Annnnd I'm early again. With my longest chapter to date, no less. Warning: With this chapter, I am finally forced to give this fic an M-rating, for reasons that will become readily apparent by the end. Read on at your own discretion.
Soundtrack: v=aDAL5G9Xwn4
Volume 1, Chapter 16
Escalation, Part 8
Summer
'This has gotten out of hand.'
When the ambush had initially been sprung (badly, thanks to Mr. Springfield's unique Aura detection capabilities), Summer hadn't been overly concerned; sure, there was a number of unknown warriors attacking them for... Some reason, and sure, the fact that they (the bandits) didn't pretty much immediately lose meant that they were probably highly trained, but surely the three of them together could manage to scrape their way out of this situation, right? That's what Summer had been thinking during the opening bouts, even as she searched for the group's archer... But she had been forced to revise that assessment all too quickly when a fourth and then a fifth enemy had shown up; while she couldn't quite assess the the three who were attacking Spring and Winter, the two who had decided to fight her certainly had the skill to back it up, forcing her to keep her focus entirely on the two.
If only she'd been able to disengage! While she hadn't been able to watch too much, she'd managed to catch glimpses of her allies' battles, and while she'd been a little worried about Springfield, it had seemed nearly certain that Winter would win her duel; of the five who'd attacked, Winter's opponent, the Dust user, seemed to be the least skilled of the group... And he'd managed to take a hard knock to the head almost as soon as he closed to close quarters, which both Winter and Springfield had been sure to capitalize on by consistently aiming for it. And while it had worked, eventually allowing Spring to literally give him the boot, scoring the TKO... Or so it had seemed. When Winter had gone in to make sure he was knocked out, he had managed to take her by surprise and turned the tables, resulting in him knocking her out instead. Which, while certainly being a disaster on its' own, might have still been recoverable if he succumbed to his head injury and went down too. Which he did. But not before bombarding Spring with a volley of Aura-propelled Stone. Combine that with the fact that he already had taken a bit of a pummeling from the martial artist and the sickle wielder (though not without dishing out an equal amount of punishment on the both of them) and things had begun to look bad. Sure, he'd eventually managed to destroy one of the girl's weapons while also lopping off one of the martial artist's legs, but then one of her opponents had managed to disengage and successfully collapse him as if he was simply a Jenga tower that only needed a few more blocks removed. Which had led to her having to fight an additional opponent...
Still, even with it becoming being three on one, Summer remained reasonably confident that she could pull it off; so long as she remained focused and didn't allow herself to make any mistakes, it was a certified fact that she could out last literally anyone in just about any physical contest you could care to name; fatigue had no meaning to her. Literally, that is; her Semblance actually prevented her from feeling fatigue, as a side effect of having near limitless energy. So even with three separate opponents attacking her, she was confident that she could simply wait it out, presenting as perfect a defense as possible until one or more of them grew too tired to keep up with her, at which point she would strike...
But then the enemy mage had gotten back up, and, after accepting something from the darker skinned of the three women fighting her, had entered the fray in the worst possible way for Summer, joining in on an attack so well coordinated, it had to be rehearsed... Either way, it had forced Summer to actually block a hit rather than deflect, and even though she'd managed to turn it into an acrobatic maneuver... The sole of her foot still hurt. She hadn't quite noticed until then, but the man's hands and wrists were covered by a bulky yet at the same time sleek pair of gauntlets, adding significant weight to his punches. Something to keep in mind when he closed the distance once again and engaged her in a boxing match... That there had actually been Summer's best chance to eliminate one of them quickly, and indeed she had tried, going for the kill shot with every punch (though, granted, her weapons kind of made any punch potentially deadly)... Yet, somehow, the mage had managed to react at impossible speeds every single time, dodging almost before she'd even moved in many cases. Normally, Summer would assume that meant she was fighting a Faunas, and one with finely honed reflexes at that... But, considering that these reflexes only came when his goggles were glowing that blue/green color, she decided it must have something to do with his semblance. Probably something along the lines of slowed time perception... Which, while useful to note, shouldn't have much effect here, so long as he couldn't actually speed himself up; after all, knowing something is coming does you no good if you can't do anything to change it. Something she noted with satisfaction when he just barely avoided impaling himself on her uppercut... But she'd felt the blade tear into something, and it had come away bloody, so even if he'd avoided death, he would likely have a new scar. Summer would feel at least a small bit of satisfaction about that...
Were it not for the bloody nose she was now sporting, courtesy of the two swift punches the man had managed to land...
'Come to think of it, out of all of the enemy combatants, he's done the most damage out of any of them, hasn't he? Hit Winter at the beginning of this with his Stone bolts, a somewhat impressive punch into Spring's solar plexus, knocking Winter out, my bloody nose, and ravaging Spring with those Stone shards. Had they been sharper, he'd be bleeding out right now... Granted, that's still a possibility, but I need to finish this before I can even think about trying to check on him and Winter.'
Were she fighting just any one of these four, that wouldn't have been much of a problem, seeing as, with the possible exception of the woman wielding the twin swords (who had turned out to be the archer), Summer was certain she was more skilled than any of them individually or even as a pair; her Semblance would allow her to keep going long after they had tired out, and her own skills were more than sufficient to ensure she would remain alive that long. However. Her Semblance only boosted the natural efficiency of her metabolism, rather than actually replacing it. And as any high school biology student could tell you, oxygen was a key component, at least in mammals... Such as Humans and Faunas. If a human can't get oxygen into their lungs, then they don't have as much oxygen for their hemoglobin to bind to, in turn meaning there was less being delivered to her body's cells via the blood stream...
In short, her bloody nose would, if she didn't get the chance to clear it, eventually lead to her energy levels being decreased to human levels, which would lead to her tiring just as quickly as her opponents. And with her no longer holding that advantage, and their combined numbers being enough to make up for her superior skill level... She needed to end this quickly, or odds were that she was going to die, and her daughters would be deprived of their mother.
'I'm not going to let that happen!'
Lee
'I knew this was gonna suck.' Lee thought to himself after being kicked face first into a tree, before, as much as he tried to resist, he found himself hunched over and gasping for breath. The entire time Summer had been squaring off with the four of them, Lee's eyes had never left Summer, and from what of her face he could see between her constantly having to turn in order to defend against them all, Lee could see much of her thought process; he hadn't missed the slight narrowing of her eyes whenever they settled on him or Cinder, or the widening that had occurred when she realized that she was having a little bit of trouble breathing with blood in her nose. All of them had noticed that second fact, and had capitalized by not relenting in their assault, making sure that at least one of them was keeping her hands busy at all times, which prevented her from attempting to clear the blockage and forced her to rely on breathing solely through her mouth. Something which Lee knew was less than efficient than the usual in through the nose and out through the mouth technique. Yet she still managed to keep up a perfect defense against them for over... Lee chanced a brief glance down at his watch (strapped around his left fore arm, thanks to a modified band)...
'Half an hour? Seriously?! What is she?!'
Granted, Summer was obviously wearing out, beginning to go from almost effortlessly avoiding all their attacks to just barely dodging in time (much the same way Lee had been avoiding her attacks for pretty much the entire fight), but Lee himself was fast approaching his last legs, and from the flashes of the other three he caught from time to time, they didn't appear to be holding up much better. And if they succumbed to exhaustion before they managed to take Summer down, Lee didn't need to imagine what kind of fate they had in store; he had caught the moment Summer's visage had changed from determination to desperation, and considering that they had likely seriously injured her companions, it wasn't hard to believe that she'd execute some or all of them if she happened to be the last person standing.
'All the more reason to make sure we win, then.'
With a determined scowl, Lee pushed himself off of the tree, now breathing in a somewhat natural rhythm again, and resumed a combat stance; Cinder, Neo, and Emerald all seemed to be in the fight still, but his brief break seemed to have cost them some of the initiative, allowing Summer to retaliate every so often rather than just somehow successfully avoid getting hit by all four of them.
'Right, time to put the pressure back on.'
And reapply the pressure he did; when Summer drew her arm back to thrust one of her katars into a stunned Emerald (who had been dazed when, after attempting to catch one of Summer's arms, had quickly been reminded that the older woman was still more than capable of inflicting pain from such a lock, in this case via a rather brutal scorpion kick), Lee fired off a small stone of Earth Dust, which hit the back of Summer's elbow and thus prevented the blow, as well as, to his pleasant surprise, forcing Summer to drop the weapon when her hand reflexively jerked; he hadn't quite been aiming for it, but he'd managed to score a direct hit on her ulnar nerve, colloquially known as the funny bone. Cinder and Neo, quick to take advantage of this, closed the short distance separating them from Summer and attacked from opposite sides, forcing Summer, now holding only one weapon, to dodge back and to the side, away from Emerald, thus leaving behind her dropped weapon... But sending her directly towards a waiting Lee, who was crouched with one fist drawn back and covered in flames.
Time seemed to slow down as Lee and Summer made eye contact, the latter's eyes widening in panic as they recognized the attack that had forced even the massive Springfield to be lifted into the air and pushed backwards a few feet.
"Falcooooon,"
Summer, still airborne, attempted to raise her single remaining katar into a position that would cause Lee to impale his fist on it...
"Punch!"
But she was too slow, Lee's fist slipping just past the deadly point as well as her other still-rising arm as he shot forwards, driving his limb into Summer's ribs with an audible crack before his built up momentum caused her to shoot away from him at a downwards angle. Summer hit the ground hard, and her momentum forced her to bounce and roll like a rag doll for several meters before she finally crashed into a mighty oak tree, where, utterly defeated, she was forced to lay, battered, bruised, and barely holding on to consciousness.
Lee didn't think she was getting back up from that one. Nobody else did either, and, after warily watching her for a few moments, they all let their guard down, and greedily sucked in air as they regrouped.
"That..." Lee panted, "Was intense... To say the least..."
"That is... An appropriate description."
After a couple minutes of just catching their breath, all four of them who remained standing looked over to Summer Rose.
"What are we going to do about her?" Emerald asked.
"What do you mean? I thought we decided this before hand; we lop off an arm and damage one of her lungs, and boom, there goes her Hunting career. Can't fight if you can't even go for a jog without nearly killing yourself."
"That, Sky, was before we realized just how dangerous she is."
"Which she won't be if we cripple her. We talked about this before, that was the whole point of this amb-augh!"
Lee turned his hurt gaze onto Cinder, and raised a hand to cradle his ribs, which Cinder had given a solid whack with the flat of one of her swords. Cinder herself was glaring at Lee rather coldly.
"Do not forget your place, Sky."
Lee sighed. "Of course not, Ma'am. I apologize."
"Good. Now, to answer your question, Gem, we're go-"
"Look out!"
With his eyes glowing, Lee turned... And widened them in panic when he saw what Mercury had warned them about.
Blam! Blam! Blam blam blam! Blam! Blam blam! Blam! Blam blam blam!
The first bullet lodged itself into Lee's shoulder, causing him to spin as the force knocked him off of his feet. While he was in the air, he could see Emerald, slightly quicker to react, get hit in the leg as she attempted to roll sideways out of the way, causing her to go down with a cry. Neo, quick enough to raise her umbrella, managed to block three shots aimed at her face and torso... But then fell as a bullet passed just beneath the edge of the canopy and hit her just above the knee, causing her to collapse onto that leg. And Cinder found herself disarmed after dodging three bullets, when the last two impacted the handles of her weapons, knocking them out of her hands.
'Shitshitshitshitshitshe'sstillnotfinishedgottagetupandhelpCinder!'
With a groan, Lee forced himself to get up... Just in time to watch Cinder end up on the receiving end of a brutal kick combo, in which Summer's leg swung like a pendulum, quite literally attacking from just about every possible direction and angle (including some that Lee would say shouldn't have been) before a savage front kick sent Cinder flying backwards.
Lee gulped as Summer approached him, seemingly ignoring the fact that her ribs were broken and piercing through the skin on her right side.
'OhgodohgodohgodIdon'twannadienotyetshitshitshitGETBACK!'
Cinder
A few minutes later
Finally, it was over. They were bloody, bruised, and in Mercury's case, even mangled, but finally, they had won.
"That... Was not fun. If just one top tier Huntress is this dangerous, I'll need to start gathering more information on them before planning a mission like this again."
Cinder turned her head to look at Caerulean, then to the long gash on her arm. She was going to have to punish him, something which he had no doubt already realized, if the face he was making was any indication; while he had done well, and had been one of the main reasons they'd finally managed to achieve victory, he had also been the one responsible for causing them all to divert their attention away from the downed Summer Rose in a misguided attempt to spare her life, allowing her the precious moments she had needed to reload her weapon and catch them all by surprise. And she had not let that go to waste, managing to put a bullet in each of them save Cinder herself, who had gotten off lucky with an additional set of bruises and a gash on her arm where Summer had nearly succeeded in lopping it off. She had succeeded in leaving Cinder dazed after kicking her away, which should have resulted in all of them getting killed...
But Caerulean had gotten back onto his feet, and with him in front and a massive oak tree to her rear, Summer was going to have to go through him in order to escape.
Fucking... Not right now. Focus, Cinder. Surprising as it had been that Caerulean's and Summer's Auras had resonated, it changed nothing; she needed to find that damned Maiden fast, before she moved forward with her other plan. Besides, Caerulean was smart enough to realize he was in far too deep by this point; from what Cinder had seen, he had panicked, leading him, and more importantly, his Aura, into a knee-jerk reaction... Almost like an automatic trap trigger, when an enemy gets too close. And the results, as they could all see, would have been horrifying, were it not for the fact that they were already cold blooded killers.
A couple of feet up the oaks trunk, was Summer Rose. Her arms, legs, and shoulders all skewered by spikes of earth and ice, holding her in place. Around her neck, a U-shaped stake preventing her head from lolling forward. The culprit on his knees as he gazed up at her in shock.
Cinder smiled cruelly, despite her anger. 'Oh what I could do with you, dear pet. Despite being an observational savant with that semblance of yours, you still fall apart so easily, and can't quite control your strength. I'll definitely be using that to my advantage.'
Satisfied that their objective was complete, Cinder turned to the rest of the group. "Time to go."
Start Sountrack here!
Summer
Pain...
For the last several moments, that was all she knew, with the occasional muffled flash of conversation between her murderers.
"Just... moment... know... just... catch up... yes m... understood."
She was starting to get dizzy from the blood loss. Fortunately, however, it was also numbing the pain in her body enough to open her eyes, allowing her to see, albeit blurry and dark around the edges. She might have been dying, and unable to move, but she couldn't help but let out weak chuckles; she knew what was happening. The boy was in trouble, and if the interaction that had bought her enough time for a last stand had been any indication, he was likely to be punished quite severely later for it. Despite it being short and not quite effective enough, she didn't... Couldn't bring herself to regret her end. No; she'd fought to her fullest, and way past her limit. They had too. For that, she respected them, despite being enemies.
Well, perhaps the one who'd actually killed her wasn't. She had heard stories before, that she hadn't believed at the time, mind; after all, there were literally no recorded incidents, all of them being passed down through word of mouth, and it was said it wasn't even possible unless the two involved shared blood somewhere down the line. Stories about some Auras reacting to others in different ways. In this case, their Auras had actually merged for a brief moment... And during that moment, she had seen flashes of his life. A few memories, key experiences in shaping him into the person he was now. In that moment, Summer had been him, and while a lot of what she'd seen had confused her, what she had understood let her understand why the man who had put her in such a pathetic state and was openly distraught over having done so, would serve such an obviously cruel woman.
'I still don't think that should have been possible... But I'm going to have to let him worry about that.' She thought as he waved his arm. The next thing she knew, she had fallen forward into his arms, held close, and... Shaking?
Straining, she tilted her head to look up at his eyes... 'Oh Hell no!'
His eyes shot open wide when she spoke, her once beautiful voice now raspy and full of gravel escaping from her lips, now cracked and nearly white like porcelain. "Hey... Down..." Her eyes narrow...
He obeyed, gently propping her against the tree. For a moment, he stared at her, his eyes betraying all the emotion he was feeling... Silently, he was weeping, the tears leaving his oddly colored eyes red and puffy.
'Of all the people who could have ended me, I get the damned newbie?'
"Don't cry, kid. We fought one helluva, quite frankly, epic battle, and you're ruining it by fucking crying." She sounded as annoyed as a dying warrior woman possibly could. Which, naturally, meant as condescending as possible, even as she laughed inwardly.
She wasn't surprised when he asked, with his heart on his sleeve, "Do you hate me? I've never... Not to an innocent... And you were so kind back in the village... This wasn't supposed to happen! I'm so sorry!"
With that, she found just enough strength in her arm to slap him. Hard. Leaving him clearly shocked.
Summer sighed. 'Might as well give the kid one last lesson.'
"Listen up, boy. True warriors never ask... That." Summer was forced to pause as she violently hacked up blood from her punctured lung, leaving it plastered down her front. "Whether you're a good person... Or not... Is irrelevant. Fate... dictated we were op... opposed, so we were enemies." Her face contorted in pain as her lungs burned, both the one that had been punctured and the one working over time to attempt to supply her with enough oxygen.
'C'mon, Aura, just keep me alive long enough to finish. That's all I ask.' The pain receded instantly, apparently heeding her wish.
"That said... You and I both still had a choice. A choice whether or not to be... Or not to be... Here. In this place, today." Another coughing fit, and a seizure racking her body. After a few seconds, she continued.
"But neither of... us, have the right to judge the others' choices. You don't know me, beyond whatever... whatever that was showed you, and I sure as Hell don't know you. I can't hate you; it's not me." Summer said, smirking like she had just won an argument. At confessing that, the tears behind her eyes finally began to spill out, the fact that she wouldn't get to say goodbye to her love or her daughters finally hitting her. But she had faith that this wouldn't break them; no, if anything, it would only make them stronger, once they managed to move on.
Then. She saw their faces in this poor child's, hugging her as if his life depended on it. She lifted her soft and bloody hand to his wet cheek, caressing it tenderly. Despite the different palate, his face looked and felt so much like her youngest...
Which prompted her Aura, to prompt her, to say:
"Do not hate yourself for what has transpired, you dear, sweet boy. For we all know this is the best possible outcome for the future. In this world... good and evil are interchangeable and often come from one another. No one in a position of... power... is innocent. I'm not; I have performed my fair share of morally gray actions, made some ambiguous choices... Everyone does. Reprehensible things in the pursuit of what we believe to be the greater good. Maybe you're right. Maybe we're both wr-wrong."
Her arm immediately dropped to her side, her strength beginning to fail her.
"However. Never apologize for the path you choose. I fucking swear, I will haunt you if you do." Summer finished strong, her voice hard as steel, leaving no room for discussion. By this time, her eyes were out of tears, but still damp... As were his.
"Yes... Yes ma'am." He replied, confidence seeping back into his voice.
"What's your name, kid... No, warrior?"
To his credit, he hid his surprise well. "Sk-... Caerulean." He answered, after a brief hesitation.
"Cerulean... What a sunny name." They stopped and looked at each other when they realized what she just did. And they laughed together. Until she started to groan.
'Oh my god, Yang would would be so proud of me right now; that pun was bad.'
"Going out on a high note, always a plus. Good." She said, coughing. Looking straight into his eyes. "Now finish me off."
His eyes scrunched into a grimace. "I... Don't think I can..."
She gave him a deadpan look. "What did we just talk about?"
"Standing by our decisions?"
"Correct. And, for better or worse, you chose to be here, to do this. Now take the envelope from my cloak's pocket, and my weapons, I hereby bequeath to you, Cerulean, the foe who bested me. And, finally, take responsibility for the path you choose to walk, and I'll die knowing that the man who killed me is a true warrior."
For a few seconds, she feared he would continue to refuse, as she watched various emotions flit their way onto his features, but finally they settled on acceptance.
"Und... Understood."
"Never... forget who you are, Cerulean. You have a good heart; don't you... dare throw that... away, ev...er..." She said in a voice that was gradually growing weaker, even as he used the very last of his Dust to form a small spike of Earth and Ice over her breast.
"I won't... Goodbye, Summer..." And with a resolved sadness, he used his own two hands to plung it into her Aura-covered heart, the only thing that was keeping her alive.
"Thank... You..."
'Good... Bye... My chil... dren...' Gasping and smiling into Caerulean's eyes until she couldn't see anymore, smiling all the while. She had lived how she had always dreamed, and died in a way that she could accept. Which is why she felt that she could go out with a smile. Thus, as she slipped away, she welcomed Death with a warm and loving embrace...
And wished Lee the best.
Summer Rose... She deserved so much better, better than to be killed as a pawn in a shadow war, solely as a message to someone who is only marginally aware that the other side even exists. And certainly not as a fucking accident, the result of some FNG losing control of his Aura in a moment of panic... But, all things considered, it was probably the best way she could have gone in that situation... Both for me and for her. Knowing Cinder, she would have ordered me to deliver the death blow for the offense of arguing against killing Summer, and I would have done something stupid, like reminding Cinder that the first day we even met that I wasn't going to be her trigger man unless absolutely necessary. And dangerous as Summer had proven to be, I was not convinced she needed to killed. I would have refused, and Cinder would have killed her anyway... And she would have dragged it out, just to make a fucking point. And I know this; why else would she have been content to leave Summer crucified to an oak, with blood leaking in to her lungs from her broken ribs? I may not have wanted to kill her... But at that point, her death was a foregone conclusion, and nothing I did or said was going to change that. But I could give her a clean death... And with how emotionally wracking it ended up being, I understand why Cinder allowed me to do so; after all, what better way to turn somebody's blood cold, than to force them to watch as the life leaves their victim's eyes? It was as painful as Cinder surely envisioned...
But she didn't count on me having the conversation we did. Cinder, as calculating and intelligent as she is, is completely incapable of understanding the concepts of honor and love, beyond the hypothetical, so I can see how she would have counted on Summer hating me for killing her, and that affirmation of hate becoming the straw that broke the camel's back. Had that happened, it would have broken me, allowing her to strip away my humanity and rebuild me into something she could better use, a... Pet. But instead, I found myself being comforted by the dying woman, and while the message she conveyed did allow me to harden my resolve... It didn't freeze over my heart. In my life time, both of them, in fact, I've broken many promises for the sake of reaching my goals, but a promise between warriors and a promise made to the dying are two of the three types that I absolutely refuse to break, consequences be damned, and the promise I made to Summer in her final moments counted as both. I may regret the consequences of many of my actions, and seek to repent, but never shall I actually apologize, for they were, in my situation, what I thought was for the best... It was clear to me by then that I was involved in something far worse than I had originally thought, but by the end of that conversation I was a different man. For while one warrior had just died, her legacy would live on, both in her two children...
And in the warrior her death had birthed.
Special thanks to Lucifer Daemon, for help with Summer's and Cinder's POVs there towards the end; had he not said anything (or written the original drafts of those sections) it would likely have been entirely from Lee's perspective, and not have been nearly as emotional as it turned out to be. So, again, thank you!
Now that that's out of the way... Holy shtako, that got intense. I swear, these are manly tears of sorrow! Summer crucified and then mercy killed, Lee getting emotional, and everyone but Cinder notably wounded... I think it's safe to say that was Lee's Cynicism Catalyst.
Anyway, thank you for sticking with this story this far! If you liked it, didn't like it, have thoughts on where it should go, etc., please don't forget to leave a review to let me know about it! Until next time,
Cerulean Sorbeltz
Update: I may have underestimated just how challenging my new schedule will be. Between changing both the days I work and the hours (2nd shift Tuesday-Saturday to 3rd shift Sunday-Thursday), as well as adding in just one college course (English Composition 101), I don't have anywhere close to as much time as I'd hoped to work on this. And it'll only get worse once summer hits since I plan on taking 2 classes then... But worry not! While this is going to have to become a secondary priority, I am by no means taking a break; in fact, I actually have about four or five thousand words written since releasing this chapter last week; however, that's divided up into three separate chapters: an interlude, an epilogue/prologue to the sequel (not that I'm anywhere near the end of this one yet), and the next actual chapter. At the moment, the plan is to release the interlude first, then the next chapter after I finish it; I probably have another two-three arcs before we reach the epilogue, so I'll try to put that on the back burner for now. But, with that out of the way, let's move on to why I'm adding this update:
I'm officially changing my release schedule from every Sunday, to every other Saturday, and I'm sticking to it. While there will be the potential for early releases if I ever manage to get more than a couple of chapters ahead... But, no promises on that front. Like I said, I've got school and a new work schedule going on too, so I don't quite have as much time to focus on this as I used to. But I'm not giving up on this, or even truly taking a break; I just need to slow down a bit. Didn't want to worry you all ^_^
Until next week (hopefully!),
-CS
