Chapter Eight: Nightmare

The acrid scent of gun smoke pervaded Luna's nostrils as she looked around frantically, trying to get a hint of where she was. The constant clatter of countless firearms discharging surrounded her, like some sort of twisted orchestra providing a score to her trauma. The din was so much that the only distinct weapon she could identify by its sound was that of her Titan partner's Predator Cannon tearing through squads of hostiles.

There was one more, though. The pattering of footsteps behind her caused the Pilot to whip around just in time to evade the exoskeleton-enhanced right hook of a hostile Pilot. Another punch sent her stumbling back to dodge the sudden rush, followed by her legs being swept from under her. The adrenaline shooting through her bloodstream fuelled her arms coming up and preventing the knife from penetrating her chest. They struggled for a few seconds before Connor's massive hand plucked the enemy from on top of his Pilot and tossed him into the chaos of the battle raging in front of them. Looking at the scene, Luna realised where she was and what she must do.

With a thought, Luna opened her Titan's hatch and leapt inside. She shuddered for a second as the neural link took hold and suddenly she was the Titan. Up came the Cannon as she assumed manual control of the robot's combat systems ans the chamber spun up before unleashing a hailstorm of bullets into an enemy Tone rounding a building. The armour stood up to the surprise attack for a few seconds before bullets tore through the hatch and rendered the Pilot inside deceased. With its human occupant dead, the neural link was severed and the Tone switched to auto-pilot. It managed to get one single shot off, which missed, before more bullets pierced the armoured hull and shredded its internals. First went the optics, rendering the opponent blind. Next, the Core ability's physical link to the controls were severed. The rocket pods came up, but no salvo was fired. It was only a matter of seconds before the robot collapsed, inoperable.

Luna next turned the harsh judgement of the Predator Cannon on the infantry below. Humans and robots alike were torn apart by the cruel, unforgiving spray of death and destruction. The robot took pause for a moment to load fresh ammunition before the three words Luna most wanted to hear were played through the cockpit.

"Smart Core online."

With another thought, Luna activated the Core and started firing. The now-homing bullets carved a path for her to advance along with a few other comrades. Thundering footsteps filled the air as the forty-ton war machines advanced on the IMC facility they had set out to capture.

More ammunition was fed into the implement of death the robot carried as they advanced. Eventually, she had to leave her cockpit and venture into the facility in order to reach the control room. The robot stood sentinel over her entrance as she proceeded into the facility, gunning down the occasional grunt. It seemed that most of the facility's security had been deployed to meet the assault that her regiment was currently mounting.

The path to the control room was relatively easy to follow, with light resistance. She only encountered one enemy Pilot, who received a kick to the chest that killed him. Upon entering the control room, she immediately knew something was off. The main console was much too small and there were no additional workstations. Looking around brought a startling revelation- the door she came through had disappeared. Turning her back again made the room become a dark, padded cell.

Shaking slightly now, Luna walked to the furthest-away corner before surveying the room and being startled again when her helmet's scan revealed that someone appeared to be hanging from a chandelier in the centre of the room. A straight-backed chair had been presumably kicked away beneath the figure's feet. As she made her slow approach, the chandelier began providing light and she stopped dead. The body's distinctively purple hair was horrifyingly familiar. "What the fuck..." The words just slipped out of her mouth as she stared at her own corpse, made so by her own hand.

A chill swept over her living body as she looked. There was no way this could be real. She took a step back, before turning around and falling over. Somehow, a woman of pure white had made her way into the room and stood directly behind her. Luna blinked and she was gone, a towering Alpha Beowolf in her place. Upon more than the usual glance that observers managed before their demise, it was not a Beowolf. It was larger, more... muscular? Its stance was more akin to a true wolf, as a second after appearing it rested its weight on all four limbs. The creature seemed to exude an aura of bloodlust unlike anything the Pilot had ever witnessed. Its rasping snarls filled the room as it approached. Luna backed away, still on the floor.

"Mmm... what a delicious soul we have here... shame I can't eat it..."

She was completely lost for words. This thing, against all logic and sense, had spoke.

"Yes... a shame... eating it would be a setback..."

She reached for her Smart Pistol, a knife, anything she could use to attack this creature with. Her hand found a sidearm and she quickly emptied the magazine into the beast. Each bullet left a hole that closed up after a few seconds.

"No point, girl... no point... I am immortal... such a shame my vessel is not..."

Click. Click. The gun was empty now. She tossed it at the creature as her back hit the wall. It seemed to stop for a moment before it was suddenly in her face. Luna didn't even notice that she was screaming. The Grimm raised a claw that was shrouded in a black mist and swung for her head.

Luna sat bolt upright in her bed, her breathing fast and shallow. She had broken out in a cold sweat during... whatever the hell that was. She fell backwards onto the bed again, trying to make sense of that. It started out as her usual, trauma-induced nightmare, but the end was something new. She felt... something when she thought of the beast. Fear? Anger? Admiration? Kinship? It was impossible to pin down.

Luna didn't feel like getting up today. Too bad her sisters would be hauling her out of the bed a few hours later, because there were things that had to be done and Ozpin had requested another meeting.