12 Minutes Earlier:
Xanthic could hear pain fueled screams echo throughout the metal building. As the noises grew closer his breathing hastened. He pressed himself against a yet to be bloodied wall and became completely silent thanks to his semblance, though he still couldn't control his furiously shaking leg. The connecting hallway had only the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps and Xanthic's heart raced. Suddenly the door was flung open making him jump. A man turned his head and saw him, "Run you idi-" Two parallel claw blades were pulled out of his back as he dropped to the floor dead. His white uniform quickly staining a deep red. His assailant entered the room and all Xanthic could make out was the color pink before his grasp on reality disappeared.
...
The pungent smell of blood faded, but was still noticeable in the distance. Xanthic heard a piercing clash of metal and ran through the trees to find the source. As soon as he reached the treeline he recognised where he was. Keshiki. This was the place he called home for ten years. On the paved courtyard he recognised four people, two of which were on the ground. "Stop!" He yelled out, but his voice couldn't reach them. Xanthic watched helpless as his father ran a slender blade through the chest of Ghira Belladonna. Orelon Picto sheathed his sword and used the cane for stability as he limped towards his beloved wife. Xanthic ran to close the distance between them and stopped first at the younger faunus man with antlers, who was trying desperately to stand. "Pr-prongs! A-are you-"
"Don't touch me!" He slapped away the arms that were being outstretched to assist him. "I'd rather die here than-" Prongs coughed and specks of blood landed on the stonework, "Than live knowing a pathetic creature like you helped me!"
"I just-"
"Do the world a favor and j-join your parents, Picto!"
With a punch to Xanthic's leg sealing his point Prongs eased himself back to the ground. Avoiding a look at the leader of the White Fang, Xanthic went to Orelon's side. "Fa-father..?"
"You're late as usual." His tone sent shivers down Xanthic's spine.
He swallowed back his tears, "I-I'm sorry. I- maybe I could've-"
"It doesn't matter what you could've!" Orelon turned quickly and struck Xanthic's jaw with his cane which sent an electrical shock through his body and forced him to the ground. "The fact is you didn't! You were off doing nonsense when you should've been here!"
"I-I didn't-" A large bruise already formed on his face.
"You didn't what!? For once in your pitiful life speak up boy!"
Looking up Xanthic could see the condition his father was in. The whole left half of his shirt was torn and bloody and what part of his chest that was visible was bruised. "Father you-"
"You have no right to call me that. Even if I did have a son he wouldn't be a coward like you. And he certainly wouldn't have anything to be ashamed of, unlike you. The only mistake Claire's ever made was choosing you." Orelon swung his cane again knocking Xanthic's hat away and allowing his loppy rabbit ears to drop freely to his shoulders.
...
Suddenly the terrifying face of Orelon disappeared and was replaced by a young girl with pink hair and just as fierce blue eyes, though he could see a hidden trace of compassion in hers. Xanthic's legs gave out in fear, "W-wh-what was tha-at!? W-Wh-Who are you!?"
"Leave." The girl commanded plainly.
"Wha- I do- I don't u-under-"
"Just go!" Not wanting to see what would happen if he made her repeat herself for a third time Xanthic got up and started running in a stumbling mess.
Present:
The two teams entered the factory cautiously. The rusted floors and dimmed corridors were uninviting and filled with an unshakable feeling of dread. Not a minute had passed before they heard another blood curdling scream. Riliane jumped and Celeste whipped around to look behind them. But the hallway was dark and empty.
"What was that?" Amelia asked uneasily. D'art opened his mouth to reply before there was another scream, and then another. And then it seemed as if they would never end.
However, after a few seconds the cries of agony ceased, as quickly as they had come. The teens exchanged a few fearful looks before sprinting down the hallway. As they reached the end of the corridor, the first thing they noticed was the gradual change in smell; like a cloud in the air, the pungent stench of blood and death wafted in the factory, thick and toxic. Riliane doubled over and gagged, covering her mouth with her hand. The rest scrunched their noses and tried not to breathe. But they kept going. After rounding a corner they skidded to a stop, shocked at what they saw.
Scattered across the hallway like broken toys were bodies, twisted in unnatural ways and broken into little pieces. It was as if a small child who had tired of their enjoyment had carelessly thrown them aside. Blood was strewn across the walls and pooled on the floor like paint splatters. From what the teens could see, it was the remains of guards. The mouths of the victims were open in a silent "o" shape. Their eyes were glassy, reflecting their terror and agony. For those who still had their appendages attached, their arms were outstretched, reaching for whatever salvation was left to them before they were slaughtered. Celeste took in a quick breath and Eve's eyes widened. D'art stumbled back, gagging and backing into Amelia who had thrown up.
"Good god." D'art whispered.
"Who would do this?" Amelia asked, her face filled with disgust and contempt.
"It's disgusting." Owen covered his mouth again and looked away from the bloodied scene.
"Guys! W-what is it!" Riliane demanded, worriedly glancing around at the direction of her various friends.
"Bodies." Celeste said quietly, looking away. "Lots of them."
Riliane swallowed nervously. "W-What about Xanthic? What if he's-"
"He's not here." Olive replied quickly, her eyes sweeping across the carnage. "Xanthic must be somewhere else."
"Well we have to find him fast." Celeste snapped. "Whatever killed these guards was ruthless."
"I think we should split up." Eve commanded. "We don't have much time." Olive nodded.
"I agree."
"In situations like this we should stick together." Owen countered. I can't communicate with you guys if you're too far away."
"It can't be helped." D'art replied. "If we split up we'll have a higher chance of finding Xanthic faster." Owen was silent and then nodded.
"I agree." Riliane added. "Xanthic must be found no matter what."
"Same." Said Amelia.
"Then it's settled." Olive said. "We'll split up. You'll take the left corridor and we'll take the right. We'll meet back at the entrance, got it?" Olive ordered. The teenagers stared at each other, hoping that this wouldn't be the last time they would see each other. And then they separated. Team ROXA hurried down the left corridor, waving briefly before they disappeared into the darkness. Team CODE sprinted down the right, their thoughts filled with worry and dread.
Xanthic ran as quickly as possible trying to remember the path he had been taken down before. After a few turns he realized that he did not recognize the rooms he was passing. Desperately he continued attempting to find his way out of the factory, trying to avoid thinking about the new coloring of the rooms. Rounding another corner Xanthic ran directly into somebody and fell backwards. Instantly his arms went up to hide his face.
...
Elsewhere, Team CODE made their way through the factory cautiously. The route they had chosen consisted of an unmissable path of carnage for them to follow.
"I still can't believe what happened here." Celeste said. "Did the Grimm do this?"
D'art solemnly shook his head and responded "No, this is too efficient. Whatever did this killed as quickly as it possibly could... as if it wanted nothing to escape."
Sensing the team all considering the same dark thought Owen chimed in quickly "Xanthic is gonna be fine guys! We have nothing to worry about!" The team nodded in agreement and moved on, but even Owen couldn't hide the doubt in his voice as they continued to follow the trail into an open room.
The room seemed to be the end of the line. What was left of the guards surrounded the doorframe marking the location of their attempt at a last stand. Inside the room a lone figure in a suspiciously stained pink hoodie with ears sewn on top paced back and forth mumbling to itself amongst the carnage. As Eve entered the room she recognized the hoodie immediately and called out in surprise, "Yukina?"
...
As the girls of ROXA rounded another corner somebody ran into Riliane. Instantly drawing her bow back she demanded, "Who's there!?"
"Xa-Xanthic..?" Amelia questioned the boy who was currently cowering in fear.
Recognising the voices he lowered his arms slightly, "Am-m-melia? Ri-Rilia-ane..?" He didn't entirely believe they were there.
"Xanthic! You're alright!" Riliane lowered her weapon and reached out to help him up, but he jumped away from her. Clutching his hat Xanthic stared at her and her bow, the other two could see the tears beginning to cloud his vision. "Xanthic, it's me." She lowered her voice in an effort to help calm him down.
His tears silently fell. Xanthic forced his eyes shut and suddenly yelled, "I wanna go home!" With his breathing choppy he returned to his usual volume, "I wa- I want my mom and dad! I- I want her to teach me ar-archery a-and to show me how she makes su-such good food! And h-he could teach me about the plants and th-the animals! Ple-please… I just wa- I wanna go back…"
The three girls had no idea how they were supposed to react, they stood there confused watching his apparent breakdown until Xanthic gradually stopped crying and slowly stood up. He didn't look at any of them and he still sniffled occasionally, but he spoke in a commanding voice that none of them had heard before, "We need to get out of here." He grabbed Riliane's hand and began moving towards the exit again.
"We can't just leave," Riliane explained while stumbling, "Celeste and them are here too."
"Fine, we'll find them and get out as fast as possible." Nivens ordered begrudgingly.
...
The figure turned revealing a young girl with an outfit matching her pink hair and a look of bewilderment on her face as she heard her name called out. As the other members of CODE stared on in confusion the mysterious girl responded, "Eve? Is that really..." The girl named Yukina didn't finish her sentence as she started to walk towards Eve only to have her path blocked by Celeste.
"Holdit right there!" Celeste stated, "I don't know who you are or how you and Eve know each other, But we just walked through something out of a horror film to get here. So before you go anywhere near my friend you better explain what is going on and explain fast." After a few seconds of silence Celeste briefly wondered if she was being too harsh on the young girl, after all the innocent look on her face reminded her of her younger brother. And judging by the dazed look and unmistakeable dark stains covering her, she had seen some terrible things. "Look we are trying to find someone, We just need-"
"Friend?" Yukina interrupted, turning her gaze from Eve to stare Celeste in the eyes, "Eve is your friend?"
As Celeste and the strange girl were talking Owen decided to take a peek at the girl's thoughts. To his surprise he found them random and incoherent, only being able to pick up certain things like confusion, pain, and anger. "Guys," He called out nervously "Something doesn't feel right."
Ignoring her teammate Celeste responded, "Yes she's my friend, we all are."
This statement caused Yukina's expression to become more confused "But that... but she... she wouldn't have..." Yukina backed away from Celeste and started to mumble again seeming as if she was having some sort of argument with herself. Celeste looked between her teammates and the girl in confusion until Yukina suddenly stopped mumbling and stood still.
On the other side of the room Owen suddenly recoiled as the strange girl's thoughts unexpectedly cleared and started screaming one singular action, Kill. "Guys!" He called out again, but was too late as Yukina suddenly stepped towards Celeste and made eye contact with her now burning blue gaze.
For a second nothing happened after Owen's call, but the tension in the room abruptly snapped as Celeste let out an anguished scream that seemed to echo throughout the room and put a dark smile on Yukina's face. "Celeste!?" Dart called out as he and Owen jumped to their leader's aid, leaving behind Eve who was seemingly in a daze. Using his longer weapon Owen swung at Yukina forcing her to step back breaking eye contact with Celeste causing her to drop to the ground and replace her screaming with quiet whimpers. The previously innocent expression on Yukina's face was now contorted into a look of malice.
"Oh, Do you want to play too?" Yukina mockingly asked with a laugh. "As you wish." The two boys then heard a click as twin pairs of clawed blades extended from each of her sleeves splattering the ground with the red drooling from their edges.
One look at the blades made D'art instantly realize they were responsible for the carnage throughout the building. Without hesitating he ran forward swinging down with his tomahawks only to find them blocked by Yukina's blades.
With a smile Yukina pushed forward letting her claws slip off the tomahawk blades and around their handles. D'art realized her plan too late as she pulled back with unexpected ferocity throwing him onto the ground, knocking his weapons out of his hands, and sending them tumbling across the room. But before she could capitalize Owen rushed in, once again trying to use the range of his weapon to his advantage.
Unlike last time Yukina now moved forward instead of back, putting herself too close for Owen to swing his polearm and running her blades down the weapon. Owen started to panic and tried to retract his weapon into gun form but was unable as he realized thick ice was covering the length of the weapon trapping it in its current form. The origin of the ice was plain to see as the now very close Yukina swiped at his chest with one of her newly ice covered claws. Although his aura took the brunt of the blow, It still sent him stumbling backwards and onto the ground.
As the two boys tried to recover the battle suddenly came to a halt as Eve yelled out, "Yukina!" At the call of her name the girl turned and froze once again transfixed at the sight of Eve. After a few seconds the ferocious look in her eyes went away and she started looking around the room at the downed members of CODE in a panic. Looking down at her weapons and then back at Eve, Yukina retracted the blades and suddenly ran out of the room. With a short glance at her teammates, Eve made a quick decision and sprinted after the fleeing girl.
Further down the blood soaked hallways Eve managed to catch up to Yukina and called out once again to her, "Wait! Yukina stop! Please!"
Stopping in the middle of the hall Yukina turned revealing a somber expression on her face, "So you are still alive after all." Eve stared at her friend, still in shock. She hadn't heard Yukina's voice in years and hearing it now was as if she was in a living nightmare.
"What are you doing here?" Eve asked quietly, not able to comprehend asking anything else.
"Revenge I suppose." Yukina responded with a weak laugh gesturing towards the scene covering the hall, "Or maybe pleasure, It's hard to tell nowadays..."
Eve swallowed. "How can you say this is pleasure? You just slaughtered a countless amount of people." She said shakily. Her palms were sweating and she was forced to wipe them on her shorts.
"Thugs, Kidnappers, Murderers," Yukina stated bluntly, "Not people. They got what was coming to them. What's that saying? Reap the fruit of one's own labor?"
"Police exist for a reason." Eve hissed, ashamed at what her friend had become. "Even if they've done horrible things it doesn't give you the justification to kill them. Some of these people could have had families, children. Can you imagine how they'll feel when they learn their parent is dead?"
"You think you have the right to tell me what is right and wrong?!" Yukina suddenly shouted with tears starting to slowly roll down her face. "After you left me with them! After you abandoned me!" Eve winced at her statement.
"For that...I'm sorry. I am. I-I couldn't forgive myself after I left you. I'm so sorry…" Eve held back a sob as she covered her mouth from both the stench of blood and because of her breaking voice.
Wiping away her tears, A look of anger returned to Yukina's face. "You know… I convinced myself that you were dead. Because there was no way that you would just leave me. There was no way the person I- That you would never come back for me... I suppose that was just foolish dream right?"
"No." Eve said finally, she shook her head vigorously. "Yukina, listen to me. After I got out, I never stopped trying to rescue you all. I tried searching for our parents… I-I did everything I could but no one listened. I never stopped regretting that I left you, you were the one thing that kept me sane in that horrid place." Eve took a step closer to her friend, her hands were trembling. "Please…"
"You knew where I was… you could have found me if you had really tried." Yukina said taking steps away from Eve, "Yet here you are, With new friends and a new life. Having forgotten me and our so called friendship." Stopping she laughed weakly, "You remember what they told us about the faunus? About how they were monsters… I guess they weren't entirely wrong… We both prove that, right?"
"Yukina-" Eve started, but the pink haired girl cut her off.
"Don't go after humanity… And don't look for me… I don't want to hurt you." As she turned and walked down the hall and out of sight Eve could barely make out her last words, "But I'm not sure I can stop myself…"
The rest of CODE caught up to Eve just in time to see Yukina disappear into the hallway, no one tried to stop her from leaving nor did they approach their teammate. A few minutes later, Team ROXA hurried down to the others, explaining that they had heard yelling. After a short reunion with Xanthic, the group of teens walked up to Eve silently, gingerly stepping over the blood and gore smeared on the floor. The raven haired girl said nothing, her head was tilted slightly towards the ground.
"Eve?" D'art asked softly. "We found the others, we can go now." Eve was unresponsive, her bangs fell over her eyes as she muttered something. D'art strained to hear the incoherent speech.
"...Eve?" Slowly, D'art reached for his partner, his hand rested on her shoulder as he tried to pull her back. Eve whipped around and slapped his hand away. Her eyes were crazed.
"Don't touch me." She hissed, her eyes flicked away from him to avoid his gaze, to avoid the gaze of all of them.
"No, we're not leaving just yet. Who was that?" Celeste demanded, pushing to the front of the group. "What was that?" Without responding, Eve shivered and kept walking forward.
"Wait, what happened?" Olive asked.
"Some crazy pink haired chick attacked our team!" Celeste snapped. "And she seemed to know Eve very well."
Olive looked back at her friend."Eve?" She asked. Silent, the raven haired girl began to walk forward. Celeste followed her. The rest of the teens exchanged worried looks, they knew this wouldn't go anywhere good.
"Answer me! Who was she?" Celeste yelled. Eve said nothing, she continued to walk down the corridor. "I'm sick and tired of all your secrets!" She continued. It's always one thing after another! Why can't you just talk to us?!"
"Leave me alone!" Eve yelled, her voice cracking. "None of you will understand! All you do is pry, pry, pry! You'll never understand what I went through! You'll never understand who I am today because of it! All you'll see is my past, and you'll judge me because of that! Even though I've spent nearly every second of my life regretting everything I did!" Celeste was about to continue but Eve interrupted her. "You all act like I did some deplorable act by not telling you that I was in Humanity! But what would you have done if I told you when we first met?! Judged me! You would have arrested me! Don't deny it! You all know it's true!" Her words echoed down the hallway. The group of friends was silent, neither supporting or denying her claim. They didn't know what to say. Even Celeste was quiet. Eve, who was breathless, took a couple of quick breaths before running her hands through her hair and sighing.
"Just...leave me alone for a bit."
"No." Celeste said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "You're telling us who that was."
"Celeste…" Riliane hurried up to her friend, trying to calm her. "This isn't the time to-"
"We deserve to know." Celeste interrupted, adamant. Eve cast a miserable look at her before sighing.
"Fine." She fully turned around. "That was Yukina Freesis. Like me, she was kidnapped by Humanity and trained at a young age." She grimaced a little. "She was also my friend."
"Okay? And why didn't we hear about her before?" Celeste questioned impatiently.
"I didn't think it was needed."
"She nearly killed all of us." Celeste snapped.
"Well I didn't think I'd ever see her again." Eve countered with a hiss. "I never realized that she had become so…" The image of the broken, twisted bodies flashed through her mind and she swallowed. "So inhumane."
"She seemed incredibly unstable." Owen whispered. "I hate to think what will happen if we run into her again." Eve shivered a little.
"What was with her semblance anyways?" D'art inquired, glancing at Celeste. "It took you out of the fight completely."
"Yukina has the ability to make a person see their greatest fear." Eve said quietly. "She can only affect one person at a time, but it is incredibly real. And it makes her a difficult opponent to face. Especially when your fears are constantly changing." She glanced at Celeste as well. "What did you see anyways?" Celeste blinked and then looked away.
"Nothing important."
"You can't even share that much?"
"It's nothing important." Celeste repeated with grit teeth. The two stared at each other angrily before looking away.
"A-Anyways." Riliane cleared her throat. "The important thing is that we got Xanthic back. And that he's safe and sound." The group turned to look at Xanthic who was avoiding a direct gaze from anyone.
"Xanthic?"
The blonde boy suddenly recognized that he was being spoken to, "What?"
"You okay?" She asked.
"I'm perfectly fine." Nivens replied, being surprisingly calm despite the carnage around him. He still didn't look at her though.
"That girl was crazy." D'art returned the conversation to their earlier encounter, he stared at his hand, opening and closing his fist. "None of my attacks even registered."
"I still can't believe she slaughtered all of those people without a care." Amelia whispered. Eve winced, as if the words were painful for her to hear.
"I just don't understand." Eve said. "She was always so warm and caring when I knew her. What happened to her?" The words hung ominously in the silence, not one knew the answer.
"We should go." Olive said finally. "We got Xanthic and we shouldn't stay here any longer."
"I would have been just fine on my own," Nivens said with a sigh.
"I agree." Amelia added, ignoring her friend. "This place gives me the creeps." The teens nodded and began to walk down the corridor. D'art fiddled with his tomahawks before sheathing them again. Owen quietly walked forward, his weapon making soft clinks on the floor. Nivens stared straight ahead, never looking down at the blood, as he followed the others out of the factory and several yards away before stopping to lean against another building. Riliane glanced at him, and then at the others who were continuing to walk out. Finally she decided to stand next to him, but he pushed off and started to walk away in a different direction.
She reached out and grabbed his sleeve, "Wait a minute. Where are you going?"
He glanced over at the others before looking back at the ground, "Let go."
"I… I don't think you should go off by yourself… I know you're just waiting for them to leave."
"You don't know what-" Nivens hummed in thought and then sighed. "I guess, if that's what you need right now…" He mumbled with his eyes closed and let himself lean against her. Eve glanced back at them, nodding when Riliane waved her off. The group of teens walked into the rising sun, glad to be out of the bloodied factory.
