"Your hopes have become my burden.
I will find my own liberation..."
Deep, deep down, Blake knew what Adam had become. She just didn't want to believe herself. But now, seeing him brush off the lives of people that had done nothing wrong, Blake knew she had to accept the truth. Adam wasn't the same seeker of justice and beacon of hope for the fauna that he had been when they were younger.
She watched as Adam, with his fully charged semblance, moved to strike the mech. A thought occurred to her in that moment. This was her chance. She could get away right now. She could save these crew members. No longer would she lay awake at night, wondering if she would have to kill the next day. No longer would she need to be associated with this twisted man. She could finally choose her own path. She just needed to take this first step.
The mech was destroyed with a single strike, fading into thousands of tiny red leaves. Red like the faunus blood spilled by the humans' hands. He turned around to look at his love, but...she was on the other train car.
When he reached his hand out towards her, she just looked him in the eye and pulled out Gambol Shroud.
"Goodbye."
Blake cut the line that connected them, and watched as Adam faded into nothing but a red speck.
A Few Weeks Later
"Recently we've found more information about the Schnee Dust Company dust train that never made it to the station. When sent to investigate, the police were shocked to discover that one some of the train cars had been separated from the others. As the investigation continued on, even more strange incidents were discovered. The train itself was no longer running, and the crew had been living off the food in the train for multiple days. The train had previously been guarded by a spider-droid, but now it's nowhere to be found. This attack is far to organized to just be Grimm. Though it hasn't been confirmed yet, we can only assume that this is the doing of the animals in the White Fa-"
Yang abruptly shut the TV off and looked at her sister, eyes trailing to her little sister in concern. Ruby's goggles were off, and Yang could see the pain in her slitted eyes. In the past, Ruby had had a sort of hero-worship for the White Fang, and Yang had sat through several ramblings about how inspiring they were and how she wished she could join one day. It had broke her fragile little heart when Ghira Belladonna stepped down from his position as leader and the White Fang took a turn for the worst. It didn't exactly help that fauna were being treated even worse than before, many innocent people losing their jobs due to the acts of a single terrorist organization.
"Ruby?"
"I'm gonna go for a walk."
"Ruby, it's dark out." Yang looked at her little sister, concern lacing her features.
"I'll be fine," Ruby said, forcing a smile. "I'm a huntress-in-training, remember?"
Yang turned away and sighed. Whenever Ruby was upset, she either cried in her room or went on a walk to clear her mind. Though she preferred the latter, it was dark and Ruby usually took almost an hour to get back. "Fine, but don't be too long. I don't want you getting robbed or something." Ruby grinned, and gave her sister a big hug before heading out.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?"
One of Junior's men pointed his pistol at the old shopowner. "Please, just take my lien and leave!" the old man replied, panicked.
Torchwick shushed him. "Shshshshsh...calm down...we're not her for your money. Grab the dust."
The identical henchmen began collecting all the dust from the machines in the store, filling the containers they had with them. "Crystals. Burn. Uncut." The storeowner grabbed a burn crystal from under the counter.
One of the suited mercenaries had been moving to fill a container with dust when he heard rock music playing from the back of the store. There was a kid standing there, maybe about 14? They looked to be reading a magazine about weapons. The man pulled out his weapon, a long red blade.
"Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em."
The teenager ignored him, and his annoyance began to grow into anger. "Hey, I said hands in the air! You got a death wish or somethin'!?" the man said as he pulled down her hood, revealing a young girl wearing goggles and headphones. He motioned for her to take her headphones off, which she did with a small hum of acknowledgement.
"I said, put your hands in the air, now!" the henchman said threateningly. The girl put one finger up, signaling him to hold on. She retrieved her scroll, and typed a quick message for him.
'Are you robbing me?' he read. "Yes!"
Roman Torchwick was smoking a cigar, watching the shop owner grab crystals from underneath the counter. Suddenly, one of his men flew past him and a crash was heard from behind him. The other men went to deal with whoever had swiftly knocked out one of his mercenaries, WHO WERE REALLY FUCKIN' EXPENSIVE AND SHOULDN'T BE SCREWED OVER THIS EASILY.
"Freeze!"
Another one of Junior's men was swiftly removed from the fight, being knocked out the window. Torchwick went to get a look at who this thorn in his side was, expecting a full-fledged hunter. A little girl stood on the street, scythe folding out behind her. What the fuck. The girl had dark brown hair with red tips, and goggles covered her eyes and the tops of her cheeks, but not her arrogant smirk. She was adorable, but Torchwick knew that didn't matter. Neo was adorable. Neo was also kind of a sociopath with crazy good combat skills. Still, at least her weapon fit her. It was a cute and innocent-looking umbrella, but also could be a deadly weapon. That wasn't the case with this girl. A gigantic metal scythe that was taller than two of Junior's men combined folded out behind her. She twirled it around her stylishly, then smashed the blade into the ground, simultaneously turning off her music player.
"Okay..." Junior's men didn't move. "...get her!." he said, annoyance lacing his voice.
The men collectively charged at the girl (pretty unprofessionally), and she quickly responded by loading a round into her gun-scythe and maneuvering around them, slashing and shooting and twirling and dodging through Junior's forces with ease.
Torchwick watched all his guns-for-hire get their butts handed to them by a teenage girl. 'She slithered through those men like a God-damned snake...' he thought.
"You were worth every cent...truly you were." The approaching police sirens became a lot more noticeable now that he was alone and, well, kind of screwed. Torchwick threw his cigar on the ground, crushing it with his cane. "Well Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..." Torchwick raised his cane at the little red pest to reveal a rifle. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways." The criminal shot a blast out at the girl, who dodged over it by firing her gun at the floor, doing a backflip midair.
When she landed, she took a look around, briefly sniffing the air with her tongue to find the criminal. She caught him climbing a ladder to the roof of a building nearby.
Ruby shot a glance at the shopkeeper, and even through her goggles, he knew what she was asking. "I'll be okay," the old man said, giving her a grateful smile and nod. Ruby smiled back and quickly followed after him, shooting Crescent Rose at the ground to gain speed.
As Torchwick attempted to make his escape, a loud hiss caught his attention. "Persistent..." he said darkly. As the girl looked on, a bullhead rose up into the two foes' view.
Ruby's goggles protected her eyes from the light, but they wouldn't protect her from the dust crystal Torchwick had thrown at her. Unbeknownst to Ruby (due to her VERY limited perception of color) the dust crystal was a burn dust crystal.
"End of the line, Red!" the ginger criminal yelled as he shot the crystal with his cane, causing a very noticeable explosion. When Ruby looked up, she her jaw almost dropped as she saw a woman standing over her, shielding her with a large, decorated glyph. Ruby got to her thief and watched the woman in awe.
"Hm," the woman said calmly. Her jaw really did drop when she realized who was standing in front of her. The huntress shot out beams that hit and severely damaged the getaway bullhead.
"We've got a huntress!" Torchwick yelled as his associate moved out of the pilot seat. Torchwick tried to steer them away, but the blonde huntress used another glyph above him, causing a thunderstorm. Torchwick felt the cold wind blow past him, and it was a miracle that his hat wasn't blown away. "The hell...?"
Ice crystals rained from the clouds, causing likely irreversible damage to the ship as his associate, a mysterious woman in a red dress, walked over to the open exit of the bullhead. She aimed a burst of fire at the blonde, which was quickly blocked and dodged. The huntress magically gathered pieces of the roof to create a large arrow shape, which she shot towards the bullhead. Her arrow was cleanly dissolved into shards, but reformed again to hit the side of the bullhead. The mysterious red woman shielded herself with glowing rings that destroyed the shards.
Ruby finally gets her act together, shooting her rifle at the woman, though all her shots are easily blocked. Flaming circles form under the two women, and the huntress dragged Ruby out of the way, while doing a somersault of her own to get out of the way of the attack. The blonde looked up to see the hatch close, and the bullhead drive away.
An high-pitched squeal brought her attention to the younger girl, who started signing at her excitedly.
'Can I have your autograph?' the child signed.
