Ummmmm... well, how do I put this... I stuffed up
Tempest: Stuffed up would be an understatement... try continuously failed time and time again because of your sheer idiocy and incompetence which only led you into more of a ditch than you already were in?
Yeah, that works. Well, after much deliberating I had gotten a chapter up a long time ago, but the main problem I had was that I accidentally began writing it at a later point in my plot's storyline, which meant I had left out a lot of explaining on just about every subject that was in the chapter, not noticing this at all until I was just about to upload it
Tempest: Because you're a dumbass
Yes, yes, I admit that... well anyway, the reason I spent extra time to release this is so that I could actually get a decent enough chapter out to you guys to make it not seem tacked-on like a Call of Duty DLC while at the same time actually fleshing out some of the characters to a point where I can continue the story to the point I've written it
Tempest: Well, as I keep saying, if you ACTUALLY spent time working on this then it MIGHT have been released a bit earlier
Well screw you, I have a life you know! I can't be spending all my spare time on this thing, I've got shit to do!
Tempest: You do realize how much of a hypocrite you're being uploading this when you're MEANT to be working right now!
Shut up you... ANYWAY, without further adieu as they do say, ON WITH THE SHOW! You can still submit OC's of any kind to me in Reviews or PM's, I'm happy to accept just about anything as long as it isn't story-breaking and all the OC's previously submitted have already been accepted are ARE getting added into the story... it is just taking me a long time to get to that point
Tempest: Even a long time would be an understatement! It's been like 2 months since your last chapter!
Look, I've had enough of your shit after the last chapter so would you PLEASE shut up! You do not know how annoying it was to write around your stupid little tack-on
Tempest: Oh come on, every good story has a little fan-service in it! I was simply appealing to the wider audiences of your readers so as to bump up the views!
AARRRRGGGGG, you are so annoying... well, so I don't have to hear him yap on any longer, I'll actually do what I meant to a few lines above... ON WITH THE SHOW!
Naughtbeast
Chapter 22:
The sharp grinding of metal-on-metal was the only thing that could be heard throughout the rented room of the Bannered Mare, the watchful eyes of the room's owner looking over the other's present from a vantage point on the edge of the training room, a mock fight being present in the centre of the main room.
"Keep your eyes up Kid, you aren't gunna block anything if you can see the sword!" came the gruff broken voice of Qrow Branwen as he offered his two cents to the fight going on.
"I know!" came the reply from a very out-of-breath Jaune who was currently trying to stay alive and not get skewered on the end of Myrtenaster as Weiss was practicing her fighting techniques without the assistance of Glyphs.
"Weiss, break your form for two seconds would you! You're Southpaw! That's practically a guaranteed win against anyone who fights right-handed!" came another shout from the other Branwen in the room, that of Hawk Branwen, more commonly known as Demon. His current attire being what he would consider a casual attire, which basically meant long, black cargo pants, a grey shirt and black combat boots to finish it off, with a red scarf wrapped around his neck, leaving his face finally uncovered as well, his red and silver eyes scrutinising his combatant's every move.
"GO WEISS! YOU GOT HIM!" Shouted Yang from the side, with both her and Ruby holding up the strangely appropriate 'Team RWBY' flags while shouting all of the encouragement they could, with Blake going just for the flag as she watched in silence.
"Come on Jaune! Remember your training..." spoke Ren calmly from the side, sitting in a Lotus position as he watched on, Nora practically bouncing up and down in excitement.
The point of their exercise was sort of a time-killer while Demon was apparently waiting for something and while the group as a whole was meant to be searching for Huntsman and Huntresses to aid them in finding the Spring Maiden or something. Demon had kept out of that as he was far too busy with his own agenda, but he couldn't imagine what they would need all that firepower for. The two Branwen's had taken to training the rest of the motley crew they had as they had the more experience than just about all that were present there and they knew that with the current level of training most of them had, they might stand a chance, but none of them would be able to take down any trained Huntsman or Huntresses.
"Weiss, attack from the left every time, he expends more effort to block from that side" Hawk advised, scratching his chin as he tried to analyse the fighting style that Weiss was going for. As he had expected, and was the reason behind the whole session, was because she used her Glyphs far too much during combat and relief upon the idea that they would be present, but wasn't as effective without them. This was accentuated by the idea that he already saw her spin the selection cylinder on her rapier to what was supposed to be ice dust and stabbed at her opponents shield, only to realise that it didn't freeze solid to allow her to come in for a quick finishing stab, only to have to jump back as a sword-slash threatened to end the match.
"Boy, her sword ain't meant for blocking, just keep attacking and you'll be fine" shouted on Qrow from the side-lines.
"If I keep attacking she'll just find an open..." began Jaune, faltering for a second which allowed for a brutal stab to the side while his guard was down, causing him to stumble back and for Qrow to sigh heavily.
"And make sure never to drop your guard" he added, taking another swig from his flask before rubbing his temple in annoyance. The exchange of blows continued as Weiss landed stab after stab, Jaune's reflexes being strained constantly to ensure his shield was blocking it each time, his constant defence stopping his own attacks from ever being able to penetrate her concentrated assault.
"Realised that you've backed the wrong person Uncle?" Demon stated as he continued watching, not once taking his eyes off Weiss as he analysed her attacks, before quickly tagging on a "no offense Jaune" at the end, receiving only a whimper again as the boy dodged the assaults from the Schnee.
"I ain't backing down against this little Ice Queen, she's going down... Jaune, go ahead and do what I talked about before" he said, the boy nodding with determination as he paused for a few seconds, refusing to back down as he solely defended. After a few quick stabs at the same point, he dropped his sword strangely and reached out, grabbing the hooks on the guard of Myrtenaster, pulling the weapon from her grip instantly and leaving a stunned Weiss standing there in disbelief, as was Jaune as his surprise set in for actually succeeding. Unfortunately for him, Demon was on it in an instant.
"Weiss, right pull disarm on shield and twist right arm for sword grab" Demon ordered, the Schnee snapped out of her stupor and performed said action. She reached out and practically ripped the shield away as an elbow went into Jaune's nose, causing him to stumble back, only for Weiss to step on his foot to cause him to trip, her shoulder hitting the centre of his chest to trip him to the floor. As soon as he hit, she grabbed him and turned him over onto his chest, pressing her knee into the small of his back and twisted his right arm behind his back, causing his grip to break and for Crocea Mors to rattle to the floor.
She began pulling his arm up to the top of his neck as it continued to twist at a completely unreasonable angle, the semblances of Jaune's confidence being destroyed instantly as he yelled "I YEILD!" the second he heard cracking from the joints. Weiss smirked to herself and stepped back up off him, nodding to herself as if giving herself the congratulations, while only realising a second later what she was doing. She cut her smirk and reached down to help Jaune up, offering her apologies as he groaned about the pains in his arm.
"Well, you learn something new every day... I never thought the Schnee would be able to do anything without her oversized sewing needle" Qrow conceded, walking over to Demon and shaking his hand, nobody noticing the sizable amount of Lien being folded into the palm which was casually moved into Demon's wallet as the hand-shake concluded.
"OOOOH! ME NEXT!" yelled Ruby, causing Yang to recoil slightly, the smaller girl shying away guiltily as her sister raised an eyebrow at her. Demon looked over and smiled at her, waving her over as the girl practically vibrated in excitement.
"If anyone's going to teach her how to fight, it's going to be her sister!" Yang interrupted, standing up and pushing her brother aside, earning a slight laugh as Demon happily let her take over, moving to a side table and checking on a laptop that was running there. He sat there fiddling with it for a while until Kira and walked over to begin looking at what he was doing. She watched on in silence as Demon was typing up a document that was what looked to be a large document of a large number of names in order, his mouse flicking back and forth across the documents as he clicked into them and seemed to change one or two words, changing the symbols of a few, most prominently to a black skull.
"So... what are you doing?" she asked, seeming to be annoyed as she casually looked up to watch the fight that was taking place now, Ruby trying desperately to land a hit on Yang who was side-stepping each attempt with relative ease, offering no form of attack of her own bar her annoying laughing.
"This is a document of a bunch of names that are important to what I am doing... more essentially, a smaller version of the Militia's Blacklist files"
"So, if I look in there, I'm going to find a comprehensive file on how to kill me right?"
Demon waited for a few seconds before he smiled back at her with a sly grin.
"Now why would I need that, this is a personal list... I've got everything I need up here" he replied, tapping his head and earning a kick in the shin from Kira. He waited for a few more seconds in silence, breaking it after he had finished up with everything. "So, what was the real reason you came over here?"
"No beating around the bush then... look, I just wanted to know, were the satellites the only thing you've done here or is there anything more?"
He could only sigh slightly at the question and dipped his head to look down at his own feet, stopping and contemplating how he should answer the question so that she would at least know what he was planning.
"Kira, what is the Militia policy for overcoming a superior force without prior assault?"
"Well, the first step is to establish an intelligence network to find their defence patterns or to find an inside source with which to undermine their command network. Then establish a large enough force from the inside their lines with which to run disruption or convert enough of the enemy's forces to our own cause to lessen resistance. After that we begin an assault on one random section of their controlled sectors with a stealth unit and begin taking out high-ranked officials while the enemy is distracted until we have complete control of that sector, then once resistance is crumbling we move to take the planet" Kira recited, the attack plan for their Assault Legion being all but engraved into her mind by now, the process already being second nature for a veteran such as her.
Even though she never partook in the initial 'invasion' per-se it was always fun to hear about how the spooks in charge would plan enough C4 to level an entire city block with enough precision that they could basically cause a smiley-face to appear above ground instead of simply destroying their target. Demon was nodding as each word was spoken and smirked at the end as he realised she re-stated it word-for-word on what was in the speech he gave to all new recruits on their tactics.
"Good, now, does that answer your question?"
"What do you mean? I asked... wait... you can't be serious"
Demon didn't offer anything as he brought up a picture folder on his laptop that opened to show several clippings of Newspaper headings for several globally prominent news sources. She took the device and looked at each, seeing some such as 'prominent Schnee official found dead in home' or 'Atlesian governor mysteriously steps down from position, no explanation given'.
"You've been..." she muttered to herself, flipping through each segment with wide eyes.
"I was being serious when I said I wanted to restore a Fifth Kingdom to this world. The four powers of this world are acting just as the New Earth Council was when Hammond Industries began taking control. They were too focused on political struggles until it was too late and Hammond had monopolised the entire Space-faring industry and they had lost their power to one entity. Once Hammond began twisting his control and turning his company into the IMC, they were powerless to stop his atrocities past what they were meant to. In this world, I refuse to stand by as the same thing is happening. Atlas is pushing far too forward with their Military research and that only creates more divide between the nations because even I can see their development isn't for more effective ways of taking down Grimm"
"You're kidding, right? What your talking about isn't as simple as breaking an IMC stronghold with your army! This is outright planetary domination! You don't have the resources or skills to pull this off without being dragged down with those who you want to get rid of"
"My methods are of little consequence... I'm doing everything so this planet doesn't get dragged into the shit-show that is the war in our universe! People don't need to die, and right now, this entire planet is fast-tracked into a civil war that I don't see ending with any side being victorious. The Grimm are far bigger a threat now than any other point in this planet's history and I can't sit by doing nothing"
"How could you possibly know that! I understand that you aren't exactly a noob when it comes to combat and tactics, but you can't be serious about taking control of a freaking planet!"
"Oh, so who would you prefer instead? Would you like it if the FREAKING GRIMM TOOK OVER!"
Kira took a step back at his sudden outburst, the sound of fighting stopping as the entire room dropped into silence.
"Hey, what are you two talking about?" called Josh, the Pilot walking over and pulling up short when Demon's dagger-like eyes darted to him.
"Nothing important, just a matter regarding the meeting earlier... it's nothing of your concern" he quickly snapped, turning back to Kira and muttering something under his breath as he broke off and shut the file programs on his laptop, moving to the exit of the room while everyone else still watched on.
"Hawk, why don't you relax a bit, you've been stressed for the past few days and you've barely had enough sleep" Rosaline brought up, her tone sounding more worried than anything, which was only compounded when the person he was addressing snapped around, about to say something, only to stop himself and shut his mouth immediately. He groaned and ran his hand through his hair, shutting his eyes to think for a few seconds until he admitted defeat.
"Yeah, I guess you're right... it's impossible to function without proper rest and I can't think straight with the compounded stress right now"
"See, was it that hard?" Rosaline quipped, a smile now working its way onto her face as Demon sighed again, walking to sit down, only for Yang to quickly grab him.
"Don't think you're clear just yet buddy, don't forget the best stress-reliever in the world! Fighting! Plus, I owe you an ass-kicking after you made those gauntlets of yours and I am yet to deliver, so prepare for pain!" she chastised with a noticeable red glint in her eyes.
Demon smirked finally and snapped his fingers at a nearby Spectre was watching, the robot reaching into its back-pack and taking out the armoured gauntlets that made up his normal armour, the boy catching them as they were thrown and threading them onto his arms, the metal making it up to his shoulders without the usual Sode and pauldron to accompany them, a set of large straps keeping the armour on his body as they criss-crossed across his chest to secure them without movement. Once he was satisfied, he punched out his arms so Law and Order both readied, the satisfying click of the weapon's rounds locking into place reverberating around the chamber.
Yang returned the gesture by readying into a boxer's stance as Ember Celica clicked into place as well, her gauntlets producing their trademark click of chambering. She flicked her hair behind her as the two of them circled slowly, eyeing each other with a critical eye.
"I should have you know, Law and Order have been 'slightly' modified since you last saw them..."
"Oh really, so they aren't EXACT copies of my babies anymore?"
"Hey, that hurts! I didn't mean to copy them to the letter in the first place, I just needed another weapon!"
"Sure, sure, now... get ready"
The two were once again back into the silent staring and circled each other with almost exactly the same stance, both of them stepping creepily in exactly the same time, neither willing to make the first move. That was, until both narrowed their eyes and propelled themselves forward with a solid kick off their right leg, both going for an absolutely colossal right-hook to the opponent's face, both impacting in sync as neither were willing to block to sacrifice their attack. Booms rang out as both weapons discharged to add to the power behind the punch, the two of them flying from the impact and hitting the sides of the arena, spider-web cracks lining the walls as they hit.
The watching audience all cringed at the power behind it and the pain both of them must have felt, but alas, the two of them stepped up from the rubble with smiles on their faces. A slight dribble of blood was coming from Yang's nose while Demon's mouth had a noticeable trickle coming from the left side, neither of them looking phased by the injuries.
"I have to admit, that was a pretty good punch" Demon said, his smile widening when he re-chambered another shot from Law and Order.
"Yeah, well kudos to you as well, although... I didn't know I was meant to be treating this like a joke"
"What do you mean, I thought we were going all out"
"So did I, but it looks like you're just waiting for the PUNCH line!" she quipped, a long and drawn-out groan coming from the assembled crowd, bar Tempest who was the only other person who laughed aside from Demon.
"Just get on with it you two!" shouted Qrow from the side-lines, the small kid that Demon had seen with him the past few days looking on as well with wide eyes. Demon and Yang locked eyes again and began circling. During the next moments, they both went in for feints, diverting their attacks at the last second, until both of their fists collided mid-air to form a reverberating boom as their weapons discharged. Both hoped to take advantage of the momentary confusion of the other that they believed would happen, so with their other arms, they fired off a shot at each other, hitting on point and sending the two of them back into the walls again in a fiery explosion.
"Is it just me, or are they a bit too evenly matched" Weiss asked off-handidly to Ruby, but after receiving no reply she looked down to see the girl sitting there looking strangely sad.
"Ummmm... Ruby?" the late-heiress spoke softly, the younger of the two looking up with something that looked akin to depression... only to make Weiss sigh when she actually spoke.
"Weiss, who should I cheer for!" she said as though it was the hardest decision of her life.
"Urgh, you dolt! Just pick one, it can't be that hard!"
"But if I pick Hawk then Yang'll get annoyed, but if I pick Yang then Hawk might get annoyed!" she said, explaining her troubles.
"Well then just pick Yang, she's far less annoying than your brother" Weiss said instantly, although a bit too loudly if she was to think about it.
"Awwwww, was that a compliment Ice Queen!" shouted Yang from the arena, a large smirk plastered over her face instantly at the teasing opportunity, the Schnee giving her a deadpan gaze before turning back to Ruby.
"Nevermind, pick your brother over the blonde brute any day"
"Wow Weiss, I didn't know you were that kind of person, although you'll have to fight Rosaline if you REALLY want to win him over" Yang teased again, making Weiss even more pissed off than she already was, which only mean Yang had to avoid only ten icy shards sent her way before Ruby managed to calm her down.
"Hey sis, get back in the fight, would you?" Demon asked, sending a few quick jabs at Yang, all of which were deflected with Ember Celica as he didn't use the shots to enhance the punches.
"I am perfectly capable of fighting while mocking the Ice Queen thank you very much!" she quipped back, sending her own punches at Demon which was tanked head on as he used his gauntlets as shields. The two were almost evenly matched so Yang decided to mix things up and finally use the edge she had. On the next punch that was sent her way, she didn't bother to block and absorbed the blow, activating her Semblance in a blaze of fire, Demon jumping back to avoid being scorched in the momentary explosion that happened to erupt from her power being released.
She stood there mockingly as she teased him with a few mock punches followed by her posing and winking at Tempest for some reason, but that didn't mean she wasn't ready when he went on the offensive. Each punch that he sent her way was either blocked and deflected, although the strange thing was that her blocks had so much power behind them that he was actually coming off worse when she did so. He re-evaluated his approach and began to focus more on take-down moves instead, hooking his leg around the back of hers and pushing her forward to trip her to the ground.
She caught on and obliged with the fall, bracing herself enough so that when she hit, she kicked up with her legs and set him flying over her as well instead of being in the prime position for punching. He was up as quickly as she was and both went to attack, but Demon made sure to twist to the side so he wasn't hit, lest he be trampled by the pure power that was her Semblance. Given that both attacking and blocking were practically out of the option thanks to that Semblance of hers, Demon knew he had little options other than to utilize his own. With a quick jump backwards, he ejected the magazines from Law and Order and slammed new one's home in under three seconds, being on the defensive again as Yang pushed so as to not give him time to think.
With new ammo, he quickly activated his own Semblance and teleported behind her, punching out with both fists and discharging shots, causing her to buckle forward from the force, the girl instantly turning around to pummel him in the side in an instant, Demon not having enough time to escape thanks to the committal to the attack and so was smashed by the force, his vision blacking out for an instant after he felt the brunt of the damage.
With another side-step he activated his semblance and jabbed at her right shoulder with two shells in quick succession so as to account for not using his other fist. She tanked the shots quite well and didn't even flinch from the impacts, although when she went around to trade blows again, he was gone in an instant, instead, two more impacts slamming into her shoulder blades from behind, a faint trail of smoke leading from where he would have been. She jumped back and fired two shots at the ground beneath her, the shots only adding to the raging fire of her semblance and looked to see Demon jumping away as well, his attack deemed not worth getting slammed by her missiles.
"Cheap hits right there, why don't you start fighting like a man!" she jeered, his smile growing wide as she spoke.
"Well, if anything goes by this fight I should be trying to fight like a woman instead!" he shot back, her smirk amplified by his comments.
"Damn right, now let's get back to finish this!" she said, her gauntlets ejecting their shells as she slammed new ammo belts home. They both began launching shot after shot from their weapons, the firey balls of energy colliding in the centre of the field between them, until ultimately the superior capacity of Ember Celica won out and Demon got hit with two shots. Yang didn't wait to give him another time of rest and rushed in, firing her gauntlets to propel her forward for a massive punch to the chest on Demon.
Once again, his vision blackened slightly, although this time he swore he could see some splotches of something within the blackness he saw, although he didn't have any time to think about it as he was trying not to get pummelled by Yang. Dodging was the only option he had, but with a larger body and bulkier weapons, he wasn't exactly doing all that well and with Yang, the glancing blows were beginning to take their toll. He activated his helmet with a thought-message and brought up the HUD instantly, seeing that his Aura wasn't handling the assault too well, although judging by how much Yang was huffing and out of breath, she wasn't handling it too well either.
He dismissed the helmet in an instant and began trying to see an opportunity of attack within her strikes, and once he spotted something it was almost too good to be true... and it was. As he went in for a strike, he paled instantly as he saw a grin come over Yang... and instantly regrated it.
The fist came from somewhere he didn't see, but by the gods he sure felt it. If he didn't have Aura his head would have probably been knocked clean off, but he didn't exactly get to feel it as he blacked out immediately on the hit, his body slumping to the floor limply in a heap.
"Wooooh, I win!" cheered Yang, her fist pumping into the air in triumph as she celebrated, only to look down at her opponent, causing her eyes to go wide. "Shit..." she swore, quickly dropping to her knees and checking his pulse, her held in breath being exhaled in relief when she still found it.
She opened his eyes to check for a concussion but recoiled again as his helmet phased into being just as she was about to check, his chest rising and falling quickly in his pseudo-slumber. The rest of the room quickly rushed over to his sleepy form to check on him, most of them being too timid to do anything.
"What'd you do Firecracker?" Qrow asked, more annoyed than serious as he had seen the fight taking place, knowing that without his Aura broken, Hawk wouldn't be seriously injured, let alone being hurt enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. By now, Yang was almost crying as she was having flashbacks to the festival, even if the 'pain' she had caused had just been Mercury faking it.
"It... I... just..." she couldn't form a serious sentence as Tempest rubbed her shoulders to console her, Yang's breaths becoming short and quick as she began to hyperventilate. Qrow came over and brushed away the Pilot, putting an hand on her shoulder while looking her dead in the eyes.
"Hey, pull it together... he ain't dead and I'm sure he'll be fine after this. Where did you hit him?" he asked in the calmest voice he could muster, ignoring the worried and wide-eyed looks of both Rosaline and Ruby who looked the most genuinely concerned for him. Yang couldn't string together an answer, so she just tapped the point on the back of Qrow's head, the Huntsman nodding in confirmation of something he had obviously thought of.
Although, before he could answer, the small farm-boy that had been following him around for a while actually spoke up, surprising most of them.
"He was struck in a pressure point that normally induces sleep, but since it was hit with that amount of force, it looks like he was knocked out instantly" he said in a strangely methodical manner, scratching his chin in thought. Weiss and Blake both cocked an eyebrow at him and looked at Ruby for answers, only for the girl to shrug, until it looked like he had an epiphany and made to speak.
"Oh, you guys haven't met Oscar yet have you!" she said, mentally face-palming herself as she realised she never introduced him. She looked down at Demon and decided to heed Qrow's words that he was going to be fine, and so stood up to introduce him.
"This here is Oscar Pine and he's travelling with us to help take down Salem!" she said cheerfully, both Weiss and Blake looking extremely sceptical.
"Not to be rude or anything, but is that really why he is here? He doesn't look... how do I put this? Ready to fight?" she said, slinking back as she realised just how bad it sounded. None-the-less the boy looked unfazed as he decided to reply for himself, rubbing the back of his neck in guilt.
"Well, yeah, I can't really fight, but what Ruby said is true... I'm here to help you with Salem. Well, not necessarily me... more like... yes, don't worry I was getting to that" he said, looking to the side as though he was talking to himself for the last part. Weiss looked at him with an even more arched brow, stepping quietly aside to Ruby and whispering to her.
"Are you sure he's... you know? Alright up there?" she asked timidly, Ruby turning to her and nodding.
"It's alright, just give it a moment"
By that time, the boy had taken a deep breath and looking down at the ground, seeming to shudder for a moment before he looked up again with a strange green glint in his eyes.
"Hello again Students" he said in a strangely familiar tone, the voice sounding almost as though two people were speaking at the same time, although it was nigh indistinguishable as to who they were. Both Blake and Weiss recoiled at that, looking at him strangely, their mouths dropping as they tried to comprehend what just happened.
"Wha..." Weiss began, stopping herself as she realised she didn't even know how to begin the question.
"I understand your shock Miss Belladona and Miss Schnee and it is quite well grounded... but rest assured, you already know me, albeit by another name"
The two of them looked more carefully at him and both their eyes went wide when they only just now saw the cane that was hooked onto the belt at his hip.
"Ozpin?" they both said, the 'boy' nodding in affirmation of their question, the both of their jaws dropping even further.
"It's a complicated story and one that I had hoped to share with all of you, but I'm sure neither of you can wait and I'm sure Mr Branwen will be fine with being informed afterwards... for now, let him rest... he's earned it"
Oscar/Ozpin beckoned them upstairs and gestured to Qrow who picked up his Nephew and carried him upstairs with the others, the group sitting around in the living area as Ozpin? stood at the head.
"Now, I'm sure all of you have questions and I will endeavour to answer them during this, but first... let me tell you..." he began.
Although, as all of this was happening, Rosaline was not paying any attention as her focus was on the crumpled form of Demon, the fact that she wasn't able to comfort him or at least help in any way eating away at her psyche. She was extremely worried for him, but still knew deep down that he would be fine, but even after consoling herself, she still couldn't bare being distracted from him even for a moment.
Even in her inability to help, the only thing that she could hope for was that he was having pleasant dreams.
Inside the mind of Hawk Branwen – Mind Link enabled
If anything, this had to be the strangest dream that Demon had ever had. He knew he had blacked out as soon as Yang had slammed him with that massive hay-maker and yet, the second he opened his eyes again he found he was looking at the crimson leaves of the Emerald Forest again, although from a much lower perspective. He tried moving something, but couldn't even feel any limbs to move, it was as though he was a spectator to his own body.
The strange thing was that he was a lot closer to the ground than he thought was normal, because if he was gauging this correctly, he wouldn't have been any taller than a foot off the ground. What was even more strange was that he couldn't hear anything either and the world looked... different. It wasn't as if it was grey-scale but there were colours there that he had sworn weren't normal. Not as strangely new as when he turned into a bird in his dream/time-travel memory, but things that definitely messed with his perception.
The almost camera-like viewing that he had now was moving at a reasonably fast pace through the forest, to where he couldn't quite tell yet, but he was certain from a strange throbbing where his ears would normally be, there was something much larger behind him, but given the speed at which he was moving, he doubted it was a predator.
After a few more minutes of bounding through the admittedly scenic view of the Emerald Forest, his view stopped as the thing he was seeing from came across a large river that cut across their path. Thankfully, though, the thing stopped and trotted happily up to the river, leaning down to begin what he assumed would be to drink the water. He wasn't disappointed as he began to hear the lapping of water enthusiastically, but more annoyingly, he was surprised by what he saw in the reflection.
What he saw was that he was seeing through the eyes of the Beowolf pup he had met during the Vital Festival. He could tell, thanks to the trademark fact that some of its fur was slightly tinted white at some of its ends and its eyes weren't the full red that they normally were meant to be for Grimm.
"Holy Crap..." he muttered, half to himself and half to whoever might be listening, the fact that this was all to real to be a dream dawning on him in that moment. What was truly shocking though was the fact that the pup bolted upright the instant he thought-spoke the words and looked around ferociously as if searching for the source.
"Wait, you can hear me?" he thought again, the pup's actions become more and more sporadic as their searching became irate, a deep growling emanating from its throat. The searching was interrupted by some colossal figure that lumbered up beside the smaller Grimm, the little pup looking up to see the absolutely gigantic form of an Ursa plonked down next to it. Demon recognised this one as well, his enforcer for the pack known as Rea'ksh. The little Beowolf began yapping at the bear in a timid and urgent manner, Demon's hearing going a bit blurry and muffled for a second before he began understanding it perfectly.
"... and then he said, 'can you hear me' or something like that, and it was SUPER scary!" said a young, feminine voice, obviously coming from the little pup, although Demon couldn't exactly tell because he couldn't see the thing's mouth moving.
"Are you sure it is not your imagination, young one? You do certainly have a creative mind..."
"Don't be mean uncle Rea'ksh! Help me look for the scary ghost!"
Demon snickered as he laughed at the fact that even Grimm were scared of things, something he never really considered even after finding out that they were almost the same as Humans.
"Hey, I'm not a ghost!" he interrupted, the pup jumping up in surprise and causing the Ursa look at the smaller Grimm strangely.
"There! Didn't you hear it!" she screeched, looking around frantically again, failing as always to find what she was looking for.
"Child, if this is some joke of yours, I am failing to find the point behind it" the Ursa muttered back as he used the river in front of him to wash off his paws casually, ignoring the antics of the Beowolf.
"It is me, your Alpha, I should think you would at least recognise my voice"
The pup inhaled sharply and bowed at the imaginary master she saw in front of her, whimpering slightly.
"I'm sorry Alpha, I was just scared and then I got frustrated and then..." she muttered, acting as if she had committed some great evil against him and tried to apologise profusely.
"I don't need your apologies, it's completely fine... I myself am not quite sure how I got here myself, but you can stop searching, I think I am somehow within your mind"
"WHAT! So, you can see everything I do and hear everything I think and look back on my memories in case I've been unfaithful or something!" she stuttered out, sounding more fearful and embarrassed by the second.
"No, nothing like that! I can hear and see what you can, but nothing more... I'm not sure how I can get out of here as well, I blacked out and just ended up here! Look, can you just tell Rea'ksh about what's happened, I'm sure he can help"
She nodded her head vigorously and trotted up to the massive Ursa again, Demon only now seeing that the tiny pup was barely bigger than the massive Grimm's paws, the destructive devices easily being big enough to crush the little thing's body in one swing.
"Uncle, the Alpha's taken over my head and wants to ask if you know anything about what is going on!" she said with a straight face, the larger Grimm looking back down at her with a strange expression until he erupted in what he could only describe as laughter, if it came from a source that barely had enough vocal cords to facilitate the action.
"Oh, now you really do crack me up little one! I'll forgive you for your other joke because that one was good!" he said, going back to ignoring the little thing.
"Well, that's annoying... tell him that I'll personally make sure he gets treated like the Ursa Major that I decapitated during my last visit if he does not begin listening to you"
"Ummmmm, well Alpha said that he'll cut your head off if you don't start listening to me" she muttered silently as she began rubbing her paws in the dust, knowing that it would be absolutely terrible if he still didn't believe her and would have to resort to disciplining her for speaking such words. The great Ursa turned slowly towards her and got up from his resting position, lumbering over and looking her in the eyes.
"Do you know the weight upon those words that you speak child? If this is still one of your jokes, then this has gone too far and I ask you to stop"
"But Uncle! I'm not kidding you, the Alpha's getting annoyed!" she whined, the Ursa breaking off and picking her up in one of his massive paws.
"If this is true, then I know a way to prove it... if not... no meat for a month" he said, the little Grimm shuddering at the mere thought until Demon had to comfort her on the fact she didn't need to worry because he was still in her mind. They walked for some time in another seemingly pointless direction until they began cresting on an incline with fewer and fewer trees crossing their path. Eventually it came to an area that was completely barren of plants and trees with even the ground being almost bare of grass, a strange ash coating the ground that looked as though it refused to be blown away in the wind that was obviously blowing if Rea'ksh's fur was anything to go off... and the fact that the Beowolf pup was sticking her tongue out happily.
Once they appeared to be fully within this strangely blighted area, he began seeing Grimm lounging about seemingly doing nothing. There was a few Beowolves mock-fighting and some Ursa's that looked to be mauling each other to pieces before walking off and licking their wounds. Three Nevermore's were perched up on a higher hill that was crested with rocks, preening their feathers casually, not caring for what was going on around them, Demon knowing that two of them would have been the two Nevermore's he had liberated from the other Alpha, the third probably being one that had found its way into his pack.
They were met by an Alpha Beowolf that bounded up to them and bowed to Rea'ksh, his breathing laboured and fast as Demon could see he must have been fighting or something, the fresh claw wounds reinforcing the fact.
"Araksa awaits your arrival!" he said as he looked up from his mock bow, receiving a nod from Rea'ksh and bounding off once again to re-join the majority of the Beowolves.
"I didn't know we had an Alpha Beowolf in the pack?"
"Oh yes, Aunty Araksa was having trouble controlling the rest of my kind and decided to elevate someone to control them. They all fought for some reason and big brother Folgen took control after a while and now everyone listens to him!" she explained, Demon subconsciously nodding even though he didn't have a body. He did remember that name, it was the one he gave to the Beowolf that had assisted him in tracking down that other pack, at least someone that he knew would be loyal to him.
He didn't have any time to continue pressing questions as his view was switched to instead be dominated by the even bigger body of a Deathstalker, more specifically that of Araksa. She hadn't changed much since the last time he saw her, although if he had to guess without much to go off, she did look a tiny bit bigger than last time.
"Rea'ksh, I assume you let the pup gain sustenance?" she asked, the Ursa in question nodding in affirmation.
"Aye... but aside from that, there is an urgent matter with which I need to discuss with you"
"Oh? And what would that be?"
"The pup speaks of presence of the Alpha within her and I require a Seer to deny her fears"
The Deathstalker clicked her mandibles and looked at the little Beowolf, even intimidating Demon as he was forced to look up at what would have normally looked like a literal 50-foot tall giant if he was his actual size. The pup scurried to hide behind Rea'ksh's legs and peeked its eyes out timidly in fear of the massive Grimm Scorpion.
Araksa payed little attention to it and walked over to a nearby pool of some strange black ooze, its stinger plunging in and swirling it around for a time. She pulled her tail out with some of the ooze clinging to the end of her tail, not dripping as it should be despite its liquid appearance. She scuttled over to a nearby open area and slammed her stinger into the ground, keeping it there for a moment before pulling it out as quick as she could, the ooze being gone with no noticeable stain upon her stinger. The literal hole that was made as a result of the stab began to bubble and make a strange sizzling sound before a new object began to rise from its depths.
Out of the hole a strangely globe-like Grimm floated up from the ground, its head appearing to be a strange combination of opaque and the normal dark black of Grimm. Tentacles tipped with knives draped down from a strange ring of teeth that were around the bottom of the creature and it appeared to glow a ghostly red from the centre of its 'head' which pulsed every few seconds.
"What is that thing?" Demon muttered, not remembering ever seeing this type of Grimm before in ANY of the books, lessons or lectures that he had undertaken at Beacon.
"It looks really mean... I don't know what it is either" the pup answered, shuddering in fear as the strange Grimm creature began to float towards her, one of its tentacles reaching out as it came.
"Do not fear Child, this is simply to help you case" Araksa consoled, scuttling forward to follow the orb-like Grimm. The little pup was pushed forward by Rea'ksh until the pup and orb-Grimm were about a foot apart. One of the thing's tentacles reached down and was placed upon the little pup's head, Demon feeling a strange tingling sensation as it made contact. After a few moments, that tingling turned into a practical tidal wave, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself seeing from a different perspective. Instead of seeing the world as a foot tall wolf creature, he was instead now stuck looking out of the floating Grimm, being somewhat floating around his natural height above the ground, a strange sense of control now returning to him.
He tried moving his arms and instead, two tentacles responded to his mental commands, Demon bringing them up to his eyes to scrutinise his appendages before bringing up two more. Despite being normally bound to two limbs, it felt disturbingly natural to be in control of more than one, every movement not needing more than a simple thought to be carried out.
Breaking out of the stupor of inspecting this strange body, he was once again brought to face both Rea'ksh and Araksa as they stared at him, or more specifically at the Grimm he was now inhabiting.
"Well, I'm sorry pup for doubting you, looks as though what you said is correct" conceded Rea'ksh, taking a slight bow to Demon even though he was floating around in the weird globe thing.
"Uuhhhh, this isn't exactly going to work if I can't talk to you" Demon thought, although both the Grimm in front of him nodded at the words.
"We can hear you Alpha and we feel you... it is humbling that you once again grace us with your presence" Rea'ksh spoke, placing an arm across his chest. Araksa on the other hand... well, she looked like she would be chocking him out if he was actually there in person.
"Alpha..." she spoke with a slight hint of distain in her voice, although Demon could tell it wasn't built on hate, moreso on annoyance than anything else. "Why have you failed to tend to your pack once again? We have gone for months without you and I don't know how much longer my control with last" she spoke, Demon furrowing his imaginary eyebrows as he thought.
"What has happened since last I saw you?"
"I have been forced to act upon my own thoughts and indulged in the feeding of the pack, lest we starve"
Demon swore mentally in his mind and worried for the fact that they had already spoken to him previously that they fed off the negative energy of people or something along those lines...
"But do not fret, we refrained from slaughter as you had instructed. We surrounded one of your mortal villages and had our fair drink from the fear that they exuded"
"Thank you for listening, if my plan is to come to action, I really do need you to lay low"
"I thought as such... so, Alpha, what are your wishes"
"Well, while I am here there is something I need to speak to you about of great important... I need to ask you first, though, do you know where this 'She Who Corrupts' is exactly?"
"I do not know why you would require such information, but her influence is projected from some point up the continent and across the great oceans away from the ice that caps the top of this world"
"Hmmm... so she isn't in Atlas, so it MUST be that massive uninhabited continent as I guessed... well, I guess that's far easier that invading the largest military nation in the world"
"Invade? Do you wish to find She Who Corrupts for yourself?"
"In a sense... in truth, I have high aspirations for the pack and with She Who Corrupts still running around, I can't do that. Which brings me to my point, there is something that I need your opinion on"
"Anything you ask Alpha..."
"Well, I know this may sound strange... but I wish to reinstate the Fifth Kingdom of this world once again under the banner of the Branwen's"
"I have not heard that name before, I am to assume that it is your Human Family name?"
"Yes, but that is besides the point... what the real point is what I wish to do AFTER that"
"And this has to do with us, yes? Before you ask, it is no easy task to travel across the land masses of this world with a pack of this size... possible, but not easy"
"Inconsequential really, as long as I can do it, I'll make sure I have the time... what I really wanted to talk to you about is something that I have already begun within my mortal world, something called Project Chimera"
"Named after the great Grimm beasts of that formed the To Hebi, Kuma and Okami of our species?"
"Ummmm, probably as long as it has three heads, a snake tail and wings"
"I do not know what you speak of, but if you do not reject it without some knowledge then I assume that it would be correct"
"We really need to work out the comparisons between out species to make these talks easier... well, as I was going on to say, I have received cooperation with several high-ranking societies within mortal society and I only require a few more steps to have reach the endpoint, which is where I need your input... I wish for the united efforts of Humanity, Faunus kind and Grimm to fall once again under one banner... I wish to reunite your kind with mine"