How did things come to this?
That was the question C4-621 Callsign: Raven had mentally asked himself for the umpteenth time in the last two hours. That was how long ago it had been since he'd set the stars ablaze. A mere two hours. His Armored Core was currently out of commission as it drifted through the Coral-lit expanses of outer space.
A glance through the machines HUD showed that the Black steel arms of his AC were wrapped protectively around another mechanical being, this one a pure white. Occasional flickers of red were seen in the multiple "eyes" on its head armor.
"Ayre. She's still alive... good."
Raven thought as he looked at the sentient being of Coral energy's mechanical body.
He'd been the one to put her in this state, and he hated himself for it. She tried to stop him from destroying Rubicon, her home, and he'd been so set on destroying the Coral energy, Walter's last wish, that he'd nearly butchered her.
"home..." his mind lingered on the idea of having a home to come back too.
As a Hound he'd never known his own family, he'd been told they'd given him up for money as a newborn. He'd been raised to be nothing but a tool for fighting wars for nearly 17 years.
Ayre and Walter had been the closest thing to family he'd ever had. Ayre, the kind caring companion that he never knew he wanted. And Walter, the strict but secretly proud father. Both looking out for him in their own ways.
Was that what a home would be like? Was that why he had forced himself to keep Ayre's new body safe for her? Was that why he had poured every drop of the ambient Coral Energy his Generator could absorb into the white AC?
... Yes. That had to be the reason... he wanted a home of his own. He wanted to find his real parents and ask them why they'd given him up. What did he do to deserve the fate he'd been given?
"I want... to go... home.." his broken and unused vocal cords barely managed to scratch out those words.
He never spoke unless it was absolutely necessary, a silent hound wasn't one that got punished after all.
The words he had just spoken were dull in tone, yet bore the weight of his tired heartfelt wish.
The voices of the Coral fell silent upon his words, their disembodied attentions focused on the one who had destroyed Rubicon.
His ultralight Armored core simply floated amongst their fires, clutching desperately to the embodiment of their will. They could see that he was desperately transferring all of his AC's energy to keep their embodiment alive.
But he was running out of time.
/ALERT!! Life Support Failure: Energy Reserves Depleted! Initiating Emergency Lock Down!/
Raven felt despair as those words scrolled across his HUD screen.
"No... nononononono! Not now! Dammit I'm so close! Ayre!?! Ayre please! You have to wake up! Now! Please!" Raven used his mental connection with the AI born from Coral energy to practically scream for her to wake up.
For a second he thought he felt her presence in his mind, but it was gone just as quick.
"Ayre... please... don't die." He practically begged the AI.
His oxygen supply was starting to get a little thin, his generator was still working but it wasn't at full capacity. Pretty soon he'd pass out due to the lack of oxygen. He could already feel himself becoming faint.
"Ayre... you have to... wake up... you're... all I... have left..." He barely managed to croak out the words before finally succumbing to unconsciousness.
"...Raven?" her voice was the last thing his mind registered before it all went black.
And then the ever attentive Coral reacted.
Remnant-- Solitas Content: Atlas Academy.
James Ironwood, Commanding General of the Atlesian Military, Headmaster of Atlas Academy, Hero of Mantle, and member of Ozpin's Inner Circle, gazed up at the brilliant orange light that flooded the sky full of it's sunny aurora.
It was a beautiful sight to behold, if not for the fact that the sun had set hours prior and it was currently eleven in the evening.
The sight of the fiery sky when it was supposed to be pitch dark out, especially in Solitas' winter climate, was enough to unnerve the usually calm man.
Something in his gut told him that something had caused the flames beyond their world to erupt. The idea that something had to power to set Stars on fire sent shivers down his steel spine. If something like that teamed up with Salem... humanity wouldn't stand a chance, they would face indefinite extinction.
He could only hope that whatever had caused it, would stay away from Remnant.
As if to spit on his hopes, the orange flames that permeated the starry sky suddenly imploded in on itself, before a single streak of orange broke through the planet's atmosphere with a resounding blast of a shockwave. The object streaked through the sky and found itself crash landing into the tallest mountain on Solitas.
Ironwood blinked at what had just happened before he moved to his desk to press a button on his intercom.
"... Specialist Schnee... Is Qrow Branwen somewhere in Atlas right now?" He asked on the intercom.
The reply he received was almost immediate.
"No sir. Branwen is nowhere near Solitas to my knowledge. Why do you ask?" the voice of one of Winter Schnee asked him.
Ironwood silently winced at the knowledge of his own luck being the cause of the current situation.
"No reason, it's nothing. However I do have a mission for you and the Ace Ops." Ironwood said none too quickly.
"Sir?" Winter asked, ready to reciever her orders.
Good. Just what he needed.
"I'm sure you saw the unknown object that impacted the base of Mount Summit. In the general vicinity of the Ancient Monument." Ironwood paised for her to reply.
"Yes sir." she said instantly.
"I believe the object may be related to the fires that lit up the space outside of Remnant's atmosphere and beyond. Take the Ace Ops and investigate the crash. And if you find anything inform me immediately. This is of the utmost importance." Ironwood's tone left no room for any argument or refusal.
Not that he needed it anyways.
"Understood sir. We'll deploy as soon as we have prepared." Winter acknowledged the order in her typical stern militaristic manner.
"Good. Be careful out there Schnee. There are various elder Grimm out towards that area. And there's no telling what kind of threat this unknown object could be. Dismissed." Ironwood said.
"Understood General. Have a good evening sir." with that Winter signed off from the intercom leaving Ironwood alone with his thoughts.
Sitting at his desk, he rotated to over look the plumes of smoke billowing from within the mountainside.
He contemplated informing Ozpin about the recent events, before deciding against it. Ozpin and he hadn't been on the best of terms the last several years. Neither had him or Glynda for that matter, not since the son they'd had together had been taken mere hours after his birth.
His eyes glanced at the arm he'd lost in the battle to retrieve his only child, his greatest failure. The rest of the right half of his body had been replaced by cybernetics, along with that arm. Glynda and his' relationship practically fell apart after that day, even now she blames him for what they had lost.
And he completely agreed with her.
They hadn't even decided on a name yet. Ironwood had been more partial to Rook as a name for his son, but it never came to be.
The kidnappers were still unknown but they escaped in small ships far more advanced than anything Atlas currently possessed.
James tightened his mechanical fist before he let out a sigh of melancholy and let it fall limp on the armrest of his chair.
He went back to observing the smoke, strangely feeling a sense of giddiness as he watched an Atlesian airship set out towards the crash site.
Winter Schnee was a woman of great discipline and held a sense of duty that was hard to find in even the most perfect of soldiers, despite this fact she rebelled against her abusive family and joined the Atlesian Military as a specialist.
At first it had only been to piss off Jaques, but as time passed she began to feel like the military was where she belonged. Protecting the people of Atlas was her calling, and she'll be damned if some unknown object would stand in the way of her duties.
She observed the smoking crater beside Mount Summit where the unknown object had crashed.
She and the Ace Ops flew above the site in the Atlesian Airship they had commandeered for this mission.
"So Winter..." The youngest and most recent addition to the Ace Ops, a wolf tailed faunus named Marrow Amin, began as he inched closer with a great deal of hesitation.
"Yes Marrow? What is it?" She turned to look at him, which made him stiffen a little.
He was always so nervous around her, not that she could blame him.
"U-um well I just wondering what you think it might be that did this? Elm and I think it's Aliens. While Harriet and Vine think it's just a meteor that was launched by a nearby supernova. And Clover... is just Clover." Marrow told her.
Winter wasn't one to trifle in such things but... they did make valid points. None of them even knew what they were up against, or if they were hostile or not.
Then there was the Grimm in the area.
They were sure to be older than most, and by extension... smarter. Humans haven't set foot near this mountain since the last great war. There was never a need too once Atlas became fully autonomous. The lack of attacks from humans would have given even the weakest of Grimm more than enough time to evolve into something vicious and extremely intelligent.
Winter shook her head to clear her worries.
"There's no point in wondering. We're about to find out." Winter said as she turned to the rest of the Ace Ops.
"Grab your gear. We're dropping now." Winter said as she opened the side door of the airship to allow the icy wind to enter the ship.
Marrow sighed and nodded, while the others didn't bother with the pleasantries and began to grab their gear.
Soon enough they were geared up and ready to drop.
The team of six stood ready at the open door.
"Alright team," Clover, a rather jovial man with short brown hair, wearing a custom Atlas uniform with no sleeves and a four leaf clover pin on the collar, began in his usual upbeat manner. "Let's see what all the fuss is about shall we?"
His smile was infectious as the others smiled, even Winter had a slight smile on her lips.
"Right!" The rest of the Ace Ops, sans Winter, said as they gave a mock salute to their team leader.
"Alright! Ace Ops time to drop!" Clover said before he ran full speed out the open door... nearly 1000 feet in the air.
He was immediately joined by the rest of the Ace Ops and Winter, each using their own respective landing strategies.
Clover used his fishing pole to act as a grappling hook. Marrow used his Semblance and his Boomerang in tandem, using his ability to freeze a single object or person in place to use his Boomerang as a jumping platform, the magnetic dust build into it made sure it would always return to him for the next jump. Vine used his expert level aura manipulation to extend the aura from his hands like whips which he used to latch onto various tree branches and rock formations, once he got low enough. Harriet used her Velocity Semblance to somehow generate enough friction in the air to create short bursts of speed to allow her to sort of run in mid air.
And Elm... well she was just Elm. She kind of just... destroyed everything like a cannon ball on her way down.
Winter using her own Semblance, touched down on the snow covered ground on the back of a pure white manticore grimm, which promptly faded away as soon as her feet touched the frozen earth.
A quick glance told her that everyone had successfully regrouped and were now waiting for her orders.
"The crash site from where we are currently, is around 8 kilometers north of here. It'll be a little bit of a hike but we should get there in around 30 minutes, 15 if we were to jog." Winter said.
"Except for me of course." Harriet said with a cocky grin.
Winter shot her a glance.
"That is correct," She said, watching on as Harriet got a smug look on her face. "Which is why you'll be scouting ahead."
Harriet's face took on a dumbfounded and horrified look. Marrow and Elm snickered at the woman's misfortune.
Winter looked at the rest of them.
"Any other questions or comments? None? Good let's go." Winter said before turning away and began walking towards the direction of the crash.
Harriet grumbled a bit at her big mouth, before she took off at literal lightning speed.
Marrow sniggered a few seconds more before following after Winter and the rest of the Ace Ops.
He wasn't going to lie, he was really curious about just what this object really was.
Deep within the mountain, red light flickered to life.
As she awoke, Ayre shifted her disembodied head to examine her surroundings.
Judging by the slightly melted stone around her, they had crash landed into some sort of cavern. Or perhaps the crash had made the cavernous space around her? She wouldn't doubt it if that was in fact the case.
Shifting her essence around, she found what she was looking for, or rather who.
"Raven..."
The sight of the black, lightweight, reverse joint legged AC, built more for high-speeds than for protection, sent a complex stream of emotions through her.
He had destroyed Rubicon, burned her family, the Coral, and yet... he had still saved her.
"You're... all I... have left..." His words from before rang throughout her mind, and despite her lack of a proper body, she found her cheeks burning.
"He spoke." She whispered to herself.
Raven had never spoken to her aloud before, she'd never heard his voice. They had always conversed through their mental connection, and that was more words being thought and transferred, there was no voice to mentally put the words too.
But now... now she had a voice for the words. It was slightly deep, rasped and hard to hear due to his atrophied vocal cords, but it was still a voice!
Drifting closer to the dark form of Raven's AC. Corvus, she mentally corrected. Raven had been so taken by his namesake's strength that he gave his previously nameless AC the name of Corvus.
The near avine appearance of the machine suited the name as well.
As she got closer she saw that the black steel arms of Corvus held a small white humanoid object. It was the core of the AC she had used to fight against Raven, a smaller model in the Ibis series.
It resembled the C-weapon they had fought against upon discovering to Coral Lake in institute city. The only differences was that it was smaller about the size of a human body and strangely feminine in figure.
Ayre had to wonder if the scientists who designed it had either predicted the coming loss of their physical bodies to the Coral, or was just a pervert... Either option would have made sense.
Approaching the object, she allowed herself to enter the mechanical humanoid in the arms of Raven's AC.
Once she had assimilated into to machine properly she extracted her new mechanical limbs from Corvus' grasp and stood up.
She didn't have time to properly test out this body before her fight with Raven, she couldn't help but feel excited at the prospects that it opened up for her.
She could now walk, run and do all the things she never could before. She could even...
Her mechanical cheeks somehow burned as certain thoughts entered her mind.
It was entirely possible... The Ibis series were closer to biological life than even the most advanced biotechnology of any known age, and her new form was no exception.
She glanced down at the AC's core that she currently stood upon.
Through their mental connection she felt Raven's unconscious mind, he was dreaming... of a home he never knew. She tilted her robotic head slightly, she had delved into Raven's past before, but she had never seen his memories, out of respect for his privacy. But she knew he'd had it rough.
Ayre decided that after everything that had happened between them... she could put her morals on mind snooping aside for a little while.
And so Ayre delved into his mind and viewed his memories, and they nearly made her vomit, not that she could've anyways. She watched everything from his point of view, his treatment and training as a child, the augmentations he'd been forced to endure. God he'd been awake for the procedures! They tried to break his mind to be nothing but a mindless killing machine for their purposes, it was no wonder he hadn't sided with her! He had been conditioned, brainwashed, to follow every order his handler had given him! Especially if they were final orders! She'd never had a chance at persuading him otherwise! It would have been nothing short of a miracle if he had somehow managed to break his programing! It had been a miracle in itself that he had spared her life and even saved it.
He didn't deserve what happened to him... she knew that, which was why she found whatever residual anger she had over the loss of Rubicon fade away from her, instead it was replaced with righteous anger at those who had tortured him. She prayed that she never met them, otherwise she might go on another rampage and end up drawing Raven back to fight her.
She let out a sigh of melancholy before she sat on the Core below her and pulled her mechanical knees to her chest, resting her cheek on them.
"Wake up soon Raven..." She said aloud in her new body, she was already feeling lonely without him.
(*Crick-clackclackclack...*)
The sound of a pebble falling to the ground drew her attention to the source of the sound.
The main group arrived at the crash site and regrouped with Harriet, who had been waiting patiently, whilst leaning against a boulder that had likely been formed from the crash.
"Status report." Winter said to Harriet as they stopped to rest before the would proceed.
"No sign of the unknown object, it's likely deep in that cavern below us." The speed demon informed the group.
"Any sign of Grimm?" Winter asked.
Harriet shrugged.
"I haven't seen any in person, but there were signs of Grimm activity the closer I got to the hole. They've likely gone down to either nest or investigate the sudden disturbance of their habitat." Harriet finished her report with a wary glance at the hole in the mountainside.
Winter followed her eyes and took in the sight of the hole.
It was massive. Whatever had made it would have to have been the size of a four story building! She sincerely hoped that whatever it was... that it wasn't hostile.
(*BOOM!*)
The ground shook slightly below then as the shockwave of an explosion blasted from the hole in the mountain.
"What that hell was that!?" Harriet cursed as she fought to keep herself stable.
"Our target..." Vine muttered.
Elm nodded with a serious expression that looked a bit uncanny on her.
"The Grimm must have found it." Marrow said, anxiously shifting his feet in the snow, his tail was low.
"Come on team, we have to get there and see what's happening for ourselves." Clover said with a grin, but his eyes were serious.
"Right..." They muttered before they all made their way towards the hole, and down into the depths of the mountain.
At the first sight of the strange pack of animals made of black mass and bone plating, Ayre hadn't bothered to hide from the creatures. She had thought they were just curious about them and decided to watch how things would play out.
That had been a mistake, because the second they spotted her sitting form they leapt at the chance to attack her.
Her new body wasn't well equipped for combat, but it still had a few tricks up its sleeve that had allowed her to deal with them, with a little effort. Unfortunately the sounds of combat had drawn more beasts to the area. But a different set of black creatures emerged from the tunnel.
Where the first set had been more akin to Sabertooth Tigers of the earth's early days of life, the second set were large centipede-like creatures, that scuttled around in a manner that Ayre found... unsettling, in a manner one would feel upon seeing a nest of spiders.
Seeing that they hadn't spotted her yet, she dove behind the large chest of the AC and attempted to keep herself hidden.
The centipede creatures chittered about as they examined the dark metal surface of the thing that had blasted a hole in their home.
They could feel the presence of their Queen as she gazed through their sensory organs to see the unknown object.
She sense some sort of energy source within the object, one that wasn't Aura, Dust, or even Magic, and yet it felt... alive.
She ordered them to attempt to get inside the large metal thing and take it for her.
They chittered in response and rushed the being's chest area and began to scratch at the thing.
Meanwhile Ayre was horrified at the sight of the creatures attempting to break through the metal structure of Corvus' Core, where Raven lay sleeping.
She needed to act fast and with her connection to Raven's mind she began to mentally scream at him to wake up.
The creature's however made absolutely no headway in breaking through to the one inside the machine, and as a result began to get frustrated. Some of the creatures showed a shocking degree of intelligence and used their mandibles to lift and repeatedly slam large rocks onto the chest of the AC.
"Raven! Raven wake up! They'll get through at this rate! Come on! Wake! Up!" Her mental shouts for the unconscious mercenary weren't producing any results, so far. The closest she'd gotten was for his dreamscape self to pause and listen to her.
Ayre let out a frustrated growl at the pilot's laziness, not that it was really his fault but hey the situation was dire, and she was allowed to be a little annoyed.
The sounds of banging and chittering came to a sudden halt, which surprised Ayre, until that surprise turned to horror as she realized... she had growled aloud for the creatures to hear and all were now facing her.
"U-uh oh..." She muttered to herself.
"Raven... ok seriously. It's time to wake up." She thought to him in an nervous manner.
"Chchchch?" The creatures in front chittered in sync as they examined her.
The strange metal female possessed the same unknown energy source as the one inside the machine below them.
An idea struck them just then.
If they couldn't take the one inside the machine... then they would just take the on that wasn't! The Queen would surely appove of their decisive thinking!
"Chchch-Chsssssssssss!" Their chittering turned into a malicious hissing as they rushed the metal female.
Ayre backed away frantically, the fingers on her metallic hands came together in a knife shape, before a series of red torch flames sparked at each of her fingertips.
One of the centipedes managed to close the distance before finding a red lazer blade bisecting it vertically.
It's final screeches resounded throughout the stone space around them.
The sound sent the rest of the creatures into a frenzy, they all clambered over each other to reach her, their desire to avenge their fallen brethren made them throw out any intellectual properties they had, they devolved into a mass of sharp legs and snapping mandibles as they reached her.
And as luck would have it... Ayre's red lazer blade was in cooldown.
She could only watch on as the mass of centipedes descended down on her intending to tear her apart. She used her mechanical arms to erect a pointless attempt at shielding herself.
"RAVEN!" She shouted in fear as she prayed for the AC pilot to wake up.
(*WAM!*)
Something heavy slammed into the writhing mass of creatures, sending them flying into the cavern wall.
Ayre peeked out from behind her arms and felt her mechanical heart skipped a beat at what she saw.
A single pitch black mechanical fist hung in the air where the creatures once were.
She looked up to see the familiar mechanical face of his EL-PH-ALBA, red light streaming from its six eyelike visors.
"Raven..." She whispers in relief.
The coms crackled to life from the usually silent AC.
"*cshzt!* Ayre..."
His rasped voice sent another set of butterflies through her... well her everything.
"Good morning Raven." She said with a bit of amusement in her tone.
"Mm... morning Ayre." He replied to her greeting. She thought she detected a hint of a sheepish tone in his voice.
How cute.
She shook her head, now was not the time for idle chatter.
"Raven. Those creatures were attempting to break into your AC. It was like they sensed you were inside and were trying to get at you." She informed him of the situation.
"... understood." Raven said before he drew his AC to its full height.
Ayre was now able to see the rest of the AC's body, more specifically the weaponry it was equipped with.
In his right hand was a small bladelike object that had a handle and several holes in the "blade". In actuality that blade object was the WUERGER/66E a lazer shotgun type weapon that shot lazer shells, but it could also double as a melee weapon when needed, especially when Raven chooses to charge up the energy inside it instead of just pulling the trigger to fire.
His left shoulder had another blade looking object mounted on it. This one was an actual melee weapon this time, the IA-CO1W2: MOONLIGHT, an experimental light-wave blade they had found in an old cache in institute city. It was a first attempt at fusing lazer and pulse technology together.
His left hand and right had another pair of weapons in/on them. His right shoulder had the VP-60LCS Laser cannon mounted to it. His left hand however was empty save for a small apparatus was mounted on the wrist, the VP-67LD laser dagger, a truly useful weapon to have.
She was already well acquainted with them, she'd been on the receiving end of these same weapons not that long ago. So she knew that this fight was practically over.
She would be proven right as his thrusters sparked to life and in a burst of sound barrier breaking speed, he was in front of the large mass of creatures, his lazer shotgun already primed for a shot.
Another blast rang out as a hail of energy shots spread out and littered the creatures with holes. Activating his lazer dagger he unleashed a combination of slashes and stabs upon the creatures, killing several before the weapon had to cool down to prevent overheating.
He backed stepped away from the mass and switched out his Lazer dagger for Moonlight, his Lazer Shotgun and Shoulder mounted Laser Cannon both had begun to glow as he charged them, several parts separated from one another as it glowed.
Using his distance from the creatures he slashed out with Moonlight, sending a wide arch of green plasma that evaporated several of the creatures.
He closed the distance again, but this time when he was directly infront of the mass of centipedes, he punched the mass with his glowing lazer shotgun, while simultaneously releasing the charge on his shoulder cannon.
(*BAM*)
The weapons released a concentrated beam of energy that hit with a force not dissimilar to the Pile Bunker that Raven's namesake plus many others had used. The remaining creatures from his melee assault, were completely vaporized from the twin blasts of energy.
Raven let loose a breath as he came out of what Cinder Carla had dubbed "Hound mode". All it was, was just his battle instincts taking the forefront of his decision making capabilities when in combat. It wasn't something most Hounds could do. Keep their battle instincts separate from their normal personality but Raven had always been a little different compared to most other hounds.
It was effective, and had earned him a good reputation even amongst freelance mercenaries. He had even received praise from the most battle hungry member of Arquebus' Vesper unit, V.I Freud, for his skills, right before Raven destroyed his AC and left the man for dead.
/WARNING: Energy Reserves Depleted!! Initiating Shutdown mode! Please Exit Core!/
"Shit..." Was Raven's thought as the Core of the Mech opened to let him out.
"Raven?" Ayre asked as she wondered why the Core's hatch had opened.
"I'm alright. My AC's generator isn't able to restore enough power to operate it." Raven send her those words through their mental connection.
"I see... that means there's no sign of Coral energy on this planet. But I am picking up some sort of energy coming from the walls of this cavern." She informed him.
"Should I check it out?" He asked her with a tilt of his head, which displaced a mess of black and purple tipped bangs, a unique pair of deep violet eyes bore into her and sent shivers down her metal body.
She'd always liked seeing him outside of his AC, however Rare it was. But it reminded her of just how young Raven really was, he was only 17 and had been through so much already.
"We can check it out together. It's really close to us." She said as she walked in the direct of the unknown energy in the walls of stone.
Raven nodded and hopped down from the AC's hatch and followed after her.
They soon found the source of the energy, a large mass of crystals of all sizes colors, green, purple, blue, red, you name it.
"This is it Raven. The source of the energy." She said as she looked at it.
"Any idea on what it can do?" Raven asked.
"Hmm... let me run a scan on it." She said before a yellow grid pattern of lazers shot out and ran themselves over the crystal.
"This is..."
"What is it?" Raven asked through their connection again.
"This can't be right... these readings indicate that these crystal are elements of nature in a crystallized state! Those purple ones are lightning, these green ones here are wind! This is incredible! If the Corporations were to get their hands on these... this planet may well end up like... Rubicon." Ayre said, trailing off at the end as she remembered what Raven had done to her home.
"... Sorry..." He whispered as he looked away from her in shame.
She shook her head.
"It's alright... you didn't really have much of a choice. You were conditioned to be like this from a young age... I was foolish to think I could change 17 years of brainwashing with only a few words." She said with clenched fist.
Raven shot her a look of horror as he realized she had dug around inside his mind, inside his memories.
She felt his emotional state through their connection.
"Sorry for prying but... I needed to know why you sided with them and not me." She apologized for invading his mind without his permission.
He looked down in shame. The memories he never wanted to share had been exposed, to the person he cared for the most.
Ayre, noticing how her words had made him feel, turned to face him.
"Raven... I'm sorry. I know how those memories make you feel... but now you're not alone with their burden. You have me. I won't make you have to choose between what is right and my own ideals ever again. Rubicon is gone, and so is the Coral, yet I remain here... with you. I promise, I will stay by your side, no matter the cost." She reached out to grasp his hand.
Raven looked at her hand in his and closed his fingers around it.
"I... will... do the same." He struggled to form the words but eventually they came out smoother than previous attempts.
If she had lips to smile with, then her face would have split in two as his words.
They stood there for a few seconds before they awkwardly turned away from each other and tried to distract themselves from the mood by examining the crystal.
After a few minutes went by Ayre suddenly had an idea.
"I think we can use these crystals as a substitute for the lack of Coral energy in the generator." She proposed to Raven who gave it some thought.
"What would we need to do to make that happen?" He asked her.
"Well... I'm not 100% sure. But I think simply attaching enough of these lightning crystals to the main power cell should give us enough power to jumpstart the generator for the time being." She explained her hypothesis.
He nodded and before she could say anything he pulled a long combat knife with a glowing blue laser edge from his armored combat suit's hip and began to cut through the purple crystals of the cluster.
Ayre didn't know whether to be flattered or worried that he had accepted her words without questions. She hadn't told him that the crystals were rather volatile in their composition.
Several minutes past before Ayre decided they had enough crystals to potentially fuel the generator, around a total of 60 of them.
"That should be enough Raven. You can stop now. Let's just get the ones we have into the generator." She instructed the teenage AC pilot.
He nodded and gathered up the pile of crystals like they were firewood.
Ayre couldn't help but admire the way his arms, which were bare of any sleeves, bulged as he lifted the combine weight of each crystal.
Now more than ever was she glad her metal face was incapable of blushing.
He glanced at her.
"You alright?" He asked, having felt a strange series of emotions coming from her.
"Y-yes! I'm fine! Don't mind me." She hastily reassured him. He gave a hesitant nod in response, and continued with his task.
"How do I do this?" He asked once he had loaded every piece of crystal onto the still open hatch door of his AC.
"The generator is in the back right? Between the arsenal loaders?" She asked him, he was the mechanic between the two after all. He had been the one to build it after all, it was part of his curriculum back when he was still training to be a hound.
He nodded.
"Well I'm fairly certain that if you put enough of these crystals in the fuel compartment and start up the AC it should automatically convert into energy we can use." She said, hesitantly.
Raven shot her a sceptical look, one that clearly said what he was thinking even without the link.
"So just... cram them all in?"
"Essentially yes..." She said, a little relieved at his scepticism, but a little put off by how he had crudely simplified all of the calculations she had done.
Raven looked at the bundle in his arms and then to the deactivated Corvus. The fact he could even see the machine made him realize something.
They were deep underground...
"Where is all this light coming from?" He asked Ayre who paused as she processed his words.
In unison they looked up and gaped at the sight of a massive crystal shimmered with a pale myriad of colors.
"Wow..." Raven breathed out. The sight was truly one to behold.
"It's different that the others, it's like it's both emitting and bending light." Ayre muttered.
"How did we not notice this before?" Raven wondered.
"Like I mentioned, it's bending the light around it, like it's making itself invisible to the eyes for several seconds at a time." Ayre explained, and as if to prove her right, the shimmering crystal faded from sight, yet the light it emitted remained.
"Incredible..." Ayre whispered in awe.
Raven nodded his agreement.
They stood in silence for a few more seconds before Raven turned back to his AC, making his way to the generator on it's back.
"I'll open the generator hatch, pass me the crystals one by one." Raven instructed as he fiddled with the manual unlock for the Generator's fuel compartment.
Ayre looked away from the shimmering crystal and nodded. She approached and climbed onto the Core's open hatch where the crystals lay waiting to be used.
Once Raven got the generator opened and held out a hand to recieve the crystals from Ayre, who started with the largest crystal he'd collected, before handing him the smaller ones after.
Soon enough the compartment was filled to the brim with purple crystals. Ayre hopped down from the Core and Raven moved to replace her before he settled into the cockpit.
Ayre sincerely hoped this worked, her calculations hadn't added up to anything more that a 75% chance of success. But she had faith in Raven, if anyone could make the impossible possible... if was him.
She'd seen it time and time again, and even experienced it first hand.
She watched on as he closed the cockpit, manually and waited for him.
Within the machine Raven settled back into the seat of Corvus' cockpit, feeling comfortable for the first time since he had been forced to exit. His AC to him was more like his real body, and his flesh and blood self was only a small piece of it. He felt more confident when he was piloting an Armored Core, more sure of himself.
He began the start up sequence, starting with the generator. The machine kicked on without a hitch... is what he would have liked to say, but the truth was it didn't even start.
Cursing under his breath as he slammed his first onto the arm rest of his seat, he didn't see the small shard of purple crystal that had bounced into the air and landed onto the console.
Or at least... he didn't noticed it until it bagan to glow and spark with electricity, but by then it was too late.
"Oh f- Gyaaaaaah!!" He didn't even have time to curse his luck as he was subsequently electrocuted by the piece of crystal. His augmentations sparked a bit as he screamed in pain. His teeth were grit shut tightly to prevent himself from biting his tongue off. As the shocks continued he felt something within his very soul burst forth like a busted dam.
Once the shocks had faded from his system, his vision drifted in and out of clarity. He could hear Ayre's voice screaming at him through their connection but he couldn't make out the words through the pounding of his brain.
However once his mind had cleared up enough he immediately noticed a familiar shade of red light flickering from his fingertips.
It couldn't be...
Slowly lifting his hand to inspect the appendages he saw that it wasn't just his finger but his whole arm that flickered with red energy, a very familiar red energy.
Coral? But how?
He twisted his hand around to examine his palm, then to the back of his hand, repeating this several more times.
Was it coming from him? Was this like the Coral energy left over in the atmosphere of Rubicon from the Fires of Ibis?
The thought of the Coral somehow surviving and being part of him made him both... elated.. and annoyed.
He was glad that there was still some parts of Rubicon for Ayre to hold dear... but the fact it took him being electrocuted for it to appear frankly pissed him off.
As he glared at the energy on his arm, and idea suddenly struck him like a ton of bricks.
He was generating Coral energy on his own... so what if he...
Reaching his hand out he activated the Neurolink in his body and connected with the main system of Corvus. His body shivered as he now fully felt the Coral energy within his body. It was crying to get out, he could hear it!
So he let it do exactly what it wanted.
Energy flowed from his body in a nova of red and the energy meter on his darkened hud quickly filled to the brim.
/System Restart Successful. Welcome back Raven. You have three timelocked messages avaliable from Handler Walter. View?/
Walter? He left him timelocked messages?
"Yes..." Raven rasped out the word.
/Confirmed: Beginning playback of messages./
"621..." Walter's voice came through the coms of the AC.
"Looks like you got the job done... You chose to carry our burden... and right the wrongs of the past."
Raven listened intently to his late Handler's voice.
"... I'm sorry... and I'm grateful." The remorse in the man's voice was palpable, and it made Raven choke up slightly.
"621... attached to the following message is a set of coordinates... coordinates to the world where you really came from. A world called Remnant. I'm sorry... for everything we did to you, for lying to you all these years. You see... when we told you that you have been given up by your family... we were lying... and after everything, you deserve to know the truth. Seventeen years ago my organization, The Observers, illegally entered onto a naturally habited world to establish a base of operations here and potentially recruit people to our side. The only problem was... these people were different than most humans. They possessed the ability to manifest their souls in a manner they have called an "Aura" and even possessed super human abilities such as superspeed from those old earth comic you used to enjoy. They had developed these powers to combat black creatures called Grimm. The Observers decided that setting up a base here wasn't worth the risk of the Grimm and decided to make do with taking a random newborn from a hospital to potentially use the aura of this planet as a weapon against the Coral." Walter explained to Raven as the teen began to realize that everything he had been told was a lie.
"Unfortunately we never knew that Aura required another Aura user to unlock. There were cases of Aura manifesting in cases of extreme stress... which was why they had kept you awake during the augmentation procedure. When it failed they sent you off to be trained as a hound and eventually die on the job. Jokes on them, you turned out to be more resilient than expected..." Walter finished his explanation with a chuckle.
Raven gave an amused smirk at the joke.
"621... no Raven... there's nothing left to bind you. Whatever choices you make now... I hope you find your True Potential, and your True Home, wherever you decide that may be..."
Just like that the message ended and the second one popped up with a set of coordinates, just like Walter had said, however before Raven could properly read them the third message popped up.
"Welcome home Raven." Came Walter's voice one last time.
The implications of those words were not lost on him and he nearly broke down at the thought of finding the home he had been taken from.
What about his parents? Were they still looking for him? Who were they? How would they react to his sudden reappearance?
His mind raced at the possibilities... but for now he had a job to do.
"621... time to get to work."
He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his throat at remembering Walter's catch phrase.
The words still resonating in his mind, Raven activated his visor, and what he saw upon doing so... made his blood run cold.
The trek through the tunnel was fairly straightforward, but holy fuck was it deep!
"Uuuugh how much further is this damn hole gonna go!?" Harriet cursed as she walked next to Marrow who simply shrugged.
"Don't ask me, you're the scout." The wolf faunus said.
"But you have night vision!" Harriet hissed st him.
"Ok one... racist. And two, not every faunus has nightvision... just most of us." Marrow snarked at her.
"So... you can't see in the dark?" Harriet asked him with a raised brow.
"No I can, you just shouldn't assume I can because I'm a faunus." Came Marrow's immediate reply.
"Urgh!" Harriet growled as she mimed herself strangling the air, that she imagined to be Marrow.
Elm snickered a bit as she listened in on the conversation, she had to admit that the new kid had balls to antagonize Harriet on his first mission with the group. She liked that in a teammate, someone who can easily joke around with a team he just joined and not be visibly nervous, was someone she could trust to have her back.
"Everyone stop moving." Winter's voice hissed back at them, a tone of urgency clear to them.
Elm, the most likely to be first in any fight, approached Winter's side to see what she had spotted.
Her breath hitched at what she saw.
"Guys... you all need to see this." She called back to the rest of the group, who all hastened to join them.
"Holy..." Marrow began.
"Fuck..." Harriet finished.
"What is that thing?" Vine asked examining the large centipede creature that glowed an acidic green, a humanoid torso replaced the centipede head of it's former appearance, but it's own head was insectoid and it had two sets of large bladelike arms.
"A Cenitaur..." Clover said his tone as grim as the creatures below.
"What?! But those haven't been seen since the last great war!" Marrow hissed at his leader.
"Not officially anyways. I'm sure there have been run ins with them in recent years, but I doubt anyone lived to tell the tale." Winter muttered.
"Yeah, on top of that... this one is bigger than any Cenitaur ever recorded, this one has likely been here for a very long time." Clover explained as they collectively watched the creature move deeper into the earth below.
"It must be going towards our Target. We should hurry." Vine suggested, to which he received nods of agreement from everyone.
Winter shot a look towards Harriet who understood immediately and took off running, lightning sparking as she vanished.
She had to make it to the target before the Grimm did, Winter sincerely hoped that she would.
When Raven had started to scream, Ayre nearly had a metaphorical heart attack. The sight of purple lightning arcing from the AC in all directions combined with the screams of pain sent a panic through her whole body.
"Raven!?" She screamed in horror as he body began to move. She sprinted towards the lowered, but still closed, cockpit of the AC and began to pound on the machine with her fists, wincing as her machine body spasmed due to the shock from lightning.
Soon however the lightning died down and the machine sagged even lower. Ayre's breath hitched when she saw this and began to pound on the machine harder than before, although now she wasn't hindered by the lightning.
Then she froze when she felt a very familiar energy begin to radiate from within.
"Coral Energy? But how?" Ayre whispered in shock, she could feel her essence resonating with the Coral inside of Raven, drawing life from him to support her own.
She inspected her hands and saw a thin red aura of coral energy surrounding the metal appendages.
"Just... what is going on here?" She whispered to herself.
"Chchchch-chssssss!" A familiar chittering hiss disturbs her focus on the newfound source of Coral Energy.
Spinning around she felt a creeping horror at the sight of the massive, partially humanoid centipede creature.
It tilted its head at her and chittered it's mandibles a little. It couldn't exactly tell what Ayre was, but there was one thing it knew.
Ayre could have sworn the creature gave her the most malicious grin a centipede could have ever given.
She was afraid.
The Cenitaur leaned forward to place its bladed arms to the ground, and began to skitter towards her. The bladed arms dug into the stone and propelled it faster than the other centipedes.
Ayre wanted to leap out of its path but if she did that the creature would hit Raven. So she stood her ground, she pushed aside her fears and used the newfound Coral energy in her systems to fuel her coral lazer blade for one last time.
She needed to protect Raven until he was back on his feet. Charging the creature, Ayre slashed with her red blade in an attempt to cut it down.
Unfortunately for her the grimm had other plans, it was far smarter than others of its kind and had the sense to dodge the weapon.
So it did, and with great speed that belied its massive form. It caused Ayre to overextend in her attack, and judging by the upwards swipe to the creature's scythe-like arm, she was about to pay the price.
The blade completely severed her left arm from the shoulder.
The severed circuits sparked with Coral as she was thrown back and impacted the steel frame of Corvus... or at least that's what should have happened.
Truth be told Ayre had no idea what had happened, one second she was flying backwards the next she was being place down gently by a dark tan skinned woman in a tight white bodysuit that was clearly designed for ease of motion.
"W-who-"
"Woah there little lady-bot. No need to speak right now, you took quite the beating from that thing. Rest here for a bit. My team and I will take care of things." The mystery woman said, cutting Ayre off from her questions.
But Ayre wasn't having any of that.
"No! Raven is still out there! His AC isn't still isn't functioning!" Ayre tried to force her way up.
"Raven? Is he the Pilot of that giant fucking Robot?" The woman asked, pushing her back down idly.
Ayre nodded frantically and again tried to get up.
"Ah well... then I don't think you have much to worry about. The big guy woke up just as your arm was severed. Check it." The woman said as she pointed to behind Ayre.
She craned her head to see what she was pointing at.
Only to see the glint of black steel sparking with arcs of electrified red coral energy, and three sets of baleful red eyes.
Ayre knew it right then...
Raven was pissed.
And he had every damn right to be! While he had been enjoying to last messages Walter had left him, this insectoid freak attacked Ayre! For fucksake her arm had been cut off by the bastard just as Raven gained vision with his AC!
He was glad one of the locals came and saved her from suffering even more damages.
He wasn't about to let that shit slide however, and neither was the Coral! They screamed at him to kill the creature that had hurt her, and he was more than willing to oblige them.
And so, Coral energy sparking like lightning from the six eyes of his AC, Raven forced Corvus to stand ready to kill the creature, once and for all.
The Cenitaur chittered as it tilted it's head from side to side, as it examined the machine. The presence of the Queen idly noted just how similar its current appearance was to her Grimm.
"Chchch-chsssss!" The Cenitaur unleashed another chittering hiss before lunging towards the large avine mech.
(*Boom!*)
A crack of sound followed in the wake of Raven's thrusters as he dodged away from the creature, his Moonlight already glowing as he spun a complete 180 degees, originally facing away from the creature his spin allowing him to generate more force behind his charging Moonlight's swing.
Upon his swing he released the charge and a wide arc of green energy in the shape of a Cresent moon cleaved through the air towards the humanoid centipede monstrosity.
The creature managed to duck but lost two of its scythe arms in the process, now having only two remaining.
The creature hissed at him as he switched his Moonlight for his Lazer Dagger, the former could be seen with a faint heat glow to it.
Raven engaged his thrusters again and charged towards the Creature. The Cenitaur decided to take advantage of his approach and its throat bulged with the same acidic glow that was within its chest.
Raven's AC eyes sparked again, just as the creatures spewed several balls of acid towards him like a shotgun blast. Raven's face couldn't be seen but it held a savaged grin at the creatures stupidity.
He dove straight at the acid loogies, before dodging each and every one of them at the last possible second and continued unphased by the attacks that had missed him.
The Cenitaur hadn't expected him to dodge into the attack and was caught off guard, and was rewarded with a trio of slashes from a glowing lazer blade, followed by a kick that sent it crashing into the wall behind it. It's head smacked into the wall and it was disoriented for a second before it managed to pull itself together just in time to skitter up the wall to avoid a pair of green cresents from Raven's Moonlight.
Raven landed his AC back to the stone floor and watched the creature like the hunting dog he had been trained as.
He slowly moved his AC around like a predator stalking its prey, it was an intimidation tactic, and one that worked.
The Queen watched from her creation's eyes, and paused as she began to sense that her Grimm... was afraid. The Grimm are beings of malicious intent and instinct, they have no souls, and no emotions except for the desire to kill. The idea of such a creature feeling fear... drew her attention.
She would have to remember this pilot, Raven had the robot woman called him? Hmm how amusing, for another person named Raven to oppose her. How utterly amusing... and foolish.
The Cenitaur's red eyes widened as it felt the presence of its Queen leave it. It had been Abandoned...
Strangely the beast felt... angered by this fact.
"Chsssssssss!" It hissed at Raven who responded with a lazer blast from his shoulder canon. The Cenitaur leapt to another portion of stone wall and crawled towards the roof.
Raven took potshots at the creature with his shotgun, which unintentionally made it get close to the larger shimmering crystal that had just reappeared.
"Is that..." One of the locals who had joined the fray gasped at the sight of the crystal, they were a woman with snow white hair tied in a military style bun.
"What is it Winter? Some kind of Dust Crystal?" The older male of the group with brown hair asked her.
"Winter... for a woman with white hair... bit on the nose there don't you think? Whatever not the time. Is there something about that... what did she call it... a Dust Crystal, that is important?" Raven wondered to himself as he continued to shoot at the creature.
"DON'T SHOOT THAT DUST CRYSTAL!!" Winter shouted at him loud enough to get his attention.
He looked over his shoulder to her.
"If that Crystal is hit... then it'll flash and blind us all!" Winter explained as she waved her arms to stop him.
Raven glanced back up to the creature. It had begun to coil around the crystal, and then suddenly it vanished from sight... along with the crystal.
Clicking his tongue he charged his shoulder cannon and took aim at where the crystal should have been.
"What is that thing doing?! Stop!" Winter shouted at him, only for her team to tackle her to the ground and shield her's and their eyes.
Raven fired his cannon and the blast of blue laser energy shot out and it shattered into massive chunks of shimmering gemstone.
The light that followed nearly had Raven tumbling backwards, but he had shielded himself from the majority of it in time to prevent himself from going blind.
The same however... could not be said for the Grimm.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" The creature writhed on the stone it had fallen to, a large stalagmite puncturing it's centipede body, while it clutched at its smoking face where eyes once were.
Raven didn't even bother to boost himself towards the creature, instead he walked the mechanical body of Corvus towards the downed Grimm and placed the pointed tip of his laser shotgun at the creature's humanoid body, it towered over the creature significantly.
The Cenitaur stopped writhing and looked with one remaining eye and stared into the six red one that sparked with crimson lightning. In that moment a spark of understanding entered its mindless self.
This monster was superior to itself, there was never any chance at survival against the metal thing.
It allowed its head to drop as it gave up and accepted its fate.
(*Bam!*)
One final blast ended the creature's life instantly, completely vaporizing its humanoid torso, the rest soon followed, vanishing into black mist.
Raven watched the mist fade with impassioned eyes, and with it he could feel the power of the Coral fade away, but he could still feel it slumbering within him, waiting for when he called it again. He was definitely curious about it, but for now...
"Ayre..." Raven thought with concern as he prodded their connection, when he received a response in kind he relaxed.
"Raven, I'm alright." she replied to his prodding, her own worry clear to him.
"So am I. But that power was..."
"The Coral... It seems that day you destroyed the Coral Plant when we first met left more than we had first thought..." Ayre surmised, as it was the first and last time he had been directly exposed Coral.
For some reason... Raven disagreed with her statement, remembering what the Coral had done for them to end up on this planet.
"And then there's what Walter had mentioned about the people from this world possessed... Aura..." Raven had a feeling that whatever the Coral had done to him... was intrinsically tied to his origins on this world.
Ayre didn't sense his thoughts on the matter, this he wanted to keep to himself for the time being. He promised himself that he would tell her when he was ready.
But for the time being...
He turned and made to step towards where Ayre stood, next to a spikey haired woman that seemed to have a natural resting bitch face. Once he reached her he allowed his AC to settle into its resting posture and opened to Core to allow himself to exit the contraption.
"Thank... you. You... saved... Ayre. I... owe... you... one..." He rasped out for the spiked girl to hear, of course his voice was slightly muffled by his AC pilot's unifrom helm, ehich he had custom made to appear like a fusion between a motorcycle helmet and a gas mask with a decal of a black and purple Raven midflight with the Red guns logo and a white number 13 plastered to the left-hand side of the helm.
The woman blinked at his manner of speech.
"Not used to speaking I take it?" She asked, receiving a nod in response. "Well no matter. I'm just doing my job. There's no need to thank me. Name's Harriet. The rest over there dogpiled on top of the princess are my teammates, Clover, Elm, Vine and Marrow. We were actually sent here to investigate the area because of your... robot crashing into the mountain." Harriet explained, all the while attempting to hide the fact that she really did like being thanked for doing her duty, like the Tsundere she was.
Raven nodded in understanding, being a military man himself.
"I... am... Raven. I... apologize... for... the... mountain." He said, sounding slightly sheepish beneath his helmet.
Harriet couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her throat.
"Yeah well don't worry about it. There's plenty more where this came from. The only real concern is the Grimm that might've come from the opening. But they were so busy getting killed by you that we don't really have to worry about it anymore." She said with a wink.
"Hm.." he grunted his acknowledgement so as not to strain his vocal cords too much.
Harriet noted that and gave an understanding nod, before sharpening her gaze. It was time for business, that much Raven could tell.
"Like I said before we were sent to investigate the impact, but also to retrieve the cause of it... I.e., you. You said you pwed me one. Well I'll cash that in now. Please come with us to our home, Atlas. We have some questions for you." Harriet said in a no nonsense tone.
Raven mulled it over for a second before nodding. He could use this chance to find anything about his parents.
"Alright... I... will... cooperate." Raven said with sincerity clear in his tone.
Harriet eased up her gaze on him and smiled.
"Sweet. Glad to hear it. But uh first... could you take off that helmet. I'd at least like to see the face of the person I'm talking to." Harriet said with a slight grin, more than a little curious to see how he looked.
Raven didn't see anything wrong with the request and made to remove his helmet.
By now the rest of the group had joined up and were all watching him with curious and highly interested stares.
Raven would have sweatdropped in the situation, they clearly wanted to know what he looked like... and was that Ayre watching him as well?
Ah... that's right Ayre had never really seen what he looked like because of her previous lack of a body... he guessed for her this would be the first time as well.
He was fine with that surprisingly. Most hounds could go their whole, albeit short, lives without ever taking off their helmets, but for Ayre and for his home world he supposed that he could make an exception.
As he lifted his helmet from his head he felt the mess of his black hair, with a unique dark purple tint to the ends, fall over his face, his bangs falling in a way that made his dark purple eyes still visible to all yet still covered the majority of his forehead and framed his face.
[Think Ichigo's hair when he fought Aizen, (from bleach obviously.)]
His face was a surprising mixture of masculine and slightly feminine features, angled jawline with a small but prominent chin and full but thin lips. His nose wasn't large or small but was proportioned in a way that was almost feminine with the bridge being without any real bends to it.
His deep purple eyes were angled and held a subconscious sharpness to them the would have set most anyone on edge.
But to the on lookers...
"Woah... I think I just had my gay awakening..." Marrow said with a faint blush to his cheeks.
Elm snorted while Vine silently agreed with the youngest member's words.
Winter on the otherhand was pale... well paler. She had seen his face somewhere before... or rather she had seen thise same features before... he looked just just like a younger James Ironwood.