Remnants

Scatter 1-5

Grimm

Author's Note:Characters can be wrong. I need more cape names for people who died during the Endbringer attack, so if any of my readers want to give me a name to use, that would be great.

Also, I want to get some feedback on what went well in this chapter and where I could improve. In that vein, I have a new update cycle. I write the raw chapter - Beta - Review - Spacebattles Final Review - Here . Hopefully someone on spacebattles is going to yell at me so I can fix the mistakes I likely made.

Thanks to xDelta-Ha-chanx on Fanfiction for being my first beta. I think this chapter is alot better because of the work that other put into it, so huge thanks to those whom pointed out errors on Spacebattles

The attack was deceitfully simple. The blasts of energy and projectiles bounced off of the nebulae of debris and buildings as the titan glided into downtown Brockton Bay. Anyone without knowledge of it's scream would be hopeful. However, I did know. Every failed attack, every missed laser cost someone precious time in the scream zone.

Around me, the half dozen tinkers were working on some weapon or another that could help. For all the good that will accomplish. My imagination threw up an image of them as toddlers, running around and claiming to be 'halping' the fight. It didn't make me laugh.

I was standing a fair distance off and was staring down Crescent Rose's scope as I tried to track the fight. The item the Simurgh was making was still little more that an odd looking hodgepodge of parts. As I was examining the item, Legend blasted the thing with some form of dark orange beam, dark as in it was making everything around it darker.

One of Dragon's Mechsuits rumbled as it lifted off behind me and speed towards the monstrous angel. As it entered within the scream zone, a large building tore up from the ground and slammed into the undercarriage of the craft, sending it spiralling off to the side. I flicked by eyes to the item once more, trying to divine it's secrets. A sound echoed directly behind my ear.

Instinctively I jumped forward and came up in a role with Crescent Rose pointed directly pointed at the sheepish cape whom had startled me. His costume seemed to consist of a pair of jeans with a trench coat thrown on top. His face was covered by a simple mask made from some shiny lacquered material.

"Erm, sorry bout that." He didn't react in any manner when I stood up and put the sniper scythe away.

"I should apologize for pulling a gun on you." Honestly, I didn't feel that bad about it, but it was only polite. The cape laughed and waved it off.

"Let's just say we're even. The name's Hax." He offered his hand out.

"Ruby Rose, would've been a pleasure any other time." I took his hand and was surprised by how weak his grip was.

"Have any idea what she's building?" His head jerked towards the Endbringer.

"Too early for me to tell, do you have any idea?"

"Well, I can't tell what it could be, but I can narrow it down. It isn't a teleportation device, an explosive, a self replicating machine, a biological threat, a hole into another universe, an empowering device, or malicious software." I could help it, my eyes bugged out as he went down the list.

"You can tell all that from here?" I tried, really tried, not to sound incredulous.

"Nope! That just a list of all the things she's done before." Well, that was significantly less impressive. I guess it does have some value, if only marginally. Not sure how that helps the whole 'What can I possibly do' though. "You're a tinker right?" I nodded. "Good! So here's the thing, my tinker speciality, as far as I can tell, is power modifying tech. With some fairly obtuse limits."

"That seems really... broken? So what you modify your own power, get stronger then repeat to infinity?" What kind of specialization was that? That's terrifying.

"Oh, I wish it was that OP. Sadly, I can't modify my own abilities with tinkertech. What I can do, however, is 'upgrade' other tinkers." His fingers came up and made air quotes towards the end. My stomach sank in an uneasy feeling.

"Why is it an 'upgrade' and not just an upgrade?" I mimicked his previous air quotes.

"Honestly, not really sure. How would an upgraded tinker work anyway? There isn't a single aspect that a tinker archive posses that can just be incremented. Rather, what I do, and why I call it an 'upgrade', is augment your connection to that archive, allowing you to pull more information from the archive." Is this what it feels for others to talk to me?

"What's an archive?" He paused for a moment, before waving me towards a secluded area of the workbench. He grabbed a pad of sketching paper from under an odd looking item and began to sketch a human head.

"So you know how triggers work right? At least vaguely? So, I haven't been able to research into most types of powers, but what happens to Tinkers and a small percentage of Thinkers during the trigger is that a connection is formed between the Corona Pollentia, the organ in our brains that controls parahuman powers and, in this case, connects to some form of external archive of knowledge and blueprints."

"What I want to do for you, and the other tinkers, is strengthen that connection. From what I've seen, the flow of knowledge will increase. It wont help you retain that knowledge, but previous tinkers said it helps in finding the information required." The diagram on paper had exploded with details, showing an icon of a stack of books. Between the icon and the brain was a series of strips with non-English notation. On the side a box had new strips on either side of it, forming a new connection to both the brain and the icon.

"And you choose me because?"

"You looked like you weren't being productive." Well, there goes my pride. It doesn't look like his device does anything weird, so why not? What's the worst that could happen?

"Let's do it then. What do you need?" His mask didn't show his expression, but I want imagine that he's smiling.

"Just snap this band on and let me adjust it." Hax pulled out a metallic band that was thin and covered half my forearm. Connected to the piece was a series of ribbon cables connecting to a tablet of some kind. The surface lit up his mask, and the band had a set of small lights illuminate in red along the inside edge of the item.

"So, I've booted the item up. I'm beginning to attune the booster to your Corona. You might feel something weird." The lights began to shift to a yellow colour starting from the end closest to my hand. A couple of seconds passed as the lights progressed to the yellow state when I felt it. The back of my brain began to... tickle for lack of a word. It wasn't overtly unpleasant, just... [Odd]. The sensation continued as the bar of lights finished transferring to the yellow colour.

"Now, don't panic now, but the odd feeling you have now might spread. Don't worry, that's normal." Again, the lights on the hand most edge of the band began to switch to a different colour this time. However, as it progressed, the smooth grey of the band began to glow and emanate a soft blue glow in a pattern reminiscent of a circuit board from computer science class. The sensation in the back of my brain trickled down my back. It spread, filling my body in a way that was entirely alien. Then my soul began to act differently. It was subtle, the ebb and flow of my soul around my body only slightly changed. Where before my soul flowed around my body similar to my blood, now it radiated outwards. Some was lost as it extended beyond my head, but most fed back into my chest as my soul gained energy.

I kept my soul from manifesting physically, but I felt it extend beyond my touch. I touched the ground, the air and the souls around me in a manner I never knew existed. It made me think. How sad it was, how little people knew of the world around them. My feet moved across the ground to better hold the ground to me, steadying my balance in a way I didn't even know I was lacking in. Hax looked around briefly as my soul touched on his, small and lost to the world.

Soon, the wholeness ended, "Transitioning to the final stage of acclimatization." The lights on the band began to transition once more to a neon green. As they did so, the softer lights imbedded in the band grew in intensity. My soul snapped back towards my body and settled deep within. Everything was out of focus for a moment.

I was back. Everything was washed out. The once brilliant lights on the band were now dull. Hax's Lacquered mask wasn't brilliant anymore. Every sound was distant and muted. The feel of cloth on my body was hardly there. The scent of the ocean was muddied. The bar on the band was green. Hax was talking. I focused on his voice and tried to make out his words.

"-ey, you okay Ruby? I know that it can take a lot out of you when I first set this up." He snapped his figures in my face and I shook my head.

"Fine, just was out of it for a moment." My soul was behaving normally again, even if it's was significantly more [Expended] than it was before.

"If you're sure." His voice sounded off. "You can activate the booster at will now. The bar bellow the band of lights will increase the boost when you swipe left and decrease it if you swipe right. The lights will turn orange as you increase the percentage of the active boost." I swipe the indicated area and the bar of lights turn about a quarter orange.

"Thanks." I replied, but I wasn't really focusing on Hax anymore. The piece of metal around were enough to build a pair of mechashift gauntlets with shotguns integrated. I stopped myself before I could put the chassis together. [Frustration]. How would that help? I wasn't able to get close enough to use a melee weapon against the Simurgh.

What can I make? Anything really? Dust I had in a small amounts so what could I do with that? An idea came unbidden of a special projectile that could hold my soul within. Made from a dust blend and flash forged into the shape of a single projectile, it held the power of a soul within extremely well. To the point that any dust core I could theoretically place within would activate on contact and not a when I fired. I felt my hand drift towards the extremely tightly secured magazine of decay rounds.

It didn't take long to cobble together the required components for the initial stages of the dust formation process. I cheated like with Kin Win's hoverboard, and used my speed to get it done quickly. I should stop doing that, it would eat up the energy I had left far to quickly. A bowl held the shavings as I worked with one of my Stormflowers to gather the dust from it's crystal form. The blend was three parts unaligned dust to one part force dust and one part fire dust. Once I gathered the required amount of dust, I began to grind them into a fine powder. However, unlike most of my tinkering, I couldn't use my speed to move faster because ground dust was more sensitive to my soul.

I took a moment to look up from my shoddy mortar and pestle to look around. Kid Win had moved over to the remaining mechsuit and was working on it. Armsmaster was just behind him, building small items that Kid Win then took and place inside the Mechsuit. A couple of brightly coloured tinkers were working on some item or another. Hax was sitting with the cape I fought awhile ago. It wasn't surprising that they were free, considering the Endbringer attack.

The compound was a fine powder, thinner than sand was. I took another piece of metal and carefully manipulated into a mold. After another couple of tries, I gave up with the scrap metal mold. No bullet made with it would fire straight. Instead, I pulled out a single round and used the cartridge to punch out some disks of the right shape. Between the disk and the cylindrical walls I joined with it, I put a base layer of the new dust compound. Into that layer, I carefully placed a shard of decay dust. I filled the rest of the case with the specialized compound.

I took those steps and repeated it for the rest of the disks until I ran out of the powdered compound. With the four pairs of cylinders I set those aside to work on the forge. It was a newer design that the one I build inside my workshop, with four dust compartments and a reaction chamber to allow for the most complex dust reactions to fuel the heating elements. It was difficult to get strong enough pieces to withstand the heat of the reaction, but some Tungsten and Rhenium alloys seemed to be rather dense, so I used them.

With the new reaction chamber I set it up with a mix of fire and gust dust crystals with a generous amount of powdered shock and force dust powder. I was particularly careful to have the enclosure seal fully and have the grid safely locked in to hold the canisters of dust to flash forge their contents. Hopefully the flash forging will complete before the less dense cylinder melted off.

I carefully placed the eight molds into the holders and completely sealed the main reaction chamber. The dust in the bottom of the chamber was hard to activate but similar to delaying the activation of a dust grenade, I primed the dust and set the sealed chamber to the side of the table and waited for the reaction to occur.

"Woof" The chamber held, if barely. The sound of an explosion was unmistakeable as the surface of the chamber began smoking. Well, that was unfortunate. At least the chamber held in the dust during the reaction. So, I carefully used one of my Stormflowers to pry open the main chamber door and the blade slid through the material without any resistance.

Anxiety clawed at my chest as I carefully cut open the superheated metal. Even a dust enhanced blade should normally have trouble parting a Tungsten chassis, and this one was more durable that those. When I managed to cut out the side of the reaction chamber, it burst back and nearly took my head off. I remembered to breathe as the superheated gas, wait no, that's plasma. Shit.

Which ever God that watches must have taken mercy, because the plasma decayed before it could to any serious damage to the tinkers. The table, and most of the materials on this half of it were ruined, but hey, no one got hurt! Several people were staring at me, but I had to get the new dust crystals out of the furnace. They turned out okay, if a little misshapen. I was planning on hand carving the bullet's though, so it should be fine.

"What happened?" Hm? Oh hey, it's Kid Win! I wonder if he finished the hover board. It would have been so cool if I had a chance to integrate the ability to transition into a pair of pistols into it. Actually, thinking back to the modifications, I think I could have used this new blend to grant the board the ability hold dust charge and release it as a single blast. Hm, something to think about. Oh he's looking at me still!

"Just flash smelting some crystals." He peered over my shoulder at the cylinder I was carving out with one of the Stormflowers. Actually, that reminded me. I took out some of the empty shells and poured the required amount of sniper grade blasting dust into the proper component, snapping the casing back together.

"And the plasma?" His voice was soft.

"The reaction didn't disperse properly." I answered automatically, carving the bullet to match my standards for my baby. Kid Win stared at me for a while, causing a light unease settle in my bones. He sighed explosively and sat down across from me. The other tinkers around continued to work on their individual projects.

"So what are your working on?" I grabbed one of the cylinders and tossed it to him.

"A composite crystal that better handles the energy given to it." The bullet's shape is almost right, just a couple more silvers, and I'm done. The bullet fit snugly into it's casing, which I put away in my right pouch.

"Why are you using them in bullets? A medium for electric weaponry?" He was fingering the cylinder I passed him, staring at it.

"That's one possibility I guess, but these are designed to deliver a payload and remotely catalyse it." I watched him out of the corner of my eye while carving the next bullet. His back was slumped and he was fidgety.

"Huh, that neat. Can you change it up and use these same rounds for a thermal or electrical payload? I mean, after you finish them." Kid Win yawned, bringing his left hand up to cover his 'mouth'.

"Unlikely, they have the payload inside already." I grabbed a cloth and wiped the shaving stuck on the Stormflower into the bowl the rest of the shavings had fallen into. I wonder, did Kid Win want some of these scraps? He's a hero, and a tinker, so he could probably cook something neat with them. I'll have to ask later.

"How did you manage that? I don't see any way for a payload to be added to them." Kid Win gave the crystal one last look and tossed it back to me. I caught the cylindrical dust crystal, carefully placing it with the others. He was look right at me now.

"The payload was bonded directly into the crystal." I placed the second bullet away and moved on to the third.

"Wouldn't that risk having the reaction go off immediately?" His head was tilted towards the right.

"Oh, no. The reaction needs an input energy to go begin. How's the board?" Kid Win perked up, did I react like that when talking about Crescent Rose?, and pulled out the board from off his back. Huh, must be something similar to the clip I have for Crescent Rose. [Incomplete]. Actually, maybe we could work on improving it later. It'd be fun!

"It works pretty great actually! It's much more responsive that before." Heat rose to my checks as he continued on, gushing about the new features I added. "The energy consumption is so streamlined. Propulsion now has meaningful horizontal speeds."

"I'm glad you like it." I give him a smile, despite my scarf preventing him from seeing it. Another completed bullet and I slotted the three decay payloads with a single brute 12 round into a magazine.

"Well, is there anything I can do to help with your current project? You kinda helped me out and I would feel bad if I didn't at least try to return the favour." My hands moved fluidly, carving the bullet as I considered what Kid Win said. My Stormflowers could be upgraded to have a faster firing rate, with bigger magazines, if I redesigned the firing chamber to use dust primers with the new compound. Crescent Rose was fine, not much room to improve it now. All the internal components were interdependent, and impossible replace them without a complete redesign, one that was much more intensive that what I had planed to do in the next decade at least. Most of the external components weren't that important. The scope was more there for aesthetics anyway. Actually, that might need work, if I wanted any chance to hit the Simurgh.

"Are you able to get me a better scope? Either make one yourself or get one from somewhere else." Hm, strange that I hadn't considered making one until now. The lenses needed some work but if I was careful and used dust to power it, then I could program some tracking software into it. But that needed a dust matrix to hold the program data. Which in turn required a micro forge. I don't have a micro forge, yet.

"Yeah, that's fairly easy. What size does it need to be?" I pull my baby off my back and bring it forward in it's sniper form. I carefully set another Decay payload inside it's casing.

"Catch," I tossed the current scope I was using. Kid Win fumbled a bit, but managed to catch it without to much hassle.

"Okay, I'll be right back." I don't look up as he left. I had to finish these rounds before the scope was done so that I could actually use them for something meaningful. It took another couple of minutes, but I now had two and a half clips of decay payload rounds. Kid Win was over by another bench, carefully placing lenses in a tube I assume is the scope he was working on.

The villain that Hax had been kitting out was working on some spherical item, with Leet right beside her. Huh, when did Leet get here? My eyes made out Armsmaster working with some tinker with huge power armour on the remaining dragon mechsuit. The Simurgh was still hovering over the city, with it's device looking much more complicated that it was before.

Kid Win was walking back towards me, with the scope in hand. He tossed it and I caught it gently. The mounting held is fine, which was good. The outside of the items was slick, with only a single knob on it's side. I peaked through the scope and turned the knob. It was pretty impressive, the sheer distance the scope covered. I'll admit it, this is much better than anything I could have made. [Indignation].

"Nice. Thanks a bunch." I looked over at him and offered my hand.

"You're welcome. Was a pleasure working on it." He shook my hand, then turned to watch the Simurgh beside me. "Any idea what she's doing?" I snap Crescent Rose up to my shoulder so that I could stare down the scope. It took a moment to refocus the thing in my sights. The surface was a patchwork of rust and dull ship hulls patched together with messy welds. I didn't see any of the internal pieces this time around which sucked.

"Not really." The silence lingered for a couple moments as I surveyed the bay. Most of the boat graveyard was torn up, several good sized pieces rising to join the nimbus of part that surrounded the Endbringer. When I turned my attention back to the Simurgh, her entire figure was hidden behind a piece of a run down building.

I sighed as I brought down my baby. I just couldn't get a good shot here. I made to move when the device fired. I felt the shock wave as I was lifted bodily from my place and sent tumbling. I wasn't the only one, but people in heavier armour stayed upright, including Kid Win. I got my feet under me and stood up.

"Glory Girl Down, Night Down, Falcon Down, Grue Down, Crow Down, Anagram Down." The Simurgh wasn't leaving. That was a problem. Thankfully, no one died, but that only meant that this weapon wasn't meant to kill capes. Dread swiftly replace whatever hope I had. The Simurgh wouldn't make a weapon and not kill someone. Not unless that was intentional.

"New Contact Detected." My band was blinking, so I brought it up and saw a new red dot on the map interface. "Temporary Contact ID: Alpha."

The map of Brockton Bay showed Alpha moving towards the edge of the contact zone at startling speeds. I tried to correlate the map to my position, but despite my best efforts, I couldn't get a clear visual. Kid Win had brought out his pistol and was snapping some sort of extended barrel onto the weapon.

"Caution: Alpha creates clones of Parahumans with powers." Well shit. This was going to hell. I loaded up one of my full decay payload magazines and chambered a round. The old one was thrown into my hip pouch. Kid Win was still adding pieces to his pistol, though it was more of a rifle now, so I returned my attention to the map on my wrist.

The red dot moved outwards, clear west of the city. The map updated to show a toppled building in it's path and Alpha turned. It's new path was travelling much closer towards the tinkering area, so I would soon have a shot. I returned my attention to the Simurgh. One of the pieces of it's nimbus was launched out into the city and landed somewhere. Why would it...

Oh, no. Please let me be wrong.

A cloning cape, created or controlled by the Simurgh was headed out of the town. Pieces of buildings 'randomly' falling down to herd it. The Simurgh's nimbus coming apart. One of the most important capes in the world. Lack of parahumans guarding the medical centre. I don't want to be right.

Another crash, and Alpha was redirected. It's moving closer towards the medical centre. With one of the highest concentrations of capes, all of them injured to some degree. What do I do? What if I'm wrong? What was worse, telling people if I was wrong or staying silent if I was right? Surely I wasn't the only one to notice? Panacea could die. If she died, then cape turn outs to these fights would lower dramatically. How many capes will die in the medical tent? All of them.

"Simurgh is herding Alpha to the medical tent." Kid Win spun and stared at me in what could only be horror. I pressed down both buttons on the bracelet and repeated the message. I used my off hand to swipe the booster strip to deactivate the device on my arm. I feel that tingling again as the orange lights turned off.

"Caution: Alpha converging on the Medical Tent. Stormtiger down, Menja deceased, Shielder down."

Stormflowers were loaded with brute 6 rounds. The blades were cleaned of the shavings. I had all my dust crystals for use. My soul was still fairly weak, but it will have to do. The bracer was still attached to my arm and I didn't want to risk forcing it off.

"Caution: Alpha is capable of regenerations on Endbringer scale." Well, I guess it's a good thing I have decay dust. I turned to Kid Win after I finished arming myself and found him slotting together several pieces of a much bigger rifle together. He finished the assembly soon afterwards.

"Want to come and help guard the healers?" I asked.

"Someone has to." Kid Win moved to deploy his hoverboard. Instead, I scooped him up bridal style and used my speed to jump and land right beside the medical tent. He made some sort of cross between a curse and a yelp.

"You okay?" My eyes flicked down towards the bay. Several capes were positioning between the medical tent and the largest road between here and the city.

"Y-yeah. Just give me a moment." His hands were on his knees and he sounded like he was hyperventilating.

"Was it that bad?" I mean, Panacea didn't like it, but I kinda thought it was just the speed that bothered her. Surely Kid Win was better adjusted to moving quickly.

"Just got me, by surprise." The map on the wristband showed Alpha nearing our current rally point. I went down on one knee to help brace Crescent Rose as I surveyed the roads. In the corner of my eye, I saw Alexandria and Legend speeding towards the medical tent. As I regarded them, I saw Legend fire a quartet of blue lasers down to my right.

"Vasher Deceased, Vindication Deceased, Cascade Deceased."

The creature that burst through the office building's upper floor was met with a barrage of lasers, and bullets. It's lower body looked like a demented lion with bone plates covering it from it's front to the back. The face was terribly similar to a human skull, with the rest of the bones being layered over the body of the grimm creature. Attached at the top of it's skull was the torso of a normal girl.

The bottom mouth roared and the thing charged through the attacks, guarded by some sort of field. Breathe in, follow the target. Breathe out, flood the payload with my soul. Breathe in, stay on target. Breathe out, fire. The bullet rocketed out of my baby, sending me flying onto my back. Moments before my bullet collides with Alpha, someone's projectile broke the barrier on her.

I was flipping back onto my feet as I observed the effect of by new bullet on the creature. Its bone plates were chipping away into a black smoke, only for it to regrow back in seconds. I chambered a new round and moved my aim to her human torso. When Alpha paused for a moment, I fired. The bullet slammed into her breast bone, and I felt my feet slide several feet back.

I chambered another round when the bottom, more grimm half of Alpha vomited. The grey goop spread out, revealing several human shapes inside the mess. Two people jumped up from the vomit, one jumping directly forward the other jumping back, behind Alpha. The other just disappeared an instant. Her human parts screamed, while parts of her chest rotted away in accelerated time. Still, the regeneration only struggled for a moment before it worked around the decaying flesh.

A cape with a rapier jumped in front of the forward running clone, her darkness infused blade cutting clean through him. The clone was replaced with a large brick, then he appeared right behind the sword user. He continued his run forward, only for another cape to try to end him. He looked like some sort of teleporter, but the others should be able to handle him.

The bulk of the capes focused on ending Alpha, but none of their attack were impacting the monster. A chill ran down my spine as I watched the projectiles curve away from her and the other clone. I won't be able to risk using my decay rounds. Two clicks and the magazine was released and I loaded the strongest brute rounds I had.

Alpha vomited again, then she became a truck? What? I chambered the new rounds, storing the decay payload away. A scream from my right startled me. Making sure to stay out of the others lines of fire, I saw a dozen or so clones decimating our capes.

"Parian Deceased, Fog Down, Myrrdin Down, Gregor Deceased, Falcon Deceased,"

The clones appeared, strike down a cape or two then disappear. I tried to track them, but they move so irregularly that it was messing with me. Did Alpha get a copy of that teleporter? Trickery, I think his name was. To many people were between me and the conflict area. I moved around the edge of the medical tent. A flash, and I sped myself to the right. The beam was hard to make out, but one of the clones must have lasers.

"Gully Down, Metis Deceased, Adrastus Down, Bitch Deceased, Titan down"

Rolling up to my feet, I fired a shot directly towards where the laser came from. My arms glowed a bright red as the damage I should have taken from the recoil didn't happen. I kept moving, no matter the damage dealt to the capes here, the clones weren't that important. Alpha needed to be taken down.

"Kel Deceased, Micheal Deceased, Cascade Deceased."

I got to the other side of the tent, but no one was there. The bracelet didn't reveal where the grimm went. I turned around, only to see something's claws slashing down at me. It's chest burst apart. My hands were shaking when I chambered the next round. I moved back towards the fabric of the tent and tried to get a line of sight on the clones.

Where was it? My eyes darted around, but I couldn't get any visual indication of the [Grimm]'s location. Another flash of red, and the ground right were I was standing a moment ago was burnt. Huh, when did I move? I tried to focus but that damnable itch at the back of my head wasn't helping. I heard it, this time. Unlike before, the air was displaced when the grimm appeared.

I used up more of my soul that was wise, but my speed carried me to safety. As I span around, I got my first good look at the clones. The looked human, if you were blind. Hair black and coarse as fur, teeth sharpened into points, elongated arms, and bone splinters shooting through their body. The soulless husk tried run me through on some form of glowing spear, but I was already out of range of that.

Crescent Rose released into her full glory as I cleaved the creature in twain. It's body began dissolving into smoke as I triggering my baby's compression mechanism. The grimm must have thought that I was weak because I was sniping. That doesn't make sense though, snipers have higher calibres then most weapons.

Someone insider the tent screamed. I was inside faster than I could blink. The fabric was easy to tear through. Alpha had just torn through a bed and was bearing down on Panacea. Speed grabbed me as I twisted in front of the grimm. Crescent Rose was back in her full glory, and the scythe cut the monster's human body from it's bone plated pieces. Once again, I shifted her back into her sniper form to gain speed on my turn.

The creature sliced at me, and I wasn't moving fast enough. I cringed as the claw landed on my eyes, unable to pierce through my soul's protective barrier. Crescent Rose was only centimetres from having a clear shot when my soul broke. The energy that had been protecting me was expended. Pain seared across my face as I lost sight. I couldn't see anything. Everything was black. Despite the pain, I fired. Pain flared up my arm as it was thrown backwards. I was only barely able to reattach my weapon to my back before I collapsed on the ground.

"Kid Win Down, Chubster Down, Clockwerk Down, Manpower Deceased, Ruby Rose Down."

Several shouts sounded around me, but the only thing I felt was a warm thing surrounding me. Then even that feeling was gone. I felt nothing. No sound, no smells, not even pain followed me. I was alone. Everything else was so distant. Fear clawed at me as everything I knew was cut off. Let me out! Let be OUT! LET ME OUT!

Darkness.

I was alone. Nothing was there. I was alone. The ground had died. I was alone. The air was dead. I was alone. I was dead. Alone. Nothing existed. Alone. My body was gone. Alone. Everything was black. Alone. Floating. Alone. Void. Alone. Death. Alone. Giants on Planet. Alone. Dead Planet. Alone. Giants Leaving. Alone. Dead Giant. Alone. Shattering.Alone. [Anxiety] Alone. [Transfer: Energy: Soul|Life|Unknown] Alone.[Relief] Alone. [Query] Alone.[Comprehension] Alone. [Communication] Alone [Companionship] Alone[Negation] Alone.

[Not Alone.]