Chapter 27: Grimmerie

The earth rocked beneath Ruby and Blake? No, it hadn't. They exchanged glances before running out, and the rumble finally followed.

Behind them, the Operators had the vault door secured. It'd taken some time but Ruby had found the weren't the type that could be defused, but they were reliant on a signal to detonate, as far as she could gather at least. With some jury-rigging involved, at something of a chop-shop work taking apart some androids and repurposing their transmitters, she could jam communications in the area. The dust Vault was secure, but… something was wrong.

They moved outside, and though visibility was still low, Ruby could feel it in her bones, the imminent danger. Tuning to her senses, she knew that to the south, about five hundred meters away was a Knight, and it had just detonated, taking with it who knew how many soldiers.

The worst possible situation Weiss had warned against, Jacquest hadn't just rigged the vault, no, he'd rigged random androids too, another failsafe.

Blake broke the silence, "You felt that too, didn't you?"

"Yes," Ruby said. Immediately, she considered possibilities. Her semblance made her fast, but she couldn't possibly gather every Android in atlas at once. She had no way to tell what Androids were rigged and even then, setting up a jammer only covered an area, and she was pretty sure the androids could simply walk out of it.

Another blast, further away, Blake had heard it too. Damn it, what could she even do?

A shadow covered them, Ruby and Blake both looked up, only to see a huntship flying down. The cargo door opened, and inside was none other than Roman Torchwick.

As the Huntship hovered down to the ground level, Roman approached them "Need a ride? I figure it's not too late yet."

Blake scowled, "Almost thought you'd abandoned ship again."

Roman feigned offense, "Who, me?"

Ruby and Blake both stared daggers at him as they entered the ship, followed by the Operators.

Blake's hand flashed to Gambol Shroud, "You wanna tell us where you've been?"

Roman smiled, "Look, I get it, but I'm not one to pass up on getting a clean record. Now, do you want to know what I found out after we split up?"

—❖—

Weiss remembered the feeling of holding Myrtenaster, clung to it so as to not lose herself in the winds, the thoughts and the souls within her soul. She jumped from Glyph to Glyph, traveling in midair on a line towards the tower at the center of Atlas. That damned spire. The rapier was a necessary anchor point, so she could be aware of what was, and what was yet to be.

Another leap. Weiss closed her eyes and let her Aura speak.

It was the inside of a crowded escape airship. The cargo door struggled to close, as guards fought servants left behind, barred them from entering the ship. Within the crowd inside, five nobles lost consciousness, and moments after their lives, one after the other. Then, some guards followed.

A squad of Beacon Operators hijacked a military car, one with a mounted gun. They drove it into alleyways, evading the Specialists that followed them, firing when they came too close for comfort.

Specialists followed, leaped from building to building. In midair, two lost consciousness, then their lives. Operators looked at eachother, surprised, they hadn't fired at those two…

Her Aura tried to show her the Dust vaults. Tried, but Weiss refused to see. Perhaps the information there would be vital, she already knew what Jacques had planned there. She already knew she sent Ruby into the place with the full knowledge of what could happen, but she could not allow herself to see the place. She teetered on the edge, if she didn't like what there was to see, there was no guarantee she could carry on without her.

Weiss landed on her next Glyph. The moment between seconds had passed.

Was that a thing yet to happen, or was it already done? A dead man's switch… For every choice, one surrender, and now Jacques let chaos loose. Weiss could figure the threat, but couldn't escape the fear that nearly took over her mind. Another leap, again she closed her eyes…

The others… Weiss noted the clear absence of Ruby and Blake among them… They struggled to run, Salem conjured a barrier surrounding the top of the spire at the mere mention of attempting escape. A black bubble insulated them from the rest of Atlas, she wanted their fight uninterrupted.

A Grimm circled behind Salem, with twin heads and a stump for a neck. It bent low, walking on all six limbs, searching… And found one half of Arthur Watts.

It stood up, both heads howling, and like a maw of its own its chest split lengthwise, three pairs of human arms blossomed from inside, reaching out. As it bent over the body, the arms pulled it inside… and little by little, first a spine formed from the empty neck, then a canine skull, and finally, Grimm flesh filled in the gaps. The body grew in size, It wasn't just healing, but also assimilating.

Or was that yet to be? It felt so real, almost as if she was there herself.

Weiss landed on a Glyph again, the snowstorm was dying down, though it still obscured much of the land ahead. She could see the silhouette of the spire, but if she wanted to get there in time, she'd need something more… direct. She summoned repulsion Glyph, just below the one stood on, slightly bigger, then another, bigger than the last.

She increased the pull of the Glyph below, past the safe point where her Semblance would tire her. It was physically painful to take her Semblance past its limits, like a torch was being put to her every muscle, Weiss grit her teeth to endure it. Another push of her Semblance, and she increased the repulsion.

Both forces were at an equilibrium, the pull of the anchoring Glyph she was on, the repulsion of the Glyphs below. She aimed herself at the top of the tower, both Myrtenaster and knife in hand…

Then released her anchor. Weiss soared through the air, it was only a gut feeling, but she knew that not twisting her body to the right would have her blowing past the tower entirely, and veering too much to the left would make her crash into Penny. An instant later the tower was in sight, she was closing in every second…

And like ink covered an invisible sphere, a black barrier started forming atop the tower, From above and in midair. At the speed she was in, Weiss soared under just before it closed and slashed the knife to the side without knowing why…

And landed on the arena, amid Salem, Penny and Yang. Winter was at the edge of the roof, close to Neo, near Ironwood, who pointed a smoking revolver at Salem. Though the barrier was pitch-black from the outside, inside it was simply as if the snow and wind was being kept away by an invisible force. She looked to where she'd sliced out, and saw she'd flown past the thankfully still two-headed Grimm.

A moment later, one of its heads slid free from the body and bounced underfoot, the cut making itself known.

"Oh," Salem sighed the word, "I don't like you."

Weiss raised Myrtenaster and parried a moment before Salem charged, cutting at her with bare, clawed hands. It was an unrelenting barrage, Weiss moved back as evaded and parried, cut Salem's abdomen with the tip of Myrtenaster as she slipped under the last attack, moving away.

Weiss glanced quickly at Myrtenaster's blade, the sinister dents caused by the attacks instilled her with no confidence in fighting Salem. Her hard-light Dust mixture was depleted in the battle with Jacques.

In the moment before Salem turned around, Yang surged and delivered a hook to her ribs from behind, putting the witch off-balance. Penny followed the cue and fired a beam pushing Salem away and into a pile of rubble. It would buy them some time, perhaps.

"Weiss!" said Yang, "That blood…"

"Not mine!" said Weiss, after a moment remembering she was, from the chest up, covered in blood. A small portion had been cleaned up by the wind and snow, but it was still there. If the others gave her odd looks, she ignored them in favor of keeping her sight on the Grimm.

There it was, keeping himself low and scurrying at the edge of the arena, it was circling behind Salem, searching.

"We need to kill that Grimm, quick!" Weiss said, as she pointed Myrtenaster at the monster, "The… what did you call it?" she asked the group.

Penny perked up, "Oh! We called it Cerberus!" she said, with added intensity.

Weiss scanned the room, where was it, where was Arthur's body? She couldn't find it beneath the rubble, and-

The Cerberus dashed to where one half of Arthur was, the scene Weiss had seen repeating itself: the chest opened, hands reached out, it wasn't too late for Weiss to stop it…

The rubble erupted, Salem dashed her way, and Weiss parried a downward cut out of reflex. Myrthenaster's blade was shattered, the weapon's pieces rained on the floor, ringing with each piece.

Then, a hole appeared on Salem's skull, a gunshot from Ironwood! With barely a moment to spare, she stabbed the knife into Salem's forehead and cut down, splitting the witch lengthwise from head to waist.

Yang and Winter surged forward, Salem's left half waved a hand to the side, and both Huntresses were launched aside along with Weiss and Penny. Salem's right half seemed more intent on cutting at Neo and Ironwood, cuts appearing on the concrete where she cut at.

Neo slid on the floor as she ducked under a cut, grabbed the servant then burst into shattered pieces. Ironwood dove for the floor, kept his prosthetic side facing Salem, a sort of last defense against her attacks.

Ironwood shot twice, once on each of Salem's halves, then collapsed, his flesh was dry, pale and cracked near the eyes and the folds of the mouth and brow, his veins had blackened and his hair was completely bleached white. He looked as if he'd been drained of life.

Each Salem half laughed separately, her flesh re-knit itself slowly, mending the cut from waist to head at a slow but unrelenting pace. Both halves glared at Weiss, "You are a different one aren't you? Colder."

"Yang!" Weiss called, as she took Myrtenaster's hilt and chucked it at Salem, just before both halves mended at the chest. Yang fired a shot from Ember Celica at it, detonating what was left of Myrtenaster.

There was a quick flash of white, then flames engulfed Salem for a movement. The flames were quickly extinguished and followed by an eruption of ice, and within the ice crystals, Salem was unmoving, her head completely destroyed.

Another temporary restraint at best, Weiss considered. The Cerberus!

Just as she considered the beast, it lunged at her, arms outstretched. Two claws dug into her shoulders, and as the other pair of arms threatened to stab into her guts, Yang clutched one arm and held it away with great effort, Winter screamed as she grabbed the other.

Neo stabbed the Grimm in the back, it still held onto Weiss, its grip strong.

The Cerbrus' chest split open, three pairs of arms blossomed forth, slowly pulling Weiss inside. Her arms struggled to obey, slowly, she felt her consciousness wane, as if she'd gone days without sleep. Her vision blackened at the edges…

Then, a loud crash rocked the skies above them. Glowing cracks split along the barrier and… an android fell on it? But how?

The android detonated, spreading the cracks even further.

The Cerberus tossed Weiss away as it leaped to a safer distance, close to Salem's body. Weiss could see crashes forming on the ice crystals,they didn't have much time left. She shook herself off the torpor, stumbled to her feet and focused her vision up above, a huntship! Roman, Ruby and Blake! A smile spread over her face, she could see the open cargo door, they were tossing down androids, but if the robots were detonating…

Jacques. Even from beyond her grave he was trying to pull the rest of Atlas down with him. Ironically, it might just have saved her life. Blast after blast, the cracks spread across the barrier, glowing ever brighter, until…

It shattered! Blake and Ruby leaped down from the ship, into the area.

Ruby unsheathed Crescent Rose, engaged its scythe form and, with a burst of speed rammed through the Cerberus, cutting all its limbs along the path.

Blake followed, dashing forward and stabbing through the beast's body, she lifted it up in the air and split it in two, each half sent to a different end of the roof.

The halves struggled for a moment, but crumbled to dust a moment later. The only remains left behind were dried-out human skeletons, Weiss could not tell how ancient they were, but they looked the part.

"Ruby!" Weiss called, she was safe after all!

Ruby, for her part, only looked back and offered a mischievous smile.

An instant later, Salem shattered the ice, her head reformed. She pointed her palm at the group just as Ruby transformed her weapon into its rifle form, and fired at her hand, blowing it into pieces.

Salem looked at the stump, said nothing. She cut madly at Ruby, who evaded the barrage with quick flashes of her semblance as she moved. Blake sneaked into her reach and cut an arm off, left a clone behind, one that Salem gleefully cut apart. The cut arm regenerated in an instant, tendrils of black flesh knitting themselves into a limb, the skin color quickly fading to the pale white of the witch.

She lunged again at the pair, Weiss summoned a Glyph to block her, rammed at Salem driving a knee into her back.

Weiss stabbed Salem's side, three quick stabs followed by a spin, to stay behind the witch, "Sorry if I'm a little late, but my fiance is here, so I'm going to show off a little."