Episode 3: Chapter 5: Shifting Tides

Chapter 5 of Episode 3 of War of Seasons

            As everybody continued to stand around in the courtyard of Beacon Academy, nobody was sure what they should do next.  Despite the fact that the Order had left already, they left all of the Atlesian Knights and other robots with their weapons trained on the civilians.  An insurance policy to make sure nobody tried to follow them.

            “What should we do?” Ty asked as he looked around at all the machines with their weapons trained on them.

            “I don’t think we can do anything” Evan said wiping the sweat off his forehead.  “If we attack even one of them, their network is going to alert the rest of them, and the people not just in Vale, but possibly across all the four kingdoms would be at risk.”

            “So we just stand here and let them win?” Christy said gritting her teeth.

            “Maybe if we form a wall and keep them from seeing Natalie,” Brooklyn pondered looking over the formation that the androids had, “then she could turn invisible and get inside without them seeing her.  Maybe even get in contact with Weiss for some kind of kill code for the system.”

            “Pretty sure the new lineup of machines got infrared installed on their visual scanners” Ruby said scratching her head.  “Natalie, didn’t Ironwood have you go up to Atlas to test that tech?”  But Natalie didn’t respond to Ruby.  She was still shaking from her encounter with Nathan, fading in and out of visibility, struggling to keep herself together.

            “Maybe I could run fast enough that they won’t detect me?” Aurora suggested.  “I’m pretty sure I’m faster than Ruby, and I don’t think that me running away would cause the system to act out and….”

            “Are you sure you want to do this?” Hera said cutting in almost randomly.  Aurora looked over at her teammate a bit confused.

            “Um, I mean unless you’ve got a better plan then….”

            “You do realize what this would do to you, right?” Hera continued without even acknowledging Aurora’s statement.  Everybody slowly turned their attention towards Hera’s conversation with herself, but she did not acknowledge them back.

            “It’ll take a lot out of you” Hera continued to speak.  “Are you sure you’re up for that kind of strain?  I mean, who’s to say you won’t go to sleep for the rest of my life?”

            “Um….Hera?” Ruby asked leaning over towards Hera.  “You doing all right?”

            “Shut up, I’m talking to her” Hera said brushing Ruby’s hand away.  “Okay.  If you think you can pull it off, then do it.”  As soon as Hera finished saying that, she sat down in a meditation position, and pressed her hands together, almost like a praying motion.

            “Was your sister always this religious Arri?” Terra asked scratching her head.

            “No,” Arri said tilting her head in confusion.  “I have no idea what is going on.”  This went on for a few minutes, but then, all of a sudden, the ground started to shake.  Looking around, everybody prepared their weapons, which caused the machines to ready theirs as well.  Suddenly, several Grimm came flying and galloping through the courtyard.
            “Holy…!” Ty yelled morphing his weapon to bazooka form.  He fired several rockets towards the charging Grimm swarm, and while it did take out a decent amount, there was still far too many of them to deal with.

            “Leave them!”  Hera yelled.  Everybody looked back in confusion at Hera’s statement.  But in that moment, the Grimm were right on top of everybody, and moved right past them and started attacking the Atlesian machines.  The androids tried to fight back, but the Grimm horde was too much.  The wave of Grimm moved into the city, where they continued to attack and dismantle the controlled machines.  Hera got up from her position, put on her gauntlets, and rushed forward, taking out the preoccupied Atlesian androids.  Everybody just stood there, dumbfounded over what they were seeing.

            “You waiting for an invitation?” Hera yelled as she continued to dismantle the machines.  Everybody snapped out of it, and quickly leapt into action.  Those with great speed and maneuverability quickly made their way towards the town of Vale to help with the people still defenseless down there.  Others that may not have that speed but still had a great deal of power dealt with the threats at Beacon.  Not only those assembled in the courtyard, but once it was clear that it was time to fight back, the other students and teachers of Beacon Academy took up their own weapons and began to fight back as well.  The battle raged on, Huntsmen and Grimm fighting side by side.  It almost didn’t even feel real.  But with the help and numbers of the Grimm, the machines were quickly destroyed, and Vale was safe from the Order’s control.  Everybody put their weapons away and helped those who needed it within the city.  While they did this, the Grimm simply sat there, not doing anything despite the overwhelming amount of negative emotions in the area.

            “How is this possible?” Blake asked staring directly in the face of a Beowolf without it flinching.  “This goes against every known Grimm action recorded.

            “Yeah,” Hera said wiping sweat off her head, “this wasn’t super easy to pull off.”

            “Wait,” Sora asked walking up to Hera, “did you control the Grimm?”

            “Kind of?  I mean, Salem did most of the communicating, but I did help direct them in a way.”

            “So, Salem talked to them and gave them their targets, but you guided them?  If Salem was talking to them, couldn’t she have just guided them as well?”

            “Not that easy.  Salem may live inside my soul, but she still can’t physically control me or make me some kind of puppet while in this dimension.  Actually, for the last few nights, we’ve been training in my dreams on how I can control the Grimm.  She basically tells the Grimm to listen to my commands, and I guide them to where I want them to go.”

            “Think we could have used something like that during the battle at the mountain” Gray said with a sigh.

            “I’m still learning guys.  Plus, ever since we got back from the Dark Dimension, I’ve been able to talk with Salem even while I’m awake.  But it’s not that simple with the Grimm.  Controlling Grimm in small numbers hurts that connection and causes some quiet moments, so who knows what will happen with controlling Grimm on this big of a scale.”

            “Well, it’s just Vale” Beanie said with a smile.  “That might not be too difficult.”

            “Who said I’m only controlling the Grimm in Vale?”  As Hera said this, Beanie’s Scroll started ringing.

            “It’s Weiss!” he said as he quickly picked up the call.  “What’s happening in Atlas?”

            “I’m not honestly sure!” Weiss said with surprise in her voice.  “All of a sudden, the Grimm from the frozen tundra just all gathered here and started attacking the machines that the Order got control of!  They’re mostly all destroyed now, but they haven’t attacked any Huntsmen, military, or civilians.  What is happening?”

            “I was hoping you could tell me!” Sun said cutting in, having joined the call via his own Scroll.  “The same thing is happening in Vacuo”

            “I’m getting reports of similar activity back in Mistral” Pyrrha said as she looked over the messages on her own Scroll.

            “Hera,” Natalie said looking at her daughter, “what is this going to do to you?”

            “No time for that now!” Ruby said stepping forward.  “We need to stop the Order!”

            “I couldn’t have said it better myself” a new voice cut in.  Everybody turned around to see Jacob in full combat gear, ready to go to battle.  Despite standing tall, it was clear that he was struggling with his injury.

            “You can’t do anything in the state you’re in!” Christy yelled running over to help Jacob keep his balance.  “You can barely stand as it is!”

            “For right now at least.  But once I get warmed up, I’ll be able to hold my own in the field and fight the Order.”

            “I suppose going after them is inevitable, isn’t it?” Ember said with a sigh, as she was still sitting on the ground.  Everybody fell silent for a few moments, not sure how to respond.  Yang broke the silence by punching her fists together.

            “It may be difficult, especially given how he treated us.  But that doesn’t matter now.  We need to stop the Order.  After we do that, we can worry about my estranged husband.”

            “Well then, what are we waiting for?” Bovia said cracking her knuckles.  “Let’s go!”

            “Where to exactly?” Beanie said tilting his head.  “We have no idea where they might have gone.”

            “I may actually have an answer to that issue” Ironwood said having also jumped into the Scroll call.  “We’ve been trying to regain access to the main computer terminals following Nathan’s Vytal medal locking us out, but then we picked up some faint distress signals from a Scroll heading away from Vale.  As far as we can tell, it’s heading west, perhaps towards Vacuo.”

            “No,” Natalie said as she stood up.  “If Nathan is really after something with these relics, then he is going to Aequo.”

            “But wait,” Blake said tapping her foot in confusion, “who’s sending out a distress beacon from the Order’s fleet?”

            “From what we can tell, it looks like Miles” Ty said looking over his Scroll.

            “Wait, what?  That’s impossible.  How did he survive?”

            “Well, it seems like death is nothing more than an inconvenience at this point, so I wouldn’t put it outside of the realm of possibility.”  

            “Okay,” Jacob said with a sigh.  “Miles is alive, Nathan is evil, and it looks like the big final battle is going to take place at our old home.  Am I missing anything?”

            “We still need an army of our own to deal with the Order” Brooklyn said crossing her arms, pondering a potential solution.

            “I can still guide the Grimm” Hera said walking over to one of the Beowolves just sitting off to the side.  “They can provide us with some much-needed support.”

            “Okay then” Jacob said cracking his knuckles.  “We’re only going to get one shot at this.  I suggest everybody get ready before everything goes completely crazy.”  With that, everybody broke off to gather their weapons and gear before the final battle.

 

 

 

            Natalie leaned up against one of the pillars in Beacon’s courtyard, holding an old photo of her and Nathan on their graduation day from Beacon.  Yang walked over and placed her hand on Natalie’s shoulder.

            “How’re you feeling?”

            “Terrible” Natalie said as she put the photo away.  “I honestly don’t know what to think right now.  I didn’t want to believe it, but there he was.  My brother, somebody who I’ve gone through so much with, yelling and hurting me, caring more about himself than me.  Than his own family.  How did it come to this?”  The two of them stood there in silence, not sure how to respond.  Yang simply patted Natalie on the shoulder and made her way to leave.  Natalie looked over, shook her head, and made her way to her dropship to prepare for battle.  As they boarded the airship and took off, Natalie saw Ember sitting off on the side, looking at her weapons with tears in her eyes.  Natalie sat down next to her, and placed her arm around her.

            “How you holding up kiddo?”

            “Is this a trick question?” Ember asked with a slight smirk.  She tried to laugh, but even that proved too difficult.  “I don’t know what to do” she said as tears rolled down her face.  “He’s my dad.  I love him, but now….and what he did to you…..and to everybody…..I just…..”

            “I wish I had an answer” Natalie said hugging Ember tightly.  “I wish I did with all my heart.”  Yang and Gray noticed them as well, and joined them, as they tried to prepare themselves for what they were about to face.

 

 

 

            Nathan stood on the bridge with Imperia, as they grew ever closer to the ruins of Aequo.  With a smile on his face, Nathan turned to leave.

            “We have almost arrived Lord Tenebris” Imperia said turning around to speak to Nathan.  “Where are you going?”

            “I am going to collect our guest, and see if he’s stable enough that I can wake him up so that he can witness the world that we will create and realize that I was right all along.”

            “Very well Lord Tenebris.  Do as you will.”  With that, Nathan left the bridge and headed down towards the medical center.

            “He seems more like a broken record at this point” Lord Sangui said with a sigh.  “He repeats over and over how he’s going to make this guy suffer and realize that he was wrong so much that I almost want to rip out that stupid tongue of his!”

            “We are near our final goal Lord Sangui” Imperia said with a smile.  “Make sure that he doesn’t find out about our true objective.  Secure the vessel of the superior at once.”  Lord Sangui nodded his head when he heard Imperia’s order, and made his way down to the sub-levels of the airship.

 

 

 

            Nathan reached the medical station that Miles was placed in, but was surprised to see that the pod had shattered into a million pieces and Miles himself was nowhere to be seen.  Nathan’s anger grew, and he quickly ran to the security hub to try and find out where Miles was hiding.  As he pulled up the footage and started to scroll through it, he finally found Miles.  As he kept looking through the footage, he finally caught a glimpse of Miles exiting a separate room with his coat and weapons and entering the air vents.  But just before Nathan left the room to try and see if he could force Miles out of the air vents by changing the temperature, he noticed something strange.  Something about the way he exited that specific room just before he entered the air vents caught his attention.  He remembered that room.  It was just a simple storage closet, not a place for weapons and seized items to be stored.  So why was Miles leaving a storeroom with his weapons and clothes?  Was there something hidden from him in that room?  Nathan pondered this, at first thinking that this was a pointless venture, and he should return to his mission of finding Miles.  But then, his curiosity got the better of him, and he found the cameras for where Miles was hiding before going into the air vents.  The cameras showed an area much like a normal holding cell area, but with different items strewn about the cells.  As he looked closer, he saw Miles was just standing there, talking to somebody in one of the cells in this new area.  Nathan turned up the volume to try and make out what they were saying.

            “So that’s why the Order took Mortem’s body in the dark realm” Miles said through the camera’s microphone.  “You plan on resurrecting him.”  Nathan was dumbfounded.  He continued to listen to the conversation as it progressed, including the mocking voice of the stranger in the cell.

“Imperia has your stupid friend eating out of the palm of her hand!”  the mysterious voice said.   “He thinks that the Order is going to use the Relics to bring back everyone from Aequo back to life!  Them and all the people that he wants to resurrect himself!  He has no idea of our true intentions!””   Nathan’s anger grew more and more.  So much so, that he turned off the monitors and made his way towards the sub-level, determined to find out who the owner of the strange voice was.  As he made his way down into the sub-level, he stormed his way to the cell of the mysterious figure.  As he approached it, he realized that it was Lord Memoriare.

            “I was wondering when you would arrive here young one” Memoriare said with a cackle.

            “How are you still alive?” Nathan growled as he grabbed the bars.

            “Quite simple really.  I refuse to die until the superior returns to us.”

            “You were a part of Mortem’s splinter cell!  Imperia said she killed you!”  Memoriare laughed as Nathan yelled at him.

            “Child, there never was any splinter cell.  Lord Mortem IS the Order!”

            “You’re lying!  Ozpin started the Order!  He used it to assert control over the entire world!”

            “You know, Lord Mortem always spoke about this when he taught young Imperia.  If you tell people what they want to hear, they are more likely to follow you to the depths of the abyss, regardless of who they were before.”

            “Shut up!”

            “Honestly, I don’t care what happens.  No matter what you do today, the superior will return, and you will all face his wrath once everything comes together.”

            “What’s going to happen?  What is Imperia planning?”

            “If you are here questioning me, then I assume you are already fully aware of what she plans to do.  There is no point in delaying the inevitable.  I have no desire to stop you from learning the truth.”

            “I resent your so-called superior with a burning passion!  And so does Imperia!  She wants what I want!  She wants to save everybody!  Not bring back a nutjob from a splinter cell!  And I’ll be there to help her accomplish the goal we set out to accomplish back when we first declared war!  Bring everybody back!  Why in the world do you think that I would do anything now than try to stop it?”

            “Because I want to see what comes next.  I have witnessed many different actions and paths taken by several different people in the course of this life.  All of my actions have been to bring us to this very point in time.  And now, all that is left to do is pass on what I know to you.  To share with you the vital piece that may just be the key to reaching your true destiny.  The destiny that you so desire.  The chance to bring back those you lost, and to gain revenge on everybody who betrayed you.”  Nathan glared at Memoriare, but stepped away from the cell, and looked straight at him.

            “I’m listening.”

Author's Note

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[Shep]

Beacon’s courtyard, holding an old (phot) of her.

At last, things are wrapping up nicely getting ready for the big final battle and I am so looking forward to it. bring on the pain. Moving forward, please be kind and return the love.