CHAPTER XXXVI

Setting of the Stage

Athena tossed her spear and shield off to the side as she led the way back to their dorm's common room. She sighed heavily as she let herself fall onto a couch, leaning her head back against the wall.

"You okay?" Echo said, sitting beside her.

"Yeah," she answered. "How're you holding up?"

"I'm okay, I guess. I mean, it's affecting all of us, though."

"What the actual shit even happened to him?"

Echo shrugged. "We all saw that giant rune appear in the air and then drag him into the eye. Xanthus says it's a Primal Rune or something."

"Kinda like a god, right?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, how's everything with you?"

"Huh? I mean, I said I'm okay..."

"No, not like that. I mean, since you awakened to this new power and stuff."

"Oh. I guess it's been kinda weird. I'm not used to fighting all up front and center like this."

Athena chuckled. "You're doing pretty awesome, though." She started making explosion noises.

Echo groaned. "Isn't that something your mom does?"

She replied with slashing and metallic noises.

"Oh, god, please stop."

Leon passed by, making explosion noises as well.

"You really are twins," Echo gagged.

"How's everyone doing?" Penny asked the group as they gathered in the common room.

"Managing," Xanthus said.

"Managing?" Leon said. "Bro, we have four magical girls and boys in our team now. We're kicking ass, not managing."

"I don't think he was referring to our combat readiness," Yuan said.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just sayin', man. We'll find him. We still haven't failed a single Labyrinth. And with four Wraith-Knights, the past few months have literally been easy mode. Hell, we saved a whole country from those Greater Daemons. That should count for something, right?"

Ingrid glanced over at Athena, who was resting with her head back, forearm over her eyes.

"How are you doing, senpai?" Yuan asked Penny.

"Doing better," she said. "Liam is back on his feet, so yeah."

"His pain levels are much lower than just before we left for Menagerie," Xanthus said. "Either that or his threshold has skyrocketed."

She bit her lower lip. She didn't need her Semblance to let her know that he was in perpetual pain. Still, doing nothing but pity himself would do no good whatsoever. Instead, he made sure to get work done. He was busier now than ever before, leading multiple research and engineering teams while his cousin, Ariel, managed the business side of the company.

"His new exoskeleton has really made him superhuman, huh?" Ingrid said.

"He's really gotta stop pushing himself so hard," Penny grumbled, biting her finger.

"I disagree," Leon said. "The more he does, the less it hurts. I can relate to that."

"Speaking of doing," Athena said, standing up, "do we have any leads at all on Perseus's possible whereabouts?"

"Yes," Xanthus said, swiping his scroll over and over again until he reached the end of the message he was reading. "I just received an e-mail from Ariadne."

"His sister?" Leon said. "The cute one?"

Ingrid sighed heavily.

"What's it say?" Echo asked.

"Lilly ran into him in the Labyrinth," Xanthus said. The whole group turned their attention to him. "Apparently, she was unable to interact with him at all. According to Lilith, the Rune of Atonement is currently in the process of examining his soul."

"What the hell does that mean?" Athena said.

"I don't really know. Ariadne suspects that the Primal Runes behave much like living laws, unable to do anything other than their function. In the case of the Rune of Atonement, it oversees the concept of Justice."

"It's putting Perseus on trial?" Yuan said.

"What the hell has he done wrong?" Leon said.

"If this thing is godlike in nature," Penny said, "Perseus might not even have to have done anything we would perceive as 'wrong.' After all, our conception of sin and virtue probably don't even match up with what a god might think."

"So, he's completely at its mercy," Echo said. "What's the point of these new powers we awakened to if we can't save one of our own teammates?"

Athena put a hand on her shoulder, calming her down. "Are there any other tasks to complete?" she asked their mentor.

"Not at the moment," Penny said. "You guys have been taking down Labyrinths so fast lately that it's making my head spin. We haven't picked up on any new ones in the last twenty-four hours. I mean, you guys did take down two in a single day last week. That's a record, to be blunt."

"Why not expand our operations?" Yuan said. "We can do work in Vale, too. There must be a lot of Labyrinths there to take care of."

"Actually, about that. You guys remember the Knight Program back when you were first enrolling at Beacon, don't you?"

"That was the post-graduation enrollment that only took students from the highest tier," Xanthus said. "What about it?"

"Well, there was a bit of information you didn't get from the pamphlets. The Knights of Remnant are actually a group of the highest echelon of Huntsmen possible, the absolute peak of what humanity has to offer. Their primary task was to remain on standby in case of a repeat of what happened almost twenty years ago."

"The global Labyrinth."

"Right, Xan-chan. Thing is..."

"Yes, there have been Labyrinth incidents left and right nowadays."

"So take a wild guess what those Knights of Remnant have been doing lately."

"Whoa," Leon said, standing up. "There are whole teams of guys doing what we do?"

"Hold your ponies, Leon," Penny chuckled. "Yes, there are, but not with the magical powers these four have awakened to. The Thaumatech that Ariadne and Liam have been developing together over the past months has enabled us to create a legitimate resistance against the Labyrinth. Lilly's team is the only operating team with the Vacuo LTF. We're here in the Mistral LTF, and Vale's Labyrinth Task Force consists of some familiar faces."

"Mom and dad," Athena said.

"You knew?"

"Wild guess. Aunt Yang's gotta be a part of that, too."

"Yes. And Hollie, Qrow, Tai, Raven, Sun, Blake, Ren, Nora, among a number of others."

"How many teams does Vale have operating?" Yuan asked.

Penny looked up for a moment. "Five teams of four."

"Twenty Knights of Remnant altogether," Xanthus said.

"Man, that is such a cool name," Echo said. The others looked at her and she immediately stiffened. "I said something weird, didn't I?"

"Nope," Athena said, resting an elbow on her shoulder. "Stay nerdy, beb."

Echo reddened.

"Is that why Headmaster Lyon hasn't been around lately?" Xanthus said.

"Yup," Penny said. "She's been off fighting in Vale's Labyrinth Task Force, while we've been doing the same here."

"When did this all get put together?"

"For a while, it was just Ruby and Jaune and Tai and Glynda, but with further advancements in Thaumatech, Ren and Nora got drafted in, and so did Hollie and Qrow. Astor's there, too, you know."

"Oh, jeez, really?" Leon sighed.

"He's a lot tougher than he looks."

"Yeah, but that's not what I'm worried about."

Yuan looked at Ingrid. "Hey," he said to her. "You've been really quiet."

"Sorry," she said. "Just thinking about home."

"Everything will be fine there. You mom and dad can handle things."

"Actually, it's just Velvet and Ilia right now," Penny said. "Blake and Sun are on their way to Vale as we speak."

"What about my sisters and brother?" Ingrid said.

"Fiona's actually part of the Menagerie council now," Xanthus said, reading his scroll. "Check it out."

He held up his scroll, showing Ingrid a picture of Fiona in a seat in Parliament. Her triplet sisters and younger brother had formed their own four-person team at Instinct Academy, the top-performing team at the moment.

"Haven't you been reading your e-mails?" Leon said.

"N-No, I guess not," Ingrid said.

"Let's go to the tower later so you can chat with them," Yuan said.

"Yeah. Cool."

"Anyway," Athena said, "let's get some rest for the time being. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

"Really, though?" Leon said, scanning the darkness to keep an eye out for any monsters that might be nearby. "I thought we were done with this whole separation crap!"

"We still don't know what happened," Xanthus said, typing away at his arm computer. "Penny-senpai, do you read me?"

"I do," her voice crackled. "I'm picking up all six of you scattered all over the place, but you're not far from each other. I need you to find Athena and Echo, though. They're the furthest from you two. You should run into Ingrid and Yuan on your way there. I'm marking the coordinates on your LabNav apps."

"Good thing I charged my scroll last night," Leon said.

"Ingrid, Yuan, can you hear me?" Penny's voice sounded in their earpieces.

"We do, senpai," Yuan said. "What happened? Didn't we all walk through the rift at the same time?"

"You did, but there was some kind of interference when you crossed over. Fortunately, you didn't get separated in time, only in space."

Ingrid shivered.

"What's wrong?" Yuan asked her.

"I just had a mental image of running into one of us thirty years aged."

"That's just wrong," Penny said. "Leon and Xanthus should be on their way to you two right now. I can't get a hold of Athena or Echo, but I have their positions on your LabNav. They might be deeper in the Labyrinth than the rest of you are."

"Still Third Layer for us two."

"Same with Leon and Xan-chan. If I'm looking at the map correctly, though, Athena and Echo shouldn't be...wait, everything just shifted. Yeah, they're in the Fourth Layer for sure."

"The personal Labyrinth just expanded?" Yuan said.

"Yes. Okay, hold your position. I'm picking up Leon and Xanthus close to you."

"Roger!" Yuan and Ingrid said.

Echo continued to follow her Semblance toward what she assumed must have been Athena's presence. Hers was the strongest signal, after all. Fortunately, being in the Fourth Layer of the Labyrinth meant that everyone was in constant danger, which allowed all of her teammates to light up like fireflies.

It's only Athena that my Semblance is pointing to, though. The others must be at higher layers.

Four Corrupted roared at her as they charged, but they would hardly be a match for the Wraith-Knight known as Echo Atalante. She required minimal effort, swinging Sentinel around a number of times, slashing through her enemies with her bladed longbow. All of her opponents were dead before they hit the ground.

A bigger monster came around the corner, a Lesser Ogre about fifteen feet in height. They had been encountering more of these monsters lately, which they all attributed to the awakening of more Wraith-Knights, whose magical power likely drew in these other beasts native to the Labyrinth.

They can smell our EP, Echo thought to herself before drawing her bowstring back, filling it with lightning magic from the Wind Rune on her right hand. She let loose her lightning arrow, zapping the Lesser Ogre and reducing it to a pile of cinders. She realized too late that she had put far too much magical power into that attack. Penny was certain to see that EP spike on her monitors. She'd get an earful about EP efficiency for sure once they re-established contact.

Several more Lesser Ogres rounded the corner, curious about the commotion just now. There were too many for her to engage alone and she opted for flight over fight, retreating into a nearby wooded park. The Lesser Ogres seemed to know where she was, though not precisely. She continued onward, dodging low-hanging branches and vaulting over fallen trees.

There was something ahead, something that lit up her danger-sense Semblance like a flame. She was quick to action, slashing low and high and low again with Sentinel. The three Corrupted were down for the count, but there was another presence ahead of her and she drew her bowstring, ready to fire another lightning arrow before realizing that she was face to face with Athena, whose spear was at the ready.

"Echo," Athena sighed, lowering her weapon. "You're okay."

"Yeah," Echo said, deactivating her rune. "You are, too."

Athena nodded before taking a seat exactly where she stood. Echo's Semblance was no longer giving such strong signals. Confident that there were no immediate threats nearby, she sat on a nearby rock as well, taking the opportunity for rest, a rare thing in the Labyrinth. Echo looked to her combat partner, who had her eyes closed, but with muscles ready for action on a moment's notice.

"Hey, Athena," Echo began, shifting her weight around.

Athena looked over at her combat partner.

"I...I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What's up?"

Echo paused for a moment, pondering whether or not to bring up the issue. She had noticed the change in her partner for a while now, but she never addressed it simply out of a lack of desire for any conflict and it certainly was a contentious one. After all, she was part of it.

"I've noticed you've been a little different, I guess, over the past few months," Echo said.

"We all change," Athena said.

"Yeah, but..." She thought about how to frame the question, but Athena probably wouldn't appreciate a roundabout discussion, so she decided to tackle it head-on. "It wasn't so obvious when Yuan was the only one. But then, Xanthus, too. That's when I started to notice a change in you. And then it happened to me and Ingrid. And it got even worse when...when I got you out of that mess we were in last week. That was when I knew for sure. Just...that look in your face. I can't quite put my finger on it, but..."

"Echo," Athena began with a sigh. "If you're thinking that I've got some kind of inferiority complex, you're wrong."

Echo kept her mouth shut. Athena's voice was stern, though there was a slight hint of submission behind her words, something Echo found more alarming than anything else. Athena was not one to behave so passively and yet something about her was missing now, something that used to burn so brightly when they first met.

"It's not..." Athena sighed, "it's not anything like that." She sat in thought for a moment. "I used to be the one to carry the team. Both teams. When shit hit the fan, I was the one everybody could count on. I was the one saving everybody's asses. And then we faced those goddamn Übersoldaten that one time and I sorta faced my mortality at that moment when the fucking thing almost killed me in the Labyrinth." She chuckled. "But then last week you killed one with a crazy ass energy arrow that vaporized the son of a bitch. And then you friggin' carry me out of that mess. Like, literally carry me."

Echo looked down at the ground. "Athena..."

"You don't gotta say anything."

"No, it's...I'm sorry." She sighed heavily. "You've been saving me every single time and, don't get me wrong, I didn't mind at all, but, like, I wanted you to be able to rely on me for once and being able to save you like that was just...it felt so good. But now I feel like shit because I outshined you."

"Psh. You can't outshine me."

Echo chuckled lightly and smiled at her for a moment, but Athena was looking in another direction. Without a word, Echo stood up and walked behind her partner, kneeling and wrapping her arms around her completely, leaning her chin on her shoulder.

"I love you, Athena," she whispered.

"Love you, too, beb," Athena said.

The issue was far from being resolved, but Echo had no desire to push it any further. As it was, she wanted to run away. The old Echo would have run away, but that girl was long gone. She was never going to run away ever again. After all, for better or for worse, Athena did rely on her now.

"I know it's been the other way around all this time," Echo began, "but...is it okay if...if you lean on me every now and then?"

Athena closed her eyes. It was a strange thing for the tables to be turned so drastically, but she decided it wasn't so bad. This was Echo, after all.

"Yeah," she said. "I think I can do that."

Echo smiled, closing her eyes and leaning her head closer to Athena's as the latter returned the gesture.

Penny leaned back in her seat. The rest of the team had linked up with Echo and Athena and were now proceeding to resolve today's Labyrinth.

"They're doing amazingly, aren't they?"

Penny turned her chair to face Hillphire. "Liam, what are you doing here?"

"Just checkin' up on you."

"Never mind me," she began, standing up, "how are you doing?"

"This exoskeleton is pretty amazing, actually. I've been working with Ariadne on some upgrades. Those degenerative diseases I picked up a while back? Well, she figured out how to slow down the progress. Still can't do anything to stop or reverse it, but we'll get there."

"But...how?"

"She's been working with Lilith lately. They both figured that since the runes run off of ambient EP within the Labyrinth, and also EP generated by those with magic, like the Wraith-Knights and Lilly, my suit could actually do the same thing by collecting EP from the Labyrinth and storing it in a tank for use out here."

"You can do that?"

"Mm-hmm. Check this out."

He linked up with her systems wirelessly, sending her the new schematics he was talking about.

"Liam, this..." she began.

"It's the latest development in Thaumatech."

"This rune in your suit. What is it?"

"Lilith calls it a Holy Rune. Supposedly, it counteracts curses."

"You think what you've got are curses?"

"That's what Lilith thinks. She extracted a Holy Rune from herself and put it on this new tank that they shipped to us, which is now a permanent part of my exoskeleton. The tank reacts passively to the EP present in the Labyrinth, storing it for later use, kinda like a battery you charge wirelessly."

"Right, but you have to enter that other world."

"Yes, but I only cross over back in the Rift Chamber at my lab."

"Still."

"Don't worry, Penny. I always cross over with one of the kids. Usually Xan-chan and sometimes Yuan. I wouldn't needlessly put my life in danger. This machine is barely keeping me alive as it is."

Penny sighed heavily, leaning against a console.

"That girl sure is gifted, isn't she? Heh, if only I could recruit her without pissing off her dad, huh?"

"I don't understand how you can take everything so lightly."

"Do I?"

She looked at him.

"I'm taking all of this very seriously, Penny. Why do you think I've been working with Ariadne so much? I don't like to be in pain, you know. This Holy Rune actually mitigates that a lot, too. Instead of dealing with a nine-out-of-ten all day long, I deal with, at most, a three."

"I...didn't know that."

"Penny. You have to trust me a little bit, at least."

"I do trust you. I also know how stubborn you can be."

He chuckled. "Okay, I do deserve that."

She threw his arms over his metal exoskeleton. "No. You don't deserve any of this."

"Are we really gonna do this again?"

She sighed heavily, pulling away from him.

"I'm not going anywhere. I haven't given up yet."

"Yeah. I know."

"Anyway, Ariadne and I are working on upgrades to your own body."

"Huh?"

"The next stage of Thaumatech. Or, perhaps more aptly, the next stage of evolution."

"Evolution, huh?"

"That's the way I like to think of it. We're both Human Plus now."

Perseus.

"I am here."

Perseus.

"I'm listening."

The Rune of Atonement is watching you.

"I know. I'm ready for my judgment."

Are you?

"Yes. I'll accept whatever verdict it gives me."

Then, you are ready.

Perseus turned around, facing a man he had never seen before, yet who was familiar to him. On his left hand sat the Rune of Atonement, which shone brilliantly. The eye was fully opened, the scales rebalancing repeatedly.

"It's time, Perseus Jupiter."