Chapter 64
(AN: Sorry for the super duper long hiatus - but RWBY Volume 9 has taken most of my attention. Writing more RWBY without it has been very rough, so I ended up switching fandoms for a little bit: Watching the Familiar of Zero, Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, and GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There while I waited for the volume to finish. The Winter, Spring, and Fall Semesters have been super rough as well, so I've had to divert to those - especially since my graduation from college was delayed. I plan on focusing more on this story now that it's been done for a little bit now.)
Blake dodged another strafe of fire, the ground behind her exploding as Watts's sights continued to follow her, tearing up concrete and throwing smoke in the air. She dove through a closed window, the glass shards digging into her as she ducked and rolled into cover, the wall behind her collapsing soon after as Watts unloaded more rounds into the building.
"You can't possibly hope to win!" Watts sneered as a barrage of guided munitions shot out of their launch tubes, igniting and slamming into Blake's location - the explosions powerful enough to shake up the ground around them. "I've made my own personal attachments and upgrades to this Paladin in particular. Don't think I haven't been prepared for this!"
"Blake!" Ruby cried before firing two shots from Crescent Rose, in conjunction with a volley of infantry fire from the Paladin's other side. Both attacks simply bounced off a bubble of hard light shields as the mech turned around, firing several explosive blasts at Ruby from her spot on the third floor.
Ruby acted fast, jumping out of the way a few mere milliseconds before the explosion went off, the force throwing her forward harder than a natural fall would have. Screaming, she smashed through a window across the street, rolling hard into an office room and knocking over three rows of cubicles before coming to an unceremonious stop.
"Ow..." Ruby moaned as she grabbed her cracked scroll. Her aura was at 35%, with the booster having worn off when she got to a modest 60%. The fight had been going on for a good five minutes now, with Atlas Academy falling apart from the massive and unnatural storm behind her. "Is that Cinder? Or Liya? Gods, I hope it's Liya!" Ruby thought as she quickly took in a few deep breaths.
There was fire at the start of the battle, then a blizzard. Now both were enshrouding the once magnificent building as stone and dust billowed everywhere, an unseen force manipulating nature itself to tear apart the academy. Ruby saw what had happened in the vision - the original events - from Jinn, and was aware that Maidens of all seasons could manipulate all forms of weather.
But now wasn't the time to reminisce about these kinds of things, not with a mech suit battering the city around it.
"Move!" Blake yelled, and Ruby found herself getting violently tackled to the side by a furry shape as an explosion devastated the exact place she'd been less than a second ago - hiding behind part of the falling building large enough to obscure the both of them from the view of the huge mech suit. Biscuit barked, licking Ruby's hand as she tried to get up.
"Thanks!" Ruby coughed as she brushed herself off. As she yanked open the bolt to see if Crescent Rose had jammed, Blake peered through the dust to see Watts's Paladin getting pelted by plenty of small arms fire - a few soldiers flanking the hostile machine into the buildings for cover. "Any ideas? There's gotta be something we can exploit!"
"It has shields! And Watts is constantly moving in that mech, we can't whittle down any part of it before he moves to cover it!" Blake growled in frustration while Biscuit let out a concerned whine. "We need a plan..."
A yell caught their attention, and the two turned to see a pair of Atlesian troops, one of them wielding an empty rocket launcher while another fired on the Paladin with a sidearm. "Quick, over here!" Blake yelled - the soldiers turning and making a beeline for the better cover.
"I'll distract him! You get them someplace else before Watts notices!" Ruby yelled before she zipped out of cover, firing a few shots as the two soldiers joined Blake, the two of them out of breath.
"Where're the others?" Blake asked, looking for any of the other soldiers that had been with them when the rogue Atlesian had arrived.
"They're either down or retreating. There's too few of us left to hold it off. We said we'd stay behind," the soldier with the rocket launcher gasped for breath - a woman by the sound of it. "Thought a rocket would do something."
"Not like we can do much else now, we're annoyances to that thing at most," The other soldier grumbled, as he kept an eye on the fight, his hand petting Biscuit - an odd thing to do in the middle of battle. Though, it was clear he was stressed, judging by how violently his hands shook.
"Dammit..." Blake hissed before looking around. "Something...anything..." She looked up to the upper floors of one of the nearby skyscrapers that were still intact. Maybe high ground would help. If they were lucky, they could topple-
'That could work.' Blake thought, a plan coming together as she spotted an Atlesian railgun leaning out of the building with the corpse of an Atlesian soldier leaning on the sill of the window. "I need you to get to that floor," she said, pointing up. "And when I give the signal - hit them with that railgun."
"What'll the signal be?" the second trooper asked, having finished reloading his sidearm.
"We'll try to make it obvious, but it will be up to you to make the shot count," Blake said, swallowing nervously and glancing around for any intact comm systems. There was too much noise for a verbal signal due to the battle, and there was no way she was taking the risk with the compromised comms. She'd just have to trust in their training.
"Biscuit, go with them. Keep them safe," Blake whispered, rubbing Biscuit's ears. The large and fluffy dog barked once in confirmation, and the cat Faunus smiled. Another explosion and a salvo of shots from Crescent Rose was heard nearby, and Blake gripped Gambol Shroud tightly. "Go!" she shouted before she leapt out of cover, firing several shots at Watts's Paladin before he could fire another barrage of cannon shells at Ruby. The crimson girl lunged to the side as the mech diverted its attention towards Blake.
As the two soldiers and dog made a break for the building, Blake hurled her ribbon up at a nearby street light before grappling up - dodging a swing from the arm of the mech suit and flying over its back - firing several Dust shots at the still open missile batteries while she soared over. The shields flickered but remained strong all the while. Blake landed several meters away before she was quickly zipped away by Ruby before the ground she was on was violently torn up by automatic fire.
"We need to break those shields. Who knows how much damage they can handle," Ruby said, panting for breath as she reloaded Crescent Rose.
"They're segmented! The shields aren't one big bubble, it's a grouping of over a hundred smaller barriers connected to each other," Blake said. "We'll need to keep striking at a specific location constantly in order to weaken it. Those soldiers went for a railgun, if we can get them an opening-"
"Then we can take it down!" Ruby said. "Alright, where will we hit it?"
"The top. The missile batteries are right there and there's a good chance that the power system is dead center in the mech," Blake said. "We need to keep him as still as possible, maybe we can use one of the buildings for that."
Blake glanced meaningfully at one of the taller buildings that was tilting precariously, even as she trailed off, knowing there was a very good chance that this wouldn't work. How could it? They were severely lacking in any sort of numbers or firepower to break any significant amount of the shields to effectively leave the mech vulnerable. They were supposed to retreat, after all, and nobody else would be coming to help them...
"Hey!" Ruby shouted, quickly shaking Blake out of her stupor. "We can do this, okay? I promise we can do this together. Alright?" She said this much more calmly this time, a brief lull seeming to come over the battlefield. Her face was dead serious, but her voice was confident.
"Right," Blake said quietly before taking a deep breath, channeling as much of her inner Yang as she could manage for this. "Yeah. Yeah, we can do this. We can take this thing down..."
"You honestly think you can hide from me? I have you on thermals," Watts's voice rang out. At once, Ruby and Blake jumped away - just in time to avoid getting blasted with the pair of cannons in its arms. As the smoke and dust billowed, Blake and Ruby backflipped from any debris in the air - shards of metal and bits of concrete slamming into the ground from the explosion.
"We can do this," Ruby said, yanking the bolt back and chambering another round in Crescent Rose before firing - propelling herself high into the air towards the mech. Blake took a deep breath before dashing forward to join her, vanishing in the dust.
- at Atlas Academy, POV: Markus Onissa -
Cinder and Liya destroyed everything around them. Much of Atlas Academy's towers and upper levels had been reduced to mere rubble with the sheer force of winds and fire that swept around the academy. As misshapen steel and shattered concrete flew about, the rest of us were locked into heavy combat with the Grimm knights, all while avoiding getting pelted or smashed by debris of all sizes.
"I should have just finished the job when I had the chance!" Cinder screamed.
"You always did suck at your job, bitch!" Liya snarled back before another wave of fire drowned out her voice.
All the while, the rest of us battled for our lives, stuck back to back and splitting up when something big came our way. Lunging back, I jumped out of the way as Cardin tackled a nearby knight with a furious roar, slamming it into the stone before he jumped back, leaving the Grimm to be swept up in the swathes of scorching winds when they came by.
"Heads up!" I heard Dove shout, and I ducked to see Penny fly by, gutting a knight with a full salvo of railgun shots from her array of blades, before getting slapped aside by the flat of one of the Grimm knight's swords. With a snarl, it ran at me, arms raised to bring the full weight of its weapons down on me.
I reacted quicker, bringing up my Dust and wrenching the blades out of its hands before hurling one at another one of the Grimm engaged with Yang. It bounced off the armor, but distracted it long enough for Yang to land a haymaker assisted with the blast of the shotgun in her robot arm. I kept the second sword alongside the red blade I already had, cutting at the Grimm armor before swinging and beheading it.
The fighting had only gotten worse, with Liya having adjusted to the Winter Maiden's powers rather quickly - able to keep up with Cinder's reckless and rage induced attacks. I slammed another nearby Grimm knight into the nearest wall of the slowly crumbling school before backflipping over the swing of another, only for a shot from Yang to stun it, followed by a flurry of kicks and slugs that sent it toppling down the stairs. "Clear!" she yelled.
I landed behind her before grabbing Yang and quickly pulling her back, dodging a lunge from another attacking Grimm knight before spinning out from a rebar that had been thrown from my left. As the bar impaled the shoulder of the knight, I turned to see Stella jumping towards me, another rebar in her hands.
"You're dead!" she snarled as she hurled it at me. Blocking it with the swipe of the Grimm sword, Stella dashed forwards and swung at me, pulling two Atlesian swords from her back and swinging. Tendrils of neural Dust blocked each and every strike, but she was fast and very aggressive, hyper focused on me with the promise of death in her eyes. "You got us into this mess! You don't get to live after all of that!"
"It wasn't me! It was Salem, and you know that!" I tried to shout before I got a kick to the head. Stunned, I swung wildly and struck Stella's arm - though her semblance simply sent me stumbling again. I was barely able to block the next blow before getting slammed in the side by another kick. My aura hadn't been able to recover properly, leaving me unshielded as the pain seared into me.
"Shut up!" Stella roared as she raised her sword - ready to cut me down before I could even hit the ground - only for a large ethereal white bird to slam into her from behind, the startled yelp drowned out by the screeches of the summoned Nevermore.
I stumbled to my feet, panting as my opponent wrestled with the massive summoned Grimm. I turned to see Weiss, clearly focusing on keeping the Nevermore summoned as Emerald covered her from two simultaneous attacks from other Grimm knights. "Thanks!" I shouted before lunging towards Stella, just as she beheaded the Nevermore.
The two of us were locked - the bandit snarling as she attempted to push her way aggressively over me. But I was ready for that, immediately blocking every move she had as quickly as I could, though it prevented me from actively attacking back with how ferociously she was attacking me.
So instead I used my neural dust and hurled Stella into a Grimm knight hard enough to drain most of her aura, as well as break the armor of the knight I threw her into. The resounding "crack" from the hard collision would've made me wince if I hadn't been so angry: which I was.
That anger soon died with what I saw next. Stella's look of anger had been turned to shock as she sat on the Grimm knight below her. Her body posture had changed in an instant, with all hostility having been completely sapped from her. What was she doing?
"S-Sten?" she whispered. My ears perked as I turned to see why she was looking down. The helmet of the knight was sitting harmlessly a few meters away, leaving his face exposed for everyone to see.
"...no..." I muttered, realizing what he was. What every Grimm knight had been before they became what they were now. Stella seemed to realize this as well, jumping up and running to another corpse, pulling their helmet off and seeing the dead pale face of someone that she recognized.
I immediately felt a sense of guilt and pity. Stella was a complete asshole and sadistic as hell, but not even she deserved to learn the truth of what had happened to her fellow tribesman. Murders, thieves and who knows what else, they didn't deserve the fate they'd been given. In the little time I spent prisoner in Jackie's tribe, I learned how close everyone was with each other - almost like a twisted family version of the Branwen tribe.
So I had to step back as Stella began to rage - swearing even more furiously and acting even more erratic - this time not at me, but at Salem. "Fucking bitch! What the hell did she do to you?!" she screamed, her rage seemingly focused on the corpse beneath her. "Where is she?! Where the fuck is she?!"
Yang had rushed in, only for me to grab her by the arm, shaking my head at her. The storm only continued to grow above us, the howling sounds of wind and fire barely drowning out the screams before us. There was no point in carrying on. With more fights to come, we needed all our strength.
"What...is this?" Yang whispered. I turned to see her eyes locked on the corpse and its changed facial features.
"This is what Salem does. She uses people. She breaks them..." I muttered. "She turned her family into an army of monsters." Yang stared for a few moments before turning away. I did so as well. Casting one last look over my shoulder, I could only hope Stella either made a run for it, or atleast stayed out of our way. Her tribe had made their choice, however stacked against them it was, and they suffered for it, but she still had a chance.
I caught up to Yang, steadfastly gazing forwards, I didn't even have the heart to even finish the fight now - not that I'd been exactly willing. Stella was one hell of an opponent, and not having to fight her was a blessing.
And so, we left her to her misery.
As another part of the school fell, Yang and I ducked for cover, the sound of crumbling brick and mortar echoing all around us. "We need to find Liya!" Yang quickly shouted as Cinder's rampage began to devastate the school from within - sending interior walls and ceilings flying out as shrapnel. One of the Mantas nearby was struck - one of its wing pylons shredded violently and sent the aircraft smashing into one of the walls with a mighty explosion.
Looking back, I could see more of the retreating Atlesian forces getting caught in the crossfire, forced to hold and engage the Grimm knights. "Weiss! Emerald!" I shouted. "With me! CRDL, break off and cover those troops!"
"On it! Weapon!" Cardin yelled as he slammed a cinder block into one of the Grimm knights before catching one of the Atlesian swords one of the soldiers tossed at him. Emerald cut down another Grimm knight before ducking under the swing of another wielding a two handed hammer. The knight would never get the chance to hit her, as a flurry of blades from Penny literally turned it into mincemeat.
Liya slammed into the nearest wall, her aura flickering hard as Penny, Emerald, Weiss, and I were flung away from the sheer strength of the winds that struck us. We didn't fly too hard, thankfully - but we were kept pinned to the ground when Cinder attacked with her own furious screams - her own generated winds strong enough to send us high into the air.
"We need to get to the vault!" Weiss hissed as she clutched Myrtenaster with one arm while holding onto a dented railing with the other. Penny was holding onto Emerald while she used her swords as anchors. I did the same with my Dust, looking up with a grimace as the howling winds tore pieces of concrete and metal up and around. We could barely see Cinder or Liya through the swirling fire, and I knew for certain that neither of them had noticed us.
Nearby, CRDL and Yang were covering the Atlesian soldiers, shooting down or cutting up any debris that threatened to injure anyone. The few Grimm knights left were unable to move as well, being pinned down by the overlapping storms like everyone else, while Stella was nowhere to be seen. "We gotta get Cinder off her back..." I said, barely able to hear another furious roar from Cinder from the sounds of screaming wind and flames. "Liya could be in trouble."
"How do we do that?" Weiss called. I thought for a moment, trying to come up with a plan as the chaos continued to rain down. We were stuck here with the two maidens battling it out, but that also gave us a reprieve from combat - as no other Grimm would be able to make it to us.
"Penny. Charge your blades. Make a laser," I quickly ordered. Pulling a few of my neural Dust tendrils away, I wrapped them around Emerald and Penny so Floating Array could be used. "Once you see an opening, you let loose."
"W-what if I miss?" Penny whispered. Despite the doubtful sentiment, she'd done as I'd asked. Her blades were pointed at the storm and began to spin. A series of large green sparks began to zap from the tips of every sword, all striking and forming a glowing green ball of energy in the center, a ball that slowly grew bigger and bigger.
"You won't. We trust you. And Liya needs us right now," I said. The tornado of fire died down for a moment, revealing Cinder getting kicked back by Liya before the flames roared back to life. "The moment Penny nails the bitch, we hit her with everything we have!"
Weiss nodded shakily, her hair whipping violently in the air as she brought Myrtenaster up and lowered the tip of her blade to the ground. A large white glyph formed underneath her, spinning slowly as wisps of white energy gently rose into the air. "Ready!"
Thankfully, Weiss didn't need to wait too long as Penny saw her chance. A blast of ice in the tornado dispersed the flames long enough to reveal another opening: one where Liya lay on the ground with a hand in the air. Cinder was dropping on top of her, a glass spear in her hands.
A spear that was aimed right at Liya's neck.
I didn't get a chance to yell, and neither did Emerald or Weiss. Even if we did, it would have been completely drowned out by the sound of a massive fucking laser being fired from Floating Array. Cinder was there one second, and then she was several hundred meters high in the sky the next - any scream of pain or shock she might have emitted deafened by the blast of pure green energy.
Her spear landed on the ground, clattering like glass did as it rolled down the stairs. "Weiss throw everything you got at her!" I shouted.
"Understood!" Weiss growled, and the glyph underneath her began to spin faster before dozens of white Nevermore shot out, following the laser and flying full tilt at Cinder.
Emerald had gotten up, pulling Liya to her feet alongside Yang as Penny and Weiss continued to lay on the pressure. "We can handle it from here!" Penny called, the laser dying out before she opened fire with the railguns, firing between the swarm of summoned Nevermore to keep Cinder pinned. "Get her to the vault!"
"Get everyone else safely out of here!" Weiss ordered.
"Penny!" Liya cried, taking note of the android girl's heavily damaged state.
"Go, now!" Weiss yelled, and we quickly got going, with Yang, Emerald, and I covering Liya as we hurried into the nearest opening into the wrecked academy, with Yang firing Ember Celica up at the ceiling as soon as we passed. The explosive buckshot tore down the ceiling, burying the makeshift opening with parts of the academy, blocking sight of the outside.
"Penny...Weiss..." Liya whispered as the four of us stopped.
"They'll be fine. They're strong. And there's CRDL and a few hundred soldiers close by," I quickly reassured. My hand gripped her arm, still unable to comprehend that she was alright - and officially the Winter Maiden of all people. "We can't waste any more time."
Liya took a shaky breath before nodding. "I...I can do this," she whispered. "Where's the vault?"
I grabbed her hand and began to pull. "This way."
- Atlas: center of the city -
Salem's left arm was blasted off at the elbow once more with a shot from Due Process's cannon form. The barrel of the large cannon in General Ironwood's hands glowed red and hissed with smoke. If Salem noticed the lack of a limb, she gave no indication: simply raising her right arm and firing a blast of color crazy magic at the Atlesian veteran while her wound began to heal for what had to be the hundredth time in the last few minutes.
Ironwood ducked, with Ozpin leaping over the cyborg and countering with his own blast of magic. The two beams of energy connected and created an explosion big enough to send nearby people flying, though not nearly as powerful enough to cause any grievous injury.
Salem stepped back as Ironwood took aim with Due Process once more, only for Hazel to step in and swing at the general. The tin man had to ditch his focus, leaping back to avoid getting him or his weapon struck by the man in grieving. "You're not stopping her. Not now," the tall man spoke calmly, cracking his fists. Even now in the face of full out warfare, he seemed as steady as ever.
"I will if I want to save Remnant. And you should too," Ironwood said. Salem no longer seemed to have any sense of focus on Ironwood, now fighting Ozpin and his cane one on one. Ironwood recalled Ozpin telling him some information about magic - mainly how using it made the fusing process between him and Oscar speed up, hence why he used it sparingly. He could only hope that he wouldn't need it to hold back Salem.
"This world needs to be wiped clean," Hazel said. "Huntsmen academies, the turmoil within kingdoms, and all of the pain and suffering. It's all been caused by the people, not the Grimm."
"The Grimm is why we need to fight, why negativity exists!" Ironwood growled. "You think Salem cares about what this world needs? No, she only cares about what she wants."
"What she wants and what Remnant needs are the same. A clean slate," Hazel countered. "A chance to avoid needless slaughter, to avoid the fates of the children you needlessly send to their doom in a useless war."
"No. It is not a useless war. Salem can't be killed, but she can be defeated. She has limits, and she doesn't care about wiping Remnant clean. Only with destroying it," Ironwood said, stepping to his right. Hazel stepped to his left, the two men circling each other as the battle raged on around them.
"You don't know nearly as much as you believe you do. Salem understands loss. Grief. Anger. She understands what I need because she's had generations upon generations to understand it for herself. If destruction is what it takes to fix this world, then so be it," Hazel growled.
General Ironwood's eyes dimmed as he raised Due Process, the green glow in its barrel charging up as he sighed. "Then so be it indeed," he said before charging while opening fire. Hazel leapt to the side and rolled, just in time to avoid getting struck. The beam decimated an Ursa behind him, and the powerhouse of a man pulling out two shards of Dust, earth and fire.
Stabbing the Dust directly into his wrists, Hazel clapped together violently. A massive spear of burning rock formed in his hands, and he hurled it directly at the general. The man spun out of the way before swinging Due Process at Hazel, the two men having closed the distance in the span of those two attacks.
Hazel's aura flickered once as the cannon slammed into the man before Ironwood swung once more. Hazel caught the weapon with his earth Dust injected hand and pulled it towards him, swinging his other fist into the general. The impact formed a blast wave of fire, strong enough to send the general flying. "You'll have to try harder than that," Hazel rumbled as he tossed aside the weapon.
Another green blast of energy struck Hazel through the dust, the beam draining a significant amount of aura from him. Hazel grunted in surprise as he stumbled back one step. General Ironwood stepped out of the dust, his uniform dirty and worn as he held out his prosthetic arm. The hole in the palm of the metal hand glowed with green energy as he glowered at Hazel.
Meanwhile, Ozpin and Salem were having their own duel far from everyone else in the area, magic tearing up the street as Ozpin weaved around the immortal woman's powers. His aura flickered with the proximity of a few strikes from her magic, but those weren't enough to deter his own attacks.
Long Memory pounded away at Salem's arms and legs - shredding muscle and shattering bone with the hyper focused kinetic force of a bullet with every strike. Despite the relentless attacks, Salem wasn't stopped in any way - only slowed by the need to heal her injuries. Despite the killing blows some attacks dealt, often blowing off Salem's head or even splitting her in half with a strike aimed at her center mass, she was repaired almost instantly after she took the damage.
The pain didn't seem to deter her either - as Salem was quick to move around and fire off burst after burst of magic at her reincarnated ex-lover. She was fast, but Ozpin was faster with the advantage of having Oscar's spry and youthful metabolism paired with an impressive stamina earned from rigorous training under the experience of past battles and Ozpin's tutelage.
"Why do you continue to fight?" Salem asked, her voice similar to that of a scolding mother's - a far cry from the absolutely furious expression on her face. "We've had to do this song and dance for centuries, Ozma. And every time, the result is the same."
Ozpin corkscrewed over another blast of magic and landed with a swing towards the ground - blasting dust and shards of asphalt into the air. Salem recoiled and jumped away from the improvised dust cloud, her hands glowing with power. "You can be stopped regardless of your curse. You may be invincible, but you can be defeated - and that's more than enough reason to continue to fight," the former headmaster of Beacon said through the dust.
"Delaying the inevitable is a fruitless endeavor," Salem scoffed. "The Grimm are a force of nature. You can't hope to do more than delay my power." A grin curled on her lips, and she released another few blasts of magic into the cloud, dissipating it at once and sending an overturned truck flying through the air.
Ozpin landed where the truck once was, the ground around him sizzling from magic. "Your hubris will be the end of you," he remarked.
Salem's grin turned into a snarl. "It isn't hubris if it's the truth." The two dashed towards each other once more.
Behind them, a much larger battle was taking place: with Jackie fighting off the Ace-Ops one on one, all while Jaune and Pyrrha fought off the armored Grimm that threatened to overrun the surviving soldiers in the area. Jaune pulled his shield up in the nick of time, catching a salvo of gunfire from one of the Ursai before Pyrrha leapt over him with a quick and ruthless stab of her javelin. The gap at the top of the Ursa's neck was pierced effortlessly, and the monster disintegrated within seconds - leaving empty plates of armor and damaged guns on the ground.
The Invincible Girl landed in front of Jaune, panting as she reformed her javelin into a sword. "It isn't hard to deal with them if you know where to hit, but the guns make it hard," she quickly explained, bringing her shield up just in time to block another volley of enemy fire.
"Well, most of these Grimm are already dealt with, so we can deal with them and then help General Ironwood against Hazel," Jaune panted as he wiped his brow with his sword arm. "My aura's at about half, I think. You?"
"Mostly full," Pyrrha said, aiming and firing Miló behind cover of her Akoúo̱, the cutouts on either side of the Dipylon shield doing wonders to dampen the recoil with how fast she was firing against a charging Ursa, the shots slowing it down but not stopping it. "But I'm low on ammunition."
"Then you save what you have left!" Qrow yelled as he was sent flying by a punch from Hazel - managing to swing down in midair and behead the Ursa as he flew by. With a spin and a backflip, he kicked off the ground and dug Harbinger's blade into the torn up concrete. Stopping himself from flying back too far, he formed it into his scythe before lunging back at Hazel. "Retreat! Cover the soldiers and regroup with the rest of the military! Get to the academy!"
With a roar, Hazel swung his arm, just in time for Ironwood to catch it while Qrow attempted to attack from his left. "Listen to Qrow! We can handle the rest here!" the Atlesian general ordered as the Ace Ops continued to fight off the remaining few Grimm as well as the last Grimm Knight, having a surprising amount of trouble with the barehanded fighter. "The others need you!"
Pyrrha was about to protest, only for Jaune to grip her shoulder. "They're right. We need to regroup and get to the academy. Can you call Nora and Ren?" he asked.
Pyrrha reluctantly nodded, pulling out her scroll as the two ran down the street, unopposed as the fights continued without interruptions. Salem scowled as Ozpin blasted her hand off of her wrist once more, interrupting her attempted magic attack on the two retreating students.
"You won't harm them," Ozpin warned, Long Memory gripped tightly in his hands.
Salem simply huffed before regrowing her hand once more.
"Are you sure we can get out of this alive?" Oscar whispered in the back of Ozpin's mind.
"I'll do my best," Ozpin whispered. "But given what we're up against, I can unfortunately make no promises."
To his surprise, he felt a sense of content from Oscar. "That's good enough for me."
- back in Atlas Academy, POV - Markus -
Emerald and I leaned against the back of the elevator while Liya leaned on Yang, the four of us panting out of sheer exhaustion. All of our auras were at half or lower, with Liya having almost none left after Cinder's relentless assault on the Winter Maiden. "I need to get more practice with these powers..." Liya sighed tiredly as she leaned against Yang's shoulder. She was beaten and battered - with what little aura she had left working to heal her.
"Cinder knows how to handle these powers," Emerald muttered, listening to the muffled sounds of combat outside the academy. "Between Amber and Beacon, she's been practicing, and that was with half of the maiden abilities." She looked around, noticing the elevator having stopped moving. "Also, where are we going? We didn't go down that fast, did we?"
"Barracks first," I quickly answered. The elevator doors opened, and I stumbled out, Emerald by my side. Yang and Liya quickly followed suit as they followed us. The floor was still in moderately decent shape, still far below ground level where the chaotic battle took place. I still knew my way around, and I knew which room we needed to get to in order to grab what I had in mind.
After a minute of traversing the hallway, I kicked open a door and headed inside, opening a nearby drawer and grabbing a few objects inside - a few tubes full of aura boosters. "This probably isn't safe, but here. Take two of them. Actually, no. Take three of them," I quickly said, tearing off the cap of one of the tubes before picking two boosters and popping them in my mouth, chewing the foul tasting tablets.
Liya did so, eating three and grimacing very hard as she struggled to digest this. "Blegh..." she coughed as Yang and Emerald both took three and two respectively. The two of them forced it down with a few gags, but other than that, they were fine.
I sighed as I pocketed the last tube, just in case we needed it for later. "Okay, that's pretty much it. Oh, and clothes," I said. "This is the barracks, there's probably uniforms or armor here."
"Uniforms. I'm pretty sure I'll melt or freeze up any armor I wear," Liya sighed, struggling to handle the taste as I leaned back against Emerald. Yang wasted no time, rushing to another room and coming back with a wrinkled Atlas Academy school uniform, which looked like it had been stripped off in a hurry. It was complete with the gray vests, ties, and boots.
We didn't waste any more time, heading back to the elevator and quickly taking it down to the vault as Liya got dressed. Even with the elevators in efficient working order, the journey still took a while to complete. "Do you really think we can pull this off?" Yang finally asked after a few seconds of silence. "I mean, the city's pretty much destroyed and we have Cinder rampaging just outside."
I looked up and realized that the sounds of muffled battle were no longer noticeable, likely being too far away to hear them. "We have to trust Weiss and Penny. And we've got hundreds of troops and Mantas making their way back here. Cinder can't handle all that firepower," I muttered.
"We don't know that," Yang whispered. "Who knows who else is here? Salem is probably here as well. What about Ruby or Blake? What about the rest of JNPR? Qrow, Winter-"
"Hey, we need to have faith that we can pull this off. We aren't fighting Atlas and Salem at the same time, remember? It's all of us versus Salem and the Grimm," I quickly interrupted, though I was having a bit of trouble believing that for myself. There were still too many variables to consider, especially since we were about to do the same plan for getting everyone left on Atlas to Vacuo. The people were safe, but the biggest strength we could utilize was the military.
I winced at the thought of all the casualties we'd flown by on the way from the edge of the city to Atlas Academy. Even if most of the soldiers were killed or missing in action, any assets left would be a major help. The remaining Atlesian airships had to be helping out, right?
The elevator doors opened up with the 'ding' of a bell, revealing a small hallway in front of us - a hallway that led to another door. The four of us looked at each other before making our way forward. I reached the door first, pressing the button before a little light in the middle of the door turned on, blinking.
A few seconds later, the light turned green, with a small speaker ringing out as the door slid up. "Welcome: Specialist Markus Onissa." Behind the now open door was a relatively large black floating platform, one on top of a large incline that led down - down much deeper than expected.
"That's the vault down there, isn't it?" Yang asked quietly. I nodded, and I stepped on the tile. Thankfully, it didn't move - and it was incentive enough for Liya, Emerald, and Yang to follow behind. The four of us stood on the platform, and it began to move, lowering at the steep incline and going deeper and deeper into the bowels of Atlas itself.
"Do you know what to say? To the staff guy, I mean. What's his name again?" Liya asked.
"Ambrosius," I said. "And yes, I know how to explain it. I hope." I said the last part quietly to myself - though if Liya or Yang heard, they didn't say. Emerald laid her hand on my arm, nodding reassuringly at me: a gesture that did wonders to make me feel a little bit better.
The journey to the vault took more than a few minutes, but it passed like clockwork as we were treated to the sight of the Atlesian vault. The sight was something to behold, with the floating floors surrounded by large crystal-like structures that floated like the mountains over Lake Matsu in Mistral, or the Hallelujah Mountains on Pandora in the Avatar movie.
I sighed, wondering if I missed the sequel.
The platform reached the bottom, and the four of us made our way down the walkway and past the floating crystals to the ominous looking golden door seemingly built into the largest crystal structure, which hovered directly in front of us. Like in the show, the door was a good several meters above us, but that issue was mitigated when several floating steps made their way towards the gap, forming a set of hovering stairs leading from the edge of the walkway to the vault itself.
Emerald stepped back, and Liya and I looked at each other with steel gazes in our eyes. Liya seemed to be in much better shape now, especially with the aura boosters kicking in over time. I felt a little refreshed as well - though I was far from fully recharged. The two of us silently made our way up the stairs as Yang and Emerald armed their weapons and turned around, ready to engage any threat that could possibly follow us.
Liya and I reached the vault, and I grabbed Liya's arm. "Just activate the powers, only a little," I said, and my partner nodded. I stepped back as Liya breathed in and out deeply a few times, closing her eyes before opening them moments later. Small wisps of gray flames licked out of her eyes as she reached over and pressed her right palm on the golden doors.
What happened next was similar to what happened in the show, with the markings on the door glowing before it opened - the segmented parts of the doors sliding downwards bit by bit to reveal the alternate dimension that lay within.
An endless grassy green biome with multiple stone circles forming a path to the staff, which was about as accurate as we expected. The staff was suspended midair on a small stone structure between two equally small pillars.
Escape to Vacuo lay within. I stepped forward as Liya nodded to me. "You got this," she whispered.
I nodded back, shakily exhaling as I crossed the distance between the vault entrance and the Staff of Creation. "Okay, I got this...I got this, I got this, I got this," I muttered to myself as I tried to remember everything I went over.
Stopping in front of the staff, I reached forwards and gently touched it.
(AN: The next chapter for this story won't be as long of a wait, especially since I got much of my groove back. The next chapter for the other story: "A Chance To Change Everything: Behind Closed Doors" is almost done as well. Again, I am really sorry for the pause, )