Onto the Blossom's Syndrome arc!


As the airborne strain of Blossom's Syndrome continues to spread throughout the city, millions of people become infected with the deadly disease. Thousands of them collapse. Hundreds more are turned into nightmarish ghouls as fleshy growths and Grimm chitin begin to spread through the streets like a flood.

Running through the alleyways of the city, Jaune and his group, with the few breathing apparatuses that they have, try their best to avoid the plague, but are unfortunately caught up in it. Soon, Mercury, Nora, Ren, Sky, and Russel are infected and collapse. The rest of them drag them away into a safehouse in the alleyways and barricade themselves inside.

High above, Beacon Academy is placed into lockdown, and the city below is put under quarantine. Ruby and the rest of the Huntsmen and Huntresses within the academy walls are forced to stay inside lest they catch the parasite floating about the city.

Vale is left to fend for itself.

Entire days pass by, and as the condition of those of their group infected with Blossom's Syndrome begin to worsen, the rest of Jaune's group realise that their friends will soon die if they don't find a cure for the virus soon enough.

Thankfully, Penny has an answer. She had previously that Blossom's Syndrome, in its original state, is a disease that should've been cured before, and though this new strain of it is a mutation, it should share enough similarities with the original virus to be able to refashion the cure into a new variant for this strain rather quickly. She had also previously mentioned that the Greater Valerian Medical Centre in the centre of the city had been one of the first places to develop a vaccine for the original virus. If there was a chance that a new cure was being developed right now, it would be there.

The rest of the group had been uncertain of going outside, especially with the airborne strain as well as what had happened to Miltia's corpse when she had become infected, but soon realise that there is no choice. Theorising that their aura will protect them from the disease for long enough, those that have them grab the oxygen canisters and breathers that they had stolen from the Black Hand and leave their safehouse, leaving Dove behind to take care of their sick.

As they moved through the streets, the rest of the group that hadn't already been infected realise just how bad things have got for Vale. Monsters that were once men, bloated and sickly and with split flesh like flowers, now walk the streets of Vale alongside Grimm Cambions and Fallen Angels. Meanwhile, the remaining parts of the city that still house uninfected survivors are under the joint control of both the Black Hand and the White Fang. They hold an iron grip over most of the parts of the city that aren't infested by monsters and have left the rest to the criminal and the desperate to war over.

Vale is heading down the sinkhole. Now it's up to them to plug it up.

The group make their way through the streets, doing their best to avoid the overlooking terrorists and hordes of Grimm-infested monsters on the ground below. However, they are soon caught afoul by the twins Lamia and Lilith, who are somehow able to interact with those infected by Blossom's Syndrome without being infected themselves. The twins fight with the rest of the group and force them underground, where they find that all the attacks that they inflict upon the twins immediately heals, rendering them both almost immortal.

The group flees, but soon run across a gathering of Huntsmen in the sewer system below. It is Taiyang Xiao Long and his company, X.L. Valerian Securities, hiding in the shadows along with a dozen people that they had been protecting since the outbreak first began. With some convincing, they are able to persuade Taiyang to help them get to the GVMC in the centre of Vale, but only if they help him get these people to safety first. Emerald and Nana are against this at first, but luckily Jaune, Pyrrha, Penny, and Anima are able to convince the two girls, and they all agree to the trade.

Elsewhere in Vale, Lamia and Lilith keep watch over Xaphan, the Will of Flugel, as he continues to grow in power and size as their new strain of Blossom's Syndrome, itself infected with Grimm matter, spreads further across the city of Vale, as does his connection to all those dead and walking, and his ability to puppeteer the dead. Lilith questions whether they should be concerned about Xaphan's continued rise to power, but Lamia denies it: he is going to betray them anyways, after all. And even when he does, he will still be useful to them.

Meanwhile on the streets of Vale, Jaune's group help Taiyang and his Huntsmen shepherd the civilians under their protection to a safehouse near the outskirts of Vale, run by a friendly group of White Fang called the White Cloaks, led by Ilia Amitola, who herself is being helped along by another Faunus that she had come across called Sun Wukong, who had come to Vale earlier than in canon to scope out the city and maybe beat the snot out of some Human Liberation Front goons as well. Ilia recognises Emerald as a member of Cinder's crew but is pulled aside by the girl and told that Cinder has gone missing. Ilia doesn't trust Emerald but sees no other option than cooperating with her and her group.

Up in Beacon Academy, Ruby feels powerless to help the people below as she is kept inside the academy walls, with Yang and Ciel keeping guard over her for the entire length of time that she is there. But soon, Baobhan approaches her and tells her that she has spotted something about those infected with Blossom's Syndrome that she might be able to help with. Soon enough, she begins recounting the tale of the Silver-Eyed Warriors to her, all without Ozpin knowing…

Back down below, Ilia and Taiyang help Jaune and his group reach the Vale reach the GVMC but find it to be completely overrun by infected and Grimm. Fighting through a swarm of Fallen Angels and infected, the group of them come across a Cambion Grimm, and upon realising that they cannot fight the monstrous Great Grimm on their own, they are forced to go to ground and sneak their way through the broken hospital and come across a deep facility buried in the heart of the complex. Here, they discover that scientists had been working on vaccines and cures for various strains of Blossom's Syndrome, and that a cure for a different strain was easy to develop. However, the people who were making those cures had all be evacuated by Providence when the outbreak first began and were now all hiding away in a hidden bunker in the middle of Vale.

Meanwhile in Beacon, Baobhan informs Ruby of the truth of the Silver-Eyed Warriors, but when Ozpin learns of it, he is more or less furious at Baobhan. Baobhan is quick to point out that Vale is under threat from an unknown enemy, and they need all the help that they can get, not to mention that Ruby was going to find out sooner or later. Why not expedite the process? Ozpin does not like it but is forced to concede to her logic.

Down below, the group make their way to the underground bunker, but find it under attack from Lamia, Lilith, and their White Fang grunts and Black Hand soldiers. Fighting their way through the enemy, they are able to evacuate the scientists before the bunker is overrun and discover that they had been able to modify the various vaccines and cures for the various strains of Blossom's Syndrome to make a cure for this new strain, but they had no solution to the Grimm Infesters piloting the bodies of the living and dead. Realising that they only have one option, Taiyang leads the group this time to a Black Hand communications site and hijack it, allowing them to contact Ozpin and let him know of the situation in the city, telling them of their plan to take over the various filtration sites that the Crown had hijacked earlier and spread the cure throughout the city, but they need a Silver-Eyed Warrior to help deal with the Grimm in the bodies of the Valerian civilians, as well as the dozens of Great Grimm running the show.

A plan is formed, and soon all of Beacon is mobilized, equipped with breathing apparatuses and suits as they are assembled into teams and sent down into the city below. Ruby would join Baobhan and the Beacon staff in heading down to the city to confront Xaphan and the leadership of the Crown and Black Hand themselves. Stella and Ryuzu would stay behind as support.

As the fight to reclaim Vale began, Jaune and his group would split up to capture the various air purifier stations scattered across the city, planning to take them over and feed the new cure for this strain of Blossom's Syndrome into the air. However, as Jaune, Nana, Emerald, and Pyrrha make their way to their designated station, they are confronted by Lamia and Lilith, and a battle breaks out between the two groups.

Meanwhile, Xaphan realises that Lamia and Lilith have abandoned him as the Black Hand pull out of the city, and fuses himself with the braindead Jax and Gillian, as well as the Grimm that they are connected to, becoming a new monstrosity known as Xaphan the Rat King. Soon, he is greeted by Ruby, Baobhan, and the rest of Beacon's teacher, and they do battle with each other.

Meanwhile, Jaune and co. continue their battle against Lamia and Lilith, the twins healing from any and every injury that they sustain in a matter of seconds and always leaping back into the fight.

At the Crown's headquarters, the fight against Xaphan begins to tilt against Beacon's favour as the Rat King begins to thrash them, all before summoning his zombie minions to slow them down.

And across Vale, the army of Huntsmen and allies begin to widdle down under the endless onslaught of the infected and Cambions raging against them, losing fighters from their number one by one as the battle turns against them.

But then, their fortune changes for the better. Taiyang and Ilia's groups break through the lines of White Fang, Black Hand, and Grimm Infected and feed the cure into their air purifiers. At the same time, other stations begin to fall to the Huntsmen, and they begin to link up the network.

At the last untaken purifier, Jaune and his allies continue to lose ground against Lamia and Lilith, but when Emerald gets a lucky shot on both of the twins' left shoulders, she notices that their wounds don't heal. That's when she realises what their shared semblance is: it is a power that keeps the two of them virtually immortal, but only when they aren't hit at the exact same place at the exact same time.

Relaying this information back to Jaune, the two of them work together to take down Lamia and Lilith, using Nana and Pyrrha to distract the two before they go in for the kill. With one synchronised move, Jaune and Emerald slash their blades at the twins and impale them in the chest. Their auras shatter and they cough blood, falling to the ground as they begin to die.

Jaune is once more left in shock at the fact that he has taken a life, but Emerald moves on quickly as she feeds their portion of the cure into the air purifiers and links it into the system.

All of the air purifiers activate and flood the cure into the city. The new strain of Blossom's Syndrome begins to wither and die, but the Grimm still inside its victims, both living and dead, still controlling their screaming forms.

Back with Ruby, her fight against the Rat King continues to turn against her as she is beaten into the ground, but is saved by Baobhan, who encourages her to use her silver eyes. In a panic, and tapping into the energies within herself, Ruby unleashes the power of her silver eyes and weakens Xaphan, severing his connection to the Grimm Infesters throughout the city and killing them, all the while ripping the braindead Jax and Gillian from him and leaving him in a weakened state.

With that cord severed, all of the Grimm Infesters within the people of Vale wither and die, freeing them all from their slavery as the Grimm Cambions flee the city. The people of Vale who still live celebrate with gusto at their victory.

However, with Jaune and his group, they stay with Lamia and Lilith as they die, helping them pass over to the other side. As Jaune comforts Lamia, the last to die of the two, she begins to beg for her father like a lost child, wishing to be with him, and proclaiming, in a sad panic, that all that they had done - and all that they were going to do - was for him, and was to make a better world for him.

Lamia dies in Jaune's arms, and all of them would be left with more questions than answers...