It took another week, but Jaune finally had a force that he believed was ready to move out. He now had Roaches and Hydralisks in his forces, and the Overlords were now faster and capable of carrying other Zerg inside their body cavities. Jaune even decided to bring some Drones and Ruhtaba with him to the outskirts of Atlas, reasoning that it would take too long to expand his current base from its current location into the neighboring kingdom, so he would simply have to morph a second Hatchery and Evolution Pit once they found a good location.
Despite the Overlords' new speed, travel was slow. They had to keep stopping to let out Hydralisks to kill the giant Nevermores that had been emboldened by all the negativity that came from the broadcast of the Battle of Beacon. Jaune let his anger with Cinder Fall build as they passed ruined villages and towns. He reasoned that the angrier he got, the more Grimm would come and be slaughtered by his Zerg, saving lives in the long run.
With the CCT network down across all four kingdoms, the Zerg were relatively safe from detection in their new locale, but Jaune still kept them far away from Atlas' main cities. He was fairly certain based on the Hive Mind's memories that his Swarm could defeat the Atlesian military, but he didn't want that on his conscience.
His army disembarked, and the Drones that had come along immediately got to work, some morphing into new structures, others beginning to gather resources, and at the same time Roaches, Hydralisks, and even Jaune himself began clearing away all the Grimm in the area. There was no dragon nearby that could draw them all away, so the place was infested.
"Ruhtaba, as soon as the new Evolution Pit is complete I need you to work on a way to detect large Auras. As a Maiden, Cinder Fall's should be enormous."
"Request difficult. Aura, short range passive defense. Similar to Protoss shields." There was a pause as Jaune siphoned information about the Protoss directly from the Hive Mind.
"Difficult isn't impossible. Can you do it?"
"Will need to experiment. Most likely solution mutation of Overseer."
Jaune sifted through the Zerg's collective knowledge about the Overseer and its abilities, but he found something else that could work too. "Is there any way to extend how long the Changelings can survive?"
Ruhtaba paused in thought. "Changeling anatomy unstable for adaptive mimicry. Result is time limit. Extension would require less physiological flexibility."
"Yes, but it doesn't need that flexibility. We don't need it to mimic Protoss or Grimm, only humans or faunus."
"Human possible. Faunus requires sample."
Jaune felt momentarily uneasy about giving Ruhtaba a faunus to experiment on, but then he thought of the White Fang leader who'd chopped off Yang's arm and lead the attack on Vale. He would go straight to the Evolution Pit.
"Okay Ruhtaba, here's what I want you to do: keep working on the modifications to the Overseer, but try to stabilize the Changelings so that they can last longer and even talk if that's possible. I want them to be able to go into the city and spy on the criminals. I'm only going to send in the Overseer as a last resort because it might cause a panic and it will definitely let Cinder Fall know that something's up."
"Modifications extensive. Will take time."
Jaune briefly considered entering the city himself, but decided against it. The Zerg had changed his body, but more fundamentally he was still Jaune Arc – and Jaune Arc did not have the necessary skills to gather intelligence from the criminal underworld. Not to mention his new "tattoo"; it made him stand out in a crowd.
After two weeks, the Changelings still weren't ready. When Jaune dove into Ruhtaba's mind to discover what the hold up was, he realized just how monumental the task of changing them so dramatically really was. Reluctantly, he told the Evolution Master to stop and just sent in the modified Overseers with an escort of some newly spawned Mutalisks and a couple of Overlords brimming with ground troops in case something happened. A dark and vengeful part of Jaune wanted to kill Cinder Fall personally, but he would not allow his Zerg to pass up the chance of killing her if it was available.
Moving his consciousness inside one of the scouts, Jaune was amazed at the dazzling array of sights and colors radiating throughout the city of Atlas – the sight of everyone's Auras was stunning, but he continued looking for strong or unusual ones. Odd shapes or brighter, more intense colors.
As he feared, Jaune heard Atlas' air raid sirens starting to go off. Couldn't they see that his Zerg weren't Grimm? They weren't attacking anything either. They hadn't found anything worth attacking.
Apparently the stereotype about Atlas' military having a policy of "shoot first, ask questions later" was true.
One of the Overseers gurgled to get Jaune's attention. The people on the ground were panicking, but what was so important about that?
Oh.
Oh no.
As one, all the airborne Zerg turned around and looked towards the city borders and could see hordes of Grimm gathering for an attack, including Goliaths. But how had they avoided the Hive Cluster? Had they deliberately gone around it?
Jaune had no time to ponder that. He sent the Mutalisks out with orders to ignore any Atlesian aircraft and focus solely on killing the Grimm before they could scale the city walls.
The Mutalisks were able to stall the black tide long enough for Jaune to have a disturbing thought; had they somehow expected the people to panic? Had they known this was coming?
There were only a dozen or so Mutalisks, but there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of Grimm approaching, including Goliaths. The Ursai and Deathstalkers seemed content to wait, but the Goliaths were approaching the gates and the Beowolves were now scaling the walls, despite the efforts of the Huntsmen and Huntresses that Jaune could see. Worse still, the Overseers could see Nevermores and Griffins on their way.
Jaune felt a stab of fear and self-loathing as he saw one group in particular – a trio in red, green, and pink respectively.
His friends, Ruby Rose, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie.
Scanning the Hive Mind for anything that could help, he set out an immediate command: "Both Hive Clusters, cancel all current production and immediately morph a Nydus Network!"
At the same time a Goliath broke away from the rest of the group and slammed into the wall. Jaune thought that was foolish until one of the Overseers' many eyes spotted the result – the wall itself was unharmed, but the tremor had knocked several people off, including Ruby!
Immediately he sacrificed the Overlords to get between the people and the Grimm as they released their cargo. Eight Zerglings, two Roaches, and two Hydralisks were not much in the face of so many Grimm, but this was not about victory, merely stalling for reinforcements.
The four second-tier Zerg focused their fire to bring down the Goliath before it could do any more damage, and while one Zergling stayed by Ruby's side since she seemed to have been dazed, the rest charged into battle to assist the fallen Huntsmen and Huntresses.
While trigger-happy, the Atlesian military was not stupid and had rapidly realized that whatever the Zerg were, they were opposed to the Grimm, and soon bombers and Paladins had arrived to assist. Jaune would have thanked God, but with the Zerg's collective memories of Amon fresh in his mind he'd been much less religious lately.
Both sides momentarily stopped fighting as the earth trembled violently and the Nydus Worm arrived, momentarily looming over the Grimm and roaring at them before descending to ground level and spitting out hordes of Zerg reinforcements.
No longer concerned about self-preservation, the Zerg that had arrived in the Overlords renewed their efforts. They did not quite abandon their charges, but they fought with greater ferocity now that they could focus on offense rather than defense.
Very soon the fields outside the walls of Atlas were littered with the evaporating remains of Grimm. More Zerg had died than Jaune had expected, but he'd underestimated the intelligence of the Goliaths. Several times the elephantine Grimm had managed to flank his forces and they wrought havoc each time. He'd also deliberately sacrificed more than a few of them to protect his friends.
"Ruhtaba, I want you go to front lines and take essence samples from as many Grimm as you can and then tell me everything you can about them."
The Evolution Master set off through the Nydus Worm without another word.
"Violet," he mentally called to one of the Queens, "I want you to go with Ruhtaba and keep him safe. I don't think anyone will attack him, but I want to be sure. And if anyone talks to you, you can talk back, just don't mention me in anything you say."
"I obey."
Unfortunately, a giant slug eating the evaporating remains of Grimm accompanied by a creature with no analogue in Remnant's history was not a common sight, and there was soon a crowd gathered around the Nydus Worm. No one seemed brave enough to set foot on the Creep, but their mere presence was making things harder.
Through his Zerg, Jaune could hear them muttering amongst themselves.
"What are they?" "What are they doing?" "They fought the Grimm so they can't be that bad, right?" "They came before the Grimm, what if they called them here?" "But then why did they fight each other?"
"Should I answer them my Lord?"
"No Violet. Unless one of them talks to you directly don't speak, and I really don't think any of them will–"
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
Violet was suddenly subjected to a hug that made her exoskeleton groan. Transferring his consciousness to the Nydus Worm, Jaune took a look at who had the nerve to prove him wrong in the middle of speaking… and was not the least bit surprised to see that it was Nora.
Barely taking a breath, Nora continued, "Renalmostgoteatenbyagriffinbutoneofyourlittlethingspushedhimawayandgoteateninsteadandthankyousomuch!"
Through her connection to Jaune, the Queen understood Nora's rapid, nearly hysterical speech, and since it constituted someone directly speaking to her, she replied, "You are welcome, strange human child."
A wall of silence seemed to radiate outward after Violet spoke, only interrupted when a Zergling forced its way through the stunned onlookers leading Ren and Ruby to their eccentric teammate.
Jaune was quite glad that Nydus Worms didn't have tear ducts; being so close and yet so far from the team he was supposed to be part of was rather emotional for him.
"Come on Nora, you shouldn't bother the nice, ummm…"
Trust Ren to be the sensible member in the team, Jaune thought with a roll of his eyes… only realizing a second too late that this caused him to roll the Nydus Worm's eyes, causing the crowd to laugh nervously as they realized that all the creatures could understand them.
Real smooth Jaune.
As Jaune was busy mentally scolding himself, the Queen answered Ren's implied question.
"I am a Zerg, as are the rest of us," Violet gestured to the Zergling, the Nydus Worm, and all the other surrounding Zerg.
Since it seemed that the Queen was willing to take questions, suddenly everyone started shouting their questions, and the Queen, still stuck in Nora's embrace, psychically asked Jaune if she should answer them.
Jaune thought hard about that. On the one hand, the less anyone knew about the Zerg, the less Cinder Fall and her lackeys would know about them, and that could only be a good thing. On the other hand, if the people knew about the Zerg, and knew that they weren't hostile, then maybe their mere presence wouldn't trigger anymore Grimm incursions.
"As I ordered earlier, you must not mention me in anything you say, but you also can't let them know that we're hunting Cinder Fall – if she finds out, she may slip away and we'd never be able to find her."
"Understood my Lord."
Violet attempted to say something, but couldn't be heard over the cacophony of so many voices, so the Nydus Worm roared for silence, making everyone flinch at the volume.
"As I was trying to say, I cannot hear you when you are all shouting at once. I will linger and answer questions while my companion works," she gestured to Ruhtaba, who was now tearing into the wing of a fallen griffin, "but only if you ask one at a time."
There was some murmuring in the crowd and a purple-haired huntress came forward. Jaune got a flash of memories from a Zergling that had fought beside her; it seemed that she dual-wielded hammers that released small explosive charges on impact. Apparently she was now the designated spokesperson.
"Are you the Zerg's leader?" She spoke clearly, and was being direct and to the point. Weiss had once said that Atlas was very military oriented – apparently this was an impromptu interrogation.
There was a short pause while Violet and Jaune debated how to answer that, then the Queen replied, "My position is somewhat analogous to that of one of your generals."
"Why are the Zerg in Atlas?"
"We are seeking something. I cannot say more than that."
"Why not?"
"I am under orders not to. I believe that is something you understand."
"Alright. What are the Zerg's intentions while they are here?"
"There is an implied question there, and I shall answer that one: we did not intend to cause a panic, nor did we plan to draw the Grimm to the city. I am answering these questions in the hope of preventing future panics."
"So you have no intention of attacking us?"
"No." The Queen paused and communed a bit more with Jaune before crafting an excuse for future military action, "The Zerg are not hostile to any of the four kingdoms, however there are certain individuals that may be in possession of what we seek. If they have it and will not surrender it peacefully, we reserve the right to attack."
The huntress frowned at that, and the crowd murmured uneasily. "Is there a way to identify these individuals?"
"Unfortunately, not for you. Our Overseers," Violet pointed to one, "are capable of seeing them if they are present, but their search was interrupted by the arrival of the Grimm."
She didn't seem to like that answer, but she moved on to the next one. "Why is your companion eating Grimm?"
Another pause, longer as Violet, Jaune, and Ruhtaba debated the pros and cons of telling the truth and how much of it. Jaune decided that the truth could bring hope, and that was sorely needed right now.
"He is capable of examining the essence of anything he consumes. He is learning what the Grimm are at the most fundamental level, so that we may better understand and kill them."
That brought a small cheer from the crowd, and even the interrogator smiled at that.
"Why did you save us?"
Violet – and through her, Jaune – looked to the speaker. That hadn't been the interrogator – that had been Ruby. How in the world to answer that?
"We… felt guilty that we may in some way have caused the Grimm attack, and hoped to make amends by assisting in the city's defense."
Ruby looked up and elaborated, "No, I mean, why us specifically," she gestured to herself, Ren, and Nora, who had finally transferred her hug from the Queen to her friend. Before Violet or Jaune could think of something to say, Ruby continued, "You had to sacrifice your little dog-bug-thingies multiple times to save us. Why?"
This was a question that the Queen could not answer, and Jaune struggled to think of one that would be successful. Some platitude about protecting children? What could he say?
"I am afraid that I do not know how to answer that question."
The interrogator looked a little miffed at Ruby for interrupting the questioning, but continued as if it hadn't happened. "Why do you periodically pause before answering questions?"
"When I pause, I am communing with my leader on how best to answer them. Everything I have told you is true, but my leader has the final say on what can and cannot be said."
"How are you… 'communing' with your leader? I don't see a device anywhere."
"All Zerg are connected through a hive mind. Through it, my leader can sense all that any Zerg can, and act on the information immediately."
A murmur broke out again at that, and the interrogator went back, brow furrowed in thought. As she did so though, Ruby spoke up again.
"That means that your leader decided to make the small Zerg sacrifice themselves for us. Why?"
Very quietly, so that the crowd could not hear it, Jaune told Violet to reply, "I cannot tell you the full truth, but we are seeking the same thing."
"Cinder?"
"Hush, child! The less that is spoken, the less it shall be heard!"
Ruby's eyes widened, but she nodded in understanding.
"Organism Violet," Ruhtaba had finally finished. He was visibly bulging from having devoured so much Grimm flesh.
"Violet?" Ruby, Ren, and Nora all asked.
"My leader gave me that name to differentiate me from my identical siblings. What is it Ruhtaba?"
"Task complete, must return to Evolution Pit, examine sequences. Grimm essence strange. Must experiment."
"Very well. I shall have the Drones pull as many of the Grimm carcasses as can be salvaged back to the Hive Cluster."
"Wait," Violet paused to look back at Ruby. "Can we go with you? We're after… you know, and we know things about it."
Violet paused, but after a command from Jaune approached the silver-eyed girl and as quietly as possible whispered, "Return here after the attention has died down. I shall be waiting to escort you." Violet stepped away from the girl and spoke loudly, announcing, "My companion has completed his task, and so now I must leave you to your own devices."
Jaune pulled his consciousness back to his body in time to see Ruhtaba entering the Evolution Pit and followed him.
"Ruhtaba, I'm not sure how open or closed my mind was to you when I ordered you to examine the Grimm. Do you know why I asked you to do that?"
"Reason irrelevant. Command from Swarm's leader. I obey."
"Right, um, well, I asked because during the battle I had a couple of sneaking suspicions and I want you to find out if they're true or not. First, do the Grimm have their own hive mind, and second, are they being designed in the same way the Zerg are?"
Ruhtaba actually paused in his work, not something that happened often. "Organism Jaune's hypotheses intriguing, but connected to emotions fear, anxiety. Why?"
"During the battle I got the feeling that the Grimm were actually trying to outmaneuver us, and it occurred to me that the only way they could be doing that is if someone were directing them. I also remembered that for the most part they fought alongside the White Fang at the Battle of Beacon, something Grimm shouldn't do unless they're being controlled. If that's the case, we're fighting someone who has a lot more experience fielding armies than me… and people always say that if you go deep into the wilds the Grimm get a lot deadlier."
Ruhtaba absorbed this information and asked for more. "Question of Grimm design is related somehow?"
"Grimm are never hostile to each other, but the animals that they're based on can be. I had a really disturbing thought that the varieties of Grimm are like the Zerg's units – different strains of the same species for different purposes."
Ruhtaba nodded in understanding. "Harder to look for signs of design than of hive mind, but possible. Will look into it."
"Thank you."
"My Lord," Violet began as Jaune emerged from the pit, "I know that it is not my place to question you, but is it wise to permit Ruby Rose, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie to come to the Hive Cluster? You said yourself that you want your identity to be kept a secret."
"I know what I said, but I feel like I owe them an explanation, and they also said they have information on Cinder Fall, and anything that helps us find her is worth it."
"And when we find her are we to kill her? According to your memories, doing so would release the power she possesses. Would it not be better to take this power for the Swarm?"
Her question infuriated Jaune. The idea of not killing Cinder Fall had never once crossed his mind… but the power of a Maiden would go to the last person she thought of. What if she thought of some unknown accomplice? And when Ozpin had said he would hold her off, hadn't Cinder said something? Something about a mysterious "she" being right about him?
Jaune wanted badly to kill something at that moment, because it was beginning to look like he might have to spare Cinder Fall in the name of interrogation.
His agitation began bleeding into his Zerg, and many of them began snarling and snapping at each other as his internal conflict grew more intense.
Violet, sensing her leader's distress, used what little independence she possessed to come up with an idea. "My Lord, perhaps we can kill your enemy in every way that matters while keeping her power for the Swarm."
Jaune stopped radiating psionic turbulence as he puzzled over that statement. "How?"
"According to your memories, you hate Cinder Fall for who she is and what she has done. We cannot undo the past, but we can remove all that she is."
"You're talking about infesting her, aren't you? The answer is no. I wouldn't be able to stand looking at her day in and day out."
"Not merely infesting her my Lord. Examine the Hive Mind for memories of the entity known as Izsha, and you shall understand what I suggest."
Jaune did as the Queen asked and did not know whether to be disturbed or impressed. Izsha had once been a Terran woman with latent psychic abilities who had managed to draw the old Queen of Blades' attention. Kerrigan had given her over to Abathur with the strict but vague instructions to keep her alive, but make her useful. The result had been an utterly unique organism bound to Kerrigan's personal Leviathan who functioned almost like a scroll. She'd been little more than a place to keep notes and ideas, occasionally using what she knew to offer advice. It was as if the woman she'd been before had never existed…
"I understand what you mean about killing her in every way that matters," he said slowly, "but Cinder Fall has become a Maiden. We'd need to keep her suited for combat."
"I compared her to Izsha merely as an educational aid; Cinder Fall need not become an identical creature."
"Alright, I give in. We'll capture Cinder Fall and turn her over to Ruhtaba for extensive infestation, but anyone else who helped her dies."
Violet bowed. "Of course my Lord."
Several hours passed with Jaune shifting his consciousness between Ruhtaba to get an idea of what he was learning about the Grimm and the Overseers to determine whether or not they had found Fall or her cronies. He had no idea who else was working with her, but he had told the Swarm to look for certain individuals, specifically Cinder's partners in the tournament, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, along with the White Fang leader, Adam Taurus.
The Overseers had found several locations that were potentially her hideout, being home to individuals with massive Auras, but nothing certain. As it was, they were patrolling to keep an eye on each location at all times without appearing to be interested. On the bright side, life in the city seemed to be returning to normal apart from a few isolated groups that were standing on rooftops to get closer looks at the Overseers.
Ruhtaba's experiments were… unsettling to say the least. Apparently that mutagen pool could be transformed into powerful acid and back at a moment's notice as needed, which was a good thing considering that his experiments demanded that he create Zerg with Grimm sequences. The result was that some came out hostile, and so they were immediately dumped into the acid. One came out of the pool already evaporating. He'd marked that sequence as inefficient and moved on. A handful of other sequences were marked as potentially intriguing, but when Jaune probed more deeply into Ruhtaba's thought processes he found out that those required the Hive and its associated structures and creatures to be tested.
He checked on the Hive Cluster in Vale and found that it was steadily expanding towards the one in Atlas, using a combination of Zergling hordes and Spore Crawlers to ward away any Grimm in its path. It was also close to morphing its Lair into a Hive, but in order to connect both Hive Clusters that would have to wait for the time being.
Lily, the Queen Jaune had left in charge of the Vale base, had actually found an abandoned Dust mine, but to his surprise the Zerg had no interest in Dust after the first Drone had harvested some.
"It is condensed energy – it cannot be used to create biomass. Furthermore, according to your memories it does not function in space. If we are to leave this planet someday, we must be able to function beyond its atmosphere. The Zerg have never used it. The Zerg have never needed it. The Zerg will conquer without it."
Lily illustrated how important it was for Zerg to function beyond the atmosphere by ordering an Overlord to take that first Drone up into space. After a few moments the unfortunate Drone had emitted a terrible squeal of pain and then exploded, the Dust that had incorporated into its body rendering it unable to survive.
As the Overlord began returning a sudden rumble got Jaune's attention. The Nydus Worm furthest from the city's main gate could see three figures approaching it.
"Violet, that's your cue to go."
She gave a slight bow and then scuttled into the Nydus Network, emerging at the other end to greet team… NRR? RNR? RRN?
"Hello Ruby, Ren, Nora."
The trio halted in their tracks. "How do you know our names?"
"All will be revealed in time. Now grab on to me and do not let go. The Nydus Worm will not function for an unescorted non-Zerg, and I am reliably informed that traversing its tunnels unassisted is not pleasant for humans."
Ren grabbed one of her hands, Ruby grabbed the other, and Nora being Nora decided to sit astride Violet's abdomen as though she were the world's ugliest horse. Without further delay, they stepped into its mouth.
There are some – such as the people of Remnant – who do not know how travel via Nydus Worm works. The truth is that the worm's entire body is connected to the Nydus Network, and the Zerg are capable of traveling so rapidly through it due to rapid peristalsis on the part of the worm. In other words, one either enters the mouth and exits the… end, or vice versa. Zerg do not experience nausea even when they can comprehend this fact, but people are another story.
And so it was that upon emerging from the Nydus Network at the Atlesian Hive Cluster, Ruby, Ren, and Nora all immediately turned to one side and retched, both due to the trip and comprehension of how they had made it. This was followed by a few minutes of dry heaving when one of them noticed – and inadvertently pointed out to the others – that the Creep immediately began digesting their partially digested dinner.
Violet shook her head. "Human stomachs are weak even this far from the Koprulu Sector. I would ask you to make yourselves more presentable for my Lord, but he misses you too much to wait."
It was actually Nora who was the first to comprehend that statement. "Wait a minute. You mean he knows us?"
At that moment they noticed a tall, intimidating, but surprisingly humanoid figure coming towards them, covered in the Zerg's trademark carapace. He stopped only just out of arms length of them.
Then the armor around its head seemed to melt away to reveal a slightly changed but nonetheless familiar face.
"Hi guys."
"Jaune!?"
Author's Note: Before I continue, somebody asked me why I capitalize the names of all the units (Drone, Hydralisk, etc.). The answer is that when I was doing more research on the Starcraft Wiki on how individual units worked lore-wise, that was what the wiki did, and I just thought that was how it was supposed to be. The RWBY Wiki does the same thing with the different types of Grimm.
Anyway, that's a wrap for this chapter. I'll let you imagine for yourselves how the reunion with Jaune goes until I post the next, so how do you think it will go? Are they happy to see him? Angry at him for ditching them? And what do you think it is that Ruhtaba considers "strange" about the Grimm essence?
