Chapter 6: Libera Me From Hell

The train was in motion, and rapidly picking up speed. We're eventually going to hit the wall that separates this tunnel from the center of Vale, Roman thought from the driver's seat, clutching the accelerator so tightly that his knuckles were turning white underneath the fabric of his gloves. Let's hope we survive the impact. He'd studied the map, and even did some recon in the area prior to moving to the train's starting location in Mountain Glenn. To help seal the cap of the tunnel, the Municipal Government of Vale had zoned and constructed a new courthouse on top of the old tunnel. To the public, it was a new official building to replace the seemingly ancient and crumbling courthouse. Very few of them knew that the citizens of Mountain Glenn were being eaten alive beneath that hall of justice. Roman spat in disgust. Government pigs. The lot of them.

He turned and left the engine, choosing to take refuge in the passenger car behind it. There he saw Neo sitting alone, a look of concern glued to her face. She stared silently at him. We should have helped them, she seemed to say.

"I...I wish we could, Neo," Roman answered. "But we've gone too far. The things I've done would lead me to at least a lifetime in prison. This," he waved his arms about, gesturing at the train. "Would be deemed terrorism. I could be executed. One act of redemption to stop Cinder can't erase my misdeeds against this kingdom." He sat down next Neo, his head hung low. "No, we're too far gone. Worse still, even if I did get a lesser sentence, Atlas military would probably disassemble you." He looked up and gazed into Neo's artificial eyes. "I've worked too damn hard to have you in my life again, Neo. Even in this incomplete form, you my most precious possession. I lost you once before. I won't do it again."

Neo looked at him sadly. But I'm not really her, she seemed to say. I am an echo of her memory.

"No," Roman said. "A father...a father should never bury their child. You may not be real in the sense that I am of flesh and blood and you are not...but you are still my little Neo. It's your job as my daughter to one day take care of me, and eventually lay me to rest. Not the other way around."

Neo seemed to sigh, but made no noise. What are we going to do, her body expressed.

He stared ahead, feeling the steel plates buckle and shake beneath him every time the train's wheels hit a flat spot on the tracks. He lit a cigar and inhaled deeply, savoring its sweet taste. He didn't know if he'd ever smoke another one after today. Turning once more to Neo, Roman never released his serious expression. "Neo, if I die, I want you to run away. Live with Red if you can, but otherwise, get as far away from Cinder's reach as possible."

She shook her head.

"Yes. Do as I say, sweetie. It's what's best. Also...I need you to record a message for me. Can you do that?"

Neo hesitated, not liking what she was being told to do. After a moment, she nodded. Yes, father. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when they opened again, the decorative, realistic eyes seemed to have faded away, revealing the mechanical cameras that hid beneath the doll like expression she held; she was ready to record his message.

Roman nodded. He inhaled his cigar once more before meeting Neo's gaze. "Hello...Ruby..."

Team RWBY and Doctor Oobleck stood on the roof of the caboose. "We need to move up to the engine!" he declared in a surprisingly commanding voice. "It'll be easier to navigate from the inside! No risk of losing our heads on the cieling of the tunnel that way."

Blake nodded and opened the hatch on the roof. What she saw made her heart sink. No, she thought. Suddenly, with her faunus hearing, she heard a terrible, metallic sound; the coupling was just released. "Run!" she cried, leaping towards the next car. No wanting to go against the faunus's judgment, the rest followed suit. The car soon fell away from the rest of the train.

"Why did it detach?" Yang asked. A loud, booming explosion quickly answered her question. A hole was breached in the tunnel, and metal shrapnel narrowly missed hitting Weiss in the head. "That's...not good, is it?"

Oobleck frowned and opened the hatch of the car they now stood on. He saw what Blake saw on the first car; a bomb. "No! No, no no no!" He leapt to the next car, and the next, and the next, checking them all as he went. "They all have bombs!"

Weiss nodded. "Pardon the language, girls, but can we kindly get the fuck off of this car before it explodes!?" Nodding, the four of them dashed after Oobleck just in time for that car to detach and fall away.

"Why are they blowing up the cars?" Ruby asked, confused. "It doesn't make any sense!"

Weiss risked a glance backward, and her heart skipped a beat. "Does anyone else, besides me, suffer from Ophidiophobia?"

"Ofideowhatnow?" Ruby asked as she turned. She quickly saw it, allowing terror to sink into her soul. A king Taijitu was slithering its way through the hole in the roof and was gaining ground on the train. "I sincerely hope that doesn't mean fear of snakes, because if it does then yes!"

Weiss nodded, and Oobleck yelled angrily. "They're letting Grimm into the tunnels! This tunnel ends in the City of Vale! The city may be wiped out by this sudden infestation!"

"Right," Yang said in a low whisper. "Reach engine, stop train, save Vale, make like a bread truck, and haul buns." She turned to look in front of her, sizing up the daunting task of stopping the train. "We'd better get a move on it!"

"Thank you, Neo," Roman said as Neo stopped recording. "But we can't get too ahead of ourselves, can we?"

She smiled faintly in return, shaking her head.

"We need to put up an act to the very end. Serve Cinder and win, or serve her and lose. Either way, we have to pretend to be Red's enemy. Should we run into any one member of her team, we need to keep that act up. Don't kill them, obviously, but put up a decent fight. Understood?"

Neo nodded.

"Go." He gestured toward the door. "If I know that girl like I think I do, she's already on the train. She's going to try and stop us." Nodding again, Neo left the room. Roman stared blankly at the door as it swung shut. He pulled out a small pocket watch; a gift from the real Neo one year for Father's Day. Checking the time, he saw that it would soon be sunrise. "It's going to be a long day."

Another explosion erupted behind them as the last car loaded with bombs exploded. Team RWBY stood petrified with fear at the sight of the Grimm that chased after them. It feels like my dream, Ruby thought. Almost. Not quite. But it's very similar. Opening the hatch of the current car, Yang smiled in relief. "No bomb here, guys! That must have been the last one." Hopping inside, she armed Ember Celica to prepare for a fight. The remainder of team RWBY were about to follow her, but a sudden volley of gunshots richocheted off of their Aura's; a troupe of White Fang agents were storming the roof of the train.

"This keeps getting better and better!" Weiss said angrily. Raising Myrtenaster, she prepared to use her Glyphs.

"Wait!" Ruby exclaimed. "You two go with Yang. Dr. Oobleck and I can cover the roof."

"Are you sure?" Blake asked.

Ruby nodded, hoisting Crescent Rose up to show her team. "I'm no good in close quarters. A boxer, ninja, and a fencer are much better suited for that job."

"Great observation, Ruby!" Oobleck exclaimed, ever the teacher even in such dire circumstances. "She's right. We'll be fine up here on our own."

Weiss and Blake nodded, dropping into the care below. Yang greeted them, having heard the discussion above. "Let's go," she said, warily watching for any new foes.

Weiss held a hand up to stop Blake. "Here," she said, handing her a magazine loaded with various elements of Dust. "This should help you. I was gonna give it to you as a gift later but, well, I think we'll need it now."

Blake smiled as she accepted the magazine. "Thank you," she said. Dropping her old magazine, she loaded the new one and could feel the different elements flow into her Aura and already begin to enhance her Semblance. The three girls moved forward, entering the next car.

They were surprised to find not a single White Fang agent in the car. Cargo boxes, tarps, large shipping nets, and heavy fabric straps designed to hold literally a ton in weight surrounded them, haphazardly filling the car. In the middle of the room, however, stood a single person. Standing two, possible even three heads shorter than the tallest member of team RWBY, her pink and brown hair rested perfectly where she had styled it. She held a parasol in her right hand, opened and resting against her shoulder. She gave the girls a polite, yet menacing smile, before she bowed in greeting.

"That's that girl that helps Roman," Blake pointed out.

Yang nodded. "She was also running away with him when they threw Ruby out of that window." The white and black members of RWBY felt the air change as Yang's rage slowly grew. Her eyes changed ever so slightly from their natural lilac, and were slowly growing more and more crimson. "Go," she said after a moment to Weiss and Blake. "I'll take care of her. You two stop Roman. Stop the train."

"A-are you sure?" Weiss asked. "We shouldn't split up."

"This is a family matter, Weiss. You of all people should understand that."

She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped herself. "Don't lose focus, Yang. She's tougher than she looks." With those parting words, she and Blake darted past their enemy. Surprisingly, she never attempted to stop them. She simply watched them go.

Yang smiled. "You're name is Neo, correct?"

Neo nodded with a polite smile, bowing once more. At your service, she seemed to say. If body language could sound sarcastic, hers most certainly did.

Slamming her fists together, Yang's Aura flared as the air temperature in the room began to rise. To her credit, Neo never broke a sweat in the heat. "Did you hurt my sister?"

Not that Yang would know, but Neo lied when she nodded her head.

Without another word, Yang charged forward with a yell. Her arms lit with fire, she began what she would remember one day as one of the fiercest fights she'd ever experience. Much like how the Malachite sister's secretly remembered their encounter with the blonde brawler with fondness, Yang too would look back on her bout with Neo as something special. Even in her rage, she knew a good opponent when she fought one. Before she had ever realized it, Neo had earned her respect.

Blake and Weiss moved forward through the train, advancing closer and closer to their target; Roman. There were only a handful of cars left after the rear half of the train split off to be giant bombs. Once more, however, one car away from the engine, they were halted. This time, it was a giant of a man. Or rather, a giant of a faunus. Blake couldn't make out his faunus features, as the over sized mask he wore obscured such aspects, but she and Weiss were both certain that he wouldn't go down without a fight. He was easily twice as tall as the girls, his muscles were so massive and toned that they seemed to be chisled from marble, and in his hands he held the most intimidating weapon that either huntress had ever seen; a chainsaw in the shape of a sword. For its size, it was clearly designed to be a two handed blade; he held it in a single hand, and he held it with such lightness that it seemed to weigh nothing.

He chuckled in a deep voice. "End of the line," he said, revving up the chainsaw.

God, if you exist, why do you create such monsters Blake asked. "We can take him together," she said to Weiss.

"No," Weiss said. "We're running out of time. You have the best chance out of the two of us of beating Torchwick. We need to split up...again." She sighed. "I don't like it either, but Vale shouldn't be too much farther away. Go. I can handle this...beast."

Blake resisted the urge to wince at the racial slur, but she also realized that this time Weiss was right. He is a beast. "Don't die on me. Can you imagine how awkward it'd be for me if I had to tell your family what happened to you?"

Weiss smiled. "Father would probably blame you and have you tried for murder. Don't worry, I'll live." Hopefully.

Blake nodded as she put all of her strength into her legs, running as fast as she could. "You're not getting past me, little girl!" yelled the man in the mask as he swung his mighty chainsaw blade. Blake activated her Semblance to dodge the attack before moving past him and through the door on the far side.

Even though Weiss couldn't see it, she could feel his cruel smile through the mask as he slowly turned to face her, making himself seem larger than he already was. "It's not so bad," he said aloud. "At least this way...I can finally kill a Schnee."

Shit, Weiss thought. Forcing her fears from her mind, she readied Myrtenaster. "Come try it you son of a bitch!"

Blake practically kicked the door in as she entered the engine. The door bounced off of the wall and shut itself behind her from the force. Warily, she entered further into the room, her eyes moving this way and that looking for her foe. Where are you?

A gunshot reverberated off of the metal walls, hurting her ears, and the bullet itself narrowly missed her cheek and imbedded itself into a crate. "Hello, little miss Kitty," came the disgusting voice of Roman Torchwick. He stepped out from behind a stack of crates, a sly, debonair smile plastered on his face. "It's been a few weeks since we actually fought face to face. Unless you want to count you and your friends trashing my Paladin. In which case...oh, how the weekend flies right by when you're having fun. Is it Monday already?"

Blake glared at him. How can a man smile like that and knowingly cause the deaths of hundreds of innocents? "Stop this train, Torchwick!"

"Oh?" he answered with a slight frown. "Still using a last name basis? I'm hurt. I thought we'd grown so close."

"You're risking the lives of innocent civilians!" she yelled. "and for what? A stack of lien?"

Roman shrugged with a bored frown on his face. "A little more than a stack, really."

"You disgust me!"

"You're not the first woman to say that to me. Probably won't be the last. That being said..." He quickly raised his cane and fired. Blake expertly dodged it and charged him, swinging the cleaver half of Gambol Shroud. Blocking it, Roman's coy smile returned. "Feisty little cat, aren't you? Here I was hoping you'd be all lazy and find a nice cozy place to nap."

"I've got a place for you to nap," Blake retorted. "In the dirt!" Swinging once more, she left an opening in her defense.

Roman laughed as he parried and struck at her opening. "Too easy!" He found out he was wrong however. His cane was stuck in an ice sculptor that looked just like Blake. He frowned. "Using dust to amplify that tricky little Semblance of yours," he muttered as he met the gaze of the real Blake. "That's just fighting dirty."

"Like you ever fight fair," she replied as she swung and barely missed. He leaned his body back to dodge, and in the same motion he kicked the ice clone to break it, allowing his cane to move freely once again.

"It'll take more that a bit of ice to stop me!"

"How about fire!" Folding the blade of Gambol Shroud, she began to shoot Roman wildly with fire bullets. He deflected them all expertly until she stabbed the ground, a technique she borrowed from Weiss, and a wall of stone lunged for him.

With not enough time to react, the stone hit him in the chest, disarming him and knocking the wind out of him as he fell backwards. He gasped for air for a moment. I suppose that's some sort of divine justice for hitting Red. He lay on the ground, preparing to stand up, when the Blake's blade found itself resting on his throat. He sighed. "You're no better than the rest of your kind," he taunted. "After all...you were once with them, weren't you?"

Blake hesitated. "They were different back then. They've become monsters since I was a child."

Roman smiled. "You've still killed your fair share of humans though, haven't you? No one holds a blade to a man's neck like this unless they've slit a few before." He chuckled. "So...do it. Kill me. Give into your animalistic desires, Kitty Cat." Don't call my bluff, he thought hastily.

She was hesitant and unsure, and Roman felt like taking that opportunity to disable her and render her unconscious. Can't kill her. She's Red's friend. She recovered from her confusion, however, and glared angrily at him. "No! I'm on the side of the law. And that's what you will be judged by. Not my anger." Using the butt of her pistol, she smacked the side of his head, knocking him out cold. Standing, with a sigh of relief, she approached the control panel and prepared to stop the train.

But there was something wrong. The brake handle was gone. She found were it was supposed to be, and she found the handle itself broken off and tossed aside, unable to be use. I can't stop the train! she thought fearfully. Before she could come up with a backup plan, the door she entered from was busted down, falling off of its hinges. Weiss's limp body was thrown into the room, and the man in the mask stepped over the door slowly, gripping his chainsaw menacingly. "Time to die, Schnee," he said.

Weiss coughed as she tried to stand up. "Not good," she muttered.

Blake, fearful for her team mate's life, took aim with her pistol and fired upon the man. He seemed irritated as the bullets barely missed him, and his gaze shifted to Blake. He stepped over Weiss's body and approached the faunus girl. Before too long, her magazine was empty.

"I like to savor the moment in which I kill my prey," he said. "I can't do that if you're going to be a nuisance." Blake didn't know how to stop him and she stepped back in an attempt to escape. She met the control panel, which impeded further progress. "I'll kill you, then the Schnee."

He raised his sword and prepared the strike Blake. In the blink of an eye, Weiss was on her feet with blade in hand. The man grunted as Myrtenaster was shoved through his back, piercing his heart. "The only one dying is you," she muttered in an exhausted voice. Pulling the blade out, the man collapsed onto the floor. His heart was no longer beating.

Weiss fell to her knees. "I...I've never killed before." Tears began to stream from her eyes. "I...I feel like I'm gonna be sick."

Blake rushed over and wrapped her arms around Weiss. "You did what you had to do. There's nothing to be ashamed of."

Weiss nodded. "Blake...have you...have you ever...?"

"Don't ask me. Don't ever ask me that question" Blake interuppted. "Because if you do, I'll be forced to tell you the truth. And that's one thing that I don't want to talk about."

"Right," the heiress responded. "The train?"

Blake shook her head. "We can't stop it."

Weiss's eyes narrowed. "God help us."

Ruby and Oobleck fought off the White Fang members and were sizing up the threat of the Grimm. "We will have a hard time fighting them in such a cramped tunnel," Oobleck explained. "But, we can't get them in the open. Hopefully, your team mates can stop this train. Soon, preferably. We're nearing the cap of the tunnel, if my calculations are correct."

Ruby nodded, staring down the armies of Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Ursi, and Taijitu. Turning she looked ahead of the train. Her heart sank. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"We'd better get inside! There's a solid wall ahead of us!"

Turning to see what Ruby was looking at, Oobleck's jaw dropped. "Get down!" he exclaimed. The two of them dove into the nearest hatch. Then came the sound of grinding metal, shattering stone, and the screams of civilians. The tunnel had been breached.

Song: Libera Me From Hell- Gurren Lagann Soundtrack

Author's Note

Happy Next Chapter! Sort of happy, I guess. I mean, shit's starting to go down. This will be the final parallel between Eternity Rising and Volume 2. Well, there will be the battle in the center of Vale, but that won't be where we end. No, where Volume 2 stopped with an obvious rest, we're only going to see the first part of a much larger conflict that will occur back to back. No rest for these characters! Five minutes of breathing time. Ten minutes tops. I'm having so much fun with this story again! Why did I ever go on a hiatus with it? Why!

Fun Fact: I don't work tomorrow (April 16, 2015), so I'm probably gonna spend that time writing fanfiction and editing my original work. Also, take a much needed shower. A nine hour shift in a fast food place makes you feel grimy, and its gross.

Fun Fact 2.0: Unless they lied to me, I should be getting a rather nice tax return soon. I will put that money towards publishing my book. I may disable my if that is the case, and pay for everything I need that way. What's left will stay in my savings account. So, that being said, if I finish editing, get my cover commissioned, and get the other bells and whistles, you'll be able to buy my book within the next month or two. Look forward to it! Especially since Eternity Rising is connected to this book. It's the story that I tied into my Shifting Remnant AU. It'll give you some context behind some of the Shifters that I've shown. Mainly Lia since she's the main character of the book.

Till next time!