Chapter 40: "Door to Heaven" Pt. 6
Boom, sorry for the long wait, but here we are again! Now, as always, to the review section!
Visiter-9: Iron Man will be the next full movie.
X3runner: Now who said I'd do that? Teal'c stays man. And Adrian is simply his nephew. The age thing makes it a bit impossible for him to realistically be the father. I mean, Jaune's 17 now, and Adrian's 2. So when the boy was born, Jaune would be 15. Then you have to consider the 7-9 month gestation period, not to mention the attempts they would need to artificially fertilize an egg ('cause I doubt Saph will be cool with Jaune sleeping with her wife [with Adrian's looks, I doubt Saph's eggs would be an option]). So Jaune would be closer to 14 years old; kind of a bit young for a sister to ask her brother to do this task, right?
Doometernal: It won't be for a while. I need to get the set in place so that Salem or Ozpin sees something that shouldn't exist, which hasn't shown up yet.
wearergolf: How'd you feel about Iron Man? Is that light hearted enough? Plus, I have another Phineas and Ferb chapter I want to try out, so there's that. It won't be for a bit, but I was laughing my ass off just thinking of the character placements.
WearyCurmudgeon: I actually have an idea about that. See, it's been so long since I started this fic, that I actually forgot how the Nexus originally looked like. Several items and pieces of technology already strewn about gathering dust. And there are children there now, so naturally they'd want to explore after sitting in their chairs for several hours. From there, I got a few explanations made for some of the tech they find (and the key to having a very old secret revealed). Never heard of "Big Trouble in Little China", but "Addams Family" is on my list (I loved watching both growing up, and the YT videos about them have kept my love of them alive and well). Thank you. Yeah, they aren't really related, so having a crush shouldn't be that bad. And not to worry, there was no blood ritual. Jaune simply went to the Temple where the Pillars were born (Salem and Ozma's castle), and asked the Pillars to if they could make his adopted child a proper Arc. They agreed, and Alice had a good percentage of her bloodline merged with that of the Arcs (no blood spilt, no pain for either party). She's now related to Jaune, but more like an uncle (and not to Glynda since this was before they got together); this is also so that Alice's original parents who died protecting her are respected (while Jaune will raise her, she'd always be their daughter). And no, Jaune is NOT the father to Adrian. The timelines just don't add up, he'd need to be around 14 years old for the gestation period to begin.
Decade: Never really a fan of cars, so the appeal of those movies never spoke to me.
Lonely Boy: Well, didn't expect that, thank you. Wish you the best of luck on your story, and can't wait to read it once it comes out.
Warmachine324: I actually started on it, but I stopped a few pages in when I realized what I was going to put the characters through and got depressed at the thought. Blake's the lady who wanted babies, Ruby's the one who accidentally shot that one guy in the head (great shot by the way, which is why I chose her [the one she shot was going to be Cardin, because of course he was]), Coco's the cocky one who got ripped apart in the Klendathu drop, Yang's the one who had her arm melted off in Planet P, Pyrrha was Dizzy, Neptune was the guy who had his brain sucked out (you can guess who I had Carmen be from that character placement), and Velvet was that reporter who got sheared in half. I just couldn't bring myself to have my demented creation see the light of day, so I stopped working on it. I will try to incorporate some of the speeches from the movie to other works if I can, but for the movie itself? Not an option anymore, sorry.
bagus joy: That's not coming out until it's closer to Halloween. Gotta have a nice chapter for that holiday, and that Death Battle episode will fit in just right.
Alloy101: Well, Jack never expected for Wildfire to ever make it to the Nexus, so there wasn't a fire suppression system in place for that. There is a system that makes the area a closed off zone to people while the fire goes out, and luckily it was placed as far away as possible so there was little danger to the audience.
crow woyzeck: I am planning on doing 300 (though a bit more historically accurate with my own tweaks added in [so no one wearing mankinis, and no grotesque monsters]), and I'm also planning a possible future that has elements of Fury Road in it. Imagine Vernal driving a car with Raven standing in the back (Slit's position), while Ozpin is strapped to the hood of the car. Nothing's set in stone, but I want to at least have that mental image in there.
Guest: the thing is that she doesn't know that. Remember, we know what happened after Vol.3, but they don't; nor do they know where and how Jaune got his power. So as far as she knows, she really did train Jaune after Beacon (in their timeline, they don't even know what happened in their immediate future, all they know is they won against the Grimm). Plus, in that other timeline, Jaune was mostly shown as someone who was very fast to block incoming attacks. Not enough proof to show that he had much more experience than previously thought.
The godfather: While interesting, I decided to not release another holiday chapter, the last one took a large toll on me and I don't want to do another one. Plus, you really don't want the Arc to recreate some of their animals. While several could be useful, others really do need to stay extinct. I created 197 Magical animals, and some of them were extremely dangerous. Imagine a bear that can encase you in ice every time it barks at you (effects of the Casket of Always Winter), a hawk whose screams temporarily deafens & disorientates you before or while it pecks your eyes out (Nazgul shriek), or a gorilla that launches Ice shards at you every time it throws a punch [or stalagmites made of ice popping out of the ground whenever they slam their fists to the ground]). And those are some of the less dangerous ones that went extinct. As for the singing, already have a plan for that (even have a song ready for someone to sing when their grandchild eventually shows up).
Alright, now that that's done, enjoy everyone!
Disclaimer in the prologue.
At the base of the pyramid the team began walking up the stone ramp, stopping at intervals to point their guns at the entrance and behind to make sure no one ambushed them.
James nodded. "Smart." He said as he rubbed his chin. "Going into a potentially dangerous environment such as this, it pays to be cautious. Simply running blind would leave them far too exposed."
Winter hummed, "And making sure they cover their exit route at the entrance makes sure if the aliens ambush this team, they could escape."
Reaching the entrance, Jaune sees the equipment strewn about in the middle of the room, and cautiously heads towards it as Flynt and the others take up defensive positions behind several pillars.
Jaune kneels before the stove and finds several bullet casings scattered about. "What the hell happened here?" He picks up one of the casings. 'Whatever it was, it seemed to have been terrible if they used so many rounds.'
Adrian, seeing the coast was clear for now, follows Jaune, bringing his pistol close to his chest as he knelt next to his uncle.
Outside, Skaara and the other boys ran up to the side of the pyramid, where the sandstorm from the night before had created a dune that almost reaches an upper window. Skaara points to it and climbs up the dune to see inside. (Roman: "Talk about convenient.")
Inside, Jaune spots a few odd shadows on the walls heading towards their position and quickly grabs his nephew before moving to a pillar for cover.
"Shit, they're here." Yang cursed, hoping this group would have better luck.
Saph and Terra were prayed for the safety of their son, and for Jaune to protect him.
Just outside, Skaara was now standing on top of one of his friend's shoulders, and peeks inside in curiosity.
Inside, Adams was slowly walking past a pillar with his rifle close to his chest when he heard something approaching from behind him. He quickly turns around and points his gun at the noise, but before he could pull the trigger, he's knocked to the ground by the oval end of a staff. Looking up, the screen shows a creature with a metallic eagle head pointing a staff at him as it shouts in a guttural version of the natives' language.
Just then, the end pointing at him splits open into four separate sections, revealing a weapon barrel. Suddenly, an orange bolt of plasma is shot out of the barrel, smashing his chest and boiling his armor away, killing him instantly. The power behind the blast was so strong it sent his body skidding across the floor and smash against the wall a few feet behind him.
Everyone winced at the impact, while Saph paled at the hole in the chest armor. 'Fucking hell!'
Cinder was intrigued, not expecting for the staff to be capable of firing a plasma bolt, let alone one that was powerful enough to send a man sliding while boiling away his armor. 'I just thought it was a simple ornamental staff. Though, with it being in the hands of an alien, I suppose I should've expected something like that.'
The students felt sorry for the man's death, remembering how he acted when he realized they were stuck on that alien world. 'I wonder if he had any family.' A few thought in sadness.
Skaara ducks from the window with a wince as he looked down at his curious friends in horror.
Meanwhile, Adrian peeks out from his hiding place just in time to witness Adams' death.
Saph and Terra winced at their baby boy seeing that.
Adrian and Alice looked away.
Skaara looks back inside, but ducks back down when he sees the metallic head looking around, extremely worried as his friends began to chatter in concern below him. He takes a moment before dropping to the sand and ordered his friends to move away from the pyramid. (Roman: "Smart, wouldn't want to be caught in that mess, especially unarmed.")
Jaune pokes his head out of cover, and sees Flynt thrown back against a wall and knocked unconscious, causing him to curse. He sees one of the creatures aiming its staff at Adrian while the younger Arc was still looking at Flynt' body. He grabs Adrian's shirt and pulls him away just as the creature fired at him, "Look out!"
The plasma missed Adrian's head by a few inches and smashed against the side of the pillar behind him, shards of rock flying everywhere as the impact left a decent crater in the stone. Unfortunately, this sudden movement forced Adrian to drop his pistol.
Saph nearly fainted at the near hit, thanking the Pillars profusely that her boy didn't get his head blown off.
The students felt their fear intensify, especially when yet another soldier got shot with a plasma bolt to the back as he tried getting to cover.
The two ran to the gate room, Jaune and the last soldier of their fireteam pausing to shoot at the enemy.
"Where are we going?!" Adrian asks as another plasma bolt narrowly misses him and hits the side of the entrance as Jaune leads him down a corridor. The last soldier, who tried to give covering fire to Jaune and Adrian, was hit in the stomach and crashed against the side of the entrance.
Yang and Coco were trying to calm Ruby and Velvet, while attempting to temper their own rage. Both wished to be over there, ripping those creatures apart with their babies.
Adrian looked back as he heard the body hit the ground, before looking to his uncle, "Why are we going back to the Stargate? I can't make it work!"
Jaune lights a flare and doesn't stop. He gives Adrian his rifle and heads to the rover. "Stay right there, and shoot anything that comes down that ramp." He looks grim as he goes to Plan B. 'Here's hoping we take those bastards out with us.' He thought back to his men, and clenched his free hand.
Adrian takes a knee next to him and points his new gun down the hallway. "What are you doing?"
Jaune shakes his head, "Just cover me." He drops his flare next to the rover, and takes out a remote.
The younger man crouches low, watching the ramp with his gun pointing at the entrance. His eyes narrow, and he takes a deep breath to steady his nerves as he puts his finger on the trigger. "For the Victorious Dead." He whispers, thinking of the dead Arc soldiers. (1)
Saphron and Terra winced at their son's thoughts, and prayed for anyone to save him.
Adrian sighed, knowing that his older self may not have much time left.
Winter and James nodded at the young man's actions. "He may not have the training, but he certainly has the resolve of a soldier." James said. A few of his friends agreed.
Jaune's friends, despite the situation, smiled. They thought of Jaune, and the similarities he has with his nephew. 'Jaune doesn't have much Huntsmen training, but he sure has the determination of one.'
Jaune activates the remote, before he goes to open the crate. "Come on, gotta hurry." He mutters, knowing that they're running out of time.
Adrian turns back and sees his uncle moving various crates aside. He leaves his position, still making sure that no one came through the hallway, and moves closer to Jaune. "What is that?" He looks at the remote, then to his uncle. "What are you doing?"
Jaune opens the panel from the last container, and paled. Inside, the storage container is empty, its contents missing. "It's gone." He says faintly. 'Fuck.'
"Wait, what's gone? What 'Fuck'?" Nora asks.
Ren took a breath. "Maybe a weapon. Something that could help with these creatures."
Yang scowled, "Well whatever it was, it's gone now. Which means the aliens probably already took it." She cursed and slammed a fist to her chair's armrest.
Just then, the ring-like structure on the ceiling that the team found earlier splits opens with a slight grinding noise. A slightly dark blue light quickly shines down from the inside, and several large rings are lowered as a weird humming noise accompanies them.
Ruby and Weiss paled, remembering their earlier conversation on that thing's purpose. They now wished that it was just some useless piece of decoration like Weiss thought.
Adrian raises his rifle with a curse as five rings drop down and stop a few inches off the ground, stacked on top of each other with some space in-between.
A gold flash is seen from inside the rings, and a Jackal-headed guard with a pair of Eagle-headed ones on either side appears, showing everyone that the rings were a type of matter transporter. (2)
The rings, after completing their task, then rise back up, and the Jackal guard gives an order in its alien tongue.
Penny and Watts stuttered, trying and failing to come up with an explanation for how what they saw was possible. Yes, they did see a version of this happening with that other possible future, but that was people using their abilities like Semblances. But doing it through the use of technology? That was something else. The projected energy requirements needed to power something like this, it was too much. 'The Dust sheer amount we would need…'
Even the Arcs in the audience were shocked, thinking that such a thing wouldn't be possible with their own energy systems.
Ruby was cursing herself for jinxing Jaune and Adrian. 'Damnit, why did I open my big stupid mouth then?'
Adrian takes a deep breath as he points his gun at them. Behind the three, two other Eagle guards appeared walking down the hallway with their staffs pointed at the two.
The Jackal guard points his staff weapon at the intruders, the end splitting open as the creature tilts its 'head' back.
Jaune, after getting over the transportation thing, slowly raises his arm and grabs Adrian's shoulder, "Put it down, Adrian. They win this round."
Adrian, clearly not happy with it, slowly lowers the weapon.
Hearing Jaune say that, many began cursing at the aliens.
The scene then changed to show a large dark room, where the screen focuses on a large bull statue. Suddenly, part of the roof above it opens up and five transportation rings drop. A flash of golden light later, and it's revealed Adrian, Jaune, and three of the alien guards escorting them.
The rings move back to the ceiling, where the Jackal guard deactivates the transporter by pressing down on a crystal imbedded in the wrist portion of his hand device. "Yatta." The alien then nudges the two Arcs' backs with his staff weapon, ordering them forward towards an empty seat or throne.
Outside, the top portion of the pyramid ship splits open into four pieces and retracts as the panels slowly move down the sides of the ship.
Inside, light filters in as the panels' retraction creates a skylight of sorts in the throne room, showing the audience that aside from the throne, there were two large eagle statues with their wings extended & facing the throne, and several pillars & torches giving off whiffs of smoke.
Coco grimaced at the rather gaudy decor. 'Ugh, too much.'
Most of the other students were just worried for Jaune, hoping that nothing bad happens.
Nora gulped, "Do you think they're going to probe them, Ren?"
Ren paled at the mental image.
Saph and Terra growled after they heard Nora's question. 'They better not lay a finger on my baby!'
Only the villains appreciated the décor in the room, though they felt some more bright colors that wasn't gold could help.
Seeing Jaune and Adrian looking around in slight wonder, the alien forced them to keep walking. The two Eagle guards start following behind as escort.
Once they get close enough, the Jackal guard and an Eagle guard swept Jaune and Adrian's feet out with their staff weapons with a shout, forcing them to their knees.
The children growled, not liking the sight of their dad being forced to kneel to them.
Salem and Ozpin frowned, wondering where this was going.
From the top of a stairwell behind the throne, a pair of large doors opens, revealing a large golden circle with the Eye of Ra symbol engraved on it, similar to the one that Kasuf revealed to the Arcs yesterday.
Once the doors fully open, a being garbed in ornate robes walks out from the room beyond, followed by a small entourage of young boys, girls, and two more Eagle guards. Four of the older boys were holding a set of ornate poles that connects to the ends of the being's robes. As the being steps closer to the throne, the audience could see that an elaborate gold headpiece that looks like a pharaoh's mask was covering the entirety of its head.
Emerald, Neo, and Roman licked their lips at the sight of the mask, thinking of how much it would be worth if they tried to sell it.
Ruby shivered, "Why does that creature have children following it?" A few of the adults felt a bit green at the probabilities.
Yang grimaced. "I don't think they ever heard of the concept 'Stranger Danger' Rubes."
The being, after the four gently lowered the poles to the ground, sits down on his throne. Only the Faunus noticed that its fingers were encased in golden metal pieces protecting the fingers. "You have come here to destroy me."
Everyone blinked, not expecting the echoey guttural voice, nor the subtitles.
Weiss, after she stopped shivering at the inhuman sound, turned to Jack who was fiddling with his tablet. "Did you do that?" She asked.
Jack nodded, looking up from his completed work. "Yeah, sorry for not saying anything earlier. I figured you wanted to know what everyone there was saying. Just hadn't needed to do it before since I could already understand them."
Many in the audience thanked him, particularly Ruby and Nora.
Sienna shook her head, "Who, or what, is that?" She couldn't get over the voice. 'No person, Human or Faunus, could ever make that sound.'
Jack sighed, "That, would be Ra." He scowled at the thing onscreen, ignoring the questions being thrown at him by a confused and scared audience.
Just then, two servants slowly walked over with a large platter between them and set it down between the throne and the prisoners, revealing a large canister lying on top of the thing.
Adrian looked at the thing with suspicion. "What is that thing?" His eyes widened, and he turned to a stoic Jaune in disbelief. "That's a bomb, isn't it. That's what you were looking for. What the hell were you thinking?" He glared at his uncle as he grinded his teeth in anger, "What did you come here for?"
The questions they had for the being's name was pushed to the side for adult Adrian's reveal of a bomb sitting a foot away from them.
Terra was grinding her teeth in anger that Jaune would endanger her son, his nephew, but when she was about to speak out against this, her wife sighed and said "So that's what plan B was."
The angered woman looked to her sad wife and asked, "You knew?"
Saph shook her head. "No, but it does make sense. The Council, let alone anyone sensible within the military, would never have allowed this mission to happen in the first place, unless a contingency was put in place so that any potential enemies wouldn't easily come through the Stargate to potentially attack us."
The older Huntsmen, hearing her explanation, vocally agreed.
James nodded, "I suppose trying to blow up the 'gate from that end would stop any alien force from invading Remnant. Better than trying to blow up the one in Remnant, who knows what would've happened if it was destroyed on our end." (3)
Terra was trying to fault everyone's logic, but couldn't. 'My boy, he shouldn't have gone to that planet in the first place.'
Jaune remains stoic and doesn't respond.
Ra gestures to the Jackal guard, and gives an order in its guttural voice. The guard nods its head and presses a button on the side of its helmet. As it turns towards the prisoners, the metal retracts with a slight grinding noise, revealing a smirking human.
Adrian and Jaune looked at the man, then they turned to the Eagle guard as its helmet retracts, revealing a dark skinned human with white paint underneath his eyes as he stares stoically at the prisoners.
The audience was stunned, they didn't think the guards were humans. Sure the lower bodies were a hint, but they all thought that it was a coincidence, like how Certain Faunus could be mistaken for Human. But after the revelation passed, they were comforted by the thought that the aliens were Human.
The Faunus growled at how the guards were humans, most remembering the history lesson earlier, who were responsible for enforcing the enslavement of Remnant.
Salem and Cinder were disappointed. They thought the aliens would be separate creatures from Humans or Faunus.
Tyrion scowled. He was the most excited to see what was under those helmets, to know what horrors were hidden behind the metal plates. 'Like tentacles, or mandibles. Something that is different from the norm.'
The two then looked back to Ra as he retracts his pharaoh headpiece, revealing himself to be the same boy taken by the Stargate so many millennia ago. The guards all kneel in his presence.
"Hold it!" Nora made a timeout gesture. "How is the boy's body still alive? It was 8,000 years ago when we first saw him!"
Jack didn't want to spend his time explaining the Sarcophagus, and the Goa'uld, so he just let the audience think up their own theories.
Jaune glares at Ra, with the being raising an eyebrow in amusement, then to the Jackal guard next to him. Having a desperate idea, he throws a quick punch to the man's cheek, knocking the guard down, and takes his staff weapon.
One of the Eagle guards began to stand up and protect his god, but Jaune aimed his new weapon, and seeing how user-friendly the controls looked, fires a plasma bolt and kills him.
The students flinched at the man's groan as he fell dead, and thought Jaune had gone insane.
"Is he nuts?!" Pyrrha yelled, afraid for his and Adrian's safety. "There's several other guards surrounding them, not to mention however many are stationed throughout the ship!"
Penny nodded in fear, "It's irrational, his nephew still kneeling next to him. There's no scenario that I can think of that would end well for the two."
Saph and Terra hugged their boy close at that.
The other guard, seeing his fellow fall, rose up and primed his weapon.
Adrian stands between the guard and Jaune, waving his arms wide. "Wait! Na-ney! Stop! No!"
The guard fires, hitting Adrian in the chest. With a final "No!", Adrian falls to the ground dead.
Saph and Terra teared up as they saw their son fall, his glasses sliding across the floor with a crack in the lenses as a large hole in his armor is shown.
Alice cried at the sight, forced to turn away by her mamma.
Adrian closed his eyes and hugged his parents. 'Me with Pillas now.'
Immediately, the children rushed and surrounded Ra, forming a living meat shield as Jaune turns to him and was about to fire. He hesitates as he sees Ra using the children as living shields, but the thought of his nephew dead because of him angered the man to the point where he was about to pull the trigger.
The heroes felt queasy, seeing the slight resemblance between this version of Jaune and the one who effortlessly slaughtered them in the other future.
Saph and Terra though… "Kill him/ Shoot him!" They didn't care, and wanted the thing killed.
Before he could do it though, the guard he punched earlier smacked the back of Jaune's head with the blunt side of the staff that the dead guard dropped, knocking him down.
Jaune groans, but tries to get up. The guard growls at the human, and smacks him across the face with the staff end, knocking him out. he then continues to jab Jaune with the staff, spouting curses at him as the students flinched at every hit, until Ra stood up and told him to stop. "Enough."
Ra comes down from his throne as the guards quickly kneeled in front of their god, the Jackal guard having a face of fear as he did so. He looks at the unconscious Jaune, then glares at his guard, surprising everyone when his eyes began to glow.
Pyrrha was sighing in relief that Jaune wasn't getting hurt anymore, same with most of the children, but she and everyone else leaned back as they saw Ra's eyes glow. "What in the world?"
Cinder, Salem, James, Qrow, Raven, and Ozpin couldn't help but think of how similar this was to how the Maidens activate their powers.
The students felt their spines shiver at the unnatural way they glowed.
He kneels next to Adrian's corpse, and sees something wrapped around his neck. Narrowing his eyes, he grabs hold of the Eye of Ra necklace around the human's neck, rubbing his thumb over the curved lines. With a small scoff, he lets the necklace drop back to the dead human and stands up.
Terra and Saph growled as they witnessed this being hovering over their dead son. The thought of their baby dying in this future broke their hearts, and they were praying his death would be avenged.
The scene changes to show Jaune without his armor being thrown down a hole into a cell semi filled with water. The cold immediately woke him up, and he rose up with a fist raised, ready for round two and another chance at avenging his nephew.
Yang, Mercury, Hazel, and Coco could respect that.
"Hmm," Hazel crossed his massive arms with approval, "it seems he wishes to have another go at the people who killed his nephew in front of him." He nods, 'I would have done the same if it was Gretchen.' He sighed, thinking of his sister no longer affected him as it did before thanks to his earlier gifts, and he was thankful for that.
Yang hugged her sister, knowing that she would've killed everyone who dared try to kill Ruby.
Suddenly, Flynt entered the frame, trying to calm his superior down with his hands up. "Colonel, stop! It's us!" The view turns a bit to show Flynt, Verte, and Woods in the cell with him. Woods was holding the side of his head, still suffering from his head wound. All of them were without their amor, just wearing their fatigues.
Jaune looks at what remained of his men, and calmed down. "You good now sir?" Flynt asks, seeing him relax a bit.
The heroes frowned as they saw none of the other soldiers with them.
"That cannot be all of them, surely." Whitley says, hoping that there were more survivors of the fireteams.
Jack just shook his head. "No, I'm afraid that's everyone who'd survived up to this point." He points to something onscreen in the corner of the cell. "See?"
They looked at the corner, and the students reeled back as they saw that it was a floating body. Judging by the clothing, it was one of the soldiers.
"Oh, Oum." Velvet murmured as she covered her mouth. 'That poor man.'
Emerald frowned, hugging her twins close. "Those guys had to float next to one of their dead friends, and for who knows how long. That's just cruel."
Oz, Winter, James and surprisingly Salem were angry at seeing the body just floating in a cell like that. 'He deserved to be laid to rest, not forgotten like this.'
None were more angry than Saph, Altani, and Robin who were cursing vehemently in their minds at the aliens for leaving an Arcadian soldier's corpse to float next to his comrades. They remembered the stories, about what happened to Arc soldiers during the Civil War. Those tales were the stuff of nightmares.
Jaune nodded, before the two looked up as a grate closes the entrance above them, the Jackal guard smirking as he walks away.
"I hate that guy so much right now." Nora growled, Ren and her parents agreeing as they glared at the smug prick as he left.
Flynt looks around, and frowns. "Where's Adrian?"
Jaune just looks at Flynt in shock and guilt.
The scene then changes to outside the alien pyramid as two small ships fly out of an opening. Their wings extending as they exit the pyramid.
Ruby, in an effort to get everyone's attention away from the previous scene, asks Jack while still being hugged by her sister. "What're those?"
Jack, smiling at the effort but knowing what was to come, shakes his head and says "Those would be Death Gliders. More specifically the Udajeet, or 'Winged Glider', variant."
Ren blinked, "They looked like almost birdlike."
A few nodded as Ruby finally escaped her sister's hug.
A second later, the screen switches over to the abandoned basecamp, where Skaara and the boys are seen raiding its supplies. A few were finding weapons in several crates, while others found spare armor pieces. (Blake: "I feel like this is a bit disrespectful, didn't Skaara just see one of the soldiers die?")
Skaara was admiring a weird-looking sniper rifle when he heard a whirling noise in the sky. He looks up and sees the death gliders soaring from the pyramid. He points at the fighters and shouts for his friends to take cover, all while putting the stuff he took back inside their cases.
Everyone complied and took cover inside the large tents except for one, the same boy who Skaara kept scolding. That boy was simply too fascinated by a helmet to hear what his friend was saying. (Weiss: "Stop admiring the helmet and hide!")
Skaara cursed and grabbed him, all while scolding him again, and leads the two of them under a tarp.
The death gliders flew by overhead, heading towards the city.
Roman paled, "Oh, that can't be good."
Neo nodded, shielding her child's eyes. She had a feeling she knew what was about to happen to those people.
Inside the city, a few lookouts on a roof spot the death gliders approaching. One of them quickly turns around and sounds of an alarm through a large horn.
Kasuf leaves his tent and looks around, wondering why the alarm was going off, but hearing a whirling sound looks up in alarm. Widening his eyes in fear, he yells to his people to get to cover.
The gates to the city close, but it did little. The scene closes up on the fighters, and some protrusions mounted under the wings open up, revealing large staff weapons.
At this point, everyone knew what was going to happen. Many were praying for the people's safety, or cursing the pilots for willing to fire on civilians.
The fighters quickly fired down on the city, shooting plasma blasts and using some intercoms to tell them that they had betrayed Ra, and that he wasn't pleased with this betrayal. They continue to fire, killing several people that were trying to escape inside their homes.
Kasuf kneels beseechingly, shouting apologies to the pilots as he raised his hands to the sky, but the fighters continue to fire on the city, killing many more and causing great damage. A few of the buildings even starts to collapse under the withering fire.
In one pass, a blast nearly hits the old man, the force knocking him on his back.
Blake and a few of the other Faunus gasped, seeing the old Faunus nearly killed after trying to save his people, and they cursed the pilots even more. Especially seeing some of the others dying.
After a few passes, the staff cannons closed up and the death gliders left with the pilots leaving one final warning. The scene switches to show the city in ruins. Several of the buildings were in rubble, and many places were expelling smoke from the fires that erupted from the barrage.
A while later, Skaara and his friends arrive only to see death and destruction. He looks around, and sees his people crying while attending to the dead.
Two people were carrying a body on top of one of the intact wooden bridges, passing another body that was lying facing the screen with her eyes closed.
The students were tearing up at the destruction, while the Huntsmen were having flashbacks to the aftermaths of Grimm raids.
Even some of the villains couldn't help but feel sad over this. While they didn't care if they killed people, many of those were for a purpose. For advancing their goals. This act was simply destruction for destruction's sake.
Tyrian though was just disappointed that the killings weren't face-to-face.
The boys quickly scattered, many hoping to find their families still alive, while others rushed to help their fellows carry the bodies away.
Meanwhile, Skaara walks through the streets in shock. He finds his sister tending to an injured girl. Shau'ri herself was bleeding from a cut on her head. "Shau'ri." He kneels down in front of her and shakes his head. "Shau'ri. What happened here?"
Shau'ri scowled, "Ra punished us." She turned back to the injured child, hoping she would recover.
His eyes widen, and he looks back to the destruction wrought upon his people. "Why?" He whispers, not knowing what they could have possibly done to warrant this attack.
This sight broke a few of the students, and they began to weep.
Saph and Terra were comforting their son, with Glynda doing the same for Alice.
Shau'ri then noticed something wrong, someone missing. She turned to her brother, "What happened to Adrian?"
Skaara looks back in shock.
She felt a cold feeling in her heart, and she looks desperate, "Where is Adrian?"
Seeing the look in her eyes, he looks away, unwilling to answer. Shau'ri realizes what that meant and begins to weep.
Seeing the young woman cry for their son made the two mothers even more miserable. 'She would've been good for my baby.' They thought as they hugged their crying son closer.
Skaara closes his eyes and stands up. Seeing his father further off, he goes to him.
He reaches Kasuf just as the old Faunus was using his own cloak to cover one of the bodies of a Human Elder.
Seeing a Faunus cover the body of a Human was like a punch in the gut to the current White Fang members. Seeing such camaraderie in a different world had many of them feeling jealous. That feeling was almost immediately replaced with guilt as they saw the old Faunus crying over the other's death.
Kasuf silently cried as he covered the body of his oldest friend. He then sees Skaara kneeling in front of him, and he shakes his head. "My son. We should not have helped those strangers."
Skaara looks down in sadness, remembering how those strangers died at their god's hands.
The scene briefly changes to the alien pyramid at night, before it switches to the room with the sarcophagus-like device where the screen moves to a bit above the head section facing the far end of the room.
The audience didn't want to see this, they didn't want to see more of the aliens right now. Some like the Arcs were about to voice their complaints when something jump scared them.
Suddenly, a being quickly sat up facing the screen, breathing a large gasp of air; some kind of sheer material was placed the being's face, covering any skin.
The echoing sound made by the gasp had the children jump, while the sudden covered face popping up onscreen had the students yelp in shock. But the shocks didn't stop there.
The being took off the cover, showing a gasping Adrian, alive and well.
Seeing their son alive again had the mothers burst into tears. They didn't know now he was alive after having a hole in his chest, but they didn't care. "He's alive!" Terra screamed as she hugged her pale son.
Adrian didn't think his older self would be alive either, but his little jump scare scared the heck out of him. 'Don do dat me!'
Alice clapped her hands at seeing Adrian alive again. "He live!" She turned to her shocked mother while pointing at the screen, "Mama, mama look! He live!"
Glynda nodded, but couldn't form any words at the miraculous sight.
He looks around, greedily gulping more air in as he tried getting his bearings. He then looks down and sees that his armor was missing, and a large burn hole in his shirt where the staff blast struck him. The hole was there, but his body looks completely fine, not even a scar.
The sight of his undamaged skin relieved the two mothers.
Adrian though was starting to get uncomfortable, his mothers' hugging was getting a bit tight.
Everyone else though were astonished that the young man was not only alive, but not even hurt in any way.
He starts stumbling out of the sarcophagus, just as it was closing itself back up. Seeing this, he quickly got out. "Oh shit."
It took a second, but he got his balance back and he stood up on the floor. He watched the now closed device with confusion. 'What the hell?' He looked back at the hole in his fatigues. 'I… I died-'
A small metal clatter was heard behind him, and Adrian quickly turned to see the cause. On top of some steps, he sees a small boy carrying a white cat. The boy smiles at him once he sees that he was alive and well.
Seeing the strange man just standing there though, he moves away.
Feeling curious, Adrian follows. 'Nothing ventured. I may get some answers, so there's that.'
Walking next to a few pillars, Adrian sees the boy leaving the cat on the throne and runs away. He walks up the staircase behind the throne, only stopping to pet the nice cat that licked the hand. He looks around for the boy, but he couldn't see him. He thought of calling out to him, but felt that would be a stupid idea.
"Yes, it would." Glynda nodded, trying to hold onto a still excited Alice close.
He continued on, walking past the symbol of Ra hanging above him. He sees a large doorway, and was compelled to enter it. Once he did though, he spots Ra stepping out of a large tub, quickly being dried and clothed by his servants.
Now everyone was glaring at the being.
The Faunus growled, with Alice hissing angrily at the 'god'.
Ozpin and Salem scowled, wanting to tear this alien piece of shit in half or having him be a meal to the Grimm. 'Wait, where'd that come from?'
Adrian enters the room, stepping through a thin red curtain. Ra turns his head, smiling a bit before walking away without further acknowledging the young man.
They all move to another room, the audience guessing it to be Ra's bed chamber based on the large bed placed in the center. The servants continue their work, layering Ra with expensive clothing and jewelry, a few placing some metalwork over his fingers.
Narrowing his eyes a bit, Adrian asks in their native tongue. "I was dead?"
Ra looks directly at him and smirks. "That is why I chose your race in particular...your bodies...so much easier to repair compared to the others."
"Wait, what's that mean?" Blake asks, feeling like that was a jab against her people.
Jack cleared his throat, "Well you see, Human bodies, at least compared to Faunus ones, are far easier to heal for his technology. This is simply based on the fact that Humans have some very clear similarities between one another."
He points each of the Humans, "Other than skin, hair, and eye color all of them are pretty alike, only real difference being sex. Healing a Human is easy for Ra, he doesn't need to specify a 'type' of Human if all he needs is a template to draw from. It's also easier to modify said template, far less randomization in comparison."
He then points to the Faunus, "You guys on the other hand, are far harder to map out. Different animal parts, wildly differing & contrasting senses, plus a generally confusing and chaotic genome that randomizes just where you get your Faunus traits…" He shakes his head, "It all makes what Ra did for Adrian practically impossible if he doesn't already have the specific Faunus traits on record. And any modifications would need to be done in a case-by-case basis, rather than mass produced for Humans." (4)
The Faunus blinked at the explanation.
"Soo," Sienna started slowly, thinking back to the start of this viewing, "you mean to say that Ra wouldn't be able to infect us because we are too advanced biologically?" She actually felt rather proud of that, same for Ilia and Eve.
Jack shook his head. "Oh no, not at all, he can still take over your bodies if he's desperate enough. It's just with the difference in senses between each Faunus subtype compared to Humans, it's just far easier for him, and preferred, to have a Human for a host. Easier to adapt to a random Human body than a Faunus one."
Eve and Ilia sighed in relief. 'Well, at least there's a less chance of my people being taken over, I'll take it.'
Whitley paled, "Wait, so any Human can be taken over? We are the preferred hosts?" He didn't like the sound of that, and neither did the other Humans.
Jack nodded, "Yep. Any Human, no matter the age or sex, would be taken over by a member of Ra's race if given the chance. If there was a choice between a perfectly healthy Faunus and a sick Human, Ra's species would more than likely choose the latter."
He lowers his eyes to see the hidden device Jaune brought with him. "You have advanced much, harnessing the power of the atom."
Most of the children paled. They all remembered their lessons on the power of the atom, and if their suspicions were right, then Remnant was in big trouble. (5)
Nora blinked, "What's he mean by that?"
No one answered. Those who did kept their mouths shut so to not jinx themselves. The rest simply didn't know the answer, and that was frightening to them. They remembered Adrian's reaction prior to his 'death', and how it was supposed to be their Plan B. 'What kind of bomb did the Arcs bring with them?' Many thought, feeling chills run down their spines.
Adrian approaches, noticing the bomb in a few parts and several of his books, opened and strewn about. He frowned, "What are you going to do?"
Ra smirked as he faced him again, "You should not have reopened the gate. Soon, I will send your weapon back to your world with a shipment of our mineral. Which will increase your weapon's destructive power, a hundred fold."
That confidence he showed at his estimates for the yield terrified the children.
"No." Amber whispered, her sisters turning pale at the admittance. "He's lying." She said aloud, sounding a bit hysteric to everyone. She shakes her head, "He has to be lying." She was starting to hyperventilate a bit, causing her mother to try and calm her down.
Vernal held her daughter close, and looked at her confused. "What do you mean sweetie? What's wrong?"
But Amber just shook her head, fear clear in her eyes.
He turns his head to his servants and stretches out his arms, waiting for them to finish adorning his arms and fingers with the jewelry.
Adrian took a deep breath to calm himself. "Why would you do that?"
Ra scowled a bit, "I created your civilization." He turned to send a side glare to the Human. "Now, I will destroy it." As he said this, his eyes briefly flashed.
Hearing that made Oz and Salem growling at the creature.
"That, thing, didn't create anything." Salem hissed, her irises briefly flashing red as her anger for the being only grew.
Ra stands, and one of the servants attaches final ornamental breastplate. With a smile and another flash of his eyes, he starts walking slowly to Adrian. "But before my workers question my authority, you will prove to them that I am their one true god. By killing your companions."
Adrian glares defiantly at him, "And if I refuse?" (Coco: "You tell him!")
Ra though, smirked, amused at this Human for defying him. "Then I will destroy you, and all who have seen you."
Hearing the threat made, many of the people paled.
"Jack?" Velvet asked, her face pale and her ears drooping a bit. "H-How many people live in that city?"
The god sighed, "50,000 at least."
Yang paled. "Well, crap."
He stands in front of Adrian, grabbing his necklace and forcing him to face his god while his eyes glow with anger. "There can be only One, Ra." He then yanked the necklace off before walking away.
The heroes were hoping that something would happen to spare the people from that fate.
Adrian though, hoped that he wouldn't kill his uncle.
The scene changes to show a cave, where Shau'ri was looking over some drawings on the walls.
Ren looked at some of the drawings, and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Wait, something's off. Some of these drawings are different."
Nora, hearing him, looked closer. "Yeah, you're right Renny."
Skaara is then seen slowly stepping inside, followed by his friend. "Shau'ri, Ra has called an assembly..." His sister looks at him, and he sees her glaring in anger. He bows his head, "An execution."
Shau'ri takes a deep breath and beckons him and his friend to come closer. "Skaara. Nabeh. Come here, I need you to listen to me. Listen."
The boy, Nabeh, steps closer, with several of the boys following. (Mercury: "Oh, so that's his name.")
Shau'ri looks at the group before her and shakes her head. "We can't let this happen." She points at the various drawings around her, "I want you to know what Adrian told me. About where our people came from…" They all look around in wonder at the drawings.
The screen focuses on one drawing in particular. A bit faded from age, but still clear enough to show four figures standing tall with symbols underneath their feet. Two were twin crescents, another was that of a flower, and the last was like a curved snake. As the screen focuses on this, Shau'ri's voice was heard. "…And why we can no longer live as slaves." (6)
Seeing the young woman take charge brought proud smiles on Adrian's parents' faces. "Spoken like a true Arc." Saphron said, thinking that her grandmother would absolutely adore her.
The Faunus felt the fires of rebellion light up with the young woman's determination, and many were cheering her on.
END
And done! Fuck, that took forever. Sorry, wanted to upload this last week, but school and work sort of fucked me over there (and this week's Inventory Week, what fun). Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you guys next time.
List of current Jaune's children in the Nexus:
Neo: Lucy
Emerald: Peridot & Garnet
Vernal: Amber
Raven: Robin
Sienna: Altani
Glynda: Alice
1. What Adrian said is a small callback to what Saphron thought in the last chapter of "Revenge of the Arcs".
2. Almost all Goa'uld transportation rings consist of five rings that levitate slightly off the ground and stack on top of each other during operation. The only ring transporter that had more rings installed was the one in the gate room in Abydos (that one had nine rings). Since I want to keep things consistent between the shows and original movie, I changed it to five. Also, the rings from the show were more than large enough to transport multiple people, while the rings from the movie looked barely big enough to transport 3-4 people at a time. Lastly, the Goa'uld rings when transporting people, leave a golden light as they are used (the light in the rings from the movie were more blue than gold).
3. We all know that wouldn't work, there are many Stargates in the galaxy to replace the one they blow up. But the audience don't know that, they think there's only those two in existence. And that little history lesson Adrian hosted never even hints that there were other worlds with Stargates, nor any reason to speculate that there were others like Ra (that Goa'uld was very thorough in his plan to have the people of Abydos believe he's the only one).
4. Faunus are pretty fascinating biologically speaking. With certain animal parts, they can have differing advanced senses (like a Dog Faunus may have a far better sense of smell, while a Cat Faunus could have better sight [both of which are better than Humans]). There's also the random animal traits within the same subtype. Blake has cat ears and no claws (despite her dad having that trait), while Neon has a cat tail. Even relatives can be different, the Albain brothers come to mind. One had a fox tail, while the other had fox ears (so yeah, that's confusing). So for Ra to have every Faunus subtype, with their respective animal parts, recorded within the sarcophagus would be near impossible. This is why I never specified on many Faunus subtypes in Abydos (I think there's like three subtypes in total I mentioned, most likely less), it's to make any deviations within the gnome minimal. This will also be my reasoning for why we don't see Faunus as Jaffa (Faunus were seen as slaves by the ancient Humans, so having them be the bodyguards of the gods would be a bit odd to say the least).
5. While Robin and Altani may have some knowledge of the Atomic Bomb, Joker-Jaune's children know exactly the kind of firepower that thing potentially has.
6. For those wondering what this last drawing meant, that's a secret but I'm sure those who know their Stargate lore can understand why I focused on the symbols, as well as the number of figures.