Hi! So in my story the spirit in the Relic of Creation is Shewmaker as, when I wrote him, Ambrosios hadn't been introduced just yet. Just wanted to write a small reminder here ;)
Chapter Text
Bellamy didn't struggle much as Mercury pushed him into the study. He casually noted that the old door had been destroyed. His father would be turning in his grave at the state of the office he had so meticulously cared for during his tenure. At least the astrolabe seemed to still be in one piece- it was in the small victories. Of course Bellamy had other, more serious worries, many of which revolved around Valerian. He had never been one to lose his head and he had not been selected to be the leader of Team BTKV just because his dad had been headmaster. With such hot blooded members they needed someone capable of deciding when it was time to fight, defend or run.
This was a scenario where struggling would not have done him an inch of good. Not right now anyway.
He could feel the cold steel pressed against his neck. His Aura may have been able to block small nicks but he doubted he would be able to block a full slicing and, if he got decapitated, Valerian would drag him back from the afterlife just to kill him all over again.
The sight that had greeted him did not particularly fill him with confidence. His brother was strung up by a number of Grimm arms, as if ready to be crucified, a blade of fire pressed against his own neck. The woman standing beside him was rather pretty, although young for him, but that may have been one of the reasons why Theodore did not seem particularly concerned in his current situation. The rest, however, seemed far less comfortable. Similar talon tipped hands had Qrow pinned to the ground, Harbinger pinned to his chest under him as he struggled to escape. The doctor half-wondered why the Huntsman had not simply turned into his bird form. Maybe, given the situation, he had not thought of the possibility or, he was worried that the arms would crush his much smaller avian counterpart.
The three youngsters were in no state to counterattack either. One, Qrow's niece if he recalled, Summer Rose's daughter, could not even look up and he half worried if she was able to breath with her face pressed as it were. Ozpin's reincarnation was dangling upside down, his face was flushed as the blood rushed to his head. His cane was on the ground under him, stubbornly out of reach. Emerald, the defector that had warned them of Salem's attack seemed to be the most loosely restrained. A single hand held her down by her wrists. She didn't struggle, although her wide eyes only widened further when she slowly turned her head away from the fiery eyed woman toward him and his captor.
Mercury stopped walking to stand beside the source of the spider web of black arms that had his brother and the rest restrained. A young girl in what younger people would have called a cute green dress. She had long ginger hair much like Val's had been when she had been healthy, however, like the woman he'd encountered in the clinic, it seemed that bits and pieces of her had been replaced by parts of Grimm. Bellamy had seen his share of Grimm over the years but these latest creations of Salem's, these Necrogrimm, where by far the most horrible, true abominations of nature. Those Nemusa were a close second, remembering how efficiently they had felled the Huntsmen in the lower floor. Had the people of this room also been infected? If they were fortunate to survive what ever happened now, were they destined to suffer from the Scourge as Amelia and Valerian had thanks to those creatures?
"E-Emarald?" Mercury stammered out, surprised to see her. What was she doing here? Tyrian had not told him that she had also been recruited for the Vacuo mission. But, if that were the case, why was she being restrained by the Necrogrimm alongside the enemy?
"Mercury!" She yelled, for the first time struggling against the monstrous arms that held her down. "Mercury you have to-"
But whatever Mercury had to do never reached him when one of the remaining free arms slithered over her mouth, gagging the woman as she desperately tried to tell him something. However all that left her were mouth muffled muttering beyond comprehension.
"Cinder, what's going on here?" He demanded. Was this part of the plan? Tyrian had warned him about Cinder and the Necrogrimm back when he was still at Pataha Harbour but why hadn't he been told of Emerald? Why was she being treated as roughly as Ruby and the other brats?
"Emerald is just struggling with a little of a change of heart." Cinder pointedly said, her voice clearly indicating she did not want further questions. However Mercury pressed on.
"What does that mean?" He demanded.
"That it has nothing to do with you or the mission." Spat Cinder, fire flaring in her eye, causing it to gleam manically. "Now do your job or I'll make the Necrogrimm do the same to you."
Mercury opened his mouth as if to answer back but forced it closed. He'd have to deal with this after the mission. It must have been a part of the plan Tyrian had failed to tell him about. The Faunus had a tendency of telling Mercury only what he thought he needed to know when it came to his schemes and it was becoming rather annoying.
"I told you we should have taken their weapons when they got here." Bellamy complained, still feeling the cold touch of Mercury's blade, although his hold on him had somewhat weakened as the younger man had argued with the Fall Maiden. If his brother had listened to him they may not have had blades pressed at both their throats at that moment.
"And how where the rest meant to help us if they were disarmed?!" Countered Theodore, his voice taking an annoyed tone with his younger brother, as if they'd had this argument many times before. "Would we have fought them off with your spaghetti arms?"
"We might not be in this situation if we had!" Was Bellamy's response, although his voice didn't rise as he did so. It was very rare for the doctor to raise his voice in any situation.
"Enough!" Yelled Cinder in disbelief, did these two not see the situation they were in? Or were they so confident in their plan, whatever it was, that they could afford such senseless bickering?
"Like I said, you can torture me all you want." Theodore answered cooly, "I won't tell you where the Vault is."
"What if it's your brother its your brother I torture instead?" Smoothly suggested Cinder. There was no gestation in her voice as she said this.
Theodore shrugged as much as he could in his current position.
"He'd suggest starting with my tongue." Bellamy casually answered in the headmaster's stead. "My voice always annoyed him, even when we were kids. He neve liked that it was the voice of reason in the family."
"It's like a little irritating voice inside my head that I never want to hear." Theodore added, for Cinder's benefit, as if such details would help her understand better.
"You made a little miscalculation in your scheme." Bellamy continued. " We may be family but we were never close. You could pull out all my teeth, torture me until you get bored or even kill me and Theodore wouldn't bat an eye. He knows how important it is that Salem never gets her hands on the Relic or the Maiden."
Bellamy's voice was calm as he said this and free of emotion, making it impossible to read whether he actually believed his own words or not. Qrow had known Bellamy since his younger days. He knew the brothers' relationship had always been strained but to that extent? He doubted it but time and loss changes people, he knew that much. It could bring some closer and others further apart.
"Is that so?" Cinder observed, her voice skeptical. "Then if that's the case, we have no reason to keep you alive. I'll try my luck with the torture, we've got some very persuasive methods."
Cinder nodded her head at Mercury. The assassin shrugged nonchalantly, it was for jobs like this that Cinder had picked him for. Although he was still irked at how she'd spoken to him when he'd asked about Emerald. He'd make sure he got answers after he was done with this part.
Bellamy was surprisingly calm in the face of being executed which was an impressive bravery Qrow had not expected from his old friend. He couldn't escape, that much was obvious but did he really believe his brother thought so little of him? Qrow struggled against the Grimm hands that held him pinned to the ground, his fist desperately pushing against the floor in an attempt to escape. Would Theodore really allow Salem to steal his brother from him as well?
Mercury, deliberately slowly, pulled back his hand to more efficiently thrust the blade through the man. He may have been an assassin but that didn't mean he'd have to suffer.
Bellamy stood there, not even flinching at the thought, his dark eyes looking at his brother's. There was no anger or disappointment in them, they were the eyes of a man who had accepted his faith. He nodded his head slightly, this was the faith the two of them had chosen when they'd begun this whole thing after their father's death.
Val is really going to kill me double for this. He thought to himself, mentally sighing and closing his eyes in preparation. Although she'd forgive him for meeting with Eleanora before her.
Mercury let out a steady breath, ready to strike down the man.
Silence.
"Stop!" Yelled Theodore, causing Mercury to pull back his hand in response, the tip of his blade moving away from the doctor's neck, a red mark all that remained from where the pressure had been building.
"Fine." He conceded, shaking his head, his curled hair flopping slightly as he moved, "I'll tell you."
"You're smarter than you look." Laughed Cinder.
"They'll just kill me once you give them what they want." Gasped Bellamy, bewildered that his brother would give in so easily. They had done what they had done to make sure that the Relic remained safe. That Valerian would remain safe. His life did matter as long as she remained safe and THAR meant keeping her and that damn Relic out of Salem's hands.
"Not if I tell them they can't open the Vault without you." Theodore boldly declared, causing Bellamy to groan in disbelief at his brother. Now what they had done had really been for nought! If Theodore told them what he knew, the only thing stopping them from reaching the Relic would be Valerian, and Bellamy's own ability to keep his own mouth shut. He wasn't very confident he was as tolerable of torture as his brother.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Demanded Cinder, pressing her blade to Theodore's throat, his Aura shimmering slightly in response.
"Have you lost it Theodore?!" Yelled the doctor, his voice finally losing some of its calm and levelness. What was the point of all they had done to ensure the Vault and Relic's safety if they just revealed their plans like this?
"Explain yourself." Cinder growled, pressing the side of her blade against his chest. But, although the material became singed the headmaster did not even flinch as the smell of burning material began to fill the air, soon it would be accompanied by the scent of burning flesh.
"Knowing how bad guys work." Calmly began Theodore, ignoring the dull pain that had begun to build where Cinder's sword touched. "We made it that none of us where disposable to you."
He smirked at the woman knowingly. "The Summer Maiden may be your way to the Relic and I may know the Vault's location but my brother there is the only one that knows the password to get in."
"He's obviously bluffing." Complained Mercury. "There's no way that would work."
"Not if they used the Relic of Destruction." Slowly began to say Oscar, recalling all Ozpin knew of the sword. The former headmaster of Beacon did not know of the Dell brothers' plan but Oscar could sense that he was impressed. Their plan had just safeguarded their own lives or, if one were to fall, that the Relic would remain hidden with the loss of their lives.
The Relic of Destruction, a Relic that, from Ozpin's memories, had never been used. No, that was a lie. A previous reincarnation of Ozma's had tried but, although its power was immense, like all the other Relics, it had a catch.
Jinn could answer only 3 questions a century.
Schewmaker, a creation at the price of his previous one.
Pied Piper, for that was the spirit's name, could not destroy living things. Even if it were impossible to believe, Salem and her creations were very much alive and so beyond the spirit's reach.
However Its power was incomparable, Ozma could sense as much from the time he summoned the spirit. He could have ended wars with a simple uttering of a word but, although Pied Piper could not directly take lives, the destruction he created could be devastating. With a simple word a war could be ended but the casualties would be far greater then if the two sides had fought with swords. That was why no reincarnation if Ozma's had ever called upon the spirit. However it seemed the Dell brothers had had no qualms with using its destructive powers in themselves.
"The Relic could have destroyed their memories." Oscar elaborated. "Making it that headmaster Theodore remembers the location while his brother remembers only how to get in."
"A double net." Cinder ventured, actually sounding a little impressed. She'd thought the headmaster of Shade would be the simplest to read but she had been wrong. He'd seen what had gone wrong in the other academies, how the headmasters' secrets and mistrust had led to their downfall and had evolved. Where the others had forcefully carried the secrets alone or with a select few, the Dell brothers had shared the burden, neither knowing more than the other making them equally as valuable in the acquisition of the Relic.
"And having us means nothing without the Summer Maiden." Continued Theodore rather proud of the plan they'd concocted.
"So your plan now lies in the fact that we don't have the Summer Maiden." Mused Cinder, sounding somewhat amused with the plan.
That was never a good sign but where Cinder thought they had a two layer web, there was a third layer which was Valerian. It wouldn't matter if he and Bellamy spilled their secrets, without Valerian it was useless. By now, Valerian would be long gone and out of Salem's reach.
Cinder looked at Mercury as if they were sharing an inside joke.
"You think he's done by now?" Ventured Cinder.
Mercury opened his mouth to open it but quickly closed it when an explosion caused the whole academy to rock. The glass windows shattered, showering them all in shards of glass as a wave of heat washed over them. Bellamy blinked against the heat, looking past his brother and to the outside. The windows overlooked the gardens and, at the edge a snake of smoke began to slither into the air. Had the gardens caught fire somehow?
But the only thing that was out there…
No…
A cold dread filled Bellamy's stomach.
No…
The only thing that stood at the garden's edge, where the smoke was darkly bellowing, was the cottage he and Val lived in.
She shouldn't have still been on the grounds.
She should have left the instant Qrow arrived.
No… She couldn't have been that stubborn.
Not when her life was on the line like that.
"Knowing Tyrian." Sighed Mercury, openly tired of his teammate's antics. " The fun's only just starting."
And that the next chapter! We didn't get to see much of Ruby and Co in this chapter but I hope you still enjoyed the update. Thank you so much for reading :D