Author's Note: A longer chapter again this week. There wasn't anything I was willing to cut out here. Also, our first real cannon character makes a legitimate entrance to the story! Big round of applause for SGGE finally becoming important enough to meet one of the major players.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.
Chapter 17
Memories and Secrets
"He's not gonna tell us anything about their location, I think." I told the group after almost an hour of useless arguments. Randall just shrugged at the news.
"That's frustrating, but expected," He offered.
Evelynn was more thoughtful.
"What exactly did he tell you?" She asked.
"Well," I summarized, "He did give some helpful insight into their goals for the war. They know they can't win, they just want to drag it out as long as possible so the Atlesian people become tired of it. Other than that it was a pretty circular conversation."
She nodded.
"I'll bring that up at the next staff meeting. For now I say we let the intel people handle his questioning, they'll be here fairly soon. They'll be bringing an escort with them to relieve us as well, so we can get some R and R in town before we head back out."
At that, Eugene and Randall both clapped their hands together and raised them above their heads, bowing slightly to some imaginary ruler in a movement they had clearly practiced before.
"Oh joyous news!" Randall called out, and Eugene mouthed the words along with him from within his cone of silence. "Rest and relaxation! Truly a gift from our benevolent leader!"
The corner of Evelynn's mouth twitched slightly as she tried to maintain her angry complexion. I grinned broadly, glad that Randall and Eugene could help take some of the stress off of her.
"Shut up." She said with mock anger, kicking up a burst of snow at them. "It was funny the first time, but it stopped being entertaining a year ago."
-/-
About four hours later a Bullhead flew overhead, dropping off a single huntress from low altitude before circling the area. The huntress fell over a hundred feet before tucking and rolling into a snowbank. She landed with an explosion of powdery snow, then emerged unharmed.
The unknown operative had landed about twenty yards from us, and they casually strode over as they dusted loose snow off of their outfit. She wore a sleeveless outfit in the usual Atlesian white, with a dark blue undershirt beneath it, and had brown hair dyed partially blond in a short mohawk.
Now that I could get a better look at the huntress I almost immediately recognized her from a time when Gary had ransacked the Atlesian operative files. It was Harriet Bree, a member of the Ace Ops team. She approached Evelynn, sticking out a hand to shake.
"Captain Stone?" She greeted our leader. "I'm Specialist Harriet Bree, with the Ace Ops." Evelynn returned the handshake.
"Its good to meet you Specialist Bree, boring flight I hope?" Bree nodded
"No complaints."
She turned the Bullhead that was circling overhead, waving the all clear. It finished its flight pattern, waggling the wings in acknowledgement of her signal, and began to set down. Evelynn pointed at me and Randall, then gestured towards the Bullhead, so we set off to greet the landing crew while the officers talked. As we departed I heard Evelynn running through the security checklist I had created before the mission, ensuring that Specialist Bree hadn't brought any traceable technology like a scroll or a tablet with her.
-/-
The Bullhead landed in a small clearing not too far away, so after greeting the intelligence officers disembarking the aircraft I set to work double checking all of their equipment to ensure none of it could be traced back to us. Sergeant Green struck up a conversation with the pilots to keep them occupied while I worked. Lieutenant Rivers had already discussed my penchant for hacking with the rest of the team after I had broken into an Atlesian terminal to access my service records, back when I thought I was still a normal Atlesian soldier, so Green knew to give me time to work.
I plugged my hacking hit into the Bullhead, quickly bypassing security protocols to confirm that the pilots had indeed changed the aircraft's digital registration number to that of a civilian airliner that usually flew out to this village every month to bring supplies. We could have turned off the aircraft's transponder completely, but that would have raised suspicion if Gary or his team ever compared flight maps from radar systems and transponders. Next, I checked the decoy scrolls that had been placed aboard the aircraft. They were happily transmitting the same message traffic as they would have if they were the ones the normal civilian air crew carried.
Satisfied all was in working order and we were hidden the best we could be I unplugged from the aircraft's computer and returned it to normal functionality. On my way out of the cabin I noticed several crates of supplies and what looked like some boxes of tools. I wondered at their purpose as I stepped out into the cold to join Sergeant Green and the two pilots.
"Grayson!" Randall greeted me as I exited the aircraft. "Come meet my new friends, Lieutenants Cloud and Sky." I shook hands with the pair of junior officers.
Lieutenant Cloud turned to look at her copilot, grimacing slightly.
"Sergeant Grayson Phoenix?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am" I replied, "What's up?" The pilot sighed quietly.
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Sergeant, but we were given orders to relay to you once we got here. Lieutenant Sky has the details." Sky, her copilot, fished around in his pack before retrieving a manilla envelope. Normally orders would have been carried on a scroll or tablet, but with the blackout on traceable technology they had clearly been forced to improvise. He handed it to me, and I skimmed the contents.
Inside was paperwork for a non judicial punishment on the charge of disrespecting a senior officer, failure to obey a lawful order, and conduct unbecoming of a non commissioned officer. Confused, I read further until I reached the signature block to see that the order was signed by Major Isaac Fin. With a deep sigh I handed the envelope over to Sergeant Green, who had been trying to read over my shoulder as I skimmed the package.
"So, what's the punishment?" I asked the officers.
"Well," Lieutenant Sky began. "For starters, your next R is canceled, and you're to be assigned to latrine duty instead, or 'as close as possible.'" He said, making air quotes as he said the last part. "Then you need to complete some mandatory retraining on customs and courtesies when you get back to Atlas, there's a slide deck and an automated quiz. The whole nine yards." I glanced at him, unimpressed with the punishment.
"So, death by powerpoint?" I asked, surprised that I was getting so minor a punishment considering the charges against me. He nodded
"Death by powerpoint pretty much sums it up. Apparently the major pushed for a reduction in rank, but wasn't able to get that approved without your actual team commander signing off on it."
"Incredible." I muttered under my breath. Green tucked the orders back into the envelope and passed it back to me, then subtly signed a message to me that the pilots failed to notice.
"I told you pissing him off was a bad idea."
His expression remained neutral for the sake of the officers present, but I could tell that he was also mildly irritated. I shrugged, accepting the envelope. Turning back to the pilots I held up the manilla envelope.
"Thanks Lt," I acknowledged the orders. "I'll be sure to pass this to my commander so she knows. No hard feelings for being the messenger." They seemed to relax slightly at that. They hadn't wanted to have to relay the information to us, and they were likely glad that we had taken it well.
"Good to hear," Lieutenant Cloud said. She clapped her gloved hands together, rubbing them together to ward off the cold.
"Should we join the others then?" She asked, "Sergeant Green here was just explaining how you all took down one of Atlas' top ten most wanted before we had to delve into that mess."
-/-
Sergeant Green regaled them with the story of how we had taken down Logan as we walked. I tried to minimize the information I shared in the name of operational security, but Randall's approach was to simply over exaggerate everything until none of it was useful information. When we returned he was miming the explosion of the munitions dump in the camp, and explaining how his semblance had saved Major Fin's life, as the poor major had been right about to poke his head up above cover before it detonated.
The pilots, clearly not having too much operational experience with huntsmen, were enthralled by his storytelling skills. I just chimed in with a lot of 'Yup's and 'That's true's as he rapidly became the subject of their rising awe. Lieutenant Sky turned to me as Sergeant Green finished his story.
"What did it feel like getting thrown into the sky to fight an aircraft with a sword?" he asked. I shrugged, embarrassed by the near hero worship I could see in his eyes.
"The flying part is pretty easy," I said in a self-deprecating tone, "it's the landing that sucks."
He shook his head ruefully.
"I guess I'll keep that in mind if I ever have to bail out" he said, staring off into the distance as he imagined it.
-/-
Captain Stone waved the four of us over as we returned to camp.
"The intel people are already getting to work," she began. "So Team SGGE is officially cleared to be off duty for the next sixteen hours." She turned to the pilots, "You two are going to be added to the guard duty roster, coordinate with Specialist Bree for that, and make sure you have the contact information for everyone's fake scrolls in case something happens." Looking back to Randall and I, she started to speak again when I held up the manilla folder.
"What's that?" She asked.
"Orders from Major Fin" I told her, handing it over so she could read the contents. "No R and R for me I'm afraid." She dismissed the pilots, then skimmed the contents, her brow furrowing as she read. After a minute she looked up.
"What did you do to this guy while I was out, Phoenix?" She asked. I was about to respond when Sergeant Green held up a hand, forestalling my answer.
"Well, you were with Lieutenant Rivers at the time ma'am, so you didn't hear it." He explained, ensuring that the pilots were out of earshot. "But after the good major threatened to have you brought up on charges, our local wonderboy here countered by offering to hack his personnel records and drag every screwup he had out into the light of day." He grinned conspiratorially and leaned in closer to Captain Stone, dropping his tone to a stage whisper. "Between you and me, based on the way he nearly pissed his pants I think there's a lot in those files that he would rather not see the light of day."
Evelynn gave me a critical look, trying to judge what part of the situation she should be irritated by.
"Why did you do that Grayson?" She asked in the tone of a parent who was tired of their child making dumb mistakes.
"Well" I said sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "He was being an asshole, and he was going to cause the team problems by blaming you for everything in his report, so I figured that if I had something to hold over him then he couldn't throw us under the bus. I probably should have seen something like this coming though. I only threatened to go after him if he did something to you, so I'm still fair game."
"Hmph" She intoned, unimpressed by my logic. Then she turned to point to a spot just outside of the camp we had set up. "Well, the air crew brought a portable toilet with them, go set it up over there and we'll call that good." She tucked the papers back into the envelope and tucked it under one arm. "After that, come find me out at the Bullhead, I need your help with something." I nodded.
"What about the extra training?"
She waved dismissively, already thinking about something more important.
"Just hack it to say you completed it or something, I don't care."
As she left, Randall grinned at me and gave me a punch on the shoulder.
"Looks like you got away with it." He said.
"I guess I did," I half agreed. "Though I have a bad feeling that Major Fin is a bit more persistent than that."
-/-
Setting up the portable toilet only took a few minutes. I really didn't mind doing it, and would probably have volunteered to take the task if I had been asked, but for some reason the fact that it was a punishment struck a nerve. I had been doing the right thing, looking out for my commander and keeping a power tripping jerk in check. So it grated on me that I was facing the same repercussions as if I had actually done something to earn a punishment, no matter how light it actually was.
I set the portable toilet assembly down with a huff in the position Captain Stone had indicated. It was just on the edge of the camp we had set up, far enough away to be semi private but close enough that nobody using it would be outside the security offered by the rest of the personnel in the area. The whole assembly weighed close to a hundred pounds by my estimate, but with LIWI's help I could lift it with a minimal amount of effort. I finished the setup process and gave it an experimental flush, satisfied to see that it worked correctly, then set off to find Captain Stone.
I found her in the back of the Bullhead, rifling through the boxes and crates that had been brought by the interrogation team. I knocked on the side of the airframe to announce my presence, then stepped inside to see what she was working on. She waved to me from her position kneeling on the floor and digging through a small crate.
"What did you need help with ma'am?" I asked, joining her on the floor to see what she was working on. She finally found what she was looking for, pulling a chisel and hammer out of the box. She sat back on her heels and held up the tools for inspection, then nodded her head to the side, indicating the shattered remains of her warhammer.
"With this." She replied. "I'm going to build a new core for Silver Forge, and I want you to work on repairing the casing and dust launcher while I'm at it." I looked at the mangled remains of the weapon. The marble core had been broken into several large chunks by impacting directly into the back of Logan's skull. The metal shell that normally concealed the core was twisted and mangled, with the dust launcher and its wiring forcibly ripped out of it by Logan's semblance.
"Why do you need to build a new core?" I asked. "Can't you just stick a large stone in the head and call it good?" She shook her head, moving to the side and opening another box to reveal a smooth marble block, almost the exact same size and dimensions as the previous core.
"Technically yes," she clarified. "My semblance can control basically any form of stone, but my two main limitations are that I need to be able to visualize what I want it to do, and I can't command a rock that has lost its connection to the rest of the planet." She easily hefted the block of marble and carried it to a worktable that had been unpacked and assembled earlier. "Usually that means I need to see the rock I'm manipulating, and I can only give it one command until it either hits the ground or I catch it. Which means I don't really have a form of telekinesis so much as a method of ordering the stone to follow my wishes. Basically, I can make the rocks jump, but I can't make them fly. Though I've learned that if I make contact with a rock then I can use my own connection with Remnant to restore the rock's connection which allows me to throw and retrieve my hammer mid jump."
Something about that last part didn't quite sit right with me. When the technology had been ripped from her hammer she had been applying a constant force to the hammer, and it had returned to her hand as ordered despite having been met with resistance from Logan. To me that seemed a lot more like flying than jumping.
"So if you need to see the rock then how can you control the hammer with the core surrounded by metal?" I asked while I thought about it. She shook her head again, taking the hammer and chisel and beginning her work on the marble block.
"I don't need to see it, I need to visualize it. There's a difference."
What is she putting on the block?
LIWI asked me curiously. I couldn't see around her to check the block, so I whispered back to him.
"I'll ask her in a minute."
Setting to work myself, opened another box labeled 'Parts: Spare, Atlesian Huntsman Weapon #2243' and retrieved the titanium plating infused with earth dust to reinforce it and the dust projector for the head of her hammer. I set to work assembling it, noting a few points where the design could be potentially improved with the addition of magical materials, though unfortunately I lacked the resources to actually upgrade the weapon at the moment. We worked quietly for a time, the loudest noise in the Bullhead being the sound of her hammer striking the chisel as she worked.
Eventually I finished the assembly process as much as it could be without the core to seal the weapon around and stood to join her at the workbench. I set the frame of the hammer on the bench, and got a good look at what she had been chiseling. On one side she had chiseled four names, each on top of the other. The names read "Evelynn Stone, Randall Green, Grayson Phoenix, Eugene Rivers." They were horizontally adjusted so that the S in Stone was above the G's in Green and Grayson, which were in turn directly over the E in Eugene. When taken together, it presented a picture of the name SGGE, expanded to include the full name of every member of the team. On the other side she appeared to be chiseling a sort of mural, it was too early to see what the final product would be though.
"Is the engraving to help you visualize the stone inside the weapon?" I asked, taking a seat on a nearby crate as she continued working. She waited a moment before responding, leaning in to blow marble dust out of part of the mural she was working on. "Yes" she finally answered "I'm making the marble distinct so I can remember the details. The easiest way to do that is to make it something that I'm intimately familiar with already, so I can't forget what it looks like in the middle of a fight."
That implied whatever she put on the hammer was something she had studied until she was familiar with every detail. Her last hammer had been a tombstone, and I winced as I realized the implications.
"I understand putting team SGGE on the one side then, but what are you putting on the other side?" I asked, trying to see where she was going with the mural.
"You'll see when it's done." She said cryptically, then turned to me and fixed me with a stare. "But I want one thing to be clear, nobody outside of this aircraft will ever see this, and I don't want them to see it, got it?" I nodded nervously, concerned now about what she was chiseling.
Well now I'm really curious.
LIWI commented within my head, and I got the mental image of him crossing his arms and pouting impatiently. I leaned back against a bulkhead as I settled in to wait, crossing my own arms and trying to distract myself with a mental conversation with LIWI.
After about thirty or so minutes Sergeant Green and Lieutenant Rivers stopped by to tell us they were heading into town for a few hours now that the interrogation team was settled in. They invited me, but I elected to stay with Evelynn for the time being, even though I knew she would likely be working on the mural for at least the next few hours.
-/-
Eventually, I dozed off to the rhythmic sounds of chiseling and scraping as she worked, only to be awoken a few hours later by her shaking my arm.
"Wake up" she said, "I'd like to show you this now."
I roused myself, hopping up off the box I had been sitting on and following her to the work table. On the flat surface of the marble block she had finished making a small but surprisingly detailed engraving. She clearly had significant experience working with stone, which only seemed natural.
The image showed Team SAGE fighting Gary on top of the Steelworks building back in Atlas. Specifically, it showed the moment when Gary had snapped Rivers' arm at the elbow. The lieutenant's face was etched in pain as he cried out, and Gary's cape blew out widely in the breeze. His armor and cape had a sinister appearance, making him seem larger and more imposing than he was in real life.
As I studied the image I realized that this was how she viewed him subconsciously, and I felt a twinge of guilt knowing that I was a clone of him. My stomach tightened as I considered that I had the same capability to become the monster that she viewed him as.
"Why did you choose this?" I asked, my throat was dry, and I swallowed to try to clear it.
"Because I need something that I can always see in my mind. The last core was a replica of Christine Petal's tombstone. I spent hours staring at it after she died, until eventually I could recall every detail by heart." She pointed at the engraved image of the fight.
"This has been burned into my brain since the moment it happened. Did you know that was the first time I ever heard Eugene's voice? He doesn't like to wear aura blockers. Not even when he is safe at home. The Atlesian military offered to issue him a modified cuff that could be worn under a sleeve to allow him to speak and hear normally again, but he refused." She pointed to where Lieutenant Rivers' face was twisted in agony. "That was the first and only time I've ever heard his voice, and he was screaming in pain because I wasn't good enough to stop Hyperion. That image will always be with me."
There was a long pause while she waited for her words to settle in, then she gestured to where the marble core would be added to the rest of the hammer.
"But now," She said in a determined tone. "I can take that memory, and I can use it to hit back. I can turn the worst moments of my life into something productive."
The words of the doctor who had treated her aboard the airship ran through my mind. People reacted differently to traumatic events, forcing yourself to constantly remember your worst failure every time you fought couldn't be healthy, but it seemed to be her method of coping, and I wouldn't try to take it from her.
She looked at me, and I saw incredible resolve in her golden eyes. The marble core on the table shifted, rising slightly off the table. It was off balance, as she didn't seem to be intentionally controlling it, but it rose from the table to float a few inches into the air. My attention was brought back to her as she grabbed my arm so tightly that it hurt. LIWI reflexively surged a small amount of power into me, frightened by her intensity.
"I will destroy everything Hyperion has ever built, I will tear down anything he has ever made, I will make him suffer for killing David," her voice caught, and I could see a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "And for hurting Eugene" she choked out. "Will you help me?"
Everything Gary had built included me, it included LIWI, and part of me was terrified by the rage I could see hiding just behind her grief. I could all too easily imagine that anger turned against me, and I wouldn't survive it. The rest of me however, knew that there was only one answer to her question. I took hold of her other hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
"I will, we'll take him down and stop him from hurting anyone else." I promised. She exhaled a shuddering breath, visibly calming herself. The core settled back onto the table softly as she relaxed. Her eyes diverted away from mine to the engraving, not having noticed it floating above the table, and she released my arm.
"Good." She declared firmly, "Then start by helping me finish this hammer. After that I've got something in mind for the old core."
-/-
We finished assembling the hammer, and she showed me what she had in mind for the scraps of her old weapon. As we finished our work I asked her a question that had been bugging me.
"Why did you show me this?" I asked, "I didn't need to see it, you could have kept it private." She breathed out in a long sigh in response.
"It's like I said back in the woods outside of Argus, I can't work with people I don't trust. I want to trust you, but you clearly don't trust me enough to tell me what's going on with you and LIWI, and that drives a wedge between us."
I nodded.
"I don't like it either, I want to tell you what I know but I don't know if I can." She packed her tools into a box, then offered me the blowtorch from my own kit, which I packed into my own tool box.
"You're over complicating it I think." she said. "If you trust me, then tell me, if you don't trust me, do something about it. That's why I wanted you here for this, if there's an obstacle in your way then break it down and keep moving."
I think you should tell her.
LIWI spoke into my mind, offering his input.
Even if you don't tell her everything, she deserves to know about us.
"But how much can I tell her?" I asked under my breath. I spoke in English, hoping that even if she noticed my muttering she would just assume it was gibberish. "She just swore to destroy everything Gary ever built, that includes us." I whispered harshly. Evelynn noticed me speaking, but just took a seat across from me while I hashed it out with LIWI.
Maybe, but she didn't know about that, I'm sure that if you just ask her not to destroy us then she won't.
"That is an irritatingly optimistic worldview."
LIWI sent me a mental image of him shrugging and holding up his hands in a helpless gesture.
I was built this way, you have no one to blame but yourself.
I took a deep breath, then looked up at Evelynn. She was waiting patiently with her arms folded.
"Fine" I said, "I'll tell you as much as I can, understand that it's not everything, but it's still a lot more than I probably should." I held up a finger to emphasize my point. "None of this leaves this aircraft though, and you need to ditch your scroll before we have this conversation. I can't risk somebody having planted a bug on our equipment that I haven't caught."
She raised an eyebrow, expressing her doubt, but did what I asked and we placed our scroll on a rock about thirty feet from the Bullhead. I sealed the doors to the Bullhead, then manually disconnected the microphones from the communication systems in the aircraft. Finally I took a deep breath and turned back to her.
"Alright, promise me you won't freak out." I said. Evelynn nodded her agreement, and took a seat in one of the aircraft's jump seats. "LIWI" I said nervously "Come on out."
No sooner had I finished speaking than LIWI practically jumped off my waist. His metallic belt form twisted and devolved into a blur as he took on his human form. He appeared sitting across from Evelynn, his shockingly blue eyes beaming as he grinned widely, excited to finally be interacting in person with a person other than myself.
"Hi!" he said happily, waving at Evelynn. Evelynn's eyes went wide, and she stood halfway up out of her seat before she recognized his voice. Her mouth hung open as she tried and failed to express herself for a moment. Finally she looked at me while pointing at LIWI.
"What the FUCK, Grayson?" She shouted, "That is not a high tech belt!" I tried to speak, but LIWI beat me to the punch.
"Nope!" he said cheerily, "I'm a person! Kind of." She whipped back to LIWI, staring at him.
"What do you mean 'kind of'? She demanded. I finally managed to interject myself into the conversation,
"He technically is the belt, this is just a form that he can take on. He was built to harness energy and use that energy to manipulate physical reality."
Evelynn looked askance at LIWI, wondering what could possibly do that.
"Magical energy." I clarified.
"He WHAT?" Evelynn shouted, now focused on me again. "Magic isn't real, Grayson." She pointed out firmly.
"Yeah…" I trailed off awkwardly, wincing slightly as her eyes narrowed.
"Is it?" She asked in a much softer tone.
I gestured to LIWI, who helpfully conjured a small bolt of lightning and bounced it between his hands. Evelynn's eyes tracked the bolt of lightning, disbelief written on her face.
"Look" I said "It's kind of like a semblance, you harness the power of your soul to move rocks, LIWI here manipulates already existing magical energies to heal us and make us stronger. But he used to be able to do a lot more before he was damaged. I've been trying to repair him but I just don't have the materials I need to do it properly."
"So why not just contact the people who built him before and get the materials?" Evelynn asked.
"Well, the only other member of the project is Gary" I said sheepishly. She looked between us again, taking a moment to process that information. LIWI offered her two cheerful thumbs up, which did not help in my opinion. She took several calming breaths, then spoke.
"Grayson" She said with a forced neutral tone. "May I speak with you in the cockpit?"
She gestured, and I followed her into the cockpit of the aircraft. She closed the door behind us, locking LIWI in the back of the aircraft. She turned back around to face me, then her neutral expression contorted into anger and she punched me in the shoulder. I was too slow to react, and the punch nearly popped my shoulder out of its socket, I stumbled backwards and tripped over the pilot's seat, falling to land draped awkwardly across the arm rests.
"Ow!" I shouted, clutching my arm and trying to make sure it wasn't broken from her aura infused punch. I supposed I should have been grateful it was instinctive, and didn't have any real power behind it.
"Are you insane?" She shouted back, driving an accusing finger into my face. "You've been carrying something that Hyperion built this entire time? What's to stop him from selling us out? How do you know he won't betray us at any moment?"
"Relax!" I called out, trying to fend off her aggression from my uncomfortable position draped over the seat. I knew this was going to go over poorly, but I had hoped it wouldn't. "Gary offered him the chance to join him back when he attacked the hospital, LIWI made it pretty clear that he didn't like him any more than I do." Evelynn threw up her hands angrily at my response.
"How am I supposed to trust that?" She shouted.
"Because you asked me to trust you!" I snapped back "You wanted me to tell you the truth? That's the truth, so now we both have to deal with it." She stepped away, becoming more still as she thought through what I had said.
"I can trust that you mean it," She explained, "But you still don't remember everything. So you can't be one hundred percent positive about him." I shifted in the chair so I wasn't draped as awkwardly.
"He's only been helpful so far" I pointed out, "And if he really wanted to hurt us then all he would have to do is to have helped Gary capture us back in Atlas. Instead, he helped me fight Gary off, and he saved Rivers' life by helping me stop Gary from landing a killing blow while his aura was down." She frowned, considering my argument.
"Alright, fine" She finally said, offering me a hand to get back on my feet "But I still don't like the idea of working with someone I don't know." I accepted the hand and she pulled me up off the seat. My shoulder made a painful popping noise as I rolled it in its socket to test the mobility, but I was otherwise unharmed by her outburst.
"So get to know him" I told her, "After we're done talking here let's go out there and you can talk to him directly." She thought for a moment, then nodded.
"I think I need to get to know both of you better. What else do you need to tell me then?" she asked.
"Well, that was the biggest one" I lied, now decidedly against telling her about my status as a clone of Gary. "I guess the next thing would be that I don't actually have aura, that's all been LIWI. I can't actually do anything very impressive without him."
"I actually kind of guessed that might be the case when he transformed" She admitted, "I think I would be more surprised if you really did have your aura unlocked. You kind of suck when you're separated from LIWI." I squinted at her, trying to judge if that was a genuine comment or an insult.
"Gee, thanks" I said ruefully, "But other than that I guess the biggest thing I can tell you is that I used to work with Gary pretty closely." It was a massive understatement, but it was all I was willing to admit for now. "I'm fully on board with fighting him mind you, but even without all my memories I still probably know him better than most people."
She nodded in response.
"Good, that will come in handy when we take him down." She turned to open the door to the cabin of the aircraft, and revealed LIWI standing by the door, an anxious expression on his face. He looked towards me nervously, wringing his hands together. As soon as the door opened his eyes locked onto my shoulder and I saw small hints of healing magic spark from his fingertips in an automatic response to my injury.
He moved to squeeze around Evelynn, but she put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. LIWI had designed his own body, as it was created out of magic, and he had made it to match how he viewed himself. This meant that he was only slightly taller than Evelynn, as his image of himself was a young teenager, not yet fully grown.
"LIWI" Evelynn said sternly, and he turned to look at her as she spoke to him. "I've decided that I trust you, don't make me regret it."
"Okay!" LIWI replied, relief evident on his face. "Does this mean I can talk to her more often?" He asked me, squeezing past her to start healing my shoulder and completely ignoring Eveylnn's implied threat. I winced as my shoulder healed, clicking painfully back into the proper position.
"I guess, yeah" I told him, and he beamed happily.
"Awesome!" He said excitedly, "I never get to talk to people myself!" I held up a hand to caution him.
"Just remember not to transform in front of anyone else. It's still a secret." He flashed me a big smile and a thumbs up.
"Okie dokie!" He replied happily, then turned to talk to Evelynn, satisfied that my shoulder had healed. "I have so many things I want to talk to you about! I thought of a bunch more questions after they took you away for surgery!" He exclaimed. "What does it feel like when you use your semblance? How heavy is your hammer? Can I try to throw it too? Who is your favorite member of Team SGGE?"
The questions poured out of him like water out of a broken dam, spilling over each other faster than Evelynn could answer them. Eventually she managed to stem the tide by giving him her hammer, after unloading the dust charges, and allowing him to attempt to lift it. For all of his power, LIWI couldn't actually enhance his own abilities in his human form, it seemed that the spells were intended to boost an actual human body. While my own body had initially been created by magic, his was still essentially just a magical projection, and did not work in the same way that mine or any other human's did.
-/-
Thus, Evelynn and I sat back and watched as he struggled to lift the one hundred and sixty five pound hammer off the ground. While LIWI tried to puzzle out where to grip the hammer to lift it, Evelynn turned to me and whispered a question.
"Why does he have white hair and blue eyes? Did you design his appearance?" I shook my head and whispered back.
"No. As far as I understand it, this human form is basically a projection of how he views himself. He's only a few years old, but he began life as a fully sentient being, so he views himself as a teenager."
She thought for a moment as he finally reached down and grabbed the hammer by the neck, finding the center of gravity and struggling mightily to get it above his waist.
"Lift with your knees, not your back" She advised him, but he just looked at her with confusion.
"He hasn't had a body for very long," I explained. "He doesn't really get how it works, the first time I got him fixed enough to transform he asked me why we didn't just jump everywhere, since that would be more fun."
Evelynn walked over to where LIWI was struggling with the hammer and demonstrated proper lifting form, emphasizing that he should avoid putting strain on his spine, then rejoined me in the jump seats as he went back at it with renewed vigor.
"So," She resumed her earlier point, "His face looks like a younger version of you, which makes sense. But he clearly isn't as tall as you, even as a kid. If anything he's closer to Eugene's size. He also has blue eyes like Randall, and white hair like me. Do you think that's intentional?" She asked. I thought for a moment, studying him.
"It might be" I finally decided. "He does spend the most time around us four, he probably just picked a mix of all of our physical features when he designed his body for the first time. I think it's also at least partly subconscious, if that word applies to him."
LIWI finally managed to get the hammer up onto his shoulder, beaming with pride at his accomplishment.
"Look!" he called out "I can be a huntsman too!" I laughed.
"Hah! Maybe in the future buddy, you need to grow up a bit before I'm gonna risk you being shot at." He wobbled as he turned towards me with the hammer on his shoulder, desperately fighting to keep his balance.
"You get shot all the time though!" He complained. "True, but I have you to heal me" I pointed out, "Plus I'm an adult, and a soldier, I know what I'm getting into." Evelynn frowned as a thought struck her.
"Wait." She said "Grayson you don't have aura, I know LIWI has some sort of protective barrier, I've seen you use it, but I also know that it's not perfect. Have you been getting hurt like a normal person when we fight?" I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
"Kind of, yeah" I replied. She sat up straight, turning to look at me, a shocked and concerned expression on her face.
"Grayson, I always swung at you full force! I could have killed you!" I waved a hand, trying to assuage her fears.
"Maybe, but only if I really screwed up, mostly you just broke my bones a lot, I think the record is one arm and six ribs in one swing." Her expression changed to horror as she imagined the damage she had been doing to me.
"I thought you had the increased muscle density that all huntsmen have." She said softly, "I thought that even with your weird aura being poor protection I was still only bruising you. You always got right back up afterwards, I'm so sorry that I never realized." Her tone trailed downwards towards the end of her thought, becoming quieter as she withdrew into herself emotionally.
I put a hand on her shoulder to draw her out of the spiral she was sinking into. Evelynn's greatest fear, I had come to learn, was allowing other people to be hurt, so to find out that she had been accidentally truly hurting me was sending her into an emotional tailspin.
"Evelynn" I said "Look at me, I'm fine, it's like you said. I always got right back up. LIWI can heal a lot, even broken bones, though he can't replace lost matter, so I usually get pretty hungry after experiencing blood loss. There's a limit to how complex his healing can be, so he can't restore my memories, and the spinal damage from when Gary shot me didn't heal correctly. But other than that, so long as I survive the initial hit I can heal through it."
I shuddered internally at the memory of when Gary had shot me, that had been a deeply unpleasant experience, and I still sometimes thought about being stuck, paralyzed in a forest alone.
"But what if I had hit you hard enough to kill you outright?" She asked, envisioning a world where she had killed me.
"You didn't." I reassured her, "And I'm pretty sure I've technically been dead twice, so I'd hopefully have been fine anyways, as long as LIWI had enough juice to keep me going." She put her head in her hands and stared at the floor for a long moment, but her revere was interrupted by a loud *Crash!* as LIWI finally lost his grip on the hammer and it fell to dent the floor panels of the Bullhead.
"Oops" LIWI said sheepishly, "Sorry, I can fix that."
"Look" I said to Evelynn "At the end of the day, if you had been holding back then I wouldn't have gotten the training I needed to keep up with the people we fight. And if I wasn't good enough to keep up then I might have gotten killed for real out there. So by training with me as hard as you did you actually probably saved my life." She looked up at me.
"You're probably right. But I still feel bad about it."
I shrugged.
"You didn't know, I didn't tell you, it's my fault."
"Hmm" She grunted noncommittally. "So how many times have you been actually legitimately shot?" she asked.
"At least a dozen I think." I said with more casualness than I felt. "Really, once you've done it once you've done it a thousand times, there's nothing to it. Bullet goes in, blood comes out, and you pray that the bullet comes out too when LIWI heals you. But as we've seen with that piece of shrapnel that caught you, it doesn't always work out perfectly." She looked past me at the bulkhead of the aircraft, remembering the lingering injury.
"True" She remarked, "That was not a pleasant experience."
We sat silently for a moment, observing LIWI as he held out a hand and forced mending magic into the floor of the bullhead. The magical teenager was entirely focused on his work, likely trying to impress us with how skilled he was.
"So." Evelynn finally said. "Now that I understand LIWI, what about you?"
"What about me?" I asked.
"We've really never talked about anything other than work and war." She replied. "I think it's high time that you and I actually got to know each other as some sort of friends. Huntsman teams don't work well together if they can't understand each other."
"Ask away then." I offered, opening my arms wide to imply that I was open to her questions.
"Do you have a family?" She asked.
"Not outside of LIWI." I replied. Gary might consider me his brother, but I didn't feel the same way anymore.
"Is that because you don't have them? Or because you don't remember them?" She clarified.
"A little of both I guess." I said. "But there's nobody I would be going back to visit on leave if that answers your question. What about you?" She nodded.
"My father, Mason Stone, and two younger brothers." Evelynn answered. "They run a quarry business a few miles outside of Mantle. Though I haven't seen them since you were in the hospital."
"Are they jealous of your semblance then?" I asked with a grin. "Control over rocks must be nice if you work in a quarry."
"Hah!" She laughed, "My father was certainly proud of me when I unlocked it, at least until I started using his dig sites as training areas. After that he was a little less thrilled."
"Ouch, I can imagine." I replied. "Are you planning on rejoining the family business after you retire from the military then?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head.
"I doubt it. I don't think I'm ready to give up fighting yet, though I could do with fighting a few more Grimm and a few less people after this mess is sorted. It's less complicated."
I went to speak, but she cut me off by jabbing a finger at me.
"Your turn, what do you plan to do after the war is over?"
I thought about it for a long moment, and realized I really didn't have an answer. The only future planning I had ever done in recent memory was focused around defeating The Pantheon. I had never stopped to consider what I would do if I actually accomplished that goal.
"I-" I began, then paused. "I don't know actually."
Evelynn frowned.
"There must be something you enjoy doing, some hobby or job that you could go back to once you leave SGGE."
The idea of leaving Team SGGE produced a small surge of trepidation in my stomach, and I shifted uncomfortably. Logically I knew I couldn't stay with them forever, but they were effectively my only friends, the only people I knew in the entire world that didn't just want to use me to suit their own screwed up plans for world domination.
"Not really." I finally admitted. "At least, not that I remember."
"Unacceptable." Evelynn declared, and I shot her a suspicious look.
"What?"
"Unacceptable. Everyone needs something that brings them joy in life, something not related to fighting. Once we have some real free time, I'm ordering the team to take shifts finding you something you enjoy."
"That's really not necessary-" I began, but I was quickly cut off.
"It wouldn't be." She elaborated. "Except for the part where you're clearly insane, charging in to fight huntsmen without aura, so as your team commander it's my job to ensure you have something to actually look forward to in your off time."
"Do I get a say in this?" I asked indignantly.
"You do not." She informed me, "But thank you for asking." I rolled my eyes in response, slouching back in my seat.
LIWI finished repairing the floor, though he couldn't repaint the scratch that he had caused, and stood up.
"What have you guys been talking about?" He asked cheerfully. I smiled,
"Nothing too important," I told him. "Good job fixing the floor buddy, it's good to take responsibility for your mistakes." He beamed at me, glad to have earned my approval. Evelynn nudged me with an elbow,
"Bet you can't hold it properly either." She teased, nodding towards the hammer.
"Excuse me?" I asked, mildly offended. "Lets not forget who carried who up the side of a cliff, without complaining mind you."
LIWI frowned.
"But you did complain, you called her dens-"
"OKAY!" I cut him off before he could get me killed. "Lifting the hammer now!" I strode over to Evelynn's hammer and squatted down, getting a good grip on the haft of the weapon. It was basically just a deadlift, which I could handle just fine without LIWI's help, but getting it up into an actual fighting position was a struggle.
Evelynn tried not to laugh as I awkwardly brought the hammer up into a defensive stance, the head held up and back with the haft extended outwards to ward off a blow from a potential slashing weapon.
"That's not bad" She said, covering her mouth with one hand, "But I think you should try holding it a little more relaxed, like this."
Evelynn stood up, and with a small flick of her wrist the weapon leapt out of my grip and flew to her outstretched hand. She held the weapon easily with one hand, not even dragged off balance as she held it fully extended away from her.
"Showoff." I remarked.
"Weakling." She responded with a smirk. Then she collapsed the haft of the weapon and slung it behind her back, walking towards the side door of the Bullhead.
"Come on gentlemen." She said, "It's getting late, we should join Eugene and Randall before we're needed back on duty in camp." She pointed at me with a stern finger, "Today, we start on finding you a hobby. But tomorrow I'm going to train the everloving crap out of you, because I will absolutely not have you getting killed while under my command." LIWI transformed back into his belt form, leaping back into my hand, and I saluted casually with the other.
"Wasn't planning on getting killed ma'am" I said "But I appreciate the thought."