The prompt for this was "In a reverse of events, Pyrrha is the last one standing after the Battle of Beacon."
"Are you ready?" asked Professor Ozpin.
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, then summoned her resolve and nodded in reply.
"I… I need to hear you say it," the headmaster said sadly.
"Yes," answered Pyrrha, pushing away the doubt that still gripped her heart.
"Thank you, Miss Nikos." Professor Ozpin returned to the console and touched a few more buttons. Pyrrha heard a mechanical whir as Amber's pod was elevated. Then there was a humming as the process began. Orange light began to fill the inside of Pyrrha's pod.
She wasn't ready for the pain. It came up on her suddenly, causing her to scream and making her whole body convulse. Distantly she heard Jaune call out her name, but she couldn't focus on anything but her agony.
The pain wasn't in her body but her soul. It was like heartbreak distilled into something tangible. Pyrrha felt as if her own Aura was trying to rip her into pieces in a way that went beyond the physical. It hurt more than anything she had ever experienced.
Pyrrha tried to cling to something, some thought or memory that could make her strong enough to endure this. She conjured images of her team, her friends, and her past victories, only to have them all washed away by the pain. Her mind kept desperately seeking some comfort, and she felt herself mouth the word 'Mother.'
An image flashed through her mind of a woman's smiling face. She had dark skin and short, chocolate-colored hair that matched her big, expressive eyes. She was a bit portly, and wrinkles were beginning to develop on her forehead, but she still possessed a matronly beauty. The image put Pyrrha at ease, just as the sight of her mother always did.
But then she began to panic as she realized that something was wrong.
You are not my mother.
Another image appeared in her mind, this time of a man with sandy blonde hair and lightly freckled skin. A rough, untrimmed beard covered his cheeks. His blue eyes sparkled with humor. He was looking down at Pyrrha with an approving smile that filled her with pride.
You are not my father.
Pyrrha saw a young boy running towards her, calling out for her to come and play with him. He was a wiry kid, short even for his age. He took after his father mostly, but he had inherited his mother's eyes, just like she had.
No, this is wrong. You're not my brother; I don't have a brother!
Images continued to flash relentlessly through Pyrrha's mind. She remembered a house in Vale that she'd never been to and a bed that she'd never slept in. She remembered beloved pets even as she knew that she'd never been good with animals. She remembered playing in the snow with friends that she had never met. She remembered losing in the individual round of the Vytal Festival tournament after a long and difficult fight. She remembered graduating from Beacon with the three other girls on her team, and she remembered celebrating her twenty-second birthday a short time later.
This is all wrong. This isn't me.
Pyrrha saw a boy in a Beacon uniform leaning against a doorframe. His short brown hair framed roguish, well-defined features. His clear blue eyes shone like sapphires, piercing her to her core. She knew that behind his self-assured smirk was a kind, sensitive boy who loved animals and played the violin, but that smile still made her knees weak. Seeing his face filled her with love, desire, and no small amount of regret at how things had ended between them.
She remembered the first time they'd kissed, under the light of the full moon outside of the training hall at Beacon. The taste of his lips had been everything she'd imagined, and she had wanted the moment to last forever.
She remembered two weeks later when they'd retreated to his dorm room and she'd eagerly stripped off her shirt to show herself to him. She remembered the feel of his hands on her body, and she remembered-
No, please don't take that from me. Please!
And in that moment of denial, the flood of memories stopped. The pain that had consumed Pyrrha began to subside, and her heart leapt as she became herself again.
I am Pyrrha Nikos! My parents are Jason and Hippolyta Nikos! I come from Mistral, and I am a champion fighter! I am the top student in my class at Beacon, and I am in love with Jaune Arc!
As Pyrrha screamed inside her own mind, the pain in her soul vanished as Amber's identity retreated from her own.
And at the same time, the Fall Maiden's power withdrew from her. Pyrrha had been too consumed by agony to notice it before, but while the transfer was happening power had surged through her veins with the fury of a coursing river. But that power receded from her the instant she reasserted her identity.
At the same time, Pyrrha felt certain that Amber was dead. The machine had drawn her soul from her body, leaving only a corpse in the other pod. The only question remaining was whether Pyrrha allowed that soul into her own body or left it to die as well.
Pyrrha realized she'd been given one last chance to make her choice. She could accept the Fall Maiden's power and Amber's soul along with it, or she could reject the burden and keep her identity. Mustering her strength, she cracked open her eyes to take one last look at Jaune.
She saw him desperately fighting to keep his shield up, withering under a furious flurry of blows from a pair of jet black scimitars wielded by a raven-haired woman. Jaune backpedaled as her strikes rained down on him, denying any chance at a counterattack.
Cinder? She's from Mercury's team! What is she doing here?
Pyrrha's heart raced as Cinder batted Jaune's shield aside and cut him across the chest, damaging his Aura. Before she could get in another blow, a green blur knocked her backwards. Pyrrha just barely made out Professor Ozpin striking Cinder with his cane before returning to the machine's console with the same emerald flash of speed.
As Ozpin furiously worked the controls of the machine, Cinder raised her weapons again and faced off against Jaune. Pyrrha saw a tiny tremor of fear go through Jaune's body, and in that instant her choice was made.
I accept.
The Maiden's power surged through Pyrrha once more, but this time there was no pain. The storm of memories returned, but they didn't overwhelm Pyrrha. Instead, the events of Amber's life flowed into her, and she allowed each one to become a part of her identity.
I accept you, Amber Hollyfield. I accept your life and your memories. I accept your love and your pain. I accept everything that you are into me. I will keep your soul within myself, and in my heart protect thee.
Every experience that made Amber who she was flashed through Pyrrha's mind, right up to the moment when Cinder stole the girl's power and left her in a coma. Though it was a lifetime's worth of memories, the transfer took only a second to complete, and the Fall Maiden was reborn.
No sooner had the tide of images finished then Pyrrha felt the machine power down around her. She opened her eyes again just in time to see Jaune knocked off his feet by a blast of fire from Cinder's hand.
Pyrrha screamed out her anger, and the door was ripped off her pod and thrown across the room. Gale-force wind howled through the underground vault, snuffing out Cinder's flames and nearly blowing her off her feet.
Pyrrha leapt from her pod, calling Miló and Akoúo̱ to her hands with her Semblance. She rushed towards Cinder, who was squinting against the wind and barely saw the thrust that hit her in the chest, digging into her Aura.
Cinder staggered backwards and snarled with rage. Fire leapt from her body in all directions, fierce enough to counter Pyrrha's wind. She raised her blades just in time to block a cut from Miló that would have caught her in the cheek, but Pyrrha continued to press the attack.
She hurt Jaune.
She killed me.
The two Maidens fought blade to blade as the elements clashed around them. Fire raged up around the combatants only to be battered down by roaring wind. At the same time, the clang of glass on bronze reverberated through the hall as Miló and Akoúo̱ met Cinder's twin scimitars over and over again.
Cinder was the most skilled that Pyrrha had ever faced, and she wore no metal that could be manipulated with polarity. But Pyrrha didn't need her Semblance to win when she had all the skill and experience of two Vytal Festival finalists. The pace of combat accelerated with each attack, and yet Pyrrha never once lost track of the action. Every move she made was guided by carefully honed instinct and executed flawlessly, a dance of battle that was worthy of a demigoddess.
Yet still Cinder did not go down. She fought with the fury of a Grimm and the grace of a dancer, golden fire burning in her right eye. Her scimitars weaved a web of death that would have left any lesser opponent a bloody mess, and it took every ounce of Pyrrha and Amber's combined battle instinct to keep up.
Then Pyrrha felt something moving behind her. The next time that Cinder lashed out with her blades, Pyrrha spun to the side to avoid the attack…
And revealed Ozpin behind her, lunging forward with his cane. Caught completely off guard, Cinder was struck in the chest and stumbled back a step. Ozpin pressed the attack, hitting her over and over with thrusts too quick to be seen. He punctuated the flurry of blows with an upward strike to the chin that lifted Cinder off her feet.
At which point Pyrrha leapt up and spiked her opponent back to the ground with a vicious slash from Miló. Cinder fell onto her side and dropped both of her weapons. Her orange Aura flashed around her and then dissipated, visibly breaking.
Pyrrha took a step closer to her fallen foe, only to have Cinder explode into motion, leaping back to her feet.
"NO!" screamed the would-be Fall Maiden, conjuring another scimitar out of glass in her right hand. She lashed out with a savage cut that Pyrrha barely blocked with Akoúo̱. Cinder immediately followed this by raising her left hand and unleashing a torrent of fire at her opponent's face.
Pyrrha raised her arm in front of the flames and channeled the Maiden's power into a wave of sheer cold that protected her from Cinder's attack. When the fire stopped, Pyrrha pushed Akoúo̱ against her opponent's weapon and attacked with Miló in a high horizontal slash.
She was prepared to defend against the riposte when she realized there had been no parry. Pyrrha tore her gaze from her opponent's weapons to find a confused expression on Cinder's face. Miló had traced a crimson line across her throat, a cut that now leaked blood in little rivers down her body.
The scimitar in Cinder's hand disintegrated, and she stumbled forward. Without thinking, Pyrrha dropped her weapons to catch her opponent's falling body. The two Maidens met each other's gaze even as the golden fire disappeared from Cinder's eye.
"I'm sorry," whispered Pyrrha. "This burden was mine to bear, not yours. But please understand that I will use it as it was meant to be used."
A golden light suffused Cinder, and then left her body to surround Pyrrha. The Fall Maiden's power surged within her until it was great enough to summon the full fury of the elements. It was beyond anything Pyrrha had ever felt before, but for Amber this was the power as it was meant to be, and she was glad to be back at full strength.
Pyrrha lowered her enemy's body to the ground before turning her gaze towards the back of the room. She cried out when she saw Jaune lying on the ground unmoving, Professor Ozpin kneeling over him.
She was at his side in an instant and nearly screamed when she saw the angry red burns covering his chest and face. Cinder's fire had seared through his sweatshirt and even melted his armor slightly, revealing the damage done to him. His breathing was ragged and growing weaker with each moment. The sight was mercifully blurred as Pyrrha's eyes filled with tears.
The Professor Ozpin laid a hand on Jaune's chest, and green light began to surround the boy. It washed over his burns and healed them until it was like they had never been there at all. His breathing settled, and aside from the damage to his clothes it looked like he could have been peacefully sleeping.
"He will live," the headmaster declared. Pyrrha cried out in relief and leaned over her friend's body to hug him close to her.
"How?" she managed to choke out through her sobs.
"Magic," whispered Ozpin. "A small feat compared to what I've done in the past, but all that I'm capable of right now. Another incarnation and I probably won't be able to do even this much."
Pyrrha didn't understand what he meant, but that didn't matter because Jaune would live! She cried tears of joy over him, and nothing else mattered to her.
But then she realized that there was a part of her that didn't feel that way. A part of her wasn't overjoyed that her beloved was alive, only relieved that a stranger hadn't died for her.
As Pyrrha held Jaune's face in her hands, she knew that Amber didn't love him. Remembering the boy that she had given her virginity to, Pyrrha realized that Amber might never love him.
The thought left her cold inside.
Author's Note: Oh, I've been thinking about something like this for a long time. I don't think I've ever seen someone write about what would happen if the Aura transfer were successful, and that's a shame because it could have really interesting consequences. I may even try to turn something along these lines into a full fic. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading!