THE COST OF TRUST
Jaune
'A failure with a death wish' is what Cinder whispered to me moments earlier, and every second that's passed since has been nothing but proof of that fact. My recklessness has caused Weiss to get impaled by a spear through her side, and Ruby knocked out.
"Weiss come on please! Wake up."
I plead with tears flooding my eyes and regret in my heart, but no amount of both could fix Weiss' breathing that was slowly fading away.
"I... I don't know what else we can do, Jaune."
Ren placed his hand on my shoulder with an expression just as pained and broken as mine.
"NO! It wasn't supposed to be like this! We can't lose anyone else... please."
All the pain, the sadness and grief I had my heart began to flow throughout my body, like a warm burst of energy I could not control. I close my eyes, pleading to anyone god that would listen to keep Weiss alive, but all of a sudden, Ren's voice urged me to open them back up.
"Jaune..."
As soon as I open up my eyes, I was greeted by the shimmer of white light, flowing through my hands and into Weiss' body. The bright light my aura produced began to stimulate Weiss' rapidly, stabilizing her condition slowly.
"Oh, what an interesting development..."
But the warmth and happiness brought about by the sight of Weiss slowly healing, was quickly dashed by the smug voice of Cinder, who slowly made her way towards us.
"That semblance looks quite troublesome. It'd be ashamed if we didn't take you out now while we have the chance."
Cinder cocked her hand back, summoning another javelin, but Ren quickly got up blocked it.
"I won't let you!"
The sight of Ren standing up to her brought a sadistic smile to Cinder's face.
"Ooh, the quiet one losing his temper? I hope you'd prove to be more of a challenge than your... leader over there."
She mockingly looked at me while she took on Ren. The two clashed together, with Ren fighting as fiercely as he can, but the powers of the Fall Maiden were simply too much, knocking him back right next to me like ragdoll.
"REN!"
Nora yelled at the top of her lungs. She tightened her grip on her hammer and blindly rushed forward, but she was quickly stopped by Vernal.
"You're not going anywhere young lady."
Panic ensues quickly right after that as the man named Hazel found out that Oscar was Ozpin, sending him into a frenzy, forcing him to abandon Ruby, who was barely recovering from being knocked out.
"Your friends are slowly starting to dwindle down, young man."
Cinder raised her hand, quickly igniting a fireball while she stared me, Ren, and Weiss down.
"Any last words?"
With everyone else occupied, I was left with no choice but to duck down and lay on top of Weiss. I close my eyes and braced myself for impact and the explosion that came with it. But when the it finally came, there was no pain, no burning sensation running through my body, and I was completely fine.
"Huh?"
I cautiously opened my eyes and quickly examined every inch of my body for any sort of scars or bruises, but found none. The only other conclusion that I can come up with was that Cinder missed, but when I looked up to check, I was greeted by the sight of a man, wielding a golden shield and scarlet blade.
"P-Pyrrha?"
No it can't be. I closed my eyes and blinked twice more, forcing them to adjust their focus. It wasn't Pyrrha that was standing right in front of us. No, Pyrrha never wore a gray cape, nor was black ever her style. This silver armor, this dirtied and faded combat boots, and that OWL helmet was only ever worn by...
"EZRA!"
It was as if the world stopped. Hearing me yell his name, made everyone drop what they were doing and shift their gaze towards Ezra, as he folds his helmet back to his hood.
"OWL..." (Cinder and Raven)
"Ezra?" (Yang)
"EZ!" (Nora and Ruby)
Cinder gritted her teeth in anger, whilw Ezra flashed his famous childish smile at her.
"What are you doing here?"
Without missing a beat, Ezra raised his shield, covering the lower half of his face, and pointed the tip of his sword at her at the same time.
"To stop you. I won't let you burn Haven the way you did Beacon."
Cinder returned Ezra's bold claims with a cocky smile of her own.
"And what makes you think you can beat a Maiden?"
But Ezra was undeterred.
"Because, I posses the one thing that stopped you and that grimm last time we fought."
Cinder squinted her eyes, and looked closely at Ezra's face. Her expression began to sour and change from that of curiosity to shock in a matter of seconds as the realization of what Ezra was hinting at came to her.
"Your eyes... they're... SILVER!"
She reared her head back, unable to process the fact that Ezra had silver eyes. It doesn't make sense, why would Cinder be afraid of silver eyes? But before I nor Cinder could make sense of the situation Ezra has put her in, he quickly disappeared from his spot, leaving only a small cloud of mist in his wake.
"Eight Movement: Vanishing Step!"
In a flash, Ezra appeared mere inches in front of Cinder. He swung his blade with such force that a gust of air rattled the wooden floor beneath their feet, which is why it caught me by surprised to see how cleanly Cinder blocked it.
Ezra's scarlet blade began grinding against her molten sword. The two stared each other down with their face close enough to feel each other's breath, both of them not wanting to let the other get the advantage.
"You know, it's good that you're here, OWL. Not only can I kill Ruby, but I can kill you now too. Lucky me."
Ezra smirked, tilting his shield towards Cinder's gut. Mist began to engulf his entire arm, before it rapidly solidified around the crescent shape gap in his shield, forming a thick ice blade, catching Cinder off guard.
"Tch!"
Cinder immediately hopped backwards, while manifesting a bow and arrow in her hands. Just as quickly as she created her weapons, she launched a storm of arrows towards Ezra. He raised his shield up to block the first volley, then combat rolled to the side to avoid second. Barrage after barrage, Ezra nimbly blocked or dodge every single arrow, vaulting over the last one while he morphed his sword into a spear and launched it towards Cinder.
"YOU DARE!"
Before Ezra's spear could reach her, Cinder's eyes began to ignite, unleashing a wave of energy that deflected Ezra's weapon back to him.
"Tch. Maiden powers are cheating."
Ezra jest as he expertly caught the spear with his hand. He stared Cinder down, who was now floating above the floor with six shards of molten swords floating behind her.
"Maiden powers are just that- power! Power that you don't have. Don't curse me for having it, curse your own weakness."
Ezra scoffed at what she just said.
"Weakness? Power? Is that why you attacked Beacon? Harmed so many people? So you can attain something so... trivial in comparison. You're willing to pay that much, sacrifice so many lives for power?"
The shaking in his voice... the pain of it all, was evident. Ezra's going through the same thing I did when I saw Cinder smile earlier... that pure hate, no maybe it was hate for me, but for Ezra, I can tell it's something different. He wasn't shaking in anger because he wanted revenge.
The way his voice sounded felt like he sympathized with the people Cinder hurt. The people of Vale, our friends, Yang... Pyrrha.
He's shaking, but his focus was evident, especially in his eyes. I can tell all he wants right now is to defeat Cinder. For the people she's hurt.
"Hmph."
But none of that matters to her. With a flick of her hand, she began launching her blades towards Ezra, who was more than up to the challenge. He desperately slashed and blocked every single strike till he was once more, face to face with Cinder.
This time around however, something was different. Cinder had her eyes lit up with flames thanks to her Maiden powers, but Ezra's eyes... were glowing, it was faint and subtle but it was clear and bright enough for his eyes to leave a trail of silver light each time he moved. It was as if his eyes were responding to Cinder's.
Whatever it was that Ezra was doing with his eyes, I don't think he's doing it on purpose.
"Incredible."
Even when we're all in such deep deep trouble, I could do nothing but kneel down in awe at the sight of Ezra and Cinder clashing. Equally at that. With each swing Cinder does, Ezra met it with equal force, and every time Cinder yelled in anger and made her activated of more her maiden powers, Ezra's eyes grew a little brighter.
"I don't know how he's doing it, but he's standing up to a Maiden."
Ren, who was catching his breath this whole time, finally gathered enough of his strength to speak and stand up.
"Still, this ain't looking to good for us."
I whisper under my breath, as I watch the wound on Weiss's stomach slowly disappear.
"JAUNE!"
Out of the corner my eyes, comes Ruby, running towards us. She quickly ducked down and slid right next to me, while keeping her eyes on Weiss the whole time.
"What happened!? Is she okay?"
"She took a hit! But... I think she's going to be okay."
A sigh of relief came out of Ruby after I consoled her and ensured that her friend was going to be okay. With the thought of losing Weiss flushed out of her head, Ruby focused her attention on Ezra and Cinder.
"Ezra? When did he get here? Why is he-"
I cut her off.
"Does it matter why? He's here."
Ruby and I looked at each other and nodded, but suddenly...
"WATCH OUT!"
Ren yelled, as three molten knives shot towards us.
"Second Movement: Hellfire!"
Out of nowhere, Ezra dropped from the sky, stabbing his blade on the ground as he landed, and summoning a pillar of flame that instantly melted Cinder's knives.
"Huh, fancy trick you got there OWL."
Cinder mockingly spoke, as she began to circle me and my friends.
"Why didn't you use it at Beacon I wonder? Probably because..." She gasped then giggled. "You're tired, like you are now."
Not one to back down, Ezra responded with the same mocking tone in his voice... only his sounded like HE IS tired.
"Heh, you wish. I can do this all day."
Which I can tell was a blatant lie. He's improved that's for sure, but whatever that silver glow was in his eyes was gone, and it seemed like it drained most of his stamina. That's bad! Cause if I can see that, so can Cinder.
"You can play tough all you want, but that party trick you did with your silver eyes didn't last very long. You missed your chance."
Cinder twirled her blade in her hand, as she continued circling us.
"Oh, don't worry, I got plenty more tricks up my sleeve. More than enough to beat you."
She didn't buy it. Cinder laughed at the face of Ezra's empty threats.
"Do you now? Well then, show me."
Cinder lifted her blade upright, anticipating Ezra's next move.
"Take this!"
Ezra covered his shield in mist, and launched it towards Cinder like a boomerang, but not before the shield ejected his katana's hilt. Cinder raised her hand and pointed it squarely at the shield, blasting it with a sudden burst of flame.
Cinder's flame colliding with Ezra's mist covered shield created a cover of smoke that hid his attack from her blind spot, but Cinder was crafty. She anticipated Ezra would be going for the back of her neck, so she quickly spun and swung her sword, parrying Ezra's strike, but what she wasn't anticipating was Ezra wielding Shirayuki in his off hand.
"WHAT!?"
Ezra swung his katana downward, forcing Cinder to back away, but Ezra was just as clever as Cinder, if not more. As soon as his katana touched the floor beneath him, it created a trail of ice that exploded into a wall behind Cinder, trapping her.
"Don't get cocky, you brat!"
Ezra swung his scarlet blade, summoning a burst of crescent shape flame towards Cinder. Left with no choice but to either eat the hit or dodge, Cinder used her Maiden powers to backflip and vault over the wall. Ezra's flames quickly vaporized his ice wall, turning it back to mist. Before Cinder could land, Ezra dashed towards to mist and slashed it with his katana, turning them into tiny icicle missiles that bombarded Cinder as she landed.
"Why you little-"
Before she could fight back, Ezra ran towards his shield and threw it at Cinder, distracting her long enough to slash her on her side with both blades, sending her flying towards the pillar.
"AAAGHH!"
He crossed his blades together and flashed a smile towards the reeling Cinder.
"Told you, I got more to give than just silver eyes."
But Cinder was unfazed. She brushed off the dirt on her cheek and glared back at Ezra.
"That's more like it."
Again, the two collided with such force that it felt like an earthquake was shaking the building.
"We have to find a way to help Ezra!"
Ruby yelled.
"I know, but how? He's the only one strong enough to stand up to her, and that's with his silver eyes. Now that that's gone, all Cinder has to do is use her maiden powers again and we're-"
Ruby cut me off.
"Screwed, I know. That's why we need to step in."
I agree, but what can we do? Weiss is still down, Ren is still catching his breath, Nora's busy with Vernal, Yang's barely keeping it together, and Qrow and Raven are evenly matched. Everywhere we looked, our hands are tied and barely on.
And things are about to turn for the worst.
"OZZZZZZPPPPPINNNN!"
Hazel's rampage grew even more violent than when he first found out about Ozpin. The situation's gotten even more dire than before, and we're running out of options fast.
"Ruby..."
"Yeah?"
"You think you can do it too?"
I ask Ruby out of curiosity and desperation, but she returned my question with a look of confusion. Not something I wanna see at a time like this.
"Do what?"
I shake my head in an attempt to hide my annoyance.
"Your eyes! They're silver too! Can you do what Ezra did? Like... tap into it or something?"
Ruby clenched her teeth and threw her hands up.
"Jaune, I didn't even know Ezra had silver eyes. I don't even know how my eyes light up, let alone supercharge my body with it."
Ren punched the floor out of frustration and forced himself to stand up.
"Enough! We gotta do something about all this crap."
He held both of his weapons in his hands and blindly charged at Lionheart.
"REN!"
Dammit! This is not the time to be losing our composure. Think Jaune, think. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and looked at Ruby once more.
"Ruby, listen. If you can't use your silver eyes the way Ezra can then the least we can do is lighten the load. GO! Help Oscar, I'll find a way to heal and defend Weiss."
Ruby took off after silently agreeing with me, but as soon as she did, a set of three fire balls came my way, but once again, before they even collided with me, Ezra rushed in to block Cinder's attacks.
"That's just dirty."
Ezra clicked his tongue, a he wiped the ashes off his shoulder armor.
"Thanks Ezra."
Without even looking at me, Ezra smirked and raised his weapons once more.
"We're not out of this, so don't thank me yet."
As soon as his words left his mouth, Ezra dashed back in towards Cinder, who decided on a different approach. She angled herself in a way that if Ezra dodged, her attacks would have landed on me and Weiss, forcing him to block or parry. Easy enough for Ezra, but the force of Cinder's Maiden infused attacks made it harder for him to do so without using up his aura.
And without his aura, Ezra couldn't mitigate the harm his semblance would cause to himself.
Ezra couldn't keep it up much longer, but just as things started to look bleak, a familiar voice knocked me back into my senses.
"J-Jaune?"
WEISS!
"What happened? Where am I?"
Tears began to flow through my eyes, brought about by the happiness of seeing Weiss awake once more.
"You took a heavy hit. You've been out for a while, but you're okay now."
Even in her weakened state, Weiss was able to cringe at the thought of what I just said.
"That's... annoying."
Classic Weiss.
"I'm glad you're back, Weiss."
The sound of steels clashing interrupted our moment. Ezra quickly glanced back at us, then at Cinder.
"If she's okay, then hurry up and move!"
Again, Weiss cringed and moaned.
"Is that Ezra? Owww."
I nod in response.
"Yeah, he's been protecting us this whole time."
Weiss rolled over, forcing herself to stand.
"Wait, you're not fully recovered yet!"
She held Myrtenaster as tightly as she could in her hand, using it as a crutch. Weiss raised her hand and wrapped it around my neck before pointing her weapon towards Cinder, launching an icicle at her, and catching her off-guard.
"GWAAHH!"
Weiss, panting and grunting still, smirks arrogantly at Cinder.
"That's for impaling me with a spear."
Cinder wasn't all too happy with what Weiss did. She gritted her teeth a flashed a nasty look our way with flames bursting out of her one good eye. Cinder violently flicked her hand, summoning a massive fire ball and shot it our way.
"JAUNE! ARKOS!"
I didn't even have time to think about what I just heard, but my body reacted nonetheless. I instantly raised my shield up front, and prepared for impact. Before the fireball made contact with my shield, a cloud of thick mist appeared in front of me that vanished just as quickly, revealing Ezra.
Ezra too, had his shield up with the both of us standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder. With the mist he manifested, Ezra created a thin sheet of ice that circles around the three of us.
"HOLD ON!"
As soon as the fireball slammed against our shields, the ice wall shattered, dispersing the flames all over and away from us, though the impact caused the ice shards created by the wall to shoot all over the place, forcing everybody to dodge and scramble back to their original factions.
"Nice call Ez."
I enthusiastically whisper at him, but all of that quickly faded away as his aura began to glow weaker. It seems dashing towards me and creating that wall of ice took a toll on his body, but he brushed it off nonetheless.
"Ha! Sure thing."
And just like that, we're back to where we started. Ruby, Yang, and Weiss stood side by side with me, my team, Qrow, and Ozpin, staring down Cinder and her crew.
Menacingly, Cinder paced back and forth in front of her team while she kept her gaze focused on Ezra.
"Now would you look at that, the band's back together... all you're missing is that little faunus girl, and it'd be like Beacon all over again... well, almost."
She mocked.
"Only this time it's a little bit different, isn't it, Ezra?"
Ezra clenched his teeth and raised his shield, trying his best not to take a bite of whatever it is Cinder is dangling in front of us.
"All that time you spent galavanting around in Beacon, and pretending to be everyone's friend. Let me ask you this... all of you."
She tilted her head up and surveyed the room, looking each of us in the eye.
"You once let this man sleep right next to you, eat the food you ate, and laughed at the same corny jokes you kids tell to one another. You offered him friendship..."
Cinder shifted her gaze towards Yang.
"Offered him love. You gave him your trust, placed everything on him, and what do you get in return?"
This time, Cinder looked at me straight in the eye.
"...losing the one you love."
I knew what she was pertaining to, she didn't have to say it. Pyrrha. She's talking about Pyrrha.
"So, now that he's standing right next to you, ask your yourself: is he worthy of being trusted? Would you place everything you had on him knowing that he might betray you again? Run away from you again. What more are you willing to lose just so you can stand side by side with the OWL of Val-"
All this rambling... all this manipulating, all this deflecting Cinder is doing was starting to get to me, so much so that I just had to say something.
"NONE OF THAT MATTERS!"
Cinder bit her lip and frowned, annoyed that I cut her off.
"Oh? So you're saying YOU will risk everything again to stand up next to him again? You must be really desperate then."
Before I could say something back, Ren moved forward and stood right next to Ezra.
"Not just him..."
Then Nora.
"But our team. We stand by Ezra."
All that was left was for me to finish what my team began, and say the things that I already knew the moment we met up with Ezra back at the docks.
"We stand together... as Team JNPR."
The four of us looked at each other with smiles on our faces. When Ruby and her team too, stood forward.
"We ALL stand together against you, Cinder."
Cinder growled at the sight of Ruby standing up to her.
"I swear, after I'm finished dismantling OWL from limb to limb, I'm going to gouge those silver eyes out of that pretty little face of yours."
Cinder summoned a molten sword on her hand, with fire coming out of her eyes. Literally. But before she could make any drastic move, Raven stepped in with her blade drawn.
"Enough! We cannot waste anymore time playing with kids. We finish this now and force our way through the vault. Your associate is taking forever."
Associate? Forcing their way through the vault.
"I should have known."
Ozpin whispered.
"What? What's going on?"
Weiss asks, to which Ozpin responded with panic in his voice.
"Remember when I said I put precautions around Beacon's relic? Well I put the same traps around the Haven relic as well. I was really hoping they wouldn't find out about it, but it would seem they already sent somebody to take care of it and that's-"
"Not good."
Qrow interrupted.
"Crap, so time's not on our side either, huh? Anybody got any ideas?"
Yang asked, but unfortunately, nobody has any sort of solution. We can barely keep it together as it is, let alone pick up the pace, but just as we thought we were all drained out of ideas, Ezra spoke, no whispered like he didn't want Cinder to hear.
"I do."
Yang and Ezra lock eyes, the hesitation in hers was visible, but the determination in Ezra's was enough to convince her.
"What do you have in mind?"
She asks reluctantly.
"Keep em busy for three more minutes."
"Why? What's going on in three?"
Yang asks to which Ezra couldn't help but smirk.
"The party."
No idea what he means by that, but we all looked at each other and nodded nonetheless. Three minutes, we can manage that. Well, we can at least survive for that long.
Right?
My fingers are starting to go numb. I keep adjusting the grip on my weapon, as the jitters start to get to me. As I roll my eyes across the room, I can see that everyone on our side is starting to feel the same. Sweat began to drop down our foreheads, and our eyes began to dry up, refusing to blink, not wanting to lose sight of the enemy in front of us.
Silence began to engulf the room, everyone anxiously anticipating what the other side was about to do.
Ezra raised his sword and slowly planted his left foot back while he folded his helmet back on, eager to make the first move, but before he could jump, the statue underneath the stairwell began to shift, revealing an elevator that was slowly making its way up.
Tension began to rise as both sides eagerly awaited the elevator to come a halt, with Cinder's group anticipating good news, while me and the rest hoped for another OWL-like surprise.
Unfortunately, we aren't so lucky the second time around.
"What?"
The woman clad in black asks with all eyes focused on her.
"You lot getting pushed around by a bunch of kids?"
She mockingly asks while flashing a huge grin towards Cinder and Raven, the only part of her face not hidden by her black feathered mask.
"How disappointing..."
She added before tilting her head our way.
"Let's see who do we have here. A farm boy, a dusty old crow, a couple of blondes."
Swan clicked her tongue and laughed, while she ran her finger at us one by one.
"Oh, would you look at that, a Schnee and..."
All of a sudden, Swan fell silent. The smile on her face slowly faded, as her hand dropped down to her waist.
"Cinder, Raven. I've cleared the vault. Take the Spring Maiden and finish what you came here to do."
Her voice changed from playful to eerily monotoned in a snap of a finger.
Cinder began to protest, but Swan ignored her. She slowly made her way towards the center of room, all the while never breaking eye contact with the one person that caught her attention... Ezra.
"Swan! I am not leaving till Ruby and OW-"
Swan's cut Cinder off with a calm and soft tone, which somehow felt more dangerous.
"He's mine... My prey."
Without ever looking back at Cinder, Swan smiled at Ezra which infuriated Cinder.
"Excuse me!?"
Before Cinder could cause anymore commotions, Raven grabbed her by the hand and dragged her towards the elevator. The obvious move was to stop them, but with Swan standing eerily right in front of us, none dare to move.
"Hello, OWL."
Was all she could muster at first, almost like she was shocked- star strucked, even.
"Swan."
Slowly, Ezra raised his finger towards his ear and whispered.
"This is Ezra, mission is a go in three minutes."
And with that, the tension between the two opposing sides finally broke, as we all rushed towards Lionheart and the rest, except for Ezra and Swan, who remained standing quietly in the center of the room.
"How I've longed to finally see you again, OWL."
Ezra put his scarlet blade and sheathed it inside his shield, before pulling out his katana from his belt.
"Still angry about Atlas?"
Swan chuckled.
"I was, but not anymore... OWL."
Swan pulled out a feather shaped dagger out of her sleeve as the two collide in the middle in of the room. With an ominous tone, Swan whispered in front of Ezra the moment their blades slammed against each other.
"I know your secret, OWL. I know who you are underneath that mask."