A/N: Awesome, looks like I was able to get this thing wrapped up and posted sooner than I anticipated.
Thank you all for the wonderful reviews you posted on the last chapter. I had a lot of fun reading through all of them. If you're wondering how long this has been in the works, I will direct you to go back to chapter 23 of RWBY Within and take a look at Ren and Nora's game of Go Fish. Ren makes a comment towards the end that was the first time I intentionally seeded the story with a hint. While you're at it, you should also take a look at the cover image I chose for Remnant Unknown. :)
Regarding Ozpin's explanation, I have a google doc that is 15 pages of nothing but Ozpin dumping information on Ruby in rapid succession, so there will be plenty of exposition going on in this chapter and the next. Do note that, while I have been planning this out for years, and I've done my best to make the twist as plot-hole-proof as possible, I would be amazed if I managed to pull it off 100%. If you find a plot hole that you wish to bring to my attention, I only ask that you do so respectfully. I have worked very hard to get the story to this moment, and I would appreciate it if you took that into consideration when formulating how you wish to present your comment/criticism.
Now with that out of the way... enjoy.
Ruby stared at Ozpin. The Headmaster seemed to be expecting this reaction, as he waited patiently for Ruby to speak.
"You're shitting me," Ruby eventually blurted.
No smile, no mischievous grin crept onto Ozpin's face to indicate that he was pulling a prank. "I am not."
Ruby pointed at him. "You…?"
"John Bradford."
Ruby pointed back in the direction they escaped from. "She…?"
Ozpin sighed. "Dr. Moira Vahlen."
"What."
"It's… a long story, Ruby," Ozpin said. "But we seem to have plenty of time on our hands. Would you like to know everything? And I do mean everything: now that you know the truth about me, you'll need to know the truth about Remnant itself."
"Give… give me a moment…" Ruby said. She was still trying to wrap her head around Ozpin's claim that he was John Bradford. She still wasn't sure if she believed him. But even so, she had to admit that the assumption of Salem actually being Doctor Vahlen did explain some things that Ruby noticed. Ozpin (… or Bradford? Gods, this was going to be a headache) waited patiently for Ruby to get her thoughts all sorted out.
"Before we get into all of that… truth about Remnant… stuff," Ruby said. "I… I need to know… why me? Why did Sa- Vahlen go through all that trouble to capture me and kill me?"
"Her aim wasn't to kill you-"
"Close enough," Ruby answered. "Empty me to 'prepare me as a vessel' or whatever. Why?"
Ozpin sighed. Obviously, he had already formulated how he wanted to explain all this to Ruby, but he couldn't blame Ruby for having a laser focus on her near-brush with the horrible fate that Salem (no… Moira, she reminded herself) had in store for her.
"Alright. To give you some desperately-needed context, I'll run through a very brief summary of events," he said. "It is impossible to explain to you Salem's motive without it."
Ruby shrugged. "Fine. And then once we're done, you can go back and explain things more slowly."
Ozpin nodded. He took a moment, probably to gather his thoughts and figure out how he wanted to summarize everything, and then started, "Very well. Moira Vahlen is allied with the Ethereals, who control the Grimm. They are trying to engineer humanity to produce the perfect vessel that the Ethereals can then possess to prolong and enhance their lives. I've been fighting them for, quite literally, thousands of years, but this looks like it may be my last life. Moira hunts people like you, Ruby, because while you and your ancestors are still not good enough for true possession, you are still the best that the Ethereals have in the meantime."
Dead silence followed Ozpin's summary. Ruby's eyes grew wide and her mind raced with everything that Ozpin had just said. Vahlen was aligned with the Ethereals? Ozpin had been fighting with them for thousands of years? And they'd always been hunting her-
"Hold on…" Ruby said, having regained control of her speech. "You said my ancestors?"
Ozpin gave Ruby a sad smile. "Full marks for being perceptive, Captain. Yes, that includes Summer Rose."
Wait. Then that meant…?
"However, the Summer that captured you is nothing like the mother that you once knew." The hurt in Ozpin's eyes pierced Ruby's heart as he finished, "That woman, Ruby, is gone."
"Oh…"
The silence grew between them once more. Suddenly, Ruby wasn't really interested that much in hearing what else Ozpin had to say. However, she promised that he could tell her the full truth after answering her first question. She was fairly certain that Ozpin wouldn't push forward with the story now if Ruby didn't want to hear it, but… a promise was a promise.
"Summer Rose was the first pseudo-vessel to give birth to another," Ozpin said, perhaps trying to help Ruby feel like her mother was special in some way. "There has always been a generation or more between vessels."
It sounded like Ozpin had been tracking which of Ruby's ancestors were these 'pseudo-vessels.' But how?
"How do you know?" she asked. "Is there something that marks us as a vessel?"
"There is," Ozpin answered. He pulled a hand out from beneath the cloak Ruby had wrapped him in and tapped the corner of his eye.
It took her a moment to figure out what he meant, but then…
Ruby Rose. You… have silver eyes.
"You knew," she whispered. "All this time, you knew… didn't you?"
Ozpin nodded. "I did. But what could I say?"
"… Nothing, I suppose. Not without telling me-" she waved her hand around, "all of this."
Right. 'All of this' included that context that she promised he could get into next. The two fell silent for a moment, and it seemed like Ozpin was waiting for Ruby's permission to go ahead with the story."
Eventually, she nodded and said, "Alright. Go ahead."
Ozpin smiled softly. "Thank you, Ruby. But first, I'd like to reiterate something. You probably know it by now from what I've told you thus far, but it's important enough to bear repeating."
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"You are a very special young woman, Ruby Rose," Ozpin said, earnest, genuine honesty radiating from his words. "You always have been. And you always will be."
She didn't know why Ozpin felt the need to say that. Ruby didn't feel particularly special at the moment. But even so… it did feel good to hear him say it, and to know that he meant it.
"Now, to the story of Remnant's history," Ozpin began. "As you can probably guess, the key that sits at the core of all of this is the Hyperwave Relay."
Ruby snorted. "Figures."
Given everything she already knew, and the possibilities that could come from Ozpin's opening about the Hyperwave Relay, Ruby could already tell that this story was going to be wild.
"Contacts are engaging!"
"Fives, Reapers have marked targets. Rockets. Now."
"Bullhead pilot is trying to make a break for it!"
"We'll intercept him once he crests the cliff and hijack the bird."
"Shields are holding, though I wouldn't say no to smokes!"
By the time Mac pulled himself up over the cliff's edge, the hangar was already engulfed in chaos. The EXO operatives were out front, shields deployed to provide cover while their squads got into position. Rifles and SAWs chattered as XCOM worked to suppress the defenders and force them behind cover. If Merlot only had human guards securing the front entrance, perhaps the element of surprise might have bought XCOM a few more seconds of time while the shock set in. But with mechanicals? The moment they saw hostiles, their programming kicked them into gear and they began to fire back at the assault teams.
"Red hostiles are coming in hot."
"BFG and Hammertime can handle them. Focus on the gunners."
As if to prove the point, the ground shuddered from the impact of Yang and Nora diving into a trio of Merlot's Melee Murderbots. The mechs were scattered from the impact, and the two huntresses maintained their momentum and charged their way towards their next set of victims while bullets whizzed around them.
While the two huntresses may have had the melee mechs well in hand, their mini-gun-toting counterparts were spraying high-velocity death from the back of the hangar. The EXO operatives seemed to be maintaining their hard light shields under the suppressive fire, but not every XCOM soldier was able to remain behind the hard light shields. Mac hissed as a couple of bullets slammed into his body armor, and he dove for one of the many crates littering the hangar.
"How nice of our host to give us all these cargo crates for cover," one of Mac's squad mates laughed as he joined the engineer for a respite.
Mac glared at him. "You've been on Strike Five long enough to know that you don't make fucking jokes about good luck."
"Those fucking mechs are straight-up bullshit."
"We're taking hits, but nobody's down for the count yet."
"Anytime you feel like it, Two's," Mac intoned, "we could use some help."
"Sorry," Two-Actual apologized. "Took us a minute to get into position. Smokes are deployed. All teams, move up!"
Through the purple haze of smoke grenades, Mac slipped out from behind the crates and moved forward to join up with Strike Five's EXO operative, Santiago. The familiar smell of acrid smoke filled his nose from the sheer volume of weapons slinging their munitions at the hangar's defenders.
"Big guns are coming online! Rockets are slowing them down, but we need to get a lock on that artillery!"
"Two's, it's probably time to test out those drones," Mac advised.
"Already on it. We're flying them in low so they don't draw attention. If these things work, we can knock two of the three emplacements offline."
"Grenades!" Santiago called out. On reflex, the soldiers using him for cover scattered as a trio of lobbed explosives rocked the deployed hard light shield. Santiago yelped, but the shield held out just long enough to absorb the blast. Once it winked out of existence, Santiago dashed for MacAuley's cargo so the engineer could get to work on repairs.
"Five's shielder is down," MacAuley called out while he flipped open the EXO suit's main service panel. "I'll need a few to get the power cell replaced before Santiago's back in action."
"Be advised that those mini-guns have a grenade launcher secondary," Santiago warned.
"Noted."
MacAuley dug replacement Dust out of his pack and got to work fixing up the suit's shield unit. He tuned out all the distractions of the battle -the yelling, the gun chatter, the explosions, the earthquakes- and kept a laser focus on his task at hand. Uncouple this wiring unit. Reset that power bus. Ditch the burned out crystal. Swap in the new one.
"How's the suit working out?" Mac asked, his eyes trained on his work.
"She's a beauty," Santiago answered cheerfully. "You gotta give it a whirl sometime. The power is incredible."
Mac slapped the panel closed and gave his squadmate a thumbs up. "That's good. You should see if you can use one of those mini-guns after we secure the hangar. Your powered frame should be able to support the weight, and those guns look like they can do a lot of damage."
Santiago grinned. "I'll give it a shot. Let's do this."
MacAuley followed Strike Five's tank back into the fray, and not a moment too soon. The air vibrated as powerful guns started to discharge. Evidently, the Two's weren't able to lock down all of the turrets.
"Reds are coming in hot! Shotgunners, do your thing!"
"BIG GUN'S GOT A LOCK ON MY POSITION."
"BFG!"
"I got you! Devastators on their way!"
Yang vaulted herself into the air, twisted around to face the back of the hangar, and whooped. dozens of microrockets detached from her gauntlets and raced towards the line of defenders before exploding into a wall of fire. The heavy turret remained functional, but for a few seconds? None of the security or mechs were raining death on XCOM's position.
"Go! Go!" MacAuley shouted.
Like a bat out of hell, Santiago tore across the field towards the soldiers pinned down by the gun emplacement's withering fire. Mac ducked back into cover, took aim, and did his best to spray suppressing fire against any of the defenders that were starting to recover from Yang's rocket barrage to target his EXO operative. Strike Rifles from the rear of the hangar cracked as XCOM marksmen sought to do the same. One of the melee robots dashed across the smoking battlefield to get within range of Santiago and raise its glaive. Mac's breath caught in his throat moments before Nora came flying it and crushed its torso with her rocket-boosted hammer.
"Keep going!" she shouted, revving the thrusters on her hammer as she searched for her next target.
The servos in Santiago's augmented suit whined as he vaulted over the broken corpses of Nora's other victims. He hit the ground with a slide, sparks flying in the air behind him, before pulling himself up into a defensive stance several feet in front of the nearly-destroyed cover of the pinned operative.
"Move!" the EXO operative commanded. Another salvo of rockets streaked overhead and crashed into the defensive emplacements with a fiery bloom while the hangar defenders finally regained their composure and began slinging ammunition back at XCOM.
This… was going to be rough.
"Keep up the pressure, boys and girls," Mac said, slapping a new magazine into his rifle. "Elsa's counting on us."
It took less than half an hour for the initial spark of hostilities to drag the Downside into a full-blown riot. Ten minutes after the first bird went down, the streets were flooded with ADVENT response units in an effort to both suppress the uprising and seek revenge against those who dared strike against Lady Fall's holy purpose. At least, that's what Ilia assumed they were thinking.
Odei's long-term preparations and Lieutenant Kelly's more recent preparations paid off in spades. The chatter of weapons fire echoed from one street to the next as the slum dwellers offered stiff resistance against ADVENT's efforts to regain control of the region. If Cinder's goons thought that the slummers would just roll over and take the beating, Cinder's thugs were sorely mistaken. When ADVENT deployed their heavier soldiers, the Downsiders deployed rooftop snipers. When ADVENT countered with high-speed stun lancers, the Downsiders introduced them to molotov cocktails. When ADVENT set up a defensive formation and used a brutal walk-fire advance, the Downsiders had no problem giving up ground to ADVENT's spearhead and shifting their battlefront towards somewhere else. Their assailants were vindictive, and their resources were vast, but that didn't stop the slummers from giving everything they had to fight for their freedom.
With XCOM's tactical guidance and determination, the oppressed finally had the courage they needed to fight back against the armored fist those overzealous jackboots that had slowly been closing around their throats.
Ilia paused for a moment at her choice of words to describe the ADVENT soldiers. If they were blindly devout followers of a misguided cause, what had she been prior to XCOM? The Albain Brothers had told her to bring a Grimm invasion down upon Kuo Kuana's head, whispered sweet assurances into her ear that all would be according to an infallible plan, and she didn't even blink.
But that was why she was here now, wasn't it? To prove to Sienna —no, to herself— that she wasn't a lost cause. If she was seeking atonement, Ilia figured the first step on that road was to help the slummers rip apart ADVENT's fist, finger by bloody finger.
"Precinct station is up ahead. Approach from Oakcrest to avoid the worst of the activity."
And as always, her guardian mentor was watching from the shadows, doing what he could to keep her safe while he walked his own path of redemption. It had taken Ilia a while to get used to his near-constant commentary and critique, but at some point it clicked for her why Hogarth was so driven to see her succeed. The best she could do now try to do right by the man who did everything he could to do right by her.
Ilia advanced with her squad of Downside locals and huntsmen support from one of the sympathetic Atlesian student teams. Rhapsody, or RAPS. Apparently it was Penny's old team back before the world was turned upside down during the Vytal disaster, so it wasn't surprising that they were willing to join XCOM's fight. That, and one of their members had gone missing shortly after ADVENT started their crackdown on huntsmen students in Atlas. It was bad enough for Ciel Soleil and Ashton Cartwright to have 'lost' Penny, but not knowing the fate of their team leader had certainly given the pair even more reason to throw in with XCOM. Either way, Ilia wasn't about to say no to having an armored huntsman watching her six with a mean-looking lever-action rifle.
"Squad is ready, and gear is checked," Ciel said. "All munitions have been accounted for."
Ilia nodded. "Nice and easy, team. We've got the advantage here: the fighting is far away, ADVENT is preoccupied, and nobody would be dumb enough to try and assault their fortified security station."
Ashton laughed. "Well, nobody except us."
Ilia smiled. The Downsiders said nothing while they waited for their next instructions from Ilia. Armed with an assortment of rifles and bats, they were there to provide support while the huntsmen did most of the heavy lifting.
"Latest dropship just took off. Your best window of opportunity begins now."
Wordlessly, Ilia pulled the Fire-Elerium Dust breaching charge from her pack and slipped forward. The slum dwellers followed suit, sticking close to their infiltration specialist as they scurried across the street towards the side wall of the precinct station. Ilia could hear clipped voices talking inside, though she couldn't make out how many people were involved. Hogarth had deliberately instructed them to approach from a direction opposite the loading dock to minimize the amount of activity they risked encountering, and it looked like the old man's intuition was, as expected, correct.
Ciel and Ashton stayed back in the shadows of the alleyway to provide overwatch while the rioters reached the building with Ilia and started to stick the demolition charges against the wall. It took them about a minute to get all of the explosives in position, and Ilia kept a sharp ear out for any signs that the soldiers inside had heard them and were sending someone to investigate. Once the bricks were set, Ilia's team took cover along the wall a safe distance away from the detonation radius while the huntress herself silently leapt up to the second floor mezzanine. A double-tap to her comm piece signaled to Ciel that they were ready for her to light the fireworks.
"Praise the sun," Ciel muttered before a bolt of lightning shot out from the alleyway and struck the central brick.
Ilia almost lost her balance as the force of the explosion rocked the building. Gouts of fire flared out into the street, and she could feel the debris of the wall rip through the precinct station like deadly shrapnel from a grenade. She didn't have time, though, to simply stand in awe at Dr. Vahlen's ability to cook up such a potent explosive on short notice. From his position across the road, Ashton was already sniping the exposed and stunned ADVENT troopers with his lever action rifle through the station's new front door.
Her entourage of freedom fighters dashed in from around the jagged corners of the blasted wall and unloaded their weapons with a furious yell. Ilia leapt down from the mezzanine and got to work lashing out at the more able-bodied troopers with her far-reaching sword.
"Find the munitions storeroom," she ordered. "Rhapsody and I can handle the contacts while you grab some goods before blowing the rest."
"Yes ma'am," one of the slummers answered. Ciel and Ashton joined Ilia, and the three huntsmen engaged the ADVENT forces while they tried to regroup after the surprise attack. They were lucky that all of the ADVENT-aligned huntsmen teams were deployed to the riot frontlines. No point in keeping their most potent fighters sitting around playing guard duty while there was a street-level war going on, after all.
"Disable instead of kill, if you can," Ciel said. "We can't forget that this is a war of hearts and minds, and murdering ADVENT soldiers in cold blood doesn't look good."
Ilia nodded in agreement. The snort from Ashton, however, indicated that he didn't feel the same.
"Do you think they'd afford us the same courtesy?" He asked. Ilia noticed that he still kneecapped the ADVENT trooper that came around the corner rather than drilling him through the head.
Ciel glanced at her teammate with an annoyed look. "That's what makes us better than them."
"And firebombing a security station fits in with this narrative… how?" Ashton asked while popping off another couple of shots. "Look, I'm not saying we're doing the wrong thing here. I'm just trying to be realistic about the expectations regarding this 'hearts and minds' thing you're talking about."
"Charges are set," one of the freedom fighters reported. Ilia looked over to see him carrying a sack full of Dust munitions while sporting a clean, state-of-the-art rifle. The other three fighters soon appeared behind him, similarly equipped and loaded down with supplies.
"Let's get out of here."
Ilia reached a hand up to key her comm and report the success of her mission to Warsaw command, but the communication line exploded with a flurry of panicked voices before she could press her unit.
"Oh fuck."
"You're shitting me!"
"All teams! Full retreat!"
"Get back, get back!"
Ilia cued her commpiece to her private channel with Hogarth and asked, "What's happening. Comms are going crazy."
"Cinder Fall is here," Hogarth answered, never one to beat around the bush, "and she does not look happy."
Shit.
"Four more mechs."
Weiss snapped the stolen rifle up to her shoulder with fluid precision. She spent half a second to take aim, and fired a three-round burst just as the robots finished turning the corner. Bullets whizzed from behind her as Conrad and Eshragi followed suit, popping off controlled shots to give Winter and Weiss covering fire as the sisters moved to safety behind some of the architectural bracing spaced along the length of the corridor.
"Aim for the hands," Weiss advised while lining up another shot. "Those guns are heavy, and they can't hold them up very well if you ruin their grip."
Winter grunted her agreement. A spectral Beowolf appeared behind her and dashed towards the mechs to draw their fire while the sisters worked to disarm their assailants. The monster only lasted ten seconds under the withering fire of the mechs, but that was enough time for Weiss's fire team to neutralize the mini-gun threat. Her spectral guardians wasted no time switching to their scavenged glaives and charging the robots with deathly speed.
"Were they like this in life?" Winter asked above the sound of rending metal.
"A little more tempered and tactical," Weiss admitted. "But now it seems they understand that they no longer need to fear death."
Winter laughed. "Then it sounds like they are still being tactical to me."
After the mechs had been eliminated, Conrad ditched his weapons for one of the mini-guns before the group pressed onwards. Through the maze of corridors they advanced, though their efforts to escape were often stifled by Merlot's defenses. When they first tried to retrace their steps back to the hangar, Weiss and Winter quickly discovered that the security forces had assembled a deadly blockade through one of the larger thoroughfares. The sisters could take on small patrols without issue, but a single glance told them that a flawless victory against the firepower of the assembled blockade was a pipe dream.
So their only option was to search for another way out, or to at least probe Merlot's defenses and find a vulnerability they could exploit. However…
"More behind us," Winter warned.
Conrad planted himself in the middle of the hallway, ready to mow down whatever was trying to flank them. They could probably outrun the threat by crossing over that intersection up ahead, but something felt off to Weiss.
"Winter?"
Her sister nodded, catching Weiss's meaning. They slowed down as they approached the intersection, and Winter summoned a small Boarbatusk to probe the crossroad. Within seconds of it coming into view of the adjacent hallway, bullets tore it to pieces. Conrad's minigun chattered to life behind them, and Weiss turned around to see more glaive-wielding robots charging towards their position.
"Shit," Weiss sighed.
"You thought I would just let you waltz out of here?" Merlot cackled. "I must say that I'm almost disappointed that you think so lowly of me."
"I was hoping he'd stay quiet," Winter muttered. She summoned a flurry of spectral birds to slow down the approaching robots while Conrad and Eshragi sought to make quick work of them.
Merlot continued, "However, I will overlook that simply because it's been so educational watching you scurry through my lab like rats in a maze. I must say that you truly do live up to the reputation of your family name."
"This way," Weiss whispered, gesturing towards another small service corridor they'd skipped over before.
She could tell that Merlot's reappearance had Winter rattled. The fact that he was still watching them, laughing as they desperately tried to find an exit… either he was bluffing and was panicking about a potential containment breach, or he truly wasn't worried about his star science project escaping. It reminded Weiss of all the large vaults with heavily-reinforced doors they'd passed on their way through the lab. Merlot probably did that on purpose to drive home the point that their position was hopeless. For now, Weiss knew that she had to put one foot in front of the other, but she had no idea how they were going to get out of this.
The floor shuddered, and a faint echo of explosions rumbled through the hallway. Seconds later, warning lights bathed the lab in red, and a deep alarm sounded. Winter glanced at Weiss, who nodded an affirmation in response. There was no way anybody else could be well-enough equipped to try an assault on Merlot's fortress-laboratory.
"Well that's... unfortunate," Merlot sighed. "And we were just starting to enjoy ourselves. I suppose I'll have to cut this social experiment short, my dears. Too many new variables are being introduced now, so the results aren't really valid, anyway.
"Winter?"
The elder Schnee froze at the sound of Merlot calling her name.
"While it would be immensely entertaining to see which of the two Schnee sisters is stronger, I really can't afford to have an injured or dead bodyguard while I have some uninvited guests knocking on my door."
Winter as his bodyguard? What was this guy talking about?
"Winter. Heel."
Weiss's heart stopped as Winter grew stiff and her eyes dilated. Even though it had been months since the last time she'd fought against an Ethereal or a Sectoid Commander, but it could have been years and Weiss would still instantly recognize the signs of a soldier trying to fight off a mind control attempt.
"Weiss," Winter said through gritted teeth. "Leave."
No. No no no no no. "Winter-"
"Now."
Weiss took a few steps back and watched her sister fight against whatever puppet strings were holding her. There were none of the usual tell-tale marks of a puppeteer: no wispy trail of psionic energy, no faint glow of Winter's eyes… but the struggle was unmistakable.
As quickly as it started, the internal battle raging inside Winter stopped. Weiss could feel Winter's stare practically boring into her skull as she said, "Surrender yourself to the security and wait for further instructions. Do not follow me."
"Wonderful, isn't it?" Merlot asked. "The subservience once the switch is flipped."
This was horrific. There was nothing Weiss could do as she watched Winter confidently walk away, nothing she could do as Winter abandoned her sister in the hellish labyrinth of Merlot's maze. A sister that, an hour ago, Winter cared for and whose safety was at the forefront of her worries.
Merlot continued to taunt her. "Of course, the passive conditioning could still use some work. It's why I asked for her to come back in the first place. It's a pity that those fools chose today of all days to attack. Though I suppose it is fortunate that I have Winter dearest here to keep me safe."
Weiss felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked back to see the ghostly visage of Eshragi staring at her. He wasn't smiling encouragingly, but he wasn't frowning, either.
Right. One foot in front of the other. She'd figure out a way to get Winter back, but first she needed to regroup with XCOM to form a plan.
She could do this. She had to do this.
Weiss readied her rifle once again and chose a direction. Conrad and Eshragi followed close behind, their actions attuned to their summoner's very will. They would find a way out of this, and they would make sure that Merlot did not.
Nice and slow, nice and quiet.
Captain John 'Beagle' Teasdale had to admit that stealth operations usually weren't his speed, what with him being a loudmouthed officer that specialized in explosives armaments. But it was that specialization that had caused Bradford to tap him for the demolition op that he was planning as a failsafe for Gatecrasher.
If things went tits-up, Bradford wanted to make sure the lab was fucking buried from the force of all the explosives the R&D Dream Team had slapped together. At the very least, Central wanted Merlot's work to be wrecked so badly that it set the asshole back months or years from all of the lost data and resources. Beags could definitely handle the 'destruction of resources' part of that plan. As for the data sabotage?
"Surveillance in the next room is disabled," Nichole's voice whispered into his ear. "Please proceed!"
With the pseudo-cloaking of the modified Shadow armor keeping him hidden, Beagle followed Sabretooth's lead into the next room. His HUD highlighted the tiny, unassuming Gremlin drone clinging to the ceiling, and he gave 'Nichole' a thumbs up before he got to work scanning the room. Ever since he and Blake had slipped into the lab through the loading docks during the hangar fight, the Captain was building a mental layout of the base so he could identify where the explosives should be set for optimal effect. Blake had primed the first one just inside the loading door, and assuming that this lab wasn't ridiculously massive…
Beagle raised his rifle and activated the infrared marker light to paint a target location for Blake. With the help of Nichole's swarm-linked micro Gremlins and Shen's Shadow armor, Beagle was able to remain pretty well hidden so long as he stuck to the corners and walls. Blake, however, was much more adept at remaining unseen even if she had to, say, cross a hallway and climb up a support strut to plant a bomb on the structure's critical point.
The bona fide ninja moved like death itself as she silently slid from one shadow to the next under the cover of the lab's flashing lights and the distorting effects of her cloaking armor. If it wasn't for Beagle's HUD equipment, it would have been impossible for him to keep track of Sabretooth while she ran. Blake reached the painted target, attached the explosive, and the pair continued to move deeper into the facility.
"Recon drone signal strength is growing weaker," Nichole alerted. "I recommend leaving the current drone here as a signal booster and deploying the next unit before continuing."
Beagle nodded. He identified an inconspicuous corner that still commanded a good view of the surrounding area that wouldn't dampen the projected signal from one drone to the next. With a quick tap of his marker light, the recon drone silently moved to the wall. An adjustment in its Gravity Dust cells allowed the drone to "land" on the wall and would let it remained fixed for several hours. Beagle unclipped the next Gremlin from his belt, activated it, and waited for the little guy to synchronize with the relay system that allowed him to remain in contact with Nichole. A small ping on his comm unit confirmed the handshake, and the stealth team resumed their progress.
Every now and then, Nichole would alert Beagle and Blake to a security measure that the drone detected and highlight it on their HUDs. Even though the base was on full alert, and the stealth team had to hide in the shadows on multiple occasions to remain undetected when a security team or two came barreling down the hallway, there was no point in letting Merlot know that a pair of operatives was penetrating his facility far deeper than the main force. Nichole could spoof camera feeds so that Blake could safely do her thing, but everyone knew that trying to disable a laser wire ran the risk of setting off an anti-tampering alarm and ruin the entire operation.
As they covertly explored the lab, Beagle noticed that they passed through several sets of blast doors. It made sense, given what the duo had seen of Merlot's 'experiments' so far. If Beagle was a megalomaniacal scientist who had an unnatural hard-on for Grimm experimentation, containment procedures would probably be the third thing on his to-do list for building a secret underground base. First would be to dig out the space for the lab, and second would be to conduct experiments at the edge of the hangar on the aerodynamics of young canines in a 40 meter freefall. Or to install a moat filled with frickin sharks with frickin laser beams. Either or.
After the fourth set of blast doors, Beagle clicked his comm to get Blake's attention and gestured to the doors. She looked at the doors, looked back at him, and nodded. Nothing they could do about those right now, but they were something to keep in mind if Merlot decided to start sealing off sections of his lab.
"Do not worry, Captain," Nichole piped up, "As you explore the lab, I am using your visual and positional data to construct a navigational map that you can use to quickly escape or double-back to a specific location. I have taken the liberty of marking those large doors on the layout so that you can be aware of their location when plotting a course!"
Thanks, kid.
The team continued, and Beagle's munitions pack slowly grew lighter as he sighted more key points for Blake to rig up. They hit the jackpot at one juncture when the Captain was able to recognize an exposed portion of a fuel line manifold. He had Blake wait for several minutes while he carefully examined the structure, briefly consulted with MacAuley (wordlessly on Beagle's end, of course), and determined that fuel was, in fact, flowing through the pipes. Beags made it clear to his partner that she could put the explosive brick literally anywhere on the manifold for it to be effective, so Blake carefully worked to conceal the explosive so that there was no chance a passing soldier might notice it. They deployed another drone in the room to be absolutely certain that the signal would reach the brick, and then moved on.
Through their comms, the covert team could listen in on the progress of the main fight. More than that, the faint sound of weapons fire echoed down the halls as XCOM cleared the hangar.
"They've sealed the main door!"
"Relax, I've got a drill."
"It's meant for those heavyweight Grimm, isn't it?"
"And do you see any of those around? Mine may not be the drill that pierces the heavens, but it's gonna pierce the fuck outta this door."
More soldiers ran past them, and Nichole pinged their comms to get their attention.
"There appears to be a security hub up ahead," she said. "If the Master Sergeant is able to silently neutralize whoever is inside, perhaps I can hack into the system and covertly power down some of Merlot's countermeasures!"
Heh. 'Neutralize.' That was certainly one way to put it. Blake already had Gambol Shroud in hand as she sidled up to the door. Beagle quietly unsheathed a combat knife and readied himself to go in after Blake. While she was clearly the close combat expert here, it couldn't hurt for him to play the role of a sweep and come in after her.
"Breaches set!" someone called out from the front team. "Ease on my mark. Ease!"
Right as the lab rumbled from the breaching charges detonating, Blake slipped into the security room. In the two seconds it took for Beagle to follow her, there was already a dead soldier with a knife in his neck, a second that Blake was strangling, and a third that she had knocked to the floor. Beagle immediately leapt towards the downed soldier, covered his mouth, and slit his throat.
"I knew I preferred long-distance explosions for a reason," he muttered as the soldier let out one last gurgle. "Not sure how you do this and stay sane."
"You get used to it," Blake answered after she finished dealing with her own victim. "Let's get the bodies stowed while Nichole does her thing."
Beagle didn't really have any desire to get used to this.
The active Gremlin had already moved to one of the terminals in the room and started what looked like some sort of data transfer. It was a whole bunch of technobullshit as far as Beagle could tell, but it seemed to be taking up all of Nichole's attention. The stealth team stowed the three corpses out of sight, and Beagle noticed that they had different helmets. Two of the dead mercs had lighter, visored helmets that didn't cover their face. However, the third corpse had a full face helmet, similar to what ADVENT soldiers wore. Curiosity convinced Beagle to pull the helmet off of the third mercs.
"What the fuck…"
"Hmm?" Blake looked over to see what Beagle was getting upset about, and grimaced once she caught sight of the merc's face. "... How?"
The face was still human, but it had some very clearly non-human characteristics. One eye socket had become a small crater with black wisps drifting out of it, and a gaping cavity in the right side of the neck was likewise bleeding smoke. So Grimm modification. Alright, nothing Beagle hadn't seen before. But the other eye was still present, and very much not normal, combined with the wrinkled, oversized cranium and the slightly ashen color of the skin...
"How the fuck did Merlot get ahold of Sectoid material?" Beagle hissed.
Blake stared at the corpse. "The Grimm traits are something we've seen before. But this is weird. Creepy."
"Just like everything else in here," Beagle muttered.
"We did find an Ethereal Harvester in Mountain Glenn," Blake reminded him. "Perhaps that wasn't the only remnant of an Ethereal invasion."
Fuck.
Before they could theorize further on what they'd discovered, the team's software expert chimed in the comm once more.
"It appears that we were fortunate, and Merlot was not watching the security feeds during our entry! I have already spoofed the camera in here to playback the footage from when XCOM's assault first began, and I have not detected any electronic countermeasures in response to my intrusion!"
That sounded like good news to Beagle. He could use some good news right about now.
"I have also discovered Elsa's location in the lab!"
That sounded like even better news.
"Patch that through to BFG's crew, kiddo," Beagle whispered. "We gotta keep pushing forward with our own op, but the main force is gonna want to extract Elsa ASAP."
"Jadis is not with her…"
Shit.
"One thing at a time," Blake said. "We'll cross that bridge once Elsa is safe."
"Okay. I am coordinating the information with Miss Dragunova. This sweep of Merlot's systems has proven quite useful in giving me knowledge of where his critical-"
Nichole cut herself off, which immediately raised the hairs on the back of Beagle's neck. The kid never cut herself off.
"Everything alright?"
Silence for two heartbeats, and then, "I… yes…" Nichole answered hesitantly. "I just discovered some… information."
"Sounds bad," Blake commented.
"It's… nothing that is pertinent to our current mission," Nichole said. "I will pass it along to the main team."
Yeah, that sounded ominous. Beagle wondered if it was related to the fuckery that he and Blake had just uncovered. On the one hand, Beagle was rather impressed that Nichole had learned the art of strategically withholding information. On the other, this was probably a really bad time for her to practice. Even so, he decided to trust that Nichole knew what she was doing and chose not to press the issue. She was probably right that the door kickers would be better equipped to handle something like this, anyway.
"Alright, then. You should also let them know that some of the mercs Are you all set?" he asked.
The little Gremlin did a small flip, which Beagle suspected was Nichole's effort to make him feel better. "I am ready to leave when you are. We will want to move quickly in order to reach the critical locations of the lab that I have identified."
"Want me to leave a little buddy behind in here?" Beagle asked.
"I think so. I will not keep it connected to the system to avoid the risk of detection, but I can activate it for a hack when we need one."
Beagle deployed the next Gremlin, grabbed his pack, and nodded at Blake.
Without a word, the two of them stepped back into the hallway and continued with their mission.
"There they are!"
Weiss leapt into action the moment she heard the modulated voices of Merlot's mercenaries.
She ducked behind a support column just before bullets started flying in her direction as the mercenaries caught sight of her. Odin and Osiris stood their ground, steadfast and unflinching, to return fire upon their latest batch of assailants. Weiss let out a shaky sigh as she felt the reserves of her Aura struggle with maintaining her summoned guards for so long. The spectral soldiers were very skilled at not getting hit (just as they were in life), but even without having to supplement their vitality after each engagement, the slow drain was starting to take its toll.
By this point, Weiss had figured out that the best strategy was to hide in cover and rest while her guards took care of the rest.
Weapons chattered in both directions, and the young huntress took a moment to assess her situation. Merlot's blockades were arranged specifically to prevent her from progressing towards the front of the labyrinthine facility. The madman seemed content to let Weiss run around in circles, tiring herself out while she tried to find some way to break through and escape. She didn't know if his security forces had to deal with escapees in the past, or if they were just really good at planning for contingencies, but Weiss had to admit that she wasn't going to get out of this on her own.
"Contacts!" One of the mercenaries screamed. The panic in his voice was a nice change of pace, and pulled Weiss out of her thoughts.
"Grenade!"
Interesting. Neither of her guards had picked up a grenade during their attempted escape thus far. And yet, the ground shuddered from an explosion, capped by the yells from the mercenary forces.
"Push back! Push back!"
"Don't let them get to the girl!"
Even though Weiss knew that XCOM was here, even though she knew that they were fighting their way into the lab to reach her, the realization that her rescue was just around the corner washed over Weiss like a blast of restorative mist. She almost choked out a sob of relief at the thought that the last month of sheer loneliness was almost at an end.
Eshragi glanced at Weiss, and she instinctively knew what he was asking. With her waning strength, Weiss poured more energy into the link with her guards, empowering them to push forward with renewed ferocity. With XCOM close at hand, and with the mercenaries now fighting on two fronts, Weiss hoped that she wouldn't have to maintain her connection much longer.
She sat behind her column, straining at the effort to keep Eshragi and Conrad fighting for just a little longer. Her efforts were rewarded with the sound of voices.
"Stay down you fucks!"
"Squad, move up!"
"Bangs out!"
The familiar thump of a flashbang was music to Weiss's ears. It wouldn't be long now.
"Holy shit, is that Shruggie?!"
"Elsa's gotta be close by!"
"Delta formation! Walk fire to suppress and advance!"
"Hang in there Sarge, we're coming!"
A roar of ammunition erupted from XCOM as they fought with reignited fury to reach Weiss. A quiet whimper escaped from her throat as she sat in awe and listened to her comrades in arms surge like wild animals against the unfortunate souls who stood in their way. Their pure, unfiltered rage inspired Weiss to will more of her energy into Eshragi and Conrad.
"Damn, I forgot how good those motherfuckers were with a gun."
"More contacts coming in from the side! Melee bots!"
"Four, Five, Seven, and Nine! 'Lid formation! I want those toasters turned into scrap metal!"
The pounding of shotguns and autocannons, and the roar of voices was growing louder now. There was only one thing left for her guards to do.
"Shruggie's falling back!"
"Follow him!"
The Strike team didn't let up their pressure as they retreated down the hall towards Weiss's position. Just knowing that she was nearby must have ignited the same fury in them that their arrival had given to Weiss. Moments later, she saw the first soldier step past the support brace and lock eyes with her.
MacAuley.
He stopped what he was doing and just… stared at her. One emotion after the next danced across his face while the rest of the squad mopped up the mercs. Without a word, he took two steps forward and wrapped Weiss into a bone-crushing hug.
"It's good to see you, kiddo."
"Master Sergeant," Weiss corrected.
MacAuely laughed. "Right."
The two of them let go, and MacAuley spent another half a second just taking in the sight of his friend. Weiss figured it would be best to bring him back to reality sooner rather than later.
"I… need to dismiss Osiris and Odin," she said. "Keeping them here is draining my Aura, and now that Strike Five has arrived…"
MacAuley nodded. "We've got you covered, boss." He turned back to the squad and shouted, "Form up and reload, Fives. We've recovered Elsa, but we're not leaving until we've got Jadis, too. Take a moment to run an equipment check, catch your breath…"
He glanced at Weiss and grinned, "And someone get this woman a shotgun."
It was a matter of seconds before Weiss was offered a shotgun, a pistol sidearm, and a comm link. After a quick readiness check, Weiss took a moment to savor the feeling of having a weapon in her hand, a squad at her back, and XCOM's network in her ear. Now, she could really make Merlot suffer for what he'd done.
"Weiss!"
Before Weiss knew what was happening, a flurry of gold slammed into her. She let out an audible gasp when Yang crushed her into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Yang whispered, finally letting go of her teammate. "I really needed some good news right about now."
Weiss smiled. "It's good to see you too, Yang. Where's Ruby and Blake?"
Yang froze for a split second, and Weiss's stomach did a small flip.
"One step at a time, Elsa," Mac interrupted. "We need to focus on getting you out of here. You and your sister," he added.
Right. Her teammates were probably just stuck in the Avenger's medical wing or something. Yang just knew how badly Weiss wanted to see Ruby, and felt bad that she'd have to wait until after the escape for a reunion.
"Jadis's situation presents a slight complication," Penny said in the comm link.
Jadis? Weiss mouthed to Yang.
Winter, Yang explained.
"However, this does present us with an opportunity," Penny continued. "My work with Captain Beagle has led to an important discovery: some or all of the missing Atlesian citizens are in this facility."
Before Weiss could even process the implications of what Penny had said, Yang blurted out, "And Ruby?"
What? Why would Yang be asking if-
Oh.
No.
No no no. No-
"No," Penny answered.
Then that meant… that meant Ruby was missing, and that XCOM didn't know where Ruby was.
The look of guilt on Yang's told Weiss that her suspicion was correct, but it also reminded her that she wasn't the only one hurting from this news.
Weiss let Yang down once before during the Long War when the two of them were worried about Ruby. She wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.
"Yang," Weiss said. Yang looked at her, with pain in her eyes. That simply would not do.
"You, here and now, are proof that XCOM is doing everything it can to find Ruby. Whoever was stupid enough to take her will find nothing left in the wake of our quest to help my friend, your sister… our leader. We are going to rescue everyone who is trapped here and burn this awful place to the ground, Yang. Because that's the thing Ruby would do. And then we will follow the next lead, and the next, until we get our Rose back.
"And while we're doing this," she added, a smoldering fire slowly burning in her eyes, "you know that your sister isn't helpless. Our fearless Captain of XCOM is making the life of whoever captured her a living hell. Because Ruby Rose is special, Yang. She always has been."
Weiss racked her shotgun and looked around at the members of Strike Five, seemingly waiting for her order. Even MacAuley was standing ready.
"I don't know about you, BFG, but I've got a serious need for some revenge on the 'scientist' that is running this madhouse. Penny, point me in the right direction, and let's get these prisoners out of here. We've got a laboratory to burn."
"The Hyperwave Relay," Ozpin repeated. "As you and your team discovered on that day in the forest, the relay exhibits some interesting teleportive properties. However, your XCOM theorized that the wormhole was purely trans-spacial in nature, and that Earth and Remnant were merely two planets whirling through space at different points in the universe. The truth is that the wormhole is trans-dimensional, and that Earth and Remnant are the same planet."
"What."
Ozpin leaned back against the makeshift seat that Ruby had rigged up for him and waited for his student to fully process what he'd just said.
"So what? Remnant is just a different version of Earth? Or is Earth caught in some weird time loop thingy like we're in Planet of the Apes?" Ruby asked.
Ozpin paused for a moment, then chuckled. "Planet of the Apes… now that is a name I haven't heard in a very, very long time. But no, there is no time loop. Earth and Remnant are very much separate, independent dimensional copies of the same planet. There are many similarities, however. Dimensions seem to be funny like that. Perhaps the dimensional-hopping abilities of the relay allow it to more easily connect with dimensions that are only somewhat varied from its home dimension. For example, you already know that Remnant has its own Bradford and Vahlen, but we also have-" he paused for a moment. "… had our own Dr. Shen. We also had Annette Durand, Shaojie Zhang, Xander Vance…"
"Dr. Shen told me that he was a little surprised by how you greeted him when he first came to Remnant," Ruby recalled.
"Indeed. My memory of the man had grown hazy as the tides of time did their inexorable work, but the moment I saw him step through the portal? Everything came flooding back."
"So if Remnant and Earth have a lot of similarities," Ruby mused, "does that mean you had your own Long War? Wait was the Great War Remnant's version of the Long War?"
Ozpin smiled.
"We did have our own war with the Ethereals," he said, "though it wasn't the Great War. This may come as a surprise, but I am much older than you realize, Ruby. But yes, Remnant had what you refer to as the 'Long War.' We even had our own extra-dimensional traveler. Sadly, Lady Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon was unable to stay and help us fight the Ethereals in the way your team was."
Ruby blinked. "… Who?"
"A young woman who was apparently rather adept at dimension hopping," Ozpin explained. "By necessity, it seemed, for she said she was being forever chased by a host of monsters capable of tracking her across worlds. When we powered on the relay for the first time, she claimed that it created enough 'noise' for her to lose her pursuers for a time, and she slipped into our dimension to investigate the source of the beacon and satisfy her curiosity. Ciri spent about a week with us before moving on, fearing that the monsters would somehow find her here, attack XCOM, and crush any hope humanity had of winning against the Ethereals."
"Are you sure you're not pulling my leg?"
Ozpin shrugged. "It was how we learned that the Hyperwave Relay breaches dimensional space. And once Moira discovered that, she became rather obsessed with unlocking the device's potential after the war."
"So how did your war end?" Ruby asked. "Since, you know… you didn't have eight huntsmen and huntresses who were able to help Annette stabilize the psionic helm of the Temple Ship."
"We managed," Ozpin said. "Barely. You are right that your assistance allowed your Annette to do a much better job than ours. However, another surprise ally filled in for your absence in our Annette's time of need. His name is Asaru."
"Asaru?" Ruby asked, "Oh yeah, our Annette has him, too. He's pretty cool."
Ozpin chuckled. "I'm not surprised. So assuming your Asaru is similar to ours, you know that he's still very much in the early stages of sentience at the end of the Long War. Unbeknownst to Annette, the two merged at the critical moment when she was trying to retain control of the bridge. With the addition of Asaru's psionic energy, Annette had just enough control to crash the Temple Ship."
"I'd still call that a win," Ruby said. "Better than the ship turning into a black hole."
"It was," Ozpin agreed. "However, the victory was somewhat pyrrhic. Our Ethereals were more spiteful than yours, I believe. Prior to their invasion, they had implemented a contingency plan to assist with their conquest of Earth. If the war was not going their way, they would detonate a series of ultra-high-yield Elerium bombs on the moon and cause it to fracture. As a way to demoralize the citizens of Earth and force them to surrender out of fear.
" So while the crash landing of the Temple Ship in Germany caused tectonic movements that broke the Richter scale and scattered untold volumes of Elerium to the four winds, the night sky was likewise rocked by a series of highly-engineered explosives that… well…"
Ozpin gestured upwards with his hand. They couldn't see the sky from their hiding spot, but Ruby had seen the Remnant's enough times to know what he was talking about. To learn that the shattered moon was caused by Ethereals…
This whole thing was insane.
"In your years of looking up at the moon and the stars, you may have noticed that the broken pieces of the moon don't come together to recreate a perfectly whole celestial body," Ozpin said quietly. "The explosives caused a large number of chunks to… de-orbit. It took years for the pieces to finish their death spiral, but the end result, The Calamity, was still catastrophic for humanity."
"A final gift from the Ethereals," Ruby said.
"A final gift indeed," Ozpin agreed. "Or so we thought. But I'm starting to get ahead of myself a bit."
Right. "You mentioned something about Vahlen obsessing over the Hyperwave Relay."
"After the war's end, while humanity was recovering from the economic, military, and moral losses of the invasion, XCOM still found itself with work to do. Just as your Ethereals had unleashed Grimm on Earth, so too had ours. Our operatives were fighting a desperate war against a seemingly unending foe that had leapt out of the Ethereals' Pandora's Box. Our R&D department was trying to make the most of the technological boons we'd gained from the war to help."
Ozpin halted, and the vague sense of ESP that she'd picked up from her time with Annette made it clear that Ozpin's thoughts were involuntarily throwing him back into that dark period of his Long War's aftermath. For once, Ruby was thankful that she wasn't as adept at this whole thought-reading thing as Annette was. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle that level of pain from Ozpin.
The man finally recollected himself and continued. "And Doctor Vahlen? She immediately put in a request to transfer herself and a team of techs to the Temple Ship's crash site long-term to glean as much as possible from the wreckage."
"Makes sense."
"It was a trap."
"They corrupted Vahlen," Ruby guessed.
Ozpin nodded, and fell silent. Again, the subtle, gut-wrenching pain of horrific memories softly stabbed at Ruby's psyche. He must have been thinking back through the years as he watched one of his closest friends slowly fall into madness. And if Salem was right that she'd been around since before the faunus? Then Ozpin must have been watching for a very long time. Ruby was reminded of what he told her back when she first started at Beacon, and she asked if he'd made some kind of mistake in making her a team leader.
I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child…
"Slowly," Ozpin said, "gently… this is how her sanity was taken. Feeding into her desire to push the limits of morality in the name of science, whispering ghostly promises of power that could save humanity… I would receive reports from her subordinates that Moira was regularly pulling all-nighters, constantly muttering to herself, and snapping frequently at the junior researchers. But the amount of research and advancement she was generating was simply too much to give up. I gave them the order to deal with her issues as best as they could while they continued their work in the wreckage."
"Quick question, Professor," Ruby interrupted, "and I'm sorry if I'm getting ahead of the story… but this was years and years ago, wasn't it? Like… thousands of years ago? Salem- … err… Vahlen said that you've been around since before the faunus. Which, if all of this about the Long War is true, makes sense. But Remnant has had faunus for as long as anyone can remember. How are both of you even alive?"
Ozpin smiled, and for a brief moment, Ruby felt like she was his student again, and she'd asked a very clever question. "Out of everything Moira uncovered at the Temple Ship, there were two important pieces of technology in particular that help answer your question: first, research she found that was conducted by the Ethereals in an effort to slow, stop, or even reverse the decaying process of their corporeal forms. "
"Okay…"
"Moira- well… the Ethereals wanted a test subject to see if the tech would work. Vahlen, predictably used herself as a subject. However, her corruption was still in its early stages at that point, and so she sent the remaining sample back to the Anthill with express instructions that it was meant for me. I trusted my Chief Scientist, and so I used it."
A thought occurred to Ruby, and her stomach lurched in response. "Wait… how did the Ethereals develop these samples? And why were there only two?"
"That thought occurred to me as well," Ozpin sighed. "Unfortunately, it only occurred to me after I ingested the material. I'm sure you raided one or two alien bases during your Long War, yes? Then you must have seen the source the aliens used for their work."
"O-oh… oh, Gods," Ruby stammered. They never figured out what the aliens were harvesting humans for. So many lives sacrificed… for this?
Ozpin seemed keen to move on. "Moira also discovered the second plan the Ethereals were working on in an effort to beat death. This one, thankfully, involved no human materials, but it was the less-ideal plan of the two for the aliens. It involved digitizing an entity's consciousness and uploading it to a server or platform."
"Penny…" Ruby breathed.
"Miss Polendina is one such product of that technology, yes," Ozpin confirmed. "However, you might be interested to know that she was not the first. Dr. Raymond Shen was."
"… Dr. Shen?"
"The man was an engineering genius with a strong moral compass, but his body was understandably starting to give out. Ordinarily, he would have been content to pass peacefully and allow the next generation to carry on the mission of humanity's survival…"
"But things were dire after the war," Ruby guessed.
Ozpin nodded. "He did not take Vahlen's offer lightly. The idea of playing God and not accepting when his time would come didn't sit well with him, but he knew that humanity was in a time of desperate need. Turning his back on that when he knew he possibly had the option to continue his work felt even worse to him. Plus, if Moira's concoction worked the way she thought it would, he'd have us to keep him company during humanity's reconstruction."
Ruby didn't want to imagine how awful the choice must have felt for Shen. From what she knew of her Shen, choosing between cheating death and 'abandoning' humanity would have been just as much of a no-win scenario as it apparently was for Ozpin's.
"So humanity was broken after the Long War, chunks of the moon were spiraling towards Earth, Annette bonded with Asaru, Vahlen was starting to go crazy and obsess over the Hyperwave Relay, and the Big Three were now probably-immortal," Ruby summarized. "Anything else?"
"Well if you're hoping for something happier, Annette and Zhang fell in love and got married."
"Okay, now I know you're messing with me."
Ozpin stared at Ruby long enough for her to realize that the man was, in fact, not messing with her.
"With everything going wrong in the world, the two of them stood as a beacon of hope. Two of XCOM's finest, fighting tirelessly for the people of Earth. Annette's connection with Asaru was known… sort of. The public was obviously not informed that Asaru was an Ethereal, but we did announce that Annette had encountered and bonded with a psionic entity that the invaders had kept trapped on their ship. Which was sort of true. In any case, The two of them were married, had kids, those kids had kids, and so on."
That sounded almost normal. And in a story about crazy aliens, immortal machines, and Vahlen getting corrupted to evil, that made it abnormal. Why was Ozpin even bringing it up?
"I feel like the moon should be crashing any moment now in the story…"
"Your instinct is correct," Ozpin agreed. "Unfortunately, the people of Earth weren't nearly as ready as they should have been for the impact. Despite knowing it was coming, and despite XCOM's efforts to unite the nations of the world in a common goal of survival, fear gnawed away at humanity's psyche. The Grimm that were drawn by such fear only made matters worse, and a lot of nations devolved into an 'every nation for itself' mentality. Astronomers and scientists cried out, consistently and loudly, about when they expected the moon fragments to hit, but even that wasn't enough to pull everyone together until it was far, far too late.
"The fallout was horrible. The impact of the Temple Ship was bad enough, but the chunks of the moon were several magnitudes greater in size. Entire countries were wiped out within minutes of the first pieces making landfall. Those that struck the oceans created impossibly massive tidal surges that drove themselves far further inland than anyone could imagine. And each piece that collided with the Earth kicked up more and more particles that darkened the sky. The Earth was assaulted like this over the course of years, Ruby. And I died on the second day."
"That sounds awfu- wait," Ruby said, finally catching the last part of Ozpin's statement, "you did what on the second day?"
When she didn't get an immediate answer from Ozpin, Ruby groaned. "Well obviously you're sitting here, discussing this with me right now. So something must have happened."
"Your guess is as good as mine about how the reincarnation works," Ozpin said with a shrug. "It almost certainly has to do with the Telomeric compound gifted to me by Moira, probably something to do with my frequent and prolonged exposure to Elerium, and, so I'm told, a little bit of help from Asaru."
"You're, uh… gonna have to explain that one to me, chief."
Ozpin smiled. "I told you this story would be long, didn't I? As Annette and Asaru worked together after the war, their symbiotic relationship allowed both of them to grow stronger by feeding off of each other. Annette's abilities far surpassed those of any other operative, and Asaru? Asaru's power eventually exceeded even that of the oldest Ethereal during the war."
"Just by working with Annette? If it was that easy, why haven't the other Ethereals figured it out?"
"They're prideful to an extreme fault, Ruby. They are the supreme race of the galaxy, and it is the role of all other species to serve them. The notion of working cooperatively with a 'lesser' being is absolutely unconscionable to the Ethereals. Asaru is unique in that regard simply because he latched onto Annette while he was still in the nascent stages of his development."
"So wait, what about Dr. Vahlen, then? Aren't the Ethereals working with her?"
"She's a human whose original intention was to save humanity. Now she is willing to enslave, kill, and utterly crush however many it takes to develop a solution for the sickness suffered by the Ethereals," Ozpin said. "Does that sound like working with or working for the aliens to you?"
"Good point… but what's this about a sickness? Or are we getting ahead of ourselves again?"
"It's the reason the Ethereals invaded Earth in the first place, but let's finish talking about Asaru's power first."
"Alright."
"Now, keep in mind that, since I died during the moonfall, this is second-hand information that I was only able to piece together in the aftermath. The… fantastic nature of the details have caused me to frequently wonder about their veracity, but at the end of the day? I am alive, the Maidens exist, and humanity survived the calamity."
"The Maidens?!"
Arslan's veins turned to ice at the sight before her. Since the riot began, ADVENT dropships and armored trucks had been dumping more and more personnel into the fight. That was something Arslan could handle. But this?
"… What do we do?" Reese asked, her eyes locked on Cinder Fall.
What could they do against a Maiden? Especially one that looked as furious as Cinder did. Their only saving grace right now was that Cinder needed to maintain her image as a savior of the people. She couldn't start slinging fireballs left and right to quell the riot. Not that she needed to… her mere presence cast a subdued mood on the streets of the Downside. The ADVENT forces stopped their assault, as they waited for their Lady Fall to make her move. The slummers stopped fighting back, for fear of provoking the powerful sorceress and giving her reason to turn the whole neighborhood to ashes.
"Put down your weapons," Cinder's voice boomed as she hovered above the battleground. "There is no need for further violence, now that I am here. Surrender yourselves to the authorities, and this can be resolved peacefully."
There was a pause, a sense of hesitation, as the slum dwellers took a moment to weigh whether it would be safer to do as the Fall Maiden said or take their chances in a fight against a literal superhuman.
"Whose authority?" a voice called out, the sound carried by the silence following Cinder's command. "Atlas's or yours?"
Arslan's eyes grew wide as she saw Blanche staring up serenely at the Fall Maiden. While the slum dwellers were hesitant to stand down at Cinder's command, immediately lowered their firearms once they realized that their spiritual leader had taken to the field.
Blanche added, "Because it was ADVENT's gross abuse of power that caused this in the first place."
Cinder cocked an eyebrow and floated lower towards the young woman. "I assure you that the trooper responsible-"
"I'm not talking about one lackey, Cinder," Blanche interrupted, "and I believe you know that."
Arslan could practically feel the words, 'how dare you interrupt me?' vibrating through the air. To her credit, however, Cinder kept her cool and instead answered, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
"Ever since ADVENT took on the noble burden of policing this part of the kingdom, life has become miserable," Blanche said. "The citizens fear that even looking at one of your patrols a certain way will get them arrested and whisked off to Gods-know-where. In the short time that it has set up shop here in the Downside, ADVENT has become cruel, Cinder. It uses fear and strength instead of inspiration and hope to keep the population in control. Worse, you steal away anyone that suits your fancy, and they never come back."
Blanche's words hung in the air, a sharp rebuke that matched the fury smoldering in Cinder's eyes.
"I don't believe we've met before," the Maiden answered. "I'd like to know who is throwing baseless accusations at the organization that I've worked tirelessly to build into a force of good. ADVENT has sacrificed blood, sweat, and the lives of more good men and women than you could possibly imagine to secure global safety, and I find it interesting that you have the gall to sling such vile lies at our efforts."
Blanche offered a bow, and Arslan wasn't sure if it was mocking or sincere. "A concerned citizen of Remnant, Lady Fall. One that has lived with these people for a lot longer than ADVENT's occupation. These are not lies, I assure you. They are the truth I have witnessed with my own eyes and ears. If there is any honesty that remains in your claim to being a champion of the people and a symbol of hope against the darkness, you will pull your forces out of the Downside immediately and reevaluate exactly how it is you expect ADVENT to make these peoples' lives better."
"Holy shit," Reese whispered.
The two women stared each other down, Cinder glaring daggers at this woman daring to speak out against her while Blanche gazed unflinchingly at the most powerful person alive.
"You have poisoned them," Cinder said. "I can't say I understand what your motive could possibly be, but you've warped these people to blindly follow you, and convinced them to spit in the face of those who want nothing more than their safety and wellbeing to be assured. Perhaps you are working for XCOM as an agent provocateur. Wouldn't be surprising, given the little stunt that those terrorists played out a week ago down here."
Blanche sighed. "Actions speak louder than words, Cinder. XCOM has proved that time and again. I will say that while I find ADVENT's actions to be reprehensible, I find your words, here and now, to be even more disappointing. You have the power of a Maiden, but you act like a petulant child now that the consequences of your actions are finally starting to catch up to you, and you don't like it."
"How dare you," Cinder hissed.
"My request still stands," Blanche insisted. "Your soldiers are doing more harm than good here, if they ever did any good at all. Leave now, and let us take care of ourselves. Or let the actual governing body of Atlas do the job its citizens expect."
Cinder narrowed her eyes. "And what if I say no?"
"Then the people of the Downside will show you just how firm they are in their belief that ADVENT is a detriment to their quality of life," Blanche answered. "And you would prove just how empty your words were when you told the world that they must fight for the future they believe in."
The glower in the Fall Maiden's eyes faded, and Arslan wondered if she would actually follow Blanche's advice. Never in a million years did she believe that the Fall Maiden, who had made herself into a larger-than-life symbol of the people, would back down to the word of some nobody who she'd only met mere minutes prior.
Arslan would never find out, though, because Cinder jerked to the side as though struck by an object, followed by the echoing crack of a rifle report.
The comms erupted into a furious response.
"Who made that shot?"
"What the FUCK?!"
"It wasn't me. My safety is on until otherwise-"
"Fucking fuck. Blanche's plan was about to work."
"Who cocked this up?!"
"YOU."
Cinder pointed an accusatory finger at Blanche as she staggered to her feet. Arslan's heart sank when she saw the fear spreading across the slum leader's face.
"That shot was not from anyone who lives in the Downside!" Blanche said, her decorum shaken. "Everyone here understands what's at stake, and nobody would jeopardize a peaceful-"
"Then tell me who just tried to take my life like a coward?!"
"Nobody who follows my guidance!"
"Hogarth…"
"I'm trying to locate the marksman, but any sniper worth his salt knows to move the moment the shot is taken."
"Think it was a false flag attempt?"
"Timing was fuckin' convenient for Cinder to get an easy out."
"Jesus fuck."
ADVENT soldiers snapped to life at the attack on their leader. Weapons were aimed, ranks were formed, and orders were shouted for the slum dwellers to stand down. Of course, that had the opposite effect, and the Downsiders readied their own firearms and kept them trained on the ADVENT lines. Several fighters tried to form up around Blanche to protect her, but she waved them off.
If this was about to get as bad as it looked, what should Arslan have her team do? The Fall Maiden had just been given all the justification she needed to use lethal force to bring the Downside to heel, and there was nothing anybody could-
No. No, Major Durand did not almost get herself killed in the desert just for Arslan to freeze like this.
"Reese," Arslan whispered. "Get Nadir and Bolin over here. We need to make sure the escape route to Walheim street remains open and in our control. ABRN is going to make sure that happens."
Reese nodded and slipped off to find her teammates.
"Your deceit ends here, woman," Cinder growled, fire growing in her palms as she glared at Blanche.
"STAY BACK!" Blanche yelled, though it was directed at the slum dwellers frantically trying to come to her defense.
She turned her attention back to the Fall Maiden. "I strongly urge you to reconsider this path, Cinder. What you are choosing will not end well for any of us."
"You chose this path the moment you ordered that hit," Cinder answered. "Now burn."
Arslan yelled as gouts of flame erupted from Cinder's hands and crashed into Blanche.
Or, at least, it looked that way for a moment. Blanche, Arslan realized, had summoned a wall of ice in front of her to absorb Cinder's attack. The moment the flames stopped, the ice was dismissed.
"Cinder Fall," Blanche said, her hair casting a faint blue glow, "you are no Maiden. You are consumed with an insatiable lust for power and glory at the expense of all else."
Blanche stepped towards a stunned Cinder, and Arslan could see her footsteps leave behind patches of blue ice as she advanced.
"What you do goes against everything the Maidens stand for, and the empty lip service that you give to our cause is an affront to the sacrifices and hardships our predecessors have made. To those that Remnant has made."
"What the fuck…"
Arslan had to agree with the officer on the comms.
Cinder scowled, and the words 'Open fire' barely left her lips before ADVENT troopers and Downside fighters alike exploded into a flurry of combat.
The two Maidens leapt into the sky and began their own duel while their forces below sought to take control of the streets.
The momentary, shining hope for a peaceful resolution had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The slums were now in an all-out war.
A/N: I'm glad I was able to get this chapter posted a little over a week after the last chapter dropped, but I want to give you a head's up that the next chapter might take a little longer. It won't take two months to release like the last chapter did, but I don't want to get your hopes up about another chapter dropping a week from now. There are some pretty critical scenes that I haven't written yet, and I really don't want to rush them. Hopefully the exposition presented in this chapter has given you plenty to sink your teeth into, and hopefully the progression of Gatecrasher and Warsaw has been enjoyable so far. I want to make sure that the climax of both operations lands the way I have envisioned, so I will once again ask for your patience while I get it hammered out.
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