Episode Christy: Chapter 3: Mind Dive

Chapter 3 of Christy's story.

            Christy reacted to the lightning by grabbing her forehead, but was surprised that there was nothing more than a slight tingling sensation after the fact.  She was still surrounded by the same darkness that enveloped her before, but suddenly she heard a strange sound.  Like several small items that sounded like glass fell and hit the ground all around her.  She got down on one knee and felt around until she felt something that wasn’t the ground or a rock.  It felt almost like a crystal.  Christy grabbed it and slowly stood up.  And as she stood up, the darkness around her gave way to a wash of color.  Her surroundings changed from pure darkness to the hallways of the dorms at Beacon.  Christy looked around surprised at her new surroundings, not sure if she was viewing this space through the eyes of another or if she had somehow been magically transported back to Beacon and now needed to find a way back to Karejji to resume her mission.  But then, without hesitating, somebody walked right through her as if they were a ghost.  Christy jumped back as she watched a figure walk through her, then jumped back a bit more again when she realized this was herself.  Her younger self from her days as a student at Beacon.  She slowly walked over to her past self, and attempted to touch her.  But her hand passed through her doppelganger’s head just as she had passed through her moments ago.  Christy then walked through this intangible memory and got a good look at its face.  The face was stoic, but seemed sad.  The memory then took a deep breath then knocked on a nearby door.  Christy then realized this was the door to the room of Team NEMN.  She immediately realized what was happening.  This was a memory.  And not one she wanted to remember.  In a panic, she quickly threw the crystal away, and as soon as it left her hand, the darkness returned, and she could not see anything.  But then, she heard a crash.  The crystal broke into several pieces against the cave wall, and in a brief moment, it lit up the room to Christy’s eyes.  She could see the doorway leading back into the mine, she could see the features of the rocks surrounding her, she could see a pile of crystals surrounding her at her feet.  And just before the darkness enveloped her again, she saw her father, curled up in a ball on the ground surrounded by his own pile of crystals.  Christy then grabbed as many crystals as she could and started throwing them against the wall and the ground to create enough light for her to push towards her father.  Grabbing all of the memories at once caused them to gel together.  Christy saw moments of herself in combat class trying to push herself past the limits of the program, while another showed her reviewing for a test to finalize her becoming a Professor at Beacon, another showing her original fight with Hibernis when he broke her back. Another memory was of her with her brother and older sister laughing in the green area above ground at the Institute, with their parents watching on with smiles on their faces.  Christy tried to block out these images, and kept moving forward.  Just as she was about to reach her father, she threw the last of the crystals and the darkness was beginning to envelop her again.  She quickly reached down and grabbed one of the crystals that surrounded her father and was about to smash it, but then she saw something that caught her off guard.  It was in her father’s office, and he was staring out the window while one of his coworkers was sitting across from him in the office.  But that isn’t what caused Christy to stop.  What caused her to stop was the fact that her father was going over files that had the Order’s sigil on the top of the papers.  And they were dated five years before Christy even began her enrollment at Beacon Academy.

            “You don’t have to do this Mr. Curtiss” the coworker said.  “This group is promising us a lot, yes, but they are not very popular amongst some of the darker parts of the underworld.”

            “I have no choice” Christy’s father said with a sigh.  “If we keep going like we are now, profits will fall.  The boss might lay people off.  And I could very well be one of those people.  If I want to better ensure I can provide for my family, then I have to do this.  This opportunity means I can pay for all of my kids to go to school.  Maybe even get a bigger house.”

            “But that’s crazy.  Selling Dust on the side?  Not letting the higher-ups know about this discovery?  If this gets out, you are going to be in massive trouble.”

            “Maybe.  But if I wait, then things will fall apart.  I can’t afford to let that happen.  Not when the future of my kids is on the line.”  Christy was shocked.  She couldn’t believe it.  She dropped the crystal out of surprise.  But quickly regained her focus once the crystal broke and flashed light in the cavern.  She then saw her father huddled up on the ground, grabbed him, and helped him to his feet.

            “We need to run!” she said as she started dragging him towards the maw of the door.  The darkness began to surround them again, but she had enough of a bearing to keep moving in that direction.  Eventually, the darkness seemed to look like it was parting, and she could see the exit a bit clearer now.  And it looked like the Order was so obsessed with mining the Dust Crystals that nobody was looking at the door.  They were almost out, when suddenly, Christy heard a loud rumbling.  Then suddenly, another bolt of lightning came crashing down and struck the middle of the room, lighting it up and sending out smaller bolts of electricity into the walls.  Christy could now really see what was in this room.  It was filled with murals of giant creatures, tall men shooting energy out of their hands and sticks, and a giant mural of a lamp right where the main bolt of lightning struck the floor.  But then, one of those bolts struck Christy in the back, and sent her and her father flying into the Dust cavern.  And unlike the original bolt that struck her forehead when she first entered, this one hurt like nobody’s business.  When the two of them landed on the ground, Christy fought to remain conscious, but watched helplessly as Hibernis walked over and stood above her as the world faded black.

 

 

 

 

            Christy awoke with a start at the sharp pain in her back.  She looked around and saw that she was sitting inside a small prison cell that was filled with files and other forms of data logs.  The walls were made of stone, so they were still inside the caverns, but she saw her father struggling to get up and quickly made her way over to him.  She poured a bit of healing aura into him to help him get some strength back.  As he sat up, he rubbed his eyes to see what was happening.  As soon as he saw his daughter and where he was, his face fell in shame.

            “How long dad?” Christy asked as calmly as she could but still with a hint of anger in her voice.  “How long have you been working for them?”

            “Too long” he said grabbing his head in anger.  “How much do you know?”

            “I saw the memory of you accepting their dirty deal.  How could you work with them?  Better question, why did you continue to work with them, AFTER THEY ATTACKED ME AND MY FRIENDS AND BROKE MY BACK?!”

            “At first, it was an opportunity.  I was afraid I would not be able to provide for you and the rest of our family.  The head of our company had long foretold doom for the Institute, and then the Order came along and offered to pay me directly for access to the Dust mine I found.  I was leading an excavation team looking for natural resources other than Dust, but then came across this massive cavern.  It is truly bizarre; we had never seen anything like it.  A few team members and I discovered this, but it wasn’t long before the Order came knocking.  I don’t know how they found out about it.  Maybe some team members were spies for their organization.  But they told me as long as I kept it off the books, they would provide.  And I had yet to secure tenure and like I said, the future was not set in stone.  So instead of taking a chance on turning them down and telling my boss about what I had found, I took the secure option.  From there, business seemed to be flowing well.  I kept the team small, gave them access to Dust, and they would pay me in secret.  But then, something happened.  The Institute came across a massive deposit of precious and rare metals.  The kinds that make money and weapons.  The Institute was set.  Our stocks went up, I got a promotion and a pay raise, and things worked out great.  I could have turned down the Order and still this would have ensured I was able to provide for years to come.  But when I tried to back out, the Oder refused and threatened violence if I stopped the flow of Dust.  But then, you and your friends managed to defeat them.  You took them down.  They were all but destroyed.  I had hoped that this would mean the end of it.  But I was wrong.  Not long after the Vacuo Uprising, they came back, more violent than ever.  They essentially forced me at gunpoint to not just resume giving them Dust, but to also increase the amount given for free.  And yet somehow we’ve only barely scratched the surface of the deposits those Dust veins can give us.”

            “All of this just to try and get ahead?  To ensure more money?”

            “Money is only part of it.  I was trying to secure my position.  Before we found the ore deposit, I pocketed a good amount of the money for the family, but also invested a good amount of it into the company.  I wanted to make sure that I had a path set in stone for the future.  People say things take time, but time is not always kind.  I wanted to move fast.  Make sure I had something I could actually hold onto in the here and now.”

            “Secure my future….” Christy said thinking back to her conversation with Ozpin.

            “Not just yours.  But your siblings’, your mother’s, mine, but now it’s all worthless.  We’re trapped here.  And given your status as one of the heroes of Vytal, it stands to reason they will attempt to blow this place up to ensure the secret is kept and we don’t inform anybody about what they’ve been doing down here.”

            “Why not just kill us outright?”

            “Easier to pin death on a mining accident rather than bodies dumped in the woods I suppose.”

            “But at the same time, wouldn’t it be easier to ensure that we would actually be dead by killing us outright instead of leaving it to chance that blowing this place up will result in…” before Christy could finish her thought, the door to the holding cell suddenly swung open.  Christy took a few steps forward not sure exactly if it was a trap or not, but saw nothing but an empty hallway.

            “See?” she said throwing her hand up in the air, “it’s things like this that makes me really question how smart these criminal masterminds really are.”  She saw her weapons placed not far from the cell, along with her Scroll and other gear.  Quickly gathering all her things, her father ran out as well and guided the two of them back to the central chamber.  As they ran, a figure appeared as if out of thin air next to the cell, wearing a black coat.  The Lost Master looked inside the cell, scratching his head.

            “I don’t get it” the Lost Master said looking over the cell.  “What caused the glitch to manifest around her?  She hasn’t contributed much of anything in the grand scehem of things.  Weird.  Well, worry about that later.  There’s still one last thing I need to check on.”

 

As Christy and her father finally made their way back to the cavern, they saw that the mine shaft leading up to the surface that the Order used to move Dust away from the institute had already been blasted shut, and a gigantic bomb was set up in the middle of the cavern.  It was connected by several wires and cables leading back to a singular laptop with a number reading fifteen minutes on it but wasn’t counting down just yet.

            “What do you suppose they’re waiting for?” Christy’s father said running up to the computer.

            “Probably want to get Hibernis and all Order people clear before blasting this place to smithereens.  Can you disarm it?”

            “Give me a few minutes and I will.  It should be a basic program, especially if they don’t expect us to escape.”

            “Good.  You take care of this and text me once the bomb is disarmed.  I’ll go take on Hibernis.”

            “You can’t take him and all of his soldiers alone!” Christy’s father yelled as she started running back towards the elevator shaft.

            “Not all of them,” she said slowing down to respond to her father, “but if the last time I fought Hibernis and the fact they kept us alive down here is anything to go off of, he should be fairly easy to goad into doing something stupid.”  With that, Christy went full sprint down through the cavern tunnel back towards the elevator.

Author's Note

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