Chapter 2

Nick stretched his hand out, feeling the snowflakes softly land on his scarred palm. The snow crunched audibly under his boots, as he retraced the steps to his favorite resting spot without using his Semblance. He smiled when his palm touched a cold tree trunk, realizing that he hadn't made any wrong turns this time. Leaning back against the great old tree, Nick let his mind settle, grateful to be enjoying his current break.

Just over a month since Nick had woken up, and winter was well and truly here. His hopes of getting back into action quickly were ruthlessly dashed the moment he left the hospital. Being stuck in a bed for so long was terrible for his muscles, and he was initially so weak that he couldn't even walk without crutches. Undergoing the harsh recovery regimen set by Doc left Nick's whole body battered and sore by the time he went to bed. Yet every morning he felt just a little stronger; just a little bit closer to where he was before. At times, his desperation and anger were the only fuel that got him through the day, because Nick knew that it wasn't just his body that was weaker. His blindness left him crippled, and he only partially mitigated it by using his Semblance. Summoning his father's spirit always took a fair chunk out of his Aura, and while maintaining it for longer periods was becoming easier, he realized that using it for any purpose other than combat would leave him perpetually Aura-starved. This meant that he was slower in his daily actions, always having to stop and feel things out with his other senses.. Nick bitterly recalled the moment he tried to cook himself a meal a few days ago. Something that was previously so simple and natural to him resulted in spilled bowls, singed fingers and him ultimately falling back to infusing everything with a bit of his Aura and using his Semblance to finish cooking. The worst part was, the meat got burnt on one side!

Another reason Nick was limited to using his Semblance for mostly combat was simply because of how it was activated. He'd spent fruitless hours trying to just will his father's spirit into being, but he always needed a physical grip on Dawn or Dusk. Dr. Polendina theorized that Nick's Semblance functioned by aligning and imprinting his own soul with a direct connection to the last objects his father left him, and ultimately Nick agreed. After all, he knew how notoriously strange his father's Semblance had been, or if it was even a proper Semblance at all. Remembering that he had a routine to follow, Nick gripped Dawn and activated his Semblance.

Having manifested on a sturdy branch above, Nick saw through his father's eyes and took in his surroundings. As expected, a grey landscape dotted with many colored lights greeted him, and he eventually took stock of where each light shone from. Closest to him were a few Aura signatures patrolling back and forth on the outer wall, which he knew were the militia of the sole settlement on the continent of Tenebris. Further away, and within the walls of the settlement, Nick sensed a multitude of Auras; vibrant in blue, yellow, white and purple, among other colors. These he knew to be the smattering of soldiers, scientists and huntsmen associated with Polendina Technologies. These people, and the establishment of Polendina Technologies, were the main factors in such a remote settlement not only surviving, but thriving on the only continent without a major kingdom. At the center of the settlement, where he felt the Aura concentrations to be the most intense, was the main building of the corporation. The points where he picked out only one or two Aura blips were the civilian establishments; shops, taverns, housing complexes, greenhouses and the like. Out in the distance, on the opposite end of the settlement and near the shoreline, was the small port, where a few small boats idly bobbed. As he tried to associate each Aura color with the person it belonged to, Nick was once again reminded of the final, and most damning reason of his Semblance being primarily suited for combat - he was unable to pick out any humans without activated Auras. Not just humans, but any inanimate object that he sensed with his Semblance needed to be infused with Aura from contact with an active user, and that only lasted for a few hours at most.

Almost on a whim, he turned the spirit away from the city, towards the dense forests inland. Now, instead of colored Aura shining brightly, he sensed only a dull black permeating the distance within all the grey. These were the Grimm, creatures of darkness. They didn't have any dormant Aura like humans or other living beings, but instead were truly soulless. This registered as a black, inky void that covered their entire being when Nick saw them through his Semblance. Focusing harder on it allowed him to make out the shapes of the closer ones that prowled the outer perimeter, which he quickly realized were the common Beowolves. So lost he became in identifying the Grimm further behind those that didn't even notice when someone placed a hand on his shoulder. However, the coldness of the touch confirmed it to be a prosthetic, and Nick only knew one person with such an arm currently present.

"Break's over then, Aki?"

"Yeah, there's an exercise I wanted you to try in order to confirm something. Let's head back inside. And stop scratching at your face, it won't help."

"Ah shit, I didn't even notice this time. Sorry."

...

"It'll be combating gunfire this time, and you'll be facing just me for the entirety of it," Aki spoke clearly from the other end of the training room. "We'll keep going until I run out of ammunition, you close the gap between us and make contact with me, or your aura drops below 20%."

Nick nodded, choosing to grip both Dawn and Dusk and summoning Mavros to stand directly behind him, who mirrored his own tense, coiled combat pose, holding the same weapons he did. Barely a second later, the sound of gunfire rang out, and Nick could see streaks of Aura fizzle out from the barrel of Aki's rifle. 'He's infusing his shots with Aura this time around', Nick thought to himself as he threw himself to the right, quickly rolling back up and starting to sprint along the edge of the arena. 'He knows I can react a lot better if he does that, is he trying to make it easier for me?' Before that train of thought could continue, the firing stopped and Nick noted Aki's imposing brown Aura recede slightly in brightness. Nick had trained with Aki enough to realize that this was the point that he was either switching guns or reloading. Thus, Nick immediately decided to make a beeline for Aki's position to deny him that opportunity. However, Aki was far too experienced a fighter to require more than a second, and Nick barely made it halfway when a fresh hail of lead rained down on his position. This time, his Semblance saw nothing except Aki's Aura, and the shorter distance meant that the bullets would hit him far quicker. In desperation, Nick sent his father's summon ahead of him to tank the bullets.

Three, five, eight hits and the spirit almost flickered out. At that instant, Nick flung all four copies of the chakram at Aki's position; the two from Mavros directly at him, and the ones in his own hands slightly to the left and right. All he needed to do, at the end of it all, was make contact. Then Aki did something that threw Nick completely off guard. The rifle in Aki's hands abruptly stopped firing and was flung straight at the two incoming chakrams. They slashed through the gun and left it a mangled mess, but dissipated right after, along with the rest of Nick's summon. Instead of shifting positions, Aki balled his fists and ran straight towards Nick. Lacking his summon, Nick didn't catch onto this maneuver until he heard his opponents' footsteps suddenly get a lot louder, while his own weapons clanged uselessly into the walls. Sucking in a panicked breath, Nick back-flipped once and tried to create some distance, while activating his gravity Dust gloves to call his chakrams back to him. All he could think of was how slow he had gotten as a punch thundered into his face and knocked him to the ground. Almost at that instant his chakrams came flying back to him, but the hit left him unbalanced and he missed grabbing onto Dusk, only barely managing to catch Dawn. By then Aki had drawn his sidearm and was peppering his prone form with bullets. His Aura was able to block them, but the sheer force behind the shots at such close range left him pinned down, and the sound of a distant buzzer a few seconds later was almost merciful.

Groaning in pain, Nick made to stand up, but found a foot pressing down hard on his chest that stopped him from doing so.

"I'm not gonna kiss your feet just because of the stunt you pulled, Aki. Now let me get up."

"Debrief, Nick. Tell me how you messed up."

Realizing Aki was now in full soldier mode, Nick quickly recapped the short fight in his head. "Well, for starters, I lost Mavros too quickly. Leaves me blinder than I already am. Also chose to attack you by throwing Dusk and Dawn instead of finding an alternative angle of approach. Then again, it was pretty all-or-nothing at that point," he recounted ruefully.

"And?"

"That bad, huh? My reaction to your counterattack was terrible. I was too close by the time I chose the ranged option. Holding on to even one of my chakrams would allow me to re-materialize Mavros and potentially ward off your attacks until the next window of attack."

"Hmm." Aki seemed to contemplate that answer for a few moments, never moving his foot off of Nick's chest. This went on for almost a solid minute, and Nick was almost thinking that this was part of the exercise and he had to free himself somehow, before the pressure on his chest eased up and he was yanked to his feet.

"You're a smart kid, Nick. You figure out what mistakes you make pretty quickly, you adapt as well as you can with the limitations you have and you're giving it your absolute best." A pause, as he bent down to pick up the pieces of the destroyed gun. "Despite all of that, I'm surprised you haven't worked out the core issue you have during combat exercises." Aki made that assessment almost as if he was talking about the weather, and the passiveness of the tone stung at Nick. The disappointment and aching muscles of another failed training exercise didn't help, either.

"Care to explain what that is?" Nick answered, tone half-challenging.

"Walk with me." Aki quickly stepped out of the training room and began to walk along the hallway, while Nick stretched a little before taking a few long strides to catch up to him.

The pair walked in silence for some time, passing by more training rooms, equipment and Dust storage areas, residence halls and even the main mess hall, where lunch was just about to be served. Finally, the two came to a stop by the entrance to the research wing.

"It's the way you fight. Or rather, the way you've always fought until now." Aki abruptly picked up on their earlier conversation as he made to walk towards the ammunition department within the research quarters. "Tell me Nick. If you were up against a Grimm, how would you go about killing it?"

"Use Mavros to distract it or any other surrounding Grimm, and move in to close range in order to attack its weak points. Quick but repeated strikes, fall back if it attacks and switch to the Grav-Dust attacks. Rinse and repeat."

Aki nodded at that response, moving about as he restocked both regular and Dust rounds. "Right, and you'd apply a similar principle against human opponents. Meredith taught you well. You have a proactive style of combat. Go after a target before it can gauge how you fight, use fast attacks to neutralize it quickly and your Semblance to enhance your rapid offensive abilities. But now you're effectively blind. You've lost a lot of your speed since you need to adjust to both offensive and defensive capabilities by being fully reliant on Mavros."

Aki was never one to mince words, so by now Nick had some idea where he was getting at. To be honest with himself, he did have similar trains of thought during rehab and training, but just didn't have the heart to face it head on. Nevertheless, he stayed silent as Aki finished up and started moving towards the armory.

"To put it simply, you can't fight proactively anymore. Every time your opponent makes a move, you see it through your Semblance, and you have to adjust yourself accordingly. When you are looking to attack, you have to first place them using your Semblance, then orient your surroundings and adjust the distance from both yours and Mavros's positions. You aren't just doing simple attacks anymore; you're having to relay between yourself and your Semblance a lot more often." Aki nonchalantly summarized as he deposited his broken weapon and picked up a replacement model.

"So how do I address that?" Nick quietly asked.

"Tony actually wanted to talk to you about it. Well, so did Kiara, Hal and everyone else that trained with you since you've been up. I just wanted to give you some time before...well, you'll see. Follow me." With that, Aki briskly paced out of the room and back into the hallway.

Nick shrugged mentally and made to follow once more, before a thought suddenly struck him and he called out to Aki, "Hey you know, I actually won our last fight." Aki paused and turned his head, so Nick continued on. "One of the conditions was to make contact with you. You punched me in the jaw, that should have been good enough!"

"Indeed, well done. Now imagine what Tony's reaction is going to be once we tell him that you managed to beat my challenge before his."

"Oh."

...

Tony's reaction, as it turned out, was to engulf Nick in one of his patented 'big brother' hugs, easily lifting him off his feet despite the difference in size between the two. Just before Tony let go, he leaned in and asked, "Reckon you're fit enough to take on the Gauntlet now, eh?" Nick repressed a violent shudder and began to frantically shake his head, before he felt his back being poked repeatedly.

"Hal, I take it your last assignment went well." Nick asked, not needing his Semblance to know who had drawn his attention.

"Very funny Nick. Should have dragged you along with us." the beleaguered voice of Halvard sounded from behind him. Nick smirked at that, knowing that Hal was already in an infinitely better mood than when he'd returned, despite how grumpy he sounded. Granted, losing half your faunus limbs tended to not put one in the best of moods, but his Semblance was taking care of that problem. Unfortunately, losing faunus limbs reminded him of his own severed wings, and Nick's mood took a turn for the worse. He didn't have long to sulk, however, as he heard the door open, followed by a familiar mechanical clanking.

"Dr. Polendina. You called for us." Aki said from a corner of the room.

"Indeed. Bianca and Beryl aren't back from their last mission yet, I take it?"

"No sir. With the CCT down it's been difficult to get any word from Mantle. Granted, they may have run into unfavorable conditions, and the blockade does make it more time-consuming to traverse back to base. I would suggest you send someone to check the usual spots." Aki replied.

"Knowing those two, they probably wrapped up a while ago and just lost track of time in some dingy inn, going at it like rabbits." Hal offhandedly remarked.

"Just because you haven't been able to get some from Talia recently doesn't mean everyone else is that desperate." That would be Tony. Always rubbing it in, Nick thought wryly.

"She's in the hospital, Tony." Hal deadpanned.

"When's that stopped you? Oh don't give me that look! You really think I didn't notice you trying to sneak into her room, or getting into a yelling match with Doc?" Tony snarked back.

"I'm starting to think you're the one that needs to get laid, Tony." There was a slight heated edge to Hal's tone, while Tony just started laughing raucously.

Aki coughed loudly a few times, and Tony eventually quietened down. "Thank you, Aquila," Dr. Polendina spoke up again. "Halvard, it's good to see you up and about again. I'm sure Talia's going to be released in a few days too, you know how Doc frets over his patients. Unfortunately, you really did a number on the ARACHNE system. Broken bits and pieces are one thing, but the boys have never dealt with such severe damage. It'll take a few more weeks for them to fix it. Until then, just take it easy." Hal muttered something indistinct at that and slowly walked out of the room.

"I will have to head over to Atlas in a couple of hours," Dr. Polendina continued. "I managed to get in touch with General Ironwood, and he sent word about a particular, uh, project that I am involved with. He'll be sending some pickup shortly, and I will be taking Aquila along with me. Once I have made it there safely, Aquila can start digging around in Atlas and Mantle to look for the other two. He knows that place best, after all."

"The main reason I am here is to talk to you, Nick." Hearing that made Nick stand up a little straighter. "Having watched your training sessions and reading the reports that the others have sent me, I am inclined to agree with them. You're going to need to overhaul how you approach combat. For starters, a more defensive style that is better connected with how you use your Semblance."

"You know I can't really use a different weapon." Nick countered.

"Yes, and I cannot exactly modify what you currently have as it might fundamentally affect your Semblance." Dr. Polendina continued smoothly. "Your training can be reworked and adjusted to teach you different fighting styles, but you are still going to need methods to apply them."

"So what exactly are you suggesting here?" Nick couldn't help but ask curiously.

"A second weapon." Tony piped up, who moved over to the other side of the room, beside Dr. Polendina. "Here, catch!"

Nick clutched at Dusk with his left hand to quickly manifest Mavros, and was only just able to catch a somewhat large object with faint traces of golden Aura with his right. The weight of it surprised him and he stumbled down onto one knee before he was able to catch himself. It didn't take him more than a few seconds to recognize exactly what he caught.

"How did you manage to get this?" Nick asked, scarcely believing what he held.

"After we managed to secure you, I went to check the location where you and Meredith got ambushed. There wasn't much left." Tony's voice, normally so loud and exuberant, dropped to a rare whisper. "Fuckers burnt down that entire place. Even the closest village was torched, so I didn't get any leads. Meredith's shield was just about the only thing that was still intact, really. Always been a resilient weapon, that one."

"But why give this to me? I shouldn't have this! She loved Soulkeeper, it should be put to rest with her." Nick's voice cracked a little as he finished his rebuke. It still hurt, every time he admitted to himself that Meredith was gone.

"None of that nonsense, Nick. Meredith was always a realist, I'm sure she would rather you put her weapon to good use than have it rot away. You've spent many years training with her. If anyone would be able to adapt to using Soulkeeper, it's you." Aki's said, his normally hardened voice sounding almost encouraging.

"You're right, Meredith did love this shield. All those hours she spent beating you up with it, and then almost as many afterwards polishing and cleaning it." Dr. Polendina chuckled sadly at that particular memory. "I knew her for decades, much longer than any of you. She trained numerous aspirants during her career, and most never lasted more than a few months. Yet every time she pushed you, you were willing to push back harder. You were the only one that fulfilled, no, exceeded her expectations. If there's one thing she loved more than Soulkeeper, it was you." he finished, grasping Nick's hand in a comforting manner. Nick felt him release a small, round object into his palm.

"I've also got a gift for you before I leave. This is an Accessibility Dialogue Assistant, ADA for short. I've been tinkering around with this particular model for a while, or else you'd have had it the moment you left the hospital. It should help you out with pretty much everything, but it does need to be synced and powered by your Scroll, so take extra good care of that." Dr. Polendina said, before finally releasing Nick's hand.

"I am leaving Antonio in charge of your rehab, and I sincerely hope I do not need to return with more prosthetic parts than I'm leaving with." Everybody chuckled at that; Nick much more nervously so than the others.

...