Chapter 31 – Brunswick Farms
Jaune
"Just a nightmare…" Jaune stammered, still shaken from what he saw, those burning purple eyes on that face… and her red eyes at the very last second. He had never seen what Salem looked like – but that was enough for him to know she was terrifying. And her voice… soft and almost tender, yet it burned right through him. Pyrrha gently held Jaune's hand to soothe him from this feeling that kept lingering in him. She never saw him get this rattled over something like that before.
Jaune looked around and he saw that everyone else was still asleep, even Winter was, and it took her a while to finally get some shut eye. Her bandage was doing an alright job and keeping her wound contained as well, she seemed stable enough.
But Jaune couldn't help but shake that feeling, he looked around at the dark house, it felt like there was something watching them the whole time. Eyes in the darkness, constantly watching their every move, breath over their shoulder – hairs standing on end atop their gooseflesh. Jaune shuddered, like someone had just walked over his grave. "Hey, hey… it's alright. Talk to me." Pyrrha softly said to him, he looked at her and his breath clouded from his mouth.
The storm had stopped but the house was ice cold, even with the fire still burning by them. Though the logs were running low, soon they would have to replace them, but he didn't really want to. Neither did Pyrrha, they just felt so tired. "I saw this… man… I couldn't make anything out of his face, all I saw were these glowing purple eyes." Jaune explained.
"Like that guy? Tyrian? His eyes turned purple when he attacked Winter for some reason." She commented.
"No, it wasn't him. He had no tail – all I saw were these eyes, like they were actually on fire… like…"
"Cinder?" She asked him, and he did not even need to finish that sentence. Bringing her name up? It continued to give birth to some bad memories, to the event that nearly ended any possible relationship between the two of them. It still haunted her even now, how close she came from being taken by the Angel of Death. But no longer to that horrifying experience control her like it did after the Battle of Beacon, not anymore.
"Yeah… it was actually." He agreed, the purple eyes of the entity that he saw in his nightmare had eyes that burned in a similar way – of course the biggest difference was not just the colour being purple, but also the cracks of purple energy around the eyes. It was really strange; he had never seen anything like it.
He even thought that maybe it was the Praetorian Knight… but even that thing did not look like that.
Pyrrha turned his face to look at head, his eyes moved away from the things that lurked in the Kitchen. "Hey, it's alright." She promised. "It was just a nightmare."
"Yeah… just a nightmare." He agreed, but as he sat there, he still felt that shiver. It was not from the cold; his heart was still nervously beating as he looked around. "Gods I hate this place… do you feel the same way? Keep feeling like something is watching us."
"That and the bodies around the estate." Pyrrha agreed as she stood up, looking out the window. Jaune got up and he walked with her, and he affectionately wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder as they both stared out. Neither could see a damn thing, the snow was very thin in the air now, but the ground was still thick and frozen from the icy night. Neither of them could know how many of those things were slowly moving through the snow, they didn't even see the faint tracks being swallowed up by the weather out there.
Something was definitely out there… and inside.
None of them knew it, but it was there.
Pyrrha smiled as she felt his affectionate hands gently hold her. "Getting a bit frisky, huh?" She cooed. "Not sure this is the best place."
"Yeah… shame it's so creepy, huh?" Jaune whispered, she grinned and turned around, looking away from the darkness, gently stroking his cheek.
"Remember that trip you and I took? That old cabin we stayed in? Had no power, was so cold in there." Pyrrha giggled as she fiddled with his hoodie.
"Oh gods… how many blankets did we use?" He asked her.
"I think… six?" She giggled, he laughed as well.
"That fireplace was our best friend that night." He said with a smile. "That was a good trip. Especially after everything at Beacon, really helped us, wouldn't you say?" He asked her curiously and Pyrrha smiled brightly.
"Yeah…" She kissed him passionately, and as they broke, she smiled. "That was a great trip."
"No… no… no…" They heard Winter mumbling on the bed, she was shaking, and it looked like she was in a cold sweat. The sound of her struggling, almost panicking, it woke Weiss as well. Her younger sister stood up and approached Winter as she struggled through the nightmare she was happening. Pyrrha and Jaune walked over, and the Arc could not help but notice that someone else was having sleeping problems here. Jaune was not one to believe in coincidence, as a Huntsman that would be the first ever lesson.
Especially when it came to the wilds…
"Winter?" Weiss softly said to her sister, walking over to the sofa where she was resting. She was shivering, jolting every now and then.
"Don't… get off her… leave her be!" Winter slurred in her sleep, and Weiss held her hand.
"It's okay… he isn't here…" Weiss promised as she held her sister. Everyone else began to wake up one by one, Ilia and Blake, and finally Sienna.
"What's up?" Sienna asked as she reached over and held the Cerberus Whip just in case, always ready for anything. In fact, when Ilia woke up, she immediately checked the windows, searching for any signs of the Feral Ones. But it was so dark it was near impossible to tell where Adam's Followers could hide. And in the dark? In Northern Anima? That would be a very bad idea to try and ambush someone in these kinds of conditions.
"Is she okay?" Jaune asked Weiss.
"Don't touch her!" Winter growled viciously, jolting again.
"I've seen it before… she has nightmares… about… well I think you know." Weiss said as she looked at her friends, and they all knew.
The Schnees all suffered from him.
Pyrrha looked at the two Sisters, and Winter finally shook herself awake from her nightmare, eyes wide, and the first person she saw was her sister. She immediately hugged her sister, holding her tight. This was a side of Winter they knew was there, but even still – rarely saw it in person. She may had been an Atlesian Specialist – but she was still a sister and loved Weiss with all her heart.
Sienna stared at Pyrrha, she still wanted to know what the hell it that was happened between her and Mercury. Pyrrha Nikos was easily one of the sweetest and gentlest people from Beacon Academy, so it was extremely shocking to see her practically torture Mercury by using her polarity on the iron in his blood, putting him through immense agony.
Ilia walked around the house, making sure that there were no intruders but luckily the whole place was clear of foes – that they could see.
"Gods… so hard to sleep here… but I am so tired." Blake groaned, rubbing her sore eyes.
"I know what you mean." Jaune yawned, Pyrrha turned and she saw Sienna Khan staring at her and Jaune.
"Sienna?" Pyrrha asked nervously, then Sienna walked towards her.
"No more beating around the bush – what the hell was that?" Sienna asked her finally.
"What was… what?" She asked with concern.
"You know what. I don't know you well, but you are no torturer, yet you managed to lift Mercury off the ground with your polarity and you lost your mind." Sienna stated.
"Sienna, now isn't the best time." Jaune defended as Pyrrha started to shrink into her shoulders.
"Oh no, I think it is. Ilia and I agreed to help you on the way to Atlas, but after what I saw her do? I wanna make sure that I can trust you to not go crazy on me, so tell me – what the hell did you do?" Sienna commanded as she stared straight at Pyrrha. It was easy to forget sometimes that Sienna was still the High Leader of the White Fang, and with that came her pretty stern and intimidating personality. Pyrrha looked at Sienna and everyone else – they were not as stern as Sienna, but they wanted to know too – and clearly, Jaune was the only one in the know.
"I… O-Okay… okay…" Pyrrha stammered as she walked over to the sofa where Winter was sitting, and she sat down. She wrung her fingers, whilst the others all looked at her, and Jaune put his arm around her, comforting her.
She began. "My… Semblance… there's more to it than just, Polarity." Pyrrha revealed as she stared at her hands. "It links to my emotions; it's why I always keep a level head and stay calm in combat. It helps me keep full control over my powers, and I can use it discretely to gain the upper hand over my opponents."
Everyone listened to what Pyrrha had to say, and Weiss thought back to when she first saw Pyrrha use her semblance – in Forever Fall to save Jaune from the Ursa Major, lifting his shield to block its incoming claws. "I remember… when you aided Jaune you seemed like you were completely focused."
"Precisely, and most of the time I have a level head over my power… but…"
"… but when you don't?" Sienna continued as she crossed her arms.
"If… I become overcome with negative emotions, or even if they are there in any way… it is more powerful. It's not the first time it has happened… when I fought Penny in the Vytal Festival I was scared by Emerald's Hallucination, and my Polarity was strong enough to… rip… her…"
"It's okay." Jaune whispered as he kissed her cheek.
Pyrrha recovered and she moved on from the memories of Penny and what she did to her. "When Jaune tried to comfort me, I was upset, and I pinned him up against the wall. When I fought Cinder on the Tower, I was able to bring down lots of huge metal cogs onto Cinder out of anger." Pyrrha listed the many times she had to use her negative emotions to strengthen her abilities.
"You must really not like using it when you aren't happy, then." Blake commented, which made Pyrrha chuckle.
"To put it mildly… but… I learned about this side of my semblance when I was a child. The first time it happened, it was subtle. Kids that I thought wanted to be my friend – lead by a Girl called Dandelion, who bullied me a lot as a child… for a time – they only came around my home to look at my family's stuff. They didn't care about me and it made me cry – I didn't realise I crushed the swing set because of it."
Ilia slightly gasped as her eyes widened, she was only a child and she managed to do that. "But… the one that scared me? Like what I did to Mercury? Was when Dandelion and her friends were humiliating me at school, spreading lies about me, trying to make people hate me. In that moment, I cracked, and I screamed… so loud I lost my voice for a week. And my Polarity crushed the cars in the carpark, crushed the steel rulers, everything made of metal…" Pyrrha explained with tears in her eyes as she remembered it.
"Pyrrha… I'm so sorry…" Weiss softly said.
"I deserved it…"
"What? No, you didn't." Weiss told her.
"No… I did. My mother, she was vengeful for how Dandelion treated me last time and she… had dangerous friends in the world. Friends that put her family in debt, a debt that could never be repaid in years. Dandelion's grandchildren would be the ones to repay that debt." Pyrrha explained, and that one surprised Sienna.
Juno Nikos was many things – but Vengeful was not one of those things that they thought. But Juno adored her baby girl – and she would ruin their lives if they tried to ruin hers. It scared Pyrrha for a very long time, to know how far her mother would go to keep her child safe.
But Juno always said…
When you are a mother, you will understand that you will do anything to protect your children.
Anything.
"Ever since… I have tried to stay positive, never use my semblance when I was angry, or sad or afraid. Because if I do, I lose control. Just like what I did to Mercury." Pyrrha explained, looking at Sienna. "That – is why I am the way I am. Because I am afraid of what I am capable of."
Sienna stared at Pyrrha and she sighed through her nose. "Well… Thank you for telling us. I know I can trust you now." Sienna said, uncrossing her arms as she walked back to where her sleeping bag was.
Jaune held Pyrrha close, gently caressing her long soft red hair, whilst everyone else remained. Pyrrha was not the only one who had something that was eating away at her, Jaune felt the same way, still able to picture the face of Tyrian Callows – and of course, the Mystery of the Disappearances of Jvaani's Citizens. Jaune did not want Pyrrha to linger on her past and her Semblance's Flaws any longer, so he wanted to change the subject. "Hate to change the subject, guys – but there's something that's been eating at me."
"I think I know what you're about to say." Ilia said.
"Jvaani?" Blake inquired.
"That's the one." Jaune agreed as he looked at his reflection in his sword. "I mean, those guys that came after us… after me? That's one thing, but Jvaani? I've never seen anything like that before. The entire Village was completely abandoned… but it happened like five minutes before we even got there." Jaune said as he looked at them all.
Winter coughed. "Yeah… it's been on my mind too. Never seen a Grimm Attack that quiet before. Or that fast… not a track in sight either. Like the people just disappeared." Winter said as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Something's weird happening, Jaune. I've been hearing stories about people disappearing without a trace ever since the Battle of Beacon. Emerald and Mercury, hell even Neo. All of them vanished." Blake explained as she sat forward.
None of them knew that Neo was in the custody of the Black Gallows, but the disappearance of Emerald and Mercury was definitely something they still did not understand. Qrow tracked them down, and they vanished. They started to run… and they vanished instantly.
Blake was right – whatever was Abducting people?
It was new… and Jaune could not help but notice that the civilians forgot what they saw.
"That recording you found… the people forgot what they saw, literally as they looked away. Ever heard of a Grimm capable of doing that?" Jaune asked them.
"No, now that you mention it. You think it's a new Classification?" Weiss asked him curiously.
"I don't know… but I don't wanna rule out any possibilities out either." Jaune explained as he walked around the room some more, making one last sweep around the lower level to make sure nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Gods I hope not. How do you fight a Grimm that can make you forget it was ever there?" Pyrrha stammered.
"Well… we're clear by the looks of it. We should try and sleep through the night." Jaune said to them and they all nodded their heads. Or at least… they did, until all of them heard the sound of something moving upstairs. That was not their imagination, all of them heard it. Like footsteps, trailing slowly from one room to the other. Jaune swiftly grabbed Crocea Mors and he pulled it from the Shield, pointing it up the stairs. "Hello?" He called up the stairs, but alas there was no answer whatsoever. Jaune lowered the sword and looked at everyone.
"Something is up there, I heard it." Winter coughed, pressing her hand to her burning chest. She sat up and Weiss looked at her, concerned for her condition. She was coughing a lot and seemed like she had some kind of fever.
"Yeah… alright let's all do a sweep. This place gives me the creeps." Jaune said, walking ahead of them. He and Pyrrha both walked towards the Kitchen with Blake, keeping their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, which also connected to the cellars where all the wine was kept. Blake glanced at all the alcohol and then at the Cellar… she could see something that really did give her cause to worry. Whilst Jaune used the flashlight on his scroll to check outside, only to find nothing – Blake crouched down at the cellar.
Pyrrha approached her from behind. "Found something?" Pyrrha asked.
"I don't know… I mean it's nothing big but… it means something." She said, Blake stood up and Pyrrha saw the wooden planks by the cellar's entrance. Old nail shavings and scrapes were all across the floor… like someone was clawing the floor, trying to climb out of the cellar. It gave her chills, but nothing quite like the message that was scrawled into the wall by the cellar that Blake just saw thanks to her Night Vision. "There's something else."
"What is it?" Jaune asked as he approached, his eyes wide as he stared at the marks on the floor, then both of them looked at what Blake found. That… that one seemed like it was even worse. "I think Bartleby did something… something very bad." Blake said as she stepped aside, and they read what was scratched into the wall.
You'll Burn for This.
Ilia
Ilia stood by the bed that the body of Bartleby Brunswick was still laid in, his face covered over by the duvet cover he slept it. His skin was blackened from rot and frostbite, she looked away from the corpse and she sighed, stroking her tail of soft hair. Weiss walked up the stairs and she entered the bedroom as well, looking at the Faunus Huntress. "Are you okay?" Weiss asked her, and Ilia softly sighed.
"I… I guess so. I'm just really tired right now." She yawned. "But I can't go to sleep either." She said, looking back at the corpses in their bed. Both Bartleby and his Wife… died in their sleep, there were no signs of a struggle – but the marks on the floor in front of the cellar hinted at a different story. Ilia walked away from the bed where the cold black hand slowly reached out, nearly tripping her if she was an inch closer to it. "What about you?"
"Same thing. Feel like I'm gonna fall over, this place… I really hate it here. It's not just Bartleby and the other people we found dead here – there's… something off about it." Weiss explained as she hugged her shoulders, shivering from the cold. It struck her as odd, since Weiss came from Atlas, she knew how the cold felt – yet here? It was unnaturally cold; it gripped a hold of them as they examined the whole house.
"Not to mention all the crops and the cattle. If a disease came through or if their water got contaminated, then maybe I would agree. Hell, even the cold – but all of those things just don't add up. The crops were untouched, and the cattle starved. I checked the bodies of their dead horses too – skinny to the bone. Disease didn't do this or poisoning or even the cold. Frostbite came afterwards…" Ilia explained as she paced around the room, pushing her hands through her hair.
"Even their pets." Weiss added. "It was like they all just stopped caring about living, just all stayed in their beds… until they died."
Ilia shuddered from how uncomfortable it felt here, she believed in ghosts – as a Huntress you would have to. Geists were most certainly a thing that existed, and they were extremely dangerous too. But this? This was no Geist, they would have encountered it by now, they also never left houses in perfect condition either. But Brunswick Farms? It was like it was just left… a lot like the town of Jvaani.
Ilia walked around and she found something, another book – so she picked it up and opened it, and the first thing that fell out was another photograph. One that had the entire family involved in it – she looked at it and they were not as happy as they looked in the picture downstairs. Not at all, all of them had sad tired looked on their faces, and Ilia rubbed her eyes… until she noticed something in the picture. It was in the background; in the window of the house they were in – in fact – as she stared at the picture… in one of the windows… there was something there.
Dark, tall and thin, humanoid – and glowing red eyes. It was damn near invisible from how dark it was, in fact it was only because of the flash did it even pick the eyes up. Ilia looked at Weiss and handed her the photograph. "Look, the top left window. You see what I see?" She asked her, and Weiss stared at it and she gasped.
"The hell?" She softly said as she stared at it. The creature was tall – they had never seen anything like it before. "I don't… I don't even know what that thing is."
"Me neither." Ilia said as she stared at the picture, but the harder she stared… it was like the entity in the picture began to fade away. And she sighed. "N-Never… never mind… I think it may have been the matrixing, y'know? Pixels can… mess things up, make you see things." Ilia slowly said, her eyes sunk as she stood there, Weiss looked at her and she seemed to be just as lethargic.
"Yeah – don't worry about it. No point, we'll be leaving this place tomorrow anyway." Weiss sighed, the two of them left the room as the dark figure climbed slowly out from under the bed, staring at them as they closed the door. Weiss and Ilia walked down the hallway up the stairs, and they entered the next room – and inside… were the beds of the children they found. They covered their bodies too and it seemed to make Ilia tear up as she looked at them. Weiss glanced at Ilia, raising her white brow. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah… this house… it just reminds me of my family." Ilia sadly said to her.
"What happened to them?" She inquired.
"My Mom and Dad worked in the mines, whilst my two little brothers lived at home with me. All three of us – we were Chameleon Faunus like me. We lived up in Atlas – and my parents were workers for the Atlesian Dust Mines… and so were we." Ilia sadly said as she shut her eyes.
That? That shocked Weiss – she never knew that her father had Children employed in those mines. "You… what?" She gasped.
"I didn't at first, my parents wanted us to blend in with all the other kids. I could pass as human, the three of us could easily do that. And for a few years, we did. Made friends… and we had to laugh with them when they made jokes about our kind." Ilia explained, it made Weiss feel tremendous guilt – to think that once she held such prejudice against the Faunus. But she was not that girl anymore.
"I'm sorry." She apologised.
"But one day, my baby brother – he was six – was hit by this other girl, so hard his skin flashed red, and that was enough for the Atlesian Government to send their men after us. They took us away from the school and brought us to our parents. Our punishment? We worked with them in the mines – Jacques Schnee wanted more workers, no matter the age."
This revelation? That was even worse, she knew that the Faunus were treated terribly up north in Atlas, but this was news to her. "They… kidnapped you? Arrested you because of your race?" Weiss questioned.
"Yes – I spent three years in those minds… but the first year? That was the one where… I lost them all." Weiss' eyes widened. "The Schnee Dust Company pushed us hard, they wanted more dust out of the mines, more than we could handle. My whole family was with me, and I saw them. Two kids, they must have been five years old? Not strong enough to carry Dust as heavy as the one they were – and – they dropped it by accident. It was unstable, and caused a chain reaction, blowing the mine apart, and burying us all alive."
Weiss knew about this tragedy – she never knew that Ilia was down there. Weiss' eyes glistened with tears as she stared at Ilia, her guilt flowed through her like blood. "My mother and father… my two brothers? They were killed instantly – the only reason I survived, was because I was behind the loading truck, and got pinned under it. I nearly died, because a piece of metal stabbed me, right through here." She lifted her shirt and revealed the puncture scar above her hip by her belly button on the right side. "The whole Mine collapsed – and Jacques called the operation a failure."
"Ilia… I… I am so, so sorry." Weiss apologised, she also sounded like she was going to cry.
"Please, Weiss – don't be. I do not blame you for what happened. I blame Jacques and the Atlesian Government. They wanted faster results and decided that children who were Faunus deserved to work down there. But they kept that a trade secret for many years. Eventually these people – the Ace Ops – they disobeyed direct orders from the Council and rescued the survivors, me included. One of them was a Faunus, one that General Ironwood personally freed from his shackles by the S.D.C." Ilia explained, sitting down on one of the chairs, rubbing the back of her shoulder.
Weiss was lost for words, and never before did she feel as much resentment for her father until right now. How he treated her family name and family in general was one thing, his racism another – but Child Slavery? That was a whole other monster. "One day I couldn't take it anymore, working for that man after he dusted off the deaths of my parents, my brothers and all those other workers. So, me, and a bunch of other Faunus worked together to try and escape from Atlas. We knew about the Happy Huntresses who were helping free Faunus and transport them from Atlas – but so did Jacques. He had been hunting the leader of them all for a long time, and she disappeared. Not sure where, nobody knows." Ilia explained.
"I remember her – Robyn Hill – right?" Weiss asked.
"Yup. She was a symbol of hope for Mantle and the Faunus up on Solitas, but Jacques shot down multiple ships when I tried to leave and kidnapped the rest of us. He tortured… and banished most of them to the Atlesian Wildlands, except for ten so they could go back to the Mines. I was one of them… and he had his men make sure that I remembered." Ilia explained, she turned and showed the back of her shoulder to Weiss.
And just like Adam Taurus… she had the S.D.C branded into her. Ilia pulled her shirt back up, hiding that wretched name from the world. "If it weren't for Sienna and attacking the S.D.C with Adam and a few other Faunus? I would either be dead in the Wildlands or still be up there. Sienna saved me and the others and managed to get us to Mistral, she fed us all and made us strong. She never asked us to join her cause – but I wanted to. For a while… I felt the same way as Adam – I hated Humans… I hated all Schnees." Ilia explained, then she looked at Weiss.
"But I was wrong. Because when I saw Faunus Children in the same street… attacking Human Children… because they believed they had the right to? Because of what Jacques Schnee did? That's when I knew… we would be no better if we judged Humanity as a whole for the crimes of one man." Ilia explained, looking at Weiss with a smile. "And you and your sister showed me that not all Schnees are the same."
That made Weiss chuckle. "That's good to hear." Weiss giggled, making Ilia laugh as well.
Her past was most certainly heartbreaking, and Weiss walked towards her and she gently wrapped her arms around Ilia. "I am so sorry, Ilia – for what my father has done to your family… to the Faunus." She said to her. "But I promise – my father will face judgement for what he has done." Weiss assured and Ilia smiled.
Weiss had come a long way from being that snobby brat she was before.
Winter
Winter held her hand on the bandage, it still give her pain as she walked, leaning against the wall. Sienna was with her, checking the Wine Cellar that Jaune, Pyrrha and Blake were just inside of, who were now looking around the other rooms, like the dining room. Winter picked up one of the bottles of Wine and she sighed, she knew that this was one of the brands. "Looking for a pick-me-up?" Sienna asked curiously.
"No." Winter swiftly responded, slamming the wine down into the rack. Sienna looked at her and Winter sighed. "Sorry… my Mom… she drinks a lot. Didn't make a for a fun childhood." Winter said as she walked away from the cellar, and she walked down the hallway with Sienna in tow.
"I apologise – I know how that feels." She told her.
"You do?" Winter scoffed.
"Both my parents were drunks, my dad hit me, but my mom hit harder." She said with a chuckle, Winter glanced at her and she sighed. In a strange way, Winter had a feeling that Sienna did not have the best parents, she had quite the stern personality, quite a lot like herself. It seemed like a lot of people nowadays failed to have supportive parents. She envied Ruby, Yang and Blake for this gift, and of course Pyrrha. But they seemed to be a bit too supportive, especially how far Juno would go to keep her daughter safe and happy.
"I'm still thinking about that guy – Tyrian. Never seen a Scorpion Faunus before, didn't even know that was a variant." Winter said as she walked and bringing up the Scorpion Faunus Trait seemed to… linger on Sienna. The Tigress walked beside her, then she sighed.
"It was." She said, Winter could not help but notice the word that meant a thousand - was.
"What does that mean?" Winter asked, but Sienna did not say anything as she opened the door to Bartleby's Office. She walked in and looked around, but Winter grabbed her shoulder and turned her, so she would face her. "Hey, what does that mean?" She repeated, and Sienna just stared at her. She still said nothing, and that made Winter scoff. "Man… you really do have a twisted way of thinking, don't you? You give Pyrrha crap for keeping a personal secret, but you can't tell me this? That's real hypocritical y'know?" Winter pointed out.
"Some secrets are too dangerous for the world to know. You of all people should know that, after what Killian pulled back at Beacon." Sienna told her.
"That was different, if I knew that my opinion could bring that bastard down then you can bet your ass, I would tell the whole world. But I don't wanna end up like all those M.I.A Journalists that Ozpin hired." Winter explained, and Sienna shook her head.
"This secret could trigger a war, and destroy everything we have built." Sienna told her, but Winter was not about to give up.
"Why are there no Scorpion Faunus, Sienna? Why is it such a big secret to the White Fang?" Winter questioned. "It will stay between us." Winter assured; Sienna was not sure if she could trust Winter. But she managed to stay quiet about Killian, even though she didn't want to. "Us… and the others. You made Pyrrha open up to everyone – so that means this goes to everyone in the team."
Sienna looked away from her and she sighed, before she turned back around. "Fine, but this information cannot reach the public." Sienna commanded. "Give me your word." She demanded.
"You have my word." Winter promised, that was the best that Sienna could really hope for.
"The Scorpio Bloodline existed for a very long time, one of the oldest traits in our Species. Scorpios were powerful warriors, skilled in countless arts of war, and their Scorpion Tails made them a force to be reckoned with." Sienna began as she walked around the Office. "But the Scorpios were regarded as Lunatics, driven by nothing but a hereditary bloodlust. They were Super Soldiers and Assassins for the Valerians during the Great War. Sent to kill the leaders of the different armies. They were one of the reasons that the Vacuo Mongrels fell apart, their armies were so focused on trying to beat the Spartans of Nikialos that they were hunted down and massacred by the Scorpios. Without their Mongrels to protect them? They were fresh meat… and they were slowly tortured to death. The bodies they found? Well it took them a long time to figure out who they were."
That sent a chill down Winter's spine, whilst the entity watched the two of them from the open closet. "The Scorpio Bloodline tainted our species during the Great War, and our kind were hunted out of fear. We were nearly wiped out from Humanity… so the Faunus went into hiding until we were accepted again and were given Menagerie. The Scorpios were hunted down, and for a few decades it seemed like it was the end of it." Sienna explained, she sat down, and she pressed her hand against the side of her head.
"Until Kaldararr was built. Have you heard of Kaldararr?" She asked Winter.
"Yeah, the city was wiped out by the Grimm, right? Built in Vacuo, one of the first external cities built away from the Kingdom… and the last." Winter remembered.
"Half right there, you see that city was named after Kaldararr Scorpio – the first of the Bloodline back in the Stone Age. He was a powerful Clan Chief who had the Scorpion Tail… and he was a madman. The city was one of the other settlements promised to the Faunus, but over time Humans populated there as well. To be quite honest, it was a nice city. It was the largest City away from the Kingdoms before Argus was built by the Mistraalians and the Atlesians." Sienna explained.
"But?" Winter had a feeling that word was coming.
"But… when I was eighteen and just joined the White Fang, the leader before Ghira took over… before I took over… was afraid of something like the Cleansing would happen again. Too many Faunus lives were lost in those years to happen again, countless Bloodlines and Traits extinguished." Sienna explained. "All because of Kaldararr's Bloodline."
"What happened?" Winter asked her, and Sienna let out a shaky breath.
"Ghira, Kali and I… we did not believe this was right… we pleaded with him to not do this. But he did not listen to us, he only listened to the whispers in his head – so he commanded us all to go to Kaldararr – and wipe out the Bloodline. Once and for all, to prevent the Scorpion Trait from destroying our name any further. The men… the women… even the children. We were ordered to kill them all. Ghira and Kali… they could not bring themselves to do it, and because of that both of them were imprisoned for defying their orders. But me? Well I have always been a coward – I never ran from a fight, per say. But I never defied an order, too frightened to. So… I helped kill them. I still hear them… even now." She stammered.
Winter looked horrified by this confession. "I… I don't understand, I have been to Kaldararr, I saw the damage, it was done by the Goliath Herds and swarms of Grimm."
"Afterwards – we did not massacre everyone in the city, no – but our actions? Hunting down and murdering people because of their traits, to save ourselves future discrimination? It brought fear… Negativity was everywhere. And the Grimm soon came, Goliaths and Blind Worms and much worse. We left… and we knew that any others we missed would be food for the Grimm – alongside everyone else. By the time the Vacuo Military and the Huntsmen got there? It was far too late; the Grimm were everywhere, and the city was taken. The world assumed it was due to the lack of Natural Barriers they had – but in truth? It was the White Fang… cutting off loose ends." Sienna explained.
"A few years after those events? I knew that I had to kill him for what he made us do, and I did… I knew he had feelings for me, so I gave him the best night of his life. And it was the last night of his life. I killed him in his sleep, and I made sure that Ghira would take his place. He was a good man who wanted peace – and when the time came… I agreed to take his place. And we kept the truth a secret, because it was a truth too terrible to bare, because I didn't want anybody else to die… and then Adam Taurus came along… with scarily similar ideas." Sienna explained, looking up at Winter.
She was not crying, but Winter could see the remorse in her eyes, the guilt and the regret. "That… is why I keep it a secret, Winter Schnee. Because if I told the world, the Faunus, that we massacred an entire Bloodline out of fear? It would make us no better than the Humans that look down on us." She said with a sigh.
"Is that… why the White Fang symbol is a Grimm?" Winter asked.
"Depends on who you ask. If you asked Adam Taurus? It was because the world saw us as Monsters, so we donned their faces. Ask Ghira? It's the idea that even monsters can change, on both sides. Me? It's because of what we did… because we were no better than the Grimm that day." Sienna explained, and Winter sat down by Bartleby's desk. "So, there you go, the truth."
"The truth…" Winter softly agreed.
"The fact that Tyrian has the same blood, though? Means that he somehow survived…"
"Or not all those from the Kaldararr Bloodline lived at the city?"
"No… it was the only place left for them. I sent feelers out, across all of Remnant afterwards – not to kill them, but in the hopes, we could protect them. But we found nothing… if that man, Tyrian, came from anywhere? It was Kaldararr…" She said, sighing.
"It's ironic." Winter said, and Sienna glanced at her.
"What is?" She asked.
"Your leader ordered all of you to massacre the Scorpio Faunus Bloodline – because he was afraid of them being the monsters they were during the Great War. And in doing so, turned the last of them into the very thing he feared." Winter stated as she leant back against the table.
"It's what I warned him of, but he never listened to me. He was young, too young to be a leader, he was younger than me. And even though he was in love with me – it was not enough." She said as she stared at her hands, and in her head, she could see so much blood. Blood that would never wash away. "No side is good or evil, Winter. That was what I learned that day. Faunus and Human? There are good and evil on both sides – that was why I helped you all four years ago at Beacon. I wanted to show the world, that we are not monsters… and I knew that not every human is cruel. I just want to out an end to your father's Tyranny." She said, and Winter nodded her head, coughing.
"You're not the only one." She said, as she turned to Bartleby's table. Her hand landed on a piece of paper left behind – a note written by him. She took her hand from the paper and she realised what it was. "Sienna?" The subject swiftly changed, probably for the best too.
"Yeah?" Sienna replied.
"You said you were reading Bartleby's Journals, right?" Winter inquired.
"I'm on the last Volume he wrote, why?" She asked.
Winter picked up the letter… of confession. "Because he confessed his sins here."
Forgive me Brothers Grimm…
… for I have betrayed my sacred vows.
I promised that I would protect my people at Brunswick, that under your light and your shadow that they would be safe from the monsters… both of your creation and our own. But I fear I have doomed them all, I never should have taken them away from the safety of the Kingdoms and their walls. I see that now… but I do not know what to do now.
The Vasillias Cartel are not accepting my requests to extend the deadline to pay my debts and I fear that they will come and claim it for themselves. I have heard tales of what they are capable of and what they do to people. I do not want my family to suffer, but I need the money. I am close to repaying the debt that I owe them… but the last Huntsman that I hired was torn apart by the Grimm in the last attack.
If I hire another – I will not have enough to pay them back.
I beg you… forgive me for what I am about to do. I have a plan, to keep my people calm and prevent the Grimm from attacking us again.
But in order to do so… I must lie. I know this is a foul sin, and I merely ask… that you forgive me.
I must do this.
I am so tired…
- Bartleby Brunswick
"That doesn't sound good." Winter said, wincing as she held her side. The pain was getting worse and worse, but then they heard everyone reconvene back into the living room. Winter turned to go but Sienna caught her arm.
"Do not tell anyone outside of this group about what I told you, Winter. I may regret my actions in Kaldararr… but I cannot risk another Cleansing." Sienna begged her, and Winter nodded her head.
"I gave you my word, Sienna. I intend to keep it, and unlike Killian? I actually give a damn about you and your race. I will gladly make sure this stays a secret until you deem it right to announce it – end of the day, this is your duty. Not mine." Winter told her and Sienna smiled and released her.
"Thank you…"
Then there was a loud bang from the room opposite, like a door had just been slammed shut. Sienna and Winter stared at each other with shocked faces.
The two of them came out, and they saw something very odd – it was Jaune, Pyrrha and Blake… and it looked like they just saw a ghost. They were shaking with fear, but there was so much confusion on their faces. "Guys? You okay?" Winter asked as she winced from the pain in her side. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and they stammered.
"I… I don't… I don't know…" They both said with fear, looking at the door that they just closed.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Sienna questioned, and Blake gasped.
"Jaune… your arm." Jaune lifted his arm after Blake said, and there was a horrific deep blue handprint that was icy cold to the touch. Gooseflesh covered his whole body, to the point his skin was going red around the pointed ends where his hairs were stood on end. Winter turned to the door, but Sienna beat her to it as Weiss and Ilia walked down the stairs.
"What's going on? I heard a door slam shut." Ilia said as the thing lurked across the landing behind them.
Sienna opened the slammed door that was freezing cold, and she spun her Cerberus chain round, ready to attack whatever was inside. But it was completely empty, she entered and looked around. But alas there was nothing inside whatsoever. Sienna then remembered…
… the thing that the person on the recording saw? The one that they completely forgot was there as soon as they looked away?
"I think we're being hunted by something." Sienna softly said as she looked around, Jaune stared at the print on his forearm. It was… odd… he could faintly remember something, like he was bring grabbed by something. And Pyrrha and Blake must have tried to pull him away, because his other arm had their prints too, and it was warm and a bit red, not deep blue. "The thing that was at Jvaani, none of us remember what it looks like."
"We could have seen it hundreds of times now and never remembered…" Weiss stammered with fear.
They all looked at each other and they returned back to the Living Room. "Okay… all of you get some rest. I will sit on Watch." Sienna told them as she sat there, ready to fight whatever it was that was lurking inside of this house.
"I… I don't want to." Ilia whimpered softly as she held her arm.
"You need to – we have four hours of night before sunlight. As soon as morning comes, I will wake you all up. We leave first thing, I don't wanna spend one second longer in this place." Sienna ordered as she sat back on the rocking chair and she held her Cerberus Whip on her lap, looking around. Winter looked at her bandage and she groaned in pain, walking back to her sofa.
"Winter? Are you okay?" Weiss asked with concern.
"Yeah… still healing is all." Winter coughed as she sat on the sofa and laid down with the blanket over her. Jaune and Pyrrha laid down where they were, Blake and Weiss next to each other and Weiss was right next to her sister. Ilia was the last to find her place, taking the other sofa. They got as comfortable as they could… and strangely… they fell asleep… fast.
They were out like a light.
Sienna stared at the room, keeping an open ear out for anything out of the ordinary… but most importantly?
To try and catch whatever this Creature of Grimm is that is hunting them… and erasing their memories of its presence.
Pyrrha
After they reconvened, they returned back to their beds to get some rest, and when morning came… Pyrrha felt like she never wanted to get up. She was cradled in Jaune's arms, resting her head on his chest… until she felt cold sharp hands gently stroke across her cheek and through her hair. A faint whispering sound came as well… one that shook her awake, she gasped and sat upright, eyes wide and emerald irises shrunk, shaking with fear. She stammered as she sat there, beside the man she loved, looking down at him before touching her cheek. It was freezing cold, then she gasped and stared at Sienna.
She was asleep… passed out…
Sienna was supposed to keep watch… how the hell did she of all people fall asleep?
Pyrrha stood up and she groaned, picking up her scroll and checking the time. She gasped…
10:45 AM
"It's nearly Eleven… we should have been up four or five hours ago." Pyrrha stammered, she approached Sienna and she held her shoulder. "Sienna? Come on, wake up." She shook her and Sienna grumbled in her sleep.
"Go… away…" Sienna slurred as she sat there, her head slumped forward as she rocked back and forth on the chair.
"We overslept; we need to leave." Pyrrha said as she looked around, rubbing her eyes. How am I still so tired?
She looked back at everyone, and they were not budging, still in a deep sleep somehow. Pyrrha stammered and looked back at the High Leader, who was still asleep. Pyrrha furrowed her brow with frustration and she grabbed Sienna and shook her harder. "Sienna! Wake up!" Pyrrha yelled, Sienna suddenly woke up and grabbed Pyrrha by the throat, growling with rage as she opened her other hand and razor-sharp claws extended… but then she snapped out of it, gasping and releasing Pyrrha. She sat back down and looked around, then opened the curtains.
The snow was thick… and the sky was bright and blue. "What time is it?" She asked her.
"It's nearly Eleven in the Morning." Pyrrha answered, massaging her throat.
"Shit, we need to go. Come on, crap… crap…" Sienna sounded like she was panicking that she fell asleep. Whatever was hunting them? It could have grabbed one of them at any moment… they were lucky that it never came for them when she passed out. But as Pyrrha gently shook Jaune and Blake to wake them up – who were Apathetic and Lethargic at best… she heard Winter coughing.
This was not like last night, her coughs were throaty ones, and she was sweating badly. Pyrrha turned to her and saw Pyrrha sit herself upright on the chair, holding her side where Tyrian's stinger sliced her. Pyrrha approached Winter with concern… and then she gasped… seeing the dripping purple liquid soaking the bandage and her hand. She was pale… and very sick. "Well… shit…" Winter groaned, before she passed out and fell from the sofa, on top of Weiss.
Weiss screamed with horror, crawling away from her sister before immediately checking on her. "Winter!" Weiss cried out, that scream woke all of them up in a jiffy. Ilia opened her eyes and she sat up, and so did both Blake and Jaune. They turned and saw that Winter's condition had worsened. "What's happening?"
"She's poisoned… that shouldn't be possible." Sienna stammered.
"W-What? Why?" Jaune questioned.
"Scorpio Faunus Trait… the tail doesn't have poison in it, not until now at the very least. Never seen this before… but… it's treatable." Sienna said as she looked at the wound. It was bad, her skin around the slice had turned black and puss was everywhere, infected blood was starting to flow through her veins, discolouring them all.
"Why did you never tell us this about Scorpion Faunus Traits? If you knew then maybe, we wouldn't have stopped here for so long!" Weiss yelled with anger.
"It's a long story, one we will tell you at the right time." Sienna assured, since they had bigger problems. "I have seen poison like this before – it's like a Deathstalker's. It is treatable, there is a Hospital in Argus, they would easily cure her. But we need to get her there."
"O-Okay… we need to wrap her up with a bandage again. Blake, Ilia – find something we can use to make a carrier for her. We can get her to Argus quicker that way. As soon as we get her to the station and on the Argus Limited, we can get her there." Jaune ordered as he stood up, Winter groaned as she laid on the floor, and Weiss picked up the bandage, rapidly wrapping it around her side and belly.
"Make sure you get her some water too, Jaune. There's a tap in the cellar." Sienna told him and he nodded his head. Pyrrha stayed by Winter's side whilst Jaune went looking for the place to get water. Winter was not looking good; she was sickly pale as she laid there and was sweating badly. Pyrrha stood up and she looked outside, Blake and Ilia had the materials that they needed to build the Stretcher but… they were panicking. Just like they were inside, dropping the tape and unable to hold the things that they needed. Weiss was barely able to keep her arms still, none of them had ever felt this rattled before by something.
Pyrrha looked around, hearing the building creak as the time went on, and the gas flowed into the heating, starting to warm the place up a bit. Pyrrha paced back and forth, Milo and Akoúo in hand as she looked around, seeing the others struggle outside. Sienna picked up the Journal that Bartleby had written, and she was near the end. Weiss finally finished applying the bandage around Winter. "Okay, it's done." Weiss told them. "Gods, stop shaking!" Weiss growled at herself.
Pyrrha turned around, and she narrowed her eyes with confusion. "Come on, Jaune… how long does it take to fill up a bottle of water?" Weiss questioned, and Pyrrha looked at Sienna.
"Go check on him. Hopefully the tap is working." Sienna said, and that was exactly what Pyrrha did. She walked to the cellar and she turned the corner.
"Jaune? How's it coming?" She asked, but when she saw the cellar… it was empty… and the tap was still pouring water out onto the floor, overflowing the bottle. But Jaune was not there, not anywhere to be seen, whatsoever. "Jaune? Jaune! Where are you?" She called out desperately, looking around and leaving the cellar as the cold black hand came out from behind her, unaware of the many eyes that lurked in the dark room, trying to claim her.
"What's wrong?" Weiss asked with fear.
"Jaune! He isn't there!" She stammered.
"He has to be here somewhere." Sienna said as she held the Journal in her hand, walking around the house, checking every room, and Weiss did the same. Pyrrha pushed the door open hard as she went outside, her heels dug into the deep white snow.
"JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled at the top of her lungs, nearly breaking her voice in the process. Blake and Ilia looked up at Pyrrha with concern.
"He isn't in there?" Ilia asked.
"No, I don't see him." Pyrrha stammered as she walked around, but there were no other tracks to be seen, he was missing. Except for a couple footprints but they were too small and thin to be his.
"He isn't out here, Pyrrha. We would have seen him." Blake said as she stood up by the Stretcher. Ilia finished building it, the little thing was good enough to carry Winter on, they would have to take turns in getting her to the Station.
"JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled again, and again, her voice echoing across Northern Anima. The door burst open, Weiss and Sienna came out, Sienna still with that Journal tucked under her arm.
"He's not in the house." Weiss told her.
"Where the hell are you?" Pyrrha stammered, so she opened up her scroll and she activated her Map App. This was she could see where her Teammates were… Ren and Nora, Ruby and Yang had theirs switched off, meaning they were nowhere to be seen, but Jaune's was… and he was… under the house… and moving. Very slowly though, Pyrrha looked extremely confused.
"It says he is under the house." Pyrrha told them whilst Sienna and Weiss carried Winter out of the house and onto the stretcher. She would probably be safer out there anyway.
"What? That can't be right, try it again." Weiss told her.
"Weiss, I am telling you that it says that. We are all in the right place." She said, showing the App to all of them. Pyrrha closed it again and she looked around.
"I checked the Cellar, it was locked." Sienna said to her.
As Pyrrha stood there, she opened the Scroll again, a hunch formed in her head and she glanced at the map… noticing something quite interesting. "There's a sewer system all around the Farmland, one that has its Fuel Line connected to it all. And this Well is at the centre." Pyrrha said, walking towards the Well, she peered down and saw nothing but darkness.
And two glowing red eyes, and an unnerving hiss.
Pyrrha screamed with horror, nearly dropping her scroll until she caught it with her Polarity. She pulled it back into her palm and she staggered back, into Blake's arms. "What's wrong?" She asked with fear.
"There's… something down there. I saw it…" Pyrrha told them, and they all looked at each other. "We need to go down there." She told them.
"Okay… Pyrrha, Blake and I will go down there, Sienna and Ilia? Carry my sister to the gate of the Farms and wait for us. We'll get Jaune and get back here… time to leave this hellhole." Weiss ordered and Sienna nodded her head. But Pyrrha could not help but notice something.
I… don't feel tired anymore…
Sienna and Ilia took both ends of the Stretcher with Winter laid on it and they carried her off, whilst the three of them jumped down and landed in the mucky sewer. Pyrrha used her Polarity to call Milo and Akoúo into her hands, whilst Weiss drew Myrtenaster and Blake held both the Scabbard and the Sword of Gambol Shroud. They both looked around and Blake lead, using her Feline Night Vision to see where they were going. "Gods… this morning started well, didn't it?" Blake scoffed.
"Well, we know something is definitely at this place now. I think it may have taken Jaune. He was moving really slowly for some reason." Pyrrha said.
"Where is he? Can your scroll help us here?" Weiss inquired curiously, Pyrrha swiftly pulled out her Scroll as Weiss kindly held Milo for her. She checked the map… but Jaune's signature was no longer moving. It was dead ahead as well, the three of them looked ahead and there it was. Jaune's scroll was in the water, Pyrrha ran to it and she picked it up, looking at it as she wiped the sludge off it.
"He can't be far." Pyrrha hoped.
Sienna
After Sienna and Ilia got Winter to safety, Ilia was sat down by the post and the sign that Brunswick Farms was written on.
Sienna was still reading the book that Bartleby wrote, and she was at the last section now, and things were indeed getting quite troubling the more she read… especially after finding that note Winter uncovered. "Anything good?" Ilia asked, but Sienna did not answer, she was glued to what Bartleby did.
I didn't want to lie to her… I love her so much… I love my children so much.
But I need them calm, that is the thing that is most important right now, we cannot afford another Huntsman or Huntress. But I think I have found a way. I did some light reading in the Bestiaries that were published by Huntsmen, this one was by Professor Peter Port from Beacon Academy.
A bit up his own ass, I have to admit, but he noted a creature that could be the solution to this problem – for now anyway. As soon as I have paid off my debt to the Vasillias Cartel I will kill it myself, they seem pretty slow actually.
It's called – the Apathy.
Sienna gasped and her eyes widened with shock and fear. "Sienna?" Ilia softly repeated, tilting her head. Sienna dropped the book and she drew her Cerberus Whip, sprinting back to the Well. "SIENNA!" Ilia called out.
"Stay with Winter! They have no idea what's down there!" Sienna yelled back as she ran through the snow.
It all made sense down there…
And the name echoed in her mind.
The Apathy
Pyrrha
Pyrrha, Weiss and Blake turned a corner in the dark Sewers and Pyrrha approached a certain turning… and their hearts skipped a beat with fear when they saw him. Jaune was held against the ground by them, and they had their long claw like fingers around Crocea Mors, trying to take it from him, but he was still holding onto it. He stared at them with terrified eyes, but he could not move or even scream.
"JAUNE!" Pyrrha screamed, and she launched Akoúo towards them…
… the Apathy.
The group of them broke away from Jaune, and it gave him the chance he needed to get up and escape the monsters. Jaune was shaking with fear and she caught him. "Are you okay?" She stammered.
"R-Run…" He stammered, pointing at them as they stood back up.
They were horrifying monsters… but Pyrrha and Jaune knew that these were not the same as whatever took the people of Jvaani – and not what had been hunting them. Because they could remember what they looked like as soon as they looked away from them. The Apathy were humanoid in shape, somewhat similar to the Imps that hung from the Nuckelavees, but they were very tall, with long arms that reached down as far as the ground and extremely long fingers. They had hideous faces, resembling skulls, some even lacking nostrils, and low-hanging jaws.
And their eyes glowed bright red… Weiss knew… the creature in the Photograph was indeed one of the Apathy. They were slow and they shambled towards them, dragging their arms through the sludgy water. Pyrrha transformed Milo and aimed the rifle at them, firing it repeatedly, Weiss and Blake did the same. Weiss launched fireballs and Blake fired Gambol Shroud's Pistol at them. Their bullets and flames impacted their thin bodies, knocking and killing one of them.
Pyrrha nailed one of them in its bony cranium, causing the Apathy to flinch from the impact, cracking the bone. But then they all shrieked at them, so loud that their jaws that hung from sinewy black muscle hung so low they nearly came off. The screech was deafening… and they felt the exhaustion return, nearly knocking them unconscious. "What… is this?" Pyrrha groaned from the painful sound.
"My weapon… feels… heavy." Blake groaned.
"RUN!" Sienna yelled behind them, she launched one of her explosive Chain Pieces towards the Apathy and it exploded, killing more of them instantly and reducing them to nothing but thick black smoke. "NOW!" Sienna added, they all turned and ran as fast as they could. Fighting the Apathy conventionally was not an option, that shriek would drop them, and they would just be food for the horrors. They ran around the corner and saw the light from the well… that Illuminated more of the Apathy at the other end. They Shrieked as well, the weight of Drained Will felt like the Gravity was working against them.
Jaune pressed his hand to his head and then he gasped, looking at the others. "Come on! This way!" He called, pointing to the other path, and they fled from the Apathy, leaving the way they got in behind. They ran as fast as they could, not wanting to look back. But when Weiss did, she saw the amount of them.
And then…
… the Apathy slowed down, and something seemed to change in them. Their long limbs snapped, and they howled from the pain as they mutated into a different shape. Their knees bent and they looked more like Spiders now, and they started to sprint after them, rushing through the water at great speed. "DON'T STOP!" Weiss yelled in horror. The horde of Apathy were pouring out of the walls after them, slashing their clawed hands at them, only just missing Jaune and Pyrrha's faces. They kept Jaune in the middle as they continued, turning around every corner.
Through the sewers were other Farmhands, one that were not in their beds, disembowelled remains and blood everywhere, all over the walls. They died slowly and in agony.
This was what he would burn for…
That was what Blake realised when she saw their corpses, the other Farmhands that he paid? He must have fed them to the Apathy as well…
Sienna was at the front, running as fast as she could, but every corner seemed to hide more and more of them. He said he had one… how are there so many?
They entered another room… and they saw the large Boiler and Fuel Cannisters that the Fuel Lines had been connected to. As they looked around, there were more barrels too, some with wine stacked on top – others with fuel. Weiss turned and she saw the Cellar Door. "We're under the house?" Jaune questioned as Weiss ran to the doors, but they were still locked.
"They're locked!" She yelled, Sienna spun her chain and readied another explosive piece.
"Stand back!" She called out, but the Apathy arrived as well, they all ran in, then they stood upright once more, their bodies mutated back into their Humanoid Forms, not the horrific Spidery Ones. They all shrieked just as Sienna went to launch the Chain Piece towards the door, and she fell onto the stairs, Weiss reached out to her with wide eyes.
"No… no…" Weiss groaned, and Pyrrha looked at everyone. Jaune was on the ground and could not move. She held his shoulders and shook him.
"Jaune… come on…" She begged, until she heard Blake drop her weapon, and collapse onto the floor. "Blake… get… up…" She begged, her eyes were wide, and her pupils dilated as the Apathy approached them, hunger present in their glowing red eyes.
"It's fine…" Blake softly whispered as the Apathy walked closer and Pyrrha looked around… unable to know what to do.
Her fear grew more and more… and that fear?
Turned to rage when the Apathy slowly reached down to Blake, its long claws moved to her beautiful face. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" Pyrrha howled with rage, and her body's outline turned black as her Polarity wrapped around the room and the metal bent and crushed into itself. The metal supports bent downwards, and she launched everything made of metal into the Grimm. The Apathy that reached for Blake roared in agony as the metal sliced its arm clean off, shielding her from them. The Apathy howled in pain as they were blocked from Blake by all the metal, and some of them were even killed by the forks and cutlery she threw at them. Pyrrha panted and everyone gasped, free from the power of the Apathy.
Jaune sat upright and he looked around as Sienna launched the explosive Chain Piece into the door, blowing it open. "Come on!" Sienna yelled, but Jaune knew…
"We can't leave them here." Jaune said, but as Pyrrha stood there… her use of her Polarity enhanced by her anger? It caused her to collapse and pass out.
Jaune
Jaune caught her and he looked and Blake and Weiss. "Blake!" He pushed Akoúo to her and she picked it up. "Hit the Valve! Weiss, when we're all at the exit, blow this place to hell." Jaune told her and Weiss nodded with a smirk. Jaune picked her up and Weiss took Milo for her since she was unconscious.
Blake launched Akoúo and it bounced against the Valve, breaking it and causing all that gas to come hissing out of it. It slid across the floor towards Blake and she picked it up – unfortunately she did not have the Polarity to call it back to her hand like Pyrrha did. She and the others all ran to the stairs and Weiss stood there, and she ran the Fire Dust across Myrtenaster's blade, igniting it. She stared at the Apathy as they climbed through the bent metal Pyrrha used to protect Blake from them.
They all stared at her and were about to shriek. "Burn in hell." Weiss hissed, launching the flames into the gas filled room.
The fire ignited and Weiss ran as fast as she could, the flames travelled into the Fuel Line, and the Apathy's howls were silenced as they were completely vaporized from the explosion. Weiss, Jaune, Blake and Sienna ran, with Pyrrha in Jaune's arms. They ran as fast as they could, hearing the explosions beneath them. The Apathy were swarming the house, coming for them as the wood shattered beneath their feet. The house buckled and rippled as fire climbed up from beneath them, blowing the Apathy apart as they howled.
The stairs shattered and the roof began to collapse, windows shattered, and the gang sprinted across the snow. They looked around and saw the explosions erupt up through the ground where the Sewers were, causing the entire estate to collapse around them. The main house crumbled into the flames. Burning the Apathy and the memories of Brunswick Farms. The Guest house sunk into the flames as well, whilst the Apathy burned.
They all jumped at the perfect point, just escaping as the ground collapsed beneath them, forming a burning sinkhole where the estate once was. Only leaving behind the stinking fields where the Cattle rotted. They all looked back, Pyrrha in Jaune's arms, she groaned as she came to, looking around with widened eyes. "What happened?" She gasped as she looked around, then she saw the destruction caused by setting off the fuel lines.
"We… blew up the estate… only way to stop them from getting out…" Jaune answered.
Some time later…
They had made a few miles of walking away from the destruction, there was a tall pillar of smoke rising into the sky where the fires still burned. Winter was resting on the Stretcher that Jaune and Ilia were carrying. Pyrrha was back on her feet, albeit quite dazed from using that much of her semblance in one moment, and Blake and Weiss were walking at the front with Sienna who still had the books that Bartleby wrote in her bag.
Not all their memories were lost at least.
"What… were those things?" Pyrrha asked as she walked by Jaune's side, and Weiss looked at Sienna.
"The Apathy." Sienna answered. "I heard stories about them, but I have never seen that many of them before."
"The Apathy? Professor Port never taught us about them." Blake said as she held the straps of her backpack.
"Not surprising, the Apathy are not very common. According to Bartleby though he did publish them in one of his Bestiaries. Judging by their bodies? It must have been one of his newer ones." Sienna explained as she walked with them.
"Makes sense then, we haven't read that one yet." Weiss scoffed.
"Were they the ones that made us… feel the way we did? Always so tired? Not wanting to go on?" Jaune asked curiously.
"Yes – the Apathy drain your will to keep on going forward. And by the looks of it, they did the same to the people of Brunswick Farms. But to the point that they did not even have the will to get out of bed in the mornings anymore." Sienna explained.
"Gods… those poor people…" Ilia softly said as she carried the rear end of the Stretcher.
"The thing is – the Apathy were part of Bartleby's Scheme to pay back his debt he owed to the Vasillias Cartel. When Debt Collectors came demanding money, they gave him a month to pay back the money that he owed. But with all the Farmhands he had and the Huntsmen and Huntresses he had to hire for protection? He could barely make enough to pay them back in that time. So… he wanted to find a way to stop getting the Grimm to come here – so he proposed the idea of fighting fire with fire." Sienna explained as she held the last book in her hand, giving it to Blake and she read the last few entries. "To avoid Grimm attacking he needed everyone calm – always."
Blake read his last Entry.
I managed to lure a few of them, six, and I got them into the cellar in the night when everyone was asleep. Was damn difficult with them constantly trying to break me, but they were not loud enough to wake everyone up.
When they were in the cellar, I locked it up – I'll close up the Waterway Entrance tomorrow morning, at least they won't escape. I still need to figure out how to keep my costs down on the Farmhands… I could fire them… but they won't have anywhere to go. I dragged them out here.
I'll find a way.
I always do.
"His final entry? Well…" She pulled the note that she and Winter found. "I guess it proved it did work. But instead of being rational and closing it in the night, the Apathy made him wait until morning. At that point though, it was too late. The swarm of them we found down there? That was the rest of the pack that followed the six he lured home, and they found their way through that very Waterway Tunnel. Which he sealed up the next morning." Sienna explained as they trudged through the snow.
"The Farmhands… they were down there… eaten alive…" Pyrrha gasped with horror in her eyes.
"The Apathy made Bartleby lose his mind near the end, if you look at the last page." When Blake turned it, she gasped… it was just violent scrawling all over the page, no coherent words… and just a terrifying drawing of the Apathy scribbled at the end. Sienna held the final note he wrote coherently. "The Apathy caused him to think irrationally, like I said. Instead of… firing the Farmhands… he fed them to the Apathy instead. And eventually? The Apathy killed them all as well, draining their will to go on." Sienna said, and she took the Book back and held the Note over the scrawls.
She read that note one final time.
Forgive me Brothers Grimm…
… for I have betrayed my sacred vows.
I promised that I would protect my people at Brunswick, that under your light and your shadow that they would be safe from the monsters… both of your creation and our own. But I fear I have doomed them all, I never should have taken them away from the safety of the Kingdoms and their walls. I see that now… but I do not know what to do now.
The Vasillias Cartel are not accepting my requests to extend the deadline to pay my debts and I fear that they will come and claim it for themselves. I have heard tales of what they are capable of and what they do to people. I do not want my family to suffer, but I need the money. I am close to repaying the debt that I owe them… but the last Huntsman that I hired was torn apart by the Grimm in the last attack.
If I hire another – I will not have enough to pay them back.
I beg you… forgive me for what I am about to do. I have a plan, to keep my people calm and prevent the Grimm from attacking us again.
But in order to do so… I must lie. I know this is a foul sin, and I merely ask… that you forgive me.
I must do this.
I am so tired…
- Bartleby Brunswick
It now made sense…
The "I must do this"? It was not about him taking the Apathy… it was his last sane thoughts before the Apathy drove him to insanity and fed his people to those monsters down in the sewers. In the dark… alone.
Sienna stuck it over his madness, as the real final words that he ever wrote. "No one was angry, or sad, or scared. No one was anything."
"And then… no one… was left."
Author Note - I will never tire writing the Apathy.
So obviously I know everyone knows that the Apathy were down there but the big question... is what the hell is this new Grimm? The one that they keep forgetting is there as soon as they look away? Because it wasn't the Apathy, it is something else... something new.
This was such a cool chapter to write, the different character interactions and character development and backstory. Especially for Ilia, Pyrrha and Sienna. We learned a lot about them, Pyrrha's semblance and how dangerous it really is, Sienna's past with the White Fang and also what happened to the Scorpion Faunus Bloodline (which is also subtly Tyrian's past). And poor Ilia, she lost so much yet she is still so good at heart, never let her suffering turn her into a monster like it has for Adam Taurus.
It was fun playing around with the Apathy too, I wanted to include the Concept Art Design of the Apathy too, where they sprinted on all fours, since that was a cool idea. And bloody terrifying too XD. And I will never tire writing the Apathy in such a creepy way with them subtly being in the background.
And of course - Bartleby and the Fall of Brunswick Farms... If you are an avid reader of my stuff then you know I love doing Worldbuilding, and whilst this was small in comparison, I loved doing this. The way in which his Paranoia of the Debt Collectors from the Vasillias Cartel coming to collect what he owes made him end up going insane and destroyed everything he built? I love Brunswick Farms in itself in Canon but man this was fun playing with.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review, follow and favourite!
Stay tuned for the next chapter everyone!
- Matt