A/N: just to let you guys know that I never plan to quit this story, it might take me ages to get another chapter out but I won't quit it.
"I'm out! Aah it's good to be away from all of that sterile Equipment." Icy walked out of the lab, completely happy that she didn't need to stay there any longer.
"Remember Icy, stay calm." Duncan's voice emanated from the small crack in the door to the lab with a noticeable hint of worry in it.
"Oh don't be such a buzzkill Duncan, I can finally see everyone again." She walked away in a good mood, finally understanding her powers and how to stop destructive outbursts of ice. "I want to eat something so badly, I'm starving." Icy starts walking towards the prison cells to meet her newfound friends when she ran into Tex who grabbed her arm and started dragging her in the other direction. "Hey, what do you want from me now? I just want to see everyone again!" Tex wasn't fazed as she continually dragged Icy further into the prison but what creped Icy out the most is that Tex bothered to fix her voice modulator and that it was turned on.
"You are requested to solve the mental instability in your sister." Texas deadpanned as she forced Icy to go faster, not wanting to waste any time before she could reach the cell and then have a word with Aaron about allowing the prisoners to escape.
"My sister? Why is she mentally unstable? What has happened?" Icy asks now keeping pace with Texas and slowly moving past her. "Why is my sister mentally unstable?" Texas increased her pace further as she was starting to get annoyed at the girl's constant questions and ignored her for the remainder of the trip. When she reached the door, Texas threw Icy in not even bothering to check if Snowflake was going to break out before shutting the door and leaving them to "talk"
The dark room was devoid of anything that could allow it to resemble the rest of the prison. The walls which were made of a mysterious material looked imposing which the lack of even a security camera heightened as it made the room look like a private torture chamber. Snowflake stared at her sister in surprise but then her face twisted in anger as her thought that they had all been fooled seemed justified and now the real treatment for them would start. "You see now? You trusted him and now we're here, trapped in our true prison now that he has decided to cut the act. And to think I actually started to like him." Snowflake said the last sentence under her breath as she failed to notice Icy's concerned face.
"Why are you here? Texas told me that you were mentally unstable. What happened while I was gone?" Icy asked in quick succession, completely forgetting about her stress levels which were growing as she saw her sister, Texas' words scaring her more than she would like to admit.
"Mentally unstable? I don't know what lies Texas has started drivelling but I was put in here because they couldn't deceive me and now I will be treated as we all will someday." Snowflake, becoming very irritated by the fact that Aaron's lies spread so far through his prisoners to this extent. Snowflake started feeling morose at the fact that he had so many people who will do anything that he wanted.
"Snow, why can you not see what he has done for us. We have been put in prison and he has taken us away from a normal place where we wouldn't survive and placed us in an environment where we can not only grow, but thrive in more ways than we ever could before we were sent here." Icy tried to stay calm as Snowflake's bias irritated her which wasn't helped by the fact that Snowflake's look of disgust seemed to worsen "Open your eyes snowflake! I haven't been here the whole time and I know that he is far more than he seems. Stop being blind to everything but his faults and maybe you wouldn't be here."
Icy honestly realised that she struck a chord in Snowflake the split second between the end of her outburst and Snowflake's retort. "My eyes are open! He has been slowly been blinding us all to his plans by lies and false aid. Just because Tessa and I are the only people who can see it spells doom for us all." Snowflake, now finding a medium to vent out all of her repressed feelings about her situation decided to take the chance and get rid of all of it. Too bad it was her sister. "All he had one is hurt us and make us fight for our lives while putting money in his pocket at the same time. You have done nothing but participate in unethical actions just because he weaved a lie to get you to cooperate. I have been battered, bruised and killed for something I didn't even do and he knows that. There was not enough evidence for me to be convicted let alone sent here." Snowflake broke down then, sinking to the ground with an empty heart with nothing but depression left. "Why did this happen to us? We had a good life. It was simple but we got on, why did he have to bring us here to die but never leave our bodies?"
"Is that it? Why you cannot handle anything here well? Is it because you believe you don't deserve to face the hardships placed on you?" Icy sat next to her sister to be there for her. She remembered when Aaron sat near her as she was freaking out about her powers and the fact that she shouldn't be around others if she can't control it. He sat there as she freaked out about her powers and her distress slowly emptied her of everything, leaving nothing but depression which is the void of any potential emotion. "Snowflake, do you know what Aaron has given us? The thing that many would never have the chance to have?" snowflake looked up, inquisitive as to what Icy was talking about, a spark of potential filling the void of her depression. "Potential. Aaron has given us the potential to be great. To do something with our measly lives and be remembered as more than just faces in the crowd. He is planning something great and decided that we get to be a part of it." Snowflake looked up now, genuinely interested in what Icy was saying, her depression almost gone over curiosity. "He probably saved us from far worse you powers would have attracted someone at some time or another and they'd take me to try and figure out my powers in a far more unethical way than he has and they would take you for being my sister, our life would never be normal after that." The sombre direction of the conversation started activating Snowflake's motherly instincts.
"That wouldn't happen, I wouldn't let them do anything to you willingly." Snowflake pat Icy on the shoulder. "And we'll get through this prison, nice warden or not."
To Snowflakes surprise, Icy became happy at Snowflake's statement. More happy than she should.
"Aaron was right, this technique works wonders." Icy exclaimed out of nowhere, not realising that she said that out loud.
"What?" Snowflake, finding it hard to comprehend the situation could only have that word come out of her mouth.
"Aaron used this when he comforted me for freezing your arms off. I was devoid of emotions and was wallowing in depression when he came to me and gave me the potential to feel again. Just like I did to you." Icy explained looking happier when she said that she pulled Snowflake out of depression.
Snowflake, finally realising that Icy helped her, hugged her sister with the strength to almost stop Icy from breathing. "Thank you for saving me from being a depressed woman." Snowflake then pulled away from Icy. "Aaron really knows a lot doesn't he?"
Glad that Snowflake was warming up to Aaron Icy leaned on her sister's shoulder. "Yeah he's great." Icy then perked up from Snowflake's shoulder with a smile that, though showing mischief, couldn't be seen by snowflake. "Hey sis. Can I marry Aaron?"
"WHAT!? NO! WHY WOULD YOU?" hearing Icy's laughter reverberate through the room sent Snowflake's anger through the roof. "YOU'RE DEAD! I'LL SHOW YOU NOT TO RUIN AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT!" Icy already started running before snowflake realised and chased her around the room
'Still got it' was the prominent thought Icy had for the rest of their stay in the room.
The prisoners walked into the training grounds to see Texas there, emanating absolute rage, proving Aaron's hypothesis just by being extremely pissed off "Yeah, I've devised this awesome move that I would really like to" Sky stopped talking as he was the last to step in the room before the door closed and locked as per normal. Everyone stood in fear at Texas' mood and prayed that it wouldn't translate into this combat lesson.
Sadly for them their prayers were not answered. "Everyone, I have found a rare beast in the rift gardens and have decided that you will fight it." Texas had her artificial voice deepened even further to strike fear into the prisoner's hearts to cool off a little until Aaron could be talked to. The effect went over what she expected in some areas and less in others.
"Ssundee? Please tell me you can control your super derp form?" Sips, not bothering to look brave stared with terror in his eyes at the object in the middle of the battleground just managing to stay on his feet.
"Dude, do you think we would still be in this prison if I could? We're all dead!" Ssundee at least had the courage to reach for his katana in preparation for the fight.
Icy, not hearing any of the complaints and thinking about the devastation of the beast found something else to despair about. "You guys are that strong? Man, I am never going to catch up to you." Icy hung her head as she retrieved her scythe before seeing all of the looks of fear on the other's faces. "Uuh, guys? Aaron thinks you are strong enough to take a beast on that is twice our size, you should be happy that he has so much faith in you."
"Aaron didn't organise this battle. I did." Texas replied with a small amount of mirth in her voice as Icy's face turned several shades whiter as she got the message. This wasn't training, it was punishment. "Now everyone get your weapons and step on to the platform!" suffice to say that almost anything Texas said right now they would do in record time.
As the platform raised up, the sheet covering the monster fell away as the chains detached themselves allowing it freedom as the humanoid stone-armoured golem rose up, with extra joints in its arms to wield it's enormous great sword more effectively as it readied for combat. The group didn't make a move as they were still suffering the effects of Texas' rage and Sips almost missed the swing the golem swung at him which he deflected with his shield but it was severely dented and his arm felt numb from the strike. Ssundee was the second to recover as he charged the Golem and swung at its right leg but the katana skittered across its armour, leaving Ssundee to roll away from the golem to avoid the strike that would've cut him in half. The others finally snapped out of it though as they charged the Golem with Jerome going for an overhead bash at the golem's back to be elbowed and the strike to slightly push it's lower back as it was deflected from the lost momentum while Simon swung his axe at its other arm missing it's weak spot but managing to cut a chink in its armour to which not many could see. Sky and Snowflake charged the Golem at its front and started working together to keep it distracted while the others try and damage it with Sky deflecting its attacks and Snowflake running around it and stabbing its weak spots. Icy, not wanting to be left out, charged its left side and jumped over the kick it sent while swinging her scythe and cutting into the back of its knee as she flew past, landed and swung to have her scythe bashed from her hands from a strike that Sky failed to deflect. Golems are easily irritated though and tried to run Sky through with a quick thrust to his abdomen to which Sky tried his experimental move, he deflected the strike by going under it and stabbed his sword into the neck of the beast before pulling out and cutting halfway through its neck in an attempt to decapitate it before Jerome swung his war hammer to crush the golem's armour into its head.
"Well that was anticlimactic." Texas announced as she lowered the platform back to the ground. "I wanted to see you get cut to shreds for all of the trouble you guys have caused me." Texas sounded disappointed as the others came back to the waiting area, a buzz of talk about Sky's attack that made quick work of the golem.
"It was originally going to be a mutant zombie killing technique to stun them then incapacitate them to make it easier to finish them off instead of getting pushed back by its roar after one attack." This got everyone thinking about how they could use their own weapons to expose an enemy's weakness.
"Well at least you are thinking of strategies to compliment your own combat styles. I underestimated your progress. Not many warriors think of how to make new aspects of a combat style, they just rely on what they are trained to do to see them through a fight." Texas then put up a roster for the one on one fights for the rest of the session. "Next battle is Ssundee vs Jerome!"
A few hours earlier
"I am going to be in here while staying away from Tex until she calms down a lot aren't I?" Aaron asked as he walked into the research station again as Duncan was testing a new device he finished designing.
"Well you wouldn't need to do this if you didn't annoy her so much." Duncan announced while looking up from his computer screen as a capsule sank into the floor. "Why did you recruit someone as brutal and angry as her anyway?"
Aaron looked intrigued as he saw the capsule sink into the floor. "I recruited her because she had very special circumstances and was already trained to face many enemies at once. The fact that she had anger problems was a calculated risk which was outweighed by the benefits of having her as warden. Now what is the new machine you have made?" Aaron walked up to the computer where Duncan was working, hoping to understand what was happening unlike last time.
"I am testing out a new device that should be able to infuse the collected rift energy into people and the rift ingots we have made to create people specialised in their vocation and equipment to complement their style of work." Duncan explained with little attention focused on Aaron to gauge the success of the prototype.
"So it is essentially a machine that gives people certain powers and links equipment to them so they can use them to the best of their abilities." Aaron summarised while looking at the screen, understanding less on the screen than he did with the rift ingot. "You also need to find a more imaginative name to call the new ingot."
"I am not in the naming department, I only build the things I don't name them or use them. Anyway, we should be able to see how the rift ingots were built into now." Duncan pointed to where the capsule sank into the floor as it slowly rose back up to the surface. "Now these should be… interesting, they are basic swords with multiple random enchantments on them, not totally expected but you can't get that precise with the first try." Duncan looked at the two swords and the readings they were giving off.
"Interesting, do you want to try with a living being now?" Aaron asked, knowing that this could speed up his plans from months or even years, to a few months at most.
"I have some calculations down, how about I give your test subject some residual rift energy with some ingots in the weapon slots to see how they react to a human in the capsule." Duncan announced, knowing that if he refused it wouldn't be good for him.
"Great, I'll tell you when to start it up." Aaron walked to the open capsule and set himself up inside as Duncan started the machine up again. "Ready." At that point the capsule lowered into a massive chamber of rift energy as Aaron was sedated while the process took effect but the machine started to absorb more rift energy than it should as it poured the energy into Aaron and the ingots as it started to follow the path that was set out by who Aaron is (unknown to Duncan who thought it was a malfunction) as the ingots to each side of Aaron started to become formless blobs as the rift energy and Aaron's individual "signature" manipulated them. Duncan could only watch because the device wouldn't let him do anything while it finished working on Aaron for the next few hours.
A/N: I finally got this out. Sorry for the very late update but I won't give any reasons because I am just a bad writer and had things come up which stopped me which wouldn't hinder a good writer. Also, I am leaving Mia's weapon up to you guys because I have watched RWBY too much to make a new weapon that won't be a rip off.