Lost from Within, Pursuing the End/You Will Never Be Strong Enough
In the dark of night, a private bullhead moved through Mistral with a small amount of passengers. The airship moved stealthy, making sure not to draw attention to itself and it's crew. Inside the bullhead, Adam and his trusted lieutenant, along with three other White Fang goons, sat at a wooden table nearby the pilot and copilot in the cockpit.
The White Fang Lieutenant made a tick mark on a small piece of paper. There were two marks so far. Adam sighed. "Look on the bright side. We've actually made it to Mistral without being caught." The lieutenant said to him. "From here, it'll be another day before we hit our first stop."
"There's three places that Maura likely hid herself-" Adam pointed to three different locations on the map of the kingdom. "Wind Path, Kuchinashi or Shion, a small village along the Mistralian trade route." He pointed back to Wind Path. "We'll look at Wind Path first. From what I've had my lieutenant gather from local Mistralian faunus outside of his traditional uniform, of the two known havens for outlaws, Wind Path is the bigger of the two. It would be easier for Maura to hide in a bigger village, so we are more inclined to believe that that is where she hid herself."
"So, remind me, why are we going after Maura again?" one of the goons asked.
"Aren't we supposed to kill her?" another asked.
"No, my dear friend." Adam answered. "Quite the opposite actually. With Sienna Khan punishing me for the events that happened at Beacon, I have to get the Mistralian White Fang leader to help me invade Haven Academy. Since Maura's on the run, she's likely scared and alone. If we help her, shelter her away from the authorities who would want nothing more than to have her head, she will feel grateful and more inclined to aid us with our goal."
"But isn't Maura one of Sienna's loyal agents?" the third one asked.
"The question you should be asking is 'How strong is Maura's loyalty to Sienna?'" Adam stated. "Dire circumstances can change how a person acts, and she's under a lot of stress right now. Not only is she the most wanted target in Mistral right now, the bounty on her head is ever increasing. Last I looked, the bounty is currently 125,000 Lien."
"150,000 Lien actually." the first goon corrected. "That price was from a few weeks ago. The bounty has increased since then." He handed Adam a wanted poster. "See for yourself."
He examined the poster. In between the first and second lines was a picture of Maura.
Wanted; Maura Celandine
For the storming of Sanctum Academy
Wanted dead or alive
She may or may not be armed, likely very dangerous. Also noted for being a compulsive liar.
Reward- 150,000 Lien
"I stand corrected, but my point also still stands." Adam noted. "As the civil war escalates and mankind is caught in the middle of it, the bounty on her head will increase and if nothing is done, she'll die all alone. If we don't get her support, the plan to invade Haven will never get off the ground." He looked to his lieutenant. "How much longer until we reach Wind Path?"
"We should be at the outskirts within a few days." his lieutenant answered.
Adam smiled to himself. "Excellent."
Back at the Arc family home, Tangerine had just returned from another long day of hunting criminals. As she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, she took out a notepad with the names of fugitives who were worth big money along with a pen. She marked out a few names and put the items away. Despite having fought three fugitives in one day, as well as twenty regular thugs, she managed to get through the day relatively unscathed. She only got one scratch on her right wrist.
As she opened the door, she saw her younger sisters, sans Emerald, sitting around in the living room, waiting for her.
"Tangerine! You're home!" Indigo said.
She smirked. "Shouldn't you guys be asleep by now?"
"We just wanted to see you return home safely." Amethyst answered earnestly.
Her smirk shifted to a genuine smile. "Aw thanks. Glad to know you girls care."
"Ah, I see you have returned." Rouge said, before noticing the minor damage. "And what happened with your wrist?"
"Don't worry. Tis but a scratch."
"At least it was minor. Also, you have mail."
Tangerine raised an eyebrow. "Mail? Who would be sending me mail?"
Rouge retrieved and read the words on the envelope. "Judging from the envelope, it appears to be from someone named Yang Xiao-Long. Isn't she a friend of yours?"
"Yeah, I sent her a letter a few weeks ago." Tangerine took the letter as Rouge handed it to her. "I was beginning to think that she never got it." She took out a pocket knife and opened the envelope. "I could use some good news right now." As she began to read Yang's response, the smile on her face shifted to a neutral expression. Then her expression shifted to a worried look. About half-way through silently reading her response, she gasped. "No... it can't be..."
"What's the matter?" Acacia asked.
"It's Yang... She... lost most of her right arm during the Fall of Beacon."
The other sisters gasped. "Oh no..." Amethyst said.
"Oh..." Azura added.
"That's unfortunate." Rouge said. "Then again, there's always risks to being a huntress. Or even a semi-pro huntress."
The tomboy held back tears and sighed. "You're not wrong."
"Is there anything else in there?" Indigo inquired.
Tangerine looked at the letter. "Let's see..." She looked over the rest of the letter. "She claims that she thought she saw Mercury attack her, even though she doesn't know why, Pyrrha unintentionally ripping Penny apart, the Fall of Beacon, how several forces attacked Beacon, including the White Fang, of which an elitist from that group attacked her partner and she lost her temper and her arm... She also speaks about what happened to her teammates, how team RWBY dissolved, confessing that writing the letter was not easy and wishing me good luck in all my endeavors. I think that's about it. Oh wait. There's a PS section. 'PS- Sorry I forgot about sending you a birthday text message. Happy belated birthday, Tang.'"
"So what are you going to do now that you know this?" Rouge asked.
Tang tried to repress a sob, without much success. The tears the tough tomboy held back began to fall. "I'll give myself the night to grieve." She sniffed. "Stupid tears... Come next morning, those emotions will be tabled and I'll get right back out there."
"It's alright." Amethyst said.
"No, it's not. I'm not supposed to cry. I'm supposed to be tough." Tangerine threw her arms around Acacia. "I haven't cried in years..."
"Look on the bright side. At least it's not in public." Indigo said to reassure her.
"There, there..." Acacia petted her head, trying to comfort her older sister.
Azura mused to herself briefly. "You know, a thought just occurred to me..."
"And what might that be?" Tangerine asked, breaking away from Acacia.
"Since Jaune was present for the Fall of Beacon, he had to have known about Yang's injury. But since Tangerine gasped upon seeing this letter with the revelation, we can deduce that he never told her what happened to her friend. Why would he keep this from her?"
"Maybe he didn't have the heart to tell her." Amethyst answered.
"Or maybe he never felt any need to tell her." Rouge suggested.
Azura shrugged. "Either way, we know the truth now, and we can't scold him if he's not here."
Acacia yawned. "Either way, it's been a long night for all of us. I'm going to bed."
Azura added, "Yeah, I'm going to get some shut eye."
Indigo responded, "Same."
"What she said." Amethyst answered.
"Goodnight girls!" Rouge said to her sisters.
"Goodnight." the four of them said.
As Acacia and the three youngest sisters went upstairs to their bedrooms, Tangerine left the room and went to the kitchen, getting herself a few cubes of ice in a glass of water. Rouge followed her lead and got herself a cup of warm lavender tea.
As the two sat down at the dining room table across from each other, the fashionista asked, "Are you sure that you'll be okay?"
The criminal catcher wiped away her tears before putting her hand to the ice filled glass. "I'll be fine."
"If you say so..." Rouge responded, only half-convinced.
"You must remember Rouge, I was nicknamed the tough tomboy for a reason." Tangerine took another sip of water. "I don't do touchy feely stuff."
"Or whatever extremely sorrowful emotions you have, you mask them with anger. But why is it that you don't like crying, especially in the public eye?"
Tangerine sighed deeply. "Do you remember the last time I cried?"
Rouge frowned. "How can I forget?"
Meanwhile in Patch, Ruby and team JNPR were camping out in the woods, sitting around the campfire. Pyrrha still wore her cloak from earlier, and had her hood down. They had just finished Ren's stew.
"Thanks for making dinner Ren." Ruby said.
"No problem." he responded.
Nora yawned. "Man, it's been a long first day." She rubbed her eyes. "So who's taking the first watch?"
"We'll go by team name order, so it'll be me, then Nora, Pyrrha, Ren and Ruby." Jaune answered. "The next person will be woken up in four hours to take their shift, which means there should be roughly two shifts a night. Whenever the second shift ends, whoever's up will wake up everyone else and we get a move on. I've already imposed myself for first watch, so sleep tight knowing that the Arc-man is on the clock."
Pyrrha tried to refrain from laughing. What a dork. she thought to herself.
Instead she said, "Goodnight, Mr. Handsome."
Ren smiled. "Goodnight my friends. Sleep well."
"Sleep tight everyone!" Nora said.
Ruby unfurled her sleeping bag. "Goodnight guys."
Everyone got into their sleeping bags under the stars save for Pyrrha, who went into her own tent. She took off her cloak and got out her pillow. Curling herself up in her sleeping bag and resting her head on her pillow, Pyrrha fell asleep quickly and hoped that her dreams would not torment her.
Unfortunately, she was wrong. The dream began with Qrow bringing Amber, unconscious, scarred and donned in her white clothes, in his arms to a horrified Ozpin, who was up in his office. Upon Qrow entering he stood up and gasped. "Oh no..." Ozpin was worried. "What...?"
"Long story." Qrow answered without really answering. "Is there anyway to save her?"
"We must get her on life support." Ozpin moved the painting of the Forever Fall forest aside, revealing the secret entrance to the vault. He pressed the button for the elevator to open and motioned Qrow to enter. The two entered the elevator, descended to the vault and once they got there, they ran forth as Ozpin scrambled around for a remote controlled button. He pressed it, and a metal pod opened its door for him. "Hurry, put her in!"
The huntsman shoved her into the pod and as Qrow lowered the door down, Ozpin pressed a few blue boxes on the nearby grid. The message, Life Support Activated appeared on the screen. Ozpin sighed, both in relief and in exasperation.
"Ozpin..." Qrow began, still unsure what to say.
He sighed again, the emotions still present. "Tell me what happened."
"She was attacked, the perpetrators unknown. Her power was being drained by some strange Grimm glove of some kind. I was able to stop the woman from taking all her powers, but the unknown presumed leader has at least half of Amber's Fall Maiden power."
"And she had only ascended to fall maidenhood three months ago." He sighed again, looking at Amber's scarred face. "Oh, I don't want to have to explain this to the Scarlett family..."
Qrow took a sip of whatever was in his flask. "Maybe you won't have to."
Ozpin gave him a quizzical look. "What do you mean by that?"
"Who knows? Maybe she'll wake up." The scene immediately cut to Glydna Goodwitch and James Ironwood being here. Qrow sighed. "She's not waking up. It's been six weeks and she has shown no sign of waking up anytime soon."
He began to drink as Ozpin lamented, "We can't keep her on life support forever. If nothing is done, she will eventually die and her assailant will get the other half of Amber's powers, making her the Fall Maiden."
"What do we do now?" Glydna asked.
Ironwood looked at the unconscious Amber. "There might be one way to prevent this from happening."
Qrow asked drunkenly, "And what's that Jimmy?"
The general sighed and rolled his eyes. "More recently, an experiment was done in aura, where we were able to successfully transfer an aura from a physical body to a robot body. I believe that the same procedure could be used with Amber and an eligible candidate for a maiden."
Glydna glared at him fiercely. "Compressing an aura, into a young woman? Are you out of your mind?!"
"I know that this does not sound like a good idea to the rest of you, but we may not have a choice. Ozpin told us that we only have a year to find and implement a solution to this problem. If we fail to find a solution before that life support expires, Amber's assassin becomes the new fall maiden. Unless we can think of another plan..."
"Even then, who could we trust with half of the fall maiden's power?"
"That is what we don't know." Ozpin answered. "But we can begin the search for potential candidates immediately."
The scene switched to Ozpin in his office, looking through images of female Beacon Academy students. He looked at the images of Coco Adel, Yang Xiao-Long, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and a woman Pyrrha didn't recognize.
As he did this, he thought to himself,
She could be a good candidate.
Not her, she's a bit too fiery-tempered.
Don't want to be sued by Jacques Schnee if something were to go wrong, so scratch that idea.
Blake is calm, she might be willing, although I can't help but feel that she's hiding something... Still, she could be a good candidate.
Not her, she is not ready.
He looked at Pyrrha Nikos' image.
Maybe she'll be the one we're looking for.
The scene switched to Qrow and Ozpin in the headmaster's office. "So, have you chosen your guardian yet?" Qrow asked.
Ozpin swirled his chair around to face the drunkard. "Maidens choose themselves. I simply believe I've found the right candidate. Ever since the day I met her, I had the feeling she would be the one. She's strong, intelligent, caring... but most importantly, she's ready."
After the line of dialogue was spoken, it showed Pyrrha alone in the vault elevator, as if she was about to take the power.
Were you ever truly ready? a voice asked her. It was her own.
The image of her faded away, replaced with darkness around her.
No... not this again... she thought.
The silence was broken by a familiar voice. "You were never meant to be the Fall Maiden."
A shadow manifested from the darkness, creating an intangible form of Cinder Fall. Her shadow possessed the maiden glow around her eyes, but like the rest of her body, was made out of smoke and shadows. "You're just another step on my path to power! You're nothing more than a catalyst. You may have survived, but at what cost? The world thinks you're a murderer, and your reputation as a great brave warrior has been burned to ashes. The truth burns, doesn't it?"
She breathed in and said shakily, "That... that's not true!"
"Is it? Or are you just lying to yourself to make yourself look like the hero?" The red-haired warrior didn't answer. Shadow Cinder glowed with orange energy around her. "You will never be strong enough. You will never be good enough. You will not rise above."
The shadow rose her arms, creating waves of fire directed at her. Upon the fire creeping up on her, Pyrrha ran away. Bands of sweat formed on her forehead as the warrior continued to run. A warm feeling crept up her spine and she felt terror run through her. That fire was right behind her. "You can't run forever, Pyrrha Nikos! Sooner or later, you'll get what you deserve!" She tripped and fell down, feeling the fire wave about to engulf her when she suddenly woke up, gasping for air.
It had all been a dream. But why did it feel like the imaginary form of Cinder was right? She looked at her side- Jaune was not there, which meant that he was still on guard duty. Despite being curled up in a sleeping bag, she shivered, feeling coldness creep up on her. She heard the sound of flat footsteps, some murmuring and more footsteps, these ones lighter.
A moment later, Jaune entered the tent, softly yawning to himself. He faintly noticed that Pyrrha was awake. "Pyrrha?" He asked groggily before kneeling by her side. "I thought you were asleep. Did I wake you?"
"Jaune... I..." She sniffed.
His eyes widened in concern. "What happened?"
She crawled out of her bag and looked at him, "I.. I had a nightmare and..." She turned to Jaune and began to sob into his chest.
"Shh... It's okay." Gingerly, he wrapped his arms around her and gently stroked her hair, trying to help her as best as he could. "I'm here for you."
"Cinder... she said... that... sooner or later... I'll get what I deserve." she answered between sobs.
"She believes that you deserve horrible things, but you don't." He looked at her eyes. "You are innocent. You have never done anything wrong. Whereas Cinder... she is not innocent. Far from it actually. She's caused death and destruction wherever she's gone. And we will stop her."
"Thank you, Jaune..." She looked at him forlornly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything. What is it?"
She looked away from him as the image of Cinder came to her mind. "Do you think that I'm strong enough to face Cinder, the way that I am now?"
He took her hand and gently grasped it. She turned to him as he answered, "I believe you are, and if not, then you will be."
His words were soothing, but why was she still worried?
Meanwhile, back at the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss was trying to sleep, but her restless mind would not let her rest. She looked out her window, seeing a dark, gloomy, moonless sky. She tossed and turned beneath the sheets before turning to her side. It did not help that the moonless night was accompanied by a hard rainfall.
Why couldn't you save her? How could you have failed to keep your promise? She internally sighed to herself. Maybe I should have insisted on going into the operating room and holding the glyph on her until she woke up.
Eventually, she fell asleep, even though she didn't remember when or how it happened. One minute she was lying awake in guilt and the next thing she knew, she was out like a light.
The dream began with Pyrrha Nikos lying dead in a casket, a bouquet of roses in her hands as everyone stood around her.
"I can't believe it..." Ruby sniffed. "She's gone..."
"How could you let this happen?!" Jaune lashed out in anger, pointing at her. "You promised you'd save her!"
Ren give her a glare. "You failed."
"Way to go, Weiss. Way to go, heiress!" Blake sarcastically exclaimed.
Nora glared and pointed at her. "We lost our friend because of you!"
Yang sobbed. "First I lose my arm, and now this?"
"You're guilty!"
"You're a failure!"
"You made a promise!"
The former students of Beacon yelling at Weiss suddenly turned into shadows and Weiss ran away from them. Shadow Nora smashed the ground with her hammer, creating a huge crack that Weiss tripped over. As she fell, the shadows caught up with her, and they all held her down on her back. The shadows of Ruby and Yang held her right and left arms respectively, while the shadows of Blake and Ren held on to her left and right legs.
The shadow of Jaune stood before her as he drew his sword.
"No... please... don't!" Weiss pleaded.
"You made a promise Weiss. You failed." Shadow Jaune retaliated. "Now you must pay!"
"No, NO!"
His shadow swung his sword down towards her and in a flash of lightning, Weiss woke up, bolting upwards and gasping for breath. Thunder could be heard as lightning was seen in the distance. The rain continued to pour as the heiress sat there wide awake. Her head fell back down on the pillow. Who knew that the truth could hurt so much? She turned to her side, reading the numbers in a blaring blue font; 4:45am. She sighed. It was going to be a long night.