Flora watched Cinder - or, no, possessed Cinder - collapse in front of the unstable portal.
She watched as the child emerged from that portal.
She was so small, so skinny and frail. The simplest of little gowns on her form. Tanned skin, long dark hair in lustrous curls, and eyes that glowed a familiar amber orange. Truly, hardly any older than Bae was!
And then, out from behind her came a half dozen others. Swiftly they came through, as the portal began casting off energy bolts and compressing and expanding - wobbling in the air. The last one out nearly didn't even make it; the sputtering white portal finally collapsed in on itself a split second after the man fully emerged.
Almost immediately, they all began to change. And there were not just humanoid monsters among them, but quadrupeds, and even winged beasts as well!
Flora counted fifteen of them in total now - sixteen, if you wanted to count Imryll herself.
Fifteen extremely dangerous enemies.
All of them were motionless, spread out behind Imryll; they wouldn't do a thing unless she wanted them to. Not yet...
"Imryll..." Flora spoke to the child. "You don't have to do any of this. You can stop now, we can help you, if you'll let us. I promise you-"
"I promised I was going to set them all free," the girl said fiercely. "They're not all free yet - so I'm not done yet! And you're all in the way of that! With your- your magic and your weapons! And those looks on your faces!"
"No one has any kind of look-" Flora began.
"Yes you do! We're no different from grimm to you - all you want to do is slay us," the girl accused. "Or lock us up again and throw away the key!"
"Imryll...perhaps that's true - but only because you've made it true," Ozpin spoke, gentle and calm. "No one would take issue with your return to Remnant...if you were to do so in a way that didn't endanger so many lives. You want to change back, you want to cast off what the Relic did to you - and that is exactly what we want for you as well. But not just for you: for everyone else. If every Ascendant could become human once more...nothing would please me more than to finally allow them to live on Remnant again. Together, and in peace. But that isn't the case; you want only to save yourself, and are content to allow all these others to roam freely as they once did! Hurting, killing, and turning people into more of the same. And that...that is what I cannot allow for."
"Please, Imryll, don't you think everyone else should have the same chance as you to be normal again?" Flora asked. "Why leave them all out? Why not just let us...all it would take is a little prick of a finger." She gestured to the Sword of Destruction, held by Salem. "Just one of you, just once, and then all of you can go back to how you were! Don't you want that for everyone?"
The girl's face scrunched up. Her head swayed side to side. Small hands came up to grasp it. "You're all just- a bunch of liars. All you do is lie, all you do is hurt us, you don't care! I bet once that thing touches any of us, we're all just going to drop dead!"
"You know that can't be true," Flora insisted. "We're planning on using it on our own friends. Do you really think we'd just kill them like that? No, we wouldn't. All we want is for them to go back to normal - just like you want to do for yourself! But it's not fair to just do it for you, and leave out everybody else. Don't you think?"
"I..."
"Imryll. You know it's not."
"I- I do...I guess? Yes?"
"Alright. Then you need to let us help you do that. Let us just...please." Flora took a careful step forward, her hands raised. "Just one little poke, and everyone can be happy and normal again. Can you let me do that for you? For all of you?"
"A- a lot of them don't want to be normal again..."
"But staying the way they are...you know it's bad. You know it's wrong. To hurt people, to ignore them when they say no. And you know...that the Relic didn't work right on you to begin with. Did it? It went all haywire - didn't it?"
"I know, I j-just- I want to- I..."
"I know, sweetie, I know; it has to be so confusing, and scary, being how you are for all this time. But you don't have to be anymore. Nobody has to be anymore. Just..." Flora dropped down in front of Imryll, and she slowly embraced her. "Just let us fix it for you. Let me make it all better for you. Please..."
"I don't...I c-can't- it's been so long..."
"I know. But it doesn't have to go on for a second longer." Flora gave Salem a simple look, head turned briefly.
Salem approached in a glide, lifting the sword as she did.
"H-how bad is it going to hurt?" Imryll choked, gazing at the blade with fear.
"Not at all," Flora said firmly. "Just a little poke, a bit of stinging, and that's it. Done and easy!"
"I- I guess it really isn't fair...for me to get to be normal again, but nobody else..."
"That's right."
"B-but, if you do...how is anybody else going to get out? The portal's gone and I won't be able to make another one!"
"We'll just pop open the seal and let them all out that way," Flora said softly. "The way it all started. I promise you, we aren't lying. We'll be happy to...if we can just fix what the Relic did to you first."
"A-and...the me that's inside Cinder?" Imryll questioned. "What happens to her?"
"Well, I think Cinder would still be happy to...have her," Flora answered carefully. "You can have a brand new sister in the world. Won't that be nice?"
"I...I guess. I never had a sister before. You- you can't have kids in there, not how we are."
"See? There's something else to fix here! Everyone will be able to have all the kids they want after this. I bet a lot of them have missed that."
"T-they have...I hear about it a lot."
"I can imagine, sweetie. Now, here we go...just take a breath for me."
Salem rested the blade on Imryll's arm, and she gave it a gentle, miniscule slice.
Black smoke rose from the wound; Imryll flinched and pressed to Flora on pure instinct.
Golden light burst from the wound, and then it began to spread through Imryll's body - glowing from within.
This same glow began to arise in the others around them.
Monsters reverted to human again. Many examined themselves with shocked expressions...with amazement...though some, with sadness or even anger. The very lights in their eyes had changed - the corruption of soul being washed away at last. Clarity of thought returned, awareness of self.
"Imryll? How do you feel now?" Flora said, holding the girl at arm's length.
"I..."
"You - you...you did this to me, you did all of this to me! I'll kill you for it, you little brat!"
Flora turned, finding Tyra lunging across the distance in a mad explosion of Aura, headed right for Imryll with a blade held high in hand. She should have expected it, in all honesty: like mother, like daughter. Flora pushed Imryll out of the way and thrust her arms out for Tyra, intending to use an Aura blast - but something else came out of her hands; a green energy wave burst from her palm, radiating out and washing over Tyra.
Tyra froze, as if the air itself had constricted around her, refusing to let her pass. The rippling green energy was surrounding her, washing over her like a second layer of Aura, almost. Tyra's eyes moved, but nothing else. Richly furious, agonized eyes of pretty brown.
Suddenly Salem moved for her, and then she had rammed the Sword of Destruction through her chest with a snarl.
There was no glow, no magic here - just blood washing down Tyra's front.
Salem tore it free and turned away. She tossed the blade to the ground. Her eyes fell on a stirring, newly awakened Cinder, her lips forming a strange smile. "Well, now you can't say I've never done anything good for you in your life, can you? I know how badly you wanted to do that..."
Cinder was either very groggy still, or just lost for words.
Either way, Salem didn't seem to expect any: she enveloped herself in a purple aura, and flew off into the night sky without another on her part.
Flora's Semblance (what else could it be?), that green energy, it evaporated, releasing Tyra now freely.
Tyra staggered back, hand over the injury - fell back into the dirt.
"Y-you...you- you're going t-to pay for...all of this..." Tyra was gasping out, her eyes fixed to Imryll with twisted, overwhelming hatred.
"She's right!" Another former Ascendant yelled from the dark. A glint of something in hand - a weapon of some sort.
"You did this to us, to all of us!" another screamed.
Imryll shook her head, shrinking in on herself and stepping backwards. "I- I didn't mean to- I never meant any of it! It just-" Imryll threw herself at Flora, clinging to her side...like any terrified, desperate child would.
Flora stooped down and snatched up the Sword of Destruction out of the dirt, and held it before her, eyes sweeping around herself. "Stay back, everybody stay away from her!" she yelled.
Cinder was rising, racing over to Flora's side. She put herself at her side against the former Ascendants, her amber eyes narrowed viciously. "If you don't want to die after just getting your life back, back off!"
And then Ruby Rose was there, scythe in hand.
Then Blake, and Neo, and Miltia and Mercury together.
And then the rest - Teams JNPR and RWBY all, and Ozpin with his cane, and Emerald with set jaw, and a reluctant Raven even - forming a protective circle around the child that had started it all.
"Got my life back?!" A man yelled out to Cinder, furious and distraught. "She stole me from my family! She got me locked away for centuries! My husband is long dead by now, my children are long dead by now - everyone I knew and loved is dead by now! I don't have any kind of life anymore! Because of her!"
"She's a devil spawn!" a woman shouted, brandishing a blade.
"She's just a child!" Flora refuted firmly. "I'm sure, however it happened, it wasn't on purpose! She's a child, it wasn't like she had some evil plan - it was an accident of the Relics!"
"I'm sorry," the girl herself pleaded, eyes moving every which way, frantic and chaotic. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"
A flaming dust arrow flew through the dark, and pierced Imryll's heart.
Flora took the girl in her arms before she hit the ground. She half reached for the arrow - then pulled her hand back. You weren't supposed to actually do that, were you?
"Raven, if you could open a path back to Sinna - the mansion?" Ozpin said firmly.
Raven obeyed, and the group retreated through the swirling red portal. Raven herself was the last to go, blasting out with Maiden winds to scatter the angry mob and prevent them from following before it could close.
They spilled out into a small, broken, dusty room; they were back in the mansion. Cinder's former home.
Sinna was standing with eye flames alight, facing the door - Bae and Maggy were huddled in a corner.
"I take it you succeeded? Our enemies just suddenly became human again, but they're still pissed off out there," Sinna said glibly, in explanation and greeting. "Hazel's dealing with them - trying to talk them down."
"Emerald - I need an illusion, please; I don't want this visible to Bae or Maggy!" Flora rattled out as she placed Imryll on the bed. "Someone heal her - Raven, Sinna-"
In the cramped, chaotic bedroom, Cinder watched the girl exhale, watched those small, frantic amber eyes just stop. So did the hand on her chest, having been desperately clutching for the arrow burning in her heart. Cinder's mind flashed to two other girls who had suffered a similar end - at her own hands. Her own arrows...
"She's gone already," she whispered to Flora, bowing her head. She could see again, but this wasn't what she'd have ever wanted her first, restored sight to be in the world. A dying...now dead...child. It wasn't even going to last long, this sight, was it? Like a curse. Only there long enough to show her horrors to make her stomach twist into knots.
Flora stared down at the girl, hands going to her mouth. She stepped away, blinking rapidly.
"I'm sorry..." Cinder offered uselessly.
Flora threw herself at her, arms going around her.
Cinder returned the embrace, wrapping her up and stroking her back.
A throaty rasping stole her attention; her eyes went to the floor, where her mother was laid out. No one was tending to her, no one was even near her if they could help it.
Cinder broke from Flora and went to her mother, dropped down beside her. Next thing she knew, she was seizing her mother's wrist up in a firm grasp.
Mother pulled free, swatted her hand away sharply. Then, she grasped it properly, pulling it down to her chest.
"I don't understand." Cinder said heavily, using her fleetingly restored sight to focus entirely on her mother's face. "I don't understand you; you act standoffish as all hell when we first meet, then you act like someone who cares - someone who actually feels remorse for what she did, who wants me to know it, to understand it - and then you're the woman who's lopping off my arm and driving a blade through my eye, looking at me like you hate me again! You make me kill, you torture my kid, and now here you are either wanting my comfort or trying to give me some last comfort. But at the same time, you're being a real bitch about it. When you told me all that shit before you took my arm and eye, was that all real, or were you just manipulating me so you could strike at me? I don't know which is which - which is the real woman in front of me. I still don't know...what kind of person my mother really is."
Mother met her gaze, and a ghost of a smile came to shaking lips. "Well...maybe I'm all of it." A shrug filled with tremors.
"That's not good enough!" Cinder snarled.
"For you..."
"Yes, for me - who else?!"
The smile disappeared. Her head turned aside, away from Cinder. "What do you w-want...out of me? That I wish I'd never...done all the things I did? I already told you that; I meant it then. I can mean it again, if you want. Or- do you want me to say t-that I...I wish we could've had a nice, happy family life together? You, me, y-your father...and none of this Order b-bullshit mucking it all up? T-that I wish I could've been taking you to school every morning, or- or out for ice cream, or...all with a smile on my f-face? What do you want?"
"I'd like something like that out of you..."
Laughter. Rich and true. "W-well...there you go, then. Why don't you go- buy yourself a cone and p-pretend...it was from me..."
Cinder growled, digging her nails into mother's hand. "You're probably going to hell, you know."
More laughter, soft, broken up by wracking coughs. "P-probably, yeah...and I deserve it - that what you want to hear? I know I do, I'm not an idiot..."
"Could have fooled me."
"Didn't I already?"
Cinder sat in silence a moment. She loosened her grip on her mother. She smiled, a sadness welling in her chest. And she laughed, too. "We could have had that together - that, just now, that was fun. If I could have grown up with a mother who was happy to do that with me, every morning I woke up, or...every night I didn't want to go to bed..."
Mother finally looked at her again. That smile was back, more fully, more real. Her eyes shimmered. "We could have."
"How do you feel about animals?"
"I'm not crazy about them...why?"
"My Semblance - it's talking to animals." Cinder said casually. "If I had grown up in a normal home with you...well, it still wouldn't have been normal; there would have been birds, and squirrels, and rabbits everywhere. Strays, too - dogs and cats - probably. Day in and day out, a new one all the time. Or...a few dozen new ones, really. And I would've named them all, and maybe you and- d-dad would have helped, too. Picked favorites?"
"Ugh, no: I would have set down a no animals in the house rule as soon as you manifested that crap," Mother replied, snorting.
"And I would have ignored that rule as often as I could get away with it," Cinder retorted.
"Sounds like the real hell - glad I kicked your little ass to the curb as soon as I did." This wasn't said with any malice, no real bite - just pure humor. But could there have been something like self-loathing, or bitterness, or...something in there too? Cinder honestly couldn't tell. Her mother was just so...
Cinder let Tyra's hand drop. She took a breath. "Emerald: heal her as best you can. If she lives, she can go to prison. If not..."
"Wh-why...?" Tyra gasped. "Why wouldn't you just...let me die here?"
"Well, if I just let you die tonight, then I'll never get to find out what kind of person you are. With you alive, locked away, I can keep trying to figure you out, mother. As long as it takes...until I understand you. And maybe, you can understand a bit more about me, too." Cinder paused. "And, well, with where we are right now...I don't think this place needs any more bloodshed. What's the phrase...a little on the nose?" She flashed a smirk.
Tyra said nothing, just turned her head as Emerald came forward to place glowing hands over her chest.
Flora's hand was on Cinder's arm, stroking at her. Squeezing at her.
A warmth spread in Cinder's chest. Satisfaction, pride, and-
And then the warmth in her chest exploded into a raging inferno.
Cinder screamed as agony burned in her chest, her hands flashed to it, pressing, clawing-
And then the world was lost to darkness.
In darkness of mind and soul, woman and girl faced one another.
"What did you do, why did you do that?! It was over, it was over!" Cinder screamed, lashing out with an arm.
A shrill noise of pain, a little thud on ground that didn't exist. Sniffling, crying.
"I d-don't want it to be over. You're going to kill me; you won't let me out, I just know it!"
Cinder's breath caught. She sighed. Pitched her voice soft. "Listen, I am- so sorry that I hit you, I just...it's over, it's done. And you...you and I need to talk. Sit down - now!"
"Ok..."
Cinder lowered herself to the dark nonexistent floor, setting her hand in her lap. "First, why don't you tell me something: how does a nine year old girl get her hands on the Relic of Creation, and end up getting the idea to create an army of twisted monsters?"
"I c-could show you."
"Then show me," Cinder said softly. "I want to understand."
"Ok." Small, shaking hands on her head, and then suddenly Cinder was seeing the world again. The world of three hundred years past.
Though not, of course, seeing with her own eyes - but with the eyes of a child...
Imryll blinked up at the ceiling, clutching her head as it exploded with pain.
Shouting voices came to her easily through the thin walls of her little cottage home in isolated forest.
"...she just needs help, she just needs-"
"She needs a miracle, or she's going to die - and we can't give her that, Zilyana! No one can!"
"So you just want to give up on her?! Just let your own daughter die? Just like that?"
"If there was some miracle cure for her, I'd be the first to get it for her! But there's nothing we can do."
"There's something..."
"What is there?"
"The four magical relics - there was one that the Grish took fifty years ago! There was one they used! What they did with it - what we could do with them! If we just could find one, if we had the right one...we could use it on her, we could save her!"
"The Grish were a hundred strong, and they were just strong. We're just two. Two...weak...helpless...people. How could we ever find one of those things in time? How could we ever use it before she dies? The doctors said she only has a week left, maybe less."
"But we know where one is, we know! The Empress of Yashi is keeping it in her palace. The Staff!"
"On the lowest level, under the heaviest guard imaginable. People with the best training and weapons available! Mountains of dust at their disposal! And then there's the elite guard - some of the most powerful Semblances in the world are gathered in that palace."
"I have a powerful Semblance too! You know I do. I might be retired as a soldier, but I could use it, I could get us in there, I could-"
"The penalty for breaking into the palace would be execution. And even if we got back out again - you'd anger an entire Empire?! Bring an entire Empire down on our heads? Forever?"
"I would. For Imryll. For our daughter. For her life, isn't that a price worth paying?"
"We can't be talking like this. We can't be considering this seriously. Just-"
"Just let her die?"
"Yes."
"...No!"
"Then go. Go by yourself. Die, then. I'm going to spend the last few days our daughter has left in her life...right here by her side."
Stomping footsteps. Clanging metal. The woosh of flames.
A sigh. "You do still look every bit like the woman that came charging into that grimm invasion of my home town."
"I'm still that woman. I'm still that warrior. And I'm still going to cut down everything in my way if it means saving the lives of the people I love."
"It was that, that made me love you. Bloody, bruised, but standing strong. My first sight of you, and it was you shoving that sword through the back of that Ursa's head."
"I will save our daughter's life. Just like I saved yours, all those years ago."
"I want to hope you can. But I think even this battle isn't one you can win."
"I will be happy to prove you wrong, dear husband."
The sound of a door opening, and then slamming shut again.
Zilyana was moving swiftly along the palace walls, low and focused.
She used her Aura and leaped high, soaring under the full moon's light.
Over the wall, coming down in the middle of the courtyard.
Immediately, several guards atop the high steps set their eyes on her. Their weapons were being drawn. Voices were yelling.
Zilyana stood, raising a casual hand in their direction.
A swirling purple vortex appeared from her palm, crackling with energy; immediately, a powerful force was sucking in everything not nailed down. Signs, banners, a piece of an unsteady railing, and the guards themselves.
All of it went right into her hand, shrinking and vanishing.
Zilyana closed her fist and jumped again to the very top of the stairs.
She stalked up to the front doors and placed her hands on it, focusing her Aura; an explosion of power blew them wide open, allowing her entrance.
Immediately, Dust infused arrowheads were being fired at her.
Zilyana leaped over a flaming streak. She dove beneath a glacier arrow that struck the wall and covered it over in a thick patch of ice.
Lightning seared for her; she caught it on her sword and slashed with empowered Aura, dissipating it.
She raced on down the wide, open hallway, decapitating and impaling whoever came close enough to be.
After killing most everyone in her path, Zilyana descended the stairwell into the first level of the basement.
She knew there were five levels.
It would be down on the fifth that she would find what she was here for.
Barricades formed out of Earth Dust, a solid wall in the hallway ahead.
Zilyana skidded to a halt, bringing her hand up, palm open. She grasped her wrist and braced her feet, and triggered her Semblance again.
Aura-covered banners, railing, and several screaming human beings were launched from her palm like a cannon; it all slammed into the wall, blowing a good sized hole through it.
Zilyana strode up to it and slammed a steel gauntlet against it, bursting her Aura - the wall exploded, and collapsed at last.
She heaved a breath, and continued forward.
Zilyana limped into the exquisitely designed chamber, toward the golden staff on a pedestal in the center.
She stretched out her hand, and activated her Semblance again tonight; the Staff was sucked inside her rift.
Zilyana breathed relief - she'd done it. Now it was time to get home, back to her child.
She turned back for the doorway-
And standing there in her way, was the Empress Sephiron herself, materializing out of thin air and swirling blue particles of energy. Sephiron wore flowing gown of black with silver highlights.
Zilyana gripped the hilt of her sword tighter, and she raised it before her in both hands.
The Empress's sharp eyes looked her over - and then became locked with Zilyana's. A hand came up, palm up. "You did remarkably well to reach this chamber, for a lone agent - but now it's over. The Staff, if you please."
Zilyana shook her head and clenched her jaw.
"Give me the Staff and surrender yourself, and I'll grant you the mercy of a life sentence, as opposed to a death sentence," the Empress spoke again, soft, deliberate.
Zilyana remained silent.
A sigh. That hand lowered. "Very well. You've chosen death."
"Kill me and you lose the Staff forever," Zilyana hurled out. She raised her hand, showing off her palm of faintly crackling energy, and the smallest of swirling dark voids.
"You have it trapped inside yourself?" Sephiron's eyes were alight with intrigue. "What a fascinating Semblance. I'll be careful with you, then. But the end result is the same: I will have the staff back."
"No, you won't. I need it."
"Do you have any idea how many people have come to kneel before me in my audience chambers, explaining to me all the reasons why they've needed to use the Staff?"
"My child is dying! I need it to fix her, to heal her!"
"A reason I'm not unsympathetic to - but it's also one I've heard before as well." Sephiron's gaze hardened. "I have a duty to protect the Staff, and to ensure no one ever uses it - not even once, for any reason. That duty takes precedence over any and all reasons anyone might have in this world for wanting to lay hand on it. Including yours. I am sorry, truly I am. But I simply can't allow it."
Zilyana lunged for the Empress with a blast of Aura from her armored boots. Sephiron dematerialized in a flash of blue; Zilyana's blade struck nothing but air.
A hand seized the back Zilyana's armor plating, and with the slightest tug she was flying back into the wall.
Zilyana struck hard, cracking the stone and falling to her knees. But before Zilyana had even finished her fall, there was a flash of blue and the Empress stood over her; a quick foot came up to catch Zilyana in the face and slam her into the wall a second time.
Zilyana slashed out in front of herself with a horizontal Aura beam. Sephiron crossed her arms and caught it on her Aura, sliding back across the chamber.
Zilyana raced around the perimeter of the room, eyes locked on the open doorway.
Sephiron vanished and reappeared to block her path instantly.
Again.
Zilyana screamed and threw herself at Sephiron explosively - she tackled her bodily, taking her out into the hallway.
Sephiron vanished just before they were to strike the wall; Zilyana slammed into it face-first, alone.
A boot was slamming into the square of Zilyana's back, grinding her into the stone. The stone began to crack, crumble under the pressure.
A powerful Aura-enhanced fist struck the back of Zilyana's head; Zilyana was forced through the wall, into an empty chamber of dust and grime.
Her Aura flickered fiercely as she pushed herself up again, sword clutched in a deathgrip.
Sephiron spread her arms, simply standing there and waiting for Zilyana.
Zilyana flew at her again, slashing her sword down from above. At the last second she pivoted on a heel, twirling around the woman and dashing out into the hall again. She raced down along it, headed for the stairs.
Half-way up the stairs, Sephiron materialized in front of her, a long leg stretching out to strike Zilyana's chest.
Zilyana darted left, seizing Sephiron's leg and whirling her around and tossing her away down the stairs.
She burst her Aura for a boost up to level four's landing.
Zilyana knew she was being too liberal with her Aura - but Sephiron was being too liberal with her Semblance.
That had to even the odds there.
Throughout floors four through one, Zilyana did not encounter Sephiron again (though, she did battle her way through surviving guards, and some reinforcements).
Zilyana fully expected to encounter Sephiron again, if the woman was taking this time to recharge her own Aura by disengaging.
And she did.
Zilyana burst out through the front entrance into cool night air.
Down the long flights of steps, in the courtyard below, stood a half dozen people in formation.
The elite guard had emerged at last.
Some of the most skilled, powerful people in this entire Empire.
And in the center of their formation was Sephiron. The Empress had shed her gown, and wore now only shorts and crop top, black and silver. A highly toned figure rippled strongly as the woman shifted on her feet. In her hand was a sturdy lance, on end of which there was an Ice Dust crystal slotted in.
One didn't become the Empress of this Empire without being strong enough to continue holding onto the title.
"Fine..." Zilyana muttered to herself.
Slowly, she descended the steps. When she reached the bottom, she stopped.
Her hand was clenched at her side.
She sprinted forth, right for the formation, with a mighty yell - her sword held high.
Weapons were readied, glances were exchanged between the six - while the seventh in center...watched Zilyana with curious eyes.
Zilyana leaped high as two moved in to swing for her with bladed weapons; she flipped over them, coming down right behind Sephiron. She swept around with her sword - the woman evaded it with a high leap of her own that took her sailing away. Zilyana rolled forward and dove past a woman swinging a large spiked ball and chain glowing of purple gravity dust. She jumped again, soaring for the wall.
At height of her arc, just as she was to reach the top of that wall, Sephiron appeared to stand atop it - right in front of her. A sharp kick was delivered to Zilyana's chest.
At the same time, several hard impacts struck her backside, precise and true, and something wrapped around her ankle and yanked her down.
Zilyana hit hard, rolling over to see a man kneeling with a crossbow - and a woman holding onto an electrifying cord.
She slashed her sword down on the cord; it sank in a single inch, and no further.
A wave of lightning burst along its length, channeling into Zilyana herself.
She screamed and curled in on herself; even with Aura, it was downright agony!
A hand trying to pry her sword out of her grasp, and another clasping hard metal to her other wrist-
Zilyana shoved her palm into Sephiron's stomach and triggered her Semblance; the Staff of Creation burst out, catching her in the gut along its length and doubling her over. Zilyana immediately sucked it back in, launching up and kicking Sephiron in the jaw, sending her flipping backwards.
Zilyana shook the cord loose from her foot and leaped for the wall again, managing to grasp the top of it this time. She hauled herself up over it, but then there was Sephiron standing above her; a hard kick caught Zilyana in the face and sent her falling back down again.
Sephiron remained poised atop the wall, as the elite guards came for Zilyana.
Zilyana turned to meet them, bringing her sword to bear.
Five engaged her in close quarters, while the sixth hung back with the Dust bow.
Zilyana was being batted left and right, staggered, thrown and bashed against the wall repeatedly; it was simply too much to stand against.
Zilyana finally gained some room with a sweep of her sword and a horizontal Aura beam. She did a quick use of her Semblance to extrude the Staff into her grasp, tucked it under an arm, and then used it a second time.
The two closest to her were pulled in without trouble.
The third was caught by the woman with the electric cord - saving her companion.
Sephiron appeared right next to Zilyana and seized her wrist, yanking her arm high.
Zilyana kneed her in the stomach and twisted herself around the woman's body, until she'd maneuvered her palm to aim at the Empress, point blank.
Sephiron twisted and shrank, and disappeared into the dark vortex.
Zilyana closed her fist and fell onto her side, and the courtyard was silent.
Four elite guards were left standing - looking absolutely horrified at what had just occurred.
Zilyana got to her feet and grinned at them, lifting her hand to waggle her fingers. She shoved the Staff down into her waist belt. "Look at that: I have your Empress hostage. Let me go, or I'll kill her - and the other two I have in here right now."
The guards looked at each other. Conferring without words.
"Alright," said the woman with the electro-cord, wrapping her weapon around her arm and showing open hands.
Zilyana summoned up the last vestiges of Aura, and she leaped up and flipped backwards over the wall.
She came down on the other side with a grunt.
Her Aura was down now.
And it was still open stretch until the capital city proper - a good several dozen feet.
Zilyana ran as hard as she could.
She wasn't going to be caught, she wasn't going to stop - she wasn't going to let Imryll die!
She was almost free.
A glance over a shoulder revealed that the guards were mobilizing for her; of course they were.
Three were racing after her, and the fourth was perched on the wall with their bow drawn back - an ice arrow.
Zilyana steadied her breathing, preparing for the last leg of battle to come.
The cord was stretched out for her; she slashed at it with her sword, batting it away.
A burst of Aura and the one with twin blades came at her, twirling and slashing.
Zilyana dove forward and rolled, evading it - but not entirely; a curved sword sliced into her leg, just below a knee.
She staggered as she came up again, running onward on pained limb.
She had to make it, she had to reach home again - she had to reach Imryll again. The Staff, all this trouble for it, it had to save her precious daughter's life...
The Staff.
Staff of Creation...
Zilyana took it in hand and whipped around, her mind focused on one thing.
But nothing was happening.
"Come on, come on - do something, work, do what I want!" Zilyana yelled, flinging the thing left and right. "Make a damn wall already!"
The top of the staff suddenly glowed, and a massive stretch of stone wall materialized out of thin air - it went on for miles in either direction, and it was three times as high as the palace walls.
Zilyana shoved it into her belt again, and ran on to disappear into the city.
It was here that she recovered her Aura, and thus use of her Semblance, and dumped her captives in an alley unconscious.
Then, she stole herself a horse and rode on out of there.
"How do you know...about the parts you weren't there for?" Cinder spoke, pulling herself away from the girl with a gasp. Tears fell, and harsh breaths escaped her lips.
Every single bit of that girl's suffering had been felt as if it were her own - and every single desperate scrap of emotion in the mother had also been felt as if they were her very own. As if it had been Cinder fighting with all she had, doing anything she could, for the sake of Bae or Maggy...
"'Cause m-mother was there for them..." Quavering, anguished and fearful.
"What do you...?" A creeping dread in Cinder's stomach. "Show me. Show me the rest."
Imryll obliged, reaching again to touch Cinder's head.
With a gasp, Cinder was plunged back into a body and a mind not her own.
Imryll sat up in the bed as best she could, looking at her mother.
Mother was holding that strange staff, golden and blue and glowing, a fuzzy feeling over Imryll's skin, and a warbling noise in the room.
"That's the thing you went to get?" Imryll asked, pained. "The- Staff of Creation? The Relic?"
Mother smiled at her, stroking her hair. "Yes, that's right. This is going to help you. It's going to cure you."
"How?" Imryll asked, excited.
Mother looked down at the staff, looked it over. "I already used it once; it- it will be as easy as a tap on the head."
"Like a fairy tale."
"Yes, like a fairy tale." Mother touched her shoulder, gently pushing her down. "Why don't you relax for me - close your eyes. And when you open them again, you'll be all better."
Imryll complied, sinking down onto her bed and shutting her eyes tight. Her lips held a big smile.
"I want you to be better...I want you to be so much better...I want you to be- so strong, and so wonderfully smart, and good, and healthy inside..." Mother was whispering to herself. Imryll felt the warm end of the staff touching the top of her head. "No more pain, no more sickness, and no dying...not today. Not from anything; no grimm, no bandits. Nothing will take you away! You're going to live, and you're going to make wonderful friends all over, and have a wonderfully happy life - seeing so many places and so many people! Because you're my little girl, always, and I love you so much..."
The warm tip of the staff was growing warmer - and then it was getting hot. Vibrating! That warbling noise was getting louder, and Imryll felt something washing over her like hot gusts of air.
She opened her eyes to find a brilliant blue light in front of her!
That light was bursting, and then it was all she saw. Imryll had to close her eyes again!
Mother let out a cry, and there was a clattering noise.
Imryll looked to find mother on the floor - and the staff, too.
"Mother, are you ok?!"
Mother shook her head, standing on trembling legs. She looked at her hands, then quickly shoved them behind her back. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Do you feel better?"
Imryll looked herself over, moving arms and legs. She sat up, looking all around. Nothing hurt at all! "I think it worked, it really worked! I'm not hurting anymore."
Mother sighed with relief. She stooped to pick up the staff again; Imryll caught sight of a bright red burn across her palm.
"Mother."
"Honey? Oh...honey, your- your eyes-"
"What?"
"They're...amber."
Imryll screwed up her eyes. "I think there's something wrong with me."
Imryll's skin exploded. Beneath was not tendon and muscles of red, but instead pure black, wispy black smoke drifting off it. Horns burst from her head, fingers grew into claws, a hand became three times its size and covered over in hard scales like black diamonds. Her skull stretched vertically, elongating, and several new eyes emerged on her face.
Teeth were curved fangs, and a long whip-like tail with a red-eyed human skull on the end of it burst from her backside.
Feet were lizard's talons.
Her hair grew to the floor, vibrating and writhing like every strand had mind of its own.
She grew taller until she was hunching over against the ceiling. And then it was creaking.
Imryll slashed an arm of claws shrouded in black flames, sweeping her screaming mother up and taking her head into gnashing jaws.
She bit down and crushed her skull, and then she dropped her.
Mother hit with a hard thud. And lay still.
Imryll crouched in front of her, staring at her. Overcome by sheer panic and horror.
Her hair began to move, snaking across the floor towards her mother. Each strand touched her body, every end became sharp as a needle, and they plunged into her skin.
Mother's veins turned black, wispy smoke rose from her skin...and then she gasped a new breath.
She thrashed on the floor as she began to change, just like Imryll.
"Mommy I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean to I'm sorry please-"
"Honey, what are you sorry about?"
"I- I hurt you I- I couldn't control- I just did it!"
"Hurt me?" Mother was confused. "You didn't hurt me; you've brought us closer together than ever. Don't you feel it?"
"F-feel what?"
A voice in her head. A burst of love and tenderness. This...
"And you've turned me into something beautiful, wonderful. Don't you think, honey?"
"M-mother?"
"I think you're extremely pretty now."
"I- I guess so?"
"Why don't we go and show your father. In fact, why don't we make him just as close to us as we are to each other. I'm sure he'd love that; he must feel so left out. So alone...so miserable..."
Imryll found herself nodding. "Ok. I guess it's not fair to leave him out like this."
"No, it isn't."
That feeling rose in her again. "You said I could go make lots of friends?"
"If that's what you want, yes!"
"Can we go do that after...?"
"Of course - if you want to. I'll be so happy to help you, honey. I'm sure everyone will just love you - I'll bet they all can't wait to be with you!"
Imryll smiled and turned toward the now too small door to her room. "Father!" she called out. "I really need to talk to you."
"It isn't just your intent, or your mind's image. It's your wording. Both have to be in alignment, and chosen carefully, or else you might not get the exact results you want. In fact, it could end up...wildly different from what you expected."
"I guess so..."
Cinder fell back on her rear, bracing with her arm. "So why am I in here with you?"
"You ruined everything."
"I helped you," Cinder retorted. "We helped you. And I'm going to help you again - you. If you still even want me to."
"I...I guess? I- don't know what to do, I can't hear anyone, I can't...nobody can tell me to do anything now! It's too quiet!"
"Well, I'm here," Cinder corrected firmly. "And I'm telling you what to do. So listen to me."
A lengthy silence. "Ok."
"Good. Now, can we still even do that rebirthing plan of yours?"
"I think so. I should just need to..." An orb of blue light appeared beside Imryll. She cupped it in hand, and the light faded to reveal-
"Is that my eye?!" Cinder screeched, shrinking back.
"N-not this! This is like a...a meta- a repres...it's not your real eye! But it'll do the same thing."
"A metaphysical representation?"
"Uh-huh. That."
"Okay...and that will work now? Even with the plague gone? The Relic's affects undone?"
"It should still work." The girl bit her lip. "I was always going to end up normal again with this plan. It didn't need magic or anything. Just...soul stuff."
"Then go for it. Let's see what happens."
"Ok." A breath drawn, and let go. "I just need to..."
When the world returned to Cinder with a gasp, it was still a world of darkness.
Cinder raised hand to her head, sitting up again. A single hand, a single arm.
Well, it was nice while it lasted... she sighed to herself.
"Cinder, are you alright?" Flora's voice, so worried, so sweet. "You fell unconscious, there was this big flash of light and we couldn't even-"
"I'm okay."
"Ms. Rynon, are you-"
"I'm still me," Cinder replied. "I just had to have a nice talk with...the Imryll here." She put hand to her chest. "Set some things straight."
"You did?" Blake's voice, sounding normal enough, Cinder supposed. That touch of fanaticism wasn't there anymore. "So it's- it's really over now? For good?"
"Yes. It's over for good now. Imryll...won't be a problem anymore. Not this one. Not for me."
Flora hugged her - and stiffened. She drew back with a sharp gasp. "Cinder, your stomach!"
Cinder slid her hand down her front. A slight bump there. I'm in control of this. "I know. I decided to help her out with this - I told her I would."
"You're actually going to just...?" Miltia, disbelieving - and even a touch disgusted.
"If it finally gets her out of me, then yes," Cinder said flatly. "She'll just be an ordinary girl, living on Remnant like any other, now. After I have her, I'll give her to someone who can actually care for her. But I'm saying it now - Flora: it's not going to be us."
"Of course," Flora agreed. "If that's your decision, I'll go along with it. As long as this is all...really over."
"It is; trust me. And a few months carrying her around is a small price to pay for that." Cinder turned her head, straining her ears. "Is my mother still alive?"
"W-wishing I wasn't..." Came Tyra's weak response. "You really could have just-"
"Shut up or I might still," Cinder said idly. So she's accounted for. But someone else who isn't... "Salem left."
"She did." Ozpin sighed. "It would seem that she took the chance to leave after being certain we had ended things - ended the trouble for her, as much as for ourselves."
"So she's just gone..." Cinder muttered, fear flooding her body anew.
"Yes."
"So we still have her to worry about..." said Flora, anxious.
"Well, didn't we always?" Ozpin said, in what he probably thought was a reasonable tone. "Yet that has not stopped humanity from living, before. And it shouldn't stop us now. But besides...I have a feeling she might not be quite as invested in her old ideas as she once was. She might not give anyone any trouble for a while yet - or even at all. Though, I admit that last part is just optimism on my part."
"Here's hoping," Cinder whispered, resting hand over her stomach and leaning against the nearest wall. As soon as she did, her mind jolted. "F-Flora, I-!"
"What is it?" Flora asked instantly, alarmed. "What's wrong?"
"In my d-dad's old room, I found his scroll. It was a bit beaten up, but it still worked. I managed to find- it has- can we go get it? I doubt Imryll even bothered to notice it when she moved me out of there, to where she made the portal."
"Of course. How about we go and do that now? Does someone want to escort us? If you can lead the way, Cinder..."
"I'll go!" Emerald said instantly - predictably. "I think Hazel's having luck out there - it's quieted down now."
Cinder allowed herself to be helped to her feet again by both Flora and Emerald. "Ozpin."
"Yes?"
"The others that are all still trapped in that realm of yours...with Salem gone, there isn't anyone on hand to go use the Sword on them all. Which means they're still infected, still dangerous. Still..."
"It's still necessary to keep them in there, yes," Ozpin said simply. "Until someone can be found who is willing to give up their life to revert them to normal. Fortunately, as Ascendants, they can remain in there for as long as it takes."
"Yes," Cinder agreed. "Just..." I hope it's soon.
She really did feel all kinds of awful about how all of this had turned out - even if she was glad it was over.