The heroic quintet was shown entering through a wooden door into the reception room at the hotel. The walls were painted beige with brown flower designs. The floor was lined with black carpeting and the ceiling had a few chandeliers all spaced out a few feet from each other. On the carpeted area, there were several circular tables covered with white cloth and a surplus of chairs. Adjacent to where the tables were was a wooden floor that had two long rectangular tables, also adorned with white cloth, with various foods, drinks and desserts served buffet style.
Surya and Atum sat at a table, each with their own plates of food. Atum's plate appeared to be half-empty while Surya looked like he hadn't even touched his food. Nearby his teammates, Apollo was shown in a lone chair in the corner, playing a sad melody on the flute as other people sat at tables, ate food and mingled.
"Apollo can actually play?" Nora asked as they observed him.
"He's actually a really great flute player." Atum told them. "Also good at playing the lyre, the piano, and singing. Also a former actor and child star before becoming a huntsman."
"Wow, sounds like he is a man of many talents." Pyrrha complimented.
"So that nasty chord...?" Jaune asked.
"Was just a distraction to stop the fight." Atum confirmed. "Which, while not very nice on the ears, was much needed to let Pyrrha defend herself."
"I still can't believe Pyrrha got through to Apollo." The knight turned to Ren. "I was worried we were toast or Nora was going to destroy everyone just to save us."
Atum then noticed his team leader not eating. "Come on, Surya, you have to eat something." He shoved a small bowl of what appeared to be some kind of soup towards him.
"I can't." Surya pushed the bowl away. "It feels like I'm eating from the bowl of depression and drinking from the cup of sorrow."
Ruby asked, "What's the matter?"
"He's been depressed all week with Orville's death, and now he won't eat." Atum answered.
"He's gone to only eating one meal a day. Surya, my friend, it shouldn't be this way!" Apollo told him as he came to the table. After setting his instrument down, he left to go get food.
The others soon followed him and as they filled their plates with various meats such as chicken, pork, and sides like roasted vegetables and three different kinds of potatoes. Ren then noticed Ruby as she put two chocolate chip cookies onto her plate. "Really?"
"Don't worry, I'll eat my dinner before my dessert."
Ren rolled his eyes. "If you say so."
Nora frequently said that when we took free food and nine times out of ten she lied. he thought to himself.
They soon returned to team SOLR's table and began eating. After a few moments of silent eating, Atum asked, "So, do you trust us enough to explain what happened?"
Ruby put up a finger as she finished chewing her food. As soon as she finished, she answered, "We have decided to opt out of telling you Tyrian's reasons for kidnapping me."
"I suppose that's understandable."
Cyrene approached them, balancing her plate on her right hand. She looked towards Surya. "He's still not eating anything?"
The last member of team SOLR nodded. "Sadly no."
"Have you tried counseling him, trying to get to the root of his emotional woes?" Ren asked.
"I have, but not successfully."
"I think I know what to say." Pyrrha began. She looked at Surya. "Surya Arun, you can't continue beating yourself up over your mistakes. I tried to forget those mistakes and it nearly cost me everything. I lost my mind in the alternate identity I created for myself and almost lost my relationship with Jaune forever. Not to mention Ren and Nora got hurt and Ruby was nearly whisked away by Tyrian. I won't lie, when Tyrian caused me to realize I was living a lie, I felt hurt, like I couldn't face reality. The weight of all my mistakes, both as Pyrrha Nikos and Rouge Gorlois came crushing down on me. If it weren't for Apollo's words and me remembering the wise words of my late mother, I might have never found the strength to continue. And when I dueled Tyrian, he tried to use my own inner demons against me. My hesitance almost cost me my life. He pinned me to the wall with ice dust after he broke my sword. Then he broke my mask and I never felt more exposed. I was fortunate that I had Penny's swords with me, otherwise he would have killed me.
"I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did. You can't run from your problems forever, and you can't lie to yourself. You have to face them and forgive yourself for your mistakes."
"You're... you're right." He faintly smiled. "I guess in many ways I was being extremely hard on myself. I've never faced circumstances as dire as the Battle for Aletheia, or even seeing a huntsman academy fall to its knees. I thought I failed as a leader because Orville died in all this madness, and I had blamed myself for his death and for causing the Grimm to be drawn to Aletheia by joining the Scarlatti Alliance in the first place. I kinda hate saying this, but Jaune was a better leader than I was, and he's a huntsman-in-training. Then again, we all have our mistakes. I guess the question of the week is what you do with them."
"There were a lot of close calls. I'm just glad my Solar Power semblance helped us long enough for reinforcements to arrive and to beat the Grimm." Atum turned to Surya. "Now eat up."
Surya took the bowl and took a bite of the soup that he refused to eat earlier. "Mmm. This is pretty good."
He smiled. "Glad to have ya back."
Pyrrha smiled knowing that she helped Surya from descending into despair and madness.
The next morning, team JNPR-Ruby had their bags on their backs and were checking out of the hotel. Team SOLR's three remaining members and Cyrene were there to send them off.
"So how long are you guys going to be staying here?" Ruby asked.
"Honestly, we don't know." Surya answered.
"The doctors estimate that best case scenario, it'll take four to five weeks for all the broken bones to heal." Cyrene answered, looking at her left arm in its cast. "Worst case scenario it takes eight or more. Not to mention we have a smaller few that suffered permanent injury."
"Either way, to Aquarian we can never return. Unless we come up with a good plan to overturn." Apollo told them.
"Remind me, where did you guys say you were heading again?" Surya asked.
"We're heading to Mistral.
Atum raised an eyebrow. "Did you say Mistral? As in, Mistral city?"
Jaune nodded. "Uh-huh. What about it?"
"Well, I know it would be really last minute, but we have one more favor to ask you." Surya told them.
"And what would that be?"
"Well, as you might recall from last night's dinner, Orville stated in his will that he asked to be cremated. He also asked for his ashes to divided into equal parts; one for each remaining teammate, plus one more to be set aside and brought to his home. In this case there are four, and he asked for the last part of his ashes to taken to the garden that was once the area where Orville grew up. If you'd be willing, we would like you to take the last container of his ashes and scatter them in the garden."
For a moment, there was silence. Then Nora came forth. "I'll do it. He risked everything to save me from Tyrian, and I should let him know that his sacrifice was not in vain."
"Very well then." Surya handed a box to Nora. "Inside this duct-taped box is an urn of ashes that was been sealed with tape, wrapped in bubble-wrap and cushioned with packing peanuts. There's no way this thing is breaking. There is also a note with detailed instructions on how to get to the garden that was once Orville's home."
She knelt and set her backpack down, and gently put the box at the bottom of her backpack, zipped it up and put it back on. "Package secured."
"Good luck to you little heroes." Surya told them.
"Thank you, and good luck to you and the rest of your allies as well." Jaune stated. "Who knows? Perhaps if the CCT tower gets repaired, maybe we'll speak to each other again."
The 'red gem' leader gave a dry laugh. "Not likely, but here's hoping."
Partings of "Goodbye!" and "Farewell!" were heard from all the heroes. And so, the heroic quintet left behind the village of Aletheia. Once they left the city, Ren was shown holding the map.
"How far is it to Aldwy?" Jaune asked.
"About maybe half a day's worth of walking?" Ren guessed.
"That's not too bad. If we arrive by nightfall, we'll be able to stay in a small motel and then it's just a few more days before we reach Omega."
"Alright. Then let's not waste any time." Ruby told them.
I hope my sister's alright. Maybe I should write her a letter.
Back at the Xiao-Long/Rose family home, Yang looked at herself in the mirror. As she stood up and stared at her face, she felt weak in more ways than one.
Tired heart... Not living... She sighed. What's the point? Tyrian's probably succeeded by now. And even if he failed, I'm never going to see Ruby again...
She looked at her missing arm. "I just had to go towards him." A knock on the door was heard. "Come in."
Taiyang came in, holding something behind his back. "Something has arrived for you in the mail."
Yang looked up, a faint glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Is it a letter from Tangerine?"
"Actually, no. It's... something else. I'm not sure how you'd feel about it, but..." He set the box down, opened it with a pocketknife and stepped back to let Yang view its contents.
The former fighter looked in the box at the other half of her weapon. "Ember Celica?" She looked at her father in a mixture of forlorn sadness and disbelief. "How... did they find this?"
"Glydna Goodwitch was trying to clean up the remains of what was once Beacon's cafeteria. She found the other half of your weapon... and something else."
"My arm?"
He nodded grimly. "The staff removed it and deeply sanitized the arm gauntlet before returning it to you. You don't have to worry about getting any disease by touching it."
Yang closed her eyes. "I'm not worthy of touching it. I'm no warrior, and they're just painful reminders of the truth."
She put the original half of Ember Celica in the box with the other half and closed it up.
"Is there anything...?" he began.
"Just leave me alone."
Taiyang looked at her sadly as she went to the window and closed the door.
Upon him leaving, Yang put the box, now with both pieces of Ember Celica, under her bed and silently cried.
I'm a fallen warrior who's not truly fallen. I tried to protect my best friend, and in the end, I lost her. She ran away to who knows where. And it doesn't matter. Nothing does.
Later that evening, as the heroic quintet made their way forth, the shattered moon could be shown in the sky. It was a clear yet chilly evening. Pyrrha, now unafraid to hide herself, walked hand-in-hand with Jaune. Ren, Ruby and Nora followed right behind them.
"I must say, this is going really well." Ruby told her friends.
"For once everything's coming up aces." Nora stated. "This almost never happens."
Jaune smiled. "Looks like we're about a half a mile away from Aldwy. Just one more village and we can set sail for Mistral."
"You know, perhaps we should check the village ahead of time before we enter. Just to be safe." Ren mentioned.
"He's got a point. Who's willing to inspect the village for signs of Trojan Alliance influence?"
Ruby volunteered. "I'll go."
Without hesitation, she dashed off.
"I can't wait to get out of here." Jaune told his team.
"Finally, we'll get out of this hell." Pyrrha stated. "I'm really hoping things will be easier once we make it to Anima."
"Who knows? Once we get to Mistral kingdom, maybe we'll find an airport quickly." Nora added.
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Jaune asked.
As Ruby was shown running up to Aldwy, she slowed down her pace and through a forest, covering her hood to hide herself. She went forward, the scene transitioning from her in the forest, to her standing on a large, fragmented rock.
She went to the edge and saw that Aldwy was completely on fire, with three large pillars of smoke rising into the air. Beyond the village were mountains, and above it all the broken moon shined down fully.
From where she stood, screams were heard coming from the village. In the village two people ran down a cobbled road as a building next to them crumbled to the ground. A wide shot showed three people running between burning buildings and two Beowolves chasing after them. She looked up at the sound of a Nevermore's cry, to see two Nevermores fly over her toward the besieged village.
Alright. We saved Aletheia, time to save Aldwy!
Ruby turned around on the rocky precipice, her left arm raising Crescent Rose. Her weapon unfolded and she leapt straight up into the air by several feet, leaving a column of falling rose petals.
From the top of the cliff, Ruby turned and descended, bringing down Crescent Rose, the scythe hooking into a Nevermore passing just beneath her. The Nevermore cried out but continued it's path toward the village, leaving rose petals in its wake. Down below, Grimm in the village moved about, a Beowolf raising its head up to the sky and growling. Wisps of black smoke unfurled from around its head as it turned to watch the flight path of Ruby and the Nevermore.
At the right moment, she pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose. The Nevermore screamed as its wing was cut off. Ruby descended toward the village while the bisected Nevermore drifted apart. She landed on a statue of a hooded woman, demolishing it.
Ruby's hood fell back as she straightened herself. Eyes closed, she held still where the statue once stood. A Beowolf approached her while she focused inwardly.
Alright, Ruby began.
It licked its teeth and moved closer, attracting the attention of other Beowolves. They all moved closer to surround her, their red eyes leaving glowing trails. Ruby remained posed with Crescent Rose in her left hand.
Let's do this.
Abruptly, Ruby's eyes narrowed and once they opened up, a dangerous look was seen in them. Her head moved forward and she crouched down. Her cloaks arched upward toward her body and Ruby transformed into a swirl of rose petals. The swirl propeled itself forward through the air and as it reached the first Beowolf, Ruby was seen in slow motion, petals behind her, swinging her scythe at the Grimm.
She landed on her feet as she knocked it off-screen. She bound up again, taking out a second and turned to take out a third. Moving into the circle of Beowolves behind her she slashed at them, taking out a total of eight before running to attack the ninth. As it went down, two more Beowolves put themselves in front of Ruby. The one in the foreground roared at her, but she was unfazed. As it leapt on her, she took it out, the other one to its left, and yet two more approached her from behind in different directions.
Ruby turned and was hit in the face with pieces of stone, sending her backward. She looked up and dodged out of the way as a Beowolf on the roof hurls pieces of broken buildings at her. The silver-eyed warrior moved swiftly between three different spots on the ground. Propelling herself into the air toward the Beowolf in rose petal form, she split into three streams around it until she came together just above its head. She aimed Crescent Rose and fired a dust round into it.
The recoil sent her up into the sky, where she bounced off a Nevermore and landed in the middle of the village with enough force to damage the cobblestone road and send up a cloud of dirt.
She heard heavy footsteps and looked around, but didn't see anything through the cloud.
Where are they?
A black fist punched through the cloud and into Ruby, sending her flying into the wooden door of the church she originally landed next to. Ruby stood, holding her shoulder, and looked up with frightened cry as she caught sight of what hit her. A Beringel postured, beating its chest before roaring and charging forward toward her.
What is this Grimm? I don't think I've ever seen one of these before!
At the top of the church steps, Ruby flipped over its head and lands back in the town center, sliding around in a circle on her feet until she faced the Beringel again and propelled herself toward it. She sunk the tip of Crescent Rose into its hip, but doesn't get it any further through the Grimm's body.
Aw, crud.
The Beringel turned to look at her and Ruby backed up with a gasp upon realizing her strategy wasn't working. It then grabbed her and lifted her off the ground, her entire head fitting in its fist and her legs dangling in the air. The Grimm used its other hand to punch her and Ruby was launched across the village center. She landed on the broken wooden canopy of a building opposite and easily regained her footing.
She switched Crescent Rose to rifle mode and leaps onto the roof of another building. Running across rooftops, Ruby fired down at the Beringel. It remained unhurt and upon being joined by two Beowolves, the gorilla Grimm grabbed one and threw it at Ruby.
Ruby gave a squeak of alarm as she saw the Beowolf coming. It tried to take a swipe at her, but she quickly destroyed it with her scythe. The Beringel took advantage of the distraction and landed on the roof as soon as the Beowolf was got out of the way in time and the two faced off briefly before rushing towards each other. She positioned herself to be a target, and when the Beringel lifted its arm to bring its fist down on her, she leapt above it. Its fist landed on the roof while she shoot at its back. It stood up, still unhurt while Ruby landed on another part of the roof.
Well, that didn't work. What now?
She evaded its fist again and swung her scythe into the back of its leg. She proceeded to swirl in a circle around it, attacking with the scythe repeatedly, but still doing no damage. The Grimm tried to hit her, but she moved too quickly for it. It soon adapted to her speed and Ruby was forced to stop moving in order to use Crescent Rose to block the hits.
Ruby turned into rose petals again and sails into the air above, gaining momentum on her descent. With a cry she attacked the Beringel again, delivering small hits around its body and transforming whenever it tried to hit her. After another failed attempt to make contact, the Beringel's fist landed on the roof, jumped forward and drove Ruby back. It slammed both its fists deliberately against the roof, causing it to collapse under her. Ruby fell with a cry.
A split screen was shown; on the left was Ruby, breathing to herself alone in the darkness, and on the right, the Beringel jumped from the roof back to the village center. It beat its chest and roared triumphantly. As he did so, Ruby rushed forward, transforming into rose petals and ran from the building to the back door of the cathedral.
The screens became one as the Beringal sensed something was off and turned toward the church. The front door was still broken and it was unusually quiet. It moves closer, grunting and sniffing. The rose petals drifted down and out the open floated around the Beringel's head and it grunted and turned its head, watching them. Then it glanced at the church and roared, unhappy. Through the open door and windows of the front steeple, a stream of rose petals rose and swirled up.
The topmost window was an artistic circular design. Three concentric circles were encircled with outwardly extended beams that overlay with interwoven lines at the outermost circle's edge. The image was shattered as Ruby burst through the glass, Crescent Rose at the ready and rose petals behind her.
The Beringel stood upright and attempted to swat at her, but missed.
Crescent Rose lands on the ground and Ruby fired a shot to propel herself toward her opponent. She went above its head and lands on her feet, the two of them back to back. Ruby turned and hooked the scythe around its legs and pulls as she fires, using the recoil to give her blade more force to damage the Grimm. It reared fell forward, but Ruby transformed to swirl around its body, her Semblance creating a tornado-like force that lifts it into the air. Aloft, she transformed again and sunk the pointed end of her scythe into the Beringel's body, driving it toward the ground. The force of the descent allowed the blade to pierce it. Once landed, Ruby in a victory stance on the Grimm's body, her long, swirling cloak retreated back toward her and regains its usual size.
The Beringel lifted its head and roared at Ruby, but she drove the blade in further to silence it. Ruby cocked the rifle to slide the next Dust bullet into place and finished the creature off with a point-blank headshot. Its body jerked once and then dissolved around her.
Ruby stabbed the base of Crescent Rose into the ground and reached for her Scroll.
Across the top it read: BROADCASTING/RECEIVING. In the middle were profile pictures of Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren. Across the bottom it read: LOCAL AREA ONLY.
Jaune's image was lit up along with the border of his profile. "Ruby! We saw smoke!"
Ren's icon and profile lit up next. "Heading your way."
The light moved to Nora's icon and profile. "Don't start without us!"
Ruby looked up from her Scroll. "You better hurry."
And finally, it shifted to Pyrrha's icon and profile. "We'll be there."
Five Beowolves crawled towards Ruby along with three Nevermores. The silver-eyed warrior readied Crescent Rose once again and ran toward the Grimm. Soon thereafter, team JNPR arrived. Ren fired away at the Beowolves.
Pyrrha breathed in and smiled briefly. "We've got this."