Running to Amity's skyport, team JNPR was quiet except for their pounding feet. They all had their weapons in hand still, not wanting to run afoul of anyone and be unprepared. Halfway to their destination, everything shook. "What the?! We're not on the ground, so how... shit!" Seeing the sky slowly start to move outside a far off window, the four teenagers started to really book it. They did not want to be here when the giant Amity Coliseum, a monument to the hard work of four nations over years and a longstanding symbol of unity, crashed to the ground. Thankfully, whatever kept it floating meant that the fall would be slow and partially controlled. If someone had enough explosions to take out everything at once, they'd squandered that chance. Pyrrha knew that much, but felt now would not be the best time to say that over half of the Dust keeping Amity in the sky was gone. Maybe later, if they didn't see for themselves.
Finally arriving at the desolate skyport, JNPR saw that there were a few ships left, somehow. Jaune had expected each and every one to have been used. There was more enough space for all of them to fit while they had their equipment on, but Pyrrha seemed a little distracted. As the structure was rocked by another rumble, two of them ran into a ship and two hesitated.
"Pyrrha, what're you doing, come on! We need to get off this rock before we're turned into paste!" Jaune took a step towards his partner, saw her look at him for a moment... and then she bolted for a different ship. "Pyr-Ren, Nora, get back to the ground! Help out anyone you can! Pyrrha!"
Nora tried to call for them to come back, but an explosion from the corridor they'd come from knocked the hammer wielder and her partner down. Ren's foot hit a button and the doors started to close. The martial artist resigned himself to not knowing what was going on until they landed and made for the cockpit. Nora slumped between the seats, Magnhild laying on the floor next to her as she looked at the sealed doors of the small ship, an airtaxi really. "Ren...?"
"Pyrrha! What are you doING?!" Jaune stumbled as an explosion rocked the skyport, and watched Pyrrha hop into a second airtaxi. Placing Milo and Akouo on the seat, the champion turned to enter the cockpit. Her teammates would be on their way to help everyone else, and she would go see if there was time to have Ozpin transwhat was that sound?
Turning, Pyrrha gasped a bit. "Jaune, what're you doing here? You were supposed t-wah!" Another explosion rocked Amity. Jaune hit the button to close the airtaxi doors. "Scold you later, fly now!" Not quite processing the first bit yet, the Mistrali went to hit some buttons in the cockpit.
With about ten seconds between them, two of the last airtaxis separated from Amity's skyport. They both went straight, because there was more than enough room to warrant just a dash out of the way of the coliseum's descent. Turning towards Beacon, JNPR couldn't see what was going on in detail just yet, what with it being late at night and most of the city lights were off for some reason. But they could tell that everything was going to shit. Grimm were nearly overrunning everyone, Atlesian robots and airships were burning and fighting Hunters, and who knew how many people were dead down there. Nora squeezed her eyes shut and held onto Ren who hoped that there was still enough fighting going on for them both to lose sight of the bigger picture for a bit. He brought a hand up in a familiar motion, stroking Nora's orange hair and calming the Valkyrie down a bit.
Pyrrha grit her teeth, wondering if she could have stopped this from happening if she had just decided earlier. Jaune was wondering how they'd fix all this, and was glad none of his family were near Beacon right now. Only two of them were trained Huntresses, and his parents wouldn't be able to protect their family and any civilians effectively. Thankfully, their home was situated quite far from anyone or anything that could really threaten them.
Bringing his attention back to the present, Jaune rolled his shoulders. "So, what were you going to do, Pyrrha?"
The redhead looked down a little in shame. "I was going to Ozpin's tower. He has... something in the basement that I should've done a while ago. I've already had a few days to think about it, and put it off for too long."
"Is this related to what you talked to me about and then ran because of?"
"Yes."
"...take us there. He might have set up shop there, and I can't get any service on my scroll." The airtaxi turned towards Beacon's singular tower. It was a near mirror of the CCT Tower, having only two places to go, the first floor and the top floor where the headmaster's office was. At least, that was what the school's general populace knew.
Pyrrha lands the airtaxi roughly, the jolt of the hover jets cutting out upsetting Jaune's stomach enough that he almost ran for the grass but he forced it back down. He'd deal with the burning later, there were more important things to do right now. The two walked towards the tower and Pyrrha hit a combination of keys. The doors closed and they went down instead of up. Jaune looked at her curiously before turning back to the doors. She wasn't saying anything yet, and he figured it'd be easier to just see what was going on instead of asking for an explanation that'd only be half complete.
The closed doors started to burn as a red-orange flame started to cut through them.
As the elevator doors opened, Jaune saw a long corridor that seemed a little too tall, lit by evenly spaced green dust lanterns. He walked out on Pyrrha's left, curious what they'd find.
About ten minutes later, ten minutes of walking with the only noise being their shoes and heels hitting the floor, Jaune and Pyrrha came upon their headmaster. He was standing in front of a console, between two metal pods, one open and the other occupied by a brown-skinned girl. "...headmaster Ozpin, what's going on here?"
"In a moment. Right now, there's just one question I have for you, Ms. Nikos. Are you sure?" Pyrrha looked at the girl in the closed pod, back to Ozpin and nodded. She looked scared and quite a bit unsure, but the old Huntsman waved a hand towards the metal pod. The champion started to move, but looked to the hand on her shoulder and then at Jaune.
He smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder. Pyrrha smiled back and stood a bit more confidently at this. Ozpin himself smiled minutely at the sight. She gently moved his hand off and walked into the pod. As it closed, Ozpin looked to the blond. "I'll need you to stand guard, Mr. Arc. When the procedure is done, you'll learn everything." Without waiting for an answer, the headmaster turned back to the console and started inputting some commands. The rasping of steel on steel and popping of a kite shield expanding told him that the blond would do as told for now.
Before he hit the final key, Ozpin looked to Pyrrha. "...you're sure?"
She looked back, and nodded one final time. Pyrrha knew what was going on, and had her partner's confidence in her to go through this. She wouldn't let him down, if no one else.
Jaune kept an eye on the long corridor. Given how much green light there was in the place, he felt that it should've been easier to see what was going on. At the sound of something whirring to life, along with a small whimper of pain from an unfamiliar voice, he looked over his shoulder at the unknown brunette. A muted whistling reached his ears right before a dark grey arrow pierced the glass and the girl's neck. She managed one last gasp before the arrow disintegrated. Ozpin gasped himself. "No!"
Pyrrha looked confused at the happenings before going wide eyed and starting to knock on the pod. Jaune turned to see that some smoke reminiscent of autumnal leaves flew from the machine and girl into...
Cinder drew in a deep breath as the full power of the Fall Maiden entered her. She let out a small moan at how content she felt, now that the hole was filled. She'd been longing for this for far too long. Opening her eyes, all present and living saw that some sort of power was flowing out of her eyes... and hands... given the woman was now floating under her own power. It was certainly nothing Jaune had ever seen before.
Summoning his Stand, he looked to Pyrrha and extended his hand as she pounded on the pod door. His Stand mirrored the action and a golden outline came over the door before it was ripped messily off its hinges and then thrown at the woman. Cinder waved a hand without care and the door slammed into a wall loudly. "Two polarity Semblances on the same team? Now there's a surprise. Just a shame you only just unlocked it."
Ozpin stepped in front of Jaune, taking hold of the hilt of his cane as if he were holding a sword. "Mr. Arc, Ms. Nikos. Get out of here. I'll hold her off." Cinder grinned at the headmaster. The students hesitated for a moment before running passed the two. They had been running for a solid minute before the sounds of combat started reaching them.
As the elevator doors closed, Jaune and Pyrrha looked back down the corridor. For the last six minutes, Ozpin had been fighting the new Fall Maiden. They hoped he could come out on top.
Walking out of the elevator's missing doors on the ground floor, Jaune looked up at the sky. The night was still going, even though it had seemed like hours since this whole thing blew up. At least there... There was a giant dragon Grimm flying around. Oh boy.
He looked to Pyrrha and was about to ask her something when they both jolted a bit. Looking back at the tower, they saw the elevator was ruined by the woman who had flown through it and on up. Not even half a minute later, Ozpin's office exploded. Gears of all sizes flew down to Remnant.
Looking to each other, the partners didn't need to vocalize their questions. If this had been a different world, a different time, Pyrrha might have called down a rocket locker to save Jaune with. Jaune might have done the same to Pyrrha in another world. The one left would find a way up the tower to fight. They didn't know what might happen if they fought her by themselves.
But this wasn't any of those worlds. As one, they ran into the ruined elevator. Pyrrha took hold of the steel with her Semblance, outlining it in black before Jaune took hold of her waist. She forced her arms up, launching them up to the office. It took a few repetitions to get up there, but they made good time. Four minutes after the office exploded, Jaune and Pyrrha exited the elevator to see Cinder just floating there, looking out over Vale. The black haired woman turned her burning eyes onto the two teens, both of whom drawing their weapons and readying themselves for the fight.
"Hmph. I do need to practice a bit more. You two will be excellent dummies for it." With that, she floated a couple feet off the ground, held aloft by a small flame before rocketing at them.
