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Fighting Rose, Bloom Again!

Chapter 5

Family/Troubles

"So dad's somewhere in the middle of the wasteland," Blake summed up, "And you think he might have something to do with the Grimm constantly being drawn away from the defences?"

"Let it be known that he's a hard man to kill," Kali chuckled hollowly, before taking a mindless sip of her tea, "…Yes, I believe that he's still alive out there, otherwise the Grimm would've made far more progress. We were all caught off guard when the Great Rift opened and Grimm swarmed in from the Wastes. Then the next wave came in, and the next, and so on. Even when some of us showed the ability to use demonic forms, it wasn't enough to turn the tide… so he travelled into the wastes right after we'd managed to clear another wave."

Blake nodded silently, betting that the storm at the centre of the wasteland was their best shot at finding him before turning to look at her mother. Kali was exhausted by the near-month of running Menagerie in the midst of the constant crisis, and with her father gone and possibly…

'Stop.' She bit her tongue, literally, 'Don't go down that train of thought. He's alive. He's alive and we'll find him. Mom needs you, Yang needs you, so don't break down.'

She walked around the table and sat at her mother's side, the two of them silently embracing each other once more.

"I promise I'll bring dad back home," She swore, "But I need help."

"Your partner," Kali guessed.

"That and…" Blake paused, her nerves starting to creep up her neck. Even with Grimm attacks on the boat-ride and even before that, she'd never tapped into the power of her Devil Trigger since Beacon (even though she certainly benefitted from her increased base-strength since awakening the power). It was wrong. She felt her mother's hands gently hold her own, Kali silently supporting her. Blake hesitated as slowly stood, nodding as she took a few steps back from her mother before closing her eyes. Her veins began to throb as her heart beat harder and harder, a growl building in the back of her throat as her senses sharpened. She could feel her inner demon crawling up her throat and settling just under her skin, fangs and talons ready to burst from her body, the door in her mind creaking open as claws creeped around the corner. She wanted to hunt something, vent her worries and anger and frustration and rage, sink her teeth into something's neck and taste the ichor on her tongue –

She gasped and slammed the mental door shut, terror at the violent, ferocious sensation overwhelming her. Kali was quick to catch Blake before she fell, the latter almost leaping out of her mother's arms in fear of hurting her. Her mother held on tight, looking Blake firmly in the eyes.

"Breathe. You're still yourself," Kali assured her. "You are still Blake."

"M-mom, I'm-!" Blake started, her voice trembling.

"No different to who you were five minutes ago," Kali said firmly.

"Am I really?" Blake asked, her voice still shaking, "This power was forced on me, and even when I used it to the best of my ability it was still worthless! Now I've got nothing but a monster under my skin that can't even protect the people I care about!"

"BLAKE BELLADONNA!"

Her mother's voice cracked like a whip through her spiralling thoughts, making her stand ramrod straight. How could she have forgotten: where her father and mother were kind and nurturing, the former had always spoiled her at every opportunity: it was the latter who'd been the disciplinarian.

"Find your center," Her mother said softly, though the firmness in her voice never wavered. "Breathe."

Blake did as she was told, her breathing still a little shaky as she willed her muscles to relax and slowly allowed her mind to empty. No positive thoughts, nor negative, just a neutral, balanced mind. It was easier said than done of course, her hands still shaking as her mind lingered on the bestial, demonic power writhing in her veins, but she managed nonetheless.

"I'm sure you've seen some of the Militia," Kali said when she felt that Blake was calm enough to listen, seeing Blake nod. "A lot of us were frightened by those who'd been changed when the Great Rift opened, especially when there were those who couldn't control their abilities."

Blake sat and listened, her mother sitting in front of her and gently massaging her hands before she continued.

"I know that the situation outside of Menagerie is… much worse for Faunus," Her mother admitted, "But at the end of the day, survival trumps fear, and we've been doing just that since the rift opened. If it keeps us alive one day longer, then we'll gladly make use of it."

"But this power," Blake muttered, "It's so… primal. Wrong."

"Is it really?" Kali said wryly. "Don't you find it strange that these powers seem to mirror or exaggerate Faunus traits? Or… is it that our traits are watered-down expressions of those abilities?"

Blake suddenly remembered a few of Adam's words, and pieces began to fall into place.

'Let me show you what we're capable of.'

'The potential to become so much more!'

'Reclaim the title that our ancestors once had!'

"…What are we?" Blake asked softly.

"I don't know," Her mother admitted, "But let Menagerie prove that we are not mere monsters. Neither are you."

For the first time, Blake felt truly comfortable in her own skin. She knew subconsciously that it wouldn't be enough to overcome her aversion to this strange power of hers, but it was a start, and that was what mattered.

"Thank you, mom," Blake smiled tiredly.

"It's my job to help you," Kali chuckled and kissed Blake on the forehead. "Now come. You and Sun get some rest, you both look like you need it. I'll have Dende look at your partner in the meantime."

"But mom, we can still help clean up with-!"

"Rest," She said sternly, "I'll be putting you both to work soon, so don't get too comfortable."

"…Okay mom," Blake agreed, smiling again at her firmness. "Hope you haven't reorganized my room too much."

}-Atlas-{

'I wish I was back in my room,' Weiss snorted, 'Forgot how tedious all this preening was.'

Publicly, the Ball had been held in honour of those Atlan soldiers and citizens who had died during the Fall of Beacon, though it was far too lively and ostentatious for such a dour occasion and she was well aware why. This was just an opportunity for her father to flex his political muscles and dangle a proverbial carrot to the 'Atlesian Elite' (she wanted to gag remembering how she once associated herself with those fops) in order to more smoothly acquire allies.

When he wasn't sitting in his honest-to-god silver throne that he'd placed to overlook the entire venue, he was mingling among the elites with his crisp-white suit and Grimmfur cloak hanging off his shoulders, a delicate silver chain holding it in place across his collar. Among the multitude of gaudy gold rings he wore, interestingly, was a simple silver ring with what looked like half of a blue sapphire. Something about it was familiar, but Weiss couldn't quite place her finger (she silently cursed and longed for Yang's influence) on it. She pushed the though from her mind and went back to fiddling with her aura in a number of different control-based exercises, trying and failing to come up with new ideas and concepts.

"Not having a fun night I presume?"

She was startled by the sudden voice but didn't lose control of her aura, surprisingly. More pleasantly, she knew who that voice belonged to.

"Instructor Eula! I didn't think I would see you here!" She greeted excitedly before formally bowing, her old combat instructor doing the same.

Eula Blau Lawrence was around the same age as Winter and was stunningly beautiful, standing a full head-and-a-half taller than Weiss with her sky-blue hair tied up in a low bun, stray curls framing her beautifully angular face and dark-pearl eyes, her muscle-toned figure draped in a flattering royal-blue and black dress.

"It's good to see you so well," Eula smiled back before her expression turned wry, "Sour face aside, of course."

"Of course," Weiss chuckled before her expression turned curious, "Are you here representing the Lawrence family?"

"Yes and no," Eula said firmly, "The Primarch has already secured a deal with my family's business, I am simply here as a… 'mascot' to finalise the deal."

Weiss didn't need to point out the souring of Eula's face. One of the reasons she and Winter were so close to Eula was because of just how similar their situations were. The Lawrence family, one of the most prosperous in Atlas, were infamous for their past practices of Faunus slavery. If the rumours were to be believed (and given Blake's experience on top of understanding what kind of person her father was, she was much more open to believing those rumours), it was a practice they still engaged in with the SDC under the table. Employee Quotas she remembered her father had called it, and was quite sure it wasn't referencing what the employees accomplished. Eula was much like Weiss and Winter, desiring to either change her family's business for the better or separate herself from it entirely.

"You on the other hand are quite the anomaly," Eula said curiously, "The biological daughter of a Primarch? How did that happen?"

Weiss's cheeks turned red and she rolled her eyes.

"I have no clue nor am I keen on learning how my father managed to copulate with my mother."

That said, she certainly was curious as to what that meant for her. She wasn't stupid: it was clear that her strange vocal abilities had been inherited from him and that they were capable of affecting her glyphs, which themselves were affected by whatever her Tracing Semblance was. Other than that though, she didn't seem to inherit much else from her father. She glanced at Eula's rather large bust before glancing at her own, pouting and crossing her arms.

"Whatever the case," Eula said with a confident smirk, "Don't presume that your blood would allow you to best me in the sparring cages."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Weiss said with a self-assured smirk of her own, "Who knows, I might be able to teach you a thing or two."

"Vengeance shall be mine for such a bold statement," Eula proclaimed her signature phrase, the pair flashing each other knowing grins.

"Be very careful of writing checks that you cannot cash," A new voice entered the conversation, one that made Weiss's hair stand on end. The man was very tall and broad-shouldered, flowing black hair with deep-purple tips and a pair of silver glasses framing a handsome, relaxed face. His black suit was contrasted by the white and silver greatcoat that hung off of his shoulders, though Weiss's eyes were immediately drawn to the stylized letter 'I' pinned to his heart. Beyond that though, she knew this man.

"From what I've heard, Miss Schnee here has obtained quite the laundry-list of fantastic opponents," He said, "Enough that she may well give you a run for your money, Lady Lawrence."

"Then I will endeavour not to let my guard down should we come to blows, Lord-Inquisitor Pantalone," Eula bowed formally, Weiss doing the same.

"You flatter me sir," Weiss said respectfully to the man who controlled the kingdom's finances. It would have never occurred to her that he was a member of the Inquisition, but her newfound knowledge didn't surprise her in the slightest. Though, she was also curious about why Inquisitors were being so open about their rank. Perhaps the Inquisition was responding to her father's open declaration of warfare?

"I do wish I could speak with you longer," He said sadly, "But it would appear that the Primarch is going to make an announcement."

Her eyes turned to see her father making his way towards the silver throne. The blanketing noise of conversation had quickly begun to die out as all eyes turned to look at the Primarch, his aura suddenly filling the room and commanding everyone's attention effortlessly. Ice-blue eyes drifted across the room, quickly locking onto Weiss's own, and she felt her hands begin to tremble as the gaze felt so similar to when she gazed upon the face of the God on a throne of brass and skulls. Not as terrifying of course, but the similarities remained unpleasant.

"Most faithful members of the New Imperium," He spoke, his voice quiet yet washing through the hall. "Thank you for coming here today, to commemorate the losses our great empire has suffered in the opening of the Great Rift. Beyond simply being here to honour the brave fallen, I wish to assure everyone that no such fate shall befall Atlas itself and its people as long as I breathe."

He snapped his fingers and a figure almost as tall as he was stepped in from behind, and she started in surprise. The warrior was clad in the golden armour of the legendary Custodes, bodyguards of the past-Emperor himself. More shockingly was the Guardian Spear he wielded: Weiss knew exactly who the wielder of that spear was.

'Did my father kidnap Jaune's dad!?' She realized as she peered into the recent memories of that spear.

People gasped and clapped at the sight of the Custodian, Weiss realizing that this too was a well-played ploy, for having one of the Custodes seemingly by his side would further legitimize his ascendancy. That was not who her father was talking about however, because being gently guided with Diodes's hand on their back was someone heart-wrenchingly familiar but horribly changed.

"Be assured that beyond even my own Legion of Astartes," He said, "Atlas will have some of the finest defenders wrought by my own hands!"

Penny Polendina stood in front of Diodes, stock-still. Almost every part of her body that had once been at least human in appearance had been replaced by harshly edged, fully robotic parts that seemed more like armour. Gunmetal grey necrodermis made up her sharp-shinned 'boots,' blade-like fingers gleamed on her hands, and a glowing green core on her torso shone right in the middle of her torso. Everything above her lips was covered in an armoured black visor, a single line of green light across it seemingly acting as her eyes. Weiss's glass of sparkling grape juice crashed onto the floor, the sound drowned out by the thunderous applause of the crowd as Penny began to float into the air, the air wavering around her as a spear made of pure green energy materialized in her hand.

"Come to me."

Weiss's body moved on its own, her mind hazy for a few moments before she snapped out of her stupor and realized that she was suddenly standing next to her father with Whitley at his other side, the former grabbing them by the wrists and raising their hands.

"Behold, my very own progeny! An Abominable Intellect bent to my very will and turned into a weapon for the sake of our Imperium! My son, Equerry of the Atlesian Scions, and one of my daughters, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company! My Primaris!"

Weiss legitimately began to weigh her options on killing him in front of everyone. Her chances were next to zero, but she weighed them anyway. She could pour her soul into creating the Blade Encarmine and allow it to explode. Even if he didn't allow her to hit him with the sword, she wondered if he'd be able to react to the resulting detonation. He probably could. She thought about opening hundreds of Glyphs up on the ceiling and unleashing every single weapon she had stored in her soul on him. She gave up on that pretty quickly. Doing something like that would likely drain her reserves in a heartbeat, not to mention the sheer collateral damage. He clenched her jaw so tightly that her teeth could've cracked, swallowing her tears and staring blankly at the cheering crowd.

"Do you dislike what I've done to your friend?"

She glanced at her father, and saw that he was looking at her from the corner of his eye. His mouth didn't seem to move, but he spoke all the same.

"…Yes," She hissed through clenched teeth.

"Then continue to struggle against me," He somehow whispered as if his mouth was right next to her ear. "Climb to even greater heights and raise your blades against me."

}-Mistral-{

Jaune wanted to draw his blade the moment they stepped foot in the ruined settlement. If the mere vibe of the place was already off, its appearance was even more concerning, if not outright baffling. Beyond the standard destroyed buildings and what was left of corpses, everything about the actual location was wrong. Some structures looked freshly destroyed, Jaune swearing that he could see pieces of wood still smouldering. Other places looked easily years old if not decades, judging by the moss growing on some of the ruins. What made it weirder was that some of the structures just didn't seem to line up with any kind of cultural consistency. The traditional wood-working style and plated tiles of typical Mistralese architecture randomly blended into some kind of curved pale stone that didn't quite belong in any kingdom that Jaune was aware of.

"You're sure this is Oniyuri?" Jaune asked Ren, the latter looking at the map.

"…Yes," Ren said after a moment. "A lot of the usual markings outside the town are the exact same, it's just that the town is… this now."

Jaune quickly checked his scroll and saw that Nora and Pyrrha were still together, carefully scouting out the town for threats ahead of them. Relieved that they were still alright, he walked up to the strange pale stone and examined it closer, noticing that it wasn't exactly like stone, oddly crystalline in anything. He peered closer, suddenly recognizing what the oscillating patterns of the material were similar to.

"Is…" He muttered, "Is this dust?"

He touched it lightly and channelled a tiny portion of his aura into and through the structure, one of the primary methods of activating dust, and wasn't even able to regret the decision as he was physically slapped in the brain by the sheer weight of the structure, its information feeding back into his unprepared mind in an instant as his aura passed right through the entire building like a bullet through air. He tumbled across the floor before rolling to a stop, staring blankly up into the sky, ears ringing. He blinked a few times and glanced to his left, seeing a panicked Ren trying to grab his attention while checking on him. Jaune gasped and sat up straight, sound flooding back into his ears before he groaned and massaged his aching head.

"Jaune, what the hell happened!?"

"Th-sorry," He said, his tongue numb in his mouth and difficult to control, "Thtone like dutht."

"Huh?"

Jaune bit his tongue in an effort to force sensation back into it, rolling it in his mouth a few times.

"Th-the weird stone," He said after a moment, "It's like dust. Don't channel your aura into it."

"Does it reflect back onto you?" Ren asked, content that Jaune seemed alright now.

"Sort of the opposite?" He groaned as he stood, "I think it conducts aura way too well, I practically got punched in the face by the feedback of info. You'd have to be crazy to…"

Jaune and Ren gave each other a knowing look before they quickly took their scrolls out a moment too late. There was a dull *BOOM* in the distance before Nora fell from the sky, smashing face-first into the floor right in front of them. They stared at her for a moment, Jaune starting to worry that she was seriously hurt before she planted her fists into the floor and yanked herself out of the rubble, her hair a mess as she shook her head.

"THAT was fun!" She laughed, dusting herself off. "Touched the weird white stone-stuff around here, felt it pull on my aura, then that happened."

"…No headaches?" Ren asked as he gently held her chin up with one hand, peering into her eyes for any signs of a concussion.

Nora just cocked her head, a blank, curious look on her face.

"I'll take that as a no," Ren chuckled, Nora laughing with him as Jaune sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. Pyrrha showed up not even a few seconds later, surfing on her shield mid-air and frantically making her way towards Nora.

"Are you okay!?" Pyrrha asked, fussing over Nora.

"She'd perfectly fine, don't worry," Ren said with his usual wry smile.

"As fine as Nora can be, yeah," Jaune laughed tiredly before turning a curious eye to the odd, dust-like material. He felt just how responsive the material was when conducting his aura, and there was so much of it available here. "…I wonder…"

He walked up to the material and drew his sword, initially thinking about just cutting a chunk off himself. The memory of his aura being so easily conducted through the structure made him wonder: if the material was similar to dust but far more conductive, could it be manipulated in a similar way? Sheathing Crocea, he placed his hand on the stone and very carefully extended a portion of his aura through a small part of it, around the size of his fist, and locked it in place. He pursed his lips as he gripped tightly with both his hand and aura on the chunk before firmly pulling back. He almost fell on his backside as the chunk slid free without any resistance, examining it carefully in case it decided to blow up in his hand.

"We gotta take as much of this stuff as we can safely carry," He said.

"Jaune, it literally just launched Nora through a roof," Pyrrha deadpanned.

"And it's super aura-conductive without any real drawbacks unless whatever it's attached to is super large," He argued back, "All I'm saying that we could maybe use small bits of this stuff to upgrade our gear. We kinda need it."

They'd been using similar gear from their time in Beacon with a few extra additions. Jaune's armour actually protected more than his ribcage now, fully encompassing his body in lightweight plating and breathable chainmail. Pyrrha's addition were similar, her battle-skirt turned into a full-length chainmail dress, the bronze armouring increased on her arms, shoulders, and collar. Nora and Ren had kept their respective additions lighter in nature though competent in their own rights, a silver breastplate, pauldrons and plated battle-kilt contrasted with the deep forest-green of Ren's armoured vest and waist-cape. Ren was especially in dire need of a proper replacement, with his Stormflower SMG-pair having been destroyed in The Fall and replaced by pistols and a shortsword that, while serviceable, were seriously lacking in the stopping-power that would be necessary to take down tougher opponents.

"Yes, I suppose you would 'kind of' need it," A new voice said from the rooftop above, the air of the abandoned town going from merely uncomfortable to achingly dreadful, "Wraithbone is quite a useful material after all, even to those who are not of the Aeldari."

Team JNPR drew their weapons in a heartbeat and trained them on the speaker, all of them scowling at the familiar, hateful visage of the Astartes in front of them.

"As the Everchosen of Chaos," Erebus spoke, the shadows around him whispering and writhing as he grinned, "I have forseen your movements, and would be all too pleased to halt you on your journey altogether."

...TWBY Continued...