The Woe of Fallen
Chapter 10: Storm
A/N: Another chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
Side Note: Yes, before you ask characters introduced in Volume 4 will appear. This is intentional, as after a while of thought I wanted to hold back on posting the majority of this story to see what would come up, and it fits very well so far with what I have planned.
On to the review(s):
GrnDrgnzrd: Love the name! Who knows what did tip her off! We will see soon enough! And yes, she may have to!
Enjoy!
Spiteful.
Blake adjusted her coat as she made her way down the long strip towards Origin Industries. This whole time, it had been under her nose. She had the nagging feeling something was wrong from the start when all of the weapons of Dagonus's demon army went missing under Origin Industries's care, but she didn't want to think that yet another organization of Faunus were monsters.
Saturn cracked his neck as he followed the girl. He was certainly getting older, but he still was as agile as he once was. His battle scars remained as firm as his resolve. A sniper slung over his shoulder, the marksmen narrowed his robotic eyes on the tower before him. Origin Industries was truly a massive complex, housing its own private security forces by nature, as many other businesses partake in, in addition to the White Fang presence. He liked a challenge, and this would definitely be one. Fighting their way through the fortress would be one thing, but finding Weiss and getting out would be another all together.
"This is going to be interesting." Saturn noted as they approached the entrance, sighing as he moved.
"Just don't get in my way." Blake replied back in a snarky tone, her bow fluttering in the wind.
"If anything, you will be in my way." Saturn laughed as he withdrew four golden pens from his breast pocket.
Entering through the main doors, the pair of Human and Faunus both made their way to the front desk, Blake extremely on edge as they approached.
"Hello!" A deer Faunus woman smiled happily. "How can I assist you two?"
"We need to see Menteur." Saturn smiled cockily, leaning on the table.
"He is a very busy man. I can take your names and schedule an appointment, though." The woman offered as she reached for something under her desk.
Saturn moved like a blur. One moment he was leaning on the desk, then the next he was on top of it, a golden katana in hand was the deer's own flew off with a small pistol in hand. The woman dropped to the floor in pain as employees quickly bolted to nearby exits.
"Saturn!" Blake called out as she pulled forth her katana.
"What?" Saturn sighed, tossing two pens in the air which unfolded into swords, catching them with a pair of ghostly hands extending from his upper back. "Hey, she was going for a gun! No one in this building is innocent."
Blake carefully watched as the upper balcony began to fill up with marksmen, red laser sights targeting both the girl and the older man. Swordsmen entered through previously locked doors, surrounding the pair of intruders in a massive ring.
"Just like old times, right Blake?" The assassin laughed in glee, twirling his blades in hand.
Blake just sighed and twirled her own sword as she wrapped her ribbon around her wrist.
"Try and keep up, old man." Blake finally let a small smile trickle from her lips.
Saturn smiled and looked around at the surrounding White Fang.
"All right, boys. En garde!"
Quiet.
The chamber Weiss sat in grew extremely cold in the small time that she had been alone. She knew Volt would be coming soon, and for once in her time being here, she looked forward to it.
As if on cue, the Lieutenant of the White Fang or the Grimoire Collective or whatever this organization was slid open the steel door locking Weiss inside. A magnum in hand, her would be executioner took a few steps towards her with a horrific smile across his face. The snake Faunus knew his orders. She would give them what they wanted, or what his boss wanted rather, and then she would die like the rest of Humanity.
"All right, kid." Volt cracked his neck as he stopped in his tracks, leveling his gun towards the girl. "I'm afraid this may be the last time we get to have our little chat."
Weiss sat in silence.
Volt raised a brow out of curiosity, unsure as to why she was being so quiet. Normally just the mere presence of the man would be enough to have her shaking in her designer boots, but now she seemed different. Unnerved, Volt moved a little closer towards the still girl.
"Tell me." Weiss suddenly spoke as Volt came to a stop. "Have you ever wondered what it's like to die?"
Volt wore a look of absolute confusion. "What are you talking about, Schnee?"
"Death. Isn't it obvious?" The former heiress spoke, standing up slowly. Her flaring eyes of void energy lit up the rather dull chamber. "Would you like to experience it?"
Volt aimed his weapon towards the girl before him. As tough as he was, she was seriously starting to freak him out. She had never acted like this in the entirety of her time spent at this lovely establishment.
"Quiet." Volt ordered. The armed man could notice the trembling in his hand as he looked down the sight of his gun. The temperature in the room was growing frigid, and he could've sworn that there were icicles beginning to form in various sections of the hall they resided in. Snowflakes, as if he were intoxicated, flew past his vision like a flash. His body grew heavy with a strange pressure the likes of which he had never felt before.
"No." Weiss lifted her head up, a crooked smile stretched unnaturally across her face. "I am in control, and now..."
Volt seized up as the gun in his hand froze into a solid block of ice, trapping his hand in the icy prison. Taking a step back, he was met with a frozen wall behind him.
"You are the prisoner, and I the executioner." Weiss's voice sounded disembodied, laughing sadistically as she raised both hands.
The air around the Faunus began to grow white as the oxygen was replaced by snow. Locked in place by the miniature blizzard, the man could only scream for so long before his lungs gave out and became frozen from the inside out. Weiss lowered her hands gently as she examined the frozen being before her, snapping her fingers in one motion.
The Faunus ceased to be, now merely a block of ice.
Weiss dragged her weak body to the door, placing a hand against the texture. The wall began to fracture as the door suddenly was flung from its hinges, crushing a pair of guards. Alone again, Weiss made her way to the nearby armory, locating what was hers.
"Our sword." Weiss plucked up her trademarked rapier, noticing many other things belonging to her. Gathering her items, the former heiress exited the chamber and located the exit, accessing the elevator system, and raising to the earth above.
Concern.
Menteur watched from the safety of his office down at the explosions below. The battle with the intruders, one of which he knew, was not something unexpected. What was unexpected, however, was the sheer damage they inflicted on his men. He thought the Huntress a push over, and this strange swordsman seemed ancient.
"Would you like us to intervene?" Cinder Fall asked, sitting calmly in his office chair as her two loyal followers bickered over the state of the battle below them.
"It is what I am paying you for." Menteur spat.
"Seeing as you haven't paid us our due, I am afraid I can no longer assist in the matter." Cinder toyed her words like a cat to yarn.
"The map." Menteur growled. "It's yours. Just stop these pests."
"Considering your Semblance, I am surprised you can not do it yourself." Cinder sighed as she nodded her head. "If they manage to reach this floor, we are all yours."
Leveling an open palm, Cinder waited for her prize.
Menteur growled as he reached into his suit, flinging a Scroll towards her. The Fall Maiden twirled the data tablet in hand before hooking it to her hip with a click.
"Emerald. Mercury." Cinder spoke. "Make ready."
Whirlwind.
That's how Blake would describe Saturn's fighting style.
The older assassin rotated almost like a spinning top. Thanks to his two ghostly Semblance hands, he tore through the opposition while simultaneously deflecting any sort of assault towards his being. He was almost invincible, in a sense.
The crack of a sniper on the third floor allowed Blake just enough reaction time to swing her blade to the right, catching the round in the air before it could reach her head. Shadow Clones were everywhere as Blake weaved in and out of gunfire and swordplay.
The distant crack of metal and glass drew her attention as the floor under her suddenly exploded in a colossal fireball. Falling to the safety of the nearby staircase, Blake watched as a portion of the ground floor sunk into the depths of the earth. A blazing inferno resembling Hell itself sat below, consuming all it but touched. White Fang and furniture tumbled to the pit, Blake regaining her composure and bolting up the stairs. Saturn was nowhere to be seen, but she couldn't worry about that now.
Another explosion rocked the complex as she reached the second floor. Dropping Gambol Shroud, Blake was surrounded by the remaining marksmen before her.
Within a flash of light, all of the men went tumbling over the safety railing and into the pit below. Saturn Laos stood with his Guardians holding him above ground, twin blades in his real hands.
"We must keep moving." Saturn spoke as the building shook. "This place will implode soon enough."
Blake answered with a nod, dashing across the floor and reclaiming her blade.
A metal clad-booted man turned the corner before the pair leading up to the upper levels. His nearly all grey outfit and cocky look across his face caused Blake to pause in step. The new arrival looked tough, very tough.
"Playtime's over, kiddo and gramps." Mercury took a combat stance. "If the boss wants you guys out of the picture, then so be it."
Anger.
Weiss couldn't even tell what she was really doing. Everything felt surreal to her, as if she were trapped in a dream. Something was amiss, she knew this, but could do nothing about it.
Another wall blocking her path detonated in a fiery explosion. She was almost unstoppable, blowing past anything in her way. Structures collapsing above her simply bounced off an invisible barrier of energy surrounding her body. Invulnerable as it seemed, the possessed girl made her way up the wreckage to the ground floor of the complex.
A battle was raging on above her, some man wielding greaves was in deep combat with Blake while a green haired woman sliced with bladed pistols against Saturn. Weiss stumbled back for a moment on her rampage, holding her head with a trembling right hand.
"Blake? Saturn?" Weiss asked in her normal voice as she shuttered violently.
"Leave them be, Schnee. You wanted revenge, we must press on to do so, my vessel." Xalveris cooed as Weiss held her head in a firm grip.
"N-no!" Weiss growled and groaned. "Get out of my head! Stop tempting me!"
"It's far too late for that, Schnee." Xalveris cackled. "Simply be glad I am allowing you the gratification of slaying your captors before I complete my work."
Weiss stumbled to the side as her left hand raised her rapier on its own. Weiss struggled with her right hand to keep the blade down as the Dust chamber rotated, leveling the blade towards the battle above.
"Leave me alone!" Weiss screamed as she forced her hand down, the red arc of Dust that would have flown towards the combatants screamed into the ground below her, sending her flying against a wall nearby.
Blake looked down to the explosion and froze, as did the others.
"Weiss!" Blake called out, shooing Mercury away with a spray of gunfire.
"Em!" Mercury called out to his comrade as the pair suddenly went invisible, Saturn growling as he searched the area before leaping down with Blake to a platform below.
"Weiss!" Blake cradled the groaning girl in her arms, taking her into a deep hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!"
"He is trying to take over!" Weiss groaned out in pain, her eyes flashing to life with void. "H-help me!"
The ground shook as Saturn reacted quickly, raising his Guardians upwards to catch a massive chunk of the elevator shaft.
"Whatever we are doing we need to do it fast!" Saturn struggled to hold the weight
Blake felt her pockets, and as luck would have it, produced a small baggy. A few samples of the medicine she was given rested in a plastic sack, handing it quickly to Weiss. The former heiress tore the parcel to shreds, quickly swallowing one of the pills.
Her being relaxed quickly as Xalveris screamed out in anger, fading away into the very depths of her mind. Blake quickly lifted the injured girl up and moved her out of the way safely as Saturn shifted, dropping down the metal. The platform they stood on shook before tumbling down, the three leaping to the stairwell and ascending to safety.
"We need to get out of here. This place is about to collapse." Blake decided as Weiss caught her breath for once and what felt like an eternity. Saturn nodded his head in agreement, but paused as he saw Weiss raise a hand in a need to comment.
"We aren't leaving yet." Weiss decided. "The head of the White Fang is still in the building to my knowledge, and we have a chance to take them out and end this for good."
Saturn sighed. "She does have a point."
Blake looked around at all of the wreckage surrounding them as the metal in the walls began to groan as flames lapped at them. Looking Weiss in the eye, she could clearly see the intent she held.
"Fine. But the moment this place starts to go down we leave, with or without taking him out. I came here for you, not for them." Blake handed Weiss's rapier to its owner.
Arriving at the doors to the office of Menteur, the trio caught breath. It was a long climb to the chamber's of the Origin Industries CEO, and a long time coming for Weiss. She barely got a chance to meet the man behind her beatings, and she wanted a little chat.
"Looks like you all didn't get the memo." Mercury spoke from behind the group, arms crossed as Emerald stood at his side.
"Stand down." Blake demanded, hand on her blade. "Weiss, stay behind me."
Weiss nodded and took a step back, Saturn drawing his blades.
Emerald smiled. "This should be fun."
"Indeed." A woman in red appeared behind the two minions. "Let's give our host a good fight."
On Cinder's final word, a barrier of reinforced glass appeared behind Blake, locking Weiss out of the arena they had formed. Blake turned immediately and slashed with her blade to no avail.
"It's Dust infused." Menteur commented as he appeared from behind his desk, arms clasped behind his back as he looked Weiss over once more. "I am still unimpressed. You managed to slay Gods yet here you stand weak and battered."
Weiss winced as a sharp pain threatened her arm where she had fallen on, gritting her teeth as the Faunus before her stood composed.
"Hang on Weiss!" Blake shouted before a clash of blades drew her attention to the trio of warriors before her, Saturn holding off both Mercury and Emerald on his own.
"I could use some assistance!" Saturn grunted as he smacked Mercury aside, focusing on Emerald.
"Come, dear Huntress." Cinder spoke as her eyes flashed with power, smiling towards the cat girl. "Witness the extent of the Fall."
Weiss used her rapier to stand, looking over her opponent with a look of defiance. Sure she was tired and hurt, but she refused to go down without a fight.
"The Collective will resurrect the White Fang, Schnee." Menteur threatened, pulling forth a long combat knife. Weiss was taken aback suddenly as he turned the blade on himself, cutting a line in his upper torso. Blood dripped to the floor below as he grunted in pain, beginning to laugh soon after.
"You refuse to show your powers." Menteur smiled. "Let me show you mine."
Menteur groaned in pain as his body morphed drastically, his bone structure changing grotesquely as he shuttered. Pale white bone pieces exited the wound, the size and shape of a sharks tooth, hovering in the air in a perfect line. Defying gravity, the shards of his being snaked through the air with ease, coming to a rest in his palm in a coil,
"My Barrage will take care of you, and your friends." Menteur howled a laugh, smiling towards Weiss. "Let us begin."
Coming Soon: Chapter 11: War