Alright new chapter. You know I've killed characters that I've liked before. I did like Joseph more than Blaise for a while, but then I killed him. Anyway, this is the last chapter of the Wraith arc.
Enjoy
"What do you mean, I'm dead?" Blaise asked the younger version of himself with one hand pressed over his heart since it still hurt, but not as much as it did when he woke up.
"Your guess is as good as mine, see," he flicked his hand then a chair appeared under him as he sat down, "I'm just your subconscious. I'm not some omniscient spiritual body, I'm just you."
"So all this is?" Blaise asked motioning all around him.
"Well Blaise, before you die I believe that your brain goes basically into overdrive in an attempt to save itself, so kinda like with Eva where she can process information faster making her see time slow down, but for you, right now, you feel as if you're going at the normal speed while your body dies with the brain last, and that's why your chest isn't hurting as bad as when you woke up," younger Blaise explained as a photo album appeared in his hands, then he opened it. "So do you want to see your life flash before your eyes before you're officially dead?"
"I guess," Blaise said then the other Blaise opened the photo album and turned it to him and the pages turned into a screen.
"So is anyone going to at least try to catch the falling person this time?" Blaise asked laying on the ground groaning in pain.
"Wait, this is during initiation. What about my life before coming to Beacon?" Blaise asked the younger version of himself.
"What? I'm you, I don't have any memories before Beacon either," younger Blaise replied looking at the screen.
"Well then, this is going to be a short video."
"Good, so then you'll finish it by the time you're dead."
"You're a jackass."
"Well, I'm you."
"Blaise…" Eva said sobbing next to his body.
"Eva please, you have to do it," Orlando said staying a couple steps away from Blaise.
"No!" she shouted, "I can't pull the swords out! You do it!"
"No," Orlando said taking a step back, "If I were to even touch those blades there's no way I can help bring Blaise back."
"What the hell do you mean?!" she lashed out at Orlando glaring at him with her puffy red eyes.
"The cutlasses are normally aura piercing, except for when Blaise is wielding it, right? When he uses it it cancels the other person's aura. If I were to even tap those blades it would instantly cancel his aura getting rid of any hope for reviving him," he explained.
"How?" she asked then the doors burst open with Zaria and Lapis running through the door.
"What happened?" Zaria asked then saw Blaise. "No," she gasped then ran over to Blaise's side.
"What happened?" Lapis repeated Eva's question as he ran over to Blaise.
"The wraith disarmed him then stabbed him through the chest," Orlando explained leaning back from the body.
"How?" Eva asked him with her tone turning into anger.
"My name is Orlando Cooper, but that isn't true. My real name is Lucius Campione," he sighed as the others realized what that meant, "Blaise is my little brother, and if I were to try and pull the swords out I would be killing him permanently. Now someone pull the swords out before his aura gets depleted trying to heal him."
"He's your brother?" Zaria asked staring at him.
"Help Blaise! Please, help me save my brother," he pleaded then Lapis stood over Blaise and grabbed the cutlasses by the handle and pulled hard. Then the door handle from behind them started to rattle.
"The last wraith," Eva said reaching to her side for her spear then realized it wasn't hanging on her belt.
"Hurry," Lucius said ready to rush to Blaise's side as soon as the swords were removed. His blue aura flared around his hands creating a small blue cyclone around each with electricity spark around the edges.
"The blades won't move," Lapis replied then let out a long grunt as he activated his aura and pulled the swords straight out of the wound.
Not waiting for a moment, as soon as the blades exited his brother's chest he lunged forward throwing Lapis off of Blaise. Punching both fists to the wounds on Blaise's chest the aura cyclone expanded over Blaise's still swirling around Lucius' hands. The door started to creak open making Lapis grab his battle axe preparing to fight.
"Come ON!" Lucis shouted as the blue cyclones enveloped his arms increasing in speed.
"Wake UP!" Eva shouted as she jumped off her bed landing on Blaise's ribs fully waking him up.
Both Blaises winced and rubbed their sides as they saw what happened on the screen.
Blaise moved his hand back over his heart and rubbed it realising his chest wasn't hurting as much as it was before.
"Hey, this isn't as painful as it was before," Blaise told the younger him and he just shrugged.
"Either means your brain is now not feeling pain and is one step closer to death or…" he was explaining getting quieter and quieter until Blaise couldn't hear him.
"What?!" Blaise shouted then fell backwards.
"HOLY, AHHHHHH!" Blaise shouted with a jerk upward as his eyes turned from white and red to black and red while shouting in pain.
"Blaise!" Lucius exclaimed as he picked up Blaise and pulled him into a hug immobilizing his arms.
Blaise continued to shout until he ran out of breath and his face turned red. Heavily breathing Blaise looked at the scene in front of him. Lapis holding his battle axe while facing the door, both Zaria and Eva both kneeling on the ground next to a pool of blood with red eyes and tears falling down their face, and Lucius holding him still in a hug.
"Orlando, let go," Blaise said wheezing. Lucius let go of him and Blaise stumbled for a moment so Lucius held him up by his shoulder. "What… just happened?"
"Long story short, you died and I brought you back," Lucius said as the door opened further.
"Either we stay and fight the wraith, or we grab Blaise and go," Lapis said with his grip tightening on the shaft of the battle axe.
"That wraith is mine," Blaise said then tried to take a step forward but nearly tripped just in time for Eva and Zaria to catch him.
"Don't worry about it Blaise," Lucius said picking up the two bloody cutlasses and inspected them. "It's been a while since I've used these last, but I think I can manage." Blaise's eyes grew wide as he heard this. "You replaced the pistol barrels with a railgun on each side of the swords, what is it with you three and railguns. Railgun pistols, railgun machine guns, railgun shotguns, and now a railgun sword." He whipped the swords downward to get the blood to fly off the blade. "It seems as though the balance didn't change at all."
"Lucius?" Blaise asked then coughed up some blood shocking the two girls then Blaise waved them off.
"You guessed it," Lucius smiled as the door fully opened and the wraith entered stumbling in the room. "Now, time to get to business." He jumped past Lapis both blades preparing to swing. Stopping right in front of the wraith Lucis stared it in the eyes. "Nobody harms my family." He fired off two railgun shots and used the recoil to diagonally cut through the wraith's chest and decapitate the grimm. "Now," he turned around to face the teenagers, "Is the time to rest."
"So," Blaise said sitting across the table looking at Lucius in the small room while scratching at the bandages over his heart.
"So," Lucius replied leaning back into the chair, "I guess you want to know how I survived."
"Among others."
"Well, my semblance is very limited. It is a healing factor, only under certain situations. When the person is dead from mortal wounds, but still has an aura so that's why you're still here," Lucius explained then pulled on his shirt collar enough to show two large circular scars. "When that guy took my swords and fired off a round in my chest, I was dead, my heart was actually blown to bits, then my semblance kicked in doing major repairs to my body and when the wounds closed up it stopped healing making me have to go to the hospital and seek medical attention, then I met Marilyn and the rest is history."
"Another thing, I'm going to be an uncle?" Blaise asked relaxing back in his chair after he relieved that itch.
"Yeah, two girls, we're thinking of Clara and Sonia for names."
"Seems nice," Blaise smiled.
"So are you going to bring me in?" Lucius asked leaning forward facing the table top. The next few moments of silence seemed to be the longest five seconds of his life.
"No," Blaise replied breaking the silence making Lucius' head shoot up in surprise.
"What? Why? Even after all I did to you?" he asked making Blaise raise an eyebrow.
"What did you do to me?"
"When we were younger, I was sort of the crazy scientist of the four of us, and after we figured out what the machine could do I kind of… experimented on you and Lucia," Lucius explained scratching the back of his neck.
"What kind of experiments?" Blaise asked leaning in to glare at Lucius.
"You didn't catch on earlier? My hair is brown and I have blue eyes, Sedric has brown hair and blue eyes, and yet you have raven black hair and red eyes that turn black and red," Lucius said pulling out an old picture from his wallet and tossed it at Blaise as he remembered what Sedric said before.
"The machine."
"Yes, I kind of obsessed over it years ago."
"I blew it up," Blaise said then Lucius chuckled.
"Good riddance, that thing tore our family apart. The reason why you could barely kill the wraiths wasn't because you couldn't, but because you didn't want to. I'm really sorry Blaise but," he let out a heavy sigh, "You're basically part grimm. Not to the point to where you are one, but to the point where you have their advantages and they obey you. Both you and Lucia are part grimm. Now, the wraiths were failed experiments where there was more of a grimm side in the experiment and they went crazy, but the experiments were only small in number, roughly five or six in number. Hopefully they made the grimm experiments infertile so they couldn't reproduce, now that would be a nightmare. I had hoped that the White Fang experiment would've been disbanded after I had 'died,' but then I heard rumors that a new grimm had been spotted, and rumors of some WF alternative to help out a scientist at several research facilities. Now let me guess, Sedric?"
"Yep, I think he's adamant to follow the plan."
"Which one? There's like five different ones and before I 'died' it always changed every time I met him."
"Well I don't know either, amnesia remember?"
"If I knew the plan I'd tell you. If you didn't notice I've been trying to change my life for the better."
"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm not going to turn you into the authorities," Blaise said making Lucius look him in the eyes. "You have a nice wife, and kids on the way. I'm not going to be the person to doom your family to live without a father."
"Blaise I-"
"Just as long as I get to see my nieces in the future," Blaise interjected with a smile on his face.
"I think that can work," Lucius smiled.
"Also I'm going to go and try to find Lucia and Sedric to hopefully make them join the right side of the law, and when I bring them to Beacon I want you to be there to talk with them," Blaise said making Lucius stop smiling.
"I don't think that's a wise Idea."
"We need to try, you of all people should know that what they're doing is just going to kill them."
"I don't know, I'll think about it," Lucius told him as blaise stood up.
"Good, I don't want to control you, I just want you to think, maybe you'll find the solution your own way," Blaise said leaving Lucius alone in the room.
"So now what?" Zaria asked as Blaise walked in the room where the rest of BLZE was,
"I guess we go and find the wraith nest and blow it up with the Revenant Wing's cannons," Lapis said stretching his shoulders.
"No need, the nest came here," Blaise said sitting down then picked up his blood stained dress shirt to look at it. "I guess there goes 21 lien. Good thing I wasn't wearing my jacket, blood is so hard to get out of that thing."
"How did it go with your brother?" Eva asked packing up her things.
"It was ok," Blaise replied throwing the shirt into a nearby trashcan then threw his bloodstained undershirt after it.
"Did you find anything about your past, like where your sister is?"
"No," Blaise replied flinching at the mention of Lucia, "but on the bright side, I'm going to be an uncle." After he grabbed one of the spare shirts Linus gave him he put it on over the bandages then pulled on his jacket. "I don't know about you guys, but I just want to go back to Beacon and relax."
"I second that," Lapis said, "but shouldn't we leave in the morning?"
"No," Blaise replied putting his cutlass sheaths on his belt then the swords in said sheaths, "I really don't want to miss Port's class tomorrow." Silence filled the room as the three members started at Blaise for what he just said. "What? He might have some of the new students fight grimm." Silence. "Fine, I want to fight grimm."
"Well," a voice said from the doorway making everyone jump and look over to see Linus and several other scientists there, "if you're going to leave you might as well take these." Linus gestured at four gravity boots some of the scientists were holding. "We figured you could help us test out these newer gravity boots which were designed to be more durable and could be used during combat."
"I guess," Eva said as she walked over to the boots and grabbed them then threw each to a member of team BLZE.
"These can be turned with a snap of a finger, and have a certain gravity direction lock in with two snaps. And if you can't snap you could do it manually," Linus explained with the scientists behind him looking smug.
"Well, is that all because it is a couple hour flight back?" Blaise asked. "Unless of course we take the fast jet."
"That should be al-"
"Actually," Lucius interjected coming closer to the room, "we could also have them test the new dust rounds we're working on."
"That would be a good idea," Linus said resting his hand on his chin, "Orlando, call the research facility and have them bring several cases of the gravity dust rounds to the airfield and loaded onto the Hawk jet."
"Gravity rounds?" Zaria asked as Linus started to walk down the hallway motioning for BLZE to follow.
"They are designed to change a target's gravity direction on impact. If you were to hit the target on the chest they would fly backwards about 50-60 feet, or if you were to hit them from the bottom they would fly up. We have had excellent tests on these rounds, but they have had no actual combat use," Lucius explained as he sent a message on his scroll to the facility, "And that is why we are sending them with you. Another thing about them is that they still do bullet damage so it'll intimidate the opponent into thinking that your gun is powerful."
"So to put it simply, we're your test subjects," Blaise joked as he slapped Lucius on the back.
Did you really think I would kill off Blaise? He's one of the main characters. Anyway, the Wraith arc is over. The next chapter is going to take place during 'A Minor Hiccup.'
Well, I don't know... News, I turned 17 over the weekend. Nothing else actually happened.
You guys could still hep me with figuring out Blaise's semblance since I still have no idea what to make it, or we could have a Q&A.
Well whatever, I'm tired,
-J. Van A