CHAPTER XXII

Down Under Siege

Fiona led the way as she and her sisters fought against these new enemies, Grimm unlike any they had ever seen before, Grimm equipped with armor plating and accompanied by those hulking monsters that looked far too human despite being quite clearly Grimm. Without Ingrid around, Fiona was the eldest of her siblings and the triplets looked to her for guidance, especially Nadine, the youngest of the girls.

"How the heck do we get past all of them?" Francine, eldest of the triplets, asked Fiona as the quartet stood in a square to face off against the surrounding Grimm.

"My question is why they aren't attacking the capital," said Justine, the middle triplet. "Grimm don't usually siege a place, do they?"

"Only the ones being led by an Omega Grimm," Fiona said.

"Right. Omegas. The ones with auras and stuff. You think that's what's going on here?"

"I can't think of any other reason they'd be attacking a strategically significant town like this so close to the capital without actually doing anything to the capital itself."

"Yeah, but what the heck are those big things?" Francine said. "Th-The super muscular creepy looking things!"

"Probably new Grimm," Fiona said. "Best to keep our distance. They look extra tough. Already killed some of the best guardsmen and a few Huntsmen from what I've seen. Francine, can you do some scouting for us?"

"On it," she said before utilizing her Semblance, which permitted her to communicate with animals. She took in information from the surrounding birds and other fauna, building an accurate map of their immediate vicinity. "There are more Grimm in the countryside, but they seem to be biding their time or something."

"What the heck are they waiting for?" Fiona said, attempting to form a strategy in her mind. Before she could, the Grimm around them began their attack.

Each sister filled a certain niche in their team formation. Though a year separated Fiona from the triplets, they nonetheless attended the new Instinct Academy together as part of the school's very first class of students ever. Their father, Sun Wukong, served as the academy's headmaster and also one of their teachers. Here, the four-person team schema was followed quite closely just like at all of the other academies, but the model here shared more similarities with Shade Academy, permitting students to form their own quartets based on their own judgment, the opposite of Atlas Academy, which grouped students together by aptitude and personality.

Fiona found herself beset from all directions by an Übersoldat and several other armored types. Fighting the Übersoldat was difficult all in itself, but the harassment offered by the other Grimm simultaneously made this fight a near-impossibility.

"Sis!" Justine yelled before activating her Semblance, which permitted her to manipulate the flow of time around her own body. Her absolute limit was ten times slower or ten times faster than the surrounding time flow, but the greater the deviation from normal time, the greater the strain on her body. She ramped it up to five times normal time for now, slashing with her combat knives through the group of Grimm surrounding her sister.

To Fiona, the event was nothing more than a blur of pink and black, her sister's colors, along with the occasional glint of sunlight off her knives. Every Grimm attacking her aside from the Übersoldat was dead and sizzling.

"You're getting pretty good at that," Fiona said to Justine, who was stooped over.

"Yeah, I guess," she panted. "Five times normal time is still pretty rough, though."

"Check your scroll. I think your aura is still intact."

"Yeah. 50%. I think. We're kinda busy so no time for scroll-checking."

They both turned to face the Übersoldat, which continued to march at them with heavy thuds. It was about to punch at the two when something heavy smashed into its head, knocking it over. They looked over to Nadine, who was preparing her long-chained meteor hammer for another attack, this one from above. The Übersoldat turned to face her in combat, but Nadine was much too quick, even overcoming the hulking Grimm's sheer brute force with technique and finesse. She ultimately had the Übersoldat bound up in her weapon's chain before she mounted her enemy from behind, pushing up the end of her weapon's handle against the monster's head before pressing a button and pulling a trigger, sending a Dust round through its brain and ending it for good.

"You know," Francine said, joining them, "at this rate, I don't think you'll even need to discover your Semblance."

"Pretty sure her Semblance is badassery," Justine said.

"Heads up," Fiona said. "Still more people to save."

The quartet ran into the town square, where the people huddled together along with the last of the town guards. The only other two Huntsmen with them were gravely injured and the girls had to fight this battle on their own.

"It's okay, we got this," Francine said. "Justine, you up for another timey-wimey blitz?"

"Could you not call my Semblance that?" she said.

"What the heck else are we supposed to call it?"

"Personal Time Manipulation!"

"That's sooooo extra, dude!"

"You're so extra!"

Like Nadine's meteor hammer, Francine's weapon was also chained, but she wielded a pair of modified kusarigama, hand scythes loaded with spear-tipped chains she could launch from one end to snare enemies or use as makeshift projectile weapons. And unlike Nadine's weapon, which hid a Dust gun module in the handle, Francine's weapon utilized Dust to power the spear tips with whatever types of Dust she had loaded in the handles.

"I have to ask," Fiona said as she slashed through a Beowolf with her naginata, "why purple and black?"

"Cuz you already took red and Justine already took pink and Nadine took green. And I can't do blue cuz Ingrid's already indigo, which is super close to blue, like a really dark blue, and Han already took yellow."

"Orange isn't taken," Nadine said.

"I don't like orange! I wanted pink!"

"Too bad," Justine said. "Pink's mine."

"You suck."

"Hey, so," Justine said, turning to Fiona. "The red and black, is that cuz you're still in love with Leon?"

Fiona nearly lost her footwork, only barely managing to stab her enemy Grimm in the throat. "Could you not be distracting in the middle of a battle?" she demanded.

"She also modeled her weapon in the same way as Yuan's," Nadine said, "the whole Lightning Dust in the blade that she uses for lightning attacks."

"Nadine, aren't you supposed to be the quiet one?"

"I am. I'm talking quietly, aren't I?"

Fiona sighed heavily.

"Oh, you're right!" Francine said. "Ohmygod, do you have a crush on Ingrid's boyfriend?"

"Guys!" Fiona said. "Back to the battle, please!"

The four Belladonna sisters managed to drive away the Grimm for the time being, even killing two Übersoldaten in the process, but their battle wasn't over just yet. After all, Francine's Semblance allowed her to see through the eyes of the animals in the woods. The Grimm were still surrounding the town, rebuilding their numbers and preparing for a follow-up assault. They were heading into the brush when Fiona stopped the group.

"What is it?" Justine said.

"This is a trap," Fiona said.

"Is that your experience talking or your Semblance?" Francine said.

"Semblance. Let's head back."

The triplets followed their eldest sister back to the town, but Grimm were already besieging the place.

"Crap, I didn't see through this," Fiona said, engaging the first Creep they encountered.

"Did they really just set a trap to counter your Semblance?" Justine said.

"I don't wanna believe that just yet. C'mon! We gotta get to the town square!"

Grimm were everywhere in much stronger numbers than before. Several Übersoldaten were present as well, including an Omega Grimm in the background coordinating the entire operation.

"We gotta get to the head!" Francine said, strangling an Ursa with her chain scythe. "Nadine! You and Fiona try and kill that Omega!"

"It's being protected by two of those big Grimm," Justine said. "There's no way we can do this. There's too many of these guys."

"Still," Nadine said. "We can't just give up."

"Damn right!" a familiar voice said from above. "No way we're givin' up just yet!"

The sisters looked up to see Leon descending on an Ursa Major, cleaving it in half with his scythe.

"Hey, ladies," he said with a smile. "Miss me?"

"Leon!" Fiona said.

"And sis!" Francine yelled, turning to Ingrid and Hanuman as they tore through the increasing horde of Grimm.

"Holy crap," Justine said. "You guys brought a whole army!"

"Team APEX is taking the north gate," Athena said, leading her group.

"Team LILY's taking the south," Penny said, taking command over Lilly's old team given either Schnee's absence from the group. "Han, could you stay here with your sisters to back them up? We need as much help as we can get protecting the people of the town."

"You can count on me," Hanuman said, readying his three-segmented staff.

"Athena, do you copy?"

"I hear you, Penny," her voice sounded in the team's headsets.

"Good. You've got a large group of Grimm heading to your area."

"Roger that. Team APEX!"

"Hooah!" the rest of her team said loudly enough to be heard across town.

"Okay, Team LILY," Penny said, turning to Leon, Ingrid, and Yuan. "We've got several flying Grimm and a really big Deathstalker to deal with."

"Your scanning ability certainly comes in handy," Yuan said.

"You could be enjoying this, too, if you decided to spend some money with Liam's company, ya know."

"You tryin'a market to us right now?" Ingrid said.

"Maaaybe."

"Hey, wait, so what do we do with our name?" Leon said. "Ivory's not here anymore so we can't be Team SILY. Hmm. Team LIPY. Team PILY. Team—"

"Leon, goddammit!" Ingrid yelled. "Quit obsessing over the team name and just get with the program!"

"Okay, okay! Gosh! Jeez, Yuan, how do you deal with her anger all the time?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yuan said. "She's never angry with me."

"What?"

"I think it might just be you."

Leon paled. "Yuan...how...how could you? I thought...I thought we were combat partners..."

Ingrid sighed heavily.

"Penny-senpai, do you copy?" Xanthus's voice came through their headsets.

"Loud and clear," she replied.

"My armband is picking up the presence of two Omega Grimm. Are you seeing the same thing?"

"Yeah. I'm looking right at those bastards."

"And a lot of Übersoldaten. Is this Atlas's doing also?"

"That depends on whether or not we believe Colonel Gottfried. It's just as easy for him to be acting completely independently of the official Atlas stance."

Both teams headed out to their respective hunting grounds, eliminating entire hordes of Grimm. Team APEX had much larger overall numbers to deal with, though their only real challenge was one of endurance, which the team excelled at. Team LILY's enemies were smaller in number, but most of them were of the flying variety along with an enormous Deathstalker and an Ursa Major that joined in later on.

"I really wish we could use our magic out here in the real world," Yuan said, replacing the expended Lightning Dust crystal in his Ji halberd's head.

"Yeah, well," Leon began, switching his scythe's ammo to Fire Dust, "at least we aren't dealing with nasty Labyrinth shit right now."

"True." He aimed his weapon in Ingrid's direction, zapping three incoming Griffon Grimm. Ingrid finished them off with a stab into each one's head before giving him a smile, which he returned.

"Okay, let's rejoin the two ladies!" Leon said, grabbing onto his combat partner before teleporting both of them to Penny and Ingrid's side.

Meanwhile, Team APEX moved toward one of the leading Omega Grimm, which was being guarded by four Übersoldaten. Having taken care of the main horde, Athena decided it was time to take out the heads of the operation.

"Do we really have what it takes to fight those huge guys?" Perseus said.

Athena's response was to load up Ice Dust into her spear before transforming it into a rifle, firing away and creating a cloud of fog that she disappeared into. Echo's danger-sensing Semblance was critical now; it was the only sense she could use to locate Athena's exact position. Four major threats surrounded their team leader and Echo fired Explosive Dust arrows at all of them before Xanthus and Perseus went in to join Athena for the kill.

Perseus was surprised to see Athena already grappling with one, which was about to overpower her. Before it succeeded, he dashed as fast as he could, pushing his super strength Semblance to maximum power and leaping at the monster with his shield in front, knocking it to the ground.

The battle was far from over, however. The other three Übersoldaten joined in to aid their companion. One was already more than a handful for Team APEX, but four at once was too much.

"Why hasn't that Omega joined in the fight?" Xanthus mumbled.

"Who cares?" Perseus said. "As long as it doesn't interfere. These big bastards are tough enough as it is."

"I don't like this. Omegas are a lot smarter than all other Grimm types. They have to be planning something."

The fight devolved into a one-on-one melee. Among all of Team APEX, Athena was the only one who stood any chance. Echo spent all of her time staying out of arm's reach, though she could deal no significant damage to her enemy. Perseus's raw strength was enough to keep him alive, but he was simply outclassed. Xanthus might be capable of outright destroying one on his own, but not in this world. The phenomenal power that he had been granted by his pact with the Wraith-Knight known as Percival was useless in the real world.

"Xanthus!" Athena yelled as her teammate was pinned to the ground by one of the Übersoldaten, which punched him in the head repeatedly. She tried to break free from the grappling match with her own opponent, but the thing was persistent and much too strong.

Echo tried to aid her teammate with an Explosive Dust arrow, but the Übersoldat shrugged off the blast before resuming its assault on Xanthus, whose head was halfway in the earth by now.

Perseus noticed something odd as he continued to evade his enemy. Xanthus didn't seem to be in pain. The expression on his face was more anger than anything else. The ground began to rumble when he realized what his combat partner was about to do.

"Xanthus, no!" he yelled. "You know what happens when you try to use that power in the real world!"

His friend's words failed to reach his ears. The only thing Xanthus could hear now was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. As the Übersoldat was about to deliver one last blow, he let out a powerful yell, which was accompanied by a bright light and an explosion centered around his body.

Athena, Echo, and Perseus shielded their eyes, slowly looking around as the windstorm and brilliance began to die down. Their companion was lying in the dirt, unconscious. All four Übersoldaten were missing.

"Xanthus!" Echo yelled, running to their comrade.

Athena ran alongside her and Perseus, stopping just a few steps from their friend. There was a blast mark surrounding his body, but it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was as though a pair of feathered, eagle-like wings were burned into the ground, extending outward from where he lay.

"Xanthus!" Echo said again, trying to shake him awake.

"Wh...What?" he said, looking around drowsily.

"Oh, thank god."

"Welcome back, buddy," Perseus said.

"What the heck happened?" Xanthus asked, sitting up.

"You tell me," Athena said, crossing her arms over her chest. "What was that just now?"

"What was what?"

"You were getting your ass kicked by that Übersoldat," Perseus said. "And then you screamed and a bright flash of light exploded from you and then the four big dudes were gone, just like that."

"I...I don't remember any of that."

"Yo," Echo said, finally seeing what Athena was looking at. "W-What the heck is that?"

The whole group stood up, staring at the wing-like burn marks on the ground.

"D-Did that come from me?" Xanthus said.

"I didn't notice it before," Perseus said.

"Me neither," Echo said. "Hey, don't they look kinda like wings to you guys?"

"I think I remember Ingrid mentioning something like this to me a while back," Athena said, squatting in front of the burn marks. "Apparently, while all that crazy shit was happening back in Mistral, Yuan also tried to use his power in the real world. All the Grimm were gone when she got to him and he was unconscious, but there were these blast marks extending out from him, just like these."

"Hey!" Penny yelled as Team LILY joined them. "We saw that big flash of light and...what are those?"

Ingrid squatted beside Athena, examining the wing-like burn marks. They looked at each other before standing up.

"This is the same," she said, looking right at Yuan. "You don't remember either, do you?"

"Remember what?" Yuan said.

"When Leon got poisoned and I went up to the roof to try and get a better signal. You used your power in the real world, too, and you made all the Grimm around you disappear."

He looked down at the ground. That sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't be sure of the details.

"How come you never told us about this?" Leon asked his combat partner.

"Because I remember none of it," he said. "I just remember this intense need to protect you and Ingrid and then I blacked out. The next thing I know, I'm in the hospital bed next to you."

"Are you detecting anything out of the ordinary?" Athena asked Penny, who was scanning the burn marks.

"No, nothing," she said. "There's a slight distortion left over from whatever it was Xanthus did, but other than that, nothing. Not even any Erscheinung Particles."

"Ersh-what?" Leon said.

"You haven't been doing any reading at all, have you?" Athena said.

"Erscheinung Particles," Xanthus began, "as Ariadne Jupiter called them, are the particles associated directly with the magical phenomena that Lilly and we are capable of. In fact, whenever Lilly projects a rune in the air, that rune itself is made up of these particles, which come together in such a highly condensed manner that they become visible to the human eye."

"We've known of the particle's existence since the last war," Penny said. "But no one's put a name to them before now. Ariadne's also studied them extensively, even more so than Liam and his science teams."

"To be fair, Dr. Hillphire hasn't had a stable test subject like Ariadne has in Lilly. From what she's told me in our correspondence, Lilly has been a veritable gold mine for the advancement of Thaumatology."

Perseus stood at the periphery of the group as they continued the conversation. He looked at the Rune of Atonement on the back of his left hand, which only he and his Wraith-Knight friends could see. The eye atop the scales had been closed for some time now, but as he stared, it began to open ever so slightly.

Lilly was, for all intents and purposes, the prime test subject for Ariadne's studies. He trusted in his sister not to cause any undue pain, but from what he saw with his own eyes, some of the experiments were far from painless. Being who she was, Lilly would bear it without a second thought.

Any pain she experienced was squarely on his head. All of the suffering she had endured was his fault and his alone. If only he had kept his mouth shut, if only he had reneged from bringing her to Vacuo, she would not be enduring these experiments or putting herself through those grisly Labyrinths.

She never would have tainted her soul on that fateful day when this Primal Rune chose him to be its bearer.

"Perseus, you comin'?" Athena asked.

He looked up at the group. They were heading back to the village with Team LILY leading the way.

"Yeah," he said, catching up to his team and walking side by side with them.

"If you're a little tired, we can catch our breath back in town," Athena said.

Xanthus lagged behind with his partner. "The eye has opened," he said when Athena and Echo were outside of earshot.

Perseus glanced at his combat partner. He was looking straight ahead.

"Has it stirred at all?"

"Not really," he said.

"Hmm. I'm only asking because my Wraith-Knight is a little restless. I noticed it start when I got closer to the rune, which hasn't happened before."

"Makes sense. Wraith-Knights are ancient beings of pure magic, right? Something like that?"

"I suppose you're right."

"Okay, we need to plan out our course of action," Penny said, convening with the whole group. "There's no way we can go around in such a large crowd, first of all. Second of all, we need to split up our efforts. It seems like there's a much bigger thing going on here and we need to cover a lot of ground."

"There might be a big battle going on in the east," Athena said, "but we don't know what the situation there actually is. The last report anyone's gotten from there was weeks ago when the Belladonnas disappeared."

"There's also the issue in the capital itself," Penny continued. "From what the Belladonna sisters have told us, Kuo Kuana's governing body may have been infiltrated by Atlas agents, though we can't know this for sure."

"I'll go with the city team," Fiona said. "As much as I'd like to join my parents in battle in the east, I think my Semblance will be the most useful in sniffing out the enemy in the city."

"How's that?" Leon said. "Oh, wait, you have that whole, uh, thing with the thing and the thing, right?"

"Could you stop doing that?" Ingrid said. "It's so stupid!"

"Any deceptions the enemy might put up have no effect on me," Fiona continued, "even if the deception itself is supernatural in origin."

"I call it Mental Fortitude!" Justine said, pumping her fist in the air.

"You are sooooooo extra," Francine sighed.

"I am not!"

"Now the big decision," Penny said. "Who's going where?"

"With you leading Team LILY," Athena began, "I think you should head east and locate Ingrid's parents. You've got the most firepower out of all of us. Even more than the two magical boys, I think."

"Magical boys?" Xanthus said.

"I think she's referring to you and Yuan, dude," Perseus chuckled.

"So, Team APEX is going to the city," Penny said.

"Wait, but isn't your team a combat-oriented team?" Yuan said to Athena.

"What? You think we can't do a little espionage?" Athena asked him.

"I didn't say that."

"Hmph. My team can do whatever needs to be done." She turned to her team. "Right?"

"Hooah!" the three responded.

"What about us?" Francine said, lining up with Justine and Nadine.

"The triplets can go along with Team LILY," Penny said. "I think you're more suited to combat operations given your Semblances. Nadine, you still don't know yours, huh?"

She shook her head.

"Hmm. Your skill with your weapon is formidable enough, though."

"Where do I go?" Hanuman asked.

"You're with us," Athena said. "Fiona knows her way around the city and can sniff out traps easy, but your cloning Semblance could be really useful for distracting anyone who needs distracting."

"You can count on me, guys."

"Okay, I think that's everything," Penny said. "Team LILY and the triplets, get yourselves squared away. We're setting out at dawn. We should arrive at the mines in the east by dusk, giving us the cover of night."

"And we're leaving tonight," Athena said to her group. "Fiona, know a spot we can use as our base?"

"I know just the place," Hanuman said.

"All right. Team LILY, kick some ass."

"You, too, sis," Leon said as the groups separated.