A/N: Sorry for the delay. Life's not been easy on me and I'm just beginning to re-realise how much this story's gonna need from me for it to be completed. I've been working on a bunch of other side-projects as well, which was a inconsiderate move on my part. Along with that, I'm trying out a new writing style whereby I'll write DAWN and MSTT side-by-side so that the breaks between them aren't so HUGE. Anyway, on to the story.
Liars Who Fight
Present Day…
Several seconds passed in silence as everyone's eyes were transfixed on the holographic screen in the room. Though he couldn't be sure, Tanner was relatively certain that the jaws of his captors slacked for a moment at what they saw.
Eventually, once it had repeated on a loop for the third time, Glynda Goodwitch was the first to turn around and face T. "What exactly are we looking at here?"
The hacker sat in silence for a few instances as all three of them turned to stare at him while he twirled his Scroll in between his fingers. "Before that day, I had no idea of this variable behind Cinder's power, but…" he took a pause to glance at his other teammates before continuing. "The Fall Maiden can control the Grimm."
As Tanner had expected, both Jay and Glynda both had expressions of shock after T finished what he was trying to say. Curiously enough, Qrow seemed the least surprised of them all.
Without saying anything Glynda turned to look at Qrow from her side of the table, silently asking him something which he answered with a subtle nod. "How is this possible?" she asked as the brunette swordsman shared a look with T, verifying that it was fear he heard in her voice.
"It must be something that She did for her." Qrow stated as he swiveled in his chair to face the screen again as the loop continued to cycle for the sixth time. "I'm not sure what the extent of Her power actually is, but I wouldn't be surprised if She had a way to give something that allowed for others to control the Grimm."
"Hold on," Tanner said, raising his voice. "Who are we talking about here?" he was thoroughly confused as to who the two teachers could be talking about. Initially, he had thought that they were referring to Cinder, but that could not be the case.
"We know just about all of Cinder's associates and none of them are able to control Grimm." SK stated monotonously as he laced his fingers together. "Is there something you're not telling us, Qrow?"
The dark-haired reaper's face made a slow transition from surprise to a stoic, grim expression. "You really don't know do you?" he asked as he turned to direct the question at T.
"I'm afraid you'll need to be more specific about that question." T said, the impatience clear in his voice.
"Ok, fine;" the alcoholic said with knitted eyebrows. "-who's in charge of Cinder's operations?"
Tanner had a strong feeling that this was some kind of trick question, and no matter what they answered with it would be wrong. He had no idea as to how to voice it, but assumed that T could sense it as well.
"Cinder's the one pulling all the strings," T said monotonously, but when the only answer he got was a series of glances between the two teachers and the teen in the military coat, the hacker's eyes visibly widened. "…right?"
"There's…a lot more to it than just Cinder." Jay admitted after a second, resting one gloved hand on top of the other.
"Hold on, I don't understand!" Tanner said as he rose out of his chair, causing everyone in the room to tense up. "You're telling me that we've been fighting this fight for almost a year and Cinder isn't the end of it?"
"Neither is she the worse of it." Qrow added after a second, causing the brunette to deflate and slump back in his chair, muttering curses under his breath as he did.
"I need a name." T demanded after a pause.
"You tell me yours I'll tell you mine."
"I've told you enough already."
"You can't decide how much we should be able to know." The dirty-blonde sitting across from him countered immediately.
"Everything I told you has been accounted for within my variables and scenarios – now you've added a new figure into the algorithm. Give me a name, and I'll continue telling you what you want to know." T stated calmly, though everyone saw his hands clench into fists.
"Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight." Mason chanted softly from his side of the room, though it went ignored by everyone else.
A condescending silence filled the room for a few seconds before Glynda cleared her through, drawing everyone's attention. "The barbarian has a point," she said as she cast a look of animosity at the redhead. "-we won't resolve anything by fighting one another, so how about a compromise; tell us what happened with this Raiden Alexander and that girl with the parasol."
"You hesitated." The scarlet-eyed Huntsman stated, giving T a pointed look. When the hacker did not immediately reply, Qrow continued. "You had a clear shot at the girl seven times. Seven times you could have dealt a critical blow or a chance to deal a lethal blow – I saw them, and so did you." Qrow's tone turned accusing. "Why didn't you take them?"
There was a lapse of a few seconds as everyone waited for T to say something, which was eventually broken by SK. "Go on, T. Tell them. It's your secret to tell." His tone was understanding as he turned to face Jay and grimace.
"It's better to just show you." T said as the table lit up under his arm once more. "It'll answer both of your questions that way."
"Trigger warning: what happens next isn't pretty!" Mason hollered abruptly.
"He's not wrong." Tanner agreed, as he lifted his arms up and began rolling up his sleeves. "Let's just say, not all of us got out of this one without a few scratches."
Three Months Before Volume 1…
The brunette couldn't believe what he was seeing. Just a few feet from him stood Cinder, condescending smirk and poise in full effect. Standing right in front of her, face to face, was an Alpha Beowulf.
How she was able to get so close to one without having it bite her face off was beyond him, however, it was what the woman did next that really made Tanner's breathing stop for a few seconds.
With her bare hand, the ash-haired woman reached out and gently caressed the Beowulf on the cheek as if it were a pet. He was sure in that moment that Cinder was absolutely, undoubtedly mad if it weren't for the fact that the creature of Grimm made a low rumbling sound in response.
Holy shit! Tanner thought to himself as he tried to crawl away. She's controlling them. How the fuck is she controlling them?
"Surprised, T?" Cinder asked over her shoulder. Turning his gaze to the cyborg, Tanner saw an expression that he never thought the mysterious hacker was capable of making. The surprise on T's face worried him more than the Beowulf standing less than six feet away from him. "I guess you don't know everything after all." She jeered as she stepped away from the Beowulf and allowed it to approach Tanner's prone form.
"How the fu-"
"You should've known what you were doing when you decided to go against me, Vermillion." Cinder said right before delivering a sharp kick to Tanner's chest, causing all the air in his lungs to rush out as he recoiled in pain. "And now you will suffer for your betrayal." The ash-haired woman extended her hand towards the creature of Grimm, palm up. It seemed to acknowledge the gesture by lowering its stance before she next spoke and dropped her hand to her side. "Kill."
The second the icy word left her lips, the alpha Beowulf was on him, sharp claws and teeth intent on ripping his throat out. With little time to react, Tanner threw one of his arms in the way of a strike from the creature's claw, successfully batting it out of the way before it plunged its head forward for a bite. Without any other way to defend himself, the brunette acted on instinct and held his left hand in front of him to block the attack. The Beowulf's sharp teeth instead latched around his wrist and began digging through his flesh as it jerked its head back and forth to try and rip his arm out. Blood gushed out as several arteries and veins were shredded by the creature's sharp teeth.
All the while, Tanner screamed in pain and anguish as he did what he could to free himself from the Beowulf's grasp with only one hand available to him. Eventually, a sharp blow to the side of the Grimm's head caused it to loosen its grip, only for it to begin biting down on his other arm. This time, however, Tanner had no way of defending himself as he could hardly move his left arm, numb from the pain and blood loss.
Crippled and pinned beneath a monster, all the scared swordsman could do was scream for help.
The whole time, T looked on with a calculative stare, processing in his mind the best path for Overwatch's attack run. It would be close, but the missile strike should cause the entire horde of Grimm to disperse and give the hacker a tight window to escape. Any last changes he had in mind wouldn't change the fact that his airship was about to rain hell in less than ten seconds.
Across the battlefield, SK struggled under the weight of the Beringel that had him pinned. All the while, he could hear Tanner's agonising screams of pain, and it was torturous to hear – despite how little he knew of the swordsman. It had yet to end him, which was a good sign, but at the same time there was no conceivable way that the rogue could escape from its grasp. That was, until several red reticles began appearing in his vision, overlapping on the Beringel's scarred face one at a time before four reticles overlapped on the same spot while the message 'Target Locked' appeared beneath it. Tilting his head to the side, the rogue's eyes widened when he saw that his bracer was already primed to fire. SK's gaze flitted back to the Grimm on top of him before the rogue twisted his wrist, causing four micro-missiles to go wide. The Beringel stared on in confusion as they made a wide arc and failed to react in time as each struck the side of its face.
With its concentration broken and its grip loosened, SK quickly took the opportunity to turn invisible and escape from its grasp, rolling across the ground to his sword. Once he had it in his hands, the rogue used the momentum from the roll to spring back to his feet and mount the staggered Grimm. Using his off-hand to hold himself steady, SK began slashing at it with his falchion while it tried to strike and throw him off.
The rogue kept moving in order to avoid getting hit by the beast, but he never let up his assault on it. After a few more slashes and quick jabs, the Vacuo-born teen eventually put some distance between himself and the creature. It didn't last as the Beringel leapt into the air and prepared to slam its fists into the ground where SK stood. The Grimm conveyed too much with its wind up, however, and SK was able to read it like a script. Quickly side-stepping out of the way, the rogue let the Beringel deliver its attack only to run along its arms and deliver a killing blow to its head, running his sword through its skull.
With a quick series of backwards steps, SK withdrew his falchion from the Grimm's head as its body collapsed to the ground. Only after he let out a breath of exhaustion did the rogue notice the abundance of Grimm that had surrounded him.
As Tanner let out another cry of agony, SK could do nothing – as much as he wished he could do – but defend himself for the moment, resting the flat side of his blade on his bracer as he got into a battle stance.
That was, until he heard to sound of rockets overhead.
Seemingly out of nowhere a series of small missile bombarded the area where the Grimm were closely packed with several rounds of machinegun fire following it to cause the Grimm to scatter.
Mason looked on as the gunship performed its run, giving a cheer every time a missile caused a particularly large explosion. He watched on with gleeful anticipation as the rain of fire came closer towards him, standing perfectly in the way of the ship's attack path. With his arms spread wide and all the Grimm around too occupied with running away from the oncoming fire, the berserker stood perfectly still while small-scale ordinance rained around him and kicked up chunks of dirt.
Miraculously, not a single bullet or missile hit the redhead, but the explosions left his hair, face and outfit caked in dirt and smoke.
"Pssh, that was a little disappointing." Mason grumbled as he lowered his arms to his side, before spinning anti-clockwise on his left leg to drive both his weapons through the skull of a Creep.
"All team members, this is T." Tanner heard through the earpiece in his right ear as the Alpha Beowulf on top of him was blasted off by a series of bullets to its back. Even Cinder lost her footing and had to take cover behind a barricade of glass that she created with a wave of her hand. Seeing the opportunity, Tanner stumbled to his feet as blood ran down his arms and covered his outfit, winching in pain whenever he applied pressure to his hands. "Overwatch is going around for a second bombing run. Once it's done, it'll descend low enough for an airborne extraction." Rolling out of the way of a missile, the swordsman inadvertently found his sabre, which pointed towards his missing firearm. "If you're not on board the Bullhead when it takes off, I'm not coming back for you."
Even his grip on his weapons was not strong, but it was tight enough for him to slit an oncoming Beowulf's throat open. Shit, I can't depend on my sword-skills like this. Looks like I'll need to use Dust instead. The brunette thought as he sheathed his pistol and fished around his pockets and belt for any Dust vials or crystals he still had on-hand. With bloodstains on his coat and under shirt, the swordsman drew out a yellow glass vial and popped the cap off with his sword.
What little Aura he had left went into clotting the blood still bleeding out of his arms, leaving only just enough to charge up the Dust, but not enough to make it volatile. Using whatever strength he had left, Tanner threw its contents at the ash-haired woman who was too preoccupied trying to ward off the Grimm around her while subsequently protecting herself from the air strike.
When the powdered Dust struck Cinder, it sent her tumbling back with the force of an Ursa's punch.
Behind him, T had successfully been able to break free from Neo's hold after the first salvo of fire, the illusionist too busy protecting herself from bullets with her parasol. Finally free, the cyborg drew his pistol and began dispatching Grimm with precise headshots – assisted with the help of his cybernetic eye – as he moved towards where Overwatch was going to perform its extraction, all the while keeping a clear line of sight on Neo.
Meanwhile, SK was conserving his Aura while sprinting between Grimm to make it to Tanner, who was struggling against a small group of Creeps. Fighting defensively, the Creeps were completely unaware of the rogue sneaking up behind them in all the confusion. After a few precise stabs, the first Creep dropped to the floor. The second and third followed with a focused beam of energy, drawing the last's attention to SK and giving Tanner a chance to lob off its head with one swipe.
"Come on, the airship's about to perform its second strike!" the black-haired teen shouted as he put an arm under the brunette's shoulder to help him walk.
"I can walk fine!" Tanner shot back as he shrugged off SK's attempt to help him. "I just need you to cover me – not sure how well I can fight with my arms…"
"Behind you! Duck!" SK shouted as Raiden came in for a horizontal slash at Tanner's blind-side. The brunette complied immediately as the rogue held out his falchion to catch the shadowcaster's longsword. "Go, I've got this!"
Instead of leaving though, the swordsman withdrew a round from his belt and slammed it into Raiden's lower torso with his palm, sending the teen back with a blast of ice. The resulting ice formation trapped the dark-haired teen against the ground. "That won't hold him for long, let's go!"
Grimm constantly tried to cut them off, but they were able to fend them off or evade them until they reached the designated extraction point. Overwatch was already beginning its second attack run as Cinder and the others began trying to shoot it down. Most of the shots and projectiles bounced off the Bullhead's hull, but some of Cinder's fireballs were able to nearly shake it off its trajectory.
Between the Grimm that took poor swings at her and the few shots T was taking at her, however, Cinder was only able to get three shots off at the airship, effectively doing nothing to it.
Though the Grimm were more prepared for it this time, it didn't do much to save many of them from the barrage of missiles and lead rounds that tore through them.
"That's our ride." Tanner muttered under his breath, placing a hand against the ground and erecting an obsidian barricade. "Mason, get over here or we're leaving without you!" he yelled into his communicator.
"Hella, freakin' yeah! Time to extract like a badass!" he heard the redhead shout in response as the two could see his form barreling towards them through all the Grimm.
T was gambling against time and his own life. The hacker constantly kept his eyes on the multicolored girl just a few feet away from him while fending off the Grimm that kept trying to tear him apart.
However, with his attention focused solely on her, T left himself vulnerable to attacks from the Grimm and from Mercury, who had appeared in the fray of things determined to be the one to deal the final blow.
Without hesitation, T quickly used Pacify to throw the grey-haired boy off-balance for just a moment, but it was enough to disorientate the teen. Unused to the sudden change in brain-pressure, the speedster was unable to right himself as T weaved in between Grimm towards Neo.
Coincidentally, none of the Grimm around him attacked the speedster as he got back to his feet.
With her back to the cyborg for just a second in order to drive her rapier through the eye-socket of a Creep, T sprung on the opportunity; closing the distance in a second and locking her head in between his arms.
"I don't have time for this." He muttered into her ear as he tightened his lock on Neo's neck, constricting the heterochromatic girl's trachea. "You're coming with me – now!" with his one metal arm locking her in place, T used his free arm to draw his pistol and take calculated headshots at any Grimm that got too close. He made sure to take a glance all around him before moving to the extraction site, making mental notes about the position of every creature of Grimm around them.
Through an algorithm he had downloaded onto the implant on his brain, the hacker was able to predict when one of the Beowulves around them would charge forward to kill them both. A timer ticked down in his mind as the Beowulf sprinted towards them under the cover of T's blind spot right behind him. However, as soon as his Aura began to send subtle danger warnings, he stuck the handgun out behind him and fired without turning around, counting on the aim-assist to do the targeting for him.
When no Beowulf barreled into them, T guessed that the system either worked perfectly, or there was never a Beowulf to begin with.
After having only moved a few steps, Neo was beginning to squirm relentlessly and kept trying to dig her elbows into T's side. Initially ignoring it, the hacker's muscle reflex caused him to involuntarily bash her on the side of her head with the hilt of his pistol after a particularly hard blow to the chest. T immediately regretted the decision, but decided to work with it as it seemed to have knocked the illusionist out.
With both hands, the cyborg hoisted the petite girl onto his shoulder and carried her across the battlefield as his Bullhead cleared the way for him with machinegun fire. With their escape all but certain, T was confident – without a doubt – that they were going to make it, and the mission would be a complete success. Due to the amount of cover fire that Overwatch had to provide for them, however, T also calculated that the airship did not have enough firepower remaining to carpet-bomb the area, so he would have to settle for letting Cinder getting away.
It wasn't that big of a deal; T could always just find her again. There was nowhere in Remnant the ash-haired woman could hide from him now, not even in Mistral.
However, just as he thought victory was assured, another complication posed itself.
It was as if the finish line to his race had been moved another hundred metres away – just as his metaphorical legs were about to give out. Tanner, who had been resting on one knee, saw him approaching from about a metre and a half away while the rogue and the berserker provided cover with the mixture of their fighting styles. Without hesitation, the brunette had drawn his pistol, readying his last shot – as T had counted – to fire on Neo. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"Target is secured, ready for extraction." He said, more to Overwatch than to the swordsman.
"Target? You never said anything about the pink and brown murderess! I thought Cinder was the target!" Tanner continued to yell as T put her down so that he had both his hands free. She was shifting about restlessly in her unconscious state, and the hacker knew it wouldn't be long before she woke up.
"I'm not asking you to think, I'm asking you to do as I say." T stated as he swapped out for his last clip of bullets.
"Well I say we kill her now!" Tanner's voice was full of rage as he lined up his pistol with her head and pulled the trigger.
The thunderclap-like noise that his flintlock made woke Neo up because of how close it was, but that was all it did as T batted the gun out of the way at the last split-second, causing the bullet to explode when it hit the ground a few inches away. The cyborg had closed the distance faster than Neo, Tanner or even he could have imagined, as neither of the other two had registered what had just happened until a couple seconds had passed.
When it did, Tanner turned his rage-fueled glare at the cyborg as Neo disappeared in a flash of light. "What the fuck was that for? I had her!" he shouted over the roar of Overwatch's engines. T didn't even flinch when Tanner struck him in the chest with the barrel of his flintlock.
"You just cost us the mission." He muttered back in response as the Bullhead's doors opened to allow them to step on.
"Don't think you can just walk away from me this time!" Tanner continued as he stepped in front of T, blocking the hacker's path. Whatever the swordsman was going to say next died in his throat, however, as T roughly grabbed one of injured wrists and squeezed hard, causing Tanner to stumble backwards when T followed it up with a hard shove.
"I don't have time to deal with your crap right now – get on the airship!" T's crisp order went ignored for a few seconds as the two glared at each other, broken only a shrill voice crackled through the air like a whip.
"Enough!" suddenly, in only a few seconds, the battlefield fell eerily quiet. The two first looked to SK, who was staring down the length of his falchion as he held it in its beam-rifle form. Then, their gaze went to the horde of Grimm surrounding them, who were no longer looking their way, but at Cinder.
The ash-haired woman stood with rigid shoulders, panting heavily from exertion with her blades in her hands as she wretched them from the dying body of an Ursa. "I am your master, and you will obey me." She said in her normal tone. Usually, only T and Mason would be able to hear her thanks to their enhanced hearing, but because the battlefield had fallen absolutely silent – aside from the buzz of Overwatch's engines, the half-Maiden's words carried clearly across the distance between them.
Seconds passed as she redirected her furious stare from one Grimm to the other, before they begun dipping their heads in acknowledgement. This isn't good. T thought. With hindsight, the hacker would learn that the gesture was one of the many ways the Grimm showed acknowledgement and respect to those they had to obey. Now though, T could only come to one conclusion.
"Get on the airship." He repeated to Tanner. This time, the swordsman didn't argue as he scrambled to his feet and got on board the ship. "We're leaving – now!" he barked at SK, who nodded in understanding as he began firing off concentrated beams at the nearest Grimm.
From where he stood, he saw Cinder give the gesture for the horde to descend upon them – the point of a single finger. Now, the Grimm fought with purpose as they descended on him and his Bullhead. "Overwatch, take off – now!" as soon as he gave the order, the airship's engines throttled to full power as he smashed the wall button to deploy the door turret.
The weapon popped up after a couple of seconds and T quickly mounted it to mow down the Grimm on his side of the airship. Many were pouring in and had a firm latch on the airship's side, preventing it from leaving the ground. Overwatch's defensive protocols kicked in at that moment, and the artificial intelligence began spinning the Bullhead in an anti-clockwise rotation as its forward guns tore through the Grimm around it that were trying to tear through the hull.
Running the probabilities through his head, the odds weren't looking good for them, until Tanner stepped up to his side. In one hand, he held a brightly glowing shard of yellow Dust. One look at T and the hacker understood what he was planning. With a wind-up, the brunette hurled the shard forward, which exploded in a field of static as T shot it.
The pulse it gave off caused many of the Grimm to lose their hold on the airship, which caused it to suddenly jerk upwards before stabilizing its flight.
They had already gained suitable altitude by the time Cinder's team began firing on them again, however, from such a range, the shots harmlessly pinged off the side of the ship, none coming close enough to T as he remained on the turret while the autopilot took them away. However, one of Cinder's glass arrows was able to stick itself along the hull of the Bullhead, right beneath one of its engines. At first, T thought little of it – just another pot-shot that she had tried to take – until a high-pitch noise like the voice of a siren could be heard. The resounding explosion that followed wasn't enough to knock the airship out of the sky, but it made the whole ship dip to one side.
For a normal Bullhead model, that exploding arrow would have blown the airship out of the sky. However, Overwatch had been reinforced with high-grade plating that could sustain a direct hit by a frag grenade.
"Mason, take the turret!" T commanded as he moved to take manual control over the ship's flight.
"I can already hear them screaming!" Mason shouted back in acknowledgement as T climbed into the pilot's seat and deactivated autopilot, throttling the engines. The whole time, proximity warnings were going off; warning him about an incoming flock of small Nevermores.
In the passenger's compartment of the airship, Tanner was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall of the ship. Though things were still hectic, the comfort of being in an airship and speeding away from danger let the brunette drop his guard in order to inspect his wounds.
His blood had thoroughly soaked through the sleeves of his shirt, colouring the orange fabric of his undershirt blackish-red. He had already taken off his overcoat when he began to roll up his sleeves, wincing at the sight of the deep wounds in his flesh left behind by the Beowulf's sharp teeth.
"We'd better treat it quickly to avoid infection." SK stated further back in the airship as he began rummaging through a storage locker for something. Tanner, who felt too light-headed to protest, only looked on as the onyx-haired boy pulled out a medical kit and moved to kneel next to him. "Don't worry, I've done this before. First, we need to stop the bleeding."
The sound of machineguns rattled on as Tanner raised a hand to untie the scarf around his neck. "This can help with that." He said softly as the brunette gingerly wrapped one of his wrists with the silky fabric. He would worry about the blood later, but right now, he needed to focus whatever Aura and strength was returning to him.
Closing his eyes, Tanner felt the scarf begin to light up as his Aura coursed through it, creating a soothing heat that slowly grew slightly uncomfortable. With gritted teeth, Tanner pressed on while SK could only look on in amazement as the glow dimmed before fading.
When he untangled the scarf around his wrist, SK's jaw dropped open when the rogue saw that all the blood had disappeared; not a drop on it on his skin or the scarf. The wounds had also been slightly cauterized, which solved the problem of disinfecting the site. They still wept, so SK considered just giving him an anti-septic just in case. "Yeah, I know." Tanner breathed out as sweat dripped down the side of his face and he repeated the process with his other hand. "Bet you've never seen first-aid like that before?"
"I'll admit, that looks handy." The rogue commented just as the airship hit some turbulence – At least I think it's turbulence, causing him to nearly lose his footing. After stabilizing himself with his free hand, SK pulled out the spray-can of disinfectant and popped the cap to spray it on Tanner's arms. Before he could, the brunette took the can from his hand and began spraying it himself.
"I can take care of myself." He grunted out as the stimulating foam began to do its work.
SK remained where he was for a second before getting back up. "Keep pressure on your elbow joints – it'll reduce the bleeding." Stepping over to the open hatch where Mason was still firing rounds after rounds of the machinegun at nothing in particular. Peering down the aft of the Bullhead, the rogue saw that one of the engines was trailing smoke, and that a couple large Nevermores were still on them, but easily out of range of fire. Though, the onyx-haired boy couldn't be sure if they were putting more distance between them or not.
"Hey, T!" SK called back over the roar of the wind and the machinegun.
"I know – hang on!" T called back and without further warning, made a hard right with the airship, putting the two by the hatch within direct line of sight with the Nevermores.
By the shift in momentum and the rapidly approaching Nevermore, SK could also only guess that they had slowed to a hover. Rounds from the machinegun chewed through the wings and hard feathers as SK drew his blade and opened it up into its rifle form. Taking aim, SK waited a beat before firing a white-hot beam into one of the Nevermore's face, blackening it and causing the large Grimm to lose its course. He repeated the process with the other, burning through one of its wings and causing it to fall out of the sky.
"We're clear!" SK called back once more. "That means you can stop wasting bullets!" He scolded the berserker as he kept hammering on the turret. His fun was cut short, however, when the gun retracted into the floor and wall as the hatch closed shut.
The airship jostled and lurched forward as SK sheathed his falchion back into its scabbard and the redhead slumped to the floor in disappointment. Everyone quickly found their footing SK breathed a solemn sigh of relief.
All that firepower, all that planning, and we still lost. The Vacuo-born thought as T stepped out of the cockpit.
Total mission failure. T began his after-action memo. Near-zero enemy casualties. He looked to Tanner, who was bandaging his arms but still glaring at him. One friendly casualty. Need to reassess the situation for further reference.
"I think you owe us an explanation."
Same time…
The uproar of Grimm had just begun to quiet, and Cinder was just starting to get a grip on them when the shadowcaster just had to act out.
Everyone had formed a tight circle within the horde of Grimm, waiting patiently as Cinder concentrated on her control over them. It wasn't complete, and she still needed practice, but at least they knew who their master was.
They all seemed very restless, however, and it unsettled the members of the group. "Cinder, what's going on?" Emerald asked.
"Quiet!" she snapped back. "I'm concentrating." She stated as she held her arms out, reaching to control the strongest member of the horde. From what she had learned from Her, the half-Maiden knew that the best way to control a horde was to control the strongest member of the horde. From there, the influence would trickle down until that one hold would give her a hundred holds.
Just as she was beginning to gain control over the present horde, a large cloud passed under the sun, casting a shadow over the clearing.
"Oh, yeah." Raiden said with a toothy grin as the shadows began condensing around him, causing the shadow he cast to become even darker. "I can work with this."
"Raiden, don't-"
"Get down!" he yelled as he reached into his coat black jacket and pulled out two sawed-off shotguns. Trails of shadows flitted and spread out from him as he began spinning around and firing everywhere, drawing power from the massive shadow he was in.
The others had done what he told them, and watched as he fired shell after shell at the Grimm surrounding them, ripping through their hides like bullets through cardboard.
As he span faster and faster, it almost seemed from the outside that Raiden had become one with the shadows and was able to create more arms and guns from out of the dark fog, as the Grimm around them were cut down like grass.
"Die! Die! Die!" he chanted as he fired off in every direction, using the shadows casted by the shadow shells he fired to reload his shotguns as they snapped open and closed with the reflex of a butterfly knife.
In seconds, the horde of Grimm had been almost completely culled, as the remaining Grimm retreated into the forests around them. Once the shadows around him parted, Raiden collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. "Nailed it."
Cinder did not share in his delight, however, as she stalked over to grab him by his collar and hoist him up to meet her eyes. "You wasted your Aura meaninglessly! I had control over them."
"I've seen what the Grimm can do." Raiden droned on as his eyes struggled to open. "I've seen others try to control them. It doesn't work, they'll turn on us the second you let your guard down."
With what strength she still had, the ash-haired woman tossed Raiden's limp body to the side and let him roll around in the torn up dirt. "You have disobeyed me time and time again. The only reason you're still alive if because I want you to bring me T and his friends – alive!" she ranted angrily. "We're going back to the compound to see the progress of preparations. Return with them or don't return at all. If you aren't back by noon tomorrow, I will hunt you down and kill you. You will never know rest, never know safety!"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it; bring them back or die blah blah blah!" Raiden said as he mimicked his words with a hand gesture while getting back to his feet. "I get 'em for you." He said as he turned his back on her and began walking in the direction the airship had flown off. Cinder purposely ignored the remark he made about her being a "Psycho bitch" when he thought she couldn't hear him, knowing that a day would come when she would make him pay.
"Let's go." Cinder told the others as she began walking off in the direction they had come from, involuntarily swinging her hips like she always did as the corpses of Fallen Grimm around them disintegrated.
"Of all the people T had to recruit." Mercury began. "How'd he end up with those three?"
"I don't know – and it doesn't matter." Cinder countered. "They'll all fall, just the same."
"Seems like they're harder to kill than we thought." Mercury muttered under his breath.
"Do you think Raiden will be enough to bring all four of them in?" Emerald asked curiously.
"No." Cinder replied honestly. "But knowing them, they can't work together for longer than a week – they'll tear each other apart." She said with a confident smirk. "Raiden will just make sure that they can't be put back together." As the ash-haired woman said this, she looked at Neo, who simply stared forward with a determined look.
Good, she understands who she serves. The smirk on her face remained. "Then, when he brings them back to us, we can grind them into dust ourselves."