Episode Christy: Chapter 4: Ties that Bind

Chapter 4 of Christy's story.

            The elevator doors opened and Christy rushed forward, noticing the few guards that were standing right outside.  She didn’t pay them any heed, and even took a pair of them with her as she barreled through the window leading to the central lawn, where Hibernis was slowly making his way towards his roaring helicopter.  He slowly turned around and saw Christy in a superhero landing pose, staring him down.

            “Of course you escaped” Hibernis said as he sighed in annoyance.  “I blame myself for listening to one of my soldiers saying it would be better to have them die in the explosion to make it look like a mining accident.  It isn’t as if we aren’t already being constantly hunted by the authorities on a daily basis.”

            “Still love to talk I see” Christy said starting to make her way towards Hibernis.  He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, which caused a squad of soldiers to charge forwards and attack Christy.  She quickly dispatched them and yelled out,

            “Running away from me?  Given how much you boasted the last time we fought you don’t seem like the type to run.”

            “I broke your back in Vale.  Your failure forced you to lean on others like a crutch.  That lead to our demise and forced us into hiding.  As such, I cannot take any more risks.”

            “Like how you decided not to risk it with leaving my father and I just sitting inside a prison cell in the caverns?  I just think you’re scared.”  HIbernis stopped walking as soon as he heard those words.  “I’ve only gotten better over the years, and you know it.” Christy said confidently knowing it was working.  “Do you honestly believe you can actually beat me this time?”  Christy didn’t need to see Hibernis’ face to know he was stewing in that comment.  He slowly turned around, pulled out his whip, and cracked the ground with one of his strikes.  The ensuing crack of the whip created a small split in the ground, causing several rocks to fly up around Hibernis.  He then morphed his whip into mace form, and used his aura to cause the rocks to surround the weapon.  He charged forward, Christy taking up a battle stance in preparation.  Hibernis brought the mace down with every bit of strength he could muster, but Christy easily side-stepped the attack and used the shotgun forms of her weapons to fire point blank into Hibernis’ right arm.  He winced in pain, but then brought the mace up to try again.  This time he swung it across, attempting to send Christy flying.  But she used the axe in her right hand to block the attack and guide it upwards and over her body.  While Hibernis was off balance from the swing, Christy kicked Hibernis in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards a bit more.  Before he could recover, Christy unloaded a few more shotgun rounds and followed that up with landing both of her axes into Hibernis’ chest.  His aura took the entirety of the hits, refusing to go down easy.  He quickly regained his footing and landed a powerful punch that knocked Christy back and into air.  She let her aura take the hit, adjusted herself and landed quickly.  But she didn’t have a chance to breathe, as Hibernis was already charging forward.  She didn’t have time to try and dodge, so she crossed her axes and took a crushing hit from Hibernis’ mace that sent her flying into the side of his helicopter.  As soon as she hit the machine, her back flared up again, causing her to keel over as soon as she hit the ground.  She grabbed her back in pain, while Hibernis slowly walked over to her.

            “Bold young one.  Very bold.  But you still hold the fears you did when we first fought.  Even your own body cannot keep up.  You should have just let me be and retreated to your protectors like last time.”

            “And I told you last time,” Christy said slowly getting up while leaving one hand on her back, “I die hard.”  She then felt her Scroll buzz, took a quick look, smiled, typed something back in reply, put it away, then discretely pulled out two small discs from her back pocket and tossed them onto Hibernis’ copter while making it look like she was tending to her back.

            “I only entertain this because you cheated last time” Hibernis said morphing his weapon back to whip form.  “You hid behind others in a surprise attack, resulting in our defeat.  But you chose to take me on directly, believing foolishly you could actually defeat me by yourself.”  Hibernis then took the whip, cracked it, and knocked Christy into the helicopter which in turn bounced her back towards him, to which he grabbed her by the throat and screamed, “You are nothing.  Just a child with delusions of being more.”  With that, he threw her away from the helicopter and sent her spiraling into the ground.  Christy still had enough aura to take the damage, but she was still a bit rattled as she stayed down on one knee.  Hibernis again started slowly walking towards her, but then an orange flare launched itself from the roof behind Christy.  While Hibernis didn’t see the flare, Christy saw this and started laughing.

            “I always figured the villains who talked the most were the most gullible” she said while stretching her back.  “Now I have something new I can teach my class.  Thank you for the lesson plan.”

            “Bold of you to assume you will live long enough to even see the morning sun.”

            “Do you honestly believe that I was trying to win?”

            “What?”

            “I wasn’t trying to beat you; I was stalling you.  And by the way you were fighting, if I wasn’t trying to stall you, I’d be running circles around you.”

            “You’re trying to cause me to panic.  Force me to make a mistake.  It will not work.”

            “It already has.”  Christy then pulled out her Scroll, pressed a button, and then an explosion went off. Hibernis’ helicopter went up in flames, and not even the pouring rain could put it out.  “You assume that I am weak just because I have others surrounding me.” Christy said as she started slowly walking towards Hibernis.  The soldiers raised their weapons to shoot her, but Hibernis raised his hand signaling them to hold their fire.  “That I cannot be strong unless I have somebody else to prop me up.  And to a certain degree, you’re right.  But not entirely.  I am somebody who can stand strong on my own, I am able to forge my own path.  I have worked my way up to become a Professor at Beacon Academy.  I have created a path forward for myself where I stand tall.  But at the same time, I do not ignore those who have helped me get there.  And I don’t mean people who did work for me like you believe, but rather people who believe in me and what I am doing.  The people who I have stood up for and they in turn stood up for me.  The people I’ve shown kindness to over the years, the people I grew up with.  Even the people who sometimes have caused me pain.  For a while I thought I needed to secure my future by pushing forward myself no matter what.  But in that effort, I almost forgot.  I may have the strength to stand on my own, but I need not fear for my future or fear stumbling along the path forward.  For so long as I am surrounded by people who love me and I love back, my future is secured for all eternity.”  As she said this, two figures leapt from the roof of the institute and into the central area.  Hibernis initially tried to react, but then his right arm was pinned down by something sharp.  He looked down and saw a dog biting his arm.  Christy smiled as she watched Cleo tear into Hibernis’ arm, while Chipsie lowered her head to offer Christy support in getting back up.  The soldiers were about to open fire on Cleo, but then several more people started pouring into the central area.  The City Watch began taking out soldiers left and right.  Christy’s mother landed right next to her daughter and helped her the rest of the way up.

            “Got your father’s message” she said.  “We are going to have a VERY long talk after all of this is over.”

            “I’m sure he’s willing to just accept whatever comes after mom” Christy said pouring a little healing aura into herself.  She then surveyed the battlefield and saw Hibernis had managed to shake Cleo off his arm and was preparing to strike.  She immediately charged forward and fired several more round at Hibernis to draw him away from Cleo.  Hibernis screamed in anger, and cracked his whip at her.  Christy calmly let the whip wrap around one of her axes, but then she planted her feet firmly in the ground and pulled the weapon right out Hibernis’ hands.  Hibernis stumbled as the weapon left his grip, and he screamed even louder than before, summoning some nearby rocks and debris to be a gauntlet around his right arm, but before he could even form a fist, Christy had already closed the gap, formed an X with her arms, and slashed Hibernis right in the chest.  He had run out of aura, so the attack left a big X scar on his chest.  He reeled in pain, and collapsed against the side of the burning helicopter.  He tried to get up, but then he saw the flames reach the gas line.  He closed his eyes, and then the helicopter exploded again, this time even bigger.  It even knocked Christy back, but Cleo jumped up and helped cushion the fall.  Christy lay there in the mud, listening to the chaos of the battle around her.  She tried to get up, but had run out of energy.  Thankfully, Chipsie and Cleo initially protected her from any incoming soldiers as best they could until the City Watch arrived and formed a small perimeter around her.  She saw her mother and sister wrapping things up, and closed her eyes and let sleep take her.

 

 

 

Two Weeks Later

 

 

 

            Professor Ozpin stepped off the bus and was greeted by Christy using a cane to keep herself upright.

            “I thought you said the damage you sustained at the battle was not that bad all things considered?” he said looking surprised.

            “It wasn’t.  But thinking back on the passage of time, ever since the doctor discovered the issue with my back, I’ve always tried to force it by using my healing aura.  But maybe what I really need is to just let time move forward without me pushing it.”

            “Very well then.  I got your report.  Apologies for the delay, I was dealing with some other matters.”

            “No worries at all.  I’m just glad the Dust my father found is going to go to good use now.”

            “There has been a lot of devastation over the years.  Several villages are unable to afford Dust despite Weiss trying to reduce prices for the market.  Having this much power to distribute to the world can greatly improve the lives of those villages and towns struggling far away from the safety of a Kingdom.  I’m just surprised the Institute was so willing to negotiate despite learning of your father’s dealings with the Order.”

            “The Institute realized my dad was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  In the end, he has the most knowledge about the space and how to properly extract things despite the…. strange cavern.”

            “Yes, I had read about that in your report.  Most interesting.”

            “Do you know what that cavern is Professor Ozpin?  It certainly seems to have something to do with magic.”

            “It very much is” Ozpin said as they made their way to Christy’s house.  “An ancient Relic of Knowledge.  Fueled by magic.  It used to reside there.  Perhaps some of its magic embedded itself in the walls of that cavern and created the effects you experienced.”

            “Relic?  Is that anything we need to worry about?”

            “Not at the present.  While it may have originally resided there and have some lingering effects, the Relic is now hidden away somewhere safe, and the cavern will likely lose more and more magic overtime.  So as long as it is left alone, it should not cause any more harm.”

            “That’s good.”

            “Yes.  But what really concerns me is the Order.”

            “How do you figure?”

            “They had their hands choking this facility long before they revealed themselves to the world.  They gained precious resources even before the night you confronted them two weeks ago.  I worry, how far back and how far out does their reach extend?  And how many other crevices do they still have a hand in despite defeating them so long ago?”

            “Excellent questions to ponder” Christy said opening the door to her house.  “But I think time will bring those answers to us.  No need to chase them directly into the abyss.”

            “You seem to have taken up a new lease on life since I last saw you.”

            “Honestly, I just want to finally take you up on that vacation you offered” Christy said with a laugh.  Ozpin smiled, and entered the house along with Christy.

 

 

 

            The Lost Master looked over the chaos of the room, and saw the several carvings along the wall.  He could see everything.  Darkness did not overtake him.  He then looked up and saw a crystal embedded into the wall.  The crystal was embedded in a part of the mural that showed a singular man surrounded by beams of light as it cut through others around him.  He pulled the crystal out, and the world around him changed.  He then saw Ozpin, kneeling on the desert ground with tears in his eyes.  And as the dust cleared, the blades of the Great Graveyard revealed itself.  And then the dust peeled back more, and the Lost Master let out a small audible gasp seeing himself standing behind Ozpin.

            “Yeah, if he saw this that would put a monkey wrench in things.”  Having said that, the Lost Master punched the crystal and shattered it.

 

 

 

Time

Holds Many Truths

It Deals in Absolutes

It Stops For Nothing

But One Need Not

 Fear Its Charge

So Long As One Is Surrounded

By Family.

 

 

 

RETRIBUTION

SAGA OF SEASONS

 

 

 

Episode Christy:

 

END

 

 

 

Author’s Note:

 

 

            It is interesting to me to think about, how this idea of a story would have potentially had carried a bit more weight about “standing on your own” if I had kept some of the original story ideas I had when writing “Order”.  But then in tandem that would have hurt the overall story and created less opportunities to create new ideas going forward.  I first met Christy at a friend hangout in High School.  It’s funny to think about now because even though she had introduced herself that night, I still for the life of me couldn’t remember her name.  But thankfully overtime, we have become best friends.  We were both in Marching Band together, and during a brief stretch of time, I was going through what I call my “pseudo-emo” phase.  I was processing a lot of emotions at the time and didn’t know really how to process them correctly.  During that time, Christy and I had already become good friends, and we sort of had a dumb joke going on.  Christy is a very warm and loving person, and is one to share that with you by either crushing you or tackling you with a hug.  Sometimes both.  During this time period, I made it a point to try and dodge her attempts at a hug, and it became a running joke.  She would try to hug me like I was a running back with a football, and I would dodge her each day because “I am strong I need not emotion” or something stupid like that.  This went on for some time.  But then I remember having one really bad day.  I was just struggling.  And instead of just trying to keep the joke going by hugging me for the sake of finally winning out or doing something goofy, she gave me a hug with complete sincerity.  And that’s the main thing.  She loves to do goofy things and poke fun at people, but she carries an empathetic heart that reaches out to pretty much everybody she meets.  She may try to deny it or laugh it of claiming one of many things about herself as a person, but it is hard to deny her kindness and willingness to help others.  I do attribute a lot of myself opening up to being more social with others to her.  She makes an effort to be there for people across many parts of life.  Be it a joke to help you smile in a rough situation, or providing caring words that need to be said.  While she is prone to talking your ear off about life, she is also willing to talk about how she believes you can best move forward.  I tried to convey that throughout the stories.  Not just her being there for others, but how she carries herself going forward in life.  Perhaps a bit more of she is there for others and they for her in the original stories, but I hope I have conveyed her own personal strength in this story properly and effectively.

Author's Note

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