Here we are at Chapter 96. We're coming to the beginning of the big battle for Argus with the gang trying to get to Atlas. Let's see how that goes. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 96. Enjoy.
Chapter 96: Hitch a Ride
In a white void, Velvet focuses her Maiden powers as she wills fire and ice flowing around her body. Meanwhile, Summer Rose watches off to the side.
"That's it. Remember that the power is alive in a way. All the Maidens that came before you that wielded this power; their essence lives on in that power. In you. Don't think of it as empty, but as embracing others into yourself, as long as you don't lose yourself in the process," Summer says as she walks around Velvet.
"It still feels... strange at times. So different from my own powers, or even my semblance. It's almost creepy in a way," Velvet notes as she weaves the elements around her.
"You'll grow used to it with time. The powers of the Maidens tend to differ with each individual host over the years. As I'm sure you've been told once, no two seasons are exactly alike. Cinder Fall mainly used the fire attributes of it, while the previous Fall Maiden, Amber, had a greater affinity for wind and ice. You've got a connection to fire and ice, but you may have more once you've gained enough experience with it," Summer says.
Velvet narrows her eyes and makes the flames go out, "The fire reminds me too much of Cinder, of what she did to... to Pyrrha. To everyone back at Beacon. I only used it before because it was the only attribute I could use before I obtained the rest of the Maiden's power. I don't like it," Velvet notes.
"You must not reject the power, Velvet, even a piece of it. Learn to accept this gift, and this responsibility. For now, try focusing more on the ice aspects of the Maiden's power. If you can, try conjuring up some wind as well. At the very least, it'll save you up on using Dust crystals with your demon claw," Summer says.
"Hmph, I'm sure Weiss would be happy about that," Velvet notes as she manages to make a few snowflakes appear above her left hand.
"We will continue you're training at another time, Velvet. For now, focus on mastering more of the ice attributes of your power and learn to use the fire and wind attributes as well. Learn to embrace all of it," Summer says before everything goes white.
Velvet wakes up, back in her bed late at night, with Ruby snuggled up close, head lying on her chest. Velvet sighs before going back to sleep as well. They have a long day tomorrow.
...
"Ah, I was so relieved to hear that you came to your sense, Miss Schnee," Cordovin happily notes. She, along with Weiss and Saphron with Adrian walk through the military base towards an airship, with Weiss carrying a luggage case with her. "We were all so heartbroken when you decided to attend... Beacon Academy. It brings joy to my heart that you'll be returning to Atlas and following in your sister's footsteps. Oh, I can hardly contain myself," Cordovin says.
Unknown to her, Weiss has her scroll on in her pocket so the rest of the group can listen in outside of the base, through Velvet's and Blake's scrolls.
"Oh, I'm gonna flip if this bitch keeps up. Are all people from Atlas like this?" Velvet mentally groans.
"It was time for me to return home and reconnect with my sister again. I do miss her dearly," Weiss says, not entirely lying since she does miss her sister.
"Well, don't you worry, I'll be sending two of my best guards to personally escort you home. You can make sure General Ironwood hears that part," Cordovin says, a subtle wink to Weiss.
"Can we get on with it?" Weiss mentally groans.
Cordovin turns and walks away while her guards approach Weiss.
"Allow me to assist you with your bag!" one cheers.
"No, no, it's okay. I can handle it," Weiss says, and starts having a bit of a tug of war with the guard over control of the bag.
"My, this bag is quiet heavy," the guard notes.
Seeing this as their cue, Saphron whispers to her son, "Okay, just like we practiced," she whispers.
Adrian nods and then lets out a huge baby scream that echoes across the base. Luckily, this has the desired effect and gets the guards' attention.
"Oh no! Look at that, he's just going to miss you SO much!" Saphron acts out as Adrian cries.
"A crying baby!" one notes.
"We must attend to it!" the second cheers.
This gives Weiss the chance to quickly walk onto the airship they had waiting for her.
"That was way too close," Weiss notes.
"Heavy? Why those-it's all muscle, those morons," the voice of Maria echoes from within the luggage bag.
Weiss contacts the others, "We're on board," she tells them.
"Good. Now, we'll watch all our scrolls. The second Weiss' is out of range of the comm tower, that will mean she's out of range of the radar too," Ruby says as she goes over the plan again with the rest of the group at the cliffs by the coast.
"...And that's when Blake does her magic. We're almost at the drop-off point," Yang calls out as she drives her motorcycle through the forest, with Blake riding behind her.
Blake gets Terra on the call, "Okay, one, the radar box is separate from the rest of the communication equipment. So, as long as you disconnect it properly, it won't take out comms in the rest of the city. And two, this conversation never took place," Terra reminds her.
"Don't worry. This isn't the first time I've disabled Atlas security systems," Blake says.
Terra just glares at her, "...Never. Happened," she reminds them before hanging up.
They reach the drop-off point and Blake hops off, but Yang is still a little worried.
"You sure I shouldn't come with you?" she asks.
"More intruders means we're more likely to be seen, and besides, stealth isn't exactly you're strong su-," Blake begins, only to stop when she turns to find Yang deadpanning at her. "-I mean, you're great! It's cool," she saves herself from saying something stupid.
Yang eventually smiles, "Just go," she says.
Blake nods and runs towards the relay tower while Yang waits for her.
Back with the others, Jaune pumps his fist, "Yes, it's all going to plan. I was actually a little worried when I came up with something as crazy as this," Jaune says, but then sees his teammates staring at him. "Oh, uh, I mean, yeah, it'll work," he says, much to their amusement.
Ruby looks to her uncle, who leans against a tree, not quite as optimistic as the others, and she starts feeling worried herself, until Velvet places a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's gonna work. We've been through worse, right," Velvet soothes her worries.
Ruby smiles, "Yeah, you're right. It's gonna work," she replies.
Back on the airship, Weiss watches her scroll. Once she sees the others go out of her range, Weiss steels herself and pulls out her rapier from her case.
"Miss Schnee? For your own safety, you must-," one guard says before Weiss suddenly attacks them.
A moment later, Weiss watches them as they get tossed out of the airship, and then a parachute opens up on one while the other desperately clings to the first so as not to fall. Weiss sighs before heading up to the cockpit to join Maria, who takes the pilot seat and the stick.
"Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" Weiss asks, looking unconvinced.
"Child, what part of 'best huntress of her generation' did you not understand? Of course, I can fly it," Maria says.
"The part about your eyes essentially making you color blind," Weiss points out.
Maria looks around on the controls, and pulls out a small, portable plug from the controls and connects it to her prosthetic eyes. This transfers the sensory data of the ship to her eyes, allowing her to see more clearly and have better control of the ship.
Maria chuckles, "You were saying?" she taunts her.
"That you said your eyes were in desperate need of repair-," Weiss begins.
"-Bup, bup, bup. Enough of the minor details, we've got a mission to complete," Maria shushes her.
Seeing that she's not going to win this argument with Maria, Weiss pipes down and puts on her seat belt, still not entirely confident in Maria's piloting ability, nor in her eyes being in working condition.
"Just so you know, if we crash and die, and I can't see Yang again, I will make your afterlife Hell," Weiss warns her.
"Ha, that would be interesting. I've faced far worse than you, my dear," Maria laughs it off making Weiss angrily glare at her for a moment.
Maria steers the airship back towards the cliffs where the others are located. Back with said group, Velvet watches her scroll, keeping an eye out until Weiss' scroll signal goes out of range.
"Weiss is out of range. Time for phase two of the plan," Velvet says.
Ruby nods and contact Blake, "Alright Blake, you're up. You got that radar down yet?" Ruby asks. However, she doesn't get an answer. "Blake? Are you there?" she asks again, only to receive silence in reply, making the others wonder what's going on. Ruby then contacts her sister. "Yang, what's going on?" she asks.
Yang is sitting against her bike, but stands up when Ruby calls her and looks over to the relay tower off in the distance.
"I... I don't know," Yang replies.
Back at the base, Cordovin watches over her troops as they perform their duties, only for one to call her duty.
"Ma'am, we've got something on our radar," one soldier says.
Cordovin walks over to him, "And who would be so idiotic as to approach OUR airspace without any kind of announcement beforehand?" she asks.
"Ma'am... the I.D. signature... it's one of ours, Ma'am," the solider says.
On their airship, Maria and Weiss get a call from the base, "Manta 5-1, this is Argus Base. We see you've circled back around. Please confirm your status. Over," one soldier calls out.
"Why can they see us?" Weiss whispers almost frantically as they've almost been found out.
"Someone must've dropped the ball with taking out their radar systems at the relay tower. Luckily, I had something planned in case we got into this kind of situation. I've dealt with Atlas military forces before. I know their jargon," Maria says and picks up the radio. "Argus base, this is Manta 5-1, fell free to gaff off. Thought we were going to scrub due to FOD, but we're back up and green across the board. Over," Maria says, and smiles, pleased with herself.
However... "Manta 5-1, return to base immediately or you will be treated as hostile. Over," the base replies, not falling for it.
"I thought you said you knew their jargon?!" Weiss exclaims.
"The jargon was fine actually. The problem is that our pilots are not elderly women. Over," the base replies.
"Oh, well, they got me on that one. I can't believe you kids would actually let my fly this thing and do the whole military jargon garbage. And here I thought MY mind was the one that was going," Maria says, while Weiss just glares at her.
"...CALAVERA! You and those insolent children are up to something, aren't you?! Why shouldn't I be surprised? You've always had a flare for this kind of criminal behavior. You actually thought you could steal one of my airships under MY auspices and get away with it. If you don't return my ship to my base this INSTANT, I will personally make an example out of you so that no one on Remnant will ever think about trying something like this again. I bring will bring the entire might of the Atlas military down on your head!" Cordovin yells, her arrogance showing again. However, she starts hearing crunching sounds on the other end of the call, confusing her. 'What the-," she begins.
"You hear that, Cordo?... That's the sound of me not giving a damn! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Maria replies, eating cashews and making obnoxious chewing sounds over the radio before she laughs like a madwoman.
Weiss contacts Ruby, "Ruby, we've got a problem. Cordo is on to us... and Maria ISN'T HELPING! Why is the radar still working?!" Weiss asks.
"I don't know. We've been trying to get in contact with Blake, but she's not answering," Ruby replies.
"You know, Jaune, I really hope that when you came up with this little plan of yours, it came with a plan 'B' in case plan 'A' doesn't go so well," Velvet notes.
"Well, uh, actually... I don't have a plan 'B'," Jaune nervously replies, making Velvet facepalm and shake her head.
"Ruby, what do we do?" Oscar asks.
"Keep the ship in on piece and still flying. I'll go find Blake," Yang comes in as she revs up her bike and drives through the forest to find her partner.
"What if Yang can't find Blake in time? Should we bring the airship here and then use it to get to them?" Velvet suggests.
"I don't know if we can get all that done quickly enough before Cordovin's forces track us down," Jaune says.
"Damn it!" Qrow suddenly curses, getting their attention. "Cordovin's going to scramble her fighters from the base. We've got maybe 90 seconds before they're in the air and have Weiss and Maria surrounded. This is all my fault," Qrow laments.
"What are you talking about? Is this about your semblance?" Nora asks.
"Not just my semblance, but me personally. Every choice I've ever made on this mission has led me here, and now I've dragged you all along with me. Oz, myself, the others, we're the one responsible for causing the world to become such a damn mess. I shouldn't have come here, and I definitely shouldn't have let any of you come with me. What the Hell was I thinking?!" Qrow berates himself.
"...Oh, enough of your whining," Velvet says, getting their attention. "Look, I've been in way worse situations than this, and even if I hadn't, do you see me flipping out right now? It doesn't matter what we did before, or how we got here. We're here, NOW, so the only thing we can do now is keep moving forward, improvise, and not give up. All we can do now is whatever we can do. It's no different than any other situation we've been through in the past. And I also know it's what Ruby would do. You being here doesn't make a damn difference in that regard. We would've come here one way or another anyway. Plus, we're not kids, and we're not your responsibility. So you can either just stand there and keep crying like a little baby, or put your shoes on, lace them up tight, get your head back in the game, and help us out. We're gonna need all the help we can get, and that includes Qrow Branwen... I know that's what Ruby would want at least," Velvet says as Ruby walks over to hold her hand.
Qrow is stunned by her words as he stares between her and Ruby, and eventually sighs, "And here, I thought I was supposed to be the adult. Ruby sure knows how to pick 'em," he notes.
"Well, I've had good role models to teach me how," Ruby replies, smiling, which make him show a small smile.
"Uh guys... I don't think we'll have to worry about Cordovin sending fighters," Weiss calls out over the comms.
"What do you mean?" Velvet asks.
"She's sending... something else," Weiss replies.
Weiss and Maria watch as at the rear of the base where a large, tall rock is standing, metal segment built into the rock start to move and fold back. The rock eventually cracks and fall apart, only to reveal a giant mech from within. The mech walks forth, revealing large limbs and its right arm having a large cannon instead of a hand, and no visible head on top. A long visor is seen in the center of the main body, most likely where the cockpit it located.
"Clearly, the people here have forgotten that they live in peace only thanks to the awesome might of Atlas," Cordovin's voice rings out as the machine raises its cannon into the air.
Meanwhile, the people of Argus who see the sight can't help but worry about what's going on with the military right now.
"Is Cordovin... piloting that thing?" Weiss wonders.
"Despite her small frame, her ego is as large as that robot," Maria notes.
"Allow me to remind you of that crucial fact," Cordovin says and aims her cannon near the airship they're in.
Maria yanks hard on the stick and barely avoids a blast of electricity that get shot into the sky. The controls short-circuit for a second before going back to normal, including Maria's eyes.
"Are you alright?" Weiss asks, concerned.
"I am, but's she's clearly lost her mind. I figured she would try something, but I didn't think she would go THIS far. She's nuts!" Maria replies.
"Hahaha, and that's the only warning shot you're getting, Calavera. All Atlas units, stand by and watch as your leader maintains order with the might of Atlas!" Cordovin laughs.
Back with the group, they watch their airship fly by the coast, and then see the massive robot for themselves.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Velvet mutters distastefully, and then looks back to Jaune. "Jaune, you got any bright ideas for that?" she asks.
"Um... not really," Jaune replies.
"Ruby, what do we do?" Velvet asks.
Ruby narrows her eyes and contacts Weiss, "Weiss, I need you to hurry back and get on the ground. We'll need your help if we're going to take this thing down," she says.
"If only we knew what's as going on with Blake on her end? Where could she be?" Velvet mutters.
…
Somewhere in the forest, near the relay tower, Blake bounces from tree to tree as she runs for her life, with none other than Adam Taurus hot on her tail. At one point, Blake lands on the ground, but has to immediately jump back when Adam tries to slash his blade at her body, barely avoiding his downward slash.
"Adam, that is enough! You need to let go of the past!" Blake yells as she fires her pistol at him.
Adam blocks the shots with his blade, "Just forget about it all. Is that how much my life meant to you?!" Adam yells.
"You tried to kill me and Yang and Beacon. You tried to have the White Fang kill my family, and destroy Haven, and then you stalked me all across Anima. I want absolutely nothing to do with your life!" Blake retorts.
Adam screams and charges at her again. Blake jumps back to avoid the first strike, but then has to use her katana to block two more strikes aimed at her head. Blake uses her semblance to evade another strike while moving around Adam's flank, but he kicks her away and then fires his sheathe gun at her. Blake evades the rounds and throws her chain-scythe at a tree, using it to propel herself around the tree and back at Adam, spinning around and swinging her sheathe blade at him. He blocks the strike with his sword and pushes her back, while Blake pulls her chain-scythe back to her and bringing it back into its katana form.
"I let you go once before, Blake. I'm never making that mistake again," Adam warns her as he readies his blade, prompting her to do the same.
However, neither of them notice a young woman with long with hair, wearing an intricate red and white dress, watching the fight from afar from behind the trees.
And that's the chapter. The gang enact their plan to get to Atlas, only for Cordovin to throw the biggest monkey wrench into their plan, making things much more difficult. Meanwhile, Blake dukes it out with Adam one last time. Who know what will happen next? Until then, please Read and Review.