Hannah felt up her head, wishing she did not drink as heavily as she had. She took another sip of coffee to help numb the affects better. Kimba was sitting down at the table, opposite of her.
"Hey…Kimba" the princess said to the girl. Kimba just cutely waved to the Mistralian woman.
Roland was standing near the end of the room, demonstrating a map of the Sanus continent.
"Vacuo is the next step in this war…Early in the war the alliance was drawn out of Vacuo completely. This has allowed for the Coalition to set up certain projects in some of our former colonies, we need to handle that'' Roland said.
"I thought…well I was told that it would uh..that it would take years before an invasion of Vacuo was possible" Kimba asked.
"A full-scale invasion yes….however, our intel has told us that Ozymandias is working on a superweapon, located in Amifdolt" Hannah said.
"It's Amphibolite" Roland corrected. "A Vacuo settlement near the beaches….It will not be about taking land. We just need to get in, handle this weapon, and get out. I've learned that some of our forces in Vacuo are still active as insurgents in Vacuo. We are set to rendezvous with them in a few months and launch an attack Amphibolite" Roland explained.
"Sounds like…a valid plan!" Kimba said somewhat awkwardly. She was unsure of what the appropriate thing to say was to the 2 war leaders. Hannah chuckled a bit, finding it cute, Roland cracked a small smile.
"We've landed, sir" a soldier said from the hall.
"Excellent. I'll be out in-" Roland started to respond but found himself cut off
"Some enemy troops were captured. They were attempting to take back the settlement but they were captured alive by the local occupation authorities" the soldier explained.
Roland looked at the soldier, pondering what he reported. The prince stroked his chin as he pondered how to handle that situation.
"Line them up outside my ship. I'll handle that situation" he said, then he began to walk out of the room. "Stay here ladies, I'll handle this and return to discuss things" he said. Kimba nodded while Hannah rolled her eyes.
Roland walked to the exit of the airship as he thought about things. He thought about how it would be in the future, he was confident Hannah would eventually accept his proposal. Where would they get married? The capital of Vale would be a good place. After all the brutal conflict, it would be a sight of hope and beauty to people who had suffered, a promise of a unified world. He imagined Kimba as the flower girl, he could not wait till this was a reality.
He walked outside the airship and looked around the grassy area, and near the exit, were a group of 9 soldiers. They were on their knees, and looked at the prince with a varying reaction of fear and anger. They had a squad of mantle soldiers behind them so they did not do anything. There were some large amounts of dust in crystalized form in the background, large dust crystals big as hills.
Roland walked over to the captured soldiers.
"Hello brave soldiers of Vale….it is valiant that you still fight despite the odds against you. But this is misguided-" Roland began.
"Fuck you" one of the soldiers said.
Roland sighed, these people were so stubborn. He thought of what might be able to convince these people.
"Way before this whole war started…I went here when I was younger…was sent on a diplomatic mission by my father ...hated every minute of it. At first…over time I truly started to appreciate it here. I saw this kingdom's beauty, I met a girl-" he stopped himself, he didn't want to get into that subject.
"I saw this kingdom's beauty…Saw what it was…do you know what I see now? I see…what can be. Mantle and Mistral are here to help…what we do is necessary to save humanity from its own emotions" Roland explained.
"So what will you do? Assist me, as we bring order to these kingdoms? Or die an undignified death here in the middle of nowhere" Roland said.
The soldiers all seemed to contemplate the ultimatum given to them.
"I…I accept" the soldier on the far left said. Roland smiled, and motioned for her to walk over. The 3rd soldier to the left seemed very conflicted, he very reluctantly raised his hand, not wanting to vocalize his surrender. The soldier in the middle did the same. Roland motioned for both of them to stand and walk to him.
He waited 2 minutes to see if anyone else would agree to his terms. No one else spoke up.
"That is it then?" He asked, answered with the silence of the rebellious soldiers.
"Well, such is your choice" he said, he then pulled out a pistol from the hoister on his hip. He walked to the left.
He pointed his gun at the center of the soldier's forehead. The man looked afraid, but determined.
Roland pulled the trigger, and the bullet went right through his skull. His body fell to the side.
Roland walked to the next soldier, this was a woman. She had not a single ounce of fear in her eyes, almost admirable, but misguided. It was this bravery that cost her this life, it was this raw emotion was here to snuff out.
He pulled the trigger, and another body fell to the side.
The next one was a man, he closed his eyes because he couldn't face the pistol, Roland shot again, killing yet another one.
The next one was entirely…empty looking. It seemed like there was nothing behind his eyes. Perhaps he was broken from this war, Roland shot once again.
The next one was another girl, she seemed to be praying to herself, asking for forgiveness for her sins so her next lift could be better.
Roland shot her in the middle of her speaking.
"Can I get a word in?" The last soldier asked, he was a male, had brown hair and green eyes.
"You may" Roland permitted.
"Good. You are a fucking self-righteous prick with too much power. My sister died in one of the towns you burnt to the ground. The only thing I am grateful for, is that I get to tell you, Vale will never go down easily to a pathetic snake of a man like you. If we are defeated, we will go down doing everything we can to fight you" the soldier barked angrily.
Roland blinked at the verbal barrage, he seemed to take a minute to process the man's words, wondering how to respond. He returned the pistol to his hoister.
"Did this one have a helmet? A metal one?" Roland asked.
Everyone seemed rather confused by the question. But eventually, one of the Mantle soldiers answered:
"He did, sir," the soldier replied.
"Put it back on him" Roland asked. This continued to bewilder the others, but the orders were followed. One of Roland's troops grabbed the Valian soldiers helmet, and placed it on the confused soldiers head.
Roland then grabbed him by the shoulders, and pulled him away. The prince shoved one of his troops out of the way as he pulled the Valian man away. The soldier was struggling against Roland's grip, but Roland was stronger. Roland was clearly furious, yet his face did not change emotion as he pulled the soldier to the large dust crystals. His fury was concealed with a tranquil, empty expression.
"I gave you the mercy of a few last words…and then you disrespect me like that…" Roland said as he walked to one specific, hill-sized dust crystal. It was lava-dust.
Roland slammed the Valian against it, and then grabbed the sides of the soldier's head. The soldier struggled against the cruel prince, but Roland managed to slam his head onto the crystal. He then slammed the helmet-clad head against the crystal again, and again, and again.
The dust finally cracked.
Lava seeped out and quickly covered the soldier's helmet, he began to shriek in agonizing pain as Roland's tranquil expression faded, replaced with a wicked grin as he saw the disrespectful Valian shriek in agony. He let him go.
The soldier's body flailed around, he got away from the pouring lava, but it was too late. The lava had already melted his helmet. His lips became burnt, as he made grunting, haunting noises that could be recognized as screaming. He fell on the floor, after a minute, the noises stopped.
Had the soldier died? Or had he lost the ability to make noise? It didn't matter much to Roland. Roland sighed, calming down after the preceding events gave him a bit of catharsis. He then slowly walked back to the airship, he looked at the horrified glances of the soldiers who had joined him.
This had sent a very clear message, to avoid getting on Roland's bad side. The prince gave the soldiers a wave before walking back to the ship.
—-—-—-—-
In the emerald forest.
"Alright…we should be about 30…40 minutes away from the capitol" Shiloh said.
"Good my legs are friggin killing me" Rory complained. He was thinking about giving Ozymandias a piece of his mind once they got there.
Chara was not satisfied with this first mission, it felt like she had not gotten to know her companions well. She walked back to Shiloh, and tried to make another attempt at small talk.
"Do you have any favorite books?" Chara asked.
At that question, Shiloh looked over at the other team-mate. She then reached over to the back of her helmet, and removed it. Chara was surprised at this action, she could now see that Shiloh was a rather pretty brunette girl.
"I love stories!" she said happily, Chara smiled, she seemed to find a topic that her teammate could discuss at length.
"What's some of your favorite stories?" Chara asked
"A knight in Anima" Shiloh began. "It is sort of a modern retelling of 'girl who fell through the world', it has a knight travel through the continent of Anima, they go through all these characters that reflect characters from Alyx's story! And has a great twist…you think the knight is a genderbent take on the Alyx character, but in truth, she discovers she is trans while on the journey. It's a marvelous way of using the story to foreshadow the direction of the character, and helps with the theme of identity-"
Shiloh continued to go into very precise detail, Chara smiled as she took all the information from Shiloh's monologues. Rory was still listening in, he cracked a small smile. He was glad Chara got to find something to talk about. Maybe this would not be so bad.
This train of thought was cut off, by a nearby explosion cutting it off.
The whole team was sent flying back. Hitting the ground was very sudden and for Rory, it felt like he was landing headfirst into rocks. He slowly opened his eyes, and then quickly noticed that he had, in fact, fallen into a bunch of rocks, go figure.
He slowly got up, grunting.
"Anyone dead?" he asked.
"I am good" Chara said
"Still around," Shiloh said tiredly.
"One day I believe my soul will return to the gods, but for the time being I am here" Qin said.
Rory then looked at where the explosion came from, he saw the tree…surrounded by gears, hot pieces of metal, inside the burning remains of the tree he could see what looked like the source of all those gears and metal.
"A bomb…?" Rory asked curiously. Who would place a bomb in a tree? Rory's best guess was that this was something from the alliance, but why set traps somewhere in the middle of the forest?
"Oh, one of my dad's" Shiloh said, this resulted in everyone turning their heads to the girl.
"What!?" Chara asked
"Looks like one of my dad's contraptions, he's been…relunctantly, working with king Ozymandias lately. So he probably designed that'' Shiloh explained.
"Who the hell is your father!?" Rory asked, wanting a more clear explanation.
"Lancelore" Shiloh answered simply.
Both Rory and Chara seemed stunned at that answer, with Chara placing a hand over her mouth in horror.
"Whose that?" Qin asked, noticing her companions' reaction
"Lancelore is…a dreaded figure, he's a twisted inventor who spent years trying to take over Vale" Chara explained.
"So….our…''wise king', through us into a giant valley, with booby traps layed by a demented psycopath!" Rory exclaimed, clearly furious about the situation.
Chara looked at Shiloh remembering the fact they were talking about her father.
"Apologies we don't mean to…offend you" Chara said
"None taken" Shiloh said.
"So…what's the plan? Exaclty?" Qin asked.
Rory pondered how to handle this, he thought running into a Grimm would be the biggest issue. But apparently they were in a place full of traps from a psychopath. Rory pondered the best strategy, before looking over at Shiloh
"Hey…you were his daughter right?" Rory asked Shiloh, who simply nodded in response.
"Okay, good….So, you'd know how his traps look like?" Rory asked
"I do" Shiloh asked.
"Good, tell us if we come by anything that could be deadly" Rory asked, Shiloh nodded. He then led the other 3 further into the forest.
All 4 of the young knights-in-training were very careful and slow with how they walked. Rory noticed some grimm in the far distance, they did not seem to notice the team, so Rory continued to walk and led the others further in the direction they were going.
Qin wondered if she should do more to bond in this situation, alleviate some of the stress her teammates were going through. What should she do? She did not want to make things worse. Perhaps she should think about things people asked her not to do.
"No! Please, not in front of my family!"
"You're going to burn this whole building, stop!"
"Please…don't make me eat my own entrails, please!"
Well, those were things she should avoid doing, but that left quite a lot of things to do.
"So Rory…you're a bat faunus, so do you like, sleep upside down?" Qin asked
Rory side-eyed her.
"You came from a…sheltered homelife I take it" Rory said.
"Kinda yeah…I did know a faunus boy when I was a kid! One of my best friends" Qin said.
"Eat him too?" Rory asked.
"No! Gods….In fact, we got along great…one night, me and him kissed…my dad saw of course, reacted badly…crushed his skull in front of me and then ripped the arm off of his corpse, started beating me with it" Qin said.
There was an awkward, horrifying silence after that. Rory was not sure how to process that, so he avoided thinking about it too much.
"Life has its ups and downs" Qin said as she started to skip her steps as she walked.
"You are just a bundle of joy, aren't you?" Rory asked.
"I try to be!" Qin said, with a sincere tone of voice.
"Who was your da-" He was interrupted by Shiloh grabbing Rory's hand.
"I saw some of the gears earlier, this is one of his traps" Shiloh explained, all 3 of the others listened to Shiloh.
"We all have to step very, very carefully, avoid the vines, they are tied to the trigger for the trap to activate," Shiloh explained.
The other's nodded, Qin was the best at being careful, she was used to stealth missions. Shiloh knew exactly what to avoid, so she was good too. Rory just watched the floor before making even the slightest step. Chara was just on her tippy toes in an almost comical manner of walking.
It looked like all 4 of them would be able to avoid setting off Lancelore's trap.
But suddenly, a large thump could be heard from behind them. Qin looked back at it, an apple had fallen…right on a vine.
"Shiloh?" Qin asked, Shiloh turned back, gaining a wide-eyed expression, and she very quickly warned everyone.
"Duck!" Shiloh screamed, she was the first to give this example, landing flatly on the ground face down. The others hurriedly followed suit.
The snapped vine had been connected to a small system of intricate contraptions, which alerted the big one to get up….
It was hidden in the bushes nearby, and then it standed…a giant, spidery monstrosity of gears and parts, with a peculiar thing in its center. It was a round area with many cogs and gears like the legs. It had a head….it resembled a bear of some sort. It opened its mouth, and burning energy came out.
It shot a beam of pure fire around the area their upper bodies would have been had they not ducked, cutting through the trees. A minute passed before the fire stopped, the gears and cogs clacked as the spidery machine left.
Rory slowly looked upwards, making extra sure it was gone.
"What was that thing? How could it move that way?" Chara asked
"Looks awesome right?" Shiloh asked, slightly dorkily. The other 3 looked at her with either bewildered or judgmental expressions.
"Right…sorry…So to uh, explain that. My father uses his semblance with his creations. He has the ability to put..intention, into them. He can manifest his intentions into objects, resulting in them doing things like that…I think, activating that one may have activated the others in this Forest" Shiloh explained.
"And the good news keeps coming…" Rory sighed. "How many of them do you think they've got here?" Rory asked.
"A…a couple dozen, probably," Shiloh said.
"Let's assess this then…Qin? What's your semblance?" Rory asked
"Balance" Qin answered. She felt a demonstration would probably be for the best.
She lifted up a somewhat large rock, it dissolved in her hands…and then, it reformed as a shield.
"I can destroy..then create with its remains" Qin explained. Chara looked impressed, Shiloh looked fascinated by this. Rory just nodded.
"Alrighty!...Shiloh? You?" Rory asked
"I call it copycat…If I, touch people, I can emulate their semblance" Shiloh explained.
"Well…this will be useful…" Rory said. "Borrow Chara's semblance…fly us both near those…spider, clock freaks" Rory requested.
"You…want us to fly…closer, to my dads death machines?" Shiloh asked.
"Yeah that…seems pretty counterproductive" Chara said
"I say it sounds fun" Qin said
"Trust me, okay?" Rory asked.
Qin nodded readily, while Shiloh and Chara much more reluctantly nodded.
Shiloh touched Chara's shoulder, a small spark was visible on her hand, and then, Shiloh began to float. Chara floated as well, she looked at Rory nervously. Rory just offered him her hand. She grabbed him and then got a better hold on him. Shiloh did the same with Qin.
Shiloh struggled to hold up Qin, she lacked a ton of experience with flying like Chara did. Qin just seemed to laugh softly at the experience, Rory swore that she creeped him the hell out. Shiloh hoped they could find the bots soon, she didn't want to drop her psychopathic teammate.
Finally, they got near the area…there was an entire horde of the machines. Of those clockwork machines created by lancelore.
"Let's go in those trees!" Rory said. Chara was still skeptical of this plan but she followed it. Chara floated to a tree branch and set Rory down, it was big and sturdy enough to sit on without fear of the branch breaking. Shiloh did the same, setting Qin down before sitting on a branch herself.
"Alright…Chara? I need to ask you something" Rory said, Chara continued to pay attention to the red-headed boy.
"Think of the worst thing you can…anything that will make you feel sad…I will do the same, don't worry" Rory said.
"Wh…what? But wh-" Chara protested
"Again…just trust me" Rory asked.
Chara was very hesitant, very slowly, she closed her eyes. Rory closed his eyes as well. Rory thought of the many negative experiences he has had over his life.
Soon enough, there was a growling sound heard. It was the grimm! Rory's plan was a success! He opened his eyes, and saw Chara crying. He felt bad for the situation, he raised a hand to try comforting her, but then he heard the sound of beams and scratching at the bottom. They all looked down.
The machines were fighting the grimm, gears and black dust erupted from both sides as the lancelore's creations battled the creatures of grimm.
"There we go, by luring them here, they and lancelore's little monsters will take care of themselves for us" Rory said, with an accomplished expression. Chara was still wiping her eyes.
"Impressive, quite the strategy" Shiloh remarked.
Rory just nodded, he thought to himself all sorts of quips he could make. Perhaps imply that outsmarting her psychopath fathers machines was not a difficult feat? He thought of things to say…and then, felt the tree itself shaking a bit. They all looked down, seeing one of Lancelore's machines climbing up the tree, managing to avoid the carnage of Grimm vs cogs happening at the forest grass. Its blaster highlighted.
Everyone got into battle positions, dodging the blast the machine shot out. Qin grabbed one of it's legs, using her semblance on it to reformat it into a bunch of disassembled pieces. Shiloh and Chara both grabbed other legs, using their currently shared semblance to lift it up and keep it from crawling away. Rory pulled his sword out and jammed it into some of the creature's gears. After a few moments, the creature exploded. The 4 of them all fell to the ground. Luckily, by this point the fighting between the machines and the grimm had passed. Black dust and gears filled the ground.
"Well..Rory's plan still mostly worked, it looks like!" Chara said.
"Indeed!" Qin shouted.
"The plan has some…kinks, though" Shiloh pointed out.
"Well, you know what they say. Do the best you can, even if it results in nearly being killed by a gear spider" Rory said, standing up.
"Lets just…try getting through this damn forest" Rory said.
The 4 continued to walk through the forest, everyone was too tired to talk much after the incident with the grimm and Lancelore's contraptions. They eventually found the end of a mountain, it was flat as a wall.
"I think once we get up here we will be closer to the capitol..I think I can give you a ride, Shiloh, think you can carry Qin again?" Chara asked.
Shiloh nodded.
Shiloh grabbed Qin from behind, Chara did the same for Rory. They floated up until they got to the top of the cliff….
They saw the king, with Spectre next to him.
Chara floated to the surface, holding Rory. And let him go once they were on the grassy surface. Shiloh also let Qin down. Shiloh breathed deeply, she was not used to that, Chara went to comfort her. Qin walked to the king.
"King Ozymandias! It is nice to see you again. I am grateful to have gone through these challenges with the allies you chose. I am sure we will be able to accomplish much as warriors for the coalition" Qin said as she bowed in respect.
"Yeah, no, screw that" Rory said, walking in front of Qin. "You threw us in a monster filled valley! With traps from one of Vale's worst enemies! What the hell was that!?" Rory asked furiously.
"How dare you speak to our king that way-" Spectre was about to rant at the red headed Faunus. Ozymandias gestured for her to stop.
"It was a way to test your capabilities, and it was remarkable. You even tried to plan things out…with mixed results, but an honest attempt" Ozymandias explained to Rory.
"...How do you know that?" Rory asked, confused.
"I have ways of knowing lots of things, " the king said. "The ship is over there to the back, how about you go there and we can give you a ride the rest of the way. We figured that the obstacles in the valley were enough of a test. We can take you to the capitol and the place you will be training" Ozymandias explained.
Rory sighed. He would like to say more, but he just wanted to get this day over with. He walked over to the ship, Qin and Shiloh followed suit. Spectre followed, giving a sigh.
"I'm aware we started off on the wrong foot but…Well, maybe we can try to start over. I know the kings methods are ruthless, but he has more experience then any of us. He knows the best way to help people become the best versions of themselves" Spectre spoke to Rory.
"How good?" Rory asked.
"What do you mean?" Spectre asked.
"How good does the kings ass taste that you like kissing it that much?" Rory asked as he walked away with the others. Spectre was stunned and stopped following the boy. She stood there, stirring in annoyance.
"That little fucking brat" she said to herself, angrily.
"Some great warriors have had rough starting points" Ozymandias said.
"I don't see what you see in them, Shiloh is the daughter of your mortal nemesis. Qin is pretty much a serial killer, and Rory…" Spectre noted.
"Troubled?" Ozymandias asked.
"He's an asshole! I know his mother was great but that boy is a huge brat we should have let flogged for endangering people. Chara is the only one there who has the spirit of a knight" Spectre said.
"You are looking only at what they are currently. I see what they could be. I've met a lot of troubled souls over the years, and I've seen the great things they can become if they get the right guidance" Ozymandias said.
"You're the one with experience" Spectre said, she was skeptical, but if the king saw something in them, maybe this could work out.
Author's note
Holy hell I'm so glad to be done with this! Jesus Christ I hated working on this chapter. I intended for it to have more action but I really didn't want to drag it out more. I am so excited to get to the storylines I've been envisioning doing for a while!
See y'all next time!