(Volume 4) Chapter 3: The Voices From Within

(A Few Days Later)

You yawn, looking up into the stars as the rest of the team has set up a campfire and have all sat down in their sleeping bags, all having light conversation with one another as you are severely missing Yang right about now...it's been nearly a year since you've last seen her, you don't know what's the situation with her, or with any of your teammates really except for Ruby of course. You don't know how she's dealing with only having one arm, you know she's struggling with PTSD based on what she told you about how she gets flashes throughout the day of her arm getting sliced off, or the fact that nightmares are common for her now...you sigh, you hope she's holding up okay.

Nora: "Everything good with you, (F)?" The team's looking at you as you sit up

You: "Uh, yeah I'm fine, why do you ask?"

Ruby: "Well lately we've noticed you've been a little quiet, ya know?"

You:"I mean...I guess I'm just gettin' a little home sick." You say smiling while looking up at the stars

Jaune:"Makes sense, I mean we've been on the road for like what? 8 months? More? A sense of time gets lost out here with no real contact with society."

Ren:"Other than the occasional villages here and there."

Nora:"Speaking oooofff...Jaune!" Jaune jumps slightly who was studying the map you all had to go back into that one village for because SOMEONE LOST IT "When's the next time we'll come across another village?"

Jaune:"Hmm, next village is a little ways off. Seems like a few days before we get to it, this one's called Higanbana."

Ruby:"Higa-wha-?"

Nora:"Ooooh sounds fancy."

Ren:"Indeed, it's a rather big village."

You:"Well until then." You look up, seeing sparks of lightning high in the sky as now you're reminded of Jack...you wonder how he's doing...you look down, missing your hyperactive little brother. Sure, apparently Ironwood is going to give him usage in his arms but at the cost of what? Becoming some weapon that Atlesian scientists are gonna experiment on? Ruby clears her throat, you look back over at the team as they were waiting for you to finish what you were gonna say "Oh! Well, seems like it's gonna rain tonight." Ruby and Nora groans

Nora:"UGH! This rain has been following us like a plague these last few days!!!" She yells as you laugh lightly, on cue light droplets of rain begin to fall down as Ruby puts her hood on

Ren:"Seems this area has frequent storm systems."

You:"Pfft, yeah no kidding." You say looking back at all of your bags that are completely soaked due to you all trying to use them as makeshift umbrellas...maybe ya should've stolen Neo's before she decided to disappear when you saved her...where'd SHE end up in...?

Ruby:"Well it's late and I'm tired so I'ma sleep. Good night guys."

Ren:"Right, I believe it's my turn to take first watch."

You:"Let me take first watch." The team looks at you

Nora:"Not to be mean (F), but you look terrible." You have noticed you've gotten some deep black circles around your eyes, you haven't been sleeping well lately, mostly because this stupid Ring of yours keeps burning you violently at night...

Jaune:"Yeah, c'mon (F) you need your sleep. You've been volunteering for first watch for the past week."

Ruby:"Yeah and when you do, you just stay awake until morning and don't let us take over." You sigh...rubbing your ring finger, readjusting the Ring on your finger.

You:"Just let me have the first watch for tonight...please?" The team glances all at each other, Ruby looking at you worried as Ren sighs

Ren:"Fine then, but after this night you're not allowed to have first watch until you've proven you can get some sleep."

You:" Thanks guys." You say with a slight smile on your face, the rest of the team smiling worryingly as they all lie down in their sleeping bags, slowly falling asleep, you sigh looking up into the sky as rain continues to pour down, thunder lightly booming in the skies above you as you look off into the forest, keeping watch.

(1 Hour Later)

You yawn as you rub your eyes tiredly, thing about keeping watch is that almost 100% of the time nothing actually happens and you just lose ALL sense of sleep. You look towards the rest of the group, you notice Ruby mumbling in her sleep. She's been doing that alot lately, most likely nightmares of some sort due to what happened in Beacon with Pyrrha, Penny, Yang, and Jack. You also notice that sometimes Jaune gets up to "take over watch" and you let him but when he does take over, he trains in the most heartbreaking way, you've watched in the shadow of the night as Jaune listens to recordings of Pyrrha...most likely letting his anger of loosing her also fuel his swings...to be fair if you were in his position you'd be incredibly fueled with rage, of course Yang did get hurt, loosing her arm was more devastating to her than you first realized, and of course the next time you see Adam you are going to absolutely wreck his shit but she is still alive and you will most likely see her again one day...the next time Jaune will see Pyrrha again will be the day he dies. You rub your eyes again sighing, maybe you SHOULD get some sleep for once. You begin getting up, whispers going slightly in your head. You stop looking down at your Ring, it's pulsing slightly as you narrow your eyes...you're incredibly pissed off with the whole Equinox bull crap, all its ever done is given you and your family, your teammates, your loved ones so much pain. Now your Semblance isn't even working correctly, your clothes haven't been changing either so THAT'S not fun...you don't know why but you feel compelled to speak to your Ring

You(softly):"Please...so much pain is happening and I don't know what to do. I'm the Equinox but I don't even know what that makes me, please...tell me what I need to do..." You say while closing your eyes, your Ring glowing as suddenly the rain stops in the air, everything becoming dead quiet as you look around surprised. "That's new." suddenly those figures you saw all the way back at your encounter with Torchwick back on the docks appear in the forest, completely surrounding you all, one figure stands out among the rest, a shadowy figure of a rather skinny man with sunken eyes and long hair walks towards you.

???:"Young Man...you've barely scratched the surface of what you are." Your eyes are wide in incredible confusion, you look down at your team to see that NONE of them are reacting to this "Heh. Don't worry about them, they can't hear or see any of this, this is all in your subconscious, to them it still looks like you're keeping watch."

You:"A-Alright but mind explaining WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" The man laughs

???:"You asked for help didn't you? Well, here we are."

 You:"THAT STILL DOESN'T EXPLAIN ANYTHING!"

???:" Huh...guess you're right about that, well young man to put it simply. We are the Equinox's that came before you." He says as he lifts his hand, the identical ring of yours on his finger, you look around to see every single figure also has the same ring as you. "Remember that Amalga you fought when Beacon fell?" You nod "You could say he's a failed version of the Equinox."

You:"Okay...but what IS the Equinox."

???:"Have you heard of Great Ones?"

You:"Here and there, no one's really explained WHAT they are though..."

???:"There's good reason for that, mostly as no one knows really what they are...gathered from our memories throughout the years what's known is that they are incredibly potent entities with intense magical prowess they were known as 'Ascended' creatures." You think back to what Caedis said before the attack on Beacon, how she was also 'Ascended'

You:"Okay but what does that have to do with Equinox?"

???:"Young man, the reason why that ring of yours exists is to gain enough power to seal away these Great Ones into it."

You:"Wait, why? Are Great Ones dangerous?"

???:"They used to be. They weren't wild creatures you see. They lived off a Monarchy type system, humans were still very early in their creation so they didn't have access to highly advanced weaponry, defenses, and machinery, many were slaughtered due these Great One due to fear of loosing territories to this new creation of creatures. Of course the Gods of Creation and Destruction weren't too happy about that."

You:"The Gods of what?"

???:"I'll talk about them another time, using ancient magic the very first Equinox embued his power into this ring, the power being amplified until around the 50th Equinox, the Equinox successfully sealed the King into the Ring. The Monarchy quickly fell apart and only a handful of them are left now..."

You:"So...we have the King of the Great Ones in our Ring? Where is this King?"

???:"You've seen him. The ethereal lion creature thing when you first saw us within your ring."

You:"I thought that was the accumulation of all the Equinox's like spirit?"

???:"It was at first, the King did not appreciate having being trapped inside of a Ring and so the Ring still had to be passed down and amplified in order to keep up with the King's enormous power, but overtime the King began fusing to the spirit of the Equinox. The King still isn't fond of the Equinox of course, which is why your finger keeps getting burned due to the raw power the King possesses, and also why whoever else wears the Ring who's not meant to wear it usually dies as the King is already on thin patience and if someone tries wielding his power he gets enraged."

You:"...So the reason my brother lost his sight and the loss of function of his arms is because of this King?" The figure sighs, nodding "...Great..." There's a small silence before you think of something "So what were you saying about Amalga being a failed version of an Equinox?"

???:"I'm sure you've heard about the Forgotten by now?" You nod "Well when the King was first captured humanity as always looked to further expand their power, and what better way is there than to capture a Great One for themselves, embedding them in weapons, crowns, you name it kingdoms were desperately trying to capture a Great One. Many failed, the Great One usually died in the process and that's why there's only a handful of them today. The ones that succeeded are called Ascended. Only about 10 Kingdoms succeeded, the rest were killed off. Now then kingdoms still craved for powers of the Great Ones so they went into black magic and rituals in trying to replicate their powers, mixing the DNA's of multiple Great Ones that were killed they attempted to fuse these into items, like Amulets, Helmets, etc. Again most of them failed horribly and becoming utter nightmares but the ones that succeeded in 'creating' a Great One are called Forgotten. Amalga is a Forgotten as well. Amalga realized that the reason the Equinox was able to capture the King was because it was a power amplifier from generations of users, Amalga wanted the same result without having to span 50 plus generations so as he had the Semblance to take other Semblances, he took thousands of Semblances, effectively killing thousands of people and fusing those Semblances into his Ring along with DNA he had gotten from one of the strongest Great Ones the King had at his right side fusing together to of course create an Amalgamation of power."

You:"Jeez..."

???:"Lot to take in I know..."

You:"So...why isn't my Semblance working?"

???:"Good question. To which I must sadly say that I don't know, every single generation has had their Semblance amplified with each next generation's Semblance being amplified even further...but perhaps with your brother wielding the ring, seeing how selfless he was to save you triggered something within the King...he doesn't seem to want to talk but it does seem like you're gaining some sort of physical boost looking at the punch with the vein-like streaks against the Grimm you fought...hmm...we'll have to see..."

You:"...Alright...so what now?"

???:"Now you must continue to get stronger, something is very different with you being Equinox, seems like the fate of the Great Ones and the Forgotten are now resting on you...lotta stress but...after all, you did choose to wear the Ring, young Equinox." He places his hand on your shoulder "If you feel yourself hitting up against your limit remember for what cause you clench your fists... remember why you started down this path, and let that memory carry you beyond your limit. We will talk again soon Equinox." The figures fade away, your ring stops pulsing, the burning sensation stopping as you hear the faint roar of something powerful within you. You look around as the rain keeps pouring down and you think and digest everything you've just learned...

(The Next Day)

Ruby:"Come on, guys! If we pick up the pace, we can hit the next town before sunset!" You are all walking yet again as you keep looking up at the beautiful sky.

Jaune: "Assuming it's still there." You roll your eyes while smirking

Ruby:"Of course it'll be there. This one's supposed to be pretty big! Hee-gan...bayn-a." You laugh lightly at Ruby's pronunciation. 

Ren:"Higanbana. It's a well protected village with a popular inn."

Nora:"Which means, no camping in the rain!"

You:"Hallelujah, I can actually sleep on a bed for once."

Ruby:"See? Everything's going to be fine!"

Jaune:"You know, we've had a lot of ups and downs. But things could be a lot worse. I really thought we'd see more Grimm." Now that he's mentioned it you guys rarely encounter Grimm other than the occasional Beowolf or two...odd...

Ren:"As did I."

You:"Yeah please don't jinx us..."

Nora:"I guess our luck is finally turning around!"

You:"WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?" The group laughs at your paranoia as Nora yells

Nora:"To Higanbana!"

Jaune/Ren/You:"To Higanbana!"

Ruby:"To Higanban... ban-a!"

(SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I've been gone a while HUH!? ALRIGHT SO! Lemme tell you about finishing up Senior Year: It was awful, basically my grades tanked cause Senioritis so I couldn't spend time working on both Equinox and Chronicle because  every night I was doing homework till 3, had a whole lotta stress 24/7 for the entirety of March, April, and the start of May. Luckily I had friends, family, and my lovely girlfriend all giving me support to continue working and getting my life back together until FINALLY I graduated with honors from High School. Going to college in a different state this January as a bit of a extended break from all the stress school gives so until then I'll be devoting a large portion of time to cranking these parts out. Thanks for always being supportive guys, and thanks for taking the time to read!)