A/N: Wearing new glasses always seems to disorient me for the first few days. Hopefully I don't decide to crash into anything while I'm driving XD
Hope y'all enjoy!
Beta: Prince of Austria
The descent to the bottom of Beacon was a lot faster than Jaune would have expected, although he wasn't really keeping count, a little too busy screaming his lungs out as he fell. The ground seemed to rush up to meet him, ready to smack him across the face and splatter him all across the floor.
At what seemed like the last moment, a rush of blonde hair entered his field of view, and there was a tug in his stomach, Jaune feeling himself slowly down quickly before being placed gently on the ground, his face kissing the pavement.
With shaky arms Jaune propped himself up, heaving breaths as he tried to calm his heart down, still a little terrified and actually really annoyed that Ozpin had decided to do something like that.
"What happened up there, Mr. Arc?" Professor Goodwitch asked urgently, lifting the boy up to his feet. "Mr. Arc, we don't have much time, tell me—"
"Someone walked into the room," Jaune cut the professor off, telling her quickly. "Ozpin threw me down."
"Can you describe them?"
"It was a woman," Jaune answered back, "dark hair, gold-yellow eyes, wearing a red dress." The blonde woman cursed, her expression betraying the fact that she knew who Jaune was talking about, looking up towards the top floor of the tower and biting her lip, hand tightening on her riding crop.
"The Headmaster should be able to handle her." Professor Goodwitch muttered, before continuing in a louder voice. "Was there anyone else in the room with you, besides the Professor and the assailant?"
Jaune shook his head, frowning. "No. Well, Blake and Emerald were with me, but I—" Jaune's eyes widened as he realized that Cinder would've had to go through the two of them to get up the ladder. Without saying another word, Jaune took off back into the building, the professor crying out in alarm.
"Mr. Arc, have you lost your mind?!" The alchemist didn't answer, practically ramming his shoulder into the door and forcing himself back into the building, finding Emerald and Blake in a situation.
"Stand… still, would you?" Emerald growled, dodging another barrage of bullets from Gambol Shroud. The girl shot her revolvers at Blake, who dived to the left, landing on her face. Jaune made a split second decision, stepping in front of Blake and expanding his shield, blocking another barrage of shots from the red-eyed girl.
"What is going on here?!"
Emerald turned to find the Beacon professor walking through, anger flashing in her eyes as she surveyed the scene. The girl made a quick gesture, the Professor waving her crop and smashing debris against a wall, Emerald taking advantage of that time to escape. The blonde woman blinked rapidly, looking left and right before muttering something about audio-visual semblances.
A hand touched Jaune's back, making him jump up in surprise, turning around to see a squinting Blake, her eyes looking around the room.
"Where is she?"
"She?" Jaune asked, confused about what Blake was asking for. The faunus growled, shaking Jaune suddenly.
"Emerald!"
"Wh- She left. Didn't you- didn't you see her?" Blake took a step back, the ears under her bow flicking angrily.
"Damn it."
"Are you alright, Miss Belladonna?" The professor asked, folding her arms. "Hallucinogenic semblances can tend to disorient the person on the receiving end." Blake blinked at the professor, mouth opening a little at the word.
"Hallucinogenic…?"
"The green-haired girl. She has a semblance that messes with our sight and hearing," The witch explained calmly. "She makes us hallucinate, that is."
"So that's why I couldn't see anything…" Blake murmured, before shaking her head. "Never mind that. A woman—Emerald called her Cinder—she got on the elevator, but—" Again Blake cut herself off, looking at Jaune, probably wondering how he got back down on this level without meeting the woman.
"I saw her." Jaune said, shrugging. "But Ozpin threw me out the window."
"He what?"
"This isn't the time." Professor Goodwitch interrupted, stepping closer to the two, looking at Jaune. "We need to get to Headmaster Ironwood before it's too late. I have a feeling whoever planned this out knows that their schedule has been upped, and we need to figure out how to stop them."
The boy nodded, agreeing. "Let's go then. Lead the way."
Professor Goodwitch nodded, taking off quickly. The other two followed, struggling to keep up with the pace that the professor was setting, even when she noticed and visibly decreased in speed, the pair still having trouble keeping close to her.
They kept running until they heard the roar of a Bullhead nearby, lowering itself onto the ground next to them, opening up the hatches to reveal the pilot.
"General Ironwood says that you guys might need a lift!" The man shouted, gesturing for them to get into the aircraft.
"We do." The blonde professor replied back, stepping into the Bullhead. Jaune and Blake followed, the blond paling visibly, but pushing the feeling of impending motion sickness behind him as he stepped on.
With speed as the topmost priority, liftoff was much jerkier, and the speed that the Bullhead took off faster than usually allowed in a commercial vehicle.
The three of them were already halfway to the Atlesian airship when they heard an explosion behind them, turning to find the Beacon tower flaming like a candle, debris and shattered glass plummeting towards the ground.
"Ozpin…" The Beacon professor balled her hands into fists, trembling a little.
"That's her!" Blake pointed, Jaune peering past her to see what the faunus was talking about.
Cinder stepped through the debris, looking at the Bullhead. Lifting a hand, she revealed a small stone, the object shining briefly before matter around her rippled, pulling together and creating a dull green metal tube, the woman hefting it onto her shoulder.
"That doesn't look good.." The pilot said, having watched the whole thing through the rearview mirror, recognizing what the woman had in her hands. He gripped harder onto the side-stick. "Everyone get ready for a, well, bumpy-er ride."
At the distance they were at, none of them heard the rocket launcher fire, but all of them could see the trailing missile, if only for a brief second before the aircraft lurched sideways, making everyone who wasn't holding onto something tumble to the left. Before they could reorient themselves, the Bullhead swung in the opposite direction, flinging everyone to the other side.
"Pilot, control yourself!" Professor Goodwitch screamed, straightening her glasses.
"No can do Miss. The moment I stop swerving-" The man tugged the joystick hard again, the feeling of airlessness filling everyone as the floor of the Bullhead disappeared from their feet for a brief second as the aircraft nosedived, narrowly avoiding another missile.
"Pilot!" The woman screamed, bringing his attention towards her. "Open the hatch, and fly straight!" Professor Goodwitch slammed her riding crop onto wall. "I will handle the missiles."
The man wordlessly flipped a switch, the doors of the Bullhead flinging open for Professor Goodwitch, who roared as she swiped her crop to the side, deflecting the missiles away with her semblance. There wasn't a moment of rest as Cinder sent another volley, to which Professor Goodwitch stood her ground and lifted both of her hands, eyes glinting with fury.
"I don't think so." The blonde woman whispered, catching every single projectile, before waving her hand and making them all turn around again. "Let's see how you like it." She said, before releasing her hold on the rockets, sending them flying back at Cinder. The golden-eyed woman stepped back in surprise, before the stone in her hand glowed again, a wall of rock rising up to protect her. The explosions rocked the already unstable foundations though, and the floor beneath her crumbled, sending Cinder falling.
Jaune couldn't hear the scream, but he smirked a little nevertheless.
"Alright. Now that the crazy missile fight's over," The pilot leaned over and flipped the hatch doors closed again, pulling the joystick upwards. "Let's get you to the airship."
The rest of the flight was uninterrupted the rest of the way by any psychotic rocket-launcher toting women, and they arrived at the dock of the airship with the tall general waiting for them, hands clasped behind his back.
"Glynda." He said, nodding at her. She nodded back, wasting no time as she started to explain the situation.
"There's no need," General Ironwood said, holding up a hand. "I heard that we didn't have any time for explanations. You," He looked at Jaune. "Ozpin said that you needed access to the cameras?"
Jaune nodded, not trusting himself to speak due to the insane flight that they just had. He didn't need to though, Ironwood nodding and tilting his head, silently asking them all to follow.
As they entered into the surveillance room, the soldiers manning the station all stood up, saluting the man, who pointed at the central monitor and barked out a few instructions, the men blurring into action.
"I hope this will help." James said, looking at Jaune, waiting for him to say anything.
It was hard to, with what the blond boy was looking at. The general had configured all the screens to project every part of the Colosseum that had any resemblance of being part of the transmutation circle, putting them together so that Jaune could see what it had formed.
Earlier, Jaune had mentioned that whoever was responsible for the circle would have probably added in things that wouldn't have changed the circle's purpose, in an attempt to obfuscate anyone trying to decipher it. And they did, Jaune seeing a lot of clever symbols and diagrams, all almost meaning something, but in the end doing nothing.
Whoever had done the circle tried their best to disguise the circle, but it was a circle that was burned into the back of Jaune's mind, the first time he had read it.
It was a circle to conjure up another philosopher's stone.
And this time, it was going to use every living soul that was sitting in the Amity Colosseum.
"Are you alright, ma'am?"
Emerald fidgeted slightly as she watched the woman brush off of dust and debris, before holding up the stone in her hand, the object glinting in the sunlight as she made sure there was no damage to it.
"Yes." Cinder said quietly, before lowering her stone, satisfied that it was whole. "It seems that our plans have been vastly accelerated. Emerald." The girl stood straight, almost quivering in attention. "Fetch our compatriots."
"We head to the Colosseum."