A Once Fallen Skyline
Pt.I
Like time suspended, a wound unmended– you and I. We had no ending, no said goodbye; For all my life, I'll wonder why.
-Lang Leav
Coco was ripped from her sleep by a scream. In the haze of her bedroom, she looked around the room, thinking maybe she had just imagined it, but it echoed out again. She knew that scream, but who? Awake but not conscious, Coco looked to the window and tried to focus her only working eye on the predawn light turning the darkness of night into soft purples that could never be copied.
Another scream and Coco noticed that it came in regular intervals. Two seconds another one would rip through her cloudy mind, almost mechanical.
That was not a scream, it was a siren.
Grimm.
The realization slapped her in the face, and Coco jumped out of bed and ran around her bedroom, getting dressed as quickly as she could. Behind the siren's wailing, she could hear the heavy machine guns that lined the walls of Fei-yan. She knew those guns could take care of a small group of lesser Grimm, and there were always a few Huntsmen posted on the walls just to make sure, but if the siren was going off, that meant something had gone wrong.
Grabbing her weapon on her way out the door, she saw people in her building, already evacuating to the bunkers around the city. Blurry eyed people with crying children, all heading towards the stairs in their pyjamas with emergency bags over their shoulders. Coco did not have time to wade through the people, all trying to make it down the five floors of stairs, so she grabbed the railing and leapt over it.
Pulsing her Aura, she landed on the ground floor and felt the concrete crack and sink slightly with her landing from her weapon's weight. It was not the first time she had done this, but she needed to get out into the streets as fast as possible. When she waded through the mass of people and looked around the road, she saw people rushing back and forth. Soldiers with weapons set up barricades and got ready while people were moving as quickly as possible.
Before Coco could go to her muster point, a scream permeated the air above her. Spinning around, she saw a flock of Griffon Grimm descend onto the street, sending people screaming and sprinting away as the Grimm broke off and began their hunt. Without a second thought, Coco swung her arm and caught her weapon in her hands, opened the rotating barrels and aimed at the first one and carved it up with a hail of bullets.
These simple Grimm were already here meant that something had gone wrong with the anti-air guns stationed around the walls.
The Griffons were young, so her bullets tore right through them like paper. Looking back into the sky, she saw streaks of fire trying to take down Grimm's flying horde surrounding them. Bullheads were already engaging with them, but nothing could stop the sheer amount of Grimm that was invading them. Rushing up to the nearest group of soldiers, one of them nodded to her as their guns were trained on the streets. "What the hell is happening out there?" Coco demanded as she eyed up the one with a piece of communication equipment on him.
"The biggest horde anyone's ever seen just broke through the wall, we're trying to evacuate everyone, but we can't get the ships in the air!" He shouted as the sound of gunfire began getting louder. Everyone just looked over at him, and Coco saw their faces drop. They were supposed to be the Reclamation army, but nothing could ever prepare ordinary people for what the Grimm were capable of. "What the hell are we going to do?" He whispered as he dropped to his knees and stared down at the ground.
Reaching out, she grabbed his shirt and hauled him up onto his feet so she could yell in his face. "YOU FUCKING FIGHT!" She threw him against the other soldiers. "People are dying out there, it's your fucking job to do everything you can to save them!" Movement caught her attention, and she saw black features charging towards them. Nightmares, horse-like Grimm that always travelled around in packs with razors on their hooves, sprinted towards them.
Kicking a soldier out of the way, Coco mounted the makeshift barricade of sandbags and braced herself for the recoil from Gianduja as she Hyped up her bullets. A single shot would tear though the hide of most Grimm, but with her Semblance on full blast, each round became a warhead. The herd quickly began to trip over the dead bodies and fall to the ground as their massive corpses were thrown down the road from their momentum. The soldiers saw them coming and abandoned their positions, but Coco just stood there as the bodies Disapated before hitting the blockade. She let the black smoke wash over her before looking back at the soldiers and removing her glasses, allowing them to see the scars that marred her face and her useless eye.
"So pull up your big girl panties and get moving!" She shouted at them. "Tell everyone to stay in their homes until we can escort them! Lock the bunkers nearest to the wall down with whoever they can get in before the horde gets any deeper!" The soldier began to shout over the radio at whoever was in charge, but Coco knew that she needed to make decisions quickly. By sealing the bunkers before they were at capacity, she would be dooming those who could not get there and saving people from the Grimm, but if they did not clear the streets, those people would eventually starve to death.
She did not know what was worse; that or being torn apart in seconds in their own living room. Not that Coco would get to experience either of those options judging from how choked the skies were with Grimm. With the number of times, she had looked death in the face and grinned was too many to count, but somewhere deep down, Coco felt this was the last time she saw the sunrise in the morning.
With a deep breath, she slipped the glasses over her face and headed towards the coming horde. The people behind her needed someone to inspire them, and she needed to do something to stem the Grimm flow. Ahead, people began rushing towards her, crying civilians and soldiers shouting at them to keep moving washed around her like a river. With the tip of her weapon, she dragged it across the road, marking a line that she would protect. She stood with the dawn, the light cascading past the buildings and illuminating hatred in bestial form.
Spinning the barrels of her weapon, she waited for the moment the last fleeing civilian was just past her range before unleashing hell towards the horde. She Hyped up her bullets, exploding her munitions when they hit their targets. The frontline was quickly blanketed in a smoke scream of Grimm Dissipate, but she kept firing. Her arms began to go numb from the recoil of her constrain stream of fire, but she still held on, the shell casings cascading around her feet as she screamed to draw in as many as she could.
"GET SOME!" She screamed as the horde continued their advance towards her. Slowly, the line of smoke began to inch closer to her; they were starting to outnumber her bullets. Before she could reposition, a towering figure burst from the smoke and charged towards her. A Goliath with its armoured head pointed down was spriting right towards her. The thickness of the bone plate made her bullets bounce off, and Coco needed to move. Rolling out of the way, she looked back and saw the monster barrel through her apartment building like it was made of children building blocks.
She had no idea if any of the soldiers managed to evacuate it before that happened, but she could not worry about it right now. Turning back to see the creatures in front of her, Coco swung her weapon around and smacked a Grimm out of the way, she could hear bones snapping from the weight of her bag as she opened fire again into the horde. Looking down as it cried out at her feet, a cold chill went down her spine as she recognized the Grimm spasming on the ground.
It was one of the spider Grimm that came off that massive spider lady Grimm back in Ritrr! She remembered when Ruby took that thing down and how her body melted and formed an army of Grimm. They had travelled through the desert and forests to get here and probably gathered every Grimm for miles. Coco did even want to think about what happened to the smaller cities and villages they came across to get here.
She pulled back, managed to get to a checkpoint where she stocked up on her ammo and downed a water bottle before running out to try and give cover to the next group of people trying to flee to the northern bunkers of the city. Racing across the city with another squad of soldiers, only to have them picked off one by one as she struggled to protect everyone. Spines rained from the sky and impaled three people before Coco could open fire on the Grimm that flung them from it's back. A Hulk smashed through a building to turn one of her soldiers into a bloody smear on the sidewalk before she could gun him down.
Hours passed, and the number of people she could protect was dwindling. The checkpoint had fallen, and Coco had to run with the last group across a large park towards one of the last bunkers that were still open. Her Aura was running low, and the heat from the sun was making her sweat, but again, she ran behind the people all sprinting, praying that they had room for them. Hearing the Grimm behind her, Coco yelled at them to keep going turned in place, skidding across the grass and opening fire with her weapon.
The Grimm were quick to fall, but their numbers were endless, and out in an open field, she was sure to be flanked. Spinning from side to side to keep her flanks clear, she quickly crept on when an armoured Beowolf came crashing through the horde, sending Grimm aside to get to her. Its bone armour was thick, and her bullets did nothing but crack and put small holes in it as Coco was thrown through the air and landed on her back. Quickly rolling onto her feet, she Hyped up her bullets again, and it staggered it a little bit, enough for Coco to rush in and swing her weapons and knock it's legs out from under it.
Before she could capitalize on her better position, it's claw wrapped around her leg and threw her against a tree, crashing through it with a cry of pain, she rolled a few times before slowly pushing herself to her feet. She could feel the strain of her Aura attempting to keep her body from falling apart, but she was dangerously low. She saw the people she was bringing all slamming their fists on the large metal doors at the end of a ramp that led into the bunker.
It was closed.
Panting, she looked back at the coming tide of Grimm and took up her position once again. She pulled the trigger and Hyped up her bullets for the large Grimm, only for her gun to start echoing out with empty clicks two seconds after firing.
Ahead of her, two more large Beowolves decked out in bone armour came to stand next to the one she had been fighting before. Tired, out of ammunition, and with her back to a closed bunker with people still crying to be let inside. There was nothing else left for her now. Looking down at her shaking hands, she gripped the strap of her weapon and snapped it back into the purse form.
She was going to die here. She knew this, she just hoped Velvet was okay. Maybe she was up there waiting for her with Yatsu and Fox already. The Grimm began to stalk towards her, wary of their prey. With a deep breath, she gripped the strap and looked up at her opponents. "I'm coming home, boys," She said to herself as she rallied the last bits of her energy and charged forward, her bag swinging in her arms as she built up momentum for one last good fight when something crashed from the sky right in front of her and sent her back from the impact alone.
Trying to peer through the smoke, Dissipate and dirt flying through the air, Coco had to put a hand out in front of her face to block the sun, even though her glasses. When the light was gone, someone was standing in the small crater. Gold flowed down their back as the heat came off their body. The two remaining Beowolves looked at each other and decided to attack, only for the person to strike out with a blazing fist and collapse one skull in a single blow. Then turning in place and launched glowing red balls that attached to the last Grimm and exploded a few seconds later, raining bone all around them.
Finally, the person looked back at her, and Coco was surprised to see who stood in front of her. "Coco!" Yang shouted as she quickly made her way to her fallen friend and help her up.
"Yang," Coco was unsteady on her legs for the moment before she caught her breath. "Hell of an entrance you made," She said with a nod.
"Well, I learned from the best," She said with a smile. Coco could not help but chuckle.
"What the hell are you doing here, not that I'm complaining, "
"We're here to help," Yang said as she looked past Coco and into the sky.
"We?" Following Yang's gaze, she saw Atlesian Bullheads descending from the sky. Some touched down and let squads of soldiers out while some just flew by and dropped heavy Paladins onto the ground before flying back towards the largest ship she had ever seen hovering just inside the city's walls. It was then Coco noticed that Yang was wearing an Atlesian over her chest.
"You're with Atlas?" Coco was quick to slap the helping hand off of her and take a few steps back from Yang.
"It's complicated, but right now, all you need to know is that Atlas surrendered and we're here to help get everyone out of here," Yang did not make a move to strike or move away. "It's time to be a Huntress again,"
Coco did not know what to believe. Looking back, she saw that people were starting to be piled into the Bullhead from the bunker while the Paladins were opening fire on swarms of Grimm that were beginning to flank their position. She watched as an Atlesian soldier with markings that gave him a higher rank rush up to them and salute Yang. "Evac-zone Green is secured, Ma'am."
"Good, keep getting people from the bunker up onto the Dreadnaught as quickly as you can. I'm going to start clearing the path for more survivors," Yang did not bother returning the salute as she turned and began to jog towards the path Coco had just come from, only to stop and turned back at them. "Oh, and she's in charge now," Yang fired her gauntlets and charged into the fray, doing exactly as she said she would do. The soldier was lost for words as he looked between Coco and where Yang had run before sighing and saluting Coco.
"Orders, Ma'am?" He asked, and Coco looked around at the force that was deployed around her and nodded.
"Set up the perimeter and don't stretch out thinly. Keep that main road clear for the coming survivors and prioritize the Paladins on the larger Grimm, the smaller ones can easily be taken out by regular anti-Grimm rounds."
The soldier snapped off another salute and began to make the commands into their comms system, and she watched as the soldiers began to secure the area. Temporary structures were erected in seconds with hard light shields to protect them from enemy projectiles. In a moment of clarity, a weight had lifted off her shoulders as she watched a Bullhead loaded with people fly off towards the Dreadnaught and to safety.
Yang was right. The war was over, it was time to be a Huntress again.
Walking over to the Paladin closest to her, she shouted up at it to get the pilot's attention. When it finally turned its massive body to face her, she raised Gianduja into the air and shook it.
"I need a reload!"
A/N: And there we go, another one down.
It's hard to imagine that the show has been going on for so long! and that means this story has reached its fourth year! Damn, I feel old...
My wonderful editor is still out but will hopefully be back soon with a full recovery soon so everything will be much easier to read.
If you enjoyed, leave a Favourite! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on AO3 under the same name. So if you read there as well, come show your support!
And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of madness!
