Hello everyone!
Sorry about the long wait
Just a lot of stuff going on and recent writer's block and the need to do a secret project
Yes, Secret Project
I might unveil it later- Manage Stories
Maybe at the end of the story
But that's not the point
The point is, is that we've got a new chapter!
So, lots of heart gripping tension in the next chapter
I can assure you of that
And we'll see some character death her and in the next
So, let's begin
Walking the streets I used to skip down with Valance was hard, just... hard. Tears rimmed my eyes as I looked around at the destroyed town, all the buildings I loved going to now just burnt skeletons. Henry's Bakery was just a giant pile of burnt rubble now, even that cafe I liked visiting was reduced to ashes and broken stone.
"What happened?" I asked as I looked up to Benedict.
My biological father was looking around with a hopeless face, full of disbelief and horror at the place he had called home for so long.
"I don't know," he breathed and began walking towards a familiar shop, one of the few that were left mostly standing.
The O'Dehern blacksmith shop was built to withstand a lot of things and I guess that meant town fires. The outside was scorches, but it was still standing. The inside... it was a mess, the counter was broken in two and the door to the forge was broken down. In the forging place we found everything ransacked, all the metals and dust that Ranulf used to make weapons and armor, all the tools he needed to repair and make new crafts, and... Ranulf.
He was slouched against the massive furnace, a spear in him. Blood had stained his blacksmith apron and dried up, tainting it a dark red and brown color.
"No..." Benedict breathed as he bent down to sit on one knee next to his old friend. Bending his head down in respect, he pulled Ranulf's hands up to rest on his chest after pulling the spear free. "Rest in peace, old friend."
I stood there, watching him pay his respects while the rest of our group stayed in the lobby, peering in from the broken threshold.
"Ruby, go check the outpost and its cameras," my dad ordered as he stood up, grabbing the hilt of his sword and pulling it free from his left gauntlet. His shield expanded with a loud clang and his sword shimmered as he twirled it.
"Art? Art!"
Jaune kept calling for his sister as we pushed open the massive metal hatch that was the Hunter's Outpost's door. The place was trashed, the walls outside broken and destroyed, the building itself showing signs of destruction from explosions and large chunks of it missing, and then there was the interior.
The main hub area was a bit cleaner, all of the trash that had been lying around now gone, but the holographic projector was destroyed, sparking occasionally. The couches were burnt up from most likely dust shots hitting them and the walls were scorched and riddled with bullet holes.
"What happened here?" Blake murmured as she moved towards the garden Ryuu usually meditated in.
Team AHRA was nowhere to be found, not Arthelle, not Herold, not Ryuu, not even Aiden. All the Hunter quarters were empty of anyone, but all their personal belongings were still there.
"Guys?"
Everyone in the room, Teams RWBY and JNPR turned our heads to the hall that lead to the garden. Blake was standing over a body, the body of Ryuu. He had been shot a dozen times, pushed up against a wall from the force of each bullet. I cupped hand over my mouth in shock as I stared at him, er- his corpse. His blades were still in his hands, both hands gripping them, even in death.
"Ryuu..." I spoke and Blake bent down, closing his dead eyes for him. "Come on."
I lead us to the Hunter's outpost's security area where all the cameras around this place recorded everything. Nora and Ren patrolled the outside area with Yang and Wave while Pandora and Blake stayed inside with me to search everything. Jaune... he was determined to find his sister and put himself in her room, looking for other clues.
Pandora was trying to get the recording stuff working while Blake checked the rest of the outpost.
"Got it!"
I perked up and pressed the play button to turn on the machine. It worked and we all watched the scene play out. Herold was on patrol outside while Aiden was lounging on the roof of the place. Arthelle was snoring on her bed as Ryuu practiced with his sword. Suddenly, an explosion rung out and everyone perked up, the ones outside seeing a pillar of smoke rising from outside of town.
In moments, Team AHRA was mobilized for battle and they charged towards the attack only to find no Grimm. Instead, it was the White Fang and they had an army. Townsfolk were running for their lives, screaming and pleading as the Faunus extremists burnt the town down. Arthelle charged in and cut down a couple of them before she had to go on the offensive, but then Herold lowered his minigun and started pushing the tide back.
The battle was turning and turning as they fought, either Team AHRA had the upper hand or the White Fang did. They, however, lost when I saw none other than Deadlock enter the battle. With his chest cannon, the android fired and sent Aiden flying. Arthelle, threw her longsword and it impaled him in the leg, but he ripped it out and fired at her. She managed to dodge the explosive shot and got behind Herold who started sending a haze of bullets at him.
The battle went back and forth, each side getting the upper hand, then losing it a little bit later. Magnus had gathered a small militia during the battle and so a little group of men fought against the White Fang. Dust bolts and bullets flew along with arrows and some hand thrown blades.
The whole fight, however, was one sided and we watched with gasps and hands over our mouths as Ryuu fell in his garden and Herold died holding off the White Fang. Arthelle and Aiden, however, were taken, captured along with most of the town.
"Why would they kidnap them?" Blake questioned as she stretched herself, getting the stiffness from watching over my shoulder out of her. "All they ever needed was dust before, but now humans and other Faunus?"
"Guys!"
We turned as Jaune ran into the room, panting and gasping for air, "Did you find anything?"
Looking at each other with worry, I gave him a pitiful look.
"They took my sister," Jaune explained to Nora and Ren, both of them shocked at the news.
"And Aiden along with most of the town as well," Blake pointed out, her eyes narrowed as she glared at nothing in particular.
We stood in a dead silence for a while, just looking in despair when something clicked in my head.
"Metastract Manor," I murmured and looked up to the hill at the edge of town where Benedict probably was at.
My sister gave me a confused look and mouthed the name I spoke before she asked what it was, "Uh... what?"
"The manor up there." I pointed at the pretty big building standing alone on the hill, casting a shadow to its right with smoke rising out from a part of it. "That's where I stayed while I was here, it's Benedict's place."
They all mouthed 'o's and started following me as I began moving towards my second home. The road up to it was littered with craters probably from explosions, where those explosions came form, I'm assuming Aeren defending the manor. The doors were actually alright, no burns or bullet holes so I assumed Aeren didn't let them get destroyed in the battle. The manor, in whole, was mostly okay with the exception of being sacked and parts of it burned up.
We found my dad in his workshop, the large room with metal parts and tools for making and repairing stuff. Ranulf's place was where you forged stuff, but here, this is where you built stuff. He was bent over a table, using some long instruments to pull and prod at the inner machinery of his android servant.
"Ben!"
He perked up, his head snapping to attention. Looking to his right, he saw us enter through the workshop's threshold, all eight of us.
"Hm? Did you find anything, Ruby?" he asked, moving his gaze back to his work.
"The White Fang attacked and abducted most of the town," I stated and he nodded, not seeming to give much care. "Did you hear me?"
"Yes I did, it's just that I already know."
"You what!"
"Aeren's drives."
"Oh..." I spoke and trailed off, realizing he had looked through what the android had seen. "So... what happened here?"
"Aeren defended the town the best she could from here, using whatever weaponry she had at the moment. That included, but not limited to, her automatic guns, mortar launchers, explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, a variety of dust, and much, much more."
"Top of the line assassin?"
"Top of the line assassin," he confirmed and closed the metal panel that was her stomach. Reaching over, he picked up her head which I did not notice was detached from her body, and then he reconnected it to her neck. He stepped back as her auto-repair systems went back online and started welding her head back on, internally. A bright orange light sending sparks out as it spread from the back of her neck around to the front of her neck in a straight path, encircling her neck. "Reactivation code: N7-117."
Aeren jerked and spasmed for a moment before her eyes flared with blue light. They glowed harshly for a moment before they dimmed, her optics becoming smaller as little blades moved inwards like the lenses of a camera.
"Hello," she spoke and sat up, a smile on her face, "I am product N7-117, your personal servant."
"Personal servant?" Yang asked and we all looked to see Ben with this confused look, eyebrows scrunched mouth slightly open.
"Must be old programming," he grumbled and pulled the back of her butler uniform down a bit, exposing porcelain metal skin which he opened up to show some more inner machinery. "Let me just experiment here..."
"Greetings, master. I am product N7-117, your personal pleasure servan-"
We all were red faced at that one, my dad's being as red as my cloak.
"Hello, sir or ma'am. My designation is N7-117, a state-of-the-art assassination android-"
"Aeren, reporting!" she suddenly chirped and her metallic eyelids blinked. The camera lens like eyes grew smaller as the blades moved inwards, then moved out to make her eyes bigger. "Master Smith, how are you?"
"Oh thank the lord," he praised before putting his hands on her shoulders to answer, "I'm fine, Aeren."
She looked him up and down for a moment, her gaze moving slowly before a blinking noise emitted from her throat.
"My scans confirm your claims, you are healthy, sir."
"Aeren," I called and she turned to me, her mouth in a stoic line, "do you remember what happened?"
She tilted her head, acting human for a moment before she snapped up, her drives probably accessing the memories I needed to here.
"The Faunus extermist group known as the White Fang assaulted Magnus. I attempted to fend them off from Metastract Manor, but I was overrun. The fires caused were dealt with and the building was kept mostly intact I, however, failed in defending the manor and town."
While she didn't look down in shame or show any sort of emotion on her face, I'm pretty sure we could all tell her disappointment and sadness from the tone in her electronic voice and the look in her eyes.
"It is alright, Aeren. The town is gone, but not the townspeople, not yet at least," he assured and she looked up, eyes growing brighter before she began speaking again.
"My sensors overheard them speaking about a hidden laboratory deep in the forest nearby."
"The Grimm infested forest?" I asked and Benedict nodded, his arms crossed.
"Then, it's settled, we'll beat the candy out of those-"
Yang got cut off from her bombastic speech as Aeren gasped, her electronic voice only adding to the horror in the intake of air.
"Master Smith!" she called and revealed her chest, er- her inner chest. Her butler suit had been unbuttoned and opened, but before we could see her... uh, bosom, she had opened up her chest. Metal panels had come apart and rearranged to reveal a power core and lots of wiring and machinery. "They..."
"No," Benedict breathed in horror as he backed up into a table, brushing the tools off of it as his hands shook on the cold, metal surface. "If they took yours, they'll... call Ozpin, call him now!"
His voice was harsh and cold now, more serious than it had ever been before.
"Wh-why?" Jaune questioned out of curiosity with a fearful face and voice, his hands holding an open scroll.
My biological dad didn't answer so my boyfriend kept going with what he was doing, eventually dialing in the number for Beacon.
"Greetings, this is the operator for Beacon Academy for Huntsman and Huntresses in training, please hold."
Ben had his teeth grit as he held the scroll, anxiously waiting to get connected as he followed the steps to talk to the headmaster. After some yelling and conversation, he eventually got a hold of Ozpin.
"Benedict? Is something wron-"
"Ozpin, they're coming."
"...What?"
"The artifact pieces, they have both of mine and now they just need yours and Glynda's."
"How-"
"Magnus was attacked, everything was burned, and all the civilians and the hunter team were abducted."
Both of the huntsman went on with their explanations before Ozpin finally came up with a plan. Meanwhile, all of us stood there awkwardly with a lot of worry. I explained to everyone about how, apparently, Ben, Ozpin, my mom, another girl, and a whole lot of other hunters were involved in the war. I told them about the artifact pieces and how they were a big deal.
"I will mobilize several teams to aid in this res-"
Ozpin's voice was cut off by a loud explosion and suddenly, the line cut.
"Ozpin? Ozpin!" Benedict shouted, his voice frustrated as he shook the scroll. "Argh!"
"Dad, what do we do?" I asked and he looked at me, his face solemn and stone hard.
Looking over us, both Teams RWBY and JNPR, he gave us all these sullen looks. He was showing a sad gaze, this longing for something that was probably gone. Each look was with this desperate filled gaze and a weathered face.
"Ruby," he began and stepped forward, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Lead your team to this laboratory with Aeren. I will go with Team JNPR back to Beacon to defend it from this new threat."
"New threat? Dad, what's happening?" I asked as he began rushing out of the room.
Stopping where he was and spinning around, he held a more determined, stern face with a veteran's look in his eye.
"War, Ruby. We've gone to war."
End of the chapter!
Yeah!
Another, slightly less cliffhanger
So, yeah
War
We've gone into full war
So this was a pretty short chapter, but one I enjoyed writing
Now, this brief, but informative update sets up the stage for two very fun, and very heart wrenching scenes
*cough* *cough* character death *cough* *cough*
Sorry, been sick lately
Alright, so give me your thoughts
I want the reviews and the favorites and the follows
And now, I say to you
Goodbye,
Lord Revan Flame