The two searched through the headmasters room. They searched for the weapons of hans günsche.
And they found them, not in the place you would expect. A hidden compartment within ozpin's desk. That was where hans found a pistol, his pistol. Of which one, that could only be tested through firing it.
Immediately, he aimed for the glass window that gave an overview of beacons landing, a squeeze of the trigger left a single, small, neat hole in the glass.
And merlin with an almost blown out eardrum.
"Jesus christ! Warn a girl before randomly firing a gun!" All she received was a blank look from the wolf as he threw the weapon into his shadow.
He continued to search, his mind on a single track.
Find the halberd.
"It's behind this wall." Hans approached the wall which she tapped with her staff. Then he proceeded to rip it straight out of the wall.
"I suppose brute force does the job." His halberd was similarly thrown into the shadows.
"So we stole two weapons from this room. Now what?" Hans wanted to correct her but it mattered little whether he stole or retrieved his weapons.
In the end, they were in his possession now. The only question merlin had in her mind was, what now?
'For now, we head to the town below. Check for survivors.' Merlin was surprised at the mans empathy. She didn't take him for the noble hero type.
And she'd be right. Hans was more the tragic villain in terms of storytelling. But those weren't topics he focused on, fiction is fiction. They'll stay in the pages of books.
How ironic it is that his companion is the legendary merlin ambrosius
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"Weiss you need to stop! You're bleeding to much, your arm is shattered and you can barely stand!" Winters assessment of her younger sister was accurate.
Too accurate.
Weiss's body was a mess. Yet she still stood.
"Nothing a few glyphs can't fix. Now, let's continue." Winter could only be left baffled. What was driving her to the point of this madness? Does she feel no pain?
"Why... why are you going to these lengths?! Weiss!" The refined woman spat out an unhealthy amount of blood.
"It's a simple matter really. This world is sick. The older people who hold mass political power use it for their own ends. Corruption simply breeds more corruption. The faunus are oppressed here in atlas. There is not a single law here that favours them. The poor suffer. Here, the poor get poorer. The rich get richer... and the masses suffer. Atlas... no, mantle as a whole is nothing but a land of suffering that has stagnated as a result of those in power. I want to change the place of my birth. So it is not as disgusting to live in. All because of hans. I love him. And this complacent world that allowed terrorists to so easily sneak into Vale and bypass atlas security... it took him from me."
She could not say a single word. All this determination. This drive for betterment and improvement. All of this over a man who she had fallen in love with.
"You've changed." Weiss nodded as several glyphs painted themselves onto her skin, healing any wounds on herself. Her sister's shock was clear.
"Glyphs are a very malleable power sister. Time acceleration. Object acceleration. Gravitic manipulation. Direction alteration. Summoning. So long as I can think of a way to use them, I can. Of course, new abilities like these take time and the strength of the abilities will similarly take more strength from myself." A crushing weight was forced down upon winters shoulders.
Her knees buckled under the weight of the pressure before falling fully to the ground.
"I have officially surpassed you, specialist schnee. I'm aware that in terms of military ranking that it means absolutely nothing, but it is merely a step. The first step on a long road."
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Another day goes by. Another boring day in the life of yang xiao long.
The life of an alcoholic.
After beacon, yang had realised how insignificant she was.
She couldn't protect mom
She couldn't protect Blake
Hell, she couldn't even protect herself!
What good was she? All she was... its gone. Yang just wanted to forget.
Oh the sweet pleasure of alcohol. Threatening the bartender worked wonders. A simple display of strength and they gave her whatever drink she wanted.
It was simple
How many times had she drank herself into unconsciousness? Too many. How many times has dad had to carry her home? She couldn't count.
This helplessness...
Yang wanted to forget it... but only sunk further into inferiority.
What a vicious cycle.
*Ding*
Oh, the door. My head is killing me... what time is it.
"You just stay there yang. You're still hungover. I'll answer it. Its probably port anyways." Dad told me calmly before leaving the living room.
Why am I so hopeless? My head was wringing as I heard him open the door. I wonder who it is.
.
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.
A gunshot rang through my ears.
Why was there a gunshot at the door? I tried to stand up but my whole body had froze. Why was this happening?
An image of that bastard appeared in my mind.
I'm shaking...
Am I scared?
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I walked through the city. Such a barren place is to be expected after what happened here.
"I didn't take you for the altruistic type, how come we're here?" The wizard asked in curiosity.
Hans said nothing as usual. There wasn't anything to say. He knew merlin didn't trust him, it was reasonable.
Who trusts someone on their first meeting? Not a normal person.
His intention was simple, look for survivors. In his many years, hans had killed more than he could count. But a habit of his was to visit the places that he had slaughtered and save anyone he had missed.
It was never beyond the double digits. The glares of the children, the utter despair in their eyes.
The Sturmbannführer never knew, because despite the obedience chip in his heart, he still had some autonomy when he wasn't following orders.
Hans had long since grown apathetic to the deaths of adults. The adults he killed knew what was going to happen.
Some struggled
Some cried
Some screamed
Some... just accepted it
But children... oh, those poor children. They never knew what was going on.
The blissful ignorance on their faces, the childlike curiosity, the wonder in their eyes.
All stomped out with a single action.
He was merely repeating an old habit.
The captain just focused his senses during the silent search.
Merlin just frowned. What a difficult master she has.
The street were doused in blood, each step splashed through a different puddle. How reminiscent to the two.
Merlin remembered the many times she'd seen this scene before at artoria's side.
Hans remembered too many times like this at the Sturmbannführer's side.
A faint cough reached both their ears. He glanced back to her who nodded, acknowledging the coughs existence. The duo broke into a sprint towards the cough.
They turned the corner to the coughs originator. Two girls. One in a red dress similar to that of a prostitutes. The other wore a white dress reminiscent of weiss's but a full white with shades of light blue. Both had black hair with distinctly similar facial structures.
They smelled identical.
"Twins..." Merlin glanced at the massive hole in the red ones gut. The blue one was injured with various cuts and a notable gash on her right leg but it wasn't nearly as bad.
"Why not make zem like susie?" Hans spun around and punched the voice...
Only for his fist to go right through, shattering the wall. But that voice, it was the very voice of the man who tormented him for so long.
The Sturmbannführer
"Vhy, it was merely a suggestion my dear captain. Ze transformation process for a werewolf is far too taxing for such injuries. Even you would know zhat, who knows... they may serve as useful pawns." His heavy German accent grated on the captains nerves.
Merlin only looked in confusion at the man. There were too many whys about this man, she didn't know anything about him. Getting any information out of him would likely be equivalent to attempting to make Morgan le fay give up on her ambition.
Therefore, there was one way. And only one.
Sleep.
Through sleep, the master and servant may learn more about one another, as they dream of the others past. There couldn't be too much for merlin to know...
Right?
Hans had sadly taken the Sturmbannführer's advice. No matter what he said, he was saving two lives today.
Despite the cost
That was all that mattered to him.
However, the last time, it was not on command. What happened to susie was a complete accident.
He would not lose control again. This time, it would be completely intentional. He was confident he could do it this time, after all, since his reawakening he felt like it was natural to use the darkness
His hand was coated in darkness, and with the god of darknesses power came knowledge. Knowledge on how he bound susie.
In principle, it was simple. Creating shadow soldiers was a very similar process to the binding of familiars. However, instead of binding through words, it's binding through souls.
You can never escape your shadow
His hand gently touched the red ones throat, a black choker identical to susies placed itself around her throat. Her wounds were blotted in darkness that sank into her skin revealing undamaged clothing and pristine skin.
Hans did the same to the other sibling.
'Grab the one in white.' The dick wizard could only sigh.
"You're really demanding. You could've at least asked if I could heal them." Hans stared at her.
'Could you?' Merlin just avoided his gaze.
"I'm not as good as the legends tell. I very often bite my tongue while casting and honestly it's much easier to beat an opponent with a sword than spells." Hans couldn't say a word.
Metaphorically considering his scarred throat. A legendary magus in the pages of history and said to be able to tell the future... bites her tongue when chanting.
How... disappointing.
The duo went silent as they picked up their respective person.
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What was that noise? For the first time in weeks, I left my room.
In a panic, I rushed down the stairs with my semblance. What's happened?! Nobody else lives on patch!
My heart dropped when I got to the door, there lay my dad.
Blood pooling from his stomach.
I shot over to the door to see a mustached man dissappear into motes of light. I picked dad up.
"The nearest hospital is too far. It takes a bullhead about 30 minutes to get here. Who was that?" Ruby was asking too much as she took her father to the medicine cabinet in the downstairs bathroom.
Ruby barged in and placed her father on the toilet. The cabinet held bandages and gauze.
As she attempted to remove her father's shirt and apply it, his hand grabbed her wrist.
"As sad... as this is... for you... don't..." taiyang began to cough up blood violently onto his shirt.
"Poison... I'm not gonna... make it... Ruby... you need... need to know..." His speech was once again cut off by the violent ejection of his own bodily fluids.
"I'm... not... your... father..." His eyes slowly glossed over, his grip going limp and his body unresponsive.
"You failed. You couldn't even save your own father. What a disappointment we are." The shadow Ruby spoke up once more, her alter ego could only burst into tears.
"Dad... dad! Dad! Dad! Why... why!? Dad..." The tears rolling down her eyes wouldn't stop. She just couldn't stop.
She had too many tears to give.
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