Chapter Twenty-Nine: Fall of Beacon
Everything was coming together to Phoenix. "Emerald and Mercury have been trying to sabotage the tournament using Emerald's semblance, illusion! We need to get her!" Phoenix ordered.
"I'll get her. You stop the fight," Ruby replied.
"But-"
"I'll be fine. I promise. Now go!" With that they ran off in different directions. Phoenix ran towards the area but was quickly slowed down by the large crowds of people who were unable to find seats.
"Move damn it!" He shouted as he tried to push his way through, wishing could just grapple over them. When he was about a third of the way through the crowd he heard the next match be announced: Pyrrha vs. Penny. "I need to stop this before anyone else gets hurt!" He yelled in his head. He reached the front of the area just in time to see Emerald's work. Pyrrha used her polarity to force Penny's swords back, the wires connecting them to her backpack wrapping around her and tearing her apart, revealing her robotic interior. "NO!" Phoenix screamed, falling to his knees.
"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident," a hauntingly familiar voice said over the stadium speakers after a moment of shocked silence.
"Cinder…" he thought, still in shock from what had just happened.
He was snapped out his stunned state when he heard sirens alerting everyone to a Grim attack. "Ladies and gentlemen, please. There is no need for panic," Ironwood said over the speakers. However, just as he said this a giant Nevermore landed on the barrier covering the top of the coliseum.
"Warning, safety barriers failing," an automated voice announced. When Phoenix finally looked up at the area, he saw that Pyrrha was still standing there in shock. "Pyrrha! Move!" he yelled, Jaune taking a similar course of action. When she appeared not to notice him he jumped into the ring to aid her, extending his staff with one hand and calling his locker with the other. Just as he and Jaune reached her, the Nevermore broke through the barrier, sending Jaune and Pyrrha flying back. Phoenix was able to hold his ground by planting his staff in the ground. Still dazed from the attack, he didn't have time to react when the Nevermore charged at him. However, just before it struck him a red blur flashed by him.
"Leave them alone!" Ruby yelled as she stabbed the beast in the chest using one of Penny's swords. The Nevermore responded by circling around the arena and charging at the group. Once again, it was stopped at the last second, this time by multiple lockers landing on it. The lockers opened, revealing the equipment of teams JNPR, CVFY, SSSN, ABRN, and half of team FNKY. The owners of the equipment quickly arrived to claim their gear, but just as they armed themselves the Nevermore began to move. When it was about to get up, however, another locker flew in and crushed its head, opening to reveal Phoenix's equipment, which he quickly armed himself with. The only parts of his outfit that he took from the locker were his coat and his mask.
"Ruby, I'm so sorry," Pyrrha apologized, holding a scrap of Penny's clothing.
"So am I, but this isn't your fault," Ruby replied.
"It was a woman by the name of Cinder Fall," Phoenix stated as he walked up to them. He could hear muttering from the teams who had just found out about his mother but continued anyway. "She was the one on the speaker. She was the one who orchestrated this, and she must be brought to justice."
"You're in no position to talk about justice," a familiar voice stated as it entered the arena, "Phoenix Fall"
"Grant, I swear to Gods, if you're here to try and arrest me while people are dying-!"
"I'm not here to fight you. There's an army of Grimm out there, and the White Fang aren't helping matters. This makes the breach look like nothing. As much as I hate to say it, we need to put aside our differences if we want to stop this. Once this has been dealt with, I promise I'll do everything in my power to take you in Fall" Phoenix nodded in agreement, deciding he could deal with his identity being discovered another time. "As for the rest of you, you have a choice. You can go and save yourselves, or you could prove that you have what it takes to be Huntsmen and Huntresses."
"LLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JJJJJJJJJEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS!" Jenkins yelled out as he jumped out from his ship holding a chainsaw that had "Mr. Cuddles" carved into it.
"What the bloody hell? Jenkins, what are you doing?" Phoenix demanded to know as the rest of the students just stared, dumbfounded by his entrance.
"Made a few modifications. Sheila can now independently hunt Grim and return at the push of a button. But enough of that. Let's clear this place of Grim!" he yelled, charging into a hoard of Beawolves, and loudly yelling his name again before Phoenix had the chance to ask why he called the ship Sheila. He started carving up all the ones in close proximity to him up with his chainsaw and then mowing down all the others in his line of sight when his chainsaw transformed into a minigun that fired shotgun rounds.
After recovering from the shock of what they had just witnessed, the teams noticed another fight taking place. The combatants in the fight were General Ironwood and an Alpha Beawolf. Before they had time to provide aid Ironwood had defeated it and was heading to his ship. They caught up with him just before he entered, wanting to get more information about what was going on, a question Ruby asked once they reached him.
"Grim are crawling all over the city, the White Fang has invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse some… vagabond has seized one of my ships," he explained. "Until we regain command the skies are out of our control." As he said this "Sheila" flew by and mowed down a Beawolf that was approaching them. An automated female voice said, "Firing main cannon," as it did. "Almost out of our control. So I'm going to take them back." With that he entered his ship and flew away.
"Let's go! We can take a transport to Beacon," Phoenix stated.
Mere moments after the ship took off, its passengers saw Ironwood's ship begin to crash. "Blast it Ruby! Wait up!" Phoenix yelled after Ruby, who had began to run towards the ship's exit. Just as he got close to her she jumped out the exit and back onto the coliseum. "I can't believe I'm doing this," Phoenix thought as he jumped after her, barely making it onto the coliseum with her. "What're you doing?" he demanded to know.
"If Ironwood can't take the ship back then I will," Ruby explained.
"Alright. Jenkins, we need pickup. Get us to the Atlesian battleship," Phoenix ordered.
"You got it boss," Jenkins replied. After a moment of waiting they saw "Sheila", which quickly landed by them. "Might want to get in quickly. There's a pack of really pissed off Beawolves on my tail."
About halfway through their flight to the ship, a deafening roar could be heard near them. "Holy shit," Phoenix muttered as he saw a giant Grimm dragon fly by them.
"Uhh… boss what do we do?" Jenkins asked, clearly nervous.
"Continue our current course, but don't get close to that dragon," Phoenix replied. "Once we get to the ship I want you to keep Griffins off us."
Shortly after Phoenix and Ruby landed on the ship, they were confronted by Neo who took a photo of them. "You ready for a fight?" Phoenix asked.
"Always," Ruby replied as the two of them drew their weapons. Phoenix made the opening move of the fight, firing his shotgun at Neo, who easily blocked it with her umbrella. This, however, gave Ruby the chance to get close to her. Neo dodged out of the way and ran towards Phoenix who had switched to dual wield rifles that he fired at her. She again dodged his fire, getting close to him and engaged him. Ruby, once again trying to take advantage of the distraction, opened fire on Neo. She dodged the strike Phoenix was about to land and blocked Ruby's shot with her umbrella. From his previous encounter with her, Phoenix could tell she was stalling. He shortly found out why. Torchwick fired a blast from his cane through a copy of Neo. "Phoenix!" Ruby shouted as she Phoenix away from the blast, taking it herself instead. She was sent flying back, barely keeping herself from falling off the ship using Crescent Rose to keep herself from being sent flying off.
"RUBY! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN TORCHWICK!" Phoenix yelled as he charged at Roman and Neo, surrounding the three of them with fire.
"You two really are determined to be the heroes of Vale aren't you," Torchwick taunted.
"Shut up! You die now!" Phoenix shouted as he fired his rifles, one aimed at Neo, the other aimed at Torchwick. Neo blocked the one aimed at her with her umbrella while Torchwick simply blasted his out of the air. Phoenix lunged at the two of them, controlled by his anger and having no regard for strategy. His two opponents, on the other hand, clearly had a plan. Neo fought Phoenix at close range while Torchwick fired at him from long range. Phoenix was able to block both their attacks for a while, but eventually Torchwick got a shot past his guard. The explosion sent Phoenix flying back and the ring of fire to dissipate due to his loss of focus. He was almost sent flying off the ship but was able to use his hooks to grab onto the edge. Ruby ended up in a position similar to his before he had the chance to recover.
"I may be a gambling man, but even I know there're some bets you just don't take," Roman said, his statement followed by the grinding of a blade against metal. The cause of the sound was quickly revealed when Neo looked over the edge of the ship at them, umbrella blade extended. "Like it or not, the people that…" As Roman continued his monologue, Phoenix noticed a button on Neo's umbrella, presumably to open it. From the look on Ruby's face Phoenix could tell she was thinking the same thing. "And you know what they say. If you can't beat 'em-" Before he could finish, Ruby, who was closer to Neo than Phoenix, reached up and pushed the button. This gave them the exact result they were looking for. The umbrella opened up, and the high winds pulled Neo over the edge of the ship. "Neo!" Roman yelled as she drifted down, the umbrella acting like a parachute. Phoenix and Ruby used the destination to get back up onto the ship, though their primary weapons were still lodged in the ship's hull, and they didn't have time to grab them. To compensate for this Phoenix extended the claws on his gauntlets and tossed Ruby his retractable staff.
"I don't care what you say! We will stop them, and I will stop you! Bet on that!" Ruby shouted as she charged at Torchwick using her semblance, followed closely by Phoenix. Torchwick took ad advantage of the fact that he had a ranged weapon by firing a round and then using his cane to bat it towards them. The resulting explosion sent the two of them in different directions. Phoenix was the first to recover, and sent a blast of fire at him. He then pulled Roman towards him with his grapnel gun with one hand while he dropped a smoke bomb with the other. He was able to land a few punches before the smoke dissipated, and the second it did, Ruby charged again. This time her attack dazed Torchwick slightly, but he recovered. The now recovered Torchwick fired at them again, but this time they were ready. They both dodged the explosion and lunged at him. As they fought he kept monologuing.
"You kids have got spirit, but this is the real world!" He kicked Ruby, sending her back. "The real world is cold! The real world doesn't care about spirit!" He fired a blast at Phoenix's chest, causing him to land right next to Ruby. "You brats want to be heroes? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman and huntress in history!" The two of them got ready for another attack. "As for me, I'll do what I do best. Lie, cheat, steal, and survi-!" Before Torchwick could finish his speech a Griffin landed behind him and swallowed him whole. It then lunged at Phoenix and Ruby, hoping to do the same to them. They dodged out of the way, and the Griffin crashed into the cockpit instead. The resulting explosion set off a chain reaction across the ship. Phoenix could barely hear the sound of his scroll ringing over the explosions as he and Ruby ran for their weapons.
"Uhh… boss, I think a Griffin may have slipped past me. And why's the ship exploding?" Jenkins asked once Phoenix picked up.
"The two things are related! Now get us out of here!" he ordered. In a few seconds Sheila appeared right in front of their weapons. They grabbed said weapons and leaped into the ship.
"So how are a Griffin slipping past me and the ship exploding related?"
"Jenkins, remember how I told you to stay away from that dragon?" Phoenix asked the pilot.
"Yes…"
"Disregard that. I want you to get us close to that thing."
"What?" both Ruby and Jenkins exclaimed.
"That thing is dropping Grim all over the city and Beacon. I want you to get me close so I can bring it down."
"What?" they exclaimed again.
"Just get me close to it Jenkins! You don't have to fight the damn thing!" The pilot reluctantly complied. Once they got close to the beast Phoenix prepared to jump, but before he could Ruby grabbed his arm.
"What're you thinking?" Ruby demanded to know.
"Someone needs to stop that thing," he started.
"If you're going to go, then at least promise me you won't die." Phoenix quickly took off his mask and kissed her.
"I love you," he said as he looked behind him to see the dragon flying at their side. "But you know that's a promise I can't make." As he said this he put his mask back on and leaped off the ship grappling onto the dragon's back.
"Phoenix!" Ruby yelled as he jumped, the ship flying away before she could jump after him.
Phoenix jumped off of the dragon and grappled onto its underside, still hanging onto the gun to keep from falling. "Looks like you're bleeding. Let's cauterize those wounds," he said as he pulled out his lighter with his other hand and started blasting the openings on the dragon's body that Grim were coming out of. The only effect this seemed to have though was angering the beast. "Damn it!" Phoenix yelled as he released the hook and grappled onto the dragon's back again.
Phoenix digging his hooks into the back of the dragon's neck was having one of two effects. The first was that it was actually hurting the beast and the second being that it was simply annoying. Either way, it was flying erratically in a desperate attempt to throw Phoenix off of its back. Eventually this erratic flight path put the dragon on a crash course with Ozpin's tower. Its impact reduced the upper part of Ozpin's office to rubble and threw Phoenix off of its back. When he was flung off of it he barely managed to keep from falling off of the tower's remains. The first thing he saw when he got up were the multiple "Error" signals flashing on his mask's "glasses" Informing him that a lot of the tech inside of his mask had been damaged in the crash. The second thing he saw after deactivating all the damaged tech to remove the signals was something far worse. "Well well well, what do we have here?" Cinder asked, unfazed by what had just happened, as she formed a fireball in her hand and started to float.
"If she can do that then she's probably got the Maiden's powers. But that means that Oz… No! I can worry about that later," Phoenix thought as he got up. "I'm the person who's going to make you pay for your crimes," he answered.
"Oh, I get it. You're supposed to be some sort of hero. Well let me tell you "hero", you're toying with force you can't possibly understand." Phoenix simply drew his swords in response. Cinder smiled deviously as she launched a blast of fire at him. He easily moves said blast out of his way as he approached her. she tried the same tactic multiple times only for it to produce the same result. "Who are you?" Cinder asked, showing slight signs of panic.
"You mean you don't recognize me?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I am Phoenix Fall, son of Ozpin and huntsman in training. I am the thing that keeps scum like you up at night." As Phoenix said this he approached her, moving any blasts of fire out of the way. "I am justice! I AM THE FLAMING SHADOW!"
With that he charged towards Cinder. Realizing that her flames were useless she formed her swords and dodged out of the way of his strike, preparing to use the same technique that she had during their first confrontation. Phoenix, however, was ready and spun around, blocking her attack. She then unleashed a storm of blows on him, all yielding the same result. She occasionally got a grazing blow in, but it wasn't anything Phoenix's aura couldn't take. Eventually Phoenix saw an opening and took it, kicking her in the gut and then firing a couple shotgun blasts at her. This only seemed to agitate her. She fired multiple arrows at him which he was barely able to dodge. He then countered by pulling her back towards him with a grapnel gun and bringing the fight back to close quarters.
As she was being pulled towards him Cinder tried to use fire blasts yet again in order to catch him off guard. This went about as well as her previous attempt. Her second attempt to gain an edge was more successful. She used her new flight to pull Phoenix, who was still holding the gun, upwards. While he was swinging in the air she fired an arrow straight down at him. Phoenix dodged this by using the recoil of his shotgun to propel himself out of the arrow's way. He then quickly had his grapnel gun retract so he could drop back down to solid ground. He then switched his weapons into rifle mode and started firing both of them at her. Cinder simply blocked all the shots with her hand. She proceeded to fire an arrow up the barrel of each of Phoenix's rifles. He tried to shoot them out of the air but the arrows phased through all of the shots he fired. They entered the barrel just as a two flame dust rounds were being fired. The explosion it created sent Phoenix flying backwards, his shoulder getting impaled a metal rod in some of the rubble created by the dragon.
Cinder flew forwards towards the now injured Phoenix. She increased the temperature of the hand, allowing her to bend the pole upwards and prevent him from escaping. "Any last words?" she asked tauntingly. "Oh, and don't worry. I'll make sure they're your last this time."
"Well, at first I was thinking of telling you to burn in hell, but then I thought…" Phoenix pulled his grapnel gun and lighter, pulling Cinder up to I'm before she could react. "…'Why wait for you to get there?' YOU FUCKING BITCH!" With that, what remained of the room burst into flames.
When Phoenix regained consciousness he saw another fight unfolding. The two combatants were Cinder and Pyrrha. The shards of Pyrrha's spear were on the ground near by him. she was now fighting using her semblance as well as her shield. She had just encased Cinder in a shell of gears. Her containment, however, didn't last long. She burst out of it and sent the gears flying in all different directions. One of the larger ones hit Pyrrha and threw her into part of the wall, depleting her remaining aura. Phoenix tried to free himself, looking for his grapnel guns and lighter only to find that they had all been severely damaged in the explosion he had caused. When Pyrrha recovered she threw her shield towards Cinder, who countered by firing an arrow towards it. Just when it appeared the two would meet Cinder's arrow phased through the shield just as it had with Phoenix's shots and hit her in the Achilles tendon.
"Pyrrha! No!" Phoenix cried out, his struggle to free himself becoming even more desperate. All this did was cause the wound caused by the pole to get even worse.
Pyrrha tried to get up while attempting to use her semblance to free Phoenix. Both of these failed. Her Injury caused her to fall to the ground and lose focus on moving the pole. Upon noticing Phoenix's struggle Cinder fired an arrow into his hand to further restrict his movement. "Phoenix!" Pyrrha called out, attempting to get up again, but to no avail.
"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours," Cinder stated as she approached Pyrrha, ignoring the disturbance that Phoenix was causing.
Get… get away from her," Phoenix tried to yell. He was struggling to remain conscious despite the pain and the blood loss.
"But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined," Cinder said in a false comforting tone, continuing to ignore Phoenix.
"Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked, looking Cinder in the eyes.
"Yes."
The last thing Phoenix saw before passing out was an arrow going straight into Pyrrha's heart.
"You're okay!" Ruby exclaimed upon seeing Phoenix as she came through the supposedly secret entrance to his old vigilante base.
"Ruby? How did you get-?" Phoenix attempted to ask, but was cut off by a hug from Ruby. She quickly released him, however, upon seeing him wince in pain from his injuries.
"Uncle Qrow told me," she explained. "But why are you here though shouldn't you be at the hospital?"
"I guess you didn't see the wanted posters." Ruby just gave him a confused look. "Grant saw who I am, remember? I'm now officially wanted. Yet another reason for you want to stay away from me. I'm honestly surprised you came here to begin with."
"Why wouldn't I come?", Ruby asked, confused.
"I'm the son of the woman behind all of this. The woman I've failed to stop twice now. The woman who now has the powers of the Fall Maiden. The woman who… who killed Pyrrha. The only thing more surprising than you wasting your time with me is Qrow not leaving me for dead on that tower."
"You're not responsible for that. You said she has the power of the Fall Maiden. I don't know what that means, but I do know that she's too powerful for anyone to take on alone, even Pyrrha," Ruby stated, clearly upset by that thought.
"I saw it happen," Phoenix said after a moment of quiet. "I saw the fight but… I couldn't do anything. If I found some way to get that rod out then-"
"What rod? What happened up there?"
"I was fighting Cinder. We were evenly matched, but the dragon came and threw me into a wall. I got pinned to it by a rod, but I was able to create an explosion before passing out. When I woke up, I saw the fight and tried to get free. When Cinder saw she pinned my hand to the wall. The last thing I saw before I passed out was…" Phoenix explained, stopping at the part about Pyrrha.
After taking a moment to process what she just heard, Ruby said, "You weren't the only one who saw what happened but couldn't help."
"What?"
"I got to the top of the tower just as the arrow fired. I know how it feels, but you can't blame yourself. This is all on Cinder, and we're going to find her. She won't get away with what she's done," Ruby declared.
"I… I'm sorry. I've just been wallowing in self pity without even considering what you've been through. No one should ever have to go through something like that."
"And we'll make sure she doesn't make anyone else. Together. We'll need to watch each other's backs. She's after both of us now after what I did."
"What you did?"
"I guess my eyes froze the dragon or something."
"Wait, what?"
"So that story about the silver eyes is true. Any other stories you forgot to tell me were true Oz? Is there secretly some sort of witch behind all of this?" Phoenix groaned.
"Other stories? What do you mean?" Ruby inquired, giving him another confused look.
"You remember how I said Cinder was the Fall Maiden?"
"Yeah…"
"You've heard the story about the four Maidens, right."
"Are you saying that they're-!"
"Real? Yep. And now one of history's biggest bitches has magic powers."
"Hold on, you knew about this but didn't tell me."
"In my defense, this was something a lot bigger than my secret identity. This rewrites history," Phoenix explained.
"Alright, I suppose I understand. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."
"Fair enough. Anyways, you said we were going to stop Cinder," Phoenix said, changing the topic. "What's our plan?"
"Haven's a long way to go," Ruby pointed out as she, Phoenix, Jaune, Ren, and Nora prepared to set out to track down Cinder.
"And flying isn't an option since Sheila was destroyed in the fight, and Jenkins refuses to fly anything else. You'll also have to worry about Grant," Phoenix continued.
"I know, but it's the only lead we have," Jaune stated.
"You sure you want to come along?" Ruby asked.
"The journey will be perilous, and whether we'll find answers at the end is entirely uncertain," Ren said.
"But we wouldn't be here if we weren't up for it," Nora declared.
"It's settled then. Let's go," Phoenix said. As they all walked off, he couldn't help but think, "Why do I feel like there's an evil monologue going on right?"
The conclusion to season three has come at last. If SOMEBODY had just happened to push me of a cliff as vengeance for my leaving them on a cliffhanger last chapter, this chapter would have never come out (Yes, I know you were joking, I'm just playing along). Speaking of cliffhangers, I'm sure it'll please all of you to know that I won't be writing new chapters till season four comes out since I want to keep this story at least somewhat close to the canon storyline. And on top of that, I'll be writing even slower than usual since I'll need to wait for the new episodes to come out, and I'll be in school when they do. That means I'll be spending less time writing this poorly written story due to the fact that I'll be busy writing poorly written papers. Worst case scenario (Well, second worst. The worst is that one guy from the YouTube comment section carrying out his threat of "ripping off my arm, shoving it up my ass, and reaching down my throat so he can shake hands with me".) is that I'm forced to wait until volume four is over before I even start writing again. If you're reading this after volume four has come out then you have no idea what I'm talking about. And I know that Cinder isn't the one behind everything, but as far as Phoenix knows she is. The only major secret he knows about is the Maidens existence. But enough of that. Thanks for reading!
P.S. NEW RECORD FOR LONGEST CHAPTER!
