Embers of Autumn
Chapter Fifty-Three
It's late afternoon when the drop ship touches down on the sprawling front yard of the Warren, the youngest of the Arc children sitting on the top step at the front door with Lola and her dogs. All four squat canines are barking like mad at the descending craft, Lola doing her best to calm them without success, and Yumi just stares -she's never seen an airship this close before. All of her attention is fixed solely on the craft until its engines settle into a dull, idling hum and the drop hatch in its side opens up -seeing Jaune sends her sprinting through the grass at him in her customary fashion. She gets him by the legs first, almost knocking him over before she climbs up and latches onto his neck.
"Did you miss me, honey-bunny?"
"Duh," Yumi declares, squirming in his arms until she's loose and can climb onto his shoulders. "Hey, it's skinny boyfriend,"
He turns and looks behind him, following Yumi's pointing finger back to the ship where Ren has just stepped onto the grass. He looks to have stopped mid stride, eyes wide with mild confusion. Nora is just behind him and her face is working into the same position, mostly because she hadn't heard that and didn't understand why he was frozen in place like this. The youngest Faunus then jumps down from her brother's back and scurries over, throwing herself at Ren in much the same way as she had her brother.
"Are you gonna live with us now so you can have a mom and eat food?" she's looking up at him with big, curious eyes and he looks back at her wordlessly.
"Yumi, behave," Jaune groans a little.
"No, no, she's on to something." Nora shushes him.
"We don't have time for this," Jaune reminds them.
Daisy jumps ship and makes less than relaxed strides towards him. "Well we're gonna make enough time for me to use your facilities if you don't mind -a ten hour flight is a long time to hold it."
"Um, yeah, sure, whatever you have to do, Daisy." What was he going to do, tell her no? "Yumi, why don't you show Daisy where the bathroom is."
"Okay!" Yumi slides down Ren's legs to the ground and goes sprinting after the specialist until she can take hold of her wrist, all but dragging her up to the house.
Ren's still a little wide eyed as he looks at Jaune. "Your sister?"
"Yeah, she's the youngest."
"...Your sister?"
"Yeah." then something seems to click. "My mom's a Faunus."
"Ah." he nods once, as if everything makes sense.
"Come on inside; I know we've only got a minute, but I've always wanted you guys to meet my family."
Tag jumps out behind Nora, falling in behind the young Witch and her partner and looking rather relaxed. She likes how the Warren feels, there's an energy to the place that agrees with her and seems to soothe her anxiety a bit. Pyrrha appears a moment later, lingering in the open hatch as she looks out over the farm. Initially she moves to disembark like the others, but just as she lifts her foot to take a step, she stops and draws herself back in.
As if on cue, Jaune turns his head to see her standing there, his face setting with worry. "Are you all right?"
She doesn't answer immediately, a part of her having missed the question entirely as her mind -her attention- is off somewhere else.
"Pyrrha?"
This time her eyes snap to him. "I'm fine."
"What is it?"
"Nothing, just remembering. I've been here before."
He blinks at her, briefly confused, then it passes when he realizes that she's right. "Oh. Yeah. Um, you don't have to come in if you don't want to. I understand."
"It isn't me. It's the Grimm." and it's telling her not to set a single foot on the ground here unless she likes the idea of a bed of nails against her nerves. Manticore knows what's under that house and under the soil, and knows it'll hurt like hell even with them as separate as they have become.
"Okay." he scratches the back of his head, nodding with understanding. "Um, just...just give me a minute. I'm going to check in with the family and be right back."
Pyrrha simply nods and watches him go, crossing her arms and propping herself against the hull when he disappears. It's quiet now, even the dogs have stopped their barking, but the fallen champion notices right away how they've lined up to form a wall between her and their mistress sitting on the steps in front of the house. Pyrrha remembers her, not by name but all the same. She remembers that the young Faunus woman is blind and has the faintest sensation that she knows Pyrrha is staring at her -the dogs certainly do, so maybe there's a chance she's sensitive to what they see. Manticore is stirring; Pyrrha can sense it's afraid of her, just as she can sense that it's aware of the presence of the ley line convergence that's too close for comfort.
Pyrrha finally looks away, dipping her chin to stare at the dirt when her memories trail off to the nearby lake and what lives in it.
It's only a few minutes before Jaune emerges from the house again, a whole mess of noise coming out behind him -the family's in an uproar with all the new visitors and the rush of departure.
"Going again so soon, little brother?" Lola reaches out and touches his leg, and she smiles with amusement when he jumps a little.
"Yeah, mom needs us." he takes a moment to kneel and hold her hand, not just for her but for himself because he's missed her. The corgis crowd around him, licking his hands.
"I know. Trixie had another one of her seizure-visions the other night, then mom called earlier so," she smiles and tilts her head.
"You mean like the one where she said I got eaten?"
Lola nods, then her brows quirk curiously. "Did that one actually come true?"
Jaune clears his throat, "Y-yeah, it did." he chuckles, scratching the back of his head with one hand.
She laughs with him, then sighs. "I wish you could stay a while longer, though."
"Me too. I wish you all could have met my team under better circumstances."
"Still, they seem nice. Although," her head leans a little further, one ear slanting to the side, "is she all right?"
He stands up, looking back towards the ship and then back to her, his brow furrowing. "It's...complicated."
"I had guessed as much."
"She doesn't mean any harm,"
"I know, but something about her does."
Jaune wants to correct her, but he doesn't think he can. He just fumbles and scratches his head again. "But knowing that, you're not worried?"
"Being blind fosters a lot of faith. Besides, if you aren't worried, I'm not. As for the dogs, they just aren't sure of what they're looking at." she rubs each of them on the head, assuring them. "I am worried about mom, though."
"Me too. But we're going to do our best to help."
"Of course you will. Now you'd best be on, the others are coming." She pats his leg and demands a kiss on the cheek before letting him go. "Be safe, little brother."
He only promises to try as he sticks his hands in his pockets and starts back to the ship. After a few steps he lifts his head, watching Pyrrha though she doesn't watch him. She appears content to stare at the ground, and doesn't lift her eyes even after he's stepped up onto the deck. He lingers there beside her, looking her over, wondering if he should bother asking the question that lingers on his tongue. Part of him thinks it would be a waste of breath, but it's about her, and Pyrrha was never a waste of anything as far as he cared.
"What are you thinking?"
She lifts her head, but still looks out. "What does it matter?"
"It matters to me." He shuffles around to stand beside her, his hands still in his pockets. "But if you don't want to talk, you don't have to."
But want doesn't have anything to do with it. Still, she knows if she wasn't sharing herself with a Grimm, she'd would want to talk to him. Not too long ago she would have given anything to tell him what was on her mind. Oh the irony that he's asking now.
"If I could be," she starts uneasily, "if I could be, I'd admire you and how you are with your sisters. It's obvious you care about each other a great deal." Painfully obvious, if it were possible. "Then I'd be jealous."
"Jealous?"
She nods. "Maybe envious instead. You give them affection so easily, yet it took me months just to get you to hold my hand." and part of her feels like she would laugh at how loudly he swallows.
"I mean, I-well,"
"Can I ask you something?"
"S-sure."
"Was I just not clear enough that I had feelings for you?"
He doesn't know how to answer. Things of that nature have been so far from his mind, he had more important things to worry about like staying alive -keeping her alive. Heat rushes up into his face and the whole world is starting to feel claustrophobic. And it only seems to worsen when he sees the others starting to pile out of the house; now he feels rushed on top of uncomfortable.
"When we first met, you seemed more than ready to," she pauses to think, "give me a spot on your team."
"I know. I bet I sounded like a real jerk."
"But then you realized who I was and everything changed. Why?"
Again he isn't sure how to respond and he doesn't have time to think about it, so he goes with his first instinct. "I wasn't good enough. I mean, I lied my way into Beacon on top of being a nobody. As dense as I am, I still learned pretty fast that you deserved a lot better than that."
"And Weiss didn't?"
"That wasn't it." he shakes his head. "Weiss has her money and her company...her name, but those things don't make people, you know? But you...you're a champion. You're an icon...people idolized you."
"Yes, I was idolized. And isolated. And everyone made assumptions about what I deserved and what I wanted." she elaborates plainly, although if she could, she would have delivered it bitterly. Then again, she might not have said any of it to start with if she still felt the way she used to. She would have been too concerned with what those around her would think.
"I was an idiot." he says after a moment, his tone frank and without the self depreciation he had expected.
"So I just decided to take what I wanted."
For a moment he looks at her, the embarrassment replaced with curious surprise. Was she referring to what he thought she was referring to? He chanced that she was. "I guess people do crazy stuff when they're desperate."
"I wasn't desperate, I was going to die and I wanted something for me." she breathes in and then out. "Just about everything I did was for someone else...but that was supposed to be mine." and maybe she had been selfish to do it, maybe even wrong, but she did it anyway and that part of her that still knew who she used to be wasn't sorry for it. She was willing to give up her life to spare others, the least the fates could allow her was a little kiss. "Though...now that I think about it, I can see where you get desperate from."
His brow furrows and he takes a second to think. "Why didn't you just say something?"
"I don't know." and it's the truth because there's too many reasons to just pick one and be certain of.
Something about that weighs on him like a stone in his stomach, leaving him feeling helplessly small and stupid, like he failed somehow, but before he can think of something to say it's too late; Daisy is stepping aboard, telling everyone to strap in and hold on because it's going to be a hard take-off and an even harder flight. Ren and Nora are right behind her and his sisters file in behind them. Trixie stops as the others head on, her lean but powerful hand on her brother's shoulder with her expression set so seriously it's unsettling. "How you holding up?"
"Good," he answers uncertainly, "what's wrong?"
"It's about the vision I had."
"Lola told me about it."
"Yeah, but she didn't tell you what I saw. In fact I didn't tell anyone that isn't on board right now."
"What do you mean?"
"I've got your pilot heading for the Dust depot instead of the Hollow."
Gods above, he doesn't like the sound of this already. "Why?"
"Because we're not going to make it to the manor in time. Now, you know I don't get the best pictures when I'm seizing, but someone's going to die tonight and we need to head straight to the depot if we want that number to keep at one."
Jaune feels himself pale with an awful, anxious shudder rattling through his ribs.
"Whatever is going on...this thing that's started up is going to play itself out no matter what we do, but we can control the collateral. You get me?"
"Y-yeah." He swallows thickly.
"I bet you think it's awful stupid for me to tell you this, but I just want you to know what's coming. I want you to be ready for when it gets bad, you know?"
"No, no, I get it. Anticipate, react, adapt, right?"
"And you need to react your ass into a seat, numb-nuts! We've got to go!" Nessa's voice comes ringing through the ship, her twin's ears cocking in the proper direction while Jaune's head whips around.
"That reminds me," Trixie has an arm around him and is herding him along, seeming unaware that Pyrrha is following close behind. "Nessa fixed that thing you gave her, that bronze ring?"
"Oh, good, great," honestly he isn't sure what else to say, what with his brain being suddenly split between anxiety and courtesy.
And behind them, Pyrrha is thinking, weighing the notion before speaking. "So you're numb-nuts?"
And for a split second, as heat swamps his face, Jaune prays the one meant to die is him because Pyrrha Nikos referring to him as numb-nuts is the stuff of nightmares.
(II)
Gypsy can feel how late it is as she finishes the makings of a seal, the last of four that she has hidden in the house. They cover the front door, back door, and the door to the cellar -and by proxy, the family crypt. This last one she quickly placed on her mother's mirror once she realized it was no longer in the study; it's her trump card on the chance that whatever goes down tonight goes too far south to save. She hopes she won't need it, but also hopes it will come through if she does. Once the emblem is set into the wooden panel behind the glass, she feels a little more secure -not necessarily relaxed, but satisfied with her preparations. She won't be able to relax until this buzzing anxiety passes, and that won't happen until this mess is done and over with.
Though the room is mostly bare, there's an aged wooden secretary situated between the only two windows, and that's where Gypsy has set her overnight bag. With the business of seals completed she moves to it, shimmying out of her skirt to reveal tighter, wine colored cloth leggings underneath. She folds the skirt up neatly and tucks it into the bag, then adjusts her corset before pulling a belt full of revolver ammo out of the bag and looping it around her waist. Next come her guns, the holsters situated in a way that might be considered backwards by most, but it's a way that she personally found most comfortable and allowed the quickest draw. She'll check the drums of each revolver and make sure they're loaded. All of these motions are executed thoughtlessly, automatic though she hasn't had to do this in so long. Some things your body just doesn't forget.
"Still feeling as anxious as I am?"
Gypsy half turns, looking over her shoulder to see Glynda in the doorway. She hums a response, her ears easing back as she makes the last adjustments to her holsters. "Hurry up and wait has always made me antsy."
"Fair." the younger Witch nods. "Are those...kitchen knives?"
Gypsy smiles, two blades in leather sleeves in one hand. "The twins made them for me...my birthday."
Glynda's brow seesaws and her glasses slide down her nose. "Mother left some weapons here. You could-,"
"This suits me fine, thanks." it feels like her kids are with her and that's more comforting than anything Maab or Glynda could have provided. With a visible pride she tucks the knives away where she can easily reach them.
"Suit yourself. Where's Salem?"
"She seemed to be getting overwhelmed so I sent her off to be by herself for a spell."
"She needs to be here."
"And she is here, just not in earshot, relax. She isn't helpful to anyone when she locks up." feeling as ready as she can, Gypsy looks herself over and nods in approval. "What's up your butt, anyway?"
"What do you think?" she adjusts her glasses and crosses her arms. "I don't like this plan of yours."
Gypsy smirks. "I never asked if you liked it."
"In truth, you didn't ask me much of anything, you basically told me how it was going to go and wouldn't hear anything to the contrary."
"We've never been a democracy, Gee-gee,"
"You're being an ass." Glynda snips. "After all that carrying on about worrying for your family and your children, but you insist on doing this -you're a hypocrite."
"But I'm still the eldest." and that gave her an uncanny sovereignty in these situations, per an unspoken law among Witches.
Glynda scowls, her jade eyes scathing as she takes a deep breath. "It's practically suicide."
"Bitch has to kill me first."
"And if she gets passed you? Please, explain to me one more time what I'm supposed to do if Cinder gets her focus and comes after us?"
"If I do my job, you'll have time to get all the help you need and she'll be worn down enough for you to stop her. Focus or not, one can only come back so far from the ass whipping I mean to dish out."
"You're counting too much on if. Not a safe bet," she shifts on her feet, cocking one hip to match the lilt of her head. "Especially since your magic has been split so many times."
Gypsy chuckles. "So you figured that out?"
"It took me a moment, but yes. How many, Gypsy?"
"Doesn't matter." she shakes her head and starts towards her sister, meaning to leave the room. "I'm still tall enough to ride this ride, tall enough to make this work anyway. Look, Glynda, you can grouse all you like, but I'm not changing my mind."
"I didn't ask you to help me just so you could throw yourself away like this."
"You asked it of that Nikos girl, didn't you?" There's a flash of anger in her eyes, anger for an innocent girls she didn't know and her son's broken heart. "And all those kids? So why should you treat me any different?" Because you hate it when the consequences suddenly come back on you, don't you, Gee-gee?
Glynda eyes her sister wordlessly, gaze thinning behind her glasses as she follows Gypsy into the hallway. Their collective footfalls create a veil of white noise around them in faint echoes, though the click of Glynda's heels vastly overwhelms the near whisper of Gypsy's bare feet. The Faunus wears an expression much like her sister's, though her own frown is laced more tightly with contemplation than annoyance. She thinks maybe she is being a hypocrite, and that maybe there's a better way, but a part of her is convinced there isn't time. That, and she feels like she owes both Salem and Glynda this, to stand between them and whatever is coming because she had all but abandoned them after Ithica. Maybe, just maybe if she had gone with them to Menagerie they would have been able to avoid all of this. Now she's got a rare second chance to perhaps make up for that, even if it meant going all in and not coming back out.
Because in the end it's worth it; stopping Cinder, or at least stopping whatever she is up to, is worth her life.
They eventually find Salem in the library, her and Billy sitting at the chess table beside the door but not taking advantage of the game -the Faunus didn't know how to play nor had the patience to learn at the moment. Instead the former Guardian is just keeping an eye on her, as Glynda requested, and finds amusement in watching her fawn over the album of photos on Gypsy's scroll. As much as Billy had come to assume about Salem, a seemingly inherent love of family was far from any of it. She had chanced to ask them if they had any family, and they told her the truth, only partly pleased when her joy momentarily floundered in guilty grief.
Although it was quick to clear up when her sisters came into the room. "You have a beautiful family, Gypsy."
"Glad you think so, I made it myself." the eldest Witch chuckles and takes back her scroll once Salem passes it forward.
"I'd love a chance to meet them someday."
"Well, who knows, if tonight doesn't go straight to shit you just might."
Salem nods, sighing away some of her anxiety. "Is it time already?"
"That's the feeling I'm getting." Gypsy nods, then looks at Glynda. "Got everything you need?"
Instead of answering, Glynda reaches into her pocket, pulling out the necklace and handing it to her sister. "I took it out of the safe perhaps ten minutes ago, if Cinder is still in Vale it's going to take at least another twenty before she's close. But that's a generous estimate."
Gypsy takes the necklace and slips it around her neck, tucking the skull pendant away in her blouse. She can see Ozpin's cane tucked into the back of Glynda's skirt, so she doesn't bother asking about it. When Billy stands up with an audible grunt she gestures them over with a beckoning hand, asking for their arm. Both Faunus watch as she draws circles on the meat of their forearm, the Witch's hex appearing there in bright gold and solid black relief -a pair of crescent moons behind what looks like the silhouette of a dancing rabbit. Billy shudders, goosebumps rising at the rush of magic.
"You'll feel it when one of my other seals is tripped, and, of course, if anything happens to me, it'll disappear." she says plainly, like she says it all the time. "Either way, that's when I want the lot of you to haul ass out of the house, whichever comes first. With luck, the kids will be waiting for you at the depot."
"Are they on their way?"
"They're not far out now, so here's hoping our timing meets or beats perfect."
"Then we'll come back for you." Salem says, earning a hopeful smile from her older sister.
"If you're able, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Your priority needs to be that fancy walking stick and keeping it as far away from that vault as possible." Gypsy can feel the eyes on her, feel all the different things the others are feeling. Glynda is still angry at her and Salem is anxious -her little sister doesn't want it to be this way and feels guilty that it's come to this. Billy is resigned, likely the most understanding of Gypsy's position, and silently approving. Nice to know someone was in her corner. "Now off with you, you're losing daylight."
The sisters embrace one last time, Gypsy giving her younger siblings a kiss on the head before they part. Billy offers their big hand in a less intimate but no less sincere gesture, the two Faunus gripping tightly to each other's forearms and nodding in reassurance and countless other silent things. Gypsy will stand in the hallway and watch them go, swallowing the thickness in her throat as anxiety washes over her when they disappear. They were headed down to the family crypt, meaning to flee through its secondary entrance once the time comes.
Gyspy takes a breath to brace herself, calling up her aura and pushing down everything else other than the Witch that she is; now isn't the time to be a wife or a mother or a sister. A visible change comes over her as she makes her way back to the main entrance of the house -her strides are smoother, her shoulders more square and there's an almost predatory dip to her chin.
She stops in the middle of the floor, the dying light of evening casting fading prisms high on the wall. She scans the upper reaches of the room, towards the ceiling, and she counts the statues residing in the corners. There are ten winged monkeys, four in the corners, and two flanking the main door, the threshold of the second floor, and above the entrance to the hallway leading to the study. Gypsy will approach each of them in turn, using a small burst of aura to reach some, and touch them with the pad of her thumb as her irises wax a little greener -like her mother's. The Witch leaves behind a glowing fingerprint that disappears after a few seconds.
For a moment she wonders if it's all enough, if there's anything else she has time to do to stack the odds in her favor, but realizes quickly that it doesn't matter when she feels the hot pulse from the pendant around her neck. She scowls to herself with a sigh and then makes her way across the marble floor to a less than visible corner near the front door. Putting her back to it allows her to see most of the rest of the room -a perfect vantage point. She takes up a revolver in one hand, and then focuses her aura until it swells big enough to fill the entire house.
(-)
One might think it absurd to take a taxi, Emerald certainly did, especially since the thief was more than certain that Qrow was still looking for them. She didn't hesitate for an instant to bring her concern to Cinder, but the Fall Maiden had an unflappable confidence from the second she woke up earlier this afternoon. She's untouchable and she knows it; it's obvious in her easy smile and comfortable gate, and in the too relaxed way she arranges for a cab to come and pick them up. Cinder is convinced that nothing can go wrong today, and she means to leave the worrying to her Guardians. Although she'll find herself doing mental double takes any time she catches sight of a black bird out the car window.
That comfort and almost sinister joy only seems to grow shortly after they're just outside of Vale's city limits, when she feels the humming warmth of her focus in her heart. The energy seems to fill the car as she takes a deep breath and her irises shimmer a little, then she casually asks the driver if he can go a little faster.
The sky is burning a bright orange in the last minutes of daylight when the cab rolls to a stop beside a post box at the foot of a hill, here the pavement ends and gravel begins and heads up. Cinder graciously thanks the driver and pays him, feeling a little generous and passing him a tip before joining Neo and Emerald on the path up to the Hollow. She's listening, waiting until it's quiet before speaking.
"Neo, you and Emerald cover the other exits. I'm heading inside." she delves out the order without pause, needing no response. She expects to be obeyed. "If anyone escapes, go after them. And I don't care what it takes, I want Salem alive."
Emerald watches as Neo smiles her customary, caustic smile before cutting off into the trees and disappearing. She'll only linger a second longer, some half hearted protest lodged in her throat, before she breaks away as well. With the help of her Maiden's magic, Emerald broadcasts her Semblance as far as it will go, keeping anyone within range from being able to see her as she advances towards the manor and makes her way to the back. She hides among the skeletal hedges and waits.
Cinder, in all her confidence and bravado, doesn't hesitate to approach the front door, and every step she takes closer to the manor stirs the little flame inside her, making it flare and writhe in anticipation. Her heart is humming with excitement, her bottom lip pressed between her teeth as she reaches for the ornate doorknob, but it's only as her skin comes in contact with cold metal that she feels something...out of place.
Why isn't it locked?
Part of the Maiden simply can't fathom someone like Glynda Goodwitch to be the kind not to lock herself in, even if she wasn't expecting company. To even imagine that she was all but inviting her in was ludicrous, and if Cinder weren't so damn suspicious she'd laugh. Then again, she had to consider the possibility that the Witch isn't even here -if she were in Glynda's shoes, she wouldn't want to hang around either.
Why wait for the big bad wolf to come blow down your door when you could just give it what it wants?
Now the Fall Maiden chuckles. The confidence from before returns and she lets herself in.
The warmth of her focus swamps her from the first step she takes beyond the threshold, rousing goosebumps and a surge of adrenaline. Cinder all but swaggers through the short passage that leads into the main room after shutting the door behind her like a polite guest. She doesn't bother trying to mask the sounds of her boots, and she doesn't know when she pauses on the threshold between that she's inches away from one of Gypsy's seals. It's hidden beneath the marble tile, the Witch having taken on the trouble of lifting it from the floor to put it there. Looking around she finds the room empty and growing noticeably dimmer as the sun sets beneath the trees, and in that short time she feels her certainty wavering again. She's feeling her focus, but she's feeling it everywhere and can't discern exactly where it is. That didn't make any sense at all, and the realization leaves her uneasy. With visible caution she takes another step, meaning to begin searching the house.
The seal is triggered and all the light in the room disappears. In the blink of an eye the windows go solidly black and the entire room is swallowed in absolute darkness. Cinder can't see a thing.
But Gypsy can see her as plain as day from her hiding place. The perks of being a Faunus.
Author's Note: Next chapter kicks off a pretty serious action sequence, and after that will be a short lull followed by the climax of the story -that is, the last action scenes. Beyond that will likely be several chapters that will be almost entirely JNPR focused because there's still some story waiting for them after all the shit has hit the fan. Questions and comments are always welcome, thanks for all the love and support everyone -be that you've just started reading this monster or if you've been with me since the beginning. I appreciate you.
