Chapter two of the double update!
Time restraints left no time for xenosaiyan to beta this one. Any mistakes are mine.
When Yang arrived back on the staircase overlooking Haven atrium, she hadn't expected it to be on fire.
The roof and right wall had completely collapsed, showering the hall in an avalanche of flaming wreckage. Nora, Loke (looking much older than the last time Yang had seen him), and some farmboy with Ozpin's cane were trapped amidst a hail of burning blue wood. The latter thrust out his hands, green light swirling around his palms as the wreckage around him slowly seemed to float back towards the ceiling and clear the fighters' path.
"Come on, come on," the kid muttered. "Flashback, flashback, stupid magic destroying fire…"
Yang was right with the kid on that one. End really was far too dangerous to let her friends face alone. She'd had firsthand experience dealing with that asshole's flames, and she was one of the few they didn't fully work on. She'd love to start clearing away the wreckage so her friends could get out, but they had another threat fast approaching.
Emerald danced through the crumbling firestorm, spinning and twirling through the destruction like she was navigating through drizzling raindrops. Her sickles whipped around as she advanced on the others, pink Devil Slayer flames adorning her jagged chains.
Yang couldn't help but feel especially insulted about that last part. Killing her friends was one thing, but killing them with her own magic? That was just a dick move.
The blonde huntress summoned up her right flame arm and vaulted over the railing, ignoring the protests of her battered body. She landed right behind Emerald, her blazing claw whipping out and snatching the green-haired girl's weapon midswing, halting the Gate's spin in its tracks. She opened her mouth and the pink flames coating the enemy's sickles and chain surged into her mouth, filling her formerly floundering origin all the way back to full.
"Well, what do you know," Yang smirked. "The rule's always been I can't eat my own flames, but I guess another Devil Slayer is fair game. Or a knockoff like you."
Emerald frowned. "You killed Mercury?"
"Yup."
"Great," the thief groaned, transforming her another sickle into a revolver and shoving it in Yang's face. "Oh well. Maybe he'll finally stop being an arrogant jackass once he gets back to Hell's Core."
The blonde huntress's eyes widened. So they did have a Hell's Core! Which would be great for assuaging Ren's conflicting emotions about blowing Mercury's head off but was less great because that meant that he and Cinder, whose maiden signature had disappeared along with Raven's (who'd probably split the first chance she got), weren't gone for good. Fairy Tail may have won the battle, but the war was still anyone's fight. It was like taking on the Grimm. The enemy just didn't end.
Of course, if she didn't figure a way to come out on top of this fight, she would. And as much bravado as she'd shown to Blake and Ren, Yang was well aware she wasn't at her best after her clash with Mercury. Her body ached all over from the beating she'd taken and her aura had only just recovered from being broken. Even her recently refilled origin would only go so far when the surrounding ethernano had drastically thinned thanks to the maidens' absence. Another life-threatening burden she could lay at the feet of Raven's cowardice.
Fortunately, she had friends to help her carry that burden.
With Emerald's focus turned on her, the green-haired thief didn't notice the farmboy succeeding in lifting a section of the flaming wreckage out of his group's way, freeing them to act. And Loke was the first up.
"Regulus Impact!"
Yang released Emerald's chain and leapt out of the way just as a giant glowing lion head roared out from Loke's fist and smashed into the Gate's back, sending her sprawling into the rubble. The green-haired girl scrambled away from the blue flames, desperate not to be set alight.
"Son of a bitch," she snarled, jumping to her feet and fearfully raising her sickles. "Don't even try it, hammer girl! You're not sneaking up on me this time!"
Yang tilted her head. Hammer girl? Nora? Nora sneaking up on someone? How hard did Loke hit her?
Whatever. Nora, Loke, and the farmboy all filed out of the wreckage and assembled around Yang, all their weapons ready for battle. Gate or not, four-on-one wasn't a great matchup for anyone.
A rush of magic flew up from under the stairway, and Yang smirked after a brief glance. Make that six-on-one, as Pyrrha zipped up out of the Vault's opening with… Erza?!
Oh yes! She didn't know how the hell Erza had gotten there, or who had seemingly kicked ten shades of tar out of both her and Pyrrha, but it didn't really matter! The Queen of the Fairies was on the battlefield!
Emerald seemed to understand exactly what that meant, the green-haired thief taking a terrified step back at the sight of the bloody redhead. "Whe… where's Cinder?!"
Yang chuckled. "Didn't Salem teach you to sense magic, Em? Take a guess."
"She… she didn't. She couldn't," Emerald muttered. "Cinder couldn't fail!"
"She could, and she did."
Yang might have appreciated that entrance line if she'd been the one who'd said it.
Instead, End leapt through the wall of sapphire flames burning through the wall's side, crashing into the atrium floor and throwing everyone back with another wave of fire. He whirled around and turned to Emerald, who quivered in her supposed ally's presence.
"We're leaving. Now," he commanded. "This battle is lost."
He gripped Emerald by the arm and tossed her over his shoulder, the thief squawking indignantly at being carried like a sack of potatoes. Yang couldn't help but bark out a laugh at the image, the fierce Eclipse Etherious being treated like an uppity teenager.
At least, until she saw who was on End's other shoulder. Then the laughter stopped.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha and Nora both yelled. The two teammates made to run for their leader, only for the wreckage the farmboy had tried to repair to crash back down and force them back.
Erza flashed a sword into her grip and limped through the chaos, slashing the falling, flaming supports to pieces as she waded towards the demons. "Let him go!"
End grinned. "You're welcome to come get him, Titania. If you think you can fight through every single Umbral Spirit in the Grimmlands to get to him." He pursed lips in thought and nodded. "Actually, given that it's you, I wouldn't be surprised if you figured out a way to manage it. See you there. I look forward to finally matching blows with you."
With that, the salmon-haired asshole bounded back through the wall of flames and back out into the courtyard.
"No!" Yang scrambled through the wreckage, exploiting her resistance to fire for all it was worth. "Get back here with him, you bastard—"
"Yang, wait!" Erza called.
"Mother?" Pyrrha asked, confounded.
"Mother?" Yang squeaked, an image of Erza patting Pyrrha on the head for kicking the crap out of her and Weiss popping into her head despite the circumstances.
"We can't just let him take Jaune!" Nora shouted.
"I'll get Jaune," Erza assured them. "You all need to get to Qrow. Raven'll be making a portal to evacuate us all any moment now."
"Raven?!" Yang shouted. "You can't trust her!"
"We can," the Titania insisted. "Get everyone to Qrow and get out of here. I'll be right behind you with Jaune."
She wouldn't be. Yang knew full well what Erza was capable of, but she had plainly been beaten to a pulp. She was already struggling to maneuver through the flaming wreckage, streams of blood seeping down her pale flesh, she'd still have to make it through the wall of blue flames to get out to the courtyard. And, after occurring all those injuries, she'd still have to take on End, who didn't seem like he'd fought a battle at all.
Yang knew that Erza was pretty much awesome badass butt-kicking incarnate, but she was still human (despite Natsu and Gray's theories to the contrary). And if her recent battle with Mercury had taught her anything, it was that she had to acknowledge the limits of what she and her friends could do, and what they couldn't do.
Everyone looked like they'd been put through a meat grinder, even Nora, Loke, and the farmboy, who looked comparatively less beaten up that Erza, Pyrrha, Blake, and Ren. Yang wasn't much better, though her natural resistance to fire would let her get through the flame wall without too much issue. Even if she did though, End had kicked her can at her best. Exhausted as she was, there was no way in hell she could take him.
But Jaune was her friend! She couldn't just let that bastard take him to the Grimmlands! That entire continent filled with hundreds of thousands of Grimm, including some of the most ancient and dangerous of the entire race, monsters that made the Goliaths stalking Vale look like puppies. They'd never be able to mount a rescue mission through… that… unless…
"Erza!" Yang shouted. "Are you absolutely sure we can trust Raven?"
"Yes!" the redhead responded without hesitation. "Yang, I understand your reservations, but you need to—"
"Loke!" the blonde called, having heard all she needed to hear. "Tell Lucy… tell her I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. And when I do, I'll have Natsu with me."
"What?" the Lion Spirit gasped. "Yang, what are—Yang!"
The Devil Slayer had already started running, tossing out her flame arms to crumbling edges of the building and slingshotting herself through the wall of blue fire. The blaze's raging heat washed over her, but her innate resistance did its job and allowed her to push through without incident. She rolled with the landing and broke into a mad sprint through the courtyard.
Hovering amidst the smoke cover was a black bullhead, End stomping up its open causeway and setting Emerald down in the main area. The ramp began to pull up as the aircraft began to rise.
Yang couldn't let them get away. She twisted back and launched her spindly Purple Flare arm into the air after the dark vehicle.
Getting through the Grimmlands without a literal army at their back wasn't possible. Even if by some miracle they did make it through the hordes of Grimm flooding the continent, they'd be exhausted when they reached Salem's stronghold and easy pickings for the Gates. If the enemy got away with Jaune, which they were going to, a conventional rescue mission would not be possible. Her friend would be trapped alone with the Eclipse Etherious, completely at their mercy.
But, if Raven really could be convinced to help despite her cowardice, there was another way. Yang wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't come straight from Erza's mouth, but if the Queen of the Fairies herself had faith in her womb donor, then her friends could make use of the bandit queen's portals to circumvent the creatures of darkness entirely and beam straight into Salem's fortress.
Unfortunately, that meant that Raven needed someone already there for her Kindred Link to work.
She didn't want to leave. She'd just gotten a chance to reunite with Ruby, Blake, and even Lucy. She wanted to take it, to return home to Patch with her friends at her side.
But Jaune was her friend too. He'd given everything he had to keep End off the others. And if The Ophiuchus returned empty-handed, no Relic or member of Team RWBY, there was no telling what his fate would be. After all, Salem had asked for Yang and her teammates alive. If she was presented with Jaune instead, well, no matter what Happy had said, the Devil Slayer didn't have faith that the woman who'd sponsored the Fall of Beacon
You didn't die for your friends. You lived for them. And she was going to make sure Jaune lived a long, happy life. Maybe long enough to finally figure out Pyrrha was into him. Nah, it'd take more than magic for that to happen. Besides, they needed to destroy Hell's Core if they were going to kill any of the Gates off for good, and if she was a betting girl, she'd put good lien on Salem keeping her resurrection machines close.
This was what she needed to do, the only way to help her friends. It was a sacrifice on her part, one she wasn't exactly thrilled to have to make.
But for her friends, she'd make it in a heartbeat.
Her fire claw sank into the edge of the bullhead's closing ramp, and the blonde huntress launched herself into the sky. She landed through the gap and into the cabin just as the door slammed shut behind her.
Emerald immediately whipped around and shoved her revolvers in the Devil Slayer's face. The only thing that kept her from firing was End raising his scaled palm to her muzzles. Even still, his other claw tightened around Jaune's waist, making it clear that any attempt to take down the ship would lead to her friend getting incinerated.
"Well, this is a surprise," The Ophiuchus noted. "Not that I'm not happy to have you aboard, Yang, but what's your game here?"
The blonde shut down her flame arm and flashed her enemy a cocky smirk she really wasn't feeling. "What can I say? You keep saying Salem wants to see. Figured I see what all the fuss was about."
Emerald narrowed her eyes. "You can't possibly expect us to believe that."
Yang ignored the small fry and glared at End. "Do you really care?"
The fire demon chuckled and turned towards the cockpit, where Happy was piloting the craft through the sky. "Are they within comm range?"
The Exceed nodded towards the windshield. "See for yourself."
Yang cocked an eyebrow. With the exception of Cinder and Mercury who were back at Hell's Core and Lionheart who she'd laid out in his office, all their allies were in the bullhead. Who were they trying to contact?
Her question was answered a moment later when a squadron of hi-tech white aircraft appeared ahead. In a few seconds, the ships blew past the secretive bullhead, allowing the blonde to identity them as some new model Manta Flyers. And the insignia on their side…
"Atlas?" Yang muttered, suddenly wondering if the robots at the Vytal Festival had actually been hacked.
The comm station on the bullhead's dashboard crackled to life. "This is Maiden hailing Serpent. I repeat, this is Maiden hailing Serpent. You read Serpent? Over."
Yang's brow furrowed in confusion. That voice… it was… familiar. She'd heard it before, she was sure of it. But it must have been a long time ago because she couldn't quite put her finger on where she knew it from.
End must have noticed her recognition because he flashed her a cheerful smile before picking up the radio receiver. "We read you loud and clear, Maiden. Over."
"End, you son of a gun, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice after so long. You know, not funneled through a Seer."
"You say that like a radio's much different," the demon chuckled. "Heads up, the Mistral Police will probably be arriving sooner than planned."
"Yeah, we saw your light show on approach. You got cranky, didn't you?"
End groaned. "I did not get 'cranky'."
"Happy?"
The Exceed snatched the receiver. "He totally got cranky."
"Ha! Knew it!"
End snagged the radio back and pouted at Happy. "Traitor."
The Exceed flashed his partner an incorrigible grin.
Yang, left without alternative options, turned to Emerald with a tilted head. "Do they usually… you know…"
The green-haired thief who'd tried to shoot her five seconds ago just facepalmed. "Just… you get used to it."
End turned back to the receiver. "Before you ask, no, things did not go well. The Relic's gone, the Spring Maiden's gone, and Cinder and Mercury have been sent back to Hell's Core. Both Titania and Heartfilia are there, along with Ruby."
"Poor Cinder. Ruby… what about Yang? Is she alright? Is she safe?"
Okay, so Yang definitely knew this person from somewhere. Or at least they knew her. And were concerned about her a lot if their urgent tone was anything to go by. She wasn't sure how to feel about that given the phrase 'poor Cinder' had also left their mouths.
End grinned. "She actually coming home with us. I know you'll want to handle things with the Mistral Council personally, but maybe you can blow them off just this once—"
"I'll be there."
The fire demon actually did a double-take. "Wait, really? You usually don't indulge in what you want to do before you handle what you need to."
"I've made her wait years. No more. I have Eleanor with me, she can handle negotiations. Hell, I think I can spin it so that they ask me to let her deal with them. Make them think her feelings for her late husband will let them manipulate her."
"Huh, alright then," End remarked. "I'll leave you to handle cleanup then. Bring the rest of Fairy Tail home."
"Will do. Maiden out."
The radio clicked off and End replaced the transceiver on its stand.
"Bring the rest of Fairy Tail home?" Yang snorted. "Everyone might be beat up, but if it ain't you, no single Gate is gonna be able to take them all, even with those tin cans backing her up."
"You assume she'll use violence," End replied with a smile. "There are alternatives to fighting. And the Gate of the Maiden can be quite charismatic, as I'm sure you know."
"But I don't," Yang flatly informed him. "Never met any 'Gate of the Maiden'."
End cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. They do say the first thing forgotten about someone when they're gone is their voice."
Yang frowned. "So I do know them? Care to fill in the blanks?"
End sighed. He strode over to the bench bordering the cabin's wall and took a seat, tossing Jaune over his knees and laying his hands over the unconscious huntsman. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. And even if you did… it's not for me to say. Rest assured, she'll tell you in person once she joins us at the Grimmlands. Seeing her and Sitara again? You might just die of happiness."
Yang's eyes widened. "Sitara?"
"Salem's original name," the demon revealed. "My apologies for not telling you sooner. I assumed you already knew. I underestimated Ozpin's penchant for withholding information from those he calls ally."
"Wha… but that's… that's…" Yang mumbled, her mind barely able to comprehend the words that had just been spoken to her. "You're lying. You have to be lying. Sitara would never… she'd never…"
She couldn't even finish the sentence. She didn't even know what the ending was going to be. The very idea that he was suggesting, that radiant, kind, nervous Sitara was secretly the Grimm overlord that Uncle Qrow had been fighting his entire life, that Ozpin had been fighting for eons longer than that, was ludicrous. It was madness! The friend that had saved them from Kyouka, that had toiled night and day to finish the book to send them back home, could never be the same monster who had somehow pressed Happy into service…
Except according to Happy, he wasn't being pressed into service, and Cinder's actions at Beacon had gone way off script. And Salem had been the one to arrange the book sending them back in the first place…
No, no, no, this was ridiculous! Even if the Fall of Beacon wasn't what Cinder was supposed to do, attacking and killing the previous Fall Maiden for her power certainly was. Sitara would never approve that. She only killed bad guys.
Something was up here. End may have never outright lied to her before, but he had neglected portions of the truth. He was probably leaving something out, trying to confuse her, make her doubt herself. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't be like Raven and let fear and cowardice control her.
She plopped a seat on the bench across from End and Jaune, glaring at the demon holding her friend hostage. She would discover the truth when they reached the Grimmlands, one way or the other. And then, Fairy Tail would swoop in save her and Jaune, take out Hell's Core, and blow this imposter Sitara back to whatever hell she crawled out of.
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To say that Qrow was terrified when The Ophiuchus's flames had barbecued Haven behind him was the understatement of the century. The moment he'd heard that booming roar, he'd whipped away from his current horde of adversaries and watched in abject horror as the gargantuan sapphire inferno had practically cut the main hall in half. Panic surged through him as he saw the roof that Ruby had been fighting on a moment before burnt to ashes.
The only thing that stopped him from immediately flying off to search for his beloved niece was the fact that the White Fang seemed to not be properly terrified of the fucking firestorm.
"Forward, brothers!" The fox twin with the ears shouted, brandishing his spiral dagger. "Our allies are with us! The human's stronghold crumbles before our might! Forward to victory!"
Qrow snarled furiously and returned to carving through the faunus horde, adding to the already significant pile of dead or unconscious terrorists he'd tossed across the ground.
Any fighter worth their salt knew that they were not invincible just because they were skilled and strong. Even the bravest, most practiced huntsman with the most powerful semblance in the world could be overwhelmed by sheer quantity of foes. There was a reason the Grimm still had humanity one bad day away from extinction no matter how many graduates the academies pumped out. But that logic did require the massive quantity to either be truly endless or possess some significant quality of their own. Again, the Grimm possessed both.
This White Fang mob did not. Which was honestly kind of a surprise to Qrow. He'd heard stories about the strength of Sienna Khan's old guard being able to rival any huntsman, with their crowning achievement Adam Taurus seeming to confirm those rumors. But this rabble? He didn't think they had much of any training. They were just angry idiots with weapons shoved in their hands. The strongest among them were the fox twins, a bat faunus, and a girl who shot spider webs out of her wrists who he'd maybe put at the level of Beacon second years. They'd gotten up after he'd knocked them down a few times, so he'd give them that.
But it was telling to the horde's disorganization that his scare tactics were all it took to keep them disorganized and on the backfoot against one guy. He must have taken down at least a third of the grunts personally, while friendly fire had blown away another quarter. And not one of them had managed to get past him and into Haven's main hall. Really, if the Tribe's rank and file had ever been so pathetic, they wouldn't last a week before the whole 'the strong live, the weak die' kicked in and they ended up collateral in a raid.
When Ruby and that blonde with the energy bow showed up, they were less saving him from a tight spot and more helping to relieve his boredom.
"You alright, Uncle Qrow?" his niece inquired, brandishing Crescent Rose to force the terrorists back while firing off a round of swords from her requip dimension to give the three wizards a circular perimeter.
"Am I alright? What about you, pipsqueak?" Qrow demanded, back-to-back with Ruby and her new friend (another Fairy Tail wizard judging by the pink emblem on her hand). "That fire column? Happy?"
"We beat Happy. The fire may be my fault, sorry about that," the blonde rattled off, firing off a volley of golden arrows into the faunus crowd. "I'm Lucy, by the way, nice to meet you. Ruby's told me a lot of great things about you."
"Nice to meet you—"
"For the Fang!"
The bat faunus leapt over them, the leathery wings on his back enabling him to glide down towards the wizards… only to immediately be swatted out of the sky by a spontaneous flying sword.
"Nice shot," he told Ruby.
His niece shook her head. "That wasn't mine."
Qrow raised an eyebrow, but a quick glance towards Haven's entrance revealed the explanation. Specifically, a furiously bleeding Scarlet Nikos pimped out in an elaborate steel dress with sword wings on the back, Pyrrha and Oscar right behind her. The huntsman piqued a smirk. Guess she'd didn't let fear of pain control her after all. Good on her.
If only Raven's absence didn't indicate his sister had failed in that same regard—
"We need to clear a path!" Erza called. "Loke and Nora went to get Blake and Ren! Raven will be making an escape portal any second!"
Qrow actually did a double-take at her declaration, Ruby needing to swat away an errant shot from a White Fang grunt while he was distracted. Raven was helping them? Voluntarily? After she'd already gotten out of danger herself? He'd had experience with magic, laser eyes, and reincarnating wizards for decades and that was the most miraculous thing he'd ever heard.
At least, if it was true. Which given his sister's… Raveness, he wasn't holding his breath on.
Granted, he also hadn't been holding his breath on a squadron of Manta Flyers suddenly arriving as their cavalry, and that happened.
Every combatant present, wizard and White Fang, suddenly looked to the sky as racing wind tore through the air, clearing away the oppressive smoke cover. From the black smog's dissipation descended half a dozen shining white gunships, two of them deploying hoses from their underbelly and spraying Haven's flaming ruin with a fierce jet of water. The other four hovered around the entrance courtyard, their Staff of Creation insignias clear to see.
"Atlas!" one of the fox twins yelled, thrusting their daggers towards the new arrivals. "Attack, brothers! Show them that the strength of the faunus cannot be suppressed by their brutality!"
The masked ranks answered his call. Out of inspiration or fear, a wave of small arms fire launched into the sky. Unfortunately for the terrorists, as soon as their light dust rounds reached their targets, glowing blue energy screens flared to life around the aircraft and easily deflected the barrage.
Qrow would admit he was impressed. Atlas had always been Remnant's foremost pioneer in hard light dust, but he'd always thought the shield generators were both too cumbersome and too energy expensive to fit on something as small as a Manta Flyer. Had Ironwood mentioned a new model coming out during one of the many times the scythe-wielder had tuned him out? He'd have to apologize to good'ol Jimmy the next time they saw each other. Hell, maybe he'd come along with this squad—
The four gunships surrounding the courtyard deployed a pair of miniguns each, the multi-barreled cannons whirring to life.
-Okay, Ironwood wasn't with them. Jimmy loved making big surrender demands before opening fire.
"Down!" Qrow roared, throwing himself over Ruby. Scarlet flashed two giant shields onto her arms and planted them around Pyrrha and Oscar.
The Manta Flyers' cannons roared, a barrage of dust rounds pouring down upon the courtyard. Dozens of White Fang screamed in terror as they were perforated by the furious bombardment, their auras crumpling like cheap plaster under the lead tempest.
Strangely enough, fortunately really, none of the rapid-fire shots actually hit any of the wizards. Qrow wasn't sure if that was because Atlas had finally upgraded their targeting computers or if Ruby's perimeter was big enough that the gunners could avoid them even with his semblance affecting their aim, but he wasn't going to look a rare gift horse in the mouth.
"What happened?!" Nora yelled, rushing out of Haven's hall with a battered Ren in her arms, a guy Qrow had never seen before right beside her carrying Blake. The hammer wielder's eyes widened as she gasped up at the Manta Flyers. "Oh, sweet! Backup! We can go after Jaune and Yang!"
Ruby whirled towards the ginger. "What?! What happened to Yang and Jaune—"
"Die human!"
The fox twin with the tail, miraculously still alive despite bleeding from a menagerie of gaping bullet wounds, lunged for Ruby's exposed back. His dagger lit up with fire dust, a tense golden glow coating the blade as it closed just inches from the armored huntress.
The cleared sky suddenly rumbled with storm clouds. A single bolt of lightning cracked down from the heavens, barbecuing the White Fang leader right before he could stab Ruby.
Qrow paled. His semblance was powerful, but it only affected the probability of what was already there. It couldn't make a storm come out of literal nowhere.
Of course, the rush of ethernano pouring out of the lead gunship provided an alternative answer to the mystery. But if the Winter Maiden power was here, that was no less troublesome. Because even if Fria had passed and the magic had transferred to a new candidate, there was no way Ironwood would let the new maiden out of the kingdom, not after what happened to Amber.
Something was wrong. They may not have been attacked, but something was very, very wrong.
The rest of the group ran over from the entrance to join them in the center of the courtyard, hopping over the White Fang's corpses as they went.
"We need to get out of here," Qrow proclaimed. "These ships… if Leo's a traitor, there's no way Ironwood should have known that anything was going on here."
"Agreed," Scarlet frowned, glancing around at the bodies literally the cobblestone. "To do something like this without even demanding surrender… we'll need to go through the portal."
Qrow growled. "Look, Scarlet, I don't know what Raven said to you, but she played you. There is no way she'd ever bother coming back to a shitshow like—"
A swirling vortex of crimson and black energy spawned into existence beside him.
The huntsman froze. "—this."
Scarlet smiled and patted him on the back. "Get the injured through first! Blake, Ren, Pyrrha!"
Qrow, to his slight embarrassment, could only gape at the portal he'd seen a thousand times before, the injured warriors being ferried through to safety on Patch. He couldn't help it. He'd been trying to get Raven to come back to the fold since the day she'd left. He'd longed for the sister who stood up to the Tribe for him, who'd watched his back through Beacon, and never let him get too wrapped up in his semblance's effect on his life.
But she'd been gone. The woman she'd become had vanished into the horrific dream of the girl she'd once been, for seemingly no reason. A common enemy hadn't been enough to bring her back, the threat of Salem had never faded. Summer's death hadn't drawn her back to take care of her partner's now motherless children. Nothing had worked. They'd had to threaten her just to get her to come to Haven.
And yet, now she'd come, by her own free will.
For the first time in a long time, Qrow felt something light flutter through his heart, more than the hope and strength Ozpin gave him. He had been surprised. And it was a surprise he was happy to receive.
"Erza, you should go next," Lucy advised, her bow stuck at her waist, unsure if she should take aim at the hovering Manta Flyers or not. "You're not looking too great."
"I'll manage," the redhead groused, her sword ready but not raised. "Where are Wendy and Carla?"
"There!" Ruby shouted, pointing just past the circling aircraft. Sure enough, the White Exceed was soaring towards them, an unconscious Sky Dragon Slayer in her arms.
Scarlet let out a sigh of relief. "Get through. Once they're here, we're gone."
"Gone?" Qrow queried. "What about Yang and Jaune? Where are they?"
The redhead frowned, a look of guilt ghosting across her face. "End took Jaune. Yang went after them. I think… I think she plans for us to use Raven's portals to get to them in the Grimmlands."
"What?!" Ruby squealed. "We have to go after them! Now!"
"No," Qrow growled, just as frustrated with his own words as Ruby's shock look indicted, she was. "If they're in midair, The Ophiuchus can just blow them out of the sky and fly off himself. If we attack before they touch down, more than likely Arc at least is gonna get killed."
"Agreed," Scarlet groaned, clearly no happier about the situation than he was. "Yang's plan is reckless, but it should work. Either way, we're stuck with it now."
"No, we're not!" Ruby argued, marching towards the Atlas aircraft. "We just need to borrow one of these and go after them!"
"Ruby, wait!" Qrow protested.
The gunships had not opened fire on them or even taken aim, but they were tightening their encirclement. Two of them flew into Carla's path, forcing the Exceed to suddenly halt in her flight less she ram straight into the aircraft.
All the while, the lead Manta Flyer, the one with the Winter Maiden's power pouring out of it, made to land in the courtyard, Ruby striding straight for it.
Qrow would have raced out to pull his niece back, but the flying robot beat him to it.
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She was there. She was right there. Her little girl. Her beautiful little girl who'd grown so strong when she shouldn't have had to. When she should have been there for her.
Summer knew what she'd been doing since her ascendance was crucial to the world, was crucial to her family's wellbeing. But staying away was like tearing a knife through her heart every single day even if she knew that if she had returned to her family, or let them know she was alive in any way, the entire timeline could have collapsed, erasing all of them from existence.
But now, with Ruby so close, knowing that Yang would be at the castle so soon, everything came rushing back. Good reason or not, she'd still left her family thinking she was dead. No matter how long that had been the truth, she'd still chosen to stay away, and that left scars. And her reappearing again, doing the things she'd done… she did not anticipate being greeted with open arms and a joyous reunion. Her sins were her own. She could not complain at the price, whether that was whatever the people decided for her punishment after the war was won or the hatred that was her family's right.
But she still wanted to explain. She needed to explain why she'd left them, to make sure they understood that it was no fault of theirs that she'd chosen the path she did. Tai, Yang, and Ruby were everything she could have ever asked for in the entire world. If they still despised her after that, so be it, she deserved it. But whatever fraction of their wounds she could balm, she had to. She had to.
But first, she had to do her duty.
The Mistral Police had already sent chatter that they were on their way. Leonardo had assured them that everything was all clear, but the faunus headmaster's word only counted for so much in the one kingdom that still had legal segregation. With her own warnings of a possible attack, the law enforcement bullheads had been on high alert even before End's fire pillar lit up the sky. Which meant she needed to fix the perception of this event before they arrived.
Finishing off the Albain brothers and their radicals had been the first step, establishing a rock-solid scapegoat for the attack, that also squared with the purview the Mistral Council had granted her Expeditionary Force. They had acted on their intel to 'destroy' the White Fang's headquarters, 'execute' Sienna Khan, and then, discovering an attack was already in progress, raced to the capital to selflessly provide support. Now, they just needed to secure the remaining Fairy Tail members and make sure they weren't blamed for the bloodshed.
That task was complicated by the Kindred Link portal swirling in midair, half the wizards already fleeing to Patch. Summer couldn't help the smile that rose to her lips at the sight of Qrow and Raven working together again, but she needed to make sure they didn't all slip through her grasp. Fortunately, she had been keeping an eye on her children from a distance for years, and she knew Ruby would never leave a friend behind. With her sister with End and allies in front of her that could let her give chase, her baby girl would never run away. In fact, she was already striding towards Summer's aircraft, her head held high with her silver eyes set with determination.
"Land us," the First Citizen of Atlas commanded to Eleanor in the cockpit. "Make sure Mantas three and four keep blocking the Exceed's path. We don't need to trap them, but we do need to keep them from running before I can see them face-to-face."
"By your command, your excellency," the consummate Intelligence Agent replied, pressing down on the controls. "It will only take a moment—"
A blur of orange, green, and gray suddenly rocketed out of the portal, landing in front of Ruby and pushing her back. Eight swords floated out beside the new figure, spinning in circles of two as emerald lasers charged between their tips.
"Penny!" Summer gasped.
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"Penny!?" Ruby gasped
"Salutations, Ruby!" her beloved, supposedly dead, robot friend greeted with a wide friendly smile. "Please stand back while I vaporize these degenerate father-killing traitors down to their atoms."
"Wait, what?!"
Penny responded by firing a quartet of shining viridescent energy beams into the circling Manta Flyers. Unlike Torchwick's bullheads back at the docks though, these ships had hard light dust shields to keep them from being sliced in half, sparks flying as the lasers scorched the blue spectral screens. Still, the blasts had enough force to shift the airships back a bit, allowing Carla to fly through with Wendy and bolt through Raven's portal to Patch.
"Ruby!" Erza called, Uncle Qrow already rushing towards her. "Is this laser shooting girl a friend of yours?"
"Um, yeah!" Ruby replied, still trying to process Penny's words about the Atlas squadron being traitors and the fact that her lovable robot friend was quite obviously no longer dead.
"Huh. She looks a lot like that robot girl from the Vytal Festival," Erza remarked. "Well, grab her and let's go! We have to get out of here before—"
The roar of mechanical propellers doubled through the air, cutting off the Titania's words. The squadron of Atlas Manta Flyers was joined a dozen bullheads bearing the crest of Mistral.
"This is the Mistral Police Department!" An officer's voice boomed over the aircraft. "Cease and desist immediately! Put down your weapons and stay where you are!"
Penny frowned and cut off her lasers, stowing her swords back in her chassis while glaring up at the lead Manta Flyer.
Ruby flashed Crescent Rose back to her requip dimension and growled. They didn't have time for this! They needed one of these airships so they could go after Yang and Jaune!
But if what Penny said was true, and these Manta Flyers were manned by traitors, did that mean they were working for Salem too? Why had they killed the White Fang then?
Ugh! This wasn't important! If they weren't allies, they wouldn't lend them an airship, and if they didn't have an airship, they couldn't catch up to Yang and Jaune before they reached the Grimmlands! They'd have to take one. The Mistral Police probably wouldn't be happy with them, but Ruby really didn't care about that at the moment.
The big problem was how to take one, though Ruby was sure that even that wouldn't be too much of a roadblock. Erza was beaten up, but there was nothing the Titania couldn't do, especially with Ruby, Lucy, Qrow, and Penny to back her up, even if most of them were tired from the battle. Maiden or not, surrounded by war machines or not, there was nothing stopping them from—
"Ice Devil Silver!"
A rush of freezing cold flooded over Ruby's side, pink frost nipping along the side of her hood. A glacier the size of a mountain suddenly erupted into being before them, the Manta Flyers and Bullheads all forced to fly high into the sky to keep from being torn to shreds by the frozen summit.
"No, no!" Ruby wailed, the airships soaring far out of reach. She whipped around towards the portal, ready to unload on whoever had taken the chance to save her sister from her, only to freeze when she caught sight of the culprit. "Gray?"
The black-haired ice mage knelt beside Raven's portal, panting hard as a demonic tattoo faded from his face. Lucy and Erza immediately rushed to his side, hefting their guildmate up to his feet.
"Gray?" Ruby repeated, her fury pushed aside in the face of her friend's pain. "What's wrong?"
"I thought we had filtered the Bane Particles out of your system?" Penny asked worriedly.
"Bane Particles?!" Erza and Lucy squawked at once.
Gray gently pushed his friends' grip off his shoulders. "It's fine. They're almost all gone."
"Almost?!"
"It's a long detox process," he argued. "Now, given the person who put them in me is bearing down on us with two kingdoms' airship fleets, can we please get out of here!?"
"We can't," Ruby said. "We need to get one of those ships and save Yang and Jaune—"
"Ruby!" Erza shouted, all her mentor's authority slamming into the young huntress. "They're already gone. By the time we steal one of those ships, even if we get away from the others, we won't be able to catch up. We are not abandoning them. Yang is putting her faith in us, and we will not let her and Jaune down. But we need to be smart about it."
"We'll get'em back, pipsqueak," Qrow assured her. "But not tonight."
If it were anyone other than her two greatest teachers telling her that, she was would have spat in their faces and climbed the ice mountain to a Manta Flyer so she could take off after her sister and friend. She'd been the one who ordered Jaune to go against End, even knowing he couldn't beat the Ophiuchus. She'd been brushed aside when she'd tried to help. She was the reason he got captured and why Yang had had to charge in after in this crazy plan to save him! The very fact that they had to rely on Yang's plan was evidence of how badly she'd messed up—
"Stop freaking out!" Erza howled, clutching Ruby's skull in her palm, her fingers squeezing into the young girl's aura boosted bone.
Qrow's eyes widened. "Hey! What're you—"
The words didn't have time to leave his lips before the Titania pulled her student into a vice-like hug, pressing her beloved pupil's face into her breastplate. Ruby wasn't sure what it said about her that her mind cleared the moment she felt that cold, calming steel against her cheek, the turbulent battle floundering against the serenity of her teacher's embrace.
The twin tears dripping atop her head also helped.
"This isn't a defeat," Erza soothed, remaining stoic in spite of the salty water dripping down her face. "The enemy came for the Relic. They failed. They came to take Fairy Tail members. The only reason they got any of us was because Yang decided to use herself as a knife in their back. No matter how it may feel, this is a victory. We have a straight shot at Salem's headquarters, and we will burn her Hell's Core to the ground. We can win this entire war in one shot. And we will."
Ruby gulped and looked up at the Titania's steely face, the confident vulnerability of the tears only adding to the queen's majesty. "You really are back."
Erza flashed her a soft, shining smile. "I am."
Just like that, Ruby's worries disappeared, a confident smirk mirroring her mentor's grin.
"We're gonna kick their asses," the silver-eyed huntress declared.
Qrow chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Great, you're cursing now too. Can't wait to see how Tai pins this on me."
"She was in the guildhall for months. I don't think he'll blame you," Gray noted, clutching a hand over his chest. "Now, can we please get out of here?"
Erza released Ruby from her embrace and the gang got moving. Lucy gave Gray support as they strode through the portal, Qrow doing the same with the bleeding and battered Titania right after.
As the only ones left on the Haven side, Ruby and Penny made to leave, though the former hesitated, just taking a moment to stare at her companion.
"Ruby, are you alright?" Penny inquired, the aircraft descending back towards the ground around them. "We must go."
"I know, I know," Ruby assured her thought-lost friend, her silver eyes twinkling as she wiped a fine mist from her silver eyes. "Just… it's really good to see again, Penny."
The orange-haired girl grinned at her. "I am pleased to see that you too are still combat-ready, my friend—"
"Ruby!"
Both girls whirled towards the top of the ice mountain. A new figure rushed down the peak, scaling over the cliffside as her flowing white hood obscured her features. "Ruby, wait!"
The silver-eyed girl cocked an eyebrow. She couldn't see who was coming down, even if the flood of ethernano suggested it was the new Maiden, but the voice… she felt like she knew it. She couldn't place where from, but it tugged at some distant memory in the back of her mind.
But, strangely enough considering this person was apparently an enemy, she didn't think that memory was bad.
"Who—ah!"
Ruby squealed as Penny grabbed her around the waist and shot off through the air (she can fly now?!) and into the portal, the shrill of her rockets drowning out the maiden's frantic shouts.
The last thing she saw before she disappeared across the planet was a flash of the hooded figure's golden eyes.
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"Ruby, it's me! It's me, mama! Ruby!"
Summer flailed her hand through the air, powerless as the android girl stole her daughter through the portal, Raven's gateway slamming shut immediately after. The Eclipse Etherious growled and punched the side of the mountain, the pink ice crumbling under her strength.
So close. So close! If she'd just been a bit faster…
"Your excellency, come in," Eleanor's voice crackled over her earpiece. "The MPD is hailing us for information. How do you want to play this?"
Summer sighed, pushing her self-loathing and disappointment down. There was work to be done. The battle was lost. She needed to ensure the war stayed on track.
"Tell them what we've told the public back home about Gray and Penny. They know about Raven's semblance so if we mention our theory on a criminal conspiracy, they'll assume she's part of it. Play up how we don't know exactly what's going on. We'll still need to clear them once we bring them around," she ordered through her comm. "I'll talk with the council once things are settled here. Try to collapse this thing over the flames, will probably do better than regular water. I'll head in, see if I can find Leonardo."
"With all due respect, ma'am, is Headmaster Lionheart really a priority right now? He's bound to have lost most of his credibility with the council after this."
Summer frowned. "I'm not leaving him to die. He's my friend."
"Understood. I'll begin coordinating the cleanup. Over and out."
The Gate of the Maiden clicked off her comm and let out a stressed sigh as she rested against the ice cliff, a sizzle of smoke rising from the sting it inflicted on her skin, its frozen surface rejecting the devil she had become.
Good. That was good. She didn't expect to be thanked for her work. She shouldn't be thanked for it. The world she sought to create would reject it as the horrid sin it was and unleash its brilliant heroes to cast her down to the hell she deserved.
But a hero could not create that world. The hero she'd been had only died a meaningless death trying to stop a symptom of the cancer plaguing Remnant. To cut out the disease, to give her children a world where they didn't have to be soldiers in a war that could not be won, only a devil would suffice.
The devil to create a better world and be condemned by that world in turn. Just as she deserved. And she'd go to that death with a smile so long as her three girls could enjoy that Grimm-free realm.
She leapt off the ice mountain and charged into the flaming ruins of Haven, the blaze of defeat crumbling all around her.
And so the Battle of Haven ends with Summer unable to reunite with Ruby thanks to Erza tempering her recklessness, and Yang setting the group up for a shot at Hell's Core. Fun times.
Oh, and for those of you concerned that Weiss was not present, don't worry. You'll be seeing her soon... and by soon I mean next chapter.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!