The Never Ending War

by Tomson235

It has been years since the Great Grimm War and the fall of the schools now it is the next generations turn to join the Never Ending War. The world has changed but so much more has stayed the same. Join the members of a new world as they try to make a change for the world

27. Chapter 25: Hospital

The Neverending War Chapter 25

The Mechanized hand lays down its large rifle and rips the side off of the Bullhead. "We have live ones."

Sirus stares at the broken huntsmen and exhausted civilians, "How bad?"

"Get Danny, Raven and Paul out first they are in bad shape." The demanding voice of Rita says.

Sirus looks at the three huntsmen that were mentioned, "Mirim, Pig grab them and get them to The Beacon." He shifts aside as the pair reach in to grab the three wounded huntsmen. "Beacon led this is Mechanized lead three badly wounded on the way."

"Copy that Mechanized. You have eight minutes to evacuate before the Grimm horde hits you."

"Great. Thank you. Out." Sirus looks at Alec, "We need to move now, Grimm are eight minutes out."

"Get the Civilians out," Alec yells loudly over the sound of the metal being ripped and the hydraulics of the mechanized exo-suits. "Come on everyone out, if you can't walk tell us, I know you are burnt. I know you are tired," he reaches for one of the older civilians and helps them out. As the civilians are pulled out the remaining Huntsmen pull themselves out and they start limping their way toward Crowhide Park. The members of the Mechanized unit keep watching walking backwards.

The group continues until they reach the relative safety of the park. One Bullhead waits for the group while another blasts off with the three at risk huntsmen. The remaining members of Amber Riptide help the civilians load into the Bullhead before they pull their sore selves onto the machine. With the lift off and an escort by The Beacon the passengers onboard the Bullhead finally start to face their adrenalin crash and the injured huntsmen pass out.

Three days Later

Alec wakes up with a start, the humming of machinery and the slow beep of a heart monitor. He sits up roughly and feels IV tubes pulling on his arms. He looks around, gathering information on his surroundings. His tensed muscles begin to relax he sees Mimi in a bed to one side and Raven in another. Beethoven is not there which makes sense since he is a Synthetic. Across from him is Rita, Paul, and Danny; Tina is missing for the same reason as Beethoven. Raven's leg is up, and, in a cast, she is still out cold. Mimi is mostly looking alright, but she is also unconscious. On the other side of the room Paul and Danny still look in bad shape both with pale skin and blood packs hooked up to their arms.

Alec closes his eyes and focuses on himself; he starts moving is extremities then tries to check his aura he flashes it pushing his power outward only to be disappointed. If he were to guess his aura was at maybe twenty percent, while it was more powerful than most humans would have it put him in a weak position in a fight, especially since he is the weakest among his team aura wise at least.

He tries to speak but finds his voice weak and raspy. With an annoyed roll of his eyes, he looks at the call button. Pushing it he waits for the nurse; it takes minutes for the nurse to come which suggests a busy staff. But after the few minutes of waiting a calm smile of a nurse greets him, "Oh it is wonderful to see you awake Mr. Tross." The woman looks at him and starts to check his vitals. "You called for help what can I get you hon."

"Thank you," his voice still raspy, "can I get some water please."

The Nurse checks a chart, "Yes absolutely no major injuries that would prevent such a thing." She pours a glass of water and offers it to him. "What else can I get for you."

After taking a sip of water, "How long has it been since the attack?"

"The attack started three days ago; it was fully cleaned up yesterday."

"How bad?"

The nurse looks over to his monitors, already his heart rate beginning to increase. Her smile falls, "Very bad over half the school is in the infirmary, most will be out till tomorrow. Ten of the second years are dead and three full teams of the first years are dead. Eight of the Beacon security company are dead and three more are in critical condition; one won't make it through till the morning." A tear builds in her eyes, "and that is only Beacons losses, two veteran huntsmen are confirmed dead. The army has lost thousands of people hell the Hope alone had six hundred onboard at least a few more smaller airships were destroyed. The army rushed into Vale from their barracks." She sighs staring at Alec's heart monitor, "The civilian losses are unknown, the Army and available huntsmen are saving who they can."

Alec stares at the nurse, "fuck," he out the window at the dark cold outside, "when can I be released?"

"The doctor will talk to you in the morning," the nurse looks at the young man half her age, "Orders are to keep everyone in hospital until they can get their aura to one hundred percent."

"My friends, what about them?"

"You are their unit leader, Rita is going to be fine just sleeping off aura exhaustion, same with Mimi. Raven is going to have to take more time her injuries are bad and with her aura still recovering she is going to be down at least an extra week, but she will be fine. Paul is mostly dealing with aura exhaustion but also blood loss he was careless with his emergency transfusion. Danny is still critical but we believe she will make it, the wounds on her abdomen are bad the staples used to help her would have worked wonderfully if they didn't get ripped up then the sutures were alright but it was not great for long term help; she also had some major internal damage but that has been taken care of, of course there is also the blood loss but Paul helped with that."

"What about Tina and Beethoven?"

"They were taken to the synthetic care facility I am no expert on their care but what I have here they are fine just dealing with depleted auras."

"Thank you if you can leave the pitcher of water here, I am not going to get any more sleep for a bit."

"Of course, just ring if you need us."

"The Cadets, how many are in the hospital."

"All of them."

Alec nods as the woman walks out of the room. The room lit by the broken moon and low light of the machinery in the room filled with his friends, "I need my weapons," he whispers eyeing the help button again. He ignores the scroll next to him not wanting to see the news, not wanting to read about the death. He sighs staring at the broken moon watching it move. In its hypnotic movement and his slowly building boredom he loses time until he is dragged away with a start by someone walking in.

"Mister Tross," a woman's voice pulls him away from the moon.

Alec smiles weakly at the Headmistress, "Headmistress, I am surprised to find you here. Shouldn't you be out fighting the Grimm."

"We secured the Vale a few hours ago, the army has begun assisting rescue and repair. Most of the Huntsmen are burnt out the few available are providing rescue services or are deploying outside the wall." The woman looks tired her eyes sunken, one of her arms is wrapped in a bandage. "I was forced back by Azul to get my arm checked." She stares at the man in the bed, "I am sorry I mean Assistant Headmaster Pendragon."

"Is your arm alright?"

"Oh yes, I didn't burn my aura down to nothing using medical aura boosters Mister Tross. For the record that is very much not an approved use of those."

Alec looks at the clock, he woke up four hours ago, "We had no choice ma'am, we couldn't pull back with the civilians. How are they?"

"The civilians were taken to the Beacon shelter until we get everything cleared up. They should be safe to head home in the morning." The Headmistress walks over to the window, "this is bad. The General knows the truth, his men have died. I will be meeting with him in some time, I will tell him everything."

"Why are you telling me this ma'am."

"Because you and the other first years have been preparing to face the military in case, they tried to assault the Huntsmen." She turns to the young man in his medical bed, "you and the other leaders thought the military was a threat and you began preparing for it. I assume you have convinced the Lieutenant to stand by your side."

"Gregory Smith and his men have lost eight of their friends and according to the nurse another one will be joining that number by morning, if he were to shoot me himself, I cannot blame him. Me and mine are huntsmen and we should have been able to hold the line. We should have been able to keep them out of harm's way but instead here I sit with eight living teammates, and they get to bury nine or more of theirs." Alec tries to shift himself up sitting straight. "But assuming the Lieutenant does not grace me with an aura penetrating bullet to the head, what shall I prepare Headmistress." He looks her in the eye reminding her of a man years ago, "am I to prepare for war?"

In her exhaustion the Headmistress of Beacon, Crimson Imerta, breaks her stern façade, "I do not know Mister Tross, Vale and Beacon cannot do this we are in trouble and if Salem is back, we need armies and time. If someone else has taken over the Grimm we need information and to gather our forces."

"I need to make some calls, but we cannot face down the military if our research is correct, they have a ridiculous amount of aura penetrating ammunition. More than they need for dealing with rogue Huntsmen and more powerful bandits." Alec sighs looking at the IVs in his arm. "Gregory trusts the General, he withheld the information at our request, but he still trusts the General. And to be honest ma'am if what the nurse told me is true and no one else dies, we can't win."

"Get some rest Mister Tross," The Headmistress of Beacon pats him on the leg.

As the woman leaves a shift drags Alec's attention to Rita, "You lied to her," she shifts herself around moving her wings, "We have not received any information on the ammunition reserves of the Army." Her accent is thicker than normal.

Alec smiles at the bat Faunus, "How are you feeling?" Alec shifts in his bed and sighs, "The nurse says that you are dealing with aura exhaustion like a good few of us. The city is secure, and the remaining forces are running rescue operations. Ten second years and twelve first years are confirmed dead. The security company have eight dead and one more will die by morning."

Rita looks over to the other two members of her team, "I feel like I pushed myself beyond any limits my body had and then I fell from the sky."

"So, what actually happened," Alec lets out a small laugh.

"Yeah." She looks at the bird Faunus in the bed on her side of the room she shifts under the spell of some kind of nightmare. "I am worried about her; she broke down when the Grimm showed up in the medical area and killed the medic. She is going to need a full psychological evaluation. Paul too, his relationship with Danny is going to cause him stress."

"I think we are all going to get complimentary psych evals."

"How are you taking this so well?" Rita stares at Alec across the room, "You know some of those people that are dead, and your lifetime friend is has major injuries on her leg. She could have died Danny is not looking good and Paul might have let himself drain dry trying to save her. We failed." Rita shakes her head realizing she was getting frantic, "How are you so calm?"

"I am not, pretty sure I am dealing with shock. It was very useful when we had to look at survival, I am not doing well other than that." He looks at the scroll next to him, "I can't bring myself to pick up the scroll. I am also continuously trying to reach for my weapons."

"Got it, do I need to call the nurse?"

"Not for this, I can't go back to sleep. I don't know if I would be able to wake up." Alec stares forward looking at the wall past Danny's body.

"You don't sound alright; Alec are you going to be able to deal with this."

"Um yeah, just processing it all."

A new voice speaks up from Alec's side, "You are not doing well Alec," Mimi shifts herself over and starts pulling her IV's and sensors off. The alarm starts going off, telling the nurses that someone's vitals just failed. The tiger girl pushes her leader aside and crawls into the bed with him, "you need to take care of yourself Alec."

"Mimi, you have to get off my bed the nurse is going to be mad."

"No, I am not going to let you go until you get yourself together."

The door is rapidly opened by a worried nurse, "What the hell is going on, Young lady get out of your leaders' bed."

Mimi holds closer to Alec, her fingernails tearing into his skin. The nurse reaches to grab the girl, Mimi turns her head her teeth bared and a look of murder in her eyes. The nurse a woman who has seen death and destruction in the last three days backs off. "I will not leave my leader tonight." Mimi's voice growls out.

The nurse barks back, "Fine, but you must allow me to reconnect your IV's and sensors, or I will bring in help and have you strapped to your bed."

"Fine." Mimi reaches out her hand to allow the needle to be reconnected to her.

The nurse looks at Rita whose eyes are open wide as can be, "Are you going to demand sharing a bed with your unit leader too?"

Rita shakes her head, "no," she giggles nervously, "Mimi is worried about Alec's mental state, and I think she doesn't need help."

The nurse looks at the tiger Faunus staring back at her pulling her friend and leader back towards her, "Though she might bleed him to death." The nurse turns towards the Tiger woman, "Darling he is not going anywhere please stop gripping him so hard that you are bleeding him to death."

Alec sighs as Mimi hugs herself into him, "Thank you ma'am she can get protective of her friends."

The nurse blows an annoyed raspberry, "friends right. You and your "friend" stay out of trouble and do not let me catch you doing anything." The nurse shakes her head as she walks out of the room.

Alec shifts himself around to a more upward position, "Mimi," he looks down to the now sleeping woman, "You can't do this whenever you worry about me."

Rita stares at her leader and his partner who is snuggling against him, "I take it this is normal?"

"Only kind of, when we were young, she always ended up in my sleeping bag on trips. It got kind of awkward when we both started maturing to be honest, she got more clingy." Alec starts petting Mimi's hair unconsciously, "My father hated it. Especially after she and I got really badly hurt on one trip I was in the hospital, and she had barely dodged a week in the bed next to me. My father came to check on me the morning after a fairly minor surgery and found her like this. Except we were like twelve and not trained killing machines." Alec laughs a bit and kisses Mimi's forehead, "She was cuddled up next to me dead asleep a bandage around her chest and forehead, my father walks in to check on me and tries to pull her away. She moved like lightning and shoved my father backwards, that was the first time she activated her semblance. My father was held against the wall by Mimi's glyph, she was tired and angry and had that look in her eyes the one that the nurse just got. She was amazing, and my father gave in right then not that he couldn't beat her but what she was willing to do for me. When I began combat training, she was right there with me. When my father was teaching me to become the kind of leader he wanted me to be she was being trained to be my assistant. When we met Bet and Vee, he watched as they were absorbed into our little group. When a group of boys went after Raven she destroyed them before Bet and I could get there. My father couldn't get the boys to say a word against her."

"So are you really dense then?"

"What do you mean?"

"She has been like this since you were kids, she insists on protecting you physically. She holds you like that." She gestures to the girl beside him. "Come on are you that blind?"

Alec smirks as he stares back at the bat across from him.

"Are you fucking kidding me."

"What."

"You know how she feels about you." Rita stares at the man as he lets the girl nuzzle against him, "of course you know. You aren't manipulating her," Rita stares at him closer. "You care for her."

"I would die for her, any day any time."

"No, no, no you love her the same way she loves you."

"We have had a discussion or two about such a subject."

"Why aren't you together," She pauses, "You know openly not like you are now."

"We aren't ready, hell we are only considered adults because we are huntsmen. And part of me hopes that she finds a nice calm civilian who will convince her to leave this life behind."

"And you think she will leave this life."

"Not really, she does try to set me up with people every now and then. Not that it works to well." Alec smiles, "the gods know where the situation lies."

"So, you are in love with her, and she is in love with you, you two are in love with each other; you won't date anyone else but you two do not feel ready to date or be in a relationship. Even though you two will sleep in the same bed and look like that." Rita stares at the man across from her pointing at the Tiger woman cuddling against him while he pets her. "You look like a couple you act like a couple. Hell, I think Mimi has threatened girls that have shown an interest in you. Gods know she gave me a death stare every now and then."

"I thought she was a bit annoyed we ended up in the same unit, so you are the chief competition." Alec lets Mimi rest against the pillow, "Well she is out cold, here is your chance."

Rita laughs, "Right because I am going to compete with the woman who can destroy a city block. Anyway, even if I had a thing for you, I wouldn't break you two up."

"Right, well that is honest of you. Very kind of you, especially when most people would say you have a pretty good chance."

"Oh, thank you, I am sure you love this; girls pining for you. You must think you are hot stuff." Rita throws her hands down sighing, "What are you doing here Alec messing with me."

Alec smiles as he leans back, "You are describing me like I am a flirtatious ladies man trying to make all the girls fall for me."

"Alec you are a capable leader who can take charge in any situation. You are charismatic and confident and good looking. You are literally a huntress magnet, you would have had a hundred dates since we got to Beacon, hell Alec you would had a good number of guys making offers, if not for that girl cuddling up next to you." Rita smiles before looking angrily at the smirking human across from her, "Yes I would have been one of those offers."

"She has that effect on people," Alec stares at Mimi with a look that he tries to hide, "Nobody ever asks her though." A sad look crosses his eyes, "she isn't trying to scare people away, she was so excited to be here, she wants to meet new people. Sometimes I think I am holding her back; she is so much more social than me. I always look for the angle, read everything like a battlefield. She will walk out to a club and spend time with new people, I would spend the entire time wondering how many guns are distributed amongst the staff and what type they would be." Alec keeps petting the girl next to him, "I will try to find everything about people, you should have seen me when we first met you. I started trying to read you the moment you walked away."

"And here I thought you were just staring at my ass."

"Really funny, try to get some rest or do I need to call the nurse to move you over here."

"Don't joke about that I am tempted."

Alec presses the button to call the nurse as Rita's eyes go wide. The nurse steps in a moment later, "How can I help you?"

"I hate to be a pain in the ass miss but can you move my friend over here she is dealing with a lot of stress and is not comfortable alone."

The nurse smirks as she sees Mimi cuddled up against Alec's right side, "Of course she is stressed Mister Tross definitely stress." She winks at the injured man, "That is the only explanation." Without another word she helps Rita move over to Alec's left side. "You all take care, try to get some more rest. No strenuous activity."

"Thank you, Ma'am, again I am sorry." The nurse closes the door. Alec looks over to Rita who is shifting to a more comfortable position, "Get some rest Rita." He shifts his arms to hold both of the girls in a resting position. As the Bat Faunus gets comfortable, she starts to doze to a calm sleep.

Alec lets out a quiet chuckle as he looks down to his left and right, he knows that once this gets out, he will be hearing about it. The girls will be properly embarrassed by the rumor mill that is Beacon, well Rita might, Mimi will probably just threaten people as they start to push her too far. Or she will do something more drastic. "I am going to be killed by the two of them tomorrow."

"General, I am sorry to keep you waiting." Crimson Imerta sits down in a chair held out by the General, "I know it is not saying much but I had to check on my people."

"I understand Headmistress," The General sits down in his own chair, "We have had a difficult three days, and I fear this is not going to be getting better."

"You would be correct General."

"Well then we might as well do this right," the General pulls out a pair of scotch glasses and a large bottle of Whiskey, "So Crimson Imerta how bad is it."

"So we are going like that, Augustus Leonard Pincter," She takes the offered glass, "It is the worst."

After an hour of talking and half a bottle of whisky Crimson Imerta had told the general all of the information about a reborn Salem or at least some one or something claiming to be her and her or its actions.

Augustus takes another sip of his drink, "All of that doesn't explain why you didn't tell me."

Crimson downs the full glass of her drink, "Well that is going to be a bit more of a problem," she shakes her glass for a refill.

"Wonderful more problems," the glass is refilled, "this is not going to make me happy is it."

"Now Augustus please forgive me but there were reasons I swear."

"Go on."

"We have reason to believe that you are preparing the military for anti-huntsmen operations."

"Crimson, I know I have been critical of the huntsmen and your reactivated school system but I would never consider ordering my men to engage you or yours. What would give you such an idea?"

"Augustus," The woman looks at the General, "Between the distrust, and the anti-bandit operations that seemed to be engaging a large number of aura activated enemies without any request for huntsmen assistance we really were getting a bad feeling. Once we added reports of a growing anti huntsmen sentiment within your forces, we began looking at the worst."

"Imerta," Augustus sits up sobering his buzz away, "the only reason my troops have been starting to hate your people is because of rumors that the King will be putting your huntsmen in charge or military units and my people will be placed in secondary duties. The story is that is why you opened the schools again is to gain the numbers to replace us. And since the king is married to a huntress he is in your pocket."

"So we are being played."

"Looks like it. Was Gregory read in on the situation?"

"Yes, Alec Tross, the young man who has gained the loyalty of the first years, read him in as part of the request for assistance."

"I wish I had known the cadets are not equipped for combat against the Grimm. I thought you needed help with local security."

"I couldn't tell you to much was at risk."

"I understand, it does seem I have some house cleaning to do. But the cadets they are not affected by the rumor mill as much. Or at least your students have changed their minds."

"I do not know Tross seems to think that the Lieutenant will hold the eight lost against him."

"He won't," General Augustus Leonard Pincter stands at the table buttoning his coat, "But he will need reinforced, and I shall do so." The general places his pistol on the table., "Headmistress Crimson Imerta of Beacon Defender of Vale leader of Huntsmen and sworn protector of the King I thank you for the information and intelligence. Now though I have demanded so much I must ask, nay demand more."

Headmistress Crimson Imerta stand placing her sword on the table, "General Augustus Leonard Pincter leader of the armies of Vale sworn protector of the People and defender of the Kingdom I will assist anyway I can."

"Take my Cadets, let them be what they were born to be."

"Of course."

"Good I shall leave them all in your care." The Man standing straight begins to walk out of the room rebolsters his pistol.

"What are you going to be doing General."

"Fixing my fucking army."

As the man leaves the room the Headmistress looks at the table a sealed letter for Cadet Lieutenant Gregory Smith of the Beacon Security Squadron.