Tempest - II

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The door in front of him slammed open with enough force it drove the knob through the wall-protector and into the drywall behind it

He crossed the room silently, shoulders heaving and blood pounding in his ears as Neo came in, pushing the door shut behind them. She padded up behind him, but for a while, he didn't turn. It was only when she reached out to touch his back that he rounded on her and snarled, "Cinder!?"

"Has to be." She signed, "It fits her M.O."

"Did you know?" She shook her head, and he believed her if only for the fury in her eyes - Jaune could have died in there, and so could she, if they'd been on the dance floor. "And Ozpin… Ozpin's dead."

"Has to be." Neo repeated, "Or he'd have been out there, coordinating the doctors."

Instead, Goodwitch had been, stony-faced and alone while the Headmaster's office was doused with water from Atlesian airships. And under General Ironwood's personal command, no less. From a huge Atlesian battleship hovering low over Beacon itself. Which made it all so much more real…

"Gods." He murmured, "It's horrible…"

Pyrrha stormed through the door a heartbeat later, dress torn up to her waist to free her legs and eyes filled with fury. Neo turned to her and the woman pointed a threatening finger in her face and forced her back as she turned to speak to Jaune, "Jaune, this-"

"I know."

"Do you?" Pyrrha snapped, throwing her hand towards the door and shouting, "Ruby's in triage, Jaune! Weiss had a round go through her leg in my arms, as well. She's in for surgery! And Sun… Gods, Sun."

"I know." He repeated. He'd seen the bodies coming out - the mop of blonde and Blake's broken shout - and known what it meant. "And plenty others, too…"

"So what are we-"

"Arc!" He looked over Pyrrha's shoulders as Yang and Blake appeared, red-eyed in two very different ways. The blonde snarled, teeth bared when she saw Neo, and demanded, "The fuck is she doing here?! I should break her over my fucking knee!"

"Yang, that won't solve anything-"

"Fuck off, Nikos!" Yang snarled in the stoic Mistralian's face, "You know how many people died tonight?"

"No-"

"Neither the fuck do we, they're still counting! But that's the point, ain't it, butch?" Yang snarled, pointing a finger at Neo as she scrambled up on the bed. Pyrrha stepped between them to keep the blonde from following, but Yang only squared up with her instead. "Oh, do you wanna go, Nikos? Over her?!"

"I don't-"

"Then move."

"-but I also won't let you attack Neo. She was there, she could have died as well." Pyrrha argued, "And besides, she's here. Why would she come here instead of hiding wherever her mistress is?"

"Why don't we ask her?"

"I already know the answer." Pyrrha answered sharply, "She is here for love- She wouldn't have risked Jaune. If she knew what was coming, then she would have warned him, at least."

"When would that have happened?!"

"While they danced, perhaps?!"

"I didn't see them-" The sharp crack of wood shattering cut the blonde brawler off and he saw Neo flinch, wide, white eyes watching him closely.

"That's enough, Yang." He snarled as he yanked his fist free of the ruined dresser in front of him and turned, shaking off the splinters. Red eyes met blue as he approached and pushed Pyrrha aside, but the woman didn't say anything. So, he said, "You want to lay a finger on Neo? You do it to me instead, or-"

Her first blow crashed against the side of his head and sent him reeling. The second slammed into his stomach and forced him, staggering, back.

"You wanna play that fuckin' game, Arc?" Yang snarled around Pyrrha when she stepped back between them, hands on the brawler's shoulders to keep her back while she pointed at him. "We trusted you and people died! Don't you get that?"

"Yang, that's not-"

"Yes, I do." He shouted over the Mistralian's voice, turning back to them both and spitting the blood from his split lip onto the carpet. Cold blue met red again and he pushed Pyrrha aside and spread his arms out wide. "Do what you want to me, Yang. At least, until you're ready to go hit someone that's actually your enemy."

"Jaune…?"

"I'm done waiting, Pyr." He growled lowly, "Ozpin's dead, too, so what's there to wait for anyway? I don't trust Ironwood to honor his word, and now Ozpin is out of the way, what is there to keep Cinder away from Amber?"

"Amber?"

"The woman in the basement." He explained quietly as Yang finally backed down. He felt a hand on his forearm and turned to look at Neo, one brow raised, "What's up?"

She held up her Scroll without a word, Cinder's messenger icon blinking white. Silent, he pressed it and read out loud, "Now is the time. Deal with the blonde and meet us where we discussed. You have ten minutes."

"Where they discussed?"

"The elevator." Jaune translated for Neo, "They're actually making their play, then…"

"What does that mean?"

"That my choice doesn't matter." He answered, shoving by the blonde and heading for the door. "C'mon, Neo, we only have one way to get you and Roman out of this mess."

"We're running for it?" She signed as she slipped in front of him, eyes narrow with worry and fear.

"No." Jaune growled, "We're fighting."

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General James Ironwood stood on the deck of his command ship, eyes locked on the feed on the main screen. A feed from his fire team - combatting the blaze that had consumed the Headmaster's office and the two dorms the tower had come crashing down onto. The dorms had been empty, thankfully, but that was a bittersweet note when the reason why was because everyone had been at the dance.

A dance crashed by units of his own Knights…

"Update on the automated units." He demanded hotly, watching the work on the main monitor.

"Sir." A technician called back, "Your Scroll has been deactivated, and all drones on the network have been shut down. Technical officers are collecting them, wiping their programming, and uploading clean formats off of our own command drives."

"And my tracker?"

"Disabled, Sir." She answered, "Cause unknown."

"Damn it…" He growled, "What about-?"

"General Ironwood!" An officer suddenly shouted, cutting him off and earning the Atlesian officer's full attention. He balked under Ironwood's galre, but went to work regardless, replacing the fire-relief footage with one of the news.

The live news, broadcasting across Vale…

"-dozens of students were killed in the attack." Lisa Lavender reported quietly, meekly even, which was as much a testament to the tragedy at play as anything else. To quiet a firebrand took a lot of pressure - or a lot of pain. "Footage from the incident has been provided to the station, and will play now, up to the point of violence. Please, be advised of disturbing-"

"Who leaked it!?" He demanded as the sound died, his finger pressed against a command button on his own console.

"Unknown, Sir." The officer reported simply, "With permission, I'll dedicate officers to investigating-"

"Do it." Ironwood growled, turning and adding to a fleet officer, "And order the Enduring Purity and For all Mankind to turn for Vale and establish a defensive formation with the rest of the fleet."

"Yes, Sir."

"And deploy patrol wings." He added firmly, turning the display to a layout of Vale itself. "Encircle Beacon and Vale. Radio silence."

"What if Vale forces-"

"Order them back." He snapped loudly, turning to the screen and clasping his hands behind his waist as he surveyed the Kingdom that had now fallen to him to defend. At least, until Ozpin could return. "Inform the Council that I am undergoing a security operation, and request they do not interfere. Also inform them that as Ozpin has… Fallen, and the Headmistress is busy, I am assuming his duties until the crisis is at an end."

"Yes, General."

"I will protect your city, old friend." Ironwood promised quietly, "No matter what tries to stop me."

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"You have to be joking, Arc." Yang argued as Jaune slid out of his jacket and tugged his breastplate on. He turned to give Yang a look, one eyebrow raised, and she scoffed. "Jaune, look, you've gotten a lot better at fighting. But Neo could kick your ass. And she is scared of the bitch."

"I know."

"So- I don't-" Yang growled, threw her hands up in the air in an angry surrender, and turned to Blake. "Blakey, back me up here."

"..." Blake only sighed and turned, heading over to her own locker and punching her code in. Once it was open, she started to strip and said, "Sun would have gone after her, Yang. If one of us had… If we were in his place."

"But… That's not fair, Blakey. Like, at all- Fuck!" Finally, desperately, she turned to Neo and asked, "Look, you and I ain't great, but you have to agree with me here. This isn't even our job!"

Silent as the grave, Neo shifted from her 'Licorice' disguise to her own face and form and turned to help Jaune buckle on his breastplate. Jaune grunted his thanks and reached for his hanging belt, looping it on while she finished up his chest-piece for him. When he was done, he latched Crocea Mors onto his waist and turned to the brawler. Her eyes were still blazing red, and he could see her hair smoldering in that way it did, but she didn't do anything to him as he reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"This is the stupidest decision since I came here, Yang." He admitted freely, "I'm not doing it because I have to- I could just run. I'm not doing it for duty- I signed up to fight Grimm, not terrorists like Cinder. I'm doing this because of two reasons. One, this is… At least partially my fault."

"Jaune, no-"

"It is, guys." He sighed, laying a hand on Neo's head when she stepped around him and raised a hand to sign. Running his fingers through her hair, he tugged her in for a hug she turned out to be more than happy to melt into. "I didn't know this would happen, but… I didn't stop it, either."

"That's the first reason then." Pyrrha murmured as Blake, armed and ready for a fight, joined them, "The second?"

"That's obvious, isn't it? Love." He answered simply, chuckling and even smiling for the corniness of the admission and pointedly ignoring the way Neo pressed more firmly against his side. "I love Neo, and I love Roman. Different ways, but love regardless. And Cinder will never stop chasing them, if we run."

"...Gods, you do have it bad." Yang murmured, then sucked in a breath and turned, screaming as loud as she could. "Aaaaaaaah, motherfucker!"

"Yang-" She cut him off by spinning on a heel and absolutely devastating one side of a support pillar in the middle of the room. Shoulders heaving, she turned back to him and, warily, he asked, "You okay?"

"No. How the fuck am I supposed to argue with the damn 'I have to fight for the people I love' line, Jaune? Really!?" She snapped, turning to stalk to her own locker beside Blake's, "Will be a lot better when I brain the bitch, though."

"Oh hell yeah."

"Agreed."

"We'll need a plan." Of course, it was Blake who served as the voice of - exhausted though it may have been - reason. "To fight this. Going in without a plan only works when you're the stronger person."

"And against her, we definitely are not." Pyrrha said as she turned to retrieve her own armor from the locker beside Jaune's. Her dress hit the floor and Jaune sighed and turned when Neo tried to pull away just enough to see her. She ignored Neo's half-hearted antics, though, and went on, "I'm the best fighter. I should hold Cinder off while the rest of you deal with her compatriots."

"Two on one?" Blake hummed, "Not bad odds."

"Or fair." The half-dressed blonde at her locker called back to them.

"Fairness and kindness, the first casualties of war." Pyrrha said, pounding a fist against each side of her armored bodice to check the ties and fit and then kneeling to pull on her greaves. "Once you deal with them, come to me. Together we can overpower her through sheer weight of numbers."

"It's not a bad-"

"No, that's… Not what we're going to do." Jaune cut the Faunus off, shaking his head and resting a hand on Crocea Mors. It calmed him down, if only just, and lent him the strength he needed. And a center to focus on, through the racing of his heart. Four eyes turned on him at once and he took in a breathy, and let it out shakily.

"We need to deal with her companions as quickly as possible. Speed is… Really, really important, with that." Jaune explained quietly, more than aware of the quiet that stretched around him, between them, as he did. "So, I have a plan… You'll just have to trust me."

"Sure, buddy."

"Always."

"I suppose we have no choice…" Blake sighed, "You are rather stubborn, it turns out."

It was Neo, though, who doubted, who wanted to argue, because of course she did. She pulled away from him and looked up at him, eyes narrow and hard. Suspicious. Afraid. Jaune smiled and shrugged silently, and her eyes narrowed even more, glinting hard and pink. He leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead and she leaned up into it, hungry as always for the little bits of affection he could give her. He started to pull away and she turned and pushed up, stealing a brief little kiss from him before she backed away, smiled thinly, and nodded.

"Okay," he sighed, resigned, "let's hunt a witch."

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Tombs 456 :

Had there been anything important, I wouldn't have skipped it at all. It just… Wasn't anything but drama. I COULD have used it to mine Supporters but that's not my schtick.

Joe Cola :

Agreed across the board!

Yeah I Read :

In order it was-

Pyrrha X a VERY flustered Weiss.

Ruby X Penny.

Jaune X Neo.

And the Poly-Bees, with Sun.