Resurgence
Book One: A Shattered Future
Prologue
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. If I did, I think I would be schizophrenic it with all of the alternate realities, universes, and reboots I can find.
Beta-reader: TheAchillesCurse
Grimm.
Some called them prey, others predator. Abomination who lurks at night and day. They are barbaric beasts who knows no mercy. Killing and only killing in their blood. Some called them servant of demon's, a higher being who knows nothing but power and destruction. Some said they are sins of humans and faunus; born by all the negative emotions causes by War, Death, Despair, Decay. But no beliefs, no myth, no science ever proved how grimms were first born. Maybe it was one of those mysteries humanity will never know. Or it will be better if no one ever knows. Because what's they said, 'Ignorance is Bliss'.
The historians said that the creatures of Grimm as a destructive force that has existed throughout most of Remnant across known history. Once believed to be evil spirits, further study revealed they continued to evolve and diversify over time like animals. They attacked humans and their creations first and foremost, only conflicting with wildlife for territory. Common belief was that Grimm didn't need to feed; they chose to. They were always drawn to negative emotions - with numbers proportionate to how far panic spreads. Captured Grimm usually broke free or died quickly and their bodies evaporated shortly after their death, making study at their biology difficult. Though it was proved Grimm were not mindless; while younger ones were more reckless, older ones learned from their experiences to be more cautious in the future - a natural adaptation that made them more effective killers.
But when the Grimms started their rampage of terror throughout the lands, humanities first defence gave them a sudden halt.
They were Hunters.
Humans and Faunus who wield aura to destroy these monsters. Later they fabricated special powers from Aura or as they liked to call that 'light of the souls' — though in modern times these powers were called 'semblance' .
To constant fighting with Auras and Semblances, people were able to reclaim their lands and created kingdoms. But outside those great walls of kingdoms there are lands surrounded by darkness where intelligent Grimms spawned. People called them Elder grimm; science called them Theta and Omega level grimm — those were as intelligent and experienced as hunters. Most of the times they could not enter past the kingdoms walls or natural rough terrain used as borders. But when they do — massacre happened.
Those lands of darkness, where Grimms spread true terror were called — Grimmland.
But what is beyond the knowledge of men? What is beyond logic?
That's the true question, isn't it?
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A shadowy hallway could be seen in the nighttime. One of it's end stood a wooden double door, other end faded in darkness. Various torch and lanterns hung from both sidewalls of the hallway. Though their purple light being not but a little help in that darkness. Even then one could still saw the pictures curved on stonewalls to both sides of the hallway. Some of them about war and death — people were killing each other; humans and faunus were fighting for triumph. Other pictures featured grimms; some looks like snakes, others rhinos, one even looks like a winged dragon. All of those known as Elder grimm or kaiju class grimm. Even in the darkness their eyes — curved from red stones — shone like epitome of fear.
Suddenly approaching sound of footsteps and clicking of heels started echoing in that quiet hallway. From the end of the darkness three figures approached the wooden double door. The leading one — a woman; if with the figure and luscious black hair was indicating anything, clad in a thigh-high red dress with glowing Dust runes — rose a hand to bring a halt of the other two, as she stopped a foot from the door.
"Stay here. Do not enter without permission." She ordered as her golden eyes swept over them.
The other two – a pair of a young boy and girl, just nodded in silence, showing their confirmation, all the while fidgeting nervously – clearly uncomfortable in the ominous surroundings.
The boy had gray colored hair. He wore some light armor over a purple shirt, a black trousers and black boots. In his waist, a sword strapped to the belt. The caramel skinned girl next to him had short green hair. Her red eyes darting between every nook and canny in their surroundings. She was mostly armorless over her two piece white top and short tights. In her waist belt strapped a thin sword.
The first woman just eyed them for a moment then open the wooden door and steps inside.
That room looked like a ballroom from inside; with some torches giving violet light and silver moonlight streaming from the windows, but not really helping brightening the room.
Somehow all of these gave more eerie feeling than the suffocating darkness outside.
There was a long banquet table middle in the room. The mahogany table looked old, but it can be clearly seen that in past it got a good portion of praise from it's host. All the wooden chairs surrounded it looked rusty without any occupants filling the chairs but one. There in the head of the table — far opposite from the door and away from any lights — sat a figure in red robes. Other then that nothing of said figure's could be seen.
"My Queen." the black haired woman greeted the figure in a soft tone.
"Ah.. my dear, just in time. You were very punctual, as always." The figure, now in a woman's voice replied soothingly.
The first woman might be found some morbid amusement in that mysterious woman's words — it's not like she can disobey any orders from her — but knew better to voice any thought about it. Clearing her throat she answered her unasked question instead, "The intel was correct ma'am. The target is approaching Vale via boat. She will be reach Vale in three days time."
The second woman in red robe just hummed then replied with a low chuckle, "I see. Dear Ozpin is very paranoid. Can not fault him though." she paused then continued, "Very well. You and your two.. subordinates will leave tonight and track down our little Maiden."
Then almost in an afterthought she added, "You didn't had any other problems with accommodating the grimm inside you, had you?"
"No, My Queen."
"Then come over here." the 'Queen' in question motioned her to come closer. When the raven haired woman was within reach the second one took her left hand in between her own pale hands.
There was a flash of pain crossed across her face as she winced and saw as the darkness itself molded in her palm. When she bought her left palm in front of her face, she noticed there was a sigil like drawing drawn with reddish black ink.
The sigil itself looked like a grimm bone mask sat atop a small pile of bones. The two eye slits of the mask filled with red color. On it's forehead rested another red eye but that eye was vertical. Most strange was that the eye looked like a human eye in shape, with eyelashes eyelids. In middle of that red eye had a small black eyeball. There was a ring of black flames surrounded the entire mask. But shockingly those flames were alive. They licked her palm and fingers but there was no burning sensation, just a drumming feeling. Like a bolt of power resting just beneath the skin of her palm, waiting to be released. The whole sigil looked like a burning, alive tattoo.
"It is my Mark." The only seated woman in that room spoke upon sensing the brunette woman's curiosity. Now upon close observation it's could be seen that the second woman's face was not obscure by shadows anymore. Her blood red eyes looked exactly like the vertical eye of that tattoo. On her face, between her eyes and ears; on her arms where the sleeves of her robe slid adorned several black veins — giving a ominous edge to her presence, but not tinting her elegant presence. Her skin as white as porcelain. Her long white hair tied in a complicated bun.
"What would it do?" The first woman eventually asked.
"It's called the Sigil of Æzéolius. Though the humans named it seal of fear. It will empower your semblance and heighten your senses for a short time. And when necessary it will grant you control over a... special grimm."
"But the maiden powers..." The ember eyed woman begun but interrupted by the white haired woman.
"Will not effect it. Not only that but it will help you to adapt acquired maiden's power better."
The standing woman nodded in gratitude. "May I ask what type of grimm I have control over?" the now empowered woman asked, still surprised at the turn of events.
"Do not be anxious dear. You will see when the right time comes." The robed woman spoke in amusement, her pale white lips twitching slightly upwards. She continued, "Now go forth, your companions are must be waiting."
The first woman hesitated for a moment, clearly wanted to ask more about the seal but thought better of it and bowed before turned away; abruptly stopping as the red eyed figure warned.
"Do not fail me, Cinder."
The first woman now identified as Cinder turned sharply towards the speaker. One of her ember eye, which was not obscured by her black hair, glowed brightly in the darkness. The eye narrowed in sensing mistrust.
"I will do not fail, my Queen." she said in a clipped tone.
The 'Queen' smiled slightly and spoke in a clearly amused tone, "I know Cinder, I know."
Cinder nodded and leaved that room. Behind her the wooden door closed by themselves as deafening silence reigns in the room again.
The woman sat in the darkness stood slowly from her spot and approached the nearby window — walking in the mostly darkened room like she was lived here enough to know every nook and canny of the room.
The low light from the shattered moon of Remnant flooded from the glass window shone her white hair. In the light the black veins on her face and neck seemed to pulse.
"Soon," she spoke in a soft voice which contradicted her full appearance, "Time is coming when every living being will know the truth of their existence. The Fate of their useless lifes."
She eyes — bright red eyes with pitch black irises, offers only cruelty like no other — gazed down at the outside.
"This world will soon meet it's end, Ozpin." Then she chuckled and added, "I would like to see what your next move will be little wizard."
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Loud clicking sound could be heard as heels pressed on the room's white floor tiles noisily. The owner of the noise, a taller woman — easily six feet tall — pacing in the room, anger rolls off her in waves. The woman wore a black pencil skirt, which went to her knees; a long-sleeved white shirt which tucked into her skirt and a simple belt with a weapon holster. Said weapon - a riding crop with a wand like structural base carved with runes, was gripped tightly in her right hand. Her blonde hair fixed in a bun. She was a breathtakingly beautiful woman; if not for the fierce frown and unrestrained murder in her green eyes.
"You know Glynda, if you don't stop pacing, Oz has to fill holes on the floor in tomorrow." A gruff male voice snarked.
The blonde woman or known as Glynda Goodwitch, the deputy headmistress of Beacon Academy of Vale kingdom, narrowed her eyes and whirled in that voice's direction immediately.
There's, at the room's open door a rugged looking man now stood with relaxed pose, who was apparently the speaker.
There was a cut mark on his left eyebrow — it was not hard to recognize as like he recently had a fight — but the wound stopped bleeding and healing, undoubtedly due to his aura. He had a short bread, his black hair untidy. He wore a white shirt under a gray colored jacket, black trousers with black boots. In his waist belt he had a small flask attached. Behind him, some type of weapon's handle poking out from his back. His red eyes boring into the other occupant of the room as he spoke to her.
"Shut up your blabbering, Qrow." Glynda snapped, "If you were quick to approach her more fast then we don't have to see that day." She raised her riding crop at the man or Qrow Branwan in accusation.
Qrow's red eyes hardened, "It's not my fault that the intel was leaked or someone got her before I came. At least I went there and drag her away from those assassins before they killed her. Unlike some certain deputy who was just sitting here and spouting orders in her scroll." Qrow hissed at the last statement.
"Don't be a fool. You knew someone is need here to upgrade security for her incoming." Glynda spoke through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes and visibly gathered herself before their slight accusations to each other turned into another argument.
Headmaster surely don't want this now.
She walked to the nearby table, took her glasses from on it and put them on. She asked Qrow in a stotic tone without facing him, "Where is Ozpin? We'll talk about who's fault was really Amber's condition later."
Qrow just shrugged and bought a flask from his hip, unscrewed it and took a long sip. Glynda meanwhile cringed her nose as the cheap scent of alcohol filled the room. She preferred her tea better.
"Oz said me to wait here. He's still in med bay." Qrow replied then muttered lowly while screwed back and putting his flask to his hip, "Should bought whiskey, I so not paid for all of this crap."
Glynda caught his muttering but pointedly ignored them. She used to his quirks at this point.
Qrow sighed like suddenly a heavy pressure came upon his shoulders.
"Look Glynda, shit happens and I don't think it's any of ours fault. I reached there as fast as I can but —"
"I believe Qrow is right in that regard." a calm voice cut off Qrow's sentence from outside the door.
The two occupants of the room immediately found source of the voice as Ozpin, the headmaster of the illustrious hunter academy 'Beacon'.
He wore a green jacket over a white shirt and black pants and boots. In his hand his cane tapping the floor as he approached the two. He adjusted his glasses and looked at them with exhausted gray eyes.
"He is?"
"I am?" Qrow himself also echoed Glynda's doubt, but amended quickly, "Of course, I am right." then quietly muttered, "Whatever it is."
Ozpin just gave a tired smile to his companions and continued his earlier speech, "I just merely said that it is no one's fault. But we will talk about this later." He told them with a sigh. He looked like he was aged ten years in last couple of hours.
Glynda decided to address the most important things first and asked in a worried tone, "How is Amber? Is she stable now?"
The man in green suit just sighed heavily again.
"She is stable… for now. But I still can't bring her out of coma. Her aura output reduced severely. I am thinking about to call James to bring a stasis unit for her from Atlas."
He said in a grave tone and motioned them to follow, "Come on. We'll continue the discussion in my office."
They all exited the room and crossed the hallway. Bright green lights filled every corner of the hallway.
He led them to the elevator and selected top button at Beacon tower. In less then a minute the elevator dinged and opened up in front of a small corridor. Opposite to the elevator was front door that belongs to the headmasters office.
Ozpin taped on his scroll and the locks of the door opened revealing a nifty room with white and gray colored walls and ceiling respectively. Near the opposite wall of the door, stood a office table with headmasters chair near the wall and other four chairs in front of it other side of the table, obviously for any visitors. One side of the table were a stack of papers and files, several pens, a computer and a small coffee machine.
He led them inside and as soon as Glynda settled herself in one of the seats beside Qrow she asked frowning, "What did you mean back than by no one's fault?"
Ozpin just nodded, acknowledged her question but otherwise said nothing, as he sat on his chair that screams 'I'm the boss' and poured himself a mug of coffee from nearby portable machine. Qrow and Glynda looked at each other feeling lost at his lack of answer.
He just lean back on his chair, took a sip from his coffee and asked calmly, "Did you checked every scroll calls in that area Qrow? Anything from those assailants?"
Rolling his eyes the second man of the room answered, "I'm not an amateur Oz. Yes, I checked everything and no, there's no call. They didn't even had a scroll signal to track them down."
"Then maybe my suspicion was right."
"What", Glynda snapped, "is your suspicion, Ozpin?" she finished irritated, her patience running thin.
Ozpin took another sip from his coffee and closed his eyes.
"I do not think Amber's fate today is any of yours fault. If our intel was leaked, which I highly doubt, because she only contacted me. Or we have a spy among ourselves." Ozpin's voice took a hard edge in the end.
"Spy?!", Glynda asked in disbelief, shaking her head, "How? Only us three and James knew that Amber was coming today."
"Not quite," he paused for a moment than continued, "Last month at our annual meeting I told every of us that some important person is coming Vale ..." he stopped himself and let them think.
"And if SHE has a spy here, they must've checked every foreigner coming to Vale this month." Qrow finished Ozpin's line of thought.
"How?" Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, "One of us, no less…"
"Now I think about it, they also had perfect timing. It's too convenient to be sudden." Qrow suddenly stated with a frown.
Glynda raised a eyebrow at that but Ozpin just motioned for him to continue.
Said man in question brought his own flask and took a sip of alcohol before replying, "Their timing was too perfect to brush as a hasty attack. They also had suitable weapons to counter Amber's every attack and distract me. And it's not just that," he leaned forward on his chair, "they attacked after mid noon, knowing there were too much air traffic to respond immediately via Bullhead. You're right Ozpin when you said everyone in our group knew someone important was coming but you didn't tell which route. They must've knew our secret route to attack her at cliff side dock. Plus they attacked after 3 o'clock. They knew after three our main security will change and Glynda going to supervised them; so you two can't response right away. And I'm in Patch." He took a breath and continued, "What they didn't know is that I can fly. They obviously didn't took that into account. Those three were strong, their leader were more so. If they knew I could went there faster they didn't wait for Amber on cliff side, they would tried to assassinate her as soon as she reached dock." then he frowned, "or maybe they feared the probability of a ruccus in dock. Didn't wanted to attract peoples attention or any evidence..."
"Focus Qrow! So there's a big chance the spy must be from other kingdom in our group." Glynda summarized Qrow's point.
"Yes, it is appears so." Ozpin nodded grimly and took another sip from his coffee. "Most of us in Vale knows about Qrow's transformation. The spy must be from another kingdom." Ozpin sighed and asked, "Do you saw faces of those three? Can you recognise them?"
"That's the catch Oz. I saw their faces, but I can't recognized them."
Glynda narrowed her eyes towards him, "What do you mean that you saw them yet can't recognise them? Just look into database for them. They have to be registered into either of kingdoms."
"The reason I can't recognise them because they don't have a face."
Glynda gave the man beside her a disbelieving stare before turned towards her employer, "That's why you shouldn't send a drunkard in such a important mission!"
Ozpin simply raised an eyebrow at her outburst before gave said drunkard a serious look. "Explain." It came more of a command than request.
Qrow obliged, "Their features weren't hidden by mask or something, their faces simply featureless skin. There were just a void where their face should be. Though I sensed high amount of aura being used around them."
Ozpin looked thoughtful for a moment, "A illusion semblance?"
"Maybe. It wasn't their leader though." He elaborated after a moment of thought. "That woman in red, it's not her. It one of those underlings. One of them was using that illusion... thing, while the other showering me with amos."
Ozpin nodded thoughtfully at the new information while Glynda still looked skeptical. Finally she asked, "Could it be a mental semblance?"
"It could be." Qrow answered, "But then again if it's mental semblance, then why not just use it to control or distract me. They didn't do that. It's either has some aspect of mental semblance or just not powerful enough."
They sat in silence for some moment, each of them lost in thought. When the silence stretched too far Glynda cleared her throat, bringing both men in present. She looked at Ozpin, silently demanding an answer.
Ozpin took a sip from his coffee, then gave a small smile toward his companions. "I don't think we could do something about it right now. We will talk about it later. Now I believe Qrow needs some rest. Qrow, you can have one of the guest rooms in teachers private quarters. Go and rest, both of you." Qrow just nodded tiredly, as adrenaline wore off completely true exhaustion started taking on him.
Glynda, on the other hand narrowed her eyes, "But Ozpin..." she started only to cut off by the older man, "No buts Glynda, we will talk about this later. You need rest too. You have lots of work tomorrow." Then he gave her a sly smile, "And don't forget about first year's initiation. It's in the weekend."
Qrow gave a chuckle remembering that, "Ha. I almost forgot. Those brats gonna come for initiation this weekend."
Glynda rolled her eyes at him, "You know your nieces will be one of those 'brats'". She quoted it with fingers.
"They will beat everyone in initiation. They're awesome." He replied nonchalantly then gave Glynda a wink, "Just like me."
Glynda glared at him for a moment then asked her employer exasperated, "Why do we have Qrow at our work again, Ozpin?"
Ozpin chuckled at the two but didn't raise on the bait for another banter.
Glynda just sighed and massaged her forehead, all the while muttering about annoying extra paperwork. Then she reluctantly nodded and also got off the chair and headed for the door. Qrow also got off of his chair as he tossed a wave over his shoulder as the two exited the room.
Only then Ozpin let the worried frown take over his face. He unclenched his left plam to reveal a mark seal slowly forming there, a engraved mark. He clenched his fist just as a black outer ring started forming. Immediately his gray eyes hardened.
"Whatever you are planning, I will stop you. Mark my words Salem. You will be defeated." He muttered, voice hard with determination.
"You had lived enough here."
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That's a warp. I really could not find a badass name for this story, hence the name... for now. If someone has any good suggestion for name, please share me it by review or PM.
And I need some ideas or suggestion for any situations (mostly drama parts), please feel free to review or PM me.
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