A/N: The hunt is on to find our missing Grimm Human hybrid friend. While Mashika, Marina, and Qrow search for him, Selena goes to the Shadow Tread to seek reinforcements, but Sakuya refuses, and Selena reminds her about the value of honor.
Can Salem be stopped from using Patrick to claim Amber's remaining powers?
Chapter 51: The Power Within Part III - Thorns
Days have passed. Mashika and Marina stay in a nearby town in the Black Forest. Mashika reports that they have found Patrick and Qrow and Winter arrives. When they did, they explained what they have learned.
Patrick appears to be in a struggling state, losing control of himself. Mashika sees it as a possibility that Patrick is trying to fight against Salem's control, although she left that part out given Winter's presence. And now the adults await for the students to return with their reinforcements.
On the third day, the four of them wait at the entrance of the Black Forest. Winter starts to grow impatient. "We're wasting time here. Where are your students?"
"Sherry said that they are on their way. Should be any moment now." Mashika says.
"They should be here right now! Every second we waste, that mercenary beast is still on the loose." Winter says.
"For once, I agree with the Ice Queen, but we can't rush in outmatched." Qrow says.
"Everyone, please calm down." Marina says. "If we lash out at each other, we'll only be bringing out the negative that'll attract the Grimm to us."
Nobody says anything, knowing how right Marina is in this case. All they can do is sit and wait for Selena and her friends to arrive. About fifteen minutes later, an airship arrives. It lands on the path to the town. The door slides open, revealing Selena and her friends.
"You made it." Marina says.
"It's about time." Winter says. "Where are the reinforcements?"
"They should be right behind us." Selena says. And just like that, the second airship arrives and lands right behind the first one. "And here they are now."
The door slides open, and it reveals over half a dozen on ninjas, all of them wearing their ninja masks. Winter feels disapproved seeing them. "You recruited ninjas?"
Qrow puts on a serious expression. "Not just any ninjas. They're Shadow Tread!" Qrow draws out his weapon, shifting it into its scythe form.
This alerts the ninjas. "He's a Branwen!" The Shadow Tread draws out their weapons as well. The sudden hostility only confuses everyone else. Winter just gives a displeasing groan and says 'Barbarians.'
Marlene gets in between Qrow and the Shadow Tread. "Whoa, whoa. Easy guys. Mister Qrow, please, this Ninja Clan is here to help us."
"They cannot be trusted. They are criminals." Qrow says.
"Like the Branwen Tribe are any different." Wallace says.
Team CPER and Marina are all puzzled. "Tribe?"
Selena steps in. "Listen, we realize there's some bad blood between you guys, but there's a much larger threat on the loose, and we're all here to stop him. If we turn on each other now, we all lose."
There's notice but the burning violence is silence in the air, until Qrow grunts in disappointment as he puts his weapon away. "I still don't trust them, but, for now, I'll corporate."
The Shadow Tread puts away their weapons. "Likewise." Sakuya says. Everyone moves onward to gather with Mashika. Sakuya and Selena are the only ones behind. "Remember, we are only doing this to fulfill our debt to him. After this, we go our separate ways, and you will speak nothing of our hideout."
"You have my word." Selena says.
Everyone starts heading into the forest. Mashika takes the lead. "Stay sharp, everyone. Patrick is somewhere within these woods."
"How are we gonna find him? This forest is huge." Clawdia says.
"Leave that to us." Sakuya says. "Brother Wallace, do your thing."
Wallace nods. He stands still and firm, closing his eyes to concentrate. Nothing happens for a while. Mashika can help but feel confused. "What is he-"
Sakuya hushes Mashika. "Quiet. He's concentrating." She whispers to Mashika.
Qrow crosses his arms and groans. "This is a waste of time."
After a while, Wallace finally moves and speaks. "There are too many Grimm noises in the forest, I can't exactly single him out."
Everyone's amazed at what he is saying. They don't hear anything at all. "He must sound different than the rest of the Grimm. Can you try focusing on that?"
"I did pick up a faint noise, it's probably him. However, the volume and mass of the Grimm are too much. I can't even locate where it's coming from." Wallace says.
"Very well. Lead the way, and try to keep hearing for him." Sakuya says.
Wallace leads everyone through the forest. The whole time they travel, the students cannot grasp how Wallace is able to hear all that. Marlene walks beside Sakuya. "What is with your friend there? How is he able to hear all that stuff?"
"Keep your voice low." Sakuya warns Marlene. "Wallace is blind, so his sense of hearing and smelling are sharpened. And his Semblance also allows him to enhance his other senses tenfold greatly. Smell a rat a continent away. Hear a pin drop several miles away. He can even feel the recent age of tracks or markings on objects."
"Man. I sure wish I had that level of enhanced senses." Peter says.
"Maybe try getting yourself a brain first, Pretty Boy." Sakuya says to Peter.
Earnest gets Clawdia's attention and speaks to her. 'SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING PATRICK WOULD HAVE SAID.'
Clawdia is confused. "Found like soaring Pet-rick could have made?" Earnest facepalms at that comment. He knows Clawdia's still learning Sign Language but it still annoys him.
The whole group follows Wallace through the forest, who does his best trying to keep track of Patrick. On the way, they run across several Grimm that are roaming around the woods. Whenever they do, they take them out. With each Grimm they encounter and defeat, Wallace becomes to get a clear homing in on Patrick's sound.
The Shadow Tread found unusual tracks: Bootprints with clawprints, Mashika, and her students pointed out that they were Patrick's, and Wallace kneels down to feel the tracks. He slowly moves his hands across the dirt of the prints. He picks up some close to his face to smell. "They're not recent, probably an hour or two ago." They follow the tracks. When they do, they encounter less Grimm. As time goes on, they find more signs of Grimm activity. Claw marks on the trees. Wallace leans his face to one of them and sniffs profoundly and slowly. "It has the same scent as the tracks." Wallace then feels it, slowly and carefully. "It's mostly fresh. We must be getting close."
As time passes, they come closer to Patrick's location, wherever it is. Soon, they arrived in a wide zone. There's nothing but dead trees for walls all around. Everyone stands in place and looks around, except for Wallace, who walks around listening and smelling for anything like a dog.
"End of the road?" Selena asks.
"Hold on, Princess." Sakuya says. "Give Brother Wallace a moment."
Everyone just watches Wallace as he sniffs around. "He's close. But...I can't tell where he is located." Wallace then relays on his hearing. "It's almost as if-"
Marina looks up and looks horrified. "ABOVE YOU!"
Patrick dives down at incredible speed and pins Wallace down just before he gets a chance to react. Patrick growls at him as he grins his sharp teeth. Wallace can't see him, but he feels a sense of dread. Patrick raises a claw ready to strike, but is interrupted when he faces forward upon hearing Peter's shout, who is charging towards Patrick and swings his axe at him. Peter's attack knocks Patrick off of Wallace, and he crashes against a tree, breaking it apart.
Peter and Wallace return the group, as everyone else draws out their weapons and positions themselves.
In the smoke, Patrick rises out from his crash. He steps out to reveal himself to everyone. His clothes are more rugged, the sleeves of his coat ripped off, his skins reveal even more dark-red veins, and the face around his right eye looks cracked.
Everyone's horrified at the sight of Patrick, even the Shadow Tread. "Whoa." Sakuya turns her head to Selena. "You weren't kidding about him."
Patrick's eyes glow brightly as he channels his magic and unleashes a massive blast of dark energy. Everyone manages to dodge out of the way on time. The blast scorches the ground once it ends.
"Is it me, or has he gotten much stronger than before?" Marlene asks.
"It's not you." Mashika says. "He's grown even more out of control." Mashika notices the cracks on his face. "And he's suffering much more. We need to act fast if we're going to save him."
Marlene starts shooting her pistols, and Mashika shifts her lance into a gun and fires. The bullets do no effect to Patrick, they only hit some invisible force shielding him. When the bullets stop coming, Patrick unleashes dark energy beams. Everyone scatters, some of them throwing ranged attacks at Patrick. Patrick focuses his magic on the ones running.
One of the Shadow Tread ninjas ambushes Patrick from behind, only his Bo Staff breaks apart the second it impacts Patrick's head. Patrick turns his head back, growling at the ninja that attacked him. Patrick summons Shadow Chains and shackles that ninja. Patrick commands the chains to toss the ninja into a group of them that are charging toward Patrick. Rayla binds Patrick with her wires. As the Grimm-possessed boy struggles, he then descends into the Shadows.
Everyone keeps their attention on Patrick's Shadow as it rushes all around. Patrick's shadow comes close to somebody's shadow, and they each manage to dodge just before he swipes at them. Patrick's Shadow then rushes toward Peter. "Peter! Watch out!" Peter turns after hearing Clawdia's call, but it's too late. Patrick's Shadow dives into Peter's Shadow. As both shadows merge, Peter reacts painfully. As he struggles, Peter's skin begins to turn deathly white, hair grows longer and turns white, all just like Patrick.
When Peter's Shadow completely transforms into Patrick's Shadow, Peter then glares down at everyone, revealing the black veins and burning red eyes. Everyone's horrified at the sight of this. "Did...Did he just?" Winter asks.
Peter instantly summons combust power and slams it to the ground, unleashing a shockwave of destructive power. The blast knocks everyone back, and they take a while to recover. "He can possess people? As if he's terrifying enough!" Marlene says.
Peter rushes towards a group of Shadow Tread Ninjas. They all move quickly and avoided the attack. In their escape, they throw shurikens at him. The shurikens do no effect on Peter, other than provoke him in rage. Peter shoots blasts of dark magic at everyone. They all either take hits, block, or manage to dodge them.
Clawdia summons her clones as she charges toward Peter. Peter unleashes blasts of dark magic at her, only to hit her clones. Clawdia readies her weapon as she draws closer to her cousin. "I hate to have to do this to mew, but-" Peter takes his axe and swings. Clawdia dodges it, and then strikes Peter with multiple swift scratches from her claw blades. Clawdia's blows cause Peter to stagger, but he quickly recovers and grabs her by the throat, and lifts Clawdia off her feet. Clawdia struggles to break free.
Peter draws back his axe ready to strike, but Rayla binds his arm in her wires. Earnest then charges in with an invisible club. He smashes on the shadow. Upon impact, Patrick's Shadow retreats from Peter, who returns to normal the moment the shadow leaves him. Peter begins to feel dizzy. He loses his grip on Clawdia and falls onto his knees.
Once Clawdia recovers, she checks on Peter. "Peter. Are mew okay?"
Peter moans before he speaks. "Maybe from now on, I'll think twice before making Patrick mad." He says, dazed.
Clawdia chuckles. "Mew thinking? If I didn't know any better, I'd say mew are still possessed."
"Very funny, Claws." Peter says.
"I have to break a reunion, but..." Sakuya points at the shadow submerging from the ground. Patrick channels his magic, sending a wave of shadow on the ground. Whoever the shadow passes becomes shackled by the chains. Sakuya uses her Semblance to dodge the incoming wave. Sakyua reappears on higher ground. She looks down to see everyone shackled. As she thinks, she looks at her sai, and an idea hits her. "Of course..." Sakyua looks down at Patrick. "Hey, Shadow Boy!" Patrick turns his head and looks up. Sakyua throws her weapon toward Patrick, vanishes, and reappears right on his back. She grabs hold of him and smiles deviously. "Let's go for a little ride."
Sakyua throws her weapon, traveling through her Semblance, and taking Patrick along with her. Sakyua travels all around the area with her semblance, from one point to another. Everyone keeps their eyes on Sakuya's flying sai, confused at what she is doing. During the travel, the Shadow Chains ceased and everyone is free from the bind.
For the final warp, Sakuya throws her weapon toward the ground, and she and Patrick reappear with her pinning him down, resorting to the ground being sink in. Sakuya backs up, weapons ready to strike. Patrick gets back on his feet, growling in anger. He glares at Sakuya beginning to channel magic, but his powers stopped as Patrick suddenly weakens. Patrick groans sickly as his legs shake, and then falls on one knee. He warps his arms on his stomach and his face starts to look dizzy and ill.
"You may be all big and scary, Shadow Boy, but you still have your weaknesses." Sakuya says proudly. "Shadow Tread! Now!"
Hikari and five other ninjas snare Patrick with bolas, then shackle him in place with chains. Winter joins in and uses her Glyph to help keep him contained. Patrick struggles to break free but with no effort. He then starts charging up his breath. Mashika catches on to what's going on. She acts quickly, gets behind Patrick, and pins her lance against Patrick's mouth, acting as a muzzle.
"Marina, hurry!" Mashika shouts.
Marina approaches Patrick. Everyone pours all their strength and might to keep Patrick contained. Marina stands in front of Patrick. "It's going to be okay." She calmly tells him. Marina then puts a hand on his shoulder, closes her eyes, and concentrates.
Marina's Link Mark flickers on her wrist as she tries to activate it. Patrick's struggles become more intense, even Mashika is having a hard time trying to hold him. "Patrick, it's us! We're trying to help you."
After putting in all her effort, Marina finally links with Patrick. But the second Patrick feels her connection, he grows even more berserk. Marina struggles to keep the link up. Patrick's eyes glow brighter. Unstable energy surges through him the area quakes. When he unleashes it, he blows away Marina, Mashika, and half of the Shadow Tread binding him. Patrick pours all his immense strength to break out of the chains.
"YOU WILL NOT STOP ME!" Patrick speaks, but his voice speaks in two. His own and another. Everyone is horrified by his speaking. Patrick starts to float, looking down at his opponents. "PAWNS OF OZPIN! YOU SERVE YOUR ARROGANT PROFESSOR IN A WAR THAT EVEN HE KNOWS HE CANNOT WIN!"
Mashika is shocked to see Patrick like this, yet she realizes the truth beneath that skin. "That's not Patrick...Is that?"
Qrow nods as he glares at Patrick. "Yep. It's her." The glare in his eyes tightens as he speaks her name. "Salem!"
"THE POWER OF THE FALL MAIDEN WILL BE MINE! AND WITH IT! I SHALL FINALLY CLAIM THE RELIC!"
Everyone other than Qrow and most of the Shadow Tread is confused about the Relic. Patrick then starts channeling powerful dark magic, a large orb of it appears in his hands, then he claps his hands on it, unleashing a devastating quake of thorns bursting out of the ground. "Retreat!" Everyone runs away with the rising thorns on their tail.
Once the thorns are finished rising, Patrick lets out a deafening screech. Everyone covers their ears from the screech. Once the screech ends, everyone is on alert. It's all quiet. Eerily quiet. There's a soft rumbling noise. Weapons are drawn and ready to strike. Just then, Centinel's starts digging out of the ground, all around. Nevermoores fly in and dive upon the humans and Faunus.
"He called for backup?" Wallace asks.
The Grimm attacks and everyone counteracts against them, either attacking or blocking their attacks. "We're never gonna stop him at this rate!" Qrow says.
While everyone's fighting off the Grimm, Marina thinks. She sees the dark energy bursting through the middle of the thorn forest. Then straight into the thorns. There are several holes but no way for anyone here to fit through. Then she thinks about what Sakuya did to weaken Patrick.
Then it hits her. "Sakuya." Sakuya defeats a Centinel before ending her pursuit and turns to Marina. "That thing you did to Patrick, can you use that to get me through that thorn forest to reach him?"
Sakuya observes the opening holes, and even measures the size with her hands, analyzing the probability. "It'll be a tight fit, but I should be able to throw my weapon through to get us in." Marina grabs hold of Sakuya by the arm. Mashika joins in and grabs hold of Marina's free arm. Sakuya draws her weapon back, aiming carefully and waiting patiently. "Hang on, you two." Sakuya throws her weapon and all three of them vanish. The Sai soars through the forest of thorns, cutting close to the thorns.
The Sai makes it through the thorns, Then it becomes deflected by an invisible force and it falls to the ground just on the edge, and everyone appears knocked down on the ground. They stand up and look. Patrick is floating in the air, channeling unstable powerful magic with a swirling wind of darkness surrounding him.
Mashika makes an approach, reaching a hand out to touch the vortex. The second she does, she winces in pain and retracts her hand. "It burns." Mashika then tries with her weapon. She puts all her strength into holding her lance, but only after a couple of seconds, her lance goes flying off her hands and pierces into the thorns. "The force is too strong. I can't break through it."
"Well, what can we do?" Sakuya asks.
Mashika and Sakuya discuss ideas. Mashika thinks they should bring Winter here, and see if her Semblance can help out. As they talk it out, Marina keeps her focus on Patrick. She may not have witnessed the pain he pierced through all that horrifying darkness taking control over him as Mashika did, but she knows he is suffering, and it's something they can't afford to wait.
Marina looks down at her hands. They are shaking as she hears the voices inside of her head:
'You're too soft and weak!' Her father.
'Please! Stop! I don't want to do this!' Her voice as a child.
'Her physical body is too weak and frail. She can't be a Huntress.' A Doctor's voice.
Marina tightens her hands into fists, she breathes in deeply, opens her eyes with a stern serious expression, and then pushes herself into the vortex. Mashika sees Marina moving in and tries to stop her. "Marina! Wait!" It's already too late.
Marina pushes forward through the vortex. Grunting and grinning her teeth as she struggles to move forward. She's not even halfway through and her Aura is already flickering. Even exhausted and weak, Marina still pushes through.
As she presses on, memories begin to flash back in her mind. How she sees her 6-year-old self being forced to train by her own father. All the memories of her being beaten and brushed, crying and begging to her father to stop. Years of those memories go by until Marina's teenage years when she finally runs away from home.
"You leave now, you are no longer my daughter!" Zovaal tells her.
But Marina doesn't say anything. Doesn't even look back. All she does is swallows her pride and move forward.
Marina is only a few steps away from reaching Patrick. By then, her Aura depletes and she falls to her knees. Her strength is drained, but she still refuses to give up. Marina forces herself onto her feet, slowly and painfully, and pushes forward. She reaches for Patrick's hand, still out of range, and Marina hardly has the strength and energy left to stretch for her, but she keeps trying.
With every ounce of willpower, she reaches for Patrick's hand and grabs it, then concentrates deeply.
Successfully, Marina links with Patrick.