[N/A: See any mistakes? Let me know and I'll fix them when I can.]
-/-
[Forest – Patch Island]
It is a beautiful day on Patch Island. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and in the middle of the forest, Yang is fighting for her life.
Keeping herself in her best combat stance, she holds up the only combat glove she has left, while the remains of the other lie scattered on the ground a few meters away from her. Her body is tense, every muscle ready, breathing fast as she watches a silver gleam move between the trees. She cannot make out its full shape, only the shine moving at a ridiculous speed.
Forcing her senses, she stays focused, anticipating the next move. At the exact moment, she feels the air being sliced beside her and moves away just in time, dodging a silver flash that cuts through the space where her head had been a second before.
"Damn it…" she growls through her teeth, raising her arm and firing several bursts with the glove she has left. The explosions shake the area, destroying trunks and branches everywhere, but without hitting her target.
"AHHHHHH!" she yells in frustration as she keeps shooting without control, releasing energy and anger in equal parts.
[Ten minutes earlier]
"Stupid Daniel…" she mutters, pushing away the branches that get in her way. She has been going deeper into the forest for days, irritated at having to look for that damn lost rapier.
"And stupid Ruby for liking a guy like that…" she keeps complaining, although she suddenly stops when she remembers it was herself who introduced him to her.
"Stupid me!" she exclaims, hitting a branch with her arm, making it snap with a dry crack.
It has already been several days searching for the damned rapier, spending mornings and afternoons going through the forest without finding a single clue. Each day ending deeper among roots and rocks, getting farther and farther from the cabin. But if there was something to be thankful for, it was that all that time she had not run into a single Grimm.
That, however, seemed really strange to her, considering that Patch Island was not exactly small, and even though there were hunters in charge of keeping the nearby areas safe, going this deep would usually guarantee an encounter with one or two Grimm.
However, the complete absence of them made her uneasy. Not having to fight was an advantage, yes, but the silence of the forest was starting to feel too alarming.
She keeps walking, pushing leaves aside and moving branches until she stops when a scene catches her attention.
Destroyed trees. Rocks reduced to pieces. The ground covered in debris.
"What… is this?" she murmurs, crouching down to examine the fragments. The splinters and stone pieces are scattered everywhere. Looking at them more closely, she notices that the fractures seem to be the result of an explosion, but without the burn marks that any kind of ammunition would leave.
She cannot help but frown. "This was not done by a weapon…" she concludes, approaching some nearby rocks. Some have tiny holes, circular and deep, as if something had pierced through them at high speed.
She stands up, looking around and noticing that there are more rocks with the same holes, even in some nearby trees.
"Maybe a semblance…" she wonders while taking a few more steps, examining the area carefully, trying to understand what the hell could have caused something like this.
With all that evidence, Yang can only arrive at one conclusion.
"I think someone was practicing here," she says, certain that someone had been training in this place. At least, that seemed like a good explanation for the absence of Grimm and the destruction in the forest. Even so, she feels like she is missing something.
She runs her hand over a rock, noticing the small holes marking it. She cannot help but question what caused them. Only after a few minutes do her eyes widen.
"These marks would match perfectly with what a rapier would leave if it was stabbed into the rock…"
"Dammit!" she shouts, putting her hands over her face. "Someone already found it!"
Yang tries not to let herself get carried away by anger, but it is hard. Someone had found the rapier, and apparently had been testing it, probably surprised by its extremely high durability. She looks around and quickly realizes that the one responsible must have been a hunter.
"What do I do, what do I do?" she cannot help but panic for a moment.
"Calm down, Yang… this is not the time to panic," she tells herself, taking a deep breath.
The fear of the rapier being lost forever pushes her to think quickly. It was not normal for a hunter to be in these parts; there was nothing here that could interest them. Most likely it was someone hired by the village of Patch. If that is the case, there should be a record of him.
"Yes!" she thinks, convinced. If she goes to the village and locates the hunter, she could get the rapier back.
She turns around, ready to go back home and take her bike to head to the village, but before taking another step, a sound stops her.
Crack.
The snap of a breaking branch makes her turn quickly, searching for the source. She is not alone. She is almost sure it is not a Grimm; by now it would have already attacked her.
"Maybe the hunter is still here?" she wonders while moving cautiously toward the origin of the sound, hoping to find him. Just in case, she deploys her Ember Celica. As sure as she is that it is not a Grimm, she is not going to take any chances.
As she walks around a tree and pushes aside some bushes, she finds the cause of the sound. Her eyes widen in surprise.
[Image]
A small rabbit, fluffy and cute, stares at her motionless. But it is not the rabbit that leaves her speechless, but what it has between its teeth: the rapier.
"Yes!" she shouts in celebration. "I found it!"
Of course, her shout makes the rabbit alert, tensing its body and looking at her with a mix of fear and determination.
"Oh, did I scare you?" Yang laughs, relieved. "Sorry…" she says while moving forward carefully.
She barely takes a step when the rabbit's fur stands on end. Its expression shifts to a determined and unfriendly one, completely opposite to its adorable appearance.
"Hey, hey…" Yang raises her hands. "Relax, buddy, I do not want to hurt you," she says while retracting her weapons and reaching a hand toward him. "I just want that rapier…"
She does not even finish the sentence when the rabbit suddenly moves and, with surprising speed, throws the rapier straight at her hand. The tip sinks in with force.
"Ahh! Damn it!" Yang yells, holding her hand, unable to believe what just happened.
"How is that even possible?!" she questions, unable to accept that a rabbit could move the rapier, but she quickly remembers that the weapon was extremely light, light enough for a small animal to lift it. But that did not explain how the hell it knew how to use it.
"To hell with this…" she growls, activating her aura. It did not matter how it had learned. In the end, it was still a rabbit, and she was a huntress in training. She could not lose to a rabbit.
"Now give me the damn rapier!" she complains, throwing herself at the animal quickly.
But before she can reach it, she fails. The rabbit moves with an agile jump, dodging to the side and counterattacking with a precise thrust. And although Yang sees the movement, she decides not to dodge it. After all, she could not take damage with her aura active. At least, not from a thrust powered by the strength of a rabbit… or so she thought.
As soon as the rapier strikes her leg, a sharp pain runs through her. It feels as if her aura is going to burst, as if it is going to shatter into hundreds of fragments, although she manages to withstand it.
"Ahh!" she complains, jumping back with her good leg to gain distance.
Only then does she look down and see something that leaves her frozen: her aura, the barrier that should protect her, seems to have cracks.
"What the hell are you?" she yells furiously, deploying her Ember Celica again. She raises her arms and aims at the rabbit, determined to get the rapier back… and if she ended up eating rabbit that night, she did not mind.
"BAM, BAM, BAM!"
Yang's gauntlets roar as they fire several bursts. The rabbit, without letting go of the rapier, moves between the trees, taking cover with whatever it can while the forest explodes around it. Each shot leaves splinters, burned leaves, and shattered trunks.
But the rabbit is fast. Too fast. Yang can barely follow it thanks to the silver shine of the rapier, a flickering gleam between the wood that serves as her guide to find it. But suddenly that shine changes direction. Instead of moving to the sides, it goes up.
"How high can it jump?!" she exclaims, aiming upward as she tries to follow it. The sunlight's reflection makes it harder to see, but her training helps her distinguish its falling path.
Of course, it is coming straight toward her.
Only when she finally sees it clearly, she is surprised: there is no rabbit, only the rapier falling.
"A trap!" she manages to think, trying to react, but it is too late.
Soft paws hit the back of her head with force, not enough to hurt her, but enough to catch her off guard and throw her off balance. The rabbit, after using her as a springboard and doing a few flips backward, retrieves the rapier in a rather elegant move.
Yang does not waste time. She uses the momentum and throws an upward punch with all the strength she has, trying to intercept it before the rabbit touches the ground.
But the rabbit, already with the rapier between its teeth, points the blade toward her punch.
The weapons collide. A burst of energy echoes through the air. A clash of pure strength—one Yang was certain she was going to win.
The rabbit is fast. Very fast. But it lacks strength; she noticed that right away from the kick she just took. She barely felt it, even if it caught her by surprise. And even though she still does not understand how that little monster managed to damage her aura, she is convinced that the reinforced metal of her Ember Celica will protect her this time.
In a blink, both weapons crash. The rapier's tip strikes squarely against her gauntlet. Yang expects the metallic clang of impact, the blast that should send the rabbit flying through the air. But none of that happens.
To her horror, Ember Celica emits a brief, almost imperceptible glow, and then a web of cracks spreads across its surface. A second later, the entire gauntlet bursts in a violent explosion.
Yang steps back on instinct, shielding her face as fragments fly everywhere. When she looks up, the rabbit is already doing a triple backflip, landing lightly on the grass before bolting toward the trees.
"Ruby is going to kill me!" she growls, raising her only remaining gauntlet. She does not even think; she just starts firing.
"Ahhh!" she screams, feeling rage surge as her hair lights up with a golden glow. Each shot booms between the trees, ripping bark and knocking down trunks as she unloads all her frustration.
"Come out, monster!" she yells, tracking the movement between the flashes, firing wildly.
Click. Click.
She is out of ammo.
"Damn it!" she mutters, lowering her arm to reload, but a chill runs down her neck. She moves on pure instinct, turning her head just in time to dodge a rapier that slices through the air where her face had been a second earlier. The silver gleam vanishes into the shadows, only to reappear from another angle.
Yang throws herself to the side, dodges again. Then again. The pattern repeats nonstop, each flash faster than the last. She can only make out the glint of metal coming at her over and over, each time closer, each time faster.
"Enough!" she shouts, slamming the ground with all her strength, sending dirt flying in an eruption of dust and debris that forms an improvised barrier, stopping the rabbit's assault.
Yang does not waste time watching as the creature slows down, confused, and without hesitation she grabs a nearby fallen tree. She lifts it with both hands and throws it straight at the fluffy son of a bitch.
But, to her misfortune, the rabbit jumps toward the trunk. Yang's mouth opens as she sees it stab the rapier into the wood, and immediately the entire tree is covered in cracks before exploding into hundreds of pieces. The area fills with splinters. Yang backs away, covering her face, horrified.
"To hell with this!" she complains, spinning on her heel and making a strategic retreat.
"This is not over!" she yells as she runs off, dashing between the trees and making sure the rabbit is not following. Only when she is at a safe distance does she turn to look back without stopping.
There it is. In the middle of the clearing, motionless, watching her.
The damn animal lifting the rapier, celebrating a victory it is clearly enjoying. Yang clenches her teeth, swearing she will come back. Not for the rapier. But to finish off that little bastard.
-/-
[Atlas Tower – Atlas]
In the middle of his office, General James Ironwood reviews a series of data and videos across several screens. He analyzes the progress on the construction of the new core, the reconstruction of Atlas, and the condition of the Mantle victims, nodding in satisfaction as he sees everything advancing better than expected.
For a few seconds, his mind allows itself a break. Every graph, every report, reflecting the coordinated effort of people and machines, especially the latter, all being directed by GLaDOS. He cannot imagine —nor does he want to— how bad things would be without her.
Just as he is about to switch to another screen, his concentration is broken when the door opens with a soft hum, and his specialist, Winter Schnee, steps in.
"General!"
Winter stands firmly in front of his desk, posture straight, salute flawless.
"At ease, Specialist," James responds, getting a brief nod, though she remains just as rigid.
"Has there been a problem, General?" Winter asks in a professional, neutral tone, perhaps expecting bad news.
"No, in fact everything is going better than expected."
James leans slightly back in his seat. "The reason I called you has to do with your father, Jacques Schnee."
Winter's expression changes instantly at the mention of her father, gaining a weight of almost automatic resignation.
"Ah… what has he done now?" she asks, sounding more tired than annoyed.
But the general quickly dismisses her concern. "He has not done anything harmful to Atlas. In fact, I would say the opposite," he clarifies, watching confusion appear on his subordinate's face.
"The opposite?" Winter repeats, raising an eyebrow.
"He is offering us a deal. It seems he is willing to offer a small amount of Dust to Mantle."
Winter's mouth parts slightly, as if trying to answer, but she cannot find words. She is just as confused as he was when he first received the proposal.
"Of course," he continues calmly, "he asks for something in return."
"There it is." Winter sighs with barely restrained irony. "I knew he could not do it out of the kindness of his heart. What does he want? A seat on the council? To abolish faunus rights? Or for us to just name him King of Atlas outright?"
A very faint smile forms on James's face as he sees how Winter completely forgot she is talking to her superior, but he does not correct her; after all, this is not exactly a formal meeting anymore.
"He requests a group of hunters capable of getting rid of a Nightmare."
Winter blinks, incredulous.
"Why?"
"According to him," James explains, "he claims to be under attack by one."
Winter's expression shifts for a moment, showing slight concern before returning to the cold logic that characterizes her.
"That is not possible," she finally says, crossing her arms.
James nods in agreement. It was practically impossible for a Nightmare to reach the Schnee manor, located in the safest district of Atlas. To do so, it would've had to cross half the city without attacking anyone, something completely atypical of Grimm behavior.
Moreover, if Jacques truly were under its influence, he wouldn't have been able to communicate at all, since victims of a Nightmare fall into a sleep they cannot wake from. But Jacques was clearly still very much awake.
"Your assessment is correct," he admits, lowering his gaze to the files on his desk. "Even so, I still sent a team of specialists to check it out."
"And the results?" Winter asks, sounding more interested than she'd probably like to admit.
"They found nothing," James replies as he pulls up a new screen. Jacques Schnee appears on it, looking gaunt, a far cry from the pristine, arrogant man he had always been. Pale skin, sunken eyes, an empty expression.
"What happened to him?" Winter asks, surprised by how deteriorated he looks.
"That's exactly what I wondered," he answers in a graver tone as he switches to the medical examination results. "And that's why I sent the team."
On-screen, several aura readings and clinical analyses appear one after another.
"As you know," he explains calmly, "Nightmares are a type of Grimm that possess people, draining their aura while the victim falls into a deep sleep, and their body serves as an incubator for the Grimm."
He gestures lightly toward the data.
"But in Jacques' case, there were none of the typical marks Nightmares leave on their hosts. And although his physical health has declined, his aura remains intact. Which allows us to confirm he is not under the influence of any Nightmare."
"Then… why does he look so bad?" Winter asks, still puzzled.
"According to the doctors I sent, they all came to the same conclusion: Jacques is exhibiting a combination of mental disorders and psychological reactions to extreme stress. Recurring nightmares, brief hallucinations, paranoid delusions, hypervigilance, and constant fear. In addition, severe insomnia and obsessive thoughts."
Winter listens in silence, confusion evident in her eyes.
"What could cause all that?" she finally asks, more concerned than skeptical.
"According to the doctors, it could be a reaction to events of great emotional weight, possibly accompanied by remorse."
Winter arches a brow at him. "You're not suggesting that he…"
James shrugs, keeping his tone neutral.
"In more technical terms, and according to the psychologists, the patient is exhibiting an unconscious self-punishment process. His repressed guilt is manifesting as psychosomatic and hallucinatory symptoms."
Winter lets out a short laugh and shakes her head.
"Seriously? You're telling me that man, my father, has a conscience?"
The general nods with a faint, ironic smile. "I've got my doubts too. But the experts insist that's the most probable cause of all his symptoms."
Winter sighs, still in disbelief. "Then what do you intend to do, General?"
James falls silent for a moment, looking once more at Jacques' image on the screen.
"He's still convinced that his symptoms are the result of a Grimm. That's why I plan to send him an expert in Nightmare hunting, someone who can evaluate him directly, even if it won't do much for his current condition."
Winter opens her mouth to object, but he stops her with a gesture.
"Of course, we'll also accept the shipment of Dust he's offering for Mantle. It'll be beneficial for everyone."
"And will that shipment be enough to supply Mantle?" Winter asks, now understanding the general's plans.
But James shakes his head.
"Not entirely. But it'll be enough to keep it running until we finish the core… That, and the Dust shipment Robyn Hill secured, courtesy of a very generous —and still unidentified— donor."
Winter nods, though she shifts uncomfortably in place. "Do you think Jacques will recover?" she finally asks.
"Perhaps," he admits after a brief pause. "But if it's psychological, there's not much we can do beyond what the doctors are already trying."
-//-
Author's Note:
I got hospitalized… BUT!!! They brought me my laptop, so I was able to write this. With thischapter, I think I've already covered all the separate stories of the protagonist that I wanted to show.
And you thought I wasn't going to use the bunny in the story? Everything was carefully calculated! (Total lie.)
If you're wondering why he blows things up, just compare him to Bojji (I didn't even watch the anime, but I loved how he makes things explode).
Anyway, the next chapter should be R18, and after that we'll head straight into the big generator…
Either way, I hope you enjoy it! I'm going to go get some rest.
[Image]
Kisses and hugs! ❤️