"Move it!" Ilia yelled as she shoved Neela and the other three Faunus into the poorly lit cave in front of her, greeting two men with guns that rushed over to her quickly and looked at her captures.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"Zilla sent for these Faunus, they've been running around the area for the last several weeks, not to mention I caught the one that was running around with those Huntsmen from Beacon, I'm sure that Mallory must have said something to you about her," Ilia told them. "Does Zilla want them dead or alive, because I can just kill them quick out here before I drag them in to see her."
"No!" shouted the other man. "She'll want them alive! We'll take you right to her!"
"Thank you," Ilia told them. They led her through a narrow cavern before two men passed by to replace them, they exchanged a few words, the replacements nodding at her with a smile and she smirked back as she shoved Honey forward. "Move it Faunus!"
"You don't need to do this!" Apophis yelled. Ilia kicked him in the back of the leg, causing him to stumble before grabbing him by his restraints and forcing him forward. The four Faunus kept pace before her until they reached a large empty den, small campfires were scattered about as well as bedrolls, several of the bandits nudged each other and stared at the entourage that was headed towards the back of the cave where a woman sat behind a curtain, concealing her immediate appearance. The men approached the stage, clearing their throats.
"Zilla. It seems that we've had a late night delivery," the first man informed her.
"Is that so?" She asked. Her voice seemed silky, a slight amusement in the three words she uttered as she stood slowly, extinguishing her lantern and destroying her silhouette, her arm protruding through the veil and she pulled it back, stepping out onto the stage with her hands on her hips and her knife in hand. Neela glanced up at her, the gravity of what she was staring at set in slowly and her eyes grew wide as she trembled. The woman chuckled as she licked the knife in her hand, flipping it about as she walked to the edge of the stage and looked down at them. "I'm not quite familiar with who you are."
Ilia was unable to find words right away to answer her with. The woman had dark red hair that was about shoulder length, it curled tightly and offset her dark purple eyes. It was the rest of Zilla that caused them concern, the top of her head was a mess of various horns, antlers, and Faunus ears. She wore a necklace that was made of fangs and tusks, wings extended from the back of each arm, several tails protruded from her posterior. She wore a skirt and bikini top of sorts that seemed to be made out of some kind of animal hide.
"My name is Irina," Ilia told her. "I ran into your man Mallory earlier today."
"Is that so?" Zilla asked staring at Neela the entire time.
"Told me that you're the kind of woman who has a severe problem with Faunus," Ilia told her. "I'm not too fond of them myself, so when I ran into the four of them this evening and was able to catch them with relative ease, I decided that maybe they should be brought here."
"This one," Zilla stated, still fixated on Neela. "What on her is Faunus? I'm having a hard time finding anything."
"She claims it's her eyes," Ilia replied with a shrug. Zilla smiled wickedly as she leapt down and grabbed Neela by the chin, examining her face.
"I don't have a pair of Faunus eyes yet," Zilla excitedly noted. "All of these trophies that I've had implanted, yet I still lack eyes." She raised the hand holding the knife. "That ends today!" Suddenly, the cave was plunged into darkness as a blast of wind Dust thrashed through the room and snuffed out every torch and lantern all at once. Ilia leapt into Apophis's body as he took a step back, they glanced back to find Titus rushing in with their weapons. In the middle of the chaos, Zilla had swung her knife around, catching Neela in the arm as she blocked the blow. Zilla's body glowed red with tribal design tattoos, reigniting all of the torches and revealing Coco, Titus, and Eliana towards the back of the area.
"We have you outnumbered," Neela told her with a smirk.
"If outnumbering me was all it took, I would have been bested long ago," Zilla told Neela.
"Step back from her Zilla!" Coco shouted. "On behalf of the Remnant Peace Council, you're under arrest for the killing of multiple Faunus, as well as under investigation for selling their remains."
"Should I be scared?" Zilla asked. "These Faunus need to be taught a lesson, we need to make an example of them, of the rest of Remnant! If we let them go unchecked, it's only a matter of time before they try and overthrow us. We'll be slaves to the species that we once ruled over ourselves. The White Fang are mobilizing again! The ones that were here in Mistral have already joined their brethren in have something planned and I cannot sit by and let that happen!"
Zilla reached out quickly, her reflexes faster than Neela could even counter and she grappled Neela, another set of tattoos glowing light blue and throwing up a massive ice wall between the two of them and everyone else. Zilla slammed Neela against the rickety wooden boards that made up the makeshift stage, slamming her through it and releasing her. Underneath was a cavern that nearly matched the previous in size, though the majority of it was filled with water. Neela prepared to grapple back up but Zilla leapt down and blocked the hook with her knife, landing in the water where Neela had been before the girl dove out of the way.
"Dust tattoos?" Neela asked.
"Perceptive, aren't we?" Zilla asked. Neela grappled up, noting that the woman had covered their escape with stone using earth Dust. There was no getting out of this, and Neela's weapon hadn't reached her before Zilla had cornered her. She had to hold her off until her teammates could reach her. She slid across the wet uneven rock formation as Zilla had already reached her, using her ice Dust to dash across the water and reach Neela. Neela blocked her blow, nailing her in the jaw and forcing her back into the water. "You don't really think that you can defeat me, do you?"
"I'm sure as hell going to try," Neela said as she bounced on her feet and waited for the woman to reach her once more.
"You think that you're the first one to put up a fight?" Zilla asked. "You all really do think you're better than everyone else, don't you? Just because you have horns, ears, tails, or eyes. It's disgusting. And that's why someone needs to put an end to it. That's why I am going to put an end to it." Zilla shot out of the water using wind Dust, as she reached Neela and tried the same attack again, Neela was this time greeted with stone that covered the woman's arm. She'd used the water to conceal the earth Dust armoring her. Zilla grinned before throwing Neela back, a stalagmite breaking her momentum and causing her to cry out as her aura took a significant hit.
Neela blocked the next two swings, grappling Zilla and forcing the two of them away from the earthen pike. Zilla's feet slid across the slick platform, offering Neela another chance to send her into the water but this time Zilla formed a wall of ice behind herself to prevent that from happening. The sudden stop gave Neela the momentum to throw her weight, driving her shoulder into Zilla's. The woman grabbed at the pain in surprise opening her up for another blow from Neela to her stomach, the slip up proved enough time to allow Neela to grapple to the other end of the underground lake.
"Just because the White Fang are planning on a hostile takeover or whatever their end goal is, doesn't mean that all of us are evil," Neela tried explaining. "You can't possibly think what you're doing is okay."
"You all sound the same," Zilla muttered as she walked across the water towards her. "Tell me that you truly don't think that you're better. You have heightened senses, the ability to see in the dark. Clearly, the gods blessed the Faunus to be the evolutionary successor to humans. Even if it's locked within the depths of your subconscious, all of you know it to be true. "
"We're not all like that!" Neela refuted as Zilla rushed in, forcing Neela to leap back as her opponent threw several empty swings.
"It doesn't matter," Zilla seethed as she moved in more quickly than Neela expected and kneed her in the gut. Neela doubled over, an instinctive mistake that cost her part of her aura as Zilla kicked her in the face. Neela reeled back, staring up at the monster that smiled down at her. "Even the weak minded need to be killed off so that the Fang know we mean business. The human race isn't going to just take this lying down. We're ready to fight if that's what it takes, and I'm more than willing to commit genocide if it means that the Faunus are aware of their place."
"Neela!" Came a shout from the hole high above them. Zilla furrowed her brow as she quickly spun around, her tattoos flaring up once again before she resealed the hole by covering the entire cavern above them with another thick layer of rock. Titus dropped in, thrashing against the stone as Coco held off the other bandits that tried to close in on them, Eliana helped at her side. Honey scrambled in after Titus with Lueur on her heels.
"Did you get a glimpse in there?" Honey asked. Lueur shook her head, Apophis landed with a crash beside Titus, joining him in his assault on the barrier. "As long as Lueur can get a good look at the area, we should be able to teleport in and help Neela!" Ilia grabbed Titus and leapt into his body with Neela's quiver and bow.
"Clear this thing out for a moment and you can throw me down there before she can reseal it," Ilia told him.
"She did quite a number on this layer in such a short amount of time," Titus told Ilia. "It's going to take a moment."
"Neela!" Eliana called out again as she fired into the seemingly endless horde of thieves that had somehow overpopulated the tunnels of their underground dwelling in nearly impossible proportions. "We're coming, just hold out for a little while longer!"
"I'm doing my best," Neela shouted back as she blocked blow after blow, redirecting Zilla and attempting to back her into the lake once more. It was no use, the woman had a good footing now and with every passing moment, she seemed to be using more and more Dust which must have affected her judgment. She became more feral and seemed to trade off her ability to rationalize. Neela found openings, but with Zilla's growing speed she couldn't hope to land a solid blow without her weapon.
"Stay still!" Zilla yelled at her. "I don't want to mar that pretty face of yours!" Bits of rock fell and landed between them, Zilla glanced up in time to see Coco's purse crash through the ceiling, Titus launching himself as Zilla threw a large concentrated blast of wind Dust back, throwing him off balance. She turned, instantly removing all of the water as her eyes became the color of ice Dust, blocking the intruders this time with ice and grabbing Neela, throwing them into the now empty lake.
"Neela!" Ilia yelled. Honey quickly grabbed the quiver and sword from Ilia, leaping through a portal with Lueur and turning her gauntlets into blades. She planted them in the wall, tossing the items back for Neela to grab as she tumbled through the air into the depths of the pit which was filled with darkness, the only silver lining to the situation. Neela landed first, using her hook to soften her landing as Zilla crashed against the bottom and leapt instantly to her feet with a laugh, blood trickling from the corners of her mouth.
"Today you'll learn the true power of the human race," Zilla shouted. Neela pulled her sword from the earth as it struck beside her, blocking Zilla as she'd coated her hands in both stone and flames. "The Faunus will never trifle with us again! I will be the savior of humanity!" Neela's eyes widened.
The humans don't care about the Faunus. They can't and never will. We're too different. Stay as far away from them as you can and whatever you do, don't trust them.
"Neela!" A shout rang out. Eliana? Ilia? Honey? None of them fit! "Neela! Hurry!" The nightmare around her shifted suddenly, plunging her into blinding white light and spinning the earth beneath her. Blake and Yang stood at the other end of the tunnel, and a monster laughed behind her and she looked back to see Athena, the woman completely Grimm and covered in bone armor.
"Don't trust the humans, Neela!" Athena commanded her. "Stay here and fight beside me!" Neela glanced around frantically. All of the other Fang members around her grinned evilly, their bodies transforming into those of Grimm, their masks melding to their faces. "I am the only option that the Faunus have! Equality is a joke! We're better than these animals!" Animals? Neela only wanted it to stop… all of this.
"Neela!" Yang called out again. Neela's feet were frozen, she didn't know how she'd gotten here. Was this real? Where was Eliana? The pounding in her ears thundered louder than her thoughts… it was her anxiety, something had triggered it… A pain in her chest reminded her that the world she was viewing was fake. She hit her knees, a knife appearing first in her ribs before the rest of the scene formed, Zilla held it in her grasp with wild eyes. She couldn't change this woman. She couldn't make her see the truth… This was real life. There was no one here to save them from the taunting like at school. No one to call off the match if her aura broke. It felt more real than when she'd taken on the Stardust Gang. The world was cruel and ignorant. Radical. Mistaken. In pain.
"Neela!" Honey called out from behind the rock barrier that had been formed around them. From the color of Zilla's eyes and the light glowing out of her skin, Neela assumed that they'd been buried alive, Honey was hardly audible. "You have to remember that humans aren't bad. Even outside of the ones you know and love. Neither side is right. We can live together. It's what Father would have wanted." Neela's eyes lit up once more, her new friend was right. This was just one case, an extreme in a world of normal. She had to remember that. She needed to stay focused.
"It's too late for your friend," Zilla replied to them. "Even she knows that the humans can't be stopped."
"You don't speak for the humans," Neela told her struggling against her grip, forcing her slowly to push the knife out as they struggled against each other. "Just like Athena doesn't speak for all of the Faunus."
"Don't be a fool," Zilla grunted as Neela climbed to her feet, struggling against the woman. "Even if they don't say it, it's what they're all thinking."
"How can you know that?" Neela asked. "I can't speak for every Faunus just as you can't speak for every human. We must speak for ourselves." Neela pushed her back, batting her away with her sword, stepping back as Zilla planted against the wall of the barrier she'd created. "I am Neela Xiao Long. I speak only for myself!"
"I've never lost to a Faunus before, I'm not going to start now!" Zilla shouted. She rushed forward, Neela blocking her before planting an arrow between them and covering her ears, her eyes clamped shut as the flashbang exploded, but Zilla had moved quickly to coat it in ice, rendering it harmless as she took advantage of Neela's blindness. She struck out, Neela using her semblance to parry the blade twice before flipping out her bow and firing several quick shots above them. They stuck in the mass around them, exploding and obliterating chunks that Zilla distracted herself with fixing. Neela occupied her before she could finish. "I'm not afraid of you!"
"And I'm not afraid of you," Neela replied as she followed the same steps again. A hand burst through the top of the dome this time, catching Neela's grapple as she fired it and pulling her out. "Thanks, Apophis." He smirked.
"You did most of the work," he replied. He leapt off with her and set her down as the earthen hill crumbled and Zilla looked at all of them with wild eyes, her body tearing apart at the seams, cuts and lacerations from the exertion the Dust placed on her physically seeped blood as she glanced around at them.
"I won't be taken alive as long as there are Faunus still living!" Zilla shouted. Coco nudged Ilia.
"This is why we recommend against Dust tattoos," she told her. Ice pikes rose up beneath all of them, most of them dove out of the way with Coco opting to leap onto hers and Honey was removed from harm by Lueur. Coco opened fire on the woman whose arms were slowly becoming stone themselves, coated in a thick layer of ice. She blocked the bullets, leaping into the air with the assistance of wind Dust, her fists met Coco's purse and they both threw each other back with the force of their countering attacks. "I'll kill you if you won't come quietly."
"What?" Titus asked. "Is that a decision you're allowed to make?"
"Only if she leaves us no other choice. I'm not going to allow her to hurt any of you and with the more Dust she uses, the more unstable she's going to become," Coco explained to them as she landed on her feet. Honey and Lueur charged in, Honey forming larger aura gauntlets over her actual pair.
"Apophis!" Honey yelled. He slipped through a portal that Lueur formed behind Zilla, hooking the woman's arms with Lueur's blades and holding them back, allowing Honey a free shot, hammering the woman in the gut but to no effect as she had just enough time to coat her stomach in earth Dust. Honey swung back around, nailing her in the jaw before leaping back, it had the same effect as her last attack.
"I will not be taken down by the likes of you!" Zilla yelled.
"Then how about the likes of us?" Titus asked as he rushed in. She dodged his initial attack, kicking him hard enough to send him careening away, Ilia leapt out before he'd stumbled too far and tried to get in close but Zilla had formed an ice blade and Ilia was forced to block quickly. Eliana opened fire, replacing the space that Titus had occupied but Zilla threw her back with wind Dust, overpowering Ilia and forcing her away. Zilla leapt back, using brute strength to remove Apophis from her path. She struck Titus once again, dropping him to one knee before slugging him in the temple, forcing him to the ground before creating a stone platform above them on the side of the wall and leaping towards it with the assistance of her wind Dust.
Neela grappled her ankle, pulling her down and slamming her off of the ground, the woman's black aura fizzled, taking considerable amounts of damage as she leapt to her feet immediately but found herself face to face with Coco.
"I'm not real keen on the likes of you," Coco told her. She dug her boots in as the woman attempted to throw her back using wind Dust again, taking two shots that Coco blocked with her purse before swinging around and letting her weapon crash into Zilla's chin. Zilla's Dust saved her for the moment but was obliterated upon contact, leaving her face disfigured. They all paused for a moment with the exception of Coco who blocked two more punches from Zilla who was trying to buy herself time to escape the situation. Was her body itself becoming Dust from the over usage?
"How can you side with those filthy animals?!" Zilla screamed out.
"What have they ever done?" Coco asked as she kicked Zilla in the chest.
"Don't you get it?" Zilla asked. "It's not about what they've done, it's about what they're going to do!" Zilla blasted fire at Coco, finally driving her away and freeing herself for a moment. "I was around for Adam, and Athena isn't any better. The Faunus as a whole aren't going to rest until they're perched above the rest of humanity, watching us from their tower once they've enslaved us or worse yet, wiped us all out. They can't be trusted."
"How is what you want any different?" Neela asked. Zilla laughed as her entire body was consumed by flames.
"I never said that it was," Zilla exclaimed. "But the important thing is that the humans stay on top where they belong."
"We need to put a stop to this," Coco told them. "Neela, have your team confine and detain her."
"Formation seven?" Titus asked.
"Worth a shot," Neela replied. "Honey, can you guys keep her distracted?"
"We can try," Honey called back. Titus slammed his kopides into the ground, raising a set of stone walls around Zilla, keeping her in place for a few fleeting seconds before she used and wind blade to slice it in half, revealing Apophis who was a few steps from her and his fist slammed into her's. The force of the matching blows crashed through the air, forcing Honey to form a shield as she rushed in, changing her weapon into dual blades and cutting Zilla's arm. Zilla tried forcing Apophis away, resulting in another shockwave as Lueur opened a portal between the two of them, dropping from above and hooking her sickles over Zilla's shoulders, slamming her against the floor as she slipped through a portal with her friends.
Neela fired an earth arrow, coating the woman as she attempted to break free, Titus and Ilia sprinting in for an attack. As Zilla found her feet Eliana used a forcefield to throw her onto her back, Titus swinging his blades through the air to create steam to conceal them. Something gripped Zilla as she used wind Dust to disperse the fog, Titus was gone and replaced by Eliana who had opened a volley of fire. Zilla raised a wall of ice, separating them before hitting her knees.
"What's going on?" She asked.
Is something wrong, Zilla?
"Get out of my head!" Zilla yelled. Lueur opened a portal behind Zilla again, allowing Coco to step through.
"You got her, Ilia?" Coco asked.
"I've got whatever's left of her," Zilla replied to her. Coco restrained Zilla with a set of shackles, allowing Ilia to leave the body and take cover as she took a step back. "Is this supposed to stop me?" A flashbang arrow split the air between the two women and exploded, blinding and deafening Zilla. Coco slammed her purse into Zilla's nose. She landed on her back one last time, finally unconscious as Coco stood above her out of breath.
"We did it!" Honey shouted out. She leapt at Lueur, tackling her. "We did it! We helped Neela catch Zilla!" Neela smiled at them as Coco pulled Zilla to her feet, letting Titus pick her up and slung her over his shoulder. Coco approached Neela and patted her on the shoulder.
"You did good kid," Coco told her. "But if you could not disappear on me ever again, that would be great." Neela laughed.
"I'll do my best not to," Neela chuckled.
"So are we heading back right away?" Ilia asked. Eliana glanced over at them as Apophis and the other two Faunus joined her and Titus to thank them for their help.
"I think we can take another day for a bit of sightseeing, we've earned it," Coco told her. She smiled at Neela who nodded. She couldn't agree more.
After working together, NITE and their new friends managed to defeat Zilla, making the area safer for Faunus to live once more. Next week: Chapter 83 - A Step Forward!
Special continued thanks to SketchHungry for letting us use Honey and Lueur, you can find her art on Tumblr and Twitter!
A big thank you to Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay classy!