Music Choices: Crystalized by The XX, Shadow Lady by Portwave, Society by Harley Poe
Eclipse
Chapter 72
Finals Part II
….
High above the ruins of Mountain Glenn, a lone bird soars. Circling, ever watchful for danger, both mundane and supernal, the black bird's red eyes narrow fervently as she hunts. Below her expansive wings, a cold wind gusts and breathes as if with the sighs of the longing dead. However, the buildings, streets and alleys are far more vacant of said dead than one might expect, considering the location.
There should be more Grimm in this district of the ruins. The reports had been thorough in their documentation, and green-lit for the Beacon Apprentice Hunter Boards by one Glynda Goodwitch; who, despite her allegiances, was undeniably meticulous and a stickler for bureaucratic fact checking and paperwork, especially where her students were concerned. Glynda would not have allowed a dubious report to slip past her and possibly endanger her students.
However, besides the drifting mega packs of Beowolves in the distance, and a few other stragglers, the streets are empty here of the multitude of twisted undead previously documented. Which begged the question: just where had all the Grimm gone in the space of a few days?
The black bird croaks softly, banking on obsidian wings as she follows the wind; and the small, fragile figures of the band of people far, far below.
…..
Weiss peered around another corner, one decorated with pockmarks of decades old weapons fire like most of them were, and discovered, yet again, that nothing was waiting for them. For the last three hours, the numbers of Grimm they had been encountering had been dramatically diminishing. The last hour had, in fact, been almost dull, if not for her increasing and inexplicable dread.
This area should be crawling with Grimm. She had read the reports, extraneous notes, Glynda's comments on said notes - in triplicate. Weiss knew every cranny of the districts of Mountain Glenn that they were hunting in. At least…in theory.
Yet, it was almost like the region Raven had supposedly warded, or whatever nonsense, with how quiet it was. However, there had at least been Unseelie and those other bizarre creatures, as well as minor signs of wildlife. Here though?
The ruins were utterly liminal with their complete, aching emptiness; and that scared her far more than the potential swarms of hungry Grimm or potential criminals, if she was being very frank.
Emptiness? Desolation? Places where there should be people, or at least something moving? Scared Weiss more than anything. Such things invoked memories and imaginings she'd often been plagued with as a child, and made her feel very small indeed. Very small, and very…forgotten.
As they moved the empty streets of Mountain Glenn, Weiss was reminded of the haunted feelings she'd get as a child, wandering the empty halls of the Schnee estate. She would see the distant signs of life around her, but none of the people, as if she were a ghost existing in parallel to the world of the living.
As she passed the faded, cracked windows of a long forgotten storefront, she almost prayed for movement, Grimm or no. Anything.
Anyone.
Yet besides her teammates and Qrow, there was nothing moving in this abandoned graveyard of a city.
Ahead of her, seemingly unconcerned by the eerie vacancy of the ruins, Blake and Ruby stalked in parallel, their movements silent and sharply in sync in a way Weiss grudgingly realized she almost envied. They were communicating without speaking, without even looking at one another, as they roved.
Ruby would track briskly right, and Blake would mirror her, ears flat with concentration as she hunted naturally amongst the ruins; while also responding to Ruby's physical cues, long before Weiss could even process them.
As Weiss struggled to remain silent in the echoing grave-ruins of the city, her heels clacking across the ruined granite, she grew ever more irritated with herself. She felt like a shining beacon in her attire and mannerisms, loudly declaring their position to their potential ravenous and attentive enemies, endangering the team with her very presence.
It did not help that she already felt like she was, in some manner, the 'black sheep' of the group. Raven's previous barbs and blunt opinion kept making the rounds in her mind, poking with obsidian cruelty at her many hidden, but dire, insecurities.
Weiss was beginning to question just what she had gotten herself into.
This was not how things were supposed to go, whatsoever.
Their first hunt was supposed to be their opportunity to prove themselves to their seniors and betters as to their skills and to showcase the knowledge they had accrued over their year at Beacon. It was an exam that could be studied and diligently prepared for; with time, skill and effort. It was supposed to be something she could absorb, understand and then prepare herself for, and prepare the people she cared for.
But this?
How on Remnant could she have prepared for this? How could she have prepared for people that believe in magic? People who cared not for the laws of the scientific realms, and orderly Kingdoms? People who could possibly turn into magical birds at whim? Or do even…more?
How could Weiss have prepared for a world turned totally catty-cornered, tilted completely off its rational axis? One with talking Grimm and dark conspiracies that hurt the people she cared about - just bloody how was she supposed to prove her worth in a world where her knowledge and skill meant and could provide absolutely bloody nothing for the people she cared about?!
All her intellect and dedication! All her years of furious training, and Weiss was still trying not to stagger and fall flat on her ass in the face of the unknown! Meanwhile her teammates sped ahead of her, eager and hungry for even more.
More of something that Weiss couldn't even wrap her head around yet, considering half of it seemed like a delusion; and the other half terrified her beyond anything she'd ever experienced!
She had most naively believed she was prepared to face the unknown. She had, in her hubris, believed she knew just what the hell the unknown even was.
Well? Here the unknown was, alright. Cavorting about before her without any concern that she should be facing it. And here she was, woefully underdressed and pathetically underwhelming despite the occasion.
This was…Stars help her.
Just what good was she if at the very least she couldn't be prepared for the unknown?
A shoulder shoved into her own, warm and instantly identifiable.
Weiss pulled a face, feigning irritation out of habit rather than actual feeling.
Yang stood next to her, watching Blake and Ruby ahead of them, utterly unbothered by the fact that their partners were working in tandem. In fact, her expression portrayed pride of all things.
Weiss rolled her eyes and tried to push ahead, trying to keep up with the others; Yang, of course, kept pace with her. Utterly unconcerned.
Unafraid.
If Weiss was a few months younger, and less accustomed to her teammate, she might consider her lingering presence a result of Yang's own obliviousness. However, Weiss had discovered over the school year that Yang was anything but oblivious.
Yang was, perhaps, the most emotionally and physically observant person on team RWBY, besides Ruby herself. She just pretended to be oblivious, like she did with most things that might paint her in a threatening light. Because Yang desperately did not want other people to be afraid of her.
Which, considering the fact she had such a potent Semblance and apparently always had, Weiss could understand; from a political standpoint, anyways.
However, Yang did not approach things politically. Yang didn't see the world in terms of power and the way it flowed; she approached it from a place of compassion, much like her sister did.
Weiss was still struggling to see the world from Yang's point of view; but gods, did she want to.
"Whatcha thinkin, princess?" Yang prompted as they trailed the others. "Pretty quiet, right?"
She was giving her a way out - like she almost always did, whenever she thought she was orbiting a little too close to Weiss's veritable emotional barricade. But Weiss didn't want to take the easy way out, now that she saw that it was offered.
"I….," Weiss fumbled, trying to collect herself as she watched their periphery. "Yes. It is more quiet than it should be…"
Yang spun her gauntlets, more of a comforting habit than of necessity, her face remaining open as her lavender eyes skipped over the figures ahead of them and the silent buildings surrounding them.
"There should be more Grimm than this," Weiss declared, though at the moment, she was less concerned with Grimm, and more concerned with her existential woes. "It's like they've simply vanished."
"Maybe they smelled trouble coming their way," Yang winked, though it was clear from her expression that she didn't buy that.
"Have you considered showering?" Weiss retorted dryly, her fingers gripping Myrtenaster. She briefly wished it was Yang's fingers instead.
"Tch, I smell great and you know it!" Yang chortled, tossing her hair. "You can borrow my body wash if you wanna sometime, it's made for Huntresses - and other people who actually work for a living!"
"Mhm. Ok."
"Don't be jelly, Weiss-capades," Yang teased.
"I am not jelly," Weiss scoffed.
Yang eyed her playfully.
"Ya sure?
Weiss, being a master of hidden conversational leads, picked up the actual question.
She paused, briefly, before glancing towards Ruby and Blake.
Was she?
It's not like she hadn't picked up the budding connection there as of late. But…
Yes? And no? It was all so….murky. Too many conflicting feelings, too much happening at once and not enough time to process it all.
Perhaps jealousy was always conflicting? It had been a feeling she often ignored, channeling it into more constructive efforts. However, now, it was rearing its visage along with the rest of her insecurities, forcing her to acknowledge it.
"Maybe a little," she acquiesced softly.
Yang nodded, refraining from immediate comment. As they trailed the others, Yang stayed abreast of her; watchful of their surroundings, but also casually attentive to her. Weiss realized she was waiting for her to expound on this, but was not demanding she do so. Were it anyone else, Weiss simply would have played daft and said nothing; but Yang was always so….Yang.
After what she felt was an awkward pause, Weiss started to speak up.
"I…am afraid that I am…"
Going to be left behind. And alone. Again.
"Not able to keep up with them. Or you. When it comes to all of this…magic business," Weiss confessed, her face burning as she looked at anything but the woman next to her. "They especially seem to be taking to the whole idea like seals to water, but I apparently cannot even swim, for lack of a better analogy. And it…scares me. That I might become some naysayer or considered a burden for them. I never…I never want them to see me as a burden."
Because I have felt like one my entire life, and it is a feeling I can no longer bear; especially when it comes to all of you.
Yang glanced down at her, her face lacking any inkling of judgment or craft, portraying only empathy. That expression was almost unbearable to witness in and of itself, filling her with scalding embarrassment over her reaction to it; but Weiss busied herself playing the Huntress.
"Weiss?"
She glanced hesitantly Yang's way, feeling ridiculously exposed in that moment.
Yang smiled gently.
"I promise you? That no one here sees you as a burden. At all. It is impossible for any of us to see you as a burden," Yang waved at her, as if gesturing to everything she was. "Because we love you."
Weiss felt her mind fry a bit at how simply Yang had declared something like that; such proclamations were technically common fare for the blonde, who had no hang ups when it came to saying such things. However, for Weiss, declaring love even in the familial or platonic sense was such a monumental struggle, that to hear it so casually always caught her flatfooted.
"No one expects you to have all the answers to life's frickin elder mysteries and the crazy bullshit my mom just unloaded on us. Like, Weiss, seriously- you are handling things way better than could be expected about all of this, considering the circumstances," Yang insisted seriously. " You are not a burden. None of us would ever think that way about you. You don't have to like, prove your worth or whatever to be important to us. To me. So please, Weiss. Be kinder to yourself, ok?"
Weiss glanced away, her eyes hot and on the verge of tearing up. She pushed past the sensation, swallowing. She let the words linger as she sought the proper response, and realized that such a thing might not exist.
Proper and right were not equivalent, despite what she had been taught since she could speak.
"I will…be kinder, to myself, Yang. If," she glanced up, blue orbs serious. "You promise to treat yourself the same."
Yang's lavender eyes widened a fraction, surprised by this counter proposal.
"You're very hard on yourself too, you know?" Weiss insisted with quiet passion. "For different reasons, maybe, but still. It's just as unfair to treat yourself so harshly. We've already discussed it, but I think the motivation there is similar, however just as illogical."
Yang's features twitched, a crack appearing in the cheerful facade. Weiss realized she was treading on sensitive ground.
"To be our best selves, we must be more forgiving of those selves," Weiss insisted, striving to sound gentle. Compassionate. "Agreed?"
The brawler paused, studying her for what felt like a small eternity, before smiling a little.
"Yea. Ok, Ice Queen. But you have to keep up your end of the bargain, ok?" Yang grinned brilliantly, feigning bravado and charm. She held out her callused but warm hand, and Weiss, after a slight pause, shook it. Yang beamed and Weiss tried to keep her blush under control, a futile effort. "There! No takes backsies!"
"A Schnee does not entertain the idea of takes backsies," Weiss declared most haughtily, playing up her accent.
"Oh yeah? Well then this should be easy for you then, princess!" Yang chortled.
If only….
Ahead of them, Ruby signaled an alert and the pair flowed instantly into combat readiness, moving into a defensive spread that placed Yang at an angle to shoot forwards into the frey, and Weiss the most advantageous position to provide support with her Semblance. However, the warmth on Weiss's palm lingered; as did the butterfly heat in her chest.
No takes backsies, indeed.
…..
Ruby tensed, silver eyes trailing cautiously over the ground and shattered wreckages of vehicles and Bullheads before them.
Behind her, Blake was instinctively blending into the shadows of the building to their right, Gambol Shroud at the ready; meanwhile her sister and Weiss fanned out in a practiced defensive pattern, awaiting orders. Qrow lingered farther behind the lot of them, keeping his Semblance out of range of the four while they took point, while watching their backs and periphery; and keeping tabs on the lone bird circling their position far above.
Ruby was not sure what had triggered her instincts as to an imminent threat; it well, she wasn't familiar with just what she was perceiving, to be honest. However, after her adventure into the Mirrorways, her senses were definitely…. different. Spooky different.
Ever since they had arrived in Mountain Glenn, Ruby had been seeing and feeling a lot of things, half glimpses and fractions of shadows that were gone just as soon as she could become aware of them; but the difference between what she had seen at the beginning of all this, and what she was seeing now after her powers had awakened in the Mirrorways were like night and day. She felt like she was a child again, getting growing pains in her legs or feeling really sore after her Semblance had manifested. However, instead of physical discomfort, there was all this.
She could see the normal street before them. However, there was other stuff layered on top and around it in a way she did not know how to interpret; music was echoing in her mind, along with visions of the giant halls of the Mirrorways that overlapped with stuff she was physically looking at here and now.
Ghost prints of something that had already …happened here? Both very recently and years ago, like radio frequencies at similar bandwidths being layered on top of each other. Creating silver static and muddled imagery that she did not know how to interpret yet; at least not here, in the normal world.
Singing that wasn't singing. Music that wasn't music. Light that …wasn't light.
She was beginning to realize more about the 'string thingies' she had wielded so effortlessly in the Mirrorways.
They were more than some mystic boundaries. They were her mind and 'normal' reality interpreting the vibrations of space-time in a manner it could comprehend; turning information into a blend of light and sound, creating a pattern, or code, that could both create and destroy. But just what it created, and just what it destroyed, Ruby still was uncertain of.
"Ruby?"
Behind her, Blake had taken a step closer, aware that something was very off.
"Stay back," Ruby ordered, her tone firm, unnaturally authoritarian. Alien in her ears. She paused, shaking her head clear, distressed by the tone of her own words. "It - I don't know what I'm looking at! Something here is really dangerous!"
But where was it? The note of danger, setting her instincts on edge, welling up inside her!. It was familiar, but she had never heard it before now, at least… she didn't remember hearing it before now?
Just what was this deadly, terrible echo?
Emotions were welling up inside her - not her own - and fragments of memories, also, not her own. She'd experienced this emotional resonance before, to a much lesser degree when interacting with other people, but this was soooo much more than that, and so overwhelming!
This feels like feedback of something that already happened long ago -layered on top of something that just happened recently, and is actually still dangerous to us! But I can't - make it stop! I need it to stop, I can't find it - gods why am I so sad?
Ruby nearly dropped Crescent Rose as a wave of immense fear and sorrow rolled through her. She planted her weapon on the ground, leaning on it for support as she practically staggered.
Multiple people, from multiple times, all of them with their own feelings, hopes and fears and chords - wyrd? - it was too much noise at once!
She was crying? When did that happen?
"Ruby?!"
Weiss was trying to approach, as was Yang. But the threat was still here, they were going to stumble into it because of her- and it could hurt them much more than her, and she didn't know why!
"Stop!" Ruby ordered again, her voice trembling slightly, both with emotion and something a bit more silver. A bit more dangerous, which also scared her. "Hold- hold your positions! There's something here! Please, just give me - I need a moment!"
More voices, but she couldn't make them out over the noise of everything else crashing over her. Her eyes were burning with light. Her throat and chest were tightening, making it difficult to breathe or think about anything else!
Get it together! Come on, get it together! What is this - why can't I just- Dust why can't I just get it together?!
Something dark and fluttering in her periphery, but Ruby didn't react to it, too overwhelmed by the cacophony of forces slamming down on her newly awakened senses to react to anything in physical space.
Who are these people I'm seeing? What - is this part of being an aetheri? Seeing, feeling, such - oh Dust, they are all dying aren't they? They're dying and I can't help them-
An armored palm on her shoulder, heavy and cool; Ruby's eyes flared with silver anguish before she realized the palm was not Yang's.
It was not warm enough to belong to Yang.
"Breathe," Raven instructed.
Ruby grit her teeth, feeling scattered. Light and noise was spilling out from her now, scittering over her skin, her Aura, over the ground; and it was scaring her on top of everything else.
Because she couldn't stop it. She couldn't - and it was dangerous. She could…these powers could hurt people, couldn't they?
"There's something bad-," she started, her voice half choked in her throat, but vibrating with power and danger.
"It's not here. And it's not now," Raven insisted calmly, her palm a comforting weight on her shoulder. The forces spilling out from her did not apparently concern her mother. Even though they coiled around the pair of them, menacing and potentially very, very deadly. "You need to ground. But to do that? First, you have to breathe, Ruby."
Ruby blinked rapidly, trying to shake off the years and the panicking music and chaos overwhelming her senses.
"In for four? Hold it? And then let it out," Raven continued, coolly. Non-judgemental.
Ruby forced the air into her lungs, pulling with her diaphragm.
One, Two, Three, Four-
The air flooded out.
"Again. Slow it down. Slow down."
One… Two…Three...Four.
The resonant burning in her throat began to subside. As Ruby focused on her breathing, the noise and chaotic chords echoing in her head and overlapping the world around her began to slow as well, shifting downwards and apart; things were looking a little more manageable, but they were still terribly intense.
"There's still…I know there's something here that's a threat! It's not just in the past, ok, it's right here!" Ruby struggled to make sense, aware that she sounded a little crazy. However, she also knew, somehow, that her mother would not judge her for sounding a little crazy. "It's a note, a chord - someone singing- something horrible! It's killing - no it, killed people! It can kill people right now too, please - I need them to get away from here!"
Raven tilted her head sharply, peering through the helmet and out at the scene intently; after a moment, she reached out and put something in Ruby's free hand.
Ruby stared at the item, flummoxed.
"It's a..shiny rock?" Ruby cleared her throat in confusion.
"Do nothing except for breathe and hold the shiny rock," Raven instructed cooly, pulling something witchy looking out of one the pouches on her belt.
"And I'm…doing this why exactly?" Ruby asked, focusing on the metallic stone in her hand. It was cool and heavy, like a little glob of gun-metal mirror. Still, the weight and cold was comforting, somehow. Briefly, it reminded her of her partner, and Ruby clung to that feeling, allowing it to reel her in and down, anchoring her to physical reality.
"It will help you stay calm in the eye of the storm," Raven insisted cryptically, pulling out bits of parchment with strange glyphs sketched across them. She whispered something, before igniting the parchment in her cupped palms with a burst of red and blue energy, like when she had used magic to protect Blake in the Mirrorways.
Ruby inhaled again, trying to both watch what Raven was doing and collect herself. Cool, heavy currents of energy continued to emanate from the stone, flowing through her and dissipating the erratic energy of the noise, emotions and light that had bombarded her. She felt like a tiny ship dropping anchor in a sudden storm, securing herself to the seabed as waves tried to batter her and drive her off course, and wind and hail tore at her sails.
As the parchment burned, the scents of bergamot, spruce and something feral and wild ignited, both a perfume and a feeling, that were somehow familiar and yet totally unknown. The essence of the wilds, being summoned here in all their furor and glory.
As the smoke spread, the chords of song-light seemed to freeze over, and slowed to a crawl. Ruby gasped a little as she saw a perfect freeze frame of the spiraling vortex of the planes surrounding them; an infinite spiral of space and time, and the myriad forces exchanging rapid fire between them. A beautiful, terrifying network of existence, made of darkness, light, and the connection between all spiritual things.
Ruby glanced back at her teammates, and realized they had been frozen as well, or slowed. She could see their Auras, and more impressively, parts of their higher selves that extended beyond that.
Blake's was all shadows and roots of magical power that grew down and out, drawing strength from hidden sources and streams that seemed endless, sinking inky claws into all the secret places of the world. She was like a great, dark tree, that spread and spread, and pulled secrets into her orbit with gentle, yet implacable insistence. Blake would find things she didn't even know were hidden, and slowly, insistently, pull them into the light.
Weiss's own ability was an immense glacier with barely tapped potential, just breaching the surface. Her power was not necessarily magical, but it wasn't lacking in that regard either. Weiss was…Weiss. Like Blake, her roots went deep, icy spires that tapped into forces that cried ever northward, towards something forgotten yet eternally renewing; something connected to the deepest, oldest well-spring in existence, that all the ripples of life evolved from. Something ancient and yet, something totally new, all at once. Weiss was so incredibly beautiful to her in that moment that Ruby had to remind herself she was supposed to be breathing.
And Yang? Yang burned. Her sister was a corona of fire and life, golden and red - and green? - spiraling out and up like an explosion, immense, draconic - eldritch - in its force. But also capable of creation, and channeling seemingly titanic forces of reality that would destroy a lesser focal point. This was more than the sum of Yang's impressive Semblance. There were layers of power and arcane lines of glyphs crossing and intersecting over Yang's higher self in a complex structure that Ruby could not immediately understand, but she recognized instinctively as impressively magical in construct.
Ruby beheld her friends and family with awe, before glancing at her mother, who, much like her teammates, looked different in this moment; yet unlike her friends, she was not a snapshot, frozen to be observed and cooly dissected. The spell showed all of Raven's higher aspects in the present, instead of at a safe, and still distance; and these aspects were fully aware and observing her in kind.
Raven was…not just Raven. Not anymore. Or no, not exactly. Raven the individual was the focal point of multiple arcane forces. Raven the individual was almost…fragmented. However, these fragments were not separate, either.
No.
They were reflections of each other.
Her mother was both herself and the focal point of multiple seemingly conflicting and yet cooperative forces, though there were three primary axises that overlapped each other; and painted a frighteningly intense visage that Ruby's higher sight managed to interpret.
First of all, there was the spiritual avatar of the leader of the Branwen, The Mantle of the Morrigan, which was separate from Raven and yet not; alive, yet made of the thousands of people who had born it in some capacity over the ages.
Ruby knew its name and its intentions the moment she saw it, recognizing it as something that had always been a part of her, and Yang's, lives, if hidden from direct view. It was dark, bloody, and fiercely protective of what it deemed to be a part of its tribe and arcane territory. Great shadowy feathers spread out from it, ghosting over the countless lives who had born its helm over thousands of years. The Morrigan was made of all of those lives, and deaths; yet, it was an idea and being beyond them. It was a fate and a choice, an entity and a principle; the result of mortals rising to meet the impossible and to fight for the people they loved, and yet so much more than anything Ruby could describe.
Then there was the Spring Maiden. Ruby knew her name as well, though she was more like a familiar face in passing than a protector Ruby had known her entire life. Raven had said she was a curse, but that wasn't accurate.
Spring was as amazing as she was terrifying. She was elemental, something neither human or faunus, whereas the Morrigan was deeply connected to mortality. Spring, though, was the embodiment of natural aspects melded with higher, and lower, domains of arcane principles . She was the storm that brought renewal and change with Truth and Knowledge of the Arcane, and other eldritch forces. She heralded the balancing of the scales once again as the eternal and mundane seasons orbited physical reality to a cosmic dance. There was something inextricably alien about her, or faelike, that reminded Ruby of the fairytales that Qrow would tell her as a child. Spring was similar to the Mantle of the Morrigan, but much older, larger; and drew upon forces that extended far beyond Remnant's current history.
The third was Raven the person, her Semblance and the magic she wielded separate to the Morrigan and Spring, but also deeply connected to these entities. Her mother's higher self was constantly shifting, all bright red lines, circles and portals to places and feelings, a wild, constantly fluctuating geometry; mathematics and heart, all jumbled together into one person, who somehow, had not been broken by the extreme circumstances life had thrust upon her. Raven was the sum of her own willpower, and the connections she'd made with the people important to her. And far more.
Ruby breathed, and held the shiny rock.
"Take a moment to adjust. Feel your feet planted beneath you and your breath funneling your energy into the ground," Raven instructed calmly. "The stone will help keep you rooted, and deafen the feedback of the forces around you. Embody yourself here, in the present moment. And know that nothing you see or feel can uproot you from yourself."
Ruby inhaled slowly in the center of the hurricane.
"Is this…how you always see the world?" Ruby asked quietly.
"Not exactly," Raven admitted, glancing up as if searching for something. Seeing something beyond. "You are capable of seeing far more as an aetheri than I can typically. Which is why you detected a threat when I originally did not. Now, find the chord that represents danger. Follow it to its source."
Ruby swallowed nervously, gripping the stone as she searched through the chaos.
She located it quickly, a nasty song note that made her queasy. She could see it coiling and threading through the spiritual planes, encircling. Ensnaring.
It was like a cruel net they'd cast over the region, tearing into anything that it could grasp. Someone like her had done something here, to the Grimm, but also anyone who accidentally stumbled into its grasping claws. It wasn't a positive or neutral force, that banished or restored equilibrium, like she had with the mimics; it…. bewitched. Bent them to the singer's will with malicious intent.
The song sapped the will of those who heard it, and directed them to go somewhere. Somewhere…below. Into caves? A tunnel?
"It- another aetheri was here," Ruby observed carefully. "Recently. They've created a…spell? It controls Grimm. And people were here - people died, they got eaten…because they couldn't get away from the spell. This person forced them…all into a tunnel, and the Grimm ate them alive."
Ruby could feel her voice shaking again, with emotions and silver, but the shiny rock helped her stay calm, and grounded.
"They're summoning them to do something bad. That's where the Grimm have gone! But I don't understand, who would create something so - is this what aetheri can do?! Is this what I do?!"
Is this what I do? Remove choice from other people, bind them - hurt them?!
Raven observed her stoically, but again laid a palm on her shoulder, trying to comfort her in her own way. She spoke after a moment, perhaps fishing for the right thing to say.
"Your powers have great potential, Ruby, both to protect and to harm. It is the same with everything else in this world," Raven gestured at the frozen imprint of the universe around them. "A knife can be a tool that helps provide safety? Or a weapon that draws blood. But the knife does not choose how it is wielded. You, the one who wields it, determines how it is used. Your magic is yours, and how you use it is the only thing that actually matters."
"What if I don't use it," Ruby whispered, clutching the stone and Crescent Rose equally. "If this is what I can do…Dust, what if I make a mistake? What if I… hurt someone like this person clearly has?"
Raven hesitated. The visage of Spring seemed to fluctuate, reacting to this. After a heavy pause, Raven spoke.
"Then you will own your mistake. And keep moving forwards," Raven insisted, unwavering in her judgment of Ruby's character. "Because in the end, Ruby, that is all we can do. Whether you use your power as an aetheri or not is a choice that only you can make. But remember, sweetheart, that we are all capable of causing harm, magic or no. That is the burden and blessing of being alive -taking accountability for one's actions. And choosing whether or not we grow from our mistakes."
Ruby stared at her hands, heart heavy with the gravity of the situation.
"Then I choose to use this power to help make the world a better place," Ruby declared.
Raven tilted her head slowly, seeing her for all that she was, good and bad.
"I do not doubt that you will."
She smiled a little at that, before a realization struck her.
"So I can affect Grimm, huh?" Ruby asked, a note of hopefulness finding its way into her voice, momentarily overcoming her anxiety. "That's kinda cool, right? Is there a way to do it without harming people, though? Like, if so, this would be so useful!"
Raven sighed, her higher forms almost mimicking her natural disposition to fidget.
"Yes, well. I had naively hoped to delay this conversation until we had more time," Raven admitted wryly, before glancing upwards again. Ruby followed her gaze, but couldn't see just what was drawing her attention. "But I see now that ….that is impossible considering the circumstances. However, before any of that - understand that I will never tell you how you should specifically wield your power, but I do have a request."
"Um. Ok? And that isss?" Ruby prompted carefully.
"Please wait until I find you a suitable mentor before tampering with the Grimm?" Raven asked, her voice tensing. Urgent. Around them, the feathers of the Morrigan fanned out protectively, ghosting over spiritual planes and ruins. "There's a lot of danger and…complexity there that you need to be aware of first, because the consequences for a single misstep are devastating. That and the political landscape for aetheri is treacherous at best. I don't want the wrong people setting their sights on you for your abilities, or trying to hurt you and the others. Like this individual who is up to no good, and certainly no ally of ours. Unknown aetheri can be….very complicated to deal with. But they aren't the only factors you need to be wary of. So please, for the sake of my own sanity, wait until I can find someone to bring you up to speed properly?"
Ruby studied her mother, noting the genuine concern there.
"Sure, ok! Makes um, makes sense. But hey, why can't you do it!?" Ruby suggested. "Be my mentor or whatever?"
Raven blinked slowly, processing the request.
"Because I am not an aetheri."
"Ok, but counterpoint? Who cares?" Ruby glanced around them. "Lookin at the literal big picture right now, and I gotta say? It doesn't seem to actually matter."
Her mother looked both frustrated, and yet grudgingly respectful of Ruby's refusal to give a damn. Ruby beamed.
"I can't teach you everything you need to know about being an aetheri, and I don't think it's my place to…it's…a right of passage. The people meant to teach you will practically be cosmically provided - I just need to help speed that process up and get you the assistance you need, as soon as possible. "
She thinks she's overstepping for some reason. It's not because she's not an aetheri, it's because she feels….guilty. For stepping into this role. Maybe because….oh.
Oh. I see.
"But you're the Morrigan and the Spring Maiden!" Ruby waved at the immense aspects above them, despite the grief and melancholy rolling through her heart. Raven seemed genuinely taken aback that Ruby knew those titles. "You know stuff! That's your whole deal! Mentors know stuff! And hey, you already helped, you gave me the shiny rock, see!"
Raven gestured as if wanting to knead her forehead, but could not through the helm; she settled with folding her arms.
"It's just hematite-"
"See, I didn't know that! I'm already learning! Teach me more magic stuff, mom!" Ruby pled, turning up the puppy pout. She had a darn good puppy pout, and she was not above deploying it when times were dire! Or when she had been caught cheating at cards.
Raven glared at her, apparently well aware of such tactics.
"That's not going to work on me," she droned, unimpressed by her theatrics.
Ruby unabashedly dialed it up to eleven, even though she was aware that such things would not genuinely phase the woman before her. However, she did not know how to ask her directly, just yet; or how to expose her own emotional insight.
"Please?"
Please…I know why you're hesitant, I think, but…
She's not here anymore, mom. She's gone. But you aren't.
So please. Just…
I know you can do it…and I know…I know that she wouldn't ever resent you for it.
Please. I really need….I really do need your help.
Raven grumbled something, shaking her dark head. However, after a moment, crimson eyes met her own.
"Fine. I will consider it-"
Ruby hugged her fiercely with her free arm, and Raven paused briefly, clearly surprised; before hugging her back, just as tight.
"Thank you," Ruby whispered sincerely, squeezing tightly, her voice full of emotion.
Because she knew…
She knew.
"I didn't say I would," Raven huffed through the helm, but still hugged her tight. "Only if no one more suitable becomes swiftly available. But, if we're going to learn some magic - how about we start with some more of the basics?"
Ruby pulled back, her face lighting up despite her tumultuous emotions.
"Ooh! Such as?"
"Warding," Raven declared, her tone betraying the smirk Ruby couldn't see. "Or: How to Nullify an Enemy Curse 101."
A brief, delighted pause; before Ruby grinned at last.
…
Deep beneath the ruins of Mountain Glenn, there are a variety of caverns. The region is notoriously littered with caves and underground rivers that expand and weave below it, like a great, dark network of roots, one that connects to half the continent itself. Many of the caves below Mountain Glenn had been transformed into underground portions of the city during the expansion's heyday, decades previous; much like the underground shopping district in the Kingdom proper, these caverns had been linked by train-line, or shorter pedestrian tunnels filled with opportunities for shopping.
However, unlike the Kingdom's eternal mall court, they had possessed their own creative flair very distinct from the emerald city, instead resembling the souq's one found in Vacuo, with endless twists and turns that followed the cave's natural layout and created a fascinating hive of secret, colorful life. Mountain Glenn had possessed a large faunus population, as many of Vale's faunus citizens had been unhappy with the Kingdom's bigotry and meager measures it had taken to make them feel welcome despite promises made after the revolution. So those of a more ambitious ilk had joined the expansion project, and contributed greatly to the city's design.
Today, several faunus historians and activists of note insist that this was a primary factor in the Kingdom's decision to abandon Mountain Glenn during the fall, instead of providing greater military support to the Hunters and Witchfingers in the region, who had responded to the city's cry for assistance without hesitation; but had not received the assistance needed to actually save the city from the horde of Grimm that had overwhelmed it.
In fact, there are a few remaining political activists and even several stodgy politicians of note who quietly insist to this day, despite their many, many, critics and naysayers? That the Grimm incursion into Mountain Glenn had been no simple accident whatsoever. They insisted it was an accident turned opportunity for the elite, human supremacist oligarchs in Vale to eliminate their greatest detractors; and to destroy the budding threat of social unity and faunus equality growing on their doorsteps.
No one has been successful in proving this theory; and those who tried? Often disappeared from the political landscape, typically due to some sudden scandal; and once or twice, some other, darker, yet unknowable, means.
At the moment, however, the forgotten tunnels and secret shops of Mountain Glenn are largely silent. Silent like they have been for over twenty five years. Waiting. For something, or perhaps, someone. Who will pull their secrets into the light. And force those responsible to finally face the music.
Amongst the graveyard tunnels, however, there is movement. In the northeast sector of the ruins, there has been quite a bit of activity in fact, below the surface. People in a variety of uniforms bustle in the remains of a cleared train station and railway system that previously led into Vale, before being forcibly collapsed. However, that railway has been dutifully cleared, over a period of time that is not immediately discernible.
The most common figures are the ones in black and white uniforms that, at first glance, one would recognize as belonging to the White Fang. However, upon closer inspection, an observer might make a few deductions about said individuals. Namely, that those wearing such uniforms are largely human, though not entirely; but more noticeably, what they were not behaving in the manner of most White Fang members, but more akin to law enforcement.
Then, there are the figures dressed in solid black. Black gear, black visors and helms, and carrying nameless weaponry. They might possibly be taken for Witchfingers if an observer did not know any better. However, a Witchfinger is subtle first and foremost, and capable of blending in or changing their physical tells and mannerisms like smoke; and these individuals moved and spoke like their compatriots in White Fang attire.
Finally, there was the blatantly criminal element. The infamous Dust Thieves of Vale, who scurried about, trying to avoid the other figures loading the train cars and moving Dust containers throughout the underground. Instead of moving with their customary swagger, the people who made their living on the outskirts of Valish society and her underbelly of crime flitted through the abandoned underground nervously, trying to stay out of the way of the other figures.
Save for, perhaps, two.
Most notably was a violently ginger man in a bowl hat strode through the bustling activity as if he owned the place. The figures in uniform, or costume, would give him the occasional glare or attempt to stare him down; but the man paid them no more attention than he would gum on the sidewalk, stopping only to speak with a colleague or exclaim some humorous observation about the activities going on.
Following in his ostentatious footsteps with a deadly grace that could only be matched by the stride of a Witchfinger, or other equally deadly individuals, was a young feminine person, who blatantly unnerved the average passerby with her intense presence. People in uniform swerved around her as she strode mirthfully through the crowd, smirking playfully as she trailed the boisterous man parting the seas before her.
The ginger finally trotted up the stairs of a building swarming with activity, brushing carelessly past the sentries who glared at him; and who stoically tried to not flinch away from his silent, colorful guardian who smiled predatorily at their obvious discomfort.
The man threw the doors open and strode inside, glancing about as if seeking someone or something in particular. His quiet protector quickly took stock of the occupants as she sidled to the left, keeping an eye on the exits and the potential threats in the room, her far too innocent looking parasail capable of inflicting devastating violence in the blink of an eye.
The ginger paused in the center of the space, tossing his hands up as he demanded the attention of the very dangerous individuals occupying the space.
"Where in the bleeding fuck is Cinder?!" Roman shouted over the noise.
A slight lull as the occupants glanced at him, then each other, trying to perhaps agree as to how to respond.
"Hey, shitheel?"
Roman glanced up very slowly, portraying his irritation at this moniker. Above him, leaning on the railings of the second floor overhang, was a young man adorned in silver, grey and leather. He was giving the man below a very unimpressed stare. Roman grinned a bit manically.
"She ain't here. Leave a fucking message," the boy waved, sounding bored as he always did.
"Cute - but not the answer to my question, Mercy!" Roman turned away contemptuously. "Either listen with your big boy ears, or better yet, don't say anything at all you little rascal! Because the grown ups are talking! Now, seriously, where the absolute fuck is Cinder?!"
"Hey citrus? He already said. She isn't fucking here," another person chimed in. This girl had green hair and deeply tan skin, while her attire, accent and general aura screamed Vacuo. "So pop a pill or two, calm your geriatric tits, and ask for a manager, you ginger fucking Karen. "
Roman grinned like a fox about to eat the hens in the chicken coop.
"Incredible! Your ability to listen comprehensively is just as good as your reading comprehension, Emmy! Great! Fantastic! For the gods damn record, the next person who does not answer my question directly? I am going to shoot with actual bullets! So please, do me and you a favor? And don't be an obtuse cunt!" Roman turned towards the rest of the occupants with gleeful menace, while his bodyguard tensed ever so slightly behind him, glaring at the salty expressions directed his way. "Where!? Is fucking Cinder?!"
Grudging silence…before someone replied.
"...She's in the mirrors. Doin her job."
Roman glared viciously at the man nearby, another person dressed in White Fang paraphernalia. He was a big cunt with a dual handed weapon that was more chainsaw than anything else.
Roman beamed hungrily. The man almost flinched.
"Well, sugar, do me a favor? And get her out of the fucking mirrors and ask her, why there are Grimm swarming our tunnels and eating my fucking people alive! Because getting eaten alive by Grimm was not a part of the fucking deal!"
Roman kicked a desk nearby, sending papers and debris flying as it toppled over, and skidded violently into a nearby wall. People stood, drawing weapons, but hesitating as the pink and brown bodyguard took up a gleeful stance in their periphery. Across from said bodyguard, Emerald tensed and stood up, hands tense as she threatened to counteract her. Neo smiled and waved cheekily. Emerald scowled.
"Are you people seriously so fucking moronic?!" Roman bellowed, genuinely infuriated. People around him shuffled uncomfortably, but this had been a long, long time coming in his opinion. "You can't let your business partners know that some crazy bullshit is coming their way?! That you specifically staged monsters in the Dust damn tunnels - I just lost an entire detail of fucking people, who did not know GRIMM were about to come raining down on their fucking heads! Who got drug merrily into the Grimm's fucking mouths by whatever woo-woo witchcraft that dumb bitch was casting! And until I get recompense for all of their deaths? This deal is fucking OFF! Now where! The fuck! Is Cinder?!"
Roman snarled, baring his teeth at the room of law enforcement bristling back at him. For a brief moment, he felt like a child in a cage once again, as red eyed monsters leered bloodily in at him, their trollish black, blood-soaked paws trying to grasp him and pull him out into the blistering sunlight.
"Right here, darling."
Roman spun, ready to tear and rend and fill his enemy with bullets.
Said enemy was standing casually , dressed like she was about to attend some macabre ball for the Kingdom's elites. Dark hair flowed luxuriously over her shoulders, and her posture portrayed the contempt she felt for everything lacking her power.
Cinder smiled languidly, pocketing a glint of something silver as she eyed him. Roman bristled with hatred, but concealed it with a dangerous smile.
"Cindy! There you are - Let's have a chat, shall we?" Roman gestured towards one of the empty rooms to the right.
"Of course. After you, dear," Cinder gestured, her amber gaze glittering with malice.
Roman grinned in kind and led the way, aware of the colorful shade of his companion keeping pace with him. If things went south? Neo would get him out. Even Cinder struggled to keep track of Neo's Semblance, and couldn't fully counteract them; and while Cinder was a crazy bitch of the highest degree? Neo was in a league all their own. Just let her try something. Neo would eat her for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Least, he hoped so anyways. He'd been wrong before. However, he was a gambling man; and gambling on Neo had never been a mistake.
The odd trio entered the room, Neo trailing in last before blowing a kiss at Emmy, who looked like she was on the verge of following them herself; Neo shut the door in her face, flouncing a little as they hopped up on a stack of crates nearby.
"Ya know, Cindy, I'm gonna come out and say it: I am pretty pissed," Roman leaned on his cane, shaking his head. "Your little stunt just cost me a lot of lien."
And lives. He had liked those poor bastards, stupid as they were. They were useful, and they were likable, in their own endearing, dumb way. Which in this profession? Was incredibly fucking rare.
"Roman," Cinder purred, waving a hand gracefully. "Come now. You and I both know you were hardly breaking the bank with those idiots on your payroll. Besides, I warned them I was working in the area. They should have paid better attention."
Paid attention to my ass, they were doing their jobs you little-
"Paid better attention to your siren singing? They did. It fucking killed them," Roman scoffed, pulling out a cigar from his coat pocket and lighting a match as he shoved the cigar between his teeth. Stress always made him smoke like a chimney.
"Not at all, darling. It was the Grimm who killed them," Cinder chuckled darkly.
Roman's eyes narrowed dangerously, as he waved the flaming matchstick out, imagining terrible, horrible, wonderful violence. However, he also knew that, in the grand scheme of things? There was nothing he could do to legitimately threaten the woman across from him. Even if he - or, frankly, mostly Neo - whipped little miss thing's haughty ass right here and now? Her employers would string his corpse from the palisade, without a cherry sucking doubt.
In fact, if Cinder hadn't convinced them of his usefulness to this insane plan of theirs, he would already be twiddling his thumbs in maximum security, drugged off his keister with Aura and Semblance suppressants; and his band of miscreants would already be dead. Roman's continued freedom, and the freedom of the group of ne'er do wells he had come to be in charge of over the years, depended on Cinder's insistence that he was useful to the plans they were enacting across the Kingdom of Vale.
Which sucked, because he fucking hated her. Now, he could admit! That he was hardly the easiest man to deal with on a good day; and was also, certainly no angel himself! He would proudly confess to that fact, anytime! On his knees, even!
However, he also wasn't the sort of psychopath that hated people simply for what they were or the circumstances they came from. He was the sort of psychopath that hated people for what they did to inconvenience him directly with their individual actions! Also, he did not think that the world should be cleansed of, well, anyone the Kingdom deemed to be 'not useful'; or that supposedly, according to the idiots with enough money to live soft, happy, peaceful lives, that individuals that supposedly drew Grimm with their oh so naughty behavior, or individual illnesses, should be removed from the Kingdom.
Because that was fucking crazy! Grimm weren't drawn by evil inherent or what hell ever, they were fucking drawn by those who were bleeding out the most - physically or otherwise! Anyone with a brain and experience could tell you that!
He should know, as he had seen it all firsthand before he could even talk! Anyone who had lived outside a Kingdom knew that at the very least! And frankly, he was of the opinion these maniacs knew that, too! Or at least the ringleaders did!
Bloody insane ass cultists, all of them!
He could deal with Cinder, at least, but the people holding her leash had always been the bane of his existence.
"But, I understand your concern. So, I promise I'll make it up to you. And besides. By the time all this is over? You'll have more lien and even more freedom than you'll ever know how to spend," Cinder hummed, eying his attire with scathing contempt. Roman envisioned burning her smarmy little eyes out with his lit cigar. "Maybe you can use it to acquire some less tacky attire and actual taste? And perhaps acquaintances who know better than to go looting a mausoleum when they've been given explicit warning…not to."
Cinder glanced at Neo, who was eying her coldly from their perch.
"The dead aren't very forgiving, you know?" Cinder narrowed her eyes back and smiled.
Roman grit his teeth, before easing his posture into something less aggressive and shrugging flippantly.
"Neither are the living, sweet cheeks," Roman quipped, waving his fingers as if brushing off dust. "Bill your boss for the loss of manpower, and my wasted time! And remember to actually inform us next time you're pulling your witchy shit near our operations. I do have a business to run, ya know!"
"Of course, dear," Cinder purred, clasping the door handle. "Now, if you've finished with your theatrics, I too, have business to attend to."
Roman puffed on his cigar, glaring as Cinder breezed out of the room without a care, leaving him and his bodyguard alone. Neo raised an eyebrow, gesturing in VSL.
"Want me to gut her in her sleep?"
Roman snorted, letting smoke billow out of his nose and mouth.
"Don't tempt me," he muttered, shaking his head. "Dust, this bitch is chapping my entire ass."
Neo smirked, signing again. Roman glared.
"No, I don't need fucking baby powder! I need a solution! Preferably one where we survive and don't wind up buried at a black site," he growled, calculating as he puffed. "This is…"
Survival. But only in the short term. He had no doubt they'd end up inside the tightening noise wringing the necks of the Valish undesirable at this rate. He wasn't a fool, and he hadn't survived this long by being one. The clock, as ever, was ticking down. Down.
Down.
He could read the writing on the walls, and it was driving him mad as he fought to find an answer.
A soft vibration in his coat pocket. Roman paused, surprised, before pulling one of his scrolls out. Only a handful of people had this number, and it was a shock that he had signal down here to begin with.
He read the message there with increasing incredulity. Before a wild grin broke out over his face. Neo stared at him, before finally gesturing impatiently.
"Well, well," Roman grinned, his hopes lifting despite all logic. "Would ya look at that?"
Neo stared at the scroll in his hand wryly.
"Ask and sometimes, the universe really fucking delivers," Roman beamed at the attached photo, showing his companion. Neo peered curiously around his shoulder with a puzzled expression.
It wasn't the best quality, but the figure was instantly identifiable to both of them, and anyone else in the know in most Kingdom's criminal echelons and beyond. Neo's eyebrows shot up, giving Roman a concerned glance; he was smiling, genuinely, and Neo briefly wondered if he was concussed.
"Don't give me that look! This? This is our ticket out of this mess, trust me," he pocketed the scroll, before pulling out another and firing off a rapid message to his boys in the Kingdom proper. "And I am not a man that wastes an opportunity!"
Neo signed in incredulous irritation, but didn't intervene as Roman hedged his bets. The man was fickle, and often played the fool to obfuscate his actual cunning; but he could always sense the winds of change before anyone else in the scene, and knew what alliances to form with a gut instinct that was unparalleled with anyone else Neo had ever met.
Neo was not a gambler themself. However, they had never regretted taking a chance when it came to Roman. As they followed the ginger back out into the control room for the black site operation, they whistled a cheeky tune, one they'd picked up at a port Settlement in Anima years ago.
And smirked.