"Millennium's red team has intercepted F-Binah!"
"F-Chesed somehow hacked the guardbots throughout the city. They're turning against Millennium's blue team!"
And several more blaring warnings paired with the deafening sound of keyboard clacking, computer beeping and alarms blaring all throughout GSC's second office located near Sanctum Tower. Rin lacked access to the tower completely and Shittim Chest, the key to the door, was out of her hands, lost to a Sensei who fled long ago. The Arona OS was in Sariel's hands and judging by the reports she heard–
"Hyakkiyako is burning! They're being attacked by a combined Trinity and Gehenna force. Kaya is with them but I can't get in contact with her!" The blonde winged angel shouted without moving eye contact from her computer feed.
-Rin knew Kaya's hidden motives well and Hyakkiyako's burning was likely her doing. She knew only thanks to Gehenna Sensei who told her.
"Fuck that pink haired bitch."
He then proceeded to light up an awfully smelling cigarette.
That Sensei's prediction of the end of the world all came true and Rin left it to Sariel to resolve what he could. She had little faith in him–being a relatively new Sensei to Kivotos he was far too late to make real change. The orbit of events was already set, however now that it reached its trajectory, an altercation could be made.
"Arius Squad encountered an unknown foe!" For the first time Rin saw Momoka wear a look of worry. The smugness she always bore was just a mask to hide her fright for this moment she never believed was true.
Rin couldn't make light of the situation, being distressed herself when a crater opened and a greyish machinery lizard rose up and shot a laser into the sky. The sky changed red and the halo above Kivotos started to faint signaling the end times.
"What are those wankers doing? Saori, respond!" Rin yelled loud enough for anyone on the other side of remote communications to hear.
The entire room fell silent save for Saori's voice over the static. "Rin… I don't know what we encountered, but it and whatever girls it brought with, just killed two Millennium students with a single shot to the head. Their halos completely shattered!"
"N-no!" The winged blonde cried immediately and was brought to tears.
"Send Bunny Squad to retrieve Arius Squad!"
"Way ahead of you! They're to arrive in 2 minutes." Momoka replied.
"2 minutes- we're not gonna last a single second!"
"Bloody 'ell…" Rin bit the tip of her thumb. She then marched to Momoka's computer and snatched the headphones off her head, speaking only through the microphone. "We're breaking krrrr! Communications are krzzzzch!"
"You bastard, I can hear you just fine–!"
Rin mashed the escape key on Momoka's keyboard, ending the call then and there. The small imp rose. "What was that for?!"
"We're bloody fucked that's what! Can't get ahold of Kanna, Kirino, or even that slouch Fubuki. All of our squadrons are occupied NOT saving our rear ends. We need Millennium's help."
Just then a sinister giggle was heard from the headset. It then played on every computer's speaker before Momoka's computer screen switched to a visual feed of Himari in her super secret lair that definitely was not found and sabotaged. Behind her laid a pile of death servers covered by a blanket too small to hide the pile in the corner.
Himari then broke out into a forced laughter. "Looks like the GSC can't do the one thing they are supposed to, protect Kivotos. Funny really, that you're begging for help from other schools after distancing yourself from students' woes prior. Abydos' debt and the Eden Treaty just to name a few. But let me guess, it wasn't under your jurisdiction?"
"Why if it isn't my sworn enemy. Tch!" Rin clicked her tongue just to make their conversation more dramatic.
"Sworn enemies we may have been, this dire circumstance we both are dragged into presents a little opportunity to shake hands."
"Okay. Let's shake hands and sing like jokers."
"Ironic that you refuse the off-" Himari paused then switched tune from her majestic tone. "Wait what?"
Rin pointed at the screen. "But Millennium's guard bots are being hacked and turned against your own. Do your students really have what it takes without technology protecting them?"
"H-h-hacked?!" Whatever remained of her flawless hacker identity shattered.
Rin continued, "We're sitting ducks until we get access to Sanctum Tower. The GSC President's greatest weapon is in there."
A chair rolled in from off screen and Himari turned so Rin could see Hare. "You need Shittim Chest? Well we have it, but we don't have the password to open the damn thing. The encryption is too tight to break."
Arona, Rin thought. Her brows furrowed seeing a clear path towards winning. However, another chair rolled in from the opposite side and Himari turned so Rin could see Chihiro. "There is only one problem," She said. "It seems Noa took Shittim Chest and booked it."
"What?!" Veritas' HQ erupted.
"Where is she heading-take me with you." Himari blurted out.
Rin's brows furrowed. "Let's meet at Sanctum Tower. I have a feeling Noa will be there."
She then spun around. "Aoi, Ayumu! Try to get a hold of Kaya as best you can. Momoka, lead in my place. I'm going outside."
She turned heel, ignoring the protests of her coworkers as she went to the door. The clear path to victory, it all lies on Sensei now.
"Shit!" Saori threw down the radio letting the mechanics break into a hundred pieces. "We're left for dead."
"2 minutes." Atsuko readied her gun, the extreme submachine gun deadly at close range.
"You think we can do it, Princess?"
Misaki joined her side taking one of the two rpg-7s she carried on her back. "2 minutes is fine. We can block them off with rubble and escape outside."
"Please don't get hit." Hiyori would whimper.
"Alright." Saori grabbed a hold of the katana sheathed at her side. She pulled up a black surgical mask over her mouth and nose. "Maybe if the tortoise was faster the hare wouldn't be so late. Stay behind me."
"###########" The cloaked figure made an alien sound, not resembling even an animal. It droned for a minute and two of the girls by its side seemed to understand the language. They were too far for Saori to hear coherently but a black portal opened out of thin air behind them. First the two girls jumped in then the cloaked figure joined them, leaving behind the white haired and wolf eared woman that wielded a transforming rifle.
Tension was lifted off Saori's shoulders now that she only had to deal with one of these unknown invaders, but it was the one that slayed with a single bullet. The wolf woman looked down at the two maids who lay in their own blood stemming from the bullet wound on their heads, bloodying their blondish hair in a coat of red unfitting for a maid. Then her heels clacked, echoing.
She stepped over their bodies, calmly moving towards Arius Squad with her arm rested by her side and the rifle in it. Saori watched that rifle like a hawk, making her own slow steps closer to close the long gap between.
"..!" The woman's breath stopped. Saori hesitated as a reaction to her hesitant reaction and the wall in the middle of them blew open.
Out with a flip, Mika entered the scene unwarranted and unexpected to everyone present. She was still too lazy to put on her tea party uniform and remained in her dirtied gym uniform. "Let's go!" She spun and aimed her submachine gun at the woman, firing several blue energy-like bullets.
The mystery woman kicked into action, running to the side and stepping alongside the wall to run on as a trail of bullets followed her. She kicked herself off into the air over Mika and seemed to stop midair. The rifle in her hand flashed and changed into a minigun which she then swung downwards to carry the momentum back to the ground. Mika hopped back avoiding the slam that cracked the floor, ejecting her gun's magazine as she did.
She wouldn't have time to load into another as the woman lifted her minigun and unleashed a hailstorm of bullets she swept across the room. Saori and her squad were far enough to dive and avoid the bullets that whizzed past, but Mika suffered a searing wound here and there as she skipped and hopped further back.
After the storm ended, Saori ran up beside the once known witch. "What are you doing here?!"
"This is just like old times isn't it?" Mika coughed and clutched her stomach. Red bled through the blue tacket jacket but she would shake her head and stand back upright. "I heard there was hell raised out there and I immediately went here to see if something changed."
"You knew about Gehenna Sensei's predictions?"
Mika nodded, not wanting to waste her breath on words. Understanding the message and battle, Saori unsheathed her sword wielding it in both hands. She shouted, "One minute left! Misaki, create an opening for me." Then darted forward with Mika.
Misaki raised her rpg and fired at the ceiling to break and rain debris on the woman. Chunks and rubble from the roof covered Saori and Mika's advance. The woman swung her minigun with one arm deflecting and shattering a chunk that almost fell on her but the dust from it obscured her vision long enough for her to lose sight of both girls.
Instinctively her weapon changed to a shotgun and shield before her eyes darted left to Saori holding her sword pulled back. A breeze of wind brushed from behind her ear and she knew Mika was at her rear aiming to shoot point blank with her gun. Her heightened reaction presented both attacks slowly; her shield arm moved across to block Saori's blade but from her perspective it would look like she had superhuman movements. Her shotgun arm raised over her shoulder but from Mika's point of view it was as if she expected this pincer attack.
What the woman didn't account for was Hiyori's sniper rifle. With a loud bang! The 20mm bullet escaped her rifle and tore through the wind, faster than the woman could move.
Her head reeled back stuck by the bullet. Mika and Saori quickly distanced themselves from the then hunched over stranger. Before they could comment however, two rope ladders fell from the hole made. Arius Squad, Mika and Eimi, were quick to grab and ascend the ladder before the woman raised her head to reveal that she had caught the bullet with sharp fangs.
She spat it out alongside tooth and blood at least letting Saori know that she was mortal in some way. Her azur eyes seemed to have a glow as the helicopter grew ever more distance from the hole on the cathedral's roof.
The woman didn't bother to chase or stop them, fixated in a trance on the sky. The dim red sky that would never turn blue again.
A/N: Sorry for the long absence. I've been on the fence about whether I should wait for Volume F to release globally or not since many have yet to experience it. Most of the fanfictions written here focus on the very early segments of Blue Archive and judging by the length and pacing those writers go at, I don't think they'll get to Volume F without losing interest in writing. This was my plan from the beginning, to write about this volume since it was the most intriguing thing to come out of BA. Though this fanfiction is very much an AU of the story's events there are still some similarities I tried to keep intact. It's mostly the reasoning for why characters do things that changed, for example Rio taking Alice and activating Key.
I went back and edited as hard as I could with the spare time I had. A few scenes changed and some were added, like the arriving at Millennium segment in Sabotage ~ Trial, I edited in a more exciting intro sequence for the Nervous Vanguard. A lot of other edits were grammar related but I tried to keep the story's pace intact especially since this story is being cross posted on Ao3. It's a pain to update and fix things. Take a look and reread this story, hopefully it reads slighter better now for new readers to get into.
Moving on to what will happen, I'm working on my own writing project to release and I want to focus a lot of my efforts on that. This fanfiction will be updated very SLOWLY not only to wait for Volume F to release globally but also because my attention is elsewhere. I won't leave whenever readers I have completely in the dark though. I thought about changing the story's rating to M because things will get darker and the perspective from here on is going to be from Nagisa Sensei's POV since Sariel is currently elsewhere faraway. I'm also going to try and make the chapters longer with more content within them. So...
Again, thank you to anyone reading and I hope you stick around.