Walenehol Acden
Gul'kafh an'shel... Al'ksh syq iir awan? Lilth sythn aqev... Aqev... Aqev...
"The taste will be sweet when you get what you've earned and I'll watch you burn." - Divide
If there was one holiday that team RWBY could all agree that they enjoyed, then that holiday was the night of Halloween.
While it meant much different things for each person present, it meant a night of merriment for most of them in the end either way. It was for this reason that three of them were running around their dorm, hastily attempting to throw on their costumes.
"C'mon guys! We're gonna be late for the dance!" Yang cried in mild distress as she strapped different pieces of an elaborate angel costume to herself, nearly slapping her younger sister, who was passing by, across the face with fake wings as the blonde attempted to throw them on like a strange backpack.
"Well maybe if Weiss hadn't taken a hundred years to do her hair I wouldn't have to hurry so much!" Ruby, who had donned a rock star getup along with a guitar that she had borrowed from one of the other students as her costume, cried, continuing to dodge her sisters deceptively fragile looking angel wings of death.
"Hey it's not my fault! If Yang had just paid attention to where she was aiming her stupid spray on glitter, I wouldn't have Had to redo my hair!" Weiss retorted, staring into a hand mirror, fixing a loose hair strand or two that moved out of place. If only she had asked Phyrra for a place to change into her vampire costume in peace.
However, amongst the bustling chaos that was currently the RWBY dorm, there sat one person idle, her eyes glued to a random book that she had procured from the library earlier in the day, along with 5 others that were currently sitting at the foot of her bed. Their mission was to occupy the girl for the night while the Halloween dance kept those she would normally spend the night with busy.
Only one person noticed this at first, and only because she had noticed her out of the corner of her eye as she flailed around in her latest attempt to get her wings attached properly, eventually succeeding after almost knocking down a lamp and nearly smacking Ruby over the head once again.
"C'mon Blake, aren't you gonna get into your costume? The dance starts in like 10 minutes!" Yang exclaimed with a smile, picking up Blake's designated costume, a necromancer, still wrapped in the airtight placid bag that team RWBY had purchased it in a few days beforehand.
"No."
Ruby was the first to object, "But we-..."
"I said No..." Blake seethed.
"Blake, come on, you've gotta at least-..." Yang cut herself off and quickly ducked as Blake suddenly tossed her book recklessly towards them, and though it missed the first two girls, it instead found it's mark only a few inches from where Weiss was pampering herself, causing the young heiress to shriek in surprise, jumping out of her seat.
Yang sensed that getting Blake into her costume would be a less than simple feat.
However, out of concern for her friend she pushed on, opting to rip the emotional bandage off now to save the dancing they always did around the subject, knowing that it would be brought up either way in the end.
"Blake it's been a year since Sun... Left... You've got to-..."
"I'm not going. That's final." Blake interrupted, ripping a new book from the small stack that she had gathered, purposely holding it directly in front of her face to show Yang her desire to be left alone.
The blonde member of team RWBY quickly caught on, as signaled by her tossing the robe to the bed like an old rag and glaring up at her friend, who had yet to withdraw the text from her face.
"You know what...Fine." Yang huffed in irritation, grabbing the arms of both her younger sister and Weiss, before beginning her forced march out of the room, turning around for but a moment only to say, "Your costume is on my bed if you change your mind and decide to come and have fun with your friends... You know, the ones that are still here."
With that a loud slam could be heard. Blake dipped her book carefully down her face to find everyone except for her had vacated the room with surprising efficiency.
She was alone.
Blake gazed down at the robe from her perch and sighed sadly. She didn't want to go to this party. She didn't, she really didn't.
But her friends were there, all of them most likely wondering if she would be okay on her own for the night while they all had a great time.
And that was fine with her, she thought as she pulled her attention back to her book, ignoring the icy chill that shot through her heart.
It was just fine.
At least... That was what she wanted to believe...
"She better get over her little storm cloud of a mood pretty soon, because I'm getting pretty frickin' tired of having having to walk on eggshells with her!" Yang yelled as she stormed down the paths of Beacon, with her younger sister and Weiss close in tow.
"You're right, but we should be a little more understanding. Sun was important to her after all." Ruby reasoned, earning a small sigh from her elder sister as the three of them stopped at a crossroad.
"I know Ruby... I just wish we could do something to help her." Yang explained.
Just as the brawler was about to continue on towards the dance she faltered as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Standing around about 15 feet away from them was a hooded figure dressed in a black robe, his face obscured from the three of them, a light blue mist flowing from between his lips.
"Man, he spent some time on that costume huh." Weiss commented, her eyes widening when her blonde teammate brushed past her, smacking her with her angel wings of death in the process, all while waving towards the hooded man.
"Hellooo!" Yang called out waving her arms in the air to grab the attention of the hooded man, who glanced up at the three, his piercing gaze stopping the girls in their tracks for a moment before Yang's confidence returned. "Nice costume! Where'd you get that?"
"Oh.. Uh... I made it." The hooded figure fumbled with his words, surprised at the sudden conversation he was thrust into.
Yang was not concerned with his awkward answer however. His voice unsettled her. Something seemed to be unnatural about it. She quickly hid this behind another one of her signature smiles. "Hey are you aright? Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed or something? Your voice is... Strange."
"No, just a bit ill. It's getting a little better though."
"Oh, well good! So do you attend Beacon or are you visiting?" Ruby asked, finally gaining the courage to speak to the hooded man.
"Erm... Yes, I guess you could say I'm visiting." The figure lied.
Judging by looks alone, these people were no younger than him so it would be an easy disguise to pull off. Besides, if he were to go along with them, he could quickly gain information on this new location, and perhaps even find a way to leave without causing too much of a scene.
Putting on his best clueless act, the figure glanced around chuckled. "Sorry... Guess I just got a little lost."
"Aha, that's not a problem! We'll get you to the dance!" Yang exclaimed as she threw her arm around the figures shoulders, nearly smacking him in the face with on of her angel wings. Her arm withdrew a moment afterwards upon noticing something in the distance. Team JNPR. "Look! Looklooklook! It's the others! Come on!"
Without another word Yang sped off, leaving the other three in the dust. Weiss quickly followed, disinterested in the hooded figure. Only Ruby lingered behind for a moment to mutter a small apology before speeding off to join her friends.
"Well the locals are... Colorful to say the least." The figure chuckled. "Hopefully Varimas will have my location soon. Maybe then I can-.."
"So were you able to learn any more information?" A voice a few meters behind the man alerted him to the presence of two individuals strolling his way. Thinking quickly the hooded man leapt for a nearby tree, veiling himself behind its bark before peeking out from behind his impromptu hiding spot in curiosity.
Standing there were two individuals. The first was a rather tall bi-spectacled man, his silver hair nearly shimmering in the dim moonlight as he sipped from a large ceramic mug. The other was a neatly dressed woman also donning glasses, her light blonde hair done up in a proper bun with a large tablet device in one arm with a riding crop in the other.
"Unfortunately not. With her voice the way it is she's had trouble forming more than a word or two at a time." The woman replied, the exasperation in her tone clear, "It takes around a day or so to get a full sentence out of her."
"Keep pushing, it's imperative that we extract any information we possibly can from her before she expires. The more the better." The man said, his tone emotionless.
The figure hidden behind the tree grimaced at the man's words. Seems the locals weren't as friendly and inviting as he had originally anticipated. His mind quickly wandered as to the prospects of who this prisoner of theirs was. Judging by the tone they held she wasn't someone they held in high regard.
"It's been a year. Don't you think she's given up all she knows by now?" The woman asked, her voice bringing the hooded figure's attention back to the conversation between her and the grey haired man.
"No. No, there's something else. I can feel it." The grey haired man responded, his free hand idly tracing the rim of his mug as he gazed down at the pavement below them. "Once we find out all she knows we can extract her maiden powers and dispose of her, but no sooner than that."
"Very well. I assume her new temporary accommodations in the floor just under your office will suffice until you're ready to question her again?" The blonde woman asked, her tone as polite as ever, despite the dark undertone of her words.
The hooded figure felt his fists clench in their saronite metal gauntlets. It was as if this woman was speaking of little more than economics, yet she was referring to the torture and possible execution of a prisoner?
"Yes, thank you Glynda." The grey haired man confirmed with a small nod and a calm smile, "Now, if you don't mind I should go and make an appearance at the dance. I'm sure everyone there is dying to see their principle 'bust a move' as it were."
The blonde haired woman, Glynda, smirked and shook her head. "Alright. I should go and see how our prisoner is doing. I'll update you if she reveals anything."
"Please do." With that the man was gone, his lazy footsteps echoing into the distance as he presumably made his way in the same direction that Yang, Ruby, and Weiss had run off to earlier, leaving Glynda alone to venture towards Beacon's main tower.
Or, the hooded figure thought as he trailed the woman from a respectable distance while watching her every move, that's what she assumed at the very least.
"And how are we doing tonight Cinder?" Glynda asked as she glowered over the small frail form of a black haired young woman, her hands and feet chained together against the floor and wall, both her head and hands hanging limp, showing almost no signs of life.
Her left eye was covered in bandages which were almost completely hidden by her hair, which had grown wild and unkempt in the time she had been kept in captivity. Even her breathing was shallow, each and every exaltation showing off her malnourished form, her ribs poking through her skintight black shirt which had the symbol of vale emblazoned on its back.
With a huff of feigned disappointment Glynda sighed, "Quiet as usual then? That's too bad. I was honestly hoping for a nice long conversation. Not that you could do that even if you wanted to."
The chained woman made not a sound, only to rhythmic yet haggard breathing that filled her cell, though if looks could kill then the glare from her single visible eye would have sent Glynda flying across the city.
"You know, if it were up to me-..."
"So this is this world's idea of justice, hmm?..." A voice from behind Glynda cut the blonde haired woman off.
Glynda said nothing in response, only whipping around and firing a projectile at the source of the voice, letting out a small curse when a shell of energy suddenly formed around the figure's body, enveloping him in a shell of protection that absorbed the blast with little effort.
As is realization had finally wracked its way into her mind, Glynda let loose another blast of energy before quickly turning down to her scroll, hastily typing in serveral commands and hitting send before the device was suddenly blasted out of her grip and into oblivion by a large mass of bright purple energy that tore through the scroll as if it were no more than paper.
She felt her stomach drop as she realized something that made her very blood run cold.
That been her own attack.
"What are you?!" She finally yelled, glaring at the hooded figure as she readied another attack, "Are you a rogue huntsman?!"
"Do I look like a ranger to you?" The hooded man asked, his echoing voice carrying like the chill on a winter wind.
"Do you realize the implications of what you've just done?!" Glynda pressed, launching another bolt at the man, only to watch in shock as the figure merely batted the attack aside with another shield that formed around him.
That shock was soon surmounted by pain however as a shard of ice suddenly shot from the floor, impaling Glynda's leg before she could think to dodge, the frozen spear immediately covering itself in her blood. She quickly slammed her riding crop against the ice, obliterating it without a second thought.
However it was too late.
With speed that Glynda evidentially had not been expecting the man burst across the room, wrapping a gauntlet covered hand around her throat and lifting her into the air, squeezing lightly against her esophagus as she hung there, desperately attempting to form up a curse or threat, only to be met with the sound of silence.
The hooded figure wasted no time in ending the fight, and with little more than a grimace sent Glynda crashing headfirst against the ground, knocking the teacher unconscious, leaving her a half broken and bleeding mess on the concrete floor.
The chained woman meanwhile watched in what could only be described in fascination. The first person that she had seen in over a year that wasn't either one of Atlas' damned robots, Ozpin, or Glynda herself, and here he was throwing the latter around as if she were a punching bag.
Staring at the man with a single yellow eye, Cinder watched as the man stepped over Glynda's body as if it were little more than a downed branch. He then strolled up to her cell and pressed his hand against the reinforced glass of her cell, the glass suddenly cracking as a thin layer of ice spread around it, eventually shattering into a million shards were fell to the ground in a glimmering shower, coating the sorceress' cell in a layer of razor sharp shards.
This little detail seemed to have gone either ignored or unnoticed by the hooded man who merely stepped into the cell, the glass crunching under what Cinder could now see were large plate boots.
"Sorry, that fight wasn't supposed to end so spectacularly, but I have a feeling she wouldn't have let me walk out of here with you without knocking her out first."
"Tch..." That was all Cinder could say. She wanted to say so much more. To tell her sudden recuser to go back and kick the bitch while she lay in a pool of her own blood for all she had done to her. But she couldn't.
And so she merely gazed up at him, watching his movements with curiosity. It was not her usual glare, the one that seemed to dominate her face almost every minutes of every day of the last year of her damned life.
"So... Name?" The figure finally asked, earning an 'are-you-serious' expression from Cinder in return. That expression seemed to break through to the man almost immediately who quickly said, "Oh right. I thought I heard them say something about your voice. Hold on."
Cinder watched with a wide eye as the man knelt down and wrapped his fingers around her throat. It was not the same death grip he'd had on Glynda's throat. No, this was soft, gentle... And cool?...
"Try now." The hooded man clarified, giving Cinder a small smile from behind his cloak.
"Ah... M-... My voice?..." She muttered lowly, as if testing the waters. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime the words she spoke did not tear at her throat. They didn't hurt. "How... Are you-... Doing this?..."
"I'm freezing your vocal chords, which is numbing the nerves. My guess is they were pretty badly damaged at some point?" The hooded man asked as he froze the bindings that chained Cinder to the wall in her cell, shattering the metal, catching her before she could fall to the glass covered floor.
"You... Could say that..." Cinder muttered once the man's hand was back around her throat with a roll of her single eye before pausing, glancing up at the man for a few silent moments with a curious gaze before she faintly spoke again, "It's Cinder..."
"Well Cinder," The hooded man seemed to droll over the name for a moment, as if testing it, "I think we can safely say that I've outstayed my welcome. Feel like tagging along?"
"Ab-... Absolutely..."
"Alright, well I'm sure by now a friend of mine has pinpointed my location, so we just have to hold out until he can get a portal here."
"Who... Are you?"
"Oh. Name's Wrath."
"Goodwitch!" A new voice suddenly echoed throughout the room, followed by a cacophony of weapons leaving scabbards and unfurling their blades. The hooded man quickly took Cinder into his arms and turned to face the new arrivals, only to grimace when he vaguely recognized a few of the faces in the crowd.
Before him stood a group of at least eight warriors, all wielding a variety of different weapons, all aimed directly at him and Cinder.
Wrath seemed unfazed however, merely shifting Cinder's almost inconsequential weight in his arms before letting out a sigh, "So, I suppose you think you have me cornered?"
"Drop that woman and surrender, Now!" The small red haired girl from before, who now bore a massive scythe, ordered as she glared daggers at the hooded man, who merely shook his head.
"C'mon buddy. Don't be an idiot. Just drop her and get on your knees." The loud yellow haired girl was the next to speak up.
"You act as if I'm kidnapping her." Wrath finally muttered, his blue eyes glowing from underneath his hood, "As far as I can tell she wasn't exactly being well cared for here. Why should I drop her?"
"She's evil!" The white haired girl cried out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Don't bother Weiss. This is probably just another agent we didn't notice the first time around!" The black haired girl hissed as she aimed her firearm towards Wrath, her finger on the trigger.
Before Wrath could think to respond to the black haired girls insult, he noticed Cinder's hand reaching up towards him. Arcing his hand around her shoulder he pressed two fingers against her neck, surging power through them to numb her vocal chords once more.
"They... They were the ones... Who did this to me... They... Have a... Knack for-... For getting in the way..." She muttered before the hooded man's fingers fell from her neck and went back to supporting her shoulders.
"I see... Well, why don't we re-..."
Wrath was cut off as Cinder's hand suddenly flew in front of his face, the sound of deflecting metal ringing throughout the room as the sorceress glared daggers at the group with her remaining eye.
Wrath glanced up to find the Spartan of the group aiming her still smoking rifle at him, her face etched in pure concentration, "Well, that was rude."
"Look! We dunno who you are, but you aren't leaving with her!" The blonde haired boy wielding a sword and a shield finally spoke up, pointing the blade towards Wrath, who merely shrugged.
"And why is that? You've yet to explain why you-..."
"Forget it! Blake's right, talking isn't going to get us anywhere!" The white haired girl cut the hooded man off, aiming her smallsword at his throat.
Cinder, realizing the heiress was about to charge, raised her hand again, forming strange glyphs that hung around in the air for a moment around the heiress like angry bees, causing Weiss to hesitate as she brought her blade back in defense.
No sooner had she done that the glyphs suddenly erupted in a fountain of power, sending the heiress flying back in a small explosion, bowling over several of her friends in the process.
"Huh... Cool trick." The hooded man glanced down to see Cinder giving a small nod of acknowledgement before she brought her hand up once more, pointing towards the wall that presumably separated her cell from the rest of the outside world.
Wrath nodded before turning his attention back to the group of Huntsmen and Huntresses, who had righted themselves and had once again taken up firing positions, though this time even those with melee weapons looked as if they were ready to charge simultaneously.
"As much as I would love to stay and fight you, I should get Cinder here some medical attention." Wrath said as he slowly began moving towards the wall, watching the group for even the slightest twitch of the hand that would betray its users intentions, "And since I have a feeling you won't be letting us out here without a fight..."
Cinder suddenly threw her hand towards the wall, several glyphs appearing as she did so which almost immediately exploded in an overwhelming blast of energy that both opened a large hole on the side of the tower as well as sending both the blonde haired boy and white haired girl down to the ground due to acoustic shock.
Wrath wasted no time and dashed for the newly formed hole.
Just before he cleared the gap he felt something slam against the back of his armor, and as he turned just before falling through the opening he found the red haired girl standing there, raising her scythe once more, presumably in an effort to cleave Cinder in two.
Just before the blade of the scythe could make contact with the sorceress' form, Wrath leapt back, hanging in the air for what seemed like an eternal moment before gravity took its hold over them, sending them both plummeting towards the concrete below.
Just before they hit the ground however, a loud crack rang throughout the area, and only a moment later, a massive swirling portal appeared below Wrath and Cinder, eliciting a bright smile from the former and a sigh of relief from the latter. "Varimas, you beautiful bastard!..."
The portal swallowed both only a few seconds later before sealing itself shut and vanishing before even the red haired girl could think to burst after them, leaving only traces of shimmering particles to hint that it had ever existed at all.
Meanwhile on the top of the tower the members of both RWBY and JNPR crowded around Glynda, who still lay in a pool of her own blood, which had grown sizable in the short time she had been left unattended.
"We'd better tell Ozpin..." Weiss said as she pulled out her scroll and began to frantically dial Ozpin on her scroll, making her way to the exit.
"And get Glynda to a hospital..." Jaune added as he and Ren pulled the fallen teacher from her own blood, propping her up on their shoulders before they began to lead her out of the room, followed closely by the rest of the combined teams.
All but one.
Only Blake remained then, gazing out at the hole from which Cinder and the mysterious attacker had made their escape. As she gazed down at the few remaining shards of energy she felt both her stomach and her chest curl up in pain.
Something wasn't right. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.
But then... What was supposed to happen?
Her answer came to her at that moment like a tendril of metal slowly piercing through her heart.
It was nearly silent. An almost inaudible whisper that carried malice and corruption in each word it spoke. Each fragmented, indecipherable word that sent chills down her spin like someone stabbing her which shards of ice. Each syllable was drawn out, like a snake slithering through her head, picking away at her brain. Toying with her.
"Ywaq maq oou; ywaq maq ssaggh..."
Her eyes began to water as she felt her chest contract, the surge of pain so strong that it sent her to her knees with a cry.
She ignored the glass digging into her legs as she sat there. She ignored the warm sensation of her blood dripping from her lower legs as glass carved into her flesh.
No. All she could focus on was the haunting whispers. The maddening sounds that slipped into her eardrums, even as she brought her hands up to cover both sets of ears.
"Ywaq ma shg'fhn..."
Her tears were crimson.
"Shgn..."
Her voice cracked. She had been shrieking.
"Shgn..."
The tower was gone. She was in nothing but darkness.
"Shgn..."
Shgn...
"Blake? What's wrong?" Summer's voice echoed throughout the balcony of the necropolis, its owner watching as a black haired Faunus suddenly tensed up and glanced back cautiously.
"I'm... I'm not sure..." Blake replied as Summer strolled up and leaned on the railing, watching as the older woman gazed at her with concern clear in her expression, "Just a bad dream..."
"Does Wrath know?" Summer asked, receiving a snake of the head in response.
"No... We'll be headed to Atlas tomorrow." Blake explained, staring down at the small group of mages on the lower balcony who seemed to be working tirelessly in an effort to form a portal large enough for the Necropolis to travel through. "I don't want this weighing on his mind."
"Oh... Well would you like me to make you some tea? That always helps calm the nerves." Summer offered.
Blake nodded, giving the older huntress a small smile of gratitude.
Summer nodded and disappeared back into the necropolis, presumably on her way to the one small section of the floating fortress that possessed any form of hygiene at all, the small kitchen that Wrath had separated from the rest of the quarters in an effort to keep any living visitors from falling ill.
Of course that was the furthest thing from her mind. It was what she wanted to think about, it really was. But every time she let her mind wander it inevitably came back. The words she heard in her dreams.
The pain. The screaming. The blood. The madness.
But it was just a dream. That's all it had been.
She felt herself calm down at the thought.
Dreams. That's all they were.
That's truly what she wanted to believe.
Until she noticed the small, almost invisible, shard of glass protruding from her thigh.