Chapter 33 – breathtaKing
The second the pink umbrella preschooler was off of Blake, she was rushing towards Adam. Ilia had held back for a while to observe her semblance, and she now had a pretty good idea of how it worked. Physical hits broke the illusion and left behind little shards of whatever she was making them from. Otherwise, she was invisible, or as good as.
That was okay. If Ilia kept up the pressure, she could just keep hitting the multicolored little thing and prevent her from having time to ever put up an illusion, just like she herself had been doing to Blake. Confident in her strategy, Ilia swung out Lightning Lash, hooked her enemy's foot, and reeled her in.
Her strategy instantly failed.
Ilia had been hiding on the Krispy Koaster's criss-crossing wooden framework when she'd snagged the tiny girl. Said girl, upside down and rapidly being pulled upwards, grabbed hold of a support beam, slipped her foot out of Ilia's whip, instantly oriented herself, flipped around midair, and gracefully landed behind Ilia. In the second it took Ilia to spin around, the other girl was gone. The chameleon Faunus had been expecting a lackluster warrior who excessively relied on her overpowered gimmicks and ambush attacks…
N-Not at all like me or anything. That would be crazy.
…but the truth of the matter was that this little child seemed incredibly light on her feet. It was too late to camouflage and hide; Ilia had already been seen. Her only option was to stand, fight, and pray that the others would have better luck. She did have a few tricks that she was itching to break out, but it would be best to save those for Time's Up Tock.
The lithe acrobat turned out to be just as dangerous without her parasol as she was without it. Her hand to hand combat was exceptional, and Ilia's was just average. Lightning Lash was missing five times as many slashes as it was hitting, and those few were likely just random luck. An invisible foot connected with Ilia's face, and she fell out of the wooden lattice towards the ground below. Ilia shot her whip and caught hold of one of the roller coasters – more specifically, the Pumpkin Pete ornament's ears on the front car – on another side of the tracks, just before drop off. Quickly swinging between the beams that held up the massive ride, Ilia was fairly certain she could hear the whooshing of air behind her as someone leapt from plank to plank to catch up with her.
She made it to the carriage, but so did her enemy at roughly the same time, based on the noises coming from behind her. Ilia climbed atop the first car and swung Lash behind her, activating the Dust and hoping to electrocute her foe.
Ilia's weapon hit nothing. Then, the tiny girl materialized in the second car, just in front of Ilia, holding the metal stake keeping the roller coaster carriage held together. One of her boots nudged the seat of the front car, and she silently waved goodbye as Ilia's car, now disconnected from the rest, rolled forward over the edge of the drop-off.
Ilia grabbed onto a seat belt, flopping about wildly as she fell, but the incline of the fall was too steep, and she found herself floating out of the coaster as the car dropped faster than she did. When it went from vertical to horizontal, Ilia lost her grip and fell.
This time, she actually did hit the ground, hard. Groaning, she collected Lash, only to discover that part of its revolving chamber was broken open. Ilia turned off her lungs instantly and inspected the damage. The Lightning Dust had spilled out of the first and second bays, but the Fire Dust was mostly still in the third. The fourth bay was empty, never having been refilled from her and Adam's duel with Pyrrha. Ilia released the breath when she saw that the fifth and final bay was undamaged.
Ilia tried to stand up, but someone kicked down on her back. Little Miss Invisible, now completely visible, grinned maliciously as she twirled her umbrella in circles until it stopped at Ilia's neck. A stiletto blade extended, and the girl licked her lips.
The sound of Blush firing caught the attention of both of them, and Ilia glimpsed over her shoulder to see Tock hobbling towards Ruby, leaning heavily on both of her swords. There was no yellow glow about her, and she was walking much slower, but Ruby seemed distracted by another mysterious marauder – seriously, where do they find these people? – and had her back turned.
Neo winked at Ilia, pantomimed a biting motion with her mouth, then drew back the umbrella.
Without warning, her face contorted in pain, and she opened her mouth up in a mute scream.
"…"
The boot on Ilia's back was released. Ilia had no idea who was helping her, but she didn't question it. Pushing herself off the ground, she lit up Lash with flames and whipped across the girl's face. A vengeful grimace replaced the typically smug look, then glassy illusions swallowed it up.
However, the glass stopped about halfway, leaving brown pants and white boots fully visible. Ilia looked down as saw Zwei chomping down on her enemy's right heel. The pup had a hold on her, and he wasn't letting go.
He's breaking her semblance! As long as he's actively damaging her, she can't disappear!
Lighting Lash switched to sword mode, and Ilia would have run her opponent through if not for an umbrella blocking the jab. The entire illusion began to shatter and recrystallize so fast that Ilia nearly got a headache looking at it, but she didn't let up. Every second that the fight dragged on was another second for her vanishing foe to break free of the canine's vice grip of a bite.
"Blake! Get Ruby!"
Ilia looked back. Tock was almost upon the defenseless reaper.
"Grrrrmph!" growled Zwei. "GRRRR!"
Ilia took that as some sort of dog-speak for permission to rescue his owner and broke off from her melee to save Ruby. It didn't feel right to abandon the mutt to his chances against Neo, but Ruby was a person, and her life mattered more.
Lighting Lash extended to its full length straight ahead, stabbing through the Faunus who was distracting Ruby. Ilia retracted it then swung it forward again. Tock seemed to notice her presence and rushed forward, but Ilia's whip got Ruby before the crocodile Faunus' teeth did. Pulling the full weight of herself and all these people so many times was getting tiring, but Ilia forced herself to go on. She could see Hazel Rainart knocking down Blake, which meant that he also must have creamed the professors and Team Sword.
Ilia looked around desperately for an ally. Blake was down, the Swords were down…uh…
"Adam, where are – shit!"
The pink and brown thing was standing over Adam's unconscious body near the water ride. His head was above water, but there was bright red blood diffusing into the river from the bull Faunus' open wounds.
Ilia hefted the girl in her arms up. "Guess it's just the two of us, eh Rubadoodledoo?"
"Pretty light…" Ruby stared blankly at empty space. "Geheeeheee!"
Ilia shut her eyes for just a second. "Fuck."
"Oi! Lass!"
Ilia slashed a line of fire into the ground with Lightning Lash to prevent the advance of the three enemies. "Don't come a single step closer!"
"Or wot?"
"I'll…I'll…"
"Kill us?" Hazel cracked his knuckles and stepped straight through the fire, unharmed. "You cannot. Up to this point, I have been merciful. Your side has suffered no deaths. If you do not surrender the silver eyed child…"
"What? You don't have anything to negotiate with either, fuckface! Your crazy Grimmspawn of a leader's going to try and eat us either way! She already killed me! Twice! There's no possible reason for me to surrender."
Ruby flopped forward, and Ilia just barely managed to catch her before she ate dust. With one arm holding her partially broken weapon and the other wrapped around Ruby's torso to prevent her from falling over, Ilia must have been quite the pitiful sight.
I forced us to come out here. Damn it, all this because of my stupid jealousy!
She couldn't give up hope. Ruby was barely lucid, and the others were all either unconscious or critically wounded. In the end, it would all come down to her. She couldn't call for help – it was a two hour flight at top speed from Beacon, and Penny's rocket shoes were no faster than a bullhead. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the House of Mirrors, a nice enclosed space. Maybe if she hadn't been burdened with Ruby, Ilia could use the fifth chamber of Lightning Lash to take down one or two of them.
I'm the burden here. If we die, it'll be my fault.
The predators were closing in on their prey. Ilia kept backing up, dragging Ruby's limp body as she did, but now her back was truly to the wall.
"W-Whuh?"
Ilia's team leader stirred within her arms. Ilia didn't hesitate to vigorously shake the girl, desperately clinging to the hope that she might wake up.
"Ruby? Ruby, wake up!"
"Ilia?" Silver eyes blinked once, twice, thrice. "Where'd the light go?"
"Ruby! Semblance, now!"
"What?"
"RUN!"
Ruby stumbled out of Ilia's grasp, dropped Crescent Rose, and took off like a jet
Right towards the enemies.
Without Ilia.
Double fuck!
Her master plan had been to have Ruby carry her to the House of Mirrors, where she would be able to use the decreased visibility and disorienting surroundings to last a little bit longer, but Ruby had apparently heard the command and run for the hills without waiting for her or bringing her along. The red girl had zoomed off so fast that the villainous trio hadn't even been able to react before she'd broken through their lines and run right past them.
Tock's swords glowed purple, and Ruby was pulled back once she was already beyond them. "Not so fast, silvuh eyes! Neo, get the girlie! Her friends killed yuh Romey-boy! Don't lose 'er!"
The pink and brown freak, Neo, nodded, crouched down, and broke into a sprint. However, the way she sprinted seemed off. It was almost like she was going in…slow motion?
"Stay away from that child, you cur!" shouted a weakened but familiar voice. Weiss Schnee, battered and bloodied, held out her rapier with one arm and clutched her stomach with the other. A white snowflake pattern beneath Neo gradually darkened, and Neo frozen entirely in place.
Ilia took the moment of distraction to grab Crescent Rose off the ground, fumble around with the scope for a second, and decide to freehand the shot at Tock's swords. It took five bullets fired in rapid succession, but eventually she managed to hit the Gravity Dust chamber. The purple glow faded, and Ruby sprinted away.
Hazel pulled back his arm and delivered a chop to Weiss' neck that downed her, breaking her aura and knocking her out. The Glyph beneath Neo that had been slowing her down disappeared, but it was too late. Ruby was long gone. Ilia couldn't help but burst into a wide smile – the one person Tock and Hazel had come to kill was going to survive.
"WRAAAH! FECK!" Tock slashed her swords through thin air. "RGEBFESKL!"
"Oops!" Ilia held out Crescent Rose and put a finger to her lips. "I guess that means you won't be getting a meal after all, Lady Tock." She tried to make the last note sound as condescending as she could.
Tock turned around, her eyes ablaze. "Think Oi moight just have a bite o' lizard instead!"
That's it. Chase me.
Gulping in her largest breath of air, Ilia threw Lightning Lash's tip towards the House of Mirrors. She snagged one of the many gaudy arrows that pointed to the entrance and pulled herself towards it. As expected, all three enemies chased after her. Ruby may have been their initial focus, but they had lost her, and all that remained for them in Mountain Glenn was brutally massacring the last conscious person in the city who'd whisked the reaper away from them.
"Oi'll rip ya to shreds, ya cheeky cunt! Hazel, Neo, help me kill this li'l shit!"
Ilia said nothing in response, instead choosing to dart inside the walk-through ride. Tock, now bathed in yellow, followed close behind her. Ilia noticed that she was moving a lot faster than before; perhaps her invulnerability also applied to her stamina, by protecting her from exhaustion? Eh, it didn't matter. If Ilia survived long enough to ponder on the subject, Tock would die. Either way, only one of them would be walking out of the mirror funhouse alive.
Unless we both die, but hey – that's life, I guess.
Ilia rotated the chamber of Lighting Lash to its final chamber.
Entering the mirror house's maze, Ilia dashed left, then right, then right, right again, left, turned around and retreated right, and then another left. Her best bet was to stay unpredictable and cover as much ground as she could. The mirrors that surrounded her weren't evenly spaced or coordinated by any means; it seemed like the whole point of the maze was that they were randomly scattered all about.
She knew she was being chased, but they hadn't yet closed the lead Ilia had started with. All she could see in the reflections was herself, duplicated by tricks of the light so that she appeared sometimes nearly twenty times in a single viewpoint. Mirrors were everywhere, and she even found herself bumping into some as she ran.
Neo's semblance probably puts her right in her element in a place like this, Ilia thought sardonically.
She was also fairly certain that some of the mirrors were actually see-through glass panes. The floor was a dark azure carpet, so Ilia changed her skin to blend in, knowing that even a second of hesitation on Tock's part could be the difference between death or life.
"Gotcha!"
Ilia heard glass break. Tock must've seen a one of the reflection of Ilia and thought it was the real down. To her, it made no difference. Broken glass couldn't hurt her through her invulnerability, and the fewer mirrors there were, the harder it would be for Ilia to hide. It also was a sign that the crocodiles were now close enough to see reflections, or perhaps reflections of reflections.
Dashing around a sharp corner, Ilia froze and tried to hide. All she needed to do was wait for that shroud of invulnerability to fade for just a second. Keeping moving at all times might have worked if it was just Tock, but Hazel and Neo were probably also somewhere inside this confusing garden of glass and silver, and Ilia was less likely to run into one of them if she hunkered down every now and then.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hint of pink. Lowering herself to the floor, she peeked out and saw Neo's figure, umbrella drawn and at the ready. There was a bemused, slightly titillated look upon her face, and she was standing entirely still. It was a tempting target, but Ilia had no idea of it were the real Neo, a reflection, an illusion, or even a reflection of an illusion. Running down the clock was her best bet.
"GRAH!"
If Hazel hadn't grunted before trying to smash her, Ilia might have been reduced to a lizard smoothie by his burly paws. The Neo she'd glimpsed must have been the real one, because it turned and ran to join in on the fight upon hearing the commotion.
Ilia couldn't get hit. She couldn't afford the aura loss, and worse yet, any blows to her stomach might cause her to involuntarily draw in breath. Thus, she dropped Lash to the floor, cartwheeled away from Hazel, and jumped into the air. Neo may have been agile, but she was also short. Ilia kicked off a mirror and leapt right over her, deftly avoiding an umbrella slice that swept above her head as she landed. Breaking into a sprint, with the two on her tail, Ilia weaved right around a corner, then left, then left again.
Stay unpredictable. Don't let them follow. Run the clock down on–
She barely managed to duck in time. The thrust of the sword clipped the buckle of her shirt and tore it right off, exposing Ilia's shoulder. Ilia dropped to the floor and rolled as twin swords dug into the ground.
Then, Neo was upon her. Ilia rolled back to the spot where Tock's swords were just as they were being pulled out in an attempt to avoid Neo's umbrella point, which clipped her hair. Sword, umbrella, sword, sword again, umbrella and sword, two swords at once – Ilia dodged everything that came her way. She was tiring, but it would all be over soon, hopefully.
She heard Hazel before she saw him. There was no avoiding him without letting herself be impaled by the others, so she braced herself and held onto the same initial breath of air in her lungs. He rammed her back with his shoulder, and she flew through a glass pane, landing on the other side. Cuts and abrasions peppered her skin, but she couldn't afford to protect her skin with her aura. It hurt to take so many deep hit without any shielding, and Ilia had to grit her teeth to prevent herself from opening her mouth to scream in pain. If she died, there would be nothing tying Tock, Neo, and Hazel to the mirror house, and they would go back out, and…she couldn't let that happen.
There was no time to dawdle. Neo soared through the empty frame that had held the now-shattered glass and kicked at Ilia's chest. Ilia grabbed the foot before it hit and pushed off, using the momentum to give herself a running start as she fled once more.
"Ya ain't gunna win if ya don't foight, princess!"
I don't need to fight. I don't even need to survive. I just need to keep you all in confined space with…
Lighting Lash! Ilia saw her whip in front of her and rushed over to grab it. The closer her opponents were to it, the faster this would all be over. As she picked it up, a loud noise came from behind her.
Hazel, apparently having given up on patience, charged through mirrors and windows alike, smashing everything in his path like a rampaging bison. He ran right past Ilia, likely distracted by a reflection of her in front of him, but his method wasn't faulty – pretty soon there would be no more mirrors in the entire funhouse, which would mean no more reflections to hide behind, which would mean no more Ilia.
Three Tocks appeared behind her, and Ilia had no idea which was real and which two were fake. Desperate, she shifted her skin into every rainbow of colors she could and ran, hoping that the simultaneous changing skin tone and motion would make it difficult to target her. Tock threw her swords, and Ilia's theory was proven true; both missed.
Then Neo tackled her from the side, wrapping up Ilia in a bear hug. Both girls fell to the floor. The impact was so hard that Neo's invisibility illusions shattered onto the floor, joining the many other shards of glass that Ilia was now painfully lying upon.
"Hazel! We got 'er! C'mon back 'ere before ya bring down the whole bleedin' place."
Neo's face was right up in Ilia's, close enough for them to kiss. Ilia just had time to notice the contrasting colors of her eyes for the first time before they both unfocused, and her head slumped. She pushed Neo's body off of her own as Tock caught up to them.
One down.
The yellow shine around the crocodile Faunus faded, and Tock stabbed her swords into the ground, using them as canes. Ilia's hypothesis about her semblance's defensive nature extending to exhaustion was apparently correct; she seemed quite winded now that it was over, and sweat was dripping down her brow.
"Whew! That was–"
Tock collapsed to the floor.
Two down.
Ilia's urge to utter something clever about how she'd finally paid back dying twice at the docks was tempting, but she was still running on that first lungful of oxygen. She didn't need to breathe thanks to her semblance, but clean air was now a nonrenewable resource, and she needed to conserve what little of it she had in case she decided she wanted to say something to Hazel.
Ilia sat up and dusted herself off as Hazel ran into the room. "My lady, I–"
His glowing yellow eyes ate up the scene in front of him for a few moments. Ilia knew that he could snap her like a twig if he got his hands on her, and she was too exhausted to put up much of a fight. Still, he hadn't acted against her yet, so perhaps it wouldn't come to that.
"How did you do this?" he asked at last.
Ilia tossed Lash into his hands. "Fifth," she summarized succinctly. It might've been a mistake to simply hand over her weapon, but she'd seen Adam lose twice to the behemoth, and she knew a Lash would do little more to Hazel than work as a pick for his teeth when he chewed up and swallowed Ilia whole.
Hazel spun the dial and ejected the cartridge. Holding it to his nose, he inhaled. "Almonds. Condensed cyanide?"
Ilia nodded. Neo had gulped down more than enough to kill a tiny thing like herself. Tock's semblance may have safeguarded her from any and all danger, but her lungs were filled with the gas as she breathed it in. The very second her coat of protection went away, she was instantly exposed to an extremely concentrated buildup of gas. Good riddance, both of you.
"You're still alive."
Ilia pointed to her throat. "Semblance."
"I'm still alive."
She was running out of words, so she had to use her language judiciously. "Not long."
Hazel was an enormous man, which meant that it would take longer for the gas to kill him, but it absolutely would kill him. He seemed to accept it, as his muscles relaxed from their prior tenseness, and he tossed Lightning Lash back to her. Ilia also relaxed; she hadn't dared to hope that she would walk out of the House of Mirrors still breathing…er, alive, but it now seemed like she just might be able to, provided Hazel didn't suddenly snap. Something about the accepting look in his eyes suggested that wasn't going to happen.
This was Ilia's great strength. Her semblance, Breathtaking, was about as outwardly useful as Russel's or Dove's. She could hold her breath indefinitely, as long as her aura held. Ilia didn't swim much, and she wasn't planning on doing any space travel, so she'd initially thought she'd gotten the short straw with a useless power that had no real combat applications. It was General Ironwood who'd convinced her otherwise.
Don't weaponize your semblance. Use your semblance to weaponize yourself.
It was how she'd beaten Pyrrha, albeit with less lethal results. Lash's fourth chamber contained an incapacitating agent that induced dizziness and minor narcosis. Any huntsman or huntress could employ such chemical weapons in their fighting style, but the fear of falling under its effects themselves typically dissuaded most. Ilia had no such concerns, though she did have to follow certain rules. It only worked in enclosed spaces where the concentration could build up, there could be no allies nearby, and Ilia's aura couldn't break, or she'd also be incapacitated.
With nothing else to do, Ilia double tapped Neo in the neck, just to be sure. Wiping Lighting Lash's bloodied tip against the colorful girl's jacket, she stared down at Tock next.
The cold dead eyes of the crocodile Faunus didn't rise back up to meet her, and they never would again. Anger pulsed through Ilia; this was the woman who'd actually killed her, who'd murdered so many other innocents before them, who'd tried to eat her friends. Lash was vengefully thrust straight into her eye socket and wiggled around until the tip bent into the floor.
Hazel took a step forward. "Is that necessary?"
Ilia's eyes flared wildly, and Lighting Lash raised and pointed its brain-coated tip at him in response.
"I mean you no harm." Hazel stopped moving and held his hands up in surrender. "If I am to die, I see no reason to seek vengeance. Your passing would do nothing to ease or prevent my own."
Ilia started at the brawny man for a second. He was a dick, but he clearly fancied himself a more noble dick than his more bloodthirsty dick friends. Perhaps…
"Tell about maidens. And silver eyes."
Hazel raised an eyebrow in confusion, then sighed. "Ah, I forgot. You're not Ozpin's. You belong to the iron man of Atlas."
I belong to no one. I am my own Faunus. Well, maybe Atlas a teensy bit. And Blake if she weren't with Ruby, but otherwise my own Faunus.
"That power – Atlas will desire it for themselves." Hazel looked away. "But better them than Ozpin. I'll tell you what I can, if only to spite the headmaster and his pawns. Perhaps you shall be the ones to bring his empire crumbling down and deprive him of his maiden protectors rather than me." A smile crossed over Hazel's face. "Tell me girl. What's your favorite fairy tale?"
A tan middle finger was raised to the giant.
"I…ahem…I see. Let's start with Amber, then."
The first thing Adam saw when he woke up was Blake, sitting cross legged and staring out at something with worry on her face.
The first thing he thought was that if Blake was alive, and he was alive, they must have successfully escaped. Or they had both died and were waiting at the afterlife.
"B – Buh…" It hurt too much to speak, and Adam grasped at his chest. Looking down, he saw that his stomach was wrapped up in white strips of bandages with a bright red splotch at the center. That lent credence to the theory of his survival, as he doubted such wounds would carry over to the next plane of existence after living.
Upon hearing Adam's pained gasping, Blake rushed over to him. His lips moved, but he couldn't hear anything at first. Then, after a second, his hearing returned to him.
"SHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"–dage up your injuries, but–"
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!"
"–you'll need some bedrest before you go about fighting again."
"What's…screaming?"
"I HATE YOU! STUPID HORRIBLE EVIL JUST DIE!"
"Oh." Blake pointed over her shoulder. "That would be Ruby. She's having a tough time of it."
Adam twisted his neck and saw the source of the noise. True to Blake's word, it was Ruby. She was standing with her back to Adam near the entrance to the House of Mirrors, repeatedly bringing her scythe up and down into the ground.
Well, at least she's alive. Speaking of which…
"Casualties?"
"Nearly everyone on our side got injured in some way or the other, except Ruby and Ilia. Port…he'll survive, but it was far more serious. His hunting days are behind him. Dust, his walking days are behind him. Too much blood lost, too long deprived of oxygen in that – that thing's mouth."
Ruby screamed again, quite shrilly. The noise made Adam wince.
"It was a Faunus," he explained. "A gulper eel or something. Tock – she knows who we are and all of our weaknesses."
"Knew."
That brightened Adam's day. "Please, do go on."
"Ilia killed her, and Hazel, and the pink thing that you and I fought – 'Neo' was what it was called apparently. Fifth chamber."
Adam hadn't really fought Neo as much as he had been downed by her from a surprise attack, but he still felt some satisfaction upon hearing of the enemies' demises. "Aye, that'll do it."
"AAAAAAAAAH! YAAAH!"
"Hey, if we bodybagged them all and had no deaths on our side, what's got Ruby so pissed?"
Blake didn't answer.
Adam sat up and looked around. Weiss Schnee was assisting Doctor Oobleck as he treated his fallen comrade, who rested on a blood-stained blanket. The men of Team Sword were out at a distance, likely patrolling to make sure they didn't get jumped again by Grimm when they were so vulnerable. Ilia was sitting cross-legged with something black and white in her lap. No one was dead, so why the angry Ruby?
Blake helped Adam stand up and supported his weight as he walked over. As they got closer to Ilia, Adam saw that she wasn't just holding the something in her lap; she was petting it.
Oh no.
Ilia looked up with tears in her eyes. "H-He was a good boy – the best boy there ever was. We only all survived because of him. He freed me from Neo so I could save Ruby, but that left him alone against a full-fledged huntress. She…She…"
Ilia couldn't finish the sentence. Adam let her take a moment to collect herself.
"It was quick, at least. Instant. Just a single poke with her blade, and he got to go to sleep." Ilia's voice cracked as she patted his head. "Such a good boy."
Adam turned around. Now that he was standing, he could better make out the scene around him. Ruby wasn't stabbing her scythe into the ground. There were actually the remains of something…someone…multiple someones…laying at her feet. None of their faces remained.
"PRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHH! FUCKING DIE!"
"She didn't take it well," Blake explained.
"I can see that," Adam noted. The mutilated carcasses were riddled with scythe stabs, and more were being added every second. Neo's in particular had been separated into several distinct pieces with only tendons and red strings of flesh holding them together.
I can't say those three don't deserve it, but there's no way that's healthy for Ruby. And that's coming from me, the king of bottling my shit up until it explodes.
"It's all my fault," wept Ilia. "I brought us out here."
"They weren't going to stop chasing Ruby," Blake said. "This was inevitable. You probably saved her life."
"All of our lives, actually," said Adam. "Tock had figured out our identities. I think that probably put K pretty high up on her list of targets."
"About that." Ilia gave Zwei one final pat. "I think K's mission is about to change."
End of Volume 2
Omake
Ilia: Alright, gang. Let's see who's behind this mystery. *rips off glass illusion*
K: Neopolitan!
Neo: *holds up sign* And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids and your darn dog!
Zwei: Zwooby Dooby Zwoo!
Omake 2
Ilia: I'd like to welcome you back to tonight's round of Wheel of Fortune. Tock is in the lead, with Hazel not far behind and Neopolitan at zero due to her inability to answer any of the puzzles. A reminder, the current clue is 'Villainous Tropes.'
Board: K I _ _ T H E D O G
Tock: Oi'd loike to solve the puzzal.
Ilia: Go ahead.
Tock: Kill th–
Ilia: No.
Author's Notes
Maybe it wasn't as sad as I built it up to be, but I felt pretty bummed out even writing the death of doggo. RIP Zwei: he defended his little girl to the bitter end.
Sorry for the completely tasteless omakes that spoiled the mood, but I couldn't not include them, given how perfectly they fit.
So, now that the grand secrets of the universe are revealed, what will be in store for our heroes? Hazel has revealed the truth about the magical girls, and one can only wonder how a military superpower would respond to learning that the ultimate power not only exists but is actively up for grabs.
SURVEY
Remember to fill out the Marrow Murder Mystery poll, if you haven't already! There's a brand new question with only four answers so far. Here's the link: (forms dot gle /3EGGEfhxs1cgYrZE7)
Results so far:
QUESTION ONE: WHO KILLED MARROW AMIN?
Ruby Rose – 10
Marrow Amin – 7 (daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn)
Weiss Schnee – 3
Ozpin – 3
Blake Belladonna – 2
Ilia Amitola – 1
Dove Bronzewing – 1
Pyrrha Nikos – 1
QUESTION TWO: WHO IS THE GOOSE?
Weiss Schnee – 6
It seems like people really think Weiss is the Goose, as no one has voted for any goose other than her. I wonder why…
Happy rats, and don't do crime!
