Here we go again. Time for your monthly serving of mediocre OC fic :P.
Another twist of a wire. Another turn of the wrench.
After a month of effort, revisions, and introspection, it was almost done.
I walked in the middle of the street, uncaring of the blazing sun on this particularly miserable day. The wires wouldn't bend the way I wanted them to in order to create the three-phase alternate stater for the three-phase currents so that electricity was constant and smooth, along with increasing the capacity of the creation.
The main body of the apparatus was in my bag. All that I had left to finish was the winding of the converter. It was a difficult task, and the village blacksmith had already messed up a couple of times. Thankfully, I was able to roughly straighten out the copper wires in front of the apologetic smith.
"I'm sorry. I'm not used to fixin' such small things. It's usually just pots and pans with me." They had said.
I sat down in front of the manor, noting that a small crowd had begun to gather. There were only a couple of things I had left to do, anyways, and doing it in front of people might . I took out the main apparatus, laid it down on the smooth stone, and took out a screwdriver from my pockets to unscrew the bolts, opening up what was basically looked like an enlarged engine.
Some people began to mutter and point, but I shrugged. I was going to have to show them what this was eventually. Why not start now?
Braving my fears and readying my nonexistent public speaking skills, I stood up.
"This… uh…" Yun took a deep breath and clenched his fist.
"Is an electric generator."
"A… what?" somebody in the crowd shouted obnoxiously.
…
The citizens of menagerie were confused. What was an… electric generator? It was impossible to simply create electricity out of nothing. The person presenting about it also looked really nervous.
"Wait, wasn't this the boy that fished with us a couple months back? What is he doing now?" somebody muttered. Fish flopped in their bucket, some water spilling out and landing on the sizzling hot stone bricks, almost burning to the touch because of being baked in the sun all day.
"I-I know it doesn't look like much, but once I'm done with it, I can make electrical appliances work by connect-ecting them to these two wires."
Nobody could see what he was pointing at.
Many in the crowd sat down to watch the strange boy tinker. Instead of the nervousness shown while he was talking, the boy took a deep breath and zoned in onto his own, strange creation.
"That kinda looks like a bomb, you know?" an old manmuttered in the crowd. "Back when I was with Sienna, we used to use these kinds of things a lot."
"They wouldn't set it up in front of the chief's home, right?"
At last, the boy reached into the "electric generator", made something click into place, and shut the box. Then, with a screwdriver, the nuts and bolts were reunited, locking the internal components together.
The boy was sweatisng, though nobody was sure whether it was from nerves or just the heat. He turned to knock on the door, and returned about a minute later with a light bulb. Suprisingly, the chief followed him out.
"Ghira is here too?"
"Wait, isn't this some kinda… project thingy that the higher ups might want to make our lives easier? It was kinda the same with the person from vacuo that wanted to dig canals here, and that worked!"
"This has to be a scam." A young woman holding a bag of vegetables said. "There's no way that… whatever that is does the same thing as dust."
"A-as you can see, th-his is a light bulb that runs on dust." The boy stammered.
Everybody looked at the strange, glass object with an unfamiliar expression.
…
"Oh, wait. They've never used a lightbulb in their life." I thought, more sweat trickling down the back of my white shirt.
I took the two metal spikes in front of the wires and stabbed them into the thin metal of the lightbulb, securing the two wires and holding it in one hand. I brought one knee up and balanced the machine precariously on it, hoping that more people could see what I was doing.
"And once I connect the cr-rank to the g-gear, I can turn this to generate electric power. As some of you might know, e-electricity is actually s-something made of electrons, and you can generate it too with s-s-static electricity." I stuttered.
My heart was beating in my chest, harder than ever before. Blood roared through my brain, a dull throb reverberating throughout my mind.
What if I had forgotten a part? What if I had messed up some wires? What if I had used something other than copper?
What if… electromagnetism didn't even work the same way?
I took a deep breath and inserted the crank that was dangling out of my pocket into the machine, before strong hands took the box out of the precarious position.
"I can hold the box." Ghira grumbled, looking at me with an expression of what could be interpreted as doubt disguised as encouragement.
"Don't worry if it doesn't work. You still have time to get it right." He mumbled.
"Actually…" I said, thinking of something. What if the townspeople accused me of using dust? What if they thought I was tampering with the machine with my aura? I had shown that I could bend wires with my hands.
"Could you f-first inspect the machine to see if there is any d-dust or other energy sources in there? I-uh-I want to prove that this is totally authentic." I said rapidly, before my sudden burst of bravery ran out.
"Where could I do that?"
"There's a fiberglass viewing port that I put in there." I said, demonstrating to the side that Ghira was keeping to his stomach. The giant faunus turned the machine so that he could see down into the contraption. After a moment, he looked up again.
"There is no dust."
"A-and if it isn't too much t-trouble, please… turn the crank. Gently." I said, adding the word on as an afterthought.
"Of course." He said.
"I'll hold the the box for you, so all you need to do is just turn the crank and hold the lightbulb." I said, rambling on. The contraption changed possession once more, with me holding up its heavy metal chasis. The light bulb was held high in the air, and I squeezed the machine tight between my two hands as Ghira began to turn the lever.
The machine clacked, and the gears groaned. From the fiberglass port, I could see the stater spin furiously, the copper wire becoming one brown blur. Several other contraptions began whirring as well, before I looked up at the bulb. Everybody else was, as well.
It wasn't lighting up.
I looked down at the machine again, a tear almost welling in my eye.
"If there is a god, please. Let this work." I thought, squeezing them shut and hoping that once I opened them again, everything would be all right. My machine would work. Better yet, all of this was just a dream and Beacon hadn't been destroyed.
Or maybe, I could wake up on the riverbank, away from all this craziness.
I almost dropped the machine in my reminiscence, but I held it tightly once more. The sound of muttering and accusing whispers spread through the air like poison.
Sweat or tears trickled down my cheek, dropping onto the metal box. I didn't know which.
Ghira's spinning sped up. I had to really concentrate on not letting the box spin. The converter whirred and whirred, the copper now merely a blur, blending in with the steel behind it.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, another light showed itself.
It wasn't the sun, and it wasn't the sun's rays reflecting off of my sweat and tears.
The lightbulb had lit up.
I almost dropped the machine in relief. Ghira, however, stopped spinning. His hand went slack as he peered at the slowly fading light in the bulb.
"W-what? It actually…"
"It worked!" I shouted. I threw my head back… and smiled for the first time in a stress filled month. "My machine works!"
Clapping filled the small courtyard as many faunus walked up the stairs to watch the spectacle. Ghira had recovered from the shock and began turning the crank again, making the machine clank and whirr even more as the bulb lit up once more, temporarily outshining the sun.
Many hands rested on my shoulder or patted my back. I could see the initial doubters drop whatever they were holding. The fisherman that had spoken up at the start about my identity slung an arm across my shouder and looked up at the light.
"Well, kid. I knew you were different, but I didn't know that you were this different. How did you… make that?"
Instantly, the clamoring fell silent. Every eye turned to me once again.
This time, however, I didn't shy away.
"Mr. Belladonna, can I borrow some paper or something?"
This time, I was one hundred percent confident.
…
"So… the human has made some sort of device that creates electricity?"
"Yes." The grunt said, kneeling for some reason. Ilia stood behind her boss, intimidating mask on. She was, however, anything but sure.
Here was Adam, willing to kill and sabotage somebody who had brought something good to Menagerie, or even Remnant. Without the need for dust, the exploitation of the SDC could finally stop. The applications were endless for the technology.
But on the other hand, it was going to take time. Adam's solution was quick and easy, but the first step required the removal of Sienna.
The human had already demonstrated their ability to use aura, making him a prime suspect, even if many did not know the human's true identity.
She fidgeted with her sword nervously as Adam preached on.
"Soon, our plan can move to phase two, and no longer shall our brothers and sisters suffer in the darkness. We will be a united force after this, with our complacent leader out of the way of the glorious revolution. This… all starts now."
Even if borderline psychotic, Adam was a good orator if nothing else. She could almost see the golden future as Adam had described it, where faunus, not the humans, were at the top of the social ladder. Besides Adam, Ilia and-
Blake.
The name would always come out with a note of wistfulness when Ilia said it out loud. A slight blush graced her cheeks, but now was not the time to focus on… relations.
Why had Blake left? Blake, the person closest to Adam, the one that was there since the beginning, had… left.
Ilia was there only to be a replacement for her. And she knew that Adam sometimes still stared at the moon, sitting down at the dilapidated rooftop where their dreams began.
And, a couple of years later, two of them were left. Blake had joined the other side, and had apparently even opposed thema t Beacon.
How could Blake oppose their glorious cause? Couldn't she see that it was being done for… the greater good?
But, how would killing Yun Wu be justified as the greater good? Human he may be, he had just introduced the key to ending the faunus's oppression. No longer would they need dust. They could rely on… whatever that was.
And Adam was going to destroy him as soon as he stepped into Sienna's throne room to present the project.
Luckily, her mask hid her doubts. As always, at least she could hide away her fears and keep acting.
After all, that was what the faunus needed to move forward. Steeling herself, Ilia took a deep breath and stood straight once more. It wouldn't do for Adam's lieutenant to act uncertain.
Yun Wu had to die. It would be a pity, but he would have to die. Feelings were irrelevant in the face of the revolution.
Still, deep down, she could feel something festering and rotting. Something so empty and dark, calling –no- begging for her to stop.
She squashed that bug under her heels and stepped forward.
"You have done well, comrade." Ilia said as Adam had finished his speech. "Now, continue in your task. We expect more information from you. Give the Albanian brothers this as well."
She handed a folder filled with plans towards the grunt, who tucked it under their vest, took a shallow breath, and slowly breathed it out.
"The Belladonnas still need to be taken care of if we are to be united as one."
Adam watched the exchange, and grinned perhaps a little too widely, his knuckles whitening as it closed around the hilt of his katana.
…
I looked up at what looked like an entrance to a secure bunker. Contrary to the other buildings on the island, its plates were made of steel. In front of it, two white fang members wearing their signature masks stood guard, holding weapons.
"Hey… uh… I was sent here by the chief… to present something?" I said, raising a signed sheet of paper.
"Can you read, dude?" the guard on the right said.
"I can make out names. Let's see… Jhira? No. Ghira. And then… Sienna? Yeah. That thing is an 'n'. You can come in. Got any weapons on you?"
"I have a box." I said, lifting my bag. "This is the thing Ghira wants to show Sienna."
"Whatever. Is it dangerous?"
It could blow up if I used it wrong, but I wasn't going to say that.
"It isn't."
"Well, go in now."
The doors opened, and I descended down the stairs into an area almost devoid of people. One or two people grumbled as they swept the floors. Hallways that were lit up with lanterns branched off into what was marked as 'storage'.
At last, there was some sort of staircase leading up the mountain. I emerged up onto the surface of the ground, and kept walking until I reached what was a building carved into the mountain face. It wasn't that big compared to the mountain, and it was well-concealed by the plethora of trees in front of the building.
I knocked on the door, and the doors opened before me.
Sitting on an elaborate chair way too expensive to have been made locally, I saw what I assumed to be the leader of the White Fang.
The straps of my improvised backpack were weighing heavily on my shoulders, and I took a moment to catch my breath.
Seriously, I had just climbed up half of a mountain.
"You. What is all this about." Sienna Khan said in an all too bossy tone.
"Ghira… wanted me to… show you something." I took the lightbulb out of my pocket, and a couple of flash cards, before reminding me of my presentation.
I dragged my machine forward in the sack as Sienna looked at it skeptically. However, after the demonstration, during which I made her operate the whole system, she was somewhat convinced.
"This isn't some sort of… semblance trick, right?"
"My semblance is literally just giving me thirty percent aura after aura break. I don't think I can make anything glow. Besides, I have a purple color aura." I said, said color glowing on my fingers as my other hand held the fading lightbulb.
"Mr… Zhiling? You said?"
"Yep. Former Haven student." I said, much more relaxed now that the presentation was over.
"Your project is… approved. I'll send some construction workers down with you. How long will you need to make the new system?"
"It's-"
Clapping interrupted my sentence. Sienna's "guards", who all had apparently sat down to watch my light bulb demonstration.
"Get back to work, you imbeciles!" Sienna shouted, before turning back to me.
"Anyways, how much does making a bigger model cost?"
"Well, considering-"
The door slammed open.
"Will people just stop interrupt- Oh, greetings, Adam." Sienna said, rapidly calming down after seeing the man who entered the room.
I turned and saw him.
One of the most wanted in vale after the fall of Beacon, his red hair, bull horns, and red mask were unmistakable. The hand on his katana was casual, yet it showed that he was ready to draw it at any moment.
Behind him, a man in a green coat stood, silent. I didn't recognize him, and he didn't notice me, though his eyes did linger on my face for a bit.
"How goes your operations in Vale?" Sienna said, sitting down back on the chair. I scrambled to pack up the light bulb, the generator, and my scattered flashcards back into my bag. If I was quick about it, and got out of there fast enough, Adam might not notice me.
"C-can I leave?" I squealed, waving my hand a bit at Sienna to get her attention.
"And allying yourself with a human- oh, yes. Zhiling, you can go."
"…That's technically my first name." I grumbled, fastwalking to the exit.
"Wait." Adam said. "Yun Wu."
I froze.
"Did you think you could really leave… like this?"
"What are you talking about, Ada-"
A katana was drawn. The room stood in mute silence as Sienna looked down and saw a red sword in her gut.
Adam sheathed his katana, and Sienna crumpled.
"W… why?" Sienna groaned, reaching a hand upwards.
I could just run. I could just walk forward and leave the building, despite Adam also threatening to kill me.
"Didn't you realize, Sienna? You were never the one in contr-"
I had just punched him right in the face.
Grabbing Sienna's still convulsing form, I slung her over my back, reinforced my legs, and made a jump for it. In my other hand, I grabbed the bag that had the generator. I made it about halfway before a hand shot up and grabbed for my trailing leg. I was brought back to the ground, and with a sickening crash, both the lightbulb and the generator shattered.
"You're another one of his pawns, aren't you." The green-suited man growled.
"My creation…" Hanging upside-down, I mournfully looked at the bag. Several pieces of metal had flown out of the bag. My ears were ringing now, and my hands trembled as I looked at my invention, several months in the making, as a pile of scrap on the ground.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you, scum!" the man growled, his grip tightening on my leg.
A look of fury flashed across my face, and I used a Chi burst right in his face. Gusts of wind emanated from my body for the first time in almost half a year. The man yelped in surprise, fingers loosening for a second. I kicked him in the chest, flipping backwards, before grabbing Sienna's hand and ran for the exit.
"Damn you, human!" Adam shouted. A ray of red flashed across the room as I rolled to avoid the attack. Sienna wasn't as lucky. As her aura flared over her body to heal her wounds, the attack had caught her straight in the back.
I had finally reached the exit. Kicking a door off its hinges, I put Sienna's hands over my neck and leapt down the mountain.
"Get rid of the guards." Adam snarled at his men, who hastened to obey. He then dashed after me, cutting the other door that guarded the entryway in half.
Shouldering what was possibly literally deadweight, I began sprinting down the stairs. The balance of weight was precarious already, but add in the fact that I had to dodge bullets, katana… rays(?), and chunks of stone raining down on my head, I wasn't going to make it without a couple of bumps and scrapes.
Somehow, Adam landed in front of me.
"You two will not leave alive!" He snarled, swishing his katana in the air again.
"If you really meant that…" I said, putting down Sienna and charging my chi in my legs. "You wouldn't have stopped to talk."
With a kick to the ground that shattered my own foot, I propelled myself behind Adam. Then, extending both my arms, I poured all my Chi into my fingers and stabbed them towards his pressure points.
I was rusty, and I had missed the targets I had been going for on my right hand. My left, however, hit their marks.
Still, this small victory came at a hefty price. The Chi coursing through my brittle blood vessels, combined with the Chi burst that I had performed, caught up with those last, desperate jabs. My fingers felt like they were boiling as tiny holes appeared, the skin no longer containing the pressure. I fell backwards, my left foot still shattered.
Gritting my teeth, I made my aura flare all around my body. My foot twisted itself back into shape, and a shell of power forced the Chi at my fingertips to slam back into my chest. I had no time to vent out the pain, however, picked up Sienna, and continued running.
Adam, however, was paralyzed on his left side as well. His red aura flared to no avail, though it did dull the pain on his back, and he roared furiously, hobbling forward with his right leg.
It was only a matter of minutes before the aura corrected the attack on his pressure points. I climbed down as fast as I could, but it was still not as fast as before.
"Why did you save me?" Sienna mumbled. "If what Adam says is true and you're a human, why would you help me?"
"You know?" I muttered, "I don't know myself."
Another ray of red flew in from behind us, cutting off some of my hair.
I was reminded that we still weren't out of the clear yet.
Well, this chapter was probably long overdue. Sorry for not uploading in a while. But now that I have some time to relax from… everything else, I'll try to update some of my other fics too.
Discord server: pester me about updates, get pseudo early access (I post stuff there for discord peeps to edit), and just talk about stuff. Link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV
Remember to follow, favorite, and review! It really helps me hang in there and keep writing
Thanks for reading!
-SpiritOfErebus