Vol: 7 Chapter 18: Warden of Nothing
(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.)
-Prison of Elders-
In a portion of the prison, the grate of an air duct fell to the ground and Team RWBY fell from it. The girls looked around and saw that there were no enemies in view… For now, anyway.
"Clear. Nomad, we're in." Ruby said to her team's tactical overseer for the mission.
"Great job Lil Rosey. Ya know, I gotta say I haven't seen kids as spunky as you in a long time." The Rogue Huntsman said. "Not since the Dark Age, that is."
This comment raised some eyebrows since the Dark Age was an era that took place over a hundred years before the Great War.
"Let's ask about that later." Blake commented, getting a series of nods in return. As they continued on the group soon encountered a few Viral Goblins.
Yang was first to strike, dashing quickly before they could react and placed her delayed detonate shells on them before causing them to blow up.
"Fight strongly in the Challenge of Elders, inmates. Appease your warden, yes?" A voice suddenly said over the speakers.
"Was that—?" Harriet asked in shock.
"I thought you said Indigo left his post, Nomad?!" Clover added.
"Ha! Hell no! And he did. That's the Warden's Servitor. Thing blew its brain when the Warden left the building. It thinks it IS the Warden. Uses a print of his voice." Nomad explained. "The Damn thing's gone totally wackadoo."
"Well that's annoying." Weiss remarked as Snowflake opened the door in their way.
"So Clover, what can you and the Ace Ops tell us about Indigo?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, why'd he leave his post?" Yang added.
"He was always a bit of a skittish guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he ran off to avoid getting killed." The man explained.
"He's also a very active Spider faunus who is very loyal to his kind and their cause of equality." Vine added. "It often pitted him against his superiors for obvious reasons. Especially when he had to imprison his own people."
"In fact, after Carrion was captured, the guy started messing with his head by making him question his loyalty to Atlas given their treatment of the faunus as a whole." Marrow added. "Seeing them become Corrupted made it even worse."
"It was all most likely too much for him." Elm sighed. "It's probably why he tried to resign and get reassigned so many times."
"Why didn't you let him?" Blake asked. That was when Harriet responded with a scoff.
"Who gives a damn? He abandoned his duties and disobeyed orders, he's a traitor. Traitors don't get sympathy." The woman said.
"Well maybe he thought what you were doing was wrong." The cat faunus retorted.
"A soldier isn't paid to think, they're paid to obey, kid. End of story." Harriet said.
"Now where have we heard that before?" Yang said, rolling her eyes before she had to dodge roll out of the way of a train that came zooming by her. "I was really hoping the trains would be disabled." She sighed.
"Like I said sister, thanks to that Servitor? The whole goddamn prison's gone wackadoo on us." Nomad told her as they went under the tracks. They then dropped down to another active railway with trains zooming by.
"So glad we have hoverbikes now." Ruby sighed, silently thanking Sky for getting his hands on those blueprints when he did.
"Yeah, it'll make everything so much easier—WHOA!" Yang nodded before they lurched out of the way of a torch cannon blast from a Viral Minotaur who were fighting what looked to be ex soldiers in red garb.
"The Cabal War Machine is on the march. Fight the Praxis Dreaming Mind of the Shore Viral collective, Yes?" The warden servitor said.
"Okay, whose bright idea was it to make some Viral start a prison gang?" Burn questioned.
"I didn't even know they could." Elm notes.
"It's all just several Viral under the control of one mind, nothing big." Nomad shrugged.
"Who are the Cabal?" Weiss asked.
"Ex soldiers or descendants of soldiers from the Great War who are anti kingdom. They're highly militarized and live to conquer. They've been suspected of helping with the Fall of Beacon and the attack on Haven." Clover said.
"Well then these assholes can go fuck themselves." Yang grunted as the group entered what looked like an arena of sorts for prisoners to fight in.
"Welcome to the arena of Elders. Begin fighting now, yes? First opponent will be…" the warden said before a seven foot tall coyote faunus carrying a khopesh/shotgun and was wearing fur lined armor appeared. "Kansas, The Betrayed!" It continued.
"What's this guy's story?" Blake wondered as the team took cover.
"The guy was a disgruntled Dust refinery worker in Vacuo, he tried to get better conditions for him and the other workers by joining a work union who tried to bring change by going on strike." Clover told them.
"But when these strikes started hurting productivity, someone bribed the police to arrest some of them and the rest of the union left him high and dry." Marrow added.
"He's in here because he maimed the police while resisting arrest." Vine clarified.
"Oh for crying out loud…" Ruby muttered as she facepalmed. "Why does this always happen?" She sighed over the gunfire.
"Because there are common instances of people being idiots." Weiss told her as she patted her partner's shoulder.
"Hey Weiss, mind helping me and Blake get the drop on these guys with a Freezerburn smokescreen?" Yang asked.
"Right." The whitette nodded as she covered the area in ice before Yang leapt into the air and punched it, causing a large amount of mist to form.
"Ready to give this guy a Bee sting, babe?" The blonde asked as she reloaded her gauntlets.
"You know it, honey." Blake purred as she reloaded Gambol Shroud. The two charged and the cat faunus blasted her weapon over Kansas's head and Yang grabbed onto it mid air and then was swung around by her lover, causing her to be able to slam her fist into the coyote faunus's face, sending him skidding backward.
"Gah!" Kansas grunted as he tried to recover from the blow, only to get hit by a blast of fire from Weiss.
"Alright Ruby, get ready for a Time Dilation boost." The former heiress told the speedster.
"Aw yeah!" Ruby exclaimed with an eager grin. Weiss then used lightning Dust with her glyphs to boost Ruby and the scythe user blasted off with her semblance, swinging and blasting herself with her weapon to hack through Cabal and Viral in her way before she slammed Crescent Rose against Kansas's weapon, causing a shockwave.
Yang quickly sent a blow at the coyote faunus' legs, causing him to fall to a knee. Before he could get back up, Weiss encased his body in ice.
"And done." Ruby smiled, before alarms went off.
"Nice work sisters." Nomad told them.
"Aw what now?" Harriet groaned.
"Dismantle mines, yes? Or, you die." The warden said as splinter mines appeared and more enemies poured in.
"Crap! Disable those mines!" Ruby shouted in alarm as everyone went to the mines. Ruby took one, Weiss took another and the last one was taken by Blake. Yang, meanwhile, was busy trying to handle crowd control.
Several minutes later, the third and final wave came. "Final Opponent: Achilles, the Polarity Mind." The warden said as a giant Viral appeared, more specifically a bipedal one they hadn't seen before with wings and a laser whip tail.
"And that, girls, is a Wyvern." Marrow said. "Watch the tail, you don't want to get hit by it."
"Yeah, that's a given." Yang quipped. "How do we take it down?" She asked.
"Go for the ankle joints, a couple good hits there and it should fall like Beacon Tower." Nomad said in a dry humorous manner.
"Not funny." The four girls deadpanned. However they were soon brought back into the fight when the Viral started using some sort of magnetic attack to pull them in.
"Okay, what the hell?!" Weiss barked as she sent a blast of lightning at two Viral Goblins, then charged her blade with fire dust and jabbed a Hobgoblin several times before it blew up.
"Well it is called the Polarity Mind." Blake noted, locking a Cabal soldier in place with a stone clone she managed to get his hand stuck in.
Ruby took a shot at one of the ankle joints of the Viral Mind. The shot had the desired effect of causing it to stop pulling them towards it and drop to one knee.
"And now it's my turn!" Yang grinned before she launched herself into the air and then started shooting the robot over and over until it blew up.
As the explosion ended, the ring/dome in the middle of the arena opened, allowing them to go down deeper.
"You have done well. Fought hard, now, treasure awaits you." The warden told them.
"Finally, something good in all this!" Ruby sighed as the trudged to some kind of airlock area and jumped into a hole in the floor and off a series of platforms before finding themselves in an empty treasure room with a chest on the other side.
"Oh, what's this?" The rogue wondered.
"Let's have a look at what we got." Yang said as she opened the chest… Only for it to turn out to be a trap as an energy dome appeared around them. "Oh kiss my ass!" She groaned.
"Ha ha ha ha! Looks like the Deceiver left you a present. I always hated her. Ha! But she made me laugh." Nomad laughed as the floor under the girls disappeared and they began falling through a gravity lift. "Buckle up, girls. The Warden's Servitor is down here, and he's got some grizzled veterans with him. Good luck." The man told them as they landed at the bottom of the lift and leapt into a wrecked arena looking hub.
"Greetings Huntresses. You have reached, final level. Fight hard and win, yes?" The servitor said as it appeared. It was spherical and it seemed to be pulsing with solar energy.
"Better be careful, otherwise we'll get a bad sunburn." Yang said to try and ease the tension a little.
"Yeah, we don't need you to get roasted like in the Vytal Festival, Weiss." Ruby added.
"Oh ha ha." The heiress said sarcastically.
"Heh. Now that's good comedy material." Nomad chuckled. This was immediately interrupted by the servitor shooting a beam of solar dust at them.
"YIKES!" The girls yelled as they took cover behind some pillars.
"I'm gonna take a guess and say that opening it's shooting that beam out of us the weak point!" Blake exclaimed as she took a few shots at their target, doing light damage to it.
"That's probably—WHOA!" Yang said before ducking again as the servitor opened its shell and sent fire everywhere, burning every living thing in its path alive.
"How was that important for a mining drone?!" Ruby questioned before noticing that the edge of the end of her cloak was singed, which pissed her off. "That's it! Now I'm mad!" She yelled.
"This servitor was reworked to be combat oriented. Hence its… many combat capabilities." Vine told them as they started shooting after the attack stopped.
"Ya see sisters, this is why I say you should never trust Atlas specialists." Nomad said. "They always keep things from ya."
"Oh shush." Weiss huffed as she sent a blast of lightning at the Servitor to try and damage its circuits.
Blake then swung herself in close to use her clones and Gambol Shroud's sheath to get in multiple hits before slicing a large gash in the servitor's 'eye'.
"Cabal strategist, Sergeant Blood." The ocular based machine buzzed as a large muscular man appeared. He was garbed in Cabal clothing and had what the girls swore was dried blood all over him.
"Sergeant Blood was the same man who gave Rex Khan his injury before he joined the Cabal. He hates the faunus with unsettling zeal." Clover told them. "If I remember correctly, he also branded Adam Taurus when he worked for the SDC temporarily." He added. This caused the girls to glare at him.
"As much as I'd rather not kill, I'll make an exception for people like him!" Ruby hissed as her eyes glowed. "Let's get him girls!" She yelled as they ran towards the Cabal members.
"I'll kill all of you and make that faunus beg for death!" The man yelled murderously as he glared at Blake, but was forced to dodge an attack from Yang.
"Lay a hand on her and I'll punch you so hard you'll be pulled inside out through your asshole!" The brawler yelled as she decked Sergeant Blood in the face.
"Gah! You freak loving bitch!" He yelled as he charged at her, only for Ruby to blitz by him and slice the Achilles tendons in both of his feet, causing him to fall.
Blake and Weiss then readied their swords before shooting forward, with both going into the man's heart as his aura dissipated. This left the girl's with the Servitor, which was charging another solar shockwave.
"Okay girls, back up." Yang told them, cracking her knuckles. "I'll handle the floating toaster oven." She told them, her Ember Celica activated and ready to demolish something.
"This'll be good." Blake remarked with a smirk as she and the rest of the team backed up. Yang then took a stance before letting out a war cry as she lunged at the Servitor and punched it so hard that it sputtered as the girl flew threw the air, doing a series of flips before landing on her feet with a smirk on her face with her back to the Servitor, which exploded a few moments later.
"Okay. I'm making a mental note never to piss you off." Nomad remarked, sounding intimidated by Yang's display of strength.
"Don't fuck with this Queen." Yang remarked coolly as she put her shades on.
"Good job Team RWBY, we'll send people down there to reclaim the prison shortly. For now though, you guys just come back home." Clover told them.
"And don't you worry sisters, I'll get you that pay cut I promised you. And trust me, you're gonna like it." Nomad added.
(Later)
Back at Atlas Academy, Team JNPR was busy taking the day easy with routine patrols and other low stress jobs, though as they did, they soon came face to face with Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses.
"Is there something we can help you with, Miss Hill?" Ren asked.
"Actually, braids, there is." The blonde nodded before she looked at Jaune. "Been hearing rumors that you and your friends have been helping the Nomad with his little 'project'." She said.
"What of it?" The boy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You kids should be careful who you mess around with. The man you know as the Nomad's been around since the Dark Age Thanks to that semblance of his." One of the Huntresses, Joana, said.
"What's his semblance?" Pyrrha asked.
"Halted aging. And thanks to how he lives his aura was never broken, so his reserves are high, making it always stay on." May Marigold continued. "And add on his AED and you gotta guy who's basically immortal."
"Well that certainly explains a few things." Nora noted.
"We're concerned about what he's doing with his 'Gambit' game because of this." Fiona Tyme, a sheep faunus said as she showed them a picture of the Derelict, with a massive planetoid behind it.
"Oh, you mean the haul?" Jaune asked. "Yeah, we know about that, it's an asteroid he carries around to keep his ship powered, since it's made of Dust."
"That's what he wants you to think." Robyn countered.
"What is it, then?" Pyrrha asked.
6
"We're not sure ourselves, but we've been hearing rumors that it's actually a big chunk of the Ascendant Plane." Fiona told her. That caused Team JNPR's eyes to widen.
"Oh, Sky and the Iron Wolves are gonna want to hear about that for sure." Jaune said in surprise.
"And there's something I also wanna know, blondie." Robyn said to the Knight, crossing her arms. "Heard you went on a Vendetta trip against the Captains, and it makes me wanna know… If you're the one who killed Roman Torchwick, word is he's dead."
"Um… Not exactly." The boy said awkwardly. "I mean, I was there when he died, but I wasn't the one to kill him." He continued.
"Then who did?" She questioned. "And why didn't you?"
"If you're aware of the Eternal Laws, then you should know how mine works." Jaune said. Robyn was about to ask what he meant before it hit her.
"Oh! Right. Yeah, I can understand not being the one to pull the trigger." The woman said in understanding. "But… Who did?" She asked.
"Winter Schnee." He told her, though if Blake or Sky were there, he'd be stone. "Sky was there so he kept my law from affecting her."
"Fair enough. At least he's out of the picture." The blond woman shrugged.
"Yeah, at least…" Jaune nodded. That was when he got a call from Winter. "Well speak of the devil." He said as he answered.
"Jaune, we have a problem." The specialist said on the other end.
"Oh gods. What's the problem?" He asked.
"It's The Necromancer. He's back." Winter told him. The news caused the boy to mutter a curse.
"Damn. Where is he?" He asked.
"In the slums of the Forgotten Shore." The woman replied. Jaune sighed as he turned to his team.
"Alright, we'll be right there." He told her as he hung up. "Well guys, looks like we've got some unfinished business to take care of." He told them with a serious look on his face.
(Elsewhere)
Nomad was busy giving team RWBY Dark Age weapons tech to add to their weapons as well as a sizable chunk of lien.
"Say, what's that you got there?" Nomad asked as he pointed at an orb of Paracausal energy infected mass on Blake's belt.
"I'm not sure, it dropped when we were battling a Primeval Enthralled Servitor during a Gambit match." The cat faunus shrugged.
"Let me have a look at that." The man said as he held his hand out. Blake gave him the mass and he took a good look at it. "Well how about that." He said to himself with a grin.
"What is it?" Ruby asked.
"The core of a Primeval Enthralled. This could make an excellent core for a new weapon I've been working on." The man told them.
"What kind of weapon, exactly?" Weiss inquired.
"Nothing big. Just a hand cannon." The man replied. "If you girls want, we could work on it together, and I could help one of you infuse it to the weapon of whoever wants it." He added.
"Hm…" Yang hummed as she mulled it over before shaking her head. "Not me." She said.
"I'm more of a sniper." Ruby nodded.
"I don't think it would fit my weapon." Weiss added.
This left Blake alone to take it. "Alright, I'll take it." She told Nomad. The man grinned as he stowed the core away.
"Alright then, let's go." He told them.
Dragon Emperor0: One post arc event down, two to go. Then we go into Terramind and a side arc known as a season. The first of these seasons is the Season of the Nomad. Wherein our heroes will have to choose who they're willing to trust: Ironwood and Robyn, or Nomad.
ThermalsniperN7: And there's gonna be a lot of tension in that one, so brace yourselves. It's gonna be nuts.
Dragon Emperor0: Hopefully by introducing something like this into the story will help flesh out why Ironwood and the kids split at the end of Vol. 7, also about why we didn't do arcs like this based on other Destiny campaigns in earlier volumes? It's because we couldn't find a good reason to have them happen in the locations available. Like take Curse of Osiris for example. That campaign is in the desert, it'd make more sense to do it in Vacuo.
ThermalsniperN7: Right. And we all know where Terramind is taking place with an example like that. Anyway, see you guys next time.