Episode 1: Chapter 10: Chains

Chapter 10 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

            “GO! GO! GO! GO!” Beanie continued to bark out the command as every team on the airship started diving down. There had been an anonymous tip that was secretly from Blake that a large White Fang base was located inside the city. As soon as Professor Ozpin got word of it, he immediately tasked as many teams as he could to take the base down. Team JCTB was the first out the side, and Ty was quick to use his bazooka to blast a hole in the ceiling of the building. The debris crashed down and revealed only a few White Fang members on that floor. As soon as they landed, Brooklyn and Christy rushed forward taking down the nearby guards while Jacob quickly activated his time manipulation state to quickly place a slew of daggers to create an even bigger hole in the ceiling for the rest of the teams to enter through. Everybody else landed and quickly started heading for each of the different doors out of the room they were currently in. As soon as Beanie landed, he started barking out orders.

            “All right, this isn’t a drill, so stick to the plan! All upperclassmen and defensive types take the lead, and then each team will break off into different rooms as we go on. If our intel is right, we should be able to reach the warehouse portion of this building in about 100 meters from this room. Everybody good? Then get moving!” As soon as he said this, Team JCTB along with Team CFVY, Team RWBY and others, charged through the door on the right. Meanwhile, Team JNPR took charge out the door on the left with Team NEMN and others. As the right door team made their way down the hallway, they saw a few grunt soldiers pop out of certain doors. Brooklyn didn’t slow her run holding her shield high defending everybody else behind her as they moved forward. She quickly started manifesting her aura into a type of aura burn on her body, even though it wasn’t really her strong suit. She used this short burst to barrel right through the troops in the hallway. On the other end, Jaune and Pyrrha lead the charge with their own shields up, as some of the students with better-ranged weapons started taking pot shots at the enemy. As they continued down the hallway, different teams would peel off into different rooms and hallways to deal with other White Fang members. The group on the right side passed a giant corridor that was filled with White Fang members rushing towards them hoping to get them with a strong flank, but Coco quickly morphed her handbag into gatling gun form and started tearing up the hallway and all the troops in it. Meanwhile, the team on the left reached the main warehouse portion of the building on the higher floors. While Team JNPR split off to take care of the members on the upper floor, most of the other teams including Team NEMN jumped down to the main floor and began engaging the enemy. Beanie as well had joined them and he started using his whistle to control several different flows of water out of his backpack to knock White Fang troops and the mech suits off balance. Evan jumped down into the remains and began subduing several different lieutenants of the White Fang with relative ease. It was clear that despite having heard them come in, they weren’t ready for this level of an assault.

            “Nathan! I’ve got eyes on Taurus!” Miles yelled over to his teammate as he rushed forward.

            “HE’S MINE!” Nathan yelled as he threw one of his billy clubs towards a group of enemy soldiers. As Nathan approached Adam, the club he threw ricocheted off a few more soldiers and a mech before returning to his hand to begin clashing with Adam.

            “Ugh, you again?” Adam said with clear annoyance. Meanwhile, Miles was rushing towards Adam to help Nathan when a strange man with silver hair in a flowing red cloak leapt down in front of him.

            “I take it you’re the guy who caused Jacob’s most recent condition?”

            “Who’s Jacob? I’ve been busy of late.” He then whipped his arm around and revealed a long chain with a large hook on the end that almost stabbed Miles right in the gut, but he managed to see it in time to block it and knock the chain back at his opponent. As soon as the chain returned to him, he got into a battle stance and prepared to go toe to toe with the cloaked student.

            “You do look familiar, I won’t lie. If only I had time to check.”

            “Less talking more fighting dude.” Miles said in annoyance as he charged towards the man in the red coat. The two of them clashed, Miles trying hard to work past his opponent to help Nathan with Adam, but was unsuccessful.

            “Yes, I do remember you. You were the child who forced Adam’s hand in the mountain village.” Miles paused in shock as he heard him say this. This pause gave his opponent the chance to slice him right across the chest, sending him backwards to the ground. Miles was struggling to get up, giving his opponent plenty of time to pin him to the ground with his boot.

            “How do you know all this?”

            “Because I was there fool. Oh, that’s right. You don’t remember.” As he said this, a glowing orb appeared in his hand with an image in the center. He held it down to Miles’ face to give him a better look, and it was Nathan, himself, Adam, and the man in the red coat all standing together in the middle of the burning town of Aequo.

            “Don’t want to give too much away just yet. This is just a sample.”

 

 

 

 

Weiss sliced past some of the remaining guards and noticed their corridor just ended up as a dead end.

            “Yang!” The blonde looked away from pummeling a random soldier, and noticed Weiss’ predicament. Quickly she threw the now unconscious soldier into a crowd of oncoming soldiers and rushed towards the wall screaming her head off and punched right through it with ease. With that done, they started charging forward into the warehouse portion of the building, with Weiss sending large chunks of ice towards some of the mech suits giving students trouble. Right behind her was Brooklyn as well as Ruby, who all quickly jumped down to the lower floor. As soon as they landed, they noticed a guy in a red coat standing over Miles with something glowing in his hand.

            “That’s him!” Brooklyn yelled. “That’s the guy who attacked Jacob!” With little hesitation, Brooklyn morphed her weapon into rifle form and took a shot at him, which he didn’t react to in time and took square in the chest. What happened next was hard for anybody to understand. As soon as the shot hit her target, he dropped the glowing orb he had in his hand, but also two other orbs fell out of his body. The orb he dropped landed right onto Miles and dissolved into his body. The other two orbs started floating in mid-air, then started flying straight towards Nathan and Brooklyn. As the orb got closer to her, the man in the red coat quickly caught it with his hook.

            “That’s one memory I can’t allow losing hold of just yet. As for the other one, well, I think things are about to become interesting.” Brooklyn looked over at Nathan and saw he had collapsed to the ground clutching his head in pain. Adam saw this chance and raised his sword to stab him in the back, but as he plunged his sword down, the man in the red coat knocked it off course with his hook, confusing Adam.

            “We shall retreat for now. I have a feeling that we will find a use for them in time.”

            “But Lord Memoriare, if they know of the Order’s existence…”

            “Then we shall kill them both. Or all of them. But not now. Not while they have the advantage. Collect what we need and go. I’ll hold them off so we aren’t followed.” Adam, clearly upset, nodded his head and rushed off towards the nearby fleet of airships. Miles was slow to get up as he was clasping his head in pain, so Weiss attempted to rush after Adam, but the man in red halted her attempts to reach him and began sparring with her.

            “The daughter of the eldest Schnee. Interesting.”

            “We’re ready Lord Memoriare.”

            “Well then, I best take my leave. Oh, and have fun with your “friends”.” With that said, Memoriare jumped backwards towards the airships and landed right on the one that was taking off. Weiss was about to pursue, but then Leo jumped right in front of her.

            “You aren’t getting those two Ice Queen.”

            “WHY DOES EVERYBODY….OH FORGET IT!” Weiss quickly spun around and created an ice prison for Leo, freezing everything except his head.

            “Okay, why did I stand still and let her do this again?”

 

 

 

 

As everybody started arresting and rounding up the White Fang troops that weren’t awake or dead. Christy started tending to Miles’ injuries, but nothing seemed to change.

            “It’s weird, it’s just like what happened to Jacob a few weeks ago. I don’t get it what happened?” Miles was slow to get up, but did so successfully. Christy then started moving on to Nathan. Blake and Natalie made their way over to Miles with some pace while Yang ran over to Nathan.

            “You doing okay Miles?”

            “Natalie….your brother……”

            “He’s fine Miles. Christy is tending to him now.”

            “No…. the orbs…. memories…I think he knows…” Natalie and Blake looked at each other then over to Nathan. Christy finished tending to his wounds, and Nathan slowly got up, with a fire in his eyes. He looked over at Miles with an anger that even made Yang take a step back from where Nathan was standing.

            “AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH” Nathan screamed at the top of his lungs and launched himself towards Miles. Blake and Natalie didn’t react in time, so it fell on Miles to block the incoming attack from his teammate.

            “Nathan, stop!”

            “YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED HER!”

            “Nathan, calm down! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

            “OH, YOU DON’T KNOW HUH?! WELL CLEARLY YOU DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING SINCE YOU KILLED EVERYONE BACK IN AEQUO!”

            “Nathan, what are you talking about?”

            “I REMEMBER IT NOW! YOU WERE THE ONE THAT ATTACKED ADAM AND PROVOKED HIM TO KILL EVERYBODY! YOU GOT EVERYBODY KILLED, SO I’M GOING TO AVENGE THEM!” Nathan continued to try and hit Miles, but Miles constantly kept blocking the attacks. But it wasn’t enough, as Nathan broke through his defenses and sent him flying into the wall. Nathan rushed in to continue his attack, but then Natalie jumped in the way.

            “Nathan stop! This isn’t you!”

            “Get out of my way Natalie!”

            “He’s our teammate!”

            “HE’S A MURDERER!”

            “He didn’t kill anybody! He was just trying to help!”

            “He killed our family! Our friends! He killed Ember!”

            “NO HE DIDN’T! Nathan, he tried to SAVE all of them!”

            “A lot of good that did!”

            “Nathan, this isn’t going to accomplish anything! This isn’t going to avenge mom or dad or even Matthew! Do you really think Ember would want you to do this?!”

            “Shut up Natalie!”

            “Our parents raised us smarter than this! Ember trained you better than this! She wouldn’t want you to give in to your hatred like this!”

            “YOU DIDN’T LOVE HER LIKE I DID!” Nathan lunged forward and started attacking his sister, scaring Natalie into almost firing a round right in his face. She kept defending his attacks, but never attacked back.

            “NATHAN!” Both Nathan and Natalie looked over to see Miles standing up, clearly wounded. “IT’S ME YOU WANT! SO HAVE AT IT!” As soon as he said this, he dropped both his swords to the ground, and as soon as they did so, Nathan charged forward screaming at the top of his lungs. Natalie tried to chase after him, but Miles put his hand up telling her to stop just as Nathan landed the first blow right to his face. Miles fell back down to the ground after that hit, and skidded up against another wall. Nathan then rushed towards him, continuing to beat him senseless. It was clear that Miles’ aura was depleted, because a lot of Nathan’s blows were starting to draw blood.

            “I DON’T CARE IF YOU DIDN’T PHYSICALLY KILL THEM, YOU’RE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR EMBER’S DEATH AS ADAM IS!”

            “You…. think I don’t…know that?” Miles said as Nathan landed another blow across his face. “I lost people too that day. My mom, my dad, my younger brother, I lost everything and everybody I knew and loved in one single day, all because I thought I could actually be the hero. Not a day goes by when I don’t wake up and realize they are all dead because of me. So whale away big guy. I don’t even care anymore. I always knew… this would catch up with me someday.” Nathan raised his club high and hit Miles hard enough that his temple started bleeding. As he raised his other club for another hit, Blake jumped right in front of Miles.

            “Stand aside.” Nathan said, struggling to hold back his rage.

            “You’ve made your point Nathan. Are you really willing to kill him?”

            “He killed everybody in Aequo. This is justice.”

            “NO! This is revenge! And not even directed at the right target!”

            “HE LET ADAM KILL EVERYBODY!”

            “YOU AREN’T PERFECT EITHER HOTHEAD!” Nathan turned around to see Yang walking towards him, and also stood in front of Miles. “You got yourself captured as well, and even if Miles hadn’t been there, what do you think was going to happen to them regardless?”

            “I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM! I COULD HAVE SAVED ALL OF THEM!”

            “But you might not have. Nobody is perfect, and as far as I know, they had complete control of the town, and if you had done what Miles tried to do, all that blood might have been on your hands.”

            “Yeah, great. Hindsight is 20/20. Plenty of what if scenarios. That doesn’t change the fact that he caused the death of almost EVERYBODY I LOVED!”

            “Nathan, I know you want to avenge your family, but by killing your own teammate? That just helps Adam win even more.”

            “And what do you suggest then? I just live with the fact that my teammate is somebody who caused the deaths of all my friends and family?!”

            “You can choose to see it like that, even though it’s not the truth.” Evan said as he stood in front of Miles as well. “But if you continue to hold that belief in your heart, then the best thing you could do to remove that pain is forgive him.” As Evan was saying this, everybody else started standing in front of Miles, forming a wall, with Natalie being the last to stand in front of him.

            “Nathan, Ember saved my life. Don’t dishonor her memory by doing this. Miles isn’t our enemy. He’s our teammate. I even think he’s our friend.” Nathan still held his club high, as if he was just waiting to strike. Everybody continued to shield Miles, but then he got up and worked his way to the front of the crowd and right within striking distance of Nathan’s club.

            “Nathan, I don’t expect you to forgive me. But know that I am sorry for everything that’s happened. Not a day goes by where I wish I could just be back in Aequo with delusional dreams of being a honorable warrior.” Nathan looked square in Miles’ eyes, not sure how to react. Then, all of a sudden, he just turned and started running faster than even Ruby could.

            “Nathan!” Natalie called out, but it was too late. Her brother was gone. Miles then started stumbling towards everybody.

            “All right then, I think I’m going to pass out now….”

 

 

 

 

Miles woke up back in his room, with Christy healing his wounds. He tried to get up, but there was a sharp pain in his head.

            “Keep resting. Nathan did a number on you." Christy said as she continued to heal Miles.  "It’s taken almost all the aura I have to just stop your bleeding.” Miles groaned and tried his best to relax while looking around to see who was all there. Blake was siting right next to him, Natalie was sitting at her desk, and Jacob was chilling by the door.

            “Where’s everybody else?”

            “They went to report what happened to Professor Ozpin. Also, given what happened between you and Nathan, they are also trying to convince both Ozpin and Goodwitch that Nathan shouldn’t be expelled once he gets back.”

            “Wait, he didn’t come back here?”

            “No.” Natalie said as she got up. “I have no idea where he might have gone.”

            “After he beat you up and you passed out, nobody tried to follow him since we all assumed that he would just come right back here." Christy said as she wiped her brow.  "But I guess that’s not the case.” Blake continued to say nothing, but instead grasped Miles’ hand.

            “Blake, I’m injured, not dead.”

            “I know, but I’m tired of seeing people I care about getting hurt because of somebody from my past.”

            “That’s not the big issue right now. It’s clear that Nathan now knows, and we should let everybody in on what we have discussed. But first, we need to find him. Natalie, has Nathan ever done something similar to this before?”

            “No, not really. He’s never run off like this before. He’s been emotional, but never to the point where he would run away.”

            “When he was emotional, where were you at the time?”

            “I think we were on the road out of Aequo. We had just fought a group of White Fang members that Nathan recognized from the attack. We went to bed that night, Nathan still fuming, but he was still there the next morning.”

            “Ah. I think I know where he went now.”

            “Where?”

            “He went back to Aequo.”

            “What makes you so sure?”

            “He might go there to talk to the dead to console himself. I mean, I don’t know. He and I have walked very different paths, so I have no idea how he coped with that whole situation.”

            “I’m not sure how he did either. I’m only all right because I’ve suppressed most of those memories a long time ago.”

            “It helped that he had you, and you him. I didn’t have anybody until I stumbled across Ty. And even to some extent, you guys.” As he said this, everybody else walked into the room.

            “How ya feeling chucklehead?” Ty said with a weak smile.

            “About as good as I can be Dante.”

            “Seriously Ty, where did you even get the nickname Dante?” Natalie asked.

            “I got it from my dad, cut me some slack.”

            “Anyways, Professor Ozpin is willing to let Nathan back into the school, but we have to bring him back.”

            “Good to know Pyrrha. And I think we know where to look.”

            “So when are we leaving?” Jacob asked.

            “As soon as Christy gets me up and running and she has some time to rest to regain her aura.”

            “I’m done. Just give me something to eat and I’ll be ready to go in 15 minutes.”

            “All right then. Let’s go get that numbskull back.”

 

 

 

 

The moon was completely full, he had been running all day, but Nathan didn’t even feel tired. He just kept running. He saw the twin mountains in the distance and continued forward. He reached the outskirts of the town in about two minutes. He was where his old house used to stand in even less time. The entire town was nothing but burnt rubble and slight traces of ash from the fires that hadn’t blown away in the wind. As soon as he reached his goal, only then did he fall to his knees in exhaustion.

            “Ember…..I don’t know what to do anymore. I finally found the guy who started the chain reaction that killed everybody, but nobody would let me have my justice! Miles killed you! He made the choice to try and save everybody, but he didn’t think of the consequences! He didn’t think to try and be smarter! Be safer! Why did he kill everybody? Why did he kill you?” Nathan continued to sit there, not moving an inch as the wind howled through the night.

            “I’m sorry Ember. I just…when that memory came back, I didn’t know how to feel about it. I mean, this guy is my teammate. Sure he attacked my sister, but he has come a long way from there. He’s actually got Natls comfortable enough to leave her hood off when hanging out and training with him. I don’t get it. We worked so hard to find the person responsible, and when we do find one of the two responsible, Natalie wants to protect him. I don’t get it. I just wish you were here right now. I miss you so much. I lost my blood family, and you; you were like a second mother to me. I can’t do this alone. I need guidance. I need answers. Please Ember. You always…. you always knew how to help me.” Nathan at this point started crying. He just sat there and wept, not caring about anything else in the world.

 

 

 

 

            “Let’s get moving. With some luck, we should be able to reach Aequo about two hours before first light.” Natalie directed everybody aboard the airship, as her team, Team JCTB, JNPR, and RWBY joined them as well.

            “We need to take off now." Miles said as he grabbed a ceiling strap to keep himself up.  "I don’t want to find a giant Grimm horde right on top of Nathan once we get there.”

            “What makes you so sure there might be Grimm Miles?”

            “For starters, that town has been abandoned for seven years now. It’s a perfect place for Grimm to fester overtime. Secondly, Nathan is completely driven by emotions right now, and I can guarantee all of them are negative. So if we want to save your brother, I suggest we start moving now. It’s an hour long flight, so anybody who needs sleep I suggest you get it now. We might have a long battle on our hands.” With that said, Ruby, Nora, Christy, and Natalie all grabbed a seat in order to catch some rest before the big battle. But as Natalie drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but picture everything before the tragedy all those years ago.

 

 

 

 

As the moon continued to shine, Nathan didn’t move one inch from where he was sitting. Atop the mountain, a Nevermore was perched there, not making a single sound. Then, all of a sudden, Nathan let out a cry of pain, and the Nevermore cried out as well. And all of a sudden, a giant horde of Griffons flew over the mountain’s peak, and started diving towards Nathan. He just simply looked up, saw them coming, and closed his eyes.

            “I will not let you desecrate her memory.”

Author's Note

Please review/enjoy!

Reviews

[Shep]

So that was interesting as the plot continues as we learn more and more about what took place. now I understand Nathen a little bit more. Another Awesome Chapter as the team hurries to catch up to him before he does something stupid. Moving on to the next page. Please be kind and return the love.