v.2
(High Priestess' Chambers)
(Cathedral of Reflection, City of Argent)
(Empyrean, Argent D'Nur)
(The First Age)
Standing naked before the automated mirrors that surrounded her, Aelia hissed a bit in discomfort when she felt her right breast, fingertips grazing the faint bite marks over her slightly tender areola. Her second son had already began teething and once again there would be the arduous process of switching him to solid food, though hopefully he wouldn't prove to be as difficult as William had been.
Aelia looked at her reflections in the mirrors with a small smile. She wasn't a vain person by any stretch, but she couldn't help but be impressed that childbirth twice over had done little to change her figure. Except maybe her breasts, she realized, when she gently felt herself and noted how much larger they were ever since she became a mother, and they had already been – in Stan's own words – 'awesome' looking.
"Domina?"
The mirrors retracted backward, allowing the junior priestesses – the newly ordained young women of the Priestess caste - to step into Aelia's space, each carrying part of her priestess attire. Aelia sighed and closed her eyes, stretching her arms out wide as they proceeded to dress her. Though she was more than capable of dressing herself, she was bound by tradition to let others relieve of her of such a 'burden', doubly so that she was a bearer of future Night Sentinels and as such must be afforded every sort of care there is.
She winced when the wraps were tied around her breasts, which irritated the tenderness present. The priestess tending her gasped when she realized Aelia was pained and stepped back, and the other priestess were looking at her with fearful, accusing eyes.
"F-forgive me, domina!" the priestess bowed her head.
Aelia wanted to roll her eyes. She hated being treated as if she were glass. She raised her arms and said, "Proceed."
The priestess swallowed and resumed wrapping her chest. Another priestess stepped forward with the cuirass of her modified cuirass of the Devout-pattern Night Sentinel power armor, followed by her pauldrons, vambrace, spaulders, faulds, cuisses and greaves. Next came her ceremonial garments, including her skirt that reached the floor.
Another priestess extended to her ceremonial vision-fold. Aelia saw the singular iris staring back her before she closed her eyes and wrapped it around her head. The nano-electronics within the vision-fold activated, sending signals to her brain that caused it simulate vision in spite of her eyes being closed behind the fold.
An entire troop of Night Sentinel Templars with their vibro-swords and Ballista plasma weapons all led by a single Devout were for her person. The Templars stood to attention as the Devout walked on past them and entered the chambers. The priestesses took this as their cue to exit the chambers, the closing behind them and leaving both the Devout and the High Priestess alone.
Aelia smiled teasingly and lifted her vision fold so that he could stared into her silver eyes. She sauntered over toward the lone knight in the room, making sure there was a bit of sway in her hips. Reaching upward she grasped both sides of his helmet, twisted it gently until the hiss of air could be heard, which she pulled it off, revealing her husband staring down at her.
Stan smiled he felt his beloved's lips crush his, snaking his hand over to grasp her behind and pull her against him, eyes briefly lighting up when he felt her tongue against, her moans muffled when he deepened their kiss.
After breaking away Stand grinned eagerly, "Don't suppose we can make everyone wait...a little bit longer?"
"Tempting, but..." Aelia flicked him teasingly on his nose. "It just wouldn't be proper to keep my escorts waiting for long. Besides..." She dimmed her eyes knowingly, and seductively at him, "I don't think the servants would appreciate walking in on us dirtying the waters. Again."
Stan chuckled when he remembered the bath chamber was where they had conceived Hunter. Back then, the two of them had originally planned to just soak together after a long day of following boring ceremony after ceremony, it had just been too tempting to not pass up the opportunity to rail her against the side of the large, spacious bath.
Then one of Aelia's acolytes stepped into the chamber just in time to see the High Priestess she was supposed to bring a message to, being mounted from behind by her bodyguard slash consort with his hands all over her chest.
Awkwardness...
"Unh...oh shit!"
"...d-domina, f-forgive-"
"OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!"
...followed by angry shouting, swearing and thrown objects courtesy of an enraged High Priestess, followed up by more frenzied lovemaking with a sexually frustrated Aelia taking charge, that left Stan walking awkwardly for the better part of a week.
"That's a shame," Stan faux grumbled.
Aelia bent over and picked up his helmet and pushed it back into his helmet, still smiling, "I think you can go without for a little bit longer." She kissed him again. "Until the ceremony is over and no-one happens to notice until the very end that the High Priestess and her bodyguard had slipped out and returned home a few hours before their sons return home-"
Stan remembered that William and Hunter were being babysat by Rosa and her family. Enthused, Stan put his helmet on, "Let's not keep them waiting, domina."
"Call me that later," Aelia gave him one final wink before putting her vision-fold back on.
With her Devout bodyguard slash husband at her side, the High Priestess stepped out of her chambers.
(Outside)
The High Priestess' guarded procession stepped out past the marble pillars of the entryway onto the steps leading down from the front of Temple Primeris, where they were greeted by the crowds of thousands waiting for them – for her. Though she was supposed to look and act impassive, she couldn't keep the joy off her face for a brief moment when she saw her boys in the care of Rosa's family, the infant Hunter being held by the rabbit Beastkin while William and Perenna were waving enthusiastically at them.
They weren't the only Beastkin out this day before the Temple Primeris, Stan noted. 'The things that bring people together,' he thought, looking over the sea of humans – blue-eyed, brown-eyed, green-eyed, silver-eyed – and beastkin, then he stared up at the massive piece of gothic architecture in the shape of a ring being transported by a several dozen airships. The crowd's attention was drawn up to the skies, and cheers began ringing out amongst the Argenta people.
"So, what are we staring at?" Stan asked.
"The Slipgate, love."
"What's it's for?"
Aelia appeared thoughtful, "For humanity, the past. For our children, the future. This is the way to Urdak, the place Terrans call Heaven." Aelia smiled. "Home of the Makyrs, the fathers of all humanity..."
(RWBY)
Kingdom of Tyrants I:
The SDC
Following Private Jessika Puce's unfortunate accidental death caused by the recoil generated by the Gauss Cannon, from now on all Terran Union Aerospace weaponry will be test fired by the new Knight-200s. Believe it or not, flesh-and-blood soldiers are a lot harder to replace than automatons, no matter what our esteemed General Ironwood tends to believe.
- Memo from Authority,
Epsilon Research and Development Labs and Facilities, Kingdom of Atlas
(RWBY)
(En-route to Kingdom of Atlas from Beacon Academy)
"Why wasn't I informed earlier that my own daughter managed to return to Atlas?!"
On board the family's private airliner, fourteen-year old Whitley Schnee flinched a bit in his seat when he heard his father go off in the backroom where the long-range communicator was located.
"Oh, I see! How considerate of you, truly!"
Whitley just stared ahead at the door leading toward the cockpit, trying to mentally drown at his father's heated sarcasm.
"Yes, that was sarcasm, imbecile! You were supposed to tell me immediately if she had returned, especially if it's thanks to William 'Godsdamn-Public-Enemy-Number-One' Blazkowicz himself! Weiss is more thing I can hold over the damn alien that'll keep him from-what? NO! This changes nothing, you hear me, NOTHING!"
Whitley Schnee swallowed a bit and ran his hand over his short white hair. William Joseph Blazkowicz III – the Doom Slayer – had become something of worry for his father. If he could defy General Ironwood and the Atlesian military, then he would be able to stand up against the Schnee Dust Company. And apparently, he had both his elder sisters on his side. Winter definitely, but Weiss...
"I want the press to arrive at the agreed upon time! The guests! Nothing, ABSOLUTELY nothing, is going to derail this event! We're talking about the future of our company...no...the future of our KINGDOM, you understand? Good! Finally! Maybe you won't spend your immediate future out of the same rubble I dug you out of!"
His father finally stopped shouting to catch his breathe.
"Make sure it's ready. That'll be all."
The door leading to the rear of the plane opened and out emerged Jacques, red in the face and visibly mad. As he strode by Whitely, his son dared to opened his mouth, "Is something the matter, father?"
"Weiss, she-!" Jacques rounded on him, about ready to raise his voice once again. He closed his eye and sighed, "Your sister has returned home to Atlas. And I was only informed after she was put into quarantine in Epsilon."
Surprised, Whitley asked, "She's at the Epsilon facility?"
"Having stumbled out of those alien ruins the damn place was built over," Jacques ranted as he sat down across from Whitley, immediately slamming down a glass of Vacuo-distilled liquor. Baring his teeth and suppressing a gasp as he felt the burning liquid go down. "And guess who comes barreling out after her?"
The Doom Slayer, Whitley knew.
"..." at first, he scoffed at the thought of an interdimensional invasion by demons from Hell itself being fought off by one man – an actual alien that looked human - that was at the same defying the Atlesian military and managing to get away with it. Then the stories surrounding the so-called Slayer started to become more outlandish, the people around him – his father, SDC executives, military officials – were on edge by the news that Vale City had been hit by a demonic zombie apocalypse.
Followed by the demonic invasion of Atlas Academy. The images of the aftermath were plastered all over Atlas media and couldn't censor all the blood, gore, dead, mutilated or psychologically broken students. Whitley, along with almost the entirety of the Atlas upper echelons – realized they weren't safe in their kingdom in the clouds after all.
Which made getting the Doom Slayer on their side a very good idea.
"Father, shouldn't we-?"
"Get Blazkowicz on our corner?" Jacques guessed what Whitley was going to ask with a frown. "Ironwood's already screwed that up spectacularly, and all we got out of it were just a few oversized toys that the military can replicate with minimal cost effectiveness. But..." he gave a confident smile as he stared at his glass. "Lucky for the company every man has his price, and it doesn't always involve money."
"Why? We do we have that Blazkowicz could want?"
"The few meagre pieces of his own barbaric 'culture' we have in our possession."
(RWBY)
(Quarantine Sector, Medical Center)
(Epsilon Labs and Facilities)
(Kingdom of Atlas, Solitas)
"Uhhhhh..."
Comfortable mattress. Soft sheets. Weiss felt herself waking up to comforts that reminded her of her home in Atlas.
Atlas. Atlas.
Weiss' eyes shot open in panic...
"OH SH-!"
...catching herself before she could debase herself by using profanity as she tore her blankets off herself, revealing that she was in a white shirt and pants that each had the SDC logo on them. The weak feeling in both her legs caught her off guard and she instead tumbled out of bed onto the white marble floor. Panicking, she turned herself over and sat up, quickly reaching for her legs and feeling like pins and needles were running up and down both of them. She sighed in relief when she was able to wiggle her toes. Gripping the metal poster of the double bed she had been lying she pulled herself up and onto her feet, quickly leaning against the frame when she thought she was going to keel over.
"W-where...?" she mumbled. She noticed the security camera in the upper right corner of the room watching her. She glowered, "W-what is this? Where am I?"
She was expecting a response. She didn't get any.
Weiss decided to play the Schnee card, just this once. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
The holographic projector on a nearby table suddenly activated, displaying a petite young Atlesian woman in a SDC uniform. "Good morning, Ms. Schnee. Allow me to be the first to welcome you home back to the Kingdom of Atlas. Unfortunately, standard procedure regarding our experiments here at the Epsilon Labs and Facilities requires that you remain in quarantine for 24 hours until we determine you are not carrying or infectious diseases or bacteria following your participation."
Weiss scrunched up her face in confusion, 'Experiment? Participation?'
"We appreciate your co-operation in our scientific ende-"
"NO...no, this is a mistake," Weiss cried. "We weren't part of any experiment; we were trying to escape from..." She became silent when everything came flooding back to her.
'Oh gods...it was all real...' she began shivering. "We went to Hell. We escaped from it..."
The demons, the blood, the fire and brimstone, the Atlesian bodies impaled on stakes. A faraway look of horror dawned on her when she realized Atlas was most likely messing around with the interdimensional technology that brought them back to Remnant.
"I-I need to speak to my father!" She rounded on the hologram. "CALL MY FATHER, NOW!"
The hologram titled her head and smiled, "I'm sorry, but Mr. Schnee is busy at the moment. If you like, I can schedule-"
Frantic, panicked screaming was heard past the locked door.
"RUBY!" Weiss cried. She stumbled over toward the door, nearly tripping over as she reached it and looked out the window to see a hallway of other numbered, and the screaming and banging was coming from the room at the far end. "What's going on?"
"It would appear Ruby Rose is in a state of distress," the hologram replied, in that same cheery tone. "Don't worry, medical professionals are on their way to evaluate your mental faculties to determine what course of treatment is-"ff
"Enough!" Weiss shouted. She raised a hand toward the door and focused on summoning a glyph. "I don't have time for this!"
"I would not advise breaking quarantine, Ms. Schnee," the hologram's warnings sounded serious. "On-site security has orders to prosecute possible contaminates with lethal force if necessary."
"..." Weiss paused for a moment. She recalled the hundreds of demonic corpses that had attempted to 'prosecute' her, then summoned a spinning glyph over the heavy door, with obvious intent to pull it off its hinges. "They're welcome to try!"
"RAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Enraged shouting could be heard, then one of the room doors to the left was suddenly punched off its hinges and out stepped an enraged Yang, her bloodied fists clenched and her eyes reddened. Ruby's cries having obviously triggered her to near madness.
"RUBY?! BLAKE?!"" Yang cried. She looked in Weiss' direction. "WEISS?!"
WARNING: QUARANTINE BREACH!The alarm system declared. COUNTERMEASURES DEPLOYED!
Weiss winced as she focused as hard as she could to pull the door off its hinges. The anger, frustration and trauma she was experiencing reached boiling point that she didn't realize that her semblance had unwittingly summoned a Hell Knight. She shrieked when the phantom demon rushed past her and punched the door off its hinges before stomping over toward Weiss' door and tearing it open.
"AH!" Weiss exclaimed as she felt over backward, feeling like her heart had stopped and only resumed once the Hell Knight disappeared. "Weiss!"
"Grrrr...c'mon!" Yang was trying to force Ruby's door open, coming dangerously close to tearing her own fingernails out, Ruby's wailing driving her on. "COME ON YOU FUCK...FUCKING PIECE OF...FUCKKKK!"
"Calm down!" Blake cried as she grabbed Yang's wrists, causing the blonde to wince painfully from her bloody, scraped hands. She looked through the door view-window to see Ruby curled up against the corner and crying. "Weiss!"
"Hold on," Weiss raised her hand toward Ruby's door.
(Ruby)
She had suffered another nightmare...
One where she had been screaming as the demons, after beating her to a bloody pulp and culminating with the Marauder smashing her head repeatedly against an idol, dragged her toward a stone sarcophagus, the lid slowly lifted into the air by two Barons. The Marauder lifted her off the ground by her hair and made her look into its contents.
"...n-no, please...!"
Her mother's rotting corpse. Eyes gouged out and hole in her stomach where her womb should have been. The Marauder gripped her tightly and dropped her in. Ruby was screaming as her face mashed against Summer's sunken, decomposing, near skeletal face. She turned herself in time to see the Baron's slowly lower the lid. Ruby's muffled screaming finished off with one last final scream...
"WILLIAM!"
...and waking up offered her no solace. Locked in what looked like a hospital room and separated from her teammates, from her big sister, from William. Lifting her shirt up to see that bandage that covered the sutures that mended the injuries she had sustained hours earlier that would probably leave scars, this left her feeling frightened, overwhelmed, and with the horrible realization that she had escaped from Hell all coming back to her proved too much; she couldn't stop herself from breaking down. And the sounds of Yang's rage-filled bellowing and punching steel only added to her misery.
She almost when into a fit when the door to her cell was forced open. Tired, and no Crescent Rose on her person, she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the end.
"RUBY!"
Ruby opened to eyes to see Yang standing in the doorway, crying. Ruby burst into tears as Yang ran over to scoop her up into a tight hug, both sisters gripping one another tightly as they bawled their eyes out. For several seconds they weren't Huntresses-In-Training, rookie demon slayers or even two of the few humans to have escaped from Hell. Just two frightened, traumatized girls overjoyed that the other was alive and feeling the others warmth.
"Y-Yang?"
"Yeah, Ruby?"
"H-how much time did William spend in Hell?" Ruby sniffed. "What happened with us...it was like that for him for...how long?"
"..." Yang hung her head when she couldn't respond.
"Hey!" Blake called out from outside. "We got company."
(Cellblock)
Weiss recognized the slender, white-colored, heavily armed androids marching in formation into the cellblock as Atlesian Knight-200s – the smarter, sleeker and no-less scary latest update of the Atlesian military automated forces. They were supposed to have been publicly unveiled a few months from now, and she should have guessed they were already in service in a place she guessed was as secretive as the facility that was holding her and her team against their will.
"Cease attack positions and put your hands up," the AK-200s intoned, blaster rifles at the ready.
"These things look really expensive," Yang declared, her bloodied knuckles felt like they were screaming in protest over punching through more steel.
"STOP! Emergency shutdown Sierra-Alpha-Niner!"
The AK-200s immediately powered down, hunching over as they deactivated themselves. Behind them stood a frazzled looking woman with short blonde hair in a doctor's coat, struggling to catch her breath as if she had just ran from the other side of the building to the cell blocks. Weiss spotted the name tag – Dr. Lucy Catrice, Behavioral Therapist.
"What the hell?" Yang cried. "How'd you-?"
"Gods, your hands," Catrice caught Yang off guard when she stepped over and grasped her bloodied, bruised wrists as gently as she could. "Why would you hurt yourself like this?"
Yang recoiled from her and angrily shouted, "Cause' you assholes are keeping us here like we're goddamn mental patients-"
"...wherein we just escaped from Hell itself!" Weiss exclaimed. "And you people look like you're studying it!"
"Is this an SDC facility?" Blake asked, nervous at the thought at being at that company's mercy. "What are you people doing here?"
"And where the hel...heck have you put our weapons?!" Yang demanded. "Any second now they'll be storming out that teleporter you got stashed here!"
"Please, if...if you can take some time to collect yourselves, I'll answer all your questions," Catrice pleaded. "Yes, this facility is co-financed by the Schnee Dust Company and we are researching...artifacts belong to Atlas' past, and your weapons are kept safe at the security station within this buildng-"
"Where's William?" Ruby quietly asked.
"Will-? Oh, him," Catrice said out loud, to everyone's surprise. "He's-"
"WARNING: SLAYER HAS BREACHED SECURITY CHECKPOINT ZETA! ALL PERSONNEL TO COMBAT POSITIONS! DO NOT ENGAGE UNLESS SLAYER TURNS HOSTILE!"
Catrice's eyes widened, "...oh, dear."
Yang grinned, "Oh snap, William busted out already?"
"Uh...actually, he's..." Catrice tapped her pointer fingers together nervously. "He was escorted out of the teleportation research labs, but after he refused to surrender himself, his AI requested they'd be able to see you. When the guards refused he stood outside the checkpoint leading out of the labs for-" she checked her watch. "Four hours."
"Soing nothing?!" Weiss exclaimed, incredulously.
"He's on his way here now?" Ruby asked, hopefully.
Yang's blinked in astonishment, still smiling, "Uh."
"...come again?" Blake inquired.
(RWBY)
(Checkpoint Zeta, Research Labs West)
The Slayer shouldn't have let the base doctors take Team RWBY away. But their injuries – physical and mental – had been beyond what he could do for them. When they asked him to hand over his weapons – including the golden longsword - he had silently refused. Then they started barking at him to comply, so he just stood there, motionless. Hours went, and suddenly he wasn't feeling considerate anymore.
He wasn't going to kill any of them...
"I-I SAID SURRENDER YOUR WEAPONS! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARN-ACK!"
...just remind them they had no power over him.
BAM!
THWACK!
KRUNCH!
Two SDC guard were sent flying, one of whom smacked against the wall before joining the rest of the detachment that had been sent to guard the Slayer, not one of them having managed to get a shot off when the Slayer finally lost his patience. He waked right another SDC guard, knocking her flat on his back, her foot crushing her left hand as her stepped all over her him and left her screaming and writhing on the floor. Panicking and giving him a wide berth, several other security guards aimed their ballistic submachine-guns at him as he headed toward the fortified checkpoint, all of them afraid to pull the trigger and piss him off even more. Atlesian scientists, works and other civilians scrambled to stay out of his way, fixing him with fearful stares, treating him as the threat that he was.
++All SDC Security are advised to let us through,++ VEGA informed everyone present. ++You risk severe bodily harm impeding us.++
"You're going nowhere you fucking alien!" one of the guards snarled.
'Alien?' That was new.
"Uh...that's the AI speaking," another one reminded him.
"Fuck off!"
"Are we just going to keep pointing our guns at him and not actually do anything?"
"Screw that! I'm not being paid enough to get killed myself killed!"
An automated gun turret outside the checkpoint activated and pointed down at him for the ceiling.
"We're not letting you through!" the guard behind the console exclaimed. Smugly, he added, "Either you stand down or you're staying in these labs for a very long-!"
BOOM!
William destroyed the turret with his shotgun, the explosive shot scattering burning shrapnel all over and cracking the security station's windows and wiping the smug of that guard's face.
One of the guards shadowing him squeezed the trigger of his assault rifle...
"YOU BAST-!"
...the Slayer grabbing the barrel and pointing it up so that he was fired up at the ceiling. He tore the rifle out of the guard's hands and dissembled it as he walked back toward the station. Shattering the glass with his foot he stepped into the station and approached the guard manning it. The petrified man pressed up against the console, shaking violently as his right hand clenched and unclenched as he debated whether to draw his sidearm and incur the Slayer's wrath as he towered above him, William reached past him to push the button that opened the door leading out of the station and toward the exit. Afterward he swiped the guard's scroll and exited the security station and went 'outside'.
The guard still within the station punched the button for the comm, "Epsilon to Titan Base! I say again, come in Titan Base!"
'Titan to Epsilon, go ahead.'
"Requesting military intervention. DN-SIL has not been contained!" the guard frowned. 'Let Cordovin deal with him.'
(Plaza)
"..."
The first thing he noticed was that he was underneath a massive dome of hexagonal plates generated by Hard Light Dust that appeared to stretch for a mile. Outside the dome it was frozen tundra, within the dome there were several technologically-sound structures each separated by several hundred yards all connected by a tram system. He saw several of the tram rails lead in the far distance up a small mountain nearly touching the dome ceiling toward high steel walls.
Every Atlesian present made sure to keep as far away from him as possible, many of them screaming as they ran as past as their legs could a carry them. He gripped on the Atlesian scroll tightly.
++I have limited remote access to Epsilon's systems and can only access what is available to the public from the Visitor's Center,++ VEGA informed. ++This complex is composed of several interconnected science labs and facilities – current projects all restricted access. The nerve center is located within Epsilon Authority, the building located at the top of the mountain.++ VEGA paused to access more data. ++Besides the sizable Schnee Dust Company Security Force, this facility is under the Atlesian military's jurisdiction based out of Titan Base located just outside the dome.++
More Atlesians to cripple?
Joy.
William's eyes lit up when he noticed the longsword he had in his possession shimmer, whatever power it had contained looked like it was eager to spill more blood.
++ACCESSING LOCAL SURVEILLANCE NETWORK VIA SCROLL SECURITY CLEARANCE,++ VEGA stated. ++Team RWBY is located at the medical center just south across the plaza, just exiting the quarantine sector.++
"...", he should have known that that would have been the first place they'd send them to.
++There was no other way for Team RWBY to receive medical treatment at the time,++ VEGA tried to reassure the Slayer.
The Slayer shook his head and headed south across the plaza toward the medical center, the alarms going off as everyone cleared out of his way, pushing and shoving as they attempted to evacuate; treating one angry man that wasn't even paying any attention to them as a threat. Approaching the front doors of the medical center, the nurse-receptionist gasped...
(Reception, Medical Center)
...and hit a button that closed the automatic doors. Until the Slayer forced them open hard enough to shatter the glass. The nurse fell back onto her chair and scooted as far back as she could before hitting the edge of the booth.
"C-can I h-help you?" the nurse stuttered.
++We would like to see Team RWBY, please,++ VEGA politely asked. ++It is very, very urgent.++
More SDC security emerged from the doors leading into the other wards. The one in front paused to shriek, only to knocked onto the floor by the one behind him.
"What the f...what's HE doing here?!"
"Yeah, we're supposed to be dealing with those four little girls that just broke out of quarantine!"
"...little girls?" the Slayer drawled.
Said little girls barged right through the doors, a familiar looking woman accompanying them as they followed by several more guards and AK-200s. Each of them looked absolutely haggard, Ruby looking like she had cried and Yang's hand were bandaged; William guessed from punching a steel door down without Ember Celica.
"Wait, just put your guns down!" Dr. Lucy Catrice exclaimed, waving her arms about. "If we could just have a word with the director perhaps we-" she noticed William. "B-Blazkowicz?"
"..." William hadn't expected to see her again.
Again, Ruby radiated pure joy at the sight of the Doom Slayer, "WILLIAM!" She blinked in realization, "Wait..."
"You guys know each other?" Yang cried.
"When he first came to this world, he...he saved my life from the White Fang," Catrice said, smiling. It soon morphed into a look of shame. "We did...horrible things to him and he still saved me."
Weiss scowled, "What 'horrible things?'"
"..." was there a reason he couldn't remember those 'horrible things?' He recalled stumbling out of those ancient ruins back in Vale, beating a dozen Atlesian soldiers down, somehow getting subdued, and waking up to the White Fang massacring the black site he was being kept in, and massacring them right back.
"HEY!" Yang suddenly grabbed Catrice by the arm and squeezed. She demanded, "What. Horrible. Things?"
Catrice suddenly began to sweat. Memories came back of an unconscious Doom Slayer being stripped of his arms and armor, his naked body strapped to a table and watched by everyone behind a two-way mirror as he was poked and prodded like some kind of lab animal. Or a piece of meat if the flushed faces of several of her colleagues – women and men – were any indication.
"Well?" Yang growled, drawing Catrice's attention away from her ruminating.
"...Uh...I..."
"Forget it," Blake said. "What do we do now?"
They turned to Ruby, as if she had the answer.
"Well we're not surrendering again, are we?" Ruby asked. "William?"
"..." William shook his head. He turned to Catrice, "Director who?"
"He...I heard he's waiting in the Visitor's Center just south of the plaza," Catrice answered. She addressed all the security surrounding them. "Just let us pass and...and the Slayer won't be triggered-"
"Too late!" the security chief leading the SDC guards called out. "Titan base just responded. They're sending reinforcements..."
(RWBY)
(Surveillance Room, Research Labs West)
"...personally led by Commander Cordovin herself. Gods help us all, that woman's coming here."
Watching the action so far from the hundreds of cameras scattered around the plaza and the western end of the complex, Watts smiled at the mention of Specialist Caroline Cordovin, commander of the Atlas Military detachment out of Titan base coming to personally deal with the Slayer himself. He turned to the screen displaying the two armored personnel carriers being flanked by a company's worth of soldiers as they entered the complex through the vehicle bay from outside the freezing snow.
"This will definitely be interesting," Watts said to no-one in particular.
He switched back to the screen showing Blazkwoicz flanked by Team RWBY now heading across the plaza toward the Visitor's Center; beyond there would be the main entryway. There was no way they were going to escape, but that didn't seem to deter them.
He focused on the longsword the Slayer had magnetized to his hip.
He smirked. The Sword of Destruction wasn't in its vault. It was just within his reach.
Now he just needed a find a way for it to not be cut short.
(RWBY)
(Plaza)
"There must be a least a hundred guards after us."
"Mmm..."
"And they wouldn't dare pull the trigger."
"Yep."
"Because I'm a Schnee?"
"More like they don't want William to come after them."
"...hush you."
William ignored Ruby and Weiss' bickering as they headed north across the plaza toward the Visitor's Center, powerwalking in an attempt to leave the dozens of security teams numbering close to a hundred guards behind them.
"So, what exactly is our plan once we get past those doors and outside the dome? There's no way we're walking home," Yang pointed out.
"..." William hadn't thought that far ahead.
Weiss shook her head and groused, "I'll talk to this 'director', remind him that he works my father, lambast him for his poor treatment of the Schnee heir and her entourage and how dismissive the staff here of the post-traumatic stress disorder we've gone through after being shit-kicked by demons across Hell-"
"Girl...language," Yang said.
"Like I said PTSD!" Weiss exclaimed heatedly
Catrice looked ashamed.
"HALT!"
They were near the gate leading out of the plaza and into the Visitor's Center when they were stopped by two eerily similar looking military guards whose caps William noted resembled a Nuback shoe.
Catrice averted her gaze and brought a fist to her mouth, "...oh, crap..."
"You are not permitted to go any further!" the Nuback on the left intoned.
"Says who?" Yang baited them.
"By the authority granted by the Atlesian military!" the one on the right followed up.
William frowned. Was the Kingdom of Atlas meant to be taken seriously at all?
The sounds of engines tore through the air as Atlesian armored personnel carriers pulled up, flanked by an entire company of Atlas military.
"...this is a joke, right?" Blake wondered out loud.
One of the APC's pointed it's cannon straight at William. The Slayer silently gestured for Team RWBY and Catrice to step away from him as the APC pulled up a dozen meters away from him. The APC's ramp lowered itself, but before William could see whom would be coming out the Nubacks suddenly stepped in front of it. It all felt like it was rehearsed.
"INTRODUCING..."
Catrice hung her and sighed, "Oh, gods..."
"...SPECIAL OPERATIVE..."
William raised an eyebrow, "...the fuck?"
"CAROLINE-!"
++Cordovin,++ VEGA finished in a monotone.
"..." the Nubucks looked crestfallen.
After all that buildup, seemingly nothing was revealed except for an empty armored personnel carrier, until all eyes shifted downward to see a short, elderly woman with short silver hair and brown eyes, dressed in an Atlesian officer's uniform and black gloves. And she didn't look happy that VEGA had interrupted her big moment of introduction.
"..." Cordovin frowned. "Does the alien upstart always rely on an unchecked artificial intelligence to speak for him?"
++Only if the person in question is worth saying a word to,++ VEGA replied.
"...burn," Yang said with a smile under her breath.
Cordovin's left eyes twitched. She straightened her back and haughtily said, "Your days of defying the authority of the Kingdom of Atlas has come to an end, William Joseph Blazkowicz – the so-called Doom Slayer, aka the Grimm Marine. As you can see-"
"The Third."
"What?"
Ruby spoke up a bit louder, "It's William Joseph Blazkowicz the Third, Miss...uh...Cordovin."
Cordovin harrumphed, "Irreverent. Just means he's the third of some no-named alien bloodline. As I was saying: You see before you just a small part of the might of the Atlesian Army charged with protecting this facility – the southern cross of our cutting edge, technological superiority-"
Yang smiled and glanced at William, "This is probably a bad time to mention it, but it feels great not having armor squishing my boobs against my chest." She sighed in relief as she rubbed her back, sticking her chest out. She noticed everyone staring at her, "Oh. Bad time?"
"...Yaaaaannnngggggg..." Ruby whined pitifully, face reddening in embarrassment.
Weiss looked over at Yang, mouth agape in disgust. Blake sighed into her palm, incensed by her partner's nonchalance at their situation, ".Godsdammit, Yang."
Cordovin bulked, "E-excuse you?!"
Yang rubbed the back of her head and waved her free hand in a placating manner, "Sorry, definitely bad times."
Cordovin grinded her teeth, "OUR CUTTING EDGE...technological superiority and only I..." she smiled as she patted herself over her heat. "...have the wit and tenacity to oversee this installation and ensures our work remains uncontested in the face of invasion – of Grimm, demons or-" She looked William up and down. "Illegal aliens."
The Slayer blinked, "..."
"...wow," Weiss scowled.
"She really went there?" Blake muttered bitterly.
Atlas really didn't differentiate between Faunus and humans that weren't from Atlas. Or Remnant.
Yang crossed her arms and smirked. She couldn't help but enjoy the shitshow unravelling right in front of her, "Word." She glanced over at Ruby, and she was wasn't smiling when she saw that she looked like she was going to burst into tear at any given moment at the way they were treating William. Weiss noticed too.
"Oh, will you just call General Ironwood, or better yet, my sister Winter?!" Weiss exclaimed heatedly. "They'll explain everything about what happened when we spent the four hours fire walking through Hell itself."
"Really, Ms. Schnee?" Cordovin chuckled. "You really believe those creatures were from 'Hell'?" She didn't forget to throw in air quotes.
The Atlesian troops present all swallowed, glanced at one another worriedly, or for a few of them shiver when memories of the Atlas Academy Massacre surfaced.
++Correct: We do not seek any more confrontation with the Atlesian authorities. Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood will vouch for-"
She scowled, "Artificial Intelligence should remain unseen and not heard!"
++As should Atlesian military personnel who freeze at the sight of a Baron of Hell as it indiscriminately kills as many civilians as possible,++ VEGA casually fired back.
Cordovin's eyes widened in alarm. "W-wha-?"
William smiled under his helmet. VEGA must have gotten into the base's personnel records.
++And allowing it to continue pursuing fleeing civilians-++
"I...I...ENOUGH!" Cordovin shouted. "I will not tolerate such disrespect, especially from a badly programmed AI-"
++Your personnel records warrants so,++ VEGA retorted. ++For your safety you require immediate correction regarding how you address Blazkowicz.++
Yang laughed, "Whoa, VEGA! You're on a roll!"
"THE DOOM SLAYER WILL BE..." a red-faced Cordovin bellowed, before calming herself and grounding out. "...will be placed under arrest on charges..." she smirked. "Sedition, destruction of property and several counts of assault on Atlesian military personnel." She glowered, "Do you remember those brave Altesian men and women you fought before we managed to subdue you the first time? You punched six of them into comas. Two of them are yet to wake up."
"..."
++The circumstance those Atlesian personnel found themselves in Vale are highly dubious-++
"And the artificial intelligence known as VEGA will undergo extensive interrogative engineering by some of our kingdom's greatest minds and if does not prove itself forthcoming it will be summarily decommissioned."
++...++ VEGA took the time to process Cordovin's sanity. ++You are welcome to try.++
"...oh, shit..." one of the Atlesian soldiers muttered.
Cordovin smirked, "Lieutenant, give the order. I want Blazkowicz restrained and ready to transport to Atlas. If he moves, you are free to use the armor-piercing rounds from the APCs. We outnumber him fifty to one, Blakzowicz has already proven he has just enough compassion to not turn his weapons upon a fellow human being. Which is a surprise considering-"
A beret wearing officer turned to his men and quietly twirled his left finger, indicating that ever Atlesian present were to step as far away as possible from Cordovin. The commander herself that self-absorbed she didn't notice her forces stepping backward as possible. Even her two sycophantic Nubacks turned and nodded to one another before each took several precise steps back.
All the while Cordovin went on and on, eyes closed that she couldn't hear her men's footsteps over the sound of her own voice or William walking toward her.
"...then again, what else could be the said about the last of a primitive, brutish civilization that...that-" she opened her eyes and realized the Slayer was now standing right in front of her. Her smile slowly disappeared, and she thought she could see William's eyes glow silver behind his visor. And he was glaring down at her, as Cordovin's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks, "Uh...lieutenant?"
Yang chuckled, "How about 'Doesn't give a fuck' What William did cause her to suddenly cringe, "Oh, shit..."
William's hand shot forward and grabbed Cordovin around her mouth, her eyes bulging out in sudden fear
"WILLIAM, WAIT!" Catrice exclaimed. "...oh my."
"Whoa..." Ruby stared in awe at William's fearlessness.
Weiss shook her head, trying to appear disapproving, but unable to repress the smirk on her face. Cordovin's fists banged fruitlessly against his wrist as he walked past all the Atlas soldiers and SDC guards, the whole lot of them gawking almost comically at the Slayer's brutish audacity. A few of them pointed their rifles at the Slayer, ready to pull the trigger.
"HOLD YOU FIRE!" another Atlesian army sergeant cried out to his fellows. "YOU'LL HIT THE COMMANDER!"
Team RWBY stared at one another incredulously. Way past the point of questioning Williams' behavior they followed after him.
"Sorry, so sorry," Ruby apologized repeatedly to all the Atlesians present. "But we just really, really need to get back to Vale-"
"You can take this up all with my father," Weiss added hurriedly.
William grabbed the back of Cordovin's head with his free hand, removing palm from her mouth...
"YOU'LL PAY FOR-!"
...for but a moment before he slammed Cordovin's face into the retina scanner, breaking her nose as he smushed it comically against the device and the gates opened, to find more armored riot guards waiting for them. The Slayer sighed impatiently and dropped Cordovin on the ground as he and Team RWBY walked on through, daring the guards to try and stop them.
Humiliated, Cordovin felt tears well in her eyes and blood drip down her face. Picking herself up she wiped her eyes and shouted breathlessly. "Stop them! Shoot...SHOOT THE DAMN ALIEN!"
The Slayer cracked his knuckles, Yang doing the same as she stood beside him. The SDC Riot Guards and Atlesian Army soldiers just stood there in formation with their shields, SMGs and blaster rifles. Though their faces couldn't be seen, their body language indicated that they chose life rather than pull the trigger and leave laser burns on the Praetor suit.
"DO IT!" Cordovin bellowed, her pride in tatters and her pants feeling a bit heavier. "KILL THAT...that...!"
She wanted to just burst into tears from the shame she felt, and how that AI let everybody of her failure back in Atlas that got her sent here to this miserable tundra in the first place.
"It would unlike you to use harsh language, Specialist."
"...what?"
William glanced upward at the interior balcony overlooking the Visitor's Center.
"Obnoxious. Irrelevant. No patience for authority and for those undeserving of it. You are truly something special, Doom Slayer. A true ubermensh - one who lives by his own standards, his own rules."
"D-Director?!" Cordovin wheezed as she stumbled through the gate after the Slayer and Team RWBY.
Catrice swallowed, her hands shaking as she became suddenly fearful, "Oh, no..."
They looked up at the barely lit balcony overlooking the visitors center to see a silhouette, a red light shining intently where his left eyes should be. For William, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang alarm bells were going off almost immediately. The fact they could somehow see him smiling sharply down at them wasn't comforting in the slightest.
"Merlot?" Weiss questioned. Her eyes widened, "Wait..."
"Director," Cordovin gritted her teeth. "I was just about to exercise my authority over them-"
"And they got past you," the Director chided. "I'm surprised he didn't gouge your eyes out in order to pass through that gate, much less let you run your ego at him for that long." Ruby shivered when she felt the Director's reddened gaze on her as he headed over toward the elevator down to the ground floor. "Then again, humanity is known to be infectious." Yang glared back at him when he looked at her. "Amongst other things."
Yang snorted, "Other things?"
William had been tempted to gouge Cordovin's eyes out the second she opened her big mouth. But Ruby had been freaked out enough.
"..."
Basic humanity was infectious.
"But enough of my rambling. Let's get formal introductions out of way and we will see how we all go from here. I'll start first."
He emerged from the elevator to reveal an elderly, white-haired man with a sinister-looking moustache and beard in a white lab coat. His black mechanical arm with glowing red outlines drew William's attention, before his gazed shifted to the machinery that comprised the lower half of his torso, ending with two large wheels where his legs should be.
'Holyyyyyyy shit,' Yang mouthed.
Blake swallowed. Yeah, this guy wasn't Atlas' resident mad scientist at all.
"My name is Dr. Otto Merlot and I am the director of the Epsilon Labs," the cybernetic old man smiled affably. "And it is an honor to finally meet the last of the Night Sentinels, William J. Blazkowicz the Third."
For once he preferred being sealed in that sarcophagus than dealing with these elitist shits.
"..."
Perhaps not. Otherwise that would mean leaving Team RWBY to these Atlas incompetards mercy.
A/N: Anyone miss me? ^_^
I think I wrote myself into a corner last chapter. Though, I hope Cordovin getting knocked down a dozen pegs more than makes up for it. In canon she strikes me as someone who is trying to compensate for something, and I'm expanding on that in this fic.
Yep, good old Dr. Merlot – and the description of him below the belt was inspired by Pinky from the first DOOM film. He'd definitely be a good DOOM, or even Wolfenstein, villain as someone that's obsessed with the demons the same way he's obsessed with the Grimm.
Yeah, Aelia Blazkowicz. nee Ateius's priestess look. was inspired by Sword Maiden from Goblin Slayer. And regarding her scenes with Doomguy/Stan...well...you've already read the content warnings.
So, DOOM Eternal got delayed until March this year, and you can only imagine how bummed out I was about it, but then again it probably won't be long until March 20 anyway. I was looking forward to seeing what Deag Grav really looked like that make that correction in this story. He'll have to return to the story in the next story arc, where it'll focus mainly on Team JNPR and their time with the Doom Slayer.
I reckon there will be at least two more story arcs before the timeskip and then the DOOM Eternal arcs begin.
Fair warning, not like there already was one at the very beginning of this fic, but this arc deals with some very heavy subjects like human (or in this case Faunus) experimentation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and terror. You know, stuff that pushes the M rating to its limits.
So, Weiss' mom's name really is Willow – the same name the fandom gave her. Guess the writers couldn't think of anything better. And I knew THAT was how Jacques was going to meet his downfall.
I'm looking forward to writing his first encounter with the Doom Slayer.