Friday, June 1st
As the strange not-quite-light of the Grimm Hour washed over the Shadow Hunters, they approached Muspell with a strange knot in their stomachs. The large arena, the huge portal before them, seemed to loom ever larger as they approached. Jaune gently massaged the Bifrost gem with his fingers, glancing at the other shadow hunters.
Ruby smiled to him and put a hand on his shoulder before heading off toward the portal. Next was Blake who nodded to him and patted him on his back. Then Penny, who saluted before continuing behind the others. Yang gave him a fist bump as she passed by him. As Weiss walked past she paused a moment, met his eyes, nodded resolutely, and continued. Last was Pyrrha, who stood beside him as their allies disappeared into the portal.
"It feels different, doesn't it?" Her head tilted slightly as she looked at him.
"It's strange to think this could be the last time we go into Muspell." He stared down at the gem, then up at the towering structure. "Almost like cheating. Like there should've been more."
"Well, it's not a matter of how many steps you take, Jaune." Pyrrha stood before him, placing a hand on each shoulder. Her earnest green eyes were gazing directly into him, as though she could see Jaune for everything he was. "It's a matter that the journey was made." She turned from him, back toward Muspell. She took one step, then two, then felt a tug at her hand.
"Wait."
She turned to see Jaune was holding her hand and blushing. He coughed slightly. "I just wanted to let you know." He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "I know it's been a lot but… I just… I want you to know if we don't get out of this…"
Pyrrha chuckled gently to herself. She patted the back of his hand as she let herself go of his grasp.
"None of that, Jaune." She let out a long slow breath and let a soft smile fill her face. "We'll be fine. With all of us working together, rest assured that we'll do what we must to defeat Salem and return home."
"But-" he began, but Pyrrha had already begun walking away. He let out a large sigh, slumping forward. His head raised in time to see her figure disappear into the flaming gate of Muspell.
"Please, don't!"
As Jaune entered Muspell, his eyes widened as he stood in the stone hallway that made up Muspell's lobby. The various doors circled the chamber, and backed against the wall stood Emerald, hands raised in surrender as Penny, Pyrrha, Yang, Blake, Ruby, and Weiss all stared her down with weapons drawn.
"I promise, I'm here to help." Emerald kept her hands raised as she swallowed a large lump in her throat.
"That doesn't seem likely." Penny stated. "I recognize you from our last encounter."
"Last encounter?" Jaune raised his eyebrow, looking from Penny to Emerald.
"She manipulated us into fighting each other. She is the reason you and Pyrrha attacked me." Penny kept her dagger drawn and narrowed her eyes at Emerald. Before she could strike, she found Pyrrha's hand grabbing her wrist.
"Halt, Penny." Pyrrha lowered the spear in her other hand. The rest of the Shadow Hunters followed suit, lowering their weapons - but keeping them handy, just in case. "Let's hear what she has to say."
"Thank goodness." Emerald sighed and let her hands fall, slumping her shoulders. "That was terrifying." She looked at the gathered Shadow Hunters and nodded slowly to herself. "My name's Emerald. I work for Salem, and I'm here to help you."
"Likely story." Weiss flipped her hair and levelled her icy gaze at Emerald.
"How can we trust you?" Yang stepped forward. "Especially after we just had to fight with you and your silver haired buddy." Yang raised her fists.
"I know it's hard, but let me explain." Emerald's hands went up again. "When you fought us before… when you fought Adam, me, and Mercury, we weren't following orders." Emerald looked right at Blake as she mentioned Adam. "We were told not to interfere with you guys fighting the Guardians."
"Guardians?" Jaune looked to Ruby with an inquisitive look on his face. Ruby shrugged.
"The giant shadows at the end of each chamber. That's what we call them, Guardians."
"What are they guarding?" Blake crossed her arms. "What's to protect here in Muspell."
"They're here to stop someone from unlocking the power of the serpent, Jormangandr." She glanced at the furrowed brows of the Shadow Hunters. "If we defeat all of the guardians, then one person can obtain his near infinite power."
"That doesn't add up." Ruby tilted her head slightly. "I thought Muspell was keeping Jormangandr trapped. You guys are trying to free him."
"Uh, no." Emerald shook her head. "Why would we want to end the world? Raven just wants to help people."
"Help people?" Yang punched her fists together. "Then why did she stop teaming up with Qrow and the others? Why did she just run away?"
"Because Ozpin kept getting in their way. He kept running them in circles, constantly defeating shadows but never making any real progress." Emerald sighed. "Raven's already extremely strong. With Jormangandr's strength, she could make some real change in this world."
"Like what?" Ruby said. "All she's done so far is hide away while we've handled all of her problems."
"Put an end to the Grimm Hour once and for all, for starters." Emerald said. "She's tired of Ozpin using people…" she looked at everyone in the room. "Using kids to keep fighting shadows."
"Why would Ozpin be against the end of the Grimm Hour?" Jaune rubbed his temples. "He's only helped us all get stronger to fight shadows."
"And what happens when you beat those shadows?" Emerald made eye contact with each of the Shadow Hunters in turn as she spoke. "You just get to the next stage, fight more shadows, and it keeps going." She gestured to the doors on the walls, marked with Roman Numerals. "They never actually end, you know."
She tapped the one behind her, marked XII. "Raven figured that out after she left. They just keep renumbering themselves, opening to different worlds, and cycling through a never ending pit of shadows."
"But what about the guardians?" Yang took to leaning casually against the wall. "If Raven is so strong, why didn't you guys just take care of them?"
"Dust. At least, that's the best that we could figure." Emerald shrugged her shoulders. "For some reason, when someone who uses Dust to access their persona fights a Guardian, the Guardian doesn't die. We noticed when you guys started fighting them that they stopped coming back."
"So you guys needed us to kill the Guardians so Raven could get her power." Blake mused. "Then why did you try to fight us?"
"Adam was… unhinged. He was obsessed with beating you guys into the ground." Emerald sighed. "As for the rest of us…" Emerald held her arms across her chest. "We were jealous."
"Jealous?" Yang tapped her head. "Of us for fighting our way through hordes of monsters and running ourselves ragged?"
"For just…" Emerald stared at the ground hard. "You didn't have to struggle like we did. You could just fight shadows and be friends and be heroes. We didn't have that luxury." Emerald leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. "I have to hide from shadows. I can't fight them at all. Mercury can, but he has to use so much Dust that he's barely the same person any more. Raven gets severe headaches from prolonged fighting, and Cinder…"
"Cinder…" Jaune thought of the dark haired woman they met right after… right after Qrow died. The girl with fire in her eyes.
"She threatened us." Pyrrha added. "She said that we would incur more tragedy if we entered Muspell. She wanted us to never come back, and said that Salem would do all it could to deter us."
"We didn't want Raven to get Jormangandr's power... at least, not yet. We wanted the Grimm Hour to keep going." As Emerald spoke, she started walking in small circles as the group looked on. The tapping of her boots on the stone floor echoed throughout the chamber. "We figured if we scared you off, we could keep our powers. We could keep feeling powerful with our personas. Mercury even picked up a side gig... but that's another story."
Emerald held up her own Bifrost gem, letting the rainbow shimmer reflect off of it. "Let me take you to the last of the Guardians. You can fight them, and we can finally put an end to Muspell and this whole mess."
The Shadow Hunters all shared meaningful glances. There was a long pause as no one stepped forward to accept her deal. Finally, Jaune stepped towards her. "I think we can trust her." He said finally.
"It sounds like a trap." Blake chimed. "What if she just drops us in the middle of a group of deadly shadows?"
"I am prepared to deal with any threat." Penny said, raising her arm to a fighting stance again. "None of the shadows will hurt my friends!"
"I'm with Jaune." Pyrrha said, stepping up next to him. "Should this be a trap, I believe we are all strong enough to overcome it."
"Plus, if we want to put an end to this whole mess…" Yang stretched her arms above her head. "This might be the fastest way. Plus, until we talk to Raven, we'll never know what's really up."
"Yang's right. We have to find out what Raven's up to, and we'll only really get that from the source. Even if it is a trap, we could get closer to Raven." Ruby stepped forward to join those gathered around Jaune.
"Fine." Weiss sighed, stepping forward. "But just know that I have a bad feeling about this." She nodded to Blake who reluctantly joined with the group, clearly outvoted in her concern.
"Great. With all of you fighting together, this should be a cinch." Emerald placed the gem around her neck and closed her eyes, exhaling deeply as she did so. She held her hands to her head and groaned in pain as the gem began to glow brighter and brighter, enveloping Emerald's body in its multi-colored light. The light slowly spread over each member of the group in turn, basking them all in its glow. Then, as soon as it appeared, the light vanished, leaving the lobby of Muspell empty of all life.