A/N: First of all sorry for the wait. Working 12s has been murder on my free time and on my only day off I'm basically sleeping or doing stuff around the house or in town. I wrote and scraped this chapter quite a few times and finally just decided to get it over with to advance the story. Honestly in my opinion it is a shitty chapter but you may like it. I thought about restarting the whole story and following the volumes and just adding Icarrus in but I don't want to do that. I still want this to be my universe and not need to follow what is really going on. Long note sorry but hopefully you will forgive me and maybe you like the chapter.
CHAPTER 14: Enemy of my enemy.
I walked up to the facility or what was left of it I should say. It was completely destroyed except for a half standing wall in the center. The rubble was piled high and spread out.
"What the hell? I know the place got raided but I didn't think they would take it this far." I stared in awe at the sight.
[You sound disappointed.] Her voice was much clearer than it had been.
"Well kinda I would've liked to be a part of its down fall." I stepped over a pile of glass and made my way to the solitary wall. "So Eve how well did you know Doctor Serena?"
[Ever since the day they made me. They had assigned her to...I guess you could say she raised me.] She chuckled.
"What's so funny?" I asked before stumbling over a fallen pillar.
[I just thought about it really. Doctor Serena raised us both so in a way we are siblings.]
"Yeah ok that makes sense. So SIS what do you think we are going to find in my old room?" I ran my fingers over the scab under my pinkie.
[Well I figured we would find something useful. Something that we could use to find more clues about us.] I started to feel uneasy as I reached the wall.
"On the other side of this wall is my room and now I really don't want to go around." I placed my hand on the wall and it started falling away from me. Just before it hit the ground three people jumped out from behind it.
"OI WHAT THE HELL!" One of them shouted.
"That damn wall nearly crushed us. That thing landed on the loot!" Another one groaned.
"Twas either the loot or us mate and I'll be damned if we didn't find something else." A third one said while pointing at me.
"Well well well what do we have here? A trespasser by the looks of it. Now what did the boss say to do if we found anybody else wandering about this place?" The first guy pulled a knife from behind his back and spun it around on his hand.
"Yeah no, sorry." The second guy said as he slapped the knife from his partners' hand. "Apologies, my name is Stein and these are my friends. The overzealous one is Stone and our cheery friend is Salazar." All three nodded and bowed as they were introduced.
"These guys kinda remind me of the bad guys in that cheesy sci-fi movie Ruby made me watch with her." I grimaced remembering how bad the movie was. "What are you guys doing here?"
Stone jumped up and kicked some rubble. "Well the boss said we had to come here and look for clues while we waited for our next job." He picked up his knife and spun it around his fingers. I tensed and equipped my Mortem and spun it around my fingers and over my hand. I could see Stones eyes widen and his smile grow. He looked to Stein, who nodded and motioned forward.
I tensed up and engaged my Anima. "Stay back or you will regret it!" I yelled as he came closer.
"Calm down BOY." The way he said it had a hint of disgust and cockiness to it. "I'm about to offer you a chance to win your freedom without having to fight."
"I'm listening, so what is it?" I clutched my Mortem so tightly my knuckles turned white.
"Well simply put a knife throwing contest." He said with a twisted smile. Stein motioned to Salazar who picked up half of a mattress and leaned it against some rubble. He cut his hand and used the blood to paint a target on the face of it.
"Ok so what happens when I win?" I tried to overplay my confidence in an attempt to shake him up. He laughed and threw his knife into the dead center of the target without looking.
"Let's see if you can beat that!" He shouted loudly and stood back. I tossed my Mortem up and kicked it sending it flying right next to his blade and knocking it down. "I'm startin to like this little runt more and more. Salazar can ya toss em back here." Salazar made a mistake and tossed me my Mortem first.
"Bad move losers." I yelled as I kicked Stone in his chest and sliced his arm. I turned and ran over the fallen wall only to trip on something. "My locker?" I whispered after I stopped rolling. I picked it up and heaved it onto my shoulders. "Eve do we have any options on where to go now?" I said while trying my best to maintain top speed.
[Maybe if the basement is still accessible we can get to the underground garage and get a vehicle if any are left.] I could feel the uncertainty in my head.
"Well which way then?" I did my best to avoid the debris around me.
[Head right I think. There should be some type of lounge here somewhere. The staircase is right next to it.] I could hear her shouting in my mind.
"Eve calm down we'll be ok I promise." I tried to reassure her while turning and stumbling once again. 'Dammit this fucking thing is heavy.'
I reached an area that had a lot of busted up and burnt chairs with a few couches mixed around. I looked around until I say the stair case.
[The way is blocked!] Eve shouted so loud I thought my head would explode.
"Shouldn't be a problem." I grinned as I slid the locker towards the blockage and activated Anima. "One solid punch and we will be home free." As my fist connected with the stone it crumbled and the locker slid through and tumbled down the stairs.
[Oh I hope nothing in there is breakable.] Eve sighed and I made my way after it. I reached the bottom and looked at the 3 cars still intact. All the others were either exploded or crushed. I picked up the locker and smashed it through the back window into the back seats. I headed around to open the door and to my surprise it was unlocked and the keys we in the ignition.
I turned the car on after a few tries and started to pull forward. Suddenly something slammed into the driver side door. "Salazar?" I looked at him as he punched through the glass. I stabbed his hand and bunted him with the hilt causing him to let go and fall off. I drove to the exit ramp and up the slope.
[Where to now Icarrus?] Once again I felt her uneasiness.
"Somewhere safe or at least safer but definitely not home yet." I looked back at my locker. "Not until we find out what's inside."
I drove until the car ran out of gas. Luckily it was smack dab in the middle of a city just outside of what looked like a nightclub. I hopped out of the driver seat and walked around to grab my locker. I swung it over my shoulders and headed around back of the club. I leaned it against the wall next to a dumpster and stood across from it.
[Well hurry and open it already!] Her shouting made my head pound.
"Eve! Please stop shouting I'm starting to get a headache." I begged. "I just don't know what's in it I don't remember anything that I put in it and I don't know what I would have had to even put in it for that matter." I started walking back and forth. A couple minutes passed before I walked over and broke the lock off. I removed the broken lock and slowly opened the door.
[Bracelets?] Her confusion reverberated in my skull. [Why? Why bracelets? Unless they are some of your other weapons! Grab them and put them on hurry.] I pulled out 2 of the 6 and slid one on each wrist. Instantly I felt a surge of power course through my body and it took my breath away.
"Whoa that felt incredible." I twisted my wrists and the bracelets activated. They grew and slowly engulfed my hands. "Both of these look almost exactly like Yang's Ember Cecilia except the felt just like my Anima and they were pitch black. I pulled out two more and slid them over the gauntlets. Once more I activated them and they grew to become 2 Mortem but they felt heavier and the blade was longer and they were pitch black also.
I looked at the last two which were larger. I slid them up my arm till they stopped halfway up my biceps. I flexed my arms trying to activate them but nothing happened. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get them to activate but nothing worked so finally I just crossed my arms and both Animas came into contact with the arm bands. They shifted and covered my arms from shoulder to mid forearm.
The pattern on these didn't resemble Anima or Mortem or the new versions either. The looked like roses. They were a deep bloody red and the highlights of the roses were pure white.
[It seems like these were made after your escape seeing as they all have some sort of correlation with the girls. For example the color is similar to Blake, the gauntlets are reminiscent of Yang's and the arm armor has a rose pattern and is red and white, that seems awfully familiar especially since Ruby's colors are red and Weiss' colors are white.] Everything Eve said began to connect.
"Oh yeah yeah and maybe Doctor Serena made the for me after seeing me the first time on the outside, she did meet the girls then but wait why were they in my locker? Didn't the facility get the way it was when she escaped? If so why would she go through all the trouble to place them in my old locker?" I was so caught up in thought I didn't hear the footsteps as they approached.
"That would be my doing Icarrus Sebastian." I heard a woman's voice behind me. I spun around and activated the blades again. I looked at this woman with black hair and glowing amber eyes. She wore a type of red dress I hadn't seen before. "I'm not here to fight Icarrus. I'm here to offer you a job, specifically a job to save a certain doctor whom you know, goes by the name if Serena."