RWBY is property of Roosterteeth! I only own my characters.
CHAPTER 46
"Hello, Rage," Carnage spat angrily as he rumbled towards where Peleus and the others were. The metallic Lord had a deep, jagged dent punched into his chestplate, a cyan liquid leaked from small cracks in the plating, dripping onto the pavement. "I can't say I expected you to join us for thi-"
Rei patted Lex's head with his gauntleted hand silently, and the small girl hopped back. The Bloodline of Wrath followed through by grabbing and hurling the largest piece of rubble within reach at Carnage while the Lord was still talking. A twisted block of cement and steel from the fallen radio tower crashed into the metal Lord, who raised his arm to block the impact. The flying debris shattered into dust and smaller chunks with enough velocity to force Carnage back several steps.
"Nevermind! Straight to business, then!" Carnage yelled eagerly, smashing his fists into the ground. The Lord charged forward with surprising speed for his size, black arcs of electricity sparking off his body. Carnage swung his right arm towards the other Bloodline.
Peleus suddenly noticed a crater appeared around the Bloodline of Wrath right as Carnage's swing struck. Rei stood firmly rooted, despite the attack landing hard enough to create a shockwave of force that Pyrrha felt the need to lift her shield for. The bestial helmet atop the Guardian's head split open into a wide set of jaws, a faint green glow emanating from within.
"Uh..." Cinder shivered as the spiked club-like weapon that had been on Rei's back became a swinging tail. "So... Alex didn't say anything about this... Lex? Do you think you could make this clearer? Because your 'Uncle' isn't looking very Human at the moment." The Bloodline of Wrath let out a load, unnatural roar and smashed one of his dark-gray gauntlets into the side of Carnage's head. The Lord and his opponent tumbled, swinging and slashing at each other viciously.
"Oh," Lex supplied readily, "Uncle Rei's Bloodline just does that." Rei made a short, gruff growl of noise at the group of four still standing nearby. "And he says that we need to either help or get out of the way."
"Helping it is, then," Pyrrha smiled, dropping her father's replica ice shield to the ground, where it shattered. The redheaded student stowed her weapon on her back and held out both her hands towards the fighting Bloodlines. "It'd be wrong of us to let your Uncle fight all by himself, right?"
"Right!" Lex bounced, eagerly flaring her power as a Terror Inheritor once more.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Kiddo," Cinder patted the small girl gently on the head before reaching to pick up her pair of Dust crystals with her good arm. "You coming, Senator?"
"We all made it this far," Peleus felt a smile tug at his lips despite the situation, "it'd be shameful to quit now."
Carnage suddenly felt his arm's course alter, causing him to swing high above Rage's head as opposed to hitting the smaller Bloodline directly. The Lord's head whipped towards the Senator's group. The red-haired girl was using her power to affect his movements, and now that she didn't have to fight the Lord directly, her ability to push and pull the metal Bloodline's body was greatly increased. The Lord felt his left leg suddenly get pushed back, causing him to stumble and attempt to balance himself. Rage took immediate notice of his helpers as both an icy spear from Peleus and a searing bolt of lightning from Cinder crashed into Carnage's chest. The Lord staggered back as the projectiles impaled and splashed over the spot Lex had stripped his outer armor from.
Rei nodded at the others once, a clear sign of the bestial Bloodline's appreciation. With a roar, he took advantage of Carnage's opening, pouncing onto the larger Aura and situating himself atop his opponent's shoulder. Rei reeled back a clawed gauntlet and smashed it deep into the back of Carnage's metallic skull-like head. Bits of metal flew off as the Rage Inheritor continued to mercilessly pummel the Lord's cranium.
Carnage snarled, managing to reach up and grab Rei off his shoulders, and proceeded to throw the Bloodline of Wrath into the concrete at his feet. Before the giant Lord could attempt to crush his opponent beneath his boot, Rei's spiked-club tail swung up to strike him in the chin, as the smaller Bloodline rolled to the side. Cinder and Peleus' attacks moved to concentrate on the Lord's damaged head. Lex concentrated with all her might, creating a tennis ball-sized orb of concentrated violet energy.
"Uncle Rei!" Lex yelled as she shakily aimed the sphere of energy, clearly having trouble maintaining it. The Bloodline of Wrath dashed out of the line of fire as the small girl unleashed the projectile. Pyrrha concentrated as hard as she could, doing her best to keep the struggling Carnage from dodging the orb. The ball of energy flashed through the air like a tank shell, erupting into a massive cloud of violet flames and smoke as it detonated against the giant Lord's left shoulder.
A black metal arm flew out from the billowing dust and clattered against the ground with a harsh thud. The smoke cleared, revealing the damaged shell of the giant Lord. His left arm had been blown off at the shoulder were Lex's attack had hit. Only half of the Bloodline's skull-like visage remained, the metal jaw hanging limply from the smoking remains of his head. Carnage's form leaned backwards slightly with a stressed groan, before falling down onto the concrete with a crash. The pavement beneath him cracked and split at the impact.
"Did- did we do it?" Pyrrha breathed in exhaustion from using her Semblance so much, falling to her knees and shakily gasping for air.
"Pyrrha!" Lex yelled happily, running to hug the redheaded girl. "We did it! We-" The small girl suddenly tripped and crashed into the student. Pyrrha quickly tried her best to prevent Lex's head from hitting the ground, setting the small Inheritor down in her lap. The little girl let out a soft sigh and began to breathe gently. Pyrrha patted Lex's head gingerly as the little girl passed out from her own exhaustion.
"I can't believe it," Peleus breathed in relief, "Thetis... I..." A solitary tear rolled down the Senator's face. Cinder let out a deep sigh and sat on the ground.
Rei however, did not relax, stepping between the group and collapsed Carnage. With a hiss, the fallen Lord's chest split open, allowing a sight just as horrifying as its shell to step out into the light. Rei growled at Carnage's true form as Peleus gripped an icy spear tightly at his side, blood boiling that the Lord still lived. Pyrrha held Lex closer to her protectively.
To say that Carnage was barely Human was an understatement in Peleus' mind. The Lord was encased in a thin, skeletal body made of a matte black polymer. The remnants of a man sat attached to the body at the neck behind a clear visor, a pair of burned, twisted eyes floating attached to an equally damaged brain in a cyan gel. The very sight sent shivers down Peleus' spine, but his feelings of disgust were trivial in comparison to his anger.
Rei glared at the Lord with his bestial helmet, armored jaws flexing in preparation to strike. With a roar, the Bloodline of Wrath charged forward at the exposed Lord. A collective feeling of dread passed through the group as Carnage, now unburdened by the heavy armor, moved with inhuman speed, the joints in his body's knees bending so he dropped below Rei's pounce. In a fluid motion, the Lord grabbed the other Bloodline out of the air and slammed him into the ground. Pyrrha threw her hands forward at the Lord. Nothing. She tried again to no avail.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Carnage's voice gurgled, "but this form is not metallic. Now-" The Lord stopped as an Order dropship abruptly screamed to a halt in the air above them. Carnage took a moment to listen to some private radio transmission, slapping a spear from Peleus out of the air with his hand. "Very well," Carnage said with a hint of annoyance. "It seems I have run out of time to toy with you all. Fire at will."
Rei dashed to his feet as the dropship's rotary cannon dropped down to aim at Peleus and the others, snatching the first sturdy piece of rubble he could and throwing in in the aircraft's line of fire. Pyrrha pulled Lex with her behind the sudden concrete barrier as high-caliber rounds shredded the edges off of it. Cinder rolled into the heavy cover, wincing painfully as her broken arm ground against itself. With most of its targets out of sight, the dropship turned its attention to the exposed Rei, opening fire on the Bloodline. Tracers pinned Rei to the ground, the bullets denting and ricocheting off his armor. A ladder was dropped from the side of the hovering craft, allowing Carnage to climb up into the waiting safety of its hull.
The dropship began to pull away, leaving a battered and unmoving Rei embedded in the concrete. Pyrrha and Peleus both popped out from their cover as the aircraft turned away, firing and throwing their weapons at the fleeing vehicle. As it angled itself further into the sky, Pyrrha tried to hold it with her Semblance, but found herself only able to keep the craft still for a few seconds. As one of Peleus' spears impaled itself in the aircraft's hull, the dropship broke free from Pyrrha's grasp, and tore off towards the portal in the sky. The Senator let out a cry of anguish and fury as Carnage's ship became a speck in the distance.
Peleus' anger died in his chest as a hand gently touched his arm. Pyrrha stood beside her father with an equally grim expression on her face, but Peleus could detect something else behind the gesture. Pyrrha was telling him to let the Lord go. In that moment, the Senator thought of how similar his wife and daughter were. Thetis had often told him that his single-track mindset would be self-destructive, but it wasn't until now that Peleus realized what she had meant. A large part of him wanted desperately to chase Carnage, even follow him through the portal so he could kill him with his own two hands. But in doing so, Peleus would forsake Pyrrha, Mistral, and all of his fellow people for his own interests. Peleus dropped to his knees, and his daughter held him gently as he shook and cried, repeatedly whispering apologies to Thetis.
"Now's not really the time to break down and cry."
Peleus' tear-streaked face jolted up at the unfamiliar voice. Sitting upright in the crater where the bestial Bloodline of Wrath had been, was a man with dark hair and an eye-patch across the right side of his face. Blood ran freely down the stranger's face from his nose, ears, and mouth. Frightening distortions under his skin informed Peleus of the fact that the man had numerous broken and dislocated bones. Still, the unfamiliar man rose to his feet as if he could barely feel it.
"There are still people who need help," Rei stated flatly, "put your pain and anger to a better use than giving up and sitting in the dirt." Peleus looked at the man who had been within the terrifying beast-like armor. Despite the fact that he was likely in blinding, agonizing pain, Rei was still standing, still focused on his larger role. The Senator looked up as the Bloodline of Wrath walked over to him and offered him a hand. "What'll it be? Are you going to cry? Or are you going to walk?"
Weiss scanned the area around her in a livid rage. Golem had proven to be a trickier opponent than she had anticipated. Jerloh had requested to leave suddenly when a pillar of violet flames had risen from the area near the radio tower. The Bloodline of Earth had been quite honest about the fact that Agony had likely sent the Lord called "Carnage" to kill their friends. Unable to fault him for being worried about Lex, Weiss and Alyia had told the Terror Inheritor to go. That hadn't stopped Golem from delaying him with the strange earthen Shades that he had summoned.
Weiss was currently engaged with one of the stone effigies. Upon closer inspection, the jagged curves and turns of the stone resembled that of a knight's armor, aside from the monstrous, cyclops-like head that stared intently at her. The creature swung its arms about with a bizarre sort of precision for a being for its size. For some reason, Weiss couldn't shake a strange feeling of deja vu, as if she'd fought this thing before.
The young Schnee shook her head, clearing her thoughts to focus on the task at hand, which was proving difficult with complete mayhem breaking out both on the ground and in the air above the city. As if to support this fact, a particularly large and flaming wreck of an EDC strike craft came careening out of the sky, forcing Weiss to use her Semblance and create steps far out of the debris' path. The large stone Shade was not so lucky, taking the full brunt of the flaming craft's mass and shattering into large chunks.
With the immediate threat dealt with, Weiss searched for Jerloh or Alyia. It felt like Golem was deliberately separating them, which even Weiss had to admit would be the wisest course of action for him to take. While his Shades slowly moved them away from each other, Golem would be free to play to his strength of one-on-one combat.
Weiss caught sight of two distant points of conflict, blasts of violet flame and the telltale thumps of explosives. It was safe to assume that one of Charles' children was in each area. Weiss took a deep breath, preparing herself to drop back towards the ground. She created a staggered downward spiral of small glyphs, taking easy steps until her shoes clicked against the pavement.
Weiss stopped as her right foot kicked a piece of the destroyed stone Shade, flipping the chunk over. She felt her heart freeze as she noticed what looked like an engraved symbol etched into the shattered piece. It was one of her glyphs.
"Your power has some interesting applications," Golem stated, causing Weiss to spin around to face him. "The... what do you call them... sigils-"
"Glyphs," Weiss spat, narrowing her eyes at the Lord.
"Yes, so these glyphs of yours are useful on their own," Golem crossed his arms idly, "but I had no idea that they could be used to summon things until recently. I have to wonder why you didn't use such a power the last time-" The Lord stopped short as Weiss' rapier angled itself at his throat. "Oh, I see, you haven't been able to use it yourself." The tip of Myrtenaster's blade inched closer to the Lord's exposed head. "Is something stopping you? I'm unarmed at the moment. Go ahead, strike me down, avenge your Terror friend."
Weiss grit her teeth, gripping the handle of her weapon in two hands. Myrtenaster's point wavered and shook mere centimeters from Golem's neck. Weiss took a sharp intake of breath. What was wrong with her? Golem was right in front of her! She could kill him right here and now! The image of Charles' final moment flashed in her mind, Golem's lance impaled through his heart, her glyph floating beside the Lord. Weiss let out a scream of anger and thrust Myrtenaster forward with as much murderous intent she could.
Weiss felt her weapon's blade tilt to the side as Golem's lance rose out of the ground and parried Myrtenaster away from the Lord's neck. Instead of impaling him through the throat as Weiss intended, the rapier sunk into the open joint in Golem's armor at his shoulder. The Lord reached out and placed an open palm in Weiss' face, summoning a glyph between them. Golem's other hand wrapped around the young student's weapon as Weiss tried to yank it out of his arm. A blast of force threw the Schnee through the air, breaking the fingers in her left hand as she desperately tried to keep a hold on Myrtenaster's hilt.
Weiss rolled across the dust-covered round, bright lights flashing across her vision as the back of her head collided with the side of a building.
"Hmm," Golem said as he pulled Weiss' weapon out of his limb. "I wonder..." A glyph appeared by his free hand, where a copy of Myrtenaster shortly feel into his grasp. "Oh, so it can replicate solid objects as well, though I have to say," the Lord swung the duplicate through the air with a swish, "I think it lacks the charm and weight of the original. Stone and metal are far more appealing to work in." He dismissively dropped the replica, which shattered into disintegrating shards upon contact with the ground. "I suppose I should thank you, these powers are far beyond any Secondary Ability back on Earth." Weiss turned to glare at the Lord from the ground, a slowly dripping crimson stain spreading on the back of her head. The small hairpiece that usually sat atop her head lay broken on the ground, allowing Weiss' hair to fall over her face. Golem came to a stop beside the student, hefting Myrtenaster in his hand. "We may be enemies, but I'm not cruel. I'll make this quick."
Weiss felt tears leak from the corner of her eyes and down her cheeks. She felt completely powerless. Golem's black boot thudded into the corner of her blurred vision.
Weiss... Stand up.
Time seemed to slow down around the young Schnee. She looked up to see Golem frozen in place, but upon trying to move herself, Weiss found that she was unable to move her body below the neck. She weakly laid her head down on the ground again.
"This is that 'life flashing before my eyes' kind of thing isn't it?"
Something like that.
Weiss looked up again, recognizing the voice.
"Charles? How are you-"
Oh, I'm not here. This is in your head.
"...What?"
I guess this is you thinking about what I would do or say at this moment.
"'Stand up'..." Weiss muttered. "Don't give up."
Just because your opponent's flaunting a lot of power doesn't make him better than you. So, get back up and show him what you're made of. Weiss grit her teeth, gathering all of the strength she could muster. There was no planning involved, only her own instincts. The strange distorted time frame Weiss' stressed mind had entered began to fade. For a moment, the young Schnee could swear she saw Charles' smiling at her one last time. Go get him, Weiss.
Weiss let out a yell of exertion as she rolled to the side as quickly as she could. Her rapier's blade buried itself in the pavement where her torso had been. A glyph appeared by the white-haired student's right hand as she rolled into a kneeling stance. Golem's eyes were still wide from shock at her sudden action. Weiss thrust her body forward as a simple shortsword materialized in her palm. She closed both her hands around the blade's handle as she pushed it upwards, digging through the blackened metal of the Lord's chestplate.
Golem let Weiss' rapier tumble from his grasp, where it clattered against the ground. The Bloodline of Earth staggered back several steps, until he was leaning against the smoking wreckage of the fallen strike craft that Weiss had avoided before. He looked down at the blade that she had shoved through him. A perfect replica of Charles' shortsword had punched cleanly through his armor and punctured his heart. To Weiss' great irritation, the Lord's face split into a calm grin.
"I'm sorry," Golem coughed as he slowly leaned back against the crashed aircraft, leaving a trail of blood behind him on the metal of the vehicle's wing, "were you expecting something else?"
"I'd prefer it if you didn't look so happy," Weiss hissed, wiping a strand of blood-caked hair out of her eyes.
"Weiss!" Alyia came running around a nearby corner, catching sight of the fallen Lord and the injured young Schnee girl. "Are you okay!? What happened!?" Weiss didn't answer, instead turning her attention to Golem as he coughed out a last few words.
"How can I... die angry... when I... finally... found someone... strong than... I am?" And with one last shudder, the Bloodline of Earth closed his eyes and lay as silent and still as a stone.
Agony grunted in pain as he was thrown into the side of the Senate building. The Lord dropped into a crouched stance, ducking underneath the sharpened outer edge of Sven's scythe, which dug itself deeper into the wall where his neck had been. Agony responded with an upward swing of his mace, clipping the Reaper under his chin and sending the cloaked Bloodline sailing back through the air. Sven landed lightly on his feet, his boots thudding gently against the cracked pavement.
Ruby wasn't quite sure what to make of the two Bloodlines that had arrived to help them. She was too preoccupied helping Blake keep their wounded friends out of the way of the fighting to really worry about it. Dimitri was barely back on his feet, though he was alive, much to Blake's relief, cradling Firo's unconscious form in his arms. Agony had backhanded the one-eared rabbit Faunus with his mace, leaving a gruesome-looking gash near the back of Firo's head. Luna and Marcia were both awake, but were in no condition to help, as they both nursed broken bones. Alex's head was rested on Luna's lap where the group sat hidden away in an alley, the blonde soldier was unmoving aside from the very slight rise and fall of his breathing.
Just thinking about Alex sent shivers down Ruby's spine. Initially, she'd thought that Agony had only splintered her friend's knee, but when she and Blake had gone to move him, they'd found Alex's right leg hanging only by a thin sinew of twisted flesh, metal, and cloth. The image of the soldier, pale from blood-loss, was seared into Ruby's mind. She tightened her grip on Crescent Rose, wringing her hands around the weapon's handle in frustration.
Ruby was shaken from her thoughts as a bolt of electricity seared a blackened mark into the wall near her head. The cloaked student peeked around the edge of the alleyway, looking at the source of the attack. While the Reaper was fighting against Agony, the Bloodline called "Esprit" fought the other two Lords on his own. The heavily-armored ex-Lord seemed unnaturally unperturbed by the arcs of electricity and enraged strikes that the other two Bloodlines, Ion and Enmity, landed on him, despite the deep gashes they were leaving in his armor.
Espirt tensed, raising his sword to chest-level and swinging the two-handed blade in a wide arc around him. Enmity stopped short of her next attack as the sword nicked strands of the hair on her forehead. The former High Lord followed through with a strike from the heavy gauntlet attached to his arm, sending the Bloodline of Hatred tumbling across the ground.
Blake shifted uneasily beside Ruby, and the cloak girl could understand why. Even with the five Bloodlines engaged in a flurry of rapid, murderous swings, not a single one had flared their power yet. It was like the combatants of either side were seeing whether their opponents would expend the extra energy first.
Ruby noticed Ion begin to generate a pale, electric-blue haze as the Lord seemed to decide to break the lack of Bloodline usage. A massive bolt of lightning suddenly dropped from the air, accompanied by a sudden downpour of heavy rain. In Ion's place was a being that seemed to shift and warp in response to the falling rain around it. Sparks and arcs of energy danced across the ground around it. Street lights in close proximity flickered in response to the Bloodline of Lightning's power.
While Enmity smirked and began to flare her own ability, Ion rushed towards Esprit, small streaming of electricity appearing as he sped past metal objects. The electrified Lord slashed away at the former High Lord with a blade made of pure energy, landing several rapid hits against Esprit's torso and legs.
Enmity fell to the ground for a moment, her eyes going blank and her body limp. However, Ruby could tell she was far from dead, as the Lord twitched and rose to her feet in an unnatural manner. The veins beneath the female Lord's skin turned a glowing blood-red, seeping into her eyes, where the pupils turned to same shining hue. Blood suddenly spewed from the cracks in Enmity's gauntlets, but the liquid did not simply fall onto the pavement. Instead, the sudden flood of crimson floated around where it had come from. The Lord's stained gauntlets were relieved of their spot on Enmity's forearms, where the floating blood quickly rushed to take place. A pair of large, three-fingered hands with sharp nails formed atop Enmity's existing appendages.
The Bloodline of Hatred rushed in to join her comrade, who was still busy keeping Esprit's attention. Enmity wrapped her two inhuman hands together, delivering a two-armed blow into the former High Lord's torso, forcing the heavily armored man's boots to screech several inches back across the ground against the cement.
Sometime when Ruby hadn't been looking, Agony had also flared his ability in his fight with Sven. A pair of limp, boney wings had sprouted from the Bloodline of Pain's back, cloaked in a blood-red energy. The High Lord swung his mace once through the air in front of him.
"Get back!"
Ruby and Blake's view was suddenly blocked as Esprit and his armor stepped between the and the blast of energy Agony had cloaked the entire area in. A lamppost flew through the air overhead. Esprit made a grunt of annoyance.
"Well, it seems that they decided to make the first move after all..." the ex-Lord said. Ruby detected a hint of solemn eagerness in the man's voice. He turned to face the pair of students. "Are you and your friends unharmed?"
"Y-yeah," Ruby nodded, "thanks." Esprit made a nondescript sound of acknowledgment before raising his blade to deflect a blast of electricity from Ion.
"Stay here," Esprit instructed, pointing down at the ground. The former High Lord turned his back to Blake and Ruby, flaring his own ability to life. Bright white symbols lit up across his armor, turning the plain black plating into a light show of an ornate design, written in a language neither of the students could recognize. Light gray wisps of some smoke-like substance leaked from the joints in Esprit's armor as he went to face off against the Lords once again. Suddenly, he stopped, returning his attention towards the students. "Actually..."
Sven ducked underneath one of Agony's enraged swings, still holding off on activating his ability until he was absolutely sure he had no other option. The High Lord was becoming more and more furious as his adversary seemed to become less aggressive.
"What's wrong, Reaper?" Agony panted, staring at the emotionless white mask on his opponent. "Are you truly foolish enough to not fight me at full strength? What is this? Some sort of pity?!"
Sven replied softly, "There is still time for you to stop this, Agony. Look around you, is this really what you want?"
"What the hell kind of question is that?" the Lord spat back.
"I'd rather not kill you, but if you continue, I will be forced to-"
"Save your god damn mercy," Agony growled. "Destruction such as this serves as a step on my path to create a perfect humanity. As I weed out the weak, I grow closer to my goal. Bloodlines are the key, Reaper. Imagine it... no illness, no strife, possibly even no death. But, no, you'd rather protect the weak, the worthless creatures who barely comprehend the dirt they crawl around in."
"I see," Sven sighed, closing his eyes behind his mask for a moment. "I extended the offer for you to surrender and stop this... At least I can say I tried..." In that moment, Sven's cloak turned into its wispy, shadowy state, indicative of his ability flaring. Deep-blue symbols appeared at the Reaper's back, slowly shifting and forming into a pair of wings consisting of six glowing crescent-shaped forms. Sven shifted his scythe in his hands, dropping into a readied stance. As he did so, the half-dozen sharp segments making up the wings on his back angled forward with him.
Agony visibly flinched as the first attack flew towards him. Two of the glowing crescents broke off, slashing wildly at the Lord. The Bloodline of Pain crushed one of the blades of light underneath his mace as the other seared by his arm. A replacement for the destroyed crescent was already forming at Sven's back. Agony snarled in frustration, mentally allocating more energy towards his regenerative ability.
The Reaper rushed forward, using all seven of the bladed crescents at his disposal to push Agony back. The High Lord swatted away one sharp object only to be pierced or slashed by another. Sven detached himself from the world around him, letting only his intent to kill Agony drive his actions. He attacked with all six of his wing-blades at once, the glowing implements impaling themselves through Agony's body. The Bloodline of Pain hissed angrily in response, slamming his mace into the ground. A blast of energy put some space between the two Auras, creating a crater in the pavement where they had been standing.
Sven slid backwards across the ground, his boots grinding against the dust and debris at his feet. He came to a stop across the road from where Ion and Enmity were having a standoff with Esprit. All five of the Bloodlines panted from exhaustion, their abilities beginning to take their tolls.
"As usual, it seems the situation has become a stalemate," Ion's voice crackled like static while his ability was flared. The two lesser Lords moved so that they were standing in front of Agony, who was busy ripping Sven's blades out from his armor. "Perhaps if the numbers were even, this fight would be going more poorly for the Order, but... as it stands..." Ion jabbed his sparking thumb to the sky, where an EDC Dreadnaught was slowly falling from the sky, though it had taken more than a dozen of the ships that had come through Agony's gateway with it.
"With the two of you alone," Enmity stated, baring her teeth, "it's only a matter of time before we get away. Dropships will be here any minu-" Suddenly, the Bloodline of Hatred had to roll out of the way as a high-caliber Dust round impacted the ground where she had been standing. The trio of Lords glared at the shot's source, catching sight of a certain pair of girls standing at the mouth of the alleyway they had been hiding in.
"How adorable," Enmity laughed, "now you've got a couple of little girls to go running to their deaths. Ion, should I show them what happens to stupid people?"
"Be my guest," Ion smirked, waving his companion forward. Enmity charged forward towards Ruby and Blake, but the eager smile on the Lord's face died in her chest as Sven and Esprit made no move to stop her. Something was wrong-
Enmity was suddenly set upon by a flood of figures she did not recognize, silhouettes of countless warriors. The Lord backpedaled quickly, dodging the numerous slashes and stabs from the army of shadows.
"What!?" Agony yelled in surprise. He recognized the ability being used. Esprit often brought back Shade-like phantoms of warriors of old during the war on Earth, but when had he had time to concentrate to make such a large force- The High Lord's gaze fell on Ruby and Blake. In each girl's hand sat a small orb of light. Souls.
"How?" Ion incinerated a ghostly image of Pyrrha that had attempted to stab him.
"It's Esprit," Agony snarled, "Since his line is the Bloodline of Souls, he splintered his own so he could draw energy and information from those two children."
"So while we were tiring ourselves out fighting Reaper and Esprit..." Enmity muttered tiredly, kicking Blake's memory of Adam through the chest.
"Looks like they caught on," Sven commented, panting. "How long can you maintain those guys, by the way?" At his feet, the Reaper's wispy cloak dripped into Esprit's shadow, subtlety transferring energy to the other Bloodline.
"Not for an extended period of time," Esprit answered, turning to Ruby and Blake. "If the two of you are going to do something, do it now."
"Right," Ruby answered with a determined expression, whirling Crescent Rose around so it was squared directly on the trio of Lords as they backed up against the horde of phantoms. "Ready, Blake?"
"Ready on your-"
"You two weren't thinking of leaving us out, were you?" Alex's voice interrupted. Blake and Ruby turned to find their friends limping or hobbling out of the alleyway, weapons painfully gripped in their hands. Alex, without his leg, was being supported on Luna and Marcia's shoulders. Ruby felt a wave of relief wash over her, and she smiled despite the situation.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Alex," the cloaked girl turned her attention back to the Lords as her friends did their best to set up around her. "Ready! Aim!" She took a deep breath, placing her finger around Crescent Rose's trigger. "Fire!"
Agony's head snapped towards the girl's voice as a wave of bullets washed over him and his two subordinates. Ion's body sparked and distorted as the rounds ripped through the air. Enmity reformed her blood-covered hands into a solid shield to protect her head and vital organs, but was knocked to the ground as the projectiles shredded through her legs. Agony snarled as his energy depleted, trying to keep him alive under the onslaught of phantoms and gunfire.
The approaching scream of dropship engines caught the High Lord's attention. Four small black specks sped towards the Lords at high speeds. Agony bent down, hoisting Enmity onto his back so her shield blocked him partially as well. The steady clatter of gunfire gradually slowed as Alex, Ruby, and their friends continued to burn through ammunition. The Order dropships lowered themselves towards the ground, one acting as a sponge to soak up the rain of projectiles, and another working to mow down Esprit's wavering army of phantoms. The last two hovered mere feet above the pavement to pick up the Lords.
"Oh no, you don't," Marcia hissed, bringing her anti-material rifle shakily up to her shoulder. With a crack, the pilot of the craft acting as a shield lost his head, blood splashing across the cockpit of the craft as it began to careen out of control, crashing and burning in a spectacular display. Agony's foot touched the ramp of one of the craft.
Ruby and the others emptied their weapons at the dropships until they clacked to signify they had not a single shot left. Sven and Esprit mustered what was left of their powers to fire a pair of blasts at the fleeing craft as they pulled away. Ruby hastily reloaded Crescent Rose with the last magazine on her belt, a mostly-spent one at that, and angled her weapon at the dropships, which were quickly becoming smaller.
Ruby's aim shook from a mixture of exhaustion and varying emotions. Alex placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, making the cloaked girl take a deep breath. Ruby aimed down her weapon's sights, narrowing her eyes at the three remaining aircraft. She squeezed off the last two rounds in the magazine, praying that at least one found its mark. Over a second passed in tense silence as Ruby and the others waited. No ship fell from the sky. Ruby fell onto her rear as anguish, disappointment, and exhaustion all threatened to overwhelm her.
In the distance, the Order ships began to pull away towards Agony's portal, gradually disappearing back into their own world. The pair of remaining EDC Dreadnaughts fired volley after volley at the fleeing craft, taking as many of the Order's ships down as they could before the enemy escaped. Ruby numbly registered a nearby explosion as Agony's device holding the gateway open deep within the Senate building exploded in a pillar of flame and sparks, setting the building it was housed in ablaze. One of the giant holes in the sky began to shrink rapidly, closing behind the final living Order ships as they left Remnant.
Ruby felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks. They'd just won, hadn't they? But, as she and Blake looked around at the bodies and burning buildings around them, the girl's suddenly realized how little it mattered whether they had "won". In the end, they had lost countless lives... and had been left with only a hollow victory. Alex had Luna set him down beside Ruby so he could gently hug the cloaked girl. Blake leaned her forehead against Dimitri and Firo, quietly sobbing as the stress finally got to her. Marcia, Sven, and Esprit remained eerily silent, solemnly observing a kind of scene they had grown all too accustomed to over the years. Ruby slowly looked up at the sky, still openly shaking, and voiced the thought that they all had.
"Everything we did..." she asked no one in particular, "Did any of it even matter?"
Later, Alex lay on his back, quietly staring at a tear in the roof of the medical tent he had been placed in with the others. His leg had been too far gone for anyone to attempt healing it, so the doctors had opted to amputate the limb before it became infected. Dimitri, Firo, Luna, and Marcia were all being treated for various fractured and broken bones, as well as a concussion in Firo's case.
Ryan had his eyes closed across from Alex, wrapped in heavy bandages across most of his body to cover the multitudes of puncture wounds he had received from Europa. Ryland and Yang had been seen about the freezer-burned sections on their skin. Yang had a pair of cotton balls stuffed up her nostrils, and a doctor was checking her for missing teeth. Ryland, proud owner of yet another new set of stitches, lay resting beside his girlfriend.
Elise and Eve were sitting in a corner with Enigma, seemingly helping her adapt to the new faces around her. From what Alex had been told, the pair of sister Bloodlines had pulled a modified Corrupter out of the now ex-Lord's chest over the course of an exceptionally painful hour. Without her armor or weapons, Enigma viewed the world around her with a mixture of fear and excitement, but seemed happy to be beside her new family.
Lex was curled up on her father's lap. Out of everyone, Jerloh seemed to have taken the lightest beating, though that wasn't saying much considering that he was sporting half a dozen stitched bullet wounds, one of which had grazed right above his left eye. Near to them were Pyrrha and Cinder, Peleus having been called off to speak to some other surviving officials from the Senate as well as a representative of the EDC.
Alex watched worriedly over the five students he had brought with them. All of the girls had dark, distant looks on their faces. Blake was refusing to leave Dimitri or Firo's side, just as Yang and Ryland stuck exceptionally close together. Ruby was sitting next to Weiss, consoling the young Schnee as the weight of her fight with Golem finally set in. Pyrrha had periods where she would stare blankly out into the city through the open flap in the medical tent, as if she wasn't sure whether she was dreaming. Cinder seemed to be working on snapping her out of those trances.
The blond soldier vaguely registered Peleus' voice speaking over the city-wide speaker system. The officials must have jury-rigged something to allow him to broadcast without the radio tower.
"Brothers and sisters of Mistral, this is Peleus Nikos. I am here to tell you that the battle is over, that we have retaken out home... but at a great cost. I have been informed that over two thousand of our brave neighbors, family members, and friends are unaccounted for, and another six thousand are confirmed to have fallen fighting for our home... Now is the time we have to grieve... to rebuild... Never forget this day, my friends, and the men and women who made it so we could live to see tomorrow."
A/N:So, I considered splitting this one, but I ultimately decided that I'd just give you guys one long chapter instead of dragging battles on for more days than necessary. This is one of those chapters that I'm all over the place for, some sections I really like how they turned out, while others feel kinda "meh".
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REVIEW REPLIES
Stevealio163: Well, I had to kill someone with that thing eventually.
Skaana: If you buy from your local Ryland retailer today, the limb removal process is 100% off.