The building shook again, the vibrations causing fine cracks to begin to appear across the glass.
Ruby shot Velvet an anxious look. Was Yang's group the cause of the tremors? If so, what had gone so wrong to trigger such a response? Or was there a completely new, third party involved?
"Madam, we must get you out of here!" One of the guards yelled, running up to Ace. The woman looked at him with little concern.
"The guards downstairs will settle this before it ever reaches us." Ace confidently explained. Here guards were the best soldiers dirty money could buy, mainly Huntresses and Huntsmen that had swayed from their righteous path, or simply needed a little more Lien in their pockets.
"It's protocol." The man who had been posing as Ace gruffly explained.
"I know." Ace answered, looking at the man in irritation. "I made the protocols."
"They are trying to get through the front door, Madam." The guard who seemed in charge of receiving updates explained.
"All this ruckus just to get through the front door?" Ace raised an intrigued eyebrow at the guard. "They must be really pissed not to have gotten an invite to my party."
"Madam, we had to go- now!" The man insisted, struggling to keep his calm with his boss.
"Fine, I'm coming, I'm coming." Ace agreed, taking a couple of well poised steps towards him. However she stopped, as if suddenly remembering something.
"Bring the silver eyes with us." Ace ordered, looking back at Ruby. "And dispose of the Faunus. If this is an attack we definitely don't want anyone knowing my true identity."
With her demands clear, Ace continued to walk away, her soldiers stepping in behind her with their guns pointed at Velvet.
"I'm sorry." Velvet said to the guards. "But we aren't done talking business with your boss just yet."
"Shoot her." Ace commanded. "But don't damage the goods."
The soldiers needed little more explanation as to what to do. The command had barely left their boss's crimson painted lips that they pulled the trigger, filling the air with the thunderous cascade of bullet fire. The sound finally ended with a shower of broken glass as one of the displays closest to the group shattered in response to a single rogue bullet, spilling onto the ground the shards of glass that had once protected the valuable items within.
With an irritated 'tsk' Ace turned to look at the damage her men had caused but other then the shattered glass, neither the Faunus nor the silver eyed girl were anywhere to be seen.
"Where are they!?" Ace growled.
"Up here!" Ruby yelled, causing the woman's eyes to rise. From what appeared to be a ball of crimson rose petals, Velvet and Ruby emerged, each Huntress armed with a shimmering weapon that seemed to be made of solidified light. Ruby raised the broadsword over her head. Thankfully, the replica carried none of the weight of Yarsuhashi's actual Fulcrum but a good deal of its damage. The curved tip gleamed as Ruby swung the unfamiliar weapon at Ace. The woman looked at her, wide eyed, not having anticipated that the women she had been dealing with may also not have been who they seemed.
However, Ruby's swing was intercepted by the fake Ace, who pulled the woman behind him and raised his arms. Ruby jumped back as her weapon made a strange tinkling sound as it came in contact with the man's lower arms. They seemed to have coated themselves in a strange, shimmering dark grey light. Ruby watched as the material slowly dissolved back into his skin.
"It must be his Semblance." Observed Velvet, landing with a little hop behind Ruby, twirling a luminescent version of Sun's nunchaku- Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang.
"Get out of here!" The man commanded, looking back at Ace who was staring at the two Huntresses. She may have come a little too close to decapitation for her liking.
Ace nodded her head, turning her back on the group and ran towards the throne. She had studied the design of the building down to its foundations and she'd memorised all the possible routes of escape. She just needed her guards to keep the attackers occupied long enough for her to reach one.
"Ruby, get her!" Velvet yelled, twirling the nunchaku before her body. "I can handle this lot."
The Huntress nodded her head in agreement, watching as Ace ran through the maze of displays before them.
"Don't get cocky!" The Fake-Ace yelled, charging at Ruby as rose petals began to flutter around her. His arms began to gleam as they became coated with the strange material once again, reinforcing his skin in preparation for the fight to ensue.
He punched at Ruby with his fist but, rather than hitting the softness of flash he had been anticipating, he made an impact with something very hard and very solid.
"I'll be your opponent." Growled Velvet, pushing the man back with the staff Ruyi Band and Jingu Bang formed together. From the corner of her eye, Velvet could just make out the dark flurry of rose petals that was Ruby Rose chasing after Ace.
The woman stumbled to a halt before one of the displays which seemed to hold a pair of beautifully decorated fans, her movements hindered by a tornado of petals that had surrounded her. Out of the flurry, barring her path, the young silver-eyed Huntress appeared.
"Give it up, Ace. It's over." Ruby yelled, slashing the air with the broadsword, much as she would have done with her scythe.
"You haven't caught me just yet." Cheekily countered Ace, giving Ruby an evil grin. She clenched her fist, as the light golden glow of her Aura began to coat her bare flesh. Ruby raised the fluorescent sword across her body, anticipating an attack. However, rather than aiming a blow at Ruby, Ace punched her closed fist through the closest display. Glass rained on to the ground, their sharpened edges cutting at where Ace had failed to properly reinforce with her Aura. However, the woman seemed immune to her injuries as she extracted the fans from the display. With a little flourish, she flicked her wrists, opening the fans as she did so and causing more glass to fall to the ground with the motion.
"You are going to fight with a pair of hand fans?" Ruby tilted her head at the woman, confused with Ace's choice of weapon. Ruby had not seen the metallic gleam they were giving off in the dim light, even through her goggles.
Ace gave a knowing smile, and leaped towards Ruby, a feat the Huntress didn't think was possible in such a tight fitting dress.
"Whoa!" Ruby gasped, barely raising her sword fast enough to block the attack. The light-manifested sword made a strange, almost mystical twinkling sound as it came into contact with the fans, very different from the usual sounds of battle Ruby was accustomed to.
"These are tessens." Ace explained, as she used both fans to push against Ruby's sword. The latter struggled to keep her back, cursing to herself that she had been forced into this battle with such an unfamiliar weapon. "They were particularly popular before the Great War because, on the outside they appeared mundane and weak."
While she spoke, Ace took a step forward. The sudden change of pressure against the projection caused Ruby to lose her balance, the momentum pulling her body forward as her arms were tossed upward. The glint of the tessen's sharpened edge filled her sight and Ruby, struggling to use the energy built in her arms, stumbled backwards. As if in slow motion, she watched one of Ace's tessens narrowly miss slicing against her nose, instead cutting through a lock of hair with terrifying ease. Still grappling against her weapon, Ruby kicked herself off the ground, extending one booted leg forward as the tip made contact with Ace's wrist. The strength of the attack sent the tessen flying into the air, only to scuttle across the ground in a bed of broken glass. Pain flared in her shoulders as Ruby landed on the other side of the projection, the sword separating her from the dealer.
Ace let out a very unladylike growl as she waved her injured wrist in the air. Taking this as a moment of distraction, Ruby lifted the light projection with both hands. With almost blurring movement, she attempted to slice down the woman. However, equally as fast, Ace raised her remaining Tessen and caught the blade's edge between the fan's leaves. In a motion that Ruby hadn't even thought was possible, Ace snapped the tessen shut, clamping the sword tightly between its ribs. With a strength Ruby would never have imagined from the petite woman, she twisted the tessen in her hand and against the weapon in her hold. It was with wide, disbelieving eyes that Ruby watched the blade in her hand shatter into fine, luminescent dust.
Ace gave Ruby a triumphant grin as the Huntress looked down at her suddenly bare hands.
"Shall we call this game over?" Ace mocked. Ruby narrowed her eyes in irritation at the woman.
"Not yet." Countered Ruby, activating her Semblance and washing over the ground in a mass of petals. She solidified on Ace's other side, the tessen she'd previously relieved from the woman in her hand.
"Oh?" Ace tilted her head in interest at the Huntress as she held the unfamiliar weapon in her hand, poorly echoing Ace's own posture. "Think you can keep up?"
With a light tapping of her heel against the ground, Ace ran towards her. Ruby raised the tessen to block, struggling to unfurl the antique weapon. This was followed by a swift sequence of slashes and jabs from Ace, Ruby just narrowly dodging or blocking each strike.
"How can you even fight with these?" Ruby gasped as she was pushed backwards, feeling her Aura weakening with each strike she sustained.
However, Ace didn't daine her with an answer, she'd had enough fun with the Huntress for the time being.
Ace took a step towards Ruby but faltered as the room suddenly shook again, closely accompanied by a deafening explosion. Ruby raised her hand to her face instinctively, even though her goggles blocked out the splinters and glass shards that washed over her. Her Aura protected her from the majority of the damage.
"Ruby!" A voice the Huntress had not expected called her name. Hesitantly, Ruby lowered her tessen, squinting through the dim light and the unsettled air. A gaping hole had filled where the door had once stood. A number of the guards that had been outside were sprawled across the ground, too badly beaten to rise as they disappeared under the shadow of the Arma Giga that stood over them, its sword still posed at the end of the strike that had destroyed the door.
"Weiss!" Ruby cheered, recognising the Huntress as she elegantly walked into the room, her skirts gently swaying as she moved, closely accompanied by Oscar who had Everlasting Memory fully extended in his arms.
Weiss's azure eyes carefully scanned the room for the source of the voice, all combatants having momentarily paused from their fights to analyse the new arrivals. Judging if friend or foe had just joined them. The Huntress's eyes widened when she recognised Ruby's form at the back of the room.
"They're in here!" Weiss called over her shoulder. A small, dark figure swooped over the Glyph's head, closely followed by Weiss and Oscar. From where Ruby stood, she couldn't make out exactly what the black object was as it flew past the guards. Some tried to knock it out of the air but they were efficiently stopped by Velvet, their battle continuing.
"A bird?" Ace said the word as a smile spread across Ruby's lips upon finally fully recognising not only what, but who was flying towards them.
"A crow, actually." Ruby corrected, jumping back to create some distance between her and Ace. Momentarily confused, Ace looked away from the bird and towards Ruby, attempting to understand the Huntress's next move. However, when her eyes returned to the crow, the bird had vanished, to be replaced by a rather ragged and very angry looking middle aged man.
"Get away from my niece!" Qrow yelled, his sword a blare as it cut through the air with ease.
Ace's whole arm shook as she raised it in an attempt to block the attack but the tessen's old metal would not be able to hold back Harbinger for long.
"Ruby!" The Huntress almost cut Oscar in half with the weapon she held in her surprise. Never had she been so happy that he was shorter than her. "I think you'll need this?"
From his back, he retrieved Crescent Rose V2.0. Ruby would have hugged the younger teen there and then but, this was not the right time.
She accepted the offering thankfully and pushed the button, allowing the scythe to extend to its full length. Ruby smiled to herself, enjoying the feel of her weapon in her hand. It may still have felt different from her original Crescent Rose, however it was far more familiar then what Velvet had created for her. Ruby knelt on one knee and carefully peered through the eyepiece. Things had suddenly become far easier. With a simple touch of the trigger, Crescent Rose released a single bullet which sent Ace's remaining tessen flying through the air.
Without hesitation, Qrow swung Harbinger, knocking the woman off her feet. Ace landed on her behind with an indignant 'umph'. One of her heels had broken with the fall and her previously neatly kept hair was in disarray as she looked up at her adversary. The tip of Qrow's blade greeted her, warning her not to make another move.
"And I think we can call this transaction terminated, won't you agree?" Ruby said, rising to her feet, Crescent Rose still pointed at Ace.
It was only when Ace was finally tied and secured did Ruby finally lower Crescent Rose and strap it to her back, promising herself never to let it out of her sight again.
"I didn't think you'd receive my message." Ruby admitted, giving her uncle a tired smile as he carefully watched Weiss and the rest secure what remained of Ace's guards on this floor. Messenger hawk had definitely not been her first choice of communication.
"Birds are a lot smarter than we give them credit for." Qrow gruffly explained, also retracting Harbinger and strapping it to his back. "And far more stubborn."
His eyes warmed and some of the lines that seemed to have permanently made residence across his brow vanished as he looked at his niece. Although she looked tired and in desperate need of a shower she, thankfully, seemed unscathed. Since he'd begun this journey with her he'd had too many close calls, one of these days, the little luck he had would run out and he feared it would be his nieces that would suffer the fallout. However, if such a fear ever crossed Ruby's mind, she dismissed it without question. She took a few steps towards her uncle and hugged him, enjoying the familiarity and safety his presence always brought with him. Qrow reciprocated the embrace, savouring that, for the time being, she was safe.
"Unfortunately, a lot of the people on the lower floors escaped when we broke in." Weiss was explaining to Velvet when Qrow and Ruby finally joined them, dragging the tied up Ace behind them, who was struggling with a broken heel.
"We never expected to be able catch them all." Solemnly informed her Velvet, as she carefully snapped a number of images of the guards around her. She paused when her focus fell on Ace. "Having caught the head of this operation, we have at least disrupted their trade, for the time being."
"I never anticipated that the illegal slave trade was still so prominent here in Vacuo." Oscar shook his head, leaning on his cane for support. Ruby looked at the teen in curiosity, was this Oscar or Ozpin talking? As of late, shifting between the two had become almost incomprehensible, a simple coruscating of the eyes and it was done. This observation did not bode well with the Huntress.
"Do I know you?" Velvet carefully enquired, her dark brown eyes carefully scanning the boy.
"That is a difficult question to answer." He admitted, his grip tightening on Everlasting Memory. "I am Oscar Pine, though."
His attention then fell on Ruby, the softening of his expression as he did so was all the Huntress needed to confirm that this was Oscar speaking, not Ozpin. They may share the same face, but it held a different emotion when it was Oscar looking at her rather than Ozpin. She saw something so subtle she wasn't sure how to describe it.
"Good to see you're safe." He simpered as he said this and Ruby smiled thankfully back, covering the distance between them and pulling him into a hug. Oscar reciprocated with little hesitance, relieved that she, along with the rest, were in relatively good condition. During their brief embrace however, Ruby couldn't help notice that the two were now the same height. He'd grown since Atlas, and even more so since they'd first met in Mistral. Soon he'd tower over her.
"Thanks to you guys." She answered, when, finally, she stepped away. "That was quite the impressive entrance, Weiss."
"You should check out the main door." The former heiress joked, as she elegantly walked towards her teammate, the two hugging and making it impossible to read which one had initiated the action.
"We should go find the others." Weiss explained, eventually parting and putting her hands on her hips. "To tell them you're all ok." Weiss then sighed, looking around at the twenty or so people they had tied up around them. "Although getting these people all downstairs will be impossible ."
"Now that's something you can leave to me." Laughed Ruby, a playful spark in her eyes as she called for a little help from her Semblance.
Qrow staggered when Ruby finally released him, his face an unhealthy shade of green, as were those of the captives. In hindsight, Ruby could have warned them they were going to be traveling at a subatomic level.
"It gets easier the more you do it." Weiss explained, adjusting her pancho as she did so, although her first step was a little less steady than she would have liked.
"Yang! Blake! Jaune!" Ruby excitedly called, making out the familiar shapes standing just past the destroyed door. She waved her hands excitedly but something outside seemed to have caught their full and undivided attention.
"I'm going to look for Pluto." Velvet prompted, as the small group made to run towards their friends. Guards and visitors lay unconscious or tied up throughout the entrance hall and the fact that Yang was on this floor, fully equipped with her prosthetic arm, indicated that Neptune and Sun were most likely alright. However, although he would have scolded her for worrying, Pluto had been completely alone when the skirmish had begun and she'd like to confirm his status.
"We understand." Ruby nodded her head emphatically. "Do you need help?"
But Velvet shook her head, her long brown hair swaying behind her as she did so.
"I'll be fine." But then she shot the small group outside a worried look. "Go see if the rest of your team are okay? I got a feeling that has nothing to do with us..."
Okay was a relative term. Like Ruby, the rest of her teammates seemed intact other than a few signs that they'd recently been in a tussle- unkempt hair, dirtied clothing, the likes. Thankfully, the most serious injuries she could see were a few poorly positioned bruises.
"What's going on?" Ruby called but was instantly silenced by the dire look they gave her.
"It's Nora and Ren." Jaune plainly answered, as if that alone would explain the situation. He wished he could be more visibly happy at discovering Ruby was safe however, he suspected that, even now that all their team members had been miraculously found, it would still be some time until peace would return to their small group. He silently wondered to himself if it ever would.
"Are they hurt?" Ruby instantly yelled, trying to see past the taller Huntsman but she faltered when she simply saw the pair standing outside, intact although a chilled and unexpected breeze was whipping at their clothes and hair.
Weiss cursed under her breath. "He's already told her?"
"She asked how we found this place…" Blake sadly answered, her ears drooping as she did so. "W-we told her about Ren and she charged out there…"
"Ren followed her outside to explain…" Jaune added.
"What happened to Ren?" Ruby desperately looked between her teammates, straining to look at two in the moonlight. Both seemed unhurt! What could the others be talking about?
"We never expected her to react like this ..." Blake's voice trailed.
"It's been a rough few days." Yang soberly explained. They may have hid it well but the ordeal had strained them, maybe not physically but emotionally.
"Ren… your Semblance has changed?" Nora's voice was barely a whisper, unable to bring her eyes to look at the man. The wind carried her words to Ren, making it impossible for him to mishear.
"Yes, or it's evolved… I don't know how to explain it." Ren shook his head, he had been dreading this moment for months. He had feared the distrust his friends would have in him upon learning of this evolution. He'd tried countless times to stop himself reading their emotions without their permission. He'd had no right to them, to the emotions that filled the empty spaces between them as they were deep in thought or absentmindedly gazed upon the face of someone they cared for. He had had no right to be privy to such secrets and, although he had desperately tried to hold it back, one time or another, he had failed each one of them. All except Nora.
Each time he'd sense his Semblance try to activate, he'd force himself to look away before the first petal could even appear. Although he'd tried to be discrete, Nora had noticed it, the way his gaze would shift away from her face when they spoke. She'd come to assume it was because of her scars that he couldn't look at her. By the time Ren had gained enough control over his Semblance to prevent its unwanted activation, it had been too late. Nora had begun to wear a hood and hide her face. The misinterpretation of his actions had done far more damage to the Huntress than the electricity ever could. "I swear Nora, I've never used it on you…"
'"And this happened back in Atlas?" Nora's voice remained low as she continued to ask the Huntsman her questions.
"Yes… when we were first captured by the Ace Ops." Ren hesitantly answered, uncertain why such details mattered. When he'd told Jaune and the others about the change in his Semblance, they had accepted it with little issue. But now, with Nora, it felt as if he were waiting for the first thunderclap of a storm, and the devastation it would signal.
"That was months ago!" And there it was, the thunder as finally her voice rose, like a rope whose final thread had been ripped apart. "You've been keeping this secret for months?!"
Ren flinched at the anger in her voice and she had every right to be angry. Her bright blue eyes flashed as the power of the Maiden began to escape her control, the wind around the pair picking up in response. The nearby truck in which Ruby and the rest had initially come there with, rocked slightly against the force.
"Nora…" Began Oscar, trying to take a step towards her but a strong hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Don't." Jaune said, his eyes never leaving his teammates. "They need to finally talk this out."
"We can only be there to help with the pieces that remain." Blake sadly added, her ears drooping, Yang putting an understanding hand on her shoulder. They had all hoped that Ren and Nora would have been able to figure this out and things would have taken a turn for the better between the two. However, the flurry of snow that whipped at their faces told them differently.
"I was worried that, if you found out about it you wouldn't trust me anymore." Ren feebly gestured to the increasing winds. "That you'd react like this."
"How could you ever think that? We all know we have no control over what our Semblance is! And this... " She punctuated the word, gesturing at the winds with waving arms. "Has nothing to do with your Semblance changing!" She yelled, her voice rising to be heard over the winds she herself was creating. The minute grasp of control she had over her power vanished as tendrils of ice spread around her, coating the arid land in a fine dusting. "This is about you not trusting us- me- enough to tell me about it!"
"What?" Ren took a physical step back, he had expected such a reaction but not because of that... He looked at her through the building winds and it was with numbing realisation that he finally understood that this manifestation of power was not a result of her anger, but off feelings of pain and betrayal.
"We have been together every step of the way!" She yelled, snow beginning to mix into the frigid winds. "From Kyorouki Village, to Beacon, Mistral, Atlas- we made it this far because we've always had each other. We had each other's back and we trusted each other." Nora shook her head, her ginger hair flying wildly around her face, making it difficult to look at him. "You could have told me about this and we could have figured this out together, like we always do! But instead you decided to keep this to yourself because you thought I wouldn't understand?" Nora looked at him in bewilderment. "I'm literally the personification of Winter right now! My emotions conjured up this little tornado and I can barely keep it together enough to stop it from blowing us all away. But I try, because I have friends I trust supporting me." Nora suddenly paused and, just as unexpectedly, the winds vanished leaving behind them a suffocating silence. "I thought you were one of those people."
"I am!" Ren begged, trying to cover the distance between them but she turned her back on him, his hand falling through the air as he tried to reach out to her.
"But apparently I am not to you." Nora tried to blink away the tears as they froze on the ridges of her eyes, struggling to walk towards the house where the rest were silently watching. "We were supposed to be a team but that didn't matter to you! When things went wrong you pushed us away. You shut people out, not because you think we wouldn't understand, but so you don't have to feel things that are hard!"
For a moment, Ren watched as she walked away from him, never had her back seemed so small. Everything in his body told him to leave. Nora had said her piece, the truth he had so desperately tried to hide from himself.
What had been the cost of keeping himself safe?
Of shutting them out?
The only thing he'd ever held dear in this world.
No.
"Nora, wait!" Ren yelled, trying to run after the Huntress. However he skidded to a halt as, unbeknownst to Nora, in response to his call, a jagged wall of ice erupted before Ren, stopping his advance and separating the pair.
"I always thought that before we could become partners again, I first had to figure out who I was alone." She continued, unable to look at Ren, or her creation, as tears continued to stream down her cheeks, their warmth too much for her powers to freeze. The pain in her heart almost crippling her movements but she forced herself forward. "But maybe we were never meant to be partners to begin with."
The Winter Maiden walked past her friends, not knowing what else to do, what else to possibly say.
It had proven too much.
Ren watched Nora vanish into Ace's house, too stunned to utter a single word more.
"Krwah!" Bellamy said, raising the level of his voice enough to better pronounce the sound and causing the child to giggle.
"That's not the sound a sloth makes." Eleanora giggled, pushing the book away from herself to better look at her father's face. Her short orange hair was pulled back into a small braid, held in place by a light blue bow.
"Well, have you ever heard a sloth before?" Bellamy questioned the six year old, his tone serious, he rarely used any form of baby talk when dealing with his daughter.
"No." Elanora answered sheepishly, tugging at the edge of her light pink dress awkwardly.
"Then how would you know?" He countered, silently enjoying the look on his daughter's chubby face as she tried to come up with a counter argument for her father.
The child opened her mouth, as if finally deducing a suitable comeback before she was interrupted by the sharp ring of his scroll. Anticipating it was from Valerian, who was on a mission outside Shade City, he brought it out of his pocket but frowned to see his brother's name appear on the screen. Why would Theodore bother calling when they were neighbours?
"Theodore?" Bellamy asked as greeting, sensing that something must be off for him to be contacting him in this way. Although he was the academy's doctor, it was the summer break so there should not be any students on campus needing his attention.
"Bellamy?" Theodore's voice sounded harsh over the line. "Come to the academy, Val's in the infirmary."
Bellamy barely allowed his brother to finish. Dropping the Scroll onto the carpeted ground, he picked up Eleanora in his arms and rushed out the door, allowing it to swing closed behind him as he ran across the gardens that separated his home from the main academy.
"Theodore, what's happened?" Bellamy could barely speak, Eleanora had begun to struggle against his too tight hold when they finally stopped outside the infirmary. If it were up to the former Huntsman, he would have barged right in but his brother blocked his way.
"Val's back with the others." Theodore began as Bellamy finally put down the squirming child. Eleanora tugged at her dress in annoyance, the book she had been reading with her father still in one hand. She looked at her uncle with large, irritated eyes, taking it that it was his fault her dad had treated her so crudely.
"How bad is it?" He demanded, no one got a call like he just did to the infirmary for a simple, post-mission checkup.
"The mission was a success." Theodore tried to begin. "They were on their way back when Val suddenly struck ill."
A cold, hollow feeling of dread began to spread across his body. Bellamy had no reason to assume what had stricken his partner but something at the back of his mind seemed to warn him to expect the worst.
"She received barely a scratch during the battle." Theodore solemnly continued, as if such details would make the overall situation better. "But it may have been deep enough for the infection to take root."
Bellamy's mouth went dry as his mind meticulously brought to the surface information that he had long wished to forget. He had sacrificed almost every moment of his childhood, meticulously studying a disease believed to be transmitted through wounds inflicted by Grimm.
"Alterations of fever and hypothermia." He recited, causing his daughter to look up at him curiously. Theodore tried to put his arm on his younger brother's shoulder but Bellamy ignored him as he finally walked past him and pushed open the door. "Blackened mucosa and conjunctivitis of both eyes, with an onset of lower body paralysis."
Eleanora made to follow her father but was swiftly stopped by Theodore, who picked up his young niece without struggle. Bellamy may have been too shocked at that moment to realise it but Theodore was certain he wouldn't want her seeing her mother as she was. At least, not without a better explanation.
Even Theodore, who was nowhere as intelligent as his younger brother, knew without waiting for the test results what Val had contracted. The Scourge- the same sickness that had confined Amelia to her room for most of her life. The same sickness whose quest for an impossible cure had stolen his brother away from his family and the rest of the world most of his life. Unlike Bellamy, Theodore did not know the scientific terms but he'd recognise the symptoms without question.
Shakes and sweats.
Lips so dark they were almost black.
Bloodshot eyes.
When those finally faded, she'd lose the function of her legs.
And finally, after years of the disease sapping at her strength and Aura, it would finally end with Valerian's death.
And chapter 10 is finally up! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the update. Feel free drop a comment and next chapter will be out next week 😁