The Last Contact

by gamer4

War in Remnant has changed, primarily fought now by humanoid mechs known as Gears. Jaune Arc hates fighting and Gears- he'd rather live a quiet life in the countryside. However, as an experimental Gear bonds to him, he finds himself on the run from those who wish to possess it. Perhaps it's not enough to run, though- perhaps a time comes when he must fight back. Based in Xenogears.

7. Secrets Beneath the Sand

Gamer4 in. Major hiatus count, 1. To nobody's surprise, I blame Georgie. It's not my fault at all- ignore the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Fire Emblem Three Houses, Xenoblade, Zelda, and Trails in the Sky. Why am I like this?

Chapter VI

Secrets Beneath the Sand

When Jaune touched down, he and Yang first took a moment to gaze around the inside of the cave they'd found themselvs in. Sand was still flowing in from the sinkhole above, forming flowing columns around the edges. Light filtered through the hole onto the sandy hill their gears had landed on- for a moment, Jaune feared that they would get buried, but the falling sand was no longer near enough to them for such fears to last for long.

"Alright!" Yang declared with a boisterous clap of her hands. "Time find our way out of here! Step one, find an exit!"

Jaune scanned around the massive chamber. "There's... a big pair of doors over there."

Yang followed his gaze. "Huh. Looks like solid steel- I doubt even Bumblebee could pry those puppies open, even in working order- which she's kinda not."

"Bumblebee?" Jaune arched a brow.

"Oh- that's my gear," Yang glanced back at the heap in which their gears still lay. "And you can be damn sure I'm committing this place to memory- the second we get back to the Nidhogg, we're coming back with a crane and digging these gears back out!"

Jaune had a momentary urge to encourage her to leave Weltall behind, at least, but felt as though it would raise more questions than he was comfortable answering at the moment. "So, the doors are a no-go?"

"I dunno if I'd go that far..." Yang shook her head. "Might as well check 'em out! There might be a terminal or something that'll let us open 'em!"

There was no terminal- after a solid five minutes of walking to the large steel doors, they found no levers or cogs in place to assist them in opening them up.

"Balls," Yang muttered, raising a finger to her chin. "Hmm... but there has to be some way to open them... no idiot would put a pair of steel doors here just to leave 'em closed all the time..."

Jaune scanned the steel- it was dented in several places, but no indication that they'd ever break down. His eyes roved to the ground. "What about those?"

Once more, Yang followed his gaze, and saw a set of large cables winding their way from the doors and along the cavern's edge. "Aha!" she grinned. "They must run on ether energy! Follow the cables, we'll find a way to open the doors!"

Jaune wasn't so certain- Yang had already shown that she didn't hesitate to jump to conclusions. Still, it was the only real lead they had, so he raised no objections as they followed the cables along the chamber's edge, until they took an abrupt right turn into a dark tunnel.

"Hmm..." Yang smirked. "You afraid of the dark, Jauney-boy?"

"Not particularly," Jaune denied.

"Well, fear no more!" Yang declared, causing Jaune to wonder, for neither the first nor last time, if she was actually listening to him at all. "Hotter than the sun in the middle of July, I burn!"

She smashed her fists together, summoning a blazing golden aura, looking eagerly for the expression of awe on Jaune's face. It was present, but not quite for the reason she'd expected.

"You have aura?!"

"Wait, you know about aura?" Yang blinked in surprise. "Huh. I guess someone other than me n' Sage had to, but I didn't count on some guy from Ansel knowing."

"Ren- the friend I was with- he taught me how to use it," Jaune explained. He willed his aura to appear, a bright gold not at all dissimilar from Yang's.

"Well, I'll be damned," Yang pondered, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, that's more light for us! C'mon, let's get going."

With their auras for light, the two entered the tunnel.

Whenever Jaune pictured a tunnel, he'd usually imagined a narrow space, through which only one, maybe two people could walk abreast. The tunnels down here, however, were surprisingly spacious, and they'd only been moving for another couple minutes before it emptied out into a large cavern.

Yang suddenly thrust out a hand, bringing him to a halt. She knelt down, and Jaune saw why- they were standing on a narrow walkway above a massive pit.

Darkness, he could handle, especially with his aura. Heights, on the other hand...

"Any idea how... how deep that is?" he asked, working to keep his voice calm.

"Only one way to find out."

Yang reached into a pocket and produced a large coin that she danced across her fingers a couple times before flipping it into the pit. They both listened as hard as they could- it was a solid minute before they heard a distant splash.

"To use a technical term... pretty damn far," Yang surmised. Jaune was hard-pressed to disagree. "Best move with caution."

Easier said than done- the pathways were narrow and slick with sand. They fell silent, putting all their concentration into making their way across the caverns safely.

At last, they found their way into another wide tunnel, where it didn't take long to relocate the cable, guiding them to another large cavern filled with basalt pillars.

Yang let out a low whistle. "Man... I'd rather we were still topside, but at least we landed in a-"

She suddenly fell silent, her eyes wide. Jaune had no need to ask why- there was a glowing object hovering in the darkness ahead, a full twelve feet above the nearest pillars. A truly absurd thought passed through Jaune's head- he had no idea why it occurred to him, and he didn't dare even say it out loud for fear of his only current ally thinking him either foolish or insane: That's not a relic.

Yang focused, extending the light cast by her golden aura, and they made out the figure of a great black-and-white scorpion, its tail ending in the anglerfish-like lure that they'd seen. Beneath it were countless smaller, but still quite dangerous grimm.

"Deathstalker!" Yang snarled.

Jaune's aura flared up almost as brightly as hers as he raised his fists in preparation for battle.

As the nearest grimm approached, Yang lashed out and Jaune heard a deafening crack before the nearest beowolf howled in pain, recoiling away. It took him a second to realize what had happened- what he had initially taken for leather straps on her forearms had unfurled to reveal a pair of long rawhide whips that she was now using to tear into their assailants. Her snarl disappeared, making way for a wide smirk as she used both whips as if they were extensions of herself. Before Jaune's eyes, she wrapped the end of one around a nearby beowolf and dragged it within range of her fists, finishing it off with her bare hands. He was so taken aback that it took a narrow dodge from a smaller creature for him to recall that he was part of this fight as well.

Yet, even as he allowed himself to sink into the same haze that had overtaken him when protecting Pyrrha in the woods, he couldn't stop his eyes from straying to his temporary partner. Her eye seemed to have burst into flame as she fought with a ferocity that almost caused him to wonder if she had some grimm blood in her.

After taking down several grimm of his own, Jaune glanced over to check on Yang and saw the great scorpion bearing down on her. "Yang, duck!" he called. To his great relief, she reacted without question, ducking down and narrowly avoiding a swing from the deathstalker's tail- very narrowly. Jaune's heart skipped a beat when he heard the sound of something tearing, but as Yang straightened up again, he saw that it was only her jacket- not her skin.

"Alright, you bastard, you asked for it!" she narrowed her good eye at the beast.

"Its tail!" Jaune called. "We need to take out its tail!"

A vision flashed through Jaune's mind- the sharp, dangerous end of the beast's tail plunging into the deathstalker's skull, slaying the beast with its own greatest weapon. But... he didn't see how they could accomplish such a feat. Neither of them had weapons suitable for detatching its tail.

Before he could fret, the cavern was filled with light from several flourescent sources. It was harsh enough on Yang and Jaune's eyes, which had dilated in response to the heavy darkness, but to the grimm that had known nothing but blackness, quite possibly for the majority of their lives, it had to be nothing short of torture. They screeched and writhed as they fought to pull away from the blinding light.

"Yeah, get out of here, filthy beasts!"

It was a low, gruff voice- clearly neither Jaune's nor Yang's. A man had appeared, a weapon flashing as he carved his way through the crowd of grimm, moving so quickly they couldn't actually see what it was. As the deathstalker flailed, the man leapt in the air and swung his weapon one final time, following through with Jaune's plan almost exactly, severing the tip of the tail and allowing gravity to bring it down into the beast's skull. It roared and flailed a little longer before collapsing to the ground, motionless.

The man finally paused long enough for them to get a good look at the scythe that was his weapon- but then, there was the the grinding of gears and the clank of metal as it shifted and became a broadsword that he stowed in a sheath slung over his back. He turned to smirk at them. "Really kicked up the hornet's nest, you know that?"

Jaune blinked, still struggling to adjust to the sudden light. As he did, he started second-guessing just how bright it actually was- it was no brighter than the lights in his own room back in Ansel. It was only the time in the darkness that had made them seem so blinding. The lights were erected all around the cavern, allowing complete visibility- including of the entrance to what seemed like a small hut carved into the stone edge.

The man was tall, with piercing red eyes, unkempt black hair and some scruff where other men might have a beard. He wore a cross, lopsided against his chest, and a smug smile as he gazed at the youths he'd just saved.

"I'm assuming you're the ones raisin' all this hell. Feel free to correct me if that isn't exactly the case."

"No, we... it was us," Jaune said tremulously.

The man looked them over. His eyes lingered on Yang. "...You're Taiyang's little girl, aintcha?"

"You know Pops?" Yang asked, clearly caught off guard.

The man grinned. "Oh, I know everybody, to some extent." He glanced around. "Maybe we ought to continue this little meet-and-greet indoors. I don't know how much longer those lights are gonna last, and while I can see you can handle yourselves, I don't like the idea of being interrupted every other line by more of these freaks." He kicked a beowolf with the tip of his boot.

He turned and led them towards the small hut. Yang picked up her jacket, looking it over with a grimace. "Just got it tailored, too... Sage's gonna give me an earful..."

Jaune, however, was looking at her back- he hadn't noticed it in the heat of battle, but now that things had died down, it was impossible not to notice.

Etched into her back was a mass of scars, interlocking so tightly it was nigh impossible to see the actual skin beneath. Countless straight lines running at all angles, shoulder to shoulder, all the way down to her waist.

She seemed to sense his gaze- her remaining eye widened, and she quickly donned her torn jacket- it didn't offer much cover, but it was more than before. "Just... pretend you didn't see that, okay?"

Jaune quickly looked in the opposite direction until they had entered the hut.

Indeed, the part that resembled a hut was only the entrance to what seemed like a large underground bunker, with tables, chairs, a refrigerator and a furnace connecting to cables very much like the ones they'd been following.

"You live here?" Jaune asked, surprised that anyone would live beneath the sands of the Mohaine Desert.

The man snorted. "Nah... Taiyang Xiao Long works here every now and again, but that's it. Only reason I'm here is to pick up some things he left behind... but he knows where to get the good stuff, so I can't complain too much." He opened the fridge and produced three glass bottles full of murky brown liquid. "Name's Qrow. And, as long as I'm playin' the host, I may as well offer you a drink."

Jaune raised a hand to decline, only for Yang to accept both offered bottles and forcefully press one into that very hand. He sighed, popping the top and taking a drink.

"Qrow, huh?" Yang asked.

Qrow chuckled. "I take it your old man mentioned me?"

"Once or twice," Yang shrugged. "Where is he?"

"He's fine," Qrow said, somewhat evasively, Jaune couldn't help thinking.

"He's your dad?" Jaune asked. "This... Tai?"

Yang shook her head. "I never knew my real father, but Pops... he's the closest thing to a real parent I ever had."

"He's safe," Qrow repeated. "Just busy, so, as usual, I get stuck playing errand boy." He took a long drink from his bottle, eating through the heavy liquor as though it was water. "Ahh... that's the good stuff. So, how did you two end up down here?"

"We were fighting gears in the desert," Jaune explained succinctly.

"Were ya now?" Qrow asked, directing a look at Yang.

To Jaune's surprise, Yang pouted. "Hey, what're you looking at me for? He could have started it!" It was such a petulant response from a woman who'd looked more like a demon not ten minutes before that Jaune couldn't repress a laugh.

Qrow's lips twitched upwards themselves. "Yeah, but I know Tai, and any daughter of his is gonna be throwing the first punches."

Yang hesitated. "...He jumped off a Gebler ship-"

"Valean ship," Jaune corrected quietly.

"And... well, his gear looked real nice..." Yang trailed off as she seemed to realize how ridiculous her argument sounded.

"Uh-huh," Qrow nodded sarcastically. "And I'm sure getting stranded down here was absolutely worth it."

Yang looked around, seemingly for a change of subject. "What was Pops doing down here anyways?"

"I don't know if you ever noticed, little lady, but your 'Pops' is a bit of a collector- or at least, that's what he likes to call himself. I prefer the term 'packrat' myself. Though, I will admit there are plenty of interesting things to dig up in caverns like these..."

"Like this stuff?" Yang asked, heading to a nearby shelf filled with what looked to Jaune like stone statuettes.

"Yeah, that's be one of his interests," Qrow nodded. "He fancies himself an archeologist. You should hear some of the crackpot theories he comes up with."

Qrow and Jaune drew closer to the shelf- Jaune couldn't help noticing Yang quickly reaching out and grabbing one of the artifacts and stowing it away in a pocket. If Qrow noticed, he didn't bother commenting. "Ancient machines, fossils, specimens caught in amber..."

"What kind of theories are you talking about?" Yang interrupted.

Qrow sighed. "Well, here's a hint- everything on this shelf goes from oldest on the left to newest on the right."

Yang and Jaune both examined the shelf closely. Finally, Yang shrugged. "I got nothin'. Jaune?"

Jaune looked as closely as he could. "Er... there are plant fossils all the way, but at this point... there are no signs of human life...?"

He felt stupid even saying it, but Qrow was nodding. "According to your old man's research, there was no trace of humanity on this planet until about ten thousand years ago... and then, they seem to have just started appearing."

"Wait," Yang shook her head. "What about evolution?"

Qrow gave a half-nod, half-shrug. "The theory of evolution, as taught by the Ethos... yeah, that's the most prominent explanation nowadays. But... your old man and I don't quite believe that. The Ethos has their own agenda for basically everything they say. No, we set a little more stock in the stories of the old people."

"The... old people?" Jaune asked tentatively.

"You don't know the story?" Qrow asked, arching a brow. "I figured most people knew it, even if they don't believe."

Jaune and Yang exchanged glances and shrugs. Qrow sighed.

"The story goes that, countless ages ago, humans lived together with God in paradise- what they called 'Pleroma.' It was the very definition of paradise- no fear of death, famine, war, or plague- even natural disasters were entirely unknown. Mankind's only restriction was a great tree in Pleroma's center, upon which was a fruit mankind was forbidden to eat.

"One day, a false shepherd appeared among the people, whispering lies about the power God was keeping from them, encouraging them to eat of the fruit and gain the wisdom to see the world the way God did. In their arrogance, they consumed the fruit and used the wisdom they gained to build giants and wage war against their creator- the first gears.

"The war was fierce, ending in failure on both sides. God cast us down to Remnant from Pleroma, forcing us to live these crude, short, suffering lives. But God did not escape unharmed, either- grievously wounded, he retreated into the depths of the sea, into a healing sleep until he was ready to rise once again.

"Or that's the way I heard it, at least."

The ending was so abrupt Jaune had to fight off an insane urge to laugh. "That's, um... quite the story."

"Innit?" Qrow nodded as he took another swig of his beer. "But... I'm guessing a Sunday School lecture is the last thing you actually want from me right now."

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "We were actually kind of hoping to find a way out of here."

"Well, wouldn't we all?" Qrow crossed his arms. "The alarms had themselves a little panic attack when they detected the sand flow, and forced the doors to shut. This little bunker isn't too far from one of the exits, but good luck getting out with them sealed like they are."

"So, what, there's no way out now?" Jaune asked hopelessly.

"I didn't say that!" Qrow objected, raising a hand with four ringed fingers. "Actually, I'd like to make a deal with you. I'll give you a map of these caves, and you can go out and find those alarms- should be easy to deactivate them, just push the big red button. While you're busy, I'll go take a look at your gears, see if I can't fix them up a bit. The doors ought to open up once the alarms are deactivated, and we can all get the hell out of here- next time Tai wants something done, he can come down here and do it himself."

"Sounds like a plan," Yang crossed her arms and nodded. "C'mon, Jauney boy!"

Jaune nodded, taking the map Qrow offered him and following Yang out.

"Oh, and- it probably goes without saying- watch out for grimm!"

XXXX

Jaune remained silent aside from a few mumbled directions as they made their way through the caverns to the first alarm, which Yang managed to disarm brightly. "Yup, big red button, simple as that!" She turned to Jaune. "You doing alright there, Jauney boy? You haven't really talked much since we left Qrow's place."

Jaune hesitated. "I... well..."

He slowly reached for his right sleeve and rolled it up. "I saw yours, it's only fair you see mine."

Yang blinked, clearly not understanding- until she saw the scars etched into his forearm- the thin white lines that spelled out that enigmatic word: HABIT.

She hesitated a moment before asking her single question. "Did... you do that yourself?"

"Wha- oh!" It hadn't even occurred to Jaune what the markings might look like. "No, no, of course not!" A half-truth- he didn't think he'd done it, but not remembering the origin of the scars himself, he could hardly say for certain.

Yang nodded, following as Jaune took the lead towards the next alarm. "Right... of course not."

They turned and pressed on through the darkness. It was a while before Yang spoke again. "But that wasn't it, was it? You're still thinking about the old fart's story."

"...Yes," Jaune admitted.

"Can't stop thinking about it myself," Yang agreed. "I've heard versions of it before. Who doesn't like the idea of a gear powerful enough to fight a god? Every story calls it something different... the God Gear... the Omnigear... the Xenogear... oh, if I could get my hands on that baby..."

A question occurred to Jaune, one that he felt foolish for thinking of and even more so for actually putting into speech. "Say... you don't think that gear could... actually exist, could you? What if... what if there's someone out there now, fighting in the war between Atlas and Vale, piloting that Xenogear and not even realizing it?"

Yang seemed to contemplate it at first. "Yeah... what if..." Then she broke down laughing. "Oh, Jauney Boy, you have a vivid imagination! But no. The answer is no. The gears being used in this war are pulled out of ruins a couple hundred years old on average- the Xenogear would have to be thousands. Besides, with that kind of power, we'd know, alright- ten to one, the war would already be over." She turned and focused ahead of her for a moment. "No, if it's real, it's still out there, buried so deep beneath the ground nobody's found it yet. But still... a girl can dream, can't she?"

Jaune offered a vague nod as he chastised himself internally. Of course Weltall wasn't the Xenogear- Ren had said himself it was an experimental model from Atlas, and as much as Jaune privately feared its power, it wasn't nearly at the level the story had described. He shook his head and pressed on.

They found the second alarm with little trouble and disarmed it with even less before turning back towards Qrow's bunker.

They came back to find him looking strangely somber, his arms crossed as he looked at them.

"Well, we got the alarms taken care of," Yang announced cheerfully.

"I noticed," Qrow nodded. "I already took care of opening the doors, and I did everything for your gears that I could. I think it's about time we parted ways."

Yang and Jaune exchanged looks of surprise at his sudden abruptness. "Something happen while we were looking the other way, old man?" Yang asked.

"No, no, of course not," Qrow denied. "I think it's just best we all move on."

"O...kay..."

There was clearly something wrong, but he didn't seem keen on divulging exactly what it was, so they turned towards the tunnel they'd entered through and moved to take their leave.

"Oh, Squirt!" Qrow called out after them- he was looking particularly at Yang. "I've got a goddaughter out there- a cat faunus by the name of Blake Belladonna. If you see her out there..." He hesitated. "...See how she's doing, would ya?"

Yang blinked, nonplussed. "Er... sure. I'll do that," she nodded, before turning and heading back through the tunnels with Jaune, using their auras for light and moving carefully to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

XXXX

Jaune hadn't thought he could be so glad to see Weltall in working order, but he was even gladder to see the door on the other side of the vast cavern wide open. "Alright, according to this," Yang noted, glancing at the map, "there's a bit more tunnel and cavern to go through after this, but with our gears back together, it should be a smooth ride out of here!"

It took them less than a minute to climb up into their gears' respective cockpits, whereupon Yang turned to him with a smirk he could only see in his head. "Unless you want to finish our fight now?"

"...No," Jaune said simply, turning and proceeding through the opened doors.

Again, he imagined Yang giving that petulant pout, so different from when she was in the middle of a fight. "You're no fun..."

The caverns certainly seemed smaller than before as they piloted their gears through them, and the grimm presenting a threat suddenly seemed laughable- even the deathstalker would be no problem when behind the controls of these metal men.

However, as they descended into a particularly vast chamber, Jaune's eyes widened when he heard a roar from the distance, echoing off the stone walls and nearly driving him to cover his ears.

"Damn- what the hell is that?" Yang called- even at the top of her voice, Jaune had to strain his ears to hear her.

He looked up and saw a giant robot coming down on them. It wasn't a gear- there was no room for a cockpit- but it seemed to have all the strength of one, two massive silos on its back opening up to fire missiles down upon them.

"SHIT!" Yang cried, using her gear's whips to deflect the missiles, but by so doing, she left herself open to the strength of the machine itself.

"WATCH OUT!" Jaune called, as he once more found himself giving in to that battle haze. Weltall's arm raised into the air, a golden light pooling around it- just as Yang was turning to see the robot rushing at her from the missiles, Welltall's fist plunged into its side, crunching the metal beneath as though it was an aluminum can. There was a massive crunch and grinding of metal, and then... the robot exploded.

For a long minute, both he and Yang were silent. Finally, she broke the silence. "What... was that?"

"I..." Jaune stammered hesitantly, recalling what had happened the last time he'd thoughtlessly used such power.

Yang broke into laughter- Jaune's imagination yielded the picture of her throwing back her head. "Well, damn good thing you didn't do that against me!"

"I... I don't know how I did that..." Jaune mumbled half-heartedly. "I... I was just acting on instinct..."

"I know a few people who'd kill for that kind of instinct, friend!" Yang chortled jovially. "Oh, that gives me an idea! I do have a ship, you know- what say we take you and your friend where you're going? Maybe you could lend us a hand, we'll lend you a hand, you know?"

"I..." Jaune's words remained caught in his throat.

"I gotcha," Yang raised her hands. "You probably wanna talk things over with that friend of yours before making any big decisions. Well, he's probably with Sage and Klein- c'mon, let's get outta here."

From that chamber, the ensuing tunnel sloped heavily upwards, finally allowing them to spill out into the open sun. Jaune was actually surprised the sun was still out, albeit definitely moving towards the horizon, turning the eastern skies a deep crimson.

Yang looked around, and her eye glowed when she spied her ship not too far away. "Alright, Jauney, stand back!"

She raised a fist to the sky, and from a barrel at its wrist fired a great flare- less than a minute later, the ship quite obviously turned, making its way to their destination. Jaune sighed in relief- if Yang was telling the truth (and odd though she was, he didn't think she was deceiving him) Ren would be safe on that ship, and he desperately hoped he could offer some clarity to the whirling thoughts in his head.

"C'mon," Yang said brightly as she began moving across the sand towards her ship. "Come meet the rest of the crew!"

XXXX

I am... so sorry. I was writing, and writing, then ran head-first into a brick wall- a wall I couldn't pass through no matter how hard I slammed my head against it. It's only recently I finally managed to chip my way through- I hope you can forgive me.

If that weren't enough, with this chapter out, I plan on going back to The Voyage Home for a bit- I took a nice break after finishing part one, but it's about time to get started on part two, I think. Of course, I have no intention of abandoning this story either- likely, I'll bounce between stories on a chapter-by-chapter basis, maybe a little more if we hit major cliffhangers or such. Regardless, I hope you can continue to enjoy- until next time, don't you dare go hollow- Gamer4 out.