Trump Card
Trump Card
The city of Vale stank with fear. Even Amber could sense it, while Sonata – who was stood on the rooftop beside her, softly crooning something beneath her breath that seemed to be making tendrils of green energy flow out of the gem around her neck; Amber flinched from those tendrils in fear, understanding not exactly what they were but only that she wanted to stay well away from them – seemed to be drinking it in with gleeful delight.
The screens that had been erected all over the city to show the Vytal Festival were still working, but now showed news reports of the battle going on at the outskirts of the city; or at least hey tried to. As Amber watched, a VNN bullhead that had been flying close to the Mistralian lines to catch a glimpse of the action there was destroyed as a nevermore swooped down upon it; the camera caught the grimm descending, and the feed was not quite cut in time to miss the beginning of the field correspondent screaming in terror as the creature began to devour him.
They cut to a woman in a safe room, or at least a safer room because there was no safe place in Vale right now, and in any case the woman in that safer room looked as frightened as Amber had felt every passing moment since Sunset had woken her up. Amber couldn’t hear what she was saying, but whatever it was – was she admitting to how afraid she was, or trying to conjure with a hope that was extinguished in her own heart – but it didn’t seem to be reassuring those gathered around the screens hoping for news.
There were no grimm in the city, but Amber could see that the mere fact of them being at the gates had set panic to work throughout all of Vale. On this day humanity had received a grim reminder that they lived in fear of the grimm, and there seemed precious little confidence in the ability of the armies of Atlas or Mistral to hold the line, in the prowess of the huntsmen to defend the city.
Where they fighting, out there? Amber’s eyes turned away from the streets and the frightened people seeking shelter down below, scurrying back and forth between the high buildings; she looked out to the northern edge of the city, to where the sky was filled with fire, just like her dreams: flashes in the sky, and flashes on the ground where men fought monsters. The warships were firing in directions, things were exploding in the night like deadly fireworks, some of the ships were exploding or crashing to the ground in enormous bursts of fire. So much fire lighting up the darkness, and still the darkness kept on coming.
She couldn’t tell who was winning…she wasn’t even sure who she wanted to win, but…but she hadn’t wanted this. This hadn’t been what she intended.
Amber clutched her hands together and bent inwards, bending her shoulders in on herself. She hadn’t wanted this. She’d wanted to be free, not…not this.
She wondered if they were fighting right now: Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby…not Sunset. Sunset had…Amber didn’t really understand what it was that Sunset had done, except that they were going to execute her for it. That was why she’d run, that was why she’d had no choice but to join Salem: Ozpin couldn’t keep anybody safe, and nobody else even wanted to try. They made you a part of this war whether you wanted to be or not, they made you fight, and then when you were of no more use to them they killed you. It was what they’d done to her mother, what they would have done to her if she’d given them the chance…and now they were doing it to Sunset too. It was almost enough to make her think that Vale deserved to fall for treating those it forced to be its defenders in such a way.
Almost, but not quite. Ozpin deserved this, but not the others; not the ones who had no idea what was going on. Not the ones who were just his pawns, not Ruby or Pyrrha or Jaune. Where they fighting? Probably, they were brave enough and foolish enough to fight in spite of the fact that Ozpin didn’t deserve their loyalty and would only betray them in the end; they would fight even though there was nothing to fight for. They would fight and they…they might die. They might die just as they might have died for her quite willingly. And that made Amber feel…guilty.
There was no way to save them. They wouldn’t have given up the fight even if I’d asked them too.
But still, she felt guilty.
“I never wanted this,” she whispered.
“Huh?” Sonata asked, turning towards her. The others were looking at her too, Tempest Shadow and Lightning Dust; they felt almost as much like gaolers as Team SAPR had, gaolers set by Salem instead of Ozpin; the only difference was that they were going to let her go once she’d done what they wanted.
“Did you say something, Amber?” Sonata said, in a high-pitched and chirrupy voice.
Amber shivered. “I never wanted this. I wanted to be free, not…not all of this.”
“Me too!” Sonata said, walking across the edge of the rooftop – she was balanced right on the edge, so that she would have fallen with the slightest misstep, and yet she moved so fluidly and with such grace that it was impossible to imagine that she might actually fall – towards Amber, putting one arm around her neck and pulling her into a hug. “That’s all I want, freedom for me and my sisters. Do you think that I enjoy having to do all of this? I just want to fight with Aria and leave all the other stuff to Adagio but they’re not here so I have to do everything.” She pulled a face. “I know it’s rough, but look on the bright side: soon we’re both going to get everything that we want.”
“Everything that we want,” Amber repeated softly, because she wouldn’t get everything that she wanted. She would be free, but she would be alone; she wanted Dove, she wanted her friends, she-
Tempest turned around with a hiss, her metal staff extending in her hand as she stepped into a combative stance. “Someone’s coming.”
Lightning flickered in the hand of Lightning Dust, as Amber heard footsteps coming up the fire escape on the other side of the building.
“Amber?” Dove asked, as he climbed up onto the roof.
“Dove!” Amber cried, as she freed herself from Sonata’s embrace and ran across the roof towards him. He ran towards her, and for a moment it was possible to forget the grimm, forget the battle, forget what she had done and what bargain she had made, forget everything except that he was here. And as the reached each other, and Dove folded his arms around her, Amber felt safe for the first time since her secret had come out aboard the Atlesian warship; truly safe and truly protected in the arms of a man who truly cared about her.
“You found me,” she whispered.
“Did you ever doubt I would?” Dove replied, as he kissed her. She swooned in his arms, melting into his embrace as his kiss took her breath away. Even when the kiss stopped she hung in his grasp, gasping for breath, her bosom heaving and her heart hammering furiously within her chest.
“I will always find you,” Dove said, his eyes smouldering with love for her.
“I know.”
“You’re my destiny.”
“And you’re mine,” Amber said. The sounds of more footsteps coming up the fire escape alerted her to the arrival of the other members of Team BLBL. “My friends.”
“Hey, Amber,” Lyra said, giving her a little wave. “It’s good to see you again. We were so worried about you after everything that’s happened, everything that they said-“
“All lies,” Amber said quickly, because she could imagine the kind of things that they were saying about her; the same kind of things that they were saying about Sunset; they were two of a kind, she and Sunset, both used and thrown away the moment they were no longer useful. She wondered for a moment if Sunset might agree to come with her, and help protect her and keep her safe…but she couldn’t be sure that she would, and she doubted that Sonata and Tempest would agree to let her ask. “It’s not true, what they said about me.”
“Of course not,” Bon Bon said. “How could we believe a man who would use you the way that Ozpin has sought to use you.”
“How did you all get away?” Amber asked.
“We just left,” Dove said. “When the attack on Beacon started we got on a ship and it took us away.”
“You weren’t followed?” Tempest demanded.
Dove looked at her. “No.”
“Are you sure?” Tempest asked sceptically.
“I don’t think we were,” Sky volunteered.
“You don’t think so,” Tempest repeated, rolling her eyes.
“I’ll go and make sure,” Lightning said, stalking across the roof and pushing Sky out of the way before descending rapidly down the fire escape.
Dove looked back at Amber, and brushed some of her hair out of her face before bending down to rest his forehead upon hers. “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you every moment since you went away.”
“I know,” Amber said. She closed her eyes. “But we won’t ever have to be apart again, not now, not ever.”
“What happens now?” Dove asked. “Where do we go?”
“We wait,” Tempest said.
“Really?” Sonata cried. “More waiting? Come on, when does stuff actually start to happen?”
“Not yet,” Tempest said patiently.
“But hasn’t everybody left Beacon already?” Sonata said. “Wasn’t that the point? Everyone who didn’t want to fight ran away when the grimm attacked, right? And then once they beat the grimm everybody who did want to fight went off to fight somewhere else, didn’t we seem them flying away?”
Tempest nodded. “But we have to make sure that they can’t just come back to stop us once we get there. Before we move, we have to wait for the battle to develop a little more. We have to wait for everybody to get sucked in, and when they’ve spent their strength on the front lines…that’s when we make our move.”
“I have to go,” Sky said.
“Why?” River asked anxiously.
“Why?” Sky repeated incredulously. She gestured to the TV, that was now showing images of battle on the outskirts of Vale, or else was being forced to cut away from them as a monster pounced on the camera crew. “That’s why. Panic…it brings those things, right?”
Dad nodded slowly. “Yeah. Negative emotion draws them in.”
“I thought so,” Sky said softly. After her brush with that one that had almost killed her she had decided to find out a little more about them; a little more about what Jaune was up against. Thinking about Jaune in the middle of all this was hard – this was exactly why she had wanted him to come home – but she couldn’t avoid it. “I…we don’t want them showing up here too, so I’m going to knock on some doors and make sure that everyone keeps calm and understands that there’s no need to panic.”
“I’ll go with you,” Rouge said, although Sky was almost certain that she was really going out to make sure that, if any of those monsters did show up, she’d deal with them with the magic powers that she apparently had and was still keeping secret from the rest of the family.
Nevertheless for the sake of that secret Sky went along with the lie. “I’d be glad of the company.”
She would also be glad to tear herself away from the TV; watching that footage wasn’t doing her own sense of panic and uncertainty any favours at all, and yet without something important to do instead it was hard to stop watching. She didn’t blame the others for being transfixed as they were. It was only her having a job that was stopping her from going the same way.
Kendal’s scroll rang. “Saphron?”
“Guys, are you watching this?” Saphron said, her voice emerging from out of the scroll.
“Yes,” Kendal said. “We’re all watching, right now anyway.”
“It’s…it’s terrible, isn’t it?” Saphron murmured. “Is…Dad, what’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know, sweetie,” Dad said. “But everyone looks as though they’re fighting pretty hard.”
“Do you think Jaune’s fighting?” Saphron asked anxiously.
Dad nodded. “The man that he’s become…I don’t think there’s any doubt.”
“And Pyrrha, too,” Terra murmured from the other end of the line.
“Will they be okay?” River asked. “Will everything be okay?”
“Saphron, how are things in Argus?” Dad asked.
“We’ve put Adrian to bed,” Terra replied. “He’s too young to really understand but anyway…he doesn’t need to see this.”
“The Atlesian military base has gone on alert,” Saphron said. “Out the window we can see the airships taking off, and there are soldiers manning the wall.”
“They’re taking precautions unless you draw the grimm,” Dad said. “That’s good. Listen, Saphron, Terra, try not to panic. You won’t help Jaune or anybody else and you might make things worse for yourselves.”
“How are we supposed to not panic, Dad?” Saphron said. “Vale’s under attack and Jaune’s in the middle of it all.”
“I didn’t say it was easy,” Dad said. “But you have to try anyway.”
“My baby,” Mom whimpered. “Are you sure we shouldn’t try to call him?”
“He’s in the middle of a battle, he doesn’t need the distraction,” Dad said. “When the battle is over, as soon as the battle is over, then we’ll call him. Until then…we’ve just got to believe in him.”
An Atlesian soldier shrieked in pain as a creep emerged from beneath him to grab hold of his leg, biting into it below the knee as it tried to drag him away. Rainbow Dash kicked it in the head, making it let go of the guy, before she shot it with one of her machine pistols.
“Medic,” Ciel yelled above the din of the battle. Another creep burst out of the ground not far away, she pulled out her pistol – she was stronger than she looked, but even she looked a little strained holding Distant Thunder up with just one arm – and blew its head off with two clean shots without even having to look. “We need a medic over here.”
Penny stood still in the middle of the trench, her eyes closed.
“Penny!” Rainbow yelled. “What are you-“
Penny’s eyes snapped open and she turned around, facing the alpha creep that emerged out of the earth right in front of her and just in time to take three laser blasts to the face.
“I was listening to the vibrations,” Penny explained. “Twilight told me that, although no human had ears that sharp, I should be able to sense the approach of the creeps through the earth.”
“Uh, right,” Rainbow muttered. “Just try not to look as though you’re falling asleep next time, okay? People might get the wrong idea.”
“Like you?”
Rainbow grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. It just…” A beowolf leapt over the barbed wire, but Rainbow emptied her pistols into it, killing it as it flew through the air so that its ashes were carried forward by the momentum of its leap. “Ah, forget it.”
“We need a medic!” Ciel snapped. “We’ve got a wounded man here! It’s about time!” she yelled as a couple of men in the bleached white uniforms – they wore no armour, which took a lot of guts in Rainbow’s opinion – carrying a stretcher ran up through the trench. They loaded the soldier injured by the creep up onto their stretcher and then carried him away to one of the triage stations, where the ones who could be treated in the field – like that poor guy – would be and the ones who were more seriously hurt would be airlifted to one of the hospitals in Vale that had already been prepped to receive Altesian casualties.
Nobody was getting airlifted to any of the cruisers during this battle, not with every warship bar the flagship needed on the line. How badly would it suck to get taken to sickbay aboard a cruiser and then die when the ship was lost?
Rainbow was reminded of just how poor the taste of that thought was when the Glorious exploded in the air above, lighting up the whole night in a brief flare that burned as brightly as the sun. The fire from the warship burned away the dark and burned away the grimm too, all the nevermores who had flocked around it, who had perched on the deck, who had torn at the armour plating with their beaks and claws, and all the griffons who had burst through the windows to get onto the bridge or else rent the plate apart from breach the hull and rampage through the ship itself. They were all gone with the Glorious, turned to ashes by the fire of her destruction, but it wasn’t much of a trade-off. The grimm seemed to come from out of nowhere, but it took more than a year to build a ship and as for all the troops on board…
“If we prevail then their sacrifice will be worth it,” Ciel said. “For the salvation of Vale any price will be worth paying.”
Rainbow nodded sullenly. “For the salvation of Vale, huh?”
“Indeed,” Ciel said. “So we had best make sure that we save it, no?”
Rainbow nodded again, more firmly this time. “Count on it.” She reloaded her pistols, and looked over the top of the trench to see the next wave of grimm bearing down on them.
The Atlesian line spat fire. The crumbling and half-completed walls, the trenches, the bunkers, all the defences that marked Vale’s Green Line were packed with Atlesian troops and androids, standing shoulder to shoulder with rifles ready, bullets erupting from their barrels of their guns as the order to fire at will stood across the line until further notice. Paladins stood in the wider parts of the trench or just behind them, giants amongst the men who stood at their feet, guns blazing and missiles flying from the shoulder-launchers. And it wasn’t only paladins spread out across the line either, there were Specialists like Winter Schnee, although when they weren’t wearing the whites but their own outfits it was hard to tell sometimes who were the actual specialists and who were the student huntsmen like Team RSPT. Did it really matter at a time like this? They were just as good at killing grimm, as their unique weapons spat death at the tide of monsters on the other side of the line, adding their fire to the rifles and the cannons and the guns of the defences that Vale had built without bothering to man them properly (and what was the point of that?).
Skygraspers swooped down from the sky, tracer rounds leaping from the barrels of their rotary cannons as they strafed the grimm horde, missiles flying from beneath their wings to explode on the ground. Cruisers sailed over the battle line to drop mortar bombs on the grimm as they charged, while lasers and missiles and point defence cannons fired in all directions to keep – try to keep, as the Glorious had found out – the flying grimm at bay. More Skygraspers chased nevemores and griffons, or were chased by them. Rainbow saw a Wonderbolt with three nevermores on their tail, before two more members of the squadron swooped in from behind to nail all three of them before going on to hit a group of ursai with missile fire.
The grimm kept coming, but they never came very far. Hardly any of them survived the fire from the line or the air, and the ones who did got shot as they tried to get over the wall or the barbed wire, or just when they got in the trench and found a huntsman waiting for them as well as just regular soldiers.
The grimm kept coming, but Atlas was holding its own. Atlas was holding its own very well. Even the creeps who kept on popping up from underneath the ground, although they were annoying – and worse than annoying, they were probably the most dangerous thing the grimm were doing right now – weren’t about to break the line all by themselves.
Rainbow thought about what Ruby’s drunk uncle had said, about the grimm not being scared of Atlas’ ships and Atlas’ weapons.
Well maybe they should have been, just like I told you.
“Rainbow Dash,” Penny said. “Something’s coming, and it feels too big to be a creep.”
“Penny, do you-“ Rainbow stopped as she felt the vibrations herself a moment later, a rumbling beneath the earth that soon had the ground beneath their feet shaking. “Definitely bigger than a creep,” Rainbow said, holstering her machine pistols and pulling her shotgun over her shoulder. She unfurled her wings and rose a couple of feet above the ground, looking down, waiting.
The earth bulged beneath the trench, making the soldiers cry out in alarm as a paladin, its footing gone, toppled over onto its side.
“Twilight,” Ciel said. “Move towards me, now.”
Twilight, directly beneath the bulge in the earth, started to move but before she could take more than a couple of steps she was thrown forwards by the eruption from beneath the ground of a giant deathstalker, ripping itself free of the earth, gouging a hole in the trench as though a mine had gone off, its pincers snapping and its golden stinger gleaming on the end of its tail. The tail whooshed through the air as it thrust forward to impale an Atlesian soldier with its stinger, before it grabbed another with one of its claws and squeezed him in half.
Then it grabbed Twilight, its other claw scything out to grip her by the foot; her aura and her armour both held up, but Rainbow felt her heart freeze up in her chest as she watched the giant grimm pick Twilight up and lift her off the ground.
“Twilight!” Rainbow yelled, firing her shotgun; she might as well have been spitting at it for all the good she did.
Ciel fired, but Distant Thunder’s round just ricocheted off the armour plating of the deathstalker, barely making a dent. Penny stepped forward, waving her arms in a wide arc as her blades swept out to slice off the deathstalker’s stinger. As the stinger dropped so Penny leapt, rolling in the air before descending in a flying kick that drove the stinger through the armour and into the flesh of the grimm itself. As the deathstalker writhed in pain – dropping Twilight in the process, Ciel took her by the hand and pulled her away from it – Penny stood upon its carapace, her blades whirring before her as her laser charged.
A single blast eviscerated the grimm and scoured the earth beneath it.
“Twilight, are you okay?” Rainbow demanded as she landed on the ground again.
“I am,” Twilight said. “Thanks, Penny.”
“No problem,” Penny said cheerily. “What are-“ she was interrupted by the emergence of a whole horde of creeps, erupting out of the whole the deathskalker had made, snarling and roaring as they burst out of the darkness to assail the Atlesian forces.
Every man in that section of the trench turned to shoot at them, but before they died a few of them managed to get past the members of RSPT or any other huntsman and claim a few more Atlesian lives before they died, and by the sounds of it there’s wasn’t the only part of the line getting a visit from a deathstalker backed by a whole mob of creeps coming after.
But they had held, and they would keep holding; deathstalkers coming out of the ground was rough but it was still nothing they couldn’t handle.
“Do you think this is happing where Sapphire is, too?” Penny asked.
Rainbow hesitated for a moment. “Honestly, Penny, they’re probably having a harder time of it than we are,” she said. “Those Mistralian soldiers aren’t so good and neither are those Mistralian ships. But I’m sure that they’ll be fine. They’re good, you know how good they are. They’ll make it work, so long as we make it work too.”
Someone must have heard her saying that, because just as she spoke Twilight gasped, and pointed to the sky over Rainbow Dash’s head, pointing to the east where the Mistralians held the line.
Rainbow turned to look, and her eyes widened behind her goggles as she beheld one of the Mistralians’ big battleships on fire and descending bow first towards the ground.
Pyrrha didn’t know the name of the ship. It wasn’t the Pride of Mistral, Commander Yeoh’s flagship which, although much closer to the front line than Pyrrha suspected was the case with General Ironwood’s flagship, was nevertheless not quite on the front lines. This was another of the three great battleships that Mistral had brought, at such slow speed and at such great expense, all the way from far off Mistral as part of a puppet show of upholding the honour of that puppet show.
But now the puppet show had turned into something all too real, and this great ship, the ship whose name she didn’t know – and that oversight of ignorance on her part seemed like something greatly to regret now – was paying the price, as so many sons and daughters of Mistral had or would before this night or this battle was over.
Pyrrha had led her team up and down the Mistralian line, down the trench the marked the Green Line, past the half-complete fragments of wall, past the bunkers packed with Mistralian soldiers, past the turrets spitting fire, she had been to where the Mistralian section of the line ended and the Atlesian sector began and then she had come back again and she was forced to conclude that Mistral was holding on by its fingernails.
They were doing their best, everyone was doing their best, the tanks were firing over the heads of the infantry line, every weapon in the defences was being put to work, every rifle in the expeditionary force was on the line now that the security details for the arena and the fairgrounds had been flown in as reinforcements. Every student of Haven, and a good many of the Mistralian students from Beacon and Shade, and even their team-mates too, had joined the fighting; but still it felt as though they were barely holding their own, and so far it seemed as if only beowolves and ursai had been sent against them. But they were sent in such numbers, and the Mistralians lacked the sheer amount of firepower that the Atlesians could bring to bear – on the flank, where Winter Schnee was commanding the Atlesian forces, the Atlesians were angling their fire to partially cover the Mistralians closest to them, and thus the fighting was easiest there – and they were not stopping the grimm from reaching the trench line as often as they needed to. Pyrrha had ventured out into the ground beyond the line to hold them off, and so had other huntsmen, but they were not numerous enough and when the grimm did reach the line they were needed there for conscripts with sword bayonets or actual swords for the officers and NCOs that barely knew how to use them were not enough to stand against the ferocity even of an immature grimm.
When you spent all your time in a combat academy, learning to fight the grimm with aura and the finest customised and personalised weapons that money could buy at your disposal, surrounded by supremely talented and motivated people who, like you, were well equipped and trained to be finely honed weapons against the grimm then it was easy to stop taking beowolves or creeps particularly seriously. But when you looked into the eyes of a terrified young man about your own age whom you had just saved from a mauling at best you were reminded that for most people even beowolves were nightmares given physical form, and you were ashamed that you had ever forgotten.
They were holding the line, just about; three times so far the grimm had swarmed the defences in such numbers as to sweep the Mistralians away and three times Crescent Rose had gleamed as Ruby led the way in a series of desperate charges to drive the grimm back and restore the integrity of the defence. They, and the other young huntsmen and huntresses, were doing everything they could to make up for the deficiencies in the soldiers, boys and girls their age or barely older who shouldn’t even have been there, and they were paying the price for it – Arslan’s team-mate Reese, who had suspected Pyrrha of complicity with the Atlesians, was dead and she was not alone - but there were not enough of them to bear the whole burden by themselves.
The fact that this was a battle fought at night was making things even worse. It was bad enough that only faunus could see particularly well in the darkness, so that even Pyrrha and her team-mates were sometimes unsure as to what was a shadow and what was a grimm until it roared and jumped out at them – it was a great pity that Weiss didn’t have a glyph for illumination, something she herself seemed to regret – but for the ordinary soldiers it was even worse, their fear seeming to be magnified by the darkness and with it the hazards they presented even to their own allies: another of Arslan’s team-mates, Nadir, had been brought down by the fire of his own allies, shot by soldiers who had mistaken him for a grimm, wounded and carried off the field after they broke his aura with their panicked fire and didn’t realise their mistake until he was bleeding in front of them. They were using flares and the like to try and light up the night, but it was insufficient, and it didn’t stop her worrying that she was going to turn around and see that someone had shot Jaune or Ruby because they couldn’t tell friend from foe in darkness.
And in the air it might be even worse…it was hard not to look up and feel that the Mistralian airships were simply outclassed by the grimm opposing them. It was the same with their ships, they had lost two cruisers already. And now one of their battleships was going down.
It seemed that the gallant captain was trying to move it out, past the Mistralian line, into the wilds beyond, but the vessel was moving so slowly that, for all that it was descending with equal ponderous sloth, as though it was taking a long time to decide whether or not it truly wished to fall, it was an open question whether he could clear the line or no. Fire billowed from every opening – both intentional opening and those the grimm had made – as the great ship burned from stem to stern. The guns in their immense turrets and barbettes that covered the hull on top and below had ceased to fire, and as the ship descended Pyrrha could see men leaping from the burning wreck and hoping that they were close enough to the ground to survive the fall – and the grimm who, heedless of their own lives, continued to swarm around the burning warship as it fell.
It struck the ground slowly, ponderously, the prow crumpling as it met the earth; the stern and the burning engine seemed to rise even as the ship as a whole fell, the back end elevating as the ship itself settled into an upright position.
Only then did it explode, and Pyrrha felt from a considerably distance the heat wash over her, and could only imagine how bad it must have been to be much closer. Flaming debris flew in all directions, two cataphracts were destroyed by being struck by enormous fragments that ripped them in two, men in the trench nearest the wreck cried out as the fire passed over them and the trench itself – bunkers and defences and all – was shattered by the explosion and the wreckage that tore through the line, leaving a burning wasteland marked with rubble where the line had been.
And out of the burning ruins came the grimm.
“Come on,” Pyrrha cried, as she started to run towards the burning flames from which the monsters came a-creeping. She knew her team would follow, she didn’t have to look back to confirm that they were right behind her, with her always through the midst of all trials.
Or racing ahead of her, in Ruby’s case, as she burst into the lead in a shower of red rose petals.
“Ruby!” Weiss cried irately, as she used glyphs to speed herself along, letting herself slide across the ground like a figure skater across the ice. “Is she always this reckless?”
Pyrrha didn’t reply, although Weiss seemed to take that as confirmation because she rolled her eyes and speed up even faster, zooming along her glyphs to catch up with Ruby.
“I’ll be fine,” Jaune said. “Go on, I’ll catch up.”
Pyrrha glanced back over her shoulder to nod gracefully to him, before she too quickened her pace. She didn’t have glyphs or a speed semblance, but she did have long legs and she was no slouch when it came to running, which meant that she could almost catch up with the other two, although Ruby was still in the lead by some way.
And because she was in the lead she reached the wreckage first and became the first to confront the grimm amongst the flames, slicing two beowolves in half almost immediately before rolling to a halt and bringing Crescent Rose up to blow the head off a third. Weiss leapt from glyph to glyph to dive on top of an ursa and drive her blade into its head before discharging a burst of lightning from her rapier. Pyrrha threw her shield at an alpha beowolf as she ran, stunning it long enough for her to close the distance as she spun on her toe, bringing her spear around in a wide slashing arc before shooting it in the chest, staggering it backwards before she leapt up into the air, rolling as she delivered a series of slashes culminating in three more rounds – to the head this time – to put it down before she landed gracefully on the ground.
The grimm were silhouetted against the fires, their white bone and red markings indistinguishable as the bright light rendered them more black than usual. Pyrrha could feel the heat of the fires upon her skin through her aura. She was starting to sweat inside her gloves and was grateful that it wouldn’t cause her weapons to slip in her hands. She could hear the cries of wounded men amongst the fires, either survivors of the ship – they must be incredibly fortunate – or those who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when the ship crashed. Either way, they were – they had to be – their first priority.
“We drive back the grimm and gain space for the survivors to get out,” she said.
“Understood,” Ruby said.
Pyrrha nodded. She glanced at Jaune, who had caught up with them. “Go!” she said.
They charged into the midst of the burning wreckage. Pyrrha spotted a boarbatusk running straight towards her, but she reached out with her semblance and wrenched a shard of debris out of the earth and cut across the grimm’s path, slicing the monster in two before she buried the metal in an ursa’s chest. Weiss hung back to provide support for Ruby, laying down a series of glowing white glyphs for her to bounce off of as she rocketed around an ursa major until it she had brought it down with a sequence of slashing strokes. Jaune put the gun that Ruby had given him to good use as he unleashed a volley of fire upon a group of beowolves that had been about to pounce upon a couple of wounded soldiers. Pyrrha, by contrast, found an injured nevermore that had survived the blast and whose broken wing did not prevent it from crawling along the ground to get her. She waited for it to lunge forward before diving under its beak and driving Milo straight upwards into its throat.
Ruby reached one of the ruined turrets of the battleship, the metal a twisted lump but still rising higher than the flames like one of the turrets that defended the Green Line itself; she ran up it, rose petals like blood falling away behind her, and perched atop the bent and battered gun platform she rested Crescent Rose by the point upon the surface and began to open fire on all the grimm bearing down on them from without the fiery maelstrom in which they fought. Creeps leapt up out of the ground, but Weiss used her glyphs to keep in the air above them, only descending to strike with her rapier, and each strike was the death kneel for one of the subterranean grimm.
A deathstalker advanced through the flames, walking straight through the fire and taking no hurt from it. Pyrrha slung her shield onto her back and reached out with her semblance, her arm glowing black as she lifted up pieces of metal from all across the battlefield, pulling them out of the ground where the explosion had buried them before she hurled them all like spears against the deathstalker, seeking out the weaknesses in its armour plate with the shattered and sharpened armour plate of the Mistralian battleship, using stair rails and metal pins and bits of deck like knives and blades as she rammed them all into the gaps and joins where the monstrous grimm’s armour was weakest, hurling metal at it to pierce its carapace until the creature dropped dead to the ground.
More grimm charged through the flames, perhaps sensing that this was the place to break the line of Mistral or else drawn by the pain and terror of the survivors. Team SAPR, and Weiss, fought to hold them back, with sword and spear and glyphs and rifle and every weapon at their disposal. As the grimm snapped at their auras other huntsmen came to their aid: Arslan and Bolin, the last remaining member of her team, Arslan was wielding both the guns of her fallen or incapacitated team-mates; Team CFVY of Beacon; Team JAMM of Haven, Team RSPT’s first round opponents. Pyrrha would not deny that she was shocked at first when a horde of ghostly skeletons rose out of the ground to attack the grimm, swamping an ursa major beneath their tide, before she remembered that that was the semblance of Medea which had so discomfited their Atlesian friends. Commander Yeoh swooped in, running through the air – which must have been her semblance – to decapitate an alpha with a single stroke of the ancient blade Green Destiny. A group of soldiers swiftly arrived also, a company who soon began searching the wreckage for any survivors.
“We cannot hold them,” Commander Yeoh declared, in a tone that suggested the words were being wrung from her under great duress.
Pyrrha breathed in a lungful of the hot, smoky air. “We have held them.”
“Wherever you fight, we hold,” Yeoh acknowledged. “Sometimes we do more than hold, the same could be said of some of the other heroes of this day. But wherever you are not, wherever we have no huntsmen, there we struggle, and we do not have enough huntsmen to bolster the whole line.”
“If you request that the Atlesians-“
“No,” Commander Yeoh said firmly. “We will fall back to the Red Line, where the defences are stronger and the line more compact. We will fall back and we will hold them there, without any assistance. It will be difficult, I will need you not only to hold the rearguard, but also to inspire the soldiers so that this is a retreat, not a rout.”
“Of course, commander,” Pyrrha said, wondering privately if it might not have been better to have stood upon the more compact, better fortified Red Line from the very beginning.
Commander Yeoh sheathed her sword – for the moment – and got out her scroll. “General Ironwood, I regret to inform you that my forces can no longer hold this line.”
“I see,” General Ironwood replied in a neutral tone. “How long can you give me before you start to withdraw?”
“Ten minutes.”
“I only need five.”
“Your arrogance would be frustrating, General, had I the energy to spare,” Commander Yeoh muttered. “Five minutes then.”
“I’ll inform Specialist Schnee to keep a tight grip on your forces as we fall back,” General Ironwood said. “Arm in arm, if we lose contact-“
“The grimm will enter the gap and wedge us apart, outflanking us both and defeating us in detail,” Commander Yeoh said. “I am aware. Yeoh out.” She ended one communication, and immediately began another. “This is Commander Yeoh to the Pride of Mistral and the Dingyuan; ground forces are preparing to withdraw, use incendiary ammunition to ignite the ground in front of us and bar the way to the grimm.”
“Yes, commander.”
“Yeoh out,” she said, folding up her scroll. “That will hold them for a little while.”
“For a little while,” Pyrrha agreed. “Not for long.”
“No,” Yeoh agreed. “Then it will be up to you once again.”
“Yes, Commander,” Pyrrha murmured. She bit her lip for a moment. “I wish that you would put aside your pride.”
“My pride is Mistral’s pride, Miss Nikos,” Commander Yeoh replied. “Without it, our efforts here would be pointless.”
Pyrrha did not, and could not, agree with that – there was nothing pointless about fighting to protect Vale and all the innocents who dwelled within it, pride or no pride, but before she could say another word she was interrupted by a great booming thud that split the sky, accompanied by a tremor that shook the earth so violently that she and Commander Yeoh both stumbled where they stood and Ruby lost her footing atop the wrecked turret and fell, fortunately into Weiss’ arms.
“Wow, thanks Weiss.”
“Just stand up already. What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Jaune said. “Do you think it was some kind of grimm?”
“How big a grimm would it have to be to cause a tremor like that?” Ruby asked.
With the battle at Beacon concluded, General Ironwood had returned to the Valiant and now stood on the bridge, studying his maps of the unfolding battle.
“Patch me through to all units,” he said.
“Aye, sir, patching you through.”
“Attention all units,” Ironwood said. “You have all fought well, but due to circumstances beyond our control it is now necessary to abandon the Green Line. Therefore, in five minutes time Withdrawal Plan 1 will go into effect: all ground units will fall back overland to the Red Line and establish your assigned positions there. Air units will provide cover for the retreat of the ground forces. I don’t expect this to be easy, but I do expect that the courage and discipline that have served Atlas so well so far will continue to do so now. Prepare yourselves and be ready to move precisely on the mark. Schnee.”
“Yes sir.”
“It is imperative that we don’t lose contact with the Mistralians as they fall back,” Ironwood said. “Keep a tight grip on them. Arm in arm.”
“Understood sir, arm in arm,” Schnee said.
“Ironwood out,” Ironwood said. “Put me through to Professor Ozpin.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
”James,” Ozpin said. “How goes it?”
“The Mistralians can’t hold the Green Line, we’re falling back to the Red.”
“I’ll inform the Council,” Ozpin said.
“Are they doing anything?” Ironwood said. “Apart from worrying?”
“Police riot and tactical units are being deployed to the Red Line,” Ozpin said. “There are some efforts being made to mobilise the National Guard, but it’s doubtful that they will be ready in time.”
“It has been left a little late.”
“I would have disagreed with you, and did,” Ozpin said. “I didn’t want more soldiers on our streets. I thought…I thought that they were a greater threat to peace than the grimm beyond the borders.”
“If a few things had gone differently you might have been right about that,” Ironwood said, less because he believed it and more because they needed the old man at his best, not beating himself up about everything that had gone wrong recently.
“Whatever befalls I think we are coming to the end of the Vale that relied upon the Atlesian alliance exclusively for its protection,” Ozpin said.
“That might not be a terrible thing,” Ironwood said. “Atlas is willing to bear the burden but even we struggle to be everywhere.”
“You know my views on armies, James, I think that-“ Ozpin fell silent as warning alarms flashed on various screens across the CIC of the Valiant.
“What was that?” Ironwood demanded.
“Unknown, sir, we’re picking up large scale seismic activity.”
“Origin?”
“The mountain,” Ozpin whispered. “It has awoken.”
Gilda lowered the binoculars that the High Leader had temporarily loaned her. “They don’t appear to be making much headway.”
“You’re focussing too much on the Atlesian line,” Sienna Khan said, as she took the binoculars back. “The Mistralians are in real trouble.”
“But if they get in too much trouble won’t the Atlesians just take over,” Gilda said. “Or is that the plan? To overstretch them?”
“No,” Sienna said. “Not overstretch. To smash them.”
“There’s not a lot of sign of that,” Gilda said. She hadn’t been able to make out Rainbow Dash down amongst the lines, she couldn’t see that much detail even with binoculars, but she had no doubt that her old friend was down there somewhere, fighting. She hoped that she was doing okay. She didn’t want Dash to die.
“No, but the heaviest grimm forces have not yet been committed,” Sienna said. “Only their…light troops, their most numerous and expendable forces have been sent in to assess the enemy strength. And even they are almost too much for Mistral. As for Atlas…I think our friends will be playing their trump card soon.”
“Trump card?” Gilda said. She was nearly knocked off her feet as the ground shook beneath her. “What in the gods’ name was that?”
“The trump card,” Sienna observed.
The earth shook as cracks spread all along the mountain that sat to the south-east of Vale, looming over the derelict ruins of Mountain Glenn beneath. The cracks spread, as the earth shook, the stones crumbled and fell, until finally the entire peak of the mountain exploded outwards, showering dust and debris in all directions.
And out of the ruin the dragon rose, high up into the sky until its black frame was blocking out the moon as it spread its wings, casting its dark shadow across the whole of Vale.
It turned its baleful gaze on that embattled kingdom, and as it began to fly towards the scene of so much conflict, fear and panic, it opened its mouth, and it roared.
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I am expecting Grimm to enter the jail and sunset to brake her seal and kill them
9894109
My hypothesis is that neither Amber not Cinder will live past the battle of Beacon/Vale... I'll leave it up to your imagination who the Fall Maiden's power goes to.
Oh dear...
9895539
I call sunset!
9895045
I don't think she'll replace her but if SAPR is going to end up separated from her for a time then I'd say Weiss is a good fill-in until they're reunited. The show had volumes 4 and 5 with RWBY separated and JN_R didn't replace WBY. Plus they'll need a fourth and as I said a few chapters back, some time apart could give them all some perspective and time to grow. That and Weiss's development has fallen to the side a bit in this story so her playing "substitute mage" for a spell could be a nice way to catch her up a bit.
But no, I wouldn't worry about Weiss stealing Sunset's spot. Sunset's story might not be as directly intertwined with the team for while (or maybe it will, there's still so much in the air and I'm not writing the story
), but Replaced? Nah, the story is still called SAPR after all 
Look out at all this carnage, Amber! Breathe it in, burn this into your memory! Brave and noble warriors taking up arms to fight back and prevent this kind of devastation from ever happening... Suddenly, the reason why some people would want to stop such a thing doesn't seem so stupid and foolish now, does it?
And you want to give a Relic to the one responsible for this slaughter?
- Sir, dragon inbound, ten minutes, what to do?
- UNLEASH THE PONY!
Okay not bad, I have a feeling this was more of a filler chapter than anything else. The next chapter is most likely going to be huge.
9895650
Well, from her point of view the fighting and killing itself exists because they are fighting Salem at all. Her hope is that by giving Salem everything she wants she wont kill them all.
Stupid, as it leaves everything entirely on the whims of someone who has already shown that doesn't really care about the innocent people killed, but that is the way fear thinks.
9895861
There's just one thing I don't get, Amber. You claim Ozpin controls and manipulates people. And your plan is to pawn off the Relic that magically controls Remnant's free will to Salem?
9895867
She probably doesn't know what each Relic does.
9895920
It's called the Crown of Choice. He explained what The Relics are capable of even to SAPR. Especially when he gave the key to open the vault to Pyrrha.
Either Amber really has lost a lot of her memories during her coma, or she just doesn't care enough about others to think very hard about her 'plan'.
9895942
She might remember the relic name but not what it does.
Mind Control? That's it? I thought it would be something like showing you events in the future and letting you change them, at a price. Hence giving you a choice.
Considering Ozpin created the Relics, why the fuck is the the Big Good if he created a mind control device?
9895920
She barely knows her own name...
9895960
What? No, the God of Light created them. Volume 6, Episode 3.
Creation, Destruction and even Knowledge are all worthless without the ability to decide and act upon them. A crown is meant to command and influence the direction of others, and this is also one of the reasons why Ozpin has been going on throughout the story about the value of Free Will and why our own ability to choose our own path is so sacred. This is why out of all of the relics, this is the one he must guard personally.
The Battle of Vale rages, victory not in sight. The cause sits in wait for the opening they desire. The great beast has awoken, and will possibly be met in battle by a phoenix. All the while children fight to their last breaths, all to protect what once was a great city, now filled with malice and panic.
9895985
But the crown REMOVES choice.
Are we sure the Dark brother was the evil one?
9895992
Not in the same sense that we mortals perceive or define as what is 'good'. Gods always think in absolutes.
9895988
Well spoken!
9895527
Plot twist: the magic of the Maiden might not to an equestrian, for whatever reason, and, as such, it goes to Human Sunset, wherever she may be.
9896000
Just like the Jedi the so called good guys of Star Wars think brainwashing is perfectly okay but killing using Force Lighting is evil?
...So, this battle has been fantastic to read, but I question a couple of things. One, to the huntsmen in training too cowardly (and not influenced by Amber) to actively participate in Vale's defense: Why are you at a Huntsman Academy if not to defend humanity against the Grimm? And two, why is aura seemingly only present in those who go to combat school? Why don't the foot soldiers have their auras unlocked too? If nothing else than just to stall injuries.
9896018
Is one thing to fight some Grimm, is a different one to sent a barely trained kid to their deaths.
Last year students are basically hunters already, first year students? Not so much.
9896012
First, Jedi are not gods either and they only give a subtle nudge to avoid a conflict. They do not rewrite your mind or even control your desires like Amber does. (And Force Lightning only works by projecting your most hateful and savage feelings through your fingers). Second, that's all I'll say on that matter. I don't want to drag old debates from Star Wars, Harry Potter or other things into this. That's a whole other can of worms. I'll stick to RWBY and MLP.
Bottom line? Neither Ozma or any mortal ever had a say in the creation of the Relics, the Grimm or anything else of the Brother God's design. This is the hand they left us with, and what matters most is how we act upon what we have. As with all things in life.
Oh boy, its heating up. First wall breached and Dragon incoming? Sounds like its almost time for the phoenix to join the fray. Anyways, good writing and I look forward to the next chapter!
9895867
She is mind-controlling the entire Bluebell team while deluding herself that she is not doing it. Amber self-awareness is not exactly her most developed virtue.
9895539
9895527
I don't think that will happen for a more meta reason.
Right now, the team is somewhat balanced in the power scaling and their growth potential:
Sunset has impressive magical powers and by her own admission, with some some preparation and counterspells she could have faced Cinder as half a maiden. If she ascends into a Alicorn (she has noticed that her magic is much stronger since the Amber thing) then she would be a match to a full maiden.
Pyrrha is by far the best fighter, with a powerful semblance she has finaly let off the leash and the potential of magical powers after becoming the guardian of the Choice vault. She is not at maiden level but she is as close as a mere mortal can.
Ruby silver eyes are super effective against the Grimm. If she gets full control over them she becomes a maiden level fighter, even if only against the Grimm (the most numerous and dangerous enemy they have).
Jaune has a powerful semblance and aura for days, plus the possibility of extra magic down the line by getting her sister geodes.
If Sunset becomes the new fall maiden, she would go so far beyond the rest of the team that it would become a DBZ (or most shounen really) where she is the only one that can realistically do anything when the chips are down.
9896169
Well, you could point out what you consider to be the hints, that does make it easier to debate over it.
While I can see why people would think that she would get the powers, being the person in the mind of both parts of the maiden, I see that more as being the natural outcome of Sunset being heavily involved in their lives and the focus of both of their character developments, and not a foreshadowing that she will get the powers.
9896182
Well, Ozpin saying that she would be a great maiden is just admitting that Sunset has better morals that he gave her credit.
And about where the powers would go, if they both die then it would definitely go to Sunset, as I doubt that the author would go through the trouble of adding another character just to become the fall maiden. But that depends on both dying, and that is not certain yet.
9895985
Wait... it's a crown that can mind control in a story with Sunset Shimmer... well, I guess we can't see Daydream without the Demon first, right?
I kept thinking how despite how the main characters are all worried, this is going objectively better than the canon Battle of Beacon. The bad guys are missing several key advantages and neither Sonata nor Amber are on Cinder’s level for combat skill or evil schemes. I thought maybe the good guys could pull a somewhat decisive victory.
Then I realized I forgot about that stupid dragon... ugh
9896202
I think she is with one foot on ascension already. I also think that when she completes the process there will be a lot more of pomp and splendor, probably with a nice Daydream Shimmer (temporary) transformation.
9896040
Jedi are followers of a God called the Light Side Of The Force.
See Episode One: Negotiations broke down because the Senate sent Jedi to brainwash people.
And Lukas made episode One so is canon.
Uh, Sunset? If you're thinking of breaking out now, here's some advice: DO IT. You know Cinder wouldn't hesitate for a second.
9896240
Mcgregor and Neeson were more than willing to negotiate, the point where negotiations broke down was somewhere between when the Trade Federation turbolasered their ship with the crew onboard and when they sent droidekas to assassinate them. (You could argue that the initial droid attack doesn’t count as the B1 battle droids were so incompetent they couldn’t reasonably be expected to kill anyone, even Jar Jar)
I find myself skipping over whole paragraphs just to get it over with.
I can't even pinpoint when the story started to lose impact to the point where nothing seems to matter apart from delivering so e boxes to check.
This starts to remind me of the old R.A.Salvatore novels where one single fight between two character stretched over dozens of pages, with the end result being that one of them won.
9897982
The way I remember the movie is the Trade Federation taking the fact the negotiators were Jedi as a hostile act because Jedi infamous brainwashing powers.
So of course that's because Palpy warned them of the Jedi and it wasn't even a lie.
I wonder if Sonata was able to tell that Dove and the rest of Bluebell have been mentally influenced by Amber?
9899114
Maybe? Or maybe she thinks Amber just seduced the whole team.
9901376
Also possible. Either way, a Siren like her knows manipulation when she sees it. It's almost certain Sonata sees that Amber has Dove and the others wrapped around her finger.
9901381
It could be that Sonata doesn't see Amber's enslavement process as a threat as her own method is stronger and that she sees Amber as a novice in managing her thralls
Sonata own thralls, Mercury and Lightning, are more powerful than BLBL so that threat can be manage if Amber decides to make a run for it
9903450
That wasn't clear at the time I made that comment.
Oh my god, I have finally caught up. This has been fantastic.
Rereading the chapters showing both the Atlesian soldiers/regulars and the Mistralian conscripts got me wondering....... even if they aren't huntsmen/huntresses, would it still be worthwhile to at least have awakened Auras for increased defence, strength and the ability to use even simple Dust rounds and Dust-imbedded swords, stun batons and sword bayonets?
Or at least awaken the Auras of the more skilled, full-time Atlesian and Mistralian soldiers/regulars?
Attack on Titan reference?
Have to agree with Ironwood. An National Army could be useful in world like this.