Summary:
"Don't give up on yourself... I won't let go."
These are the thoughts of the Amazon as she sees Adam dying before her; are they enough to save him?
The awful creations of the heinous Dr. Merlot appear in Remnant once more, bringing back unpleasant memories of Mountain Glenn and the secrets of that city's destruction.
Notes:
Tell me, are there any other fics using the Merlot lore? I'm very interested in this.
Chapter Text
Amber made a beeline for Beacon Academy immediately after she inquired from the shopkeeper about the mysterious bookmark, confirming that he had no idea who had left the message, but extracting a promise from him to let her know if he saw anything else similar.
Before she could make her report, though, she was informed about the dire situation in Forever Fall. In all likelihood, Beacon's premier Grimm hunter was in dire straits as they spoke, and the two missing students, who no one had any idea of their whereabouts might be better or worse for it.
She needed to get to Forever Fall, and fast.
Ignoring the instructions she got from Ozpin, the Fall Maiden closed her eyes and made a series of chants, stirring up the mystical powers around her, and in an instant, she was gone.
Ozpin looked helplessly to the side; he hadn't expected her to rush back to his office so suddenly, and Glynda was still en route.
After quickly instructing his trusted aide and assistant to rush to Forever Fall rather than the campus, he turned to his other trusted aide, Qrow.
Qrow, who was usually impassive even in such situations, revealed a rare look of worry; every time Merlot's monsters manifested, there was a massacre.
These were creatures that defied even the arcane rules of Creatures of Grimm. They were proof that human ingenuity could often surpass nature's most hideous machinations.
Ω
Peter Port's shot hit home, as it never failed to, striking the creature directly in its open eye, the explosion raising a cloud of smoke several feet high and rocking the structure around him.
If this were a regular kill, then he would make attempts at studying the felled enemy before it fully dissipated, or use a special containment unit to preserve certain parts of the carcass. In this case, however, all of his instincts were telling him to run; though he had vanquished it, the creepy "smile" the creature had pointed at him before he let his ammunition loose sent chills through his spine and doused his previously almost cavalier attitude towards danger and death.
I'll report this once I'm clear of the ruins,Port said to himself, not daring to take his eye off the immobile creature as he scanned his surroundings alertly, descending from the ceiling and high-stepping it out of the haunted battleground with an alacrity he hadn't been even sure his Semblance could bring out of him until now.
Later on, when asked to give a report of the incident that happened here, the portly professor would have to struggle to piece together the narrative (a thing exceedingly rare for him as he was virtually a wellspring of stories and all of his adventures remained firmly within the cage of his skull, complete even if they were at times embellished for dramatic purposes).
The next few moments were as a dream to the Huntsman; firstly, he leaped diagonally into a roll, evading a powerful sweep that shook the halls around him from its force. In other times, the man would have looked behind to check the source of the unexpected attack, but in this case, he tripled his speed, turning into a blur as he widened the gap and made a series of rapid turns and leaps to draw him closer to the surface.
In a few breaths, he had arrived at the entrance, but the sight of red leaves did not relieve him; if not that he was taxing his faculties to their limit already (moving at speeds comparable to an automobile), he would have run even faster.
Just at the threshold, though, he saw a head of brown hair and caught himself, arresting his entire momentum in a moment and barely stirring the dust around him as he did, a testament to the level of control and precision a professional Huntsman was capable of.
"Run!" he shouted at the young lady, who seemed unmoved by his frantic running, and grabbed her wrist, pulling her deeper into the forest alongside him.
Amber was shocked at this sudden movement, and was unable stop herself from being dragged along for the first few seconds before she realised what was going on and, with a wave of her hand, caused them to stop.
Port was shocked because, unlike earlier when he forced a stop, he had done so by stimulating his Aura in the reverse of his direction and containing the energy in his body, the excess being transferred into the ground and atmosphere quietly. It was an extremely advanced and difficult technique that took Huntsmen years to begin to grasp, and few ever fully mastered it. The applications of such a technique were extremely useful even at the rudimentary level, and at the level of full mastery, one could survive drops of thousands of metres with scarcely a scratch or shrug off the might of powerful explosives like they were nothing. It was rumoured that every single Headmaster had reached this level of perfection and was thus able to take on a full army by themselves.
In the case of this young lady, though, her simple gesture caused both of them to halt suddenly, negating all their momentum as though they had not been in high-speed motion just the moment before. There had been no stirring of Auras, or application of a counter-force, just a sudden, inexplicable halt.
He stared in pure amazement at this young lady, very nearly forgetting the creature on their tail. His terror and experience overcame his surprise, though, and he very briefly explained the situation to her before urging her to flee with him.
"Brilliant," she said with a charming smile, "I'm at the right place then."
Before Port could say anything, though, he heard a chaotic crash from the direction he least wanted it to come from. It was clear that the beast was close and wasn't amused by his earlier attempt. Having now lost hope of evading the creature, he pulled out Blowhard again, prepared to go down fighting - this was a thing every hunter had long since come to terms with when the Creatures of Grimm were concerned.
As he made to step forward, a supple arm blocked his path as the owner of it turned to him with a smile, saying, "That won't work."
He already had that feeling, but still looked down at his weapon, not sure what else could be done if that proved ineffective.
"Don't worry," she said easily, her charming smile making his nervous grip slacken, "I'll handle it."
As she said this, she began reciting what Ozpin had taught her in her head.
To perform magic is to give the power that is already around us structure,the gentle voice of her mentor had said.
The way wizards generally did this was through speech; crafting spells to manipulate this power deftly and easily. As you grow in ability, though, you will find your own completely unique path; the magic will become part of you.
As she made her recollections, the massive body of the eerily green Grimm became visible through the trees, their russet leaves falling in a torrent as it marched along steadily, having locked its prey down, confident they would not escape.
Amber seemed oblivious to this, though, and she moved her hands through the air fluidly as though commanding some invisible choir and being caught in the music they produced in response to her. Port, who just a second ago had been terrified beyond belief due to the approaching monster, stared at her with rapt attention, similarly oblivious to the doom impending.
This was Amber's path; rather than spells and chants and scrolls, she stirred all that was magical around her with her movements, making the mystic her appendages. Every smile, bow, and wave of hers carried with it the power that had created this world and that suffused every single part of it.
As the creature bore upon them, its noxious fumes already spreading death in the surrounding area, the red leaves turning black and shrivelled, unable to bear the corruption of this abomination,she brought her movements to a stop, she looked at the creature coldly, before giving another charming smile and saying: "Bye-bye."
By the time Professor Port came to, the Mutant was no more, it was just him and the fair maiden who had saved his life.
Port ventured to say something but was once again forced to stop as a result of a gesture from her.
"Say," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper and putting her hand to the side of her mouth as though to prevent any eavesdroppers, "can you keep a secret?"
Ω
In a cave by the bank, Pyrrha was doing her best to resuscitate her teammate, but all her effort served to delay rather than solve the problem.
His face was now of a greyish, deathlike pallor, black veins making themselves visible as they squirmed unnaturally underneath his skin. Whatever that poison was doing to him defied all logic.
Pyrrha was at the end of her rope, she had no idea what to do.
"Inuwa, please help, please don't let him die."
She looked at the face of the man she had only known for a few months and willed him to fight against the poison. She recalled the conversation they'd been having before the catastrophe struck, and it sent a terrifying presentiment through her as she did.
Please, don't give up on yourself... I won't let go.
Ω
In Adam's disturbed mind, though, he remained in that grey river that petrified him, unwilling to resist.
Him dying here was justice.
For the lives he had taken.
For the lies he had told.
For the promises he had broken.
Promises.
The thought stirred something in him.
The current slowed down a little.
Promises.
His mind went back to that night under the fireworks.
As the lights above exploded one by one, he felt his stone limbs regain their animation, his ossified blood flowing with energy through him.
He remembered how her hand had found his.
There were no words, no thoughts even, and yet there had been a promise in that.
He didn't want to break that promise.
He didn't want to let go.
Save me!
Ω
As Pyrrha's tears fell softly down, she felt movement from the red-haired faunus next to her.
Suddenly, he sat up with a gasp, coughing so violently that his tall frame shook like a bell. As he did so, a blackish green gas seemed to escape from his body, dispersing in the small cave.
Adam stared incredulously at the teary face of the Amazon, meekly accepting her warm hug and reciprocating with what little energy he could in his state.
"Don't scare me like that, ever again!"
"Or you'll break my arm?" he asked, his light teasing possessing that charm that fatigue can sometimes bring to a voice.
She laughed sadly and didn't say anything, tightening her arms around him instead.
This time, he didn't pull away.
"That's unbelievable."
The surprised statement came from the entrance of the cave, where a young lady with brown hair was standing next to their Grimm Studies Professor, Peter Port.
"You used magic!"
Ω
Later that day, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, and Dr. Oobleck were seated in the Principal's office, prepared to listen to what they had been told beforehand was a confidential briefing.
In front of them were the trio of Ms Goodwitch, Qrow Branwen, and the illustrious Headmaster himself, who had placed warm mugs of hot chocolate in each person's hands, not listening to any protests they might have on the matter.
"Firstly, congratulations to you all; you faced a rare and deadly enemy with composure. Especially you, Mr Ren, Dr. Oobleck emphasised how your composure under the pressure of this strange Grimm was essential to everyone exiting safely."
Ren refused the praise with his characteristic coolness, although he was clearly still shaken up by the experience.
After a few moments of silence, Ms Glynda saw it fit to broach the Goliath in the room.
"You must all be wondering what exactly it was you encountered underground."
Receiving affirmative replies from all of them, Qrow interposed at this moment.
"What do you know about Merlot Industries?"
Dr. Oobleck gave a long-winded reply, basically explaining how it was a Dust and research company that was the chief suspect behind the tragedy of Mountain Glenn.
"Mountain Glenn?" Nora asked, "Isn't that the abandoned city? The one that was overrun by Grimm."
"Yes," Ozpin confirmed, "what you saw was the result of the Merlot Industries' many experiments with Grimm Creatures."
There was another silence in the room, the two students lost in thought and Dr. Oobleck staying quiet, knowing that he could ask more questions of the trio later on.
Once again, it was Ms Glynda who spoke.
"I believe you understand that exposing this matter to the public would create a serious uproar; these Grimm are the bane of ordinary Hunstmen. They're almost impervious to Dust, and Aura makes no difference to them. That's why you were given the order to pull back."
"How many of those things are out there?"
"We're not sure, but the ones in that area have been cleared out and we'll organise a force to track all traces from that abandoned facility."
After reassuring the students and getting their promise of confidentiality and finally briefing Dr Oobleck, the three were left in the office, the stress of the situation evident on their faces.
"I can't believe there were no casualties."
"Neither can I," said Qrow, "that Ren kid's a real lifesaver, I wonder if I can get him on Ruby and Yang's team."
"And that Mistralean girl, Nikkos. Do you think Amber was right about her?"
"For all our sakes," Ozpin said, looking into the distance with a pained expression behind his dark shades, "I pray not."