Chapter 2: Reality Check
Thursday, 6 a.m.
Four months after.F.B .
When Yang came to, she felt strange. Her right side was oddly cold, but her left felt like fire. She tried to push herself up but could not prevent herself from falling over again the second her hand sank in.
Sank. Snow. Right.
Opening her eyes, she found herself outside, half buried in a pile of snow. Her left side was slightly glowing yellow as her aura was trying to combat whatever caused that burning feeling. Even though the snow explained the cold, she only discovered the reason for the heat when she looked at the house.
Or rather, what remained of it.
Whatever thing hit the Xiao Long Home set everything ablaze. The wooden structure never stood a chance against that amount of fire. Judging by the state of the house, which was only sporting a few burning pillars, charred floorboards and parts of the roof, Yang might have been out for a while. That or that fire was potent enough to incinerate everything Yang held dear in mere seconds. Still, on the ground, Yang's mind did take a minute to catch back up to what she was seeing, but then the memories hit her. Hard.
"Dad … DAD!" Yang launched herself up, promptly falling over again, before struggling back up and half sprinting, half sliding towards the ruined house. She never made it there.
The sight of two charred bodies stopped her dead in her tracks. A small charred body beside an equally charred human form and the still glowing destroyed parts of her father's weapon, still attached to his wrists, gave Yang all the answers she needed before collapsing to the ground sobbing, screaming and muttering her father's name in agony.
Her mind drew blank; she did not know how long she was kneeling in the snow, her gaze fixated on her dead father and dog. It felt like hours before the surrounding sounds registered in her ears. A loud siren was screeching through the air. Yang had never heard it before, but somehow she knew what it was. After all, Patch still had old alarm systems from the last war.
In the case of an incoming air strike.
Absentmindedly Yang's gaze drifted to the sky, small airships zipping through it. Too little to be transporters.
Are those atlesian fighters? But why are they here?
Before she could manage to draw some conclusions, she heard branches crack behind her. Half a dozen atlesian knights marched out of the woods and towards the house. Not able to form cohesive thoughts in any amount of reasonable time Yang was still kneeling as they spotted her, immediately raising their weapons and opening fire.
Wholly frozen in place, Yang barely registered two shots zipping past her head. She did, however, feel the third hitting her straight in the right shoulder, whipping her around and backward, her aura flaring in protest as it stopped most of the harm but less of the force. Two more shots hit her gut and the yellow glowing fizzling out as she hit the ground told her exactly what her auras opinion on not being trained for four months was. Pain and small amounts of blood erupting from the ruined midsection of her hoodie and stomach where the knight's bullet managed to penetrate her aura. Fortunately, the shots threw her down enough to be out of sight, but Yang could not capitalize on that small stroke of luck. If her combat experience and hunter training were sending her body ideas how to react in this situation, then they were completely ignored by her shocked and confused mind in favor of the time-tested method of curling up into a tiny ball and waiting for the pain to end.
The knights started to slowly move into position to resume firing at the human ball of pity when one of the outer knights was struck by gunfire from the forest, penetrating his chest armor, causing him to explode and topple over his neighbor. The remaining knights turned and opened fire into the woods for about a second before a large, armored person dropped right in the middle of them, ramming his great sword in the ground, the resulting shock wave wiping out the remaining knights with ease. As the man slowly rose and started to walk towards the house and Yang's curled up form, he tipped his ear and started talking.
"Grinder, Butch, check the perimeter. Hacks cover them. Doc with me."
After the man spoke three others appeared, all wearing armored, military-style combat attire, with helmets, in dark brown and black colors in addition to assault rifles. Two of them broke off to the sides, eyes towards the forest while a smaller man with red crosses on his shoulders followed the giant towards Yang. Still curled together in a ball as little as possible Yang felt an armored hand rest on her shoulder.
"Yang, are you alright? Did they get through your aura?" Yang managed to look up without moving much. Her lilac eyes found kind looking brown ones. She managed to gaze briefly at the man. He was large indeed, with short brown hair. He wore the same military armor like the other three but bulkier and modified by ample, green shoulder protection on his left shoulder as well as green gauntlets. His large, hilt-less, brown great-sword held behind him in his left hand. He seemed familiar, but Yang could not manage to pinpoint why. Realizing, that he was not getting an answer the giant nodded to the small man who promptly started to examine the blond while continuing his questioning.
"Yang, where is your father? He rushed straight to you, and we got separated."
After getting uncurled slowly by the one called Doc, Yang managed to turn her head towards the house in between flashlight flashes into her eyes. The man started administering first aid to her stomach and spoke almost robot-like.
"Aura depleted, large bullet graze located at stomach front. Injury unlikely to cause this reaction. Likely additional shock. Possibly related to building status …" He trailed off as he followed Yang's gaze onto the two charred bodies before immediately running towards them. Kneeling down and reaching for a pulse for a second before he spoke up again. "Human, male. Small animal, likely canine. Both deceased, massive burn trauma. Likely rapidly, indicating high potency fire dust missile. Weapon remnants indicating identity as Taiyang Xiao Long."
"Darn it!" The giant tapped his ear to speak again. "Shades, it's Big O. We got Yang, but Tai was KIA." He was silent for a while, receiving an answer. "Copy that, we can reach the evac in ten." With that, he turned to Yang. "Yang, can you hear me? Do you know who I am?"
Yang slowly looked the taller man in the eyes, her mind still unable to do anything remotely useful. Yet something was doing its job, and a name popped up.
"Yatsuhashi." He nodded with a strained smile.
"Good, now listen. We get you out of here. Patch is lost. Atlas fell in way too fast, and we were nowhere close to being ready. We got an evac point not too far from here. Alright?"
As he only received an unfocused gaze, he turned towards Doc, the medic just shaking his head and hooking himself under Yangs left arm, starting to half push half drag her along with him. Allowing him to move her, she still managed to throw a look back at the house and formed a barely clear question.
"What about …"
As Doc shook his head again, Yatsuhashi replied sadly. "I am sorry. There is nothing we can do. They deserve better than this, but we got to go. Now."
With that he started sprinting towards the left-hand forest, yelling orders to the others to fall in line. Doc did his best to move Yang as fast as possible though they were significantly slower than the rest. As they passed the tree-line a small woman with a large rifle dropped to the ground, following them she shouted towards Yatsuhashi.
"Path is clear to the evac, Big O. But the lines are crumbling fast. Gadget got the last civilian group in, so it's just us left. Shades and Sly are holding, but paladins are approaching. We need to get there fast!"
Yatsuhashi turned towards Doc and Yang coming after them way too slow before he turned scoping Yang up under his right arm. Ignoring the blond's pained yelp as his hands came into contact with her stomach.
"Copy Hacks. You heard the lady! Double time!"
As the group picked up the pace, Yang was utterly confused. Thought fragments popped in and out of her mind, nothing making sense to her. She could not process why Yatsuhashi Daishi was here, or who these others were. Soldiers? Vale Militia then. But was Yatsu not in Team CFVY? Were they not her upperclassmen in Beacon? Why are they with the Militia, they are students. She did not come further than most of these thoughts since pictures of Zwei and her father lying dead disrupted everything.
Soon after, they broke through the forest and into a nightmare. Right in front of Yang was a sized airship, likely a military transport. It was sitting behind the outer buildings of a farmhouse, shielded mainly from what was approaching from the other side. A few people Yang recognized as town-folk were already on board. However, on the other side of the farm, all hell had broken loose. Groups of the militia were dug in, using low walls or similar cover all around the landing zone. Firing at a big mass of slowly approaching atlesian knights with half a dozen paladins slowly making their way through the town's ruins towards them. The giant robots barely visible through clouds of smoke and fire streaming from the burning ruins of her hometown.
"'Bout damn time, Big O! Starting to think you found a cute tree to meditate with on your way here. Get your ladies on board; we got to get out! They're way to PO'ed after Goodwitch took down that whore's over-compensating flagship!"
Yang looked at the woman yelling. Even though her usual fashionable combat gear was replaced by the same military armor the rest was using, making her look way more bulky with all the extra armor under her ammunition belts, Coco Adel was pretty recognizable. Team CFVY's leader's usual sunglasses were gone and replaced by a pair of dark tinted combat glasses but her beret and especially her Gatling gun, currently mowing down knights in a full arc, were a dead give away.
"Sorry about that, Shades! We got delayed by knights, and Yang is out of it. You heard the boss! Go, GO!"
With that Yatsuhashi stopped and waved his team into the airship, Yang still held protectively under his arm. The rest of CFVY and the militia retreated slowly, leapfrogging from cover to cover while firing at the knights. Suddenly another voice cut through the chaos.
"Incoming Fighters! Seven o'clock!"
Yang managed to turn her head towards the low approaching atlesian aircraft while Yatsuhashi started towards the airship. A stream of light blue bullets hailed towards the fighters. Velvet Scarlatina standing on a small wall with a hard-light copy of Coco's Gatling gun, firing away, her long rabbit ears perked up in attention. She was also wearing the combat armor, no helmet but instead more complex looking combat glasses than Cocos'. Her weapon box behind her lower back emitting a soft, blue glow. Two of the three fighters were already going down, but the third managed to get a missile out before it got shredded. Yang's eyes widened in fear as she realized the missile was heading straight for her and Yatsuhashi.
"Big O! MOVE!" She heard Hacks' voice just before Yatsuhashi switched his grip on Yang and ruggedly hurling her towards the airship just before her world was turned into pain and fire for the second time today.
When Yang came to herself again, she heard a shrill ringing in her ears while everything else was muffled and seemed far away. She felt blood dripping down her face, reaching up she noticed a gash above her left eye bleeding profoundly, her aura still too low to take care of it. Slowly rising to her feet and looking around she saw Coco still gunning down knights, but she had less back-up than before, suffering the occasional hit, shrugging it off with her aura and continuing her cover fire.
"Yatsu! No! Don't do this to me! YATSU!" Hearing the desperation in the voice of Velvet through the ringing in her ears, Yang turned towards her. Yatsuhashi lay still on the ground, his armor charred and black. His chest plate apparently removed by Doc who was kneeling over him administering CPR. Velvet was crouched beside Yatsuhasi's head talking to him fast and full of panic.
"We need to get out of here! Doc, we need to move him!" The speaker was a slender man with dark skin and white pupils. Like the rest, he was wearing the same armor but without the helmet, causing his short, dark orange hair to be on full display. While firing the guns inside his long arm blades towards approaching knights, Fox Alistair knelt beside Velvet to get her to snap out of it.
Someone grabbed Yang's arm. She looked around and saw one of Yatsuhashi's group, Grinder or Butch most likely, moving her into the evacuation ship. Slowly Yang let herself be dragged away while other militia ran past her manning the airship, still firing at the knights. Fox, with the help of Doc and two others, was carrying Yatsuhashi towards the transporter with Velvet pushing a quickly reddening bandage above some big, metallic shrapnel stuck out from beside Yatsuhashi's hip. As soon as everyone was on the transport, Coco finally folded her gun back into its handbag form and ran towards the airship. Moments before reaching it a paladin came into range and fired a missile at her, missing by an inch, the resulting explosion propelling her forward and she crashed into the ship's metal floor hard, a brown glow washing over her body before flickering out.
"Shade's in! Get us out of here!"
As the airship started to lift off, most of the militia still firing, Doc still trying CPR on Yatsuhashi, Velvet sobbing openly into Fox's shoulder, Yang could only stare at her shaking hand and knees. Slowly backing up she sank down the metal wall and curled herself into a ball again, rocking back and forth slowly. No coherent thought was forming in her head; everything seemed like a blur. Neither the burning island passing below them nor a huge, crashed atlesian dreadnought, half buried and pierced through Signal Academy's tower, seemed to be entirely registered by her. Fighters and modified Bullheads around them were engaged in a deadly struggle. Still, the only thing that she was able to process was the look Coco gave her as they crossed eyes.
Coco, still lying on the floor, bleeding from the head, her combat glasses shattered beside her took a long look at Yatsuhashi before her eyes met with Yang. She did not see any anger or sadness in them, no hidden fury or pity. Those chocolate brown eyes only displayed one emotion.
Disappointment.