a party that changes everything.