A/N: Marina successfully links to Patrick. Now she seeks to find a way to reach his consciousness to break him from Salem's control. Meanwhile, Qrow, Winter, the Students, and the Shadow Tread are all struggling against the Salem-Controled Patrick and the Grimm. How will this end?
Chapter 52: The Power Within Part IV - Prisoner
Marina gasps for air as she suddenly awakens. She sits up and tries to bear her surroundings. If she actually has surroundings. Marina finds herself to be nowhere but an endless void of darkness. "Wha-Where am I?" She asks, confused. Marina looks down at her hand. She sees the link symbol on her wrist. If her Semblance is active, that could only mention she is linked to Patrick. "Okay so..." Marina looks up in the darkness. "I must be inside Patrick's subconscious." Marina starts walking as she looks. "So where do I go?" She starts shouting. "Hello? Anyone here? Patrick? Mashika?"
Mashika wanders into the endless darkness until she hears something. It's very faint, she can't make out what it could be. So she decides to follow. Marina doesn't feel like she's going anywhere. Even the sound doesn't approve and she's been walking for what felt like almost a mile.
Suddenly, the sound gets louder and it sounds like screaming. Marina comes to a halt when the sound became clear. Screaming. A woman screaming in agony. Hearing the sounds of painful screams sends a child down Marina's spine. And the voice is getting louder, with other agonized screams joining in. The sounds of agony overwhelm Marina and she starts falling to her knees, covering her ears begging for the screaming to stop, and eventually starts screaming herself.
In the next moment, they all suddenly stopped. Like they never were. Marina starts to recover from the psyche wound. When she opens her eyes, Marina finds herself in a sudden room. The place is dark but nothing like the endless void she was in. The place looks like an office.
"What do you mean I can't see her?" A child's voice says.
Marina was startled by that voice. She looks to find a little boy, talking to Rufus who is just staring out of the window. Marina looks at the boy, confused at first, then is surprised.
"Patrick?" Marina goes to reach for him, but her hand phases through him, like a ghost. Marina is surprised at first but realizes what it could be. "A memory?"
"I'm sorry." Rufus's voice sounds up. "What do you mean 'her'?"
"Well, she's my mother, and she is-"
Rufus slams a fist on the desk, so hard it actually breaks in. "Stop! Calling it a 'her'!" Rufus turns his face to the young Patrick with an aggressive sneer. "IT! is not a being! It is a possession! My possession!"
Young Patrick doesn't say anything, overwhelmed with fear. "But...I."
"Be gone! You're dismissed!" Rufus barks at him. To that, Patrick could do nothing but fearfully obey.
Marina has a shocked expression on her face as she watches the young Patrick running away. "'It'? 'Possession'?"
The scenery suddenly shimmers and begins to fade. Marina is startled as she sees she's returning to the void. In no later than a minute, she finds herself in another scenery. She finds herself in a hallway, with several prison doors. The design is very similar to the office where she saw Patrick and Rufus. "What is this place?" Marina starts walking, then approaches one of the doors. She notices the name written on it and then opens the door, or rather just walks right through it. Marina takes a look at what's inside, and she is shocked.
There's a helpless woman, shackled, exposed, in fear and agony. And there's a man over her. Even under the viewpoint of censorship, Marina can tell what is going on, and quickly backs out of the room. Marina is gasping heavily as she starts to turn pale. "He was...on her...She...being forced...enslaved...They..." Marina suddenly feels sick, she falls onto her knees and hurls.
After vomiting, Marina coughs for a moment and then starts coming to her senses. "What kind of..." She then has a realization, and she reminds what she was told.
'I've heard rumors of that syndicate, but I didn't think they were real.' Marina's voice.
'They disbanded years ago. And we...were once their slaves.' Mashika's voice.
'I was never a slave, but I was still a prisoner in that heart of darkness.' Patrick's voice.
"Is...this...?" Marina looks all around, all the countless cell doors, each of them most like contain the horrific events she had just witnessed. "The Abduction Agency?"
Meanwhile, on the outside, Mashika is waiting while fighting against the force of winds from the vortex before her. Sakuya's Sai flies in and Sakuya and Winter appear. "I got our Scnhee friend."
Winter looks are the towering vortex of darkness and is horrified. "By the Gods..." Winter turns her attention to Mashika. "What's the plan?"
"Marina forced herself inside. She won't survive in the storm." Mashika says. "We have to get to her and Patrick. Can your Semblance open up a path?"
Winter puts on a stern expression. "I'll try." Winter focuses her strength and concentration on summoning her Gylphs into the Vortex. A small hole takes form, expanding, but shortly comes to a halt. Winter groans as she struggles to maintain her Semblance, then her Glyphs shatter and the holes closed. Winter lets out an exhausted exhale. "It's too strong. I can't hold it."
"You still manage to put a hole through it." Sakuya says.
"You just need a little more power with your Semblance..." Mashika gets an idea. "Or perhaps your Aura. Sakuya, we need Sherry."
Sakuya nods. "I'm on it." Then she throws her weapon through the thorns and vanishes.
Marina wanders through the hallway, looking from prison door to prison door and each one of them is the same. A woman shackled and enslaved, either being whipped or tortured or forced upon by their masters. Each of them horrifies Marina. Even when she's just walking down the hallway, she still gets the chills.
"This place, it's a lot worse than I heard. How is it that Patrick endured being here at such a young age?" Marina wanders down the hallways until she comes across a prison door. What catches her attention is the name that's written on it.
'Mashika Kirei'
Marina groans uncomfortably. "I just know I'm gonna regret this." Marina walks in. No sooner than she entered, she does regret her decision. But not as much as she thought. Mashika, in her late teens, is in the same position as all the other women in the previous cells. Only her body is sweating and she's panting heavily. Marina wonders what could have happened, seeing how she's alone with no slave master. Previously alone. Marina is surprised when she sees the young Patrick walking through her from behind, approaching Mashika.
The young Patrick kneels before the physically burning Mashika, taking out an injector. "Please trust me." Patrick injects something into Mashika, who reacts with a grunt.
Mashika is still panting heavily, but after a while, it starts to calm. Once the panting completely stops, Mashika looks at Patrick. "Wha...You, you're just a kid." Her expression softens saying that. "What did you do to me?"
"I-I created a formula that counteracts against the poison." Young Patrick says.
Marina soon realizes what he did, and even whispers the poison he spoke of. "Lover's Poison."
"You've...cured me?" Mashika asks. "What's your name, kid?"
"Patrick." He answers, just before the scenery fades away. Taking him and Mashika along with it.
Marina is speechless. She had just witnessed the moment Patrick and Mashika first met. Under the conditions that they were slaves, or a slave and a prisoner, and Patrick was curing Mashika from the poisonous drug. In the void, Marina hears a voice, faint but recognizable.
"You don't have to. It is you and you alone who can choose what to do with your life."
Marina turns around to where that voice came from. "Elizabeth?"
There's still nothing but darkness in the background, even looking at a single spotlight with Patrick and the shackled Elizabeth in it. "It's easy for you to say. You are a world-famous Idol, at least that's what I've heard. That was something you get to choose, meanwhile, I am forced to live this life as one of the Abductors! Even Rufus is training me how to take leadership of this place and I'm only 8!" Young Patrick falls to his knees in defeat. "All the other slaves are afraid of me, aside from Miss Mashika, but how long is that going to last before she fears and hates me again? Even my own mother is a slave, Rufus's slave...What is this is all I'm meant to be?"
There's nothing but silence, even Marina is speechless. Finding it hard to believe this is the fate of a little boy. "Hon, come here." Young Patrick doesn't hesitate to do as Elizabeth says. When he stops only a few feet, Elizabeth tells him to come closer. She tells him to until he's only mere inches away, and she embraces him in a hug. "It's going to be okay. You are not going to be a criminal if you don't want to. You can be anyone you choose to be, and nobody can ever take that from you."
Young Patrick buries his face in Elizabeth's shoulder. "Elizabeth..." He softly sobs as he returns her embrace.
Marina can help but cry seeing this, even as it fades away.
Meanwhile, Winter is working on an opening through the vortex. Winter concentrates on her Semblance while Selena is standing behind her, boosting Winter's Aura with her Siren song, backwards. Winter is able to open the hole big enough for them to run through.
"There's your opening! Go!" Winter says.
Mashika and Sakuya jump in. They make their way through the vortex until they reach the heart, where they find the floating Grimm Patrick, and Marina on the ground holding his hand. However, they notice Marina looks different. Her hair is ghostly white with highlights of her natural blue hair, and her skin is deathly white with Grimm's eyes.
"What's with Bluebird?" Sakuya asks.
Mashika takes notice of the marks on Marina's and Patrick's wrists. "I think she's linked to him." Mashika puts her hands on Marina's shoulders and starts shaking her. "Marina! Snap out of it! Come on!" Marina doesn't respond, not even the slightest. Still zonked out as if her spirit is detached from her body. Mashika then tries to remove her hand from Patricks, but the second she grabs on, Marina's link spreads to Mashika, and her eyes and hair instantly turn the same as Marina's and zoned out.
Sakuya sees that and it surprises her. "Whoa...Well, might as well see where this goes." Sakuya joins in and Marina's Semblance links her.
Marina is still watching the constant sceneries' of Patrick's past life. Most of them she can hardly believe. Like trapped in a never-waking nightmare. Once alone in the void, Mashika and Sakuya suddenly appear.
"Marina." Hearing her name really startled Marina. She turns and is astonished. "Mashika? Sakuya? ...Wait, is it really you?"
"Yeah. What do you mean by that?" Mashika asks.
"Well..." Just before she can explain, another scene happens. They hear the sounds of beating and Young Patrick screaming. They are turned and are in shock, Patrick is being beaten by Rufus, and on the other side is a large man being held in place by three other men.
"That little stunt you and Saurfang pulled cost us 10 million Lien!" Rufus grabs Young Patrick by the chest, lifting the kid off the ground and into his face. "It took us 15 years to capture Elizabeth Akimura, and you two let that little slut escape!"
"I-I only did it 'cause it was the right thing! Please don't kill me!" Young Patrick says.
"Kill you? Oh, no. I have a far worse punishment for you." Rufus drops Patrick. Rufus faces his guard. "Hold the boy and make him watch." The guard does as ordered, and Rufus faces Saurfang. "Saurfang Lu. You have betrayed the agency by releasing our treasured slave and killing several of your brothers in the process. Do you have any final words before your sentence is carried out?"
Saurfang throws a stern hard expression before answering. "I regret nothing!"
"So be it." Rufus then summons his power, shooting chains of darkness out of his hands, and shackling Saurfang. Saurfang resists for a moment, then afterward, his eyes glow blue. The men holding him lets go, and Rufus throws a sword at Saurfang's feet. "Do it!"
"Yes, my lord." Saurfang says. With no hesitation, Saurfang picks up the sword, holding it over his throat.
"No! No, no! Saurfang! Don't do it! Fight it!" Young Patrick says. But it's futile. Saurfang carried out his sentence, and the very sight of the event horrified Marina and Mashika, and even Sakuya. The blade drops and Saurfang's body falls lifeless. Young Patrick can't help but scream as his eyes are overflowing with tears.
Rufus then turns to Patrick. "Let that be a lesson to you. Never defy me or the Agency!" Rufus turns his attention to the guard holding Patrick. "Lock him up in the Dark Cell."
Rufus walks away and the guard drags Patrick in the other direction, and the scene fades and the woman are back in the void. Each of them are completely speechless by what they saw. "By the Gods...That's just..."
"This certainly explains a lot about Shadow Boy." Sakuya says.
"Especially why he is so secretive about his life." Marina says. "Mashika, what happened just now, was that for real?"
"I don't know. I only know that Saurfang was killed and Patrick was sent to the Dark Cell for a long time. He never told me how it all happened. Now I see why he kept it a secret." Mashika says. "I always knew Rufus was a monster, but that...That was just pure evil." Another scenery happens, it happens at the command central. They find the past Patrick and Mashika at the controls, and Mashika recognizes this moment. "We're at that day, the day the Agency fell."
Young Patrick takes out a scroll and plays a recorded voice. Rufus's voice. "Jess! Open Voice Recognition Access!"
"Access Granted." A computer voice says. "State your name."
"Patrick." Patrick says. "Jess. Deactivate all of the Slave Collars and Prison Cell locks." Jess answers its order, even Young Mashika's collar opens and falls to the ground. Patrick starts typing on the keyboards. "Activate all the airships, open the hanger doors, and reprogram the Security Droids to capture and contain any Abductor in this building. And lastly, Initiate Self-Destruct Sequence in ten minutes."
"You got it, Seld-Destruct in 10 minutes." Jess says.
Afterward, an alarm blares. "Are you sure about this? What if Rufus finds out and deactivates everything himself?" Young Mashika asks.
"He'll have a much more difficult time doing that trying to bypass the encryption." Young Patrick says.
Young Mashika looks at the monitor. "Wow. That's pretty impressive for an 11-year-old."
Hearing that, Marina looks at Mashika and mouths '11-year-old?' knowing that during that time he was with Elizabeth he was 8. "When you've been here learning the ropes as long as I have, you pick up a few things."
"Certainly explains how he's good with computers," Sakuya whispers to herself.
"There. It's all set. Let's get out of here." Just before they get to move, Young Mashika's foot gets crushed by a heavily armored foot, and she screams in absolute pain.
"TRAITOR!" Rufus shouts. He swats Young Mashika away, knocking the girl back. Patrick screams her name. "ENOUGH!" Rufus grabs Patrick by the throat and lifts him to his face. "JUST TELL ME THE DEACTIVATION CODE!" Young Patrick struggles in Rufus's grip while Young Mashika tries to get back on her feet to help him, and everyone else can't help but watch. Even Mashika strikes to strike Rufus with her lance but it just runs through him like a ghost. "You think we're not the same, Patrick? You're already me! You just don't know it yet!"
"I'm! NEVER! Gonna be you!" Young Patrick says through his struggle.
Rufus looks at Patrick calmly and normally. "Well, then, if you're not gonna be me..." Then he slams Young Patrick against the control panels, draws out one of his claw blades, and shuts at him. "YOU'RE NOT GONNA BE ANYBODY!" Rufus begins his attack, only to be shortly interrupted when Young Mashika hits him with a metal bar on the back of his exposed head. Rufus lets out a painful shout and loses his grip on Patrick. Once Patrick recovers from the impact, he gets up, helps Mashika stand, and they both leave as fast as they can. "Stupid, little slut!" Rufus dazedly pursued after them.
The scenery constantly fades and reappears in several moments of Patrick and Mashika escaping from Rufus's wrath, most of them futile due to the limited speed of Mashika's broken foot.
The scenery ends to the point where there are only two minutes left and Mashika and Patrick are at the last airship. The liberated slaves shout at them to hurry towards the ship. Only several feet away, several blades are thrown, knocking them down. Patrick and Mashika look at the blades ahead, only to see them shaking and come flying back over them. They look back and it's just as they feared. The blades reattach themselves back onto Rufus's armor.
As Rufus approaches them, Young Mashika throws the spear she was holding for support at Rufus, who swats it away like it was nothing. Rufus grabs her by the face and pushes her aside. "Did you honestly think that you could escape me?" Rufus kicks Patrick in the stomach, knocking him back only several feet. Rufus approaches the kid. "And now!" He summons steel blades from his armor, positioned over Patrick. "You die!"
Young Patrick sees his whole life flashing before his eyes as he sees his own terrified reflection in the steel blade. Rufus draws back to strike, and Patrick looks away and...Slash!
Nothing happens.
Patrick opens his eyes and he's shocked. Young Mashika is in between him and Rufus, with a pained expression on her face. Her aura flickers and depletes, then she collapses. Patrick gets a good look at her back: Two large cuts, a lot of bleeding.
"Why?" He says, his voice cracked.
"It's...What...a Huntress...does." Young Mashika says, before slipping into unconsciousness.
Patrick just screams Mashika's name, each one louder than the last. Marina looks at this seen horrified, while the real Mashika only watches with a pained expression.
Rufus is about to make another strike, but his attack is quickly interrupted by the airship activating, aiming right at him and firing its guns. Rufus forms his arms together in front of him, activating the Hard-Light Dust into a barrier that blocks the incoming bullets.
"Self Destruct Sequence in 10..9..." The librated slaves hurry as they grab Patrick and young Mashika. "8..7..." They hurried back into the ship, which then turns and takes off the second they jump in. "6...5..." Rufus chases after the ship until the very edge, by then, it's already long gone. "4...3..." Realization the situation he's in, Rufus tucks into his armor like a turtle. "2..." And it becomes coated in a shield of Hard-Light. "1..."
And the scenery ends in a massive explosion of fiery inferno. Marina, Sakuya, and Mashika are all in horrified fear of being in the middle of the blast, but soon realize it's all an illusion to them.
They return to the void of darkness. "That was..." Marina turns to Mashika. "Mashika, I had no idea that happened to you."
"To take a lethal blow like that and survive. You're tough as nails, red." Sakuya says.
When nothing happens, the trio starts to wander into the void. Marina can't take her mind off everything she witnessed in Patrick's past. She always knew the Abduction Agency was evil and twisted, and figured Patrick and Mashika had suffered a lot. But she never had expected any of this.
"Look, over there." Marina and Mashika look ahead. They see a spotlight. It's far away, so they start running towards it.
Once only several feet away, they can see clearly what it is and comes to a halt. Mashika and Marina can hardly believe what they are seeing: A red ring with countless shadow hands coming out of the ground and holding place a broken soul. A broken soul whose skin is deathly white, hair long and ghostly white, looking down sobbing.
Even in this broken depression, they still recognize him. Marina steps forward. "Patrick...?"
"Why are you here?" Patrick asks, his voice cracking through the sobs.
There was a moment of silence before Mashika speaks. "We're here to help you from..."
"No, you can't!" Patrick lifts his face, revealing his Grimm eyes with black veins, and black ooze representing his tears. "You can't help me! Don't you see?" There was a soft rumbling, followed by memory voices echoing, multiple at once, and several screens of Patrick's dark and bad memories. "You saw it all. I've done nothing but brought misery and harm to everyone. I even took the life of my own teammate with my own hands."
"Damn it, Patrick, you weren't responsible!" Mashika says.
"I WAS! You of all people should know!" Screens appear in front of Mashika, Sakuya, and Marina. One shows the event of Rufus delivering the blow to young Patrick, and Mashika took the blow, and the other shows Patrick in berserk Grimm about to kill Selena, but Akira takes the blow. Seeing the two together, they realize how closely similar to two events are. Sakuya just stares at the part about Patrick attacking his team and says 'Whoa.'. Then two more screens show the moments of Selena crying over Akira in the hospital, and young Patrick doing the same for Mashika. "Just kill me, please." Patrick looks down as more shadow hands reach out from the ground and grab him. "End this before I hurt more people."
Mashika is at a loss of words. Sakuya doesn't know what to say but she's just as heartbroken. Marina feels tears in her eyes. But as sad as she is about Patrick's suffering, it's not her own. Marina looks at the link on her wrist, she knows it's Patrick's own despair she's feeling.
"Patrick, I get it. You feel responsible for everything that's happened to those you care about, and you're afraid of seeing more of those you care about getting hurt for your own sake." Marina says. "And you want to atone for them. But listen, don't just listen to me, but listen to everyone. Yes, all that pain and guilt is real and overwhelming, but do you really think ending your life will end it all?"
"Marina's right." Mashika says. "Patrick, think about your mother, your sister. They wanted you to live a normal life, one without suffering or vengeance. Your mother gave her life just so you could live, and We heard what happened to your sister. How she left you for..." Mashika darts her eyes to Sakuya and then back at Patrick. "Important reasons, but she didn't want to put you into the dangers she would be involved with. Are you really gonna let them sacrifice themselves just for you to throw your life away?"
Patrick doesn't say anything, but Sakuya speaks. "Look, I'm not one for sympathies, especially in this case, but what I can say is that Redhead and Bluebird are right."
"But...even if what you say is true, who would even want to be with me? I'm a monster." Patrick says.
"You are not a monster. You may be part Grimm, but that doesn't mean you aren't human." Mashika says. "You will have feelings. Feelings of love. Of caring. Sorrow. Regret. That's living proof you are no monster."
"And there are people who will want to be with you. Your team, Team CPER. Rin. Even Mashika and I. And I'm sure Elizabeth feels the same." Marina says. "You've spent most of your life building walls around you, trying to keep people out. Carrying this heavy burden all alone. But you're not alone. You don't have to. We can carry that burden with you. All you have to do is let us in, and I promise, we will work everything out." Marina extends a hand. "Together."
Patrick looks at Marina's hand. He thinks long and carefully. Even looks at Marina, seeing her offering him a smile. With slow hesitation, Patrick raises a hand, reaching for Marina.
Then it happened.
Just before they touch, a massive force of energy blasts, knocking Marina back, and Mashika and Sakuya stand their ground fighting against the invisible force. Then magic circles appear beneath them and dozens of Shadow Hands burst out and hold the three of them.
"Sorry, but I can't have you interfere with my plans." Mashika struggles as she hears the footsteps. She looks up to find a woman, one who has a very similar appearance to Patrick's Grimm state.
"You!" Mashika says. "You're the one behind this! You're Salem!"
Sakuya hardens her expression on her. "The Big One!" She whispers.
"Well, it appears Ozpin has trusted you with his secrets." Salem turns her back on Mashika. She walks towards Patrick, Mashika can see what Salem's up to and demands her to leave him alone, only to be silenced by more Shadow Hands. "These people came all this way to try and help, and look now at what has become of them." Patrick looks at Mashika, Marina, and Sakuya, seeing the situation they are all in. The grief begins to overwhelm him. "Give in, and all of this can be over."
Patrick doesn't say anything, just looks down with the black tears falling from his face, and the Shadow Hands start pulling him into the ground. Mashika muffles a scream as she watches Patrick sink into the darkness, swallowed whole.
Until there is nothing left.