Everything was a blur to Neopolitan as she fell, the crisp night air and pieces of burning metal whistling past her ears as she felt extreme heat at her back and the cold wind everywhere else around her. The fall from the tower both felt like seconds and an eternity, and she wasn't even sure who was on top as she and Cinder tumbled freely with Qrow speeding after them. Neopolitan simply focused on driving her short blade into every inch of Cinder's flesh that she could reach in hopes to kill the mutated woman before they hit the ground. With a rage-fueled stab, she managed to drive the blade through one of Cinder's wing membranes and rip it down and out the length, rendering it entirely useless. There would be no escaping the cold, hard ground below for the Maiden… and Neopolitan wasn't sure if she would be able to survive the impact, either.
The truth was that Neopolitan didn't care if she walked away. She didn't care if a swarm of grimm descended upon her after the deed was done. The woman who had taken Roman from her needed to die, and preventing her from causing that same pain for anyone else was merely a convenient bonus. Neopolitan didn't want to be hailed as a hero after her probable death, nor did she want to survive and receive praise for killing the grimm Maiden. All she wanted was vengeance, and with each stab and slash, she could feel herself getting closer to both her goal and the snow-covered forest floor.
Cinder's claw raked across Neopolitan's body in several places, ripping her clothing and drawing warm blood. Despite her retaliation, no amount of grasping and beating of her torn wings could stop the death spiral that the smaller girl had dragged her into. Cinder was falling with her back to the ground as Neopolitan continued her assault, and she could see Qrow changing forms into a bird as she watched the tops of the trees pass over her. They were close to hitting the ground, where the impact would surely shatter bones and worsen her wounds. For the first time since acquiring her new body, Cinder Fall was afraid.
Neopolitan felt herself being twisted in midair as Cinder desperately forced her to the bottom of the struggle. In the split second in which she saw the sky above, the girl noticed that Qrow had pulled up and began beating his wings furiously. It was a clear signal that there was no time left to keep struggling in midair. Whatever damage had been done was done, and it was time to prepare for a fight on the ground. Just as Cinder reached out to clasp Neopolitan's neck with her claw, the girl closed her eyes, held her breath, and prayed she still had enough aura to pull off a desperate maneuver.
The very moment the two women reached the snow, Neopolitan shattered like glass, spreading prismatic shards of herself all across the snow. She reappeared in midair mere feet away as Cinder hit the ground hard with a scream, black blood and grimm material oozing from her myriad wounds. Neopolitan had her umbrella open and gently floated to the earth, touching down silently in the snow as the bestial roars of grimm in the surrounding woods reached a crescendo. Even from a distance, Neopolitan could hear the Maiden's labored breathing as Cinder slowly propped herself up and braced a shaking forearm against the ground, followed by the other. Cinder's right leg was twisted at an odd angle and her intact wing hung lamely against her bleeding back as she slowly dragged herself away from Neopolitan in a desperate bid to escape.
Neopolitan drew her sword once again, keeping the umbrella sheath in her opposite hand as she slowly advanced on the dying woman. None of the noises behind her mattered. All she wanted was to make Cinder suffer, regardless of what she had told the others. It was her personal grudge that mattered, and Cinder's debt to be paid. Neopolitan, too, was bleeding, though she didn't know from where as she felt the shreds of her torn top flap against her chest. Her mind blocked out the pain entirely as she kept walking forward. Nothing broke her focus until Qrow transfigured back into a human and landed before her at Cinder's side, Harbinger drawn and in its sword configuration.
"Kill her," Qrow ordered as he leveled the blade at the side of Cinder's neck. "Get over here and do it, so we can leave!"
Neopolitan picked up her pace, giving her sword a whirl as she bore down on the injured Maiden.
"You… can't… kill me," Cinder said weakly as she rolled onto her back. Her fellow grimm were rapidly emerging from the tree line all around them, and within seconds, her assailants would be surrounded. "You shortsighted… arrogant fools…"
"I beg to differ," Qrow spat as Neopolitan sank a heeled boot into Cinder's stomach and the woman clutched at the girl's foot in a desperate attempt to save herself. The huntsman pointed his blade at the nearest of the incoming grimm, knowing that he would need to buy his companion only a few more precious seconds. "You're beaten, Cinder! It ends here!"
"If you kill me, the power," Cinder began, letting out a pained hiss as Neopolitan raised the bloodied blade above her throat. "The power… goes straight to Salem!"
Qrow felt an immediate, full-body chill that had nothing to do with the atmosphere around him. Though he had fired off a shot for the closest grimm as it jumped at him, he immediately began to bring his weapon back around toward Neopolitan as time seemed to slow to a crawl all. His quick, sharp inhale acted almost as a timer as the sound of his breath echoed through his skull and he watched Neopolitan's sword descend directly for the center of Cinder's throat.
Qrow hadn't had time to think about the possible ramifications of killing Cinder when everything had happened so fast. He didn't have time left to consider what would happen when he pulled the trigger. Not even thoughts had time to properly form as he curled his finger inward and squeezed the curved metal. All that Qrow knew was that he wished he had had time to say "I'm sorry" as he held his breath, narrowed his focus, and hoped for the best.
Though Neopolitan's killing blow was quick, the slug leaving Qrow's weapon was quicker. The projectile screamed through the air before either of the women on the ground knew what was happening and collided with Neopolitan's blade before it could pierce Cinder's throat. Neopolitan's aura fizzled out, and she stopped her downwards stabbing motion just before the side of her hand touched Cinder's neck. All of the pain that she had blocked out came screaming through her nervous system at once, and it was almost enough to knock her off her feet as she tried to understand just what had happened. As she turned her shaking hand over, it all made sudden, terrifying sense.
Neopolitan's right hand was spasming uncontrollably and covered in thick, warm blood. Her last two digits were missing entirely, and part of her hand below where her knuckles should have been was missing and cauterized from the heat of the slug. The flesh was burned up and along the side of her middle finger, the tip of which had been blown off down to just above the second knuckle. All Neopolitan could do was stare in bewilderment at her ruined hand until she saw another rising up beneath her, embers forming within its palm. As she finally refocused to see Cinder's face below the incoming attack, she saw that the Maiden was smiling up at her.
She had no time or aura left to dodge.
Suddenly, the hand fell away as Harbinger raked sideways across Cinder's upper arm, tearing it from her body. Before Neopolitan could process what was going on, she felt herself being hoisted upward and deposited upon her feet in the snow next to the screaming woman down on the ground.
"Run!" Qrow commanded as he turned and fired off two more shots for the grimm that were barreling down upon them. "I'll explain later, but I need you to trust me! We have to get out of here now!"
Neopolitan had never been one to change her mind with anything resembling frequency, but she quickly found that fear and pain were powerful motivators. Without a second thought and before she really knew what she was doing, she took off into the forest as quickly as she could at Qrow's side. She held out her sheath to Qrow as she spotted her fallen sword impaled in the snow, and the man took it from her without a word. Neopolitan wrenched the blade from the ground with her left hand as she kept sprinting at full tilt, sending flecks of snow up into the air as she ran.
Qrow had converted Harbinger into a scythe as they tore their way through the dense foliage. The professional huntsman darted back and forth, cleaving through beowulfs and tearing limbs from ursa as he ran. While his back was to Neopolitan, the overwhelming urge to take advantage of his vulnerability and sink her sword into his spine flitted through her mind. A mere day ago, and she would have done it in an act of retaliation for her destroyed hand. There, in the woods, her arm, chest, and lungs burning and her mind overwhelmed with conflicting thoughts, she knew that doing such a thing would be a terrible mistake. The transition in thinking was a sudden and surprising one that she would need time to fully understand, but one thing was abundantly clear as death closed in on all sides and she pushed as hard as she could to outrun it.
Everything that had occurred that night was directly her fault.
"Salem might already be here, and Atlas is next in line," Coco explained as she paced back and forth through the snow, her scroll held firmly to her ear. Pack your shit and get here. We…"
Coco paused her movements as a loud sound echoed through the forest from the direction of the signal tower. A sudden, bright orange explosion lit up the sky, momentarily turning the treetops an unnatural shade of gold. Pieces from atop the tower began to rain down as a thundering chorus of grimm roars began to stir from within the trees, and sudden movement from the nearby woods caught her attention immediately.
"Oh fuck!" Coco exclaimed as she ended the call prematurely and slipped her scroll into her pocket. The young huntress took up her minigun immediately and faced the tree line, where Taiyang had already taken up position. "Tai, that was the tower! Something just exploded up there!"
"Yeah, I got that!" the veteran replied. "And I can see the grimm already moving between the trees! You've gotta make a decision right now and commit! I'm going in! You can either run back toward Blake, head down to Argus and hide, or come with me!"
Coco momentarily froze, though she didn't even need to think about her next course of action.
"Fuck what Qrow said!" Coco declared immediately. "We're not leaving them behind! Leaders don't abandon people, and I'm not about to step down as leader of CFVY!"
"You're godsdamned right we're not," Taiyang agreed as Coco ran up to his side. "This might be it, kid. It's been an honor."
"…and fuck you, for that matter," Coco spat, receiving an amused smirk from Taiyang. "We're coming back from this. All of us. I don't know how, but we're making it happen. Don't get careless, and once we see them, we figure out how to get the hell out of the forest."
"Sounds like a plan," Taiyang replied. "I'll take point! Cover me!"
Taiyang whirled his trident and ran off into the darkness as Coco spun the barrel of her gun and followed.
"No one dies tonight," Coco said quietly to herself as the shadows between the trees began to move around her. "I'm not letting another Fox happen, no matter what they're fighting out there…"
Author's Note:
We're just getting started. Things are going to get a whole lot bloodier, and fast…
-RD