God, man, fuck this chapter. Fuck it and everything it stands for.
So, this was supposed to be the finale, but 15 pages and 6k+ words was just too much for me and my rapidly depleting writing mojo. So ultimately, i found a good place to stop and broke it off there to make things more manageable.
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Chapter 67
"So, the Heart of Atlantis is like this giant fuck-off crystal?" Sun asked, "And it's what? The soul of the people in the city?"
"Well, if it's something of value, now we know what Adam's endgame is." Blake sighed.
"At least he's not an ultra-violent extremist in this one." Ilia said, trying to find a bright side. "And he seems to be okay with humans."
"And instead of being terrorists, the White Fang are mercenaries, I assume." Sienna added. "Oddly enough, I'm okay with that."
Jaune gasped for air as he broke the surface where he and Pyrrha had left, clawing for purchase on the stone floor before him. As he caught his breath, he heard a familiar voice speak up in front of him.
"You have a nice swim?" he looked up and saw Adam sitting before him with a smug grin on his face, his sword sitting in the crook of his neck. Around him were the rest of the crew and a squad of stormtroopers.
Everyone was armed with guns of different kinds, except for Ruby- who was wielding a large heavy wrench- and Sun- who was unarmed but Jaune was fairly sure could take him without one.
"I knew it." Jaune sighed, "I'm such an idiot. This is just another treasure hunt for you, isn't it? You're after the crystal."
"Oh, you mean this?" Adam said, pulling a piece of vellum paper out of his boot and showing it to Jaune. The writing was Atlantean, and the illustrations matched what he saw in the Journal and the mural he had just been examining.
"The Heart of Atlantis."
"I hate it when I'm right sometimes." Blake groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Yeah, about that." Adam said as he stood, "I would've told you sooner, but it was strictly need-to-know and, well, you didn't need to know. I had to make sure you were one of us first. Welcome to the club, son." He put Wilt on his belt and offered Jaune a hand up.
"I'm no mercenary." Jaune said defiantly. As Pyrrha breached the surface, one of the stormtroopers grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the water. Once she had gotten her footing, she grabbed the man by the head and threw him into the water, freeing her hair as she did. Instincts kicked in, and she turned and saw the next threat charging her.
"Talk about warrior princess." Mercury commented with a nod.
"More like a savage." Emerald commented, hoping Cinder would approve.
"To us, she most certainly would be." Cinder said, "But then, we are thousands of years more advanced than they are. Not exactly a fair comparison."
Mercury snickered as he watched Emerald wilt.
She charged back, kneeing him in the stomach and using the butt of his rifle to knock out the next trooper before turning back to him. She pushed him down onto his back and pulled a dagger, holding it a lot only for it to be shot out of her hands. Looking for where the shot came from, she saw Adam aiming Blush at her, the barrel smoking. A pair of troopers came to restrain her, but not before she kicked the trooper she was about to kill in the nethers.
"Okay, that was a little excessive." Pyrrha commented.
Adam turned back to Jaune, sheathing his weapons. "Mercenary? I prefer the term 'adventure capitalist.' Besides, you're the one who got us here, led us right to the treasure chest."
"You don't know what you're messing with here, Adam." Jaune shouted as he hauled himself out of the water.
"What's to know? It's big, it's shiny, it's gonna make us all rich."
"You think it's some kind of diamond, I thought it was some kind of battery, but we're both wrong. It's their life force." He pleaded more to the emotions of the crew than those of Adam. "That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive. You take that away and they'll die!"
"Well, that changes things." Adam said, walking over to his lieutenant. "Sienna, what do you think?"
"If that's the case," she took the paper from him and looked it over, "I'd double the price."
"I was thinking triple." Adam retorted.
"Damn that's cold." Mercury commented. Even he wasn't that without heart. Yeah, he wasn't above letting a few folks die to complete the job, but genocide? That was beyond crossing the line.
"Adam, don't do this." Jaune pleaded again.
"Academics. You never want to get your hands dirty. Think about it, kid. If you returned every stolen artifact in a museum, all you'd be left with is an empty building. We're just… providing a necessary service to the archaeological community."
"That's unfortunately true." Velvet said, her ears drooping. "Taking those artifacts is the only way we can learn about our past, but in doing so, we are also stealing from their descendants, who have a right to their heritage, same as us."
"Not interested." Jaune knew it was the truth, but that didn't mean he had to like it or condone it.
"Well, I gotta admit, I'm disappointed." Adam said, actually sounding disappointed. "You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Jaune, don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing." Jaune just glared at him. "Ugh, I hate it when negotiations go sour." Adam snapped his fingers and the troopers holding Pyrrha threw her to the ground and aimed their rifles at her skull. "Now," Adam held up the page for Jaune to see. "Let's try this again."
"We've talked about how Sun and Nora should have switched roles, but Adam seems made for this." Blake said.
"Callous, charismatic, self-assured. Sounds about right for him." Sienna agreed.
The next thing Jaune knew, the doors to the throne room were blown open. Pyrrha was being held by Sienna. Nora stood in the middle of the opening, tossing a stick of dynamite in her hands.
"Knock, knock." She said with a little enjoyment.
"Room service!" Oz added, aiming his double-barreled shotgun at the guards.
"Worst room service ever." Pyrrha and Weiss said simultaneously.
"I disagree on principle." Nora said.
"Sometimes that's the only way to get me up in the morning." Yang said.
The guards stood defiantly in defense of their king.
"Tell them to drop their weapons, now." Sienna said, aiming her gun at Pyrrha's head.
"Do as she says." King Alexander ordered, and the guards complied.
"Spread out! Search everywhere." Sienna ordered, and the crew began tearing the place apart.
"You're not applying yourself, son." Adam said, as he man-handled Jaune. "There's gotta be something else."
"Well, there's not." He said as Adam gripped the front of his shirt. "It just says, 'the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eye of her king.'"
"Well then, maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks." Adam walked over to the king, and slashed his staff in two, but the venerable old man stood just as strong on his feet without it. "How about it, Chief? Where's the crystal chamber?"
"Why do bad guys always think that's going to work?" Sun said, "You just blew open the door to his throne room, and threatened his daughter. Why the hell would he tell you anything?"
"Maybe cuz he's threatening his daughter?" Blake said.
"You will destroy yourselves." He warned angrily.
"Maybe I'm not being clear." Adam said before he grabbed Wilt and jammed the pommel into the old king's gut, doubling him over. Pyrrha let out a string of curses in Atlantean foul enough to peel paint.
"Adam, this was not a part of the plan." Sun said as he began looking at the king's injury.
"Plans change, Doc. I suggest you put a Band-Aid on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary." Adam walked over to the throne and sat in it. "Well, once again, diplomacy has failed us. Now, I'm going to count to 10, and you're going to tell me where the crystal is. 1…" he drew Wilt from Blush. "2…" he cocked the gun. Everyone in the room tensed up, wondering if he would really go that far. "9…" he aimed Blush at the king. "T-" he stopped as a drop of water fell from the ceiling into the middle of the pool before him.
Looking closer, he saw that the stone in the water were arranged in a familiar pattern: a perfect Atlantean A.
"The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eye of her king. Poetic and accurate." Blake said.
"The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eye of her king!" he muttered as he stood up. "This is it! We're in!" he tossed the Journal to Jaune and began to wade into the water.
"Adam, for the last time, you gotta listen to me." Jaune pleaded as Sienna pulled Pyrrha into the water. "You don't have the slightest idea what this power is capable of."
"True." Sienna agreed. "But I can think of a few countries who would pay anything to find out."
"Bitch." Sienna muttered about herself.
Adam found a hidden platform just under the surface of the water directly under where the light entered into the room. He put one foot on it and felt the whole thing shift downward.
"Get on." He ordered, pulling Jaune onto the platform, while Sienna pushed Pyrrha. The quartet descended into an unlit chamber where a giant crystal sphere hung in the air, surrounded by a series of stones with human faces carved into them. Adam smiled as he stepped off the platform. "Jackpot."
Pyrrha looked up at the stones and felt a sense of familiarity when she gazed upon the stone faces.
"The kings of our past." She whispered, tears in her eyes, before falling to her knees and bowing before them, her forehead to the ground and rapidly reciting what prayers she knew.
"Arc, tell her to wrap it up, we got a schedule to keep." Adam said dismissively.
Jaune glared at the back of his head. Her turned his gaze to Sienna, who, to her credit, actually seemed to respect what Pyrrha was doing. His glared softened somewhat and he knelt down next to Pyrrha, stopping her prayers and apologizing, though he knew it was worth little coming from him.
Adam walked to the edge of the pool of water the Heart peacefully floated over and kicked a small rock into the water. Immediately, the soft blue glow that came from the sphere turned an angry red and beams of that light began to scan the chamber.
"Come on, let's get this over with." Sienna said, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, "I don't like this place."
"She may be a bitch, but she's smart." Ghira commented.
"Still a bitch." Sienna grumbled.
"Alright, Arc, what's next?" Adam said.
"Okay, so, let's start with the fact that there's a giant crystal hovering 150 feet above us over a bottomless pit of water. Does nothing surprise you?"
As their argument began, the light passed over Pyrrha and turned back to its normal soft blue. Her crystal floated into the air and pointed at the Heart.
"Mother." She said as her eyes took on the same blue color as the lights.
"I don't know how to move it." Jaune told Adam, "I don't even know what's holding it up there."
"After everything we've been through in the past few months, I'm willing to just say magic at this point." said Weiss.
"Maidens, Salem, Relics. Kind of hard to deny something when you're looking right at it." Blake agreed.
"Seems Ozma has informed them. The question is, how much?" Salem mused. She turned her eyes back to the tablet menu, her insane metabolism having already dealt with what she had consumed.
Their fight stopped as they saw Pyrrha calmly walk past them. Jaune made to stop her, but Adam held him back. She stopped at the edge of the pool.
"Talk to me, Arc. What's happening?"
"Look, all it says is that the crystal is alive, somehow. I- I don't know how to explain it. It's their deity, it's their power source."
"Speak Common, Professor."
"It's a part of them, they're a part of it. I'm doing the best I can over here."
"Well, do better." Adam growled as he began to draw Wilt.
"Oh, I know. How about you translate, and I'll wave the gun around!"
"All will be well, Jaune Arc. Be not afraid." Pyrrha said in a distorted, ethereal voice. Jaune could hear her voice was dominant in some way, but it was layered with so many other voices that it was almost hard to hear.
"Man, I love how freaky that voice effect is." Sun said. "Kinda gives me chills."
"What did she say?" Adam asked.
"I- I don't know. I didn't catch it." Jaune lied. Adam knew of course, but decided to let things play out.
Pyrrha continued to walk forward in a trance, but the trio were amazed when she left ripples in the water as she walked on it. She walked out further until she was directly under the Heart. The lights converged on her in the same way they had her mother during the Flood, and she was lifted up into the air. Soon, she was absorbed into the crystal of the Heart, and then the stone faces began to spin around it. A low hum emitted from the Heart as the stones spun faster and faster and eventually began to slow. Within, the trio could see that the crystal was gone, replaced by a humanoid form that rendered into a perfect replica of Pyrrha made entirely out of crystal.
She floated back to the surface of the water and walked back to land, but as she did, the stone faces began to fall into the pool around her. She should have been soaked, but she appeared to be generating a barrier of some kind that kept the back splash away from her. Adam made to touch her as she passed by, but Jaune stopped him.
"Okay, that is new." Salem admitted.
Once this is done, I am seriously considering taking a much needed sabbatical from writing this story. I'm fucking tired.
Next Update: 3/31/2020
