Book 3 Chapter 2.4
- Location
- NOVA
Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Three: Creation
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Chapter 2.4
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Chapter 2.4
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"Fascinating, do you know how it commands the others?" Doctor Oobleck stared at the new Grimm Ruby controlled while Yang turned her attention to the rest of their warehouse-hospital. She and Ruby were the only two who could be sure of killing the demon if it went out of line and her sister was going to be distracted. They were heading to an empty part of the city while Ruby waited for her Aura to recharge to show the thing off.
That left Yang watching the bug work its way through someone. It wasn't Ruby's reversal of any wounds, more like the flesh massaging Weiss did. People didn't look as good afterward, but they could stand and hear.
It popped out of a boy's head and waved three legs at her before diving into an older woman's thigh. That same set of words Weiss said she'd get mad about was there again.
'Can't even talk right.'
"Go fuck yourself," Yang whispered under her breath. The stupid demon would hear it, but no one else should.
'You let filth run free. You pay that utter waste!'
"Oh, you don't like… what was its name, Diver?"
'Sesselja should be squashed. Filthy vermin. Basal blights on every tavern!'
Yang chuckled, "Oh, am I not basal too then? Considering the whiskey I've been drinking, I'm barely any better."
'You are a Princess of Hell who takes what she deserves and desires, no matter how cheap, and recognizes quality when you see it. They consider the finest wine and watery beer just as good.'
"A drink's a drink."
'This is why you are a fail-'
Yang focused and turned the stupid demon out, like normal. Wow it was mad, that got it really good. The other demon was on the move again. When it waved, Yang gave it a thumbs up. "Hey Diver, good job!"
There was a weird quiver in the demon's backside and screech, but it suddenly moved faster.
'It does not deserve the dignity of your attention!'
"Please, he's been here for less than a day and he's already been more useful than you. Hell, more helpful than I've been. The little bug's doing goo-" Yang paused and considered what the hell she'd just said. A literal demon was doing 'good'? She ground her teeth and looked back to the room.
The boy who he'd just finished healing crept to the edge of his bed. A boy who, five minutes ago, was paralyzed from the neck down, wiggled over to the side and threw himself off. He shouted, landing on his hands and knees.
One of the doctors ran over as the boy started crying. He grabbed the sheet and pulled himself to his feet. Tears streaming down, but also one of the biggest smiles Yang had seen in a long time. It wasn't easy, no miracle of Ruby's making, but he was moving again. And that… that was enough. That was good enough.
A middle aged woman who'd been blinded, she would need glasses now, was getting dressed to join those searching. A teenage boy carefully moved each finger as his hands shook, ligaments no longer torn off. A doctor came up to her, "Lady Yang, please if you have the power. We could use-"
"No need for all of that, just give me the list." She took a look and started creating them on a table to her side. The request was simple enough. It wasn't up to the standard that Atlas's supplies were, but it'd be…
"Good enough…" Yang muttered to herself. "Fuck."
Yang pressed her eyes closed, guiding the shape of the new stretcher frames through muscle memory more than anything else. If she wasn't here… if she wasn't able to build whatever she wanted out of nothing, they would have run out of supplies long ago.
Green flames, sickly flames of destruction, licked the edges of the metal as they made… a tool for saving people. Something that would only cause harm in the same way that you could beat someone to death with anything. The flames grew hotter, spikes of iron began forming on the edges.
Not right now. Focus.
Yang tensed and pressed her eyes closed again.
She could have a crisis later, people were depending on her to keep it together.
Her fingers twitched and the spikes melted, forming normal handles.
When she opened her eyes again, the first frame had finished. She glanced back to the person Diver was inside of… Should could afford to focus on building these for a while. It would… It would be alright.
~~~
The sun was rising soon and an additional demonic bug was at work, which meant it was time to sleep.
Blake yawned as she left the hospital from the western entrance. It was the main road the four of them would be taking until everyone they weren't supposed to see was gone.
"How does it look?" She asked, holding the door open for Weiss.
"The demons are about thirty percent more productive than I'd expected." Weiss opened her mouth as if she was going to yawn, then closed it and took a breath to push it down. "So, we're going to do better than even my best projections."
A different question was sitting at the tip of Blake's tongue. It wasn't something that would be good for just anyone to overhear. 'How many?'
Weiss took a moment, 'We'll save three thousand more than I thought.'
'That wasn't what I asked.'
Weiss frowned, looking away from her. 'Are you sure you want to know?'
'I can feel how bad it is.' That wasn't quite right. It was more of a smell, the air was tainted with enough death that she couldn't ignore how bad it would be.
'I expect around eight thousand dead in total.'
Blake flinched and pursed her lips. "That's…"
'Incredible relative to what it could have been. We were originally expecting that many to still be alive at the end of this.'
"I know, I know." Death had permeated the city so deeply that Ruby and Yang would need to do something about it to keep their weird power system working. "It's just…"
"You wish it was more." Weiss walked up to her and leaned close, resting her head on Blake's shoulder. "We all do."
"I missed you." Blake wrapped her arms around her.
"I missed you too." Weiss returned it.
They stood there for almost a minute, holding each other and breathing in time. One of the first moments they had since the battle. Only to be interrupted by the sound of someone stepping onto the road.
"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting," said a voice Blake thought she'd never hear again. She glanced up.
Blake opened her mouth and stammered. "M-Mom?"
"And here I thought you might not recognize me." Her mom smiled, eyes twinkling with the same sort of mischief as ever. Though, as soon as Blake took another look she could see the toll that the past few years had taken. Once upon a time, people said she'd inherited her mom's hair. What was once jet black now had long streaks of grey and even a little white. She was even standing in a slightly guarded stance, face held tight.
When Blake didn't respond, she continued. "You know, you could have just told me. I would've understood" Mom chuckled and looked away. Blake could plainly hear that it was actually her relationships and not being Anathema that mom meant.
"I- Wha?" She took a moment to think about. "You're mad about that and not-" Blake gestured to the city around them -"this?"
Mom's ears perked up and she laughed deep. "You wouldn't've realized that years ago. You've grown up so much, but no. Your father and I understand that you have to keep important things secret. Letting me know about this would've spared both of us so much embarrassment, Kaas still talks about when I tried to set you up with her boy."
"I didn't even know until Weiss and Yang…" Blake started arguing, but stopped for a moment. She stepped away and bowed her head. "Mom, this is Weiss. Weiss, this is my mom, Kali."
"A pleasure to meet you." Weiss curtsied and smiled.
Mom tightened her lips. "Well, I can't say I ever imagined that I'd meet someone like you, but-" she glanced at Blake -"you made my daughter happy, so I'll hold off on any comments about your family. You will be joining us somewhere warm if this goes any further though."
"Mom!"
"Hahaha," Mom laughed, "Good to know I can still get you."
She walked up to Blake and wrapped her in a hug. "Your father misses you too, but I shouldn't keep the two of you too long. We all need sleep and next time we'll have to talk business."
"Business?" Weiss stepped up, standing behind them. "I think you'll find I'm well versed there."
"Oh, I'm sure." Mom looked around Blake, not letting go. "We'll have a lot to talk about, Queen Consort, when it's time to figure out what the relationship between our countries kingdom's will be."
"Oh," Weiss laughed under her breath. "Do tell?"
Mom stepped back and held a hand out, "Kali Belladonna, Ambassador for the Menagerie."
Weiss shook it.
"Well, I'll leave you alone. Don't spend too much time having fun in an alley that you forget to sleep."
"Argh," Blake groaned, cheeks burning.
"Oh my, I didn't know my daughter was so daring."
Dammit Yang, Blake took a deep breath and pushed all of that down. Then hugged mom once more. "It's… Thanks mom."
She returned it, very gently. "See you tomorrow."
Mom waved to them and left. As soon as she was out of sight, Blake deflated.
"Well, that was my mom."
"She seems fun."
Blake groaned again.
"You know it'll be so much worse with Yang."
Blake shuddered at the thought. "You don't need me for the next decade, right? I can curl up into a ball and hide until they're finished?"
~~~
Bartholomew sank into the armchair of the little house that he'd been offered as accommodations. It had been abandoned by someone who, rightfully, didn't wish to live in an Anathema cult. Given their demonstrated capabilities and willingness to use them, he knew Ruby Rose's protestations to be no more than a speck of Dust. He'd seen just how much they were trying to prevent that while aiding with the rescue. After the Anathema, he was the fastest Hunter in the city and it would be a dereliction of duty if he hadn't run his Aura dry after finishing his initial business. It also kept his mind off of what he'd seen and needed to happen.
He leaned back and massaged his forehead. It had been worse than he expected, even with Atlas's hastily provided information. Right, right finish his main task and then delve into unwrapping more of his current mystery.
He pulled his scroll out to log what was known as part of his confirmation meeting. Two main classifications of Grimm, with many sub-classifications pending a more in-depth investigation into their properties. The first, Man-o-War was clearly intelligent and able to command other Grimm in a tremendous area. It also seemed capable of influencing human emotions, information provided by Yang Xiao-Long about an earlier encounter with the creatures. That meant that many of their theories of how the Grimm functioned were potentially very wrong.
The second was the horde of small insects that seemed tailor made for tearing someone to ribbons quickly. Individually weak, but that did not matter when hundreds could drop on top of someone. Worse, both were intangible, yet able to affect things which were not. Like ghosts, the nightmares of all of humanity.
Ghastly.
That also raised the question of what other types of Grimm could perform such feats? Geists almost certainly, but those most people could still see.
Deeper study would be needed, but there was a different letter he would need to read.
Bartholomew pulled a small package out labeled "Open after you speak to The Girl in Red". Whatever it was Professor Ozpin had to say about her, he would soon know.
The letter began like many of the others, completely encoded. Thankfully, he had the key memorized at this point and quickly turned most of it into something intelligible. Most… There were some symbols that he had not received information about what they meant yet, which had to be hidden in one of the other missives.
To whom it may concern,
If you are reading this letter, then you have probably found yourself in a precarious situation, willingly I hope.
If you have not yet spoken to Glynda Goodwitch, James Ironwood, Qrow Branwen, Raven Branwen, [Person 8], [Person 11], or opened [Missive 32] and followed its instructions, then some of this is going to remain more confusing than it ought to be. I wish that this was not the case, but given the particular challenges regarding information about the person of note, I did my best to ensure information did not become corrupted.
Bartholomew sighed. His own notes and observations, regardless of whether they were digital or written down, had all fallen to some sort of data corruption at this point. As had any information in Beacon's servers. Even homework assignments were impossible to find. He did not envy Ozpin's challenge in writing down something.
During the individual's stay at Beacon, many questioned my decisions and rightly so. Due to the events revealed in [Missive 32], I believed that this person could be the savior we've been looking for. Someone who was able to take the power of the Anathema and turn it against our enemies.
These beliefs were vindicated almost immediately when both Glynda Goodwitch and Bartholomew Oobleck made strides in sorcery and reconstruction that few could make. Unfortunately, both discoveries were impractical. The Enemy's hidden defenses, spectral Grimm that no one can see or touch, thwarted the spell discovered, as they always have throughout history, and that style of armor is too draining for any besides the Anathema to wear, even if the proper power source was found.
Had they made more progress on repairing the armor and the individual proved trustworthy, I had planned to provide the source. It's stored in vault 137 underneath Beacon.
A sigh, almost a growl, escaped his lips. How many things had Professor Ozpin known about that he simply didn't think necessary to tell anyone? He's spent so many months of effort and it was meaningless! To keep that from him was… Probably quite smart. If he'd been told he would have gone digging to find out how Professor Ozpin knew and why he hadn't revealed it yet.
I had also hoped that the research into more efficient Dust engines would bear fruit. They won out over the old ways, where both left infrastructural vulnerabilities that The Enemy would exploit when most advantageous and concentrated power into fewer hands. To regress would be a travesty.
Though, you should study the principles in order to keep Beacon functional. There's an old book in my personal workshop that I've stowed behind the fourth painting from the left. It's written in proto-Valish.
That made it slightly better… maybe.
However, getting back to the point. When the other Anathema were revealed, problems arose. The first of which was Qrow's meeting where he revealed information from [Missive 32]-
Far, far too much seemed to be tied behind whatever that was, but that was also how all of Ozpin's letters had been.
- and the individual began a ritual. I have not confirmed the result of this, but from Qrow Branwen, Pyrrha Nikos, and Weiss Schnee's testimony, the goddess Mars answered it and relayed a great deal of information.
Foremost amongst which are the following:
1 - There are many more worlds out there than our own.
2 - The Anathema are the divinely ordained rulers of these worlds.
3 - The gods consider our world to be too broken to be worth the effort of fixing.
4 - While the Anathema created the Grimm, it was The Enemy who improved them to their current form(this is mostly speculation on my part).
5 - Team RWBY, if acting together, could end the threat of the Grimm within their first century of life and any member could do so by themselves within their second.
6 - One of the abilities of the Chosen of Mars is precise divination that can reveal actions that can be taken for a desired effect, limited by those actions that said individual would consider taking.
Mars also slew all of the Grimm in the region as a demonstration of what destructive potential the anathema can reach. This was the reason no Grimm attacked Beacon later that night.
It is the belief of Weiss Schnee that all Anathema are forced to act in line with the tenets of their patrons. That our world was forced into large scale conflict after these events is evidence towards her theory. However, when dealing with the individual of note, it is vital to consider the 5th and 6th points revealed.
If it were possible to end the threat of the Grimm and The Enemy within even a few decades, any idealistic person would do everything within their power to do so. Relative to the destruction that was threatened, I think we got off lucky.
The primary point of conflict, and ultimately the one which caused this, was the brutality of the Anathema investigations, Weiss Schnee's in particular. The oddities of which I believe the 6th point explains more than sufficiently. We're fortunate that this seems to take actions that the individual considers reprehensible into account.
Due to [Missive 32] it was my belief that the individual of note would be capable of using the power of Anathema to save us from the Grimm. This is the reason why I interfered with any investigations. That so much destruction was caused by this is on my head.
I can only hope that you will either be able to forge a better relationship. There are insights into the nature of our world that only this person has managed to glean. I expect that what has been discovered is merely the beginning.
If he hadn't already been sitting, that would have forced Bartholomew to collapse. What could a man even think after such a revelation? No wonder Qrow drank so much. They really had been abandoned, everyone had, with the Anathema as rulers? Oh, he had seen many ancient inscriptions asserting that, but every historian assumed that those were a cautionary tale, not a truth.
He re-read the letter twice more, just to make sure. There were so many additional questions he had… that he also would not be able to answer for quite some time. What was this power source that was inferior to Dust engines, but could make that armor run? What exactly did Ruby Rose see? What did she want? And, perhaps most importantly, just who was Professor Ozpin that he knew so much about the past?
Perhaps he would know after speaking with Qrow.
Bartholomew looked to the window and unfamiliar lights. That this new species of Grimm existed and that it could control others had been verified. Those 'spectral insects' were also verified, even if Professor Ozpin hadn't also confirmed their existence. They would perform more in depth testing when lives weren't at risk. Was this the beginning of the end for the Grimm as a whole? What would happen if Ruby took control of all of them? He supposed that she had Vale at her mercy before and didn't do anything.
At the very least, nothing in the letter told him that they had made a major mistake in making peace.
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