To the reviewer that's talking about the apples:
Maybe you are right. I don't know about apples and how to grow them.
"Dialogue like this means talking through a mental link between a Ghost and its Guardian."
Blake Belladonna slides open a door that leads to one of many balconies in her family's household. A guard stands to her right, standing tall and still with her spear pointed upwards.
"Good evening miss," the guard says, turning to Blake. "Can I get you anything?"
"Just a little time to myself, thanks," Blake replies with a casual inflection, a forced smile forming on her face.
The guard gives her a nod. "Sure thing, just call if you need anything." Then she walks inside the house, shutting the door behind her.
Blake sighs, and shuts her eyes for a moment.
"You need better security," Ilia's voice comes from above. Blake hears very faint and short footsteps on the rooftop, that lead towards the rail of the balcony.
Blake turns to see Ilia in her Grimm mask hopping down, quietly landing on the wooden rail. "Please, I-I just need to talk!" The chameleon-Faunus puts out one hand, palm facing outwards.
There is a moment of silence between the two as they simply stare at each other.
Blake breaks the silence. "How could you take the fall for them, Ilia?" She asks.
Ilia sighs. "Blake," she says, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Corsac and Fennec blamed you, we confronted them tonight and they deny knowing anything and everything we found on your Scroll, they talked about how disappointed they were to find out that you sided with Adam." Blake hates uttering the name of her former White Fang colleague. She now leans forward a bit, her eyebrows furrowed and her cat ears a bit bent at the tips. "But you and I both know they're guilty."
"You can't prove anything," Ilia says, frowning. Her ponytail flutters to the side in the non-existent wind, emulating the tail of a chameleon. She does pass well for a human, Blake admits.
"That Scroll might not have been enough to lock them up, but it's enough to sway the Faunus here, when we go public tomorrow, they're not going to stand for any of it." Blake pauses. "And neither should you."
Ilia gently takes off her mask, holding it softly in her hand. Her eyes peer at Blake with guilty sadness. "Your plan isn't going to work, Blake. Please, just leave Menagerie before it's too late."
"You're going to have to make me."
"…I know." Ilia pauses, looking underneath her to the ground below, seemingly contemplating jumping down. "We won't be stopped. You'll need all the help you can get."
"There are people willing to fight." Blake turns her head side-ways, giving Ilia a suspicious side-glance.
"Are you talking about Saint-Fourteen?" Ilia asks. "He doesn't belong here."
Blake doesn't know how to answer, and so she remains quiet.
"He's an external threat, probably sent by Atlas, he doesn't even have a pulse." Ilia soon jumps down, disappearing into the darkness of the jungle.
A shotgun blast in the distance pulls Blake's attention.
/
Mercury, the Sundial
"Osiris how are we looking over there?" The Guardian rolls her shoulders and cracks her neck by cocking her head to the side. She's about to effectuate another jump in time again, to search for Saint-14 again. It's a shot in an endless void, but Osiris had done some good work in narrowing the possibilities. He seemed to be confident that they would find him.
"He's too busy configuring it, but I think he's fine." Sagira's perky and upbeat voice never fails to make her smile. "Uh oh, we got some Red Legion coming in, we have to pull you out!"
"Really? Red Legion now?" The Guardian scowls and readies her Graviton Lance pulse rifle. The Mountaintop stays ready on her back.
"Looks like an entire division, get ready!" Her Ghost points out, and she is soon teleported out of the Corridors of Time, back into the grueling planet of Mercury.
Sure enough, there are a bunch of Cabal that are assaulting the Sundial. They pile up at the bottom of the steps that lead to it, clashing with Vex while some of the more elite units push forward.
The Guardian swaps out for the Mountaintop and jumps high up, shooting a single grenade that detonates on impact. She pushes the front half down and pops another grenade in. To finish loading, she snaps it back shut, now ready to fire another.
She lands on the ground and rolls into cover, throwing a knife to a Legionary's head and landing it between its eyes. A Colossus fires its Slug Launcher in her direction, forcing her to stay put so she doesn't get killed.
"Where's Osiris!?" She screams, her head ducking downwards as cluster missiles explode all around her. Looking up, all she sees is a giant flash of white.
"He should be nearby, inside the Sundial!" Her Ghost answers.
"You could have asked me, Guardian!" Osiris appears at the pile of crates across from her, his hands holding a Monte Carlo.
"He's using the Monte Carlo!" She giddily mumbles to herself. She gifted him the weapon a few weeks ago. "Right, now's not the time!" She reaches her arm into the air and summons her Light. A flaming hand cannon appears. She grins as it fires a molten bullet into the Colossus, burning its head off without much resistance.
Her free palm pulls the hammer back with lightning speed and she fires again. This time, she strikes a Vex Minotaur and turns it into ash.
"On top of you!" Her Ghost warns as she falls to her back, both hands holding the grip of her Golden Gun pointed to the sky. A Psion Flayer floats inside its bubble, its hands forming some sort of transparent energy.
The Guardian fires again, the bullet going straight into its crotch. The Flayer detonates in a blinding explosion that takes over her entire vision. It's a flash of white for a good ten seconds and an intense ringing, followed by an eerie silence. She blinks a few times, granting some time for her eyes to readjust.
The Flayer lays at her feet a corpse, and so does every Cabal nearby.
"Amazing, this Flayer was psionically linked to every Cabal unit here!" Her Ghost appears and does a wide-range scan.
"Ghost," the Guardian says, her throat and mouth dry.
"Killing it must have killed everything here!"
"Ghost," she repeats, looking at where Osiris was supposed to be. "Where's Osiris?"
Her Ghost looks around. "Uh oh."
A moment of silence, at least as silent as sand blowing in the wind can be. The Guardian blinks and throws the corpse of the Psion commander off of her body. Her hands start wiping her armor of the Cabal's viscous blood.
"…Osiris?" She calls out. No response. "You there? Did I lose you too?"
Again, no answer.
"I think we lost him," Ghost says, his voice petrified.
"I think we did, Ghost." The Guardian's lips flatten. "Guess we'll have to figure out how to use this thing for ourselves."
/
Somewhere over Lake Matsu…
Legendary Warlock Osiris is blinded by the flash of light the Psion Flayer emitted when it was shot between the legs by the Guardian's Golden Gun. His vision is still white for a few seconds but it regains detail, giving him a real image of his new situation.
"Who are you!?" A female voice that isn't Sagira's yells over the loud whistle of blowing wind. "And how did you even-what, nevermind, can you fight!?"
Osiris is still disoriented from the whole situation and has to shake his head. He then readjusts the scarf that covers the bottom half of his face.
"Yes, he can!" Sagira says. "Osiris, you okay?"
"I'm fine," he says, scooping up the Monte Carlo which now replaces his Garden Progeny 1. He keeps the scout rifle as a backup, though. He prefers how the auto rifle shoots, as simple as the reason is. "What are we dealing with?"
"Lancers!"
He nods and wants to ask a question, but a stinger about the size of half his body nearly gores him in the leg. The woman beside him deflected it into the hull of this vehicle. He's in a ship, that happens to be soaring in the air trying to escape giant black-and-white wasps.
"I'll pretend I understood what she said, and I suggest that you shoot them!" Sagira says, through her and Osiris' mental link. He crouches down and raises his auto rifle. His finger hovers over the trigger before he lets out a short torrent of bullets. The woman at his side fires white projectiles with...runes, coming from the tip of a rapier. "Are we just going to pretend that she isn't shooting things with a sword!?"
"We will ask her about it later!" Osiris replies, now semi-annoyed. He puts down an Empowering Rift, for the both of them; she can stand in it if she wants to. "Bring me any information we have on this thing!"
"Funny story, we don't."
"Huh, that's…odd."
"Maybe you should worry about getting impaled by their rope-stingers!?"
Osiris rolls his eyes and lets out another volley of rounds from the Monte Carlo. His Solar Light burns within and he looks to the girl in the white skirt next to him.
"I see you're using a rune to keep yourself steady, can you make one to tether me to the ship?" He asks, looking to her. "I need an answer quick, girl."
"Yes, I can, but what are you planning to-" He tunes her out and twirls once, his arm reaching into the air. A burning sword forms into it, pulsing with Solar Light. His entire body bursts into flame and he instantly dashes out of the bay door. "Wh-slow down!"
He feels a force that keeps him from flying away. It's like a hunter's tether, but without the suppression effect. He hopes it's strong enough to not send him into one of the floating islands that are littered all about. He swings once, sending an arc of fire to one of the giant wasps, burning it away. He dashes to the side, avoiding a harpoon stinger. He then cuts it from its owner.
"Nice one!" Sagira comments. "To your left!" Another stinger comes at him but is reflected by a black rune. He looks to the gracious girl who provided it and nods. He decides that he will now dub the girl "princess."
Osiris swings a few more times and manages to strike down another three or so. The ship shakes violently, throwing him in disarray but he finds his footing in the air using bursts of fire.
"We're hooked!" Princess calls out to him, and he looks up to see a few wasps latched onto the ship. "I'm pulling you back!"
"What, I didn't-" He is removed from the air and thrown back into the ship, his body slamming flat against a wall. His breath is forcefully pushed from his lungs.
"Sorry," Princess says, offering him a hand. The ship pulls downwards and throws Osiris around like a rag-doll. He feels like he's slammed into every single corner in this relatively small cargo-bay. He grabs onto her hand mid-air, just in time before his face could plant itself into metal again. He shakes his head, his vision spinning in all directions.
"Are you alright?" Princess asks, kneeling to him. She looks concerned, a soft worry clear on her face.
"I'm fine," Osiris says, dusting off his shoulders and standing up. A rain of boulders come tumbling down behind the ship. The Lancers that are chasing them seem to disappear afterward. "Thanks. Are we clear?"
"I think." She looks out into the distance, then sighs. A vibration pulls both their attentions as an enormous Lancer rears its ugly head and body. "It's a Queen Lancer!"
"You did go for its flock," he replies, throwing a few globs of fire from his palm, that singes the beast's white parts. He isn't sure if it did any damage, though. "I should ask for your name."
"Weiss, and you will want to duck." Weiss spawns several white runes and the crates behind them start levitating. Osiris blinks behind them before they are all flung to the Queen Lancer. In the air, they simultaneously explode in a dust cloud that glows the entire spectrum of color at the edges.
"It's not done," Sagira says.
"It's not done, brace yourself!" Osiris repeats. Weiss nods and breathes out once, a slow, deliberate action. She then closes her eyes. She twirls and swings her rapiers, reminiscent of old Golden Age ballerina performances. The Queen Lancer sends out an entire volley of stingers. One nearly hits him straight in the face, and he feels the ship shake. It must have hit an engine.
The Warlock has to blink a few times, just to register what he saw. The worst part is, she only did it to plant her blade into the ground.
"…That is so utterly pointless, but beautiful," Osiris says, then almost gasps as a shimmering knight grows out of the floor. "Is this even possible with the Light?"
"Anything's possible, Osiris," Sagira informs him. "She's just…practiced a lot, it seems."
"Pull up, NOW!" Weiss screams.
"Oh, you have got to be-" Osiris uses his glide to readjust himself as the ship takes a steep turn up. The giant knight leaps out the back, wielding a massive sword. It uses runes to keep itself flying and to teleport around. It dashes in the air like a well-trained Dawnblade Warlock, mixed with expert blinking he has only seen from the likes of Ikora.
"Almost as good as you!" Sagira snickers.
"Almost."
Osiris looks to Weiss and holds a ball of Void Light in his hand. She sees it, and seems to understand his intention, nodding once with a confident smirk. He returns it to his body, stands tall. He nearly tumbles due to the turbulence but catches himself in time. He channels all the Light he can muster to unleash a massive Nova Bomb headed straight to the Queen Lancer.
He knows it's too slow to hit it, but the knight disappears. It reappears in front of it and uses the flat edge of the blade to carry the bomb. It dives straight into the Queen Lancer, carrying its attack with a ball of entropy in tow. A resounding explosion of Void Light mixed with whatever Weiss uses disintegrates the monster into nothing.
All is silent, except for the incessant screeching of the ship's alarm.
"You are aware that we are still going to crash, right?" Sagira appears floating above Osiris' shoulder.
"I am aware-wait a second-" Weiss is interrupted as the ship does crash.
/
Menagerie
Saint-14's boots grind against the ground as he blocks another one of the Bree woman's punches.
She would make a good Titan, he thinks nonchalantly before throwing his shield at Marrow. The dog-Faunus seems content with staying back and trying to use his "Semblance". He keeps getting suppressed by Suppression grenades, preventing him from doing so.
Saint throws another shield at a pole, making it bounce off. He jumps high into the air, supporting himself with his Lift. His Sentinel shield disappears, and his arms crackle with Arc.
"What, you give up? Already?" Harriet snarks as she launches upwards, straight into him.
"I'm just simply changing tactics," Saint says as he dives to her with his charged fist being the first point of contact. "Fighting fire with fire, as many would say."
The woman dodges to the left as he lands on the ground, making a sizeable crater that sparks with Arc energy inside. He turns around to face her, punching his charged fist into his palm.
"Marrow, leave him for me, I want to see this guy in action."
"But-"
"Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Ghira steps between Saint and Harriet, the massive Faunus blocking the Titan's view of her. "There will be no more action happening tonight," he says. His voice sounds like he's on the verge of breaking into a full-blown rage. "Harriet, leave."
Harriet lowers her arms. "Sir, he is a fugitive to the kingdom of Atlas, and must be apprehended."
"Since when?" The Belladonna turns to Saint. "Have we been harboring a criminal all this time?"
"I destroyed a single shipment of Vex components, for everyone's safety."
"You destroyed Atlas property!" Marrow says, from a distance. He probably feels safe back there, out of range of any harm that could come to him.
"That happened to be dangerous." Saint exhales. "No one should be trying to experiment with these parts."
"What is he talking about?" Ghira turns to Harriet. "What parts? The manifest only states produce."
"Ah, shit," she says.
"Is there an illegal trade going on between Atlas and Menagerie?" The massive man puts one step forward to the Atlas operative and broadens his shoulders.
"Come on, let's go." Harriet looks to Marrow and starts stepping towards their ship.
Ghira looks primed to pounce. "I will allow you two to leave, but tell Ironwood that his embargo applies to us now." He sighs as the marine vehicle closes up and departs. He turns to Saint. "Sorry about that, we've had a whole…deal going on that they would continue trade. I should have known the general wanted something other than food." He snarls in frustration. "Sorry for doubting you in the first place, I assume these are the Vex you mentioned before?"
Saint nods. "Yes, that is correct."
Ghira shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know what their parts could be used for. I'll let you handle them, I have other things to worry about."
Saint grunts. "White Fang, I assume?"
"Yes, their progression towards senseless violence is…remarkable. I never thought that Adam would get much traction. It seems that I was wrong." Ghira says, a tinge of regret. "I will address the whole situation in the day, go get some rest."
"Likewise." Saint nods and watches as the mayor of Kuo Kuana leave him alone.
After a few minutes, someone lands on their feet behind him. He snaps to the source of the sound, his Perfect Paradox already drawn. In front of the barrel is Ilia, who has her helmet on and her hands raised. He sighs. "Ilia."
"Saint," she says.
"Do you have to follow me around all the time?" He asks, lowering his shotgun and sighing in exasperation.
"Do you have to start shit with Atlas?" She sneers.
"I start shit with anyone I want, Ilia." He crosses his arms. "What do you want?"
"Just wanted to talk." She smirks.
"You're acting as if we're friends,"
"I am, and I don't know why, frankly." Her hand stays at her hip, suspiciously close to the compact whip on her waist. "I don't want to kill anyone innocent."
"Oh please, don't start with this again." Saint sends a pulse of Arc Light through his arm, letting her see the energy course throughout. "You are a driven woman, Ilia. I don't want to see it wasted on cowardice such as the White Fang."
He pauses. "I respect you."
She chuckles. "That's good to know, Saint, good to know that we're on an equal playing field."
"What are you trying to get at?" Saint asks. "I know you didn't come here just to talk."
"I'm wondering if you had a sudden change of heart, now that you're attacking Atlas operatives," Ilia says. "You do know that they're the ones that are responsible for our mistreatment? Their Dust companies treat us as slaves, and at one point hunted Faunus for sport."
"Then I have an issue with Atlas, too." Saint huffs.
Ilia grumbles in annoyance. "You confuse me, Saint. Are you with the Fang or against it? It sounds like you're both, right now."
"I think we're done here, Ilia."
"There's a speech happening tomorrow, big Belladonna is delivering it. I'll have something to say."
"I don't have the patience for your games."
"You think this is a game?" She sighs, looks to the floor, then to him. "Are we even living on the same planet right now?"
"We are, maybe it's you that's delusional."
She scoffs. "Please, you and I both know there isn't any other way to get the humans to listen to us. They're only cooperative when they're scared."
"I would disagree."
"I understand why, you're so caught up with defending the innocent that you don't know what innocent is anymore." A sad smile forms on her face. Saint doesn't understand why she would be sad for him. It's the other way around. She turns, looks to the floor. "I'll see you around."
She disappears and scurries away. Like the coward she is.
Saint-14 understands that fear works; the Fallen did quite a number with it to the Last City.
He also understands that it can come with severe repercussions.
Saint-14 conflicted on how to deal with Ilia, Osiris getting involved, I have some plans for this little story of mine.
Edit: Went through this one.