Work Text:
The blood pumping through his veins was almost deafening. Jaune and Pyrrha rushed down the steps of the tower and out the front door. He panted looking back in concern, while Pyrrha who was looking back as well, seemed a bit more composed. Jaune fumbled for his scroll, remembering Ozpin’s demand for them to find help. Even he couldn’t screw up calling someone right? But the “low service” screen that lit up before him made Jaune feel like the universe was determined to keep him from doing anything right. He looked up at Pyrrha, irritation on his face as he kept on tapping at the device.
“What was tha-”
A roar of noise rose up and the pair saw the woman who’d been fighting Ozpin rushing up to the top of the tower, propelled by the flames from her hands. Jaune paled. His mouth felt dry. That was impossible. This was Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. The man was unstoppable. Jaune looked to Pyrrha for some sort of affirmation that what happened, didn’t.
“Go. Jaune go get help.”
Pyrrha locked eyes with Jaune. The normally composed young woman had a hint of tears at the edge of her eyes and her voice had a slight crack. Jaune studied her features before his eyes widened.
“No. Nonono. No...Pyrrha you can’t fight her. If she beat Ozpin, what chance do you have against her alone? I’m not leav-”
The sudden warm press of her lips against his silenced the argument Jaune made. The soft fabric of her gloves clasped the sides of his face. There was a power and passion in her, a want that had been so long held back and now she was finally letting it go. Jaune was frozen, until he felt a tear from her face drip down onto his cheek. Slowly he put his arms around her waist, pulling her in closer and kissing her back. It felt like time had slowed down for them, but as soon as he had started to kiss back, it was over. Pyrrha pulled away, tears still in her eyes.
“Jaune...I’m sorry.”
The tug of Pyrrha’s semblance pulled Jaune backwards into the nearby locker. But, on reflex, his hand flew down to the sheath of Crocea Mors. The shield sprung to life and blocked the door from slamming shut on him. The pressure from her polarity let go and shock spread across Pyrrha’s features. Jaune kicked the door open, his face livid as he stomped forward.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Are you kidding me, Pyrrha? You can’t just send me off without a thought while you go and get yourself killed!”
“That’s not what I’m doing! I’m going to stop her.”
“You know you can’t.”
“WELL I HAVE TO TRY!”
The girl all but shouted in Jaune’s face, the last part of her collected front coming down, an anguished look on her features.
“Even if I can’t stop her, I have to do something. It’s my responsibility. Ozpin, Glynda, they all expected me to be able to stand up to her. Well now is the time Jaune. Even if I can’t, I can make sure you’ll be around to get someone who can. So please, just listen to me and go!”
Jaune gripped her shoulders tightly, no emotion in his eyes.
“Pyrrha. Since the day we met, you always stood by me. You believed in me. Trained me, cared about me. You’ve always helped me when I needed you. So let me help you. For once in our damn lives, just let me be the one who you can rely on. And if you won’t do that for me as a friend or a lo-...let me do it as a leader. You may have a responsibility to Ozpin, but I have a responsibility to keep you safe.”
Jaune’s hands moved from Pyrrha’s shoulders to her face, wiping away the fresh tears that had fallen.
“If you’re going, then I’m coming with you. We do this together.”
“Jaune you-”
“If you’re gonna leave me all alone...I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t want to be without you. So...we can go out in a blaze of glory. Or maybe we’ll get lucky and save the day.”
He chuckled weakly and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead before entwining their hands. A soft smile spread across Pyrrha’s face and she clenched his hand tightly.
“Fine. Let’s go save the world.”
Pyrrha let go of Jaune’s hand and the two rushed back up the stairs into the tower.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pair looked around the darkened corridors and disabled elevators. The woman had flown up one of the shafts and there was no way up.
“Uh, okay, let me think. There’s probably an emergency stairwell.”
“Jaune. Let me.”
Pyrrha stepped into the elevator, Jaune moving beside her, and began to focus her power on the metal box around them. The slow creaking of the warped metal around them started to rapidly shudder and Pyrrha’s face strained in concentration.
“I..ugh...hope you have a plan.”
“Working on it.”
“Work quickly.”
Suddenly the elevator rocketed up, knocking Jaune on his rear and almost down the hole that Cinder had launched her way through. So that’s what quickly meant.
“Okay, um...let’s see…Alright, I’ve got it.”
With the rapid ascent Jaune noticed the service bars on his scroll going up as well. He typed out a quick SOS message to Weiss, hoping the message would reach her and they’d have help in time...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cinder looked at the dragon who’d circled the tower, a wicked sneer on her face. The bell for the elevator chimed and she turned back. Jaune was crouched in front of Pyrrha, his shield at the ready, with Pyrrha knelt down behind him. Firing Miló, Pyrrha aimed for the woman. She shot in quick succession as Jaune took in the surroundings from his safety.
The room was relatively untouched. The gears above them and off to the side of the office continued to clank along. Well that’s a lot of heavy metal. Jaune could hear Pyrrha’s shots being deflected and before he could see what the woman was doing, Pyrrha had grabbed him by the back of his hood and flung him to the side. A large fireball erupted where they had been and Pyrrha had launched herself at the woman, swinging Miló furiously.
Jaune shook himself of the nausea that was starting to build in his chest as Pyrrha continued her attacks, which the woman kept parrying and returning with more fire. Pyrrha dodged and weaved around them, blocking the ones she couldn’t with Akoúo̱. With a sudden burst of speed Pyrrha lept at the woman aiming her blade at the woman’s throat. Cinder grabbed it with ease, a cruel grin spread across her features. It’s now or never.
Jaune took the moment to rush from his position and slam into the floating- she was floating, why was she floating, what the actual hell- woman’s legs and knock her off balance. She didn’t seem to be expecting that and let go of Pyrrha’s blade, leaving an opening for Pyrrha to respond with a slam to her face with Akoúo̱. Cinder backpedaled, eyeing up the pair who had positioned themselves side by side.
“So the invincible girl needs a hero to sa-”
Cinder was cut off by Pyrrha’s shield which had been pegged directly at her face. She turned her head to the side, letting it whiz by harmlessly before Jaune’s blade was brought against her side, knocking her off balance again. Glaring, Cinder whirled around to face him before the shield that had been thrown ricocheted against the wall and hit her square in the back. The blow pushed her forward, sending her face crashing into Jaune’s shield, which he slammed into her with all his might.
Jaune hopped back to stand next to Pyrrha again, before they shared a quick smile.
“So that’s what Arkos was?”
“Eh, I think that was a good first try.”
A sudden fiery burst threw the two back as Cinder rose back up and threw a volley of fire at the pair. Jaune huddled behind his shield as Pyrrha twisted through the air, launching Miló and Akoúo̱ at the woman. She easily deflected them, but wasn’t able to stop Pyrrha’s full body tackle. The resulting dust cloud from the pair colliding with the ground had Jaune very concerned, but he cheered inwardly when he saw Pyrrha behind the woman, Miló edging closer to the woman’s throat.
Cinder had a tight grip on the blade, which was digging into her hands, but still wasn’t piercing her aura. Cinder glanced to the Grimm Dragon, smirking at it. The beast rose with a mighty flap of it’s wings away from the tower, and for a moment Jaune breathed a little easier. With a sudden shock, he realized that the woman’s hands were steaming as she gripped Pyrrha’s blade. Furthermore, the dragon had circled back and was heading straight for the tower.
“PYRRHA! MOVE!”
Unsure of what to do, or maybe just because he was only thinking of her, Jaune leapt up and rushed at the grappling women. With a loud crack, Miló shattered into pieces and the woman elbowed Pyrrha away. The walls and windows shattered, and Jaune was buffeted by debris as the room collapsed around them. He could feel himself weakening as he was thrown to the ground by the force of power that the woman had let out as well as the dragon smashing its way through.
On all fours, Jaune pushed through the soreness as he looked between Pyrrha and the woman, who looked like she was enjoying this torment. Pyrrha was to Jaune’s left with her back against the wall, moving into a crawl for her shield. They exchanged a glance, as if she was asking “what now?” They both looked around and noticed many of the large cogs and gears left from the rubble, and, sharing a knowing look, Jaune rose up and rushed towards Pyrrha as she used her semblance to toss a piece of the office frame, knocking the floating woman back.
Cinder caught herself in mid air, sending a wall of flame at the students. Jaune had his shield up, and he and Pyrrha curled up behind it.
“Ideas?”
“The gears. Knock her off balance. Then just pelt her with them as much as you can. Take your time, we don’t wanna use them all at once.”
“Are you sure?”
Jaune handed Pyrrha his sword, giving her a solemn nod.
“It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
Pyrrha noded back, flinging the sword at the woman. She easily deflected it, but didn’t notice the gears which Pyrrha had raised up around her. Cinder whipped around, the floating gears surrounding her. Jaune’s sword flew back through Pyrrha’s control and flipped Cinder up as it collided with her legs.
“NOW!”
At Jaune’s command, Pyrrha sent one of the large gears crashing into the woman, crushing her into the floor. As soon as the woman would start to rise, Pyrrha would slam another gear on top of her. Jaune kept his defensive stance in front of Pyrrha, watching for any sort of counter from the woman, but when he heard a ragged breath come from Pyrrha, he turned to look at her with a worried expression. She was weakening and they had to end this quickly. With a sudden flash of power Cinder knocked the gears aside, flinging them in all directions. Jaune shouted as he moved to throw Pyrrha to the side, one of the gears crashing him into some of the leftover structure. He felt the wind knocked out of him and a feeling of lightheadedness pass over him, as he felt a wet, sticky liquid at the back of his head start dripping.
Pyrrha was weakened, but she scrabbled up after Jaune. The world seemed to slow down for Jaune as he realized how bad the situation was. He saw Pyrrha rushing towards him, the fire-eyed woman had a bow and arrow that she seemed to literally pull out of thin air. He saw her draw it back, heard Pyrrha call out his name and toss her shield aside to block the shot. The arrow collided with it and evaporated around it only to reform and strike Pyrrha through the heel. She cried out and dropped to her knees about three feet away from him. The woman’s malicious smirk grew as she approached Pyrrha, who was still attempting to crawl towards Jaune. Cinder looked between the pair.
“Don’t worry about him. I’ll take good care of him. He’ll be begging to get what you’re going to get.”
She readied another arrow. Jaune knew how this would end. He knew it from the start. With his last ounce of strength he pushed himself off the ground, and dove for Pyrrha. The moment the arrow pierced through his back, the moment he heard Pyrrha’s anguished cry, he knew this was the last thing he’d ever do for her. He felt her hands on his face, the tears dripping down from her face onto his, as if hoping that would fix this somehow. He breathed out heavily- had it pierced one of his lungs?- and reached out weakly to her. She was cradling him, gripping his hand tightly.
The pain in his chest felt like it was spreading, almost warming him. The woman was out of his sight, but he mouthed a soft “I love you” to Pyrrha.
“I love you too...”
Out the corner of his eye he saw Ruby leap from somewhere on the side of the tower and landed among the ruined office to take in the sight of the three of them. He managed one more weak smile before everything went white…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jaune bolted upright, panting heavily. The cave he was in was only lit by the small fire he was around with Nora and Ren. Ruby was sitting at the cave entrance, staring out at the snow. She turned and looked back at Jaune with a frown. She knew telling him what happened, what she saw, was a bad idea. But he was so insistent. Jaune was trying to slow his breath, rubbing at the bags under his eyes, hunched over on himself. The same dream, every night now. And only now did he get to save her. But every time it was never a happy end. Just one or both of them dead. He could never save her. He could never be the hero he promised her he’d be.