The Light in the Midst of the Tunnel (New)
The Light in the Midst of the Tunnel
The others arrived, first Blake, Applejack, and Winona, then Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby, all of them pursued by the bullets of the White Fang but not, crucially, by the White Fang themselves, who seemed to content themselves with firing shots which went wide as often as not as the huntsmen made it to the engine’s cabin at the front of the train.
“They’re not following?” Sunset asked as Pyrrha dropped down from off the roof of the last railway car, her red hair trailing behind her, bullets flying over her head as she landed gracefully upon the metal plate.
“It would seem not,” Pyrrha replied. “It appears we have taught them to be wary of getting too close.” Her slender brows furrowed. “I’m concerned with that explosion that we saw and heard. Sunset, did-?”
“That was the mine, yes,” Sunset admitted, the words coming quickly out of her mouth. “The mine… the mine exploded.” She licked her lips. “Cinder… detonated it remotely.”
“We probably should have seen that coming,” Rainbow muttered.
Ruby gasped, and even though it wasn’t directed at her, nevertheless, the shock and disbelief in her silver eyes sent daggers through Sunset’s heart. “But… but that means… that means that Vale-”
“Vale ain’t dead yet,” Applejack said. “It’s an angry mule’s kick, Ah’ll give ya that, but Vale ain’t done yet, any more than we are. Remember: thanks to y’all, the General knows all about the little scheme the White Fang were cookin’ up down here. So long as Twilight was able to warn them in time, there’ll be a nice little reception waitin’ on the other side of that breach.”
“A reception for the White Fang,” Blake pointed out. “Not for a horde of grimm.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rainbow said. “They’ll die in the fire all the same.”
“But was that all that we did?” Pyrrha asked. “If Cinder could have simply detonated the mine at any time… perhaps we ought to have seen it coming, perhaps it was foolish to think that by stopping the train we could also stop the explosion, but in that case, what did we board the train for? What have we done? If the warning was all that we have accomplished-”
“So far,” Sunset said, cutting Pyrrha off before she could talk herself further down a hole deeper and darker than that in which they were presently immersed. “It might be all that we’ve done so far, but the plan remains the same: we stop the train, use it to block the tunnel, and then get out the hole that Cinder so obligingly blasted for us.”
A moment of silence greeted her pronouncement, broken by Jaune saying, “You want to go out through the breach?”
“Why not?” Sunset asked. “We’ll be in Vale, we won’t need anyone to come and rescue us, and if the train isn’t enough to hold the grimm, we’ll be in a position to join the defence.”
It was… even saying that it was the least she could do felt inadequate in the face of what she had already done, but nevertheless, it was the least she could do. She had put Vale in danger, that was true, but as Applejack had said so wisely, Vale wasn’t done yet. Vale had been breached, but Vale had not yet fallen; if Twilight’s warning had reached the appropriate authorities, and if they had acted upon Twilight’s warning, then it was equally possible that nobody in Vale had yet died as a result of Sunset’s action.
It was yet possible that nobody would die as a result of Sunset’s actions. If the warning had reached Vale in time, if precautions had been taken, if the Atlesians were as good as they always said they were, if Sunset and her teammates assisted in the defence, it was possible – perhaps even likely – that nobody might die as a result of what she had done.
It was possible, perhaps even likely, that Sunset might win the game. She might yet be able to snap her fingers at the dead of Mountain Glenn and all their ominous prophecies, she might yet be able to scoff at Professor Ozpin and his talk of the necessity of sacrifice, she might yet be able to make good all her boasting and have all things as she desired and reject utterly the need to sacrifice anything, let alone everything.
It was possible, perhaps even likely, that Sunset would have no cause to regret this in the days ahead, no cause at all.
“Besides,” she added, “while she was gloating about detonating the mine-”
“You spoke to her?” Pyrrha asked.
“Yes,” Sunset acknowledged. “She told me that she’d sealed off the emergency exits we were going to use.”
“And you believe her?” asked Blake. “If she’s lying or mistaken, then we lead some of the grimm away from Vale, like I did in the Emerald Forest; if there’s a chance-”
“I think Sunset’s right,” Jaune interrupted her. “Even if – and I hope to God it happened – Twilight was able to warn Vale of what was coming, everyone who saw that explosion is going to panic, and that panic is going to draw the grimm a whole lot more than anything the seven of us might feel.”
Pyrrha nodded. “That being the case, our duty is to assist in the defence of Vale however we can, not to squat amidst the ruins of Mountain Glenn or the wilds beyond, waiting for an airship to be diverted from the crisis to assist us.”
“It was our job to stop this from happening,” Ruby said. “We failed.”
“We haven’t-” Sunset began.
“We failed,” Ruby insisted. “We came to Mountain Glenn to stop whatever Cinder was planning. Instead, she’s done it all in spite of us; we haven’t stopped anything.”
Sunset glanced at Rainbow Dash, profoundly grateful for the other girl’s silence, even more than for her understanding. She could have stood it if Rainbow had hated her for what she’d done; she preferred it otherwise, but she was used to Rainbow Dash hating her, and for less reason than she’d given her just now. But Ruby… if Ruby knew what she had done, there would be no understanding. No understanding and no forgiveness.
If Ruby knew what she had done… best not think about that. If everything went right, if Sunset won all, then she wouldn’t need to think about it, ever again.
And if everything did not go right…
Six lives will justify my works.
Wherefore should they die so that faceless men in Vale unknown to me should live?
Wherefore should I price other lives as dear as those who are most dear to me?
She can never know.
“The least we can do,” Ruby went on, “is not leave our friends back in Vale to fight this alone. They shouldn’t have to risk the consequences of what we did or didn’t do without us.”
“Then we’re agreed?” Sunset said. “We stop the train, we block the tunnel, and then we move down the tunnel until we reach the end?” She glanced at Jaune. “Do you have enough aura to boost Pyrrha so that she can move the train?”
“I think so,” Jaune said.
“You think so?” Sunset demanded.
“Yes,” Jaune replied, more confidently this time.
“Are you sure?” Pyrrha asked. “Because if not-“
“I’ve got enough,” Jaune insisted.
“If your aura breaks down here-”
“Then the grimm won’t be able to get me because you’ll have blocked the tunnel, remember?” Jaune said to her, venturing a smile.
“Jaune,” Pyrrha began.
“I’ll be fine, Pyrrha,” Jaune said to her softly, but firmly too.
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, before she put on a smile which Sunset thought was at least somewhat forced. “Of course you will,” she declared.
“So we’re all agreed?” Sunset asked. “And we’re all ready?”
“Ah’m ready,” Applejack said. “Ain’t much sense in waitin’ around; we might as well get ‘er done.”
“I’m ready,” Rainbow said quietly. “Let’s do this.”
“I’m ready too,” Ruby declared.
“And so am I,” added Jaune.
Pyrrha took a deep breath. “And I, too.”
Blake remained silent.
“Blake?” Sunset prompted.
Blake bowed her head, looking down at the metal floor beneath their feet. Silently, she reloaded Gambol Shroud. “I’m… Applejack’s right; if we’re going to do this, let’s do it.”
“Okay,” Sunset agreed. “Once the train stops, I’ll get up onto the roof and make them keep their heads down with my magic-”
“With your what?” Applejack gasped.
“Oh, right, you don’t know, do you?” Sunset muttered. “Rainbow can explain it to you later. Right now, the point is that I’ll make them keep their heads down while the rest of you get out. Once Pyrrha starts to do her thing, then I’ll get down before I get thrown off or slammed into the roof or something. Once the tunnel is blocked, Ruby, you’ll take point with Blake, then Applejack, then Jaune and Pyrrha, then Rainbow, you and me are the rearguard.”
“You got it,” Rainbow said.
“Jaune,” Sunset said, “can I have Soteria back for a bit? I might need it. You can borrow it again when we get outside.”
And wouldn’t that feel great? They might be fighting for the life of Vale in the middle of Vale, but at least they would be doing it under the light of the sun.
“Uh, sure,” Jaune said, handing the black sword back to her. “It’s… a little heavier than I’m used to.”
That wasn’t surprising, Sunset thought, considering that it was a two-handed sword against his old one-handed blade. The fact that he’d been able to get any use out of it at all was a testament to his strength and a minor miracle.
“Thanks,” Sunset said softly as she sheathed the sword across her back. She took a breath. “Well then,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
Rainbow crossed the cab in a succession of swift strides and slammed her palm down on the ‘EMERGENCY BRAKE’ button.
Sunset had expected… more emergency. A sudden, jolting stop, possibly something that would toss them across the cabin. Instead, the train began to slow, the mile-devouring pace of its progress down the rails easing off, the loud, ferocious growling of the engine softening – which unfortunately did nothing to still the loud, ferocious growling of the grimm – the screech of the wheels upon the rails becoming less frantic.
It was… a little bit of an anticlimax, to tell the truth.
Sunset supposed that the train had been going too fast for a sharp stop; the speed it had been set to was not healthy, and the jolt that threw across the cabin would have been less healthy still.
It was probably for the best that it was happening like this.
It did give the White Fang time to notice what was going on. The ineffectual gunfire lessened, and shouts of alarm echoed down the tunnel from further down towards the back of the train.
They knew what the huntsmen had done, and they seemed a little less than keen on the idea.
Considering what was coming up behind them, Sunset could understand why.
“I think that’s my cue,” Sunset said. “Pyrrha, shout me when you’re ready to start the lift. I mean, I shall probably feel it anyway, but-”
“I will call you,” Pyrrha promised.
Sunset smiled tightly. “Right. Thanks.” She left the cab, gripping the black metal ladder leading up onto the roof of the engine. Even through her gloves, she could feel the coldness of the metal as she climbed up, her boots rattling upon the rails as she ascended.
Bullets whipped past her as she gained the roof. Sunset raised one hand and cast a bolt of magic blindly behind her as the air from the moving train whipped past her face and through her hair. Not as violently as it had done, though; the train might be slowing gradually, but gradual didn’t have to mean slow; the speed of the train was reducing as quickly as it safely could.
Sunset turned around, wrapping her tail around one leg – the alternative was that it got blown out between her legs, which Sunset was not keen on the look of – as she swayed slightly upon the moving train, her feet in constant minute motions to keep her balance as the train juddered this way and that.
The nightvision spell on her eyes allowed her to see a modicum within the darkness of the unlit tunnel; it allowed her to see the White Fang, the fighters and the Paladins that remained to them, beginning to advance once more – was it still once more if they were advancing in the opposite direction to the one they had been going before?
Either way, it was clear that they realised that, faced with the imminent halt of the train, they could no longer rely on idle fire at an enemy they could not even see.
However much fear Pyrrha had put in them, the fear of their train stopping and leaving them trapped down here in the tunnel was stronger.
Sunset raised her hands, and as the train slowed down beneath her feet, beams of green magic leapt from her fingertips, weaker than those she might have blasted from her palms, but she was able to keep them up more rapidly. They flew from her fingers like rounds from an automatic, spraying out wildly, some flying true and others arcing like arrows in flight to land upon the train roof with miniature explosions.
Some of her magic struck home, knocking White Fang fighters clean off the train, or else simply flat onto their backs, where some of them rolled off the train anyway. She didn’t know if she was killing them, or if the train was…
Let’s be honest here, if they survive the fall, they won’t survive the grimm. You’re killing these people.
They won’t survive the grimm anyway. The only thing I could do that wouldn’t kill them is let them enter Vale.
There was no room for moral qualm about this. They had brought this on themselves. It was them or Sunset’s friends. Of all the lives put at risk today, these people were the least deserving to survive.
But Sunset bit her lip all the same.
Perhaps that was why the bulk of her magic was not very well aimed, intended more to keep the heads of the White Fang down than to hit them and throw them to their fate. Her magic, unaimed though it was, nevertheless sent them scattering; they ceased to fire or to advance as they kept hopping, retreating in the face of fire specifically placed to encourage them to retreat.
It helped, as the train slowed, that more and more of the White Fang turned their fire away from Sunset – away from the direction of the huntsmen more generally – and began to face to their rear, to where the mass of grimm must surely be gaining on them now; when the train had been thundering along, it had nevertheless failed to increase the distance between itself and the monsters; how would it be keeping them at bay now that its speed was dropping so much, and so quickly?
Judging by the numbers of White Fang – and even the Paladins, which would withstand Sunset’s magic and should have pressed forward – turning their attention towards the grimm behind rather than the huntresses in front – they were very definitely gaining.
Sunset swallowed, and as she fired off magic into the darkness, she tried not to think about all those bone masks, all those red eyes gleaming in the blackness like a burning forest, tried not to think about all those teeth and claws so eager to rend and tear and kill-
I’m not supposed to be thinking about it!
The train stopped. Sunset kept up her barrage to encourage the White Fang to keep focussing on the problems behind them instead of in front.
She heard footsteps beneath her and imagined her friends leaving the train as she kept casting. She heard a sound like metal being sheared through and guessed that someone had severed the engine’s connection to the cars behind.
“Hey, Applejack, look at this!” Rainbow said.
Sunset kept casting.
“Looks pretty good for something that’s been lying down here for years, don’t it?”
Sunset kept casting.
“Do you think you can get it working again?” Rainbow asked.
“What are you two playing at down there?” Sunset yelled down from the roof of the cab as she kept casting.
She felt the engine shift beneath her feet just as Pyrrha called out, “Sunset, I’m starting now.”
Sunset turned her back on the White Fang and threw herself off the train – it was a little dark to teleport; she might have ended up trying to occupy the same space as someone else. Instead, she jumped with the golden light of Jaune’s semblance to guide her as it spread up and down Pyrrha where she stood, both arms outstretched, looking like some sort of gilded goddess, like a statue in an old Mistralian temple, polished by the priests who cared for her.
With Pyrrha’s light – Jaune’s light, she supposed, but it was illuminating Pyrrha as the sun’s light illuminates the beauty of the world – to guide her, Sunset leapt and managed to land with at least some of her dignity intact, even if she did land on her knees as much as on her feet.
Pyrrha’s arms were out before her, spread out a little, and through the golden light of Jaune’s semblance, Sunset could just make out the black outlines of Pyrrha’s semblance around her arms, coating the brown of her gloves and the gilded metal of her vambrace.
Nor was that black outline confined to Pyrrha’s arms. With Jaune’s help, the grip of her semblance had spread across the train, coating it, engulfing it, and as Sunset watched, the engine was lifted from its berth upon the rails.
It was not raised much, just a few inches into the air, but it was enough. Pyrrha stared at the train, her green eyes narrow with concentration, and as she stared, the train began to pivot upon its centre, the front swinging away from the huntresses even as the back began to hove into view.
And as the engine turned, so too did it roll in the air upon its side, as though it were a model train that some avid collector was turning over in their hands for their inspection.
Front and back of the engine, longer than the tunnel was wide, slammed into the black, rounded walls of the tunnel itself. Dust and chips of concrete fell down upon the heads of Sunset, Pyrrha, and Jaune as Pyrrha pushed the tunnel wall, digging the train into the concrete on either side, wedging the engine in place before pushing it down as she had lifted it up, cutting off the gap between the tunnel floor and the obstacle they had erected.
Nothing could get past the engine. Nor could they see anything that was going on behind the engine. They could only hear the sounds of gunfire and the growling of the grimm.
The golden light died as Jaune pulled his hand away – only to place both hands, unadorned by any light, back upon Pyrrha’s arms as she sagged forward.
“I’m fine,” she said, pre-empting his question. “Just… unused to that kind of scale.”
“You did a good job,” Sunset assured her. “Both of you.”
Pyrrha looked over her shoulder. “And are you alright, Jaune? How much aura do you have left?”
“Enough,” he said. “I’ll get by.”
Pyrrha opened her mouth and might have said something about what did or did not constitute 'enough,' but Sunset forestalled her. “With luck, you won’t need to use any more of it for a while. However, we ought to get moving and not tempt fate!” she added, her voice turning into a sharp squawk as she stalked past Pyrrha and Jaune to see what Rainbow and Applejack – and Ruby! – were wasting their time on.
She had to admit, when she actually stopped to look at it, she could see why it had them fascinated. They had found a service truck, a vehicle designed to run along the road that ran parallel to the railway lines, where maintenance workers could zip up and down the tunnel, responding to any emergency or issue that might arise. Because the road was narrow, this particular vehicle – and others like it, presumably – had two fronts, with a cab at each end and a longish middle section for carrying tools or parts of whatever, so that it could be driven in either direction without ever needing to turn around.
It had once been painted in what looked like livery colours of red, gold, silver, and white, but time – even time in this dark and musty tunnel – had worn away the façade, and rust was starting to creep through above the wheels.
Rainbow, Applejack, and Ruby had the bonnet open of the head facing down the tunnel the way they wished to go, muttering to themselves.
It was clear now what they intended, but all the same, Sunset declared, “We don’t have time for this.”
Rainbow turned to look at her. “If we can get it to work again, we’ll get to Vale that much faster.”
“Can you get it to work again?” Sunset demanded. “Because if not you’re just wasting time.”
“We don’t think there’s anything actually wrong with it,” Ruby said. “It hasn’t been used in a while, so it’s a bit stiff, but we can’t see any problems.”
“Can you see properly?” Sunset asked.
Ruby let out a nervous laugh. “Not that well.”
Sunset gestured for them to make room as she, with her magically enhanced eyes, closed the distance with the silent machine. Rainbow had a point; if they could get the vehicle working, it would save them having to try and outrun the grimm; on the other hand, if they stayed too long trying to get it working, then they would have only lost their chance to escape the grimm.
She looked down at the engine. She wasn’t an expert, but she had been forced to learn a bit about how they worked in order to put one together, and… yeah, Ruby had a point; there wasn’t anything obviously wrong with it.
“Give it a jump start,” she said. “If it doesn’t go, then we run. We don’t have time to give it a lot of work.”
Applejack stuck her hand inside the engine, grunting as she felt around the pipes and wires for what she was actually looking for, which was the main dust converter which, as the name suggested, converted the combustion dust into the energy needed to power the vehicle.
There was a pause, and then Applejack must have let out a pulse of aura to ignite the dust, because the engine on the vehicle purred to life, vibrating slightly as it woke after its long slumber.
“Hoo-ee!” Applejack cried. “Now we’re cookin’! Get in, everybody! Ah’ll drive.”
“You and me will take the rear cab,” Sunset said, to which Rainbow nodded assent. “Everyone else, in the middle.” The mid-section of the vehicle had been intended for storage, and it might be a little cramped, but they would fit nevertheless, and it would be better than running by far.
Applejack got in the front-facing cab, with Winona occupying the other seat by her side. As Rainbow got in the rear cab, Sunset watched as Ruby, Jaune, and Pyrrha squeezed themselves into the middle section. Pyrrha ended up sitting on Jaune’s lap to leave room for Blake, but Sunset doubted that she minded that, even if she’d never say one way or the other.
That just left Blake, standing outside, looking at the engine, giving no sign that she intended to embark.
“Blake!” Sunset yelled.
Blake didn’t move. She stood still, seeming frozen, paralysed, staring at the engine that Pyrrha had placed to cut off the grimm… and all the White Fang too.
The White Fang who were dying on the other side.
There was still the sound of gunfire coming from the other side of the engine, but that fire was lessening, being drowned out by the roaring and the snarling of the grimm but replaced with other sounds too, with banging on metal, with begging and pleading. The White Fang fought, but they also cried out in panic as the horde fell upon them; they hammered on the metal and pleaded for release; they screamed ‘help us!’ One member of the White Fang, his mask discarded, managed to get up onto the side of the overturned engine, only for something to grab his legs and start to haul him backwards. He cried out in pain and terror, he grabbed at the side of the engine and tried to hold on, but with a final scream, he was dragged back into the darkness on the other side, and there, he screamed no more.
“Blake!” Sunset yelled again as she ran to Blake’s side. “Blake, we have to go!”
A beowolf poked its head up over the top of the engine. Sunset killed it with a burst of magic and was grateful that more didn’t seem to be following.
“Blake!” Sunset shouted, grabbing Blake by the wrist.
Blake started, looking at Sunset with golden eyes wide with shock. “I… I can’t save them,” she murmured, as the White Fang cried and screamed and died on the other side of the engine barricade. “I can’t save them.”
“No,” Sunset admitted. “But you can save so many others in the future if you come on! Blake, we have to go!”
Blake didn’t say anything, but she didn’t resist as Sunset dragged her to the waiting vehicle and helped bundle her inside with Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby.
That done, Sunset threw herself into the rear cab with Rainbow Dash, who had already kicked out the windscreen while Sunset had been with Blake.
“Hit it, Applejack!” Rainbow shouted.
The engine coughed, it whined, it spluttered for a moment, and then it roared to life as the truck shot forwards, accelerating with a speed Sunset wouldn’t have expected from a maintenance van – maybe they’d wanted to respond quickly to emergencies – down the narrow road which ran alongside the rails.
There was no steering, there was no swerving, there was only moving straight ahead, and Sunset had the impression that Applejack had her foot jammed on the accelerator because this thing was starting to really move.
The engine disappeared into the darkness, falling away behind them, and as it fell away, so too did the screams and the pleading and the last few desperate and defiant shots of the White Fang.
Sunset wished that she could have believed that they were simply moving out of earshot. But sounds echoed in this tunnel, sounds like the continued howling and growling of the grimm, sounds like the hammering upon the engine as the creatures pounded upon it, desperate to move it or to tear their way through it.
“It’s not going to hold, is it?” she asked.
Rainbow was busy reloading her submachine guns. “Against that many grimm? Probably not, if they’re determined to make it through. But it’ll buy us some time, and what buys us time buys Vale time too.” She paused for a moment. “You know, they probably have time to collapse the entrance and seal off the breach that… that was made,” she said, with a glance towards the cab wall, as if she were concerned about how thin it was.
And it will have been for nothing, Sunset thought. Everyone will die down here regardless. I won’t have saved anyone. “Do you… think they will?. Do that, I mean, collapse the breach?”
“No,” Rainbow said. “The General will be surprised that the White Fang aren’t attacking immediately, but he won’t want to risk the lives of the engineers by putting them on the front line when the White Fang do attack. He’ll wait. I don’t think he’ll even recon down the tunnel; he’ll prefer to wait and let the enemy come out where we can use our air support.”
“That’s… cautious.”
“It’ll save lives,” Rainbow replied. “Not just ours, but our soldiers too.”
“And Vale?” Sunset asked.
Rainbow was silent for a moment. “We can defeat grimm under the sun better than we can down here. Like I said, we can use our air support.” She looked at Sunset. “You think that I’m an idiot, and, well, you’re not entirely wrong, but I understand about picking your battles where you can. We’ve got the bombs, and we’ve got the rockets, so we might as well fight where we can actually use our bombs and rockets, instead of sending men down here.”
“What about sending robots?”
“The robots still work better with the bombs and rockets,” Rainbow pointed out. Her ears twitched. “Do you hear that?”
Sunset listened. “I don’t hear anything but this truck.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow said. “What happened to the grimm?”
Sunset blinked. Rainbow was right; the grimm had stopped. They had fallen silent, completely and absolutely, with not a sound remaining but the engine of their getaway car.
Until the darkness flared with a sudden explosion, the brilliant light burning briefly, but long enough to illuminate the engine exploding as it was torn apart, and something striding through the flames.
Sunset’s eyes widened. “What… what was that?”
The tunnel began to shake, dust falling from the ceiling, as the thing that had destroyed their barricade strode after them with an earth trembling tread.
A tread that was growing faster by the moment, shaking the world around them more rapidly and more powerfully as it pursued the huntsmen.
Rainbow pointed both her submachine guns out the empty windscreen frame and began to blaze away, her muzzle flashes half-blinding Sunset’s night vision. “Applejack, we could do with going a little faster,” Rainbow shouted.
“Ah’m going as fast as Ah can!” Applejack called back from up front.
Rainbow growled wordlessly and kept on firing, rounds leaping from both guns as she held down the triggers, pressing on them until there were no more bullets left.
Then, as the muzzle flashes ceased to blind her, Sunset could see what came after them with such a powerful swift step.
It was big. It was too big, really, to fight inside this tunnel; it was hunching its back and shoulders in order not scrape away the ceiling – not that it presumably cared too much except for the risk of bringing down the tunnel and blocking the way for the other grimm who, Sunset couldn’t help but notice, were giving this big guy a lot of space.
It was tall enough already, and taller still if it could have reached its full height, she was sure. Its body was humanoid, at least as far as Sunset could tell, because the creature seemed to be wreathed in shadow proof against her eyes, even when magically enhanced. But it had two legs and two arms, although calling it 'humanoid'… maybe she ought to say that it was like a minotaur, for it had a pair of horns jutting out on either side of its bone mask, curving like a rams to come to a point just beyond its jaw. Its mask was flat and reptilian, with narrow slits for nostrils and a narrow, sharp mouth like a crocodile and eyes that burned in the darkness below ground. Its forelegs and forearms were armoured in bone greaves and vambraces, and from those bulky vambraces of bone protruded four great spikes pointing forwards like spears or arrows or harpoons. Its wings were spread from wall to wall.
Rainbow was reloading again, but it seemed almost funny to think that her small calibre rounds would do anything against so large and powerful a grimm.
Sunset held up her hand, concentrating power within her palm as it began to glow. She was under no illusions that her average magical blast would do much against something this size either, but if she concentrated her power in one hit, if she poured it on, then maybe-
The grimm roared, and its roar echoed down the tunnel like the blowing of a great wind, and as it roared, it thrust out its right hand, and one of the spear like spikes that jutted from its forearm leapt out upon a chain of bone and flew straight and true right for their vehicle.
“Applejack-!” Rainbow yelled, but whatever she might have been about to tell Applejack to do was lost as the spear and the chain flew into the cab between Rainbow and Sunset and punched through the thin metal wall into the central section behind. Sunset heard everyone cry out in alarm, heard Pyrrha let out what sounded like a cry of pain, and then the bone chain grew taut and then it became impossible to think about anything as their car was wrenched up off the service road and pulled through the air.
Everyone shouted as the grimm yanked on its chain and hauled upon them like their car was a conker on a string, slamming it into the far tunnel wall. Neither Sunset nor Rainbow were wearing seatbelts, and Sunset’s aura flared in her defence as she was shaken left and right, slamming into Rainbow Dash, slamming in the door as it slammed into the wall, slamming into the ceiling which became the roof as they were hurled back down to the ground, landing between the rails as the ceiling crumble and fractured metal scattered across the floor.
Sunset lay for a moment, on her head and hands, breathing in deeply in between groans of pain, before she began to crawl out of the cab. Her aura wasn’t broken, but that didn’t stop her feeling the pain in her head and ears, didn’t stop her mind from feeling clouded by what had just happened to her, didn’t stop her body protesting its mistreatment in the strongest possible terms.
A cry of alarm from Pyrrha roused Sunset’s mind from torpor as she saw her friend being dragged across the ground by the bone chain wrapped around one leg. Pyrrha summoned Miló into her hand, transformed the weapon into rifle mode and fired twice, hitting the bones just beyond her foot, but the great grimm took as much notice as Pyrrha would of flies; it just dragged her towards it until it lifted her up off the ground so violently that Miló fell from her hands as Pyrrha was thrown up into the air, hair askew and arms spread out around her – before the grimm caught her in one hand as large as she was, enclosing three fingers thicker than her waistline around her, trapping her in its grip with her arms pinned by her sides.
She squirmed and struggled futilely in its grasp.
Sunset began to run, surging to her feet as she dashed forwards. No, she would not allow this to happen. Pyrrha would not die, not here, not now, not in this fell place. None of them would die, but certainly not Pyrrha. Not Pyrrha, not here, the Evenstar could not die in darkness.
Sunset teleported up onto the creature’s hand, and as she perched upon those dark, fat fingers, she drew Soteria forth, and with the blade that had been entrusted to her by the Nikos family, she hewed at the fingers that held the Nikos heir bound and sought to squeeze the life from her.
Rainbow flew around the creature's face, her own wings as unfurled even as the creature’s were, her bullets slamming into its bony face as she sought to distract the beast. Jaune ran towards it, screaming incoherently, wielding his shield in two hands like a club. And as Blake, Ruby, and Applejack emerged from the wreckage, they all started shooting, from the high crackle of Gambol Shroud to the roar of Crescent Rose.
But this grimm was the equal of all of them. With one disdainful, almost casual backhand, it swatted Rainbow Dash aside, throwing her into the tunnel wall with a thump and a crash. The spears on its left hand, the harpoons on their chains of bone, lashed out to knock Applejack and Blake off their feet and send them scrambling. And another snaked back out from its right hand to skewer Sunset as she strove to cut Pyrrha free, first slamming into her cuirass and knocking her from her perch and then grabbing her, wrapping its bone around her waist and slamming her into the ground hard enough to crack it beneath her.
Then it lifted her back up into the air as the bone wrapped itself around her, embracing her waist and neck, gripping her tight even as it hauled her up until she was only a little higher than Pyrrha.
It wanted them to look at each other. It wanted them to see the fear in one another’s eyes as it squeezed the life out of them.
And Sunset could see the fear. As the bone chain squeezed her tighter, as it sought to crush her throat and body, all that she could think about was the fear in Pyrrha’s green eyes as she struggled in vain, and as the creature’s grip grew tighter around her.
No, Sunset thought. No, please. This… this is not meant to be. I was meant to save you. I made a promise!
But the hand squeezed, and bone squeezed, and the eyes of the champion of Mistral were filled with fear, the fear of one who did not wish to die.
And there was nothing Sunset could do to save her.
The grimm squeezed them both tight, crushing their auras as it soon would crush their bones.
And there was nothing Sunset could do to save them.
Nothing she could do.
The grimm squeezed.
Ruby screamed.
And then there was nothing but light.
They were going to die.
Pyrrha and Sunset, they were both going to die.
And there was nothing that Ruby could do about it.
The fire of Crescent Rose wasn’t having any effect, any more than Blake’s shooting or Applejack’s or Rainbow Dash’s. She could try attacking with her scythe, but the grimm was so well armoured on its legs, that probably wouldn’t do anything. Sunset had tried slashing at its hands, and that hadn’t seemed to bother it at all.
And now it had Sunset too. It had Sunset and Pyrrha, and it was squeezing them so tight their auras couldn’t possibly last much longer.
They were going to die.
"For what are we here for, save to place our bodies between humanity and the dark?"
That isn’t what I meant. This isn’t what I wanted.
I don’t want to lose you.
But she would. She would lose them both.
And she could only watch as the grimm squeezed them with all its hideous strength.
And as it squeezed, and as Ruby watched, images flashed to the forefront of her mind.
She and Sunset foiling that robbery together and almost capturing Torchwick by themselves.
Pyrrha running to help her after she accidentally caused that dust explosion and defending her from Weiss.
Carving their initials onto the dorm room wall.
Sunset shielding her from prying eyes in the locker room.
She and Pyrrha running into Penny together.
All of it would be lost, every moment… turned to ashes.
No. No. “NO!”
Ruby screamed, the word torn from her lips, and as it was ripped out of her, so too she felt something else being pulled forth, something rising from out of the depths of her soul, like a sword, a shining silver sword, drawn from the stone of her ignorance.
Her eyes burned; she threw back her head as wings of light erupted from her eyes, spreading out across the tunnel, engulfing the entire tunnel and driving off the darkness, covering everything in a blinding, brilliant brightness.
And as the whole world turned white around her, Ruby thought she could hear her mother singing.
And then the light faded, and Ruby Rose fell into darkness.
Sunset opened her eyes. She was no longer being constricted, and neither was Pyrrha. They were bound, but the grip of that which bound them grew no tighter for the simple reason that that which bound them was now turned to stone.
Where a moment ago, a grimm had stood, snarling with ferocity, now, there was only the stone statue of a grimm, still snarling, but about as ferocious as the average gargoyle.
It was still holding Sunset and Pyrrha, but it was no longer about to crush them in its grasp.
Sunset didn’t know if it was dead or whether the change was impermanent.
She didn’t intend to wait around and find out.
Her hands glowed, and as they glowed, a spear of magic appeared above her head, swelling, growing brighter as it pointed straight at the stone grimm’s face.
Sunset poured her magic into it, focussing her power, strengthening far beyond her ordinary magical missiles, so that it was as a ballista bolt compared to their arrows or javelins.
After all, it was a stone target she was aiming at now.
Sunset unleashed the missile, which descended like a thunderbolt upon the grimm, striking the statue’s face and shattering it in a great explosion that showered Sunset with stony shards.
For a moment, the stone grimm remained, headless. Then, piece by piece, slowly at first but then with increasing speed, it began to crumble.
The stones holding Sunset fell away, and Sunset fell with them, using telekinesis on herself to ensure that she landed on her feet.
Pyrrha fell too, and while she did not land on her feet, she did manage to land in the outstretched arms of Jaune Arc, who gathered her close to him in an embrace that was no less tender for its tightness.
“Are you okay?” he asked
Pyrrha leaned into him, resting her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders. “I am now,” she said.
Jaune kissed her on the forehead. “I… I’m glad,” he whispered. He glanced at Sunset. “I’m glad,” he repeated.
Sunset jogged over to them, wrapping her arms around them both in a hug that was no less warm for being swift. “I’m glad too,” she agreed. “For a moment, I thought that…”
“For a moment,” Pyrrha said gently as Jaune set her down upon her feet once more, “so did I.”
“You’re not allowed to die before I am, Pyrrha, I told you that already,” Sunset informed her. “Ruby, was that your silver eyes? How did you- Ruby!” Sunset yelled, as she saw Ruby lying on the ground, with Blake kneeling by her side.
She ran to her, and Pyrrha and Jaune ran after her; they all ran until they stood over and around Ruby.
Ruby lay upon the ground, her eyes closed, her arms out by her sides. She looked as though she was sleeping, not in pain but rather at peace, without a trouble in the world.
“Ruby?” Sunset called as she knelt on the opposite side of her to Blake. “Ruby!”
“She won’t wake up,” Blake said anxiously.
“Did her aura break?” Jaune asked.
“I don’t think so,” Sunset said. “Why would silver eyes break her own aura?”
“Why would they put her in a coma?” Jaune replied. “Don’t you know what’s going on?”
“No, I don’t; it’s not the same magic; I don’t-” Sunset stopped as the sound of the grimm howling echoed down the tunnel towards them. It seemed louder now, as if they knew already of the death of their great champion and were sent into paroxysms of rage by the fact.
“I think we need to go,” Rainbow said.
“I think you’re right,” Sunset muttered. “Jaune, can you carry Ruby?”
“Sure,” Jaune said, and he scooped her up tenderly in his arms. She looked small in his grasp, smaller than normal and more frail.
And yet, she has just achieved her greatest feat yet.
The roaring of the grimm grew closer already; there was no doubt that the horde was on the move again, and coming this way.
“Everybody,” Sunset said, “run!”
They ran. They kept Jaune, weaponless and carrying the helpless Ruby, at the forefront, with Sunset and Rainbow at the back and the rest in between. But they ran all the same, they ran with the grimm closing in behind them, they ran between the rains, they ran down the tunnel.
They ran past the wreckage of a prior stand, they ran through the carnage of an earlier slaughter, they ran past a derailed train and broken signs, they ran over bone and broken stone.
They ran, and the grimm ran after them.
They ran through the darkness.
And then they saw the light, the literal light at the end of the tunnel, the light of Vale.
They were almost home.
And the grimm were right behind them.
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No you didn't came for that, you came here to collect informations and to rescue Fluttershy and Applejack.
If you intended more than that, you would had recieved at the very least Yang, Ren and Nora.
Well, silver eyes save a part of the day.
So much suspense ! I cannot wait for the next chapter !
What happened to the White Fang in this chapter sickened me. That's some damn good writing to do that and you should be proud of it but...
I cannot help but feel like there should be a terrible moment. An utterly terrible moment where one of them thinks "Why didn't we try talking to them before the train stopped?" Because that would have been the moment where 'If we don't work together now, we're all going to die down here' would have reached the White Fang who were starting to think 'This isn't the death I want'. Because it's one thing to sign up for a cause where you might die (even better, dying a hero) but its a completely different thing when you're in the dark, being chased by monsters and the only people who might care you disappeared down there will never know exactly what happened to you... if they weren't already down there by your side.
Granted there was no assurance that even if a number of the White Fang decided they would rather take their chances being shot or arrested in Vale by working with the Huntsmen to be on the right side of the barricade that they were about to set up that any of them would have survived the run but... better then beating on a metal wall in vain.
11007201
The team is in a very stressful situation and must make decision very rapidly, They don't have time anymore to ponder the morality of their action (Sunset used all the stock).
Plus I don't think it would have been a good idea :
-They were not that far from Vale. The Big grim manage to close rapidly the distance made with the truck and they probably can't outrun for very long an horde by running with the speed of Jaune carrying Ruby. They didn't have time to convince and organize the white fang, wich were numerous, when they had minutes if not seconds
-The white fang still want to attack Vale, them surrendering is not guaranteed. They're indoctrinated and panicking wich is not the best state to make rational decision.
You did it, Ruby! Magnificent! Wow, what a chapter! Even just getting out of the tunnel is its own adventure!
Is there a name for what kind of Grimm that was?
11007302
That may be true... but the mind is a terrible thing and hindsight is 20/20.
11007674
Blake definitely feels like that. She believes she should have saved them, or at least died with them.
The rest, all of them have something to counteract those kind of thoughts. Pyrrha is a Mistrallian, she is used to bloody punishments and wouldn't see anything wrong with the WF dying from their own evil (remember the whole "bloody vengeance for Sunset if she dies"). Ruby is kind of ruthless against those who do evil. Jaune is comparatively the most practical one, and while his inexperience made him the one most affected from killing I have no doubt that he would pick his team safety over any chance of saving their enemies. Rainbow and Applejack are Atleasians, the group most hit by the WF, and so their sympathy has almost certainly run dry a long time ago.
Sunset should be one of the most impacted, given that she is from Equestria and she keeps hope of saving Cinder, but we see her mind in the chapter and she decided that, if she was ok with risking Vale, then she was more than ok with screwing the WF.
Dang. The original chapter was good, but this is awesome!
Poor Blake. She just forcefully left so much behind. I bet this will weight on her for a long time.
And Ruby's eyes make an appperance! I was wondering when that would happen.
On a side note, I think you are introducing too many overly powerful grimm. We have this Minotaur, Callipso, the mutant grimm, the Karkadann, and I think three very large regular grimm, all defeated by the main cast. By volumen 8 in canon, what comes to mind is The Hound, the nuckelavee, and the leviathan.
11021017
That's a fair point, and one that I don't really have a response to except to say that... well, this is a big story with a lot of fights and regular grimm are hard to make scary.
Yes, there have been quite a few of them, but if you look at where they come up:
Karkadann - climactic fight of the arc
Callisto and the Balrog - climactic arc of the entire volume
So I'm not using them in a manner dissimilar to the way the show does (and in some respects I'm using them for the same reasons, the balrog exists as a threat that requires silver eyes to beat it), it's just that this is a lot bigger than the show.
11021033 Yeah, but the problem is that with the Balrog I honestly shrugged and went 'They will be fine'. You can only make these things threatening so many times, encountering a gigantic grimm now does not have any 'Oh fuck' effect.
Callisto in particular felt like a waste, I expected something closer to what The Hound was.
11021033 The Karkadann, I enjoyed. No sense on just throwing shade.
Ruby using her eyes for the first time against a freaking balrog is freaking fantastic and I love it!!!
I mean, Sunset lied, but we know Cinder would've done it anyway.
And silver eyes are activated!
You know I just thought of something. Even if Ironwood did seal the tunnel up again couldn’t Sunset just teleport through it? Even if she had to make a few trips to get everyone if they were fast enough I’m sure it would be possible.