Merry Christmas to everyone and your loved ones. Enjoy this gift, from me to you.
"Twenty-five years later and everyone can still to this day tell you where they were when the bomb was dropped. I'm one of those who could tell you what it was like to see it firsthand. I think the worst part is that no one at the time knew why this happened. Except for the councils...they knew."
Terra Cotta-Arc, being interviewed by award-winning journalist Lisa Lavender
xxxx
"Not With a Whimper"
Dana Scully didn't let anything stop her as she power-walked into South General Hospital's East entrance with Saphron and Adrian right on her heels. With evacuations currently underway, the hospital was trying to get everyone onto the transports and out of the city, patients that were most critical being priority. As such, no one paid attention to the two women, plus baby, walking up to a wall-mounted directory.
"There," After a moment to scan the display, Scully pointed to an H symbol next to a set of elevators. "That's where our ticket out of here is."
"Isn't it dangerous to use the elevator in an emergency? You mentioned the stairs earlier," Saphron tried to block out the chaos going on around them. It only served to remind her that Terra was out there in the middle of it all.
"Normally, yes, we wouldn't use it," Scully guided her charge away from the directory and down the hallway. "But we need to leave as fast as possible. We'll have to risk it, unfortunately."
"Ok. I trust you." Her grip tightened on Adrian, who'd gone awful quiet since witnessing the death of the two Nevermore.
She too was confused, a perhaps a smidge uncomfortable, by what they'd witnessed. Bloody pieces of the grimm flying through the air, hitting the ground with a wet splat. There was even blood still clinging to her shoes, no sight of the evaporation that normally came with dead grimm. It was so….wrong. Everything about this day was wrong. Giant monsters, bleeding grimm, military force failing hard to protect them. Saphron was mentally overwhelmed by events happening around her, made only worse by the fact Terra's location and condition were complete unknowns.
"Mama…..where Mama?" Adrian whispered as they stepped into the elevator.
Saphron could only respond with a kiss to his forehead and holding him tighter to her bosom. The sound and rumble of the elevator heading up felt soothing in its own weird way. It let her mind drift to other places. Like...like how tonight she had planned to cook a grilled bass with peas and carrots for the family. Adrian wasn't a picky eater despite his age, and fish had become one of his favorites at the dinner table. As for the vegetables, Saphron liked to cook them at least once a week just for Terra. A cute remembrance to the first time her wife kissed her.
xxxx
Tonight's date was going horribly in Saphron's opinion. First, because of a wreck, she was almost ten minutes late before finally arriving at the restaurant they agreed to. Then her date's food had been brought out with the wrong side items. And if that wasn't enough, the open mic poetry they were hoping to enjoy at a cafe down the road had been canceled due to technical troubles. They both still ordered coffee and cake, and while it was nice, it wasn't exactly the most romantic thirty minutes she'd experienced. Saphron had planned a night that should have played out like those novels she liked to read. Instead, the date had taken several bad turns turning it into a date straight out of one of mom's sitcoms.
Now, the duo found themselves walking down the street under a cloudy night sky, not a word between them. The awkwardness was so heavy that Saphron felt like burying her head in the sand a minimum of six months. The date at this point was kind of at an end, with nothing else planned. The prospect of a second date didn't look good. Perhaps she would snuggle with a tub of ice cream, watching a shitty rom-com. Or-
"I'm sorry everything went horribly," Terra mumbled next to her, voicing the words she wanted to say. Saphron didn't get a chance to respond as her date started pouring out words like a faucet. "At this point, I think I have a superpower that makes all my dates go bad. Every time it's the same song-and-dance. 'Make a plan, the day comes, and if only one thing goes wrong it's a miracle'."
Saphron wondered if her jaw could not only hit the ground but go through it, "You too?"
Terra stopped rambling, looking at her date in surprise, "What do you mean?"
xxxx
Thank the Gods the bullhead wasn't damaged. Holding her son as tight as possible without hurting him, Saphron's vision started to tunnel as she followed Scully to the machine. The redheaded huntress pulled on the door, which of course was locked. Scully responded to this challenge by holding up her fist, which became wreathed in fire, and pierced the lock. The melted metal out of the way, the door slid open with ease. Another explosion from the harbor, unknown to them a result of the last airships being destroyed by Monster X, kicked the women into gear. Once she was inside Saphron strapped herself in while Scully headed to the cockpit. It would take a minute to warm up the engine and actually lift off. A minute was such a long time…
xxxx
"For me it's either that I'm so nervous I act like a complete spaz and just go on rambling tangents, or that I'm calm and collected, but nothing about the date goes right," She put her finger on her chin, looking up in thought. "Except my food if it's a dinner date. I've never had bad food on any of my dates."
A giggle. Then another. Soon the woman next to her was laughing so much she actually had a hand on her gut. This laughter continued on for a whole minute. The entire time Saphron felt her self-esteem crumble more and more, while her irritation, in turn, started to build in tandem. The blonde was just about to yell, or maybe growl, at her date, when a soft hand grabbed her own and pulled her closer. Terra had stopped laughing and was smiling at her rather cutely.
"I guess we have a lot in common then. We were made for each other, like peas and carrots," Lips. Moist lips were pressed to her own now. Oh. My. Gods. But….wasn't….it...how did things go from 'Disaster' to 'I'm on first base!" within a minute? Wait, why the fuck was she thinking about that? There was kissing to be done! Saphron reciprocated the kiss quite earnestly, drawing a not unwelcome moan from the darker girl. They could have been kissing for seconds or minutes and she wouldn't have known the difference. Or cared. Parting for air, both panting in excitement, Terra whispered something that made everything better. "It's just like my favorite novel."
Yes. Terra was a keeper. And she deserved a reward for such cuteness, "Let's do that again." More kisses were shared that night, with a promise of a second date. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
xxxx
Terra was the light of her life for so many years now. She and their beautiful baby boy. The gentle hum of the engines did little to cover the pounding of her pulse in her ear. Her son, strapped in next to her, cried out when the bullhead took off from the roof. Saphron let him hold onto her fingers in an attempt to calm the boy. His chubby little face met hers and didn't look away.
"It's ok Adrian. Don't cry, ok? Soon Mama will be here and we'll be out of this craziness." The child responded by pulling his mother's hand to his face, seeking comfort.
Saphron continued to focus on her son for another minute, before looking out the window to the city around below them. Fires blazed from every direction. Buildings, vehicles, crashed Dropships and Airships, even a grassy park she liked to take Adrian to. Other aircraft were filling the sky throughout the city, taking as many refugees as possible to safety. Some headed for Mistral, some headed for Vale, and so on. But the number of people still left on the ground, some starting to riot in fear at possibly being left behind, was in the range of 80,000.
The feeling of the bullhead dropping in altitude brought her senses back. Were they close to picking up Mulder and Terra? The doors rolled open, most likely by a command from the cockpit, letting in a cacophony of the chaos awaiting them. What felt like hours, but was really just two minutes, passed before a shape appeared, arcing into the cabin with something in its arms. Mulder stood before them, and in his grip was a clearly injured Terra. The bullhead remained in place, giving the duo a moment to get settled. Mulder passed an out of it Terra to Saphron, who worked faster than she thought possible to buckle her wife into the seat next to her.
A hasty sling had been applied to lessen the chance of further harming Terra's forearm, but without any splints, it would only do so much. After seating herself once more, and flashing Mulder a thankful smile, Saphron focused on her family. Things would work out. They had to.
Mulder turned to head up into the cockpit where his partner awaited him, only to pause when he noticed the Lancer that appeared in the open doorway. Saphron screamed at the sight, causing Adrian to copy her. Terra blearily looked at the monster before them, too drained to make any noise. Mulder's ax was at the ready in a flash, pulled back in preparation to slice the grimm in two. Yet, after a solid minute filled with cries from the civilians outside, the Lancer still had not struck. Was it the same one they ran into before? Perhaps Mulder could take the chance.
"You going with us?" The Huntsman lowered his weapon just enough to appear nonthreatening, but still able to swing if the grimm moved in a way he didn't like.
The Lancer tilted it's head like before, staring at the suited man in confusion. At least Mulder thought it seemed confused. It wasn't immediately trying to kill them, so that was progress.
Going?
Where?
There was that voice again. It sounded soft, small. Like that of a child. Potential gender couldn't be determined, as the voice held no particular quality leaning towards one or the other. Did grimm even have a gender? Mulder didn't think so. Of course, Mulder didn't think he'd hear spoken, more mental really, words from the mindless creatures. Even so, he made an executive decision based on his curiosity.
"We're going somewhere safe," Shifting the ax onto his back, Mulder pointed at Saphron, "Stay with this nice lady while I go catch up with my partner. Ok?"
…..ok
Slowly flying towards a very nervous Saphron, the Lancer hovered before her with an unnerving stare. I mean, it didn't have eyelids so its only expression defaulted to a stare. But other than the staring it did nothing. Just waited. The blonde woman swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke up.
"I-If you don't mind, can you s-sit over there?" She pointed at the seat across from her family. "Just stay calm….please."
The Lancer eyed her hand for a moment, then followed the request. It couldn't pull the harness around itself, instead just sitting with its spindly legs folded beneath a bony thorax.
Mulder nodded at the seemingly resolved issue, pressing a button on the wall the shut the side doors. The sudden dampening of sound a grateful change to everyone. Trudging his way into the cockpit, taking his place at the copilot's chair, the suited hunter smiled at his partner while putting the headset on. Her stern expression soon melted into a satisfied grin.
"Knew you'd be fine. How're our passengers?" Scully pulled gently on the yoke, the bullhead responding at a steady pace. Now heading east, the giant creature left standing behind them, the huntress doctor started inputting the navigational data for the autopilot. Without any obstacles, it would take them around two days to arrive at Haven Academy.
"Terra has a broken arm, bad break," Mulder grimaced for a moment, before smiling at his partner just a little. "She's a tough one though. When we ran into our tag-along she just stared at it."
Scully slowly turned her gaze toward the grinning man, no longer amused by what was being said. "What tag-along?"
"Oh man, have I got a story for you. See, when we hit the ground..."
xxxx
Coco looked down at Velvet crouched in front of her camera, adjusting one more dust vial, one more setting. Numerous student teams sought a closer look, eager to watch the screen when Scarlatina finished connecting her scroll. The rabbit girl spliced in an Arc Dust crystal to complete the circuit from one to the other, and voila! Suddenly her weapon was projecting the live news feed onto the wall. It was only a screen shaped at around 100 square feet, but that was enough. At least Ruby thought so, as she squeezed her way between Yatsu and Neptune to get a front-row seat.
"So, right now we're stuck waiting for another transport to get us out of here. I mean, if they hadn't blatantly f****d us by trying to shoot Cool Hand Grimm up their and losing all there ships." A human woman shouted angrily at the reporter wanting to get her opinion of the situation.
Jung Fleurie pulled his microphone back in complete shock, turning to his camerawoman, a ferret faunus from Menagerie, "Oh, we can't say that on the news. Uh, so right now everything's kind of calmed to a standstill. Well, maybe calm isn't the word I'd use, more like just stuck and irritated…."
The faunus woman started pulling her hand across her throat, trying to get him to shut up.
"…..it would be like when you're in heavy traffic and all you want to do is punch the guy who cut you off two minutes ago. Cause he's changing lanes every five seconds and, OF COURSE, he isn't using his left and right indicators..."
"And maybe you could stop talking now," she kind of didn't care if the scroll picked up her voice there.
"…...and then the a*****e in the big, lifted truck has to ride your ass. Gets all pissed off because you don't want to drive 20 over the limit….."
"And that's all for Jung Fleurie," The camera panned to a young, tanned woman with ferret ears atop her buzzed head, "Right now, nothing out here's calm. There are no airships anywhere in sight. All of' em are either gone or destroyed by that monster out there."
Team RWBY watched the scene change to Argus Bay where said kaiju was standing tall amid the wreckage of ¼ Atlas's military might. The mode had swung harder than an angry drunk. What had first been cheering for the giant Monster as it destroyed the other one, turned into shock and confusion when Atlas vessels tried to kill it. Ruby looked all around her, trying to see how her older classmates were handling this. Now….now everyone was either staring in fearful awe or enraged tears.
People were dead. People were dead and nothing could fix that. But whom to blame? What to blame? Shiigan for attacking the city? X for finishing them off? Somehow the temperature in the cafeteria was climbing. Other than the sounds playing from scrolls all around.
The scene shifted back to the young woman once more, fixing her hand-me-down yellow coat together with its stained strap, "He hasn't attacked us, didn't attack in the first place." She frowned for a moment, looking at her coworker having a meltdown, at the men and women around her getting into fistfights over 'cutting in the rescue line'.
When she woke this morning and began getting ready for her job, all she could think about was what she was going to wear on her date tonight. Would it be the knee-high boots or glossy heels? He liked her coat a lot, despite the tears that marred its surface. And she had just bought those new glasses. Retro-style, with a square frame, and a wonderful shade of neon pink. Now? With the evacuations, there would be no date. No seafood dinner. No overtime with some guaranteed cunnilingus. She looked up to the clouds above, then tilted her head in confusion.
"What is that?" The scene changed once more, showing a dark object falling towards Monster X. The kaiju himself looked up, alerted by the sound of the bomb traveling through the air. Said bomb, dropped by The Wregretful, was a prototype weapon Atlas wanted to bring to the forefront of the war with the Grimm.
And what worse target than a kaiju.
Three seconds later, impacting the alien kaiju's face, did the bomb explode. The sky cracked with a flash of fire, with enough force to split and rend the clouds instantly. An eardrum- shattering bang sent many to their hands and knees. Everyone could feel the air around them rapidly turn scorching. Life was 110% more miserable than five seconds ago.
The yellow-coated woman stumbled to her feet, rushing to aim her scroll at the epicenter. X was shielding his face from the blast, which itself was coming toward her location like hell given form.
"Oh Go-" The screen turned to noisy static as the connection was lost. All around the world people watched in shock, knowing what had just happened, but not comprehending the situation.
Ruby herself stared at the screen in a stupor. Had….had that really just happened? She took a step back without meaning to, confused and upset at what they'd just witnessed. Her back met with Yang's chest, strong arms full of warmth and love encircling her shoulders.
"Yang, why did that happen? That was a bomb. I know a lot about military-grade weapons, and only Atlas makes weapons like that. I-I-I-I mean, why would Atlas use a bomb where people c-could get huRT," Tears pooled in her silver eyes, a choking sob cutting off any further words. Soft hands held her face, Weiss' pale visage blocking her view of the static-filled screen.
"Ruby, I need you to take a slow, deep breath. Breath in," Weiss breathed in, Ruby hesitatingly doing the same. "And out." The partners let out the CO2 just as slowly. It helped just the slightest amount in trying to bring Ruby's heart rate down.
Yang gently pulled her sister away from the upset crowd of students, guiding her back to the table they'd been eating lunch at. What remained of their meals had long since gone cold, yet none of them cared. Ruby kept her breathing slow and steady like her partner wanted. It helped focus her mind, her thoughts organized in a way that Ruby felt gave her some ground to start. Taking one more deep, even, breath she looked to her team.
"I don't know why that just happened, but I do know that there's nothing I can do about it. Not right now, if ever. I-I think right now we should go to our next class and try not to focus on this."
"Can we really do that?" Blake nearly jumped out of her seat from the vicious glare her blonde partner sent her way. "I'm not trying to upset anyone further. But we just saw the remaining population of a city wiped out by a bomb that was possibly dropped by Atlas. Do you guys understand what that means?"
"War," Weiss' voice was a near whisper, yet everyone within ten feet heard her. "All those deaths, depending on the circumstances…..war could be declared within a day if Mistral chose to do so. They'd have the legal and moral right after what happened. If Atlas is responsible for this, that is."
"We'll talk about it back in the dorm," Yang's tone was quite final. "after we've had time to calm down. I like Ruby's idea to go to class and worry about this later. There's nothing we can do right now, so there's no use upsetting ourselves any further." Weiss and Blake nodded in agreement more out of fear Yang would smack the shit out of them than principle. Yes, they could see her point how, really, there was nothing the team could do other than speculate potential fallout. It didn't change the fact Ruby clearly needed to let out her emotions, not bottle them for a few more hours. The monochromatic duo stayed silent however, watching the elder sister hold onto the fifteen-year-old.
xxxx
X finally blinked the spots out of his vision, waving his clawed hand through the lingering residue of the Dust bomb that exploded in his face. He had no idea what these primitive beings were thinking by attacking him with it. Compared to nearly all other civilizations he had encountered, their weapon was shit. Less: damage his body in any way whatsoever, more: I can't see anything for about a minute. How utterly pointless.
His own health wasn't the issue, however. Now able to see X's eyes scanned the large city he had protected from that other kaiju. Quick steps brought him to the edge of the docks, focus locked in, not on the collapsed buildings, but on the remains of the natives. Many were burnt beyond recognition, gender or age impossible to determine. The carcasses of those he'd used Keizer energy on looked little more than blackened husks partially melted into the environment. Stepping into the city proper only revealed more dead on every street or alley. Monster X could feel his breath begin to shorten, hands twitching, as the same sight greeted him no matter where he looked.
Dead humans. Dead faunus. Dead grimm. Dead. Dead. Dead. It made his head hurt. These damn dirty humans just nullified the work he put in fighting Shiigan, seeing as how they did the same thing he had been in the middle of not thirty minutes ago. And his little ones. His little ones that did nothing to deserve such a violent, sudden death. Why? Why? WHY?! What purpose was served from these savage beings doing this? X had seen plenty of death and destruction while under the Xiliens. But things were supposed to be different now! Things…
His hands gripped his armored skull, trying to kill the painful headache that was growing worse by the second. Deep within his chest, Keizer energy stirred, reacting to his spiraling emotional state. "Grrrrrmmmmm," Would everything in his existence end in pain and misery? It was, it…..
White armor began to tinge gold, skin turned from pitch black to more of a bluish shade. Arcs of yellow energy jumping all over his body, sometimes striking the remains of the surrounding structures and collapsing them. Falling to one knee X tried to contain the power that threatened to take over. He could remember a time when the Keizer didn't exist. Before, at the start of his enslavement. His power source didn't turn him into that three-headed thing. It came later after the Xiliens experimented on his body, exposing him bit by bit to the DNA of some ancient space dragon. The outcome of doing this had conditioned his other half to emerge with almost no prodding, so long as any negative emotions built up enough. Then the Xiliens found a way to force it to come out on command, without his say.
He couldn't let that happen. Not here. Not now. This planet, this untouched world his former masters had missed, had to survive. But the stupid beings and their weapons, and their desire to fight him for no reason. Noooooo….
Looking to the sky above suddenly filled with clouds, body surrounded by a pulsing aura. Monster X screamed the call of a Ghidorah. A sound not heard within the universe in millennia. A sound like that of a million tortured souls, crying out in pain. Begging for death.
"Raaaaggggghhhhh"
Monster X used the rapidly slipping control to soar into the sky, breaking through the atmosphere and away from Remnant's gravitational pull. The shattered moon was his destination. If he couldn't hold the Ghidorah within, at least no one would suffer. Angry as he was with the apes, X had committed enough genocide to last ten lifetimes. He would rather not do it again.
xxxx
Menagerie. Tropical paradise if one just glanced at the land from afar. Warm beaches, exotic food, and strange plant life growing naturally within sight of crystal clear ocean waters. Yet if you went further inland, that gilded image became an illusion. Over 60% of the island was unexplored due to the rough terrain that had not yet been settled. Grimm roamed those barren expanses unchallenged, making settlement even more of a challenge.
As such, it was little wonder that no one knew of the giant egg hidden with a mountain near the center of the island. The egg had remained dormant for nearly 50,000 years, laid by its dying mother to continue the cycle of Life. It had yet to hatch in all that time due to the amount of death and pain caused by the Brother Gods and their followers. But now, hearing the call of a Ghidorah, it's eternal enemy, the creature within stirred. Teal colored light sparked within the egg, and a soft trill sounded, seeking out her voice. Seeking out her Shobijin.