Main theme: Death Hymn by Lucas King
Arc theme: Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack
Theme: Stay Down from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack
He tried to focus.
He tried to focus on the swaying of the Bullhead underneath him as it tilted from side to side, swerving through the air towards their destination...
And he tired to not focus on the fact that the Bullhead was going nowhere near as fast as he wanted it to.
He tried to focus on the glowing blue strip of light in his knuckledusters, a simplistic weapon compared to the absurdities that he had seen during his time as a teacher in Signal...
And he tried not to focus on the fact his 2 daughters- The 2 people that he held closest to him in the world- Were right in the pits of hell, fighting for their lives against an army of fanatical madmen.
…
He tried not to focus on how batshit terrified he was of the chance that he might not ever see his daughters again...
And tried to focus of how many of these fuckers he was going to tear apart for hurting his family, be it Salem or otherwise.
"Tai-Guy?"
Tai looked behind himself to see one of his company (X.L. Valerian Securities) Employees looking up at him curiously. A younger woman dressed in blue, gold, and white frills split off into multiple sashes, with black and brown knee high boots that covered a long pair of stockings over her legs, and a white shirt with puffy short sleeves, a blue strip of fabric that covered her shoulders, upper chest, and neck, a golden necklace with a blue gem connected to a light blue piece of fabric that ended between her breasts, and shoulder length brown hair that held a white and blue flower pendant in it, and sharp blue eyes that looked like they were made of ice.
Kaia Blush. His second in command, technically speaking. She looked up at him with a worried expression on her face, "You okay?"
"...Yeah..." was Tai's late reaction, "I'm fine."
A harsh poke to his shoulder and a pout was her retort, "You shouldn't lie, you know. Lying's bad. Lying's a big bad. A big bad thing wrapped up in a bad pastry... Cloth... Thing, like a... Like a big bad burrito."
Tai admired her simple logic. Truly, he did. He just laughed in response (As much as he could), And just glumly replied, "I'm just... They're in the Emerald Forest."
"Your kid?"
"My kids, yeah. Ruby and Yang," he nodded. Kaia wasn't always... Quick on the update, when it came to a lot of things. But, she made up for it with her unending optimism.
That unending optimism then reared its head once more, as she smiled brightly and said, "Ah, don't worry Tai-Guy, they'll be fine!" she blinked, and then looked to the side, "At least, I think they'll be fine. I mean, they're your kids, yeah, but, I mean, they're also not you, and you're you, and not them, so they might to okay, but they also might not be and-"
A dark blue armoured hand grabbed her head.
"Kaia."
"Yeah?"
"Stop."
"Okay."
Tai looked to the side, to see one of his other trusted members of his security company, a tall man who constantly wore blue armour with a golden visor and silver faceplate, a simple sword at his side, and a large rocket cannon on his shoulder, with a deep purple symbol of a jagged frowning man on his chest, letting go of Kaia's head allowing her to slump off to the side and rub the sides of her face with a whine. Tai knew that underneath the man in question was called Romero Julius, though for some reason, he much preferred to be called Maelstrom instead.
Edgy, sure, but there were much edgier names to have.
Lord Mangler of Souls, for example.
Still though, Tai looked over the 2 of them, and the other members of his crew in their company Bullhead, then looked out through the viewport in the side, and watched the Emerald Forest, and all of the chaos within it, grow closer and closer.
All that he could do was tap his foot in worry, and just hope that Ruby and Yang were doing fine.
Yang was not doing fine.
This is some bullshit, she found the time to think to herself as-
{KA-BOOM}
-She was flung to the side by a powerful explosion of ice, and then-
{CRACKLE}
-Rolled to the side to avoid an incoming column of ice that was barrelling towards her, When the hell did these 2 get so strong!?
It didn't make any sense. Just less than a few days ago, she had absolutely demolished the Malachite twins! She smashed one into a pillar back in Junior's nightclub for fucks sake!
So when the hell did they get so strong?!
Another column of ice flew towards her like a wave, and Yang threw herself out of the way as she fired off another pair of blasts from her shotgun gauntlets towards the annoying pair of twins. Nearby, Blake jumped away from her fight with a group of cultists and shot at the twins as well, whilst Weiss sent off a flurry of dust powered blasts towards them, soaring blue in the air.
None of that destructive power fazed the 2 of them. The one in white- Melanie Malachite- Erected a giant wall of ice to block them, whilst the one in red- Miltia Malachite- Jumped out from the side of the wall and charged Yang, a cultist armed with a spear accompanying her as backup as she unveiled her new weapons, long claws- Practically arm blades- That stretched from her hands to elbows, with a line of ice covering them as she cartwheeled towards Yang, swiftly dodging several shotgun blasts as well, and then applied an axe-kick to the blonde girl's neck, and then a line of swipes to her face. Thankfully, her aura absorbed the blows, but it was enough to slightly disorientate her as Miltia's open palm covered itself in ice, before shoving it into Yang's chest and, with a scream of pain from the girl, freezing her clothing and the upper layers of her skin solid, before applying a devastating punch to it, and-
{CRUNCH}
-Shattering the front part of her clothing, revealing her breasts to the world.
It would've been attractive if it wasn't for the fact that the top layers of her skin had been frozen solid as well, as that shattered like glass as well, leaving her chest cracked like grass, and blackening from the concentrated cold as a deep frostbite began to settle in. Her skin was red and white and black and wrinkling and ugly from fractures and blood that was freezing like ice, turning into a spiderweb pattern of fractures and puncture wounds. It was almost like shards of her own frozen skin had impaled themselves into her as blisters and bubbles began to grow on her, before splitting open and peeling the remaining reddened layers of her skin left.
Yang screamed in pain as her skin cracked and peeled layer by layer, almost like an onion, before looking over to Miltia and snarling as she...
Yang had figured that Miltia would be feeling vengeful for what happened at the nightclub. She had expected her to look smug at the thought of causing her pain, or prideful at the sight of it.
There was no trace of pride or smugness at all on her face. All that she wore was a saccharine calm, a gentle smile on her lips as if she thought that the pain that she had inflicted upon her was some kind of kindness.
As yellow flickers of aura danced across her chest, Yang roared, and her hair was alit with flame. Thanks to the blows that she had tanked, her semblance had not stored up the kinetic energy, and was now ready to be released.
And so, Yang charged forwards, and wheeled her arm back for one big punch. Miltia, meanwhile, pulled her arms up and coated them in ice once more, and-
One of the cultists got in the way and, in some stupid display of heroism, took the blow for her.
By the time Yang realised that he had no aura, it was already too late.
Her fist, supercharged and carrying all of the kinetic energy that was stored up inside of her, tore through his armour, cracked open his ribs, and crushed his heart in one fell blow. His chest exploded outwards from the sheer force behind the blow, covering Yang with gore and bone and blood, whilst underneath his helmet, torrents of red liquid flow down his chin and neck, before his left shoulder split open- Practically exploding itself- Before his body uncurled itself from Yang's blood-soaked arm, and slumped downwards to the ground, the corpse giving off a series of twitches and jutting movements, before finally going still.
…
…
…
…Wha…
…What?
What was...
No...
No, that...
That wasn't...
She didn't...
She didn't mean to...
She wasn't trying to...
…
…
…
…
Oh god.
Yang took a step back, and then another, and then another. Her eyes left the ravaged corpse on the floor, and towards her hand, still absolutely caked in blood. Her mouth began to shoot off silent words and mutters as her mind tried to process what she had just done.
She hadn't...
She hadn't...
She just wanted to knock the girl out...
She never wanted to actually kill someone!
She almost fell to her knees as she shook in place. She had never taken another life before. Grimm didn't count because they were soulless monsters, and therefore didn't count as a life, but... But people... Actually people? She had always jokingly said that she could do it, but she had never...
She had never...
She wanted to vomit.
"Dammit, Cyrus," a voice muttered to themselves, "You didn't have to do that."
Yang looked up and narrowed her eyes, focusing herself on Miltia as she looked down at the ruined cultist's body with sorrowful eyes, "You knew him?" she asked with a stutter, trying to sound more confidant than she actually was.
"Only for a day," Miltia admitted, though there was a mournfulness to her voice, "He struck me as the heroic type, always wishing to give his life for a good cause. I suppose he finally got his wish."
"'A good cause'?" Yang asked incredulously, "You call this- You are killing people right now, aren't you?! You and your cult!" a pause. Suddenly, the world around them, and all of the chaos that came with it, was forgotten as they talked, "How did you even... How did you get this strong so quickly?"
It was now, on closer inspection, that Yang could see the changes in Miltia, and in observation, Melanie as well. Underneath all of their winter clothing and gear, their bodies had been bulked up. No longer were they small and petite like before, with thin bodies and limbs. Now, they were bulky, and covered in muscles. They had grown an inch, as well as a cup size, like whatever had changed them was purposely outlining their own sexuality. However, their arms and legs were lined with dense skin and toned muscles, with broad shoulders, and Yang could somehow tell that they both had six-packs underneath their coats. Any traces of fat, baby or not, that covered them were all gone, as their faces were now sharper and more defined, without a single blemish covering them.
And their eyes... What was once a lime green was now swimming with waves of silver underneath.
A loud snarl broke her thoughts, and Yang quickly looked to the side, to see that Melanie was wildly fighting both Blake and Weiss, alongside a group of her fellow cultists. And there was a harsh emphasis on wildly, as Melanie threw herself at the 2 initiates with snarls and thrashing claws and talons. She looked more like a wild animal than a person.
The Cult... They... They did something to them.
"What did they do to you?" Yang asked, her blood-soaked hand still shaking as she took a step back, "Did they... Did they brainwash you?"
"They enlightened us," Miltia replied. Even her voice was changed. The country-girl drawl that was lined her voice was now gone. Her voice was now husky, seductive, almost like a constant purr, "This," she gestured to her enhanced body, "Is their gift to us."
She walked around the corpse on the floor- Around, not over. Almost like a show of respect towards it- And then towards Yang herself. Every step was a show, punctuating her hips. A hand glided over her own arm, ghosting over every little bump of muscle. Her head cocked to the side, her eyes glistening in green and silver, her lips curled to a thin, but somehow still sincere smile.
"They have gifted us sight," Miltia's voice came out as a seductive whisper, almost like a song, as her husky tone wormed its way into Yang's mind, "For so long, we were blind. There was so much darkness that clouded us, but then they removed the veil from our eyes, and for the first time in our lives, we could see. We could see the filth of ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. We could see the corruption that sunk in, making us complacent, mad, worse than Grimm."
Yang couldn't move. Why couldn't she move? All that she could do was watch as Miltia practically pressed herself against the blonde haired girl, and looked up at her, smiling as she continued to whisper to her.
"Join us, Yang," she purred, "That business at the bar? Water under the bridge. Nothing more than old history. The fat old men that you would've served as a Huntress? Their time is finally done? And what could they give you anyway? Love? We have all of the love that you could even want."
She giggled. She actually giggled, and ran her hand up Yang's bloody arm, before pulling it up, and pressing her hand against her own cheek. It left a bloody print on Miltia's cheek.
"We have so much that we can give you. There is so much that we want to give you. Love? We will drown you in it, be it romantic or otherwise. Power? We have displayed that, no? Why would we not want to share it with you? We would give you all of the power in the world, and then the world itself. You would never know that crippling weakness of your old life ever again. After all, the strong survive and the weak die, don't they? Isn't that what you believe? If that is the case, then we would make you the strongest woman in all of existence. We would raise you to that of the gods and beyond. We will kill the gods, and become the gods themselves, and when our silver empire reigns over the world- When there is finally peace for all on Remnant, and when the name Remnant is no longer needed- We shall place you in the court of our emperor and empress- Our father and mother eternals- And we shall finally know peace."
Her soundless breath was cold, like a cloud.
"Doesn't that sound nice, Yang? Doesn't that sound enticing? Doesn't that sound like so much more than that whore of a woman, Raven, could ever do for you?"
…
How did she know who Raven was?
How did she... Didn't she show Junior a photograph of Raven? Is that how she knew?
But still...
…
Yang didn't want to admit it, but there was...
There was a twisted seductiveness to her proposition.
To never be weak again? It was... It was...
It was enticing.
But still, this was wrong.
She was wrong.
Right?
"Or would you rather kill me?"
Yang blinked, but the gentle calm, and the saccharine smile on Miltia's lips never left.
The red dressed twin pulled Yang's red-soaked arm from her cheek- The print left behind dripping fresh blood- And pressed her knuckles against her forehead, and with her other hand, she cocked her shotgun.
She was inviting Yang to kill her.
"There," Miltia purred, "Do it."
"Wha…"
"Kill me if it pleases you," Miltia invited, "Come on, it is easy. You have already killed one, have you not? What's one more?"
"I..."
"And if you do kill me, then so what? You won't be blamed for it. I am just another enemy, am I not? If you kill me, then all you shall receive is a slap on the wrist for it? It is the nature of the Huntsman system, you know, and as a direct descendant of the famous Team STRQ, then Ozpin will surely look over it. After all, this is a battle, and the world beyond the city walls is harsh, and cruel. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, didn't you know? You must have the strength to kill to survive? My death would be a mere, easily overlooked, stepping stone. And besides, it would feel good, would it not? I do not feel pleasure in the art of war- In the heat of combat, nor at the idea of taking a life- But you? You revel in combat. You live for the thrill of the fight, no? This? You killing me? It is a mere progression of that desire for war. So go ahead. Have your fill of blood if it shall please you."
She giggled.
"Go ahead... Do it."
That was... She was...
"You..." Yang stuttered, "You're insane..."
That was all that Yang could say to Miltia's proclamation. That... Callous disregard to her own life... That willingness to die just for the sake of Yang's non-existent bloodlust... How else could she describe it?
She already wanted to vomit at the thought of killing someone. She didn't want another person's blood on her hands!
She looked down, and blinked. The saccharine smile on Miltia's face was gone.
Now, it had been replaced by a simmering anger.
"Insane?... No, this is not insanity... For the first time in my life, I am truly sane."
The purr was replaced with a growl, and Miltia's grip on Yang's arm tightened. With her other arm, she pressed it against Yang's chest, and pushed her arm up, forcing the gauntlet away from her face. Yang was ashamed at the fact that she had whimpered from the pain.
"Do you know what the definition of insanity is, Yang? It's doing the exact same thing over and over again, and expecting something to change. Now, tell me: What do the Huntsmen do? They throw their bodies against the Grimm again and again, and expect something to change when they do? But nothing ever changes, does it? Actually, scratch that: Nothing good ever happens, does it? Settlements are still lost more than they are saved. The Grimm continue to steal away our lands and our lives. We continue to run out of dust and food and shelter. Our cities still overflow with refugees and the lost. Our leaders still revel in corruption. Our society still carves itself apart with divisions and false differences. Racists and sexists still spread their dribbling hatred like infant children. And yet, what do the Huntsmen do? They do nothing to help the problem. Instead, they stroke off their delusions of grandeur, and rape the world for its pleasures and self-satisfying glory, all for a rotten status-quo that will do nothing but bring us to ruin!"
She wheeled back her arm, covering it in jagged shards of ice, and slammed it into her chest, cracking it open once more into a shower of frozen blood and skin as Yang was thrown back across the wide open plain, skidding across the dirt and creating a trail of mud beneath her, whilst nearby, Miltia just cracked her knuckles, glared down at Yang as she walked slowly towards her.
"But this time, Yang Xiao Long... This will be different. Do you hear not the cries of the people around you? Have you not heard the words of those around you, in the cities, all the way to the Frontier and the wildlands? The time of the kingdoms is ending. The time of the Grimm is ending. The time of mankind is ending. Now, we must seize the means to build ourselves a new world, of which we shall do so. We shall carve a new throne out of the old. We shall create a new dust to replenish the old. We shall seize the lands that the Grimm have taken from us, and grow food for our children. We shall march under a single banner, and unify the entire world under our name. The Cult of Silver rises, and so will Remnant, and all of man."
For the first time since their conversation had begun, there was an air of confidence to Miltia now.
"For all mankind, the old must, and will, be washed away, so that our new era may begin."
Yang winced, and got up to her feet. Cocking her other shotgun gauntlet in defiance of the Malachite twin, looking down to her chest, and seeing how utterly fucked it was. Gods above it hurt like hell.
But Yang sure as hell wasn't about to go down without a fight.
If only she could get the nagging feeling of doubt out of her head as she charged forward and roared.
Swiping a gun off of the floor and giving it a quick lookover, Jaune then aimed down the sights and fired.
{BANG BANG BANG}
He did his best to not let the recoil fling the gun out of his hands, but he was still thrown off by it as he forced himself to watch the rounds bounce off of the Cultist's metal shield, before rolling out of the way and-
Yep, ow, his shoulder still hurt like hell.
-Taking cover behind a slab of upturned rock as a group of Cultists continued to hammer his position with bullets, and then jumping and running to the side as one of them threw a grenade near to him, and then-
{BOOM}
{SHOOM}
-Exploding outwards into a shower of jagged ice shards and snow, catching Jaune's back as his clothes, as well as-
"AUGH!"
-The skin on the back of his arms, legs, and back itself froze solid, freezing and blistering from frostbite.
Jaune didn't have enough time to contemplate the pain, still being in the heat of battle and all, so he strained and moved, and eventually-
{CRACK}
"UGH!"
-Broke the frozen skin on his body as he moved, cracking into blackening spiderweb patterns underneath his wet and bloody clothes, frozen blood cracking like snowflakes as he supressed a scream from the sheer pain, and slammed his shield into the neck of a nearby cultist, leaving him on the ground gasping for air before he levelled his newly acquired gun once more and-
{BANG}
-Sent it into the leg of one of the cultists. Of course he had a metal knee guard on, but it was enough of a blow to disorientate him enough for Jaune to slam the butt of his new rifle into his helmeted head, and then running off to the side before he could recover.
Where were Ren and Pyrrha in the middle of all of this?
Pyrrha were busy fighting the fake-Ruby behind them, while Ren was ducking between cover as he fired on the cultists.
The 3 of them had found themselves in a dangerous position after running through and through the ever-changing and dissolving reigns of the forest. Now, they had found themselves on a narrow pathway- A crack between the expansive and ever-winding acres of forest- And had only just seen the giant troop transport, camouflaged by the trees above, that had been following them for a long time.
Excuse them for not noticing, but it was hard not to be distracted by the giant mass of murderous red tendrils behind them?
And now, they were trapped. A fake-Ruby overflowing with snapping tendrils and violent malevolence behind them, 2 squad's worth of heavily armed cultists before them, and a giant troop carrier hovering above them, raining blue fire down onto them and leaving craters in the forest itself, igniting the trees around it as gangs of initiates and cultists continued to battle around them.
They had nowhere to go. Jaune and Ren couldn't break through the cultists before him on his own, and Pyrrha were too busy trying to make sure that the fake Ruby didn't catch them at their heels, not to mention the ship above them continuing to take pot-shots at them, nipping at them as they continued to roll and dodge blasts of ice and snow.
Where the hell were they supposed to go now?
Jaune spied a quick look at the cultists before them, and as they called orders to each other, he began to make out their rank and file.
The lowest ranking and most common members seemed to be called Adherents, and were the basic foot soldiers of the cult, covered in silver and blue body armour with dark blue cloaks, and were armed with scavenged and basic rifles.
Cultists with shields were called Deacons, and acted as the Cult of Silver's support units, armed with wide shields and machine pistols, and dressed in much lighter armour pieces, mostly replaced by dark blue and silver robes.
The larger, more intimidating of the Cultists- Standing at, what, 10 feet tall? Yeah, 10 feet. Wasn't that unnaturally tall for a person?- Were called Templars, and they were walking juggernauts, covered in bulky, yet rounded silver armour with a dark blue cloak strewn over it, with a helmet that held 3 glowing blue dots for eyes on other side of the helmet, a pair of horn like protrusions on either side of the helmet, a dark blue pauldron on their left shoulders with 4 spikes jutting out of it, and several tubes and wires jutting out of their helmets and onto their backs, where a pair of large canisters with what looked like liquid nitrogen, which itself was connected to the large, very intimidating cannon that they held in their hands, a cold flow of air emanating off of it, whilst a long, thin blade sang from their left wrist, singing in the air as it moved.
The second to last variant of Cultist that he could see was called a Bishop, dressed in a more simplistic design, in pure silver armour with blue rings around the arms, and long inverted blades like scythes running down their arms, with dark blue belt capes around their wrists, and their rounded helmets held a single glowing blue dot in the middle of them, with a black line running down the middle of it, dividing the helmet in 2, resembling that of a lowercase I. In their hands, they wielded a simple pair of pistols.
There was one last variant of Cultist that he could see barely held any armour on them at all. In fact, they held barely anything on them. The rest of the Cultists called them the Sinful: People enthralled by whatever spell the Cult had put on them, and turned into rabid animals wearing nothing but a few robes, almost like zombies with no will of their own. From the callous way that their fellow Cultists treated them, they must've been deemed heretics when the Cult got them, and this was their punishment: Men and women, human and Faunus alike, stripped naked and only given 1 or 2 dark blue robes to cover themselves, running around on all 4s with snapping jaws and dull, lifeless eyes that glowed a dead silvery blue, and shards of ice growing from their bodies- Puncturing through the skin and bone- And forming claws and talons from which to catch and kill their prey.
One of these Sinful jumped onto Jaune and forced him onto the ground, it's jaw snapping and snarling at him as he used the rifle in his hands to hold it off, before applying his foot to its stomach and kicking it off, shooting it in the leg to keep it down- The recoil almost throwing him off once more- Before slamming his shield into the jaw of another Sinful- Shattering it completely- And running to Ren's side as they continued to fire into the Cultists.
Seriously, what the hell was with these guys!? What the hell did they want with them?!
Behind them, Pyrrha grunted in blunt pain as another red tendril from the fake-Ruby swiped at her, catching her by the arm and shaving off another portion of her aura. She would've joined the others in breaking through the Cultists before them, as well as their ship, but if she did that then this thing that was chasing them would catch them, and do who knows what to them.
(She didn't have time to notice the slight glow that was emanating from her back.)
This was a fight that they were losing. Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha were being pressed closer and closer together- Their fighting space was dwindling, giving them little room to manoeuvre- And from the looks of it, there was no way out for them. They could try running back into the forest, but they were running out of breath already, and-
There was a clearing nearby. And from the sounds of it, there was fighting there as well. That meant more initiates were holding their ground there. If they could get to them, then they could make a proper stand against these guys. Hell, maybe they could make a base for themselves and wait for backup! Like a rallying point!
The only problem with that plan was loosing these guys. They couldn't bring both this fake-Ruby monster, an overhead troop carrier, and an entire gang of heavily armed Cultists with them. They needed to shake them first and break out of this narrow pathway, less they bring them all crashing down onto the heads of their allies.
Then, as if it were a miracle, help arrived.
3 green fireballs shot out of the treeline and into the backs of one of the Templars, detonating the tanks on his back and covering him in liquid nitrogen. He screamed as the liquid poured into the gaps between his armour and froze his skin, but was silenced by-
{ROAR}
-A massive blonde feline creature- Looking like a cross between a panther and a lion- Jumped out of the treeline and into the fray, wrapping its jaw around the Templar's neck and ripping out his jugular, killing him in a bloody mess. The cat like beast then jumped off of the falling corpse and onto one of the Sinful, ripping it apart from its shoulder to its chest, and then slamming it with its tail into a pair of Adherents, before joining a flock of doves that materialised out of the forest, just as-
"WHOO HOO!"
-A fast moving object slammed itself into the chest of a female Deacon, and then ripped the shield out of her arms and flung it like a frisbee into the chest of a Bishop, whilst a boy with an ugly as hell looking mohawk made his entrance by jumping out of the foliage and slamming his feet into the chest of another Bishop, right before sending 3 more neon green fireballs into another Templar, only this time it wasn't as effective as the Templar in question just shrugged it off and sprayed a river of liquid nitrogen at him, before changing it to a ball of pure ice, exploding outwards like an explosive, which the boy quickly dodged in turn, and then ran back outwards to join in on the melee.
Jaune and Ren blinked. They knew these guys.
"Sky?" Jaune called out to them, "Dove? Russel?"
"Hell yeah, man!" Russel called out to him in the middle of a fight, "Who else would be able to save your lives with this much style?"
"But- But where's Anima?!"
The blonde catlike creature perked its head up at this, ran to their side in a hurry, and then-
"Ah! Please don't eat... Huh?"
-Rolled to the ground right next to them, shifting from a giant cat creature, and into-
"Anima?!"
-A fully clothed Anima Senterra, weapon and all in hand. With a smile, she looked up at both Ren and Jaune, and went, "Hey guys! You alright?"
"As alright as can be..." Ren muttered to himself, before asking, "How did you find us?"
"I didn't- At least, not really. Me and the boys decided to dip out of the forest with all of this going on, and we've been running around trying to find an exit," she looked behind them, to see Pyrrha and the fake-Ruby battling each other, and in a grave tone, asked, "Is that-"
"That's Nora," Ren cut in with. At Anima's shocked, questioning look, he continued, "Somehow, that... Thing, took over Nora's body. It- It changed her like she was clay, and it's been hunting us ever since."
Ren spared Jaune a look, but for some reason, so did Anima as well, before she then asked Jaune, "So, what do we do now?"
Why are you asking me?
BECAUSE YOU'RE THE MAN WITH THE PLAN. NOW DO WITH THE PLAN.
Jaune bit his lip and frowned, before pointing to the side and going, "There's a clearing near here, and from the sounds of it, there're initiates still fighting in there as well. If we can reach them, then we can make an actual stand against this thing and its goons. I don't like it anymore than anyone else, but I seriously can't think of any other options."
Anima nodded, "Then let's- MOVE!"
A shot from the troop carrier overhead hit where they had been sitting as they scattered, erupting with a loud-
{KA-BOOM}
-Into a fiery explosion.
Anima regained herself, and then continued, "Then let's get rid of these jokers first! The more we take out here, the less that anyone else will have to worry about!"
Jaune and Ren nodded. It was as good as a plan if they'd ever heard one.
Behind them, Pyrrha was on the backfoot. She was loosing her breath, her aura was running low, and she was beginning to feel fatigued. Even the Invincible Girl could grow exhausted from a prolonged run and fight.
This thing that wore Nora's body like a glove? It couldn't say the same, from the looks of it.
Every hit that Pyrrha made against it was perfectly countered. Every tendril that she took down was replaced by another. Every breath that she took had a reply in the form of an attack, requiring her to constantly by on the run, constantly dodging and bobbing and weaving through every possible strike and blow, avoiding feints and traps by the second as she slowly began to lose her will to keep fighting.
Slowly.
And now her back was beginning to hurt. Great.
Actually, it was beginning to seriously hurt. She didn't let it show but dammit, this hurt! It was like her back was about to burst wide-
{SLAM}
-One of the tendrils caught her on the arm, and slammed her to the side, right into one of the trees nearby. Her back cracked and curled itself around the tree, and she had to mentally direct what was left of her aura into her spine just to make sure that she could still walk.
The pain in her back from before was gone though. Completely.
That surely wasn't good.
The mass of tendrils that emanated from the once-Nora creature swelled in size and number, and they began to reach down for her. She moved to get back up to her feet- Hey, she could still use her feet. She could still use her legs. At least she had that going for her- But then...
The pain returned.
Oh god, it returned.
And this time, it was coming from her stomach, not her back.
She bit down a scream at the pain. It was like going through childbirth as a bright light began to reach out from her- From her womb? No, from her stomach itself. It was like she was being split open with a butcher's knife as the light seemed to split her completely in 2, before-
A hand reached out from her stomach.
And then, from her being, someone jumped out.
This person twirled themselves in the air, and despite her confusion, Pyrrha did her best to try and keep up with this new challenger that she had given a sort of birth to, as they jumped between red tendril after red tendril, cutting them apart at speeds that she had never seen before, forcing the monster that was once Nora to back off as it repaired itself, allowing the figure to jump down and look back at Pyrrha, giving the girl a good look at her new-born saviour.
It was a petite girl that had cut herself from her stomach, looking like she was only in her early teen years. Much of her messy blonde hair was tied into thin twin ponytails behind her, and ruby red eyes stood out amongst her fair, yet toned skin. Ruby red ribbons and bows adorned the upper half of her right arm, and black and gold armour completely covered her left, with metal kneepads on her legs, and black and black and gold knee high boots on her feet. Black stockings covered what was left of her legs, and reached up to a brown and gold sleeveless, opened vest with a black and red shirt underneath, and a short red tattered scarf covering her neck, with a brown belt covering her waist, holding a sheath for the white and gold dagger in her hand. When she opened her mouth, Pyrrha could spot sharpened, blade-fangs in her jaws.
The emblem on her shirt was exactly like Pyrrha's.
"行け！" the girl yelled to her as she swiped her dagger through another pair of red tendrils, "お姉ちゃん、お兄ちゃんと他の人と繋がって!"
"R-Right!" Pyrrha yelled back as she got up to her feet and began to run towards the others, with several fresh new questions now rolling through her head:
Who was that?
How had she been able to appear by slicing open her stomach.
Why did she called her 'Little sis'?
Who was 'Big brother'?
And since when was Pyrrha able to perfectly understand another language?
At the front of the group, the now combined effort- Jaune, Ren, Anima, Sky, Dove, and Russel- Were finally able to break through the Cultists before them, running through the group with Pyrrha at their heels.
Behind them, a new type of Cultist known as the Wardens of Faith were dropped from the troop carrier and into the field. 3 hulking, 4 armed beasts, about 15 feet tall, and wearing silver and black body armour with silver and black cloaks and sashes, and red rings around their arms and legs, with smoking vents connected to their backs, tubes running from their backs and feeding into a spiked helmet with long devil horns curving outwards from it, and a long strip of red light where their eyes should be. All 20 of their fingers and thumbs ended with knifelike talons, and they held what looked like pulsating energy weapons in their hands.
And indeed they were energy weapons, as the 3 Wardens of Faith aimed them down and fired off burning red rounds of what must've been plasma at them, igniting the forest around them, and even a few of the Sinful Cultists (Not that they probably cared) Whilst the initiates bobbed and weaved around the path, and then through into the trees, following the sounds of conflict nearby, and into the open, as Jaune spotted-
"Yang?!"
"Arc?!"
-Yang Xiao Long, the sister of Ruby Rose, battling against some other red-dressed woman, whilst nearby, the Schnee girl- Ryuzu's master- And a woman that Jaune hadn't seen before, were battling against what looked liked the red-dressed woman's twin in white, as well as a group of other cultists with her.
And dammit, Yang didn't look well. Quite the opposite. The front of her clothing on her chest looked like it had been frozen and shattered completely. On another day, that might've been attractive, but it was quickly shot down by the ugly wounds on her chest, as spiderwebs of cracks and shatter points in her flesh covered her like tattoos, as if her skin had been turned to glass and kicked. Her skin peeled itself and wrinkled into bloating boils and blisters, and left islands of pale and pinking flesh, bloated from internal bleeding, amidst a sea of violently dissected red, white, and black moulted flesh. Rivers of ice-water and blood drained down her front and into her clothing, and entire continents of skin glistened coldly and peeled in the sunlight, as if they were still frozen.
Jaune was reminded of the still frozen patches in his skin, and grimaced as he moved. He was in incredible pain from just moving, and that probably wasn't all of it. He just did his best to block it all out and move on. That was all Future-Jaune's problem, and not his.
Yang, meanwhile, finally laid eyes on him, in all his wounded, exhausted, and bloody glory, and she snarled. Punting away the girl in red with a violent swing from her arm, she ran up to Jaune and-
{PUNCH}
"AUGH!"
-Slug Jaune in the face, throwing him down onto the ground, and breaking his nose.
Ow.
Before Jaune could even get a word in, Yang grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to his feet, eyes blaring red as she then screamed, "YOU! YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS, DON'T YOU?!"
"Wha- Hey, miss! Put him down!" Pyrrha called out to her from the side, "We're all on the same side here, are we not?!"
"This fucking piece of shit knows something?!" Yang snarled, "He knew about Summer Rose! He wears her cloak! So why the fuck should I-"
"おい！"
A hand reached out and slapped Yang across the face so hard that it got Yang to let go of the boy. Looking down, both Jaune and Yang saw a petite young girl with blonde twin ponytails and bright red eyes, looking up at Yang with a glare as she put her arms before Jaune.
"兄貴を放っておけこの野郎！"
"Who are- Who are you calling 'Big brother'?!" Jaune asked, "Who the hell are you, anyways?!"
Yang blinked, "You understand what she's saying?"
"Well yeah, she... How can I understand what she's saying?"
A red tendril slammed into the ground near them. A distraction. They were barely able to avoid the swiping tendril coming at them with their lives, and they looked up to see-
Yang's eyes widened, "R... Ruby?"
-The fake-Ruby breaking through the treelines and entering into the clearing-now-arena, elevated above them by the swirling red mass beneath her, as more and more tentacles and tendrils spawned out from her very being. The cultists around them seemed to look at her with a sort of reverence, but that did not deter them from continuing on their fight. If anything, it boosted their morale, and pressed them to fight on even harder, with more and more ice bombs and bullets sounded off around them, all to push their inevitable victory onto the initiates with them.
Yang stuttered, "R-Ruby, is that-"
"That's not Ruby," Jaune muttered, "It can't be..."
Overhead, the troop carrier's lower doors opened up, and 2 new figures joined the fray-
"Oh, what now?!"
-Jumping down into the field, and presenting themselves within the madness. They were twins themselves, with identical female proportions, pale skin tones, long green hair, and deep silver eyes. However, the one in the white dress and black skirt had her hair flowing freely down her back, while the other in a beige shirt and blue jeans held her hair in a ponytail, and prettied by a black ribbon on her head.
"Hello there, everyone," the one in the beige shirt and blue jeans began, bowing as she then said, "I am Lamia."
"And I am Lilith," bowed the twin in the white dress and black skirt.
"We are the Aspects of Amusement."
"And figureheads of the Cult of Silver."
The 2 of them then looked to Jaune, cocked their heads to each other, and what they said next shook him to his very core.
"Hello there, Orion."
"It is so good to finally meet you."
"Picture, if you will, a time when Remnant was not known as Remnant. It simply was itself.
"Picture a time when mankind- Both human and Faunus- Were pulling themselves out of the pools of creation, and were soft and sticky-wet from their birth. Picture a time when mankind didn't know what it itself was.
"Picture a time when everything on this planet was not set in stone. When death was not even a certainty. When and where the demise of oneself was nothing more than a mere concept, handed out by the reapers- By the bringers of death itself.
"Picture, if you will, the Dark Times.
"The Dark Times was, for Remnant, a time when the concepts and understandings that we know of today were still just that: Concepts. Nothing was set in stone, and we understood nothing of which we know now.
"People didn't know what semblances were. People didn't know what Faunus' were. People didn't know what the Grimm were.
"And people worshipped them all.
"People worshipped other people with semblances, because they saw it as divine sanction from the bastard gods themselves. People worshipped the Faunus because of both differences and fears, because how else can one say that the Faunus exist without the divine intervention of a god or 2? And people worshipped the Grimm, because they were the physical embodiment of death.
"People worshipped the Grimm, because in their death, they gave life itself meaning. The Grimm gave life meaning through its survival. The Grimm gave life through death, by cutting away the old, and giving rise for something new to take its place.
"But the Grimm, through the worship of their believers, became too powerful. They threatened to tear apart the world itself and become the new gods, the new lords of Remnant-that-was-not-yet-named-Remnant.
"And so, they slew and slew and slew. And in their place, their followers conducted as similar a slaughter as their idols. The Dark Times almost saw the total extinction of everything on Remnant, and would be that that solidified death itself as a ontological, existential, and very literal presence amongst the world that they lived in.
"But then came-"
"Where's all of this going, Baobhan?"
Ruby's eyes were sore and bloody. Red still clouded her vision as dried blood stained her cheeks like makeup. The burning sensation had stopped now, and was replaced by a dull ache in the eyes, shimmering silver flowing gently off of them like flickers from a candle. Gods, it was like someone had tattooed something directly onto her eyes.
She was dizzy, she was disorientated, and she wanted to find Yang and figure out what was going on.
Baobhan Sith, seemingly not giving any thought to Ruby's condition at all, just waved it off, and smiled, "I'm getting there. Now, where was I? Ah yes.
"But then came they. They being those that could bring death upon death. They who could uncreate the uncreators with but a single look and a shine of their eyes. They who saw the chaos of the Dark Times, and chose order. They who wore their eyes with pride, and shone that pride onto the world, declaring, 'Here I shall not be death, but life. Here, I shall be that which smites the wicked evil known as death, and here I shall be that which destroys sin from the world.
"They were the first Silver-Eyed Warriors.
"They were real.
"They were right.
"And they paved the way for what Remnant is today."
Baobhan knelt down to Ruby- Whom was sitting up from the floor, still trying to devise a way out of this mess and back to Yang- And teased her cheek with a thumb. Silver looked into silver, and silver stared back in fear.
"Our kind- Silver-Eyed Warriors- We are that which come from the gods. You can feel the power of light within you, yes?"
…Yes.
"You can feel the newly awaken need to kill the Grimm- The personifications of darkness- That need that you have known all of your life yet now sings even truer than before, yes?"
Yes.
"You can feel the need to build and build and build, and to destroy destruction itself, yes?"
"Yes."
That slipped out by accident.
"Good," Baobhan purred, "Our kind- We are above that of both human and Faunus. Our kind have paved the way for Remnant itself to be born. We have paved the way for the first kings of Remnant- Our kind, in all of their wisdom- To take their place on their thrones, and guide mankind towards a certain, peaceful future."
Ruby looked up at her in disgust, "The first kings were monsters! Everyone knows that! They carried out genocides! They invented Faunus slavery! They were the biggest monsters on all of Remnant!"
Baobhan just laughed at this and turned away from her, though strangely enough, there was no mirth behind it, "Every kingdom and society has been built on the backs of slaves, my dear little rose. Every society big and small had been built from slaves," there was a strong lacing of disgust in her voice, "I was a slave once, you know?"
She blinked, "You.. You were?"
"Yes," was her quiet reply. Baobhan rubbed her arm in silence, and then muttered, "I try not to think about it, though.
Ruby immediately felt sympathy for her, but then, in all of her confusion, asked, "What does all of this have to do with me?"
Baobhan looked at her, and any traces of the previous few seconds were gone, replaced once more by that cold, calculating smile, "You, and your friends, Ruby... You are important. You might want to have 'Normal knees' as you call them, but you are indeed special," she laughed, though there was now humour behind it, "Roman Torchwick, the Fall of Beacon, the Battle of Haven, the Defence of Argus and the Battle of Atlas, and everything else... Your path is forever entangled with that of this world. You and your allies are the butterflies that will create the hurricane that will consume this world, and pave the way for something new."
Ruby blinked at this. What... What was this mad woman saying?
Nearby, the fighter that Baobhan had used to get into the forest flew overhead, and hovered in the air above them. Whatever was that for?
"Ruby... I want you to join us. You and your friends. Twilight is coming over the kingdoms. You can sense it, can you not? This age is ending. We are at the precipice of extinction, our kind, as well as that of the human and Faunus flocks. What we are building now is a new home.
"A new age.
"A new kingdom.
"A new empire.
"The Silver Empire, a realm that shall last for all of eternity, and beyond.
"A realm where we shall claim the powers of the gods themselves, and become our own gods ourselves. We shall forge a new realm. We shall kill death itself. And through it, we shall become immortal."
Baobhan clamped Ruby's hands into her own.
"So please, Ruby. Join us. Join the rest of our kind, and be that which will lead us into a new realm."
She chuckled.
"Every empire needs an emperor, after all... As well as an empress."
Ruby looked at her in shock, her bloodied eyes widening and glistening silver like a red and white ocean.
"You... You want me to lead you."
"Of course," Baobhan eagerly replied, "Everyone needs a leader in life."
"..."
Ruby's breathing intensified. She took in long gulps of air as she tried to process the world around her. It was like everything was breaking apart and folding in on itself all at the same time.
"...No."
Her answer was more hesitant than she would've liked.
"I'm sorry, but... No. No, I can't- I won't join you. All of this stuff that you're saying, it's- It's insane. It's crazy! I can't just believe stuff like that willy nilly!"
Seriously, all of that stuff that Baobhan was saying? It just didn't make any sense at all. All of it just seemed like one giant maddening rambling session. Did this woman seriously expect her to just believe all of that stuff?
But, much to her surprise, Baobhan didn't even look disappointed.
"Hm, I had assumed that you would say that. At least, at this time, you would."
She pulled Ruby up to her shaking feet, and took a few steps back from her, raising up her arm-
"So, it looks like a little bit more persuasion is in order."
-And snapping her fingers together.
As soon as she did that, the womb of the ship above opened up, and a black, person-sized box began to float down, covered in blinking white dots and wires as it slowly hovered down to the surface below, where the 2 Silver-Eyed Women stood. Slowly but surely, it reached the ground, and gently floated above the ground, right next to Baobhan herself.
"...What is that?" Ruby asked nervously, taking a step back from the possibly threatening thing.
"An cryogenic coffin," Baobhan answered with a pleasant smile, "Clever little thing, Atlesian cryogenics are."
Ruby was scared to ask, but, "What's inside?"
Baobhan's finger ghosted above the release button-
"You may see."
-Before pressing down on it, and opening up the casket in a hiss of coolant and smoke.
Ruby coughed at the sudden mixture of hot steam and cold air being blasted into her face, but then rubbed her eyes and blinked, before focusing herself and looking through the smoke to see the contents within. Whatever was in this coffin better be...
Coffins were where people put bodies.
…No.
No no no no no.
The cold air and steam dissipated, and finally, Ruby could see what was inside.
"No... No, that... It can't be."
There she was.
Closed silver eyes.
Gothic black and red.
Silver to red hair.
And a brilliant white cloak.
Inside the coffin, laid Summer Rose's corpse.
Reviewer response time:
C3l3st14: Yeah, Ruby's really going to go through the ringer throughout all of this. I guess the appropriate thing to say is that she's going to have a few mentors with some less than good intentions behind them.
Greer123: The Cult hasn't really revealed their plans, as much as they've revealed their intentions. Trust me, it's best that their plans themselves be kept secret for now.
Ben10Extreme: Yeah, that pretty much sums up the Cult. Trust me, they'll be really tough bastards to put down.
Xealchim: When I add more outside forces, it makes it more fun! There's more mystery added to the mix. And trust me, they've all got an important part to play. And if I'm being honest, much of the Cult's rank and file have been inspired by the Fallen from Destiny themselves at this point. I can't help it, they're my favourite race in Destiny (Fallen best enemy race, change my mind).
DNWorks: Oh, I wouldn't bet out the Cult's chances just yet. Let's just say that they have an idea on how to give themselves a fighting chance...
ReDestrobo: The old bonds are going to start breaking, that's for sure.
merendinoemiliano: Indeed.
No long A.N. for today, because I am tired and I want to go to bed.
So with all of that said and done, leave a review, follow, favourite, and I shall see you all next time!
Titanmaster117 out!