Vault of the Spring Maiden

Haven Academy...

"Son of a bitch! Weiss!" Jared said, looking back at Weiss. "I'm sorry! I was too busy protecting you. That I forgot about Cinder."

"WEISS!" Jaune said, looking at Weiss. "Jared! Why didn't you protect her?"

Cinder Fall is shown smirking. Jaune quickly gets up and runs past Cinder.

"I tried! But she kept trying on going after Weiss." Jared said, pointing a finger at Vernal. "It's hard trying to to fight and protect, okay?"

Oscar Pine watches Jaune approach and pick up the unconscious Weiss Schnee from his position. He then looks over to the unconscious Ruby Rose.

"You protect Ruby, I'll do Weiss." Jaune said, as Jared ran towards Ruby. "You have to do what you think is best."

Angered, Oscar smacks Leonardo Lionheart with The Long Memory, causing him to fall down the stairs and into Hazel Rainart, who remains unfazed as Lionheart falls to the ground.

Oscar quickly runs over to Ruby and Jared, with Nora Valkyrie joining him.

"Ruby, get up! Get up! We need you!" Oscar said.

"She's, ugh! She's out cold for a bit." Jared said, clutching his shoulder. "But she's fine."

"Are you okay?" Oscar asked, looking at Jared.

"No, stressed out. I'm not looking forward to what happens next. Adventure wise. If I'm here, I could change things."

Hazel picks up Lionheart by his collar, lifting him off the floor, "You're lettin' that boy make a fool of you."

"That's not just a boy! It's Ozpin." Lionheart said, as Hazel's eyes widen when he says this. "He's already reincarnated!"

Hazel drops Lionheart and looks over to Oscar, who is still trying to nudge Ruby to wake her up.

"Come on, you know how to wake up Ruby, Jared!" Oscar said, looking at Jared. "What wakes up Ruby Rose?"

Hazel then notices The Long Memory being held in the young farm boy's hand, "Ozpin?"

Suddenly, the usual calm demeanor of Hazel slowly turns infuriated. Ruby stirs for a bit.

"Ruby! I'm sorry for not telling you everything! You're…" Jared said, laughing a little.

"OZPIN!" Hazel said, angrily.

Oscar looks up.

"Oh no…" Ozpin said, mentally.

"You thought you could hide from ME?!" Hazel exclaimed, ripping his coat off, and then grabs a pair of lightning Dust crystals from a couple of pouches on his legs. "You'll pay for what you did! You'll die over and over again!"

He stabs the lightning Dust into his arms, with his blood vessels turning yellow and popping out from his skin as well as having some lightning coat them. His eyes glow yellow, and he lets out an intimidating roar.

Oscar slowly backs away, holding his cane up cautiously, "Do...do we fight?"

"No, run!" Ozpin said, afraid.

Hazel leaps forward to charge into Oscar, but Qrow Branwen gets him out of the way in time. Qrow transforms Harbinger into its scythe form while Cinder watches. Raven Branwen and Vernal walk to her sides.

"Ozpin is here?!" Cinder said, angrily.

"Is that a problem?" Raven asked.

"I'm not sure, but right now we got the upper hand. Let's not waste it."

Lionheart is shown on his knees when Cinder's voice gets his attention.

"Leo! Open the path to the vault!" Cinder said, nearby.

Lionheart gets back up and approaches the statue in the room. He takes out his pocket watch and places it in a small niche on the statue. The hands on the watch gradually spin faster and the statue lowers.

Yang Xiao Long watches the situation in front of her, "Jared, you're stressing yourself out. You're caring about all of us too much."

"I know." Jared said, clutching onto Ember Gungnir.

"Operational limit has been reached." Aqours said, and Jared fell down to the floor. "Aura level drained. Wait five minutes for a suit recharge."

Jared turned back to normal, wearing his hoodie and jeans, "Ugh."

The fanboy lies down next to Ruby, holding her hand. And he closed his eyes, knowing he needs to rest.

Yang looks to Jaune and Lie Ren as they tend to Weiss and then looks over to Nora who is still trying to wake Ruby up and Jared is unconscious.

Nora looks to Yang, "Stop them! We've got your team and Jared covered!"

Yang lingers a bit before heeding Nora's advice, but she gets kicked to the ground by Mercury Black. He is then joined by Emerald Sustrai.

"You wanna get to them? You're going to have to get through all of us." Emerald said.

Emerald uses her Semblance to create multiple copies of Mercury, which surround Yang. Meanwhile, Jaune uses his hands to apply pressure on Weiss' wound, while Ren holds her wrist checking her pulse.

"Ren, talk to me!" Jaune said, looking at Ren.

"This is bad." Ren said, sadly shaking his head.

Jaune's eyes widen in horror, "No, no, no, no, not again! Weiss, c'mon, please!"

Meanwhile, Vernal steps onto the platform leading down to the vault.

"Make sure they leave Ruby alive and Jared dead. We need to bring Ruby to Salem. And make sure Jared is dead. He can't make it to Trenzalore. This won't take long." Cinder said, looking at Lionheart.

Cinder steps onto the platform. Raven looks back a bit as she hears her daughter fighting vainly, shaking her head before she steps on the platform too. The platform then lowers down. Oscar is then shown dodging out of the way as Hazel slams his fist into the ground.

"Oscar." Ozpin said.

"No!" Oscar said, dodging another attack from Hazel.

"Oscar!"

"I told you, no!" Oscar said, getting punched back by Hazel several feet into a column.

"Please, let me take over! I can handle him!" Ozpin said.

"You told me I needed to fight for myself!" Oscar said, standing back up. "So I will."

"This is not your fight!"

"What does that mean? Why is he so upset with us?"

"He didn't tell you my tale, did he, boy?" Hazel asked, approaching Oscar menacingly. "I thought you looked familiar, to think that evil was inside you when our paths first crossed." He holds his fists in the air. "Your blood won't be on my hands, it'll be on his."

Qrow jumps in the way to block Hazel's attack, but he slams his fist into the ground, the shockwave knocking both him and Oscar back. They both get back up as Qrow engages Hazel.

"What was he talking about?" Oscar asked.

"Tell him, Ozpin! Tell him how you KILLED HER!" Hazel said, angrily.

"Her?"

"Gretchen Rainart was Hazel's sister. Despite her brother's wishes, she enrolled at Beacon Academy to become a Huntress and tragically lost her life on a training mission. Hazel...holds me responsible. Please, let me fight. I know Hazel. He's wounded in a way that cannot be healed." Ozpin said.

"You know now!" Hazel said, tossing Qrow aside. "You can forgive me for what I'm about to do."

Hazel begins approaching Oscar.

"Did she know?" Oscar asked, when Hazel stops in place at his inquiry. "Did she know the risk of being a Huntress?"

"She was only a child! She wasn't ready!" Hazel said.

"She made a choice! A choice to put others before herself!" Oscar said, as he is holding his cane up defensively. "So do I."

Hazel just glares at him, "Then you've chosen death!"

Oscar glares back, determined.

"I'm sorry." Ozpin said.

"What?" Oscar asked, and his eyes glow and his body falls to the ground as Ozpin takes over him.

Ozpin looks up, and Hazel looks back at him, enraged.

"OzzzzPIIIIIIIIN!" Hazel said, angrily.

Meanwhile, Jaune and Ren continue tending to Weiss.

"She's hardly breathing. I...I don't know what we can do…" Ren said.

The both of them look down to Weiss as she struggles to breathe, before suddenly stopping.

"Jared's doing pretty bad too." Nora said, looking down at Jared. "He must have used a lot of magic. Separating part of the Law of Cycles from himself might have drained him. I suppose. When he was with the Doctor."

"No, it wasn't supposed to be like this! Please!" Jaune said, his voice breaking. "We can't lose anyone else…"

Jaune sadly closes his eyes. Suddenly, a faint shimmering sound is heard and a white aura starts to coat over Weiss' body. Weiss suddenly gasps for breath again.

Meanwhile, Cinder, Raven and Vernal are seen riding the platform down to the vault.

"Are you nervous, girl? The first Maiden in...why, I'm not sure anyone knows how many years - is about to open a vault. I would say it's quite an exciting time. Don't you feel honored?" Cinder asked, looking at Vernal.

"No, I'm not concerned with any of this. All I care about is my tribe...my family. This is a burden, not an honor." Vernal said.

"You've conditioned her quite well, Raven." Cinder said, chuckling.

As the three continue to ride down the platform, they see the vault under Haven Academy - a massive cavern with a large tree that has glowing orange flowers. The platform reaches the bottom, and the gate protecting the vault is lowered into the ground.

"Hm, it's certainly grander than Beacon's. I wonder what the extra effort was for." Cinder said.

"Can we please not linger?" Raven asked.

"After you."

Vernal steps off the platform first, followed by Cinder, and then Raven, the latter putting her mask back on.

Back above ground, Hazel and Ozpin fight each other intensely. Lionheart tries to intervene by launching another attack from Stalwart, but is stopped by Qrow. The two of them fight each other, with Qrow blocking Lionheart's projectiles. Ozpin and Hazel engage against each other again. Hazel tries to smash him with his fists, but Ozpin is too fast for him. Eventually, Ozpin manages to knock Hazel down on all fours. Ozpin then twirls his cane and prepares to deliver the finishing blow, but Hazel roars and smashes his fists into the ground, creating another lightning shockwave.

Meanwhile, Weiss starts to gasp and breathes normally again as the white aura encoating her continues to glow.

"Huh? Wha...what's happening?" Jaune asked. "Nora, how's Jared?"

"He's in as bad shape as Weiss was." Nora said, as Ren carried Jared over. "You need to help him, somehow."

Ren places Jared next to Weiss.

"Weiss! Jared!" Ruby said, worried.

Nora helps Ruby up on her feet, who then quickly runs over to her teammate's side.

"What happened? What's going on?!" Ruby exclaimed.

Jaune places his other hand over Jared. And what happened to Weiss is happening to the fanboy, and the blue aura encoating Jared started to glow too. The fanboy gasped for air too.

"I think they're going to be okay! Both of them seem to be stabilizing." Ren said, smiling.

With Weiss and Jared breathing again, Ruby smiles, relieved that her friends' lives are not endangered anymore.

Ruby then hears her sister struggling, she looks over her shoulder to see Yang getting knocked back by Mercury. Yang charges forward, but Mercury's form disappears as a result of another one of Emerald's Semblance hallucinations. Emerald then creates an image of Raven, which Yang is hesitant to attack. Yang then blocks another attack from Mercury, but she is then knocked down again. Ruby then looks over to Oscar fighting Hazel, with the latter's attack becoming too wild and unpredictable for the young boy. Oscar is then hit by one of Lionheart's projectiles and holds his shoulder in pain. Hazel is about to punch at Oscar again, but Qrow pushes Oscar out of the way and takes the blow in his back, launching him upwards. Ruby then lifts both of Jaune's hands up to see that Weiss' wound has closed and Jared's arm is getting relocated.

"Whatever you're doing, don't stop!" Ruby said, looking between Jared and Weiss. "Jared is needed both here and in the Doctor's world. And we all need Weiss in our lives."

"I won't." Jaune said.

"Good. Oscar needs help." Ruby said.

"I'm on it." Ren said.

"Jaune, Jared, and Weiss still need cover!" Ruby said.

Ren takes out StormFlower, while Nora approaches his side holding Magnhild.

"No one's gonna touch 'em." Nora said, smiling.

"Okay, make it happen, RNJR!" Ruby said, smiling.

Ruby stands back up, transforming Crescent Rose into its scythe form and flips over. She lands to her sister's side, knocking Emerald back. Emerald's Semblance copies of Mercury then disappear, reforming back into the main Mercury.

"Thanks, sis." Yang said, while she stands back up. "You okay?"

"No, I'm angry." Ruby said, proceeding forward.

Vault...

Vernal, Cinder, and Raven walk towards the Relic chamber. Suddenly, a symbol on the ground glows bright, as well as the circle enclosed around it. Similar circles with symbols in them also glow leading up to the Relic chamber's door. The tree's flowers then glow even more, and it's petals gently fall and float around the vault. One petal falls into Vernal's hand.

"Having fun?" Cinder asked.

Vernal glares back at Cinder as the petal in her hand dissolves into particles.

"Vernal, stay focused." Raven said.

"Oh, come now, Raven, let her enjoy this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience." Cinder said.

"How does this work?" Vernal asked.

"Once the Spring Maiden places her hand on the door, it will open. For you...and only you. Then I will walk into the vault, and retrieve the Relic. No one else. Is that clear?"

"Yes."

"It doesn't matter to us. Let's get this over with." Raven said.

"Alright then. Vernal, when you're ready." Cinder said.

Vernal approaches the door. While she does so, Raven slowly reaches for the hilt of Omen, but stops when Cinder speaks.

"You know, I've heard so many stories about you, Raven. They say you're a cunning leader, that you're strong, that you're clever." Cinder said, while Vernal hovers her fingertips close to the door. "It's a shame that they're wrong…"

Cinder then lets out a blue, frost-like projectile from her hand.

"VERNAL!" Raven said, reaching out, but she is too late as she is frozen in place from Cinder's attack.

Vernal takes her hand away from the door and takes her weapons out on Cinder, but she is stabbed by something in her stomach. She looks down and notices an elongated Grimm hand coming from Cinder's left arm.

"It's nothing personal, dear." Cinder said, while she approaches Vernal. "You're just not worthy of such power." She comes face to face with Vernal. "But I am…"

Vernal is then pushed to the ground, and she screams out in pain as she struggles to get the Grimm hand out of her stomach. The ice coating Raven is shown cracking.

"So I will take...what is mine…" Cinder said.

Eventually, Vernal stops struggling and goes motionless and quiet.

Cinder smirks as she looks down on Vernal's body, but then realizes that something is wrong, "Wha...what is this? Where's the power?!"

Cinder hears ice crack from behind her and sees Raven free from her frozen prison.

"You won't find it, because Vernal isn't the Spring Maiden…" Raven said, taking her mask off. "I am!"

Raven opens her eyes, with a red flame-like effect glowing and trailing from them.