Episode 3: Chapter 8: Ascension

Chapter 8 of Episode 3 of War of Seasons

            Yang and Gray continued to cut through the hordes of Red Grimm standing in their way, trying to reach Ember.  Despite the cries and pleas from their comrades to stay with the group in the defensive circle, the two of them pressed on, with no regard for their own lives.  Yang screamed out Ember’s name repeatedly, while Gray continued to beg for Nathan to stop.  But their words fell on deaf ears, as Nathan continued to raise his blade for the killing blow.  But then, in an instant, two orbs of light appeared as if out of nowhere from the sky, and flew straight towards the young Ember.  One of the orbs flew right in front of Nathan’s face, and flashed a bright light, causing him to lose his balance.  The other started to lift Ember up off the ground.  A split second later, the orb that was distracting Nathan flew back and helped lift Ember up, and flew her off into the distance, not even slowing down for one second.  Yang and Gray finally reached where Nathan was just as Ember flew out of sight, everybody not sure what had just happened.

            “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!” Yang yelled at the top of her lungs.  Nathan regained his bearings, and looked around for Ember.

            “Where is the pretender?” he said in a bit of a daze.  “What…..”

            “Forget this!” Gray yelled leaping straight into battle.  Nathan quickly realized what was going on and deflected the attack.  As Gray regained his footing, Yang used her gauntlets to propel herself forward towards Nathan, and landed a punch square on his jaw.  This sent Nathan sliding back a short distance, forcing him to take his blade and strike it into the ground in order to stop his momentum.  Before he could retaliate, Gray and Yang were both right on top of him, relentlessly attacking without pause.  Gray morphed his metamorphic metal into twin short swords and forced Nathan to try and react quicker than against a normal sword, while Yang kept punching Nathan in critical areas to drain his aura and cause small amounts of damage.  Nathan had to quickly activate a defensive aura burn to try and turn the tide.  However, being prepared for this tactic, Yang and Gray relentlessly attacked the defensive burn, trying to keep Nathan focused on defense rather than preparing an attack of his own.  And on the surface, it appeared to be working.  Nathan wasn’t moving at all.  He was practically rooted in his defensive position.  However, when it seemed as if they were about to break through his defenses, the ground started to shake.  Gray and Yang were knocked off balance as the land beneath them started cracking beneath them, giving Nathan a chance to lower his burn and stand back up.  But instead of attacking the two of them outright, he raised his hands to the sky.  As soon as he did so, the ground cracked and shook some more, causing a slab of the earth to rise up, with Nathan, Ozpin’s unconscious body, Gray, and Yang all on top of it.  The slab started to rise into the sky, growing ever closer to the red veil that hung above everything.  Nathan smiled, and picked up his blade to strike down Yang and Gray while they were still rising.  However, just as Nathan was growing closer to where Gray was struggling to get back up, Yang launched several rounds from her gauntlets to keep Nathan back long enough for Gray to get back up.  Nathan saw this tactic, and tried to attack Gray despite the distraction, but to no avail as Gray dodged out of the way and regrouped with Yang.   Nathan smiled and looked straight up, as the death veil was growing ever closer.

            “None of you can stop what I have begun” he said pointing his sword at the two of them.  “I will make this world better.  I will save this world!”

            “Oh my gosh!” Yang yelled as she charged Nathan.  “You are a million times worse than a broken record!”  She fired several shots to try and force him back before rushing him and attacking him head on.  She tried punching him in the shoulders, but Nathan deflected these attacks and parried the punches from Yang easily.  The two of them continued to fight like this.  Yang trying to gain ground in her close quarters combat tactics, with Nathan matching her blow for blow.  Gray debated joining the fight but elected to keep his distance as it was clear that his mother was on the warpath, and he was a bit frightened about what would happen if he got in her way.  The battle continued, and the platform they were standing on grew closer and closer to the veil.  Gray grew more and more fearful of the impending fate that awaited them if they continued to remain on the platform.

            “Mom!” Gray yelled as Yang continued to press her attack.  “We have to go!”

            “Not until I finish this!” she yelled back as she managed to connect a solid punch on Nathan’s jaw.  Nathan winced due to the punch but landed a powerful counterattack punch of his own that sent Yang flying off the side of the platform.  Gray leapt after her, leaving Nathan to increase the speed of the platform towards the veil.  As he approached the giant red barrier, his body became even more imbued with the powers that he had taken from Mortem’s body, and he passed right through the veil without any issues whatsoever.

            “Time to finish this” he said with a laugh.  He reached where the relics were hovering just over the barrier, and reached his hand out.  The Relics then started to glow, and a stream of energy began to flow between the two of them.  From there, Nathan took his other hand, and let the stream of energy flow through Ozpin’s unconscious body as well.  Moments later, the barrier began to slowly descend upon the world, killing anything that came into contact with it, including the birds.  “Time to replace this world with a better one.”

 

 

 

            Yang was struggling to keep conscious as she fell.  Her entire body was still in excruciating pain from the attack that Nathan landed on her.  Gray was right behind her, trying to reach her before the ground did.  He took his weapons, and morphed them into a giant metal whip that he used to grab his mother and reel her in closer to him.  He shook her a bit, trying to snap her back to her senses.  But to no avail.  Yang was drifting in and out of consciousness.  Not sure what else to do, Gray positioned himself so that his mother would fall on top of him when they hit the ground and he would cushion her fall.  He wasn’t sure how much aura he had left, nor how quickly the Red Grimm would be on top of the two of them, but he decided to gamble with the chance that he had enough to not just survive the fall, but also stay conscious so that he could defend himself and his mother until she could get back on her feet.  But just before that could happen, he felt as if his entire body grew lighter. Looking around, he saw the original defensive circle that the others had created earlier, and saw that Miles was pulling them towards the rest.  The circle had become much more of a perimeter.  The Grimm being controlled by Hera were dealing with the majority of the Red Grimm, while a few Huntsmen and landed airships helped as well to keep people in the center of the circle safe.  The injured and leaders were in the center of the circle doing whatever they could to help.  Miles continued to slowly lower Gray and Yang, but he was clearly struggling with trying to help the both of them.  So Sora flew up and helped guide them back to the center of the circle.  Once they landed, Christy and Bovia tended to their wounds, making sure they were all right.

            “What happened up there?” Jacob asked walking over to the two of them.  Yang was still in a daze, so Gray responded,

            “We couldn’t beat him.  And now he’s up there literally bringing death down upon us.”

            “You did your best” Jacob said patting Gray on the back.  “All we can do now is hope for the best.”

            “What hope do we have left?” Evan said as he stepped away from the defensive line to check up on everybody.  “We lost.  Nathan now has all the power he needs to do what he wants to do, regardless of the consequences.”

            “We’ve faced down a literal god before” Natalie said reloading her weapon.  “I think we can take care of my power-crazed brother.”

            “A valid point,” Ty said as he put his sword on his back, “but we could actually fight Mortem back on Vytal.  How do you propose we actually get through that literal red sky of death?”

            “I’m working on that part…” Natalie said with a sigh.

 

 

 

            Anima woke up with a start.  Quickly looking around, she saw nothing but chaos.  Grimm fighting Red Grimm, Huntsmen and Huntresses fighting for their lives, and of course, a giant red sky hanging above everything.  She slowly got up, grabbing her side in pain.  Looking around, she tried to see if there were any allies nearby that she could rally behind her.  But she saw none around.

            “I didn’t think he had it in him…..” she said as she started dragging herself away from the battle.  As she crossed a small ridge, she saw the wreckage of the command ship lying there in the rubble, nothing around but dead bodies.  She gritted her teeth, and made her way towards the ship.

            “What did you do, Memoriare?” 

 

 

            Ember was trying to process what was happening.  She was moments away from being killed by her own father, then a bright flash of light, and now she was flying faster than thought through the sky with two orbs of light orbiting around her.  She tried to process what was happening, but she was moving too fast to even notice if any of the trees had leaves or not.  Seconds later, they flew past what she thought looked like Vale, and then across the water over the bay.  She realized that she was finally slowing down, and could make out the island of Patch just on the horizon.  Seconds later, she was flown straight towards her house, through the front door, was brought back upright, and let down gently in her own living room.  The two orbs then floated right in front of her face, spun around, and made a beeline for Nathan’s old weapons, which were sitting on the mantle of the fireplace.  The orbs hovered around the clubs, and phased right inside of them, one orb to each club.  Then, there was a flash of light, and out of the clubs came two figures.  Ember shielded her eyes because of the bright light, and tried to adjust.  But seconds later, the light dimmed down a bit.  As Ember looked up, she saw two women standing before her.  One wearing a combat uniform holding a sword, the other a cat Faunus who was dressed much like Nathan did in all the old photos that Ember saw from her parent’s yearbook.

            “Who…?” Ember asked as she approached the figures.

            “Honestly,” the figure with the cat ears said with a sigh, “we were hoping we wouldn’t have to meet you like this.  Heck, the fact that we are here is just a testament of how bad things have gotten.”

            “Uh… you didn’t answer my question…..”

            “Right.  Sorry.  This is just a lot for us to take in.  Well then, the amazing woman to my left here is your grandmother, and I’m your father’s teacher and your namesake.”

            “Wait…. you’re…..”

            “Yep.  I’m Ember.  Nice to meet you Ember.”

Author's Note

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