Hey everyone. I meant to get this out yesterday or the day before, but my time management skills are rather abysmal.
Chapter is a little bit shorter than the other two, but not significantly so. Some comments on reviews and at the end. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this.
Atop the ruins of Beacon Tower
The girl's eyes blinked open. She was vaguely aware of a conversation happening nearby.
"What was it again you told me?"
"Oh, shut up."
A chuckle, followed by, "C'mon, let's go meet our New Light."
She looked up, and saw a strange, floating prismatic construct looking down at her. "Hello! I'm Harmony, your Ghost," A female voice sounded from the construct.
"Wha- What? A Ghost? Who are you, and where am I?" She looked past the prism and saw a man, with another one one of the constructs floating over his shoulder.
He took off his helmet, then held out his hand, offering to pull her to her feet. "Hey. I'm Talos."
She didn't take it. "I'm sorry, I'm still a little confused. Why am I here?"
The man paused. "What do you remember?"
"I - uh… nothing. Nothing! Why can't I remember anything?"
"That's… perfectly normal, unfortunately."
She looked at the man incredulously. "WHAT?! Why? What did you DO to me?"
She shot to her feet, and though she couldn't recall ever performing the motion before, it was quick and deliberate.
"I didn't do anything. You, however, seem to have gotten yourself killed."
The girl gawked. "You know, I may not remember much, but I know enough to know how strange that statement is. I'm pretty sure that people can't just get up from being dead."
"Normal people don't. You are now anything but normal."
"Tell me what's going on. Now."
The construct in front of her - Harmony, had it called herself? - answered the question this time. "I'm a Ghost. I was created by the Light to resurrect great warriors to fight for humanity. And, it seems the Light has chosen you."
Her head hurt. "So… I'm dead?"
The Ghost spun. "You were."
"For how long?"
"A month or two, at most."
Her headache sharpened. "I..." she fell silent.
The strange man's ghost piped up now. "Hey, that's a nice cloak."
Talos smirked at that and said, "At least we don't have to guess what class she is. Do you remember your name, hunter?"
"I… no. Why 'hunter'?"
"It's a classification used by our kind. There are three types of Guardians, which is what we call Risen warriors, like you and me. I'm a warlock, and it seems like you're a hunter."
She blinked. "What does that mean?"
"The three types of guardians use the gifts the Light gave them in different ways. You'll be able to perform incredible feats." To illustrate his point, he held out his hand, and an orange flame snapped into existence, burning bright. "Oh, and on that note, you don't need to worry about dying again. Your ghost can heal your injuries and resurrect you again if you die."
"Will I lose my memories again if I do die?"
"I've never heard of that happening before. I've died too many times to count, and I can still remember the day I was resurrected for the first time."
"... Okay. This is kind of a lot to take in." She shook her head.
The man half-smiled. "I have some experience with New Lights. Anyways, I'll need something to call you, other than just 'hunter' or 'guardian'."
He looked at her for a moment and tilted his head, thinking. Then, something caught his eye. He reached down, and she felt a slight shock as a spark raced across Talos's fingers, and a piece of metal flew off of the belt she had been wearing. He held it up for her to see. It was a beautiful engraving of a rose.
"You have this, and you've also got that whole red color scheme going on. Mind if I call you Rose?"
"I.. actually, I think that might be my name. Or, part of it anyways. It's all jumbled." she shook her head.
"To be expected. Well, Rose, welcome to immortality. I have a feeling that you'll do great things."
Rose, she thought. Yes, that's a fine name. She looked up. "Is there anything else I need to know?"
The man laughed. "Yes, and it's far more than I have time to explain to you right now. First, We need to get off this tower." He pointed downwards. "Those creatures - Grimm, they're called - are gathering at the base of the tower. Waiting for me to get down, I'd imagine. I riled them up quite a bit when I fought through them to get up here, it seems."
Harmony spoke then. Rose had almost forgotten she was there. "I count around forty of those things down there, varying in shapes and sizes."
"Hey Rose," Esper's voice sounded, "What weapons do you think you were most comfortable with? I'm carrying some backup equipment for my Guardian, as well as some basic gear for New Lights, like you."
"Uhh.." Her fingers twitched and she felt a slight rush as she thought about weapons. "I think I'd be fine with anything. I think I used a sniper rifle the most. And a scythe, I think."
Tal balked at that, as a sniper appeared in his hands. He tossed the weapon to her. "What a strange choice for a weapon. Though it is stylish I suppose." A sword materialized in his hands, along with a knife, both with sheaths. "These will have to do for close-range weapons. You don't really need the sheaths, Harmony can dematerialize and re-materialize your things for you at a moment's notice. But, I'm not sure how the people here would react to this technology."
Yes, she supposed that made se- wait, what? He had spoken as if there were many "guardians"- how would they not know of his technology?
Tal seemed to have noticed her confused, for he said, "Part of what I'll explain later, after we're down from here. Harmony, I assume you have gear patterns ready to materialize?"
"Of course," The ghost scoffed.
"Shade it red. And keep the cloak. It suits her."
A blue glow came from Harmony, traveling up Rose's body briefly. Armor materialized, replacing the clothing she had been wearing before, and her cloak shifted. A moment later, she was staring out of a helmet's visor. She looked down at her hands, now covered in lightly armored gauntlets.
"Mechanical augmentation to help you move faster and hit harder, a full tactical readout and comms system in the helmet, and built-in shield generators, all in a set of sleek and form-fitting armor. It even shifts and reshapes based on the wearer's body. A masterpiece of engineering, really." He held out his hand to her, holding the rose engraving. "I thought you'd want it. It helped me choose your name, after all. Esper added a magnetic effect to help it stick to your armor." She took it and placed it on her shoulder.
"What now?" Rose questioned.
"Now, we fight."
"Aren't you going to teach me how to use those powers you showed off earlier?"
"Trial by fire, dear girl. After all, it's not as if injuries or death matter much to you anymore." He placed his helmet back over his head, and stepped to the edge of the tower. Then, he just stepped off.
Rose looked down as he fell, seeing him abruptly stop when he got near the bottom, and float slowly to the ground. Harmony spoke in her ear. "If you focus, you'll be able to create an object below your feet, briefly solid enough for you to push off of and stop your fall."
Well, here goes nothing. Rose jumped.
As she approached the ground, she focused, thinking of jumping off of an invisible object below her feet. To her immense surprise, it worked, and she slowed, then bounced, then fell to the ground. It was still a hard landing, but the armor softened the blow. She drew the sword Talos had given her.
A dark shadow leapt at her, and Rose spun the blade and brought it into an uppercut motion. The beast was on the smaller side, and it was cleaved in two before disintegrating away. Rose could feel the power coursing through the weapon - it was charged somehow, pulsing with an otherworldly heat. She swung the sword again, carving through another two of the creatures, and one more jumped at her. Her weapon was out of position, so she stepped to one side, but the thing still managed to rake its claws across her form, weakening her shields. Rose's blade flashed out in response, leaving another disintegrating shadow on the ground.
There were no more of them in her immediate vicinity, so she looked toward Talos. The strange man had his own sword drawn, pulsing with a sort of electric energy. A lightning bolt came down from the sky, striking the blade. It flashed outward, and two streaks of crackling current left the tip, jumping between the forms of his attackers. Many of them died immediately, and the man charged forward to take on the ones remaining.
A bear-like grimm was approaching Talos from behind, out of the path of the lightning bolts and his current line of sight. Rose pulled out the rifle she had been given, looked down the sights for a fraction of a second, and squeezed off two shots, piercing the beast's bony head. It fell to the ground with a thud.
Just then, a massive creature that looked like a scorpion came into view, scuttling towards them. Rose saw Talos spin, golden wings erupting from his figure, and holding a flaming sword. It was not the same sword he had been holding before - It was a different shape and was burning with a different and more radiant energy.
She paused for a moment, admiring the display, before looking back down her scope and lining up a shot for one of the thing's eyes. Just then, something slammed into her side, and she dropped the rifle as it fired off a stray shot. Two small grimm that resembled wild boars were attacking her. Her sword left it's spot sheathed on her back, and it slashed downwards, cutting the first one in half. The second slammed it's head into her arm, and the sword flew from her hand. She grabbed it's tusks as it pushed her back slightly.
Thinking fast, she drew the knife from it's spot on her leg armor, and slammed it into the thing's head. It dug into bone and the creature grunted in pain, but did not die. She jumped over the thing's head, letting go of the knife, and landed behind it racing towards her sword. It stood, confused for a moment, before racing after her. It was surprisingly quick, and it caught up with her mere moments after she grasped the weapon's hilt. She lashed out with the blade, but the strike was quick and sloppy and only managed to cut through the tusks of the creature, angering it further. Recovering, she quickly brought her armored hand forward and slammed it into the knife's handle, driving it further into the bone. As she did so, she felt a strange but somehow familiar energy coursing through her arms, which she forced into the knife lodged in the thing's head. It dug further into the shadowy flesh, then crackled with a blue current. The creature shook violently, then exploded with a crack of lightning. The force of the electric blast knocked Rose onto her back.
She lay there for a few moments, not only because she was dazed from the blast, but also because she was trying to process what she had just done. Talos had told her she would be able to do extraordinary things, but she'd had no idea what to expect. The warlock shortly stood over her and offered his hand, which she took and used to pull herself to her feet. "Nice work, guardian!" Harmony spoke through the comm link, and the pride in her voice was evident.
"That was quite the impressive first fight. Not even a single death. Though, I suppose the old you was probably quite familiar with fighting against these things, even if you don't remember it now."
Talos still held the sword in his right hand. Now that she was closer, she could see it more clearly; It was extremely well-made, and she could still feel it's raw power. Lightning bolt designs danced along the weapon's length.
"Your sword is… Awesome! What do you call it? And how did you get it to control lightning like that? Is that from the powers given to us?"
"It's called Stormshaper. And… kind of. We build the Light into our technology, to augment our own powers and provide extra ones. Arc is probably the area of Light that I am least proficient in, though it seems you are a natural. " His blade pointed briefly at the knife laying on the ground, which sill had faint sparks dancing along its length.
Rose tilted her head. "Arc?"
"It's easiest to think of Arc as lightning, or electricity. Though there is a bit more complexity to it than that. You used it instinctively. Many guardians can use some of their powers that way, but I must reiterate that your first performance was rather impressive."
Rose smiled, then asked "What was that thing you did, with the wings and the other sword? The one on fire?"
"That was a use of the Solar aspect of the Light. Think of it as fire, heat, or warmth for now, though again, a bit more complex than that. It's definitely the discipline I'm most comfortable with, and have the greatest mastery of, though I'm decent enough with all three elements. Before you ask, the third is called Void, and it's the hardest to explain in simple terms. Think of it as a force that's… hungry, I suppose. You can command it to bind some things things together, and erase and devour others."
"O…. Okay. But Stormshaper! How did you make it?" She still couldn't take her eyes off of the beautiful weapon, and she thought back to the lightning it had called from a cloudless sky, and how it had redirected that power to lance through numerous foes.
"The Cryptarchs and our Gunsmith worked together, taking a bunch of field data from Arc-welding guardians across multiple operations. They were able to make a powerful superconductor for use in weapons. That's been around for a while now, but this blade is new. I'm using a modified version of the tech in this thing." He looked at the sword for a second longer, then sheathed it.
Rose felt like she had no idea what around half of those words meant.
"Come, I'm sure you have more questions. I will be sure to answer them, as best I can."
Later, after descending the cliff
Rose and Talos walked on the outskirts of Vale City. Talos had talked for a while, explaining his story.
It was crazy. Talos had come here chasing down an old enemy all the way from another universe? One where this broken "Traveller" protected one last city? And nobody from there had even known this place had existed, and Talos had no known way back?
Yes, It's crazy, Rose thought, But I suppose it's not all that much crazier than being risen from the dead with access to magic powers.
"I know this is probably a lot to take in, even on top of the normal burdens that all guardians carry."
"Yes… but… from everything you've told me, you and the Guardians seem like you're fighting for a good cause. You protect people, help them, defend them. So… I'll trust you. Besides, It's not like I know anyone else." Then, Rose paused, thinking back. "You said I've only been dead for a month or so. That means people here probably know me. Do you think I should look for them? Try to remember?"
Talos grimaced slightly at that comment. "Assuming that most of the people you knew didn't die alongside you, you might recognize them, but you wouldn't remember them. The personalities of the people around you, those laughs you shared joking around with your best friends, the love of your family, they're all gone from your mind, and seeing those people again won't just bring all of that rushing back. There are ways for Guardians to get their memories back, sometimes, but they're… difficult. They involve dying, a lot, and most of the time the subjects don't feel like they're truly remembering, but that they're watching someone else's life through their eyes. Because that's really what it comes down to, in the end. You're probably not the same person that died at the top of that tower a few weeks ago."
Resounding silence, for seconds that felt like an eternity.
"If you want to go digging, I won't stop you. I might even help you. But be prepared for disappointment."
ThePolishSausageRoaster and BirmanDragon: Umm, yeah, that was just an oversight. I'm sure it won't be the last. The explanation that I'm going to use and run with is that her body disintegrated into rose petals after death. There is absolutely no reason for this to happen, but again, just going to run with it. I'm gonna say she has a gravestone next to her mother's on Patch, and just like her mother, there's no body. Qrow took Crescent Rose with them back to her home, though.
CheesusChrist15: As you can see, I am fully aware of the resurrection process's unfortunate side effects. Without giving anything away, this aspect of becoming a guardian is kind of going to be an … integral plot point of the whole story, and not just with Ruby.
Everyone else, thanks for the support as well. Next update likely won't be until Sunday at least, probably later, but we'll see.
