Remnants of a Lost Planet

Chapter 8

 After a month of being in Beacon, John likes being there. Seeing so many people getting to meet new faces. The Vital Festival was also right around the corner. John has been training hard on hand to hand combat and ranged accuracy, he was doing great. He even has his V.S. almost repaired. The reason for most of his delay was because he was dragged into a mission in the broken city that was supposed to be an extension of Vale but got over runned by the Grimm. He was also training on transforming into his Akrid form, what he calls it, again but for some reason he couldn't, he can't explain why.

John was eating lunch at the cafeteria with his team and JNPR. They were talking about the mission they had.

"So you four ran into a nest of small deathstalkers?" Ruby asked, shivering a little. Just the thought of tiny grimm scorpions crawling all over you made her spin go cold.

"It was challenging but we made it," Juane said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Imagine a bunch of Sepia instead of baby deathstalkers," John thought out loud, making everyone shiver.

"Okay, you are never going to say another word while in Lunch," Weiss said. The overhead speakers came on.

"John Wildheart, please meet me in my office please. Thank you," Ozpin said through the speakers. John got up from his seat and started to leave.

"I'll see you guys in a bit," John said as he walked away. The other nodded but got a bit worried as to why he was the only one called up. As he was walking to Ozpin office he ran into Cinder and her team. They were from Haven Academy, but he didn't trust them. When they first met his thermal energy flared in his Harmonizer as they shook hands. But he still was friendly with them. "Good afternoon, Cinder, Emerald, Mercury."

"Good afternoon," Cinder said, "What are you up to?"

"Oh the headmaster is calling me to his office, don't know why though," John said.

"Well let's hope it's nothing bad, good day," Cinder said and the three walked away. As they parted ways, Cinder gives John an evil smirk. "Emerald, Mercury, I want you to invade John's room, see if find anything...interesting." They nod and head off.

John enters Ozpin's office and see not only Glynda there but also a man in a grey button up shirt and black pants with black hair and red eyes.

"John, it's good you could come here," Ozpin said. The man took a swig from his flask.

"So this is the kid that fights those Akrid things?" The man asked, he was sort of buzzed. Glynda juts shakes her head.

"Nevermind him, he's always like this," she said.

"Am I in trouble?" John asked.

"No. you are not. But I do want to ask you something," Ozpin said with a pause. "What is your favorite story?" John was confused but answered anyway.

"Well, I read a lot of stories from here. I'm going to have to say the top ones are the four Maidens and the man with two souls," John replied. "Why do you ask, headmaster?" Ozpin smiles

"What if I told you that the Four Maidens were real?" Ozpin said, leaning forward. John raised his eyebrow, this had caught his interest.

"What do you mean?" John asked. Ozpin looked at the drunken man.

"Qrow," Ozpin simply said. Qrow nods and puts his flask away.

"Kid. Every story has its truths but the four Maidens are very real. We knew there would be people that would hunt these Maidens down and use them for whatever they want, so we made a secret group of people that make sure that not only are the Maidens safe but also that no one knows that they are real," Qrow explained. John was trying to take all this.

"Okay, but why tell me?" John asked, both confused and curious.

"Because we need your help with something. The current Fall Maiden was attacked and part of her power along with her soul was taken, she's in critical condition and losing her life as we speak," Ozpin explained then stood up and walked to the elevator with Qrow and Glynda. John shortly followed inside. When the elevator stops and opens, John sees a green hallway that was dimly lit, and had massive green pillars. They walk down the hallway to the end where a massive machine with two pods, one on each side, and a terminal in the middle. John then saw a woman in one of the pods. She had brown skin and hair, all she had on were clothes that covered her breasts and groin area. The woman also had scars covering her face like something had latched onto her. "That is Amber, the current Fall Maiden," Ozpin said. John walked up to the pod that held Amber, she was in pain.

'What can I do? C'mon John think,' John said within his mind. But then it hit him, he knew what to do. "Professor Ozpin. Do you still have that canister of thermal energy with you?" John asked. Ozpin smiles and pulls it out of his pocket and tosses it to John. He catches the canister. "Okay. Where is the component that's keeping her alive?"

"Inside the terminal," Ozpin said. That's when John went to work. He connected his Harmonizer to the terminal and opens the bottom panel of the terminal and wet in. John sees the power source and to his luck it was the right size to be replaced with the canister. He reaches for the power source and quickly takes it off. The Harmonizer acted as a temporary power source so Amber could stay stable. He hooks up the canister and makes sure that the thermal energy is transferred straight to Amber. He gets out of the terminal, unhooks his Harmonizer and restarted the computer.

At first nothing happened, but then the screen came on. There was a loading screen then it said, "New power source detected, reprogramming and transferring." The terminal then started to glow orange and the glow started to go through the pipes and wires into Amber's pod. When the thermal energy entered her system, her aura glowed brightly. The heartbeat monitor started to show that she was stabilizing. The grown ups eyes widen as this was happening. The thermal energy was restoring her soul. After a couple of seconds, the glowing stops and the machine turns off. Inside the pod, Amber groans as she was waking up. When she fully opens her eyes, she sees that she is in the pod and panics, banging on the glass. Ozpin hurries and opens the pod and John helps her out.

"Easy, you just woke up Amber," Ozpin said.

"Pro-Professor Ozpin?" Amber asked, confused. Glynda was completely stunned that it worked, Qrow smiled, finally seeing something good come around.

"Easy, take it slow," John said, easily holding her up.

"Where am I?" Amber asked.

"You're in Beacon's basement kid. Out of sight, out of mind," Qrow said.

In Ozpin's office they were talking to Amber about who her attackers were. After the story John's eyes sort of widened.

"I know people that look like that," John said.

"Who?" Ozpin said, he was being very serious. John was sort of Intimidated.

"Cinder and her team," John simply said. Ozpin went through the school's system and found her and her team. He shows Amber their faces.

"That's them! The ones that attacked me!" Amber said.

"Alright. Thank you John you may go," Ozpin said. John leaves the office.

"What do we do?" Glynda asked.

"We plan our strategy," Ozpin. Meanwhile deep underground, when John installed the canister of thermal energy in the terminal and activated it, there was a orange pulse. This pulse travels through dark and large cave. Then the whole cave began to have faint orange glows as dormant Akrid were waking up. Their numbers were small so they began to reproduce. In a large chamber, there was an Akrid that was larger than the others. It walked on all fours, it was mantis like in appearance, with a long neck, two huge and long forearms that had a spike at the end. It growls as others like it but smaller walk out. This queen has plans.