B/N: He woke me up twice for this, first last night and this morning. So, happy late Halloween?
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A nearly imperceptible shockwave swept out from Beacon, rolling away in every direction. Those more observant or attuned could have sensed this wave's passing, detecting what felt like a vast power being cut off from the world. But with a raging battle for the fate of the Academy so close, few people from any world even noticed the disruption to the natural order of something fundamental and intrinsic to Remnant ceasing to be. What people; humans and faunus alike did notice, was the effect the change had.
The wave rolled over the Grimm, and immediately the beasts were stunned; Beowolves in the middle of attacking suddenly lost their footing, falling over as if shocked. Larger monsters such as Deathstalkers and King Taijitu dropped where they stood, weakly flailing their limbs as they stumbled onto the ground. The handful of remaining Nevermore seized up in midair, letting themselves plummet from the skies as dead weight. Almost in unison, more than fifteen thousand bestial throats were abruptly silenced.
Qrow halted mid slash nearby the regrouping students and teachers, watching in bafflement as the multitudes of Grimm all around the huntsmen just stopped. Lowering his sword to sweep his sweat soaked head around, the panting man raised a brow at the sight. "What the...?"
Atop of the airship, the Paladin opened its hatch to allow the pilots to see with their own eyes. Although the two operators hailed from different worlds, their confusion was nearly identical.
"What's going on? What's happening to the Grimm?" Carter questioned, looking away from her hacked display. On the screen were multitudes of icons, showing functional androids she was directing. A moment ago the numbers ceased dropping.
The wounded ensign, pressed into service to operate the mech, peered at the blonde. "I don't know, I've never seen this happen before."
Not so far away, another Paladin was meeting its end. A massive Berigel tossed the mech with a deafening roar, the human on top barely managing to jump off in time. The ten meter tall monster beat its fists onto its chest, shaking the ground when it darted to the flailing mech. Ripping off a sluggish arm to throw away, the snarling Berigel then grabbed onto the center hatch and yanked, tearing it off in a screech of abused metal. Flinging the barrier to the side, the ape glared at Teal'c and Daniel exposed to open air. When the Jaffa raised his new prize to the Berigel, it roared at the challenge.
But the wave hit in the middle of a snarl, unexpectedly making the colossal beast totter while its expression went slack. Teal'c raised a brow at the dumbstruck Grimm which slew his precious mech, keeping his weapon trained on the beast. A pair of arrows in quick succession caught his attention however, the twin projectiles impacting right in the Berigel's eyes. Amazingly, it only grunted at the painful blow.
Ducking at an object swiftly coming up behind him, Teal'c noted his newest companion blowing past him to the Grimm. The Berigel feebly jerked when Eliane jumped on its arm, the blonde racing up its limb to the head, sword point first. Sinking her blade into the pus leaking eye finally elicited a more familiar growl, but by then it was too late; she skewered the monsters brainpan, and jumped off when it fell silent.
Elaine landed on the Paladin's leg when the Grimm impacted in a miniature quake, crouching with her sword held out as it blossomed out in a cloud of noxious ash. When she stood up, the first thing she did was turn around to the men, wearing a look of utter confusion.
"What is happening?" Teal'c questioned, weapon in hand as he swept his gaze over the Grimm in sight. All he could see were affected by the same event.
"I don't know. I've never seen or heard of anything like this." Eliane quietly admitted.
Pulling himself out of the cockpit, Daniel groaned as he stood up, glancing around while he stretched sore muscles. "Okay, this is very much not normal. How much do you wanna bet this is Jack's doing?"
"I will not rule out the possibility. But for now, we should exploit this opening." Teal'c announced, bending over to dig his Staff out of the machine. He then tossed the proven weapon into Daniel's displeased arms, bringing up his new tool as Eliane swung her sword around.
At the base of the same airstrip as Carter, O'Neill and Ironwood ceased firing when the beasts were dazed by the imperceptible event. From behind the cover of broken hull plates, the two men, one armed with a scavenged rifle, and the other sporting a machine gun with diminishing ammo supply, glanced to each other in mutual puzzlement.
"Huh, weird." O'Neill shrugged, then began spraying gunfire once again.
"What did you do?" Ironwood demanded, though he too resumed shooting.
"Wasn't me." he yelled, the closest Grimm barely reacting to the bullets pelting them.
"I don't believe you!" the General shouted back.
"If this were me, there'd be more explosions!" O'Neill retorted; the second he finished, a tank shell impacted a lethargic King Taijitu, destroying the serpent in one shot. "Like that!"
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At the trenches, the wave hit just as Reynolds finished off the last belt for his M60. The Marine Colonel watched in astonishment as the relentless creatures begin to stumble and collapse, like each one was Zatted simultaneously. Chest heaving, he set the machine gun aside and risked leaning over the dugout; as far as he could see, the entirety of the attacking horde was struck with this bizarre malaise. The fire from the White Fang forces began to step down too, he assumed they were just as confounded at the unexpected behavior.
"This place sure is freaky." he muttered.
But when he glanced over the friendly lines, he saw a very different reaction to the event. Activity from the joint Atlas/Ranger forces was rising, officers barking commands and relocating the men, all of them shifting forward. Reynolds needed no clairvoyance to guess what they were preparing to do. And when he checked on the four men he led, he saw them reach the same conclusion as him.
"So boys, whaddya say to an old fashioned charge?" he grinned.
His answer came from the outsider of his team, tossing a spare M4 and a vest loaded with spare magazines at him. Grabbing the first was easy, catching the second however briefly knocked him off balance. In the time it took to right himself, Walsch darted to the dugout's periphery with the Marines at his side, grinning darkly when he glanced over.
"It's payback time sir." he declared as he racked his M4's bolt, to the team's vigorous approval.
"Sounds good." Reynolds decided to agree, planting a fresh grenade on his M203's slide. "Five against a thousand aren't goods, so let's wait until-"
From the trenches came a single loud voice, alone yet booming over the din of battle. If the informal leader of the hodgepodge force, one Major Rouge, couldn't be heard conventionally, the comms and radios carried his order across the entirety of the mixed force.
"Advance!"
Reynolds didn't need to say anything. Rolling his shoulders, the Marine bolted out of the dugout with four men at his side, the fireteam sized unit barreling at the enemy army in a rapid sprint. For several seconds there was no reaction from the White Fang lines, and he could see a handful of heads focused on his tiny assault with what looked like incredulity. He briefly wondered if they were making an awful mistake, until he heard a rising growl of diesel engines behind him.
"Cover!" he shouted, he and the four men diving towards hunks of metal scattered around the small no man's land while gunfire started to ring out. He slammed his back into a chunk of plating, switching his head around back the way he came.
Engines surging in a deafening roar, the ten Russian tanks rolled over the trenches directly into the fray, all weapons booming into the foe's lines. Machine guns ripped across any foolishly exposed hostile, and a few who weren't; thinner metal chunks and soft rock didn't slow down the high powered munitions enough to matter, and nothing on the field could withstand a direct shot of the main cannon. Reynolds saw a couple missiles streak out to impact on the front and sides, the exploding warheads failing to slow down the machines in any way.
Right behind the tanks, the trenches boiled out men and women; Rangers and Atlesians climbed out of the defenses to charge, stumbling for purchase on the uneven grass before picking up speed. More and more followed them out, a tide of white and green chasing the Russian armor with battlecries on their lips. The White Fang's gunfire was met by their own, the leading edges of the ranks unloading at the enemy force. Nearly four hundred voices bellowed in unison, the combined shouts almost drowning out the unbelievably loud engines.
Pushing himself up, Reynolds waited until a T90 rumbled past his cover to dart out, M4 raised to shoot. The other Marines were at his back, weapons chattering in controlled bursts. Panicked return fire made him lead SG-3 behind the machine belching acrid smoke, picking off targets through the hazy sheen. One of his Marines wasn't fast enough however; a lucky bullet slammed into Corporal Thomas' leg, bringing him down in a shout of pain. Before Reynolds could help him, a burst tore across his throat.
Gritting his teeth, Reynolds had to force back the impulse to spray wildly at the White Fang. Instead he kept aligning his sights on one foe after another, crisply shooting at the numerous hostiles ducking in and out of cover. Their return fire was picking up however, with most of it focused on the tanks, although a few shooters were wising up to the machines' invulnerability. Gunfire switched from the T90s to the infantry behind them, relying on weight of numbers to score hits.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the troops start dropping one after another. Atlesian, Ranger, it made no difference when they fell. But whatever losses the combined force suffered weren't slowing them down.
Reynolds furiously gestured at the closest troops bearing down on them, but many already had the same idea as him. Ad hoc teams were clumping behind the noisy engines in groups of six or seven, hunching down under the safety of the mobile armor. No sooner did they reach their new spots were they sticking themselves out along the sides, getting a few shots off before retreating to safety. Chattering pops from M16s competed with the higher pitched whine of Atlas pulse rifles, the former shedding brass shells as opposed to the caseless firearms. All the while, the tank rumbled forward as mobile cover.
"Keep pushing!" the Colonel shouted over the deafening noise, unsure of anyone could hear him over the hellish cacophony.
He had only seconds to react. Detecting a darkening shadow overhead, Reynolds threw himself onto the ground as fast as he could move, feeling the air roil with some vast object swishing by altogether too closely. Stomps pounded the ground like miniature quakes, reaching a crescendo seemingly right on top of him. Just as he heard the bellowing roar of an enraged beast, there was a high pitched squeal of crumpling metal which was quickly cut off. All around him gusts of powerful wind whooshed past like a storm, even accompanied by a thunderclap of something massive striking the ground. Taking a quick breath, he rolled over to face the sky.
Oh, he thought mutedly. How Reynolds missed the forty meter tall elephantine Grimm, what the briefing named a Goliath, he would never know.
The massive creature towered over the humans, with SG-3 almost right by its stomping feet. As he watched the tusked monster coolly tracked its target until it smashed into the ground in the middle of the White Fang lines, the unlucky T90 landing upside down with a tremendous crash. Mere seconds later a poorly contained explosion joined the crunching metal as its munitions detonated. In response the Goliath raised its long truck to roar in triumph; even past his plugs the Marine clutched his ears to block the noise, to no avail.
He wasn't sure what motivated him to do it, but the Colonel retaliated. Switching his hand, he looped a finger around his M203's trigger and fired, launching a 40mm grenade right into the Goliath's face. There was a crisp boom against the monster's cheek, right beneath its tusk. And that was all he accomplished. The unflinching Grimm lowered its enormous head to glare at the quivering humans, who were petrified under its beady gaze. No amount of gunfire flying past could break the hold this beast had over them.
That was until a fresh explosion slammed between its eyes, causing the Goliath to recoil. The entire monster reared back on its hind legs, Reynolds' clue to get up and sprint away. SG-3 and the couple troops formerly hiding behind the tank had the same premonition, running in the only direction they could; right at the White Fang.
Ignoring the sight of the T90s swiveling their turrets, he felt the air buffer his back when the remaining tanks fired into the Goliath. The combined blasts acted as an extra push for his charge, launching him over a long hunk of steel in an ungainly flail of a running sprint. His expression showed it all, scrunched up yet with his eyes held wide open. Reynolds would've cried out, except he was fresh out of breath from his newest near death experience. And because he crashed into a wide eyed White Fang trooper.
He hit his unlucky victim with the force of an explosion propelled Marine, bringing them to the ground in a pile of tangled limbs. Drawing back from the cursing woman, Reynolds delivered a punch to the faunus on pure instinct, grappling his M4 to jerk upwards once she dropped. Gritting his teeth, he quickly reloaded when his weapon clicked empty, struggling to get back on his feet over the weakly struggling trooper. The ground underneath him shaking uncontrollably wasn't helping matters, although it cleared up quickly. In exchange however a whoosh of foul tasting ash swam over the barricades, making him cough raggedly from the stuff.
Peripherally aware of fresh gunfire joining his own, the Colonel faintly recognized more soldiers made it to the enemy positions and were engaging in close quarters. Stumbling for a second, he darted ahead while firing in bursts, watching the White Fang troopers start to pull back. A hand grabbing his sleeve almost earned the white armored soldier a bullet, though he was fortunate Reynolds noticed a loud object rumbling up behind him.
If the faunus hoped the impromptu cover would stop the otherworldly vehicles, they were sorely mistaken. The T90 simply rolled over the metal cover, the bulky treads grinding down the metal before its armored weight crushed them underneath. Ever moving, the nine tanks leveled out and realigned their sights. The one closest to the Marine didn't try shooting its main gun this close, relying on its machine gun to scythe down enemies.
Two bursts of yellow lights hit a short distance away from the White Fang, each one stitching the ground along their flanks. New firestorms rose up from the impact points, cutting off any options for the dwindling army to maneuver. Their Grimm allies were only just now recovering from the bizarre event, the endless reinforcements no longer arriving. In front of the faunus was an advancing force, hodgepodge in composition yet lethal all the same. In the end, there was only one option left.
Flinging a grenade into a clump of enemies, Reynolds moved his sights to the remaining foes ahead. With his blood pumping and gunfire of every type filling the air, he needed several seconds to process what he saw.
"They're falling back." he mumbled; the sounds of battle might as well have muted him. Turning his head, he shouted at the top of his lungs. "They're running!"
Without waiting for backup, Reynolds drew on his reserves of strength to sprint at the retreating White Fang, M4 up and firing. He saw some units were acting disciplined, a few men firing to cover others moving to better positions, but the majority weren't so composed. Those he saw were turning to flee, terror bleeding through these men's body language. The Colonel almost tripped when his foot caught on something, realizing it was a discarded rifle.
Hostile gunfire was visibly tapering off; Reynolds didn't know whether it was because their cohesion was breaking or if they were out of ammo, but he could say he didn't care. Shooting a fleeing trooper, he made a running jump over a small barricade and launched another rifle grenade at some enemies. Fresh gunfire tore into another group right beside them, a Ranger's M240 chattering while an Atlesian squad flanked the pinned force. To the Marine's other side he could see a reverse, where several white armored soldiers poured fire into a faunus squad, so to let a pair of green clad men load and aim a recoilless rifle, firing an explosive right in the center of a cluster.
When he detected a fresh humming sound over the gunfire and screams, Reynolds glanced up, and felt his panting breath get stolen away.
The Prometheus was turning, adjusting its heading so the prow was facing the majority of the Grimm horde. At its side floated the winglike masses of Atlas carriers, the pair of enormous flying vessels moving to flank the alien starship. Although the two guardians were easily a third larger than the diminutive Earth ship, the way they prowled to opposite sides made it clear they were escorts, guarding their new ally from anything that wished them harm.
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On the bridge, Pendergast observed it all. Red Three and Red Four moved to escort the Prometheus, providing unneeded cover so to start their own advance. Not far away, Red Two was moving overhead of the counter-attacking force, its few escorts left rushing towards the mixed army overrunning the enemy. Switching his gaze, he saw the ad hoc Vale relief force start to arrive over the huntsmen, the dozens of airships dropping their cargo right into battle against the recovering Grimm.
He clicked the radio, connecting him to the Atlas comm net. When he spoke, he addressed their crews and his alike.
"All ahead full."
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Leaping out from her Bullhead, Winter enjoyed the couple seconds of free fall while she plummeted, landing sword first on the back of a Beowolf to break her fall. A cloud of ash bloomed around the woman, rising from the Grimm's remains with her rapier held to her exacting stance. Winter's ad hoc companions hit the ground around her with far less dignity than her, quickly forming a rough square with their own weapons raised.
Taiyang was the first to react, bringing the axe down on a snarling Ursa. Meanwhile Kali and Ghira moved in perfect sync, the woman slashing across a Beowolf's chest to allow the man to plunge fist first into the beast, punching right through its thick hide.
"I love this place!" the blonde man yelled enthusiastically, throwing his axe into another Beowolf where it stuck, the beast roaring. His response was to vault over the flailing Grimm, snatching the axe handle and tearing it across the monster's torso. Ghira only laughed as he locked fists with a smaller Berigel, meeting its throaty snarls with his own hearty chuckles. The Grimm didn't notice Kali until she landed on its shoulders, sticking her pistol into its eye socket and pulling the trigger.
Winter didn't reply to their banter, carving up two Ursai in quick succession before lancing a King Taijitu between its eyes. She did notice one of the gunships swooping overheard, the twin engines roaring as it gently swayed. The back hatch was lowered, revealing Washington and SG-9 arrayed in the cabin; she then discovered the overworked Major had found the mounted turret, and he was grinning behind the triggers. Bright lasers stitched across any Grimm in sight, while his team unloaded their M4s into the horde. Even though the monsters were unexpectedly sluggish all of a sudden, few shots failed to hit a target.
All around Winter, more fighters and soldiers entered the fray, jumping from the transports right into the diminishing horde. She could hear a ragged cheer rising from the Beacon students so close, the many huntsmen emboldened by the reinforcements. Gritting her teeth, she began pushing towards the gathered fighters with single minded determination. Weiss was in there somewhere, and Winter wasn't going to rest until she found her sister. No amount of distractions, whether from yelling huntsmen or soldiers requesting orders, was stopping her. The sole thing to break her concentration was a whining blast of a laser cannon firing, making her look up.
Sedately cruising across the sky, the black armored Prometheus and two gleaming Atlas airships were advancing on the forest edge, raining destruction down upon the thinning Grimm. Laser batteries from the Atlas ships fired every few seconds, annihilating scores of beasts with every shot, while continuous streams of yellow railgun fire reaped a terrible toll upon those left standing.
Far behind the ships five black shapes raced skywards, forming a pentagon of craft that banked towards the battle. Their high pitched booms were the calling card of F302s, screaming overtop the warships to close in on the retreating army. Railgun fire flew from the fighters, hitting the edge of the forest where the White Fang were trying to flee. Fires sprang up from the incinerated foliage, a billowing inferno which cut off their escape route. Winter was pleased at their chosen move; now the faunus had only two options. Fight to the death, or surrender.
"Excellent." she grinned, detecting a boarbatusk running towards her. She took off in a run towards the Beacon force, killing the Grimm without slowing down.
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Crescent Rose missed yet again.
Its owner felt like crying out when she failed to land a blow; two shields and two swords flanked the enemy after several attempts, keeping her locked in place instead of dancing around, if only for a couple seconds. Which should've been enough for the scythe to hit the target with a downwards slice, yet the foe jerked past the paired shields with fire lashing against their surfaces, evading the strike with contemptible ease. Since the weapon's owner put so much strength into the attack, she ended up flipping head over heels to hit the dirt face first. Before she darted away, her foe delivered a swift kick into her midsection.
Bouncing once as she struggled to get back on her feet, Ruby had to dig her scythe's blade into the dirt to slow herself down, skimming to a halt. Less than a second after her momentum bled away she stumbled, coughing horribly thanks to her overtaxed lungs. The coppery taste on her tongue was disregarded, and a wipe of her forearm took care of the fluid leaking into her eyes. She didn't look at her sleeve, deciding she didn't need to know if it were sweat or blood staining her clothes. Now wasn't the time to get worried over little stuff.
As she tried to stand up fully again, the second fighter landed beside her to crumple, although they recovered much faster than she did. Flopping her head, the panting girl saw a bronze tinted shield get put forward, visibly quivering with its owner's jarring heaves. It took her several long seconds to return to her old stance, shield in front and a javelin held at her side.
"Hey Pyrrha." she greeted weakly.
"Ha, hey Ruby." the redhead answered slowly, wincing as she flexed the hand clutching Miló.
"You doing okay?" Ruby asked, scrunching up her expression when she yanked Crescent Rose from the ground.
"Not so well." she repositioned her feet, cringing at something hurting. Much like her. "To tell the truth, this has got to be the single hardest fight of my entire life."
Ruby tapped her blade to knock the dirt off, sighing weakly. "Yeah, mine too."
The third fighter ended up by the girls, this one coming to a stop at the other side of the red huntress. Unlike them however he unintentionally backflipped before landing on his stomach, his sword and shield staying in his white knuckled grip. When he halted, the young man groaned as he pushed himself off the dirt, using a leg to steady himself. Ruby waited until he was upright once more to speak, though she could see his status quite well.
"Doing okay Jaune?" she checked anyway, watching him clap his torso plate to knock the dirt off. Much like them, he was fighting down a cringe from doing something so easy.
The blond shuddered when he brought his weapons up, although clearly not from pain. "I'm distinctly aggrieved."
"Um, why?" she raised a brow, racking her weapon's bolt and finding the chamber empty.
"Three on one odds Ruby, three on one." he growled, wincing at a patch of seared flesh on his exposed arm. "We outnumber her three to one, this should not be this hard."
"It's usually not."
All three snapped forward, tensing at the enemy lazily striding towards them. Cinder was smiling dangerously at the trio, one eye burning with a hazy orange light as fires rippled over her forearms. Unlike the trifecta of fighters, she had a couple new bruises to show for their efforts.
"But I've felt like taking it easy on you kids, its been awhile since I've been able to enjoy a decent fight." she explained in a mocking tone, pausing to bring her fists up. New flames sprouted from her hands, the tint shifting from orange to yellow.
"You know you can't win." Pyrrha called out, putting her shield forward. Both Jaune and Ruby nodded, although the latter's eyes never left the woman's nonchalant expression.
"So your side brought an army against a single White Fang faction and a small horde, so what?" Uncaring of the fires, Cinder brought her fist up to crack her neck. "If this is the best you can do I'll only need a little more time to destroy this place. This is a setback, nothing more."
Ruby growled, just loud enough for Jaune and Pyrrha to take their eyes off Cinder for a second. The red toned girl didn't care about the uncertain looks they sported however, all that mattered was the foe in front of them. Apologizing would come later. In the meantime, she had to win this fight, or else nothing any of them did today would matter. There was simply no other possibility.
Ejecting the empty magazine, she felt a wince coming on when she grabbed her last full replacement. Within the small case she loaded were five rounds; once those were gone, her firepower would vanish entirely. For a moment she wondered why Cinder made no move to stop her, though she assumed overconfidence was her reason. Justified overconfidence rather, she sourly corrected.
When she took up her stance, Ruby's friends tensed up alongside her, weapons held at the ready. In response to their willingness to fight, Cinder only grinned.
"Confident aren't you?" she taunted with no trace of irony. "I gave all of you an out, and you-GAH!"
When Cinder suddenly recoiled Ruby almost shot her right there. The red toned girl braced herself for the inevitable attack, but as she processed the sight Ruby began to understand this was something else. Clutching her arm, the woman shrank back with a drawn out hiss, her expression scrunched up in evident pain. The fires she so casually wielded were snuffed out instantly.
"Guys?" Jaune's alarmed voice finally broke her attention, Ruby sharply glancing at the blond. She was about to ask what the problem was, but one look around answered that question.
The entire time they fought, the Grimm ignored their tiny group. Every monster which came too close to the duel bypassed them or changed course, giving the four a wide berth to do battle. No matter the type, not one attempted to interfere. Ruby didn't understand the Grimm's odd behavior, but she assumed Cinder was the reason for this, however she did it. Whatever she had was certainly the same thing keeping the White Fang safe from their bestial allies.
Now all of a sudden, the various Grimm were falling over. Not dead that she could see, but the various beasts acted like they were whacked upside the head, many falling over to weakly jerk their limbs. Sweeping her head around, Ruby's mouth opened a little in raw confusion; her line of sight was limited, but every Grimm she could see was affected by the exact same event. Even if she couldn't see far however, she could quite clearly hear the endless roaring and snarls of this vast horde being abruptly cut off, almost instantaneously.
"What, what's going on?" Pyrrha voiced, flipping her head back in forth in the same way as the girl beside her.
"I don't understand." Jaune said in the same tone.
Ruby didn't reply. Her silver eyes were fixated on the sight of Cinder's shuddering form, only now she didn't have her vile hatred from earlier. The reason was because of the woman's arm: as she watched in utter astonishment, black tar like material oozed down her forearm, dripping off to patter on the soil. It dribbled like especially thick liquid, either sliding along her limb or leaking out from between her clamped fingers. When the stuff touched the dirt it visibly disintegrated into a short lived cloud of ash. All the while, the woman had her head down as she heaved for breath.
When her head finally lifted, awed surprised was written all over Cinder's expression. Returning upright, she gawked at the limb held apart from her, turning it over to examine the pink flesh. The observers didn't understand why she seemed so amazed by the simple sight. A hitched breath left the woman, her exposed arm curling inward to hover over her rising smile. Slowly reaching out to splay her hand, she acted as if it were the most amazing thing she'd ever seen.
"I don't believe it. Its... its gone." she shook her head, peering away from her forearm. "This means, she's gone. Dead, not here anymore, doesn't matter." she held a hand over her agape mouth, stopping a delirious chuckle regardless of the bizarre looks she received. "I'm free."
Cinder swiveled her head to the trio, still appearing happy while her fist clenched. The glint in her eyes shifted dangerously as she smiled.
"This means I don't have to hold back anymore."
The wind suddenly picked up, flowing towards the woman. Despite her scarf whipping past her face, Ruby brushed it aside and took aim, but now her hands were starting to shake uncontrollably. Her friends showed wrinkled expressions at the strange breeze, which quickly morphed to slacked jawed looks.
Arms held aloft, Cinder rose from the ground with no visible means of propulsion, still grinning dangerously at the trio. The fires on her arms reigniting into blazing infernos, joined by streams of liquid power sprouting from her eyes. Hanging several meters above the ground, the woman threw her arms skyward; the blazing fires shot up into open air, creating a tower of rippling flame. Barely audible over the crackling air was a restrained laugh, of a longtime prisoner finally set free. The atmosphere around the small gathering was supercharged with unseen power, making hairs stand on end.
Ruby had trouble relocating her voice, and needed a couple tries to be heard over the display. "Guys?"
"Yeah?" Pyrrha responded for them both, eyes wide at the display.
"Remember on the ride in, when I told you about the Maiden thing?" the red toned girl had to gulp before she could continue. "This is what I was talking about."
Jaune slowly turned his head, his blue eyes roaming over the girls while his sword quivered. "We're screwed, aren't we?"
"I think so." Ruby answered hollowly.
If Cinder's was fast before, she was a little more than a blur now. In the time it took for Ruby to blink, the woman in the red dress was right in front of them, flames streaming behind her rapid form. Driving a fist downwards in the center of the trio, she created a thunderclap of concussive force from a single punch, the sheer power blasting a crater in the soil. All around it however the backwash acted like a tiny bomb, send all three tumbling away.
Jaune was her first target; while he was still flying through the air, Cinder reached him in under a second to deliver a punch to his chest, the rippling flames licking over him as he was knocked aside. Pyrrha was next, a backhanded swipe making a whip of flames that slapped her out of sight. Once both her companions were dealt with, Cinder turned her attention to the red toned girl, still trying to right herself when she landed.
A quick gunshot raced from Ruby's scythe, but she jerked out of the way faster than she could track. Cinder was still grinning as she marched towards her, eyes blazing as she cracked her flaming knuckles. Blinking away, the red toned girl reappeared above her to shoot again, only for her to evade the bullet once more. In response she sent another lash of fire at her, which likewise cleanly missed.
Landing hard on her feet a short distance away, she realized Cinder was toying with her. As much as she hated the feeling of helplessness, Ruby knew was way out of her league here, there was simply no way she could defeat her alone. She needed help, fast. In the corner of her vision, her heart welled when she saw a lot of available help so close to her position. Unfortunately for the red huntress, her enemy saw the girl's intention clear as day.
Ruby barely engaged her semblance in time, blinking out of the way of Cinder's fist with only millimeters of clearance. Popping in a dozen meters away, she was quite surprised to find the woman right on top her so quickly, both of her burning fists flung downwards for a smash. She had a tiny bit of good fortune at Cinder misjudging her angle, so the twin blows would only catch her side rather than hit the center of her torso. It was a small consolation however, since she still took most of the power of the strike.
An explosive gasp blowing past her lips, Ruby felt most of her ribs cracking as she was flung away. Crescent Rose fell from her limp fingers to listlessly tumble onto the ground, bouncing twice before it fell over, much like its owner. She tumbled repeatedly until she hit a chunk of metal, one last pained wheeze escaping her a before she came to a complete stop.
Rolling onto her back, Ruby's empty eyes stared at the overcast sky, watching an F302 race overhead without bothering to track it. Every breath she took was slow and hesitant, the need for air warring with the spikes of refined agony stitching through her torso at each swell of her chest. She was only peripherally aware of a line of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. Upon noticing movement in her vision's edge, she didn't so much move her head as let gravity tilt her sideways. It was strange to view the world when the ground was up and down, and objects seemed to be bolted onto walls.
Such as Cinder, marching towards her with that grin still on her features.
"Nice try kid." she called out, holding her arms out to let the fires crawl up her arms. The woman's sight was focused solely on Ruby, and not the surroundings she purposely led her towards.
Fresh gunfire ripped through the air from behind Ruby, a painfully loud chatter of uneven shooting from an altogether too close distance. Cinder's march halted mid step, the woman recoiling as she threw her arms up to protect herself. The red toned girl watched her get forced back under the deluge of firepower, even as someone grabbed her arm to tug. Despite the wash of fresh pain, she only whimpered at the strong hand dragging her from the fight, while a black weapon above her was raised to shoot.
Atlas soldiers and men in green camouflage swiftly surrounded the woman, a dozen men pouring gunfire onto the immobilized target. Ruby noted they looked so much like the guards back on Earth, but they carried themselves differently from those wary men. She also noted they and the Atlas soldiers were cooperating with near flawless synergy, working together to flank and engage the burning woman. To her quiet amazement, the sheer weight of their fire they were putting out would be enough to kill even larger Grimm breeds.
Yet Cinder wasn't dropping. Far from it; with a tremendous scream she flung her arms up, creating an inferno which quickly engulfed her location, forming a half sphere of roiling fire and sparking electricity. The sudden display didn't halt the soldiers, but she could see their new leeriness at the otherworldly sight. She knew it was bad when her nameless savior set her down to grab a long tube from his back, an AT-4 if she remembered right, and took aim.
The dome suddenly blasted outwards, looking so much like a bomb going off. A wave of fire raced out, immolating the closest soldiers before they could scream. The kinetic energy was great enough to send the rest flying away, some screaming, some not. If Ruby was upright, she too would've been swatted off her feet, just like her rescuer; the man was impacted while he took aim, the missile launching just as he was thrown back. Feeling the backwash caress her shaking form, she watched the projectile fly into the air and wobble, exploding harmlessly far away from any target.
Ruby was hurting, seemingly from every spot from her body. Legs, arms, chest, senses, pain was overloading her mind so much she could barely think. But despite this, she had to creak her neck to look, mouth agape in a whimper as she struggled to sit upright. Breath coming out in rapid heaves, she managed to rise far enough to peer at the short lived fight.
Cinder slowly rose from a circle of semi-molten glass, the glowing patch several meters in diameter cracking even as she watched. In spite of the extreme heat however, the woman in the red dress appeared unaffected, nothing on her looking singed. But as Ruby looked closer, she realized she wasn't untouched either; fresh bruises coated her arms and sternum, her hair was a tousled mess, and her outfit showed a vast number of tears on the fabric. More importantly, she was panting for breath as she took one measured step after another.
"Just... for that..." Cinder tried to threaten, only to break out coughing. Her entire form shook with the violence of her ragged gasping.
Flicking her eyes away, Ruby needed seconds to relocate her weapon lying on its side just a few meters away. Moving to the side sent slivers of raw agony coursing through her system, interrupting her already taxed breathing. But she wasn't going to stop; gritting her teeth, she flopped to her side and began to crawl, dragging herself across the torn up dirt towards Crescent Rose. Her eyes didn't leave the scythe, everything in her mind boiling away so to focus exclusively on getting to her goal.
Cinder reached the end of the glass circle and heaved, hands on her thighs as she steadied herself. Unlike the red huntress however, she had strength remaining to glance up, her now weakly blazing eyes landing on her foe.
"If I... hadn't played around... for so long..." she stopped to cough, plodding towards the crawling girl. "If this... happened twenty minutes ago... ah screw it."
Scrunching up her features, the woman forced herself into an uneven gait, quickly eating up the distance between them. At her current pace, she would catch the girl before she got to her weapon.
Ruby was a meter from her goal when Cinder reached her, delivering a kick to her midsection to roll her over. Gasping, she tried to draw in breath when her foot stepped on her chest, the woman slowly pressing down. "This time brat, you're not walking away."
The girl flicked her head to the side, a heartbeat before a bronze javelin wrapped around Cinder's throat. Her eyes went wide as she shot her hands up, grasping at the weapon now hugging tightly against her throat. A powerful yank drew her off Ruby, staggering with the weight on her back. On her end Pyrrha didn't let up the pressure, baring her teeth as she pulled as tight as she possibly could. Even as the woman clawed at her arms to leave bloody gashes, she kept her weapon in place by sheer desperation.
Occupied by the redhead choking her, Cinder didn't register a scuffed up Jaune charging at her until it was too late. She tried dodging to the side, but all she succeeded in doing change where his sword's thrust made contact; the woman gasped when Crocea Mors plunged into her side, the blade scraping along her ribs as opposed to her solar plexus. For good measure the blond used his shield to bash her in the chest, keeping a hastily repositioned hand from lashing back at him.
With a snarl Cinder flung herself forward, yanking Pyrrha overhead right onto Jaune. When the pressure on her neck finally slackened, she mustered fire to her palms, throwing both of her blazing hands at the pair, the power enough to knock both of them back. Teeth gritted, she grabbed the silver blade to yank it out, letting only a small gasp escape her when the sword was torn from her chest. The wound leaked blood freely, but she didn't seem to care at the moment.
The two fighters were already recovering, but in the frantic melee their weapons left their grips. Cinder caught Miló on her toes and flicked it up, catching it in mid air as she bore down on the blond first. Jaune raised his shield, but instead of obliging him she brought her foot down on his leg, audibly crushing the bones underfoot. He had just started to scream when she threw a punch at his head, knocking him out immediately.
Pyrrha was almost back on her feet, her own shield raised when a fist landed on the plate; the power blew her back, sending the barrier sprawling away. It was a perfect opportunity for Cinder to bring the black tip of the javelin onto the redhead. Weakened by a morning of battle, her Aura couldn't stop the weapon from plunging through her shoulder. A ragged gasp of a scream left her when she was pinned to the ground, flailing in a futile attempt to dislodge her own javelin.
Cinder drew back carefully, gathering a second wind to her exhausted form. She peered at the pair she just defeated, glaring at the unconscious man and the crippled woman, and clenched her fist. New fires swirled around her hand, although they were noticeably slower than before. The redhead could see the woman's intentions, and quickly dropped her shield to grab something from her belt in spite of a gasp of pain. In one smooth motion she tossed a tiny object underhand right at the recovering foe, Cinder tracking the item when it fell at her feet. The woman gave the whitish grey brick a strange look as Pyrrha dragged the shield over herself.
The half kilogram of C4 went up in a concussive explosion, the resulting fires washing over all three combatants. Of its intended victim, Cinder was blown back a dozen meters to land in a tangle of limbs, flopping once before she went still.
Ruby watched the encounter helplessly, barely getting onto her hands and knees before the explosive pushed her over yet again. Coughing spastically, the red toned girl creaked over to wearily glance at her friends, passing over her precious weapon in arms reach. Soot and debris covered both shields in her view, neither moving as far as she could see. Her breath caught, icy shock settling over her battered system.
"No, no." she whispered, her uneven gasps picking up as she desperately searched for any sign of life. But she saw nothing.
Over the gunfire, the roars, and the explosions, Ruby heard a wheezing rasp of breath, but it wasn't coming from the friends she already lost once. Craning her neck around, her silver eyes locked onto Cinder's fallen body, the woman throwing an arm up as she coughed. The bomb went off right below her, but the woman still clung to life no matter her wounds. Watching her struggle, Ruby's breathing evened out.
The woman let out a whimpering cry when she rolled onto her stomach, features scrunched up from the sheer amount of pain she was in. Clenching her fists, she pushed her face off the dirt in a groan of effort, trying to get air into her needle filled lungs. Her torn up dress was in a sorry state, mirroring her own condition. Particularly her legs; she knew without looking her skin was lacerated, the seared and cracked flesh aching terribly alongside her lancing shins. Squeezing her eyes shut to concentrate, she focused solely on getting onto her hands and knees.
"Damnit..." she wheezed, instantly regretting the spike of pain from her throat to her chest.
Though it took a vast amount of effort, Cinder succeeded in resting her lower half onto her aching knees, and splaying her hands on the dirt was enough to keep her upper half up. She could only guess at how long it took, but she succeeded. Her reward was a hard object poking at the back of her neck; though she was still breathing heavily, she had strength remaining to creak her head over, just enough to see the cause.
Ruby was behind her, her entire body shaking as she aimed the barrel of Crescent Rose at Cinder's head.
Another person might have felt terror at having a gun to their head, especially when the girl laid a quivering hand on the bolt and methodically racked it, popping out a spent casing and likely putting a fresh bullet in the chamber. Other people would've reacted with shock, surprised at the very least to find their life in somebody's hands. But not Cinder Fall. The woman stared into the eyes of the red huntress, showing only weary defiance.
"So, this is it." she said slowly, watching the girl's features twist into a snarl. "You really think you can pull that trigger?"
"Y-yeah." Ruby answered, the barrel accidentally bumping the woman once again. She was barely able to stand, but she had the strength to keep the rifle in place, for now anyway.
Cinder smirked, her grin coming out closer to a grimace. "You do this, and you'll be just like me."
At the moment of truth, Ruby hesitated. Her curled snarl softened, the grip on her weapon loosened ever so slightly. Her widening eyes roamed over herself, taking in the sight with mounting horror. Huntsmen were supposed to be guardians of the people, protecting them from monsters. Yet here she was, standing over a defeated enemy with a gun to their head. All it would take is a twitch of her finger, and she would take the life of a sentient being. A killer.
She glanced away, features clouding over. Long buried guilt rose to the surface, memories of her greatest sin returning to the forefront of her thoughts. How many times had she reflected on that fateful day, desperately searching for any way she could've changed its outcome? How many times had she woken up in a cold sweat, to be comforted by her friends and family over a mistake beyond her control? Ruby was no murderer.
But as she faced her demons, she remembered. Ruby could recall the night which tore her world asunder; the fires, the screams, the laughter of the White Fang terrorists, and the snarls of the panic fueled Grimm all around her. Finding Weiss fighting for her life. Saving Blake from being torn apart. Getting an unconscious Yang to safety before she bled to death. Narrowly rescuing Ozpin from the hungry fires. Stumbling across the trail of bodies left behind like discarded trash. Watching a monster from legend fly off into the night, baying for the blood of the innocent and guilty alike. Above all, she remembered who caused that terrible event.
"Penny, Amber, Sun, Coco, Smith." she whispered under her breath, slowly returning her gaze to her enemy.
Cinder Fall was right in front of her. The woman was responsible for everything: the Dust robbery which inadvertently got her into Beacon, the bolder White Fang, the first battle, amassing an army of monsters and beasts, the all out struggle for the fate of Beacon, and now this. Her friends laid on the dirt a short distance away, stolen from her for a second time. The devastation, the misfortune, it all was Cinder's fault. She was to blame for everything.
An uncontrollable tremble worked its way through her body. Ruby didn't fight it, not anymore. Curling her lips back into a snarl, she hit the requisite lever to pop the scythe blade out, and with the last of her strength she swung the blade around the woman's head to tug against her throat. Cinder tried shying away from the nicked blade digging into her flesh, but she only pulled back tighter so she wouldn't escape.
Her blazing eyes locked onto Ruby's silver ones, for a moment showing very real fear. The girl merely leaned in a little, while her finger curled over the trigger.
"This?" Ruby all but spat, sucking in one last breath. "This is for everyone you've ever hurt, you bitch."
She pulled the trigger, launching the scythe back in a wide sweep.
She hung the weapon high, slowly lowering it when Cinder dropped for the last time. Her panting breath was picking up at an increasing pace, the rage sustaining her fading away as the full magnitude of her actions sunk in. Without meaning to, she let go of the red splattered weapon, clinking when her beloved scythe fell over. She couldn't stand to look at the blade anymore, the hot fluid that splashed against her chest and jaw, not even the scarf she proudly wore for as long as she could remember. The red she was named for made her want to vomit.
Her wobbling legs gave out, bringing Ruby to her knees before her victim. The righteous fury which drove her fled away, leaving behind an overwhelming wave of regret. Her justifications rang hollow now, providing no relief from her disgusted revulsion. Slowly peering at her hands, she sputtered in horror at the blood flecking her palms, drying in place into her skin. She knew it would never wash off, no matter how the rest of her life turned out. The blood on her hands would remain there until she died.
Where was the Huntsmen code now, when she needed it the most? Where was the escape from the guilt? In her moment of weakness she let her rage claim her, and now she was forever tainted. She had let herself become the very thing she swore to stop. What was left for her now?
But as occupied as Ruby was, she wasn't blind. Flickering movement caused her to glance up, and for a moment her turmoil was set aside.
Watching with bated breath, she observed a purplish mist rise from Cinder to float above her, like it was fleeing from a sinking ship. The bizarre stuff flowed out from her into a human sized mass of translucent smoke, seeming to sink into itself while the mist swirled. Ruby briefly wondered if she were seeing things, but she dismissed the thought; her aching body was all too real, which meant this was as well. Gasping as she staggered back onto her feet, she made a move to back away from this unknown event. But the second she took a step, the cloud twitched. The flow came to a halt, and a noticeable tremble rippled over the incoherent surface.
Ruby gulped. "Uh oh."
The mist shot forward before she could move a muscle. She was frozen in place when the mist swam over her, opening her mouth to scream. New pain tore through her battered form, reaching heights of agony she could barely imagine. She screamed and screamed, unaware of her body floating several centimeters above the ground, or her eyes shining with powerful silvery light.
When the last of the mist sank into Ruby Rose, there was a thunderclap of raw power, and everything went dark.