The week has been a little rough but no news on my nephew's cancer diagnosis because they want to run more tests. I spent two hours of Wednesday with him – in brutal heat, no less – at the specialist only for it to be inconclusive and some more blood tests. He was so happy it was inconclusive too, as if they meant he was alright. The doctor's expression suggested otherwise.
I didn't know what to say. Do I sit him down and explain how bad and dangerous it is and run the risk that he isn't being dumb but just trying not to think or talk about it? Or do I smile and let him act like it'll all be okay and run the risk that he just doesn't understand and feels like I've led him on? It's a tough choice and he doesn't make it easy for me sometimes. His pregnant gf is more upset about it all than he is.
Cover Art: Curbizzle
Chapter 35
"The fastest way to the vaults is below Ozpin's tower." Fate shouted as they rushed through the halls. "Cinder will likely already be there."
Yang still couldn't believe they were trusting him, not after all he'd done, and her teeth were grinding together the whole time. It was no better for his anchor, Pyrrha, who wouldn't look at him. He'd been made to run ahead so he couldn't stab them in the back, and the worst part was that she wasn't sure he needed to anymore.
He'd won, hadn't he? Knight was almost certainly dead by this point, Leviathan was killed long ago, Barista, Magnis and even Agent – who had apparently tried to defend Ruby – had died. On the side of good, their side, there was only Fate, Hunter and Revolutionary left, and she wasn't sure the latter would survive Adam. And if he did, well, he'd disappear when Adam breathed his last. It was lose-lose for him.
If the rules set by the gods hadn't contained that little caveat of the iterations dying when their anchors did, she wasn't sure Fate would have joined them at all. He'd have watched from afar as everyone killed themselves, then struck at the last survivor when they were exhausted. He hadn't now because his life relied on Pyrrha's survival, and according to him and several other iterations, she had a worrying tendency to die here against Cinder.
I'm surprised he didn't kidnap Pyrrha and lock her up somewhere safe. Maybe he knew he couldn't take her.
Or maybe he was worried Pyrrha might try and take her own life to thwart him.
There was a part of Yang that blamed Pyrrha – probably unfairly, but she couldn't help it. Wasn't it her job as an anchor to keep an eye on her iteration? No one had as good as said that, but she and her sister had felt it their unwritten responsibility. Knight and Leviathan lived with them, ate with them and they did their best to make them feel welcome and explain all the little cultural differences. Even Velvet and her team had done their best with Barista. Team JNPR's situation… well, it hadn't looked great when Hunter fled, but that had felt more like a response to Ironwood's demands they fight in a war Hunter wanted no part in. On the same note, however, Ren could have spoken up in his defence and earned some loyalty. At least Hunter came back.
Fate had been left to run free and wild across Beacon with only her taking any time out her day to talk with him. That she'd grown close – that she'd felt bad for him – only made the current situation worse. Would things have been different if Pyrrha took an active part in befriending and learning about Fate? Probably not, but she could have at least been in a better position to spot the inconsistencies and warn someone.
It wasn't as though Yang was blind to the reason she hadn't.
Pyrrha had been too busy being in love with her Jaune and disliking the idea of a darker and cynical version of the man she had feelings for. Yang couldn't fault her that, but she could definitely fault the response – ignoring he existed and pretending he wasn't her problem. Now he'd become their problem in the worst of ways, and everyone else had suffered for Pyrrha's stark refusal to do anything about him.
They'd have words after all this. Now wasn't the time to bring it up, but Yang wasn't going to sit by and let her get away with prioritising her crush over the fate of Remnant. Things hadn't always been easy with Leviathan and Knight either, but their team worked hard to make things good and she felt it had worked out. Team JNPR barely tried at all. Fate was left to roam the school however he wanted, and barely spent time with them at all. Even if he was a treacherous asshole, he was an asshole who had spent over a thousand years trying to save their lives. That meant he loved them. Loved them enough to betray them all for a chance to fix his world. It wasn't like Fate wouldn't have opened up to them if they'd put the effort in.
Why am I even thinking about this? What's done is done for better or worse…
As they got closer to the central halls of Beacon, the devastation wrought by the battleship colliding with the headmaster's tower quickly became apparent. The roof had caved in and in several places the walls themselves had buckled; the scorched hull of an Atlesian Battleship rested among the ruins, its prow propped up by a V it had cut into the brickwork. That it hadn't exploded was a miracle and a worry, the latter because it still could with all the batteries and weapons it had. Its windows had shattered on impact and the interior lay dark and quiet.
Fortunately for them, after striking the tower it had carried on a small way before coming down, so it hadn't completely covered the area where the tower's base and elevator was. In a sense, it had sheared that off, carried on another hundred metres or so in a downward trajectory and then struck the rooftops. In terms of damage to the school, the second floor of this wing was inaccessible and thoroughly destroyed and the first floor was like running through an abandoned and collapsing mineshaft. Segments of the tower had also toppled and crashed through the ceiling, but those hadn't caused nearly as much damage as over a hundred tonnes of metal.
"S-Should we look for survivors?" Nora asked.
"There's no time." Winter said it harshly, even coldly, but Yang was certain there was more to it than that. "Whatever sacrifices have been made will be meaningless if we don't claim victory here. Push on."
Yang was glad the decision was made for them because she knew how tempting it was to stay and see if anyone needed help. Ruby already looked conflicted, and Yang wouldn't have had the stomach to push her on otherwise. Honestly, a part of her thought they should anyway. Why rush into a fight against Cinder when they could wait for everyone to regroup? Then she realised there might not be any more people. They had ten of them here including Fate and Winter, against no more than four enemies. They weren't going to get much better odds than that.
If Cinder escapes, this starts all over again and she can find more allies, more chances to attack us and Beacon won't be in any state to back us up after this.
This had to end now. It had to.
Blake's scroll buzzed loudly. Yang looked over, and she was sure Blake was blushing until she drew it out and saw who was calling. "It's Revolutionary!"
"Put him on speaker!" Winter ordered.
Blake did so with a click. "Revolutionary. It's Blake. We're on our way-"
"It doesn't matter." His voice sounded hoarse and raspy. "I did it. Adam is… Alive for now. Bleeding out." He coughed wetly, and Yang wished she could turn her attention away from it. He sounded like he was dying himself. "There isn't much time. Thought you should know so you don't pin your hopes on me."
Poor Blake looked lost for words. They all were.
"If I can make a request, the White Fang outside – those that survive – don't deserve to suffer for being desperate fools taken advantage of by a madman. Schnee. If you have any power, any authority at all, show them a little mercy. That is my wish. I can't make it of the Brother Gods but I can make it of you."
Winter closed her eyes grimly. "I will petition command on your behalf," she said. "Rest well, Revolutionary. Your war is done."
"My war isn't over yet." He laughed – at a time like this. "I've still got a corrupt system, institutionalised racism and radicals in the White Fang to deal with. In my world," he explained. "So, no, it's more work for me I'm afraid." He hacked harshly. "T-That's not so bad. G-Good luck everyone. W-Win this one for… me…"
There was a loud crack as the scroll fell from his fingers, one last wheeze and then naught but silence. Blake's eyes scrunched up, mirroring Yang's own grief when Leviathan fell. He hadn't been hers, not as a proper anchor, but it must have felt it all the same in the short time they'd spent together.
"We'll win." Jaune said boldly. "We'll win this stupid fucking war. We have to."
"Well said." Winter replied. "We can and shall grieve later but our minds must remain clear for now. Revolutionary bought us this opportunity with his life. To squander that now would be unconscionable."
That didn't stop it feeling like one more tragedy added onto an ever-growing pile.
Fate's pleased smirk didn't make it any easier.
/-/
Ash.
It was all ash.
Her plans, the fall maiden, even the bastard who had dared take her away. Cinder let the ashes of the man known as Xiong pour through her fingers and drift away on the faintest breeze, and yet even as it did, she swore she could hear his laughter echo in her skull. Killing him hadn't felt like a victory. It felt like a loss.
None behind her dared speak – not even Ashari, a rare moment of wisdom from him. She might have torn anyone who had asunder if they made themselves a viable target for her rage. Cinder's hands trembled as they fell to her sides.
"No matter."
Emerald parted her lips. "C-Cinder?"
"The maiden is gone," she said, harsher than she meant to. Cinder turned, her eyes narrow slits and her nostrils flaring. "There is no point crying over spilt milk!" she snapped, as if Emerald had been the one losing control of her emotions. "This war still lays ahead. We can make something of it."
What, she wasn't sure. There was always the option to go back to Salem. No one really knew of her plans to betray her other than Null, and he wouldn't care either way as both results ended with him gaining his wish. If she did not have the power to claim victory for herself, she could swallow her pride enough to claim it for another. Better to be second to the most powerful person in the world than to be no one at all.
"Another Champion has fallen. This time it's Headmaster's ally. Our enemy's ranks grow thinner still. Null. Ashari. I trust you are ready to play your parts."
"Of course." Null said.
Ashari waved his one arm sarcastically. "If that is what my anchor wishes."
Cinder gazed to Emerald, who lowered her head and said, "I wish it."
"Good." Cinder met Ashari's eyes again. They were displeased. "You heard your anchor, Ashari. Do your part. If you are too soft to kill the ones you call friends, kill the other Champions instead. It isn't so difficult. The best of them are dead already."
"As is the best of our own…"
"Grimm was an idealistic fool." Cinder said.
"That's what I said." Ashari replied. "The best of us."
Sentimental nonsense. Ashari was going to be a problem; she'd known it from the start. As he turned away, Cinder looked to Null, who took her silent message and nodded once. He would do what had to be done, and to death with any who got in his way. If only they could have had more Champions with such straightforward aims, this war would have long ended.
Perhaps I should have had Null spare Tyrian's, she thought. Loyal to Salem or not, the boy was infatuated with me and might have betrayed Tyrian if I offered him my time. I could have used him.
Everything was simpler in hindsight. In hindsight, she ought to have killed Headmaster when she had the chance. A Champion to an unknown Anchor walking into her clutches. He was Roman's obviously, but she hadn't seen Roman since the betrayal. That little rat had gone to ground, and Headmaster wasn't keen on exposing his greatest weakness.
"Are we to go above ground then?" Null asked. "Or shall we wait to face them here?"
"They will come to us." Cinder decided.
At this point they had to have been noticed, and there was little point riding the elevator up into an ambush when they could set one of their own. Cinder waved Null into position and took the time herself to gather her senses and push her anger back. It would only make things harder. The vaults beneath Beacon might not offer much in terms of an escape route, but there was room aplenty to fight in and it was hidden enough that the huntsmen's reinforcements from the Atlesian army outside would struggle to find them in time.
The elevator doors swished shut and the carriage began its journey upward. Cinder drew and released a long breath. "It's time." Even if the maiden was out her grasp, some small remnant of its power remained. A stolen fragment. Cinder's own Semblance over glass did not afford her the ability to use fire, that was a combination of dust weaving and stolen maiden power. Whatever the case, she summoned a large ball in her hand and prepared to throw it.
Null, meanwhile, stood off to the side but close enough to the elevator doors that anyone inside would be in range of his Semblance. Emerald stood outside that range but had her blades twisted to bring her guns forward. Null would activate and keep his Semblance as such as the doors opened, and they would pour gunfire in. Even if not all died, many would be hit and weakened. Some would certainly lose their lives as their aura failed them.
The distant chime of the elevator arriving on the floor above them was almost inaudible, but the churning whirr of the carriage coming back down was much louder, especially as it drew close. Cinder readied herself, preparing to give a few seconds for Null and Emerald to open fire before adding her flames.
It would not do to blind them and lead their shots astray.
The carriage slowly drifted down and clicked into place. The doors swished op-
Gunfire came screaming in and out at once and all over the place. Emerald and Null opened fire just as those inside did the same, and though the bullets all moved faster than anyone could react, Null ended his Semblance in a panic and was thrown back by several that impacted against his aura. The result was that those within the carriage were similarly protected, aura defending them as rounds pinged off and fire smashed down on them.
The fire was deflected by a wall of ice that shot up before it, then dispersed by a white glyph cast by the elder Schnee. As the ice shattered, the huntsmen walked out – an iteration at the front smiling cockily and wearing a white coat.
"I told you he'd have a trap laid out," he boasted. "It's what I'd have done if I had a Semblance like that. Heads up, I see Cinder but… oh?" His eyes widened and then his smile followed. "Your eyes aren't glowing." He looked past her, to the aura machine, where the shattered glass had revealed the fake body. "Well, well, well. Did Ozpin actually pull a fast one on you?"
That face. It wasn't the same one that had robbed her of the maiden's power but it was so similar as to have her blood boiling. She was beginning to despise that face, that smile, those eyes and everything related to it.
"I'll hunt you and yours down once this is over. Every Arc, the original, his family, any children. I'll make sure the entire Arc lineage is wiped away from this sorry world. This, I swear."
"Oh?" Fate's smile only grew. "Not Ozpin then. One of us? Ha. Who is the mastermind behind this one, eh?"
Cinder idly looked to the pile of ash on the floor. "He did not survive the experience."
"Good. One less rival for me. She doesn't have the maiden power," he told the rest of his allies. "Looks like her ability to piss off all the wrong people is in full force. Who was it? Headmaster?"
It would have been good if it was.
"Ashari!" she barked. "Deal with the Schnee."
The bigger threat, at least for now, and however crippled he was, he should be able to keep her distracted. Thankfully, Winter Schnee appeared to agree, for she rushed to the side shouting, "Leave him to me! The rest of you deal with Cinder and Null!"
/-/
Ashari looked unhappy with his orders, Winter noticed, and that left her anxious. While she didn't like leaving Cinder, Null and Emerald to the others either, she knew he was the bigger immediate threat. Without the maiden's powers Fate spoke of, Cinder was a capable huntress. Ashari was a huntsman and Specialist both, and worse still had intimate knowledge of all of them and their styles.
Null was dangerous but he was untrained. Numbers would be his greatest weakness.
"On me." Winter said and flicked her sabre beneath his nose. "I am your enemy."
"You really aren't…" he said morosely. "What a twisted comedy this has become."
"There is no comedy here. The world is at stake."
"Comedy and tragedy go hand in hand, or so they say." Ashari sighed and flipped back his coat, revealing bandoliers and pouches of dust, grenades and all manner of weapons. He shucked the coat off entirely with his stump of an arm and drew his weapon. A borrowed one. His had been shattered by Knight when he lost his arm. "A parting gift from Grimm," he said to answer her silent question. "A better man than I in many ways, despite being less of a human than any of us. It's funny how that works. Tragic, too."
Winter frowned. "You like talking."
"More than I like fighting any of you. Is that so hard to believe?"
"Then why fight us? Why serve Salem and Cinder?"
"I don't serve Salem. I serve Emerald."
"The girl. Why? Because she is your anchor? For the wish?"
"No." Ashari smiled and tilted his head to the side. "Because she is my daughter."
Winter froze – then cursed herself for a fool for allowing herself to be so distracted and flinched back, whipping her weapon up to block. To block nothing. He had made no motion to attack even as the battle began behind him. Winter slowly lowered her weapon, her heart beating quickly. The urge to start and win this battle warred with her innate caution. The iterations thus far had been both strong and capable, and Ashari more than most. What he lacked in raw power or a powerful Semblance, he made up for in raw skill. The fight would not be so one-sided or simple as she might wish it, and a loss herself would open her sister and her allies up to an attack from the flank.
"You should be the same age as that girl."
"Different world," he said. "It's hard to explain but I suppose the easiest way is to say I was older in my world than the me of this world is. Old enough that I found her when she was around nine and I in my mid-twenties."
"Adopted, then." Why didn't he attack her? Why talk? Winter eyed him shrewdly. "You realise she is not your daughter here."
He smiled. "Oh, I do. My Emerald was something of a daddy's girl and would never have shacked up with someone like Cinder. She came here as a student herself. Problem is, well, I look at her and see what my precious girl might have become if I wasn't around. Could you ignore a suffering Weiss in another world just because she's not yours?"
The answer was an exercise in philosophy Winter did not feel compelled to dwell on, so she shrugged her shoulder and said, "I suppose not."
"I've tried to steer her off this path," he said. "Tried to nudge her over to yours. Cinder has sunk her claws into the poor girl's heart, however. It's easy when you're the only one to offer a starving orphan time, food or attention. I should know. Emerald is clinging to her just as much as she did to me. Unfortunately, Cinder isn't the positive influence I chose to be."
"Then do as a father should and take her away from Cinder." Winter said. If she could end the fight this way, she'd sure as hell take it. "Surely a good father would be prepared to brave his daughter's ire if it meant keeping her safe."
"It's not so simple."
"Then simplify it for me!"
"Cinder is Emerald's life. Kill Cinder and she will surrender. Knock out Emerald and I'll not only surrender but instantly turn on Cinder. But if you make a move to kill her…" He sighed. "I've tried my hardest not to hurt any of you. That might change if I feel her life is in danger."
It was a good offer. Winter snarled and raised her voice to the nearest of the huntsmen. "Rose!" The girl, Weiss' partner, turned her head slightly without looking away from the fight. "Tell your team to incapacitate Emerald Sustrai peacefully. Knock her out if you can. Otherwise, Ashari will go on the warpath."
The girl nodded and sped off in a blur to inform her team.
Winter stared back at Ashari. "There. Are you satisfied now?"
"I won't truly be satisfied until she's safe but I am at least in a better mood than I was ten minutes ago." He raised his sword in a fencer's salute. "Must we fight, Winter? My orders are to keep you occupied. Talk may be cheap but it's also less likely to hurt you."
If her sister weren't in danger Winter might have agreed. If this were the Ace-Ops, other soldiers or Ironwood who she could trust to know the risks, she might have accepted his offer. It wasn't. They were children. Winter brought her sabre up and lunged forward. His sword was no fencer's weapon no matter how he wielded it and a quick slash from the left-
His sword surrendered and pirouetted around her own as he hopped back, leaving her to cut through air where she expected to bounce off steel. It unbalanced her lightly, just enough for him to tickle her chin with the tip of his sword. Winter launched herself back but needn't have. He hadn't bothered to try and strike her.
"You always open with a backhanded swing from above your left shoulder," he commented. "You bounce the first off the opponent's weapon, strike again while using your momentum and then feint on the third, sweeping over to attack low and from the right."
Winter's lips pursed. That was not an inaccurate summation of her preferred opener. Obviously, she mixed it up against her frequent sparring partners so as not to become repetitive, but he was not-
Or was he?
"You know me in your world. You are… my age…?"
"A little older." He chuckled. "Old enough to draw a few looks."
"Oh?" Winter snarked and readied herself for round two. "I hope you didn't try anything inappropriate with me."
"Well." Ashari laughed awkwardly and scratched his cheek with his sword hand. "I may have… uh… knocked you up."
Winter's sabre wobbled. "E-Excuse me!?"
"I suppose I didn't introduce myself properly. I could have sworn I mentioned it to Weiss." He bowed from the waist. "Jaune Ashari-Schnee. And you, in my world, would be Winter Ashari-Schnee." He cocked a smile. "I did say our fight was a tragic comedy, did I not? It's good to see you again, Winter, even if you're not my Winter."
Well, the weather today wasn't murderous so I didn't have as much trouble writing this as all last week was.
Next Chapter: 30th July
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