[Sister said this song fit Ironwood.... Have to agree. Privately owned Spiral Galaxy]
If Ironwood suspected that this was a little too easy, he didn't act on it.
They all arrived on time, just barely.
"Are you nervous?" Pyrrha asked her team.
"Nah," Nora said.
"Trying to focus on the situation," Ren said.
"Uh...yeah," Jaune said.
"Are you kidding?" Emerald looked stressed. "This guy killed his own people, from what that woman was saying. He's a nut case."
"And that bothers you?..." Oscar said, unintentionally savage.
"Well, normally they're on my side," Emerald said.
"Huh...that's actually a legitimate reason," Oscar admitted. "But this should work... I mean, there's a lot of us."
"Looks like he left himself wide open," Jaune said, peering out the window. "I don't see the Ace Ops anymore, just Winter... Or does he have them on standby in case he needs to reverse his order to call off the bomb?"
"Either that or perhaps Winter got them to leave," Pyrrha mused. "If anyone else prays, start doing it. Even with just the General there, I don't feel great about doing this in front of the school."
"Well, the guards should be taken out if Qrow and Robyn and Marrow did what Winter said," Jaune said. "But I guess we have no way of knowing that till later."
With that vote of conference, they landed.
Winter was standing next to Ironwood.
Qrow's poorly timed outburst was still ringing in her ears. She hated that she couldn't argue.
But maybe...was there anything left in the General that might be having second thoughts? Would he consider calling this off?
Perhaps against her better judgment, she spoke. "Sir, this course of action--"
"I hope you're not going to try to talk me out of it," General Ironwood said, looking at her.
Winter glanced up and didn't read a shred of doubt in his expression.
"No, sir," she said, sadly. "I don't think that's possible."
The worst thing? She believed that.
Was he always this cold?
He was starting to remind her of her father...
But her biggest fear, under the anxiety of the situation itself, was that instead of this being something new, it was something that had always been there, and up till now...she'd just not seen it.
No...she'd chosen not to see it.
Hadn't everyone tried to warn her? Weiss...Pyrrha...Shine, Wally. Even Qrow...in his most annoying fashion, had been saying this for years...
And she had always thought they just misunderstood.
Stupid, she told herself grimly. If everyone around you is saying the same message, who is it who's really not getting it?
But it was no time for self pity or regrets. She had to act her part.
The kids came up, Emerald walking with them.
Winter saw her as Emearld, but, assuming she was pulling her Semblance off well, the General saw her as Penny, with Fria.
"You're doing the right thing," the General said, looking relieved. He put down his weapon he had ready for this.
Thank goodness he bought it... That Sustrai girl really could be convincing...
Winter still wasn't 100% clear on who she was, other than she'd apparently helped raze Beacon, but at this moment, that didn't matter.
She had no clue who the mammoth of a man in the boat with Oscar was--she assumed another person they'd picked up.
She stepped forward to cuff Emerald.
The General didn't see the others.
"Get Fria downstairs," the General said.
Winter felt a chill... And then do what? What was he going to have her do?
It was pretty clear...
But Winter suppressed her disgust and stepped back.
"Doing the right thing, huh?" Emerald-as-Penny said. "I guess you could say that...whatever it is..." suddenly she dropped the illusion. "Feels weird."
"Wh--?" It took the General a moment to realize who she even was.
She took that chance to jump up and kick him in the jaw.
Winter had to admit the girl had some moves--a bit rough, but with potential. Where did Cinder Fall find these people?
Better to focus on this than on the immediate disappointment the General was about to have in her.
But no time to think about it. Jaune rushed forward to fight him.
* * *
Downstairs, the four escapees were kicking the crap out of the real life soldiers and any robot stragglers also, waiting for the Ace Ops to show up.
* * *
Oscar and Ren attacked Ironwood also.
Ironwood, considering how exhausted he must be, put up a surprisingly good fight. He grabbed them and knocked them aside.
He could be wild when he really threw off restraint.
Winter had never found him frightening before...but it was taking on a new light now.
Still, she swallowed her disillusionment and jumped in to catch Oscar before he could get thrown into the pavement again. This kid shouldn't even be fighting--he'd sounded pretty spent during the Grimm fight.
"Thanks," Oscar said.
"Just try not to get killed," she said.
She formed a Grimm creature out her Semblance. "Come on."
Someone had to watch him before he got himself killed.
No one could have convinced Winter that someone of Oscar's size and experience could possibly hold his own in a fight, whatever his training stats said. He was the same age as her brother for crying out loud!
The kids were doing a decent job of holding Ironwood at bay at least.
She charged in with the Grimm, and he shot that too, but she and Oscar managed to dive free of it.
Nora and Ren charged back in.
Ironwood managed to throw them off with brute force.
He pulled a gun out and pointed it at them--
It flew out of his hand.
Pyrrha was watching this, shaking her head. Tears were running down her face.
But then she threw her shield and knocked him off balance.
Oscar jumped in again, pushing him back the other way.
Then Hazel stepped up and swung hard.
He actually had the brute force to counter the General's...
Ironwood went down.
Winter used a fast strike to break his Aura the rest of the way.
Then they all looked at each other.
Pyrrha turned away.
"I hate this," she said, looking at Nora.
"I felt like it was overdue," Nora said, with zero regret about it.
Winter sighed.
"Whoever you are," she spoke to Hazel, "take him down to the holding area. I'll show you where it is."
"Fine." Hazel still didn't care about his role in this.
Winter walked past Pyrrha and stopped and put a hand on her shoulder.
"This was...hard for you to do," she said in a low voice.
Pyrrha nodded. "It was harder for you," she said, looking up. "I'm sorry."
Winter couldn't afford to start feeling things right now. So she straightened. "But we do what we must. All of you, get to the tower."
She and Hazel hurried inside.
Team JNPR, and Oscar and Emerald, started to run towards the tower.
Suddenly someone dropped from the sky--or so it seemed.
"Branwen?" Emerald stopped short and backed up.
"You?" Raven stopped to look at her weird. "What are you doing with them?"
"She's with us now," Oscar said. "I didn't realize you were here."
"Yeah, yeah, you're not Ozpin right now, right?" Raven didn't give him much time to talk.
"Why are you--?" Jaune began angrily, reaching for his sword.
Pyrrha grabbed his arm. "No, it's okay," she said.
"What?" Jaune said. "Do you know who this is?"
"Yang's mother, right?" Pyrrha said.
Raven shot her a dirty look, then looked her up and down. "Pyrrha Nikos, you're looking pretty good for a dead girl, I have to say... Well, I suppose you and the twerp are in on this, so I'll dispense with the explanation for why I'm here. You need to know, I just saw that half-baked inventor, the crazy witch, and the little silent one who tried to off my daughter that one time, all together in an alley."
"Huh?" Nora said.
"You saw Watts, Cinder, and Neo together?" Oscar said.
"Yeah, and the little one has the Lamp of Knowledge," Raven said. "Great job taking care of that by the way..."
"And you didn't take it from them?" Jaune said.
"Do I look like I want to be involved in this anymore?" Raven said. "However, I do think it's bad if they have it. I overheard them talking.... They're planning to use it to find out your plan. They want to stop you."
"Why?" Ren asked. "I mean, at this point, what purpose do they have in it, other than wanting the Relic? Atlas is already lost."
"I can't pretend to understand how their insipid minds work, but I'm sure getting the Staff is one part of it," Raven said. "No doubt they need something to give Salem, after the number you all did on that Zeppelin. She'll be livid when she comes back--and I take it she's not too nice to her hench people."
She eyed Emerald smugly.
Emerald felt like an insect.
"Why are you warning us?" Jaune asked. "I thought you were with them."
"I really don't need to explain my thought process to you idiots," Raven said. "It should be painfully obvious by now anyway. The point is, if they find out what you're doing, then you have only till they can get here to pull it off. Better hurry."
"Then we should go," Oscar said. "Are you...going to help us?"
"Why would I do that?" Raven said. "I'm not here for you anyway. Though if Ozpin was here, I'd probably punch him in the face."
"Don't tell her I'm here," Ozpin said. "I think we've both been pummeled enough for one week."
Oscar told him to shut up.
"Why are you here?" Nora still didn't like her at all.
"None of your concern," Raven said. "Nikos, why aren't you a ghost?"
"I..." Pyrrha stammered. Raven was a little different to deal with than she expected.
"She shouldn't have to tell you anything," Jaune said.
"No?" Raven said, smirking. "We'll see if that's true. If you all survive anyway." She turned.
"Wait," Oscar said. "Could you...follow them? And then let us know when they get here? If you don't want to fight, fine, I guess, but even that would help."
"I'm really thinking you've all maxed out the amount of unpaid favors you can get for me," Raven said.
"If you do it, I'll make Ozpin tell everyone that you were right and he should have come clean," Oscar offered.
"What?" Ozpin said.
"You think I care about that?" Raven said.
Oscar had no idea why he said this, but maybe it was Shine's influence again-- "Yes," he blurted out, rather sassily.
A pause while the others wondered if he'd lost his mind.
Raven sized him up.
"Not worth risking my life over," she shrugged.
"It is if you want to know how we can stop Salem." Oscar didn't know where that came from either.
Pause.
"I hate you," Raven said. "All of you... All right, fine." She rolled her eyes. "I'll keep an eye on them. But that's it."
"In that case," Pyrrha said, "I think we're going to have to stand guard."
"What?" Jaune said.
"Think about it." Pyrrha looked at her sword. "Cinder and Neo won't be stopped, and I doubt Watts can be reasoned with either. But if we could stall them...you would have more time."
"We?" Nora said.
"Emerald," Pyrrha said, "you could help."
"I'm not fighting Cinder," Emerald said. "And I'm not helping you kill her. I'm leaving Salem, not turning on her."
To the person who Cinder killed, that had to be interesting to hear, but Pyrrha brushed it off.
"I'm not asking you to help me kill her," she said evenly. "I think we could distract them. Surely you could do that...and then, it won't have to come to bloodshed... I believe I could counter Watts and Neo the best, if you would then distract them all."
Emerald thought about it. "I guess it works out better that way. I mean, I was just gonna stand around anyway for this part of the plan."
"No way are you guys going after Cinder!" Jaune looked panicked.
"It'll be all right, Jaune. We don't need to actually fight her," Pyrrha said.
"No, it's not all right," Jaune said. "We're not doing this again!" He was getting more upset.
"Jaune, it's not a bad plan," Ren said.
"How can you say that?!" Jaune said.
"Hey, Nikos is right," Raven said. "Slowing them down is your best bet, and you're wasting what little time you have. I can't get my payback for all this if you all die, so I'd prefer it if you get your plan over with."
"You stay out of this!" Jaune said. "You turned on your own family just to escape Salem. You don't get an opinion!"
"If Pyrrha and Emerald can do this without anyone having to fight," Oscar said, "that makes the most sense... Face it, the rest of us can't hope to pull that off. They're the only ones who can. I know you don't like it, Jaune, but if we hurry, they won't need to stall them for that long."
Jaune just stood there.
Pyrrha shook her head. "Raven, can you direct us there?" she asked.
"I guess I have to fly back anyway," Raven said. "If you can keep up." She turned into a bird.
She flew off to the side.
Emerald shrugged. "Come on, Princess, let's go."
"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said to her team, then she took off with Emerald.
Jaune started to follow.
Nora and Ren grabbed him.
"It won't help them if we don't do our part," Ren said. "I know how you feel--we're all worried about it...but this is their choice. We have to do our job."
"Come on," Oscar said, racing towards the door.
It couldn't be said Jaune wasn't crying as they went, but he must have known he couldn't stop them from doing it, or catch up without exposing them.
* * *
Raven led Emerald and Pyrrha to an alley not that far from the school.
They were lucky that Cinder had not used the Lamp yet. She was waiting to get close, perhaps so that Watts couldn't give her the slip before they ever got there.
He probably wasn't really on board with this plan but might have been worried about trying to cross her again after she almost killed him.
Neo had given her the password.
"All right, this is close enough," Cinder said. "Now to find out what they are pulling."
Pyrrha and Emerald came along the street next to them.
"I still feel guilty about this," Emerald said.
"Is it too obvious to point out that she's going to ruin the plan we have to save Atlas if we don't do this?" Pyrrha said.
"Well, yeah...but don't you feel weird about this? She killed you," Emerald said. "At least I thought she did."
"She did," Pyrrha said.
Actually the second time...it almost wasn't as bad. Sure, she didn't like seeing Cinder again, but now that she knew it was coming, she felt less afraid.
After all...why be afraid? She already came back to life once. What was Cinder going to do? Re-kill her?
The Grimm arm was something else though...
"I guess you probably hate me," Emerald said. "But even if you do, I still don't want to hurt her just to get on your guys' good side."
"I said we don't have to do that," Pyrrha said. "But if she sees us, I can't speak for it."
She didn't think she could beat Cinder any more now than she could have before...
"Just get her to stop," she said.
"I can get her to drop the Lamp maybe," Emerald said, "if she thought Ruby was here. But won't work for long. Can you get the other two off our backs?"
"Just do it," Pyrrha said.
Raven was watching this from the wall, but she had no intention of helping them.
Emerald put a hand to her head.
Cinder was just taking out the Lamp--when suddenly she thought a burst of red petals grabbed it out of her hands.
She looked up to see what she thought was Ruby, looking at her, eyes gleaming.
Emerald knew Cinder pretty well, it had to be admitted.
She still felt guilty making her see this--but she told herself it beat actually fighting her.
Cinder gasped, to the bewilderment of Watts and Neo, and then she ran for it, dropping the Lamp without knowing she did it.
It did just kind of float weightlessly.
Neo reached for it and shot Watts a questioning look.
"She's lost it," was his explanation. "Or maybe not..." He looked around.
Emerald ducked behind the wall.
"The thing is, once she gets farther off than, like, 20 feet, I can't do it," she said to Pryrha.
Pyrrha was glancing around. "All right..."
Sure enough, Cinder looked back and saw no one and wondered if Ruby was even chasing her.
But it took her a full minute to realize that Neo and Watts hadn't reacted to her being there at all, nor had they followed her.
Then she got suspicious.
But in the meantime, Pyrrha had reached out and yanked Neo's umbrella out of her hand using her Semblance.
Funny, in a fair fight she never liked to rely on her Semblance, but now it seemed like getting an edge on these people was literally the only way to stand a chance. They were killers, not huntsmen.
Neo was surprised to see her weapon suddenly gone.
"What in the devil?" Watts said.
He had no weapon.
Neo ran after her umbrella, and Pyrrha dropped it.
She dove for it, and Pyrrha picked it back up and made it fly toward Watts, who ducked.
"Is there a geist in you umbrella?" he said irritatably.
Neo made a motion that was probably not very complimentary towards him, before waving her arms frantically.
Cinder came back around the corner.
"Something weird is going on," she said.
The umbrella hit her in the face.
Snarling, she reached out and grabbed it, then flung it away.
"Neo, what is this? One of your tricks? Because if so..." Fire flashed in her eye. "...I'm not amused."
Neo looked at her blankly.
That gave Emerald an idea.
She made it look as if Neo charged Cinder instead.
Cinder shot fire at the real Neo, who was just standing there, and she barely had time to duck.
"What are you doing?" Watts grabbed Cinder's shoulder roughly. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Did you not just see her attack me?" Cinder shoved him off.
"She didn't attack you," Watts said.
Neo looked at them blankly.
"Huh?" Cinder said, then narrowed her eye. "You mean... And neither of you saw Little Red either, did you?"
"I take it you've finally snapped," Watts said. "Not that I'm surprised..."
"Shut up," Cinder said.
She looked around. "Emerald? Where are you?"
Emerald froze up.
"You're sure she defected?" Cinder asked Neo.
Neo nodded.
"Frankly, I'm not surprised," Watts said. "She always was a coward. Come now, Miss Sustrai, if you're hiding, you'd better just come out."
"We're so screwed," Emerald hissed.
Pyrrha bit her lip.
"I can't go with them." Emerald hugged her sides. "They'll make me go back to Salem... I can't do that. She'll kill me! You can't make me do that!" She grabbed Pyrrha's arm.
Pyrrha pushed her off. She normally would try to be comforting, but Emerald still made her uneasy.
"I won't make you," she said, more evenly than she looked, to Emerald. "But we can't just give up. The others need more time."
Cinder was not a patient person.
Making fire in her hand, she flew over to the street they were hiding in.
Raven, watching this, thought they were dead--and she did nothing to interfere.
But she eyed the Relic that Neo had.
Pyrrha unfortunately realized too late that if Cinder wasn't talking, she was probably planning a sneak attack.
Cinder suddenly sprang around the corner.
"Ah ha!--" She stopped dead in the end of her triumphant exclamation.
Emerald jumped back, forgetting for a moment that Cinder hadn't seen Pyrrha before.
Cinder stared at Pyrrha in abject horror.
"This is you idea of a distraction?" she said then, looking at Emerald. "Not even hiding yourself and using a dead girl? How pathetic..." Fire blazed in her hand. "I can't believe after all that, you're really leaving me, and after I pulled you out of the streets and gave you a life. I should teach you a lesson."
"It's not like that..." Emerald sputtered.
"Drop the illusion," Cinder said. "It's insulting."
Pyrrha would not have acted for herself here, but seeing that Emerald was about to to die probably finally kicked her into action.
I'm sorry, Shine, she mentally thought, but it looks as though I'm going to end up blowing our secret too soon.
But resolutely, she took her shield and sword up.
Emerald shot her a look like she wasn't sure what she was doing.
Cinder, convinced Pyrrha was just an illusion, decided to just ignore her and kept coming toward Emerald, no matter what she did.
And her cockiness here backfired so hard, because Pyrrha, gritting her teeth, jumped at her while she didn't try to dodge, and, instead of fading into obscurity because she was an illusion, actually bought her sword down, cutting into the Grimm arm and slicing it clean off.
Cinder knew two things right then.
1: She was in excruciating pain.
2: This was not an illusion.
Even Neo couldn't have done that.
She started screaming in pain, but even so, she looked at Pyrrha in pure disbelief.
"What...?" she said.
"Mother of the gods--" Watts had followed Cinder, and so had Neo.
Neo had her umbrella again, and she pointed it at Pyrrha.
Pyrrha decided she had enough of this game.
She raised her hand and yanked it out of Neo's hand deftly.
Neo's eyes got wide.
"I'm not in the mood for this," Pyrrha said. "Give us the Lamp back."
"You're dead," Watts said.
Cinder's arm was growing back...
But she looked at Pyrrha in...was it terror?
"I don't understand..." she said faintly. "Why are you here? I killed you!" Then it turned to anger. "I killed you! Why are you standing here? You can't be real!"
Emerald took advantage of this to get up and run past Neo while Neo couldn't see her because of her Semblance, then she snatched the Lamp out of her hand.
Neo didn't even realize what happened till she looked down a second later, at Pyrrha's words, and saw it was gone.
"Where's the Lamp?" Watts said to her.
Emerald had had to deceive him too, and it made her head pound, but she was better at it than before.
"Pyrrha," she called, "let's just go. We have what we need."
"What?" Cinder looked and saw Emerald had the Lamp. "No!"
"Sorry," Emerald said.
Pyrrha threw her shield at Cinder and knocked her into the wall, then made it come back to her, and she took off running after Emerald, who raced down the alley.
Neo didn't even try to chase them, she was that thrown for a loop.
"What are you doing? Stop them!" Watts yelled at her.
Neo rolled her eyes but took off after them.
Pyrrha and Emerald looked back and saw her coming.
"Look, we might be able to take her, but they'll catch us," Emerald said. "You got any better plan?"
Pyrrha glanced back. "Why is she even working with them?"
"To get revenge on Ruby," Emerald said. "I didn't quite get all of it, but I guess her boss died or something. Ruby killed him, maybe?"
"I'm sure Ruby did not do that," Pyrrha said.
"Tell her that!" Emerald said.
Pyrrha suddenly ducked behind a garbage bin and yanked Emerald after her.
"Make her think we're going that way." She pointed.
Emerald nodded.
Neo came running and went past them.
They waited a minute. She didn't come back.
"She'll figure it out soon," Emerald said. "Let's go."
They slipped down the other side of the street and stayed running back toward the school.
"I can't believe that worked," Emerald said. "But now Cinder knows you're alive... How the frick are you alive anyway?"
"I told you already," Pyrrha said, a little breathless. "I'm not sure how. They know a God who is stronger than the two we know of."
"What? There's another one?" Emerald said.
"Yes," Pyrrha said. "And from all I've seen, He's much nicer. Perhaps also more terrifying."
"How is that even possible?" Emerald said.
"Ask them," Pyrrha said.
"If Cinder knew that...If Salem knew that," Emerald said, "she'd...be livid."
"She'll be livid anyway," Pyrrha replied dryly.
"Doesn't it weird you out though?" Emerald said.
"Is now the time to ask that?" Pyrrha asked. They hurried up the steps of the school.
Unfortunately, they misjudged how long it would take Cinder to recover.
Suddenly she came flying over the courtyard and towards them.
"You can't be real!" She landed in front of them, eye on fire again. "And to prove it, I'm going to take you apart."
They backed up.
Emerald tried to blind Cinder again, and they ran, but Cinder guessed she would do that.
"If I can't see you, I'll just burn this whole place down!" She sent a wall of fire at the front of the school, blocking their path.
Emerald lost her concentration, and they reappeared.
Pyrrha drew a deep breath.
"Enough." She turned to face Cinder, holding up her shield. "You don't think I'm real? Then let me ask you something: Do you believe in Destiny?"
Her hope was to shock Cinder enough to give them a chance to escape.
And...it worked...in a way.
Cinder's whole face turned pale, and she dropped to the ground like she's had the energy zapped out of her.
Emerald had never seen her do that, and it freaked her out a little.
"Cinder?" she said, stepping closer.
"No!" Pyrrha yanked her back.
Had they wished to, they could have killed Cinder right then--she was far too stunned to fight back.
But neither of them had that wish. Instead Pyrrha looked at Emerald.
"Take the Lamp," she said.
"What?" Emerald said. "Are you crazy?"
"She shouldn't have it," Pyrrha said. "Just go."
"No, you take it." Emerald shoved it at her. "I'll distract her."
"But--" Pyrrha said.
"Your team will never forgive me if I go back there without you, and I can't afford to take that risk," Emerald said. "I have nowhere to go, so I'm stuck with you all. I'll be right behind you. She doesn't seem like she wants to fight."
"Are you sure?" Pyrrha said.
"Yeah, go." Emerald waved her off.
Pyrrha took the Lamp and began to run inside.
Emerald turned to Cinder.
Watts had followed them more slowly.
Neo had turned back now and also followed.
Cinder looked up, blankly. "That was... How?"
"I don't know," Emerald said warily, keeping her distance. "But listen, Cinder, I think you should know--Salem's been lying to us."
"What?" Cinder said, in a different tone.
"Yeah, yeah," Emerald said. "She's trying to end the world, not remake it. Part of some old curse, I guess... I heard the whole thing. I wanted to warn you, but you weren't there, and I kind of had to run for it."
"You're telling me that you quit because of that?" Cinder stood up. "And what was Nikos? Some wish? Did you brats use the Staff already?"
"What? No!" Emerald said.
"And I bet you know where the Maiden is too," Cinder said.
"But why does it matter?" Emerald said. "The Maiden is just part of all this. Salem plans to--"
Suddenly Cinder's Grimm arm shot out and grabbed her by the throat before she could dodge.
Watts and Neo exchanged a look.
"You idiot!" Cinder said to Emerald harshly. "You actually thought that I need you to warn me about Salem? That you could just switch sides like this and I wouldn't know about it?"
"No--" Emerald gasped.
Inside the school, Pyrrha looked back and realized Emerald wasn't following her.
Her gut feeling told her that this wasn't a good idea.
"I'm sorry..." she muttered to the hallway. "I know it's smarter, but I just can't do it."
She turned and ran back toward the entrance.
Not a second too soon, as it turned out.
"Now tell me where they have her." Cinder was still choking Emerald.
"In...the...Vault..." Poor Emerald was too freaked out to think about whether or not she should tell her this. "There was this big hole...but they were going to make portals to Vacuo."
"Really?" Cinder said. "Hmm...well, in that case, we just need to follow them. And how are they going to get everyone into these portals?"
"The CCT..." Emerald said, struggling.
"Exactly," Cinder said. "Watts, you can handle that part, right?"
"Yes...but what are you going to do with the...rubbish?" Watts pointed to Emerald. "She might warn them."
"Oh, I don't know." Cinder's hand lit up. "I think we have enough to know what to do from here."
Emerald's eyes widened.
"Stop!" Pyrrha made it out just in time.
Cinder looked up.
"Let her go!" Pyrrha said.
Now that she'd thought of an explanation for why Pyrrha was here, Cinder was less daunted by her.
She smiled slowly. "Give me that Lamp first."
Pyrrha looked down at it.
Emerald glanced at her, then at Cinder.
"I can't..." Pyrrha said.
Cinder's grip on Emerald tightened. "Well, then I guess I know what to do."
"How do I know you'd let her go if I gave it to you?" Pyrrha said warily.
"Is it worth the risk?" Cinder said. "Here, we'll trade." She stuck out the Grimm arm so that Emerald was in front of Pyrrha.
"Just put the Lamp in my hand," she said. "And don't even think about trying to cut it off again."
She held up her other hand and fire appeared in it. "Or she gets it."
Pyrrha looked from her to Emerald.
Emerald said nothing.
Neo frowned at Cinder, and Watts rolled his eyes.
Pyrrha knew the others would blame her for this later, but she held out the Lamp and took Emerald by the arm.
Cinder let go of Emerald and seized the Lamp with her Grimm hand--and then she shot fire at both of them anyway.
Emerald screamed.
Pyrrha didn't even think--she just activated her Aura.
In the past that wouldn't have likely been enough to really protect them, though it might have helped, but now the magical fire just...fizzled out.
Cinder's smug look died out.
She snarled and then shot more fire, and the wind picked up behind her.
Pyrrha had no idea what to do except pray.
Emerald was coughing and rubbing her throat, but she stood behind Pyrrha.
The fire didn't touch them, and the wind didn't shake them.
Cinder stopped, puzzled.
"What are you doing?" she said.
Pyrrha didn't want to fight her still... The longer they stood there, the more she was thinking of what happened before...but she tried to push that fear out.
"I'm not doing anything..." she said quietly. "But...you won't be able to stop us with that magic, I don't think."
"Cinder," Watts said, "we have the Lamp. Forget them. This is wasting our time."
Cinder looked at him angrily.
Neo just gestured at her impatiently.
Emerald swallowed, then suddenly she blinded all three of them, and she and Pyrrha ran for it.