Chapter Nineteen
Zambara made for an interesting traveling companion, Sun had decided. The Maiden had led a very different life from him and his friends and was full of surprises. She didn't eat meat, for one, and started every day with an elaborate ritual that was mostly dance. Her accent was exotic and lyrical, she was smart, had a uniquely dry sense of humor, and loved watching the stars.
She could also wipe the floor with any one of them single handedly in a fight, and they had yet to find a two-man team that could take her down. She took her sparring very seriously. Even without her Maiden powers she was more than a match for any of them. Sun thought he might be falling in love.
Stupid! You only just met her. It'd be crazy to be in love already. At most it's just a crush. Sun shook his head vigorously to clear it. Neptune, he knew, was similarly smitten, but so far the other three seemed immune to her charms. Her innumerable, wonderful charms.
The last thing that set her apart was her scarily accurate knowledge of Salem. His team had questioned her the first night she had joined them, and they had learned a lot. According to Zambara, the power of the Summer Maiden had been passed down from generation to generation along with knowledge of 'Tha Eternal Foe'. She knew that Salem made the grimm and could control them, she knew that Salem had a fortress in the Nightlands, as she called it, and she knew of Ozpin as 'The Grandfather'. She didn't have a very high opinion of Ozpin, Sun had learned.
"Why have you stayed out here in Menagerie, instead of trying to stop Salem?" Sun had asked after learning all of this.
Zambara had looked at him carefully, and then explained slowly, like she was speaking to a child. "The Eternal One cannot die. You know this, for you have spoken of it already. Why waste our lives trying to stop an unstoppable force? Too many times have the Maidens died in this fight. We are better served helping our people"
"The Maidens fought Salem in the past?"
"This should be obvious, I would think. The Grandfather would find us and convince us that fighting against the Eternal One was the only course of action. The Maidens tired of this and agreed to go into hiding many hundreds of years ago. The Summer Maiden has existed in this land ever since."
It was at that point in the conversation that Sun had stopped asking questions to think about what Zambara had said, and it was that conversation that circled in his mind as he watched Zambara spar with Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune early in the morning a day's travel outside of Kuo Kuana.
Ozpin had known of the Maidens. Ok, he was onboard with that. It made sense and meshed with what Theodore had told the Huntsmen back at Shade. Ozpin had also used the Maidens as soldiers against Salem, and the Maidens hadn't liked that. Or had grown to dislike that. That was new information. Sun hadn't really interacted with Ozpin much, but imagining the white-haired, spectacled man as a calculating tactician that would ruthlessly send people to their deaths chilled him. He wondered if Ruby, Blake, and the others had known.
He was shaken out of his ruminations by a joyful cry from Neptune. Sun looked up in time to catch Zambara's aura break, and to see her fall back, laughing.
"You win! It took the three of you, and I did not use my powers, but you have succeeded!" Zambara exclaimed.
Neptune's crow of victory turned into a deflated squawk. "You didn't have to put it like that," he grumbled.
"But it is progress! It was well-fought and well won." She clapped Neptune on his shoulder, grinning widely. Neptune smiled back at her, and Sun felt a lurch somewhere in his midsection. Scarlet and Sage were breathing hard but smiling, and Nolan was cheering them from the sidelines.
The morning sun, rising slowly in the easterly sky, flickered briefly. This was the only warning the group got before hell broke loose. A rain of razor-sharp feathers whistled down from the sky, thudding into the sand around Zambara and the others. Sage, ever vigilant, was the only one to react in time. His huge sword, Pilgrim, flashed out and cut several feathers out of the air. Neptune cried out as his already depleted aura shattered and a feather imbedded itself into his bicep. Scarlet and Zambara hit the sand wordlessly, bodies pierced multiple times by the missiles.
Sun felt as though he was moving in slow motion as he pulled his staff out. The weapon telescoped into its fully extended position, gleaming in the morning sun. He saw that Nolan's eyes had gone wide and flat, and the other man dropped to his knees as he stared at the prone form of Scarlet. Above them a winged thing was falling from the sky like a black thunderbolt, straight for Zambara.
Sage twisted, sword raised, and slashed at it. It gracefully swooped to the side, simultaneously striking Sage in the side of the head with a wing joint and hitting Zambara talons first. It started to flap its wings to gain height as Sage hit the sand, unconscious. Sun's brain was still sluggish, trying to make sense of what was happening. That was a woman dragging Zambara's body into the sky. Winged and feathered, with talons for feet and claws for hands, but very obviously a woman, nonetheless.
Nolan was still paralyzed, staring at Scarlet. He lost his last team to a Nevermore, Sun remembered suddenly. Crap. He's in shock. This was not good. Scarlet was down, maybe dead, Sage had just been knocked out cold, Nolan was frozen, and Neptune had a foot long feather stuck in his arm. Crap crap crap.
Sun split into three as he charged, and his clones quickly laced their fingers and made a springboard for him to leap from. His staff whipped over his head and he slammed into the woman/nevermore hybrid. It wasn't a graceful takedown, but it had the desired effect as he knocked her out of the sky. Zambara hit the ground hard as the thing dropped her, and groaned. The wave of relief that Sun felt at that sound nearly took him off of his feet.
Still twirling his staff, Sun squared off with the harpy. Behind her, Neptune moved in, his right sleeve soaked with blood as he yanked the feather from his arm with a grimace and threw it to the ground. Two on one. They just had to buy time, long enough for one of the others to come back to their senses.
"Nolan, buddy, we could use you!" Sun cried as the Harpy shrieked and flung more razored feathers at him. He knocked them out of the air and swung the staff at her head. She ducked it, wings going wide, and lashed backwards with ferocious kick. Neptune was forced to do an awkward side-hop to avoid getting his shins slashed open and had to abandon his attack.
Sun traded a flurry of blows with the razor-sharp claws of the harpy, and he split his staff as he did so. Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang boomed out a fusillade of shotgun blasts as the nun-chucks spun. The grimm woman morphed in response, her wings solidifying into a wall of scales that soaked the attack. Sun was forced into a desperate back handspring to avoid the tail which came swiping in from nowhere.
How is she doing that!? He thought furiously as he was put on the defensive. Behind her, Neptune was slashing and jabbing with Tri-hard, but that other Huntsman had lost a lot of blood and wasn't moving very fast. The harpy had even gone so far as to ignore his attacks, letting the newly grown scales on her back and wings just take the blows. Sun sucked his gut in to avoid a disemboweling claw and risked a glance towards Nolan. The other man was crouched at Scarlet's side, tears streaming down his face. He was holding one of Scarlet's hands, but Sun couldn't make out any more than that. He paid for his lapse in concentration by taking a hard hit to his shoulder. His aura absorbed most of the energy and stopped the claws from ripping his arm open, but the blow was still strong enough to knock him off his feet.
He hit the ground and rolled, scrambling to get back upright. The harpy followed with a terrifying fang rimmed smile on her face. Sun sucked in a breath and resummoned his clones to block for him and buy him time. As they grappled with the harpy, he yelled to Neptune. "This isn't working! I've never seen a grimm like this. I'll buy as much time as I can, you need to hit her with a fully charged shot!"
Neptune, face ashen from blood loss, just nodded and shifted Tri-hard to its rifle form. Lightning began to coruscate down the length of the barrel as it charged. Sun felt more than saw one of his clones wink out of existence as he turned back to the fight. The second one followed shortly after as it was decapitated by a vicious blow from the harpy's talons. He knew he had at least one more summon in him before his aura ran out, and he used it. Digging deep, Sun split himself into five. He charged the harpy with his four clones, staves spinning.
The next few moments were a fury of action. The damned thing was smiling as Sun did his best to take it down. Smiling, fangs bared, blood-crazed silver eyes shining. Silver eyes. His nun-chucks spun and boomed as he unloaded shell after shell into her. The clones were unrelenting as well, vaulting over her and using each other to set up attacks. Staves cracked and thundered as the harpy wrapped herself in her scaled wings to weather the assault.
Sun shifted his weapon back to its staff form and lunged, trying to pierce through the harpy's defenses. The weapon speared through a wing and hit home somewhere deeper. Sun grinned. They had her, now. His joy was short lived as he tried to retrieve his weapon. It was stuck fast, and then yanked from his grip. He stumbled forward as the wings opened once more, and he came face to face with the fang-filled rictus grin of his foe.
"Uh. Hi!" Sun said. "Glad you decided to rejoin the party! We've got a present for you!" Sun lashed sideways with his tail, getting caught by his clones and pulled to safety.
As the harpy shrieked, its attention got drawn by loud yell. Neptune was kneeling, his weapon fully extended and crackling with power. Nolan stood behind him, bracing him, his own weapon jacked into Tri-hard and powering it even further. Neptune squeezed the trigger and the gun bucked, sending a searing bolt of pure lightning straight at the harpy's face.
The harpy screamed and convulsed, wings spasming as the electricity coursed through it. Her scales began to crack and steam and flake away. The bolt was so bright Sun had to avert his eyes, and it left an electric blue after image in his vision. Blinking vigorously, Sun looked back as the grimm as the light died out. She still stood, smoking and blackened; very much alive, and very much pissed off.
Neptune finally passed out, falling face first into the sand. Nolan picked up the fallen rifle and then cried out, dropping it. The metal was blazing hot to the touch. Sun was in disbelief. This thing was inhumanly strong. He had heard rumors of Salems hybrids, and knew that Cinder herself had a creepy grimm arm, but this thing was some unholy fusion of woman and grimm, and the damned thing wouldn't die.
He twirled his staff again and moved back into the fray. He wouldn't go down without fighting to the end, that was for damned sure. Before he could re-engage, however, a golden hoop caught the harpy around the throat. Four more caught her in rapid succession around each arm and leg. Zambara hovered in the air behind the creature, pierced through with feathers, eyes flaming purple. Her khakkhara was outstretched, an extension of her arm. The single remaining hoop jingled faintly on its tip. She dropped it in a slashing motion, and the hoops all seized at once, shrinking rapidly in size.
The harpy fell to the ground without a sound, neatly disarticulated. Zambara, not done, called down a pillar of fire from the heavens that engulfed the corpse, and Sun was forced to retreat from the blaze as the hairs on his arms burned away. Zambara was scary when she was mad.
As the fire began to die down, something tried to rise from the immolated body. An orb-like thing, trailing tentacles, feebly began to rise into the air. Zambara smashed it down without hesitation and crushed it into the sand with the heel of her foot. As it died, a chilling laugh rose from it and faded. Sun shivered as he heard it.
"What was that thing?" Sun asked as the flames around Zambara's eyes faded.
"Monster." Was all the woman said as she began to methodically scatter the ashes of her kill.
Sun left her to it and went to check on his team. Sage was starting to come to, shaking his head and blinking owlishly as he sat up. "It over?"
"Yeah man, take it easy. You got rocked." Sage sighed and slowly rolled his neck out, testing out his condition. Sun moved on to Scarlet, and to his relief saw that Scarlet was still alive.
"Yo, Scarlet. How you feeling, man?"
"Like I got cut up by half a dozen foot long and sword-sharp feathers. How do you think I am, Sun?"
Sun just laughed with relief. "Alive and with attitude intact. Good enough for me."
He went over to Neptune and Nolan next. Neptune was still down, and Nolan had wrapped a tight bandage around his upper arm. "How is he?"
"Lost a lot of blood, but I think he'll live. Guessing he got nicked in the Brachial artery, but his aura managed to seal it off. It'll take some time for him to recover." Nolan wouldn't look at Sun as he talked, instead focusing his attention on Neptune's wound.
Sun clapped him on the shoulder. "I know that wasn't easy for you, you doing ok?"
"Yeah, I will be. Sorry, seeing them cut down by those feathers was like the fall of Beacon all over again. Nevermore coming in from the sky, half your team down before you even know what's going on, blood everywhere."
"No need to be sorry. Living through that would mess anyone up. I'm just glad you're ok. And we all made it through. Hang in there, ok man?"
Nolan just nodded, wiping fresh tears from his eyes. Sun left him and went over to Zambara. "How are you doing?"
The woman had finished scattering the remains of her foe and was now slowly extricating feathers from her body. She kept her breathing deep and slow as she worked, incinerating each plume as she pulled it out.
"Angry. We were caught by surprise, just like when Okhozi was killed. I should have been watching."
"We all got caught out. It wasn't any one person's fault. And we're all still alive."
"Alive but badly wounded. What do we do if we get attacked again?"
"Uh. Fight? That's kinda like our thing."
She looked at him sharply, and then burst into laughter. "You are right, Sun. We will fight. It is what we do."
They spent the next hour moving the wounded to a shady ravine nearby, and then Zambara left to forage for supplies. She refused to let Sun accompany her, despite her wounds. "I will be on my guard, you stay with your friends," she told him.
She returned with a satchel full of various herbs and flowers and then busied herself with making a fire. Sun watched curiously as she filled a small copper pot with water and put it on to boil. That was another thing about Zambara, she knew about a million different old-world remedies for just about any ailment. On the first day they had met she had made a soothing ointment for their sunburn, and it had worked wonders.
Right now she was steeping the flowers she had gathered into some kind of tea, and while that was going she got out a mortar and pestle and started grinding up the other herbs she had gathered into a fine paste. After a few minutes of this, she handed some paste to Sun and the rest to Nolan.
"Here, Sun, Nolan. Rub this into their wounds. It will help sanitize them and start the natural healing process."
Sun noticed that she had already smeared some of the paste onto her own wounds, and so he took the bowl over to Neptune. The blue-haired man had regained consciousness but was still weak.
"Here, buddy. Got something for your arm." Sun gently pulled the bandage up and slathered a thick glob of the paste onto the wound.
Neptune hissed and spluttered. "Oh jiminy crackers that stings!"
"Jiminy crackers? That's the best you got? Jiminy crackers? Most people just swear when they're in pain."
"Aw, c'mon man, you know how my mom feels about swearing."
On the other side of the camp, Nolan was tending to Scarlets multiple lacerations. "None of these looks too deep, and Zambara insists that this will help."
Scarlet endured the application of the medicine far more stoically than Neptune had, and looked at Nolan with soft eyes while he worked. "Thanks, Nole."
Sage, who had suffered the blow to the head, accepted a steaming cup of medicinal tea from Zambara and sipped it gingerly. He nodded his thanks to the woman. Zambara passed out tea to Scarlet and Neptune as well.
"Drink this. It will kick-start your aura and help it regenerate faster. It would be best, I think, to stay here for the day and rest."
"We're close to the city though. Shouldn't we try to get there so we can find a ship back to Vacuo?" Sun asked.
"We will get there in time, I do not wish to jeopardize the health of anyone further, Sage in particular. If he was concussed, he needs the rest."
Sun looked at his battered team and decided that she was probably right. "Right. We'll hang out until we're recovered."
"Good. Sun, can I get your help quick?" Zambara asked.
"Sure, what's up?"
She handed him the rest of the paste then turned her back to him and lifted her shirt. There was a wide slash across the middle of her back, and it was apparent that she wanted him to apply the medicine to it.
Sun gulped. Sensing his hesitation, Zambara asked, "You are not afraid of blood, are you?"
"No, no. Uh. No." He started to smear the ointment across the cut.
"It is just skin, Sun. And I cannot reach that cut myself." There was a faint hint of amusement in her voice.
"Right! Just helping patch up a teammate, haha." He finished the job as quickly as he could. "There, that should sort you out."
She dropped her shirt again and turned back, fingering one of the slashed left in the fabric. "I will need to mend this. Make sure I am not disturbed?"
"Uh. Yeah. Yeah, of course."
She smiled at him. "I will be back there." She walked to the end of the short ravine, where a large acacia tree had taken root, and disappeared behind the trunk.
Sun turned to see Neptune watching him closely. In a quiet voice, Neptune said, "She's quite the beauty, eh?"
Sun just laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, yeah I suppose so." He sat down next to his old friend.
"You suppose? The last person I saw you make those eyes at was Blake."
"Aw, c'mon man. You don't need to bring that up."
"It hurts, I know, but they're gone, Sun. And there isn't anything wrong with thinking another lady is pretty."
Sun sighed. "Yeah. I just wish we knew what the heck happened to them. Like, they just disappeared. That doesn't mean they're dead."
Neptune looked at his friend with a considering expression. "No, I guess that doesn't have to mean they're dead. But I think we need to move on."
"You brought it up!"
"Oh. I guess I did." Neptune grinned ruefully.
"And what about you? I've seen you looking at Zambara."
"Well, she's a beautiful woman! Who wouldn't look?"
Sun just shrugged and nodded towards Nolan and Scarlet, who were chatting and laughing together.
Neptune followed his gaze, and his eyes widened as they made the connection. "Huh. I guess Nolan is a cool guy. I mean. Scarlet deserved someone who was gonna be good to him and Nolan fits that bill. I wasn't sure about him at first, but he's cool."
"What about Sage? You think he's into her?" Sun asked.
Sage, who was slightly apart from the others and working his way through a set of stretches that Zambara had taught them, met their eyes and then shrugged.
"Since when has he ever shown interest in women?" Neptune asked.
"Just because I don't fawn after them like you doesn't mean I don't like them," Sage said without breaking out of his stretching form.
Neptune just blew a raspberry at this and waved his hand. "So, Sun. We just sit back and let her pick?"
"I dunno man, what if she isn't into us? I don't want to make it weird since we're kinda like her bodyguards."
"As if. She's stronger than any single one of us. She saved our butts today even though she got shredded by those grimm feathers."
"Yeah, but we bought her time. She would have died if we weren't there."
"That is a good point." Neptune went silent for a bit, and then spoke again. "What do you think the plan is after we get back? We've got two of the Maidens now. And Zambara's the one that can get the sword."
"I dunno. We don't want Salem getting the sword. Maybe it should stay locked up."
"But if it's locked up Salem has no choice but to attack the city. You think we should risk people like that?" Neptune asked, worry on his face.
"Bro! That's a good point. Maybe we should convince Theodore to let her open the vault so we can move the sword!" Sun was getting animated now. "And if we can find someone who can use the sword, even better!"
"I think you two are forgetting that Salem doesn't necessarily know the whereabouts of the Summer Maiden. I don't think she'll make a move until she knows for sure about Zambara." Sage dropped to the ground next to them, his stretching session complete.
"We shouldn't bring Zambara back to Vacuo?" Sun asked, puzzled.
"I didn't say that. I just don't think we should announce her presence," Sage said.
"Oh! I got it! We put her in a cloak, and she can wear this!" Neptune pulled a rumpled fake mustache out of one of his pockets. "If anyone sees the 'stache, they'll think she's a he!"
"Why on earth do you still have that?" Sage asked.
Sun had pulled his fake mustache out as well. "It'll be like the junior detectives all over again! I like it!" He and Neptune high fived while Sage just shook his head.
"You two are hopeless."
"We've got ourselves a plan! Thanks Sage!"
The Queen of the Grimm sat behind a huge desk, regarding the kneeling figure before her.
"Rise."
Cinder Fall rose and raised her head to face Salem. "My Queen."
"The lost Maiden is in Menagerie. Antelope Faunus. Traveling with Huntsmen." A seer floated forward, projecting a static image of a slim woman with purple, flaming eyes. Behind her was a man with spiky blond hair that Cinder immediately recognized.
"Sun Wukong. I know his team. A bunch of immature mess-ups."
"Then you shall have no issue in claiming the Maiden powers."
"No, my Queen."
"Then go." Salem waved dismissively.
"Without you, I am nothing." Cinder bowed her head and left the room. A vicious smile spread across her face as she left. As she walked, she stepped over a roughly shaped silhouette of ash burned into the floor. A reminder of a past victory. Ozpin's office really did look much better with it there.
As she drifted to the bottom of the elevator shaft, floating on fire, she grinned at the people waiting for her. "We have our destination."
Gillian and Jax Asturias looked back at her. Gillian's eyes showed reluctance, but Jax's stare was as blank as ever. Yatsuhashi had really done them a favor, making his mind more malleable to Salem's influence. He was firmly in their grasp.
"Come along," Cinder said as she strode past them.
Jax followed obediently and after a moment's hesitation, Gillian followed her bother. This will be fun. Cinder thought to herself. It's been too long since I've killed something.
Author's note.
Hey everyone! Just wanted to make a quick announcement. My sister is in town for the week from out of state, and I may not get the next chapter (20) out on my normal schedule, since I'll be spending some time with her. So if it feels like it's a bit late, I just want to apologize in advance, and assure you that it is coming.
As always, thanks for reading!