Remnant

by Rapidfyrez

She was a Prodigy unlike any other, the top of her class, the best of the best. Now, she is but a remnant of her former self. Pyrrha Nikos, Huntress and friend, was thought dead. But she lives in a new strange world without Grimm, without Huntresses. She is lost and alone, save for one ally. Harry Dresden, Chicago PI and Professional Wizard, is more than happy to help Pyrrha home.

37. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The initial explosion lifted Pyrrha clear off her feet and tried to smash her into the ground. Instinct and training kept her wits intact well enough for her to keep her legs under her, and she stuck the landing, skidding backwards several feet before stopping. She lowered her arms and rapidly blinked to clear her eyes of the white film that had been pulled over them; even sound came to her as a muted rumbling.

Slowly, the world came back into focus for Pyrrha, just in time for her to see it consumed by flame. Fire rolled to the left and right of the garage, curving into a circle around her. She didn't need to look to see it close tight behind her; she could feel the intensity of the heat through her Aura and her armor, and a thin layer of sweat was already forming on her face. The former would protect her body, but the latter wouldn't be as effective against it.

The flames themselves, however, were only a minor concern. It was their source that grabbed Pyrrha's full attention. As her vision cleared, Pyrrha recognized the woman who stood at the base of the portal, in all her terrible power and glory, outlined by the hellish light of the arch behind her. Cinder Fall had drastically changed since she and Pyrrha had last fought, but the glow of power in her remaining eye, and the bemused twitch of her lips was infuriatingly familiar to Pyrrha.

With but a thought, Miló and Akoúo̱ were pulled to her hands. The incredibly foolish act of attacking Cinder again was something Pyrrha felt more than ready to repeat. The turmoil of anger and hate that swirled inside her was palpable, and to some level, disturbed her. It was only her upbringing and instincts as a warrior that prevented her from repeating her mistake. She paused, scanning her opponent for weaknesses and strengths.

Cinder was blind in one eye now, that much was clear. Any attack coming from her left would be difficult to detect, and the woman would be well aware of that. She would probably favor that side in an effort to protect it, but it would provide an excellent weakness to exploit under proper conditions. There was also, Pyrrha noted, a stiffness to her posture. While Cinder still wore her bemused expression, the few times Pyrrha had seen her outside of a fight had shown her calm and relaxed, almost slouching where she stood. Now, she stood unnaturally still, like a living statue. It was possible that her injuries extended beyond her scarred face, which would make her more dependent on her powers.

That covered strengths. Obviously Cinder had no problem in utilizing her powers as the Fall Maiden, which meant her physical weaknesses could easily be compensated for. So despite being handicapped, Cinder would still hold the advantage over Pyrrha by herself. The extra help would only further tilt the odds in her favor.

The trio of Emerald, Mercury, and Neo emerged from the portal directly behind Cinder. They looked no worse for wear compared to the last time she had seen them. The explosion at the factory had been far from lethal, despite its volatile release. Even if it had hurt them, four on one odds gave Pyrrha further pause. She might be able to take any one of the three, but she would surely fall to the others. The only thing that kept her from attempting to scale the wall of fire behind her, was the certainty that it would prompt them into an attack. She would have to wait to see how things unfolded, but for now, she was paralyzed by circumstance.

Cinder snapped her fingers, and Emerald was at her side in a blink of an eye, listening intently as the scarred woman whispered into her ear. Even that simple act brought a noticeable expression of discomfort to her face. Pyrrha filed that away for later.

Emerald pulled away from Cinder when she finished and said, "Come on, we're dealing with the others."

Neo raised a brow, and Mercury unfolded his arms, "Um, why?"

Cinder fixed Pyrrha with a steely gaze, that she happily returned. Having two eyes made her glare sharper. Emerald gestured at them both, "She wants to finish what she started. We're just making sure no one interrupts."

A grin crossed the young man's face, "Heh, alright then."

The three of them turned to leave, and Pyrrha took one step after them. A ball of fire, no bigger than her fist, flew past her face and hit the pavement. Molten asphalt exploded from the impact less than a foot from Pyrrha, peppering her with the black gunk. She stepped back and glared at Cinder.

Her arm fell to her side, drifting smoke in its wake, and the side of her mouth twitched. The message was simple, and Pyrrha felt her stomach fill with dread. The others would be on their own for now. Behind Cinder, Neo smirked at Pyrrha and followed the others out of the ring of fire, leaving the redhead to her fate.

Pyrrha's fist tightened on Miló's grip, and she readied Akoúo̱. Cinder made no movement, save for the flicker of power in her eye. Coiling her legs like springs, Pyrrha launched herself across the open field toward Cinder.

In a flash of fire and ash, a slender charcoal-colored blade materialized in Cinder's left hand, and she met Pyrrha's first strike head on, deflecting the stab to the right. Pyrrha moved with the momentum, slamming Akoúo̱ into the side of Cinder's head, and quickly spinning out of her reach. Cinder barely reacted to the blow, and casually turned toward Pyrrha, amusement glittering in her eye.

The moment Pyrrha settled back on her feet, Cinder flashed toward her. There was little finesse to her attacks, but they were hard, fast, and precise. Though Cinder only had one blade, she was excellent at applying pressure on Pyrrha, forcing her back step by step, and cutting off her routes of escape before Pyrrha could exploit them. Cinder had lost her general finesse and grace, but had replaced it with a hard cunning and sheer brutality.

Pyrrha needed to distance herself from Cinder before she got cornered, or this fight would be over before it began. Cinder slashed at Pyrrha from the right, but she deflected the blow with her shield, and with a flick of a switch, transformed Miló into its spear form. Pyrrha twirled and stabbed the butt of her weapon into Cinder's stomach. The action made Cinder pause, long enough for Pyrrha to finish her spin and bring the edge of her shield down on Cinder's shoulder.

There was a loud clang as the concave edge of Akoúo̱ crashed onto Cinder's collarbone. Her eye flashed with the shock of pain, and she reflexively punched with her gloved right hand. Cinder might as well have hit Pyrrha with a cannonball; the force of the blow sent her flying a good ten feet across the ground, and knocked all the air from her lungs.

Pyrrha landed on her back and barely rolled to her feet, sagging in place as she sucked in fresh air. Despite being protected by armor and her Aura, Cinder possessed immense strength. Besides, Aura only protected from injury, it did not protect from pain, as Cinder herself had just been reminded.

A smirk crossed Pyrrha's face when she looked up and saw Cinder massaging the curve between her shoulder and neck, and wincing as she did so. Of all the places to be hit, the collarbone had the least amount of flesh protecting it and was one of the most painful places on the human body to be struck. Even the power of the Fall Maiden couldn't protect her from that simple fact.

Cinder's eye flashed with annoyance at Pyrrha, fire danced along the tips of her fingers. But only on her left hand, the right held her sword now. That was an interesting detail. Pyrrha had assumed that Cinder was wearing a black glove over her right hand, but on closer inspection, that might not be the case. Could it be that Cinder's injuries limited how she could summon her power now?

A high-pitched whistling suddenly filled the air, and Pyrrha yelped before diving to the side. A ball of fire flew past her and detonated against the airport walls, showering Pyrrha's back in chips of flaming concrete. Before she even got back to her feet, Cinder appeared before her and struck.

Pyrrha intercepted the blow with Miló's hilt, supported by Akoúo̱. Sparks flew up from the impact, quickly fading into ash. Cinder pressed down harder, her strength relentless and unnatural. Pyrrha's arms shook and her heart thundered in her chest, and to her horror, the long hilt of her weapon was beginning to bend under the strain. Cinder snarled and a dozen lines of fire raced across her blade and ignited its edge. Heat raked across Pyrrha's face, forcing her to release her weapon.

Cinder's sword clashed with the concrete and shattered into a thousand glittering black shards. Pyrrha scrambled away on her back, trying to put as much distance between herself and Cinder as possible. Cinder rose to her feet and sneered at Pyrrha, and a new sword appeared in her hand once more. Pyrrha inwardly groaned in frustration and staggered to her feet. The fire still raged around them, the air growing unbearably hot with each passing second. In her armor, Pyrrha felt like she was being smothered alive, but if she even took a moment to try and remove it, Cinder would be on her like a fox on a rabbit. But that was hardly the worst of it.

Because Pyrrha knew now what she was facing, and this was only the opening act. She sighed and called to Miló with her Semblance. The spear found her hand in an instant, and she reduced it to its smaller sword mode while giving it a few practice swings. Their warmup was finished, it was time to get serious.

Which is when a spear of ice exploded through Pyrrha's veins, starting in the center of her chest. The sudden intensity sucked all the strength from Pyrrha so that all she could manage was a surprise gasp, before she collapsed flat on her back. Her chest ached, a burning pain that pulsed in the center of her sternum, over her heart. With each pulse, her limbs contracted, and her vision blurred, and the world vanished from her senses.

Pyrrha was, vaguely, aware that Cinder was standing over her, possibly confused by the sudden attack to Pyrrha's very being. But there was nothing Pyrrha could do about it, and the part of her not wracked with pain, was frustrated at being incapacitated. She wouldn't be able to escape Cinder and would probably die again. Only this time, there wasn't going to be anyone there to bring her back.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the pain ceased. Pyrrha blinked a few times, and her vision immediately cleared. Overhead, she saw the opening to the garage where the portal had been activated. Her head rolled to left, where she saw the portal itself.

More of the black substance had dribbled out from the portal, and was visibly growing outward, traced with lines of glowing crimson energy following the edge. At the center, beneath the glowing doorway into Remnant, stood five Blackstones, their runes ablaze with dark energy. Pyrrha watched the light pulse, and felt another wave of pain wrack her body. It wasn't as mind-numbing as the first, so this time Pyrrha was unable to stop the scream of pain that wracked her to her bones…

And then it stopped. Not because the pulsing ceased, but because Cinder grabbed Pyrrha by her hair and flung her out of the garage. Pyrrha landed face first on the ground, and made no move until she heard Cinder's heels clicking against the concrete. Miló's grip still filled Pyrrha's hand, the comforting presence of an old friend. Despite the protest of her aching body, Pyrrha pushed herself to her feet with the help of her sword and shield. As she staggered to a standing position, she saw Cinder, standing farther from the portal than before.

Pyrrha bared her teeth in an expression that bared only a passing resemblance to a smile. Cinder's gesture was clear. Pyrrha readied herself, and felt the last of the pain start to filter away. Cinder smirked and twirled her saber, and behind her, the portal grew dark. Pyrrha paused, and focused on the portal…

There was no 'first Grimm' that emerged from it, they simply poured out as though a dam between worlds had shattered. For a moment, Pyrrha thought she and Cinder were both going to be swallowed by the rapidly growing tide of monsters. At the last moment though, the living black mass arced up into the air, and began filling the sky with a thousand familiar cries. Pyrrha felt her blood go cold as she recognized them.

An entire flock of Nevermore's, not of the colossal ancient variety, like the one that had destroyed Harry's apartment, but the smaller bird-sized Nevermores. Thousands of them, swirling through the air as a living tornado of wings and talons and razor-sharp beaks, and while they may ignore her and Cinder, the Wardens and Harry would have no such luck.

Cinder didn't even pay the flock a second's notice, her attention solely devoted to Pyrrha. While the girl was distracted by the impressive display of numbers, Cinder attacked.

Until Pyrrha managed to escape from Cinder, Harry and his allies would have to handle the Grimm alone.

---

"No, no, no!" Harry cursed and gathered his will for another blast of icy wind. The wall of fire rose higher in challenge. The heat was intense, even with the Mantle, Harry was forced away. It's intensity barely left him any breath to swear yet again.

Luccio clapped a hand on his shoulder to drag him farther back. The flames roared like a hungry beast, and she shouted to be heard over them. "What did you see?"

Harry reined in his frustration, it wouldn't help anyone, especially Pyrrha. Sticking to the plan was still their best option, so unless the shit truly hit the fan, he'd reserve his anger for another time. He glanced at Luccio then back at the wall of fire, "It's Cinder: She's here and Pyrrha is fighting her."

Over the crackling fire, Pyrrha let out a scream of surprised pain that grabbed everyone's attention. Luccio's lips set in a thin line and she released Harry's shoulder. "Well then, we'd best hurry and help her. Wardens!"

The woman fell into command mode and the Wardens responded to her with quick precision, lining up before the raging inferno. Individually, any single Warden would be exceptionally powerful for a wizard; it was a requirement. But it was when they worked together, that was when the power of the Wardens would truly shine. As great as Cinder's own abilities might be, even she would have a hard time against thirty Wardens, working in concert.

As Luccio barked out commands, Harry looked back in Pyrrha's direction. The screaming had stopped for now, to his horror, but something had changed. It took Harry a moment to recognize what it was, as the smoke of the fire and the constant shifting hid it from him at first. But soon, Harry saw what had changed, or rather, what had arrived.

Like a billowing twister, thousands of pitch black birds swirled into the air, a whirlwind of talons and beaks and beady red eyes. Nevermores, a flock of them that swarmed like locusts, towered over Cinder's inferno There were so many that, even over the roaring blaze, the flapping of their wings could still be heard. If fire could be made to sound sinister, Harry couldn't imagine anything worse.

Harry took a step backwards, then whirled around to the Wardens and began shouting like a lunatic. "Wait! Stop! Everyone stop!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth did the Nevermores let out a cry so loud that it shook the very air around them. Individually, they might not have even come close to the size of the Grimm that had wrecked his apartment, but there were far more this time. The legion of demonic ravens filled the air with their metallic screeching that made nails on a chalkboard sound pleasant by comparison. Harry shouted and covered his ears while nearby, an airport trolley's windshield fractured. Everyone, from Warden to Einherjar, to Gard to Ramirez, even Marcone was sent sprawling from the wall of sound that slammed into them.

It ended as quickly as it began, but Harry felt his ears still ringing and the world seemed to be spinning beneath his feet. Still, he forced himself to turn back to the flock. His vision came into focus to see the twister bulge and contort itself, splitting into three long tendrils that snaked towards them faster than should've been possible.

"Hell's bells!" Harry shouted, and shook out his shield bracelet. "Shields up! Everyone, shields up!"

Maybe he was too far, or they were still recovering from the sonic attack, but no one reacted to Harry's order. It may well have spelled the end for their expedition then and there… But Anastasia Luccio was not a woman to let her men down that easily. Her voice, hard, commanding, and clear as day, cleared the air with a shout of latin, one word that summed up Harry's command.

"Scutum!"

Without question or pause, the Wardens nearest their captain raised their shields, invisible walls of force that could deflect bullets with ease. Harry stumbled in amongst them, adding his own shield to the magical wall, and watched as the Nevermores slammed into it with the force of a freight train.

The sound was remarkably similar to hail bouncing off plastic, a repetitive 'bong bong bong bong!' as the demon-birds met an immovable wall of force at full speed and were promptly crushed from behind by their overzealous comrades. Brilliant white-blue light expanded from each point of impact like ripples in a pond, until all Harry and the Wardens could see was a towering, glowing wall. But the shields held firm, protecting everyone who had been smart and fast enough to get into cover.

Unfortunately, one Warden and a handful of Einherjar failed to make it to cover, and the flock descended on them. Harry didn't see them fall under the wave of feathers and talons, but he heard their brief screams of pain and panic. By the time he turned his head to look, all that remained was a pool of blood and scraps of cloth. Harry felt his stomach churn, and was immensely grateful for Luccio's quick thinking. Despite their smaller size, these Nevermore might have been even more dangerous than the giant ones. The Warden hadn't even had time to release a Death Curse, he was just… gone, before he even realized what happened.

The flock of Nevermore that had consumed the unfortunate souls doubled back around and took roost along the nearest jetliner. Harry saw them fighting over the… scraps of their kill. One of them pounced on another, ripping and tearing with its beak and talons, shredding it and its scraps apart in seconds and devouring both. The bird screech and began shedding its feathers. What sounded like a symphony of cracking bone flew up and down the ranks of Nevermore, their bodies contorting in time with each chilling snap. A light snow of inky black feathers blanketed the ground replaced with new, larger feathers. Some of the remaining Nevermores had grown significantly larger, from the size of a crow to the size of a large eagle.

The implications of what they had just witnessed were lost on no one. Harry felt terrified, and at the same time, furious. He hadn't known the Warden that had died, or the men with him. But if these things, these monsters, escaped the airport and got into the city, it wouldn't take long for a swarm of Giant Nevermores to begin wreaking havoc.

Luccio had the same idea. She was already barking orders again, clearing her Wardens from their stunned stupor and whipping them into action. Harry's latin was far from perfect, but he was able to get a general sense of Luccio's command.

Ground them.

Harry had never personally witnessed the brunt of the Wardens in action, but he had seen what a few well trained members could do. However, that had been what was essentially a Spec-op's squad of Wardens. This was the main muscle, the arm of the White Council, meant to sweep aside their foes through overwhelming and controlled power. Harry had seen a taste of it in the terrific display of terramancy in the initial assault, but that was a hard skill to master, and very few wizards knew more than a few rudimentary spells for it. Almost every wizard, however - and especially every Warden - knew how to utilize aeromancy.

While the best of their shield-wielding Wardens maintained the wall between the Nevermore and the rest of their forces, the rest of the Wardens began bending nature's power to their will. It started as a strong breeze, a gust of wind that began kicking up dirt and debris. It rapidly grew into a full-force gale, screaming across the tarmac at speeds seen only in the most powerful of hurricanes.

The Wardens succeeded in bending the very winds to their wants and desires, and Mother Nature howled her fury in their name. Luggage that had been abandoned in the evacuation was sent flying across the tarmac, smaller vehicles were overturned, and all Harry could hear was the sound of the wind wailing in his ears. Only Luccio had enough hot air to overpower that fearsome bellowing, and she continued to bark out orders to the Wardens.

The Nevermore were not idle during this display of power. They seemed intelligent enough to realize that their prey was protected from them, for the moment, and they had begun swarming once again, taking to the air in that familiar tornado of black and red. But, to Harry's delight, Luccio had planned on that. The powerful gale force winds did not simply slam into the Nevermores like a lumbering battering ram. Instead, they began rapidly circling around it, creating a vortex of wind that pushed the Nevermore closer and closer together, forcing them to fly or die. Dozens of the demon-crows were flung from their swarm, and were reduced to crumpled black paste when they hit the ground or the airport buildings a moment later.

In a matter of seconds, what had once been a fearsome and terrifying enemy, was now a tightly bound package, just waiting for someone to open it. But Luccio was far from finished. Another wind blew across the ring of fire surrounding to their back, picking up the flames in its ethereal grasp. While the fire was too intense to be put out through traditional means, it was still fire at its core, which meant it was subservient to the laws of physics, as thin as they were when magic was involved.

"I believe showing our enemy a taste of their own medicine is more than appropriate, don't you agree?" Luccio asked Harry. She chuckled at his response, or lack thereof.

The wizard watched the fire move in silence, a look of awe on his face. It started at the bottom, but quickly began to rise, consuming the Nevermore's from the bottom up, tearing through their smaller forms with frightening ease. A few of the larger birds managed to force themselves out of their wind-blown prison, and began winging it towards the city. Without missing a beat, Harry pulled his revolver from his duster and blew the nearest Nevermore into a cloud of feathers and ink.

He then turned to Marcone with a smirk and asked, "Welp, we set up the shooting gallery. Want first dibs?"

Throughout the entire initial exchange, Marcone had barely said a word, content to remain a silent presence on the field. However, it was at this moment that the Chicago mob boss's lip quirked up on one side, and he said, "Why, I would be delighted to, Mr. Dresden."

He snapped his fingers, "Gard, Hendricks!" he barked.

His Right Hand Man and Left Hand Woman immediately got to work, shouting orders (Or subsonically growling them in Hendricks case) to the Einherjar. In seconds, the men were opening fire on the stragglers attempting to escape the slowly growing cyclone of fire. Nevermore fell from the sky in droves, coating the ground in black sludge. The flock was no longer the terrifying force it had seemed, but a pathetically easy foe they would wipe out in the next minute or two.

Which immediately set off alarm bells in Harry's head, because nothing he was involved with ever went that easy. Something, somewhere, was going to go wrong, he just knew it.

He was right of course.

---

Running across the top of the nearest passenger, Mercury Black launched himself a good fifteen feet into the air, and brought both feet crashing down to earth. The poor Einherjar that turned around at the sound found both feet firmly planted in his chest, and was promptly crushed into the ground with a bloody hole in his chest. The ground around him cratered under the heavy impact, and a dozen Einherjar turned toward the youth in surprise.

Mercury stood up, a smirk plain as day on his face, and charged into Marcone's forces. It wasn't so much the speed or strength of his attack that caught the fools off guard, though it helped. The sheer ferocity and speed of his blows were devastating. Those far enough away to set their sights on Mercury couldn't open fire without risk of hitting their comrades. As a result, the first three men fell like strawmen, only messier. Opponents with no aura were seldom a challenge for him.

The first man didn't even realize what was happening. One moment he was turning toward the explosion behind him, the next he was on the ground, with his head lolling from side to side. The next one had time to see Mercury coming, but had none to react. Mercury rolled from the first man and came out of it with both his feet planted on the second man's chest. The thunder of twin shotguns was muffled by his mass, and he was sent flying across the tarmac with a dozen tiny holes in his chest. By this time, the third man was able to target Mercury and opened fire. The first round grazed the side of his head with a vicious sting. Mercury spun on his heel to the left, and kicked his right leg in the air. A shotgun blast roared from his boot and slammed into the man's head. What was left of his decapitated body slumped to the ground in a bloody pile.

Mercury stood up on both feet and cracked his neck, still wearing that smirk on his face. Half the Einherjar turned around to face Mercury, while the other half kept focus on the Nevermores. Mercury's smirk turned into a mildly annoyed frown; they were smarter than they looked, that wouldn't do at all. There was a brief pause, the tension saturating the air in its heavy embrace. Someone's trigger clicked, and that was all Mercury needed to hear.

Gunfire ripped through the air from a dozen different directions. Mercury weaved between the bullets, quickly closing with the nearest man. A knee to the chest, followed by a legsweep, then Mercury sent the still-falling man flying into a group of Einherjar with a savage kick.. He sped across the tarmac like a bat out of hell, bouncing from one man to another. Two or three kicks to disable them, kill them if he needed to. It wasn't necessary, all he needed was to keep them out of the fight, and it was almost frustrating how easy it was.

He landed between two more Einherjar, knocked one of them to ground with a sweep of his legs, and used the momentum to kick the other across the face with a sickening snap. The man collapsed, and a blur of grey kevlar and blonde hair sped over her fallen comrade and shoulder checked Mercury at the fork of his legs.

He let out an unnaturally high pitched yelp of pain and was propelled across the field by a living freight train. A hand with a grip like iron wrapped around his neck, and slammed him to the ground. The blinding pain from his groin and sudden shift in perspective threw Mercury off his momentum, and he struggled to get back to his feet. Sigrun Gard never gave him that chance, pouncing on Mercury and digging one knee deep into his gut while pinning him by the throat to the ground and wailing on him with her free hand.

While his Aura would protect him from the physical damage of her blows, Gard hit hard and fast. He wasn't being punched by a woman, he was being ground to dust by a jackhammer. Gard quickly realized that wailing on Mercury wasn't accomplishing much, and tried to grip his head with her hands and crush his eyes with her thumbs. Mercury's hands lashed out and wrapped tight around the woman's wrists, halting her in place.

Gard snarled under her breath and pressed hard against Mercury's own strength. Her arms trembled under the strain and a burning pain spread from her forearms to her biceps. Mercury kept his cool and slowly pushed Gard off of him. That was when Gard did something that he didn't expect.

Her head whipped forward like a snake's and she snapped her teeth on Mercury's nose, hard. Something snapped, and Mercury let out a howl of pain. Gard found herself soaring back through the air a moment later. She crashed, rolled across the ground, and came bouncing back to her feet, just in time to see Mercury charging at her across the ground, eyes ablaze with pained fury. His face was twisted in rage, made all the more terrifying for being spattered with blood.

He crossed the last twenty feet in a single bound, twisting on his heel with a spin kick that had killed several of Gard's men earlier. She anticipated it though, and instead of ducking under it, she grabbed his leg and twisted with his momentum, throwing him across the tarmac. Mercury spun, and the moment his feet hit the ground, he charged at Gard again.

With the initial pain subsided, Mercury was able to cool his head and focus. The result was a barrage of quick kicks and jabs that Gard blocked or took with ease. He wasn't trying to take her out just yet, he was interested in seeing what she was capable of. She had no Aura, but she was able to, at the very least, keep up with him and take some of his more vicious attacks without slowing down. Whatever Gard was, she wasn't human.

Gard caught one of Mercury's kicks, directed at her chest, and twisted his leg. He spun with the twist, landed on his hands, and like a breakdancer, spun himself like a demented top. Gard, caught off guard, took each kick, one to the side, one to the shoulder, and the last to the face.

She went down, and Mercury hopped back to his feet. He wasted no time going after her, jumping up and bringing his foot down. The ground where her head had been a moment ago shattered, sending debris flying up into the air. Mercury spun, kicking one at the still recovering Gard, knocking her back across the ground. He followed it with a vertical spin kick that brought his entire foot down on her chest. The sound of a shotgun went off against her chest, and…

A bolt of lightning smashed into Mercury, sending him careening across the tarmac and into the ground. Smoke rose from his prone form, and stars flashed in his eyes. He could smell burning ozone and hair. A quick reach to the top of his head confirmed that he'd been hit with some sort of electrical attack. His hair was standing on end, like an oversized dandelion.

"Damn," he grunted, and got to his feet. Across from him, Gard was standing as well, revealing a scorch mark on her chest.

The faint glow of a dozen ancient runes outline on her chest; the remains of a long dead civilization from a bygone age. There was a sickening crack from Mercury's right, and to his surprise, he saw one of the men he killed getting back up off the floor, rubbing at his once broken neck, but completely unharmed. Mercury looked around the field and felt his stomach sink; every Einherjar he had killed was back up again, at one hundred percent health, and gathering by Gard's side.

They looked eager and ready to fight, a bloodlust burning in their pale eyes. But they made no move towards him yet. Gard raised a single closed fist, and all eyes turned to her. Hendricks seemed to materialize beside her with a large case in his hand that he opened for her. Without looking, Gard reached into the case and withdrew a colossal double-bladed battleaxe, larger than Mercury's head, and casually spun it with one hand. More runes ignited along its edge and grip, burning a furious white light.

"You sure you want to take him alone?" Hendricks asked.

Gard responded by spitting a bloody tooth on the floor and grinning viciously at Mercury, "Keep the men focused on helping the Wardens, I'll handle the boy. I haven't had this much fun in centuries."

If Gard had meant to intimidate Mercury with that statement, he did an excellent job of hiding his reaction to it. He impatiently tapped his foot while the Einherjar left, and once the last one had left, Mercury charged.

---

Even from her perch underneath one of the terminals, Emerald could hear the sound of Mercury and Gard's fight. Steel sang, concrete crackled, and gunfire thundered as the two went at it. The fight between Cinder and Pyrrha was the only thing that overshadowed their little sparring match. Emerald hadn't been able to keep her eyes on the fight when she left, but she could hear the familiar hiss of Cinder's fire, followed immediately by miniature explosions. Pyrrha was putting up a fierce fight, as Emerald had suspected she would, but she wouldn't last forever. Once she was dead, hopefully for good this time, all that would be left was the Wardens and that man: Harry Dresden.

He was one of two focal points in this battle, the other Pyrrha. Cowl had told them what the man was capable of. Emerald doubted most of what the hooded jerk said, but the fact that Harry was here, with an army at his back, showed at least some truth to the warlock's words. After Cinder killed Pyrrha, the Wardens and Harry would be the only real force left to stop them, even if Cinder dwarfed any of them individually.

There was strength in numbers, though; the Wardens had demonstrated that to great effect. Emerald had expected the first wave of Grimm to die; they were cannon fodder, after all. She had not expected them to fall without inflicting a single casualty, and the swarm of Nevermores had only claimed three victims. Now, they were being consumed by a pillar of fire - Cinder's fire, no less - and would join the initial wave in death, unless someone intervened.

That was where Emerald came in. She carefully pulled both revolvers from their holsters along the small of her back. They sprung into their sickle form with a soft hiss, gleaming with malicious purpose. With a flick of her wrist, one sickle came loose and slowly fell to hang by its chain, no longer a sickle, but a kusarigama. She wouldn't enjoy what she was going to do, but she'd do it, for Cinder's sake.

In one fluid motion, Emerald released herself from her perch, spun as she fell, and whipped the kusarigama through the air towards the right side of the line of Wardens she had dropped in on. It wrapped tight around the waist of nearest one, a middle aged looking man, and Emerald pulled him out of line and into the shadows.

He had time to let out a surprised scream, only to be silenced by Emerald's sickle opening up his throat. His life seeped onto the floor through his throat and she felt bile rising in her own. It had been a quick and relatively clean kill; it had to be. Any longer, and the man would have unleashed his Death Curse. Emerald had never seen one in action, but from what she had been told, she wouldn't want to. It was just a happy coincidence that killing them fast made this easier for her.

She repeated the action again, on a younger woman this time, who quickly joined the middle aged man on the ground. Emerald repeated it twice more, slowly whittling down the Wardens' numbers. Their focus on the Nevermore's had kept them from noticing their vanishing comrades, for the moment, but to be on the safe side, Emerald used her Semblance to make them see their comrades standing beside them unharmed. The details were easy enough. She wouldn't forget their faces anytime soon.

The illusions wouldn't hold forever, though, so Emerald quickly moved to her next target, a young man with a dark tan, handsome face, and thick black hair. Once more, she twisted, sending her kusarigama flying across the field towards his waist, while tightening her grip on the sickle in her offhand.

It wrapped tight around the youths waist, he looked down in surprise, and Emerald yanked. There was a flash of silver, and the weapon was ripped from Emeralds hands. She stumbled out of the shadow onto one knee and looked up in surprise.

The chain slid off the edge of Captain Luccio's silver broadsword, and landed in a heap on the floor. The woman glanced over her shoulder at Ramirez and said, "Thank you for acting as bait, Ramirez. Care to assist me in avenging our fallen comrades?"

After casually tugging the chain off his waist, Ramirez smirked and said, "I'd love to, ma'am."

Emerald grabbed the hilt of her kusarigama and retracted it into her sickle form. A straight up fight really wasn't in Emerald's favor, so she decided to tip the board to her advantage. After all, how could they fight what they couldn't see? The illusions of the fallen Wardens faded from their place in line, and Emerald imagined herself as invisible to Luccio and Ramirez. It was an easy trick she'd learned years ago, and as long as she covered her tracks, they'd never find her-

Luccio barked a word, and the wind grabbed Emerald from behind and thrust her towards them both. The Warden Captain crossed the distance in a flash, slashing once across Emeralds stomach, and following it up with a strike across the back. Her Aura protected her from the blade's bite, but her questionable choice in attire did little to protect her against the pain of having heavy steel smashing against her stomach and spine.

Emerald stumbled, throwing out her hands to either side to regain her balance. She stopped, trapped between Luccio and Ramirez, who could very clearly see her. A brief ray of sunlight pierced through the cloud cover, exposing a thick black paste under the eyes of Ramirez and Luccio, and if Emerald had to guess, under the eyes of every Warden.

She put two and two together and felt very, very scared. Like Pyrrha, the Wardens could see through her illusions. Unlike Pyrrha, their protection didn't freeze Emerald's mind just from attempting to touch it. She didn't dare reach out and try to apply a greater illusion though, for fear of their reprisal.

Ramirez pulled his own silver sword from a sheath at his side, and spun it with casual graze. "Sorry chica, but Pyrrha gave us a little heads up about your tricks, so we came prepared."

"I know not of the laws from your world," Luccio added,"but here, the murder of four Wardens, the abuse of Psychomancy, and the breaching of the Outer Gates are all punishable by death. I am sorry that it must come to this." Her tone was slow and grave, and it felt far older than her youthful face would have suggested.

A pit formed in Emerald's throat, and she collapsed her sickles in on themselves. Luccio glanced at Ramirez and the two exchanged a nod. They started toward Emerald, swords still at the ready. When both were within ten feet, Emerald's crimson eyes flashed, and she snapped both pistols up and fired. At that range, they would have had no way of dodging, and an entire clip of rounds would be enough to send any Huntsman into retreat before their Aura broke.

But Ramirez and Luccio did not even attempt to dodge. Blue energy blossomed around Luccio where the bullets harmlessly bounced off her shield, while a wall of water formed in front of Ramirez, shredding each bullet into harmless shrapnel that clattered to the floor.

"Shit." Emerald cursed.

Trapped between a rock and a hard place, escape seemed impossible for Emerald. She would have been right too, but fate shined on her that day. Across the tarmac, a familiar hiss filled the air, followed by a sharp pop. Fire erupted lanced through the air, leaving a swath of burning hot air in its wake. All three heads whipped towards the flame-train plowing towards them, and hit the deck.

The smothering heat only lasted for a few brief seconds, and when the roar of the flame died, Emerald jumped at her chance. She rolled to her feet, revolvers ready, sighted Ramirez, and opened fire. The young man had only just started clambering back to his feet, and whipped his head up at the gunshot. Emerald's shot slammed into the center of his chest, where it flattened against the kevlar vest he wore under his cloak, and knocked him flat on his ass.

Emerald pulled the trigger again, only to be met with a clicking sound. She looked at her gun in amazement. Out of rounds already!? She never ran out of rounds, reloading was second nature to her. Of all the times for this to happen, why now?

A strong hand clamped onto her shoulder, and Emerald reacted on instinct, spinning on her heel with a sickle extended. Captain Luccio grabbed Emeralds wrist with a strength she couldn't possibly possess naturally, released the girl's shoulder, twisted Emerald around, and slammed her palm against Emeralds elbow. Emerald shouted in pain, and kicked behind her, hitting the bottom of Luccio's chin and knocking the captain away.

She did not give Luccio time to recover, and attempted to rake her sickles across the woman's ribs. Years of experience saved Luccio, she raised her sword in time for a hasty parry. Sparks exploded between them, and the two women stumbled away from one another. Emerald quickly found her feet and glanced between Ramirez and Luccio. Neither looked winded from their brief scuffle, and they were better fighters than Emerald had expected. Without her Semblance, the fight wouldn't end in her favor. It was time to fall back and figure out a new plan of attack, which Mercury wouldn't like, but he could deal with it. Emerald tightened her grip on her sickles and prepared to dart off into the shadows.

A bloodcurdling scream filled the air, an almost inhuman noise of immeasurable pain that pulled all eyes back towards the ring of fire. Emerald felt her stomach drop, because she'd heard this sound before at Beacon once before.

"Cinder!"

All thoughts of battle immediately left Emeralds mind; Cinder was in trouble, something went wrong, she had to help. Emerald started toward the ring of fire, but didn't make it more than a few feet before Ramirez and Luccio came at her again.

Emerald blocked an overhead strike from Ramirez between the crossed blades of her sickles and snarled, "Out of my way!"

She kicked him in the chest and shoved him away, and then spun and slammed her foot into Luccio's side. Emerald might as well have hit a tree for all the impact it had on the woman, who grabbed Emerald by the ankle, and heaved. Her entire perspective was flipped upside down before her face met the ground with a heavy smack and a flash of pain in her nose. She grasped at her face and let out a frustrated scream.

"I don't have time for this!" she raged, before kicking Luccio's legs out from under her.

Without sparing Luccio a second thought, Emerald popped back to her feet, and flung her kusarigama at the nearest high ledge she could find. In this case, a jetliner abandoned during the evacuation. The sharpened edge bit into the soft metal, and the chain immediately grew taught, dragging Emerald through the air and onto the wing of the plane, giving her an excellent vantage point over Cinder's miniature hellscape.

Emerald swung her gaze over the makeshift arena as fast as she could, trying to find Cinder and Pyrrha, so she could put a bullet in the back of the latter. Despite the smoke and flames, Emerald did spot the two, through a haze of ash. Emerald couldn't make sense of what she was seeing though. At best, it appeared that someone was battling a living breathing ball of red-hot fire. That had to be Cinder, but Emerald had never seen her do that befo-

Her train of thought was derailed when one of the two battling warriors was suddenly sent careening through the air right towards Emeralds perch. The green-haired girl wasted no time jumping to the side, the spot where she was being ripped to shreds by the unidentified flying person. The plane's hull exploded and buckled, and fire spewed from the impact radius.

"Oh no," Emerald turned, and leapt off the plane's wing as an explosion suddenly rippled along its seems. A burning invisible force slammed into her back, knocking Emerald into the tarmac where the ground shattered under her sudden impact.

Laying in her crater, Emerald was vaguely aware of fiery debris raining around her, and as her vision cleared, she saw a figure standing at the mouth of the crater. At first she thought it was Cinder, and her heart filled with hope. But as her vision cleared, Emerald realized it was not Cinder, but Luccio once more, her sword gleaming in the pale fires of the explosion.

The entire world felt sluggish to Emerald, every movement felt like it was moving through syrup, and the world around her moved at half that speed. It gave her plenty of time to see Luccio grip her sword in both hands and raise it overhead. A part of Emerald was aware of the fact that in her current state, one good swing would break what was left of her Aura, and she'd be at the Warden's mercy.

That was embarrassing, but life had never been fair to her before. Why start now?

Luccio's sword reached its apex, a shimmering reflection of death in her hands, and then… The Captain of the Wardens froze. Her grip went slack. Her sword clattered to the floor. She fell to her knees, and cradled the stump where her left arm used to be.

Neopolitan appeared next to Luccio with a very proud smirk on her face, and then looked down at Emerald with an amused expression. Emerald ground her teeth and forced herself to her feet, fixing Neo with a glare the whole time.

"You couldn't have jumped in earlier?" she growled.

Neo fluttered her eyes innocently at Emerald and looked down at Luccio. Despite having lost an arm, the Captain of the Wardens had already worked on staunching the bleeding. She was gripping the stump and murmuring something under her breath, a spell of some kind. Her face was pale, she was breathing heavily, and looked about ready to die, but by some miracle, she was still alive and conscious.

Not for long though, if Neo and Emerald had anything to say about it. The short little woman grinned wickedly and flicked the fresh blood off her saber before slowly approaching Luccio. The Captain glared defiantly at Neo, even as she pressed the tip of her sword against Luccio's chest.

The first bullet whizzed by so close to Neo's head that it took several hairs with it. The second sparked against the tarmac, and the third slammed into her shoulder. Neo jumped away from Luccio and looked up at the new attacker.

Harry Dresden strode toward the two with his still smoking revolver in one hand and his staff in the other, radiating a biting cold that froze the ground he walked on. Behind him, twenty Wardens followed his lead, along with the entirety of Marcone's forces. Harry emptied the rest of his revolver in Neo's direction, and raised his staff when it clicked empty. Neo dodged the bullets with ease, and used her parasol to deflect any she missed, and waved it over herself and Emerald.

"Infriga!"

A dozen razor blades of ice whizzed through the air and impaled Neo and Emerald through their chests and legs, killing blows. A moment later, both girls shattered like glass onto the tarmac.

Harry barely wasted a curse on their timely escape, rushing to Luccio's side. Ramirez and another Warden had beaten him to her, tending to her injuries. Harry's blood ran cold at the sight of her injury.

"Stars and stones…" He murmured.

Luccio wore a pained smile on her face, and glanced at the stump of her arm, "Well… I've suffered worse…"

That was a very dark truth, but didn't negate the damage Neo had done. Luccio had been crippled on the magical front by the loss of her original body years ago, and if she lost her arm, her career as a Warden would be over. Best case scenario, she'd be forced into desk work, worst case, she'd retire.

The thought must've occurred to Ramirez too. He shared a look with Luccio and she grunted. "You're in command now, Warden Ramirez…. What are your orders?"

The fact that Luccio was giving command to Ramirez instead of Harry surprised him, but only a little. Even though Ramirez was younger than Harry, he had been a Warden longer than him by several years and had fought for a much longer time in the war between the White Council and the Red Court Vampires. He was a well known and respected figure to many of the younger Wardens and though the older members of the Council saw him as a younger version of Harry, they did not deny that he was a man who got results.

Ramirez nodded and looked at the nearest Wardens. "Gather up any of our wounded and get them out of here. Take the captain back to Edinburgh, have Wizard Listens-To-Wind look after her."

The two Wardens hesitated for a moment. Ramirez's voice grew dark and he said, "If you sit here wasting time, the captain loses an arm. Move, that's an order!"

His words forced them into action, and they did as he said, careful as they gathered up their fallen captain and her amputated limb. Luccio lost consciousness before they finished, but they made sure that her bleeding had stopped. If they got to Edinburgh in time, she'd survive. That was what Harry told himself anyway.

He reached down to Ramirez, and said, "You think you're up for command?"

"We'll find out." Ramirez replied, clasping Harry's hand.

Harry pulled him to his feet, and stepped aside, letting Ramirez get a good look at his remaining Wardens. For a moment, only the sound of burning fire and the distant thunder of combat was the only sound. Overhead, the sky darkened, a harbinger of yet another storm to come, though whether it was a natural occurrence was a matter for debate. It was far too appropriate though.

Finally, Ramirez spoke, loud enough for his voice to carry to all the assembled Wardens. "Alright, amigos! We've got a wall of fire between us and the bitch guarding the portal to Hell. I say it's high time we tore it down and showed these off-worlders who they're messing with!"

A dozen swords went up into the air, accompanied by the warcry of twenty plus pissed off wizards hungry for blood. They were quickly joined by the Einherjar, whose combined roar shook Harry to his bones. He leaned on his staff facing the fire and couldn't help but chuckle as the Wardens lined up alongside him.

He glanced to his right and saw Ramirez, and glanced left to see Marcone standing with his arms folded behind his back. The crime boss was untouched by the skirmishes that had disrupted their forces, and almost seemed bored to the casual viewer. But Harry could see he was far from bored. His faded green eyes were alive with movement, flicking across the tarmac and taking in a thousand details at once.

"Looking to see if your smuggling jet made it out okay?" Harry deadpanned.

Marcone didn't spare Harry a glance. "Please, I have a private airport for that. No, Dresden, I'm looking for your companion, the child."

Harry swallowed and looked at the fire, "Right. You see anything?"

"While you were busy, I saw her several times. She's been keeping our attacker at bay for quite sometime; it's been most impressive. But… this silence does not bode well for her. Or us."

Tightening his grip on his staff, Harry stood straighter and said, "Well, it's about to get a lot louder now."

The edge of Marcones lips twitched upward. "I'd expect nothing less from you, Mr. Dresden."

Harry turned back to the wall of fire, its heat almost blistering, even from thirty feet away. It had kept the portal and Cinder safe from them for most of the battle, but no wall was impenetrable. It was time for the Wardens to pull off their own magical interpretation of Jericho.

He felt the flow of magic as the Wardens began drawing it in, preparing for a spell powerful enough to banish the flames. To do so would require immense strength and concentration from a single wizard, but with the Wardens-

A screech of steel derailed Harry's train of thought. He whirled towards the source of the noise in time to see the jetliner that had detonated earlier, exploding into shrapnel. Panels peeled off like the snake of a skin, slicing through the air and whirling over the wall of fire. Its still-burning frame groaned in protest for a moment, before twisting and tearing itself into long pieces of aluminum steel that joined the vortex that quickly vanished behind smoke and fire.

The flow of magic stopped for a moment, everyone trying to register what they had just seen. Then, the ground trembled violently. Then it shook a second time. Then a third time. A sharp whistle filled the air, followed by a fresh roar of fire. Even though the smoke, the explosion was clear, before something smothered it. The silence returned.

Harry exchanged a look with Ramirez. "What was that-"

Someone had set off a bomb, there was no other explanation for the sudden wave of force that ripped through the airport. Instinct saved the Wardens and Marcone's forces, a shield wall materializing again and reflecting the force and smoke over their small army. It cleared very quickly to reveal that the wall of fire had been extinguished. The entire face of the airport had been turned into a smoking crater. Scorch marks and the burning wreckage of dozens airport vehicles and jets lay scattered in the arena, and one of the terminals was reduced to rubble.

Emerald, Neo, and Mercury stood at the forefront of it all, the former and latter clearly as shocked as Harry and the Wardens. At the center of it all though, Cinder and Pyrrha were plain as day, still locked in their struggle.

And Cinder was winning.

---

Minutes earlier, Pyrrha had been painfully reminded just how far out of her league Cinder truly was. No amount of skill could close the gap between the two, Cinder was simply in another league, and had forced Pyrrha onto the defensive the moment their fight had resumed. Every time Pyrrha tried to exploit an opening in Cinder's defense, the woman either shrugged off the blow or deflected it with contemptuous ease.

Becoming the Fall Maiden had done more than give Cinder a power boost, it had turned her into a force of nature. No individual, no matter how skilled, could stand against the forces of nature. Pyrrha had to retreat to Harry and the others, but Cinder had made sure to cut off any hope of escape.

Even as they fought, the blistering heat from the wall of fire burned Pyrrha's lungs with every breath and slowly sapped her stamina. If Cinder had wanted to, she could have overwhelmed and killed Pyrrha long ago, but she was taking far too much pleasure in whittling Pyrrha down inch by inch, until her will to fight came crashing down like it had the first time.

It started with a kick against Pyrrha's shield, staggering her backwards. Cinder flicked her obsidian blade in a diagonal slash across Pyrrha's chest, but a last minute deflection sent sparks showering off the hilt of her spear. Cinder followed with a vicious uppercut to Pyrrha's jaw with her blackened fist. Stars exploded in her eyes, and Pyrrha felt her feet leave the ground as she was lifted skyward from the force of the blow. She stumbled on landing, crashed into the side of an airport luggage trolley, and sagged against it.

Her jaw throbbed and her vision was a mess of bright colors and blurry shapes, including a hazy red figure rushing towards her. Pyrrha brought her shield up, and a train crashed into it. The air shuddered, and the trolley behind her rocked back. Pyrrha sluggishly raised Miló, now in sword form, only for Cinder to wrap her fingers around the blade and wrench it to the side.

Pyrrha held tight, refusing to be so easily disarmed. Her vision slowly came back into focus, giving her a sharp view of Cinder inches from her face, a self assured smirk on her scarred face. The woman had one hand on the rim of Pyrrha's shield and the other wrapped tightly around the blade of her sword, and was forcing Pyrrha back.

She recoiled at the sight, but was trapped by the trolley behind her. Cinder's smirk grew wider, and she pushed harder. Miló's edge grew closer to Pyrrha's throat, even as she leaned away from it. Cinder's hand radiated fire, slowly warming the steel of her blade and causing a fresh wave of sweat to break out across Pyrrha's face. Cinder had done this before, their first fight where she had disarmed her in the same method.

Somehow, Pyrrha had to stop her, but was at a loss for how. There was no real way to hurt Cinder, she was beyond Pyrrha's abilities…

A crack, deep and heavy like that of a glacier, filled the air, and Cinder's smirk vanished, replaced with a wide-eyed look of shock. Their eyes slowly moved to Miló, the source of the glacial snap. A thin layer of ice covered the blade, and a dozen snow-white runes glowed along its edge, raining tiny snow to the ground below. Wherever Cinder's hand touched the blade, the ice had spread to, slowly encasing her flesh in ice.

Cinder's grip jerked away from Miló, revealing dozens of burns along the palm of her hand, and she did something unexpected. She tilted her head back and howled in agony, a true biting pain. Pyrrha was so dumbfounded by this, that she forgot to act on Cinder's vulnerability, until it was too late.

Her agonized screams quickly turned into a snarl of fury, and Cinder backhanded Pyrrha into the trolley. Both girl and truck went skidding across the tarmac, and Miló slipped from Pyrrha's grasp and embedded itself in the ground. The trolley crashed to a stop, and Pyrrha slumped forward. Her body was dazed, but her mind was moving at a million miles a minute.

After getting her memories back, she had realized that the sword and shield she'd received couldn't possibly be the originals she'd had on Remnant. Events at the time had prevented her from thinking on it. Now it seemed that she should have thought on it more; if she had known the new Miló could do that, this fight would have been very different. It could still be different. The deck was no longer stacked solely in the false Maiden's favor now. Pyrrha had a weapon that could harm her; she just needed to get it back.

Without hesitation, Pyrrha reached out with her Semblance and called her sword to her. The crimson blade flew off the ground towards Pyrrha by the hilt toward her outstretched arm… Only for Cinder to intercept it with her good hand, halting its ascent. Cinder's smirk returned as she turned toward Pyrrha and raised her burned hand toward her. Her eye lit up with power, and a high pitched whistling sound filled the air, followed by a hollow 'Boom!'.

Pyrrha raised Akoúo̱ and braced for the train of fire to crash into her. It slammed into her hard enough to jar her arm, but she held her shield steady and found herself puzzled. The fire rolled over and around her, reducing the trolley behind her to molten slag. That kind of heat should have been unbearable, it should have fried her. But instead all Pyrrha felt was a cool breeze surrounding her, one that felt very familiar to what she had felt when the enchantment on her tiara had been activated by Emerald.

The fire slowly died down and Pyrrha dropped her shield to survey the damage. To her left, a neat line of molten steel and concrete ran down the center of the airport. To her right, a line of fire still raged past the wall and into the fighting that was occurring amongst the Wardens and the Grimm. Pyrrha looked forward at a very frustrated looking Cinder, striding through the flames of her own attack without a care in the world.

Cinder slammed her fist into Akoúo̱, sending chips of ice raining across the tarmac and knocking Pyrrha back again, then following it with a backhand that sent her sprawling. Pyrrha rolled to her feet, shield raised, and deflected another fireball. Cinder came sprinting through the fire and grabbed the edge of her shield and ripped it to the side, then slammed her open palm against Pyrrha's chest.

Metal groaned and Pyrrha flew back again, but managed to stay standing and skid to a slow stop, before falling to one knee. She was really getting tired of Cinder tossing her around. In general, Pyrrha was just tired of Cinder. Her smugness, her blatant hunger for power and callous disregard for others, Pyrrha was tired of all of it.

Cinder strode up to Pyrrha, fist clenched tight, and stood over the young woman. Pyrrha remained still, and a smirk crossed Cinder's face. It was time to end this. She pulled her fist back, and threw a straight punch that would bring an end to their charade.

There was a heavy smack, the air shivered, and Cinder's smirk evaporated. Pyrrha tightened her hand around Cinders fist and looked up at her. Cinder tried to pull her fist back, only to find Pyrrha's grip was like iron.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, slowly, "But you've had your turn. Now it's mine."

Cinder sneered and slashed at Pyrrha with Miló. The redhead's hand whipped forward faster than Cinder could see, and stopped the blow in its tracks with the same level of unmoving restraint. Then, Pyrrha began to squeeze and stood up. Cinders sneer twisted into an expression of pain as Pyrrha slowly crushed her hands in her grip.

Pyrrha rose until she and Cinder stood eye to eye, and began twisting Cinders arms back with effortless ease. Cinder let out a wordless cry of pain and her knee buckled and she looked up helplessly at Pyrrha. It was there she saw it, in Pyrrha's eyes, what had given her this sudden strength. A fire had been awoken within her, something far more powerful than even the might of the Fall Maiden. Even as Cinder came to that realization, she saw Pyrrha subtly changing before her eyes.

A faint glow, a crimson aura, began to emanate from the girl, rolling off her like an all consuming flame. Her Aura, that was what it had to be. Very rarely one would see the manifestation of an Aura, in projections of shields or when it shattered. But Cinder could feel it, this was no shield, this was raw power, a power to match her own.

Her grip on Miló went slack and the sword clattered to the ground. The moment it hit the tarmac, Pyrrha placed her foot on Cinders chest and shoved. One moment, Cinder was a foot from Pyrrha's face, the next, she found herself propelled across the tarmac until she crashed into the ground, leaving a shallow furrow in her wake.

Pyrrha scooped Miló off the ground, and was after Cinder in seconds, crossing the distance between them in three bounding leaps. On the last, Pyrrha leapt into the air and came crashing down on Cinder.

Cinder rolled to the side, materialized her sword, and slashed across Pyrrha's shield. Pyrrha slid under the blow, popped up, and kicked Cinder across the back. She followed with a thrust between the ribs, and a slam into her face with her shield. Cinder stumbled, lashing out blindly with her blade. Pyrrha met it with her own, and the weight in Cinder's hand vanished. She saw her blade go sailing through the air into the ground a moment later.

The fire that surrounded Pyrrha exploded, and the red head slammed her shield into Cinder again, and twisted on her heel to slash across across her chest once. Miló shifted to its spear form, and Pyrrha quickly stabbed under Cinder's jaw, then whirled and smashed the butt of the spear into throat.

Cinder gasped, leaped back a dozen feet to distance herself from Pyrrha, and summoned a slender long bow of obsidian to one hand, while a dozen arrows materialized in her offhand. She nocked them to the bow, and released the swarm of razor-sharp arrows.

Pyrrha was a literal blur of red and grey, weaving between arrows with effortless ease. Those she did not dodge, she shattered with her shield, or deflected with her sword. She came out of the barrage unscathed, and landed crouched behind Cinder.

Cinder whirled around in surprise to face Pyrrha, and flung a ball of fire towards her on instinct. With a simple pirouette, Pyrrha knocked it aside with her shield, and came down in a crouched firing position, Miló resting in the concave hollow of her shield in rifle form. Pyrrha loosed a salvo of three bullets, each one shining a strange red under the influence of her Aura.

The first missed, Cinder managed to deflect the second, and the third skimmed the side of her head. A dozen dark hairs came off in the wake of the shot, but Cinder barely had time to register what happened. Pyrrha was already back on the offensive.

Cinder dodged to the left as Pyrrha came down with a quick thrust of her spear, the point sinking into the ground, followed by sweeping her legs out from under her. Down she went, barely catching herself on her hands, and pushing herself into the air so she could land on her feet.

A new sword formed in her hand, and Cinder used the flat of her blade to deflect Pyrrha's. Cinder kicked Pyrrha in the stomach, grabbed her by the ponytail while she was staggered, and twisted. Pyrrha careened across the tarmac, crashing onto the ground face first and rolling to her feet.

In a flash, Cinder closed the gap and hit Pyrrha as hard as she could. The air crackled, the ground shook, and Pyrrha's head whipped back in time with a single step backward. Then, she stepped forward again and slowly rolled her head forward. All that marred her face was the scowl she wore.

Cinder gulped and stepped back. Pyrrha stepped forward, and slammed her foot onto Cinder's, pinning her in place. Cinder let out a silent yell, and tried to throw a bolt of fire in Pyrrha's face. Pyrrha raised her arm, deflecting the blow, and sending the fire screaming into the air.

Immediately, her hand shot forward, wrapping tight around Cinders throat and making her gasp for air. Pyrrha hefted her into the air, the burning red fire of her aura growing more intense with each passing second. The look in her eyes was one of contempt, one of fury, and something else: Naked hatred.

It was at that exact moment that Cinder knew that she had made a terrible mistake.

The world became a blur, something hard hit Cinder's back. She realized it was the ground and that Pyrrha had planted her into it with the force of a jackhammer. Cinder bounced up once, free in the air. Pyrrha grabbed her leg as she rose up, and twisted, sending Cinder skipping back across the airport and through the wall of flame she had created.

She met the fuselage of a parked jetliner a moment later, and it crumpled under her impact. Fire quickly erupted from the hole she'd crashed through, and an explosion ripped through the plane. A single figure shot up from smoke and flame, Cinder floating on a pillar of flame, her one eye filled with a hideous rage.

Pyrrha let her shoulders slump, and she took in a deep breath. When this power had shown itself, fire had rushed through her veins. She'd felt it before, during her brief fight with Torchwick, her battle against Dresden, bringing the steel mill down on Emerald and Mercury, and when she had ensnared the Nevermore with the piping beneath the street. Those had all been brief gouts of fire that had pushed Pyrrha past her limits. But much like real fire, it was beginning to burn her from within.

A lead weight had begun pressing on her chest, making each breath she took more labored than the last. Pyrrha could still feel the tingling energy flowing through her, but she had reached her peak, and she wouldn't have much time left before it left her. In order to win this, Pyrrha was going to have to fight smarter, not harder, which meant she couldn't defeat Cinder traditionally, as much as she desperately wanted to.

Cinder descended to the ground and sneered at Pyrrha between exhausted breaths, but she didn't attack. The last few minutes had made her more than a bit gun shy about charging in again. The two warriors, one wreathed in smoke, the other in a brilliant crimson glow, made no move towards each other. Even from across the tarmac, she could hear dry the labored breathing from Cinder.

That was it, that was how she would beat Cinder!

Pyrrha took one step back, never taking her eyes off Cinder…

Then she turned and ran for the airport, disappearing through a cloud of smoke. The act was so sudden that Cinder was frozen with surprise for a moment, before her anger returned and she launched herself after Pyrrha. It didn't take long for Pyrrha to reach the base of the airport, and she reached the nearest garage. She didn't dare approach the portal after what happened last time, and instead, thrust her Semblance into the garage, searching for the tools she'd need.

Cinder barreled through the smoke, and slowed to a stop, scanning from left to right for signs of Pyrrha. But the redhead had mysteriously vanished, no sign of her. Cinder frowned and looked skyward. Her eye widened.

Pyrrha floated in the air. The many plates of titanium steel under her armor served as an excellent harness for short range flight. Cinder smirked, and a pillar of smoke lifted her into the air until she jerked to a stop. She blinked once, then tried to rise again, only to be met with the same result.

Cinder looked down at her leg, where a steel chain had wrapped itself tightly around her ankle like a snake. She looked up once at Pyrrha, and felt the chain pull. Cinder landed on her feet, shattering the ground with her impact, and whipped her head skyward. Pyrrha slashed Miló across her face, and rolled across the ground.

There was no pause in what she did next. Pyrrha grabbed the chain off the floor, now looped into a makeshift lasso, and flung it around Cinders chest. The links tightened under a will of their own, crushing Cinder's arms against her body. Pyrrha heaved Cinder through the air and into the wall, and willed the chain to wrap itself around her arms and legs, temporarily immobilizing Cinder. But she didn't stop there. Pyrrha dove into the depths of her new power, dragging it to the surface with a final effort. Her body burned with unspent energy, pushing against her skin for a release.

It found it, in the jetliner that Cinder had destroyed.

Ripping it apart came easy to Pyrrha. She had disassembled a dozen weapons to practice the finesse she needed to control her Semblance. With her boosted power, applying it in large scale to the jetliner was no challenge. She didn't waste time carefully taking it apart though, instead wrenching it apart into its individual pieces and dragging them across the tarmac.

By this point, Cinder had already melted her chains and fallen to the floor, but only in time to see a hailstorm of steel flying towards her. She rolled to her left as what was once a wing embedded itself into the wall, then dodged back when the other wing crashed into her left. A large platform of steel came down like a boot towards her.

Cinder unleashed a geyser of flame to stop it. Fire rolled alongs its edge and fell back to earth in gouts of molten steel. Around her, the wings began to burn red-hot before small explosions rippled through them, but it wasn't enough to melt the metal.

The platform stopped a few feet above Cinder's head, still intact. That confused her, and Cinder looked ahead, past the roaring flames, just in time to see Pyrrha seal the only exit out of the new makeshift steel oven she'd built around Cinder. Her enemy had kindly provided the fire she needed, and Pyrrha had made sure to seal the new prison tight.

That was it though, Pyrrha was spent. She fell to one knee, and the glow that surrounded her faded. Her limbs felt numb and unresponsive, burned from the inside out. There was no fight left, but hopefully she wouldn't need to anymore.

Inside the oven, she could hear the heavy pounding of Cinder's fists against the steel walls, and the hiss of fire as it grew more intense. Small trickles of smoke began to seep from within, and slowly, the intensity of her blows began to grow weaker.

While Cinder may have possessed the power of a god, she was still mortal at her core, and still depended on the most basic fundamental forces to keep herself alive. It was more than a little ironic then, that her own power would sap the oxygen from the oven until Cinder lost consciousness. Pyrrha knew she couldn't have beaten Cinder through mere force of arms; her stamina was too great, but if she took that away…

One final blow shook the walls of the prison, and then the only sound Pyrrha heard was that of the crackling fire…

Then, the prison exploded, and the world spun out of control.

---

In the present time, Pyrrha could see her mistake now. As prepared as she had been, she was far from ready to fight Cinder again. If she had known what she could do from the beginning, perhaps their fight would have gone differently. But days full of combat and emotional turmoil, and their intense struggle at the beginning of their battle had left Pyrrha tired and her power boost had simply been too little, too late. All she'd managed to accomplish was pissing Cinder off.

The False Maiden had gone on the offensive the moment she broke free of the prison that Pyrrha had trapped her in, and was pushing her back with every slash of her obsidian blade. All Pyrrha could do was block her blows and stumble backwards while Cinder pressed her advantage ever harder.

In some part of her mind, Pyrrha became aware that they were moving closer and closer to where the wall of fire had once been. Cinder's explosive exit had extinguished it, which meant that Harry and the others could reach her, if she could hold out for just a minute longer…

Pyrrha took a quick step back, letting Cinder's blade whistle through the air, then stabbed with Miló in spear form. Cinders free hand grabbed the spear by the hilt, and with one strong heave, ripped it from Pyrrha's grasp and tossed it aside. Pyrrha tried to catch it with her Semblance, but the act sent a pulse of pain through her entire body and she recoiled.

Cinder grabbed the edge of her shield, halting Pyrrha mid-step, and thrust her sword forward. There was a sharp crack, like the snapping of glass, then an icy pain rolled through Pyrrha's midsection. A smile spread over Cinder's lips as Pyrrha looked down at the blade embedded in her stomach. Red energy crackled around the hilt of the blade, what was left of her Aura as it finally gave way under the stress.

"Good...bye…" Cinder hissed through clenched teeth, then placed her hand against Pyrrha's chest and shoved her toward the crowd of Wardens that had gathered.

Pyrrha stumbled and her legs collapsed. She'd have fallen, if a pair of strong arms hadn't caught her at the last moment. "Easy, I've got you." Harry said, even as he began to lower her to the ground.

The pain in her abdomen flared again and Pyrrha winced, "H-Harry, I…"

"Shh," he shushed. "Save your strength, we've got to patch that hole up now."

Pyrrha looked down at her stomach again. It looked like a thin cut, but she that the injury went all the way through her, and she could feel the sticky blood pooling around her back. Cinder's blade had slipped through the plates of her armor with deceptive ease, but if she hadn't been wearing it, Cinder might have just stabbed her through the heart again.

"Out of the way, Dresden." a familiar voice ordered. Pyrrha glanced up to see Marcone standing over them, with Hendricks on his right and Gard on his left. Gard was covered in bruises and bloody scars, and her left eye was swollen shut. Still, she wore a very content expression on her face that was a bit at odds with how Pyrrha felt.

Harry's lips formed a thin line as he looked from Pyrrha to Marcone and asked, "Can you help her?"

"Of course. We'll do all we can." Marcone sounded completely sincere, which was odd to Pyrrha. She barely knew the man and he and Dresden didn't seem like friends.

Harry let out a sigh, "Alright, but if anything happens to her…"

"It won't."

"Right." Harry started to stand, but Pyrrha caught his arm at the last moment.

He looked back at her and Pyrrha said, "I'm… sorry Harry. I ruined the plan."

That made Harry smile, "You didn't ruin anything Pyrrha. Plan's still on track. You just focus on not dying."

He was too confident, what did Harry know that she didn't? Pyrrha didn't say anything, she just trusted his judgement and gave a nod. "Okay…"

Harry stood up and let Marcone's people get to work on peeling Pyrrha out of her armor and treating her injury. Pyrrha was tough and he had a feeling she would come out of this fine, even if she was out of commission for the rest of the fight. Which meant it was time to confront the mastermind of this whole situation.

Striding forward while projecting an aura of confidence, Harry had a minor internal mental freakout. Pyrrha's fight had been present throughout the entire skirmish, something he'd been aware of but unable to act on thanks to Cinder. Seeing her injured scared him, and pissed him off, but he knew how to keep both in check. He would stay calm

So even though Harry was more than a little terrified to approach Cinder, he did it anyway. This was his harebrained scheme, he'd see it through to the end.

He stopped twenty feet from Cinder and her gang. Cinder was unharmed, while Emerald looked roughed up. Neo sported no visible wounds or even scuff marks, while Mercury… Parts of his armor were missing, his body was covered in lacerations, and he was desperately trying to flatten his hair, which was standing on end. Gard had certainly given him a run for his money before he ran off.

But he was not important, and neither were the other cronies. Harry kept his gaze focused on Cinder, who returned it with smug confidence.

"So…" Harry started. "Who talks first? You talk first, I talk first?"

Cinder frowned.

"See, it's just hard to understand you with all that bitch on your face," Harry explained.

Cinder raised a hand, and Emerald was immediately by her side, leaning over so Cinder could whisper into her ear. Once she was finished, Emerald straightened up and said, "If you all surrender now, Cinder promises to make your deaths painless."

Harry looked down and tapped his staff against the ground, "Tempting offer, you really know how to butter someone up Cinder. But I've got a counter offer."

He looked back up with her and slammed his staff down. A low boom filled the air, punctuating Harry's next words. "Leave. Go home. I don't know what Cowl promised you, but you won't find it here."

Mercury rolled his eyes, "Is this guy serious?"

"Of course I'm serious!" With a little magical assistance, Harry's voice boomed like a loudspeaker.

Emerald flinched, and Cinder's frown grew deeper.

"You're just kids." Harry said, letting his tone fall. "You're kids in way over your heads. We aren't some school that knows nothing about you. We knew you were coming, and we know how to fight. You might not realize it, but the four of you are getting ready to fire the opening salvo's of a war you won't win. I've seen war, I've fought in war before, all of us have. And even if you somehow beat us here, there are people and things on this planet that won't like having you step on their toes. You won't last a week here before you piss off some god who wipes you off the face of existence. So I'm asking, pleading with you, to just go home and forget about all of this. No one else needs to die today."

He didn't think his words would have an impact on Cinder, but he hadn't expected them to. While Harry wanted these four to realize how stupid this all was, he also wanted to buy time. Just a few more minutes, then they could spring their plan.

At the very least, Cinder seemed to pause at his words, which was good. Harry started to look past her at the airport behind her, shrouded in smoke… when something caught his eye. Against the smoky backdrop, it stood out like a sore thumb. It was small and bright red. It took Harry a moment to realize what it was, and that confused him even more.

It was a rose petal…

"You have a way with words," Emerald translated, dragging Harry's attention back to them. "But you're bluff is just that. Cinder is going to end this now."

At the last of her words, Cinder materialized an obsidian bow in her hands and fired a single arrow high into the air. Harry watched it soar, trailing fire and ash in its wake, and immediately raised his shield. The Wardens behind him did the same as the arrow began to peak and fall back to earth.

It never made it.

The crack of a sniper rifle echoed across the tarmac, and the arrow shattered, unleashing its hidden power. A ball of fire erupted in the air, blinding Harry. He staggered, shield still raised, and rubbed at his eyes until his vision slowly returned.

"What the hell was that?" he grumbled, even as he saw the answer.

She jumped down from her perch atop the air top terminal on their far right, trailing a rose-red cloak as she landed amongst three other faces Harry had seen once before.

Pyrrha let out a surprised gasp from where she sat. "Jaune!?"

"Pyrrha!" team RNJR crossed the distance in seconds towards their teammate. Nora, Ren, and Jaune, the entirety of her team on Earth. Pyrrha wasn't sure how they got there, but really couldn't care less. She smiled as they approached, only for them to be stopped by Hendricks.

"That's close enough." He said. "Operation in progress. Don't interrupt."

Nora glowered up at the giant man, and reached for the silver weapon slung on her back. Ren grabbed her arm and gave her a firm look. She sighed and released it, instead looking around the giant of a man with the others.

Most of Pyrrha's armor from the waist up had been stripped off, and now Gard was busy expertly treating the wound in her side while Marcone assisted. Pyrrha winced at the pain, but didn't let her smile fade. This was certainly an unexpected surprise.

"What happened?"

Pyrrha sighed, "Cinder. I… I'll explain later."

While they tried to talk with Pyrrha through Hendricks, the girl in the red hood, Ruby, that was her name, stopped near Harry and glared at Cinder under her hood with bright silver eyes.

"Where… Who… How!?" Emerald demanded, summing up the stunned expression on Cinders face.

Harry scratched at his head, "Yeah, not gonna lie, I'm as lost as you guys are."

Ruby pulled back her hood and smiled up at Harry, "We got a message from your friend, she said you might need help."

"She…?" Harry wondered, then the wheels clicked.

Thunder boomed overhead, and a lone bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of Harry. When the dust cleared, Molly Carpenter stood in the glassy crater, clad in full Fae battle armor and wearing a cocky grin on her face.

"I figured we could do with some extra firepower." she said. Her smile faded at the questioning on Harry's face and she added, "I'll… explain when this is done."

"Looking forward to it." Harry grumbled. Despite being Fae, or maybe because of it, Harry had a feeling that Molly was keeping far more information from him than he liked. But for now, the focus was Cinder, he could read his former apprentice the riot act later.

Molly folded her arms and turned back to Cinder. The woman's one eye hadn't left Ruby since she had arrived, and she almost looked like she was… trembling? No, that couldn't be right, it had to be the heat from the fires messing with the air.

Molly coughed into her hand, and Cinder's eye swiveled toward her. "T'sup, bitch. Name's Molly, Lady of the Winter Court, former apprentice of Harry Dresden, and the Wrecker of Your Shit. I'm pretty sure Harry already gave you the 'leave now' speech, so I'll just simplify it."

She cleared her throat and said, "Get the fuck off my planet, or I'm kicking your one eyed ass back to Remnant whether you like it or not."

Cinder narrowed her one eye, spared one more glance at Ruby, then let out a frustrated sigh. With a snap of her fingers, the smoke that had flanked her team was blown away by a gentle breeze, revealing a fresh horde of Grimm behind them. Beowolves, Creeps, Ursa of varying shapes and sizes filled the majority of the ranks, along with the new Terror Birds that had attacked Harry at his apartment. There were more mixed behind the ranks, but Harry couldn't make them all out.

Molly looked at the army of Grimm and yawned, "Is that all you've got? Puh-lease."

She clapped her hands together three times, and the air shimmered. Harry's jaw dropped as he watched Molly's near-perfect veil drop to reveal one hundred Fae warriors, flanking the Grim horde on the left and right. He could even see a few armored trolls mixed in amongst their ranks. Molly had said she could get a few warriors to join her.

Given the size of Winter's army, this is what Harry should have expected when she said 'a few'.

Molly folded her arms and smirked at Cinder, "Your move, bitch"

---

A/N: FINALLY! After weeks of labor, this chapter is done! If I had expected it to be this long, I never would have made that promise to begin with. That said, I have started on chapter 37 and I'm hoping to have it finished sometime next week. My goal is to buckle down and finish the climax before Mass Effect Andromeda is released, because no writing is getting done.

Anyway, you guys let me know what you thought of this beast of a chapter, make sure to review with critique and PM me with questions. Until next time, Ciao!