A Deathly Silence (RWBY/Drakengard 3)

[X] Two fights to reach understanding, trying to subdue Zero to talk with her.

It didn't make sense. None of this made sense.

Two would be the first to admit that there was a lot of things that she didn't understand, about a lot of things. Most of the time, it wasn't too bad. Usually, there was someone else who could explain something to her if she needed something to be understood, or it wasn't that important and she could just shrug it off. Don't bother thinking about things too hard, it would just make life harder, and life was hard enough so you should just enjoy the simple things.

But she couldn't do that here.

Not when Zero had finally turned up, and was trying to kill her.

Two didn't know why this was happening. She didn't know where Zero had come from, or when she had gotten here. She didn't know why Zero was attacking her, or why Zero dismissed her when Two had asked her why. It was...

She just didn't know why any of this was happening.

The main Schnee mansion was in ruins. There wasn't any real point taking not of the parts of it that were still standing. There was a vaguely intact room that Two could see near the top that didn't seem to have any colour in it, which definitely wasn't normal, but for all intents and purposes, it was a ruin.

Was this just a pattern with her, now? Two had thought she had finished with all the disaster. When she went to Vale for the first time and Winter was organising for her to come to Atlas, Two thought it was over. After stopping Five, saving Ruby and meeting with One again, Two thought it was over. She didn't need to deal with complicated situations anymore, because One would be there and she'd make sure everything was alright. She wouldn't need to watch her home and the homes of people she cared about be destroyed, because she was in a Kingdom, the heart of Atlas' security, and they wouldn't let anything happen.

But then something did happen.

The orphanage was burnt down, and Two didn't even know what happened there, she ran into the fire to save the kids and she didn't know what happened to Yang, and when the military arrived to help escort the kids who were still there they had to look for Winter, and when they started carrying her out they had to hide her body from the kids and Two didn't even get to look. Winter could be dead right now for all Two knew, and even if she was alive she was hurt bad enough that they didn't want people seeing her body.

Then she finds out that the kids who went with Yang were attacked again on a highway or something, and that the main building was under attack and Yang had slipped away once the kids were in the government's hands, and she just runs to get there and sees the army of airships being torn apart in the sky, has to rush by people who were trying to evacuate the scene so the airship wreckage didn't crush people, heard Three's song as she approached but then heard it cut out just before she got here...

Two wanted things to be fine. She really, really did. But she kept thinking that things would be fine from here on out, and then bad things kept happening. When does it stop? When do people let this stop and just let things be peaceful? Hadn't enough of this happened already?

As the initial surge of her song simmered down, Two let herself become aware of the world again. It was easy to lose herself to her song, tempting even, but she couldn't afford to right now. A split second of peace, to try and process what was going, and let the song erase her worries before she has to return to the fight.

Kicking off the ground, Two charged at Zero. The blue song coiled around Two's Aura as she slammed forward, swinging her claymore through the air as she approached, and brought the blade down on Zero's neck. Zero's Aura flared in response, and she looked down at the blade with silver eyes as she felt the force of the blow. It was a heartbeat, before Zero was thrown back again, slamming her into the ruins of the building.

Two stepped forward again, ready to charge in and try to keep up the pressure, only for a white flash to shoot out of the rubble as her foot stepped down. Zero emerged from the shadows in a heartbeat, lancing her sword forward and stabbing into Two's chest. Her Aura and Song bled off most of the force, but as she jerked back from the force, Two was left wide open.

Zero's grip on her blade spun as she punched up, jabbing Zero in the face and forcing her back more. Her other hand spun around, grabbing Two by the throat, and slamming her into the ground.

Two screamed her song, and Zero stepped back to absorb the force, blocking her face in the process. But she was still within reach, and a step back from arm's reach was still sword's reach. The sword descended, and Two felt her Aura break as the sword forced through her flesh. The song pushed away the blade as much as it could, but the blade across her leg tore through muscle as it cut through her.

Two screamed, as the pain shot through her, and the Song flicked for a second.

Zero stepped forward, as she pulled the blade out and moved for Two's neck. Gunshots echoed through the air, and Zero turned to the side as she backhanded one of the Dust rounds rushing towards her. It exploded outwards, with a choking, concealing smoke.

"Fucking-" Zero began, before Two Sang.

Falling back into the Song again, Two let it guide her as she forced it out. The shockwave pushed out, and the distracted Zero wasn't able to force her way through it, as she was forced back.

Two leaped to her feet without thought, just running off of the power and instinct of the song. With a press of a button, her sword beeped, as it started shifting from a sword to a bomb. In the same heartbeat, she charged forward, and flung her sword for. The choking smoke faded, and Zero saw the blade carving through the air a moment before it hit her in the face.

There was a beep, and an explosion, and Zero was cloaked in the fireball as Two charged forward. Her hand latched forward, the blazing explosion burning at the skin on her arm as she sang, and she threw Zero down.

The shock of the burn and the shock of the force from the throw brought Two back to reality, and it took a moment for her to process the situation. She had Zero pinned, and she didn't exactly know how she managed to do it, but that didn't matter right now. She had a chance now, maybe she could make her talk it out.

"P-Please." Two stammered out, as she held Zero down. "Just talk to me, Zero. Why are you doing this?"

In response, Zero Sang.

The shock of the initial burst forced Two's weight off of Zero, and Zero's arm shut up in the process, cracking into Two's elbow and breaking the bone. Two cried out in pain, and quickly twisted that into a song, using the opportunity to force Zero to back off. In the split second it took Zero to adapt, Two jumped back, and Zero took the opportunity to grab her sword-

When did she drop that? When Two's own sword exploded, or when Two slammed her into the ground?

-Zero picked up her sword, and she turned to Two as she stood up.

"Just tell me!" Two shouted. "You- I don't want to hurt you, Zero!"

"That makes one of us." Zero replied, as she stalked forward slowly. In the moment, without Zero actively being in Two's face and attacking her, Two was able to absorb the information from the battle behind Zero. There wasn't many of the purple Angels left, at this point, and the dragon was making short work of them. It wouldn't be long now, before Two had to fight that as well.

And in the air, hovering around the manor and circling around, was more and more of the Atlas air fleet. Circling the area, weapons trailed as the moved into position.

Zero noticed Two's shifting gaze, and took a moment to look over the airships surrounding her.

"Tch." She muttered out of her breath. "We're running out of time, Michael."

The dragon didn't respond, as it bit down on another one of Three's Angels. It detonated in his mouth, and a Michael jerked back in pain, more wires shot out. A few wires wrapped around the bottom jaw, and a few others around the top. Taking the chance they had to hold the dragon's jaws open, a handful of Armisael skittered around in front of the dragon, and started glowing purple as they charged their beams.

Zero's sword tore through the air as she gave her own scream, singing out as she left Two behind to make a charge against Three's Angels. The blade stabbed into the side of the first, throwing off it's aim and forcing it to let the beam disperse before it fired into the air. The other four standing, however, were glowing more and more over time.

Michael opened his mouth and roared, his burning flames ripping from his mouth and towards the Armisael. The wires burnt away, and as the burning beam tore into the Armisael. One of the wire-users leaped in front of the beam, blocking off the ones charging their beams, and Zero reached them at that time while surrounded in the red light of her Song.

Her leg kicked up, slamming into the Armisael with an amount of force enough to crush rubble in the collapsed manor a good for metres away. The Armisael turned to Zero, even as it's oversized head tipped to the side, and eventually fell off.

The other three finished charging, and opened fire. Michael jumped into the air as the purple beams shot at him, but the first of the beams shot into his wing and forced it to bend back through the force of the laser. With his fight pattern disrupted, Michael tumbled out of the air, leaving him exposed to the next two beams that shot into him. The dragon hit the ground next to the manor, throwing up dirt in the process.

Realising she had been standing still for a long time, Two took the opportunity to run back into battle. The dragon was down, at least for now, and Zero was in melee with the Armisael. Even if they were weaker than most of the other Angels as far as Two knew, the Armisael were still Angels, and they'd be able to be at least effective against Zero.

Closing in, Two started to Sing again, as she closed in.

She needed to stop Zero, and now was her chance. Zero wasn't talking about the why, the only thing she had made clear by this point was that she wanted to hurt Two for some reason, and she had hurt so many people in the process. Two wanted, needed, to know why. And if Zero wasn't talking in the course of the battle, then Two would just have to beat her up and make her talk later.

If she built up enough momentum, she could do it. She knew from Mountain Glenn what a fight between Intoners could look like on the end scale. She and Five were throwing each other through buildings there, and the Schnee manor here was already a pile of rubble. If she built up enough speed, slammed into the building fast enough, used her Song to enhance her strength and just forced Zero through it, then she had to get through her Aura eventually, and even Zero wouldn't be able to stop something like that once it started.

Singing her Song at the top of her lungs, Two coiled it around her into a defensive barrier, like her Aura. The Armisael parted in her wake, using their wires to try and hold Zero down, while Two surged at her. With this much of her Song around her, even if Zero was able to hit Two, she should have enough defence to ignore it-

The dragon shifted, and a tail swept through the air into Two. The moment they made contact, her Song failed.

There wasn't much momentum behind the tail sweep, but there was a lot behind Two's own movement, which was cut off suddenly. Pain shut through her neck as the whiplash hit her, and she felt the bones in her legs break as she tried to surge forward. The tail kept sweeping through the air, throwing Two into the distance, and as she sailed through the air, she start humming her Song again.

When she hit the ground, she didn't break any further. Her Song cushioned her fall, and it was enough that all it did was hurt, a lot.

Groaning in pain, Two looked up as she tried to stand. Pain spiked through her legs as she felt the bones snap even more, and after a moment, she gave up.

...It wasn't fair.

It just, it wasn't fair. She just wanted to stop Zero, talk to her, and now...

Tears were clouding her vision again, so Two blinked them away. And as she did, the airships in the area took action.

In unison, they all opened fire. Dozens of miniguns tore into the first around Zero and Michael, drawing closer and closer by the second. Explosives were fired, and missiles soared through the air at the two of them. Zero turned towards one behind her, kicking one of the Armisael into the path of the machine gun to buy herself a moment's reprieve, and she turned to the dragon.

"Let's hurry this up!" She shouted over the roar of gunfire. "Kill Two-"

A shadow passed over Two, stepping forward and opening fire. The Atlesian Knight's, the automata, opened fire on Zero as she talked. Their bullets bounced off her Aura for a moment, but they were closing in quickly, getting into melee range after a moment.

Zero kicked up her sword, catching it in a heartbeat, and one of the last Armisael shot out another wire, wrapping it around Zero's wrist. It spun, throwing Zero to the side and separating her from her dragon.

One last shadow stepped above Two, and she looked up to see another robot leaning down, grabbing under her shoulders and hoisting her upwards. It struggled under her weight for a moment, as it tried to pull her back, but found it's footing after a moment. And with that, they started dragging Two away.

"W-What's going on?" Two asked the android. In response, the android's face shifted colour, a blue light setting up inside the screen-visor-face-thing, as it started playing back what sounded like recorded audio.

"...Evacuate the wounded." A male voice echoed out gravely. Two was fairly sure it was someone she had heard talk before, but couldn't remember where. "Get as many people out of the firing line as possible. Once we have the enemy isolated and surrounded, set your ships for self destruct and ramming speed and get out of there. We've lost too many good people already. We can't afford to take any more chances with these things."

...Self destruct and ramming speed?

Would that even work? Looking over, Two could see that the dragon was bloodied by this stage, and Zero had certainly taken more hits now than she had before, but...

This kind of tactic wasn't going to end with Zero captured. It was going to end with her either hurt and running, or dead. Assuming it worked at all and she didn't just have her dragon throw the airships at one another.

And...

And what about Three? What about her Disciple? Two hadn't seen anything of them since she arrived, and if Zero was here to hurt Two, then she'd be here for Three as well. Could Two really just leave now, while Three might still be in the line of fire?

She didn't want to, but right now, what could she do?

Part of her wanted to fight on. Just tap into her Song, fall to it's embrace, and just act as a weapon to get more of the Song out. Go all out on hitting Zero with everything her Song had to offer. She just needed to let herself fall into it...

[X] That plan might work, though, and Two was hurt enough. If Three was here, Zero would be attacking her right now. Get out.
[X] It wasn't going to work, Zero was going to fight her way through and keep coming. She needed to lose herself in the Song to stop Zero.