86

Chapter 86:

"Now Ruby's gone too," grumbled Weiss, pacing back and forth in their room.

"Weiss, calm down," said Pyrrha. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Don't be ridiculous," growled Weiss, turning to Pyrrha. "For all we know the two of them could have conspired to get a hotel room in Vale, and they might be there right now...canoodling."

Pyrrha couldn't stop the quiet huff of laughter that escaped her. "I doubt that they're doing that," she said. "Ruby and Jaune know better, Weiss."

"I know..." admitted Weiss, slumping. "But the last airship from Vale was over an hour ago. If Jaune didn't come back on that, then he's stuck in the Kingdom. If Ruby went on the last one out to look for him, then she'll be stuck too."

"They'll manage," said Pyrrha. "They can take care of themselves, especially Ruby."

A tone rang out from Weiss' scroll. Pulling it out, Weiss saw she was getting a call from Glynda Goodwitch. Oh no...! If the school's chief disciplinarian was calling her, then that could only mean one thing...trouble.

"H-Hello, Professor," greeted Weiss, holding the scroll up to her ear. "How can I help you?"

"Ms. Schnee, perhaps you can explain why Mr. Arc's locker abruptly launched, and is currently on a trajectory for Vale," suggested Glynda.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Weiss, prompting Pyrrha to practically fall off her bed in surprise.

"Please don't make me repeat myself," said Glynda coolly. "I have tried calling Mr. Arc's scroll, but he is not answering."

"I have no idea what's going on," said Weiss. "Jaune's been missing for most of the day. Ruby's gone too. For some reason, our tracking app isn't working, and we can't locate either of them."

She heard a silent intake of breath from the other end of the line.

"Have you tried calling Ruby?" asked Weiss.

"Her scroll appears to be busy," commented Glynda.

Pyrrha heard a ringing sound from her own pocket. "Maybe it's because Ruby's calling me," she suggested, holding it up to show Weiss that Ruby's contact was on the screen.

Weiss nodded at her, and Pyrrha answered the call.

"Hello...Ruby?" asked Pyrrha. "What's going on? You disappeared-"

"Pyrrha!" It wasn't Ruby's voice that came over the scroll, but Jaune's.

"Jaune!" exclaimed Pyrrha, shooting to her feet. "What's going on? Where have you been? Ruby's been worried sick about you?"

"Well, I was being held hostage," Jaune answered dryly. "Cinder and her people knocked me out, then tied me up. They called Ruby down. I don't get what she wanted, something about 'power' or 'magic'. It doesn't make any sense. But Ruby's fighting Cinder and her goons right now!"

"Where are you?" asked Pyrrha, staring at Weiss, who was starring back, her jaw hanging slack.

"Some abandoned factory, over in the industrial district," said Jaune. "I think Cinder used that virus they told us about to block the locator app on our scrolls, and I'm not sure of the exact address."

"Um..." Pyrrha looked over to Weiss, who looked just as unsure of what to do.

"Ms. Schnee," said Glynda, "Please connect your scroll with Ms. Nikos' in conference-call-mode."

"Oh! Right!" Weiss fiddled with the settings on her scroll, essentially calling Pyrrha's, while leaving Glynda on the line. Pyrrha accepted the call, turning the whole thing into a conference call between the pair of them, Jaune, and Glynda.

"Mr. Arc, please give me an update on your situation," said Glynda.

Jaune quickly repeated what he'd told Pyrrha already, with Glynda and Weiss listening in as well.

"This is terrible," Glynda muttered, just barely loud enough for the other three to hear her.

"What do we do, Professor?" asked Weiss. "If Cinder is blocking the locator signal from Jaune and Ruby's scrolls, how do we find them?"

"That is actually rather easy," said Glynda. "Thanks to Mr. Arc calling his locker, I now have their location from its trajectory. While the locator signal through the app has been blocked, it appears to not have hampered the signal received by our lockers. As for the plan of action, are the two of you prepared to support your teammates?"

"Of course," said Pyrrha, Weiss nodding her agreement, despite the fact Glynda couldn't see her at the moment.

"Good," said Glynda. "Then arm up. Also, see if Team Rainbow is prepared to assist you."

"Right," said Weiss.

"After you've armed yourselves, report to the docks. I will have a bullhead waiting."

"Yes, Professor," said Pyrrha. "Will you be coming with us?"

"I plan to. But first, I will collect Ms. Rose's brother, as I suspect he will be an important asset in bringing this to a successful conclusion."

Yeah, having Kyo along would be a good thing, thought Pyrrha, remembering Kyo's fight with Ruby. If anyone could bring Cinder down, it would be him.

Glynda came to a stop in front of the door to Kyo's suite. It was only a short trip from her own quarters, allowing her to reach his door in less than a minute. When she arrived, she rapped sharply on the door. "Mr. Mibu! I require your assistance."

There was no response, prompting Glynda to frown. So she knocked again. "Mr. Mibu, your sister is in grave danger! Please!"

A click sounded, but not from the door in front of her, but from the next door down. "Professor...?" asked Ashley sleepily, wearing her pajamas as she leaned out the door of her family's room. "What's going on?"

"Ms. Forrest, you shouldn't be opening your door, unless one of us calls you first," Glynda reminded her.

Ashley blinked, then paled as she realized what she'd done. Her reaction probably wouldn't have been as visceral, had Emerald and Mercury not tried to pull exactly that trick on her a few days ago. Instead she nodded fearfully, but her mind remained focused. "Professor...you said Ruby was in danger. What's going on?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," said Glynda. "This is a sensitive matter, though it may not be unconnected to your situation. I was hoping that her brother would be willing to assist, but..." She glared at the door.

"M-maybe he's not in," suggested Ashley.

"But where else would he be?" wondered Glynda, more to herself than Ashley. "The only reasons he'd be out of the room would be to spend time with Ms. Rose and her friends..." Glynda's eyes widened as the realization hit her.

"Professor...?" asked Ashley warily.

"It would appear this is a waste of time," said Glynda, giving Kyo's door one last look, before looking to Ashley. "Please remain in your room, Ms. Forrest. Your safety is our priority."

"But what about Kyo?" asked Ashley.

"If I am correct, then he is probably over where Ms. Rose is," said Glynda, straightening up. "So it is best that the rest of her team and friends join them."

Ruby bent her spine back, allowing her to slip beneath the line of Mercury's roundhouse kick. Jumping off the ground turned her body completely horizontal, as she went into an almost lazy-looking spin, allowing her to whirl around and slash out with Ibara to counter an attack from Cinder, who'd closed in from the opposite direction, leading with a slash from her own blade. Ruby followed through, thrusting out with Bara, prompting Cinder to bring her other sword up in a parry of her own. At the same time, Ruby touched down to turn and slash at Mercury with Ibara.

Her right-handed sword bounced off the upraised shin that Mercury blocked with. Her blade struck his trousers, above his boot. However, instead of striking flesh, blood, and Aura, Ruby felt the recoil of her sword striking something metallic. Channeling her Aura into the strike, she used the contact to explore the contours of Mercury's legs, making her hide a gasp when she realized that they weren't flesh and blood at all.

Mercury's legs were metal prosthetics. The greaves on his boots were a disguise, built to hide the true nature of his weapons. Whoever had made those prosthetics knew their business, as Ruby's ears hadn't picked up the slightest telltale whirr of servos. Nor had they been picked up by her regular Extension.

Both Cinder and Mercury flickered out of sight. Ruby saw them reappear, but her Extension told her that where she saw them with her eyes was not where they actually were. On top of that, the sounds they produced while moving and attacking were coming from their true positions.

It seemed that Emerald's ability to interfere with her target's senses was limited, at least in one sense. Ruby suspected that Emerald was struggling to keep up with the pace of the fight. In order to compensate, she had focused her efforts on disrupting Ruby's sense of sight, bombarding her with false images to try and confuse her as to the true position and distance of her opponents. That was a fairly wise strategy, one that would seriously hamper most fighters. But Ruby had trained long and hard to build her ability to perceive the world through her other senses. She might not have had anything on the level of a true Shingan, but she was skilled enough that mere visual hallucinations wouldn't be an impediment.

Of course, if Emerald decided her current approach wasn't working, and shifted strategies, then that would a different matter. Finding a way to take her out was still Ruby's top priority.

At present though, she was a little too hard pressed to find an opportunity. Mercury's movements were acrobatic, often seeming dancelike, allowing him to use his legs to strike from unusual angles. On top of that, the shots and gusts he fired extended the reach of his attacks to an impressive degree.

Cinder's own moves were swift and deadly, very much how Ruby remembered them from their fight in the Tower. In fact, Cinder's attacks were even faster and stronger than before, as she was no longer simply testing Ruby, but genuinely fighting to win. Streaks of flame flashed along the edges of the blades, extending the reach of Cinder's attacks, and making even near-misses painful and damaging, the heat of her passing attacks scorching Ruby's Aura.

Ruby fought with all the speed and skill she possessed, working her swords in tandem to keep her adversaries at bay, while flaring her cloak to fend off strikes from unexpected angles. Unlike the fight in the tower, Ruby couldn't bring the full strength of her attacks to bear on either of her opponents, as one would attack while Ruby was trying to focus on the other, successfully keeping her strength divided, and keeping her from getting a proper attack off.

This must have been how they brought down the Fall Maiden, thought Ruby, as the battle continued. She could see the strategy at work. Use numbers to their advantage, strategically diffuse their opponent's awareness to keep her from bringing her full power to bear on any single one of them, and wear her down through attrition. It was definitely a good strategy, the perfect way to deal with a much more powerful opponent. It was taking all of Ruby's skill just to keep Cinder and Mercury at bay. If she could just buy herself some space...

Ruby brought the flats of her swords together, scraping Ibara along the length of Barra, while pulling it back, almost as though she was sharpening her left-handed sword, and using the right one as a honing steel. However, as she pulled Ibara away, it trailed crackling streamers of crimson electricity, which Ruby lashed out with as she swung the blade at Mercury.

Mercury yelped, jumping back, but the lightning extended out from the tip of Ruby's sword, striking at him like a whip. Reflexively, Mercury kicked at it, firing a shot to counter the incoming arc, prompting the lightning to explode in red sparks.

In the meantime, Cinder came at Ruby's back, slashing her swords through Ruby's cloak, which dissolved into a cloud of petals, Ruby having already danced aside from her thrust. The petals swirled and converged around Cinder.

"Hanabi!"

At Ruby's command, they exploded into sparking bursts of electricity. However, Cinder had already been moving to evade them, glowing arrays forming in rings around her body, before exploding outward in a fiery shockwave, dispelling Ruby's attack in much the same way she had, back In Beacon Tower. The shockwave made Ruby stumble, leaving her open as Mercury went back on the offensive, jumping into a flip that allowed him to bring one leg up, around, and down in an axe-kick, aimed at Ruby's head. At the same time, Cinder followed through on her explosion by charging in, leveling both swords for a double-thrust attack.

Ruby used a small jump to spin, flaring her cloak around her to deflect Cinder's thrust and Mercury's kick. At the same time, she used her Aura to accelerate, prompting petals to stream off the tattered hem of her cloak, swirling through the air around her in a red cyclone. Then the petals converged inward on one another, congealing into six orbs of crackling electricity, which rapidly condensed into violet plasma. "Hibana!"

Ruby's attack launched all six orbs in arcing trajectories, curving the flights that initially matched the direction of her spin, before homing in on her two targets. Mercury kicked back, going into a handstand that allowed him to flair his legs out as he spun his body, firing shots to intercept Ruby's plasma-orbs, which exploded with loud claps, like thunder. Cinder jumped aside from two, bringing up her swords and crossing them in front of her body to intercept the third, which shattered the glass blades into small fragments, embers and arcs of plasma and electricity searing her Aura, prompting an enraged grimace of pain from the young woman. Cinder glared furiously at Ruby.

What Cinder failed to realize was that her dodge had put her in the perfect position for Ruby's strategy. Furthermore, one of the two plasma bolts that had missed Cinder went on to strike near the pillar Emerald was concealed behind, throwing up a cloud of smoke and dust. Emerald reeled, coughing and rubbing her eyes, stung by the burning embers thrown up, disrupting her control over her Semblance. Mercury and Cinder abruptly flashed into focus before Ruby's eyes.

Cinder swiftly worked her hands through circular motions, the fragments of her broken swords swirling around and condensing in on each other in a manner reminiscent of how Ruby's petals had moved earlier. As they did, they glowed a brilliant orange, melting together to form a cloud of glass shards that hovered in a loose formation around Cinder's body.

Ruby scraped her swords against each other, red vines of lightning climbing the length of both of them this time, stretching and arcing to connect the two, even as Ruby pulled them apart from one another. Turning around, Ruby focused completely on Cinder, and flashed forward, closing the distance between them in what seemed like a single step. At the same time, Cinder launched her shards. Ruby lowered her head, hardening her cloak and hood with her Aura. Even so, a few of the shards scorched and scratched at her exposed arms and legs. Still, she closed quickly enough that Cinder was forced to throw herself to the side of the crackling double-slash Ruby unleashed.

Even with her cloak hardened, Ruby still felt the hammer-blows of two of Mercury's silver bolts, which he'd fired at her back as she'd gone after Cinder. Ruby didn't bother tying to defend or counter them. Instead, she used the power behind the hits to add to her forward momentum as she pushed off the ground with all her strength, launching herself straight ahead into a charge that carried her right past the dodging Cinder.

The true purpose behind Ruby's Hibana earlier hadn't been to bring her opponents down, or even inflict any damage really. Instead, by forcing Cinder to dodge part of her attack, Ruby had succeeded in maneuvering her into the ideal position, directly between Ruby and the pillar Emerald had been hiding behind. Over the course of the melee, Ruby had been carefully working her position closer to the pillar, trying to reach the point where she could close the distance with it in a single lunge. And now, with Cinder dodging her slashes, Ruby's way was clear, and she put all her speed into rushing straight for Emerald's position.

Emerald was still distracted from the smoke and dust of Ruby's earlier attack. Beyond keeping her from continuing to use her Semblance, it also left her unaware that Ruby was now coming right towards her, not that she would have time to dodge in any case.

As she closed in on the pillar, Ruby brought her swords back together. The streamers of lightning merged, swirling around Akaibara's blade in a spiral pattern, almost like that of a drill, rushing from the hilt to the tip, right as Ruby thrust her sword straight into the pillar. "Takenoko!"

Emerald's instincts finally warned her of the incoming threat. She turned to backpedal away from the pillar. But it was too little, too late. Like a bamboo shoot growing out of the ground, the spiraling spear of Ruby's lightning pierced through the other side of the pillar, punching right through Emerald's stomach and out her back. The pillar shattered completely, the concrete fragments thrown at Emerald and pummeling her body and Aura, all while red streamers of electricity crackled across her. Emerald's shrill scream echoed through the factory.

Emerald flew backwards, propelled by the momentum behind Ruby's charge, being carried along by the lance of lightning she was impaled upon. Ruby planted her lead foot, skidding to a stop, while the lightning piercing Emerald dissolved into sparks. Emerald continued to fly another few meters, before landing hard on her back, her body spasming fiercely, a black, circular burn of blackened flesh marring the skin just above her navel. She stared up at the night sky with unseeing eyes.

"Emerald!" shouted Mercury, both him and Cinder staring in shock at their disabled, possibly deceased, companion.

She played us for fools! Cinder thought. She was targeting Emerald from the beginning! How did she know?

"No more illusions, right?" asked Ruby with a grim expression, turning to face her other two opponents.

"Why you..." growled Mercury, baring his teeth in an angry snarl. Cinder's expression was even more furious.

Ruby didn't feel all that good about what she had done to Emerald. In the context of the battle, she had decided to put Emerald down in the most expedient manner possible. To that end, she'd used as much power as she could spare. The consequence was that Emerald had been severely injured, possibly fatally. Even if she did survive, Ruby's attack had burned its way right through her spinal column. Emerald's lower body would likely be paralyzed for the remainder of her life. Were they in Leng, that might not have necessarily been the case. But there was no one in Vale with Sasame or Makoto's capacity for healing.

Not that Ruby had time to worry about that right now. Her legs and arms were beginning to shake. The tremors were slight, but enough that Ruby was able to notice them. Her fatigue from her earlier match with Kyo was beginning to catch up to her. Even though she'd taken down one of her opponents, Ruby wasn't exactly filled with confidence in her ability to handle the other two. It didn't help that Cinder and Mercury were only going to start taking her even more seriously.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby centered herself again, trying to relax her body enough that the tremors subsided. She only had marginal success. Her cloak was looking still more tattered, more holes than cloth at this point. She'd put a lot of effort into just taking out Emerald, and she wasn't sure she had enough left to handle Mercury and Cinder both. But it had to be done. If nothing else, she could still hold out hope that Jaune and the others would arrive on the scene.

Red lines of molten light climbed up the length of Cinder's dress, fire congealing in her right hand, before she thrust her palm out at Ruby, launching several angry balls of fire at her in rapid succession. Ruby darted to the side, her Shukuchi carrying her clear of Cinder's attacks, the heat and shockwaves of the explosions buffeting her from behind. It seemed that Cinder didn't even care that Emerald might get caught up in such destructive blows, another sign of Cinder's self-absorption.

Ruby rushed at Cinder, approaching her from a new angle, threatening to close in before Cinder could track her and attack with more fireballs. A flash of gray and black rushed past Cinder as Mercury moved to intercept Ruby. Behind him, Cinder brought her hands out, conjuring her glass swords once again, and charging in Mercury's wake, while Ruby came to meet them, splitting Akaibara once more.

Jaune was torn. On one hand, now that he'd armed up with his sword and shield, his first thought was getting back to Ruby's side and backing her up. However, his rational mind reminded him that it was probably best to let the others get here, so that they could properly coordinate a strategy against Cinder.

In the end, he decided to stick to the strategy Ruby had given him. A handful of tense minutes passed, while the clash of steel, the crack of lightning, and the roar of flames echoed from the factory. Finally, Jaune's ears picked up a sound that was most welcome...the whine of a bullhead's engines.

Looking up, Jaune saw the familiar aircraft swooping in low. Its rounded belly almost scraped the ground as it pulled up, before swiftly slipping into its hovering configuration, its nose pitching upwards to allow it to decelerate more quickly, the pilot clearly bringing all his skill to bear on the task of getting his passengers onto the scene as quickly as possible.

The passenger bays slid open, and Jaune's relief multiplied at the sight of Weiss, Pyrrha, and Team RYNB, accompanied by Glynda Goodwitch herself, all of them jumping off the airship and approaching at a rapid clip.

Then Jaune blinked, realizing that the one person who should have been there wasn't. "Where's Kyo?" he asked.

"I don't know," admitted Glynda as she approached. "He was not in his quarters, it would seem. But that can wait for later. We must deal with Ms. Rose's enemies right now."

"How is she doing?" asked Yang, looking worriedly past Jaune at the warehouse.

"She's been holding out pretty well," said Jaune. "But she must be getting worn down, so I don't know how much longer she can keep it up. We have to hurry." Without her scroll on her, there was no way to monitor the current state of Ruby's Aura. But Jaune knew that she couldn't have been at her best, after her intense match against Kyo earlier.

"There's no need to rush," called a familiar voice from in front of them.

"What the-!?" yelped Jaune, jumping and spinning around, looking wide-eyed at the source of the voice. The others were likewise startled.

Where there had only been an empty expanse of concrete before, Kyo now stood, watching them with a pleasant smile on his face. His sheathed sword was gripped in both hands, its end resting against the ground directly in front of him.

"When did you-?" Jaune began to ask.

"I sensed Ruby-chan's distress the second she received that call about you," said Kyo. "I opted to follow along, so I...hitchhiked on the same airship that brought her to Vale."

"B-but..." Jaune began, wondering how Kyo could have followed Ruby like that, not to mention how he'd somehow hidden his presence so perfectly that not even Jaune or Neo had noticed that he'd been there the entire time, to say nothing of the three in the warehouse.

"Come now, Sasame and I are the ones who taught Ruby-chan Suppression," said Kyo. "I am an old hand at this sort of thing, though I rarely have reason to hide."

"What do you mean we shouldn't rush?" demanded Yang, stepping forward, glaring angrily at him. "Ruby's in danger!"

"That she is," agreed Kyo, "which is the entire point."

"Huh?" Yang's anger gave way to pure confusion as she tried to figure out just what Kyo's cryptic statement meant.

"Considering her situation, including the state of her Aura and stamina, I realized that this is the perfect opportunity for Ruby-chan to grow," said Kyo.

"Wait! You're saying you're doing this for her training?" asked Weiss incredulously.

"I am," agreed Kyo. "I believe Jaune-kun knows about this, but Ruby-chan has been struggling to acquire a certain technique..."

"That's what you're doing," said Jaune, Kyo's words clicking in his mind. "You want Ruby to push herself right to the edge, don't you?"

"That is correct," said Kyo. "She's holding out quite well, but she needs to go further. She must push herself to her utmost limit, to the point where her strength has completely fled her. Only there, upon the precipice of death itself, can she acquire the awareness to perceive the One."

"You're putting your own sister's life at risk...for the sake of a technique?" asked Glynda furiously.

"I am," agreed Kyo blandly. "Make no mistake, Professor. As Ruby-chan's brother, there is nothing more that I would like than to rush to her side and cut down the ones menacing her. It takes more effort than you might think to hold myself back like this.

"However, in order to obtain that which she seeks, Ruby-chan must hazard her life. There is no real way to mitigate that risk. And this is the perfect opportunity for her. I feel that it would only do her more harm to rob her of it."

"Bullshit!" snapped Yang, stepping forward. "I don't care what reasons you have. I'm backing Ruby up!"

"A sentiment I share, Ms. Xiao Long," agreed Glynda, brandishing her crop.

The others readied their weapons, prepared to fight their way past Kyo. They all froze when a shrill scream echoed out of the factory, followed by a tense silence.

"Well...that's one down," said Kyo, cocking his head.

Given his reaction, they realized that he meant that Ruby had taken down one of her assailants. But that didn't change the fact that Ruby was still outnumbered, if to less of a degree than before. None of them were prepared to back down, not even in the face of this new revelation.

So Glynda raised her crop, violet light lining it as she prepared to attack.

Kyo raised his sword up, then brought it down, thudding the end of the sheath into the ground. With a roar, his Aura exploded outwards like a crimson inferno, Kyo looking as though he had been immolated by his own power. The outward rush of his Aura slammed headlong into Glynda and the students, actually sending them skidding back more than a meter. When they recovered, they found their bodies paralyzed.

There was no strange power, no special technique that held them fast. Instead, what locked the eight of them in place was nothing more than pure, primal fear. Kyo's presence gripped them with bonds stronger than steel, locking their bodies in place. They realized that, ever since he had come to Beacon, they had never truly understood what Kyo was. To them, he'd been Ruby's quirky, slightly mysterious brother. Sure, his match against Ruby had shown him to be incredibly skilled and strong. They also knew that he'd effortlessly wiped out an entire White Fang encampment, without even breaking a sweat. But, for the first time, they were were experiencing the true Demon Eyes Kyo.

This was the power that had allowed him to freely wander the width and breadth of Remnant, to have survived earning the enmity of all four Kingdoms, the power that sent the Grimm fleeing en-mass from his mere vicinity. It was beyond their wildest imaginings, and stopped all thoughts of fighting against him cold.

"Please do not try to interfere," said Kyo. "I am keeping track of things. It is within my skill to come to Ruby-chan's rescue, if absolutely necessary. But it will be less-so, if I am having to fend you off at the same time. So...for Ruby-chan's sake, don't press this."

"W-well...?" asked Nora, looking around at the others.

Jaune took a deep breath, and sheathed his sword, collapsing the shield and hanging it from his waist. "Let's wait," he said. He probably understood better than anyone else, save for Kyo, just how important getting stronger was to Ruby. He figured that, if Kyo truly thought it was best for her, then he didn't really have the wherewithal to argue. Even if he did, trying to force their way was a futile effort at this point.

All they could do was stand back and wait, and hope that Ruby would come through.

Ruby felt the presence of Kyo's Aura. She wasn't the only one. In front of her, Cinder and Mercury both flinched as the immense presence appeared at the edge of their senses. They probably didn't recognize it for what it was, which was for the best.

Kyo-nii is here, Ruby thought. But he wouldn't do that unless...

That's when it struck her. Kyo was outside. If he was unleashing his Aura like that, it wasn't to fight. Kyo's fighting Aura was more controlled, more contained. He was Projecting his Aura to intimidate. Now Ruby understood. Her friends were outside, but Kyo was keeping them from interfering, using their fear of his Aura to hold them in place. If that was the case, then there was only one reason why Kyo would stop her friends from helping her.

He saw an opportunity for her to get stronger.

Ruby could understand his logic easily. If she could beat her current opponents, in her current situation, then there was no doubt her skill and ability would grow by leaps and bounds. But winning in this situation was definitely a tall order, if there ever was one.

I'll just have to muddle through, thought Ruby, focusing on Cinder and Mercury again, the pair of them refocusing on her once more. As she did, a nostalgic feeling welled up within her. She'd been, more or less, thrown to the wolves here, left to fend for herself against an opponent who might be too much for her, with no guarantee that she'd be bailed out, if things went badly.

She swallowed the urge to laugh to herself. Just like back home, she thought. Good times…

They closed in another clash of clanging blades, crackling lightning, roaring flames, and howling winds. Ruby danced between Cinder and Mercury working her swords to keep her opponents at bay. Mercury and Cinder danced around her, continually pressuring her, keeping her from getting the upper hand.

Ruby found that her focus was slipping. She was beginning to feel light-headed. Her Aura continued to dwindle, her body slacking from fatigue. Her consciousness was fading away. Despite that, she continued to fight. Her swords moved almost as though they had minds of their own, her body responding purely to her sense of her opponents' presence, with almost no conscious input on her part.

Even though Ruby was on the edge of defeat, she could feel her enemies' distress. Cinder and Mercury were uneasy. Ruby sensing, locating, and taking Emerald out had been something they hadn't been expecting. Without Emerald to disrupt her senses, they knew that Ruby would have an easier time fighting them, even if they still outnumbered her. That tiny uncertainty kept them holding back, not willing to fully commit to any particular attack that might bring Ruby down.

Mercury skidded back away, repelled by another slash from Ibara. His pants were lined with cuts, exposing the metal legs hidden beneath them. Across from him, Cinder brought her swords crashing against Bara, Ruby countering with Ibara. With an angry growl, Mercury kicked off the ground and launched himself at Ruby in a flying kick.

As Mercury closed in, Cinder leapt back, bringing the pommels of her swords together, an arrow forming from what looked like a cloud of swirling ashes, while her blades converted into a bow. Drawing back the string, Cinder sighted on Ruby, and released, sending the arrow flying right at her. Ruby had just finished repelling Mercury's attack, when she whirled to face the incoming arrow, her swords rising to meet it.

At the last second, Ruby jumped back and away from the arrow. She was just in time, as the arrow exploded into flames and shrapnel, right before it would have met Ruby's swords. Turning her body, Ruby brought her cloak up to intercept the fragments launched her way like flechettes, the sharp-edged fragments knocking petals away from her cloak, which vanished into the air around her. The cloth was quickly growing more and more tattered with each passing exchange.

Distracted as she was by Cinder's exploding arrow, Ruby still didn't miss Mercury's approach. However, she wasn't in a very good position to defend or dodge, the tiredness weighing down her body slowing her response. Instead, she turned her head as best she could, hardening the fabric of her hood as the top of Mercury's foot slammed into it. At the same time, Ruby put all her right arm's strength in an upward slash. She was knocked away, and sent sprawling, by Mercury. However, she managed to make him pay for landing that hit, as Mercury staggered, a line of pain etched across his chest, Ruby's sword biting deeply into his Aura.

Mercury landed and stumbled, having to fight and find his balance. Meanwhile, Cinder closed in with Ruby next, trying to catch her before she could get back on her feet. Separating her bow back into its component swords, Cinder stabbed down at the prone girl with them.

Ruby Projected her Aura from the soles of her feet, the explosive release pushing her body up and off the floor, allowing her to execute a backflip that carried her out from under Cinder's descending swords, which plunged into the concrete where Ruby had been laying. Even as she came upright, Ruby expelled a small cloud of petals from the edge of her cloak, which converged together into a single orb of violet plasma. She quickly launched that orb at Cinder.

Cinder released the swords, holding up her right hand, fingers spread. Ruby's attack exploded against a barrier of fiery light that appeared a few inches away from Cinder's palm. In Cinder's left hand, Dust and magic congealed together into a fireball, which she launched at the backpedaling Ruby. Still stumbling, Ruby used her left arm to flap her cloak out to intercept the fireball, which splattered like an overripe fruit against it, sending glowing embers scattering across the floor.

Coming to a stop, Ruby realized her plight too late. She'd just been knocked back into the space she'd been in when Cinder had launched her barrage of fireballs earlier. Now she could sense those scattered fragments and particles of Dust on the floor around her, just waiting for Cinder to activate them. She had been maneuvered, just as she had maneuvered Cinder earlier.

Smirking triumphantly, Cinder gestured upwards with her right hand, a sinister keening sound filling the air as the floor around Ruby glowed with molten light, its intensity increasing rapidly. There was no path for Ruby to escape. She was completely encircled, and her stance was too off-balance for her to use her Shukuchi to flee. As things were, Ruby knew she'd be completely wiped out by this blast, and left at her opponent's mercy. There was only one trick left in her arsenal that would allow her to escape this. After that, she would have thirty seconds, at most, to finish this fight, or she would be left completely helpless.

Desperately, Ruby infused the rest of her remaining Aura into her cloak, before prompting her power to explode outwards with a thunderous boom. A flash of light exploded out from her, right as several columns of flame erupted from the floor under and around her. The explosive release of Ruby's technique blasted the flames away, and instead it was Cinder who was left staggering from the resulting shockwave.

When Cinder recovered, her eyes widened and her mouth hung slack at the sight before her. Ruby stood tall, not wearing a cloak of red fabric, but one that looked as though it had been assembled from layers upon layers of flower petals, that also resembled feathers. They flickered through scintillating shades of red, blue, green, and violet, shimmering and crackling. Occasionally, a petal would peel off and go drifting through the air, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake.

"Tenyo no Hana," intoned Ruby gravely, her gaze focusing intently on Cinder.

Propelling himself with a shot from his boot, Mercury took to the air behind Ruby, launching himself in a flying roundhouse kick at the unguarded back of her head.

Remembering what this technique had done during Ruby's match with Pyrrha, Cinder opened her mouth to order Mercury to stop. But it was too late. Mercury's foot connected with Ruby's hood, and stopped cold, as though he'd struck a surface of unyielding steel. At the same time, arcs of varicolored lightning climbed up the length of his prosthetic leg, and Mercury was blown backwards with a cry of pain, the limb he'd attacked with sparking and smoking. He landed hard on his back. Looking up, Mercury's mouth hung slack as he saw one of the petals that made up Ruby's cloak detach, flying at him like a meteor. He vanished in an explosion of thunder.

Ruby didn't even have the time to spare Mercury a glance. Already, she was shooting towards Cinder, whose face was frozen in a look of shock and fear. Ruby slashed at Cinder with her swords, which had merged with the edges of her cloak, humming and crackling. Cinder's own blades rose to meet them.

Glass was normally a good insulator against electricity. However, when heated to high temperatures, it actually became a conductor. Cinder had been continually channeling her flames through the blades of her glass swords whenever she conjured them. As a consequence, they were quite hot indeed. So, when they met Ruby's swords, Cinder screamed as electricity raced up her arms, jolting her body, throwing her stance off, and allowing Ruby's attack to blast her backwards.

Ruby followed, also shooting off additional petals from her cloak, which spread out, then converged on Cinder on spiraling trajectories. Cinder barely managed to recover in time, dropping her swords and holding out her hands, catching one attack after another with her barrier. But doing so allowed Ruby to close the distance unimpeded, her swords slicing up at Cinder, only for Cinder to catch the blades as well with her barrier.

But it was a stalemate. Cinder was in no position to counterattack, and utterly unable to force Ruby back with her own strength. As a result, Cinder could only watch as Ruby's cloak spread behind her, more petals detaching to converge on the woman. With this, the fight would end.

Ruby froze. The portions of her cloak that she'd been attacking with scattered off in random directions. Her entire body was still, though she was still exerting her strength through her swords.

What? wondered Cinder, gazing at Ruby with incomprehension.

For Ruby, everything had suddenly gone black. It wasn't just her sight. Her sense of hearing had shut down as well. Smell, taste, touch, even her sense of her own body's position; all of it was gone. What? Is this...? But I...

"C-Cinder..." Her name, exiting Emerald's mouth in a pained wheeze, was the only thing Cinder needed to know. Somehow, despite what she'd suffered, Emerald had managed to claw her way back to consciousness, if only for a few seconds. She'd raised her head, glaring at Ruby, focusing everything she had left on one last application of her Semblance, using it to shut down all of Ruby's senses at once. It was excruciatingly painful, requiring every ounce of focus.

But it gave Cinder the opening she needed. Cinder jumped back, and Ruby stumbled blindly ahead, not even able to place her legs properly. Jumping back a little farther, Cinder called fire to her hands, building up the most powerful blast she was capable of.

With a pained grunt, Emerald slumped down, and did not move again.

Ruby's awareness came back all at once. It was disorienting. More worryingly, she now saw a roaring blast of flame rushing right at her. Desperately, Ruby enfolded her cloak around herself, the fireball exploding against the humming garment. Ruby was knocked backwards, her cloak shielding her from the flames and heat, but not helping her maintain her balance. She slammed into the ground, skidding to a stop. Shakily, she got to her legs...right as the last remaining seconds she had ticked away.

All at once, her cloak dissolved, the petals scattering, then fading. Ruby gasped, feeling her entire body go numb. Tiredly, Ruby slumped to her knees, unable to even lift her arms.

For a long moment, silence descended on the factory. Cinder stood where she was, panting for breath, sweat streaming down her face. This battle had been far more hard-fought than she'd anticipated, even though she thought she was going up against another Maiden.

"It would seem that you are nothing more than a pathetic novice," she said finally, smiling as she gazed down at Ruby, a feeling of triumph welling up within her.

Ruby was too dazed to even notice, staring straight ahead, her mind swimming through a tired haze, barely even able to grasp at her situation. Her every breath hurt, and her vision swam. Am I...going to die?

That thought was terrifying. But Ruby was too worn and exhausted to even feel fear. So...this is what it means to stand on the edge of death. In a way, the realization was strangely soothing. Ruby had always thought this moment would be one that would result in an intense panic, a desperate desire to hold onto her life. Instead, all she could feel was a strange sense of peace, a quiet euphoria.

With that calm, came a strange clarity that she had been lacking before. Ruby felt as though she was seeing the world through different eyes. The haze before her vision wasn't something that merely appeared to her eyes, it was something she could feel in the air around her. It felt like something omnipresent, yet something she had never properly sensed before...because it was something that was around her always.

This is...the One, she realized. She could see it and feel it. The One that Sarutobi Sasuke had referred to had indeed been a product of the cycle of life and death. It was the Aura of the world itself, an aggregate formed by the countless lives that were born, lived, and then died across its surface. Everyone and everything was a part of the One, Ruby herself, even those like Cinder or Adam. Before her eyes, she could see Cinder's Aura blending with the One. Even the energy they'd expended in their battle hadn't disappeared. It too had become a part of this immense, endless thing.

This was what Sasuke had been referring to. This was the basis for his technique. Beyond mere electricity, it was about tapping into the power of the world itself, drawing from that immense, endless Aura, and commanding the power of nature.

Call upon the One, Ruby thought, remembering the words of the scroll. Make myself the Center.

She inhaled, feeling that power entering through her breath. Right now, she was all but empty. Ironically, that only made her a more fitting receptacle for the power of the world's Aura. It flowed in with every breath she took, filling her up. As she did, she spread her awareness upwards, and called out.

A low rumble filled the air. Suddenly, there was a strange, charged feeling in the atmosphere. Ruby's friends were distracted from their confrontation with Kyo. Looking up, they saw the, already dark, night sky darken even more, black clouds boiling out of nowhere, piling up in an unmistakable cumulonimbus formation, directly over the abandoned factory.

Glynda's riding crop dropped from her nerveless hand. "Tha-that is..." she stammered, her eyes wide. "That should be impossible!"

Kyo looked over his shoulder at the mass of clouds, and smiled. "Ruby-chan never disappoints," he said happily.

"This is Ruby's doing?" asked Ren, staring up at the clouds.

"That it is," replied Kyo, chuckling.

Cinder looked up, her eyes narrowing, before glancing back down at Ruby. "It would seem that you don't know when you're beaten," she said, an angry growl underlaying her words. "All this time and effort, pretending...only to call upon your true power in the eleventh hour...how foolish."

She called forth her swords, before joining them to form her bow. Drawing back the string, she conjured an arrow, which she then leveled right at Ruby's chest. "I imagine that you believed you were told you could do great things with this power. But you can rest easy, knowing that I will do things you never even imagined."

With that, Cinder loosed her arrow. It was a black streak, crossing the small distance between them in less than a second. That should have been the end of Ruby, right then and there. However, an angry ring echoed out from Bara in her left hand. The sword flashed with a strobe of brilliant red, before seeming to seize control of her left arm, swinging itself up to intercept the incoming arrow, batting it aside with a clang.

"What?" Cinder couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Even more unbelievably, Ibara, in Ruby's right hand, emitted a ring of its own, glowing more steadily than its counterpart. Vines of pure red seemed to stretch out from the handle, climbing across Ruby's hand, then moving up her arm, hidden by her sleeve. Ruby lurched up, almost as though she were being pulled by the sword itself, which yanked her to her feet, then forward to slash at Cinder, who jumped back, barely avoiding the unprecedented attack.

"What is this?" demanded Cinder.

Ruby now stood, still mostly slumped. However, both swords now rang, more red vines emerging from their handles to climb up Ruby's arms. Then their ringing reached a shrill pitch, and they both flashed with the intensity of a camera strobe. Ruby's body jolted sharply, her spine straightening, and her lips opening in a harsh gasp, Ruby found herself blinking, seeming awake and alert once more.

"How...how did you...?" Cinder wasn't even sure what she was trying to ask. Her eyes went to Ruby's swords. "Just what are those?"

Ruby seemed to ignore Cinder, her attention instead going to her blades. Thank you, she thought to her magnificent weapons. Next, she brought Bara and Ibara together, joining them. She held Akaibara out in front of her, its tip pointing almost straight up. Up above, the clouds rumbled ominously, a circular eye forming in their center, directly over Ruby. Her next words she spoke almost as a chant.

"Thunder of heaven,

"Thunder of earth,

"Come forth from the thunder clouds,

"Light the darkest places of the earth,

"Grant your strength to me!"

As Ruby had been speaking, lightning began to jump back and forth across the eye of the storm. As she finished her mantra, a powerful bolt abruptly lanced downward, plunging to meet the upraised tip of her sword. With a deafening boom, the lightning bolt struck with a force that made the earth shake. Cinder screamed as she was knocked back by the resulting shockwave, her hair standing on end from the energy flooding the space, her eyes blinded, her ears deafened.

When her senses returned, Cinder found herself staring aghast at the sight before her. Crackling arcs of lightning danced up and down the length of Ruby's sword, winding around the blade, almost seeming to dance around it. This wasn't the crimson electricity from earlier, but harsh white, with an a faint, blue tint to it...feeling infinitely more powerful.

"Raikoken."