A.N. (3/20/23) - Here's the Monday release chapter, albeit a bit later than scheduled.


Atlas (13) - Azoth Array

Messaging Pietro, Rin learned that he was currently working at his lab before notifying him that she would be visiting soon.

It was supposed to be a quick trip, but even the short duration from traveling to her destination was enough for her to witness the effects of yesterday's attack. All around her, Rin could see the news showing various reporters and anchors discussing the event while crowds stood in front of the public display screens with interest. Some were holding their Scrolls in their hands with a certain video playing on screen, pirated versions of the recording that Jax made when he had Jacques killed.

The SDC was a giant in the world economy, and the death of its head would remain a hot topic for the next few days at the very least.

Rin tried to ignore the creeping thoughts attempting to infiltrate her mind. His death weighed on her consciousness because she couldn't help but feel that all of this was her fault. Even though she was not the one who killed him, there was no doubt that her presence in this world had somehow cascaded events until it resulted in his death. Considering what happened with Merlot as well, it was hard to see how her existence was making things better compared to the timeline she knew.

After all, the evidence presented thus far was saying the opposite.

No, she needed to remember what else she accomplished. Her territory in Argus has been acknowledged by Ozpin and was being fortified with numerous material and magical defenses because of their alliance. And Ironwood was keeping his end of the deal by providing her with resources and connections in exchange for her knowledge of magecraft. All of that was meant to build a foundation that would later help her go up against Salem.

But compared to the ripple effect of her actions, the consequences far outweighed the benefits. Argus had been nearly destroyed. Pyrrha had lost her Semblance. The Greem were causing trouble across Anima and Sanus. And now, the Crown was targeting Atlas for some reason.

Not to mention what happened to the Schnee family.

Even if the bad things in her life were eighty percent the fault of others, it was the last twenty percent that mattered the most to her.

Pietro had a laboratory not too far from Atlas Academy. When Rin first stepped foot in it, she had to admit that she had been disappointed at the time. It was large, square, and unassuming almost as if she had stepped into an office. The clean space and lack of interesting contraptions were a far cry from what she saw in his clinic down in Mantle during their first meeting.

Now though, the entire place was more aligned with her imagined ideal due to all the various gadgets and hi-tech equipment scattered all over the place. It was as if a twister had trashed the place with how messy everything was. Large coils and cables sprawled across a table and were connected to a humanoid frame. The scent of something burning lingered in the air, smelling like a mix of burnt battery and week-old coffee. Her foot accidentally bumped into a box that spilled a bunch of tiny resistors and capacitors across the floor.

The noise alerted Pietro, who had been crouching beside a counter near the back. His fingers paused typing at the keyboard next to him while bits of machinery surrounded him. Seeing her, his chair swirled around and faced her direction.

"Ah, you're here!" He smiled and motioned for her to come closer. "Ignore that mess, I'll take care of it later. I got your text a little while ago, but the time must have passed without me realizing it. Should have figured that my hands wouldn't sit still for even five minutes."

It was her turn to smile. There was just something about the scientist that made it difficult for Rin to maintain a bad mood. "If you say so," Rin replied. "Where are the others? I thought you were supposed to be under guard due to all the recent chaos."

A knock answered her question.

"Um, Doctor?" Coming through the door was Marrow carrying a large box. "Where exactly do you want me to leave this?"

"Right in that corner, thank you very much!" Pietro faced her again. "The rest are helping me set up some equipment. Having some Specialists around really saves time on heavy lifting."

Rin nodded, but discreetly lifted her eyepatch and used her mystic eye to scan Marrow. Before doing so, she cast an illusion that hid her intentions slightly so nobody would notice.

He was clean.

She gave out a sigh of relief. She also made sure that Pietro wasn't being controlled either by comparing both of their emotional signatures to what she witnessed at the Schnee gala. Were either actually affected by Jax's Semblance, her mystic eye would have noticed the irregularity in their thought processes. As it was, both of them were merely relaxed with neutral emotional states.

"So I mostly came to check up on you and see if you were okay. I'm not interrupting anything important, am I?"

Pietro waved a hand. "No, not at all. I've already gone through all the major systems of Amity, and the rest is better left to my staff. As a result, I found myself with a lot more free time than I thought I would. So I decided to go back to my personal projects and see if a bout of inspiration will hit me while I work."

"He has us testing these really weird projects of his," Marrow added. "My favorite was the glove that helped me play the piano, and I never even touched one before today."

"Yes, well I only had enough time to preload a single song. Not sure why I went with the Hokey Pokey, but at least I managed to get some good data from it." His eyes brightened. "But never mind that I should ask you if you're interested in helping. After all, you did leave some of your side projects with me to tinker with at my discretion. Come along!"

Before she could argue, she found herself being dragged along to the next room with a resigned Marrow following them. The lights turned on and revealed several items laying on various tables around.

"I do recall you requesting an upgrade on your previous outfit," Pietro began. "And I noticed that you've already come up with a design of your own. While I didn't go through with that due to several safety concerns… really, editing your nerves to output energy… I did come up with something tamer."

He gestured ahead, and Rin found herself blinking.

"Doctor, why did you make a plugsuit?"

"Not exactly right. Officially, it's a combat suit that has a thin exoskeleton underneath the outer layer, which also makes use of the latest reinforced fabric and cloaking technology. I'll admit that I took some inspiration from your previous outfit, and I'm happy that you've permitted me to experiment with the Dust weaving in it."

"Still," Rin hesitated. "Did you have to make it a skintight bodysuit?"

"I'm afraid so. This is only a prototype, and the cloaking feature gets a bit tricky if it isn't entirely form-fitting."

"Harriet made a fuss about it when Doctor Polendina first showed it off to us," Marrow muttered.

Pietro continued as if he hadn't heard him. "Besides, it's not like anyone can use it. Only a few huntsmen or huntresses with sufficient Aura control would be able to use the full potential of this outfit. Out of the entire military, I believe that only Vine Zeki of the Ace-Ops would be able to activate its features."

Marrow shuddered at what Rin presumed was a mental image of the pale man in a skintight outfit.

She shrugged. "You've already read the papers I've written about on the topic of Panta Rhei (everything flows). It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the concepts I discussed are the foundations of my skill set. As long as you take into account the structure of Dust weaving and fabric, then it shouldn't be too hard to use it even without fine Aura control."

"And that leads to my next project!" Pietro grabbed a long object from a nearby table. "This is a bit more finalized compared to before, but the design itself was pretty simple. I simply took apart an HVB Rhino HDS800 and compressed it down to the size of a staff."

It was a broom.

Sure, it was probably the fanciest and most technologically advanced broom that she had ever seen in her life, but that did not negate the fact that it was essentially a broom. Receiving a nod from Pietro, she grabbed it with her hand and felt the slight hum of energy flowing through the object.

"Sadly, there's not much mecha-shift other than a storage feature that makes it easier to carry around." He pressed a button near the end, and the entire thing collapsed into a palm-sized object. "The weight shouldn't be an issue due to the Gravity Dust lightening the load, but otherwise it's not much better than most standard Atlas vehicles in terms of performance."

"No, this is perfect."

Her usual mode of flying was heavily reliant on numerous factors to activate her black magic. Unless she wanted to consume powerful narcotics or contract with strong familiars to aid her flight, the only way she could freely soar through the skies was by relying on a mix of magecraft and technology.

She found a clasp and clipped it to her pants before facing him again.

"I heard that you were involved with the attack yesterday." Suddenly, Pietro was very serious. "You be careful. You're not a soldier or a huntress, after all. I know you've done tremendously well in the past, but these people sound like they're bad news."

"I know."

Pietro nodded, and Marrow said nothing as he leaned against a wall nearby. Rin was still waiting for the rest of the Ace Operatives to return, so her eyes glanced around the room once more to spot anything interesting.

"What's that?" Rin reached out and picked up a blade that had a familiar shape, but was bright green. "Are you trying to copy my sword?"

"Oh, that's nothing. It's part of another project that I've been thinking about, but I had to scrap that particular blade in your hand."

She tested it with a few waves through the air. "Why? The quality seems good, and I like the fact that it's mostly made of Dust."

"See for yourself."

Pietro pulled open a drawer underneath the table that Rin retrieved the blade from, and she was greeted with the sight of several other blades in different colors. All of them were made out of Dust, but with different elemental compositions. Attached to each hilt were several strands of thin strings connected by a small unknown contraption.

"These are part of a set that is supposed to work with a powerful processing unit to control each blade during combat manually," Pietro explained. "To be frank, this isn't something a normal person can use. The brain can't keep up with the mental calculations required to manipulate them in combat, not unless you have a Semblance that is suited to that task. Only an inorganic mind should theoretically have the necessary computation ability needed to control them."

He was hinting at P.E.N.N.Y.

Something stirred inside of her, and Rin allowed her instincts to take over her body. Picking up the other swords, she removed the cables attached to the hilts and set each blade on the table except for one. Behind her, Marrow and Pietro watched curiously as they wondered what she was about to do.

Placing a finger on the edge of the blade, she applied force until a small cut appeared on her finger.

-Start-
"—Anfang."

Flicking her wrist, several drops of blood fell onto each blade and turned into glowing sigils. She wasn't an Atlas alchemist, but she knew enough about transmutation to begin the next process.

Seven types of blades.

Following the geocentric model, each sword would represent one of the wandering stars while her body represents the static reference frame. Not only that, but in addition to the five classic elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and ether, there are also the imaginary elements of Hollow and Nothingness. By combining both concepts from astronomy and elemental affinities, she would rely not on the magical energy stored within the blades but by patterning them after the planets themselves to control them.

Thus, the swords began to float as they followed her will.

"My goodness." Pietro stared at her in surprise. "You managed to activate the floating array without even connecting them to a power source. How…?"

"Floating Array…" Rin tested the blades by having them spin in a circle before her. "I suppose that's a fitting name. But since they're crafted based on my Azoth Blade, it would be more accurate to call this an Azoth Array instead."

With a single thought, she set half of the blades flying into the wall several feet in front of her. The blades vibrated from the force as they dug halfway into the thick steel structure.

"You wouldn't mind if I keep this, would you?"

Pietro sighed. "I suppose so."

"Might wanna stop playing around with your toys," Marrow interrupted. "I just got notified by the others in my team that they're about to return."

And suddenly, Rin recalled why she came here in the first place. Mentally thanking him for the reminder, she faced the door right as the first person stepped through the door. Without even thinking, she activated her mystic eye of sympathy and examined the Ace-Ops.

"Excuse me, Miss Tohsaka?" Clover smiled. "We have some business that we would like to discuss with you."

Four identical auras greeted her sight.


Just finished a lab report an hour ago, and I have to start writing another one that's due tomorrow night. Curse my procrastination and bad studying habits!

The Azoth Array is based on Flueger and his ability to use astrology to control his knives. While she can't use them to predict the future or manipulate cause and effect, simply controlling them should be easy enough for her. And with this, Rin will be able to use her Pseudo-Jewels spell without needing Projection since the blades are made of Dust and can act as a heptagram array to polarize her magecraft to achieve an elemental advantage.

But enough magi-babble, it looks like all of the Ace Operatives (sans Marrow) have already been taken over. At first, I was planning on having only one of them be mind controlled, but I decided to go big and have most of them taken over instead.