Chapter 18: Not Falling

Beacon hadn't been this busy in quite a while. Not since they first organized the watchers and built the wall to defend the school have the former students moved at such a productive pace. The comet was gone, and now was the time to prepare the long awaited counter attack.

Ruby stood atop her dorm, gazing at void in the sky where Harbinger had once been, a smile spread on her face. Most of us are supposed to be dead right now, she thought. We can beat it! Looking down from the roof, she saw the excited faces of her comrades. Among them was Weiss, who had tears of joy in her eyes. Ruby jumped off of the roof and landed gracefully in front of the building before running up to Weiss. The poor heiress barely had enough time to register what the speeding red blur was before Ruby swept her up in a tight embrace. Returning the hug, the friends spun around happily, celebrated their chance at survival.

Glynda stood in a nearby doorway, watching her young soldiers as they cheered and ran about, many of them sobering up from their initial excitement to begin planning their next moves. Oobleck appeared to her left, smiling pleasantly at the site as well. "I can't believe it, Bartholomew. We beat the comet. More have survived than in the original timeline," she stated tearfully.

The green haired instructor nodded. "If only Ozpin could have been counted among them."

Glynda smiled sadly. "He'd be happy, I think."

Oobleck produced a megaphone. "Here you go, headmistress. I ran and retrieved it for you; I figured you'd need something loud to get through to them in their excited stupor."

She turned and flashed him a gentle, caring smile. "You're both fast and you plan ahead. Thank you." Turning on the megaphone, she addressed the former students. Upon hearing her amplified voice, they all stopped what they were doing and listened intently. "Huntsmen and Huntresses; we've survived the time of the comet." They all cheered briefly. "The Grimm will grow weaker, and their reproduction rates will drop back to the normal levels. I believe it's time for an emergency meeting of team leaders. All team leaders, report to the war room in half an hour..." there was a brief pause in her statement. "It's time we take back Remnant."

The young warriors all cheered once more, seemingly erupting in a wave of excitement. This is it, Glynda thought. We're going to win.

The war room was once again full of team leaders. Among them was, naturally, Ruby and Jaune, as well as Sun and Militia. While Sun was technically the leader of team SMMR now, there wasn't much of a team SMMR left. As such, both surviving members of the team sat in attendance of the meeting.

While everyone was excited, they were all silent as the grave; big things were happening once more, and none wanted to miss a second of it. Once everyone was present and seated, Glynda nodded to signal the start of the meeting. "Ruby, would you be so kind as to tell us what happened at this point in the premonition?" she asked.

Nodding, Ruby stood and took the floor. She'd lost count of how many times she'd been asked to retell the events of the premonition, but it didn't matter; this was something that she absolutely had to do. "In the vision of the original timeline, the comet came and signaled the end of life as we know it. This has come to pass. I witnessed the deaths of many of my comrades. This has come to pass, even if only partially. Cinder attacked us, and Cerberus surprised us, as he didn't assault us in my premonition. Originally, he was content to nip at us from a distance. He killed dozens of recon teams, and he leveled the nearby towns; Vale included. The day the comet left was something even he didn't predict. We never found out Cerberus's origin, but it's safe to assume that the comet had something to do with it. There might even be others like him roaming the world thanks the comet's influence."

Everyone looked at each other nervously. "However, if that is the case, then now they at their weakest. When the comet left, Cerberus wasn't prepared for the lessening of his power. Glynda, Port, Oobleck, and Roman mobilized a task force comprised of instructors and senior students to assault the beast. They took a few casualties, Oobleck being one of them, but they ultimately destroyed Cerberus. With his destruction and the disappearance of the comet, the remainder of the Grimm seemed scared. The lesser beasts fled, but the greatest of them still attacked with hostile intent, using fear as their greatest weapon. We didn't realize that their attacks were out of desperation until our numbers were too small to do anything about them."

"But this time," Sun interjected. "We've already killed Cerberus. Namely, you killed Cerberus. The Grimm are now going to weaken since the comet is leaving, and thanks to you we already know their tactics."

Ruby nodded, smiling happily. "In the coming days, the Grimm will converge as many of their own as they possibly can in a valley to the north of here. Nevermores, Deathstalkers, and many King Taijitu will circle the area and assault nearby settlements in an attempt to protect the group as a whole. It worked in the premonition. This time, we know that they will be weaker." Her eyes shifted red briefly as a sensation of bloodlust washed over her. "We can destroy those guarding the outer perimeter before assaulting the valley itself."

Glynda nodded. "You said that their could be more Cerberus type Grimm. Did you see any more in your premonition?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, ma'am. I'm only theorizing. After all, what are the chances of there being only one such Grimm. Cerberus was the only one in the Vale area. Remember: we don't know anything about Mistral, Vaccuo, or other such places. We're looking almost exclusively to our own region. For obvious reasons, of course. Once we've secured the Kingdom of Vale, we can look to possibly lending aid to the other kingdoms."

Juane stroked his chin in thought. "You think that Cerberus may not have been all that unique?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Velvet asked.

"Well, when we saw him, both in the field and when he attacked us, he was accompanied by a lot of other Grimm, right? But what Grimm did we actually see work through his influence?" Velvet shook her head, shrugging. "As far as I can remember, he seemed to only be able to control Beowolves. The other Grimm were just tagging along. When Cerberus attacked us, there were only Beowolves. What if Cerberus was a Beowolf, only a bit more extreme."

"A unique variant of a common creature," Ruby muttered. "It's possible, but like I said: we never ran into anything else like him. It's all just speculation at this point."

"We can theorize all we want," Glynda interrupted. "The fact of the matter is that we currently have the upper hand. The other kingdoms don't know what we know. It's in our best interest to eliminate the Grimm here as quickly as possible and then move on to assist our neighbors." She turned to Ruby once more. "Where is this valley?"

Taking in a breath to speak once more, Ruby uttered the name of the valley. Glynda shuddered at the name; it was most definatly fitting that the final fight take place there. The former students all whispered among themselves as well. Had they heard correctly? It was that place?

Oobleck found the whole situation ironic. Part of him even wanted to smile. That part was the ecstatic historian within himself. According to both legend and what few historical records proved, there was once a battle between mankind and the Grimm. Mankind almost failed during this initial confrontation, and Grimm almost reigned as the supreme beings of Remnant. In the very same place where the Grimm first appeared, a group of warrior stumbled upon the first known instances of Dust. While the area had been void of Dust for over a thousand years, it was still world famous. And it was just to the north.

Horrida Campi: Grim Valley.

Ruby smiled, the bloodlust returning to her features. "It's a fitting setting, don't you agree? In their own original home, we will make the Grimm know what fear truly is."

Glynda nodded. "But first; we must eliminate the stragglers. I want assault teams posted immediately. All combat ready teams are to mobilize ASAP. Any group of Grimm, no matter how large in number, is to be destroyed on sight. This mission takes precedence. Conserve your Dust, though. We'll need all we can during the final battle at Grim Valley. Dismissed!"

While all of this was happening, a being of great power watched over the world of Remnant. He "stood" atop the apex of the communications tower in Vale, and his brow was furrowed in disappointment. He'd been imprisoned for over a year, and he'd gone out of his way to instill as much fear as possible on this world. True, he had no direct relation to the comet, but he was still responsible for the young girl's premonitions...if that's really what they wanted to call them. He preferred to think of them as memories; memories of a time that one had lived and died before starting again.

That was the power of the Cycle. He'd used it to observe the universe for so long. His own plans had failed him, but he still tried to use his own spell for enjoyment, even in prison. He was only on Remnant in spirit, after all. His captors would never give him the freedom to roam the universe as he pleased.

Still, even his plan to torment this girl, which was purely a reason to pass by the time that was an eternity in prison, was crumbling before him. He couldn't see the future, so he truly didn't ever know what to expect when he watched these events unfold. What bothered him was that this is the most hopeful timeline that the girl had ever experienced. She just might save the world this time, he thought. This was his disappointment.

That meant that he had would have to wait until she grew old and died before the Cycle would begin anew. True, time is meaningless to an immortal being with nothing better to do but sit in a lonely prison cell. But that didn't mean he enjoyed the boring events that took place between the interesting bits.

Then again...

They hadn't begun the final battle yet. The girl may yet still die. At this thought, feeling hopeful that the Cycle may repeat sooner rather than later, he smiled. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Song: Not Falling-Mudvayne

Author's Note

So...that ending. Yes, I did sort of introduce a new character. It's part of a sub-plot that's happening in the background that will explain a few things...and it's stupidly self serving. I will admit that outright. See, the character that is watching everything is actually from my real work. Yes, I'm throwing in my original work...because why the hell not? I sat on this idea for ages, really. "Do I really want to explain how Ruby saw the future? Or do I want to leave it ambiguous?" I've decided on explaining it. More and more details will be unveiled soon, as the end is drawing near. And that also means that this wasn't a spur of the moment decision. Those will destroy you as an author sometime. I'd been thinking this decision through for about two weeks or more.

I do apologize if adding my own original story character/subplot is a bit...pretentious: especially since I won't have enough time to explain a lot of the things going on between he and some other characters. I'll try my best to summarize the information without leaving too much out, and without completely changing what this story is supposed to be. Needless to say, it's an evil that is necessary for me to reach the ending that I have so desired since the beginning of this story. As of now, the rest of the story is COMPLETELY planned out, and it should theoretically only take me a few more weeks to write it all out...but don't quote me on that. Please.

Till next time