Ok new Chapter time, yay! *Streamers and noisemaker sounds* So a few things. First we're trying to make sure our uploads are more consistent in terms of quality and content. Second, thank you all for still sticking around and supporting us and we'll make sure we carry this series to its end.
Aquilos:Just for the record, we're maybe like a couple hundred chapters out from the end. I did the math!
Diluation:As somebody from Datto's math class, I can confirm that his math is right.
Aquilos:Anyone wanna see my spreadsheets?
Ok, that's enough of that. Anyway we continue with the adventures of Summer and her League of Best Friends.
00000
Frederick steered his ship around to the courtyard before dropping the ramp. Tai and Qrow jumped down, followed by Summer and Frederick. Walking back into the Iron Temple. Lord Saladin and Tyra Karn where talking to each other while they reviewed the data the Ghosts recovered from the four warriors operation from Mars.
The bad news was that only 42% of the files were salvageable. The rest were corrupted beyond repair. The good news was that the Devil Splicers rigged a makeshift sensor grid using an old oil tanker as an engine. Removing the energy core and reversing the energy flow would temporarily disable the network allowing them to enter and destroy the Replication Chamber. As an added bonus, the Ghosts discovered that the partially altered Devil Splicers must expose themselves to SIVA every so often, otherwise their bodies would painfully revert back to their original forms. Fully transformed Splicers on the other hand, had no such defect.
Frederick felt his phone vibrate. Taking it out and sliding his thumb on the screen changed to that of a Awoken woman in the background in a wedding dress with him in a suit. He smiled before pressing the message Icon and was surprised by it.
"Fred you coming?" Summer asked.
"Yeah." Frederick replied as he put the device away and continued on with them.
Lord Saladin gave a slight smile as the group returned. They reminded him of his fellow Ironlords, the thought filling him with the sadness of their passing. Shaking his head to clear it, he stood back up at attention.
"Welcome back guardians, huntsmen."
The four warriors nodded in respect. Saladin continued to brief them on what's to come next. But knew that the warriors needed rest for the night. Especially the huntsmen.
"Your next mission begins tomorrow. Take some rest." He pointed at Tai and Qrow, before motioning to the guardians. "You two do what you wish for the night. Summer, perhaps Frederick can get you familiarized with the Iron Temple."
Frederick nodded as their Ghosts appeared and he took Summer for a tour while also showing the Huntsman the old bed rooms for them to take a night.
While their respective guardians, as well as the huntsmen were away, Frederick's ghost goes over to Drei.
"So." Frederick's ghost says, looking at Drei. "Have you done it?"
"Done what?" Drei asked, confused.
"Actually fully fixed her up."
Drei's eye then narrowed. "You know why."
"She has a daughter now, two even. There's no reason to-"
"Well there is a reason. Several, actually." Drei practically spat at her. "You ever consider what might happen to her? That some creepy old dude may as well drug her and have his way, or a Hive wizard conducts some crazy experiment with her?"
"You're being paranoid, Drei."
"I won't risk it! She's too free-spirited to be held down like that anymore! She's a guardian to the end!"
"Then what about us then?" She shot back. "Is MY charge not a Guardian?"
"Oh for the love of-"
"You've seen how we've been fairing." Frederick's ghost pointed out. "Frederick is still doing his job as a guardian even with all that going on. Frederick has even done a little bit of her work while you two were stuck on Remnant. Who cares about these stupid rules anymore, when we can do this while trying to make ends meet?!"
"We're NOT talking about this again." Drei said with finality. "She stays like that until it's all over."
A brief moment of silence washed over the two, as Drei huffed and turned away.
"What if it doesn't?"
Drei gave no response, but continued looking away.
"What if she falls like the rest of them, huh Drei?!" She pushed on. "What if it doesn't end in time? Or if it never ends?! Are you going to deny that from her until the opportunity is gone?"
"I said, we're NOT talking about this."
Frederick's ghost sighs. She leaves to find her Guardian.
"Just like the rest of the ghosts…" She mutters to herself.
Frederick was in the armory when his ghost came over. He was busy holdin Summer back from trying to grab the old relics she wasn't allowed to touch. Frederick noticed immediately how downtrodden the ghost looked.
"Everything ok Naomi?" Fred asked via their private comm link.
"Drei is being… frustrating." She replied.
A pause flew by before she hears Frederick sigh. "You know how dangerous telling him off like that is. What if the Vanguard finds out, or worse the Speaker, about the nature of your 'fixing'. You know how he's an uptight one."
"Everything ok Freddie?" Summer asked noticing how quiet he's has gotten while talking to his ghost.
"Everything's fine Summer." He replied.
She then returned to gushing over the medieval like weapons.
0000
Deep in a Fallen bunker in the Plaguelands, a Devil Splicer was hard at work. This was a large fallen heavily modified with mechanical parts. Around its head was a pyramid-like construct that was constantly feeding him data and information. This was Kovik, Splicer Priest.
Kovik was busy with his work examining his latest test subject. In front of him, chained in place with SIVA Tendrils was a Hive Knight, roaring defiantly at him.
Paying no mind to it, he input commands into a console and grabbed a SIVA Fragment, no smaller than a human cell phone, brought it up to its head and said, "Enhance." then threw it at the chained subject.
After landing at the knights feet it erupted into a swarm of SIVA nanites engulfing the Knight. It coughed and hacked as the nanites found their way into its body. As the last of the nanites wer inhaled, the Knight twitched and spasmed. Its eyes shifting from green to red, as mechanical horns erupted from its head.
After if finished twitching, the Splicer Priest pushed a button and the chains dissipated. It approached the Hive Knight and said, "Archon Prime, can you hear me?" The knight looked him in the eye and spoke in the archons voice, "Connection established. Another for our ranks." The Knight slowly got up, then left through a tunnel that led deeper into the complex, joining more fellow Knights now slaved to SIVA and by extension, the Archon Prime.
The Splicer Priest turned to a workbench and looked at its latest achievements. It knew full well that it's only a matter of time before the Replication Chamber was either sealed away again or worse, destroyed. So the Archon Prime chose him to create their most holiest of objects: A series of weapons so immersed in the machine gift that in time, would create more of the gift itself. A weapon that doubled as a miniaturized Replication Chamber. It already made several prototype weapons using human weapons as the base. A Sniper rifle he himself dubbed EX MACHINA, an assault rifle dubbed GENESIS CHAIN. But his holy grail was a human pulse rifle called OUTBREAK PRIME. That one had the most promise to be self-sustaining. It was only a few steps away from perfect completion.
An alarm on his console alerted him that more Hive on the surface have been caught in one of his traps, and another notified him that a Hive Ogre was caught in another. Putting his assignment on hold, he alerted his skiffs to pick up his newest test subjects and collected a weapon from his bench signalling a large group of Devil Splicers to fall in on the Ogre.
00000
Summer sat on the steps of what appears to the council chamber of the Temple looking about the stone etchings that predated the City. She gazed critically at the art, as if wanting to double check something.
Frederick walked up to her side. "Someone on your mind?"
"Cayde's secretary." Summer idly mentioned, while still looking at the art. "He's… well, not the usual kind of guardian you'd expect."
"And you think he could have been an ex-Iron Lord?"
"Not an Iron Lord. If anything, he studied beside them in order to learn their secrets." She then turned her gaze away. "Mainly wanted to try and confirm some suspicions by trying to read into this. He and I sparred some time ago on Remnant, and he put up a really good fight."
Frederick hummed in thought. "Sounds like he should've been here a long time ago. Wonder why Saladin hadn't mentioned him?"
A brief silence fell between them, as they looked at the art in silence, just admiring the well-crafted beauty before them.
"You think Tai and Qrow will make it?" She asks.
"Well if they survived this long, who knows? They'll probably just need better gear. Everyone knows if you give a six year old a grown up's weapon, accidents will happen."
Summer laughed at the last bit knowing one of Ruby's old escapades that was eerily similar to what he just said.
Then she remembered something else. About the dream she had before she got there.
"You know," she said, turning to him. "I never actually bothered to go looking for my old sword. Maybe after this is all over with, I'll take a leave from duty to go find it."
Frederick's eyes narrowed. "I'm sure you know how the Vanguard feels about that, right?"
"Cayde's got my back."
"Cayde's also not what most would refer to as "a voice of reason". And the Vanguard would likely only let you delve into your past with your family because of who you are, and the fact they're alive. Other than that, they'd most likely punish you for digging too much. Though something as trivial as ticking off Zavala has never stopped you before, has it?"
"Heh, true." Summer replied. "Also, you ever notice how Lord Saladman has been a bit more… emotional lately?"
Frederick walked down a few steps not taking his eyes off the stone art.
"A ghost from his past has come back to haunt him. And most likely is taking the emotions in stride due to losing all his comrades that he'd considered brothers and sisters. With him being the sole survivor? I don't blame him. That kind of guilt wrecks anyone."
He then looked back to her.
"This I know." He stated lowly and sighs.
He walks back up the stairs and pats her shoulder.
"I'll cover for you if you want to go searching for that old piece of yours. Maybe help repair it. You have more than any right to go find it. Get some rest and think about it. After all this sword's been with me since my first life." He gave a few taps to the sword on his back, before leaving to outside the temple to leave Summer some privacy in her thoughts. Then Drei returned to her side.
"Something the matter?"
"No just thinking." She replied
"Naomi didn't fill your head with nothings did she?"
"Freddie's Ghost? No bit she seemed a but frustrated or… something. Did you have anything to do with that?"
"She's… like you in a way of being free spirited. But nothing to worry about. What's on your mind?"
"It just feels weird being away from Ruby and Yang… I don't know." Summer said.
She then pulled out her scroll, and then connected to the ComSat relay that was giving communications between Remnant and Earth. Once the device connected, she tapped a button with Ruby's face on it.
"HEY MOM!" Ruby yelled, as the sound of blades crossing each other was heard.
"Ruby what's going on?" Summer asked, already worried for Ruby at the noise in the background.
"Training in Lord Shaxx's class with Yatuhashi!" Ruby replied quickly as she again heard another sound of swords clashing.
"Why?"
"Oh, bought a new sword with the materials you left behind for me. Was I not supposed to spend anything on like that?"
"No, no, it's yours… though I may have given a bit too much..."
"Oh ok. Thanks this sword I got is AWESOME by the way. I originally wanted to experiment on it, but Shaxx said I needed to be more versatile. And get used to a different weapon if I'm to continue using my new sword if I were to use it."
"Daisy got you it?" Summer grinned knowingly.
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
"After your class sweetie."
"PUT THAT SCROLL AWAY!" Shaxx voice blasted through the speaker. "IF YOU DON'T FOCUS YOU WILL LOSE A HAND!"
"SORRY!" Ruby shouted back. A thud was heard, and then the call ended abruptly.
Summer sighs. "At least she's taking more after me now… I guess whatever I'm doing is working?"
"I don't know whether to find that scary or endearing…" Drei dryly replied. "But at least she hasn't picked up your hobby of abhorrent puns Though I can't speak for her sister..."
00000
When the morning sun rose, Summer was surprised to see Tai and Qrow already up and planning the assault.
"Ok, we got an attack plan for this whole SIVA replicator thingy Saladin is making a fuss about." Qrow immediately started off, laying down a map of the Plaguelands that he borrowed from Shiro-4.
Summer blinked. "You mean you guys actually put thought into this? I thought it we'd just put a couple arc charges in and shoot up all the machine zombies."
"Yeah, well Qrow doesn't seem to be the kind for playing cheap. Also because he just thought of something we didn't realize earlier." Tai said, a grin on his face as he spoke.
"When we go in and put in the arc charges to disable their defenses, it'll probably cause a big chain reaction that'd cause a big boom." Qrow said, outlining where the overload would lead to. "Now, since we know the fallen tend to be a bunch of cave dwellers, it should be obvious that if we steal something they like, or just piss them off enough in general, we can lure them out to where the big explosion will mainly take place, taking a massive number of soldiers into the grave from their well-guarded base." He then circles the Archon's Keep, with the drawing of an explosion on top of it
"Most likely, but now that we know they can control the SIVA lines like a tentacle we'd need to watch. Where everything is connected." Frederick pointed out. "They could come out at any time like it did back on Mars and grab you."
"And that's alright. Because I got a little magic trick up my sleeve for that occasion." Qrow said with a smirk, rubbing his hands as he did so. "So I'll be the one doing the luring. Fred, we'll need to borrow your ship, Tai and Summer will go and quickly activate the overload when I need them to."
"What will I be doing? Overwatch?" Fred asked crossing his arms. "I'm not sitting out just because Summer is here."
"If I recall correctly, Saladin needed to talk to you about the yapping guy. Something about darkness or whatnot." Qrow pointed out. "But, we could use the lift before you go. Summer doesn't have a ship after all."
"Oh goddamnit… I hate that guy so much." Frederick sighs and sounds frustrated. "I'll give ya a ride. Though I'm gonna have a permanent migraine at this rate."
He then walked out of the room to start up his ship. Just as Qrow was about to step out as well, Summer put a hand on Qrow's shoulder.
"Hey Qrow can you not mention my reputation around Fred?"
Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Was it obvious I was going to lead into that?"
"He doesn't get jealous or ballistic about it. It's just that the Speaker has made his life hell after he chose his family over his duty as a Guardian. Granted he still is one, but his family is on rocky grounds with the Speaker. He especially hates it when he's around me."
Qrow narrows his eyes at that, as well as Tai, who then spoke. "And no one is stopping this dude? He must be worse than Jacques!"
"It's more complicated than that." She says before sighing. "Long story short. The Speaker doesn't like other religions, like say the religion of the two gods back on Remnant."
"Speaking of which, Oz has noticed a rather massive drop in that as well…" Qrow couldn't help but note in thought, look at Tai who was thinking the same.
The three then shared a look between each other, before nodding in collective agreement.
Hopefully somebody would come along and change things for the better here. They then walked out of the Temple, into Frederick's ship and took off.
00000
The three were then dropped off at Lord's Watch, after having been transported by Frederick to the Plaguelands.
"This is as far as I can take you. Any further, and I'd be alerting the splicers that you're coming. Qrow, I hope you know what you're doing."
The titan then looked out from his pilot seat to see Qrow missing. Summer and Tai quickly noticed as well, after no response came from him.
"Where did he go?" Shiro asked over the line.
"Wow dick move man." Frederick replied on comms.
"WHY AREN'T YOU USING THE SPARROW?!" Tai shouted at a crow, who was flying away.
"Hey wait, didn't he do this?..."
The crow then turned around, squawking at Tai in his usual bird language "I'm a bird, BITCHES!", before it then turned around to continue flying to its destination. Tai groans in annoyance.
"Right, lets just get moving."
"What the fuck?" Frederick stated in surprise as well as silence for a good few moments. "Was he able to do that the whole time?"
"Yep." The two said in unison.
He then turned the ship around shaking his head as he did so.
"I'm gonna need a drink after this."
"I mean, it helps with doing the monkey with her, right?" Summer teased, smirking as she did.
Frederick was now in complete, total shock and disbelief, that Summer could even make a pun that involved the thought of him doing… THAT with his wife.
"Strike that, I need a drink now…" Frederick awkwardly said.
"Take me with you..." Drei softly whispered to himself.
Leaving the three humans in search of the nearest bar to drown his thoughts away of his friend's awfully done sex pun. Tai and Summer howled with laughter, and would've forgotten their mission if it weren't for a Hive Breeder dropping a poison cloud on top of Summer. Immediately drawing their ire at the rude interruption, Summer immediately pulled out her Gjallarhorn, and blasted the foolish wizard to ashes, as well as the few acolytes surrounding her.
"Well," Tai cleared his throat. "Shall we? Pretty sure some splicers have to be camping out there."
"Yeah we should." Summer replied putting away her Gjallarhorn.
The two then got on a sparrow, Tai clinging to Summer as she drove.
"Just for the record, you need to show me how to operate one of these things." Tai muttered under his breath, causing Summer to smirk under her helmet.
"Just gotta spread your wings is all." Summer giggled before revving the throttle and boosting off to Giant's Husk, as Tai held onto her for his life, experiencing a mixture of laughter, and terror from the sheer speeds he was going.
"The splicers built a fortress to protect the SIVA complex. Shortsightedly, they used the oil tanker as a reactor." Shiro-4 stated, as they drove. "That's our ticket."
"Roger that Shiro." Summer replied.
"Be careful Guardian, Huntsman.." Saladin said, as he then got on the line. "From here on out, you'll only have the support for one another."
Qrow gave a cocky squawk in response. This caused Saladin to pause for a moment.
"He's a bird now sir." Shiro, Tai, and Summer said in unison.
Saladin was quiet on the other end, but it was very clear that he was having trouble processing this.
The two then made it to Giant's Husk, quickly coming across the broken down ship. A small group of spliced soldiers were on guard, waiting for any intruders to come by. The whine of the sparrow made them immediately turn their focus on them, while one of their captains shouts an order to attack. SIVA laser fire streaked towards their direction Lighting up the area bright red. Tai jumped off and rolled to cover, while Summer then leapt into the air, immediately activating her arcblade and diving in, tearing through soldiers left and right as the smell of seared flesh and screams filled the air.
But Tai didn't just stay there. He whipped out a shotgun and ran up the stairs as the Fallen were distracted, decking a Dreg as well as taking down two sniper shanks, before blasting a captain with a well-aimed shot, breaking its shields as he then proceeded to roundhouse kick it off the ship, sending it to an untimely death.
Summer looked at Tai, impressed. "I didn't think you'd go and try that."
Taiyang sighs. "Look, I know I can be stuck-up sometimes, but I'm still a huntsman."
She then smiled. "I know. Still, thanks for the help. Snipers can be so annoying at times…"
The two then went deeper into the ship, and encountered four dregs, two of which earned two knife stabs, and the other two receiving punches in the face that knocked their heads off.
Tai wiped the infected ether off his arms, grimacing. "Is this a common thing for you guys? These things just dying in a single hit?"
Summer merely nodded.
"Well, I could imagine it being a devil of a time to wipe the stains off the armor. Especially with your cloak."
Summer then proceeded to laugh, before Qrow groaned in the comms.
"Are you guys there yet? Or are you just making puns at the drop off point?"
"Hey, no need to hail hellfire on us birdie." Summer teased.
00000
Qrow Branwen, meanwhile, was sitting around in annoyance, as he listened to the onslaught of puns, before eventually getting irritated enough. "Look, I've already made it to Archon's Keep, and am about to piss these guys off by teasing them with one of their prized offerings." He said, as he lazily threw the Perfected SIVA Offering up and down. "So if you could get a move on and disable the SIVA already, that'd be great. Because eventually they're gonna catch on."
"...Did you make sure not to lick it?"
"Oh for the love of-" Qrow sighs in annoyance, and cuts off the comms. He then peaks out from his hiding spot.
Dozens, if not up to a hundred of high-value splicers were standing in the room, angrily tearing apart the place as they tried to search for him. He looked at his scroll, and attempted to see their location. They were at the reactor, most likely busy dealing with some fallen guards at the moment. "Good…" He then smirked, as he then stood up, clearing his throat.
The splicers below quickly noticed him, and aimed their weapons at him. When the man had no reaction, they slowly began to look curiously at the intruder, confused as to what to do. Speaking to no one in particular, Qrow called out.
"Hey Aksis. How's it hanging buddy?"
"You…" the Archon's voice crackled through the body of a nearby servitor. "You're not the brightest of folk, are you?"
"Well I was standing here the whole time." He held his arms out to the sides. "Sooo, kettle meet pot?"
"You're a brave one, Qrow Branwen." Aksis said, as the SIVA defense systems came alive. "But you've only played into our hands."
SIVA tendrils then slowly made his way to the ledge he was on. Qrow looked at them curiously, as if they were supposed to do something. A beep from his scroll then notified him that his job was done.
"Do you scavengers happen to know Neutron?"
"Neutron?"
"Because," Qrow chucked the offering at the Servitor. "I gotta blast!"
He morphed almost immediately, catching all the splicers off guard, as he quickly flew away. There was a stunned silence for a few moments.
And then a rumble shuddered throughout the room.
00000
The SIVA tendril going along the coast line kept overloading the nodes on it as the two drove. Tai kept looking in the direction of the keep, a little worried for Qrow as they sped past fallen soldiers.
Summer was also worried, more so than Tai. She looked to him. "You think he'll be OK?"
"Knowing Qrow, he's probably already in bird form after luring a decent amount of them to the surface." Tai's face scrunched up in thought. "He SHOULD be fine, but what if-" He was then cut off by an explosion off in the distance, signifying that the overload had finally activated. Hundreds of burning splicer bodies launched out into the skies, falling back to the ground with some of them landing in lava. For a moment, they were silent, as they moved into full view of the explosion.
They looked for any sign of Qrow, before hearing the sound of a flask being dropped. Slowly, they turned around to face the source of the noise.
"Bah, fuckin thing is empty at a time like this…" Qrow slurred out from on top of a rock, before raising a middle finger at the air. "Huntsmen 1. Guardians… ehhh, maybe 1.5, I'll give 'em that since they helped us out back home, and assisted in my gambit."
He then turned to them, looking Tai in the eyes as he then picked up a scorch cannon he stole on the way out. "Isn't it a thing where the ladies are supposed to go first?"
"Fuck you too Qrow."
00000
Aquilos:Now for our favorite part, Viewer Mail. I would like to take this chance to say, that while we love the support, using Guest accounts makes it really hard to respond to you guys. Please have proper accounts, we like talking to you.
Iron Lord Gore:Ok 2 things 1st has anyone seen saint 14? Or osiris? We where supposed to get a drink with taiko. 2nd someone needs to talk to team rwby about intimacy as well... let's say the vault of glass had some simulations inside and we need to be prepared if the true form of the darkness comes to pass.
Diluation:Aquilos, may I use the angry welsh voice here?
Aquilos: Approved, you may proceed.
Diluation:Thank you. *ahem*
OK. So if you go into the Infinite Forest, you do one of the story missions for future Mercury you get during the CoO campaign. WE SEE HIS BLOODY CORPSE! SAINT-14 IS ALREADY DEAD, AND OSIRIS, IS BEING THE INFINITE HERMIT, IN THE INFINITE FOREST, KNOWING THAT HE IS DEAD! HE IS STIFF! HE IS BEREFT OF LIFE! HE IS FUCKING DEAD JIM!
*clears throat* Thank you for the review.
Beyond the dying stars light: Are you going to include the God's reactions to all of this?
Aquilos: Ok see that scenario's a bit more complicated since having the twin Gods around kinda derails a lot of other things. What we can tell you all right now is that we're working on trying to fit these pieces together, but it's a challenge to not make it sound like we're just pulling crap out of our ass.
Diluation:It was also one of the issues that delayed the chapter. Ptabs' notes are still being looked over as we go to this very day, and we're not all on at the same time when we work, which makes collaboration difficult.
Guest: Don't tell me that the bad guys are going to get the Relic of Knowledge!?
Aquilos: We're not there yet. Relax
Diluation: Also, you forget what generally happens when a superior allying force comes walking up to your front door.
Another Guest:I would like to see you guys take on warframe similar to ptabs take on destiny like remnant is in the tau system and the Tenno rediscover it.
Diluation:I have no experience, nor drive with Warframe whatsoever. Though that said, I do have some other ideas that sort of follow Ptabs' formula with the Remnant of a Rose. I'll talk about them next chapter if anyone happens to be interested, or just PMs me directly.
Aquilos: Hi 5 year warframe veteran here, I'm just gonna say that the massive technological, cultural, and overall power gap between the Warframe Universe and RWBYverse is way too big to bridge. And to try a crossover ends with 1 of four scenarios.
Remnant gets screwed by Grineer
Remnant gets bankrupted and enslaved by Corpus
Remnant gets scorched by Sentients
Infested happens
Alright? Alright.
We have been Fireteam Nero, and thanks for joining us again.
~ In memory of Ptabs0101 ~