A/N: The last chapter was pretty dark, wasn't it? But it certainly explains a lot about Patrick, as Sakuya pointed out. In spite of their best efforts, Salem still has control over Patrick. Drowned in guilt and grief, Patrick has succumbed to the darkness. Can he still be saved before Salem gets what she is after?
Chapter 53: The Power Within Part V - Worth Fighting For
The storm in the real world is growing worse. More and More Grimm have become attracted to it and are attacking the Huntsman, Huntresses, and the Shadow Tread. Some among them are beginning to reach their limits.
Even Winter, who is with Selena maintaining the whole in the vortex, is struggling to keep her Semblance up against the force. Even with Selena's Siren Support.
Winter looks at the hole with her eyes barely open. "Hurry it up, Marina!"
Salem still stands where Patrick once was before the darkness swallowed him.
Mashika is furious at the evil witch. Sakuya struggles to free her hand. Once she does, she throws her Sai towards Mashika and vanishes. Sakuya reappears, free of the grasp of the Shadow Hands, next to Mashika. Sakuya grabs her hand and then throws her Sai, sending herself and Mashika out of the trap and reappearing where the Sai lands.
Mashika takes out her lance, throwing a mad glare at Salem. "SALEM!" She charges at full speed. Salem doesn't respond at all until Mashika stabs her lance right through her back. Salem looks at the lance coming out of her chest, then turns her head around looking at Mashika. Mashika's anger suddenly turns to shock. She stabbed Salem right in the heart, and nothing's happening. Salem's arm bends back to the lance and pulls it out, then she casts a dark beam that blasts Mashika away.
Salem turns around, the wound on her chest healing rapidly fast. Sakuya puts on a serious expression as she charges. Salem shoots beams of magic at her, Sakuya dodges each of them, then warps herself closer to Salem and attacks with several blows, all of which Salem takes but quickly heals from.
As the fight goes on, Patrick slowly sinks into the endless ocean of darkness.
"So...This is it." Patrick says. "Is this my punishment? Fading away into the darkness? Maybe it's for the best. I'm sorry...Amber."
As he sinks deeper into the darkness, a hand of light grabs his hand.
Patrick opens his eyes, his body still in Grimm mode. He is now standing in the middle of nothingness. "Wha...?" Patrick looks around. There's nothing but light for miles around. "Where am I?"
"I had brought you here." A voice says.
Hearing that voice shocks Patrick, like he has seen a ghost. "That voice." Patrick slowly turns around. He sees a glowing orb of golden light. He stares at it, thinking he might be losing his mind as he speaks the name. Or word. "Mother?"
Salem is shooting bolts of magic at Sakuya, who is running in a circle dodging the incoming bolts. Sakuya throws her Sai at Salem and reappears right before her to deliver a lethal blow to her neck. Sakuya watches the blood oozing out of Salem until it suddenly freezes and starts flowing back into Salem as the wound heals.
"What the hell are you?!" Sakuya asks.
Salem's eyes glow, and Shadow Hands rise and grabs hold of Sakuya and drags her against a wall. Pinning her in place. "A force beyond your comprehension." Mashika delivers a leap strike on Salem from behind, but just before she can make the blow, Shadow Hands grabs her and holds her down. Salem approaches Marina, who is being held in place by the Shadow Hands. Salem looks at the link on Marina's wrist. "So, you're the one behind it this. You will soon learn what happens when you interfere with my plans."
Even though Marina puts on a brave face, she is still in fear. And she's right to do so, as Salem starts powering up her magic and unleashing a beam of dark magic right at her chest.
Patrick is still standing along in the void of light with the glowing orb. He can't believe he is actually talking to the one person he had never believed to be with.
"I don't understand...How is this happening?" Patrick asks.
"I could be asking you the same thing." The voice says. "You are just gonna give up, is that it?"
Patrick realizes what this is about. He turns away in despair. "What other choice is there? You must know everything that's happened ever since the Vytal Festival. What I've done to Akira. To Mashika. What I'm doing now." Patrick looks down at his hands, at the black claws attached to his ghostly hands. "Rufus was right, we are the same...I'm a monster."
"Is that what you truly believe?" The voice asks.
"Why wouldn't I? After everything I've done?" Patrick says.
"And what is it you have done?" The voice asks.
Patrick doesn't say anything. But his voice still speaks. "This is...overwhelming." Patrick is surprised to hear his own voice. He turns to find a screen. It shows the moment she spent Christmas with his team. And they gifted him with the Silver Sniper Bow. "I don't even have a gift for any of you."
Several dozen screens appear surrounding Patrick, and he sees memories of his past moments.
First: When he first met Selena. "I think you shouldn't hide who you really are. You should at least trust people to accept you for who you are." Patrick says, then the scene changes to the next day. "You are right. I should give the other students a chance to get to know me for who I really am." Selena says. Then the next scene shows when Team PASM is first formed within their dorm, where Selena reveals herself. "I am...My name is Selena Akimura."
The next screen shows the moment Patrick and Marlene first worked together where Marlene threw a rock into the river and reveals the Grimm Pirahna. "Well, this appears to be quite a predicament."
"Maybe for you." Patrick then activates the Dust Bracers, filling them with Ice Dust. He then removes his quiver and sets it to be equipped on his front. "Get on my back." Marlene doesn't hesitate as she hops on his back. "Hold on tight." Then starts walking on the water.
The next screen shows Patrick fighting against the exhausted and drained Akira. Both of them constantly fight, arguing, and Patrick so easily defeating her over and over, then Akira bursts out of her struggles. Eventually ending with her breaking down crying. Then it shows Patrick and Akira talking before her match. "On the battlefield, you mustn't forget that Fear can be your greatest enemy or a reliable ally." Then the scene skips to Akira's rematch against her enemy. "Today: Fear is his enemy..." She then positions herself to fight. "...And my ally." Then it shows the two of them alone in the training room. "I wanted to thank you," Akira says to Patrick. "You didn't fight to train me at all. You were fighting to snap some sense into me, didn't you? You cared about me."
The next screen shows Patrick and Elizabeth having their talk in her mansion. "You may have changed in some bad ways, but deep down I know you were still a good person. Selena has told me a lot about you, how you've kept her secret, looking out for your team."
The next screen shows Selena in bed, in depression, and Patrick is with her. "I may not have told you this but I'm glad it was you I met that night. It makes me happy to know I have someone like you on my team. Someone I can trust."
The next screen shows Mashika carrying the drunk Patrick back to Beacon, where he was praising his instruction even in a mindless state. He goes on talking about what a great person she is, as an instructor. An aunt. A mother. Patrick feels embarrassed when he sees he was stating she's a good mother to him. He always figured he blabbed about something in this drunken state but nothing like this.
The next screen shows that night, the academy prom, where he is with Rin talking. "Whenever Auntie Mashika talks about you, she's always trying to get you to relax and have some fun. But whenever I'm overworking myself, she just doesn't seem to notice." Then the scene skips to where Patrick offers her a dance, and Rin accepts it. "I'd love to."
Then the last screen shows Patrick and Mashika rescuing Marina, first showing when they found her shackled and suffering from the poison, then when they are running rebelling against her slave masters, then when Marina is in Elizabeth's home breaking down in despair of her loss and reliving the torment of her slavery. Then it shows when they were having dinner on her first day as Beacon's professor. "I can never fulfill his legacy on the battlefield, but as a professor at a huntsman academy, I can pass on his teaching to future generations of Huntsmen and Huntresses." Then the scene skips to when he and Marina are alone in a bar during the festival. "I understand you are a secretive person. But there's clearly something wrong with you, hon. I want to help you. I want to be able to return the kindness you've given me."
The screens all vanished, and Patrick is left alone deep within his thoughts. "You have done many things in your life, some bad, some good. But none of them defies you. It is you and you alone who can choose who you are." Patrick doesn't say anything. He takes in the memories he's relived, and the words the voice of his mother has given him. He falls onto his knees, looking down at his hands, as the voice speaks once more. "So, who are you?"
Meanwhile, Marina screams in unbearable agony as Salem blasts her dark magic on her. Mashika's rage builds as she tries to break free from the Shadow Hands, but most of them rise out of the ground and hold her down. Mashika struggles until she grabs her arm, holding her lance, then throws it right at Salem. The lance pierces Salem right through her shoulder, and Salem doesn't even react to it, only two seconds later when she cancels her attack. Salem looks on her shoulder at the lance and removes it.
"In spite of your conditions, you are still very persistent." Salem drops the lance as her body regenerates. "Annoyingly so."
Salem then resumes her attack on Marina, who once again screams in agony. Mashika and Sakuya could do nothing but watch Marina suffer. She begins to lose consciousness, and the link on her wrist starts flickering.
Salem deviously smiles, Marina is starting to give in, and she amplifies her power upon her. Suddenly, there's a swirling dark mist appearing by Salem's feet. She looks down at it confused, then several dozens of black spikes rise up and impale her in every part of her body. Salem's rage builds and it causes her to unleash a telekinetic power enough to shatter the spikes.
Salem turns back, to the dark pit where Patrick drowned, she watches and waits as her wounds heal. After a dramatic moment, a claw bursts right out of the pit. Patrick starts pulling himself out of the darkness. Shadow Hands still grip on him. But even with their full force, Patrick is still resisting. Once he is out, then unleashes a dark nova that burns away the Shadow Hands.
Patrick then uses a Shadow Chain to grab Mashika's lance. For a while, both Patrick and Salem exchange glares, then Patrick finally speaks. "Let! Her! Go!"
"I am afraid I cannot," Salem says. "She interferes with plans."
"Your plans are already interfered with!" Patrick says. "I don't know who or what the hell you are, but I know who I am! I am Patrick Aki. Shadow Hunter! Mercenary and Huntsman of Beacon Academy! And I still cut down any Grimm or enemy who dares harm my friends, my family!" Patrick positions himself in an attack stance with the lance. "Even you!"
Salem lets out a disappointed sigh. "I tried to be your friend. And now, I am your enemy."
On that comment, Salem summons bolts of dark magic and fires them all at Patrick. Patrick dashes towards Salem at incredible speed, even faster than his Lightning Dust speed. During his rush, Patrick summons an orb of combust magic and launches it at Salem. But Salem smirks, she plans on moving out of the way and letting Marina behind her take the hit. Salem summons a dark tornado to launch herself, but she's stuck in place. "What?" Salem looks down to see Shadow Chains shackling her lower body in place. Salem takes the blow and it blows off her face and a part of her shoulder. Salem even lost her concentration and the Shadow Hands holding her captives vanishes. The second Mashika's free, she hurries to Marina, holding onto her unconscious friend.
Patrick twirls the lance in his hands and throws it low, the lance knocks Salem off her feet and Patrick tackles her with his body, pinning her down, and slides several feet on the ground. Patrick roars as he summons Shadow Claws in his hands and begins swiping her, tearing away Salem's flesh and blood.
Salem then summons Shadow Hands which grabs Patrick, incapacitating him in their grasp. While he's held in place, Salem's body regenerates, all the slashes vanishing and removed parts returning to her person out of thin air. Once her face returns, Salem throws a serious glare at Patrick. She then shoots a dark beam at him, which Patrick counteracts by sinking into the shadows.
Salem has her eyes fixated on Patrick's Shadow, which is rushing all around the ground. It starts making its way to Salem and then swipes her shadow. Salem suffers the same infliction, but her wounds still heal. Salem growls and then channel a blast of dark fire at Patrick's shadow, following it by its tail. Patrick's Shadow once again heads toward Salem and strikes her shadow.
After taking several hits, Salem finally makes a hit, and Patrick's Shadow rises from the shadows. He unleashes a blast of dark magic, and Salem does the same. The two blasts are in a clash, in equal power, both of them pushing with all their might. Soon enough, their powers grow unstable where they met, and unleashes a devastating explosion.
Patrick is on his knees, aura flickering. Salem's body is either burnt or blown from the blast, but it quickly regenerates. Salem then summons several Shadow Hands that hold Patrick in place in every part of his body.
"You will submit!" Salem tells him. She then shoots a blast of dark magic at him, which Patrick screams. Mashika worries about the state he is in, and Sakuya is about ready to jump in but comes to a halt when Patrick's screams suddenly turn from agony into rage, and his power builds up and unleashes a nova that burns away the Shadow Hands and deflects Salem's magic.
Patrick is on his knees for a moment, but grabs hold of Mashika's lance and stands. "I! Submit! To NO ONE!" Patrick conjures a Combust magic in his free hand. "Not you!" Then fires it at Salem which blows her right arm. "Not the Agency!" He repeats his attack that blows away her left shoulder and part of her head. Patrick then grips the lance with his hands, channeling powerful dark magic through it. "And not that Bastard Rufus!" With a swing of the spinning lance, Patrick unleashes a slash of dark magic that cuts Salem by the waist. He then smashes the lance to the ground, unleashing a wave of dark magic that launches Salem's remaining body into the air.
And as she's up in the air, he draws the lance back, aimed and charging up in powerful dark magic. Salem gets one last look at him as he screams. "FOR! AMBER!" The throws the lance at Salem with all of his strength and power. It flies towards her in a sonic boom of magic and pierces Salem right in the chest.
Salem screams in agony as the lance drags her along with it, both of them fly further and further away to the edge of the void, resulting in a massive explosion in the end.
Patrick only stands in place, panting in exhaustion while still staring at the distance. Mashika and Sakuya can't take their eyes off Patrick. Nothing but stillness and silence. Then finally, he collapses onto his hands and knees. Mashika sets Marina down and she approaches Patrick. Marina may be wounded, but she knows Patrick needs help more. Mashika kneels beside him and looks at him. She sees his hands shaking, and there are tears escaping from his eyes, real tears and not the black fluid from before.
Mashika then reaches in and embraces him in a hug.
And that's when the link ends.
Back in the real world, everyone is struggling on their end. Earnest had just slain a Grimm, and already he's collapsed in exhaustion. Another one comes at him, but Marlene shoots at it. After three shots, she's out of ammo. The Grimm instead comes at her, but Qrow comes to the rescue and slays it.
Everyone is beyond their limits, even Qrow, yet more and more Grimm are still coming.
This was the end for them all, at least that's what they thought. Suddenly, dark spikes rise from the ground and impale a ton of the frontline of the Grimm. This surprises everything and they turned around. Patrick is still in his Grimm Form, but the swirling vortex of darkness is dying down, making it visible to see through. Patrick then summons his magic, darkness in one hand, and combust in the other. He fuses them together and unleashes a powerful blast of that combined magic at the Grimm that unleashes a massive explosion.
The result shows that most of the Grimm are destroyed, and the rest of them flees. This shocks everyone in a mixture of disbelief and terror. With the threat now gone, Patrick then starts to calm down. The vortex slowly dies down and the forest of thorns begins sinking into the earth.
Patrick then lands on his feet, and that's when his Grimm mode ends, and he collapses on his knees. Marina, mindlessly, pulls Patrick into a hug, and the both of them have tears coming out of their eyes. Patrick's the one that's in tears, Marina's only happened due to her Maguilty Link. Mashika and Sakuya snap out of their trance when their links ended.
Mashika takes a good long look at Patrick and Marina. "We did." She says with relief. But the second Marina's Semblance ends, Marina falls back and collapses to the ground, deathly unconscious. Mashika is surprised but then she realizes, Marina's body is covered in cuts and bruises, from the vortex, and her body in the mindscape was greatly damaged from Salem's attack. And the panic kicks in. "MARINA!"
Meanwhile, at the Evernight Castle, a bright light escapes from the windows of the castle, followed by an explosion that blasts open the back of the meeting room. Salem's forces are looking away as the explosion dims. Once it's over, they all look and are surprised. Salem is no longer there, there's nothing but a pile of ashes.
Emerald and Mercury are shocked, they were already terrified of Patrick when he unleashed his power. Cinder, who is still injured, looks at the ashes angrily. "My, my." Arthur turns his attention to Rufus. "It seems your boy is far more powerful than you lead on."
"Shut it. That traitor is nothing more than a mere weakling!" Rufus says.
"I seem to recall that 'mere weakling' defeated your sorry butt years ago." Arthur says.
This angers Rufus. He then activates his Domination, and chains shoot out of his hand and shackles Arthur. Arthur is soon under his control, and slowly takes out his gun and holds it against his skull, ready to pull the trigger. Rufus is about to release the command until Tyrian climbs onto Rufus's back and holds his blades on his throat.
"Na-ah-ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tyrian says. "Just imagine how our Goddess was to feel if she found out her brilliant doctor is murdered. And that you were responsible for it." Tyrian leans in to whisper into Rufus' ear in a creepy voice. "Or did you forget what she can do to you specifically?"
Rufus' hand shakes as he glares at Arthur, expression unchanged, but what Tyrian had said really is getting to him. Even shows it by releasing Arthur from his control. Arthur's body relaxes but is panting from panic.
"So the plan to control him to take us to the Fall Maiden has failed." Cinder says. "I say we ambush him and make him take us."
"Did you forget what he's capable of? Did you not see what has just happened?" Hazel asks.
"Hazel is right, we'll just have to wait." Arthur turns his attention back to the pile of ashes, which is already begun to merge together in a dark mist. "And see what Salem has to say."
As Salem's resurrection begins, Rufus leaves the room. He wanders around the castle until he arrives in a private area. That's when a Seer appears, appearing out of the shadows and approaching Rufus. Rufus stands before it, standing firm, and an image of a man appears within the creature's head.
"Lord Rufus." The man said.
"General Cain." Rufus says. "The Dark Slut's plan has failed. The traitor's power is finally awake, but his willpower has grown too powerful for it to even control him."
"'It' uh, still have that sort of thing with woman, don't ya boss? Same as ever." Cain says with a laugh. "So what is our motive?"
"Remain hidden in the shadows. Focus on our primary targets: The Schnee Sisters." Rufus says.
Cain salutes. "As you wish, my Lord. By the way, I have someone here for you to meet. Delivered personally by Vanessa." Cain stands aside, then an image of Gaia appears.
Rufus crosses his arms looking at Gaia. "Well, if it isn't Gaia Menethil. Never thought I'd see you again. You got a death wish?"
"Quite the opposite, Lord Rufus. Believe it or not, he wishes to join us." Cain says.
"After the way he turned against us..." Rufus is shortly cut off by Gaia's interruption.
"You were the ones who betrayed me. Nonetheless, I have decided to serve you." Gaia says. "And I can do it by recapturing not only Elizabeth Akimura but her precious daughter too."
Rufus is silent for a moment, then finally speaks. "Very well. General Cain, have Vanessa keep an eye on our traitorous friend. And his band of sluts."
Cain salutes as the image on the Seer fades, then the creature starts floating away.