Chapter 58: Turning Tides
When the dust cleared, the Wyvern is seen starting to get up. The White Fang then started retreating as soon as they saw the giant Grimm.
"It's not dead yet!" Jaune shouted.
"Open fire!" Cassandra ordered.
Everyone then starts shooting at the Wyvern as it then drips more of the black tar, spawning more Grimm. Some of the soldiers and students then proceeded to shoot at the spawned Grimm. Just then Keaton, Alex, Roman, Ozpin and his inner circle came running out with Keaton, Alex, Roman, and General Ironwood carrying Amber's pod. They all ran up to Cassandra, Ruby, Jacob, and Team JNPR.
"Rogers, report," Keaton ordered.
"Our F-22s damaged that kaiju's wings, leaving it grounded and another airstrike will hopefully finish it off but it won't be another few minutes. And Amber's ride is at the landing docks," Cassandra said.
"Alright, we'll have our tanks give us cover fire from that thing while we make a run for it," Keaton said.
"And will be with you for support," Ruby said.
"You said it," Jacob said.
"Alright Sergeant, give the order," Ironwood ordered.
"Hunter 2-5 to Juliet 3-6, give our boys some cover fire, over," Cassandra ordered through her radio.
The tanks then shot at the Wyvern causing it to screech in pain.
"RUN!" Keaton yelled.
Keaton, Alex, Roman, and Ironwood started running with Amber's pod while Jacob, Ruby, Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Cassandra, Team JNPR and a few other soldiers ran alongside them. As they were running, they were shooting, whacking, and slashing at any Grimm that came their way. Running past the Wyvern, Qrow, Cassandra, Glynda, and a couple of soldiers then broke off from the group to fight off the Grimm. The group kept running until they all stopped, seeing three people standing in their path. It was Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. Cinder looks at the pod then looks at Ozpin with a growing smile. Cinder summons Midnight While Mercury gets into a stance and Emerald pulls out her revolver-sickles, Thief's Respite. Everyone else then pointed their weapons at the three attackers.
"Drop your weapons and stand down now!" a soldier ordered.
Cinder then fires an arrow at the soldier, killing him.
"Open Fire!" Alex shouted.
The soldiers immediately started to shoot at the Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. In a flash the three then start to attack the soldiers. A soldier runs up to Emerald, shooting at her as she then drops to the ground. Emerald's body fades away to reveal another soldier, now dead. Emerald sneaks up behind the shocked soldier as she then impales the soldier through the back.
"Nora smash!" Nora shouts.
Nora swings her hammer overhead at Emerald which she quickly dodged. Jaune charges at Emerald swinging her sword at her which she parries away. Mercury flips into a handstand as he then spins around shooting and killing three more soldiers. Jacob run up to Mercury and dodges Mercury's kick and then kicks him in the face, making him fall to the ground. As Mercury gets up, Ren gave a series of slashes at him, which he was quick to dodge his every attack. Cinder dashes towards the pod, only for Ozpin to whack at her with his cane which she was quick to block. They both stood as their weapons were locked.
"All this time, she was right under our noses. She was right about you. Such arrogance," Cinder said.
Ozpin pushes her away then quickly looks back at Keaton.
"Get her out of here! Now!" Ozpin shouted.
Doing what Ozpin says, Keaton, Alex, Roman, and Ironwood carried the pod at runs for the landing docks with Ruby and Pyrrha following behind. Cinder tries to go for the pod again, but Ozpin whacks her in the stomach.
Jacob and Ren slashes at Mercury while Mercury blocks and flips away from their attacks. Mercury then fires some rounds at the two boys as they start running around him. Jacob and Ren start shooting back at Mercury as he flips away from their shots. Ren then dashes at the assassin and slashes at his chest while Jacob slashes at Mercury's back. Mercury jumps away and glares at Ren and Jacob.
"That bro, was for trying to destroy Yang's reputation," Jacob said.
"That blonde bimbo was too hot headed anyway. She would be too easy to beat," Mercury said with a smirk.
"Then try us, you stupid ass, daddy's boy," Jacob said with a smirk of his own.
Mercury growled as he charged at Jacob. Jacob blocks and parries away Mercury's kicks as Ren charges at Mercury. Mercury kicks at Ren just as he dodges. Mercury quickly kicks Jacob in the stomach Ren in the side of the head. Jacob quickly duck from another kick from Mercury.
Nora swings her hammer at Emerald which she jumps aside. Jaune does an overhead strike at Emerald as she was quick to block. Emerald then shoots at Jaune, but Jaune raises his shield, blocking her shots. Jaune bashes her with his shield as Nora then shoots at Emerald, sending her flying several feet. Emerald gets up and charges at Nora, shooting at her. Jaune charges at Emerald, but she sees him coming and shoots him, knocking him to the ground.
"Jaune," Nora cried out.
Emerald then fired out her sickles as they had chains attached to them, heading straight at Nora. The sickles and chains wrap around Nora's legs as Emerald then yanks the chains, swinging and slamming straight into Jaune. Nora and Jaune then get up and charge at Emerald.
Ozpin gave a series of jabs at Cinder as she then slid away. Cinder creates some glass shards and hurls them at Ozpin which he was quick to block every projectile. Cinder dashes at Ozpin, then tries slashing at him, as Ozpin parries her every attack. Cinder sweep kicks at Ozpin's legs then kicks him in the face, sending him flying to a pillar. As soon as Ozpin lands on the piller, it shatters and falls apart, knocking out Ozpin in the process.
Cinder then runs straight to the landing docks just as Keaton, Alex, Roman, Ironwood, Ruby, and Pyrrha made it to the Helicopter with Amber's pod. Ruby and Pyrrha notice Cinder sprinting towards them and then pull out their weapons and charge towards Cinder. They both struck at Cinder which she was quick to block. Ruby swings her scythe at Cinder's feet while Pyrrha swings her sword at her head. Cinder flips just as the attacks were made then slashes at the two girls. Cinder then sees that the helicopter was about to take off as Keaton, Alex, Roman, and Ironwood were boarding her. Cinder ran towards the helicopter but Pyrrha threw her shield at Cinder's feet while Ruby shot her in the back of the head, making her fall face first to the ground. Cinder got up and saw the helicopter was flying away.
"No," she whispered.
"Give up, Cinder!" Ruby shouted.
Cinder stood still for a moment then quickly turned to face Ruby and Pyrrha with a furious expression.
"SHE WAS MINE!" Cinder screamed.
Cinder then shot three arrows at Ruby and Pyrrha which they quickly dodged. Cinder madly slashed at the girls as blocked and parried some of her attacks and got hit by other attacks. Pyrrha uses her semblance to lift part of the air bus that the White fang left behind and hurls it at Cinder and smacks her to the ground. Cinder quickly gets up and creates several glass shards and rains them down on Ruby and Pyrrha. Pyrrha puts her shield over her head as Ruby uses her semblance to dash under Pyrrha's shield. Cinder takes advantage of this and launches herself at the girls tackling them both to the ground. The shards scratched and cut all three of them making Ruby and Pyrrha's aura flicker.
Cinder then tries to slash at them as the girls block her attacks. Ruby and Pyrrha desperately try to slash at Cinder, but she parries every attack made at her. Cinder then slashes at them both sending them flying two different directions and as they crashed to the ground their aura was now completely depleted. Pyrrha tries to get up but gets shot in her right ankle. Cinder walks up to Pyrrha and readies her bow and arrow and aims it at Pyrrha's chest. Ruby watches in shock and receives a flashback of Pyrrha's death from the Earth web show. She reaches her hand out to her friend.
"PYRRHA!" Ruby screamed as a white light flowed out of her eyes.
The light envelopes her, spreading throughout the landing docks and courtyard.
"WHAT?!" Cinder screams in complete shock.
The light gets everyone's attention and when the light faded away, the Wyvern was now completely frozen. Some of the Grimm were away from the light as they and the soldiers went back to fighting.
Jacob looked towards the landing docks and saw Cinder on her hands and knees and an injured Pyrrha and an unconscious Ruby. "Jaune, keep these two busy. I'm going to go help the girls," Jacob said.
Jaune nods he, Ren, and Nora turns back to the fight against Emerald and Mercury while Jacob sprints to the landing docks. Cinder slowly gets up and angrily looks towards an unconscious Ruby. She walks towards her and readies Midnight at Ruby.
"Get away from her!" Pyrrha yelled.
"It's a shame your unexpected talent is wasted," Cinder said.
Just before she could release her arrow, she was suddenly getting shot in the back. Cinder glances behind her and sees Jacob charging at her, shooting at her with God's Trust and unleashing a battle cry. Cinder fires an arrow at Jacob which he rolled aside from it and transformed his gun to a sword. Jacob grabs Cinder by her hair and yanks her head down then proceeds to violently hammer her face with the butt end of his sword. Cinder breaks free and slashes at Jacob, but he quickly parries away. She jumps away and both Cinder and Jacob stare off at each other while their auras flickered.
"You lose," Jacob said.
"You must have a death wish thinking you could defeat me," Cinder said.
"Hey, Cinder, do me a favor. Shut the fuck up and tell your bitch of a boss, Salem to go fuck herself, will ya? That'd be great," Jacob said.
Suddenly, a few missiles hit and exploded on the frozen Wyvern, making it crumble and fall apart, killing it as the F-22s flew by. Cinder grew a face of shock wondering how he knew about Salem and that the giant Grimm was now dead. She then grows a furious expression as she and Jacob then charge at each other. The two blocked and slashed at each other viciously. Jacob and Cinder clash their blades together which then makes God's Trust fly several feet away from him. Cinder violently swings her obsidian glass swords at Jacob as he proceeds to dodge every attack made at him.
"Jacob!" Pyrrha called.
Jacob turns to Pyrrha as she throws Milo to him. He catches it and blocks an overhead strike from Cinder. He rolled to God's Trust and grabbed it as he was now holding his sword in his right hand and Pyrrha's sword in his left. He swings both swords at Cinder, trying to slash at her but blocks his attacks. Jacob jumps away and transformed Pyrrha's sword to its rifle mode then starts shooting at Cinder, holding the gun one handed. Cinder easily blocks his shots with her hand then charges at Jacob again. Cinder strikes at Jacob which he quickly blocks. Jacob flips Pyrrha's rifle over and whacks Cinder in the jaw with the butt end of the gun. Cinder quickly slashes at Jacobs chest in response. The two then slash at each other while blocking their opponent's attacks. Cinder creates several glass shards while Jacob transforms his sword back to its gun mode and flips Pyrrha's rifle back over. Cinder hurls the glass shards at Jacob while Jacob simultaneously shoots at Cinder. Both opponents each got hit by each other's projectiles, sending them flying several feet away from each other.
Cinder slowly gets up as her aura depletes while Jacob struggles to get up as his aura is too depleted. Cinder grabs a glass shard and runs at Jacob with a murderous look on her face. Just as she was about to strike at him, a fire dust round hits the left side of Cinder's face. She clenches on her face with both hands screaming in pain. Jacob turned to see where that came from and saw Ruby, aiming Crescent Rose in its gun form, aimed at Cinder as she then collapsed back into unconsciousness. Cinder, now with the left side of her face bleeding and left eye heavily grazed, angrily looks at Ruby then runs towards her. Jacob quickly gets up and grabs his sword, running towards Cinder. Holding the glass shard with both hands over her head, Cinder was about to stab Ruby. Just before she could strike, Jacob runs up and swings his sword, slicing off Cinder's left arm. Cinder drops to her knees screaming in agony grabbing on to the stub of where her left arm used to be with her now only good arm.
"YOU BASTARD!" Cinder screamed.
"You brought this on yourself, Cinder," Jacob said.
Cinder tries to strike at Jacob with the glass shard, but Jacob slaps it away and kicks her in the throat and jaw, knocking her to the ground. Just as he was about to swing his sword at her, a bullet shoots past his head. He turned around and saw Emerald running up to them shooting at Jacob with Mercury running behind her. Jacob rolled away from Emerald's shots as she and Mercury ran up to a wounded Cinder.
"Cinder!" Emerald cried.
Mercury picks up Cinder and looks towards Emerald.
"Emerald we need to go," Mercury said.
Emerald nods at Mercury with tears in her eyes. Mercury and Emerald ran over the edge with Cinder. Jacob runs to the edge and looks down, only to find all three of them gone.
"Jacob" a voice called.
He turned around and saw Jaune, Nora, and Ren running up to the landing dock.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune cried in worry.
Jaune, Nora, and Ren run up to Pyrrha and kneel down to her.
"I'll be okay, Jaune," Pyrrha said, clenching on to her leg.
Jacob then saw an air bus land on a landing dock. The hatch door opens and out comes Ricky, Allen, Kelly, Penny, Neo, and teams BRNZ, CRDL, and NDGO. Qrow, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Cassandra quickly ran up to the dock as Qrow and the rest of Team RWBY ran up to Ruby and Cassandra ran towards Team JNPR. Jacob then sees Ozpin and Glynda walk up to him.
"She got away," Jacob said.
"But on the other hand we've won," Glynda said.
"And the second half of the maiden's powers are safe because of you and your world," Ozpin said.
"So what do we do now?" Jacob asked.
"Attend to your team, Mr. Gordon. They are going to need you," Ozpin said.
Jacob nods and runs towards his team.
"Guys!" Jacob called out to his team.
Allen, Ricky, and Kelly look towards their leader.
"Look like we won," Allen said.
"We save the city and Beacon," Kelly said.
"We kicked ass and took names," Ricky said.
"And protected Amber and royally butt fucked Cinder," Jacob said.
"So... what now?" Allen asked.
"Guys!" a voice called.
All of Team GRMA turned and saw Team CFDT.
"I guess we should help the others alongside Team CFDT," Jacob said.
They all then walked up to the other Terran team.