Here we go, another chapter or Darth Arc, getting close to the end, can't believe its almost done. Then I can focus more on Punisher and my drunk fics. Honestly looking back at some of the chapters, there are a lot of things in this story that don't make sense, heck some of the plot details in this chapter don't even make sense.
Hell looking over some of them, I think I may have contradicted myself, yeah, I don't know anything about Salem, so I can't really write her in very well.
VADER AND PYRRHA
"So we finally meet Ms. Nikos." Salem said as she stood up and walked forward.
"You must be Salem." She said as she took a look at the woman.
The woman was somewhat pretty, but the traits of Grimm scarred her face. While she had an air of mystery around her, the red eyes glaring back at Pyrrha were very unsettling. She looked up at Vader's Helmet to try and gauge his reaction, but then she cursed under her breath as she remembered she couldn't see his face. It really irritated her, when she found out who he was. But she couldn't even see under that damn mask for the final proof. That one piece of information that could officially confirm her beliefs.
"I trust Lord Vader has made you comfortable?" She said as Pyrrha glared at her, this bitch was just trying to annoy her.
"You're just toying with me aren't you?" She asked as Salem smirked like a predator with her food.
"Well, you're no fun are you. But there is a certain spirit to you, I like that." She said as she grabbed Pyrrha's chin.
"Ah yes, I can sense the aura flowing through you, obviously I made a good choice." She said as Vader stood in the shadows.
"And what plan was that?" She said as she saw her weapons in the corner of the room. All while trying to dismantle her manacles.
"Isn't it obvious? I want you to lead my army." She said as Pyrrha raised an eyebrow.
"That's stupid, why would I ever do that?" She said as Salem looked at her.
"Oh Ms. Nikos, I never said you would have a choice, Vader if you would give us a moment." She said as Vader nodded and stepped outside of the room.
"So...all of this, just to get me to lead your army? That's it?" She said feeling angry as Salem nodded.
"Yes, Though you have proven to be a thorn in my side, I imagine that you would work well in my favor." She said as she sat down on her throne.
"Then why send Cinder to kill me? You had her ready to shoot an arrow through my chest, if you wanted me alive, why would you order her to kill me?" She said as Salem rolled her eyes.
"Ms. Nikos, do you honestly think so little of me that I couldn't bring someone back from the dead? Your wound would have been fatal, however Cinder was meant to transport you here to us, afterwards, I could heal your fatal wound, and then force you to serve me...but there was a problem, as you already know." She said as Pyrrha glared at her.
"You mean Jaune?" She said as Salem nodded.
"Yes, the Arc boy was an error in planning on my part, but I have to admit, I was not expecting the boy to have this much hidden potential, at first when I put him in that suit, I didn't think much of it, I figured Vader would be dead within a week, after all, who could survive in that suit? But the boy amazed me, not only was he well trained, but his sheer brilliance in tactics helped make him the fearsome commander he is now, even I was impressed." She said as Pyrrha's hands were shaking.
"So you really did torture him, just like Ozpin said?" She said as she really wanted to skewer this bitch.
"Torture? My dear girl, what you think of torture is merely a shadow, I did much, MUCH worse. As you can see for yourself." She said as Pyrrha really wanted to kill her.
"Why? He never did anything to you, you could have taken me at the very beginning, I was mourning for him and weak, so why didn't you take me then?" She said as Salem looked at her.
"Isn't it obvious? While I could have taken you then and there, I simply took your precious lover because I wanted to, because I knew that if one day you were to try and rise against me, I could use him against you." She said as Salem ran a finger down Pyrrha's face.
"After all, when Ozpin told you that Jaune had been killed by Vader, did you not immediately come here to kill him? Vader told me the story, and while I was displeased you got away, I knew it was only a matter of time before you came back." She said as Pyrrha shook her head.
"That still doesn't make sense, why allow all of this to happen, this all seems like a big inconvenience to you." She said as Salem looked out a window surveying the landscape.
"Tell me, have you ever tortured anyone Ms. Nikos?" She asked as Pyrrha shook her head vehemently.
"I think you already know the answer to that." She said as Salem chuckled.
"I'll tell you this Nikos, when you torture someone, you don't take everything away all at once, I prefer a longer more drawn out approach, you slowly break their will over and over again with events that inspire a small ray of hope. It gives them the illusion that there will be a happy ending, but when the pain returns, a part of their spirit withers away and dies, as soon as I had Cinder leave you on that tower, I knew I would have to get more creative, if I took you when you were fully rested, I doubt your spirit would have broken easily, but you see there is one thing I could exploit." She said as she looked at Pyrrha.
"Your love for Jaune, oh love, your kind thinks it's such a wonderful thing, but just like everything else in this world, there is an evil to it, love can make you strong? I say it makes you weak, after all, you showed how reckless you could be whenever your love for Vader was threatened, you were willing to throw your life away, and possibly betray your friends just for the chance to see the boy again, and with every failure, you grew weaker. That is why I let it happen, not because of mercy, but for the pleasure of watching you slowly die inside." She said as Pyrrha growled at her.
"Seems you failed again, because I'm not giving up anytime soon, no matter how much you torture me." She said as Salem chuckled.
"Oh girl, I'm not going to torture you, Vader is." She said as Pyrrha froze up at that.
"He won't...He can't." She said as Salem's smirk grew darker.
"And you prove me right once again, I could feel the fear roll off of you as soon as I mentioned him, so you do still love him...how sickening. One thing you should learn Nikos...I always win." She said as Pyrrha looked down at the ground.
"And once again, I can feel your resolve dampening, does Lord Vader really mean that much to you? I must say I'm shocked you could ever love a man, especially after all that he's done to you." She said as Pyrrha glared at her.
"What he's done, is all because of you! You did this to him!" She said as the woman in front of her continued to smirk and chuckle at her anger.
"You should just accept it Nikos, the boy you loved is dead, Vader is all that remains." She said as Pyrrha looked at her, defiance in her eyes.
"You're wrong, he's alive, I know it." She said as Salem sighed.
"What is it with you humans and your twisted sense of hope?" She said as Vader came back into the room.
"Our forces have arrived at the rebel outpost, should I give the order to exterminate them?" She said as Salem nodded.
"And now, with that order, the last of your little rebellion will be wiped out, a pity. While you have been a thorn in my side, I admit I will miss playing this game." She said as Pyrrha chuckled.
"Do you really think you will get away with this." Pyrrha said as she was close to breaking out of the manacles.
"I don't think, I know." She said as Vader came to take Pyrrha to the torture room.
KA BOOM!
An explosion rocked the base, causing even Salem to stumble. Her head filled with confusion as she saw Pyrrha break free from her manacles.
"The funny thing about you evil types, in movies and in real life, you just don't know when to shut up." Pyrrha said as her weapons flew to her hands and she launched an attack at Salem.
Only to be immediately blocked by Vader, who had practically moved to intercept her within the blink of an eye.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" She yelled as she was not expecting this.
"Oh simple, you see while your friends went to go attack our outpost, we have been gathering here, in other words, It's a trap!" She yelled as she felt odd satisfaction from saying that.
"Looks like you're not so tough after all." She said as she saw Salem immediately yell orders into the com link, only to get nothing but static.
"That won't help you, looks like my friends managed to get that com tower down, no one is coming to help." She said as Salem glared at her.
"Do you think you have won?! VADER! Kill her! At this point I don't care what you do, but I want her head on a platter!" She yelled as Vader nodded.
"Wait...Jaune...are you sure about this?" She said as Vader responded by slashing at her.
"I guess that's a yes." Pyrrha said as she looked at Salem.
"Too scared to fight me yourself?!" She yelled as she saw Salem glare at her.
"You may have surprised me with that, and you may have thrown a wrench into my plans, but I can still feel the pleasure of watching you die by his hands." She said as she sat back down on her throne.
Vader prepared his sword as Pyrrha took a stance, her eyes staring into Vader's soul. Begging him to stop, she was begging Jaune to come back, but Vader was not backing down. Pyrrha knew that her pleading was not going to work. She was going to have to fight him again. And while she could still feel the sting of his blade on her eye. She had grown in strength since their last fight. With that in mind, she ran forward and clashed her blade with his.
All while Salem looked on with a malicious look in her eyes.
JACK
"COME ON BOYS! GET SOME!" Jack yelled as he led the assault on GrimmKiller base, as some of the men had called it, honestly he had no idea how they came up with a stupid name like that.
He had to admit, out of all the things that had happened to him in his life. He never expected this, going from being a grunt in a militia, to being a commanding officer of the Atlesian army, and actually leading a battalion on what some would hope to be the final fight. Although something told him it wouldn't be the end. But he sure as hell wasn't going to tell anyone that.
"Captain! We have bombers flying up ahead, and we got troops ready to go on the ground, when do we attack?" A private came up as Jack looked at him.
"Those ships can only drop so many bombs, they're hitting targets such as the aircraft hangers, it should cripple their forces in the air, leaving us with the advantage in the skies, and they will be forced to fight on the ground, as soon as you see those Hounds come out of the base, you attack fast and you attack hard!" He yelled back as he held his assault rifle close.
Honestly he was surprised that this worked. He kept getting the feeling that this was actually a dream or a nervous hallucination. He had been in battle before, but considering the fact that this was a full out siege on a base, he reserved the right to be nervous. Most of the time they were busy laying waste to small outposts and small battalions who were out on patrol, but this was much bigger than he thought.
The base while not indestructable, was pretty hard to penetrate. Thats why they had to focus their fire on areas like the aircraft hanger since it was one of the most vulnerable parts of the base. Unforturnately the main base was heavily gaurded, while the explosions would definitely rock the foundation of the walls, and probably shake up the people inside of the base. They couldn't bomb the entire thing to oblivion, things were never that easy.
"Well, lets just hope that we get out of this alive." Sergeant Alexander said as he walked up to his Captain.
"Hey Captain?" He asked as Jack looked at him.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"If I kill more Hound's than you, you buy the beer." He said as Jack groaned.
"Screw you I bought it last time! I'm not losing to you again!" He said as the sergeant smirked.
"Thats what all you pencil pushing officers say, I'll bet you a case of Black Cat that I kill more than you." He said as they saw movement.
"Well, we best get to it then!" He yelled as they ran into the battlefield.
