Chapter 33 is primed and ready to go. Hope you all like it!
Chapter 33: A Mountain of Questions
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.(Chapter Start)
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September 12th
Thursday
Foggy
Azura was awake and alert when getting the camp supplies together, having been the final watch before sunrise. Oobleck had wanted everyone up by then, and Azura wasn't going to question the person in charge of them over such a thing. Despite the somewhat grumpy Blake and the 'surprised-to-see-his-face' Ruby when waking them up, there was relatively no words spoken outside of him telling them to pack up camp and pointing to Oobleck, who was making sure to get their breakfast ready, a simple supply of dried fruits, protein bars, and water.
No birds chirped outside of the parking garage, unlike Beacon, and the silence certainly seemed to weigh on everyone, if the glum silence that befall them all meant anything. Azura, Ruby, and Oobleck had been the only ones to speak, and even that was just for necessity. The wind blew through the open holes within the building, including the one that Yang had opened up the previous day, and the chill of a September morning whipped through the area. It wasn't exactly the frosty cold of Winter, but Autumn was starting to creep in.
Breakfast was also a quiet affair, with Oobleck looking at what seemed to be a rough map of the area, while Yang and Blake simply leaned on the wall next to each other, whispering to each other. Weiss was standing near Oobleck, watching him draw his finger along the map while he made a comment here and there to her, explaining what would happen today.
Ruby and Azura were sitting next to each other on the edge of the hole that Yang made, looking outside towards the city itself. They didn't speak to each other, simply eating the dry food and just watching the sun become larger and larger as light started to seep into the city and shadows reached across. Azura could say for sure that the city was much easier to bear with in the daylight, the night fully highlighting how creepy the place was not too pleasant of an experience.
"Ladies, Azura, come here. We're to discuss what today is going to be, as well as groups again." Oobleck called out, waving at Azura and ruby when they turned their heads to look at him.
Azura got up, then pulled Ruby up afterwards and moved to join everyone else to hear what Oobleck had planned. The man looked among them once, then back to the map to close it. He nodded, turning back around with a gleam in his eyes.
"Now, I know you all will not be as excited as me when I say this, but we're continuing our tracking and exploring. Grimm locations, some fighting to warm us up maybe, and the possible clues for any others that might be here. Continuing along the streets near the western wall, we'll be able to then sweep across towards the area between the northern wall and the very center of the city itself." Oobleck paused then, thinking. "I doubt we'll get there by nightfall with our pace, seeing as we'll be stopping at least once in every street for something, though, so we can worry about heading in another direction another day."
They all agreed with his words once Azura nodded and looked to see similar reactions to his own, so no complaints came forth. Oobleck nodded himself, then spoke again.
"As for groups, I have already decided them. Azura, Weiss, and myself will be one group. And the other group will be Ruby, Blake, and Yang. Any questions before we head out?"
"Er...yeah." Ruby stated, playing with her fingers as she looked at Oobleck.
"Well, spit it out, young Ruby. We do not have too much time to linger."
"Why is Azura still with you? I mean, why switch Yang with Weiss if you don't really need to?" She asked, looking between Yang and Weiss.
"I simply wished for him to be in the group I would be leading, Miss Rose." Oobleck replied. "Any further reason you might be looking for is something that remains between my orders for this mission and my thoughts."
Blake looked at Azura, a hint of suspicion in her eyes as she glanced at Oobleck and back to him. Azura shrugged slightly at her, not really sure what she was meaning.
"Oh...okay." Ruby said, nodding her head.
"Any further questions?" Oobleck asked, looking at them and finding nothing. "Good. Let us move out, then. We'll pause around noon for lunch, but that's all."
They swiftly exited the parking garage and the groups split off once more, with Blake whispering to Yang again, who looked back for a moment to look at Azura, before turning back again. Azura shook his head, unsure of the reasons for Blake to be suspicious at all, and moved to join Oobleck and Weiss.
An hour of walking through the ruined and cracked streets later, and they had been following old tracks of some Beowolves for a while now. Not much of importance occurred, leading to some small talk between Azura and Weiss.
"What do you think of this place, Weiss?" Azura asked.
She looked around at their surroundings before answering. "Dull, even drab." She frowned slightly. "But also disturbing. It doesn't feel right to be in a place that was clearly made for humans to be so devoid of humans."
Azura nodded. "Yeah, that's what I feel. It's just kind of creepy, really. And the Grimm almost run the place here, if the lack of actual animals means anything."
"Lack of humans...lack of actual animals...lack of ghosts as well?" She asked, looking at him from the side.
"Definite lack of ghosts. Still not sure if that's a good or bad thing."
"I suppose it just depends on why there aren't any." She said, waving a hand around. "With how your semblance works, I'm rather glad that there aren't ghosts."
Azura raised an eyebrow, confused. "And why's that?"
She rolls her eyes. "Because they could cause issues for you, you inept fool."
He went to frown, then ended up smiling slightly. "Does the mighty guide of us fools perhaps...care for me?"
"Hey, of course I care for my friends!" She said indignantly.
Azura chuckled. "I know, I know. Just teasing you." He chuckled again. "Besides, they wouldn't do much unless they realize that I can see them. Thanks for caring, though."
"Whatever." Weiss responded, slightly embarrassed.
Seeing Oobleck stop in his tracks ahead of them, looking to his side, the two of them dropped their conversation to jog up to him and look where he was looking. Boxes of supplies were scattered in the building they were looking at, a small store with broken glass windows. Azura frowned at the sight, though he wouldn't jump to conclusions of the White Fang truly being here in the city itself just yet.
"They're fresh. Whoever's these belonged to, they have not been here for long. The boxes hardly look like they were made and put together a week ago." Oobleck said, his own frown growing on his face. "You two search the building and the boxes for anything, I'll inform your leader's group of this. Stay here and wait for me to return if you finish searching before I come back."
They nodded, and upon receiving both nods, Oobleck moved off to look for Ruby, Blake, and Yang. Azura moved to step into the store with Weiss behind him, the entrance completely open with no doors hanging on the hinges. The morning sun lit up the interior, and they stepped around piles of rubble to look around. Looking through the small room at the back of the store only showed an empty room with an overturned desk and shattered computer. He returned back to the main part of the building, Azura found Weiss looking through one of the boxes, and decided to move to the one next to hers and talk while finding a good way to open it.
"Anything of interest in there, Weiss?"
"Not too interesting, sadly. It's just some packaged food and clothing." Weiss said, sighing. "How about you?"
Azura cracked the box he was messing with open, looking inside and feeling Weiss step closer to peer in as well. Outside of styrofoam and some canned food, it didn't seem to have anything of interest. Even as he looked through it more closely by taking cans out to look further it, nothing stood out to him.
"Nothing." They said in unison.
Moving on to different boxes, Azura let silence settle between them. After a few moments, though, Weiss spoke up.
"Would you happen to know anything about Yang's mood?"
He looks up for a moment, meeting her eyes, before shrugging and getting back to the box. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you were with her until we fully met up again last night. After you cleared the parking garage, Yang seemed conflicted." She explained.
Azura nodded. "Well, she just has a lot on her mind. Oobleck said some things, but he really does mean well."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Azura closed the box he was at again, moving to another one. "I mean that Oobleck asked her why she wanted to become a Huntress. When she answered that she wanted some crazy adventures and that saving people along the way would be cool as well, he told her to think about her decision to become a Huntress in the first place."
"That's...odd. I don't personally share the same feelings as her in that regard, but she's allowed to have her own reason, right?" Weiss asked, crouching out of sight to open what he assumed was a smaller box.
"I don't think that's why he was doing it." He said, shrugging to himself. "It's a feeling I have. He's a fully trained Huntsman, so I feel like he would know a thing or two about how bad it can get."
"Kind of like making sure we're ready for this kind of life?"
"It's my assumption, yeah."
"What does Summer have to say about that? Or Luna, for that matter...if you can tell what she was thinking, I mean."
He paused for a moment, gripping the edge of the box a little tightly as he thought of those memories regarding Summer, and of Summer's team, and of Luna's death. Sighing, he spoke. "She understands fully well what this life entails, and so does Luna." He frowned this time, moving on to yet another box. "Otherwise they wouldn't have paid the price for it."
"Oh." Weiss said, and he could imagine the sideways glance of awkwardness she had on her face. "Sorry…"
He chuckled. "It's no issue, Weiss. It's not your responsibility to keep track of the dead people around me."
"I suppose."
Azura shifted the large box he just looked through to the side, simply looking to see if anything was in the center, and found three boxes that bore the very familiar glyph on his body. He frowned, speaking quietly.
"SDC dust crates."
A few moments of ruffling and footsteps later, and Weiss was by his side and looking through as well.
"That's...both good and bad." She commented.
"Good that we searched through and found it…" Azura started.
"And bad that it's SDC, likely giving evidence to our theory of the White Fang being here." Weiss finished for him.
"Correct." He said, moving forward and looking through the small boxes. "They're all empty as well. Any dust that was possibly in there is gone."
Weiss frowned. "Is this where all of the stolen dust was going?"
"Maybe. But it could still be all over the city as well." He responded. "Vale's city, I mean."
"Possibly, but that's all of the boxes ready, let's go wait outside." Weiss said, moving off without another word.
Azura sighed, whispering to himself. "Commanding as ever, Weiss."
He walked outside, seeing Weiss sitting elegantly on the ground. He smirked at the sight and sat down next to her, leaning on the wall of the store. The street before them was empty, and they could even see Oobleck talking to Blake and Ruby while Yang was on her knees and looking at what he assumed were Grimm tracks or something.
"Hey, Azura?"
"Yes, Weiss?"
She looked over at him as he went to look at her. "Do you think Headmaster Ozpin told Oobleck to keep you close to him? Like, he specifically mentioned his orders for this mission when Ruby asked why you were still with Oobleck. Sure, it might be just pure coincidence, but I just can't shake the feeling that it's something else entirely."
"It's unlike you to question authority, Weiss." Azura said, speaking jokingly.
She simply frowned. "I'm serious, Azura. It worries me."
He sobered up, becoming more serious in his answer. "Hey, he's the headmaster for a reason. There was something that happened in his office recently, so, for all I know, he's just concerned with me being out in the field."
"Something happened in his office?" Weiss asked, concern slowly dripping into her voice.
"Er…" Azura started to say, then whispered to himself. "Damn it."
"If you don't tell me what happened, I'll-"
"Tear me apart and force the answer out anyways, yeah yeah." Azura finished, waving her off. "There was just a brief moment where I got frustrated with something and Summer's voice apparently overtook mine in the moment. Nothing too big of a deal, I promise."
"I hardly believe you, but it can wait for a later point. When we aren't on a mission." Weiss said, and Azura could tell she wasn't a fan of his relaxed answer. "But, I do have a theory about the White Fang, if you want to hear about that."
"Always." He responded.
"The White Fang are present within the city and we just haven't seen them yet. For all we know, they only act upon their plans at night to remain hidden. The majority of the dust that they've stolen has been slowly getting brought here to be used for something." She said, waving her arms around. "I suspect that they're using the dust to find something here, since it could be used as a 'natural' bomb of sorts. Maybe there is some lost technology from the teams of scientists that worked here or something, I don't know."
"It's possible, I suppose."
"Either way, they need to be stopped." Weiss said, her eyes hardening. "They will be stopped."
Azura nodded in agreement, looking back to watch Oobleck and Ruby talk and look their way. Weiss had a point, the White Fang had to be stopped. And even more, the person killing ex-White Fang members and causing arsons also needed to be stopped. How long before it was known that Neo was technically working behind their backs by getting him to help them try and get out of it? He frowned, feeling rather restless as he thought about it.
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.(Line Break)
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Finding a new place to set up camp turned out to be a lot harder than it seemed, if Azura could say anything. He was fully willing to bet that the parking garage just so happened to be him and Yang getting lucky with the spot and the fact that it was just a small group of Boarbatusks within it.
As twilight started to descend upon the city, twisted shadows creeping throughout the streets, Azura and Weiss followed Oobleck as he looked at the buildings lining the side for a place to set up their camp. By this point, they had reached over the halfway point towards the north wall, and Azura recognized some of the buildings to his sides. Turning down a street, Oobleck finally found a building he deemed to be good enough.
"Ah, that is the perfect place!"
Weiss looked around. "Uh...which one is perfect?"
"The abandoned hotel, of course! It will have plenty of space for us to use to our advantage, as well as very few entrances for a Grimm to come through!" Oobleck exclaimed in excitement. "We should use it to our advantage."
"Sounds good to me. Should we get Ruby and the others?" Azura asked.
"I shall go and collect them, yes. You two shall look around the surrounding area of the hotel in the meantime to secure it if any Grimm happened to be nearby." Oobleck stated. "Stay safe. I'll just need to find them first."
He was off once more, vanishing through an alleyway and leaving Azura and Weiss by themselves again. Azura sighed, turning to Weiss and raising an eyebrow, silently asking if she wanted to take the lead.
"I swear he's doing it on purpose." Weiss said with a scoff as she walked forward. "Leaving you and Yang the first time, and now us."
"Probably just worried about the other group or something." Azura defended the man, following at her side. "He is in charge of keeping the five of us safe, you know."
"I'm aware of that, Azura. Doesn't make it any less weird. What if we ran into a really bad Grimm fight?" She asked.
"Out of everyone here, we have some of the best tools to escape a fight. Only person better might be Blake." Azura responded as he looked at a building to his side, looking through the broken doors to see if anything was within.
"When did you get so smart with the whole 'knowing the abilities of your team' thing?"
"Around the same time you taught me to do it." Azura answered jokingly. "It's just something Ruby does when she talks to me about you guys, you know how she is."
"As her partner, I know fully well what you mean." Weiss answered sarcastically, though with a small smile on her face.
They continued their search in silence, paying close attention in case they heard or saw something. When they were on the backside of the hotel, they heard the sounds of scuffling and drew their weapons once they were able to clearly tell which building it came from.
They slowly approached the entrance of what looked like a store, prepared to react to anything that might come at them. The sounds stopped as they neared the entrance, and they stopped in their tracks and tensed up. Luna's tail was whipping back and forth as her ears twitched. A roar came out of the store, and Azura and Weiss jumped back with their semblances as two Ursai came barreling out of the windows, shattering them as they striked in front of them with their big paws. An Major Ursa came towering out of the building on all four legs, its massive size increasing as it stood up on its hindlegs and roared again.
"Luna, take the Major! Azura, right! I have left!" Weiss called out.
Flashing his semblance and revealing Luna, Azura grinned. "Always the natural leader, Weiss!"
The three of them charged forward, Luna dancing in the air around the Major to anger it and take its attention, which she did easily. With the main issue out of the way, Azura and Weiss were free to take on their Ursai.
Azura dodged to the side and ducked under a paw of the Ursa, stabbing up with his dagger into the Ursa's side and dragging it out to jump over the next paw that came flying towards him. Wasting no time, Azura landed and jumped back as the Ursa then slammed its paws forward into the ground with a growl. As he landed on his feet again, Summer's semblance went off and he flew forward the slice through its arm, causing it to stumble. Shooting one of the legs on the Ursa completely shocked it and it nearly stumbled over. It was still enough time for Azura to stab into the leg with the dagger and force the Ursa down, and he slid over its smoothed bone-like back, slicing at its neck with his sword and turning to stab through its neck and out the throat.
The dagger fell to the ground as the Ursa disappeared, and Azura grabbed it and looked to see if Weiss had finished up as well. She flipped up and into the air, summoning a glyph and pushing off of it to skewer the Ursa right through the head. She took Myrtenaster out and wiped the sweat off of her forehead to run a hand through her hair.
"Simple enough." She commented.
"Showoff." He replied. "Come on, Luna will need some help."
They ran into the store where Luna could be seen jumping around the air and giving small cuts where she could. The armored beast of an Ursa seemed to not even care about any damage that was being accumulated, roaring as he forced Luna away for a moment. Azura and Weiss aimed and shot dust right towards the creature before Weiss sliced in front of her vertically for some ice dust to go flying out in an arc towards the Major Ursa. Momentarily stunned, the three of them rushed in to chip at its armor to create more openings for them to take advantage of.
Black glyphs formed around the Major Ursa, slowing its movements and forcing it to take several more hits before Weiss called out.
"Can't hold it…" She said breathlessly, holding a hand to her head. "Out!"
Azura stepped back several feet while Luna swooped in and dragged Weiss out of the store. Azura frowned, but turned back to fight the Major Ursa on his own for a little while. He could only assume that Weiss was struggling with something, so he had to buy time.
"Come on, you big bastard." Azura said, flipping his weapons in his hands as he did so.
He dodged left, right, back, then left again as the Major Ursa slashed and slammed its paws in front of it. Jumping up, he sliced at the right paw of the Grimm, and it roared again in anger. Any more roaring would give Azura a headache at this point, but he continued his dodge routine anyways. He ran forward, slicing both legs of the Major Ursa as he slid between its legs and it stumbled ever so slightly as Luna came back in and sliced the other paw of the creature.
Despite their slowburn fighting style against the creature, it seemed to not grow tired or weaken even as they slashed and stabbed at its limbs. It roared again, slamming its body forward and completely taking Luna by surprise as she was flung out of the store by the weight. Things were not going well, Azura could tell.
"Where's Pyra when you need her, huh?" He quipped. "She nuked three of these bastards with her semblance alone."
He dodged the Ursa by jumping to the side as it barreled forward with its weight and crashed into the wall, shaking the entire store. Azura fired several shots of ice dust at the Grimm, slowing it down, but it wasn't until Weiss came flying through the store again that it truly slowed down. Her black glyphs practically froze the creature in place, and Luna came in as well.
"Break the armor!" Weiss called out, wincing.
Azura moved to stand in front of it, Luna at his side. Pulling his sword arm back and focusing aura into his sword, he breathed in to focus. Once he released his breath, the sword stabbed forward and completely shattered the armor on the Major Ursa's chest. Luna ran forward and stabbed her sword right into its chest and dragged it down through the stomach. She took her blade out and watched it fall back and slowly start to vanish, then turned to look at Azura.
He frowned but nodded, before turning around and quickly moving to Weiss, who looked more haggard than anything. He crouched down next to her and spoke.
"Weiss, are you okay?"
She nodded slowly. "Just...give me a moment."
He did so, waiting patiently as he saw her become less like she would drop and more like she would need a good nap. After a few more moments, she spoke.
"I'm good. I'm good."
"Are you?"
She nods. "Yes, Azura. I'm fine. Time dilation glyphs are rather taxing on the user depending on how they are used."
"What do you mean?" Azura asks.
"Fully freezing a big creature, such as a Major Ursa in a time dilation glyph has been known to give me really bad headaches for a minute or two." She explained, smirking. "I just got a little ahead of myself there. It certainly doesn't help that we've been getting in small scraps since coming to this place, now does it? I'm not exactly fresh on aura and energy."
Azura nods. "I know what you mean. There are a lot of Grimm here. A lot more than I even expected there to be."
Standing up and helping Weiss get up as well, they stepped out of the store and back into the dwindling sunlight. They looked around their surroundings and saw nothing else around them.
"You going to be okay to finish up this search?" Azura asked.
"Of course I will be, Azura." Weiss said, rolling her eyes. "What do you take me for?"
"Uh...a tired person in an area with more Grimm than necessary?" He responded.
"That would be correct, Azura." Oobleck said as he appeared from around a corner and into their view. "This area is a negative hotbed for Grimm of all sorts. There are lots of dangerous emotions that this place draws in, which brings plenty of Grimm with it."
"Oobleck!" Weiss exclaimed, moving with a surprising amount of energy again.
"Yes, that would be me." He said, nodding to Weiss. "Now, I have a question for you."
She looked over at Azura, and he frowned in a knowing manner. He was going to ask Weiss the same question he asked Yang.
"What question would that be, sir?"
"Why'd you choose to become a Huntress? You could have lived a rather comfortable life in Atlas with the power of your name alone. And with such a tiring semblance, despite the fact that it can be trained to lessen such a downside, why is it worth taking the risk?"
Weiss frowned. "When I knew I could fight for myself, it was all I ever wanted to do. My name is something that must be upheld with pride and honor, and it was the right thing to do. Prior to starting a business, the Schnee's always fought against Grimm and kept people safe."
"That is it, then? You do it because of a family name and history? For pride?" Oobleck asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I, well...yes. It's a legacy to uphold, and if it helps to keep the name cleaner, I will gladly take it." She responded.
Oobleck nodded. "I see, I see." He turned and started to walk away, not another word being said about it as he called out again. "The whole area is secure. Come to the hotel, I'm sure those three found a good spot to camp out in."
He kept going, and Azura turned to see Weiss staring at Oobleck, shocked.
She looked down, her blue eyes thoughtful. "Was it something I said?"
Azura sighed. "I don't know, Weiss. I don't know." He watched her for a few moments, then spoke again. "But doing it for family, no matter the reason, is good, right? It's a pretty good reason if you're asking me, since family tends to be close to each other."
Weiss sighed, speaking quietly. "Yeah, right."
Azura frowned again, wanting to say something, but also not wanting to step over any lines in regards to whatever was on her mind. He just nudged her shoulder, walking after Oobleck. "Try to not let it bug you too much, Weiss. Let's just get to the hotel."
She nodded, following him with a frown on her face. He turned back to look forward and bit his lip. Once was just Oobleck being Oobleck. Twice was hopefully a coincidence.
"And three would be a pattern." Summer said, filling in what Azura didn't want to think of. "I suppose we'll find out tomorrow."
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.(Line Break)
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The lack of progress was frustrating as Azura stepped out of yet another building that showed no sign of being the building that he needed to find for Ozpin. At the rate he was going, it would likely take at least a week to find the building that held whatever this Doctor Merlot had been doing in secret before the city was destroyed. The only issue with that was the fact that he probably didn't even have a week, assuming everything went perfectly well with the mission.
He knew that assuming everything would go perfectly with the official mission wasn't the best idea, but considering the fact that the more unofficial mission from Ozpin ran on the idea of being here for the mission with Oobleck, he had to assume his time was shorter than he needed.
"Take a small break, Azura. I'm as frustrated as you are, but we have to take this one building at a time." Summer said gently, as if breaking bad news.
Azura frowned, sitting down at the top of the steps that he originally went up to get inside the facility he just exited. "Yeah, I know that. But the sooner we get this done, the less likely we are to be questioned or even found out. Ozpin did say to do this only with you and Luna."
"And I still don't like it. Makes me nervous." Summer muttered.
Azura looked up and down the street, seeing a Beowolf scamper across his sight in the far distance, not noticing his presence.
"I know, Summer. I'm not the biggest fan of it either, but I feel like...I don't know."
"You feel like there's something to gain out of it?" Summer asked. "Knowing Ozpin, there is something to gain. But what will the cost be?"
"We'll take it one step at a time, Summer." Azura said.
"Together." Was Summer's only response.
Azura took out his scroll, both to check the time and to check off the building behind him from the list of possible buildings. The list was still long, but so was the time he had tonight. They had stopped to make camp much earlier tonight than yesterday, mainly because they had the full day to investigate compared to just a few hours.
"The left corner of the north district is down, and we're coming up on the halfway mark, it seems." Summer commented.
"True. Still feels much too slow for my liking, though." He says, standing up and stretching. "We should keep moving while we can. We only have about an hour before Blake's watch ends."
One more glance to his scroll suggested that the next building was actually nearby, so he jogged through the streets, careful to avoid Grimm at any cost. The streets were all starting to look the same to Azura, but he paid it no mind as he slipped through a dark alleyway and back onto another moonlit street.
The crumbling walls of buildings littered the streets with debris and allowed Azura some cover should he need to hide from something. Whether or not the White Fang were here, Azura couldn't afford to get into a fight. Especially if he was alone against a whole group of Grimm.
The building he was heading towards finally came into sight, and he slowed up as he approached the entrance. It was dark and, if not for his mother's blood, he wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't see at all without some light source.
"Still a bit weird to see so clearly in the dark to me." Summer said, light amusement in her voice.
"You get used to it." Azura responded as he stepped into the building.
The main room had papers and other things scattered among it, and Azura had to step a bit cautiously to not trip over anything. It was clearly a lobby once Azura kept looking around, with a central desk and an inactive terminal that he guessed might have shown information about the place. While it would have been convenient, Azura wasn't shocked to see that the entire place had basically no power.
Moving past the desk, Azura made his way towards the door in the back. It had a sign on it that read "Employees Only", which Azura took as a good sign for where to find some sign of this Dr. Merlot being here. He opened it easily, the door having no resistance, and started walking down the hall to see where it led.
The hall eventually started to open up and branch out into different halls, with a broken sign on the wall showing that they all led to offices of sorts. Azura looked between the four halls laid out before him and chose to keep going straight, making sure to enter each office that he could. They were either empty, held nothing of importance other than storage, or were completely blocked off from the inside.
Office by office, Azura felt more and more like nothing would be found. No office seemed like it would prove if Merlot had been working within it or not, and he was quickly running out of offices in this hall. And if this hall held nothing, it was likely that the others wouldn't have anything either.
He stepped before the final office, this one reading "Head Researcher". Not particularly caring for what this person researched, he opened the door and looked within. Similar to other offices, it had papers all over the floor, and less similar to those offices, a toppled over bookcase with books strewn around it. As Azura looked around the office, he took notice to the desk that seemed rather unscathed among everything.
He stepped around it and pushed the chair out of the way to inspect it. Noticing a drawer to the right side, he moved to open it and saw only one folder within it. The folder itself was large, though, and the name on the top of it caused Azura to grab it and place it on the desk.
"Documented Research Projects, huh?"
"Seems promising. Take a look." Summer said.
Azura did so, sifting through the papers in it, the neat writing on the papers faded and slightly hard to read because of that. But it was enough for Azura to be able to see a theme within all of it.
"Whoever this researcher was, they clearly knew Merlot." Azura said, some excitement creeping into his system. "Summer, I think we may have found the building we're looking for!"
"We might have, yes. Keep reading, it might suggest what they were up to and where." Summer suggested.
Azura nodded and kept looking through the papers. "Mentions of Merlot, research into Grimm that was kept lowkey and only with specific people, as well as…" He paused, frowning deeply. "Experiments? On Grimm and other more...undesirable subjects."
"That's horrifying." Summer said softly, her sadness apparent. "How do such people exist?"
Azura's grip tightened for a moment as emotions flared. Anger and sadness combined as he thought about what was being inferred in the paper. Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply, then exhaled quietly and shook his head to continue reading.
"Those that failed were simply used for other things. But the Grimm were so impressive, but only very few were able to properly withstand the augmentations." Azura said, before skipping ahead through the papers. "The basement levels in this building were perfect for our needs, and Doctor Merlot was quick to set up his private offices down there. It seems as though he plans to migrate his research directly into the building, smart for someone who wishes to keep secret experiments going."
"Basement levels...interesting. There should be a staircase nearby that'll take us to where we need to go." Summer said.
When Azura made no move to leave, Summer spoke again. "Azura...I know what you're thinking about. And it's not worth it to dwell on the bad actions of others."
Azura sighed, placing the folder down. "It just feels so horribly wrong to not think of it. What about all of those people who died because of this?"
"Azura, please do not think about it too much. I don't want to see someone else fall into a savior complex." Summer said, emotion in her tone.
Luna placed her hand on Azura's wrist, taking his attention. She then places her other hand on his chest and taps her fingers on it. He became less tense and aggravated, not even noticing that he had become tense in the first place, and breathed in and out a few times as he started to smile.
"You haven't done that in years, Mother." He said quietly. "In the mood for old habits, now?"
She simply smiled, nodding towards the door.
"Yeah. Let's go find this basement."
Azura stepped out of the office and moved to go back to the intersecting hallways, looking around again. One side led to more offices, while the other kept going. Deciding to go the long path, he turned and jogged down the hall, finding that it led to a larger room. Looking around and seeing a pair of metal doors with signs around it saying 'Off Limits', he walked up to it and made his way past them to find that he was in a stairway.
"Convenient." Summer commented.
Nodding in agreement, he made his way down the stairs cautiously. He kept going down for a while, and the chilly air that wrapped the city grew frosty as he descended. The last set of stairs were completely collapsed and forced Azura to jump down and roll. As he came up and looked around, the dark room was starting to completely fall apart, which did not sit well with Azura.
"I'd rather avoid death by a collapsing building, I have to say." Azura muttered.
Exploring the room started to tell Azura that not many people came down here, if the surprising lack of any of the equipment or normal decor from the rest of the building meant anything.
"Privacy would be a top priority, it seems." Summer said. "Look along the walls, there might be another door."
Azura moved along the walls, running his left hand along it as he went. After a minute or so, a large metal gate was found and Azura took a few steps back to look at it. If there was a door meant specifically to keep people out, Azura would say that this would be the one.
"We aren't brute forcing past this, are we?" He asked.
"Not at all, Azura. Not at all."
"And we're clearly going to need power for this to even work. Any ideas?"
"Maybe try the terminal next to the door? This might not need power at all assuming the dust powering it hasn't gone dry. " Summer said.
Azura approached the terminal that was embedded in the wall and right next to the door. He rubbed his hand along the screen to get the dust off of it. After tinkering with it and not seeing any chance for it to come to life, he frowned.
"Well, we have the right building, at least. But this isn't going to play nice, I feel." Azura said, thinking.
"Not that these things ever go according to plan." Summer replied with a short laugh. "And the terminal has a keypad. We'll need the code once we get it running anyway."
Azura nods. "Right. Do you think the same office might have the keycode we need?"
"It could. But we need to get back to the hotel, Azura. Blake's watch is ending and we need to at least be there before she returns and sees us missing." Summer said urgently.
Azura took one last look at the terminal before turning away with a sigh. Summer had a point, and he couldn't risk being caught in the act. He jogged back over to the staircase and jumped with Summer's semblance to make it back up. Luna flew up after him, and with that, they made their way back up to get out of the building and back onto the streets.
"Ten minutes going to be enough, Summer?" Azura asked aloud, keeping his tone quiet anyway.
"More than enough. Let's go."
.
.(Chapter End)
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Azura has finally made the progress he wished for. Only to be roadblocked by other things and time, yes, but progress is progress. Chapter 34 will be a lot of fun to write, that's for sure!
Have a nice day/evening!