Emerald bolted out of the warehouse, the sounds of gunfire and screams behind her. The image of Mercury falling into flames replayed in her head, but she shook it out. Mercury could take care of himself. She needed to get out, to escape. Adrenaline coursing through her, she slammed straight through the fire escape door over the alley. She didn't have a plan, but she did have the presence of mind to remember what that White Fang had said about—
"It's her! Hey, stop!"
From the front end of the alley, the other two members of Aspen's team shouted at her. Emerald instinctively used her Semblance on the white-haired one in front. It was little more than a smokescreen—an illusion of her shooting down at them—but it successfully bought her time to jump across the street. The faunus flinched away and into his partner and, by the time he recovered, she'd vanished over the adjacent roof.
(-)
"What are you doing, you idiot?" Carmine shoved Ilex off of him, barely keeping his balance in his rush down the alley.
Ilex followed hesitantly. "I—She was shooting at us!"
Pulling out his weapon, Carmine shifted it into a poleaxe and hooked it onto the higher fire escape. "No, she wasn't." He hauled himself up onto the metal grating, waiting just long enough for his partner to get a hold of the weapon before hauling both up to join him. "Illusions, dumbass." He flicked Ilex on the forehead. "Learn to see through them."
Carmine followed Emerald's path across the alley, leaving Ilex to grumble, "Isn't that what Aspen is supposed to be here for?" A good question, one Carmine didn't feel like answering. Aspen had told them to catch anyone that got through her net, and that was Emerald. They'd just need to find a way around her Semblance.
When Carmine pulled himself onto the roof, he could see Emerald, still running two or three roofs down the street. He kept his eyes on her but kept his pace slow until Ilex managed to catch up with him. "You see her? About twenty-five yards down?" Ilex nodded, saving his words to focus on running. They moved fast, but it barely ate into Emerald's lead. With a quick tap on the shaft of his poleaxe, Carmine transformed the tip into a simple spearpoint. "Keep going!" Flipping to an underhand grip, he slid to a stop and transferred as much momentum as he could into the spear.
Any question of whether or not the Emerald they saw was real was put to rest when the spear struck her and bounced off. While her Aura may have stopped the point from piercing through her, the unexpected force was enough to knock her off balance and send her tumbling head-first into an alley. Carmine made out a scream of fear before it was cut off by a loud metallic bang.
(-)
Emerald struggled to pick herself back up, hissing at the pain that flared through her entire body. Her Aura had stopped any lasting damage to her body, though the same could not be said of the dumpster she'd bounced off of. "Need to keep… moving…" she groaned.
No sooner had Emerald gotten to her feet than she heard the sound of footsteps skidding to a stop above her. She threw herself back against the dumpster. Again, the white-haired faunus was in front, and his eyes briefly met hers before she fed him an illusion of herself making a stumbling break for one end of the alley. "There she goes!"
"Hang on," the other boy said, appearing over the edge of the roof. Emerald quickly layered the illusion over his mind as well. Her pulse pounded in her head, her Semblance adding an extra strain to her already aching body. The redhead scanned the alley for a few seconds—practically eternity—before nodding and jumping across the roof with his partner.
Emerald hurried over to the end of the alley, already losing her grip on the two student hunters' minds. She poked her head out but ducked back in when her pursuers dropped down onto the street. "Wait, where'd she go?'
Gritting her teeth, she looked around the corner again to draw their attention to an illusion running out of a different alley further down the street. The illusory-her looked at them with a panicked look before darting across to an alley on the opposite side of the street. The white-haired teen continued to prove himself the more easily manipulated of the two. "Down there!" he shouted, already running after her shadow.
Spear in hand, the human took a step forward but didn't commit. "Something feels off here…"
Emerald held her breath. Shit. Had she moved the illusion too far down to be believable?
Whatever doubts the redhead had, however, were overridden as his partner continued his pursuit and shouted over his shoulder, "Come on, she's getting away." With a frustrated growl, the teen followed on.
Emerald waited a beat. When she was certain she was in the clear, she turned and hobbled to the other side of the alley as fast as she could manage. After checking to make sure the street was empty, she stepped out into the open. She might have been able to shake her pursuers for now, but she was far from safe. They were still out there—he was still out there—and if they could find her once…
She made it halfway across the street before someone behind her cleared their throat. Emerald spun around, looking up to see the fourth member of Aspen's team standing on the roof she'd fallen from. A wide grin spread across his face, and he lifted a bulky rocket launcher up to his shoulder. Emerald gasped. "You wouldn't…"
He did.
(-)
Rhys didn't like the idea of leaving Aspen alone to fight Mercury. Sure, she was strong and fast and tough and all-around extremely capable, but that wouldn't help if she collapsed like the last time they'd fought. She'd seemed pretty confident she could take him, though. Or maybe she worried about Ilex and Carmine being able to catch Emerald? Either way, at least she'd let him fight for a little bit.
The boy faced his first challenge when he got out onto the fire escape. The direction Emerald ran in had to have led here, so the question became whether she'd gone up or down. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any obvious signs to help him figure it out. Finding little clues like that was more Carmine's thing.
Hmm…
What would Carmine do in this situation? Probably say something mean and pick the right direction because he could see those little clues or just hear where Emerald was. But what if he was deaf and there were no clues to find? Then, he'd say they'd need to get higher up and find a vantage point so they could see everything around them.
Huh. That wasn't a bad idea.
Rhys leapt up and grabbed onto the edge of the next roof over. His idea paid off in the form of Ilex and Carmine hunched over an alley several buildings down the street. Basking in his pride, Rhys started running to meet up with them, but they took off before he could even get close. Then, they jumped off the left side of the roof and left him on his own once more. At least this time he knew he was on the right track.
It didn't take Rhys long to get to the alley Ilex and Carmine had been looking down. Curiosity got the better of him—his teammates would be fine on their own, after all—and he looked down as well. There wasn't much to look at besides the standard alley trash and beat-up dumpster, but something unusual did catch in the corner of his eye: green hair. Emerald.
That was weird. Ilex and Carmine had gone the complete opposite direction. Why—Oh, she must have tricked them with her Semblance. Rhys smiled. Now it was his time to be the hero. Hurrying over to the corner of the building, he pulled Bullrush off his back again. Emerald hadn't noticed him, so he cleared his throat as loudly as he could.
She stopped and looked up at him with a look of surprise. He grinned, and when he lifted his weapon to his shoulder, her surprise turned to horror. |You wouldn't…| she mouthed. With no one to tell him no this time, Rhys pulled the trigger.
The explosion reverberated through the street, mixing with Rhys's laugh to vibrate in his chest. Dust and bits of rubble momentarily filled the air where his rocket had struck but, when they dissipated, Emerald was not lying on the ground in defeat. Instead, she'd run into another alley across the street. Rhys whined. She tricked me too…
Returning Bullrush to his back, Rhys dropped down to the street again. By the time he recovered, Ilex and Carmine had run out of an alley further down the road. |What did you do?!| Ilex said, gesturing toward the crater Bullrush had made.
Rhys rolled his eyes. It would figure that Ilex would focus on something so trivial. Rather than answer, he pointed after Emerald. She was supposed to be the priority, after all. Carmine started to say something, but Rhys was already running into the alley. He might've gotten tricked, but that didn't detract from the fact that he was chasing a criminal.
This was just like the movies!
(-)
Aspen stepped out of the warehouse and onto the street. Of the auras surrounding her, most belonged to those White Fang who'd stood between her and Mercury. She sensed several other auras fleeing in fear, but none waited in ambush. Searching beyond the cloud, she found Ilex, Rhys, and Carmine, a blend of frustration, embarrassment, and excitement. Stronger than the three of them combined, however, was Emerald's panic. They were chasing her. Moving into a run in their direction, Aspen pulled out her scroll and called Mantis. His voice soon came from the device. "Aspen. You have an update?"
"Mercury is secure in the warehouse." While she'd adapted to the technology quickly enough, Aspen still felt uneasy speaking into a piece of glass. "Emerald got out, but the others are in pursuit. I am joining them now."
"Could you explain what you mean by 'secure'?"
"I broke his legs," Aspen explained, noting an anomalous hole in the street ahead of her. She didn't recall anything like that being there before—
"Sorry, you did what?!" Mantis's voice cut through the scroll, causing Aspen to flinch. He sounded… afraid. Possibly angry. It was difficult to distinguish without aura. "Please tell me you are joking about breaking his legs."
Aspen stopped at the edge of the hole, blood rising in her cheeks. Something had exploded here not long ago, given the scent of dust still lingering in the air. "It seemed the most effective way to contain him, and it is my understanding that they can be repaired once he is in custody." Yes, that must have been the case if such prosthetics existed in the first place.
Mantis sighed, ignorant of her shame. "Aspen… Please. You can't just break someone's legs because it's effective. This…" His voice shifted quieter. "It's things like this that would make us have to use the bracer on you, and we don't want to have to do that. No more breaking legs, or anything else for that matter. Nothing unnecessary. Understood?"
Aspen shifted, uncomfortably aware of the device strapped to her forearm beneath her armor. Its presence didn't normally bother her but, as she'd feared, it placed a burden on Mantis and Tawny. They would be the ones to activate it if she didn't do as she was told. That, more than the threat of the bracer itself, kept Aspen focused on staying non-disruptive. She wondered if Vale's ruling council knew that when they decided to give it to her. "I understand," Aspen answered.
"Good, now get moving again. Tawny and I will deal with Mercury, but we can't risk Emerald getting away. You're still our best bet to capture her."
Aspen nodded, even though she didn't think Mantis could actually see her. Closing her scroll and slipping it back into her armor, she refocused on Emerald's aura. The others had chased her further away, far enough to have crossed multiple streets and passed through as many alleys. It would be easier to follow them from the rooftops. Moving to ascend the nearest building, she resumed her chase.
(-)
A dull pain had formed in the center of Oliver's brain, one he tried to relieve by pressing his fingers into his temples to no avail. He almost wondered how things had gone so poorly so quickly but for having met Team GREI. Any goodwill they might've bought with their conduct during the attack on Beacon was squandered the moment Emerald got out of the warehouse. This mission wasn't a disaster by any means, but it approached that every moment she eluded them.
Then there was Aspen. Broke his legs… Gods, what was she thinking? Oliver had quietly hoped that she'd learned to restrain herself since her fight with Team RWBY, that the "incident" with the White Fang had been a one-off due to extreme circumstances, but it seemed more and more that Laurel was right about whatever darkness was inside her.
"Right, site fifteen…" On the other side of the roof, Tawny spoke with some Atlesian bigwig on her own scroll. Capturing Emerald and Mercury might have been the primary goal of this mission, but the operation was much larger than they'd told GREI. Vale and Atlas wanted to wipe out all traces of the White Fang from the city, which meant GREI's attack had effectively signaled a city-wide raid. Judging from the tone of Tawny's voice, tensions were high all around. "Yes, we will be on-site to help secure HVT… With any luck, very shortly… Understood loud and clear, ma'am."
Tawny's scroll snapped shut, and Oliver looked over at her to get the full picture. "I'm guessing they're not thrilled with how things are going, either."
"Just on our end." Tawny pinched the bridge of her nose. "Colonel Silvia seems particularly worried that Aspen is going to screw this whole thing up, somehow."
Looking out across the city, Oliver could make out numerous Bullheads descending on White Fang hideouts. It was an unnerving display of power, particularly given Vacuo's decentralized authority. This was how things worked here, though—at least at this moment—and he had little choice but to play along. "Well, we can only hope that she doesn't, right? So, let's get over to that warehouse."
(-)
If Ilex was grateful for one thing, it was that Carmine hadn't yet felt the need to point out how poorly this was going.
Despite being outnumbered, Emerald had managed to outrun them. It wasn't that she was faster or more agile than them; she was just holding them at bay with that damned Semblance of hers. She seemed to have picked up on the fact that she couldn't mislead them with a single grand illusion, so she'd instead started targeting whoever was in front with smaller illusions. Between stumbling over things they couldn't see—Rhys had run full speed straight into a dumpster—and trying to climb over or dodge things that weren't real, they'd lost just as much ground as they gained.
Now, to make matters worse, they'd chased Emerald right into a residential part of the city. It was late in the evening, but apparently not so late that there weren't people still out on the street. Ilex nearly learned this lesson the hard way when he ran out of an alley into what he thought was a clear street. On reflection, he wasn't sure if he'd fallen victim to Emerald's Semblance or if he'd simply been too focused to notice the sedan driving down the street, minding its own business.
A shrill honk provided Ilex his only warning of the impending impact. He was already moving out of the path of collision but, in a moment between heartbeats, he realized it wouldn't be enough. Activating his Semblance, he flicked out his spark lighter and ignited the resulting gas before he'd even moved out of the cloud.
The blast was enough to propel him the last few yards to the other side of the road. He was vaguely aware of the car screeching to a halt over the ringing in his right ears. Somewhere in all that, too, was Carmine calling his name. Struggling to rise to his feet, Ilex gestured broadly in the direction he was pretty sure Emerald had gone. "Keep after her!" Neither of his teammates hesitated to do so.
Once he was back on his feet, Ilex could tell that he hadn't suffered any serious damage from his risky maneuver. A quick glance told him that the same was true for the car, though the driver getting out didn't seem like a good sign. Ilex preemptively held up a warning hand. "Huntsman business, please get back in your car!" He didn't look to make sure the driver followed the instruction, but the sound of the car door closing made something click in his brain, and he realized things had just gotten much worse for him.
The explosion from his Semblance had been very loud. Loud enough that, in a quiet neighborhood like this one, it would attract the attention of everyone on the street, awake or not. Sure enough, darkened windows along the street lit up, and faces appeared in those that were already lit. Gods, I am such an idiot! Attracting attention had been, like, the one thing Mantis had emphasized they not do. Resolving to mentally slap himself later, he started off after the others again.
He'd only been held up for about five or ten seconds at most, but it was still the worst setback they'd had in the chase. Emerald was nearing the corner, and Ilex didn't like the idea of her being out of his sight for too long. Thankfully, he didn't burden himself with unnecessary gear or a clumsy weapon like the others, so it shouldn't take long for him to catch up.
Especially if Aspen dropped down out of nowhere and clotheslined Emerald.
(-)
Following Emerald proved a simple task for Aspen, even without the beacon her prey's panic provided. If she focused her ears, Aspen could make out her team's pursuit over the sounds of the city.
They made quite a lot of noise.
Yelling, cursing, yelps of surprise or confusion, the reverberations of metal being struck… Aspen couldn't imagine they were so inept as to constantly run into things, which led her assume it was the work of Emerald's "Semblance". Perhaps if they had the instincts and reflexes of a rephaite, her team might have been able to see through her illusions. Glynda, Oliver, and Laurel seemed to think so, at least. That was the whole point of Aspen being there, at least.
Aspen had nearly overtaken her team when a shrill honk rose from the street below, followed by an explosion. She spared a glance down when she was close enough and saw Ilex on the far side of the road, holding one hand to the right side of his head and pointing in Emerald's direction with the other. "Keep after her!" Beneath her, Carmine and Rhys did as they were told, and auras of the people living in the buildings stirred.
Aspen's eyes rose to locate Emerald. She had made distance with whatever distraction she had engineered, but it could never be enough to outrun her. Even at a light sprint, Aspen made up the distance and surpassed Emerald in a matter of moments. Once she was sufficiently far enough ahead, she leapt off the rooftop.
Aspen hit the street several feet in front of her target, absorbing all of the impact with her legs. Shock barely registered in Emerald's aura before Aspen shot up and the girl ran full speed into her outstretched arm. Feet swinging up in front of her, Emerald hung in the air for a moment before Aspen slammed her back into the ground.
Carmine and Rhys came to a stop before they ran Emerald over. Like the girl before them, they were both surprised by Aspen's sudden appearance, though where Rhys's was tinged with glee, Carmine's was marred by distrust. That was to be expected. What was unusual was Ilex, catching up with them. His surprise was touched by something Aspen hadn't felt before, a rare moment of warmth from someone with the coldest aura she'd felt. Awe.
"Damn, that was cool!" Ilex said, a grin on his face. It was open and honest and totally unlike his usual self. Aspen narrowed her eyes, trying to determine the cause of the change but, like every other similar instance before, her attention seemed only to cause him to close up again. "What? Do I have something on my clothes?" he asked, checking himself over. A ridiculous question, as his clothes were covered in wet and dirty spots, intended to distract from his honesty. From the outside, his mannerisms and speech hadn't changed, but Aspen could feel their emptiness. He used them as a façade, and Aspen wanted to know why.
A question for another time. Aura bristling with agitation, Carmine bent down and hoisted Emerald back up to her feet. "No more running. No more illusions." She groaned but didn't resist Carmine pulling her arms behind her back and securing them. Not until she opened her eyes and saw Aspen, at least.
Panic burst out from her aura, the same panic Aspen had tracked her by. "No, no! You can't… I can't…!" She thrashed around in Carmine's grip, but it was too late for her to break free. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. "Please! If you don't let me go, he's going to find me!"
He? Aspen clicked her tongue.
Ilex tapped Carmine on the shoulder. "Hey, you, uh, might want to get her to quiet down. We're sort of attracting attention."
The stirring sea of auras around them proved his point. Among them, Aspen felt confusion and intrigue, worry and irritation, all directed down at them. A cursory glance revealed a number of people peering out of windows and some that had come outside to watch.
Carmine growled, still wrestling with Emerald. "No shit. How about you make yourself useful and call Mantis so we can get out of here sooner, huh? Rhys, can you give me a hand with her?"
While the three of them dealt with their tasks, Aspen listened to the whispers around them. What's going on? I think one of them said they were huntsmen. Is that that a girl or a Grimm? Is this related to the crackdown that's on the news? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm recording it.
"Do you even know what she is?"
Aspen stiffened. Carmine did too. Ilex, holding his scroll up to his ear and speaking with Mantis, looked over his shoulder. Rhys looked on curiously.
Taking advantage of the confusion her words caused, Emerald slipped out of Carmine's hold. She was surrounded and had nowhere to go, but escape didn't seem to be her immediate goal. "I bet she told you she was human, didn't she? That she's a normal person, just like you?" Her focus shifted back and forth between Carmine, Rhys, and Ilex. "If you knew what she really was, the things she was capable of, you wouldn't be standing next to her right now."
A ball of panic formed in Aspen's chest. Emerald knew. Of course she knew. Cinder and Mercury had known, and so Emerald would know as well. If the others found out… Would they turn on her like Deirean said? Would they treat her like a monster as Atlas did, or a tool like Ozpin and Glynda? Things would change, of that she could be certain.
She couldn't let Emerald tell them.
She couldn't hurt her, either.
She grabbed Emerald by the arm. "Be silent."
Emerald sneered. "Or what? Are you going to silence me yourself?" She leaned in close, her breath hot on Aspen's skin, her aura desperate. Carmine's suspicion buried itself in Aspen's throat like a knife. Ilex's confusion and fear peeled away at her skin. "Have you even told them what you did? What's coming for them? What you unleashed?"
Aspen's brow twisted. "I do not know what you mean." What was she supposed to have un—
Three things happened at once: Emerald's entire body tensed up, her muscles hardening beneath Aspen's grip and the air in her lungs forced out in a single gust; the sea of aura around Aspen, even the ones before her, stilled into complete nothingness; and Aspen was submerged from head to toe with the warmth of fresh blood.
Aspen threw Emerald aside on instinct, twisting around to face the man hurtling toward her from the rooftop. She only made it halfway around before he drove her to the ground. Forced by his hand, her head struck the sidewalk with enough force to fracture the concrete. Blood oozed where jagged stone had split her skin, though her awareness of it dipped with every beat of her heart that brought darkness in closer and closer in her vision. Through what little that remained in the center, she saw him: Deirean.
Clad in a suit of unmistakably Atlesian armor, Deirean looked noticeably different from the last time Aspen had seen him. In a week and a half, he had regained what must have been most of the muscle mass that had atrophied before Aspen had freed him from the havashah. Part of his face had an ashy hue to it, as if a wide swath of flesh had been scarred all at once. The armor, for all its purpose of protection, was marred by holes and burns and blood. He had killed.
It seemed he had a similar goal tonight. "You cannot delay inevitability," Deirean said in the tongue only Aspen could understand. "It is time you learned." Releasing his hold on her head, he rose and stepped out of her sight in the direction she had thrown Emerald.
Aspen tried to push herself up. She had… She had to stop… Her vision blurred, and her arms felt weak. Gritting her teeth, she could do nothing but listen to Deirean's footsteps and hiss of satisfaction that left his throat until her skull stitched itself back together. Emerald whimpered, her clothes scraping against the ground when Deirean picked her up. Then, the feeling of blood washed away…
…only to be replaced by an onslaught of screams and unadulterated, excruciating fear as everyone nearby—bystander or not—were released from the paralysis of Deirean's presence.
Letting out a scream of her own, Aspen thrust herself up off the ground, the pain around her dwarfing that of her physical damage. She nearly lashed out when a pair of hands grabbed onto her to help her to her feet, but the soothing waxiness of Rhys's aura drew her focus back to her immediate surroundings.
Deirean held Emerald aloft, one hand on her throat and the other clutching a sword. The curve of the blade drew her eye, a distinctive taper that spoke to something deep in her mind. It was a Rephaitic sword. A threat.
"W-what's happening?" Ilex stammered. Despite the fear flowing off of him, he had his weapons at the ready. So did Carmine and Rhys. "What was that?"
Aspen held out her arm, nearly throwing herself off balance. "Stay back."
Deirean lifted his sword level with Emerald's eyes, drawn back and ready to strike. "I must commend you for eluding me for so long," he rasped. "Have you any final words?"
Emerald twisted helplessly in the man's grasp, gasping for air. Tears flowed openly down her face. "C-Cinder… Help… me…!"
Snarling in amusement, Deirean pulled Emerald in close. "No one is coming to save you. The one you call Cinder is dead."
"T-that can't be true…"
"I slew her myself. The night she burned your havneel academy, I snapped her neck. I watched the life leave her eyes and threw her pathetic corpse from the top of the great tower."
Emerald fell still, her gaze forced up to the sky. The fear in her aura was gone, replaced by a great sadness that bathed Aspen in icy water. Through that sadness, an even greater pressure rose up in her aura, unlike any Aspen had felt before. Even Deirean seemed taken aback, pushing Emerald away, eyes wide. The pressure rose higher and higher and, when it had reached its peak, Emerald screamed.
Black smoke poured out from between the bricks of the surrounding buildings and rose up from the cracks in the street, coalescing into a pool that demanded attention by its very existence before rising up and taking the form of a woman, her body unnaturally twisted and clad in black, her skin a pale white and eyes black. A spike of fear from those who remained close enough to see.
"What is this?" Deirean snarled, his hold on Emerald weakening.
An illusion.
Aspen surged forward, taking advantage of Deirean's distraction. While her concussion would require more time to heal, she'd regained enough coordination to cover the distance between them and grab hold of Deirean's arm. Her claws chewed through both armor and flesh, forcing him to release Emerald so that Aspen might throw her back toward the others.
It didn't surprise Aspen to feel Deirean's sword push through her back, just to the right of her spine. His goal was to kill Emerald, and he'd already proven he would go through Aspen if necessary. The tip burst out just above her hips and continued far enough forward to graze Emerald's abdomen before she was fully out of the way. Aspen pushed back against Deirean, to move the blade away from Emerald, but it wasn't enough. With what felt like minimal effort, Deirean carved through the rest of Aspen's body and out through her side. In the same arc, he cut a long gash up Emerald's torso before the girl fell out of his reach.
Snarling in frustration, Deirean threw his arm to the side, loosing Aspen's grip and casting her aside. She managed to right herself, but her injuries prevented her from landing smoothly. She dropped to her knees, one hand helping to support while the other kept her internal organs from spilling out before they could heal.
"Insolent child!" Deirean roared, turning his full attention toward her. Behind him, Ilex and Rhys still seemed disoriented from everything that had happened, though Carmine had broken out of his shock to kneel down beside Emerald and treat her open wound. Her aura was weak. "You interfere in a matter that is not of your concern!"
Aspen grit her teeth. She'd barely felt any pain from Deirean's sword when it cut through her, so sharp had the blade been, but being thrown had made her body aware of the damage. Coupled with the terror that pervaded the street, she fought to maintain her focus. "You… You will not kill her."
Deirean snarled, a harsh and unnatural sound that elicited a new spike of fear in both Ilex and Carmine. Even Aspen felt a stab of uncertainty, faced with a fury she had never seen before. "You would dare tell me what I will not do? You, who has lived for mere weeks, would lecture me?!" He raised his sword to point at her. "You have butchered and cannibalized your own kind for mere armor!"
Aspen's eyes shifted to her team, where she met Carmine's gaze. Slowly, he reached for the knife he kept on his belt, but he stopped when Aspen bared her teeth. She couldn't risk them getting hurt. "The Grimm are not Rephaim," she said, rising shakily to her feet. "The pech ter'al are dead."
A low rumble came from Deirean's throat, matching the frequency with which his hands shook. "And yet," he said, "here you stand, for what other explanation for such aberrance could there be besides an undeveloped mind?" He turned his sword toward her team. "You side with vermin, creatures who will tear you apart the moment they find out what you are. You do their bidding. You bleed for them. I will stand for it no longer."
The threat wound its way through Aspen's body, numbing every part it touched. Her eyes flicked to her team. Ilex and Rhys had recovered from their stupor, the latter taking up a defensive position while Ilex helped Carmine tend to Emerald. His hands shook. "Do not kill them—"
"No!" Deirean took a single step toward her, but it was enough to cause Aspen to slip back a step against her conscious will. Rhys tensed, and the others looked up. "I have had my fill of mercy for these havneel. Wax will die. These children—whom you denied a painless death—will die. I will slaughter any that will stand against me."
The numbness turned cold. Any… Oliver and Laurel… They were coming. Ilex had called them before Deirean arrived, and even now she could feel their auras growing closer. She couldn't let him hurt them, but she wasn't strong enough to stop him. "Does… that include me?" she asked.
Deirean's eyes widened, surprising Aspen in turn. Just as quickly, though, his expression hardened again. "No. You are Rephaite. If the havneel do not kill you, then you will come to your true path soon enough."
Aspen frowned. This didn't feel right. Deirean had just condemned her for her decision to become a huntress, and yet he still spoke as though she might yet redeem herself to him. "And if I do not?" She rose straighter, the wound in her side now sealed, though not fully healed. "What will you do if I refuse to leave them, even if they reject me?"
Deirean hissed, answer enough for Aspen. He could not bring himself to kill her, but for what reason? From their conversations, she knew that he respected the Grimm as rephaim, but that alone was not enough to keep him from killing them, and the same should have applied for her. No, this was not a matter of respect. It was… necessity. "You have need of me."
A snarl escaped Deirean's throat, though not one of anger. Amusement. "Not of you, girl. Your havashah."
Aspen cocked her head. Her havashah…? Thoughts danced at the edges of Aspen's mind, disordered and out of reach. She should know what. She should know why. Her skull ached. She needed to focus. "You do not know where it is." That was what he needed. Knowledge.
Scowling, Deirean turned his blade on her once more. "Not yet, but you will tell me."
"No."
"Tell me!"
"I WILL NOT!" Aspen's words echoed down the street, driven by a force she could not explain. Her breath seemed to have evacuated her body in a single burst, and it wasn't until she recovered it that she realized she had slipped out of Rephaitic. Tucking her head into her chest in a show of defiance, Aspen scowled at Deirean. "You have no power over me. You have already sworn to kill my team, and you would have already revealed that I am Rephaite if that were your intent." She held her arms out at her sides. "You have nothing left to take from me, and nothing to give. If you kill them, you will never know where my havashah is."
Deirean's free hand curled into a rigid claw, but he made no move to attack. Instead, he began to pace. With no impending threat, Aspen slipped her gaze over to her team. Carmine and Ilex had finished stabilizing Emerald and now stood watch alongside Rhys, fear and nerves rolling off all three of them. A question drew Aspen's eyes to Ilex's, an implicit request for reassurance in his indigo pupils, motivated by worry. She gave a slow and deliberate nod in response. Ilex's aura twisted and contorted, but the emotions themselves did not change even as he swallowed and returned the nod.
A raspy laugh drew Aspen's attention back to Deirean. He'd stopped pacing and a dark smile spread across his face. "Very well. If wish to exchange your knowledge for their lives, then I am willing to accept." He raised his sword, horizontal between them, and flipped it so the blade faced him. Aspen lowered her arms as well, aware that such actions were merely symbolic; if either one wanted to tear the other apart, they could do so with their bare hands.
Free hand outstretched, Deirean slowly closed the distance between them. Instinct driving her forward, Aspen stepped up and met him with her own hand out. Her jaw twitched when Deirean's grip closed down just below the elbow, but she made sure to respond with just as much force. She could feel each of their pulses even through the armor, his slower than her own. Lifting his sword, Deirean placed the cutting edge across their locked arms. "I relinquish my claim to the lives of these havneel."The blade drew a line through both armor and flesh, cutting his oath into both of their arms.
Before the wounds could sew themselves shut, Deirean spun the sword and presented the grip to Aspen. She took it and repeated his actions. "I relinquish the location of my havashah." Blood rose up and mixed together before evaporating into the air, leaving behind two matching lines on each of their arms. Aspen twisted the sword and handed it back. Deirean accepted it but did not release her. The meaning was clear. "It is in the desert."
Deirean yanked her in, a snarl on his face. "We made a vow! Do not withhold!"
Aspen growled. "I am not." The two stood eye-to-eye, their faces inches apart, each pressing the other to relent. Ultimately it was Deirean who drew his head back a fraction. "I have no memory of my havashah, but I was found in the desert east of the city called Vacuo. That is all the information I can offer."
Deirean's face remained twisted, his eyes roaming over Aspen in search of any deceit. "It is… sufficient," he said, releasing her arm. The vacuum of pressure left the limb feeling cold. Bringing his sword to his hip, Deirean fastened a buckle around the grip. "The havneel may have their lives, however short they may be." Aspen nodded. An acceptable ex—
"Ilex…!"
Pressure exploded behind Deirean, and Aspen only caught a glimpse of white rushing forward before she realized what it was. "No!" She moved forward to try to intercept, to prevent disaster, but Deirean was faster than she was. The man's arm reached out and deflected, and the last image in Aspen's mind was of fearful indigo eyes and the glint of silver rising up toward her chi—
(-)
Aspen was alone.
It was not an observation of her surroundings, nor an awareness of her present situation, whatever that might have been. It was the weight that pressed down on her with no texture. It was the cold that saturated her entire being. It was the phantom scent of sedatives and the taste of nutrient paste forced down her throat.
Aspen looked around and saw nothing but Dark. This is wrong. The words ghosted across her mind, reaching out with gossamers of light but finding no purchase. Wrong? No. She belonged here. This was what she deserved.
"Pull it out."
Aspen turned toward the voice. A being, glowing in the void, stared back at her with her own eyes. Her own face. Her, but not her. She was wrapped in Dark, but the Dark did not touch her, and she shone all the brighter for it.
"W-what?"
The words came out of Aspen's own mouth, but she did not register them. The Other Her raised an arm, palm toward Aspen. Aspen tried to return the gesture only to find her own arms stuck fast within the Dark. The other her scowled.
"Pull. It. Out."
Hissing, Aspen pulled against the Dark. A spark of pain formed deep within her skull before catching light on he nerves and igniting her entire body. She wanted to scream, to find some release from her agony. She spoke instead.
"She's… dead. I killed her."
Aspen dropped to her knees, unable to fight any longer. The muscles in her neck tightened of their own accord, drawing her gaze up to the Other Her. Arm back down at her side, the Other Her rolled her shoulders in disappointment. Aspen wanted to hang her head, hide her shame, but her body refused to obey her. The Other Her opened her mouth.
"Don't be stupid. She'll heal."
Something viscous rose up in Aspen's throat and a heavy weight forced the air from her lungs. The Dark around her grew darker as she suffocated, forcing her down, down. Finally, her muscles gave out and she collapsed into a heap. She couldn't move. Didn't want to move. A whisper escaped her.
"How can you know that?"
A hand came to rest on Aspen's head. It took all her strength to look up. The Other Her knelt beside her, the light on her skin pooling into her hand. Aspen felt it enter and spread throughout her, soothing as it went. It burned away the Dark and lifted the weight from her chest. The Other Her turned her head to look into the distance and, as her light faded, she spoke a final time.
"Because it's what she does."
(-)
Horror. Pain. Anger. Pain. Confusion. Pain. Fear. Pain.
Pain.
Aspen rolled onto her side as she was immolated and speared and consumed by the agony of her existence. Hands grabbed her arm, squeezing and shaking Crushing and tearing. Air burned in her lungs, and it wasn't until she remembered to exhale that she gained any relief. Sound crept in to take its place.
—what happened a man showed up and Aspen Aspen are you tried to talk but her blood can you hear me Aspen straight through her aura I've never seen oh gods her blood okay okay you know I can't read sign Aspen it's gone he said he's seen him before back during what is happening—
Ilex. Ilex's voice. Ilex had killed her.
Blood coursed through Aspen's body. She forced another breath in, then out again. Her sense of the world sharpened; Laurel beside her trying to speak with her, Oliver beyond her feet talking with Rhys and Carmine, Ilex behind—
Aspen opened her eyes and sat up. A burst of surprise skipped across her skin as Laurel continued trying to speak and now Oliver and Carmine and Rhys's collective attention was on her as well, but she didn't look at any of them. She looked at Ilex.
He sat several feet away from her, alone on the pavement, murmuring broken sentences to himself. Wide-eyed, staring at his hands and bracers. No, not at them. The blood that stained them. The blood that no longer stained them. The blood that rose up from his hands in wisps of black smoke. The blood that everyone could see.
Aspen's blood.
Indigo eyes shifted, leaving the smoke to focus beyond them on Aspen herself. They grew wider still in equal parts realization and confusion.
No… Please…
"You're… Grimm?"
The words fell like a heavy stone on a blanket, drawing the connections between each of them taut. They drew the attention of all back down upon Aspen, leaving her at the center to be crushed beneath the weight. Carmine pointed his weapons at her with uncharacteristic uncertainty. Rhys drew back in a failing of trust. Laurel stood and stepped away with self-directed horror and regret.
And Oliver…
Oliver held a spark of rage. "Aspen," he said, voice choked and hoarse, "please tell me you have a good explanation for this."
It had happened. The moment Deirean had warned her over and over about. The moment Mercury and Emerald just that night said would come to pass. The moment she should have seen in every conversation with Ozpin and the Atlesian military. The moment she would be abandoned.
"Aaangh—" Aspen lifted her hand to her throat. Where her chin met her neck, a long black stitch had formed. Her tongue sat heavy and nerveless in the back of her mouth. Air would not pass through her sinuses. Ilex had simultaneously exposed her closest held secret and robbed her of her ability to defend herself.
A javelin of fear pierced through Aspen's body. Kill them. Rip them open and leave them to rot on the street. They cannot turn on you if they are dead.Aspen wanted to scream at the voice in her head, to drown it in her terror. Slaughter or flight, there would be no escape without loss, and loss was the one thing she couldn't face.
Hanging her head, Aspen lifted her arm and presented her bracer in surrender.
And everything was going so well, too. Aside from crushing Mercury's legs, Emerald being grievously injured, and attracting the attention of over a block of people and then exposing them to both Deirean and Salem in quick succession, that is.
Next time, we'll start exploring the consequences of this chapter. I'd be impressed if anyone can figure out Aspen's mistake. Until then, au revoir!
