AN:
You know the drill: Close this down and go buy tickets for Endgame.
If you've seen it already, go see it again.
I'll wait.
And now that you're back, let's finish things ourselves, shall we?
Chapter 69
A sky black from the mass of demonic monsters, now had splitting it the giant sterling blades of fleets of warships and fightercraft of Terran and Atlesian make. A horizon once filled only by a mountain that broke the planet's atmosphere, now shared a kingdom hovering in the sky. Armies consisting of millions of Grimm and mere thousands of men, now shared hundreds of thousands of machines, dropped from the kingdom and ships above and crashing into the ground, rallying around the final trench before the mountain. Huntsmen, spread so thin and so few that they barely held the line against the darkness that clashed against them, now shared thousands more.
The physical embodiment of soulless, heartless evil, now shared the field with the embodiment of hope.
And the brief, fleeting instant of absolute, dead silence, the single solitary heartbeat in which the world paused as all pieces, now on the board, revealed themselves to both players sitting at either end of the table, that one, infinitesimal passing gasp, was broken by a sound that only one among all the warriors fighting had the experience to appreciate, that only one among them all truly knew the significance of.
Zhoom!
The pillar of blue light shot out from the silver hilt lightly held in the right hand of a dead man, lighting up the snow-white ground almost blindingly bright. Amidst the chaos and battle surrounding them, this man looked over his shoulder at Jaune, the corner of his mouth stretching to his ear in his signature grin.
"Let me tag in, Johnny-boy." Said Goud Etiolate, "I'll take it from here." Said Nebo Aldric.
Jaune honestly did not know what to think, being so evenly split between blinding rage at seeing the man who was, if not wholly, then at least partially responsible for everything happening around them, and building hope at the knowledge that Ash, or Aldric, or whatever name he answered to, was not the Terran Grimm, and all that power, all that skill and wit, it would be completely focused on taking it down.
He didn't have to make the choice though, as he saw Aldric's throat flatten, and he himself was nearly crushed by a Grimm rushing past him. He saw Aldric feel at his throat, a grimace painting his slowly reddening face as he rolled his eyes and turned to his Grimm self. The Terran Grimm's hand outstretched, fingers curled in, its arm shaking, Aldric briefly threw his arms up in a 'what the hell?' gesture, and then looking over the Terran Grimm's shoulder, lips pursed, waiting. The Terran Grimm realized what was happening and threw itself out of the way, just barely missing the sterling silver blade that would have cleaved its shoulder from its body, a red contrail following in its wake. Adam Taurus, covered in his own blood and sans mask, stumbled forward, having missed his target.
He spared Aldric a raised eyebrow as he reached the once dead Master, and Jaune, as he forced himself to his feet, heard him say, "the enemy of my enemy, Adam."
"Just..." Gasped the Fang leader, "had to choose..." He sheathed his blade, "the most dramatic moment." He turned his frowning face to the Terran Grimm, who was looking from him, to Aldric, to Jaune, all four of them readying their weapons, with Jaune and the Grimm taking their blades in both hands, Aldric raising his blade while crouching behind his star spangled shield, and Taurus resting his hand on the blood slicked hilt of his own blade.
"You know me." Aldric's grin was audible, "couldn't miss the opportunity." He looked down to the Terran Grimm, who was visibly weighing its options, still looking at the three of them in turn, rapidly.
"But how?" Jaune coughed, "how?!"
"The short version is it turns out I can come back to life the same way Ozpin and the Maidens do, and for the time being I've hijacked the lady who's body I fell into." Aldric responded, "then I put on a mask because I missed my ugly mug, and scavenged my effects from Beacon and Mistral... If we live, I'll tell you the rest of the story, but for now, are you two sure you want to keep fighting?" He got nods from Jaune and Taurus, both of whom appeared to agree that questions could only come later, if at all. "Alright then... Its best strength is its powers. If we go at him one at a time, he'll just go for the kill and pick us off... But if we play its game, the way it does, we might be able to win it."
Jaune, gasping, said, "what?"
But Taurus caught on, "stop trying to fight him."
Aldric nodded, "most important thing is that we have to do it fast. If we give it even a second, it may come up with an idea that we won't like. We have to keep it off balance, we have to keep pushing, we have to keep him on the defensive, and above all -"
"Go for the kill." Said Taurus, gripping his blood-slick blade tightly, a firm frown of determination on his pale face.
Aldric nodded to the side, "I was thinking something closer to 'cheat'... Like so -" And without any further warning, Aldric slammed the edge of his shield into the ice and snow, it suddenly bubbling and warming up until it turned to liquid.
The Terran Grimm realized a second too late what was happening, and it sank into the newly melted snow and ice, whereupon Aldric refroze it, trapping the Terran Grimm and immobilizing its arms to its sides. The huntsman, the terrorist, and the Master then charged forward as one, the former most yelling out a loud battle cry, the second gritting his teeth as he forced his ailing body forward, and the lattermost throwing his shield with all of his might. Jaune felt something well up in his heart, seeing the original shield-thrower hurl his red white and blue rotella through the air, but that feeling was dashed when, with the sound of shattering glass, the Terran Grimm broke free of the ice trap, thrusting both arms into the sky and ripping the ice off of the frozen ground. It all floated upwards before halting, compressing down to hundreds of tiny needles, and all oriented towards the trio.
Before the Terran Grimm could launch its attack, however, Aldric hopped into the air and thrust his hand forward, and out from it was a gigantic gout of fire. It burned through the air, overtaking his shield and slamming into the Grimm, melting the ice and hiding his shield from the Grimm's senses. Said shield slammed into the Grimm's masked face, causing it to stumble backwards and the shield to bounce back to Aldric, who caught it by the edge as he, Jaune, and Taurus all reached the Grimm.
Taurus was the first to attack, his blade exploding out of the gunsheath with the sound of a bullet's crack. He slashed upwards at the Grimm, who let go of his blade with cybernetic hand to catch the Faunus' sword. It dug several inches into the cybernetic palm, and was stuck fast , but before it could wrench the sword out of Taurus' grip or even try anything as a means of countering, his head snapped over to Jaune, and his burning red blade shot up to intercept Jaune's wild chop at the exposed skin of his neck. Their blades collided, but this left his core wide open for Aldric to come roaring in, thrusting his noble blue plasma piller at the chink in the armor Pyrrha had invested in, and Taurus had finished, in their respective battles.
Jaune, struggling against the Grimm's sword, watched as the Grimm's head now snapped over to meet his living double's intense gaze, before it dipped down to the blade. Jaune could hear Aldric's blade struggling against the psychic barriers the Grimm was throwing up to block it, it sounding like a raging windstorm. Before one of the two could win in their struggle, however, Taurus ripped his sheath from his hip and jammed it under the Grimm's mask, digging it into his throat. In an instant, black blood sprayed all over the snow and ice as Taurus shot the monster's throat out, causing his concentration to slip - and allowing Aldric's blade to drive on home into his undead double's chest, through the twin layers of armor, and out of his back, causing the dark mail to tent and glow as the blade pushed out against it and began heating it up.
The Terran Grimm now stumbled back a step, and Jaune capitalized on it, lifting his blade off of the Grimm's lightsaber and chopping down again with a decapitating strike. He hit the Grimm's blade thrice before he jarred it out of the Terran's grip, but it was in the second Jaune needed to reposition his hands for a stab at his enemy's throat that the Grimm recovered, gaze snapping up to meet Aldric's, before twisting from side to side and meeting Taurus and Jaune, practically challenging all of them to do better.
Taurus got one more shot in, and Jaune's blade stabbed towards the Grimm's neck before it made his response: It jerked his mechanical hand from left to right, throwing Taurus off balance and right into the path of Aldric's bright blade. This forced Aldric to deactivate it or risk killing his ally. Now minus a column of plasma in its chest, the Grimm ducked to the side and out of the way of Jaune's attack, which came so close to Taurus that it actually drew blood from the bridge of his nose. The Grimm followed this up by uppercutting Jaune in the stomach, causing him to double over, and giving the Grimm the time to pry Taurus' blade from its palm and call its own back to his hand. It shot up to its hand, red blade shooting back to life, but Aldric's shield quickly shot forward and blocked the attack that would have gone through Taurus' back, causing it instead to slide off to the side and scrape the Faunus' shoulder.
Taurus lunged forward and rolled out of the way of the tangle of people, and the Grimm backhanded Aldric with a loud crunch of steel on skin. Taurus and Jaune regrouped together as Aldric spun on his heel and responded a backhand with a backhand, broadsiding the Grimm with his shield and following it up with a stab at the Grimm's freely bleeding throat. The Grimm twisted its blade around in a circular motion, parrying Aldric's attack and opening the Master up for a followup - the Grimm's hand shot up, and Aldric's throat flattened, head immediately reddening as the air flow was cut off.
Jaune looked away from the two, as Aldric lunged forward and kneed the Grimm in the stomach, and followed it up with an uppercut to the jaw. He looked to Taurus, who was on his hands and knees, hovering over red snow and gasping for air. Frowning, Jaune made a judgement call, and rushed to Taurus, dropping his purple, winged blade in the snow next to him and falling to his knees, placing his hands on Taurus' back.
Taurus' head grinded over to face Jaune, "what -"
But Jaune shook his head, "don't talk, just listen... You're a better fighter than me." He said, as his hands lit aglow and he felt the vacuous feeling of his aura flowing out of him and into someone else, Taurus flinched at this, even as his wounds began to seal shut and his skin regained a great deal of color. "This entire time you've hit him more than I have, so that means you have a better shot at this than I do... I'll run interference, distract him. You and Aldric have to work at it, either kill him or chip away at his armor." There was the sound of an crackling lightning, the both of them turned to see Aldric, his sword sheathed and buried upright in the snow, holding his now free hand aloft, electricity shooting out from his fingertips and towards the Grimm, who convulsed for a few seconds before twisting his red blade into position and using it to take most of the damage. "If I see a shot I'll take it, but I've missed every single one up to now, so it's got to be one of you." He coughed, his vision briefly blurring over as, now finished healing the Faunus leader, he was now fueling the man up.
Taurus, his breath recovered, didn't bother fighting it. "Then give me -" He grabbed Jaune's sword, but his hand shot back and he gasped in pain.
"Sorry... Magic." Was all Jaune could offer up by way of explanation.
Taurus accepted it, and shrugged Jaune's hands off as he got to his feet, now appearing much more stable, though still covered in blood. He assisted Jaune to his feet, and the two turned to see the Grimm throw Aldric's blade off to the side and then haul the Master up by his throat, it closing so tightly on itself that even from hear Jaune could hear the young Master's spine cracking, as his blade hit the ground in front of them.
"Come on!" Jaune called out, reaching down to grab his holy sword as he dashed forward.
But Taurus grabbed him by his coat, "wait... Grab that sword, I have an idea." He indicated Aldric's fallen weapon.
Aldric, meanwhile, was kicking at the air, and trying to figure out what the holy hell his two allies were doing. With the Grimm's attention focused solely on him, it could go for the kill, as it were, and it was doing exactly that, wrenching Aldric's limbs out, spread-eagled as he hovered in mid-air. The Grimm, covered in its black blood, its once impregnable armor hanging in strips and tatters from its torso, readied its blood red lightsaber like a spear. Aldric distantly heard the sound of steel grinding against plasma, and saw an orange bloom of light out of the corner of his darkening vision, but couldn't even move his head - instead completely focused on the Grimm that was about to kill him.
The Grimm didn't even offer him the courtesy of some final, taunting words. It simply threw its blade - right at Aldric's head.
Just as the air was filled with a deep, brilliant red glow, and the sound of the world parting ways before a great shockwave greeted the two mirrored men's ears. Before the lightsaber had even gone inches from the Grimm's hand, it snapped back and it chopped at the air, dropping Aldric, who had to roll out of the way of a tidal-wave sized stream of red energy skating across the snow. It slammed into the Grimm with the force of a hurricane, throwing snow and ice into the air and tearing at the Grimm, whose blade only defended the tiniest portion of his body, while the rest was buffeted by the energy wave as it shot past him. The Grimm parted the wave with its body and its blade like a boulder would split a river, and when the energy finished passing it, it saw Adam Taurus, fully healed, his hair, the blood covering his body, and the wilted rose on his coat all glowing a bright red.
As Aldric stumbled to his feet, he saw Jaune flank Taurus on the right, and Taurus slide his sterling katana back in its weaponized sheath, eyes locked to the masked Grimm's.
"His semblance is like Yang's." Was what Jaune offered up by way of explanation, "and I heal people... So we cheated." He gasped, handing Aldric's sword back to him, its hilt lightly letting off teal blue smoke.
Aldric nodded to the side, accepting the blade. "Crude..." He turned back to the Grimm, whose entire right arm had had the armor stripped from it, the black mail now hanging loosely and swinging freely in the howling winds. "But effective." He said, as the Grimm straightened itself up.
"We're changing our tactics." Taurus said, "we need to keep working at his armor. Keep introducing weaknesses, make it focus more on using its powers to defend itself instead of fending us off." He explained, eyeing the Grimm's now bare, paper-white arm, its deep black veins wrapping all around it, bulging from underneath its skin.
Aldric nodded, "I like the way you're thinking..." His own eyes dropped to the Grimm's arm as well, "let's take it a step further."
But Jaune was lost, "what are you guys -" They shot forward like bullets from a gun, Aldric's charge being accompanied by the cry of his blade coming to life. "Oh, okay." He threw himself forward, feet pounding heavily against the snow.
Aldric reached the Grimm first, covered by another energy wave from Taurus. The Grimm side-stepped the wave, sliding across the ground like a marionette, and then snapping its blade up to entangle it with Aldric's. Aldric rammed the edge of his shield into the Grimm's fleshy arm, the Grimm recoiled from the attack but pushed against Aldric regardless, its blade whipping back and forth at unnatural speeds and angles, forcing Aldric on the backfoot immediately, having to hide from the burning red blur from behind his shield, a new scorch mark appearing on its surface with every smack of the plasma blade.
As this occurred, Taurus came sprinting in from the side. He pulled the trigger on his sheath and his silver blade, radiating red energy, exploded outwards into his waiting hand. The Grimm realized what was happening and pulled himself out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid Aldric kicking at his legs, resulting in the Grimm tripping over itself, and losing its momentum; while it didn't lose its entire arm, it lost a huge chunk of meat, with Taurus having cut so deep that they could see, through the now constant flow of oily black blood, the humerus its skin once wrapped around.
The Grimm hit the ground, and immediately after it rolled to its feet its head was smacked from one side to the other by the holy blade in Jaune's hands. The Arc cursed, having not timed himself enough to hit the Terran Grimm's neck, and this gave the Grimm the chance to attack him with its blade.
Or rather, it would have, had a certain star-spangled shield not slammed into the back of its neck. This impact, added with the momentum it hadn't been able to do anything about, sent it sprawling forward, digging a trench through the snow as the shield bounced off its neck, with Aldric almost missing it as it whizzed by him. The Master caught it by its edge as the Faunus charged in, blade dragging against the snow and mouth opened, a loud battle cry echoing out from it -
Only to be drowned out by an even louder roar coming from the draconic Grimm, who sent all three combatants flying when it came in for a landing right on top of the Terran Grimm. Its jaw snapping open and shut, twin jets of hot air shooting out from its snout, angry, determined grunts echoing out from the depths of its throat, it stooped low over Aldric's Grimm doppelganger, as though protecting it.
Separated from his allies and the first to get back to his feet, when Aldric saw the gigantic monster standing above its undead Master, he let out an exasperated sigh, throwing his hand up, loosely gripping the hilt of his blade, and pointing at the Dragon, before lifting both hands out to his side and shaking his head, gasping for air. The Dragon, either unknowing or uncaring of the gesture, growled, as Grimm leaked off out of the black ichor that streamed off of the dragon's oily skin like rivulets of rain.
So that's where you were. Aldric, unbidden, heard in his head.
He shook his head, blinking heavily, and then seeing that the dragon's eyes had changed, going from two great red eyes to glossing over to twin glass orbs, allowing for a look into the pitch darkness inside its skull, not unlike that of what one would see were they conversing with a seer.
Aldric frowned, his lips pursed. "I learned better." He responded, seeing the Terran Grimm slowly, laboriously, pick itself up, as a Seer melted out of the dragon, and hovered over to the injured former-man.
I wonder if it truly was you who learned better, or merely the myriad of souls finally gathering influence enough over you to change your mind... To wait for that one moment in which you - rightly so - doubted me. To take that doubt and increase its prominence in your mind until you believed it wholly. Aldric heard seep into her brain, as one of the Seer's tentacles snaked out, coiling underneath the Grimm's chin and lifting its gaze, peering through the dark, T-shaped visor at the creature within. I would still take you back, you know... Salem whispered sweetly. I have so much to offer you that you would never learn for yourself.
Aldric frowned, crouching behind his shield, its marred surface proudly standing in between him and the Dragon, defying its Mistress. "I've made my choice."
And what a choice you've made... Do you wear his face out of tribute? Or to hide behind it? Salem asked. Or perhaps is there another? A fragment of a fifth soul within you, exerting control in such a way that you cannot even recognize it? Reaching into our world from beyond undeath to right wrongs and complete missions he couldn't in life... Hm? Salem asked, as Aldric witnessed oily black tendrils stretch out from the Seer's tentacles, wrapping themselves around the Terran Grimm's body, compressing against it until they were practically a second layer of skin.
Aldric watched helplessly as the Seer rebuilt the Terran Grimm, watching with disgusted awe as skin was replaced by the dark flesh of the less human Grimm that were all around them, clashing against Humans, Terrans, and Faunus alike. Realizing that she had nearly avoided this very fate by choosing to keep her own limb, and wondering with a chill running down her spine if that decision hadn't saved her life.
"I said something quite similar." Said a new, far younger, voice.
Aldric blinked, and looked over her shoulder, seeing the young, tanned child possessed by the ancient Master calmly walking across the battle-scarred snow, his cane held in his hand, it so big that he held it like a staff, lightly tapping it against the ground, crushing snow under its tip and his feet. Alongside him, both Jaune and Taurus dragged themselves over to Aldric's side, the former nursing a horrific headwound he'd packed with snow, the latter gritting his teeth and cradling his limp arm.
"Though I do not think... He..." Said Ozpin, with a playful grin and a wink in Cinder's direction. "Believed me."
The stones surrounding the seer's one great red eye began to fall to the ground as its tentacles began to atrophy, and the Terran Grimm's body reached completion.
"I don't." Aldric snarled.
And yet you -
"- used my story -"
- regardless. Both Salem and Ozpin said in unison.
"We're not just ignoring that Grimm...dric is just being healed, right?" Jaune gasped. "We're doing that on purpose?"
"Kid, you should be in the mountain." Taurus insisted, stepping in front of Ozpin, shielding him with his body.
Ozpin chuckled, and with his power moved Taurus to the side without even touching him, leaving the Faunus stunned. "Salem, I would think this evidence that you were then and continue to be wrong on all counts. Look how easily they all threw aside their differences and hatreds." He nodded in the direction of the kingdom in the sky, it being responsible for half of the lasers, mortar shells, and anti-aircraft fire being lobbed through it. "Even Atlas came."
I would counter by saying this all temporary, Ozma, born of a need of survival, and proof of my stance, and you know it. Salem responded amusedly, as the seer faded away into dark smoke, and the rejuvenated Grimm Aldric, its right arm now half man and half Grimm, and all the spots on its body where blood had flown now covered up by thick exoskeletal protrusions, stood to its feet. Even if they win today, and then come to destroy me, which you know the result of... It will fall apart inevitably. Perhaps - The Dragon flicked its head, indicating Ozpin. - before you even take on your next life. The cycle will continue.
Ozpin shook his head, twirling his cane around until he had it gripped in one hand, like both Aldric and his dark dead doppelganger held their blades. "I don't believe that... And now as ever we will find a way." He said, "now, with two worlds united against you... With all these men here serving but one single, unified goal, all struggling against you to buy time... As ever, we will find a way."
The Dragon was still a moment. All that could be heard was the sounds of battle around them.
Well then... Perhaps - Salem began, before Terran Grimm beneath it moved.
Said Grimm walked out from beneath the dragon standing over it, lifting gaze higher and higher, until it was looking past the Dragon and into the sky.
"Soldiers." It said. "Distraction." It raised its hand. "Goal." The ground began shaking, and Ozpin's back straightened, eyes growing wide and lips pursing as he tried to determine what the Grimm was doing. "Mountain." It splayed out and then tensed its fingers, and even the Dragon's head tilted to one side. "Grimm." It growled, slowly clenching its fist. "Retreat." Its entire arm now tensed up, and it braced its legs in front of it, digging its boots into the snow in front of it, as though pulling against something. "Fighting -" Both the Dragon and Ozpin followed its gaze and the direction of its arm, but saw only the thick cloud of airships, flying Grimm, bullets, bombs, and lasers. "- INEFFICIENT!" And the Terran Grimm yanked its arm down, pulling it to its side.
The entire sky lit up a bright, brilliant, orange-white light, and as every Grimm, in unison, broke off from their attacks and retreated southward, towards the water, the soldiers, Huntsmen, and mechs ceased fighting, as all eyes turned skyward. Aldric, Jaune, and Taurus each turned around, shielding their eyes and squinting upwards, as Ozpin limply dropped his cane, his mouth agape, his jaw shaking, his eyes wide.
When the light cleared, there wasn't a single heart before Cerise that didn't skip a beat at what they beheld.
The moon, or more accurately the fragments that orbited it, had been shattered into as many pieces as there were people on Remnant, and were all falling towards the sky.
Right at Cerise.
"Oz -" Was all Jaune could gasp out, before the Terran Grimm was just there - right behind him - slamming his blade through Jaune's back and roaring so loudly that Aldric, Taurus, and Ozpin felt it in their chests.
The Terran Grimm heaved Jaune into the air, the Arc kicked desperately, trying anything he could to avoid the inevitable, as the Grimm brought him up, and then slammed him back down into the snowy ground.
Ozpin whirled around to Aldric, "the mountain!" He screamed, "we have minutes - minutes!" He sounded practically rabid, and looked it too, with the spittle flying from his mouth. "Get everyone into the mountain!" He grabbed Aldric's shoulders and shook him roughly, as the Grimm tore his blade out of Jaune's black, dragging it from one side to the other, cleaving through the Huntsman's heart and even cutting his arm off in one motion, before he turned to the three who remained.
Aldric knew what was happening, realized what had to happen now: Damage control. They had to put everything into the idea that Aldric - the real Aldric - had built his bunker to last. He turned to Taurus, but Taurus' hand was already to his ear and he was screaming orders into his scroll.
"Into the mountain!" He screamed, "everyone get inside, go -" He cut himself off and grabbed Aldric's shoulders, throwing him out of the way of the Grimm's lightsaber.
It missed Aldric.
But it didn't miss Taurus' strong arm.
He yelled out in agonizing pain as the limb hung limply from small strips of flesh, and then was torn off completely when the Dragon took off and soared away from the soon-to-be-devastated battlefield. He stumbled back, but the Terran Grimm gave him no quarter - it thrust its half-demonic arm out, and its blade stopped in midair, curving around and then hurtling straight for Taurus. It gored him through the center of the chest and dragged him several inches across the ground before it was torn upwards, cutting through his chest and nearly carving his shoulder off.
As Taurus fell to the ground, and the Grimm's menacing red blade returned to its hand, Aldric turned to Ozpin and in turn grabbed his shoulders.
"Shield them as best you can! I'll buy you time!" Aldric screamed over the distant and rising cries of tens of thousands of existentially terrified men and women fled to a single cavemouth.
She pushed Ozpin towards the mountain and then rushed the Grimm, but it, with a raised hand, halted him dead mere inches from it, and with a demonic roar, it heaved Aldric over its head and, in a wide arc, slammed him into the cold ice. Aldric cried out in pain with each impact, each time he slammed into the ground he felt ice dig into and cut open his flesh. He felt bones creak and crack, he felt muscles stretch and tear, and the air blast out of his lungs as the Grimm savagely slammed him into the ground like an animal, before finally burying him several feet into the ice.
Aldric, in agony, could only gasp and scream in fear as the next thing he saw was a red blade hurtling towards his face.
Then it all went dark.
The Terran Grimm didn't even look as it angrily threw its burning red blade at its living self. It didn't know, and it didn't care, why or how he had returned to life, or who he'd possessed. He was dead again, and it was already marching towards the Mountain as it heard the blade screech as it burned through something. It called the blade back to it as the sky began to grow a deep, fiery red, the moon it had shattered now beginning to enter atmosphere.
Looking up, it saw airships, fightercraft, and Terran jets all desperately turning tail and running, fleeing from what would soon be a disaster zone. The kingdom in the sky's skyscraper-sized engines burned so brightly that the fire spewing out of them was white hot and stretched out a kilometer as its leaders tried to move the city far faster than it had ever been meant to. The Terran Grimm saw entire buildings sway and huge chunks of rock and earth get dislodged and fall to the ground.
It didn't save them.
As the Grimm marched unflinchingly across the now orange fields of snow and ice, it watched the first massive meteors reach the battlefields. Compared to the gigantic fireballs created by the friction of the giant hunks of rock falling through the sky, tiny blooms of fire caused by the airships they smashed into were practically invisible, and those made by the Terran jets even less so, like comparing firecrackers to missiles. The Grimm lowered its gaze from the sky to the mountain as the first meteors hit the city, causing it to tilt, wobble, and shake even as it continued fleeing.
Everyone on the ground appeared to unanimously agree the mountain was their only chance of safety, either overestimating its ability to protect them, or simply too scared to think with any modicum of logic.
The Terran Grimm considered the latter, as the sky multiple times flashed pure white. It paused its advance to turn around, bringing its gaze skyward again and seeing the mushroom clouds forming and vanishing underneath the tide of meteors they were trying to stem. The Terrans were trying anything to buy their people on the ground even seconds, even if it had the slimmest of chances of -
The first bullet then buried itself into the ground at the Grimm's feet.
The Grimm turned around.
It saw Ozpin, in his new body, at the cave mouth, his hands in the air and a great green barrier forming around him, while every single Atlesian robot, and even those in the mechanized suits, advanced on the Grimm, their weapons shouldered and flashing, projectiles blasting through the air and towards him.
It marched again, as the meteors began pelting the ground. It ignited its blade, its red glow practically nonexistent against the fires that were sprouting everywhere from the rocks smashing into the ice, sending snow, ice, and soot into the sky. The ground shook so violently that even the Grimm had to focus to keep its footing, the wind was beating at it so harshly that what was left of its coat was torn from its back. The robots and mechs fell by the score from any combination of things: The meteors themselves, the shockwaves of their impacts, or the earthquakes that sprouted up from them.
What had been a coordinated, if last-ditch effort to slow him down, ended seconds after it began.
The Grimm sensed a meteor hurtling straight for him, but a thought turned it into dust before it could hurt him.
It marched on, unabated. Walking through the sky falling around its, straight through the flames that licked at its legs, through the searing soot and burning ash that filled the air. It had an objective, it had a goal, and nothing would stop it from completing it.
It saw Ozpin desperately protecting the cavemouth, his green barrier holding firm against the rocks falling, but his young body not doing nearly as well - the Grimm could see blood flowing from his nose in such quantities that it knew Ozpin wasn't breathing properly, if at all.
It saw gigantic chunks get torn out of the mountain, revealing underneath it some sort of metal shell, no doubt a protective measure erected by the real Aldric, when he had lived, when he had built this place. No doubt the very same shell that gave the people rushing towards it faith that it would hold, though clearly neither they nor Aldric had ever considered that it would have to stand up to what it was now. A part of the Grimm wanted to have thrown the entire moon, but even its strength wasn't great enough, not to mention that it was leagues more efficient to instead shatter what was already orbiting the small planetoid, and pull those instead, and achieve the same effect.
The Grimm slowed to a halt to let another meteor slam into the ground before him, and once it was finished, it climbed over the burning hunk of moon. When it crested the new hill, it noticed a giant ball of fire and smoke spinning through the air, and paused, squinting at it, before it saw its metal skeleton poking through its rocky flesh.
Atlas had, quite literally, fallen, though the Grimm couldn't see the impact, as it fell behind the gigantic mountain looming over them.
The Terran Grimm turned its gaze down to Ozpin, who looked thinner than he had moments ago. Ozpin's eyes were shut tight and his teeth were gritted, blood leaking out of his mouth too.
The Grimm descended the hill made out of the meteor as the last ones fell from the sky and hit the ground around him.
As he approached Ozpin, who dropped the barrier, whose bony arms hung limply at his sides, and whose cane was missing, the land around him looked less like a frozen tundra than it did the direct aftermath of a supervolcanic eruption. The ice was all gone, the ground was on fire, the sky was red and filled with smoke and soot.
Ozpin fell to his knees as the Terran Grimm reached him. Gasping for air, the mere act of which, the Grimm could sense, was scalding his young, atrophied lungs, Ozpin looked up to it.
"I'm so sorry Al-"
Aldric snapped the boy with two soul's neck, and moved on without even stopping.
Inside the cave he could hear hushed, but panicked voices. Some people were questioning why it had gotten so quiet outside, some were livid that they weren't getting inside any faster, some were worried about the smoke now pouring inside. The more sensible ones were manning fortifications and training their weapons on the mouth of the cave.
The panicked conversations turned to screams of fear and desperation as the Terran Grimm turned a corner and was illuminated by a bright spotlight. A chorus, a deafening din of thousands of terrified, panicked people rose up and overwhelmed even the volumes of gunfire being thrown at the Terran Grimm.
Cinder was in there, past all of these people.
It ignited its blade with a loud Zhoom! and a deep, vibrant red glow illuminated the cave, and marched on.
All was dark.
Was this death?
A blink, and that darkness was light.
Another blink, and that light was dark.
Everything around could be seen as clear as day, and yet it all was as dark as night.
She was sitting, and yet she stood. She stood, but her legs lay folded beneath her.
She felt the bench under her, but she was numb.
She breathed, but her chest didn't move.
It was loud, but all was silent.
She heard, but she was deaf.
She saw, but she was blind.
It was hot, but she was cold.
Where was she?
Before she could even try to answer her question, suddenly shot out from her a floating orb of light, sputtering and hissing like an ignited flare. After it lazily meandered a few feet away from her, it pulsed once, before splitting into four different flares, each possessing a pure white core, but radiating different colors. One was green, one red, one orange, and one white.
Transfixed, she watched as the green flare pulsed once, its light travelling outwards and breathing life into the nothingness around her, creating a field of grass whose sole source of light were the four flares in front of her.
The green flare sputtered and died, fading away.
Next, the orange flare pulsed once, and suddenly she was given form - a body built itself from the ground up, but she was still numb to everything around her.
The orange flare sputtered and died, the next to fade away, its lost light robbing the field of another source and causing it to darken.
Now the white flared pulsed, and she felt sensation return to her - her body suddenly felt like it was working. She could feel things the right way, temperature worked again, revealing the grassy field around her to be ice cold. Ambient noise almost like crunching snow filled her ears, her eyes opened for the first time but revealed that which had been shown to her all this time. She took in her first breath of air, feeling the air flow in and out of her chest.
The white flare sputtered and died, and she pushed herself to her feet, standing now in front of the sole remaining flare, a maroon one whose light was now the sole source of illumination in the increasingly dark field around them.
The red flare pulsed, and memory returned to her.
Cinder gasped as she was assaulted by her entire life in a single flash. She remembered everything, and from that memory came association, and from association, came a question:
Where was she?
The red flare sputtered and died, leaving Cinder in cold darkness and confusion.
Just as she was to call out, she heard a voice.
"What do you mean you didn't bring my phone?" Called out a brash young man, "built this whole place and couldn't magic up a - alright, screw it! Screw it, no, screw it! Just read my mind and play that!" The voice commanded, "alright, ready? Three, two, one -"
Then, breaking the general quiet and mutedness of the area around them like a cannon, came: "I'M A BITCH, I'M A LOVER!" Two new lights appeared, one a great and brilliant golden orb, and one a small and gray flare teetering on the edge of sputtering out. "I'M A CHILD, I'M A MOTHER -" The greater of the two was like a sun, radiating golden-white light. "I'M A SINNER, I'M A SAINT -" So brilliant was it that it almost completely masked the comparatively tiny flare next to it, a small, gray one, that appeared to be struggling just to stay afloat.
It dropped several inches, almost exasperatedly, "alright, alright, cut it off, turn it off." It said, briefly leaning back towards the golden light, "it didn't work." The music and the singing cut off, "it did not work." It repeated, snapping back forward. "Knew I should've made the Civil Protection joke... I'll use Ultimate Battle next time..." It grumbled, levitating towards Cinder.
Cinder opened her mouth, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "what -"
"Oh now don't you fuckin' tell me you don't recognize me, Hot Stuff. Ozzy and the Maidens stacked the deck in your favor, you actually have a body and sensory perception to make sense of this fucking place, not like I did."
"Mister Aldric -" Spoke the sun, as it hesitantly listed forward, "- we don't have much time."
"Yeah yeah." The weak gray orb bounced up and down, as though waving off the sun.
Cinder blinked, "Aldric?" She gasped.
"In the flesh!" Said the gray flare. "Or, rather, the broken tormented probably hallucinated fragmented soul from the great hereafter, but ah - semantics." The gray, weakly sputtering flare stopped its approach inches from Cinder. "Now, I know you have a bunch of questions, but let's be real here: I'm here for a gag that literally only exists to entertain me and me alone, and to get you back into the fight, not to answer your stuff and psych you back up." He began, "you can at least believe him insomuch that I did try to come back. I don't know why I stuck around after I died, but I did, and after the Wonderful Wizard of Oz over there -"
"Aldric, time!"
The gray flare petered out a moment, before sighing. "Fine. Listen, Hot Stuff, you're playing the game with one arm tied behind your back. Aldric Black's entire goal is to get you, and he'll kill literally anything and anyone, with no hesitation, that gets in his way. For fuck's sake he just pulled a Thanos and ripped the moon out of the sky! And your bright idea was to put on my face - which I admittedly appreciate as a symbolic gesture - and go in and fight him... Not for a second considering that he may do the whole 'no hesitation' thing with you, if the ruse worked."
Cinder blinked, it dawning on her what this phantom was getting at.
"Yeah, see? Now you're getting it! That thing doesn't fight, it just kills. But it can't kill you without wrecking the Great White She-Shark's plans, and that means you can force it to fight you, evening the playing fields, and maybe buying the folks in the Batcave enough time to get the fuck out of dodge." It began listing backwards, "hope that helped, Hot Stuff. Good luck, I'm ou-"
"Wait!" She called out, stopping the gray flare.
"Uh, we barely have any time left." It mentioned.
She knew, but she had to ask, she had to know: "Is this real? Or am I hallucinating?"
The gray flare snorted, "all the questions in the world and you ask that? The fuck should I know?" It laughed, "Now, maybe you're dying, maybe you got knocked the fuck out. Maybe Ozpin and Salem were right, maybe this is that crazy in-between purgatory place the people who reincarnate go to before they find a new body... Fuck, maybe you're dreaming, and all this is your unconscious mind, or maybe those four souls in your body, trying to wake your ass up, and give you the idea you need to beat this ess-oh-bee! I dunno, it's all cliche, and it doesn't really matter in the first place, rather the point does, and the point is, you're not dead, you're not allowed to die, and I don't have nearly long enough for a Dumbledore speech... Which is good, because despite all evidence to the contrary, I'm terrible at that too.
"So wake the fuck up, Hot Stuff! You've got a job to do!"
Or rather, it would have marched.
If a metal disk didn't bang into the back of its head.
Stopping, the bullets and bombs shot by the soldiers still halting right in front of him as though they were hitting an invisible wall, the Terran Grimm turned around.
It saw Nebo Aldric, lit from behind by the orange glow of the fires behind him, covered in burns, soot, and ash, gasping for air, smoldering, standing at the mouth of the cave, hand outstretched, waiting for the shield to return to him.
The Grimm turned around, back straightening up as it saw that the upper right half of Aldric's face was missing.
And where it should have seen blood, exposed bone, and muscle, it saw black hair sticking out at unnatural angles, like it was being flattened, unmarred, clean, smooth skin, and an eye.
An amber eye.
Glowing with multicolored flames, shooting out in the shape of a butterfly wing.
And the frayed, burned edges of a mask that had adhered itself so closely to Not-Aldric's face that it had fooled even its senses.
"Well!?" Gasped Aldric, whatever was changing his voice malfunctioning, and briefly failing, revealing to the Grimm's ears the voice of his objective. "I'm right here!" She taunted, as her shield bounced off of the cave walls and returned to her hand. "And you can't kill me-" She gasped, Aldric's voice briefly returning. "-without failing your mission!" She taunted in a garbled mixture of both voices speaking simultaneously, while sliding the shield back onto her arm.
Its grip on the hilt of its blade tightened so much that the metal bent, and tiny sparks flew out from in between its fingers.
"Go!" It heard one of the soldiers behind it yell out, "inside! Move! It's distracted!"
But it didn't care for them. They were irrelevant then, and they were even more irrelevant now.
Because before it stood Cinder Fall.
They stared each other down, Cinder gasping, leering down at it from behind her damaged mask, wearing two faces, while the Grimm stared up from behind its T-shaped shell. Cinder was lit from behind by the fires that raged outside, and from in front by the bright blue glow of her blade, while the Grimm was lit from behind by the blinding spotlights, and from in front by the menacing red glow of its blade.
Without any further words, the two charged at each other, three voices bellowing out one cacophonous battle cry.
They met in a clash of red and blue blades, Cinder brought her shield up and rammed it into the skeletal ring encircling the Grimm's throat, it split with a loud crack. The Grimm twirled its blade, sliding Cinder's off of it, as it grabbed her shield arm and violently twisted it around, opening up her core. It slammed its head into hers, she fell back, but it yanked her back towards it and it headbutted her again with a loud 'thud'. It tried this a third time, but Cinder brought her knee up into its stomach and detonated her aura, jarring its grip off of her and allowing her to retreat. She only took a moment to recover before throwing herself back into the fray, pushing the Grimm back a step as it was forced on the defensive. She sliced her blade from side to side, and it thrust left and right, blocking each attack as it fell back another step.
Cinder lunged forward, bringing her blade up in a wide diagonal slice, which the Grimm bent over backwards at an unnatural angle to dodge, before it snapped back forward and stabbed at her shoulder. Her shield flew up and took the attack, causing the blade to scrape off of it with a shower of sparks. As the Grimm stumbled forward, overextended, she thrust the shield into its chest and pushed it into a wall, hitting it hard enough that it splintered and they left a small crater. Cinder then tried to cut the Grimm's head off at the neck, but its response was to lunge itself backwards, burying itself deeper into the wall and practically tunneling through it, sending debris everywhere as Cinder's attack swung through open air.
She fell back a step, predicting its next attack - to leap back at her, sword outstretched. What would have run her through instead hit the center of her shield and stopped fast, but she fell back further from the strength behind the blow. This ended up being what the Grimm wanted, as it telekinetically took ahold of one of her legs as she brought it down and pulled it out of the way, causing her to slip and fall to the ground. She grunted with pain, and then gasped with fright, rolling out of the way of a downward thrust that would have put a hole in her shoulder. She realized what it was trying to do: Cripple her exactly as it had the Summer and Spring maidens.
She sprang to her feet, back now to the fortifications the Terrans had created. Her head briefly turned towards one of the machine gun emplacements, but the idea it created only had enough time to whisper at the edges of her subconscious before she snapped back into the action and hopped out of an attack aimed for her shield arm. Skidding to a halt, she threw herself back at the Grimm, beelining it for him and burying the edge of her shield into its ribs, dragging it up the side of its body until she had it locked under its cybernetic arm arm, whereupon she twisted around the Grimm and grappled it, locking its sword arm in place and giving her the chance to bury her blade underneath its fleshy arm.
She wanted to cut its arm off.
But she didn't expect it to whip around like its skeleton was nonexistent, wrap itself around her neck, haul her over the Grimm's head, and throw her deeper into the cave.
She flew through the air before crashing into a pile of sandbags. She shook the stars out of her vision in time to see the Grimm's limb snake its way back to its body and return to its normal shape, and, her eyes wide, she saw what Salem had done to it: The once human flesh was just a wrapping, now, and it was split and torn open, practically shredded, revealing a dark limb beneath it that practically radiated darkness. There was no muscle or bone, only strips of paper-white flesh drained so thoroughly of their blood that they appeared dry and stiff, like leather, lightly clinging to a solid mass of Grimm, covered in its thick, oily blood.
The Terran Grimm's blade shot back into its no-longer-human hand, and activated, lighting the cave up with red light - before it shot forward. The limb stretched like it was made of rubber, zooming towards Cinder so fast that she almost wasn't able to bring her shield up to intercept it, and no sooner had the Grimm hit her shield than did it zoom forward, like a rubber band rebounding, and grab Cinder's shield with its cybernetic hand. The two struggled as it slowly pried it away from her face, spun around its blade into a reverse-knife-grip, and stabbed downwards at Cinder's head.
Cinder acted on instinct, picked up one of the sandbags with her powers, froze it solid, and smacked the Terran Grimm with it. This caused him to stumble to the side, and gave her the chance to spring to her feet. She followed this up with another sandbag, and another, and another, until she was grabbing everything around her, weaponizing them, and hurtling them at the Grimm. Some of them hit it, shattering into clouds of ice, some of them exploded into mounds of glowing, molten material, some of them were cleaved in two by the Grimm's sword, and some were halted by its powers.
Cinder at least managed to draw blood and shatter some of its newly grown exoskeleton, but she soon ran out of projectiles.
So she changed tactics and used her own powers to attack, blasting the Grimm with white hot fireballs, shooting it with dozens of streams of electricity, ripping apart chunks of the cave and dropping them on it. She kept this up for several seconds, before realizing that she could see everything she was throwing at it collecting, coalescing into a single point. She cut off the stream and watched, wide-eyed with horror, as the Grimm collected everything she'd thrown at it into a single point above its mechanical fist, before thrusting it forward, roaring.
All of it came flying right back at her.
Cinder ducked behind her shield, but all that did was keep her alive - she still was pushed back, her feet digging grooves into the ground as it felt like she was being hit by a semi-truck. She thought for a moment that perhaps she'd aimed for the wrong arm, but that moment passed in the blink of an eye. The Grimm, once it was out of its stolen energy, vaulted forward, slamming its shoulder into Cinder's shield, and then wrapping its inhuman arm around it like a length of rope.
The shield stopped.
Cinder kept going.
So deep into the cave were they that Cinder was now rolling to a halt right in front of the wide open blast door that led inside Aldric's bunker. She could hear FILS' dulcet tones and the commanding voices of several different kinds of soldier instructing a loud crowd of screaming and crying evacuees deeper inside, but she ignored it, hauling herself to her feet. She looked up and saw the Grimm slowly stalking towards her, her shield gone, having been thrown away. Unsteadily, she straightened up, her shoulders slumped, her grip on her inactive blade so light that it was nearly ready to just fall out of her hands. Gasping for air, her entire body aching and hunched over, the half of her face that was exposed to the elements streaming sweat, she took her blade in both hands and bared her teeth.
The Grimm slowly stalked down towards her, its red blade clenched tightly in its cybernetic hand, her shield having been discarded who-knows-where. Cinder, however, her vision was going dark, she was barely able to stay on her feet, it taking all of her willpower just to remain standing as she was, the lone bulwark shielding those inside from it outside.
The Grimm, however, as it was wont to do, took the easiest path to its victory, and didn't even bother engaging her. It knew she was on her last legs, and that the best way to put her down was to kick her while she was down. So before it even reached her, it thrust its free hand forward, and Cinder felt as though she'd been smashed into by an out of control semi-truck. She flew into the bunker faster than a bullet flew from a gun, tasting blood and feeling that uncomfortable feeling of ribs grinding against each other.
The temperature difference between the two was the first thing to hit her. The cave they had been fighting in had steadily been growing scalding hot due to the Grimm's stunt outside and all the smoke pouring in, but the bunker was still comparatively ice cold. Cinder flew so far in that she smashed into the giant monitors that had once given her all of this base's secrets. They shattered in a shower of glass and electricity, and she fell to the ground, smoldering.
She struggled to get up, arms shaking, head feeling like it weighed a million pounds as she looked up.
"Alarm! Grimm presence detected!" She heard the chipper AI declare, as the Grimm crested the curve that separated the entrance from the deeper, main section of the bunker. "This is not a drill!"
Cinder noticed bright green lights on the floor and the ceiling, and arrows pulsing along them, all pointed in a single direction. She followed them and saw what they were leading to: The very same docking bay where the ship rested that would shepherd these people from.
And to her unending terror, there was still a crowd of people in front of it. Far smaller than she expected, and growing smaller with each second - especially as now the people were panicking and soldiers were thundering past them - but still hundreds of people, which meant that only thousands more were inside the bay, trying to get into the ship itself.
"FILS..." She gasped, struggling to get back to her feet. "Fils, where can I..." She stumbled to the side and back to her hands and knees, as she heard the soldiers valiantly, desperately, hopelessly holding the line, with gunshots thundering around the bunker, and the light metallic clinks of casings hitting the ground. "I need..." She gulped, her throat bone dry. "I need an..." Looking up again, she saw soldiers of all three species - the green garbed Terrans, the armor-clad Atlesians, and the patchworked White Fang - all firing enough ordinance at the Grimm to tear apart a moderately sized building. "An arena." She gasped, leaning against the huge computer array as she struggled back to her feet; the bullets all stopped dead before they even reached the Grimm, who, as it thundered forward at a brisk walking pace, threw its hand up in the air and clenched its fist, breaking the necks of half of the soldiers in one go, causing them all to drop to the ground in useless heaps. "Somewhere away from them all... I need to guide him somewhere." She applied some of her powers to stabilize her mask's voice changer, to make herself sound like Aldric. "Con..." She gasped, her eyelids practically trying to close themselves. "Contain him."
FILS seemed at an impasse, "Mister Aldric, would not it be better to enact the Maiden Contingency? Sealing the Bunker and deploying the Life-Eater virus would preserve it without risking damage to Contingencies Genova and Aerith." It said, its tone impotent, as though it knew the answer it would get.
Cinder shook her head, that act alone almost pulling her back to her knees. "Can't... Risk them." She said.
"But Mister Aldric, the only area available with enough space would be Sephiroth's hangar." FILS responded, its voice dropping in tone, as though it knew the direness of the situation. "I cannot open Aerith without risking its viability, and as you said, taking the Grimm to Sephiroth would risk the survivors. I believe it better to simply launch as is, and enact the Maiden contingency."
Cinder watched as the Grimm reached the final soldiers and carved its way through them; some Huntsmen burst out from the hangar and tried to attack it, but it dealt with them in only slightly longer order than the soldiers. She felt despair grip her heart as she realized that, knowingly or not, these people were literally throwing bodies at the problem, spending their blood to buy her seconds to come up with some kind of plan to divert this thing away from the people, in a way that wouldn't actively put them in harm's way.
This despair turned to rage, and Cinder smashed her fist on the console she was leaning it, leaving a dent in it so deep that it appeared as though it had been hit by a truck. "There's another option you useless fucking computer, there must be!"
"Mister Aldric, if you are referring to what I believe you are, you told me to seal that area if the bunker was opened and it was not you yourself that opened it."
"Do I sound like I care about that now? If there's a place in here with enough space for me to fight this thing, open it!" She screamed, as the last dregs of the crowd finally pushed their way into the hangar, and soldiers and Huntsmen threw everything they had into sealing the entrance.
Unfortunately, all they had were bodies: Theirs.
They briefly made the Grimm pause, turning to them as it considered their threat versus its goal, and Cinder could practically see it coming to the conclusion that if it left them alive, they would help Cinder fight it, putting its mission in jeopardy, threatening its mission.
And she knew how it dealt with threats.
"FILS!"
The lights went out, blanketing the entire bunker in darkness, the only sources now being the sea of red radiating from the Grimm's sword, the brief flashes from the soldiers' guns, and the tracer rounds arcing through the air and into the Grimm's defenses.
"Please follow the yellow line to your destination." FILS' voice echoed throughout not just the damaged computers, but the entire base, as a line of yellow lights lit up on the ceiling, walls, and floor.
Cinder would take it, and she shoved off of the computers with a grunt, igniting her lightsaber and waving it around. It being the second greatest source of light in the nearly pitch-black bunker, the Grimm took notice, turning back to her, blanketed in its ominous red glow.
"COME ON!" She screamed, as she backpedaled further into the bunker, following the thin yellow lines. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! I'M RIGHT HERE!"
It turned to her, and thundered forward, first at its previous brisk pace, but quickly picking up until it was sprinting towards her, its blade bobbing up and down, light swinging back and forth in a rhythmic red dance.
Cinder turned tail, deactivated her blade, and sprinted away, following the lights until she reached a single blast door, the size of a garage door. It was wide open, revealing inside a giant cavern, the size of a football field.
And it was completely empty.
Huh... What? Cinder thought, mouth agape, lungs desperately pumping as much oxygen into her body as they could. Why would... She looked around; the cavern, unlike the bunker, was brightly lit, and as Cinder sprinted inside, she saw that despite its first impression, it did, indeed, hold one thing. Why would he... At the far end of the bunker was a Terran car, it laying dead and motionless, no sign that it had even been touched save for the single door, hinged at the roof, hanging wide open, and the two anchors locking its front tires to the ground.
Cinder had no time to think any further on it, as she could see the edges of the light of the Grimm's blade stretching into the cavern.
She whirled around, gritting her teeth and grabbing ahold of the lightsaber with both hands. She saw it stalking towards her, or rather, she saw what few pieces of it its blood red blade illuminated, the image briefly giving her pause, as all that was visible were the exoskeletal portions that had grown over its wounds, covering the right half of its body, lining its torso. She could see its Grimm arm and the dried, leathery flesh that still clung to it, and she could see the T-shaped visor, covered in such thick scorch marks that part of it didn't even reflect light like glass should anymore. All wreathed in a deep, demonic red glow, and slowly walking right at her, each step a thunderclap, each moment a year, each breath rage.
This is it... She knew, gasping for air. It ends after this. But despite this knowledge, she didn't feel fear.
Yes, despite her magic, despite four Maidens' souls, the Grimm was able to dominate her through sheer power. Yes, it felt no pain, whereas she ached from each attack, each move, each thrust, parry, and counter. Yes, it never tired, whereas each minuscule pause in the action had this battle crash down around her and threaten to put her on the ground.
But she had advantages too - two specifically. These two could fling telekenetic blasts and magic at eachother all day, but they were so damned difficult to kill that such an act would be meaningless in the end, especially as she'd stolen from it its ability to kill, to not hesitate, to take the shortest route between it and its goal. It couldn't kill her, and as such the only way for it to win over her, or for her to win over it, was to fight, was to struggle for it.
And, while it had taken her shield - Aldric's shield, bequeathed to his chosen and then to given to her in death, it hadn't taken her sword. It hadn't taken Aldric's sword.
She'd fought with swords, trained with them, for her entire life.
And this thing, it operated on pure memory.
And the person whose memories it stole and perverted and misunderstood, had not the skill with a blade that she had.
So with its greatest strength robbed from it, and this battle now being firmly within her realm of expertise, Cinder knew that one way or another, it ended after this, and she had a fighting chance to end it in her favor.
So the multi-Maiden gulped, then clicked the button on her blade, sparking it to life with a loud Zhoom! and a brilliant, vibrant blue glow.
The Grimm thundered forward, its footfalls leaving deep craters in the ground behind it. It raised its blade and as it reached Cinder, lunged forward, thrusting the blade right at her, and in that moment, the pain left her body, her senses returned, and her eyes - both her amber orb and the false gunmetal gray - narrowed to determined slits. She twisted her blade from left to right, it catching and screeching against the Grimm's as it ground against it. Pushing its blade to the side, Cinder let go of hers with her right hand and reached forward as she stepped to the side. She grabbed the Grimm's arm as she pushed its blade safely out of the way, and then used its momentum against it, twisting the both of them around until its back was to the cavern, and hers to the pitch-black bunker behind them. It planted its legs on the ground, but she had expected that, and, using her strong arm to keep the Grimm's sword pointed away from her, she dragged her blade out of their clash, and when her blue pillar cleared its red, it was pointed right at it, allowing Cinder to instantly spring it forward and drive the blade into its chest, aiming directly for the tiny hole she'd burned into it what felt like so long ago.
It did exactly as she expected it to: Get caught between its first layer of armor and its second, final defense, resulting in it dragging against the oil-stained shirt, and digging lower and lower.
From its neck, down its sternum, to its stomach, its armor began to glow white hot.
The Grimm realized what she was trying and immediately threw its titanic strength against her. She felt the bones in the hand holding its sword arms away begin to creak as it pushed against her. She felt her forehead swell up and her aura shatter when it smashed its scorched, T-shaped mask into her. She felt bile and blood crawl up her throat when it tried kneeing her in her tightly clenched stomach.
But she held firm, using her powers as best she could to mitigate the damage until the thing's once impregnable armor finally succumbed to its only weakness: Heat.
It grew molten began to stretch, until finally it and the shirt beneath split apart and exposed its core, for the first time revealing its chest to Cinder. Much like on the rest of it, anywhere there had been blood there was now exoskeleton, resulting in a grotesque maze of thin bones stretching across its chest and stomach at unnatural angles.
The Grimm immediately went on the defensive, and as Cinder ripped the blade away from it and fell back a step, it lunged forward, smashing its fist into her face and grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt. With a loud roar, it whirled around and threw her into the cavern. She flew clear to the other side of the cavern, slamming into the wall hard enough to leave a crater, before she tumbled out of it and fell to the ground, hitting it with a grunt of pain.
And both hands empty.
Fear gripping her heart, Cinder struggled to turn her head up, revealing just one eye - the gray one made by her mask - and just in time to witness the Grimm crush Aldric's blade in its hand with a bright spark and a loud crack, before it threw away the pieces and again stalked forward.
Well... She thought, her arms and legs shaking as she forced herself to her feet. At least I've got the spare... She laboriously reached around to the small of her back, plucking the crossguard blade Aldric had originally given her. It felt like it weighed a ton, but she struggled through it, gripping it tightly and igniting it with the harsh scream of a plasma torch.
But where she expected the ominous, burning red glow of her unstable sword, she found herself surprised when it, like the one now lost, lit the cavern alight with deep blue light. She turned to look at it, amber and grey eyes wide, brow furrowed in confusion, before she frowned, and turned back to the Grimm, and rushed forward. The Grimm met her charge and soon they each met the other in a clash of blades. After struggling for a moment, Cinder pushed her arms upwards, bringing the Grimm's with her and opening up its core. She then pushed forward, forcing it off balance and to fall onto its backfoot as she grabbed at its crossed and locked arms with one of her hands; she locked her elbow and then tore her blade away from its. She managed to viciously stab at the Grimm three times before it twisted its chest to the side, causing her next strike to grind against the open remnants of its armor. The arm made of Grimmflesh then compressed itself, decreasing its width to that of a noodle, and allowing it to rip it free from her grip almost effortlessly - unintentionally ripping the flesh that remained off of it, covering her hand in oily black blood.
With its arm free, it wrapped around Cinder's sword arm, coiling around it like a snake and locking it in place. Now stuck, the Grimm bashed her head with its, causing her to briefly list back, before it yanked her back towards it and smashed her head again. It tried this rubber band trick again, but she threw her knee up, wedging it between its torso and her, and then pushing backwards with her remaining leg, falling onto her back, with the Grimm right above her. She then kicked with all her might, sending the Grimm hurtling up towards the cavern's ceiling. Unfortunately, while she succeeded in separating the two, she failed in fully breaking its grip, and it was able to keep ahold of her blade - which bled back to a red color the moment it left her hands, causing the Grimm to practically become a ball of bloody red light. It missed the ceiling by inches, and lazily allowed itself to fall back to the ground.
Cinder rolled out of the way and back to her feet, a new longsword forming in her hands out of dark, molten glass. The Grimm hit the ground and lunged at Cinder, attacking with each sword, swinging left and right so heavily that its entire body swayed with each attack. Each time one of its blades, be it the calm red one it had possessed since it had been born, or the raging crossguarded blade, hit one of her own glass ones, they were cleaved in two. Cinder rapidly began falling back and losing ground, it being all she could do to keep up with it, the ground soon being littered with the melted pieces of glass blades.
Before Cinder could think of any kind of counter, the Grimm again blasted her across the cavern and into the wall, and it was here that she began to realize what it was doing: It was turning her strategy against her. She was forcing it to fight because she had a greater chance of defeating it that way, so its response was to hammer away at her until she physically couldn't fight any longer. It had no timetable, only an objective and a general goal of efficiency - even if it wasn't fast, rope-a-doping her was an efficient means of taking her out.
She hit the wall again with a loud cry, and when her eyes opened, she gasped, closed her eyes again and threw herself to the side, seeing an enraged machine of death and destruction flying at her, its twin lightsabers thrust forward and prepared to pin her to the wall by her shoulders. The Grimm hit the wall, burying its blades up to their hilts, and Cinder, hit leather and plastic.
Blinking, Cinder opened her eyes and found that she'd made her way into the car that the cavern appeared to be solely built to hide. She was sprawled across the only two seats in the vehicle, her back on the driver's seat and head resting against the driver's side door. Aching so much that even thinking hurt, she grabbed the steering wheel and the driver's seat and pulled herself up, her head lolling about until it came to a rest, looking down at the floor of the vehicle, immediately in front of the passenger's seat. She barely registered all of the flashing lights or the strange display on the dashboard, instead zeroing in on one item in particular, as the sound of plasma being wrenched out of concrete reached her ears.
She just needed a minute - a second - to prepare it.
So, searching the rest of the car, she found a small wooden case that had been broken open by her sudden entrance. Inside were twelve two-prongued, ancient-looking forks, their edges sharp. Had she had the energy, Cinder would have shrugged - these would have to do. She grabbed a fistful of them and looked outside of the car, seeing the Grimm turning to it and rushing forward. She gritted her teeth and charged the forks in her hand with her energy, some glowing white hot, some being wreathed in electricity, some freezing solid - and then with a grunt, she threw them all like knives. They shot through the air and all buried into the Grimm's exposed chest, each impacting like a baseball bat, and the collective elemental energies causing it to sieze, falling to a knee.
Her enemy properly stunned, Cinder lunged to the side, grabbing the grip of a pistol laying haphazardly on the ground. She ripped the giant magazine out of the gun and confirmed it was filled with fist-sized bullets. She sensed the Grimm getting to its feet as she slammed the magazine back home and racked the slide, chambering a round just as the entire inside of the car soon bled with red light. She twisted around, straightening back up and bringing one of Aldric's Bolter guns to bear and blasting the Grimm in the chest just as it leaned inside the car. It was shot back several feet, and Cinder, not being prepared for the gun's abominable recoil, dropped it, it clattering to the ground. Cinder, knowing she had no time before the Grimm would recover, just left the gun there, pulling herself out of the vehicle with one hand, while the other gathered a ball of fire, which she let loose the instant she left the vehicle, the explosion masking the sound of the engine revving, and the dust and smoke masking the sight of smoke as the tires spun against the ground.
The impact of the explosive bolt and the fireball caused the Grimm to lose one of its blades, it clattering to the ground with a 'Zip!' and partially dimming the cavern. Cinder's next trick was to throw herself at the Grimm, creating one glass sword in each of her hands and slamming them both into the Grimm's cybernetic arm so hard that they each shattered into hundreds of pieces. The impact pushed its arm down but didn't jar its grip - but Cinder's heavy front kick to its forearm did that, causing her sword to go spinning away.
It responded by wrapping its Grimmflesh arm around her throat four times, hauling her into the air, swinging her overhead and slamming her into the ground like a sack of bricks. Stars swam in front of her eyes and the edges of her vision darkened, but she grabbed ahold of its oily arm and sent electricity through it. This caused its demonic muscles to spasm, briefly choking her further, before loosening up and letting her slide out of it. She hit the ground and stumbled forward, but she sensed the Grimm clench its demonic fist. Spikes sprouted out of it and it swung its arm about like a flail. She pushed herself forward, rolling out of the way of the attack that shattered the stone ground beneath it. She scrambled to her feet and then ducked out of the way of a wide, sweeping attack that skimmed her scalp.
Cinder latched onto the arm and was taken alongside, swinging through the air as it whipped its arm from side to side. Gritting her teeth, Cinder's hands were encased in ice, soon freezing small portions of its arm solid. With a grunt, she brought her hand up and knife-chopped the Grimm's arm, shattering the ice and snapping the outer half off of it.
For the first time since she'd first met it, the Grimm Aldric roared in pain.
Cinder hit the ground, turning about and seeing the Grimm gripping its arm with its cybernetic hand, its roar so deep that it didn't even sound human. Cinder tried to capitalize on this, but she was in such agony, was so exhausted from this fight, that she moved too slowly, and the Grimm, still screaming, backhanded her away with its dark metal arm. She flew back into the car, slamming into it like a cannonball. The sound of squealing tires was replaced with that of metal shattering into pieces, the car lurched onto its side wheels as it shot forward. Cinder could barely move, all of her strength not even sufficient to raise her arms. She barely felt the car tip back onto all four wheels, or its open door subsequently fall shut against her foot. She didn't feel the car teetering back and forth or the rumble of the tires rolling against the ground as they propelled it across the cavern. She didn't hear the Grimm thundering after the vehicle or even the roar of the engine and the loud electrical sounds coming from inside, and through her hazy vision she couldn't see anything but the dimly lit interior of the rolling vehicle, and the undulating light coming from the Y-shaped device enclosed in a glass case behind the twin seats.
Until all this changed.
Loud, thunderous bangs filled her ears, a brief pulse of the purest white light she'd ever seen filled her eyes -
And then the sensation of the vehicle slamming into the cavern's far wall brought it all to a close, causing her to black out.
She didn't know how long she was unconscious for, only that she had, indeed, fallen out - one second she was laying flat in the seat, the next the steering wheel was on her chest and the entire car appeared to be crumpled up, flattened into a twisted, burning heap.
Oh no... She gasped, feeling sweat pooling up between her face and the mask. What little adrenaline her body could muster began thundering through her, giving her just enough clarity to hear thunderous footfalls rapidly approaching the car. Oh... She struggled to break free, but she was immobilized, pinned down by the metal pressing against her and immobilized by the pain of glass and shards of metal cutting into her.
Rendered helpless to the approaching Grimm.
She tried anything, struggling, squirming, twisting, pushing and pulling, her struggled only growing more desperate as she heard something colliding with the car and tearing it apart. She heard the Grimm yelling at her, and the sound of metal being torn and scattered across the ground. The heat inside the vehicle was stifling and only growing hotter, and Cinder could do naught but wait as she knew what was coming, knew the end was here, knew she was going to be brought before her in defeat.
As her mind, forced into clarity by pain, fear, and disaster, displayed visions of her defeat and of what Salem would do with the four relics, she could only pray that the people on the ship, and the bounties of the the ship itself, could resist her. That perhaps they could defeat her, as Aldric had been so confident they may.
Cinder braced herself for the inevitable, and after a moment, the monster digging at the vehicle finally made it inside, ripping the door off its hinges and throwing it away. She could see nothing but its outline behind the bright lights of the cavern, and she did the only thing she had the strength in her left to do, as it paused, leering down at her. She roared in defiance, screamed in struggle, bared her teeth in fury.
The figure stood there until she stopped, out of breath, gasping for air, throat hoarse and voice faded away.
"Well... That's not very fuckin' nice." Said the figure, before it smashed its fist into Cinder's nose, finally putting her down for the count.