Bonnie watched the camera feed go white.
What had just happened?
She watched closely the blinding light of the explosion obscured all vision she had of the fight. Smoke obscured the scene further and she could not see the results. She watched the screen eager for a confirmation.
Was Arc dead? Was Vasily dead?
The thought of him perishing as this sent a strange mix of emotions through her. What if he was gone? Her hand moved to her stomach as her thoughts turned to the life that was growing inside her of her. If he was gone it would be safe, if he was gone this would all be over. If only Arc had perished she would leave with him for Vacuo and continue on.
The thought made her nauseous. More assassionation, a repeating cycle of helping him best whoever happened to move into Vasily's crosshairs. The possibility seemed like a vast empty void expanding to swallow her into it's cold black depths.
A red light pulled her attention away alerting her. She turned and addressed the screen as it alerted her to an intruder. Her fingers danced across the keyboard showing her. A hacker who had managed to slip past her digital defenses and was currently rummaging around, she watched as the intruder severed her connection to one of the bombs, snipping the string that connected her to a dozen petty threats as an insurance for Vasily.
Watching the connection being wrestled away from felt like a weight being released from her. Watching the possibility of hurting an innocent being taken away sent a flutter of relief through her. Bonnie knew she should do something, she should expel the intruder from her system and detonate one of the bombs to make a point, but it was a weak call compared to the ease that soothed her.
With a few keystrokes instead she opened a message window and typed a message.
Who are you? She typed to her strange intruder.
Several seconds passed and she looked to the screed watching for any signs of life and finding none.
Pietro Polendina, and you are Bonnie. The hacker answered her.
How do you know who I am? Bonnie asked.
I watched Penelope's memories. Why haven't you stopped me? Pietro responded.
Bonnie stared at the question and looked back to the camera feed. She noticed Vasily's form moving on the ground, he was alive and that empty void seemed to expand ready to swallow her.
I'm not sure if I want to stop you. Bonnie answered him.
Then don't. Pietro replied.
It's not that simple. Bonnie protested.
It can be. Pietro responded.
What will happen to me if he loses? I am not innocent. She told him wondering what to do. She should stop him, cold and empty as it seemed to go on with Vasily surely it was a better alternative than rotting in an Atlas prison for her life, she had gone this fat and there was no escape.
You can run, get away while you can. Pietro answered her.
You would let me escape? Bonnie asked him.
I would. Pietro told her.
Why? She asked.
Because I want this to end, because I want Jaune and Penny to both walk away from all of this. He told her.
I share responsibility in all of this, I hurt them too. She explained to him.
I don't want revenge, I want this to be over. Pietro told her.
Bonnie felt like she was staring into the black void of her future feeling the cold of it on her face. But behind her she felt a warm inviting future that she needed to only turn to and put the blank abyss to her back and walk away.
Bonnie touched her belly and steeled herself.
Then end it. Bonnie typed and turned away letting her control be cut away from her. A massive weight was lifted from her shoulder and she felt easy walking away and out the door leaving Vasily behind to face his fate without her.
She found her step was lighter and the void behind her was forgotten and for the first time in a long time she found herself looking forward to tomorrow.
Jaune coughed through the thick smoke that clogged the air. The steel cables that had kept him tied to the tree had loosened from the blast and fell away letting him fall to the ground next to the twisted and smoking remains of Vasily's rifle ruined on the ground.
He laughed despite the choking smoke. He hadn't expected all his cartoon watching to ever come in handy but here he was. Thank you Pumpkin Pete.
He looked at his left hand. It was numb with pain and bleeding but from what he could tell it was still mostly intact save for his middle finger which made Jaune nauseous to even look at it, it was crumpled like an accordion. His semblance had saved him but unlike last time he hadn't exactly gotten away from it unscathed.
Jaune wobbled as he put his feet beneath him trying to stand despite everything. He left his shield on the ground, he hated abandoning it but he didn't think he could hold anything in his left hand with it mangled like it was, thankfully Vasily hadn't fired both barrels, otherwise he would probably be in need of a new hand instead of potentially in need of a new finger.
He looked around trying to find Vasily. Where was he? He tightened his grip on Crocea Mors stumbling around the artificial forest feeling dizzy. He tried to hear something through the high pitched ringing that invaded his ears.
"Vasily!" Jaune called hearing his own voice muted, "Vasily!"
A rustle of bushes beside him caught his attention and he turned to find the assassin charging him clutching a knife, the stub of Penny's stolen and shattered blade. He growled as Crocea Mors struck him making his aura shimmer and but deflect the blade.
Vasily bushed the strike off and didn't let it steal his momentum and closed the distance to stab him with the jagged little blade. The tip smashed against Jaune's aura once, twice three times before his remaining aura dissolved into light. The fourth stab slipped between the armor plates and drew blood.
Jaune hissed in pain and smashed the pommel of Crocea Mors into Vasily's face knocking him back and retreating.
"Jaune!" Pietro's voice sounded in his ear. "I just need you to hold on a little bit longer, I'm in."
Jaune didn't respond to the microphone in his jacket collar and he kept his focus on the fight, taking comfort that Pietro was apparently having success on his end. He swung his blade as Vasily tried closing the distance again.
"Still using that old thing?" Jaune teased, finding it hilarious that he still clung to Penny's shattered blade instead of relying on one of his other weapons.
"You beat me with it, so I'm going to beat you with it!" Vasily answered with a growl leaping at him with reckless abandon. Jaune dodged to the side letting him soar past him and delivering a slash to back draining more of his aura.
"Suite yourself," Jaune laughed at him with more confidence than he felt. The stab wound burned and as silly as using the blade seemed to him the wound seeping blood made it hard to argue that this guy certainly could kill him. Even armed with a longer sword the fact was that Vasily still had aura left and Jaune had spent most of his aura imitating his favorite cartoon.
"I'd like to see you laugh as I gut you Arc!" Vasily growled lunging forward with a thrust of the blade. Jaune parried the knife thrust away and attempted a ripost only for Vasily's fist to shoot out and slam against his face knocking Jaune back and sending his head spinning. He tasted blood in his mouth and spat out onto the ground as he looked at the assassin's fist that clutched a set of brass knuckles.
"So you kill me and get to claim you're not as big a loser as me, what then?" Jaune asked him trying to keep him distracted with talk and quips. "Is there some kind of social media for assassins so you can tell all your friends about it?"
"Shut up," Vasily hissed closing in, Jaune sidestepped the attack with ease, his superior reach of his sword helping him control the fight.
"I'm just saying for all the work you put into this you gotta be getting more out of this than a simple ego boost," he taunted.
"Silence you insolent boy!" Vasily hissed again charging him. Jaune swung his blade but Vasily knocked the strike away with his hand letting his aura absorb the blow and he stabbed at Jaune's face.
He reeled back as the blade cut a thin line across his cheek and pressed. A thrust went right for his eyes and Jaune dodged with a tilt of his head, it sliced the side of his temple and bleed out covering his face in red.
"You might be a loser Arc!" Vasily growled at him as he stumbled back bleeding. "But my hand you're going to be a dead loser."
Jaune smirked despite the blood that dripped down the side of his face. "You know Vasily, I might have been the biggest loser to have ever set foot in Beacon, but I got to make friends with some awfully talented people."
"Reminiscing are you?" Vasily asked him, confusion coloring his face.
"Nope," Jaune said grinning widely at him, "I'm bragging."
Automatic fire cut in ratting through the atrium and striking the assassin making his aura shimmer. He turned to see the twin pistols of Storm Flower blazing away peppering him, their wielder Lie Ren couched in a tree as he fired. But even more to his surprise was Nora sprinting through the brush with her hammer roaring as she swung it at him.
"GET AWAY FROM OUR LEADER!" She cried as the hammer made contact with his chest. His aura glowed as the weapon crashed into him and sent him flying into the trees.
Vasily landed hard against the trunk of a tree. He managed to recover himself to at least land on his feet with some manner of grace before he sprinted into the woods. He needed a better weapon, he hadn't been planning on reinforcements, he had specifically arranged to keep them away.
"Bonnie," he said into his earpiece, "Arc brought friends along, detonate the bomb and prepare the second batch of drones now."
Killing those brats Arc watched would do him little good now but at least he could make him taste the consequences of cheating. How could his friends even have slipped in without her knowing? That should have been impossible.
"Bonnie?" he asked again when he heard only static on the line. "Bonnie are you there?" He asked again only to receive no answer.
He found a bench along the pathway and reached under it, finding the lever action rifle he had stowed away just in case his regular armaments weren't enough for him. He cocked the weapon chambering the first round and looking back into the trees. "Bonnie, answer me now!" he demanded over the line fruitlessly.
Had they somehow gotten to Bonnie? Had some of Arc's friends snuck in and dispatched her? Again he couldn't understand how that could have happened, Bonnie had eyes everywhere here, an infiltration was supposed to be impossible.
A series of grenades leapt from the brush at him and he scrambled away as they detonated into pink explosions shattering the bench and several trees. Vasily raised his weapon and fired in the general direction of the grenades. Nora Valkyrie, he had briefly perused her file when he did his research on Arc. She wielded a weapon named Magnhild, a hammer and multi shot grenade launcher, her semblance allowed her to channel electricity into her muscles making his electricity dust unwise to use against her.
Another barrage of gunfire struck him in the side and whittled down a bit of his aura. He spotted the gunner as he emptied the magazines of his twin pistols. Vasily turned the rifle on the young man and fired fast as he could striking him several times with quick shots. His hand worked the lever of the rifle with expert speed. He watched his aura flash before moving as more grenades landed where he had been.
Lie Ren expelled the magazines from his twin pistols and moved to follow reloading with practiced speed and efficiency as he leapt from tree branch to tree branch with impressive grace.
Vasily grinned to himself as he sprinted away into the thick brush. Follow me, he willed to the boy, taking note of his surroundings as he ran. Even outnumbered and with Bonnie out of action he still held the advantage, he had prepared this place and he was going to use it.
Lie Ren kept following him deeper and deeper into the cover of the artificial forrest, right where he wanted him.
"REN WAIT!" He heard Arc shout out to his comrade. "DON'T RUN AFTER HIM HE"LL LEAD YOU INTO A BOOBY TRAP!"
Too late. With a touch of his scroll he remotely detonated the mine he had secured in the area. The tree the pistoleer had been perched on erupted into a shower of smoke and splinters. He lost sight of him in the explosion. He doubted it would have been enough to deplete his aura and kill him but hopefully it would slow him down if nothing else.
"REN!" Miss Valkyrie cried out for her teammate rushing to his position and deliver what aid she could. Foolish girl. Another swipe of his finger across the holographic screen and a second mine detonated sending a geyser of soil and smoke into the air catching her in the blast.
He moved forward pulling the small rifle rounds from his bandolier and loading them into the tubular magazine of his , he already was lamenting the loss of his express rifle, Arc would pay for destroying it.
He closed on the ruined areas still smoking from the explosions, if he was lucky the blasts could have knocked Arc's friends out for some easy kills.
"GUYS!" Arc called emerging from the brush to help his teammates. Raising the lever action Vasily fired at his foe striking him with two quick shots. The first knocked Arc to the ground and the second put him down to scramble away, that damned armor had saved him again. If he only had his express rifle he would have punched a hole in it like tissue paper. He scowled, the weapon was destroyed now and nothing would change that, he's finish Arc as soon as he finished with his friends.
He scanned the ruins for them looking at the kicked up soil and shredded plants finding no sign of either of them.
A blast of machine gun fire interrupted his search. He rolled away to face the source of the gunfire only to find that one of his own turrets firing at him. His rifle cracked as he scrapped the treacherous machine. How was this possible?
Several quick slashes stuck him as Lie Ren lashed out with the pistol daggers. The blades scraped against his aura and he smashed the butt of his weapon into the boy's face, sending him back before he fired from the hip striking the boy in the chest and knocking him on his back.
He raised his rifle to finish the job when another hail of automatic fire interrupted him. He growled seeing a second turret firing on him. He tried to roll away and dispose of the automated weapon only to have the ground erupt in front of him. Miss Valkyrie emerged with a swing of her massive hammer roaring at him.
He ducked the swing and jabbed the muzzle of his rifle into her belly and fired. He had expected to knock her down but she dug her heels into the dirt and stayed standing grabbing him and throwing him to the ground. He rolled away as she brought her hammer down creating a crater in the planting soil. He swung his rifle at her sweeping her legs and knocking her to the ground with him. He and ducked as the turrent fired again at it shattering the weapon into pieces. He pointed his weapon down to the girl only for him to feel steel claws rake across his back.
He cursed as he felt steel jaws clamp down on his shoulder. One of his mechanical hunting dogs had lept on his back trying to maul him. He grabbed a blade from his belt and plunged it into the head of the drone.
How had this happened? How had Arc taken control of his support? Bonnie wouldn't have let this happen, she had to be dead, someone had to have taken control of this but who. How could he pull the plug on this?
The drone fell away to spark on the ground and he turned to see a whole pack of the creatures surrounding him. He fired, blowing one of the mechanical beasts heads off as he ducked a lunge and shot another ready to fight through the drones.
He swerved his rifle to blast another one away only to have the barrel catch on one of the green blades of Stormflower. Lie Ren caught his weapon and leveled the second pistol at him delivering a burst of automatic fire to his chest and delivering a series of quick slashes. Vasily parried as best he could from the quick attacks creating distance between them. He managed to get a shot off striking him. Vasily grinned as he watched the boy's aura shatter into light. He cocked the rifle ready to put a round through his heart.
He didn't see Miss Valkyrie coming. It slammed into his side and sent him flying away. He watched in horror as the remains of his aura dissolved into light. He was defenseless now, he was outnumbered and without any aura to protect him.
He crashed into the wall of the atrium. He heard a sickening snap as he fell to the hard concrete ground. He forced himself up and reached for his scroll. He had to leave, replusilve as the thought was he had lost all his advantages, there was no victory for him here, he would need to leave, find Bonnie or a replacement and try again.
His fingers danced across the holographic screen as he activated the only ace he still had up his sleeve. He activated the mines detonating them in a sequence, the ear splitting blasts echoed through the arium as it felled trees and uprooted the various exotic plants, the garden would be a ruin and with luck he might eliminate them. He ran, taking his rifle he limped down to one of the doors spotting the exit signs for him to escape from while the various explosions and traps kept Arc and his friends busy.
Before the thought of destroying Arc with something as impersonal as a mine would have revolted him. Now he hardly cared what happened to him, so long as he died, so long as his walking reminder of his loss was gone.
He limped down the hallways, his leg burned with pain, he hadn't even noticed anything when he fell but it must have happened to him. Damn Arc for bringing his friends along damn him for cheating. The thought of his planted explosives turning him to a red smear put a smile on his face, perhaps tonight wasn't for nothing after all. Behind him the explosions sounded like thunder and they shook the building.
The sound of steel claws against the floor stopped him. He turned and saw them. His hunting dogs ran straight for him. He leveled his rifle and fired as fast as he could, he downed one, then another, click.
The hammer fell on an empty chamber and he scrambled for more rounds. It wasn't quick enough. The first to close the distance leapt for him and he bashed it away with the stock of his empty weapon. The second fired a burst from it's back mounted gun.
He felt the bullet's pierce him. He stumbled trying to charge the other with his improvised club and the drone pounced. Steel jaws sank into the flesh of his shoulder and he crashed to the floor screaming. Claws tore through his clothes and opened his chest. The other drones swarmed. He tried to strike it with his rifle only to find teeth crushing his arm mangling it. His world became pain until he felt jaws descend on his face.
Pietro sighed as he observed the drones doing their dirty work. He loathed the cold feeling in his chest as he watched the mechanical creatures rend him asunder. He typed the controls to have them stop their brutality and leave the dead man alone.
They obeyed his command, such simple and cold machines with no concept of life or morality, killing with no more emotion than a blade or a bullet. Killing should never be a passionless affair, he thought, looking at the other drones on the screen standing statue still with gore hanging from their mechanical mouths.
He wished he could feel some semblance of regret or sorrow having watched him being torn apart but the only emotion he felt was relief. All this death and destruction was done and he couldn't be happier. That man wouldn't be hurting anyone anymore, not Penny, not Jaune, no one.
"Father?" He heard Penny call him from down the hallway. He closed the video feed from the drones and turned to see the door open and his daughter walk in.
"Hey baby girl," he greeted her with a big smile, "I was just about to wake you up," he said, his chair walking closer to her as he offered his arms in a hug.
"I woke myself up," Penny told him not moving into his arms. "Where is Jaune? He was facing Vasily and there was that girl Penelope she-."
"Penelope is gone," Pietro said moving closer and setting a hand on her shoulder, "and so is Vasily."
"And Jaune?" Penny asked him.
He turned back and stared at his computer screens as they showed the various camera feeds he had over the area. He observed the feed overlooking the botanical garden as it burned. He watched as three figures emerged, Jaune limped out with his teammates. "Jaune is fine," he said, feeling lighter to say it.
He turned to his daughter and smiled, "A lot has happened baby girl," he said, "but that can wait, he's over by the Mantle Botanical Garden, how about you go see him, I know you want to see him."
Penny nodded and pulled him into a hug. "Thanks papa," she said squeezing him tightly before turning and running out. Pietro smiled as he watched her race off, doubtlessly she would spend the rest of the night helping to fix all that damage Vasily had caused across the city.
He turned back to his computer and returned to his work. He contacted emergency services to arrive and get the fire in the garden under control and give Jaune and his teammates whatever medical assistance they might need.
He looked to the camera feed watching Penny land on the street and sprint towards Jaune pulling him into a bone crushing hug. He watched the two of them kiss and closed the window pleased that for now at least they were safe with each other.
Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed this weeks chapter. Next week will be the epilogue , I can't believe I finally got to this point. Finishing this final fight was certainly interesting. Bringing Ren and Nora into it was fun, actually having Vasily being outnumbered by a couple of powerhouses was fun to write. I had actually planned on Penny being the one to come to the rescue and finish off Vasily, but the idea of Pietro finishing the job with his hacked drones seemed appropriate. Giving the villain a fruitless death at the hand of his own machines guided by someone that doesn't even fight seemed an appropriate end for him. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of this final fight and Vasily's and Bonnie's fate. As usual I would like to thank MidKnightMoonglow, MajorBrony95, DrknssRules1 and FireFly25 for all their help with this story and the next, you guys are awesome and I'm happy that this fic brought us together.