Silver and green pulsed.
A Schnee glyph had been rotating on the floor for several hours while the green line coming out of it grew taller and taller. It was the exact same sort of green as Yang's fire, which made sense considering some of that was used to feed the spell.
Nora glanced at the time on her scroll, then went back to watching the spell. Weiss fed even more Au- Essence into it as she chanted under her breath. Nora could barely make out what was said, maybe two out of every three words and- The green light pushed again after the phase concluded. It wouldn't be long now.
A wave of black and purple entered her peripheral vision, then vanished as soon as it had appeared. Blake appeared in the corner for a moment. Weiss, Ren, and Yang all failed to react to her appearance.
Nora looked into her eyes and slowly exhaled. "Hi. Blake."
Blake's eyes went wide, blinking. "You can see… Wait, oops."
"What?" Ren asked from Nora's left. "Nora?"
"Sorry, I forgot I had-" Blake shrugged off a spiritual cloak.
"Holy shit!" Yang spun around hand raised. "Blake? Don't just do that!"
"Sorry, forgot to stop shadow walking," She yawned and waved a hand. A box labeled 'dust munitions' appeared at her feet. "Just got back and-" another yawn. "Thought I'd drop this off in case you need it."
"Weren't you supposed to stop stealing?" Ren frowned at it.
"They left these out in the open for us to pick up and I can carry as much as a Bulkhead, so it was faster for me to grab them." Blake summoned a piece of paper from the shadows and passed it to him. It looked like some sort of formal military document.
"I still can't believe they agreed to any of this."
"Ruby and Weiss were confident for a reason?" Blake shrugged. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get some sleep."
Nora nodded and then moved her focus back to Weiss. Several moments after Blake left, she realized that she should've asked what the shadow cloak actually was and why her own spell let her see through it. Nora sighed and waved away Ren's concerned look. This spell, her spell, always made her a little loopy, kind of like coming down from coffee without the being so tired she passed out.
Another flare of silver light started stretching the green line. It twisted from side to side, like a lightning bolt, as it expanded.
"Is that the end?" Ren tapped her on the shoulder.
Nora stared at the light for a moment, then checked Weis' notes about the spell. "We're getting pretty close. I mean, I'm not really sure what this means-" Nora pointed to a paragraph of math full of symbols she didn't know -"but, she just finished the previous part and there's only one page left, so I think we're probably getting close?"
"Something weird is happening," Yang said, scratching the side of her neck, "It feels like something is-"
"Come!" Weiss shouted.
A blinding light flashed as the spell completed. A flash of lightning as the tear opened to an endless sea of silver sand that vanished as soon as Nora noticed it. "Wha?"
Only the silver glyphs remained, forming a cage of letters and light. This was it, some sort of diabolical creature was here and, if Weiss was right, Ruby's order should keep it from dissolving. So, what would it be like? Would it be a fiery green Grimm, a Beowulf who's spikes were that sickening glow Yang had? No, Weiss wanted a healer… The Grimm didn't have healers.
"Did it work?" Ren asked as Nora tried to rub the after image of the spell out of her eyes. Nothing had appeared, did Weiss mess up?
Something clicked a couple of times in a way that sounded like a word. "Greetings!"
There was nothing that could have said it and- Ren tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the ground. A bug was sitting in the middle of Weiss' summoning circle. Some sort of giant beetle-spider that had way too many legs. Well, giant for a beetle, it was around the size of a fist. Three of its legs waved at her, even though its many eyes were focused on Weiss.
Weiss was saying something complicated in sorcery speak that Nora was only able to catch bits and pieces of it. Some sort of a formal greeting... Introductions… Something about Plant Dust…
"What's it saying?" Yang snapped from the side of the room. Flames flickered around her hair as it flashed.
The beetle-thing lowered its front legs and chirped something else Nora didn't know the words of. Wait a minute… was that the bug bowing? Could bugs bow?
"You would be very annoyed by the title it gave you, but it means to be respectful," Weiss said to Yang. "This is Periwinkle Diver of Mash and Brine. Yes, that is his name and his shell looks olive to me as well."
Nora closed her mouth and nodded. That was one of the first things she was going to ask about besides the questions they were supposed to be asking.
"Can it heal people?" Ren was on the balls of his feet with his hands on his weapons.
Weiss turned to the beetle, no wait Periwinkle, and continued talking. After a short back and forth, she looked at Ren. "He calls himself a garbage collector, but claims that he can easily manipulate flesh to heal it."
"Do you trust it?" Yang sounded like she was barely able to stop herself from smashing, but hadn't gotten ready to fight, like Ren. On the other hand, she could also blow up the room by tapping her heel so… Maybe she didn't need to.
"I trust that he thinks that he can." Weiss took a moment to chant again. Two more glyphs appeared, before they all vanished "I've bound him to myself with the spell and now we'll test his capabilities. If that doesn't work, you can do the honors."
"Test? How?"
Weiss picked a knife off of the table of sorcery tools and tossed it to Yang. "Slice my arm open. If he can't fix the wound, Ruby will."
Yang held her eyes closed and took a deep breath. "It's so fucked up that you're right about that."
Nora and Ren both nodded.
"Well.. here goes." Yang took the knife and cut a gash across Weiss' arm.
"Ahh, "Weiss took a look at it, "Yang… You need to go deeper. I could heal this myself."
"I-" Yang hissed through her teeth and cut once more. Deep enough that Weiss' fingers went slack.
Weiss shouted, then held her arm out to the demon. "Show me."
The demon jumped at her hand and… dove into it. A large lump moved up Weiss's arm to where the cut was with small incest arms occasionally poking out through her skin.
"Ehhh," Nora shuddered and looked away, then back. She was supposed to watch this carefully. "Does that hurt?"
"It is-" Weiss flinched. "It's very odd, but it doesn't hurt more than anything else li- owww -like this would."
As the bump moved up her arm, the incest legs started twitching and moving through her skin. Inch by inch the open cut was closing. Nora's left eye twitched as its legs popped free, leaving a ripple, then started massaging the skin back together. Well, massage? No… Stitch? Also no… Zipper? Oh, yeah it was like it turned her skin into a zipper.
Ren was making a face like the last time Nora was in charge of cooking and mixed up salt and sugar. Hmm, normally Nora probably would've done the same, but nothing felt like all that much when she was like this.
After not even a minute, the bug popped back out. "Complete."
Weiss pinched her skin and flexed her fingers. She rotated her wrist back and forth. "It feels completely healed."
She grabbed her sword and went through a few practice motions. They were as smooth as always. With a glance at Ren, she asked, "Satisfied?"
Ren scowled at the bug, "What payment does it want for this?"
After another flurry of negotiations, Weiss said, "Technically, nothing. He's bound to my will for a year and a day. However, he would like to eat our 'bone beer mash' if it's available because he does need sustenance, but would accept normal beer or whiskey if it's available."
Yang held in a laugh, badly pretending to cough. "Bone beer?"
"Beer made from the bones of demons," Weiss said flatly, "I informed him that we have the remnants of regular beer if he wants that and we have no other use for it. Along with the 'snacks' that you keep around."
Yang pursed her lips into a frown and popped a bright red berry into her mouth.
"Anyway. How often can he heal?" Ren gestured at Weiss' arm.
"It doesn't cost him anything. He can continue until he needs to sleep."
Yang whistles softly. Ren looked right into Nora's eyes.
She nodded. "Everything she's said is true to her understanding."
The Bulkhead shifted as it landed. One breath in, one breath out.
"Alright guys, you know why we're here. They have a plan to get people out and only the Headmaster is going to see them." Jaune addressed not only his team, but the others who assembled. "My old team told me that none of you should be at risk and Doctor Oobleck's already been exposed so we're handling this without him."
"As if we can trust traito-" Topaz whispered before Skye and Dove elbowed her.
"We wouldn't be here if he didn't think it was safe. Besides, we've all seen Anathema already, we know what it feels like, right?" Jaune looked right at Topaz, flinching slightly. The Anathema in Beacon had already taken so many lives with her escape attempts. Everyone had been hurt, but they were still here. "If they do anything to any of us, we'll know and we can tell everyone that they can't be trusted."
She nodded and looked away.
Jaune grabbed Skye's hand and gave it a little squeeze. Why was he the one in charge of this ship? It should've been her, but she was… It was his old team. If anything was off, he'd be able to tell best? Right?
Not that he managed to notice all of the oddities before or anything.
No, no. None of that today. There were going to be so many people in need of help. In need of someone from outside caring about them even a little bit. He had to be strong for them.
The descent was smooth. Soon enough, the back ramp opened into... a perfectly normal city? Jaune stepped out first and looked around, besides the damaged buildings it looked actually really ni- he spotted the black metal trees with lightning jumping between the branches. They covered a lot of the city and… He wasn't sure if that looked cool or creepy. Probably both.
The other Bulkheads finished landing when he caught sight of his old team.
Pyrrha looked the same as always, but there was just something… more. An energy that he couldn't quite see, but whenever he blinked, he could feel the pulse of something around her. She was pointing off to the side and Ren followed the direction with a frown. Someone enormous with black win- Yang, that was Yang.
Green fire, harsher than staring into the sun.
Tears of oil streaming down her cheeks.
Yang's face melting.
The demon revealed its stony skin, blood eyes, and hair so black it looked flat.
The slaughter of-
"Jaune!" Ren shouted and shook him. When did Ren get there?
"Ren! Right, right…" Jaune started looking back in that direction and stopped himself.
"Are you alright?" Nora and Pyrrha were right behind him. The circles under their eyes were so dark he could've mistaken them for shiners.
"I will be. It's just… bad memories." Did that count as influencing them? He glanced back, no one else had reacted. Just him then… that was fine. Ren and Nora had been dealing with this for a month now and Pyrrha's always been the strongest person he knew. He'd be able to deal with it for a couple of days, from a distance. Smiling back at them, he said, "It's been a bit. How're you guys-"
Skye called her own team to order. There'd be time to catch up later, right now they were needed.
"Dove, Russel, Shelly: over here." Jaune called. They fell in behind him. Nora went over to Skye while Pyrrha went to Coco. Various people who he didn't recognize were waiting for the other teams from Beacon.
"We've tried to make this as quick as possible." Ren held up his scroll and turned it to them. "After you connect to the local tower, you'll be prompted to download a map of the city with different zones drawn on it. You'll be sent to them by the ground team. The ground team's frequency is…"
Jaune glanced skyward as the download ran. Doctor Oobleck's transport slowed down. That must be where the hospital was… where he'd be meeting with her. The Girl in Red… No, Ruby.. Her name was Ruby. That much he remembered.
He knew from a note saved in his scroll that she had been there the whole time. That she wanted to help. But putting a face to the person was hard, even after he reviewed it. Blake wrote it. Blake, who he only had good memories of.
Airships bearing the flag of the Menagerie arrived. What did they think of her? A Faunus who was openly Anathema. Even if she wasn't one of the terrifying ones, that still had to sting. They were here though.
"If you need anything large destroyed to get to someone, relay that to dissipated and vacate the area. Yang will be inbound as soon as she has time and you're clear." Ren snapped his scroll closed. "Any questions?"
Jaune shook his head; they had work to do.
Lightning danced in the sky as green street lamps lit up all at once. The sun was setting and while none of her people would have any issues, the humans certainly would. Though, something about the way the shadows danced made her second guess what they were seeing. The shadows from the lightning and the moon were slightly different than those of the flames.
"It's eerie."
"What do you mean?" Their 'guide', a woman who openly wore a talisman of green flames that formed a heart, asked.
"Your entire city. In the wake of such a disaster, I would expect there to be so much gunfire it would drown out everything else." That was truly the strangest part of the city. The complete lack of Grimm. Everyone in the Menagerie slept with the comfort of echoing shots as a lullaby. No sounds of battle meant that the Grimm had broken through and would soon be upon you. "Also, you have no one to man a power plant, yet the lights are still on."
"One more miracle of Lady Yang." Carmen toughed the talisman and dropped her head briefly. "She and her sister have done the impossible to channel her own power through the entire city. Her warmth not only lights the way, but also defends us."
"That sounds… too good to be true."
"Trust me, Ambassador, I would not be as devoted as I am if I didn't see the truth with my own eyes."
Somehow, Kali doubted that. She'd seen just how quickly desperate people could fall into following, let alone worshiping, anyone who promised something 'better'. "Something like that always has a pri- Oh, wait."
She'd spotted a trail slightly darker than the rest of the ground leading to a dumpster. Kali stepped close and opened it up. Bile rose in her throat at the sight. That would take a miracle alright. Those Grimm which could attack through walls ignored the 'shelter' that whoever it was attempted to take. One hand in front of the person's mouth confirmed that they were still alive. "Brann, Jasmine: we'll need to be careful with this one."
Between the four of them, the person was gently picked up and strapped to a stretcher.
"Carmen to dispatch. We have a critical pickup at East Forge and Chartreuse." Carmen called it in while Kali made sure they were properly secured. There wasn't anything more she could do; it would take a miracle.
"They can really fix this?" She stared at the ground.
"Lady Ruby made someone who was bisected by the Grimm whole again." Carmen didn't waver in her statement at all.
Kali shivered. She'd always doubted the stories that so many Hunters told about the Anathema. They were simply too fanciful and ridiculous to be believed. The 'Silver Ancestors' that many of the more extreme Fang members worshiped were not capable of anything like -green light flickered as lightning crackled- that. And even the stories of what they would slay paled in comparison to what was claimed. She looked at the house again, it was new and… impossible. It was as if the structure was carved out of a single block of smooth stone.
"Lady Yang grew every house on this street when they needed to re-route it." Carmen answered the unasked question. "We renamed the streets that she'd done so after various shades of green."
"This city is eerie; everything about it is impossible." Kali looked at her hands, covered in dirt and blood from all of the work. Then back to the wall.
"Thank you for helping us, Ambassador."
She shrugged. "We all have to get our hands dirty when a crisis arrives."
"That's not what I meant."
"We know what it's like to be demonized by everyone else and just want a home of your own," Kali said. So much running, so much fighting. "Besides, my daughter's here."
"Oh…" Carmen pursed her lips, tightening up. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, she's a strong girl. I know she'll be fine."
Kali looked back at the house. Blake had always been a strong girl, but… who was she now? What had she done with power like that?
A/N: It's been a year. I wanted to get this finished a lot earlier, but it sat in a mostly done state that was rough to think about.
I'm not super satisfied with some parts still, but got it ready before the year ticks over and I doubt it's going to get easier for some time. Luckily, I'll be able to focus on other scenes instead because a lot of my inspiration and ability to spew words onto a page has finally returned.
Happy new year all!
