My puppy is still sick and refusing to eat, which means I'm stupidly distracted today looking after her. Chapter is rushed as a result.
Cover Art: Z-ComiX
Chapter 29
The fire was everywhere. Jaune threw himself behind some machinery and kept running, knowing that she at least for now didn't have a gun. Ruby did. If he could draw Rebecca – Cinder – out into the open, then Ruby could deal with her.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are~"
Flames cut ahead, streaking across the floor as if they had a mind of their own. The flickering tongues seemed to turn towards him. Perceive him.
"There you are."
He had half a second to react and fall flat before the piece of equipment behind him was incinerated. Blown away by a gout of flame that tore through steel. It didn't melt it. It just… blew through it as if it were nothing.
Desperately, he reached for water. Any water. The sprinkler systems should have been the most obvious choice – but they were far above and, to his frustration, locked behind powerful seals and valves. Cinder's fire hadn't set them off. It wasn't natural fire. It burned and seared like it, but it worked without fuel, as evidenced by the fire circling across the concrete floor in search for him at that moment. With no fuel to burn, there was no smoke. No smoke meant no fire alarm and no automated sprinklers to give him a break.
The fire crept closer.
Ruby opened fire.
The four shots in quick succession must have pushed Cinder back, because the flames that had been creeping across the floor hesitated for a moment. That was his cue to jump to his feet and sprint on, the muscles in his back pulling and tearing against the wound that lay there. The exit wasn't too far ahead, but he held back from taking it, pausing at the door to look back into the factory.
Would Cinder die from her wound if they ran now? She might not. If she lived, she'd have another body here – not to mention that it might be someone who could spin the police a tale about what happened here, blaming them. Even if the police didn't believe that, Ruby and he would be brought in for questioning and made to explain a lot of things they really couldn't.
And if she didn't, Cinder might be free to go after his family.
"Fuck," he hissed, limping back toward the fight.
He needed his gun back. The only way out of this was Cinder's host being killed. That would still be all kinds of bad with the evidence, assuming fingerprints could survive this fire. Even if they didn't, Nora's witness testimony would, along with a dead body. Charred, but recognisable as human.
They were shafted either way.
"Might as well take her down with us…"
Ruby darted across a mezzanine walkway, vaulted over the railing and landed on one below, criss-crossing in the opposite direction. The one she had been on a second earlier collapsed under the force of a fireball striking the wall, cracking the stone and freeing one of the supports for the walkway. It leaned and veered precariously, crashed into the one she was now on and then brought that down as well.
She rode it halfway and jumped, landing with a brief stumble atop an industrial silo. She caught a handle near the top with one hand, balanced on the slippery slope and shot down towards Cinder, managing two shots before her handgun clicked empty.
The flames that roared up towards her forced her to jump off. The fall was a short but hard one, and though Ruby rolled on the treated concrete, it still had to hurt. Stumbling to her feet, she was quick to stagger away, reloading as she went.
Jaune picked his way around the opposite side of Cinder, slipping past machines. There was no telling if she thought he'd left or not, but the handgun he'd lost earlier was still over on the other side where Nora had once been. Cinder hadn't bothered with it, lacking the magazines he had in his pocket. While she was distracted with Ruby, he crept closer.
"I can smell my mate's scent on you." It was the only warning he got as Cinder threw a hand back. "It does not belong to you!"
He ran past the wall of fire that rushed toward him, but a tendril lashed out. Like a whip. It reminded him instantly of the balrog scene from Lord of the Rings, except that he wasn't Gandalf and the fire blistered his skin. The pain was immeasurable.
"Arghhhhhhh!"
"Jaune!" Ruby yelled. "Get off him!"
Cinder was bowled over by Ruby, breaking the connection and letting him wrench his foot free. His trousers had been burned away to his knee and his skin was black, red and crackling like the skin of a pig roasted over a fire. It was hard to tell how bad the damage was with the low light, flames everywhere and the sound of Ruby and Cinder grappling on the floor.
Using his hands to drag himself, he slithered and crawled over to the weapon, snatching it up and rolling onto his back, digging out a magazine and slipping it in even as tears ran down his cheeks. His leg hurt so bad – and his back. Yet he slid and clicked it in, chambered a round and flicked off the safety.
He needn't have.
Ruby pushed herself up off Cinder's body. The man on the floor, the possessed man, stared up with golden eyes through a face that seemed to be more a deflated paper bag than an actual face. His skin was wrinkly and sunken, his hair grey and straggly and his body mass looked to have become a tenth of what it had once been.
In a matter of seconds, Ruby had aged the man to the point of death.
Ruby looked to him, then came over to help him up. Her fingers found his, and though he swallowed a little fear, did not age him. She hooked his arm over her shoulder so that she could support his weight and let him hop on his one good foot. Together, they stumbled and staggered back over to the helpless Grimm.
"It's over," Jaune hissed. "You're finished."
"Am I?" The dry, scratchy sound came from a throat close to collapse. "Oh, so foolish. So naïve."
"You tried to kill us again and you failed – and you lost another body for it. We'll locate your real body before anyone else can wander into your domain." He managed to bring his gun up to aim at her. "And for trying to kill one of my friends, I'll make sure you die. Face it. You've lost."
Cinder laughed.
Even as she lay dying, she laughed.
"Such a silly boy, only ever seeing half of the picture. This body was never meant to last. Poor Phillip was always so nervous, so frightened. Always begging me not to hurt him, not to hurt his family. He has a wife and a daughter, you know?" Her lips peeled up, cracking her skin and causing dry blood to ooze out. "Did you not wonder why you met him first and not I? Why I did not possess him from the start and face you myself?"
At the time, no. He'd been too busy trying to get Nora out safe to question it. But now, with her words and her ego on display, he knew better. That man hadn't wanted to kill him. He'd been terrified and quite obviously forced into it, likely with the threat of his soul being consumed, or his family being killed.
But why? Why play such games? Why not just kill him straight away and take his body? Cinder could have done a much better job at killing them, using both her fire powers and the gun. Instead, she'd left it to someone who had been a complete amateur.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because… hah." Her smile grew, breaking her face. "I was busy…"
"With what?"
"All the others." Cinder's body shook. "Enjoy my… gift… to you… and remember." Her eyes closed. "I have many, many more."
The man's body heaved one last time and then lay still. The unnatural light behind his eyes, and the cloying scent of fire and ash, dwindled away. The flames around the factory did as well – at least those that had been formed through her power. Some parts of the factory still smouldered, ignited as a result of her power but natural in their own right.
"What did she mean?"
"Who knows." Ruby hauled him a little higher. "We should get out of here before the police come."
"Honestly, I'm surprised it's taking them this long."
Ruby froze. "Why is it taking them? Where are the sirens?"
"Nora's phone was broken."
"And you're saying someone wouldn't notice a building on fire in the middle of the night?"
Ruby and Jaune shared a nervous look before they were moving, Ruby holding him up as he staggered along, dragging him out of the still-burning factory and onto the road outside. The orange light from the building behind splashed over them and onto the road, but it was backlit against a city that was on fire. Great plumes of smoke billows up from across Vale. In the distance, the sounds of sirens and screams could be heard.
Vale was burning.
/-/
"Contact Boston! We need more staff here now!" The doctor slammed a hand down on the desk. "This is an emergency. A terrorist attack. Something!"
"This way, ma'am. That's it." A nurse led a badly burned woman past.
Trolleys and gurneys were pushed left and right, some people kept on drips out in the hallway. The hospital's facilities simply weren't big enough to cope with the influx of victims, many in terrible condition.
"Ambulance crews to Lord Street."
"All crews are already out!"
"Doctor Munroe to ER. Doctor Munroe to ER."
"He's going into cardiac arrest! Defibrillator!"
Doctors, nurses and even janitorial staff ran about in a panic, chipping in where they could, pulling gurneys away and helping the injured to sit down. The ER room was filled with the sounds of moans, pleas for help or just quiet sobbing. As the doors opened, yet more people surged in, some carried, pushed on trolleys or aided by others. Outside, more sirens flashed in colours of blue and red.
Among those entering, a man in a thick raincoat approached the counter, shaking wildly.
The woman behind, already overworked, looked up. "Sir, can I help you?"
"I… I… She…"
"Sir, what appears to be the matter? Are you hurt? Do you require assistance…?"
The man's eyes rolled in their sockets. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat. "Help… me…"
"Sir, we will help you as best we can." The woman stood and moved around. "Can you tell me what's wrong? Please be as specific as possible."
"Don't want to… Never wanted to. I'm sorry, so sorry."
"Sir?"
"Kill me. She will… like the others. Devour us. N-No hope. All going to die…"
"Sir," the woman touched his shoulder. "Have you taken any substances you should not have?"
"My children. She will… she'll… kill them…"
"Who is she, sir?"
The man's eyes fixed on the tired doctor. "I'm so sorry," he repeated, voice broken.
His jacket swung open. Rows on rows of objects were strapped over his chest, replete with wires and dials that affixed them to what looked to be canisters of some kind. The man's face, revealed at last, was torn with terror and guilt.
"I'M SO SORRY!" he screamed.
The doctor – and a nurse – moved to tackle him.
The ER exploded into flames.
/-/
"The hospital is on fire."
"Police stations have been hit."
"Airport is down, as are the train stations. One of the bridges into Vale has been hit, too."
"Fire everywhere. About the only thing that wasn't hit was the fire stations. You think that was an oversight?"
"No." Ozpin leaned away from the table, eyes fixed on the TV screen at the back of the bar area. "I think it's a message. A warning."
"A warning of what…?"
The door bowled open and two familiar figures entered, figures that Ozpin suspected were, if not the cause of this then at least related. He approached quickly, noting the damage and taking Jaune's arm from Ruby's.
"Tell me what happened."
"One of his friends was kidnapped. We went, saved her and killed the Grimm responsible." Ruby was as acute as ever. "We came out in time to see the city on fire. What's going on? Nightmare?"
"Nothing so fortunate. There have been attacks across the city. Some cases of arson, others of typically respectable people going mad and turning on friends and family."
"It's Cinder…" Jaune groaned.
Ozpin shot Ruby a look.
"The Grimm we faced. He needs a bathtub full of water."
"He needs a hospital," Ozpin said, "Though given the current situation, I don't believe ours is in good condition right now."
"Water will help heal him."
"I shall take your word for it. Come with me." Ozpin hoisted Jaune up over one shoulder in a military carry and made his way to the stairs. Hunters gave way quickly, many still watching the news with a horrible sense of helplessness.
They fought Grimm. Not people with bombs and guns.
Moving through the corridor on the first floor, Ozpin pushed open the door to his quarters and stepped through, indicating to a door to the side with his head. "Bathroom is through there. Start the tap running and I'll see what can be done about the boy's wounds."
He pushed some books and notepads off his desk and laid Jaune down on it, only to pause when Jaune groaned and struggled, rolling himself over onto his stomach. Experience told Ozpin that wasn't a bad sign. The human body tended to know which way it wanted to turn and lay. Once Jaune was on his back, the reason why became clear.
"Is that a gunshot?"
"Y-Yeah…" Jaune's voice was weak. "I've lost… lot of blood…"
"Ruby seems to think a bath will help you recover." Ozpin kept his tone light, friendly. "I'm no doctor, but perhaps there is some truth in it. I won't lie. If it doesn't work, you'll likely bleed to death."
"Hospital?"
"It's been firebombed."
He groaned. "Cinder…"
"No Grimm, actually. The news is patchy, but the attack blew up the ER, not the entire building. There are a few witnesses who are claiming it was a normal man behind this. We're not sure on a motive yet but-"
"No. It's Cinder. Plan. All… her plan…"
"I'll have Ruby explain it. You should rest." Ozpin poked around the wound in his back. "I'm not sure how this Grimm healing of Ruby's is going to work, but I've a feeling this needs to be out of your body." He felt the man's muscles tense. It must have hurt because he untensed a second later and let out a fitful groan. "I'll get you something to bite down on. And a pair of tongs from the kitchen. You're the doctor here, or close enough. Any advice?"
"Sterilise…"
/-/
"He should be okay," Ruby said, helping to lower the injured Jaune down into the tub full of cold water. He had his boxers on still but was naked but for that. There was blood around his side, spilled out from Ozpin's impromptu surgery. The wound was still open, but when he was lowered into the water, it didn't turn red, nor did clouds of blood come from the wound.
"Interesting. Is he controlling the water to keep the injury compressed?"
"No. It's his domain."
"That does not provide me much in the way of answers, Miss Rose."
"It's all we have. Explaining it in your language isn't possible." Checking one last time to make sure he was okay, Ruby let out a long breath and sat on the edge of the tub, her own exhausted muscles finally giving way.
Ozpin took her arm before she could get comfortable. "I have a couch outside that will be far kinder on your back."
Ruby nodded and let him escort her out of the bathroom and toward it. He sat her down and she rolled over, kicking her sneakers off as she did. Every bit of her felt sore, like she'd spent the last few hours spinning around in a tumble dryer.
"Mr Arc seems to believe an individual is responsible for attacks on Vale." Ozpin sat behind his desk. "Tell me more."
"You'll have to tell me about the attacks first."
"Very well. Starting at the stroke of midnight, several arson attacks took place across the city. The attacks were for the most part unconnected. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the targets, bar for the recent attack on the hospital, which is obviously to prolong the suffering."
"No." Ruby brought an arm up over her face. "It's to get Jaune killed."
"Oh?"
"The Grimm who kidnapped his friend has been hunting him ever since he killed Leviathan. She lured him – us – to a factory on the edge of the city, then had the man responsible engage us. Jaune was injured, and now there's an attack on the hospital. The timing is too convenient."
"Are you certain? The news for now is that the one who attacked the hospital seemed crazed and afraid for his life. Not exactly the motivated actions of a possessed human."
"Same as the one who attacked us. She didn't take him over at first. Not until he was beaten and on the verge of death. Why? Why not take over immediately and make the ambush ten times as deadly? She could have kept the hostage for longer, smelled us approach and used her powers to trap us in a burning building." Ruby looked up. "When Jaune asked why she didn't, Cinder said it was because she was busy."
"Busy with this." Ozpin sighed and brought a hand up to shield his face. "Using agents instead of her own actions, and reluctant agents if the news is anything to go by."
"The man who attacked us was sobbing and terrified. He didn't want to be there."
"Threatened, then. Awakened if he could interact with this Cinder Grimm."
"She made it sound like she wasn't concerned at her new body being taken from her. I did think it was weird that she managed to find another body so quickly, but I think I had it wrong. We all did. This isn't a new person wandering into her domain. It's someone who was already in her domain. A whole host of people."
"Hostages…"
"More like a farm." Ruby scowled. "She's cultivating them. Keeping them like chickens in a coop. Whenever she needs a body, she devours one and takes theirs – but she can also force them to follow orders by threatening them in their dreams, then forcing them to carry out certain actions while awake."
"And the punishment for failure is death," Ozpin finished. "Rather than act on her own, she has been building an empire without us ever realising it." His fingers tapped on the desk. "The mall. The disappearances. Those were all her, slowly collecting her forces and finding those in positions she could use."
"She didn't put up much of a fight at the mall. Now we know why…"
Ozpin looked over. "Do we know how many she might have?"
"No. There's no way to know. But it'll be more than she used tonight. You'd want to keep spare bodies around for emergencies."
"We've not seen anything like this before." Ozpin said. "Why? Collecting prospective hosts seems a wise choice. Why have more Grimm not utilised it?"
Ruby shrugged. "I don't know."
"Think, then. You're aware that Mr Arc has someone within his domain. Yes?"
"I've felt her. Jaune knows about it."
"Weiss Schnee. Originally hunted by the Grimm who lives above Mr Arc's domain, she has found safety in the water and chooses to stay there. Considering what we've just heard, I doubt those kept by this Cinder Grimm feel any security. So, why would they choose to stay?"
"Maybe she does keep them safe. Or safer than the alternatives."
"Meaning?"
"They're souls she wants to keep in one piece so that she has people she can take over and use to influence things. Even if she's prepared to kill them at any moment, that's still better than being in any other domain. Those Grimm will kill you the second they see you."
"Better the devil you know," Ozpin mused. "And, of course, while your soul might be expunged at any moment, there is also safety in a group. She is likely to only kill one at a time, giving you a small chance of survival. You may be onto something, Miss Rose. It could be that they have no option but to stay in the domain of the one who protects them." He frowned. "It may also be that there is no means of escaping her domain. Either an inescapable barrier or some form of obstruction that keeps them trapped."
Ruby shrugged. "Maybe."
"This is a problem. We've no idea how many she might have hold of, and if she is after Mr Arc, then the attacks will continue. Worse, it seems she has a vendetta against Vale as well now."
"Leviathan was her mate. They were supposed to sink Vale together."
"Before Jaune killed it. Revenge, then? It seems petty…"
"Pettiness is a human emotion. She and her mate had a plan. They invested years, maybe even decades, into making that plan work. Jaune, and Vale, ruined it. It's not petty to think they might ruin future plans too. Getting rid of both becomes the logical choice."
"That logic is cold and unfeeling." Ozpin nodded when she looked over. "I know. I know. Human interpretation and morality. You'll have to remember that we're all human here, Ruby. Most of us anyway. It's not always easy to see through the eyes of another creature. Not for us, anyway."
Ruby nodded and said nothing.
"I'll let you rest for now. Keep an eye on Mr Arc, and make sure he has a spare change of clothes when he awakes. If his condition worsens, come find me. I shall have Oscar bring up some food for you both."
"Thanks."
/-/
"How bad is it?"
"Bad," Velvet replied, looking to Ozpin as he came down the stairs. "They're undecided on whether it's a terrorist attack or gang violence, but there is talk of military being dispatched. Or FBI at the very least."
"It might be the CIA if they decide it's a national emergency."
"It isn't, though. This is limited to Vale…"
"Paranoia has a way of affecting people's judgement." Ozpin sat down. "We'll hope it doesn't come to that. Either way, the public's attention is going to be focused on the city now. If another Nightmares happens, we may well be looking at a fresh host of Awakened."
Which might well be what Jaune and Ruby's problem Grimm intended. They were due a Nightmare, the last having been quite a while ago now. Even assuming they managed to get that on track, there was the fact that law enforcement was now looking for dangerous and suspicious individuals, the shoes of which their hunters would certainly fill.
"Velvet. I want you to go and make contact with Miss Schnee again. Guard her."
"I thought she was mostly safe from the Grimm now."
"It's not Grimm I'm worried about."
Argh. Short is short. Sorry about that. Been running back and forth to try and convince her to eat just about anything – and since it's Easter, all of the supermarkets are shut, so it's not like I can even go and buy some raw meat she might be tempted by. I'll be trying to take her to the vet again and hoping they have some update on the tests they took on Saturday.
Anyway, on this chapter, Cinder has been busy.
Next Chapter: 28th April
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur
