A/N: Also, IMPORTANT, there's a reason why this story is marked as Mature in both FFnet and Wattpad and has a Content Warning of Strong Language and Gore in ScribbleHub

You have been warned for the second time and last time

AFoS - Chapter 8
Hold Your Blade

"Everyone, this is your captain speaking, we are about to make an emergency landing on Warzawa to avoid any more accidents while one of our engines are out." The captain said through the speakers around the airship "Please do not panic, the danger of Grimm, while small, is still present."

"See? Everything's gonna be okay, I told you." Arianell said to Arcene and Summer

'... What?' Arcene thought to herself bewildered as she looked out of the window, and true to her suspicions, they are going down, but not spiralling out of control 'down', just a slow descent 'How is this air… Oh right, this is an airship, but how is this not spiralling out of control with one of the engines down? Do they have a stabilizer or som…

Oh… I'm goddamn stupid… I am goddamn stupid… Gravity dust exists… Breaking the laws of physics is something that is very much possible here… Aaarrrgghh…' Arcene thought to herself as annoyance slowly bubbles on top of her emotions, if there's one thing she doesn't like, it's that making her feel extreme emotions for false alarms or a stupid reason

"So, do you believe me now?" Arianell asked Arcene

'Why do I feel like she's secretly smirking?' Arcene thought to herself, while she can see that Arianell just has a normal smile on her face, she can't stop but feel that Arianell is a bit smug

But anyways, Arcene offered no reply from her

But Arianell kept her smile on her face, she knew she had won the game, there's no point in continuing any further, but anyways, she just started head patting Arcene who in which she didn't gave any physical reaction

That's another one of the problems that she knows she has but is having a hard time dealing with it; her pride, while she may have quite the low self-esteem and not much confidence in herself, she has quite a surprising amount of pride

Not to the point that it blinds her though, but enough that it's hard talking normally (or just talking in general) to the people who proved her wrong, yes, she knows she's in the wrong, yes, she acknowledges it and would change her views to the "correct" one, but it's still hard talking to person her mind believes that 'humiliated' her even if she knows that's not the case

But even though she's aware of what she's doing, her own pride still wins over her

And sometimes, that combined with her stored anger sometimes proved to be a bit too much to handle, most of the time, she just says her sassy thoughts which were almost always hidden in her mind, but there have been times it became… Physical

All of them are pretty harmful physically, but that's what most "pranks" are, but hers are quite subtle and minor, like putting one of Summer's toy to a place she's unlikely to put making her think she misplaced it, or when Summer ask her something but she wouldn't respond immediately or pretend she didn't heard it or something, just some minor day to day annoyance for the most part

You might say, "Oh you know yourself so much.", but that doesn't equate to her predicting her own behaviour accurately… Actually, she'd be more surprised if she did manage to predict her own behaviour

Suddenly, a large… Noise that Arcene doesn't know how to describe was heard before a voice through the speaker was already heard

"We have landed, please remain inside the airship at all times, the authorities have been informed of our situation and are already dispatching a rescue team, they will arrive in a few hours." The captain through the speakers

'A few hours?' Arcene thought to herself

Arianell noticed Arcene's confusion, so she decided to ask "What is it?"

Arcene didn't respond immediately, so Arianell asked a different question "Is there something wrong?"

Now Arcene decided to answer "A few hours?"

And then she grimaced, she probably should explain what she's asking huh? But it seems Arianell beat her into talking

"Ah, the place between the area between Warzawa and Central Vale is full of big mountains, so it'll be quite some time before they manage to arrive." Arianell explained, proving that she already got what Arcene meant

Although, Arianell  would've also used words like "uninhabitable" but even though Arcene knows things way past the things her age should know, she probably doesn't know more deeper words like that… Well, she does but Arianell doesn't know that does she? So that's beside the point

'Aaarrrghh… This is going to be a long wait… The waiting game it is…' Arcene thought to herself in annoyance

*Timeskip*

'Where's my Rubik's cube when you need 'em.' Arcene thought to herself as she stares outside the window in boredom

After the whole emergency landing, things were pretty uneventful

I guess she just jinxed herself since an attendant suddenly entered the whole… Well, hallway? Cabin? She doesn't really know what to call 'here'

Actually, there were multiple attendants entering… 'Here' who soon began asking for the names of the rearmost passengers while the other two seemed to be doing something else while looking at their larger than usual scrolls

Eventually, after a while, one attendant, a woman with black hair with red highlights and yellow eyes came to them, she's wearing a uniform of course, but she's also wearing black glass

But for some reason, the woman feels vaguely familiar

Though, it's probably just her mind messing with her once again, this particular incident is not a unique one and has happened multiple times so she wouldn't be surprised if this happened again

"Arianell Rose, and these are my two daughters, Arcene Rose and Summer Rose." Arianell said already knew what must be done "My husband is Garnet Rose, but he's outside right now which you probably already know."

The attendant looks at another attendant behind her who nodded as she looks at the scroll she's holding

After a few moments, the attendant who's holding the scroll nodded and both of them turned around

'Hmm… Now that I think about it, this is the first time I heard Mom's full name, huh? It's always Ria, or Aria, or sometimes, even Mrs. Rose, but this is the first time I heard her full name, though it feels familiar somehow… Now I know I heard that somewhere...' Arcene thought to herself before mentally sighing, it's her mind messing with her again

But back to the track, this ain't the first time this kind of thing happened to her, the first instance were her past life's parents, her mom was usually called Weng, pretty much making her ignorant that her actual name was Row-

"Miss, can I ask you a question?" Arianell quickly said, stopping the two attendants in their tracks "I'm sorry but, have we met somewhere before?"

'Huh… Weird, even Mom? I doubt this is my mind messing with me this time now… Hm… But actually, why would Mom even ask that in the first place?' Arcene thought to herself even though she knows she wouldn't be going somewhere meaningful with so little evidence

The two attendants looked at each other before the attendant with black hair and red highlights pointed at herself before asking "Me?"

Arianell nodded and then the attendant with black hair responded "I'm sorry, but I don't really remember you from anywhere, so you probably mistaken me for another person."

"I see…" Arianell said with a particular tone "I'm sorry for the bother."

"No worries, those things happen." The attendant with black hair waved it off as  a happenstance before turning around and returning to her duties

'That… Was a bit weird…' Arcene thought to herself but eventually, she thought nothing more of it

"Hey Sum, AT?" Arcene asked Summer whose expression turned in to that of slight fear

"You're just gonna beat me…" Summer said

"But what if it's a free for all but we team up for a bit?" Arcene offered

"Uhm… No…" Summer denied

"We're actual allies?" Arcene offered

"Let's go!" Summer enthusiastically said

'Finally, even if the game would be a little boring with both of us wrecking the AIs, it's definitely better than doing absolutely nothing.' Arcene thought to herself

*Small Timeskip*

"The attendants have checked all the passengers, captain, everyone is accounted for, no missing and no injuries." A young woman in a uniform with black hair and red highlights said to the captain

"That's good to hear, by the way, any word from the two Hunstmen?" The captain who is a man that looks like he's around his mid 40s, he has black hair with hints of brown and red highlights and he also has reddish-brown eyes

"No Grimm sighted for now, is what they last said." The young woman answered

"Hm… Nothing more?" The captain said with his twitch slightly going down, but the young woman didn't noticed that

"No Captain." The young woman answered

"Okay then… You may continue your duties now." The captain said to the young woman who then turned away and exited out the room

"So, we don't know who our attackers are yet, Elin?" A masculine voice asked the Captain –Elin

"No shit, you heard the newbie right, Albert?" Elin said with an annoyed tone to the source of the voice, a man with short white hair with blue highlights and yellow eyes and he is also wearing a similar uniform to Elin, his name is Albert by the way if that wasn't obvious enough

"Ey ey, you should keep up your professional attitude when in flight, right, Captain Pruss?" Albert sassily replied to Elin with a slight smirk in his face

"As long as a certain someone stops asking obvious questions that have obvious answers." Elin quipped back to Albert "But anyways, it's a bit concerning, our attackers are still out there and we don't know where they are."

"They're probably planning their next move." Albert commented

"Yes, they probably are." Elin agreed with Albert's comment

"So, what are we gonna do?" Albert asked Elin

"Well… There isn't really much we could do but wait for the rescue team to arrive." Elin responded

"Hm… I guess you're right…" Albert said in agreement "But we're basically sitting ducks."

Elin after hearing what Albert said just looked at him blankly, Albert seeing this replied with "Yes, yes, I know about the two Hunstmen, but I'm talking about us."

"Hm...Yeah, I guess we are sitting ducks." Elin said "Unless we use the weapons we have."

"Oh right… I forgot about those…" Albert said "Both of them?"

"Yes, both of them." Elin replied

"Jeez, you sure about that Elin?" Albert asked

"They probably have Aura anyways, so if anything, we would be the ones outgunned." Elin answered immediately  getting what Albert's vague question implied

"Yeah, yeah you're probably right." Albert agreed

"Come on now, let's get the guns." Elin said to Albert as he stands up and Albert soon following him

Arcene looks at the scroll in her hands with disappointment, another failed attack from Summer against the AIs

Like come on, she's already covering the defence of their base since AIs usually goes in on the attack for the first few minutes and will continue on with increasing force

And she covered up their defences very well, so the only real thing they need to do was to mount an attack to slowly cripple away their enemy, and that's Summer's job while Arcene will simultaneously defend and provide extra troops during an attack and maybe even move in and extend their defences –and by extension, their base which would also make their enemies lose potential territory

But of course, Summer went in with a bad combination of troops which consisted mainly of aircrafts. Why is it bad you ask? Because the AIs spams AA Guns for no reason, combine that with the fact that most aircrafts in Ancient Tactics has very little health makes aircrafts very unreliable for first wave attacks against AIs

'Fine…' Arcene thought to herself as she selected her factories and started ordering… Things to be built 'I'll do it myself then.'

But here's the thing, certain aircrafts have freaking high damages, so the tactic that Arcene mostly uses was use artilleries –which are protected– to destroy as much defences from afar and once they manage to destroy enough, she launches an attack with tanks and such, their first target: strong ground attack defences and a second priority were air defences

And once enough air defences were destroyed, she brings in her airforce which combined with the ground attack force –which based on the force and defences, would either be dwindling or still somewhat numerous– would be a deadly combination

And that's now what Arcene is planning to do

"Oh… Hehe…" Summer said while smirking as she realizes what Arcene is doing

Yep, this match is over

~~*Boooom*~~

'Huh!?' Now, Arcene was suddenly alarmed

She wasn't the only one though, Summer suddenly grabbed Arcene's right arm which she didn't tried prying off and let it be

And also, Arianell who stood up and looked at the source of the sound of the distant explosion which was behind them while holding the 'stick' attached on her back behind her

But then, Arianell seemed to refocus herself to the door

And then, Arcene realizes that if the explosion was anywhere near the airship, it would've rocked the ship even slightly, but there was nothing, so it's probably quite a bit far away from the airship, so I guess there was nothing to worry about… For now

Apparently, she was right, but she overestimated just how long that 'for now' was, because the peace only lasted for mere seconds before a second explosion was heard

~~*BOOOM*~~

But this time though, it sounded more closer and it was close enough that it shook the airship a bit, but nothing damaging, or so Arcene thinks

'Of course I just have to be in the middle of some kind of conflict while I'm young.' Arcene thought to herself 'You know, I may have forgotten about you Xelnaga, but now I quite remember…'

But also, she also knows she's forgetting... Something... 'Daaaaamniiiiiitt, it's something important… I know it's something important, so why would you throw that information away, brain!?'

Actually, she did notice this trend of the older she gets, the more blurry the memories of past events get, she kinda remember reading something about why your childhood seem blurry

Or… Did they actually explain it or just addressed it? Can't remember now too

But anyways, that's probably what's slowly happening to her now, huh? She's getting older and older, she's physically 9 now and she has her memories of her past life for…

'2 or 3 years, yeah, either one of those tw-

~*Bang*~ ~*Bang*~ ~*Bang*~

~~*BOOOM*~~

Multiple gunshots and an explosion was heard from outside, it seems a fight finally broke out

Frankly, she cares little about it, I mean, unless it's starting to get dangerously close to her and the airship, but based in how intense the sounds were, it was probably like a few tens of meters away from the airship

Or at least, that's a rough estimation, she doesn't have the best sense for length, distance, etc.

"Everyone! This is your captain speaking! Please do not panic! Some of our trained staffs along with two Hunstmen are driving away our pursuers, the-

~~*BOOOOM*~~

An explosion was heard… Or rather, it was felt

The whole airship shook hard making some of those standing fall

This time, the previous gunshots that were muffled now was heard clearly, and there's one reason why; there's now a hole in the airship

Arianell dashed towards the hole before taking cover in a nearby empty seat

"Everyone! Hide!" Arianell ordered everyone in the cabin as she pulls out the aforementioned stick as it slowly transform into something, but Arcene didn't see it clearly and she's not planning to as much as she's curious

She holds Summer's head and pushes it down to the chair, concealing her as she herself hides too

But of course, this was a little too rough to the point Summer got hurt "OW!"

But Arcene ignores this, she doesn't care if she got too rough, it's for her safety anyways, and then she whispers to Summer "Don't make a noise…"

~*Bam*~ ~*Bam*~ ~*Bam*~ ~*Clank*~

After multiple shots were heard, clashes of metal then follows before even more shots were fired

As much as it sounds interesting, she's not gonna risk her or Summer's life just for curiosity, so she stayed hidden

And then, the metal clashes slowly gets further and further away

Hearing only silence, Arcene decided to gamble and take a look and…

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There was no one, just other people hiding in their seats

Arcene slightly sighs out of relief but still feels a bit of worry, where is Arianell?

Based on the sounds and where she was at the time and what she was holding, she's the one that was fighting whoever entered here, huh? And probably, she's also the one that slowly pushed them away from the airship

She probably doesn't need to worry too much, Arianell could probably handle herself well

"W-What's happening? Where's Mom?" Summer suddenly asked Arcene who was momentarily shocked from the question

'... Shit… Why ask me?' Arcene thought to herself before she said "She's… Uh… Just taking care of something."

Seeing Summer still a bit worried, Arcene decided to add "She'll be back soon."

And then, the door near the hole was suddenly kicked open, and the loud noise that it caused made Arcene flinch before hiding back to the chair fast

'... Shit, did they see me?' Arcene thought to herself

"Is everyone okay!?" A voice that came from the direction of the door was heard shouting

'... Wait.' Arcene thought to herself as she vaguely recognized the voice 'Is that the captain? Or is my hearing tricking me?'

Not wanting to take a gamble this time, she didn't even tried peeking

Summer on the hand, was raising her head probably wanting to see who's talking but before she finishes it, Arcene pulls her back down before putting her finger in Summer's mouth, wanting her to not make a noise

"Captain Pruss!" Someone suddenly shouted in the room

'Is that a confirmation? That's probably confirmation that it's the captain that entered here, right?' Arcene thought to herself but still has an ample amount of doubt as she usually is open to possibilities and one of the possibilities here is that this is a ploy of their attacker's to lure the passengers out

She decided waited a bit more because somebody else could look, she looks at the sit across the aisle to see no one, which is pretty bad because she wouldn't be able to see if someone else decided to look at who called out

But I guess there was nothing to worry about in the first place as she sees someone outright standing up

Arcene now decided to peek to see a man with black hair with hints of brown and red highlights and he also has reddish-brown eyes, but most prominently of all, he's wearing an awfully familiar uniform

'Yep, that's the uniform of the airlines.' Arcene thought to herself

But what's a little bit shocking was that the man –Captain Pruss was holding a rifle and by the looks,it ain't a mechashift

'Too bad I wouldn't be able to see one transforming just yet.' Arcene thought to herself

~*Bang*~ ~*Bang*~

Shots were heard firing just near the hole

"Elin! Help me here!" A masculine voice shouted at round the same direction

"On it." Captain Pruss said as he crouches near the hole and shoots as well

'I'm not even surprised that they have guns as self defence, wouldn't even be surprised if they have a machine gun mounted here as well. This airline transports civilians from continent to continent, they would've needed something to defend themselves against the Grimm and other things after all, like right now.' Arcene thought to herself

After that, Arcene tried to think as to what she should do now, I mean, there isn't really anything to do than to hide here and wait, most of what Uncle Hai thought her and Summer was evasion and deflection and very little offensive techniques, which makes sense considering they're nothing but a child physically, even if he thought them any offensive techniques, it wouldn't do much with her young body

And not to mention, going into battle would be nothing but foolish and something only an idiot would do with such a young body against foes that are more older, more experienced and more skilled

Not to mention, Auras exist, what's to say that the people attacking them don't have one?

So there isn't much to do but wait

"A-Arcy?" Summer called out to Arcene with her voice full of nervousness

"Yes?" Arcene said

"Y-You aren't scared?" Summer asked her

"What's there to be scared of?" Arcene asked, she knows fully well that Summer is scared and she could do nothing about that, although while she isn't really scared, she's definitely a bit nervous "But nervous? Yes."

"Oh, then I'll give you a reason why you should be scared." A familiar voice whispered from behind her, it was the attendant from earlier?

Arcene didn't even tried to look and instinctively ducked which actually helped her because she saw hands at the top of her vision where her head once been

'Don't people see this!?' Arcene thought to herself as she thinks of the other passengers

But after she ducked, she was in an unfavourable position being unable to twist her body any further, being in a semi-kneeling position without regaining your center of gravity makes you do that

"Arcy!" Summer shouted in shock as her eyes were bulged open and her hands shaking but does nothing other than freeze in her spot

Arcene decided on having none of it, held their attackers hands with her own

While she was successful on holding their attackers hand, she eventually lose it as she felt the right side of her head full of immense pain, she was hit with the ankle of their attacker

'Damnit! Why aren't you running Summer!? I've already given you an opportunity! Or why not even shout for help!? Summer!!??' Arcene thought to herself in a mix of panic, anger, and fear as she grit her teeth very hard

Arcene tried pushed herself into Summer and away from their attacker because she knows a strike will be coming and she needs to dodge it at all cost, deflecting is out of the equation because of the strength of their attack and the fact that they're attacking behind her and therefore out of her sight, so her only option was to dodge

But… Even she knows that's futile, in an enclosed space while in an unfavourable position while their enemy is right behind her? Yeah, dodging is virtually impossible

And that was proven with the fact that she felt a hand suddenly squeeze her head so tightly that it caused her pain, lots of it

"A-A-Aaahh!" Arcene briefly shouted in pain before gritting her teeth once more

Deciding to retaliate even a little bit, she used both her hands to dig her fingers right into the hand that's squeezing her head

But… Slowly but surely, her strength began waning, she's growing weaker for what seems to be absolutely no reason… Why…

The last thing she saw before she passed out was Summer's terrified face

Fun Fact: The author of a story has absolute control over their story, doesn't matter if there's external influences, if the author decided to do something to their story, those influences are just that, influences, but you cannot influence someone if that someone decided to do it no matter what happens

An example of this is ending their story however they like and whenever they like