Black Sun

Chapter 22

It took them a few hours to get everything set up. By the end of it, the four of them had spent most of their money on gear – ammo, magazines, medical supplies, even a few Artifacts to help with healing. The last of their money had gone into outfitting their weapons – Pyrrha's FN FAL now had the Elcan Specter equipped, while Ruby's AS VAL had an Aimpoint red dot with a magnifier attached by a side rail mount, and Cinder's Kalashnikov was adorned with an EOTECH holographic sight held in place on the railed dust cover.

Jaune, meanwhile, had opted to keep his Benelli M4 with iron sights, which left him unsure of what to purchase… at least until he'd spied a strange-looking box of ammo among the rest.

"Sakharov, what are these?" he asked.

"Hm? Oh, those?" Sakharov said. "We just got in a few boxes of those, courtesy of some outside contacts in America. Apparently, they were worried about us running into some of the bigger mutants, and opted to send a shipment of specialty ammo for us."

Jaune picked up the box. It was full of shotgun shells, and they appeared to be slightly bigger than the shells he ordinarily loaded into his weapon.

"Brenneke slugs," Sakharov told him. "600-grain projectile traveling at just over 1,500 feet per second. They'll put out just over 3,000 foot-pounds of force at the muzzle, and just under half that at a hundred yards. Serious stuff; they're designed for hunting very big game. The Americans use them to hunt large bears, mainly."

"Sounds dangerous," Jaune said. "I'll take all of them."

Sakharov shrugged. "Suit yourself. We'll be here for you when you need your shoulder pushed back into place."

Jaune handed him the money, then began to place boxes of shells into his pack, slotting a few into his plate carrier and belt, all while his friends looked on.

"Jaune, are you sure about this?" Ruby asked. "I mean, you're still a new shooter. The recoil might be a bit much for you."

"I'll handle it," Jaune promised her. "Besides, something tells me we're going to need the extra firepower."

Nobody argued with him about that.

Once they were all outfitted properly, the four of them said goodbye to the Ecologists, then set off. The Army Warehouses weren't that far, but that wasn't the concern.

The problem was that they were walking into the hornet's nest, and they all knew it.

"Hey," Ruby said as they walked through the Zone, their weapons at the ready. "So… has anyone actually interacted with the Monolith before?"

Pyrrha gave a small snort of amusement. "I have, if you can call it that."

"You fought them?" Jaune asked.

"That's being generous. Truthfully, it was just a few of their fighters; I took them out with help from some of the guys in Freedom, when they assaulted the checkpoint Freedom had set up just outside Monolith territory. There were only a few Monolith, but they still managed to take out an entire squad of Freedom members. And there was one of them, this… Preacher. She was creepy."

"'She?'" Cinder emphasized. "There's a female Monolith fighter?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I know, I was just as surprised as the rest of you are. I've seen no other women in the Zone, but then the Monolith has one, and she's apparently very high-up in their ranks… it didn't make much sense to me."

Jaune looked back to his friends, noting how Ruby suddenly seemed to be very deep in thought. "Ruby?" he asked.

Ruby blinked, then shook her head. "I'm fine, just… thinking about something, that's all. It's a crazy thought; don't think anything of it."

"Ruby, if there's something you want to bring up to us-"

"No, no, it's nothing," she emphasized. "Believe me, it's not worth considering right now, not when we're about to get into a fight with Monolith."
Jaune hesitated. "If you insist. Let's keep moving, then."

The four of them pressed on in silence, apprehension in their minds.

They knew what they were getting into, but that didn't make it any less anxiety-inducing.

It didn't take long for them to start hearing gunfire as they approached the Army Warehouses. It was far-off, but not sporadic in the slightest; rather, it was in irregular intervals, and echoed through the valley around the Army Warehouses.

And the moment they heard it, Pyrrha's radio sprang to life.

"This is Lukash! Monolith are close to breaching the barrier! We need all the reinforcements we can get right away, damn it!"

Immediately, Pyrrha keyed her radio. "Lukash, this is Pyrrha. I'm on my way now, with some help."

"Pyrrha?!" Lukash radioed back, surprise dripping from every syllable. "Am I glad to hear from you! Make your way to the barrier, we could use whatever help you have to-"

At that moment, the line went dead. Pyrrha's eyes widened.

"Lukash?! Lukash, answer me!"

She received no response. Grimacing, she took her hand off her radio, then motioned for the others to fall in behind her.

"Come on, we have to get to the barrier right away," she urged. "Follow me."

With that, she took off running, the others hot on her heels as she tore through the Army Warehouses.

By the time they were just a few minutes out, the gunfire had become almost deafening. They were surrounded by it; it sounded as if Freedom had mustered absolutely everybody they possibly could, along with whoever else from around the Zone had decided to throw in with them. As they drew closer, they were finally able to match individual riflemen with the gunfire; Pyrrha saw a mixture of Loners and Mercenaries among the sea of Freedom uniforms. There were even a few Ecologists, and to her surprise, she saw a few men in the trademark Bandit leather jacket as well; no doubt they were just there to strip the bodies of whatever loot they could find, but they were helping put down gunfire despite that, which was ultimately what mattered now.

They double-timed it over to the frontline of the barrier, rushing past lines of assorted riflemen putting down fire through the treeline. As they got to the front, the sounds of battle finally truly reached them, becoming downright overpowering; the noise of gunfire mixed with the screams of the injured and dying to form a macabre symphony of human suffering. Bodies, both of Monolith and various other factions, littered the ground around them, in various states of disrepair; most were riddled with bullets, though had entire chunks torn out of their bodies or heads. The ground was slick with blood, gore, and spent shell casings, and discarded weapons were strewn about.

Pyrrha paid no mind to any of it, instead locking in on the nearest Monolith soldier she spotted through the treeline. She shouldered her FN FAL, settled the crosshair of her scope over his chest, and fired. A .308 caliber round sped through the air, impacting against the man's shoulder; the force of the bullet striking him caused his body to shift towards her, and Pyrrha fired again, sending a second round downrange that made impact with his throat. The Monolith soldier fell to his knees, his rifle dropping from his grasp as he clutched at his wound. Blood spurted out from between his fingers, and before long, he was unconscious on the ground.

Pyrrha had no time to celebrate her small victory, however, as a wave of gunfire washed over her position. She grinded her teeth, sidling up against a nearby tree for cover. Rounds impacted all around her, tearing chunks out of the tree she was hiding behind; they left behind supersonic cracks as they flew around her, and Pyrrha's grip on her rifle turned white-knuckled as she hunkered down behind cover.

Then, more gunfire joined in with the rest of the cacophony, but from the opposite side. Pyrrha turned and found her three companions had stepped up alongside her and were now returning fire, keeping her covered. Jaune's shotgun roared in tandem with the suppressed chattering of Ruby's AS VAL and the staccato barks from Cinder's short-barrel Kalashnikov as the three of them laid down a hail of bullets, trying to give Pyrrha room to maneuver out from behind the tree. The incoming fire slowed down, enough that she was able to make a break back to where Jaune had crouched down behind a rock; she dove for cover, ending up next to him right as the Monolith forces opened up again, another wave of bullets washing down on them.

"Pyrrha?!" Jaune called out over the sound of gunshots, as he thumbed shells into his weapon. "What were you thinking?!"

"Save it!" Pyrrha hissed, quickly swapping magazines in her rifle. "Where are Ruby and Cinder?!"

"Just up ahead! Keep me covered, I'm moving up to them!"

"Jaune?!"

She didn't get a response before he moved out from behind cover, trying to fight his way over to the nearest person; a brief flash of black-and-red hair through the autumn leaves told her it was Ruby, but there was no sign of Cinder that she could see. Still, Pyrrha didn't hesitate to poke her head out cover just enough that she could properly aim, as well as switch her scope to its maximum four-power magnification.

Through the trees, she was able to see men in body armor and gas masks moving, communicating to each other in Russian and Ukrainian in those same monotone voices she'd heard the Monolith use before, all those weeks before at the barrier. Pyrrha bit back her rage, enough to calm herself as she took aim and settled her crosshair over the head of one of the soldiers. Her shot broke a second later, driving a clean .30 caliber hole directly between the man's eyes. As he fell, the other soldiers looked on emotionlessly before turning back to her and laying on their triggers, spraying the area around her with automatic fire. Pyrrha screamed as a stray assault rifle round took a chunk out of flesh out of her right bicep; blood began to pour down her arm, but the Artifact in the container at her hip soon kicked in, and the pain began to die down, and the bleeding soon began to taper off.

Pyrrha bit her lip hard enough to draw blood in order to keep from crying out again due to the pain. Adrenaline flooded her entire body, and it took everything she had not to drop her FAL from the shock of having been shot. Still, she barely managed to keep her hold on it, and after taking a moment to recover, she looked around, desperate to find a new piece of cover. The sound of someone sprinting towards her caught her attention, and she turned, leveling her rifle at them, only to find that, of all people, it was Cinder; she slid into cover next to her, then began to look Pyrrha over.

"Talk to me," Cinder urged. "Where are you hit? I see blood everywhere."

"In my… my arm," Pyrrha said, taken aback. "I just… why do you care?"

"Because we are allies, and you are important to Jaune." Cinder's eyes narrowed as she locked in on Pyrrha's bicep. "Is the Artifact working? Do you need that bandaged now?"

"I'll be fine," Pyrrha assured her through gritted teeth. "It hurts like hell, but I'll be fine."

Cinder nodded, then stood up enough that she could lay down suppressive fire. Pyrrha flinched, the sound of the 5.45 ammunition leaving the short barrel of Cinder's weapon still deafening even over the other sounds of combat. Eventually, Cinder's weapon ran dry, and Pyrrha stood up, laying down fire as she reloaded; the two of them swapped off, one covering the other, keeping a constant stream of fire going downrange in order to try and keep the Monolith soldiers suppressed.

Finally, after expending several magazines each, the incoming fire began to die down. Pyrrha and Cinder stood there, panting and gasping for breath, smoke curling up from the barrels of their weapons.

"Pyrrha, Cinder!" Jaune called out to them from up ahead. "Are you okay?!"

"We're fine!" Pyrrha answered. "I took a round to my arm, but the Artifact is fixing me up! I'll be okay!"

"How are you and Ruby?!" Cinder shouted.

"We're fine! Hang on, we're coming back to you both! Hold your fire!"

Pyrrha and Cinder maintained their positions, their weapons pulled into their shoulders, providing overwatch as Jaune and Ruby sprinted back to them. As they fell back, Pyrrha noted that both of them had a few small injuries across their bodies – Jaune had what appeared to be scratches caused by shrapnel across his arms, which matched a few shallow gouges in the receiver and barrel of his weapon. Ruby, meanwhile, had a graze across her lower right leg, though the Artifact on her hip appeared to have mostly healed it already, with only a very thin trickle of blood and a tear in her pant leg serving as indication that she'd been injured at all.

Jaune looked around, frowning as he did so. "We need to pull back," he said. "If anyone was around here with us, they're not here anymore."

Cinder's brow furrowed. "They must know something about this assault that we don't."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked.

"If they've pulled back now, it's because they're expecting a further assault. It would be wise of us to follow their example."

"Alright," Jaune agreed. "Let's fall back to the road, see if we can't find someone to direct us somewhere."

The rest of them muttered a brief affirmation, then followed after Jaune as he took off back to the main road.

As the four of them came running back to the road, they were met by a group of other Stalkers – around ten of them, from what Jaune could see – being briefed by a man in green-and-yellow Freedom body armor. As they came running up, the man turned to them with surprise, his face lighting up when he saw Pyrrha.

"You made it!" he greeted.

"Lukash," Pyrrha replied, the four of them coming to a stop a short ways away. She motioned towards the others in her group. "Lukash, these are my companions. We're here to help however we can."

Lukash nodded in understanding. "You four were just at the barrier?"

"We were. It looks like they've pulled back."

Another man, this one clad in blue Mercenary armor and a gas mask, shook his head. "They're regrouping," he informed her. "They'll be back, in far greater numbers." He turned to Lukash. "What do you suggest?"

Lukash thought for a moment. "We've got forces all around the area, stationed on the roads and watching the woods and barrier in case they start to push through. The best we can hope for is to hold them here, and then push onwards to the power plant."

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "You all want to push to the power plant?"

"Absolutely," the man in Mercenary armor replied. "Everyone in the Zone hates the Monolith. This is our opportunity to finally wipe them out for good."

He didn't mention the Wish Granter, but he didn't have to; all four of them knew it was something that everybody wanted, whether they admitted it or not.

"Well, what kind of numbers are we dealing with?" Cinder questioned. "On both sides, that is."

"It's hard to say," Lukash admitted. "We've got a mashup of Freedom members, Free Stalkers, Mercenaries, Ecologists, and even a few Bandits. I'd put our numbers at just south of a hundred people in total. It's a lot, but there's no telling how many Monolith members we're dealing with, not to mention that Monolith tend to be better-armed than most."

Cinder's face darkened, but she said nothing. Meanwhile, Jaune stepped forwards.

"Lukash, where do you want us?" he asked.

Lukash brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "You four? I'm hesitant to send you to the barrier. Hang on, I'll think of-"

At that moment, there was a far-off crash of thunder, followed by a rumbling in the sky. Everyone's eyes widened as the skies began to suddenly fill with clouds, and began to glow faintly red.

"Emission…" Lukash muttered, taking the words out of everyone's mouths. Immediately, he keyed his radio. "All forces, fall back to Freedom headquarters immediately! Repeat, all forces fall back to Freedom headquarters immediately!"

"Lukash?!" Pyrrha asked.

"No time!" Lukash shouted. "Get moving, now!"

Without another word, they all took off running, aiming for Freedom's headquarters to the west of the Army Warehouses. As they did so, however, shouting erupted all around them from the woods; Jaune had no time to shout out a warning to anyone else before the Monolith soldiers in the woods pushed up and began to fire upon them as they retreated.

Machine gun fire cut down men all around them. A few of them turned around and tried to return fire, but they were no match for the massed amount of lead being poured downrange. Rounds cracked by Jaune's head, and he doubled his pace, desperate to get away from both the Monolith gunfire and the incoming emissions. A quick look around himself confirmed that, by some miracle, his three friends had made it out unscathed.

Freedom's headquarters were within sight by now, and they along with the other survivors increased their pace. There were a few guards at the front gate, who laid down mounted machine gun fire to try and give them some cover as they ran. A few of the Monolith soldiers in the woods were cut down by the belt-fed machine guns, and the incoming rounds tapered off, allowing the survivors of the impromptu ambush time to make it into the headquarters.
Freedom's base was made up of a variety of dilapidated one-story and two-story buildings; everyone split up, searching for whatever the nearest building was that would give them cover from the incoming emission. Jaune and his group, for their part, headed for what appeared to be a communications building, which as it turned out, was also Lukash's office, if the one small room filled with a desk and some papers strewn across it were any indication. Like most buildings in the Zone, it was in disrepair, with a large crater blown out of the side of it that faced the bridge they'd had to cross to get there. Still, that didn't concern them; all they needed was a roof over their heads to protect them from the storm.

The four of them hunkered down along with a few other Stalkers who'd made it there alongside them. There was no sign of Lukash or anyone Pyrrha would recognize at first. A thought occurred to her, and she looked around, only to be disappointed when she didn't see her two old friends. Perhaps something had happened to them during her absence, or they'd been killed in the ambush; either way, she had other things to worry about.
The emission finally struck, the thunder and wind outside becoming downright deafening as the storm began to shake the building they were in almost down to its foundation. But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that, somehow, Pyrrha was able to see figures outside braving the storm in order to cross the bridge completely unimpeded.

There were dozens of them, she realized; they took out the men manning the guard post and tower easily enough, then continued into the base itself.

"Monolith on the bridge!" she shouted, leveling her rifle to aim out the crater in the side of the building.

"What?!" another Stalker shouted. "How?! There's an emission-"

"Figures the fanatics would be able to walk through it," another man growled. "There's nothing left of their brains to fry."

Pyrrha took aim at one of the men crossing the bridge, then squeezed her rifle's trigger. The large .308 round in such an enclosed space rattled her eardrums even through her hearing protection, but the shot had the desired effect, and the Monolith member crumpled to the ground, lifeless. Other Stalkers began to follow her lead, putting fire onto the bridge; a few of them ran over to nearby windows in order to get a better vantage point, and one man who was lugging a belt-fed machine gun went prone and deployed his weapon's bipod, then began to let off controlled bursts.

The sudden incoming rounds forced the advancing Monolith members to scatter, some of them jumping off the bridge into the dry canal below in order to escape. Those who didn't have time to get away were instantly cut down, though it wasn't many; the remaining Monolith members began to return fire. Rounds tore gouges into the building's brickwork all around them, a few of them finding their targets in the bodies of a few unfortunate Stalkers. A few men fell to the ground, already dead, while a few more laid on the ground, screaming as they clutched at their wounds.

Seeing the carnage all around her, Ruby slung her rifle and dropped into a low crouch, then began to head for one of the down Stalkers. She grabbed him by his body armor and dragged him back into a different room, then began to bandage his wounds before injecting him with some painkillers.

"Ruby!" Cinder called out. "We need you! What are you doing?!"

"Saving lives!" she called back. The man beneath her stopped screaming as intensely, the morphine already taking effect. He was alive, but out of the fight, not that she cared; Ruby simply moved on to the next wounded man, dragging him back alongside the first and repeating what she'd done, trying desperately to keep as many people alive as she possibly could.

Meanwhile, Cinder, Jaune, and Pyrrha continued to lay down fire onto any Monolith fighters they could see. Jaune's shotgun ran dry, and he finally decided that now was the time to try out the Brenneke slugs he'd just bought.

"Pyrrha, keep me covered!" he shouted, ducking down behind some of the nearby brickwork to reload.

"I've got you!" she called back. "How long do you need?"

"Five more seconds," Jaune said, sliding shells into his weapon. Finally, once he was finished, he popped back up, taking aim at the bridge. To his dismay, the surviving Monolith forces had managed to make their way off the bridge, and were now pushing into one of the nearby buildings. Muffled gunshots filled the air as they began to exchange fire with the occupants of the building; Jaune ground his teeth as he realized, from the sound of the screams filling the air, that the Monolith were winning. His suspicions were confirmed when the survivors began to file out. Jaune counted a double-digit number of Monolith members emerging from the building. Suddenly filled with rage, he ran over to the man on the machine gun and patted him on the shoulder to get his attention, then pointed at the building.

"Hit that position, light those fuckers up!"

The machine gunner didn't need any further directions. He immediately focused his fire on the building, spraying it with hot lead. Monolith forces fell, cut to pieces by machine gun fire as Jaune ran back over to where Pyrrha and Cinder were.

Unfortunately, for as many Monolith as they cut down, more seemed to keep pouring out of the dry canal, and those of them in the building were still taking casualties. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune saw Ruby still working on the fallen Stalkers. Outside, there was one final crack of lightning, the noise of which was completely drowned out by the sound of gunshots; the only sign it had been there at all was the yellow streak across the sky. Rain began to pour through the cracks and holes in the roof, and the redness steadily receded from the sky, indicating the end of the emission.

And just as the emission stopped, the Monolith forces assaulting Freedoms' headquarters began to pull back. Jaune paused and watched them as they started to retreat, disbelief filling his mind.

"What the hell…?" he muttered. "Pyrrha, what's going on?"

He turned towards her, only to find her frozen in place, her eyes widening in fear.

"Everybody get down, now!" she called.

Jaune was stunned. "Pyrrha, what's-"

She tackled him before he could finish speaking, and just in time, too – a streak of blue light came crashing into the wall behind where he'd just been crouched, punching a clean hole straight through the entire building and out to the other side. Jaune stared at it in disbelief for a moment before looking back to Pyrrha, though he never got a chance to ask her about what had just happened before his radio came crackling to life. He was stunned when he heard a woman's monotone voice begin speaking to them all.

"We thank you, oh Monolith, for revealing the cunning plans of your enemies to us. May your light shine down on the souls of the brave soldiers who gave their lives in service to your will. Onward warriors of the Monolith, avenge your fallen brothers, blessed as they are in their eternal union with the Monolith."

Another one of those strange gunshots came streaking out from across the bridge, taking an unfortunate Mercenary's head clean off at his shoulders. Jaune winced as he watched the decapitated body fall to the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"I was wondering when she'd show up…" Pyrrha muttered. "That's a Monolith Preacher. I encountered her a few weeks ago, at the barrier…"

"And that weapon?" Cinder asked. "What is that weapon she's using?"

"It's a Gauss Rifle. It'll pierce through whatever armor we can throw at it, Exoskeletons included."

Another shot rang out, and another man fell to the ground, screaming and clutching at the stump where his left arm used to be attached. Ruby tried to help him, but there was nothing she could do with that amount of blood loss; the unfortunate Loner was gone within seconds.

The rest of the Monolith took that as their cue to begin opening fire again. Rounds impacted against the building all around them, leaving craters in the cement where they struck. Anyone who tried to get up and run away from the oncoming gunfire was picked off by the Preacher and her Gauss Rifle.

They were completely pinned down, with nowhere to go.

"Jaune," Cinder asked, fear creeping into her voice. "Jaune, what do we do?"

"Stay down!" Jaune commanded. "There has to be some kind of way out of this!"

It was the only thing they could do, but that simply made it the best choice in a series of possible bad decisions. There was nowhere they could go – the Preacher would shoot them down if they tried to run, and the entire time, their cover was being torn to shreds by machine gun fire. Jaune wracked his brain, trying to think of some way out of this, but try as he might, he couldn't come up with anything.

Noise from downstairs caught their attention, barely audible over the sounds of battle. Jaune's eyes widened when he realized what it was.

"Monolith on the first floor!" he called out.

Immediately, everyone turned and trained their guns on the nearby stairwell. Muzzle flashes illuminated a few shadows shuffling about downstairs, though there wasn't much time to dwell on it before several grenades were thrown up into the upper levels. Thinking quickly, Jaune grabbed Cinder and rolled out a nearby window, while Pyrrha ducked into an adjoining room. The grenades went off a moment later, showering the area with shards of broken wood, concrete, brick, and chunks of flesh and bone.

Jaune hit the ground hard, landing on his ribs in an awkward enough position that the wind was driven from his lungs. He didn't have any time to recover before Cinder forced him onto his feet and ushered him around the corner of the building, just as the Monolith began to open up on their position. Jaune winced when he felt several rounds strike him in the lower leg, penetrating through his armor and tearing chunks out of his flesh. He nearly fell to the ground as a bullet shattered his leg, but Cinder forced him to keep moving around the corner.

Jaune collapsed just as he made it there, leaning up against a nearby building as he gasped for breath, tears of agony stinging at the corners of his eyes. The Artifacts on his hip were already putting in work, dulling his pain and healing his wounds, but it would be some time before he was able to even limp again, at least a few minutes. Meanwhile, he exchanged a glance with Cinder, and as their eyes met, he saw something in hers he'd never seen before.

Grim acceptance.

"Cinder…" he managed to gasp out through his pain. "What are you doing…?"

"Ending this," she told him. She blinked, and when her eyes opened again, they were ablaze.

Jaune stared at her in disbelief before shaking his head. "You can't-"

She suddenly lunged forwards, pressing her lips against his. It was a brief kiss, only lasting a few seconds at most, but she poured all of her emotions into it – all of her frustration, and pain… but most of all, all of her love. And when the two of them pulled away, Jaune could see on her face that she'd made her choice already.

Tears stung at his eyes once more, and he slowly shook his head. "Don't do this," he begged. "Please."

"I'm sorry," she told him, standing up straight as she hefted her Kalashnikov. "I have to do this. For you, and for them."

"There must be another way. We can regroup with Ruby and Pyrrha, and-"

"You know that's not possible, Jaune. Either I do this now or we all die." She looked down at him again, her eyes narrowing. "You've told me for weeks now that I'm not the person I used to be anymore. The time has come for me to finally prove that to you. Don't deny me this."

"You can't, damn it!" he said through gritted teeth, the tears starting to spill down his cheeks. "Not like this!"

"I'm sorry, but it must be done." She stared at him one final time, her eyes misting over. "Thank you, Jaune… for everything."

She turned and began to walk off. Jaune, for his part, tried to force himself onto his feet, only for his injured leg to collapse on itself, bringing him crashing to the ground.

He could do nothing but watch, pure emotion falling from his eyes, as Cinder moved away, steadily marching to her death.

It was a strange feeling, knowing she was about to die. Cinder had always figured it would be by someone else's hand, whether that person was Salem or some intrepid young Huntsman or Huntress who finally caught up to her and managed to best her during her pursuit of power.

Power… it was so funny to think about. She'd spent all of her adult life in pursuit of the Maiden powers so she might use them to free herself, and now that she finally had a chunk of them, she was about to lose them by protecting others. There was a decision to make there, she knew, but it wasn't a hard one; Cinder closed her eyes and did her best to picture Pyrrha's face. It was ironic to her, but also fitting at the same time; after all, Ozpin had chosen Pyrrha, and technically, these powers were rightfully hers. It was only just that they returned to her in the end.

That thought wasn't even enough to give Cinder pause. She already knew she was going to die. All this power, only to lose it to a wave of gunfire… it was almost poetic; nature and the divine once again bested by the dark ingenuity of man and his technology. At one point, she would have found it unacceptable, dying this way. Now, though?
Now, there wasn't a single part of her that was protesting this decision.

For the first time in her life, Cinder Fall was willing to give everything she had so that others may live. And there wasn't a doubt in her mind about what she was doing.

"It's worth it," she muttered under her breath as she stepped out around the corner of the building. "For the others… for Jaune."

As she stepped into the line of fire, she opened her eyes once more. They blazed for just a moment before the light poured out of them, enveloping her in a wave of pure flame. The bright light washed over the entire battlefield; in that moment, the Monolith opened up on her with everything they had. Machine gun and Gauss Rifle rounds came flying at her from the darkness, but the sheer heat of the light that had enveloped her melted the bullets as they flew through the air, and none of them made impact with her. This kind of energy output was unsustainable, she knew, but it was necessary.

Even though it would kill her in the end.

Cinder looked up at the sky, taking note of the torrent of rain drops as they fell. The sheer heat radiating off of her reduced the water to steam as it approached, forming a corona around her. With a flick of her hand, suddenly, the rain came to a dead stop.

And when she flicked her hand once more, it came back not as rain, but as jagged shards of pointed ice that fell from the sky like so many razor-sharp needles.
Cinder watched as the ice tore into the lineup of Monolith gathered out towards the bridge and in the dry canal. Several of them stiffened as icicles immediately bored through even their ballistic-rated helmets and into their brains, killing them instantly. Some Monolith had the sense to run for cover, and they were the ones who were spared immediate death.

Cinder got to them with bolts of lightning loosed from her hands, reducing them to little more than charred bodies.

With the way immediately forward of her cleared, she began to march onward. Men continued to try and take shots at her from the shadows, and for every one that tried, another bolt of lightning flew from her fingertips. And despite it all, a manic grin crossed her face as it had before, but this time it was devoid of the kind of sadistic pleasure she'd once had. There was still pleasure there, but for a different reason.
Her friends were going to survive. Even if it cost her own life, she'd make sure of that.

More bullets came whizzing towards her, but they suffered the same fate as the rest, being reduced to slag before they got within a few inches of her. Cinder continued to stride through the battlefield, summoning everything she could muster as she went. Lightning and bolts of fire streaked through the night, incinerating anyone they touched; gale-force winds flayed Monolith soldiers alive, rending their clothes and armor from their flesh and then their flesh from their bones within mere seconds; mounds of sharped earth rose up from the ground, impaling anyone unfortunate enough to be standing above them as they did. The power flowing through her veins was exhilarating, she had to admit.

Even as she doubled over and began to cough up blood.

Salem had never told her about the downsides to the Maiden powers, but it wasn't hard to imagine what they were. Power always came with a price attached, and in the absence of her Aura to fuel it, it had to be fueled by something else.

Truthfully, she'd always suspected that pushing the powers far enough would enact a heavy toll on her body. But now, she'd accepted those consequences.
Now, it was time to see just what the powers could do for her before they finally claimed her life.

Cinder stepped up to the bridge and looked around. There was no sign of the Preacher anywhere, but there was a squad of Monolith moving through the shadows; a few streaks of lightning lit them up for a moment before all four fell to the ground, burned beyond recognition. A wave of agony radiated through Cinder's entire body, and she doubled over, resisting the urge to vomit then and there. Instead, she went to stand up tall, only for her legs to collapse out from under her, bringing her to her knees as the corona around her began to flicker, letting a few stray raindrops through.

"Come on…" she muttered to herself through gritted teeth. "Just a little more… Please…"

She forced herself up, her entire body quaking with tremors as she continued to move forwards. Cinder forced her way across the bridge, limping with every step. The fire that had once burned so fiercely around her had now been reduced to a shell of its former self, the waves of light and heat it gave off now reaching to about halfway across the bridge. But Cinder was unperturbed, even as she spotted more Monolith moving through the trees just outside of Freedom's headquarters.

She flicked her wrist, and a giant bolt of lightning struck the treeline, instantly setting it ablaze. Men cried out in panicked Russian, their cover suddenly blown, and Cinder wasted no time in sending more ice and wind after anyone who was still up. Her vision blurred, and she wasn't able to see the aftermath of what she'd conjured, but the pained screams told her everything she needed to know.

Her legs collapsed out from under her yet again, and she fell to the dirt below. Rain poured down on her, soaking her to the bone. Cinder coughed yet again, spraying blood across the ground beneath her. Just across from her, someone moved, and Cinder lifted her head up just enough to see who it was.

"Why have you left us, oh Monolith?"

She grit her teeth as the Preacher approached, her Gauss Rifle having been discarded and a pistol held in her hands instead. Cinder raised a shaking hand towards her, trying desperately to call upon the Maiden powers again, but all that happened was another coughing fit and spray of blood. The Preacher continued to step over to her, eventually drawing close enough that she was able to press the barrel of her handgun flush with Cinder's head.

And despite everything, Cinder couldn't help but grin as she looked up at her killer.

"See you in hell," she said.

The Preacher said nothing in response, her finger curling around her handgun's trigger. A shot broke through the night and the rain, and to Cinder's amazement, the Preacher's head lurched backwards, the right side part of her armored gas mask being torn off in the process. Cinder took her chance; with the last of her strength, she lunged, tackling the Preacher. They both fell end-over-end, fighting for control over the pistol. Eventually, Cinder came out on top; she was able to knock the Preacher's handgun away and draw her own, leveling the barrel of her HK45 at the exposed part of the Preacher's face.

She paused in sheer shock when she found a single silver eye staring back at her.

And then, as if she needed more confirmation, through the night, she heard Ruby call out.

"Mother?!"

I must say, it was very interesting seeing the earlier comments about who the Preacher was. A few of you guessed it correctly, but seeing everyone else's guesses was thoroughly entertaining.

Also, regarding Cinder's Maiden powers - I obviously had to take some artistic liberties with them here, as IIRC it was never really clearly defined what they could actually do or what power source they were actually fueled by. I assume they're fueled by Aura, the same as a Semblance, but I wanted to make them different as well rather than just having them be a second Semblance, and I figured letting them be cast from hit points as well was as good a compromise as any.

That aside, I don't have too much in the way of updates for you guys at the moment. Ickbard and I are still just chipping away at everything. Mostly originals, because at this point we have a financial obligation to make progress on those first. Not that we're getting paid a bunch of money, but still, the way I see it, if people are paying me to read my work, I need to be responsible and cater to them first.

Speaking of which, I would recommend popping over to my "P""Atreon" if you aren't already a member. You can sub to my free tier if you do, which is what I use to alert people that I've updated a fanfic, because FFN's alert system is very dogshit and shows no signs of ever improving, much like the rest of this site. Sad thing is that this is still somehow the best fanfic site out there. No wonder FFN's lunch is being eaten by sites like Royal Road.

Anyway, past that, I've got nothing else for you guys. I'm gonna try to get the next chapter of this out sooner rather than later, but we'll see what happens. Fan fictions have always been something I do for fun more than anything; I'd like to finish these three (Black Sun, Seeing Red, and Auras and Alibis) someday, but obviously, originals take precedence. As for that other fanfics… eh. They're probably dead at this point, TBH. I just can't juggle that many fanfics in addition to the originals. Sad as it is to say, I do not have Coeur's work ethic, at least not yet. Plus I have other obligations that eat up a lot of time I would otherwise spend writing.

But yeah, that's about where I'm at with things. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I'll see you next time!

I have recently launched two new original web serials, Ballistic Coefficient and The Vampire's Apprentice. Both can be read at the following links; if you're a fan of mine, I'd really appreciate it if you would check them out. Both are on r/HFY, Spacebattles, and Royal Road under the same name I use for FFN, or if you'd prefer a direct link to them, that can be found here (remove the spaces):

ww w . royalroad fiction / 84568 / ballistic-coefficient

ww w . royalroad fiction / 84566 / the-vampires-apprentice

In addition, I have also launched a "P" "Atr eon" for these stories, which can be found at the link below. If you want to support me and also get a little something in exchange for your money, ten bucks a month will get you twelve additional chapters for both of these original stories - that's 24 chapters total, or 6 weeks of additional content each for these stories. That link can be found here (again, remove the spaces):

ww w. p atr eon user / posts?u=112496374

Thanks so much, and I hope you enjoy the stories!