Chapter 22 - "Success"


Alduin howled in pain, as Yang slammed into the back of his head, before Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, unable to resist the chance to avenge her death, swung her greatsword into his head, breaking a few of his teeth.

Alduin spat them out contemptuously, and shook himself like a dog, trying to dislodge Yang, and scornfully mocked the Tongues: "Zu'u ni faas gaaffesejul!"

It was technically true; he felt no fear of the Tongues. It was the Last Dovahkiin that was making him worried. If only Dragonrend did not exist! He could have flown off, used his Thu'um and destroyed the lot of these upstart joor!

Hakon One-Eye ignored his taunt as he swung his battleaxe at Alduin's snout, fortuitously hitting the singed wound in Alduin's natural armor that Jaune had inflicted, before Felldir the Old sent a thunderbolt into his metallic axe head, letting it channel the current past Alduin's thick hide.

The combined damage, along with Dragonrend already weakening both his body and his spirit, finally overcame his tremendous fortitude, and Alduin collapsed to the ground, weakly twitching.

The Tongues let loose whoops of joy, finally avenging all the wrongs done to them by the Dragon Cult all those millennia ago, and Gormlaith stepped forward, ready to decapitate the symbol of the oppression.

To their surprise, however, Yang stepped between her and her prize, ordering her: "Wait. I have a question for him."

The Tongues didn't want to wait, they wanted justice! But Yang was the Last Dovahkiin, and had been the key in stopping Alduin for good. This was the least they owed her; after seven millennia, what was seven more minutes?

Yang approached Alduin, and kicked him in his eye harshly. As he stirred, the pain slowly rousing him back to consciousness, she held up a flaming fist to his eye, and demanded: "Before I kill you, I have one question."

Alduin groaned, and tried to move, earning a punch to his eye for his troubles. As he roared in pain, she said: "Let's try that again. Where is Jaune Arc?"

Alduin didn't recognize any names, but he wasn't a fool. Groaning weakly in pain, he asked: "Do you mean the joor with the interesting sil?"

"The one who teleported you while you were escaping." Yang growled, cocking her fist back. "What happened after he intercepted you?"

"Hrmmm... balaan hokoron, that one." Alduin rumbled appreciatively, deciding to play for time. "After the joor flew through the skies and stabbed me..."

-SKIES OVER THE THROAT OF THE WORLD, AS ALDUIN WAS ESCAPING-

Jaune Arc liked to think of himself as a sort-of-strategist.

After all, he'd been the one to come up with the plans that had seen his team through the Vytal Festival.

He'd helped take down the first dragon.

He'd helped take down the vampires.

Hell, he'd even helped force Alduin, the goddamn World Eater, to retreat, just five minutes ago!

As he flew through the air, however, propelled by a Shout with enough force to smash a dragon's head into the ground, he found himself thinking that he could also, at times, come up with some very stupid plans.

Jaune couldn't help but scream, even as he held his sword up over his head, sharp end pointed towards the black dragon, and started hoping he would make it. If he didn't... well, it was a very long way down...

Alduin roared in pain, as the dragonbone blade penetrated through his hide and deep into his leg, and began wobbling, thrown off balance by the sudden weight. Turning back in surprise, shocked that the Dovahkiin had somehow hit him all the way from back on the Throat of the World, he was even more shocked to find a human clinging to the sword that had stabbed him, hanging on for dear life.

Growling, sick and tired of all the mortals he'd had to deal with that way, he began flapping violently, and shaking in the air even as he flew, trying to dislodge the pesky hanger-on.

A very familiar sensation welled up within Jaune's gut, and he desperately fought it down. He had not come all this way, to be stopped by his old enemy, damn it!

As fast as he could manage, before his motion sickness could overcome him, he pulled out one of the scrolls Serana had given him, trying to remember how she had explained it.

Alduin shook even more violently as he spotted the scroll, unaware of what it was, but very cautious after his almost-defeat.

Jaune desperately hung on to his sword with one hand, and began channeling Aura into the parchment as fast as he could, shouting: "You're not getting away, you overgrown lizard!"

As the blackish-purple flames began to materialize around him and Alduin, and Alduin began flapping as hard as he could, hoping to outrun the spell, the nausea finally reached critical levels, and Jaune couldn't help but think about the bile rising up his throat.

Despite the unfortunate name Yang had given him, he hadn't actually thrown up that much, all things considered, Jaune found himself reflecting with a self-deprecating laugh, as the spent scroll began burning away in his hand. The last time had been when he'd first come to Skyrim, and before that had been when he'd first come to Beacon... which had also seen him earn the same nickname, coincidentally. And before that... had probably been when he'd gone to Saphron's and Terra's wedding, in Argus-

Then the flames closed in around them, swallowing the two enemies, and all Jaune could focus on was how his gut felt like it was both sinking and flying out of his mouth.

-SOUTHERN WALL OF ARGUS, THREE MONTHS AFTER THE TRIUMPH-

"This blows!" Coco Adel, leader of the esteemed Team CFVY, complained out loud with a huff, as she sat at her post on the walls, watching the same numbers and lines on the monitor for the hundredth time. "When Argus came to us offering premium rates, I thought we were finally going to see some action! If I knew they were going to pay us to be bored out of our minds, I'd have asked for double!"

"Now, Coco, boring is good." Yatsuhashi Daichi chided from a corner of the room. "Boring means that nothing bad is happening."

Fox Alistair nodded wordlessly behind him, throwing his support behind Yatsuhashi.

"Come on!" Coco wasn't convinced. "When Atlas asks you to protect them from unexplained disturbances, you at least expect to see something interesting! It's Atlas, for crying out loud! For example, who knows what kind of tech Ironwood left still wandering around the ruins of Mantle?! Back me up here, Bun."

All Velvet Scarlatina could do was sigh at her leader's usual antics. Honestly, with Grimm attacks going the way they had since Teams RWBY and JNPR had done... whatever it was they had, three months ago, most Huntsmen and Huntresses were even lucky to have jobs. Still though, she knew arguing with Coco was pointless, and so she tried changing the subject: "Uh, well... it could be worse? By the way, did you guys see the new park that opened last week?

"Yeah, the "Jaune Arc Memorial Park", right?" Coco replied, falling for the bait. "I saw a recording of Nikos's speech, from when she announced it half a year ago. Nikos gives a good speech."

"She was the four-time champion of Mistral." Yatsuhashi chimed in. "She probably has some experience in giving speeches to the public."

"I still can't believe Cardin's family chipped in." Velvet added with a giggle, looking back towards the city, where she knew a certain statue lay.

I didn't even know he was dead, Fox thought somberly, telepathically communicating with the rest of his team.

The mood in the room immediately turned awkward. Finally, Coco admitted: "Yeah, same here. Honestly, I still feel bad about it; if Nikos hadn't publicly announced it, I don't think I'd have ever known he died in Beacon, let alone that he died stopping that bitch Fall from attacking the evacuation Bullheads, after she killed Ozpin."

"It was a chaotic and rough day for everyone." Yatsuhashi defended, even as Velvet's ears drooped.

It is impressive that he went up against an enemy that killed the Headmaster, Fox added. I would not have expected such a feat from any single first-year student, except maybe for Pyrrha Nikos.

"Yeah, kid had promise." Coco agreed. "Probably could've given me a run for my money as the best team leader in Beacon, if he'd had more training and experience. Remember the Breach? And the Vytal Festival?"

"Hard to believe his family actually opposed his decision to join Beacon, originally." Velvet said, recalling one of the other speeches from the announcement of the park. "Speaking of which, if his family was against him becoming a Huntsman, how did he even manage to enter Beacon?"

"I remember overhearing Winchester once say that Jaune faked his transcripts, back in Beacon." Yatsuhashi replied with a frown.

The four thought about it for a moment, before immediately dismissing the possibility with a laugh. The idea that someone with zero training or experience, armed with only fake transcripts, had somehow not only passed Beacon's Initiation, but led his newly-formed team to victory over a Deathstalker while doing so, and then led his team all the way to the finals at the Vytal Festival, was just absurd!

"Hard to believe Velvet's old bully is now building a statue for Arc, if he used to spread that kind of bullshit." Coco answered, after wiping the tears from her eyes, before a grin came across her face. "Speaking of which, did you two know that Velvet over here actually had a small crush on Arc, after he got Cardin to back off from her?"

"Coco!" Velvet shouted, face flushing. "I told you, it wasn't like that!"

"Sure, sure..." Coco drawled, with a grin wide enough to swallow an entire sewer.

"Now that you mention it... Winchester did suddenly cease his bullying." Yatsuhashi noted, as he thought about it. "If I recall correctly, it happened after their field trip to Forever Fall."

Fox didn't add anything; his smirk and waggling eyebrows were enough of a response.

"Yatsu!" Velvet huffed and pouted, but knew that any further arguing would only make things worse for her. Instead, going with what had worked before, she tried changing the subject: "Anyway... speaking of rumors, what's the latest rumors on what RWBY and JNPR did?"

"My favorite's still that they killed the Queen of the Grimm." Coco once again fell for it.

I'm pretty sure that one's true, Fox chimed in.

"Well, whatever they did, you could feel the earthquakes all the way from Menagerie." Velvet was more than happy to keep the ball rolling.

"Perhaps it would be better if we asked our juniors directly." Yatsuhashi suggested.

"Yeah, Yats, that's a good idea." Coco said sarcastically, before following through: "Just one small problem. Nobody's seen or heard for them since three months ago! Even Nikos's mother and Arc's family had to be the ones to officially open the park! Also, juicy gossip and wild rumors are way more fun!"

Fox hummed in response, as Yatsuhashi fought the urge to roll his eyes, considering it undignified and beneath him.

"Oh, I've got a new one from the CCT Network!" Velvet said enthusiastically. "Huh, apparently someone claims to have seen two-"

A warning alarm suddenly blared from one of the consoles, and the room was bathed in red.

Team CFVY wasted no time, professionals that they were, and as Fox and Yatsuhashi stood upright, grabbing their weapons, Velvet and Coco began studying the console in front of them, trying to find the cause for the alert.

"Something big's suddenly appeared on the scanners, ten miles from the city!" Velvet reported.

"North or South?" Coco asked, already connecting her Scroll to the Atlesian military base.

"South!"

"Then it's not a Leviathan or some other Sea Grimm." Coco frowned, before pausing and listening in to the comms chatter. "The Atlesians are also reporting that the seas are clear."

"Could be a herd of Goliaths or a flock of Nevermore, closely grouped together." Velvet suggested, staring at the big red blob on her screen. It didn't appear to be moving towards or away from the city for the time being.

"Could be, but I don't think so." Coco shook her head. "The scanners have a range of at least fifty miles. We'd have spotted it before it got this close!"

"A group of Grimm intelligent enough to organize and fool our scanners, would also be smart enough to know to stay away from our walls." Yatsuhashi pointed out. "Especially after what happened three months ago."

A burrower, perhaps? Fox suggested.

"Seismographs would've picked up something this big digging towards the city ages ago." Coco rejected her teams idea. "Hold on, Atlas is scrambling a Bullhead and some drones to check it out. Team, I want us to be ready to move by the time they start transmitting their feeds."

A tense silence filled the room, as the minutes ticked slowly by. Fox quietly tested the sharpness of his blades and Yatsuhashi stretched out his limbs, lightly swinging his arms around to loosen them. As the Bullhead streaked by overhead, flanked by a few drones, Velvet quietly checked her camera, while Coco tried to project an image of unshakeable confidence, as she sat in her chair and stared at a blank feed, waiting for the first pictures and videos to come in. And if the rest of her team noticed that Gianduja just happened to be closer at hand than it had previously been, they didn't comment on it.

Finally, with a burst of static, the feed burst to life. Coco could only stare speechlessly at the grainy image on the screen, before she took off her shades, just to confirm what she was seeing with her own eyes.

"What is it?" Velvet asked, peering over Coco's shoulder to get a look.

Yatsuhashi's breath caught in his throat, as he too caught a peek at the screens.

What's wrong? Fox asked, blissfully ignorant.

"It's a dragon." Yatsuhashi murmured in disbelief.

"What?!" Fox couldn't help but exclaim, using his actual voice.

"I thought that thing was still petrified over Beacon!" Coco shouted.

"Guys... I don't think it's the same one." Velvet pulled up a picture of the Grimm dragon, from the Fall, and pointed to it. "Look, see, this one's a bit smaller and sleeker, it's got more spikes, and it doesn't have the same white bone markings that the one from the Fall had."

"Well, at least we don't have to ask if Vale was somehow destroyed in the last five minutes." Coco breathed a sigh of relief.

Is it doing anything? Fox asked.

Coco switched from the zoomed-in picture to a live video feed, and after studying it (and listening to Atlesian comms traffic), answered: "No, it's just laying on the ground. They say it looks like it's wounded."

"The dragon from Beacon, it was able to spawn more Grimm from it's blood, wasn't it?" Yatsuhashi pointed.

"Good point, Yats." Coco slapped Yatsuhashi's arm lightly. "We'll need to remember to advise them about that. Hopefully these new Dust weapons will be able to just vaporize it completely, but if not, that's what we're here for."

The figure on the video shifted, as it finally noticed the vehicle flying above it and recording it, and it opened it's mouth.

A torrent of fire suddenly flew towards the Bullhead, and it quickly rolled through the air, as it's pilot slammed the joystick hard, desperately performing evasive maneuvers,

"Woah! Did you see that?" Coco exclaimed. "Oh, sorry Fox."

Fox just rolled his eyes, and waited for an explanation.

"The dragon just breathed fire!" Velvet shouted. "The one from Beacon didn't do that!"

"It's like if that Grimm Dragon and a Leviathan or a Feilong had a baby." Coco agreed, before shuddering at the thought. "Let's just hope it doesn't have any more tricks up it's sleeve."

Coco's hopes proved to be in vain, however, as it roared into the sky once more, and the skies suddenly turned red. The pilot, his attention fixed onto the fire-breathing dragon below him, wasn't able to react in time as meteors suddenly hit his Bullhead from above.

The live video feed began alternating between the ground and the sky, as the camera began wildly tumbling to the ground, before the feed cut off in a burst of static.

The room descended into a horrified silence, as Coco looked up from the monitors, and saw the skies raining fire far off in the distance.

"What... what in Oum's name is that?" Velvet finally muttered, unable to look away.

Coco turned away as a burst of chatter cut across her scroll, and she listened to it grimly, before informing her team: "Atlas is launching a few Dust missiles at it. If it fails..."

She didn't need to finish her sentence. They all knew they were the only Huntsmen and Huntresses stationed on the walls at the moment.

"We cannot let it reach the city." Yatsuhashi spoke with determination. "If it does that anywhere near the city..."

"We'll handle it, guys." Coco reassured her team with a cocky grin, and far more confidence than she felt. "After all, Teams RWBY and JNPR were able to stop one during the Fall! We've got three more years of Academy training than they had, and we don't have White Fang, civilians, or other Grimm to worry about!"

Coco's scroll buzzed to life once more, and she took a quick glance at it, before continuing: "Atlas says they're arming and targeting their missiles! Now load up, and let's earn our pay!"

"Well, Coco, you wanted excitement..." Velvet called back, already sprinting towards the vehicle bay along with Fox and Yatsuhashi.

"Screw you too, Bun!" Coco blew her faunus teammate a kiss with a raised middle finger, as she followed behind the rest of her team.

Fortunately, while the black dragon was capable of wreaking lots of havoc, it seemed content to stay where it was, in the minutes it took for Team CFVY to leap down to the garage and grab the Atlesian APC Argus had assigned them. As they left the city of Argus, racing out of the main gate, missiles flew overhead, thrusters whining as they streaked in computer-calculated trajectories towards the mysterious Grimm dragon that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Team CFVY managed to crest a nearby hill just in time to watch the missiles reach the dragon. The dragon, who at that point seemed to have been entertaining himself by blasting the remaining drones out of the sky, noticed the supersonic projectiles nearing it, and roared at it.

Two things happened at once.

A... wave, of what Coco could only assume was sonic energy, slammed into the nearest few missiles, detonating a few with it's impact and scattering the others off-course, so that they exploded around it.

The remaining missiles, however, then smashed into it's flank, before blowing up.

"Direct hit on target." Coco reported into her scroll, as an eerie silence filled the field in the aftermath of the explosions, and she stared at the massive cloud of smoke and dust.

"Thermals are useless." Velvet called out, looking through her modified camera. "The blast site's too hot."

"Should we go in and investigate?" Yatsuhashi suggested, even as Fox disagreed behind him, unwilling to leave the comfort and safety of their armored personnel carrier.

A low keening wail suddenly originated from the point of impact, and the smoke around the site suddenly cleared, swept away in an instant.

The black dragon was standing on its hindlegs now, massive wings spread wide, glaring at the city, at the direction where the missiles had come from. It roared once in challenge, and began beating it's wings, slowly lifting itself.

"Target is still mobile!" Coco screamed into her scroll. "And those wings aren't for show!"

"Something seems wrong..." Yatsuhashi murmured, even as he pulled himself up onto the APC's turret. Taking a closer look at the dragon, he finally realized what was bothering him so much. "The dragon. It is bleeding. Red blood."

"Grimm don't bleed." Velvet pointed out the obvious, even as she snapped another picture.

"Doesn't matter." Coco said, getting her team's attention. "Whether it's a Grimm, one of Atlas's science projects, or an Oum-damned alien, it's going to destroy Argus if we don't stop it. Come on, team, time to show Argus just how much better we are than Atlas's shiny new toys! Yats, get it's attention!"

Yatsuhashi complied, albeit with much less bravado than his team leader, as he began firing at the dragon. A small part of him wondered whether the creature was intelligent, whether it would have attacked if it hadn't been provoked first, before he shook his head. It had immediately attacked the Bullhead, and even if it was feeling threatened, there was a city full of people that it was heading for! He would not allow another Fall to happen; Coco would hang him by the balls if he did!

"Good hits, Yatsu!" Velvet called out, watching the target, before frowning through her camera. None of their bullets seemed to be drawing blood, or doing anything to actually slow the dragon down.

It was, however, succeeding in drawing the dragon's attention, and it roared as it slowly turned towards them.

"Coco!" Velvet unnecessarily pointed out the obvious.

"On it!" Coco shouted back, already flooring the accelerator, and the vehicle darted down the hill, heading away from the city as fast as it could go.

What's the plan, Coco, Fox telepathically asked, between groans, as he was bounced around the vehicle's interior.

"If we can't take it down, we'll lure it away from Argus, for as long as the APC'll take us!" Coco replied, making sure the rest of her team could hear her plan. "If we need to, we'll ditch the vehicle and try losing it in the forest. That should buy Argus enough time to call for some more help."

Yatsuhashi frowned, as he continued peppering it with bullets, that seemed to do little more than chip away at it's scales. "I think the second option is looking more and more likely, Coco."

"Hey, don't you dare compare that to my Gianduja!" Coco shot back.

I think he meant the Dust missiles, Coco, Fox defended.

"I know!"

Yatsuhashi was spared from having to reply as the dragon swooped down at them, mouth wide open, and he was forced to duck back behind the armored roof of the carrier as a wave of frost suddenly coated the vehicle.

"He can breathe ice, too?!" Velvet shouted in disbelief. "What in Oum's name is this thing?!"

"At least this is an Atlesian APC." Coco breathed a sigh of relief, as the vehicle still moved as she directed. If it had been one of the cars or bikes from Vale, the frost would've probably rendered them immobile.

The dragon noticed them still in motion, as it turned around, and it roared and banked, preparing for another run.

Coco immediately spun the wheel, and the military-grade vehicle, designed for stressful combat situations, turned on a lien, and began heading for the nearby forest.

"Let's see how the lizard handles trees!" Coco yelled.

"What about us?!" Velvet pointed out, eyeing the dense woods they were rushing towards, and Yatushashi and Fox gulped and braced themselves for the impact.

The answer, it turned out, was that the black dragon handled tress a lot better than an Atlesian APC, as Team CFVY bounced over roots and desperately weaved around trees, while the dragon furiously chasing them simply battered it's way through the forest, each tree little more than a speed bump that it smashed through.

Finally, Team CFVY's luck ran out, and they bounced at the wrong angle, flipping the vehicle in mid-air, and it landed on it's side.

Fox pulled himself through the gunner's hatch, while Velvet and Coco crawled through the busted windshield. Yatsuhashi, a bit too big to comfortably use either, opted to instead force the door open, before pulling himself up and out of the vehicle.

The black dragon simply hovered over them and the fallen APC, staring at them with curiosity, as Team CFVY instinctively regrouped around Coco. Coco Adel, refusing to show any signs of fear, folded her arms, and glared back at the black dragon.

"Uh, Coco... was it really the best idea, being in a forest with a fire-breathing dragon?" Velvet pointed out, as Yatsuhashi pulled out Fulcrum, and Fox raised his arms, putting Sharp Retribution's elbow blades in front of him.

To their surprise, the black dragon actually laughed: "Interesting! More joor with radiant sil!"

"... did the dragon just talk?!" Velvet asked.

Fox nodded wordlessly.

"This is no Grimm..." Yatsuhashi observed.

"I hope you provide better sport than the last one!" The black dragon boomed, roaring down at them.

Coco clenched her fists, only able to interpret the dragon's words as mockery, over the Bullhead pilot's death, and the ineffectiveness of the missiles. Swinging her handbag downwards, she triggered the mecha-shift mechanisms within in, and with a whirr and multiple clicking noises it transformed into a minigun.

Bracing herself, as it opened it's mouth, she allowed herself one taunt, to hype herself and her teammates up: "You messed with the wrong town. Prepare to die."

Coco pulled the trigger before it could breathe fire (or ice, or call down more meteors), and the dragon roared in pain as hundreds of shells suddenly ripped into it, detonating against it's scales, and gouging out chunks of thick hide (and little else).

Velvet also used her camera to create a Hard-Light replica of Coco's minigun, and while she lacked Coco's Semblance to enhance her bullets, she did have keener senses than her leader. Remembering the bleeding wounds in it's flank, she dashed to the side, before unloading her copy of Gianduja at it.

The dragon roared in pain, and a wave of fire was launched in their general direction, that Yatsuhashi quickly batted away, with his massive sword.

Realizing that, unlike where it came from, Dust bullets were a lot more powerful than mere arrows, and simply hovering just made it a massive target, the black dragon began swooping down at them, hoping to either scatter them or to even pick one off.

Team CFVY wouldn't allow it to get it's way so easily. The giant of Team CFVY once more leapt forward, as Velvet and Coco continued firing at the dragon, and swung horizontally at the dragon as it bore down on him.

Yatsuhashi Daichi was strong, even before he enhanced himself with Aura, and had done this many times before. His swings could crack concrete and fell even Goliaths without budging, if he'd properly braced himself first.

As Fulcrum hit the dragon's snout, a painful jolt ran up his arms, and it felt like he'd swung a bat at a mountain. Rather than simply turning the dragon's momentum against itself, Yatsuhashi was forced back, as the dragon unrelentingly advanced, ramming through his defenses.

But he'd bought them a moment.

Fox quickly leapt off his big teammates back, and landed on the dragon's snout. He dashed forward, running along it's head, before kicking off of it's head. Flipping and twisting himself in mid-air, he gathered Aura into his palms, before falling towards the dragon, swinging his palms forward.

The Aura-enhanced shockwave, that had caused an Ursa to blow up like a balloon during the Breach, merely gave the dragon a cough and a nosebleed.

Yatsuhashi, unable to keep up with the dragon's charge any longer, was sent flying into a nearby tree.

The dragon, now on the ground, began shaking it's snout, trying to dislodge Fox, who quickly jumped off of it's head, and ran down it's neck, leaning forward with his body lowered so that he dragged his weapon's elbow blades against the dragon's hide.

It did little more than tickle the dragon, and he ignored the light raking sensation against his scales in favor of turning towards the two gunners.

Suddenly, it jerked it's head up, as if something else had gotten it's attention, and it snarled. None of them knew dragons well, but if they had to ascribe an emotion to it at that moment, it would have been hatred.

Turning it's body away from Team CFVY, completely ignoring the bullets now, it began flapping it's wings once more. Fox leapt off of it's tail just as it took off.

"That's right, you'd better run!" Coco shouted at the dragon's retreating form, still firing a few rounds at it.

Velvet simply dismissed her copy of Gianduja, and went to help Yatsuhashi up.

What about the city, Fox asked, as he dusted himself off, and felt the blunted and worn edges of his blades.

"He's heading in the wrong direction." Coco shook her head.

"Where's he going?" Velvet wondered.

"I don't know... but let's find out." Coco ordered. "At the very least, we should track his movements for Argus. Yats, think you can flip the APC?"

Yatsuhashi took one look at the wrecked APC, and gave her a blank stare.

"Well, I guess we're walking then!"

-UNNAMED HILL, 11 MILES SOUTH OF ARGUS, THREE MINUTES AGO-

Jaune blankly stared at the clear skies in front of him, and tried gingerly moving, before wincing as he felt a dozen bruises make themselves known to him.

At least he wasn't waking up vomiting again. That was a plus... though it was only because he'd already emptied his stomach out, while he'd been falling.

Turning his head, he found himself breathing a sigh of relief. At least his sword was still by his side. Thank Oum for small mercies.

Sitting up, hissing in pain, he looked around, and called out: "Yang? Serana?"

No response. And it didn't look like he was at the top of a mountain either.

Great.

Looked like Serana's spell hadn't worked, then.

To be fair, she'd said it was untested, but in the heat of the moment, it was the only thing he could think of, to get Alduin back to Yang.

Where was he, anyway?

Taking closer note of his surroundings he found himself at a hill at the base of a mountain, with snowy forests around him, and in the far distance, he could just make out smoke, as well as a wall.

Huh, hadn't Whiterun been in the other direction?

Jaune slowly pulled himself to his feet, and pondered this new information.

Huh, looked like Serana's spell had worked after all. He'd just... overshot.

But where was Alduin, then?

Last he remembered, he'd been throwing up as the flames had engulfed them, and the wave of nausea had caused him to fall from Alduin, which, he presumed, separated them.

Adrenaline spiked through his system, and all the disorientation and pain immediately receded to the back of his mind.

Alduin wasn't with him.

There was a walled city in the distance.

And smoke was coming from it.

Oh, Oum, had he just caused another Helgen? Another Fall?

Gripping his blade tightly, he began sprinting towards the city, trying to come up with a plan.

He didn't have Yang or Dragonrend, and while it felt disturbing, being on his own for the first time in a while, he had for more pressing concerns to deal with.

His top priority had to be getting Alduin away from the city. He doubted he could defeat Alduin by himself, not when they'd failed even with Yang and Serana.

He still had one more scroll. Ideally, he could use it to teleport Alduin to Yang, this time around, but he'd honestly settle for anywhere without people.

And, if he didn't manage to get Alduin to Yang, he could still try driving Alduin away.

Alduin was still injured, and had been trying to escape, after all. It didn't sit right with him, letting the dragon potentially devour the souls of the dead, but it would still be better than burning down the bodies of the living.

Now, he just had to figure out how to lure Alduin to him.

Quickly, what did he know about Alduin and dragons? Very keen senses, intelligent... and very arrogant. He'd never seen a dragon flee a battle, before Alduin. Most of them never backed down from a challenge.

Another stupid idea came to mind. Well, at least it wasn't nearly as stupid as flying through the air in an uncontrolled tumble after the harbinger of the apocalypse.

Cresting a nearby hill, he paused for a moment, catching his breath.

Idly, he remembered when the Greybeards had done this, calling out to Yang, on his first day in Skyrim. Maybe being Dragonborn did have more influence on Yang than he'd realized.

Placing his sword on the ground for a moment, he took a deep breath, and cupped his hands around his mouth, before trying to channel Aura into his throat as he shouted: "ALDUIN!"

Of course, the ground didn't rumble as his voice passed.

Of course, the earth didn't quake at the touch of his voice.

But what Jaune hadn't realized, was that all the times he'd channeled Aura into Yang, he'd been essentially rubbing souls with her.

And her dragon soul was very clingy.

A little bit of her had rubbed off onto him, as well, as their souls had intertwined, and while it wasn't nearly enough to influence him, to give him the same ability to naturally Shout as she did...

It did give his voice some power, some strength.

Just enough to catch the attention of a certain dragon, a few miles away.

Jaune was preparing to call out Alduin's name a second time, when he saw the black dragon flying towards him, emerging from behind another hill.

He wasted no time, and picked up his sword with one hand as the other gripped his sheath, before flicking it into its shield configuration.

Alduin stopped just before him, and demanded: "What did you do, foolish joor?!"

Jaune ignored the dragon, not wanting to give away the existence of Serana's spell, and instead bashed his sword against his shield, and taunted: "Get down here, coward!"

"Brave words, joor, but you don't have your Dovahkiin to protect you this time!" Alduin roared at the audacious mortal.

"And yet I'm not the one too scared to face his enemy head-on!"

That did it.

With a furious roar, Alduin began rushing straight towards Jaune, breathing fire.

Unexpectedly, Jaune sheathed his shield, gripped his sword with two hands, and channeled his Aura into the blade, focusing on ice, snow, frost, cold, before he stabbed it into the snow.

The Chaos enchantment within his sword reacted to his Aura and his intent, and a wall of ice suddenly rose from the ground, blocking both the flames and Alduin, who shattered the ice as he smashed into it at full speed.

Alduin picked himself up, and Shouted at the heavens, forcing Jaune to dodge as meteors began to rain from the red skies above him.

Jaune forced himself to focus on defense, blocking and dodging the falling rocks even as he kept an eye on Alduin, biding his time. If hhe failed, the dragon would wreak unimaginable havoc. And he only needed one chance, anyway.

Finally, Alduin, seeing Jaune roll away from a particularly close meteor strike, saw his opportunity, and lunged towards tbe insolent human while he was on the ground, in that brief moment of helplessness.

Jaune forced himself to take the hit, knowing that Pyrrha, Ruby, and Yang would've killed him for his next great idea.

Alduin began to take off with Jaune in his mouth, and as Alduin's jaws closed in around him, trying to crush and lacerate his prey, Jaune's Aura flared, a familiar white light shining around his body.

All the force that Alduin had been crushing Jaune with was suddenly turned outward, in an explosion of light and energy that momentarily forced Alduin's mouth open.

He didn't waste the opportunity. As his Aura shimmered and flickered around him, he forced himself to focus.

First, sword, fire.

The superheated dragonbone blade cut through Alduin's hide like a hot knife through butter, as Jaune stabbed it into his snout, before hanging on for dear life.

Alduin began shaking his head, roaring in pain, trying to once again dislodge the pest.

Needing his other hand free, Jaune had no other choice but to bite Alduin on the nose, to maintain a second point of contact, before reaching into his pocket.

Next, sword, lightning.

Alduin shook and convulsed, as the lightning flowed directly into his body, stunning him and halting his ascent.

As the two began tumbling towards the ground, Jaune pulled out Serana's scroll.

Last, scroll, back.

As Jaune's view rapidly transitioned between the sky and the ground, he channeled whatever Aura he could into it, and forced his mind to focus, to seize on the thought of sending Alduin back, away from the city.

Jaune's Aura, which had endured everything Skyrim had thrown at him in the past two months, finally ran out, and the white sheen around him exploded into countless particles of light.

Light-headed, exhausted, suffering from extreme Aura depletion, and now bleeding as the teeth around him began cutting into him, Jaune felt his strength fading. As black-and-purple flames burst into existence around Alduin, Jaune smiled weakly, triumphantly, before he finally lost his hold on the black dragon.

As the flames engulfed the two, swallowing them whole, Jaune's sword slid out of the dragon's body, as Jaune was too weak to keep it plunged in.

Jaune, physically incapable of releasing his death grip on his blade, was dragged along with it, and he tumbled into the void with his sword, away from Alduin.

-ARGUS COMMAND CENTRE, THREE HOURS AFTER THR ATTACK-

"Oum, I loathe paperwork!" Coco exclaimed frustratedly, as she slammed a stack of papers down onto the desk.

Argus and the Atlesian base had all but demanded each and every single one of these to be filled out, in triplicate, "at their earliest convenience", ranging from a requisition form for a new vehicle, to a review of their previous vehicle's performance (including how it had been decommissioned), to requests for eyewitness accounts from her entire team about just what the fuck had happened.

"I thought we were done with this shit when we graduated from Shade!" Coco continued groaning, as she eyed the stack like it had called her attire "unfashionable".

"Could be worse," Velvet giggled, even as she considered herself lucky Coco was their leader. Coco, with all her pride, refused to be anything less than the best team leader she could be for Team CFVY. "At least we don't have to listen to Professor Port."

"Hah! Well, this report is certainly going to sound like one of Port's tales!" Coco laughed, before a thought came to her, and she shuddered. "Oum, could you imagine if Port had been the one fighting the dragon?!"

"I'm sure we'd know about it, if only because he'd never stop talking about it."

"How would we know? We'd be asleep the whole time!"

"Speaking of which... who was that guy, fighting the dragon, anyway?"

"I don't know..." Velvet admitted.

They'd gotten out of the forest, and into a good vantage point, just in time to watch the dragon grab some Huntsman with its mouth, as he rolled out of the way of a meteor. Then a flash of white, and he'd suddenly been stabbing the dragon, before purple flames engulfed them.

"Fox and Yatsu might have noticed something we missed..."

"Yeah, they might have." Coco agreed, before crushing something hopefully inexpensive in her hand. "Too bad those two were smart enough to run away before the debriefing, on grounds of "needing to repair their weapons"."

Velvet sighed, cursing their luck, before she murmured: "I don't think I've ever seen Fulcrum bend that way before..."

Coco merely shook her head, before pulling out her scroll, and downloading the recorded footage from her shades.

Velvet, seeing her leader in work mode, opted to instead pull out her camera, check the pictures she'd taken of the battle, and scribble down the order of battle as she remembered it.

The pair worked in companionable silence, as the time ticked by, with the only interruptions to their work being when Fox and Yatsuhashi returned. Fortunately for them, they came bearing coffee, and so Coco let them live, though she did press-gang them into helping her study the footage.

Eventually, as they came to the end of their encounter with the dragon, Coco spoke up: "I still don't get it. Why did the dragon suddenly run away?"

"It looked as though it heard something, something that caught it's attention." Yatsuhashi observed, rewinding the footage. "See, how it suddenly cocked it's head to the side?"

Coco merely hummed in agreement, before turning to Fox: "Did you sense anything, Fox?"

Fox thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head. His Aura-enhanced senses hadn't picked up anything noticeable, though it was possible he'd been too distracted by the dragon.

Coco just sighed, before tapping Velvet's shoulder, as she studied one of her pictures. "Hey, Velvet, got anything so far?"

"Not really..." Velvet shook her head. "Something about the mystery Huntsman is bugging me, but I just can't quite place it..."

"Let's swap." Coco suggested. "You've got the best ears."

Velvet accepted Coco's offer, and she handed over the clearest picture she had as Coco uploaded the footage to Velvet's scroll.

The team studied their respective material, Velvet straining her ears as she listened to the dragon suddenly retreat, while Coco froze the video she was watching, and pulled up a still, before comparing it with Velvet's picture.

"Huh, yeah, there's something... familiar, about him." Coco admitted, as she stared hard at the two images.

Yatsuhashi frowned, as he studied it alongside his leader, before something came to mind. Pulling away with the picture, he pulled up his scroll, and called up the search function.

Velvet's ears suddenly perked up, as she heard a noise, just before the dragon turned away. It was faint, so faint it had almost been drowned out by all the background noise, but her rabbit ears were just able to pick it up. Pausing the video, she replayed that section, and strained her ears, trying to make out the noise.

She stilled, as the voice reached their equipment. That voice. She recognized it. She didn't know where, but she knew she'd heard it before.

Coco, meanwhile, had palmed off picture duty to Yatsuhashi, and was studying the end of the footage.

"Those purple flames... is it a Semblance or something? And what does it do?" Coco murmured, wondering if they could figure out the man's identity by his actions. After all, whatever he'd done, he'd made the dragon disappear. If it was a Semblance, it was a damned powerful one, and so should've been known by someone.

"I think I have something." Yatsuhashi said, rewinding the video suddenly.

"Yats! I was in the middle of-" Coco's protest died in her throat, as Yatsuhashi showed her Velvet's picture, the still she'd taken previously, and the image he'd searched up, of the Jaune Arc Memorial Park. "... is... that?"

-HIGH HROTHGAR, THIRTY MINUTES AFTER RETURNING FROM SOVNGARDE-

"Your spell worked." Yang slammed her hands on the table in front of Serana, and loudly declared.

"... good to see you too, Yang." Serana answered nonchalantly, unsure of what her friend was referring to. Then she blinked, and disbelievingly pointed out: "You're... already back from Sovngarde? It hasn't even been an hour!"

"Your spell worked." Yang repeated slowly. "Vomit Boy's alive, and your spell sent him and Alduin to Remnant."

"Wait, what?!" Serana shouted, jumping to her feet. "But how? It shouldn't be possible! The spell shouldn't be able to get one past Aetherius! How do you know this?"

"Alduin told me." Yang answered grimly. "Jaune brought them to a different world, Alduin fought some natives, then Jaune dueled against him. The last Alduin knew of Jaune, he fell back down, while returning Alduin to Skyrim."

"... and you're sure of this?"

"Alduin doesn't lie." Yang said, recalling what Paarthurnax had told her. "Lies and deception are beneath him, that's what the dragons told me."

Serana nodded in understanding. It made sense, in a weird way. "And what happened to Alduin after that?"

"Don't know, don't care." Yang shrugged impatiently. "I delivered the mortal blow, but his body was sucked into the sky before I could absorb his soul. Anyway, can you cast the spell one more time?"

"Yang..." Serana answered soothingly, trying to soften the blow. "I can't."

"Then what about Vomit Boy?!" Yang's eyes flashed dangerously, only able to imagine a fallen Jaune, helpless, badly wounded.

"Yang, I don't have the magicka to do it! No one does!" Serana explained hastily. "It shouldn't even have been possible to cast that spell with a single person's effort!"

"How long will it take for you to make a better version of it?" Yang demanded.

"It could take years! Decades, even!" Serana pointed out. "My father wasn't the best scholar; my mother and I can barely decipher his notes!"

"What if you had help?" Yang's mind was racing, trying to think of some way to replicate the spell's effects.

"Help? From who? The Dawnguard? The Companions?" Serana scoffed skeptically.

Yang huffed in frustration. Jaune would've been able to come up with something.

Something clicked in her mind.

Spells.

Scrolls.

Elder Scroll.

Yang recalled how they'd gotten the Elder Scroll, the one that she'd eventually used to learn Dragonrend.

"Hey, Serana." Yang began, and Serana gulped, fearful of Yang's next words. "Remember how we were posing as prospective students, at the College of Winterhold?"


Author's Note: Help, the plot fairy won't leave me alone.

Real talk though, with this chapter we're coming to the end of the Elder Scrolls portion of the story. Now, if I were a smart author, I'd probably end this story with the Elder Scrolls section, and do the next world as it's own separate story, if only because it'd help with cataloguing it in the crossover section. But I'd rather keep everything self-contained, so when this arc's done, I'll be continuing this story here.

You know, I realized that Alduin takes a lot of damage to his head, throughout this chapter. To be fair, with his size, his head's a big target. It's the most dangerous end, the one he uses to bite, grab, and breathe fire (and ice, and rain down meteors from the sky)... anyone would target his head if they could!

And yes, I skimmed through Yang's final battle with Alduin. To be fair, as far as Yang's concerned... she doesn't care about the battle. She just cares about beating Alduin so that she can find out what happened to Jaune. And her section is meant to reflect that.

Team CFVY was... challenging, to write. There's not much about them, especially regarding dialogue, from the first three seasons. I had to work with some of the supplementary material.

And no, even I'm not sure if Velvet actually had a crush on Jaune. It's entirely possible that Coco and Yatsu were just teasing her, in the way that close friends throw shit at each other sometimes. I'm deliberately leaving it ambiguous because I don't know the answer.

And Team CFVY are a Huntsman team. They're colorful mercenaries, not professional soldiers. Before anyone complains about their dialogue being too informal.

Also, while Team CFVY may be fully-trained Hunstmen and Huntresses... Alduin is stil Alduin. In game terms, he's straight-up invincible unless under the effects of Dragonrend. In this story, I modified it slightly, so that it's more like he has absurd damage resistance and regenerative capabilities unless Dragonrend is used. That way, he can be hurt, he can even be harmed... but it's nigh-impossible for anything on Remnant to kill him, unless he was destroyed to the atomic level. And his soul would probably still survive...

Also no, nobody knows what happened during the Triumph, except for the people present for it. Teams RWBY and JNPR haven't been seen since then. Are they gone? Are they busy? Only I know the answer.

And yes, Team CFVY now knows that Jaune's alive. How will they react? Will they tell Argus, and start an investigation into Jaune Arc? Will they become conspiracy nuts, and assume that Atlas made a Jaune Arc clone? Who knows, too?

And, uh... I guess I haven't plugged my ko-fi in a while, huh. I guess the climax of each arc would be a good place to do so?

Translationa:

Zu'u ni faas gaaffesejul - I do not fear mortal ghosts

Sil - Soul

Balaan hokoron - Worthy opponent