Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 1
It was beautiful.
A flawlessly cut gem in the shape of a triangle colored a rich, vibrant red. It was socketed into a metallic snowflake hung from a thin but hardened chain. When the sunlight filtered through the jewel it glowed with an inner fire that danced and warmed within the palm of one's hand. A family heirloom of the Schnee bloodline, the last time Weiss had witnessed its beauty was at the knee of her grandfather Nicholas during…happier times.
The young heiress to the Schnee Dust Company turned it over slowly in her dainty hands with a look of childish wonder while her elder sister Winter watched on fondly from behind the rim of her teacup. "Where did you find it?" Weiss asked breathily before slowly holding it out towards Winter with obvious reluctance. The older Schnee held up a hand, finished sampling her drink in silence, and then placed the empty porcelain upon the otherwise empty café's table. Money talked, and in this moment it allowed the two siblings a moment to themselves within an entirely empty business.
Folding her hands in her lap Winter dragged her eyes from her sister's expressive face to the object in the other girl's hands.
"I received it from grandfather during his final days. Jacques had revealed the extent of his greed and mother showed herself incapable of rationality regarding most things during that time. Grandfather was aware of my…inclinations as the designated heiress, and so entrusted me with its safekeeping. With my joining the Atlas military it has remained safely in my possession. Until today."
Weiss' face lit up.
"Does that mean you're giving it to me?" she squealed happily. A harsh look from Winter tempered Weiss' emotions, and the specialist nodded approvingly as her sister's features schooled into neutrality.
"Something of that nature," Winter added enigmatically. She stood, and Weiss obediently followed her example. "Come. While I see no problem using this space to our advantage, given the circumstances I do believe we require more room."
…
…
…
"As you might have guessed this is no ordinary gemstone. Since the founding of our family and the cultivation of what makes our lineage so unique, this pendant has been passed down from generation to generation. Countless hands. Countless auras. Countless glyphs. It is composed of a rock that somehow amplifies aura, a mystery we still have yet to crack, and the only piece known to exist. And the most peculiar of its structure is the fact there is not a speck of Dust to be found within it. I used it in my youth to perfect our family's semblance. I know the summoning aspect of our glyphs still vexes you, Weiss. So while I am stationed here in Vale you too shall use grandfather's pendant to succeed. It will give you the means and understanding to replicate it under your own power."
"Thank you Winter! But…" Weiss trailed off, glancing away. The pair had relocated to one of Beacon's training rooms, the entire ring all for their personal use. Weiss stood at its center with arms raised before her chest and the length of her rapier held parallel to her body. The pendant was clutched within her free hand with the chain dangling from between pale fingers.
Shaking her head Winter strode forth, hands clasped against the small of her back while she encircled Weiss with long, leisurely steps. As she made her way before her sister the specialist brushed gloved fingers through the fringe hanging over her eye before snapping to a halt, all the picturesque image of a disciplined woman.
"But you feel like this is a shortcut?"
"Yes!"
"Understandable. I am proud of your work ethic Weiss but you forget yourself. There is no problem in utilizing whatever tools we have at our disposal to further our goals. Any training supplement can give you the edge necessary to cultivate your strength. Did you turn down the lessons of your tutors? Did you throw away the nutritious meals, the soft mattress that ensures you gain the proper sleep?"
"No…"
"Then quit second-guessing yourself and focus!" Winter snapped. Weiss jumped at the loud words, before twirling on her heels and plunging the tip of Myrtenaster into the stage. The glowing glyph of the Schnee grew between the sisters and spun on its axis, alighting the space with a frosty white glow of swords surrounding a snowflake. Faster and faster it moved to the point it generated enough wind to rip at their clothes and hair.
"Think to your fallen foes!" Winter called over the somewhat loud chiming of the semblance. Her head was tilted ever so slightly as she regarded the technique. Something itched at her brain, calling for attention over its intense strength. Was Weiss' control truly this bad? "The ones that forced you to push yourself past who you were and become who you are now!"
"I'm…trying!"
Weiss immediately knew something was wrong. The strength of her aura, a moderate amount for a girl that relied on skill more than brute force, was skyrocketing in a dangerous manner. The younger Schnee felt the gem greedily draw upon her spiritual energy before expelling it back just a bit stronger in a strange cycle of feedback that threatened to burst her tentative control. There was something odd in the returns she couldn't quite place either. The moment she called upon it, it felt as though it took everything she had to keep the rotation within her command.
She yelped as the spell suddenly broke and knocked her off her feet as the glyph ruptured with the force of a small explosive. With a huff Weiss brushed down the tulle beneath her skirt and flipped her long off-center ponytail out of her face, irritated and somewhat sore. But it was Winter's expression that gave the huntress pause. As the older of the two rose from the crouch she landed in after being knocked away, her face was…surprised.
"What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened? The glyph overloaded!"
"It should not have transpired in such a manner. The pendant tested my control but not like this. Do it again."
Puffing again Weiss rose to her feet, throwing a quick glare at the reddish gem before centering herself on her wedged heels. She summoned the glyph once more to the same results. And tried again. And again.
Each attempt ended in a similar embarrassing manner that saw Weiss' short temper rise faster and faster until she was sorely tempted to throw the necklace against the wall or stomp it to pieces. In her anger she failed to see Winter's face, blue eyes narrowed and chin cupped in thought. She knew Weiss was inexperienced but this was…incomprehensible.
BANG
"ARGH! DARN IT WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!?" Weiss screeched at the object in her hands. Her formerly perfect appearance was marred by the constant tumbles. Clothes and skin smudged with dust, her hair beginning to unravel from its braided crown that held her ponytail in place. Winter even noticed a few stains growing on the lighter fabric of her own outfit.
"WEISS! ENOUGH!"
"BUT WINTER—"
The taller of the two slashed her arm through the air, cutting off Weiss from her brewing rant. Both were breathing heavily in the silence before Winter pulled back, smoothing down the a few creases in her jacket as she gathered her thoughts.
"Emotions can grant you strength but you must never let them overpower you. Today has already taken its toll on your mind. Allow yourself to recover, and you can try again another day."
"Eurgh…fine. Just let me try one more time."
A thin eyebrow rose at the request but Winter ultimately acquiesced. "Once more then. Though I cannot understand why the pendant is reacting in such a manner I suppose it give you a better idea of how not to go about it. But this is the final time—I've overstayed the timeframe I was given to visit."
Weiss' face held a murderous scowl as she pointed the tip of Myrtenaster forward as though stabbing an invisible foe. The glyph appeared yet again, the largest in size since the training began. Enough to easily hold several people back to back. But Weiss had closed her eyes and focused on the one memory she desired more than anything. The Arma Gigas that gave her the freedom to leave Atlas. Its immense bulk and armored form, with an equally large sword capable of swiping through boulders with relative ease. She wanted it. Desired it. Demanded it to appear, for the essence of her fallen foe to regain its form beneath the banner of the Schnee.
Armor.
Protection.
Strength.
Knightly in appearance.
While the avatars of other fallen Grimm might have been easier to summon, Weiss was not one to be the most compliant in temperament. She wanted this specific type, and so that was what Weiss Schnee would get!
…
…
Now see—here's the problem. Or multiple, if you'd like, that ultimately composed themselves into one great cascading difficulty that saw Weiss both reach her goal and fail it spectacularly. You see, her desire to succeed actually worked in her favor upon this last attempt. The glyph remained smooth despite the fluctuating aura, and as it rotated faster and faster it finally showed no sign of losing itself and blowing up. The light from within grew harsh but evened out into something steady.
Managing to keep the cycle of energy flowing well enough Weiss Schnee wished with all her being for her gallant protector to come before her.
But she did not truly focus on the image of the Arma Gigas itself. No, Weiss was enamored by its concept and form. An armored, knightly being and not much else. This was mistake #1.
Secondly was the trace amounts of DNA floating in the shell of Myrtenaster. The white-haired girl had not had the time to properly clean her weapon since the last bout of combat class just the other day and a few stray hairs of her last opponent had snagged themselves in the Multi Action Dust Rapier's revolving chamber. Unknown to the sisters, these hairs were further influencing the direction of the summoning. This was mistake #2.
Lastly was the pendant itself. Its latent ability, its rarity…all were because the driving force behind its conception no longer existed. Removed from a chunk of supernatural ore in a strange location beyond but still intrinsically linked to Remnant, it was fashioned by inhuman hands a time long, long ago as an amulet meant for the channeling, storage, and usage of energy. A time when the gods still walked the land. A time when only humans existed upon the planet. A time…when magic was the only power known to mankind. It was the precursor to the relics conceived by the God of Light before his flight from the world, its concept of Force broken down further into the powers of Choice, Knowledge, Creation, and Destruction.
Although in the modern age magic had been wiped clean off the face of Remnant (save for the few glaring remainders that stubbornly held on) the pendant itself held its own traces of magic to call its own. No Schnee that lived after the shattering of the moon ever knew that they were actively channeling the long-forgotten power of magic through their bodies every time it was used to train their control. Literally transmuting smidges of their aura into magic itself. With Weiss' tepid discipline over her glyphs it caused the magic to concentrate and then detonate. Repeatedly. This released more of the magic to linger in the atmosphere.
Had the sisters walked away, it would have only been a short time to when it would dissipate forever.
Except Weiss wanted to try one more time after saturating the air above her glyph with a great load of magic.
Her blood was boiling, her emotions muddying the intended direction of her vision.
This was mistake #3, #4, #5, and even #6.
"I ORDER YOU MY SERVANT TO COME TO ME!"
Weiss Schnee wanted a knight in shining armor to appear even if she had to tear it out of the ground herself. The unintended dominoes began to fall, lining up just so, as the magic reacted to her wish. It funneled forcibly through space and time for the intended target as the accidental ritual took hold; forming a wormhole with her glyph as the epicenter and the genetic link established.
The light emanating from the semblance went supernova. All the sisters knew was humming in their skulls as reality itself reacted, and their ears struggled to regain any fragment of hearing.
Arcs of whitish lightning shot from the edges of the glyph before a pair of worn, battered boots dropped against the ephemeral lines of Weiss' ability. The lights above flickered and many went out or broke as the release of power battered the room. A figure now stood within the semblance, great gouts of smoke twirling about both them and the length of the training area itself. Their knees bent slightly as they touched down, before said figure slowly pulled up to their full height.
It towered over Weiss as she sat on her knees, and she stumbled back as it hissed out a breath. Steam escaped the holes of its helmet and if it possessed eyes they could not be seen within heavy shadows of the vision slit.
Weiss belatedly realized it was a human or at least shaped like one. Two arms, two legs, a head. If it was somehow a faunus they held no visible animal characteristics. A vast portion of its large body was clad in armor heavily corrupted by orange-brown rust and the faded blue hilt of a weapon poked over its right shoulder.
It looked around in confusion before doing a double-take. It stiffened, and raised a gauntlet as though to reach out. "W-Weiss?...Winter? Those clothes…," it rumbled in a confused, worn, and decidedly male voice.
"Stay where you are!" Winter demanded, jumping before Weiss with her saber drawn.
The strange knight shook his head rapidly and stumbled a few steps back, thick fingers clenching against the sides of his helm. "Nooooooooo no no nononononono this is impossible! This is…Beacon! I can't be at Beacon! Not like this, not with—GRAAAAH!" The figure fell to his knees and slammed his fists harshly against the ground. The reinforced concrete, durable enough to stand against most attacks when the students were allowed to spar, cratered beneath his hands.
His heavy breathing echoed within the enclosed space of his helmet, spine hunched as he clawed at the debris between his palms. The head covering jerkily rose until the being stared at the sisters, and with one final heaving breath he seemed to calm.
"What year is it? Has the Vytal Festival happened yet?"
"Don't answer that!" Winter shot over her shoulder before glaring at the strange man. "How did you get in here? How did you usurp my sister's semblance! Tell me!"
With unnatural calm the knight stood once more, the slight turning of his eye slit showing him judge the area, the sisters, and the doorway in the distance.
"I don't care if this is a dream, a nightmare, or something else…I can change it."
He stepped forward and Weiss tensed, though the being no longer looked at either of the Schnees. He was heading for the exit and Winter vanished by the accelerative force of her own glyphs to block his path.
"I am Specialist Winter Schnee of the Atlesian military! You will give yourself up, and be entered into my custody for your blatant breaking and entering! General Ironwood will discover your methods one way or another so make it easy on yourself and surrender!"
The air around the knight burned. Weiss was forced to shield her eyes as the amount of energy released by the stranger surrounded him in a nearly opaque forcefield of shimmering color, the sheer amount of aura reaching out and gleaming inches from the surface of his skin. So concentrated, the gold he released was shining nearly pure white in appearance. Weiss would have keeled over within a second had she tried to match the volume of aura, and as the seconds stretched on it continued without pause. Such a powerful soul! How could one person hold so much aura?
And then she noticed something tugging at her own soul. As the energy released flowed from him, it also felt like it was flowing into her, and it was so warm. Her own aura was being drained, and yet replaced just as quickly. The light blue of her spirit and the pale yellow of his mingled in a way she might call intimate if not for the situation.
"Winter. Weiss. Neither of you have…any idea how much I've missed the both of you. But I will only warn you once….don't get in my way." The knight's words were tender but ended in a snarl as he tore the weapon from his back and lunged at Winter hard enough to further crack the flooring beneath his boots. The Atlas noble gasped but steadied herself with a brace of glyphs, meeting her attacker head on. A longsword still in its rusty sheathe slammed against Winter's blade and it was only thanks to her semblance and aura reinforcing her that she wasn't blown away by the strength in the knight's arms. She felt her own shell take a heavy hit as a familiar light blue flashed across her forearms.
Then he stepped into her guard and flashed his aura again, body checking the specialist and rushing through her like cheap plywood. Poor Winter was dragged underfoot. He didn't bother to stop and open the door, instead choosing to become a rusty aura-infused missile and slam right through it. Sure, the doors were the weakest parts of the training rooms in comparison but they were still adequately reinforced.
Apparently not for him.
No longer frozen in place by the odd dichotomy of warmth, acceptance, fear, and domination swarming her own aura Weiss staggered to her feet and ran to her fallen sister. "Winter! Are you okay?"
Grunting with effort the older Schnee managed to reach a seated position, clutching her stomach and chest. "I f-felt my Scroll break…W-Weiss, give m-me yours…"
"Oh. Of cour—wha?"
Blue eyes honed in on the back of her right hand. There, against the pale skin, were three odd marks. To further confuse the situation two of the blood-colored symbols were shaped, of all things, like Jaune Arc's personal crest. The twin crescents were housed inside the hollow interior of an empty Schnee snowflake also colored red.
"WEISS!"
She jumped and hastily dug her Scroll out of her dress.
Winter tore it from her sister's grasp and after a quick connection, exposed the older woman's reduced aura level as she typed in a string of digits. "How? With only a few hits he devastated your aura!"
"Priority connect! S-Specialist Winter Schnee! Code phrase Sierra-Tango-Romeo-Alfa-November-Golf-Echo-Romeo!" She waited as something unseen happened over the line, before a click sounded in the otherwise quiet space. A deep voice muffled by the regular volume spoke into Winter's ear.
"It's my sister's Scroll—General Ironwood, listen! There is an intruder on the school grounds! No, I'm not—semblance training in room T-02, he appeared out of thin air! Yes I'm certain!" She coughed suddenly and the other voice grew concerned. "He's strong. Ran me down, quite literally, as though I wasn't even in his way. I've no memory of such a p-person…tall, wearing a full set of antique rusted armor. Enough aura to power the whole building with some to spare. But he seemed to recognize both myself and Weiss. Yes. Yes. Very well."
The call disconnected and Winter's arm dropped as she sagged, allowing Weiss to hold the brunt of her weight instead.
"Winter?"
"Don't worry Weiss…General Ironwood and Beacon's staff are aware and on the hunt."
"No, I mean yes that's great but…" She held out her hand. Winter's eyes widened at the strange but familiar symbols shining against her flesh. "He looked familiar. I think…I think I summoned the Rusted Knight?"
Winter growled in confusion but could do little more but wince as she felt her muscles clench painfully and betray her.
This was not how she pictured her visit going…
Mercury Black was in a hell of a good mood.
Nice, clean rooms instead of dingy apartments and flat mattresses. Full course meals instead of takeout and store-bought microwave dinners. The classes were boring as hell but the son of the great assassin Marcus Black would endure it to keep the façade of being a regular student going for as long as possible.
Sure, he had to hold back during spars. And pretend to care about the countless classmates suffocating Beacon's halls. But again, it was all part of the act. His father had drilled that into him over and over again. Become the epitome of who you were mimicking until the moment your target let their guard down. Not one second before.
Except neither he or the rest of the imposters pretending to be students from Haven actually knew where the target was.
But that just meant Mercury got to continue his charade of being a normal huntsman-in-training with all its perks. It was that thought alone that put a spring in his prosthetic steps.
He reached the hallway leading to the temporary exchange student dormitories and was about to take that first stride inside when a hand clamped upon his shoulder. While not painfully tight it made Mercury flinch and try to pry the vice off his uniform. His hands touched cold, flaky metal and a harsh voice rumbled in his ears. "Don't turn around."
"W-w-what the hell, man?!"
Why was the voice vaguely familiar?
"Mercury Black…I have no personal problem with you despite your role in everything. Make sure it stays that way. Tell me, the rest of your team. Are they in your room? Which one is that?"
The teen stiffened and nodded slowly. His instincts were screaming at him to give the voice what it wanted. It had kept him alive under his father's loving embrace, it saw him join Cinder and get the hell out of that burning shack, and now it demanded he do as the being said.
Or else.
"Good to hear. Say…you know what I think you need? A big, juicy hamburger. Maybe two. It's been a long day and you need all the energy you can get. Take your time."
"You, uh…you got it boss. Room 204, straight down the hall. Take a right at the first split and it's the second door on the right."
The clamp on his shoulder finally loosened, and it gave him few patronizing pats against the back of his uniform. "Good to hear. Oh, and by the way. If you think about making any calls…only warn Emerald. She's got a heart in there somewhere. Someone like her only gets one chance."
Clank. Clank. Clank. Heavy footsteps marched past Mercury at a quicker pace. The young assassin caught sight of eroded armor and a sword tapping against the man's back. On a dime Mercury turned, spinning on his heel and shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked away, whistling.
Shit was about to go down.
Not his problem.
You know, a burger did sound pretty good right now.
It was better to make himself known and visible on the clear other side of the campus. Plausible deniability and all that.
A tall woman with raven-black hair and golden eyes glared at her Scroll. Tight enough to nearly crack the delicate screen, the edges were close to bubbling as an unnatural heat curled between Cinder Fall's fingers. She sat upon her bed within the student quarters, legs crossed, as the ambient temperature of the room spiked to the point the other occupants were beginning to sweat.
"Where. Is. He?" she seethed. "That fool won't answer his Scroll."
"He went out for a walk last I saw, ma'am!"
"That was over an hour ago. Mercury knows better than to not answer me when I require it."
Emerald Sustrai struggled for an answer, wiping some of her damp mint green bangs away from her forehead. Nearby the disguised Neopolitan rolled her eyes, black and green replacing her normal collection of pinks, browns, and whites to allow the criminal to blend in. She was only here because Cinder was threatening her partner Roman and, well, the little imp was always one for causing a bit of chaos regardless.
She'd sooner shove the length of Hush through the bitch's eye though. That day would come. But until then she'd act like one of Cinder's loyal minions.
Knock. Knock.
Three sets of eyes snapped to the door. Cinder looked ready to blast a wave of fire and cook whoever was on the other side before exhaling sharply and rising to her feet. "That better be Mercury," the ravenette said sharply, approaching the entrance. Grasping the handle she turned it, already preparing her expression to meet whomever was there with a simpering voice. Mercury or not she had to keep up appearances whenever not in a private setting, and any random person could be out in the hallway. As the door cracked open a greeting was halfway on her lips when the world shattered. The purple vortex of gravity dust splintered the door and part of the wall, knocking against Cinder's torso and rocketing her towards the other end of the dorm. She bled off momentum before bursting through the wall with a flip and blast of flames unconsciously released from her palms as a hulking figure vaulted through the dust and debris straight towards the floating Cinder. Her mind processed it was some sort of monstrous armored figure, but the why behind its actions was still out of reach.
She dropped to the floor between the beds, the Dust secretively woven into her jacket and skirt flaring along the seams as she flexed her aura. Shards of glass grew and formed a pair of twin swords which she grabbed and held aloft. The false Maiden smirked at her foe while he rushed her, but mentally Cinder was sweating bullets while her mind went a mile a minute.
Who was this person? Why was he attacking? Was Mercury compromised? Did he talk? Did Ozpin know?
Bullets pinged off aura and armor as Emerald futilely tried to add support from afar. Cinder assumed she was using her semblance but if it was affecting the intruder, he was still on course with Salem's operative and showed no sign of being led astray.
There was a tugging at her breasts and Cinder mistakenly glanced down; thrust between the buttons of her uniform jacket's folds was a strange disk-like object, half smashed and covered in dirt and scuff marks. It shivered where it was stuck and the woman was caught between dropping her weapon and pulling it free, or letting the unknown object remain.
A bomb? What force was pulling at it?
Golden eyes flecked with fire darted up once more, and there she saw the shield's insignia rocketing for her face glowing with purple light. More gravity Dust! And it was trying to call forth the object. Wait—hadn't she seen that double crescent emblem before?
She twirled out of the way of the bulky bull and a bookshelf was crushed to bits. She lashed out with Midnight as she spun only for that accursed shield to swing and stop her sword. Despite its fragile, damaged appearance all the razor sharp edge of her blade did was scrape off some of the corrosion. "Who are you?!" the false transfer student demanded. No answer, as the figure stomped free of the wooden debris at its feet and swung at her with a broken longsword.
She rolled backwards. The thing's aura continued to flex as Emerald chipped away at it, little by little. Barely a minute had passed but Cinder was growing impatient. The longer she entertained the knight's rampage the longer she gave Ozpin the chance to arrive. But if she fled, it was all but shouting to the heavens that her plan had failed. To fight or not. A lose-lose situation. And the room was growing increasingly destroyed as the duo danced. No one had come to see what was wrong, therefore Cinder assumed her neighbors were either cowards or not present at a most inopportune time.
It lunged at her again with a howl like a rabid beast and Cinder smirked. At the ground before her feet a Maiden-enhanced dust bomb glowed against the floorboards, detonating with enough upward force to blow a concentrated hole clear through the ceiling.
Ears ringing; smoke filled her vision in the aftermath.
But then a glowing gloved hand devoid of a weapon appeared first through the haze and found purchase against her shin. Cinder's face became one of pure shock. No person could have rode out such an explosion without suffering pain or panic. Fire was a deterrent for all. Even with armor, even with aura, any sane person would have flinched. Even wild animals too focused on the kill instinctively shied away from flames because of the heat.
This fool was either so far gone mentally they ignored her attack, or held absolutely no care for their own life. Cinder wasn't sure which was worse.
As she tried to pull away the woman gasped as the vice squeezed against her leg hard enough to visibly flare the orange hue of her aura. Even with the minute space formed between flesh and energy the knight still managed to keep ahold of her; Cinder's leg was harshly pulled upward, setting her off balance. Another hand now devoid of its shield took the opportunity to enclose around her ankle.
Cinder shrieked as she was lifted bodily and swung over the monster's shoulder by her leg, slammed forcefully into the floor like someone using a hammer to drive a spike through the earth. And then the wall. The floor again. Emerald. The other wall. Over and over again the woman was used like a club to trash their surroundings without a reprieve while all the while her attacker roared wordlessly. She could barely keep the air in her own lungs and any chance to do so only saw it torn away upon the next hit. Aura was a godsend, but momentum still existed and it didn't stop her organs from getting thrashed about by the constant starts and stops.
Gathering her strength Cinder Fall stopped caring for appearances and allowed the half-power of the Fall Maiden to explode from her body. The air around her burned as streams of fiery energy discharged from her bloodshot eyes, and she managed to lay a hand on the knight's pauldron as she was spun once more. It turned to slag instantly beneath her fingers and the superheated metal sputtered and hissed, glowing cherry red against the shining aura seeping between the melted spaces between armor pieces. Just like inertia, the elements were also a work around for bypassing aura protection. Heat? Cold? Not so bad on their own. But strengthen it to something unbearable in an instant…
"FUCKING BITCH!"
Oh, so it could speak. Cinder would have responded but he lifted her above his head in spite of the burning shell waging war against his aura and then proceeded to piledrive her through the damaged flooring down into the room a floor below. She landed awkwardly on her neck and while it didn't kill Cinder outright, it hurt.
She tried to rise but the muscles and bones refused to work as intended. Even with aura it would take a while to heal the pulled musculature into something bearable, and 'a while' was something the faux-Maiden couldn't afford. Especially since this bastard kept draining hers so easily with every hit!
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Oh! Cinder could have kissed Emerald in that moment, her favorite sycophant leaping onto the knight's back and wrapping the chains of Thief's Respite around his neck in the hopes of strangling him to death. The helmet only covered past his chin and the throat was otherwise bare. A glaring weakness. Yet…like the duration of the battle, pale aura constantly flared as their foe grabbed at the bindings and tried to buck the green-haired thief off of him.
How much aura did this monster have? It had yet to lose any intensity!
With a rather crafty move his boot struck the fallen shield, and using the toes he scooped it beneath the edge and flipped in up into his hand. Emerald's head rang like a bell when he flung the arm backwards and introduced her face to the dirty surface of the defensive object. She reeled back, momentarily stunned, and the advantage was lost. Digging through the wood and plaster Cinder found Midnight not far from where she lay, and managed to place them together and form a bow. Even with the shake in her arms and her neck refusing to bend properly she couldn't miss at this distance and fired off a freshly crafted glass arrow dead center of the vision slot in the helmet.
By chance or by design, the knight jerked back at the last second and the arrow only just hit at an angle between flesh and the inside of the helmet as he dropped his shield again, but the movement loosened the chain enough to let the armored figure dig his fingers beneath the links and pull. Emerald barely managed to make a peep of protest as she was peeled off the rusty back before a fist sank into her stomach with enough force to fold her over the limb.
Rotating like an Olympic discus champion the knight then twirled and heaved the wheezing figure of Emerald through the window in yet another massive show of force.
As he turned back to the awkwardly rising Cinder, the aura protecting him from the arrowhead illuminated the dark pit of his helmet. Yellowish strands of hair and blue eyes tinged with madness burned into Cinder's soul before he yanked the offending projectile free and the shadows returned leaving him once again the faceless monster hunting her down.
The emblem! That face! Both were so familiar, and even with her brain rattled to such a degree the woman had extensively trained her mind for years to keep it sharp enough to work under extreme duress.
"You…I know you. You're that boy! That waste of space…the Arc boy! So much strength and aura…where did you get this power?!"
Jaune Arc scooped up his fallen shield once again and stalked towards Cinder, deflecting a rush of magic in the shape of a fireball as she tried to back towards the door. Cinder Fall did not feel fear in her life, not anymore. But whatever had changed that useless knight into this thing in front of her…that was a cause for worry. And he clearly wanted the ravenette dead for some reason. An experiment by Ozpin? What in the blazes was going on!
With a strange smoothness to his actions Jaune pulled the hilt of his shattered blade out of the pile of wood at his side, something Cinder's tunnel vision missed, and flung it at her like a spinning buzzsaw.
Cinder threw herself to the side with a gust of fire as her dwindling aura could no longer take afford the hit. But Jaune had planned for that, and jumped seconds after chucking his weapon. He tackled her to the floor and as she screamed and thrashed and burned at him with all her collective power Jaune Arc ignored it all with an unnatural calm about him, even as reality warped beneath the power of forgotten magic.
He raised the shield and struck her heavily in the face. "That was for Pyrrha!"
He punched her again as his metal plates became unbearably hot and sent rivulets of molten metal down his body. "That's for Weiss!"
The wood around them turned to kindling as Cinder forged an inferno with the pair at its center. Jaune hit her again. "And this was for Penny!"
The air was choked with ash and fire. Neither could barely breathe as the oxygen was greedily gobbled up by the flames. Cinder desperately tried to push Jaune off of her, to bake him alive, to melt him away, to destroy everything around them and make her escape but his aura continued to blaze so strongly it blinded her retinas with its potency even as his feeble armor turned to slag against his skin. Nothing she did worked. He was like a machine with one purpose: to crush her with his bare hands.
It was working.
Cinder began to slow. The pain in her head and neck was growing worse and worse as the dregs of her aura tried to keep her alive. The will to maintain her magic-laced fire vanished, and the great gouts of flame lost their energy. What fires remained simply burned under their own power, casting a macabre light source all around the struggling duo. Jaune's arm crushed down over and over, using the shield as a bludgeon against her nose until she was sure it would cave in.
…
…
…
Cinder Fall was afraid.
This wasn't how everything was supposed to turn out. She was scared, she didn't want to die. Not like this. Not at the hands of some goody two shoes suffering from roid rage. She tried to call out but her voice failed her, she couldn't get air, her mouth failed to form the words and her tongue was useless behind her increasingly chipped teeth…Cinder did her best to cry out for Salem to save her. Emerald. Mercury. Tyrian or Hazel or even Watts. If they wouldn't have evaporated on the spot, the woman might have shed real tears and wished for Rhodes to pat her head one last time and tell her things would get better.
With a snap her aura broke. Jaune lifted the shield, tilted it, and slammed the thin length of its edge into Cinder's face.
First went her jaw in a bloody spray of split skin and gristle.
She gagged, but mercifully the end came after. The pointed border pierced through her face and concluded the tragic life of Cinder Fall with little fanfare.
But Jaune wasn't done. Howling, the man continued to stab into her skull well after it was a broken pile of muscle, blood, bone chips, brain tissue and dissolving Grimm essence as a beetle-like monster tried to escape the destruction from within the corpse and was crushed flat. With one final effort he speared the metal clean through both her torn throat and the ravaged ground beneath it and twisted, severing the violated lump of flesh from the body.
Jaune Arc panted for air in the abnormally heated room. His hidden eyes stared blankly at the mess he created. His body hurt, his head hurt, his soul hurt and he didn't just mean because of his liberal use of spamming his semblance to buff his immense aura reserves.
He did it.
It was over.
They were avenged. Without Cinder around, she couldn't further orchestrate the Fall of Beacon.
Everyone was alive. He finally managed what he failed to do all those years ago.
Even if this was some distorted dream and meant nothing in the end…Jaune Arc was no longer a failure.
He could have cried but the tears wouldn't come. Because…he, he had finally saved someone…right?
Long orange hair with a bloody chest was all he could see overlapping Cinder's body in that moment before it vanished.
Something bubbled in the knight's throat, and he eventually realized the foreign sensation was happiness. Jaune's head snapped to the side even as he continued to lose himself to emotions long buried and stared at the short woman standing warily in the least fiery corner who kept out of the fight to wait and watch. Sucking in a deep breath Jaune pointed at Neo, who stared back with wide eyes and a look of…respect? Her parasol was deployed and its cylindrical blade out but not exactly pointed towards Jaune.
Good choice.
"Go find Roman. Get the hell out of Vale. Never come back. Pray I don't ever see you again," the swordsman said shakily. The young criminal's head cocked before she graced the man with an elaborate curtsy. Seconds later Neo's form shattered like glass and then Jaune was alone.
A most familiar feeling.
This was how General James Ironwood, Headmaster Ozpin, and Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch found the intruder within the school. Fires burned merrily amongst the refuse, casting long shadows around the room that lengthened and exaggerated the hunched figure waiting within. One of the windows was shattered and the wall heavily damaged, the roof broken, and the clash had created mountains of torched debris. And there was the…knight that Winter claimed appeared during her sister's summoning technique. On his knees he loomed over the broken body of Cinder Fall, shield and front splattered with things best left unsaid. Both James and Ozpin, men of experience in the extreme cruelties of life, winced at the sight of her grisly death.
All the while the knight leaned back, laughing and wailing in equal measure as his gloved hands shook, rusty metal soaked in boiling blood.
Purple stasis locked his body in place as Glynda ensnared him within her telekinesis. He put up no fight upon his arrest.
So…I'm back?
Kept you waiting, huh. But seriously, life does its own thing. I lost the will to write but lurked around all these years, found interesting stories, cringed at others, you know how it goes. I won't be getting into any specifics but I've decided to start writing again. New name, new ideas, new outlook. And here I start with a rather dark RWBY story, how grand.
So for context I rewatched UBW not that long ago and, with the free trial of Crunchyroll I finally watched the last two volumes of RWBY to finally catch up and get reacquainted with the series. And somehow…this idea was spawned. It's not a full crossover. I just took a few aspects from Fate and slapped them onto RWBY after my brain somehow made a tangential connection between Jaune and Shirou, and here we are.
It won't be a long story. Two chapters and an epilogue.
My old stories are all abandoned, sorry about that. I've no desire to work on them after all this time so if anyone wants to take them and make them your own then go ahead. They'll be deleted at some point.
I'm also on AO3 if you'd rather read it there, also beefnpotataz, as I'll be cross posting all stories on both sites. (Edited for AO3 name)
Take care of yourselves, the world's basically on fire.