Temple Turmoil, I

XxX----XxX----XxX

Official Supporters:

Fanatical Fucking Reader, ScrubLord Yoda

Compulsive Reader, The Impossible Muffin

Adeptus, Private Wilger

Commissioner, Gib, Espa Cole

Settled Reader, Xager the Chaos King

If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM me for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : https://discord.gg/2UZncAm

Second link here, remove ( and ) and it SHOULD work : D(i)scord(.)gg(slash)kfhkfUb

I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.

Beta(s) :

XxX----XxX----XxX

"Jaune, three on your rear." His hand snapped around and his pistol came up, cracking a trio of shots down the hallway.

Two caught the SDC security drone in the chest before the third took its throat and nearly ripped the head off entirely. The second droid whipped its rifle around but he stepped back and rolled to the side, letting the rounds rip through the clone he left behind before another round of his own snapped out, catching it dead center in the face plate. The third shook its head as its face was covered in oil and machine based detritus, but another round killed it, too, before it could fire on him.

Sparking and seizing, it fell, laying still alongside the dozen or so other machines scattered along the long hallway. And the two Atlesian soldiers that had been leading them, too… But he tried not to think about them.

They'd shot first, after all.

"Let's go." Adam ordered sharply, striding through the carnage like it didn't bother him, somehow. "We need the Dust."

"Right." He nodded, lowering Gambol Shroud and following the larger man through the long hall to the sealed door. Looking it up and down, Jaune sighed, "Locked. Just like our contact told us it'd be…"

"So?" He shrugged, pacing behind Jaune with a hand on Wilt and Blush both, holding the weapon at the ready. "Give them the warning like you want, then get us in there."

"Right…" Pounding a fist against the door, she called out as loud as she could, her voice echoing down the empty corridor. "Hey! I know you can hear me through the door! Give up! We just want the Dust, and the door will not hold against us. Open up, we'll take what we need, and you won't have to be afraid of us."

No one answered, and after a long moment, she sighed and looked to Adam anxiously.

"My way it is, then. Don't say I didn't try things your way, Blake..." The other Faunus grunted, smiling viciously, victoriously, and slipping into his drawing stance while she moved out of the way. After a moment, his hair and clothes began to glow, slightly.

Then, he surged forwards, a lance of stored energy carving out and into the armored door. It didn't stand a chance...

XxX----XxX----XxX

Jaune shot up and then hissed as his ribs flared angrily and his arm yanked back, cuffed to the edge of his bed. His head throbbed with every beat of his heart, and it was only by falling back onto his training that the dark room and oppressive silence didn't make that heart race. In the near-silence, his ears picked up quiet sounds he normally missed, from voices in the hall outside to the sound of the machines in his room, and even the vents.

His Aura did its work though, after a few long moments, and his aching head began to ebb.

"What was that dream, though..." He murmured, using the Force to snap the heavy duty cuffs easily enough and sitting up in his bed. "A vision, maybe? No, it can't be a vision. The Force isn't echoing with it, like it should be."

Then what was it?

Memories, maybe…?

He closed his eyes and took a breath, calling on the Force to try and re-immerse himself in the memories. The moment he did his stomach spun and the throbbing in his head returned full force, along with a wash of colors and thoughts. He saw the fight play out over and over again, his head snapping up and down as he tired to figure out which height was right. Adam called him different names, washing together in slurs that maddened him-

He slammed his forehead into the wall hard enough it cracked, the pain that flared across his face driving him to his knees as blood ran from his busted nose. But it also tugged him back to his senses. Just in time to hear his heart monitor going haywire…

"Well shit..."

As if on cue, the door slid open, a pair of doctors and a security drone rushing in with a large case on wheels rolling along behind them. The three of them paused on seeing him standing, blood running down his face, for the longest second of his life. Then they surged forward, the two talking rapidly and ignoring him as they herded him back to the bed. A cloth came out, wiping at his face, and, distracted, he didn't throw up his Aura to stop the needle the other jammed into his thigh.

His vision started to swim before the needle even came out, and he rocked back, slurring, "Son of a… I was fffffine."

Then his world went black entirely, the Force washing him away in a wild, dizzying sea of emotions that ran together. Then, after a moment, that faded too and he was left in the dark. Another moment or three and that, too, vanished as he finally passed out.

XxX----XxX----XxX

He sighed, more collapsing into the rickety old chair than sitting in it, and looking out on the wide meadow his client's house sat on. A dozen or so cows milled about in a fairly wide enclosure, while on the other side of a path were a variety of horses. He spotted his own, a sturdy Mistralian white, mingling with a few others and smiled. At least his horse had been able to relax…

"Well you look like shit, Lil' Mister." The old man said as he joined him on the porch, taking the seat beside his, on the other side of a small table, and setting down a cold bottle of water for him. "Job done?"

"Grimm's dead." The man sat down a stack of Lien that she slid into her blouse and she smiled, adding, "Bandits are, too."

"No shit?"

"They saw me after the Grimm and I had a row." She answered by way of explanation, taking the bottle and running a thumb along its seal to check it habitually. Satisfied, she unscrewed it and took a refreshing drink, "Thought that I'd be easy pickings, I suppose. Young, lone woman, walking old forest paths and cradling a sore arm? I can see why."

"Well, good work, Miss… Amber, was it?" She nodded and the old codger smiled, his mangy, gnarled beard warping to show it more than his face could, through the hair and wrinkles. He kept the smile all the while as he fished out another stack of Lien and set it down, then stood. "Rest on up then, as ya like, I s'pose. Then you can head off to… Fuck knows where, but it ain't my business."

"Vale." She answered without knowing why, "To see an old… Well, someone I know, I guess."

"Trouble?"

"Maybe, but not for you." She sighed, standing up and plucking her staff from where she leaned it against the side of the old cabin. "But the drunk old bastard never flies my way, anymore… So somethin' that'll be a pain in my ass is probably up."

"Right, well… Take care." The old man said, shuffling to his door, "Not 'nough young'uns like you out here helpin' folk, so don't et killed."

"Right." She sighed, "Because no one can just want me alive for me…"

Whatever the case, a whistle had her horse coming towards the gate, and she had Lien to spend. Maybe on some apples for them. They both loved apples, after all, and Tweety would probably get some alcohol in her. So she'd need the refreshment come the morning, to chase off the headache.

XxX----XxX----XxX

This time, Jaune didn't jerk awake, instead coming to more gently. His head still throbbed, though, and he had to touch his chest to be sure he didn't have breasts as his senses of here and self swam… And good fucking Dust, his face hurt. His Aura went to work right away, the pain slowly ebbing away as his hand reached up, trailing along his face to make sure his nose wasn't crooked or anything ridiculous like that like that.

The aches in his head faded away quickly, though, and as it went he felt the living Force swirling around him yet again.

It echoed with… Annoyance mixed with anxiety and relief.

"Hey, Ruby." He groaned, more than able to recognize her feel in the Force. A little ball of anxiety and pure Light that stood out anywhere.

"Hey, Jaune." She answered brightly, smiling when he sat up in the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Alright enough, I guess..." He said as he looked around the sterile, clinical room. It wasn't like the one Blake had been in, with different lights and a silvery wall made of a completely different material. Smiling, he added, "Or, well, about how I look like I feel, I guess."

"So…. Bad?"

"Pretty, yeah.." He grunted, shaking his head, "But getting better already. Aura's pretty great, you know."

"Yeah…" Ruby nodded, sitting stiffly in her chair, with a straight back, scrunched shoulders, and her hands on her knees like they were holding her up. Her leg bounced anxiously and he was about to ask what was going on when Ruby asked, "Are you, um, you know… Sure that you're okay, Jaune?"

"Yeah." He nodded, brows knitting together as her anxiety bloomed, echoing out into the Force like a proverbial gunshot. "Why do you ask?"

"How much… Do you remember, from when you tried to do, um, whatever with Blake?" Ruby asked, wide, silver eyes rounding on him searchingly.

"A headache, and then… Not much, really." He frowned and shifted in his bed, glad that at least this time they hadn't cuffed him. Ruby only grimaced, looking away, but that was more than enough for his heart to race. "Why?"

"Jaune, something… Happened." Ruby sighed, watching him warily and worriedly as she went on, "When you tried to do, uh, that, you… Went berserk. Attacked the robots- General Ironwood and Pyrrha, too. They had to tranq you to bring you down."

"I went-" He blinked and sat up straighter, eyes wide, "What happened? Is Pyrrha okay? Is that why she's not here?"

"No, no, no, no, bad! No freaking out!" Ruby was on him in a flash, hands on his shoulders pushing him back down into the bed. He could have overpowered her easily enough, and he was sure she knew that, but he let her push him down. Then she flitted back to her chair, petals trailing as she wen, and sighed, "No one is hurt, Jaune, it's just… My turn to sit with you, in case you got up again."

"Your turn?" He blinked, "How long have I been here? No, wait, in case I got up again?"

"You, uh… Got up a few times, and wandered around." Ruby explained quietly, "Wrecked a lot of the security droids, too, when you did. I think you were still recovering from whatever went wrong. What did go wrong? What were you even doing to Blake?"

"I was trying to connect with her mind, figure out what was happening to her." He explained quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose as strange memories started pushing forward on their own, throbbing gently behind his eyes. Pressing them back, he explained, "I did the first bit, I'm pretty sure, but the second part… I'm not trained to do any of that, and it blew up in my face."

"Yeah, figured that part out myself." She laughed, paying him a nervous, almost pained look before adding, quietly, "And, uh… You've been in and out for a week and a half or so. We've been taking turns sitting with you in case you… Got up again. You know, whenever we can be here."

"That explains a few things…" He sighed, thinking back on the doctors and how eager they'd been to put him under when they saw him. Forcing as good a smile as he could manage he asked, "Catch me up on what I missed, then?"

"Sure!" Ruby nodded, "Can do! But, uh, where do you want me to start?"

"Where I am, maybe?" He shrugged, relaxing against his pillows as best he could and waving a hand around him. "This doesn't feel like the Hospital.,,"

"Feel like- Oh, yeah, um, space magic stuff." He winced at that description but Ruby was already moving on before he could even think about saying anything about that. Smiling awkwardly, the young Rose rubbed the back of her neck, "Uh, so, Pyrrha told Ironwood about how the hospital affected you. So he, uh, kinda, just a little bit… Arrested you and took you up to his ship?"

"...Come again?"

XxX----XxX----XxX

Atlesian defences were always well-made, with the most advanced technology manned by the best trained operators on the planet. Their engineers were no slouches either, able to erect the walls, towers and mounts those defenses rested on with all the speed of a Beowolf on the scent of blood, rushing down its wounded prey. The Atlesian Engineering Corps could roll into a vaguely defensible location and have it fortified and armed for bear in less than a month's time.

Unfortunately for her, that was exactly what they'd done at the mountain her Mistress had so kindly released her to see dealt with.

The fortress that the Atlesians had built was oddly muted, considering who had built it. The typical dark grey steel walls ringed it in a semi-circle surrounding a large building she'd been told hid an entrance to a sort of cave. A dozen small parapets surrounded it, fitted with Multi rack Missile Launchers that could target near and far, and air or ground, reasonably well. At least against the Grimm. Heavy machine gun emplacements lined the wall as well, recessed into small bunkers built between and under the parapets while a century of droids, and a dozen or so Troopers, patrolled the wall and grounds beyond.

"Attacking it head on will mean grinding through their defences." She murmured, kneeling in the trees where she knew she wouldn't be seen. "It'll be a bloodbath…"

"Quite likely, yes." The Seer behind her mused, her Queen's regal voice carrying through the connection with mystical clarity. "Why, Atlas and mantle might even have a new holiday to celebrate, once all is said and done. How very kind of you, to let these men and women go down in history in such a way."

"I'll be sure to tell them that then, if they can hear me over the screaming." Cinder nodded, turning and adding more reverently, "Your Grace."

"Mhm." The Orb glowed and then grew closer to her, so that it could mind her. Through it the Grimm Queen ordered, quietly, "Begin the attack then, Cinder."

"Of course, my-"

"And do remember, dear, dear Cinder, that if you fail again I will instruct Tyrian to make an example of you." She threatened lowly, the tendrils of her Seer snaking out to slither around Cinder's torso, slipping up to cup a cheek. And press a bladed tip to her throat. "And a more permanent one at that. Why, I hear Tyrian has been quite curious what would happen to a live Human thrown into the Grimm Tide."

"I-I see..." She murmured, head pulled back and feet arching as the invasive tendrils explored her demeaningly and hoisted her into the air. She knew Salem was testing her, though… Cinder was hers to use as she wished, and she wanted to make sure she knew that. Swallowing her her fear, she murmured, "I will need to apologize to him, then, since he will not be finding out through me."

"I hope not." The monarch said finally, pitching her back, off her feet, and watching her collapse in a heap on the grassy ground. "Begin, then, Cinder."

"Of course, your Majesty." She nodded, rising and dusting the black trousers she'd worn under her red dress off mechanically as she did. Turning, she raised her voice and ordered, "Tear them apart!"

The baying and roaring and chittering that answered sent an instinctive thrill up her spine, and she couldn't fight the smile it lit across her face as the bestial tide surged forward from the woods around her. Predictably, the Beowolves, Creeps and Boarbatusks, drawn from the nearby woods and mountains, went first by sheer virtue of their speed, while the larger, more stocky Ursai, Berengels and Minotaurs trundled along behind them. Overhead Nevermore, Gryphons, Sphinxes, Lancers and a swarm of other smaller Grimm she couldn't pick out in the mass flocked up from the woods to follow suit.

It was beautiful, in a primal sort of way…

For whatever reason, the Grimm had always ranged around the mountain she'd been sent to attack. Salem had told her that herself, even if she hadn't known exactly why that was the case. Still, with the Queen's command, the Grimm didn't hesitate to throw themselves headlong into their assault on the mountain.

And Atlas' staunch defenders, for all the shock that had to be rushing through their ranks, didn't hesitate to answer in kind, filling the air with MRMs and flack that tore apart the aerial Grimm flocking towards them. As the Grimm on the ground neared the heavy guns opened up, their explosive rounds ripping apart the light Grimm as they came. Soldiers and droids poured onto the wall to add lighter munitions to the mix as well, slowing the pushing Grimm line to a crawl.

Soon, though, the more heavily armored Grimm joined the fray, bucking and writhing as they were struck. But with their thicker hide and armor, they didn't fall until droids and soldiers focused their fire on them and overwhelmed them. But doing that took away the fire that had held the rest of the tide back and, slowly but steadily, the Grimm pushed through for it while those overhead swarmed and dove, those that survived carrying away droids as well as men and women.

Atlas' soldiers didn't let up, but they were being overwhelmed by the sheer mass that Salem had drawn together. As the Grimm reached the walls, they began battering through the gates and clambering over each other to scale the wall.

"They seem to be having trouble." Cinder murmured, turning to look over her shoulder as the sound of hooves reached her.

"I shall deal with that personally, if I must. I already prepared for it, after all." The Seer said, hovering beside the Nuckelavee that loomed over Cinder forebodingly, body covered by the evidence of a thousand battles. "I trust you can handle setting the stage alone?"

"I can, if you allow me to." She nodded, gasping as the cold hand of the Nuckelavee closed around her, lifting her high and putting it in front of her, one arm around her to hold her fast. As the Seer moved away she watched it glow and murmured, quietly, "I'm nothing without you…"

"Not nothing." Salem said, the Seer bobbing long ahead of her, slipping around a tree. In its absence, Salem's voice echoed eerily around the trees, "You are a disappointment, so far, after all. Which isn't nothing."

"I won't be for long." Cinder vowed as the Grimm ambled forward, its gait uneven and uncomfortable. "You can count on it."

Salem didn't answer as the Nuckelavee went on, walking at a steady, easy pace. After a couple minutes had passed, Cinder saw a small glint of red and black flash. Then, as if a bomb had gone off, a red sun bloomed, swallowing the gatehouse on the front of the fortress and drawing all around it into it. Then, with a distant, dull whump, it detonated, massacring the Grimm and the soldiers around it in a shower of debris and fire.

Smiling, she turned a look on the Grimm face behind her and ordered, "Faster, now. It's time we finish this, and see to our Queen's tasks."

Silently, the Grimm surged forward, galloping through the forest.

XxX----XxX----XxX

They watched, silent, as the Atlesians outside the cave were cut down by the Grimm. For a quiet, hopeful moment, they had considered sending their Droids out to join the defense. The Atlesians had been so generous, after all… But before they could, the fortress had been all but annihilated by an explosion unlike any he had seen in some time. In its wake, the Grimm washed through unhindered, and thought the Atlesians fought valiantly, they knew what was going to be the end.

Silently, the Curator turned and retreated into a ready Temple, leaving the droids behind to defend it.

And if they failed… Well, they could always use that to solve the problem.

XxX----XxX----XxX