Not sure but warning anyway, it's not too bad in my mind but yeah people being killed and well I don't know what else.
It's reaching the climax soon now, three chapters where things really pick up and then one or two of the aftermath and the end, roughly anyway.
So slight error with Chapter 13, I was supposed to post that a few days ago but it didn't seem to have posted so I've done it today, Wednesday 5th August. Means this chapter will be delayed by about a day or two then, my fault so sorry.
Anyway please read and review, enjoy.
And as of 6th August 2015 I have finished writing the entire story and will be posted over the next few weeks.
"You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid."
― Michael Connelly, The Black Echo
Chapter 14-
As they finished up with the mission plan and everyone's objectives and positions they all went about getting ready and three hours later the students were boarding Bullheads.
Summer was waiting next to a Bullhead talking with a woman with long pink hair in a flight uniform holding a helmet in her hand.
Neo alongside teams CVFY, WBY and JNPR walked over to Summer and waited until she turned to talk to them.
"Hello everyone, this is Aria and she's out pilot and I'm your team leader, unlike the other student teams it's only us while the other teachers have larger groups to look after." Summer explained.
The other woman, Aria smiled at them and waved, "Hey guys, as Summer said I'm your pilot. Don't worry I'll get you in and out in record time and anything in our way, well I've got a big gun to deal with that. My co-pilot is already inside warming everything up another woman called Skye, don't worry you're in safe hands." The woman explained as she shook everyone's hand.
When they finished sorting everything out they all climbed aboard the Bullhead which was quick to start its engines and roar towards the large Atlas carriers in the sky, when they got on board the carrier they all remained inside the aircraft knowing it wouldn't take long to reach their destination.
Around an hour later they heard a siren start ringing around the entire hanger bay as pilots rushed back to their aircraft as technicians moved away to clear the landing pads.
Soon the entire hanger bay roared with the sound of engines powering up and coming to life as bay doors opened up to allow them to see the late afternoon sky, which didn't last long as the doors on the side of the Bullheads all closed, sealing the soldiers inside the aircraft as the compartment was bathed in red light.
With a jump the aircraft lifted up and pushed out of the hanger bay and into the clear sky, flying towards its objective as large amounts of aircraft filled the sky.
The flight time was minutes as they kept a straight course but as they got closer they heard muffled explosions outside the aircraft.
"Shit they've got AA, evasive action." They heard Aria shout out into her headset, as the aircraft started to move around and take steep turns and climbs as well as drops as they avoided gunfire.
When they heard the deep booming sounding of 40mm cannon firing from the nose of the aircraft they all thought they were being hit by the loud booming sounds.
"Shit, open side doors we need to get on the ground." Aria shouted to her co-pilot.
Neo watched as the side doors to the aircraft opened up allowing all the occupants have their first view of the outside sky, it was filled with smoke from explosions.
They watched as a Bullhead next to them was hit right in the belly with an AA round and exploded, falling towards the sky.
This made all the occupants except for four of them gasp out in surprise as they saw people die for the first time.
"What the fuck is that?" Skye screamed out as the White Fang base they were heading towards was covered in bright red light that almost blinded the pilots and everyone for miles around as the light spread out before suddenly coming back in on itself as all the outside defences started to explode.
"All stations, massive Aura energy spike. Abort mission I repeat abort mission." A voice came through, sounding like a radio controller sitting on the carrier.
Summer looked over to the two pilots as she saw the silent debate pass between the two of them as they decided what to do.
Summer and Neo both smiled when they heard Aria reply back to the message on an open channel to the entire air assault.
"This is Charlie Alpha Zero One, all stations disregard those orders. I have tactical command and all units are to move in and attack the base, air defences are down we have a clear run." Aria stated over the radio, not caring about high command.
Neo smiled but also looked confused towards Summer who answered her silent question, "Aria is the highest ranking officer in the first wave, so she has a better idea of what's going on in the field, meaning she has the authority to do that, although it'll piss off some people." Summer explained, she had picked Aria as their pilot for a reason but she was disturbed by the fact of the aura spike, especially the colour.
She hadn't seen something like that happen before but she knew that whatever it was, it was the sign of things to come.
"Get ready." Aria shouted back as the aircraft start to dip and dived down towards the ground before pulling up sharply near the ground.
Aria brought the aircraft just to hover a few feet off the ground while Skye flipped a switch so the compartment was bathed in green light but it was not needed.
All the students alongside Summer all jumped out of the aircraft, weapons drawn and running towards the large building.
As Aria brought the aircraft up she saw other Bullheads dropping off their passengers who all started to run forward, almost all of them were atlas military as the first wave was the most dangerous so they didn't want to risk the students.
"First wave down, send out second wave. All units remain on station." Aria ordered as she watched the Summer and the students run towards the building, 'Good luck' she said in her head, while bringing her aircraft around to cover the soldiers.
Minutes before the Aura spike.
"SCREAM!" Cinder shouted as she whipped Ruby again.
Ruby was silent as her body was thrown forward by the latest hit, she could feel the blood going down her back but she felt nothing else, her entire body was numb.
Her mind kept thinking back to Emerald's note and what it meant to call the sword to her, thinking nothing of it she turned her mind to Neo who was likely broken by her leaving and ultimately death in the end.
'Huh?' Ruby asked in her head as she saw a faint red light fading into her vision, confused she tried to focus on the light but it couldn't focus.
Then suddenly it flashed brightly blinding Ruby before her vision vanished from her and when Ruby opened her eyes she found nothing but blackness over her vision.
Suddenly in the darkness she saw a group of figures all standing around a prone Ruby, it was odd as Ruby watched from a distance but also up close as she was aware they were talking to her.
Ruby saw a figure wrapped in a black cloak, who she recognised as the ferryman who she saw in all of her dreams with Roman and the recent one with Coco and Velvet.
The figure was standing near Ruby while a group of three other tall, beautiful women were standing above the two of them.
"Charon tells us you have the strength, is this true?" One of the women asked, her voice musical and matched her physical beauty.
"Strength? What?" Ruby asked weakly as she looked up at them.
"What do you want most in the world?" A different one asked.
"I…I…I want to protect people." Ruby said, admitted her reason for wanting to become a huntress.
"What is it you want most in the world?" The same one asked once more.
Ruby gained more strength as she said, "I want to protect people." Ruby said more firmly.
"Do not lie to us girl, tell us the truth." The same one asked again, being more forceful.
Ruby laid on the ground thinking to herself, 'What do I really want?' It took almost a full minute for Ruby to decide her answer.
Struggling Ruby was able to push her tired body to stand up in front of them, on shaky legs and ignoring the fact she was naked in front of them all.
"I want Neo, I want the power to protect Neo and my family, my friends and everyone who can't protect themselves. I want to be able to protect people who can't protect themselves and help create a peaceful world." Ruby said firmly, staring directly into the eyes of the woman speaking to her.
The woman smiled as she looked down at Ruby saying, "Charon was right it seems." The woman said as she stood back.
The third and final woman stepped forward and looked at Ruby, "You have the will to do what is right and help your world. Do you want the strength to do this?" She asked.
Ruby looked up to the third woman her legs getting some power back in them so she could stop shaking, "I do." Ruby said firmly.
The third woman smiled as she stepped closer to Ruby, placing her hand onto the shorter girls head while the other two stepped forward and did the same.
"Then you share have the strength, burn brightly little rose and show the world your thorns." She said with a smile as the entire dark room erupted into bright red light, Ruby felt her aura which was depleted early on by Cinder's torture return to her and burn brightly and spread across her body and outside even further.
Ruby felt her aura increase in power, she felt everything around her and she felt guns firing on the surface of wherever she was, she didn't know what she did or how she did it but when she focused on the anti-air weapons with her mind, her aura latched onto the weapons and crushed them.
After destroying the weapons her aura came back into her body as she was suddenly given more power and she no longer felt tired or detached to her body and instead felt stronger than ever before as her wounds started to hell.
Ruby saw the three women were still watching her, smiles on their faces as Ruby asked, "Who are you?"
The first woman smiled as she said, "My name is Clotho."
The second woman to speak also smiled as she said, "I am known as Lachesis."
The last one who seemed darker than the other two spoke with a smile as well, which seemed odd on her face, "I am Atropos."
The first woman spoke up again telling Ruby, "We are the Moirai, remember your vow to us and we shall meet you again." The woman spoke as they started to disappear.
Next thing Ruby knew, she was standing up in the middle of the concrete room, Cinder was on the floor with her hands covering her face.
Ruby saw the chains that were holding her up had melted away around her and she saw that all her cuts were completely healed, although there were still pale white scars across her body, and she saw just on her breast over her head was what looked like a colourful tattoo but Ruby knew it was more.
It had a circle in the middle with two outward facing crescent moons and a star in the middle of the circle which in the middle of said star was a red ruby gem.
The red gem started to glow softly as Ruby looked down to see her mother's sword in her hand, she was distracted by hearing a groan from Cinder as she slowly started to get to her feet.
"Get up." Ruby said coldly, her voice holding no emotion.
Cinder looked up to see Ruby, completely healed with scars over her body and a new tattoo on her chest, but what she noticed was the sword shinning in her hand with red energy crackling along the blade.
Cinder immediately stood up as her natural instincts kicked in as she generated a pure black sword from fire as she swung towards Ruby.
Unknown to even herself Ruby's face smiled sinisterly as the two started to battle, and even though barely minutes before she was being badly beaten and whipped by Cinder, she was winning and even enjoying herself as she met Cinder blow for blow.
Five minutes later, with Summer and the students.
They had entered the building and fought for what felt like hours as endless waves of White Fang guards were charging them.
They took down every one of the guards easily as they knocked them out while Atlas soldiers behind them secured them as prisoners.
It seemed like other teams were making better headway as they heard that some even got far enough to be reaching the bottom levels.
For whatever reason all the guards seemed to be directed at Summer and the students while the soldiers went almost unhindered.
It wasn't until a radio call came through from one of the Atlas teams on the bottom level calling out saying, "We need a medical team on the bottom level, south-east side. We have primary target Charlie Foxtrot KIA and secondary objective needing immediate medical assistance."
For Neo and the others amongst the group it took a few seconds to realise what all of the meant and before anyone else could react, Summer was already running through the halls.
Her daughters scythe moving at unbelievable speeds as she rushed through all the guards in their way, Neo followed her quickly as the entire team moved through Summer's destructive path, ignoring the blood splattering the walls.
As they reached the bottom floor they found the concrete cell in which Ruby was kept, inside the room now was a team of medical personnel all crouching around a prone body.
Neo gasped out as she saw Ruby's pale face alongside her naked body filled with pale scars, immediately Neo made her way to Ruby's head, taking her head into her own lap, gently stroking the girls hair as she barely held back tears.
Summer had tears in her eyes as she took in her daughter's scarred body and the blood on the floor and the melted chains.
Confused as she tried to work out how Ruby was able to melt the chains and she saw her sword buried inside Cinder's chest who was lying dead on the floor with a large chest wound, but what surprised Summer the most was the fact that she was also beheaded as well, the head was lying on the ground a few feet away from the body.
Turning back to her daughter she had a sad look that her daughter had to kill at such a young age, it wasn't until she spotted the new tattoo on Ruby's chest did she stop, confused as to where it came from.
The tattoo were two crescent moons on either side of a circle with a star inside it, and in the middle of the star was a glowing red gem.
Her view of the mark was quickly cut off when a medic moved in her way to check Ruby over for wounds as a stretcher team came into the room to carry Ruby away.