The Temple : Part IV : Finale

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The massive silver blade whistled through the air as the machine reached him and cut across itself, sweeping from right to left and hurling their little mounds of cover through the air as it went. The three fighting leapt back and way, scattered in a loose, curved line in front of the machine. Ren was far too busy protecting Black to help them, dragging the man along on the other side of the room now with his body between the robot and the man as a living, if slightly more resilient and willing, shield.

So even if Jaune wasn't complaining, that put him very much out of the fight.

"Pyrrha left, Nora you go right. Hard, fast, aim for the knees and shoulders to try and break the limbs off." He ordered quickly while he had the time, the girls edging away at his orders while the machine rose, always facing him more than either of them. Each of them shouted their consent and he smiled, watching it raise its blaster cannon and then adding, "He seems to like me, so I'll distract him!"

"If I can touch it, my Semblance will let me pull plating off." Pyrrha offered helpfully, shifting her sword to its spear form for leverage and raising her shield. "Nora, your smoke might make it hard for it to see, too."

"Good idea!" He answered, "But it might have thermals."

"Why are we shouting our plans!?" The hammer wielder called in question, "It can hear us, you guys! I feel like that's a bad thing to do, you know?"

With a deafening screech of metal and stone protesting under metal, the machine launched towards him, hunks of the floor hurtling through the air behind it. Swearing, he leapt back to dodge first its sword and then the claws of a foreleg. Both embedded themselves in the old stone of the floor as it landed and turned at the waist, snapping a shot from its heavy cannon off as Nora raced to help him and using the blade for an anchor to steady itself. With a squeak of surprise and protest, the young Valkyrie stumbled to the side, saved only because it hadn't had time to aim its snap-shot.

Spinning his saber he silenced on end and let his hand slide along the weapon's haft nearly to the other, muted head, to extend his reach. Then he lunged in, raising his other hand and wrenching the machine's cannon-arm up and back, lashing out at one of its knees and aiming to cripple it. As he'd expected, the saber sparked and glanced off the shining armor, the recoil forcing him back a step as the weapon bucked in his hand.

But the attack had the desired effect, drawing the machine's insectoid head back to him and away from his flanking teammates.

With another screech of metal on stone, the machine wrenched its sword to the side, buffeting him with rocks and iron when he leapt back again to evade the attack. This time, it didn't follow him, instead snapping its cannon up even before he'd landed. With a shouted swear, he reached out with a hand for Pyrrha, running towards its legs as fast as she could go and yanking on her as hard as he dared. She stumbled with wide eyes at the sudden, surprising feeling pulling her to the side, but she had the advantage of being both heavier in her armor, and on the ground.

So instead of pulling her towards him, he pulled himself to her, flying through the air and slamming back first into her. She recovered quickly enough, fist in the small of his back pushing him up and a murmured, "I'm sorry," for the forcefulness of it.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded and she took off, running at an angle away from him while the machine turned towards him.

Well, turned its torso around to face him, the legs designed to work both ways, but the effect was the same. That is to say, he had to leap to the side and roll across the ground to avoid being incinerated. The machine warbled angrily at his evasion and rounded on him again, cannon leveling as it trundled towards him, firing another blast as it did. This time he didn't dodge, instead pulling the scattered, broken droids around him up and hurling them into the line of fire. Most melted under the heat, but the bolt exploded halfway to him instead of on him, showing him in sparks and broken metal that flecked off his armor, cutting along his arms and legs before his Aura could snap back up. The wounds were shallow at worst, though, so he ignored them wholly.

Though he knew that his team would give him hell for it until he got it tended to properly.

"And besides, it worked." He thought as the machine loped through the black smoke, cannon and sword cutting across it to clear its sight lines.

"Mother honking boop!" Nora cried as she soared high behind it and came down, Magnhild trailing pink smoke as she did. The hammer slammed home on its cannon-side shoulder and the machine staggered under the young woman's monumental strength. It straightened, though, and its head turned ever so slightly to regard her, and Nora chuckled, "Sorry?"

In that same moment, electricity crackled all along its body and into her, before it spun its torse rapidly to hurl her off.

"Nora, no!" Pyrrha cried out as she landed, rolling across the ground and sparking electricity as she went. The girl landed with her hammer under her and pushed herself up, spasming as she did, but Pyrrha was already gone, shouting back, "Jaune, back me up, you'll know it when you see it!"

Seeing the charging Mistralian, the machine rounded on her, cannon swinging around as she came. But Jaune lashed out, using the Force to once again wrench the gun up and away, the blaster bolt punching into the roof high overhead and showering the arena in rubble as Pyrrha spun on her heel and chucked her shield towards it as hard as she could. The little bronze disk lodged in its cannon arm's shoulder, where a Human's armpit would have been, jamming it with its cannon raised skyward.

Its sword was free though, and whistled down towards her in a reminder. So close, she couldn't dodge in time and instead turned and leapt, holding her spear in front of her and letting it bat her away with a metallic crack of metal meeting metal. The woman hit the ground and rolled, trundling past Nora as she rose and raised her hammer, crackling.

And cackling, too, oddly enough.

The machine screeched its protest as it trundled toward him, sword held out to one side and cannon arm straining to get the shield out of the way. As it reached him he rolled forward to dodge the blade and turned, meaning to use the Force to push it away.

Instead, he saw the inside of a clawed foot as it closed around him and then hurled him up, into the air. Its blade met the young Force warrior, batting him down and into the ground, Aura sparking and ribs protesting. He managed to keep hold of his saber, as much good as that did him with the armor deflecting its now quiet blade so readily, but he lost his breath and lay there trying to catch it again. And trying to get his Aura back up, the soul generated barrier sparking and failing all along his body.

The machine's sword came up again, intending to slam down onto him and crush him against the ground Aura or no. With a groan he rolled over and gave up on his Aura, too winded and injured to use it if he even had any left, he summoned the Force to him instead. When he heard the sword descend, he rolled over again and held his hands up, intent on holding the blade still.

Instead, all he saw were Nora's thighs and back, the woman kneeling over him with her arms around the sword's end, holding it above him shakily. Grinning and forcing herself to rise so he'd have more space, she grunted, "Hey, fearless leader. How ya doin'?"

"Good…?"

"Kay, can you move now?" She smiled, "Me and P-Money are gonna smash us a robot."

He wasted no time doing just that, scrambling away in spite of his throbbing, bruised leg to give her the space she needed. Standing, he found Pyrrha, her eyes closed and sweat beading on her forehead, hands empty but trembling and stretched out towards the robot. With him clear, the two Mistralians grunted their effort almost in unison, the hammer wielder stepping to the side and carrying the sword with her, into its guard and between its legs.

"Jaune, hold its cannon so it can't compensate." Pyrrha grunted, the machine staggering back as the two women forced its own weapon under it, but were unable to overpower it.

He nodded and did just that, focusing and locking his hold around its shoulder to hold it still, focusing all his strength on it. Torso locked and unable to step back, when Nora stepped into its guard the metal of the machine groaned, resisting. Another step and it was bowed over, the three of them sweating and trembling as they held it. Another step and it chittered angrily, arm working back and forth and trying desperately to get free, knowing what they wanted. On the last step, the machine's sword arm wrenched to the side and the steel of it snapped, its leg lashing out and launching the girl back along with the half of its sword that it had broken off. Screeching, it tried to follow her, but he held it still with his grip on its shoulder while Pyrrha sagged beside him and sucked in air.

"Kicking people is rude!" Nora screamed as the broken half of the sword cut through the air and slammed into its chest, ripping through the metal and embedding deep in the machine's core. Nora followed it, hammer in hand and electricity sparking along her while she laughed maniacally, "You're a bad robot! Mister Boop would be disappointed in you!"

To punctuate her words, she brought her hammer down on the broken end of the weapon protruding from its chest. The sword punched in and through like a nail, falling out the other side and clanging against the ground. The machine stuttered for a long moment, a man sized hole in its chest sparking and leaking oil, like a gutted man would blood. It staggered forward a step and shook, Pyrrha's shield finally falling loose and clattering away as its cannon swiveled towards him and wobbled unsurely.

Then its weapon sagged beside it like a weight and dragged it down, onto its side and with its legs twitching beside it. Then they went still and limp, laid across the ground like an animal's legs while the rest of the machine shuddered its last and then lay still. Tired, bruised and adrenaline running, they regrouped around the dead machine and collected their breaths.

"Nora, how did you…?"

"Her Semblance lets her take in electricity and use it like a battery." Ren explained, far less fatigued than the rest of them for obvious reasons. "If she gets a good shock, its like… Like injecting adrenaline right into your veins. Or giving her coffee."

"How did you find out-"

"Climbed a thing, got struck by lightning, didn't die." She shrugged and waved it off, poking the robots armored chest with the head of her hammer. "It was… Yeah. A crazy day. Ren made me cinnamon pancakes to celebrate."

"She pretended she was dying and made them her last request." He corrected, smiling fondly regardless. "But they were pretty tasty."

"...Hunters are insane… Absolutely insane..." The Atlesian soldier moaned, head in his hands. Shaking it, he turned to look at Jaune and asked, clearly exhausted beyond what should be normal. "Can we please leave now? I want to see what's through that door after all that effort and before something else ridiculous comes out to try and kill us!"

"Yeah, let's get out of here, guys." And preferably before anything else large, shiny and mechanical showed up to give them problems.

Seemingly now that the fighting was over, the Temple had decided that they were allowed to move on, and the floor groaned in response. With a sound of scraping stone, metal being crushed where droids had fallen under the lips of the openrf droid compartments. At the top, as it shuddered to a shaky stop, the two doors slid open with loud, groaning sounds. Very brief confusion passed for a moment as they tried to figure out which way they'd come from.

Luckily, one side had several of the braziers unlit, so they reasoned that the other had to be the way forward.

The next hallway was finer, like the brazier puzzle had been, and led to yet another wide, circular door. This one was unornamented, but to either side hung the banners of the Sith Empire and the Jedi Order. Beside them were statues, one heavily armored and with his hood pulled taut, a saber made of rubies extending from a staff beside him. The other was lighter armored and wore a robe, his own saber held in his hand at his side, sapphire blade gleaming in the fire light.

Or, well, the 'fire light' that the odd pale stones cast.

"It says 'Your tests passed, enter the lexiconary at your leisure. Take only as much knowledge as you might leave in turn.'." He read, tracing out the simpler ruby etchings, arrayed like words on line paper might be. Beside them was a button that, with a shrug, and a look to his team that earned another shrug he pressed.

With a now familiar groan, the stone door slid back and to the side, admitting them into what looked like his library from home. Except that it was much larger, at least four or five times as long and wide, and twice its height. Tall enough that a second floor had been built, ringing the library and crossed by long walkways, with ladders for access up and down and, in the back beside another door, a small elevator. Shelves full of scrolls, artifacts like sabers and broken armor sections, and holocron boxes emblazoned with both order's symbols.

"This is the biggest artifact deposit I've ever seen…" He heard Black murmur as they spread out into the library, looking at the various items in quiet awe. To no one in particular, he murmured, "Do you have any idea what this will do to our technology in the next twenty or so years…?"

"Advance it considerably, I would wager!" A synthetic voice chimed cheerily, the five of them snapping around the soldier defensively in reaction. Standing on a high balcony was a droid, shaped almost identically to Instructor but painted a sterling silver, who stood with his hands clasped behind his waist. Chuckling, the machine waved their fear off and assured them all, "You need not be afraid! I am Curator, a droid designated to the care, repair and maintenance of this facility and its library. The greatest repository on this planet, I feel no small amount of pride in saying!"

"Are we allowed to access the scrolls and holocrons?" He asked, surprised but more quickly recovering since he'd already met droids like these. Admittedly, of course, that had been only one droid, but that still meant he was more ready to adapt to it than others might be.

"Oh yes!" The machine nodded, "You may study whatever you desire in here. You may not, however, take anything out. Nor may you study anything without information, mundane or not, to add to the lexiconary. And none but those gifted with the Force may enter the other door. The table beside you is where you may leave your own artifacts, written information, or what have you once you have completed your studies."

The machine turned to leave nut Jaune stopped him, calling out, "What's through the other door?"

"A gift." The machine answered quietly, "For a master and an apprentice to find together." It turned to look at him then, appraising him, and chittered a laugh, "A shame that there is only one of you, hm? You can't get in."

With that, the machine left them and the group relaxed. To either side of the door were desks and chairs, lined against the wall, as well as low coffee tables set back from them and mats to sit on. Fruit, bread and little brown bars had been stacked on plates there for them to eat, as well as bandages for them to wrap their wounds. His injured ribs creaked angrily at noticing those and he grunted, pressing a hand to his side with a grimace.

"Come on, he seems to have prepared for our getting here." Pyrrha murmured, tugging him towards the table while the group slowly wandered off. He let her push him into a seat while the others began looking at broken armor and weapons, or unfurling scrolls they couldn't read and putting them back with frustrated sighs.

"They need my help." He was the only one who could easily read Sith, after all.

"You need to get your ribs looked at, eat something, and get your arm wrapped up before you pull the wound and bleed out." She chided him in response, grabbing his right arm and turning it over to point at a long red gash that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. He made to protest and she glared at him until he sighed and relaxed, earning a small smile and a, "Thank you. Now get your armor and robes off so I can bind your ribs."

He did as she asked, undoing the fastenings of his light chest piece and dropping it on the table. While she grabbed the bandages, he shrugged off his robe and turned in his seat, groaning when she joined him and pressed a hand against his side, prodding each of his ribs from top to bottom to find the injured ones, judging from his winces when she pressed against the sensitive area.

"Your whole right side is injured, Jaune." She sighed, agitated but not agitated at him. Gently, she laid a finger against a long line along his shoulder blade and murmured, aghast, "And Gods, these scars… This is from your training, I presume?"

"Why would you assume that?" He asked, remembering the scar well. She leaned forward and gave him a look caught somewhere between 'done with this' and 'do you think I'm dumb' and he chuckled, "Yeah. It was an accident when I was learning how to use my glaive, actually. My dad got me with his training sword on accident."

"And the others?"

"A mix of my dad's training and…" And Instructor's, especially the small blaster burns along his chest and stomach. He couldn't just say that, though, with his team so close and them not yet in the loop. Not to mention Lieutenant Black, of course. "Most of them were accidents, Pyr."

"Most?" She asked, gently reaching around him and feeding the bandages around his chest gently while they talked. Her breath on his shoulder, she added quietly, "There are so many scars, Jaune. I've seen veteran Huntsmen with scars like these."

"My training was rough, sometimes, Pyr. Very rough." Inflicting pain was a common training measure to get a young Force warrior attuning to the Dark Side for obvious reasons. Anger and pain were the easiest sources of passion to feed that aspect of the Force, after all. Smiling when she leaned over his shoulder to feed the bandages around him more, he assured her, "It's fine, Pyr. Old wounds and all that."

"I suppose…" He sensed her disquiet, though, and she grimaced as her face receded back away from his. Tugging and tying the bandages rougher than strictly necessary, earning a grunt and an amused smile, she sighed and went on. "Well in the end, I can do nothing for it. Hand me the disinfectant and turn round?"

"Sure." He nodded, grabbing the little canister off the table and turning to hand it to her. She took it from him, tossed her ponytail over a shoulder and knelt in front of him, one hand taking his arm and laying it across her lap.

"Your Semblance gets you hurt a lot, you know." She murmured, head bent over his wound while she gently plucked loose fibers from his robe out of the gash. He spared him a look, eyes hard, and added a short, hard, "I don't like that aspect of it much at all, if anyone were to ask."

"I know, Pyr." He didn't like it either, of course, but after so long he was more resigned to it than her. He smiled, though, while she started twining the sterile white wrappings around his arm. "I'm getting better, though. And at least Nurse Pyrrha is here to get me all wrapped up after I get hurt."

"I-I suppose you are quite right, Jaune." She flushed at his words and hid her face in her work, wrapping his arm up faster. Once it was finished, with a little bow on the side of his wrist no less, she stood and dusted her knees off, avoiding his eyes. "Your wounds are dressed as well as I'm able to, Jaune. You'll get them looked at in Beacon."

"I will?"

"Yes, you very much will, Jaune Arc." Now she looked at him, eyes narrowed and a hip cocked for her to rest a fist on, standing close enough that she towered over him. "If I must, I will drag to to Miss Tsune myself, Jaune. And I will make certain to convey to her that you seem to have developed a cough as well."

"You fiend…" That would let her test him, he knew, and for all his Sith training he wasn't wont to experience Tsune digging for answers.

"Indeed, and so you will be getting your ribs checked out when we get home." He nodded and she smiled, eyes softening as she offered him a hand up. He took it and let her pull him up by his unbandaged arm, turning to get redressed while she talked. "This place is likely to hold a lot of answers for us, no?"

"It is." Assuming they could find the right things, and that he could get to them on his own. "Though I'm not exactly happy that door is sealed…"

"A master and apprentice are needed to open the door together." Pyrrha parroted knowingly, taking an orange off the table for each of them, pitching one to him and plopping into the seat he'd just vacated with a sigh. Watching the others mill about further in the room, knowing as surely as he did that they were too distracted to be paying attention to them and too far away to hear well enough if they were, "That means we need two people that can do what you can to get into it."

"Yeah, probably." There was probably some sort of dual engagement lock or something like that, like hand print scanners that had to be pressed at the same time. "I'd like to get in there, if we could."

"What do you think is in there?"

"Weapons, armor, special information. I don't know for sure. Can't know for sure, really, I guess." Something unique and useful, to be sure, but something they couldn't hope to get to. And so, something that was wholly irrelevant and not much worth thinking about. "For now, let's focus on what we have, and what we can trade in for what's in here."

"Hey, Arc!" Black called as the rest of their group began to regroup at the table they'd used to treat him, Nora hopping on a couple of the mats and stealing some of the sweet smelling bread to gnaw on.

"Yes?" He asked when the man reached him, "What's up?"

"We're getting out of here, for now." He answered, gesturing at the scrolls around them. "You're the only one with a chance of reading these and we have next to nothing to turn in for them. I'd like to ask for you to come with us when we return, whenever that happens, so we can start digging through what's here."

"What will you bring to trade?" Ren asked quietly, joining his partner at the table and grabbing a loaf for himself.

"Atlesian clerical records to start, then historical biographies, and the like. At least, those are the ideas that I have right now, I don't know what the brass up top will decide." The soldier answered with a noncommittal shrug, gesturing at the records around them. "Regardless this is all useless to us without you and stuff to trade."

The man had a point and, after some food and a few minutes of rest, they turned to leave. For now at least. He was certain that, sooner or later, they would be back. And he would find out what was locked behind that door. One way or another, and he knew of at least one route to get in… But how was he meant to find another Force user on Remnant?

And would he be the master, or the apprentice?

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(Review Responses)

Sky Wolf 99 :

I keep a standard rotation, that rarely changes aside from holidays or new stories. Follow me for a month and you'll have it felt out pretty well. My supporters enable me to stay nice and regular with updates and other projects both.

Argus 456 :

Yeah, I was testing the model for future usage. For now, it will only be JNPR scenes until the Temple is finished, as The Temple all occurs in one day. Once back at Beacon, though, the back and forth will be a bit more of a thing. Mainly because of how the next arc is planned out.

Also yes, Nora stole the spotlight. Had a spot of fun with her, I did.

Also also, yeah, no, the fight was over the top for a challenge. But that, to me, is a thing with Sith. Being over the top.

XWFY :

Oh, it will be overpowered if/when that happens.

Yavin Yams :

I like your name. XD

But while I won't say what the prize IS, I will say that it isn't that. Sorry.