CHAPTER 7: Evil Unmasked
Cantrell's Military Compound
Southern Vale
3:40 am
Alexis woke up afraid, feeling a prick in her shoulder blades and lower spine. But this fear is not her own, she is actually feeling the fear of Arcadia, who was actually panicking uncontrollably inside her mind...
" Kid, what's going on? I can't see!" Arcadia exclaimed.
" Whoa, what are you talking about?" Alexis inquired.
" When your aura is active, I can see into the world, but right now I am blind!" Arcadia explained.
Alexis began to look around at her surroundings in which she realized she was restrained to a chair and felt needles moving into her back and looked to see standing in front her was Andrea Cantrell, a notorious Anarchist with a high-tech militia at her command. Around her was her teammates, Nathan, Natalie, and Cristof, each in a similar chair to her and Andrea was smiling at the fact they were now all awake...
" You're all awake, good." Andrea said in a sinister tone.
" Leave my team out of this Andrea, it's between you and me." Cristof said.
" Oh, if they're involved with you, they stay." Andrea said.
" Why are you doing this?" Natalie asked.
" Why, haven't you figured out already, your brother did." Andrea said, pointing to Nathan.
" What is she talking about?" Natalie said.
" Your captain Cristof is actually a White Fang defector and a traitor to his own kind." Andrea said.
Natalie and Alexis were shocked at the fact Cristof was actually a White Fang Defector, and Andrea was his former partner...
" Why the hell are you bringing them into this, they had nothing to do with my betrayal." Cristof exclaimed.
" Oh, you never figured it out, their parents were the ones you had tipped off." Andrea said.
Cristof was shocked, that the fact the people he warned had actually been Natalie and Nathan's parents. Their parents were actually security officers aboard the train that The White Fang were planning to rob, but during the heist, Cristof abandoned his team to fight off Aletian Knight robots, while he met up with them. But his team set demo charges that were going to go off soon, so he was planning to escape, but was confronted by Andrea.
" We scrapped until the charges went off, I was thrown into a jungle while he had landed in the river." Andrea said.
" What have you done with Ruby's team?" Alexis demanded.
" I know somebody who pays for them young, because that's the way he likes them." Andrea said.
" What do you have planned for us?" Natalie asked.
" Revenge." Andrea said.
Alexis was feeling both her own fear as well of Arcadia's, while Team RWBY was about to be sold into prostitution. But Arcadia, even though blinded, she had felt a presence that she had never expected...
The being she had never expected to return was about to.
Storehouse 13
Inside the storehouse where Team RWBY was soon to be sold to a corrupt man who likes teenage prostitutes, with a full squad of soldiers on standby to make sure no one escapes, until one of the soldiers had witnessed a masked individual approach.
" Hey, who's that?" Private Edwards said.
" Someone who is probably lost." Lt. Collins said.
Collins approached the mask-wearing girl with his weapon at his side, and his finger on the trigger in case she would try anything...
" You lost, little girl?" Collins said.
" Habes generis commissis vestras Nunc iudicium est" The girl said.
" What was that?" Collins asked.
" Sir? Look at the side windows." Baker, another soldier pointed out.
Collins looked to the side windows, and only saw his own reflection: The masked girl didn't have one at all, and yet she was standing right in front of him. Blood exploded out of his mouth, and Baker and Edwards noticed the tip of a glowing-ice spear protruding out of his back. Collins slumped to the floor, and the girl had turned out to be holding a long spear and short sword and she rested the spear against her side and took down Sgt. Leonard, and then beat down Baker with a serrated ring blade made of the same ice.
" Please, get the door." The girl said in an angelic tone.
Edwards, worried for his life, quickly opened the door to see the children hanging from the ceiling, and knocked out Edwards and transformed the ring blade into a short sword and started to cut them down, one by one. Blake started to wake up...
" Ugh, who are you?" Blake asked.
" Someone who despises sin. Especially the sins of those who commit them against their own kind." The girl said, as she finished cutting Blake free.
Blake slumped to the floor and the girl walked over and started to cut Yang down, and Blake had many questions...
" How did you get here, this place is a heavily fortified compound." Blake said.
" Your semblance is a decoy, my semblance is adaptation." The girl said.
" What?" Blake asked quietly.
" No time to explain, my friend is in danger, and so are you." The girl said.
" What's your friend's name? I could help you find them." Blake said.
" Her name is Arcadia." The girl said, leaving Blake speechless.
Militia Outpost
4:10 AM
At one small outpost, BattleShield agents were moving to neutralize it along the way to main installation. Savanna was traveling alongside her Lieutenant-Commander and brother-figure, Xavier Moore, while his other brother Trevor leads his team up the other side.
" Wanna pull a Vacuo?" Xavier whispered.
" Yeah, it seems like fun." Savanna responded in a whisper.
A lone guard reported to his shift, and Xavier and Savanna and turned out the lights in which the guard turned them back on as Xavier stood behind him and Savanna was in front...
" Hi, How are you?" Savanna said as Xavier snapped his neck.
" Looks like he's ... on his break." Xavier said.
Xavier and Savanna then moved to their position and Xavier got on the radio to contact the second team, lead by his pal Blaze.
" Phoenix, this is Titan, we're in position." Xavier said into the radio.
" This is Phoenix, we have a visual on the compound." Blaze responded.
" This is our chance to get those kids back, so Cantrell cannot escape." Xavier responded.
" Understood, do we have the go?" Blaze asked.
" Let's give them hell." Xavier responded.
An explosion occurred and Xavier and Savanna slid down the hill into the fray, as BattleShield agents clashed with Cantrell's Militia. Xavier pulled out his spike launcher and Savanna pulled out her shotgun, and they decimated the militia and when the agents took the main building, Xavier proceeded to the floor where Team CANN was being held and what he saw wasn't expected, Natalie was on the ground profusely bleeding from her abdomen, Nathan was dead, Cristof was standing over a docile Andrea, and Alexis was passed out on the floor.
19 minutes before...
Andrea was holding the group at gunpoint just minutes before BattleShield launched their attack against Cantrell's compound. She had a sidearm in her hand, and she approached Cristof and got down on one knee and started clutching something below his belt.
" Hey, what are you doing?" Cristof Demanded.
" What, you don't remember the good times we had." Andrea inquired.
" What is she talking about?" Nathan demanded.
" SHUT UP!" Andrea shouted as she hit Nathan in the face with the pistol.
" Wait.. did you two used to be a thing?" Alexis said.
" Get the hell away from me!" Cristof exclaimed as he kicked Andrea away.
" You..." Andrea said before pointing the gun at Cristof, but instead shooting Natalie in the abdomen.
" NO!" Nathan exclaimed.
" NATALIE, Natalie, look at me!" Cristof said.
" That's right, look at the false hope your boyfriend gives you as you are there hurt." Andrea said with a sinister voice.
" You bitch!" Nathan screamed at Andrea.
" YOU...NEED...TO...SHUT...UP!" Andrea exclaimed as she violently punched Nathan.
" Libertatem " Alexis said as she waved two fingers towards Natalie's chair.
The needles in Natalie's back and shoulder blades retreat, but her aura is activating too slowly to heal the wound in her torso. She lunged at Andrea, trying to grab the gun out of Andrea's hands, only for Andrea to retain her grip and turn the gun on Nathan.
" You got fire in you, but didn't your mommy and daddy tell you not to point guns at people because they can go off!" Andrea said as she made Natalie shoot Nathan in both of his shoulders before knocking her to the floor.
" You bitch! I'm gonna kill you!" Nathan exclaimed.
" YOU NEED TO SHUT THE HELL UP!" Andrea exclaimed as she started to violently beat Nathan and violently tossing him to the floor.
Nathan's white hoodie was now blood-soaked, blood was slowly trickling out the side of his mouth, and his face was severely bruised from Andrea's strikes. He looked at his wounded sister as he knew that he was not going to make it back...
" Sis, It's okay, look at me, it's okay." Nathan calmly before and Andrea stomped onto his neck.
" No kid, It's never going to be okay." Andrea said as she put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Crimson began to pool onto the floor as Nathan's motionless body had lain still in front of Alexis, Natalie and Cristof. Something was stirring in Alexis, something powerful that was emanating from Arcadia, and was growing, it was as if she was feeling the anger and rage of the entire Grimm race. Her eyes began to glow red, every muscle in her body was tensing up, the restraint chair Alexis was in began to creak and groan, and a shadowy veil surrounded Alexis...
" WHAT THE HELL?!" Andrea said as she looked to Alexis.
Alexis let out a scream that sounded like the shriek of the damned and violently exploded out of the chair just as BattleShield agents engaged Cantrell's militia and violently slammed her hand into the side of Cantrell's face...
" DO NOT RESIST!" Alexis exclaimed in a demonic like tone.
Alexis began to comb through Cantrell's mind, learning her secrets, but there was one secret that Cantrell's next bit of information that both girls had never expected to find out: Andrea had a close encounter with an intelligent White and blue Ursa that Arcadia happened to know...
" That is Goliath, he was the first of us to fall." Arcadia said.
Alexis reverted to normal and released control of Andrea and then mysteriously fell to the floor unconscious, and Andrea fell to her knees with a horrified look on her face. Cristof's restraints released and he walked over and approached his former partner.
" I pity you for what you've become." Cristof said before rushing to Natalie.
Xavier entered the room and surveyed the scene before rushing over to Cristof and the wounded Natalie...
" What happened?" Xavier asked.
" Andrea shot her in the abdomen." Cristof explained.
" Blaze, radio Providence and tell them to get a medevac up here now!" Xavier exclaimed into his radio.
" What is it?" Blaze asked.
" One of the kids has suffered a severe gunshot to the torso, she needs that medevac!" Xavier said.
Natalie began to black out at certain moments as Xavier carried her down to the courtyard as the battle was finished. Xavier set her down next to a wall as Team RWBY and Savanna's BattleShield agents were regrouping.
" What's her name?" Savanna asked.
" Natalie." Cristof said.
" Hey Natalie, look, we got you." Savanna said before jumping to her radio. " Hey Dean, where's that medevac?" She said.
" Our transports won't be able to make it in time, but there is an Aletian carrier just 5 minutes out from your position, they're on their way." Dean, Savanna's Chief Officer, said into the radio.
" She's not looking too good." Blake said.
" Hey Natalie, Hang in there, help's on the way." Ruby said to Natalie before she blacked out.
When she came to again, it was Savanna and a worried Ruby next to her just as an Aletian aircraft appeared on approached the compound and Savanna's radio went off...
" Commander Conroy, this is Captain Mathis of the SSV Roanoke, airships are on the way for extraction, t-minus 1 minute." Captain Mathis said into the radio.
" Understood." Savanna responded.
Beacon Academy Infirmary
2 hours later...
Cristof was sitting at the window with bandages wrapped around his shoulder and wrists and watched as the sun was setting on the eastern horizon. Natalie and Alexis were resting in medical beds, but Alexis came to and walked over to Cristof as he was sitting at the window...
" Hey." Alexis said calmly.
" Is this some kind of higher power's way of punishing me?" Cristof said miserably.
" You can't beat yourself up for your past." Alexis said.
" Andrea was my partner, and I let her fester and plot against me like a virus." Cristof said.
" You choose to leave the fang, she didn't." Alexis said.
" I loved her, and that is why she came back and it is what got Nathan killed." Cristof said.
" Were you willing to let go?" Alexis asked.
" How is that important?" Cristof said.
" You have been running from your past for most of your life, and your demons came back to haunt you because you weren't able to face them directly." Alexis started. " What you failed to realize was that if you did not face them, they could destroy the road to a better future you had sought." She said.
" You're right, I let the demons of my past come to haunt me and now I have paid the price for it." Cristof said.
" That's right." Alexis said.
" By the way, what did you do to Andrea back at the compound?" Cristof asked.
" Every time I managed to unlock a balancing marker, I unlocked new abilities as well." Alexis explained.
" What do you call the one you did at the compound?" Cristof asked.
" When I was in that " Shadow State" I was physically combing through Andrea's mind." Alexis said.
" Shadow state works." Cristof said in his thick accent.
" But it's more than that, I learned that Andrea had found the First of The Seven." Alexis said.
" She found the first?" Cristof asked.
" But you will not like where it is." Alexis said.
" Where is it?" Cristof inquired.
" We're gonna have to go underneath Vale, it's in the old train system and got released after the train incident." Alexis explained.
Cristof was left speechless at what Alexis had just told him, as an ancient and powerful Grimm that is one of seven is actually hiding below the Vale city streets and it was roaming free down there uncontrolled.
Cristof's past may have come to haunt him in this chapter, but his reaction to where the First of The Fallen Seven was located pales in comparison to his day. Natalie will not be seen for a while as she lays in a coma in the infirmary. The next chapter will be centered around Sapheria, who is on Alexis's tail in search of the First, and you will learn how Arcadia and Sapheria first met during the fall of Sapheria's home city which was defended by The Seven in defiance of the creator. Alexis and Arcadia's bond grows stronger and Alexis develops new powers along the way that saves her and Team RWBY from the First as he treats them immediately as hostile. But the unexpected will happen soon, and that my readers. I am not Gonna spoil.