Main theme: Death Hymn by Lucas King
Arc theme: Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack
Theme: Red Like Roses Part 1 and 2 by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams
With a leaping motion, Glynda leaped out of the Bullhead's opened doors and to the ground below. Coating herself in her own semblance, glowing an ethereal purple, she weaved and danced between tracer rounds and rocket blasts as she, through her semblance, picked up every stray shard of metal in the field of the Emerald Forest below, and-
{TOSS}
{CRASH}
{SHATTER}
-Threw them into the crowds of cultists as she placed herself on the ground below where the once Great Grimm known as the Husk had faded away like it was a discorporate ghost. Pushing away the wafting remnants of inky smoke from her as they dissipated into nothingness, Glynda looked down at the initiate gathered nearby, the defeated and the wounded, and sent them a reassuring nod.
Their battle was done. Leave this to the professionals.
Behind her, one of the best teams in Beacon's second year followed her down and hit the ground behind her. Team CFVY readied their weapons, and around them, dozens more Huntsmen and Huntresses joined the fray.
Nearby, the cultists scrambled to recover as they forced the metal shards and slabs off of themselves, only to be blinded and wounded and scattered once more as Huntsmen and Huntresses landed within their ranks, setting off explosions and as their walkers and droids detonated into flaming balls of shrapnel and twisted hot metal. Swords clashed together, ice fought against fire, silver thought against a rainbow of colour.
In the sky above, the massive warship at the other side of the Emerald Forest opened up its cannons, and sprayed sapphire tracer rounds and cannon fire into the air as the troop carriers repositioned themselves near the warship, from which 3 more drone fighter craft detached themselves from the ship and soared into the sky, intending to dogfight with the lightly armed and armoured Bullheads and carriers that the Huntsmen were employing as their air force. Silver and blue floating sky platforms with glowing blue bottoms floated off from the warship and let their giant 4 barrelled auto-cannons rip, spraying the air with blue fire and missiles as the sky was coloured an unnatural mixture of blue and orange, the Bullheads, not being built for dogfighting, being ripped apart in the air, but still serving as a severe threat from just their sheer numbers alone.
And in the midst of all of this, those that seemed to identify themselves as the Aspects of the Cult of Silver scattered to tend to the war around them, whilst their leader, a black-dressed girl with eyes of silver and hair as white as snow, merely curtsied to Glynda, and cheerfully went, "Well hello there, Miss Goodwitch. I am Baobhan Sith. Perhaps I may inquire as to what business you have here, today?"
"You can cease with the pleasantries, monster," Glynda almost growled, "You try to murder my students, and then you have the gall to try to play nice with me?"
"Ah, but do you not commit murder daily?" the woman- 'Baobhan Sith'- Asked coyly, "You send your students off, day by day, knowing that they would all die for a war that did not deserve them, for a cause that you know is impossible. Is that not murder, if indirectly?"
Glynda would not let Baobhan's snake oil words get into her head. She pointed her crop, and this time, she truly did growl. She would not allow this witch of a woman to harm her students, official or not, anymore, "Surrender. Now."
"No, I don't think I will," Baobhan's smile widened, who then just threw her arms outwards, and asked, "Tell me: Where is our good friend Ozma, hm?"
From up above, a single voice called out-
"Right here."
-And a olive green plume of energy shot down and towards the leader of the Cult of Silver, burning white hot and filled with the angers of a father figure when he saw his adoptive children brought to harm.
Baobhan merely redirected it into a close patch of dirt with a lazy swipe of her arm.
The ground nearby exploded with righteous fury, green and yellow and orange and shattering everything around it, spraying flames and dirt all over the world around them as smoke bellowed and then thinned like vapour.
Baobhan hadn't even flinched.
She looked before herself, and saw Ozpin standing right in front of her, his cane known as The Long Memory in his hands, his face calm, his body stoic. His eyes though... His eyes were alive and enraged, like a parent when they see their children brought to harm.
"On any other day, I might merely ask you to surrender," he said, a hidden edge in his voice that any other man would find terrifying, "But today, you have struck quite the nerve by attacking those under my care."
Glynda bristled slightly, Our care, Ozpin. They are as much my responsibility as they are yours.
Baobhan tilted her head to the side, "So, I suspect that you are angry at me, underneath that emotionless façade," another smile, "Good. I want this fight to be a true spectacle."
Ozpin flexed his fingers, and then, the dials on The Long Memory began to turn, "Order your forces to stand down, now, or I fear that I may act... Rashly."
Baobhans grin turned smug, and then, her body began to hum a bright silver, "You want me? Then come get me."
And in a flash, she was gone.
Jaune barely had any time to think before a fleshy tentacle from the mass that was Draugr slammed into her back and threw him across the parked hull of the troop carrier below him, landing hard as his aura cloak held, pulling the rifle off of his back and aiming it down at the bubbling mass of skin and flesh, and-
{CLICK}
Dammit. Out of ammo.
With a growl, he simply chucked his gun at the mass, and pulled his sword from his scarab, his shield extending out as he positioned himself into the best battle position that he could muster, before-
{FWOOSH}
""Eh?""
-A purple glow overcame both Draugr and Upyr, and they were lifted up into the air, before-
"What the- WAUGH!"
-They were subsequently flung off of the smoking ship, and into the battlefield below.
Jaune blinked. What the heck was-
"Miss Valkyrie!"
Jaune looked downwards, to see that scary looking blonde-haired teacher with the riding crop and glasses looking up at them, Coco and her team behind her as Ren and Nora looked down as well, and Nora replied with, "Yeah?"
"May I ask as to why you are... In the nude?"
Nora looked back down at herself, and then sheepishly said, "Er, yeah... Funny story about-"
{VWOOSH}
A tracer round from a sniper rifle whizzed past her head, and she ducked instinctively. Down below, the scaring looking woman raised her riding crop, and-
{FWOOSH}
-A purple glow overcame Jaune, Ren, and Nora as they were lifted off of the ship's roof, and then-
"""Oof!"""
-Planted on the ground below with a {THUD}.
"Ow," Jaune muttered to himself, before pushing down his aura cloak's hood over his eyes, and paused as he picked himself off of the ground and looked up at the scary looking woman, "Um, thanks, er-"
"Miss Glynda Goodwitch, thank you," 'Glynda Goodwitch' replied as she realigned her glasses on her forehead, and then said, "Get to the rest of the initiates. We will deal with these upstarts that attacked-"
"Miss teacher lady! Miss Goodwitch!" from the side, Ruby appeared next to them in a flash of rose petals, missing the giant scythe weapon that she had as she pointed to the ship and went, "The prisoners! The Cult's got prisoners inside of the ship! Over a hundred initiates, maybe more!"
"Is that so?" Miss Goodwitch said with a veil of anger in her voice, before turning behind her to Coco and her team, and going, "Miss Adel, see to it that these prisoners have all been-"
"Miss, they've all been drugged! The Cult's drugged them and fitted bomb collars around their necks! If we tamper with them, then they'll kill the initiates!"
Miss Goodwitch's eyes widened at that, and it looked like she was about to say something else, but was stopped as the hull of the troop carrier was-
{THUD}
{CRACK}
{SHRED}
-Cracked open under a wail of ice and fists, and out stepped the 2 twins of the Cult of Silver, one of them being the black-haired twins in white and red, and the 2 Aspects of Amusement, their wounds healing as their cultist fighters, wounded but combat ready.
The black-haired one with the white dress looked at them and growled, "Hello again you little-"
{VWOOSH}
A sudden blast of wind slammed into them and threw them across the battlefield, just as soon as a girl with pink hair, red eyes, and dressed in a black and white maid outfit landed right where the blast of hot wind had hit the ground, and stood tall before them.
"Ryuzu!?" Jaune asked as the pink haired maid flexed her fingers and raised a hand towards the gathering of cultists and-
{VWOOSH}
-Unleashed another blast of wind into the fighters and scattered them even more. A bullhead, meanwhile, soared overhead, before being shot down by an RPG from below, and swerved into the ground.
"The Cult's leaders. The Aspects," Ryuzu said as she sent off another gust of harsh wind into the cultists ahead of her, "I saw them from up above. They're regathering their forces and ignoring any Huntsmen that get in their way. They're coming back here."
Miss Goodwitch looked towards the lines of wounded initiates, and then to the ship, "They're still after the initiates," before looking at the people gathered before her, and going, "Get to the rest of your peers, now. We'll hold the line."
"I'm staying, too," Jaune said to her.
"Out of the-"
"It's not out of the question. I can still fight, and I want to fight."
JAUNE, I THINK YOU'VE FOUGHT ENOUGH FOR TODAY. JUST GET TO THE LINES AND-
Not now, Summer.
JAUNE-
No, Summer. I'm staying.
"I'm staying too," Ruby said besides him as silver light crackled around her arms. Behind them, Ren, Nora, and the recently arrived Nana and Yang nodded as well, as did Ryuzu, "Someone's got to make sure that the Cult doesn't get to the people within this ship."
"Ryuzu just wants to kick some people's faces in."
"Yes, well, thank you for the-"
"Shut up, barf boy."
"O-Okay."
Miss Goodwitch paused as she looked at them, a long standoff between them all ticking down second by second, before eventually, she relented, and said, "Very well, it is all hands on deck now, I suppose," she pointed to the edges of the lines of initiates with her riding crop, and said, "Get to the lines, and protect them. I'll be organising a defence with our forces up above and on the ground, whilst Ozpin is off pursuing the Cult's leadership. Miss Adel, take your team with them. Make sure that none of these cultists break through the lines, understood?"
"Got it, Miss," Coco said as she walked up and smacked Jaune encouragingly on the arm, "Let's go, guys and gals. We've got a war to win."
Everyone nodded, and followed them towards the frontlines as the battle around them continued to escalate.
All the while, the cultists regathered their strength, and began their march.
They were ready to finish what they started.
Taiyang remembered this moment.
Or at least, the sensation of this moment.
The feeling of falling through the sky, the wind bellowing past his locks and over his body as he descended further and further down, the chill of the air mixing with the heat of the sun as he jumped out of the Bullhead above.
Well, of course, when he went through his Beacon initiation back in his day, he didn't have to worry about anti-air fire and missiles flying at him as he dropped into the Emerald Forest, his semblance, Burn Out, building up kinetic energy and heat around him-
That was the difference between his semblance, Burn Out, and his daughter's, Yangs, semblance, Burn. While Yangs semblance could only harvest kinetic energy from any blows that she received, Taiyangs semblance could create its own synthetic kinetic energy and release it as something akin to a firestorm. In all honesty, Yangs semblance was considered, more or less, to be a downgrade from his own, seeing as she had to get hit for it to work, but no one would ever tell her that, less it bruise her ego.
-As he threw an arm back, screaming down to the ground below, right into a cluster of cultists, before-
{KA-BOOM}
-He impacted with the ground below, and erupted into a fiery explosion that shattered machines and sent soldiers flying in all different directions, shattering bones and breaking skulls as they all hit the ground hard, groaning in horrible pain as they did.
Good. That's what they get for trying to hurt his daughters.
Behind him, Maelstrom, Kaia, and the rest of his men from his private company followed him out of the Bullhead above and onto the ground, spreading out into a line as they engaged the cultists coming at them, and-
"Dad?"
His eyes widened, and he looked behind himself. There, speeding up to him, were his 2 little girls.
"Ruby! Yang!" he called out as they ran up to him and hugged him tightly, the father in question returning the tight embrace as he held them strong, and then looked down at them, "Oh gods, I'm so glad that you're- Yang, your chest!"
Her chest was broken and covered in dry blood, wrinkled by heat and ice burns, fractured into bloody channels and scabbed ravines. It was coloured black and white and red and was punctuated by ice and heat burn boils.
Yang looked down at herself- "Ah, shit."- And then unwrapped her scarf, actually her pyjama shirt that she rolled up and threw around her neck, and put it on over her burnt clothing, "There. All better."
"No, not all better. The complete opposite of better, in fact," Taiyang gave them a stern look as he looked at them, "What did they do to you? Ruby, where is your weapon?!"
"Oh yeah, about that," Ruby nervously chuckled, "It kinda... Sorta... Got... Broken... It- It broke. Grimm broke it."
"Yeah, and I got my chest turned to ice and then punched into bits, can we please move on?" Yang sardonically asked, wincing for a moment as she pumped her chest with a fist that was covered in too much blood that didn't look like it was hers, "Look, I'm fine. I'm fine. Can't say the same about Ruby-"
"Hey!"
"-But I can still fight!"
"In my opinion, I think the both of you have got yourselves almost killed enough, for one day," Taiyang said to the both of them, before pointing back to the lines behind them, and going, "Get to safety, now."
"What?!"
"But Dad-"
"No 'Buts', you 2! I've had to watch those cult freaks try to kill you repeatedly on live TV, and I am not letting you throw yourselves into the meatgrinder once more! Get to the back of the lines. Now."
"Uncle Qrow would-"
"Ruby, Qrow would agree with me! Now get to safety, and-"
{KA-BOOM}
Ahead of them explosions rocked the assembled ranks of Huntsmen and Huntresses as multiple Bullheads were knocked out of the sky above, and from the smoke and ash and plumes of ice, 2 figures emerged. One of them was a hulking giant in bulky blue and black armour and robes, with glowing yellow patterns covering him, a gasmask like helmet with glowing yellow optics, and a pair of large cylinders on his back with a unhealthy blue glow to them that connected to a large cannon that h wielded in his hands. The other was a boy that was more machine than man, with robotic arms and legs, and a face that was completely shaven and hidden underneath a cloak made from a wolf's fur coat, the left side of his face being entirely metal, with a glowing red optic built into it, and a large rifle in his hands that hummed a steady blue, with 3 prongs at the end of the long barrel, almost like a futuristic crossbow.
"Hello there, boys and girls!" the bulky one called out with a wave, "Lovely to see and kill you all today! I'm Hsi-Hsue-Kue, the Aspect of Pride, this lovely fellow to my side is Jaracas, the Aspect of Forgiveness, and we're here today to murder you all in the most painful, excruciating ways possible!"
"Cool it," the one with the wolf fur cloak and rifle- 'Jaracas'- Said, as he looked over the crowds of Huntsmen, their backs against their own forces of armed cultists, and said, "We only want the girl, Ruby Rose. Give her over to us, and we will let you live. If you don't, then we can't be held responsible for what happens next."
This was enough to give Taiyang a moment's pause. Ruby? What did they want with Ruby? Why on Remnant would they ever want to take Ruby?
Then it dawned on him. An obvious realisation, to be honest. Ruby was a Silver-Eyed Warrior. The Cult of Silver had based themselves on Silver-Eyed Warriors. They worshipped Silver-Eyed Warriors. Hell, they were led by Silver-Eyed Warriors. As of today, they had killed entire scores of people- Children!- And sent discourse and disunity throughout all of the kingdoms in the name of the Silver-Eyed Warriors.
He wouldn't let them take his daughter. Not today, not now, not ever.
He glared down the 2 Aspects, and growled out, "Over my dead body."
Jaracas merely aimed turned the lights on his rifle from blue to a sickly green, took aim-
"That can be arranged."
-And fired.
Baobhan Sith willed a blade of silver light into her hands and used it to-
{CLASH}
{BOOM}
-Block a blow from Ozpin's cane that was so powerful that it uprooted trees from the aftershocks and wind, and left a giant crater in the ground from the sheer force alone, spraying mud everything and turning it into a thick cloud of dust and dirt as it scattered all over the world around them.
And yet still, Baobhan was undeterred.
"You're weaker than I imagined, old man," Baonhan teased as she, at lightning speed, parried blow after blow after blow after blow and then delivered a riposte into Ozpin that would've worked if he hadn't dodged out of the way in time, "If you truly were as powerful as I had been taught, then I would be nothing but a pile of gore on the floor by now."
Ozpin didn't say anything as he summoned an olive green energy barrier to block a dozen silver beams of light that shot out of Baobhan's eyes and into his domed shield, each one exploding into silver light and smoke, but doing little against his shield.
But little still meant that something was being done.
It was small, but it was there.
A flicker across his shield.
A flicker of fatigue.
A flicker of weakness.
"I saw that, Ozpin," Baobhan laughed as she teleported to Ozpin's side as he let his shield down and then-
{PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH}
-Delivered a combo of punches into his side, each one with more and more silver energy behind it, before delivering a burning hot palm to his chest-
{KA-BOOM}
-And detonating it at point black range, sending Ozpin flying across the battlefield and-
{CRASH}
-Coming to a stop in an uprooted pile of burnt and burning trees, hot and messy and smouldering to the touch.
With a slight groan, Ozpin picked himself back up from the mess, and readied himself to get back into the fight.
"You know, I was told stories about you," Baobhan cheerfully recounted, not even considering Ozpin as a real threat as she threw her arms out wide and soaked in the air, "The great and powerful Ozma, the one who went by many name, from King Arthur of the Great Houses, to Zagreus, the Dragon Slayer who brought an end to the Dragon War and slew Beirdos, the Eternal via just a single swipe of his blade, to now Ozpin, the greatest living warrior in all of Remnant. The Ozma who was so powerful that he could shatter mountains and silence volcanos with just a single strike."
She laughed.
"How far removed the myths are from reality, indeed."
"What is this all about?" Ozpin found himself asking.
"Hm?"
"What do you seek to gain here? What is it that you want?" his eyes narrowed, "You attempt to reveal my secrets to the world, release confidential information to the public, and then you attempt to divide the world even further than it already has been via pushing on these divisions and truths. Why?"
"Why? Being born is its own why. I didn't ask to be born into this world of nightmares and monsters. No one did. Why should we be born into this world, which exists to be filled with nothing but pure evil?"
"Enough with the pontificating," Ozpin demanded, tapping his cane against the ground as he glared, "What do you want?" a pause, and then, "You are an agent of Salem, are you not? You and your cult. Your are her pawns, aren't you?"
"..."
For once, Baobhan paused. She just stared at him in silence whilst the world around them continue to devolve into anarchy and chaos. Her face became blank and emotionless, her silver eyes loosing their shine as she looked at him, her arms going limp by her side as her hair fluttered in the wind.
And then...
"Heheheheheheheheh…"
She began to laugh.
"Hahahahahahahahah… Hahahahahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"
Baobhan threw her head back and let out the loudest, most manic laugh that Ozpin had ever, bellowing and echoing across the arena around them as tears- Tears?- Fluttered down her cheeks as her face threatened to split open from just how wide her smile was.
Then, she threw her head back down to look at him, with wet cheeks covered in a red flush and a smile that spoke of nothing but suffering madness as she looked at him and almost screamed out:
"Salem?! You believe me to be Salem's pet whore!? You believe that my kin are her pet sluts and sycophants!? I! Hate! Salem! I hate her for everything that she has done to me! Done to us! Done to our world at the heed of her monsters and selfish dreams of a grand suicide! I would wish for nothing more to ground her beneath my heel, trap her between my legs and make her my slave before I tear her head off and let her body grow back around the pike from skull to rectum, as she begs for a death that will never come! I will tear her soul from her body and harvest her corpse, as she screams in agony! BEGGING ME! TO LET! HER! DIE!"
She stopped her rant, and paused to catch her breath, taking in deep heaves of air as she tilted her head down, her face red with rage, with hysterical anger, as she reigned in herself and looked back up at Ozpin, her boiling rage held down, her face calming itself, back into her affable smile, almost apologetic at her outburst.
Ozpin blinked, and took a step back, his face as stoic as ever, but his eyes rolling with hidden emotion.
This woman... She truly wasn't Salems? He had been running on some sort of assumption, even when they had been broadcasting earlier and put him on the air, that they might've been the Grimm Queen's agents, even when they were exposing and lambasting her on the air.
Everything always played into Salem's hands, one way or another. Every sudden movement, every change in behaviour, every decision, big or small, his or others: It was always influenced by her, one way or another. It always all tied back to the Queen of the Grimm, one way or another.
Everything always led back to her.
And in a way, so did this.
Did it?
She hated Salem.
She despised Salem.
She wanted to kill Salem.
She wasn't... She wasn't one of her pawns?
Could this be an entire new player on the board?
…
Ozpin didn't know how to react to that.
Throughout most- Almost all- Of his very long life, Ozpin had always been playing against and reacting to Salem in one way or another. Every piece on the board was hers. If there were any other players in the game, they would soon prove themselves to be a barely efficient player to be considered a threat, and were either ignored or dealt with quickly, and even this was rare and inbetween.
But this was different.
These people- The Cult of Silver- Knew about Salem and Ozma.
They knew about the gods and the maidens.
And they had successfully assaulted Valerian territory- His own academy's grounds- Launched the biggest cyberattack in history, released dozens, if not hundreds, of confidential files and documents, and delivered a speech with enough charisma and passion to fuel the fires of division within the kingdoms and spread disunity across Remnant.
They had done more than any other third party faction on Remnant, and successfully planted themselves as a third player on the chessboard.
But maybe...
If they hated Salem that much...
Then they might not need to be an enemy.
"It doesn't have to be like this," Ozpin said to her, "You will have to stand trial for your crimes, yes, but... If you cooperate, then we can work against Salem, defeat her Grimm hordes, and then-"
"Stop."
He did, and Baobhan continued with that forever pleasant smile.
"I see what you are doing. Thinking of me as a player on a chessboard. As a pawn for your games with the Witch Queen."
She giggled, and then paused.
"I've always hated chess, you know. Too many rules. Too many stifling rules, too many restrictions, too many motifs. A needlessly complicated gain with little viable strategy to take away from it."
Another pause.
"To be honest, as much as I hate Salem-"
Then, her eyes narrowed, and her smile turned into a frown.
"-I hate you just as much."
She flexed her fingers, and balled them into fists.
"How many, Ozpin?"
He dared not back down, "What?"
"How many people have died in your name?"
He didn't flinch.
"I know you know. You're not like Salem, are you? Not in that respect. You remember each and every one of them, don't you? All of their faces, all of their names, all of their personalities, all of their connections and interactions. The hundreds of thousands of millions of corpses that lay at your feet."
…
Yes.
He did.
He remembered every single one.
She giggled again, and threw her arms wide.
"Have you ever considered that all of this is your fault?"
Everyday.
"Your presence creates these monsters."
He knew.
"Tragedy follows you like a disease."
He knew this too.
"It infects those whom surround you. Those whom slave themselves to your wars. The Huntsmen and Huntresses are your slaves. Your soon-to-be-failures. You train them to fight a pointless war that they will never win. You train them to die against endless hordes of Grimm, an endless tide of destruction that never wanes, never tires, never stops. You know this, and you encourage them to die in this war, with no chance of change, no chance of progress, no chance of salvation. Worse still, you allow them free reign to do whatever they want. Your schools turn their students into dogs without leashes. Teenagers with superpowers. Purported 'Heroes' with so much backing by the kingdoms' propaganda artists that they can legally get away with murder, and worse. You can throw a stone into any corner of the world, and find a crime committed by a Huntsman.
She bellowed out a laugh, and twirled herself around in the air.
"Behold, your children, Ozpin. The children of Remnant, transformed into murderers."
She let her arms go limp.
"My brothers and sisters and I made the Cult of Silver... Look at what you have made, now."
"...That may be true-"
Ozpin hoped that he had caught her off guard with his statement. It didn't look like it bothered her in the slightest.
"-But that does not mean that humanity, as it is, is not worth defending to the last. It is the duty of every person to bring hope to those around them. To bring the chance of peace in our world, no matter where it stands. From the Huntsmen, to the artists, from the musicians, to the teachers, from the soldiers, to the caretakers, and so on, so forth. The people that sacrifice themselves for a better world: They died for a noble cause. A cause worth sacrificing everything for, and I will not allow you to desecrate their memories with your hypocrisy and snake-like words."
"Hollow words, Ozpin. I hear nothing but hollow words. Echoes of dead and dying speeches of empty promises and hope. Words are powerful, but they are nothing without action, and thankfully, yours have just given us the proof we need."
She then looked to the side, and then-
"Did you get all of that, Kasha?"
-A 4 silver-eyed metal creature with hind legs, spikes stretching up from its back, and a portable camera and radio, suddenly appeared near them, as if manifesting from nothingness itself.
An invisibility semblance.
"Loud and clear."
Ozpin's eyes widened, and suddenly, everything made sense.
This woman- Baobhan Sith- Had been counting on him following her to confront her, drawing them out where supposedly no one could see them, using his anger at attacking his students to bait him out, so that when they were on their own, he would ask if she was one of Salems agents, and then...
He had given them all of the proof that they needed.
"And there you go, people of Remnant," Baobhan went as she alternated between the camera and Ozpin, "You may think us mad, but our good friend Ozpin here has confirmed it for you: Salem is real. He said so himself. Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, is true, and she is a threat. Our most hated enemy."
She then threw a hand out to Ozpin, and smiled smugly.
"And what does Ozpin do? Does he actually make any moves against Salem, or does he just react to her? Is he brave, or is he too scared to make a move?"
Ozpin silenced her with 2 green blasts of magic energy from his outstretched hand, one for Baobhan, and the other for 'Kasha'. Both of them dodged them, and Baobhan just continued on as she reformed her sword of silver energy in her hand.
"Another question relating to it: What have the Huntsman academies done to protect you? What have they done to serve you? Do they do community service? Do they help in public parks and services? Do they do even the most basic thing such as helping old ladies across the street, or rescuing cats from trees? No! No they don't! Huntsmen have their pride, and would never allow themselves to do such a baseless thing as helping the common masses!"
Another blast of olive green energy. She backflipped across this, and parried a series of blows as Ozpin charged at her with his cane.
"And think again: What do Huntsmen actually do when out in the field? What is their purpose? What is the point? All of the propaganda makers say that Huntsmen are the greatest heroes in all of Remnant, but what have they accomplished for the kingdoms ever since their inception, that the armies of old could not? Back in the day, before the Great War 80 years ago, sweeping armies of men and women cut down the Grimm in their path, and made way for the greatest cities on all of Remnant, bringing about a golden age for all mankind against the Grimm! But now? Now, we are nothing but weakness! Now, we surrender ourselves to failure, and allow a scant failing few that surrender more and more land to the monsters at our door. A far cry from the empires that we once were."
She teleported to the side as Ozpin launched an entire volley of magic blasts towards her, teleporting from side to side as she continued to rant and monologue without end.
"You know, sometimes, I wonder: Are you the LUCA to all mankind, Ozma?" she said with a sneering smile, "Are one or more of your previous incarnations the Last Universal Common Ancestor for millions of humans and Faunus around the world? Is your blood the alkahest- The universal solvent that may burn and dissolve all other substances? I wonder if that is true. It certainly explains so much about what happens to the people that you poison with your touch, like an acid touching bare skin and the mitochondria within.
Her smile widened.
"Or... Perhaps... One of your children, yes?"
She laughed.
"One of your first batch, at least."
For the first time in a very long time, Ozpin truly saw red.
A giant blast of magic released itself from Ozpin, and into Baobhan, erupting into a fiery green explosion and incinerating the world around them, leaving it all in smouldering ruin. Trees were burnt to ash and cinder, dirt and rock turned to carbon and then to smoke and then to nothing. Everything seemed to devolve and dissolve into nothingness and then less than nothingness, commingling with ash and fire and the twisting sharp smell of burning wood.
Everything around him was turned into a smouldering crater when the smoke cleared. The ground was turning to glass, giving it a glossy shine. Mats of ground were covered a glowing green to orange, and were burning hot to the touch. Flaming embers in the air grew and flew like cherry blossoms.
And in the middle, stood Ozpin and Baobhan, unscathed and unhurt.
And only one of them was pleased about it.
"I'm sorry," Baobhan said with an apologetic sincerity to her, placing her arm upon her chest as she went, "That was cruel of me. I'm cruel and a bully, sometimes. It's one of my many flaws. I may not like you, Ozpin- I may hate you- But, in all fairness, that was just too much from me, even by my standards."
Ozpin just glared at her, silently, his lips curved into a slight frown, his eyes smouldering with veiled anger.
He didn't often get angry, but today, he would make an exception for this woman.
Baobhan twirled her sword in her hand, and then... Let it fall limply to the side.
"I assume now that my words have... Well, I don't know if galvanized is the right word, but, let us continue, shall we?"
She spread her arms out wide-
"As recompense, I shall let you have the first blow."
-And Ozpin charged forwards.
Sword and cane clashed together in an orchestra of destruction and creation of destruction. Whole scores of trees and mats of ground were torn apart by the force of their blows and the power of their attacks. Trees were ripped into splinters and shards as ash and hot shards of dirt and fresh glass was kicked up and thrown around like tsunamis as they warred and warred and warred against each other.
And all the while, Ozpin could only ask himself:
How did they know so much about him? About Salem? About the both of them?
How did they know so much?
Another explosion near him, and Jaune brought forth a shield of aura to take the damage for him as the ice fluttered and flowed around him, the air filling with snow and smoke as he dissipated his shield, only for a series of missile rounds to soar down at him, forcing him to throw up his bubble shield once more as-
{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}
-Exploded all around him, melting away the ice around him as the fire continued to lick and scrape at his aura, the bubble shield dissipating around him as he pulled his sword and shield out once more, ready to face the enemy once more.
For a few moments, he looked behind himself, towards the lines of initiates, and yelled out, "Everyone who wants to fight, get up here and fight! Everyone else who can't or won't stay where you are! We'll keep you safe!"
None of the hundreds of initiates went to join him. Some, like the ginger jock- Cardin- Looked away. Some, like the one called Weiss (Whom was being tended to by Ryuzu), Gestured to their low dust and ammo supply, or to their wounds. Some, like the onyx-haired girl he now knew was called Blake, just shook their heads or looked him dead in the eye.
The few initiates who still wanted to fight were still in the fight. The rest had seen enough battle for one day.
He looked around, and towards the likes of Anima and her boys, trying to pull more people into the fight. Every few seconds, one of them would call out some variation of a rallying cry to pull more people into the fight, to which they would be completely ignored each time.
With a whistle, Jaune called them back to the frontlines, and with an understanding nod, he got the message across: They had done enough for today. He wouldn't judge them any less.
None of them dared to look him in the eye.
YOU'RE A LOT BETTER AT THIS THAN MOST LEADERS.
You think?
I KNOW.
To his side, Coco looked at him, and at all of the aura that he was using and manipulating, and asked in confusion, "How are you- Hey kid, how are you doing all of that?"
It was his turn to look at her in confusion, "What?"
"Your aura! How are you doing all of that shield stuff with it? I'd say that it's your semblance-"
It's not."
"Then how are you doing all of that stuff? How've you not burnt out of aura, yet?"
Jaune blinked, You can, what? You can run out of aura?!
YEP.
YES.
IT'S HOW I DIED, BIG BRO!
What? Are there more of- You know what? Now's not the time. What do you mean that you can run out of aura? I thought aura was... What was it, magic, or something?
SOUL MAGIC, FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD. AND YES, YOU CAN RUN OUT OF IT. AURA IS THEORISED TO BE THE MANIFESTATION OF PEOPLE'S SOULS, AND EVERY PERSON HAS A SET AMOUNT OF AURA TO THEIR NAME. SOME JUST HAVE LARGER AMOUNTS THAN OTHERS.
…What?
NOT ONLY THAT, BUT OUR AURA IS ALSO LIKE A FUEL. IT CAN RUN OUT OVER TIME, DEPENDING ON HOW MANY TIMES WE USE OUR AURA AS A SHIELD TO TANK PHYSICAL BLOWS, AS WELL AS HOW MANY TIMES WE USE OUR SEMBLANCES, LIKE WE SAID, IT USES AS A FUEL.
…That's dumb.
WHAT?
THAT'S DUMB! What- Some people just have more soul juice than other people!? What does that mean?!
IT'S NOT CONFIRMED, JAUNE. ULTIMATELY, AURA IS STILL AS MUCH A MYSTERY TO US NOW AS IT WAS WHEN IT WAS FIRST DISCOVERED. NO ONE KNOWS WHY SOME PEOPLE HAVE HIGHER AURA COUNTS THAN OTHERS, OR HOW SEMBLANCES ACTUALLY WORK, CONSIDERING HOW THEY REGULARLY BEND THE KNOWN LAWS OF REALITY TO THEIR WHIM WHEN USED. SCHOLARS AND THEOLOGISTS JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT AURA IS REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR SOULS BECAUSE OF HOW OUR SEMBLANCES SEEM TO REFLECT OUR PERSONALITIES, IN A WAY.
Jaune blinked, and then internally nodded to himself. That... Well, he still had a lot of questions, but that would work for him, at least for now.
Nearby, he heard the bunny Faunus on Coco's team call out inquisitively, "Those with high counts of aura can manipulate them into creating Aura Constructs, bodies of aura made physical and shaped into tools. Blacksmiths, they're called."
"Oh, so like you, Velvet?" Coco asked.
'Velvet' nodded, "Yeah, like me."
YOU SEE? THAT'S THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION FOR HUNTSMEN LIKE YOU: BLACKSMITHS.
Huh?
THERE ARE 3 MAIN ARCHETYPES, YOU KNOW. STRIKERS, BLACKSMITHS, AND SKIRMISHERS.
Like the Fighter Mage Thief trio in video games?
…SURE. NOT THE COMPARISON I WAS EXPECTING, BUT, YEAH. HOWEVER, FOR NOW-
{KA-BOOM}
-YOU SHOULD REALLY GET BACK INTO THE FIGHT.
"Ah, shit!" Jaune went as he threw up another aura shield and jumped out of the way, an explosion of fire and dirt rippling out besides him as he used his other shield to deflect a round of bullets coming at him.
Rolling to the side and behind a mound of dirt that had been kicked up in the fighting, he felt his aura churn within him as he twirled his sword in his hand, watching the lines of Huntsmen and Huntresses clashing with the lines of cultists coming at them.
It was a warzone, pure and simple.
Tracer fire and rockets filled the air as mortars from both sides peppered the Emerald Forest into a smoking hellscape of fire and ash. Smoke and snow filtered through the air as ice battled against the heat. Huntsmen and Huntresses of all types clashed blades with the Cult of Silver as their heavy weapons and vehicles filled the world with flame and death, firing off missiles and cannon blasts into the crowds of Huntsmen with abandon. Up in the air, the dogfight continued on as the Bullheads and airships of Vale clashed and danced with the small, yet powerful navy of the Cult of Silver, great plumes of blue and orange light stretching and dividing the sky above into cross-sections and patterns and shapes of all sorts. Vapour trails polluted the sky as rainclouds began to form overhead, threatening to split the heavens open onto the ground below.
Throwing a rabid Sinful to the side, before applying a swift kick to the head to knock it out, Jaune looked over the battlefield, and saw that the lines were holding. To his left, Pyrrha and her familiar were supporting the recently arrived Anima, Russel, Dove, and Sky, whilst Nana bounced between cultist after cultist, and took down each and every one with assassin-like skill. To his right, he could make out Ruby and Yang fighting alongside a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses that they seemed familiar with- Including a Huntsman that looked remarkably like Yang. Her father, perhaps?- Fighting against a large cluster of cultists, including 2 of the-
The aspects!
2 of them, the almost robotic one with the weird rifle, and the big bulky black and blue one with the fire cannon, were fighting against Ruby, Yang, and their collection of Huntsmen and Huntresses. Jaune surrendered to the urge to go and help them, and felt his legs begin to move to where they were, as-
"WOO-HOO!"
{KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM}
Well, at least Nora was keeping herself entertained.
Behind him, the recently healed and rescued Nora Valkyrie, now covered in a salvaged silver cloak, was somehow warped 2 grenade launchers, similar to her original weapon before it was... Destroyed? Whatever happened to it? Whatever. There she was, with 2 glowing white grenade launchers, throwing out pink blast after pink blast into the cult forces, crackles and explosions rippling out and sending scores of cultists flying and soaring through the air, before launching flat on the ground as waves of pink smoke fluttered up into the air above.
"Nora!" Ren called out to the manic Nora over the booms and bangs.
"Yes, Renny!?"
"Those guns," he gestured to the glowing cannons in her arms before they were willed away into nothingness in a flash of pink lightning, "How are you doing that!?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Nora cried out a laugh as suddenly, a giant war hammer formed in her hands, "I HAVE NO IDEA!" and as she let out a whistle and summoned an eagle down from the air, she followed it down into the battlefield below, swinging her glowing hammer around with abandon as she slung it into the knees of a Warden of Faith, before running up its body and-
{CRACK}
-Slamming it right into its armoured head, grinning and laughing all of the way.
…Yep, at least she was having fun.
Jaune winced as he blocked another trio of bullets with his shield, before looking back to the others behind him and calling out, "Can you guys take care of yourselves?!"
Pyrrha looked at him, but it was Anima who answered with, "We'll be able to hold out on this front, provided Nora doesn't get herself almost killed again!"
"I'm on it!"
"Ren's on it," Anima gave him a nod, "Go help Ruby."
Jaune gave her a nod as well, "Thanks!" and with that, he began to run through the streams of bullet and ice and fire, almost slipping on a patch of black ice next to a few-
"Hgh!"
He tried not to vomit.
Nearby, on the ground, laid several bodies, all of them fellow initiates. Their bodies were riddled with bullet holes, their forms vivisected and torn apart. One of them had their head split open, spilling their brains out onto the floor, whilst another had been cut in half lengthways, their body split in half as their organs spilt out onto the ground below.
They had all died screaming, their mouth and eyes wide as their blood was frozen beneath them, like meat in a freezer, preserved for later. An ice attack had paved over them, leaving their skin glistening and covered in frost, their blood still and unmoving as it shone with a frozen glow.
Jaune looked away. He didn't know if it was in disgust, anger, or apathy.
Probably all of them.
He scowled, at the cult and at himself- Enough with the self-pitying bullshit- And continued his run through the battlefield around him, dodging bullets and blades and the like as he danced between mats of glowing hot ground and sheets of black ice and frozen blood that threatened to slip up anyone who wasn't careful with their step, until finally-
"Jaune!?"
-He made it to Ruby's side and deflected a bullet coming at her with his shield, as he looked at her and said, "Hey Ruby... What happened to your weapon?"
Ruby looked down at her hands, with burn sleeves and exposed skin, and scowled, "Lost it. Got destroyed... My baby got unbabied…" before looking up at him and going, "Why are you up here?"
"You looked like you needed the help," he gestured to the 2 Aspects ahead of them, "Against those guys."
"Ah," Ruby went, "I get it."
"This a friend of yours," that tall Huntsman, a fellow blond, but with stubble around his jawline and a soul patch on his chin, lilac eyes, and an outfit that very much matched the colour scheme of Yang- Okay, he was really beginning to suspect that this was-
"Dad, this is Jaune. Jaune, this is dad."
Ah, so he was their-
TAI...
Summer?
The larger Huntsman, 'Tai'(?) Gestured to him, and just said, "Nice cloak."
"Huh?" Jaune then looked down at his still shimmering aura cloak, and blinked, "Oh, thanks-"
{BANG}
{PFWIT}
A bullet whizzed past them, reminding them of the battle around them, and as they moved to defend themselves once more, the 2 Aspects up front, firing off into the crowd around them, began to march towards them, guns blazing, just as-
{WHIP}
"Augh!"
-A fleshy tendril whipped at Yang, slamming her into the ground as-
"Well well well, would you look at that..."
Draugr, the Aspect of Interest, Upyr, the Aspect of Joy, and Lilith and Lamia, the Aspects of Amusement, as well as their twin servants in white and red, approached them from the side, all smiles and joyful attitudes and covered in splatters of blood that was not theirs. They must've broken away from where Miss Goodwitch had been fighting them, and had come to greet them personally.
"2 Silver-Eyed Warriors for the price of one... Well, one by proxy, at least."
To their other side, a pair of 4-legged droids marched towards them, their optics and luminescent systems turning orange as between them walked the last of the Aspects- Barring the girl with the black dress and white hair, of course- Being a lithe boy dressed in silver armour, with glowing orange patterns covering it, as well as 2 spindly drones hovering around it, with mechanical limbs and fans built into it around its glowing orange optic, projecting a blue hardlight shield around him as he walked.
All of the Aspects gathered around them in a semi-circle, reddened teeth showing, and silver eyes shimmering like sunlight against water.
"Hey there, Cihuateteo," Lilith nodded to the armoured boy as he continued to tap on his datapad, "Nice of you to join us," the boy just gave them a nod, and she turned to the gathered crew of trainees and trained Huntsmen and Huntresses, "Sorry, that's Cihuateteo, the Aspect of Awe over there. He's not much of a talker."
'Cihuateteo' just shrugged.
Lilith then let out a giggle, "You know, I have to say, Orion," she directed towards Jaune, "You've had quite a few surprises for us, haven't you? Perhaps some that you never knew yourself, yes?" she laughed, "No wonder you were named after the Mother Dragon..."
Jaune just narrowed his eyes at the green-haired twin.
"Oh, don't give me that look, Orion. After all, look at us," she gestured to the gathered Aspects around them, "Almost all of us together, like one big happy family. Let us make such treasured memories together, yes?"
"I already told Baobhan Sith that I will never join her, or her cult," to his side, Ruby spoke up defiantly, throwing her hand to the side as she spoke, "I don't care how many times you try to show me my mum's corpse: Nothing you say or do will make me say otherwise."
Tai looked down to her, "Ruby... They have... What?"
Lilith chuckled once more, "Oh, poor, dear Ruby Rose... As we have been told many times-"
Their weapons and tools shone-
"-We can be very persuasive."
-And then they struck.
Jaune pulled up his shield as Upyr, with sharp shining teeth smothered in red, launched himself down at him and threw his blood made tendrils from his back into his shield, before he launched himself off of Jaune's shield, serving as a distraction for the big bulky brawler of an Aspect to charge at him and-
"Gotcha!"
{CRASH}
-Swing his arm like a mace into the boy, knocking him down into the ground-
JAUNE!
AH, HE'LL BE FINE.
-Before he was picked up by the head, his metal palm pressed against his face, and lifted up into the air by the burly Aspect.
OKAY, MAYBE LESS THAN FINE.
The Aspect just guffawed, "I got him!"
{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}
Just then, 2 entire pistol clips worth of bullets were emptied into the armoured back of the Aspect, not wounding him thanks to all of the metal on him, but surprising him as a sudden, much larger blow slammed itself into the back of the Aspect, and then flipped off as he let go of Jaune-
"Oh, I don't got him!"
-Just as he activated the first spare semblance that had been given to him-
{BURST}
-And sidestepped to the right in a flurry of white petals, just as the shape landed back onto the ground-
"Nana?"
-And uncurled herself to look at him, "Hey Jaune."
"What are you doing over here?"
"You looked like you needed the help," Nana said to him.
He chuckled as he picked himself back up, "That's my line."
"And besides," she shrugged, "That's what friends are for, right?"
He blinked, "I'm your friend? Really?"
She shrugged, "Hell yeah. Why not?"
Nearby, Ruby, Yang, and Tai looked at him for a moment in shock, "How did you..." one of them began, before they realised where they were and got back into the fight.
And speaking of which, Jaune and Nana then ducked down as the 2 walker droids nearby fired out a stream of orange-
"Are those lasers?!"
"I don't know! I'm trying not to let them hit me!"
-Energy bursts from its underside guns, whilst their master, Cihuateteo, remained safe within his hardlight shields, just as-
"Sir!"
"Tai-Guy!"
-A blue armoured Huntsman with a rocket cannon on his shoulder and a sword in his hand, and a Huntress in a really frilly blue, white, and gold dress with a cannon that looked like it shot out hardlight made sawblades, running up to them and firing into the gathered Aspects around them, several of the blue Huntsman's missile rounds going right into the cyborg Aspect with the weird rifle-
{FWOOSH}
-Only for him to pull up a sickly black bubble around him-
{FIZZLE}
-Which disintegrated the missiles as soon as they touched the barrier.
The blue armoured Huntsman just tilted his helmeted head back, "Huh."
Aiming his glowing green rifle again, the cyborg Aspect fired off another round with a loud-
{BANG}
-That whizzed right into his shoulder cannon, and began to disintegrate it. The blue armoured Huntsman had to detach it from his body before the festering rot took him too, before throwing it at Draugr, only for her to shift her mass and avoid it, as she, Lilith, and Lamia, charged at Ruby, the latter girl in question jumping to the side via a rose petal burst as she threw her arms back, then forwards, and-
{ZAP ZAP ZAP}
-Threw 3 rounds of silver electricity into them, one for each Aspect, shocking them, but not stopping them as they continued to duel with her, threatening to overwhelm her as Cihuateteo focused his machines on taking down both Yang and Tai, firing plasma shot after plasma shot into them as they jumped and dodged and skirted around each blast, sweat and blood pouring off of them as the girl in the frilly white, blue, and gold dress decided to duel with the spindly and bloodthirsty Upyr, throwing him off of her arm as he chomped into it, but getting grazed and grazed and-
{STAB}
"AUGH!"
-Getting stabbed in the thigh by his sharpened blood tentacles, whilst Nana and Jaune continued to duel against the Bulky Aspect as he threw them around like ragdolls, slamming them into the ground with his sheer weight alone, and almost burning them under pure blue fire- The hottest known type of fire- As their skin boiled and then suffered from ice burns as they then released cold attack after cold attack onto them.
They were growing tired, and battered, and worn.
For Nana, Jaune, Yang, and Ruby, they had been woken up earlier than they should've been, thrown into a forest and expected to fight to survive way into the morning, and had been doing just that all the way into the afternoon.
Fatigue was starting to set in.
Even with his boost in aura, he was starting to tire. The wounds and injuries and aches that he had suffered earlier in the day were beginning to return.
His aura cloak was beginning to fade into nothingness.
They were running out of steam, and he couldn't allow that. Not when they were fighting for their lives.
So, he turned to the only person- The only people(?)- That could help.
Summer?
YES?
You said that there were 8 semblances waiting for me, right?
…JAUNE-
Are there any semblance that can help get rid of fatigue?
WELL, YES, BUT-
Let me use it.
JAUNE, IT'S NOT-
If I don't, then we all might die here, Summer.
BUT THE CONDITIONS THAT IT WILL LEAVE YOU IN WILL-
HE'LL LEARN.
DON'T YOU DARE-
HE'LL LEARN, SUMMER. GODS... HE'LL HAVE TO. AND IT'S LIKE HE SAID: THEY'LL DIE IF HE DOESN'T.
…FINE.
Thank you.
And as the bulky Aspect's foot was about to slam into his chest-
SEMBLANCE: FATIGUELESS.
-He suddenly doubled over, and collapsed to the ground.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
How much longer did the battle last for?
He didn't know.
He wasn't sure what was what, anymore.
All he could hear around him were muffled noises.
All that he could see was darkness underneath eyelids too tired to open.
Tilting his head to the side, he struggled, and struggled, with all of his might, and then...
He forced them open.
He was behind the lines, with the rest of the initiates- The wounded and the struggling as the chaos continued to erupt around them, lights in the sky and on the ground around them that were far too bright and far too loud. Everything was blending together into a cacophony of madness and swirling symphonies of muffled sound and milky colours, as he felt his head being tilted up, and-
Ah, there was Nana, looking at him with a panicked expression. She didn't looked tired anymore, at least. That was a good sign.
Though she looked frightened. Why did she look scared? Did something happen to her? He had to-
He couldn't move.
Everything was growing darker, and darker, and darker, and darker, and-
JAUNE, STAY WITH ME!
-Finally-
JAUNE!
-He slipped away, into the inky darkness.
Ruby didn't know what happened not too long ago.
One minute they were fighting against the Aspects, and then the next, Jaune somehow used an exact replica of her own semblance- Did he have a copy semblance, perhaps- Before doubling over at the same time that all of the fatigue and weariness that she had accumulated over the day suddenly vanished, and passed out on the floor.
Was that something to do with his semblance? It must be, surely.
After checking that Nana had successfully got Jaune back into friendly lines, Ruby found herself unable to focus on anything else other than the battle before her. Cihuateteo's machines continued to fire at her as she threw out another round of electricity from her arms, before summoning forth into her hands the silver scythe from earlier, twirling it around before-
{CLASH}
-Using it to block both Lilith and Lamia's sword attacks, their clash continuing on and on as they continued to duel and duel, steel clashing against light made physical, and the sounds of blades scraping against each other filling the air sharp, ugly noises of metal against metal as they twirled and danced with each other.
But, even with her fatigue gone- Even with her fresh weaknesses dissolved into nothingness...
She was still loosing.
They were still loosing.
"I see you got a little boost," Lamia chuckled darkly as she grabbed Ruby by the hood and threw her over her head, right into the ground before the green-haired woman raised her foot to stamp her head into the cold, wet mud, "Though it won't be enough."
And on that- As she burst away in a flutter of petals at just the right moment- They were agreed.
Even being no longer tired, Yang and Dad, though less sluggish and more alert than before, were still being stomped on by all of the other Aspects, from Cihuateteo to Upyr, and even she, with her new silver eye powers, was being beaten back by both of the Cult of Silver's twin pairs, the Aspects of Amusement and their twin black-haired servants in red and white, forcing her to dodge talon swipe after heel kick, flipping from side to side as, without her Crescent Rose, she found herself being kicked and punched and beaten down as she fell herself being forced down onto her knees, in the mud and muck, as the cultists just continued to wail and wail on her.
Please, she thought to herself, Please, someone... Help us.
And then, as if she was blessed by divine intervention...
It came.
From the edges of the forest, out shot Baobhan Sith, flailing through the air, but quickly recovering herself as she jumped back onto her feet.
Ozpin followed shortly afterwards, followed by the Aspect with metal skin and a camera. Green flame-like energy flowed off of Ozpin, as his face remained as stoic as ever, but his eyes burned with emotions that she couldn't possibly, or didn't want to, imagine.
Silver sword and cane met each other in a great-
{CLASH}
-That silenced the entire battlefield, before weapon slammed against weapon once more, and then...
They began to duel.
Their battle was like a dance, a ballet, a play's main symphony as silver met green met silver met green all over again in brilliant technicolour flashes and bursts of light, each strike clapping like thunder and stinging like lightning. The entire battlefield was silenced and stood still to watch as Baobhan and Ozpin continued their duet and duel together, as if they were the main attraction to the great performance that was the battle of the Emerald Forest. It seemed like even the ships above had fallen silent as all attention was drawn towards these 2 great leaders solving their differences through steel and iron.
Baobhan dodged and parried a sting of blows from Ozpin with the grace of a dancer, and then threw her sword at him like a rocket, only to teleport to his side once he dodged it and caught it in her hand, throwing it down at him as-
{VOMPF}
-Like Jaune's fancy bubble shield, he summoned a gold and green energy barrier around him as-
{SLAM}
-Baobhan's sword came down on it, only-
{SLAM}
-To falter-
{SLAM}
-As Baobhan-
{SLAM}
-Continued-
{SLAM}
-To hit-
{SLAM}
-And hit-
{SLAM}
-And hit-
{SLAM}
-And hit-
{SLAM}
-Until-
{SLAM}
{VOMPF}
-It fizzled out into nothing.
Baobhan smiled.
Ozpin said nothing.
He threw up his cane to continue the fight-
{STAB}
-But Baobhan pressed her silver sword into the cane's top mechanism, twisted-
{CRACK}
{SPLINTER}
-And broke his cane into nothingness.
And then, Ozpin... He did something both truly remarkable, and utterly horrifying...
He froze.
He froze up at the sight of his cane being destroyed...
That was all Baobhan needed, as she planted her heel into his gut-
{KICK}
-And sent him flying across the battlefield.
Ozpin... He was known as the greatest Huntsman who had ever lived... He had been called that...
And he had failed.
Baobhan looked to the failed Ozpin, and smiled. Lazily kicking away the shambled remains of his cane weapon, she looked to the man as he picked himself back up, still desperately trying to continue the fight, and said, "I think the point has been proven, Ozpin. I can't kill you-"
Her smile was once more all teeth.
"-But I will destroy you."
She lulled her head to the side.
"You're smart enough to know the difference."
She then willed her sword away, and pulled something out of her pocket. Pressing down on it, she seemed to stagger in pain, but stilled herself as she looked over to her fellow Aspects, and hummed out, "I think we've overstayed our welcome, don't you think?"
Suddenly, every cultist around them, from Baobhan to the Aspects to even the common grunts, began to glow an ethereal silver.
"Oh, and Ruby?"
Her head perked up at the sound of her name, and the black coffin from before suddenly appeared next to her. She had forgotten it was there. Had it been floating in the air this entire time?
"You can keep the body. I have no use for it. Consider it... Our parting gift."
She shivered under the stare that Baobhan gave her.
"I... I-"
"Shhhh..."
Suddenly, Baobhan teleported right in front of her, and pressed a finger to her lips.
"Think on it, will you? Oh, and don't bother trying to find us."
Baobhan leaned down, and kissed her on the forehead. Ruby had never felt so violated.
"When the time comes," she whispered in a sickly sweet voice, "We will come and hear your answer for ourselves."
She giggled.
"You and Orions."
Jaune…
As the ethereal glow swept over her, she waved-
"Until next time."
-And then, she and every single living cultist in the Emerald Forest, as well as their war machines and droids, suddenly blinked out of existence.
Up in the air, the Cult of Silver's navy was pulling out. The remaining troop carriers that weren't grounded attached themselves to the warship in the air, as did the fighters. The sky platforms retracted into the warship as its engines were brought back to life, as it began to sail through the air, up and around the clouds, until...
It was suddenly gone.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Everything was quiet.
Everyone was quiet.
No one dared to move a muscle.
No one dared to speak.
Had they won this battle?
Or had they lost?
…
…
…
…
"The ship..."
Ruby's eyes widened-
"The ship!"
-And then suddenly, she began to burst across the former battlefield in rose petal cloud after rose petal cloud, going the fastest that she had ever gone before-
"I need someone who knows how to defuse bombs! The people inside the ship have got bomb collars around their necks!"
-She almost slammed into the side of the ship, shouldering past Miss Goodwitch as she jumped into the slanted corridors of the grounded troop carrier, having finally burnt out her aura for the day, as she typed in the code on the door panel-
"Oh god, what was the code that Nana put in... Here, here, this one, and... This one? Yes! This one!"
-And then slid it wide open.
"Okay then everyone, sit tight! We're going to... No..."
Everyone inside of the ship's hold was gone.
Not dead, but gone...
Just gone.
Reviewer response time:
ReDestrobo: Well, the question has been answered... And the answer was no. Woops.
SentinalSlice: You know, when I had originally thought of it, I was thinking more along the lines of Subaru's gathered authorities, but you know what? I had completely forgotten about One for All. That's a much better comparison. Though, if you couldn't already tell, there are going to be some... Drawbacks.
Xealchim: Nah, it's no problem, man/girl/whatever. I quite like the nickname. And I do hope that you liked this chapter as well.
merendinoemiliano: Thank you very much! I hope this one was up to equal standards as well!
And here we are! The long awaited end to the battle of the Emerald Forest! God, we've really come a long way, haven't we? This has honestly felt like shonen arc levels of stretching out!
And we're not even at the end, yet!
That's right, we've still got to cover the aftermath, so hold onto your pants, people!
That being said, I do want to address something:
Yesterday, as of writing this, I got a complaint on Ao3 (I'm posting these stories on Archive Of Our Own, by the way, so go check them out, saying that I had made it all about the OCs, how they were too unbeatable, and asking why I didn't just take out the RWBY bit and make it its own thing. So, allow me to address those points, which I said to him (I'm basically just copying, paraphrasing and editing what I said to him for all of you, so bare with me):
This is part of the RWBYverse because I wanted it to be. I didn't want to make it its own thing, I wanted to write it as a RWBY fanfiction.
And besides, would everyone reading this- Every single person- Rather I wrote all of the new guys as complete pushovers that presented no challenge to the original cast. They're not unbeatable, as has been shown during this arc when they are caught off guard, they're not totally invincible, they're just really hard to defeat, and that presents an entertaining challenge for the main characters to overcome, otherwise then what's the point? It's like Salem- She's immortal, for lack of a better word, therefore she's a difficult challenge for our heroes to defeat. And be fair, this is right before those same heroes got into Beacon- This is their initiation- So RWBY and JNPR haven't received their Beacon training yet, or even formed their teams yet.
The Cult exists in the RWBY universe and are really strong for a reason. I just haven't revealed it yet, and probably won't for a very long time, because, you know, plot.
And besides, if the main enemy of the protagonists are weak, then its not fun to watch the good guys eventually triumph over them, is it?
And it's not like I'm just replacing the original cast with nothing but OCs and making it into some self-insert story (Of which I am fully aware of the reputation of those fics). And I'm aware that I have a whole cast of canonical characters, but let's be fair, a million other stories have done something like that: Make a story with nothing but the original cast. And to be honest, a lot of those stories generally follow the baseline plot of the original show whilst only changing a few details. It's entertaining at first, but then gets boring after a while, at least in my opinion. And it ends up becoming a bit stifling for me, and I would rather do my own thing and create new premises rather than follow this basic formula, hence why my RWBY stories generally follow the main cast against new OC villains and organisations rather than just redoing 'RWBY vs Salem' like so many other stories. Like you said, there's an entire main cast of characters, but there is also a lot of potential for new ideas and concepts within the RWBY universe which I feel don't get exploited and explored enough by the fandom.
I kinda cheated a bit with Ascendancy, since it's still Hunters vs Grimm, but I've added enough differences to the Grimm itself to make them stand out as something completely different to anything that's ever been done before in the FNDM. Here, I'm doing the complete opposite and just making a brand new set of villains. It's just more entertaining for me, and hopefully for all of you, than just recycling Salem and Cinder as the main villains all over again.
So yeah, the Cult and its members are strong. Of course they are. If they weren't, then what's the point of having them as the main threat if they can just easily be beaten by the heroes? And yes, the main threat are all OCs, because I'm bored of seeing Salem and Cinder as the main threat over and over again, and I want to do something new. And no, the Cult are not unbeatable, as I have shown that they actually can be beaten by the actions of the initiates in the Emerald Forest alone, since they were kicking each others butts down there right up until the end.
So, with that all said and done, leave a review, follow and favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
Titanmaster117 out!