Main theme: Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden
Arc Theme: Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)
Theme: Reckless from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack
"If I could have everyone's attention, please? Thank you.
"Now, I am aware that many of you are confused as to why we are here, in Vale, and not back in Solitas, defending Atlas and Mantle from these Grimm armies. I am aware that many of you are questioning why we should be 'Sticking our necks out' for Vale, as you so put it, and I am also aware that many of you are wondering why we are assisting the Valerian council in safeguarding Vale, instead of flying out to battle the Grimm in the wildlands of Vale.
"Allow me now, to put those questions to bed, when I say this: What we are doing here is more important than any single battle may ever accomplish.
"We, the Atlesian military, are here, in Vale, as well as Mistral and Vacuo, to protect them, and we do so because they are all our allies, and they are all our fellow kingdoms. We are all of the same people, and are just as equal to the same protection as our own homes, wherever we are man or woman, human or Faunus.
"We are here, and not in Atlas, because Atlas is strong enough to defend itself in our absence. Its armies and strong and mighty, and will strike down any foe that dares to turn its blades against it, just as we turn ours on them.
"We are safeguarding the people of Vale, and not fighting on the frontlines with the Hunters of Remnant and the other soldiers of Atlas sent outwards into this strange new world, because it is in the hearts and minds of the civilian- Of the average person- That we will find victory.
"As much as I would like it to be, because it would be a much easier, and simpler, end to our dire situation, shock and awe will not win battles alone. A wise man told me that, and he was, and is, right. It is the will of the people that shall bring about the ends of our enemies, not just our guns and bayonets.
"The Grimm feed on negativity. They eat it and grow stronger from it, and if we do not curb this feeding frenzy, and end the fear of the people, then the Grimm will just grow stronger still. The average person needs to remember that through this darkness, there is light, and there is hope for a better day, less they fall to their worst instincts, and allow the corruption to take hold of them, and lead them to anarchy.
"So when they look up to the sky, and see our great ships- Our staunch defences, and the brave men and women that serve alongside you to keep them safe, then they will remember what it is like to be safe, to be happy, to be content, and through them, the Grimm will be weakened, and they will be repelled.
"And that is why we are here. We are here not just to protect the lives of the average man and woman...
"But also their hearts, their minds, and their souls...
"I hope that this has been able to clear up any lingering questions.
"Thank you."
Transmission from General James Ironwood to the Altesian military police contingent in Vale
Ozpin looked down at the silent communications coming out of the Sleeping City in worry.
From what Ironwood had told him, the leading officer of the Atlesian detachment in the Sleeping City, one Lieutenant Malcom Croft, had been reporting in all clear signals routinely back to their command centre in Vale, and similar reports from all of the soldiers present within the monolithic city were saying the same as well, reporting that the first years that had been sent to the dead city and the Valley of Giants were getting along well, and were only encountering the scattered few pockets of Grimm and human scavengers that were still hidden and spread across the massive tomb to all things lost to history.
Everything was well.
Everything was supposedly well.
And that made Ozpin worry.
Glynda Goodwitch wasn't picking up her scroll. Neither was Arthur Watts. None of the first years were responding to any messages sent to them as well, and for some reason, as of just when they arrived in the Sleeping City and Valley of Giants. All of his personal cameras and sensors were showing a constant stream of information as well that reported that everything was going well within the old city, but still...
Something didn't seem right.
He shouldn't have let them head out to the Sleeping City. Not when their teams were so volatile. Not when Miss Rose and her team were so fractured and unable to cooperate with each other. They were her best options in this new war against Salem's latest pawns, and yet they were unable to work together as a team, and he had sent them out into the Valley of Giants and Sleeping City without much consideration.
It had been his best bet to get them to communicate together, since obviously, as evident from last night, talking by itself wouldn't be enough to get them to open up to each other. Most of the time, Hunters of all shapes and sizes tended to speak through the blade, and the environment of the Sleeping City was filled with enough dangers and perils (But not too many to possibly risk their lives in any meaningful fashion) To necessitate teamwork and cooperation within their ranks.
It's a shame that Forever Fall had been overrun by those new Grimm and declared unsafe. The forest was a much safer place for them than the Valley of Giants.
And now, he was beginning to suspect that that fear held much more truth to it than he originally presumed.
He should call James and ask for one of his ships to do a flyover of the Sleeping City. As much as he hated the idea of armies, Atlas' legions had some advantages considering how there was hardly, if not no more Hunters left in Vale at all, having all been deployed by the council to the constantly shifting frontlines of this new war, so all of these soldiers were especially useful, now more than ever against the rising hordes of Salem's new armies.
(Salem's armies, not anyone else's, because it had to be Salem. It couldn't be anyone else. The Ascendant Court couldn't be a new player on the field. It just couldn't be.)
Of course, if he requested this, then surely the council would take notice as well.
Ozpin's position as Headmaster was currently in the crosshairs of the council. A lot of them, as well as Miss Nikos' annoying persistent father, Morado, had been eager to remove him from his position as years on end, and now, with everything that had happened in the Emerald Forest and the beginning of the Second Great War, he was now in a more dangerous position of loosing everything that he had worked to build, and the only real way that he could work to protect Remnant from both Salem and itself.
He had to play this game carefully. He considered asking James to send over Miss Schnee (The specialist, not the soldier) Or that Ace-Ops team that he had brought to Vale as well, but considering what had happened with their former team member, Miss Harriet Bree... Well, to say that they were still smarting from it was an understatement, and it wasn't like they could replace their losses anymore, what with almost every Hunter available from all kingdoms being sent out across the continents to fight these new Grimm, or just simply running scared and going into hiding from them.
They were loosing more Hunters than they could replace, and that meant that the Hunter Academies were more important now than ever.
But it wasn't like Ozpin could use that fact to his advantage. The council wanted fresh Hunters, and they didn't care who trained them. As long as they had fresh new superpowered bodies to throw at the problem, they didn't care about the quality of those walking corpses.
Ozpin leaned back into his seat, and went to make a call. If he played his cards right, he could play off an overflight of the Valley of Giants as a simple reconnaissance patrol, despite the Sleeping City already having been cleared of any major threats months ago (At least, according to the standards of the council, to which his opponents in the government would no doubt try to pin on him if there were any more slipups in security around Vale). If he could get a word of reassurance from James about it, then that would at least be enough to-
Far in the distance, beyond the hills and mountains, a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke could be made out, flaring its light against the world and drawing long shadows on the earth below.
Some time later, the faint crack of an explosion could be heard across Vale.
In a panic, Ozpin pressed one of the contacts on his scroll, and held it to his ear. It answered almost immediately, "Ozpin-"
"Are you seeing this, James?"
"And heard it, too," the voice on the other end of the line answered.
He looked down to his cameras and sensors, and saw that nothing had changed on them. Nothing at all, "All of my personal systems are reporting nothing happening within the Valley of Giants. I believe that they've been hacked."
A growl escaped from James on the other side of the call, "Lieutenant Croft lied to us," before he recollected himself and went, "I'll gather up my teams. We'll head for the Valley of Giants as soon as possible."
"I shall do the same here. We will be needed all hands on deck to rescue our lost children," Ozpin finished before hanging up, and looking out towards the rising column of smoke far in the distance.
The children of Remnant were in danger once more.
"Explosion was heard from Vale. Seen from Vale as well. Not long until Ground-Mantle responds in force."
"The actions of the Atlesians won't matter. They don't matter. They'll be distracted by your efforts soon enough," Templar spoke through the communication's set before him to the Grimm on the screen, its single eye blinking as the giant of a Techion asked it, "Are your forces in place within the city?"
"All in position, yes. Spread out in different cells and divisions. Ready to strike when word given," the Grimm responded in broken basic, its six neck vents opening and closing in breath as it then hummed out, "Things getting antsy, though. Not everyone get along well with each other."
"I don't care if your people don't like each other. I couldn't care less about that. As long as they can complete their mission, and bring chaos upon the apostates of Vale," Templar glared at the monitor in front of him, "So make sure that they do what they are told, and do it well, because if not, then they will answer to me."
He leaned forwards, and pressed his finger against the monitor screen, his other hand holding Ruby's scroll (Just recently turned off), Before crushing it in his hand, and letting the shards clatter against the ground into splinters and fragments.
"Don't forget what I did to the traitor legion whom tried to defect back to the heretic court. I would hate to have to repeat the process... But I won't hesitate to do so. Understood?"
The Grimm on the screen quickly nodded in fear and replied, "O-Of course. Understand! Understand perfectly! No failure! No failure at all!"
"Good. I should expect so," Templar leaned backwards as he then finished with, "Don't make me repeat myself. I don't give second chances," before hanging up on the Grimm in Vale, and then switching to another line, where the shattered and broken visage of another Techion filled the screen with an angry glare, "Tock. I can assume that-"
"That'm angry? Oh, yer better fuckin' believe!" the once-Faunus-now-Techion growled as a pair of Grimm Disciples continued to run scalpels and welding torches across her broken face, her missing metal jaw continuing to leak black and red commingled liquid down her throat and staining that which she wore as she continued to growl and snarl as she continued, "First, those little brats 'scape and blow up me personal hobby like it's fuckin' nothin', but then yer call me off like a fuckin' dog before I can make sure that they're dead! Fer fuck's sake, they stole me fuckin' dragon! I deserve ta get som' payback fer that!"
Templar's hands balled into fists, "You best watch your tongue, Tock, before I cut it out."
"I don't 'ave a mouth. idiot."
"Then I shall cut out your still beating heart and wear it like a necklace. You are lucky that I still have a purpose for you, but do not think that it will spare you from my blade, less you mouth off against me once more. Understood?"
"..."
"Tock."
"Fine," Tock looked to the side as she growled, "Fine. As long as I get ta- ACK! FECK OFF!" she yelled out to the Grimm next to him, who was holding a bionic optic in its hand and applying a welding torch to where her old eye once was, the wiry end of the optic wriggling around like a worm, whipping in place as the Disciple connected it to the Techion's broken optical lens, and-
{FLICK}
{CLICK}
{WHIRL}
-Attached itself to the broken hole in her helmet, the optic wriggling and moving in place before connecting itself to the broken cables and systems of Tock's metal head, shining a bright red in contrast to her other optic's golden glow.
Strange optics, those were. Strange technology that had been built into them. Hephaestus, the God of Machines- Or the Tinkerer, as he called himself- Never said where he got the technology from. He had only said that he had stolen them from a scientist in Atlas. Of course, Templar didn't care where he had stolen this tech from. As long as it was useable, that would be fine by him.
Tock growled and rubbed the newly placed optic with a metal hand, before cranking her head to the side, and looking at Templar through the screen that they shared. She was about to ask something, but was stopped as Templar then ordered, "Gather what is left of your Undertakers, Tock."
"There ain't any left, Templar," Tock growled, "The idiots were too weak ta stop 'emselves from gettin' killed!"
"Then gather whomever you can, and prepare yourself. Your incompetence in the coliseum has accelerated our plans," Templar chuckled to himself, "But... It has given us a much needed opening."
Tock looked like she would've raised an eyebrow if she had any, "What opening?"
Another chuckle, and then he elaborated, "If the Altesians are coming here to confront us and," he rolled his now opened hang mockingly, "'Rescue their children'," and then let it rest, "Then at means that they will be turning their attention to this place, instead of keeping it on the city of Vale. And if they are coming here, then there is no longer any reason to stay here. We have gathered our forces, and our timeline has been discarded. We are prepared. We are ready. There is no need for us to wait for our glorious crusade to begin."
He rose from where he stood, and looked down on the computer screen below, his form tall and imposing and casting a shadow on everything below him, like an angry reaper, in opposition to the heavenly angel that he thought himself as.
"Gather our forces. Muster the thousands. We march on Vale tonight."
Tock looked at him sharply, before barking out a harsh laugh and going, "As long as it makes up for me losses earlier," before hanging up on him. He would be having a 'Word' with her about that later.
Behind him, he could hear the one in his Silver Court known as Ares, the God of Battle, bark out a frenetic laugh of his own at the thought of the coming slaughter, the fires in his chest contained by the blackened ribs in his exposed skeleton and caramelised flesh and blood, like a nacre shell holding within itself a withered crab, whilst Adonai, the God of Worship, raised her icy hands to him and cautiously went, "My priest, I must ask: Are you certain that we are ready for this? I know that we are strong, but we have just lost a fifth of our number to a pair of children in the coliseum. Should we not-"
"Wait? No, we will not."
"But-"
"We have more than enough to begin our crusade, and our followers are strong and ready. More will join our banner when our holy journey begins- When the silk veil over their eyes is lifted, and they see the light of our cause, the people will proffer themselves to our cause, and know that we are in the right. It is the will of our silver eyed gods, after all."
He pulled his great sword out of his sheath, and gestured it lazily towards Adonai.
"Enough questions. It will take some time for Atlas's forces to arrive here, but we will be long gone by then, and so will their children," he tapped his communications once more, and opened a line to the Tinkerer downstairs, "Hephaestus, this is Templar. Take Croft and your soldiers down to our guests in the Sleeping City and kill them. They serve no greater purpose for us now."
A long pause gave way to silence, before a voice came through with its reply, "Ah, at once, Priest Templar. Effigy completed now. Ready for use."
Templar sighed happily, "Good. I shall be heading down in a moment. Now, take your mercenary and do what you have been told, understand."
"Of course, Priest Templar. On way now."
Stepping back from the effigy and out of the silver and white lit room, and down the bare and quiet hallways of the cathedral, the Tinkerer raised his portable computer to his head, and let out a chuckle.
"Malcom, begin final preparation of Pilgrim's Flight. It time for us to make move."
Turning to the side, he pointed his sword to Adonai once more, and went, "Adonai, begin rallying our crusaders below. Ready them for the battle that is to come," at the female Grimm's nod, he then turned to Ares as she left, and instructed, "Ares, you are to stay here with Attis, and prepare our silver eyed goddess for departure. I shall be downstairs, doing the same for the effigy. I would rather that last task be done by my hands than anyone else's."
Ares railed against this as he growled, and went, "What?! I should be down with our warriors, getting ready for the fight, not here guarding this quivering moron!" he pointed a burnt finger to Attis nearby, the Techion Grimm shifting his feet and looking nervously between the fiery creature next to it, and the idol of their worship.
"It is because of who he is that I am ordering you to guard him," Templar shot back with as he moved to leave as well, "Not do what you are told. You know how I feel about failure, now more than ever."
And with that, he left, the goddess' main weapon stored on his back as he did, leaving Ares fuming next to the quailed Techion as he began his work.
"...To hell with that," Ares scoffed as he turned to leave.
Behind him, Attis poked his head up and went, "Where are you going?"
"To prepare myself for the coming slaughter. I don't care what that idiot metal man says, I shall have my war, and I shall have my blood," to punctuate his point, he pulled out another bag of blood from his cooler, and emptied it out into the vents on his neck, hissing and steaming against his superheated skin as he finished his crimson drink, and picked up the cooler to take with him, before pointing to Attis and threatening, "And you aren't going to tell him what I'm doing, will you?"
Attis quivered as he was said to have done, and then went, "You would... You would go against the words of our Priest? Invite heresy onto yourself by going against his will?"
Ares let out a gurgled guffaw, "You wouldn't?"
"..."
"You should try being a little rebellious sometimes. It might do you some real good."
Ares barked out another laugh as the blood that he spilled dried and steamed against his skin, throwing the doors aside as he marched out, not noticing the discarded, and damaged, dull eye on the floor, leaving Attis in the room with their idol alone.
He scratched his hands together and tilted his head down, before looking up at his item of worship, and using a wipe to clean away the blood that had stained her face.
And Ruby Rose remained as still as ever.
(But inside her mind, gears were turning...
And a plan was coming into formation.)
"Are you ready?"
No, "Yes," Nora went, before looking to the side, at an impatient looking Yang (Whom was tapping her feet against the ground as she alienated her gaze between Nora and the deadened screen on the wall), And then at the rickety and fragile piece of technology that the first years had just been created, as she then asked, "Are we sure that this is going to work? I mean, I know that me and Voltage can take it, and our semblances are strong enough to overload the gate, but... Are we completely sure that this is going to work?"
"No," well, at least DJ was honest, as he continued to tap away on the makeshift piece of technology before them, as he then said, "We know that the aura suppressors are old and easy to trick, and aren't even working at that," he looked up at her, rhetorically asking, "How do you think that I can still use my semblance?" before going back to work, "So we know that the suppressors don't work well against Headmaster semblance, and if this equipment does as its intended, then I can use it to boost my own semblance and manipulate the electronic signals within the suppressors to falter, at least for a few moments, giving you both enough time to use your semblances to overload the electric fences, and free us."
"Yeah, I know that, but, well, couldn't we use Pyrrha's semblance to do this? I know we agreed to do this, but are we sure that we can't use Pyrrha's semblance to, I don't know, shift the metal around us or something?"
Nearby, Razor shook his head, "Something like that would take a lot more concentration for her than it would for you, and besides, that blast from earlier has shaken the foundations of this place, and the pillars keeping the roof up are all fragile and made of metal. If we try to do anything to them now, then we'll end up bringing the entire building down on top of us, and not all of us would survive that," as if to punctuate his point, the roof above them creaked and shuddered underneath its own weight, as if nothing more than a gentle blow of the wind would topple it over like a stack of cards.
Nora bit her lower lip, "Alright then," and then looked down to Voltage, whom was kneeling down and holding his hands out in preparation to the azure electricity before them. Like the rest of the Techions in the first years, his mechanical frame had been cannibalised for parts and pieces, panels opened up and wires flayed out, missing pieces and parts of himself as the internal lights of his body were exposed and opened across his arms, legs, and back.
"I'm ready," the Techion hummed out as his internal components autotuned themselves, before looking behind himself, to Nora, and going, "What about you?"
"Now where are you going, little boy?"
"Remember who you belong to!"
"Dance, little boy! Dance for me!"
"Run, Noah! RUN!"
"...Nora?"
"It's time to clip this little birdy's wings."
"Nora."
"Hm?" the girl in question was broken out of her thoughts as she looked down at Voltage, "What?"
The Techion paused in turn, and then asked, "Are you ready to do this?"
She nodded shortly afterwards, "Yeah. Yeah I am."
Behind her, Ren goes, "Nora-"
"I'll be fine, Ren."
He went to say something, but Nora cut him off once more.
"Ren," she waved him off with, "I will be fine. Trust me."
He looked to her, his eyes hard with concern, but, finally, he acquiesced, and stepped aside, his arms folded in front of him, and his hands gripping against his sleeves.
Nora looked back towards the bars of sapphire electric before her, and supressed the urge to grimace, merely putting on that same smiley face that she always would, as she gave off a chirpy, "Let's do this!" and pressed her hands against Voltage's back. Between them, their semblances would produce enough electricity to overload and knock out the electric fence around them when DJ sent out his signal towards them.
For a moment, she thought back to her life, before she had ever met Ren- Before Kuroyuri fell. She had been born in Solitas, and had... Well, she had not had a good life, if anything.
She resisted the urge to rub her back.
She didn't like to talk about it. Nor did she want to.
If there was one thing that she had learnt from her past, it was, well, to bury it. Bury it deep down, and never let it out. Sad memories only brought up sad thoughts, didn't they? And she never liked being sad.
She never liked the pain of it all.
(Nor the nightmares...)
But now, she suspected that, yeah, she was about to go through a lot of pain from getting shocked by all of the energy in the electric fence, as well as overcharging her own semblance to god knows what degree (An amusing thing to say, considering how she was an atheist).
Ah well. It wasn't like she hadn't felt worse pain before.
Small sacrifice.
"I'm ready," she said more to herself than anyone else, and before her, Voltage nodded in agreement. Kneeling down in position, they kept themselves connected together as DJ and another Techion by the name of Scrapster worked on the makeshift signal amplifier device that they had cobbled together behind them, wires leeching from the device into every Techion surrounding it, powering the machine as DJ pressed his hand against it, and inserted a series of wires into his arm, boosting his connection, and hopefully his semblance as well.
"Alright then... Thanks everyone for helping us put this together, before I forget. Good team effort," many of the Techions surrounding him gave him a thumbs-up (Or a claws up, depending on what type of appendage for a hand they were using) As he then flexed his head from side to side, and said to himself, "About to use untested technology, built from pure memory... I'm starting to have second thoughts."
Nearby, Yang asked, "Why now? Why're you having second thoughts?"
"Because this might either work just as intended, or...
"'Or'?"
"Or it might just explode and kill us all."
…
"Either/Or."
Everyone paused.
Everyone blinked.
And it was Nora who broke the silence, "Well, what are you waiting for then?"
She smiled.
"Let's see if this works."
Ren stepped forwards, "Nora-"
DJ pushed his hand into the machine, "Activate."
The machine lit up into a bright white light, and with that-
{VWOMP}
{FTWOOM}
-The aura suppressors around them fell silent for but a few moments-
"GO!"
-Which was long enough.
Nora and Voltage's semblances finally kicked back in, and they immediately overcharged themselves with electricity, before sending it-
{CRACKLE}
{FIZZLE}
-Directly into the electric fence before them.
All around the first years, their cage lit up in a mixture of blue and pink, cracking and snapping as lances of burning energy were shot outwards from each hot bar of light, whipping themselves at anyone who got too close to them as the first years pulled their still unconscious teachers closer to them and huddled themselves into the middle of their prison cell, blinding lights flashing around them like cameras taking pictures of their plight, as their clothes and skin and armour were lashed and burnt by the cages' fresh tendrils of hot light. Smoke began to pour out of the metal columns around them as the old energy generators within began to burn themselves out, burning with heat as the components began to melt and fuse together into a simplistic block of metal, as nearby-
""AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!""
-Nora and Voltage were being cooked alive by the energy that they were channelling.
Torrents of electricity poured off of the electric fence as it began to overheat, streaming into Nora and Voltage as they screamed in pain, their own semblances overheating and charring them. Voltage's components began to burn and slag, turning red-hot to the touch as the flesh on Nora's hands began to fuse themselves to his metal hide, burning and melting under the touch, all the way down to her bones as underneath her armour, her skin was burnt and fractured with channels of scars and rivers of burnt flesh, like a spider weaving its webs over her skin. Smoke poured from the both of them as they were scarred and marked, white and black and grey as skin cracked and burst underneath Nora's armour and metal peeled shattered and melded together within Voltage as his mechanics failed and fused together, his life support coming closer and closer and closer to failing, until finally-
{VWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM}
-The energy generators in the pillars finally overloaded within their metal cages, fizzling in a trapped shower of sparks, and then shut off.
The electric fences dissolved into nothingness, and the stun cannons in the pillars lowered their sights to the floor, their lights flickering off, just as did those of the aura suppressors, letting the smothered souls of the first years flicker to life once more.
And before them all, Nora and Voltage, the armour around their bodies crackling with fresh static electricity, smoking and hot to the touch, collapsed to the floor, their minds slipping away into nothingness.
Attis squeezed the wet rag, and let the water drip out into the bowl below with a soft {PITTER PATTER} of sound. Flaking off some of the water that had seeped onto his metal hands, he then applied the wet cloth once more to the face of the limp Silver-Eyed Warrior- A goddess amongst mortals- Clamped to the cross above him, and wiped off more of the blood that had run and dried down her cheek, turning the rag the colour of rusted metal as he then cleaned the blood from her hair, and washed the rag once more, the water within turning a faint murky red as he continued his worshipful task. Nearby, a blue bin of broken scroll pieces and wet rags sat lonely in the middle of the room, leaking rust-coloured water down its side and onto the floor.
Because this was all that he could do to show his worship. This was all that he had allowed to do, anyways. His High Priest had commanded it of him, and who was he to go against his high priest?
…
"You should try being a little rebellious sometimes. It might do you some real good."
Ares' words continued to haunt Attis like a dead spirit over the living. A nagging, intrusive thought that refused to leave him be as he continued on with his mundane work, whispering treasonous words into his ear that would make him a heretic.
Would it?
He used to be so sure. He had been born young- Very young- By the harvested channels of black Grimm liquid in the tunnels of the Emerald Forest, just days before the Initiation Massacre, and he was barely even a week old when he had almost been killed, his body withering and fading into nothing as he slowly bled to death underneath the black smoke and the oppressive blue sky.
But then, as he was about to die, he was found. Found and rescued by the Choir of Silver. His body had been rebuilt, forged from smoking obsidian-black flesh and shattered bone to steel skin and a mechanical body, four-armed and powerful, armed with new makeshift technologies that granted him a semblance of his own, an artificial power through the glowing purple claws of his arms, known as the power of telekinesis (The ability to manipulate the gravity of specific objects through gravity dust and a powerful set of magnetic devices built into his systems, according to Hephaestus).
With his new gifts given to him, as well as a new lease on life, he had given his life to Templar, his saviour, and pledged his eternal loyalty to the Choir of Silver as the order slowly leaked its way into both Vale and the Sleeping City, eventually slaughtering the Ground-Mantle forces that had gathered there once they had been granted access to the networks that had watched over the city of mausoleums.
But now... His High Priest openly disrespected him, as if he was less than trash, threatening him with death for his slights, and openly showing little care for those in their number who had died... His fellow Silver Court members showed the same level of disrespect towards him, and now revealed themselves to not care about him at all...
But worst of all...
His idol of worship had been hurt.
Templar had said that it was to rid a blight from their idol, like one would wipe away a stain from a treasured artefact, but it had... It had caused their goddess pain. It had caused her to bleed. It had brought her pain, and it had caused her to cry.
And now, she had gone limp, and lost all motion in her body. It was like she had gone braindead. She was like a living corpse, most likely easily mistaken as one by others if they couldn't feel her heart beat against her chest, or see her vital signs blink against their HUD.
…
What was he to do?
Here he was, performing a menial task on his own, his idol of worship broken and battered, leaking blood from an empty eye socket, acting as if she were truly dead against her cross, a black and red living corpse before him as he continued to clean the blood off of her with his reddening rag, dipping it back into the bowl before him as he knelt before it, his mind jumping between questions and possibilities as he continued his grizzly work.
What was he to do?
"Indeed, Attis, what are you going to do?"
Attis jumped in place, his mechanical hind legs scraping against the ground as his four red optics stared up to the idol of his worship- His goddess- Looking down on him- Actually acknowledging him!- With her single silver eye, glowing bright and hot as she stared down at the devotee kneeling before her.
"You... You heard me?"
The silver eyed god nodded, but did not smile upon him, "Indeed, little one. Your thoughts are loud, and clear for all to hear."
"Did... Did you read my thoughts? Did your divinity grant you sight into my mind?"
She tilted her head to the side, and replied with, "If that is what you wish to believe, then let it be the truth."
(She didn't tell him that he had merely been talking out loud. That might ruin the whole 'Divine god' image that she was trying to construct for herself.
C'mon, Ruby, c'mon, she thought to herself, Be divine. Be that weird god thing that this guy wants you to be. It might just be the only way for you to get out of this place and back to Jaune and Melanie.)
His silver eyed god rolled her head to the side, and licked the blood from her lips.
"Tell me, Attis, God of Worship... Is this what you wish your life to be?"
If Attis could blink, he would've, "What... What do you mean?"
"The lack of respect from your peers, for one. They care not for anything about you, if what I have seen of them is true."
"..."
"Am I correct?"
"...I..." he looked down, "Forgive me, for I am unsure, myself."
"Ah," she smiled, "Steel yourself, my friend, for you have done nothing that demands forgiveness."
He looked back up to her, optics gleaming and shining against his silver, white, and blue carapace. Had he really... Had he truly done nothing wrong in the eyes of his goddess? Had he been absolved of his sins by that which he knows is divine, hands washed clean of the blood spilt upon them, directly or otherwise?
(A lie on Ruby's part, of course, but it worked. Appealing to his sense of belief in him, nurturing his loyalty to her, making it seem like he had been redeemed for what he had done.
Weiss hadn't done that stuff to her, but now that she thought back to it, the heiress had taught her a valuable lesson about her role as a leader:
She really did need to take a firmer hand in leadership. This was her doing just that.)
"But," a pause for dramatic effect, "Your fellows, on the other hand... Templar, for what he has done to me and the one that birthed mine mortal coil," her words changed from gentle, and mesmerising, to thinly veiled anger, "Theirs are hands that I shan't not forgive."
(She winced internally. Oh god, she knew that she had to ham this up as much as she could to sell the whole divinity god thing, but this reminded her of her poetry phase... Gods, she unironically cringed at the memory of it.)
Attis paused, "The Silver Court and the High Priest? You think of them as sinful?"
"They are nothing but sinful," her silver eyed goddess growled, "They haft spilt blood upon these grounds of tombs and lost angels, mine and others."
A pause on his part. One that he was ashamed of himself for, "But... Our High Priest, Templar... He said that their blood needed to be spilt, for the betterment of our cause-"
"Templar is but a narcissistic madman," his silver eyed goddess growled, "He is a coward glorying in his own self image, as are his lackies. Those that feed him his own ego, and those that follow in his footsteps for their own ambitions and bloodlust. There is nothing holy about him and his gang of Grimm."
"But-"
"If Templar truly was holy... If he truly saw me and that which I was born from as divine-"
She tilted her head to the side against her cross, shifting her hair to the side and revealing the empty socket where her imperfect eye had been.
"-Then she wouldn't have taken my eye."
Attis took a step back, and felt his four hands twitch at her words, "Templar... Surely he was clearing a blight from you, like-"
"Are you telling me that, or yourself?"
A good question. Attis said nothing of it, for they both knew the answer.
"If Templar truly cared... If he truly loved this mother of mine... If he truly loved me, as the god I am and more... Then he would never have brought me harm."
She sneered.
"Templar does not want a god, mine follower dearest... He merely wants a doll. A piece of meat to force his own desires upon. And if he truly did care about me... If he truly believed in the divinity of the Silver-Eyed Warriors... Then he wouldn't be seeking to shed the blood of those that we are meant to protect. He would be working to save people, like all Silver-Eyed Warriors, not seeking to exterminate and enslave them."
Another step back, "I... I cannot... He-"
"He 'Saved' you?"
"Yes."
"Did he do it because he truly cared about you, Attis? Or did he do it for the satisfaction of having someone indebted to him- Of having someone praise him, and wax his own ego?"
"I-"
"He saved one person. Congratulations. How many others has he murdered in cold blood, as if saving one person against dozens, if not hundreds, will ever make up for it?- Will not label him as nothing more than a hypocrite?"
"He... He saved me..."
"And in return, you became his obedient little slave."
"No..."
"How many of your brothers and sisters in the Choir has he killed?"
"...Many."
"And he has threatened you, and the rest of his own inner council with death... Do you not think that he will deliver unto them- Unto you- The same punishment?"
He said nothing, for nothing more needed to be said.
"And now... It is time for you to make a decision."
"About... About what, my goddess?"
"About where your loyalties lie."
Another step back, "What- What do you mean?"
"Tell me, Attis, mine most faithful follower, whom cared for me when no others did... Who deserves your loyalty?"
"Who... Deserves my... Loyalty?"
"Yes... Who deserves you? Your high priest? Or your goddess?"
"What? But... But I-"
"Do you serve a deluded narcissist, Attis?!" she was shouting now, "An abomination to all that is good in this world?!"
"I-"
"Or do you serve your goddess?!"
"I cannot-"
"He brought harm upon me, Attis! He brought pain upon that which he should worship!"
A low growl escaped from her lips.
"If I am God... The creator of all things... Then what does that make him, but the devil himself?"
"...Why show me this side?"
A pause from his silver eyed goddess.
"If you truly are divine... Then why didn't you show that divinity to the High Priest? Why didn't you show him your holiness?"
"Because he was unfit to see it-"
(Another lie. She just hadn't thought about this plan back then. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, after all.)
"-But you are."
"I... I am?"
"Templar is a sinner. A servant of evil draping himself in the robes of light."
"..."
"But you... You are truly a follower of the light. I know this from the core of my being, and the infinity of my wisdom, that you are a true believer in the light of silver! You understand the light, and you seek to follow it, and all that it values! You are merely a lost lamb, led astray by the wolf. But worry not, for your shepherd has come to lead you back on the path of righteousness."
"..."
"Choose, Attis."
"..."
"Choose."
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Attis' hands balled into fists.
The Grimm Techion walked up to her, and released the clamps on her bonds, freeing the silver eyed goddess from her cross, and letting her fall onto her feet with a stumble.
(The plan was successful.)
Attis assisted her in standing herself up right, and with a look of sincerity upon her, her single argent eye looked up at him as she said, "Thank you."
"Of course, my goddess," Attis replied, "Thank you for helping me see the light," before turning to an opened box of spare parts nearby, and pulling out one of the optics from inside the box, its wires dangling from the end, the tips of them like snapping claws as he turned the optic on, letting the optical lens glow a crimson hue as it activated.
His goddess blinked at the sight as the wires of the optic continued to snap and whip at the air around it, "What... What is that?"
"An optical device. A more advanced model produced by a scientist in Sky-Mantle. Hephaestus said that he stole a shipment of these devices from a human cargo vessel not too long ago. He says that the wires on the bottom of the optic act as substitute optical nerves. They connect to the severed optic nerve of the eye, as well as burrow into the nerves and bone to release the Black Ether into the bloodstream, and replicate the electrical signals that the eye would send to the brain, tricking the subconscious into thinking that it is a real eye."
"Ah, to starve off Mecha-Dissociative Rejection, I see."
"Indeed."
(Mecha-Dissociative Rejection, or MDR for short. Ruby remembered reading about it whilst Yang was being treated in the hospital after the Initiation Massacre. In essence, MDR meant the rejection of mechanical implants by the human body, leading to seizures and body spasms, and at the very worst, death. During the first days of the Techions, when the technology to make them was being rediscovered after the Great War, MDR was exceedingly present within the first prototype Techion cyborgs, and were created out of the brain's inability to process the lack of feeling or functions in their new metal body, like the ability to eat or drink, or the ability to blink, or even feel any kind of physical contact in the body.
In short, the lack of humanities within these new cyborgs led to their brains to believe that they were trapped inside of their new mechanical forms. Body dysphoria, essentially. The brains of the first Techions believed that they were, in a sense, both alive and dead at the same time due to the lack of humanities that they felt, leading to seizure, phantom pains, and eventually death from the brain eventually rejecting these mechanical implants. It was only with the invention of a medical solution known as Black Ether (The oil that flowed through Techions like blood) That allowed the next generations of Techions to simulate a sense of conscious being and mental acceptance of their new forms through chemical stimulations, starving off MDR and creating the first stable generation of Techions.
None of this had helped Ruby's nerves when Yang had been receiving her own mechanical implants, and it certainly wasn't helping now.
But still, no real time to think about it. She didn't want to be walking around without any depth-perception, and this was the best solution that she could think of.
No time like the present, then.)
There was a long pause, before Attis' goddess moved a hand through her hair and revealed her empty eye socket to him.
"Do it."
There was a shameful pause in hesitation on his part, but he eventually pulled through and approached, opening her eyelid wide, and allowing the snapping tendrils of the optic to worm their way into her empty eye socket, soft squelching noises accompanying it as the wires connected to her optic nerve and burrowed into her skull, blood vessels, and nervous system, the optic itself slowly slithering into her eye socket like a slug as the wires pulled it along, blood weeping down from her soon-to-be new eye as she hissed from the pain.
"Are you-"
"It will pass," she hissed once more, before sucking in a long breath, and saying, "Templar talked about going on a crusade, earlier. What does he mean by that?"
Attis replied as he continued his work, tilted her head back as the optic continued to burrow into her head, "Priest Templar has an army assembled within the Sleeping City. Once five thousand, now four thousand strong. He has a fleet of ships, including a cruiser- The Pilgrim's Flight. Now that Sky-Mantle is assuredly coming to the Sleeping City, this has allowed him to accelerate his plans."
"And what is he planning?"
"He is planning to march on the human city of Vale, and take it by force. Put it to the torch if he has to."
"What!?" the goddess flinched in place as she looked at him in shock, "He wants to invade Vale?! But that's impossible! Not with his numbers! Even if he has a cruiser, Vale's been so heavily militarised since the beginning of the war that'd he'd need a lot more than four thousand to break into the city! He'd be slaughtered!"
"He has a plan to counter that," at the goddess' request for him to elaborate, he continued, "There were humans that were helping the Choir before they died. Carmine and Bertilak, their names were, as well as several other mankin and beastkin that I do not know of."
Her eyes widened, "I've met Carmine and Bertilak before."
"They say that the both of them died."
"I didn't kill them."
"Ah, apologies for accidently insinuating that you did, my goddess."
She waved it off, "What were they doing? What were Carmine and Bertilak helping Templar with."
"They were helping him to smuggle his followers into the city. Right now, there are around a hundred Grimm belonging to the Choir of Silver within the walls of Vale, all armed and eager for battle. At Templar's word, they will begin a guerrilla war all over Vale and conduct terrorist attacks across the city, bombing hospitals, governmental buildings, everywhere of strategic importance. And once Vale's authorities are distracted with their efforts, Templar will march his forces in, and burn the city to the ground."
Her mouth dropped, "His crusade..."
"He believes that others will join his efforts along the way, so numbers are not a problem to him."
"He's mad."
"Now that you have said it, I know it to be the truth."
"What's the point of all of this?" his goddess asked, "I mean, why? Why is he doing all of this?"
"To establish a new world order. Templar plans to repeat what he shall do to Vale onto every single one of the kingdoms. First Vale, then Vacuo, then Mistral and its cities, and then finally Sky-Mantle and Ground-Mantle, growing in strength and power along the way. And if he can't have it-"
"He'll burn it."
"Indeed."
"We need to stop him," his goddess finished with, "Even if that psychopath losses this fight, he's going to kill hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people along the way. Vale's suffering from one of the biggest refugee crises in history. The streets will be packed with people. It's all just going to be one big target range for them."
She pushed Attis away, and took a step back, her head still tilted up as the optic continued to dig into her eye socket.
"Where's a communicator, or a scroll or something? We need to warn Beacon, and Vale. Maybe contact Atlas while we're at it. And since he just crushed mine, we'll need some other way of contacting the city," she paused, before asking him, "Does Templar have a list of all of the places which his Grimm are using to hide in the city? Like, bunkers and safehouses and stuff?"
"Yes, but they are on his person, not store away in a database online, and even then, communicating with the outside world will be impossible without Templar's personal communications. There's a jamming field all across the Sleeping City. The only transmissions that will get through to Vale are overseen by Templar. There's no way he'll let us get a word out to the city in time."
"Can we break through the jamming field?"
"That's outside my field. I have no idea how it works."
"Then we need to find Jaune and Melanie, and the others still in the Sleeping City, and then we need to grab that list. I know for a fact that they wouldn't have let a mere explosion and a death match kill them, and the others will be strong enough to hold out until we get to them as well."
Attis then paused, and looked the side.
"What's with that look?"
"My goddess," he slowly began, "There are... Elements, within the Choir of Silver that do not completely support Templar."
"...Go on."
"Some factions within the Choir are more loyal to the Silver-Eyed Warriors than to Templar, or even to their own ambitions. I know for a fact that the forces within Vale's walls are only being held together by the High Priest alone. If we tell them of what has been done to you, then it will split the Choir in half."
"They'll fall into civil war?"
"Templars army will fold in on itself, and we will have our own army at our call. The problem will be solved before it has even begun."
The optic finished implanting itself into the goddess' skull, and shone a bright, harrowing red.
The goddess (Ruby) Smiled.
"Get me in front of a camera."
Templar grazed his hand over the effigy before him, and placed the little Rose's weapon in her hand, extending it outwards, and letting the mimicry hold it in its hands. Not an exact replica, but it would do.
Nearby, Adonai crossed her hands over her chest as a Disciple quickly ran out of the room after having delivered its message to her, and cocked her head to the side, "The effigy pleases you?"
"Of course it does. As much of a facsimile as it is... It will do."
His hand glided over its own.
"It will do nicely."
Adonai looked away, and said, "Hephaestus should be rewarded for his efforts, then?"
"Once he is done with his task, and we have completed our crusade in Vale, he will be, as will all of you," Templar stood tall, and flexed his arms, "Assuming that he is successful in his tasks, of course. If not, then he shall receive nothing-"
He grabbed at the sword on his back.
"-And shall become nothing."
He looked to Adonai.
"The same goes for you, and the rest of the Choir of Silver, understood?"
"Of course," Adonai added after a moment's hesitation, before steeling herself and going, "About Hephaestus... Our forces are almost prepared to load up onto the Pilgrim's Flight, but I have been told that he isn't responding. Nor is the ship. They've both gone dark."
Templar paused, and then growled, "Hephaestus... What is he doing? I know that he had his 'Side project' in play, but..." he clenched his fists, and then pulled the sword from his back, "I will see to him, don't you worry. If he so much as tries anything against us, he shall answer to me."
"Ah, of that, I have no doubt, my Priest," Adonai nodded, before unfolding her arms and letting them dangle to her sides, "In any case, even if the Pilgrim's Flight is rendered out of commission for whatever reason, we still have enough manpower and resources to just march to Vale-"
"No," Templar began to reprimand her, "Even if our associates in Vale were able to cause as much destruction as they could, if we march on foot, we will be seen by Vale's guns and obliterated before we can even get in range of the city. For our crusade to be successful, we need the Pilgrim's Flight, and the rest of our fleet."
Adonai looked like she wanted to say something, but relented, as she nodded her head in agreement, and went, "As you say, my Priest. Shall we prepare the effigy for transportation, and-"
"I will be the one who touches the effigy, Adonai, not you, or anyone else," he reminded her, before going, "That said, you are right. Bring me the tools needed. I shall-"
{FTZZZZZ}
"-Place- What is that noise?"
The two of them looked up, to see the TV screens placed up on the walls, and scattered all over the Sleeping City, turning themselves on, and connecting to a live feed of-
"Hello there, mine children scattered. Your time, as they say, is come."
There was Ruby Rose, head, chest, and shoulders filling the screen, no longer bound to her cross, her singular silver eye blaring with raging defiance as a red glow emanated from underneath the hair covering the upper left of her face.
"What?! Who released the idol from her cross!?" Templar cried out as he pointed to the screen, fury building up within him at this heresy of defiance against his person.
"It- It must've been Attis!" Adonai added as she stepped back, "But Ares wouldn't have let him! He was supposed to have been watching them both!"
"Oh, those two incompetent fools!" he roared in answer, "When I get my hands on them, I am going to skin them alive for-"
"As you can see," Ruby continued on, oblivious to the reaction that she had garnered, "Your silver eyed goddess has arrived to deliver you from your mortal purgatory, onwards to salvation."
"-This... Hold on... Is she... Has she embraced her divinity?"
"But, perhaps, you think me a liar, no? You think me a false god, proclaiming herself to be true," she leaned her head towards the screen, and let her face envelop the screen, "Then look into my eye. My good eye. Look into my argent pools, and know my words to be the truth. Let the shining light of my sight be that which proclaims my words to be gospel."
"...Ah, so she has finally seen my light. Good."
Templar waved Adonai down.
"Let it play, Adonai. She is going to proclaim the righteousness of our mission, and who are we to stop her?"
"Um", Yang pointed up to the screen, "Is that... Is that Ruby?"
The first years stopped running down the long hallways before them, carrying Nora, Voltage, Professor Goodwitch, and Professor Watts between them, as they turned their gazes to the screens around them.
"Ruby... What are you doing?"
"Better question is, who is she referring to?" Razor Azure added in next to her, the military dressed boy rubbing his masked chin as he asked, "This new Grimm faction that Croft works for?"
"Most likely," Tusks put in, "Maybe she's being forced to make an address for them."
"She doesn't look that forced to me."
"And her eyes," Yamana threw in, "She's talking about her silver eyes again. Remember yesterday, in the auditorium?"
"Yeah, hard not to."
Weiss and Leadpipe looked away. Blake didn't.
"Seriously," Skipjack began, "What is so important about her eyes?"
"You know of the importance of these eyes, correct?" Ruby began once more on the screen as she leaned herself back, "You know of what they are?"
"Oh, looks like you're going to get your answer, Skippy."
"These eyes of mine, and of all Silver-Eyed Warriors like me... They are gifts. Links to the God of Light himself. With but a stare and a flash, these eyes will bring even the mightiest of Grimm to their knees, be it Salem or otherwise. With nought but a stare, these eyes will turn a Grimm to stone, and bring purity to where corruption once and still lingers."
That got them all to pause. Her eyes... What was she was saying true? Were people with silver eyes somehow linked to the God of Light himself, giving them powers of... What? Purity? What did that even mean?
And that 'Salem' reference again? So she is real? But what was she to begin with? A Grimm? Ruby indicated that that was the case, so she must be a member of the Ascendant Court, or some other Grimm faction, yes?
One thing was for certain, they were going to have a lot of questions for Ozpin once they got back to Beacon.
"This divine connection that I share to the Gods themselves... That all Silver-Eyed Warriors share... This is our own divinity. Our own claim to the heavenly and mortal realms. This is what sets us apart from the rest of humanity."
Her eyes flickered and shone, if only for a moment.
"This is what makes us gods."
"Okay, either she is acting, or she's suddenly developed a god complex."
"If it's the latter, then hot damn, that's some quick character development."
"What?"
"What?"
In front of the camera, Ruby internally blanched. She hated this. She hated proclaiming herself to be a god. She was wanted to be a normal girl with normal knees, for goodness sake!
But, Attis had brought her act solidly, and if he did, then so would so many more Grimm in the Choir of Silver, if his words were to be believed.
So, she had to put on this act of divinity. She had to pretend to be something that she really wasn't, nor did she ever want to be.
Still though, at least Attis' trick of the light had worked as from behind the camera set that they had been given access too via Attis' orders and her persuasion of the guards (Whom worshipped her, of course), As he fiddled with the mirror plane near him and gave her a thumbs up. She had explained to him that her 'Mortal vessel' was not yet suited to the powers of the silver eyes, so he had helped her in faking the illusion that her eyes were shining, which was good, as it helped to sell the act.
Outside of the room, she could hear chanting and bays of worship in the corridors. Good. They were listening to her.
Attis held up a scroll to her, with text that he had silently written on it: Now make them want to worship you directly. Even more than they already have done. Give them praise, or something along those lines.
Ruby felt disgusted by the notion, but stayed her hand. It was to sell the act, after all. She could choke back her horror at all of this for but a few minutes.
And so, with a smile on her face, she then went, "And, as all gods do, we wish for worship from our beloved followers. Fortunately, you have done just that, haven't you, my Choir of Silver?"
"Oh yeah, she's definitely acting," Yang went urgently as she began to march along once more, "There is no way she would ever want anyone to worship her."
"Indeed," Weiss said, "She doesn't seem like the type to want any sort of praise at all."
"Oh, and you should know?"
"Blake," Leadpipe began, "For once in your life, can you please not try and start a fight just for the sake of it? It's getting ridiculous at this point."
"Hey, it's just how I operate."
"No, it really isn't."
"You have been diligent in your worship, haven't you?" Ruby continued, "You have built up so much in the name of the Silver-Eyed Warriors. You have crafted so much, in so little time. An army of crusaders, forged in mine name, ready to forge upon this world a new kingdom. A new world, free from the corruption of old. Free of the madness that plagued us once more. Free from evil itself. The old orders of the world will lay discarded and broken beneath your feet, as you raise a new world order into the sky, and create a new heaven upon Remnant."
Everyone stopped, and everyone paused.
Is that... Is that what this was all about? Is that was this Grimm faction were after? Establishing a new world order?
Just like the Ascendant Court...
They needed to stop them. Now.
Outside, the cheers of the this 'Choir of Silver' grew more ravenous, joyous, and wanting. Ruby was vindicating them of any wrongdoings, and deluding them into believing that they were on the path of all that was good.
Maybe that was the point.
"I look upon thou, so bright and fervent, so ready for battle, your blades sharpened and your guns loaded, all of you guided by our eternal wisdom, our holy divinity, our ethereal light. I look upon thou, hardened and toughened by enemies sent against you, enemies that have tested you, enemies conquered and toppled, sharpening yourselves like whetstones upon the blade, shaving away the blunt edges and leaving you so much stronger from it."
She held her arms out wide, and smiled.
"I look upon my people, and am proud."
Templar looked to the screen in silent happiness. Their goddess- The one worthy of being his bride- Was finally acknowledging their triumphs- Their grand crusade! With this, Summer Rose's progeny had granted them a divinity of their own.
They were on the side of the angels.
As he always knew them to be.
"I have just one question, though, for those whom adhere to the banner of the Choir of Silver... All those who worship mine eyes, and the holy light that weeps for them, when all that is righteous is lost..."
Hm, what was she referring to now?
Perhaps a question of wherever they felt worthy of following him into the fires of war that their great crusade would thrust them upon. Perhaps a question of wherever they felt themselves worthy of swimming within the argent light that she would cast forth.
No matter. Anything she said would surely vindicate their goals, and set them once more on the path of-
"Who deserves your loyalty?"
…What?
"Your... 'High Priest', Templar?"
What?!
"Or me?"
WHAT?!
"What is this?!" Templar screamed out to the screen as Ruby's face turned to a violent snarl, teeth blaring as she blared out her next words like a tidal wave crashing against the shore.
"Tell me, do mine followers, once Grimm now pure, followed a bloated narcissist!? A madman with delusions of grandeur, driven insane by his own lusts!?"
"Cut the feed!"
"Or do you follow your goddess?! Do you follow that which will save you?! Enlighten you?! Redeem you?!"
"I said cut the feed!"
"I can't- I can't do it from here! I can't contact the filming studio!" Adonai called out to him as she looked away from her communicator.
"Because if you do not, then you are to be cast off- Shucked from our holy writ of union like meat from the bone, and damned to the nine circles of hell, just like your abominable priest, to be condemned with the lustful and the prideful and the vainglorious!"
Templar typed in a code into his scroll, and yelled into it, "Hephaestus, I know you are listening to this, you insolent little rat, no matter how many times you do not answer! You will cut the feed to the screens across the Sleeping City, or so help me god, I will have your head on a pike, AND SKIN YOU ALIVE!"
"DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU PETULANT RAT! CUT THE FEED OR-"
The Tinkerer did just that.
Well, one of the feeds at least, as he hung up on Templar, and let the girl continue her speech to the entirety of the Sleeping City.
He chuckled, "We seem to have lost the connection."
He looked back from his seat to the rest of his crew, and motioned for them to get to their stations.
It was time for them to take their leave.
"And if you do proclaim that you would willingly follow the likes of Templar, then tell me: Would you follow the likes of a man that would sup upon a mortal woman so many years younger than him, bringing sacrilege upon mine mortal flesh for his own lustful, sinful urges!?"
"Okay, this Templar guy seriously needs to die," Jolie Kobal quipped as the first years continued to run down the hallways around them, still carrying their wounded as the sounds of cheering, roaring, arguing, and fighting continued to grow, grow, and grow even further outside, distant sounds of clashing swords, scraping claws, and blasting cannons echoing all around them as the Sleeping City began to erupt into violence once again, after so very long.
"From the sounds of it, these guys will be doing it themselves, ribbit," a frog Faunus by the name of Tessa Ansel said as she leapt from wall to wall like the species that she took her traits from, a girl by the name of Uma Ousel following close behind her as she used her antigravity semblance to glide herself through the air, whilst the rest of the first years followed with them on foot.
Around them, against the growing sounds of battle outside, Ruby's voice continued to scream through the speakers and screens around them, as she then yelled out, "And tell me, truly tell me-"
She reached for something offscreen, and took the hair on the left side of her face into her hand. No one wanted to think about why there was a red glow behind the black and red strands.
"-Is a so called 'High priest' truly worthy of divinity- Truly deserving of worship and the role of leadership- When he would desecrate a goddess such as I-"
She pulled her hair back, and brought her opened hand back into the screen.
In her hand, was a mangled, bloody eyeball.
On the left side of her face, atop a weeping trail of fresh splattered blood, a glowing red optic nested itself within her eye socket.
"-By cutting out her eye?"
Yang's hair lit up, and her eyes turned red. She roared in a flurry of rage, and darted past the rest of the first years, the crowd following closely behind in equal, unspoken fury.
Templar was going to die today.
This was not a declaration, or a promise.
It was a statement of fact.
"So tell me, will you join a lecherous leader whom kills his own at the sight of failure!? A hypocrite that destroys everything that he supposedly finds sacred, just to satisfy himself?! Or will you follow your goddess, your divine saviour, and be granted passage into the heavens that you deserve?!"
Outside, the sounds of battle suddenly grew even more fierce then before. Animalistic roars of anger and rage filled the air as screams and dying cries leapt up and echoed through the hallways, the sounds of fire growing more ferocious as they continued to sprint down the dilapidated and rotting corridors. Sounds of explosions and battle roared beyond the walls as the Sleeping City began to consume itself.
However, whatever was happening right outside the maze of corridors that the first years found themselves in, it was growing even more violent and ground-shaking than ever before. The world was clattering and shaking around them, spilling dust onto the floor and the first years below, covering them in a fine layer of soot as the battles outside grew louder and louder and louder, until...
Until it all fell silent.
"Let this be my call to you: Cast off your darkened morals and corrupt leaders! Shuck off the evils of the world around them, and answer my call! The time has come to claim what is yours! The time has come to throw away the malicious madness of those whom lie and cheat you of the heaven that you deserve! Throw away the lies of Templar, and join me! Join me in overthrowing the tyrants whom rule you! Let us be joined together in our choir once more, and sing our song for all of the world to hear! Let that me my call, and let the bark of your cannons and the swing of the sword be your answer!"
And with that, she was gone, her message finally over.
Wow, all of the first years thought to themselves, Where the hell has this Ruby Rose been all this time?
The first years rounded a corner, and saw the door to the exit, back out into the open air of the Sleeping City. Shoving themselves through the rusted and breaking doors, and then through the blinding light and rising smoke of the outside world, they charged through-
"Yo."
-And saw before then Jaune and Melanie, sitting atop a strangely healthy looking dragon, as over a hundred more of all types hovered in the air and sat around them.
"J-Jaune? Melanie?!" DJ called out as he and the rest of High Command met with their once missing now found leaders, hands waving around as he cheered, "Aha! I knew you were still alive! I just knew it!"
"How did you- How did you escape the coliseum?" Razor asked as he reached out to touch the dragon beneath them on its beak, but a quick snort from the beast convinced him not to, "That explosion must've consumed the entire arena-"
"It did," Melanie shot in with, before patting the dragon below her on its head with a smile, "Luckily, we had some help from our new friend here."
The dragon let out a happy chirp, and raised its head to the sky momentarily, showing the world its sudden lack of scars and deformities.
"What- This thing?!" Skipjack called out in surprise, "You mean that this is the same dragon that was trying to kill you earlier?"
"But it was emaciated! It was so wounded, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was declared to be a walking corpse," Yamana called out as she looked over the dragon that the two had taken as their steed, "How did it heal so quickly? Does it have an aura of its own?"
Jaune just laughed, and waved his hands with a smile, "Magic hands."
"What?"
"We'll explain later," Melanie commented as Eri flew off of Jaune's back, and twirled in the air, "Eri's got a lock on Ruby's location. She was using the same method that we used to find you guys: Tracking scrolls," she waved hers for show, "Her scroll was transmitting from the middle of the Sleeping City, in an old cathedral straight in its centre, but the signal's gone dark. Whoever this Templar guy is, he must've smashed it, or just turned it off. And since we know she's not dead, as the giant screens across the city have shown, then we know that she's probably still in the middle of that maze."
"We know. The aura suppressors that the Choir had used to imprison us were faulty, so I could still use my semblance," DJ pointed out to them, before going, "You saw the transmission? You saw what Ruby said?"
"And what she looked like?" Jaune asked as his eyes narrowed, and Melanie's face turned into an angry snarl, "Oh yeah... We saw it, alright."
"Templar's dead," Melanie declared to them, "And I'm not going to let anyone- Much less that psycho crocadile Techion- Get in the way of me killing him."
"Er, that's all well and good," Razor began to point out, "But how the hell are we supposed to get to her? In case everyone's forgotten, the Sleeping City is currently in the middle of killing itself, thanks to Ruby, everything from here to that old cathedral has turned into a warzone, and even if it wasn't, we're miles away from where she is, right in the middle of enemy territory. It'll take us hours to get there-"
"Nope."
Razor looked at Jaune, "Er, as I was saying, it'll-"
"Nope."
"What do you mean, 'Nope'?"
"I mean 'Nope', because it's not going to take us hours to get there. Only a few minutes."
"Okay, and how is that going to work?"
Jaune patted the dragon beneath him, "Because these guys and gals are going to help us get there."
"...No."
"Yes."
"You can't be serious."
"Oh, but I am."
"Hold on, you want us to ride a dragon?" Skipjack asked incredulously, "Like, actually ride a dragon? You want us... To ride... A dragon... Into battle?"
"Yep."
"...This is the greatest day of my life."
Overhead, a three-headed dragon roared, and shot a plume of fire out of each head as the dragons around the first years bowed to them, resting their heads on the ground as they waited for their riders to claim their steeds.
Everyone looked up, and their mouths dropped at the sight of the dragon above them, "Is that.. Is that a Thunderstorm-"
"Save it for later and get on the dragon."
"Once again," Skipjack reiterated as he scuttled to the side to take a Wyvern dragon as his ride, "This is the greatest day of my life!"
Turning to the side, Jaune then pointed his sword to Ren and Shadestep, and went, "Is everyone okay with you guys?"
"Miss Goodwitch and Mr Watts are unconscious, and Nora and Voltage injured themselves helping us escape. They're all unconscious, but they're stable," Shadestep answered as Ren winced and looked away.
"Right then," he responded, before going, "Ren, Shadestep, you, Lavender, and the Vultures, stay here and protect the injured. We'll take care of the Choir."
"Jaune-"
"Ren. Stay here, and guard the others. Got it?"
He relented for a moment, before giving a nod, and then slinking to the side. Lavender and the Vultures followed afterwards.
"Everyone else, take a dragon, and get ready to move!"
Nearby, Neon locked eyes with Melanie, "Um, Melanie-"
"Get on one of the dragons, Neon."
"But-"
"Neon, for once in your life just do what you're told."
Neon flinched at this, and let her hands ball into fists. Some flash of memory came before her eyes, but she then relaxed herself, gave a shy nod, and then took one of the land based Dragons, a Drake, as her steed. Yang, meanwhile, didn't hesitate at all as she claimed a Wyvern dragon as her own.
With a nod from Jaune and Melanie, the dragons took flight, and charged over and across the battered and broken remains of the Sleeping City, now once more engulfed in fire and smoke and blood.
"Hold on, Ruby."
Melanie's eyes narrowed.
"Your sister's coming to get you."
With her revolting play over, Ruby opened the bag that Attis had brought with him, attaching her Silver Bloom blade-gun bracelets to her wrists, and twirling her swords, Wither and Blossom, in her hands. Templar had thought that she was such an insignificant threat that he had left a bag full of her weapons next to her.
A massive mistake.
She was considered a projeny back in Signal Academy, before it was destroyed, for a reason.
She looked at Attis as he stepped away from the camera set and pulled his weapon- What he called the Flame Belcher- Off of his back as he asked, "What now?"
"Now?"
Ruby cracked her neck, and readied herself for the battle to come.
"Now, we grab the list of Grimm in Vale, defeat Templar, and save Vale."
Templar wanted her to be his angel? His goddess?
She'd rather be his devil.
Reviewer response time:
Guest: Yep, Jaune's unlocked his semblance! And looks like you got your wish for Ruby!
avatarlopes: Daughter: THERE ARE NO WORDS ON THIS PLANET THAT CAN EXPLAIN HOW POSITIVELY DRENCHED MY VAGINA IS! In all seriousness, thank you for the long review again. This chapter wasn't my best, and I'm starting to get weathered by this arc, but I'm still going to do my best to live up to your expectations.
rarrarshark: Wow! I'm glad that you think of my story that way! Thanks!
This chapter wasn't my best, I know, but we're getting to the finale, now.
Who's going to live?
Who's going to die?
Find out soon!
And for now, as always, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
Titanmaster117 out!