Chapter 2

Broken

Lands Nikos

"Faster."

Pyrrha dove to the side, the flames still seared at her aura and she barely avoided the full blast from the woman.

"You must move faster Nikos." Growled the Maiden.

It had been the same routine for nearly a week now, or as best as she could tell it had been a week. The clouds above had never cleared in that time and an eerie glow suffused the entirety of the landscape. All she knew was that they had allowed her only a few hours of sleep, before they would drag her from the cell and throw her into another chamber.

In the pitch darkness the only thing that was visible were the eyes of the small Grimm they released into it. The creatures would have been laughably easy to destroy if she had a weapon, or her semblance actually worked.

She was left in the chamber for half the day and sometimes longer. With no weapon she was forced to fight every Grimm, mostly Beowolf's in hand to hand combat. It drained her aura, and in the complete darkness the relatively weak Grimm had the absolute advantage.

With every creature she killed a small light would flash on, a dim red bulb that barely illuminated the entirety of the chamber. The light would remain and she would rest, she could not sleep, but she rested. As soon as the light was extinguished another Grimm was suddenly in the room and she would have to fight once more.

By the end of the day, the dust from the disintegrating creatures covered her skin, it infused the air and made her cough.

She had no opportunity to further recover, after the chamber the false Maiden would retrieve her and they would spar. On the first day Pyrrha had tried to kill the woman, to try and complete her task and rid the world of her twisted form, the woman had laughed though and only toyed with her again.

The power of the Maidens was frightening, the woman had simply sat in the center of the small courtyard that was the sparring grounds. At first Pyrrha had not attacked, thinking it was a trap. After an hour though she decided if they wanted her dead she would be and leaping forwards struck out at the woman.

She had not even flinched at Pyrrha had lashed out at her, she was not an unarmed expert but proficient. Her attacks bounced off of the woman's aura, and only drained her own. Pyrrha had tried everything in her power to harm the woman but in the end it had done nothing.

She simply remained still on the ground a small smile on her face as Pyrrha vainly attacked.

After making her point the Maiden had lashed out with fire, completely draining Pyrrha's aura, throwing her backwards into a gigantic crystal with burns over her entire body. She had lost consciousness then, and had woken up in her cell in pain once more.

In the pale moonlight that filtered through the small bars of her cell Pyrrha had watched horrified as the skin grew back at an unnatural pace, smoking like the Grimm she had killed.

Since that first day the same schedule had repeated. Each night she was placed back in her cell, burned and broken where she recovered and was forced to endure it over again the next day. Perhaps most disturbingly was the fact that in the entire week she had not eaten, it had taken her several days to realize that she was not even hungry. She was tired, exhausted from what she was subject to but she did not grow thirsty.

Snapping back to the present Pyrrha winced as she tripped and fell, the false Maiden's fire consumed her again and she cried out in anger and pain.

Dark spikes grew from her hands, and not questioning them Pyrrha rolled back to her feet and lunged at the woman the new weapons raised ready to plunge them into her chest.

The false Maiden stopped moving and smiled as Pyrrha darted forwards. Enraged Pyrrha still attacked, and the spikes predictably snapped off where they encountered the aura of her opponent.

Reaching out the Maiden casually wrapped her hand around Pyrrha's throat.

"Very good, very good."

Pyrrha glared at the woman, "What did you do to me?" she gasped struggling to force the words out. Noticing that as much as her throat hurt her lungs were not crying out for air.

The false Maiden smiled, "Is it not obvious?"

With her other hand the false Maiden summoned a glass knife, and moving forwards plunged it into Pyrrha's chest.

The once red haired warrior winced and looked down at her chest. It smoked black, exactly like a Grimm would when injured.

The false Maiden casually dropped her.

Pyrrha collapsed on the ground and stared at the knife embedded in her chest.

"As I said, I've only brought to the surface what you truly are. You are a Grimm Nikos, and an extremely powerful one at that."

Leaning down the woman grabbed the knife and pulled it free.

Pyrrha gasped, it still felt like it was being pulled from her chest.

"How?" she gasped.

The false Maiden shook her head, "All in good time my dear. All in good time."

Vale Continent

Ruby

"We're not going to make it to a village tonight." said Ruby.

"We're out of food though!" said Nora, her stomach emphasizing the point rumbled.

"I have one packet of nuts left Nora, you can have those." Said Jaune as he set his shield down against a tree. Reaching around into his pack he extracted it and tossed it to the redhead.

Nora gleefully tore into the package and quickly devoured the snack.

"I suppose here is as good as anywhere to make camp." Said Ruby looking around the vacant road. Outside of settlements and protected areas the packed dirt was about the only thing Grimm would leave alone.

"This is not a well defendable position, we are completely exposed." Said Ren looking around the plains.

"Well it's make camp or keep walking, I'd rather we at least get some sleep. If we're going to be attacked here we can be attacked anywhere along the road." Said Jaune.

Ren tilted his head in agreement, "I will take first watch then?" he asked.

The two leaders nodded in agreement and silently the group stepped away from the road and producing bedrolls quickly spread them out. Nora already had a small fire in place.

Settling down Ruby stared up at the sky for several moment, the moon was almost completely healed at the moment with only a small sliver of cracked surface on its upper hemisphere.

With a sigh she vaguely wondered what everyone else was up to. With the CTT down and the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere they had been cut off from communication for days now. Small amounts of data had been making it to the towns and villages but that was through old style couriers, and some of the information was conflicting.

Atlas had been hacked, Atlas troops had been seen shooting civilians, Mistral was under attack, and that the White Fang had taken control of Vale.

So at the moment she was ignoring all of it. Until they got something more substantial she was going to ignore all of it.

Closing her eyes Ruby drifted off to sleep.

"Wake!" said Ren his voice urgent.

Ruby sat up and quickly grabbed Crescent Rose.

"Grimm, an Ursa and at least one Nevermore." Said Ren looking up at the sky.

Ruby glanced up as well spotting the darkening of the stars as it circled, the only indication it was present given how its pure black underbelly matched the sky.

Ruby glanced over at the other two, they were awake and Nora's hammer was already extended.

Carefully Ruby extended her scythe and looking through the scope lined up her gun with the darkness in the sky. She had high velocity rounds chambered at the moment, without bracing she would be spun backwards. Bracing the scythe to the ground would attract to much attention.

"AHH!" shouted Jaune, and charged forward into the darkness.

Ruby fired, before she completely lost the element of surprise on the large creature.

The loud retort echoed through the field, a screech of pain from the Nevermore.

Ruby was sent spinning backwards. Steadying herself she raised the scythe again and fired; not pinpoint this time but instead just in the general direction of the giant creature.

A screech rang out through the air and Nora, leaning back on her Hammer launched herself up at the black mass as it streaked down towards them one of its wings damaged.

Ruby glanced back to see the two boys had already dispatched the Ursa and were turning to face the Nevermore as it fell towards them. Nora let out a shout as she slammed her hammer down onto it's beak further confusing the thing as it plummeted through the air

Hitting the ground with a thunderous crash the creature appeared dazed for a moment. Ruby lowered herself and aiming her scythe backwards launched herself towards it.

The bird straightened up and let out another screech of pain and anger.

"Ruby!" shouted Jaune.

Leaping into the air she brought her blade down around the creatures damaged wing and severed it.

The bird turned to peck at her, and the remaining members of JNPR attacked its exposed neck as one, their movements hesitating for only a brief moment. As if they were missing an element of rhythm.

The creature collapsed and dissolved.

Ruby dropped to the ground and sighed, leaning on her weapon.

"What was that!" she asked.

Before anyone could answer Jaune turned on his teammate, and grabbed Ren's shirt.

"Just what was that!" he shouted.

The Ninja's eyes widened slightly.

"Jaune!" shouted Nora.

"You had the watch, and you don't warn us about the Grimm until they are right on top of us!?" shouted Jaune.

Ruby stared at him, his eyes were harder than anything she had ever seen on his usually peaceful face.

"I did warn everyone as soon as I detected them." Said Ren, his hands were on Jaune's although he was making not effort to remove them.

"Then you must have been half asleep! Someone could have died Ren!"

The boy raised an eyebrow.

"I am as aware of that as everyone else here."

"Let him go Jaune!" shouted Nora.

Jaune turned to glare at her, and dropped the Ninja.

"Nora, someone could have died! It could have been you!"

"No one even got hurt!"

Jaune scoffed and turned away from her. Going over to his matt he began to pack.

"Their might be more, and they'll just be attracted here. I doubt we'll be able to get much more sleep anyway. Let's get going."

Everyone else watched as Jaune packet, Ruby glanced over at his teammates. They looked as stuned as she felt.

"Jaune?" asked Ruby.

"What!" he snapped.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine let's get moving."

Vale

Blake

"This is not a good idea." Said Coco.

"But it is necessary." Said Blake as she stared at the older student from across the table. Her team and Blake were in the back of the refugee center on one of their sparse breaks.

"I can do it Coco!" said Velvet her ears perking up as she spoke.

"I have no doubt that you can, but it's still a tremendous risk." Growled Coco. Turning she looked at the Faunus that was on her team.

"If we want to make this convincing you're going to have to act like you absolutely hate humans. I can't see you doing that."

Velvet's ears drooped slightly, "Well no but,"

"She's right Velvet." Said Blake cutting her off. "If you're going to get into the White Fang you can't just leave the center, you're going to have to attack someone and run off. Even after that the White Fang will test you, have you attack innocent humans to prove your loyalty. The White Fang has been infiltrated by sympathizers before, and we always rooted them out."

Blake paused, "I rooted them out. You could see it in their eyes, the weakness. Or at least what I thought was weakness."

The group was silent for a moment.

"I still want to do it."

Blake looked at the woman for a moment considering her.

"If you're sure I'll tell you what you need to know."

Yatuhashi leaned forwards now, "Velvet, this will be the most dangerous thing you have ever done. Grimm are simple minded and predictable adversaries. The White Fang is not so predictable."

"I know that!" huffed Velvet.

Blake turned to look at the team leader, "well?" she asked.

Coco sighed and reaching up removed her sunglasses.

"I want to say no, but the two of you are right. We need information, and this might be the only way to get it."

"Then we're going to have to perform some theater, to make sure she has a credible enough reason to leave for the White Fang."

Blake turned to look at the other members of CFVY, "You're going to have to blame everything that happened on her and Faunus in general. The more vehement and nasty the accusations you lob at her, the more disgusting the insults the more secure her cover will be. Can you do that?"

The other members of the older team looked at one another and then at their Faunus team member.

"Velvet." Said Yatuhashi, trailing off somewhat.

She quickly nodded, "I know you won't mean any of it."

Yatuhashi closed his mouth and muttered something under his breath.

"What else do I need to know?" asked Velvet turning to look at Blake.

"You're going to need to lose your weapon, it's too powerful for the White fang to get a hold of." Said Blake gesturing at the camera and projection equipment.

Velvet blanched, "What will I fight with then?"

"They'll test you and provide a weapon. You're proficient in martial arts yes?"

Velvet glanced over at Fox and the silent man nodded.

"I am."

"Then starting out you'll have that and a gun."

Blake glanced down at her own weapon and slowly raising it put it on the table.

"When I was with the Fang, their was a Hunter engineer who was creating weapons for the officers. I don't know who it was but if you advance far enough you will more than likely get one as well."

Coco's eyes widened at that, "A Hunter engineer? Working with the White Fang?"

Blake simply shrugged, "He could have been coerced, but considering the amount of craftsmanship in my weapon and the others used, I doubt it." She smiled ruefully up at the others.

Coco nodded, "A disturbing thought."

Yatuhashi grunted and glanced over at Velvet.

"When should we do this?" he asked.

"Soon, the sooner the better. You have to act like you've been saving this blame since the battle wait too long and it wouldn't be believable." Said Blake.

"Tomorrow." Said Velvet.

"We do it tomorrow."

Yauhashi muttered several things under his breath that only Blake and the other Faunus in the room heard.

Velvet blanched slightly and reaching out swatted at the giant man.

"Language Yatuhashi!"

"I don't like this."

"I know that, but we have to do it."

Standing the large man grabbed his weapon and strode out of the room.

Coco watched him go, Velvet took off after him taking tow steps for his every one as they left.

Blake glanced over at their team leader.

"He likes her."

Coco snorted, "That's obvious to everyone."

Fox sighed and both women glanced over at him.

"He must learn that he cannot protect her as much as he would like. It was only at her behest that he did not challenge every student who insulted her to a duel. I fear that should anything happen to her, he will very much want to kill you." Said Fox looking at Blake.

She nodded, "I wouldn't blame him. Velvet's unique."

Blake paused collecting herself.

"She represents what the White Fang was, before the new leader came to power. Turning the other cheek, trying to change Humanity from the inside with compassion."

Fox nodded, "She is."

Atlas

Weiss

"No!"

The man slowly turned to look at the heiress and resisted the urge to shout at the girl.

"No?" he asked.

"If you're going to perform tests don't do them until you've actually changed something!" said Weiss annoyed.

"We changed the dust concentrations within the mixture, how is that not a change?" asked the scientist.

"You changed the concentrations, but not with the dusts that actually interact with one another. Changing the inert elements is useless."

"We're not sure if their would be a synergistic reaction though, that would need to be tested!" growled the scientist.

Annoyed Weiss reached out, grabbed the vial from the man and crushed it in her hand.

The dust reacted with her aura and with her other hand in the air Weiss released it. A gout of flame spewed forth, without the electrical interactions that were the point of the mixture trials.

The man looked at her for a moment.

"that was idiotic, a more energetic reaction and you would not have been able to focus it."

"Which is why you shouldn't give these mixtures to test subjects until you're sure we won't waste their potential."

The man looked at her for a moment.

"We have plenty of test subjects."

"There is no point to burning through them, without a reason to do so however." Growled Weiss.

"Now, out. I need to get some actual work done."

The Heiress pointed at the door to the lab and the man glaring at her for a moment trudged out of the room.

Watching him go Weiss shook her head and turned back to her own lab setup.

"Must you be so abrupt?" asked Geppetto.

Weiss glanced over at the older scientist and scoffed, "If someone isn't going to put effort into their work I see no reason to put effort into being nice."

Geppetto smiled at that.

"Oh? Here I was thinking you were showing actual concern for the test subjects."

Weiss's eyes hardened.

"I'll permit testing, when there is an advantage towards doing so. Now open the window would you?" she asked.

The man sidled over to the glass pane, and pushed it aside. A howling cold wind ripped into the room but both Atlas natives ignored it.

Putting her hand out Weiss let the rest of the energy from the poorly mixed dust discharge. Uncontrolled and unbalanced it sapped at her aura and she winced. As she let loose the last of it an odd energy flared and Weiss yelped in alarm.

She was blown backwards onto the floor and sent sliding across the lab until she slammed into the cabinets on the other side of the room.

Wincing half her aura gone it took her a moment to collect herself.

Geppetto looked at her with mild concern as he closed the window.

"You alive?" he asked.

Weiss slowly got to her feet, "You could at least pretend to care." She said.

"If someone isn't going to be truthful with me I see no reason to but up a façade."

Weiss glared at him, "what do you mean?"

"Come now Heiress, why am I here? Your father offered you the choice of his entire staff to be your assistant. Why did you want me? Dust combination testing is not a field I particularly excel in and already you are perhaps more developed in that field than I am. You pretend not to care about the Faunus, and you have been avoiding all military contingents and programs. Why?"

Weiss looked at the dark skinned man for a moment.

"I want to help you."

"With?"

"Completing your life's work."

Geppetto raised an eyebrow at that.

"I have only ever worked on minor dust technological infusions. That is hardly a lucrative field."

"You made Penny."

The man didn't react, save for a slight tightening of his eyes.

"I did what?" he asked.

"You made Penny. General Ironwood and my Father helped you. I imagine they wanted a weapon, but from what my friends tell me that was not what Penny was."

Geppetto slowly got to his feet and going to the door of the lab slowly closed it.

"You knew Penny?" he asked.

"I knew her, my team leader at Beacon was friends with her."

Geppettto slowly nodded, "She was happy then? She made friends?"

"She did."

Leaning into the nearest chair the man looked suddenly much older.

"She's dead. That Nikos girl killed her."

"You can't bring her back?"

"The military won't even say if they have what's left of her." Growled Geppetto.

"Since the Beacon incident, they have disavowed all aspects of the program and buried them. Ironwood is perhaps the only one who might know something. I doubt he will speak about it though. He has all of her designs, and he does nto need me if he want's to make another. Not that it will be Penny."

"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.

"Penny already escaped death once, I very much doubt she could do it twice."

Weiss was silent for a moment.

"Do you want to try? I need to do something right, more than helping the Faunus here."

Geppetto looked up at that, "Help the Faunus? Your family despises them."

"I did. I despise the White Fang, but I cannot use them as an excuse to hate an innocent child. I've seen what can happen to an innocent child corrupted by the hate of the world."

The old man looked at her critical for a moment.

"Very well then. Let's say we help each other."

"Agreed."

Patch

Yang

"Damn it." Muttered Yang as the bolt fell to the dirt.

Zwei looked over from where he was lying in the snow apparently undisturbed by the cold. He yawned and put his head back down letting out a low woof of encouragement.

"Shut up Zwei." Growled Yang as leaning down she grabbed the bolt and carefully put it back into the right socket, tightening it as much as she could with one hand.

Bumblebee had been inside her storage garage off campus when Beacon fell, but several large Grimm had collapsed on it and the company operating it had only just managed to retrieve it. They hadn't offered to repair it, and had simply shipped it back to her.

The entire backend was a mess aesthetically, but there was little actual damage to the engine and operating components. The dust storage compartment had ruptured but that was easily patched. It was actually pure luck that the bike hadn't exploded considering the strength of the dust she used.

"How's it going?" asked Tai as he stepped out of the house.

"Fine."

"You going to be able to fix it?" asked her father ignoring her surely tone.

"Yes. Not that I can ride it."

Yang waggled her stump at him.

Tai gave her a withering look but said nothing.

Zwei huffing in annoyance got to his feet and trudged over to Tai. Leaning down the man scratched at the dogs ears.

"The cyberneticist will be here next week."

Yang dropped the wrench and raised her arm and stump in a mock congratulatory gesture.

"Yay! Six months of adapting, and a year of integrating after that before I can actually move the stupid hand!"

She glanced down at her bike, "And then I get to spend the rest of my life taking care of it like it's a motorcycle."

Yang kicked out at the bike, it tipped and collapsed into the snow.

Staring at it for a moment Yang shook her head and leaving the beloved thing where it was on it's side trudged past her father into the house.

Zwei and the Eldest Xio Long glanced at one another.

Leaning over Tai carefully righted the bike and Zwei followed the girl into the house.

Tai looked at the bike for a moment, sometimes he wished life were like the infernal thing his daughter insisted on riding. At least it could be fixed easily enough, a few replacement parts and it was as good as new.

Broken Lands

Nikos

Pyrrha stared at her hands. Focusing she managed to summon the spikes forth again.

They grew from her palm, black and ashen they had the same rough texture of an Evermoore's claw and were just as sharp. Detached from her they would remain solid, she felt the drain from her aura each time she summoned them.

A small pile of the things sat on the cell ground next to her.

Pyrrha glanced down at her chest again, where she had been stabbed. Already the skin was healed not even a scar showing where the blade had pierced her heart. Whatever they had done to her, they had made her nearly impossible to kill.

She supposed that the only thing that would kill her was a blow to the skull, direct damage to the brain. No matter how well her body could now regenerate she doubted that would be a recoverable injury.

Hesitantly Pyrrha raised a spike and placed the tip on the back of her neck.

A small push, and it would enter the skin. Another proper shove and it would sever her spine. It would either kill her or render her useless to the false Maiden. In which case she would be killed.

"I wouldn't."

Pyrrha startled glanced up.

Mercury stood at the entrance to the cell, he had somehow managed to open the large door without making it creak.

Pyrrha whipped the spike around in her hand and rushed forwards, holding it aloft she plunged it forwards towards Mercury's chest.

The silver boy raised his leg and sent the exhausted woman flying back into her cell.

A brief scuffle and Pyrrha gasped. Jaune was bodily tossed into the room, his body beaten and his face a bloody pulp.

"You know as bad as he is at fighting I have to give him kudos, he only yelled for mommy a few times." Said Mercury a vicious smile on his face.

Pyrrha ignored him and getting to her feet rushed towards Jaune. "He needs a hospital!"

Fire shot out from the open door in between the two of them. Pyrrha whipped around, only barely realizing that she was holding the spike up a weapon.

"No, not until we have a little chat." Said the false Maiden.

"What do you want?" asked Pyrrha desperate now.

"You were willing to take the Maiden power even as it meant binding your soul to another, Ozpin had to have told you a great many things for you to agree to this. I want to know everything he told you."

"We never discussed it more than the dangers that might arise from binding a soul, unless you do not know the story of the Maidens?" asked Pyrrha not looking at her and instead looking at Jaune.

The young knight was barely conscious and blood was slowly dripping from his forehead to the ground collecting on the flagstones.

"That's all?" asked the false Maiden.

"That's all!" shouted Pyrrha.

The false Maiden nodded and casually brought her hand down. Fire once again poured from it. Jaune screamed in pain as it consumed his legs. Spittle flew from his mouth and blood fell from his lips. His eyes flashed an odd color no doubt due to the onslaught of the attack.

"No!"

Mercury attacked again, sending her back into the wall.

"Is that truly all you know?" asked the false Maiden again.

"That's all I know!"

"Then this is a waste. He is not needed."

She raised her hand again.

"Wait!" shouted Pyrrha.

The false Maiden paused.

"Yes?"

"What do I have to do, for him to live?" asked Pyrrha.

The false Maiden smiled.

"Do not resist what I am going to teach you, and accept the gifts you have been given. You were after all readily going to accept the power derived from another soul."

Pyrrha nodded and glanced down at her own hands.

"And you'll not hurt Jaune?"

"We'll not hurt him."

Pyrrha glanced back down at him.

"Alright."

The false Maiden smiled.

"Good."

She glanced down at Jaune.

"Crawl out boy, or I'll have Mercury here drag you out."

Jaune glanced back at Pyrrha and then groaning still unable to speak he rolled over onto his stomach and slowly crawled towards the door to the cell.

Pyrrha moved forwards to help him.

"Nope." Said Mercury as he casually leaned back onto one foot his other pointing at Pyrrha.

She glared at the silver haired man for a moment but stepped back. Any more resistance and they would injure Jaune.

The false Maiden motioned for Mercury as Jaune finished dragging himself from the room. He trotted out his metallic feet clicking on the flagstones and she shut the door to the cell once again plunging Pyrrha into darkness.

Defeated the warrior leaned back onto the wall and put her head in her hands.

They were doing something to her, turning her into something.

The healing, the spikes, the armor and other attributes. It was an unavoidable conclusion.

They were turning her into a Grimm.

A cry of pain echoed from outside the cell, Pyrrha glanced up.

It was a woman's voice, that of Emerald.

She cried out in pain again and Pyrrha winced.

She couldn't help anyone in this cell. She was being made into a monster, at the moment it was only her body, but if they could do that.

Looking down at her hands again Pyrrha summoned another spike. Holding it in her hand she weighed it. They were not going to make her into a monster. She would find a way out of this place. Find a way to save Jaune, to save Emerald, and anyone else who might be in the prison with her.