SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Power Plant (New)

Power Plant

"Where to now?" asked Weiss.

Sunset took a breath, and ignored the pain in her side. "Before I saw your Bullhead go down," she said, "I was on my way to the skydock. I saw a big explosion coming from there … it was a while ago at this point, I admit, but…"

"It's a possibility," Weiss said. "But Professor Goodwitch led some students down from Beacon into Vale before the grimm attacked the school. I was going to join them, wherever they are."

"That makes sense," Sunset allowed. "They might have taken care of the skydock already by now. They might have taken care of everything by now."

"They hadn't taken care of here," Weiss pointed out. As she got out her scroll, she said, "What will you do if they have taken care of everything else; or perhaps, in the circumstances, I should say 'everything else that Professor Goodwitch knows of'? What will you do then?"

"I … would need to think about it," Sunset murmured. "And you?"

"Accept the well-meant if slightly patronising concern of Rainbow Dash and Blake on the Atlesian lines, I suppose," Weiss said with a sigh.

"The Atlesian line?" asked Sunset.

"With my own team out of action, who else would I fight alongside?" Weiss responded. "You know, if you found Jaune out on the battlefield, then you wouldn't need to worry about your broken aura and your … vulnerability."

No, I'd just have to worry about what Ruby would do to me while I'm vulnerable, Sunset thought. "Well … it might come to that." If Vale had truly been made safe everywhere but here — and here had just been made safe by them, and by the roaring flames that cast a light upon their faces as it devoured Dark Angel Tower — then she could not, in good conscience, stay away from the battle line. Or at least, she couldn't stay away from the battle line without feeling like a coward.

The fact that she didn't want to go in order to avoid confronting Jaune and Ruby should maybe have made her feel like a coward also, but it didn't; it felt like prudent sagacity, even verging upon consideration for their feelings … provided that there was some good that she could do here instead.

"Could you just call Professor Goodwitch, please?" Sunset asked softly. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves unnecessarily."

Weiss nodded and bent her head to look at her scroll, her thumbs tapping lightly across the screen. "One thing doesn't make any sense to me," she murmured, glancing up at Sunset with her cold blue eyes.

"Only one?" Sunset asked. "In this night of madness?"

Weiss didn't respond to that, except to continue as she probably would have regardless. "General Blackthorn — he's the Valish commanding officer, isn't he?"

"Yes," Sunset said. Or was, at least; I don't know what will happen with that post now.

"He went mad," Weiss said. "Because of a gas leak, or bad air, or whatever explanation was given that you imperfectly recall. It even affected General Blackthorn's command staff."

"That's right," Sunset confirmed, wondering where this was going.

"And when he started giving his mad orders, to attack Atlas, to institute martial law, to shoot people on the street," Weiss went on, "not a single person, not a ship captain or infantry officer or even a single stout-hearted sergeant told him 'no'?"

Sunset felt her mouth turn a little dry. It was … well, she couldn't say that Weiss didn't have a point. It was the weakness in the story that Councillor Emerald had thrown together, and it was a weakness which might not stand up to a great deal of scrutiny.

Mostly because there wasn't a good explanation for it, at least not one that did any favours to the Valish Defence Forces.

"Um … soldiers are trained to obey orders, are they not?" asked Sunset.

"To that extent? I should have hoped not," Weiss murmured. "Imagine if General Ironwood went mad; would all his soldiers obey him so easily? Would Rainbow Dash? Blake?"

"I imagine that the air filtration system in General Ironwood's office works perfectly well," Sunset suggested. "Considering the vaunted Atlesian technological prowess, it had better, don't you think?"

Weiss' eyebrows rose, but Sunset was spared from having to continue the discussion any further by Professor Goodwitch taking Weiss' call. The deputy headmistress' voice emerged from out of the device. "Miss Schnee, I must say that it's a surprise to hear from you."

"I apologise for bothering you, Professor," Weiss said. "But I've made my way to Vale, and I'm currently with Sunset Shimmer. We were wondering if we might be of any use to you."

There was a pause. "Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch said, in clipped tones. "I understand that you were with the First Councillor recently."

"Yes, Professor," Sunset said softly. "I was able to lend a hand."

"Fortune saw you in the right place at the right time, it would seem," Professor Goodwitch declared. "Or would you prefer to say it was destiny?"

"That isn't quite how I see destiny, Professor," Sunset replied. I might be persuaded to call it fate, though it is a fate that I would have avoided if I'd been given the choice.

Hence I cannot glorify it with the name of destiny.

"In any event, the cessation of hostilities from the Defence Forces is certainly making things easier," Professor Goodwitch went on. "We're securing or retaking key areas all across the city, often, thank goodness, without resistance. Where are you both?"

"Laceyton, Professor," Sunset said.

"My airship was shot down by some grimm cultists," Weiss explained. "But Sunset and I have managed to take care of them."

"Grimm cultists in Laceyton?" Professor Goodwitch repeated.

"They weren't taking part in the general assault," Sunset said. "Just taking advantage of the chaos."

"I see," said Professor Goodwitch. "In that case, good work, both of you. What have you done with the cultists?"

"I'm afraid they're dead, Professor," Weiss explained. "Their … there was a chill. It killed them before we could dispose of it."

"There is one survivor," Sunset said. "I had to leave him tied up in Cavendish Street, Professor; I couldn't raise the police."

"Cavendish Street; very well, I'll see if I can get in touch with someone and have a squad car pick them up," Professor Goodwitch said. "In the meantime, if you want to do more, then you can go to Batterham Power Station; it's one of Vale's largest, and it's gone dark; other power stations are working overtime to stop the blackouts from spreading, but if Batterham doesn't go back online, then some of those stations will begin to brown out. There were police stationed there, but I can't raise them, and the Defence Force unit sent to secure the plant isn't responding to Colonel Sky Beak. The students that I brought with me from Beacon have become thinly stretched; could you go and check out what's going on there?"

"Of course, Professor," Sunset said. "We'll be right there."

"I won't wish you luck, because you shouldn't need it if you use your heads," Professor Goodwitch said. "But take care, of each other and of yourselves."

"Thank you, Professor," Weiss said before she hung up. She didn't move to put her scroll away. "Batterham Power Station," she murmured. "Batterham Power Station. Ah, here it is." She held up her scroll, revealing a map of Vale with a yellow line cutting across it. "Hmm, it's a little across town."

"How far?" Sunset asked, walking around Weiss to get a better look at her scroll — and the map displayed on it.

"Eight miles, as the nevermore flies," Weiss said. "A little more by road."

"We don't want to walk there, then," Sunset said. "Follow me; I'll give you a ride."

It was Sunset's turn to lead the way, with Weiss following on behind her, as Sunset navigated back to where she had left her bike, parked out of sight of Dark Angel Tower and of the gunfire that had first assailed her when she passed by.

Now, there was no gunfire, just real fire as the tower burned from the inside out, yet still, it could not be seen, just as anyone still living in the burning tower could no longer have seen them.

Yet, Sunset could hear the flames regardless, burning away.

And a good thing too, considering.

"So … this is yours?" Weiss asked, gesturing.

Sunset huffed. "Don't say anything," she said.

"Oh, no, I would never," Weiss said. "It's actually very nice-looking."

Sunset stopped, wheeling around to face Weiss. Nobody had ever said anything that nice about her bike before. "Thank you!"

"For a piece of modern art," Weiss added, a smile playing upon her face.

Sunset's mouth twisted into an expression as sour as if she'd just bitten into a lemon. "Get on!" she snapped as she climbed astride her bike and began to pull her helmet on.

She felt one of Weiss' arms around her, grabbing hold of a handful of her leather jacket and pulling it across Sunset's belly. In her other hand, Weiss held her scroll, with the map still displayed upon its thin screen.

Sunset set off. Cognisant that Weiss' hold on her was not the most secure, what with Weiss needing one hand to hold her scroll and give the directions, Sunset didn't squeeze the accelerator too tight, moving at a speed that was far from a crawl but which wasn't likely to throw Weiss off the back of the bike either. They still moved a good deal faster than they would have on foot. Weiss gave the directions, which was fine when she was telling Sunset to take a left here, or turn right there, or straight on at this junction, but which occasionally slid into less helpful territory.

"You should be in the middle lane!"

"What does it matter what lane I'm in; the road is empty apart from us!"

"It's the principle of the thing!"

Sunset ignored her, and in any case, the relatively short distance between their starting point and Batterham Power Station meant there wasn't too much opportunity for such complaints. As Sunset had said, the streets were quiet; nothing had happened recently to make people more inclined to venture out of doors — except for the people in Laceyton fleeing their grimm cultist tormentors, but the two saw no evidence of that anywhere else, thank Celestia; all the other cultists hiding in Vale, poor people filled with resentment or rich people filled with depravity, had stuck to the plan, it seemed, and assailed the infrastructure upon which Vale depended — onto the roads or even the pavements. The outage at the power station had rendered Vale's houses even darker than before, regarding Sunset and Weiss with locked doors and drawn curtains and silence.

"People are going to be scared for a long time, aren't they?" Weiss observed. "Take the next left."

"They'll get over it," Sunset replied, as she turned as instructed. "People were scared after the Breach, but they got better."

"After the Breach, they were scared of monsters," Weiss remarked. "After tonight, they'll be scared of their own people. I wonder if that'll be harder to move beyond."

"Cheerful thought."

"As cheerful as the times," said Weiss.

With the power out, the streetlights were as dark as the houses, another reason for Sunset not to race along at top speed. She had her headlamp on, illuminating the road in front, but with the darkness pressing in about them, she was glad of a clear street with nothing stepping or swerving out in front of them.

As they approached the power plant, the world became less dark; not, however, because the street lights were on. Instead, it was flames that illuminated the surroundings, the flames of a burning truck that had been flipped upside down, wheels in the air, flames rising from the undercarriage as if they were reaching up towards the sky.

And the flames lit up a charnel house around the fallen truck; the dead lay everywhere, police officers in blue uniforms, men and women in protective vests or simply in ordinary business or casual attire — whether there were the grimm cultists or plain clothes police officers or both, Sunset couldn't have said — lying on the ground with pistols, rifles, shotguns, all different kinds of weapons lying nearby, all scattered across the concrete ground in front of the power station. There were a few downed soldiers too, in Valish green, but very few compared with the number of non-soldiers lying here.

It was quiet out here now; the only sound was the growling of the engine of Sunset's motorcycle, and even that ceased to purr as Sunset pulled up; it was quiet, because it seemed as though everyone was dead out here; they had all … but that truck; there were Valish military vehicles nearby and not enough fallen soldiers to have filled them up; even a single truck carried more men than that, as Sunset had found out outside the First Councillor's residence. So where were all the other soldiers?

Sunset took off her helmet, climbing slowly off her bike. Weiss had already dismounted, one hand upon the hilt of her rapier. She stepped delicately forward, her wedge-heeled boots lightly touching the ground. She stopped, her blue eyes widened, a little gasp escaping from her mouth.

"No!" She cried, running forward, her grip on her sword's hilt loosening as her arms flew up and down at her sides. "No, no, no, no!"

"Weiss?" Sunset asked. "Weiss, what—?"

Weiss stopped besides a body, the body of a woman, a faunus, a horse faunus with her tail hanging out from a specially cut hole in her pantsuit trousers. She was laying face down on the ground, only her dark hair visible. Sunset didn't recognise her, but Weiss clearly did, for she knelt down beside her, reaching out lightly for her, brushing her fingertips against the woman's back and against the back of her head, drawing Sunset's attention to the wounds that she had there. Blood-stained Weiss' fingertips as it was staining the woman's dark jacket and her dark brown hair.

"Please, no," Weiss whispered. "Not you too."

Weiss turned her body over, so that Sunset could see the sharp-angled face, the ducky lips that looked made for pouting, and she recognised this woman. It was the cop who had come to arrest Blake, the one who—

The one that Weiss and Flash and their team had worked with for a little bit last semester.

"Lieutenant?" Weiss said, her voice trembling. "Lieutenant Martinez? El-Tee?"

Lieutenant Martinez didn't answer. Her eyes were closed, her face was stained, not with blood but with dirt, probably from lying face down for however long. There was no response from her.

"Lieutenant?" Weiss repeated again, her voice soft, high pitched, almost childlike.

Sunset approached, kneeling down beside her.

Weiss put two fingers to Lieutenant Martinez's neck. "I can feel a pulse."

Sunset's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes!" Weiss cried. "Yes, I can feel it; she's alive! We need to get her to a hospital."

"Of course," Sunset said, starting to get to her feet. Of course they needed to get her to a hospital — she was lucky to still be alive, and who knew how long her luck would hold for? — but at the same time, it was easier to say 'we need to get her to a hospital' than it was to do it. It was one thing to carry a passenger on the back of Sunset's bike; it was another thing to carry someone unconscious who couldn't hold on for themselves.

Sunset looked around; there were plenty of cars here, some of them — like the ones that formed a tangled, crumpled mess in front of the power plant gates entrance — obviously unusable, but others looking as though they might still run just fine.

"Do you know how to drive a car?" Sunset asked.

"No," Weiss admitted, looking up at Sunset. "You?"

Sunset shook her head. "No."

"Well, um…" Weiss hesitated. "Here, hold the Lieutenant for a moment; I don't want to put her back on the ground."

Sunset nodded, and both her hands glowed green with magic as she levitated Lieutenant Martinez up off the ground, holding her flat in the air as if she was suspended on an invisible stretcher.

Weiss half-rose, although she still had her knees bent; she stood up just enough to draw Myrtenaster and rest the tip of the blade upon the ground.

Sunset wondered what she meant by that: was she going to make a line of glyphs to glide all the way to the nearest hospital? Or a line of ice to slide there on?

No glyphs formed, no ice erupted from the tip of the blade. Weiss' eyes were closed, screwed tight shut, her body trembling.

Sunset didn't say anything. It was clear that Weiss was attempting something that was a bit of a struggle for her, and she didn't want to interrupt. There was nothing worse when you were trying to perform complex spellwork than some oaf coming up and breaking your concentration.

Sunset had no desire to be the oaf, especially under these circumstances.

She stood there, holding Lieutenant Martinez, silently watching as a glyph did appear in front of Weiss, a glyph of cold blue, so pale that it was almost — but not quite — white, a glyph with a shimmering ethereal quality about it that did not quite match any of Weiss' glyphs that Sunset had seen before.

And from the glyph, rising head-first like a ship appearing over the horizon, emerged a ghostly beowolf, an alpha if Sunset was any judge, tall and burlier than most Valish beowolves, too burly to be called lean, certainly. Long, rangy arms reached down towards the ground, and long teeth emerged from an open mouth. It was the same pale blue colour as the glyph from which it had sprung, all of it that would have been black or bone or armour plate the same ephemeral, ghostly shade. Smoke rose, or seemed to rise, gently from its spectral form.

It ignored Sunset completely, its attention fixed on Weiss even as Sunset's attention was fixed upon it.

What was this?

And since when had Weiss been able to do it?

Weiss opened her eyes, and for the briefest second, a smile fleeted across her face before it was gone. She raised her sword, the glyph vanished beneath the beowolf's feet, but the beowolf itself remained.

Weiss gestured down. The beowolf dropped to all fours, which still put its shoulder about level with Weiss' head, then knelt, knees bending, back descending.

She leapt onto its back, avoiding the spurs of bone as she mounted the ghostly beowolf as though it were a horse. She turned to Sunset. "Give her to me."

Sunset magically raised Lieutenant Martinez up — she didn't move, she didn't make a sound, it was only the pulse which proclaimed that she was not dead — up into Weiss' arms. Weiss held the Lieutenant's limp, unconscious form in front of her, one arm wrapped around Lieutenant Martinez to hold her in place.

Lieutenant Martinez lolled against her rescuer.

"Hold on, Lieutenant, I've got you," Weiss murmured.

"Will that carry you all the way?" Sunset asked.

"So long as I have aura, yes," Weiss replied.

"If you say so," Sunset said. "You get her to help, and I'll look around here, see what's going on with the power."

Weiss looked at her, surprise in her eyes as though she had forgotten in the shock of finding Lieutenant Martinez why they had come to the power station in the first place. "Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine," Sunset assured her. "Go, while she still has time."

Weiss nodded, but said nothing more before the beowolf turned away, running on all fours — more in the Mistralian fashion than the Valish — off down the road, bearing its two passengers upon it. Its ghostly pallor, its shimmering, shining quality made it a beacon in these unlit streets, and Sunset was able to follow the conjured beowolf with her eyes for a while, until it turned away, running around a distant corner, and she lost sight of it and them.

---

Once more, Weiss found herself giving directions. This time to a thing, not even a person, not even alive.

But the summoned beowolf, the phantom of a kill, understood her regardless. It understood, and it obeyed. Weiss fumbled with her scroll, using a single thumb to navigate through the device, holding onto Lieutenant Martinez with her other hand as she searched for the nearest hospital. It wasn't far away — thank the gods, it wasn't far away — they could get there in time.

They had to get there in time.

Lieutenant Martinez had two children, two boys; she'd mentioned them more than once. Weiss had grown up without a mother — she wasn't dead, true, but she was so lost in drink that she might as well have been — and she would spare those two boys from that same fate if she could.

They would be in time. They had to be in time.

Her summoned beowolf showed the meaning of haste, bounding down the streets, devouring the tarmac beneath its paws, racing through the darkness and illuminating the ground around it briefly with an ethereal light. Weiss didn't bother to mention lanes now, not to this mount they rode; she just told it when to turn and where to turn, guiding it as the map on her scroll guided her towards the Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Lieutenant Martinez was silent; the only reason she wasn't motionless was that the movement of Weiss' summon — she was scarcely less glad now to have unlocked that power than when her summoned knight had saved Flash and Cardin — kept bouncing her up and down on its back, shifting her this way and that. Weiss would have worried about what the movement was doing to the lieutenant, save that she was more worried about what the delay that would result from going slower would do to her, and she judged the speed to be worth the risk.

She held on tight, one arm wrapped around the lieutenant's waist. She would not fall. Weiss would not let her fall.

Lieutenant Martinez had been shot twice, as far as Weiss could make out — at least, twice once her aura was broken — once in the back and once in the back of the head. It was a miracle that she was still alive, and after however long she had been lying there before Weiss got to her. If there was some unknowable power, some miraculous force keeping Lieutenant Martinez alive, then Weiss could only hope it would continue to smile down upon her for just a little longer, until Weiss could get her to help.

While the beowolf ran on, while Weiss sat upon its back with nothing to do but hope and give directions for this turning or that, as the beowolf ignored red lights and one-way streets as it tore through silent and desolate Vale, Weiss wondered what had become of Detective Mallard. She hadn't seen his body, but then, after she'd seen Lieutenant Martinez, she hadn't really stopped to look at the others around. Perhaps she should have, perhaps she should have checked to see if anyone else was alive and needed assistance instead of just focussing on the one person that she knew and recognised.

How many other people could I carry on the back of this summon? What might have happened to Lieutenant Martinez while I was checking the status of everyone else lying on the ground?

She had her defence prepared. It came so easily to her mind that Weiss had to conclude there was some truth in it, but all the same, she did wonder for the fate of the other Flying Squad officer whom they had worked with, the would-be huntsman who had entered the police as his second choice. Was he dead? Had Weiss missed sight of him? Was he laying out there, like the Lieutenant, seeming dead but not, waiting for help that might not come?

When I've delivered El-Tee into the hands of a doctor, then I'll go back, check the others, help Sunset.

It's not as though I can help the Lieutenant at all by standing outside her room while they perform surgery, or whatever it is they're going to do.

"Here!" she said to the summoned beowolf. "Turn left here!"

The beowolf turned immediately, making not a sound — either in the sense of it growling or snarling or in the sense of its footfalls making any noise at all upon the tarmac — as it bounded down a two-lane entrance road with a sign outside declaring that this was, indeed the Jackson Memorial Hospital. There were lights positioned before the sign to illuminate it, but they were not on. There were no lights on as the beowolf ran down the road and into a car park, with a few cars and some lights, all of which were dark.

Of course. The power. Weiss debated whether to go to another hospital, but the next nearest hospital — Kingsland — was much further away; Lieutenant Martinez might not have that long.

And besides, although the lights outside and in the car park were dark, Weiss could see some lights coming from inside the hospital itself — although they were somewhat faint; the building was hardly illuminated as she would expect. Weiss guessed — Weiss hoped — that they were conserving energy in light of the situation.

This remained her best bet and Lieutenant Martinez's best hope.

If her bet was wrong and her hopes disappointed … she would have to find more hope that the lieutenant could withstand a longer journey.

The beowolf carried Weiss near to the front entrance, stopping just beyond the ambulance parked outside the automatic doors. Weiss leapt down, cradling Lieutenant Martinez in her arms as best she could, considering the difference in their heights — the lieutenant's legs drooped almost to the floor as Weiss favoured her top half — and left her summons standing guard outside as she ran in.

The automatic doors still worked, even if there were not many lights on; they slid open to admit Weiss into a dark lobby, where the only lights were coming from deeper inside the hospital.

"Hello?" Weiss called. "Hello, is anyone there?"

"Yes." There was a flash of light, a torch held in the hands of a heavyset woman in lavender scrubs moving towards her. "Yes, yes, we're here. But with the power out, we've got the backup generator running; don't want to tax it too hard with lights and such. Necessary use only. Now what—?" She had gotten close enough now to see Lieutenant Martinez, the light of the torch illuminating both her unconscious form and Weiss' own face.

"What happened?" demanded the woman — a nurse, Weiss presumed.

"She's been shot," Weiss said. "And a while ago, maybe. I wasn't there, I only found her recently, I don't know how long she was—"

"Okay, it's okay, honey, it's alright," the nurse assured her. She turned her back on Weiss and bellowed down the corridor, "Doctor! I need help over here!"

There was a faint rumbling sound, the rapid tapping of feet on tiles, and then a doctor in a white coat and two more nurses in lavender appeared, wheeling a stretcher out of the light and into the darkness towards them.

"Gunshot wounds," the heavyset nurse declared as they approached. "Unknown time ago."

"Where?" asked the doctor.

"Her back and the back of her head," Weiss said, her voice trembling.

The doctor didn't say anything, but her expression did not look very optimistic. "Put her on her front," she said.

The two nurses lifted Lieutenant Martinez's unconscious form from out of Weiss arms and turned her over, putting her down on the stretcher, lying on her front, her head just past the top of the stretcher so she didn't suffocate, her back and her wounds exposed to view as the first nurse shone her torch upon them.

"Prep her for emergency surgery," the doctor ordered. "Operating Room Three, let's go."

"Will she—?" Weiss began.

"We'll do our best," the doctor assured her, in a tone that sounded like a promise even as it promised nothing.

They said nothing else. They wheeled the lieutenant away, their stretcher rumbling on the floor, their feet pounding as they dragged her off, down the corridor, into the light, towards what would hopefully be her salvation.

Or would be the last time Weiss ever saw her.

She felt the hand of the first nurse to find her upon her shoulder.

"I know this isn't the best first impression you could get," she said, her voice deep and a little hoarse, "but this hospital is still full of good people who know what they're doing. They really will do all they can for your friend, and more." She paused. "I'm afraid I can't offer you a cup of nothing — we gotta save power, after all — but you're welcome to sit here awhile, if you like."

"No," Weiss said quickly, shaking her head. "No, I can't stay. I've got a … there's someone waiting for me; I shouldn't leave them alone too long."

"Back out there?" the nurse asked. When Weiss nodded, the nurse nodded. "Mmhmm, I can't say I'd want to be left alone too long on a night like this either."

---

Sunset approached the gates to the power station slowly. There was a wall around the power plant; it wasn't so high that she couldn't see the immense funnels of the cooling towers rising above, with gaping mouths like worms that wanted to swallow the moon; it wasn't even so high that she couldn't see the main body of the power plant, square the concrete, nestling in between the huge funnels. Sunset could have teleported over the wall, but first, she preferred to get a look at what was on the other side, and so she approached the gate, or at least what remained of the gate. There was a crashed wreck in front of them: a large and sturdy-looking van had partially hit the gate while at the same time getting wedged in a collision with a police car that had left the whole thing unable to move, parts of the metal gates twisted and crumpled inwards. Other parts of the gate, less covered by the wreck, looked as though they had been cut, the metal bars sheared away in clean strokes.

Sunset reached the wreck, crouching down behind the damaged police car. She was aware — she could not not be aware — of the bodies around her. Dead bodies, the bodies of people who had died here, died defending this place.

The night was cold, but it was not the cold that made Sunset shiver. Rather, it was the fact that all this death could not but make her more conscious of her lack of aura.

A well-placed bullet, and she would end up as dead as any of these police officers.

Sunset's hand shook.

She had no aura, and she was all alone.

Weiss had left her all alone. There was no one else here but her.

I don't suppose that anyone's going to show up out of the darkness to back me up? Anyone?

No?

No one at all?

No. No one. Of course no one was coming; who was there to come? Weiss had just left; Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby, Penny, Blake, Rainbow Dash, they were all fighting out there somewhere beyond the walls; Cinder was seeking her revenge; Amber was … Sunset didn't know where Amber was, but not here. She wouldn't come here. No one was coming here.

Sunset was all alone.

All alone and aura broken and trembling.

The dead mocked her. Their eyes, lifeless and lightless and motionless, found her nonetheless. They stared at her, they glared at her, they fixed her with their gaze and mocked her surely as a heckling crowd that savages the hapless clown who dies on stage with their stale jokes and worn out observations.

Sunset closed her eyes, throwing her head backwards; it struck the side of the police car with a thunk.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay, I'm going."

She clambered over the police car — walking around it would have meant exposing herself for longer to the hollow gazes of the dead — and landed awkwardly on the other side. Sunset ducked through the hole cut in the gate, her tail catching for a moment on the metal bars that remained, but not snagging, thankfully.

Sunset took deep breaths as she looked around. Inside, the grounds of the plant was quiet. She couldn't see anything here, just empty car parking spaces, zones for delivery vehicles, what you would expect to find outside of any workplace, but all empty.

With no lights, Sunset cast the night vision spell on herself, wondering what she might see once her eyes could penetrate the darkness.

She wasn't entirely looking forward to seeing better, in this case.

But she saw nothing still, no cars, no people, just the plant itself, with those immense funnels looming over her and over Vale.

Sunset walked forward, her steps tentative even as she endeavoured to be more catlike than horselike in her tread. She couldn't see anyone out here, but it didn't mean that there was absolutely no one out here, no one with a way to disguise themselves beyond her sight.

For that matter, it didn't mean that there was nobody watching her from inside the power plant. Just because they'd cut the power to the city didn't mean that there was no power inside. They might be watching her on CCTV cameras.

It occurred to Sunset that she had no idea how to get the power back on. But then, she hadn't told Professor Goodwitch that she would, only that she would see what was happening at the plant.

And here I am, seeing what's happening. Professor Goodwitch has nothing to complain of.

She walked forwards, arms up a little, her tail drooping limply behind her. Her breath misted up in the air a bit before her as she walked, slowly but steadily, towards the plant itself.

Nothing emerged out of the darkness to assail her, nobody shot at her from concealment, nobody suddenly started a car and then tried to run her over.

She was alone out here.

That was good for her body, but it didn't do Sunset's nerves much good as she approached the door.

The door had scanners mounted on the wall next to it, more than one, but the door — a solid metal door, painted bright yellow — was open in spite of them. There were no lights coming from inside, at least not as far as Sunset could see.

She stepped gingerly through the open door, trying to push it open a little more so that she didn't have to squeeze through quite so much; it didn't budge — she guessed it was automated to swing back and forth rather than yielding to a human hand — but by putting her back into it, she was able to move it just a fraction; she still had to sidle through, but it felt just a little bit easier.

Through the door, she found herself in what looked like a dark lobby. A white-bearded security guard sat behind a desk: he was dead, head thrown backwards, mouth gaping open. Someone had shot him between the eyes.

Something happened here, then.

The … the grimm cultists attacked the police, and then the soldiers attacked both of them? And then they cut through the gate, came here, killed the guard, and then … what?

And how many soldiers are in here?

With her aura, the numbers wouldn't have worried her. Without her aura…

Sunset got out her scroll and tapped out a brief message.

Weiss

Am inside the power plant. Think soldiers have been in here.

Am going in.

She sent it to Weiss, then climbed over the waist high security barriers.

Of course, she shouldn't have to fight the soldiers, not at this point. Whatever they had done before, whatever they had been sent to do, that was all over now. Sonata was dead, General Blackthorn had been relieved, Colonel Sky Beak had ordered all units back to their barracks. Perhaps that was why Sunset hadn't seen any of them, because they'd all left on Colonel Sky Beak's orders.

But then, why didn't they take their vehicles with them?

Unlike the Valish Military Headquarters, this place was well signposted; just beyond the security barriers, Sunset saw signs for the cafeteria, maintenance, payroll & human resources, and reactor control. It was towards the latter that Sunset headed, thinking to maybe find out what had gone on here, why the power was out.

She could guess, but she didn't know for sure, and her guess didn't tell her why the soldiers didn't appear to have returned to barracks in their vehicles.

The corridors of the power plant had grey walls, with visible pipes running along both sides of the walls and the ceilings above. Sunset wondered what was running through those pipes; dust had to be running through at least some of them, water maybe, and perhaps other things as well that she couldn't guess at.

She came across a dead soldier, sprawled out in the corridor; he hadn't been shot, as far as Sunset could tell when she knelt down to examine the body; rather, it looked as though he had been struck from behind, hard enough to stove the back of his head in.

He wasn't the only one. The bodies were not pressed close together; rather, they were spread out, as though they had been deliberately killed at a distance from one another. It was disconcertingly like a path, a path leading her step by step, yard by yard, inexorably towards the reactor control room.

The door to the control room was ajar. There was a dead body right outside of it and light spilling out from within, bright lights that threatened to blind Sunset's night vision until she dispelled the enchantment on herself, and then it was only light.

She pushed at the door. It swung open for her, allowing her to step over the body and into a room lined on one side with terminals and monitors, displaying things and controlling things that Sunset wouldn't have wanted to touch for fear of blowing something up.

The room was large, spacious, but empty, save for a single man, a Valish officer in a green uniform with his back to Sunset.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Are you a huntress?" he asked.

"Something like that," Sunset said softly. She stepped sideways away from the door. "My name is Sunset Shimmer. And you are?"

"Harris," he said. "Major Harris, Royal Fusiliers."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir," Sunset murmured. "But I am a little curious as to what you're still doing here. Councillor Emerald ordered all units back to barracks, I believe."

"Yes," Major Harris said. "Yes, I understand he did. He gave the order after…" He paused for a moment. He had his pistol drawn, holding it in one hand, fondling the black barrel with the other. "Have you had a nightmare, Miss Shimmer?"

"Upon occasion, sir, yes," Sunset said.

"I woke from a nightmare," said Major Harris. "A nightmare in which I did things, terrible things, and then I woke up and found that it was no nightmare at all. I had done all those things. The nightmare was my life, and it always would be."

"The police outside," Sunset said.

"Yes," Major Harris said. "I can't … seemed so clear at the time, but now … all that I remember is that I did it."

"And…" Sunset licked her lips. "Where are the people who man this power station?"

"Most of them are locked in the cafeteria, for their own safety," Major Harris said. "A few of them died before I — before we — woke up, but not many, thank gods. Most of them still live."

That's one piece of good news, at least. "And the soldiers?" Sunset asked. "Were they your men?"

"They were," Major Harris confirmed. "I did … justice to them. They have paid for their crimes, as I must pay for mine." He raised his pistol to his head.

"WAIT!" Sunset shouted, one hand beginning to glow with magic, so that she could yank the gun out of his hand if he wouldn't listen to her. "Wait, please, for … just, please, wait. No, don't wait, don't just wait, just … just don't. Don't do this, sir, please."

Major Harris stared at her from over his shoulder. "You don't understand," he whispered.

Sunset took a step towards him, holding out her hands, palms outwards. "I think I might understand better than you realise, sir."

"I've killed men," he said.

"So have I," Sunset told him. "And … I won't sugarcoat it for you, because you wouldn't believe me if I tried; you'll have to live with what you've done. You'll always have to live with what you've done. But that's just the point, Major Harris, you have to live with it. Because no matter what you've done, no matter, you can always do better. Always. No exceptions. Unless you pull that trigger, because if you do, then … what? If it would bring a single dead man or woman out there back from the dead, a life for a life, then maybe, sure, do it, make the trade. But it won't. You know it won't. Not a single one."

"No," Major Harris allowed. "But it will…" He trailed off.

Sunset took another step closer. "Will what, sir?" she asked, sensing that she might be getting through to him. "What will it do?"

When Major Harris spoke again, his voice was shaking. "Justice?" he suggested, as though he wasn't sure of the answer.

"Justice," Sunset repeated quietly. "I … I won't claim to know much about justice, save that it is a hard word for a hard thing, to my mind. Was it justice that demanded that you…?” She searched for a way to say ‘was it justice that you kill your own men?’ without making it sound as though she was judging him for it.

“Punish my troops?” Major Harris finished for her. “Yes, yes, it was. That was justice.”

A hard thing indeed. Sunset considered that the Major’s mood would hardly be improved to find out that he had been the victim of mind control — considering what he’d just done to his soldiers, it would probably make him feel like even more of a murderer than he did already.

“You followed orders,” she said softly.

“Does that excuse me?” asked Major Harris. “Does that excuse my hands?”

“I don’t know,” Sunset admitted. “I’m not an expert on justice. I prefer mercy.”

“And so you would have me show myself the mercy I didn’t show those under my command?”

“Well, if I’d gotten here, I would have urged mercy on them, too,” Sunset said. She paused. “Did it help?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Did it help? It’s a simple question,” Sunset replied. “Did killing all your soldiers, did delivering justice to them, did it help?”

“Help who?” asked Major Harris. “Help what?”

“Help you, help them, help anyone?” Sunset demanded. “Has your justice saved any lives? No. Has it brought anyone who was dead back to life? No. All you’ve done … to be blunt, sir, all you’ve done in your pursuit of justice is add more bodies to a pile of them that was too large already. I’m not sure another for the mound will change that. Do you think that you’re a murderer, sir?”

Major Harris was silent for a moment. “I didn’t.”

“And do you think your troops were murderers?”

“No,” Major Harris said softly. “No, I did not.”

“None of this was your fault, sir,” Sunset said. “None of this was the fault of anyone under your command—”

“Then I must answer for their deaths, if not for the actions that we committed together under General Blackthorn’s orders,” said Major Harris.

“And what good will that do?” Sunset asked. “How will your death brighten this night, instead of adding to its sorrows?”

“It will mean that I don’t have to live with what I’ve done,” said Major Harris, in a quiet voice.

Sunset hesitated for a moment. “What were you living for before, if you don’t mind me asking, sir?”

Major Harris glanced at her. “Excuse me?”

“Why did you get up in the morning?” Sunset asked him. “What were you living for? Why did you put that uniform on each day, or even in the first place?”

Major Harris laughed bitterly. “A couple of years ago, I considered taking it off. I joined the Valish Defence Force because I wanted to protect Vale, to do my duty, but all that we did was … it was so boring that it became hard to convince myself that it was worthwhile. I offered my resignation. If only it had been accepted then—”

“Then someone else would have received General Blackthorn’s order and come here,” Sunset told him.

“But not I,” said Major Harris.

“No,” Sunset admitted. “But not you. Why wasn’t your resignation accepted?”

“I was persuaded to stick it out, for the sake of my pension,” Major Harris replied. “For the sake of my pension, I … I have done…”

“What would you have done instead?” asked Sunset. “What did you plan to do when you left the Defence Force.”

“I thought about applying to join the police,” Major Harris said. “I might have ended up answering the scrolls, but I thought I couldn’t feel less useful than I did in the military.”

“Because you still wanted to protect Vale,” Sunset said. “You still wanted to be of service. Well, I’ve got good news for you, sir, you still could.” Hopefully, the police wouldn’t hold all of this against former soldiers looking for a career change. “Vale still needs good people, it still needs public servants and protectors, now more than ever, maybe. With all this chaos and confusion, everything that’s happened tonight … I hope Councillor Emerald will survive politically as well as physically, but he may not; your mob is fickle. If he doesn’t, or even if he does, Vale is … likely to be a bit of a mess going forward, I think, wouldn’t you agree?”

Major Harris snorted. “You might be understating the case.”

“Vale will need every willing hand that it can get in the days to come,” Sunset said. “You can be amongst those willing hands … or you can be another body on the mound. I don’t think you really need me to tell you which of those options serves Vale best.”

Major Harris closed his eyes. “But I will have to live with what I’ve done.”

“Yes,” said Sunset. “Yes, you will, you must. And I won’t pretend that it will be easy or that you’ll never wish you’d ignored me tonight, but … when you look back at all that you’ve done after tonight, you’ll agree that it was worth it, I hope. Alive, you may still serve many. Perished … you’ll serve no one.”

Major Harris was silent. He was silent and as still as stone.

Then the pistol dropped from his hands to clatter to the floor at his feet.

Sunset telekinetically snatched it away, as she let out the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. “Thank you, Major,” she said. “Thank you.”

“You’ve no need to thank me,” Major Harris said. “Although you’ll forgive me if I don’t thank you, either.” He looked down at his booted feet. “What … what now?”

“Now,” Sunset said. “I think that—”

The earth trembled. A great rumbling sound filled the air as Sunset was pitched forwards, falling onto her knees on the floor with a solid thump. Her knees hurt, pain throbbing up her legs, and her hands hurt too as she threw them out to catch her fall.

"What was that?" Sunset demanded, wincing at the pain. She picked herself up, holding out her arms on either side of her for balance as the world continued to shake around her. She ran from the room, or at least, she ran as quickly as she could with the word shaking, with the pipes trembling above and around her, with the ceiling feeling as though it might cave in at any moment. She ran past or over the bodies of the Valish soldiers, vaulted over the security barrier in the lobby, out of the door and into the darkness.

The rumbling filled the air, coming from the east, from the south east, as though it were coming all the way from Mountain Glenn.

What new horrors have you devised? Have you not tormented me enough? Will I never be free of you?

Sunset turned southeast as the rumbling stopped, as the shaking in the earth stopped.

She turned southeast in time to see a dragon-like creature rise before the moon, silhouetted by the silvery light, and spread its leathery wings.

Author's Note:

I know one reviewer on Fanfiction.net who appreciated the fact that Martinez had died because they'd grown impatient with the lack of body count up until that point. However, for those of you who were shocked or saddened by her apparent death earlier, you will appreciate her deliverance.

Comments

[RedDog5207]

Author's Note:

I know one reviewer on Fanfiction.net who appreciated the fact that Martinez had died because they'd grown impatient with the lack of body count up until that point. However, for those of you who were shocked or saddened by her apparent death earlier, you will appreciate her deliverance.

This felt familiar, especially the part about Martinez being shot in the head and still having a pulse..... Was that inspired by this actual event in WW2 which was shown in the movie, A Bridge Too Far?

[AngelicTitan]

Thank god Martinez is alive, even if some people will say that’s unrealistic, I like her too much to see her dying. Regardless, this night won’t end without more deaths, if not by the Cultists or the Military, then it will be by the Grimm Dragon or Amber’s Entourage.
I loved the little teasing that Weiss made to Sunset’s bike and their little back and forth on the way to the power plant. And not let me get starting on how fucking horrific it must be to see all those dead people around them in the darkness. Sunset will have more nightmares from here on out, I bet.
My favorite part, without a doubt, was Sunset’s and Harris’ talk. It pays off so much of Sunset’s arc and how she views her actions and what is her new objective on her life: serve the people to make it so she can repent for the Breach’s deaths. The fact that she faces against a mirror of herself on the Major, who did unspeakable acts and was able to convince him to not kill himself was a brilliant piece of writing that just solidified Sunset as the best character on the fic; and I also think that this is a lesson that some other girl needs to learn: dying for your shame or glory won’t help anyone, but living for others will.
I also think that Sunset doesn’t really know about Ruby’s idolization of death as a Huntress, as she didn’t have as much knowledge of her mother as Yang. So it may be because of this that she didn’t make that moral lesson to Ruby yet; this chapter just made me anxious to see how Ruby’s arc will end as.
And now we have Glenn Mountain returning to Torment Sunset, but in form of a Grimm. Now that we are all caught up time-wise, what will happen next?
Excited for next chapter!

[Mastermind4892]

Sunset and Weiss have each given a ray of hope to someone almost claimed by death. A slim chance for tomorrow is better than no chance at all. Especially for the good Lieutenant Martinez.

And yet, the nightmare still isn’t over. The true battle has only just begun. Rush to the frontlines, Sunset. You have a dragon to slay before it hurts your friends!

[Luviere]

Weiss put two fingers to Lieutenant Martinez's neck. "I can feel a pulse."

FUCK YES! Alright boys, Ell-tee is still alive. Today is a day of celebration.

Cool chapter, but, it could have been better. The first thing i want to point out is how Sunset behaved in this and the previous chapter. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Sunset felt like a coward in this chapter, and in the previous one she didn't feel like herself. Let me explain before someone decides to dislike me into oblivion. I will focus on this chapter, as in the previous one, she wasn't that bad. What i meant when i said she felt like the biggest coward, was the fact of how she behaved when entering the power plant. I can understand to some extent why she was this careful, but on the other hand, this is not the Sunset we know. I can't exactly explain it. The Sunset before Ruby exiled her would have done the same as the Sunset now. But for some reason, in this chapter, Sunset feels more like a civilian then a Huntress. I don't know if it makes much sense. I get that the numerous bodies maybe got her more then a little shaken, and i will not say that she shouldn't have been shaken by the situation or stuff like that, but i am saying that based of what i read thus far, the Sunset before the exile would have conducted herself with a more level head then now. She didn't even use her spell for people to not see her, even tho she knew she had no aura and one bullet was enough to kill her. It feels like she was a civilian.

The second thing i want to point out is how... slow? those chapters are. Maybe slow isn't a good word for it. Maybe, "unimportant". I will try my best to navigate this mine field when explaining this. This chapter and the previous one felt like there really wasn't much going on. Except for the Weiss interactions (those are good. I do enjoy seing Sunset make the worst excuses, while she and Weiss know it's bullshit). And let's not forget that Martinez survived. I am so happy for that. But the rest was unimportant. Sunset meeting that grim cultist child didn't really affect her in any way, not that i see anyway. The power plant was also unimportant, except for the fact that Martinez was there.

Don't take it as me being a hater. Trust me, I'm not. I just wanted to give my opinion and constructive criticism on this chapter and to some extent the previous one.

[Kiue Jin]

Sonata may be dead and her name unknown, but her shadow will hang over Vale for generations.

There is a possible outcome to all of this that might make Sunset and Cinder's life a lot harder going forward. Namely, rather then keeping the two remaining Sirens imprisoned... Salem turns them loose.

She can save face by claiming that Sonata had gone above and beyond in regards to fulfilling her end of the bargain, up to and including giving her life for it. If the Amber Gambit works and Salem gets the relic, great! If the Gambit fails completely, it was Tempest who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If they fail to claim the relic but one of Salem's people escapes with the knowledge of where the Vale Vault is, that is still something of a victory: When you're immortal, sure it might take a few decades or centuries before another attempt can be made but now there is a solid target in sight.

So Salem stops having to waste time and effort keeping the Sirens contained, makes a small show about keeping her word when she makes deals... and can tell them that Sunset was the one who killed their sister on the command of her master Ozpin before letting them loose upon the world.

[Stet709]

"To that extent? I should have hoped not," Weiss murmured. "Imagine if General Ironwood went mad; would all his soldiers obey him so easily? Would Rainbow Dash? Blake?"

Heh... heh.. *glances at Volume 8*
The Ace Ops certainly did.

Fantastic, Martinez is alive... for now...

And Sunset comes full circle once again (first Cardin in the Forever Fall, now this?) and uses her past experiences to help another.

Sunset might want to get the power back on with Harris before she goes running off to fight a dragon.