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Chapter 139: Lost
Following her abandonment of the battlefield that New Vale's coastline had become in her wake, the mission that she had been assigned completed Yang Branwen had felt the deep, pulsing throb in her bones that was Salem's summons and made her way towards the source of the psychic imperatives' pull, only to be left shocked upon finding that she was being led deeper into the city itself rather than to some rallying point outside of it where Salem's forces had secretly amassed themselves as the Chimera had privately expected and hoped for.
Instead Yang had ventured into the Kingdoms' Capital until she was confronted with the sight of fires blazing intensely within the ground and lower floors of one of the cities' monolithic Hive Towers with firefighters using vast amounts of Dust to quell the inferno whilst Hunters and emergency services enforced a cordon which she could not pass, stating that the entirety of the tower, which housed thousands upon thousands of people had been evacuated due to a plausible risk to its' structural integrity following a subterranean Dust explosion.
At that point the Chimera had understood the situation and quickly flitted into another of the cities' gargantuan complexes, using Neo Politan's Semblance to wear the face of a nondescript and unremarkable middle aged working in man clad in overalls and a high-vis jacket, the sort of individual whose actions would not questioned or even considered by those who saw her. From there she had found an access point into New Vale's sewers and power grid; following the homing instinct of the parasitic Grimm that had been infused into every aspect of her being, weaving through the tunnels and rat-runs that lay beneath the city until the first signs of thin, pulsing tendrils of Grimm tissue creeping across the walls and floor like vines assured her that this was the right place.
Soon after she found Salem herself.
"Rise my child" at the sound of the Queen of Grimm's voice, unexpectedly sweet and motherly as always Yang rose to her feet and took in the sight of Salem's latest base of operations. Her first realisation was that whatever had befallen their swampland lair, Pantheon was still alive, the monstrous sentient Grimm curled in a corner behind Salem's makeshift throne seemingly asleep and with all six of their limbs tucked into themselves like some horrific pet. Salem's throne was barely worthy of the title, a simple mass of sculpted chitin in the centre of a small hollowing beneath even the deepest recesses of New Vale's underground.
"Were you followed?" Salem's question was laced with rare urgency, enough to shake even the Chimera's hardy resolve
"No my Queen" she answered, casting her fiery red eyes around once again and seeing that Pyrrha Nikos was absent she suddenly dared to question "Where is Pyrrha?"
"Likely dead" Salem admitted, even the faintest traces of the regret or disappointment that Yang had expected to hear in her tone being shocking in their absence.
"We were discovered" Salem continued, the revelation enough to send waves of shock through the Chimera "Conspired against….My domain beyond the Kingdom has been destroyed, our enemies know of at least some of my intentions and I was forced to reveal myself directly; the nature of our battle has been changed my child"
"My Queen….how?" the blonde woman gasped.
"Branwen and accomplices have always been resourceful" Salem mused, alabaster fingers drumming against he arm of her simple throne "But I have my suspicions about my other disciple….I find Adam Taurus's lack of contact of progress disconcerting"
"I'll devour his soul my Queen" Yang promised her, eyes flashing with fire that was almost demonic for an instant "I'm even stronger than I was when you found me, your enemies will burn at your order" the Chimera's expression was one of almost longing, the urge to destroy any challenge to Salem's might flowing through her as her Grimm and human natures fed into one another's fury; yet despite her boasts she was in no condition to fight, the battle with the Axolotl Faunus had drained her and left her clinging to the last feeble scraps of her Aura; leaving a weariness that the use of Raffia Dirge's regenerative Semblance had only worsened in its' wake.
"The time will come, but for now we have more pressing concerns" Salem noted.
"What do you need from me my Queen?" Yang asked, her regrets towards Pyrrha's seeming demise utterly consumed by the urge to fill the vacuum in the Queen of Grimm's ranks left by the Bandit Queen's death and the Faunus militants' treachery.
"You will need to be my eyes and ears within the Kingdom" Salem answered "Qrow and his allies know of our existence now, you will need to keep track of their changing plans….though I suspect that they may know of at least some of the powers at your disposal if you revealed yourself to them"
"Yes my Queen" Yang admitted
"I will have to be mobile beneath the Kingdom, they cannot uproot the entirety of their own stronghold but they will certainly try to slow my progress" Salem's eyes seemed to shine with unfathomable malice as her face morphed into a twisted smile "My plans are still in place, but it seems that we will have to accelerate things"
Yang's answer went unheard as Salem allowed herself to become lost in her own musings; eagerly awaiting the moment when she could consume this Kingdom in its' entirety and cast into the silent darkness of oblivion where Atlas, Mistral and Vaccuo would soon join it.
The end of all things was fast approaching.
Felix was a numb, broken shell of everything he had once been.
Rover and Artemis Tan had arrived on the scene soon after Diamond had dug herself and the Lion Faunus out of the chasm left within one of New Vale's Hive Towers by the culmination of the thermal charges and Salem's own cataclysmic attack; the older Hunters finding the two students tearing through the rubble and debris desperately screaming for their team-mates to answer them. Reason and logic had been entirely beyond them and the two of them had continued to struggle despite their injuries and exhaustion and in spite of Artemis using her Semblance which allowed her to see the Aura of another living thing and tearfully informing them that there were no signs of life below; both students having to be physically dragged away from the site of the explosion and going so far as to physically resist in their efforts to keep searching.
Eventually however the two of them had been brought to Halo Academy only to find no peace or solace waiting for them there.
The campus was a battleground, craters and gouges torn into the ground and ominously moved golden statues speaking to some great calamity that had obviously occurred in a way that was made all the more sinister by the bloodstains that decorated the ground. Qrow had explained that the woman mimicking Yang Xiao Long had used a truly terrifying Semblance, another of the many at her disposal to launch an attack on the docks which had almost certainly served no purpose other than to be a distraction and create an opening for the faux Pyrrha Nikos to sneak onto the campus, likely intending to murder Qrow himself and making some truly chilling claims before finally being defeated by Helios.
Then it had been Felix's turn to explain.
Through floods of tears and fits of rage that had threatened to consume him entirely the Lion Faunus had haltingly began to explain the events that occurred in the depths of New Vale's underground. Upon learning of their fight against the pale scythe-wielder Qrow had informed Felix of the truth, that the woman was Salem herself and that the Queen of Grimm had seemingly been returned to life by possessing the body of Ozymandias Eldritch through some means whose specifics the veteran Hunter was yet to fully understand. From there Felix had been forced to explain that he had taken the choice to detonate the thermal charges and how Salem had reacted to this, how his attempt to charge the Queen of the Grimm had caused her to unleash an attack which seemed to sunder reality itself and that this had been the last he had seen of Arctus or Eagle.
Qrow had been silent for over a minute.
"Say something" Felix managed to croak out, tears still streaming down his face as he stood rooted to the spot after leaping from his chair and pacing as he gave his frantic and near delirious explanation of events, alone as Diamond had been taken to the medical wing where the nurses had been debating whether or not the sniper would need to be sedated for own good after multiple attempts to leave and return to the ruined remains of the cities' power grid that they had escaped from. Qrow remained silent, his face drained of all colour and his crimson eyes filling with tears as the man seemed to age an eternity; after several more moments which seemed to stretch out for an age before the multi-legged mechanical chair in which Qrow sat turned and began to carry him across his apartment all the while not a single word escaped him.
"Uncle Qrow?" Felix all but whimpered, wiping his eyes which widened as he saw his Great Uncle reach a cabinet and open one of its' draws and fish out what was clearly a bottle of liquor.
The bottle exploded in a shower of glass fragments which collided with Qrow's rippling scarlet Aura as a single bullet passed through it.
"What are you doing!" Felix demanded, the barrel of his machine-pistol still smoking as he lowered it
"Giving up" Qrow answered simply, his own voice cracking as he crushed the shattered remains of Felix's heart underfoot with the words "Salem's won, she can't be killed….what is there even to fight for any more? It's over"
"No it isn't!" Felix almost exploded, incandescent with fury at the idea "We have to fight! If Salem's back then we have-"
"I've spent my whole life fighting!" Qrow barked, the words strangled by his sobs;
"I'VE SPENT MY WHOLE LIFE FIGHTING THIS WAR AND WHAT HAS IT GOTTEN US? I watched my sister die Felix, her entire body pulled apart from the inside until there was nothing left of her! I had to tell Tai that Summer was never coming home, Summer was my best friend and I loved her! I've buried my friends or empty coffins because there were no bodies left to find and now….and now my daughter" this was too much for him, Qrow slumped forwards in his seat as much as his ruined spine would allow and bawled with rage and grief at the cruelty of the hand fate had dealt them. To Felix it was like watching a mountain cry, Qrow had been a part of his life since he had been adopted by Blake and Yang as a small child and he could remember almost nothing of his life before that point; his Great Uncle was a legend, a hero and a constant, unflappable and immovable force and to see him so broken sent fresh waves of sickening dread coursing through him.
"Eagle wouldn't give up" Felix finally managed to murmur, his mind desperately scrambling for words that would do something to stop his life from collapsing around him "When her Mum was kidnapped in my first year Eagle wanted to go straight back out there and look; I tried to stop her and punched me in the face….She got that from you and we need that Qrow Branwen now-"
"There's nothing to find Felix!" Qrow screamed, the words echoing off of the walls "Artemis's Semblance has never been wrong before; if she can't find Eagle's Aura it's because…." he trailed off and Felix shook his head, refusing for an instant to admit defeat; his thoughts racing in a valiant show of defiance as searched for anything, any speck or shred of a possibility.
His eyes grew wide as he found one.
"The Pyrrha that showed up here, the one that Helios fought…..she said she was from another Remnant!" the Lion Faunus's words came faster and more urgent as an idea, dangerous in the scale of its' optimism occurred to him "That explains this other version of my Mum and how she has other peoples' Semblances as well; she's from a different Remnant….Salem has the Powers of the Wizard, that must be how she found these, these other versions of people!"
"What are you saying Felix?" Qrow glanced upwards, his eyes betraying the first sparks of some rekindling fire
"When Salem's attack hit them Eagle and Arctus vanished" Felix suppressed a shudder at the memory that he was sure would haunt him "What if it sent them somewhere?"
"Fluffy" Qrow's voice was sombre "We don't have any….damn it we can't afford to hope-"
"WE CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO HOPE!" Felix roared "We are fighting the Queen of the Grimm now! We are all that's stopping Salem and hope is the only thing we have!" the grizzled and aged veteran seemed to collapse in on himself before giving a single slow nod of his head
"You're right" the words had a profound effect on Felix, giving the Faunus a sense of grounding and stability
"I don't know what to do, or if we can possibly win" Qrow admitted "But I know that you're gonna fight anyway and I'll be damned if I'm not stood right next to you….for Eagle"
"For Eagle, for Arctus" Felix wiped his eyes again and shook his head "For Remnant….that's what we're fighting for now"
Ruby had been alerted to the approach of a Bull-Head, the transport being an older model originally intended for freight purposes and sporting a lurid paint job which all pointed towards only one possible answer and she watched the craft make its' final approach she saw that she had been correct in her assumptions.
"Oh this could end badly" Nickel's voice caught Ruby's attention; the entire Rose family were outside with Penny holding onto Ruby's hand whilst the twins hugged their parents tightly and Nickel leaned against the wall of their home perhaps a foot away, almost physically unable to integrate herself fully into the family that had accepted her despite even her most unthinkable actions. Ruby gave a subtle nod of understanding for the androids' concerns but didn't reply verbally instead focusing her attention towards the transport that Team CLIR had jokingly dubbed 'Old Unreliable' as it sunk slowly onto an empty landing pad beside 'The Pearl' Penny's personal and heavily modified Bull-Head; both Ruby and Penny had learned of events in New Vale after Goodwitch and Qrow who each seemed to be at their limits of their ability to cope with the situation had contacted them and given them a brief overview which had been followed by Corvid calling her Aunt and explaining that her employer had Team CLIR leave to return to New Vale in light of the latest attack on the Kingdom.
The Bull-Heads' hatches opened with a hiss and Corvid stepped out.
"Salu-" Penny's greeting was cut short as the eye-patch wearing young woman had crossed the distance between them in an instant and pulled both of her Aunts, whom she had regarded as the utter pinnacle of what it meant to be a Huntress into crushing hugs; finally allowing herself to show the true scope of her fears and emotional distress after evidently keeping it contained for far too long.
"It's gonna be-"
"No it's not" Corvid shook her head, her remaining stormy grey eye filling with tears as she interrupted Ruby's attempt to console her "That evil bitch that looks like my Mum killed one of Onyx's team; Salem….like actual Salem is back and Felix was right in the middle of it. Oh my Oum Arctus and Eagle are missing presumed…." she trailed off and seemed to be fighting the urge to be physically ill at the idea of half of Team FADE meeting their ends in a bleak, Grimm infested tunnel beneath the Kingdom they called home.
"Big oof buddy" at the sound of Nickel's voice Corvid's head snapped upwards and her hand instantly flew to the console affixed to her wrist which would summon the Omega Wing from its' place within Team CLIR's transport.
"You!" she snapped, the urge to unleash her slowly simmering rage on this new foe easily apparent
"She's with us" Ruby stated bluntly, placing a hand on Corvid's shoulder "Calm down….both of you" her silver eyes quickly turned to the android who had peeled away from the wall and was clearly spoiling for a fight; deep seated programming driving her towards the most belligerent option despite the lack of anything to be gained from it. Eventually however Nickel visibly relaxed, compelled to do so by the most unlikely of sources; both Summer Pyrrha and Tai-Jaune planting themselves between their oldest cousin and the new adopted family member who was somewhere between an aunt and a sister to them, TJ looking imploring whilst Summer wore a stern expression and wagged her finger at the android.
"Don't" she said simply with an annoyed huff; Nickel merely let out an amused chuckle at the child's antics and ruffled her coppery hair
"You got it chief" turning to Ruby she asked "So what's the plan?"
"I'll be staying here" Penny spoke up, emerald eyes forlorn at the idea of spending so much time away from her wife but also the idea of Ruby throwing herself into battle without her by her side "We don't know what Salem's full intentions are and there is a Maiden on Menagerie, so I'm staying here along with Coco, Velvet Yatsuhashi and a few others"
"Penny's also keeping the Pearl" Ruby added quickly "So we're going to be taking your Bull-Head"
"Sure, we just need to resupply" Corvid nodded, her previous emotional state forgotten as she forced herself to focus on simple logistics and data, placing one foot in front of the other and continuing to move forwards.
"Oh boy, we're going on a road trip" Nickel smirked, unable to help herself from making the snide comments the moment they occurred to her.
"Here take this. We made it for you" the former rogue android glanced down to Summer and found that she was holding out what appeared to be a crudely made piece of jewellery
"It's a friendship bracelet" Tai-Jaune added with a wide smile; Nickel's eyed widened and her fingers felt oddly numb as she took the proffered bracelet despite every internal diagnostic telling her that there was nothing amiss with her limbs, an odd sensation stabbed at her chest and she felt a lump in her throat as she nodded slowly.
"I'll never take it off" she assured the children shakily before turning to Penny even as her eyes began to sting despite her lack of tear ducts and she suddenly understood "Is this what being a real person feels like?" Penny merely nodded in silence though the older android couldn't help but smile warmly, certain that some deep and personal change had occurred within Nickel in that moment.
"Cool….it's nice I guess, I can see why you like it" Nickel shrugged, hiding her face from view as she slipped between Ruby and Corvid to make her way towards Team CLIR's waiting Bull-Head "Just call ahead and tell whoever has what's left of the Omega Destroyer that I want it back….I've got new ideas"
"Don't touch anything on my ride and don't even look at my team the wrong way" Corvid growled, turning and following after her just as Rusty, Lux and Iris emerged to see if they could begin refuelling and resupplying after giving their leader a moment alone with her family.
"Be safe Ruby" Penny's voice was gentle as she stepped forwards and rested her forehead against the Silver Eyed Huntress's, taking her wife's hands in her own.
"I will" Ruby assured her "And you be safe too, if anything happens here call me and let me know, I'll be here straight away….I'll fly over the ocean myself if I have to"
"Sensational" Penny murmured as she leaned in and kissed her wife gently and slowly and for the two of them their problems and the fate of Remnant dangling in the balance seemed to fade away.
The sound of their children clamouring to say their own goodbyes only made the moment more heartfelt.
"I'm a coward and a fool….I should have gone first" Helios's words were delivered in a detached and utterly numb tone, as though it were a simple and undeniable fact.
Pain still washed over his body in stabbed, throbbing and pulsing waves and deep wounds that would almost certainly leave more scars on his already well-decorated body now adorned the armoured warriors' wrists and forearms where his gauntlets had been crushed and were hidden between layers of bandages. The medical staff of Halo Academy had assured Helios that it seemed unlikely that he would lose any mobility in his hands however and with that reassurance given he had been unable to remain idle and stationary whilst there was more to be done. With his debriefing given to Qrow Branwen, a furious tirade followed with demands for answers that the man simply did not have; knowing nothing other than that dark times were upon them and that he would know more once he had heard from Team FADE Helios had departed from the Academy, returning to the hospital where Nyanza was being cared for to find Olivine and Ether still at their wounded team-mates' side.
The sight was a truly unsettling one yet Helios unable to look away, even if he were physically capable he would not; he owed it to his partner to not look away.
Armed guards and Hunters flanked the entrance to the wing in which Nyanza's unconscious form was being held whilst the bushy-tailed Feline Faunus himself was still confined with an advanced stasis tube of Atlesian design and was the sole occupant of a restricted ward whose minimalist design and harshly glaring lights seemed ominous and a clinical and unfeeling way. Rather than the compact affair typically seen on Atlesian warships, intended simply to keep an interred patient stable until they could be revived and healed by those with the necessary expertise Nyanza's stasis pod was larger and bulkier, the lid of the metallic sarcophagus fitted to a series of wires and cables which connected a series of spindly, clawed metallic armatures within the pod to the surgeons' remotely operating them in a secured, secondary control room within the ward.
"You did what you thought was right, so did Nyanza. He made the call" Olivine stated flatly, her hoarse tone making it clear that she had no desire to argue but would do so if forced
"It's all we can ever do" Ether added, giving Helios's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as his dark eyes followed Helios's gaze "He's gonna by fine….nothing keeps him down, nothing can"
Helios tried to keep the same faith that Ether clung to, though it was a difficult matter as the redhead watched the mechanical claws at work with morbid fascination as they alternated between several surgical tools and more esoteric looking devices, all of which were beyond Helios's ability to describe as they cut into Nyanza's flesh, targeting the inky black veins which spread across the Faunus's skin, reaching outwards from the cauterised stump of his right leg and seeming to writhe as if they were not only alive but conscious despite the effects of the stasis pod; blood which mingled with some viscous black fluid was filtered from the pod whilst small slivers of the Grimm tissue which had infected the Faunus's body were excised piece by piece, each of them writhing with miniscule tendrils which seemed to grow in all directions even as they were removed, each of them being frozen and placed within containers which were in turn conveyed to the secondary room which housed the surgeons and sealed within containers of Atlesian steel.
"I'm surprised they let us in here" Olivine noted before her stomach roiled in response to the gruesome display and forced her pale lavender eyes downwards as she continued to talk simply to fill the silence; she couldn't disassemble and repair Buster Bravo here but the diminutive woman was determined that if she couldn't keep her hands occupied she would at least occupy her mind.
"That's not you shield" she noted "Or your sword"
"It isn't" Helios confirmed as he continued to twirl the smooth golden shield between his fingers in much the same way that Nyanza had used to do solely to annoy him when the two had first been forced into a team together; his acid green eyes narrowed a fraction as he regarded its' scorched and battle damaged surface, though it was circular save for the twin indentations at its' top and bottom and engraved with Nikosi runes that spoke of protection to the wielder, good fortune and conquest upon a thousand battlefields in much the same way those that had adorned Helios's own shield had Akuo was an entirely different entity. The scarlet haired warrior had claimed Nikosi tradition and right of conquest to take Milo and Akuo for his own and had stated that he would be the one to dispose of Pyrrha Nikos's body; he had vague ideas for what to do with her armour and the remains of Olympus Enforcer but those concerns seemed laughably small in the face of Nyanza's unresponsive form.
"Don't shut us out Heely" Ether urged, seeing Olivine's growing concern the longer Helios kept his stoic facade in place.
"I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do" he finally admitted "Everything we've trained for feels so small compared to whatever lies ahead of us" before that sombre thought could be responded to the doors to the ward were flung open and a team of doctors flanked by Atlesian Knights with weapons at the ready filed into the pristine room, followed closely by Professor Goodwitch and Professor Dove Bronzewing who seemed to be limping heavily from some injury sustained in the battle that had taken place above ground whilst Team NEON had fought below the city.
"Take all the samples as well, keep them frozen….and be careful when moving the stasis pod, my student is to be treated with utmost care!" Goodwitch's words were barked with more fiery resolve behind them than Team NEON had ever heard before yet that fact was entirely lost on Helios who turned to his headmistress and asked the only question that seemed reasonable
"What's going on?"
"Nyanza will be moved to the academy and kept isolated there" Goodwitch stated bluntly, her expression softening a moment later "His parents have been made aware of the situation and wish for me to pass on the message that they hope all of you are okay, they blame none of you for what happened" Helios knew on some level that the news should have been freeing, yet he found it anything but and found himself only more appalled at his failure to protect his partner
"Why is he being moved? And why take the Grimm samples?" Olivine demanded, unable to hide her sudden suspicions.
"Atlas is going to send over a research team that I'll be working alongside" Dove answered, the Grimm Studies Professor put on his most reassuring smile "Grimm normally dissipate a lot faster than this parasite does….keeping it frozen like this gives the opportunity to do a lot of research and hopefully make some discoveries-"
"You perverse ghoul" Helios snarled
"We hope to create a cure or vaccine to this Grimm infection" Dove shot back, keeping his tone even despite the venom in Helios's own words "Although I'm sure the Atlesians and I both have similar ideas about more offensive applications….But I digress"
"Thank you" Glynda spoke up, halting the conversation which she saw it was plainly neither the time or the place fore, letting out a slow breath as she turned her attention to the final year students before her "You have all done your duty with distinction, New Vale is a safer place for your actions"
"Let's hope that it will be enough to make a difference" Helios sighed before turning to Ether and Olivine and silently gesturing for them to follow him and return to the academy; the grim silence oppressive between them.
Diamond's body was in a miserable state, upon being compelled to remain with the academy she had been subjected to a hasty medical exam which had revealed that her Aura had failed her as the ground floor of the Hive Tower Team FADE had been fighting beneath collapsed in on them and in addition to countless cuts, scrapes and bruises the snipe had cracked or fractured several bones in her frantic attempt to drag both herself and Felix free of the debris whilst her cybernetic left arm was scuffed and dented in several places, though it seemed to functional at least. Sedatives had been administered to keep her from doing anything rash, unfortunately now that the Aura stimulants that she had been given were beginning to take effect her slowly recovering Aura was flushing the drugs out of her systems whilst her first dose of painkillers began to wear off leaving her tormented by cold, feverish sweating, trembling hands and a persistent, near blinding pain behind her eyes which bored mercilessly into her skull; all of which paled in comparison to her mental state. After being allowed to return to Team FADE's dormitory Diamond had found herself wearing one of Arctus's t-shirts and curled up in the bed they shared, staring listlessly at the wall in a near catatonic state until her gut-wrenching, cataclysmic anguish's demands for release grew too much to ignore; slow rocking had given way to frantic pacing and talking to herself, desperately trying to reassure herself that her fiancée would return at any moment, her words choked out through sobs as even the pretence of hope crumbled into ash and dust leaving her with a single, crushing and terrifying realisation.
Someone had to contact Arctus's parents.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" whatever pale imitation of her customary composure she had managed to put in place had been abandoned long ago as the Mistrali sniper made a video call to Weiss and Gangrel, finding Blake and Yang to also be present and had begun the torturous task of recounting their mission and its' horrific ending to them with the only small mercy being that neither Athena-Jade or Coral were there to hear the unfiltered truth of their brothers' fate. Diamond buried her face in her bedsheets and several muffled sobs escaped her whilst Arctus's parents remained in numb silence for a few moments.
"He can't be gone" Weiss voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper yet it held unfathomable defiance; as though the ivory haired woman could reshape the world through sheer force of will alone "He isn't gone"
Diamond forced herself to look up, face stained with tears whilst her lip still quivered and cherry red eyes swollen and bloodshot to see that Weiss's body seemed to have sagged under the weight of the blow the Slate family had received yet her icy blue eyes remained determined whilst beside her Gangrel, who held onto his wife's hang gently in an effort to find something which tethered him to reality and Blake and Yang shared troubled looks before the feline Faunus spoke up, her words as soft as she could make them as if it would somehow lessen the blow
"Weiss, I-"
"No, don't tell me what is and isn't possible Blake!" Weiss snapped harshly "There is another Yang running around New Vale and using other peoples' Semblances to fight for Salem, Salem who Ruby fought and Oscar Pine died to kill. Whatever we thought was impossible was wrong, that means there's still hope….there has to be" hearing this Gangrel's hand squeezed hers a little tighter as the greying Faunus glanced up and fixed his deep amber eyes on Diamond's
"Don't give up on him, that ring you're wearing is a promise Diamond so you keep that promise and don't lose hope; Arctus will find his way home" Gangrel swallowed thickly "When it comes down to it that boy of mine really is as tough as he thinks he as and he's not going to let himself get taken away from you" he and Weiss shared a look as hidden meanings passed between them.
Before Diamond could form the raging tempest of her mind into a coherent series of thoughts in order to reply the door to Team FADE's dormitory creaked open and Felix half-staggered, half trudged inside before closing it behind him; the Lion Faunus looked beyond exhausted and his own body was as bruised and battered as Diamond whilst the translucent underside of his golden cybernetic tail sported several cracks which he seemed not to have noticed yet.
"Fluffy?" Yang's voice from Diamond's Scroll was enough to direct Felix's attention towards it and waves of guilt visibly washed over him at the sight of Arctus's parents
"Aunt Weiss, Uncle Gang….I'm sorry" he managed to croak out "She was aiming for me-"
"Don't" Blake interjected softly "Don't blame yourself for what evil people do….what happened happened and it's how we move forward that matters now" Felix seemed to debate arguing yet simply liked the energy to do so and collapsed back on to Eagle's bunk, absently picking up the three foot tall stuffed Ursa which Nora had given to Eagle for her eighteenth birthday and named 'Mister Pancakes' his eyes seeming to glaze over as he regarded it. Diamond turned her attention back to Weiss and Gangrel.
"You're part of this family, you always will be" Weiss assured her "If you need anything let us know"
"Thank you" Diamond managed to murmur, a moment later the call had ended and Diamond glanced over to where Felix still lay, utterly drained and considered her next words; the idea of daring to hope feeling like some monumental act of bravery and yet she wiped her eyes and forced herself to speak, she had promised Arctus that they would be together until the very end and with Weiss and Gangrel's words ringing in her ears she refused to accept that this was it.
"Arctus's parents think that there's still a chance that Arctus and Eagle could be out there somewhere" she tentatively watched Felix's expression as she forced himself into a sitting position to look at her and nodded slowly
"So do I….especially after what Helios told Qrow"
"So what do we do now?" Diamond asked, mind buzzing with half formed thoughts
"I don't know" Felix admitted "But whatever happens and wherever Arctus and Eagle are, we're still Team FADE"
Halo Academies' gymnasium had been all but decimated entirely as if a whirlwind or some rampaging beast had torn through it in a rampage; training dummies had been ripped asunder, weights had been hurled against walls with crushing force, machines had been upended and it seemed that every surface was littered with slash marks and the gleaming blades of throwing knives sunk into walls and furniture whilst in the centre of it all a lone figure had sunk to her knees, sobbing and screaming as she raged uncontrollably. Hellion had been alongside Carcharodon and Onyx, the Dragonfly Faunus and Puma Faunus rejoining their leader upon learning the catastrophic and life changing news that there were now only three members of the Frost River Tribe left in all of Remnant after Raffia had fought to the bitter end against some unspeakable abomination of an opponent who had stolen his very essence for herself. Fate was cruel and callous however and Hellion had been taken aside in private by one of the Professors who had found her alongside her surviving team-mates in the academies' morgue; a rarely used but undeniably necessary part of the campus whose existence served as a bleak reminder of the risks that each student faced, Carcharodon chanting prayers and funeral rites and forcing himself to be the immovable leader that his people needed whilst privately questioning if he had the fortitude to complete the necessary tasks of burning Raffia's body and leaving it to the sea as custom dictated. Hellion's world had shattered further upon learning that Eagle had seemingly been lost and she had stormed away, fleeing the news before it could wound her further.
Her grief had been a violent thing, fiery and all-consuming as it demanded to be inflicted and now she was entirely spent; face buried in her hands, braided hair falling about her whilst her wings hung lifelessly behind her.
"Did it help?" Hellion made no effort to look up, yet she recognised Onyx's deep; rumbling voice
"No" her voice was weak and filled bitter venom until she was caught off guard by Carcharodon sitting beside her, she had not heard the Shark Faunus approach; Onyx's hulking presence came closer and the towering Faunus sat at her other side, finally looking up Hellion saw that the two of them were as grief-stricken and anguished as she was with even Carcharodon's gaunt and pallid face and pitch black eyes showing evidence of having cried recently.
"He's gone" Hellion's voice cracked as her words made the loss real in a way that she had yet to feel "He's really gone and so's Eagle….and Arctus"
"This will not go unanswered" Carcharodon's rasped, voice hoarse and ragged "Every blow against those we loved will be repaid a thousandfold"
"Corvid is returning with Team CLIR" Onyx grunted, the news being the most miniscule of silver linings for him "Team FADE and NEON both suffered, we share enemies now more than we ever did"
"Do you think we can win this war?" Hellion asked
"I don't care" Carcharodon answered simply "I'm more than willing to do die fighting it; our people will suffer no more"
Glancing towards him Hellion saw a look in Carcharodon's eyes that had been absent for years, the same look of single minded and relentless, hateful determination that he'd worn when the Frost River Tribe had been wiped out and the Shadow Cadre had been betrayed by the White Fang; the same desire to see justice served in the most bloody and violent means imaginable that had sustained him through his grief at the loss of his sister along with almost everyone else they had known. Seeing that look, his fury now tempered with the experience of leadership was something simply awe-inspiring to both Hellion and Onyx who recognised the simple, undeniable truth that it represented.
Salem had awoken a beast and her Chimera would be the first to be subjected to its' wrath.
Adam Taurus moved with a singular purpose, no longer bothering to hide his presence or his intentions as such things were no longer necessary as he stalked deeper into the bowels of the Atlesian warship.
Privately he was amazed that he had managed to gain entry to the vessel at all, even with all of his experience, caution and diligence it was still a feat that bordered on the impossible for this was no ordinary vessel, this was the Gespenst; formerly captained by this Remnants' Gangrel Slate which served as the aerial fortress presided over by the current head of the Specialist Branch.
It seemed that even in this timeline which was roughly a decade ahead of his own and had known peace and equality for years that the Atlesian military could be relied upon to function much the way it always had and as such Adam had ventured to the base at which he knew that the vessel would eventually land to refuel and resupply, a gargantuan facility carved into the side of one of the unfathomably large, snow-capped mountains which Atlas's vast Hive Cities resided both within and below which also, despite its' seemingly open location had the dubious honour of being one of the most restricted sites on Remnant. The Faunus militant had done this before however, leading countless reconnaissance operations before the hammer fell against those who believed that the leader of the White Fang would never scout ahead in person and expose himself; it had taken minimal force for Adam to acquire a uniform and a high-vis jacket, the fluorescent yellow garment conversely making him all but invisible as all who regarded him dismissed him as merely part of the background of the surroundings, sneaking onto the base itself had taken weeks of study and careful analysis of every aspect of its' security and the routines, habits and personalities of the individual guards but upon seeing the Gespenst, made even more formidable in this Remnant by the advancements of technology Adam had taken the plunge and leapt into action without hesitation, entering the base and seamlessly, silently integrating himself with the crew responsible for overseeing its' maintenance and slipping away from beneath the noses of the vessels' crew to sequester himself within a small compartment within the depths of the menacing ship.
Once the Gespenst had risen into the steely grey sky once more Adam had emerged from his hiding place and crept stealthily through the ship, skulking through corridors, entering ventilation shafts and dismantling robotic security drones and cameras on in an effort to keep his presence concealed as he stalked towards his goals.
His first target had been the office of the ships' current Captain, where Adam had been pleased to find what he sought waiting for him, a relic from the offices' previous inhabitant displayed on the wall behind a desk like a trophy; Wilt, the version of the crimson bladed katana that had belonged to this Remnants' iteration of Adam Taurus. The Bull Faunus felt nothing for his counterpart beyond simple contempt and disappointment however he was unable to entirely separate his own ego from his work and found the idea of any incarnation of his beloved sword being in the hands of the Atlesian military, much less displayed with pride as though they had managed to take it from him in his defeat.
Now however he had a much more important matter at hand, unconscious guards lay at either side of a door made of thick, heavily armoured Atlesian Steel after having been swiftly and silently dispatched faster than they could raise an alarm though Adam knew it was a moot point, his presence would be impossible to hide the moment he took the next step yet there was no other option he was willing to consider; unsheathing his own Wilt and adjusting the grip on the one he had taken he jammed both blades into the point where the steel doors wet and with his bloody crimson Aura flaring into life around him tore open the entrance to the maximum security prison that was the brig of the Gespenst. Without wasting a moment he stalked between the empty cells until he reached the very end of darkened hallway, his Faunus night vision allowing him to see adequately though he would still have been able to locate his prize by the dull, buzzing thrum of the forcefield around it. Sinking his twin katanas into the ground he reached out and pressed his palms against the crackling energy field, the scent of sizzling flesh reaching his nostril an instant before his body was engulfed in its' crimson glow once again.
In his years of war against the Kingdoms Adam had mastered his Semblance beyond anything he had imagined at its' outset and now there was truly no defence against him, the Faunus could disregard forcefields' as easily as he could armour and even his enemies' Aura; his hands shone the brightest and within moments he was rewarded with a satisfying pop of bursting components as the shield generator overloaded and burned out, leaving only a paltry defence in the form of more steel.
Ripping it away revealed a truly pathetic sight.
"Celeste Lupus" Adam murmured as he stepped into the cell, which the Ram Faunus had plainly been kept captive in for an inhumane amount of time judging by the way that her snowy white curls had grown out and the haunted, distant look in her magenta eyes.
"I knew that you would rise again" her voice was hoarse, a metallic rasp that struggled to be heard after so much disuse and Adam wondered if the fact that this woman's eager willingness to believe that he had returned from the dead instead of showing any reasonable amount of suspicions was a product of her isolation or her pre-existing devotion to her sickening bastardisation of his cause.
"I knew and I prepared, but I have failed you" Celeste struggled to move from the uncomfortable and insubstantial bunk of her cell, desperately attempting to sink into a bow despite having lost the use of her legs for good once the Cybernetic augmentations grafted to her spine had been destroyed.
"Don't bow" Adam placed his hands on her shoulders and gently steered her back to the bunk, his hands trailing upwards to cup her cheeks "They say you were my most loyal follower"
"I was Great Taurus, I was-"
"And yet you failed to understand my beliefs so badly" his voice turned icy and his palms began to glow with crimson light as he continued, growing more coldly furious with each word
"You took Faunus children and made them soldiers in a war that they didn't understand, you tortured and sank to depths that repulse me, you created a secret police to rule over Faunus through fear like the human tyrants I fought against….and then, when I thought you could disappoint me no further you laid your unworthy hands on the child of Blake Belladonna"
"Great Taurus I-"
"The punishment for your sins is death" Celeste's attempts to beg and plead for her life were silenced before the could begin in earnest; Adam driving his arms palms towards each other and shattering her skull without resistance in an explosion of bone and gore that splashed across his clothes and face, leaving his hands soaked in crimson, dripping viscera.
Then the sound of footsteps rushing towards him in the distance brought a smile to his face, his work here was almost done; stepping out of the cell and ripping both versions of Wilt free the Faunus strode into the centre of the brig and braced himself. After mere seconds of waiting his patience was rewarded with a squad of heavily armed Atlesian specialists sprinting into view and aiming their weapons, opening fire without a moments' hesitation.
Just had Adam had expected.
The air seemed to warp and pressurise as the Faunus unleashed his Semblance in a perfectly controlled wave, its' light reaching out and obliterating every bullet that raced towards him but no further; he saw a scarred and grizzled Specialist at the centre of the group whose uniform marked him out as their Captain and who carried a weapon which he would find more difficult to wave aside. Instead Adam made a show of dropping both of his swords and dispersing his Semblance as he locked eyes with Specialist Commander Chiffon and spoke.
"I want you to contact Gangrel Slate and tell him that an old friend came to visit….I've travelled a long way to see him"
"Any idea where we are?"
"None and my Scroll still isn't picking up a signal" Arctus shook his head in answer to Eagle's question as the two of them trudged onwards; Sentinel trundling ahead of them bleeping and chirping as his min-gun panned across the bleak vista that confronted them.
The two of them had felt their Auras be depleted in a single monumental blow by Salem's attack, the wave of darkness which seemed to tear reality apart in its' wake rushing over them, forcing the air from their lungs and leaving them engulfed in a freezing void so profoundly silent and empty of anything for their senses to register that it was almost painful to behold before the two Hunters had finally lost consciousness.
They had awoken to find themselves completely lost.
What had greeted them was a ruined hell-scape that seemed to have been bombed and blasted beyond all recognition at some point in its' history and simply never allowed to recover; buildings had been bombed to rubble all around them and those gutted shells that remained were coated in creeping vines and ivy of the decidedly organic variety, their greenery a welcome change after the pulsing obsidian tendrils that had surrounded Team FADE in the rat-runs. Moss and lichen sprouted and clung to the rusted and abandoned remains of vehicles or erupted from cracks in the pavement that had grown into fissures with disuse and Arctus and Eagle had spotted wild deer and foxes darting through the streets on more than one occasion during their attempts to discern where exactly they were.
"She said she remembered us, from Doctor Eldritch" Eagle murmured, concern etched into every line of her face as she turned to her team-mate "Eldritch wasn't just fast, he was manipulating time when we fought….do you think, I don't know we've been throwin into the future?" were the circumstances not so dire the freckled blonde would have laughed at the suggestion, it seemed absurd and yet here they were; stranded who knows where with Arctus pursing his lips as he gave the idea serious consideration
"I don't think so, old Vale was never left long enough for it to get like this and we can't be in New Vale….there's no Hive Towers" the Bear Faunus waved at the skyline as he addressed the obvious but unspoken lack of of monolithic structures littering it; not were there any aerial platforms or airships to be seen.
"These buildings though….they look like Vale, we're definitely not in Atlas and it doesn't look like Mistral or Vaccuo" Eagle's comment was something which Arctus had no answer to and so the two continued onwards until the sound of birds taking flight from the ruined rafters of another building caught Sentinel's attention and the sight of the droids' optic and weapon both whirling around to face the sound naturally caused the two Hunters' to glance in that direction and see that the building was, as far as they could tell a movie theatre
"Let's have a look, we might be able to figure something out" Eagle suggested, leading the way towards the building close behind her; both of them relieved to find some semblance of normalcy amidst the inexplicable and frankly frightening situation they had found themselves in. Reaching the building proved that it was in fact a movie theatre, a series of steps leading to a small enclosure offered some protection from the elements to a series of posters though they had still been torn, yellowed and faded by the passage of time nonetheless
"What the hell?" Eagle murmured, these are all old….like really old
"Eagle look" Arctus whispered, fear creeping into his voice as he pointed to a timetable; displayed above its' various screenings, ticket prices and offers were words that defied all logic yet were still undeniably there, providing stark and irrefutable proof that something terribly wrong had happened.
Ocean Cinemas: Vale, Kenwood branch.
"It can't be" Eagle mouthed
"Kenwood is in Old Vale" Arctus breathed out "My Dad lived here when Grandpa got out of prison and moved to Vale….what the hell is going on?" the two shared a terrified look and Arctus felt a his stomach plummet, bile rising in his throat before his impressive Faunus hearing picked up the sound of whooshing air and gave him a moments' warning to throw up a protective Glyph a comet of incandescent light, shining all the colours of the rainbow struck him.
It did little to soften the blow.
Arctus was barely aware of anything, one minute he was standing and the next he was simply laying sprawled on his back in the foyer of the long abandoned movie theatre, Eagle beside him dragging herself to her feet whilst shimmering rainbow light.
"Stay down" a lone figure within the light demanded, Arctus paused whilst crouched on one knee whilst still sucking in painful breaths and found his eyes widening in utter disbelief as he took in the sight of an auburn haired and heavily tattooed feline Faunus whose tail swished behind her as she strode into view
"You're dead" he gasped
"Nah….but your people did have a good try when my cover was blown though" Neon Katt replied, voice dripping with sarcasm and vitriol.
"What're you talking about?" Eagle demanded "Who are you? Where are we?" Neon, or whoever it was impersonating her for Arctus simply refused to believe that she was alive after he had seen her mutilated body with his own eyes regarded the younger woman for a moment and scowled
"Drop the Semblance it's a dumb act. We both know there's no humans in the White Fang"
"What?" Eagle's eyebrows raised and her mouth was left hanging open by the insanity of the demand.
"Babe, I think something else is going on here" air seemed to ripple like water and a new figure appeared, alarmingly clutching a deactivated Sentinel as they leaned against the doorway that Arctus and Eagle had been smashed through.
"No way somebody kept up an illusion Semblance after a hit like that….besides, some of the parts on this little toy have got Poly-Tech logos and serial numbers on 'em….that can't be right" the newcomer turned to Arctus and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the Bear Faunus staring at him, utterly dumbfounded "Do I know you from somewhere kid? Speak up"
Arctus was entirely unable to comply.
The man seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties and cut an unimpressive figure, standing at a little over five feet tall with a slim and wiry build. He was a reptilian Faunus of some description whose skin, which had at first appeared to be simply dry and cracked was in fact covered in rough, pale scales with a sickly green hue that made the man look unwell; longer and more ridged scales with a darker hue decorated the underside of the mans' jaw and brow, giving his entirely hairless skull some form of substitute for eyebrows and a beard whilst a pair wide and protuberant yellow eyes drew attention the inhuman but undeniably expressive face which currently wore a leering smile filled with needle-sharp teeth. The mans' outfit was mix of simple, loose fitting garments one might associate with a martial artists, featuring a hood which had been lowered and practical, reliable armour laid over it to which a weapon had been affixed that Arctus would know anywhere; it was Breaker, the weapon his own father had taken to using after it fallen into his possession following the demise of his partner in the battle of Vale. Staring at the man who could only be the fourth member of Team GRAP a moment longer despite the eyes boring into him from all sides Arctus finally managed to speak
"Uncle Squish?"
Authors' Notes:
And that, ladies and gents is the finale of Vol.10.
How's that for a cliffhanger ending?
Also I'm probably gonna take a break next week just to clear my head, I've been writing non-stop for months and I don't know if you've noticed but the entire fucking world is on fire….give me a minute to catch my breath.
That being said the UK is on lock-down for at least the next three weeks, so I may or may not end up writing something else; depending entirely on how much more creative juice I can squeeze out of my dessicated husk.
But anyway said, let's summarise:
Yang was hoping for the big fight, because of course she was.
And of course she's annoyed that Pantheon is still alive, she wanted to be the only child.
Okay so Adam didn't tip anyone off but he has gone AWOL and we're at a point in the story where the driving characters need to have an approximation of the right idea at the very least.
"Weariness that the use of Raffia Dirge's regenerative Semblance had only worsened in its' wake"….You'll see.
So Salem's gonna stay based under the city for a while.
"The end of all things was fast approaching" is such a 2020 mood.
Oof, the moment Artemis's Semblance couldn't find Arctus and Eagle's Auras….oof.
Qrow already suspected, now there's proof; so the heroes know what's going on….No more proxies, it's war against Salem directly.
You really think Diamond wouldn't try and run straight back to that tower?
I'm not gonna lie, Qrow saying fuck it and throwing the towel in for a second was hard to write.
Little callback to the Vol.2 finale.
Okay obviously Felix is right, but at the same time he doesn't know that he's right; he's just spit-balling ideas and clutching at straws.
We can't afford not to hope….also a 2020 mood, stay strong people.
You didn't think for a second that Team CLIR were gonna be gone for good did you?
What if I told you Nickel wasn't trying to be a dick with that "Big Oof" but genuinely cannot express herself any other way.
The twins were an absolute joy to write this chapter….also, note that Nickel calls Summer-Pyrrha Rose "Chief" instead of "Buddy".
Splitting up the Nuts & Dolts for the time being, just because I need some players to not be on the board right now.
"Is this what being a real person feels like?" was the line that choked me up more than anything else in this chapter, is that weird?
Also yes, Nickel has her wings and built-in weapons back but she's gonna have the Omega Destroyer as well.
Obviously Helios told Qrow what had happened on his end before Felix did.
The stasis tube is honestly very similar in design to where Pantheon was being stored in Vol.9.
Helios is using Milo and Akuo now rather than repairing Olympus Enforcer….also I'm sure can figure out what he's gonna do with that leftover metal.
So Salem has unintentionally handed over a the best workable sample of her tools, I did warn you that the Nyanza getting infected thing was going to be of importance.
Also "You perverse ghoul" is iconic.
Losing her arm less than a year ago and now this, Diamond is not having a great time.
Weiss is defiance incarnate, if she tells her son that he can't be gone then he is grounded until the Grim Reaper takes the hint.
"When it comes down to it that boy of mine really is as tough as he thinks he as and he's not going to let himself get taken away from you" if you read Downward Spiral then you know that's what Bjorn said to Weiss about Gangrel when he was missing after the battle of Vale.
"Don't blame yourself for what evil people do" the advice from Blake who spent too long doing that.
Bet you never thought you'd be sad to see Mister Pancakes.
Of course Team GORE express grief through violence and destruction of other peoples' stuff….do you remember First Year?
I was originally gonna have Felix and Helios be in the Team GORE scene and have the leaders of all three teams do the whole heroic speech thing but it honestly didn't feel right.
Seriously, there are so many options for who gets to face off against evil Yang now.
This Adam scene was originally gonna be part of the last chapter but you can see that it fits better here.
You knew where this was going as soon as you heard it was the Gespenst.
A Hi-Vis jacket, the key to breaking into anywhere.
So Adam has two copies of Wilt now.
Okay so I started writing Downward Spiral post Vol.3 of RWBY when we weren't exactly sure how Adam's Semblance worked; so rather than it just being a copy of Yang's, in this story when he's fully charged he can actually bypass his opponents' Aura completely. He couldn't ignore forcefields in Downward Spiral, that's the product of a lot more experience.
Celeste Lupus has been in solitary confinement for over a year and pretty much forgotten about at this point.
"The punishment for your sins is death" is something Alpha would have said, which is fitting.
So we didn't see much of Adam's abilities here….but enough for it to be interesting.
And well well well….everyone at Schnee Manor right now has could have an interesting reunion with Adam.
Okay so honest question, did any of you actually think I'd killed Arctus and Eagle? Who guessed where this was going?
Old Vale out here looking like Chernobyl being reclaimed by nature….also notice how the Exclusion Zone never looked like that because of the Grimm influence.
How fucked do you have to be for "I think we got slapped into the future" to sound like a sensible option?
Kenwood….the Kennels, pulling out the deep cuts from my own lore.
And boom, there's something you weren't expecting!
In case the White Fang comments didn't give it away, Arctus and Eagle are in the timeline that Adam was taken from, Neon was deep cover and preparing to assassinate Adam, obviously she's escaped to Vale since having her cover blown.
Ladies, gentlemen and others, Perdu 'Squish' Callows is back!….I've had this waiting in the wings for literal years.
…..Vol.11 looks like it's gonna be fun doesn't it? Definitely worth the wait.
Thank you to SumoSnipe and Funlander for their reviews on the last chapter.
It's a shame her scar won't match Ren's, but still bad-ass though.
Thank you kindly sir.
How're those emotions now?
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review