-John-117-
The clearing was silent except for the soft crunch of someone shifting their weight on the snow, then Ozpin blurted out with a panicked expression, "Jinn please! Avoid any reference to that, we don't want shattered worldviews and broken minds, because that's what happened last time."
The genie smirked, "Oh who are you to lecture me? Last time I answered a question for you, you were the one to nearly break. And now you're traipsing around with a band of children on some grand quest. Though a few of them…" she trailed off, twirling a playful finger in the direction of blue team. Oz's face flared red with a blush and Ruby seemed to finish deliberating, setting her jaw.
"Jinn!" She said, and Oz's face bespoke a moment of fear, "What is Ozpin keeping from us?"
John watched the world fade to white, with a notable exception of Fred and Kelly, who stuck right by his sides and gripped weapons tightly.
Jinn faded into the white space a second later, cheerily saying, "Hello again Reclaimers, I'm happy to say you three get special treatment,"
Kelly's finger was on the trigger of her shotgun, but it was still pointed downwards, and she asked, "Where are the others?"
Jinn waved a hand and a window opened to Ruby standing in front of a blonde woman and a knight with silver hair. the genie's hand waved again and the scene dissolved, "Oh they're fine, just getting an answer that fits their world and understanding of it, as per request of Ozpin. I'm still obligated to listen to one of the monitors of this installation, even in the situation he's in."
Fred looked about ready to ask a question, but stopped himself, and Jinn seemed to take the hint, "Right," she said, "On with your answer,"
The world around the Spartans swirled again and they found themselves floating in space above a green and blue planet which they quickly recognized as Remnant when the shattered moon came into view.
Jinn's voice spoke from everywhere at once, "To put it bluntly, this world that you're on is an experiment, a test, a laboratory, all of the above. Two brothers of a species in power before your history worked together to create this world to prove to themselves that humanity deserves the inherited power of the Reclaimers."
She paused as two massive figures faded into view on opposite sides of the planet, each wearing an ornate suit of armor of the same metal that the Spartans recalled seeing in the room that brought them to Remnant, but one had a warm yellow glow, while the other glowed a harsh purple.
Jinn continued to narrate, "These two Forerunners wanted to realize their vision without fear of outside interference, so they moved their lab inside of the forerunner domain, and created a semi digital existence for this world. Which is why some things don't quite make sense here to an outsider, such as souls being able to manifest physical power.
The humans on the world had a bit of a rough start, overconfident in their powers, they attempted to overthrow the brothers, who quickly quelled the rebellion, though they did end up composing two of the humans, one named Salem, the other Ozma, into monitors of the installation. One was cursed with complete immortality, while the other was forced to endlessly reincarnate, at least, until a final decision on humanity could be arrived at by the brothers.
The four relics, one of which you are in possession of, would serve to facilitate this judgement, and if they were ever all brought together, the two brothers would reconvene and judge the current state of humanity.
The final thing before I send you back is this, Ozpin previously asked a question of me, which is why after this one, only one will be left, and he asked how he could defeat Salem, and I simply said, 'you can't'"
The world faded back into view as Fred grumbled, "Well that certainly would've been nice to know sooner."
-Linda-058-
Maria proved to be surprisingly stealthy as the two escapees moved through the aging halls of the (for lack of a better term) gulag. They headed deeper into the poorly lit halls as they got further away from the areas where the Chosen had set up. They had agreed to hide in the mines temporarily until a plan could be concocted and further information (such as the location of Linda's gear) could be attained.
They appeared to slip through undetected, but Linda knew that search parties were likely already on their way when they inevitably noticed the missing prisoners.
-Zacharia Coalson-
Zach wasn't really surprised the two newest prisoners had escaped (the place was so old and weather torn in some areas you could pull apart brickwork with your hands), but he also wasn't exactly concerned either. What could an old lady and an armorless, auraless, clad in borrowed yoga pants huntress really do?
He was mostly just curious about the girl, as he assumed she was the same one spotted at their branch in Vale, and tests on the armor revealed mechanisms beyond any understanding of anyone on Remnant that the carvers said could easily kill someone when worn. After learning that, he was all the more interested in finding and talking to this escaped prisoner.
Reviewing the limited security footage (the whole base wasn't fully set up yet, it used to just be a small outpost) revealed the escapees to be heading towards the mines for some reason, but they quickly moved past the range of surveillance.
Zach stepped away from the screens and yelled, "I want two teams of ten put together RIGHT NOW!"
-Linda-058-
The small mineshaft tunnels seemed to converge on one larger tunnel that looked a fair bit newer as they quickly moved along the rail embedded in the floor. Linda's roving eyes combed the tunnel, seeing the pipes on the ceiling with various warning labels and silently cursing Remnant for not having safety diamonds. She guessed it was something toxic and flammable, possibly a gas, but could be water and very poorly labeled. She wondered if Remnant had natural gas, or if they ever tried using it for fuel if they did.
The tunnel abruptly curved, leading to a small chamber with one other exit. The pipe on the ceiling curved down into the rock on the opposite side of the chamber, and the other entrance was off to the right, with Zach and 10 armed cultists, all clad in gas masks standing in it. Linda froze, backing up slowly and raising her arms in the air, dropping the pole she had brandishing as a weapon in the process.
It clattered loudly to the stone floor as Zach sauntered over, shotgun still slung on his back. He spread his arms as he started another monologue, "Why'd you run?" He held out a hand, "Don't answer that, questions make good hooks sometimes,"
Linda scowled and muttered, "Wasn't going to," as he continued.
"Anyway, there's literally no point to you running. These tunnels don't go anywhere, trust me, I've been in charge of scouring them for 3, maybe 4 months, and a subordinate for longer. Plus, we gave you some great options."
Linda cut him off before he could keep running his metal mouth, "I'm not going back."
He snorted, holding back a laugh, "You think it's a choice?" He spun to face his goons, "get a load of this guys!"
One of the goons awkwardly chuckled, and Zach spun back around as Linda finally realized Maria had disappeared somewhere, but she was inturrupted when Zach lunged towards her, hand outstretched as if to simply tap her.
Linda slipped to the left at the last second, and Zach's outstretched hand touched the rock face behind Linda and a massive pulse shook the rock face, cracking the pipe above and sending a green tinged gas spurting into the chamber. In the same motion, Linda swiped Zach's sidearm and pointed it at the crack in the pipe.
Zach and all his goons stepped back, seeming to re-asses their situation, then all arrive at the realization that they had gas masks and Linda did not.
Linda held her breath, still threatening to blow the chamber to kingdom come, but the cultists seemed content to wait things out.
Linda stood, holding a gun and her breath as the cultists continued to stand around nervously, becoming honestly impressed, as she had been holding her breath for nearly five minutes now.
She felt the urge to breathe boiling in her lungs and throat, but ignored it, knowing the gas would probably knock her out very quickly, especially at the quantity it had been pouring from the pipes. She slowly felt the pain in her lungs abate, and thought she was starting to pass out, but her arm in her peripheral vision started to glow white as the urge to breathe completely vanished.
The cultist who had seemed the most tense realized what was happening, "That's aura activation! Shiiii!"
Linda didn't see anyone pull a trigger, but suddenly the air filled with flames and she was sent flying back into the tunnel, slamming into the rocky wall.
She shook herself off, surprisingly pretty much unharmed, but seeing the fizzling sparks of a just broken aura around her, she guessed why.
Maria appeared next to Linda, tucking a matchbox back into her shawl, grunting and saying, "Took you long enough." They tentatively walked into the chamber, and saw rocks scattered all over the floor, and a silvery blue door newly exposed. It's style reminded Linda of the vault and the device that brought the Spartans to Remnant, all silvery lines, glowing, and symmetrical.
She walked up to it and it slid open, exposing what looked like an elevator shaft with a platform right at the door. Maria shrugged when Linda glanced her way and the two walked in. Just as the doors slid closed, a soft thump was heard, and the two turned back. Zach was pressed up to the glass of the door, and he yelled through the door, "Pleasepleaseplease, let me in, I promise I'll be nice, this is everything I've been searching for. It will prove to the entire New Chosen that I'm not crazy!"
Linda walked up to the door and carefully mouthed back, "Get me my stuff back, then maybe." Zach nodded and immediately yelled to his recovering subordinates, then put his hand to his ear and spoke into his radio.
Twenty minutes later, a pallet was wheeled into the cave, and Linda tapped the button that she assumed opened the door, and the elevator started moving slowly. She tried to look dignified hitting it again and sinking back down, then punched the correct button and the doors slid open. The pallet was wheeled over and she checked the contents carefully.
While she was doing that, Zach and a few of the cultists rushed into the elevator, then excitedly hit the button. Nothing happened.
Zach looked at it curiously as Linda continued to inspect her armor and weapons, then had each of his team members each try it, and each unsuccessful.
Linda finally seemed satisfied and hit the button herself, the elevator immediately accelerating upwards.
An awkward silence ensued for the ride, which Maria broke angrily, "You know, you could have given the girl some actual clothes?!" She finally blurted, staring at Zach and pointing at Linda.
Zach shot right back, "There's two females on the base and both are somewhat short, it's the best I could do, everything else you couldn't even fit in at all,"
Linda raised an eyebrow, "You know women can wear men's clothes? It's not that different, sometimes not even at all."
Zach's finger hung in the air for a second, and the one female cultist in the bunch snorted, but didn't say anything.
The man continued to stand there awkwardly until he tried to salvage his dignity by saying, "Fine, I'll be the gentleman."
He pulled off his trench coat after emptying the pockets of shotgun shells and handed it to Linda, who graciously put it on.
Maria nodded her approval, "Now you look crazy, not like you're a stripper,"
Linda cringed, but the elevator arrived and the door slid open, gratefully ending the conversation.
The whole group stepped out of the elevator and into a hallway-like room ending in two poles side by side on an elevated platform floating in the air with a small pedestal in front of it.
The cultists looked like kids in the lego aisle with a mixture of amazement, fascination, and excitement. Linda and Maria made a beeline for the end of the hall, and a holographic map of Remnant kept to life underneath Linda's fingers. She tentatively tapped a spot on the map, and a wormhole sprung up between the two pillars.
She then had an idea, remembering where the train she had been on not too long ago was headed, and tapped where Argus was supposed to be, then took a deep breath and pushed the pallet of her stuff through as Maria followed.
AN: Sorry to say this, but I'm moving my focus to the Wattpad version of this story, as the edits I want to make to the earlier chapters are very difficult here, but already done there. I will continue to update this version with new chapters, but edits to already existing chapters may be slow if they come at all.
once again I'm sorry but this site is not as writer friendly for editing purposes.
Review Responses:
Panzerj: I'm glad to be back too, and yes, I did have fun skiing
Arashi Uzukaze: Sorry about that, it is an issue I'm aware of and trying to fix. I have the edits made on my personal version of the document, the problem is getting it to the published version on this site. If you want fixed chapters, they are already in place on the wattpad version of this story, so feel free to check it out there.