"What are you saying!? Snap out of it!" Cardin screams, and I stand up with my weapons in hand
"I warned all of you..." I say tying my hair up, and then a man enters the building
"The White Fang is already finishing up preparations. Nobody is getting in, and nobody is getting out." The same man that Ozpin had me avoid at the train
I glare at this scenario and stepped forward,
"Go home. This is a warning, and there wouldn't be a second one." I say
"Not without you." Cardin says, preparing his mace
"Where you with them this entire time!? Have you forgotten what they did to Phyrra!? To Beacon!?" Jaune screams
"Shut up! She's not an idiot! If she didn't, then she would have done things earlier! She's just ganging up on us to scare us away!" Cardin screams at Jaune
"Be quiet." I clenched my weapons
"Yeah? Then make me, or you can't because Fro won't even listen to you as well!" He pushes on, and then Cinder looks at me and then laughs
"My, what is this? A lovers quarrel? If they won't back down, then there is one way to settle this." Cinder says, and then Fro climbs from the ground, I pretend that she just came out.
Her thoughts and mine are one.
This hurts me more than it hurts her - no... this just fucking hurts to do
"Fro." I toss her the shield and then it rushes towards Qrow knocking him to a wall
"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby screams and then I shot myself pass Cardin to rush on Ruby only for her to fell for it and use her semblance to get away
But my target was Oscar, that dodged my shotgun point blank but some grazes him that were blocked by his aura.
The floor shatters into debris as Cardin swings his mace at me that I take,
He didn't expect that I did, which gave me a chance to shoot him in the armor that knocks him back, then I shoot myself to revive.
"MATTIE PLEASE! LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS!!" Nora screams, but then I look at Cinder
"What are you waiting around for?!" I ask her, and then Mercury just smirks
"Needed to be told? We want you to get rid of them first." Emerald crosses her arms, and then I look down at the others
Weiss helps Qrow by trying to catch Fro that she can see with her shield, but the other girl with brown hair takes care of her.
Oscar went up to Lionhart,
Nora went to help Ren with the other guy,
Cardin, Yang, Jaune, and Ruby...
"Stop this..." Yang breaks her tone to speak
"Gang up on her! She's immortal, but she's not invincible!" Cardin charges by smashing a crater, and I get shot by Ruby on the leg, which causes her to stop because she didn't mean that it would knock my leg off
"Ohhh, she'll walk it off..." Mercury comments as I kill myself to revive
I breathe heavily, getting up, and then Jaune runs with his upgraded broadsword, about to swing at me until I blocked it to see that he hesitated and attacked me with the flat side
I aim my shotgun at him, but I couldn't bring myself to trigger
Yang beat me to it and punched me to the chest, it knocks the air out of me, and with a concussion, it paralyzed me for a moment
Thankfully, Fro stabs me to revive me.
But I stay on the ground breathing heavily, my hands shaking,
What am I afraid of?
Why won't my heart stop beating so fast?
"Mattie?" Ruby calls for me, but I couldn't hear her, I see the others' lips move, calling my name, but the only sound I hear is my heart beating
No...
The IBMs began to spew out of me, and I see them, ONLY I CAN SEE THEM!
NO!
THEY'LL DIE!
THEY WONT SURVIVE!
"No, no, no... No,...NOOOO!!!!" I activated the Ajin scream, causing everyone to be paralyzed in place
Including Cinder, Lionhart, and Raven that opened the way to the Vault...
"W-what-!" The girl with brown hair asks herself
I clenched my chest, breathing heavily on the ground, and there were tears falling from my eyes, and I saw them fall on the floor I'm facing
The IBMs began to disappear, but in a way like they were,
They were an illusion...
"H...hey..." Cardin couldn't move, but he stopped enough with his hand reaching out
I have the nerve to look at him after I betrayed them...
I get up and run towards him, putting him on his knees to quickly get the effects off
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm- I- I dont know what I was thinking -.... I'm so sorry, please -" I was stopped mid sentence to feel that I've been punctured
"NO! MATTIE!!" Ruby screams, and something bright came up only to dissappear after Emerald attacks her
"Hey..." I turn to Cardin, and my eyes go wide
No...
Please, no....
He was stabbed first, and it only went through through him, then me...
"...Cardin!" Jaune runs to us, and we both fell laying on the ground as the staff Cinder threw dissappeared
With Cardin's strength, he shoots me to revive.
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But for some reason, I couldn't see a thing.
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I didn't feel like I went back to life...
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I feel like...
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I died...
...................................
"MATTIE!? CARDIN!?" Jaune panics as he runs to the two only to witness Cardin killing her,
Jaune didn't understand why Cardin would easily just be so willing to kill her, to hurt her,
But that was what he was thinking, and he never understood his school bully.
But it was like it was only Cardin that had the nerve to do it, to actually kill, to kill Mattie, knowing she'd come back to life.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Jaune hurried up to push him to his side and hold on pressure to both sides of wound opening
"Fucking get.... off.. me..you weirdo..." Cardin says weakly but still looked at Mathilde
That was unexpectedly unresponsive.
She was just laying there...
"You have to stay awake! We'll...! We'll get you some help!" Jaune screams at him to stay awake
"Give it a break... why do you care what happens to me... just get your asses here unless you all have a death wish..." Cardin glares but reached for Mathilde's hand
"I don't care about the past! What about Mattie! You can't just leave her!" Jaune holds into compression harder
"...Do me a favor...when she wakes up... Tell her to stop blaming herself... life is shit enough for both of us...it'll probably get even shittier with whatever is going on..." He mutters, and his eyes slowly keep closing, but it's clear that he's forcing himself to stay awake
"No... I can't... I can't have anyone die on me again! PLEASE!" Jaune cries out
.....................
At the bottom of the Academy lies a bridge that connects to a large door,
Where the spring maiden was supposed to open the door for Cinder,
However, the assumed maiden laid on the ground.
Dead by Cinder Falls hands.
Raven Branwen revealed that she was the original, then a battle under the school began.
However, Cinder froze in place once she saw black sand falling from the ceiling, Raven sees this too, but in assumption of what she just did to the Ajin before coming down here,
But she had done this once and accidentally,
"Agh!" Cinder screams, feeling one of the creatures suddenly on her back dragging her on the ground until it keeps multiplying,
"Die."
"I must protect them."
"Kill them."
"NO NOOOO NOOOOO"
"I'LL KILL THEM I'LL KILL THEM!!"
"RIP THEM TO SHREDS!"
The voices were Mathilde's,
Mixed with pure anger and sorrow, but also the bloodlust to kill Cinder and Cinder only
Raven uses this opportunity to rush a blast of power after Cinder attempted to pry them off with her own maiden power since they were visible,
Hitting Cinder right in the solar plexus and knocking her down on the bridge, Raven watches as the creatures that were falling from the ceiling follow and dive in
They're crawling in like ants until they stopped,
It was quiet.
They were crying, screaming, in pain, but now its all quiet.
Raven looked at the door for the relic and walked towards it.
She opens it but then turns to see her daughter.
................................
MATHILDE'S POV
I'll....kill.....
I'll kill her....
"I'll kill Cinder..."
"Mattie?!"
"MATTIE!?"
"MATTIE WAKE UP!!!" I felt like I was being shaken until I was slapped on the face!
"Huh?" I look around and see Nora sigh in relief and then hug me.
I slowly hug her back hesitantly, aware of my wrongdoings
"I'm sorry... I don't know what I was thinking..." I tell her, and Ren kneels in front of me, nodding
"We understand, we're just relieved that you are on our side." He says
"You're awake! That's a relief." I gasp seeing Blake
"Blake? I thought you went home?" I looked up at her, and then Sun handed me my weapons
"We did! It was awesome! But we still had some fight in us! And we wouldn't miss it for anything! We totally just got here on time to stop the White Fang outside the Academy!" He says
"You stopped them...that is good to hear... And the enemies inside with us?" I said, holding my head, trying to remember and frown
That's right...
Cardin was killed in front of me....
"...they...They..." Sun scratches the back of his head
"They got away..." He says
"But they're looking at the Headmaster right now," Sun added, helping me up
"Okay, I'll go tend his injuries first..." I stand up and turn behind me to not see Cardin's body
I carry a blank expression on my face.
After this, Surely the headmaster will have no reason to leave this heavy burden to mortals.
I get up the stairs towards the hallway to his office only to have the door slap open.
"HEY, WE NEED TO GET A MEDIC IN HERE!"
That voice...
"A GRIMM HAD ATTACKED THE HEADMASTER!" Oscar says, and I walk into view
"...I....I'm..." I stand in shock, looking at him
How is he still alive??
How did he even survive???
"No! You should be lying down resting somewhere!" Cardin tells me and moves me to a wall, but I still held onto him and tighter
"You're not right in the head to help anyone right now! So help yourself!" He says but stopped seeing I'm still holding onto his arms and his wound
"That hurts." He says, and I get my hand off
"Yeah, I don't believe it either. But that looser Jaune actually unlocked his semblance. Lucky for me, it's one that heals people." He says, patting my back
"Thank you... thank you....oh my god thank you...." I sob to his chest
"Loosing you... I don't know what I would have done without you there for me, you jerk...." I say, then I look at him
"So that's how it feels like to die... I'm not a fan..." He jokes, and I punch him on his wound area, making him kneel in pain
"DON'T JOKE ABOUT IT YOU JERK!" I scream at him, and the others downstairs sweat, listening to what's going on.
"...Lionhart passed away..." Oscar came back out, and I stepped in
"He already was...the guy barely had a pulse, not even Jaune could get a pulse back." Cardin says, and I look at him
"Resuscitation and shock?" I look at Oscar, who shakes his head, saying they tried the natural revive rather than spiritual revival to let Aura do the recovering
But if people lack the Spirit, they're bound to lose their control and support on their aura, which would lead to them possibly losing their semblance.
"...I see..." I looked at Jaune, who was upset having a man die in front of him, or rather, failed to revive a man.
A mortal still died...
"Oscar... remember what I had told you...?" I ask him, and Oscar grips his cane
"...I won't... and that is my decision... I'll get the relic to Atlas for safety... Hazel or Salem may send people after me now that they know... they know that I'm him..." Oscar says, then Ruby steps up
"And he wouldn't be doing it alone... you can't stop us from coming... you dont need just us...if things get out of hand, then we need the world on this!" She says
"We saw what that monster looked like... if you're trying to protect us from fighting someone like that, then who is protecting you?" Cardin says
I look down then at Oscar.
"Still." I had Fro snatch the relic from him and hand it to me
"Me and Fro are immortals. From what happened tonight, I just proved my point exactly, that I can't bear to risk you all dying on a war you won't survive."
"Figured as much.. You're always one to face something like this alone..." A familiar voice
Wait....who...
"Who...uhmmm..." Ruby looks at the people that just came out from the hallway
"Wait, why are we here? How did we even get here?!" Who is that? Japanese?
"....Greeny...?" Oscar said, but Maki came into view
"Nope! I'm Maki Araki! At your service! Did I say that right, Kei?!" Maki came into view, and I stand there stunned
"So that's your IBM, huh..." Kei Nagai looks up at Fro
"Wait! Who are you?! You're an Ajin, too!? Wait, where are we!?" A boy with brown hair asks me
"No!! Not again! They're talking about the language we can't understand!!" Ruby panics
"What....How..." I couldn't even finish my words
Maki smiles.
"We won! WE CAN GO HOME!!"