Mad Max: Road to Salvation

Episode 30: Damaging draw

A/N: Max only interrupted Cinder's power grab, he didn't prevent it. Just clearing that up, and I hope no one leaves or flames me for that.

[Clearwingyuta: Thanks.]

[Ronmr: Yep, but now she has a trump card. To tell the truth I'm still figuring that out as to what it will be, but he definitely will get it and his Aura. He is going to be strong when it unlocks, all thanks to his sheer force of will.]

[Gamerman22: Yes and no.]

[Dungeon Wyrm: Yeah he had that coming and well...]

[Review Dude: She will fear him, but just as Max is nigh unstoppable, he is still only human for now.]

[awsomrebel: Yeah they got a much deserved ass kicking, but three(one with even stronger powers) on one(with only superb skills and no powers), isn't a fair fight, even for old Max. The more things change, the more they stay the same, including Cindy and Salem's devious little plan. But don't worry, wrenches will jam those gears up later.]

[lordofuslessness: He will again later, but right now, I don't want to burn that joke out.]

[EnriksD8: They will face judgement soon enough, but for now their executions have to wait.]

[SilentType1997: I consider your challenge, as difficult as it may be. If longer is what you want, then when it comes, it will take a long time to write it all, So a deadline may later be missed.]

Cinder's moment of twisted joy had been shattered by this one man. He had no powers, no aura, no special gifts, he was even permanently injured, yet he was doing things no normal man should be capable of. She couldn't understand it, how was he capable of facing her subordinates head on with only his skills and a small arsenal? But then another thought came to her mind, she taken a large portion of the now dying maiden's powers. Once she had processed that information, her fear changed to confidence. She now had the powers of a demi-god and the arms of a Grimm, and her opponent was a mere mortal. The false fall maiden stood up and looked the man straight into his piercing blue eyes that seemed to peer into her twisted soul. The road warrior only stared back with a calm and focused look on his face.

It immensely bothered Cinder though, but she was about to demonstrate why she believes that she alone is the one to be feared, power is all that matters, and the nearly unstoppable man of war had none. The burning witch summoned a powerful flame into her hands and seemed to look smugly at the seemingly unafraid mortal, despite the fear that she tried to bury. Emerald and Mercury were also grinning at the power Cinder was now displaying, as it would now appear that the brave hero would meet his doom. Max just stood there waiting, he cracked his neck with a satisfying pop as he waited. The seemingly fearless nature this man presented irritated her greatly, but she supposed it was to be expected as the man probably had no idea of how powerful she had now become even when being interrupted, at least she would get the rest soon enough when the other girl would bleed out and die.

"So, you must be the road warrior. I've been expecting to meet you eventually, I'll admit you caught me off guard. But now, I will give you a chance to come with me and serve a cause that will benefit you greatly. All you need to do is kneel before me, and then kill the former fall maiden. Make your choice, power or death." Cinder made the man an offer.

"Hmph, is that so...? Then no." Max quickly drew his guns and fired. Cinder threw up a wall of fire to block the shot in response.

"Oh well, I will enjoy cooking you alive then." Cinder said with a smug tone as she sent a bolt of fire at Max. The road warrior rolled out of the way as he pulled a grenade from his belt and rolled it across the ground. Cinder jumped away from the blast and continued to joyously throw balls of fire at her prey. The whole time though, Max kept a cool head in the face of these new odds, as it was not the first time he'd entered combat against an enemy that played with fire. Of course, this girl was using it in a far different manner than the flames he was used to avoiding. But it didn't matter, fire is still fire to him, no matter where it comes from, or how it's used.

Max changed up his tactics and swapped to the shock shells from his assault on Schnee manor. He quickly reloaded, and fired the bolts of lightning dust from all four barrels at Cinder, which caught her by surprise again. The blast sent a powerful wave of energy throughout her entire nervous system making her scream from the agonizing pain. Qrow briefly caught a glimpse at the scene and for some reason he thought of his niece Yang, she would probably have called it a 'shocking experience.'

Max saw the moment to strike and punched Cinder square in her face. The sick minded sadist actually felt the pain from that despite her aura shielding her from the impact. She knew her arms were unprotected, but how were her opponent's attacks bypassing the rest of it from sheer force alone? The answer would have to wait though as she impacted with the ground. She felt anger rise from within her as the one man stood against in silent defiance with no change to his expression at all. She unleashed a wall of flames around herself in her rage to kill this man before he actually kills her. Max jumped back and gritted his teeth as he unloaded an entire magazine from his rifle at Cinder. This caused the angry false fall maiden to stumble backwards and cringe in fear. Max saw small cracks form on her aura, and he continued hammering away with his rifle after reloading, keeping up the pressure.

Emerald saw a chance and intervened by shooting at Max and distracting him enough for Cinder to land a strike on Max with her thrown flames. As Max flew backwards, a small picture fluttered out of his pocket, and landed in front of the dying fall maiden, Amber. The bleeding girl was contemplating her end, doing exactly what her attacker wanted. But that was up until the little picture landed in front her face, almost as if it were hand delivered by fate. The picture was of a smiling young faunus girl dressed in black, with a black hairband on her head, puppy dog ears, and a cute little bow on the band. On the bottom front of the picture was a small message. 'Good luck daddy! Love Anya'.

Amber limply grasped the picture and imagine the happiness on the girl's face as she must love her father very much. The dying maiden looked to see direction where the picture had flown from and saw the valiant warrior fighting against the fire witch and her two cronies. The three villains seemed to have caught their second wind, and were fighting evenly against the hardened road warrior. Qrow had finally dealt with the Grimm and ran to help out Max as the road warrior started to lose ground. Max was burning through his arsenal rapidly as he locked blades with Emerald. He used his other hand to send Mercury flying backwards with a blast from both barrels of one of his shotguns.

Cinder was about to launch herself at him when Qrow's scythe appeared and the drunken huntsman started pushing her back. Max and Qrow stood back to back as they faced their opponents. The road warrior nudged his ally's shoulder and Qrow seemed to pick up on the message. In a quick display of teamwork, both fighters charged at their three fiendish opponents head on. Cinder and Qrow were duking it out, with the veteran huntsman gaining the upper hand thanks to his abilities that he'd gained from experience as a full-fledged huntsman.

The fiery witch knew as long as she had Mercury and Emerald by her side to help overwhelm him with numbers, the road warrior would no longer pose as severe of a problem. She knew it was time to retreat as she caught passing glimpse of Max taking on Mercury and emerald with an even sense to the fight. Max was gaining the upper hand over the devious duo as he grabbed Mercury by a leg, causing the kickboxer's eyes to widen in fear, and slammed him into Emerald. The two of them were feeling their heads spin as Max tore through both them like it was a walk in the park. They could feel their aura draining rapidly while Max was now the one with a second wind.

The sky started to fill with the sounds of aircraft engines as a bullhead entered the area. Cinder looked up and gritted her teeth in anger as she would now have to be the one running from the fight. The false fall maiden conjured up a wall of flames to distract both of the heroic warriors and quickly made a move to escape with her henchmen. Max scowled as the flames scorched the ground and Cinder had escaped to cause more horror later on down the road. The two veteran fighters let it go for now and ran over to check on the fall maiden who seemed to be on the razor thin edge between life death.

Max checked her pulse and ran over to his car to find cloth for bandages. He found a tarp in the back seat and ripped it up to make bandages. With Qrow's help they were able to slow the bleeding down enough to hold out until a medical team would arrive to help. When the ship touched down Max and Qrow wasted no time moving the girl into the cargo bay. The two of them were greeted with the sight of Glynda arriving on scene having been dispatched by Ozpin to help. The pilot maneuvered the ship over the interceptor and hooked it up. After the car was secured, the bullhead flew off back to beacon as fast as possible so that the girl could receive emergency medical care.

-several hours later-Beacon infirmary-

The surgery had been 'touch and go' leaving Amber in a technically stable state. But her condition was still deteriorating at a steady pace. Max kept watch over her as the girl's heart rate monitor beeped with regular but steady length-increasing intervals. The medical equipment was doing its work, and beacon's top medical staff had done their best. The girl's condition was extremely evident though as a tar black corruption spread throughout her body. The attacker had left some kind of cancer-like venom in her system. She was being killed from the inside, slowly and painfully by the toxic substance that had been left behind. The road warrior finally stepped out of the room and noticed something missing. He vigorously searched his pockets for the precious picture of his daughter.

"Is this what you're looking for?" The girl said with a weak voice as she held up the picture. The road warrior walked over to her and took back the picture. "It's just amazing, the things life can throw at us." Amber said wearily before her pain spiked and painkillers were immediately pumped into her bloodstream.

"Rest, you'll live longer." Max said gruffly.

"It doesn't feel like that's going to be that much anyway." Amber said in a miserable tone.

"Depends on your perspective, to know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom." Max offered some of his wasteland wisdom.

"Some freedom, death is still death, and dying sucks." Amber groaned in sorrowful tone of self-pity.

"But will your death mean something? That's a question you should be asking yourself right now." Max said calmly.

"*sigh* Yes and no. I-" Amber started to say but was interrupted by Anya.

"Daddy?" Anya said as she quickly appeared, looking for her father.

"Hey there sweet pea." Max said warmly to his adoptive daughter.

"Who are you talking to?" The little faunus girl asked with her finger hanging out of her mouth.

"She never told me." Max pointed out Amber's neglect to introduce herself. The fall maiden briefly gained an angry tick mark on her forehead, but let her anger subside when she got a good look at the sweet little faunus girl.

"I'm Amber." The fall maiden said with a relaxed smile.

"My name is Anya Onyx-Rockatansky." She said with a little curtsy.

"Come over here sweet pea." Max gestured to his daughter that it was ok to enter the room.

"Yes daddy." Anya said sweetly as she hopped onto her father's knee.

"She's so cute. She even looks a lot like you." Amber stated with a keen eye.

"I'm afraid my girl here is adopted." Max replied.

"Could've fooled me. Where did you find her?" The fall maiden inquired with an eyebrow raised.

"Riverdale Junction, she stowed away in the back seat of my car, all because of the dog." Max explained some of the rocky start of how he and Anya came to enjoy each other's company.

"Sounds like you have a nice little family." Amber smiled.

"I'm alive because of her." Max stated truthfully.

"Really? From what you say it seems like the opposite." Amber was confused by Max's words.

"It's mutually beneficial, simple as that." Max stated calmly as he ruffled Anya's ears making the little girl smile. Anya had quickly charmed her way into Amber's heart, making the weary maiden smile slightly.

Ozpin walked in, addressing the road warrior and his daughter. "I think I have a little story you might want to hear Max, and maybe Anya as well."

"Which story? And it's not my bedtime yet!" Anya said excitedly with a huff.

"Don't worry, in fact I think you may have heard this one before." Ozpin said in a whimsical tone.

"Ooh is it the story of the maidens?!" Anya guessed with a huge smile on her face.

"That's correct." Ozpin said kindly to the sweet little girl. The wise headmaster then began telling the tale to the inhabitants of the room. Anya's eyes were wide with wonder at the idea of real magic being bestowed upon the four girls. As she listened, so did her father and the dying maiden, both of whom began to see the deeper message behind the professor's tale. But Anya soon began to get sleepy and snuggled up to her father. Amber didn't know why, but when she looked at Anya she began to feel a sense of peace and calm affection towards the little faunus girl. It was almost as if looking at her reminded the dying maiden of the warmth from the afternoon sun.

As Ozpin continued to weave his story though, Amber began to put pieces together in her mind about the man who sat in the chair cradling the child. Qrow's story from before came to mind, what little he had told her began to fit the description of this man in leather armor beside her. Was he the wanderer that Qrow seemed to revere? Could this be the man who fought the ruthless Raven Branwen and survived? It made some sense as she remembered what little she saw of the battle. Yet after everything he'd done, here he was, almost happy. It was all thanks to that girl who he seemed to cherish deeply. It was almost as if she were a piece of his soul, his heart. She put those at the back of her mind and returned to listening to words of professor Ozpin.

Once the older man finished his tale Max carried Anya off to her bedroom trying to be as quiet as possible the whole way. The wise headmaster then went on to explain to Amber the other aspects of her abilities and what the ramifications were for the unfortunate turn of events that had occurred. The maiden continued to have further bouts of pain from the corruption eating away at her insides faster than her aura could repair the damage. It seemed to get more aggressive as time went by, like someone was speeding it along. Ozpin had bid her farewell for the night and went off to continue his duties. The wise old man knew exactly who was responsible for this, but at least there was still time to find a replacement. But the question of 'who that would be' reared its head, the corruption would not wait. There was one suitable candidate already, but even he knew that was a step too far. It would possibly even anger her wrathful father if he so much as mentioned the idea. Although that was also the problem, Anya had just become the most prominent young girl in Amber's mind, which he was somewhat thankful for. Ozpin pondered his options thoroughly as he walked the halls of his hallowed institution. He knew from Qrow and Max's report that half of Amber's soul had been drained and half of the power with it. So far, the odds of Anya gaining the power in case of Amber's death were within the realm of possibility. But then again, it was also possible that the power would reunite with its other half. So many questions, yet there was so little time to search for the answers.

-END CHAPTER-