So, i'm back! Sorry for the big big big delay, but i had a little run in with covid (I'm fine right now!) and I had no energy to write, or any motivation. But as soon as I got out, it came back full swing!
This is still on the shorter side of chapters, but at least all the time I didn't spend writing I planned out where I wanna go a little more in detail.
Sorry once again for the big delays and the upload inconsistencies, but I'll try not the get hit by a car for the next chapter! I can't promise nothing tho.
Love you all, and thanks again for reading this chapter and my story!
What looked like a simple lab, soon turned out to be a maze-like construction.
"Tell me again where we're going?" Qrow asked, maybe for the twentieth time.
"Even if this lab was far from Atlas, we still wanted a little bit more 'secrecy' and security with certain experiments, and so we opened up some caves. That's where we're going."
Since the encounter with the Teryx, the descent had gone rather smoothly, but that led to a bored Qrow. Sure, he was a little less 'Ragey' with James, but he was getting restless.
"And you really had to build this place like this? Just a couple of extra-thick doors wouldn't have sufficed?"
James would be almost getting angry, if he wasn't all too concentrated on something else. "Look, I'd love to say the same thing I said the last twenty times you asked me, but we're almost there."
The three huntsmen came to a stop in front of a vault-like door, only that it had been bust open, by something big.
"There are scratch marks on the wall, we need to be careful." Said Glynda, while getting in front of the General.
"I know I don't have a weapon right now, but I'm far from useless, you don't have to protect me!" He almost sounded like his old self, but there was still this edge in his voice, something that betrayed what he really thought.
"Oh no James, let them go. If they want to die first I'd be delighted to watch them! Maybe then you'd understand why this is a fruitless endeavor!"
She had almost forgotten about Mettle. He... It? Was really grating on her nerves. Before she could even think about something to say, the damned semblance continued talking.
"And have any of you, by any chance, thought why there are Grimms down here? A place, deep underground, with no humans? No negativity?"
"That is... a surprisingly good question from you." That was new. Mettle had not insulted him in a phrase?
"Yeah it is, I still am the better part of you Tin General." And there he was again.
"Apart from its evident lack of social skill, your semblance does pose a good question James." The beacon professor was lost in thought. Really, how did those Grimm end up here? There was no logical explanation. Unless they were...
"They were ordered to. By Salem." James had come to the same conclusion as her. "Maybe Watts told her after they recovered the staff. He was one of my top scientists, and knew every lab in Atlas."
When they entered the room only one word could describe what they saw: chaos. Tables turned, computers smashed, and a general state of disarray.
"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Qrow mused, still quite bored. While he was saying this, he saw Ironwood rush ahead, to the right wall, almost... feeling it?
Before either him or Glynda could say anything, they saw a piece of the wall move, and give away to a smaller room, this one almost empty, but for a computer and a stack of books.
"Fuck! Fuck! Damn it!" The General shouted, banging his fists on the wall.
"What happened James?" The headmistress rushed to his side, thinking of the worst, but the only thing she found was Ironwood... crying.
"This room was the most secure in all the lab. Only someone who knew that it was there could possibly open it, and even then, you'd need the right biometrics to get inside."
"Are you saying that whatever we needed to save my nieces is gone?" Now Qrow wasn't bored anymore, he sounded quite angry.
But before he could even try to run to him, he was stopped by Glynda, who was barely holding her tears back.
"Quite the contrary, all the things are here. But if the room could be opened only by someone who knew, how come there aren't any bodies out here? Or, why haven't the Grimm simply smashed through, just like they did on the vaulted door?"
This damn cold voice was really grating on his nerves.
"Simple, this man did what he needed to do, shut himself in with the important documents, and eliminated the only source of negativity. Himself."
The way in which Mettle said all this made his blood freeze. He went a little further, just enough to see what was inside the room, and he indeed found a man, slumped against the wall with a pistol in hand. One man had killed himself for this...
In the meanwhile Ironwood stopped crying, and got close to the man.
"He was one of my top scientists. A good man, he didn't need to die like this."
Then he knelt, closing his eyes, and took the still loaded pistol, putting it in his holster.
As soon as he finished paying his respects, he flew into the desk, and began typing furiously on the computer.
"His sacrifice won't be for nothing. I'll make sure of it."
If anyone was close to him, they'd hear him say "Another death caused by me...".
Glynda and Qrow were still shocked, but the black-haired man got closer to Ironwood, stopping to pay his respect to the fallen man.
"I'm sorry James." He said, putting an hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry too, but we need to move, and I have just what we need."
They quickly got out of the room, without saying another word, not until after closing the now tomb of the lone scientist.
"What did you get from there James?" Qrow was sympathetic for the man, he knew how much thinking about the dead hurt, so he tried to get his mind on something else.
"This." The General said, holding up a scroll, that looked almost normal, if not for all the Atlas imagery on the solid parts.
"This scroll contains a tracker, that is updated every day from every CCT in the planet, and shows all of the fluctuations of energy that magic could cause. Seeing the scale of what the teams did to save everyone, we only need to pick up the biggest one in the recent days."
"So? I guess we're gonna need a connection to the CCT. We should go to Argus then and see if-" Qrow couldn't finish what he was saying that he heard a roar from behind him and Glynda. But, by the time they turned around to face whatever Grimm was there, they heard a gun, and saw the small Grimm already dissipating.
Turning back they saw Ironwood. Old Ironwood.
He stood there, gripping the pistol with his only arm, a determined gaze in his eyes.
"Yes, we better go to Argus as soon as possible."
"Uh. guess you don't need protection anymore." Qrow joked, and Glynda rolled her eyes.
They looked closer, almost as close as they were back before all this mess.
"Oh god can we please move along? I don't need to see this, I'd turn back to a mere semblance if I could!"
Mettle. By the gods was he a torn in everyone's side. But once again he was right, they had no time to waste.
"Let's go, we have a Bullhead waiting for us and any survivor we found on the way." Glynda said while they were getting out of the old facility.
"Yeah let's use that. By the way, I was thinking. How are they gonna take the fact that you're alive Jimmy?"
"Oh, I'll be shunned for what I did, or even dragged off to a cell the second I set foot in Argus, or even on the Bullhead. I'm certain of it."
"I don't think so James. Almost no one knows what you did. Even I didn't know everything when I went out to look for survivors."
"But I'm still supposed to be dead."
"Yeah that's that, but please can we go to the Bullhead? My feet are killing me with all this walking!" Qrow lamented.
"All right, let's go, we're gonna talk a little more on the ride."