A/N: Wow, this was a thing I wrote. I'm still working out the kinks of writing combat but I have had the help of two absolutely wonderful friends/editors (somewhatnewtothis and servantproto on Tumblr) who worked miracles to get this looking as nice as it does. My next project is probably gonna be something BumbleBY, unless I get sudden inspiration on how to finish AUF, which will get done eventually. Probably. As always, I appreciate any comments and/or criticisms. Enjoy!
It wouldn't be fair to say that the cold was the thing in this world she hated the most. It was definitely in the top five, however. The teenager massaged her black furry ears, a scowl playing on her lips. No matter how much time she spent in this awful weather, she never got used to the stinging sensation as the wind grabbed and pulled at her sensitive ears.
She wasn't even sure why she had agreed to be out on this frigid night. Ozpin had been looking for volunteers to assist in the nighttime patrols being conducted by Ironwood and his robotic enforcers. As she looked at her mechanical companion, she felt a shiver roll down her spine. Whether it was from the cold night winds or from a feeling of distrust, she couldn't say.
She agreed to go out when it was revealed why the patrols were needed; rumours of a coming White Fang attack were coming out of the woodwork. While such rumours were hardly uncommon, the sheer amount of different sources who said that an assault of even greater magnitude than the attack from Mountain Glen was just over the horizon seemed to worry the Atlantean general.
So here Blake found herself, roaming the streets of Vale alongside two silent robotic soldiers. While part of her appreciated their quiet nature, she found herself missing her teammates. The idle talk would help distract her from this damnable cold.
As the trio turned a corner, Blake felt a deep unease come over her. At the far end of the street, a sole streetlight was flickering. The night was already dark, clouds blotting out the shattered satellite that usually kept the evenings mostly visible.
"Do you two see that?" asked Blake in a hushed tone, her hair standing on end. Something was very wrong here, she could feel it in the suddenly still air.
"Negative," was the robotic duo's reply. "Visibility is at suboptimal levels."
Blake gripped Gambol Shroud tightly, amber eyes flicking back and forth as she slowly made her way towards the streetlight. "Any other life signs?"
"Affirmative. Heartbeat and Aura sensors indicate—" The sound of electrical circuits being severed cut the two robots off.
Unsheathing her weapon and flicking the form switch with her thumb, Black spun to face where her two fellow patrollers were, gun in hand. Their bodies were still standing upright, if their legs seemed to be shaking. Where their heads once were, now there was nothing but sparking wires, cut clean at the neck.
Her gaze only lingered on them for a moment before spotting the tall figure just behind them. Clad in a long black trenchcoat and simple black pants, the man held one of the decapitated heads in his hand. His back was to Blake but that hardly mattered, with the white and red symbol on the back of his attire all but spelling out who he was. That and the sheathed blade on his waist.
"It's been a while, Blake."
The hoarse voice was one she knew well. One of an old friend, who had shared good moments and helped her from bad. But as the man stood with a fizzling robotic head in hand, Blake knew that this man was not the one she had once known.
"Why are you here, Adam?"
As Adam turned to face Blake, she could feel his gaze from beneath that ornate mask. "Is this how you greet all your old friends?" The words might have seemed humorous but the scowl he sported told a different story.
"Is it true that the White Fang is going to launch another attack?"
The momentary silence felt eerie as the whole night seemed to stop. Blake focused her eyes on Adam's hands, making sure they were not close enough to his own weapon to strike. The idea that he would… No, Blake had to keep him under watch.
"If you want to know, come back." He slowly reached out a single gloved hand. "I can pull some strings. People miss you. Your family misses you." An angry tone creeped into his voice. "Or have you decided to discard us and work with those filthy humans?"
Blake's grip on Gambol Shroud tightened and her stance lowered, stabilizing herself to fire upon a charging force of nature. "There are other ways of doing this, Adam. We don't need to hurt innocents."
"Innocents?! No human is innocent, Blake! They don't care about us!" His outstretched hand pulled back into a fist. "We deserve better than what they have given us. And they deserve nothing! We will take it all until they understand what it means to truly suffer!"
"I've heard enough!" She took aim and fired off several shots in quick succession. As the bullets shredded the calm night air, Adam raised his sheathed weapon horizontally before him. With movements faster than Blake could see, each bullet collided with the dense metal of Wilt's crimson edge as they were caught out of the air, between the blade and the sheath.
"So what, you think I'm a bad person? You don't like me?" Adam began slowly walking towards Blake, as he drew Wilt upside down, to the soft clatter of the bullets falling to the cold asphalt. "Well, where's your gavel? Your jury?" An angry sneer grew on his face, as he returned the crimson death dealer to its resting place. "You're no judge…"
Winding back, Blake hurled Gambol Shroud, letting the enormous black ribbon ripple through the air. As it neared the unflinching approaching target, she saw Adam's hands drop down to his hilt. With a sudden flick of her wrist, the bladed weapon seemed to acknowledge Blake's intent and snapped to the side, avoiding the blindingly quick slash from Adam. Instead, it moved to flank him, descending for his off-leg, closer to the sheath than the sword.
Flicking Blush up into his grip, Adam glanced at the rapidly oncoming weapon. With the ease that many drew breath, he pulled the trigger and blasted Gambol Shroud back, ripping all forward momentum from it.
"To think we used to stick together so close." The bitterness in Adam's voice grew heavier with every word as he turned back to face Blake, delicately placing Wilt in Blush. "We once wrote our names in blood. But now… We're not the same." He lowered his body and his advance quickly sped up.
"Finally, something we can agree on," retorted Blake, pulling fiercely and suddenly to return her weapon back to her side. Grabbing it by the hilt this time, she swung just in time to meet Adam's own slash, the force of the clash pushing the two apart.
Blake leapt forward, twisting her body to swing with as much force as she could muster. As she moved to rain down her blow on Adam, once more the experienced swordsman deflected the blow with a blindingly quick draw of his blade. The flash of red filled Blake's soul with dread but she allowed her training and instinct take over, flipping over Adam's head, as a shadowy afterimage ate the follow-up attack she hadn't even noticed was coming. As she moved the strike again, it was Blush that caught her slash. Blake pushed off, another afterimage decimated under the gunfire blast from Adam's rifle.
As the two once more pushed away from each other, Blake dug into the sidewalk with a heavy stomp. Adam had the advantage in range. If she was to beat him, she could not let him dictate the distance and pace. Dashing forward, she thrust with her sword, aiming to keep the pressure on her opponent.
However, Adam sidestepped the thrust and wrapped a heavy gloved hand around Blake's face, lifting her off the ground with ease. "You truly are still a kid if you think this child's play is worth my time," he snarled, a smug smirk growing on his face as he felt Blake squirming in his tight grip. "It is just as well you left; I have no need for weakne—" Adam stopped as he felt a freezing cold creep into his right hand. As he moved to let go of his grip on Blake's head, he found his hand frozen. "What?!"
As Blake dashed from behind the cover of her clone, she lashed out with a vicious vertical slash. Adam caught the blow with Blake's icy afterimage, causing it to shatter and for him to regain use of his hand. Before it could stray to his blade, Blake landed a heavy kick to his chest, driving the wind out of him and causing him to stumble back. In the same movement, she gripped Wilt's hilt and drew it, the crimson blade being sent flying down the street.
"I'm not the same kid from back then," Blake said, grabbing the sheath off her back with her spare hand. If she was going to beat Adam, she needed all the advantages she could get. "I can fend for myself."
"Fend against this!" Adam charged forward, swinging Blush with incredible force. Blake weaved and avoided the blows, looking for an opening in the barrage.
Got it! As she saw it, she lunged forward, ready to deliver the finishing blow straight to Adam's chest with both parts of Gambol Shroud.
Blush rose suddenly, knocking her strike away with all the difficulty of a hurricane blowing down a sickly tree. As she moved to try and continue the strike, Blake felt the harsh cold steel of the rifle's muzzle rest on her chin. Even as her Semblance allowed her to escape the shot, she felt Death's unforgiving fingers brush her face as the bullet missed by less than an inch.
Stumbling back to the ground, Blake found herself momentarily dazed. Shaking her head, she spotted Adam, having reached and sheathed Wilt. Even as she rose to her feet, she found herself immediately regretting the decision as she saw Adam's stance. His legs bent, his back hunched, and a death grip on Wilt's handle. Her eyes went wide with the realization as she immediately dove to the ground.
Not a moment too soon. A horrifying noise cut through the night air as Adam drew Wilt and let a slash loose that shattered countless windows and carved deep into the exterior of the buildings that littered the street. The sheer energy of the shockwave seemed to make the air thick and hot, as Blake tried to get oxygen into her lungs. Even when she had been on his side, that technique had made her frightened. Her body refused to allow her to stand, as she watched helplessly as Adam approached her.
"Do you understand now, Blake?" Adam's form stood tall once more, casting a shadow in the soft glow of the moonlight. "You cannot hope to stand against me. The humans have made you weak and foolish. I shall do you a favour and cease their corruption of you."
Blake was frozen as Adam slowly drew Wilt and prepared to deal the final blow. He was right about one thing; he was too strong for her to face in her current state. He was her mentor and her closest friend; he knew her inside out and was just too powerful. She had no chance to defeat him alone.
A single deafening shot rang out in the night, almost blasting Wilt right out of Adam's hands. Instead, he settled for a quick backward shuffle, sheathing the deep red blade. "What?!"
"Blake!" cried out a high pitched voice that she knew too well. Looking behind her, Ruby was charging forward, Crescent Rose in hand and the rest of the team in tow. "The cavalry is here!"
Adam snarled as he blocked and retreated under the hail of gunfire and Dust attacks from the incoming trio of Huntresses. To have come so far and gotten so close… But there was no helping it. Leaping up, he fell back to a building and quickly continued his retreat until he was out of sight. Ruby, Yang, and Weiss, however, paid far more attention to their distressed teammate.
"Are you okay?" asked Yang, as she helped her partner to her feet.
"I… think so." Blake took a moment to truly observe the level of destruction Adam's technique had caused. The single continuous cut mark in the buildings was clean and deep. Behind where he had been standing, the malfunctioning streetlight had been severed by the backlash from the blow. "We need to tell Ozpin."