11. Screaming at the Walls of Fire
The fortress of Beacon towered up into the air, its broken tip framed by the skies of gray. Atop the tallest tower, as Junior had promised, there appeared to be an enormous Grimm, shaped like a jet black dragon, perched and unmoving.
"And it's supposed to be frozen," Mozenrath declared as he and his entourage neared.
"Apparently," Roman confirmed, staring up at it, hoping it wouldn't pick now to move. "I'm just going to go on record and say I have…NO idea what's going on here."
"What's going on," Snatcher reminded him, "is that the Dust we are looking for is within this hall."
"So let's stop wasting our time and MOVE." Yzma stormed toward the castle-like building.
"Um…don't you think we should make sure that thing is ACTUALLY frozen up there first?" Roman asked, hanging back. "Because by all accounts – "
"Yes, yes, by all accounts, it doesn't make sense," Yzma sighed. "Like that's ever stopped me before."
"Wait." Mozenrath put up a hand. "They'll have guards posted at the doors. Not anything we can't handle, but we've had a lot of hassle today. We could use a break." His eyes flicked upward to the top of the tower. It most certainly was broken. There would probably be a flat landing there, and he could see where he was going, unlikely to split himself or anyone else through any walls.
"I know what you're thinking," Roman told him, "and I do NOT approve."
"If it's the dragon you're worried about," the Huntsman informed him, "I would relish the chance to slay it once and for all."
"I am not WORRIED about the dragon!" Roman argued. "Grimm. Whatever. I just think it's in all of our best interests to not get swallowed whole."
Neo nodded in agreement.
"Well, too bad," Mozenrath replied. "Because last I checked, I was still in charge. Not you."
He threw a Corridor of Darkness into existence, striding through it and waiting for the others to follow. Yzma and the Huntsman eagerly did so, with Wuya, Mim, and Aghoul trailing behind. Neo skipped after Aghoul, turning to look back over her shoulder at Roman and Snatcher.
Roman rolled his eyes. "Fiiiiine," he grunted before storming toward the portal.
As soon as Snatcher had made sure Roman was through, he made his own way into the Corridor. I've really got to stop looking out for that man, he told himself, especially while he's got Miss Neopolitan around to do that.
...
Atop the tower, the Corridor opened up onto a sight to behold. The Grimm, for one, was massive. The landing had once been a sealed room, and the Grimm's head easily took up half of it. Its six blaze orange eyes were open, and there seemed to be a spark of life behind them, but the enormous monster didn't move a centimeter.
Then, across the room, there was the woman. Her hair a gray-black and her dress flame red, she was frozen with an expression of shock and anger upon her face. Much like the Grimm, she didn't move.
"They were frozen after all," the Huntsman remarked softly.
"Wait, for serious?" Roman crossed the room to look at the woman, unable to tell if she was registering the sight of him. "You can't move, can you?" he asked her. She stood still as a statue. Roman then waved a hand up and down in front of her face: "Helloooooooo! Anybody in there? What, nothing? I'm just going to have to assume no one's home, then." He laughed with schadenfreude. "Oh, how the mighty fall! Or should I say the CINDER Fall?" He turned back to the rest. "THIS was the great and powerful Cinder. And THAT is apparently the look that's going to be on her face for the rest of her life. Just…hang on. I need a picture of this!" He stepped back, withdrawing his scroll to snap a shot. "Oh, and by the way, did I mention I quit? Because you suck. And Salem sucks. You can go ahead and tell her that. Oh, wait, you can't. You're frozen! You suck and you are also frozen. This day is suddenly looking up!"
Yzma had no interest in Cinder or the Grimm. Instead, she located an elevator shaft leading straight down. "I suppose this was the only way in and out of this room," she muttered. "I'll need a very, VERY long ladder for this."
"We have magic," Mozenrath told Yzma half absently; he was still watching Roman make fun of the immobile Cinder. "We don't need ladders."
"Or we can use our magic to make ladders," Wuya decided, stepping toward the elevator shaft. She extended a hand downward; a ladder fashioned itself out of nothing, spreading all the way down to the bottom of the shaft.
"NOW we are cooking!" Yzma crowed before excitedly leaping onto the ladder to descend it to the bottom of the shaft. Wuya followed, then Aghoul.
As Mim and Neo stepped closer to the shaft, they turned back to look at Mozenrath, the Huntsman, Snatcher, and Roman: Mozenrath in particular. The Huntsman was surveying the gargantuan Grimm, pacing around its head. Roman was taking selfies while standing next to Cinder, making every face he could think of, including copying her expression of irate awe. Snatcher seemed to be hanging on the edge of that scene, watching Roman without getting himself really involved. And Mozenrath was looking from Cinder to the Grimm and back with a sparkle in his eye. Ideas were brewing in that brain of his.
"Aren't you coming?" Mim asked her leader.
"You go on ahead," Mozenrath advised. "I'll catch up."
At those words, the Huntsman, Snatcher, and Roman all turned to look at their employer, now clearly able to see the knowing smirk on his face. Whatever he'd come up with, they were sure it was relevant to all of them.
Mim shrugged. "Suit yourself!" She made her way down the ladder, and Neo eagerly went after her.
"Out with it," Snatcher told Mozenrath.
"It's clear you've gotten some sort of idea in the past few moments," the Huntsman added.
"This…Cinder," Mozenrath recalled, stepping toward the stationary woman. "You said she was magical, didn't you, Roman?"
"She has at least half if not all of the Fall Maiden's powers," Roman confirmed. "It all depends on how bad she botched up the job after I kicked the bucket. We know she botched the job at least THIS badly."
"And it's not a Semblance," Mozenrath reiterated. "It's pure magic."
"Are you trying to go somewhere with this?" Roman asked.
"Back home, I possessed a rather special crystal," Mozenrath explained. "The Crystal of Ix. It had the power to entrap anyone or anything magical and allow the crystal's owner to use the power of whatever was in it for themselves. In the past, I've tended to save the use of it for genies. But as long as magic is just going to be handed to us, we might as well pick it up, don't you think?"
"And how are you going to retrieve this crystal?" the Huntsman asked. "Your old home is still under surveillance by Maleficent, after all."
"We'll worry about that later," Mozenrath told him. "First…"
He held out his right hand, projecting a tractor beam toward Cinder. Roman quickly scurried out of the way as the blue energy surrounded Cinder…then promptly fizzled out before Mozenrath could use it to move her. Mozenrath tried again, but to no avail.
"Whatever magic is on her," Mozenrath grumbled, "it's strong."
"How quaint," a familiar voice sounded over the landing. "It seems your powers are nowhere near as strong as you believe they are."
The statement made Mozenrath's blood run cold. He whipped his head about to get a good look at the speaker, though he would have recognized that voice anywhere. The Huntsman, Roman, and Snatcher were blissfully unaware of what they were looking at when they took in the sight of the faery in black, sporting the horned cowl. However, when Mozenrath identified her, they all remembered the name from his accounts:
"Maleficent." Despite the trepidation he felt addressing her, Mozenrath was determined to put on a stoic face. She didn't need to know he was afraid of her, though she probably already had that fact logged in the recesses of her memory. "Did you come here for a reason, or just to gloat?"
"I came seeking you, in fact," Maleficent replied coolly. "We still have unfinished business. You left Hades in quite a predicament, after all."
"Don't pretend you care about him," Mozenrath snapped. "You just want to see me suffer."
The Huntsman, Snatcher, and Roman all went for their weapons.
"You claim to know so much about me," Maleficent taunted, "and yet you know so little. For example, did you know that lifting the curse on Cinder Fall would take me but a moment?"
"I'd like to see you try," Mozenrath growled. His conscious thoughts believed that she was making an empty threat. But deep within him, a core of fright told him she wasn't.
"I had thought to settle our debt myself," Maleficent told him, "but this seems far more fitting." Her staff materialized in her right hand, and she twirled it momentarily before flicking it toward Cinder. A globe of bright green light sailed across the landing until it crashed into and washed over the petrified woman.
Cinder's taut muscles relaxed. Her face was awash with serenity as she drew herself up to full height. "As a matter of fact, Roman," she stated, "I didn't fail. I have all of the Fall Maiden's powers now. I'm also fully willing to accept your resignation…on my terms."
Roman slowly backed away, not realizing he was making a course for the Grimm's head. "Come on," he told her nervously, "I was just having a little fun with you! You know, like the good old days?"
Cinder turned to Maleficent. "And who do I have to thank for this?" She smiled wickedly.
"An ally, perhaps," Maleficent told her. "After all, it seems we now have a common enemy. Which is perhaps too generous a term for a gaggle of imbeciles who refuse to acknowledge their place."
Cinder put out a hand to either side, and a small column of flame roared up in each. "Shall I do the honors of punishing them?" she asked.
"You needn't be alone in the endeavor," Maleficent told her. The globe atop her staff glowed neon green.
The Huntsman was the first to realize what she was about to do. With a "NO!", he deployed a net from the end of the huntstaff to intercept the next lime-colored globe. The magic burned right through it. Mozenrath barely had time to put up a deflection shield of deep blue between the sphere and the target; Maleficent's spell burned right through his as well. It collided with the enormous Grimm, and its head twitched.
"That should be more than enough for you to handle," Cinder laughed, dismissing the flames from her hands. "I think I'll check up on your friends."
A jet of flame sprang up beneath Cinder's feet, and she levitated into the air, arcing up into the sky before making a dive down the elevator shaft.
The gigantic Grimm roared, audible throughout the kingdom. It beat its massive red wings, taking flight. Maleficent gave a brief but hearty laugh as she vanished, leaving only four on the landing for the Grimm to devour. The Grimm saw easy pickings.
Mozenrath, the Huntsman, and Snatcher knew they had to get some distance, so they charged for the opposite end of the landing. "How did she FIND US?" Mozenrath roared.
Snatcher realized who was missing. He turned back to view Roman standing stock-still, head craned upward to watch the Grimm's head.
Neither fight nor flight had been triggered in Roman when the Grimm had been reanimated. Instead, it was an unholy hybrid of both. He was rooted to the spot, blood practically turned to ice. His grip tightened on the Cudgel. The beast was rearing back, opening its maw to swallow him up. Let it try, he urged it mentally. He would just have to take this one down with him this time. He swung the Cudgel upward, aiming it at the Grimm, hand shaking momentarily before he forced it steady.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Mozenrath yelled at him.
Roman acted as though he hadn't heard – in truth, he barely had. As the Grimm's jaws plunged toward him, he turned the Cudgel upward to fire off a salvo into its throat. Several shots hit the beast's interior, but due to the size and toughness of the Grimm, it wasn't affected in the slightest. Roman felt the hot breath of the Grimm as its jaws began to close around him.
Then, from the left, he was slammed by a physical force that sent him tumbling out of the Grimm's path. The enormous jaws crashed down onto an empty floor, breaking through to the level beneath.
When Roman rolled to a stop, he was in a familiar position: the person who'd tackled him to get him to move was right on top of him, deep blue eyes locking onto his green. "Now DON'T make me do that a THIRD time!" Snatcher growled before scrambling to his feet, leaving Roman in somewhat of a daze.
"The beast is mine," the Huntsman resolved, pointing his huntstaff and charging the Grimm. Mozenrath was hot on his heels, fist ablaze.
When Roman had regained his balance, Snatcher waved him on before jumping down into the hole the Grimm had punched in the floor, landing hard on the lower story. The Grimm's attention was now on Mozenrath and the Huntsman rushing directly toward it, and Roman was caught between joining the charge and following Snatcher. His decision was made for him when Snatcher bellowed up to him, "GET A MOVE ON, TORCHWICK!"
Roman nimbly leapt down to the level below, where Snatcher had located a stairway. As soon as Roman caught up, Snatcher led the bolt down the stairs. "Why are we RUNNING FROM IT?" Roman yelled indignantly. "You think I can't take it?"
"I think if you take the honor of slaying it from the Huntsman," Snatcher replied, "he's going to be sore, and we'll never hear the end of it!"
Roman knew that wasn't the case, but he appreciated Snatcher trying to protect his ego all the same.
Down many stairways and hallways they hurtled. "But seriously, Righty better not give us crap for ditching him," Roman groaned.
"I'd think he'd be grateful that the two of us secured the perimeter whilst he was engaged in combat," Snatcher replied coolly.
When they reached the front gate, they were grimly reminded of something Mozenrath had figured out from the start: the reason they'd teleported up to the top of the fortress in the first place. Just as he'd suspected, the front gate was guarded. As Roman and Snatcher skidded to a halt, weapons drawn, Qrow sneered back at them: "Nice try."
"Excuse me?" Roman nearly laughed. "You're supposed to be keeping us from getting IN, not getting OUT. If anyone had a 'nice try' here, it's you."
"Y'know, it's almost an honor, facing the infamous Roman Torchwick," Qrow replied, drawing a gleaming silver blade from where it was sheathed on his back. "Or getting mouthed off to by him, as the case is. Though you really don't make that mascara look as good as they say you do."
"Let's see…" Roman thought it over. "Hasn't shaved in a week, smells of booze, doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut…you must be Qrow Branwen."
"So you've heard of me. Once again, I'm ALMOST honored." Qrow gave a nod toward Snatcher. "Who's your buddy?"
Snatcher managed to get halfway through "Archibald Sn – "
"Your doom," Roman supplied.
Snatcher shrugged. "Well, I suppose that works."
Qrow was about to make another retort, but the movement of dark wings overhead distracted him. He tilted his head upward to behold the sight of the massive Grimm taking flight. "What – "
Roman and Snatcher both lunged at the opportunity. A burst of red and a bolt of lightning shot toward Qrow. And somehow, without missing a beat, he dodged both, barely moving his body. He abandoned the sight of the Grimm to look back down to his opponents, holding up his blade. "That seriously it?" he taunted.
Snatcher threw the mallet, only to have Qrow block it with the flat of the blade and then swing his sword up to entangle it completely in the chains, jerking Snatcher closer to him. Snatcher jammed the barrel of his pistol at Qrow's head; Qrow pulled off another last-minute dodge, sending lightning flying out over empty air. The red-caped warrior slipped past Snatcher, using one downward jerk of his sword and the leverage of the chain to topple him before disentangling the sword and bringing it up to meet Roman's Cudgel. The two dueled just long enough for Snatcher to get his bearings. Back on his feet, Snatcher grasped the mallet of his weapon in one hand and the pistol in the other, throwing the chain over Qrow from behind…or aiming for him, at least. Qrow was faster, ducking and darting, and the chain fell over Roman, entangling him. Roman dealt Snatcher one very miffed look, which Snatcher returned in equal measure.
"If you two wanna get kinky, don't hold back on my account," Qrow teased, a sparkle in his rose-colored eye.
"Kill him," Roman seethed, wriggling against his bonds.
"I intend to," Snatcher promised, looping the chain off of his ally.
They came at Qrow from both sides, and Qrow's sword blocked every single shot: the shots of red, the sparks of electricity, the strikes from mallet and cane. Red and yellow glowed against silver. Then, when he'd had enough fun, Qrow leapt right up into the air, where he pivoted to press his feet against the Beacon wall and launch himself some distance away.
Just as he'd hoped, having put himself in the middle of the dueling duo ended up with them pointing their weapons at each other across the space where Qrow had once been. Snatcher's reflexes were fast enough to hold his fire as soon as the target had disappeared.
Roman's weren't.
In fact, Roman hardly registered it until Snatcher cried out, dropping his weapon to clutch at his left shoulder with his right hand, staggering as crimson blood poured out over his fingers. Roman took a single step back, horrified at what he'd just done.
No.
What Qrow had just done.
"You're…DEAD!" He rushed past Snatcher to catch Qrow on his landing, flipping the Cudgel around in his hand to eject its hook toward Qrow at high speed. It caught Qrow right on the throat, pulling Qrow back and down as he staggered to stop the hook from choking him. By the time he'd cast the hook aside, Roman had caught up with him, and the Cudgel came down hard on Qrow's back, again and again, giving him no time to get his bearings or manipulate his weapon.
Even with one arm out of commission, Snatcher wasn't about to be felled so easily. He quickly swept downward to scoop up the mallet, whirling to where Roman was keeping Qrow down. As he barged toward Qrow, mallet held high, his only goal was to bash the man's skull to bits.
Then, at the exact same time, the Cudgel and the mallet bounced off a purple energy field that surrounded Qrow. A cloud of dark smoke hung thick in the air, having formed while all were distracted. Roman barely had enough time to groan, "Oh, not AGAIN – "
Blue-white crystals shot from the cloud, battering both Roman and Snatcher. Their edges were sharp, leaving both men with several hairline cuts adorning their bodies (as well as tearing up what they thought were two perfectly good jackets). They backed away from Qrow, darting for a hiding place from the new assault. They chose the remains of the raised statue that had once stood proudly before Beacon. The sculpture, at one time, had depicted Huntsman and Huntress standing atop a raised platform. Now, due to the Grimm attacks, the human likenesses had been reduced to rubble, and all that was left was the rock.
A bespectacled blonde woman wearing a purple cape stormed toward the scene of the battle. Qrow stood up and saluted her: "About time."
Glynda Goodwitch ignored him. She was more concerned with the two men she'd seen trying to batter Qrow to death. It wasn't hard to figure that they'd been breaching the boundaries of the fortress for unsavory purposes…especially once Glynda recognized one of them as Roman Torchwick. She gritted her teeth hard, raising the crop she used as a weapon.
The stone shards that had once been part of the majestic statue lifted themselves off the ground, spinning and gathering before molding themselves into a pair of casts that slammed into Roman and Snatcher, encasing them against the statue base and sending a fresh wave of pain shooting through Snatcher's wounded shoulder. Their arms were bound to their sides; the only bits Glynda left free were their heads and feet.
"Would you mind telling me what's going on here?" Glynda asked; the question was meant for Qrow, but she never took her eyes off his attackers.
"I would," Qrow answered, "but I'm not quite sure myself."
...
At the very bottom of the elevator shaft, far belowground, was a dark vault. The room was cavernous, stretching out so that the far end's contents were only barely glimpsed from the position of the shaft.
"I'm almost certain they put it at the other end of the room just to be difficult," Yzma huffed as she led Wuya, Mim, Aghoul, and Neo toward a grand stack of crates piled around two devices that looked eerily like they were designed to contain human bodies; the glass pane of one was cracked.
Neo rushed on ahead to the crates, unsheathing her parasol's blade and using it as a crowbar to pry off the top of one of the boxes. Gleefully, she grabbed a handful of green crystals, letting them rain back down onto their brethren in the box with a melodic tinkling sound.
"Well, at least we found what we were looking for," Wuya observed.
A tremor shook the building down to the core. What the quintet didn't know was that this was the effect of the dragon-esque Grimm coming back to the flow of time proper.
"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Yzma said worriedly.
"One of us should probably go check on that," Aghoul suggested.
After a brief silence, Wuya sighed, "Well, don't all volunteer at once. Fine. I'll go." She created a Corridor that led out to the back courtyard of the academy.
"I'm coming with you," Yzma volunteered.
Wuya gestured toward the Corridor; "Age before beauty."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Yzma strode through, and Wuya followed, closing the Corridor behind her.
"Now." Mim turned back to the pile of crates. "What fun can we have with this stuff?"
"We're supposed to take it right back to the base," Aghoul reminded her.
Mim gave him a wordless look of disbelief.
"I only said that's what we're SUPPOSED to do," Aghoul went on. "Not what we're actually GOING to do."
Neo grinned wickedly in response.
The trio was alerted to the sound of rushing wind and the glow of fire coming from the direction of the elevator shaft. In a blaze of flame, Cinder Fall rocketed into the vault, coming to a gentle stop in midair right before Aghoul, Mim, and Neo. "So this is what you were after," she stated with a cold smirk. Her eyes fixed directly on Neo; "Hello, Neo."
Neo scowled in return.
"And who are YOU supposed to be?" Mim huffed.
"I'm the Fall Maiden," Cinder replied calmly. "You don't have to tell me who you are. You're working with Torchwick now, and since he's decided to make his low opinion of me clear, that makes you my enemy. You won't be taking that Dust anywhere. In fact, you won't be leaving."
Lines of flame ringed Cinder's eyes like bright glasses, and as she raised her hands, a wall of flame rose up between her and her targets, quickly rushing toward them and threatening to engulf them all.
Mim twirled her hand, index finger extended, and pointed at the flames. A cold wind whipped through them, dousing the bright fire. Neo put a hand on Mim's shoulder, vaulting over the short woman's head before charging right at Cinder, sword drawn, face adorned with a smile of glee. She plunged the blade at Cinder, but the Fall Maiden was fast enough to avoid it once, twice, thrice. Neo struck out again to find that Cinder had somehow gotten behind her; if not for the fact that Neo was even faster than Cinder, she would have been completely incinerated by Cinder's next column of flame.
"Get the Dust back to base!" Aghoul commanded Mim. "I'll take care of HER."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Mim snapped, shaking a finger in Aghoul's face.
Aghoul ignored Mim, bringing a skull bomb into existence so that he could launch it at Cinder's back. Cinder whipped around, bringing up a hand so she could deflect the flying skull. Aghoul tried a few more skulls, but Cinder knocked all of them aside, causing them to explode behind her and sending Neo running from one end of the room to the other in order to avoid the blasts.
"NEO!" Mim cast a Corridor in the floor, one that led down into Judgment Hall in Mt. Ebott. "Get the Dust in here!"
Neo nodded, running back around Cinder to get to the stack of crates.
"All right, no more Mr. Nice Corpse!" Aghoul dispensed with the skull bombs, bringing out his scythe instead. He charged, swinging it at Cinder; she backflipped over the blade, continuing to tumble until she'd gotten some distance away from Aghoul. As she righted herself, ending her levitation with a definitive "clink" of glass heels on the floor, she spun in place, calling Dust into her hand to form a pair of obsidian swords. By that time, Aghoul had caught up with her. He raised the scythe high, then plunged it straight downward; Cinder crossed the swords above her head to block it. Leaving one sword in place to pin up the scythe blade, she removed the other to strike out at Aghoul, causing him to leap backward in surprise.
As he went backward, a purple wolf sprang forward, jaws snapping at Cinder. Cinder threw a sphere of flame at the lupine Mim, who caught it in her jaws and spun round and round like a dog playing fetch. At the zenith of her spin, she let go of the ball, firing the incendiary projectile right back at Cinder. Cinder leapt, levitating up above it and calling a new weapon into her hand: a black, glassy bow. The bow loaded itself with three arrows, and Cinder drew back, aiming down at Mim.
A snap. A howl of pain. Aghoul screaming, "MIM!"
Mim was forced to return to human form so that she could pluck the arrows from her body with both hands. Cinder hadn't hit vitals, but she had put Mim in a great deal of pain. "That DOES IT!" Mim screeched, and she practically exploded into the form of the dragon, letting loose a fiery breath at Cinder. Cinder returned fire with a flame of equal magnitude, and the two jets of flame pushed against each other for a moment, sometimes tipping one way or the other depending on who felt a greater surge of power.
Aghoul, thinking this would be the perfect time to take advantage of Cinder's distraction, launched a skull into the air and batted it upward with his scythe. Cinder only needed one hand to keep up the flames against Mim, and she used the other to punch the skull back downward. Aghoul skittered out of the blast range.
Neo, in the meantime, had been uninterrupted as she loaded crate after crate into the Corridor. She looked forward to seeing the look on Cinder's face when she realized that they'd made off with all the Dust. All that was left was a sole crate filled with the purest red variety. Neo pushed it to the edge of the Corridor…then thought better of it. Mim and Aghoul were taking a lot of hits, and that was disquieting.
Finally, Cinder's flame, in one great rush, overpowered Mim's, crashing like a fiery wave over the dragon and bringing Mim's own fire along with it. Burned and howling, Mim returned to human form again, slumping to the ground. "I…HATE…YOU!" she screeched, pounding the floor with her singed fists. "I HATE HATE HATE HAAAAAAATE YOOOOOUUUUU!"
Cinder smirked. "The feeling is mutual." The bow appeared again, and more arrows loaded up into it. This time, they would hit Mim's heart.
The arrows were released with a snap. They thudded right into heart, stomach, and the spot in between. However, none of these body parts belonged to Mim.
"WHAT?" Cinder gritted her teeth as she glared down Aghoul, who'd stood in front of Mim at the last second to take the arrows to the vitals.
"Well, that's an inconvenience," Aghoul sighed as he tore the first arrow from his chest.
"How aren't you DEAD?" Cinder seethed.
Aghoul chuckled as he wrenched the second arrow from the base of his sternum. "If I were any more dead," he laughed, "I'd be alive!"
"That doesn't make any sense!" Cinder growled. She forced herself to be calmer: "Enough games." She sent one last incendiary column of fire at the damaged pair.
Neo intercepted, rushing across the vault with the crate of red Dust held high. As Cinder let loose with the flame, Neo launched the crate into the air, right into the path of the shot. Cinder blasted the crate full force, and it did what red Dust does when it comes into contact with fire.
The explosion rocked the entire vault, sending Cinder rocketing all the way back to the elevator shaft. Neo grabbed the back of Aghoul's robe and Mim's dress, dragging both of them to the Corridor, running as fast as her little feet could take her. Cinder, with a ringing in her head from where she'd banged it against the far wall, rode a jet of flame back across the vault, but by the time she'd reached the trio, Neo had dragged her accomplices down into the Corridor, and Mim had closed it. Cinder opened fire on a blank floor, her soul now as aflame as her attacks.
...
The Huntsman plunged the edge of the Huntstaff into the floor, using it as a pole vault to launch onto the Grimm's head. Mozenrath used a simpler teleportation spell, one far less clean than a Corridor of Darkness, to appear next to him aboard the creature. The Huntsman made a beeline for where the Grimm's head was situated upon its neck, plunging the huntstaff at it, hoping it would be weak.
While the Grimm's neck was far too thick for the huntstaff to do any grievous damage, it still caused the creature a good amount of pain. It beat its great red wings, taking off from the side of the fortress, smacking the tower with its tail as it took off. It made a course directly upward, causing the Huntsman to slip as the ground beneath him became vertical. He gripped the huntstaff hard, dragging it down as the Grimm went up. A gauntleted hand wrapped around the weapon's shaft; Mozenrath was utilizing the staff as a handhold as well as adding his weight to it so that it would cut down through the Grimm's skin all the faster.
The Grimm's flight path took it upside-down completely, and the huntstaff dislodged, sending both Mozenrath and the Huntsman tumbling down through empty air past a whipping tail.
Rather than panicking, Mozenrath waited. The great Grimm righted itself as soon as it had shaken off its aggravators, and Mozenrath seized the opportunity to quickly teleport himself and the Huntsman right back to its shoulders, between the wide wings.
"Tear the membranes!" the Huntsman ordered Mozenrath. "If it can't fly, then we have it!" He barreled to the left, and Mozenrath sped off to the right. They waited for the wings to come down in their cycle, at which point they boarded the red appendages and set gauntlet and huntstaff to tearing the surprisingly fragile membranes. The Huntsman left a great gash in the left wing, and Mozenrath blew a hole completely through the right.
The Grimm bellowed in agony, losing altitude fast. As it plunged toward the ground, it made a final bid to rid itself of its riders, turning a corkscrew in midair. Upside-down again, the Huntsman fell, and he waited for the also rapidly dropping Mozenrath to teleport him back again. What he didn't count on was the Grimm's wildly whipping tail, now out for revenge. The flexible appendage slammed into both the Huntsman and Mozenrath, sending them crashing back toward the Beacon wall. The Huntsman spun in midair, plunging the huntstaff into the wall to use as a handhold and putting out his feet to absorb the shock. As soon as he was settled in position, he turned to get a good view of Mozenrath smacking directly into the wall, his head crashing hard, before the sorcerer plunged, unconscious, toward the stone and asphalt below.
The Huntsman wrenched his staff from the wall, launching off it to get a head start on his fall as well as an aim toward his new target. His muscle mass accelerated his descent, and as he passed Mozenrath, he scooped the comatose sorcerer into one arm while using the other to drive the staff back into the wall, stopping both from falling further.
The Grimm squalled as it fell into the streets of Vale. The Huntsman fired it a glare that he wished could kill; then he set about planning how to get himself and Mozenrath safely down from their perch.
...
"Best I can tell, they were infiltrating the school to steal something," Qrow told Glynda. "Three guesses what."
"But if they were after the Dust, then where is it?" Glynda asked. "And, more importantly, I thought it was reported that Roman Torchwick was dead."
"Like I'm not even here," Roman huffed.
"I'd say they reported wrong," Qrow remarked, "but my niece saw it with her own eyes, and she doesn't lie." He stepped closer to where Roman was bound in stone. "So how'd ya do it? Somethin' in your semblance?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Roman replied. "I don't suppose I could trade that information for freedom for me and Archie here, could I?"
"That wasn't even a nice try," Qrow scoffed.
Glynda heard a new set of footsteps rushing toward the scene. As she turned and got an eyeful of the newcomers, she cried, "Qrow, look out!"
Qrow leaned back, and the spearlike dart whistled past him, barely snagging his shirt front.
"DRAT!" Yzma seethed, loading up another dart as she and Wuya continued their charge.
"I'll handle this," Wuya offered. She gathered up two green spheres of energy in her hands, launching them at Glynda one by one. Glynda swatted each with her crop; the spheres broke against purple deflection shields.
"New plan," Wuya decided. She launched into the air, speeding toward Qrow, twisting about midflight so that one leg was extended toward his head. Qrow easily dodged the kick, and Wuya skidded across the ground, coming to a more or less graceful stop. As she straightened up, she taunted, "I see you are fast! I wonder just how fast you happen to be." She held her arms straight out to either side: "Arise, my rock creatures!"
The ground rumbled. Chunks of stone and asphalt dug themselves out to form six humanoid giants, each eight feet tall, animated with green light. Wuya pointed them toward Qrow; "CRUSH HIM!" The stone giants moved as one, fists outstretched.
Qrow thrust his weapon behind his back. The staff elongated; the blade curved until his sword had transformed into a massive scythe. Giving it a twirl, Qrow ran into the fray, hacking the rock creatures to pieces.
Yzma, in the meantime, had loaded up another dart, flinging it at Glynda. Glynda held out her crop, slowing the dart's movement. She spun, and the dart curved around her; when Glynda had turned a full 360 and brought the dart around with her, she flung it right back at Yzma. Gasping in fear, Yzma quickly cartwheeled out of the way, but not before the dart nicked her in the leg…and a nick was all it took. Pink smoke billowed out of nowhere, and when it cleared, where Yzma had been, there was now a tiny purple frog, emitting a growl of frustration.
Glynda stared in surprise. "Well. There's something you don't see every day."
"Maybe YOU don't," Qrow responded, severing a stone arm from the side of a hulking giant.
The Yzma-frog hopped its way up to Wuya's shoulder. "Really?" Wuya groaned. "You couldn't have tipped those with poison instead?"
"I was accounting for this exact circumstance," Yzma replied.
"Admittedly smart," Wuya relented.
After Qrow had reduced the last giant to rubble, he backed off. "I think you know what to do," he told Glynda.
Glynda pointed her crop at the debris leftover from the giants, raising it into the air and raining it like an avalanche down upon Wuya and Yzma. Wuya raised her hands in return, stopping the stones from crashing onto her and holding them up in midair. With a motion that resembled setting a volleyball, Wuya shoved the rock pile back to Glynda, who stopped the shower of stones by making them circle her like moons around a planet.
"Um, hello?" Roman called out. "Still pinned to a statue over here!"
"Assistance would be appreciated!" Snatcher added.
With a snap of the fingers, Wuya caused the encasements on the two prisoners to fall apart, setting them both free. Roman quickly glanced over to Snatcher; his wound looked even worse now.
Glynda turned the stones to fly at Roman and Snatcher, but Wuya redirected them all, sending them flying toward Qrow. Qrow twirled his scythe blade at a seemingly impossible speed, dicing every rock into bits before it could pummel him.
The Huntsman had completed his slow journey down the wall, and with Mozenrath draped over one arm and the huntstaff in the other hand, he dropped onto the ground next to Wuya. On the other side, Roman and Snatcher lined up, ready to bring Qrow and Glynda down once and for all.
But something came into view that made Wuya, Yzma, the Huntsman, Snatcher, and Roman pause. It was at that moment that Roman knew they were sunk.
...
Ruby, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Jaune, Nora, and Ren had frozen in their tracks when they saw the dragonlike Grimm take flight, then plummet to the ground behind them.
"WHAT?" Jaune screamed. "BUT THAT THING WAS FROZEN!"
"They told me they tried to move them, but nothing could!" Ruby added. "I froze them to the spot somehow!"
"You did WHAT?" Sora asked.
"I still don't really get it," Ruby told him, "but I froze that Grimm in time! It shouldn't be moving! Not unless it wore off…"
"Or something moved it," Riku suggested, looking to Beacon.
"That would be bad," Ruby told him. "Really, REALLY bad. There was something else up there that got frozen that shouldn't be moving right now. And if that Grimm is moving, then Cinder…" She trailed off, looking to Jaune.
"No," Jaune said softly.
"Who's Cinder?" Kairi asked.
"Cinder," Jaune replied, "is someone who took away someone I loved."
"She caused all of this," Nora went on. "Everything bad that happened is her fault!"
"There's no time to think about that now," Ren said with a shake of the head. "We have to do something about that Grimm."
"But what can we do?" Jaune wailed. "It's HUGE!"
Sora opened his mouth to make a comment, but Riku intercepted: "I think we should get to Beacon first. Something made that Grimm move, and that same something might have brought Cinder back, too. And that something is there at Beacon."
"Riku's right," Sora realized. "It might be the bad guys we were looking for!"
"Then let's go!" Ruby charged ahead, and it was all the others could do to keep up.
When Beacon's front gates came into view, Ruby spotted her uncle Qrow dicing up a shower of rocks that threatened to attack him while Glynda stood braced to defend. They faced down a redheaded woman in black (with a frog on her shoulder, though Ruby couldn't see that at first), a hulking man wearing a dragon skull helmet who carried another man draped over his arm, a man in a billowing red jacket dripping blood from one shoulder, and –
Ruby stopped short. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ren, Nora, and Jaune fell into step alongside her. They spotted the lineup of villains at the same time that the lineup of villains spotted them. "WHAT?" Ruby screamed, staring directly at Roman. Her teeth gritted, and her fists clenched. "What are you DOING here?"
"Great," Roman muttered. In a louder tone, he addressed his longtime foe: "Don't tell me. You thought I was supposed to be dead."
"I SAW you die," Ruby stated in awe.
"Who is that?" Sora asked Ruby.
"That's him," Ruby replied. "Roman Torchwick."
"HEY!" Sora stepped forward, pointing at Roman. "Are you the one who attacked Radiant Garden?"
"Or Disney Castle!" Kairi added.
Wuya scooted right up next to Roman. "They have us overpowered," she whispered. "We can't take them now. When I give the word…run."
"Answer us," Riku demanded.
"Yeah, we did that," Roman told them. "And we loved…every…minute of it. Though as much as I'd love to take the credit, I have to hand it to my new boss here." He looked to the unconscious Mozenrath, then back to the group of young warriors. "…He's having a bit of an off day."
"Who IS he?" Sora asked incredulously.
"Sorry," Snatcher replied. "Can't say! That's on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know!"
"All you need to know is that we're about to make a roast bird out of your Qrow here," Roman threatened.
"Did you NOT hear what I said?" Wuya seethed.
"We aren't running," the Huntsman insisted.
"I'd like to see you try…again," Qrow told Roman, winking.
The Huntsman didn't need to see or hear any more to know he already hated Qrow. "Enough of this," he growled, aiming his staff at Qrow. Roman raised his weapon at Glynda. Snatcher held his mallet high. Behind them, Wuya discreetly conjured a Corridor and began counting down.
With a yell, the seven young warriors moved as one, overtaking Qrow and Glynda to rush to meet their newfound foes. Ruby drew a red contraption from her back, hoisting it high and firing a high-energy ballistic from it. Kairi blocked the shot from Roman as Sora rushed the redheaded man, Keyblade drawn. The key-shaped sword bit into Roman at the exact same time that Ruby's bullets found a nesting place in his arm.
Riku launched a Dark Firaga at the Huntsman. While the Huntsman was busied maneuvering his staff to block the dark flames, he failed to take note of Nora rushing behind him, wielding a massive hammer. Her presence became known to him once the hammer's head slammed into his back.
Snatcher launched the mallet at Jaune; Jaune responded by bringing out his collapsible shield, and the weapon thudded metallically against it. Jaune drew his sword as Ren put both jade-green bladed pistols in hand. Flipping his weapon about as best he could with only one hand, Snatcher took up his own pistol, sending a bolt of lightning out toward Jaune; Jaune hid behind his shield, pushing against the electricity with the flat of it; Ren fired a salvo of auric bullets.
"Three," Wuya counted. "Two…"
Snatcher, Roman, and the Huntsman barreled for the Corridor, dragging Mozenrath along with them, finally admitting defeat.
"One," Wuya finished with a smirk.
"Sometimes I feel like you and I are the only sensible ones in this outfit," Yzma sighed.
"Says the tree frog," Wuya mocked.
"At least I was spared the irony of being a poison dart," Yzma replied.
Wuya turned and swept through the Corridor with Yzma upon her shoulder, closing it behind her. While none of her pursuers made it through, a few more bullets from Ruby and Ren's weapons did, making for a painful getaway.
...
Cinder stalked to the edge of the landing of the destroyed tower that had once been Ozpin's office, glaring down at the front gates, where she saw her quarries getting away through another Corridor to who knew where. Her right hand curled into a fist, and she could feel her body temperature literally rising.
A sudden sound, a whooshing in the air, turned Cinder's attention to behind her. Another Corridor had opened up, with no sign of anyone to have cast it. A voice, cold in timbre but inviting in tone, beckoned out from it: "Come this way, Cinder Fall. I believe we have much to offer each other."
Cinder recognized the voice, and it only took her a moment's mental search to identify the speaker as the one called "Maleficent." The woman was an enigma to be sure. What had placed her in Cinder's path? What had driven her to break Cinder's bonds? Obviously, she had wanted revenge on Roman's new cohorts, particularly the one in blue who'd talked about imprisoning Cinder inside of a crystal. But the woman had enough power to bring the gigantic Grimm to her beck and call. Cinder guessed that Maleficent hadn't really needed Cinder in order to enact that revenge, but had chosen her as a tool of cruel irony.
Was it destiny that had brought Maleficent to her? If Cinder stepped into that portal, she didn't know if she would ever return out of it. Salem would be most displeased. But Maleficent was immensely powerful, and Cinder admired that. Perhaps, just perhaps, she was even more powerful than Salem, and there was only one way to figure that out. Cinder had always been drawn to power, and she wanted to know what more Maleficent did indeed have to offer.
Enticed, Cinder strode into the Corridor, her glass heels clinking on the floor all the way until she was immersed entirely, and the Corridor disappeared behind her.
...
As Riku glared angrily at the place where the sextet of villains had disappeared, Ruby rushed toward her relative: "Uncle Qrow! Are you okay?" She clamped herself around Qrow's chest in a tight hug.
"Never better," Qrow laughed, ruffling Ruby's hair a little bit. "Y'know, I coulda taken those guys myself with one hand behind my back, but thanks for the save all the same."
"Are you okay, Miss Goodwitch?" Nora asked Glynda worriedly.
"I'm fine," Glynda responded, pushing a lock of her almost white-blonde hair back into place. "Though I'm not sure I can say the same for the rest of the kingdom."
All eyes turned back around to where the grounded dragon-Grimm was rampaging through the streets. "We have to do something," Jaune moaned.
Ren nodded. "We should warn them. Maybe we can evacuate the city."
"About all we can do," Qrow agreed.
Sora, however, was forming different plans. As he looked over the Grimm, he sized it up in his mind against the likes of the Opposite Armor, the Groundshaker, the dragon Maleficent, the gigantic Ursula.
"No," he resolved.
"No WHAT?" Jaune cried, flummoxed. "You want to leave everyone to DIE?"
Sora shook his head. "Not that either." He turned back to the group with a big smile on his face. Riku and Kairi knew what he was about to say, and Ruby could have guessed. "I think we can take that thing!"