.
Outgunned, Outnumbered, and Outmatched
.
"If you think your opponent's always going to be as honorable as you,
You've got another thing coming."
.
.
One night passed since Qrow and Team RNJR settled in the Tower of Tamonten. A name they found for the tall pagoda, after Ren explored the ruins.
Based on what they learned, the Tower was formerly a place of knowledge and school of worship. Below the top floor were countless levels to train and learn. Statues of long-past figures erected in and outside its walls. Scrolls filled the shelves, verging on toppling from their cupboards. In another time, the place may have fulfilled a role similar to Beacon Academy.
At least, that was the conclusion Ren came to, while musing himself in its scrolls. The rest of his team opting to watch over Qrow.
"Victory is mine! I'm Queen of the Tower~ I'm Queen of the Tower~"
"How the…"
As Jaune stared horrorstruck at the Mahjong tiles in front of them, Nora counted the points of her winning hand that put the rest of the players into bankruptcy. The other two at the table, showed no response whatsoever.
"How are you so good at this game?!" Jaune cried.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"'Cause you usually lose every game we play. And then, it ends with you slapping everything off the table."
"Psh! I'm not that bad," Nora waved.
"Remember the time we played Atlasopoly?"
"Psh!...No."
"You threw my airship piece up my nose!"
"I don't…Psh! Remember that…"
"Pyrrha had to use her Polarity to get it out."
"Oh, yeah! That was gross! You have a lot of boogers! Ew!"
"It was your fault!"
"…."
Nora started whistling to feign innocence, while gathering everyone's chips. To which, Jaune could only pay a dejected sigh.
Qrow had remained quiet the whole time, while his true attention lay elsewhere. Jaune could almost picture Ozpin speaking to him. Their private telepathic conversation going on about who knows what. The possible secrets piqued his interest, but he convinced himself they didn't matter personally.
His curiosity drifted then to Ruby, who was being unsettlingly silent. From time to time, the girl's sight would flit to different parts of the office. Darting to corners, like chasing some invisible object.
"Hey, Ruby? You there?"
"Hm? What's up, Jaune?" she blinked out of her trance.
"Is there something you wanna tell us? Like, is there something up with this room?" He then, whispered low, "…Is it haunted?"
"Well…kiiiind offff."
"What?! Really?!"
"No! Haha!" Ruby snorted. "You're so gullible!"
"Don't do that! I'm already freaking out here! We're stuck in this creepy Tower, Ren's been gone for a while, Nora's winning games, your Uncle looks like he's possessed by a zombie…"
"How do you get possessed by zombies?"
"…And you're acting like you can see ghosts!"
"Don't be silly! They're not ghosts." Ruby paused. "Unless they're dead. And you guys are dead. Then, I guess I am seeing ghosts."
"No! You're not getting me again!"
"But seriously, I don't know what they are."
Jaune gulped worriedly.
"Wh-what are you actually seeing?"
"Well, sometimes there's this big guy in black armor walking around, speaking in poetry or something. Then, there's Professor Port and Professor Oobleck yelling about Grimm stuff."
"Professor Port and Oobleck?"
"Yeah. Something about the truth of Remnant. They look kind of upset. And then, there's, um…"
"What?"
Ruby looked down at her hands and fidgeted, not sure whether to say or not.
"There's also these flashbacks I get…from when Beacon Tower fell."
A layer of cold seemed to descend with those words. Jaune immediately knew what Ruby was referring to.
"…You mean, when Pyrrha…?"
The girl's voice became small as she squeaked out, "Yes. That. I'm sorry, Jaune."
"…"
A heavy atmosphere filled the room. Not even the chaotic gales outside the windows could distract their attentions. Ruby and Nora only waited patiently for Jaune's response.
"—Can you show me?"
"What?"
"Pyrrha's last moments," Jaune repeated. "Can you show them to me?"
"Jaune. I don't know if I—"
"Please, Ruby. I'm begging you."
Under the gaze of the pleading boy's eyes, Ruby shrunk further. She became more daunted when Nora nudged her by her shoulder.
"I'd…like to see Pyrrha, too," she said.
"—We all would," Ren joined, entering the office. A bundle of scrolls curled in his arms.
Ruby traded glances between the three of them, and gave it thought.
Her powers were far from mastered, or even remotely controllable at times. Let alone using it for herself, she didn't know if she could make them work to include others.
It was a great risk. One, Qrow had explicitly told her not to take. If this were any other situation, she would have refused, no matter how much it hurt.
But this Tower was different.
It felt protected for some reason. And the veil between this world and the other was so incredibly thin in these hallowed grounds. Perhaps if it was here, she would be able to use her ability safely.
"—It should be fine, kiddo," Qrow suddenly answered. "From what Oz tells me, this Tower is shielded from Salem. In fact, it was built to educate and train those like you. So why don't you give it a shot?"
Ruby stared at her Uncle, who winked back. An odd smile surfaced on the man's face that didn't quite seem his own. As if, it belonged to another.
The girl took the words to heart and faced her friends.
"Okay. Hold my hands."
Jaune grasped Ruby's right, while Nora and Ren grasped her left.
"I'm sorry, if this doesn't work."
"It'll work," Jaune said immediately. "I know you can do it."
"…Kay. No pressure~"
Ruby took several heaving breaths. Her eyes shut and her face scrunched, grunting in concentration. The effort started to make her cheeks turn red.
Then, the three felt Ruby's Aura pass through them, drawing them in. Her eyelids lifted, and a blinding light encompassed their vision.
The office around them shifted, molding into different designs, but always the same dimensions. Figures moved about the corridor in fast-forward and reverse. Hundreds of voices blaring at once.
But as time passed, the numerous discussions narrowed down to a few in particular.
"Barty? Barty, what ails you, my friend?"
"It's these accounts…" Professor Oobleck responded, in a sentence much slower than his usual pace. He appeared crestfallen, both hands planted on the surface of the desk, as if to brace himself.
"What does it say?"
"The truth… If what's written here is correct, Ozpin is not the man I thought he was," he lamented. "Salem. The Grimm. The broken moon. What awaits this world. It's all…too much."
"You shouldn't trust everything you read. In spite of what Papyrus may say, these documents could be written fiction. You can't know for sure."
"But I can, Peter…I can…"
Oobleck took his glasses off. A few tears fell from his eyes. Full of concern, Port picked up the tome that was set aside, and read it himself.
After scanning a few of its diary entries, he was filled with the same shock that distraught his friend. It was not only the content that made his insides sink, but the name of the one who wrote it.
"Summer Rose…" Port uttered.
"You can recognize her handwriting. The papers I've graded with the same grammar mistakes…Papyrus mimicked everything perfectly in her recording."
"No…Ozpin, say it isn't so…"
Professor Oobleck mustered himself back up with something like anger.
"We still have more research to do, Peter. A greater task now awaits us."
"Barty?"
"Although I am convinced of the authenticity of Summer's recollection—as a man of history, I must know the rest of this story. I must learn from the beginning. Perhaps, there is some clue in the formation of Remnant that will help avert this disaster… because if there isn't…"
Oobleck found his speech so slow, until he realized he was at a loss for words. With gaunt determination, he willed himself up.
As he was going to the next volume to investigate, he bade one more look to the book lying on the desk.
"For the sake of my former student," he quietly vowed to himself. "And the ones, who come after."
"I must learn the truth, so I may pass it on."
"I can only hope I am strong enough."
.
X
.
The office around Team RNJR shifted again to the ruins of Beacon Tower.
A colossal dragon circled the skies, and below, two warriors reached the conclusion of their battle.
Cinder held Pyrrha's chin in her hand. A parting taunt to her vanquished foe. And the scarlet-haired girl knelt, broken and defeated.
She could not stand. Molten shards embedded in her heel. The awareness of the coming deathblow, all too known to her.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted without thought.
And for a brief moment, the girl looked his way. A quiet fervor kindled that dispelled her fear. As if she could somehow see the one she cared for in her final moments, a merciful illusion—and their simple appearance granted her courage.
"Do you believe in destiny?"
Pyrrha's words contained none of the fear belonging to one standing at death's door.
"…Yes."
"PYRRHAAA!"
Cinder let her arrow loose and it pierced Pyrrha's heart.
…
…
They returned to the Tower of Tamonten.
Jaune dropped to the floor and repeatedly punched the stone.
"NOOO! PYRRHA! PYRRHAAA!" he cried again and again.
Nora buried herself in Ren's arms. The sorrow she felt was so intense, she clawed and grabbed at his chest. Ren didn't show his grief on the surface. He wanted to be there for the others. So, he only mourned quietly underneath.
Only Ruby, who had seen the exact scene playout countless times, wasn't overcome with sadness. In all honesty, she wanted to kneel beside them. The memory never ceased to hurt, no matter how many times she saw it.
But something else demanded her attention.
"—So, they saw it, huh?" Qrow asked.
"Yeah. Uncle Qrow," Ruby said with a serious tone. "Listen. I think we need to stop the—"
Suddenly, windchimes within the Tower began to ring. It was strange, seeing that even after opening a window they never made a sound. But at that moment, the high-pitched bells echoed up and down the whole structure.
While Jaune and Nora were at a loss, Ruby, Qrow, and Ren lifted their heads in the same direction. Through whatever acute sense they possessed, they identified an incoming unknown.
"Is that…an airship?" Ren mouthed absentmindedly.
"Seems like it. Better be ready, kids," Qrow warned. "I doubt they're friendly."
"They aren't," Ruby answered. "Jaune."
The boy remembered back to what Ozpin said about those who would try to stop the synchronization process.
"—Who are they, Ruby?"
Jaune's words seethed with angry accusation.
"…"
"Ruby! Is it them? Is it the ones responsible for Pyrrha?!"
"…"
Ruby sighed.
"It's…"
.
X
.
Emerald, Mercury, and Neo observed the top of the hurricane. A tiny hole was visible at its center, indicating the location of the Tower.
Their mid-sized airship carried them over the Windpath in record time. As one of Mistral's newest models, it was equipped with the latest engine. However unfortunate for the team, Emerald had hijacked it during development stages, so it lacked any artillery measures or reinforced armor—but its lack of weight did help in shortening the travel time.
As the aircraft hovered above their destination, the three squinted their eyes at the pagoda off the side. They took notice of the random debris rotating around the structure. Trees and whole boulders were caught in its stormy winds. Even pieces of ruin gathered along the Windpath found its way to the funnel.
"It's like a big flushing toilet," Mercury observed.
"Very observant, Mercury," Emerald replied, while folding a paper airplane.
After straightening its nose, she flew the plane down, and watched it circle the Tower at continuously accelerating speeds—
Until it was ripped to shreds by the vicious cycle.
"Well, that was enlightening!" Emerald said, fake cheerfully. "We should probably park the ship here. Get ready to drop in about half an hour."
"Half an hour?" Mercury raised the question. "Shouldn't we drop now? If we wait too long, they might come after us."
"We should be so lucky. But it's around noon. We haven't had lunch yet. Doubt they have either."
"You think we can get them to fight on an empty stomach."
Emerald didn't answer, only looking to Neo.
"All five of them there?"
The small girl nodded.
"Any suspicious movement? Surprise guests?"
Neo shook her head.
"Great. Keep an eye on, let me know if they start eating. Until then, we let 'em soak. Wear on their nerves a little. I want them as soft as possible when we hit."
"You've thought a lot about this," Mercury commented.
"No, duh. At this point, I'll buy every little advantage we can get."
Emerald took a seat on the ship's deck and pulled out some ration bars. Apparently, they were going to eat and go over the plan once more, before making their move.
.
X
.
"What are they doing?" Jaune asked, as he stared up at the airship. "Why aren't they attacking?!"
"I don't know," Ruby answered.
"Team ENMY… Is Yang up there?"
Ruby, Qrow, and Ren honed their senses simultaneously, searching for any trace of the girl.
"No," Ruby finally replied. "Yang isn't with them…I think. It's a little hard to tell."
"I can sense the Aura signatures of only three armed combatants," Ren added his input.
"Maybe it's a lie she's on their team?"
"I hope so," Jaune snarled. "'Cause if she's working with the people who helped Cinder, I'll never forgive her."
Ruby didn't have a reply for that. She could only continue to gaze up at the airship.
Emerald. Mercury. Neo.
She formed their names on her lips. It was strange to think about, but the thought of revenge never crossed her mind.
Not only Pyrrha, but they were also at fault for what happened to Penny. Another memory that pained her every time her thoughts went to it. But it was never accompanied by anger. Just a hollow feeling of helplessness. The regret of thinking she could have done more.
Ruby sighed, and double-checked once more.
She's not there.
Yang isn't there.
A part of her was genuinely relieved her sister was nowhere to be found. But another was disappointed there would be no reunion. The circumstances would have been horrible, but she thought it would have been nice to see Yang again.
She measured the emotions of her surrounding allies. Anger was erupting within Jaune. Likewise, Nora and Ren stoked with a similar fire. Qrow's mood was more tempered, but he never forgot what Emerald and Mercury did to Amber, the previous Fall Maiden.
Ruby wondered if there was something wrong with her for not feeling the same way. But she would worry about such things later. For now, the hardest fight of her life was about to unfold.
.
X
.
As Team "ENMY" finished lunch, Mercury performed final checkups on his Strider. Emerald was on deck with him, but Neo had chosen to eat in the privacy of her cabin.
"Hey, Em."
"Yeah, Merc?"
He hesitated.
"I'm sorry."
"…What?" Emerald asked, unsure of what she heard.
"Don't make me repeat it."
"I think I had, like, a stroke for a second. What did you just say?"
"I said, I was sorry."
*Choke!* *Cough!* Emerald thumped her chest, trying to ease the food caught in the wrong pipe.
"Now I'm not. Why don't you just go ahead and choke on that, and die?"
"What in the hell brought this on?" Emerald wondered. "Wait, are you planning to sacrifice your life for me? 'Cause if you are, I'm totally cool with that."
Mercury sighed tiredly, trying to stay serious.
"I bet you wish you hadn't gone with me to meet my family, back when I first got their letter. After all, none of this really has anything to do with you."
"Dumbass. They knew we were partners. The moment Jupiter screwed you with this contract, they screwed me too."
"That's not the point."
"Oh, then what is it? This about earlier?"
"I was just apologizing," Mercury regretted. "Screw it, I don't even care anymore!"
"Well, I had to do it. Or else Cinder would've—"
"Yes! You love Cinder! We know! Whatever, I don't know why I bother."
As Mercury frustratingly performed his stretches and warm-ups, Emerald eyed him, still more curiouser.
"No way," she blurted.
"What?"
"Were you—no."
"What now?"
"Were you…trying to say thanks for sticking with you? Like, real, actual gratitude on top of an apology?"
"I hope Qrow kills you first."
"WOW." Emerald's jaw hung open.
"Why did I ever…"
Emerald threw her arm around his shoulder and smirked.
"Oh. It's cause you love me, ya big soft bag of douche."
"It doesn't work when you say it."
"Why? I know. I'm missing your disasterably-sculpted quaff."
"Let's just go. I'm getting one of my need-to-boot-someone-in-the-mouth craves."
"Fine, fine. But for what it's worth…Can you say that again? I wanna record it."
Mercury spun and whipped a kick her way.
"Whoa!" Emerald dodged. "Now there's the Mercury I need! Time to dance, killer."
The two entered the cabin, where Neo chose to eat alone. They paused with an unnerved stare.
Etchings covered every inch of the room's wooden interior. Violent, twisted letters scratched with Neo's thin blade. The words of which, were a short but clear message to one of the targets below.
"Okay…" Emerald elected to ignore the disturbing signs and address the team.
"You know the drill, criminals. We're not amateurs. Fight smart, not hard. They have us outgunned, outnumbered, and outmatched. But then again, it wouldn't be much of a Team ENMY gig if we didn't have to slant the table. So, run the game high and tight. Neo, buy us our in at the table."
The petite girl finished carving the last letter on the remaining empty space of surface, before giving the okay nod to move.
.
X
.
Qrow and Team RNJR stared wide-eyed at the surrounding window panels. Every inch of the glass was scratched with the words:
DIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBY DIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBY DIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBYDIERUBY
The countless screeches made them cringe, hugging their ears.
And just when they thought they couldn't take anymore, the scratching abruptly stopped.
…
*CRASH*
The windows shattered from the outside in, pelting them with shards of glass.
Lifting his shield in front of his team was Jaune. His aegis enlarged by his Semblance, expanded an energy field to deflect the lethal shrapnel.
Qrow kicked over the desk he was sitting at and took cover. Any other stray shards were parried by his sword.
As soon as the rain of jagged bullets passed, all of them took defensive positions. Their weapons at the ready. Sights set on the new entryway into the office.
…
"Where are they?" Jaune asked, after a moment.
Their team's sensors scouted the area and found nothing. They scanned the airship above, but found nothing again.
It was Ren, who noticed an oddity.
He caught sight of an eye reflected in one of the glass fragments on the floor.
"They're watching us from the floor belo—!"
Before Ren could finish his warning, the stone beneath his feet erupted. Two jungle-green chains wrapped his body and dragged him under, like a kraken from the sea.
"REN!"
Nora was the first one to dive after him, unwilling to wait for the dust to settle. Jaune went shortly after. Ruby paused, thinking the enemy's goal was to separate them from Qrow, who couldn't leave the room. Instead, she stayed where she was, fighting every urge she had to join them.
In the floor down, Jaune and Nora found Ren dripped in crimson. A familiar-looking cane sword and paired sickles wrenched his ribcage open. The sight made the two teammates' blood run cold.
"No…No no no NO!" Nora repeated, running closer.
"Nora…?" Ren groaned feebly. "Why can't I feel anything?"
"NO! YOU CAN'T DIE! REN!"
Jaune kneeled by the two and activated his Semblance. Specks of white levitated the area around. He didn't question if it would work. He just wanted to do everything to save his friend.
"Ren's fine!" Ruby's voice interrupted his concentration.
Jaune gazed up the hole, and saw the girl's glinting silver eyes on them.
"It's an illusion!" she shouted again.
The boy shook his head, like shaking off a daze. When he looked back at Ren's body, the injuries were no longer as severe as they once seemed. Any damages his teammate suffered was already healed, and although unconscious—his overall condition was stable.
"Nora!" Jaune tried to get her attention, but his teammate only continued to sob uncontrollably. "He's not dead! Nora!"
The illusion was too traumatizing for her and had taken a firm hold on her psyche.
"Jaune!" Ruby yelled. "We need—WAAH!"
"Ruby!"
The girl disappeared. Instead, only the sounds of blades clashing resounded from the floor above. Jaune did a double-take to Nora, before gritting his teeth, and climbed up again.
.
X
.
And then, there were two.
Emerald thought pleasantly to herself.
The fight had barely begun, and her team managed to reduce the enemy's numbers, lessening their side's disadvantage significantly.
Emerald knew out of all of them, Ren presented the most unique threat. An exceptional feel for identifying energy signatures, while being able to channel his Aura through handstrikes, without the delay of Dust or Bane. That said, he was also the weakest durability-wise, leading Emerald to classify him as a glass canon.
She wasn't sure how the hallucination would affect Ren's teammates, but it would at least paralyze Nora for a while, and slow down Jaune at the same time. A dirty blow to their morale so early into the battle would pay dividends.
As a result, she made taking Ren out their first priority. And she used her team's all important surprise attack accomplishing just that.
Now, onto the next phase…
"—Three of a Kind," Emerald called the play.
She, Neo, and Mercury, rushed Ruby simultaneously. Along the way, she hallucinated them to look like three identical copies of Neo. A tactic that put their target off-balance with their discording rhythm.
Qrow tried to intercept, but Team ENMY's emphasis on mobility made them tough to catch.
The trio eventually circumvented the Huntsman and came face-to-face with Ruby a second time. Though the girl was fast, she was not fast enough to defend three people cornering her.
As Emerald, Mercury, and Neo aimed for separate parts of her body, Jaune's shield appeared in time to block their way.
Damn it! Emerald cursed.
They backed off and reset their pursuit, like a pack of determined jackals. But again, they found Jaune intercepting them. Not only that, but the force of the shielder's deflections caught them off guard.
It was then, Ruby made the split decision to launch a counter move.
"—Birds of Prey!"
Qrow switched his sword into its scythe form and positioned himself next to Ruby.
In the next breath, Team ENMY faced a pair of great curved blades slashing at them from whirling angles. Like a hawk's talons, the claws stalked them, missing by mere inches. It was a turnaround.
But Neo didn't take kindly to the idea of running from Ruby.
She produced Torchwick's cane and found a narrow angle to plant its barrel against the girl's head. In the fraction of the time it took to pull the trigger, an ever-frustrating shield made its appearance once more. This time, accompanied by a slash from Jaune's sword.
*Ping!*
The cane flew from Neo's hands and she chased after it desperately.
As the girl broke formation, Qrow grinned. His eyes flashed briefly with bloodlust and he could see the fatal flaws tear through the opposition's would-be corpses.
Emerald and Mercury sensed something sinister on an intuitive level, and went full defense. Even while devoting their efforts to blocking, the Huntsmen's blows staggered them with brute force unparalleled.
Mercury pulled his legs to his chest just in time, before the heavy scythe almost cut his heart out. The impact limited only to his prosthetics, but he was knocked across the room and outside the Tower all the same.
Emerald managed to cast a last second illusion to displace her position. But she felt sharp steel skim the skin her belly. A superficial wound was drawn, as she barely escaped with her guts intact. Unwilling to risk certain death, she launched her chained sickles around Mercury, and grapple-hooked to him flying outside.
The moment Neo recovered her cane, Qrow carved the point of his scythe into her skull. And the body collapsed into countless pieces of broken mirror.
…
In the wind funnel circling the Tower, Team ENMY regrouped on the flat of what used to be the wall of a building.
"That went about as well as I hoped," Emerald assessed calmly.
"I thought the Jaune kid was supposed to be a pushover, but he's turned into a real pain in the ass. Didn't count on that," Mercury commented, partly annoyed, but also partly impressed.
"Now you know why I wanted to poke them first. 'Evaluate the threat, and then, eliminate.'"
"Cinder's gospel."
Neo gave a mute growl, inspecting the gash in Torchwick's cane.
"So, we done feeling this out?" Mercury rotated his shoulders and cracked his neck. "'Cause I think I'm good to go at this for real."
"You can hang with Qrow?" Emerald checked. "Not just the cockiness talking?"
"With all the demented training we had to do and my new badass upgrades? Yeah, I can lock him up. At least, enough for the plan to work."
"Neo?"
The petite girl gave Emerald a prideful puff. Glaring dead-eyed at the little red riding hood watching them from afar, she nodded her readiness.
"Alright, Merc." Emerald's lips broke into a devious smile. "Tilt 'em."
Mercury revealed a matching grin.
He pumped vast amounts of Aura through his new prosthetics. The Talarion Strider hissed with a temperate vigor. The newly installed Dust Reactors overclocked at the sheer amount of energy being channeled. His mechanical calves detached and folded behind his ankles.
It looked as if a pair of silver wings manifested at Mercury's heels, as he began hovering in the air.
Even at a distance, Team RNJR and Qrow could sense the threat coming their way.
Mercury drew back his left leg in a wide arc.
For one reason or another—maybe owing to the tornado swirling around them—the young man donned the appearance of a maddened wind god.
And with a kick that conjured a storm,
The whole Tower tipped…