Vol: 7 Chapter 14: Broodhold
(Play: Red Fraction from "Black Lagoon" Eng cover by AmaLee)
I have a big gun
I took it from my lord
Sick with justice
I just wanna blame you
(A somewhat dirtied image of a Lien card flashes momentarily before it swaps to a blood stained wall of the Schnee manor a cigarette being smoked and an image of either Weiss or Winter from behind holding their weapons which seem bloodied. This then switches to a panning shot of Wolf's Pack going down its barrel.)
I am your angel
Only a call away
You make wanna break you
No matter who you are
(A bullet casing goes flying, showing Weiss' reflection before it cuts to a newspaper article mentioning a shooting in the Forgotten Shore with Weiss being shown holding a side arm, which she fires a few times)
It's all up to you
No one lives forever
Been burned in Hell
By all the pigs out there
It's always been Hell
Ever since I was born
They make we wanna break them
No matter who they are
(The next shot shows the same side arms barrel as Weiss points it at the area in front of her and a cigarette that she had in her mouth falls out as she pulls the trigger and then drops the magazine.)
Get down on your knees
Got a good head on your shoulders
If for you, I'd
Go to the end of the earth
Do what you want
Do it with dedication
I'll put out your misery
(The next shot shows a blood splatter that stains a flurry of feathers that had been blown away by the force of either a gust of wind or gunshot. Another shot shows that an empty bullet casing is rolling on the ground of the streets of Mantle in a pool of blood before it's blown away by the same wind that carried away feathers)
You made a mess
For Christ sake, this rotten world
Shit out of luck
Go with my vision
Light up the fire
Right on the power
A weapon … I have it all
(Weiss is seen sitting in the middle of the streets of Mantle for reasons unknown as the feathers drift through the air around her as the sunset flashes a few times. Then images of Jaune, Sky and Wolfgang are shown before 'Rise of the Iron Wolves: Forgotten' appears on the screen… And is shot at a few times and filled with bullet holes.)
-Immortal Rage-
It was around a week since the Manipulator met his end, and word got out that Ironwood had made a deal with Sienna for the White Fang as well as her Hidden Fang to be able to operate in Atlas and Mantle.
It made everything rather buzzy in the days that followed, especially since Weiss and Blake were approved to assume duty on the council effective after the election, much to Jacques Schnee's chagrin.
But right now, everyone was sitting in the Immortal Rage with shocked expressions on their faces as they looked at Yang. The blonde had just spent a few minutes dropping a bombshell on them.
"You're pregnant?!" The majority of the group yelled before Ruby squealed loudly in delight.
"I'M GONNA BE AN AUNT!" She yelled happily.
"How long had you planned on keeping this a secret?" Jaune asked.
"Long enough to surprise you." The Queen replied with a smile. "I regret nothing." She added.
"How far along are you?" Autumn asked her in-law.
"Barely a month. We only just found out recently." She explained.
"This is going to be a nightmare." Oscar groaned. Bringing a baby into a war zone was never a good idea.
"Don't worry, we've got plans in mind." Sky said, looking at Yang.
(Later)
Jaune and his team were getting ready to go on their strike mission to the Jetsam of Saturn, but before they left, the blonde decided to say something to his team.
"Everyone, I know that I've been… distant lately. And I have no excuse for it, not to mention you guys deserve better than this." He told them before sighing. "But, I just wanted to let you guys know that… I'm glad you haven't given up on me. And thanks for sticking by me, even if I wasn't always there."
"Jaune, everyone on the planet has a point in their lives that's similar in one way or another to what you're going through. We had no plans to give up on you." Pyrrha told her boyfriend as she put a hand on his shoulder.
"She's right." Ren nodded, doing the same. "We're in this together Jaune, now and forever."
Nora meanwhile hugged her teammates together as tightly as possible. "Yep! Just don't stay away from us too long when this is over, okay?" She said. "Because if you do, I'll break your legs!" She added in a cheerful warning tone with a smile. Jaune gulped a bit at that.
"R-right." He nodded, chuckling nervously. He then shook his head. "Anyway, are we ready to move out?" He asked his team.
"Affirmative." The Spartan girl nodded. With that they loaded onto the next transport and headed to the Forgotten Shore. Once there they then headed to the Jetsam of Saturn and were quickly contacted by Sienna on a secure frequency.
"The Grimm had always been a problem on the Shore, like everywhere else. But ever since the Manipulator escaped, they'd been getting smarter, even reasoning. Then I found out why: During his time here before Wolfang captured him, William Nova took a Lust Queen he named Ishtar as his consort." The crime lord said. "Now, normally I'm not opposed to unholy matrimony, but on my doorstep? See that they're eradicated, and I'll consider making it reimbursement for your debts to me."
"Fair enough, I guess." Jaune sighed. With that they continued forward into the broodhold and were met by opposition in the form of humanoid Grimm that they had never seen before. They were skinny, and covered in weak looking bone armor and had no discernible face as well as long claws.
The creatures screeched before they charged at the team in hoards.
"What are these things?!" Nora exclaimed as she blew a hoard away.
"Thralls, the first stage in William's little "hybrid" race. They're extremely weak alone, but a pack of them? I've seen them smother victims before eating them alive." Sienna said.
"Nothing a few well placed explosives can't fix, evidently." Ren commented as he mowed down a group of six Thralls.
After the Thralls were killed they started moving forward before they saw Grimm that looked medium sized with the same armor as the Thralls but stronger, and a skull-like face with three eyes. Each carrying some sort of void powered pistol.
"I'm going to go on a whim and say that this is stage two we're looking at." Pyrrha said as she shot a few in the head.
"Acolytes, yes. Depending on the gender they grow into one of two forms. Wizards for females and—." The tigress said before a large Grimm came in wearing much stronger armor and a large headdress with horns, having the same three eyes and was carrying a large blaster. "Knights for males." She finished.
"I think we can tell." The Law of Repose nodded. As they then started attacking the Knight, it was soon beaten when Jaune stabbed it through the chest, and a Worm suddenly dropped from inside its corpse.
"Picking up Dark Dust coming from this Worm." Joan reported after doing a quick scan.
"Natural adaptation of the Faunus and the mercilessness of the Grimm, combined with the resurrection properties of Dark Dust? This is unacceptable, deal with them." Sienna growled.
"Gladly." Jaune nodded as he grabbed the Worm and placed it in a crack in a chitinous looking wall. The small Grimm then exploded, taking the wall with it. "Well that's useful." He noted.
As they continued forward, they soon saw more of the Hybrids fighting a group of scavengers. "We've got scavengers over here, probably from the Prison of Elders." Pyrrha told Sienna.
"Deal with them however you wish. They aren't my concern." The tiger woman told them dismissively. The group did so by doing their best to subdue the scavengers and then started killing the Grimm. Continuing forward they then saw several thralls, acolytes, three Knights and a wizard surrounding some sort of underground gateway.
"What is all this supposed to be?" Nora asked as she looked around.
"No idea." Jaune said.
"I think if we killed those Knights and then put their Worms on those three spots." Ren said, pointing at three columns. "We could break the ground and find a way down." He added.
"Sounds good. Let's do it." Jaune nodded. "Nora, why don't you show them your new Magic Class?" He suggested.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Nora said with an evil grin as she powered up. Her body was then engulfed in flames as solar magic suddenly surrounded her. "Solar Magic: Sunbreaker - Devastator Code!" She grinned as she leapt down and then slammed her hammer down on the ground, causing the Acolytes to be caught in the fire tornado that occurred soon after.
"Ren, with me! We got Knights to kill. Pyrrha, think you can handle the Wizard?" Jaune asked his teammates.
"Of course." Both Pyrrha and Ren replied in unison. Jaune and Ren then went for the Knights, Ren using his weapon's cord upgrade to get in close before unloading a full magazine into its face, killing it. Jaune meanwhile shot his knight in the knees with his bow and sliced it in half with his sword. Though he didn't notice the third one sneaking up on him… Which was stopped by Nora suddenly bashing its head into the ground.
"What the-?!" The blond boy yelped as he spun around… And saw Nora grinning at him while standing over a very dead Knight. As the creature crumbled, the three then grabbed the worms and got ready to destroy them, when Pyrrha killed the Wizard by blasting her javelin into its head.
"The Wizard is dead!" She called as she got her javelin back. With that the Worms were destroyed and then the ground crumbled, only for Ishtar to suddenly shoot out the hole and float about them. Her wide black dress floated with her as she glared at them.
"There she is!" Nora's AED exclaimed as the team of four took cover.
"Pyrrha! Use your Shade Bringer super!" Jaune called.
"On it!" The redhead exclaimed as she extended her javelin and then twisted the shaft, causing it and herself to be enveloped by Stasis magic. She then began to hover above the ground as Milo turned from a javelin into a scepter made of Stasis ice.
Waving the scepter over her head, the redhead blasted the Queen Lust with the dark ice and upon making contact with Ishtar, it immediately started freezing her.
"Nora, send some grenades her way!" Jaune exclaimed.
"Aye aye!" The gingerette saluted before sending a full clip of Magnhild's grenades at their target, inflicting a good deal of damage as the blast set the sin based Grimm free. Before they could do anything else, Ishtar let out a shriek and retreated to recover.
"She's certainly a slippery one, isn't she?" Sienna noted as the kids leapt into the pit.
"What do we call these things anyway?" Jaune asked as he stabbed an Acolyte in the face.
"How about the Hive?" Nora suggested, sending a Thrall flying.
"That works." Joan chirped. However the thrall that Nora swung at soon went crashing down until it collided with the back of a large, hulking creature.
It looked like a thrall, by its head looked like it was a giant tumor and it's body looked as if it were in pain with every move it made.
"What… Is that…?" Pyrrha asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"That… Would be an Ogre. A Thrall that's been mutated through constant merciless and hellish torture." The tiger woman explained.
"Kill it with fire. That's all I have to say about this thing." Ren declared.
"With an appearance like that? I agree wholeheartedly." Jaune nodded as he looked at the grotesque appearance of the Ogre.
However as they went to assault it, the creature turned around and then roared at them before it started firing rapid fire eye beams at them.
"Whoa!" Jaune yelped as he set up a banner shield.
"I got it!" Nora yelled as she shot a heart shaped volley of grenades at the Ogre's head, causing it to explode and crumble like all the Hive. Team JNPR continued on until they reached a bridge where a dark image of Ishtar suddenly appeared.
"This is straight out of Sky's handbook." Jaune said. The copy tried to trap them in Void cages, but they escaped, and it was quickly destroyed. "Come on, let's go!" He called.
Continuing forward, they soon reached the heart of the nest. "Sienna, we've found the center of the nest." Pyrrha told the woman.
"Burn it." The tigress growled.
"On it." Jaune replied before several Hive, including a Knight, entered the area. And right behind them, was Ishtar.
"You will pay for taking my husband away from me!" The Salem lookalike shrieked in rage.
"Kiss my ass, bitch!" The Law of Pacifism retorted, flipping her off. The creature roared as she suddenly started causing explosions of fire to shoot all over the place as more Hive poured into the room.
"Come get some!" Nora exclaimed, ready to smash their skulls in.
"I'm right behind you." Ren added, readying his weapons.
"Are you ready to end this, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she readied her sword and her shield, her boyfriend doing the same.
"Let's do this." He nodded. With that, the couple charged at their quarry, intent on ending her.
As the two leapt at the Queen Lust, Jaune swung his sword at her and slashed her in the side before activating his shield's sword enhancement mode to strike another blow to her.
"AGH! You bastard!" Ishtar yelled in pain.
"My parents are married, thank you." Was Jaune's witty retort. "Pyrrha!" He called right as his girlfriend leapt onto Ishtar's shoulders and drove her sword through her chest before extending it into javelin form and pinning her to the ground.
Ishtar tried to break free but unfortunately she was stuck, which allowed Jaune to take her head clean off with Crocea Mors and Dire Wolf's Fang.
"Sienna, it's done." The blonde said. "Ishtar is dead." He told her.
"Oh, so quickly? If it was that simple, I don't think this counts toward your debts. I want a fair trade." The crime lord stated.
"That wasn't the agreement, Khan." The Knight growled.
"Oh, there was no agreement, little Knight. Just considerations, mights and maybes." Sienna replied before letting out a laugh.
"Why you—!" The blonde started to yell before she hung up. "FUCK!" He yelled.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile in Mantle, one of Sienna's black market clerks was busy conducting business. More specifically, she was selling a Synaptic Amplifier that was undamaged and completely intact.
"Not sure why you'd want this thing. Without a mind bending semblance like the Manipulator's it's pretty much just a piece of scrap metal." The woman shrugged as she spoke to the person in front of her.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." A male voice said before the person was revealed to be Watts. "I'm sure I can make it work." The man said with a sly smile.
(Elsewhere)
-Mountain Glenn, Vale-
Torchwick stood at the entrance of the abandoned city known as Mountain Glenn as he looked for something, though what it was there was no telling. As he looked, he was stalked by a pack of Beowolves that were observing him.
As they approached him, he took off his hat and revealed that both his eyes were now corrupted. Reaching his hand out he attempted to touch one of the Grimm, but it backed away, causing the others to do the same as he walked forward into an area filled with water. In the middle of that area… Was a shard of the moon.
The man stood before it as it shined in the dark, Wolf's Pack in hand. Then the illusion of Neo appeared next to him. "Be brave." It told him as the redhead reached his hand out to the shard, causing the residual magic left behind in it by the gods to reach out to him.
Roman pointed Wolf's Pack at a specific spot on the shard and fired at it until the clip was empty… And kept pulling the trigger for a bit afterwards while letting out a cry. After he stopped, he looked at a glowing shard that had been revealed.
"Now take it." The illusion told him as he did so, the shard seemingly very heavy to him as he held it in his hand. Roman continued to look at the shard as the corruption coursed through his body, it would soon be time. "Move." Neo's illusion told him as the man narrowly dodged being shot in the head by a sniper bullet.
"Dammit!" The voice of Winter cursed before she ran away from the scene, the Beowolves giving chase. "Sky, I need another portal, now!" She said into her com as a portal appeared and she ran through, appearing on the Immortal Rage.
"What did you learn?" The King asked as soon as she appeared.
"He took a shard of the moon." The Schnee sister said, trying to catch her breath as Emerald gave her some water. "Thank you, Emerald." She said.
"What on earth would Roman want with a fragment of the moon of all things?" Autumn asked.
Meanwhile, Oscar seemed to be thinking. "Jaune, didn't you say that you guys saw an old watchtower on the Forgotten Shore?" He asked.
"Yeah. Why?" The blond knight asked… Right before the answer hit him like a building falling on him. "Oh shit." He gasped.
"I'll investigate and see if that's the case." Winter said.
"What's so important about that watchtower?" Ruby asked.
"It's in a place known as the Dreaming City. The last remnant of the original humanity and it was part of the same castle Oz and Salem called home before they cut ties." Oscar explained. "It's also built around the original domain of Aether, the Older Brother. And is said to house something inside."
"What's housed in it?" Yang asked.
"No one knows for certain, but legend has it that it could be the pool of creation that gave Salem her immortality." The boy shrugged. "Oz never really said anything about it either."
"Then let's agree that we'll be careful should we be forced to enter that tower." Pyrrha chimed.
"Right." Everyone nodded. That was when Ruby noticed the necklace Weiss had on.
"Hey Weiss, where'd you get that necklace?" She asked. Winter meanwhile seemed to be interested as well.
"Yes, I've been wondering that as well." The woman nodded.
"Oh, Jaune got it for me at the Forgotten Shore." The whitette replied. Everyone looked at it intently and noticed that it was indeed a fossilized heart. However it was Sky who recognized what it really was.
"Jaune, where did you get that Ahamkara heart?" The Knight asked.
"I got it from Sienna. She said it wasn't doing anything, so I figured it was safe." The Law of Pacifism shrugged. Sky immediately facepalmed at that.
"It wasn't doing anything because it hadn't found anyone with any really strong desires!" He nearly yelled before turning to Weiss. "Weiss, please tell me you didn't wish for anything with that thing around."
"Um…" The girl uttered, squirming a little. "I...may have… erm… wished to have Wolfgang back?" She replied weakly. Sky's eyebrow twitched before he walked over to a wall and placed a hand on it before taking a deep breath. Then…
BAM!
He one inch punched it to rubble, causing everyone to jump before the wall reassembled itself. "What?" He growled at her, causing the girl to yelp in fear and hide behind Ruby and Winter.
"Sky, easy. Calm down." Yang said as she and Blake tried to calm his nerves.
"One does not simply calm down after learning what we just did…!" The Knight of Yul seethed as he tried his best to keep his anger in check.
"I'm sorry!" Weiss cried as she fell to her knees, Winter trying to keep her calm as she suddenly started crying. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have used the heart but… I couldn't stop myself, I—I just—I just want him back!" She cried before burying her face into her sister's shoulder, while her teammates quickly went to and hugged her.
Sky looked at the scene and sighed as he slumped in a nearby chair and placed his face in his hands. He felt so mentally exhausted right now. First, his friend and rival dies, and now one of his friends and Laws made a wish near an Ahamkara fossil…
'I need a drink.' The King thought tiredly. As he thought this, Qrow looked at him and recognized the look on his face, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder he gestured for him to get up.
"Come on, I know a place where you can give your brain a rest." The recovering drunk told him as he led the king off the ship.
It had been a very, very long day.
Dragon Emperor0: Well. Cat's out of the bag on two fronts this chapter. And we're officially two chapters away from ending the Forgotten Arc and entering the post arc transition into the Terramind Arc.
ThermalsniperN7: Yep. If you guys are wondering when Yang got pregnant, you'll find out after this arc is over. Also… Damn. I think Sky's starting to feel the stress of what he's doing. It's a miracle he doesn't have grey hairs yet.
Dragon Emperor0: Luckily for him he has a massive support network to help him through all this. Let's see, after the next two chapters we'll be doing two strikes and a Raid before Terramind begins… So I'd say we'll be able to finish Forgotten by next Friday. Maybe.
ThermalsniperN7: Somewhere around there. Anyway, see you guys next time.