Episode 3: Chapter 7: Dark Heart

Chapter 7 of Episode 3 of War of Seasons

            Nathan stared up at the sky as the symbols and energy continued to form in the sky.  With each passing second, the red glow grew brighter and brighter.  He smiled, and surveyed the new form that his body had taken since claiming the dark power.

            “Mortem may have been a monster,” Nathan said with a sick smile, “but the power of the gods is hard to deny.”

            “It…..isn’t……yours……to possess….” Ozpin said as he struggled to remain conscious.

            “I’m surprised you’re still with us old man” Nathan said with a chuckle.  “With so much energy flowing through your body, you should be basically nothing more than a vegetable right now.”

            “Listen…..Nathan.  That power…..what you’re trying to do……it won’t work the way you think it will!”

            “Why should I believe you?  You’re the one who killed this village in the first place!”

            “What are you…..I never…..”

            “Imperia may have been leading me down the wrong path, but I know that regardless of who the Order was loyal to at the time, you caused the death of Aequo!  You are the reason my real family is dead!”

            “I….tried to help….tried to….avenge….”

            “I am the only avenger that Aequo deserves!” Nathan yelled grabbing Ozpin by the throat.  “I am the last true son of Aequo!  I am the one who is going to set things right!  I will kill every last living thing on this planet, and with this new power, I will find the souls of those I deem worthy, and they will take your dead carcasses as vessels, and we will remake this world!  We will create an even better world!”

            “The sky has turned red and you’re spouting off how you’re going to kill everyone” Miles said as everybody approached Nathan.  “Explain to me how you’re still the good guy in all of this?”  Nathan looked over his shoulder, tossed Ozpin to the side, and turned to face them.

            “This world is not what is needed.  People should support one another and not stop them from achieving their dreams.  They shouldn’t try to stop people from becoming who they were meant to be.  If people who call themselves friends try to keep you from your true self, and try to keep you from achieving glory, then they aren’t friends at all.  They are simply greedy souls beneath me.”

            “Seriously, you’ve even got the evil monologuing down to a T.”

            “Nathan,” Yang said stepping forward, “you can’t just surround yourself with people who only say what you want to hear!  You need people who really know you and care about you to not just support you, but to let you know when you are going down the wrong path!  It doesn’t matter if people think your path is a good one if it leads straight off the side of a cliff!”

            “And support has to go in more than one direction!” Jacob yelled pointing his sword at Nathan.  “We supported you without question or hesitation back in the day, and even some of us supported you when you started going awry.  But we need support in our own lives as well.  We have our own issues and problems we need friends to help us deal with as we go through life!”

            “Oh please!” Nathan yelled as he pulled out his sword.  “You don’t know the first thing about suffering!  You haven’t experienced what I’ve experienced!”

            “Yeah!” Evan yelled taking a few steps forward.  “And some people here have had to face a lot worse than you or I have had to deal with!”

            “Liars!  None of you can understand my suffering!  I have always done the right thing, even now!  But as time went on, you all turned your back on me…..”

            “SAVE IT!” Yang yelled firing a shot at Nathan’s head which he dodged at the last second.  “Life isn’t always about you!  Life isn’t always what you want it to be!  And you aren’t always right!  We tried to stop you from doing the things you’ve done because it resulted in people getting hurt!  You keep claiming you’re doing this to help people, but in the end, you’re only doing this to help yourself!  You’re only doing this to surround yourself with people who will do nothing except worship you like a god!  You are seriously going to kill everybody in this world just because you don’t like it when they tell you to stop hurting people?”

            “I’m doing this because the world doesn’t understand!  They don’t know what’s good for them!  I’m trying to make this world a better place!”

            “By killing everybody that speaks up against you?!  By creating a world filled with sheep who do nothing but sing your praises?!”

            “They are the chosen few!  They are the ones who can see the truth and aren’t blinded by jealousy or hate!”

            “You’re delusional!”

            “No.  Unlike all of you, I can see reality!”  With that, Nathan leapt forward and attacked Yang, sending her flying backwards.  In that moment, everybody reacted and charged Nathan.  Not wasting an instant, Nathan snapped his fingers, and several shadows extended from his body out across the battlefield.  Each of the shadows moved around the human fighters and made their way towards the hordes of Grimm that were charging forward as well.  While Nathan defended himself from the incoming attacks from his former friends with a powerful aura burn, the shadows pierced the Grimm, and started infecting them.  The Grimm that got touched by the shadows froze in their tracks, and flailed about as if they were being possessed.  Moments later, the Grimm turned from their usual pure black to a blood red.  Not all of the Grimm got affected with this change, but those who did turned on their fellow Grimm as well as any soldiers and Huntsmen in their general area.  Realizing what was happening, several Huntsmen and Huntresses pulled back from their assault on Nathan and refocused their efforts on fighting the new threat.  Nathan took this opportunity to lower his defenses and begin his own attack. He rushed straight towards Miles and struck him straight across the chest.  Miles’ aura took the blow, but the force of the strike sent him flying back into some debris of the old town off to the side.  Realizing that Nathan was going on the offensive, Ruby and Blake charged forward.  Ruby tried to slash Nathan’s legs, while Blake went for the head, but to no avail.  Nathan struck his sword in the ground to block Ruby’s attack, and the shockwave from the sword knocked Blake out of the air and back a short distance as well.  Jacob quickly tried to use his Semblance against Nathan and land some critical strikes, but as soon as he tried activating his Semblance, the pain from his injury flared up and caused him to collapse.  He clutched his chest in pain, but had to recover himself quickly because several Red Grimm were right on top of him.  Noticing Jacob’s predicament, Christy, Brooklyn and Ty rushed over to fend off the growing hordes of enemy Grimm.  Team GASH formed up to try and form a defensive circle to try and protect Hera, as it was becoming clear that Nathan’s tactics of changing the allegiance of the Grimm was causing her much duress.  Realizing the perimeter was being set, everybody tried to join the circle as quickly as possible as the tide quickly began to change.  The battle continued on like this with more and more people joining the circle trying to defend themselves.  Ember was on the far side helping a few stranded students regain their footing so they could fight their way to the defensive circle.  Just as she was about to join the last batch of students in the retreat to the defensive position, she saw her father cutting through a few Grimm and Huntsmen that had attacked him in vain.  She clutched her weapons tightly, fighting back tears, and approached him.  Nathan turned and saw Ember approaching and glared at her.

            “You have no right to exist” he said with a growl.  “I won’t even bother waiting for the red sky to kill you.  I will simply kill you now, and your body will be a vessel for the true Ember.  It’s rather poetic really.  I created the vessel, and now I will remove your soul for the correct soul.”  Ember didn’t say a single word.  She just stood there with tears in her eyes.  The two of them stared each other down for a few moments, until Ember finally screamed,

            “STOP THIS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.  “PLEASE!”  Nathan didn’t pay any heed to her cries.  He just rushed forward and prepared to attack her.  Ember wiped her tears away and started to defend herself from her father’s onslaught of attacks.  She kept backing up, trying to find any form of footing, but found none.  For a split second however, she managed to regain her senses and perfectly parry one of Nathan’s attacks.  This caused Nathan to stumble, leaving him open.  Ember focused all of her sadness and anger into her weapons, and started pummeling Nathan.  She continued to strike without hesitation or pause, chipping away at pieces of his armor and weapons.  Until after a few minutes, the rage within her started to calm down back into sadness.  She looked at her father’s face, her tears returning, as she dropped to her knees.

“I can’t….” she said.  Nathan smiled, and immediately launched a series of counterattacks.  He swung his sword wildly trying to destroy her Aura in only a few hits.  Ember managed to deflect some of the attacks, but it was clear that she was losing the will to fight back.  She continued to struggle, and her defense continued to waver, while Nathan’s attacks grew more and more aggressive.  After only a few short moments, Nathan managed to knock both of Ember’s tonfas away, and with one powerful blow, knocked her to the ground.  Yang and Gray both saw this off in the distance and started trying to  break through the horde of Red Grimm to rush towards her, all while screaming her name.  Ember simply lay there, dazed, and with tears running down the sides of her face.  Nathan stood above her, glaring without remorse or hesitation.

            “How pathetic” Nathan said as he approached her.  “You are not even strong enough to defend your own life.”  As he approached Ember, Nathan slashed and destroyed her tonfa’s in two, while he prepared for the killing blow.  Ember closed her eyes, her tears almost blurring out everything regardless as she whispered,

            “I love you dad……”

Author's Note

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