And after just a few days, here's another chapter!
Once again, this one serves to push forward the overall plot for the most part... but it's also setting up some future events.
So, hope you're gonna enjoy this!
The Best Laid Plans
The time had come, and the Chosen were ready. They'd already made the preparations, they'd already drawn out the plans, and even the contingencies. All that was left, was to ensure that Salem found herself short one fanatical assassin by the end of this encounter. Ever since they'd reached Oniyuri, they'd already spread the small drones that would sense for the target they were waiting for in secret. From there, they had to devise a way to keep him within the blast range other than them manually doing it and risking getting caught in the blast as well.
Additionally they had to account for the possibility of something going wrong, hence why they were planning on assigning who could venture into Oniyuri and who had to stay. Their plan was simple enough. With Gennai's help (and a bit of chipping in from Mirei too for some fine tuning), they'd rigged a shield generator and equipped it to the RV. With this they could project a powerful barrier onto a location or even around the RV itself, meaning they not only had a way to trap Tyrian, they also had a defensive weapon for the future too.
Furthermore, to avoid any suspicion in case Salem was watching which she almost definitely was, they'd made a show of setting up camp in the village itself while also salvaging some of the leftover materials and making a defense of sorts. Good enough to work on Grimm...not gonna do all that much to a crazy assassin.
Regarding who was allowed to take part in the operation and who wasn't, it had been agreed that Blake, Patamon, Nora, and Salamon HAD to stay in the RV, which was to be regularly locked to ensure nobody could get in or out without them noticing. The reason was simple in that in the worst case scenario, their Partners' Ultimate forms would be able to cleanse the poisons. On the flip side, Ruby was a must to be out and about, because as much as they hated using live bait, her Silver Eyes made her a high priority target...dead or alive.
"How much longer until he gets here?" Agumon wondered.
"Shouldn't be too long honestly. We've been taking our time so Salem can track us and send him our way. He should be catching up soon." Gyro said from their spot in the fake camp.
"And when he does, we'll be ready," Jaune said as he was sharpening his sword.
"Anything yet, Penny?" Ruby asked, as Penny seemed to be concentrating, as they'd made it so that the drones were on a frequency Penny could use.
"Not yet, but I'll be sure to let everyone know if…" she trailed off as her eyes widened.
"Everyone get ready?" Monodramon guessed, earning a firm nod from Penny as everyone readied their weapons, and soon enough, a figure darted over some of the buildings and soon landed on the ground, before going straight for Ruby, but Palmon acted faster, sending out her vines, while Gyro immediately got in front of Ruby, and they quickly fended off a flurry of attacks, but their target, Tyrian Callows, quickly broke off and shifted his focus to Penny, who was able to to fend off his attacks too with help from Monodramon, while Jaune and Gomamon moved to assist, though Tyrian quickly broke away, showing his acrobatic skills in the process. "Hey you jerk, why the heck are you attacking us out of nowhere?!" Ruby shouted, acting like she had no idea what was going on.
Tyrian laughed "Oh, just following my queen's orders. It's nothing personal." he said with a mad grin.
"You sound like every edgy teen on the internet." Gyro said in deadpan, remembering a certain exchange on the internet that had become meme legend.
"And 'queen'? I don't think you've noticed, but Remnant hasn't had any royalty in like...decades," Jaune said, again playing dumb.
Tyrian laughed again. "I'm not surprised you wouldn't know. Not that it really concerns any of you," he smirked, before he gained a thoughtful expression. "Well...I guess it DOES concern you, seeing as one of you won't be walking away from here," he smirked.
"Wait a second...Queen...wants one of us dead…" Ruby frowned, before her eyes 'widened in realization'. "Did Cinder send you?" she glared.
Tyrian laughed again, louder this time "Cinder?! Oh please, that's a good one! As if I'd ever serve that charred runt!"
Agumon tilted his head "Charred huh? Ok, now I'm curious about how bad we hit her."
"Well then, if you think we're just gonna roll over and die…" Monodramon frowned.
"You've got another thing coming!" Gomamon finished.
"By all means, please struggle as much as you'd like," Tyrian smirked, before charging at them, but Agumon fired a Pepper Breath that Gyro boosted into a small inferno, which managed to hit him...if not for the fact he used his jacket as a decoy, landing on a nearby bit of scaffolding, his tail visible.
"A Scorpion Faunus?" Gyro 'blinked' before 'groaning'. "Great...just great…"
Tyrian just smirked at that and soon lunged at him, forcing Gyro on the defensive. Or so it seemed. Tyrian proved to be fast and agile, easily switching from one target to another, and overall forcing them to be on the defensive for the most part. During the fight he couldn't help but cackle as he fought, partially because inwardly he was starting to think more and more that Cinder's defeat was because she was just THAT incompetent. These kids...were nothing special as far as he could see.
However, what he didn't know was that ever since he'd entered, the RV had been slowly setting up its barrier, slowly encircling the town with it, while they were keeping his attention on them fully.
And all of sudden, the town was encircled by a blue dome because of the barrier finishing it's set-up, with Tyrian looking up in surprise "What in the…?"
"Freaking finally." Gyro sighed "I was tired of playing dumb." he said, before grinning at Tyrian "So, just to set the record straight, we actually know who you are Tyrian Callows, we also know you work for Salem, and that Cinder is just a kid in terms of power." he said "So… yeah, not much else to say actually." he grinned, before suddenly, Agumon evolved up into WarGreymon "See you Mr. Charred corpse." he said, before Ruby moved in a fully of rose petals, picking up everyone with her while WarGreymon floated up, the mass of petals moving out of the barrier as WarGreymon started building up a Gaia Force in his hands.
Tyrian's eyes widened as he realized what was going on and tried shooting at WarGreymon...only for the bullets to bounce off doing no damage. With an almost crazed speed he tried to get out of the barrier, noting how easily they seemed to leave it...only to run smack into said barrier, sending him flying back.
"No… you can't do this! My queen will save me!" he shouted madly.
"I doubt it." WarGreymon said down to him "You're just the latest crazy she hired after all, I mean… ever heard of Tock?" he said, before shrugging "Probably not." And with that he threw down the Gaia Force, and Tyrian Callows met his end in a literal blaze of glory, which wiped Oniyuri completely off the map, and when it was all over...the only thing left of Tyrian Callows were ashes.
"And that's that," Gyro sighed as WarGreymon floated towards them and reverted to Agumon. "Great job, buddy."
"That's one LESS piece for Salem to use," Jaune sighed.
"And good riddance too," Gomamon agreed.
"Now all we have to do is wait for Uncle Qrow and Oscar," Ruby said, seeing as well...it was impossible NOT to see the light show.
"You know, with how Salem probably has eyes and ears almost everywhere, I wonder how she's taking being outsmarted again," Monodramon mused.
"Probably not well, but eh. Guess we'll never know," Agumon shrugged.
Salem HAD in fact seen it all through some Grimm in the area...and as they'd guessed, she wasn't happy. With a snarl she'd manifested a whole host of Grimm arms from the ground, eyes burning in rage, before she slowly calmed down. "It seems these...children...will prove to be more of a nuisance than I'd expected," she growled. "Perhaps I should consider looking for a chance to deal with them...personally," she smirked. After all, no matter how powerful they and their little pets could be...it meant nothing to an immortal. Who knows, perhaps she'd let them kill her a few times, only to drive in how futile all their efforts will be.
"But just in case...perhaps I should look into making some...insurance," she frowned, turning her attention to one of the many Grimm Pools that dotted her domain.
Back at the former ruins of Oniyuri…
"Wow, I know we were planning this, but actually seeing the damage is something else," Ruby said, looking at what was left of Oniyuri from the RV window.
"Well, when dealing with crazies, a good strategy is to default to 'no kill like overkill'," Pierce shrugged.
"So, now that he's dealt with… do we have plans for the other followers?" Veemon asked.
Gyro frowned a bit, humming in thought "I think… for Watts, we'll need Oren, if it turns into a hacking related encounter. I've been looking into the firewall he made for Atlas, and if he and Weiss combined their efforts, they'd be like a pair of hacker gods."
"That good huh?" Weiss said in interest.
Gyro nodded "As for Hazel, we just need to overpower him, since as much as he's clearly misguided… the fact of the matter is he's willing to kill kids if they're hosting Ozma's soul."
"Can't condone that kind of stuff." Buyomon said with a shake of her head.
"There's also the fact he's a massive hypocrite, since from what we saw, he says it's Oz's fault when he's beating up Oscar, and really anyone who gets in his way, so…" Rusty said with a shrug, his opinion clear.
"We already know what we'll do with Salem herself. Considering how her immortality has basically made her invincible, she'll probably be so overconfident that getting her in the Heaven's Gate should be easy enough." Nora said, as they'd already discussed Salem's likely mental process with her apparent millenia of being on a constant winning streak. "Which means… what do we do with Cinder, Mercury and Emerald?"
"Cinder dies, no questions about that." Gyro said "Mercury… I'm not sure. But considering he was having fun in canon when he was filming the invasion of Vale, I don't see a chance to redeem him."
"And Emerald?" Ruby asked him.
"Emerald… she actually still has a chance I think. If we could just convince her somehow that Cinder is just using her. Though the question is how we'd even do that." he sighed.
"We'll work on that as we go," Pierce sighed. "But if we can't get her to see reason…" he frowned.
The group saw his logic...and after a moment nodded in grim understanding. "I don't like the idea...but we probably DO have to consider it…" Pyrrha frowned. They're trying to save all of Remnant, and when you've got a goal that big….you can't expect to keep your hands clean…
Any further conversation was put on hold when they heard the sound of knocking at the door. Making a quick check on who it was, they quickly opened the door to reveal Qrow.
And standing right behind him was Oscar, who was holding Ozpin's cane… and behind Oscar was a Digimon, surprisingly.
"Well, that was one heck of a light show you kids put on earlier." Qrow said with a smirk, before coming inside.
"Uh, hi there, I'm Oscar Pine… though I guess you guys knew that if what Qrow said is true." Oscar introduced himself a little awkwardly.
"Pretty much yeah," Veemon chuckled. "Weird way to learn about it all, right?"
"In short par the course if we were in the Digital World. The name's Huckmon by the way," Huckmon introduced himself with a chuckle.
"So, Ozpin's in your head, yeah?" Gyro asked him, getting right to the important matters.
"He is. You wanted to talk to him, right?" Oscar asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty important." Gyro said with a nod.
Oscar nodded back, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, relaxing a bit, before his whole posture changed all of a sudden, and he opened his eyes "It's been a long time Mr. Vermillion." Ozpin said with a friendly smile.
"Nice to see you too, Professor. Though...I'm afraid what we got to say is...going to be a bit unpleasant, so...sorry in advance," Gyro sighed.
Ozpin frowned at that. "I imagine important information is rarely what we'd consider...pleasant…" he sighed. "Alright, what else are you aware of?"
At that, Gyro discreetly signaled to Nora and Yang, to which both of them and their partners moved closer to Qrow, who was too focused on what Gyro was about to say to notice.
"Before we start, you'll probably want to sit down," Gyro said...to which both Qrow and Ozpin did so. "Huh, for some reason I expected you to say something before you went and followed."
"Kid, after the LAST bombshell you dropped we've both learned to listen when you say 'you might want to sit down'," Qrow snorted.
"...fair point," Gyro chuckled a bit, before he sobered up "Alright, so… no other way of putting it than we know the full truth."
"What full truth is that?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ozma." was all Gyro said, and Ozpin froze on the spot.
"The way we learned is a bit… unorthodox." Agumon said with a grimace.
"BUT, I just want to say this now. You still have our trust and support." Gyro said quickly.
"I… I see…" Ozpin, or rather Ozma, said, still sounding shocked "So… you know of my origins?"
"We know about the original wave of humanity before the two dickheads upstairs decided to be petty yes, and that everything went to hell because of your ex." Yang said in deadpan.
"I suppose that's one way of putting it." Ozma grimaced a bit.
"His ex?" Qrow said with a raised eyebrow.
"His choice if he tells you." Gyro said, nodding to Ozma, who gave a grateful nod, before taking a deep breath.
"They mean Salem. Millenia ago… she and I were husband and wife. To summarise the early moments, she was trapped in a tower by her father, and I went to save her once I heard of her plight. We actually fell in love as I saved her, but… I fell to illness shortly after. She then pleaded to the brother gods to bring me back, feeling my death was unjust, but when they found out she tried to deceive the two, they punished her." he said, before grimacing.
"Punished her how?" Qrow asked, wondering why he'd stopped.
"They punished her by making her immortal, thinking that would eventually teach her a lesson." Gyro said, before chuckling "Spoiler alert, it didn't."
Qrow stopped short...then looked at him incredulously. "Wait, by immortal, you don't seriously mean…?"
"She took a piece of the moon to the face and she's just fine," Gyro deadpanned.
"Wait what?!" Qrow gasped, and turned to Ozpin. "And you knew?! Why didn't you tell us?! A lot of us believed that we just had to kill her and then a LOT of our problems would be over! But if she's immortal, what were we even doing then?!" he gasped, though thankfully he didn't make any threatening moves even if he clearly wanted answers.
Gyro looked between them, and then looked to Yang and Nora who nodded, moving closer "He was trying to minimize the damage she did while also figuring out a way to finally put a stop to her for good."
Qrow went deathly still at that, and almost moved, before he was shoved back into his seat by Yang and Nora, the two easily able to hold him in place "Let go of me!"
"Not when you're about to punch a kid." Gyro glared at the older man. He may like Qrow most of the time, but that little stunt from canon had pissed him off, before he turned to Ozpin "For the record, I think you did the best you could with the hand you were dealt Headmaster. Was it the smartest? Well...that really depends on the context, but considering people tend to panic when BIG problems show up...yeah...we could understand your choices even if we didn't agree with them at the time we heard them."
Ozpin was silent for a long moment, before looking up at Gyro, and for the first time since they'd met him, he looked vulnerable, but at the same time, grateful "I… thank you, Gyro."
"At any rate, as annoying as finding that out suddenly was, THANKFULLY, we managed to figure out a workaround with her immortality. We can't KILL her, but who's to say we can't...lock her away somewhere she can't ever escape from?" Pierce said.
"And as it so happens, we already DO have a way to do that," Patamon added, puffing up his chest a bit...literally.
"Two ways technically." Salamon said with a grin.
"The bottom line," Blake said though she snorted in mild amusement at the two Digimons' antics. "Is that both Patamon and Salamon when in their higher levels have a special ability that involve sending the target into another dimension. Our belief is that Salem's immortality only works to revive her and thus by sending her to another dimension, she won't be a problem anymore as while she's not DEAD, she's out of our hair so to speak."
Qrow stopped struggling at that, while Ozpin's eyes went wide, before he looked to the two Digimon "You two can truly do that?"
"Yeahp!" Patamon said proudly "I can send her through the Heaven's Gate, and Salamon can tear open a hole with Chaos Degradation."
"Bottom line, as soon as we meet Salem, we're chucking her through one of the two portals, doesn't matter which, and saying goodbye to her for the rest of eternity." Jaune summed up.
"Wait, hold on… why didn't you start with that then?!" Qrow asked in annoyance.
"Because we needed to go step-by-step to make sure you both understood we know what we're doing." Gyro shrugged.
"One other thing we know about, though less critical, is the Relics." Ren said.
"We know Mistral has the Lamp of Knowledge, and Atlas has the Staff of Creation, and we're pretty sure Vacuo has the Sword of Destruction while Vale has the Crown of Choice, is that right?" Weiss asked.
"That is correct, yes," Ozpin said after a moment. "If you know this much already I'll assume you know of-"
"The Spirits? Yes, we know of one of them anyway, Jinn inside the Lamp of Knowledge. No idea about the other three, didn't get to see that far," Aile frowned.
"Well, the spirit of the staff is Ambrosius, and he is quite the character." Ozpin said, seeing as there was no point in trying to be secretive at this point. "The spirit of the sword is Megido, and he's rather… boisterous and loud, I suppose would be an apt way of putting it. Finally, there is Janus, the spirit of the crown, who is probably one of the most calm along with Jinn."
"Huh, they seem like fun characters to talk to," Gomamon commented.
"They DO leave a lasting impression," Ozpin chuckled lightly. "Is there anything else?"
"Hm...oh yeah, there is something you should know about the Spring Maiden," Gyro mused. "We uh...accidentally made a new one."
"Wait, what? How does that happen?" Qrow asked in confusion.
"Well, first, the Spring Maiden, turns out it was your sister, Raven." Gabumon said, making Qrow groan in frustration.
"Secondly, I wanted revenge on her bandit tribe, so I exterminated them." Keenan said, looking at the man "Don't worry, I don't have a grudge on you or Yang, just on Raven and her bandits that I finally carried out. They're all gone, and Raven… who knows if she's alive?"
"But...we also thought that having the power just fly around would be a problem so...how to say...with a bit of help from our Mentor from the Digital World, we devised a way to separate the power from a maiden without harming them, I know, it sounds crazy, but the Digital World has ways to bend the rules that usually apply to Remnant," Pierce said, before Weiss took out an empty crystal, the same type that had been used to seal the Spring Maiden powers even if briefly.
"The plan was to avoid the cycle repeating while this madness was going on, we'd seal the Maiden Powers into these and then send them to the Digital World, well away from Salem. Gennai successfully extracted the power from Raven, but before we could send it...the powers suddenly picked a host by themself," she sighed, to which Yang held up a hand, and a small flame appeared.
"Miss Xiao Long?" Ozpin asked in surprise.
"Yeah… we had the idea that maybe since I was closer and my DNA matched hers enough, the powers jumped to me since I was close enough of a match to the last host." Yang said with a shrug, snuffing out the flame in her hand "Best theory we got, makes the most sense too honestly."
"We've been considering what to do with them," Ren frowned. "On one hand we considered sealing them away as per our initial plan, but at the same time we've considered they could prove a valuable asset in the event we DO need to get to the Relic of Knowledge," he sighed.
"We're honestly on the fence of which would be the better path to take," Wormmon admitted.
"Hm...since you're both here, what do you think? Should we lock the powers away so nobody can abuse them, or should we hang on to them just in case?" Agumon said, figuring they might be able to give them a suggestion.
"Well… it's risky." Qrow frowned "Paints a target on firecracker's back too."
"However…" Ozpin started "Nobody even knows she's the Maiden except for us. As long as you make sure to avoid using the powers out in the open, Salem would likely just send her subordinates on wild chases for a Maiden they'll never find."
"Makes sense to me." Huckmon spoke up "Basically just keep quiet and nobody will try to send an assassin after you."
"Been there, done that actually." Hawkmon noted.
"Wait, what? Oh, right, you said something about that." Qrow remembered.
"Yeah, Salem's go to assassin is dead right now." Bemmon nodded "We don't have to worry about any previous assassins either, since the only one who could have potentially been alive has been dead for decades thanks to someone else."
"However that incident proved one thing. Evading Salem's vision on Remnant is MUCH harder than it sounds," Hawkmon frowned. "Fortunately we have a workaround for that too."
"Let's just say we have never been MORE thankful for the Digimon and the Digital World," Jaune chuckled awkwardly.
"Salem may be able to find things on Remnant, but in the Digital World, she's blind. There aren't any Grimm, and we're pretty sure she doesn't have anyone who could actually get in there for her. So if we keep our important plans and preparations in the Digital World, we can be more or less secure that she won't find a way to find out what we have planned," Ruby explained.
"Plus, the RV here is, as you can see, a lot bigger on the inside, we can just plan things out in the basement or any room that has no windows and it'll be pretty hard for her to get an idea." Palmon added.
"In short, lots of secure locations to avoid prying eyes and ears." Tentomon said with a firm nod.
"Damn...you kids seem to have everything planned out," Qrow chuckled.
"Salem got as far as she did with a cheat code. It's only fair we get to beat her with a few of our own," Veemon laughed.
"Speaking of the cheat codes that is our future knowledge, there's one more major thing that's coming up, but with luck, we'll have already averted it," Gyro said. "Put bluntly, in the 'original' timeline, the situation at Atlas is growing increasingly tense, and a series of events that follow would push Ironwood over the edge. Put simply, he loses his marbles in that timeline. The good news? We've already averted one of the biggest key reasons, namely Vale's near destruction, AND we exposed everything as a plan caused by Cinder and Co., so that wedge of distrust they were trying to plant shouldn't exist in THIS timeline. That SHOULD allow things to flow in a path that won't push Ironwood into doing anything...drastic."
"What did James almost do in this original timeline?" Ozpin asked in concern.
"Lifted Atlas high up into the sky… and abandon the rest of Remnant… yeah, it's as bad as it sounds." Biyomon said with a sigh.
Qrow sighed "Well, glad it won't happen here then. Didn't think Jimmy could ever get that bad, and I hope it won't happen either."
"Based on the situation at Atlas and Mantle, as well as based on the scenario I was shown, so far it seems we are likely on a different path than the possible future," Penny said.
"And with work and effort we intend to KEEP it that way," Veemon said.
"Well… in that case, I think we'll defer to your judgement." Ozpin said, before his posture suddenly shifted again, leaving Oscar behind "And I'm… still pretty confused honestly."
"Don't worry kid, we'll show you the ropes." Pierce said with a grin, earning a grateful nod from the youth.
"Thanks. I've got a LOT to learn," Oscar smiled a bit wryly.
"Hey, don't forget I'm by your side, partner," Huckmon said with a grin.
"Welcome aboard. Things are gonna be anything but normal, but we can promise life is gonna be really interesting," Yang grinned.
Speaking of Atlas…
The personnel keeping watch on the artificial Digital Gate were monitoring the systems to make sure nothing was abnormal. Once everything was in order, the technicians nodded as the operators soon activated the gate. The gate remained open for a few minutes before something started coming through, revealing to be the convoys of the expedition teams. Once all vehicles were through, the doors hissed open and the first to step out was James Ironwood, with Kudamon still wrapped around his shoulders.
With his exit, followed by other members of the expedition stepping out as well, an important looking soldier went up to him. "Sir," he said, saluting.
"At ease," Ironwood nodded.
"How were negotiations?" the soldier asked.
Ironwood smiled at that. "Negotiations were productive. I wouldn't say we have a new ally yet, but they seem open to the idea," he said.
"Mercurymon is willing to consider allying with Atlas and thus with Remnant, but being one of the Olympos 12, he needs to deliberate with the other members. A decision this large will affect not just his territory but also all of WWW, if not the entire Digital World," Kudamon said. "As such, I and a few others have volunteered to be liaisons of sorts between this world and the Digital World," Kudamon explained.
"I… see…" the soldier said, looking at Kudamon in confusion, before looking to Ironwood.
"This is Kudamon, a Digimon who helped the expedition team before my team embarked onto the Digital World. He's been a lot of help and seeing as he's also wanted to see Remnant, we felt this was a fair trade," Ironwood said, earning a nod of understanding from the soldier. "Now then, I'll be heading back up to my office, please send Specialist Schnee up to meet me in a few minutes." he added, and received a salute with a 'Sir!' from the soldier, before he returned to his office.
A short while later, Winter and Lunamon entered said Office, with Ironwood already at his desk, While Kudamon had curled himself up a bit on the side of the desk. "You wanted to see me, sir?" Winter asked.
"Yes, its regarding the plans for an alliance with the Digital World. Even if Solitas hasn't seen many Digimon emergences, they do still happen, and that's not including the other Kingdoms. We will need a group set up to keep such events in check in the future, be they in Solitas or the other Kingdoms," Ironwood said. "And when that group is formed, they will need a leader. I want you to be that leader."
"Sir?" Winter said in surprise.
"You're one of the first people on Remnant to have obtained a Digimon partner Winter. You're a perfect choice to lead others, as they will need guidance on how to work with their own partners." Ironwood said with a confident smile.
"We don't know how many true partnerships will form, so it's best if they have someone to base themselves off of for how they should interact together." Kudamon added.
"Well...we're honored you'd choose us," Lunamon blinked, to which she looked at Winter who looked back and the two nodded.
"We won't let you down. I accept the position," Winter said.
"Excellent. Then once preparations are done you will officially be the Commander of the Digital Accidents Tactics Squad, or DATS for short," Ironwood smiled.
Meanwhile…
The atmosphere was...tense...in the castle where Salem resided. Not the least because of the recent loss of one of their numbers. Oh sure, nobody was shedding any tears over the loss of the nut job, but the fact remains that those kids had once again dealt a blow to them, was cause enough to start making preparations.
"Still, it's rather interesting how they defeated him so thoroughly. Reduced him to ashes completely. They were as ready to kill as we are." Watts noted in interest.
"With what they did to Cinder, I can't say I'm surprised," Mercury commented, earning a small glare from Cinder at the reminder. "Hey, I'm just saying. They came at you with intent to kill. I don't know how, but they know who we are and want us dead."
"And clearly, they knew who Tyrian was if they were ready to turn him to ashes." Hazel said "And I doubt Ozpin told them at any point."
"Even if we assume it's the so-called Foretellers again, it doesn't change the fact that they seem ready, able and willing to use extreme measures to take us out. In fact, it might be wise for us to assume all our identities are compromised," Watts frowned.
"Perhaps," Salem frowned. "But that does not change our plans. We will proceed as intended, though I will at least say we should be cautious regarding them in the future."
Cinder looked like she wanted to protest, but Salem held up a hand, stopping her. "I understand your grudge against them, but the plan takes priority," she said before she smiled. "Besides...I am certain your chances against them will increase further...when you've obtained the other Maiden Powers as well," she said.
Cinder seemed to calm down at that, nodding, before looking to an empty spot behind her "Where… is she?" she said in confusion.
"Yes… where DID Emerald go, I wonder?" Salem spoke, before looking to Mercury "You were the last to see her child, what can you tell us?"
"Well… nothing much. She was walking just a bit behind me and I was talking to her, I turned a corner, but, she didn't, so I went back and… nothing." Mercury said, confusion clear on his face.
Watts humed "You don't suppose one of those Foretellers snuck in here, do you?"
"Impossible," Salem said simply. "If they had, well...I would know," she frowned, as from the walls several Seers came through before going back in.
"But then...where did she go?" Hazel frowned.
"Where indeed…" Salem frowned. Truly ever since those creatures appeared on Remnant, things had become so much more complicated than before. No matter, it wouldn't change anything. She would get what she wanted, and if she had to tear two worlds apart to get it, so be it.
Emerald groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was walking just a bit behind Mercury at the castle, and then, she'd suddenly felt the floor give out from beneath her. Lifting her head up… didn't give her many answers, only more questions, as for some reason, she seemed to be in a forest of some kind… yet not one she could imagine ever being on Remnant with how crazy and twisty the trees looked...and she was POSITIVE Remnant didn't have trees that had polka dots on their leaves and barks.
"Where… am I?"
Unknown to her, she wasn't alone, as something with blue butterfly wings was watching her from afar curiously.
Meanwhile, an undisclosed location in the Digital World…
"It seems things are progressing well," a sly sounding female voice said, as a woman in a red dress, red hat, purple arm gloves, and purple sunglasses with long silver hair stepped forward, a small smirk present on her features.
"They don't suspect a thing. No surprise there," a smug and confident male voice said as a man dressed in a near full body outfit colored blue with brown gloves and a walking stick stepped into view, his yellow eye glowing a bit, and what bits of his skin were visible were an oddly gray color.
"With you two playing the conflict as planned, that's nothing strange," a third voice said, belonging to a young man, amusement clear in his tone as he stood in the shadows of the room "It shouldn't be long before it all blows up in their faces. Then it'll finally be time for the REAL fun to commence." he said, as he grinned within the shadows of the room, a cruel and rather unpleasant grin at that.
And there you go!
First, Tyrian is officially dead, meaning nobody's getting poisoned anymore.
Second, the payoff of the Atlas Chronicles is finally showing up, and as some of you guessed, yes, DATS is on the way to properly be integrated into the story.
Third, Salem's group is still over-confident as usual.
Fourth... yeah, with what canon decided to do, we chose to give Emerald a chance. Hope you look forward to what we'll do with her.
And finally, two familiar faces to 02 fans finally make their proper debut, but I'm sure you're wondering who the third person with them is. The answer to that... well, you'll see one day, because for now...
The Adventure Evolves.