:
/ | \
\ | /
Act II
Scene 28
And I'm Feeling Good
A/n:
And finally, the last part of the arc.
It's a bit late, but meh.
On another note, I listened to a buttload of shit writing this. Not entirely sure which specific ones to recommend, but Imma try.
Iron by Woodkid is pretty good, as is the BF4 and the Hardline soundtrack. So's the song from the BF1 reveal trailer, the Glitch Mob remix of Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. There's also Protectors of Earth by Two Steps From Hell, which is pretty legit. Hell, most of the music from Two Steps From Hell is pretty legit.
Also, shoutout ot Red for her help, and Nik, as always, with his Russian.
Anyway, enjoy the chap.
Blake pov
"This…is Aveline. My eldest sister." Jaune introduced.
What I thought, looking at them blankly.
I wasn't stunned because it didn't make sense. Now that he had said it and they were standing next to each other, the resemblance was easy. They had the same sapphire eyes, the same nose and similar jaw lines. Even the streaks of golden blond in her hair were the same. I also already knew he had seven sisters, so finding one wasn't too surprising.
No, what was so shocking was the fact that Jaune's eldest sister was a detective of the VCPD.
I am so done with today I thought, sitting at a table with Aveline and my team with my head in my hands.
I'm friends with a Schnee, I'm in the most high profile and discriminatory club in the kingdoms, Pyrrha is a world famous champion with an S&M fetish, Lilith is a little girl with PTSD, and Jaune, who is my best friend by default, has an older sister who is a VCPD detective.
Everything is wrong I thought, sinking further into despair with each thought.
And this was all before the first month! Imagine what'll happen by the first year!
Maybe I'll befriend a serial killer, meet a demon, see a ghost, and find an unholy abomination of science. I internally remarked
Then I froze
I just jinxed myself didn't I? Looking up at the sky for answers
No reply came.
I am so done with today.
"Hey Blake, you okay?" Jaune asked, touching my shoulder gently with his face contorted in a concerned frown.
"Yeah!" I perked up far too fast,
"Fine! Fine! Just a headache, didn't get enough sleep, you know?" I added, losing mental sanity fast.
"…ok" Jaune replied slowly, skeptical of what I was saying.
"So Jaune…" Aveline began, sitting across from me nursing her drink, "I'm surprised dad found the time to send you to combat school, let alone Beacon. You were 12 last I saw you, after all."
"Oh….uh…yeah. He sure found time alright, ha ha." Jaune lied while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
Aveline just looked at him with a flat, unamused, stare.
"What?" She finally said.
"What?" Jaune dumbly repeated, his eyes nervously flitting to the rest of us in a silent plea for help
Oh no, this is your grave I silently replied as I pointedly looked away
Aveline let out a loud tired sigh, "Jaune, you've always been a terrible liar."
"I can't believe you got into Beacon without going to combat school. You would have had to fake you transcripts." She said, exasperated,
"Which is a crime, by the way," She said pointedly
"How did you even get them? You aren't exactly a social butterfly Jaune, I can't imagine you even knowing how to get them yourself." She mused out loud
"Er, well, I just kinda…found them." Jaune weakly explained.
"Found them?" She questioned skeptically.
"Yeah?" Jaune offered
Aveline looked down and sighed again, "I'm going to guess dad had a hand in this."
"What makes you think dad had anything to do with this?" Jaune asked
"Because dad sort of saw me as the prized heir to Arc line of proud hunters, and didn't take my final career choice too well. He probably saw you as his second chance. Asshole." She cursed under her breath
"How do you know?" Jaune questioned, looking unsettled by the accusations Aveline was laying against their father.
"Because this kind of thing is my job, Jaune." Aveline tiredly pointed out.
"But I don't blame you for doubting me, I can hardly believe it myself. I mean, dad sent you out here without even sending you to combat school. Did he even give you any training?" Aveline asked.
"er, well, I mean…"Jaune trailed off nervously.
"Well, at least he unlocked your aura." Aveline acquiesced, leaning back in her chair.
"Unlocked my aura?" Jaune questioned curiously.
"Yeah, I can sense it from here. It's pretty strong, even for an Arc, considering how young you are." She said blandly, reclining in the chair.
"What would unlocking my aura feel like?" Jaune asked
"Well, it'd probably feel like rush of power from within, filling and fueling every part of your body-" Aveline began
"My Dream!" Jaune exclaimed, interrupting her.
"uh…what?" She asked, confused and thrown off guard.
"Yeah! That's what happened during this dream I had during initiation, there was Grimm, and you were there." He said, pointing to Lilith, "And you almost died, and I felt this power surge and I glowed, and then it was all ok."
"Wait, you unlocked your aura…in a dream?" I asked, making sure that this was, in fact, the reality I lived in now.
"Er, well, I think so. I mean, after that I felt a lot better, stronger, faster, all that. I also survived things that should have probably killed me."
"Hmm…I've heard of people unlocking their aura by themselves, so it's not impossible, just hard. But in a dream?" Aveline mused out loud, her hand on her chin as she thought on it.
Then, something occurred to her.
"Wait, that means dad sent you to Beacon without unlocking your aura!" She exclaimed, looking outraged.
"Uh…yeah?" Jaune said helplessly
"Do you know what that means?" She asked
He shook his head dumbly in response
"Jaune, that means he practically sent you to die." She scowled intensely
"What?" Jaune recoiled, taken aback
"Did he do anything to prepare you? Anything at all?" She asked
"Er, well, he gave me this armor, and Crocea Mors." Jaune explained, still reeling from Aveline's claims.
"That's it? Those relics?" She asked.
"Did he even teach about them at all? What you can do with them?"
"Um…"
"Did he tell you anything about what you could expect at Beacon?"
"Er…"
"Did he at least tell you about our semblance?"
"Uh, well…" Jaune trailed off again, having no answer.
Aveline huffed angrily, leaning back in her chair again, muttering obscenities toward her father.
"What did you mean by, 'Your semblance'?" Lilith asked curiously
"I've heard some stories and rumors about it, apparently the Arcs, like the Schnees, have some kind of hereditary semblance or technique passed down to each generation." I jumped in, curious about the subject myself.
"Well, honestly there's a big debate over whether it's a semblance or a highly advanced aural technique." Aveline explained somewhat distractedly, no doubt still thinking about her father's decision to send Jaune to school unprepared.
"How do you not know?" I asked for clarification.
"Well, you see, us Arcs have a bit different Aura then most people's. It's thicker and denser, which often makes it harder to get good control over it at first. But, once you get the hang of it, it lets you do incredible things." She explained.
"For example…" She began, holding out her hand above the table, palm up with her fingers curled slightly.
Soon, her hand began to glow ever so slightly. The glow grew and grew, turning into a thick bright white…mist…around her hand. The mist then began to move, to flow around her hand, and coalesced at her palm. It swirled around a central point, growing denser and denser, rising up from the center of the cloud of light, and turning into…
"Is…is that a chain?" I asked in wonder.
A bright white chain made of what looked like solid, metallic even, light was forming in her hand, link by link.
"Yup." She answered.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, it dissipated into a white motes of light that seemed to dissolve into the air.
"And I'm going to be teaching you how to do it too." She said, turning to Jaune
"What?" He recoiled, surprised
"Don't act so surprised Jaune. Since you're becoming a huntsmen, you need to learn this stuff." She countered
"Er, well…"Jaune began nervously.
"What?" Aveline asked with a confused look.
"It's just…Pyrrha was going to train me." He admitted sheepishly.
At his statement, Pyrrha turned to him to give him a look that somehow silently said "Bullshit" and "What the fuck did you say?"
Aveline recoiled in mock shock.
"Jaune, are you saying you don't want to you dearest big sister to teach you?" She said, looking as offended as possible.
"Er, well, no, but, uh, it's just-"Jaune sputtered, trying to crawl his way out of the hole he dug for himself.
"Too bad" She interrupted.
"This is family tradition. I mean, usually its parent to child, but seeing how father neglected to teach you, he's not even here, and I'm better than him anyway, the responsibility falls to me." She explained.
"Besides, I haven't seen you in years. We need to catch up. Have some good old brother sister bonding time. See a movie. Show you around the city. Protect you from shameless harlots that only want to steal your innocence." She explained sincerely
"Wait, what was that last part?" Jaune asked, very concerned about what she was saying
"What last part?" She said with a sinisterly sweet smile, her narrowed sapphire eyes momentarily meeting the rest of ours.
Ok, note, Aveline is a very protective older sister. And a cop. Do not provoke. I gulped with wide eyes.
Pyrrha just gave her a silent raised brow in confusion, while Lilith gave a small giggle of amusement with a matching smirk. An action that cause me to give her a wide eyed look because a giggling Lilith is like seeing Adam with a smile on his face.
It is both an incredibly rare and beautiful sight, and a sign that somehow, someway, and somewhere things have gone very wrong.
"Are you ok?" Jaune asked, oblivious to the byplay going on between us.
"Fine, fine." Aveline assured him with a wave of her hand and a disarming smile.
"Though, I was serious about showing you around the city." She said, sobering up
"Tomorrow's Sunday, right?" She asked rhetorically "Are you free?"
"Yes?" Jaune asked slowly and cautiously
"Great. I can take you to the church I go to, get you all situated there, introduce you to som-" She began before abruptly stopping
"…What is it?" She asked guardedly, noticing Jaune's expression
"Oh, er, it's just…I kind of stopped going to church years ago." He explained nervously, a touch of shame entering his voice.
"What? How, why? Dad would never let that happen" She spoke, bewildered by the revelation
"Well…that's the thing. After you left, dad…just wasn't the same. Nobody was, really." He explained somberly with downcast eyes
"After I left?! I didn't just leave. He practically-" She stopped mid-rant, taking a breath and collecting herself. "Now's not the time for that."
"It doesn't matter if you haven't been to church for years. What kind of big sister would I be if I let my little brother go on without knowing the God-Creator's grace?" She said.
"Um, excuse me?" Lilith asked, raising her hand up questioningly, "The God-Creator?"
"Yes, God-Creator." Aveline began, turning to the small pale girl in question, "Most people just shorten it to God, finding God-Creator to be too long of a name."
"I didn't know that was his name." Lilith said with quiet surprise, a layer of intrigue flittering in her silver eyes.
"As tragic as it is, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. People have started using it so much they've forgotten the original meaning. It's also not really a name so much as it is a title." Aveline explained.
"Really?" Lilith asked, getting sucked into Aveline's explanation.
"Yeah, the true name of the God-Creator is sort of unknown. Depending on who you ask, that's because it's too holy to be known, let alone spoken, by mere mortals. Others would say that his name has been lost to the ages, the collapse, and the Grimm." She explained.
"Though, I'm curious why you're so interested in him?" She asked
"Lilith's from a village outside that was in the wilds, right?" Jaune asked, checking with Lilith to make sure he got it right.
Lilith nodded, "I've heard of people referring to "god" nearly all my life, but I don't actually really know anything about this religion."
"Makes sense" Aveline nodded,
"Do you think Lilith could come with us tomorrow?" Jaune asked bluntly
"Er, to learn more about Auroranism. That is, if she wants to." Jaune amended, looking back and forth between the two to see their reactions.
"...I suppose we could do that." Aveline said slowly with narrowed, thoughtful eyes.
Oh Jaune I thought, resisting the urge to shake my head at him.
Aveline had probably been hoping to have some personal family time with her brother, just the two of them, and Jaune was just too much of an oblivious and friendly person to notice. At the same time, Aveline was probably just too nice of a person to say no.
"…Maybe. I'd have to ask my Aunt first." Lilith said carefully, picking up on the cues that had been flying straight over Jaune's head.
"Well…in any case, why don't I take you guys to the station? My shifts about to be over, and I need to clock out, and I can give you a tiny little tour beforehand." Aveline suggested, steering the conversation away from the tense minefield it had found itself in.
"Your boss would let you?" I asked, the words just jumping out of my mouth before I could stop them.
"Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. An ass to be sure, but a pretty cool guy over all. Sides, I'm on his good side. And afterward, I can give you guys a lift back to the school." She answered casually.
"You sure?" I questioned, mostly just for courtesy's sake
"It'll be fine." She assured with a smile.
Goodwitch pov
"You did what?" I exclaimed in disbelief.
"I convinced Ozpin to get rid of the Honey Trip and replace it with a camping trip to Mountain Glen." Lt. Niflheim answered as he packed his bag.
"Though, I'm surprised that you are coming to me with this now. I announced this a week ago." He added in a confused tone.
"I was busy," I said, dismissing the question
He was right, of course. It had been a while ago, but I had been indisposed. First because all the time I had that wasn't spent towards my job was usually spent teaching Ruby how to use wind dust, so I hadn't even heard about it until Ruby brought it up one day.
After that, I went straight to Ozpin to give him a piece of my mind. He took said piece, and basically said "if I think it's so dangerous why don't I do something to make it safer?"
Which is what brings me here.
"But that's beside the point. The point is, is that you are endangering the lives of these children by taking them to a dangerous, remote, Grimm infested location." I fumed, bringing us back to the topic at hand.
"That is the point of the exercise." He retorted dully, "Besides, it's not even that dangerous or remote. It's not the Barrens, the Lost Wilds, and certainly not the Dead Zone."
"Those are hardly fair comparisons." I frowned.
All those areas were tier 6 zones, which meant they were considered highly dangerous, even to veteran huntsmen. Places far from the safety of the kingdoms, and far beyond the light of man. Only the strongest or most prepared teams of huntsmen ever really have a chance of surviving there.
"But it is a comparison. Mountain Glen is only a tier 2 zone, nothing too bad." He pointed out.
"Besides…" He began, turning to glance at me with a smirk, "These children of yours are quite good at using their pointy sticks."
I huffed at him and his bullheadedness. Still, it was not unexpected.
"So is there no way to change your mind on this?" I asked rhetorically, already knowing his answer.
"No, there is not. These children simply know how to fight in an arena. Initiation was something of a trial for them, but it only taught them that they aren't as invincible as they thought they were. It taught them to fear." He began to explain
"But I want to teach them what it means to be a warrior, a hunter. That it takes more than just being able to swing a pointy stick around in all the right ways. It is what I came here to do, and I will not be swayed from my path." He expounded passionately.
"I see…" I said slowly, adjusting my glasses. "In that case, you leave me no other choice…"
At my words, he stopped what he was doing, and turned to me with a curious expression.
"Lt. Nifelheim, I shall be accompanying you on your "camping trip,"" I announced to him, steeling myself for whatever retort or fury he had to give.
"You are, are you?" He inquired carefully, taking a step closer to me
"I am. Someone must be there to insure the safety of the students, someone who can keep you in line." I said with a hard look, looking up at him directly in the eye.
We stood there for a moment, both unshakable in our assertions. He may have towered over me, but I wouldn't let him use his intimidating physique to bully me into complying. Someone had to protect these students from the horrors of reality, to keep them safe in the dark, and until I saw otherwise, this man was not it.
But then he did the damndest thing.
He grinned.
"Very well, Ms. Goodwitch." He said with a smile, extending a gargantuan hand out to me.
"Welcome aboard."
Aveline Pov
"Here we are," I announced, getting out of my car.
"Whoa." I could hear Jaune whisper in awe
Oh Jaune, still so easily impressed I smirked.
Though, I suppose it's easy to see why.
The West Vale City Police Station is quite the sight, after all. It has the same architectural style as Beacon, which is to say, Neo-Gothic. It was five stories tall at its highest in the central hall area, which branched off into several other three story sections. It was covered in spires, flying buttresses, and reinforced fortifications.
It used to be an old fort for the city, back when it was closer to the border of the city. Since that time, it's been updated and modernized, but it still has that classic old world charm. It still has the feeling of centuries of being a shining light, holding back the darkness and keeping the city safe.
"Nice, huh?" I grinned at him, to which he immediately frowned.
Despite all he's changed, he's still the boy I knew I thought fondly.
He had changed so much over the years. I was still taller than him, but he would probably overtake me before too long. Which meant I had to abuse my position as much as I could before he did.
And, God-Creator, was it good to see him again. To see him smile again, to see that wonder on his face again. His voice had changed, unsurprising, but his mannerisms hadn't. He was still so unsure of himself.
But, for all he stayed the same, there was something different in his eyes. As much as I would love to say there was a confidence, a strength, a courage that was there, I knew I would just be lying to myself.
Something of that oh so innocent light in his eyes had died out.
If I hadn't spent years scrutinizing people to find all their tells, all their secrets, if I hadn't known Jaune since the day he was born, and if hadn't seen that same look myself, I wouldn't have even noticed it.
But I did, and I couldn't take it back.
Still, I wanted to cherish our little reunion. I wanted to wait to open these wounds until the right moment. Besides, this was a private matter, no need to involve his team in something they had no business in.
"What's that sound?" Jaune asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
Right on cue, a large heavy bullhead cleared the skyline of several buildings in the distance. One with a very noticeable, and in my opinion distasteful, shark mouth painted on the nose. It angled itself toward the station, shifting its gimbaling engines to allow it to gracefully hover in place over it. Soon, it began its descent, disappearing behind the main structure of the building.
"That would be the local Watchmen Squad's Bullhead. The station has its own airpad for more rapid deployments." I explained to him
I turned to him to see his jaw still dropped open in wonder.
"Jaune," I frowned, flicking him in the forehead to pull him from his thoughts.
Though, since I knew he had his aura activated, and how strong it was, I decided not pull my punch.
So as a result said forehead flick sent him flying off his feet and onto his back with a pained, oof!
I winced as I saw his skull collide against the pavement.
Ok, maybe should have pulled that punch. Also, I should probably teach him how to actually use his aura, instead of having it just remain passive all the time. I decided.
"Ma faute" I apologized in the family tongue
"Owe" Jaune groaned on the ground.
"(Though honestly, with your aura, you should have been able to take that)" I said, slipping into it easily as I gave him a hand up.
"(Don't lie, you did that on purpose.)" He pouted.
"(Oh, are you accusing your big sister of being a sadist?)" I said, feigning offense.
"(Could you at least not make me look like an idiot in front of my friends?)" Jaune pleaded, gesturing to them, who were all looking at us like we were speaking another-
Oh
Right
"No such luck Jaune," I said with a smile as I ruffled his hair, seamlessly switching back to common.
"Aveline!" He whined.
Oh, the more things change, the more they stay the same I smiled.
Taking a moment, I looked over the girls in Jaune's team, and saw that Blake was desperately trying, and failing, at hiding her grin and stifling her giggles. Pyrrha…looked confused, honestly, what with her stoically quirked brow. Lilith, on the other hand, looked…
Frankly, she looked like she had been reminded of something very painful for her. Her head tilted down, he bangs shadowing her eyes as her fist clenched tightly by her sides. I could vaguely feel her aura contort in emotional pain, though for some reason her aura was much harder to get a read on than the others.
Deciding that, A, I had messed with Jaune enough for the moment, and B, that I didn't want to upset Lilith with whatever I was doing, I opted to move on.
"Alright, alright, lets head inside." I chuckled, leading the way in through the oak double doors.
We entered into lobby of the station, made of stone floors, oak counters, and fanciest in high end holographic screens and displays. It was relatively empty today, only 13 officers and 5 civilians in the room, not including us. In the back of the room, I saw detectives Johnson and Rodman taking the monkey Faunus boy from earlier to processing.
"And this is the entrance hall." I began, showing them around.
My tour was taken of the tracks when I heard the bell of the door ring again from behind me, and I felt a very familiar frosty aura slip in.
"Ymir." I said, spinning around great him
"Detective Arc." He greeted with a nod. He paused, however, when his eyes roamed over my brother and his team.
"Lt. Nifelheim?" Jaune questioned, surprised by Ymir's appearance.
"Student's?" Ymir said, equally caught off guard
Wait a minute. I thought, picking up something in what Jaune said
"Jaune, how do you know Ymir?" I asked carefully
"Oh, he's our combat teacher." Jaune explained simply, as if there were no problems with that sentence at all.
"Ymir." I began as I turned to him very slowly.
"Would you mind telling me why you neglected to inform me that you were teaching my little brother?" I inquired tensely.
"Oh." He said simply. "I forgot."
I'm going to kill him
"What do you mean you forgot?!" I exclaimed, keeping my voice low, yet filled with fury.
"How do you forget to tell your best friend that you're teaching her younger brother that she hasn't seen in five years?"
"Same way I forgot to tell Rosientoter and Sherwood that stuff about Odessa." He calmly responded.
"You still haven't told them about Mila?" I said, bewildered by his forgetfulness.
"Nope" He said simply "It always slips my mind by the time I see them."
"Of course it does." I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.
"Wait, you know this guy Aveline?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, he's one of the watchmen stationed here, and one of my closest friends," I answered absentmindedly.
"I'm flattered, Ymir spoke in monotone
"You should be," I said, giving him a halfhearted glare.
"Well, I would love to stay and chat, but…" He began
"Watchmen business?" I guessed.
"Correct." He affirmed.
"I saw the gunship fly in. Hard to miss that eyesore." I explained.
"Yeah, we're being deployed."
"Oh?"
"It's a code 2553." He said seriously
And with that, all semblance of humor left me.
2553 I thought
The code for the White Wolf
Jack pov
"Alright, Sir, what's the situation," I said as I looked over Llofrudd Mawr and the rest of my equipment in the gunship.
The rumbling of the engines forced me to shout over them, the vibrations rattling my very teeth. It was hardly comfortable, but then, it wasn't unfamiliar either. Who knows how many drops I've had before this one. Not just as a Watchmen, but as one of the Vale Rangers, the kingdom's most elite Special Forces and reconnaissance unit.
"As I'm sure you heard, this is related to the White Wolf." He began, checking his precious Bloody Marian.
"There weren't many details beyond that, Captain," Ymir responded, looking over his Himlens-Dan.
"And for good reason, I can imagine," I added.
"It was." Robin began with a nod.
"…We found it." He said after a moment, "Or, well, I suppose you could say I found it."
"You did? How? What is it doing?" I asked quickly, surprised that he would have found the thing itself after such a short time, considering how fast it was. I thought this mission was to go find some place it might be, or something that had intelligence about where it was.
"It's…well, it's worrying me, frankly. I can see why it spooked you." Robin admitted.
My stunned silence was all he need to continue.
"The White Wolf is hanging around another set of abandoned warehouses and factories on the outskirts of the city. The area isn't too highly populated, so we got the ok from command for tier three collateral." He began
Which meant that we could basically level a building if it was absolutely necessary.
"At first, I thought it was just being a predator of opportunity, waiting to strike any unsuspecting target. But, then I noticed something." He said, his voice filled with worry, "It was doing what I was doing."
"It was doing recon."
"Wait, are you saying it was scoping some place out?" I asked, getting his concern.
"That would imply an understanding of caution, intelligence, and tactics," Ymir stated.
"Yeah, it was eyeing the whole district, getting a feel for the terrain, doing everything I would be doing in its shoes if I knew there was a target of interest in the area." He explained.
"But what is its target?" Ymir asked.
Robin paused again
"…The White Fang."
"Wait, the White Fang?" I jumped in, alarmed that revelation.
"Yep. I noticed it the second day of recon, the unusual activity in the area. Not enough to put it on our radar normally, but it since I was looking for reasons why it might be here, I took note of it. On the third day, I realized that they were probably Faunus, considering most of them were wearing hats, heavy clothes, and other things to hide their race. Then, I finally caught a glimpse of irrefutable proof of their presence, a couple of their little foot soldiers trying to be sneaky." He elaborated.
"I took it to the command, and while they are uncomfortable with the fact that a Grimm found terrorists right under our nose before we did, they do see it as a nice way to kill two birds with one stone."
"You're talking about hitting a White Fang base with the White Wolf in the area," I said, not liking the sound of this.
"Correction, we're hitting the White Fang base while the White Wolf does the same." He corrected.
"Based on everything I've seen it doing, it's probably done its recon. The only thing left to do is strike." He added.
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Because tonight is a new moon and white fang activity has only grown in the past couple days. I think there's something big going down with them tonight. If I were an intelligent super Grimm hungry for the flesh of humans and Faunus, I'd strike now." Robin explained.
"Did it notice you?" Ymir suddenly asked.
"I don't think so, it didn't run…why?" Robin asked, not sure where he was going with that question.
"Assuming it is as smart as you are, and it noticed you, what better time to strike, then when we've come in and softened us all up." He commented.
"…Shit." Robin and I said, realizing what he was saying.
"Do you think it's really that smart?" I asked, more for the sake of argument then doubt.
"It's smart enough." He answered for me.
"Well then, I suppose it's a good thing we brought Odessa with us, right?" Ymir commented.
"Still not sure I trust her." I muttered, looking over at the girl in question.
She just sat there on the other side of the bullhead, as far from the rest of us as possible, looking over this absolutely massive rifle. She was decked out in her own variation of the watchmen armor, which was similar to Robin's but lacked the cloak. In addition, hers was made of a pitch black material that absorbed more than a normal material would, making it so she would blend into the shadows perfectly. It also had a stronger optical and sensory suite than Robin's, something shown in the longer, vaguely wolf headed shape of the helmet.
"I can hear you, you know." She muttered from her little corner.
"Oh, I'm counting on it, girly!" I goaded, raising my voice mockingly
"Rosientoter, you do realize she's supposed to be our overwatch, right?" Ymir commented.
"Bah, you just like her because she's another Atlesian" I dismissed with a wave of my hand.
Ymir starred at me with deadpan so hard I could feel it through his helmet, before turning to Mila. Then he spoke something in that brutish harsh northern language of theirs, which prompted a chuckle out of her.
"Now that's just immature." I pouted, distinctly feeling like the butt of a joke I couldn't even understand.
"Well, Jack, it's your own damn fault." Robin chided with a smile in his voice.
"Pft." I dismissed in good cheer, "Yeah right, I'm the most mature person here. I am a father after all."
"Give it a few months, then you can start calling yourself dad." Robin teased.
And so we continued toward the objective like this like this, light jokes traded between me and Robin, while Ymir and Mila spoke to each other in their booga booga language. All in all, it was seemed like a nice journey there. But underneath it was that dark tension that came with every mission. The fact that we were going into a dangerous place by ourselves. It was just us, the White Fang, and the White Wolf.
It was dangerous, it was dirty, and it wasn't going glorious. But we didn't do it for the glory, the money, or the fame. We did it because we were watchmen, and it was our duty to do the deeds in the dark so our fellow man could be spared.
And it's something we took pride in.
"So Robin, you sure this plan of yours is going to work?" I said over the secure coms, sneaking up to the door to the factory with Ymir.
The sound of the rain pounding against the dirt, pavement, and factory would help cover our entry, to a degree, but it also gave this whole operation a dreadful, somber, note.
"No, but that's why I put in the 'shit hits fan' emergency plan." He responded, making his way around to another side of the factory.
"Odessa, you got our back up there?" I asked
"…"
"…I'll take that as a yes." I said, disconcerted by her sudden silence. Still, her display in my HUD still said she was ok, so maybe I had just pissed her off or something.
"Quiet, we're here." Ymir said in a rumbling whisper.
Finally, we stacked up against the door, Ymir to open and me to enter. He held his hand up, and counted down, three
Two
One
Open.
I carefully, yet, quickly entered and scanned the room. I gave him the all clear sign and moved on, him giving me a pat on the shoulder to let me know he was right behind me.
We walked through corridor after corridor of eerily empty factory. To the untrained eye, it may have looked deserted, but I knew better. It was the little things, the way the most of the dirt, trash, and rubble had been moved to the sides of the hall, the lack of plant and animal life, things like that. People had been here very regularly for quite a while.
But doing what? I wondered.
Then I got a ping on my minimap. The entire floorplan for the factory had been uploaded to out suits so we could find our way around. The ping was in the main assembly room, with Robin's marker in a room above it.
"I got a large heat signature below me." Robin said over the com
"Got it, Rosientoter and I will investigate." Ymir answered.
And with that, we made our way there. The entire time, I couldn't shake the feeling we were being watched, but I couldn't see anything. It was like the eyes were in the very walls, stalking my every move.
I pushed the paranoia from my mind, focusing on the task at hand. Soon, we were at the door I question.
This time, I opened the door for Ymir. As dangerous as it was in there, Ymir could take a hit better than I could. I had seen him shake off an RPG before, I was confident he could take whatever they had to throw at him.
"Entering" He whispered over the com as he passed through the threshold. I followed soon after.
The room was pitch black, not a light in sight. Even with Night vision, I couldn't see anything beyond the factory machines that covered the floor. Also known as the perfect cover to hide in wait for us.
"I got a bad feeling about this." I said to Ymir
"Indeed." He agreed.
And no sooner had we said that, then did we get proven to be exactly right
The lights flashed on with a loud Clack, revealing us to be in the center of the room. All around us, people wearing white Grimm masks popped out from cover, holding us at gun point. We were surrounded.
I heard a loud whirring coming from the front of the room, and turned to see a man standing on some kind of platform, wearing a somewhat different mask with more ornate red markings. In his hands was some kind of giant chainsaw sword.
Probably some kind of high ranking White Fang I thought.
"Welcome, huntsmen-" he began
"Hey! Watchmen, thank you very much." I interrupted.
"Watchmen? Even better!" He laughed.
"Asshole." I whispered to Ymir.
"Regardless, you came here seeking to snuff us out like were some kind of infestation, and yet here you are, caught like rats in a trap." He gloated.
Ymir sighed loudly, silently saying, "Oh god, not one of these guys."
"I feel ya buddy." I comforted him as I stared down my weapon at the man in front of me.
"Now we shall see how you like being hunted down like animals, being oppressed and mistreated just for being born different." He continued as the massive shutters behind him opened up, revealing the bright lights of the city skyline in the distance through the massive window behind him
"No, not different, better! Faunus are better than humans in every way! It is our birthright to rule this world, and soon we take our rightful place. Then you shall see how you like being the little people! How you like being stepped on and abused!" He ranted.
"How about you surrender peacefully, and we promise you won't be harmed." I said, still aiming at his head with Mawr.
"Surrender?" He laughed. "Surely your primitive human mind must be dumber than I thought, seeing as I have you right where I want you."
"Neither I nor any one of the true brothers and sisters of the White Fang surrender to such weak and cowardly humans. You cannot hope to win! The White Fang will stand and rise, and we shall take everything we deserve!"
The White Fang in the room cheered, the room absolutely vibrating with fanatical energy. It felt more like I was in the middle of a cult than the once proud civil rights group.
"Now, strike these filthy humans down in the name of all Faunus kin-!'
Then his chest exploded.
BANG!
The glass window behind him shattered into a million pieces as the loud boom of a gunshot rung out through the night, cutting his speech short. A veritable flood of glass fell to the ground as he fell to his knees, desperately trying to hold his entrails in from the hole in his chest as he choked on his own blood, his chainsaw clattering to the ground beside him.
Silenced reigned for a second as every single member of the White Fang directed their attention toward their once mighty leader.
"Primary target down" Mila spoke over the comm emotionlessly, her cold voice sending a shiver down my spine,
"Am I cleared to take out secondary targets?"
I looked at the results of one of the scariest and deadliest weapons ever crafted by the hands of man, the Лэнс Зима (Lens Zima). A 50. Cal monster of a gun made to kill the monster of man, not the beasts of Grimm. What made it so terrible and deadly wasn't the size of the bullet, however, but the burst fire system it used to fire three bullets so fast you couldn't hear the individual shots, just one big boom. The first and second bullets were often more than enough to strip someone of their aura, leaving them wide open for the last one to tear a nice meaty hole in them.
"Team 4, you are cleared to engage." Robin declared firmly, his voice like steel
And with those words, we began our onslaught.
Ymir brought his gun to bear, unloading a torrent of icy rounds upon the crowd of stunned terrorists before us. It hit them like the blizzard it was so named for, freezing Faunus left and right with indiscriminate fury. At the same time, I fired controlled bursts of Mawr into the crowd while began to move into cover.
As Ymir began to make his way further into the shitstorm we had made, practically wading through the bullets, I switched to Sleas and Llosgi, moving into close range. While all the White Fang members were distracted by the oncoming terror of a massive man of steel unleashing a storm of freezing bullets upon them, I slipped around, downing enemy after enemy, prioritizing secondary targets.
Secondary targets were anybody was considered a threat to us, people with weapons capable of actually getting through our armor and doing some damage. My armor could shrug of 7.62 rounds easily enough, though it could get through the underweave, Robin's could really only take 5.56, while Ymir was practically a walking tank, require either anti-material rounds, or someone to get a shot through his underweave.
So, the plan, as usual, revolved around him being the tank. Soaking up damage and attention from everyone around him. While he got everyone's attention, the rest of us would clean up. In this case, that meant Mila taking out the primary target, and the two of us working together to cover Ymir until the White Wolf showed up. Or, in the event that it never did, simply mop them all up.
It was a simple plan, which is why Robin picked it. The more complicated it could have been, the more shit could have gone wrong. A bad idea, especially when we were dealing with so many unknowns. Plus, it gave us a chance to let Mila have some field work with us and see how we operate.
Besides, this way, when shit inevitably hits the fan, it doesn't go FUBAR I thought as I swept a man with a grenade launcher's feet out from under him. Right as he hit the ground, I swung Sleas down on him like a guillotine, the burning blade burying itself deep inside his chest. He barely had time to gasp in pain before the dust activated inside him, burning him from the inside out. The only outward sign of it a flash of light and a puff of smoke coming from the hole in his chest and the mask on his face.
It's fool proof! I thought with a smile, spinning to meet the woman who noticed me by shoving Llosgi in her face. With a double barreled, Bang! At point blank range, the double incendiary blast shredded her aura and burned her face off, leaving nothing more than a blackened skull in its place.
I turned again, seeing a man with a monkey tail and a shotgun running toward me with a savage grin. Before I could even make a move against him, he was hit with a flurry of icy blue bullets. He was frozen solid near instantly, before the freezing fire turned to another victim. And just like that, all eyes were on the glacial giant unloading a torrent of frosted death upon their number.
Just like we had planned. I even wondered how shit could hit the fan. Everything was going flawlessly.
I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard a loud burst of static come over the com. I flinched violently form the unexpected sound, looking to the hud to see the source of it, and found that it was coming from Mila's radio.
"Odessa, something going on over there?" I asked, slipping into cover while I did.
"…"
"Robin?" I asked, wondering if he had any idea what was going on.
"Odessa, what's your status, over?" He said, all business.
"…"
"I-m going to go check it-" Robin began.
He was interrupted by the sound of what glass remained on the window shattering, as a dark body came flying through it, before slamming to the ground and rolling to a stop in the center of concrete floor, right by Ymir's feet.
It was Mila.
She was missing her Helmet and her rifle. There was some large scratches on her armor, and her brown hair hung around her face messily, her dog ears pressed against her head. She looked up toward the window she had been thrown from with a bloody lip, slowly trying to get to her feet as she held her scratched side.
The whole room stopped in a second stunned silence, her unexpected arrival a surprise to all involved.
A silence broken by the sounds of shattered glass being crushed underfoot.
Almost as one, everyone in the room turned toward the platform where the White fang soldier Mila shot earlier still lay. Standing there, hovering over his body, was the massive figure of the White Wolf, its silver white coat reflecting the lights of the city skyline behind it. Its black eyes matching the dark void of the moonless night sky surrounding it.
It hovered over the corpse of the terrorist, looking at him hungrily. Slowly, carefully, it bent down, reaching with its large scythe-like claws into his open chest. The sounds of it tearing it open wider could be heard in the dead silence of the room, the sound of it snapping bones, ripping muscle and sinew, the only soundtrack to its macabre task. Finally, it finished, pulling a small, fist sized, bloody object from his chest, and throwing it in the air before snapping it up in its jaws.
Did it just eat his heart? I wondered, disgust and fear building in me.
As much as I tried to prepare, nothing could truly prepare me for seeing the real thing up close and personal.
It looked back down at us, looking over the room and appraising us, judging us. Then, it grinned, before disappearing in a flash of blue light.
It reappeared right in front of Ymir, it's claw surging forward towards him like a silver bloodstained lance. Ymir managed to react fast enough to bring his gun up in an attempt to block, but it wasn't enough. The claw tore through the gun, leaving a massive scar through it, before slamming into the giant of a man. The blow threw the half ton giant off his feet, sending him flying backwards.
With that move, the room seemed to unfreeze. The White Fang Soldiers, leaderless and now facing a massive white Grimm, panicked. Some tried to run, others tried to shoot it. Just like the mobsters, however, their bullets did nothing to it, the rounds falling against its fur like rain against steel.
Ymir hit the ground on his feet, sliding back as he recovered from the savage blow, his massive armored boots tearing up the concrete as they dug into the hard floor from the weight and force of his landing. He dropped his scarred gun as he recovered, instead drawing his Slägga Av Berget with one hand. He dug the other hand into the ground, using it to help arrest his movement. And all in one seamless motion.
When he came to a stop, he looked up at the grinning White Wolf that had struck him. He rose to his feet, standing up strong as he held the hammer mid-way down its length. Then, he took a step forward, throwing his arms out, and giving out a thunderous roar to the beast, a challenge for all to hear. The sound of the roar was tinged with his aura, flavoring it with the force of his soul, and chilling the air around us. Frost and ice creeped over his armor, cracking into place all over him.
He had just fully activated his semblance.
As much as Ymir was a soldier, I knew, deep down, in his soul, he was a warrior who lived for battle. He breathed war, combat was his life, and he would gladly die fighting for what he believed in, something seen in his semblance.
He charged forward, Slägga held in both hands as he rushed the White Wolf. When Ymir reached the wolf, he swung his hammer up at it, a move it easily sidestepped. It tried to counter attack with a swipe of its claw, but this time he blocked with his hammer, and weathered the blow. They continued this little dance for a while, each trying to land a serious blow on the other. The wolf, too fast for Ymir, and Ymir too durable and experienced to be caught off guard again.
While they had their little duel, I ran through the chaos towards were Mila lay on the ground.
"Sir, the White Wolf just showed up and threw Mila through a window. No sign of her gun, but she's conscious, Right now Ymir it keeping it busy." I reported through the com as I ran to her.
"Shit, I was hoping it would go for Ymir first. I didn't think it would be able to find her, let alone realize her threat level." Robin cursed. "Hang in there, I'm going to wrap things up out here and take care of any stragglers."
"Ok Sir." I responded, turning the comm off.
Finally, I managed to reach her position, throwing myself over the silent machinery she had hidden behind.
I hit the ground in a crouch right next to where she was leaning against the machine, holding her side and peaking over the machine.
"Odessa, you good?" I asked, looking her over. She didn't look like she was bleeding from anywere besides her lip, but she could be facing broken bones and internal injuries.
"Yeah, it just caught me off guard. Tore my helmet off and threw my gun away before I could respond." She said coldly, still looking over at the battle.
"Can you still fight?" I asked
"Of course, sir." She said, pushing off from the machine to stand. "Just needed a little breather."
She drew two holstered sidearms from the sides of her chest, holding one in either hand, "Orders, sir?"
"Well, since I highly doubt those peashooters will do anything to the White Wolf, let's clean up the terrorist bastards while Ymir's keeping it busy, alright?"
"Yes sir." She replied crisply.
Something I found downright creepy from the normally quite kind, soft, and naïve young woman. It was almost as if she had drained herself of all emotion and feeling, leaving nothing in the way of her duty.
"…good to hear." I said, unnerved by her demeanor, especially in light of the fact she was killing fellow Faunus
I was only able to see her nod, before a massive grey blur flying past me stole my attention. I turned to see Ymir flying through one of the walls of factory, his massive form easily breaking through the brick wall with a loud crash, a cascade of debris and dust falling from the hole he left.
I looked back to see the White Wolf directing its attention to all the White Fang still in the area, all of them desperately trying to kill it. But in the end, it did them little good. The wolf ran tore through their ranks like a bolt of silver-blue lightning. Despite the fact that the white fang members had aura, as weak as it was, the wolf's claws tore them apart with each swing, leaving trails of blood and limbs flying through the air. On occasion it would stop to tear into someone it had struck, digging into their flesh messily, ignoring both their screams of pain and their comrade's attempts to save them like they were nothing more than a light breeze.
By now, of the 50 or so white fang that had been here, only 20 still remained. The floor was soaked deep crimson with their blood, butchered bodies and gore covering the ground. In only a handful of moments this once abandoned factory had turned into a mass grave, with no end in sight.
To be honest, on one level, I really wanted to help the white fang. Yeah, they were terrorist bastards, but they were still people. They had souls, wants, desires, hopes, dreams, all of that. The White Wolf, on the other hand, was just a soulless monster. Intelligent, maybe, but that didn't change the fact its sole mission seemed to be nothing short of killing and consuming as many of us as possible.
But then I thought of all the people I had lost to the White Fang, all the attacks they had committed in the name of "justice". Not to mention the fact that just minutes ago they had been all prepped and ready to kill us and bathe in our entrails.
…ok, maybe not that last part.
"This job just never get easier, does it?" I thought out loud with a sigh.
Besides, we still had an emergency "shit hits fan" backup plan in place. Couldn't let that go to shit to just because I was having a philosophical moment. It wasn't just about me, we were a team. They were counting on me to do my part and do everything I could.
And I wouldn't give them anything less
And with that thought, I gripped Sleas and Llosgi, and pushed away all thoughts of doubt from my mind. Just in time, too.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a terrorist fanatic running at me with sword, screaming, "die human scum!" at the top of his lungs.
He was running at me at full speed, filled with fanatic and berserk passion.
But to me he was just moving at a crawl.
I held back a sigh at the sight of another young man running to his pointless death, and readied myself to strike at the right moment. Once he entered into range, taking just one step too close to me, I struck.
I swung my axe forward, hooking the blade of the sword within the gap between the curved beard and the shaft of the axe, and pushing it out of the way. Then, in one seamless continuous motion, I brought up my shotgun right up to his chest, and fired. A booming blast of the shredding, burning, incendiary dragon rounds tore through his aura in a flash of light, before continuing to his flesh. The end result left charred and ground fleshy hole in his chest, right where his heart and lungs would be. He let out one last pained, wheezing, gasp, before collapsing to the ground in a dead heap.
But I was already on the move to another target.
I ran toward another man wielding a large axe as he ran toward the white wolf. Instead of letting the man simply feed the hungry Grimm, I opted to end his life a little earlier. Getting up behind him, I stopped, fired Llosgi at his right leg, the massive blast of shrapnel and fire destroying his aura and nearly tearing his leg off. As it was, all that remained at the knee was some burnt and shredded flesh and bone.
He collapsed to his knees, screaming in pain. Something that left him at perfect height for me to cut his head off with one clean swing from Sleas.
As his head flew through the air, a flash of movement from the corner of my eye betrayed a women wielding a shotgun coming for me, her mask torn off, leaving her white cat ears exposed in the air, and showing the murder and hate in her eyes.
"Die you bas-"
Bang bang!
Before I even had time to react and kill her myself, two shots rang out, and her eyes, once filled with such hate and ferocity, exploded into twin showers of blood. She fell to the ground screeching in pain, clutching her eyes as the blood flowed freely from them. I knew, while it wasn't an instant or clean kill, she would bleed out soon enough.
I turned to the source, only to see Mila with her twin pistols give a momentary nod to me, before turning back to the duty at hand. It was then that I noticed the unnerving number of terrorists that lay motionless on the ground, bloody holes where their eyes used to be.
"Well…that's brutally effective." I murmured to myself.
Despite the protective effect of aura, the eye was still so fragile and delicate that it almost didn't matter. Your aura would still, usually, keep something from passing through the skull and into the brain, but it would stretch enough to let something like a bullet blow your eyes out and bleed to death.
Something she seemed to be doing with machine gun efficiency.
I shook the thoughts from my head I got back to the matter at hand. Seeing no hostiles in my immediate area, I tried to find the White Wolf, an easy task, in the end.
It seemed that while I was distracted, Ymir had re-engaged the wolf. Ymir swung his hammer in an arc around him, but the wolf just seemed to twitch out of the way, it's every movement leaving a trail of ash falling in it's wake. It retaliated with a clawed thrust of its own, but Ymir blocked with the shaft of his hammer.
Taking one hand off the shaft of his hammer, he seized the moment to grab hold of the beast's arm while it was entangled with his hammer. Then, in a moment of Atlesian warrior fury, he did something equally bold and stupid.
He head-butted it.
He slammed his armored helm straight into the jaw of the beast, his grip to firm to allow it to move out of the way. The punishing blow sent it reeling back, yet even still Ymir didn't release his grip. Instead, he pulled the hand holding the hammer back, and swung it up in an almighty uppercut straight to the jaw.
Having finally released his grip, the White Wolf went sailing into the air, frost already creeping over it. By the time it hit the ground, its entire upper body was encased in ice.
"Nice job big guy. I think you did it." I congratulated him, walking up to him as he caught his breath. I looked around for any other white fang, only to find nothing but a sea of corpses.
"You good?' I asked, looking at him with concern. Sometimes he could get pretty…impassioned…about this stuff, when he let that good old Atlesian warrior blood run a little too hot. Not that he would be a danger to us, oh no. He was the picture of restraint and control. Still, it usually made him a bit more…frosty…than usual.
God, he would kill me if he knew I thought that I thought with a smile, He hates puns.
"I'll be fine." He grumbled roughly with that winning charm.
See? Frosty I thought, proud of my own pun mastery.
"Odessa, you done over there?" I hollered over the mic
"Yes sir." She crisply responded.
"God, it's like I'm the only with a sense of humor around here." I grumbled to myself.
"Ymir, how's things on your end?" Robin asked over the com.
"The White Fang seem to be all taken care of, and the White Wolf incapacitated." He responded.
"Well don't fuck around, just kill it. That thing creeps me out." Robin ordered.
"Understood sir." Ymir answered firmly, a tinge of grim excitement in his voice.
He walked forward, re-positioning his hammer in his hands. He was about to deal a final deathblow to this creature, and rid this world of some evil.
Crack
"What was that?" I asked at the sound.
Then, with a cacophony of cracks, the ice around the wolf shattered. The explosion of ice sent us all reeling, covering our faces more on the instinct born from shards of icy death flying to you at over 100 mph than any real danger.
When we lowered our arms, we were met with an unsettling sight.
The White Wolf, standing tall. It grinned no longer, and instead had what could only be described as a quite annoyed look on its silver furred face.
"Well…shit." I cursed, not knowing what else to say.
That blow incapacitated a deathstalker, one of the physically stronger grimm out there. This thing was barely a third the size, and it broke out of it in less than ten seconds. Which meant this was probably going to be way harder than I thought it was.
"Uh, status update, sir, the White Wolf broke out of Ymir's ice. It does not look happy." I reported over the com.
"Shit. Alright, in that case, we're going with plan shitstorm beta. Hold out until I get there to back you guys up." He replied, distaste clear in his tone.
"Understood sir." The three of us said in unison.
Before we even had a chance to make good on that promise, the Wolf gave a loud, piercing, and furious howl, before disappearing in another flash of light. My finely honed reactions and instincts gave let me see just where it looked like that flash of light was heading.
"Ymir look out-"Was all I could see before it was on him.
Or more precisely, behind him.
It reappeared crouched behind him, before pouncing on his back. It latched on, raking it's claws against his chest, it's massive jaw biting down on his head.
In a roar of defiance, Ymir grabbed onto the thing's head, and threw off him and onto the ground before him. The beast rolled with the blow onto all fours, giving Ymir an angry snarl, before flashing beside him with another trail of ash, and rushing him again. Unable to move fast enough, the wolf managed to successfully tackle him to the ground. Now perched over him, the Wolf was in the perfect position to maul him to death.
But I wouldn't let him.
I fired Llosgi at its back, drawing its attention. The cone of fire and shrapnel ended up doing little to its silver body, but it still drew its attention enough for it to turn its hungry black gaze to me and snarl.
"Sup." I said simply before blasting it in the face.
In hindsight, my plan, which was essentially just don't let it kill Ymir, was poorly thought out. I would realize while I went sailing through the air after it smacked with its massive clawed hand as it ignored the blast of fire in its face.
When I hit the ground, felt the massive drain in my aura, let alone the fact that I felt like I had just been hit by a goddamn freight train, I started reassessing my life choices. Something I had to put on hold when the White Wolf landed on me soon afterward, giving me no time to rest.
When it bitch smacked me like it was my pimp daddy, it also smacked Llosgi from my hand, removing my ability to shoot blasts of double barreled incendiary fury at it. Not that that seemed to be doing much good anyway.
Still, I had my good old axe, and a die-hard attitude that had seen me through some of the toughest shit known to man. I wasn't going to let one overgrown Grimm, and probably 5 broken ribs, put me down.
So, tapping into that barbarian fury people liked to say I had, I swung my axe at its face, hopping to do something.
"Get off me you fat ugly bastard!" I yelled at it.
I swung it again and again, but each time it just seemed to glance off its silver fur, not even setting alight despite the still very active fire dust in it. Each hit seemed to be little more than an annoying slap to the face to it, something it quickly grew tired of.
Roaring at me in fury, the sheer force of its cry stunning me, it grabbed my head in its massive claw, the force causing the helmet to groan under the strain. I began to panic inside, the fear of being crushed alive taking hold as I desperately batted my axe at its arm, desperately trying to get free. Instead, it slammed my head against the concrete again and again, pounding a crater into the stone with my skull.
Finally, it released me from its grip, looming over me hungrily. I was too dazed to really do anything, stars filling my vision. I could barely even think straight, and everything felt sort of distant, even the pain.
I let out a pained moan as it read a hand back, pulling its claws together as it prepared a spear like jab aimed straight at my heart.
Before it could act, however, Ymir, the beautiful giant he was, bowled into it, knocking it over. They wrestled with each other for a minute, captivating my dazed state.
"Sir?" A concerned voice said next to me
I looked up to see Mila standing over me, a concerned look over her bloodied face. I tried to respond, when I realized I had a big problem.
I couldn't breathe.
I tried to gasp in breath, but the ventilation systems in my helmet must been damaged, trapping me in an iron coffin. I scrambled my hands against it, desperately trying to rip it off, already feeling my lungs burning for breath.
Finally, with Mila's help, I was able to tear the thing off. I sucked in a breath of glorious, precious, real air.
"Thanks." I gasped, bending over in pain.
"You're…welcome sir." She replied somewhat nervously, like she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to my gratitude.
I turned around to see how Ymir was fairing against the beast. He had is hammer back in his hands, but otherwise seemed like it was going about as well as it was before.
But then, just as I began to think we didn't have a hope in hell of stopping that monster, a flash of light gave me reason to hope again.
A streak of blue lightning surged across the factory floor, and slammed into the back of the White Wolf. Electricity arced wildly across its silver white form as it spasmed in pain.
Taking the opportunity given to him, Ymir spun around, and slammed his hammer at full force into the chest of the Grimm. The two active dust forms exploded together, lighting blasting off its form as it flew back through the air. Ice covered its body even faster than before, completely encasing it in ice by the time it hit the ground.
Before it had a chance to get up again, Ymir ran up to its frozen body, and brought his Slägga down upon it like the frozen fist of god. Instantly, a column of ice erupted up from where the hammer struck the beast. The impact rocked the floor, the tremor shaking dust loose from all around the factory. When it ended, a small mountain of ice stood where the White Wolf once lay.
I turned around to see Robin standing behind us at one of the doors to the room, his Bloody Marian pointed the mountain of ice.
"Rosientoter, Niflheim, Odessa, you guys good?" He asked, his voice all business.
I was really only able to give off a strangled grunt in response, my ribs and lungs still aching.
"Fine, sir." Ymir huffed, exhaustion filling his voice.
"Yes, sir." Mila responded.
"Good, then lets get the fuck out of here. I don't want us to be here when I blow this place." Robin said.
We all nodded in affirmation. Mila giving me a shoulder to lean as she helped me out, and Ymir grabbing his damaged gun before following us out. Robin was the last to leave, keeping his eye on the mountain of ice, hoping against hope that it would hold long enough to matter.
After what felt like an eternity of walking through corridor after corridor, each breath filled with pain, we finally made back out to the outside world. I looked at the starry night sky above me, thankful I was finally out of that shithole, and looked back at the building it all went down in.
Once we were finally a safe distance away, we stopped. Robin pulled out a detonator and silently pressed the button.
There was a single, precious, trembling, moment of nothing.
Then.
BOOM!
Twelve simultaneous explosion detonated around all the structural supports of the building. Even form this distance, I could feel the pressure wave rumble through my body. After a moment of struggling resistance, the building finally gave way, and the once great, productive, and towering 7 story building fell to pieces. It caved in on itself, the tremors of it reverberating throughout the entire district. A massive cascade of dirt and debris continued to fall upon it as massive, multi ton, slabs of concrete, brick, and steel fell upon the mass grave we had left there.
Then finally, it ended.
As I heard the sound of the gunship approaching our positon, I let out a sigh of relief, letting the exhaustion fill me. I turned to see movement form the corner of my eye, and saw Robin handing me Llosgi.
"Thanks, sir." I said with a pained grunt, taking my weapon from him.
Taking the small moment of peace, I looked over everything, taking stock of the situation. Robin was mostly untouched, but his armor was covered in bright crimson streaks of blood that stood out against the silver of his armor.
I saw Robin handing her massive rifle, which had a scar across it from where the White Wolf attacked her, but it still looked serviceable. Bloodstains covered her onyx armor, hell, they covered all of our armor. Her helmet was still missing, likely little more than scrap metal, and the bleeding seemed to have stopped.
Ymir looked like he took the brunt of the hits, his armor covered in deep gashes, and some parts even shorn off, leaving only the under weave. He carried his Himlens-Dån in one hand, and the Slägga in the other, his body heaving from the loud, exhausted, breathes he took.
All around the pile of rubble that used to be the factory, I noticed the motionless bodies of white fang littering the wet, muddy ground. The stragglers Robin spoke off. He let no one escape while he set the charges on the factory.
Hearing the sound of the gunship getting louder, I looked up to see it's massive form hovering over us, the backwash from the roaring engines buffeting us. As the rain fell upon my bare head, I closed my eye for a moment and let it wash over me.
Finally, it's over.
Later that night
I lay there in bed, my eyes closed as I just listened to the sound of her breathing, focusing on the warm of her body curled up next to mine in bed. Unlike some nights, it wasn't a naked post-sex rest, since A: Carol didn't feel comfortable having sex this late into term, and B: my everything still hurt.
So instead, it was a nice, relaxing, peaceful and comfortable rest beside each other, taking solace in each other's presence. It was, in one way, strange to experience such peace and serenity after the bloodbath that happened earlier in the night. In another, it was why I did these things in the first place, to keep her safe, to be able to come back to this life each and every night.
This…this is nice I thought serenely.
I felt something shift over me, a presence on top of me. Thinking it was just Carol, I opened my eyes.
And was met with twin black orbs staring right back at me.
I tried to jerk away, but I couldn't move.
I tried to yell, but I couldn't speak.
I was frozen, starring at the massive presence of the White Wolf hovering over me, it's massive maw inches from my face, so close I could feel it's hot, wet, breath wash over me every time it exhale. It stared down at me with that damn grin, its silver white fur practically glistening in the darkness of the room as it stood there unmoving.
You're supposed to be dead! I screamed inside, fear spiking within me
Then, I heard a powerful, thrumming, repeating, vibration coming from deep in its throat. It started slow at first, but got louder, more intense, as it went on. It took a while for me to recognize it as laughter of all things.
I would have thought of some kind of sarcastic quip normally, but I couldn't. My entire being was filled with terror. Not just for myself, but for Carol. This thing was in my own damn house, inches away from my fiancé, the love of my life, and I couldn't even lift a fucking finger.
I was helpless
Then, as it continued to laugh at me, it's opened its mouth. It stretched wider and wider, the sounds of bones cracking and unhinging the only thing to break the dead silence of the room. Then, when it's gaping maw had fully opened to the black abyss within it, it stopped completely.
Then I…saw something…in that abyss. Something white.
Then, slowly, crawling from the dark, it extended out from within the beast. It came closer and closer, the sounds of something writhing and growing from its flesh interior growing. Finally, it came close enough to see what it was.
A head.
The head of human, their skin an ethereal white, and their hair an eternal dark. It looked at me with a grinning face filled with razor sharp teeth, and an empty black void where their eyes should. Soon, a white hand joined it, reaching out from the abyss to grab onto the side of the Wolf's jaw for leverage. It was joined by another. Then, working to gather to pull itself out from the Grimm, its upper body crawled out too.
"Hello mister watchmen, sir." It giggled, stretching a hand out to me
The hand grasped my chin in a vice grip, forcing me to look at its unearthly grinning face.
"I found you." It grinned.
I struggled against it's grip as hard as I could, doing anything to fight back, to fucking move. Panic set in as I saw it's gaze drift to Carol's sleeping form, still blissfully unaware of what was happening.
No, NO! I roared inside
Then I jolted out of bed, drenched in sweat, the White Wolf of the…thing…I refuse to call it human…gone. I looked to Carol, seeing her still curled up on the bed next to me. Taking deep breathes, I calmed myself down.
Relax Jack, it was just a nightmare. I thought, reaching out to feel the bulge developing in Carol's abdomen.
You're safe, Carol's safe, and the White Wolf is dead I thought, rubbing it.
I think I need a glass of water I decided, removing my hand and stepping out of the bed.
But when I did, I felt something that made my blood run cold.
The feeling of ash, crinkling beneath my bare feet.
A/n: I have returned, a bit late, I know, but only by a few days.
Close enough, you know.
Anyways, there are a metric shit ton of things to cover in here
Jesus
Ok, so first, Aveline
Yeah, she's Jaune's eldest sister. That bit at the end of the last chapter was mostly to see if anyone would come up with some...interesting theories, as to who Aveline actually was. I honestly thought it was obvious as fuck, but you've surprised me before.
Anyways, the two of them are speaking french as the "family tongue" they don't actually know it was french, as they don't know of France's existence, and it's exclusive to the family. I thought it made sense for them to have a family tongue, especially for it to be french seeing as Joan of Arc is a french hero
At the same time, this brings me to the religious shit.
Honestly, I feel like Joan(or Jaune in this case) and religion should go hand in hand. After all, Joan of Arc was granted sainthood
Still, as implied by the God-Creator title, it isn't the Christian religion. The religion is kind of not-Christianity, and takes cues from other monotheistic religions that I feel would fit, namely the Maker from Dragon age and the God-Emperor from Warhammer 40K.
Also I happen to like religion and religious issues.
And that little thing with Ruby getting all sad and depressed at seeing Aveline and Jaune interact was her remembering, quite painfully, how she and her sister used to interact before it all went to shit. I'm telling you this now because I don't think I'll ever get to it, and I feel like doing it.
And Blake sort of going through an existential crisis/shift. The life she's living now is the complete inverse of the one she lived in the White Fang, one she, at the time, thought was the righteous path of sorts. Now, she's having all her world views continuously turned on their head. The people she fought against for so long are the friends and family of her own friends and teammates. She's befriending those she once thought to hate, and being pulled into systems she once fought to destroy.
We also finally got to see Mila in action! and she's a sniper using something that I find to make a lot of sense, and be devastatingly effective. In our world, a burst fire 50 cal would be overkill and a little unfeasible because on 50 cal round would pretty much kill anyone regardless of where you shot them. With Aura, however, I'm pulling some influence from Mass Effect, the incisor, and why it's supposed to work
That said, in the actual game the Incisor kind of sucks, the Indra is much better.
Anyways, the fight with the White Wolf was pretty intense.
Some of you might complain about the White Fang being nothing more than cannon fodder in here. Well, truth be told, as they appear in the show, I don't see most of them as being a serious threat. Large groups of them are repeatedly taken down by children. Granted, they are kids going to a school to train superpowered warriors, but they are still students. They lack actual combat experience and training that a full-fledged huntsmen or watchmen would have, not to mention the increase in aura I would assume would happen as they got older and stronger.
Essentially, what I'm saying is is that if team RWBY can kick the white fang's ass, the Watchmen and the White Wolf would have no real problem at all. The only sort of white fang threat in the room was the lieutenant, who was sniped before he could do much more than be a windbag.
Still, the White Wolf gave the Watchmen a nice good kick in the teeth. Honestly, I'm not too sure if a huntsmen team would do better, but I can say with certainty that none of the teams of students we have seen so far would have been able to handle it.
As for what Ymir did back there, I'll go into it in more detail later, but on a basic level, his semblance is the inverse of Yang's, all about being an indestructible walking fortress instead of dealing viscous damage the more punishment he takes.
Now, I'm not sure when chap 29 is coming out. I might post it next week, I might post it in September.
don't know
You can bitch and moan, but that's just me being honest.
Also, I finally posted that collab thing I was talking about.
It's called A Bleeding Heart for Two by TheOrderOfTheAnonymousCoyote. It's got two chapters up already, and if all goes as planned, we should post a new chap each Sunday.
I touched it, so if you want some darkness there's plenty of it in there. At the same time, others were involved, and I didn't write all the chapters, so don't expect it to be just like this.
I think that's about it.
See you later.
