Chapter XVII
If he remembers correctly, Violet's mother described Maria has an auburn-haired girl with green eyes and also said she was beautiful for her age. She also used the same weapon as Weiss Schnee, a Multi Action Dust Rapier (MADR), which was called Uriel. She was very kind and was trying to help the students of her class the most she could. You could say that she was almost an angel for her classmates and teammates.
But, one day, something changed in her while she was studying at Beacon and she suddenly escaped the Academy the day after her end of her studies. But, the people that saw her before the nomination suddenly described her has being very calm, silent and looking like she was hypnotised. Violet was shocked by the leaving of Maria, since she couldn't understand why she did that.
Today, it looks like it got even worse. Her eyes were now red and her armor didn't look normal at all, it even looks like a second skin. Simon also noticed that all of her body was covered by metal and that he can only see her face has being normal. She also has changed her fighting style to add a simple PD (Pistol Dagger), normally used only by the Police Department.
-Why don't you just fight by yourself? , asked Simon to Roman.
-Oh, no, I don't think that's my type to rush into the battle and killing everything in my path. Enjoy your last seconds of your life while you still can! , said Roman. Maria! Attack!
When Roman ordered Maria to attack, the airship he got in began to fly upward, leaving the two on the building's roof. She suddenly rushed to Simon and tried to hit him in the stomach, but he blocked at the right moment.
-Maria! Please, listen to me! This isn't you! , said Simon, trying to regain Maria's old self while he was blocking. I do not want to fight you!
She continued to perform strikes on him with her rapier while he was blocking, trying to break his guard.
-I am your best friend's son! The son of Violet Primrose! Don't you remember her? You were always together at school! , said Simon.
She didn't reacted to any of Simon's protests, but she was still trying to kill him. When she kicked him in the stomach and push him back, he had enough.
-Hold still! , said Simon, while casting a Dust Ice spell to cover her feet.
When the ice covered Maria's feet and that he insured that she couldn't move anymore, he proceeded to a new application he made for his screen device: the Scan. When he launched the application, a hole opened in front of the device and a green light covered Maria, scanning her. When the scan finished, the results looked like this:
/5% Human tissue and blood
/95% Metal parts, oil and unknown liquid
-You….you are not even human anymore! , said Simon, surprised by the results, guessing that the armor was literally her skin and that her face and hair was the last thing she had human left.
Suddenly, the ice broke and she rushed to him. He had the time to block, but she got the time to cut her shoulder where there wasn't any armor. His patience attained the limit and he kicked Maria in the stomach, pushing her back.
-That's enough! I'm sorry, Maria, but if this is what you really want, I don't have any choice anymore! , said Simon.
He took his pistols and began to shoot, damaging Maria's armor. After that, he casted a Fireball spell to burn her armor and planted his scimitar into her body. But, when he tried to get his scimitar back, it was stuck in her and he had to take it back with all the strength he had left. She then took her pistol and began to shoot on him. Simon had the time to deflect most of the bullets, but one or two must have passed through, hurting him.
Suddenly, got out of the nightclub and saw lights on the roof of a building. She got to the roof and saw the two fighting.
-Emma, thank god you're here, take this! , said Simon, throwing his gauntlet to her and blocking Maria's attacks.
-What I am supposed to do with it? Is that bullet wounds you've got there? , said Emma, worrying about Simon's state.
-There is no time for this now! Open the screen on it and press the HACK button that will appear in the menu! , said Simon, guiding her and controlling the combat at the same time.
-Okay! I'm on it! , said Emma.
When she pressed the HACK button on the touch screen, a red light got out of the hole that was used for the SCAN and Emma pointed it on Maria. Then, Simon used a Dust Ice spell to cover Maria's body completely, except her head, to let the device do its work.
When the hacking was complete, switch-like buttons appeared on the screen, which were put the words EMOTIONS, AGGRESSIVE and NORMAL under them. The first and third one were off, but the second one was on. To put it simply, Maria can still become the girl she was before, but the White Fang completely left out this option to put her in their ranks.
Emma swiftly activated the first and third switch, deactivated the second one.
-It's all right. You can let her go. , said Emma.
-Okay. , said Simon, using a Reversal spell to let the ice melt.
When he noticed the ice melt, he noticed that her eyes were no longer red, but it also looked like she was ''resetting'' her system to accept Emma's changes. When she got on again, her eyes regained the usual color she was supposed to have before, green.
She then stretched herself like when she just got up in the morning and was ready for the day. Her eyes were still closed, though.
-All right, let's see what we…..Huh? , said Maria while opening her eyes. Okay….hey, guys, could you please tell me where are we?
-Oh no….she thinks she's still a student of Beacon. , said Simon.
-You know her? , asked Emma.
-''sigh'' It's a long story… , said Simon.
-Wait. What, do you mean by ''she thinks she's still a student of Beacon''? Of course I am! I am Maria Richards, leader of team MRAG! , said Maria, a bit angry to be treated like this.
-Ok, I know you will find this weird and you will probably think I am crazy, but do you know that you have just awoken from 21 years ago without even noticing it? , said Simon.
-What? , said Maria, confused. But I got to sleep yesterday, two days before graduation and now I am here.
-Look, could you please come with us to the Academy? I think our problems will slowly resolve by themselves when will be there. , said Emma.
-''sigh'' Okay, I'll follow you. , said Maria, confused by the situation.
When they got down of the building, Tyler and Anna got out of the nightclub, looking perfect and not harmed by Roman's remaining lackeys that had absolutely no chance versus them.
-There you are! I guess that the nightclub thing completely screwed up, maybe we should just not leave the school at the moment. , said Tyler.
-Hey, who's that girl behind you? Is she hostile? , said Anna.
-No, she's someone who we should escort as fast as possible to Beacon. Also, Emma, could you scan me with the device I just gave you in the fight? I don't think they could have found us that easily.
-Okay, if you say so. , said Emma.
Now that she knew how the device works, it took her less time than before to press the SCAN button in the menu. When she scanned him, a red dot suddenly appeared in one of Simon's boots. When he took his boot and searched it, it appeared that there was a little beeping device in it.
-A tracer? I don't know how this thing got into my boot, but it means that someone wants me dead at Beacon and I don't know why. , said Simon.
He then crushed the device with his hand.
-Let's go before somebody notices the dead in there, I personally don't want my team nor our escort to be arrested. , said Simon.
While they were using Tyler and Emma's bikes to transport themselves to the airship port to Beacon, Maria noticed the armor she was wearing. She tried to get it off, but it looks like she was stuck in it.
-Hm. Is there some way to take this armor off? , said Maria, intrigued.
-Frankly, I don't really know, but we will soon find out. , said Simon.
-Just promise us that we can trust you. , shouted Anna to cover the bikes engines' sounds.
-Don't worry, I will not do anything. I just want to know what's going on. , said Maria.
When they arrived at Beacon, it was midnight, so most of the students were sleeping or at the library, studying. The team and Maria got to Ozpin's office and press the button with the interphone.
-This is team leader Simon Seablue of team SEAT. We would want to see professor Ozpin immediately. , said Simon in the interphone.
Instantly, the door unlocked itself and the students entered the office.
-Ah, Simon! Good to see you are profiting of your time. Would you want a…., said Ozpin, gently, before seeing Maria.
-I am sorry to interfere in your works, professor Ozpin, but my team got attacked by the White Fang while we were in the local nightclub of Vale and we've had the chance to stop this woman. , said Simon.
-Professor Ozpin? , said Maria, surprised by her teacher's appearance.
Before her slumber, Maria's teacher in her class was professor Ozpin. But a year after she escaped the school, Ozpin was promoted to director of the Academy.
-Maria Richards. It looks like you found her back. , said Ozpin, obviously confused by the sudden appearance of her ancient student.
-Can I ask you where my teammates are? I didn't saw them since we arrived here. , asked Maria, worrying about her teammates.
-They do not live here anymore. They finished their studies and began to be teachers in the other schools. , said Ozpin.
-Roland…., said Maria, with tears beginning to appear in her eyes.
-I'm sorry for this, Ms. Richards. Could I ask you how did you bring her here? , said Ozpin, asking the question to Simon.
-Before the fight, someone had planted on me a tracer that could be used to know where my location was, so they planned to ambush me and to maybe take ma as a prisoner. But little did they know that I had my team with me, so they got crushed. After the fight, Roman Torchwick, who was leader of the ambush, had flee in an airship and had left this woman to obviously kill me. At the first moment, I knew she wasn't really normal, so I scanned her after immobilising her first. The results said she was mostly made of metal parts and oil, the only thing human left in here being her head and surely her brain. After that, Emma came when I would be surely gone from this world right now and I gave her my gauntlet here to hack the woman. , said Simon, reporting the attack on the nightclub. When the hacking was done, that's how she became, a girl who was still thinking she was a student at Beacon.
-That's terrible. Now, they had attained the limit in terms of technology to the point of doing this to people, even children. , said Ozpin.
-So….I'm some sort of a monster now? , said Maria, depressed by the situation.
-No, not at this point, Ms. Richards. But you will have to verify yourself to make sure you aren't dangerous anymore, then I will try to integrate you in Beacon again. I'm terribly sorry of what happened today. , said Ozpin.
-It's all right, ''sigh'', let's hope this thing I am will not be destroyed after it though. , said Maria.
-You will be placed into team SEAT's chambers from now on until something happen. , said Ozpin, surprisingly.
-Understood, I'll deactivate her commands to make sure her aggressive mode will not be activated again. , said Simon.
-Okay then, you can go now. , said Ozpin.
When the students were gone from his office, he began to watch through his window with a depressing look on his face.
-''sigh'' Sometimes, I really think I should take a break from this. , said Ozpin.
Meanwhile, team SEAT's chambers:
When they arrived to their room, Simon was disappointed by what happened in the nightclub.
-''sigh'' Everything is going wrong in my life and it looks like I cannot even wish to do something else other than working or fighting. , sighed Simon.
-Hey, it's not that bad. Anyways, it's not like we had another choice now. , said Tyler.
-Not that bad? Not that bad?! Do you know how it is to live within myself without showing how angry, sad, depressed or whatever you call it in front of everyone. I maybe try to look happy, but I still think I'm pathetic for not even trying to defend my father. Oh, yeah, talking about that, do you know that my father has been killed by mother because she is now some sort of slave to the White Fang? Yeah, the criminal organisation that was mentioned in TV was who attacked us at the freakin' nightclub. Still, after 5 years of fleeing them while becoming a Huntsman, they still know I'm here and they still want me fucking dead! , shouted Simon, slowly bursting in Aura has his rage mode has he punched the wall, to the point that a crack was shown it.
When he realised he was doing something wrong, he began to calm himself. Emma got up of her bed and put her hand on his shoulder.
-I understand. , said Emma. But that doesn't mean you should feel like that. You are too much living in the past and should try to forget what happened. My parents are dead, but I stopped mourning them after 2 months. It doesn't mean I do not remember them though.
-She's right. , said Anna. All of us has something that happened in their past, you should try to forget it.
-I…..I am sorry, maybe I should make them rest in peace. , said Simon, happy to see his friends trying to help him.
-I am sorry about what happened to you, M. Seablue. I maybe am some sort of metal thing, but I can still understand what you are passing through at the moment. , said Maria, who was still waiting by the door.
-Ah yes, Maria. Could I check something in your database to see if your weapons are still activated? Maybe that's what Ozpin meant by verifying if you were still dangerous again. , said Simon.
-Okay. You can ''deactivate'' me now. , said Maria, who still thinks she is some kind of a robot.
-You know you can still act as a human, right? , said Simon.
-Yeah, and Ozpin has said you would be reintegrated into Beacon soon after he finds a solution. , said Anna, trying to encourage her.
-I guess you are right. , said Maria. All right, then, I'll go to sleep.
An hour later, almost everyone was asleep (Even if Maria wasn't really asleep, she got deactivated when the normal sleep time of a human was reached) except Simon, who was searching his studies to verify if human beings can be modified with machines. The only book he found was a biography of Yuri Stark himself explaining his life and how he gained most of the most famed prizes in Vytal by using nanomachines and mechanic body parts to revive a human being by putting them in the person.
But, could it be in actual bad hands at the moment? First, her mother's obedience to the White Fang and, secondly, Maria's body who was completely changed…..the White Fang have access to this technology and they could do horrible things with it.
-But…this could start a war! , whispered Simon.
Meanwhile:
-M. Torchwick, our actual test on M. Xin are very positive at the moment, but we need more materials and Dust crystals to finish project Phoenix. , said Dr. Palmer.
-''sigh'' Fine, but you better finish this project as soon as possible! , said Roman.
-Understood, we thank you for your contribution. , said Dr. Palmer, disconnecting from the server.
A woman in a red dress mostly decorated with flames was standing not far from Torchwick. He closed his holographic screen and returned himself.
-We need to talk…..Crimson.