Miracles of Ancient Wonder [RWBY/Exalted]
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Darik29
Verified Delicious
Huh. I can't recall if this is Fanon or not, but isn't the Great Curse a secret that only Lytek actually knows the truth of? And there's that one God, the god of secrets only one person knows, who's part of Yu-Shan's intelligence branch. And he actively suppresses all information related to the great curse, because it massively empowers him?
Or am I misremembering that?
Or am I misremembering that?
Spectral Waltz
Scatterbrained Writer
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- Walking the Endless Corridors
That might be correct to canon, but this is an AU of both, not canon at all.
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- NOVA
You're remembering correctly, but it's something that I think is nonsense and completely breaks my suspension of disbelief.
There's no way that societies of super humans wouldn't notice some level of instability among their members. Would they know why this happens, what triggers it, or how to stop it? No, and that's a part that I think is important to keep.
Instead, they'd come up with all sorts of explanations that would fit the evidence from "great power always have powerful passions that sometimes overtake them" to "this is a sign of the gods' displeasure".
Darik29
Verified Delicious
That's canon though. The excesses of the Solars and Lunars were seen as entirely natural consequences of turning normally mortal humans into immortal god King's with nigh on limitless political, social, and physical power not to mention magic, and no higher authority able to reign them in.
The Solars fell to madness, the Lunars fell to instability, the Sidereals literally can't plan there way out of a paper bag without murdering thirty people in the process, and the Dragon Bloods are all just kind of meh. There part of the curse is a lesser echo of the greats, and is why they haven't been discarded by the Sidereals. They're excess is temporary and ends when they die of old age.
The Great Curse doesn't just put something unnatural on the Exalted. It just magnified the worst of there vices and sins. The Solars fell apart mentally, the Lunars fell apart physically, the Sidereals Socially, and the Dragon loosed got a massively lesser version of the curse that's as diluted as there own numbers.
This is why Lytek is the Only Being who knows the Great Curse exists. He is the God of Exaltation, and is responsible for cleaning and repairing Exalts between callings. He's been working on this by himself since the fall of the Solar Deliberative.
He's not the only one to notice that the Exalted all have issues, but he's the Only person who knows that the Great Curse afflicts them. He has told nobody else this.
This is Why the God of Secrets only One Person Knows is one of the most powerful beings in the Celestial Beuracracy. He holds power commensurate with the secrets only one person knows, and Lytek is the only person who knows about the Great Curse.
The Maidens don't count, because they are outside of Fate entirely. The Yozi don't count, because they aren't people. They are Multitudes, and Demons beside.
And both Sol and Luna are unaware of the issue, since they along with the Maidens were all sucked into the Lotus Eater machine that is the Great Game at the heart of Yu-Shan.
The Solars fell to madness, the Lunars fell to instability, the Sidereals literally can't plan there way out of a paper bag without murdering thirty people in the process, and the Dragon Bloods are all just kind of meh. There part of the curse is a lesser echo of the greats, and is why they haven't been discarded by the Sidereals. They're excess is temporary and ends when they die of old age.
The Great Curse doesn't just put something unnatural on the Exalted. It just magnified the worst of there vices and sins. The Solars fell apart mentally, the Lunars fell apart physically, the Sidereals Socially, and the Dragon loosed got a massively lesser version of the curse that's as diluted as there own numbers.
This is why Lytek is the Only Being who knows the Great Curse exists. He is the God of Exaltation, and is responsible for cleaning and repairing Exalts between callings. He's been working on this by himself since the fall of the Solar Deliberative.
He's not the only one to notice that the Exalted all have issues, but he's the Only person who knows that the Great Curse afflicts them. He has told nobody else this.
This is Why the God of Secrets only One Person Knows is one of the most powerful beings in the Celestial Beuracracy. He holds power commensurate with the secrets only one person knows, and Lytek is the only person who knows about the Great Curse.
The Maidens don't count, because they are outside of Fate entirely. The Yozi don't count, because they aren't people. They are Multitudes, and Demons beside.
And both Sol and Luna are unaware of the issue, since they along with the Maidens were all sucked into the Lotus Eater machine that is the Great Game at the heart of Yu-Shan.
Yang works for the Yozi she's a green son Prince therefore she doesn't have the great curse she just has a head demon who screws with her emotions to help get her in line with the purpose of the yozi in freeing them.
- Location
- Germany
It gets better.
After seeing the extremly blantant examples with Yang and Blake and drawing the connection to Ruby's act when she started cursing countries, she has actually started doubting her own actions.
She realizes that back when she forced team RWBY to learn for school in the first book, she acted very different from how she usually does.
So she is on the way to understanding that she isn't safe from Limit Break either and can work on it.
- Location
- NOVA
If all of the Limit Breaks were long duration and exaggerations of normal actions, I would agree.
Berserk Anger, to use a very obvious example, is something that I think almost anyone would notice as being different from normal actions. It deliberately evokes what happens to Herakles.
Many of them tend to be incredible obvious exaggerations that shortly afterward characters can look back on and wonder what happened and why they snapped.
In times of great stress, sure, but these sorts of things happened in relative calm as well. "Oh yeah, our neighbor snapped and destroyed one of his own cities again, that's just a thing that happens."
Not thinking that this is something bizarre and weird and trying to manipulate it, work around it, or research it breaks suspension of disbelief for me considering what else exalts got up to.
Darik29
Verified Delicious
The thing is though, is that by the time the Great Curse was in full swing the Solar Deliberative was at peak Chad. They allowed one of the Yozi who escaped the surrender oaths and remade itself for guerrilla warfare to set down in Creation because they were bored and wanted entertainment. They allowed entire sections of Creation to be overtaken by Raksha so they could harvest them for materials and occasionally do battle with the endless hordes of Chaos.
The Limit Breaks were excessive and obvious, yes, but by the time they really became apparent the Solars had all already become people for whom the Limit Breaks weren't big things.
I mean, that example you gave? The berserk rage? Limit is gained through stress. Situations that cause Limit gain are painful, either physically, mentally, or socially. Something occurs that pushes the Solar closer to the edge. Limit Break causes the Solar to just fall of the wagon called self control and go apeshit.
It's specifically one of the reasons why the Sidereals decided that the Solars needed to go. Without an enemy to focus on, without Sol or Luna to look over them, without any kind of check against there power, the Solars were turning into the monsters of excess that the Yozi before them had been.
None of them realized that there plans to solve the issue became more and more extreme as time passed, as more of them gathered together, until every Sidereal was gathered into the same room and listening as a few of there number spoke about the Usurpation, and how they needed to bring it about.
I mean yes, in Modern exalted the Limit break is more obvious. Unlike the original Solars, these new Solars have no where near the life experience and mental damage that old Solars had. That's the point though. When the Solars are released into modern times, some notice that there actions have a certain slant that they shouldn't. The corruption becomes more obvious when distance is placed between the originals for whom such excesses were taken as normal.
Now, this is all Solar limit so far. Lunar's were affected differently by the Curse. There used to be Five Lunar castes, you know. Then they had to nail there shapes down with silver glyphs or else suffer the fate of Chimeraism and madness.
Without those Glyphs, Lunars have stability issues. There bodies become incredibly malleable, and it becomes difficult for them to retain there original body when it's so easy to make new, better bodies.
As for Infernals and Abyssals, they are different. They, both of them, were worked on by the Yozi. Those who crafted the Great Curse stripped it from there chosen weapons.
Abyssals suffer from the Whispers, which can actually be used as a weapon against the living if provoked properly. Everything about them is designed to bring death, because the Neverborn wish to die.
The Infernals by contrast are baby Yozi's. They literally have a new soul grafted to them alongside the spark of Exaltation. There Limit track is replaced with Torment, through which the Yozi can punish a Green Sun Princess should she stray too far from her patrons themes and desires.
Should an Infernal or an Abyssal manage to pull a true heel face turn and full cleanse there Exaltations, they would be free of the Great Curse. This is canon, and considered one of the more epic quests an Abyssal or Infernal can head out on. It's never happened in canon, but this is because the two newest Exalted are too new.
.....
Man I've put a lot of words up.
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In this case, Limit isn't that big a problem if you have peers aware of the problem and helping keep it in check when one of them snaps. And thats if you don't have people aware of their Limit levels and channeling it in useful directions.
That said, the ones behaving like they're in Limit Break are the Atlas army here
That said, the ones behaving like they're in Limit Break are the Atlas army here
kinigget
Best Demon
- Location
- People's Republic of Portland
Ah, this is that thing, where since you are "evil", everything you want and everything you do must be, by definition, terrible things that cannot be allowed. Dealing with zealots is always such a headache.
Ruby's exasperation and sheer attitude of "if you'd just stop trying to kill me for five seconds we could solve so many problems" is beautiful. But no, she's Anathema, everything she does is for the express purpose of sowing (the proper spelling here) death and chaos no matter what she says, no matter how many concessions she makes.
Its deeply frustrating to read but I love it.
Ruby's exasperation and sheer attitude of "if you'd just stop trying to kill me for five seconds we could solve so many problems" is beautiful. But no, she's Anathema, everything she does is for the express purpose of sowing (the proper spelling here) death and chaos no matter what she says, no matter how many concessions she makes.
Its deeply frustrating to read but I love it.
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- NOVA
Yeeeeeah, there's a reason why she gave up when she did and decided to call someone who's been more reasonable in the past.
Chronos12
To a Brighter Future.
It's more that Ruby doesn't want the Background/Merit dots for ethically concerns reasons. But I admit I weirdly like reading about Exalted based cults. Especially of newer exalted because of the sheer variety of reactions to them, and if they do accept them, what do they teach to their followers. Because it can be such a interesting way to gain insight on the Exalted in question.
- Location
- England
Can't even really blame the Atlas fanatics. Given Ren and Nora's backstory, its the kind off thing that has happened in the past with Exalts trying to stealthily gain power, and then doing things with an incredibly myopic view on morality.
Social charms mean that anyone who's interacted with them long term will agree with them on everything they say, even if its sacrificing their children. And Ruby has already demonstrated that she's willing to strip them of free will if what they want doesn't align with her personal ethics. Weiss has done the same.
The fact that some people might agree with those new stances doesn't change the fact that once they hit full (social) power morality would be what team RWBY says it is. This gets balanced in the game with a tone of entities running around (spirits, gods, elemental, dragonbloods, X-bloods) who can provide meaningful resistance being abundant, but even then a regular human is less a person more a tool.
The biggest thing being that Anathema live for centuries (Millennia) them playing nice for a few years is in no way a guarantee of their long term behaviour regardless of sincerity or intent. Its the equivalent of making someone president for life based on a weeks service.
There is also the whole "Anathema are not the persons they were, but evil demons who have stolen their bodies." thing. I mean Ruby herself fully believed that for the longest time, to the point that at one point Weiss had to stop her from shooting at Yang. Ruby was willing to do that, because she truly and honestly believed at that point that the real Yang had been killed by an actual evil demon.
Yeah, Ruby now knows better, but most of the world still doesn't. Only the very top leadership know that exalted are still actually themselves, just massively boosted. Most of the population still buys the evil-demon propaganda. And it's not like Atlas can really go public and admit that its nonsense at this point. The level of chaos that would create would be insane.
Ironwood: "Yeah, when you killed that evil demon who had murdered your son and possessed his body, it really was actually still your child. So we did manipulate you into murdering your own son. Sorry, my bad".
So when soldiers and people distrust Ruby, they are not necessarily even distrusting Ruby. They distrust the evil Anathema who killed Ruby and is now using her corpse to try and manipulate them. Since we have been focused only on people who know the truth lately, it might be easy to forget that 99.9% of planets population still believes the lie.
And Ruby's willingness to try and kill Yang for that same belief not that long ago would make it rather hypocritical of her to judge people too harshly for acting exactly the same. The population has all been raised and brainwashed with that lie since they were children. Ruby herself only abandoned it after becoming exalted herself and being hit with a cluebat by an actual goddess.
Not sure if Remnant knows about exalted lifespans? I mean they have been pretty succesful in taking Anathema out.
FullNothingness
Mostly DHMO.
One of the big problems with the "Kill all the Anathema" plan isn't so much that they haven't identified some serious issues why it might be desirable to be rid of the Anathema but is that their alternative doesn't really hold up in the long run. Sure nutjob Solars doing horrible things is quite undesirable... But so is Creation being eaten by Raksha (or demons or whatever). Humans (and Dragonblooded) are just not strong enough to really deal with the threats they need to face if they intend to be the only ones responsible for preserving Creation. The Sidereal are troubleshooting to keep that plan afloat to some extent but that just can't hold forever.
This leaves the "Kill all the Anathema" plan as consisting of roughly the following steps:
1. Kill the Anathema and put regular people/Dragonblooded in charge.
2. ?
3. Peace, prosperity and stability for everybody.
And I think when put like that everyone can spot the flaw in the plan here...Everyone that is except for the Sidereal who made this plan because that is explicitly what their fatal flaw caused by the Great Curse is.
In the context of this story what you need to keep in mind is that these Atlesean soldiers winning and killing all the Anathema isn't going to be leading to them living happily ever after in freedom... It means they are probably all going get eaten by Grimm in the future. Which is one of the things their leadership is trying to hide from them pretty desperately.
This leaves the "Kill all the Anathema" plan as consisting of roughly the following steps:
1. Kill the Anathema and put regular people/Dragonblooded in charge.
2. ?
3. Peace, prosperity and stability for everybody.
And I think when put like that everyone can spot the flaw in the plan here...Everyone that is except for the Sidereal who made this plan because that is explicitly what their fatal flaw caused by the Great Curse is.
In the context of this story what you need to keep in mind is that these Atlesean soldiers winning and killing all the Anathema isn't going to be leading to them living happily ever after in freedom... It means they are probably all going get eaten by Grimm in the future. Which is one of the things their leadership is trying to hide from them pretty desperately.
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"There are things worse than death" is the illogic going on. Furthermore, the propaganda was itself applied with elder exalt level potency. Breaking free simply because its irrational is unlikely.
That said, most of the people carrying out the plan actually do not know about all the other threats that Exalts deal with in the cosmic ecology.
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FullNothingness
Mostly DHMO.
Well... We are talking about Exalted here so there pretty much are fates worse than death to be had. Especially when the Ebon Dragon is involved.
That said it is almost always very dubious to decide what is and isn't a fate worse than death for someone else without their input.
Thats the trick. They convince people that the fate worse than death means they cannot decide already. That its not them
- Location
- England
"There are things worse than death" is something that can be objectively true when the death you're talking about is defined. In exalteds case, its death on the battlefield which is nowhere near the worst that can happen to you.
At its worst, Its a few minutes of suffering, then its over. Anything that guarantees greater suffering than that with no real hope of recovery either physically (becoming an art piece/musical instrument for an artsy exalt for the rest of your lifespan), mentally (having your personality rewritten so that you destroy everything you love (family, friends, country)) or spiritually (being forged into soulsteel) can be considered worse than death on the battlefield.
Even worse is the times when they engineer traits into people to make them more controllable that guarantee suffering to all future generation (slave caste of human that has skin to sensitive to be in the sun, and is based in the desert so they stay underground in your factories). This means that letting them win is subjecting future generations to untold suffering even if you stop them eventually.
These are all things that the exalted did that were considered afterthoughts to the major atrocities that inspired the usurpation. The arguement for exalted rule is generally that humanity is likely to die without them, otherwise they pose a verified risk to great to really consider.
TLDR: quick combat death is objectively better than what elder exalts will happily subject you to if they get interested.
masterofgames
Bluffing hard through introductions.
How goes progress on the latest chapter, if it's okay to ask?
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- NOVA
It's perfectly fine to ask.
I'm at 5.6k words with another half of a scene to write and some editing to do.
Technically, I could post the first two parts, but I wanted to have a full resolution and not end on a cliffhanger. Part of the final scene is still in progress to make that happen.
Book 3 Chapter 1.5
- Location
- NOVA
Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Three: Creation
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Chapter 1.5
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Chapter 1.5
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A sea of jet black beasts covered the land, interspersed with flashes of light. Fiery bursts erupted, scattering bodies and limbs. Her squad was engaged once more. With a wave of her hand, a glyph appeared in the sky underneath her Gryphon. Her thoughts turned to a fight from two years ago as she pushed more of her Aura outward.
It had been her first deployment in a command position, a simple culling operation. The Grimm had been growing on the peak of a remote mountain and the pleas of the town at its base had been ignored for far too long. Her men took the paths up on foot, with two ships providing air support. She first saw the beast when it came barrelling down the side of a cliff. She'd been too slow to stop it from shattering their formation.
A pure white Dire Boarbatusk emerged from the glyph. A single thought gave an order.
The massive boar curled into a ball and began spinning, just as it had that day. As soon as it touched the ground, a line of carnage appeared within the Grimm. It pushed deeper into the forest, where they suspected the main target would be lurking. A swarm this size was always controlled by an Ancient Beast of some sort. It was only a matter of finding it.
"All units, this is Ice Queen. Going offline, Heartseeker has comms and command until I return. Fire a violet flare if you need my attention. Copy?" Winter said as she conjured another glyph. It was time for her regular check in with Command to go over intelligence. As the only Specialist in the battlefield with easy flight, Winter's job was to keep an eye on from above and provide fire support where it was needed, in addition to leading her normal unit.
"Roger that, Ice Queen. Heartseeker, over." Her sergeant replied, gunfire in the background.
"Good copy. Ice Queen out," She switched channels to Command.
"-erstand why you reacted this way. Any attack like that was not authorised and will be investigated," General Ironwood said. "The middle of a Grimm swarm is not the time for another front to go hot."
Winter froze. The man in charge of the entire theater should never speak like that on an official channel.
"Thank you, General." A young girl responded. Her voice sounded familiar, like a student who- Winter remembered who she was, someone who Winter never expected to hear over these channels. She'd only heard this girl in person once, but everyone knew of the videos: 'The Attack on Beacon' and 'Conquest of Aincrad'. "Since I'm already here, where's the Ancient? I'll finish it off before anyone else has to get hurt and then leave you to do whatever else you want to besides attacking us. Over."
That explained very little and also a great deal. Someone had jumped the gun and failed to end the threat, putting any additional operations in jeopardy.
"Command, this is Beta One. Bad copy, please confirm that it just suggested cooperating with demons. I for one-" Colonel Onyx was so terse that it almost made Winter wince.
"I'm gonna do it no matter what you say," Ruby cut her off. "If you help me, then your men will know where I am and we can go back to glaring at each other over bombed out fields that much soone- What did I tell you about using your Semblance!"
A meaty thud rang over the channel.
"Sorry, one of your Specialists is gonna need medical attention because she wouldn't stop trying to use her creepy Semblance on me! And she definitely has at least one concussion because of it." Ruby continued shouting. "Actually, you should probably look into her Aura with that weird Aura manipulation thing you built."
Winter groaned as the Anathema casually gave information about top secret projects over a secure, but not need-to-know channel.
"It's really messed up. So, anyway, the Ancient. Send me the location and it'll be dead."
Silence reigned.
"Oh right, over."
General Ironwood audibly sighed over the radio. If it were Weiss asking for aid, Winter was sure he would provide it with a token amount of resistance. Blake Belladonna would likely be accepted too. However…
"Beta One, while I understand your concern, the team currently tracking the Ancient has already been exposed to Theta Two. Whitewing Actual, do you copy? Over."
"Command, this is Whitewing Actual, good copy. Over." Winter said, still scanning the forest.
"Whitewing Actual, in response to the nature of Theta Two's threat to expose other personnel to herself and her history of following through with similar threats, execute Contingency Theta Foxtrot Seven. Over."
"Acknowledged." Winter knew exactly what this plan entailed due to Weiss' status. It was far in the back of the Anathema Combat Manual, a section for plans that no one ever thought they would need to use, but creating them was part of officer training. "My team has passed decontamination procedures before and know what to expect. Over."
"This is about helping, not shooting, right?" Ruby cut in.
General Ironwood continued without acknowledging her. "Whitewing Actual, do you have any information on Zeta One's location? Over."
Winter glanced back at the battle field. "Negative, sir. We have a rough area, but have not sighted Zeta One. Over."
"I can probably find it if you tell me where to go." Ruby Rose cut in. "My address is zero zero one zero eff ahe six queue three eight four bee."
Winter barely resisted seething. Back in basic, she had to run fifty laps around the Academy because one of her squad mates interrupted a normal radio channel. "Command, please advise regarding how much access we should provide. Over."
"Whitewing Actual, just… transmit your coordinates to and rendezvous with Theta Two. As she was not provided with access to this channel, assume all other channels have been compromised by her as well. The sooner Zeta One is destroyed, the sooner we return to normal operations. Over."
The front of Winter's forehead pulsed as she transmitted her coordinates. Her heart beat all the way from her chest to the top of her head at the thought of what was coming next. "Acknowledged, sir. Rendezvous location has been set. Whitewing Actual, over and out."
"Ahh, why are these here now! What did you-" Ruby Rose's shouts were cut off when Winter killed the connection.
Winter spared the battlefield a glance as she flew down to an unoccupied hilltop. The Grimm had swarmed her Boarbatusk, dragging it down as they tore into its hide. Winter cut the flow of Aura to the beast and focused on another memory.
An alarm blared. Her eyes shot open mid roll. She landed at the side of her bed on one knee, left hand grasping for her saber.
"Red Alert: Creep tremors detec-"
The speaker was destroyed when a Creep the size of a small bus burst through the wall.
The beast roared, its skin shimmering in the red light of the night. Winter pointed at the nearest cluster of Beowolves. It dove underground, uprooting small trees as it tunneled right for them.
"That's pretty cool, but we need to get going." A girl's voice came from her left. Her equipment was obviously customized, which made her title obvious.
Winter turned to her. "Specialist, who's squad are you-"
Something felt off. The girl's equipment was not merely customized, it glistened with more expensive material than a normal Specialist would be able to purchase. Winter's own was comparable, but that came from family money. This girl wore articulated armor with obvious strength enhancements, a holographic overlay in place of a helmet, a high-caliber gun-scythe that used Orichalcum and… Starmetal? No, this was not simply built of special materials, the design was wrong. Weaponry and armor like that only existed in the black-sites where they studied Anathema technology.
The glowing sigil of an ancient goddess confirmed what Winter should have realized as soon as the girl appeared. "You arrived much faster than I expected, Ruby Rose."
"Well at least someone remembered my name." She sighed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Glowing lines danced on her breastplate, reflecting the red light like it was continuously being scratched and mended. Her eyes darted around the forest. "So, where's the Ancient? We need to do this fast!"
Winter gestured toward the forest. "Somewhere in there. My men are tracking it as we speak."
"Gotcha."
Before Winter could react, she was gone. A red light darted between the trees, leaving a wave of rose petals in its wake. Winter kicked her mount back into the air and changed her channel to her own squad's. "Whitewings, this is Ice Queen. By Command's order, Theta Two is currently hunting the Ancient with us. Do not engage her. All units confirm. Over."
"This is Greylark, good copy."
"Jaeger, affirmative."
After a long pause, Heartseeker responded. "Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker… Are you serious? Over."
"Unfortunately. Over." Winter sent the frequency to Ruby Rose and waited for the inevitable.
"Hey, this is Ruby. Have you gone down the river yet?" Ruby Rose snapped into the comms. "Anyone?"
Winter shot up, climbing as fast as possible.
"Come on? What's with you guy- One minute, I need to take this call." Ruby shouted, suddenly cutting herself off for what Winter could only assume would be a string of profanity from anyone else. If her sister's stories about the girl were true, that was highly unlikely.
"Hey Blake, what's-" Ruby continued speaking over the open line. "Yeah, I know. They're coming after me too. Good thing the shielding works... What? How?"
Ruby nodded as something was relayed to her. "Have Ren keep as many people safe as he- What do you mean they're going after civilians?! Ahh!"
"Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker. Is this really Theta Two? Can we mute her? Over." He sounded so tired.
"Heartseeker, this is Ice Queen. She is Theta Two and I don't think we're capable of doing that. Over." Winter watched the red light dart around.
"Alright, killing the Ancient time, where's it at?" Ruby waited a moment, before shouting. "Hey Winter, your sister might be dying while you ignore me because of dumb protocols! Over."
"Proper radio protocol ensures that no one speaks over anyone else and makes sure that information is transmitted correctly. We were not aware that your personal call had ended." She waited for a moment. "Over."
"You did that on purpose! Do you even care about Weiss?"
Winter ground her teeth as she followed the red light.
"Over!"
"Yes, I did do that on purpose. Anyone exhibiting such lax discipline ought to be severely reprimanded. As for the being calling itself Weiss-"
"She's not a-" Ruby attempted to interrupt.
"As I was saying!" Winter shouted over her. "I doubt that Grimm such as these would pose a threat to any Anathema as old as the four of you."
"She's still the same person and you know that." Ruby said as Winter took a deep breath.
"Are you finished?" If Winter could stab someone with her tone, she would've. Did Ruby Rose not understand what simply working with her, regardless of it being ordered, would look like to everyone else? Let alone admitting that her sister remained the same person she had been her entire life? Winter pushed the thoughts down and looked over the trees, not focusing on any particular portion of them.
"Do you even care about your sister?" A moment's pause did not merit a response. "Also, I found the Grimm, don't know how you missed it considering how big it is, over."
Winter kicked her mount into a dive at the section of the forest painted by the red glow. Between blinks, as if it formed out of the air itself, an enormous Beowolf reared up. Not an Ancient, no, Winter had fought an Ancient Beowolf before. She'd killed one before, even if she didn't have an Aura strong enough to summon it. This beast stood so tall that its head poked above the treetops, a small Behemoth would be the right category. How had they missed it?
The monster lifted its head to the sky and howled. A wave of destruction blasted from it, nearby trees exploded into splinters while those further away bent until they snapped. Winter braced herself when the beast's maw pointed at her.
Her preparation didn't matter.
The blast of sound slammed into her mount with enough force to throw both of them away. Her own Aura held as it hit her, ears ringing from the infernal sound, but her grip slipped. She tumbled again and again, until she finally slammed into the ground.
Winter staggered back to her feet. All she could hear was endless ringing and garbled noise. What she saw defied comprehension.
Ever since the attack on Beacon, the Army had been building up profiles on each of the Anathema. These featured all known Semblances, along with any images or videos that could be found. Due to this, Winter was quite familiar with what Ruby Rose's fighting style ought to be.
The Girls in Red danced atop the Beowolf as if it were standing still. Yes, girls. Every so often, only one would be visible, but there were five of her running around. She was supposed to be limited to four.
Each of their scythes glowed with red and purple light as they struck, slicing cleanly through the monster's flesh like it wasn't even there.
One of the Rubys slipped through the Beowolf's claws as it swiped at her, the blade of her scythe stuck between its center fingers. She took off running towards its shoulder, splitting the arm in two by dragging it behind her. Another had jumped into its mouth. Moments later, the front half of the snout fell free.
A Grimm of that size called for a heavy artillery bombardment; it was being carved to ribbons by a single Anathema.
Winter's knuckles popped from how hard she was gripping her saber. Given this display, how wrong were their models of Ruby Rose? Yang Xiao-Long had beaten Winter without breaking a sweat, playing around for most of their battle and decisively ending it as soon as she was vaguely threatened. The Ruby front of her now would have beaten the Yang from back then just as easily as the later had humbled Winter.
Were they holding back that much before? If not, how quickly could the Anathema grow? How long until they stopped? There had to be some limit.
Her radio crackled, barely audible over the ringing. "Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker, do you copy? Over"
"Heartseeker, this is Ice Queen. I copy. Over."
"I have eyes on the target, but… What should I do? Over."
"Just leave this to me," Ruby interrupted.
Winter took a moment. "You heard her, Heartseeker. Focus on smaller Grimm and record everything that she's doing. Over."
"Winter, are you really-" Ruby groaned, "Actually, send me a copy of that recording too."
After another long pause, Heartseeker responded, "Understood, ma'am. Over."
Winter flew as close as she could, recording her own observations while Ruby Rose finished off the beast. Not even a minute later, it's death howl echoed throughout the valley, signifying the end of the battle. With their commander beaten, the rest of the Grimm would lose their coordination. She reported the success to Command as she glided down to the ground.
Ruby Rose had one hand on her headset, talking to someone else as Winter landed. "The Ancient's dead! You said that that would stop the bugs."
She paused for a moment. "I don't know anyone who could be in control of them! How would I even be able to tell that? It's not like people just go around calling themselves Salem cultists."
And more top secret information casually revealed.
Ruby Rose started pacing to and fro. "All right, Yang can handle the swarms. Get Weiss to her and… Weiss is already down?! If only she had the new dress."
Winter's headset crackled. "Whitewing Actual, this is Command. Please repeat, we see no change in Grimm behavior. Over."
"Command this is Whitewing Actual, Zeta One is down. I saw it myself." She took a moment to consider what had been happening. "Could another be lurking in hiding? Over."
"Negative Whitewing Actual. We have no movements that would indicate another Ancient Grimm being pres-"
"Winter," Ruby Rose appeared next to her. "Bring me up into the air. I think I know where the command Grimm really is."
Winter stared at her. Ruby Rose, the most dangerous Anathema ever known to exist. A girl who crippled a kingdom because they did something she thought was wrong. A girl who was known to have not only combat skill surpassing any Huntress, but also the ability to ensnare minds. And worst of all, a girl who Winter would likely forget all of the actions of as soon as the battle ended.
"Well?" Ruby's brow furrowed, lips held tightly together while she looked at Winter.
Weiss trusted this girl to have her heart in the right place. They were in the middle of a Grimm swarm that wasn't stopping when it ought to. This couldn't be part of Ruby's plan if 'her people' were really at risk.
Winter raised a hand to her earpiece, "Command, this is Whitewing Actual. The Ancient is dead. Theta Two believes that another is lurking in the sky. I'm bringing her up to search. Over."
~~~
They were far enough off of the ground that nothing could be made out on the battlefield besides the city, Atlas's main base, and the green blaze that was Yang Xiao-Long. Bright red light made the Nevermore barely visible, none of them were large enough to be their target.
"There it is." Ruby Rose pointed over Winter's shoulder at an empty patch of air.
"There's nothing there." Winter focused as hard as she could, but only saw the sky.
"Right, right, you can't see them," Ruby said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And… if you can't see it, I need to kill it fast."
Winter maintained her current course, weaving out of the way of a barrage of feathers.
"Look, just trust me alright. There's an invisible Grimm over there and I need you to get me close enough."
Winter let her breath out in a huff. "Alright."
She had been willing to bring Ruby up here, by herself, because she had trusted Weiss' opinion on Ruby. If it turned out that Ruby was simply insane, then some of the decisions which she expected would be hard on her sister were suddenly much easier. If Ruby wasn't mad, then there would be something important to discover.
The Gryphon shifted towards the new heading. There was nothing there. As they flew closer, Winter looked to the battle below. The Grimm had broken through their defenses. Soon the city would be finished, though she could still make out the silver and green blazes.
"Look ou-" Ruby shouted as the Gryphon suddenly moved.
Her mount bobbed and weaved as it flew ahead, like attacks were coming in from all sides. Ruby fired twice before putting the scythe away. "That didn't work… We really need Yang for this."
"Something wrong?"
"There's an invisible, insubstantial Grimm that's ordering the rest of them around."
"So you've claimed."
"And we need special techniques to have a chance of killing it." Ruby reached over her shoulder, hand stretched out to the sky. Her fingers flexed like she was grasping a string, then ripped back. "Oww, okay that didn't do enough damage."
Winter's Gryphon barrelled to the right without her commanding it. They'd done this before, moving on their own in order to dodge an attack she hadn't noticed.
"Okay good!" Ruby wrapped an arm around Winter. "Your Grimm can see it, I'll move you in case it goes after us. Duck!"
Ruby shoved her forward. Winter felt something whip against her right arm, wrapping around where her neck would have been. Unseen force tried to wrench her off of her mount. When Winter swung her blade through where it should be attached, she found nothing there. It only stopped when Ruby grabbed the air and yanked again.
"Owww! Okay, new plan. Keep us in the sky because I need to focus." Ruby wrapped both arms around Winter and began humming under her breath. One of the girl's hands moved through the airlike she was plucking strings. "Someone had to have given it new orders..."
Without any knowledge of what was coming, Winter summoned a pair of glyphs.
Screeches interrupted their training exercise. She flicked her blade and bisected two Nevermore with one movement.
A small flock of white and blue birds erupted from her glyph and flew towards the space Ruby had indicated. Her summons were at least able to see and strike at whatever was there.
They were struck down almost as quickly as she summoned them.
Even as they fell, several blows struck Winter as well. Each one threatened to knock her free of her mount, but long practice keeping a tight grip with only her legs prevailed.
Ruby Rose shouted something in the language of Sorcery. Bright red light blossomed from the void in the sky, slowly revealing the form of an unknown Grimm. It had a spherical upper body that was covered in bone plates, with long tentacles that ended in blades. Two of those swept in, only to be parried by Winter's blade.
"Let me kill it." Winter kicked her Gryphon forward, diving straight in.
"What? Why would… Ooooh, that's a good idea!" Ruby fired a round over Winter's shoulder. Several plates on the Grimm shattered.
Winter had to focus on the fight as more attacks came from the Grimm. Unfortunately, she couldn't.
A wave of blows swept over her Aura, like diving into a cloud of knives.
"Noo, the bugs!" Ruby shouted and fired again, severing a tentacle.
"What?" Winter swiped the air with her hands to no avail.
"Invisible Grimm bugs trying to eat you! Go now!"
Winter leapt from her mount, conjuring a solid glyph under her feet. She pushed her Aura further and further as she charged toward it, each leap requiring another platform.
The knives followed her, draining Aura faster than anything Winter had ever fought before.
Shots rang out from behind her, more and more bits breaking free from her target. A trio of tentacles shot toward her. One dodged, one parried, the third broke her Aura.
Her skin burned as hundreds of little stings and bites tore it to shreds. She grit her teeth and pushed the pain to the back of her mind.
Another attack. A flash of pain from her left arm.
Her fingers no longer responded. The side of her neck burned as she narrowly avoided another strike.
Winter's final glyph was not a platform. It shot her forward as soon as her boots touched it.
The point of her saber pierced through the center of its body.
Winter landed on another glyph, falling forward when one leg gave out. The beast had managed to catch her thigh. Even as she could feel the memory of this Grimm form in her soul, her body was growing colder. Every inch of her body screamed with pain. The world had gone dark. If she got medical attention immediately, she might live. But, it would be the end of her career as a Special-
"You got it." Ruby said and the pain went away like it had never existed.
"What did you do?" Winter looked down. Skin that had just been torn open was unmarred. Her jacket was also repaired and… pristine, like none of the night's fighting had happened.
"Healed you, now give me a second to solve this Grimm problem." Ruby looked at where the Grimm had been and began speaking in Sorcery again. Her voice rang out through the night and another of the Grimm appeared.
Winter kicked up to a ready stance before she noticed the differences. The Grimm was no longer attacking them, instead it simply floated there, undamaged. Its own colors had also changed. While still black and red primarily, the bony protrusions had become the same shade of red as Ruby's cape. It was hard to tell, but the black also seemed like it had a different texture. If that wasn't enough, the Grimm bowed to her, much like Winter's own summons did.
After a moment, it faded from existence again.
"Did you copy my Semblance?" Winter stared at the spot and felt for the new triumph, unable to keep the horror from her tone.
"Sort of?" Ruby shrugged. "I mean, it's not really like your Semblance, it's only for a year before the Grimm becomes free again. So, it's more like one of those Grimm control spells. But, only I figured it out just now, so… That's gonna take time to experiment with to see what else I can do. But taking control and stopping all of this -" she gestured to the battlefield below "- seemed like it'd be the best option."
Winter couldn't help staring at the audacity of it all. She 'just figured out' how to replicate the effects of the Schnee Semblance?!
Ruby peered at the ground. "Looks like it's working… Sort of. I guess this guy doesn't have complete control over all of them. At least the bugs have stopped."
She fired a few shots and called out, "Blake? Yang? Does anyone hear me?"
After a moment, Ruby groaned. "Great, coms are down too."
"Anyway, if you figure out how to make these guys work better, let me know. I gotta go fix things." With a wave goodbye, Ruby jumped off of the glyph.
Winter opened the Command frequency and waited for a moment when she could report. "Command, this is Whitewing Actual. Ru- Theta Two was correct. The aerial Grimm has been... dealt with. Over."
General Ironwood responded. "Whitewing Actual, this is Command. Good copy. Many units are reporting that the Grimm are either fighting each other or retreating. Do you have any intel about this? Over."
"Yes, sir. Theta Two has taken control of the lead Grimm. She's using that control to exercise partial control over all others. Over."
The line went completely silent for several seconds. While everyone in that channel may not have been privy to the full plan, General Ironwood needed to know that they would no longer be able to send anyone after Ruby Rose or Yang Xiao-Long once the Grimm fled, even if a small window of opportunity still presented itself. The chance of destroying the most dangerous Anathema was no more.
"Whitewing Actual, report to Command HQ for a full debrief."
~~~
Ruby landed in the middle of her main killing field. Burning pools of hellish green fire dotted it: grass, shrubs, even the sand! Yang stood in the middle, still gigantic and coated in sweat and ash. A blackened circle surrounded her, shards of glass glistening in the light of her Aura. Everyone else was scattered around.
"Are we safe?" Yang shouted without looking at Ruby. Her eyes flickered all around her, obviously watching the Grimm bugs. Weiss poked her head out of Yang's jacket. Her face was covered in blood, almost as bad as winter had been. Yang locked on Ruby's new pet, fist raised. "Look out behind you!"
"Yang don't! This thing's mine now." Ruby pointed at the Grimm and put Weiss back to the way she should be. Then, she looked at her wall… their city. "It's over."
"Ruby!" Penny shouted, diving into a hug that almost knocked Ruby over. "You did it!"
"Penny! I'm so glad that you-" Ruby frowned at the number of scrapes on her friend's face. They cut through her skin, revealing the metal underneath. With a quick pulse of her Aura, Ruby made her whole. "I'm so glad you're alright."
"What was that?" Penny pulled back, staring at her hands. "One moment I was damaged and the next I'm fine."
"I healed all of the damage the Grimm did." She really didn't have the time to explain how it worked, especially with-
"What happened to you?!" Ruby screamed as she looked at Pyrrha.
Physically, there were problems. Her skin was lined with cuts, but that was expected. Worse was her Aura… her soul. Its edges were torn and a second, much smaller, soul had been stitched onto it. Something was attached to both souls, leaching into them.
Pyrrha stared at Ruby, gaping. "What?"
"Your soul's been butchered and torn and… ahh, no!" Ruby shoved as much energy as she could into healing this monstrosity. A flash of red light engulfed Pyrrha. When it dissipated, her physical wounds were gone, as were most of the spiritual ones. "I can't get all of it."
All three of those souls were more connected, but some of the damage was still there. "Why can't I get all of it?"
"That may be my fault." Weiss said as she landed. "We had to rush the soul surgery and it wasn't exactly something I'd practiced before."
"That doesn't make any sense! I could fix the rest of the damage her soul had." Ruby growled at no one in particular. Sure, she hadn't been able to fix any damage that either she herself or normal people caused. If she personally caused the problem, then not being able to set it right sort of made sense. Even though the Auras of normal people twisted Fate to their liking, it was nothing compared to the amount of damage that any Anathema could. Weiss was Anathema, just like Blake and Yang, so why couldn't Ruby fix her actions?! "I'll need more answers once we have time."
Ruby checked over the rest of their group. Ren, Nora, and Emerald were all pretty bad, but were still standing. There were others who needed her attention more. Ruby took a couple of steps toward the walls.
"I am not sure if anyone in there is still alive." Pyrrha said softly.
"They are. I can hear their Auras still." Ruby looked at her team once more. "I'm going up there to heal them. If anyone has the energy to help, we need it."
Ruby vanished in a cloud of petals before anyone could react. She reappeared on the wall, right next to Blake. Screaming and sobbing echoed around her.
"Please, keep your eyes open." Blake had her hands pressed to Maple's belly. A Nevermore feather had pierced through, tearing her open. The scene was all too familiar. Weiss, laying flat on the ground, her stomach torn open by a Beowolf. But… this time Ruby could actually do something about it.
"Blake." Ruby clenched her teeth at the sight. "Pull the feather out."
"But she'll di-!" Blake turned, eyes wild when they met Ruby's. "Right… right. The healing thing."
Ruby closed the wound and reversed the damage as soon as it was clear.. Color returned to her cheeks and life to her eyes. "Lady Ruby? I'm… I-" Maple patted her stomach, she'd even fixed her shirt. "- How am I alive?"
"I fixed you and now..." Ruby stared down the wall. Feathers dotted bodies all up and down the stretch. Those who were not pierced had their bodies destroyed by countless tiny bites and stings. Most of their patterns were torn to shreds, barely holding on.
A young man screamed into his hands. His eyes were ruined.
"It's going to be alright. It'll hurt for a while, but I can fix it," Ruby touched the man's shoulder, but she couldn't afford to heal him right now. "Can you wait a few days?"
"Who- Lady Ruby?"
"Yeah." Ruby was already looking for the next person. "I'm going to save as many as I can. Can you hold on?"
He trembled, still sobbing. "I- I will be."
"Thank you." Ruby stepped forward.
An older woman was laying face down. She sucked in each breath, begging for help. They took the tendons in her elbows and knees. She'd also live without help.
Ruby walked past to an unconscious man whose heartbeat was barely audible. Ruby restored him.
He sucked in a breath, gasping, "What, who?"
He looked up at her, tears in his eyes.
"I need you to help find people. Tell them that I'm on my way and I'm going to save as many of them as I can. Those who aren't critical-" The metal edges of her gauntlets bit into her fingers as she balled her fists. "-will need to wait for a while."
"Of course, right away!." He bowed and ran off.
Auras recover fast, but they weren't unlimited, even those of the Anathema. Thousands of people were injured with who knew how many already dead. Too many to heal tonight, even if she had been full.
A raven flew up behind her, turning into Weiss in a flash of light. "Wait! We need to figure out how to manage this."
"Weiss." Ruby continued walking down the wall. She plucked any Nevermore feather still in a living person, a flash of red light healing their wounds as soon as it was free. "People are dying right now. I don't have the time to figure things out or organize them, that's your job."
"We need to come up with a plan."
"Our. People. Are. Dying! Right now another one could be bleeding out." Ruby spared a moment to stare Weiss in the eyes before walking to the next person. "I'm the only one who can heal them like this. So, stop distracting me."
Weiss followed, barely keeping pace. "I don't think that you going around and-"
Ruby slowed her pace, looking at someone who was lying in a pool of blood. Her heartbeat was racing and the only damage to her pattern was broken bones. Healthy enough for now.
"-making the call about who to treat is healthy for you. There have to be some doctors out there. If we help them first, then they can make those decisions, like they've been trained to."
Ruby couldn't ignore that point. Some of her people would be able to help. There weren't many, most of the 'professionals' fled to Atlas when they took over, but there were some. While it could be a waste of precious Aura, Ruby still looked to the future. Countless paths narrowed down to a few options, each with their own tradeoffs. No happy ending, not tonight.
"Yang knows most of the… doctors is the wrong word, but it's close enough. I'm going to keep moving down the wall and un-cripple any of the medics that I recognize, but I'm focusing on saving lives."
One of the people nearby called out to her. A girl maybe three years older than Ruby, her left arm was missing. A hasty tourniquet was the only thing keeping her from bleeding out.
"I'm sorry, but you'll live and the others won't," Ruby whispered, teeth clenched so hard that her jaw hurt. She turned back to Weiss. "Cauterize the wound an- No, you shouldn't do that if I can't heal it later. Get Blake or Yang to."
Weiss pursed her lips, something obviously on the tip of her tongue. Ruby could have forced her to accept this, but that would be a waste of Aura. After a brief moment, Weiss nodded. "Very well. But, we're going to talk about you causing yourself more stress."
"Weiss, I'm fine."
"No, you're acting just like you did before you became The Girl in Red."
"That's-" Ruby started shouting, but managed to stop herself. There were people who needed her and arguing about this wouldn't help them. "You're wrong."
"I hope so."
"Get that message to Yang." Ruby said as she walked away from a transforming Weiss.
She continued her march, healing those who needed it. Step by step, her people were made whole again. Many were lost, there was no path Ruby could have chosen to prevent that. But, a hundred who would have died still lived. With each person she renewed, she could feel more energy stirring around her. By the end of the night, a new name for her was being whispered.
Ruby Rose, Maiden of Salvation
For once, she didn't mind.