The Bell Tolls
The party was in full swing, and yet Adam found himself unable to tap into the same happiness the rest of his team had. While Weiss danced with her date and both Ruby and Yang were finding limited success in teaching Penny the ropes in terms of dancing, Adam remained watching from the seats against the wall. It was a strange sight: someone who arrived in such a striking suit with not just any date, but one of the most popular and boisterous first-years in Beacon, sitting around with those too shy or antisocial to join in the revelry.
But everything felt wrong to him. Adam looked over the ballroom and lazily sipped from his cup. Parties were never exactly his thing. Something about celebrating before the final victory was won felt so wasteful to him, not to mention how, frankly, even though he was the same age as a Beacon fourth-year, he felt a little too old to be sitting around some school dance. The colorful, whimsical lights, the streamers scattered about, dancing, giggling teenagers, fast-paced music and total lack of care left Adam feeling like he did not belong and, really, could he ever? The former terrorist? The White Fang leader? One who had just come back from a life-or-death battle against one of the people corrupting his organization?
No. This was his team's place, but it was not his. He noticed Cinder's two lackeys standing above on the second floor. Their eyes briefly locked.
Nor was it theirs.
Adam had to admit to himself that he was a little disappointed that Cinder herself had not made her appearance. He was waiting to see the look on her face as she realized that a blow had been struck, yet there was little to connect it to his team. He chuckled to himself: he also was curious on how someone who had built their very image on a foundation of seduction and maturity would manage to fit in amongst these teenagers. But, alas, there was no sign of her.
That instinctual wrongness set in deeper as he noticed the blonde monkey boy from before arrive, excitedly talking with some other human with blue hair and goggles that oozed false confidence. Blake was nowhere to be found. Where were they? From what he had heard upon actually caring about this dance, it was the talk of the town. All of Beacon's best and brightest would be here, they said. All eyes would be on the dance, they insisted. Even the faculty was taking time off to come here. Even—and after an attack requiring his own attention, no less—General Ironwood himself had returned here. The walk from the garages back here was like moving through a ghost town.
The ex-terrorist narrowed his eyes. All eyes were on the dance. The faculty were all focused in this one small area. Experience from his time as the White Fang's major and scourge of Vale left his mind traveling down a different path: Beacon was vulnerable. Were he in charge, it would be one of the most appetizing targets in his organization's history: a free run of Beacon and all of the to-be-Huntsmen and Huntresses packed up in a nice little easy-to-destroy building.
No. It couldn't be an assault on the dance hall itself. Unless they themselves were performing the attack, the presence of Emerald and Mercury made that a non-option, and there was no way Cinder would sacrifice two major pawns so readily. So, what was it? A pricking chill ran up his spine. What was essential? What else was vulnerable? If he were still in charge, what would he have used this valuable time to attack?
The CCT.
Far enough from the dance to escape the notice of Beacon, close enough to be returned to in short notice if compromised. If Cinder was infiltrating or assaulting the CCT, Mercury and Emerald were no doubt there to keep watch.
Adam's eyes flicked up to search for his team. Weiss was on the other side of the ballroom, idly chatting with JNPR and Penny. Ruby had managed to get wrapped up with Sun in excitedly trying to tell the blue-haired boy what had happened while trying not to be too loud about it. Making a beeline for Weiss could result in questions or attention, and there was no doubt in Adam's mind that trying to surreptitiously draw Ruby away would get Sun and his friend to follow whether he wanted them to, or not. That left one option.
As the DJ turned to slower songs, Yang finally managed to wriggle away from her friends long enough to get herself some punch when she felt a tap at her shoulder. Adam stood behind her with a confident smirk on his face, quite the departure from how he was lounging away from as many people as possible.
"Oooh, I was wondering when you'd finally get over here. Waiting for a slow dance, hm?" she teased as she turned around.
"Was I so obvious?" He offered his hand to her, and soon they were one with the crowd, gently moving in-tune with the others. Emerald and Mercury had finally come down from their perch, and were dancing ever so close to them. Perfect.
Yang's eyes widened a little when Adam brought her closer until the two were against one another, but she wasn't complaining.
She was just about to speak when Adam leaned down just over her shoulder and murmured, "Follow my lead. We need to leave as soon as possible."
Yang couldn't exactly keep the flicker of annoyance from crossing her expression. "Way to lead a girl on, Adam." She pouted. Well, she supposed it wasn't all bad: frankly, if he'd changed that quickly, she would've thought something was wrong with him.
"Who, me? I had no such intentions," Adam insisted with a sly smile, as if he'd said nothing at all. "Dancing simply is not much of my style. Were it up to me, this night could be spent doing much more."
"You know, I remember that you dragged me off from the club to come here. Even though I told you exactly where I would be, tonight..." Yang kept up their false alibi.
"I wasn't thinking about clubbing," he cooed. Over Yang's shoulder, Adam could see Mercury arch an eyebrow as the two kept a close eye on them.
She giggled, although more from hearing their resident stoic flirting than anything else. "Well, aren't you being forward, tonight. Are you sure they didn't spike the punch?" Yang brought them out from the crowd and towards the door as the song ended. "Lead the way, big guy."
Emerald brought a hand through her hair, no doubt activating an earpiece. As Adam led Yang outside, he could faintly hear Emerald speaking, and not to Mercury. He smirked. A complete success.
"Two priority guests leaving for the dormitories: Yang and Adam. They sounded... ugh, 'excited'. Do we interfere?"
Cinder withdrew her thin, stiletto blade from the back of a guardsman's neck: he hadn't even known what hit him. The glass weapon faded into little more than dust, carrying the blood with it. The entrance to the CCT was now entirely unmanned.
"No. Let's not make ourselves more suspicious. The further away from us they are, the better." She idly kicked the guard's corpse into the bushes, but not before taking the rifle for herself. She took a glance behind her, smiled and, with the hum and flashing of amber glyphs, she took on the very appearance of the guard she eliminated.
It would only be fitting that the next step in Beacon's destruction would come with the face of the authority they trusted so much.
"So, are you going to tell me what's going on, or what?" Yang eventually asked as she and Adam jogged down the street towards the center of Beacon.
"Cinder's using the dance as a distraction," Adam replied and whipped his Scroll out from his pocket. "She's targeting the CCT, I know it. The damage she could cause from there is incalculable. I needed an alibi that would last long enough for me to get there without drawing her attention: unfortunately, it needed you." A brief input of numbers later and a locker came screaming down from the skies and skid to a halt just ahead of them. The door popped off, revealing not Adam's weapon, but a simple pair of short rifles and a black hoodie: a haphazard 'disguise'.
"Sorry," he offered a flat apology as he threw the hoodie on over his suit and drew a modified, black White Fang mask from one of its pockets. He rubbed one of the two lenses replacing the normal four slits with his gloved thumb. "If I'm not back in twenty minutes, return to the dance without me."
Adam, now truly the Ace of Spades—although a fair bit messier—checked his rifles. Alibi or not, Cinder would know exactly who he was the moment he stepped in the door. The point, however, was to keep her from knowing until he got there, and just in case anyone else saw him.
The crash of a second locker next to him nearly had Adam opening fire.
"Well, if that's the case, you should've just said so! Come on, like I'm gonna give up a chance to wipe that smug look off of her face." Yang grinned and put on her golden gauntlets.
"Besides, it's no fair that everyone else has gone on crime-stopping adventures with you!"
The inside of the CCT, usually so full of activity and noise, was a truly empty place now. In the silence and low light, the inside looked larger than ever. Even the center, normally so claustrophobic with its cramped spaces and terminal that took up the majority of the room, felt spacious and was filled with shadow. It might've been the easiest graveyard shift in the world, but it still kept the four guards posted on edge. The only light in the terminal room was a constant, ghostly-green glow emanating from below the walls.
"This place is too freakin' spooky..." one of the guards mumbled to himself. To prove his point, the main door slamming open jolted every man there. One of their comrades dashed in with rifle in hand like an entire Grimm horde was behind him, panting heavily and lurched over by the time he even got up close. The four were immediately gathered in front of him, trying to figure out what's wrong.
The answer was the tired guard himself. A spray of rifle fire sent a guard down clutching his stomach, and by the time the other three even had time to recoil, the rogue soldier slammed the butt of the weapon into the other's head and flipped up into a roundhouse kick that sent the other two sprawling and stunned into the stairs. Groaning, one of the stunned men tried to rise. A burst of gunfire sent him to the ground. Permanently. The final two followed him.
A sly smile on his face, the assailant sauntered over towards the only one who hadn't perished just yet: ironically, the first one they'd fired upon. Though the guard's eyes were obscured by his helmet, he could feel the hatred rising from within. Fury and betrayal so potent it was as if the survivor was trying to strangle the traitor with anger alone.
"Be proud." The voice coming from the traitor was clearly not his own, instead being that of a woman's. "Your death may appear fruitless, but you shall be seen as a hero. A hero who stopped the White Fang from attacking the very heart of Beacon Academy." As rings of shining, amber glyphs began rising around the other corpses and the lone survivor began to drift away to a final slumber, he realized that whatever this was, it was far and away beyond him. He never stood a chance.
Cinder casually stood beside the elevator, leaving behind her two dead men just across from a pair of White Fang insurgents in full uniform. As far as anyone knew, this assault would be an awful terrorist attack on the CCT that failed due to the heroic actions of a single soldier. A nice sob story for the peaceful masses of Vale.
The elevator opened, and shouts of shock and horror quickly rang out from a pair of clueless guards inside. Focused on their fallen, they ran right past Cinder without even noticing her. She slipped inside the elevator and let the door close behind her.
They'd still be clueless long after she was gone.
Yang and Adam raced down the darkened streets of Beacon. No alarms, no sign of forced entry, no burns or signs of combat, either. For the briefest moment, Adam wondered if he had been wrong about this the entire time. That fear was alleviated the moment the CCT's entrance was in sight, and from below the many stairs leading up to its doors, they could see not a soul was around to guard it. Even Vale would never do such a callous thing.
"Yang, keep to the side, I'll take point." He trusted in Yang to follow orders and did not even glance back before picking up the pace, leaping up numerous stairs at a time and sliding in place beside the grand windows. No one in the lobby, either, but he could hear voices. Faint. Tense. Alarmed? No, they were calm: the incident had already passed. He kept his ear to the glass.
"Two dead and two missing in the terminal room. Suspects are two faunus males, already neutralized: they appear to be affiliated with the White Fang. No clear sign of organization, though. It's probably just a lone wolf attack... Of course, General, your presence would be appreciated."
Adam tensed. No Cinder. She must still be there. He slowly opened the main door of the lobby: no one there, either. The path clear, Adam waved Yang forward and was gone in a blur of black, racing towards the center as quickly as he could.
Two soldiers stepped out from around the central terminal just as the vigilante stepped into the room. For Adam, it was as if two seconds took a minute to pass: the guards took one look at the incoming intruder clad in black with the mask of either a dangerous vigilante—if they knew who he was—or a terrorist, and had already begun to raise their pistols. A soldier's hand moved towards his ear to report on the intrusion. Adam raised his rifles: he could not allow anyone to hear that he'd been here.
Adam fired first, the shot slamming into the side of the soldier's helmet and destroying the communications within. He was still recoiling when the vigilante flipped over the two and struck them down with a pair of sharp kicks to the head. A mask and flurry of black was all that the two could see before they were knocked out. It would have to do.
Hearing the gunfire, Yang rushed into the room only to be caught short at the sight of so many dead and wounded. She let out a soft gasp and looked up towards Adam with shock. Her widened eyes held within them an unspoken question: were they too late?
Adam turned to the elevator. Digital numbers ticked upwards towards the top floor. He grunted. "She's still here. We have time."
Yang cracked her knuckles and her lilac eyes slowly turned a bloody red. This was beyond just wounding egos, now.
"Another guest is leaving." It was Emerald yet again.
Cinder sighed as she strolled out of the elevator onto the darkened communications floor. Computers were in long rows all the way to the windows overlooking Beacon itself, but her attention was drawn to the front desk itself, and the three dimly-glowing, green holographic monitors.
"Which one is it, now?" Her disguise burned away to ashes while she slipped behind the desk and drew out a black Scroll with a burgundy 'M' inscribed on the back.
"It's Ironwood!" Came her hushed whisper from the other side.
"Leaving twice so soon? Punch must go straight through him." Mercury chuckled to himself.
"Orders?"
"The same as before. Continue to keep me posted." She connected the Scroll into the system. It immediately went to work, displaying a black queen chess piece on the monitor before the system left all of its functions bare to her. A simple bar appeared, filling up as the Scroll transferred the largest of its malicious contents. "We'll be done here very soon." Cinder spent the time accessing and wiping the cameras: how foolish would it be if she went through all of this just for some lowly grunt in security to see her, later?
And just as the first of the files uploaded themselves, the elevator chimed. Cinder froze. Her gaze shot towards the bar: she needed more time!
Weapons at the ready, Adam and Yang both stepped out into the communications room in unison, scanning it over with rifles and shotgun-gauntlets both. Nothing.
"Crap, we really were too late, weren't we?" Yang growled and let her fists fall, but Adam held his arm out and waved over towards the front desk with his rifle. In the entire room, it had the only screens that were on.
"The infiltrator must have left before our arrival." Adam nodded to Yang and began silently walking closer to the desk, guns pointed down and ready.
"What a coward..." she grumbled under her breath and raised her fists, ready for a surprise attack at any moment.
To their surprise, however, Cinder lithely rose up from behind the desk to face them. She sauntered closer, dressed in all black leather with a number of odd capsules and canisters attached to her belt and thighs. Yang glared daggers at her as she looked the two over with a masquerade mask of pure, black glass blocking the upper half of her face.
"My, my, fancy meeting you two here. Yang. Adam." The 'Ace of Spades' did not so much as flinch at Cinder's knowledge. "I'm surprised. I didn't think you would be so brave as to risk Blake to try and stop me."
Adam's grip tightened. No, she couldn't make a move: she'd lose her leverage to stop him from going to Ozpin. "Why, Cinder, I'm insulted that you would think I'm so callous. I happened to see a suspicious person moving towards the CCT. Imagine my surprise when it turns out to be the White Fang and their leader is on the top floor. Perhaps you shouldn't have gotten spotted."
"Cute." Cinder's eyes dipped towards the front desk. It didn't go unnoticed. "But let it not be said that I do not listen to reason. Turn around and walk away."
Yang spat in annoyance. "Yeah, right, and why should we do that?"
With a roll of her eyes, Cinder placed her hand on her hip. "Turn back now, and I'll pretend like I never saw this happen." Adam appeared to mull this over, even beginning to lower his rifles. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw Yang's eyes shifting to red. He smirked.
"I don't believe you!" Yang suddenly fired her shotguns at Cinder, recoiling in surprise as, with a flick of her hand, the pellets disintegrated into glowing embers. With Cinder's attention elsewhere, however, Adam bull rushed her and leaped up into a flying kick. Their foe spun around and the leather of her suit flashed a dangerous orange before the embers grew and coalesced into dual, glass blades that she deflected Adam's strike with and threw him into the terminals beneath the windows.
"Alright, try blocking this, then!" Yang shouted. As Adam jumped back off of the computers to attack Cinder from behind, Yang sprung forward into a devastating uppercut, yet both were deflected by the blades with ease. Cinder let a smile reach her face as she stepped back and beckoned them towards her. The two gladly obliged, aggressively striking in tune with one another: a sweep of Adam's leg was followed by a lunging jab from Yang, a fake out from Yang to Cinder's left heralded a swing of Adam's gun from the right. There was not even a second of space between the barrage of blows, and yet, Cinder parried and dodged without effort.
Finally, a fiery punch from Yang shattered her sword. When Cinder hurriedly leaned out of the way of the incoming blow, Adam fired one of his rifles point-blank into her stomach, sending her skidding backwards. Crimson gathered around the barrel of his guns, growing and sliding away from the steel like blood as he turned his willpower from the shield that defended him into a piercing blade. He unleashed a storm of red-clad bullets all but certain to pierce through her projected aura.
They, too, were blocked with a wave of Cinder's hand.
General Ironwood stepped into a warzone. From the moment he had walked into the lobby only to find the scent of death and his own men scattered on the floor, it was the only thing he was willing to call it. At the least, two of them lived, and they both could confirm that it was not just the dead White Fang operatives who had come to attack, but a third who had knocked them both unconscious while they were investigating.
His hand clenched around his heavy pistol as the loud thunder of gunfire and explosives sent rumbles through the elevator before he was even halfway up. Ironwood wondered how much of it was real, and how much of it was the ghost of battlefield memories long past.
Yang and Cinder both broke into a sprint for each other, Yang roaring all the while. She dug her foot into the ground, turned her hips, and threw all the torque and aura she could into a mighty right hook. Weaving smoothly out of the way, Cinder grabbed onto Yang and acrobatically flipped herself over both her and Adam. At the peak that brought her almost to the ceiling, the embers turned her blade into a bow and multiple arrows, each loosed in succession before her foot even touched the ground.
Adam spun behind Yang who blocked and threw each arrow into the floor with her gauntlets. A high-pitched whine and flash of light came from the points of impact, and before the two could even respond, they were blasted to the back of the communication's room in a thundering explosion. Glass belonging to the CCT's terminals, windows and Cinder came down upon them like rain, but their auras still held strong.
The three would find themselves glad for the brief pause for, as the two jumped back up to their feet and Cinder drew back her bow for yet another barrage, the elevator chimed. For the first time, they saw a genuine flicker of panic cross Cinder's face. She loosed the arrows and dived for the front desk, but before they'd even gotten halfway across the room each exploded in a ball of flame and light.
Another warzone. Ironwood very carefully moved from the relative safety of the elevator doors into the ruined communications room, keeping a watchful eye for any intruders.
No one.
Only burnt holes in the floor, shell casings, flashing monitors and shattered windows across the entire room. A howling wind whipped through the room, rattling the loose, sparking wires and pieces of metal blown loose from the structure. Only the front desk had remained unscathed. Ironwood slowly lowered his gun and stepped closer.
Crack
He whipped his gun back up and scanned over the room once. Then twice. A third time, to be sure. Only then did he so much as take a single step forward.
And, only then, did he notice the remains of the glass slipper that he'd broken beneath his boot.
The wind whipped across Yang and Adam like thin blades as they plummeted towards the ground from one of the CCT's highest windows. The rush of air made it all but impossible to hear what Yang was saying, but Adam was certain she was laughing about it all. With blasts from her gauntlets, she flew through the air and over the plaza, only rolling to a halt far from the CCT, with almost all of her momentum just sending her forward. The sky briefly flashed red above her, and two bullets blew craters into the ground beside Yang, the rubble turning to wilting rose petals as Adam daintily landed beside her.
"Think they'll be upset about all the damage?" Yang jokingly asked as she looked over the two holes in the ground and back up to the broken windows.
"More than likely. Too bad they'll never be able to stick us with the bill." Adam chuckled, and the two began the long walk back to the dance hall.
"Ah, may I cut in?" Emerald glanced over her shoulder to find Cinder safe and sound, not even a scratch or hair out of place. She would have smiled if Cinder's eyes were not focused solely on her. Cinder chose her to dance instead of Mercury. It meant nothing to the people around them. To them, however, that meant something had gone wrong with their mission.
"Hey, be my guest." How Mercury managed to remain as smug as usual in such a circumstance, Emerald didn't even know. He stepped away, and Emerald took Cinder's hand, ready for the bad news.
"So, how's your night been?" But she would stick to the script, nonetheless.
"Fairly more exciting than I had anticipated. The blonde and the bull certainly know how to try and make a girl's night," Cinder replied with a soft chuckle. She may have looked confident and in control, but Emerald had been around her for long enough to see the agitation lurking behind her amber eyes. She took the lead, gently bringing them across the dance floor to try and take her mind off of the mission's shortcomings.
"Should we be worried?"
"Not exactly. We can see all, but we can't touch. Not just yet."
"Do they know?"
Cinder smirked. "Not in the least. Even if it will take longer than we planned, they won't have a clue until we are already gone." Another turn brought Adam and Yang into her sights, chatting with Ruby beside the punch bowl as if they hadn't fought just moments ago. The two mockingly raised their glasses to her. "No matter who is in the way."
Emerald sighed in relief and let a more genuine smile show. There was still hope. "What now?"
"We celebrate what we have, just like the rest of them. Today, we rest." She did not shy away from showing Emerald a warmer smile rather than her usual confidence. A slow spin turned her sight from her two former opponents to Weiss and Penny dancing beside Jaune and Pyrrha without a care in the world.
"After all, we will have so many more chances in the days ahead..."
The clock struck midnight, and the bells began to toll.
A/N: Since Maidens and their ability to simply just cast magic was something that came along in Volume 3, I had a few more 'magical' moments for Cinder here to show off how some things just can't be explained by aura.
Comment and criticism always welcome.
