"Never let a tragedy go to waste." - Common saying
"Yup, there's no way for us to go on top of the train," Pyrrha said as she looked through the door of the traincar, "The tunnel's too tight."
"I see," he inspected the wagon walls, finding them to be made of sturdy wood with steel reinforcements, "How many wagons do you see, and what type are they?"
She peeked out again, "Including ours, 2 cargo and 4 passenger cars."
"Good. I think I've got enough dust charges to do it. We'll bust through the cargo wagons until we reach the passenger cars." He went up to the wall and swung at it, inflicting minimal damage, only succeeding in getting the blade stuck.
"It's as I thought." He took it out and tried again, this time activating the explosive propulsion function. He cleaved right through it, cutting a vertical line in the wall. He did the same a foot away and motioned to Pyrrha, who kicked it in, splintering the wood to make a rectangular hole.
"It's a tight fit," she said, "But I'll take it."
They climbed through it, standing on the train couplers when Violet again swung twice to make a hole through. When they entered this car, however, they were greeted with a fair amount of dust. In fact, they considered themselves quite lucky they hadn't struck any of the crates. They quietly proceeded to the next car, again slashing through a wall, and finding a door waiting for them across the coupler. Yet again, it was deserted, but this time there were even more dust crates.
"That's a lot of volatile dust," Pyrrha said.
"Could have been more, they hadn't loaded everything. Speaking of, I'm running low. Only five cartridges left. Shame I can't just reload spent casings, the system needs primers too."
"Assuming there's more dust in the other wagons, they could blow half the mountain up. We should decouple the wagons immediately," Pyrrha said.
"They'll notice the train get lighter, and they could just halt it and reattach the wagons. We'd lose the element of surprise."
"That's true. We could… You know… blow it all up now."
He exhaled in surprise, "Now I may be reckless, but I didn't come here seeking martyrdom."
"I'm just saying. We would save a lot of people. But you have other things to die for, right?"
"I don't want to hear any of it. We have a lot of options, and that is the very last resort."
"We could decouple them and detonate them from afar with my gun."
"That could work. That being said, the wagons ahead could still open the gate, even if it doesn't blow an unmanageable hole. And they must have had a large safety margin on this."
"It's still worth a shot."
They traversed to the end of the wagon, making it out of the car, with Pyrrha seamlessly decoupling the train with her semblance. They watched as the distance between them and the released wagons steadily increased. Pyrrha lined up her gun to blow it up, but then the door suddenly opened, knocking her off the train. Violet could only watch as she tumbled down the tracks.
He turned to see none other than Adam staring at him. Both were evidently surprised to find the other, but Violet was the first to strike, an explosion of the Mordred hitting him squarely in the chest and knocking him inside.
Stepping in, Violet saw himself in a similarly packed wagon. At its center, Adam was dissipating in a cloud of floating glass shards, revealing a familiar woman with pink and brown hair. Her expression was one of unbridled fury, but it soon morphed into a sick smile. She pointed at him, before transforming into an illusion of Zero, and turning right back into herself.
"So what?" He asked, swinging at her. She dodged expertly, countering with a stab of her own. Violet had to use another explosive to parry in time. He was down to three rounds.
"If it's about that petty gangster you disguised yourself as the other day, yes, I killed him personally. In fact, I'm quite glad he's gone."
Her anger returned to her, launching a flurry of wild attacks he just barely countered.
"He died begging, you know? He offered me everything he had to spare his worthless life. And I gleefully denied him."
If she was angry before, now she was in a rage of titanic proportions. Her attacks became crazed, and even though he remained calm and collected, methodically blocking every blow and countering where necessary, the fact remained that his aura was near depletion and hers was still fresh. One slip-up, and he would be in a world of trouble. Her boundless ferocity was wearing him out.
Her strikes continued, one after another, but after a moment, she jumped away and unfolded her parasol. He was confused until he saw it deflect a thrown spear. Turning around, Violet saw Pyrrha looking back at them, her face littered with cuts and bruises, but otherwise fine.
She jumped into the fray immediately, using her shield to batter the girl in melee and recover her javelin.
"How did you-"
"Semblance. I pulled myself in, but it took everything from me."
The two of them worked against the mysterious woman in unison. Knowing their lives were hanging on by a thread, they focused everything on beating her back. And it was working, the strange woman exerted herself way too much at the start, and now she was short of breath and taking hits she could have otherwise blocked.
After taking way more punishment than he thought was possible, the girl retreated to the back of the wagon. She sliced across the metal floor, eliciting sparks. She had a deranged smile on her as she stabbed into a dust crate, spilling its contents onto the floor.
She lowered her blade again, but before she could blow them all up, a bang sounded, and a scythe blade struck her arm at breakneck speed. Her aura flickered and broke, and her weapon was knocked away. Two cartridges left.
She ran after her parasol, but this presented Pyrrha with an opportunity to unleash a burst of gunfire from her pilfered gun, hitting her several times before her weapon could open up and protect her. Violet swung at her again, but she dodged to the side, and he took the moment to position himself at the second door, blocking her exit and the spilled dust.
He noticed blood staining her clothes as they traded glares. She sighed before turning to smash a passenger window, jumping out of it before Pyrrha could land another shot at her. At the end of it, they looked at each other in amazement.
"That was…" Pyrrha said through pained breaths.
"Yeah," he was short of breath too, "That was close. Too close."
Their rest would be short-lived, however, as Violet heard steps behind him.
"Pyrrha, the final two cars, they've got people too. Get ready." He stepped to the side, and Pyrrha aimed the gun at the door. When it opened, she unleashed a handful of precise shots, dropping two soldiers who couldn't find adequate cover while stuck between the wagons. Several shots came back at them, and Pyrrha sought cover as well.
"They wouldn't expect us to charge in. I've recovered enough aura to take a single shot. If I go in guns blazing, I could bluff them into fleeing."
"We can wait to recharge our auras a bit more, surely we've got tim-" A screeching from outside caught their attention. It continued on and on, and they realized that the train was slowing down.
"What?" He asked.
"Are they breaking?"
"Seems so, they might be trying to flank us, be ready to jump out when it gets slow enough."
When the train appeared to stop, Violet climbed out of it using the window the umbrella girl broke, and Pyrrha did the same thing. Soon after, he saw White Fang soldiers leaving their wagons and engaging them. Violet cut down one of them, while the others, maybe half a dozen, fled. He could also hear footsteps from the other side, but the strange thing was that they weren't closing in. In fact, they were running away. Looking further, he could make out in the dark that they were at a dead end.
That was when the realization struck him. They were too late! "It's going to blow up, get back!" The two of them ran back into the tunnel, running for a full minute before a massive explosion knocked them down. They weren't seriously injured, but the bigger concern was what the new sunlight illuminated, namely a bunch of masked soldiers marching out into a public square with their weapons raised.
Worse yet, looking in the opposite direction, they spotted the red glow of Grimm eyes. Violet and Pyrrha fled in the direction of Vale, only to witness the White Fang members marching forward and shooting at random. Already, he could see so many civilian bodies in the distance, could hear their screams. Screams he could have prevented, had he only been a little faster.
But this was no time for doubt, he still had to do everything he could to contain this chaos. So he ran towards them, scythe unfolded. They'd thought them caught in the blast, so they weren't looking behind as he struck one of them in the back. Pyrrha fired the last of her gun, felling three of them with precise shots. This drew the attention of the others, and the duo was forced to run for cover.
They were only saved by the timely arrival of a police car, its sirens grabbing the attention of the terrorists, and the officers getting out and firing at them. The Fang was forced to engage them instead of chasing Violet and Pyrrha. The situation was becoming more complicated for them as a second police car appeared.
The firefight did not last long though, owing to the approaching Grimm. The White Fang soldiers had no choice but to rise and charge the at police, beating them in an audacious assault at a cost of three more men.
It would be easy to mistake their desperation for courage, but they had no real plan Violet could see. Whether they were originally meant to come out of there or not wasn't clear. Were they meant to first blow up the tunnel and be a vanguard for the Grimm? Were they supposed to hide out and go in after them? Or were they supposed to disperse into the city before the attack to paralyze the huntsmen response?
Regardless, they had no answer to the sudden assault by several machine guns. Looking out from cover, Violet noticed Black Knights coming in from several directions at once and cutting them down within seconds. A member pointed their gun at them but didn't fire as a greater threat appeared. The endless stream of Grimm spewing out into Vale by the hundred was a higher priority.
Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Ursas, and even a few Beringels charged in. The gathered Knights fired all they could, but their numbers weren't enough to stem the tide and they were forced into a fighting retreat.
The Grimm didn't pay too much attention to them though, there were many much more vulnerable targets in the city. They proceeded to spread out across the many streets and start mauling passers-by, tearing down doors, and burrowing into the many building complexes of the city.
Violet rushed after the Knights to get an update on the situation and try to coordinate them, with Pyrrha dutifully following along. They were intercepted on their way by an Ursa Major, a massive beast that easily overshadowed the largest of Beowolves, with spikes on its back and claws that could bisect a man in a single swing.
Violet readied his scythe and swung with an explosively propelled strike. But unlike lesser Grimm, this one was barely fazed by his dust-powered might. He'd just barely taken the blade out when it struck him with its second hand. His aura flared and broke, knocking him several feet away. He got up quickly, only to see it go after Pyrrha, who was barely dodging its slashes, stabbing it with the tip of her spear as she pulled back again and again.
He prepared to leap into action, when he felt a warmth across his chest. Looking down, he could see growing red stains in the shape of claw marks. He convinced himself it wasn't critical, something he knew he would regret later, and jumped at the Ursa Major. His final round aimed squarely at a joint in the armor at its neck.
Slicing through bone and flesh, the Mordred's blade struck true. The beast roared, shaking him and his weapon off. It bled torrents of Grimm ichor, but it still remained upright, and it was furious when it turned to face him.
Before it could strike though, a shot came at its head. Then another. Then a hail of bullets showered it.
A handful of men marched in from the streets, several squads of the military police showed up and started firing at the swarming Grimm, including the Ursa. Still, they were lightly equipped and few in number. The beast had enough strength remaining for another swing. He was out of ammo and too slow to dodge.
It looked like the strike would be weakened by its state, but the damage would be brutal anyway. His pathetic attempt at parrying turned out to be unnecessary, for a golden shield intercepted the strike. Pyrrha put all of her strength into redirecting the swing and giving him time to cut the striking arm. The creature groaned in pain, its strength finally giving out and the two of them finished it with a several swift blows to the neck.
She turned to smile at him, only for it to turn into a frown, "Vio… Your shirt."
"I know. I'm going to seek help, you stay here and help out."
She was surprised to hear it, but she turned immediately to face a Beowolf that was approaching. Violet took the opportunity to make a run towards the Black Knights.
Briefly surveying the battlefield, he saw the MP formations getting overrun by Grimm, their concentrated gunfire felling beast after beast, only for more to replace them. Eventually, their ranks broke and they fled in panic, leaving the Grimm to go about their slaughter.
Running for a couple minutes now, his questions regarding the Black Knights were answered as he saw them gathering at a crossroads some distance away. They were cautious as he approached, but they had enough wisdom to not see a bleeding student as a threat. They let him in, instead choosing to fire at some of the Grimm in the distance.
That didn't stop them from giving him looks and murmuring about him though. He looked around for someone that would recognize him. He was approached by one of the grunts who was offering him medical aid. He accepted it, going to a more secluded spot where he lifted his shirt so this person could wrap a bandage around what now looked like quite a serious gash.
If he was being honest, he was a little disappointed in the treatment. They had the time and the resources to do it properly, yet the wound wasn't disinfected and the bandaging was sloppy and loose. If this were a more serious wound and if he didn't intend to get out ASAP, he would be raising a fuss. In the meantime, he made a note that his troops would have to revisit their first aid training.
It wasn't long before the news of his arrival drew the attention of Azul, who ran up to him with evident worry.
"How the hell did you get here?"
"Ah, Azul. I wanted to speak with you." He looked at the person treating him, "In private."
"I'm not finished-"
"Do as he says," Azul ordered.
They were left alone, with him laying on the ground and breathing heavily.
Azul knelt down and grabbed him by the shoulders, "What the hell is going on? First, you give us these vague and mysterious instructions, then you appear like… that."
"The White Fang has engineered a Grimm breach. I need everyone to clear it up. It is of the utmost priority. Set up a perimeter and start closing it. I need my costume and a comms device. And maybe something for the pain. Can you bring that much?"
Azul nodded, before carrying him into a nearby building. He explained that he'd sent a trusted agent to bring his stuff before handing him a radio and leaving him alone.
Sitting in seclusion, Violet extended the radio antenna and turned it on to an agreed upon frequency. Taking a deep breath, he spoke, "This is Zero, requesting status report from all units."
The moment Ruby heard the explosion she ran with the full power of her semblance, leaving Weiss and Yang behind. Of course Blake had good reason if she called them to this part of town and told them to be ready for a fight, she should have been even faster.
The whole situation had a familiar feeling, and that explosion confirmed her fears. She banished the things she saw that day at the docks as she rushed past the tide of panicked people.
The buildings obscured her navigation, and it took her some time to find the source of the commotion. Eventually, she spotted a group of uniformed and armed people running. She dashed forward with the intent to join them, only to notice that they were in fact fleeing from the scene due to an overwhelming horde of Beowolves chasing after them.
She took out Crescent Rose and flew into the mass of monsters without hesitation, cutting through them with all her skill. Grimm after Grimm was felled in her superspeed charge, it was almost effortless. Even so, she was aware of how quickly her semblance was expending her aura, so after a while she switched tactics, finding high ground some distance away to snipe at them instead.
She tried to focus on quickly and efficiently dispatching them, but she couldn't ignore the enormity of the breach. Stealing glances from the height, she could see hundreds of Grimm rampaging across the city. There didn't seem to be many pedestrians left on the streets, though there were many corpses.
She saw the Grimm breaking into homes, and she despaired at the thought of clearing them out. It would be a nightmare, both in terms of difficulty and time as they rampaged from apartment to apartment.
Where was everyone? It was all she could think about in response to the tragedy unfolding. She saw the law enforcement running away. Fine, no one expected them to face a full Grimm horde, but there had to be huntsmen or some proper army soldiers around. Just where were the adults?
The only people that arrived were Weiss and Yang, having finally caught up to her. She waved at them from a distance and pointed to the roaming Grimm before continuing to snipe away.
They too entered the fray, fighting ferociously. Weiss aggressively used her dust and glyphs to stem the tide, freezing the street to knock Grimm off balance, making them crash into their fellows with glyph barriers, and boosting Yang's speed as she unleashed all her pent-up power on the unfortunate creatures. Eventually, through great effort, the unending sea of beasts seemed to lessen, if only a little. Ruby spent most of her ammo and she suspected the same was true of her teammates. She ran to join them and engage the Grimm in close range alongside them. They formed a rough line along the street and tried to push the scattered Grimm back to their origin point.
That was easier said than done, some Grimm made their way around them from the various houses & alleys and tried to flank them, occasionally resulting in one of them getting hit, but they all remained persistent in their goal. They eventually fought their way to a crossroads from where they could see the public square and tunnel from which the Grimm were coming.
"I'm low on dust, and Yang is almost out of shells," Weiss said, "What should we do, Ruby?"
She was nervous, she could admit as much to herself. But she couldn't falter now, this was the moment she was made for. A chance to prove herself and become the hero she was meant to be, "We should aim to slow the spread of Grimm. We'll hold this crossroads until someone else comes, then we follow them to the square."
They nodded and continued to kill any Grimm that made its way towards them while trying their best to ignore the dead and the dying.
"Where…" Yang asked eventually as the fighting lulled, "Where is Blake? Does she have her location displayed?"
"No," Ruby answered, "She never has it on. But she should be here, hopefully alive. She has to be."
"Just focus on yourselves," Weiss said, "Blake can take care of herself."
Despite their exhaustion and critical shortage of ammunition, they managed to hold the point against Grimm incursions, if only by a thread. Ruby would be proud of herself were it not for the fact she could hear so much screaming from the various apartment buildings surrounding them, knowing she couldn't be everywhere at once. Not to mention, the fact that Grimm were making their way to the rest of the city by bypassing them. As she watched a woman throw herself off a balcony to escape a Beowolf, she had to ask herself if they were making any difference?
And again, the question haunted her. Why wasn't there anyone putting up a fight? Did she miss a memo? Was everyone here left for dead? Why? Why can't she help everyone at once? Why doesn't she have the power to save everyone? Wasn't she supposed to save the day, like all the other heroes? So why are things turning out like this? Why, why, why?
She grabbed her scythe and greedily tapped into her semblance, rushing forward and disintegrating Grimm limbs with her scythe. Everything was a blur, her instincts had taken over, she couldn't think of anything else but covering the streets with more Grimm gore. She only stopped when her aura ran out and she stumbled face-first into the concrete.
Picking herself up, she looked around, still dizzy. She had made it to the square some two hundred meters away. More interestingly, there wasn't a single Grimm standing between her, and her teammates. In fact, there weren't that many Grimm in the square either. She knew she was good, but that seemed like a bit too much even for her.
A machine gun cut through a pack of Beowolves, obscuring them in a cloud of dust and black mist while making a 'brrrrt' sound. She looked up, noticing a bullhead circling the skies and raining fire down on the Grimm. It was painted with a red ornate symbol of a crane with a vertical line slicing it. She could've sworn she saw it somewhere else, but she couldn't quite recall it now.
Trying to focus, she could hear gunfire from the distance, and a lot of it. Hell, she could see the swarm of Grimm flee back to the square from one of the streets. Grimm rarely fled, only a truly overwhelming force could make that happen. So was this it? Were her prayers finally answered?
So caught up was she in her observations that she almost got gored by a Boarbatusk. She jumped away just in time, but she had no aura, so she tumbled to the ground in pain, dropping her weapon. By the time she got up, it was charging at her again.
A volley of shots impacted its side, collapsing it in front of her feet. Looking around, she saw Blake descend from one of the buildings and run towards her.
"You alright Ruby?" She hugged her.
"Blake? Where have you been? And what in the world is going on?"
"I've been trying to stop this breach since it started. I called all the Beacon numbers I had. As for what's going on now… Look for yourself."
She pointed to one of the streets from which a paladin was rushing through, blasting Grimm with all of its armaments. Except, it wasn't an ordinary paladin like she saw that one day. It was painted black, with that same symbol she had seen earlier. She now recognized it as the emblem of the Black Knights, displayed in its center in dark red. Following behind it were countless soldiers in black uniforms, cleaning up anything that survived the mechanical monster's rampage.
"They've formed a perimeter around the breach and are pushing them back. They're actually pushing them back," She said with great relief in her voice.
Though not as dramatic, much the same scene occurred in the surrounding streets. Weiss and Yang were running towards them and away from the incoming wave of Black Knights.
"Are…" Yang was out of breath, "Are you seeing this?"
"As well as you are," Ruby answered.
"Well we can't remain here," Weiss said, "What do we do, Ruby?"
"What do you mean, 'What do we do'? We stay and we fight the Grimm."
"You can't be serious, they'll kill me the moment they recognize me."
"No they won't," Blake said, "No one's going to do that in the middle of a Grimm breach. Now's not the time to be hysterical."
"But-"
"Are you going to run from your huntress duties based on a hunch? Is that what the most noble Schnee family does?"
"No, but if they find-"
"Is there any difference between the fear of Grimm and the fear of getting found out and attacked?"
She looked at the incoming soldiers, then at the Grimm hordes still spewing forth from the tunnel.
"I'm out of aura," Ruby said, "But I'm still staying."
Weiss gave a frustrated growl before drawing her rapier and proceeding toward the Grimm masses.
They continued fighting against the monster horde, but with the whole team having lost a lot in terms of aura and ammo, they were far more cautious and subdued. Weiss never strayed far from the auraless Ruby, and they avoided the larger Grimm like the Ursas, letting the Black Knights take care of them.
The Paladin was doing excellent work on the Grimm, it ran around the battlefield without a care in the world, machine gunning the lesser ones while destroying whole packs in its bursts. Its shells also did their duty, taking down the stronger creatures with a shot or two, while the well over a hundred Black Knights took out stray Grimm and exterminated whatever creatures hid in various buildings around the place. The breach seemed to be petering out, slowly but surely.
They weren't the only ones there though, there were a few Beacon huntsmen there apart from team RWBY. Certainly, it was impossible to miss the minigun from Coco of team CVFY as she fired it directly into a large Beringel that had just entered the battlefield by crawling through the tunnel.
The creature resembled a majestic gorilla and was massive even by the standards of its own species. It was over 10 meters tall, pitch black with bone armor, and had eyes that burned with a deep red flame. It barely registered the enormous volume of fire from Coco, instead choosing to charge at the Paladin.
The machine turned towards the Beringel just in time, pummeling it with dual artillery guns, but it barely fazed the creature, who slammed into it with all its weight, knocking it into a nearby building and whacking it with its fists in a frenzy.
Ruby watched with hopelessness as her bullets seemed to barely do anything to the creature, which looked to be the sole serious threat remaining bar some stray Grimm distracting most of the soldiers.
The creature continued to strike the Paladin again and again. Seeing their most prized war machine being destroyed like that almost made her feel bad for the Knights. The bullhead swung down to a close range to shoot a volley at the creature, only for the Beringel to throw a batch of debris, damaging the aircraft and making it flee. In the meantime, the creature continued its strikes on the Paladin.
That was, until a majestic figure in black, Zero himself, descended onto it from a nearby rooftop, swiping its scythe across its nape with a powered strike. Even from a distance, she could tell the blade bit deep and the torrents of black blood confirmed it. The creature moaned in pain for the first time, finally taking its focus away from the machine.
When it turned around, it quickly clocked in on the one that had hurt it and chased after him. Unfortunately for Ruby, Zero seemed to be running in their direction. She commanded Weiss to launch the last of her fire dust at the creature's eye, making it stagger for just a moment.
"Focus on one of the legs," Zero said. It took Ruby a moment to realize the mythical voice was addressed to her and her team.
"Its left leg, attack it with everything you've got!" She said as she ran towards the creature, firing her last magazine as she moved. The Beringel saw it fit to kick her, and it would have, were it not for Weiss straining to create a shielding glyph, halting the kick before it could gather enough momentum. With the creature put off balance by Weiss, Ruby swung at the ankle of the other leg, cutting one of the tendons and causing it to drop to a knee.
By now the Grimm blood had painted much of the square, its rapid evaporation painting the air with an oppressive black tint. The Beringel still swung its hands around and it even tried to crawl, but the huntresses managed to keep out of its range easily.
"It's a little slower," Weiss remarked, "Has to be the blood loss."
"It's still regenerating rapidly," Blake said, "Even the neck wound has stopped bleeding, no doubt it'll be able to move again soon."
"So this was all useless?" Ruby said.
"Not at all," Zero said, standing beside Ruby and looking down at her. It was unnerving, "It is an excellent opportunity, we just have to seize it. Girl in black, go for the eyes. Blonde, shred its knee."
Blake wasted no time as she fired precise bursts from Gambol Shroud into its eyes. Indeed, the beast didn't thrash as much and she could hit its weakpoints with ease. Yang had absorbed a lot of damage by now, and she was eager to pay it back. Her hair burned as she uttered a war cry and struck the grounded knee of the creature with such force that a shockwave could be felt throughout the battlefield. The fact Zero knew she was able to do that didn't escape her, but she couldn't afford to ponder it as the creature's arm tried to squash her and she was forced to run for it.
"Schnee, trap the hand with ice. Red, prepare to slice at its veins."
Weiss did as she was told on instinct, it was just like training in Atlas. An ex-military instructor barking attack orders and her following the combination without thought. She fired the last of her ice dust, officially emptying her cylinders.
She snapped out of it, she couldn't follow the orders of a terrorist leader. She would have gladly taken the chance to backstab him immediately were it not for the fact that the auraless Ruby was charging into the Beringel yet again. She knew by now that the dolt wouldn't stop for anything, so she summoned her glyphs to speed Ruby up, making her slice the Grimm's veins and escape quickly. Gallons of black blood spewed from its forearm, while the hand remained encased in ice.
She was just about to have her team get out of there, especially as she was recognized by Zero, but then the seemingly defeated Grimm did the unimaginable. It tore off its bad hand forcefully, leaving it a stump, and used its good leg to leap at her.
She had no time to marvel at the ancient Grimm's strength as she dashed away, just barely missing its body. That didn't stop it from a follow-up strike with its remaining arm, which was only slowed by a burst of minigun fire and finally halted by a pillar of hardlight dust conjured by a rabbit faunus.
"Good work," Zero's metallic voice rang out, "Shades and Pyrrha, aim for the face. Black hair and Rabbit, trap the hand."
Pyrrha threw Milo at its face, hitting one of the regenerated eyes with her javelin, while a less accurate volley of gunfire from Coco temporarily stunned it. In the meantime, Blake wrapped her ribbons around the hand and Velvet's pillar of light dust, which the latter had anchored into an explosion crater.
As they trapped it, Zero moved towards the beast, climbing up the length of the arm towards its head. The Grimm moved its stump arm to intercept it, but it was knocked away by a shell from the Paladin. The machine was severely damaged, but it had recovered enough to stand and aim a shot.
Zero moved up to its neck. The Creature must have lived for many centuries, it would have been the subject of legendary hunts, and he was going to put it to rest. Already, its seemingly boundless energy was spent, its attempts to shake him off were laughable. He raised the Mordred at its nape and started swinging.
It was like chopping wood, steadily chipping away at matter with alternating strikes at different angles, digging further and further down into the beast's dark core. Eventually, he could feel himself hit something hard. He pushed the explosive strike button on his scythe, and the creature's muscles gave out as it fell. The abomination must have wiped out countless villages in its lifetime, snuffed out countless souls, killed many promising huntsmen. And now it was culled from this world by his scythe.
Zero stood on the decaying corpse of humanity's oldest foe when he spoke, "People of Vale, heed my voice!"
The proud knights, the young huntsmen, the surviving civilians. Their eyes were all upon him. Occasional cheers erupted from the Black Knights, but the others held silent.
"Today, we have witnessed an act of unfathomable barbarism. The White Fang has, in a fit of childish resentment, unleashed a swarm of Grimm into the streets of our beautiful city. They have lost themselves to rage, and we have justly cut them down."
A round of cheers went out, this time louder, and a few of the civilians and huntsmen joined in. More people that were in hiding joined the crowd too.
"Today, we have witnessed an act of unforgivable cowardice. The occupational forces of Atlas have failed to protect their subjects, fleeing the battle at first sight of an enemy that fights back. They have no means to protect you, but we," he looked over to the gathering of students, "And the honorable huntsmen of Beacon, shall always be there for our citizens."
Another round of cheers went out, and the many huntsmen in the crowd felt compelled to join in. Everyone except Weiss looked elated, she alone remained confused and outraged. But the strength of the crowd was growing, it was infectious. Suddenly the shouts coalesced into a singular chant, "Zero! Zero! Zero!"
"Tomorrow, what shall we see? Will those responsible for this disaster be brought to justice? Or will they blame us for having the gall to cry out in pain when struck? Will they change things? Will they let the Vale army back into the Capital, or perhaps allow non-huntsmen to own firearms? What shall they do?" The people screamed out in fury, their only outlet an ever more fanatical, "Zero! Zero! Zero!"
"I will tell you what they shall do. They shall lay down their arms and surrender as the hammer of righteous justice comes down on them," He raised his scythe in the air to a thundering applause from the ever-growing crowd. But in the distance, he could see Atlas' true intentions in the form of an approaching aircraft. It was certainly not his, the bullhead had returned to base, this one was Atlesian, and it worried him.
As it approached, he could barely make it out as an older jet aircraft. It dove straight for him, and Zero barely had time to react, collapsing the Mordred into its portable form to shield himself from a salvo of bullets. He felt his weapon absorb many hits, but one of the projectiles did hit his gut and his body gave out in pain.
The aircraft pitched up, but the Paladin unleashed a machine gun salvo of its own, engulfing the craft in a fireball and sending it straight into the Grimm tunnel. There was screaming, there was panic in the crowd, but it all soon bled into a silent uncertainty as they all looked at Zero's kneeling form with bated breath.
Violet was just so utterly exhausted. He could taste the blood coming down his nostrils- Azul had brought him a combat drug of some kind, he didn't dare ask what was inside it. But there was only so much it could do before raw physiology took him down. And yet he had to endure, for just a moment longer. He pressed his hand into the fresh wound in his abdomen and stood up, brandishing the bloodied hand for all to see.
"This is their language," he said, and the people burst into cheer again, "Violence is all they understand. So we must speak violence to them. We must spill blood!" Blood? Whose blood?
"Blood! Blood! Blood!" The Knights started chanting, and the rest followed on instinct, the mob mentality taking over.
"The day is fast approaching, will you ready yourselves for war?" War? What the hell was he talking about?
"War! War! War!"
"I can give you war, but you must give your all to me!" Will they give their all? Will I? Do I even have the right to ask for this?
"Our all! Our all! Our all!"
"Our sweat! Our blood! Our lives! Our all!"
"Zero! Zero! Zero!"
The crowd was frenzied, it was growing, it felt like an infinite swarm had gathered solely to revere him.
Or was it just the drugs?
He could see his clothes stained with blood, could see the cameras- the eyes of the world were watching him. With the battle-scarred Paladin now behind him as well as the fire, he must have made a striking image.
What have I become to them? What am I now? Their leader? Their savior? Messiah? God?
Whatever it was, he leaned into it, unfolding his scythe again and raising it, the frenzy among his people driven to new heights.
Were they people, or were they beasts? Grimm perhaps?
He was drowning in the energy, the high of victory was always so intoxicating. He was overdosing on it. He could see the burning desire to kill in their eyes. And in that moment, he knew they would put cities to the sword in his name.
As his vision blurred and the Paladin's hand gently grabbed him, there was only one question on his mind:
What have I done?
AN: Well, here we are! A major escalation that will shake the whole of Remnant. Surely this doesn't spur Atlas to get its act together and finally respond adequately.
In any case, I'm so glad I managed to pull through on one of my projects and work consistently on something people actually enjoyed. Act 2/5 is more of less done, which brings me to my next news:
I talked previously about wanting to rewrite some earlier sections of the story, as I felt my writing was a bit stilted back when I started. I initially thought of doing this after act 3, but I think it's better to do this early rather than late.
I won't be changing any major plot points, apart from perhaps my odd choice of killing Arthur Watts for some reason. I think I was afraid of introducing too many OCs at once. Tell me how you feel about retconning that one.
Apart from that, it will mostly be me fixing stylistic and grammar mistakes, improving dialogue flow, and adding some extra scenes in the initial chapters, which I admittedly rushed a bit. I feel like if I'm going to write something that's increasingly looking like a ~350k word work I should redo the introductory parts.
That all might sound like a big delay to my already lax upload schedule, but I plan to release a shorter intermission chapter in the meantime, detailing the aftermath of the Breach in more detail and the various reactions of the world's characters to the moment, which should serve as a nice teaser for some of the plot points in Act 3.
Thanks for listening to my ramblings, now onto the reviews:
Iron M. Writer:
I agree that his motivations seem underdeveloped. I think it's more that Lelouch's motivations were either high-minded intellectual things (Brittania is unjust) or very personal (Protecting his sister, Finding his mother's murderer)
I did the first part alright, but I couldn't quite get the more personal motivation. I plan to remedy this by giving some of his backstory on how he gained his semblance and why he decided to start what would eventually become Black Knights at ~14.