Chapter 42: Alliance - II
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"What's that?"
"A type-51, formerly covenant, carbine." Thel explained amusedly as they passed the guard and continued on, following the commander through Sunaion's winding halls. "It fires an eight point seven by sixty millimetre caseless radioactive shell at medium ranges. The shells break apart inside targets, inflicting poisonous results."
"That's metal…"
"Mostly, yes." Thel rumbled, "Myself, I prefer it to similar weapons of its kind."
"Yeah?"
"The Focus Rifle, for one." He shrugged, "It sears through its targets well enough, but even Human armor requires time for it to do its deed. The Needler Rifle is better, but…"
"But?" She said, slipping ahead of him just enough to turn and grin up at him, pacing along backwards and trusting him to keep her from running into anything.
"I do not trust that which makes itself appear so mundane, yet is still so mysterious." He rumbled, "Even the Covenant was not entirely sure how the needle cells produced the ammunition they used. All we knew was that they grew. Only the Prophets might have gleaned more, but they are gone."
"By your hand." The Commander pointed out, "Your hand drove them, and their knowledge, into the grave."
"Would you have preferred I bow my head, and allow it to be removed by their betrayal?"
The Commander's silence was answer enough for his satisfaction.
Finally, they reached what, by the venerable statues of armored Sangheili looming to either side of the door told him, must have been the Kaidon's council chamber. Before the Storm had taken it, and likely his head with it. Looking more closely, he could see that some of the neo-laminate panels that made up the walls were the slightest bit of a different hue of purple. Newer, lacking the age of those around them. Likely replaced because of battle damage they had sustained in the taking of the city.
A tragedy…
He steeled himself, ignored it, and followed the Commander inside.
The room inside was simple, for the lesser Kaidons of Sunaion had always been of the more modest, humble and spiritual of the group. At least, by Kaidon standards for the words. Instead of the some-what more traditional neo-laminate, the floor and walls were made of dark, smooth and polished stone. The ceiling was as well, though it had been painted over in a beautiful rendering of the mist and fog filled seas around Sunaion.
"Jul M'Dama decreed much of what was left by the previous Kaidon be changed, or destroyed." The Commander hummed when he caught them all looking at the mural. "I convinced him to leave that one, however."
"Good." Weiss murmured, "The destruction of art should never be done so carelessly."
"You speak as one with a reason to feel powerfully for it, Woman."
"Weiss. Or Specialist Schnee, to you." She snapped sharply, flicking the amused looking Commander a look before she cast her gaze back up. "And… Where I come from, we've a history with such tragedy."
"Oh?" The Commander chuffed and paced to the far end of the flat room, where a simple cushion sat. The only like it in the whole, wide room. As he sat, his guards took up a place beside him. Gesturing at her, he grunted, "I should think a Godling would not be able to make such mistakes."
"I…"
"We were made by the Gods, and long, long ago, we lived with them." Ruby stepped up, in front of Weiss and even Thel himself. A hand balled in her skirt, but she raised the other, pressed it to her heart, and said, "We're not perfect. We make mistakes, especially when we're scared. And our world… You'd understand how scared we are if you lived there."
"Spoken like a Human."
"And a Sangheili warrior." Thel rumbled, laying a hand on her shoulder and stepping to her side. "Beasts ravage their world. Innumerable, unending, and lured by everything which makes they are. Thoughts, feelings-"
"Such as cowardice."
"Such as fear, yes." He nodded, "But also rage. Sorrow. Tell me, Commander, have you never felt these things? When the Council were slaughtered, did you feel no rage? When your kin fell, to blade or bullet, you felt no sorrow? When the Covenant fell, you felt no fear of the future?"
"...I did." He rumbled, finally, "Do not seek to shame me."
"I do not." Thel assured him, "I seek to explain. Imagine if each time you felt that, great, black beasts came from every direction, intent on feasting on your bowels. But more. Every time a child cries, they come. Every time a kinsman feels sorry for another's loss, yet more. How many days do you know which hold none of such simple shadow?"
"Few…" The Commander hummed, then gestured at the room around him. "Sit, then. I have been bidden to speak with you, and so I shall hear what you have to say. For your sake, I pray you have more than mere tricks to show me."
"Mere tricks-" He laid a hand on Weiss' shoulder to quiet her murmuring, and gestured for her to sit.
He took the center of the room, with Ruby to his side and Weiss on his other, while the Spartans arranged themselves behind him and Neo leaned against the wall beside the door. Even Jorge, who thus far had said and done nothing but curl and uncurl his fists. Surrounded by so many Elites, Elites who swore by the olde doctrine of Human eradication, no less, he was more than merely impressed by the man's self-control. Though he could tell from the way Frederic and Kelly stayed on his flanks that he was not the only one aware of the man's internal divisions.
If Jorge acted on his rage, they would intervene. It would be disastrous for them even so, but less than if he was allowed to bleed Sunaion.
Each of them sat how they wished. Thel, with his legs folded under him so that he could rest on his haunches. A traditional way of sitting, and one that conveyed respect to the Kaidon whether he truly felt it or not. The Spartans each merely knelt on one knee, while Ruby crossed her legs lazily and drummed on her thighs. Weiss, though, sat more daintily, more properly, with her legs folded but tucked to the side and her back straight as a rod.
"Now, these tricks." The Sangheili grunted, legs crossed before him and hands resting on his knees. He gestured towards them and grunted a simple command, "Speak."
"Schnee." Thel volunteered, "If you would."
"Our Semblances, which is what our abilities are called, come from our Aura." She explained, resting one hand on Myrtenaster's hilt at her side and raising the other. A shimmering white glyph bloomed to life and from it sprang a Lancer no bigger than her palm. At a nod, it flitted away to land on the Kaidon's leg.
His guards reacted at that, stepping forward protectively, but the Elite held up a hand to stop them. "I can handle one mere bug."
"Can you?" Thel perched his mandibles as the bug vanished and she made the calculated, but potentially oh-so convincing, play he had suggested to her. According to their plan, she pressed her palm to the floor grunted. Another glyph spun behind her, in the space the Spartans had left, and from it came a true Lancer, stalking forward on its tall legs. Even the kaidon flinched at its sudden appearance and Weiss offered, quietly, "It's only a mere insect, after all."
"You would do well not to threaten me." The pale Commander rumbled, "You are here to speak, but I prepared to war even so."
"No threat." Weiss assured him, dismissing the summon with little more than a wave. "Only a demonstration of my power. The power of my soul."
"Your… Soul?"
"Our Auras are extensions of our souls, our very essence, coming forth to defend us from harm." Weiss took a breath and then stood, hands clasped behind her waist, and smiled thinly. "Your guards are armed. If you wish, feel free to test me."
For a moment, all was quiet. Only the distant, dull thumping and thrumming of the great desalination plants could be heard, rumbling in the background.
"Test you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She raised an eyebrow, "I'm suggesting they shoot me. I'm unarmored, as all can see, but my Aura will protect me."
Beside him, he sensed Ruby stiffen for her anxiety and understood. This was another gamble they had all agreed upon, but it was the greatest of them all. Plasma was a liquid, and he had seen it stick onto armor plating it couldn't simply cut through. So it was possible that it could adhere to her as well. The heat was also intense, and he had learned from Banesaw that it was possible to hurt one through Aura if you applied enough directed heat.
When she made no move to retract her offer, the Commander raised a hand and beckoned the Sangheili to the right forward. "You heard here, Ra'Nas. You are young, and unblooded when it comes to Humans. Are you not?"
"I am, Kaidon."
"Then strike her." He grunted, "Test her claims for me."
The Sangheili said nothing, only drawing his weapon and flicking the switch on the side. It hummed quietly and he cocked his head as he raised it and paused, for only a moment. No doubt he was considering the laws that protected Thel and his entourage. Even invited to do so as he had been, if he fired and killed a guest - and a woman who had not attacked anyone at that - his name and hand would be blackened for the rest of his likely short life.
But Weiss spoke, voice quiet but firm, to offer him some measure of mercy, "What are you waiting for? Me to die of old age?"
The Elite didn't answer her.
Instead he tensed his shoulder and fired.
The first burst of plasma caught the pale woman in the chest and drove her back a step, amr splaying out to either side. The second and third caught her in the stomach before her back hit the wall and the pale Commander barked a simple, "Enough."
Weiss sank to a knee against the wall, hands swiping against her stomach quickly and smoke rising from her curled form…
Then, she grunted and rose, pushing off the wall and straightening with a sigh. The front of her uniform had been burned by the heat, and her bared stomach and the bit of skin below her neck he could see was red. But she was uninjured and, as they watched, she flared her Aura. It was wasteful, to be sure, but her skin healed rapidly as they all looked on, and she shimmered all the while.
All according to plan…
"The power of the soul…" The Commander murmured as his guard holstered his weapon and returned to his post. Quietly, he asked, "And you possess this as well, Arbiter?"
"I do." As she had done, he focused and flared his Aura. It was weaker than hers, and left him more fatigued, but the dull purplish color lit the room well enough in spite of it. Quietly, he explained, "It was granted to me when I stepped into fire to save children of their world. Of Remnant."
"I see…" The implication, and tacit deceit, went unsaid - that the gods had rewarded his service with his power.
But then, who was to say surely and honestly they had not? He certainly had no evidence. A grey area, where honor and integrity was concerned. But then, when compared to the future of his people, what did he truly care for either of these?
Very little, as it turned out… At least here and now.
"We have one more item of proof." Thel rumbled, drawing the pale Sangheili's attention back to him. Quietly, he turned to Ruby and asked, "If you would permit it, Ruby?"
"Y-Yeah." She nodded and stood, pacing forward and reaching behind her waist. The guards tensed, but relaxed when she brought the lamp around her. Gently, she sat it in front of the Kaidon and backed away, leaving it to float freely in front of.
"What… Is it?"
"One of four Relics, left behind by the Gods to help Humanity." Ruby explained quietly, "The four are Choice, Knowledge, Creation and Destruction. Each is, um, connected to one of the four Maidens."
"That is what the small one is." The Kaidon rumbled, "Correct?"
"Mhm!" Ruby nodded, "Neo is the Fall Maiden. This one was, um, g-guarded by Spring."
"And where is she?"
"On Remnant." Thel offered gently, "Maide or not, there are… Complications surrounding her."
"Complications?"
"She's my sister's mom, but kinda ditched her at birth to go… Be a bandit." Ruby explained quickly and quietly, and then, when the Kaidon cocked his head, added, "Like I said, fear makes people do things."
"Indeed." He nodded, "And, forgive me, but it sounds more and more like you are not what you claim."
"W-What?"
"The Arbiter called you Godlings." The red-eyed Kaidon rumbled forebodingly, "Yet the more I hear, the more you are mere Humans. Humans with what appears to be technology well beyond our knowledge, but Humans nonetheless. So, and I speak frankly in the interests of the requirements of peaceable summits such as ours, I must demand proof. Here, now, beyond a shadow of a doubt of any sort."
"Very well." Thel rumbled, "Ruby, if you would."
"Okay, um…" She paused to take her breath, and then spoke, "Jinn!"
Instantly, the world around them shifted. The lamp began to glow and rose, floating up towards the center of the roof of the council room. The distant rumbling, omnipresent whenever Sunaion was whole, faded away to utter still silence. Surprised, the Commander barked an order at his guards-
"I am afraid that time pauses, when I am called." Jinn cut him off, unfolding and stretching out along the ceiling as she came into being. She turned to him and smiled, "A pleasure, Ara'Kum Valum. Or would you prefer I call you 'the Red Eye of the Shadows'?"
"The Shadow?!" Thel grunted in surprise, "But he was a Blade- He died with the fall of High charity!"
"That he did." Ara'Kum rumbled, looking up at the blue woman. "Along with all who knew his face beyond those eyes. So distinctive, yet, not quite rare enough to catch me out. And as a marksman, who would think it?"
"No one." Jinn hummed, then cast her gaze to the side and hummed, "Well, aside from one man…"
"Who?"
"I am not bound to answer your questions, Sangheili." Jinn brushed him off, resting her chin in a palm and turning to Ruby. "I am only bound to answer those of Humanity. Or, well, the people of Remnant, now, I suppose. Especially the clever ones."
"I-I'm not-"
"Do not discount yourself, Ruby Rose. We both know who came up with this part of your clever little plan." Jinn cut her off, leaning down to press a gentle pat to the woman's head and drawing a surprised squeak from the woman. As the limb withdrew, Jinn ran a finger through her hair and said, "Ask your question, Ruby."
"Okay…" Ruby sighed, and asked, "What do the Gods want?"
"A good question…" Jinn rose and, after a moment, the world faded to white. They all rose as it did, the Kaidon's bodyguards closing with him protectively.
Suddenly, the golden god appeared before them, stunning and radiant, "I believe that my plan will succeed, Brother. In time."
"Unity from the Humans? Peace and understanding? Oh, yes, I understand your ideals on how to attain our vision all too well…" His dark kin, on the group's other sighed, rumbled as he paced. As he moved, the world darkened and the light rippled, "Brother. I understand your love of the creatures, but we have a spare. Why are you so fixated upon that little world?"
"It was our first creation…"
"And that makes it special?"
"To me." He nodded and turned, staring over them at Darkness and sighed, "Is t not to you?"
"I…" Darkness sighed, "Well, I suppose it was nice. To live among them."
"I knew you, in your heart-"
"It was so nice, tailoring my Grimm to fight their pathetic Kingdoms." Darkness sighed, cutting off Light who could only shake his head. Then, suddenly, Darkness turned, eye glowing brightly, "Brother, do you…"
"I sense it, yes." Light looked right, then slowly turned left, eyes roving over them and passing by. Then they froze…
And swiveled back.
"I see… Jinn." At her name, the woman appeared before them, kneeling on the floor and bound in thick chains that kept her tied, arms taut to either side and calves affixed to her thighs by more gilded bindings. A chain around her neck kept her head pulled back, back arched almost painfully and gaze trapped staring up at the sky.
Gone was her blue skin, though. Instead her skin was dark, like caramel, and her red eyes sparked with sudden pain.
"Someone has asked you a Question, and you have shown them us. Not a vision of the past, as so often before, but… Presently." Light murmured as Ruby paced by, looking down at the woman. Thel joined her, slipping by the other Sangheili who were too transfixed to react. As he reached the bound woman, Light asked, "What did they ask, that you would show them to us?"
"I…" Jinn looked up, into Thel's eyes, and he could see the fear and pain, there… Which vanished under certainty.
Suddenly the vision died, and Thel and Ruby grunted as they fell back into the spots they had been sitting in. The lamp clattered to the floor a moment later, chipping away the old stone and rolling as its light faded. It was still present, of course, but so much duller now that its powers had been exhausted.
Quietly, he heard Ruby mumble, "You saw her, right, guys…?"
"She's a prisoner." Weiss nodded, voice mournful as she reached out to pick up the Relic. "What could she have done…?"
"Something which angered the gods." The Red Eye grunted as he paced over to the Arbiter and Thel rose. Their gazes met and held, for a long, long time before, finally, the kaidon said, "It's… True, isn't it? You stand beside these people-"
"I serve them." He corrected, and then added when Ruby turned to him with wide eyes and an argument to make, "In my own, chosen way. As a shield and as a sword. To guide Remnant to unity and, perhaps eventually, to the Gods' return."
"And you have returned to this end?"
"I have." Thel nodded, "Remnant is stricken by manythings. Much borne by the Grimm. The beasts of which you spoke."
"The Gods created them, too."
"As tests." He half-lied. In truth, he believed that was why they remained. Or else, why would the Gods have left the Grimm pools? Surely, they were not so foolish as to merely leave behind a people to be menaced.
Surely.
"Then, a twist of fate brought me to Remnant." He answered, "To these people, whom I now call my allies. And what came as reward? The power of my very soul."
"I see…" Suddenly, the Elite straightened, backed away, and then knelt, head bowed. His guards did the same with zero hesitation. Quietly, respectfully, the Elite said, "I can promise nothing but myself, and my honor. I will speak to Jul M'Dama. But, for now, I will commit all I have to this fight."
"Good." Thel rumbled, gesturing with a hand for the Elite to stand. He did, but his guards remained kneeling, and Thel allowed it. Firmly, he said, "I will have you coordinate with these Humans I have brought. We must move with haste and send aid to their world, and word around our own."
"It will be the rebirth of the Covenant." Red-Eye swore, pounding a fist to his breast, "For Gods seen by my own eyes at that! It will be done."
Thel nodded and stepped aside as Weiss stepped forward with words prepared by Ironwood himself weeks prior, when the Slip-Space engine was only being tested.
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"Where did it come from?!" Ironwood demanded hotly as his airborne forces slipped over Menagerie's mountains and turned to bring the better part of their cannons to bear. "How was this missed?"
"From Menagerie's far end, General." One of his officers reported as the ship trembled - the dull echo of artillery batteries firing. "It-It moved with the storm!"
"Damn it…"
On his view-screen he watched as a titanic, Leviathan class, Grimm steadily trundled toward the mountains. It was slow, a great turtle the likes of which he'd only seen once, in a history book. But its massive armored carapace, bone white and lined in angry red lines, was impervious to their weapons. Layered armor protected its head as well, and even when they did manage to score a strike along its neck or leg, its blood fell away and brought even more Grimm into being.
"Move ships to its flanks, draw its attention!" He snapped, reaching for his comm-line and broadcasting openly, to his fleet and Menagerie and anyone else with a communicator within broadcast range, "Attention, attention. Leviathan class Grimm is on approach. Civilians, prepare for evacuation. Atlas, prepare for battle. We will bring it down with enough time and-"
"Sir, thermal signature!" An officer cut him off, "A-And its massive!"
"From where?" He demanded as he lowered the Scroll in his hand.
"Above us, Sir!" She reported, "I-I don't know what it could even-"
Suddenly, a lance of brightest violet and white came down as if the gods had seen fit to hurl their fury from the heavens. It slammed into the creature's back, sending melted bone and liquid wrath pooling and sloughing down its side. The camera-feed flickered as it switched to a top-deck mounted view, and Ironwood's jaw dropped.
"Hails, Humans and Faunus alike, and take heed!" A voice echoed over his open comm-line, using the same broadband techniques as Ironwood had been doing and picky-backing Atlas communication lines as well. "This is the Shadow of Intent. Fall back, and leave the beasts to us. We will burn their hides!"
As the ship's fire ended, a dozen smaller craft descended, sleek and purple hurled. They halted high above and sent lances of what Ironwood knew now was plasma fire carving down amongst the Grimm. Swarms of even smaller craft soon came into view.
Transports…
"They did it." Ironwood murmured as he fell into his rarely-used seat. "They actually did it…"
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Okay, so, one more chapter, which will be an epilogue. Just to tidy things up.
I will say that Thel's word alone, and Red-Eye's, won't magically end all aspects of the Sangheili civil war. And other factors will also persist, such as the Banished… Existing. And other, similar cults. And while Neo's magic, and everyone's Semblances, will convince many not all will believe what has been said for those reasons either.
All this has done is strengthen Thel's position and gain him some allies.
I won't say any more, though. I don't even like saying this, but I wanna cut off people complaining to this end just to save time, lol.
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Nantono :
These are all good theories, and I've a feeling some of what has been said in this chapter may lead you to more, lol.
The Right Price :
Glad you like it!
You're right that Ozma would be a potent tool to employ in this, but he's unavailable AND not very trusted by literally anyone involved either. For very solid reasons, too. So no one wanted to employ it, though future developments COULD alter that.
The UNSC would probably be very interested in a technical-immortal, too. Also something that may be developed later.
What the Gods are is up to interpretation. BUT, they are at least alive. Make of this what you will.
Salem's future may be touched on in another story, later. But for now, no comment~
Crawl56 :
Everyone wants them in everything.
Dragon Lord Draco :
I mean, what Humans have Sangheili met who could float and cause weather changes? Lol.
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