Chapter 25: A Beacon to Remnant
It was one of the many control rooms, quickly evacuated of personnel once the fighting breached the door and chaos spilled into the space. A trio of Huntresses inside were at the center of a swirling melee, swarmed by android Knights, they fought back-to-back.
Yang parried a cut with the aid of Ember Celica, punched the android's head clean off, "Come on! Any luck?"
Penny grasped a pair of androids, one with each hand, then blasted both, "Almost!"
In the space between words, Winter — still in her summoned armor — had cleaved through a line of knights, held a summoned sword with both hands, "Watts is close, I know it."
"Get down!" Penny said, and the two Huntresses obeyed as soon as the words left her mouth. She deployed every sword in her arsenal, tethered to her by translucent cables. The blades each flew in their own direction, cutting through every android in the room. She was the center of an invisible web.
As Penny retracted the blades back, the other two got up. What remained of a single Knight's head, observed them, but not through mechanical means.
Winter checked their surroundings, "We're closing in on him, I know it. But we'll be surrounded if we don't hurry, they're summoning all androids back," she said.
Yang nodded, "This won't stop us," she said.
Winter spoke up again, "They're not meant to stop us, they're meant to slow us down so they can regroup and coordinate a counterattack. We can't waste time, You need to run after Watts, we'll keep them busy," the ex-Specialist explained. She knew that, of course, the Schnee had been a part of their armed forces in the past
Yang obeyed. As she ran out of the room, the ground shook beneath them.
Salem closed her inner eye, the image of the huntresses quickly fading away from her perception, bringing her attention elsewhere, back to her main body. Strangely, she could only recall the event after if had already place for some time.
How would she describe what she felt? The bubbling excitement in her gut? It had become foreign to her, she closed her eyes to better savor the sensation. Through her mouth, she let out a breath, long and calm, to the point where her lungs almost burned. It allowed the feeling to spread along her veins and nerves.
Crash!
Her fist went through the luxury window in an instinctual drive to destroy. The knuckles were healed within a moment.
Again she opened her inner eye. The tower's cameras were infected by Grimm, and through them she saw Arthur running to an extraction point, a helipad if she remembered correctly.
And where were his Specialists? Away. Delayed by combat with normal people, Beacon's trained fighters. They took no Specialists down, only worried themselves with ambushes and swift retreats. It seemed they had arrived from the flying ruins of their once-great carrier.
But Arthur, he would be intercepted. She couldn't allow him the luxury of running and away and living the rest of his miserable life looking over his shoulder, could she? No, that was very kind for a failed experiment.
Elsewhere she could see through the eyes of a beast that would intercept him, feel through its powerful Grimm muscles and puffs of breaths. It stopped and sniffed the floor, parsing a scent, Arthur's scent. When it continued its four-legged sprint, strength was renewed, there was a level of excitement. Somewhere on the back of its mind it detected fear, and instinctively knew where to go.
It burst through a wall like it was barely even there, shouldering concrete and steel out of its way.
And if she'd predicted the future correctly… If she used one of Ozpin's tricks correctly…
Yes! It would meet with the pair of Huntresses along the way. But elsewhere, Watts panicked in front of a wall of monitors. She shifted her attention again, what did he see that worried him so?
The blonde Huntress, Yang, cut Watts off before he could make it to an exit. He was trying to avoid fighting, but brainy that she was, she took routes that circled his exits and used her Semblance of Power in an improvisational way! The heat and fire it produced, mixed with the Dust in her ammunition, she used both to flash-weld the exits shut, slowing down reinforcements and keeping Watts inside the building. He only had one way out, and Salem was it.
So she observed as he ran down hallways to make it her way, even cutting down soldiers caught like deer in headlighs. She could feel it all. Like a symphony, all pieces of the puzzle, all the gears fit together seamlessly as parts of the whole rising to a great finale. An orchestra.
No, not yet. There was another piece, another fight, outside the tower, father fought daughter.
The power she gave him, did it hold? Her senses said yes, though magical in nature that they were, she was not as tuned to them. She knew he still controlled the giant knight, and kept an Aura shield, but details were omitted.
Was it the presence of the heiress? Perhaps she had underestimated Weiss. She could not possibly know all the ramifications of sharing a piece of her soul with others, with her team.
Still, it was dangerous and hopefully it would be taken care of before the end of the snowstorm.
A whimper cu throughher concentration. Ah, the servant — Elisa — still tucked herself in a corner, behind a piece of ruined furniture. The room was properly thrashed, but still, so inconsiderate to Salem's concentration!
Salem glided across the room, her feet close to the floor as she approached the servant. The girl shook from head to toe, and there was terror in her eyes.
Salem looked into her eyes, "Come now… What worries you so?"
With eye contact established, the girl could not look away, even if she wanted to. When she spoke, her voice shook, tears escaped her eyes, "Y… You-"
She was still in shock? The disappointment in Salem was immeasurable, for as much as she looked like a past servant from half a decade ago, she lacked so much of the resolve and focus… But she should be grateful, she was too good for Salem's experiment. Like a trinket of the past, to be kept safe from harm.
A feeling tugged at the back of her mind, taking her attention away from Elisa, to the servant's relief. The Beast fought at that very moment. Ah, the Beast, she wondered what they'd name it. Could they know the artistic intent behind it, or, hunting machines that the Huntresses were, would they only look for the coldest, most practical way to study and destroy it?
Either path the future took, the fact that Salem too had found a way to link multiple minds was still beyond them. She too had adapted.
—❖—
Stronger, faster and smarter. Winter took one look at it and she could tell, from the way that Grimm scanned the room that it was all three.
A trio of Beowulf heads shared a neck. It was larger than an Ursa, so much so it had to bend forward to go through the doorway. Though it walked on all fours when they met, upon seeing the pair of Huntresses it walked on its hind legs, somewhat hunched over. The front claws were like knives, almost as long as them too, and bone spikes grew from the back.
And it was guarding the great hall, the upper portion of the tower that once served a practical purpose for the CCTS, now converted into a luxurious room, almost a piece of royalty living space transplanted into the tower.
Winter leaned close to Penny, "So what are we calling that one?"
Penny beamed a smile and clapped her hands in excitement, the opportunity to name a Grimm was rare those days, "Oh! How about… A Cerberus!" she said, narrowing her eyes, her tone shifting to almost mystical seriousness.
It'd do.
THe Cerberus eyed them carefully, the central head did at least. The other two seemed to keep their eyes on different places. Watching for blind spots, maybe? Winter advanced.
The Grimm plunged a hand inside its chest, producing an atlesian-issue dustblade from within, a long and single-edged kind. It cut down as it met Winter.
Winter summoned a glyph that blocked the blade, jumped out of the way as Penny fired a beam at the Grimm. It dropped low, then surged to the wall. Its claws severed pieces of the wall as it leaped back to the ground.
It can use tools? A Hybrid? Winter thought.
It advanced at Winter, they traded four swift blows before Penny forced it to move away again with a barrage of puppet-sword cuts. Most Grimm would've taken the attacks and died there.
Winter narrowed her eyes behind the summoned helm's visor. It was unlike the android hybrids, yet unlike the elder Grimm.
It paces as she did, measuring the next attack. As Penny launched another barrage of beams, it jumped away, in a zig-zagging pattern of leaps. Winter took its defense in, it was too careful, too human. Conserving strength.
It landed, and all three heads panted , excited.
From its mouths, it finally produced a sound…
"No… Hu-n…tresses…" All thee said in unison. A reverberating echo of female and male voices.
Snap! Its torso bent painfully to the side.
"No…"
Another snap, it bent to the other side, something threatened to grow from it, tried to break free from the torso, only stopped by a thin membrane. An arm?
Penny shot a beam at it, yet it quickly evaded as the body snapped again, bent backwards. An arm broke free of the membrane, another mirrored it on the side just as violently.
"Watts!"
The new pair of arms were thin and long, longer than the regular set, almost skeletal. It roared, and an arm snapped for a spike from its back, pulled it free, then launched it as a Javelin at Penny.
Penny barely cut it out of the air with a recently deployed sword.
Winter felt her mind fog up, it could talk! Her gut bubbled in anger, was there someone trapped inside it too?
Blood boiling inside her veins, Winter advanced, stabbed her sword clean through the central head, right between the eyes. A clawed hand tore through the surface of her shoulder just as she realized her mistake, spun away to correct it. An instant later and it would've severed her neck.
Independent of the main body, the extra set of arms continued pulling spiked and launching them at Penny. The companion wielded a sword in each hand, cut the barrage before it reached her, but was locked in defending herself. Unable to support Winter with covering fire.
Winter summoned a Glyph, blocking the spikes, and Penny understood the prompt without the need for words. They switched roles, briefly, as Winter fell back and Penny advanced.
Penny delivered wide cuts mixed with point-blank blasts, Winter used Glyphs to redirect spikes back at the Cerberus. As it tried to move away, Winter blocked passage with another Glyph, Penny moved in, delivered a swift cut…
One head rolled on the floor, turned to ash a moment later. The Grimm roared in anger, flailing wildly, forcing Penny back.
It faked a jump to the left, and as Winter summoned a glyph to block it, leaped right. Running on all six limbs, it quickly disappeared as it shouldered itself past the entrance behind it.
Retreating for a better position, they were sure, and neither liked the ramifications of it.
Winter turned to Penny, "We need to chase it!" she said, already moving to follow the Cerberus.
"Wait!" Penny called, "I've got an idea!"
—❖—
Weiss ran across the banquet table, slid past a cut from the giant knight, and surged at her father as the piece of furniture was cleaved in two. She cut down as she landed on her feet.
Jacques parried the blow, locking blades. For a moment they were face-to-face, her grimace against his smug smile.
From behind, the giant knight swung wide, a cut parallel to the ground. Weiss flipped back as she disengaged from the clinch, jumping back. The sword missed her in the air, and Jacques stepped atop it, letting it carry him on the flat of the blade.
The knight brought the blade up, carried it across the shoulder as Jacques jumped out.
I knew I should've taken grandfather's sword with me. Weiss thought, momentarily regretting leaving the family heirloom behind.
Weiss summoned a Glyph to her free forearm as a shield, to better let her instincts protect.
"Surprised?" Jacques said, shouting past the raging snowstorm. Weiss kept her gaze fixed on him and advanced anyway, driving the glyph-shield into his body. Jacques threw her off, and hopped aside.
"Is this because of the androids? It's a sha—" his words were cut off as Weiss shot a blast of fire from Myrtenaster, taking with it a chick of his Aura shield. Jacques staggered back.
Weiss spun backwards when the knight swung down, driving the blade between them.
Jacques straightened himself, "Giving me the silent treatment?" he sang, "No grand speech of crimes or righteousness? No negotiation?"
Myrtenaster buzzed to life as Weiss engaged the hard-light mode. She charged, the teal blades cut through the snow as she carved out a V-shaped piece of the knight's sword.
The hulking piece of armor brought the blade up, only for it to break in half.
Jacques whistled in mock surprise, "It's not too late yet! We can still talk terms, aren't you going to make any promises, demands?"
Weiss dashed ahead, feinted high and cut low. Jacques parried the first, and suffered the second. The knight separated them again, discarding the blade and opting for bare hands instead.
Weiss unloaded the ice Dust round from Myrtenaster, dropped it down the knight's gauntlet. A moment later, ice erupted, pinning the knight to the floor. It severed the unusable arm with the other hand.
"You are still my choice of Heiress…" He said, "In time, you can make the choices yourself, we only need a little compromise here…"
Weiss surged and cut, aimed at Jacques' ribs, a cut he blocked with great effort before dancing away.
"Just consider it!" He almost shouted, "Aren't you going to consider? To earn your rightful place in my House? Ask me to change the ways of the SDC?"
"No," Weiss said.
She charged again and rammed him with the glyph-shield, Jacques only kept his footing by great effort, the attacks sent him back several steps, feet sliding across the floor.
Weiss kept her eyes on Jacques, feinted a step to the side, a bait he took, then swung Myrtenaster at his neck as they jumped away from each other.
The knight reached for Weiss, remaining hand swatting her aside. She blocked the attack with the glyph-shield, but the sheer force smashed her to the nearest wall decorations.
Weiss righted herself, stalked around Jacques.
Keeping his attention on Weiss, Jacques groaned, a blue field shimmered around him, his Aura shield lost. "Is that so?" he asked.
Weiss advanced, the knight planted a palm down and Jacques hopped atop it. It ran towards the only door, to the main courtyard.
You're not getting away from me.
The knight got halfway across the breakfast room before she summoned a pair of Glyphs at its knees, binding the armor. As it tried to struggle free, she pulled both glyphs together, severed the legs.
The knight tumbled down , and with it, Jacques.
Weiss stopped, a few steps away from the knight, and a feeling told her to stop then and there.
Jacques coughed, staggered to his feet.
"Then I suppose there is no other way," Jacques said, as the knight detonated, engulfed father and daughter in the blast.