"Keep taking shots of the Atlesian soldiers and the Grimm…Let the world see how much they failed Vale…" Cinder stated to Mercury who recorded as they stood on the rooftop and watched the carnage unfold.
Emerald simply watched everything unfold, with all the carnage that the Grimm brought and Atlas's team of robots barely holding back the incoming threat was enough to make her feel sad for them. "It's almost sad…."
"Absolutely…It's horrific to watch, which is why it works as well as it does." Cinder mentioned as she looked to the Dragon flying overhead. "The only part I regret is that I can't bring that Demon boy over to Salem…He's probably too far gone to even recognise that the girl who he got close to was working against him."
Emerald couldn't help but grip onto her arm as she realised that once Jae realises their play in all of this or more specifically her's; That he would either never forgive her for what she had put them all through, or that if he didn't find out then there would be no way that she could ever hope to ask him about her feelings without feeling that white hot guilt burning at her soul. "What do we do now?" She asked Cinder as she watched the skies.
"Your tasks are done, go meet up at the airship and we'll make our way out….I still have one last thing to accomplish." Cinder mentioned as that burning hunger seared at her body when her half of the Maiden powers could feel how close it's other half was, "Who knows? I could run into our friend and see if I can convince him to join us."
——Meanwhile at the literal Ground Zero of Vale——
With Grimm flooding the streets of Vale; Everyone hailing from Vale to Vacuo were all fighting together to help fight back against the Grimm and now the weakening forces of Ironwood's rogue army of robots.
One such robot that continued it's assault was then hit by several spiral bladed throwing knives before collapsing. "They're going down! We've got our chance back!" Jae called out as he readied another knife.
These oddly spiraled kunai knives shared the same colour scheme as the other Grimm weapons in his arsenal however this one seemed distinct due to it's heritage in a unicorn themed Grimm; It had a black handle and a white blade that was tinted red at the edges of the blade. "Welcome to the team, Amdusias." He smirked a little as he saw Pyrrha joining him to watch his back.
"We shouldn't rest easy yet, there are still more Grimm around here that need to b-" Pyrrha explained but she was interrupted by the sound of a loud roar as a lumbering giant of a man wandered up to the group, wearing a torn and tattered White Fang Uniform that looked partly burned and worn away from abuse. "Taken…Care of…"
"No…Fucking…Way…." Jae muttered to himself; "Tiny?!" He asked aloud when he saw the Goliath's mask stretched across his face, though on further inspection looked as though Tiny had seen better days since his uniform was tattered to pieces and one of the tusks of his Grimm faceplate had broken off. "How in the hell did you survive?!"
"NAME NOT TINY!" The previously thought dead White Fang Member that nearly crushed Jae several times with a hammer had shown up once more. "NAME RAJAHN BABAR!"
"Nah, too long…I'll stick with Tiny…" Jae snarked as he saw the man getting more visibly angry now that the Recessive Demon was in front of him again.
"You know him?" Nora asked as she saw the trunk swaying back and forth like an angry cat's tail.
"Remember that fight on the train that I managed to run into Team RWBY on?" Jae asked as she nodded; "He nearly crushed my head in with a hammer."
"RAJAHN NO HAVE HAMMER, THANKS TO YOU!" Tiny bellowed as he held up a large broken stick, but on closer looking; it appeared that it used to be the shaft of a powerful looking hammer but the head had broken off; "THANKS TO DEMON, RAJAHN HAMMER GOT BROKE IN FIGHT WITH GRIMM!"
"You guys take care of the other Grimm, I'll take him on." Jae mentioned as he rolled his shoulder and retracted his knives to summon up Seiryu. "We're in open space now, even playing field, Tiny!"
"AM. NOT. TINY! AM RAJAHN!" Tiny screamed at Jae before charging at him with his one good tusk and swinging his broken hammer like a club.
Jae sidestepped the lump and gripped his trident tight; "Swordmaster!" He yelled out before starting to twirl his weapon over his head faster and faster, causing a gust of wind to start rising upward.
Tiny snorted; "Weakling kick up wind? Rajahn too heavy for you!" He laughed boisterously and activated his own Semblance Heavyweight to weigh himself down to the ground.
"For now, but don't forget that winds get stronger over time…A small breeze can often herald a typhoon!" Jae grinned as he spun the trident faster, making a powerful wind tunnel under Tiny and slowly lifting him up in the air.
"Wh…NO! RAJAHN TOO HEAVY TO LIFT!" Tiny kept protesting and denying even though he was too far up in the air to get back down.
"If I were you, I'd turn off your Semblance…." Jae mentioned as he then swung his Trident upwards to make a jet of air propel Tiny further upwards before summoning up Amduscias. "Oh and one last thing, Tiny….Enjoy your rainfall!" He then began to throw knife after knife into the air as Tiny began to fall faster and faster into the ground…With the literal rain of knives following after to pin him to the ground.
"It doesn't matter how many times I see it, it still shocks me to see him work as well as he does with a new weapon…" Pyrrha thought in awe as her man quickly dispatched someone who would have normally been pushed back by a whole team; "Then again…That's a Demon fighting a Demon for you…" She said to herself but quickly found her attention diverted when she saw Ozpin watching them both with a grave stare like he knew something was due to happen and as far as Pyrrha was thinking; She needed to give him his answer sooner than she'd think and then decided to rush off to meet with him.
"Pyrrha…H-Hey, Pyrrha! Where are you going?" Jae called after her as he saw Ozpin too and figured out that something was wrong if Ozpin was outside of his office.
"What's going on? Where's she going off to?" Nora asked as she was concerned about Pyrrha running off on her own.
"I don't know…You guys stay here and help, I'll find out." Jae ordered them as he sprinted off after Pyrrha though was surprised that he was waiting for them both.
"Both of you come with me, there's something we need to decide." Ozpin spoke seriously and headed inside for the elevator.
"Yes sir…" Jae and Pyrrha both answered though looked at each other in confusion as they headed down, down into the depths of the school and ran out into the Vault.
"What are we doing down here? Professor Ozpin, we still have Grimm to fight, we don't have time t-"
"You are to follow me, Mr. Cielo…I apologise if I cannot explain right now but as you can understand, we do not have the time." Ozpin explained yet didn't explain anything at all.
Jae grimaced a little at the vague and evasive answer but he knew that Ozpin was right on that as they headed further in. Though he was starting to feeling a pain surging through his right arm like his muscles there were starting to clench and unclench with the help of metal tweezers. "Gh! Not now!"
Pyrrha was about to ask Jae if something was wrong but a sudden click and a hiss made her look away.
"Pyrrha, get to the pod." Ozpin ordered as he headed over to the console and began typing before looking to Jae. "Mr. Cielo, if you intend to stay in here than I suggest you stand guard…."
"On it…" Jae accepted and summoned up Fenrir as his focus for defense and faced the opening doorway that they came in from.
"W-What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked Ozpin as she placed a hand on the edge of the opened pod.
The Headmaster let a long and weary sigh spill out; "WE. Do nothing…But at this moment, Pyrrha Nikos…I believe you have a choice to make."
Pyrrha felt her blood freeze when she realised that she had been right in worrying. She eyed the pod and to Amber before turning her gaze to Jae's back. "Jae…I'm so sorry, I only hope that when I emerge from here…I will remember you and you remember me…" She thought with a melancholy wipe of her budding tears and climbed in.
"Kid…Something's wrong…"
"I know…The Grimm attacked and we're stuck back down here in the vault with tha-"
"FIND ME….YOU MUST PROVE YOUR WORTH, DEMON…."
"That…Whatever that is…"
"Look, kid…I don't even know if what'll happen if you grab that sword'll be a good thing…And who knows what'll happen, you know the stories! Some say you can kill Demons with it, some say that it judges your heritage and what you are! And in the rarest of rare…AND I MEAN one in a millionth of a chance; You could awaken power that could rival any Huntsman in Vale….But it could also mean tha-"
"That if I touch it and it thinks I'm not worthy, it'll kill me…I know…Either I get stronger or I die because of a cursed sword, either way someone wins…."
"Aren't you worried at all?! About potentially becoming a Grimm? They were called Demons for a reason!"
"I have thought about that…That if I grab that sword…The last time that I nearly did, I hesitated because I had this gut feeling that if I did…I'd lose something…Something important to me that no one else will ever believe in…" Jae mentally agreed as he kept his focus purely on the task at hand.
"Your own Humanity? No one else ever believed you were ever anything but a Demon…But right now you have people that believe in you! Nora, Pyrrha and Ren…Team RWBY, all those friends at your school and you could run the risk of forgetting them entirely?"
Another voice however came in, one that had long since sat dormant in his mind since he underwent the training. "Why? Why do you constantly refuse to gain more power? The Power of your genetic forefather Sparda…Without those attachments or your desires to protect them, you could become a Demon more powerful than any Grimm or warrior could ever hope to fight!"
Jae was flabbergasted as he tried to focus; "Get out of my head! And you know why I refuse…Because I'll NEVER turn my back on everyone who's even shown me a shred of kindness…Least of all, the girls!"
The Other Voice's hoarse and barking laughter echoed in the back of Jae's mind and scratched at his brain. "Foolishness…Sheer Foolishness. You've seen it time and time again! Might controls everything, whether it's that Human who tried to kill you when you were a child or those above you trying to exert authority over your powers for their own benefits! And without gaining more power you can not protect anything. Let alone yourself."
Jae turned his head briefly when he heard Pyrrha screaming out in pain and rushed over; He saw her glowing in a Fall colour and she was writhing around on the inside of the pod that she had been put in. "PYRRHA!"
While Jae was trying to fight himself from going over to her since he was trying to protect both Ozpin and unknowingly the Fall Maiden, That other voice crawled back into his head and drilled it's influence into his mind. "You have your chance…Find me…And fulfil your destiny as a potential new Demon…"
However no one could answer or get any further as a black glass tinted arrow silently whipped past Jae's head as he felt the sharp pain of this voice's attempt to pull him away, piercing the protective glass and hit Amber in the heart; Interrupting the process of transferring the Maiden power to Pyrrha and drawing it's half towards it's other.
"So…This is where you've been hiding the Maiden all this time~" Cinder sneered as she lowered her bow and saw not just Ozpin down there but Pyrrha Nikos trapped in the pod and her other quarry. "And you~"
"You…You're the one who started all of this…Didn't you?" Ozpin asked as he saw Cinder's intentionally cruel smile towards them, he tried to question her further but she didn't seem focused on him as much.
"Don't take it so personally, Ozpin…I merely wanted you to have your fullest attention on me, I have no reason to hurt anyone else…In fact, I want to offer your student an olive branch…A place that would fit him better than here." Cinder sneered as Pyrrha banged on the glass and Jae gripped his sword tighter.
"Mr. Cielo, don't listen to her…What she offers benefits no one but herself." Ozpin warned Jae as he stepped forward to get between Cinder and the two children.
"Now now, don't go making decisions on his behalf~ I'm sure our young friend here can be allowed to choose his own path….That's why you stored that Relic down here after all." Cinder taunted Ozpin and then started to make rings of fire form around her as she started to manifest the Maiden Powers.
"If what you've said is true…Then you're the one who had a part in what happened to Penny…" Jae pieced it together as he kept a cold glare on Cinder who merely waved her hand to the side, causing a flame to snuff out.
"I only had a small part in it…Giving you a small push was all we had to do, though I must say that seeing you do what you did was truly something to behold…I like that kind of ferocity in a man~" Cinder taunted him further and then flicked her hand to the side so she could deflect Jae's sword swing when he sprinted at her.
"I'll stop this here and now!" Jae yelled at her as he pushed her back with the flat of his blade and pointed his sword at her, "But right now, I'm trying my best to make sure you can stand to pay for what you've done!"
"STAY BACK!" Ozpin yelled to Jae as he knew that even a Demon like Jae was no match for a Maiden. "I need to get these two out of here…If she's after the Relic too than I can't afford to play it safe…And that means that I can't afford to have them in the way…"
Jae was swinging fiercely but he managed to focus his training so that each swing of his sword carried the full strength of the anger he felt towards her, even though he subconsciously thought that he couldn't do much if she was the one behind all of this. "I'll be damned if I let her make me run!"
Cinder was blocked and deflecting his attacks with her bare arms since she figured that the Maiden's powers substantially grew in strength now she had the whole. "I can certainly feel his sword sting….He's a lot stronger than Emerald or watching him gave credit for…" She thought as she aimed her palm at him and blasted a fireball at him.
Jae was at a range too close to dodge but he was still fast enough to shift into Doppelganger Style, phasing out of his double's back like stepping out of a screen door to let it take the hit before rushing in with Grendel summoned to layer punch after punch on Cinder.
"Creative too…Looks like that double of his is good for more than party tricks…But I think it's time I stop playing around." Cinder mused as she decided to up the intensity of her fire while throwing her projectiles to take him a little more seriously.
Ozpin was watching with confusion and the faintest glimmer of optimism when he saw Jae fighting against Cinder and pushing her back, thinking that he had the upper hand but then felt his stomach knot when he saw Cinder's smirk grow and her fire's glow intensify. "She's just playing around with him….I need to step in, now!"
"I'm winning…I think I can do this!" Jae optimistically thought as he pushed onward and with the energy gauge on Grendel half full; He thrust both arms forward and the blast from his hands was able to knock Cinder back through the Vault wall.
"Mr. Cielo, I need you two to get out of here, now! She is too dangerous to take on alone…" Ozpin warned Jae as he saw the boy starting to tire out, he could see that just knocking her back like that took a lot of energy.
"I…I can do this! You said that I could help you with saving the world, so let me!" Jae rebuked with stubbornness as he then diverted his gaze from the hole.
"This is something much stronger than you are now! You both need to leave!" Ozpin argued but then saw a spark in the back of that hole and he further urged Jae to leave.
"I told you, I. Can. He-GAH!" Jae further argued his point but while his back was turned, he felt Cinder slamming into his back and knocking him flying backwards toward the transfer machine where Pyrrha finally managed to break out.
"JAE!" Pyrrha cried out as she knelt at his side to look him over since he was short of breath. "I-It's okay, we'll get you to your feet and…." Her moment to try supporting him was caught in her throat when she saw something that would make anyone shrink back in horror; Jae's side was now bleeding bad and he had a sword that was sticking through his side and up towards his ribs like someone shanked him.
Cinder didn't re-emerge out of that hole unarmed and that smirk on her face showed that she wholly intended to do what she had done. "So…How does it feel? Knowing that your student is now rolling the dice with his life?" She asked coyly as the broken remains of the shattered Rebellion's pedestal showed in the light behind her.
"You…Do you have any idea what you have done?! What could happen to him?!" Ozpin yelled at her with a brief moment of anger; The jumble of stories regarding the Rebellion were numerous but one of the biggest ones that was passed down stuck in his head for a reason.
"Of course I do…But I know that the odds against him are more fun to imagine for me to watch…Then it will be for you to accept~" Cinder taunted Ozpin as she walked towards the group with a superior smirk now that she had one more target down. "It's a shame though…I was legitimately starting to like him~"
"Pyrrha…Take Jae and get out of here…Find Glynda, Qrow! Anyone you can find and bring them here as fast as you can! The tower absolutely cannot fall!"
"I…I can still…Help…" Jae croaked as he tried getting to his feet but he quickly fell backward again as Pyrrha tried to hold on to him. Though as he tried to struggle and fight back, the sword fell apart into dust and practically vanished in front of Pyrrha's eyes, leaving the deep looking scar on his side remaining.
"You two will only get in the way…" Ozpin admitted grimly; "Jae…For what it was worth, you've put up an amazing fight against her…"
Pyrrha wasn't sure where she found the strength but she lifted Jae and carried him by holding him up by his shoulder to escape from Cinder who oddly enough didn't seem to care.
Once they were alone, Ozpin's expression changed to one of anger. "You've condemned a boy to a death that he didn't deserve…." He growled and held his cane like a sword.
"She wasn't wrong about your arrogance…You claim that I condemned him when you were about to put that sword in his hand in the first place…Quite the hypocrite Ozpin, so the question remains; Will the sword poison him when he's deemed unworthy? Or will he burn from the inside out like the stories say?" Cinder retorted with a less than happy look on her face, the two were done talking and their own skirmish was underway.
——Moments later——
Pyrrha was fighting back her tears as she helped Jae out of the elevator; He had regained his consciousness but he was still too weak to fight on his own.
"I…I think I still have Glynda's number." Jae mentioned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll to start looking for the teacher's icon. "Pyrrha…What was all of that earlier?"
"I…"
The ground shook violently and an orange light shot through the elevator that they came in from; Cinder had emerged victorious which only meant one thing…
"Ozpin..." Jae mumbled to himself as he then felt a sudden burning in his side and it quickly spread throughout his body. "GAAAAAH-AAAAAAAH!" He screamed out in pain as he doubled over and slumped against a wall, clutching at his wound.
Pyrrha covered her mouth in shock but she knew that this wasn't safe anymore. "There's no time…Jae, go! Get to Vale and get whatever help you can!" She pleaded to him as he steadied himself.
"Py-Pyrrha…I'm okay…I can help." Jae protested as he got to his feet though he stumbled as the energy was sucked out of him; "Besides, what are YOU going to d-" Jae asked her but then froze when he saw her staring resolutely at the tower where Cinder escalated from. "No….No, Pyrrha. You can't! You've seen how powerful she was against when I tried and Ozpin…"
Pyrrha looked to him and walked over. "Jae…"
"Pyrrha, I'm not going to let you do thi-" He felt her pressing her lips against his and for the briefest of moments; He couldn't feel any pain or grief when he weakly pulled her in closer. "Pyrrha…Please…Don't do this…" He quietly begged her as they broke the kiss.
Pyrrha hesitated while staring into his eyes; Her hand rested on his chest and with one final stroke of her hand on his cheek, she said those two words that would forever etch themselves into his mind. "I'm sorry…" She said softly and sadly before using her Semblance to push the weakened Jae into the nearby locker and set the coordinates for the further part of Vale.
"Pyrhha! PYRRHA, DON'T DO THIS!" Jae yelled at her from inside the locker as he tried and tried to get out but these lockers were made for long distances and sturdy enough that a Goliath could step on it without being damaged. "PYRRHA PLEASE!" He screamed out as he felt the rumble of the engine taking him off of the ground while he pounded and hollered inside of the locker.
"Please! Please! Give me the strength to get out…I've been strong, I'VE ALWAYS BEEN STRONG! I CAN'T BREAK MY PROMISE, SO LET ME HELP HER…I CAN'T LET THE WOMAN I LOVE DIE WHILE I CAN STILL GET UP!"
The locker then crashed into an empty part of Vale and Jae fell out into the street; "Come on…Give me some signal!" He frantically searched his Scroll and picked the first number he could.
——Meanwhile——
Weiss was running their way back to Beacon with Ruby to go find Jae and Pyrrha since they hadn't shown up, they stopped to catch their breath when she felt her Scroll buzz and she felt relief at seeing Jae's name pop up. "It's Jae!" She called out to Ruby who ran over to her; "Jae, where are you?!"
"Weiss! You need to get to the Tower and stop Pyrrha now!" Jae said frantically into the speaker, he was fighting against Beowolves and Creeps with his sabre and the new shotgun since he had been unable to summon any of his Grimm weapons at all since Cinder stabbed him. "She's gone after that woman at the top of the tower, she doesn't stand a chance without the rest of us!"
"Stop her? What are you talking about?! Just tell us where you are! Ruby and I are looking for you two." Weiss tried to get more details from him since the Grimm were overtaking the city in numbers.
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" Jae screamed into the Scroll and felt his body collapse against a toppled over wall. "Please…Weiss…You have to help me save Pyrrha…." He begged Weiss in a broken voice as he realised that he couldn't do anything right now.
Weiss felt her heart ache at hearing him like this but she knew that they could still do something about it; "We will, are you okay though?" She asked him but flinched when she heard a scream and then the call cut off.
Jae had broken down and thrown the Scroll to the ground; "Please…"
"I've finally found you…." A boy's voice said as Jae looked up and saw someone watching him in the distance; Standing in front of Jae was a boy around his height with his voice being muffled by a white and bronze-lined helmet, he was wearing a modified pure white chest plate covering his upper abdomen trimmed with bronze lining and similarly colored bracers. Additionally, he wore black gloves with bronze-colored metal armor plates over his fingers along with dark brown laced boots and a single brown belt with a pouch worn around his waist.
"Who…Are you?" Jae asked as he looked up at the blonde boy who reached for the hilt of his sword and drew it, once he realised that this guy was not friendly; He tried to summon Erymanthos for the sword and shield but his mark fizzled with no effect. "What…What's going on?!"
"I am Jaune Arc, Son of Ferrus Arc and Great-Great Grandson of Gildo Arc!" Jaune introduced himself as he summoned up his shield to show off Crocea Mors. "I am one of the few remaining that are sanctified to fight and hunt your kind! I am a Demon Hunter and I saw your horrendous display on the broadcast…You are by far one of the most heinous and violent that I have seen for dismembering that girl!"
"That…That wasn't my fault! I was driven to do it!" Jae protested as he watched Jaune rush him and swung out at him. "Listen to me! I'm not your enemy, there are people here in Beacon who are hellbent on causing this chaos and I'm not one of them!"
Jaune then slammed his shield into Jae's chest to knock him to the ground; "I know better than to listen to your filthy lies, Demon! Because you chose to expose yourself here, The Grimm showed themselves too like the stories say! This. Ends. Now…And I will be the one to put an end to you!" Jaune declared as he brought his sword up to swing down on Jae's head.
Jae caught the sword mid-swing with his own sword Titan Fang and pushed off. "You've chosen the wrong time to make a fight out of this….Move…There's people I need to help…." He warned as he readied himself to fight once more even though he could feel the pain trickling throughout his body.
As Jae summoned up whatever Aura that he could to make a temporary shield for his fight, something seemed wrong; His Aura appeared as colourless or grey when he fought the others in the tournament or before what happened today.
This time however when he summoned his Aura; It was a dark purple colour.