At the time of uploading, there were no new reviews. So without further ado, here is the next chapter. Onwards!
Blake slept. Blake dreamed. In her dream, she saw ancient experiments, Dust mixed with other Dust to create new forms of Dust. She saw new practices take hold, weaving, fuelling, attacking, and defending. She soon saw the first of the transport experiments.
She watched as precise amounts of Dust were mixed, some red, some blue, and a small amount of white. The mix was placed on the ground and set alight, vapours rising out of the dish and falling, spreading along the ground. They filled the pre-cut channels, arcane runes lighting up with energy. The circle was completed and space was ripped in two, a rift opening in the ground. The experimenters looked into the hole, and Blake recognised the bleakness of the Pale Void. Except... There was no screaming. No Transcendent could be seen. She watched as five men armed with spears entered the rift, exploring this new dimension. She watched from their perspective as they shielded their eyes against the glare. Some of them dug at the strange rock that made up the ground, breaking it open and revealing iridescent Dust. One picked it up, combining it with some red, and throwing it forward. The fire was pale, and did not conform to physics. It kept on burning, even as the Dust ran out. They began breaking the ground with increased enthusiasm, scooping the iridescent Dust into bags. She heard shouting, and the five men turned, watching as the rift closed. One of them ran forward, hurling two bags of iridescent Dust through the portal before diving through himself. The rift closed around him, and Blake winced as he was bisected. The men panicked, searching for the rift that was painfully non-existent.
Blake watched the days pass, the men consuming the iridescent Dust to sustain themselves. Blake saw that their eyes had become blue, and they no longer talked to each other. Yet they understood each other perfectly, messages passing unseen between each mind. She watched as their flesh paled, the life leaving them. Pale fire covered their limbs. And then, centuries later, a rift opened. Men in traditional clothing entered, carrying early rifles. The four Transcendent stood for the first time in centuries, ancient bones creaking as they turned to face the explorers. As they approached, the twelve men raised their rifles, taking aim. The crack of gunpowder filled the Void, lead pellets tearing into the Transcendent. They did not falter, and one raised an arm. The rift closed, sealing the men inside. They reloaded with military expertise, firing again to no effect. The four Transcendent lifted their arms in unison, the ground beneath the soldiers giving way as it became Dust, and they coughed and spluttered as they inhaled it, passing out as it bound to them. Days passed, and they too consumed the Dust. Years passed again, their previous gear corroding and withering away. The Transcendent raised towers, the spires wreathed in flame. Blake watched as she saw the souls of the living appear around them. A Transcendent reached out, but was repulsed by Aura. They waited, and over the years they closed in as more minds appeared in the tower, the population of Remnant rising. Every now and then, a soul's Aura went down, and a Transcendent disappeared into it. Days later, a small rift would appear, the body the mind belonged to deposited into the Void. The Transcendent left her, returning control to her before she screamed, attempting to run. One simply appeared in front of her, coating her face in iridescent Dust. She fell unconscious, awakening days later to consume Dust. This repeated, but they were no longer creating new Transcendent. They were bringing bodies through and chaining them down, torturing them. Blake watched with mounting horror as the body count rose through the years, the screams rising. She was snapped from her nightmare screaming as she watched herself appear, before she was chained down along with the rest, the playthings of the Transcendent until her soul gave out
Blake screamed, waking from her nightmare. Ruby was stood above her, stroking her ears soothingly.
"You alright?"
Blake breathed deeply, sucking in air. She tried to wipe her eyes, but remembered that her body was inside the vacuum chamber. Ruby did it for her, embracing her the best she could. Blake wished with all her being that she could hug her back. She looked at the clock on the wall. It read half ten at night.
I will savour her screams as she burns.
Shut up.
"Ruby..."
"Yes?"
"Will you read to me?"
"Sure. But... There's no books in here."
"Get one from the top shelf in the dorm."
Ruby walked out of the chamber, slinking through the infirmary, trying not to wake any of the patients. She soon walked through the empty halls. She waved her Scroll in front of the lock, the door popping open. She used the limited light cast by the screen to search the shelf. She read the spines, deciding on a book named "Fracture". As she went to open the door, she was stopped by a voice.
"Ruby?"
"Yes, Weiss?"
"What are you doing?"
"Getting a book for Blake."
"I don't know what I expected. Good night."
"Good night."
Ruby left, carrying the book with her. She was soon back in the infirmary, inside Blake's room. A nurse was talking to Blake.
"So is that alright with you?"
"Yes. You can take a sample."
The nurse went to the side of the chamber, placing a needle in an airlock. One his later and the needle was inside the chamber.
"Blake?"
"Oh, hi Ruby. The nurse is just taking a blood sample."
Ruby opened the book, beginning to read aloud as the nurse placed her hands into a pair of thick gloves. She took the needle, inserting it into Blake's arm. She winced as she did so. Soon, the needle was back inside the airlock and outside the chamber. The nurse poured the blood into several tubes and placed them in a centrifuge in the corner of the room. The machine spun up, and minutes later, shut off. Ruby stopped reading as the nurse held up the tube to Blake. Her blood had split, a layer Plasma, a thin layer of red, and at the bottom iridescent powder. Blake scowled at it.
"Don't touch that Dust. It'll kill you."
The nurse nodded, carrying the rest of the tubes away.
"Ruby?"
"Yes?"
"Please keep on reading."
Ruby opened the book again, her reading punctuated by the turn of a page at regular intervals. Blake relaxed, losing herself to the story and Ruby's voice, slowly drifting into a dreamless sleep.
-Vale Hospital-
Tsul was beside Kisaragi's bed. He was resting at the moment. His injuries had mostly healed, his Aura speeding up the process, but he had overworked himself with such sporadic use of his Semblance during their strike on the docks. As a result, he had injured himself internally, rupturing several blood vessels inside his body. Suddenly, Kisaragi gasped, his eyes flying open. Tsul steadied him.
"Easy, what was it?"
"I know how we can make the Ultima Drive."
"What?"
"Your lifelong dream of making a Disc that could do anything, I know how to do it."
"Alright. How?"
"Remember that one time we visited Vacuo, to see the Archives of Legends?"
"Yes?"
"In there it mentioned a type of Dust not found in this world. It was iridescent. The writing said that it acts far different than normal, and exhibits characteristics of all Dust."
"So..?"
"All we need to do is get some of this Dust, not a lot, only about two grams, and I can make the Ultima Drive."
"I can think of several problems, right now. The first is that, unlike the rest of Vacuo, the Archives have Altas-tier security unlike anything elsewhere on Remnant, perhaps aside from the Atlesian headquarters. We won't just be able to take the legend. The second is that the Dust itself is very difficult to find. Even if they have some at the Archives, again we can't just take it. The third is that, now that I think about it, the Dust corrupts users even with the shortest skin contact. We don't have the means to handle it safely."
"We could just copy the legend."
"Security won't let any sort of data storage inside- phones, paper, pens, anything."
"I have a good memory."
"Perhaps."
"Look, all I wanna do is go the the Archives and read up on the stories about this Iridescent Dust. If we can find out how to get some, the Ultima Drive becomes a reality."
"I will take you to the Archive, but I'm not going to help you steal anything."
"Cheers."
With that, Kisaragi closed his eyes again, and Tsul stood up. He left the hospital, heading back towards From Dust Till Dawn. It was strange not hearing the sounds of Kisaragi's work in the background, almost as if the shop felt empty without it. Sighing gently, he sat down behind the counter and waited. It wasn't long until someone walked into the shop, looking around before spotting Tsul. The boy walked over, his silver hair a stark contrast with his black uniform.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes. I was wondering if you could do something about this."
The boy pulled out a Disc, and from its red colouration Tsul could see it was a Blaze Disc. A hairline crack ran across it.
"My name's Mercury, by the way. I would've tried to fix it myself, but I don't know how."
"It's a good thing you didn't try, because if you try to work on an active Disc, you will do nothing but cause more damage. What you have here, Mercury, is a crack that is ruining the Disc's connection with your weapon. Can I see the slot?"
Mercury reached down, pulling his boot off and showing Tsul the slot in the heel. Tsul shone a light in there before taking a pair of pliers and pulling out a small stone.
"There's you problem. Now, on a normal day, we'd have this done in no time. However, my fabricator is not here, so I'll have to do it myself. It could take about an hour."
"That's fine. I can wait."
Tsul went into the workshop, running the Disc through a deactivator first. He then took measurements of the crack, calculating exactly how much metal he needed to fill it before lighting a crucible. The metal inside melted, and he carefully poured it into the crack and waited for it to cool before taking it to a buffing wheel. Once he cleaned it, he put it into the activator. He emerged from the shop, placing the repaired Disc into a sleeve and placing on the counter.
"That'll be five-hundred Lien, Mercury."
"Of course."
He placed the cash on the display case, and Tsul quickly counted it before taking it.
"Have a good day, Mercury."
Mercury smiled, taking the Disc and leaving the shop. He got ping on his Scroll. He took out the device, seeing Emerald's face on the screen. He answered.
"Yes?"
"New job. Details when you get back."
Shrugging to himself, he pocketed his Scroll and reinserted his Blaze Disc. He began the walk back to Beacon.
-Dorm-
"Took you long enough, Mercury."
"I was in town."
"Whatever. Lieutenants have sent another job for us."
Emerald gestured to the table, where a glass vial and pipette stood. Mercury read the warning labels.
"Deathstalker venom, warning, may cause permanent Aura suppression, Emerald, why do we have this?"
"The Fang caught wind of Blake Belladonna's... Episode. They want us to trigger a permanent change by suppressing her Aura."
"Alright: how?"
"Get this venom inside her."
"Again, how?"
"I don't know. Improvise!"
She thrust the needle and vial into his hands and left the room. Mercury shrugged before ensuring that the needle was capped before sliding it into his pocket along with the vial. He grabbed a bottle of water and made his way to the infirmary. As he walked passed the front desk, he saw Team RWBY's fiery blonde signing out. What was her name? He could not remember.
He walked into the ward, looking for the room that contained Blake. It was not hard to find, since it was the only one with a vacuum chamber inside it. He knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Mercury pushed the door open to find Blake alone. /Excellent./
"Mercury, was it? What are you doing here?"
He threw his hands up in surrender.
"I thought I would pay a visit to the stricken member of the illustrious Team Ruby."
"Illustrious?"
"Your leader skipped two years."
"So?"
"Mountain Glenn?"
"Fair enough."
Mercury took drink from his bottle, and noticed Blake staring at it longingly.
"Oh, did you want something to drink?"
"Yes, please. Normally Ruby's here to help me with things like this, but she has work to do. There's a water cooler outside."
/Perfect./
Stepping out of the room, Mercury located the cooler. He filled a cup and, after checking no-one was watching, emptied the contents of the vial into the cup as well. He walked back into the room.
"You need to help me drink this. Literally just a head at the moment."
Placing one hand behind her head, he lifted her up and brought the water to her lips with the other. She drank without hesitation, at which point Mercury's Scroll got pinged. The cup was no empty, but it didn't matter. Surely she had drank enough.
"Thanks for that Mercury."
"No problem. I've got to go, though."
He stepped out of the room, chuckling. What Blake hadn't seen was him use the needle to puncture the seal of the chamber in several places. He closed the door as a finger tapped him on the shoulder. The blonde was stood there.
"What are you doing?"
"I was visiting Blake."
"Why?"
"To say hello. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really have to go."
As soon as he was out of view, he ran back to his dorm, opening the door and collapsing inside. Cinder stared at him bemusedly.
"Success?"
"Yup."
Back in the infirmary, Yang watched the silver-haired boy go, suspicion in her eyes. The faintest flecks of red hovered on the edge of her irises. She placed her hand on the doorknob and immediately realised something was severely wrong. The handle was hot. She wrenched the door open and saw Blake, her eyes burning blue, alight with pale fire. Stared turned to the door, laughing at Yang with malice in her eyes.
"How unexpected. Someone actually liberated me. Willingly!"
The vacuum chamber was glowing, collapsing under its own weight as it heated up. Blake rose, hovering in the air in terrible glory as the chamber gave way. She lifted he arms, pouring fire into the wall and melting clean through it. Alarms sounded. At that point, Yang struck. She leapt forward, pumping her fists to activate the Ember Celica before punching. Blake staggered in mid-air, the powerful strike pushing her into the corner of the room. Yang leaped onto her, delivering crushing punches to her face in an attempt to knock her out. Blake just laughed and languidly placed a hand on Yang's head and sent a powerful concussive charge through it. Yang fell away, unconscious. The door burst open again, and Weiss and Ruby stood there, the pair paling when they saw Blake. Quickly regaining her composure, Weiss hurled ice and flame at Blake, who simply allowed the ice to melt before hitting her and absorbing the fire. She waved her hand, a glyph of her own forming under Weiss, who jumped out of the way. Blake swept forward, catching her off guard and knocking her across the room. Weiss landed shakily, switching Dust and accelerating. She parried a fireball, dodged an outward kick before jumping an thrusting forward. Blake caught the blade and wrenched it out of her hands, ignoring the cuts on her hands that she gained as a result. As she approached, Ruby stepped in, having difficulty swinging Crescent Rose in the enclosed space. Growling, Blake kicked her in the head and kicked away, flying through the hole in the wall and disappearing into the distance. Ozpin opened the door, scowling when he saw the state of the room. He saw the buckled remains of the vacuum chamber, the steel warped and seal a misshapen puddle on the floor. He saw the paper cup on its side, the material singed and the contents long evaporated. Sighing, he looked out of the window.
"We must find her, before she does something terrible."
-Vacuo-
In the skies above Vacuo, Blake hovered. The Transcendent was enjoying its freedom, momentarily content just to watch the world below. It then scowled and descended, landing in the middle of the town. The amassed humans and Faunus looked at her, fear and confusion on their faces. Blake smirked cruelly.
"Rejoice. Your queen has arrived."
She slammed a fist into the ground, a wall of fire expanding from the point of contact, and the screaming began. Buildings burned, collapsing and trapping the people inside. It wasn't long before ashes filled the air, making it hard to breathe. It did not matter to Blake.
Soon enough, the police arrived, firing at her with ineffectual small-arms and rifles. They knew they were outclassed, the fear evident on their eyes. She walked towards them, letting them keep firing on her until she was right in their faces. Ohe held a gun to the side of her head and Blake grinned as the metal melted and fused to his hand. The officer screamed, and was silenced as Blake incinerated his head.
Please! Stop this!
The Transcendent laughed as the mind of the body tried to talk her down. Out of spite, she bit into the neck of the next officer and tore his throat out with her teeth, allowing her flamed to die down so that his blood sprayed across her face and added to her hellish appearance. The rest of the officers were either running or barking into radios, calling for back-up. She made quick work of them, delivering earth-shattering kicks and punches, breaking ribs and cracking skulls. She forced her hand clean through the last one's chest, pulling out their still-beating heart as they watched, horrified, before blood loss killed them. She ripped the heart out, squeezing it and causing it to burst. A whisper breached her mind, and she reeled, staring at the perpetrator.
A huntress stood there, maroon energy looping around her hands. Blake heard the whispers in her mind as the huntress attacked, forcing her to her knees. Blake will her mind to burn, burn hotter than the miserable ball of light that the mortals called the sun, and the effect was immediate. The huntress winced biting down on her lip as she felt the pain of burning. Blake intensified the heat, forcing her out of her head. She walked over to her, slinging fireballs as she did so. The huntress manipulated the energy, blocking the flames but was unable to defend when Blake hurled a beam of fire through her chest at point-blank range, her Aura giving out under the onslaught. Blake looked down on the huntress' shocked face before crushing her head under her foot.
The crackle of flames filled the air, with sirens in the distance. Deciding that she had an adequate distraction, she moved into the air, flying towards the Archive of Legends. A single pulse of flame destroyed the door, and she immediately found herself at gunpoint. These were not bullet guns, but considerably more advanced concussion rifles, usually carried by Atlesian Knights. She looked around, seeing at least a dozen Knights.
"Halt. You are under arrest for property damage."
Blake let forth a pulse of flame, incinerating the circuits of the Knight in front of her. She immediately ducked behind the scanners as concussive blasts rained down on her. She ran into the archive, quickly searching for the right legend.
"Vacuan… Valic… Atlesian… Mistrali!"
She looked for the alphabet markers, searching frantically for the right section. She heard the thuds of mechanical soldiers closing in on her.
"V…V…V…Va…"
A Knight rounded the corner and she punched its head, destroying it before it could attack.
"Ve…Vi…Vo…Vu!"
She found the right section, reading the labels as fast as she could. She found the Legend, taking the whole scroll and blasting a hole in the ceiling. She ascended, leaving the Knights far below.
"Alert- Record stolen. Identify."
"Record identified- Vulkoss."
"Identify felon."
"Identified- Blake Belladonna."
Again, please review. I really appreciate Constructive Criticism (and people saying they like the story). Until next time.
Aura, out.