Hello everybody and welcome back to THOR!
*looks at the chapter title and laughs a little bit* I'm not sorry for that.
So, on the menu today is obviously more from the dark world.
But also a little bit more.
Today, you all get to learn about about Pierce and Gyro's past.
As a heads up, it ain't the happiest, though it's also not as bleak as some other backstories.
The main reason it ain't bleak will be because of their older brother.
Anyway.
Let's get this show on the road!
Pierce landed on a plateau, overlooking the marshlands, he let the others dismount from his back before shifting back.
''You guys can get really heavy you know?'' he said as he rolled his shoulders and earned himself a few satisfying pops from his bones.
''Oh ha ha, very funny mister wise guy.'' Jaune said with a smirk.
Pyrrha was looking at Pierce with a hand on her chin ''You know, I just realised something.'' she said which got everyone's attention to her ''You and Gyro have told us a lot about elves, but you've never really talked about your family, is there a reason?''
Pierce froze.
This didn't go unnoticed by the others, who were immediately worried for their friend and teammate.
''Pierce?'' Ren said worriedly as he put a hand on his partner's shoulder.
That snapped the tall blonde out of it thankfully as he shook his head sighed ''There's a good reason we don't talk about it much. It's not fun to remember what happened.''
''If it be too painful ti' remember, don't force yerself lad.'' said Doro in a way that reminded the team of a kind old uncle.
Pierce shook his head ''No, I think it's best I told you guys, and then I'll tell Yang once we're back home, unless Gyro tells them before I do.''
He took a deep breath ''For starters, me and Gyro were born second, we had an older brother, his name was Azure, our mother was called Amelia, and our father was called Jackson, we were a pretty normal family honestly, mom stayed at home, she was a big music fan though, dad worked most of the time, but still had time for us, big bro was always looking out for us, he even though us how to fight and how to adapt in battle, he also had his own sword style, the Dancing Blade, that Gyro has been practicing for years, to make sure it doesn't disappear.'' he breathed in again ''One day, it was our parent's anniversary, and they went out to celebrate, but they didn't come back, their had been an accident, we never got the details, we just know that they had passed away because of it.'' The others were shocked by that a bit, Ren and Nora both understood how the brothers felt as well, having lost their own parents ''That all happened when we were 10, and Azure was 19, after that it was just us brothers, along with Azure's wife about a year later, her name was Noel.'' he took a deep breath ''Then, about a year ago, we lost the two of them to war.''
The mood had become somewhat somber from Pierce's tale, the only family the two brothers had now were each other, much like how Ren and Nora only had each other for a long time.
At the very least though, they had their older brother help them until his passing.
Pierce rubbed his face, it felt good to get that weight off his shoulders honestly ''So, that's our story, well, the big important parts of it anyway, you don't have to worry about us too much though, we managed, even without Azure, he wouldn't want us to mope around through life because he died. Besides, things have gotten better since then, the two of us entered beacon, and we both got a wonderful girlfriend, and each of us actually plan to spend our life with them.''
THAT got the rest of them out of their funk ''Are you saying you plan on marrying Yang?'' asked Jaune.
Pierce nodded ''I'll probably propose to her on graduation day.''
''Even though you've only dated for a few months now?'' asked Pyrrha.
''I can see our relationship working, so yes, I'm pretty sure the only thing that could break us up is one of us cheated on the other, and there's no way in hell I'd cheat on Yang, just like I'm sure Yang would never cheat on me.'' Pierce explained his reasoning, and the others found it to be... believeable actually.
''Do you think it could have been drunk driving?'' Ren asked as a side-thought.
''You mean from some other person on the road?'' Pierce said and Ren nodded ''Maybe, it's always been a possibility, and before you ask, yes even we Hylians have cars.''
''What were they like?'' asked Nora in a calm manner surprisingly, though it shouldn't be TOO surprising since she understood how Pierce felt.
Pierce smiled ''Well, like I said mom was a big music fan, whatever she would do, she would listen to music around the house, a trait Gyro picked up from her.''
''I've never heard Gyro listen to music though.'' said Jaune in confusion ''Well, except in the car.''
''He uses a magic sound barrier, it's a helpful spell to keep sounds inside, and out of it as well. So he doesn't bother anyone you know?'' Pierce explained.
''Is that the thing you use when you and Yang boop?'' Nora asked with a knowing grin.
''NORA!'' shouted Ren to his girlfriend.
Jaune and Pyrrha both couldn't help the light blush on their cheeks from the mental image Nora just gave them, since they knew what 'boop' meant in this case.
Pierce for his part just laughed it off ''Yeah, it is.''
Doro just looked confused ''Boop?'' he asked questioningly.
Ren looked to him ''It's best you don't ask sir, really, don't.''
''Back to my family though, dad was really hard working, and when he had time for us, he made it, he'd play games with us, take us on roadtrips, everything, it was fun. As for Azure, like I said, he was always looking out for us, and he was an amazing swordsman, he's even the one who came up with a few of our spells, as for Noel, she was like the big sister we never had, but her cooking was horrible, seriously eating it was like a death sentence,'' he couldn't help the shiver as a memory of when they first ate her food came to his mind, all three brothers were knocked out on the table, their faces purple, their spirits slowly leaving their bodies, and Noel with her back to them, not realising how horrible her cooking was as she tasted it with a smile (as a note, Azure looks like Inigo from Fire emblem Awakening, and Noel looks like, well, Noel from Blazblue) ''it's the reason why Gyro learned to cook, if he didn't, we would have always to go out and eat, since none of us really knew how to cook varied meals, for a long time it was just hamburgers, macaroni and grilled cheese, and whatever restaurant we went to, it's also after our parents passed away that we kinda left elven society.'' that part was surprisingly true, because Gyro, Pierce and Azure were all that was left of the elven nobility in their area, they lived amongst elves, even if they looked completely human, it's the reason why they understood the society so much, because they were a part of it for a good portion of their lives.
''Yer parents would be proud of ye' sonny boy'' said Doro with a smile.
Pierce smiled and nodded in thanks to him.
''Now then, let's get our mission back on the road shall we?'' Pierce said as he looked back at his team who all nodded.
The team made their way to where the entrance to the dungeon should be in the marshlands, and they were surprised.
As there was no entrance in sight, just a platform in the middle of the marshlands.
It also didn't help that a storm had started while they were exploring.
They were looking around the area for anyway to open the entrance when Nora noticed something on the floor in front of her.
It looked like a lightning bolt.
She then heard the thunder rumble above.
She grinned, as she had a crazy idea that just might work.
She brought out Valkyria and shifted it into it's hammer form, before raising it skyward while standing on the lightning bolt symbol.
She waited for a moment, and then lightning struck her hammer, which gave her a slight tingle that made her hair stand on it's ends.
It honestly felt like she was being tickled, which is why she coudln't help but giggle at the sensation.
The others were staring at her with raised eyebrows, a little surprised at suddenly deciding to act like a living lightning rod.
Then the earth started to shake as a large flower that was floating above the water rose up high, revealing the entrance to the dungeon.
The jaws of all the others dropped at this.
Nora, of all people, had just discovered how to get inside.
She then marched inside of it, prompting the others to follow her, hoping to prevent any chaos from letting Nora handle it alone.
As the team made their way through the Misery Mire, they encountered a new kind of enemy.
A wizzrobe, which looked like a black mage from final fantasy.
They were rather annoying honestly, as they fired balls of energy at them before teleporting.
They were able to get rid of them though.
And so they entered a new room in the dungeon, and encountered another new enemy.
Flying tiles.
No, really, tiles were literally lifting off the floor and magically flying at them, crashing into the wall, or in Jaune and Pyrrha's cases, their shields.
After a while the tiles stopped crashing into them, making them realise that pretty much ALL the tiles in the room had flown into them.
The floor was literally just earth at this point.
They went into the next room and dealt with the enemies in it, and noticed that some portions of the floor were moving around, before going up to the next floor.
On the next floor, Pierce started lighting the torches in the room, before moving onto the next room and lighting the torches there.
That's when the whole place started shaking.
After a while it stopped thankfully.
''What the heck was that all about?!'' asked Jaune incredulously.
''When a torch is unlit in one of these dungeons, it usually means that lighting it will activate something that is needed to progress onwards.'' explained Pierce in a calm manner.
The team was confused a little but nodded in understanding as they progressed into the next room, where they noticed a hole in it.
They shrugged and jumped down the hole, landing near a treasure chest that when they opened, saw was holding the big key.
The team was slightly disoriented as they stepped off a teleporting tile one after another.
They still had trouble getting used to that, except for Pierce though.
After getting their bearrings, the team continued onwards into the next area, where they had to cross a rickety wooden bridge to go down a set of stairs to a lower floor.
They crossed it slowly and avoided making any sudden movements so as to not make the bridge move around too much, and they thankfully made it across without any incidents.
And then the bridge snapped after they passed.
Jaune paled a little when he saw that, as he realised they had passed over it in the nick of time, or else they would have fallen into the chasm below.
They continued onwards to the lower floor, which made them wonder why their was a ceiling for a moment until they realised what exactly created the chasms in these dungeons.
Magic, they are made of magic and serve as endless drops.
Anything that fell in them would probably end up being lost forever.
Either way though, they had to continue onwards, although first they had to figure out how to open the door in the currently darkly lit room.
After walking around for a little bit they found a pressure sensitive switch, but nothign to put on top of it.
That is until Pierce literally created a block out of thin air and put it on the switch, activating it and opening the door.
They then proceeded into the next room, which was also darkly lit, and had Nora lift up a giant block before chucking it out of the way and continuing on.
Where they entered another darkly lit room that had a miniature maze for them to traverse.
Oh joy.
After getting out of the small maze and avoding the small blade traps within, they proceeded into the next room, which was, once more, darkly lit.
This was honestly starting to get rather annoying.
As they moved in the room, any further progress was halted by a blue fence that rose up high, so they started looking to find a way to lower the fence.
That's when Ren felt a large crack on one of the walls, and turned to Nora.
''Nora, shoot this wall here.'' he said as he stepped away from it while his girlfriend aimed for the wall before firing one of her grenades at it, busting it open and opening a path into the next room.
In this room they found a red switch, and when they hit it, it turned blue.
They were confused a little bit until they stepped back into the previous room and saw that the blue fence had lowered and a red fence had rosen up on the other side of the room instead.
As well, behind where the blue fence originally lay were a pair of floating skulls known as bubbles.
They were easy to deal with.
Moving into the next room, they were finally greeted by a source of light within the room.
Although the room was filled with a type of slime like enemy known as a Zol.
They just kept on dropping from the ceiling to boot.
The team moved around the room, avoiding the dropping zols and a few blade traps, with Jaune noticing a currently blue switch which he hit thus turning it red, since he had a feeling he probably should.
On the next floor, they found that Jaune had done the right thing by hitting the switch, as they could now move the final door of the dungeon.
Readying themselves, they opened the door and stepped into the last room, coming face to... eye with the guardian of the maiden.
Vitreous, a puddle of slime filled with a bunch of eyes the size of a head with one giant eye hiding behind them.
The strategy to defeat him was actually straightforward enough.
''We shoot the eyes until all the small ones are gone and then attack the big one.'' said Jaune and everyone nodded, opening fire on the smaller eyes with their weapons, Pierce pulling out a bow and some arrows since he needed more precise shots.
After a while of shooting the smaller eyeballs, only the large one was left, which jumped out of the slime and started to bounce towards them, until Pierce hit it with an arrow which made it stagger backwards.
They continued this until Vitrous was no more.
''Well, that was really easy for once.'' said Jaune with a raised eyebrow, and the others nodded at his words.
Then the crystal containing the next maiden decended from the ceiling until Ren caught it, before it slowly floated back upwards and grew in size, revealing the maiden to the others, she had red hair and wore a blue a dress, she looked to be slightly older than them.
''Oh, so the heroes I've been hearing about are finally here to save me huh? Glad to see you guys.'' she said amicably, which made the others laugh a little at her upbeat nature ''But anyway, let'S get serious, there's only one maiden left, and out of all of us, she's been here the longest, give or take... 11 years I think, you'll find her high on a mountain in a cavern known as Turtle Rock, which is actually right next to Ganon's tower, apparently she's been giving trouble for Ganon these past years, and she was only captured recently.''
''Did she give you a name?'' asked Pierce, though he had a good idea as to who the last maiden was.
The girl nodded and uttered the final maiden's name ''Summer Rose.''
Cliffhanger!
But yeah, Summer is the 7th maiden.
And no that was not my super big plot twist, this is just so I can use a good cliffhanger ending.
Interesting note, while I was writing the chapter today, I was pulled along into going shopping and ended up buying somethign for myself.
RWBY volume 3
I'm going to be honest, just looking at the CD case gives me an uneasy feelign in my gut, but I will have to watch it, so what better way to watch it than on Blu-ray?
Not looking forward to it all that much though.
Anyway.
Read, Review, Don't be a dick, and have a nice day everyone!
See ya next time!