A/N: The end of part 1 has arrived. Part 2 picks up where it leaves off; the story ID is 13877688 for those who are interested.
Oscar keeps going, through the chaos, across the battlefields. He has to find the Source. That's it. Then the voices will leave.
The building above him, the one he's been called to, explodes in bright white light. He flinches away for a moment and then continues onward.
"Was that the Fall Maiden?"
No. There's something else up there.
He stumbles and falls on the stairways more than once. It's been two days, at least, since he last ate, but he can't stop for long enough to get caught again. He just needs to find the Source.
The rooftop is intact, mostly. There are people on it, none of them moving. The first is next to him, small, apparently unconscious. There is none of the power of the Fall Maiden emanating from her.
The second he recognizes by the mask. The Huntress. Most of her torso is little more than ash, the metal or her armor warped and buckled from heat.
The Source, or most of it, is in her arm. He kneels and prods tentatively at the skin.
Fool. The Source can't be taken unwillingly unless the body and soul of the wielder are completely gone. She won't let you steal it.
"So I came here and now you tell me that I can't actually get this Source? Really?"
I didn't know that the wielder would be dead. I assumed – she was one of my best and would survive almost anything, particularly with her powers.
Look for the other fragments.
There's a faint black smear on the concrete in front of The Huntress, partially covered in debris. The debris is emanating power, in shattered fragments that he can only detect from the right angles. Oscar dutifully rummages through the debris until he's found half a dozen shards of glowing metal.
"There. You have your precious stick. Now get out of my head."
Oscar, I'm afraid it's not that simple. I'm going to be here for an awfully long time. Now, find a hero.
"There's a corpse of one right there."
Talk to Ruby. She's the one on the rooftop who's mostly alive, at least. She'll know about the Maidens and she'll deal with things from here.
"Ozpin, I don't know if she is alive. I can't see her breathing."
Turn around. Slowly. Don't make any sudden moves.
There's cold steel pressed against the back of his neck.
"Um, okay. Hi, I'm not trying to hurt anyone."
"Don't move." The voice is quiet and raspy, but it still carries above the chaos of the streets below.
That's a hero. His name is Qrow, and I'm not sure why he came here, but you can trust him.
"Okay, great plan. Trust some guy who's currently threatening my life. Uh, sorry for the misunderstanding, Qrow."
"How the hell do you know my name?"
"Would you believe me if I said the voice in my head told me?"
The voice in your head has a name, thank you very much.
Oscar is hauled to his feet rather roughly. At least the sword is pointing slightly farther away from him. His captor – Qrow – is dressed in black and red, a black cloth mask covering most of his face.
"Um, the voice is Ozpin. I assume you know him?"
Qrow looks at him in disbelief, then chuckles.
"Ozpin, you conniving, paranoid bastard. It's good to have you back."
…
With Weiss missing, Ruby comatose, and both Blake and Yang recovering from severe injuries, it's down to Jaune, Ren, and Nora to clean up the aftermath. It's not a pretty job, but it needs to be done. They bring down the remaining robots, ignoring their own injuries, and organize emergency relief. Vale hasn't seen this sort of cataclysm since before the heroes existed.
The people of Vale are torn. They want their heroes, more than anything, to swoop in and save the day. They want The Huntress to tell them that the villain is defeated. But they don't know who or what to trust, and neither do the heroes.
"She wouldn't have just killed an innocent," Jaune insists again. "Pyrrha was better than that."
"We're not saying she would kill someone, if she had the choice," Ren says. "It could well have been an engineered accident."
Nora lands beside them and begins dragging debris away to clear a path for emergency vehicles.
"It could have been an accident," she says. "I don't think it was. I saw her, before the end, and it was like she wasn't there. You could only see Pyrrha in flashes. Even though she wasn't wearing her mask, she seemed like The Huntress the whole time."
"They're the same person, Nora," Ren says. "The Huntress is just a title."
"I know, but it was different. I can't explain it."
"We lost," Jaune repeats, shaking his head. "We lost a fight."
Ren sighs and takes Jaune by one arm, almost dragging him into the shelter of a half-ruined apartment block.
"Jaune, you haven't been fighting for very long. Yes, The Huntress doesn't die often, but we lose people often enough. I understand that you're upset, but there are people we need to save now. Pyrrha wouldn't want us to waste time on her."
"No." Jaune pulls away from Ren. "Don't spout cliches at me and tell me everything is going to be all right! Things aren't all right! Do you even care that she's dead? Any of you?"
He's gone too far.
Nora approaches him, eyebrows drawn together and hands gripping her hammer tightly enough to leave fingerprints in the metal.
"Don't you fucking dare," she snarls at him. "Don't act like I haven't been fighting for Pyrrha for a decade. Don't pretend you were something special. I loved Pyrrha, for everything she was. I cared about the woman behind the mask. You were just a new recruit who didn't understand shit about the heroes. Don't pretend you're the only one who cares, when you haven't watched your family die from old injuries and cancer from Dust and accidents and you haven't built up a hell of a defense mechanism against all the pain!"
Nora takes a step back, breathing heavily. Ren steps between them.
"Nora, he didn't mean it. Just breathe. Jaune –" Ren's eyes harden, and Jaune is genuinely scared, since he's never seen Ren angry before – "A true hero never lets their emotions get in the way when there are civilians who need help. I'm disappointed."
…
Ruby's used to death. She's used to losing. She's used to people leaving her.
That doesn't make anything better.
Pyrrha's dead, their flagship and their rock. Penny, Ruby's guilty little secret, is dead and she can't even mention that except when it's about Pyrrha. Weiss is back in Atlas, after all the time they spent training together and becoming friends.
On the (slightly weird) bright side, it turns out that Ozpin is kind of undead and there's alien technology with almost limitless power out there fighting evil.
"I still don't get it," Yang says, leaning back in her chair and scowling. "How is Ozpin in your head, how does he know all this about the Maidens, and why didn't he tell any of us this before?"
"He says he has his reasons for keeping secrets," Oscar says.
"Wow, so helpful. And you three: you knew about the Maidens, at least. Why didn't a weapon powerful enough to destroy planets in the right hands seem like a good thing to mention?"
"Um, Pyrrha thought that the fewer people knew, the better," Jaune offers, shrinking back in his chair. "And that's not the important thing right now. Ruby, you're the only person who was up on the roof where Pyrrha died and that explosion happened. Do you know what that was?"
Ruby shrugs.
"I didn't see anything," she says. "Pyrrha – got stabbed, and everything kind of went white. I did check police reports, and they think it must have been someone with powers, since they can't find a natural explanation."
"Maybe there's someone looking out for us," Nora says. "Pyrrha's vengeful ghost, or something."
"Or there's another villain who wanted the Fall Maiden's power, and was willing to kill everyone on that rooftop to get it," Qrow says. "Assume the worst."
"Well, if they were trying to kill everyone, they didn't do a very good job," Ruby says. "I passed out but I'm fine, Pyrrha was already dead, and we don't know what happened to the woman in red."
"Um, Ozpin says that speculation isn't getting us anywhere," Oscar says. "He says we need to get the rest of the Source quickly, before someone else finds it."
"The Source? That was the thing in Pyrrha's arm, right?" Yang frowns. "We buried her already."
"We shouldn't dig up a corpse like that," Jaune says, but Ruby ignores him.
…
The grave is empty.
Completely empty. No corpse, no coffin, no Source. Whoever did this was quick.
It's another enemy. Another person to fight. They can handle this, the same way they've always done.
Ruby is The Huntress now, and she has a city to protect, no matter what.
She keeps the fragments tucked into one pocket, for when she's backed into a corner and needs one final burst of power, along with Penny's sword. They'll survive. The same way they always have.
Ruby can't even tell if she's lying to herself any more.