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Chapter 108: Paradigm Shift
"How bad is it out there?" the enormity of the question stunned Ren, his mouth working silently as he tried and failed to answer it for several seconds until finally sinking forward and burying his head in his hands for several seconds, allowing his shoulders to sag under the weight of a world that had come crashing down around him as he sat within a darkened office, illuminated by the screen of a computer currently hosting a conference call; one which was missing one of its' key members.
"It's….It could have been much worse and we should be thankful that it wasn't" Ren finally managed to croak out, overcome with a rare show of emotion and simple, raw weariness; removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose before continuing
"It's not over, not at all….We're still looking at Grimm attacking the walls while they're damaged and undermanned, it's chaos and we're barely holding it all at bay. Right now the Council members are still in secure locations but eventually there's going to be an emergency session to discuss Nero's broadcast….They're going to want answers that I don't have, that Qrow would have had-"
"Is he-" it was Antonia Arc, head of Poly-Tech and mother of Qrow Branwen's only child who spoke; the question hanging in the air incomplete as the late Jaune Arc's eldest sibling found herself unable to voice her fears.
"He's alive, but I don't think he's ever going to be the same after that fight….Both Qrow and Nora suffered life changing injuries. As of this moment Qrow is in an induced coma and it's safe to assume that when he wakes he will be in no condition to carry on his work alongside us; that means we need to work together more closely than ever, especially now….So where is everybody else?" Ren forced the words passed his lips in a dull, blunt monotone and regarded the various screens of the ongoing conference call where, as usual and expected the heads of Haven and Shade Academies' were elsewhere and Antonia Arc was joined only by General Winter Schnee and Coco Adel; neither of of whom had any of their usual trusted confidants or allies around them.
It was the latter who spoke first.
"Nero's broadcast was delivered from Hammerfall Outpost, the aerial platform has been disabled and entirely wiped of all data, presumably by his people aboard the station which gives us an idea of the scale of his operations outside of New Vale. Ruby, Penny, Velvet and all of Team ABRN are setting up a perimeter and searching it; we need to know if anything can be salvaged or if it's one big trap that's been left for us" Coco sucked in air before gritting her teeth once again "Yatsu is rushed off of his feet right now, as I expect the counsellors at every academy are….Nero's attempt to turn Remnant against Hunters is bad enough, but there are students from every academy-"
"Coco" Ren warned, sensing the direction that his long time ally was steering the conversation in.
"I need to know if there were any casualties!" Coco barked, suddenly angry "They were in your care and-"
"And they fought like heroes! So did my students who died to one of Nero's monsters! So did Sun Wukong's daughter when she lost her arms and her partner, Bronzewing's son when he was shot in the head!….So did Nora!" Ren had risen to his feet, voice rising in volume and intensity only for its' crescendo to be replaced by a faltering, cracking whisper "Nora's blind, the Cyber-Grimm that came for us here took her eyes….They can be replaced but…."
"I'm sorry" Coco muttered shame-faced "Give her my best?"
"I will" Ren nodded, pausing before lowering his voice to a careful murmur "And you should know….There were some injuries amongst your students of varying severity but no confirmed casualties from Breaktide representatives, however not everyone was so lucky….and Second Year students Team NUGT are currently missing in action"
"I'll have my people working on cybernetics as soon as possible" Antonia added, expression suddenly stern and steely "I assume that Poly-Tech resources will be needed to bridge the gaps left by the absence of Nero's forces….Naturally that was part of his plan all along, to force Remnant into compliance by making himself to integral to be refused"
"Atlas will send aid, this is a problem that affects all of us" Winter spoke up, breaking her thoughtful and quietly outraged silence; tapping he cybernetic leg against the metal floor of her office aboard her flagship with a resounding clang before pressing on "And at present, despite how angry we are and how justifiable that is; despite everything that was lost we have to focus on the larger picture and solutions"
"I assume you've got some ideas?" Ren asked, quietly relieved for the Generals' presence and the desperate shred of hope it allowed him to maintain.
"My intelligence personnel have been at work from the moment Nero's broadcast began" Winter confirmed with a slight raise of her chin, proud of her underlings' efficiency "It seems that the Chairman miscalculated….Chatter across the CCT points to public opinion being firmly in the favour of Hunters and the established status quo at the moment. Ironically Nero's own creations are what cost him….the Cyber-Grimm are abominations and the fact that he was willing to work with the Creatures of Grimm, to deploy those things inside of a city to attack people has galvanised the public; even people who agree with some of his sentiments don't want to be seen as affiliated with his rebels"
"Good" Coco snarled fiercely "We need to capitalise on that and do it quickly"
"Absolutely" Ren nodded, feeling unready to step into the role left vacant by Qrow's absence and welcoming Winter's readiness to assist and offer guidance "I'll be sure to focus on pro-active measures when I speak with the Council; they need to be seen doing something and lambasting Hunters for not seeing this coming won't help….we'll take down everything Nero built, everything his conglomerate own or operates within New Vale is going to be seized and searched-"
"Including his charities?" Antonia noted "He's going to make us the villains he wants to cast us as"
"Shrewd" Winter murmured.
"It's a tactic he's going to hope to be able to repeat" Ren observed thoughtfully, focusing on Coco "Nero himself is clearly on Menagerie and it's sensible to assume that his retreating allies will likely be rendezvousing there-"
"But I don't have enough Hunters to search the island" Coco realised, expression visibly falling "Without Hammerfall the wastelands will be a giant blank spot….I'm going to need every available Hunter on the island devoted to keeping settlements and travellers safe"
"So to be clear" Winter ground the words out, the summation clearly living a bitter taste in her mouth "We are facing an opponent whose primary goal is, nominally the destruction of Hunters and the replacement of them with his own fighting force; a proposition which would effectively give him unchecked power over Remnant as a whole. This adversary has access to incredible amounts of funding and resources until they can be seized, an indeterminate amount of highly skilled individuals at his disposal in addition to the same sentient Creature of Grimm which attacked the Capital of Menagerie last year and is using that Creature to create a semi-autonomous force of living weapons and we have limited, if any idea where Nero or his production facility is, or indeed if he is limited to one facility? And all of this compounded by a scenario where our enemy could still be successful in a long term propaganda campaign that sees faith in Hunters diminished?"
"That seems to be a concise explanation of it" Ren breathed out "So in the spirit of being seen to be active in the fight against the Grimm, I will be attending to the fighting on the perimeter wall so students and soldiers who are currently manning the defences can be rotated out-"
"Wait" Coco halted her fellow alumni of Beacon Academy, lowering her glasses to regard him with a prying stare "We need leads here, we need something we can go on….What about Zirconia Shadowmoon?"
"My nieces' partner?" Winter noted coldly, the words an unspoken warning "Surely you don't mean to imply that-"
"Zirconia Shadowmoon was injured, by Athena-Jade no less but ultimately escaped; with Athena-Jade being injured by Carmesi Hueso" Ren interjected "The remaining members of Team MARZ have been debriefed as a matter of urgency….It seems that Nero might have been trying to covertly prime them or groom them to join his cause, but there was nothing overt and none of them have any information that could help us at present-"
"You're sure-" Ren's glare was enough to halt Coco.
"I'm absolutely certain that if Team MARZ knew where to find their rogue team-mate they would already be on the way there as we speak, injured or not" with that Ren sighed and turned away, offering some final words before leaving the conference call "Let them rest Coco, they've been through enough"
Coco remained silent at that, unable to dispute it and realising that she truthfully had no desire to do so. Her students would be under enough scrutiny in the coming days and weeks.
Astra, Athena-Jade and Regalia; collectively unable to think of themselves as Team MARZ in any capacity had found themselves overwhelmed by a sense of unshakeable wrongness that none of them had yet found the words to encapsulate.
It had been less than a day since Nero's broadcast had signalled a change in Remnant as they knew it and even now the sounds of ongoing battles could be heard as the outer edges of the city were beset by the Creatures of Grimm, occasionally forcing their way through destroyed sections' of Neo Vale's defences, kept at bay by frightful barrages of firepower and aerial bombardments and the efforts of every Hunter currently able to lend their aid; a descriptor that could not fairly be applied to the remaining members of Team MARZ.
Astra and Regalia had abandoned the idea of pursing Zirconia in favour of pulling back from the fighting across the city and carrying a bloodied and inconsolable Athena-Jade to the first available transport back to Halo Academy, learning in the process that the academy itself had been attacked by a Cyber-Grimm variant and that members of the faculty had allegedly been wounded. Once there the Bear Faunus had been tended to, given blood transfusions and Aura stimulants whilst the punctures in her legs were examined; Regalia and Astra being left to stand aside and witness their classmates and friends being brought into the medical wing in various states of injury including more than one incoherent and hysterical student Hunter thrashing against the restraints holding them in place on a stretcher accompanied by a team-mate being carried in a sealed bag, proving that Nero's assault against decency had claimed its' first victims.
The act of waiting and being forced to simply watch each new unfolding horror felt as though it were a torture and a punishment in its' own right however further anguish had befallen the remains of Team MARZ when they had been informed that their debriefing and recounting of events, given their affiliation to parties directly involved was being treated as a priority, it was here that Athena had re-emerged, looking utterly bedraggled and broken in a way that rendered her numb to everything occurring around her; her lost and hopeless expression not quite enough to draw her friends' attention away from the fact that the Bear Faunus was currently confined to a wheelchair as Carmesi's Semblance had broken both of her legs in several places below the knees. According to the doctors' who had treated her Athena-Jade's Aura would allow her to make a full recovery in an impressive amount of time, information that could be seen as one of the few saving graces of the entire ordeal; another such silver lining being that after recounting the events preceding and following Nero's broadcast, along with answering a myriad of other questions Astra, Athena and Regalia had been informed that they were not being treated with suspicion and would be free to depart along with their peers when students left Halo Academy.
That had been several hours ago and none of the trio had made any progress in packing their belongs, the sight of closets and drawers torn open where all of Zirconia's belongings had been seized casting an unsettling air across the dormitory that was in truth not their own, though it was unlikely that Team MARZ's own quarters at Breaktide Academy would feel like home again given the uncertainty of the teams' future.
"What do we do?" it was Athena who broke the silence that had settled over the partially upended dorm. Astra and Regalia had been side by side on the Racoon Faunus's bunk, their exhausted and barely conscious silence allowing the fact that her hand had found theirs to go unspoken and it was from here that Astra stirred slightly to look over at Athena-Jade, finding the Bear Faunus had pulled herself from her temporary wheelchair onto the bunk she and her partner had shared for months and wrapped herself in countless blankets. Currently she was staring at her hands as though the sight of Zirconia's blood staining them had been etched into her memory, an even greater cause for concern to her than the fact that Mould-Breaker lay in a heap of burned and ruined pieces in a crate that had been placed next to the teams' weapon rack.
"We pack and then…." Astra shook their head and trailed off, realising that the question they were answering was not the one that had truly been asked "I don't know, I wish I did but I don't"
"Are you…." Regalia paused, correcting herself before she could ask a ludicrous question as she pulled her head from Astra's shoulder "Going to be okay?"
"I don't know" Athena croaked out, unable to raise her voice above a hoarse whisper in the wake of the crying and screaming that had filled the previous day. Hearing the utter dismay permeating their friends' voice Astra and Regalia shared a single glance before acting on unspoken instinct, rising from Regalia's bunk and crossing the dorm so that they could take positions on either side of the pale and snowy-haired girl only for their efforts to envelop her in a gentle hug being halted as she threw up a pair of glyphs; their surfaces worryingly faint an insubstantial.
"Don't" Athena whispered, screwing her eyes shut and swallowing thickly "Just don't….I don't want anyone to touch me right now. I just-I just can't okay-"
"It's okay" Astra assured her "We're here if you need us to be, if you need space then we'll leave"
"Are we what they said we are….What Nero and Hop-Zirconia said?" Athena's question left her friends stunned into momentary silence, Regalia recovering faster than Astra only because the Deer Faunus needed a moment to contain the swell of anger that left their arm twitching reflexively as they sought out something to hit; the Racoon Faunus leaning closer to Athena with her bushy tail twitching uncertainly as she studied her friend.
"No" Regalia said firmly but gently "We're not, that's not who Hunters are….It's not who you are-"
"She said all Hunters do is make things worse even when they have good intentions" Athena managed a bitter and watery chuckle that threatened fresh tears "Well that's what I did….I ripped her face apart, I hurt her and I didn't want to I-DAMN IT….I love her, despite everything I love her"
"Let it out" Astra breathed the words out, bracing themselves for the inevitable flood of tears that would come; only for Athena to shake her head with a jerky and unsteady motion before taking several deep, shuddering breaths and clutching at the sheets around her in apparent effort to keep her hands busy.
"Zirconia's got a lot to answer for" Regalia's tone was darker than her friends' often heard it, fierce in a way which reminded her friends how justice was administered in the wastes of Menagerie but tempered by a cautious glance towards Athena-Jade again, the nomad clearly trying to keep from voicing any thoughts that would threaten her friends' already precarious emotional state.
"And she'll fucking answer for it" Astra spat vehemently, unable to keep their own emotions in check and springing up from the bunk to pace in a bout of electric and directionless energy "She played all of us, this whole fucking time!"
"And now we're a team with only three people" Athena cut through Astra's building tirade with the stark realisation "She's gone….Which means there's no Team MARZ-"
"No" Astra visibly restrained themselves from lashing out and hitting the nearest wall, tears welling up in eyes surrounded by make up that had run and smudged "No, this isn't how it ends….No; Professor Adel will figure something out, she has to-"
"Sure" Athena's dull, monosyllabic reply was bereft of any hope and for a single, heart-stopping moment tension crackled in the air as Astra, seeking an outlet rounded on their friend before catching themselves and offering her a sympathetic glance and reminded themselves that she had the most right of all of them to be upset. Taking a moment to collect themselves Astra finally spoke in a more determined voice.
"I need some air and there's still people we can help in the city" they took a step back towards Athena's bunk but refrained from putting a hand on her shoulder out of respect for her wishes "Unless you want us to stay here?"
"No….I need some space, go do some good Astra; one of us should" Athena again coloured her words with bitter and mocking laughter directed solely at herself "I'll pack what I can, I can manage even with my legs messed up"
"Wait" Regalia interrupted, giving her partner a worried look "You're not seriously considering going out and fighting again?"
"No" Astra assured her "But my truck is out there and if I pick it up then I can start driving stuff to shelters and helping people find people they were separated from….We're Hunters, we need to be seen helping"
"Okay, then I'm coming with you" Regalia was on her feet a moment later, her entire demeanour showing both her obvious concern for her partner and the steadfast refusal to be denied that accompanied it; Astra's response was simply to nod though the Racoon Faunus noted the way they stiffened as if keeping themselves from reacting more expressively.
Both of them realised that it would be cruel to flaunt whatever had developed between them in front of Athena-Jade in the aftermath of such a crushing loss.
"Hey AJ" Astra locked eyes with their team-mate and tried to convey reassurance through a vague gesture "You're one of the strongest people I know okay, this is tough...it's a lot to deal with; but we're gonna get through it okay, all of us"
With that Astra and Regalia departed, steeling themselves to head into the battle-scarred city below and see what had become of the place Astra had called home their entire life; neither of them outwardly acknowledge that they could hear through the walls of the dormitory the moment Athena-Jade flopped into her pillows and began to sob uncontrollably the moment the two of them were out of sight.
Honey Scarlatina was holding the line and would continue to do so until either the monsters beating against the cities' walls were overcome or she fell in battle against them.
Despite her name she was a member of the Arc family and she knew what was expected of her.
With Yuki's robotic arm and thus the weapon attached to it damaged to the point of needing serious and immediate repair Honey had ordered and then, once ordering had failed all but begged for her team-mates to fall back to the academy whilst she covered their retreat and created an opening for them. Finally the rest of Team HONY had relented, on the understanding that Honey herself would rendezvous with other Hunters and fall back at the first opportunity, a concession that had only been made due to the fact that in addition to Yuki's damaged arm Oakley had received a head injury whilst fighting alongside Yang Xiao Long to clear the now destroyed stadium and was beginning to suffer from dizziness and blurred vision and Nala, whilst largely unharmed was at her limit mentally and relying on her own strength since her weapons had been damaged.
Honey's own weapons, the Light-Motif were in a barely any better condition; Dust reserves almost depleted whilst her armour was dented, scratched and burned and whilst her Aura held the golden-haired rabbit Faunus was nonetheless bruised and aching, her body covered in cuts and scrapes that ran a serious risk of infection given the muck and dust covering her.
Yet still she persisted, the opportunity to retreat that she had promised her friends that she would take yet to arrive.
A small consolation could be found in the fact that Honey had found herself serving as part of a loosely scattered rearguard positioned some distance away from the besieged portion of the perimeter wall itself. The Creatures of Grimm had fallen upon Neo Vale's border in such numbers and with such ferocity that even with the might of several airships' raining down upon them and even with the cities' walls now guarded by Hunters and soldiers both loyal and former rebels, willing to defend their homes one last time alike; some of whom were still using weapons of Nero's creation including the last of the Cyber-Grimm remaining in the city it was inevitable that some of the monsters would slip through damaged portions of the defences and come snarling and tearing their way deeper into the city.
Where Honey and others in similar positions were waiting for them.
"GET TO SAFETY! GET INSIDE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS! GO UPSTAIRS AND BARRICADE YOUR DOORS WITH WHATEVER FURNITURE YOU CAN MOVE!" the Rabbit Faunus bellowed as a fresh menace came bounding into view, her voice ragged from the smoke she had choked on and pure, simple fatigue.
The streets that the Creatures of Grimm were now making their way into were areas of the city away from the sprawling Hives and industrial districts, pleasant suburban homes on neat and well-tended cul-de-sacs and streets which had retained much of their design and character from the days of Old Vale and whose involvement in such acts of violence seemed painfully out of place; moreover many of the inhabitants of the homes had remained where they were during the events of the previous day. This part of the city had bore no strategic value to either Nero or the Hunters and Kingdom Council the Chairman had sought wage war against and so rather than flee through the case to reach one of the crowded shelters deeper in the city the residents had instead simply hunkered down and waited for news to reach them.
Monsters such as the pack of Beowolves that came prowling into Honey's vision however had little use for notions such as strategic value.
Were she not exhausted and wielding a weapon whose Dust reserves were largely depleted the current Grimm threat would have been laughable to Honey, a nuisance she could overcome without effort. As it was however every movement sent fresh jolts of pain through her as it jostled injuries she had been unaware of and as Light-Motif was brought into life it was clear that the way it was currently being used would lead to the weapons burning through several components and left needing repairs before too much longer; Honey had used the last of her Hard-Light Dust some time ago and the twin swords that manifested in her hands were formed from mixtures of roughly measured Fire and Magnetic Dust, creating unstable and crude approximations of her intentions.
Though the sight of a Huntress striding towards them with swords made of solid fire in hand drew the attention of the Grimm.
Honey charged and seven monsters rushed forth to meet her, the first three of their number to draw close being felled in an instant as the golden-haired young woman forced herself to ignore her bodies' protests; swinging her swords into two lupine monsters as they charged and pounced to cleave through a neck and waist respectively before using both of her burning weapons to block the wild, clawing slashes of a third Beowolf as it reared up onto its' hindlimbs before kicking the beast squarely in the ribs and relieving it of its' skull midway through toppling over.
The four Beowolves which remained acted more shrewdly however, splitting up and circling their foe in search of an opening which forced Honey to wheel around keep her eyes on multiple opponents and her surroundings as a whole; which allowed her to see motion above her as a window in one of the nearby houses was flung open and a greying, middle-aged man whom a cursory glance at could confirm was utterly unused to the realities of violence began trying to perch himself in a firing position whilst fumbling with a shotgun clutched with its' stock against his body at a worrying angle.
"TAKE COVER, IT'S NOT SAFE!" Honey yelled up at the man, lashing out with her burning and flickering swords which threatened to give out at any moment in an effort to appear less distracted to the monsters surrounding her.
"Run away kid!" the man sneered "We can look after ourselves, you're not gonna be as needed any more….The guy on the CCT was nuts but he had some good ideas"
The shotgun let out a single booming report and the man holding it swiftly found out how wrong he was as the weapon kicked with enough force to dislocate his shoulder and send the gun toppling out of the window, the buckshot leaving Honey's Aura rippling as it coated her whilst at the same time striking the nearest of the remaining Beowolves across the snout and skull but doing little more than pockmarking its' armoured muzzle and reducing one of its' to a ragged mess. In response the Beowulf in question let out a low, guttural snarl followed by a bestial howl as it made to charge towards the houses' driveway where a station wagon was parked.
Honey realised in an instant that pouncing first onto the roof of the vehicle would put the Grimm in position where it could leap through the open window and butcher the failed shooter.
Acting on instinct the Rabbit Faunus thumbed a small control on one half of Light-Motif, eking out every remaining scrap of Dust and power available before hurling the burning blade into the back of the Beowulf as it pounced. The resulting impact illuminated the street in a brief flash and wave of concussive force which destroyed all in its' path and when Honey uncovered her eyes she saw that her target had been obliterated however along with the Grimm the station wagon it had been rushing towards was largely destroyed and the front door and surrounding wall of the house were heavily damaged whilst windows were broken and cracked for a considerable distance in all directions; the explosive commotion prompting other locals to protrude from now broken windows and voice their opinions without heeding the danger posed by the remaining Grimm in the street.
"PEOPLE LIVE HERE! YOU'RE NOT OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WHERE YOU CAN JUST BLOW THINGS UP NOW!"
"WHAT ARE THEY TEACHING YOU KIDS AT THAT ACADEMY?"
"HAVE YOU HUNTERS ALL LOST YOUR MINDS?" Honey had no chance to offer apologies or any other form of response, instead she heard the angry yelling become frightened screams in the exact moment the surviving trio of Beowolves took note of her distraction and set upon her with a coordinated strike, one pouncing at her chest whilst another clawed at the hand holding her remaining sword and the third ripping at her legs.
A moment later Honey was on the floor trying to fend off claws and teeth.
With a determined and forceful thrust which ripped away part of her gold-edged and brilliant white armour entirely and shattered the teeth of the monster trying to keep its' grip on her arm Honey pulled her sword arm free and jammed the weapon through the ribs of the monster currently perching on her chest; only for the blazing edge of the weapon to fade away in the same instant as the monster it had ended, its' reserves finally running dry or some internal component finally giving in to the abuse it had endured and leaving Honey with nothing but her own hands and wits to defend herself as the last remaining pair of the initial seven Beowolves renewed their assault with fresh determination and hunger.
And for all their panicked screaming none of the civilians who had been so vocal a moment ago made any effort to help.
Rescue came in the form of a hail of machine-gun fire which ripped through the hides of the pair of monsters and reduced their final moment to a blur of spasming, jerky moments as fresh bullets continued to rip through them even as their bodies began to disintegrate and lose cohesion. With her Aura rippling and flickering around her and her body too battered for her to stand under her own power, at least for a moment Honey managed to turn her head towards the direction that the bullets had come from and in doing so found herself with a fresh well of hope and relief bubbling within her.
"Uncle Ren?" she managed to choke out as the long-haired and glasses-wearing headmaster of Halo Academy, team-mate to her late Uncle Jaune and thus an extended member of the Arc family crouched down behind her, silently checking his niece for any injuries.
"It's time to go….Your team are worried about you and your parents, along with most of your aunts and uncles will be holding the line soon if they're not already. You did good" Honey nodded her head, lip quivering and tears building in her eyes as emotions the praise stirred in her threatened to spill out.
"The people here….They tried-they tried to fight the Grimm alone, they said they didn't need Hunters and-"
"And you saved them anyway" Ren answered firmly, taking a moment to steady himself and master emotions he had no desire to inflict on his already taxed niece. There had been other, similar incidents across the city and most had ended in predictably tragic ways; with one instance involving a Grimm-shelter being reduced to rubble as a civilian took hold of a discarded rocket launcher and swore that they would defend their neighbours against the coming monsters themselves only for the weapon to misfire in their inexperienced hands. It seemed that whilst Nero himself was anathema to the people of Remnant for his willingness to work with Grimm and the insanity that he had spewed, the notion of taking their safety into their own hands entirely hand filled the minds of a dangerous large portion of the populace with ideas of heroism entirely divorced from reality and Ren worried that if such scenes were to become a regular occurrence then dark days would lay ahead for Remnant.
He voiced none of these concern aloud however and instead simply reached down and pressed a finger to Honey Scarlatina's nose before helping her up.
"Boop"
Finding Astra's truck had been a refreshingly easy and straightforward endeavour, the vehicle had still been where they and Regalia had abandoned it at the edges of the interior of a Hive tower which had mercifully not been further damaged by the battle for the city since Astra had torn down a bridge to destroy the Cyber-Grimm variant that had been acting as an implacable emplacement upon it.
With the truck recovered and quickly checked for any damage that was more than superficial and Clunker left at Halo Academy in order to save space Astra and Regalia had quickly set about the task of making themselves useful to the civilian population of New Vale in any way they could. An exercise which gave them an opportunity to be in the midst of things, visibly aiding emergency services with their Aura protecting them as they ran into burning buildings or else used their superhuman strength or a combination of Apex Scavenger's harpoon and the trucks' horsepower to clear debris or else helping in less dramatic ways such as ferrying food, water and other supplies to those who would be staying in shelters for more extended periods of time and reuniting those who had been separated from family members; Regalia's Semblance and Astra's knowledge of their home city pairing well whilst the Deer Faunus's own Semblance and their trucks' rugged all-terrain build ensured that there were little if any obstructions to halt them.
Helping the people had also given Astra a goal to push themselves towards with single-minded fervour, something which allowed them to disregard their own woes for a while longer.
Eventually however they had been able to do no more, the sun had already began its' descent below the skyline which even now was stained and streaked with smoke and remained more crowded than ever, the sky unnaturally dark as airships flocked dangerously close together over the city in defensive formations around the Kingdoms' Capital to the point of limiting the amount of light reaching Astra and Regalia's vantage point. The two had been preparing to make their return to the academy when the sight of a fast-food truck had caused the pair to realise just how hungry they were after not eating for more than a full day, the normality of business going on as normal despite the tragedy oddly reassuring to the pair. Astra's truck was currently pulled over on one of the bridges between towers which had survived the battle without being bombed or sealed off, the Deer Faunus leaning against its' railings and looking out at their home until the feeling of their partner leaning against them forced them back to their senses.
"You're not okay" Regalia said simply, gently taking one of Astra's antlers and using it to guide her partners' face towards her so that they would stop avoiding her gaze. Astra' for their part took a moment to carefully choose their words, the knowledge that were they still the same hot-headed and insecure person that had first arrived at Breaktide Academy then their answer would have been something hurtful to mask their own feelings being enough to ensure that they would try to be better now.
"Are any of us okay?" Astra answered, a bitter and shallow laugh escaping them before their sea-green eyes drifted shut for a moment and their fists clenched; the force they kept at bay being enough to send tremors through Astra's arms until Regalia spoke again
"No, no we're not….How could she do that to Athena, to all of us?" the Racoon Faunus allowed herself to be pulled gently closer and buried her face in the surface of Astra's jacket whilst Astra took what comfort they could from the feeling of the coarse fur of her bushy tail brushing against their fingers.
"I'm sorry" the Deer Faunus finally croaked out, their voice cracking with every word "I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be the team leader, I'm supposed to be the one you can all come to and rely on and….Fuck, she played us all for two years and I didn't suspect a thing-"
"You can't blame yourself-"
"Fucking watch me!" Astra growled, pulling back and seeing the affect their words had on their partners' bleak and hopeless expression and quickly course-correcting "I'm sorry….I just-damn it how did I not see that anything was wrong this whole time?"
"It wasn't you-" Regalia trailed off, pulling Astra close enough that she could lean against them again "Maybe she was forced into it? Nero had a lot of power in the Kingdoms right, maybe she didn't want-"
"No" Astra shook their head, taking care to keep their antlers from hitting their partner as always; their own anger simmering and bubbling closer to the surface with every word "No….This was something she'd been working towards, you heard what AJ said in our debriefing? If Zirconia didn't want to be part of what Nero was doing she could have gave Carmesi up on our first mission, or left a warning, a note, something when she broke into Professor Adel's office….Or-or fucking told me! Or any of us instead of trying to sell us on the idea of what Nero was doing and get us to join up! She wanted this!"
"Do you think our team will be okay?" Regalia asked, her inability to utter the name Team MARZ aloud only adding to the sudden fear permeating her words
"I don't-" Astra stopped themselves, breaking away from Regalia and staring out at the city once again "We have to be….There's no way that Professor Adel will disband our whole team over this, right?"
"I hope not" Regalia admitted, her uncertainty painful to hear "I can't lose any more friends"
"I'm not going anywhere" Astra turned to reach out and take their partners' hands without hesitation, the gesture shifting easily into Regalia pulling her partners' face closer only to pause a moment before their lips touched, a frown creasing her expression.
"I doesn't feel right does it?"
"Not right now" Astra admitted, reaching up to trace Regalia's cheek "But it definitely felt right before, but everything is messed up right now….Damn how has it only been a day"
The pair wordlessly collapsed into one another, the bone-crushing embrace being the sole thing that kept each of them upright as they both allowed their sheer exhaustion, both physical and emotional to come crashing over them until finally it was Astra who spoke; realising that they needed to say the words out loud as much as Regalia needed the reassurance of hearing them.
"I love you and whatever else happens with our team I'm glad you're the person I got partnered with….Meeting you really has been one of the best things that ever happened to me"
"I love you too" Regalia held her partner tighter "So promise that whatever happens that our team won't get broken up, that we're still gonna be together-"
"I promise" Astra found the steel and certainty that had been missing from their words at that, breaking away enough to rear up to their full height and stand proud despite the circumstances "I don't know what's gonna happen or how things will work out, but one way or another I will find my way to Breaktide Academy and if you're not there I swear I will drive across those wastelands and find you myself"
"I'll be there, I promise" Regalia beamed "You trust me?"
"To infinity and beyond" Astra answered without hesitation, leaning in and gently kissing Regalia's cheek. Anything more would have felt wrong, especially given that they would soon be rejoining Athena-Jade and the idea of flaunting whatever this fledgling and ill-defined development in their partnership was in front of the Bear Faunus in her time of need felt needlessly cruel to both of them. Instead the two simply remained as they were before Astra let out a final sigh on contentment before nodding towards their truck and placing a hand at the small of their partners' back.
"Come on, let's go finish packing….I'm gonna home to my parents but I'll go with you to the airship"
The pair found themselves in motion again shortly after, neither certain of what lay ahead for them but both silently preparing to face it head on with the hope that answers and something better than the present would come.
For Stygian Blue the entirety of Neo Vale in its' smoke-clouded and reeling state, to say nothing of the campus of Halo Academy itself with its' freshly inflicted battle-scars had suddenly begun to feel far too small and enclosed, leaving the Mouse Faunus suffering from a trapped sensation that left them longing for the familiarity of the wastelands of Menagerie; even if the settlement of Pikesreach would never again be home to him.
Arrival to the academy with his team and the remains of Team SHMR had first involved a frantic rush to the medical wing as Rye's condition began to worsen, the towering boy being stripped from his armour and sedated before being operated upon as it became apparent that his broken ribs were accompanied by internal damage that was not restricted to a punctured lung. With one of their members unconscious the rest of Team TRQS had been debriefed in his absence and recounting everything from the moment Stygian and Astra had been able to leave the confines of the main arena to join the battle to being amongst those rescued by Yang Xiao Long before the legendary woman had called for a full retreat and air-strike to deal with the remaining rebels and monsters had been a taxing experience for all present; with none of them able to ignore the horrible suspicion and silent accusation within their own minds that if they had simply fallen back with the other students when first ordered to, if they had just escorted civilians to safety and left the Cyber-Grimm to the qualified Hunters then Snapdragon Majus might still be alive and Team SHMR would not be leaderless and broken.
Being freed from the ordeal of explaining his actions Stygian had departed alone in such of clarity and a place that he could simply breathe without feeling that walls were closing in and respite from the airless, terrifying feeling had come, almost conversely from attending to the needs of the other inhabitants of the campus.
After being raised with the insular and isolated community that Pikesreach undoubtedly was, watched over by Hunters who ruled it with an iron fist as their own personal fiefdom had meant that Stygian and his peers had been raised communally to a far greater degree than most inhabitants of the city and had seen many of his fellow imprisoned serfs with lives and futures dictated to them as part of an extended family of sorts and despite fleeing from that village the need for community was one that the Mouse Faunus could not leave behind so easily.
This need had, over the course of his two years as a student of Halo Academy seen him build up a closer relationship with the orphans whom Lie and Nora Ren had welcomed into their home than many of his classmates did, spending no small amount of time helping the younger children with schoolwork and in the process realising just how sparse his own education had been or else helping to train those with visions of becoming Hunters themselves. As those within the orphanage, the campus and the aerial platform itself who had been forced to take shelter in well protected bunkers and vaults which would survive the platform falling from the sky had been allowed to return Stygian had taken it upon himself to distract the younger children and keep them from wandering into view of the damaged areas of the campus or from asking uncomfortable questions about members of staff who were not present. From there the Mouse Faunus had offered what little counsel he could to those old enough to understand the situation and be affected by it; having to physically restrain a Dalmatian Faunus named Palladium or 'Pall' to her friends who had asserted brazenly that as someone who had been accepted into one of Remnants' Hunter Academies she had a duty to be in the city or on the front lines, the Mouse Faunus catching her halfway to the ruined airship terminal where he been frozen in place by the sight of the ruination.
It was here that Tiger Santara found him.
"Stitch" her voice was hollow as she trudged with purpose and without enthusiasm to where her partner was currently perched, sitting hunched over on the base of an upturned statue depicting one of Beacon Academies' fallen heroes; a gesture which Tiger's expression alone conveyed her distaste for and upon seeing the look and realising the implied disrespect Stygian lurched to his feet.
"Tee" he pushed his dreadlocks away from his face where they had hung freely after being released from their usual ornate styling atop his head; giving his partner a tired look a the faintest ghost of a smile that utterly failed to reach his electric blue eyes.
"And to think I used to call you lazy because of training and assignments" Tiger's chuckle was cracking and watery, a clear and desperate attempt to keep her own emotions in check "But here you are, still helping in your own way"
"I don't know what else to do" Stygian shrugged as he wandered closer, casting a final glance over his shoulder to where some of the older orphans were watching their younger peers. Tiger made a shuffling motion that spoke of a rare lack of confidence or certainty, one made more noticeable by the fact she reached up and removed the bronze and jewel laden headpiece which contained her armoured veil; something that Stygian noted his partner was rarely seen without outside of the teams' dormitory.
"I wish I could say the same" she murmured "I know what needs to happen….But there's nothing I can do to stop it from feeling like the wrong choice"
"How bad is it?" Stygian exhaled the words slowly, bracing himself for a fresh wave of dread and sorrow even if he was not entirely certain how things could be worse than they are.
"Rye is awake" Tiger let the news linger between them for a moment, the fact that Amaya was with her partner and boyfriend not needing to explained "But he's talking about calling it quits….He and Amaya both are, they wanna talk to their families and get 'em out of the city; maybe get work in the local garrisons for one of the smaller settlements, plenty of villages would take a half trained Hunter-"
"No" Stygian breathed out, wandering back towards the statue and slumping on to its' overturned base again "They can't….What about…..Tee that's half of our team, there won't be a Team TRQS if-"
"I know" Tiger looked away shamefacedly, unable to meet Stygian's eyes as she spoke "I know and I've already given them my blessing anyway"
"Why the fuck would-" Stygian paused, expression falling slack as the realisation came to him with painful clarity "Your brother….Snap….Fuck, she was a friend-"
"She was a lot more than that to Ravi" Tiger answered whilst toying with the lone sleeve of her outfit, its' loose fitting fabric frayed and ragged now "Team SHMR refuse to be disbanded, they won't let their last action as a team be in that stadium, be….That. Ravi wants me to take-no not take her….Damn it, fucking damn it all I-"
"I get it" Stygian choked the words out "I really do Tee, I mean I hate it, I hate that it could ever come to something like this but I get it"
"We're not the team we were" Tiger forced words out with a clear and conscious effort to keep herself from bawling her eyes out as she drew close and took the unexpected step of throwing her arms around her partner and hugging him tightly "And I want to promise you that this is not easy, you….All of you, but especially you Stitch are the best friends I've ever had and the thought of things ending like this hurts, I've already lost too many people-"
"But Ravi's your brother"
"He's my brother and he needs me….Fuck we need each other" Tiger nodded, lip quivering as she spoke "I am so sorry Stitch"
"It's okay….I get it" the Mouse Faunus repeated numbly, gently prying Tiger from them as the feeling of being eclosed began to return "I'll figure something out….There's no way Headmaster Ren will just send me on my way right?"
"No!" Tiger mouthed, utterly aghast "No way at all, I can't imagine it….But fuck, Stitch I'm sorry….This was supposed to be your moment; you were gonna draw everyone's attention to the Hunters at Pikesreach, we were gonna go there together and-"
"I know" Stygian waved her off, falling into a deep pondering silence as he stared off into the distance but saw almost nothing at all; mind racing as he tried to reconcile the future he had envisioned and goals he had set for himself with the fact that Nero's broadcast to Remnant might possibly have pushed justice and the liberation of his home entirely out of reach until finally a notion came to the Mouse Faunus. Slowly a weak but broad smile came to his face and showed pearly white teeth as he ran his hands through blue-dyed dreadlocks and allowed the idea to take root and grow; amongst all of the people he confided in and told his plans for using the Vytal Tournament as a pedestal there was in fact someone who might yet be able to help him realise his dream of becoming a better kind of Hunter.
Suddenly he knew what to do.
"I've got an idea" he rose to his feet again and gave Tiger a reassuring pat on the shoulder "I'm gonna need to talk to some people, probably the Headmaster and it might take a while but….Yeah, I think I know what I'm gonna do"
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"
"Sure?" Stygian snorted "Not at all but throwing myself at a problem and making snap decisions is kinda my whole deal….But this, this one could work"
"Okay" Tiger nodded "And if you need anything, anything at all-"
"I need to talk with Rye and Amaya, we shouldn't split up without a proper goodbye at least" Stygian began trudging in the direction of the main campus, trusting that the orphans some distance away would be okay without him and turning to Tiger as she fell into step beside him.
"Good luck with Team SHMR" he managed to force the words out, still feeling dazed by the rapid shifting of what had become his world "Keep in touch?"
"Of course….And good luck, I hope things work out wherever you go" Tiger reached over to shake her partners' hand, a gesture which Stygian readily accepted.
And with that handshake Team TRQS ended.
The students of Atlas Academy had been recalled to their academy, with General Winter Schnee's orders to be carried out with immediate effect.
Similar instructions had been given to the students from each of the Hunter Academies temporarily residing in Neo Vale to attend the Vytal Tournament save for Halo Academy itself, whose students would likely be returning home wherever possible in a matter of days at the most. However whilst students of Shade, Haven and Breaktide Academies had departed for their respective schools and Kingdoms, or in a handful of cases the places that individual students hailed from in an effort to be more efficient in reuniting students with their families aboard flights that whilst specially charted and given permission to enter the now heavily monitored and protected airspace of the Kingdom of New Vale and its' capital had still landed and departed from commercial terminals, Atlas Academy had taken an approach more befitting of an institution whose faculty included several members of the Kingdoms' black-ops Specialist Forces.
Evening was currently giving way to night and the sun had already dipped beneath the cities' scarred skyline and on a stretch of the cities' coastline, which lay out of view of the freight docks and shipyards where work continued even now and was largely unvisited by the general public who preferred more scenic portions where the sand was not so liberally littered with pebbles, weeds, jagged stones and other less naturally occurring detritus. Atlas Academies' students had gathered on a section of raised paths and walkways built to keep the area from being impossible to traverse during high-tide; those walkways and the spaces between them now serving as makeshift landing zones for a small detachment of transports whose descent disturbed the waves as they swooped down from the hangars of a single Atlesian warship hanging in the night sky above them, its' hull reflecting no light and its' weapons likely primed as a matter of course; as they waited the gathered students took care to watch their surroundings hawkishly for signs of both Creatures of Grimm that might have managed to evade coastal defences and for anyone who might have, knowingly or otherwise wandered upon an extraction which had been deliberately kept on a need to know basis.
As Athena-Jade slate wheeled herself into view she forced herself to believe that it was this that kept the eyes of the white and grey clad students on her.
The snowy-haired Bear Faunus had been dropped close to the extraction point by Astra and pushed the chair she was still confined to the rest of the way, subtle uses of her Semblance even despite her still recovering Aura making the process more manageable whilst her luggage and the burned, broken husk of her weapon had been removed from where they had been fastened to the back of the wheelchair and were instead floating beside her on a pair of glyphs whose incandescent glow naturally drew the eye.
"Hi-I mean, good evening, I was informed that this was the extraction point for those returning to the Kingdom of Atlas" Athena forced herself to speak up, disregarding an introduction that would be pointless given her public profile and instead announcing her presence and intentions. The sudden return to a more formal way of speaking, the carefully managed tone and enunciation which had been insisted upon by Atlas's elite private schools even if her own parents were far less concerned with it was one which came naturally to Athena; a fact she found irksome after her efforts to differentiate herself, though she could accept and appreciate that the protocol had an affect on many of the Atlesian students, especially those from more well-off families which left them less willing to challenge her directly. Athena also noted glumly that it disguised how raw her voice was after several bouts of sobbing throughout the day quite well.
"Well you're in the right place….It was supposed to be a stealthy extraction, the Schnee Semblance might as well be a spotlight in the dark" Athena-Jade cast sapphire blue eyes towards the speaker, finding that the comment had come from one of the small clique of Atlesian girls who had, at least briefly tried to ingratiate themselves with Team MARZ upon their arrival at Halo Academy. From there Athena swept her gaze across the various students, largely in clusters comprised of teams and being steadily more hard to identify as light spilled from the transports hovering above the waters' surface behind them; one student Athena did not recognise stepped forward however and regarded her with suspicion and scorn evident in her single visible eye, the student who Athena assumed to be older then herself sported bandages which covered their right eye and the deep gash that had been cleaved into their face by a Cyber-Grimm's claws.
"She doesn't do sneaky, that's her partners' job….Nero's adopted daughter" she older girl's voice was slurred slightly by her injury and Athena noted several chipped and missing teeth "This location was need to know only, how'd you get the drop on us?"
There was a tense moment where Athena, too drained and downtrodden to muster any of her usual confidence or fierceness was left silent and floundering which was in turn taken as defiance and provocation by the older student who began to reach for her weapon.
The tension was shattered by a the voice of a newcomer.
"Stand down Calder! Before you draw that weapon I want you to use what's left of your head and make and educated guess about who might have given her the intel about this pick up" the voice was low and gruff, heavily coloured with an accent which belonged firmly to the poorest and roughest regions of one of Atlas's industrial under-cities. Upon hearing the voice all heads turned to see the speaker striding out of one of the landing craft and immediately recognised one of Atlas Academies' most famous and revered members of staff; a tall and incredibly powerfully built Bear Faunus with light brown skin, snout like features and shaggy hair which become liberally streaked with grey in recent years who peered at the scene before him with amber coloured eyes whilst drumming the clawed and gleaming fingers of his cybernetic left arm against an oversized hand-cannon held against his body.
Former Specialist Commander Gangrel Slate, Combat Instructor of Atlas Academy and Athena-Jade's father.
"Shit!" the older student, apparently named Calder hissed through her remaining teeth before remembering who she was talking to and standing straighter, halfway through a salute before her teacher reached her and spoke quietly enough that only she and Athena-Jade heard.
"The language and attitude I'll excuse, it's been a rough day and by all accounts you served commendably-"
"Thank you sir-"
"The stupidity and the fact you were about to pull a weapon on my daughter I'm less willing to forgive. Get on a transport and start preparing to explain why I shouldn't have you running drills the whole flight back to Atlas"
"Sir yes sir" Calder paled, only to balk as Gangrel maintained intense eye contact until she practically fled towards the waiting transport.
"They only call me sir when they know they're in deep shit" the older Bear Faunus noted conversationally before dropping down into a kneeling position so that he could more easily meet his daughters' eyes "I heard….About everything, are you okay? I don't just mean physically-"
"Aren't you angry at me?" the words that left Athena were small, hollow and broken things "I mean Zirconia, she was….And-and I…."
"Not at you, I promise not you" her father assured her, gently wrapping his flesh and blood arm around her shoulders "I'm angry for you….How fucking dare someone hurt you like this-"
"This wasn't her, it wasn't Hops-" Athena-Jade gestured at her own still-healing legs only for her voice to falter as the nickname she had given her partner left a taste like ash in her mouth and left her with her eyes downcast "But I hurt her….I think I hurt her pretty badly and I wish I hadn't"
"I'm not gonna insult your intelligence by promising you that everything's gonna be okay and that I'll make it all right for you….But I am here for you AJ, so's your mother and so are Arctus and Coral, Diamond will be waiting at home for you too" Gangrel's amber eyes darted to the glyphs hovering beside his daughters' wheelchair and he took her luggage so that she could release her hold on her Semblance and save her strength before taking the remains of Mould-Breaker and studying them carefully.
"You put so much work into this AJ" Gangrel's voice was lowered to a whisper filled with sympathy and pain at the sight of another loss his daughter hand been forced to endure "Do you think you can fix it?"
"I don't even think I want to" Athena took the weapon from her father's grasp and studied it herself "Hop-my ex-partner and I had so many staple moves that we fell back on, most of them involved using Mould-Breaker to get her into the fight quicker, she knew my weapon as well as I did and then she blew it up with one good shot….She ruined everything I had, my team, my weapon, our….Everything WE had!"
A glyph appeared between Athena's hands and with all the strength she had recovered she used her Semblance to send Mould-Breakers' remains hurtling through the air and careening into the sea.
"Athena!" Gangrel gave her a worried glance.
"I don't want it and I don't need it! I don't need her! I don't!" Athena's voice cracked and wavered at that but still she pressed on, wiping her eyes and forcing her furious tirade through her tears "I can make it better, everything she ruined, everything she took from me I'll make it better!"
"That's the spirit kid" Gangrel gave her hair, shaggy as his own despite having her mothers' colour a playful ruffle that failed to mask the concern on his face "The workshop is all yours at the manor….Just make sure you get some rest first. Come on AJ, let's go home-"
Athena's answer was a watery sound somewhere between a choked sob and an unhinged, manic bout of laughter as she pushed her own wheelchair forwards, setting off towards the waiting transports before her father could push the chair as he had intended to.
Gangrel stared after his daughter and suddenly felt his concern for Athena-Jade rise exponentially.
The sensation of the aircraft she had spent far too long in coming to the kind of bumpy and jolting landing that suggested solid and yet uneven ground rather than a proper landing pad was enough to force Zirconia Shadowmoon to come fully back to her senses and embrace the reality around her, rather than continuing to linger at the edges of a daze which had been brought about in turn by a cocktail of power anaesthetic and Aura stimulants, exhaustion that would not be granted the mercy of a restful sleep and then a simple, grief-stricken refusal to engage with her surroundings for some time.
Since making her escape from the Hive-Tower in Neo Vale Zirconia had endured her first day of life as a fugitive from society at large.
The first step had been for the transport she and Carmesi had escaped in to rendezvous with their fellow rebels and dock within a larger airship which then used the chaos still spreading through the city below to escape. The airship, like Nero's own personal vessel was apparently outfitted with stealth capabilities and it had impressed Zirconia once again that the Chairman had managed to convince people with the skills and clearance to use such technology to join their cause. Once docked Zirconia and her fellow rebels had been ferried on an indirect and meandering route towards Nero's secondary base of operations, a precaution to ensure that even if their general direction and goals were predicted they did not fly headlong and unsuspecting into an ambush; the Grasshopper Faunus herself had chosen to remain sequestered away aboard the transport the entire time, with even Carmesi only offering a single sneering comment at her refusal to join her supposed comrades before departing and allowing her to process her grief in peace for a while.
Eventually, after deliberate delays their flight had brought them towards the island Kingdom of Menagerie; learning as they drew close that much of the Kingdoms' ability to monitor its' own borders had been limited and hampered as essential equipment was directed inwards in an effort to mitigate the damage caused by the loss of Hammerfall Outpost.
This too was part of the plan and their cloaked airship had finally landed in a clearing along the coastline which fell under the jurisdiction of Blackwater Cove, the hellish city where crime was rife and life was cheap; a place where Carmesi and his now-dead ally Grapeshot had operated from before and which the Komodo Dragon Faunus was unhappy to return to even briefly. Once the vessel had landed they had been met by envoys representing a criminal faction within the city who, whilst not being a part of Nero's movement themselves were more than willing to do business with them and spare themselves the effort of contacting one of the islands' Nomad Clans. Promising to dismantle and dispose of the airship to keep its' whereabouts from being tracked whilst taking the Dust which fuelled the vessel and the lions' share of its' raw materials as payment; still leaving Nero's rebels with the components for its' stealth systems, weapons and a sizeable amount of Atlesian Steel to work with in their possession. With the necessary business attended to and the knowledge that the Kingdom of Menagerie currently lacked the means to track their movements within the wasteland between its' settlements Zirconia and her fellow fugitives had used the transports, not part of their deal with the criminal faction to travel to Nero and previously Aefen Cruor and her followers' base of operations in Jidhir Town and it was this which greeted Zirconia as she rose to her feet, joints popping and muscles protesting uncomfortably after being stationary for so long and then strode out into the fresh air.
She had not expected the settlement to be so large or populous and certainly not as organised as it currently was.
Her mismatched eyes blinked rapidly as they adjusted to her new, floodlit surroundings and she reflexively brought a hand up to her left cheek in order to keep the dust and grit in the air from entering wounds that had already been stitched closed only for her to be left with her stomach churning and fresh pangs of grief stabbing at her heart upon feeling the tender, inflamed flesh of her face where Athena had ripped into her.
Distracting herself she cast her eyes around and tried to begin familiarising herself with her new home, in the process seeing just how many of Aefen Cruor's 'Path of the Apex Being' were both present and heavily armed; clearly having been trained to rival the rebels disembarking from the various transports. The various factions within Nero's movement regarded one another, devout and fanatical cultists, former soldiers and those with legitimate jobs and valuable skills along with career criminals turned footsoldiers and Zirconia quickly realised how easily the situation within Jidhir town could devolve into something dangerous though her attention was quickly taken up by the sight of several familiar faces. First and most unexpected were fellow second year students of Breaktide Academy Team NUGT who had evidently escaped the stadium in Neo Vale and promptly changed their allegiance whilst nearby, having evidently arrived on the first transport and striding closer was Carmesi Hueso; the rogue Hunter flanked on either side by black clad individuals. One one side, in her customary overwrought attire complete with her mask and staff was Aefen Cruor herself.
On the other hand was Damascus Nero.
"Good heavens, my poor girl" the Chairman gasped out as he broke away from his remaining allies to rush over to Zirconia and examine her injuries, gloved-cybernetic fingers running over her stitches with only the most careful and delicate of touches "Carmesi warned me that you'd been hurt but seeing it…."
"Did…." Zirconia swallowed thickly, forcing words out through the lump in her throat "Did Carmesi tell you about Al-"
"My last friend" Zirconia's eyes widened as Nero's voice cracked, the man who had been a father figure to her for most of her life taking a step back and turning away from her for a moment; gesturing to Aefen and Carmesi to set them about important tasks such as unloading remaining Cyber-Grimm and allocating work and lodgings whilst his free hand ran through dark hair and pushed it back to reveal the scars marring his own features, chemical burns that reached up from his neck to his jawline.
"Gestalt-Prime lives but was damaged and is yet to re-establish contact" he finally continued, the attempt at a businesslike tone crumpling under the weight of a heavy sigh "We lost several experienced and capable people, along with several of our Cyber-Grimm and machines; the Kingdoms will no doubt begin seizing and taking apart everything I've built for them over the years….But this, seeing you hurt is the worst of it. I am sorry Zirconia, I never planned for-"
The Grasshopper Faunus silenced him with a sob that was muffled by the fabric of his suit jacket as she closed the distance and buried her face in Nero's shoulder.
"I don't care about the scars! I don't care that I got hurt!" Zirconia cried, reaching to unfasten the jade green bandanna which had been given to her by her ex-partner to cover a previous injury, gesturing to it as she spoke "I care about her!….She should be here with us right now….They all should, I tried to make her listen and I couldn't and-and it cost everything!"
"A broken heart is the most painful thing in the world Zirconia" Nero nodded sagely, reaching up to cup her uninjured cheek with his flesh and blood hand; quartz coloured eyes boring into mismatched pink and orange
"Athena-Jade Slate is as much as a product of the Hunter's system of indoctrination as any of the child soldiers being raised on Halo Academy….And damn Nora Ren for keeping me from liberating those children. Keep this heartache with you Zirconia, remember everything that was lost, everything the Hunters took in order to keep their established order….But we didn't lose everything I promise you that"
"I-"
"Listen to me" Nero interrupted, voice growing steadily more urgent and impassioned with every word "We suffered a setback, one that we expected and ones that we did not….Albion's loss will hurt us and I swore that this was never about revenge, I swore it but I swear right now somebody will answer for that. But remember this, our message has been heard by all of Remnant and despite everything the Hunters and the Councils might try things will never go back to the way they were; people are already joining our cause, more will come and we will continue to learn, we can make more and better Cyber-Grimm until we can keep all of Remnant safe from the Hunters and the Grimm"
"But what if they won't?" Zirconia croaked out uncertainly, unable to keep the image of Athena-Jade's hate-filled expression from flashing before her eyes every time she closed them "What about all the people that can't see that things need to change, or who won't let us make Remnant better-"
"Then we keep driving home the message, over and over until the truth cannot be denied any more" Nero's quartz coloured eyes suddenly gleamed with a dark intensity.
"Our bright new tomorrow is here Zirconia, they have no choice but to live in it"
Gestalt-Prime had soared through the skies above and around the Kingdoms of New Vale for over a day, a feat that in their damaged and mangled state had left the Alpha Cyber-Grimm shrieking with unconstrained agony and frustration.
But they persisted, refusing to be unmade and reduced to a lesser state, to be captured and contained as they had been before.
The first order of business had naturally been to fight and slip their way through the gathering mass of warships and smaller fighters gathering above the city that they had failed to thoroughly lay waste to as they had hoped; this being an endeavour which required a tremendous amount of tenacity and brute force that would simply have been beyond most beings. Gestalt-Prime had managed to avoid being brought to ruin by the main weapon batteries of the capital class vessels in their escape but had nonetheless taken a significant amount of damage to their metallic and Grimm-flesh components when fighters that they had shot and clawed at had responded with equally aggression, their efforts to kill the monster harrowing their skies being bolstered not only by weapons platforms mounted on the cities' aerial defence platforms and the areas of the perimeter wall which had been held or retaken but also by naval vessels whose crews were willing to risk firing up into cities' skyline; a display which had left Gestalt-Prime nearly insensate with primal fury and a deep, twisting dread that felt far too close to something human and nuanced as it reminded the monster of their defeat and grievous injury at Port Alistair.
Even in their escape Gestalt-Prime had not truly been free or safe, the mangled and broken beast finding themselves followed by the few Hunters willing to abandon the defence of the city itself in order to give chase, likely recognising the Alpha Cyber-Grimm from Nero's broadcast and understood the importance of bringing down this particular lone target. They had been halted and attended to however, once they were clear of the cities' other defences the matter of the Hunters' skill at arms and weaponry had been rendered moot at Gestalt-Prime outflew their personal transport, managing to position themselves in such a way that their torso-mounted primary weapon all but carved the aircraft in half with a single well-placed shot; from there whether or not the Hunters survived the resulting fireball was less important than the fact that they could not follow the contrail of acrid smoke that Gestalt-Prime, with their damaged wing and internal components left in their wake as they fled the scene.
Once they were free of any outside influence the Alpha Cyber-Grimm had continued on without direction for some time, simply racing through the air as the sun set and rose again in order to keep abreast of any possible patrol routes as they took stock of the situation and began to form something resembling a working plan.
Eventually they had come to the obvious realisation that continuing on in their current physical state was untenable and so they had set about the task of gathering base materials with which to work; for all that they were now Gestalt-Prime had once been a simple Geist subsisting in the wastelands of Menagerie by merging with whatever wreckage and scrap, or even simple stone and dessicated roots were available to make their ephemeral body more robust and so the Alpha Grimm felt no shame in preying on quarry that were far less impressive than their recent adversaries. Once they were out in the stretches of open space between New Vale's settlements' it had been a simple thing for Gestalt-Prime to identify vehicles that were not part of any convoys taking materials to the Capital and fall upon them; ripping apart anything that resisted and carrying away the metal like a bird gathering twigs with which to build a nest rather than simply merge with it there and then.
Metal was only the first step in their restoration after all.
Gestalt-Prime regenerated, albeit slowly and without the use of a Spawning Pit their efforts to return themselves to their former glory would be incomplete, reducing the Alpha Cyber-Grimm to a hodgepodge of misaligned and ill-fitting parts in comparison to what had first erupted from Nero's Chamber. The most obvious solution would have been to brave the flight to Menagerie and rendezvous with Nero at his new base of operations at Jidhir Town, using their connection to the Furnace would have ensured that all preparations were made well in advance of their arrival. Gestalt-Prime had not done this however, firstly for the simple reason that surviving the flight was not a foregone conclusion; the ocean was large and there were likely many obstacles separating them from that goal and secondly because they had seen an opportunity.
They had already instructed Aefen Cruor to begin searching for Spawning Pits that Nero was not aware of, locating one of their own would be a boon.
The task had been long and arduous, made more so by the strain involved in carrying the remains of their spoils with them the entire time; serpentine tail crushing the chassis to a more compact and manageable size but doing nothing to limit the weight. Eventually however Gestalt-Prime had been rewarded by the sight of a small chain of islands barely large enough to be considered such far out to sea and away from the attention of any Kingdom; barren and desolate spits of land so thoroughly salted by the briny water crashing over them that no plant life could hope to grow there and so regularly battered by the waves that any seabird which might nest upon them would be cast into the sea.
Despite their uninhabited isolation and unimportance a small, simmering mire of darkness which birthed nightmares made flesh had managed to form; likely given its' initial spark of during some long forgotten marine accident which had seen aquatic Grimm drawn to the small island.
Gestalt-Prime landed with an impact which cracked the unnaturally dry and crumbling ground beneath their taloned feet, allowing themselves something strangely close to a sigh of relief as their damaged, axehead-tipped wings collapsed and retracted into their resting place at the Alpha's shoulders. From there they dragged the mass of crushed and twisted metal that they had claimed behind them as they trudged closer to the steadily bubbling surface of the Pit.
They would remake themselves in their own image and they would bend the limited awareness of the Pit to their own will so that they could once again muster forces of their own.
Beginning the process took only a thought and the act of plunging a hand into to surface of the Spawning Pit, Gestalt-Prime's lone, glowing optic pulsing rhythmically before dimming for a moment before the remains of a vehicle that they had carried began to warp and shift; the abilities they had once boasted as a mere Geist being enhanced to an incomprehensible degree which allowed the Alpha Cyber-Grimm to perform a limited form of alchemy. The metal began to glow with an orange heat, liquid and molten slag running along Gestalt-Prime's form with a sense of purpose and liveliness until it began to coalesce, taking shape and settling until the Alpha's metallic and mechanical components were restored and no trace of what the metal had once been remained; its' colour, texture and composition being entirely subsumed and overwritten.
A moment later Gestalt-Prime's pulped, shredded and carved flesh began to knit itself together at a frightening rate which went far beyond their own natural abilities; the Alpha Grimm being restored to their former glory in mere moments. From there they began to reach deeper into Spawning Pit, on a level that was beyond the simply physical and allowing their consciousness to flow outwards into the inky depths in order to gauge how best to overtake and subvert it.
Only to be left shrieking in confused pain and delirium, recoiling and ripping their arm free before it could be swallowed whole by inky darkness that now churned and formed rudimentary teeth which whirled and sawed.
The Creatures of Grimm shared a Hive Mind and that consciousness had been shattered since Salem's defeat and removal from Remnant on Menagerie decades prior; what remained had been reduced to a series of disjointed and chaotic webs and networks which occasionally intersected with one another as acts of cannibalism between larger and more sapient Grimm reunited segments without purpose or direction. On Menagerie it was a process Gestalt-Prime themselves had made some headway in restoring to its' proper function before their sundering and yet even at the height of their strength they had relied upon a single primary Spawning Pit with a handful of smaller offshoots in order to produce their horde.
What lay before them was a dreadful enlightenment.
Connecting to the Spawning Pit had seen Gestalt-Prime's mind almost torn from its' physical housing and cast into an abyss once more; the Hybrid Alpha being left numbed and amazed by the sheer scale and size of the network of connected Spawning Pits they became aware of and the sheer colossal presence of countless hundreds of thousands of Creatures of Grimm pressing in against their psyche with an overwhelming and primal hunger.
Yet what was most terrifying to Gestalt-Prime was that within that endless maze of shapeless darkness something had lurked; a consciousness larger and far greater than their own and for a single, terror-inducing moment before they had ripped themselves free the Alpha Cyber-Grimm had felt the malevolent gaze of that vast consciousness turned upon them.
This would necessitate changes to their plans.
The oceans were deep and unexplored, a fact which allowed a great many secrets to dwell within them and remain unseen by the eyes of Remnants' peoples.
One such secret was the fact that whilst there were many deep-sea Spawning Pits across Remnants' seas and oceans which had gone undetected and grown large enough to vomit forth the gargantuan terrors that lurked in the depths and made a proper exploration impossible, Spawning Pits whose location made them hard to find and harder still to effectively combat there was one which differed vastly from the others.
It existed as part of a larger structure.
During her second war against the Kingdoms, upon being returned to the physical plane Salem's final refuge had been a fortress of solidified Grimm tissue built onto one of a string of islands stretched in a loose and indistinct chain partway between the coasts of Vale and Mistral. Salem's defeat and the destruction of her fortress had prompted the Kingdoms to combine their might and utterly obliterate every trace of the island upon which the castle had stood, placing entire fleets of naval and airships around the location for several years to ensure that nothing that might have survived the onslaught could ever escape.
Something had indeed survived but escape had not been a part of their plan; the thing had fallen to the seafloor almost a decade ago within the imploded and crushed hull of a Hunters' transport which had been intended to served as a final resting place for the Hunter themselves and the monster that Iris Ramal of Team CLIR had sacrificed herself to destroy. The thing had escaped the fate it was promised in a perverse twist wherein the ruined machinery and metal encasing them had allowed them to heal and grow strong enough to claw their way and reach a Spawning Pit where they had begun to build and grow; the metal that had once entombed them being reformed into the beginnings of a throne within a fortress resembling masses of glistening black rock, twisted and jagged spires interspersed amongst broken slabs of sea-floor that rose up at odd angles whilst being given an ominous glow by the exposed magma venting up from beneath them; in truth however these spires were hardened Grimm tissue that served as the first line of defence for a seat of power that had been burrowed far into the seabed, vast chambers hollowed out of the rock and filled with interconnected Spawning Pits and ever expanding tunnel networks in a vast maze at the heart of which the thing continued to sit.
The thing was Pantheon, Salem's former General, a self-aware Creature of Grimm that had defied their Queen's will in the face of a madness that would see the Grimm species destroyed along with their prey.
Pantheon themselves was a hulking and monstrous thing, made more so by continued growth and evolution. Their body now standing at three times the height of a man, roughly a full eighteen feet when upright and made of rippling layers of dense muscles as if their entire form were built to withstand the pressures of the depths beyond their fortress walls; all whilst being encased in plates of ridged and interlocking armour which had taken on the appearance of armour akin to that worn by some ancient Samurai, save for streamline and angled forward protrusion spouting from their chest like an oddly positioned dorsal fin which had served to deflect incoming blows.
Pantheon's limbs were many and varied, digitigrade legs wider around than a man's chest ended in taloned and saurian claws whilst a scaled and spiked tail coiled around their throne and terminated in a three pronged claw. Above their waist Pantheon had once boasted six limbs but was now reduced to four through the process of their ongoing changes, a pair of lower arms which were largely humanoid in appearance albeit with clawed fingers and a pair of hulking and over-muscled upper limbs ending in three-sectioned claws capable of cutting through armour, flesh and bone in a single swipe or exerting enough force to crush stone with each taloned digit erupting directly from the wrist joint with no hand between and extending several feet in length; the final pair of limbs had once been a pair of wings but they had since fused together into a membranous cape which flowed and draped around Pantheon's form with a mind of its' own. The skull of the Grimm General was armoured and skeletal, six glowing eyes peering from within a fearsome mix of kabuto-styled helmet and jutting, spiked crown whilst an elongated muzzle filled with jagged fangs was pulled into a perpetual snarl.
For years now Pantheon had remained upon their throne as they had planned and built, moreover though the General without a Queen had directed and arbitrated, taking little direct action and instead simply watching as the Creatures of Grimm progressed.
Salem's folly, in Pantheon's mind had been the search for an ending. The Grimm were death made manifest and the Queen of the Grimm, maddened by her time stripped away from reality itself had thus seen it as her role to create a final, catastrophic dying that would stretch across all possible timelines; a death that would render the Grimm themselves obsolete and starving. Pantheon by contrast had begun reconnecting scores and then hundred of Spawning Pits across Remnant into a single, grater whole and then allowed that whole to develop with minimal interference; simply watching with interest as the denizens of their secret Empire of monsters adapted and evolved to the ever more powerful weapons and cunning tactics of their enemies to ensure that the cycle of creation and destruction continued as intended for all time.
Part of the evolution that Pantheon had observed over recent years was that with Salem finally removed in totality was that steadily more Creatures of Grimm were developing degrees of sentience or awareness and degrees of intelligence that accompanied as they were either pushed or naturally crossed some unknown Rubicon to rise above their base instincts; it had been a promising sign of things to come, a future where the cycle could work as fluidly and effectively as it had in the time before Hunters and Kingdoms where vast swathes of life went unchallenged.
Now however one of those newly made, thinking Grimm had infringed upon Pantheon's domain; using one of the Spawning Pits' under the Grimm Generals' control in order to heal their wounds and for a single, brief moment Pantheon and Gestalt-Prime had seen one another; the older and more developed of the two sentient Creatures of Grimm, each of them a possible heir to Salem's throne had seen the vaguest, shadowy outline of what it was their distant younger sibling envisioned for the Grimm species.
Gestalt-Prime wished to interfere with the cycle in a way entirely opposite to Salem's own insanity.
"Well then" Pantheon snarled into the emptiness of their throne room, their voice echoing unnaturally with every ragged syllable "It seems we will have to take a more active role in thing"
Author's Notes:
So, here we are; the finale of Vol.06 and the entire second act of this story which I am coincidentally posting mere hours, perhaps only a single hour before the finale to RWBY Vol.9 is aired.
How's that for a fucking cliffhanger?
That ladies, gentlemen and esteemed others is the conclusion of the second arc of this story and I think it lived up to the title of 'Paradigm Shift
….Although at the same time, something like this was set up by the epilogue of FADE: Legacy.
So I've got a couple chapters of Vol.07 planned out scene by scene but I'm probably gonna take a week or so off of writing so that I can plan further ahead. That being said I'm writing this when Chapter 105 is the most recent one I've posted so honestly people may or may not notice the break.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
I was originally gonna have the Professors scene come after Team MAR_'s scene together but this flowed better and opening with "How bad is it" just set the tone.
So yeah, Qrow is basically done or at least on the back burner for now, meaning that at least on one front Nero scored a win.
Yeah even Ren can't bottle this shit up, but Coco is kinda within her rights to be angry even if she's directing it at the wrong people.
Team NUGT are missing, Team NUGT who ducked and hid when the attack started.
Nero made some irrefutable points but he made a miscalculation and forgot to account for how people work in large numbers….Look at America look at everything that was justified in the name of safety and security post 9/11. People are not going to question the status quo that protected them immediately after an attack, or at the very least such opinions will not be part of the acceptable political spectrum.
A good summary of Nero's current position from Winter and let's be real, depending how many of his financial, legal and tech people he managed to convert to his cause beforehand just seizing his shit might be less effective than hoped for, especially given that he expected it.
Coco is allowed to be suspicious, especially since she knows who cracked her sons' skull now.
Ren is a solid judge of their character though.
"Collectively unable to think of themselves as Team MARZ" ouch.
Yeah all three of them would to still be out there fighting, but at the very least AJ can't.
Okay the image of a student being brought in screaming and having to be strapped down whilst their partner was carried in a body bag next to them was a little much, but it gets the point across.
AJ isn't gonna be injured long term but at the same time there's no way she's walking anywhere after that.
Of Hops's belonging were grabbed.
Yeah this is not a time to ask "Are you okay?"
AJ is absolutely suffering and is gonna continue to suffer, the fact she still does love Zirconia is gonna be a big part of it.
"She's gone….Which means there's no Team MARZ-" so, remember how in First Year there were "There's no Team MARZ without you" moments for a couple people, how's that callback?
Yay for Astra and Regalia going and doing aid in the community instead of just throwing themselves at the Grimm….Also yay for Astra and Regalia having the sense to not make out in front of their friend who just had her heart broken.
The scene with Honey doesn't really add anything plot wise but it does give a feel for how the city and people as whole are feeling and what the vibe will be going forward; I also wanted something that had the same sort of vibe as that shot at the end of Vol.03 in canon where Goodwitch is trying to put things back together with her Semblance but is just at her limit.
She'll retreat when there's an opportunity….With some creative uses of the word opportunity being used to keep herself in the fight for longer.
In Remnant every catastrophe that isn't the Grimm gets a second helping of catastrophe courtesy of the Grimm.
When 'Fire sword' is your weapon in a less efficient and kinda broken state then your weapons' starting point has gotta be pretty damn cool.
The guy leaning out the window who proceeded to talk shit and then fuck things up….That is the 'Good guy with a gun' Fox News want to protect your kids….Probably voted for Junior when he was a Councilman in FADE as well.
See here's where Nero's complaints run face first into reality….Yes Honey used an amount of force that could be described as excessive, yes property was damaged; but consider: WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE EATEN INSTEAD?
Ren did say he was heading out.
Honey really is a sweetheart and it's been fun to show Eagle Arc's favourite little cousin all grown up….Not sure if I'll have the opportunity to include her in later parts of the story but if I can do it organically I will.
The truck is found, silver lining.
Astra and Regalia are a good match for things outside of fighting as well, a good sign in partners probably.
Bless the food trucks that will be there in all circumstances, in college there was a burger truck that was there even when that whole part of the city was flooded.
Obviously AJ is hurt, but let's not forget about the other two. Astra is gonna take this as a failure on their part and Regalia always wanted friend like Team MARZ.
So the almost kiss here….Remember when all begged for Astra to have some emotional maturity, here it is.
But they really fucking needed that hug.
The "To infinity and beyond" quote is gonna be a recurring thing isn't it.
Of course Stygian gets claustrophobic when panicked and of course everyone who survived after Snapdragon died feels guilty and worries if they could have done something different.
Stygian routinely hangs out with and looks after the orphanage kids, AJ has seen it.
Yeah, the kids who had just gotten their academy acceptance letters were told they had to hide in a bunker while Qrow and Nora got absolutely stomped….So naturally they wanna run out and fight now.
You should have known from the moment Tiger showed up and brought up the old comments about Stitch being lazy that this was gonna be bad.
So there it is, Stygian is the only member of Team TRQS left. Rye and Amaya quit and Tiger is gonna be leading/joining Team SHMR in Snapdragon's place.
The funny thing is I've set up what's gonna happen with Stygian and a few of your are gonna realise it now and then look back at some other scenes and realise that they make perfect sense and that I was obviously setting this up.
Now Winter doesn't generally lead and command with the same degree of paranoia that the late Ironwood did, but the whole thing about extracting her students under cover of darkness from a secret location in case of any possible follow up attacks is perfectly in keeping with her; she is ex black ops after all.
So naturally AJ showing up as the only person not in Atlas uniform raises eyebrows and suspicions.
Athena dropping into the formal Atlesian that even her family don't use after spending so long trying to be her own person….Yeah that confidence and self belief is shattered.
And of course other students are suspicious of her.
Gangrel Slate, my first RWBY OC….God he's aged.
It was a nice father daughter moment to ease some of the ouch of this whole chapter….And then that; Mould-Breaker is truly no more; which means going forward AJ's gonna have something new to play with.
That last rant though….Oof.
I know it doesn't change or really add anything but I felt like showing just how Zirconia and the others escaped was important to me.
Remember that Zirconia has largely been kept out of Nero's business, she knew Albion but was never at the Chamber and hadn't seen either Gestalt-Prime or Aefen since Team MARZ dealt with them at Port Alistair and The Crater respectively.
On a random note, oh look we found Team NUGT….Guess Nugget isn't the only one who's a chicken.
The first thing Nero did was wave his people off so he could check on Zirconia, 'cos despite being a lunatic and a bastard he does love his adopted daughter….And it makes it a fun mirror to the previous scene.
Zirconia not even caring about the fact her face is a mess….Oof.
"My last friend" and that announced Nero's slide further into villainy, it's not just a mask off moment, it's a man whose entire life for the last decade or so has been fuelled by grief and loss losing even more.
"Our bright new tomorrow is her Zirconia, they have no choice but to live in it" well they do have a choice….They can die.
And we're back to Gestalt-Prime scenes with no dialogue.
In keeping with the last scene, have a recap of how they got away from Neo Vale….Long story short is, dodged as many bullets as possible and shot some Hunters out of the sky.
Important part is they went on a scavenger hunt and collected some scrap.
So finding a Spawning Pit on the way would have given them a chance to fix up but also a chance to put the plans they're using Aefen for into motion….Which should give an idea of the general shape of what their ideas are, primarily slipping the leash that's currently on them since the only Spawning Pit they can use to create more Grimm is the Furnace in Jidhir Town.
The repair scene was cool in my head, definitely tempting to have Gestalt-Prime be a mismatched cyborg horror for a bit but this was better.
But then, the sheer mind-fuckery of the big bad super monster trying to take control of the pit and realising that they are in fact not the big bad super monster.
Seriously the oceans on Remnant must be filled with some terrifying shit.
I had to give a little recap of the end and epilogue of FADE: Legacy just to set up exactly who and what Pantheon is, but honestly you should have known because if you start a series with part five that's on you.
I actually went as far as to straight up lift some descriptions and passages, especially for describing the underground fortress from the FADE epilogue.
The idea of Pantheon overseeing the Grimm as a stabilising force to keep a cycle of destruction and recreation going and death as a natural part of existence should be enough to understand why they were against both Salem's attempt to obliterate the multiverse but are also against Gestalt-Prime's desire to transform the Grimm into something else entirely by making them no longer reliant on the presence of living things.
So what I'm saying is that, in addition to everything else I'm setting up….Get ready for a Grimm Civil War.
Thank you to MajorBrony95 for their review on the last chapter.
Yeah, you called it with Pantheon.
The victory against the Shroud is even lousier when you realise that it's not unique in the way other 'Boss fight' Grimm were; it was a concept/prototype that just proved how effective it can be.
It's not Amity, which is why it was on the ground rather than on a floating platform like the other matches.
Oh yeah, heart-wrenching all round.
Yeah, Gestalt-Prime is basically in an alliance of convenience at this point.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.