Chapter XXX - Ad Lucem
Blake
There is darkness and pain.
Then there is light, white and blinding, and a high scream that goes on and on. An alarm, perhaps, blaring frantically. Heat, rippling over her in a scorching tide, and smoke, burning as she coughs and coughs and coughs, her body trying desperately to rid her of the poison she’s inhaled. Sharp shards gouging into her flesh, a pair of hands shaking her roughly, a voice calling out… Blake… Blake… Blake…
“Blake!”
Blake’s eyes snapped open and she coughed, her throat rough with dust and smoke, a stinging pain at her temple. Yang was looking frantically down at her, her weapons drawn. “Come on, get up, please,” she said, her voice pleading. “The Grimm are everywhere— we need your help.”
Blake drew her weapon and staggered to her feet, bounding off the slabs of broken concrete and onto the greasy grass that edged the road. “It’s what we trained for.”
She found herself back to back with her team, surrounded by a massing, roaring sea of Grimm. Faces snarled back at her— Beowolves, Death Stalkers, Nevermores, King Taijitus, Ursai, Boarbatusks, Creeps and all sorts of dark, howling creatures…
She brandished Gambol Shroud, furious as they all lunged as one, white claws flashing towards her. She pictured her home, her family, being threatened by those claws, that danger… and let her anger turn her into a spinning fury of flying bullets and slashing strokes.
She had only just plunged her sword into the roaring maw of a Beowolf before she yanked her blade back, whirling around with a slash, removing the head of an Ursa that had been leaping for her. There was no time to think or plan, only to act or die… and yet she knew that despite her best efforts, she was slowing and that they were being overcome by the sheer amount of Grimm. She saw Weiss disappear under a throng of tramping Creeps and saw Ruby lunge desperately to get to her— she saw Yang being set upon by a flock of Nevemores, before pain spiked through the Bond— and she coughed, black blood on her palms…
This is it, she thought dimly. I guess we couldn’t defeat them after all… Yang, Ruby, Weiss, I’m sorry… for failing, for not being enough...
Suddenly a cheerful scream pierced through the fog in her head— a familiar voice, coming from high above. “Head high and spirit up, Blake! These Grimm aren’t gonna burn themselves out, ya know!”
Blake’s head whipped around as she saw none other than a certain Nora Valkyrie streaking down from the sky, whooping joyfully as she rode Magnhild. The Huntress and her hammer smashed into an offending Death Stalker that had been scuttling towards Blake.
Blake’s heart began to pound with hope as she saw the other members of Team JNPR flood into the square, cutting through the throng of Grimm with lethal intent. There was Pyrrha, whirling and darting and slashing like a crimson tornado— Ren, tearing off the head of a Creep while using the rebounding force to kick a Nevermore into the side of a building— Jaune, making a brave attempt of his own and actually managing to slay an Ursa.
“Good fighting!” Nora said, chipper, giving a nod of acknowledgement to Blake before tearing off through the square in a roar of pink fury. Blake, impossibly, felt herself smiling before renewing her fight. The ache in her muscles seemed to fade, the fog of exhaustion clearing with new adrenaline.
I am a Huntress. I will not give up, and I will defeat whoever threatens my home!
She found herself back to back with Yang once more, both of them tag-teaming and giving a looming King Taijitu no mercy; Yang fired deadly rounds into the great unblinking eyes while Blake used the distraction to open up bloody wounds along its scales. With a hiss of fury, it faded into thick, dark smoke, carried away on the wind.
“You okay?” Yang panted, retracting her gauntlets and turning for a second to face Blake.
“Never better,” she said fiercely, flourishing her sword. “Let’s do this thing.”
“Yo, lovebirds! Wait for us!”
Blake’s eyes snapped to the right as she heard a yell cut through the din, and she grinned as she saw Sun and Neptune silhouetted on the sidewalk below a building. They both ran into the fray with identical cries of battle, bearing their respective staff and trident— and she felt another pang of hope. Six Huntresses and four Huntsmen. We can do this.
We must.
Yang shot her a determined glance, conveying all she needed to in a single look. At once, they charged as a team back into the fray, cutting a deadly wake into the Grimm. Slashing, hacking, plunging their way into a melee of red eyes and black ichor and dark fur; Blake let out a cry of anger and spun in a full circle, taking out five Ursai in one lethal slash of Gambol Shroud. As they collapsed and faded, Blake heard a great roaring above her head, and she looked up in alarm.
A fleet of dark military airships blotted out the sunlight, and as she watched, eyes wide in surprise, they dropped their load. A rain of military robots fell from the sky, guns at the ready, and in the middle of them was a group of five who were not robots— Blake let out a little gasp of mingled shock and joy as she saw it was the elder team, team CFVY, and Professor Port with them.
Oh, thank the stars. We’re saved.
She and Yang had gotten separated by then, overwhelmed by the reeking tide of Grimm, but Blake found herself pushed alongside Sun in the center of a circle of Grimm.
“How are you doing on this ever-so-peaceful day, Miss Belladonna?” he grinned, finding the energy to be playful amidst the throng of violence. He spun around, gasped in exertion, before roaring as he swung powerfully muscled arms up and brought his staff down in a broad arc, cracking down on the head of a Beowolf. It let out a wail of pain and fell on its side, smoking away in dark smog.
“Well enough, though I'd rather be reading a book, personally,” she said, wheeling around to shoot a bullet at a Creep that had been about to lunge for him. “Yourself?”
He spat blood onto the ground with a ferocious grin. “I’ve never felt more alive,” he said, before he spun his staff into a gun, shooting rapidly at a Boarbatusk. “By the way, your girlfriend looks like she’s in trouble. You should probably help her.”
“Thanks, Sun,” she said, firing another bullet into a Death Stalker before springing back and frantically looking around for Yang. There she was, cornered by a herd of Ursai, holding her own— but they would soon overwhelm her if she didn’t get help.
Blake was far enough away to see immediately that there was no way she could make it in time. Panic quenched the feeble hope in her heart, and she couldn’t tell whether it was Yang’s, thrumming through the Bond— or her own. Her ears flattened in terror, pinning flat to her skull.
But then an emerald-colored streak hurtled out from between two buildings.
Blake watched, taken aback, as the stranger tore into the ranks of Grimm, guns slashing about with blooms of bright green light. In moments, all the Grimm lay dead and faded; Blake’s ears shot up in surprise as she realized the stranger was none other than Emerald Sustrai— a foreign student visitor from Haven Academy, Sun’s school, here for the Vytal Festival tournament.
As she watched, Yang and Emerald began to exchange words. Blake took off, racing to get to Yang, and as she approached, she gave Emerald a grateful glance. “Thank you for helping her.”
“No problem,” she said gruffly, holstering her guns. “It wouldn’t be right, leaving someone to get eaten, now would it?”
She sprang off into the fray once more, leaving them to stare in shock after her before exchanging glances.
“Are you okay?” Blake said, parroting Yang’s earlier question.
“Shut it, kitten! We've got a battle to fight!” Yang darted past her, laying into a Death Stalker. Blake joined in, stabbing it in the eye, and they both called greetings as Weiss and Ruby joined them, the four of them falling into a perfect defense-and-offense tag-team.
Ruby fell from the thrashing tail of the Death Stalker, scythe flashing in a crimson blur. As she plummeted downward, she swung out Crescent Rose’s blade, slashing off the poisonous golden barb of the Grimm.
It let out a shrill squeal of agony as Weiss plunged her rapier into the soft skin around its neck. With a wheezing groan, it folded over and collapsed, fading to dust.
The mingled roars and screeches of the Grimm horde had faded into silence by then. Blake looked around the square in shock. Their numbers had swelled from the four of them to sixteen Huntresses and Huntsmen, along with the legions of Atlas soldiers. And the Grimm… they had all been slaughtered, leaving behind only a bitter tang of acrid smoke on the air.
“We did it,” she rasped, her eyes sweeping over the square. “We… we defeated them.”
Blake felt Yang come up beside her, slipping her hand into hers. “I knew we could,” she said softly. “Look, there.”
Blake’s eyes shot over to the raised platform in the square, where an Atlas airship had descended and now was humming softly. Outside, Emerald Sustrai and a tall boy with metallic hair had Torchwick pinioned between them. He looked furious, his green eyes crackling with anger, a bruise swelling his cheek where she'd kicked him. As she watched, he tossed back his head and spat, seething his words between clenched teeth.
“Finally caught,” Blake murmured. “As he should be.”
“Agreed,” Weiss said quietly, sheathing her rapier and nodding in their direction. “Our mission’s complete. We did what we came to do: bring peace again and stop the evils under the earth.”
“God— I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years.”
Blake looked out over the landing pads, to the glittering lake in the distance. The sun was setting, and the water was dazzling, sparkling like a trail of diamonds into the mountains. She idly stroked the golden waves of Yang’s hair as her partner rested her head on her lap. “Yes, well, after the all-consuming euphoria burns off, you’re bound to feel a bit exhausted.”
Yang yawned. “W— what now?”
“I’d suggest getting some sleep,” Blake said, stifling a yawn of her own. “Before we both keel over. We need rest, there isn’t a whole lot of time before the tournament, just a few weeks…”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to go back to Patch before the tournament. Dad makes some mean cookies, after he decided we couldn’t live off of microwavable macaroni for the rest of lives and he got off his butt and learned to cook decently…”
Blake frowned, crestfallen. “I’ll miss you. How long will you be gone?”
Yang shifted her head to look at Blake, brows furrowed. “What? No! Dad said that you’re coming too! And Weiss! Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, as a matter of fact, you didn’t,” Blake said with a laugh. “Forgot to tell me, did you? I'm not surprised.”
Yang stuck out her tongue. “In any case, you’re about to meet the ‘rent. So I’d prepare for that… I’m sure he’ll be tough on you. Only joking,” she added hastily, as Blake’s eyes widened. “He’ll love you, just like I do.” She curled closer, and Blake smiled at her.
“That’s good to hear.”
“Hey, you two!”
They both whirled around as a loud shout echoed out over the courtyard. Ruby and Weiss were standing in the distance, waving at them. “Come on! You can be all soppy later!”
Blake glanced at Yang. “Do you think they’ll come after us if we don’t obey?”
She groaned. “Probably. Let’s go.”
And as one, they turned and jogged back to the open arms of the school, where their team and family was waiting.