Ronac had failed.
Failed to kill Camerin.
Failed to avenge those who he had killed.
He clenched his fists and cursed under his breath.
Beside him was Gloden. He'd pressed the autopilot button and was letting Lucy drive. At a glance he looked fine but upon closer inspection, he did not look good. His face was growing pale and he was leaning on his left side a bit.
"Hey Gloden. You ok?" Asked Ronac.
"Is Camerin dead?" Gloden asked back.
Ronac shook his head. "No. Unfortunately. He had a robotic arm. Even without his armor he is too powerful."
Gloden's head rolled back and he closed his eyes. "Dammit. He's prepared for everything isn't he. I'll see if i can track the dropship and fin-EGH!"
Ronac got out of his seat and leaned over as Gloden's entire body convulsed.
"Gloden? Come On tell me what's wrong." Ronac said with concern.
Gloden tried to speak, but his face just scrunched up in agony. So he instead rolled over to show his left side. Stillman, who was watching from the back, inhaled as she and Ronac saw that a large chunk of Gloden's side was missing and bleeding everywhere. It was unmistakably a Grimm bite. Ronac had seen far too many while he lived in Grimm Territory.
"How is he alive?!" Stillman asked in surprise.
"Heh. Good looks and… Pure willpower?" Gloden joked as Ronac applied pressure to the wound.
"Lucy. Tell Dil to get ready. Gloden can't keep running on good looks forever." Ronac ordered.
"What? Me?" Said Stillman now confused.
"Already have." Said Lucy. "And no. Not you Ms. Stillman."
Stillman looked around. "Then that voice is coming from… Oh. An AI. That makes sense."
"Huh. She figured it out. Maybe i won't ridicule her behind her back as much." Lucy said openly.
"Hey!"
"Guys. Let's just focus on keeping Gloden alive. You know. Because he's BLEEDING OUT!" Ronac said irritated.
"There should be a kit somewhere in the back… No… Front?" Gloden was losing it.
"Backseat right under Ms. Stillman." Lucy said casually.
Stillman looked under her seat. Sure enough there was a metal medkit. She grabbed it and handed it to Ronac who began tearing it apart and pulling out bandages.
Ronac wasn't great with this kind of thing. But he thought he did a pretty good job as he covered the wound with bandages.
"Do us all a favor and… Ugh… Blindfold the girl. It's just a precaution. I'm not about to… Take risks." Gloden whispered.
"What? Why?" Ronac asked.
"The slight possibility of Stillman being a spy ya dingus." Lucy said privately to Ronac through his mask. "We can't afford to compromise our location. If it hasn't been compromised already."
That was right… From what Ronac had done today, he might be able to make the connection that he was attending Signal. And that would lead him to everyone else. Crap. He looked up at Stillman. "Sorry but, before we go any farther i'm going to have to blindfold you."
Ronac got worried that Ms. Stillman might protest, but instead she just sighed. "Ok. Let's get this over with."
"Um… You're ok with that?: Ronac asked confused.
Stillman shrugged. "Well i had to do something similar to someone else way back when… Well. What i'm trying to say is that i prefer it to the trunk of the car."
Ronac quickly checked to make sure that the bandages weren't see through. Then crawled to the back and blindfolded Stillman. After making sure it was on right, he crawled back to the front and checked on Gloden, who had passed out. Great.
That's when the car pulled up in front of the mansion. Both Dil and Tulipa were waiting outside. Dil ran up with a stretcher and Ronac helped Gloden into it.
"He isn't going to last much longer. Tulipa! Help me rush him in!" Tulipa answered Dil's call by picking up the stretcher and running into the mansion. Dil followed close behind. "Hey! Gently!"
"No time!" Tulipa replied.
Ronac was about to chase after them when Stillman said. "Hey! Don't forget about me over here. Still blind."
"Oh." Ronac turned around. Stillman was out of the car and standing there patiently. "Ok. Just follow the sound of my voice. There's not much to trip on out here."
He really wanted to see exactly how badly Gloden was wounded and to figure out what had caused it, but this girl was important as well. Stillman followed Ronac, who whistled occasionally to tell her where he was. She almost smacked into the wall next to the door, but made it in. Once inside, Ronac closed the door and removed the blindfold.
Ms. Stillman's eyes flew open. "Um… Wow. Way better than i thought it would look." She said looking at the shiny surfaces and decorations of the interior.
"Than you thought it would look?" Asked Ronac. "Perhaps i should question you before bringing you farther in. We may not have had time earlier but we do now."
"Ok. Fire away." Said Stillman looking unconcerned.
"So first off. What do the Templar's want with you?" Ronac asked.
"Have you heard of a man named Warren Vidic? Well i was once a colleague of his. We worked together on a thing called the Animus Project. I don't know for sure why he wanted me back, but my best guess is to continue that same project." Stillman answered.
The Animus? That thing that Ronac swiped from Abstergo Tower? She also worked with Warren. If nothing else she could be useful. "How about-"
"I think there's a simpler way to do this." Stillman interrupted. "Let me just start from the beginning…"
Ms. Stillman told Ronac about herself. How she was born into the Assassin's order from another world. She told him about how she infiltrated Abstergo industries and worked on the Animus project under the supervision of Warren Vidic. How she eventually broke out a man named Desmond Miles and searched for a "Piece Of Eden" and got to it before the Templar's did. However, she said that the "Apple" manipulated Desmond's mind and made him kill her.
She then ended up in the Mist. But unlike Ronac, she didn't meet anyone. Instead the Mist seemed to shun her very existence. In her off time, she said that she thought of something. She didn't say what it was, but Ronac had a sneaking suspicion that it was that "Show" that Warren had mentioned earlier. She then ended up here. In this world. She had no idea what to do next, and figured that the Assassin's and Templar's didn't exist. So after creating a fake citizenship and creating a fake background, Stillman decided to see if she had what it took be become a Huntress without an aura or Semblance.
This was a lot for Ronac to take in. So neither Dil nor him were crazy. Another world did exist. If Warren wasn't proof enough, this was. And the Animus, that thing he'd picked up from Abstergo tower, was a machine that allowed you to visit the past?! Plus Stillman knew how to build it! The things that Ronac could discover were boundless.
Stillman watched intently as Ronac passed around the room. After giving all this some thought, Ronac finally spoke. "The Templar's in this world have been at war with us for as long as anyone can remember. Just like your world. But this seemingly endless war almost came to an end. On my birthday… Last year. The Templar's found the Assassin camp. We were hiding in Grimm territory since the Templar's had enough resources to keep us out of the kingdoms. There were about 60-70 Assassin's in that clearing. After the Templar's attacked…" Ronac took a deep breath. "The only one left was me."
Stillman could only stare. Her expression was hard to read.
"Everyone i knew died that day. Until then i was just a kid, aware of the dangers of the world, but unaware of how merciless they could be." He paused, then smiled. "I was also unaware of the strange places you can find friends. Gloden. The one who was wounded. He built all this. He pulled together some of our allies, and we've just begun anew. And now, we're going to rise from the ashes of our defeat, and tell the Templar's that we are DETERMINED to defeat them. Because if there's anything i won't let happen again. It's something like that."
Ronac turned to the unmoving Lucy Stillman. "I know i have no right to ask you this. You've already given one life to the cause. But i MUST ask. Will you help us? We could sure use another person."
He was expecting Stillman to say yes, but instead, after a long, conflicted silence, she said. "I-I need to think about it."
Ronac sighed. "Very well. I need to get down to Gloden and see how he's doing. And since he can't currently give the house tour, can you show Ms. Stillman to her new room Lucy?"
"Sure thing!" Lucy said. "To the right, then left, down three doors is the guest bedroom. And i can assure you that the bed is WAY better than any hotel could ever provide. And don't worry about me peeking in on you. I don't have camera's in the bedrooms."
"Great. I'm being watched almost 24/7. I feel welcome." Stillman said sarcastically.
Lucy chuckled a bit. "Well it's better than what the Templar's would offer. I mean. Let's be honest. This is better than an axe to the face."
Stillman started to walk towards her room. "Is that really what Templar's are like in this world? I feel like you're stereotyping."
The conversation continued down the hall. Ronac stood in the middle of the room thinking.
Stereotyping…
"Hey. Lucy. Don't let her see the outside. And don't tell her were the secret entrance to the underground base it." Ronac ordered.
"Ok… You don't trust her?" Lucy asked.
"Well, and help me confirm my thoughts, an Assassin would have said yes to that. But so would a Templar spy who wanted to get all buddy buddy with us. The fact that she even needs to think about that decision is a sign that she isn't telling us everything. She spoke like she hated the Templar's as well, so wouldn't she jump on board the first chance she got?"
"I don't know. But you have a point. I'll keep an eye on her as best i can." Lucy said.
"Thanks." Ronac walked upstairs, down a couple of hallways, and eventually reached the seemingly pointless room containing the staircase down to the true base. The picture of Beacon Academy that concealed the button had been sliced in half making the school look worn, aged, and destroyed. Tulipa's doing. The secret door also had a stretcher shaped hole in it. Did she use Gloden as a battering ram?!
Ronac decided that it would be best to get to Gloden as soon as possible and ran down the stairs. Everything else seemed alright. After seeing what Tulipa did to the first door, Lucy probably just opened the rest ahead of time.
When he entered the medical bay, he saw Gloden laying on one of the beds. The top of his suit and his shirt had been taken off and had been hung on the wall nearby. The bandages that Ronac had applied earlier had been removed and instead the wound was covered in a yellow glow. Gloden's aura.
Dil was messing around with some machinery that kept track of his heartbeat, aura, and a few other things that Ronac couldn't read. Tulipa was leaning up against the wall next to Gloden's bed making sure not to get in Dil's way.
"How's he doing?" Asked Ronac as he walked up.
"I've managed to get his aura back up and stabilize him." Said Dil not looking away from the machine. "He'll be fine after he rest's for a bit, though, i don't know how he got this injury in the city. Lucy has failed to shed light on that."
"As soon as Gloden made a move against the guy his mask was destroyed. I don't know how, but anything that can move across a hallway and hit Gloden in far less than a second is a problem." Said Lucy.
"Far less than a second?" Said Ronac with a bit of shock in his voice.
"The recording i got was just a blur. Slowing it down 100 times doesn't even help. Ronac. That's fast." Lucy warned.
Ronac turned back to Dil. "So he'll be ok then."
"Well, wounds like this don't typically heal all the way and scar a bunch so Gloden might need some surgery to install some cybernetic parts. Other than that i predict he'll make a full recovery." Dil answered.
Ronac nodded. Then turned to leave. Before he left he took one last look at Gloden. He looked rather peaceful. But Tulipa didn't seem so relaxed. She just leaned on the wall and stared at nothing as if she were a ghost with no emotion.
He clenched his teeth and left the room. "I'll be in the armory if you need me."
Ronac knew what he had to do. He'd been defeated today, but he refused to suffer a loss like this again. To prevent this, he'd have to get a bigger gun. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, his mother's ice pistols were not going to cut it. Sure, for taking someone down without killing them they were great. But for Camerin or a hard to kill Grimm, they were just blowpipes. He needed something explosive. Really explosive.
"Now." Ronac said to himself as he entered the armory. "Where to begin?"
"Um. Are you sure about that Ronac?" Lucy asked.
Ronac had walked into the training room and requested the highest difficulty.
"I just spent the last 5-6 hours exploding trying to make the ammo for these things. Just allow me to test them." Ronac said.
"Fine. But only because i want to see you explode more. It's entertaining." Lucy replied. "Gloden installed some pretty dangerous stuff here. So be carefull."
The training room was very similar to the one Ronac used aboard Ironwood's ship. The only real difference was that there wasn't a food dispenser off to the side. That, and Penny wasn't striking up a super awkward conversation.
"Start it." Ronac ordered.
"Ok. This simulation is just named 'A Big Mess'. Basically you're in an open area with Templar's, Atlas military, and some pretty nasty Grimm types. They're all actually just robots but you get the idea." The room's walls opened up and what seemed to be an army of robots stepped into view. Most of them were the familiar Atlesian Knight-130 models and a few Spider Droids. But there were some new things. Like the giant metal Deathstalker and other robotic Grimm. And was that a robotic copy of Camerin's armor? "Oh. And the safety is off. They'll kill you if you let them. Please don't get eviscerated. It's… Painful."
Well that was just great. Ronac was having second thoughts about this.
All the robots moved around the room and took their positions. Some seemed to be about to fight each other while other's, like the Camerin bot, were facing Ronac.
Wait. Where were all the props? Usually there were barriers to take cover behind. Was he really about to fight all these robots right out in the open? And did he hear Lucy whistling innocently over the intercom? His new weapons better work…
"Well isn't your heart rate increasing… Ok. Simulation begins in 3."
Ronac clenched his fists.
"2."
There was a robot Beowulf and Griffin to his left. It looked like they were going to charge him.
"1."
Not to mention the Camerin bot to his right who had already raised it's oversized axe.
"0! Dodge this!" Lucy said with excitement. But also with a hint of sadness.
Ronac reached inside of his robes and grabbed two newly made revolver's that were strapped to his chest. He pointed them at the two robot Grimm who were now charging him and fired. Two explosive shots flew into them and his targets were next to blown out of existence. Only a few scraps of metal remained.
He turned to the Camerin bot and barely dodged it's axe as it slammed into the ground right where he'd been a split second earlier. Ronac tried to fire his revolvers off again, but received a few shots to the back informing him that some of the Atlas military had taken notice to him.
Chaos had consumed the room. Everything was blowing everything else apart, but there were so many that their numbers didn't seem to decrease. Ronac had no time to think about this as a Griffin came from above and tried to chomp of him. Again, he was forced to move out of the way. The Griffin slammed into the ground and at the same time was hacked clean in half by the Camerin bot.
This was crazy. Ronac could already tell more enemies were closing in. At that moment he remembered what Ms. Maryland had said. Echolocation. He hadn't used it in combat a lot. Usually just to figure out where the cookie jar was hidden. But if he used it correctly then he could tell what his enemies were doing at all times without a need to look at them. It was actually quite brilliant.
Ronac back-flipped to avoid a horizontal swing from Camerin and looked behind him to see a bunch of 130's get massacred by a Deathstalker. He fired two shots into the Camerin bot and to his surprise the shots actually dented the armor. Wait. Why was he surprised? Of course Gloden couldn't re-create the pure invisibility of that armor.
He tried sending out an echolocation wave. The information he received was colorless and only appeared for a brief instant, but it told him that the Deathstalkers tail was coming down on him. It missed Ronac by a hair and embedded itself into the ground.
Wew. That was close. He'd thought that the Deathstalker was still preoccupied with the 130's. This was actually working.
Ronac spun and shot the barb on the Deathstalkers tale. The explosion ended up sending Ronac flying a few feet. When he looked up from where he now lay, the Deathstalkers entire tail was gone. These guns weren't bad. He just needed to not use them in close quarters.
Deciding it was time to test something else, Ronac pointed his right arm to the ceiling. His newly fixed Hidden Blade now had a grappling hook attachment. He flicked his left wrist, of which was pointed at his feet, and heard a few thumps. Then he shot his grappling hook into the ceiling and shot up at an alarming speed.
Below him the Deathstalker and a Spider Droid rammed each other at full speed. Ronac smiled and flicked his left wrist again. Both robots exploded. He had left a few grenades on the ground before he had grappled. His left Hidden Blade was now equipped with a mini-grenade launcher. And it was working great.
He realized that he was just about to slam himself into the ceiling and detached the grappling hook. Ronac flipped himself so he landed feet first on the roof and pointed his revolvers to the ground. He fired in a circle around the explosion created by his grenades and sent robot parts flying everywhere. He continued to fire as he fell from the ceiling and landed on top of a 130 crushing it.
Now he was feeling good about his chances. Everything was working extraordinarily well. It was time to get serious about wiping the floor with these hunks of metal.
"Huh. Very well. You leave me no choice but to increase the difficulty more!" As soon as Lucy said that, every robot stopped fighting each other and started running towards him. Yep. It was time to get serious.
Using echolocation to track everything's movements, Ronac pointed his grappling hook at one of the far walls. He smiled happily as his grappling hook impaled a Beowulf that got in the way. Ronac was pulled towards it and kicked the upper half of the Grimm robot off. He then used it and his remaining momentum as a surfboard.
Ronac slid through the sea of robots firing his revolvers wildly. He was like a tornado of pure explosive power! Once he started to slide to a stop, Ronac fired at his feet and sent himself flying into the wall. He collapsed to the ground and flicked his left wrist yet again. Everywhere Ronac had been suddenly exploded into ice and froze everything it touched.
By now Ronac had destroyed the majority of robots, but there were still a sizable amount in the room. This was a bit on the fly but he wanted to test the true potential of his echolocation. And he knew just how to do it.
The Camerin bot was nowhere to be seen, but everything else was charging him. After blowing most of his surroundings up however, they were a fair distance away from Ronac.
He decided to re-load. Ronac had designed his revolvers to fire 24 times each, but he had lost track of how many times he'd shot thus far. Better safe than sorry. The chambers of his guns ejected themselves and the empty cartridges flew out and fell to the ground. Ronac reached into his robes, took out two more cylinders filled with bullets, and slammed them into the chambers.
"You certainly got an upgrade didn't you? Don't get too cocky though. You're far from out of the woods." Lucy warned.
"Oh really? How about i do this with my eye's closed?" Ronac taunted. Then closed his eyes.
As he had suspected, even with his eye's closed, he could see just fine using his echolocation. Detail and color was impaired, but at least he knew where everything was.
He brought up his revolvers and fired destroying two enemy in front of him. Then brought them to his sides and destroyed two more. Then the back. Then all around him. When he sensed that there was nothing left to shoot, Ronac opened his eye's to find there was nothing left of the robots except for dust and metal scraps. The only thing left standing was him, and the Camerin bot at the far end of the room.
The Camerin bot didn't move. He just stared at Ronac with his soulless, rectangular, white eyes. This wasn't very robot-like. It was almost like Camerin himself was in the room giving him the evil eye.
"Are the combatants ready? Ok. FIGHT!" Lucy sounded like she was enjoying herself.
Fire shot out from the Camerin bot's back as it's jetpack turned on. It shot forward and rammed Ronac. They both flew across the room and slammed into one of the walls making a huge dent in it. The impact left Ronac dazed. His aura had just been halved.
Ronac wasted no time firing his grappling hook at the ceiling and getting away from Camerin. He used the momentum from firing his revolvers to propel himself to the opposite side of the room, only to find the Camerin bot waiting for him.
Camerin was using his jetpack to move across the room at an impossible speed. For the robot's mass and weight, it shouldn't have been possible for it to move that fast.
Ronac grabbed the large axe as it swung close to his head and used it to swing into the air above camerin. He showered the robot with bombs and Camerin disappeared in a cloud of fire, ice, and smoke.
After Ronac landed, he aimed his revolvers and waited for the smoke to clear. Once it did, he saw what had happened to the Camerin bot. Most of it's armor had been blown away leaving it's blackened robotic insides exposed. It was also frozen in place and unable to move.
"A disappointment that was." Lucy said with a hint of boredom. "Gloden obviously wasn't able to replicate Camerin's toughness. Oh well. I guess i'll just have to do the job myself."
"Wait… Yourself?" Ronac asked.
Lucy responded by opening the walls. Behind each of them were a wall of guns that automatically aimed themselves at Ronac. "Sorry. But in this simulation your worse enemy is me. That means the training room itself. Let's see you dodge th-"
Lucy was interpreted as the guns flashed yellow and then exploded. Ronac looked over to see Tulipa standing at the entrance. Her ropes had extended to cut every gun in the room at once.
"Woah hey! Interference!" Lucy complained.
"Yer the one who warned me about this." Tulipa said. Ronac couldn't see her eye's beneath her hat, but he didn't need to too tell that she wasn't very happy.
"So i did. That doesn't mean you should go chopping up my arsenal!" Lucy said irritated.
"Ah quote." Tulipa tried her best to imitate Lucy's voice. "Hey Tulipa. Ronac just walked into the training room an is trying to run the hardest simulation. The safety is turned off and ah don't think he can do it. Can you go save him?" Tulipa cleared her throat. "Aren't you glad i came Lucy? You sounded like you cared if he died. As do I."
"What? No. I'm an AI. I don't care about those things!" Lucy said defensively.
"O'really?" Tulipa said suddenly getting a smug look.
There was a pause. "If you two will excuse me, i have to go make repair's. I think my personality matrix is breaking. Simulation end!"
Ronac was sprayed with confetti and a banner with the words "You're winner" fell from the ceiling. "Well i guess that's that." He said turning to Tulipa. "Thanks for th-"
"Idiot!" Tulipa suddenly shouted. "We're already ah man down. We don't need ya gettin yerself killed to!"
Was it is ears playing tricks on him, or did Tuplia's southern accent get thicker when she was angry?
"No. Don't apologize." Tulipa said as Ronac opened his mouth. "Next time, just be careful. An think about the concequinces of yer actions. Now ah'm goin to get some sleep. I suggest you do the same." And with that she left the room leaving Ronac standing there. He hadn't even gotten to say anything.
She had a point though. Gloden was already hospitalized. The last thing they needed was for him to get killed or injured. And sleep sounded like a wonderful idea. He'd spent the past 8 hours building weapons. Not to mention the two fights he'd gotten into today.
Ronac holdered his weapons and left the training room. He walked all the way back upstairs to his room in the mansion. He took off his robes and weapons and left them on a table in the corner, then walked towards his bed.
Before he reached it, he looked over to another table with a computer on top of it. The screen displayed blueprints for the Animus. In Ronac's spare time, he'd been trying to make sense of them. Now that Stillman was in the building, they might be able to build it. But what caught Ronac's eye was the small box at the bottom of the screen. It read (1) New voice message from: Adam Taurus
Ah. That's right. Adam was pretty clear on the fact that he wanted to work with Ronac. On what he was uncertain. But an ally like the White Fang could be beneficial.
But Ronac wasn't in the mood to read it. He'd do that in the morning. Right now he was exhausted and need to sleep.
Ronac collapsed on his bed. It didn't take him long to go to sleep. But Ronac did not dream.
Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted
Stay your blade from the innocent
Hide in plain sight
Never compromise the Brotherhood