Chapter Ten: Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Tuesday, the 5th of November, 1889.
Pyrrha knew that her assistant had some experience in swordplay, but even she didn't know just how powerful Neo was. Being the daughter of a fencing instructor, Neo Politana was a fierce combatant in her natural state. To make herself even more formidable, the small woman had learned to use Dust in its raw, crystalline form – which was usually a lethal course of action.
However, Emerald had trained her, and her alone, to use it safely – all in preparation for the day she wielded the Eye against Emerald's enemies. So placing the ebony Dust crystal in a custom-designed palm hole on her left glove gave the short assassin unearthly combat abilities.
Pyrrha shifted Milό into sword mode and lunged with Jaune to pin Neo to the wall. However, Neo ducked underneath their weapons, rolled to their right, and tripped Jaune over with her umbrella – all within the space of two seconds. As he fell, Neo back-flipped and kicked Jaune into Pyrrha, and both of them were sent sprawling towards the western wall.
At this point, Nora swung Magnhild at full pelt, but Neo narrowly ducked to avoid what would've been a decapitating shot. She spun round with the blade poking out, and Nora jumped backwards to avoid the hit.
Ren then lobbed the first throwing knife at Neo, successfully slicing through her right cheek. Neo simply stared him down as she dislodged the blade from her face, dropping the blade as she waved her left hand over the wound. The ebony Dust healed it up instantly, leaving only a faint scar which would only take a few days to heal.
As Neo smirked and strode forward, she jumped and grabbed her backside in pain, screaming as Pyrrha's crimson dust round did the trick. As the ebony Dust healed her wound, Neo turned to stare her opponent down – only to gasp and make a split-second dodge as Akoúo̱ was cast forward on its leash. Pyrrha, who stood between Neo and a slightly concussed Jaune, wore an expression of grim determination that could have rivalled Colonel Arc's.
With the shield returning to its grips, Pyrrha stood tall and drew Neo's attention away from Nora, who swung Magnhild hard at the assassin's head. Neo simply raised her umbrella and opened it over her shoulder, her malicious smile never wavering as Magnhild barely dented the cobalt Dust-treated cloth.
Nora ducked in time to avoid the concussive rebound from the cobalt Dust, but the blast stopped a charging Ren dead in his tracks. He still brought the second of his throwing knives to bear, not relying on Stormflower unless he absolutely needed to. He aimed it straight at her head. In a cruel twist of fate, the blade's pommel struck her left temple, merely annoying Neo a little further.
Neo then shuddered slightly, and used the ebony Dust to perform a trick Emerald taught her about – creating illusions of herself to attack and disorient her enemies. Suddenly, the first clone was upon Ren, and he drew his pistols and started firing. Of course, the verdant Dust passed straight through the ebony Dust masquerade, and Ren was sent flying into the wall by the real article.
Nora, meanwhile, was tackling an illusion of two Neos. The first one fell to a swing of Magnhild, but the second one had just enough force to trip Nora up before it dispersed. Neo took advantage of this and kicked Nora's chest as hard as she could. Nora merely withstood the blow with a grimace, shifted her hammer into grenade launcher form, and blasted Neo at point blank range with it.
Neo barely ducked in time, and the blast went straight through the broken window. Pyrrha, meanwhile, was standing guard over Jaune as he started to shake off his concussion. Neo quickly realised just how well the pair knew one another, and she decided to goad Pyrrha into attacking her.
"I don't know why you bother protecting that Scotland Yard wimp; that easy piece of prey doesn't deserve you."
"That's it!"
Pyrrha's eyes steeled themselves as she shifted Milό into sword form and unleashed Akoúo̱'s whip function. Neo simply bashed the shield away and unleashed a smoke bomb between her and Pyrrha. She then extended her blade, and summoned four of her clones, all wielding the same weapon. As the smoke cleared, Pyrrha found herself staring down five Neos, all closing in on her with their weapons drawn.
"Good luck hitting the real McCoy," they all taunted viciously.
However, the one person Neo regarded as easy prey was the one who ultimately caused her defeat. Jaune ran around her as she focused on her illusions and attacked Pyrrha, and swung his sword wildly at her back.
What he didn't realise was that his grip shifted slightly as he placed his sword back for the swing – and the faint "click" of a pressure plate wasn't heard by anyone. As Jaune brought the sword forward, an orange glow enveloped him, and he brought the sword down quicker than anyone anticipated. That's tangerine Dust, Pyrrha realised; he's enveloped in a time-dilation field. Shocked at this, Jaune dropped the sword in panic, the glow dispersing as Neo cried out in pain and dispelled her illusions.
Neo's back had earned a huge gash, and the Eye started to slip from her grasp as she cauterised the gash by backing into a brazier. Sensing an opportunity, Nora shifted Magnhild into warhammer mode, and whacked the Eye through the broken window and into the street below.
"NO!", Neo cried, vainly reaching for the Eye as it plummeted.
Ren, having recovered from Neo's ultimate blow, shot Neo's left arm twice as he ran forward, then brained her with a flying kick. Jaune and Nora then restrained her as Pyrrha approached with Milό and Akoúo̱, a look of absolute vengeance in her eyes.
"This ends here, you God-forsaken whore."
Gripping Milό in reverse with her right hand and Akoúo̱ in her left, Pyrrha pistol-whipped Neo's left temple and bashed the right one with her shield. Unconsciousness was instant, and Jaune cuffed her hands behind her back. Turning to his friends, the young policeman decided on his next move.
"Well, that's that. Nora and Ren, you'd better let the regulars know to lift the curfew around Westminster, and get Qrow and Oobleck in here to assess the damage. We'll guard the tower door."
The other three nodded and affirmed the decision, and walked outside to disperse the regular policemen.
However, as the door to the clock tower slammed shut, Neo awoke in a heavy rage; her appearance was somehow more feral and deranged without the Eye in her grasp.
"I won't be downed that easily," she whispered cruelly as she stood up unsteadily with her hands locked behind her back. "I already chanted the incantations for the ritual, so all I'll need to do is say the final summons."
She stood up, and chanted the last rite for a minute in a near-silent whisper.
"The day of chaos is due to dawn. Arise, black dragon of hell born."
The storm didn't tear the sky in two. In fact, it stopped, and the clouds cleared. There wasn't any loud roar or black wings befouling the air. To put it simply, the summoning failed, and Neo had failed by extension.
All of her planning, training, espionage, murdering and duplicity led to the anticlimax of the century.
Without ever realising it, she had been fooled by the snake-oiled tongue of Emerald Sustrai – just like every last Creature of Grimm.
Neo unleashed a massive, keening scream. On hearing the noise, Pyrrha raced back up the tower with Jaune while Nora and Ren rallied the uniformed officers outside. As they made the stairs, Neo's tantrum had begun in earnest.
"I wanted a dragon to sow fear in this forsaken city! Emerald never lied to me before, so I'm sure she isn't now. Why did the gods refuse to hear my summons?!"
"Because living beings can't be created from thin air, blind fool."
Neo spun around at the voice, and found herself staring down someone she never wanted to meet. A gaunt, albino woman floated in through the window, having caught the Eye as it sailed past the fences. Her face was set in what could only be described as tranquil fury.
"Wait … you're Emerald's mother," Neo realised out loud.
The albino's expression and vocal tone darkened.
"That traitor sent you to the eye?!"
"Well, not exactly. Someone else took the Eye without realising its power, and I reclaimed it to summon the dragon that Emerald informed me about."
All semblance of tranquillity vanished from the woman's face as she landed seven feet away from Neo and yelled at her.
"You sought to create an agent of destruction with the Eye, and you slaughtered many to get your hands on an artifact my tribe hold sacred?!"
At this point, Pyrrha and Jaune were tiptoeing towards the room, as the woman's tone dropped to a whisper drenched in malice.
"As Seer of the Grimm tribe and custodian of the Eye of Ra, I adjudge you unworthy of life."
As Pyrrha and Jaune glimpsed through the shattered door, they beheld the most ghastly sight ever imaginable.
A figure that looked like a ghost with red eyes held the ebony Dust in her hand, with her veins having turned purple with exposure. A black tendril was starting to extend outward from the crystal, aiming in a beeline towards Neo. She tried running for the door, but the tendril latched around her stomach and pulled the woman away from her escape. Jaune shut his eyes, while Pyrrha's expression went from morbid curiosity to open-mouthed fright.
A second tendril snaked around Neo's feet, then coiled like the bandages of a mummy until it enveloped Neo's body below the neck. A third tendril stopped a foot in front of Neo's face, and a vision appeared within it. Pyrrha never got to see what the vision contained, but Neo's expression changed from dogged resistance to utter horror. The tendril reached Neo's face, and passed through her body from head to toe.
Neo unleashed an ear-piercing scream as the three tendrils started to change her body's molecules. Pyrrha could only watch in abject horror as Neo's small frame distorted and contracted in all manner of directions, seemingly crystallising along the way. After a full minute of the torture, Neo's now immobile body went back to it's normal proportions.
The assassin's face was frozen over in a rictus of perfect, primal fear. With a wave of her free hand, the albino woman tossed Neo up into the air and removed the tendrils – leaving the diminutive woman to drop fifteen feet onto the floor.
When Neo Politana landed, she shattered into dozens of glass shards. The albino woman looked briefly towards the door, then used the ebony Dust to shroud herself in shadows and float away on the wind. Pyrrha could only stare in silent terror as the Eye of Ra's true power was made manifest in front of her.
Walking in to the devastation, Pyrrha grabbed a nearby broom and dustpan, and swept up all the newly-formed glass into it. Noting that a nearby brazier had been lit, Pyrrha poured the contents into the fire.
The sound she heard in response was forever scored on her ears; for all the world, it sounded like a metallic, high-pitched scream. Bringing herself to look at one of the shards of glass, Pyrrha noticed that it was bleeding, as were all the others.
"What the hell … Neo?!", she cried out in sheer shock as Neo's final word was heard and drawn out as Jaune entered the room with Ren, Nora and the regular officers trailing close behind.
"HELP!".
Pyrrha fainted, and was caught by a hastened Jaune as the shards all stretched slightly, then stopped bleeding as the screams died away.
As the officers hauled away Lionheart's body, Pyrrha came to in Jaune's arms with Ren and Nora surrounding her.
"With Hazel's testimony unable to be reproduced," Pyrrha began, "how will we solidify the evidence against Neo and the remaining Grimm without annoying the stiffs in Special Branch?"
"Well, there is one thing we can do," Ren stated calmly.
"How do you mean?", Pyrrha enquired.
Ren promptly held up Hazel's diary, which had fallen on the floor after he'd been thrown out the window by Neo.
"We can hand this in, add that to our testimonies and Watts's diary, and that'll sort itself out."
"Good show, Ren!" exclaimed Jaune as he patted him on the shoulder. "We'll be able to lock up the Grimm and clean up the police force with this diary."
As he finished saying that, Qrow finally joined them up top.
"Qrow," Jaune began, "I owe you an apology and a favour for what I said the other day. I didn't realise that you hadn't requested sole credit for the Grimm's arrests."
Qrow nodded empathetically. "Fear not, Jaune. I've informed Superintendent Blackford that you are to be given main credit for the investigation."
Wednesday, the 6th of November, 1889.
The following evening, after Jaune had accompanied her to Dr. Watts's funeral, Pyrrha was working late at Exham. She was getting the Eye of Ra exhibit ready for viewing when she heard someone walking towards her office.
"Who's there?", Pyrrha called out.
"The true wielder of the Eye of Ra."
Pyrrha stood bolt upright, and turned to face the woman who'd murdered Neo in the doorway. For only the second time in her life, Pyrrha felt complete, utter fear. Sensing her tension, the albino held out her empty right hand and kept an even, neutral expression.
"Relax, child; I'm not here to harm you. However, I'd like an explanation as to why you stole the Eye of Ra, and how you managed to avoid causing a thunderstorm whilst doing so."
"You know, I'd been thinking about the lack of storms since the night I learned of your tribe's story," Pyrrha began, "and I think I've realised why the storm phenomenon didn't happen to me when I took it; I didn't have any evil intent behind my actions at all. Within your tribe, a want to move the Eye would've been backed with evil intent; hence the storms. And for the record, how come the Eye actually has the ability to cause thunderstorms if held by an evil person?"
The albino stroked her chin. "Your explanation makes sense. To answer your question, the Eye of Ra allows the user to have control over any material object, living or otherwise, on this planet – the problem is that it reacts to mental energy in unpredictable ways; even I, having spent most of my life studying it, don't know exactly how that works. What I can tell you though is that, with enough training, the Eye's wielder can teleport anywhere they've been before, can manipulate objects that lack what your people call 'Dust', and it's offensive capabilities against living beings are already known to you. However, I also know that it needs to be stored in the exact same shield you took from the room for safety. It's to do with both the hieroglyphs and how the Eye interacts with the shield's purity."
Pyrrha's face lit up in recognition. "That makes sense. The shield was bronze, but the chamber used to house the Eye was made of gold. As most of us in this part of the world have learned, gold is known to react more sensitively than other materials around an active Dust crystal, and bronze will carry that sensitivity if layered with gold. So, having a bronze shield around a gold chamber in those proportions would, along with resonance cancellation from the etchings, likely counteract the stability issues with wielding the Eye – which, coincidentally, is physically a sphere of pure ebony Dust, arguably the rarest of all Dust types. Also, your explanation of the Eye's abilities proved a theory I came up with after witnessing Neo's death; if ivory Dust enables one to access and control pure energy, then ebony Dust allows one the same for it's counterpart: matter."
"Be that as it may," continued the albino in a low grumble, "I'd still like to know why you thought it was a good idea to steal the Eye without realising its power, or considering repercussions like putting my tribe's way of life under existential threat."
To her credit, Pyrrha kept calm as she explained herself. "I only thought that the Eye of Ra was the shield itself, as opposed to the sphere embedded within it. Besides, this isn't the first time that someone like me has come along and reclaimed ancient artifacts from distant lands."
"Is that so?", asked the albino darkly.
"Indeed; quite a sizeable amount of people do what I do, with most operating on the maxim of preserving the past as best we can. That means taking the artifacts to places like this, studying them for our research, and keeping watch over them. And furthermore, I never used the Eye at all; indeed, when I learned that it lay within the shield, I had it removed and put somewhere I thought was safe from intruders. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Eye."
The albino took this into account. "Well child, do you have a solution to my conundrum? Even a trained user like myself can't hold its exposed form for longer than three days before the Eye starts de-materialising the wielder, and I know you can't be cursed with it either. Also, my tribe does not have easy access to gold, and the copper we have is too pure for what the Eye needs."
Suddenly, Pyrrha perked up. "Actually, I do have a solution."
Pyrrha walked over to the far wall, opened her safe, and removed something Neptune and Nora had finished that very afternoon – two identical bronze shields, complete with etchings and secret compartments – and handed one of these to the woman.
"I had two exact replicas of the shield made for public viewing after we dismantled and reforged the original shield. It would be a simple matter to place the Eye within the one I've given you, and have the other go on display here. No one would be the wiser."
The woman examined the shield quizzically, noting that the quality of the metallurgy was on par with her tribe's armourers, and eventually caused the ebony Dust crystal to phase into it's place in the shield. It didn't react adversely, and it caused the albino's "automata face" to shift into a genuine smile, as her gaze moved from the new shield to Pyrrha.
"This will be sufficient for my purposes. You have my thanks, child, and I will take my leave and head home. But let your peers know that if that tomb gets disturbed again then I, Salem of the Grimm tribe, will come for them and won't show mercy."
Pyrrha nodded understandingly.
"It will be done."
Salem nodded, and used the ebony Dust to teleport home. Pyrrha sat back down at her desk, and exhaled a boatload of tension which dropped from her shoulders.
"I really need a bath and a stiff drink after I'm done here tonight. Hopefully with Jaune supplying and indulging in both of these with me," she added with a smile.
A/N: The title means "In times of war, the law falls silent." The soundtrack for this chapter is "The Dark Eternal Night" by Dream Theater - a pretty close description to what Neo was trying to unleash above Big Ben.
I wish I could've written more about the battle sequences, but I hope I made up for it with my "Raiders of the Lost Ark" ending for Neo.
And who else saw the identity of the albino coming? I can tell you that it was planned from the beginning.
Next time, we'll come to the finale. Hope you've enjoyed this chapter!