It's that time again!
"It is evil things we shall be fighting against: brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution"
Neville Chamberlain
Chapter Twenty-Two—Scramble
Jaune waited until the dead of night before stirring from his bunk bed. He listened intently, noting the steady breathing of the rest of his section, along with Bounty's rumbling snores above him. They were all out. Good. Jaune swung his legs out of his bed and stealthily dressed, careful to not make a sound as he donned his metal armour. Considering what it'd been through, it was nothing short of a miracle that it was still in one piece, though as Jaune skirted his fingers across its surface he didn't fail to notice the way the metal was scorched and warped, especially on his back, where a number of shots had impacted over the past few days. He winced as his searching fingers brushed against a large bruise underneath a particularly dented section of his armour. Aura could stop a bullet from piercing the skin, and even absorb a good amount of its energy, but it couldn't completely negate the brute force of a speeding projectile crashing into flesh. Bullets still hurt. And he couldn't afford to waste any aura healing his minor injury. He'd need every scrap of it with what was to come.
Once Jaune was done dressing (his fingers once more feeling for the vacant rank slide at his chest) he padded over to where Phil was sleeping. He nudged him awake, quickly clamping a hand over his mouth when the dark-haired man jerked into consciousness. Phil's eyes widened for a moment, then relaxed when he realised who it was standing over him. He nodded, indicating to Jaune that he wouldn't make a noise, and Jaune removed his hand, allowing the older man to slide out of his bed and begin to get dressed. Once they were both ready Phil led the way out of the dorm room they were staying in. Jaune took one last look at the men and women of his section, at the team he'd unwittingly made and yet was no less thankful for having, then turned away and left them sleeping.
The two men snuck their way through the sleeping compound, careful to avoid the groups of guards patrolling the base and the stray soldiers stumbling out of their sleeping quarters to relieve themselves. Before long they'd made it to where they'd landed the stolen Atlesian airship. Jaune spotted a single guard smoking off to one side of the airship, likely too bored by the late-night shift to be paying much attention to intruders. Jaune and Phil dove to their bellies a little way out and waited for an opening.
"This is it, Jaune," whispered Phil next to him. "Last chance to call it all off and finish catching up on some Z's."
Jaune allowed himself a split-second to entertain the idea of calling it a night and returning to their quarters. Let someone else deal with the problem. Let some other poor sod risk their life to beat Salem. He'd be warm and safe in his glorious bed. Then the moment passed, and Jaune shook the illusion from his mind. They had a job to do.
"I guess we're doing this then," sighed Phil.
Jaune waited until the guard pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit a fresh cigarette, knowing the glow would ruin the guard's night-vision. Then, at his signal, the two of them leapt to their feet and bolted towards the airship. They made it to the opposite side of the ship and hugged the metal hull, listening. When several frantic heartbeats had passed and still no alarm had been raised, Jaune relaxed. They hadn't been spotted.
Jaune and Phil crept around the outside of the airship until they reached the closed rampway at the back of the ship. Then Jaune turned to Phil. "Think you can open the ramp for us?"
"Sure thing."
"Can you do it quietly?"
Phil paused and considered it. "Yes… but it's gonna be slow."
"Get started," ordered Jaune. While Phil worked on lowering the ramp silently, Jaune poked his head around the corner of the ship. The guard was still smoking, oblivious to the thieves just meters away from him. Jaune ducked back around and took several deep, calming breaths. He'd need his head as clear as possible if he wanted to stand even a chance of beating Salem. How exactly he planned to do that, Jaune didn't know. He just prayed something would come to him on the ship. Not a good plan by any means, but still the best one he had.
Jaune glanced back at Phil, who had the door about halfway down, using his semblance to manually open what should have been a locked door. It wouldn't be much longer now before they'd leave the base behind and fly to Sal—
"Freeze! Who's there?" a voice demanded. Jaune froze.
Slowly, he turned around and came face to face with a Valesian guard. The man had his rifle pointed directed at him. Phil whispered, "Ahh crud."
"Georgie, what're you talking abou—? Oh." The smoking guard rounded the corner and froze at the scene. "Bloody 'ell, you only went for a piss."
Jaune cursed his haste, realising the other guard must have been out of their view when they'd rushed for the airship, and had then snuck up and surprised them.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the second guard, Georgie. Jaune had no answer. His mind was blank.
"Um… maintenance?" tried Phil.
"At this time of night? As if. You're coming with us," declared Georgie.
Jaune gritted his teeth. They didn't have time for this. They needed to get out of here to stop Salem. These guards were slowing them down.
"Look," Jaune tried. "I know what this looks like, but I promise you we've got good reason for this."
"Yeah, like cowardliness," scoffed the smoker. "Save it for the colo—Hurgh!"
"What the—" Georgie was able to spin around and raise his weapon a full six inches before Bounty clobbered him over the head with the butt of his rifle.
"Guards; zero. Bounty; one!" cheered the bearded, older man as he beheld his unconscious opponent.
"Ewww, this one's a dribbler," complained Cat as she choked out the smoker who, true to her word, had a line of saliva trailing down his asphyxiating chin.
"Guys?" gasped Jaune, for there, emerging from various hiding spots amid the darkness, was every member of Beta section.
"You should see the expression on your face right now," smirked Naomi.
"What the—guys? How did you..."
"I was worried about the way you were acting at dinner," explained Aiden. "So I decided to follow you when you left with Phillip. I heard your entire conversation."
"And being the overprotective mother hen that Aiden is, he decided to enlighten all of us on your plans," finished Bounty. "Tut, tut, tut, Jaune, don't you know it's rude not to invite your friends to the party?"
"But how did you guys know when we'd be leaving?"
"Cat heard you go and woke us up," explained Terry. "The woman's nocturnal, I swear."
"What can I say? I'm just not much of a sleeper."
"Guys, look," Jaune began. "If you've come to stop me from leaving, don't bother. I have to do th—"
"Oh my god, shut up!" exclaimed Cat. "We're not here to stop you. If you want to throw your life away on some suicide mission, then I don't have a problem with that. You do you. But leaving us in the middle of the night without so much as a note? Not cool, Jaune. Not cool."
"So why are you here then?" asked Phil. "To say goodbye?"
"Not quite," said Aiden, stepping forward. "I for one, came to ask you one simple question. Why are you doing this?"
"Say again?"
"Why are you risking your lives to try to stop Salem? You must realise the military will brand you as traitors."
"I know," said Jaune.
"Then why are you doing this?"
Phil glanced between Jaune and Aiden. "I mean, it's sort of my job. I see a Grimm, I kill it. Or at least, it was. I suppose it's not really my job anymore. But still, it needs to be done, so I guess it might as well be me, y'know?"
"And what about you, Jaune?" asked Aiden, turning to Jaune. "If you do this, no one will know about it. At best it will remain a secret. At worst you may still be court marshalled for deserting your post. You will not be known as a hero."
"I know," whispered Jaune.
"Then why?"
Jaune closed his eyes and looked into himself, searching for the answer. Why did he do what he did? Why was he so willing to throw his own life away? And why was he happy to do it all for nothing?
The answer, Jaune realised, was surprisingly easy to find.
"It isn't about being known. It isn't about being sung about in songs or being praised by civilians. It isn't even about being a hero. It's about fighting to save the things I love. The people I love. And if that means giving my life for them… then I'll gladly give it."
The old Jaune wouldn't have said that. The Jaune who had arrived for his first day at Beacon academy had wanted nothing more than to be known. To be a someone, when his whole life he'd been a nobody.
Maybe that Jaune had disappeared the day he'd been kicked out of Beacon.
And in his place, created in a forge of crushing expectation, hammered into being by fear, tempered by pain, and finally quenched by loss, a new Jaune Arc had emerged. A Jaune Arc who didn't need to be loved by the masses, because he now knew he was loved by the people around him. A Jaune Arc who suddenly realised with startling clarity that his life would be meaningless without the friends he'd made along the way. A new Jaune Arc.
A better Jaune Arc.
Aiden nodded once, and Jaune got the sneaking suspicion that the question had been a test all along, and that something in what he'd said had proven sufficient for Aiden. "Very well then," he said. "In that case, I will go with you, Jaune."
"You… you will?"
"I will. This is the only family I have left. You are the people I love. I will fight to protect that."
Jaune immediately realised that this wasn't a goodbye, but a sign-up. His section had come here not to stop him, but to go with him. And as that thought flashed across his mind, another one clanged through him. They were going to die. Without aura or even an hour of Huntsman training, Salem would kill them. They didn't realise this; they couldn't, or else they wouldn't be so quick to sign away their own souls. Jaune had to make sure they knew exactly what hell they were walking head first into.
"Stop," he said. "You guys don't understand. This mission is like nothing you've ever done. Nothing we've ever done. It might not even be possible. You thought surviving in Grimm-infested woods was bad? We'll be willingly walking directly into the Grimm's domain, and none of you have aura. If they get even half a chance, they'll tear you apart. And Salem… she's the real deal. She will kill you in a heartbeat. No mercy, no quarter. You guys need to realise the hard truth: if we do this, most of us aren't coming back. This might be the last thing you ever do."
"Don't think we don't know the consequences," Bounty grunted. His voice was deadly serious, and his usual devil-may-care grin was nowhere to be seen. "But that still doesn't mean we don't want to help. I've wasted the better half of my life being selfish and look where that got me: a wife who hates me, a son who won't talk to me. If I can die doing the only meaningful thing in my life…if I can prove to my son at least once that his father is not a complete piece to trash… then that's worth it, I say."
"And I meant what I said," Aiden told Jaune. "This section has given me something the world has never even offered me: acceptance. I will not abandon you now that the road looks rocky."
"You guys still don't understand," pleaded Jaune. "The last thing Sergeant Cole said to me was to keep you safe. I can't do that if you come with me."
"No, you don't understand," corrected Naomi. "Sergeant Cole ordered you to protect us, not to control us. It is our choice to go with you Jaune, despite the dangers, and neither you nor Sergeant Cole can take that away. And I know for a fact that if Buzz were here now, he'd have gone in a heartbeat. Not because he'd have thought he'd be getting anything out of it, but because it's the right thing to do." Naomi smiled sadly. "I'll do this for him."
"But what about your parents?" asked Jaune gently. "They can't take losing both their children."
Naomi's brow furrowed, and she bit her lip, but nonetheless she said, "They… they'll understand. One day. They'll understand I died fighting with my other siblings."
"I… I want to come too," stuttered Terry. "You're still my sergeant, badge or not. But… but more than that you guys are my friends. And if I didn't go and one of you got hurt, I'd never be able to live with myself."
"What about you, Cat?" prompted Bounty. "You up for kicking some Grimm ass?"
Cat hesitated. She opened her mouth to answer, then shut it, then bit her lip, then stamped her foot in frustration. For the first time since meeting her, Cat looked torn by indecision. It wasn't hard to realise why. Jaune still hadn't forgotten the way Cat had acted when they'd been attacked by the Grimm in the forest. Now she was being asked to willingly travel straight into the lair of an intelligent Grimm and face whatever monsters she had in store for them.
Apparently, Naomi hadn't forgotten either. "It's alright if you don't want to come," she soothed. "There's no shame in deciding this is too big a task."
"Like hell there isn't," growled Cat. Her fists clenched, then her jaw tightened. She seemed to be mentally wrestling with herself, but finally she forced a watery grin to her face and tried to joke, "Well I did already choke out a guard. I guess that makes me already complicit in the crime." Jaune nodded, choosing not to notice the way her hands trembled slightly by her sides.
"Guys, I—" began Jaune.
"Don't try it," growled Bounty. "We're coming with you, and that's final. There's nothing you can say to change our minds."
Jaune opened his mouth, but then shut it again. These people, his friends, were really willing to risk their lives to help him. Not because they felt obliged to, or because he'd ordered them to, but because they wanted to. Of their own free violation, they'd chosen to help him. And whilst a part of him was filled with dread at the thought of them putting their lives on the line like this, a larger part was filled with something else. Some mix of pride and gratitude and awe. He knew he couldn't dissuade his team from following him, but more than that he didn't want to. It was only now that he realised the thought of going after Salem with just himself and Phil had been like a heavy weight on his thoughts, constantly dragging him down. But now, with his friends around him, that weight was replaced by something else.
Hope.
So when he opened his mouth next, it wasn't to dissuade his section, but to say simply, "Let's get onboard then. We've got a Grimm to kill."
"Oh, and one other thing," added Aiden. "After I informed the team of what you were planning, we took the liberty of visiting the stores."
"We figured you'd be hopelessly underprepared," Naomi informed him.
"What did you get?" inquired Phil.
Cat listed their items off. "Spare magazines for all of us, a belt of dust grenades, they wouldn't let us take a bazooka for Nuke unfortunately. Oh, and these." From underneath Cat's sleeve a shining blade shot out and glinted wickedly in the moonlight. The mini sword was shaped like a teardrop, with a wide, bulbous end over the back of Cat's hand which narrowed into a point. The whole thing was about the length of Cat's forearm. But small though it might have been, Jaune could tell it was a very formidable weapon.
"Where did you get those?" asked Phil, eyes wide and somewhat dreamy.
"It would appear that Vale has upgraded its stock since the war commenced," answered Naomi. "I hypothesise it's a replacement for bayonets, which would still allow soldiers to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but without the drawback of greatly reducing the range on their rifles. We all decided to take one. I imagine we'll need it if the Grimm get too close."
"That's good thinking," complimented Jaune. "But now we really need to go. I don't want to be around when those guards wake up."
Apparently, neither did anyone else. One by one, the members of Beta section piled onboard the airship, until only Jaune and Bounty were left standing outside. That was when Jaune realised who he'd missed. "Wait, where's Finn?"
Bounty's grin soured on his face as he mumbled, "He's not coming."
"He didn't want to come?"
"No. He doesn't know. He wasn't there when Aiden told us."
"Didn't someone tell him about it?" enquired Jaune.
"I went to. Except when I found him, I heard him talking to someone on a phone. He's not coming." Bounty made to step into the airship, but Jaune held him back.
"What do you mean he's not coming? Who was he talking to?"
"His wife. She's pregnant. He's not coming."
After their meeting with Ozpin, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren met up with team RWBY at the Beacon launch pad. Having explained their failed attempt to gain the Headmaster's help, the two teams decided there was little to be done except to take a bullhead into Vale and do whatever they could to prevent, or at least reduce the impacts of, the Breach. The sun had set by then, but the city was still ablaze with enough lights to easily navigate by. Pyrrha's stomach flipped as she realised these same lights would act as homing beacons if Atlas attacked at night. She wondered if the city would be ablaze with a different sort of light if that happened.
"So what's the plan?" asked Ruby, sitting with her team opposite team NPR.
"I… I'm not entirely sure," admitted Pyrrha.
"Jauney told us to stop the Breach, so that's what we'll do," insisted Nora.
"But we don't even know where the Breach will occur," pointed out Blake.
"It is possible the Breach refers to a breach in the walls protecting Vale," offered Ren. "A large enough hole would allow plenty of Grimm to enter the city. Perhaps that is the intention of Cinder."
"The walls surrounding Vale are hundreds of miles long. I sincerely hope you are not suggesting we attempt to cover every square foot of them." scoffed Weiss.
"So we need to find out where the Breach will happen," decided Ruby. "So, um, how do we do that?"
"Guys," Yang cut in. "I might have an idea. I have a friend who supposedly knows everything in this city. If anyone knows where this Cinder person plans to attack, he will."
"I suppose it's the best plan we've got," sighed Pyrrha.
The pilot soon set them down in Vale, and Yang led the way to her informant. The streets around them became steadily darker and darker, the street lamps slowly winking out of existence as they trekked onwards, leaving the darkness to watch their every step. Heaps of trash began to pile up on either side of them, and more than once Pyrrha spotted the rubbish piles shuddering as some unidentified creature scurried around inside.
This was the poorest and most rundown part of Vale; a derelict neighbourhood abandoned by the Council and left to be run by the inhabitants as they saw fit. The place was infamous for possessing some of the highest murder rates in the city and the least reputable people. And even though the inhabitants were almost undoubtedly all sleeping, the air was still tense with a certain watchfulness as the intruders passed through the hostile territory.
Though Pyrrha told herself she was being silly and paranoid, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder every couple of steps, as if hoping to catch the malicious darkness creeping up on them. Unsurprisingly, her companions were all doing the same. All of them except Yang, that was, who strutted down the menacing street as if she owned the place, merrily whistling an upbeat tune. Pyrrha supposed that when the girl could likely beat up the entire neighbourhood with barely breaking a sweat, she was entitled to a little cockiness, but nonetheless Pyrrha keep her hand close to her weapon. Huntress or not, arrogance was an emotion she couldn't afford to feel right now.
At long last they came upon a nightclub. In stark contrast to the oppressiveness of the street it sat on, the club had a bright, neon-lit exterior that proudly announced the place as 'Junior's bar and nightclub'. Loud music blared through the closed double entrance doors at such a volume that Pyrrha felt the vibrations of it in her teeth. The place was, if not welcoming, then at least bold and attractive, a glowing pearl hidden within the muck of the sea floor.
Besides Pyrrha, Ruby groaned. "Not this place again."
"Come on Rubes," laughed Yang. "This place loves me."
"After what you did last time I doubt they'll be very pleased to see you."
"What did you do last time?" inquired Pyrrha.
"More importantly just how many times have you been clubbing here exactly?" demanded Weiss.
"Relax guys," said Yang. "I'll just go in there and get the information I need. Nothing else, I promise. Wait for me out here, yeah?" And with that Yang spun on her heel and sashayed into the club, letting the doors swing shut behind her.
"What did she do last time?" asked Pyrrha again, slightly more worried than before.
"Don't ask," said Ruby. The answer wasn't comforting.
A second later the music screeched to a halt. Pyrrha tensed, fearing Yang was in trouble, but Ruby simply sighed. "It's happening again," she groaned.
"No seriously, someone please tell me what happened last time."
The group waited a couple of minutes, before Yang finally strolled out of the club with a colourful cocktail perched in one hand. "See, no problem guys."
"Well?" asked Weiss.
Yang took a long sip before answering. "Junior said he doesn't know anything about a Breach."
Pyrrha sighed. "Back to square one."
"But," Yang continued, "he said that there is someone who might know."
"Who?" demanded Ruby. "And where can we find him?"
"You'll never guess who," grinned Yang. And then, just to drag out the tension, Yang downed her drink before answering. "It's none other than your old buddy, Roman Torchwick." Ruby gasped. Pyrrha started. Roman Torchwick was notorious as one of, if not the, most successful criminals in Vale. Almost everyone in the city knew about the self-acclaimed king of the underworld, and they all knew equally well to avoid him. Sound advice for anyone who wasn't facing mass genocide and was utterly out of options.
"But… but Torchwick's a bad guy," protested Ruby.
"And also the only person who might be able to give us a fighting chance of stopping the Breach," pointed out Yang.
"Two bad options," mused Ren. "It is up to us to find the lesser of the two evils."
Pyrrha tried to think it through, but deep down she knew her choice was made. "We have to find him," she declared, though she felt dirty for even suggesting it. It felt like she was selling out some moral part of her that knew this was wrong, but what other choice did they have? This was bigger than some petty thief, however wanted he was. This was about the fate of Vale, and she refused to let thousands of people die whilst she still had a chance of preventing it.
"As much as I hate to admit this, Pyrrha's right," agreed Weiss. "If Torchwick knows anything about the Breach that could help us prevent it, we need to convince him to share it. That means, despite my aversion to this course of action, we can't arrest him."
"So the scum of the city gets to crawl back to its hiding spot and live to terrorise Vale another day," muttered Blake bitterly.
"At least there will still be a city for him to terrorise," argued Ren.
"Urgh, you're right," groaned Ruby. "If Torchwick knows how to save Vale, then… then I guess I won't try to arrest him."
"A group of Huntsmen-in-training meeting with criminals in the dead of night," sniffed Weiss. "Oh how the mighty have fallen."
"Just think of how cool it'll be though!" enthused Nora. "It'll be like all those spy movies; a shady deal in the dead of night. The heroes, out of their depths and surrounded by enemies. But somehow, despite all that, they manage to turn the tables and kick the butts of all the villains there!"
"Minus the butt-kicking," Ren reminded her. "We need to make it clear we mean no harm to Torchwich, or else he might flee before the meeting even begins."
"How do we even find him?" asked Blake.
"Junior said he'd get in touch with him. If Torchwick agrees, he'll set up a meeting in an hour. He's given me a location to go to where Torchwick is supposed to meet us."
"And if he doesn't agree?"
"Then I've promised Junior I'll come back here and kick his ass until he convinces Torchwick to do so."
"I should have guessed," said Blake, rolling her eyes.
"Well then, we better not keep Torchwick waiting," said Pyrrha. "Let's go."
The warehouse was dark. Pyrrha should have known a renown criminal mastermind would have set up their meeting place to be dark. Pyrrha knew it shouldn't matter so much; after all, they had Blake, whose Faunus eyes could see in the dark probably better than Torchwick himself. But nonetheless Pyrrha didn't like not being able to see her enemy.
The group edged into the abandoned warehouse, gingerly stepping around house-sized stacks of containers in the near pitch-black. Only narrow slivers of moonlight sliced the darkness to prevent them from bumbling into each other. Pyrrha would have pulled out a scroll and used it as a light source, except for the fact that as much as she hated not being able to see enemies, she hated being seen by her enemies even more. Currently, the darkness helped to hide them. A light source would not only ruin their night vision, but also act as a beacon, revealing their location to anyone else who might be present in the warehouse.
Eventually the group rounded a corner and came to a halt. In front of them a single orange glow flared briefly, before dimming again. A cigarette. Or perhaps a cigar. Behind the glow Pyrrha could just make out the outline of a tall man in a trench coat, a bowler hat on his head and a cane in his hand, which he appeared to be leaning on.
"Torchwick," growled Ruby.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Red," drawled Roman Torchwick. "And look, you've brought your friends along this time. How sweet. I suppose I should feel flattered if you think you need seven Huntsmen to take me in."
"We're not here to arrest you," stated Pyrrha evenly.
"Good, because I very much doubt you'd be able to."
Pyrrha could practically hear Ruby's teeth grinding together. "What if we were," she gritted out. "It's seven against one. What's to stop us from taking you down?"
"Ruby," warned Weiss.
"After everything you've done, it would be our duty to bring you in," spat Blake.
"Blake!" berated Weiss.
"Oh yes, that's right little kitty-cat. There's no way I can beat you all on my own. Why didn't I think of that? I suppose that means I should just hand myself over to you." Pyrrha heard rather than saw the smirk on Torchwick's face. "Except, of course, for one teeny-tiny problem."
"What's that?" Ruby demanded.
"I'm not on my own."
Something small rocketed through the air.
Years of training had Pyrrha acting in an instant. She read the rush of air not as a breeze but as an attack. Leaping forward to meet it on pure instinct alone, Pyrrha's shield slammed against two heeled feet. Lifting her eyes up the length of the shadowy legs, Pyrrha found a diminutive girl staring back. And although Pyrrha couldn't be sure in the dark, the girl seemed to wink at her.
Behind Pyrrha and directly in the path of the girl's kick, Ruby gasped.
Pyrrha slashed upwards with her sword, but the girl backflipped away, using Pyrrha's own shield as a springboard. The girl performed one final cartwheel before turning back to them and bowing mockingly, now standing next to Torchwick.
"You bastard…" roared Yang, rushing forward.
"Stop!" commanded Pyrrha, throwing her shield arm in front of Yang and blocking her path to Torchwick and the girl. Pyrrha looked directly at Torchwick as she put her sword and shield away and said, "We're not here to arrest you. We're here to talk."
Roman didn't make a sound for a long moment. But then slowly, quietly, he began to chuckle. The chuckle grew and grew, until eventually the criminal was in stitches and bent double. "Oh boy, I think I like you, kid. Not many people can stand up to Neo like that and live to tell the tale." Pyrrha could have sworn the Neo girl actually pouted at that. "Say, your kitty-cat is trying to kill me."
Pyrrha turned to see Blake edging closer to Torchwick. "Oh for heaven's sake, Blake," cried Weiss, marching forward and dragging the Faunus back. "I expected this of Ruby, maybe, but you? Pull yourself together."
Grumbling back about something Pyrrha chose not to hear, Blake finally stood down.
"Well, if you're not here to bring me to justice and show me the error of my ways, I suppose we hardly need this cloak and dagger setup anymore." In an instant the room was flooded with harsh, white light. All seven of them were blinded, and Pyrrha could have sworn she heard Blake hiss as her extra sensitive eyes struggled to adjust to the suddenly brightly-lit room.
"Bastard," spat Blake, rubbing her watering eyes, even as Torchwick laughed his arse off yet again.
"Now that all the pleasantries are out the way," continued Roman once he'd regained his composure, "I suppose we'd better get this meeting underway. Let me tell you, kiddies, this is your lucky day, because ordinarily I wouldn't have even wasted my time showing up here, let alone talking to a bunch of wannabe heroes."
"Then why are you here?" demanded Weiss.
"Trust me ice queen, I almost didn't come. But this isn't an ordinary day, now is it? And when my old buddy Junior calls me up and tells me some brats are looking to get some information from me, that perks my curiosity. Still not enough to risk a meeting, mind you. But then he goes and mentions that you're looking for a certain Cinder, and doesn't that go and change everything."
"You know her?" demanded Blake.
"Cinder Fall: human, black hair, orange eyes, big temper and a bigger ego. Hails from Mistral, or so she claims. Oh I know her alright. I used to work for her."
"You did what?!" gasped Ruby.
"A couple of months ago, Cinder and her societal rejects come strolling into Vale looking for me. Isn't long before she tracks me down and makes me an offer to either work for her stealing dust or face the consequences."
"And you accepted?" demanded Nora.
"I'd have been an idiot not to, Carrot-top. That woman was dangerous, and I knew it. I figured it'd be better to work for her and be unhappy than to work against her and be dead."
"The great Roman Torchwick working as a henchman," sneered Blake. "Must have hurt your ego to be someone else's lapdog."
"At least I was alive," growled Torchwick. "Especially seeing as every Huntsman who's ever crossed her has ended up six feet under. Besides, I consoled myself in the fact that despite how much Cinder tried to pretend she was top dog, I always got the sense that she was working for someone else. That someone else was calling the shots."
"Salem," breathed Pyrrha.
"Ah, so that's Cinder's boss. Don't recognise the name, though maybe that's because Salem's from Mistral…"
"She's not from Mistral," corrected Pyrrha. She looked around at the others for confirmation to go on, then said, "She's a Grimm."
Roman stared at Pyrrha for a long moment, then burst out laughing. "Yeah, sure she is. And I'm the king of Vacuo."
"No, she really—" began Pyrrha, but then she stopped herself. Roman wouldn't believe her, and it wasn't important anyway. Right now, they needed to worry more about Cinder than Salem.
"You said you used to work for Cinder," said Ren. "What happened?"
"Well, see, we're a couple of months into our little arrangement, and things are going smoothly. I'm robbing dust stores left, right and centre, leaving the police stumped, that sort of thing. You know how it goes. Then, out of the blue, she goes silent. And I mean dead silent. I don't even get so much as a text from her bossing me around. It's like she no longer needs me."
"Sounds like you were made redundant," smirked Weiss.
"Not likely," scoffed Torchwick. "I robbed just about every dust store in Vale under her orders, but before she even takes the dust off my hands any contact I had with her disappears. I'll tell you what happened: the plan changed."
"Plan?" asked Pyrrha.
"Seems to me, Cinder was collecting enough dust to fuel an army. I'd assumed the original plan had been to give it all to the White Fang and unleash them on Vale." At this, a small gasp of breath escaped Blake. "But clearly, that changed. I've sent some feelers out, and it seems she's even cut off her ties with those nut-job Faunuses."
"They're not nut-jobs," insisted Blake. "They're just misguided individuals."
"Oh sure, kitty-cat. Whatever makes it easier to sleep at night, right? Point is, the White Fang were ready to attack Vale when Cinder suddenly disappeared. She could have used them for whatever her master plan was, but she didn't. That could only mean she, or Salem, or whoever no longer needed their own army to do whatever they wanted to do."
"Because they had Atlas's," Weiss realised.
"Bingo, ice queen."
"Hate to interrupt," cut in Yang. "But don't forget why we actually came here, gang. We need to know where the Breach will happen."
"Is that what they called it? The Breach? I suppose it does sound pretty catchy, don't ya think, Neo?" The smaller girl bobbed her head enthusiastically. Pyrrha was beginning to notice she didn't speak much.
"So you know where it is then?" asked Yang.
"That part of the plan at least, doesn't seem to have changed," said Torchwick. The ginger thief pulled out a fresh cigar, lit it, then inhaled deeply and blew a haze of smoke their way that had Pyrrha's eyes watering. Then he continued. "Back when I was robbing dust stores, Cinder had me storing a fair amount of the stolen goods at Mountain Glenn."
"Mountain Glenn?" asked Yang. "What's that?"
"I have heard of it," answered Ren. "It's the failed expansion effort of Vale."
"A-plus for you, bucko. Mountain Glenn is completely abandoned by the authorities, making it a lovely little place to set up your criminal hideout. Except Cinder wasn't hiding the dust in the ruins, oh no. She was hiding it underground."
"Urgh, why does everything have to be so convoluted," complained Nora. "Can't evil plans just make sense for once!"
"In the underground tunnels of the city," realised Ren. "In the subway system," he clarified when the others sent him questioning glances. "Mountain Glenn had an elaborate underground metro system when it was still a thriving colony."
"You really have done your homework, huh kid? Well either way he's right. And take a wild guess where those old subway systems lead."
"Into Vale," breathed Ruby.
"And all the dust already there would be enough to cause an explosion powerful enough to break into Vale," gasped Weiss.
"Not just one explosion," corrected Torchwick. "But dozens. Each one calculated to blow holes into the roof of the tunnels and let the Grimm come swarming in. Course, old pyromaniac Cindy never saw fit to inform me on any of this, but it wasn't hard to put two and two together, especially after I did some digging on my own. And wouldn't you know it, the psychopath wants to destroy Vale. How very original."
The last piece of the puzzle finally slid into place for Pyrrha. Cinder would blow an opening for the Grimm directly into the city, not through the outer walls, but through the very ground itself. The Grimm would immediately start a panic, drawing even more in, and just like that the killing would begin. It would be a massacre. A city-wide massacre. The initial few minutes would be the worst, as defenceless civilians were cut down in their hundreds. Then, just as the authorities devoted every resource to containing and repelling the Breach, the second phase of the plan would occur. Atlas' attack. Pyrrha knew instinctively that Salem would wait until Vale had abandoned their outer defences to stop the Breach before invading, leaving nothing to stop the Atlesian fleet from levelling the city and everyone in it.
Then the real genocide would begin.
Pyrrha felt the world tilting perilously around her, then the next second she was on her knees, panting hard. Ren and Nora's worried faces swam into view, but Pyrrha barely recognised them. Couldn't even hear what they said.
That someone would be willing to do this, to murder an entire city, made her sick to her core. No, worse. It made every cell of her body heave and gag, made her very soul shudder and shake.
She'd thought humanity was good. That they were the light to fight the darkness of the Grimm. She'd trusted that. She'd trusted wrong. Cinder was human. Was human, and yet acted worse than any Grimm could ever do. At least they were mindless. At least they were evil by nature. Cinder had chosen to kill thousands. And for what? Some precious item? The right to rule a pit of rubble?
But even as the question passed her mind, she knew the answer. To end humanity. To kill every man, woman and child in Vale and leave the survivors to be torn apart by the Grimm. That was Salem's master plan, she knew. That was the end goal. The death of Man. And if her Breach succeeded, she'd be one quarter of the way there already.
The extinction of mankind and everything they'd created. That was what faced them now. All the good humans had created, all their dreams and goals and achievements would be ground into nothing more than dust. The thought was horrifying. The thought was unfair. The thought was…
Enraging.
Man, who had survived so much, who had accomplished so much, was about to disappear because of the desires of a Grimm monster and the actions of a human one. Unacceptable. It couldn't end like this, not after so long. It wouldn't. Pyrrha wouldn't let it. They wouldn't let it.
Pyrrha glanced up at the scared faces of her companions, and her head was finally clear as she stated, "We're going there. We're going to stop this. Right now."
"I'm sure we can find an old schematic of the city showing where the old subway tunnels are," offered Weiss.
"Can we stop the Breach from happening?" demanded Pyrrha.
Weiss hesitated. It was Ren who answered. "With all the dust they have, we wouldn't be able to prevent them from blowing a hole into Vale, and Mountain Glenn is too far away to get them from behind before the attack."
"Then we get there before them and hold them off for as long as we can," decided Pyrrha.
"Ease up on the gas there, kiddies," interjected Roman. "Cinder won't attack yet."
"How can you be sure?" demanded Blake.
"Because I know that sick psychopath, at least better than most people. She'll want the attack to kill as many civilians as possible. That means she'll wait until the streets are busy with commuters before starting. I don't know about you, but the dead of night really doesn't seem like the busiest of times to me."
"She must be planning to attack in the morning," declared Weiss. "When all the commuters begin heading to work."
"That gives us enough time to begin evacuating civilians from the vicinity," said Ren.
"To where?" asked Yang. "The rest of the city's not going to be much safer when Atlas attacks. And how will we even get people out without causing a panic and bringing more Grimm?"
"One problem at a time, people," Weiss reminded them. "We need to deal with the Breach first, then worry about Atlas."
"We could say there's a gas leak," suggested Nora. "That'll at least stop them panicking."
"Well, sounds to me like you kiddies have it all figured out," announced Torchwick, spinning on his heel. "I'll leave you to it then."
"Wait," called Ruby. "Aren't you going to help?"
"Fight against Cinder? Ha, as if. You can go ahead with all that heroism BS and get yourselves turned into shish kebabs; Neo and I are getting somewhere safe."
"You could at least help use evacuate defenceless civilians," snapped Weiss.
"And risk getting recognised and thrown into jail? I don't think so, ice queen. If there's one thing I've learnt in this life, it's that you have to look after number one. Worrying about anything else will just get you killed."
A thought suddenly struck Pyrrha. "If that's the case, then why tell us any of this? Why help us protect Vale at all?"
"Don't get too excited, champ. Cinder wants to destroy Vale and everyone in it. The only reason I've told you anything is because it's in my best interest to put you in between me and her. Besides, it's bad for business if there's no one left alive to steal from."
"If you intended to tell us what you know all along, then why did Neo try to attack me?" demanded Ruby.
"First, as a warning not to try anything on me," grinned Torchwick. "And second, I didn't want to waste my time explaining this all to you if you were only going to get killed the moment Cinder decided to swat you away."
"You… you were testing me," realised Pyrrha.
"Well don't we just have a class of academics here," smirked Torchwick. "Of course I'd heard about the invincible girl. Even I've picked up a box of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes before. I just wanted to make sure your reputation was well earnt. Judging by the way you reacted to Neo, I'd say you might even last a few minutes against Cinder. Best of luck with that by the way." And with that he marched out of the warehouse. Neo did one final mock curtsy their way, then spun elegantly around and skipped after Roman.
"When this is over," growled Ruby, "I'll bring you down."
"Uh-huh, sure thing little Red," dismissed Torchwick from the doorway. "Now run along and go play Huntress with your friends. If you survive this, I might even consider you a potential threat. Until then." And with that, Torchwick strolled out into the night and disappeared.
"Forget them," advised Weiss, drawing Pyrrha's attention away from the vanishing thief. "We need to focus on stopping Cinder."
"You're right," accepted Ruby with a sigh, though she still threw one last glance at where Torchwick had walked out. "We'll split into pairs and go around evacuating nearby buildings to the old subway entrance. Me and Weiss, Blake and Yang, Nora and Ren, and Pyrrha an—oh…"
"I will be fine on my own," Pyrrha quickly stepped in, trying to cover for Ruby's mistake. "We must work quickly if we are to save as many people as possible. We only have a few hours until dawn."
"Let's get to work then," nodded Ruby.
The group ran as quickly as they could to the old subway entrance, using the maps Weiss dug up on her scroll to navigate. They soon found themselves standing on a raised square, in front of which Weiss assured them was the plugged entrance. Except it wouldn't be plugged for much longer.
Pyrrha stared around her in disbelief. The entire neighbourhood was residential. All around them were blocks of flats as far as the eye could see. How could they possibly get everyone out in time?
The group quickly split up, rushing to evacuate as many people as possible. Pyrrha immediately ran for the nearest building and began hammering on doors, shouting at their inhabitants to get out. Then, when that took too long, she simply smashed the fire alarm and began ordering people to get away from the area.
Pyrrha worked like this on into the night, never stopping for even a moment to catch her breath or have a drink. There was simply too little time. She ran from building to building, door to door, banging on wood until her fists ached and screaming to evacuate until her voice went hoarse. Then she worked some more. Even as the sky slowly morphed from black to navy blue to azure and the stars slowly winked out of existence like the extinguishing of hope, still Pyrrha refused to stop.
But as Pyrrha finally glanced out a window and spotted the horizon stained with yellow light, she finally stumbled to a halt.
What was the point? Even if she got everyone in the area to leave their homes, that would still leave just seven students to defend against a Grimm onslaught of goodness knew what size for goodness knew how long. They were just children for heaven's sake. And she may have been called the invincible girl, but Pyrrha knew better than anyone that she had limits. And she was close to reaching them. Not just physically, but mentally as well. The desperation and the hopelessness were unbeatable weights dragging her to the ground, slowly crushing her spirit. She'd never felt so helpless in all her life.
Even if, through some twist of fate, they were able to hold off the Grimm, what good would that do when Atlas was about to attack and destroy everything? How could they fight against such a force of nature as that?
It just wasn't possible.
But even as Pyrrha felt her strength flag, something kept her from keeling over from exhaustion right there and then. People needed her. Even if it was ultimately hopeless, even if she knew the evacuation might be all for nought, Pyrrha had to try. These civilians, whether they knew it or not, were relying on her to save them. And whether she could save all of them or none of them, she couldn't give up.
She could accept failure. But she could never accept not trying. Even if it was her destiny to die today, then at least she'd die trying to save other people.
So Pyrrha worked on. Even as hope slowly sputtered out inside of her and despair became her only companion, still she worked to save lives. And as the sun slowly peeked its first searing rays over the horizon, Pyrrha knew her time was up. There was nothing left for her to do but pray. Pray that she'd done enough. Pray that those people would be safe.
Pray for a miracle.
And pray she did.
You know, you only realise just how many characters RWBY has when you have to try to write about them all in a story. You don't want to ignore too many, or else readers wonder what happened to certain characters, but you also don't want to just shove them in unnecessarily. Roman and Neo have made a short appearance here due to their connections with Cinder, but unlike in the original show they aren't a part of her plans. Also teams NPR and RWBY are getting ready for the Breach, an event which everyone who's seen the show should have seen coming, but nonetheless I still had to write the characters finding out what it is for themselves, otherwise it's too unbelievable to assume they just show up at the right place at the right time to stop it.
Finn's also been left behind, and it was Bounty of all people who insisted on this. I wonder how many people actually figured out that Jasmine (Finn's wife) was pregnant. I did leave a few clues throughout the story, and some people might have just guessed it anyway. Please tell me in a review whether you saw this coming a mile off or if it was a surprise for you; I'd be interested to see if I should be making reveals more or less obvious.
The battle of Vale is looming. Our heroes are split up to face the multi-pronged attack from Salem, Cinder and Watts. Can they succeed, or is Vale doomed? Find out in the next chapter of Sergeant Arc.