:
/ | \
\ | /
Act II
Scene 32
Burning Dead
A/n: Happy All Hallow's Eve
I'm back
To be honest, this chapter was actually 99% done last friday, but by that point, I felt I might as well wait for Halloween to roll around
be all festive and shit
Hope yall don't mind
And I hope this lives up to the Halloween Spirit
Now, for songs.
The previous ones still apply, but lets add some new ones.
Re-Education(Through Labor) by Rise Against (For explosions)
Come As You Are by Prep School (For more Explosions)
Bad Moon Rising by Morning Ritual (For Ruby)
Me and Mine by Brothers Bright (For Ruby)
Bad Guy by Eminem (For Yang)
Sweet Dreams(Are Made Of This) by Marilyn Manson (For Yang)
I'd also like to thank Red, aka TheAngelWolf101, for her help with this.
In any case, without further ado, enjoy Scene 32
My longest chapter, the last part of Act II, and the last part of the Volume 1 equivalent.
Consider it the Season finale, and the Roundup
Sunday, October 30
11:30 am
Jaune pov
"Let the blade pass through the flesh,
Let my blood touch the ground,
Let my cries touch their hearts. Let mine be the last sacrifice"
When is this going to be over? I wondered internally, bored out of my mind.
Aveline had succeeded in dragging me to church the next Sunday after all. Something I had been dreading. And, to my immense displeasure, it was just as boring as I thought it was going to be. I tuned out basically every word the preacher spoke.
"And with those final words, The Shepard plunged his blade deep within his gut. His holy blood fell to the ground, burning it with it's power. Then, the righteous fury of his pure soul burst from the wound. The light of it spread further and further, pushing back the darkness.
It spread across the whole world, as his love for all of the God-Creator's children moved it. On that day, his soul blessed each and every one of us, so we could all carry a torch in his stead." The priest continued.
I yawned.
Is she done now?
"Now, join me in singing the Chant of Transcendence." She announced.
Oh thank God. I thought, sagging in relief.
Whack!
"Owe!" I whined, rubbing the sore spot on the back my head where Aveline hit me.
"Stand up." She said in a tone that brokered no argument.
Grumbling, I did as she said and stood up. She held the book in her hand out to me, showing me the verses. When I looked up at her, a question on my lips, I saw her glaring down at me. Even to me, it was pretty clear she wanted me to sing along.
So sing I did.
Well, more like mouth the words in time with everyone else. It's not like Aveline would be able to tell I was actually singing over the sounds of the whole rest of the church doing it.
Finally, after what felt like hours, it was over.
Everyone got up and started to file out of the chapel. In fact, the most interesting part about this whole thing was the chapel itself. It was beautiful.
Right now we were in a secondary chapel under the primary one, which was only used during special events. Despite being underground, it was still a pretty sight to see. Rows of dark oak pews in two columns lined the room. Large, octagonal, black marble columns rose up and met arches on the top of the alabaster white ceiling.
The walls were filled with paintings of various things. They were vaguely familiar to me, enough to know that it was filled with Auroran symbols and stuff, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what they actually meant.
Covered several alcoves in front of many of the paintings, as well as incense to burn in offering and prayer. The hardwood floor was covered in tasteful decorative rugs filled with more religious iconography. In the back of the church was a carved statue on a golden altar of some kind.
This place is actually pretty beautiful I thought.
"So Jaune, did you get all that?" She asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Wha-?" I spun around, surprised, and not really hearing what she said.
"Really Jaune?" She sighed
"Did you even pay attention to any of this stuff?" She asked worriedly.
"Er, well, I sorta did." I tried to lie, but I knew I had failed when her shoulders sagged.
"Jaune-"She began.
"I'm sorry," I interrupted, knowing where this was going and trying to defend myself. "But it's just so….boring. There's nothing here to grab me, and my mind wonders. All I'm doing is sitting around listening to some old woman talk on and on about some ancient stories."
As I finished, Aveline closed her mouth and just stared at me with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. Finally, after what felt like hours under her sapphire gaze, she shook her head.
"Jaune, come with me. I have something to show you." She said in a soft voice that lacked the bite and anger I had expected.
Still, I followed her through the aisles of the chapel. Finally, she stopped in front of another of the paintings with an offering alcove in front of it. The painting was of a man wearing silver armor with red stripes wielding a sword wreathed in flames. Behind shone a bright light that filled the sky and pierced through the swarms of darkness trying to surround him. He had short black hair with trimmed beard on his resolute face. His eyes were filled with bright white light like that coming from behind him, giving him the feeling of being something more than human.
"This is the Shepherd." Aveline announced, pointing to the painting.
"He's, like, the savior of the world. The first hunter, or something, right?" I asked, vaguely remembering this.
"He's more than that, Jaune, he's the one that gave us our Aura." She announced.
"Wait, he what?!" I cried. "You mean he taught us how to do it, right?"
"Not quite, my boy." A woman's voice from beside me said. Turning, I was startled to see an older woman, about my mom's age, with long graying hair and soft blue eyes wearing white and red robes with the silver and gold symbol of the church on a necklace.
"Mother Justinia ! What are you doing here?" Aveline exclaimed in surprise.
"Well, this is my church. I do hope I am welcome in it." She said with a wry smile.
"Er, my apologies Mother Justinia . I just wasn't expecting you to come up to us. I thought you would have some other duties to attend to." Aveline explained, blushing in embarrassment.
"My duty is to my church and all the sons and daughters of the God-Creator. What better duty would I have than to help someone new to the church?" The priestess questioned.
"Right, my apologies again, Mother." Aveline said with a nervous chuckle.
"It is fine, my child." The priestess comforted.
"Now," She said, turning to me. "Who is this?"
"This is my little brother, Jaune." Aveline introduced as she ruffled my hair, much to my chagrin. "He just got into town and it's been awhile since he's been to church. I'm trying to show him around, get him situated in the city, and re-introduce him to the church."
"A fine goal." She nodded with a content smile.
"So, my boy, you want to know about the Shepheard?" She questioned.
To be completely honest, not exactly, but that probably would have been rude, so instead I just said, "Sure" with a nervous smile.
"Well, as you probably know, before the Shepherd, the forces of Grimm were pushing us back. We were barely fighting them off at all. We didn't have Aura, we didn't have Dust, nothing." She began.
"The God-Creator, in his infinite mercy and kindness, looked down at our plight, and could not stand by while we were slowly driven extinct. So he bestowed upon us, the Shepheard, a great, noble, and kind warrior with a weapon the forces of the soulless darkness couldn't hope to master, the power of the soul itself."
"Aura." Aveline added.
"Yes, he was the first and only person with Aura. It is said that no one person has ever been able to match the strength of his Aura. With the strength of his light, he could single-handedly take on armies of older Grimm, even killing ancient titans among them once thought to be invincible.."
"He was like a force of nature, unstoppable and unyielding. But unfortunately, he was only one."
"Soon, he realized that for all the good he did by himself, he could not be everywhere. While he was saving people in West, people in East were being slaughtered. While he traveled to the North, people in the South died by the hundreds. It was finally during the great battle of Stirring Night that he realized that as strong as he was, he was not invulnerable. Not from all the strength and cunning of the darkness."
"So from that day of great victory forward, he sought to find a way to change this. To keep the people of Remnant safe for all eternity. He considered fighting to the heart of darkness to kill it, but realized that this was a foolish and ultimately pointless journey. Darkness cannot be killed so long as light exists. The two are in a natural balance. Trying to stomp out darkness is as pointless as trying to destroy night."
"Finally, on the eve of the battle of the Rising Dawn, he realized what he had to do."
"Do you remember what I said earlier in the sermon today, my boy?" She asked pointedly.
"Uh…" I trailed off
I have no idea what she said.
Instead of getting mad, however, she just smiled again.
"Let the blade pass through the flesh,
Let my blood touch the ground,
Let my cries touch their hearts. Let mine be the last sacrifice" She recited, "Those are the words I spoke."
"And they are the last words of the Shepheard. For when he did this, he did what many thought unthinkable." She continued, walking toward a different painting on the wall.
This one also had the Shepheard on it, but his blade had been plunged deep into his gut by his own hands. Burning blood and light poured from the wounds, flying out in all directions. In other Paintings, I could see beams of light fly into men and women, giving them strength and power. The blood, on the other hand, seeped into the ground, infusing the very planet with its light, turning into crystals buried deep beneath the earth.
"The Shepherd sacrificed himself, and imbued his body and blade with his aura, before plunging it into his chest. In dying, he released his own light, and sent it across the makings of the God-Creator. With his last breath, he gave us the ability to have Aura, and all it gives us."
"He sacrificed his own life, so the rest of us could live ours, so great was his love for mankind." She finished solemnly.
"So…one guy is the reason we have Aura?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around this. It wasn't that hard, actually, I'm pretty sure I already knew this stuff, I had just forgotten.
"And Dust as well." The Priestess added.
"In other words, if it wasn't for the Shepherd's sacrifice, hunters wouldn't exist, there would be no Dust, and society wouldn't be anything close to what it is today." Aveline elaborated.
"Assuming mankind would still be around at all." She added darkly.
I gulped at the implications of that. Of course, a darker portion of my mind sinisterly added, assuming that's even true
I might not have been proud of it but...my faith had slipped. Assuming I ever had it in the first place. I suppose the way things in my life turned out doesn't really help. I haven't exactly been blessed in my life.
Then again, I considered, I made it through Initiation alright, and from what everyone seems to be telling me that's nothing short of a miracle.
Plus I thought, glancing at my sister, I found Aveline again. I had almost given up hope on that ever happening.
"Thank you for your assistance, Mother." Aveline graciously said with the slightest of bows in deference to the priestess.
"Oh, it was nothing, my child. Please, come to me if you have further need of my aid. The church is always open." She smiled warmly.
And with that, we made our way out of the church. Just as we exited the church, Aveline finally spoke up.
"So, Jaune, how was your first day back." She asked with a hopeful smile.
"Boring." I immediately blurted out before I could stop myself.
My eyes widening in horror, I glanced at my sister to see a disappointed and almost despondent look on her face.
"Is that so…" She trailed off in a concerned tone, her brows furrowed in a frown.
"You can hardly blame the boy." A deep, rough, accented voice, said from behind me. A voice not unlike the force of an avalanche raining down from a mountain.
"Ah!" I yelped in surprise, practically jumping ten feet in the air.
Spinning around, I found myself facing 7ft of barbarian warrior muscle straight from the hellish frosted wastelands of Atlas.
"L-Lt. N-Niflheim!" I stammered in shock.
He was standing not 3 feet behind me, wearing a black suit with white shirt and a navy blue tie. Despite his frame, the suit didn't look like it was tight or constrained on him, in fact, it looked like it fit him perfectly.
Instead of responding, Lt. Niflheim simply stared at me. Finally, he turned to Aveline and asked, "…Is he just now noticing me?"
"Yes." Aveline sighed.
"I'm almost impressed by how sad that is." He commented drily.
"Where did you come from?" I questioned, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "Are you stalking us?"
"…I was in the church." He intoned flatly.
"Why?" I questioned.
"I go to this church."
"You go to church!" I exclaimed in surprise.
"…are you sure he's your brother?" Lt. Niflheim asked Aveline, pointedly ignoring me.
"Yes." Aveline sighed again.
"Then why is he so rude and stupid?" He continued.
"He's not that bad."
"He insults my honor, doubts my faith, and has no situational awareness whatsoever." He listed off.
"…ok, yeah," Aveline conceded
"But he's so sweet and innocent." She said, grabbing hold of my shirt and pulling me into a tight hug, nuzzling the top of my head with her chin. "Like a koala!"
"Mentally handicapped to the point of being suicidal?" He inquired.
"Yes."
"Aveline" I whined, blushing brightly in embarrassment, struggling in her iron grip.
"See?" Aveline said, as if this proved her point.
Lt. Niflheim, in way of response, silently raised a brow at the two of us.
Rolling her eyes, she let go of me and turned fully to Lt. Niflheim.
"So, got any place in particular this time?" She asked him.
"Not really. He's your brother, you should decide." He answered.
Finally recovering from my sister's "attack", I spoke up.
"What?"
"We're trying to figure out where to take you in the town to get something to eat. Since you just got here, you need to learn your way around town. Including the best places to eat." Aveline explained while still thinking about where to go.
"Why's he coming?" I questioned, pointing at Lt. Niflheim.
"Because he's my best friend." She responded dismissively
"Isn't this, like illegal? Preferential treatment of students and stuff?" I asked nervously, secretly just looking for any excuse to not be near the mountain of a man that made me look like a twig.
"Not really. I hate you." Lt. Niflheim shrugged.
Aveline responded by slamming an elbow into the man's gut so fast all I saw was a blur. Despite that, the only reaction Lt. Niflheim gave was to quietly grunt.
"Quiet you." She said with a half-hearted glare.
"Ah!" She cried, snapping her fingers, "I got it!"
"We can go to Abners!" She decried.
"Abners?" Lt. Niflheim said, letting the question float out.
"Yeah, it's near the School, relatively speaking. I used to go there all the time when I went to Beacon." She explained.
"Fair enough, I suppose." Lt. Niflheim acquiesced
And without even paying to my, admittedly weak, protest, they walked off, Aveline dragging me to her black muscle car while Lt. Niflheim went around the corner. All the while, I kept thinking the same series of thoughts.
Finding my sister again was a blessing
Right?
Monday, October 31.
2:00 AM
I whistled loudly at the sight in front of me.
"That's one hell of a door." I commented.
"I believe this used to be the primary armory back when this was a military instillation." Ruby said from beside me.
"Uh Huh." I responded distractedly.
The "door" was a massive 15 ft tall imposing gate made out of armor plating that made a tank look like a paper mache toy. An iron gear in the center of it with a tree sculpted into it represented the "doorknob" of it all. The lock on it was some kind of electronic lock combined with an analogue keyhole.
"Well, Red, I don't suppose that your fancy magic tricks can open analog locks." I said sarcastically
To my surprise, she actually walked up to the lock, pressed her hand against the electronic lock, which chimed in positive confirmation. She turned to the keyhole and…
Pulled out a key, put it in, and unlocked it.
"…That's cheating." I grumbled.
"It worked."
"It wasn't a magic trick, you just used a key."
"All's fair in love, war, and crime." She argued dully as she pressed the button on the pad to unlock the door.
And like that, it came alive.
The central gear turned, groaning loudly as pushed the other gears in motion. The machinery in the door roared to live as solid, heavy, locks slid out of place with a rhythmic series of Thunks. The doors slid apart slowly, revealing three other doors behind it opening along with it.
I whistled again, "That's some pretty heavy security."
"You don't even know. There was a code lock, a DNA sensor, hand scanner, and voice print identifier." Ruby added.
"Where'd you get the key?" I asked, walking toward the door.
"Jack's body." She answered.
"Ah, that makes sense." I nodded.
"Neo, think you could've made it in here without little Red here?" I asked, turning to my silent partner in crime.
She frowned, tapping her finger against her lip in thought, before shaking her head.
"Huh." I said simply, impressed.
There isn't much that Neo can't find a way around. If Neo actually needed Red's help for this break in, then I have to give the VCPD credit, they have some tight security.
"So, any idea why it's so secure?" I asked ruby.
"The Watchmen are equipped with the bleeding edge in combat technology. They have to leave most of it in here when not on duty. In fact, all other experimental prototypes, highly dangerous or expensive weapons and technologies at the VCPD's hands are stored within their Watchmen Vaults." She explained in a hollow voice.
And right as she finished, we came to the end of the corridor of locks and doors, and to the vault itself.
"Alright, this is pretty fancy." I admitted, looking around.
This was a treasure trove of weapons, armor, and tech. It was practically fresh from the labs in Atlas. There was only one suit of armor on the racks, Lt. Niflheim's, while the others were missing.
"So you gonna be taking all of this?" I questioned
"With Neo's help, yes." She answered.
"Aren't they going to notice?" I asked.
"That's why I'm using explosives, to get rid of evidence." She explained.
"How much did you bring, anyways?" I asked.
"About 1250kg of high explosives and another 250kg of incendiaries." She explained.
"That's…that's a lot." I said, stunned by how much they brought.
"I needed to be thorough." She countered.
"Yeah yeah, I get it." I said dismissively "So Red, what've you been up to while I was locked up in here? Enjoying school?" I asked idly as I walked around.
"I was adopted by Glynda Goodwitch, and school has so far been an overall pleasant experience." She responded plainly, as if it was of no consequence.
I blinked.
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. You got adopted? By Glynda Goodwitch? The huntress you wanted to kill? How? Why?" I exclaimed incredulously
At this, she actually paused for a moment, a flicker of emotion passing through her eyes.
"…A few hours after you were detained, my father arrived at the hospital for me. After Ms. Goodwitch and Ozpin explained what they knew happened, he…" She hesitated.
"He tried to kill me." She finally said.
"I'm sure it wasn't that bad." I dismissed, assuming it was hyperbole.
"He called me a demon inhabiting the skin of his daughter and strangled me all while bashing my head against a wall with the hopes of caving my skull in." She retorted matter-of-factly.
"Oh…that….that is bad." I admitted, having the courtesy of looking sheepish at that.
I could tell that this brought up some emotions for her, I mean, how could it not. Having your parents try to kill you in cold blood would get some kind of reaction out of anyone. Still, I didn't really care, at least on a personal level, I just felt like the new atmosphere was awkward as hell.
"In fact, I would have died, had Ms. Goodwitch and Prof. Ozpin not intervened." She explained with a pensive and confused face, as if their actions still perplexed her.
"So what, she adopted you, now you have a happy nice little fake family going?" I snarked.
"In a way, I suppose. She's nice enough, and for some reason feels responsible for me. I like her." Ruby admitted.
"Not going soft on me, are you?" I questioned.
"Soft?" She shot back with a razor-sharp and flat tone.
"Just want to make sure you got your priorities straight, and you know where your loyalties lie." I defended, holding up my hands in peace.
"My loyalties are to myself. My priorities are to myself. And all I am is to Lucifer. It would be wise of you not to make the mistake of presuming too much." She said with narrowed eyes and veiled hostility.
"Ok red, got it. My mistake." I backed off, trying not to piss her off.
Internally, however, I was worried.
I have no doubt that Goodwitch would love nothing more than to throw me back in jail. If she adopted Red, then that means she might be getting her hooks into the girl.
While part of me is more worried about Goodwitch unsuspectingly adopting an unholy monster of a little girl, I'm also worried about what this might mean for me.
What if Goodwitch manages to convince Red to turn us in? To be a "good guy"? If she plays her cards right, she could twist Red against us. I thought, concerned.
On the outside, I simply spun around and looked around the room. On the inside, however, I was worried about what to do about Red and Goodwitch.
I guess I'll just have to try and find some way overcome Goodwitch's influence with my own. Get my own hooks into the girl, so to speak. I considered.
Either that…or I'll have to find a way to drive a wedge between Goodwitch and Red.
I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind as I payed further attention to the shelves in front of me.
The shelves were lined with guns and ammunition, each one rare and worth easily three times as much as the basic shit on the market. Another thing of note was the lack of dual purpose weapons, or other crazy fancy hunter shit. Sure, it was high tech and fancy, but it was also simple in its purpose. Like Jack's rifle.
Mawr was an assault rifle. Sure, it fired incendiary ammunition that could melt someone from the inside out, but that's it. That's not a bad thing. Less moving parts means less maintenance, less things to go wrong, less chance of breaking, and more reliability. It had a solid set of sights, good ergonomics, and was ambidextrous. It also looked like it was modular, allowing someone to customize more intently based on the situation. All in all, I couldn't really ask much more from a gun.
And it was a trend that seemed to continue with everything here. They all looked like they were modular, yet focused. They did a job, and they did that specific job, or sets of jobs, well, but didn't try to be a mish-mash of different things so it could do everything.
Frankly, considering all the Hunters I've had to deal with, it was refreshing. I mean, even my Melodic Cudgel, as fancy as people might think it was, was extraordinarily simple. It was a cannon that fired 40mm dust explosives in the shape of a cane. Neo's weapon of choice was just an umbrella with a sword in it. A damn good sword, but a sword nonetheless.
That said, Neo could pull practically any weapon she wanted out of thin air, so it didn't really matter.
"Roman." Ruby said, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Yes?" I responded, spinning around to face her.
"Catch." She said, throwing something at me.
Reacting, I caught it out of the air a few inches from my face. Spinning it around to look at it, I found myself looking at some kind of large watch made of white-gold with black highlights.
"What's this?" I asked, idly pressing buttons on it.
"A TACPAD. Basically a kind of wrist mounted holographic tactical scroll. You can also use it to remotely hack things." She explained, "I thought you might find it useful."
"And it looks like a watch so it blends in with for an undercover or plainclothes operative." I mused out loud,
"Handy." I said, nodding in approval as I strapped it onto my wrist. "Also fits my style."
I looked up in time to see Neo Shattering Lt. Niflheim's massive set of armor with her semblance. Looking around I realized the place was almost cleaned out already.
Deciding to spend some time getting used to this TACPAD while they finished, I pushed more buttons on the thing, trying to get the one that made it do something other than look like a typical watch. Then, suddenly, it clicked and chimed in approval, before emitting a hologram above the face of the watch.
I jerked back in surprise at the apple sized projection, before looking more closely at it. Soon, I realized it was a 3D map of the entire Police Station. Blinking, I looked more closely at it, and saw one of the rooms had a white arrow in it. Idly poking it, I was surprised when the map zoomed in on the arrow. I determined the arrow was "me" and which direction I was facing.
It was pretty impressive that it could figure out where I was and the whole layout of this place so fast, but considering it was the police's, I shouldn't be too surprised it knows what "home" looks like.
"Cool." I commented, playing with the map some more.
"We're done." Ruby announced moments later.
"Oh good." I said, looking up at the cleaned out room.
"Can we go now? I've been stuck in this station for months. I'd like to see it burn." I said, growing impatient.
"Anything left for you Neo?" Ruby asked
Neo shook her head with a shrug.
"Good, can you take us to our ride?" She asked.
With that, neo smiled and nodded. She motioned for us to come over to her. Knowing what she was about to do, I walked over to her, and braced myself for it. Once we were close enough, she reached out, wrapped her arms around ours, and blinked.
I heard the sound of glass shattering around me as the world fell away. I felt a sense of vertigo, like I was falling from the top of a skyscraper. The world around me fractured into a pink and brown kaleidoscope against a segmented white background.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone. It all shattered to pieces, falling away to reveal that we were somewhere else.
I blinked, shaking the stars from my vision. Neo's little teleportation trick was nice, but disorienting. Still, Neo's world paled in comparison to Ruby's Purgatory.
Looking around, I realized that we were in a hanger. There were four police issue bullheads in here, though 2 of them looked like they were half taken apart and in repairs. Along with that was a fancy Police Cardinal Gunship. The fancy Watchmen Bullhead, however, was conspicuously absent. It was all well good, but I noticed something in the back, something with a cover over it.
"What's that?" I asked, walking over to it.
"Our ride." Ruby answered.
"And it is?" I asked with a raid brow.
"An Owl Stealth Ship." She answered.
"Owl?" I Inquired.
"It's new."
"How new?"
"They got it a few days ago."
"What's so special about it?"
"It's an experimental stealth dropship. Something of a present for 'taking care of the White Wolf'" She answered with a frown, her voice growing venomous when she referred to them handling the White Wolf.
"Stealth ship?" I asked, ignoring it.
"Yes." She affirmed, "Would you do the honors?"
Why do I have to do all the heavy lifting? I thought with a sigh.
Relenting, I walked over, and pulled the black cover off the dropship.
"Alright, that is gorgeous." I admired out loud.
It had the basic profile of a standard Bullhead, but it was all angles and corners, not a curve in sight. It had two trapezoidal engines on either side of its primary wings, and a set of smaller trapezoidal engines on the rear wings. All of them looked like they were on a fancy ball and joint socket, meaning they could maneuver in more than two directions. Another change was the fact that it didn't have a windscreen. There were no windows anywhere on the thing. It was all just sleek black stealthy panels.
"So we're taking this?" I asked one last time.
"Yes."
"You know how to fly it?" I asked.
"It's supposed to be about the same as a standard Bullhead, if not easier." She answered, walking up to it.
"So I should be able to fly it no problem?" I said for confirmation.
"Well, I don't know about you, but Neo probably could." She teased with a straight face.
I spared her an unamused glare. Neo gave her a shining smile.
A few minutes later, we were inside the dropship and on the elevator taking us to the launch pad.
"Won't they notice us?" I asked from the cockpit, familiarizing myself with the controls. Apparently this thing used sensors on the outside to make a simulated 360 view screen with an integrated HUD in place of actual glass.
"None of the security systems will notice us." She answered.
"I'm not talking about robots, I'm talking about real, flesh and blood, people." I argued, growing concerned about this breakout.
"Not really, this is a stealth ship, after all, and it's not like they'll be able to tell that we're in it. Plus it's the dead of night and they're running on a skeleton crew." She explained. "As far as they're concerned, this is just one of their own taking off in the fancy new dropship they got."
"Besides." She added, "They'll be dead before it matters."
"I just want to make sure we're not in for a bumpy ride." I responded
Soon enough, a small tremor went through the craft as we reached the top of the lift, and the surface of the landing pad.
Triggering the ignition, the engines began to rumble as they went live. Despite feeling the vibrations through the ship, it was much quieter than it should have been.
Hmm, maybe we will get out of this without anyone noticing I thought, seeing no one on the launch pad.
"Alright, better buckle in, we're taking off." I said, pulling back on the throttle, causing the whining of the engines to grow louder, but not by much. Soon, the quiet rumblings grew into a dull, whispering, roar. The craft shook as the four engines working in concert overpowered the strength of gravity. A slight feeling of vertigo came over me as I was no longer bound by the normal restrictions of gravity.
Without wasting anymore time, I looked over the controls one last time, made sure everything was in the green, and took off from the platform. Going up in a smooth accelerated climb, I took the stealth ship up to a low altitude of 1,000 ft, and set the craft to hover around the area.
"So Red." I began, shouting to the back holding area. "You gonna blow that place or what?"
"It's on a timer." She answered.
"Oh." I said disappointedly.
Well, I guess I won't get to watch the fireworks
"And it will be going off in…34" She continued.
"33…"
Or maybe I will I thought, jerking my head back in surprise.
Quickly, I set the Owl into a holding pattern over the station, circling it like a vulture. I pressed the auto pilot button, something I found while I was checking the craft. With a press of the nice glowing green button, the plane continued the flight pattern I had set for it.
"29…" She continued to drone out rhythmically.
Unstrapping myself from the chair, I ran to the back of the plane where Neo and Ruby were sitting. One of the two had already opened up the side doors for the dropship, giving me an impressive view of the nightly cityscape.
"21…"
Even this close to the engines, they were whisper quiet. Relatively speaking, of course. Still, in the hustle and bustle of a city, I'd be hard pressed to hear it. In fact, if I didn't know what I was listening for, I wouldn't think this was a dropship at all. I mean, it'd be weird and suspicious as hell, but I wouldn't immediately assume a dropship.
Not considering how loud the roaring of those big round engines normally are.
Honestly, the engines were about as loud as the winds whipping into the cabin.
"10…"
"It's crazy, huh?" One dark haired man said, an officer in blue walking up the steps to the police station he worked at.
"What is?" asked his partner, a blonde woman in a similar blue uniform.
As the two officers talked, buried inside the building they were walking toward, a clock counted down. The digital programs counting down one second at a time, waiting for the right moment to strike. Joining it were dozens of fellow bombs, tucked in hidden corners and spaces, invisible to the careless eye.
"Right after our Watchmen team kills the White Wolf the White Fang start acting suspicious." He answered.
As one timer ended, small capsules of incendiary dust began to heat up a volatile chemical compound.
"You mean getting all quiet? Considering how the Watchmen took out a major White Fang hideout too it's not surprising they went to ground." She replies. "And the brass is concerned that they're planning something big in return, that's why we're out here."
The compound began to react to the heat, chemical bonds reacting and changing.
"It feels like we just can't get a break. I mean, first the White Wolf, now the White Fang's gonna be stirring up shit?" He commented.
And as it changed, heat and pressure built up in its container.
"I don't know, but I do know one thing." The woman began. "I'm so glad we have those Watchmen. Who knows how many squads of us grunts it would have taken to smoke those guys out?"
Until the container could hold no more
"Yeah, sometimes it feels like they're invincible." He smiled as he pulled open the door for her.
As he did, 15 bombs placed throughout the surface levels of the massive fortress of a police station detonated. They were under desks and chairs, in trash cans and shelves, all out of sight and out of mind. And in series of consecutive blasts, they detonated, one by one.
Starting from the entrance hall, a massive fireball ignited, blasting through everything it could, incinerating everything in its way. It tore through the ceiling, annihilated the doors, and as the door opened to let it out, it roared out of the entrance.
The fireball burst out of the large entrance, the shockwave of it blasting them, turning their insides to jelly, scorching their bodies, and sending them flying back to the ground below.
Before anyone could even begin to react to the explosion in the central hall, 14 other explosions detonated through the compound, expanding out from the center in succession. Each one tearing through the building, before bursting out through the nearest window, door, or vent it could find. Bystanders watched on in horror as fire blasted out of every nook and cranny of the ancient building.
While the exterior of the building was made of metal and stone, the interior used large amounts of strong, sturdy, and old wood, as was traditional in Vale. So while the outside found no purchase for the unrelenting flames, the interior fed its hunger. The end effect was similar to an oven. The inside burned hotly, while the outside kept the heat in, concentrating on the inside, and making them surge in intensity.
Those who didn't die from the initial blast, soon found themselves being cooked alive inside the structure they once felt so safe in. Noxious fumes and gases from the fire filled the hot air, and choked the lungs of all inside.
For a moment, a precious instant after the initial explosion, everything stopped. Everyone just looked in frozen disbelief and horror at what had happened before their very eyes. Then, it happened.
Panic hit the streets like a freight train as it sunk into their bones what just happened. Emergency services were called to respond, all police in the area recalled and immediately alerted. Unfortunately, it could not have come at a worse time. At the witching hour, near everyone was asleep, and only the night crew was on duty, far too few to handle a crisis of this magnitude. Alerts were sent out, and thousands woke from their homes in panic.
Fear and confusion gripped the city as the clock struck 3:00 am.
Aveline pov
Monday, October 31
3:00 am
I had been asleep on the couch, my little brother on the loveseat. He had crashed at my place instead of heading back to the dorm, and we ended up staying up watching movies, eating pizza, and catching up. Honestly, it was one of the greatest nights in my life, and I went to sleep feeling content.
Then the alert came.
And it all came crashing down.
My heart pounded in my chest as I saw the alert that the Station had been attacked.
Leaving a note on the fridge and a text in Jaune's phone, I got dressed, brought Manum Pallentis, and raced downstairs. Jumping in my Durant Chevalier, and made best speed to the Station, using the car's siren to help clear the way, not that it needed clearing. Not till I arrived.
And when I did it was…devastating.
Ice filled my veins as I saw the once glorious and resolute station was ablaze. While the structure itself was still standing strong, flames poured from every orifice in the building, signaling the hellfire within. I stopped my car a couple blocks away from crowd surrounding the station. Somehow news crews had already arrived at the scene before me, no doubt swarming the area like parasites, just trying to get the best "scoop" they could.
Getting out of the car, I pushed my way through the crowds, finally entering the clearing the police in the area had made. Everyone here was a local officer, the first responders to the call, so I didn't even need to flash my badge, they knew me.
The first thing that hit me was the sight of it. The once glorious structure now a blackened husk filled with fire and death. Ashes and smoke from the raging flames filled the air, joining the sounds of sirens and chatter.
I looked around to see the numerous firefighters doing their best to fight the inferno, but the source of the blaze lay inside the armored and insulated interior. All in all, despite their efforts, it was a pointless fight, most of the water instantly evaporating before even reaching the fires inside. I could hear and even see a few more coming in to help fight this conflagration. In the sky I saw several craft in the skies, ranging from news, to police, and even medevacs, the rumbling of their engines adding to the mess of sound in the area.
I saw paramedics and EMS attending to the survivors, focusing on those severely injured, and not those with a few cuts and bruises. Unfortunately, there was all too many of the former. I saw many men and women covered in severe burns, some barely even recognizable anymore. Many were carted off in ambulances and medivacs, but there were too many bodies and not enough transports to carry them all, leaving them in the hands of the medics here. The air was filled with a disgusting and pungent scent of ash, smoke, fire, blood, and the scent of burning and charred flesh.
All in all, it was enough to make my stomach roil and my blood boil.
Taking a breath, I unclenched my fists, and tried to refocus. Looking around, I spotted the captain coordinating with other officers and firefighters.
"Captain Inutile!" I said, jogging up to him.
"Aveline, good." He acknowledged with a nod when he noticed me, "Glad to see your up."
"What-" I began, swallowing the lump in my throat, "What happened?"
He sighed deeply, looking at the sight of the station, "Approximately 20 minutes ago, a series of incendiary explosives went off inside the building. From what we can tell, this wasn't just a singular bomb, this was a thorough job. There isn't a spot on the main building that wasn't engulfed in flames."
"What about the bottom levels?" I asked, knowing that the subterranean parts were like a bunker.
"We don't know, haven't been able to get to them. Every entrance is, well, covered in fire." He answered.
"Plus, we have bigger problems on our hands at the moment." He said, gesturing to all the injured.
I faltered as my heart twisted in agony for those hurt by this, "How bad?" I asked, needing to know, no matter how much it hurt me.
"About 12 officers injured, and 26 civilians. As for dead…" He trailed off, looking back toward the fire.
"You don't know." I figured
"No, we don't. We'll be able to confirm it once the fires are out, but for now it's hard to say." He said.
I took another calming breath to hold myself together, and looked back at him, "Where do you need me?" I asked, ready and willing to do whatever I needed.
"Got any fancy tricks in the bag of huntress goodies that can help with this?" Inutile asked, gesturing with a thumb back at the fire as he referred to my semblance. It was somewhat well known that I had "magic Huntress powers" that let me do things others on the force couldn't, he was probably hoping that maybe I had one to help fix this.
I grimaced and wracked my brain for how to possibly deal with this. I knew all the incantations in the Arc family library, and even created a few of my own. The problem was, finding the right one to deal with this. Most revolved around combat, not damage control.
Finally, I shook my head, "I don't think so."
"But, I know several healing hymns, I can help with that." I added, eager to help however I could, and confident in my ability to heal.
"Well, to be honest, I was half joking, but if you can help the medics out, I think that's where you'd be most helpful." He replied, nodding.
"Alright, I'll get straight to it, sir." I started to turn to help the medics.
If I can do anything to help, regardless of how glorious it is, I thought, running toward the makeshift tents they were setting up
If I can do Something, I'll do it in a heartbeat.
Monday, October 31
3:15 am
Torchwick pov
I whistled loudly at the burning building below.
"Well Red, I guess you're right. You do know what you're doing." I admitted, transfixed by the sight of all the people and cars running around down there.
"So, Neo." I began, sparing a glance at the ice-cream princess.
"What did you think of your little operation?" I asked with a smirk.
She turned to me with glistening eyes and a wide smile filled with awe. Like a child seeing their first fireworks. Honestly, it was kind of cute, the way the flickering blaze below lit her face up and shined in her eyes. Cute in a dark and mad sort of way, all things considered.
"Alright, well, let's head out." I smiled, getting up from my seat and heading to the cockpit.
I was stopped when Ruby spoke up once more.
"Earlier…" She began, her voice cutting through the static of sirens and screams.
"Earlier I told you that I hadn't been mad, just annoyed." She continued.
"Then, you wondered what I was like when I was mad." She said before turning to face me.
She looked me in the eye with those hollow silver eyes. One blink, and they turned from being normal eyes, to solid silver orbs, no white or pupil in sight. She did this and looked into me, through me, with those piercing eyes, analyzing me as the corners of her lips twitched into a frown that was small, but hard as steel.
While scores of people on the surface milled about, working on damage control, thinking the danger had passed, down below the surface, something was at work. For while 15 bombs had set fire to the upper floors, the hollow girl in red didn't bring 15 explosives.
She brought 150.
So as the ignorant masses worked above to save and protect, the dozens of high explosive devices waited underneath to raze and destroy. Having detailed designs of the station, including its subterranean components, and having a compulsion of being thorough, the girl known as Ruby Rose and Lilith Totenrot made sure to direct her new assistant to place explosives on the supporting columns and walls.
Every last one of them.
And so, when far above, the twisted girl raised her hand, and the moment approached, the very heavens trembled in anticipation of what would come. In response to their trembling question, she gave them a snap. A snap that answered the question of the destructive packages.
And with that snap, a tiny electrical signal in each bomb tripped. Triggering the electrical "match", it ignited the mercury fulminate primary explosive. But it was far too small, and weak to do any real damage. But that wasn't its job.
Oh no.
The job of the mg of mercury fulminate, was to jolt the far more stable, and far more powerful 10kg of high explosive into action. The chemical reaction violently triggered, acting far more powerful than the simple incendiaries used upstairs. Instead of just being all heat and fury, they were all force and destruction.
So, in a massive, violent, burst of explosive energy, the walls and pillars weren't just damaged, instead they were absolutely obliterated. One by one, each supporting structure was turned to dust in a cascading percussion of demolition. The earth shook under the successive force of the bombs, and the old fortress struggled to stand up to its might. But the disciple of the one known as Lucifer had cleaved its legs from under it. And so, the old fortress, the once shining beacon of duty and justice did the only thing it could under the merciless grasp of gravity.
It fell.
Aveline pov
"Creatorem Deo vestro ut benedicam panibus tuis et aquis." I recited as I placed my hand on the man's body.
My white aura flared and manifested around my body, fueled by the strength and surety of purpose the words gave me. As the words flowed from my mouth, so too did my aura flow my body, into the young man's beneath me.
"Et auferam infirmitatem de medio tui" I continued, my aura filling the man's body, infusing him with its power.
As it did, the burns covering his body began to fade, and the damage done to his lungs began to heal. It took a moment of intense concentration, but soon all the wounds were gone.
I pulled my hand from his chest and let out a breath of relief. This was the third person I'd healed, each one in danger of death without intense medical attention.
Just as I was about to move onto the next one, I felt it. The ground trembled, various object were knocked over and clattered to the ground, several people lost their balance, and beyond all of this, I could feel a series of distant booms, like someone beating on a large drum.
Before I could truly process what that meant, the world began to crumble around me.
In a massive upheaval enormous cracks erupted in a rough ring around the block, centered on the police station. Relying purely on instinct, before I could truly even think about what it meant, I pulsed aura into my legs and leaped dozens of yards backward to perceived safety.
In my wake, the ground within the ring of cracks fractured and broke apart even further. Massive slabs of pavement and rock rose and fell like the sea. Before my very eyes, the earth crumbled and fell. Before I could react I saw men and women fall to the dark below. I would always remember the faces of all of them as they looked at me with wide eyes, helpless and terrified as they tried to reach safety, only to fall to ruin.
Cars, trucks, bystanders, all fell to the cascade of destruction as the world caved beneath them. Finally, the cascade reached the station. The old fortress, built to withstand hordes of Grimm, fought and resisted its pull, but in the end, it couldn't hope to stand up to the unrelenting grasp of gravity. Metal groaned and fire flared as the building was torn to pieces as the foundation was ripped out from under it. In its wake, a massive plume of dust erupted out of the newly formed crater.
Bracing myself, I pushed through the dust cloud, walking toward the edge of the crater, hoping against hope that I could do something.
But it was not to be.
I pulsed my aura, blasting the dust cloud away from me, and beheld a sight that took my breath away. Where once stood a great piece of history and bastion of humanity, where once stood over 100 men and women, now only lay a deep crater of grey rubble. In the crater lay the miscellaneous fires, leftover from the burning fortress, crushed police cars and firetrucks sticking out of the rocks. I could see the occasional person, even, when I looked close enough.
An arm sticking out of a pile of rocks.
A torso pinned by a spike of rebar.
As I gazed at the mass grave before me, I could hear the terrified murmurs of people behind me. We were all stunned and shaken. We had thought the danger had passed. But we were wrong.
How could this have happened? I thought as I looked at the new tomb. Dust hung over the sight as orange embers flitted around in the wind. As one such ember drifted past me, my eyes shot wide open in realization.
This wasn't just dust and embers. This was Dust, straight from the massive armory and fuel stores buried deep within the station. Stores that would have been cracked open in the earth shattering detonations.
And so, it was when I looked out and realized that the air over the crater was filled with airborne Dust particles that I realized the danger we were all in.
Reacting on instinct, I began one of the incantations I've used the most over the years.
Cum ferrum se defendit scutum fidei I thought, drawing my weapon and fully flaring my aura as I brought it up into a guard stance.
White light began to pour from my body, flowing out in thick, wispy, clouds that began to wrap around my mace and extend out before me.
Torchwick pov
"You wondered what I was like when I was angry?" Ruby repeated.
I stared down at the newly formed crater in a mixture of horror and awe, impressed by her ability to bring down something so massive and sturdy, while disturbed by the potential lying within this little bundle of darkness.
Aveline pov
The white cloud of aura in front of me rapidly condensed, forming something else, something solid.
Et non fuerit chaos I thought with rising conviction as the aura solidified into a massive ghostly white gold shield before me, followed by two more beside it. Each shield dug into the ground, rooting them in place firmly.
Torchick pov
"This…" She prefaced in a voice that made the air turn tight and could around me, filled with such dark emotion I felt as if would smother me.
"This is what happens when I am Furious." She growled.
And in that moment, the world erupted into a cacophony of light, sound, and white hot fury conducted by ice cold rage.
All the dust in the armories and all the dust from the fuel reserves were ignited by the last handful of bombs in the rubble. In an instant, a massive buildup of heat and pressure was formed as the dust was rapidly converted into raw energy. Initially contained by the thousands of tons of rubble, it built up, converting the air within into plasma as hot as the sun, until finally it broke through its containment.
At the same instant it ejected hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris as deadly shrapnel at supersonic speeds the massive the blast of plasma entering the Dust filled air above set off a massive dust explosion. An enormous fireball blossomed over the ruins of the once great police station.
The shear heat from the fireball combined with the plasma flash vaporized everything at ground zero of the eruption point. Everything else in the crater was rapidly converted into molten rock and slag. Expanding beyond that, the fireball consumed everything and everyone in its path, incinerating all in its way. The shockwave expanded past that, rupturing organs, sending debris flying, destroying every window and shaking the souls of everyone in a 5 block radius. The shrapnel ejected from the explosion acted as everything from rocky hail to artillery pieces, pelting and blasting indiscriminately. Golf ball sized stones ripped through people, walls, and cars alike. Basketball sized boulders crashed through buildings and crushed bystanders.
As the second sun detonated in the night sky, over 200 more lives were extinguished, and the lives of millions were changed forever.
However, standing as a bastion against the onslaught of devastation, was the woman known as Aveline Arc. The debris crashed and shattered against her shield. The initial shockwave broke against it, cracking the shields. Then, finally the fireball came through with the second blast wave, and shattered them. Sent flying back, Aveline collided into a building behind her, crashing through its stone wall. Despite this, in the wake of her wall of shields laid a safe zone.
All those standing behind were alive, if shaken and singed.
In its wake, the people of Vale learned the wrath of Lucifer's Disciple.
Aveline pov
I groaned, rousing myself from my temporary lapse in consciousness. I was lying in a bed of rubble, the ringing in my ears the only sound I could hear. I flooded my body with aura, noting that they were severely depleted, but still significant enough not to stop me. If it had been anyone else, however, they likely would have died from severe Aura depletion, if not the explosion in general.
Then I remembered it.
The explosion I all but gasped, eyes flying wide open as adrenaline coursed through my system.
I pushed the rubble off of me, digging myself out of my impromptu grave. I felt for the ambient aura in Manum Pallentis, searching out for it. Finding it, I took it in hand before walking out of the ruined café. As I stepped out of the dust filled, I found myself facing something straight out of a warzone.
The sweltering air was choked with smoke and the scents of fire and death. The crater that had once been the West Vale City Police Station could now only be described as a cooling pool of red hot lava. In front of me stood a handful of bystanders, each one frozen with complete horror and terror. Looking around I was met with nothing but more despair.
I saw that I was surrounded by complete devastation and the burning dead. Burning corpses lined the flaming streets. Buildings torn to shreds and crushed to pieces. Burned out husks of cars and trucks.
At the sound of me stepping out of the building, everyone looked to me. None of them were police of firefighters. All of them just innocent bystanders that had no idea what to do. And they all turned to me. Suddenly I felt the weight of the golden badge around my neck pulling on me. Deep inside, part of me wanted to run. It wanted to weep, to have someone come in and help.
That part of me wanted to break down.
But the rest of me, the part of me that spent the better part of 18 years trying to become someone worthy of the Arc legacy, before realizing it was better to just be the best person I could be, disagreed. The part of me that fought tooth and nail to get to where I was today, fighting through Grimm and criminals to save every last person I could, disagreed. The part of me that defied the man known as my father to do what I thought was right, that went against the teaching of "tradition" to do what I knew in my heart I had to do, disagreed.
So in that moment, instead of buckling under the pressure and crumbling to dust like dirt, I bunkered down and gathered my wits, solidified my resolve, and stood strong and resolute like diamond.
Taking a breath, I closed my eyes and listened to my soul. When I opened them they were aglow the white resolve of the Arc's.
"Don't worry." I began, walking forward, healing incantations coming to my mind as aura welled in my free hand.
"I'm here to help."
Torchwick pov
Oh my god I thought in horror at the devastation below me.
It wasn't the explosion that scared me. It wasn't watching how one of the most secure facilities in Vale burst into flames, collapsed into the ground, before detonating in a massive Dust explosion that left it a pool of lava that scared me. It wasn't watching the single most devastating terror attack in the history of Vale, if not the world. It wasn't watching scores of bystanders burning to death in the aftermath of the devastation she wrought.
It was the look of icy, contained fury on her face, it was the cold silver fire that burned from her eyes as she looked at me, that so terrified me.
"Keep this in mind, Roman, the next time you decide to think about Glynda Goodwitch." She said darkly with a dead serious look on her face, waves of anger and malevolence radiating off her person.
Glancing behind her, I saw that even Neo seemed shaken by this.
Burning the most intimidating women I had ever known at the stake for annoying her, I gulped, and burning several blocks full of police and bystanders for enraging her
"Got it Red." I nodded dumbly before making my way back to the cockpit.
The message was clear. Be amiable to her, work with her, and be valuable, then she'll be there for you, aid you, and reward you. But cross her, incite her wrath, threaten what she cares about, and she will burn your world down.
Something that made me shiver as I got up to go to the cockpit to fly us back to one of Cinder's discrete warehouses.
I think I found someone that scares me more than Cinder. I thought with a grimace.
Trying to push thoughts like those far from my mind, I decided to switch the issue from me to her.
"So...this is a lot of heat you've stirred up here, Red." I said, sitting back own behind the controls.
"In case you didn't notice, I made sure no evidence of us remains." She answered.
"Still, that's going to be a lot of hate." I pointed out.
"And hate without direction is something most dangerous and damaging." She agreed
"Which is why I gave them direction."
"You what?" I said, surprised.
"I left them a breadcrumb. It doesn't connect to the truth however, simply a truth they would want to believe. It shall distract them." She explained.
"So you framed someone?" I guessed "Makes sense."
Devious bastard I thought approvingly.
Then I realized something.
"Hey, don't you have school tomorrow?" I pointed out."Isn't that going to put a wrinkle in your plans? Especially since Goodwitch probably isn't going to like your absence."
"Don't worry." I heard her voice come from behind me, the complete silence of her movements deafening to my highly trained ears.
"I have a plan for that." She reassured, "Just keep heading toward the compound."
"Okay, if you say so." I relented
Creepy bitch I thought idly.
"I'll take that as a compliment." She said with a ghost of a smirk that irked me.
At least, until I realized her mouth hadn't moved. And I hadn't 'heard' anything.
She had spoken inside my head.
Well...shit.
Monday, October 31
3:16 AM
Goodwitch pov
"Oh my god…" I said in a hushed whisper, my eyes frozen to the screen before me.
On it, the news report had been talking about the fire-bombing of the West Vale City Police Station. On the report, the building was engulfed in flames. The once glorious monument to old Vale and the ancient stand against darkness and injustice, now a blazing beacon of despair. But that's not what was so horrifying, though.
What was horrifying, was that not 15 minutes after the news reporter on the tv got there and started reporting, not 15 minutes after I saw first responders appear on scene and trying to put out the fire and pull people from the wreckage, it all went wrong.
Another series of explosions detonated underneath the area, and like that the ground crumbled beneath them.
Right in front of my eyes, on live tv, dozens of people were killed in a terrorist attack. I could see some people in the background flung from the explosion before colliding with a wet smack and lifeless eyes. I saw scores of brave men and women buried underneath hundreds of tons of rubble.
Before anyone could so much as even process what happened, a third explosion rocked the crater. Massive fireballs exploded out from the rubbles as pools of what looked like molten metal or rock poured out from the cracks, melting everything in sight. The endless screams of pain both physical and emotional rocked my soul and horrified me.
Who could do such a thing? I thought with wide eyes and slack jaw.
"Aunt Glynda?" A quiet voice from behind me said.
Spinning around I saw her.
"Ruby?" I said, surprised she was still up, and here, considering not long ago I had seen her to bed.
She was in her standard sleeping clothes, aka, her regular clothes minus her cape and boots. She was standing there, her black blanket draped around her shoulders. While she didn't look particularly tired, that didn't mean anything. Ruby could seemingly fall asleep and wake up at will.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I asked, caught off guard.
"Your soul was distracting me. It's all…twisted…and sad." She answered.
"What's wrong?" She asked with a cocked head and an innocent look on her pale face.
"It's nothing." I said, trying to look normal in the face of such a horrendous tragedy.
"Aunt Glynda, please don't lie to me." She replied in a flat voice.
"I…you don't need to worry about it. Please, just go to bed." I insisted, really not wanting to talk about it.
"It's going to be hard for me to go to bed if your soul keeps crying out." She pointed out flatly.
Despite that, I think I heard an undercurrent of genuine concern in her voice. Something that touched me.
Sighing, I got off the couch and turned off the TV.
"What if I read you a story?" I suggested.
"…I'm not 5." She looked at me flatly.
"But you do enjoy a good book." I pointed out.
She looked toward the ground with the slightest furrowing of her brow, practically a scowl for anyone else.
"And you do like it when I rub your head." I added with a knowing grin.
"Fine…" She grumbled, trying to put up a tough front, but trying not to show it.
I smiled. As much as it sounded like this was all for Ruby, it was actually probably more for me. Ruby wouldn't be able to go to sleep with my soul in turmoil, as she put it, and doing this was….soothing to me. Massaging her scalp as we both read books of our own was something we had started doing at night on occasion, and in never failed to drain the stress from my body.
To be honest, that aura of unease she had was fading. I no longer felt unsettled by it, instead it was…warm, welcoming, something I enjoyed. Like standing near a bonfire in the cold dead of winter.
So, following her to her bedroom, I grabbed a book that had caught my eye a couple days ago, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", and closed the door behind me.
Hopefully this can give me some peace of mind as well
Monday, October 31
4:00 am
Kokkinos pov
My blood was ablaze with fury and focus. My mind racing as it moved my body to attack and defend. I was on the verge of being overwhelmed, right on the edge between victory and defeat.
It was perfect.
This is exactly what I've been looking for I thought, a savage grin carving it's way onto my face as I twisted my waist out of the way of a spear.
The training mech in front of me tried to pull it back to launch the polearm again, but I countered by trapping the shaft in my armpit. Flinging my foot forward, I kicked the mech away with such force that it was nearly ripped in half at the chest while it arms were torn from their sockets, still holding onto the spear.
Dropping the spear, I dropped into a low crouch as a sword soared over my head. Spinning with it, I cleaved the mech in half with the large battleaxe in my hands. Rising smoothly, I took an instant to survey the area.
I was in the circular arena of training room 8, one that contained a very familiar stadium setup for me. The real draw, however, were the training mechs. Apparently this place had the highest possible rating of training difficulty, something you needed to earn. I assume so that weak fools don't get slaughtered by the dozens, anyone trying to use the arena for the first time will only be able to use the starting difficulty, which is trivial.
From there, it goes up in difficulty, rising as you accrue victories. For me, it didn't actually start to get anywhere even resembling a challenge until round 10, where one actually hit me, though that was more because of laziness than anything else. So after that round, I actually made a conscious effort to never get hit, regardless of the fact they'd never do much damage. Considering that now, at round 18, there were close to 40 of the mechs left on the counter for the scoreboard, that was a bit hard.
But I live for this! I snarled, blocking another's sword strike with the shaft of the axe before kicking the robot's knee in and shattering it. Then I spun out of the way, letting it get speared in the chest in my place. I turned the evasive spin into an offensive one and swung the blade of the axe right through the second robot's neck, decapitating it.
I snapped up a spinning kick, sending another one into a wall, before ducking down to avoid an axe aimed at my face and responded by shoving the sharpened tip of the butt of the axe through its and quickly pulling it out before it got caught. In all honesty, however, I found this to be a poor substitute for fighting live combatants. There was something more…invigorating about fighting real opponents.
I missed the days when I would fight tooth and nail against a worthy opponent, being pushed to the brink of death and knowing that it was either going to be me or them. Truly, nothing compared to the feeling of clawing out a victory as I felt the warm blood of my enemy splash onto my body, signaling the ending of their life, and the continuation of mine.
Compared to that, fighting these robots felt…hollow.
Hollow or not, tearing through these mechs is a good stress reliever. I thought, slamming the head of my axe down, burying it within the chest of the last training mech.
And a good workout I added, wiping the sweat that drenched my body from my brow. Both me and my clothes would surely need a shower after this, drenched in the strong scent of my own sweat from all the training. Looking up, I saw that I had passed round 38, and could go on with 39 if I wanted to.
Only 12 more before I hit round 50 I thought in anticipation. 50 was the max, and would surely give me the challenge I sought. If it didn't, well, at least these sessions provided a nice refresher course for my weapon's training.
Still, I should probably go to bed I thought, resting the axe on my shoulder.
I had spent the past 6 or so hours in here, clearing through round after round. With only a small break for water in between. Glancing at my watch, which I had purchased so I would not be forced to use that accursed scroll all the time, I saw that it was well after 4:00 am.
I frowned at it, realizing that I had gotten caught up in here and lost track of time. I would have preferred to get up at this time, not go to sleep at it. Despite that, my body demanded sleep, regardless of how brief it might be. I considered skipping class to get more rest, seeing as how I didn't get anything out of it, but then I figured she would need the notes I took on it for her own use.
I stopped on my way to the exit, suddenly clutching my head as I grunted out in pain, nearly dropping the axe in my hand.
Then…I grinned. I grinned a mad grin and it took all I had not to burst out into cruel laughter and tears of mad joy. I did this because, for the first time in far too long, I felt something that would take me from this hell.
I felt an absolutely massive headache trying to crack my skull open from the inside. Somehting that could mean only one thing.
She's waking up
Monday, October 31
5:30 am
Aveline pov
I wiped my brow after I set down the latest piece of rubble. I had been tirelessly working and coordinating with authorities to clean the area up and get people the help they needed. Eventually I would need to give command a full official report, but that was an issue for later.
Right now, I was using my skills in Aural sensing to it's fullest.
Unfortunately, do to all that had happened, that was harder than it should have been. Normally I could have sensed the souls of all still alive, but that was all but impossible here. All the death here had saturated the area in the ambient touch of their souls, something that the Arc family Aura was particularly reactive too. It was like a heavy fog of the dead was covering the area for me, something that did nothing to help my mood. Combined with how weak the souls of civilians felt compared to people with active aura, sensing any of their souls was far outside my abilities.
I also couldn't use it to sense heat, since everything in the blast zone was at least as warm as a human was.
So in the end, I used it to sense holes where people could be. It was far from efficient, and had me doing little more than uncovering potholes. Still, I had already saved 5 people trapped under debris, and found 8 others who had already passed. As depressing as finding a corpse was, at least their family would have closure, and a body to bury.
And in the end, at least it was something.
At least it meant I wasn't so helpless.
Not like I was when I let all those people die in front of me. I thought morbidly
I was pulled from my thoughts when a hand clamped down on my shoulder. Glancing up, I was welcome to a friendly face.
"Ymir." I smiled, feeling the coolness of his hand suck the burning heat right out of me.
"Aveline." He nodded grimly.
"How are you holding up?" He asked, concern leaking into his voice.
"I'm just…I'm doing what I can." I said with a tired sigh.
He nodded silently in agreement before taking his hand off me.
"Well, let me know how I can help." He requested.
"You can help me with this massive slab." I said, pointing to the car sized piece of rubble that I could feel was sitting over a large pocket in the ground.
"Alright." He agreed, and without another word we lifted it in tandem.
Throwing it over to the pile of discarded rubble, I looked inside to see a dark cavern beneath it.
"Think there's anyone down there?" Ymir asked, turning on his flashlight to try and pierce the darkness and thick clouds of dust.
"Maybe." I murmured, walking forward.
Unfortunately my advance was halted when I nearly tripped over a rock.
"Uff," I grunted, stumbling over it.
"Problem?" Ymir asked, turning around to look at me with a quirked brow.
"No," I denied with an annoyed frown, turning to look at the debris that tripped me.
"Just a damn…" I trailed off when I realized that I hadn't tripped over a rock at all.
It was a book.
A little black book.
And it filled my body and blood with ice.
"Aveline?" Ymir questioned, walking back up to me as he noticed how I stiffened.
I ignored him, all my attention on the one little book. My gut roared at me about it, every hair on my body stood up on end as I bend down to pick it up. I brushed the dust off the cover, and had to force myself not to react.
Because on that cover, was the symbol of the White Fang.
And I knew right there what it meant. This wasn't just a book, this was a symbol.
This wasn't just a little black book.
This was Le Livre Noir.
Yang pov
Drip
Drip
Drip
A breeze blew by, carrying the scent of blood, dirt, and roses past me. I opened my eyes and saw the world around me. Bright green grass, jet black sky, and coal black trees surrounding me. Through the trees I could see the obsidian sand shores of the Red Lake inside the Black Forest. I looked down, and saw her standing in front of me, wreathed in black and red.
"Ruby?" I asked, looking down at her in confusion.
My mind felt clogged and clouded, as if I couldn't quite remember what was happening.
Ruby responded by pulling down her red hood and looking back up at me with those hollow silver eyes.
"Hello, Yang." She said emotionlessly.
"W-what are you doing here?" I asked, feeling an inexplicable fear.
"I'm here for your penance." She answered, taking a step forward.
Instinctively, I took a step back, the fear inside me rising. I could just feel that something was going to happen, something terrible.
"You've done a lot of wrong, Yang. There's a lot you need to pay for." She continued, backing me further into the forest.
"And I'm here so you can make up for it." She finished.
And with her final word, the back of my foot knocked into something, nearly tripping me up.
Turning around, I looked down, and saw a pale hand sprouting out from the ground, grabbing onto it.
Fear exploded in me as another joined it. It's vice grip digging into my skin as it tried to pull me down.
Screaming out in surprise, I tried to yank my foot away, but it was too strong. Soon, I lost my balance, and toppled to the grass covered ground. All around me, more hands rose up, overturning the bright verdant grass as they reached out and reached out to me. The grabbed onto everything they could with their small, pale, cold, hands. Like an army of dolls, they tore at hair, clothes, and skin, all while I struggled in their grasp.
Soon, the rest of them sprouted out of the ground. I was met with small pale faces with black eyes, crimson black hair, and rows of needle like teeth. They closed in all around me, trying to tear me to pieces.
Just like they did before in the Lake.
Just as they bit into my skin, just as tore out my hair, just as the crawled all over me, something inside me snapped.
NO!
Fury erupted in me as my aura exploded into fire. I ripped my right arm out of their grasp and grabbed onto the head of the doll trying to smother me, and threw it across the forest. Tearing my other from their grasp, I fought back, pulling away and resisting them. Soon, pulling became pushing, and pushing became throwing, and before I knew it I was blinded by defiant rage.
These…things tried to kill me, eat me! They wanted to drag me down and tear me to pieces, bury me alive and end me.
And I refuse to lose to this! I thought with a roar, I refuse to just let this happen
So I punched, kicked, and screamed my way through the horde of carnivorous dolls. At some point, I grabbed another one by the head, and pinned it to the ground beneath me.
Then I just…I just lost it. I just punched it in the head over and over again.
"Wait!" I could hear in the back of my mind.
"Stop!" It begged in a whisper.
"Please!"
But I showed no mercy. I kept punching, over and over again. I could feel the pain of the horde trying to tear into me, but my rage ignored it. I could feel my fist growing soar from the hits, by fury dismissed it.
I felt its skull slowly cracking and giving way to my blows. I could feel warm, wet, blood fly off of it, and splatter onto my fists, my face, and my clothes. All it did was fill me with a dark satisfaction, all it did was feed my fury. In the red haze, all that mattered was pain and punishment.
Then, the fog cleared, the haze lifted, and my energy diminished. I noticed I wasn't being attacked anymore. I looked around, but they were all gone, it was just me, and the thing below me.
I looked down, and to my horror, to my disgust, it wasn't one of the dolls.
It was Ruby.
Half her face was a bloody, swollen, mess, one eye closed shut. The other looked up at me with….confusion, fear, betrayal.
"Why?" She cried, her voice straining as she looked up at me.
"No. No no no." I rambled, panicking.
I can't lose her! How could I have let this happen? I questioned, my mind a mess of grief. I had no idea what to do, how to save her, how to make this right.
"I-I…I just wanted to help you." She croaked out, blood trailing out of her mouth as she raised a hand up to cup my cheek.
"Ruby, just hang on, it's going to be ok." I continued, desperately holding her cold pale hand in my own, tears forming in my eyes as my throat closed up.
"Why do you hate me?" She asked with a sad frown, begging to understand why.
Then…her hand lost its strength, and the light faded from her eyes.
"Ruby? Ruby!" I cried, despair in disgust filling me.
How could I do this? How could I do…this…to my own sister? I thought, unable to even think of it as tears fell from my face.
I looked at my hands, covered in the blood over my sister, the sound of it all dripping to the to ground echoing throughout the otherwise silent forest.
Drip
Drip
Drip
Then, cutting through my sobs, was a sound that didn't belong.
Laughter.
Mocking, cruel, and ethereal laughter.
Glancing behind me, I looked to see what dared mock this tragedy, only to have my eyes open wide at what I saw. It was impossible, unexpected, and in every sense, disturbing and unreal. Because the person behind me, laughing at me, was none other…
Than me.
It was…me…but…twisted.
Her skin was black as night, her clothes deep violet and white in contrast to my pale skin and brown and black clothes. Her hair was aflame, a bright burning purple. And her eyes were an all too familiar blood red.
She was like a total inversion of me. Same appearance, height, proportions, everything, just with a color reversal.
"Wow, you finally killed her." She laughed.
"Shut up!" I growled at her
"What, don't blame me for you fulfilling your fantasy." She mocked.
"My fantasy?!" I roared.
"Oh come on, admit it." She dismissed.
"You've always wanted to kill your little sister." She said with a devilish grin.
"What? No!" I recoiled.
"You can't lie to me." She smiled
"After all, I'm you."
I tried to find a comeback but…I couldn't. My rage was spent, my anger dead, and my fury extinguished.
"And I have to say, very glad you finally realized what you've always wanted."
"I didn't want this!" I denied, jumping up from Ruby's body.
"Well, they say actions speak louder than words, and well…your actions for her life have been quite loud." She said with a sinister smile, circling around me.
"T-that's not true." I denied.
"Oh? Then what about that time you lost her? That was your fault, after all?" She pointed out.
"That-"I tried to explain.
"Or the time you watched what those bullies did to her, knowing you could have saved her, but instead just spying in the bushes." She added.
"I-"
"Or how about how you can't even let her touch you without flinching?" She needled.
Soon, I couldn't even find the words to protest, each comment spearing right through my heart, leaving me unable to deny the truth of them.
"What about the time she asked for your help with training for Signal, and you made up a hollow excuse to say no? I mean, everyone could tell you were lying."
"And all those times she tried to hang out with you, make plans with you, and you just did everything you could to worm your way out of it?"
"How about all those broken promises?"
"What about how you keep trying to forget she even exists?"
Then she got right up in my face, and looked me straight in the eyes.
"And lets not forget your most grievous sins, shall we?" She grinned,
I tried to look away, but she gripped my jaw and forced me to look her in the eye.
"You're terrified of your little precious Ruby, despite the fact all she's ever done is try to get you to love her." She pointed out.
And she was right.
"You dream of her killing you, because you know you deserve it, even though you know she'd never do it."
It was all true.
"And of all the times she's said, "I love you, Yang.", you have never ever said you love her back."
"Not since that fateful day, anyway." She finished, pulling back.
She was completely right.
"So face it, Yang. You don't love your sister. You hate her." She smirked, looking back at me condescendingly
"No! I love Ruby! I do, it's just…" I trailed off, pitifully trying to defend myself.
"It's just what, Yang? You can't even lift a finger to help your little sister, and you're one of the only things in the world she truly loves." She prodded.
"I don't know." I muttered looking away, not knowing how to explain myself.
"Well, it's a good thing I do. Face it Yang, you're jealous of her." She accused.
"What?!" I exclaimed, "That's ridiculous!"
"Oh, come now Yang, it makes so much sense. You're jealous because she took attention away from your dad and fake mom. And why not? Unlike you, Ruby is Summer's real daughter, you were just a stand in." She explained.
"N-no, she loved me, I know she did." I argued.
"Maybe, but it could hardly compare to her love for Ruby. And you hated that fact that, unlike you, Ruby's mom actually loved her. Yours just threw you away the first chance she got." The apparition smirked.
"And it makes sense, after all, all things considered. I mean, you don't even know what you are." She teased.
Gritting my teeth, I tried to bite back with confidence, "I'm Yang Xiao Long, a-"
"-Monster." She interrupted with a self-assured face.
I stopped, stumbling back in shock, "W-w-what?"
"You heard me." She grinned.
"You, Yang Xiao Long, are a monster." She enunciated, stepping back up to me.
"Then what are you?" I frowned, my defiance trying to rise up against this….this…thing.
"Oh, little old me?" She said with mock innocence.
Then, she leaned in real close to me, almost nose to nose. She looked straight at me with those blood red eyes and said these words.
"I'm your inner monster given form."
"I don't care what you say, I know I'm not a monster." I defied.
"You say that, but only a monster could do the things you've done. Scarring and discarding your loving little sister? Tearing your family apart? Walking away without a scratch from every disaster you've ever caused, while those around you suffer? That sounds like a monster to me." She grinned.
Gripping my shoulders and shoving me, she said, "I mean, think of all that hate inside you. Deep down you know the answer for it. No human could have that kind of potential for hate and rage. In fact, there's only one creature on Remnant that does."
Then, her grin widened to inhuman proportions, her face stretching and twisting into a personification of sadistic confidence and glee.
"Grimm."
"W-what are you saying?" I faltered.
"I'm just making an observation." She said casually, leaning away from me and giving me space.
"I mean, you have bloodlust, hate, and rage unlike anything else. Your savage fighting instinct is brutal and ruthless, no matter how much you try to deny it. I mean, hell, those red eyes of your certainly aren't normal." She pointed out.
"Uncle Qrow has red eyes." I weakly defended.
"Pft," She scoffed, "You think he's a saint? Do you have any idea how many people he's slain? How many lives he's ruined? That man's every bit a monster his sister his, he just hides it better."
"And your mother herself? Well, everyone knows she's a monster in human flesh. And what does it say about you, that a monster like her couldn't even stand her own daughter's presence, she was so twisted from birth?" She pushed further in an unrelenting offensive.
"W-what do you want?" I asked, broken by her assault.
In the end, I just…I just couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't take it. I felt lost and defeated, scared and unprepared.
This apparition, this figment of my imagination had broken me, and I didn't know how to fight back anymore.
In response to my defeated question, she laughed, walking back up to me with all the confident swagger I would use on a defeated opponent.
"What do I want, little Yangy?" She mocked, raising her arm up.
PLICK.
I shook, looking down, and found her shadow clad arm wrist deep in my chest.
"I just want you to accept the monster you are." She said with a mouth splitting grin.
Then, before I could react, her mouth split her head in two, and snapped around me.
Then…
There was darkness.
I jolted up from the couch panting, my body burning up. The room was dark, and the clock read 5:30 am. I could smell the scent of something burning in my nostrils as smoke wafted off the couch where I lay. My heart raced, my blood ran hot, and my eyes teared up as my brain tried to process what was a dream and what wasn't.
I'm safe I tell myself.
I'm safe and all alone I try to comfort myself, sitting up on the couch as I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing.
I tried to calm myself down with it, to make myself feel safe in my skin again.
It's over. I told myself over and over.
It was just a dream
It's over now.
As the image of peace solidified in my mind and began to pervade my being, it was suddenly shattered by two little words.
"That's cute." The voice said.
I froze, my blood freezing in my veins as my heart stopped. Slowly, I allowed my gaze to shift over to where it had come from.
"You think it's over." She said, sitting on the other side of the couch.
Then, she turned to me with her hollow silver eyes and said with a wry smile, "I told you Yang."
"You won't ever leave me again."
? pov
Flashes of red filled my vision, temporarily blinding me in a crimson rhythm. The blaring klaxon screeched in my ear over and over. All the while my mind was still clouded with this thick fog of disorientation.
What's going on? I thought
Where am I?
[Warning.] A monotone, electronic, and female voice said in what would normally be considered a soothing tone.
[This is not a drill.]
[Pandora protocols at 40% effectiveness and failing.]
Pandora protocols? I wondered, the words sounding familiar, but still remaining unable to place meaning behind anything.
[Warning: This is not a drill. Pandora Protocols at 30% effectiveness and failing.]
Then, I heard it.
A roar, a distant, muffled roar, but a monstrous roar nonetheless. Dull tremors rocking through the ground followed it, before finally the sound of screeching metal and a loud thump ended it.
[Warning: Subject MANTICORE has escaped containment. This is not a drill]
My eyes flew open, startled into action by the latest piece of information. With it, I remembered where I was, what I was doing, and most importantly, the Pandora Protocols.
No! I cried internally, refusing to let the panic inside me show.
I looked around, seeing I was standing in a large room filled with soldiers running around, trying to manage the chaos as best they could. In front of me and behind me were two impossibly large metal gates.
This is it I thought This is the line between the madness inside the facility I thought, looking at the large gate with the black symbols on it.
And the rest of the world I continued, turning to the gate with the white symbols on it on the other side of the massive hall.
The room was so large, you could fit an Atlesian Air Cruiser in here. I know, because we've had to do it once. Large columns held up the massively high ceiling. More sealed bulkheads lead in the room lead off into other parts of the facility, but this was the entrance, and the exit. There was no other way in or out.
[Warning: Pandora Protocols at 20%]
Then I heard another sound, another dreadful, fear inducing sound. This time it was more of an unearthly bellow, like from some monster from the deep. It was combined with more tremors, and more sounds of metal breaking under the strain.
[Warning: Subject OROCHIMARU has escaped containment. This is not a drill]
The sounds of distant gunshots reached my ears. The sounds of men screaming and yelling, the sounds of an approaching death none could hold at bay. Tremors shook every inch of the facility, dirt and dust was knocked from the ceiling, falling on us all like snow.
[Warning: Pandora Protocols at 10%]
The sound of a howling shriek echoed through the installation, the sounds clawing at our very sanity. More violent tremors followed suite, and the sounds of gunshots rang out with even greater fervor.
[Warning: Subject WENDIGO has escaped containment. This is not a drill]
Beyond that gate, I knew good men and women were dying, all because of my mistake. Because my hubris. And I knew, we were next.
Then, ever so slowly, the sound of gunshots and screams died off, and soon, it was dead silence. Only the sound of ventilation and various pieces of machinery moving around echoed through the large chamber. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, everyone in there, ready, and waiting for a sign of what it meant. Was it what they hoped?
Or what they dreaded?
THOOM! A large thus rang out against the door.
Everyone flinched violently at the sound.
THOOM! It rung again, a dent appearing in the massive foot thick steel door.
[Warning, Pandora Protocols have failed, enacting White Fire Contingency]
The metal cracked under the strain, bending and buckling under the pressure. They beat upon it like a drum, throwing their whole power behind their blows as they desperately tried to get in, to feed. We could hear them clawing at the door, screeching, roaring, and bellowing for us. The alarm shrieked at us, a timer counting down to the moment of our inevitable end.
This is all my fault I knew, drawing my own weapon in preparation for the coming flood.
Finally, the door began to give way, a crack appeared, a seam opening up.
This is what I get for my arrogance.
And from there, my whole world was filled with blood.
[Get up. Get up. Get up] the alarm blared in my ears.
I shook my head, rousing myself from my sleep.
Not that nightmare again I thought, shaking the terrors from my mind.
"Sir" I voice came over from the intercom
"Yes?" I responded, pushing the call button on the wall next to my bed.
"You wanted to know when we were approaching Vale Air space?" the Sergeant asked
"Yes?" I continued, getting up.
"We're currently 15 minutes away. I took the liberty of triggering your alarm so you would have time to prepare." He added.
"Anything further to report." I grunted, still trying to shake the sleep off as I put on my shirt.
"Yes sir, the operative you sent in earlier has finally reported back. She's waiting at a safe house to report." He added.
Well, I suppose that's something to smile about I thought silently, I was actually starting to get worried.
"That will be all Sergeant, dismissed." I said, pulling myself from the bed.
It was soft. Too soft, to be honest. I didn't really feel like I deserved it, and after all that time sleeping on hard cots, it was hard getting used to this much…luxury.
"Yes sir." He responded, the crack of static signaling the closing of the comm.
I sighed, now that I was finally alone again.
I suppose, all in all, it's a small price to pay. I thought, thinking back on my nightmare, just one of many.
"I deserve more for my sins."
A/n: Well…that was a thing.
Quite a finale, was it not?
Seriously, I want to know how well it did.
Also, I realize I've sort of made a habit of having the Season finale end on some tragedy
Is that going to be a thing?
Probably
Sounds like something I'd do
In any case, as I said before, this Scene rounds out the Act, and this story's equivalent of V1
And wow, did I go through a lot of shit.
Like, damn.
Actually, there was some things I was planning on having in here that I didn't put in for one reason or another.
But let's go over what happened.
The first bit with Auroranism…that's not really going to be important right now, it's just background stuff. Religion often seems to be something that, all too often, is ignored in works, or criticized. Sometimes it's uplifted, and those times are nice, but I didn't want to do that.
See, I find religion interesting, and not something you can universally dismiss as "Archaic" or something. That said, I don't want to go around making it sound like religion is the hottest shit since sliced bread.
Thus why Jaune is being what I would consider a standard teen, and mostly finding this all boring and tuning it out.
So all in all, that scene was just set up for Auroranism, which is the primary religion on Remnant in Madness. It'll be pretty important later on, but for now it's just background info.
There was more brother sister bonding with Jaune and Aveline, so that's a thing.
After that, well, we had the heist and the explosion.
I'm not sure words are needed for the explosions.
Now, some, probably a lot of you might find it as overkill,
I call it sending a message and leaving no evidence.
And overkill.
Lots of overkill.
To be honest, it was originally going to just be one explosion, but then it sort of...expanded from there, the more I thought about it.
Also Aveline showed off the Arc family Semblance, which is essentially incantations. Like glyphs for the Schnee's, but verbal, with effect changing depending on the incantation. Slower to cast, but usually more versatile or powerful.
The other issue was Glynda.
Last couple chaps, many of you mentioned you thought, or at least considered, that all ruby's interactions with Glynda were fake, and that she actually doesn't care for her.
At that point I considered playing coy, or blatantly showing you the answer.
I think you can tell which one I picked.
Also I decided to have Roman have those "treacherous" thoughts because they make sense for him. He's just being practical.
Though he is beginning to wrap his head around how much he does not want to fuck with Ruby.
Plus it's fun to make people shit their metaphorical pants
As for Yang…
Man
Things are not looking good for Yang.
Don't really want to elaborate on that in case I accidentally spoil something, but that scene was something I had been planning for quite a while.
Kokkinos found her stress relief area, so she won't be five seconds away from murdering people all the time. Oh, and Kokkinos will actually be going under soon-ish. So yes, Pyrrha isn't dead.
And Le Livre Noir has become relevant once more. All them breadcrumbs I left before now rear their ugly head once more. Also, fun fact, Le Livre Noir is French for The Black Book. Which is why Le Livre Noir was given their name.
And finally we end it with mystery person having a mystery flashback filled with monsters.
Now, is that going to be relevant soon?
Not really
It's just a breadcrumb being set in what I consider the most opportune place.
In any case, I think there's one important thing to take away from this
Do not piss Lilith Ruby off. She will end you
OH!
And on that note
Almost forgot
But
Sun's probably dead.
As in the blond monkey kid.
Why?
Well, if you'll recall Sun was recently jailed in the West Vale City Police Department
Which is now currently existing as a pool of lava.
With Sun probably being a burning body inside.
Now, this was actually an accident.
I can't tell you how many times I've actually forgotten that I accidentally killed sun
I only realized what was going to happen to sun after I planned on blowing the place up
Now, I say "probably" dead, because if I want to, I can BS a way to keep him alive.
I don't know, maybe he got out on bail or something.
But I'd only do it if I had a good reason to
Being Blake's fuckbuddy because they both have animal bits is not a good reason
So, if you like Sun, convince me to let him live or bring him back, and if it's good enough I'll do it.
Because at this point his death is completely accidental and serves little point than ending a character that never seemed to have much point beyond being Blake's fuckbuddy.
Not that I don't like Sun. I like him. It's just the writers don't do anything with him other than pair him up with Blake because Faunus.
If he did shit and was more prevalent as more than an extra, I'd probably try not to kill him in such an accidental way.
I mean, hell, I never actually said his name in the fic. No one actually knows who he is and nobody probably will. Sun was the one who introduced Neptune to the gang, so I doubt he's going to go running up to team ANBL and say,
"Hey, know that one blonde monkey Faunus guy who see's shirts as offensive? The one that got arrested and killed? Yeah, his name is Sun and he was my best bro. Bye."
Yeah, that's not happening.
Moving on to the future, I'm probably going to have a timeskip in the near future. Not a long one, just from the immediate aftermath of this shitstorm to the trip I mentioned earlier.
But that could change.
Especially because the next time I plan to post is Christmas
Yeah
Christmas
Now, I'm pretty sure some of you are not going to be happy about that. "But Metal, you just came back from a month long hiatus, how could you leave us again for two months? Blah brah bra ba bla"
Well the answer is…
Because because
In all seriousness, It's because I want a break from writing and feeling like I need to finish something up
And Finishing an Act is a good stopping point
But don't worry, when I come back, I plan on bringing a shit ton of presents with me
What does that mean?
That means, best case scenario, I have the entire next arc done in time to shit it all out in a week or something, along with some other goodies.
Namely, new projects
Yes, with the success of Madness, I've decided to take a gamble and branch out, sort of, and work on some other projects I've been considering.
Now, what I'm going to do, instead of working on 4 projects at once, is post a sort of "sample" of each project along with the beginning of Act III.
And, NO, they are not all RWBY fics.
In fact, I don't even really see myself as a RWBY especially. That said, I've sort of fallen in love with Lilith Ruby. She's fun to write.
But as I was saying, only one of the fics should involve RWBY.
The other mainstay that I have a lot riding on, is actually the Sister fic of Madness.
I thought of them at about the same time, had the same basic idea for it, and they're actually connected. In a parallel sense, you don't need one to read the other. Injust posted Madness first because...
You know, I'm not acutlaly sure why. If I had to gues, I'd say it was because V3 was a thing at the time.
This other fic is, for now, going to be called "The Hunger of Death", and is, surprisingly enough, a Frozen fic
Yes, as in the Disney ice princess "let it go" alleged implicit lesbian incest ice magic Frozen
And I decided to do a fic in it much the same reason I did for RWBY before V3 came.
"It looks too happy."
"I need to fix that."
So, yes, Frozen shall be getting the Madness treatment, though perhaps not as…"mad". Though, as with Madness, Hunger of Death is a rather apt title.
As for the others...
Eh, still kind of up for debate. While that one is assured, seeing as I already have stuff written up for it, the others are a bit more…iffy. I might be posting two samples, or four.
We'll see.
I also might post earlier if the mood strikes me, but I doubt it.
Oh, I also have not seen any of V4
That's another reason I'm holding off
I'm more of a binge watcher, wanting to watch it all at (mostly) the same time.
And my friends haven't told me of any game-changing new reveals that have happened so far, so I don't feel the need to watch it immediately
Or, at least, nothing game changing to me or this scene. I mean, apparently Cinder has colleges also working for Salem or something, and may or may not have gotten her left eye fucked up.
None of that applies to this chapter.
I mean, the most shocking news to me was that Yang didn't kill herself yet.
Dammit Yang
Lost 5 dollars on that.
If you want to spoil me, I don't really care. RWBY's rarely been an "Oh shit" kind of twisty show. Not outside of the end of V3, anyways.
I mean, Blake being a Catgirl was knowledge that was only delayed because we didn't know that was even a thing
Then Velvet showed up, and we all kind of stared at Blake suspiciously, like, "Wait a minute. Bunny girls are a thing..."
I did, at least.
Still, regardless of the lack of V4 commentary, I hope you enjoyed this scene. Please, tell me any way I can improve upon it.
Considering how late it is, I've probably forgotten 24 things in here, only to bang my head against the table when I find them in the morning, all while screaming, "Fuck!", over and over again.
In the meantime, happy Halloween, and may you have a good All Saints day as well.
Speaking of which, I should be posting a Halloween Special Dreamstate chap sometime today.
Ah well, I'm heading off to bed.
See you all in December.
