Chapter 147: Chapter 147: Inner Circle (3)
Chapter 147: Inner Circle (3)
~Third POV~
A humming of electricity is heard as the group comes to their destination at the end of the hallway.
A large machine with lit screens hooked up to two rectangular pods, one of which is upright to show through the glass window a young girl dressed in minimal clothing with a burn scar over her left eye and across her face.
Ruby steps forward hesitantly questioning who the person is, "Is that..."
Ozpin sighs heavily seeing their current Fall Maiden in this state, "The current Fall Maiden, Amber."
Ruby is holding herself together looking at her and the scars, "She's... still alive."
Ironwood proceeds to explain to the two of them with Jack looking at Amber calmly, "For now. We're using state-of-the-art Atlas technology to keep her stable. But there is a lot about this situation that is... unprecedented."
Ruby looks confused by what the General meant by his words, "What do you mean?"
Ironwood sighs, eyes closed as he began to reply to Ruby about the result, "Well, we don't know what will happen if – when she passes."
Ruby not understanding the situation as she states obviously oblivious to what happened to Amber, "Won't... her power... just transfer to the next host?"
Ironwood glances at Amber as he began to explain to the two about the difficulty of the process being done, "Under normal circumstances, yes. But this is a delicate situation. It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker. And to make matters worse, no one's ever seen the power split like this before. For all we know, it will seek out its other half."
Jack manages to point out their own worry clearly in a serious tone, "... Her assailant. If she passes the power could probably look for its other half regardless of the previous Maiden choice."
Ozpin turning nods his head in agreement with his claims, "And that would not bode well for any of us."
Ruby lowers her head in thought, then suddenly comes forward and places a hand on the glass of Amber's pod.
Ruby suddenly sounded angry, turning to the teachers and gesturing wildly at them, "If all of this is true, why to keep it secret!? If this girl is so important... if we're truly on the brink of war, why not tell everyone?"
Goodwitch came forward to explain with a sad smile on her face, "From what we understand, it used to be common knowledge."
Ruby was not expecting that answer with Jack replied placing his hand on the glass of Amber's pod, "It's because you guys made it a legend. Forgotten in the passage of time. I can guess this is just another of how fairy tales get started only to be told as an actual fairy tale at the end of the day."
Goodwitch nods at this as she continues to explain their own purpose for their reason, "Our group was founded in order to protect both mankind and the Maidens. Those hungry for power hunted them with the hope of inheriting their strength."
Qrow finishing the drink from his flask continued with Glynda's words getting into their heads, "And as you can imagine, the ones that succeeded weren't exactly the kind of people you'd want to have unimaginable power."
Ironwood nodded in agreement with Qrow words and told them their oath, "And so this brotherhood chose to remove the Maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend."
Goodwitch explains that their causes go back to before the Kingdom times, "The things we're telling you to go against hundreds of years of human history, religion."
Ironwood agrees with Glynda as he also gave the two another reason, "No one would want to believe us. It would cause an uproar."
Ozpin begins to explain why they can't because it only causes panic in Remnant, "It would cause panic. And we all know what that would bring to clawing to our Kingdom's walls. We're still looking for someone to be our next Fall Maiden…"
Jack could sense something off immediately when he said those words getting a feeling of who he originally meant but first responds on the how first, "Ok… but how would that work though? With Amber's condition is it possible even for her to choose the next person?"
Ozpin stepping towards him began to explain it wasn't as simple as it first seemed, "It is, but I'm afraid it's not that simple. Given Amber's condition, she won't be able to give her power naturally. However, General Ironwood believes he has a solution."
Ironwood begins to explain to everyone his past efforts in the last few years of the breakthrough of their research into the aura, "For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what's it made of, how it can be used. We've made... significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it."
Qrow scoffs at this a bit as he responded with the simple version, "Capture it and cram it into something else."
Ruby looked to Ironwood at how wrong the way he spoke was trying to capture Aura, "That's ... wrong! Aura is supposed to be a manifestation of the soul, a life force that runs through every living creature on Remnant! It feels… wrong to simply capture it…"
Goodwitch glares at Ironwood but switches her gaze back to Ruby and Jack with pity, "The feeling is mutual. But desperate times call for desperate measures."
Ironwood nods and explaining their desperate times call for desperate action needed, "And these are indeed desperate times. We can't transfer Amber's power to our Maiden of our choice, but we can give them what those powers are bound to."
Ozpin provides the answer of what her power is going towards, "Her Aura. Her life... would become intertwined with the Maiden of our choice. The question is... What's going to happen if we try it on a person?"
Ruby doesn't respond, instead placing her hand on the glass separating the maiden with Ozpin explaining further, "The assailant that attacked the Fall Maiden has made their first move. And there's no telling when their next move will be… so we must find – "
Before Ozpin could rely Jack glanced at Amber more specifically the soul fractured like something plucked a whole and shredded it to bits using <Soul Manipulation> to peer into her soul.
When Jack touched the Aura Transferring Machine when he used <Mechanical King> to gather a more understanding of the machine.
Jack could practically see their work of the Aura Transferring Machine just screams of arrogance in understanding the soul of a person.
The Kingdom of Atlas had been performing serious scientific research into the nature and composition of Aura. Their research yielded experimental technology that was capable of capturing Aura from a person and transferring it to something or someone else. Such technology even led to the creation of Penny, the first synthetic person to generate an Aura.
The existence of this technology was highly classified, but many of those who did know of it viewed it as ethically immoral and wrong. Regardless, this technology was intended to play a key part in preventing the Fall Maiden power of Amber, whose power is linked to Aura, from falling into the hands of Cinder by unnaturally transferring the powers to their target of choice.
Jack thought to himself recalling something from his time on Earth something similar to this as he frowns at the idea, 'It was stated that if the plan was successful, it might have unknown effects on Pyrrha's psyche and personal identity, merging them with that of Amber. That's the trouble with souls if you aren't strong or fuse properly old habits of the resident will come back up.'
Thinking of something quick Jack asked Ozpin to see if couldn't heal her with his <Aura Amp> to see if there is an improvement, "Ozpin sir, is it ok if I use <Aura Amp> to see if I can heal her?"
At this Ozpin thought for a moment while the other members of the Inner Circle could only shake their heads but didn't refuse since to them it was pointless to save Amber since they tried all they could.
They thought and all did what they can to save Amber.
They didn't expect much from Jack healing Amber would be nothing short of a miracle to them and Ozpin thinks to himself of the offer, 'Sigh... young man there are some things that can't be saved... but... at the very least in her passing it will be painless or soothed...'
Ozpin nodded as Jack began to do his magic using <Aura Amp> but also powered by <Power Augmentation> along with <Instant Learning> telling himself the correct steps needed to be careful of this.
*SHIII*
Jack's glowing royal blue light began to shine brighter than usual with <Aura Amp> continuously trying to heal Amber's aura showing signs of some progress albeit a slow process being made healing Amber aura.
Using simply <Aura Amp> is not enough so he stops using <Power Augmentation> so that he could use <Soul Manipulation> to see how to heal Amber's soul using <Aura Amp> to have the aura reconnect healing slowly.
Seeing the results Ozpin could only sigh in relief of this seeing there is progress being made although slow Jack then asked Ozpin another request, "Ozpin… is it ok I stay here for the time being while I heal Amber. At least I want to try to save her if you don't mind or at least ease her pain."
Everyone soon glanced at Ozpin thinking a bit before he nodded but not before leaving Glynda behind to observe, "No worries mister Nights. But I'll leave Glynda here just to see what the situation is going on. Just be sure to get rest when it's been done ok."
Jack could only accept the terms that Ozpin gave him.
/////
After constantly using his time wisely and refueling his aura to heal Amber with clear signs Glynda sees the result impressed, "I can see adding you to the Inner Circle was a good part on Ozpin. Despite how things will end for her… at least she's not in any pain."
"Huff…"
"Huff…"
Jack was panting on the side using his AP Bar to show slow signs of Amber healing up as he asked Glynda for something, "Huff… yeah… it's pretty draining… Hey, Miss Goodwitch can you please get me something to eat? I'm pretty tired of healing her for most of the day."
Glynda ponders on this but reluctantly agreed seeing how much effort Jack was doing saving the Fall Maiden's condition, "It's commendable Jack on what you are doing. But... Hmm... I suppose it won't be long, and I guess you are helping us I'll get you something to eat. Tell me what you want and I'll be right back."
Telling what he wanted Glynda took the chance to leave trusting Jack not to do anything after everything he had done for Remnant, he soon goes over to his Scroll using <Technopathy> and <Technology> to play a feedback loop of the cameras looking into the vault.
Doing this way Jack makes sure he heals Amber without anyone questioning how he did so and won't ask too many questions about where he found the right item for the job.
Soon enough Jack takes out the Elixir from his <Deep Pockets> holding it up nodding to himself about it, "With this, it should be able to heal Amber right away. No way I'm giving Cinder the satisfaction of victory. It was a shame for Amber but hopefully, she does well this time around."
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