• Published 31st Aug 2018
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SAPR - Scipio Smith



Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.

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Command in the Courtyard (New)

Command in the Courtyard

Amber and her … her cohort, she did not like them all enough to call them friends, nor did she trust them all enough to call them her allies, but for better or worse, they were her companions, and as a group, they crept away from Beacon.

They were fortunate; it seemed that Pyrrha and Ciel and Penny and all the rest were not trying to retake the whole of Beacon in one fell swoop. Rather, they appeared only to be fighting in or around certain parts of the school. Amber could hear the gunfire, which was certainly louder than it had been when she had ventured out onto the field herself, but the firing and the sounds of battle were only coming from certain places, not everywhere. Amber and those who accompanied her had been able to pick a way through the grounds unseen, unnoticed, skirting grimm and students both alike.

Amber would be glad to be away from here, away from Beacon, away from the fighting that raged in other parts of the school — fighting that, with every gunshot, reminded Amber that this was her fault, her doing, that this was all for her benefit — and away especially from the tower, with those emerald lights that burned still, in spite of everything. Though on the ground, the dark was closing in, up above, the emerald lights yet burned against the darkness. Amber could not help but imagine Ozpin there, his eyes all-seeing, watching her.

Ridiculous, of course; Ozpin's eyes were not all-seeing; she could fill a book up with the things that he had failed to see: her first flight, Cinder's attempt on her life, her present … her present betrayal.

The emerald lights might burn atop the tower, but Ozpin's eyes were blind there.

Yet, nevertheless, she longed to be away from the lights.

It would not be long now. Soon, they would have reached the end of Beacon proper, the grounds of the school; they still needed to creep past Benni Havens', but after that, they could take the road south for a while. Tempest, leading the way, said she knew a place where they could hide, for a few hours at least, until it was time to return and get the Relic.

Some old house, apparently; Cinder had used it but had no more need of it now.

Amber didn't really want to stay somewhere lately inhabited by Cinder, but if it was only a few hours, then she would bear it.

The prize made such things worth it.

She wondered if they had started looking for her yet, or if they would not find her missing until the battle was done.

If they did look for her, then they might find Ruby sleeping, and since Amber had shown them her semblance, then they might work out that Amber was the one who had put her to sleep.

And then … then, they would keep looking for her, she supposed, and their chance of finding her would be just the same whether they sought her as friends or foes.

Although it might be better if some grimm ate the little beast — not that she would ever say so where Dove could hear her — to put off the moment when the truth came out.

Either way, the main thing right now was to come away from here.

They were almost away. Benni Havens' lay on their right as they crept through the dark, and as they passed by, Amber could not help but turn her head in the direction of the restaurant. It had not been destroyed; it didn't even look damaged. All the lights were on inside, casting a light out to illuminate the exterior, which didn't look to be in quite such good condition: a lot of the outdoor tables and chairs had been broken or knocked aside, and so had the fake stuffed grimm who had decorated the space.

But the building itself looked fine. That was … that was good. Dove, Lyra, Sunset, Pyrrha, they all seemed to have happy memories of the place, and though Amber had only been there once, that once had been a lovely evening.

It was good it had not been destroyed.

As they snuck by, using the dark to mask themselves from prying eyes, the door to Benni's was flung open, and a large form, silhouetted against the light from within, stood in the doorway.

"Okay, I know you're out there!" Benni yelled into the night. "How about you come out and we get this over with, huh?"

They heard the sound of a gun being cocked, or pumped, or whatever the right word was.

"Don't shoot!" Dove cried, holding out his hands as he stepped forward into the light. "Please, ma'am, don't shoot."

"Dove?" Benni asked. She stepped forward, out of the doorway, so that the light didn't conceal her face and features in silhouette as it had done. She held a double-barrel shotgun with a two-headed axe attached to the barrels, although she let the weapon fall to her side, holding it loosely in one hand. Her squirrel tail curled up behind her head. "Dove, is that you?"

Dove nodded. "It's me," he said. "I'm glad to see you're alright."

Benni laughed. "The grimm have had their chances to kill me; they didn't take 'em, but you!" She pulled Dove into a one-armed hug, pressing his head against her chest. "I'm glad to see you're okay, kid." She let him go. "But what are you doing here? Are you all by yourself?"

"No," Amber answered for him as she emerged out of the dark. "No, he's not alone."

Lyra, Bon Bon, and with the most reluctance, Tempest came to stand beside her.

"Lyra, Bon Bon, Amber, I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Benni said softly. She glanced at Tempest. "I don't think we've met.”

"No, we haven't," Tempest said. She paused for so long that Amber thought that she was going to leave it at that, before she said, "Tempest. My name is Tempest."

"Nice to meet you; wish it were under better circumstances," Benni said. "I'm Benni; I run this place." She turned her attention back to Dove and the others. "What are you kids doing here? I mean, it's great to see you're all still kicking, but—"

"They're escorting me," Amber told her. "I … I'm not a huntress, not a fighter, I…" Amber looked down. The words came easily to her because there was so much truth in them. "I'm afraid. When the grimm came and everything started happening … I can't help, and I'd only get in the way, and I'm so frightened. Ozpin agreed to let my friends escort me somewhere safe."

“Right,” Benni replied. “I can’t blame you for being scared. It’s a scary time. To think that I’d live to see grimm in Beacon, gods, and be able to hear all my kids fighting right outside.” She paused. “Well, if you want to wait inside, I’ve already got a whole restaurant full of frightened people waiting for all this to blow over, so there’s room for the five of you as well. I tell you, I’d be making a fortune if I wasn’t so kindhearted as to feed them all for free.”

“Have you had any trouble with the grimm?” Dove asked. “I’m surprised all that fear isn’t drawing them.”

“I don’t think they’re coming this way,” Benni replied. “But if they do,” — she held up her shotgun — “I guess we’ll see if I’ve still got it.”

“It’s very kind of you to offer,” Amber said. “But we’re heading down the road, towards Vale.”

“Are you sure?” asked Benni. “Have you heard the news about what’s going on in Vale? Grimm cultists, power outages, General Blackthorn has declared martial law, and who knows where the Council is? Seriously, I think you’d be better off in here.”

“I … no,” Amber said, shaking her head. “As I say it … it’s very kind of you, but this place … it’s too close. I should like to get further away.”

Benni nodded slowly. “I guess I can understand that,” she said. “Well, if you want to take your chances in Vale, then I can’t stop you, but … be careful, okay. Take care…” She held out one arm, as though she wanted to hug someone, maybe even all of them, all of them except Tempest perhaps, the person that she didn’t know. Or perhaps even Tempest, too, unknown to her or not.

“I can’t really give you a hug while I’m holding this,” she said, “so just take care. Take care of each other. That’s all there is at the end of the day: just take care of one another. Take care and … wait right here a second; I’ll be right back.” She turned away and walked quickly back towards the door, disappearing through it back into the restaurant.

“We should leave before she comes back,” Tempest said.

“We can’t do that!” Lyra cried. “We have to stay and see what it is.”

“What it is might be calling Ozpin on us,” Tempest muttered.

“Benni wouldn’t do that,” Lyra insisted. “Benni’s our friend.”

“Are you sure of that?” asked Tempest.

“Yes!”

“Lyra’s right,” Amber said calmly. “She is a friend, of Lyra and Dove, and we’re going to stay and find out why she asked us to. She won’t be long.”

Indeed, she wasn’t long at all; it was minutes at most when Benni emerged again, with a brown paper bag slung under her arm and a cardboard box in her hand.

“Lyra, take this box, will you?” she asked.

Lyra took the box, at which point, Benni held out the bag to Amber.

“There’s some fries in here,” she said, as the smell of the chips wafted out of the bag and into Amber’s nostrils. “And in the box Lyra’s holding, there’s apple pie with some whipped cream. I would have given you ice cream, but I didn’t want it to melt. It’s just a little something for the road, in case you get hungry.”

Amber inhaled the smell of the chips she was holding; it would have smelled nice in many contexts, delicious and enticing, but at the moment, in the circumstances, it just made her feel a little ill. Sick to her stomach, in fact.

Tempest was right; we should have just gone.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“It’s nothing,” Benni said dismissively. “Listen, I don’t know what your plans are, but when all this blows over, I expect to see you all back here for at least one more meal to say a real goodbye, you hear me?”

“Of course,” Amber replied, Amber lied, Amber pretended that this wasn’t the last time they would ever see her. “Of course we will.”


Pyrrha would have sat down, had she felt as though the circumstances allowed it.

As things stood, it felt a little self-indulgent, and so she tried to remain on her feet for all that the ursa in the room, or even an ursa major, couldn’t have hit her harder than this revelation was hitting her right now.

Amber had betrayed them. Cinder had been right about her.

Cinder had been right about Amber.

It hardly seemed credible. Compare the two of them, and Amber and Cinder were, or seemed to be, Alcestis — daughter of the gods of the sky and wife to Theseus — to a boarbatusk. One was all goodness, all virtues, all sweetness and sweet things, engaging and delightful, the other … the other was all wrath, pride, and self-pity mingled in unlikeable concoction, all danger and foul scents and fouler tasting things besides. Cinder was not without virtue, perhaps, just as Amber was not without fault — Cinder could not be honestly said to lack personal courage, just as Amber at times seemed to possess rather little of the same, and Cinder was certainly honourable, upon her own terms if no other — but compared one against the other … who would not choose Amber over Cinder? Who would not trust Amber more, who would not believe in Amber over Cinder, who would not put their faith in the goddess rather than the imp who cringed away from darkness?

One was the true Maiden, chosen by Ozpin to inherit the power of the Fall Maiden, embodiment of a line of Maidens who had since ancient days upheld the virtues of gratitude and acceptance; the other had sought to steal that power for herself, no matter the cost.

If someone were to come and look at this, without any other knowledge or personal history with the two, would they not say that Amber was the trustworthy one? What impartial observer of the case would believe Cinder? Cinder hadn’t even offered any proof!

And yet, she had been right.

Cinder had been right, and she, Pyrrha, had been wrong.

I and Sunset and Professor Ozpin.

But Sunset wasn’t here, was she? Pyrrha had stood by and let Ruby send her away, a decision which … whatever Sunset might or might not have done in regard to Amber specifically, it didn’t change the fact that that decision, and Pyrrha’s acceptance of it, was looking less and less like a good decision with every passing moment.

Or perhaps I would have just liked someone else here to take responsibility, or share it with me at the least.

But Sunset wasn’t here, and as for Professor Ozpin … she had, unfortunately or no, passed the point at which she could attribute all blame to Professor Ozpin. After all, if she had disagreed with Professor Ozpin, she could have told her friends what Cinder had said about Amber. But she hadn’t.

No, she could not excuse away her part in this. She had given Amber the opportunity to do this, and Ruby had nearly paid the price for it.

Cinder might not know it, but by the mere fact of being right, she had injured Pyrrha more than she could have done with her obsidian blades.

And now, she must confess the fault and explain herself to Jaune and Penny.

They were both still kneeling on the floor on either side of Ruby. Jaune had his hand upon Ruby’s forehead, and his semblance was spreading golden light over Ruby’s body, enveloping her in the soft embrace of his semblance.

It didn’t seem to be making any difference. Ruby showed no more signs of waking now than she had displayed before.

She lay there, still and silent with her eyes closed, seeming so much younger than she did awake, while Jaune and Penny knelt around her in the midst of torn up pages.

Pyrrha looked down and bent down a little to get a better look at what the pages had been torn out from.

Some of them were from her copy of The Mistraliad; she recognised the verse, that deathless verse as it had been referred to by its admirers, the unparallelled, unequalled verse; it might be deathless, but her copy had surely died the death at the hands of that ursa, and any other grimm who had been through here. Not that it was of any great matter; it was not a rare or expensive copy; in her family home in Mistral, there was a hand-inked copy that was centuries old, given to Prince Pericles Nikos as a wedding gift by the then Lady Rutulus upon his wedding to her daughter, Lady Lucretia. But of course, Pyrrha hadn’t brought that with her to Beacon; this was just an ordinary store-bought copy of the kind that you could find in any good bookshop.

More precious by far, Pyrrha could see as she looked around the floor at the scattered and tattered bits of paper that concealed the carpet, were the pages that seemed to have been torn out of Ruby’s copy of The Song of Olivia. That, as she understood it, was a rare book: a book that had belonged to Dove’s grandfather, a book that was hard to come by these days, a book that was rare and precious and … and now gone. They might sort through the pages, try and find them all, bind the book again either in the old covers or a new one, but it would not be quite the same, even if they found every last page and every page was still intact enough to read. Something … something would have been lost, nonetheless.

Something irreplaceable.

Penny turned her head and looked up at Pyrrha. “Pyrrha? Why would you say that? Why would you say that about Amber?”

“Because…” Pyrrha choked. The shame scalded her throat and stopped the words. “Because we saw her semblance, just two days ago, when you found your semblance; Amber showed us hers, she—”

“Can put people to sleep,” Jaune murmured. He raised his hand away from Ruby, the golden light that had enveloped her flickering and dying. “I … I guess that she could have done this, but come on, Pyrrha, why would she? Why…” The words died. “There’s something you’re not saying, isn’t there?”

“There is something that I don’t want to say,” Pyrrha admitted. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. She didn’t really want to look at any of the others at the moment. “Last night…” Goodness, had it only been last night? It seemed so very long ago. “Last night, when we spoke to Cinder, she told us that … that Amber had…” — her body trembled — “that Amber had betrayed us. That she had sold out to Salem.”

“But…” Jaune said. “But then why—?”

“Because in accepting Amber’s betrayal, Salem had betrayed Cinder in her turn,” Pyrrha explained. “There cannot be two Fall Maidens, after all, and Amber can give Salem far more than Cinder can; Cinder does not know where the Relic of Choice is being held, but Amber does.”

“So … Cinder attacked Amber because she knew that Amber had sided with Salem, and that meant that Salem didn’t need Cinder anymore,” Penny said. “So … Cinder was hoping to kill Amber last night so that Salem would need her — Cinder, that is — again?”

“That … would have made some sense,” Pyrrha conceded. “But I think it makes more sense than was in Cinder’s heart that night; she was driven not by sense but by … by her emotions, though those emotions may be too much of a whirl for me to describe: anger, despair, pride. I think, to the extent that she thought of anything, she wanted nothing more than to die that night, a death in battle, facing her great enemies; she charged for glory seeking death. A death that I denied to her.”

“But how did she know?” Penny asked. “How did she know that Amber—?”

“She didn’t,” Pyrrha said quickly, because it was perhaps the one exonerating detail in all of this, that Cinder had offered not a shred of proof of any of this. “She offered no proof, only her supposition as to what had happened. She had worked it out, she claimed, from seeing Tempest Shadow so close by us that night, and Tempest, as she said—”

“Is also working for Salem,” Jaune finished for her.

“Precisely,” Pyrrha said softly. “Cinder believed that Tempest’s presence was a sign that Amber was on the other side now and that Tempest was at the carnival, as we were, to safeguard her. But she offered no proof of that, or any other of her accusations. She asked us to accept her deductions on faith.”

“But you told us all the rest of her accusations,” Jaune pointed out.

Pyrrha opened her eyes. She couldn’t not open them, in the face of Jaune’s tone. It was a hard tone, flat like the surface of his shield. His expression was the same way — flat, and difficult to read. He had risen to his feet, and now looked ever so slightly down upon her.

“Yes,” Pyrrha admitted, because she could hardly do anything else in the circumstances. “Yes, I told you that Cinder had accused Tempest, and Bon Bon, and Professor Lionheart at Haven—”

“But not Amber,” Jaune said.

“We didn’t believe her!” Pyrrha cried. “None of us did, not I, nor Sunset, nor Professor Ozpin.” She stopped for a moment, wincing at the ease with which she had sought to include them in this as though that offered some defence. “And Cinder offered no proof, and … and it was Amber. Should I have told you all that Cinder had suggested Amber had betrayed us, what then? Would either of you have chosen to believe Cinder instead of Amber, our friend?”

“No,” Penny said quickly. “No, I wouldn’t. I would have had faith in our friend, the same way you did. I would have thought that Cinder was lying to us, trying to trick us, trying to make us turn on one another. The same…” — she hesitated for a moment, then said — “the same way that—”

“That we turned on Sunset?” Jaune said quietly. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

Penny looked up at him. She, too, rose to her feet; although that didn’t bring her so close to either Jaune or Pyrrha, she was still left looking up at the both of them. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know—”

“You don’t need to apologise,” Jaune said quickly, before she could. His voice was very soft now, not a whisper, but as gentle a breeze as had ever wafted through the window. “I…” He glanced away from them, then looked at Pyrrha. “You’re right,” he said. “Who … nobody would have believed Cinder when she said that Amber was our enemy. Even if you had told us — and that would have been awkward, with Amber and Dove right there — we would have all just laughed it off because, well, it was Amber. This isn’t your fault.”

“No?” Pyrrha asked. “Though I kept silent?”

“Does it matter if you would have talked or not if none of us would have believed you?” Jaune asked. “I mean, it was Cinder telling you this; why would we listen to her? The only person who might actually have believed her was Sunset, but she didn’t, did she?”

“No,” Pyrrha murmured. “She … became rather irate when she heard it.”

“Then it’s not your fault,” Jaune told her. “You trusted Amber, but so did I, so did Sunset, so did Ruby; we all trusted Amber. We all would have trusted Amber even if we knew that Cinder had told us that Amber wasn’t to be trusted. We would have thought it was some kind of scheme or something. Penny’s right; they did … what would we have done differently?”

“Perhaps nothing,” Pyrrha conceded. “But I would feel less guilty if I had told you.”

“Because we’d all share in the guilt of ignoring Cinder?” Jaune asked, eyebrows raising.

Pyrrha looked away. “Yes,” she muttered. “I don’t like the fact that she was right, especially about this. Especially about Amber … I liked her very much.”

“I liked her too,” Penny said. “Are we sure that Cinder was right about her? I mean, like you said, there wasn’t any proof, and what if Ruby fell asleep because of some other reason? I can’t think of one, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any other way that Ruby could have ended up like this!”

“Then where are Amber and Dove?” asked Jaune.

“I…” Penny hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“I fear that there are only a few possibilities,” Pyrrha said. “Either Amber and Dove are dead, and Ruby is the last survivor because we were in time to save her and not the others; or Amber and Dove fled, leaving Ruby in this state; or Amber — and Dove — have betrayed us, they put Ruby to sleep, and then … departed, leaving her to the mercy of the grimm. If they were … if Amber has not betrayed us, if Cinder is lying—”

“Then why not take Ruby with them?” Jaune asked. “And why, for that matter, would they all just stay here with the grimm attacking the school? Wouldn’t Ruby have tried to get them out? Or get them somewhere safer, anyway.”

Penny frowned. “We wouldn’t be considering this if Cinder hadn’t said it.”

“No,” Pyrrha allowed. “But she did say it, and as much as I wish it didn’t, it fits what we see, doesn’t it?”

Penny took a second to reply. “I wish that it didn’t.”

“We all do,” Jaune said. “She was … we all … I can hardly believe it, and Dove? Dove? I can’t even … no, that’s a lie, I know why. It’s because he loves her.” He gave a sort of wan smile. “He loves her so much that he’ll do anything for her, to be with her. Because now that he’s got her back, he realises that he can’t live without her. Because he’s hers, and she’s his, and it’s the two of them, together, whatever it takes.”

“But why is Amber doing it?” Penny demanded. “Why would she do this to Ruby? Why would she do this to all of us?”

“Because she’s frightened,” Pyrrha murmured.

“But we could have protected her!” Penny cried. “We did protect her, we kept her safe from Cinder, we won.”

“That … it seems that wasn’t enough,” Pyrrha replied. “If … Amber would have been hunted all her life for the powers of the Fall Maiden, so that Cinder or someone else in Salem’s service could retrieve the Relic of Choice. But if Amber gives the Relic to Salem, then … then Salem will have no more need to hunt her.”

“Is that where you think she’s gone?” Penny asked. “To get the Relic? Is that where we need to go?”

“I … don’t know,” Pyrrha admitted. “I think … I don’t know; maybe they mean to wait until the grimm have taken Beacon? I don’t know; I’ve no idea what they intend.”

Penny looked down at Ruby. She knelt once more down by her side. “And if Amber did this to Ruby, then how do we wake her up again?” She reached out and put her hand palm down on Ruby’s forehead. She frowned. Then she scowled. Then she made a noise that might have suggested stomach trouble if she had a stomach. “It didn’t work,” she said with a pout. “I thought that maybe I could use my semblance on Ruby to break Amber’s semblance, but it seems like it only works on me.”

“That makes sense,” Pyrrha said. “It was your freedom that you sought, not ours.”

“I suppose,” Penny said, with obvious unhappiness clear in her voice. “What are we…?” She stopped. “We’ll go and find Professor Ozpin and take Ruby with us. Maybe he can help her, but even if he can’t, then he can keep her safe until she wakes up. And we can tell him about Amber. About what we think we know about Amber. The Relic … the Relic can wait until we’ve gotten Ruby to safety, if that’s what Professor Ozpin wants; if that’s where he thinks we should go, then we’ll go there, and … but Ruby comes first.” She paused. “And Pyrrha … don’t blame yourself. You trusted your friend; that’s not a bad thing.”

“Even when she turns out to be a false friend?”

“That’s on her, not you,” Penny said. “You were the best friend you could be to Amber, we all tried to be her friend, and as her friends, we thought well of her. That she didn’t deserve that isn’t your fault or your problem.” Again, she paused. “And will you do something for me?”

“Of course,” Pyrrha said. “What is it?”

Penny glanced at Jaune. “I’d like you to call Sunset and tell her that we would like her help and if she can could she get to the CCT and meet us there.”

Now, it was Pyrrha’s turn to glance at Jaune to see how he would react.

“Why are you both looking at me?” Jaune asked. “I think … you’re right. We could do with Sunset’s help. No offence, Penny, but we never let a grimm get away the way we did at the arena when Sunset was with us, and, well, as much as I might not be ready to completely forgive her for what she did … I shouldn’t have forgotten all the things that she did for us either, for me. I was too quick to forget that, or too slow to remember. She helped me, she saved Pyrrha’s life, I promised that I wouldn’t forget it, and then…”

The evil that men do lives after them, Pyrrha thought. The good is oft interred with their bones.

But Sunset is not yet dead, if fortune be good, so her good may yet be remembered.

“And besides,” Jaune went on, “I can’t help feeling like we’ve kind of walked into the bad guys’ trap when it comes to sending her away. And if Amber is our enemy, then we could use all the help we can get. We could use someone with magic of her own, and a lot of luck. But, if Ruby wakes up, I’m not sure she’ll see it the same way.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but Ruby isn’t the team leader, I am,” Penny declared. “And I think this is the right decision. Pyrrha, will you please make the call?”

Pyrrha nodded and got out her scroll. Sunset would have every right to be affronted to receive it — that they had kicked her, spurned her from the door, banished her out of their presence, but now that it seemed they needed her help, they expected her to, for these great courtesies, fight alongside them in battle — but she knew that Sunset would not react like that. She was, whatever her other faults might be, too kind to them, too full of love in her heart for them, too devoted to them to refuse and turn away, justified though some might find the turning.

Sunset would fly to their aid if she could the moment it was asked.

Or so Pyrrha thought. But Sunset didn’t actually answer her scroll. The indicator remained resolutely amber, trying but failing to connect, the moments, the seconds, a whole minute passing by with no shift of the icon to green, no sound of Sunset’s voice, no sight of her face.

Sunset would answer if she could. She would not ignore us. “I fear she may be caught up in events elsewhere,” Pyrrha said. “If she is in Vale—”

“Right,” Penny murmured. “Right, then … then I’m sure she’s doing what she can … somehow. And I guess we’ll have to keep doing what we can without her.” She paused. “I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I? Going to Professor Ozpin?”

Jaune picked Ruby up, cradling her in his arms as she lay sleeping. “I think so. He needs to know, and … we could maybe use some advice, even if it is from him.”

Yes, Pyrrha thought. Yes, we could.

If the Professor is in a state to give advice once he hears the news we have to bring him.


Rainbow leapt down out of the airship and immediately shot a beowolf square in the chest with her shotgun. The grimm was blasted backwards, already turning to ashes before it hit the ground.

She pumped Undying Loyalty and fired again at another close-by beowolf, this time blowing its leg off. She reversed her grip on the shotgun and clubbed it across the face with the butt to finish it off.

She pumped it again as she reversed it back into its proper grip.

The courtyard was confused. It was all confusion, there were civilians and grimm both present, and both coming in from all directions, from the fairgrounds and from the school buildings around the courtyard where they'd been sheltering.

There was blood on some of the courtyard stone.

Lights had been set up around the courtyard for the benefit of the festival goers who would be sticking around past darkness falling, and they combined with the moonlight to illuminate the area; beyond the lights, around the buildings, it was harder to see anything, but Rainbow could still catch glimpses of the red eyes of more grimm gleaming there, watching in the dark.

She'd deal with them later. Right now, there were enough grimm to deal with where she could see them.

"Get back!" she yelled to the tourists, gesturing backwards with one hand as she shot another beowolf. "Get behind us."

The initial drop was likely to be the easiest part of this battle, the part at which the huntsmen, concentrated in one location — well, three locations, but concentrated in a single location at each of the three key points — struck like a fist into the diffuse and spread out grimm. A giant ursa major with spikes taller than Rainbow's height lumbered forward, growling and snarling, but a single shot from Ciel's Distant Thunder blew half its head clean off, and it fell down dead on the ground. A beowolf threw itself on Rarity, but she held it off with one of her diamonds before driving her épée straight into its open mouth. A griffon tried to swoop down upon them from above, but Blake managed to land her hook into its chest and dragged it down to the ground where she slashed at it in a furious flurry with blade and cleaver alike until it was nothing but smoke and ashes. Maud tore a huge chunk of earth from the lawn just beyond the courtyard and threw it at a cluster of beowolves with her geokinetic semblance, obliterating them in a cloud of dust. Huntsmen and huntresses poured out of the Skyrays, descending into the courtyard and into the battle. Civilians sheltered behind them as they charged into the grimm; it wasn't quite true to say that they achieved numerical superiority, but they definitely achieved combat superiority in those first moments of landing. The grimm couldn't stand before them as the courtyard erupted with the sounds of gunfire, drowning out the howls and cries of the grimm.

An alpha beowolf leapt down from one of the upper floors, landing on the huntsmen and huntress statue that dominated the courtyard; its landing shattered the huntsman, turning it to fragments of black stone, leaving only a pair of trunkless legs with jagged, ragged ankles and the beowolf standing over them.

With a single swing of its paw, it broke the huntress too, breaking her statue at the waist, sending more shards of black stone showering down upon the courtyard.

It beat its chest as it roared out defiance to the night sky and the broken moon.

Rainbow fired Undying Loyalty once, then pumped, then fired again. The alpha beowolf raised its arms to cover its chest and face; those arms were covered with plates and spurs of bone, the spikes not too long but looking wickedly sharp for all that.

Blake found an opening in the beowolf's armour, her hook flying through the air to bury itself in the beowolf's shoulder between two plates of bone. Then it was Blake who flew as she leapt upon the thread of black ribbon to aim a forceful flying kick straight at the grimm.

The alpha beowolf again blocked, twisting its body to present face and chest and its two protected warding forelegs. Blake's kick slammed into one of its bony spurs without any visible damage. The beowolf swept its arms out, but Blake disappeared in the black flickering of a clone, reappearing lower on the black rock that was the statue base, hurling herself upon the alpha beowolf from behind. Sword and cleaver alike whirled in her hands as she slashed with blow after blow at the beowolf's back and side, both her weapons glancing off the armoured plates.

The alpha beowolf rounded on her.

Rainbow leapt, a single bound carrying her from the courtyard up onto the statue where she bodily slammed into the beowolf's flank.

It was a tough one not to get knocked clean off the plinth; it dug its hind paw claws into the black stone, doing more damage to the remains of the poor old huntsman as it anchored itself to the plinth. It swiped at Rainbow's back with its claws as Rainbow, hunched over, wrapped her arms around its midriff.

She winced as she felt the monster's paw strike at her, claws scoring her aura, but it didn't stop her from kicking at its knee repeatedly with one foot until she had dislodged it from its grip on the rock-like plinth beneath them.

Grunting with effort, Rainbow hoisted the beowolf up into the air, all four of its legs flailing wildly, and then slammed it down with a thudding, smashing sound — and an unfortunate breaking of what was left of the huntsman's feet and ankles — down into the plinth.

Blake appeared above the snarling creature, descending on it from above to land squarely on its chest before driving her black katana down through the alpha's unprotected neck.

It didn't kill the creature, but it did drive all the way through it and into the plinth below, pinning it.

The alpha beowolf growled and gurgled and struggled to free itself as Blake hacked away with her cleaver until she had taken its head.

And then, as the beowolf dissolved, Blake stood on the highest point of the rock and drew her sword out of the stone and raised it up triumphantly above her head.

And for a moment, as the moonlight caught her, pale as the moon but with hair black as night, as it glinted off her silver armband, as she stood with her sword in the air on the top of the rock, Blake looked more heroic than that old huntsman ever had.

And judging by the way that people — huntsmen and civilians alike — cheered, Rainbow wasn't the only one who thought so.

She smiled, in spite of the circumstances, and shuffled backwards a little down the rock only to bump into what was left of the huntress.

From her vantage point, Rainbow looked around and saw that they had cleared the courtyard. That was to be expected. That was the easy part, the part before their own forces became as or more diffuse than the grimm, spread out by the necessity of holding or retaking the nearby buildings or holding the ways open to the fairgrounds and the docks.

Nevertheless, it was an achievement. It was stage one accomplished.

"Listen up, everyone who's not a huntsman!" Rainbow shouted. "We are going to get you out of here. As we speak, some of our fellow students are securing the docking pads, and once we've opened up a safe path for you, then airships are going to start taking you up to the Amity Arena where you'll be safe! But until that route opens up, just stay here and don't worry; we're here to protect you."

"Would you like me to patch you through to all the other students?" Midnight asked, her voice appearing from somewhere behind — no, it was from down around the small of Rainbow's back.

Rainbow instinctually looked around, her body twisting at the waist. "Midnight? Where—?"

"What you were doing sounded a lot more fun than hanging around with Twilight up in the Colosseum," Midnight explained matter-of-factly. "So I hitched a ride on your scroll."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You can do that? Wow, you're advanced."

"Why, thank you, Rainbow Dash. You're my new favourite."

"Sure I am," Rainbow muttered. "But that's a great idea, patch me through."

"Coming right up," Midnight said. There was a moment's pause before she added, "You're on."

"Huntsmen and huntresses, this is Rainbow Dash of Atlas Academy," Rainbow said. "For those of you who have been down at Beacon the whole time, reinforcements have just landed from the Amity Arena to assist you and evacuate all the civilians out of the school. All teams should try and regroup at the fairgrounds, the courtyard, or the docking pads, whichever is closest to you, especially if you have civilians with you. Once you get there, report to me at the courtyard, Yang Xiao Long at the docking pads, or Violet Valeria at the fairgrounds for further instructions."

"Rainbow Dash?" Trixie's voice emerged from behind Rainbow. "Is Trixie glad to hear from you!"

"Trixie, where are you?" Rainbow asked. "What's your status?"

"Trixie is at the fairground with Starlight and Sunburst, and our status is…" Trixie paused. "Tempest didn't make it."

I guess Cinder was wrong about her, Rainbow thought. A shame she had to earn her spot on These Are My Jewels to prove it. A terrible shame. "I'm sorry to hear that," she murmured. "I'm gonna send Maud to get you back up to full strength; Maud—"

"I'm on my way," Maud said, her voice slow and even and a contrast to the speed with which she moved; she practically disappeared, she was so fast, a grey streak soon lost in the darkness.

"Maud?" Starlight asked. "Maud Pie?"

"The one and only," Rainbow said. "I'm sure you've done a great job, but report to Violet Valeria; she's in charge in your sector. Company commanders, what's your status?"

"We've taken the docking pads themselves," Yang said. "But there's some grimm between us and where you are."

"We've taken the courtyard too, so you send someone to fight their way down, we'll send someone to fight their way up, we should catch them in a pincer," Rainbow said. "Violet, what's Charlie Company's status?"

"We're doing what we can," Violet said. "But it's a big fairground, and there's a lot of grimm around here. I don't know if I can hold the perimeter and send anyone towards the courtyard."

"Okay, leave that part to me; I'll send teams through to you," Rainbow said.

She jumped down off the now-empty rock where the statues had once stood. Blake leapt down beside her. Having completed stage one of the battle, the more difficult stage two opened up before her and her team — and all of them, actually, spread out across the school. They'd taken the courtyard, yes, but there were still grimm out there — she could still see a few pairs of red eyes gleaming in the dark, although after Ciel shot a couple of them, the others mostly slunk away, deeper into the cover of night where not even their eyes could be seen — and holding the courtyard, even with the civilians there sheltering beneath their protection, was almost meaningless if they couldn't open up a safe route to get them from Beacon completely. Not to mention the fact that the courtyard was the most vulnerable location to a grimm counterattack, with a lot of buildings overlooking it — the dining hall to the south where flames flickered and burned within, the dormitories directly in front of them, the main school building with all the classrooms and the amphitheatre, both to the north — where grimm could approach through cover, and nobody would see them coming unless Rainbow did something to secure the buildings.

That was why she'd given herself the greater share of the forces — although, perhaps she should have strengthened Charlie Company as well — because, although they'd taken the courtyard quickly through force concentration, she now risked spreading her strength out so much that they were vulnerable to a grimm counterattack.

And yet, she couldn't not spread them out, or she'd leave the grimm with easy avenues of approach, not to mention the need to link up with the fairgrounds and the docks.

Since Yang was coming down the road from the docking pad, which was more than could be said for anyone from Charlie Company at the moment, Rainbow sent only a single team, Shade's Team GEAR, one of only two Shade teams to descend from Amity, up the road to meet them; the other effort, towards the fairgrounds, she stacked a little more, with Team UMBR and Team ABRN jointly leading the effort in that direction, although Rainbow gave them the job of securing the dining hall as well. Team SABR led the push forward into the dormitories, while Team WWSR spearheaded the push north to the classrooms.

"You don't need to clear the whole building; just make sure the grimm can't use it as an approach," Rainbow said.

"What about survivors?" asked Russel Thrush.

"If you can search for them without leaving your rear undefended, then do it," Rainbow said, "but protecting the flank of the courtyard comes first."

Weiss bowed forty-five degrees from the waist before leading her team off, with the other teams following behind her.

That left Rainbow with just a couple of teams to play with holding the courtyard and possibly reinforcing anyone who got into trouble — plus, Blake, Ciel, Rarity, and herself. She had hope that other teams would make their way to the courtyard and boost the overall numbers — where were Lyra and Bon Bon? — but until or unless they did, there wasn't a lot left.

"Yang," Rainbow said. "Can you spare someone to check out the amphitheatre? I'm running a little low on teams."

There was the sound of Yang's gauntlets going off, followed by an explosion. "If you can give me a few minutes, I should be able to manage that," Yang replied.

"Awesome," Rainbow said. "Anyone who needs assistance, just shout up; we'll do what we can." She started to reload her shotgun, pulling the shells out and feeding them one at a time into the loading gate. "What is it, Ciel: up, through snow and storm like death?"

"Quite," Ciel replied. "And may the Lady steel our hearts, strengthen our arms, and judge us mercifully, if need be."

"Mmm-hmm," Neon added, from out of either Rainbow or Ciel's scrolls.

Rainbow pulled her goggles down over her eyes as she walked to the edge of the courtyard, to where the lights did not shine, and briefly turned on the night vision mode in order to scan the darkness. There were … no, there were some grimm still out there, she hadn't seen them at first, but now she did, a few more beowolves slinking this way and that on all fours, down low, looking almost more like Mistralian beowolves than the Valish kind. Mistralian beowolves were bigger for some reason, with broader limbs and thicker bodies, and they moved on all fours, more like real wolves. Valish beowolves were leaner, wirier, and they were as much or more comfortable up on their hind legs, using their forelegs like arms. Except these ones were moving around on all fours, probably to keep their profiles low. They could see Rainbow Dash — they were looking right at her, and their eyes were solid points of bright colour in the night vision — but they didn't move to attack her, in spite of seeming quite young and immature, without much bone to speak of.

There's another alpha out here; I just can't see it, Rainbow thought. She looked around, first left, then right, but she still couldn't see the alpha. A dispersed pack, with the alpha somewhere out of sight, either in cover or else deep into those parts of the grounds they had already overrun?

It was possible. It was also possible that these beowolves were just smart for juveniles. Smart enough not to attack all by themselves.

Not smart enough to back away when they saw that I could see them, Rainbow thought. Holding Undying Loyalty in one hand, she drew Plain Awesome with her left and carefully took aim.

She opened fire, squeezing the trigger then unsqueezing it, firing very short bursts so that the kick didn't throw her aim off — distance and darkness meant that missing wouldn't be difficult — towards the young beowolves that she could see.

That made them attack. They rushed towards her, five of them, staying on all fours to keep their profile low.

Rainbow heard the snap of Gambol Shroud firing from behind and to her left. Two beowolves went down almost at the same time, then another, then another, and there was only one beowolf left to make a flying leap towards Rainbow, forepaws outstretched.

Rainbow holstered Plain Awesome and raised Undying Loyalty to let the beowolf have it. Her shotgun roared, and only the ashes of the grimm brushed lightly past her face as its body dissolved.

There were no other grimm that she could see.

"Do you think they'll be back?" Blake asked.

"Midnight," Rainbow said softly. "Put me on mute for a second." She didn't want everyone on the battlefield to hear everything that she was saying.

"You're muted," Midnight replied. "Except from me, obviously."

"Thanks," Rainbow said softly. She began to back away towards the courtyard and the broken statue. "Yeah, I think they'll be back," she said. "I think they're gathering numbers, and they're gonna make another push once they think they have enough grimm."

"Do you think they know you've just sent most of our huntsmen away?" Blake asked.

"I think maybe those beowolves there were scouting," Rainbow replied. "But I don't know whether to answer that I hope not, because they'll spend longer getting ready, or I hope so because they'll try an indirect approach and run into Sabre or Wisteria or one of the other teams sent out to guard the indirect approaches."

Blake nodded, if only a little bit. "It feels wrong to wait here, doing nothing, with Weiss and the others sent off to fight."

"We're not doing nothing; we're holding this position," Rainbow said. "But if it makes you feel any better — although it shouldn't — if anyone gets into trouble and calls for backup, I'll be sending you. Do you still remember how to work alone?"

"'Alone'?" Blake repeated.

"Like I told Yang, there aren't a lot of teams to send," Rainbow replied. "But I can send you, Ciel … and then I'll have to go myself."

"And Rarity?"

"I'm not sending her anywhere by herself," Rainbow said, sharply even though she kept quiet. "I don't mind she's here, she can take care of herself, but even if she'd gone to the academy, she still wouldn't be 'solo mission' good; she's not you."

"Thanks," Blake murmured, dryly. "I—" She turned around, in the direction of the dorm buildings. "Ruby?"

Rainbow turned in Blake's direction, to see that Team SAPR had just emerged from out of the dormitory: Pyrrha first, then Jaune, then Penny.

Jaune was carrying Ruby in his arms.

Blake was the first to move in their direction, with Rainbow starting a step behind her but swiftly overtaking to reach them first. The way that Ruby wasn't moving, the way that she was just lying there while Jaune cradled her form, it made Rainbow fear the worst, that they had gotten there too late, that Ruby had … but there were no visible injuries on her, no claw marks or bite marks, no blood at all. It was like she was sleeping, not dead. Sleeping in Jaune's arms, deaf to all the battle going on around her.

"What happened?" Rainbow asked, keeping her voice low so as not to wake Ruby up — maybe that was stupid, but it was instinctual; you just didn't go around being loud around sleeping people; it was rude — and also so that they weren't overhead by too many other people.

"We found Ruby like this, in our dorm room," Penny answered, being a little quiet herself.

"And Amber?" Blake asked, also speaking in a hushed whisper. "Dove?"

"We…" Penny hesitated. "We didn't see them, we…" She looked at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha leaned forward, to speak more closely into Rainbow's ear. "If you see Amber, be wary of her; we think she did this to Ruby."

"WHAT?" Rainbow exclaimed, the tact and politeness of quiet around sleeping people forgotten as the word galloped out of her mouth. Amber had … seriously? Why would Pyrrha even say something like that?

"There's no sign of Amber or Dove, and we can't wake Ruby," Pyrrha replied. "Amber's semblance has the power to put people to sleep and…" Pyrrha's face flushed with colour. "Cinder warned us last night that Amber was going to betray us."

"Cinder…?" Rainbow gasped.

"General Ironwood didn't say anything about that," Blake murmured.

"Nobody believed her," Pyrrha explained. "Although perhaps we should. Please, take care around her."

"Okay," Rainbow said softly, although she wasn't sure how much good taking care was going to do them. If Amber chose to use that semblance on them, like she'd used it on Ruby — apparently; Pyrrha could be wrong — then there didn't seem to be much that she could do about it. On the other hand, if Amber didn't use her semblance, then … it was Amber; she was — or seemed to be — nice enough, but she didn't seem a fighter. She seemed like she'd faint if you said 'boo' to her.

Then again, Fluttershy seemed that way as well, and yet, anyone who thought that would be mistaken. Sometimes, you had to dig to fight the hidden metal underneath.

Or the hidden rot. Could Amber really have betrayed us? And why? Why would she side with the people who scarred her face and stole half her magic?

"What do you plan to do now?" Rainbow asked.

"We're taking Ruby to Professor Ozpin," Penny replied. "To see if he can help her and to tell him about Amber."

"Okay, but I'm not sure anyone's certain where Professor Ozpin is, and I don't know what the situation's like around the CCT," Rainbow warned them. "So watch yourselves out there."


When they had descended in their Skyray down onto the courtyard, Pyrrha had seen the top of the Emerald Tower and seen that there were no grimm flying around it, as though the lights themselves kept the monsters at bay.

It seemed that those same lights had less power when further away, because there were plenty of grimm around the base of the tower when the three — four, with the unconscious Ruby still cradled in Jaune's arms — of them reached it. The square before the tower, what might be called Beacon's second courtyard, which had no statue but did have the Beacon symbol of the crossed axes painted in white across the stone, was crawling with the creatures: beowolves, ursai, one or two large and ape-like beringels with arms as thick as the supporting columns that jutted out from the CCT, around and beneath which the grimm moved without opposition.

There was no one that they could see protecting the tower, and yet, the grimm were making no moves to get inside it; at least, from where Pyrrha, Jaune, and Penny crouched behind a column and a low wall overlooking the square, it didn't look as though they were trying to do so. Although they prowled around the square, stepping with wild abandon upon the painted Beacon axes beneath them, not only did they fail to approach the door, they did not even try to climb the steps that led up to the door.

Perhaps there really was something about the tower that kept them away. Perhaps the fear of Professor Ozpin drove them to keep their distance.

Although the fear of him had not prevented them from attacking Beacon, and it had to be said that whatever power the tower possessed, it was not keeping the grimm at any great distance away.

The square itself still thronged with the creatures of grimm, after all, and they would have to pass through said square in order to reach the tower.

Could Pyrrha and Penny fight them all, while Jaune was effectively out of action carrying Ruby? Perhaps, but could they do so while guaranteeing the protection of Jaune and Ruby? Pyrrha would not like to take that risk. Could Jaune leave Ruby somewhere hidden until they had cleared out the grimm? Again, perhaps, but what if something found Ruby, sleeping and defenceless?

Pyrrha would have been tempted to suggest asking Rainbow Dash for help, but she seemed to be stretched, even with all the teams and students that had come down with them from Amity, and they had to put the evacuation first.

No, this would be something that they would have to do themselves.

Perhaps simply running for the door and hoping the grimm didn't catch them? But what if the … the spell, for want of a better word, protecting the tower faded, and the grimm pursued them there? That was a risk, but despite it, flight might still be a better option in the circumstances than fight.

"Do either of you have an idea?" Penny asked. "I'm not sure."

"No," Jaune said at once. "I don't."

Pyrrha glanced at him. "You said that very quickly."

Jaune blinked. "What do you mean? I don't have an idea, so I said so."

"But you didn't even think about it," Pyrrha pointed out.

"I have been thinking about it, and I didn't come up with anything," Jaune insisted. "Pyrrha, where are you going with this?"

"I'm not sure; why don't you want to share your plan?" asked Pyrrha.

Jaune looked at her. "What makes you think that I have a plan?"

"I … you could call it intuition, I suppose," Pyrrha said softly. "Just … something about your response seemed a little … not yourself."

Jaune was silent for a moment. A sigh escaped his lips. "Okay, so I do have an idea," he admitted. "But I'm not gonna say it because … it asks too much of you."

Pyrrha smiled slightly. "Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

Jaune sighed again. "I was thinking that if you caused a distraction, then I could run across the courtyard with Ruby and get into the tower before the grimm realised. Then you and Penny — who would cover you from here — could follow."

Pyrrha looked away, her eyes scanning the grimm that crowded the square. "Very well," she said. "Be ready to move when the grimm start to descend upon me."

"But there are so many—" Jaune began.

"I don't have to fight them all," Pyrrha reminded him. "Just distract them, as you said. And I don't think any of us have any better ideas, in any case."

"No," Penny said. "I don't. But are you sure you can do it, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha nodded. "With good fortune, I think so."

"Okay," Penny said, her voice firm. "Then I'll cover you."

“You should move with me, first,” Pyrrha pointed out. “If you start shooting from here, then the grimm might notice Jaune and Ruby, too.”

“Good point,” Penny said. “Lead the way. I’ll follow you.”

Pyrrha crept away from Jaune and Ruby, moving crouched down, feeling very conscious as she moved that her outfit was not in the least designed for stealth; rather, her armour was such as the moonlight would glimmer off it, her circlet would shine where her hair did not conceal it, her skin was in many places bare to the world. That would all stand her in good stead when the time came to reveal herself and dare the grimm to do their worst, but right now, it was — or it felt — very conspicuous indeed.

And yet, the grimm did not spot her. Pyrrha was able to move in her gilded greaves and cuisses and her corset-cuirass with its gilded strip down the front and her gorget and all the rest, and there was no howl of alarm raised, no great roar that announced she had become the target of the grimm gathered in the square.

What are they doing? She wondered. What are they waiting for?

Whatever the answers — and Pyrrha could not begin to guess at them — she was able to make it to the corner of the square away from Jaune and slumbering Ruby. If she could lure the grimm in this direction, or even further, then Jaune should be able to make it into the tower with Ruby.

Then it would simply be a matter of Pyrrha and Penny doing the same.

The swords of Floating Array emerged behind Penny but did not separate yet. They remained clumped together in a single mass, ready to deploy.

“Are you ready, Pyrrha?”

“Yes, I am,” Pyrrha said. “Don’t shoot until they’ve started to engage me; otherwise, you will be their focus.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad,” Penny pointed out.

“Perhaps not, but it would leave me with little to do,” Pyrrha replied, trying to put on a light tone. “Best if you let me draw their attention while you provide support.”

“Right,” Penny said. “Do your best.”

“I hope I shall,” Pyrrha murmured.

She took a deep breath in and out.

Pyrrha stood up and left the crouching Penny behind as she strode out onto the square. Her sash swayed loosely at her hip as she walked slowly into view, her footfalls echoed on the stones of the square.

She pulled Miló and Akoúo̱ over her shoulders; Miló shifted into sword mode with a succession of clicks and clanks.

That sound, the sound of her footsteps, the fact that Pyrrha had ceased to make any effort to conceal herself as she walked in an even pace, back straight, head up, ponytail bouncing up and down behind her, all of that meant that some of the grimm were taking notice of her even before she had approached an almost comically confused-looking beowolf and cut off its head in one smooth stroke.

“My name is Pyrrha Nikos!” Pyrrha cried, spreading her arms out on either side of her. “I am the daughter of Hippolyta Nikos, and Achilles was my father!”

She tried to think of something else to say, some quote, something from The Mistraliad, or Tarpeia Thrax’s words for Prince Pyrrhus … but the ones that she could think of sounded too melodramatic for the situation, and those that might have been more appropriate were, unfortunately, not coming to mind. Perhaps there really was nothing to be said that was not too melodramatic, too self-important, too heavy with the weight of impending death.

The grimm began to advance upon her, from all parts of the square closing in around her, forming a loose but steadily closing ring. Beowolves and ursai descended onto all fours, bearing their teeth in her direction.

“Come and get me,” she said. It was not very dramatic, but it was all she could think of.

She charged straight ahead, and the grimm rushed to meet her, a thousand roaring growls erupting out of their throats.

“Eulalia! For Mistral!” Pyrrha cried. She did not use war cries very often, let alone the cries to gods that she did not honour, but she was trying to attract attention after all, and the more noise she made, the better. She had no horn to sound, but she had a voice to raise, and so she let the ancient cry charge from her lips in answer to the grimm. “Eulalia!”

A creep opened its snapping jaws, but Pyrrha kicked it hard enough to send it flying into a nearby beowolf. The beowolf recoiled, and Pyrrha was on it, slashing with Miló once, twice, spinning on her toe and reversing the blade to stab the grim for one final stroke. She spun again, using Akoúo̱ to take the stroke of a beowolf’s paw before hitting the grimm with it and physically forcing it out of her way, opening up a space for her to run. She had to keep moving. If she stopped and stood still, then the grimm would overwhelm her. No matter what, she had to keep moving, like Juturna running around the walls of Mistral — except that, unlike Juturna, she couldn’t run circuits because, if she did that, she would pass the doors, and that would defeat the whole object.

But she had to keep moving nonetheless, so long as she kept moving only in certain areas.

She killed another creep by stamping on it hard enough to shatter its skull. An ursa, down on all fours, tried to physically place itself athwart her path as two beowolves closed in from either side. Pyrrha threw Akoúo̱ at one, knocking it backwards, and threw Miló at the other, burying the blade in the grimm’s chest, as she ran straight for the ursa.

With her right hand, she grabbed her fluttering sash so that only her hair flew behind her as she leapt over the ursa. The grimm’s jaws closed on the empty air — missing her sash, or Pyrrha would have been in difficulty — as Pyrrha rolled down its back and landed on the ground in a crouch.

The black outline of Polarity consumed her hands and arms as she summoned Miló and Akoúo̱ back to her; her fingers closed around the sword as the shield took its accustomed place upon her arm.

Pyrrha charged, sash and hair alike now both streaming out behind her as she brought up Akoúo̱ before her face. She slammed bodily into a beowolf, bearing it back as it tried to reach its legs around her shield, and while she bore it back, she stabbed it twice in quick succession before throwing it aside.

There were grimm chasing her now, the hue and cry well and truly raised, but there were other grimm trying to get ahead of her, trying to block off her passage so that she could be surrounded and torn to pieces. Green beams of light lanced into the grimm that tried to block her way, scattering and disordering them, striking them down as they ran this way and that in their confusion.

Pyrrha skidded under an ursa major’s swiping paws, slashing at its leg as she went but not staying to do more. She didn’t need to kill the grimm; she just needed to keep their attention.

Although she certainly would kill them if she could: she nearly decapitated a beowolf with a well-aimed throw of Akoúo̱; the shield flew back onto her arm.

Pyrrha glanced behind her and saw that a couple of ursa might be more interested in Penny than in her. She switched Miló quickly from sword to rifle mode and backed away, snapping off a pair of shots into the offending grimm.

“Here!” she shouted. “Here, I’m here! Follow—”

Her words were cut off as something very big and very heavy slammed into her from the side, moving too fast for her to avoid it, lifting her up and hurling her across the square, where she landed on the paving stones with a hard thump that dented her aura. She bounced, rolling as she bounced, before she came to rest with her hair all askew and her arms spread out on either side, lying on her back.

What just—?

A beowolf. A beowolf had just hit her. A beowolf had just flown into her, and it lay beside her, on its belly, growling softly as it breathed heavily in and out.

Pyrrha rolled half upright, crouched down, and drove Miló into the back of the beowolf’s neck before it could get up.

Then, without waiting to watch it die, she turned in the direction that it had come from.

The beringel laughed softly, or least, it sounded like a laugh, a guttural sound like a saw moving back and forth.

Pyrrha switched Miló into spear mode for greater reach, as she stepped into a low stance, knees bent, spear drawn back, Akoúo̱ held before her.

The beringel picked up another nearby beowolf and threw it at her. Pyrrha dodged this one, swaying to one side and letting the squawking grimm pass by.

Then she charged.

She charged, but not at the beringel. While she had little doubt that she could kill the creature, she was less certain of her ability to kill it quickly, and to become bogged down in any single battle here would put her in a deal of trouble, even with all the support that Penny was providing as her lasers lanced out of the dark to pierce the grimm from flank and rear.

So she feinted towards the beringel only to dart away, throwing Miló before her to hit an ursa squarely in the chest. Her single stroke was not enough to slay it, but she did knock it onto its hind legs so that she could leap over it.

Her right hand was wreathed on the black outline of Polarity as she spun her spear in a wide ring all around her, keeping the grimm at bay.

The beringel roared in frustration; it threw more things at her: more hapless beowolves who howled as they sailed through the air or else stones ripped from the courtyard and hurled at Pyrrha, who had her work cut out swaying and skidding and dodging the array of missiles flung her way.

"PYRRHA!" Jaune yelled, his voice cutting through the darkness. "I MADE IT!"

A smile crossed Pyrrha's face as she took a beowolf's charge upon her shield and flung the grimm up and over her head.

She did not stop to slay the grimm; she left it behind as she ran, slashing her spear as she went to keep the grimm at bay, for one of the supporting pillars that rose out of the ground before angling towards the tower itself.

Pyrrha didn't know if they served some greater than artistic function; it didn't much matter at this stage.

She slew two beowolves who tried to stand before her and was grateful to Penny for several laser bolts that finished off an ursa before she had to confront it, and then she threw Akoúo̱ outwards and upwards towards the pillar.

Pyrrha leapt after it, only to be interrupted in mid-leap by a beowolf flung her way by the beringel. It did not hit — Pyrrha twisted in mud air like a salmon leaping from the river — but she fumbled her grasp at Akoúo̱ and landed down upon the ground again.

The beringel huffed and slammed its fists into the ground in quick succession like a drumbeat, shattering the stones beneath its knuckles.

A volley of laser bolts slammed into the beringel's back. The grimm gave a hostile growl as it turned in Penny's direction.

Pyrrha leapt upright and leapt again, summoning Akoúo̱ back down towards her so that she could grab it by the lip with one hand. With a heave, she pulled herself up, kicking a beowolf in the snarling skull when it sought to leap after her, and planted her legs upon her shield and used it as the platform for a further leap, where she jammed Miló into the high metal pillar and hung there by one hand.

She summoned Akoúo̱ back to her and slung it across her back.

Pyrrha was high above the grimm now, the beowolves scrambling about below, trying to climb up after but not having much success. The beringels, with their fondness for throwing things, presented much more difficulty, but Pyrrha didn't intend to be here for long.

"Penny!" Pyrrha shouted. "Don't use your semblance!"

Hopefully, Penny heard and understood, but Pyrrha had no time to wait for an answer as several grimm were already advancing in Penny's direction, including the beowolf-tossing beringel.

Pyrrha stretched out her free hand, wreathed in Polarity, and closed the hand of her semblance around Penny.

Penny did not resist with Freedom, that was very good. Rather, she folded up Floating Array behind her as Pyrrha lifted her through the air, over the heads of the grimm, and swung her around the tower and set her down out of Pyrrha's sight, but what she thought must be before the doors.

Pyrrha kicked off her lofty purchase, pulling Miló free of where she had rammed it, turning as she fell to land on her feet, for all that the impact jarred up her legs and jarred her aura, too.

Then she ran, ignoring the grimm who started to pursue her except inasmuch as she sought to get away from them. She ran, and her sash waved in the faces of her pursuers like an invitation as it fluttered behind her, the object of many snapping jaws as grimm ran hard upon her heels.

Pyrrha saw Penny waiting in the open doorway as she rounded the curve of the tower, and Penny once more gave her some covering fire, bolts flying past Pyrrha's face in both directions as she sounded up the steps.

Penny retreated moments before Pyrrha leapt through the open doorway.

Jaune slammed the doors shut behind her.

Pyrrha expected to hear beringel fists pounding upon the door, to hear the scratching of beowolf claws upon it, but she didn't. She heard nothing, not a pound or scratch or growl or roar.

It seemed that, once more, whatever power kept the grimm at bay from the tower had taken hold and offered them sanctuary.

"I don't understand," Pyrrha murmured. "Why don't they try to follow?"

"Maybe," Jaune began. "Maybe they don't want to provoke Ozpin?"

"The school is under attack; how much more provocation is needed?" asked Pyrrha.

"I don't know," Penny said. "But maybe we should be glad that we knew just where to find him?"

She was clutching at her chest with one hand, as though she were suffering from heartburn — or a heart attack.

Pyrrha frowned. "Penny, are you alright?"

Penny smiled, but it was a smile possessed of a slightly wan quality. "I'll be fine, but … well … no, no, it's fine, it's nothing."

"It does not sound fine or nothing," Pyrrha pointed out.

Penny hesitated. "Well … when you use your semblance on me, it… it hurts. In my chest."

"Penny!" Pyrrha cried. She started to reach out for Penny, then drew back, fearing to compound the offence. "Penny, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." Though with hindsight, she supposed that she ought to have done: magnets and computers did not mix, after all. The thought of what kind of damage she could have done to Penny, of what kind of damage she might have already done, it chilled her stomach just to contemplate it. "I will do better from now on, you have my word."

"This is why I didn't want to tell you," Penny said. "I didn't want you to feel guilty or start treating me differently—"

"Have I not already been treating you differently by using my semblance on you simply because your body is made of metal?" Pyrrha asked.

"But I know why you did it," Penny replied. "And I would have had a hard time getting across the square otherwise." She smiled. "My legs aren't as long as yours. And with my semblance, I can always stop you if it gets too bad."

"I suppose that's all true," Pyrrha allowed. "But nonetheless, I'll try to be more careful and considerate in future."

"Speaking of using your semblance," Jaune said, "how's your aura?"

"I … suppose that I did make rather a lot of use of it out there," Pyrrha admitted. "Can you spare your own aura?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Jaune replied confidently.

"Are you sure?"

"If you can hear a plan that uses you as the bait, I can decide whether or not I have enough aura left, don't you think?" Jaune pointed out.

"Yes, yes, that seems fair," Pyrrha admitted. "But perhaps that should wait until we're in the elevator and on our way up to see Professor Ozpin."

Pyrrha bent down and picked up Ruby off the floor, where Jaune must have placed her when he got inside. She had not woken, she had not stirred, there was no sign that any of the night’s alarms had disturbed her sleep in any way. She looked completely placid and utterly lost to the waking world.

Pyrrha hoped she was at least having pleasant dreams.

The CCT was empty apart from the four of them, which was at once both surprising and utterly unsurprising; unsurprising that the tower was not a buzzing hive of activity, with grimm right outside and everything going on, but at the same time, Pyrrha found herself a little surprised that nobody, not a single soul, had fled here to take refuge. Surely, so notable a landmark as the CCT would be a magnet for the fearful?

Unless they had all taken the elevator up to one of the higher floors, fearing that the lobby was too vulnerable to the grimm?

That would make sense.

In any case, they had the lobby to themselves; the soft green lights, never bright but not dimmed by the battle either, enveloped them. Combined with the lack of noise from the grimm outside, it was almost as if, by stepping through those incongruously wooden-looking doors, they had somehow been transported to a different world, safer and more peaceful.

They walked quickly across that more peaceful world to reach the elevator, climbing inside, where Penny pushed the button to take them all the way up to Professor Ozpin's office.

As the elevator ground upwards — the sloth of its movement seemed less forgivable now than it had been; Pyrrha was tempted to give it a shove with her semblance but feared that she might break it in the process — Jaune placed his hands on both their shoulders, and the light of his semblance embraced them both.

The warm light engulfed Pyrrha, the prickly but pleasant sensation tickling her skin like a shower washing over her. Jaune's semblance, the feel of it, the warmth, the comfort, the feeling of both a reviving shower and a comfortable blanket all at the same time, it always made Pyrrha feel so much better.

And yet, in the instance, even Jaune's semblance could not wash away all tension from her, nor stop it returning as he took his hands off her and Penny both. There was just a little too much for him to relieve her of it all, from the fate of Ruby sleeping in her arms to the fact of Amber's treachery — which she had known of and ignored — to what Amber might be doing or might plan to do next.

There was simply too much to be unhappy of, too much even for a shower of renewing light to take away.

The elevator stopped, and the door opened with a grinding sound.

They stepped out into Professor Ozpin's office. It was dark, as it so often was, but seemed even more dark than usual; at night, there was usually some kind of light, something coming from the desk which illuminated the headmaster, if no one and nothing else, and illuminated Professor Ozpin's work for him as he burned the midnight dust. Now, there was nothing, no light save only the light of the moon outside, and the stars where they were not interrupted by clouds or airships or grimm. The lights of the Emerald Tower burned yet, visible from without, but it seemed that within, they had no light to guide them.

The moonlight fell upon Professor Ozpin, making his white hair gleam in the darkness; he had his back to them, looking out of the window. Pyrrha thought that he could see the docks from there; was he looking down to see Yang and her company fighting to hold the docking pads?

Pyrrha half-hoped, half-feared to see it herself as she walked further into the office, closer to the headmaster's desk, closer to the headmaster, passing beneath the shadows of the grinding gears.

Professor Ozpin gave no acknowledgement, no sign that he was aware of them. He was as still as any statue, his eyes fixed upon whatever it was that he beheld out of the window that so preoccupied him.

“Professor?” Penny asked tremulously. “Professor Ozpin?”

Professor Ozpin looked up, whirling around to face them. “Miss Polendina, Miss … what are you doing here, you should— Miss Rose?!”

He strode towards them, marching past his desk to bear down on Pyrrha. He stood over her, and over Ruby where she lay in Pyrrha’s arms. He put one hand upon her forehead. “What happened to her?” He looked up, and looked around. “Where is Amber? Is she safe? Why didn’t you bring her with you?”

“Professor…” Penny began, but trailed off.

“Professor Ozpin…” Pyrrha murmured, but found that she, too, was unable to speak further. It had to be done, it had to be said, he had to be told, but … but it was a hard thing to say, to tell. It was very hard indeed. Hard to know where to start.

Hard to know how to do it gently, if it was possible to do it gently at all.

Professor Ozpin looked from Pyrrha to Penny, to Jaune, then back to Pyrrha. “Well?” he said impatiently. “One of you, speak. Where is she, what has…?” He paused, and swallowed. His face, which was never a great fount of colour, paled. “No,” he whispered, taking a step backwards. “No, no, say not that she has—”

“I don’t think so, Professor,” Pyrrha said quickly. “We don’t think so, but … but … but we … I fear that Cinder may have been correct.”

“'Cinder'?” Professor Ozpin repeated, as though Pyrrha had just said the most stupid thing that he had ever heard in all his years of teaching. “'Cinder'? Miss Fall, what do you…?” He trailed off. He straightened somewhat, his shadow seeming to lengthen in the moonlight as he pushed his spectacles up his nose. His voice, when it came next, was calmer than it had been, and colder too, as cold as the air up in this lofty tower. “I advise you not to explain yourself, Miss Nikos.”

“We found Ruby like this, in our dorm room,” Pyrrha explained. “With no sign of Amber or Dove. Professor, you must know what Amber’s semblance is.”

“Correlation is not proof, Miss Nikos; I’m disappointed that I need to point that out to you.”

“I like this no better than you—”

“I doubt that, Miss Nikos.”

“But Cinder—”

“I will not take the word of that slithering serpent over my own child!” Professor Ozpin shouted. “Bad enough I must give credence to her hissing when it comes to a trusted friend and colleague of many years, but Amber? A girl I have known all her life, someone I have watched grow and blossom into … no. No, I will not. I will not countenance it. I will not stoop so low; I will not debase myself, nor disgrace Amber by suspicion.”

He turned away from them. “In the whole history of this circle, no Maiden has ever succumbed to the allure of the darkness. They have been hunted, they have been murdered for their powers, but none have ever fallen.”

“Pallas Kommenos, Professor,” Pyrrha said, taking a step forward, closer towards him. “The Empress’ childhood companion, her favourite, some suggest even her lover. Bearer of Soteria. When another Red Queen arose in Mistral, to whom did the Empress turn but to her most loyal servant, to take her black sword and warriors beneath the Imperial standard to put this monster down before she could wreak the havoc of her predecessor? And Pallas went and struck down that latest Red Queen, splitting her head open with Soteria. And the moment that the power passed to her, the Maiden’s power, she proclaimed herself the Empress of Mistral and bid all her warriors bow down before her or die.”

“She was not a true Maiden,” Professor Ozpin replied sharply. “She came by the power in blood, as all the other unworthy and false usurpers of that era did; she was not chosen through the proper line of succession.”

“No one likes the fact that we have to think this,” Jaune insisted. “It … it shouldn’t be easy, to suspect your friends … or the people you care about.” He looked away. “But … but it makes sense, with the way we found Ruby, with the fact that Amber was gone—”

“There could be other explanations.”

“We thought the same thing, when Pyrrha told us,” Penny declared. “Neither Jaune nor I wanted to believe it. I understand why you and Pyrrha and Sunset didn’t believe it either, but … what else could put Ruby to sleep like that? Why won’t she wake up?”

“She might have used her silver eyes,” Professor Ozpin pointed out. “The last time rendered her comatose.”

“And we carried her to safety, Professor; why wouldn’t Amber and Dove do the same?” Pyrrha asked. She paused. “When Cinder told us that Amber had betrayed us to Salem, we didn’t want to believe her. We thought that she was lying, Sunset directly accused her of it—”

“She had no proof,” Professor Ozpin pointed out.

“But what motive did she have to lie to us?” Pyrrha asked. “With … with our minds unclouded by our affection for Amber, or at least a little less clouded, surely, Cinder would have to know that she wouldn’t be believed. What purpose did it serve other than to cast doubt on the rest of her story?”

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. “You think … you think that Amber used her semblance to send Miss Rose to sleep so that she could steal away unnoticed?” he asked softly.

“Yes, Professor,” Pyrrha replied, her voice equally soft, if not softer.

“You believe that … that she…” Professor Ozpin seemed to age before her eyes, the lines on his face deepening, his shadow diminishing, shrinking away from her. “That she has betrayed us. Betrayed … me.”

Pyrrha swallowed. “I fear so, Professor.”

Professor Ozpin looked down at the floor. “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth,” he murmured. Again, he pushed his glasses up his nose; this time, his hand shook as he raised it. “Was she really so unhappy? Did she truly hate me so? Did I use her so ill?”

You bestowed a cruel fate upon her, a fate that she could not escape, save by death or treason. You asked much of her. She thought about what Sunset had said, about how, in her world, great power was only bestowed after one had proven themselves worthy of it. It is a pity that Amber was not given the chance to prove herself unworthy before the power and the responsibility were thrust upon her.

“Everyone wants to be free,” Penny said quietly. “At least, I think they do. I know I did. And Amber never wanted this, never wanted any part in this. She didn’t choose it. She just wanted to be free, she wants to be free, and I understand why, because freedom … freedom is the most wonderful gift in the world; it’s the thing that makes everything else worthwhile.” She paused. “But I also don’t think it’s your fault, Professor. I don’t think you should blame yourself. Because if Amber wants to be free, then … then that means that she has to take responsibility for her own choices; she can’t ask anyone else to take them on for her.”

That was well said, in Pyrrha’s opinion, but if it gave Professor Ozpin any comfort, he did not show it. He walked away— no, he did not walk; rather, he slouched away with slumped shoulders and a crooked back, slouching towards his desk, where he placed his hands and leaned against the glass surface with his head bowed.

“Is there anything that you can do for Ruby?” Jaune asked. “Can you … break Amber’s semblance?”

“No,” Professor Ozpin replied, his voice tired, the word drawn out with weariness. “It may be that Miss Rose herself can do that, if she wishes to, but I cannot, save by breaking Amber’s aura.” He paused. “But you may leave her here; I think she will be safe enough.”

Jaune looked at Pyrrha. His mouth was fixed in a sort of wincing expression, one side open and square, the other tighter and more narrow. He did not look, to say the least, as though he found Professor Ozpin’s assurance very reassuring. But what choice did they have? Take Ruby with them? Into battle? No, no, in this, if nothing else, Professor Ozpin was right. She would be safer here.

“Thank you, Professor,” Pyrrha said, setting Ruby gently down in the centre of the room. Kneeling, she fussed a little with Ruby’s cape until it was draped across her torso like a blanket.

Though I know you wouldn’t wish to be sleeping, Ruby, I really do hope you’re having pleasant dreams.

It would be as well that someone is having a good night.

“What should we do now, Professor?” Penny asked.

Professor Ozpin mumbled something indistinct.

“Professor?” Penny repeated, taking a step forward. “Should … should we go to the Vault and guard the Relic?”

“Why should you listen to me?” Professor Ozpin mumbled, just loud enough for them to hear it.

“Because…” Penny looked helplessly to Pyrrha and Jaune. “Because you’re our leader.”

“A leader?” Professor Ozpin chuckled darkly. “Yes, and I have led so well. I have led so well that my friends and comrades, my most beloved betray me, that all my designs and good intentions turn to ash, that my own school is under attack.”

“Yes, Professor, it is,” Pyrrha said, getting up from off her knees. “What are you doing about it?”

Jaune looked around at her, eyes wide.

In the circumstances, I hope I can be forgiven for coming on strongly, Pyrrha thought.

“What can I do, Miss Nikos?” Professor Ozpin asked. “When there is no one I can trust to obey any commands that I might give?”

“You can trust us,” Penny said.

Professor Ozpin glanced at her over his shoulder. “Can I?” he asked, a mixture of scepticism and, worse, mockery in his voice.

He is a broken man, Pyrrha thought. This news of Amber, it has undone him.

I fear that he was creaking even before we brought the news, else why should he sit here like this, marooned in his tower while the very survival of Beacon hangs by a thread?

Professor Ozpin turned away. “General Ironwood has the command,” he declared. “Seek there for orders; ask him what he would have you do. All things are in his hands now.”

Pyrrha, Jaune, and Penny looked at one another.

I’m glad that the tower itself seems to be keeping grimm at bay, for I might not trust Professor Ozpin here with Ruby.

Pyrrha bowed her head. “Yes, Professor.”

Author's Note:

The picture is by Pao
I know that the intent from a couple of chapters ago that the teryx and the griffon escaping from the arena as a sign that Team SAPR was not as capable without Sunset didn't land with everyone, but I'm going to ask you to accept it anyway because this is part of it was in aid of: Jaune kind of realising that actually, yeah, they were better off with Sunset around than they are without and sending her away was not the smartest move.

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