GARC Chapter 10: The Enemy Within, a rwby fanfic

N•1 = N

-/|- = J

"I'm up." My answer was brief and simple, all purposes and intents expressed. It wasn't like the overly complicated Arcadian, and that was exactly how I preferred it. No "ums", no "uhs".

"Dad? Cyan?"

Cyan's room was located next to mine, while calling dad was just… oh, today was a Sunday. No work for him, then. Hearing only silence, I bolted up from the bed and grabbed a pair of shorts. Let's see… no response, which probably either meant that they were downstairs, or worse, gone because I was late. No, no. I wasn't late. It was only a little over 8, actually.

A minute later, I reminded myself why showering was one of the best parts of a morning routine… until it ended. The last drop of steamy, hot water rolled off my back and into the abyss of the shower drain. The glass door rolled away as I pushed it open, then graba towel to do the usual. A thorough check of teeth, some more hair products… and a touch of facial products. It never hurt to look better.

Not a moment later, the dread rose. My heart raced forwards, and I was compelled with overwhelming desire for company.

"Azure?" I cried. Come on, there has to be someone home!

...

"Violet?" I yelled.

No answer.

"Cyan?"

"Jane?"

"Bianca?"

"Mom?"

"Dad?"

"Jaune?"

"Jaune?"

Come back to us

Can't breathe. No talk.

"I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"

Air. Need air!

Stop. Dry. No.

Cut. Pierce. Metal.

Bleed. Open. Exposed.

Vulnerable, weak.

Taste? Bitter.

"Navy?" A blur of black slapped me on the shoulder, followed by another.

Something came into my room and turned to the black blur, and they conversed shortly, with one of them being slightly more excited (what they were trying to do was a mystery). Eventually, the blurs turned away from my line of sight, into the unknown.

Back to the room… Back to false realities and dreams, back to New Year's resolutions and hopes never to be fulfilled. Despite all these… insecurities, I found one thing about the dream to be disturbing.

Why couldn't I talk?

-/|-

Jaune sealed the final boxes of loot items, packing them into boxes for easier carrying. "Come on, you're stronger than this…"

The gunman checked his carry, a smooth pump-action shotgun built from Nevermore flesh. He considered painting the thing later with some kind of metallic spray, so people wouldn't freak out after seeing it. After all, his main income of firearms was going to be from Grimm, for now. It was best to have them at least considered a human weapon.

No armour, though. He was sure everyone within a good 2 kilometre radius had heard the whole fight, not to mention the sensors that had to be hidden throughout the fores. Grimm were destructive like that. He'd be shot on sight. Oh, wait a minute… couldn't the new armour teleport? Didn't it increase his stealth skill?

He face-palmed in his stupidity and equipped the armour, grasping the handle located within the cape for use of the abilities.

"Dash?"

Dash.

Jaune zoomed across the landscape, propelled by his semblance. The experience could be described as weird, but he didn't have anything to compare it with. It was like swimming in smooth feathers- did he just contradict himself?

Now, now, his mind reasoned. Time to get out. The ability was still on cooldown, so… Jaune shrugged. For all he knew, it was time to grind the DEX.

N•1

In reality, this would be quite different. A Sunday was what I liked to call the "extra-long-but-not-really-because-my-regular-ones-are-really-long-too-but-this-ones-like-two-hours-longer sleep-in. Thank you, come again. Because get this: I was pro at sleeping.

Which totally isn't- oh shit, here it comes.

One. Two. Three.

No?

Come back to us

Can't breathe. No talk.

"I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"

Air. Need air!

Stop. Dry. No.

Cut. Pierce. Metal.

Bleed. Open. Exposed.

Vulnerable, weak.

Taste? Bitter.

"Navy?"

Come back to us

Can't breathe. No talk.

"I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"

Air. Need air!

Stop. Dry. No.

Cut. Pierce. Metal.

Bleed. Open. Exposed.

Vulnerable, weak.

Taste? Bitter.

"NAVY!"

They were pulled into a blue inferno of energy armed with black strips, blasting through the wormhole at light-speed. Navy crashed through the wooden house and landed on a chair. They stared into the phantasm in front of them, dark blue in a dress of kimono, properly aligned with white mask and a beautiful hand fan.

"I must say, you're shorter than those other heroes."

[Welcome to the Game]

Neo inspected the little trimmings and edges of the white-blue screen, finding the colour of her soul hidden within the spectrum.

Oh? Don't tell me I was… no! This couldn't be?! How? I knew… I knew it all along…

We lived in a game.

Very simple, really. It was one of those open-world simulations, and we were all actually low-cost lines of code that only existed when you opened them up. And was I to suddenly gain a consciousness? Ohmygodwhataboutthepartswhereyoufeeldejavuisthatlikeacheckpointorsomething!

[Status/Abilities/Inventory/Options]

Neo tapped on the first option, but it had done so before she could press it. Some part of her told her that the interface read her thoughts.

BIrocken

Neopolitan "Creme" Arc

Lv 24, 21.7% (1628/7500)

HP: 270/490

SP: 140/610

AP: 1850/1850

STR: 42

END: 26

DEX: 40

INT: 22

WIS: 10

LUC: 13

Age: 13

Height: 1.44M (4'8)

Huh. Neo evaluated each of the stats, matching them with her strengths and weaknesses… although one question remained. Why was the STR higher?

STR score: 42

Limb: 28

Body Strength: 28

Flexibility: 71

Well, now that made a lot more sense. Neo tried to reach for the "x" button, but the immobility of her arms said otherwise.

Skills

Observe-(Permanent) Lv 1, 20%

Writing-(Passive) Lv 74, 90%

Sneaking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 5, 15%

Stealing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 2, 50%

Cooking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 13, 62%

Dancing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 2, 6%

Persuasion-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 10, 14%

Aura-(P/A)-(Rank I) Level 10, 98%

Hand-to-Hand Combat-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 38, 1%

Aura Channeling-(Active)-(Rank I) Lv 19, 9% Cost: 10AP/^/sec

Crafting-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 22, 7%

Running-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 41, 49%

Okay… so my life was sorted into skills? So cool! Wow, was this like one of Jaune's games or something else entirely?

Speaking of games, Jaune had a few comments on that.

"Screw off, you mobile pleb."

Did this mean everything was going to be easy? Was this the reward for surviving? I was alive, right? Not in the afterlife or an alternate universe?

My head hurts...

Neo and Navy scrolled down the screen.

Merge-(1%)

What was merge? No, seriously. Everything else was crystal clear, while Merge completely disobeyed the rules.

[Traits]

Arc Heritage-(Female): Created from a family forged in dust, +500 to starting AP and +50AP per level.

Arc-(Trainee): Training in secret is an act of disobedience, but training nonetheless. +1 to all STATS and +10% XP skill gains speed.

Arc-(N/A): Without the privilege of being able to carry down the name, your Arc ancestors curse from above- and below.

I flinched when reading the last two traits, something about the lack of privacy being strange. The last one was something to be frowned at, though. Why would anyone be angry that someone can't "carry down the name"? They did know that the last-name change had always been completely optional, right? Was I incompetent or something?

Neo ignored the mystery of the situation and found nothing else within the confines of the game screen. Perhaps it was time for action, then? She tried to grasp the knife from her inventory and cut the restraints free, but injury was injury. Aura could fix it, but the process wasn't…

HP: 278/460

HP: 279/460

HP: 280/460

Ok, never mind. It was fast enough. The only real problem was…

Status:

[Status]: Semi-Muteness

An unfamiliar feeling of dread washed over me, and I couldn't help but gulp, despite how strange the sensation felt now. It was like… it was sliding past a different passage. This was temporary, right? Like all status effects? I nudged the ailment with the outer rim of my head cast.

Semi-Muteness-(Permanent)

?-?-?-?

Permanent? What… how? I was at a loss for thoughts, and I hurriedly tried to speak. This couldn't be real!

My worst fears were confirmed when all I heard was a series of growls and groans, as if there was both a physical and mental block stopping speech. Just… why? Under whose fucking plan, which omnipotent god's rule had decided this was alright? I felt a lone tear trickle into the underwear of the cast, darkening the room's light.

"Your friends have abandoned you, human."

Fuck that guy! Madness overcame me, and I struggled to break free. I bit down on my tongue. Hard.

Ejecting…

My bones shifted and turned in place as I felt stiff, cold… things travelling around my bones and joints. Every few seconds, something would "pop" up and eject from my bones. I bit back a cry when one of them grazed along my spine. I noticed one of the sources, swimming up under my skin with the likes of a thin worm.

They all eventually converged on what was probably my right arm, jumping through my skin and breaking apart the cast with the precision of a surgeon. Then I had realized.

The Game.

It wasn't evil. It didn't bring this curse to me. The Faunus did. The Faunus that attacked Vale's national festival in May, or whatever damn month it was now. The Game was only the guide. Yes, it would help. It was the gift of revenge, and I was not going to skip out on it. What if I had waited and returned to Ansel? That's right. Forever treated as the fucking boot scrap, a device of pity, and pity was for the weak.

And I, Navy Arc, was not weak.

Neo shook her arm free of the broken cast and restraints, and channeled a blast of white-blue aura into her arms. She turned to face her left arm and and ripped the medical product apart like paper, filling the room with soul-light. She moved the energy to her arms, but this time she imagined a hammer instead- and slammed her fist into the leg casts.

Neo rid herself of the body cast, and flung it towards the warm window. With a hard sprinkle of glass, the civilians below screamed. She draped her sheets over the frame and leaped down from the three-story building, cracking the pavement slightly. The flowery hospital gown fluttered behind her steps, but the bandages concealed her features.

Civilians around the hospital all either stared or scattered off to their destinations, but their goals were irrelevant to her. Well, first step was to look like a normal person.

Wait… did they cut off my hair? Damn!

Neo stormed off towards the nearest clothing shop, kicking the golden-framed door open, not bothering to read the "closed" sign.

The woman inside the store looked up. "Can I hel… oh."

Favourite Clothes Shop

Lv 4

Cocoa Hall

The shopkeeper, or shopkeetress if you prefer, was a young woman of approximately 25, Pachean in appearance (the dipped hair was a dead giveaway), and bore a flashy, classy, outfit. She stood behind the cashier's desk, more surprised than anything. It was then that Neo decided to approach her. She made a visible effort, once she had fully realized her latest client, to hide her sweating palms.

"Ma'am… we're closed." The woman stuttered.

I wanted to say something witty, but held back. Instead, I turned to look at the clothes.

"You want… clothes?"

I gave her a thumbs-up. The woman's pupils contracted- but only slightly so.

"Can you pay for them?" She asked.

I shook my head, swinging the loose end of a bandage around. I just needed those clothes! But before she could speak, a new voice- a girl's, rang from the back of the store.

"Mom, what's going on?"

The girl hadn't made an effort to step into the actual store, but by the way her mother gripped the edges of the desk tighter, I imagined she was very close. The woman- Cocoa, turned and mouthed something along the lines of 'wait please' to me, before stumbling through the doorframe.

"It's just some business, honey. Go back to your room, okay?" The woman returned, breathing heavily.

Neo took it as a gesture of "go ahead".

I turned my back to the woman and headed towards the "children's" section, staring up at the high racks of clothing. I grabbed the first shirt I could find, heart already racing… Stealing wasn't exactly the easiest on the anxiety.

Then the socks…

Now, something decent and durable!

Neo shuffled through the shelves, finding neatly folded and packed. She had to give it to the shopkeeper, the woman was a master room designer.

Too bad she would be destroying it.

She unshelved a green pair of cargo pants, but froze when the sound of a scroll unlocking from its carry mode came from her right. She slowly turned her head towards the shopkeeper.

In front of her, Cocoa sweated, but steeled her resolve, thumb hovering only centimetres away from the "9" on her dial. Neo's world slowed down, and her hands shot out, shattering the scroll and breaking apart the fragile hands of the woman. A blood-curdling scream tore the woman's throat, but Neo would have none of that. With a wicked smirk, her palm landed on the neck of Cocoa, instantly taking out a large portion of her throat, and shattering the spine.

She was dead before her body hit the floor, and when it did, the sound of her daughter's footstep as she descended the steps matched the impact. Neo's lips curled into a smile, moving upon the girl to judge her fate. Like her mother, the terrified face of the girl was kept as Neo ripped the life from her body, staining the floor with crimson blood.

Neo joyed at the sight of her piece: Mother and daughter, souls gone to the after. She admired the way she had done it, making the most mess out of a simple machine, and to think it was only with her fist… beautiful!

I stumbled and crashed into a shelf, finally clearing the haze from my mind. The damn thing had started out of nowhere, while I was taking the pants. My right eye, the one that wasn't covered by the cast, finally cleared up, and I regained my vision. The only hope was that the woman- Cocoa didn't take it as a sign to hit me with a bat or something.

Phew… deep breaths, deep breaths… calm down, no panic, check for danger.

I jumped into fighting stance towards the direction of the woman, meeting a… wall?

I stood there, confused for a second, before realizing that I probably looked like some batshit insane kid in a hospital gown. Just… hopefully no one noticed?

What was that warm slimy thing on my foot? Please don't be piss…

[Item]: Blood-(Human Anatomy)

A red, sticky liquid used to transfer oxygen and nutrients present in most animals. In this case, human (Type A Negative).

I cried in surprise and jumped away, almost breaking the wall I landed against. Immediately, my eyes landed on the girl sitting against the wall, throat torn out. Had this happened earlier, I might have not recognized the injury at first, but my senses were clearer now, somehow. Immediately I rushed to her side, on my knees, trying to find a heartbeat.

"What happened to you…?" I asked, to both myself and the world.

I looked up and around her, spotting the gut-twisting visage of the woman, throat also torn out. I walked over and knelt down beside her, cupping her face in my heads and giving it a shake.

"Come on, wake up!" I cried. What was going on?

Who could have done this? I searched my pockets for a a scroll, my scroll, but the lack of it in the hospital gown made me clutch around for the woman's instead. I scratched my aura on the edges of the destroyed device, the flexible screen now flopped down to the hard floors.

I looked up, heart leaping. Before the glass pane of the shop, several terrified bystanders held their scrolls high, red light recording all of my movements.

"I… I didn't do it!" I yelled. Two fled, dragging their children with them.

Panic and terror overtook my heart, but there was still a semblance of planning. With a yelp, I flung a rack of clothes towards the windowed entrance of the shop, creating a cloud of dust and causing the rest of the spectators to move away. With what little time I had, I grabbed the most concealing things I could find and dashed out of the back door, through the apartment entrance, startling an old lady.

The Game equipped the items as I entered into an alley, trying to figure my next step. The air had gotten suddenly several degeees colder, with a wet and rainy feel to it. Grey walls and darker streets meant I was somewhere in the… less fortunate areas of Vale.

"VPD! Freeze!" My eyes widened and I continued my run, ignoring the dread of red-blue lights flashing against water.

BANG!

Two shots rang off and zipped past me, missing by only a few centimetres. I flinched and channeled aura, allowing me to turn to a different street instantly. There was a slam as the officers apparently… returned to the car?

Shit.

I picked up pace and ran across the city, making random turns every time I could. Onlookers either backed off or looked at me strangely, animal ears and skin twitching slightly in surprise. I was in Faunus town, wasn't I (or whatever they called it)?

Suddenly, there came this… urge. This uncontrolled desire to go up to them and… tear their throats out. I ushered the irrational thought, wasn't exactly a bright idea when you were running from the police.

It was gone for a blank two seconds, but it came back. It was like my mind had expected it. It felt so evil, it felt so chaotic. I became slightly worried, but didn't stop running and pressed down those strange demands. What was going on?

It answered.

It was like a foreign takeover, the right side of my sight became assaulted with searing red-hot pain, blocking it. Blood rushed like tears, and the "feeling" bit at me, my muscles shaking in response. It travelled down the right of my throat, to the shoulders, formerly my shoulders, and spread across my right arm, jerking itself towards the unprotected, tender flesh of a boy's throat.

I raised my left and grasped the right, stopping it from moving. It twitched in my arm like a wild animal, and the boy sped up his walking pace, out of the arm's sight.

LEt mE TaKe cOntRoL

The words flashed across my vision on the background of a black surface infested with red veins, and I smelled the metallic trickle of blood running down my lips.

ReSIsTaNcE iS fUTiLE

A phantom pain seized my stomach and I rolled to the ground, the fight becoming more and more akin to tackling a Goliath.

sToP TRyInG

I jumped up and wrestled the "demon" into an alley covered in graffiti. The words on the walls twisted into its messages, all with the apparent intention of forcing the takeover. The force sent me flying into a brick wall, though I regained my footing, taking a little damage from the impact.

Adrenaline continued to rise, prompting me to gain back control. But when I got stronger, it did. When I tried harder, it did too. I was… fighting myself.

Time slowed down as the blaring sirens of the police vehicle became apparent to my ears again, getting louder and louder with each passing second. With all the strength I could muster, I pushed the thing off me and continued to run, shaking violently.

"This is the Vale Police department. Stop or you will be shot!"

I turned my gaze from the enforcers and looked to where I would run next, and…

Wait.

"Dead end, suspect."

Reality came back as the wall stood tall in front of me.

But… it couldn't end like this! It wouldn't!

With a silent confirmation between the officers, they trained their rifles onto the girl before them and held down the triggers, firing burst after burst of nickel and lead towards her.

Navy Arc died approximately on the sixteenth shot when her aura shut down completely and failed her, bullet holes shredding through muscle and skin with the ease of a hole puncher.

When the gunfire died down, the officers looked at each other and shared a silent confirmation.

Just another day in Faunus Town.

A/N: Alright, some new stuff. In an experimental format, of course. Please tell me if you thought that:

what is this fucking stupid format, i'm confused. Stop switching POVs.

It was alright.

I researched a bit into muteness, and it turns out a good percentage of them choose not to speak, even if they can… Strange, but it inspired me to build further into the mute Neo subplot. If you guys don't know, Neo is actually getting a voice actor. Which is bad news… I hope they only use it in flashbacks, in case my prediction that her apparent inability to speak is caused from physical or mental trauma is correct.

Anyways, please do not assassinate me for expressing my political opinions, I am Canadian and I will fucking apologize to you, motherfucker.

Oh, and there's something important I learned in politics: if you repeat a lie three times, someone will believe it.

Here we go: GARC is the best story ever.

GARC is the best story ever.

My story will become a great piece of fan fiction.

You will review my story.

Edit: I NEED TO STOP FUCKING WRITING DIALOGUE FOR NEO COME ON BRAIN SHE CAN'T TALK