In what appeared to be a dark, barren wasteland somewhere in Haven, Grimm began emerging from inky black puddles in the ground. From a castle high above this hideous site, Emerald and Mercury watched in disgust and horror, before a snap from Cinder's fingers called them back over. Around the table she sat at were several other elite members of their organization: a well-dressed dignified man looking at his scroll, a thin man with a disturbing grin on his face crouching in his seat with his feet on the arm rests and a burly, muscular man sitting at the table with his arms crossed. They walked up beside her, Emerald pushing Mercury aside to stand closer to Cinder. "Yes, yes, please keep your... posse, in check." The dignified man said, straightening his coat. Mercury stepped forward threateningly, but Emerald held him back. "You hear that? Silence." He said, looking at the other members, before looking back at Cinder. "I have half a mind to thank that demon who bested you." He said.
The creepy guy to Cinder's left began chuckling. "If I were you, I'd hunt him down. Find him and... Well, he took your eye, didn't he?" He asked, looking at Cinder's hair that now covered her missing left eye from when my last fireball destroyed both her aura and her eye in our glared at him as he broke out laughing.
She struggled to try and speak, finding herself unable to, instead whispering something to Emerald (how happy was everyone else to see Cinder weakened and crippled like this?). "Pathetic. Why did you even-?" The dignified man asked once again before the doors burst open, Salem entering the court as everyone stood to greet her. She walked to the other end of the room stopping in front of some sort of altar. "Watts..." She said, the dignified man acknowledging her call. "You find such malignance necessary?" She asked, raising her hand and allowing them to sit.
"I apologize, ma'am. I'm not particularly fond of failure." He explained, sitting along with her.
"Then I see no reason for your cruelty towards young Cinder. She's become our Fall maiden, destroyed Beacon Tower... and MOST importantly... Killed dear Ozpin. So I'm curious. To what 'failures' are you referring?" She asked.
The arrogant fucker was put in his place at this (seriously, he didn't do shit, why's he acting important? I'm not AT ALL defending Cinder, but still). "Well... the demon who bested her and killed the dragon." He explained with far less confidence.
"Yes... We've dealt with his kind before. How was it a lowly demon could best one of us?" The burly man asked.
"My thoughts exactly. Even without her newf power, it should have been effortless." Watts said.
"It is BECAUSE he's a demon. That particular demon stands out more than others. He's a member of the Blade clan, far superior to any demon any previous maiden had faced. You said it yourself, he even killed the dragon sent to destroy Vale. That alone explains his victory. And yet, she still put up a fight against him." She explained. "Make no mistake, Cinder, you hold the key to our victory. But even with your newfound power, you are not the strongest being in this world like some would believe. This is why you will remain by my side as we continue your treatment." She went on, Cinder scowling at this. "Doctor Watts, you shall take Cinder's place and meet with our informant in Mistral." She instructed.
"Very good." He said.
"Tyrian, I want you to continue your hunt for the Spring Maiden." She continued.
He giggled at this, giddily jumping up and down while clapping. "Gladly." He said.
"And Hazel, I'm sending you to the leader of the White Fang. Adam Taurus has arranged the meeting. The boy continues to prove loyal. Ensure that Sienna Kahn feels the same" She finished.
"As you wish." He said.
Cinder raised a finger, gesturing to Emerald to listen and speak for her. "Oh." She said, leaning in and hearing the Fall-SE maiden's whispers. See what I did there?
"Speak, child." Salem said.
"She wants to know... what about the demon?" Emerald asked.
Watts scoffed at this. "What about him? Seems to me like this is Cinder's problem, not ours." He said. Cinder slammed her fist on the table at this and he just smirked. I can't wait for that prick to die.
"With the threats he gave Cinder, promising to kill her, if she finds out there were others involved in the fall of Beacon, it will become a problem for all of us." Mercury interjected.
"That's enough." Salem said, raising a hand. "Tyrian?" She said, looking to him. "Spring can wait. Find the demon that did this to Cinder." She instructed. He started giggling and laughing once more. "And bring him to me." She said, to which he groaned and slumped down. "I have a special something that can tip the scale in your favor. The demon won't give you HALF the trouble he gave Cinder." She explained as he went through several emotions, before finally shrugging and accepting it. "Because of your efforts, Beacon has fallen. And Haven will be next." She said.
They all got up to leave, before Tyrian started giggling, getting Cinder's attention. "Eye for an eye." He said, pointing to his own eyes, before bursting out in maniacal laughter as she growled furiously.
Some random kid jumped awake at this, as if this had all just been a big nightmare for him. He then looked out his window to see the sunrise, getting out of bed and getting dressed, walking out of his room inside a barn and climbing down the ladder, doing a number of chores. UGH, this is SO BORING! When do we get to the-
-THERE WE GO! We now arrive in the forest, where Ren, Pyrrha and I are walking through the forest. "I'm just saying, there's more members of Team JNPR than RWBY or BDSS, it just makes sense to go with THAT one." She said.
"But "Juniors" isn't a color. Neither is 'Syringe'." Ren said, shooting down our team name ideas, Nora's being JNRRS and mine being SRRNJ.
"Neither is "Rangers', 'Coffee', 'Cardinal', 'Sun' or 'Funky'." I said.
Nora groaned at this. "How can I be more clear?!" She demanded, holding her arm out, her proposed team name JNRRS popping up along her arm. "1, 2, 3! That's MORE than 2!" She said, pointing out the three members of the former Team JNPR, before pointing back and forth at Ruby's and my extra letter.
"But we're helping Ruby with her objective. Wouldn't that make her the leader?" Ren asked as Ruby's proposed name, "RNJRS" popped up next to him.
"But A: I have WAY more stake in this mission than Ruby does. And I've been the one guiding us and properly managing our supplies and rations. By all means, I've been doing all the jobs of a leader around here." I said, SYRNJ appearing beside me.
"Guys!" Jaune called, crouched behind a fallen tree. "We need to focus." He said, before chuckling. "Also, JNRRS is way cooler, SYNJ just scares me." He said.
"EXACTLY!" Nora screamed.
"It's SUPPOSED to be scary, because we're like a syringe, delivering the lethal injection to the Grimm and that evil bitch who killed Pyrrha and will receive a dynamite enema the instant I see her again." I explained, walking passed Jaune.
"We REALLY need to have him evaluated soon." Ren said.
"He IS acting more psychotic than usual." Jaune agreed.
"Hey! He's our friend! We should trust him! And he's just handling losing Pyrrha... A lot differently than we are." She said, taking in both my unusually high aggression whenever Cinder is mentioned and...
Flashback...
Nora sat on her bed confused as she heard strange noises coming from the inn room beside hers: mine. "Uuuhuuhuuu, PYRRHA! Why didn't I save you?! Why-hy-hyyyy?! Uuuuuuh Pyrrha! PYRRHAAAAA!" My sobbing could be heard through the walls.
Back to now...
"He just needs time." She said, trying to hide how disturbed she was.
The ground beneath them started rumbling, raising a few rocks with each consecutive shake. "It's here!" Jaune said.
Background Music: "Black Betty" by Ram Jam
Suddenly, Ruby flew out of the forest firing at a Geist which had possessed a number of boulders, now looking like something straight out of Shadow of The Colossus, tricking it into chasing her off a cliff, but she still fell with it, bouncing off several branches on her way down. "Bad! Landing! Strategy!" She said with each bounce. She finally landed safely on one of the branches, flying away before the monster could destroy the tree.
"You're mine!" I shouted, rushing in, leaping towards one of its legs and slamming both feet into its legs in a powerful kick, destroying the leg and making it fall to the side. "Give it hell!" I shouted, pulling out Blazeguard and hitting it with several stabs and slashes, but it didn't seem to take any damage. (I will be using a lot of weapons that didn't originate from this story. Read Devil May Sai for context)
Ren also rushed in towards its head and unleashed several strikes, before backing off, running to Jaune's side. "My blades don't hurt him! Neither do Sai's." He said.
"Clearly not stopping him." He said as they watched me continuously and ruthlessly attacking the monster, managing to leaving deep nicks and cuts in the rocks, but not doing any serious damage, until it swung its arm and knocked me away. It then looked down at its legs, noticing the fallen tree near where its leg once was, before a ghostly leg appeared and attached itself to the tree, pulling it in and making a new leg for itself from the tree, getting back up.
"His leg is a tree! His leg is a tree!" Jaune said, panicked.
"Big mistake!" Ruby and I said together. I threw a fireball while she switched out her ammo for fire ammo, firing a shot at the leg, my fireball breaking off some parts of the tree, but somehow that worked to the monster's favor, shaping the tree into more of a leg shape and breaking it in half to give it a bend, while Ruby's bullet lit the limb on fire, but did nothing to stop it.
"BIG MISTAKE!" Jaune said in fear.
"You've GOT to be kidding me!" I said angrily, rushing in.
It then slammed its arm into the ground, the force creating a huge blast of wind that sent the others flying as well. Ren managed to stop him and Nora, Ruby brought herself to a stop with her scythe, while Jaune unfortunately bounced off the ground several times before slamming into a boulder, hitting him between the legs... The poor bastard. "Next time my weapon's in the shop and Sai offers me one of his... take it." He groaned in pain.
"Damn it!" I snapped, looking up at the monster from a 3 point landing position. "I've taken on bigger things than this with less effort, so why is this bastard giving me a hard time?!" I demanded.
Everything around me went black for a moment, red spirit version of myself appearing to my left. "Look at you. You can't even beat a pile of rocks. It even has a tree leg and you couldn't burn it!" He snapped.
"I'm just getting started. It's not over yet." I said.
"No, but maybe it SHOULD be. You want it to be, don't you. You want this all to end. That creature could smash you like Godzilla wrecking any building he passes. Why not let him? Then we can be with Pyrrha again." He said, getting closer and whispering it in my ear.
"Perhaps... You're right... We may never find Cinder again. And if we can't kill her, we can't get Pyrrha back... This could be so much easier..." I said, closing my eyes.
"I can't believe what I'm hearing..." Another voice rang out. Then, Damion's spirit appearing beside me to the right, a deep, peaceful blue color. "Dude, give me a break. You're seriously gonna listen to that empty voice in your head? That isn't the Sai I know. The guy I know is someone, despite adversity, kept on fighting. The same who'd look death right in the face and laugh, then shoot him afterwards. If you lose now, then what have you really been fighting for? You want to get your revenge for what happened at Beacon? You'd better kick it into another gear and show that walking rock slide what it really means to be to have overwhelming power." He explained.
I suddenly felt my fire re-ignited, like something powerful inside me long forgotten and asleep woke up and took over. "You're right. I'm not gonna let some damn pile of rocks stop me!" I said, getting up with slight effort. "I won't stop... Not until Cinder and her crew pay and Pyrrha is by my side again." I said, closing my eyes, then opening them again as the monster started to bring its arm down on me, but I rolled out of the way, swapping out Blazeguard for Shinigami Destroyer, turning it into its gauntlet form, rushing in and punching its rock leg and shattering it, doing a 180 and turning it into its revolver form, shooting and obliterating its wooden leg, leaving it to attempt to walk and fight with its arms like that creepy-ass Tomb Raider boss, Torso. I rushed in again, but this time it grabbed me with both hands and tried to crush me. "Why won't you die!?" I demanded, spitting a soccer ball-sized fireball at the Grimm mask, creating an explosion that made the mask look like a shattered window, a spiderweb of cracks running through it, causing it to roar in pain, throwing me to my team's feet and hold its face. "Not so sturdy after all, huh!?" I taunted with malice in my voice.
"It's still sturdier than WE can handle." Ren said.
"Right. How do we do this?" Jaune wondered.
"His body is too thick to break through." Ren stated.
"It doesn't care about its body..." Jaune pieced together.
"Plus it keeps grabbing new limbs!" Nora added.
"But it's protecting its face!" He realized, connecting more pieces to the puzzle.
"We can't break it!" Ruby said.
"If we knocked all of its limbs off at once and went for the...!" He said, finally figuring it out. "Guys, I got it!" He said.
"So do I, bu let's hear yours first." I said.
Jaune was a little shocked I got it as well, but shook it off, getting a huge grin on his face. "We hit it HARDER!" He said.
We all deadpanned at this. "Is that it?" Ren asked.
"I should kick you in the dick right now. But I won't. Anyway, I have a better plan. Distract him, try to make an opening. I've got something perfect to deal with him." I said, everyone nodding as Jaune deflated, his master plan ruined. "Scatter!" I ordered, Ruby rushing to the right as Ren and Nora headed to the left.
Ren fired a few shots at its face, causing it to raise its arm to defend itself. "My turn!" Nora said, lunging at the monster and smashing her hammer down on its arm, sending the rocks flying.
"I've got this!" Ruby said, flying it towards its remaining arm as it swung at Ren and Nora, knocking it upwards and almost knocking it down, but it used its arm to stop itself, now open while it tried to hold its body up.
"Now you're mine!" I said, my eyes flashing briefly as I pulled something from my coat. "ROAD ROLLER DA!" I shouted, throwing the steam roller as hard as I could towards the monster, easily shattering its torso into dozens of smaller rocks and sending the rocks that were previously the arm flying. One large chunk still containing the Grimm mask fell to the ground, the Geist flying out of it and attempting to flee, but I looked back at Ruby. "You got this?" I asked.
She spun her scythe around before stabbing it into the ground, taking aim at the ghostly Grimm. "No problem." She said, before firing and shooting it right in the face, obliterating the mask and the body fading to vapor.
End Music
"Done!" She said cheerfully.
"Yep. All of this is a great warm-up for when we find Cinder and slowly choke the life out of her." I say, walking over to the steamroller and picking it up.
"So... why do you have a STEAMROLLER?" Nora asked.
"I'mma run over Cinder with it." I explained with some strain, before pocketing the road work machine.
"What about choking the life out of her like you just said?" Ren asked.
"I'mma do that first: choke her JUST long enough for her to fall unconscious, then I pull out the steamroller and run over, feet first for the pain to pull her back to consciousness, then she can enjoy being turned into a rolled up tube of toothpaste." I said, heading back to the village. "But that's for later. For now, we enjoy a team SRRNJ victory and collect our stuff from the village." I said.
"RNJRS!" Ruby called after me, following me.
"JNRRS!" Nora called, following as well.
"I want you to know, you are not well." Ren told me as him and Jaune jogged up.
"It is an unhealthy obsession." I agreed, nodding. "But until such time as Cinder is a bloody stain and Pyrrha is alive again, that obsession isn't going away any time soon." I said.
We got back to the village and I shook hands with the village chief. "We truly can't thank you enough." He said.
"No problem at all, sir. It's what we do." I said.
"Just doing our job." Ruby confirmed at with salute.
"That Geist had been plaguing our village for weeks. We were beginning to wonder if we'd have to relocate." He said.
"Well now you won't have to. This is your home and it's your choice to leave or stay." I said.
"But, we are on our way to Mistral. You could always come along with us if you don't feel safe." Ruby suggested.
He simply chuckled at this, however. "I take it you're not from these parts. Anima is a large continent. I'm afraid our people would never survive the long trek to Mistral. It may be safer in the kingdoms, but we prefer our way of life." He explained happily, before frowning a bit. "I only wish we could pay you more." He said.
"You've already helped us more than we could say." I said with a bow.
"Yeah! Besides, he's rich!" Nora said, pointing to me.
"Yeah, that too." I said.
"But as our friend said, our previous arrangement is more than sufficient." Ren said, to which we all bowed, before heading to the local blacksmith.
We entered the shop and the ram faunus behind the counter set down a tough-looking white and gold chest plate, greaves, tassets (thigh armor), poleyns (knee armor) and fauld (hip armor) down on the table. "There you go, son!" He said proudly. "It's gonna be heavier than you're used to, but you'll thank me the next time you're up against a set of claws!" He explained.
"That's some fine work, there. I know two people who are expert weapons and armor craftsmen and even they'd be impressed by this." I said. (for those wondering, these Blacksmiths are Rodin and my brother, Lance.)
Jaune looked at the armor, both happily and in awe. "Wow. I don't know what to say." He said, still in awe.
"Don't gotta say anything. Just put it on!" The blacksmith said. "I'll go get the rest." He said, heading to the back.
"Happy birthday, buddy. Now you can finally stop hearing me complain about how you aren't wearing enough armor." I said (seriously, armor that covers up only as much as a T-shirt (not even, it doesn't cover his stomach) isn't that effective. Like how Achilles should've had the greatest armor IN THE WORLD over that heel instead of sandals).
"So, what are you waiting for?" Nora asked.
"Oh! Right!" He said, walking up to the counter, placing his old chest plate on the table. "I guess I was gonna grow out of it eventually." He said, somewhat sad.
"A sign of progress." Ren said reassuringly.
"Right. Progress." He said, turning around and revealing something on his hoodie that made me facepalm and Ruby gasp, before snickering. "What? What is it?" He asked.
"What is THAT?!" She said through laughter, pointing at the cute bunny head on his shirt.
"What, my hoodie? I've always had this." He said.
She kept snickering at this, before she let it burst out. "IT'S GOT A CUTE LITTLE BUNNY WABBIT!" She burst out in laughter.
"It's Pumpkin Pete! You know, from the cereal!" He defended himself.
"Yes. Cereal. Right." I said, pounding my chest a few times as I thought of Pyrrha again, as she was the face of the cereal (subtle call back, but well-placed).
Ruby kept laughing at this. "What did you do!? Send in box tops for a prize?!" She asked.
"Yeah! 50!" He confirmed, causing her to burst out in laughter again, falling to the floor.
"At least the happy, light-hearted times are back... for now." I said.
"Oh, come on! We're supposed to be happy and have fun again, remember?" Nora said, clinging to my arm.
I smiled and nodded at her. "Yeah. You're right." I said, giving her a quick peck on the lips she happily returned.
"Well, I suppose we don't have to grow out of everything." Ren said, Ruby snickering and giggling even from the floor.
The bell dinged as the Blacksmith came back. "Can't have a Huntsman without his weapon." He said, placing the sword in its sheath upright on the table. " Made all the modifications you asked for. That was some fine metal you brought me there, Silver." He said, looking to me.
"It's Sai, not Silver, I'm not a psychic hedgehog." I said, mildly annoyed.
"In any case, it accents the white nicely. Where'd you get it from?" He asked.
I sighed as I looked down towards the new crest at the bottom of the shield, Pyrrha's tiara. "Someone very special." I said somberly with my eyes closed.
We waited outside for Jaune to wrap up, the blonde emerging after a few minutes, now dressed from...chest to toe in stunning white and gold armor, drawing his sword and activating his shield, posing proudly. "He cleans up alright, don't you think?" The Blacksmith asked.
"He certainly does." Ren confirmed.
"Meh. I still say a grenade launcher would've REALLY brought the look together." Nora said, to which I chuckled a bit.
"Nothing's gonna stop team RNJRS now!" Ruby cheered.
"Team JNRRS!" Nora argued.
"SRRNJ." I threw in.
"It doesn't matter what we're called. As long as we're together." Jaune said, before turning to me. "So, Sai. What do you think about my new armor? You paid for it all." He said.
I looked him up and down for a moment, my eyes falling once again on the shield and Pyrrha's tiara, before everything except him and me went black again, Jaune appearing frozen where he was. My red spirit appeared to my left again, glaring between the two of us angrily. "How could you give him Pyrrha's armor! That was the last piece of her we had! And you wasted in on a fancy new design for his shield! He doesn't deserve it! Pyrrha was ours, not his!" The spirit snapped.
Damion appeared to my right once again. "He needed some new equipment, now he's got it. Looks good on him. He'll be able to take a few more hits in the field now." Damion suggested.
I shook my head to clear it, everything returning to normal as I looked back at Jaune. "Looks good. Puts team CRDL to shame." I said.
"Thanks. Alright, let's go." He said.
"You kids sure don't want to stick around? You've been real good to this town." The Blacksmith said.
"Sorry, but we've got another mission." Ruby said.
"Make it to Haven academy, no matter what!" Nora confirmed.
"And find the evil murderous bitch who killed my fiancee' and violently, VIOLENTLY kill her." I added.
"We've heard the next village over has a working airship ." Ren threw in.
The Blacksmith stroked his beard at this. "Hard to say. Scroll signals were bad enough out here when Beacon tower was still up. Haven't heard from Shion village in a while." He said.
"My family's working on it. Shouldn't be much longer than a week before signals are up and running again." I explained.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Ruby said, before we continued on.
"Food?" Jaune asked, looking at the check list.
"Check." Nora confirmed.
"Water?" He asked.
"Check!" She confirmed again.
"How 'bout ammo?" He asked.
"Locked and loaded! Thank you Schnee Dust Company!" She confirmed.
I looked to Ruby as Weiss' last name was mentioned, to see she was frowning, looking in all different directions. "Thinking about your old teammates?" I asked.
She shook her head at this. "No. I'm trying to stay focused on the road ahead. It's gonna be a long journey." She said.
"I see." I said in understanding. Although I was thinking something quite different. www .youtube watch?v=hlUx60oVEAI
"Got the map?" Jaune asked.
Nora faltered this time. "Um... Ren's got it!" She said.
"No, I don't. You have it." He said.
"Wait, what?!" She demanded.
"Guys, please tell me you're joking." He said.
"Don't worry, guys, I've got maps for days." I said, pulling out a number of rolled up maps. "The map we're currently using, the map of all of Mistral, map of all Remnant and my favorite: the map for my foot to Cinder's ass, stomach, face, baby-maker and anywhere else I decide to kick her." I explained with an evil grin at the end.