Chapter Forty-Six
Beacon at night was peaceful and quiet. It remained so until the morning after, when an air of tension made the rounds. Someone had broken the elevator leading to the headmaster's office, melted it with a Semblance or something similar.
While the professors had cordoned the area off and were investigating the tapes, they would hardly find anything of notice. All camera recordings had been erased, after all, and no backups were available.
I sipped my hot mug of chocolate, and cracked my neck to clear the kinks out of my spine. It had been a rough night on my part, and I was just meeting my team in the cafeteria.
Forming an alibi had been the matter of claiming the most obvious thing of them all.
"I just don't understand what putting make-up on has to do with fighting with one's wife," Jaune said. "I'm not that stupid. My parents do the make-up thing after every fight, but they never tell me what it involves..."
"Jaune, seriously, how many sisters do you have again?" Yang asked. "You're not that little anymore, you know?"
"Am I hearing Yang say that she'll explain things properly to Jaune, then?" I mused as I took a seat, my own decadent breakfast composed of chocolate cookies, chocolate chips, chocolate milk and pretty much everything chocolate-like under the light of the sun. "Blake?"
"I can confirm that," Blake said with a slow, methodical nod.
"I think he's just joking with us," Yang said with a huff. "Right?" she arched an eyebrow at Jaune, who snickered in return. "Why, you!"
"Still, wonder why someone would want to destroy an elevator," Blake remarked. "Must be a team angry at the loss?"
"They're investigating it," Yang said with a shrug, "Can't have been someone from Beacon. There's cameras and everything."
"Well, I, for one, am glad I don't have to take the stairs to any meeting with the headmaster anytime soon," I mused, sipping on my chocolate. "Though are you ready to rumble for today, Yang? The fate of Beacon's pride rests on your shoulder, since I'm sure you'd punch me if I was anything but supportive to your impending victory."
"Sheesh," Yang clicked her tongue. "Sure," she flicked her hair behind her, "I'll do my best." Then she grinned, and made an excited fist-pump motion in the air. "Just you wait! Team ABYSS will triumph!"
When the match came, for there was no reason it wouldn't come, I took a seat by Emerald's side. Mercury was on the roll-call for today, and I suspected he was ready to fight against Yang. I drummed my fingers against the armchair's armrests, and watched as the match-roulette program began to spin.
I knew what was going to happen. Yet, even so, I wondered what this would mean for the match that was meant to have a death in it. Then, the roulette came to a halt and I exhaled.
Pyrrha Nikos was on one side, as I had expected. Yet, rather than Mercury, Yang's face appeared on the other side. As that happened, I realized Mercury was walking together with the other potential fighters back into the arena's insides, but I doubted he'd wait for his turn in the locker room.
If anything, I reckoned he was headed somewhere else.
"Cinder says there are enough Grimm to launch the attack," Emerald whispered by my side. "Mercury's going to start deactivating the coliseum's floating system the moment the Grimm attack."
I looked at the crowd. I looked at the people. I looked at the families.
The midnight bell rings. Have you made your decision?
My fists clenched against the armrests.
You will live through this; and that will be the greatest of horrors. Do you understand that?
"I understand," I whispered whether it was to Emerald, or to my own conscience, I didn't know.
"Cinder wants me to have one kill the other when their aura goes low," Emerald muttered. "Do you...do you have a preference?"
I exhaled. I exhaled a long, hard breath.
"Try...try to have Yang lose her right arm," I whispered instead. "It will yield better results, and stick to people's memories longer."
Emerald glanced at me, briefly, and then a small smile settled on her lips. She nodded at my suggestion.
I shuddered inwardly, somewhat understanding what her thoughts might have been on the matter, and outwardly steeled myself. "What's our exit strategy?" I asked next, as the match began right in front of our eyes.
"When it happens, we rush as if to check on her," Emerald muttered, "But we're headed for an air ambulance instead."
"I understand," I took the deepest breath my lungs could hold, and then exhaled in an equally slow way.
You can still stop everything. Emerald, Mercury, Cinder-they are all within arm reach. But you won't.
I wouldn't.
They are your family. They will not abandon you. They will fight by your side. They will protect you, and you them.
They would.
You will never be Wren Schnee again.
I never was.
Yang's aura dropped, her Semblance activated. Pyrrha fought her in turn. Her semblance subtly making sure hits miss, and guiding her spear with added strength against Yang. I realized Emerald was concentrating on her semblance now, and brought my attention to our surroundings.
Yang's aura kept dropping. An alarm blared and I watched as Pyrrha took a couple of steps back, while Yang herself groaned in disbelief, and defeat. She smiled, and then was just about to graciously accept her defeat when Pyrrha bent her knees, and charged forward.
I watched as time seemed to slow down. I watched as Pyrrha's spear slammed into Yang's side and cleaved the girl's arm off. I heard the screams, and in a split-second, Emerald and I were rushing.
We weren't the only ones. Even Blake and Jaune were doing the same, but as the crowd grew terrified, as the darkness of their emotions echoed and increased in pitch, I could hear Cinder's voice come through the speakers of the Amity Arena.
"And what do we have here? Once more, a bloodbath. Once more, callousness and cruelty from the so-called sworn protectors of humanity."
We met with Mercury near the air ambulance, "Explosive charges set and ready to go," he said with a grin, a detonator in hand. His boots were matted with blood. The guards had not survived the confrontation.
My stomach was no longer churning. It was cold, and a feeling of unease had overcome my limbs. I climbed on the bullhead, glanced briefly at Neopolitan in the driver's seat, and then extended a hand towards Mercury, getting the detonator at my unspoken order.
"We'll let a few evacuate," I said. "Their terror will bring more Grimm in."
As my eyes fixed on the Amity Arena, my Scroll began to buzz violently. I glanced down at it, and realized it was Jaune calling me. Very calmly, I snapped the Scroll in half.
Flying swarms of Grimm were coming over the air. Griffons, Nevermores, and meanwhile Ironwood's army up in the clouds wasn't firing on them.
My fingers tightened the detonator's handle. A few bullheads were now evacuating from the coliseum.
"We can't keep hovering around here forever, Shade!" Emerald yelled, but I just looked.
One more.
Just one more bullhead.
Then I lifted the detonator up, and pushed.
The explosion began from the lower half of the coliseum. It rippled across it, and though I could not hear them, I felt them in my very soul, the screams of the terrified citizens of Vale that had come for the match, and would probably not survive the day.
When we landed in Beacon's courtyard, the Atlas robots were already in a rampage. The huntsman academy was on fire, and at the very top I could see flames and lightning echo around.
"You can go rescue Torchwick," Emerald said to Neopolitan, "Cinder will be please he did his side."
Neopolitan glared at Emerald, but then hurried off, leaving us three theoretically stranded in the academy. Yet, slowly but surely, the Grimm tide would increase.
I made my way to the upper floors of the academy. Since the elevator was out, I had to take the stairs. Emerald and Mercury were both behind me.
"Can't believe it's really happening," Mercury said, looking around. "Fucking weaklings dying one after the other, can't even face tin cans and Grimm."
That wasn't true. There weren't deaths in the huntsmen or huntresses, but the majority of them had no choice but to leave to protect the city. Only some students remained around, and the unlucky ones had already been found, and dealt with. The lucky ones had missed death by a hair's breadth.
The noise of fighting came to an end with a peculiarly strong blast, and by the time we reached the top of what once had been the headmaster's office, only Cinder remained standing, alive and smiling brightly as the flames flickered across her entire body, casting her face into an eerie, dark shadow.
"Everything is going according to plan," Cinder bemused, chuckling and turning to look at us. "But I ordered a death, not a wounding, grievous as it may have been."
"Call me sentimental," I said back, "but I thought it would be more efficient, and slightly gentlemanly, to give an ex-teammate a chance at surviving today."
"I see," Cinder muttered. "Ozpin refused to collaborate," she added. "I would have made his death quicker, but...we will find the Relic eventually," she chuckled. "Even if we have to tear down every brick of Beacon, and of Vale."
A sharp sound echoed, the rumbling of an angry mountain. I walked towards the opening of the tower, freshly created from a fiery magical blast. Chaos was rampant through Vale. Flames spread everywhere, robots fighting hunters and shooting indiscriminately.
A massacre.
An unforgivable slaughter.
And I watched as it happened, and gazed at the Coliseum coming down towards the outskirts of Vale.
Mercury clicked his tongue in disgust. "Not enough explosive to make it crash fully."
"It was more than enough," Cinder mused, and as the mountain top detonated, the Wyvern Grimm roared and began to fly. Blobs of darkness spread from its wings and fell on the ground across the city, coalescing into even more Grimm that immediately began their rampage.
Nobody was coming to Beacon's tower.
Nobody was attempting to stop us, even as the Wyvern began to circle atop us, ready to land as if summoned by Cinder.
I took a deep breath, feeling the smell of ozone linger in the air, the pungent iron of blood, and then my ears perked up as explosions rang in the courtyard.
"Foolish of them to come here," Cinder mused with another chuckle.
"Their head's stuck in a fantasy world," Emerald added, "Perhaps it's time they got it unstuck?"
"I could kick them around a bit," Mercury helpfully suggested.
I turned thoughtful. "Chernobog," I said.
"What did you say, dear?" Cinder asked.
"If we made a team," I mused, "we would probably be team CENB, or Chernobog." I tightened the grip on the handle of Magnistipula. "I'll deal with the children. One last act of mercy, I suppose."
"Your kindness will be the death of you one day," Cinder said with a dreadful sigh, "But very well," she gently kissed me on the lips once, "one final farewell, but if they do not leave..."
"Then I will crush them where they stand," I acquiesced with a slow nod. "I won't allow them to threaten your mission, love-dove."
Cinder smiled, and I neared the edge of the tower.
Just as I jumped down, the Wyvern Grimm landed atop the tower.
Magnistipula slammed into the side of the tower, slowing my fall down. With a deep, unsettling breath I flexed my arm and launched off the side of the tower.
I could see Pyrrha and Jaune, both rushing across the courtyard. I could see Ruby in her typical cloud of roses, and Blake running alongside them.
A mighty Atlas Paladin had just fallen on the ground in a nearby courtyard, Ren and Nora on it with older students.
Yet, I landed in front of them.
And I did not land alone.
"Shade!" Jaune exclaimed, looking relieved. "You weren't picking up your Sc-" his voice died in his throat.
I tightened my right fist around Magnistipula. "For the glory of Salem!" I snarled with all of the anger I felt within my soul, coming out in a haunting scream. It was an anger meant for me. It was a burning, hateful anger that I could let out only in this way.
By my side, the Beowolves that had landed snarled in turn, howling loudly. They would not attack me, but they felt my anger, my rage, my grief, and they grew excited because of it. Griffons shrieked up in the air, and a Nevermore cawed as flapped its massive wings right behind me, wicked talons at the ready.
"Shade-" Jaune's shock was short-lived.
My feet shattered the ground, my fury drove my weapon forward. The air itself rippled like a tornado.
The swing connected and Jaune's body flew against the ground with a sordid noise, a cannonball of armor and flesh that impacted and rolled leaving clouds of gravel in its wake. Ruby's scream of disbelief was echoed by her quickly rushing towards the blond boy's unconscious body.
"What are you doing!?" Pyrrha's voice was a haunting shriek of sheer fear and disbelief, a sorrowful lament that echoed through my ears as I smiled, as wickedly as I could ever possibly make it.
"Isn't it obvious?" I chuckled. "I am stopping you. Come, invincible girl. Let me put you into the ground." I felt it bubble within me, my rage. "Like I will put everyone else that dares stand against Salem, the leader of the Grimm."
I gritted my teeth. The muscles in my body tensed.
"Please, no," Blake muttered, her eyes wide, her cat ears trembling. Her face was ashen. Was her heart even beating, or had it stopped in the moment that realization had sunk in that indeed, all of the pain, all of the carnage, all of the deaths that were happening right there and then...were also my fault?
"Shade-we trusted you!" she screamed, fury and rage taking over her shock.
"That was your mistake," I growled. By my side, the Beowolves lunged forward. The Nevermore flew.
"Allow me to rectify it."
Then Magnistipula met Pyrrha's spear, and the screams were lost in a sea of steel.