Split At Twilight
A/N: Before we begin, I'd like to present the readers with a question. There have been many interpretations of what Summer Rose's weapons were when she was still alive. There's been much debate about it, and through it all, I can't seem to decide which one I like best. In any case, if the canon doesn't reveal anything, I'll have to come up with one myself and deal with it when the canon proves me wrong. Anyway, I've started a poll on my Fanfiction page about what time of weapon you think she used. By the end of the year, I'm hoping to have tallied up enough votes to come to a conclusion. Believe me, it seems drawn out, but that's the rate I work at. If your idea of what kind of weapon she has isn't on the poll or if you want to give me a detailed explanation, feel free to include it in a review.
Anywho, onto the story!
20 Minutes Later…
The airship continued to shudder and bounce every few seconds, only adding to Tanner's stress as he unintentionally focused his hearing on the small explosions that came from the damaged engine every now and again.
Still, the brunette did his best to keep his breathing steady and channel what little Aura was returning to him into the gashes in his arms. The pain from the wounds was still intense as the constant flow of Aura made the bite-marks warmer than usual. However, thanks to the combined effort of SK's quick medical aid and the cauterising power of his scarf, the bleeding had stopped, which was always good.
A second passed before there was a crackle in his ear as someone tuned in to their earpiece. "Losing too much fuel – we won't be able to make it back to The Compound." T announced. Tanner only gave his words half a mind, as the hacker had yet to give him a proper response to his demands for answers. "I'm taking us down for repairs."
No one said anything in response, though something told Tanner that T didn't want a response from the others.
Scattered around the interior of the airship, everyone seemed to be intent on minding their own business. Towards the aft of the passenger compartment, SK seemed to be going over the brass-coloured bracer that T had given him, flicking his wrist to activate it and deactivate it. Leaning against the starboard hatch, Mason was using a sharpened stone to carve a pair of bones he had.
Tanner didn't even want to know whose bones they were.
The sudden dip of the airship downwards was a clear indicator that they were beginning their descent. With a few deep breaths, the swordsman was able to muster the strength to stand up and rest his weight against the wall of the airship to see where they were landing.
Without a clear line of sight, all the brunette was able to see for a couple of minutes were the surrounding trees, but soon, the burnt and destroyed ruins of a Mistrali village came into view.
It was only after a second did Tanner realise then that the ruins and buildings were rolling by a little too fast for a gentle landing, and braced himself at the last possible second as the Bullhead landed hard, hitting the ground hard enough to cause everyone in the passenger compartment to jump.
SK was able to catch himself before he slammed into the floor of the ship, but Mason was less prepared and ended up stabbing his palm with his own knife.
A string of curses followed as the airship eventually shuddered to a halt, having finally stopped moving completely. It took a couple of seconds for the airship to perform its rudimentary power-down sequence after landing, but as soon as it did, the hatches on either side of the airship slid open to make room for T as he jumped out of the ship without a word.
Tanner didn't even bother to watch Mason pull the knife from his hand – much less help him remove the blade. The brunette was too focussed on his task as he eased himself out of the airship and followed the cyborg around to the airship's damaged engine, where T was prying open metal panels to assess the damage.
"What the fuck was that back there?" Tanner spat as he clutched his left wrist when a twinge of pain ran up his arm. T didn't respond and instead continued with his repairs as he used his cybernetic arm to scan a damaged section of the engine. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Tanner growled as he took a step forward to grab T by the shoulder and get his attention.
As soon as Tanner's hand touched T's shoulder, the hacker's free hand snapped onto his and twisted it around, sending a fresh surge of pain through the brunette's whole body. However, Tanner had grown used to the pain by this point and reflexively reached for his pistol and aimed it at T's chest point-blank. "Go ahead." Tanner dared through gritted teeth, trying hard to hide the pain. "I made sure to reload."
Though most of his features were covered by the scarf and cap, the brunette could still feel the intensity of T's look just from the glare he was giving – his left eye glowing slightly brighter. After a few seconds of the tense stand-off, T released his grip on the brunette as he backed off. "That's a 'need to know' basis."
"Well I feel like I need to know!" Tanner shot back, his tone clearly conveying his aggravation. "First you say kill them, then you say don't kill her; why?" he demanded while holstering his weapon.
"The girl – Neopolitan – has information regarding Cinder that could deal a critical blow to her operations." The hacker explained as he gave Tanner his undivided attention. "I've run through the scenarios hundreds of times, and there is a way to bring Cinder down in one blow, but we need what she knows."
Distrust brewed under the surface for Tanner as he shook his head and spoke in a bitter tone. "You didn't think to tell us this sooner."
"I didn't need to." T snapped back. "If things went like I had planned, then I would have been able to incapacitate Neo while-"
"While we risk our lives to cover for you?" SK suddenly interjected, having maintained distance away from the two as they argued.
"If I can bring Cinder down in one go, then what does it matter what happens to you?" T asked rhetorically after taking a few steps closer to the rogue.
"Is that how you see us? Expendable muscle?" Tanner challenged with a renewed fire in his eyes. The passion with which he fought now reflected in the current situation as what little of his Aura that was returning began to cause the scarf around his neck to glow.
T's head swivelled between the two for a few seconds before falling on Tanner. "You're not looking at the bigger picture here."
"You said you could help us get back at Cinder for turning against us." SK spoke up again. "You didn't say anything about us dying for your own vendetta against her."
"It's all the same!"
"Yeah, because what does it matter to any of us what happens to Cinder if we're dead?"
"If you can't be more transparent with us, T, then maybe I'm better off on my own." SK's words left a resounding ring in the late afternoon air. After a pause, his voice was softer when he spoke. "At least that way I'll only blame myself for betraying me." As he said this, the raven-haired teen turned his back on the two and began walking.
"Where are you going?" Tanner asked as the rogue reached for the hilt of the sword on his back.
"Scouting the area." He stated before disappearing in a walkway between two burnt buildings as he drew his falchion.
Tanner continued to stare at where the rogue had vanished for a few seconds in a hope that he might be able to see where he was going. As the cloud that was blocking out the sun passed, the surrounding ruined city suddenly got a lot brighter and the injured swordsman was forced to look away as his eyes had not adjusted to the brightness of the cobblestone floor when the sunlight hit it.
"Where the hell are we, anyway?" Tanner muttered to himself as he took in his surroundings. Along with the clearly Mistralian architecture, the place seemed long-abandoned. The charred wood and damage done to the buildings did not look recent, and the lack of bodies around the area meant that whatever happened here happened long enough ago that the Grimm have been able to pick it clean – and if not the Grimm, then something else.
"Kuroyuri, long-abandoned Mistral settlement." T stated as he went back to his work.
The brunette hesitated before speaking again. "How long?"
"Over twelve years." The cyborg replied without hesitation.
"I'm guessing this can be chocked up as the victim of a Grimm attack, huh?" Tanner asked. Though his tone was somewhat sarcastic, he knew that this was a serious matter. Despite his goals and background, the brunette still had a moral code and decided long ago that if the opportunity presented itself, he would abandon all former grudges to fight the Grimm with his enemies. When T didn't reply, Tanner took it as a positive answer and continued. "Then I'm guessing I'm not likely to find anything worth salvaging if I poked around."
Instead of replying to his question directly, T only stated, "I'm taking off as soon as repairs are finished. If you want to stay here, be my guest."
"Not me." Mason said suddenly, having been leaning against the hull of the Bullhead for the duration of their conversation while licking the blood from his hand. "I'm having the time of my life with you guys."
When T's eyes turned back to Tanner, the brunette found it hard to stare back. "Still debating it." The swordsman wasn't sure whether it was anger or confusion, though it was something of a confused-anger in his mind.
Holding his gaze for a second, T spun back to continue on his repairs as Tanner's legs slowly carried him away. "I'm going to see if I can't find anything. If you've got nothing better to do, Mars, then maybe you could go look for something to eat – preferably something that isn't Human?" he shot back over his shoulder.
As he walked away, Tanner briefly heard Mason blow a raspberry at him before shouting, "You're no fun!" In truth, the brunette needed some time to think over what had just happened, and whether or not he would allow himself to trust the hacker again.
In too many instances for his liking, Tanner had misplaced his trust in someone only for them to betray him or deal a double-cross. Guess I should thank mum and dad for watching out for me at some of those close-calls. He thought to himself. Every part of his instinct was telling him not to trust the guy, especially after what had just happened.
The mere thought of what had just happened sent phantom pains through his wrists, and Tanner reflexively gripped his injured wrist tightly to flood his whole arm with a blunt pain in order to drown out the feeling of the phantom pains. Now that time had passed and he had been able to assess his wounds, the brunette also realised that these cuts weren't going to heal quickly. Even if he was up to fighting standards by the end of the day, the pain would continue to linger and it would likely scar. How am I supposed to trust someone who made me end up like this?
But…
"It's going to be a lot harder to take down Adam without him." Tanner muttered to himself as he passed by a dead tree, running one of his hands along the cold, hard bark. "Ah, geez. What would you do in my place, dad?"
Hours had passed, and the sun had just begun to crane towards the horizon – drawing out the shadows of what remained of Kuroyuri's buildings – when T was just about done with the repairs on the Bullhead.
Without his toolkit, additional parts or help from any of his teammates, this had taken the cyborg much longer than he would have liked. T made a mental note, for the future, to find a way to circumvent this problem if it happened again; likely by finding a way to get parts and tools to him from The Compound.
For the third time since he had begun repairs, T decided to take a short break before he tested the engines once more. Staring up into the evening sky and the setting sun, the hacker's mind went back to the fight, running alternate scenarios of how it could have gone in his mind and whether or not they might have been better than what he had done.
By his estimates, this mission was but a minor setback in the grand scheme of things. He will defeat Cinder no matter what. He will get Neo no matter what, and nothing was going to change that. It was an inevitable event – at least to T.
Walking back into the airship's passenger compartment, T opened a latch and reached for a small water flask that he kept in reserve. He had to pull down his face-scarf to drink any of it down, but it was just the refresher that he needed.
Staring out one of the open hatches, the hacker stopped to stare at his teammates, who had somehow got a small fire going by one of the burnt-out houses in the area.
Mason, having gone off to hunt for food as Tanner requested, was now scarfing down what looked to be a live fox, while the swordsman was taking his time slow-cooking a rabbit. It would be a while before they would trust him with anything after this, but it didn't matter. To T, it was all inconsequential; they were simply just parts of a greater conflict between Cinder and him.
Satisfied, T placed the water flask back in his emergency compartment and moved to the cockpit, where Overwatch was still active and on-display. "Engines are operational, though I would recommend against travelling any further than five kilometres to avoid further damage to the flight systems." The voice stated as the hacker climbed into his pilot's seat.
"How far is The Compound from where we are?" he asked while turning on different systems.
"Estimated seven kilometres." Overwatch stated calmly.
Shit. T thought to himself as he began trying to think of a way to circumvent the problem. Staying here any longer to continue repairs was out of the question. Already, they had had a few run-ins with Grimm, and it was only getting worse the longer they remained. What's more, if they stayed in one place for too long, there was also a chance that Cinder might find them, assuming that she hasn't stopped looking for them since the encounter.
No, T would just have to risk further engine failure – assuming the engine would get up to flight capabilities in the first place.
"Throttle the engines." He told Overwatch. "But don't take her up just yet, I want to see how much she can handle."
Without a verbal response, the airship's User Interface complied with T's request as an indicator off to T's right showed the gradual acceleration of the turbines in the engines, and which engine was throttling faster.
It was clear that the undamaged engine on the left was performing much better than its counterpart, but in retrospect, the right engine was doing quite a good job keeping up with the undamaged one after the amount of damage it took.
"Aft-port engine functioning as estimated." Overwatch stated in a tone that almost sounded proud. "Pushing it any further than its current acceleration may, however, cause another blow-out."
With a huff of agreement, T manually spun the engines down as he got out of the seat. "Run the airship through pre-flight checks. We take off in five." He stated before leaving the cockpit and stepping off the airship.
The hacker made his way over to the small campfire with minimal effort, only to find Tanner by himself – checking his bandages. "The airship is ready to take off." T stated bluntly.
Tanner, who had been focussed entirely on checking his wounds again, was caught by surprise when T spoke and instinctively reached for his weapon. When he realised who it was, however, his grip on the hilt of his sabre relaxed and he let out a sigh of built-up tension. "About time." He muttered, rising to his feet.
After a quick scan of the area, T turned back to face the brunette. "Where's Mars?"
The swordsman only shrugged as he sheathed his weapons. "Said something about taking a shit, or something like that."
T tried to raise the berserker on his communicator. "Mason, do you copy? It's T, we're ready to leave."
A few seconds passed as Tanner stared at him expectantly. T tried again. "Mason, do you copy. We are leaving." He spoke slower this time to enunciate his words, wondering if there was some signal interference.
However, when no response came through again, T began to suspect that something wasn't right. His hand flew to his pistol and drew it quickly, taking another scan of the area.
"What's going on?" Tanner asked, drawing forth his sword and taking up a defensive stance.
"No response." T simply stated, before his legs started moving.
Five minutes ago…
For a reason that still wasn't clear to him, Mason had taken to a bit of wandering near the edge of the village, where destroyed buildings met forests. In his absent wanderings, the berserker also took to analysing the damage done to the Human structures.
Every now and then, he would run his hand along the burnt support beams or the broken tiles before he finally came to a conclusion. "One Grimm, followed by many others. Stormed the village with little resistance. The scrubs here probably didn't have a clue how to fight. Buildings weren't set on fire deliberately." He mused while rubbing some soot in between his fingers. "Fuckers probs did it by accident and the fire spread." Suddenly, a sadistic smile spread across the redhead's lips as a sinister chuckle slipped out. "Death figures probably go past two hundred, and that's not even counting what else the Grimm might have killed."
It was then that Mason heard a rustling in the bushes, which caused him to reflexively draw his shotgun-axe and take aim. However, at the same moment, the dying light of the sun caught him in the face and shined in his vision. Unable to see what he was shooting, he changed it into its axe-form and charged forward, jumping into the bush with blind rage and hacking at whatever was there.
Swinging wildly, the redhead tore through the bush and its surrounding foliage in seconds. Only after he had made a clearing big enough for himself did he calm down. With heavy breaths, Mason looked around and spotted what he had seen moving for the first time; a medium-sized forest rat.
"What do you want from me?" he yelled at it. "Give it back!" when the corpse gave no response, Mason simply huffed and sheathed his weapons, having decided to go back the way he came.
That is, until a voice stopped him.
The voice followed shortly after a series of claps, which caused Mason to freeze where he stood. "That was pretty impressive. Not the 'hacking a bush to bits' part – the part where you figured out what hit the village."
Turning to the source of the voice, Mason found himself staring at the shadowcaster from earlier, leaning against the wall of a destroyed building, hands in his pockets casually. "Oh, thank you." Mason said with a generous bow. "Not often people recognise my skills." As he spoke, however, his hands went for the safeties of his guns. "Then again, the only people that have complimented my skills have tried to kill me so far!" as he said the last few words, the berserker drew both of his weapons and trained them on Raiden.
However, before Mason was able to swing them around in-line with where Raiden stood, something halted the berserker's arms, and he also found that he couldn't move his legs.
"Ok, I'll admit; last time, you guys surprised me. I honestly thought you'd be a lot weaker, so it's my own fault for underestimating you." As Mason tried to struggle out of the invisible bonds, he saw that there were actually tendrils of darkness that extended from the shadows of the trees around his arms and legs. "As you can guess, that's pretty much why I'm here; to fix my little mistake." Approaching at an agonisingly slow pace, the black-haired teen took the time to unlatch the longsword that hung at his back and twirl it around in his fingers so that he held the blade towards the ground. He was right in front of Mason when he next spoke. "Seriously, please don't struggle; you'll only make this harder on-" His next words were cut off instantly when Mason drew his head back and thrust it forward in a head-butt.
The force of their heads colliding together – coupled with the fact that Raiden hadn't expected it – was enough to send the shadowcaster back a few feet with a bark of pain. The sudden attack was also enough to break Raiden's concentration on his Semblance, releasing the redhead from the grasp of the dark tendrils as they dissipated into thin air.
Wasting no time, the berserker took the opportunity to drop his weapons and pounce forward on Raiden, tackling the teen to the ground and unleashing a savage onslaught of punches right to his face. "CQC, bitch!" Mason hissed through gritted teeth as his blows only got harder and faster with each successful punch.
At first, Raiden tried to reach for his blade, which lay just a few centimetres out of his reach. When that proved useless, he reared one of his fists back, creating a mass of darkness surrounding his fist before thrusting it forward at Mason.
Too occupied with beating the crap out of the shadowcaster, the redhead failed to notice the incoming attack until it hit him all along his right side, throwing him off Raiden and sending him tumbling into a tree.
His momentum was suddenly brought to a painful stop when barely-armoured back met hard wood, sending a reverberating shock through the berserker's whole body. Mason did not let this deter him, however, and tried to get back up on his feet as soon as the shock passed. Raiden reacted faster, raising his left hand despite otherwise remaining perfectly still along the ground and channelling his Aura through it. By extending power through his Semblance, the shadowcaster was able to create claws of darkness from the shadow cast by the tree and pull Mason down faster than he could get up, using an extra claw to slam his head against a rock for good measure.
As the redhead tried to shake the ringing out of his ears and silence the throbbing pain in his head – which was as loud as thunder, he struggled to move against his dark bindings as Raiden slowly got to his feet. With a grunt of pain, the black-haired teen raised a hand to his face to wipe away the trickle of blood that ran down his nose and into his mouth.
His facial features twisted into a snarl as he looked between the smear of blood on his hand and the berserker that had caused it, shaking his head as he approached. "I was going to make this quick and easy," he began as he bent down to pick his sword off the ground. "-I've got a lot better things to do with my time than clean up Cinder's shit pile. Now, however," the tone of his voice dropped as he stood above Mason, running his fingers along the length of the sword's blade. "-now I'm going to make this easy for me, and painful for you."
All the while, Mason continued to struggle against the shadows that held him down, only succeeding at making them hold him down even tighter. "Go ahead, I like the pain." Mason spat back defiantly.
Raiden's snarl twisted into a smirk at that. "Oh, I intend to." He breathed as he crouched down and brought the pommel of the longsword on Mason's head.
Three minutes later…
T waited a heartbeat before turning around the corner of a building, finding nothing where he swore he heard a noise from. A quick twist of his head confirmed that there was no sign of the redhead in the area. Not even his cybernetic eye could pick up a trace of him.
With a sigh, T put his hand to his earpiece. "Tanner, report in." he ordered while continuing to scan the area. The hacker's voice was terse, like a steam engine building up pressure, and he was mentally prepared to kill at a moment's notice.
"Still nothing." Tanner replied over the radio. "Fucking hell, where'd he go?"
"That's what I'm worried about." T muttered after cutting his end of the line. Continuing his careful sweep of the area, T never once lowered his pistol, always training it on a target with his finger ghosting over the trigger. The shadows cast by the setting sun threw off his aim somewhat, but it was corrected by his enhanced eye-sight.
While also searching for any sign of Mason, T constantly kept one eye on the treeline on his left, having agreed with Tanner to search the perimeter while the swordsman made a sweep of the area within the town's borders. Having run the probabilities through his head, the chances were high that they were not alone out here, and that this unknown interloper had gotten to Mason.
It was around this time that T began to regret having allowed SK to walk away, as the search time and chances of them losing a fight would have tremendously decreased with the rogue's presence, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Instead, the hacker remained vigilant, which is why he sprung like a spring when a reflection of light caught his eye.
His whole body twisted in the direction the glare of light came from, gun aimed directly at its source. It took T half a second to register that the source of light was not an animate threat, and was instead the reflection off something on the ground. Lowering his pistol without lowering his guard, the hacker walked over to the object on the ground only to grow more concerned with what he found.
Among the cracked cobblestone and dirt lay the berserker's weapons, seemingly scattered apart by a metre. Bending down, T picked up the sword the redhead uses and immediately notices how greasy the hilt feels in the grasp of his normal hand. With a quick flick of the wrist, he transforms the weapon into its heavy pistol-mode and slips it into a free slot on the right side of his belt.
Mars hardly travels more than a few paces out of his weapons' reach. T thought to himself as he picked up the notched axe that the redhead uses, feeling its weight for the first time in his prosthetic arm. Which can only mean one thing…
With his off-hand, T reached for his earpiece before speaking. "Vermillion, regroup back at the airship. Things have gone south." The hacker continued to hold the battle-axe in his right hand as he made his way back to the airship. However, when no response came over after a minute, T's worry doubled. "Tanner, do you copy?" he asked again, only to be met with silence.
A wave of paranoia swept over T in that moment, and he was compelled to make a quick check of his surroundings. For now, everything seemed quiet, but he knew how that could change at any moment. As if on cue, two shots rang out into the air, echoing down multiple of the pathways of the village.
Unable to discern exactly from where the shots came from, T pulled out his Scroll and activated the locator system that he had rigged up. The quality of the locator system was a little blurry because of how far out of Scroll range they were, but it worked well enough that he could locate Tanner, Mason and-
Wait.
The hacker mentally slapped himself for not thinking about using the locator first to find Mason, as it would have resolved the issue without them having to slip up or-
T shook his head, refusing to live in the past. Instead, he broke into a sprint in the direction the wavering locator was telling him that the swordsman currently was. Ignoring the point on the locator near the treeline which indicated where the redhead was, the hacker made a beeline for where Tanner's indicator continued to blink. Without a system similar to that of the Huntsmen Team Interface – which allowed teammates to see the others' heart-rate and Aura levels, T had no way of knowing what condition Tanner was in – something he intended to rectify in the near-future.
Before he was able to reach the locator beacon, however, T felt a chill run up his spine and saw movement in his peripheral vision. Acting completely on calculated reflex, the hacker stopped and pivoted in the direction he had noticed the movement, raising his prosthetic arm and the battle-axe in his grasp to block any oncoming attack. A satisfying clang rang out into the empty village around him as Raiden descended for a diagonal plunge, catching his longsword in Bas' blade.
The shadowcaster offered a smirk as he practically bounced backwards from the impact. "Have to say, you and your buddies aren't as tough as I thought. Y'know, after Cinder and her bitches soften you up." He looked like he was about to continue further, but had to stop when T fired off three rounds at him to raise his longsword to block each of the shots.
Without letting up his assault, the hacker charged forward with the axe drawn back, bringing it forward in a heavy swing when he got in range of the black-haired teen. Steel clashed against blackened steel as T got used to the weight and feel of the new weapon in his hand.
Admittedly, even after having reviewed Mason's fighting style and carefully analysed how the berserker fights in order to decide how to best mimic and counter his style, it did not compare to actually having the weight of the weapon in his hands and swinging it at an enemy.
For the better part of the fight, the combination of T's inexperience and understanding of fighting with a battle-axe caught Raiden by surprise, presenting the shadowcaster with a different fighting style to what T exhibited earlier as he took low sweeps at his legs and rising crescent strikes.
However, Raiden quickly caught on to the fact that T's attacks were clumsy and sloppy, suddenly turning the tide of the battle when he went in for fast strikes as well as switching in between weapon modes to confuse T.
Prolonging the fight only served to make T get better at using the axe, however, as the hacker slowly began to understand how the weapon worked, before finally managing to catch the shadowcaster's sword in the crescent curve of the axe-blade. With both hands, he brought the interlocked weapons down to his feet, coming face to face with the smirking teen.
"I'll admit, you're quite the challenge. I didn't expect someone like you to last as long as you have against-" Raiden was cut off from what he was trying to say, however, when T brought up his left arm for an uppercut to the man's jaw, sending him backwards and disoriented as T flung both weapons away.
"And I didn't expect you to talk so much." T muttered as he threw punch after punch at the unarmed Raiden, sending him backwards with each blow. This tactic worked, for a whole of four seconds before the shadowcaster began ducking and blocking the blows sent his way.
"Didn't you get the memo?" he asked rhetorically as his back leg slid backwards. It was only when T did a double take did he realise that it wasn't because of his own strength, but it was an intentional tactic in order to come in contact with the shadow of a tree and draw on its power. The dark energy swirled and surged up his body all the way to his arms as Raiden's amber eyes darkened. "I'm all about the talk."
Suddenly, the shadowcaster backed out of the engagement only to lower both his hands to his waist and thrust them forward, creating a pulse of shadows that threw T backwards. The hacker was sent sprawling through the air momentarily before hitting the cobblestone once, then righting himself by jamming his feet into the ground.
"Because I can walk the walk." Raiden continued as T drew both pistols at his side and unleashed their firepower on him. In response, the black-haired teen raised both his hands to create a wall of darkness in front of him. "And when you walk the walk, you talk the talk."
As soon as he said this, Raiden dropped the wall in front of him and formed a submachine-gun in each of his hands. The rounds that the guns fired were as black as night and disappeared the second they hit T. His one prosthetic arm was not enough to block all the shots sent his way, and the hacker briefly considered creating a wall with either Obsidian Dust or Ice Dust. However, T had had enough of this fight and wanted to end it now.
With his right armed raised defensively, T holstered his pistol before extending his left open palm and concentrating his Aura to manifest as his Semblance. The effects were instantaneous; at once, Raiden's guns stopped firing and quickly dematerialised as he dropped to the ground on his knees. The shadowcaster's hands went to his head, clenching it hard in the headache T knew he was experiencing right now.
Slowly, battling his own headache, T began to advance forward with his pistols drawn forth and aimed straight at the midnight-haired teen. From this distance, the headache was making it harder to aim, and rather than wasting bullets, T was closing in so that each shot would meet its mark.
The first shot he fired bounced off the cobblestone next to Raiden, just a few centimetres from actually hitting him. Internally cursing, T tried to focus on steadying his aim while also maintaining his grip on his Semblance. Raiden was one of the more 'mentally strong' opponents that T had ever had to us Pacify on, and it was showing in the exertion and strain the hacker felt.
Readjusting his aim, T fired off a second shot and watched as it hit the shadowcaster's shoulder and caused his Aura to ripple, absorbing all of the damage as it caused him to stagger slightly.
T, however, failed to notice the fact that Raiden was gathering shadows in his right hand, focusing entirely on keeping his Semblance up and adjusting his aim. From his position on both his hands and knees, the midnight-haired teen raised his right arm over his head and it was then that the hacker noticed what he was doing. Still, he was too late to stop Raiden from slamming his hand against the ground and causing a pitch-black smokescreen that seemed to suck the light around it to explode outwards from where his fist met the ground, covering the area around them.
Without the target in his direct line of sight, T's Semblance was useless against the shadowcaster and he quickly brought his left hand down to draw his other pistol to make up for it. In fact, he couldn't see anything at all. Even with his enhanced vision and three-dimensional environment mapping, the darkness through off his sense of surroundings and made it impossible to see anything that wasn't right in front of his face. The fog around him absorbed all traces of light and essentially left him in complete darkness.
Relying only on his hearing, T kept his guard up while trying to shine some light into the darkness by way of his cybernetic eye, which emitted a light like a torch. It was the same for the light he gave off; the darkness around him absorbed it like a sponge in water and it did nothing but waste energy.
T didn't have to worry long though, for the darkness around him suddenly began to dissipate as if it were being sucked up by something. It was only when he looked in the direction that the shadows were being drawn did he realise that they were being drawn to Raiden – specifically the two swords made from solid shadows in his hands.
The shadowcaster had already broken into a sprint when the fog began to lift, and T only had a second to raise his right arm and the barrel of his pistol to intercept the strike. When the blades hit, they did not make the same sound as what the hacker would associate with steel against steel. Instead, it sounded more like some kind of dense wood hitting metal, and made a dull sound.
After the initial clash, Raiden suddenly pulled out of the engagement again in a backflip, throwing one of the swords at T in his motion. Without thinking, the hacker raised his prosthetic arm to bat the projectile out of his way. Instead of deflecting like a normal sword, the shadowy weapon seemed to melt against his arm when it hit him at full speed – covering it up from the heavy pistol in his hand to his shoulder like some kind of putty – before pulling him to the ground. T followed through with the force of being suddenly yanked by the arm and found himself on his knee, unable to get up as the shadows around his arm formed anchored chains to the ground.
From where he was kneeling, he could see that Raiden was directly controlling the shadows that had snared his arm, and tried to break free by firing at its master. With the sword in his other hand, however, the shadowcaster blocked each bullet that T sent his way until the pistol's clip clicked dry.
Shit. T cursed internally as Raiden slowly began his march forward. "You're pretty good – I'll give you that." The teen complimented mockingly with each step he took closer. "I haven't had a serious challenge in a while where I actually thought I might lose. But no, you almost got me a couple of times." As he said this, the shadows on T's arm gradually spread to his right leg as well, anchoring his whole right side to the ground. However, with his one good arm, the hacker managed to release the empty clip in his pistol and slide it over one of the extra clips he had magnetically attached to his belt.
Before he was able to line up a shot, Raiden was already on him. The dark sword in his right hand dissipated into thin air as the jet-black haired teen jerked his hand forward to grab a hold of T's wrist and redirect his aim. T fired three shots into the air helplessly before Raiden smacked him across the face with his own hand, the gun also still in his hand.
The cyborg also found himself suddenly free of the shadow anchors that had pinned his arm and leg to the ground, falling onto his side as Raiden brought a boot down on his gut. The last of his Aura did its best to absorb the blow, but now he was without a shield, and it showed when traces of sky-blue flickered across his body before disappearing.
"Woo! You're a fighter, aren't you?" Raiden asked rhetorically with a chuckle, bringing his other foot down on the hacker's chest before pivoting to kick the gun in his left hand out of his reach. "I don't think I've ever fought someone so beaten who still fought like he had a chance." The shadowcaster said smugly, the smirk evident on his face.
Even so, T fought past the pain and negative probabilities and the fact that he had no Aura left, still determined to go down fighting. He raised the heavy pistol that was still in his right hand, but didn't do so fast enough before Raiden brought his boot down on T's head and the world went black.