Episode 1: Chapter 5: Lost Relic

Chapter 5 of Episode 1 of War of Seasons

            Lord Tenebris prepared his weapons to face Yang once again, but then Lord Imperia placed her hand on his shoulder.
            “Let the others handle them” Lord Imperia said with a simle.  “You must be the last line of defense to protect me in case they fail before we accomplish our goal.”  Lord Tenebris nodded his head, and put his blade away while several Order soldiers rushed past him and prepared to battle their opponents.  As he turned to join Lord Imperia, Yang had launched herself over the wall of enemy soldiers with her gauntlets towards Lord Tenebris.
            “I just said I’ve got a score to settle with you!” Yang yelled as she pulled back to prepare a punch.  Suddenly, Lord Imperia pulled out a staff, struck it into the ground, and blocked Yang’s attack without a second thought.  Yang didn’t even have a chance to process what had just happened before Lord Imperia pulled her staff out of the ground, and swung it with the power of fire dust imbued into it which sent her flying backwards.  Yang ended up crashing through a couple of Order soldiers on her way back to her friends,  but it didn’t help much due to the fact that she was almost out of Aura when she landed.  Getting back up and reloading her weapons, she joined her friends and surveyed the situation.
            “Any idea what they’re planning to do down here?” Yang asked firing a few rounds at some incoming soldiers.
            “Not sure” Miles said morphing his swords into dual pistols and taking potshots at the enemy as well.  “They brought something that looks like a med-tank, but I’m not sure for what purpose.”
            “I think the bigger question at hand right now,” Jacob said throwing a fire dust kunai towards the wall of soldiers trying to clear a path, “is what is this place and what does the Order want with it?”
            “Care to enlighten us Pyrrha?” Evan asked as he used his spear to push back a couple of bold yet foolish Order soldiers.  Pyrrha sighed, threw her shield at several nearby Order members, retrieved it with her Semblance, then pointed her sword at the giant yellow door.
            “I can’t go into much detail right now, but what I can tell you is that there is an important relic locked behind that door, and we can’t allow the Order to get their hands on it.”
            “How do we keep them from opening it?” Brooklyn asked morphing her weapon into shield for to protect everybody as the enemy soldiers managed to get a lot of firepower behind them and pinned down everybody.
            “They can’t open it” Pyrrha said as she morphed her sword to rifle mode and took aim over Brooklyn’s shield.  “Not without the Spring Maiden at least.  She’s the only one who can open that door.”
            “I have a bad feeling about this…” Natalie said taking shots at the enemy as well.

 

 

Lord Imperia placed her hand on the ID scan of the med-pod, and with a hiss, the doors opened revealing a young woman with flowing blue hair.  The girl was unconscious, but her body seemed to glow almost like a candle with a faint green light.  Lord Imperia smiled and looked over at Lord Tenebris.
            “Care to do the honors?” she said pointing at the limp hand of their prisoner.  Lord Tenebris nodded his head and grabbed the hand of the girl in the pod.  He then proceeded to take the hand and place it on the giant door.  As soon as he did so, the door began to move.  Pieces folding in on each other like a fan, revealing behind the door a great desert, with a small stone path leading to a floating blue lamp on a pedestal.  Lord Imperia smiled, and began to make her way towards the lamp.

 

 

            Pyrrha took another shot at the wall of Order soldiers when she noticed that the door was starting to open.
            “That’s impossible!” she yelled taking a few steps back.  “Ironwood said that she was in a safe and secure location!”
            “Not that impossible” Miles said as he fired a few more shots at the enemy.  “The Order always seemed to have a jump on finding the Maidens when we thought they were safe.  Plus given how they managed to rebuild themselves like this, I’m willing to bet one of them managed to sneak in and get the information they needed off a secure server or something like that.”
            “Less talk, more trying to make sure they don’t get away with this “relic” you mentioned cousin” Jacob said as he drew his main blade.  “I’ll clear a path.”
            “Wait” Natalie said grabbing Jacob’s shoulder before he rushed forward.  “Miles, how much aura do you have left?”
            “I have a good amount.  Why?”
            “Enough to pull off Zero G Flash-Step?”
            “I should have enough for that, but afterwards I’ll be out of commission.”
            “That’s fine” Evan said reloading his spear with more dust crystals.  “You and Natalie worry about the soldiers; the rest of us will handle the main threat.”  Everybody nodded their heads and prepared for action.  The next moment, Miles leapt in front of Brooklyn’s shield and extended his arms like he was attempting to control puppets on strings.  Then, all of a sudden, all of the Order soldiers started floating up into the air.  While using his Semblance on people other than himself was still risky, Miles had managed to continue to improve his abilities and reduce the amount of internal damage that his Semblance did to his body when using his ability on his opponents.  The soldiers weren’t the most difficult obstacle for him to face, but they were still numerous enough that it was a clear strain on his body.  But the moment the soldiers went up into the air, Natalie leapt up and quickly leapt between all the soldiers striking them each back down to the ground with decisive blows.  With that moment, there was a clear path for everybody else to make a mad dash towards Lord Imperia and Lord Tenebris.  Lord Imperia turned to face them, twirling her staff around in the process.
            “Retrieve the lamp Lord Tenebris” Lord Imperia said as the rubble around her feet began to swirl.  “I’ll keep them at bay.”  Lord Tenebris nodded his head and made his way to the stone pedestal.  Lord Imperia meanwhile, spun her staff around, causing gusts of wind to pick up around her.  Then, she pointed the head of her staff at her enemies and a whirlwind forced everybody to come to a halt.  Even Natalie was knocked out of the air from this attack, but not before all of the soldiers had finally been dealt with.  Once the winds died down, everybody regained their composure and prepared to attack again.  Evan rushed forward and thrust his spear forward, attempting to stab Lord Imperia in the gut.  But with a skillful move, Lord Imperia redirected the attack with her staff, forcing Evan to virtually run right past her.  At first, Evan saw this as an opportunity to try and stop the Order from gaining the relic by attacking Lord Tenebris directly, but then he felt a sharp pain in his knees.  Lord Imperia had a blade at the base of her staff which she used to slash Evan in the back of his legs.  Evan’s aura absorbed most of this damage, but there was still enough pain to stop his forward momentum.  In that moment, Brooklyn morphed her weapon from shield form to scimitar form and tried to engage Lord Imperia in one-on-one combat, with Jacob, Pyrrha, and Yang all right behind her ready to fight to the death.  But in that moment, there was a loud sound, like a ringing bell.  Suddenly, Lord Imperia stabbed her staff into the ground, and a giant sound wave came crashing through and knocked everybody backwards and off their feet.  Lord Tenebris then picked up his tuning fork sword from the ground and placed it in his sheath.  He then walked over to Lord Imperia, got down on one knee, and handed her the lamp.  Lord Imperia smiled and took the relic with great care not to do anything that would damage it.  She then activated her communicator.
            “We have the Relic of Knowledge.  Bring the ship around and cripple Mistral.  We’re leaving.”  After the radio acknowledged her statement, Lord Imperia and Lord Tenebris turned to leave out the same opening they created to get in.  Pyrrha, trying to get her bearings back, started firing blindly at the two of them as they headed out of the chamber.  But Jacob grabbed Pyrrha and dragged her back to the platform elevator.  The attack from Lord Tenebris was causing the chamber itself to shake and crumble, and several pieces of the cave ceiling was starting to cave in.  Luckily, once everybody was on the platform, the elevator rose back up to the surface.  As the platform rose, everybody was in a daze, not sure how to react to what happened.
            “Did we just lose?” Natalie asked as she tried to use her weapon as a crutch to stand up.  Pyrrha sighed, and collapsed exhausted on the floor.
            “I’m afraid we have.”

 

 

 

            Team BEAT couldn’t believe what they were seeing.  It was almost as if all of Mistral was on fire.  When Lord Tenebris knocked them from the cliffside, Bovia had managed to catch everyone using the water from the falls to help slow their descent and ensure they survived.  But when they reached the bottom, they saw just how devastating the situation truly was.  Houses and shops on fire, people running around in the panic and confusion with no true direction.  To make matters worse, the negative emotions had reached a boiling point, and the Grimm had finally arrived.  Several species of Grimm were starting to flood the city, civilians were trapped, and everything was falling apart.  But instead of just standing there waiting for things to get worse, Team BEAT rushed into action, helping all the civilians they could while destroying all the nearby Grimm.  They managed to clear a path to make sure the survivors could reach the emergency evacuation ships at Haven Academy.  As they finally reached the last evacuation ship, they all boarded and flew out over the city of Mistral.  Nobody could believe it.  Mistral was a strong kingdom with several natural barriers, but there it was.  Overrun with Grimm and Order soldiers.  Everything was lost.  But that didn’t bother Ember too much.  Her thoughts dwelled on what Lord Tenebris said to her.  She sat down and pondered everything all the way back to Beacon, where the school and city helped all the refugees find a place where they could be safe for the time being.  Everybody who was top ranking knew what needed to happen next.  Pyrrha looked the most distressed out of everyone.
            “I let Ozpin down” Pyrrha said burying her face in her hands.  “I let my school down, I let my kingdom down, I let my family down….”
            “We did the best we could” Jaune said as he lowered his wife’s hands from her face and held them in his own hands.  At least we saved lives instead of leaving the Order and the Grimm to just do as they pleased with the people.  We need to look ahead and make sure they pay for what they’ve done.”  Pyrrha dried her tears and nodded her head.  Then, all at the same time, everybody who had been part of the calls earlier received a text from Professor Ozpin simply saying,
            “Report to my office.  I believe I know what the Order is after.”  Nobody knew what to make of it, but they immediately made their way to Ozpin’s office.

 

 

            Ozpin kept pacing back and forth, going over all the scrolls on his table one last time.  Then, the elevator doors opened and everybody stepped out.
            “Thank you for coming on such short notice” Ozpin said as he took a seat.
            “Short notice is kind of par for the course these days” Christy said cracking her neck.
            “True enough” Ozpin said with a sigh.  “And I fear we may not have much time to breathe.”
            “Why’s that?” Ty asked tilting his head in confusion.  Ozpin sighed, and brought up an old scroll that had the symbol of the Order on it.
            “I didn’t notice this the first time that the Order attacked, but there are pieces here that I can’t ignore any more.”
            “What pieces?” Miles asked placing his hand on Ozpin’s desk.  “What are you talking about.”
            “I’m talking about how I am actually the one who created the Order of the Four Seasons.”

Reviews

[Shep]

Damn, I just dropped my bag of chips on the last statement. Did I catch that OZ created the Order? Well just kick me in ht head if that's just nuts. Awesome chapter, it kept my attention big time. not a lot more I could say but keep up the good work as I move on to the next page and please return the love.