Chapter 47: Light Awakening

The battlefield was a waste land now, but the Nevermore was still flying over Atlas and Mantle carrying the bomb. It was making it's way to the Schnee Manor for some reason, could it have to do with Penny?

The explosion that caused the Monstra to die off along with the onslaught of the Grimm pouring out of it's mouth reached as far as Pietro's shop, but not far to hit the Schnee Manor, but it could be seen from the Manor as Klein dropped a trap of tea and cakes onto the floor.

"Oh dear." Klein said.

Julien looked up briefly, "Well damn... talk about some fire works." He chuckled as he returned to his scroll. "Hey Klein, don't worry about it, that was probably just Atlas destroying that giant whale." Julien's eyes lit up, "No way! I got in! That wasn't so bad! Now let's just hope her emergency systems don't power on... Otherwise what could be affecting her could trigger as well..."

"I hope Ms. Schnee was able to get her friends out in time." Klein said. "Let us hope they were able to."

the Nevermore flew over head as it's shadow could be seen, outside the Schnee Manor Grimm were slowly starting to surround the building.

"The gods were hopefully on their side... they need to be..." Julien sighed as he looked away from his scroll and out towards the window. He saw all the Grimm approaching, "No bloody way... This cannot get any worse... They're probably drawn to Penny."

"We don't have any defenses, and I'm not much of a fighter. I'm a butler and a doctor.." Klein said. "You might have to hold them off, until Penny is up and running." He noticed the Nevermore's shadow and something else with it. "I've got a bad feeling about that Nevermore too."

Julien pulled out a small device, no larger than a fully extended scroll. It appeared to be a handle of some kind that fit perfectly within his hand, "I ain't much of a fighter either. But I do know some things. It's crude, but I think I can keep us safe." He powered on the device as a hard light dust blade extended in a triangular fashion, "This hard light blade prototype I've been making was going to be a a weapon design I'd sell off to the military, it can cut through Grimm with ease, and even slash through thick armor and steel plating. That is, if it works as intended." He chuckled nervously before calming himself. He looked back to see if anything on Penny was being displayed on his scroll.

There was what looked like either a link connection to Watts, or some tampering with Penny's systems from a certain scroll. But it was all hard to make out, since Watts hadn't done anything else with booting up Penny.

Julien quickly rushed over, "Ok so there is someone interacting with her system from afar... I don't through how or who, but now that I can see it I can set it to run a diagnostic. I do recommend you stay back a bit. She might turn on and this interference very well may turn on." He warned Klein as he pulled up the program to launch the diagnostic.

"Would it draw the Grimm closer though? That's the question." Klein said stepping back. "We have a Nevermore hoovering over us like a hawk."

"Well it's the only shot at getting her back up and running-Ah!" Julien went along the side of his scroll, and detached a USB Bluetooth and plugged it into one of the other sockets on Penny, "There, so if she does get up and runs a muck, the diagnostic will still be connecting with her, but will be a lot slower due to it not being hardwire-Eh screw it no one actually cares about the tech mumbo jumbo." Without hesitation, Julien launched the diagnostic software as it began to search through Penny's files.

Klein watched, but looked out the window from time to time. Seeing the Grimm getting closer, some of them had jumped through the whole the Hound had made when it had attacked. As a small pack of Creeps were walking around Manor, sniffing for Penny's scent.

Julien noticing no current change got up and walked closer towards the middle of the room, "Hey, if we stayed close to the middle we'd have the most distance between us and the possible attack points. They come through the door we go back towards the window. They come from the window, we risk it but go through the door. If Penny attacks, which I'm hoping she doesn't we choose either, but I reckon the door would be a bit better." Julien told Klein as he casually spun the hard light sword in his hand, "This thing makes me feel like one of those space wizards from Galaxy Wars, ya know?"

~~~

The Creeps were tearing into different areas of the Manor as, a howl echoed through the halls. A Alpha Beowulf was inside now, Klein heard it as he looked over to Julien.

"Ok, so they might be inside. The window is looking pretty good right about now. Right Penny?" He said as a joke, thinking she wouldn't respond.

"I don't think we can use the window." Klein said looking over to it. "They're circling the Manor, what do we do now?"

"That's a." Julien sighed. "Yeah that's a bloody good question I don't have the answer too." He looks towards the door, "We could attempt to move to another room, but that would only delay it." Julien walked over to the door, "Should I take a peek to see?" He asked Klein, a little weary.

"You're the one with the weapon, I just have a umbrella and cane that aren't weapons." Klein said as he looked over to Penny. "Wonder how much longer it'll take for the process to be finished?"

The Alpha Beowulf sniffed the air as it snarled, it's claws gliding against the walls. The Creeps were still scanning around the halls and kitchen.

"Well according to the program about 30 minutes if it suddenly lost the hard wire, and 10 if it stayed connected. So that's how much hope we've got." Julien poked his head into the hall, "Oh hello, fuck that." He quickly brought his head back in and locked the door, "There's a Beowolf that looks a bit different outside. I think huntsmen call them Alphas? Either way, I don't think it saw me... for that long." He backed away from the door with the sword ready.

Klein looked at Julien. "An Alpha? They're said to be smarter than the normal Grimm..well, not as smart as what the Hound was..." He grabbed the lamp off the nightstand, holding it up. "Yes, I know. This isn't much, but it might knock a few marbles out of it's head."

Julien looked at the door, and listened for the clawing on the walls. "Well let's just hope it's too stupid to realize how doors work. There's no way that it can just open a door." Julien tired to reassure himself.

"I wouldn't be so confident." Klein said as he gulped nervously. "If it had seen you, then it's probably waiting for you to peer your head out."

The Alpha Beowulf snarled again as it was making it's way down the hall, it had left claw marks on the family portraits of the Schnee family. It dug it's nails into the walls eyeing the doors. It's nose twitching as it was sniffing more, but eventually it had picked up Penny's scent as it stopped half way down the hall, and got on all four. It charged down the hall and towards the room.

"Shit I can hear it coming!" Julien assumed a defensive stance, ready to use the hard light to shield himself and attempt to counter attack if he could pull it off.

Klein stayed near Penny, not wanting to have the Grimm get it's paws on her. The Alpha Beowulf busted into the room, knocking the door down as it huffed and growled. It stood up on it's hind legs, as it was towering over both Julien and Klein. It was getting ready to swipe it's claw at Julien, but got blasted with Maiden powers.

Penny had sat up in time as she had her hand held to her side, which was aimed at the Alpha Beowulf. "Sorry for the wait...my calculations on it's arrival were wrong."

"Oh thank the gods!" Julien paused before he looked at Penny. "Wait your emergency systems are up now, take it easy ok? I'm running a diagnostic search on you to try and find what the problem is with your system." Julien said as he kept his guard up.

"We have bigger problems right now." Penny said. "That Nevermore."

"No, we need to clear your system of that virus first. That giant bird can find some bird seed for the time being." Julien sassed slightly.

"Correction, it is closing in fast." Penny said. "If we do not get out of here soon we-"

Penny was cut off as the Nevermore swooped over the Manor dropping the bomb right onto the roof, it crashed down and suddenly went off. Engulfing half of the Schnee Manor, including the room Julien , Klein and Penny were at.

"OH MY GODS!-" Julien's voice was cut off by the sound of the loud explosion.

~~~

The area cleared, as half the Schnee Manor was destroyed by the bomb. The same bomb that was supposed to be used to blow the Monstra up, it had looked like a tornado had came through and ripped the manor in half not bothering with the rest of the building.

Penny's system rebooted as she blinked her eyes. She was covered in rubble as she moved it off of her, she scanned the area for Julien or Klein. The Grimm that were in the Manor had fled or were evaporated from the explosion, Penny's ears were ringing as well. "JULIEN?! KLEIN?!"

A soft, golden glowing light shimmered from the rubble as there was some slight movements.

Penny got up as dust and smoke fell off her, she walked over and moved the rubble to see who or what it was.

It appeared to be Julien, however when the boy pushed himself up, there were some clear differences between him and Julien. For starters, the boy's eyes were a golden color along with the ends of his hair fading into a golden yellow as well. He holds his head and looks around, "What... happened?"

"That is a good question indeed, what did happen?" Ozpin asked. "One moment, me and Oscar were dead, the next our souls get reincarnated into you."

Penny glances at him. "The Nevermore dropped a bomb on us."

"Whoa hang on, one person at time." The boy said, not realizing that Ozpin was speaking to him internally.

"Where's Klein? He was here with us." Penny said moving rubble, not seeing any trace of Klein anywhere.

"Better question, who's Klein?.." The boy asked her.

Penny looked at him puzzled. "Weiss' butler.."

"Ah yes! Weiss!.... uh who's Weiss? Wait who are you?.. Who am I?" The boy searched his pockets and found Julien's ID, "Julien Gemstone?.. That sounds familiar, but I don't think that's me." He looked at a broken mirror and back to the ID, "He's got brown hair and brown eyes. I could be him if I dyed my hair... but I don't think you can dye eyes." The boy said to Penny.

"No, but you a re Julien though.." Penny said as she was processing what happened. "Oh I think you have amnesia."

"Well if I was Julien, how would I change so drastically?" The boy retorted as he scratched his chin, "Either way, this new look could be used as a way to disguise myself with. I only say that because I feel like we were attacked, but I'm not sure." He pondered his options as he watched as Penny was sifting through the rubble.

"You were." Oscar chimed in. "Grimm attacked, that's the only explanation..."

"Hmm...so she's targeting all of us at once..." Ozpin said.

"I was? Well then definitely a new name is needed-Wait where are you two?" The boy asked as he searched around, seeing nobody.

"We're you...our souls are yours now." Oscar said.

Ozpin was silent as he let Oscar speak, Penny looked more but came to a stop as she found Klein's arm.

"Excuse me, come again? I'm not sure I... heard you right..." The boy slowed his speaking in shock as he saw the arm, "O-Oh no... that's probably Klein right?.."

Penny nods. "It...it is..."

"It's a lot to take in, I know...I had trouble with it when Ozpin told me he was me...but now. Me and Ozpin are you." Oscar said. "Scarlet won't stop until everyone is dead...we're just pieces to a puzzle for her to ruin."

The boy clenched his fist, "I might have hit my head a little too damn hard, and I might not understand what's going on, but I will make sure that this never happens again!" The boy stopped before speaking, "Otherwise I'm not Diamond Gemstone." Diamond said as he wore his new name with pride.

A/N:[I can't take credit for Julien/Diamond. Credit goes to my friend on Discord]