Beacon Tower
“Are you sure this plan will work?” Pyrrha said as she looked over the plans that Ozpin had laid out before them one more time.
“Trust me” Ozpin said taking a sip from his coffee mug. “This will not only give us a much needed advantage against the enemy, but also possibly weed out any potential spies within our ranks.”
“It’s a risky play to be sure” Jacob said scratching his chin, “but I think we can pull this off. Who do you have in mind for the primary operation?”
“Who else can you think of best suited for missions like this one?” Ozpin said with a wry smile.
Vacuo
The Base of Operations of The Order of the Four Seasons
Lord Imperia continued to look over old charts and manuscripts that were scattered across the room of the Monolith. She still couldn’t wrap her head around it. No matter how many times that Lord Mortem had showed her this place or how many times she had been here herself, all this history about the world of Remnant long forgotten to the ages having been perfectly preserved in time for the future to read over.
“Lord Imperia,” a voice echoed through the chamber, causing Imperia to jump a little bit in surprise. She turned to see Lord Tenebris standing in the entryway to the Monolith chamber. “The topographers want to share with you the different pieces of information and intel they have gathered up until this point on where the Relic of Life may be hidden. They’ve narrowed it down to a few select regions.”
“Why would I go to them if you are just going to bring me this information regardless Lord Tenebris?”
“They wish to go a bit more in detail with you. And to be honest, I can’t make heads or tails about what they’re talking about.” Anima chuckled at Tenebris’ remark and put down the scrolls she was reading over.
“Very well” she said dusting off her cloak. “While I’m doing that, check in with Lord Sangui about the potential troops we may need to deploy for our next attack.” Tenebris nodded his head as Anima moved past him and made her way towards the war room.
“Lord Imperia, may I ask a question?” Anima stopped in her tracks and turned to face Tenebris.
“Depends. How soon do the topographers need me in the war room?”
“I have shared my goals with you many times. I have made it no secret of my desires and how far I am willing to go in order to achieve that goal. And the Order is the best path for me to achieve that goal.”
“And we are grateful for your service to our cause Lord Tenebris. Was that all?”
“Lord Imperia, what is your goal?” Anima, taken aback at this question, slowly started walking towards Tenebris.
“Why would you ask that Lord Tenebris? Our victory is all that matters.”
“Yes, and I know what I would give to accomplish with victory. I know what it is I desire to gain with victory. However, I do not know what it is you desire. Ever since I have joined your crusade, I have served you without question. I trust you above all others to tell me what is true unlike the lies fed to me by my false family. So tell me, what is your endgame? What do you achieve by obtaining these relics?” Anima, with each step towards Tenebris that she took, she grew more and more agitated.
“What the Order will do after we win will be to create true balance in the world” Anima said as she ran her hand across the mask that covered Tenebris’ face. “A true world order that will bring every living being together like Ozpin never could. We will ensure that organizations like the Kingdoms don’t horde all the power for themselves instead of for the people, we will ensure that groups like the White Fang never do what they did to Aequo and claim it was in pursuit of a greater good, we will remove the liars and pretenders from their thrones and let the truth be revealed, and we will ensure that this world is filled with people who support one another no matter what, unlike your fake family as you mentioned.” Tenebris pondered this, then started to walk away.
“If you ever stray from that path Lord Imperia, know that I will destroy you and claim the Order for myself.”
“I expect nothing less.” Anima said smiling as Tenebris walked away.
Anima entered the war room where the topographers were waiting.
“Lord Tenebris said you might have some leads on where we could possibly find the Relic of Life?”
“That is correct Lord Imperia” the lead topographer said pulling up a map. “As of right now, the Monolith can only extract certain elements of knowledge at a time since we are bypassing the living entity within the relic. Because of this, the Relic seems to be withholding information and trying to keep us from the full truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the Relic of Knowledge is inhabited by a spirit that calls itself Jinn. And it says that you can only ask three questions once every hundred years. But since we plugged it into the Monolith, we are extracting the information, bypassing the three questions rule. As a result, we believe that the entity inside the Relic, while unable to stop us completely, is holding back key information from us, making sure that we don’t find the Relic of Life immediately.”
“So that’s why it was only giving us information in riddles and vague clues. It doesn’t want us to find the rest of the relics.”
“That is correct my lord. However, the riddles in and of themselves aren’t super hard to solve” as he said this, the topographer pulled up a message that read ‘if the Relic of Life you wish to take, only will you find it hidden at the center of the living lake’. “As far as we can tell, this means that the Relic of Life is hidden somewhere at the bottom of a lake that is teeming with life all around it. We’ve narrowed our search down to a few select lakes within Remnant, but we are still looking to make sure we can pinpoint an exact location. Along with that, the Monolith extracts more and more pieces of information at a time, which can lead us to getting a more definitive answer to where the Relic is hidden.”
“Excellent. Keep me appraised of your progress” Lord Imperia said as she turned to leave. “And start figuring out where the Relic of Connection is. If it was so difficult to find out where the Relic of Life is, we need to make sure we find this next one as soon as possible.”
“As you wish my lord.” Anima smiled as she closed the doors to leave the topographers to their work. She then noticed Lord Sangui walking down the hallway towards the barracks. She ran over and grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Lord Sangui, did Lord Tenebris talk to you about troops for future missions?”
“He did” Lord Sangui said with a smile. “I am on my way to the barracks to take inventory of not just our troops, but also weapons and ammunition.”
“Keep me informed. And make sure that we are prepared just in case Atlas or any of the other powerhouses are a bit more prepared than they were at Mistral.”
“Lord Imperia, I have a quick question.”
“I seem to be getting that a lot from my council lately.”
“What is the deal with Lord Tenebris? I know the least about your goals with him amongst all the high-ranking members of the Order. I know we did that thing where…..”
“All you need to know about Lord Tenebris is that he will serve us well in the coming battles. His drive to try and gain what he desires will ultimately result in our absolute victory.”
“But why him? Out of all people, why him?”
“Why not him?”
“It seems like a waste to use your abilities to warp his mind to join our cause and fight for us.”
“That’s the beautiful thing about it Lord Sangui. I barely had to use my Semblance at all. It only took waking up a single idea in his brain, and all of a sudden he was ready to cast aside his old life and take on a new one with us.”
“How can you be sure that he won’t stray from the path that has been laid before him?”
“He has abandoned everything related to who he was prior to the war. Before the entire world of Remnant, he declared himself as Lord Ferish Tenebris, member of the Order of the Four Seasons. He wants to help us find these Relics and open the final door. Granted, his goals don’t match our goals, but he is too blind to recognize our true goal. I do believe that he will play a critical role in ensuring our victory against Ozpin and his lackeys in future encounters. Even if he discovers our true intentions.”
“And how will he ensure victory if you don’t mind my asking? He doesn’t seem to have any real special abilities in battle compared to the rest of us. What makes him so special?” But before Anima could answer the question, her communicator started beeping. She pulled it out and activated the hologram projector to speak to the person, a Order member dressed in the uniform of an Atlesian guard, on the other end.
“What’s going on?” she asked intently.
“Sorry to disturb you my lord,” the Order soldier said, “but there have been whispers that Ozpin is moving an object of great power from Atlas to Vale.”
“Any idea what it could possibly be?”
“No, they’ve been pretty tight-lipped. But they have all hands on deck for this one. It might be the relic they hid here.” A huge smile crept across Anima’s face.
“Ozpin thinks that by gathering all the Relics together, he can stop us from completing our goal. But he just made our lives a lot easier. Keep your head down, I’m sending an attack team to intercept. Wait for my signal, then take them down. We’ll catch them by surprise and the Relic will be ours!”
“As you command my lord.” The Order soldier saluted then ended the communication.
“This is perfect” Lord Anima said with a smile. “Prepare my ship and mobilize all available troops!”
“Lord Imperia, I don’t think this might be the best play” Lord Sangui said as he started running to keep up with Anima.
“Nonsense! The Relic of Knowledge is being difficult, so if we take one piece off the board, we make less work and wait time in order to claim what we need.”
“That’s not the point. We’ve just gotten back from taking down Mistral, and that took a lot of our forces. Now you want us to go up against Atlas with them prepared for us?”
“They aren’t expecting us, that’s the whole point. Plus, we can finally get some good use out of our spies, and catch the enemy off-balance and claim yet another victory! Now enough dallying! Prepare the troops!”
“As you wish my lord.” Lord Sangui said as he started running towards the barracks. Anima made her way to the armory and loaded her staff with several Dust cartridges for the coming battle. All loaded up and ready to go, she made her way to the airfield. Boarding her personal airship, the small strike team took off and began to make their way towards Atlas. Anima smiled as she watched the rolling sands of Vacuo fly beneath their airship as the engines roared to life. Suddenly, another call started to come through her communicator.
“Did you forget about me my lord?” the voice cut through the communicator as the form of Lord Tenebris took shape in the hologram projector. Anima simply sighed.
“This happened in the blink of an eye and I didn’t have time to get you on board for battle. On top of that, I need somebody that I can trust to guard the base. Make sure everything stays secure until we return. I trust you to keep the Order safe in case we give our location away.” Lord Tenebris was clearly upset that he was being benched for this mission, as he simply clenched his fist and hung up. Anima put her communicator away and returned to staring out the window.
“Soon, we will be yet another step closer to bringing him back.”
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