"Power's like a fire,"
"Fire loves to burn..."
"Take us down as close as you can."
It almost looked like a normal night at Beacon. At least Ruby thought so.
If one could look past the mostly dark buildings, abandoned sidewalks and deserted court yards scattered with abandoned belongings and rubbish. The places where it looked like Grimm had dove in or crashed and shattered roofs. The signs of explosions all across the grounds where students and teachers had several small skirmishes with the androids left at the academy.
Completely normal.
The bullhead wings curled up as they touched down. Directly on the wide steps of the currently defunct Beacon Tower. The engines slowly spooling down. A green glow far above them bathed everything in an eerie light, as the girls and two men stepped down from the aircraft.
Ozpin took a moment to look around at the sorry state of his school but remained steadfastly silent.
Taking a glance at the soft orange back light coming from the city.
Kad swung through the blasts of Warp fire with his blade, pushing them away with returning pulses from his semblance rushing the monster.
Lesser Grimm ignored the Primarch. Charging past the giant at the Hunters as Kad pounded up the gentle slope of rubble the Grimm was standing on. He brought Ignis overhead and struck a powerful two handed blow. The Grimm swept its staff up and met the red blade with all its dark might. The thunder crack and shockwave of their weapons striking split the night.
The beast pushed the spiked end cap up, punching low at its foe who leapt high and closed what gap remained. Kad kicked down as hard as he could on its bent knee left, meanwhile using that force which couldn't quite topple his foe he leapt up once again. Throwing his whole body weight behind the fist that met the Grimm in the face and slapping the staff away with Ignis backhanded. Throwing it off balance.
His strong left hand grabbed on its pointed beak. And in one motion the Primarch twisted, pulled and threw the Daemon against itself to the ground.
Weiss heard the noise of an energy drive echoing over the empty walls of the campus.
Growing louder and nearer very quickly towards their little group. Team RWBY spread out their fields of view looking for the source. The Heiress and Blake stood close to Ruby at the foot of the steps. Farther up that wide grey flight, the dark haired Huntress Raven gripped tight her red sword.
Catching a sideways glance from Yang who stood close.
"Easy," Yang whispered to the other girl. Raven still showed no sign of heeding that request.
A single girl in a violet hoodie with black short shorts, boots and a little protective gear riding a hover-board came around the corner of a building and floated towards them. The girl hopped off her weapon and kicked the board up under her right arm when she drew near and pulled the purple hood off her head of green spikey hair.
"Thank God..." She managed to say, slightly leaning over and trying to catch her breath.
"Miss Reese is it?" Ozpin asked, maintaining some standard of decorum, "What has happened?"
"Droids, Grimm all day. They've been coming up that big path from the Emerald forest." The young Huntress reported quickly. She paused for a moment thinking of all that had transpired, "There's not many of us left sir."
"Bring whoever may be left back to the tower," Ozpin said, "We shall be leaving within the hour."
"Is Vale safe now?" Reese asked, hope high in her voice now. "Did the Huntsmen make it?"
Now the headmaster scowled, "What Huntsmen?"
"Some passed through not long ago, broke off from skirmishing in the woods. Said something about the Marshal and coming to help."
Professor Ozpin didn't respond to that directly, filing it away for the uncertain future.
"Time is of the essence young one," He pointed out in the direction of the path, hinting at a suggested course of action.
Before the girl could get back on her board, the entire campus shook as if struck by an earthquake.
Somewhere in the distance the Dragon cracked the last of its rocky shackles, flexing muscles like bridge cables that had slumbered for centuries.
Some distant part of Kad's mind registered the rumbling.
Briefly feeling his bones shake beneath his skin as he leapt, stabbing Ignis down at the Grimm on the ground.
It reared its bone white head and burst into smoke seeing another death descending. Ignis sank through rock effortlessly, and back out again as Kad raised the blade high in guard while reaching down to his belt and drawing the knife sheathed there.
Crimson slashes in the smoke around him appeared from dozens of directions faster than he could blink. The red sword became a blur, cutting through the spectral cloud and the many, many eyes.
"Doctor, work quickly."
With those words Ozpin turned around in the elevator in the atrium which led up to his office. Pressing down on a holographic switch to hold the car open. He looked down at the waiting team leader.
"Miss Rose, come with me. The rest of you be on your guard," He commanded.
The young scythe wielder stepped in the carriage, determination filling her heart like never before. Nodding once to her team and friends before the doors closed as Ozpin sent them up to their final destination
The Doctor adjusted his glasses, "Penny, come with me. We need to get to the server rooms four levels down. Miss Schnee?"
"Yes?" Weiss answered.
"Are you at all familiar with Atlas communication systems?"
"A little," She admitted.
"Will you accompany us? In case we require assistance?"
Raven stepped forward and grabbed onto Weiss left arm, "Don't go, we'll need your help."
The Heiress shrugged off her grip, "What? The Grimm are nowhere near here."
"No," Raven said. "Not from…"
"Go Weiss."
All five other heads present turned to Yang when she interrupted the dark haired Huntress. The blonde locked eyes with her other half-sister.
"The sooner you get done," She pointed over to the service stairs, "The sooner we can leave."
The Daemon appeared again.
Black feathered wings threw shadows over the Primarch as it loomed behind him ready to strike. Roaring with fury Kad swung and slashed back at the beast.
Faster than he thought possible the right clawed hand came up catching Kad's forearm in a vice grip. White nails ran red when it squeezed and broke skin.
Kad's knife was already jabbing for its stomach.
The Daemon proved faster.
Its' scepter cracked into the back of Kad's knees, and all in a single moment his feet left the ground and the Daemon slammed the black metal staff into his stomach.
The iron spikes pierced his Aura and skin, Kad barely had a moment to cry out in pain before the Grimm released him, swept and pushed the Huntsman across the rocky ground that pummeled him with every meter straight through a wall. Beating wings it took to the air. Looking down to where it judged the Huntsman had stopped.
A ringing sound of steel hit echoed and the ascent towards the night sky turned into a violent descent as black links flashed up and bound the Grimm's clawed feet together. The Primarch hauled down with all his strength.
Dirt and shards of pavement shot out from beneath the colossal impact. But the monster was up on its feet again the moment Kad charged and lunged for its heart.
Freed by the growing slack in the chain as the Primarch closed in the black medallion caught the tip of Ignis between two iron bars twisting it to the ground.
Kad sprang high and kicked out. The sole of his boot crushed into the Daemon's throat, snapping the avian head back. The beast lashed up blindly the left arm clawing the back of Kad's leg and flipping him backwards.
The giant pulled his sword free of the twisted circle as he fell and the Grimm lunged after the descending youth. Lithe and ready Kad smacked down its strike and struck back with the chain. The steel links broke the white jaw scattering teeth to the wind. He spun hacking down with Ignis.
The broken teeth sprouted back out from the bleeding gums before the shattered porcelain had even disappeared.
The black staff whirled and blocked, retaliating in a blur of motion even the Primarch found difficult to track. Kad pulled back his blade now being driven across the field. Again and again the scepter and its medallion came for his life. Kad jumped backwards, dodging through the air and cutting back as he danced around his bulky foe looking for an opening.
Ruby's vertigo calmed as the elevator came to a halt.
The lights in Ozpin's office came on immediately as the two of them triggered hidden motion sensors. The Headmaster groaned standing up from leaning against the back wall and moved towards his desk.
Ruby walked over to the north window wall and looked out over the city. What little she could see was all outlined by smoldering piles of embers and tall pillars of smoke. It tore at her heart thinking of what her friends were suffering, buying them this time.
Ozpin spoke walking around his desk, "I swore this would never leave the school."
The young girl turned, Ozpin slowly swept his right hand over the coat of mundane dust that settled in his absence. Clearing his view of the desk and the many cogs laid within.
She raised her voice in question, "Professor?"
He didn't answer. Only closing both eyes and placing one palm flat on the glass desk top.
The lights far above them flickered.
Yang, Blake, and Raven all shared a look of confusion.
Black muscles flexed far, far away. Shaking the city again.
The three of them turned in different directions trying to discern what could possibly be happening out there in the black unknown. The roaring crack of a distant mountain splitting open rolled over the school and the city. As the Dragon's screech of freedom cut through the night.
The pilot of the bullhead looked up to the sky, leaning forward over the joystick scanning the dark clouds. The sound of boots hitting the rear ramp made him half turn in his seat.
"What the hell was-"
He never finished that question. Cut off when an unseen boot crashed into the back of his helmet and slammed his visor into the control panel. Knocking the man unconscious.
Mercury quickly undid the safety belts and dragged the pilot back through the passenger compartment to dump the man out the starboard hatch.
"The old man better hurry," Raven hissed quietly.
The three girls continued to look into the black sky. Their backs to the inside of the tower.
Small footsteps echoed through the cavernous room.
Blake's Faunus ears twitched.
Bright light danced across the arches, fresh smoke and the crackling sounds of a million sparks coming to life spun them back with weapons drawn. Finding a black haired woman in a red dress pulling her glowing palm away from the service stairs that she had just welded shut. Separating Doctor Geppetto Weiss and Penny from their friends.
Cinder spoke with a small laugh. "I'm afraid Ozpin has wasted all the time he had…'
Raven was the first to move. Her sword up and aiming straight at the pyromancer. The younger Huntress's voice was low and full of venom.
"You…"
Cinder was slightly confused, "Have we met?"
Raven clasped the black beaded hilt with both hands, raising the blade up higher angling for an attack. Yang dropped into a ready crouch, bobbing on her toes. Blake mirrored her partner's position, taking hold of Gambol Shroud sticking up over her left shoulder.
Yang narrowed her eyes. And suddenly she put a name to the woman's face, running through memories of the visiting students who had been at the school for months now. More credence given to Raven's ramblings of conspiracy.
Cinder's eyes flicked right.
Yang turned on instinct, the sound of a gunshot echoed from the steps.
Mercury flipped and kicked blasting straight at the blonde.
Yang barely brought her arms up in time to block the white ball of energy that sent her flying backwards in an explosion of energy.
Blake tried to turn tracking her partner through the air. Two short green knives and the chains at their base flew out of the darkness, wrapped around the Faunus's stomach once and yanked her away.
Cinder laughed.
Fire shards followed her rising hands while she manifested her bow. Bringing the joined blades in front of her.
Waiting for Raven to move.
Blake's back hit a stone support pillar hard enough to crack the concrete. And the air explosively left her lungs as her Aura took the hit. She like the creature of her heritage she landed on her feet and went to a crouch ready to spring away again once acquiring her bearings. The twin green blades rattled away back to the hilts in Emerald's hands. Barrels seated back into the weapons and she spun the revolvers opening fire.
One hazy shadow clone took the bullets as Blake jumped away. Launching off the pillar to her right and dodging out through one of the empty window arches lined with jagged glass. The dark skinned thief kept up her barrage anticipating her target to come rushing back through the myriad shattered portals.
Up until Blake heard the telling click of empty guns.
She pulsed her semblance once again, and back flipped up into the air back into the elvevator atrium. Drawing her slender katana and cleaver sheath as she fell down at the other girl.
Mercury's boots snapped at Yang again and again.
She punched and blasted away the attacks with ease. Mercury flipped to his hands, spinning and kicking out white balls of energy. Up at the blonde, into the air swirling around them.
The Huntress's eyes began to shift in tones. And with a screaming roar she fired at the ground behind her and launched to the air. Mercury sprang up from his hand stand. Dodging the punches and shotgun blasts away with ease.
The circling streaks of Dust closed in. Smashing into Yang from every direction. And the assassin's son jumped off another blast, kneeing Yang straight in the stomach.
She grunted in shock spraying spit from her open mouth.
But then started to grin.
Her fist swung up, backed by the strength of Mercury's blows into the underside of his jaw with a sharp crack. Mercury cried out in shock and pain as he flew backwards, only to nimbly rolled back up when he landed. Then skipped forward kicking.
Closing in again, Yang ducked or punched away from the lightning fast kicks. Repaying every hit twice over, blow for blow.
Not seeing how few were returning with any force now.
Cinder hadn't split her bow. She twirled the linked sabers around on the tips of her right hand. Only blocking against the slender red blade Raven was desperately trying to get past that guard that was proving impervious.
Raven knew she was being played with, but was determined to show the quarry she had hunted across Remnant why that would be her downfall.
Their feet shuffled back and forth as the two black haired Huntresses dueled. Raven swung in long sweeping circles. Putting all her frenzied strength into the strikes forcing Cinder to give ground. She twisted, she jumped and Raven tried every move she could think of to gain that perfect killing angle she knew would appear. Spinning and kicking high to the right.
Cinder raised her arm and stopped the black heel mere inches from her palm in a ripple of light.
A small smirk flashed across her face.
She pushed down on Raven's leg then brought that palm up trailing wisps of fire. That coalesced into a comet coming at the other Huntress. Raven threw up her left hand. Two portals shimmered open, one between the two of them swallowed the blazing attack.
The other burst open behind her opponent.
Cinder was turning before Raven could even swing her sword again. In the blink of an eye the pyromancer caught the blaze and returned it once again straight at Raven.
The white hot ball crashed into Raven's chest, stripping away her Aura and sending her flying into one of the far pillars.
Blades flashed against each other, Blake slid under Emerald's sweeping strikes, trying to punch through the flicking guard. Emerald was fast, blocking and swaying to dodge the black steel seeking blood.
Emerald threw her chained sickles out at the blades of Gambol Shroud. The little green links rattled as they spun and trapped the blades. Emerald pulled back, Blake tried to wrench her weapons free to no avail.
Raven flew past on the edge of her vision.
The Faunus turned her gaze to try and check on the other Huntress. Wincing as she heard Raven crash and break stone.
Emerald grinned. Reaching out with her mind. Finding a gap in the split second of distraction.
The thief brought her weapons close, swinging first out right and then back as hard as she could to the left.
Blake's swords slid free. The Huntress stumbled only for a moment, letting the momentum pull her down to a crouch as she set her guard. Holding up the cleaver to block any blow coming down.
It only took a few seconds for Blake to understand Emerald wasn't pressing her advantage.
The thief slowly stepped back away from Blake, casually twirling the sickle in her left hand. Blake pulsed her semblance and jumped forward swinging off a shadow clone. Her blades descending like a guillotine's edge down hard at Emerald who seemed unconcerned as the Faunus attacked.
Seeing the arc of her swords aimed true, only to double over when the real Emerald appeared from the side, and sent a round house kick as hard as she could into Blake's stomach.
Cinder watched her apprentice strike the Faunus to the ground, but the troublesome girl sprung up again. A look of fear and surprise across her face.
Across the atrium Mercury continued to dodge and weave in and out of an exchange of hammer blows and weapon blasts. Gambling on his speed and agility outlasting the fiery fighter's endurance.
Deciding to put the odds more in the favor of the boy Cinder raised her bow, summoning an arrow to the string. Taking aim at Yang's back.
From behind her, sparks shot out around the edges of the door to the tower's maintenance level. The seams glowed brighter and brighter as something from the other side burned its way through.
Cinder turned, more curious then alarmed.
The thick metal slab fell hard to the ground. Penny pushed down the door with one hand. Her web of swords floating like the limbs of a rearing spider in the air after burning through with their lasers. Weiss stood behind her, Myrtenaster up and ready.
The red dressed Huntress lowered her bow.
And her eyes began to glow.
"You should have stayed put," Her silken voice informed the two of them.
Penny held her arms out low at her sides, "I'm combat rea-"
Blue fingers of electricity ran around Cinder's hands. And before the robot girl could finish her statement Cinder stretched out her left palm to the heavens and her right at the two girls.
Far above them the air hummed with power. Dark clouds flashed with lightning.
The white flame arched down onto the campus. A bolt of power flew through one of the arching doorways and hit Cinder's left arm. Penny raised her swords in a crisscrossing web. Weiss brought her left arm up to shield her face as the wind pushed at the two of them.
Thunder shattered every window left. Shards of rock broke from the walls. And the lightning struck out from Cinder's right hand to Penny.
The current ran through her blocking blades. Up the cables and into her body. Penny's eyes shot open in panic as she fell wracked by spasms and overloads coursing through her systems to the floor. Penny began twitching in fits, her swords clattering on the ground.
Off guard and off balance Weiss looked to her friends still battling the others, then down to the ginger girl. Cinder smiled and curled the first two fingers on her right hand back, taunting the Heiress. The white haired girl snarled, Myrtenaster's cylinder spun and came to Burn. She shouted and spun clockwise casting three bolts low at Cinder.
The woman in red raised her taunting hand up. The Dust shots suddenly shifted course and struck Cinder's palm. Weiss could only blink in shock as the smoke settled around her target's now glowing palm.
Cinder raised her other hand, the bow in it disappeared and she curled the fingers in a fist.
Weiss's rapier shot out of her hand.
The slender blade sank point first into the ground at Cinder's feet, and the pyromancer smiled.
She circled her arms over and under each other close to her chest almost as if she was beginning to dance. Then Cinder took one step forward and sent the three bolts hurtling back towards Weiss from both hands.
The Heiress flinched, raising her right hand. A white glyph shimmered to life in front of her. The first blast struck the shield. Weiss grunted and almost fell to her knees, one blow had nearly drained her strength and semblance dry.
The second blast hit and smashed the glyph into a million spiraling pieces of light and fire.
The third drilled through this cloud and struck the Heiress full in the chest. Weiss shouted in pain and fell. Shimmers of light ran across her body as her Aura failed.
Cinder swept her hands back.
The glowing fragments of the blast lying around Weiss and the still twitching Penny glowed even brighter for a moment. The bright shards moved under the invisible guiding hand of Cinder. To Weiss's unprotected back where they pushed her up off her rear and hard towards Cinder.
She rolled hard across the floor, smacking her head again and again against the unyielding concrete until she struck the base of another pillar and collapsed on her stomach next to the slowly stirring Raven.
The Faunus was on her last legs, trying to explain the illusions her eyes kept showing her. The green haired thief would start to appear from one direction but then come in and strike out of nowhere.
Blake crossed her swords to block when she saw her assailant swinging down from the peak of another high leap. Bracing for a blow that could be coming from any other direction,
But this was the real Emerald.
Her sickle chains wrapped around the blades in Blake's hands once again. Emerald spun both of her arms wide in a clockwise move. Dragging the Gambol Shroud out of position. Leaving the Huntress wide open for another hard kick to the guts.
Now flickering Aura lights ran across Blake's body as she shouted in pain and surprise. Flying backward and skidding along the floor right next to the beaten heiress and Raven.
Blake tried to rise, but one dark skinned hand gripped her scalp and hair tight pulling her up to a sitting position.
She almost cried out in pain from the iron grip between her cat ears and defiantly reached up to grab onto the restraining hand. But Blake quickly fell silent and went still when she felt the icy sting of the curving green blade in Emerald's right hand wrap around her throat.
The campus shook and the city trembled again.
Cinder could hear the approaching monster's screech on the wind. But she was unconcerned, far more focused on the duel between her prodigy and the last remaining Huntress. Cinder could plainly see as they drew closer to the atrium again.
The blonde was starting to slow.
Yang kept pushing her muscles. Eyes burning red and hair aflame, she drove Mercury back across the steps. Sensing victory in her grasp, and not how the boy had drained her dry just blocking and stepping out of her reach. The assassin's son was merely biding his time. Taking the hits watching her pattern, drawing her in.
Ember Celica cracked into his ribs, Aura took the hit. Mercury tilted his head and dodged the next left uppercut. Fueled with the last of her rage and the dregs of her semblance Yang screamed in fury snapping up her right leg aiming to smash her knee straight into Mercury's groin.
He saw his moment.
Her bare knee slammed into his cupped palms. Mercury pushed down, springing high up off her bent limb and failed strike. Crashing his own knee into her chin.
Yang's whole world went black for a heartbeat. She blinked and came to as her feet left the ground. Mercury still rose in the air, turning as he passed over the Huntress. Snaking his right foot up under Yang's chin. Pushing his left heel down on the back of her neck.
Mercury stretched out his hands to dive as he felt gravity start to pull on him. His palms struck the stairs, his ankle pressed into the Huntress's throat. And the grey haired youth rolled and flipped Yang head over heels back into the atrium.
Blake wanted to wrest herself free, feeling warm blood come down across her collar bone while Emerald invited her to apply just a little more pressure and severe something vital with her eyes.
And the Faunus had no idea why the girl did not just do so. Just as Yang struck the earth, rolled once to her stomach and elbows then collapsed next to Raven and Weiss.
Cinder allowed herself a little victory smile as she approached the defeated four of them and the triumphant Emerald who almost beamed when she saw her master come close.
Four sets of eyes beset by pain attempted to focus on the woman. Cinder held up her left hand and summoned her bow once again, while her right gently drew back the black string bringing a razor tipped arrow ready to loose.
The sudden lightning bolt passed right in front of the window Ruby was looking out of,
She flinched and raised an arm, blinking away the colorful spots flash frozen on her retinas. Ruby didn't have any time to ponder where it came from.
Ozpin hissed in pain as his strength kept draining away, the muscles in his hand cramping and shaking while his Aura was sent to an arcane lock that it was the only key to.
Ruby's silver eyes were drawn back out the window. Far away over the city. Tips from a pair of wings the size of an airship slowly dipped through the clouds. The dark vapor clouds spiraled away in the Dragon's down draft. She slowly began to back away from the glass, her voice quaking with fear and unformed words of warning. The Headmaster said nothing,
The gears in the desk began to rotate faster than ever. The whole room, and the entire tower started to glow green as the last locks disengaged on the most hidden place in Beacon. Deep mechanical clanks and rumbles shook the floor.
Ruby looked down to her feet. Through the glass and spinning clockworks, she could see the dark outline of what looked like a box slowly coming up.
The Dragon roared into the black of night and began to dive.
Everyone able friend or foe looked up at the deafening noise. And then to the west out one of the shattered doors, the great black Dragon skimmed low over the campus.
Sighting its targets.
Emerald restlessly shifted her grip.
"Cinder," the thief said looking sideways, "What are you waiting for?"
Mercury spoke from over in another archway, "Do you want us to do it?" He asked their mentor.
Nervous eyes flashed to each other and to where their weapons lay. The girls on a razors edge of indecision. Paralyzed and powerless where they lay. Until the artificial horizon of Beacon was suddenly lit ablaze.
The Dragon had opened its cavernous maw and belched a torrent of flame down on both the last remaining defenders and lesser Grimm alike. Daemons and Hunters screamed in panic before they turned to ash and were swept away on the wind while the Dragon beat its wings and soared above the clouds once again.
One corner Cinder's mouth curled in a grin of triumph before she turned her head back to the Huntresses.
"No, don't kill them…" She said as she lowered her bow. The weapon folding back into nonexistence. "Not yet. Let them watch."
Cinder's own amber eyes began to glow. Flames danced across her pupils and up into wings around the bright orbs. Then the wind began to howl.
Dirt was swept into the cyclone forming around her.
Emerald raised the sickle up from Blake's neck and hammered the hilt down right between the Faunus' amber eyes. And Blake crashed backwards flat on her back.
The two prodigies backed away from their teacher. She wove her right hand backwards and then in a flash forward. And all the girls before her were swept off the ground and high up into the ruined walls by the fist of wind willed forth by the dark Huntress.
Weiss was the last to go unconscious. Gazing through the black haze over her eyes as the woman turned around.
Cinder flicked her left hand to the side, Mercury and Emerald sprinted away to follow the silent direction. Her hands glowed as she raised them up, pointing at the elevator doors. The thick door panels slowly began to glow. And the sharp smell of burning metal hit Weiss's nose.
Cinder slowly turned her hands, more metal cracked and warped as she flexed her will. Tearing the elevators open from ten feet away. Cables were cut by her unseen hands sending the car crashing down into darkness and whatever lay far below the tower. Cinder stepped up to the edge of this void, completely unafraid.
The wind came screaming in again.
The last thing Weiss saw before her eyelids shut her head hit the floor while dread and terror carried her off to oblivion. Was the Huntress in red walking over the empty space left by the absent elevator carriage onto nothing and begin to rise up the shadow filled shaft.
Up to where the Headmaster and partner stood, unaware of the sorceress' approach.
The great gears started to align. A coming silhouette rose under the blue-grey glass smoothly passing through their center of the shifting cog-work.
Ruby glanced back over her shoulder, convinced the Dragon's nose was going to come crashing through the windows at any moment and take off the top of the tower. But the Daemon had risen back above the clouds,
Called by an otherworldly voice of power.
Invisible lines in the transparent floor suddenly hissed open with a rush of escaping air. A circle began to turn in the middle of the room.
Ruby looked back to Professor Ozpin, his breathing was steady but the old teacher was very, very pale. Still he managed to cast his eyes onto the rising casket. Coming out of a square five footsteps in length and width folded open on the floor.
The smooth grey box slid up to chest height on the young scythe wielder. Ozpin took one more breath and then exhaled it loudly back out as he sank down hard into his chair.
A hand-span along the top of the seamless vault cracked open,
Light slowly began to stream out from under the lid.
Ruby walked out in front of the Ozpin's desk, leaning forward and edging her red trimmed boots into the white light. Until she mustered the courage to reach out her trembling hands. The ajar lid swung up and back on its own.
Ruby raised both of her arms up in shock. Blinded radiance.
It was surreal.
All her fatigue and fear were banished in an instant.
Thoughts of the battle and everything else in the world were washed away by the shining glow. She felt fresh as the dawn, and stronger than she ever had in her life.
The young girl lowered her arms and finally took a good look at the shining shard laid in black velvet which had been hidden at the heart of Beacon for years.
The crystal was long, if Ruby had to guess she would have said around four of her small hand lengths. The ends were as sharp like pointed spear tips, she could only guess at the width of its body. The Dust appeared to change hue every few moments. Cuts and mirror facets ran in infinite spiraling lines through its shape. Casting a rainbow of deeper reflecting lights in sparkling showers wherever she could focus.
She stretched out her hands.
"Don't touch it!"
Ozpin's shout of warning stunned Ruby out of her trance and restored her racing heartbeat. She quickly closed her hands into fists and looked back at the old man.
"Its power is too great," Ozpin continued, "All who have ever laid their bare hands on that have been destroyed... None have ever been strong enough."
"Then how?..." Ruby started to question.
"Later… At your feet," Ozpin said. "There'll be a box. Fold the…"
The Headmaster paused, gazing over Ruby's head at the elevator doors.
Sensing the approaching Aura.
He tried to rise up in alarm. But the moment Ozpin placed his hands on the armrests what little strength he had regained disappeared. Ruby drew her scythe in the usual flurry of motion and mechanical noise, alerted by Ozpin's reaction.
Slowly the metal doors iced over, sheets of penetrating cold covering the sealed barriers.
Rippling out from Cinder's stretched out hands on her side of the shaft where she hovered what should have been an uncomfortable distance over nothing at all through the hole in the elevator floor she had created.
A single blast of Aura shattered the frozen walls and door. Razor sharp pieces of ice flew through the office. Smashing themselves to pieces against the giant bay windows. Tiny stinging shards bounced off the professor's and his student's Aura fields.
Her eyes glowed with power, Cinder floated down until her black heels touched back on solid ground and she began to walk towards the two of them.
Ruby reached back for her scythe. Unfolding and spinning the giant blade up and out to its full form.
She racked the bolt and went to a crouch, focusing her semblance. Judging the leap and swing she would make. The pyromancer however showed no real concern, the only look that crossed her face was one that a cat would give to a mouse that suddenly bared its teeth and snarled.
With a scream and a flurry of rose petals Ruby aimed her weapon back, fired a single shot and launched forward over the crystal's box.
"Ruby! No!" Ozpin shot to his feet and shouted, but far too late to stop the girl.
In the blink of an eye both older Hunters raised their right hands.
Cinder drew on her power. A fiery whirlwind burst into life directly in Ruby's path.
Ozpin pulled on the last dregs of his strength, green light wrapped around his fingers.
The dark haired Huntress flicked up her fingers. A bright red torrent of flame leapt at Ruby, and swallowed her whole.
But the barrier sphere cast by Ozpin held.
Even against the glass window the young scythe wielder was hurled against and through, out and into the now smoke filled sky.
Ozpin's hand slapped down against his desk. The old man was breathing heavily again, curling his fingers into shaking fists.
Cinder finally spoke, "Do you see now Professor? Your crop of sins come ripe for harvest. You were wrong, weak and untrusting… All this time… All this death and suffering, we can have the power to end it all."
Ozpin growled, "You can't control it."
"You won't even try."
She quickly waved her left palm down at the many jagged ice splinters littered around them. Once again her eyes glowed, she circled her hand stretching out her will. And with a ripple of Aura light sent them shooting at his face.
Ozpin's right hand moved in a blur too fast for any eye to track. Two fingers blocked every Dust touched piece, a rain of broken particles drifted down around him.
Again, Cinder smiled.
The Headmaster brought up his open hands in a fighting stance.
The wind roared in from the broken window. Cinder began to rise again off the ground, arms held out and eyes glowing brighter than ever.
Even more so in the shadow of the Dragon's wing that passed over the tower.
Ruby's heart raced as she came too, upside down and half way down the tower.
The woman's attack had knocked her out cold. Now she had only seconds to act before she hit the ground. Ruby turned herself over arms splayed out and catching the wind. She saw Crescent Rose spinning end over end just out of arms reach in front of her.
As she looked Ruby let out a panicked gasp seeing the hard grey ground racing towards her. But with a twist of her body and a flurry of red petals the young Huntress spun. Breaking free of gravity's hold, catching her scythe and landing in a crouch down on the front steps of the tower.
Inside in the darkened lobby she saw a flash of white moving through the shadows. Dr. Geppeto's lab coat flailing behind him as he rushed to his daughter.
Lightning flashed overhead.
And the tail of the Dragon disappeared up into the clouds. Gouts of flame and bursts of emerald light exploded through what few windows remained.
Ruby pulled her cloak up to shield herself from the rain of glass that fell from the battle far overhead. Once the rain of glass had stopped she dashed up the last few steps and laid eyes on what happened to her team and friends.
Geppeto was running his scroll over Penny's finally still body. The other four girls were slowly crawling up on their hands and knees clutching whatever bruise hurt the worst at that moment.
An explosion sounded up above.
The whole tower shook to its foundation.
Raven stood and clenched her shaking fists, "Dammit! No!"
But the sudden violence wasn't from the raging duel.
A deep thud of white claws and a black scaled foot smashing into concrete made the girls put their backs together, cold adrenaline running through their veins. The clatter of rock shards had barely faded when the five girls whipped their heads over to the chorus of rending metal from their airship crumbling beneath the immense weight of the beast's black tail.
Another foot sank down, pushed deep by the multi ton form. Each could feel the deep shaking rumble coming from the daemon simply breathing. But none of them could break the iron grip of fear to move as they watched the spiked head of the Dragon slowly descend to cast one giant red eye into the atrium.
Its white lips split in a deep rumbling growl,
But the wet noise of its hunger and hate ceased, swallowed down as the beast drew in a breath.
A glow of Warp fire building deep in its throat.
The Dragon Grimm raised up its head,
And drenched the tower in flames.