Well, well, well... It seems it's about that time.

Without further ado...


Chapter 5


The attack on Vytal is sudden. Far too sudden, really, for Jaune to have any idea what's going on, if he's being honest. He's sort of following others, mostly Ruby since she takes charge when they all go to rescue Pyrrha from the central arena. Jaune thinks seeing Penny – poor sweet, innocent, apparently a robot Penny – getting sliced to bits will be the most harrowing event of the day, and yet, watching as the Grimm dive bomb civilians, as tens of hundreds are forced to flee, screaming for their lives, it's all Jaune can do to stick to those closest to him, and to hunker down as best he can.

They take a bullhead to Beacon itself once they've evacuated the civilians, and Jaune sort of thinks that's going to be the end of it. Of course, nothing can be that simple, and so all of a sudden, Pyrrha's talking about having to go somewhere, and that has him, Ren and Nora all freaked out, but only he can follow her, and so he does.

They find Ozpin standing at the entrance to the school, standing there and looking right at them, like he'd been waiting for them, and a part of Jaune's soul screams at him that there's something off about that, but he can't help following along regardless.

Ozpin takes them into the main building of the school, and into the big elevator that leads up to his office, and then he uses some odd method to get it to go down, which is weird, since Jaune's fairly certain the elevator's never really had a down before.

The space they open up into is massive. The ceiling goes on forever, and it feels like they could fit the entirety of Beacon inside the room a few times over. Jaune looks around as Ozpin and Pyrrha both head forward, doing something he's not informed of, and he's told to stand guard as Pyrrha gets inside some weird metal tube. There's another one just beside it, inside which is a horribly scarred woman, who looks asleep.

That or dead, and Jaune isn't really sure he wants that particular question answered.

He does a pretty good job of the whole guarding thing, he thinks, up until Pyrrha starts screaming.

It's a sound that's so foreign he can't help but turn around, can't help the way he looks not at the elevator, which gives a soft ding that, had he been paying attention, he may've caught, but at his partner, who's struggling and screaming against the glass case in front of her.

And then an arrow embeds itself in the other woman's chest.

He feels there should be a moment of shock there, and really, there is, but it's so brief, so infinitesimal, before it's obliterated by something so much more powerful that it's not even really worth mentioning.

Because it's in that moment that Jaune turns, and his eyes lock with the person who's just shot an arrow into the pod opposite Pyrrha's, who's just slain some random woman without a care in the world, one of the very monsters they'd been warned might come…

And Jaune knows.

And he watches as the woman across from them… as her eyes widen. As their gazes lock onto one another for a second, and then another… Jaune stays motionless. None of the others in the room move, either. Pyrrha uses her semblance to snap open the tube that had apparently locked with her inside of it. Ozpin's drawn his cane, and looks prepared to move in to kill the woman at the slightest provocation, but he's looking Jaune's way with an odd expression, completely unsure of what to make of him.

He can't explain, really. How can he?

What's he supposed to say? That… that the woman standing there is the same as the one who'd struggled her entire life? Been abused, been neglected, and hurt. She's someone who's always sought freedom, and really, she's just a tortured soul, she's not at fault, she's a product of her circumstances, and she just needs love, and…

How can he say that when she's just killed a woman? When she's brutally snuffed out a life, when she's likely a part of the plan that's lead his home to being attacked, to having hundreds of civilians put in danger, or worse, and likely more and more as the day just gets darker.

Worse than that, even after all is said and done…

How can Jaune tell the woman standing there that he hopes everything works out for her, regardless? How can he tell the woman about to threaten his life, his partners life, Ozpin's life, that he's always been rooting for her, that he's always wanted to meet her, and smile at her, and say that everything's going to be okay? That he became a huntsman so he could protect her, so that just once, someone would try and keep her safe? That even before he met her, he'd always been looking for her, every day on the streets of Vale, he'd looked, and looked, scanning the crowds for any sign of whoever's on the other side of his link, and…

How can he tell her that he hopes she'll be happy?

And Jaune realizes then something that breaks him.

He can't.


Cinder just stares.

She knows she shouldn't. After all, she's just slain Amber for good, taken the power that's always belonged to her, ever since Salem had christened her Fall in the snow that day, ever since she'd accepted the role she's meant to play…

But she can't help just standing there and staring.

Because right there, weakly gripping a sword and a shield beside two people who dwarf him in power is her little light.

She doesn't really know how she knows, but she does.

It's funny, almost, how close they must've come to seeing one another. He's the partner of Pyrrha Nikos, after all. She's seen the back of his head before, in sparring classes, and she's seen him at a distance, certainly, without ever making eye-contact. Just the other day, they'd passed by one another, come within inches, centimeters, a hair's breadth of each other.

It feels cruel, really, that their first meeting is to be like this, but then again, when has the universe, when have the accursed brother gods, ever been anything but cruel to her?

So of course, he's a hunter. Of course, he's the partner of Pyrrha Nikos, and of course that girl, a champion, a paragon of virtue and justice and beautiful in all the ways Cinder isn't looks at him like he's the light to all her darkness. And of course, when they finally meet after well over a decade, it's at each other's throats, in a situation neither of them can possibly reconcile.

Because her little light is linked to her.

So, he's been cursed by proxy.

She finds in that moment that she wants to say something.

But… what is there to say? She's come this far, done this much, attacked the school that he calls his home, demolished it, likely killed some of his classmates, perhaps some of his friends…

It's not like she can turn back now. Not so close. Not with the Fall Maiden's power searing in her breast. She's got it all, now. Every last piece. She's unstoppable, invincible…

Why does that not matter anymore? Why is the man, no, the boy in front of her so important?

Why can't she cut that little light out of her life!?

…And if she can't… then why… why isn't she allowed to have this? What more must she give up? Why can she never have anything!? Hasn't she given up everything already!? Hasn't the universe already taken everything they possibly can from her, stripped away at her being even when she's already entirely bare, peeling away at her flesh until she's flayed to muscle and bone!?

They might only have moments. Already, Ozpin is saying something to both him and his partner. Probably, if the man's protective stance is anything to go by, for them both to leave.

This might be the only time they ever see each other. The only time they stand across from one another, and just get the chance to stand still… not to war, and rage, and try and kill each other… and even so, it will last but moments more. So…

So how does Cinder tell him that she's always been thankful for what he's done? How does she tell him that on her darkest days, in the moments where all she'd wanted had been to give up and die, it had been his light that'd kept her going? That tiny promise of what could be, what might one day come to pass, had been all the younger her had. And she'd held to it like a lifeline and never let go.

How… how can she say that?

And then Cinder realizes something that adds another crack to what's long-since been broken.

She can't.

And so, she takes that little light inside her soul, even now still pulsing with pain and sorrow, and she cradles it against her for as long as she can. Just holds it as tenderly as she possibly can, and then she puts it back away after what feels like far too short a time. In that same instant, she parts Midnight in twain and lets the Maiden's fire wash over her.

It's all she can do to ignore the crashing wave of emotion surging through her chest, both her own and not. She knows without knowing what her Soulmate is feeling right now, doesn't even have to look at his desolate face, or his teary eyes, or the way his hands shake.

Because she's the same.

It's good that the flames are there, when those two, Nikos and the boy, her light, pass her by. As she prepares to face Ozpin, to snuff out another of Ozma's many forms…

The tiny droplet that falls from her eye is turned to steam before it can leave her cheek.


"Jaune…"

He can't… they can't stop. They have to keep moving.

He doesn't want to run. He wants to go back there, but he can't. Ozpin had told them to run, and… and that woman… that woman who'd…

"Jaune…"

That woman who'd looked at him so delicately, like he'd been a fragile little blossom along the path, but one that she can't pluck, because to pluck it means it will die, irrefutably, even if she so desperately wants to take it with her, keep it with her, hug it to her–

"Jaune!"

An intangible force roots him to the spot, and he has no choice but to look at Pyrrha, who's used her semblance on his armor to make him stop running, which feels a little unfair, all things considered.

And she's looking at him the same as everyone does. That pitying expression, like they're sorry for him, that it's him, that it has to be him.

He hates it. He's always hated it, and now, for some reason, that hate only burns hotter. It's not Pyrrha's fault, and he knows that, but right then, in that moment, it's all he can do to bite down on his bottom lip and choke out a fitful sob.

"That… that woman," Pyrrha says between breaths, never breaking eye contact. "She's your…"

He just shakes his head, trying to ignore the way he's crying; weeping, like he's still a child feeling shocks that aren't his own, feeling torture and abuse, and how did he ever think someone could go through something like that and still want the best for the world on the other side? How had he thought they'd become a hunter, when the entire world had been against them, why would they want to protect it and not see it burned to the–

He's almost thankful for the way Pyrrha grips his face with both her hands and slams her forehead into his. It makes him focus on the here and now, makes him look his partner in the eye, even if his vision is a little blurry both from the tears and the probable concussion.

And whether or not Pyrrha means to or not, it lets him focus on the raw pain coming through the link to his soulmate, the misery that's freshly flowing through.

Maybe that should make him feel better. Knowing that this is just as bad for her as it is for him.

It doesn't. It hurts far worse.

"Yeah." Jaune says pathetically.

Because it's all he can say.

"Oh…" Pyrrha says under her breath, and Jaune's not really sure what to make of the sorrow on his partners face. He's got a bit of an idea. When they'd gone to the dance as partners – and he'd made it clear it had only been as partners – because he'd been too focused on the whoever on the other side to want to be involved with someone else at all, the girl had seemed… disappointed.

Now, looking back, he wonders how he'd missed such an obvious thing, but…

He can't really… he should…

Jaune feels like he doesn't know anything anymore.

"I'm sorry." Pyrrha says.

He hates it. He hates that more than anything. More than he's ever–

Something slams into the ground behind him, and it takes Jaune a second too long, just a moment too much, to realize the apology is not for him, or at least, not for the link in his soul, but to him, from the girl across from him, as she grabs him by his armor, and shoves him into her rocket locker.

She places her hand against the metal there, and there's a certain sort of melancholy hanging in her eyes, then, and Jaune realizes in that moment what Pyrrha's about to do, and oh gods no, please don't, he tries to say, but he can't, because his throat is caught on the sorrow he's already digesting, and he can't do this, not – he reaches out, touches the metal in the same spot.

"No…" He whispers, and it can barely be heard over the cacophony of noise and screaming death surrounding them, the howls of Grimm of all shapes and sizes utterly annihilating Vale, the city he's come to call his home.

"I'm sorry." Pyrrha says again, smiling this time, and it must be the cruelest expression he's ever seen on anyone's face before, just before his partner types in a code on the locker's door, and then the boosters beneath him are rumbling the entire chasse.

And then Jaune is sent skyward, screaming, begging, pleading for Pyrrha not to go.

And he watches helplessly as she does regardless.


Pyrrha Nikos comes to stop her, and Cinder does her best to bury the bile in her throat as deep as she can.

Ozpin is dead. Beacon is falling. Her plans have come to fruition. Everything is within her grasp.

It doesn't matter.

Shouldn't it matter!?

Shouldn't accomplishing everything she's ever dreamed of mean something!?

Perhaps it shouldn't. Because Cinder… not Cinder Fall, but Cinder, had never had anything. And then one day, she'd had something.

A tiny reminder. A near-silent whispered word. The smallest warmth.

A little light to help ward away the endless dark.

It hadn't ever been much, but…

But so, what if Cinder Fall has it all? So, what if there is a near boundless power within her breast? What does it mean? What has changed for her? What is different now?

Nothing.

And it's gone.

The light is gone.

And it's unquestionably her fault.

Pyrrha Nikos lunges at her without a word, and Cinder fights because what else is she to do? She wins handedly, barely trying, not even utilizing the new power burning inside her soul for much at all. Her opponent is good, surely, but not enough to challenge her. Not really.

She draws Midnight, in its bow form, up, and is poised to send an arrow directly into the Nikos girl's chest.

But Cinder hesitates.

Just for a moment. Because this is the partner of that boy back there. The partner of her little light.

They can't be together. That much is certain. Destiny will not allow it. But even so…

If she dies… what will he feel? Will the sorrow and heartbreak she'd felt already through their link only amplify, will she be forced to experience his pain, his sorrow, amplified?

More importantly, can she live with herself if she's the cause of his suffering? When simply turning away from him, letting him leave her life, has already taken so much from her?

And before she can think anything more, there's another presence atop the roof, and her Wyvern turns towards it, almost animalistically curious, and then there's a scream, and a blindingly white light.

And then Cinder's flesh is melting.


Jaune has felt pain before. Through the shared link with his soulmate – the woman who's killed Amber, who's likely killed Ozpin, who's going to try and kill Pyrrha – he's felt pain he thinks is extraordinary.

He assumes he knows the depths that pain can go to. How harshly it can burn. How helpless he can feel.

And then, for the first time, Jaune Arc knows agony.

And it is unlike anything he's ever experienced.

He falls to the ground instantly, screams pouring from his rent jaw as he desperately claws at his face. The entire left side of his body has been lit aflame; no, it's worse than that. It's like half his body is being pressed down onto a scalding stove and held there as his skin broils and chars and melts. And no matter how much he begs, and pleads, he's held still, unable to remove himself. It's burning inside, too, like molten metal has flowed into every pore, into every piece of him.

And he cries.

His voice is hoarse only three seconds into the experience, and after five, it breaks entirely. He writhes on the ground, his body twitching and grasping for some kind of release. For an escape. For anything.

He can see Grimm being drawn to him, drawn to his miserable squealing. Drawn to his begging and pleading and the way he vomits out everything he's eaten in the day not out of disgust but because his throat is trying to make noise beyond where it even can. And yet he watches as they are rent asunder by another. Black hair graying with age. A five o'clock shadow that looks less purposeful than lazy. A scythe that seems to have folded out from a massive blade.

He knows the man's name, but right now, the only thing his mind can comprehend is suffering.

The man kneels down next to him, and whispers some words of silent apology into his ear, before a hand slams into the back of his neck, and his consciousness begins to fade…

The last thing Jaune feels is an emotion, funnily enough.

It's regret.

And it somehow burns hotter than the agony before his mind entirely goes.


When Jaune wakes up, he realizes he's alive.

That shouldn't be much of a statement; of course, he's alive. But then again, he'd never felt agony to quite that degree. He'd never felt like he'd been about to die, never…

Never been in so much pain that he'd almost wished for it.

And then his mind remembers further back, his friends in danger, Grimm swarming all around, Beacon under attack–

He surges up, and subconsciously, he catalogues that he must be in decent shape, for as he throws back the blankets he's resting upon and bounds out of the bed he's been laid in for whoever knows how long, he doesn't immediately fall to the ground. No, his legs, while sore, still carry him, and his body, while weak, holds up.

He has just enough time to wonder where the hell he is before a face he recognizes peers around the corner, exhaling.

"Jeez, kid." Qrow, Ruby's uncle, the man who'd saved him, massages the back of his neck with one hand. "Scared me half to death, I thought–"

"Where am I, where's–"

"Calm down!" Qrow stresses, pressing down on his torso and forcing him to stay still.

The man's far stronger than Jaune, easily maneuvering him back to the bed he'd been laid out upon.

"How much do you remember?"

"Beacon… was under attack. I don't–" Something far more important comes to the forefront of his mind. "PYRRHA! Is she–"

"She's alive." Qrow states, wincing slightly. "She took a pretty bad hit. An arrow straight through her heel. It's… she might not be movin' around much for a good while, and she's gonna' need some surgeries, but she's alive."

Jaune lets out a titanic breath, leaning back against the bedframe behind him as the worry that'd crashed down upon him begins to fade.

"For the record, all your friends made it. Tired, but alive. Some…" Qrow swallows. "Some are in better shape than others. Your champion chick didn't even get the worst of it, all things considered."

"Who…" he trails off. "Were Ren and Nora–"

"Nah, Crazy girl and that Ren guy are fine. It's…" Qrow leans back, and Jaune finally notices how many bags are under the man's eyes, silently asking himself how long it must've been since the man last slept. "Yang… she lost her right arm."

Jaune's eyes go wide.

"That's…"

"Yeah. She's with her dad and Ruby back in Patch. I… her partner, her soulmate… you didn't happen to see her, did ya?"

Blake's… missing?

Jaune shakes his head honestly, and the man sighs sadly as he nods his head. "Not shocking. No one's seen her. She dragged Yang back to friendly lines near the end of the assault, and then… she's just gone. Little Miss Schnee got taken back to Atlas by her father and the Ice Bitch herself."

Another blow, and internally, Jaune thanks the man for making him sit down, he's not sure if he could've managed to stay on his feet if he'd been standing.

"Wait, then why are you here? Shouldn't you be back with them in–"

"Yeah, kid, that's the same question I've been asking." Qrow cuts him off, and he can tell by the chipped tone that the man doesn't really want to be here either. "But unfortunately, we've got a bit of a… situation. We managed to capture the leader of the attack here."

Jaune's mood soars, just a little. "Well, that's great!"

"Yeah, normally I'd agree with ya. Problem is, she's in… critical condition, and I mean that. Half her body practically melted off her when she got hit by–" He clams up, and he lets out a frustrated growl as he ruffles his hair. "She's important, I get that, but we had to set aside doctors, surgeons, to keep her alive, that should've been helping the people of Vale, all because she could have information we need."

Jaune… he doesn't really know what to say about that. And then… then he thinks of something.

"…Why are you here?"

"Like I said, kid, I'm–"

"No, I mean…" Jaune gestures around him. "Why are you here. Watching me. Waiting for me to wake up?"

Qrow's eyes widen minutely, before he smirks something fierce. "Hah, Ruby always said you were smart, I guess I didn't give you enough credit."

He blushes somewhat, looking away from the man as he stands from the end of the bed, and beckons for him to do the same.

He follows Qrow down some odd corridors, and he realizes, somewhat blearily, that the room he'd been in before had likely belonged to Qrow while he'd stayed at Beacon. The fact that he'd been resting in the bed of Ruby's uncle should be weirder, but honestly, Jaune's got enough to worry about right now.

Namely…

"So, why me?"

"Well, do you remember anything about when I found you? Writhing on the street?" He nods, and Qrow continues. "Well, what was hurting, do you remember? Because to me, you looked completely fine."

"I…" And Jaune's eyes widen as he realizes. "I wasn't hurt. I was feeling pain through my…"

And he remembers the rest of it.

His eyes connect with the woman who's just murdered another, standing there, bow drawn, a cruel smirk upon her face, and then it's wiped away, replaced by anguish and something worse, as she stares into his eyes.

Hers are the color of the sunset, Jaune catalogues, for he understands he must note as much as he can, because he's not sure they'll ever…

They're never going to–

"She…"

Qrow nods, a brittle, pitying thing as he stares at Jaune's desolate expression.

"Yeah. You're…"

Jaune can't help staring at him, even as Qrow confirms what he already knows.

"You're the soulmate of Cinder Fall, the current Fall Maiden, a servant of Salem… and the woman who led the attack that nearly destroyed Vale."


End Chapter 5


And it only took five chapters!

Ah, well, I'm sure things will be smooth sailing from here!

Anyways, now that that super fun, happy-go-lucky chapter is out of the way, I suppose I'll see you all next week!