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Chapter 139: Wait It Out
For the second time in an annoyingly short period of time Athena-Jade Slate found her slow, groggy and unwilling return to consciousness defined by the pain that it brought with it.
As she managed to blink her pale blue eyes open the brawny Bear Faunus noted that her surroundings seemed notably less dark and foreboding then they had been previously, which indicated that either Regalia had successfully managed to restore power to more of the abandoned truck-stops' workings or that she had been unconscious for far longer than she had guessed and that the situation had changed drastically; merely considering the latter option seemed to worsen her condition, amplifying the dull pounding behind her eyes to a skull-splitting thumping sensation which seemed to squeeze the entire contents of her head in a crushing grip. Beyond the migraine which currently sought to pummel her into submission Athena was forced to content with a bone-deep aching weariness that had set into her entire body and left her limbs heavy and unresponsive, with her first attempt to drag herself upright ending with her extremities being tangled within the blankets that had been draped over her keeping her in place whilst the sudden movement sent a searing lance of agony out from her midsection where she had been stabbed, leaving her cramping and convulsing with a sound that was halfway between a yelp of pain and a sharp and surprised intake of breath.
A sound which brought Athena's friends to her side, no matter how much she might have wished that they had not heard or witnessed that particular moment of weakness.
"Wait, wait stay still I've got you" the familiar warm and faintly musical sound of Stygian Blue's voice reached her before her partner's well-muscled arms found their way around her and Athena found herself gently guided into a sitting position whilst the blankets she had been draped in were adjusted around her, as though she were so ill and weak that she might suffer simply from being exposed to the air.
"I'm fine" she managed to slur and mumble, the hollow and brittle sound of her own voice catching her off-guard in a way which left her more susceptible to her partners' attempts to direct her which continued even as another familiar voice, that of Regalia Russet sounded.
"Heh, give her some of this to warm her up….It's just canned tomato soup AJ so you'll have to use your imagination….Like that one scene in movie about the lost boys"
"I know the one" Athena managed to mumble out weakly, already preparing to take can which had first been passed to Stygian only for the snowy-haired young woman to come to an abrupt halt with her thoughts once again colliding with one another as she blinked and peered around her at the bullet-riddled and shredded furniture of the truck-stops' food court; the sight of the devastation around her bringing back memories of the battle against a pack of Sabyrs which had managed to ambush the team rushing back to her and sending a chill down Athena's spine as she realised that whilst she, Stygian and Regalia were in the midst of a small and makeshift barricade made of unbroken tables, chairs and benches; the Racoon a short distance away as she used the last table which still stood upright as a worktop for the camp stove she had found there was no sight of either Astra or Zirconia.
"Wait!" she let out a choked gasp, struggling to rise so suddenly that she almost spilled hot soup on herself "Where're-"
"They're fine" Regalia called over to her, clearly having guessed what Athena's question would be; Athena took in several deep, gasping breaths whilst her eyes remained wide and panicked until she felt Stygian reach out and take her free hand to give it a gentle but reassuring squeeze.
"They're fine" he repeated the assurance "Zirconia went to make sure there's no more Grimm hiding in the cinema or casino-"
"On her own?" Athena demanded incredulously, debating making another effort to stand no matter how unlikely it was to succeed; especially given that her friends who were present would likely simply put her back into a more restful position, as though rest were a possibility in that moment.
"Astra offered to go with her" Stygian shook his head, as though refuting the unspoken accusation that the team had deliberately consigned Zirconia to some horrible fate "I promise nobody forced her to go anywhere on her own, she said she needed to do something and that Astra should keep watch of the main entrance in case anything comes our way….Besides somebody needs to keep watch for our rescue"
The latter part of the explanation left Athena-Jade cocking her head in confusion, utterly unable to keep the gears in her mind from grinding to a halt.
"Huh?" if she were not so thoroughly thrashed by recent events the Bear Faunus might have hoped to sound more articulate, as it was Regalia merely let out a soft chuckle before throwing something to Stygian which the Mouse Faunus plucked from the air with ease before presenting it to his partner.
It was her own scroll.
"We uh, had to borrow this. Sorry" he gave a nervous grin "Regalia managed to get the CCT uplink working, we spoke to your Mum and she said she's gonna come and get us herself….I think she's gonna try and get your Aunt to send some reinforcements as well"
"Really?" Athena's expression became a bright smile which dimpled her cheeks; she finally took a sip of the canned soup she had been given before allowing the thought to turn over in her mind, at which point her expression dropped, a haunted, mortified look coming to her eyes.
"Oh I am so dead….I am in so much trouble when they get here" she breathed out softly "Worth it though"
"Definitely worth it" Regalia chimed in from her place a short distance away where Athena realised that as well as the small stove she also had both her own and Athena's weapons and had presumably been checking Heartbreaker for any obvious signs of damage, though she halted that task to flash her team-mate a bright smile "We saw your niece by the way, she is adorable"
"I know right?" Athena breathed out, suddenly able to find more energy to discuss that particular subject until the feeling of Stygian scooting himself nearer so that their arms were touching, her hand still in his caught her attention and the dark-skinned young man spoke softly.
"How're you feeling, we're gonna get you to a doctor but how are you right now?"
"I'm….I think I'm good" Athena answered slowly "I've been better but I think I just pushed myself too far; I had to do something Stitch you and Hops were getting surrounded and-"
"I know" Stygian's electric blue eyes were downcast "I'm sorry….We should have done better, I should have done better and then you wouldn't have-"
"Hey, come on look at me" Athena freed her hand from his and used it to cup his cheek "I'm okay"
"Yeah" he breathed out "But seeing you go down like that….So soon after what happened….I was scared AJ"
There was a lingering pause between them at that, Athena suddenly very aware of her hand cupping Stygian's cheek, her own cheeks flushing faintly as unbidden memories of the night they had spent together flooded her mind whilst as pale sapphire and lightning blue eyes met Stygian himself could focus on how close the two of them were, how near Athena's lips were to his own.
He leaned forwards and, understanding what he intended Athena shook her head gently and guided his movements away and instead pulled him into a tight hug, the two partners simply melting into one another and enjoying one another's embrace for a period of time that neither of them cared to measure and which ended only when the sound of Regalia clearing her throat served as a warning.
Allowing the two of them to break apart just in time for Athena-Jade to see Zirconia approaching, whilst the Grasshopper Faunus had clearly already seen her; as a single glance at her agonised expression made obvious.
"Hey Hops, you didn't have to go-"
"I'm glad you're awake, that you're okay" Zirconia's words were dull, almost mechanical as though she were stuffing every ounce of emotion down into the deepest recesses of herself; the rogue barely halting her movements as she strode passed the Bear Faunus to take a can of soup that Regalia had prepared and turn on the base of one mechanical foot to head back the way she had come.
"The buildings' clear" her dull monotone continued "I'll relieve Astra from guard duty"
With that she left and as Athena watched her former partner walk away she squirmed at the uncomfortable feeling of guilt that seeped out from her very core, just one of a flurry of emotions she struggled to reconcile with.
Especially given the feelings she also had for the man beside her.
The sound of Carmesi Hueso's heavy, booted footfalls rang out through the bowels of the Megalodon, a sound alternating between dull impacts against a floor of living scales and reverberating clangs as he crossed areas where the flesh of the Grimm-ships' interior had been torn away to reveal a lattice of steel and sinew with wires and other internal arrangements woven through it.
In the blood-red hue of the Cyber-Grimm production facilities' emergency lighting the Komodo Dragon Faunus looked more imposing than ever.
"Report!" he barked out, a low snarl escaping him as he strode through the area which had been reduced to carnage and chaos mere hours prior and studied his surroundings carefully with his hands moving subtly towards the harness at his back where weapons that had been freshly cleaned after his most recent kills were resting, the behaviour suggesting that he had not entirely ruled out the idea that more treachery could yet come or that another violent eruption of Grimm tissue was possible. Carmesi was no scientist and had no delusions about his ability to understand the works of technological advancement Albion Herringbone and Aefen Cruor had created in order to make the Cyber-Grimm and developments such as the Megalodon itself possible and as he studied his surroundings the rogue Hunter was aware of just how little he truly knew; though he could see well enough the various places where hasty repairs had been made, entire portions of the pipework through which protean, formless Grimm tissue flowed had been reinforced and various parts of the production process had been rerouted. As the workers still operating the Cyber-Grimm production facility stood to attention, with several representatives stepping forward Carmesi also noted that he could see the places where blood and viscera had been cleaned away after several of their peers had been killed by the traitors from Pikesreach.
"I see you got things operational again….And judging by the lack of stains we clearly still have hot, running water" it was the bleak sort of joke which might have elicited a round of chuckles from Hunters or the former soldiers amongst Nero's ranks who had once defended the walls of the Kingdoms' various settlements; Carmesi's current company however were clearly unused to directly experiencing the kind of violence their own creations inflicted and were also both squeamish enough that the act of cleaning away human remains had deeply disturbed them no matter how unrecognisable the majority of those remains had been and also, in many cases suffering injuries that had no doubt left them traumatised to some degree.
A lone figure broke away from the various clusters of engineers and scientists who had continued to work despite several of them sporting wounds that were severe enough to had bled through their bandages, a fact which earned them a measure of respect in the reptilian Faunus's mind; the individual in question wearing a hi-visibility vest over their lab-coat and having the bearing of someone with a degree of authority, vaguely offset by the fact he walked with a pronounced limp, sported several bruises and that his right arm was currently held in a sling.
"You and your team are doing important work, your efforts have been noted and they'll be rewarded in due time" Carmesi assured the man as he drew close, feeling it only right that loyalty and resolve be rewarded with the same zeal that weakness and betrayal was to be punished; his low rumbling tones getting little response from the man whom the rogue Hunter understood to be a shift manager, the bruised and injured man simply nodding along.
"Yeah" he breathed out weakly, leaving Carmesi to consider the other man for a moment; seeing that he was likely someone who had worked in factories and workshop for much of his life, learning skills and attaining positions of some importance before uprooting his entire life in order to make Remnant a better place without ever being fully prepared for what he might be forced to encounter and experience in doing.
It was a different kind of bravery to that which Carmesi possessed, but one he could certainly respect.
"What happened here won't happen again, we'll make sure of it" he rumbled more quietly, clasping the shoulder of the clearly stunned and dazed man who was continuing to work simply so that he did not have to process everything that had happened "And this is the worst part, when your blood cools down but it's all fresh….You and your people endured and carried on, you can manage"
"Thanks" the shift manager nodded again, still unable to meet Carmesi's hellish red gaze and so the Komodo Dragon Faunus turned the conversation towards the more practical matters that had brought him to the damaged production facility.
"Are the Cyber-Grimm that were requested ready?"
"Mostly….There were limits to how much of a rush order we could make when goods had just stopped eating the workforce" the shift manager answered with the same flippant nonchalance as Carmesi's own comment about the plumbing, making the Komodo Dragon Faunus bark out a laugh before pressing on "The standard models are ready….We did cheat a little and patch up a few of the less damaged ones from the existing stock, but they're good to go. The last of the Man-Eater variants will be ready within the hour, although they haven't been tested in a deployment exactly like this….I don't have all of Doctor Cruor's notes but I don't think they were meant to operate in a pack-"
"Considering who I'm being sent out to retrieve I think overkill is the appropriate response….They've all proven themselves to have more than enough tricks up their sleeves" Carmesi countered, muttering the last part to himself before changing the subject somewhat "Gestalt-Prime was here?"
"They were" the shift manager nodded "They took the standard variants to one of the launch bays-"
"Who were the Cyber-Grimm keyed to?" Carmesi interrupted with a sudden sense of urgency.
"They'll all be keyed to you, as per Mister Nero's instructions" the answer calmed him instantly "You've operated the Cyber-Grimm before, given the ratio of units in the field to operators and the more advanced nature of the Man-Eaters they've been given a higher degree of operational independence but they are all still under your direct control"
"Good" Carmesi growled out, allowing the fleeting suspicion that Gestalt-Prime might take control of the Cyber-Grimm and use the opportunity to kill Team MARS, Zirconia and Carmesi himself in the tundra as part of their inevitable bid for power; the Alpha Cyber-Grimm knowing that Nero planned to dispose of them at some point making their ongoing alliance a precarious thing sustained largely by their mutual enemies.
"Is there anything else?" Carmesi paused for a moment before shaking his head.
"Let me know when the last of the order is ready. In the meantime I'll be using your tools and one of your workstations to maintain my weapons"
With that Carmesi unsheathed Vindication and Retribution, noting the various nicks and dents where the blades had met resistance as they carved through flesh, bone and armour and finding each of them unacceptable; he wanted the weapons freshly maintained before he set out to hunt Zirconia Shadowmoon for her betrayal.
Nero had said that he wanted his adopted daughter and her friends alive to be used as leverage and Carmesi would deliver, however he hoped they would resist enough to justify severing body parts.
They would all be so much more manageable without their hands.
Pantheon's mind whirled and surged, a maelstrom of activity comparable to the howling, screaming void of the Hive-Mind which they once again inhabited as they enacted their plans; the will of the Grimm General being imposed upon the material plane through the Creatures of Grimm on multiple fronts.
The first and primary focus of Pantheon's malevolent attentions was their ongoing efforts to stealthily and yet swiftly put together a sizeable war host within the tundra of Solitas; an ongoing effort which required the Grimm General to forcefully curb the more base and bloodthirsty aspects of the Grimm's nature and gather and deploy the monsters with keen instincts to avoid showing their hand to earlier and allowing their invisible foe to seize the initiative once again or, perhaps worse still draw the attention of the Kingdom of Atlas and inadvertently draw another enemy into the fray.
Even with their lack of dealings with humanity since Salem's fall and the absence of any agents within the Kingdoms to sow discord or gather information Pantheon could sense that something was already afoot within the borders of Atlas, its' skies more active than usual and filled with the hurried flitting about of small transports and the fighter-craft which so often harried winged monsters, these smaller machines coalescing and swarming around the more massive forms of the Capital class warships which Pantheon had come to hate for the way they rained fire and death down upon even the most dangerous of the Creatures of Grimm. There were Hunters active in and around each of the icy Kingdoms' territories as well, as though they too knew of the Megalodon's inevitable approach and were choosing to simply fortify their positions and wait for their foe to come to them, a luxury which Pantheon did not yet have for themselves.
Small, diversionary packs and flocks of Grimm, drawn from across the continent and various Spawning Pits under the Grimm General's sway which were too far from the intended battlefield to be of more direct and immediate use had been sent to both test the defences of the Hunters and keep their attention directed elsewhere. At the same time the war host had grown at a steady rate, with an initial vanguard force of monsters having found its' way to the same road on which the Hunters they planned to use as bait were currently hiding; a collection of Ursa and Sabyrs which currently lay in wait far enough away that would be seen or heard before it was time to strike and with every primal urge to spill blood and charge towards the prey they knew was close being firmly kept in check.
Reinforcements for this vanguard which would form the bulk of the force were being carefully moved into position beneath the ground, a chittering, writhing mass of Deathstalkers, King-Taijitu and segmented Infinipede which drew closer with every passing moment as they were drawn from abandoned mines, cave systems and long abandoned expansion projects at the very edges and borders of the territory belonging to the nearest of Atlas's subterranean cities. This gathering force was further bolstered by smatterings of Grimm in the air and on the land at the very fringes of what could reasonably be considered the theatre of the coming war, intended to both allow Pantheon themselves to keep watch for any unexpected developments and ensure that once Gestalt-Prime revealed themselves the upstart who made themselves a lapdog did not escape until Pantheon's plan was complete.
All whilst elsewhere one of the Spawning Pits under the Grimm General's control prepared to produce something truly horrible, a centrepiece for this particular work of art.
The plan was, outwardly at least a simple one, the humans Gestalt-Prime had bowed to had sent Hunters out into the tundra for unknown reasons and Pantheon would turn the enemies' plans and curiosity against them by attacking those Hunters with such overwhelming force that Gestalt-Prime was forced to intercede on their behalf; at which point the jaws of the trap would truly close as monsters surrounded them and burst from the ground.
And yet it would not be enough.
Pantheon understood well enough that what they had gathered in the tundra stood no real chance at all of overcoming the Megalodon which would inevitably follow Gestalt-Prime, appearing from seemingly nowhere, disgorging its' swarms of aberrant machine-Grimm and then consuming everything it did not simply destroy; the Grimm General knew and understood this but paid little heed to the fact, felling Gestalt-Prime so close to their allies where they could simply be remade if they were defeated was not the true plan and the war host in the tundra was only one part of Pantheon's efforts.
The second part of the plan required the Grimm General to return to their own body.
Pantheon found their limbs heavy and stiff as they reared up to their full, monstrous height; in doing so realising that they had taken too many ventures away from their physical form and into the depths of the Hive-Mind of late, they were beginning to risk weakening themselves. Letting out a wordless, echoing snarl the towering monster pushed the thought aside and flexed their powerful limbs before striding away from their living throne with lesser Creatures of Grimm in tow and made their way into depths of their seafloor lair where expansions and developments would soon begin. Pantheon had sent monsters out into the deepest depths of the ocean to terrorise seafaring vessels and seek out new locations to base Spawning pits however as their plans had taken shape the Grimm General had found fresh purpose for those aquatic horrors; namely seeking out few seafloor Grimm Spawning Pools were not yet under their control and taking them through violent conquest before breaking down not only those new acquired Spawning Pits, but also others which had already been under Pantheon's sway and dragging the remains of the shifting, formless obsidian matter back towards the seafloor fortress of bone and crystallised tissue Pantheon resided in so that it could be merged with Spawning Pits within in order to create something magnificent.
The true masterpiece which would see Gestalt-Prime defeated and the proper cycle of creation and destruction maintained would not come from the tundra of Solitas but instead much closer to home.
Zirconia blinked before wiping away tears that she refused to allow herself to shed, wincing with mild discomfort as moisture at the corners of her eyes which had frozen took several eyelashes with it; though the Grasshopper simply continued her silent vigil and ignored the fresh annoyance along with the growing numbness in the fingers of her ungloved hand, the tightness in her chest from shivering so incessantly in the biting, hateful cold and the way her legs ached fiercely at the point where her flesh met cybernetic limbs that had been rendered freezing by the air, with some minor niggling sensations alerting Zirconia that the limbs would likely need to be serviced at the nearest opportunity to keep whatever minor damage the elements had inflicted from growing into a larger problem.
None of these things hurt her as much as her broken heart.
Biting down on her lip and then her tongue Zirconia forcibly kept herself from muttering under her breath to vent her frustrations in a way that she had certainly picked up from the former friends inside the abandoned truck-stop and only a short distance away from her, not wanting to be heard by those same former friends and not trusting herself to be able to maintain her control at all if she allowed herself to loosen her grasp on it even slightly; a thought which left her musing vaguely for a moment if it would be worse to be caught ranting to herself in the snow or found curled in herself sobbing uncontrollably.
She still loved Athena-Jade Slate, truthfully she had never stopped loving her from the moment she realised she had started. That relationship was over however and the Grasshopper Faunus realised that any ideas she might have had about perhaps one day rekindling things and possibly returning to the way things had once been had been a foolishly hopeful dream on her part; Athena and Stygian had clearly grown close in ways that a treacherous, jealous and bitter part of her had recognised the first flickering sparks of the first time she had seen that the Mouse Faunus was Athena's new partner and whilst Zirconia wanted nothing more than to see the woman she loved happy, even if would never be with her the reality of the situation was a far harder thing withstand than the sentimental and idealistic sentiment would suggest.
Zirconia understood perfectly that when Weiss Slate came to rescue them, presumably with General Winter Schnee joining her that Team MARS would be taken to safety whilst Zirconia herself would be taken into custody; possibly even to be used as leverage or bait to draw Damascus Nero out into the open in a reversal of her adopted fathers' own intentions and that as such, rather than any last-minute heartfelt confessions the rogue Huntress was to spend her last few hours of freedom watching a happiness that she could not be a part of.
It was a hell of her own making and yet the knowledge that she had thoroughly earned this misery did nothing to lessen it.
"Hey Hops….You didn't finish your soup" the sound of Athena-Jade's voice, immediately recognisable to Zirconia no matter how weak and exhausted she currently sounded left Zirconia flailing wildly for a moment in surprise and sending the snow that she had allowed to accumulate on the surfaces of hair armour and in her hair spraying outwards before she patted herself down and adjusted her appearance, inadvertently kicking over the can of soup in question.
"The soup….It went cold faster than I could finish it" she admitted in a quiet rasp, mismatched eyes staring strategically passed Athena as she continued to adjust her clothes in an effort to retain any amount of her dignity; an endeavour which her former partner clearly saw for what it was.
"You used to be so cool and mysterious" she laughed weakly, gesturing to Zirconia's overall disarray.
"I suppose I ruined that….I ruined a lot of things"
"Yeah, yeah you did" Athena breathed out, her own eyes suddenly downcast until she forced an element of almost defiant cheer into her next words "Wanna talk about it?"
With that Athena took a spot on the low wall running around the outside of the truck-stop, shuffling closer to Zirconia until they were almost touching and the Grasshopper Faunus could feel her heart hammering against her chest as her thoughts seemed to scamper away, leaving her with no idea of what to say until finally she settled on a concerned glance at the pale, blue-eyed young woman currently still wrapped in blankets.
"Should you be out here?" Athena squirmed at that, leaving Zirconia wondering if she had made a mistake and should have said something else until the Bear Faunus shrugged gently.
"Probably not" she admitted "I'm not as bad as everyone thinks I am but I probably shouldn't be out here for long….I wanted to check on you though"
"I'm fine"
"No you're not….You're brooding again and it doesn't work unless you're on a rooftop" Athena dismissed the attempt at a lie with ease, bringing a faint chuckle to Zirconia's lips
"I can get onto the roof easily enough" she countered "I didn't want to bother you"
"You didn't want-oh!" Athena gasped out, clearly fighting the urge to laugh in a way Zirconia was not entirely sure that she cared for "Okay, whatever you thought you saw….You didn't, okay. It's not like"
"I…." Zirconia trailed off, pink and orange eyes determinedly not looking at the Bear Faunus beside her as she searched for words that would not leave her sounding every bit the emotional ruin that she truly was "I have no right to ask-"
"You're not asking, I'm telling" Athena's answer made Zirconia's stomach lurch to the point she felt physically ill "Stitch and I are close yeah but not like….Okay it was like that, one time and we agreed afterwards that it wasn't right. We're friends, he's my partner and he had my back when you….When you weren't there"
"I wish I had been" Zirconia whispered, voice strained to the point of becoming a high-pitched and pained whine as she tried to keep tears at bay "I wish I'd never left you"
"Yeah" Athena nodded, swallowing thickly as her own unbidden tears suddenly began to well up "Me too Hops….Things could have been so simple….We should be thinking about assignments and training missions and what we're gonna do for the weekend or if we can get AJ and Regalia out of the dorm for long enough for us to have amazing sex without getting caught again; none of this….Did you really want this, did you really see it ending well?"
"I saw what Nero wanted me to see" Zirconia wiped her eyes again, voice reduced to a monotone rasp "And I know it's no excuse AJ, I'm not trying to say that I was led blindly and that I didn't know what I was doing….But it wasn't supposed to be like this and I never planned to hurt you, I wanted to tell you but I was scared"
"You are somehow the most optimistic, the bravest and the absolutely suckiest person I've ever met under all that mystery" Athena gave a choked, watery laugh "You suck, you suck so bad"
"Was seeing what's under all the mystery worth it?" Zirconia sniffled.
"Yeah, yeah I think it was" Athena nodded slowly "So where does that leave us"
"Nowhere" Zirconia answered, breathing the word out with a finality which made her former partner look at her with an utterly lost expression "You're gonna get rescued. I'm gonna get taken into custody by Atlas, maybe sent to New Vale or Menagerie for trial….Either way, forget me and be happy"
"I can't" Athena's lip quivered and Zirconia tried to avert her gaze to keep her composure more easily but found herself unable to do so, the snowy-haired Bear Faunus shook her head and continued "I can't do that and even if I could I don't want to….Is is really what you want?"
"What I want is out of the question" Zirconia rasped "I made sure of that"
"Oh" Athena breathed out in sudden understanding "Things can never be the same Hops, never….But I….part of me still loves you and will always care about you"
"And if that's the last nice thing everyone says about me then it will make my life sentence easier" Zirconia tried desperately to feign the aloof distance she had once used so easily only for a choked and strangled sob to escape her "I never stopped loving you AJ"
Athena gave no visible answer, instead reaching out from beneath the blankets enveloping her to gently cup Zirconia's left check; gently tracing the scars on her former partners' face with the same fingers that had inflicted them until Zirconia reached out to gently brush away tears from Athena's face in a motion that left the two of them staring directly into one another's eyes with a silent question passing between them.
"We shouldn't" Zirconia croaked, ready to deny herself something she wanted so badly.
"We shouldn't" Athena agreed, before leaning forwards only to pivot slightly at the last moment and kiss the edges of Zirconia's scars; kissing the Grasshopper Faunus's cheek rather than her lips in a moment that was so painfully to the first time Athena had kissed her at the end of their first year as students and then, whilst Zirconia was still reeling from the brief contact the Bear Faunus moved her blankets so that they could wrapped around them both and pulled Zirconia closer, resting her head on the taller woman's shoulder armour.
The two of them realised just how much time had passed when the sun, as pale, weak and dull as it seemed in the grey-skied tundra began to slip slowly from the sky revealing that it was mid-afternoon and bring an entirely punishing degree of cold along with the steadily encroaching darkness.
Leaving Athena and Zirconia watching the sunset together until they were finally forced to head inside.
The Slate and Schnee family had received word and began the process of regrouping and preparing as quickly as possible; with Weiss sending word the moment she had ended her call with Astra Mars and explaining the situation.
And yet every moment that passed where the once member of Team RWBY was not headed directly towards where Athena-Jade and her friends were holed up had begun to feel like a personal insult to her.
The call had come a little after midday and several hours had passed since then, with the sun already beginning to set on Alas.
It had been an almost laughably ordinary complication in the face of such terrible circumstances but the first major delay had come from a lack of childcare. Weiss had naturally told her son and her daughter in law of Astra's message immediately and this had, equally understandably led to both Arctus and Diamond insisting that they would be joining Weiss and any other members of the family venturing out in the tundra; the married couple already in the midst of preparing their weapons and equipment when Weiss had pointed out the obvious issue that if all three of them were to depart then there would be nobody to look after Selenite, the baby burbling happily in her grandmothers' arms oblivious to the ongoing emergency around her underscoring the point beautifully.
From there Weiss had reached out to her husband and her siblings. It had been Whitley who had returned to Schnee Manor first simply by virtue of the SDC headquarters being much nearer than Atlas Academy and the tallest and youngest had brought Coral Scylla with him, Weiss's youngest and adopted daughter whose crab pincers clacked with an incessant nervousness as the situation was explained to her. The Schnee family had never taken on another butler or house keeper since Klein, who had been beloved by all of them had passed away several years ago and as such the task of taking care of the families' newest addition fell to Whitley whilst Coral offered her services as well, something both Arctus and Diamond appreciated the spirit of even if there were limits to what the hulking Crab Faunus could do with pincers in place of hands.
That Coral had learned to drive was impressive but feeding a baby would be another matter entirely.
Rather than arrive directly at the manor Gangrel had sent a transport bearing the emblem of the Atlas Military to his home to collect his wife, son and daughter and law and rush them over snow-capped mountains of impossible size to rendezvous with an airship which was already in the air when they joined it, an equally massive warship whose hull positively bristled with weapons which the Slate family, along with almost every other Atlesian citizen recognised as General Winter Schnee's personal flagship; currently departed from where it had been docked close to the Capital.
And yet when Weiss met with her husband aboard the vessel, finding him in one of its' many briefing rooms she was met with the twin realisations that the warship was stationary and making no effort to move towards the Tundra where her daughter was stranded and secondly, more importantly to Weiss and her family that Winter was not present.
She arrived a short while later, being confronted by glares and demanding looks the moment she entered.
"Sister" Weiss bit the word out pointedly, the tone enough to make her point painfully clear though the still took care to tug at her sleeve just enough to reveal the point on her wrist where a watch should have been; the subtle cattiness in her unspoken demand for an explanation bearing all the hallmarks of the veiled insults practised by Atlesian high society.
"Aunt Winter" Arctus, tired but determined gave his Aunt a respectful nod from his position a few seats away at the briefing rooms' table, clearly irked by the ongoing delay and lack of direct, immediate action towards bringing his sister home safely but seemingly more focused on that goal than his annoyance whilst beside him Diamond folded her arms across her chest and blew a strand of silvery hair from in front of her cherry red eyes before giving a similar nod. Gangrel Slate however, Winter's former head Specialist approached the matter with all of the bluntness she expected from the Bear Faunus whose formative years had been spent between the underbelly of an Atlesian Hive-City and a crime-ridden working class district of Vale in the company of White Fang revolutionaries and gangsters; the grizzled veteran Hunter snarling his words out with a menacing calm.
"Where the fuck were you Winter?"
"I am certain that I still outrank you, Professor Slate" Winter replied equally calm, unable to keep a faint smirk from tugging the corners' of her mouth as she delivered the measured insult; Weiss's antagonism having reminded her just how long it had been since she had partaken in the Upper Atlesian pass time of trading barbs "I apologise for the delay, this ship is impractically large; I would have been better of keeping my original ship, you remember the one-"
"Do we really have time for this shit?" Diamond demanded forcefully, her black-painted cybernetic hand slamming against the table with a deafening impact which both cracked its' surface and seemed to shake sense into those present.
"My apologies, you're right. We don't have the time" Winter answered, looking genuinely apologetic.
"Then why?" Weiss asked, gesturing vaguely and with none of her previous subtle decorum and poise; something Winter might have joked was the product of the far lesser education she had enjoyed in Vale and the various dolts that had rubbed off on her had the situation been less of an emergency.
"The truck-stop that Team MARS have taken shelter in technically falls under Mantle Freehold territory and airspace, even if they lack the means or motivation to properly defend or monitor it. I'm not General Ironwood, I can't simply fly my airships into someone else's territory and demand that they allow it. The presence of Zirconia Shadowmoon also complicates matters….As much as I would personally like to brute force the issue and simply tell the Freeholds that they have no choice in this instance, the rest of the Council chose to reach out and negotiate"
"Politics" Gangrel snarled the word, sharpened claws extending from the fingertips of his mechanical hand whilst Winter's own cybernetic left leg tapped faintly in shared agitation.
"I don't get it, what's the issue?" Arctus asked nonplussed.
"Zirconia Shadowmoon has warrants for her arrest in every Kingdom however the Mantle Freeholds are always reluctant to extradite people to Atlas. Further to that we have reason to believe that the airship Nero is travelling in has been….Modified"
"Modified how….Oh, oh shit" the younger of the two Bear Faunus's mouth hung slack as his mind connected the idea of a modified airship to the image of rampaging Cyber-Grimm.
"The Mantle Freeholds have no proof that Damascus Nero and his allies are actually in their territory and only have our word that Zirconia Shadowmoon is with Team MARS. Their position is that Atlesian warships entering their airspace will be seen as an act of aggression"
"Can they do anything about it?" Weiss demanded hotly, retracting slightly as she saw the surprised looks her question earned her "I'm sorry, the larger political picture matters of course….But this is my daughter we're talking about; Arctus I'd do the same for you-"
"They can't" Winter admitted "The Freeholds have nothing that can stand up to the Atlas military….However forcing the issue would likely make a compelling point in Damascus Nero's favour and the idea of an independent nation siding with him and outfitting its' military with Cyber-Grimm is one that should terrify you"
"Then what's the plan?" Gangrel growled "Have the Council agreed something with the Freeholds or am I going in on a covert op?"
"The former" Winter answered easily "The agreement is as follows; Atlas is permitted to send a small rescue mission into the specified area of Freehold territory to search for lost student Hunters including an Atlesian citizen. If proof of Nero or Shadowmoon's presence can be provided then the Freeholds will cooperate with the Kingdoms collectively to bring them to justice, both of them however are citizens of Neo Vale so will be deported back to their native Kingdom to face charges there….If we find Zirconia Shadowmoon we are expected to do the same"
"That seems like a bad idea" Gangrel noted.
"It does" Winter nodded in agreement "Which is why I have a work around….Weiss, you're certain that this was a genuine defection from Nero's ranks?"
"It….seemed to be" Weiss answered carefully "Her old team-mates believe it and I don't think anyone else has less reason to trust her"
"Then Zirconia Shadowmoon will be offered refuge and asylum by the Kingdom of Atlas….Which she will be compelled at gunpoint to take"
"That's-"
"The best we're gonna get" Diamond' appalled objection was cut off by Gangrel Slate who rose from his seat.
"Astra Mars spoke to Weiss hours ago. Those kids are convinced Nero is gonna have a search party sent after them and it's gonna be dark soon. We need to move Winter, that flight's not a short trip and we don't have much time"
"Our transports are fuelled and being prepared for take-off as we speak" Winter answered before turning to lead the way with her sister and her husband and their son and his wife following close behind.
"There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home" Regalia muttered to herself, teeth chattering and her entire body shivering no matter how tightly she wrapped her now snow-covered poncho around herself to protect her from the steadily worsening elements.
Snow had continued to fall, limiting visibility though not so much that the faint outline of the broken moon could not be seen in the darkening sky; the weak sun setting far earlier that it ever did on Menagerie and leaving the Racoon Faunus, usually eager to experience new things at every opportunity desperately homesick as she huddled into a slightly more sheltered nook she had found on the roof of the truck-stop. As the encroaching darkness had made the tundra an even more inhospitable and dire, frozen wasteland which threatened to sap the Aura and life from anyone exposed to it the Hunters taking refuge had come to the agreement that they would take watch in shifts of no more than an hour, allowing each of them time to recover inside and that Athena-Jade would be exempted from having to take watch no matter how much the wounded Bear Faunus had protested. Regalia had relieved Astra only a short while ago, with her watch starting on a pleasant note as the two of them had taken a moment to share and exchange body heat by simply holding one another close with a few brief, chaste kisses being shared before the Racoon Faunus put the climbing skill every child of Clan Aiktishaf learned to good use by finding her way to the roof and seeking out a suitable vantage point whilst Astra had returned inside; catching sight of the worried expression the Deer Faunus wore as they left.
Things were not going as well as they had hoped and they were all beginning to get nervous.
Despite the promises and assurances they had received there was no sign of any rescue mission from either the Atlas military or the personal efforts of Athena's family; privately Regalia found herself entertaining some indistinct and largely unserious hopes that the eventual arrival of their rescuers would be suitably dramatic, something which would feel as though it belonged in any number of action movies to serve as the fitting conclusion to everything that her team had endured thus far though as she scraped frost from her goggles and adjusted their many lenses to flick through various settings, scouring the air in search of any trace of approaching aircraft only to find the darkening sky empty save for falling snow and silent save for the howling and whistling wind Regalia glumly concluded that she would take any help that she could get and simply hope that it took her somewhere warmer than this frigid nightmare of a place which she silently promised to herself that she would never willingly return to.
The lack of any visible developments or word from their supposed rescuers had prompted the student Hunters try reaching out to Weiss Schnee once again only to find themselves unable to do so, a fact which had left Athena-Jade visibly upset; a condition which worsened despite her best efforts to hide the fact as she instead tried to reach out to her father, older brother and sister in law, under the impression that at least one of them would be joining the rescue mission and would thus be able to give an update on their status and location only to find them similarly unresponsive. After calls and text messages had gone unanswered it had seemed prudent to examine the repairs that had been done to get the CCT uplink operational and whilst Regalia had been unable to find any specific faults that would cause the problems it had once again become apparent just how slapdash the work had been and how temporary they were likely to be; indeed the heating system which Regalia had managed to reactivate was already losing power intermittently and would likely fail entirely at some point during the night, a fact which ensured that the teams' occupation of the abandoned truck-stop would likely come to an end in the near future one way or another.
That future was brought much closer however as Regalia caught a faint glimpse of movement in the sky.
It was a faint flicker of light, a fiery contrail which the Racoon Faunus realised with sinking dread was swooping towards the ground as though seeking to avoid detection and was coming from entirely the wrong direction.
"Aww nuts" she whispered as she adjusted her goggles further, squinting and staining her keen eyes even despite the enhancements until finally her fears were confirmed as she made out the shapes of several Cyber-Grimm, each of them carrying another writhing shape with too-many limbs which she realised were more the hideous variant of machine-Grimm that had sought to ambush her team outside of Jidhir Town.
Leading them were Gestalt-Prime and Carmesi Hueso.
"Game over man, game over" she gulped, teeth continuing to chatter as she stared at the approaching force in silence for several moments before forcing herself to push through the fear and utter hopelessness that had taken over her. This was the search party Zirconia had warned of and it seemed that they were electing to be stealthy, fanning out to form a wide search area and staying low to the ground when they could simply have flown towards the truck-stop as though they did not already know where their quarry was; a choice that would cost them time.
Which, given how far away they currently were meant that there was still a chance.
With that single thought in mind Regalia leapt from the roof and ran inside.
"We've gotta go!" she exclaimed, words forceful but hushed as she raised her hands to urge her gathered team-mates to do the same "I just saw Gestalt-Prime and Carmesi Hueso land. They've got Cyber-Grimm with them, more than we can fight and they're heading this way!"
"Oh shit" Astra breathed out, sea-green eyes suddenly wide "How far out?"
"They'll be here inside of the hour. Sooner if they pick up a scent or hear us" Regalia answered, a response which left Astra cursing under their breath.
"Okay they're not flying straight here, so they're not onto us yet" Astra noted, sharing Regalia's reasoning "Did you see what kind of Cyber-Grimm they had with them? Any of the big tank things that can just level the place?"
"Bug-Bears" Zirconia interjected "Those are the Bug-Bear variant"
"None of those" Regalia answered with a sigh of relief "But a few of the long ones, with the tongue-"
"Man-Eaters?" colour drained from Zirconia's face "Man-Eaters are coming for us-"
"We beat one before" Stygian assured her
"The one at Pikesreach was a test" she retorted with steadily mounted horror "If Nero is sending multiple, especially with Carmesi commanding them it's because they're ready for production now….They're made specifically to target, capture or assassinate Hunters or enemy leadership"
The statement hung in the air and silenced all opposition, with Stygian's lightning blue eyes haunted as he realised that he now knew exactly what had happened to the Hunters in his former home and that he had inadvertently taken a major of revenge when Team MARS had fought the first Man-Eater. Such thoughts were pushed aside however when Astra spoke again.
"Regalia's right. We've gotta go"
"But AJ-"
"I'll be fine….Besides, if I can't fight then we've gotta run" Athena cut across her partners' obvious concern and stated the reality so bluntly that there could be further argument.
"There's been no word from Atlas or Athena's family" Zirconia noted fearfully.
"No sign of 'em either" Regalia admitted, leaving Astra pacing for a moment as they tried to solve the conundrum before them until finally they halted.
"Okay, if these Cyber-Grimm are specialised for hunting Hunters then we have to work on the assumption that they'll find us whatever we do. Which means we don't need to bother with hiding, we just follow the road towards the nearest city and hope that our evac spots us" they paused "But Carmesi and Gestalt-Prime are gonna find this truck-stop soon and we need a way to slow them down and make sure AJ's mum comes to us instead of here"
"You've got a plan?" Regalia asked hopefully.
"Kinda, it's gonna eat into time we could be spending running but if it works we've got better odds" the Deer Faunus gave their partner a look which she immediately recognised and felt reassured by "You trust me?"
"To infinity and beyond" Regalia answered easily.
As darkness washed over the Tundra the spear-tip of what would be Pantheon's war-host gathered in the bleak and frozen expanse.
Snarls and war cries filled the air, only to be drowned out by howling winds that masked the presence of the growing horde just as the buffeting snow hid the ominous glow of scores upon scores of malevolent, blood red eyes from view almost entirely. Packs of Sabyrs stalked and slunk forwards at a careful and deliberate pace that was anathema to their very beings as the presence of a far greater mind than their own imposed itself upon their psyches and reigned their instinctive bloodlust in, replacing it with something far more calculating. The slinking Sabyrs wove and twisted their way forwards like a stealthy, living river amidst which small islands were present in the far larger and more heavily armoured forms of Ursa lumbered forth whilst a thin cloud of winged Manticores and Chimera Grimm looming above them. As the war-host advanced slowly the beasts making their way through the snow felt the ground shifting beneath their paws in subtle, barely perceptible ways as the burrowing and scuttling Creatures of Grimm that had been drawn towards the coming violence in order to attack from below worked their way into position, tunnelling beneath the ground with a force which occasionally disturbed the snow with bursting clouds of powder or the appearance of small sinkholes in the white expanse.
These sensations were soon lost beneath a series of thumping impacts which grew louder and more insistent until their source dragged its' enormous form into the midst of the War-Host and pushed its' way forcefully to the front of the pack whilst letting out a low, haunting groan.
A Narwhal Grimm.
The thing was huge, a thirty foot long and almost cylindrical mass which stood, if stood could be said to be the correct term at roughly twenty feet in height.
It presented itself as a near solid mass of armoured, yet flexible muscle with thick bands of bone spanning its' entire length rather than a distinct ribcage with their sturdy appearance looking as though it might be more at home within a boat of some sort and vast, almost tectonic masses of armoured bone littered with swept-back spikes lining its' back and shoulders. Rivers of a thin, oily black substance leaked out from the gaps between its' armour plates to glaze the entirety of its' muscular girth as if to ensure the Grimm's body was slick enough to be thrust forward like a luge of some sort even as it moved itself forward with far less speed or agility than would befit a beast with such an ability; supporting and propelling itself upon a trio of limbs in the form of a heavy, blubbery tail formed from the fusing of lower limbs to produce an oversized cudgel tipped with spiked and serrated clumps of bone which dragged behind the Narwhal Grimm whilst its' forelimbs were a pair of broad, flattened flippers which somehow, despite their odd proportions kept the things' upper torso aloft and which also despite their atrophied appearance were tipped with five jagged claws capable of sinking into sheet ice, reinforced armour of the bodies of all who opposed it. The head of the Narwhal Grimm was a simple thing, a sleek and almost featureless dome of pitted bone carapace with a shape not unlike that of a large calibre bullet within which a pair of beady, glowing eyes were set though the things' most prominent feature was its' mouth; or perhaps more fairly the place where its' mouth might have been as instead of a functioning jaw the monster possessed a rictus grin of fused and interlocking teeth from which a single distinctive weapon emerged in the form of a fifteen foot long harpoon-like protrusion of solid, reinforced bone which, when thrust forward with all of the Narwhal Grimm's considerable muscle promised to skewer or gut even the hardiest of opponents.
The horde gathering within the tundra were to be the tip of the spear in Pantheon's battle plans and so, from the sanctuary of their throne room the Grimm General allowed themselves a twisted and inhuman smile as the Narwhal Grimm took its' rightful place at the head of the pack; earning the name that Pantheon had given it upon first seeing the monstrous thing emerge from its' Spawning Pit.
They had simply called it their Spear.
Author's Notes:
Okay so another shorter chapter and one that's more about character interaction and setting things up for a showdown.
However….You can't argue that they weren't some good character interactions.
And also, the Vol.08 finale start in earnest next chapter; because the pieces are all in place now; meaning that we've got a two chapter showdown and then a chapter to set things up for Vol.09, the penultimate volume of the whole story.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
Seriously, that's two days in a row AJ has had to wake up after passing out in a fight due to strain/injury.
Subtle nod to the movie Pan, starring the late Robin Williams.
AJ had to get told about the plan because she was out cold at the time.
There was very nearly a kiss there, there wasn't but it was still definitely a moment.
Oof; that's one way for Zirconia to ruin an already bad day.
So the Megalodon's built in factory is up and running again.
It's interesting to see Carmesi interacting with different members of Nero's faction and the varying levels of respect he has for them based on how/why they joined and who they were before joining.
Oh boy, multiple Man-Eater variants.
Gestalt-Prime isn't gonna get the opportunity to try any kind of back-stabbing; Nero has them on a shorter leash after Pikesreach.
Look Zirconia tried to blow him up; he's pissed.
Yay for more Pantheon scenes, I'll be honest at this point they're my least favourite to write.
Activity in the air in Atlas, at least some of it is clearly people scurrying around trying to figure out what to do about a member of the Schnee family being stuck in the tundra and more of it is people moving into position now that the Atlas military knows that the Megalodon is on the continent and has managed to approach them from behind relative to where they were expecting the attack to come from.
Infinipede are my centipede Grimm that I first added to Downward Spital in 2016/2017 and when RT debuted the Centinel Grimm in Vol.07 I had several messages to the effect of "They took your design"….I'm not gonna say for certain either way, but I will see that someone who was an intern at Rooster Teeth at the time used to read and leave reviews on my writing. (Hey Ash)
Okay so basically Pantheon's plan is as follows 1) Attack Hunters with Grimm. 2) Use this attack to draw out the Megalodon/Gestalt Prime. 3) Reveal more Grimm laying in wait and use pincer movement/attack from below. 4) Knowing that the Megalodon is too powerful of a threat and that Gestalt-Prime is not the one running the show, use the attack as a way to lure Gestalt-Prime away.
What Pantheon is luring them away for exactly will be revealed….And leads into Vol.09.
But I did say that the offhand comment about sending Grimm out into the ocean would prove important later on didn't I?
Don't cry in sub-zero temperatures, just don't.
The cold is seriously getting to them all now….I say this as someone who used to be immune to cold until I lost weight and dear God; you skinny people live like this?
Seriously would you rather be found crying over your ex or ranting to yourself about your ex, by your ex….There's no good options here.
Yeah all that "I just want them to be happy" talk is great in theory, actually seeing them happy is different….That's why I don't say that stuff, I am openly a bitter and spiteful bastard.
The soup going cold faster than you can drink it, reminded me of a joke by a Welsh comedian "The rain here is terrible, you can't have outdoor seating at restaurants because the soup bowls would refill themselves".
AJ was on point today, taking all the shots at Zirconia being a huge dork under all that brooding mystery.
So she basically just told Hops that her and Stitch fucked one time; that's gonna sting.
Honestly this talk was hard for me to write….But it was one that needed to happen, an actual talk where they're both listening and not in the middle of a fight.
How's that call back to the Vol.03 kiss feel?
So yeah, AJ's got two partners and had a 'moment' with both of 'em.
Yeah there was never a replacement for Klein, he was family….which means Weiss Arctus and Diamond were delayed by waiting for someone to watch the baby, because even Hunters aren't crazy enough to take a few months old baby on a rescue mission.
Gotta love Uncle Whit.
Oh joy, upper class Atlesian bitchiness; 'cos if Weiss or Winter address each other as 'Sister' it's either a formal event or someone is in trouble.
Gangrel was a hood kid, he was never gonna beat around the bush and play silly word games; you turn up late when his kid's safety is on the line fuck all ranks and titles you better explain.
Had to work in a nod to the now famous "I outrank you" line.
Diamond also has no patience for this nonsense, which is what you'd expect from Mercury and Emerald's daughter.
The political waffling and hand-waving is there to provide a feasible reason as to why it's only a small rescue mission being sent into the tundra to find Team MARS/MARZ because the tension of the finale is gonna vanish if the entire Atlesian fleet pulls up mid-fight….Also had to make a sly shot at Ironwood about that.
But yeah Winter make a valid point, if she takes her force into sovereign territory and just flexes military muscle over the people who live there….Those people are gonna go straight to Nero and sign up.
And yeah, she wants Zirconia in custody for questioning and is more than happy to bend laws to get what she wants.
The Wizard of Oz quote though.
Being on Winter's ship means that calls aren't going through which means no updates and that, along with those slapdash repairs starting to give out is definitely enough to make people nervous.
Oh yeah, Carmesi, Gestalt-Prime, Man-Eaters and standard Cyber-Grimm….That is a bad match up.
Definitely warrants the Aliens quote.
Zirconia is right to be scared of the Man-Eater, Team MARS and Coco took the first one out but Zirconia saw it capture and execute people.
I think we all know that the plan is gonna be traps and sabotage.
Not much to say about the last scene really, mainly just that Team MARS are now actually completely surrounded and fucked.
Basically the rescue mission is still a ways out and they're running from Nero's search party which, inadvertently sends them directly into the path of Pantheon's war-host; all whilst they're losing Aura just being outside.
But also….A fucking Narwhal Grimm! I wanted something that fits the climate of Atlas that hasn't been done yet and it was a toss up between Narwhal and Leopard Seal until I thought 'Tip of the spear'.
Thank you to Neil12 and MajorBrony95 for their reviews on the last chapter.
Also congrats to Neil12 for leaving the 150th review on FF Net...You win a dramatic air-guitar solo.
I don't really engage with most of the "Critcs" on Youtube. They're pandering to the people who most vocally dislike the show because those are the people who subscribe to their and they have to make a living; I'm not really interested in listening to people who aren't watching the show in good faith, I know what my opinion is and there's don't matter to me.
It's Team MARZS, I just thought bringing it up would be a funny joke.
Well you guessed where Carmesi's mind was gonna go.
No spoilers but...You'll get at least one of those reunions.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.
