Chapter 7
Shadows of the Past
Ochre stepped out of the server room, and was greeted by chaos. Penta was desperately trying to fend off a pile of desks, which seemed determined to crush her. Argent was lying on the floor, a furious Beringel roaring over him, Alberta gasping against the wall. Ochre charged forward and leaped at the Beringel. One gauntlet glowed with fire, and the slammed into the side of the beast's head. The Grimm staggered back, flames licking around its head. Ochre reached down and helped Argent to his feet.
"I let you alone for a moment, and you lose any semblance of order." Alberta let out a small giggle."
"That was her way of saying 'I care about you, and am glad your alright'" expained Argent. "Also, she doesn't get puns, ever." The Beringel roared and beats its chest. Ochre was about to move, but was interrupted.
"I got this. I rushed in the first time, but this time, I know what to do." Alberta stepped forward, back to her normal size, a raised the Red Stingers, and opened fire. Well placed rounds punched into the Grimm, and it roared in pain. Alberta advanced, and when the Beringel charged, she rolled between its legs. Ochre nodded to Argent, pulled out the grenade, and rushed away.
Penta staggered back. Every blow from the behemoth sent shock-waves through her. Every desk she destroyed did little. The Geist just pressed the attack without hesitation. The fight had only lasted less than a minute, but it felt like far longer. She hadn't fully recovered from the earlier confrontations, and this was a far tougher opponent than she was used to facing. She thought about using her semblance, but if she did, and the Grimm survived, it would finish her easily.
She sidestepped another blow. The arm crashed to the floor, sending out a wave of dust from the ancient floor. Penta felt a blast of wind, and felt the vibration in the floor. The desks forming the end of the arm were bent up, but that only made it worse. Penta prepared to make an Overcharged attack, hoping to slice straight through the Geist, securely nestled in the chest of the monstrosity. And then Ochre arrived. She vaulted over the Geist's shoulder, propelled by her dust powered boots. She dropped something into one of the desks on the way over. She landed facing Penta.
"You might want to back away." The two began running down the hallway, but before than had gone far, the grenade exploded. The blast was deafening in the enclosed passages of the basement. Both girls were deafened. They could hear nothing but ringing for several seconds. Auric was right, it was quite the explosive. Desk pieces, metal and wood, rained down. The Geist was literally blown free from its creation.
Ochre raised her arms to fire, but Penta rushed past, and with several blows, cut the Geist apart. It let out an ear-curling shriek, and then dissipated. The two looked over and saw Alberta standing over the Beringel, the claws from one of her gauntlets embedded in the eyes of the Grimm. It began to disappate. Alberta looked over and gave them a tired smile, and a thumbs up with her other hand. Ochre had smile, just a little bit.
Argent walked over slowly, and retrieved his weapons. He shifted them back to pistol form, and slid them in their holsters. He then threw an arm over Alberta's shoulder.
"That was awesome, and you were your normally tiny self."
"Thanks...I'm not that tiny..."
"Yeah, you kind of are," Argent replied. Then he threw his other arm around Ochre, who reacted like someone had just placed a wet worm on her shoulder. She didn't throw it off though. Penta walked up on the other side, and put her arm around Ochre too. And the four began to walk back into the server room.
"You know, you guys are a good team. Perhaps the best I've worked with." And then Ochre tossed the arms off of her. "But get your hands off me. I don't do hugs." And she hurried ahead.
"So much for that bonding moment," remarked Penta.
"Still, that was pretty nice for her," added Alberta.
"You have no idea," sighed Argent. And the three followed their leader over to Auric. He was still fiddling over a consul. And then, as they reached him, he jumped up and pumped his fist in the air.
"Yes! I finally got it." Alberta jumped a little.
"So, I guess you finally succeeded there Auric?" questioned Ochre. He pulled his scroll out of the consul.
"Did you ever have a doubt? I think Professor Terrier will be quite pleased."
"So,what did you find?" asked Argent. "I think we are all curious, even Ochre."
"Well, I don't think we have the time to look at all of it. But, I picked up some footage from camera's around the main tower. It's a little corrupted, but I think this answers some questions." Auric opened his scroll and showed it to the others. "There isn't a lot of it, but, well, you need to see it."
The five gathered around the small screen. On it, footage began to play, but it was interrupted by static. The audio was just the din of battle of battle. On it, a woman with black hair and a red dress, armed with a bow, was fighting a girl with red hair, wearing armor, wielding a sword and shield.
"It's Pyrrha," stated Penta. "Whose the other woman?"
"I don't know, but I am pretty sure I saw her in one of the early round. Minstral, I think," answered Alberta.
"This footage is not very good. It must have been really corrupted," commented Ochre.
"It was, but some of it is Pyrrha's Polarity semblance. It messes with all electronics," Auric explained.
"I've never seen her use it like that, she just hurled all that debris..." Alberta voice turned to a gasp. Everyone was shocked.
"She's dead..." Ochre said. "Not even a body left."
"There's more," added Auric. A girl in red and black was on the roof. She yelled. There was a flash of silver, and then black. "All the feeds cut out then. She took out the dragon, or at least froze it. I don't know about the woman, but who could survive that. Though..."
"What was that? Her semblance?" asked Penta.
"I think I know." Argent spoke up. "I've heard legends..."
"Yes, you have just witnessed two legends, forgotten, relegated to just being children's stories, as reality. Silver eyed warriors, and the four maidens..."
"How do you know?" questioned Ochre.
"Well, she has silver eyes, and she can do that. As for the other, it is a guess, based on what Professor Terrier and the Headmaster have said. They know more, and I am not sure how much I can share. I don't know much more myself. If that is what that is, than we have no idea what forces are about to be unleashed."
"Then we have to get all the information back to Shade. We have a ship at the airfield, but it is all the way across the city."
"Vulpes, I don't know about everyone, but I think we are quite exhausted. I don't know if we can fight our way back out."
"You have fought hard today Argent. Anyone would be glad to have you fight alongside them."
"Ochre, are you going soft?" teased Penta.
"Hardly. I am inclined to agree with Argent."
"I am really low on ammo. I only have one light grenade left," Auric added.
"Alright. We go up, not all the way to the dragon, but to one of the landing pads around the tower. Maybe, we can drop back into the city from their. Using wind dust perhaps..."
"I can use my Gatling gun for propulsion, but only for a short distance. But it is down into the city. Could work." Penta swapped Apis Typhoon to gun form, and checked her ammunition.
"It is risky, but possible. If there are any Atlas airships around, or any airship really, I might be able use my semblance to hack it."
"And if it is too far way Auric, we should be able to get its attention. We will still have to take it by force, in order to keep up the facade, and escape covertly," Argent added.
"It is decided then. Let's go." Ochre turned and left the server room through the other door.
"I guess things are looking up," joked Alberta. "Not even a groan?"
"I told you, she doesn't get puns," reminded Argent. Ochre let out a grunt, and motioned them urgently ahead. The five walked down the dim hallways. Many of the lights had been smashed, or simply gone out. Eventually they reached an elevator. The doors didn't not respond to Argent's button press. Ochre leaned forward to try to force them.
"Allow me." Auric stepped forward and placed his hand on the panel. The doors slid open. "If the elevator itself doesn't work, I may be able to help."
"Your semblance...what exactly can you do?" asked Alberta.
"Oh, you know, technology, computerized stuff, tends to do what I want, with a little nudge."
"Did you name your semblance?" asked Penta.
"Don't be silly. Only really famous and powerful people name their semblance. Anyone going up?" The five boarded the elevator. It still had power, but the control panel was damaged. It didn't matter with Auric around though. They rode it up as far as they could. Debris prevented them from going any further.
They excited the elevator, found a stairwell. On the next few floors, they found a few Grimm here and there, but they were easily dispatched. They managed to avoid using any more ammunition or taxing their semblances. If any really powerful or clever Grimm had attacked, they might not have made it. They reached the floor with the auxiliary airship pads in short order.
"Now we just need to find the exit to the pads," exclaimed Alberta.
"We have our exit." Ochre smashed a window, and climbed out onto a ledge. She then clambered over to the walkway to the pad with relative ease.
"Here goes nothing." Argent quickly followed. Alberta made the mistake of looking down. It was still dark out, though far closer to morning than when they had started. She could still see the glowing red eyes of numerous Grimm here and there, far below. They seemed oh so very small. She gritted her teeth, and followed Penta out. Auric was close behind.
The five hurried out to the landing pad. Ochre was about to turn to Auric to ask him about attracting an airhsip, when spotlights broke the night. It wasn't too dark, with the mass of lights from Vale, and the moon, shining down in all of its shattered glory, but they were still blinding. The five covered their eyes, trying to see what was going on.
A young woman, probably a few years older than the older students, dropped from the sky, and landed with grace. She wore the uniform of Atlas, with some reddish brown trim, and had two SMGs on her hips. Several Atlesian robots dropped around her, and focused their guns on the covert operatives.
"Don't move White Fang scum, and we will consider taking you in alive. You are under arrest by the Atlesian military, on behalf of the council of Vale."
"Oh, and who are you?" asked Ochre.
"Valkyrie Chestnut, specialist for the Atlas military. Why do you ask?"
"I like to know the name of the uppity 'specialists' I fight, before I put them in the ground."
"You are in now place to argue."
"Am I?" And at that moment, the several of the robots turned and opened up on each other. And then Ochre shot forward and landed a solid punch on Valkyrie, and sent her staggering backwards.
"For a restaurant called Julie's Din, it is rather quiet." Skye looked up and saw a woman with ling curly black hair, a dark red scarf hanging in folds around her neck, slide into the booth across from him. "Still drinking those dark chocolate milkshakes I see."
"Of course." Skye pulled out a flask and slowly poured a bit of the contents into his milkshake, about halfway empty. "And a little something extra. So Dahlia, did you come to spread your dust here as well?"
"I don't know if you have noticed, but most of Vacuo is sand, and the rest is just as gritty." A waitress came up, a human this time. "I'll take some cola, and keep it coming. And a burger and fries."
"Of course miss."
"I assume you have talked to Terrier already?'
"Of course." Dahlia sank back thoughtfully on the bench. "I remember when the world was simple, punching thugs, blowing Grimm heads off, stabbing terrorists...the inmates are running the asylum."
"Perhaps. The younger god has come to wreak his havoc, and we men, we are his creation as well. Can this tide of evil...can it even be stopped?"
"I don't know if I believe on the legends, but I think I am coming around. Don't give up hope yet old man." Dahlia took the offered drink from the waitress. "Thank you." And then she drained about half of it. "If we both hadn't been recruited by Terrier, we might never have been friends."
"Yet one more thing to blame Terrier for," grumbled Skye, taking a long sip of his milkshake.
"Do you ever question what you have done? On missions?" asked Dahlia.
"Never during the mission...but in those quiet nights, lonely evenings on the trail, all the time. We hunters of Vacuo, we are often judge, jury, and executioner. How can we not make a mistake. Was there a particular mission you were thinking about?"
"I was talking to Terrier, about that time with the White Fang. All that effort, all that death, and the White Fang is even worse..."
"You did your best. The White Fang...I do not doubt their mission, or their need. Faunus are treated horribly in many places. But really, how easy it is to become worse than the thing you fight. The White Fang forces cooperation, it demands not just equal rights, but special rights. They don't change minds, foster better relations, they just demand what they want. And what about when faunus and humans are on equal footing? Will the White Fang just dissolve?"
"I agree. But, can it be changed?"
"If it can be, it must be from the inside. Not all sects of the White Fang are corrupt."
"Yes, well the 99% make the other 1% look bad. Maybe we didn't do enough. We should have taken Adam out too, and maybe the rest of the leadership. Let the whole organization collapse. And let a new one form, try again."
"It wouldn't change anything. Could make it worse. I think, what you did, it did help. But there are other forces at work. White Fang forces were seen aiding in the attacks in Vale. They acquired top of the line Atlas weaponry."
"I know. There is a conspiracy. And after this team Terrier sent comes back, we may know more. And the Headmaster, he knows more. This hamburger is delicious, by the way. An the fries are amazing."
"Glad you like the food. I hear the pie here is divine."
"I have too. You know what, tomorrow, we should go hunting. Let's brutalize some Grimm, relive the simpler times, and help everyone out."
"Sounds great. You may be younger, but I doubt even you can keep up."
"Keep adding stiff to your shakes, and you will be too busy hurling to fight Grimm. You should probably hit the hay early old-timer." The two shared a good laugh, and a good many more drinks, swapped some tales, reminisced about happier times, until it was very late. They went their separate ways, the last to leave the diner, promising to meet early to go hunting. It was a good evening. It was almost like old times. But those shadows were fading, and new shadows emerged. Shadows with red eyes.