Reconnaissance
Choosing to take a flyer, rather than walk all the way to Mistral, the reunited Teams RWBY and JNR had some time to ponder their newest mission. Flanked by two other flyers that were their backup, they sped towards the location they were given
"What do you think it could be?" Ruby thought aloud.
"Your guess is as good as mine, squirt," Qrow replied. "But whatever it is, it's getting weirder by the minute."
Looking up from cleaning his guns, Ren asked, "Oh? How so?"
Qrow sighed heavily. "Just before we took off, Robyn handed me some new reports she got from the Shade Academy." Robyn Hill, de-facto leader of the Atlean refugees, had become their liaison for not only the government of Vacuo... and as a Huntress herself, she was go-between for the Hunters that had evacuated Atlas and Mantle. Qrow had decided to help analyze some of the reports she received, taking some of the burden off her and her team. "Whatever this is, it's cutting a path through Grimm-infested territories. Apparently – before the Grimm started avoiding it, it caused many attacking hordes to... well... vanish."
"Vanish?" Nora mused, "as in – poof, and they're nothing but ashes?"
"Not at all," Qrow corrected. "As in – poof, and there is no evidence that they'd ever been there AT ALL. Not EVEN ashes."
"That would take an AWFUL lot of power," Yang noted. "Even Ruby's Silver-Eyes attack just reduced them to ashes. How can we possibly deal with..."
Weiss tuned out the conversation, lost in her own thoughts. Rising from her seat, she walked over to Jaune. "Can I talk to you?" she ventured.
"Sure – what's on your mind?" Jaune asked, sliding over so Weiss could sit down beside him.
Nervously, she sat down beside him. For some reason, she found that she was unable to look him in the eye. "It's about what happened at the gates of Vacuo," she admitted.
"Oh, that," Jaune muttered. "Look – I don't know how many times I can apologize to you for that. It's not like I meant to drop you... Nora just startled me."
"It's not that!" Weiss exclaimed. "It's just... I wanted to... URGH!" She shot up and stormed away, leaving Jaune to stare at her back in puzzlement.
"Weiss trouble again?" Ruby's voice said to him. He slowly turned his head to find Ruby leaning forward at him, grinning good-naturedly.
With a heavy sigh, Jaune returned to staring at his feet. "I just don't know what to make of her," he admitted. "When we were in the Ever After, she treated me like I was a person. Now – she seems to have gone back to hating me."
Ruby sat herself down beside Jaune with a heavy thump. Placing her hand gently on his forearm, her expression changed from cheerful to serious. "She doesn't HATE you, Jaune," she explained to him, "I think she's just trying to cope with the fact that you're the Rusted Knight – hero and idol to so many."
"I wanted to be a hero... so badly," Jaune confessed, "I forged my credentials to get into Beacon Academy, just so I could learn to be the hero I always wanted to be." He looked up to see Ruby's confused look. "You never knew that, did you? Yes, I lied my way into Beacon. I didn't know the first thing about being a Huntsman when I got there – I wasn't even trained to fight the way you were. I came from a farming family – we all looked up to the Hunters, sure, but we never had ambitions to actually BE one... until me, that is. And then the Ever After made me realize that I was going about it all wrong. Now, I think I can be a Huntsman, without the idealized notions of what I thought a Huntsman ought to be."
"Yeah. Me, too," Ruby told him quietly.
"But an IDOL?" he continued, "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd be an actual celebrity. Pyrrha once told me about the pressure she felt, being thought of by so many as some kind of 'Ultimate' hero – I don't think I could take that."
Ruby gave a short laugh. "I don't think I could, either." She looked out the window, seeing one of the accompanying flyers not far away. "I'm not surprised that Pyr took a shine to you, Jaune – you didn't treat her like a celebrity, but as a friend. You liked her despite her status, not because of it." Leaning towards him, she brought her mouth closer to his ear. "I think Weiss is starting to realize that about you, too," she whispered.
"Really?" Jaune asked, his voice low. "Do you think that...?" He paused, diverting his attention back to the conversation being held by Qrow and the others...
"You haven't said much about this, Oscar," Qrow pointed out. "Does Oz have anything to say about all of this? Any ideas at all?"
Oscar Pine, the young farmboy who recently became the unwitting bearer of Professor Ozpin's mind and memories, closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he had assumed Ozpin's attitude and demeanor, speaking in his voice. "Sadly, I have never encountered anything like this in all my years of life. I cannot recall this happening, even when I was Ozma. Truly, this is something new."
"Heads up, everyone," the pilot suddenly announced, ending the conversation, "we've got Grimm at our port-aft quarter, coming up fast."
All heads perked up at the news. "How many?" Qrow asked.
"Lots," the pilot answered, "I stopped counting at one hundred. Can't tell what they are from this distance, but we'll find out soon enough – they'll be on us in less than a minute."
"Weapons ready, Hunters, we might have our work cut out for us," Ruby ordered as she readied her scythe for action. As she did, the first of the flying Grimm – several large Griffons, passed them.
"They're not attacking," Yang muttered, "why?"
"Looks like they're following a flaming... SOMETHING," the pilot pointed out.
Jaune stood up to get a good look at the pilot's scanners, and his face darkened. "Open the door," he demanded.
"But..." Ruby began.
"OPEN THE DOOR!" he shouted, pulling his sword menacingly as he did.
Swallowing hard, the pilot obeyed the command – flipping a switch that caused the side door to slide open.
"Jaune, what is it?" Ruby asked. "What are you...?" She couldn't complete her question, as Jaune charged through the door with an angry cry that nobody had ever heard him utter before.
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"
Confused, Ruby glanced at the image that Jaune had just looked at. The magnified image showed her a very familiar figure. "Cinder..." she muttered.
"CINDER?" Weiss shouted. "He's going after Cinder ALONE? We have to HELP him!"
"What can WE do to help?" Yang countered. "You know how powerful she is – she's the Fall Maiden, dammit! Don't you remember what happened at Atlas? She'll tear us all to bits!"
"We have to TRY, though," Ruby pointed out. "It's our job, right? To protect to the end? I don't know why he did this, but we HAVE to back him up."
Before anyone could argue, a flash of silver blinded them. When their vision returned, the party found themselves standing on the landing pad at the Shade Academy in Vacuo, the three flyers parked in their hangars. Everyone turned to Jaune, who held his sword in a death-grip, panting heavily with eyes closed. He opened his eyes, glaring at Ruby furiously. "WHY did you do that?" he demanded.
"But... but... that wasn't me," Ruby answered nervously. During other encounters with Grimm, she had used the latent power in her silver-eyes to defeat them. "I can turn Grimm to stone, but I've never done anything like this. I... I just don't know."
In the silence, Nora stepped closer to Jaune. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she looked up at him. "Jaune," she asked him, "what was that all about?"
"What happened?"
Staring out from her castle in the Land of Darkness, Salem pondered her next move.
Vacuo should be starting to feel the strain by now, she thought to herself, it won't take much of a push to get them fighting among themselves over continuing their support of the other kingdoms. All it will take is a little more time to...
A brilliant flash of silver light interrupted her thoughts. Temporarily blinded, she opened her eyes to find Cinder standing before her, the confusion obvious on her face. "My... my Lady," she stammered, kneeling before her mistress wordlessly.
"Cinder," Salem announced, "that was a most unusual mode of transportation you just employed. I did not think that any of the Maidens were capable of such things."
"My Lady," Cinder answered, "I... I did not do this." She looked away, fearful of whatever terrible punishment might be coming her way.
"Indeed," Salem responded. "Am I to take it that your mission was unsuccessful, then?"
"I... I'm not sure," came the response.
Salem glared at Cinder, her red eyes narrowing.
"What happened?"
Riding along twin spears of flame from her hands, Cinder sped through the sky to meet this mystery woman who can use her Silver-Eyes power without a second thought. If that power were to become mine, she thought, I could finally rid myself of Salem and be my own master. She took a horde of Grimm with her, not doubting for one instant that this would be a fight – the Grimm could distract her, and Cinder would have her opening to take her power.
Lost in thought, she didn't hear her attacker until he was almost upon her.
"CINDERRRRRRRRR!"
She heard the enraged cry just as she felt the impact on a shield on her back. Startled, she hit the ground before she knew what was happening. Picking herself up, her eyes ablaze with the manifestation of her Maiden powers, she turned to see who had the audacity to tempt fate in such a reckless manner.
She should have known that it would be that infernal swordsman who fought with Team RWBY. The last time they faced one another, he had tears in his eyes. This time, though, he held a fury that could only be matched by her own.
"You monstrous BITCH!" he shouted at her.
"Aww," she cooed, "it sounds like you've grown up some. Not enough, though, if you think you can take me on all by yourself."
Angrily, he drew his sword and pointed it at her. "You murdered Pyrrha. You forced me to murder Penny."
"And now you wish to join them, is that it?" she taunted him. "Haven't you realized that you're no match for me?"
"Maybe the last time we met," the boy admitted, "but I've had a long time to think about it." He glared at her menacingly. "I'm going to make you PAY for every life you've taken!" He lunged at her...
Summoning a sword of flame, Cinder calmly waited for him to get close. This will be easy, she thought. When he got close enough, she swung her sword at his, expecting it to break like last time...
Her eyes widened in shock as her blade bounced off his. Then she noticed the Hard-Light shell that coated it like a skin.
"You like it?" the swordsman teased. "I asked some of the surviving Atlas scientists to make it for me."
Cinder smirked at him. "Nice trick. But it won't save you."
"I didn't expect it to. But I've learned a few other tricks, too..." he confessed as he flipped a switch on the handle of his sword with his thumb...
Cinder screamed in agony as jolts of electricity surged through her body. If she hadn't been protected by her Aura, it likely would have killed her. Still, her unprotected Grimm-arm absorbed a powerful shock. Gasping for breath, she shouted "What did you do?"
"Tiny Dust containers," he explained, "attached to my shield and transferred to your body when I struck you." She glared at him as he continued. "I only used electricity this time, to give you a little taste of what's coming. Next time, I'll add a few others – just to make your agony complete."
"Oh – you don't know the MEANING of agony," Cinder shot back at him, "but you WILL. I intend to..."
Suddenly, the sky darkened as the clear sky filled with clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and they were both blinded by a brilliant flash of silver...
"And the next thing I knew, I was here," Cinder finished her explanation.
Salem rested her chin on her fist, her blood-red eyes downcast in thought. "Is that all?" she finally asked.
"W-Well," Cinder said haltingly, "just as the flash blinded me, I thought I heard something in the thunder."
"And that was...?" Salem said, demanding that Cinder continue.
"I heard a voice. It was quiet, yet powerful, very much like yours. It said..."
"Now I remember, "Jaune explained. "When the flash came, someone said -" He paused to take a breath, then repeated what he heard in the best imitation of the voice he heard...
"GO AWAY – I'LL COME WHEN I'M READY."
The group exchanged puzzled looks with each other. "What's THAT supposed to mean?" Yang blurted out in the silence.
"I don't know," Ruby answered, her voice echoing the confusion in her eyes. She turned her head to stare in the direction they had been heading, before they had been abruptly returned to their starting point.
"But I'm sure we'll find out – eventually..."