Scourge From BloodClan: I had to gather inspiration in my little lab for a while. But I'm still here and I can assure you that I won't quit on any story.
RWBYbomb21: more will definitely come, though still sporadic.
Guest: thanks, I didn't know that. So plural is simply Faunus? (Fauna is animal, flora is plant, btw)
Astrokemist2.0: seeing as this is a Dark fic, maybe you're not supposed to like them :p Anyway, glad to see you like the story thus far.
"To enable a man to kill, you must condition him. Train him and force him to endlessly repeat that pattern of mechanical precise violence that, when faced with the right circumstances will break free of the rational part of the brain and seize control. When the 'midbrain filter', that prevents a man from killing in the heat of the battle, has been conditioned and changed, this man is able to end the life of a fellow man. In doing so, soldiers will be capable of dispatching of superior enemy numbers who lack the will to kill. Victory will be assured. "
General Randall ████., in charge of ███ Armed Forces and known CO of Onyx.
The hooded girl walked through the dark hallway, her footsteps only barely echoing off of the rusty walls. Her heart was calm and her thoughts were collected. The familiar weight in her back was comforting her in the face of what needed to be done.
A lone door was waiting for her at the other end of the hallways and as she calmly opened it, the furious yet muffled struggles of a man not used to being the one captured reached her ears. She took a deep breath and smiled. It sounded like music to her ears. Justice…in the most enjoyable method possible.
"Victor Gelb," she said, just loud enough for him to hear her. "Current lord of the Vale mob. Or what's left of it." Reaching out, she removed the brown sack that obscured the face of her guest. She revealed a face with a large section of the nose missing and multiple scars around the jaw and left eye. His gray hair was indicative of his old age, yet his hateful-eyes never left her.
"And what are you supposed to be," growled the man, "whore?"
The redheaded girl smiled at the man and, with one gesture, unfolded her scythe and cut off his left ear. His screams and groans of pain were payment enough for that statement. "Now that we are on the same wavelength, it's time to talk."
The man took a minute to recover but when he did, he was still stupid. "What do you want, huh? Money? Information? That what you want?"
"What I want is nothing a fallen king can offer me," she told him. "Your empire is gone. It burned…more than a year back. But…there might be something you can tell me."
"Go fuck yourself," spat the man. "I'm not going to be lectured by a fucking child!"
The girl stepped back, swung her scythe through the air again and severed the man's left pinky. The small appendage fell to the ground even as the former crime lord screamed in pain.
"Maybe later," she replied. "But first, you're going to tell me a story."
The man struggled vehemently against his bonds, trying to break free of the tight ropes that bound his arms and legs to the chair. She had kept him here for more than 12 hours, which should have been sufficient enough to break down his defenses. "You´re insane!"
"Sanity is nothing but a term used by normal humans to comfort themselves. One man's genius is often another man's insanity. Who is to say you are not insane?"
The man fell quiet and she knew that she had him. Solitude was one cruel method to break someone down and not even a hardened criminal could have had the mental conditioning to resist it.
So she continued. "Maybe you went crazy after those shadows slaughtered your men, spirited off your boss and left you to die. Perhaps this is just a hallucination cooked up by your dying mind."
"What do you want from me?" whispered the man.
She smiled and stepped closer again, trailing one of his scars with her pale finger. Blake had done an excellent job in bringing this man to her. "Did you think yourself safe? Did you think nothing could touch you?"
"What-"
She moved with her scythe and buried the blade multiple inches into the stone ground, leaving a bloody trail across his forehead. "Answer me."
"Y-yes," muttered the man. "I did. Then my men started dying and I blacked out."
"Good," she replied, smiling. "You see, I am trying to picture something together. And you, useless pile of shit you may be, can help me with this."
"Think you can get away with this?" snapped the man. "Think my men won't get their hands on you? You're dead! Do you know how many girls like you I've taken care of-"
The redhead rolled with her eyes and carved the man's foot off, turning his stupid rant into a scream of pain.
"You are lying," she told him. "I can see it in your eyes. You cannot lie to me and your body betrays everything I want to know. I know that you have always live in the shadow of your predecessor. How frightened you were of the things that might happen to you. You never did anything in Vale, because this Kingdom used to be a place of peace."
The man groaned and tried to collect himself via breathing. It was a pathetic sight.
"Until," she continued, "two years ago. That is where singing-story comes in."
"I…I don't know," said the man. He was bleeding profoundly and she knew that he was going to bleed out sooner or later. It wasn't every day that you got tiny pieces cut off. "I…please…"
She continued. "You see, things were fine two years ago. But they aren't now. And something happened. And even I don't remember just what caused it. But! There are people here to fix it. And this is where you will tell me your story."
"Please..."
The girl grumbled and reached underneath her cloak for a syringe filled with adrenaline. She found it after rummaging around a little bit and promptly mashed the thing into Gelb's neck. The criminal groaned and thrashed, but he stayed conscious.
"Tell me. Sixteen months ago, they appeared. They murdered half of the people in Vale and disappeared."
"They killed him…the soldiers killed the real boss…and I took over. Please…just let me go. I don't care what you want, I won't tell…just let me…" he trailed off.
"Oh," she said, "you want me to let you go? Funny. You think that I am a criminal and, because you are as well, we can trust each's others silence? Each other's omerta?"
"I…"
She giggled. It was funny to her, because he was trying to identify with his torturer. Hoping on something that could save his life. "I am no criminal, Gelb. I kill criminals." She paused for a few seconds to watch the new fear in his body before continuing. "Be honest with me, because I can tell if you lie. Does the name 'Onyx' mean anything to you?"
"No!"
"Good." She twisted her Crescent Rose around and shot the man in his head, popping his skull open like an overripe melon and spilling his blood everywhere. The impact of the shot rattled the chair, but it did not yet topple. Shame.
Well, now she had something else to do. She had no need to worry about an enemy that was too cowardly to show its face now and she really wanted to see Weiss again. Decapitating one of the remaining crime families had been her goal for a while now and learning about the new group of soldiers that saw fit to "infiltrate" their Vale was just a side-objective.
She whistled a soft tune and left the bloodstained room. Just an hour back she had received word from Yang that her nightclub had been assaulted by a few soldiers, but it was nothing that she couldn't handle. Things were going very well lately. Weiss was making a name for them, Blake was getting the White Fang on their side and Yang was enjoying herself, doing serious damage to the major crime syndicates out there in the process.
In a sense, Vale belonged to them now. The only official organization left in the entire city was the Vale Police Department, which was hardly competent. They enforced the basic rule of 'don't fuck with them and they don't fuck with you', allowing most of the civilians to live in peace. Of course, that was all going to change soon.
She made her way through the hallways and found the exit with ease. It was still dark out there, but that did not mean that there weren't any people outside. The VPD had tried to lock the city down to protect the so-called good people, but that hadn't really done them a lot of good. So now, they were trying to hoard everyone in the center of the city, while in the meantime fending off all the psychos outside of it. Because of extreme solitude of the city, there were very few good people out there. And in the sixteen months that had gone by, things had only gotten worse.
An explosion went off in the distance and she found herself smiling. There were very few people around whom she liked. Almost everyone out there as an enemy and she had to take care of the few people whom she did like.
The girl donned her hood again and started walking down the alleys. She typed a message to her sister, asking her to return to their safehouse in the western mall. She then send the same message to Weiss and Blake.
With a flash she remembered that her scythe was now sticky with blood. If she didn't get that cleaned, she'd get the stuff in all of its inner mechanics and then it would fail on her when she needed it the most. She needed to get a bearing on her surroundings as well, so…
She tapped into her Semblance with a flicker of her will and dashed up the nearest building, scattering red petals over the streets like so many drops of blood. From the top of the house, she jumped to a higher building and landed on top of a chimney. There wasn't any smoke coming out of it and the lights were out. It was most likely plundered.
She unfolded her scythe again and reached for the small repair kit she kept with her. There was a white piece of clothing in it that had served its blood-removing purposes many times over. As she began cleaning her beloved gear, her thoughts started to stray from their normal patterns. She started to remember how all of this had started, almost two years ago.
Back then, she had been fifteen and invited to go to the prestigious Beacon Academy. She had been so overjoyed…so delighted to finally become part of the community that fought to protect the innocent and fight the wicked, just like her sister had read to her in those stories. But then everything had changed. Beacon had burned and people had died and all around the city, gangs and crime syndicates and mobs had popped up without any origin. When the government didn't do a thing and things were starting to get much, much worse, they had appeared.
The shadows of the night, much like her friend Blake was now. They rained death down on the city and murdered many hundreds of people, purging Vale of everything they deemed unworthy to live. The government was stabilized, every single last syndicate was wiped out and everyone who had been trying to attend Beacon had been left with massive traumas. Some of them had left Vale, abandoning the death-trap of a city. But she had stayed, trying to get back to her home on Patch. But the island had been burning as well…even as the Vale Police Department had prevented people from crossing over to the doomed place…
Well, the term 'island' barely counted anymore. Patch had been obliterated. The buildings were gone, Signal was gone and her home had been gone. Together with her home, friends and childhood memories, her family had been on Patch that day as well. Qrow…Zwei…her father…and the shadows of the night had destroyed them all.
But she wasn't alone. That day, when everything had changed, she had set out to find a new family. Her sister had unsurprisingly still been alive and there were others, too. Like Blake Belladonna, who had been forced to return to seek shelter because of her status as a Faunus. And Weiss Schnee, whose family had been equally as corrupt as the rest of the city but had escaped the divine justice. The girl had been so confused, so alone and so vulnerable.
And Ruby had taken them all in. Her sister Yang, who could barely control her impulses, the Faunus Blake, who felt like an outcast of society and the ex-Heiress Weiss, who had seen the worst side of her family and had gotten traumatized for her troubles. And in the sixteen months that had passed since that fateful day, they had grown so close to each other. And they had grown so powerful. The shadows of the night had disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared and that had been the moment when she had started causing and altering events in the city for her plans.
And look at them now. Weiss was the foremost combatant against her own family, making a name for them in the process. Blake was now the leader of the White Fang, supplying them with manpower and ordnance for many of their plans and Yang was keeping the cities clean enough for them to maneuver without having to fight every single minute. Yang loved to fight; she got off on it, in more than one way. And she wanted to make sure that Yang would enjoy every second of her life. Her big sister deserved it, after the things she had been through in her youth.
Ruby smiled and a warm feeling spread through her chest. They were the masters of this city. Nobody was going to take it from them and now that she shadows of the night had returned, they could finally act on what they had been planning for so long.
But first she wanted to see her friends again. The safehouse was just up ahead, as evidenced by Blake's easy package-delivery. She hadn't really expected the girl to deliver her Gelb like that, but that was just one of Blake's traits. The need to show loyalty when there is really no need for it. But it was fun and she learned something new too. And that was important.
Ruby left the top of the roof again and moved towards their safehouse. It was one of the few remaining manors in Vale. It had once belonged to an important politician, before he had died. Now it served as one of their many outposts where they could gather discreetly without having to worry about bothersome individuals interrupting them when they slept.
She walked up the set of stairs at the front of the building and observed the door. She remembered this place; it had once been Adamant manor, home to the infamous Adamant Clan. Her history books back at Signal had had entire sections dedicated to them; how they were founded by one of the heroes of the Grimm wars and how the family had dedicated itself to fighting both Grimm as human injustice.
And now this place was in complete rundown. The garden had been overgrown with weeds and one of the walls was crumbling. So much for the amazing Adamant family; they had not been capable of saving Beacon and Ruby had not seen any of them in the past year-and-a-half. They had most likely fled like a group of cowards. Which was weird, because of the things she had heard about them. How brutal they were in exterminating organized crime and how much control they had over other, more official groups. The contributions to Grimm research…it was a pity, really. She had not expected the Adamant Clan to vacate Vale. Beacon was even supposed to have an Adamant teacher…
She pushed the door open and walked inside. A fire was burning in a distant fireplace and she could smell the delicious odour of burning meat. Someone was cooking? "Yang! Yang, you there?"
"Hey sis!" the familiar voice of her older sister called out to her from the kitchen. "Finally home?"
"Since when do you call this place home?" she asked, eyeing her older sister cooking. Ruby considered this place to be the best one of their safehouses, but that didn't have to mean that Yang had to.
"Since you do."
She smiled. "This place only serves me as a tactical position. You know there's no home anywhere."
Someone else was moving behind her and she turned around to see Blake. "That's just another one of the things we will have to make for ourselves."
Every time Ruby witnessed Blake sneak up on someone, she felt amused. When the girl did it to her, she felt annoyed. It reminded her of the many things she still needed to master and even though it wasn't a direct reminder of her weakness, she still didn't like it.
But she didn't show any of that to Blake. It wasn't her fault; as a Faunus, her senses were just sharper and as a trained leader of the White Fang, it was only expected that she had the skillset to show up unnoticed. So Ruby simply nodded. "If everything goes as I planned, we won't have to wait very long."
Blake nodded and sat down on the sink. "What took you so long?" she asked with an emotionless voice. Her ears twitched once.
"There were a few things I had to do before I could take care of our guest."
"You killed him then?"
"What did you think?"
Blake smiled. "Good. That man had quite a hand in the Faunus smuggle that took place in Atlas."
"He mentioned something like that. But he never actually partook in it."
"How do you know?"
"I could see it in his eyes. He was still fresh…a rookie, if you will. A man fat with luxury and comfort, thrust into something he was not ready for."
"So what about the rest of his crew?"
Ruby shrugged. "We'll get to them in the morning, just like the rest." She paused. "Where's Weiss?"
"Sleeping," said Yang. She had mashed a pack of bacon into the frying pan and the smell was distracting her. "She had a rough night."
Ruby was going to make things even rougher for the night. "Blake, go get her. I need to talk to you guys about something."
The Faunus nodded and disappeared, leaving the two sisters alone.
"So how are you?" Yang then asked. "Did you get your things?"
"Yeah," she replied, grabbing a piece of bacon from the pan and placing it besides her to cool it down. "The From Dust till Dawn was robbed tonight and the owner was shot. I found a vial of purple Dust though."
"Nice. And the Huntsman Sports shop?"
She shrugged and placed the piece of bacon in her mouth. "Mreh. I fround the emp wine."
"Ruby! Don't talk with a full mouth!"
She rolled with her eyes and swallowed. "I found the EMP mine. It should work fine tomorrow."
Blake returned with the person who Ruby wanted to see the most that day. Her heart leapt when she saw the girl and she felt her skin fluster with heat. "Weiss!"
"Hey Ruby," the ex-Heiress greeted her. "Had fun?"
"Not too much, no."
"So what did you want to say?" interrupted Blake.
"Right. Tonight, each of you got attacked in some manner. What have you learned?"
"These people are friendly to the Company," Weiss said as she crossed her arms over her ample chest. "They stopped the destruction of the Warehouse in your test of morality."
"And they employ Faunus," said Blake. "Their soldiers are trained, but some individuals have better training than others."
Yang sighed. "They got control over the normal military. The dudes in my club were normal soldiers."
"Is it them though?" asked Ruby. "Is it Onyx?"
"I am pretty sure it is," replied Blake. "When do we strike?"
"Tomorrow. I want you all to grab the rest you need. Blake? Ready your men. Yang? Go see if you can't gather some info on what we are dealing with here. I'll meet all of you here, tomorrow at eight in the morning. We'll proceed as planned."
Her friends confirmed her orders and, when they moved to attend their individual tasks, Ruby beckoned Weiss.
"Are you alright?" the girl asked her. "There was combat tonight."
"I am fine," replied Ruby. "You were the one who were forced to initiate a fight."
Weiss flashed her a self-confident smile. "Please. It was hardly a fight."
"Oh? You weren't challenged?" Ruby said with a smile of her own. "Maybe you need a new challenge?"
"Now that is an enticing thought. Is that why you sent the others away?"
"Perhaps?"
Weiss reached out and wrapped an arm around Ruby's waist. "You deviant little rascal. I ought to punish you for that."
Ruby's heart started to pound faster and she leant towards Weiss's grip. "You really ought to." She whispered.
With Blake and Yang gone, they went to the largest of the three bedrooms and shut the door behind them. Ruby had been longing for this for so long. To feel the soft touch of her lover…to feel reunited with someone she dared to allow close. To share herself at her most vulnerable, unlike she had ever been capable of.
She grabbed Weiss's arm and pulled her onto the bed, without waiting for her official consent. She crawled after her and pinned her to the bed, sliding one arm up her jacket to undo her buttons.
"You're eager," her partner laughed.
"I need this," she retorted. She slowly placed her fingers on Weiss's breast as she latched onto the collar of her jacket with her teeth. The ex-Heiress grinned widely as Ruby pulled it off, trailing her own hands across her back. Their gazes met and locked and Ruby felt a tidal wave of emotions sweep through her, as always. Her bright, blue eyes spoke of love and arousal and as Weiss was methodically stripping her, she felt the overwhelming desire to take the Heiress then and there.
Ruby pulled her partner's jacket off and pressed herself against her. The girl's firm breasts were hot, just like the rest of her body. Weiss let out a soft moan as Ruby increased her grip. She felt a hand reach down her skirt and she sharply inhaled, feeling the last of her resistance burn together with her skin. Even if she had wanted to, she couldn't stop anymore. She wanted to feel more of Weiss's softness…to feel her squirm and quiver underneath her grip.
"Ah…"
She ran her tongue across her lover's breast while keeping it in her hand and roughly kissed her lips. She felt Weiss resist for a few seconds before she relented and Ruby slipped in with her tongue, probing her partner's mouth in a lust-driven frenzy. Her skin was getting hotter and hotter and she could barely control her arms anymore. She felt her leg rub against Weiss's thigh and the sensation sent shivers down her spine. She felt the desire to bite, but she relented and broke the kiss.
"Ruby…" moaned the girl.
She didn't listen. She wanted to taste the Heiress more –she wanted to make her hers by force. She slid her tongue across her body, moving her face below her chest and making sure to linger at her nipples once more. Then she slid down between her breasts and down, trailing the sensitive skin in her thighs with her hands
"Hmm…" Weiss reached for her head and tried to push her further down, but there was no power in her hands and Ruby knew she could do whatever she wanted. Weiss was hers.
"Moan for me," Ruby hoarsely whispered as she stopped just an inch below her belly-button.
"Make me," whispered back Weiss.
"In that case…" her tongue went further and reached a small lump, causing Weiss's voice to get higher as the stimulation took away her control as well.
"Ahh…!"
She pushed at her lover's exposed clit and Weiss arched her back, pushing her pelvis in the air. Ruby didn't allow her to escape like that though and pushed her back down. "Not yet, "she hissed. Then she slowly ran a burning trail across the Heiress's clit, electing another high-pitched moan. She paid the trashing movements of her partner's hips no mind and continued to pin her down, teasing her with the flat side of her tongue. Weiss was cleanly shaven down below and Ruby enjoyed every second teasing her sensitive skin, of stroking the pale, smooth flesh with her wet tongue. She couldn't keep her hands to herself and, while she sent Weiss gasping again with a flicker of her tongue, she slid one of her fingers inside.
The response was immediate. The ex-Heiress gasped in surprise and writhed underneath Ruby's grasp. "What are you-"
But Ruby didn't allow her to talk. She pressed her finger deeper into the wet warmth and started nibbling on Weiss's clit, cutting her words off as another gasp rocketed through her frail body. She rolled across it with her lips, pulling it further into her mouth and letting her tongue rub against it with up and down motions. She continued like that, slowly increasing her speed and ferocity to drive her partner mad.
She clawed at Weiss's thighs without using her nails, dragging her fingers across her silk-like skin and exerting her passion with every rake. There was something hungry and primal in her movements, something inside of her that wanted to drive Weiss to her limit without mercy. She felt her partner drive her hips upwards to meet her face again, a sign of the girl demanding more. Ruby smiled and complied, but not in the way Weiss expected. She slipped another finger inside and then reached for a dark place an inch lower, where she trailed around with her pinky.
"What are you doing?" breathed Weiss.
Ruby looked up and locked eyes with her lover once more, flashing her a satisfied grin. She increased her grip and started moving her fingers, easily sliding in and out of Weiss wet flesh. Her feminine body was basically shuddering with pleasure and she could tell that she was getting close to her limit.
"Ah," moaned the girl. "Don't –not there-"
The redhead smiled cruelly and slipped her finger inside of her, curling spinning it around in the tight warmth of her body. That new sensation was enough to tip Weiss over the edge. A shudder ran through the ex-Heiress's body and she arched her back again, bucking with her hips as new fluid ran down her thighs.
Ruby licked her lips and crawled on top of her gasping partner again, pressing her own body against Weiss's burning form. Now it was her turn. She didn't give the white-haired princess any time to recover and undid her black panties, which were already growing moist.
"Take me," she whispered softly into Weiss's ear, her taste still on her lips. Then she pressed herself into the girl's face, giggling as she did. Her mind was fluctuating with lust and desire and she needed Weiss to do her thing right now. Ruby grabbed a hold of her lover's wrists and pinned them to the bed. With no other choice at hand, Weiss started putting her tongue to use.
Before soon, lances of pleasure were shooting through her body and now she was the one who was moaning. She couldn't resist forcing herself closer onto the girl below and her desire grew nearly unbearable.
Blake Belladonna watched the town square with keen interest, making sure that they weren't walking into an ambush. Her leader had assured her that everything was going according to plan, but her own instincts were telling her that there was something wrong.
It was a lively situation down there; the Chief of the VPD was holding a speech for a large crowd of civilians, while armed policemen were watching the streets to make sure that nothing would go wrong. This was still the safe zone for the people of Vale, but the police wasn't stupid. Even they knew that this was the ideal time to strike and Blake had absolutely no doubt that they were on high alert. Nonetheless, from her perched position on top of an industrial chimney, nobody could spot her. And she saw it all.
Ruby's plan was simple, though perhaps a bit too simple. The redhead was going to assassinate the Chief in charge of the department and lure the one in charge of Onyx out of his hiding spot. In doing so, they would set the war between their armed forces and the White Fang in motion and distract their enemy long enough to strike at their leadership.
The Faunus sighed. She knew what the young Rose had lost due to the "shadows of the night" and she knew that this Onyx group had to be the same one as back then. And she felt the burning hatred that compelled Ruby to do this –she knew what it felt like to suffer at the hands of humans. With the destruction of Beacon, every single hope for her future had been denied. Her way of life had been destroyed and there had been nothing left for her. Her friends back with the White Fang, the ones who would have gleefully accepted her back with open arms, had all died in the fighting. Died fighting the shadows of the night that had come to murder all they did not agree with. And it had left only those who saw her as a traitor, as she had not found her previous partner anywhere.
She had been forced to fight and kill her brothers and sisters to get back to the Fang, her heart had screamed with every life she had taken and in the end, when she had assumed her place as the leader, it hadn't been worth it.
And it had been their fault. Their fault.
Blake took a deep breath and banished her thoughts. Her emotions. Her burning hatred for them was a fact now; it wouldn't help her if she kept lingering on it. She needed to focus on the task at hand…to make them pay.
She could see the man approaching the podium now. The guards were getting anxious and jumpy and she spotted a sniper posted on one of the rooftops. Incompetent fool didn't even spot her…
As she expected, her communicator came to life and she heard the familiar voice of her leader speaking to her. "You in position?"
"Yeah," she replied. "I can see the target…no sign of the shadows though."
She could hear Ruby snickering over the comm. "Of course not, it's broad daylight. Just keep your eyes open for ambushes."
"Alright."
Weiss and Yang were out there somewhere as well. Should by any chance Ruby's assassination go wrong, or should she be detected, the two of them would cause a distraction massive enough to draw every single officer in the district to them. There were a lot of civilians in the open though, which could mean two different things. If Weiss was causing the distraction, it would be aimed at the VPD itself and focused without causing needless deaths. If Yang was causing the distraction, it would probably be a bloodbath involving everyone. Either way, Blake didn't care. Her presence here had three purposes, neither of which was devoted to hampering the police. Her primary goal was to scout the situation and redirect information to her team. Her secondary goal was to gather information should they meet serious opposition and her tertiary goal to see if those Faunus with Onyx would show up again.
"Weiss?" she heard Ruby ask, as they were using a decrypted but nonetheless open channel. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," replied the Heiress, without any emotion in her voice.
"Yang?"
"Ready to crack some skulls," said the blonde. Blake could already imagine her grinning like the crazy lunatic she was. Yang was a…very dangerous individual. She wasn't a full psychopath, as she was fully capable of love and devotion to her sister, but she displayed a lot of worrying traits. She had a blatant disregard for all forms of life, Faunus or not, and her bloodthirsty tendencies had blown their covert operations on more than one occasion. As of yet there hadn't been a single opponent that could have given her the fight she was so obviously yearning for and she doubted whether such a foe would ever come. Blake had been hard-pressed to ignore that sort of behaviour, especially Ruby had asked her to send a group of White Fang troopers to serve as Yang's crew.
But Yang's loyalty to their goal wasn't dependent on savoring her need to inflect violence and pain. The psycho had honestly loved Ruby with all her heart when all four of them had first come together and in time, she had grown to respect and appreciate the rest of them too.
But Blake wondered what real purpose Yang had in this war with Vale. Weiss was fighting her family, Ruby was fighting to unravel the past and settle grudges and she was fighting to liberate the Faunus population and make sure that no genocidal act could ever be released upon her people. But Yang? She didn't know what truly drove her, apart from her lust for battle.
"Ruby?" she asked. "Are you going to take the shot?"
"Not yet. He has to start his speech first."
"Of course. My apologies for doubting."
"Don't worry. This won't take long."
The policeman wasn't the only person who caught Blake's eye. There were various young-looking individuals, all but one of whom were looking nervous. The one who wasn't looking nervous was watching the rooftops, his arms hidden underneath his long, leather coat. If the VPD was relying on kids to do their job, they had to be desperate indeed.
There was another officer wearing a helmet, standing awfully close to the Chief. Blake couldn't make out who it was though, so Ruby would have to compensate with her shot.
But where was Onyx? Ruby's entire plan hinged on drawing the people behind Onyx out…but didn't those soldiers even care about protecting the Chief? The leader of virtually all the police-forces? They couldn't be that stupid. No, this had to be some sort of trap. And her teammates would be safe with her watching out over them.
The man finally stepped up to the microphone, tapped it once and started addressing the crowd. The next second, two shots rang broke the calm air and turned the meeting into a battlefield. The first one would have blown the Chief's brains all over the wooden podium, but the helmeted officer reacted with inhuman speed and pushed him away, saving his life. The second one, which had come so extremely quick after the first one that Blake almost couldn't tell which one was first, came from one of the buildings around them. The buildings which she had personally cleared to make sure there weren't any shooters. How was that possible?
"Ambush," cried Ruby over the comm-unit. "Blake, get out of there!"
The Fauns wasted no time in getting away from her position. If there was a sniper out there that they had not spotted, she had been very lucky to escape that first shot unscathed. Of course, her Semblance would allow her to survive the first round of sniper fire, unlike normal policemen. But she really didn't want to test her luck right now. She jumped off her post and slid down the stone wall, wondering if someone had tipped the VPD off about the hit. Their response had been too immediate and too acute.
"Ruby," she yelled in return. "Are you safe? What's going on!"
She wasn't the only one who was demanding to know that her leader was safe. Both Weiss and Yang were shouting over the broadcast, asking after the health of their loved one, until Ruby decided that enough was enough.
"The shot deflected off my weapon, I'm fine! Blake, find that sniper and kill him. Yang, distraction, now! Weiss, rendezvous on my position. We're hunting down the Chief."
Blake acknowledged the order and changed her direction. Snipers were an immediate threat on the battlefield and, as the range on Ruby's weapon wasn't that great, they would be the first threat to her. And she couldn't allow that.
She slid down the wall and sprinted towards the nearest building. Two officers spotted her and aimed their automatic weapons at her, but she was faster on the trigger and shot them in their legs, downing them with ease. After that she jumped up the wall, slung her weapon at a protruding rock and pulled herself into the air. She had only caught a glimpse of where the shot had come from, but she was fairly certain that she could pin the sniper down and eliminate him.
As she traversed the rooftops, the mass of civilians were fleeing the scene. Their so-called safe-zone had been infiltrated and new feelings of dread and doubt were already growing in the back of their minds, she was sure of it. But now that the civilians were getting out of there, the VPD had an easier job finding who had attempted to kill their leader. She couldn't see where the Chief was going, but she could see Yang stepping towards the center of the town's square, her gauntlets already unlocked, unfolded and ready for action. A dozen policemen with pistols, rifles and riot shields were facing her and as she jumped over to a higher rooftop, she could see the younger kid leading the group to face down against Yang. Suicidal fools.
She was gone when the violence started. There was no way that the sniper would stay where he was, but if he did…she would find him and end him.
When she reached the building where the shot had come from, Blake's first thought was to enter through one of the windows. But she recalled how the encounter had gone and she stopped herself. Ruby had shot and half a second later, she had been shot as well. Either the sniper had just happened to fire at Ruby as she had fired, or…
…or the sniper had identified, sighted in on and shot the redhead within that half second after her own shot. But that wasn't humanly possible, so this had to have been a coincidental shot. But either way, the sniper had to be aware of possible infiltrators. Or he had backup. She needed to attack from above and slay the guards before they could spot her. After that, she could take her time with the sniper and interrogate him.
Blake jumped entered the building via the second floor and made her way upstairs using the staircase, the ventilation shafts and on one occasion the outer wall. She was completely silent during her approach and she couldn't hear her enemy, which was odd considering the noise that humans normally made. But she didn't think too much of it and as she hooked the cord on her weapon around the top of another shaft, the only thought on her mind was what she was going to do to the sniper if she caught him. He had taken a shot at the most important person in her life and even though Ruby´s Aura could have protected her, it was the sheer lethal intent behind the shot that infuriated her.
Nobody was going to hurt her friends anymore. Nobody.
She made her way through the vents until she encountered an iron grate. From there, she spotted a lone, dark figure resting at the window, holding a pair of binoculars in one hand.
The corners of her mouth curled upwards into a smile and, without a noise, she removed the grate and dropped to the ground below. The one near the window didn't look like a policeman to her; he was lying at the window with a smooth, black rifle next to him. His armour was black and covered with sleek plates, much like the soldier she had encountered last night. Was this an Onyx soldier?
She bared her teeth and silently approached her target. Finally, after so long. Here was her chance.
The human had no idea. His peripheral vision was limited due to his binoculars and he didn't even have the foresight to booby-trap his nest. There weren't any guards here and he was all alone. Hers to toy with.
With her blade at the read, Blake crept towards her target. She could hear the screaming and explosions that Yang was causing and a chill ran through her body. They were finally taking the fight to their hated enemy and the humans would learn to fear them.
She never made any sound. She never gave any indication that her blow was about to come. Her sword flashed out, faster than many people could hope to match, in a lethal gesture. She aimed to cut off his lower leg and cripple him so that they could take him prisoner.
But at the last possible second, the soldier whirled around and blocked her strike with the armoured side of his forearm. He then lashed out with his leg, kicking her backwards. Even when she blocked his strike with her cleaver, she still felt the impressive force behind it. His motions were controlled, fluid and within his own reach. This wasn´t your ordinary grunt; he had special training.
That would make this interesting. Judging by his suit, he had to be with Onyx. Just like the other two –the Faunus and the girl- had been.
The soldier pulled out an impressive-looking knife and brandished it. It was black, easily ten inches long and marked by tooth at one edge. It wasn't your typical soldier-knife, but she was sure this guy had to compensate for something.
Blake readied her cleaver and searched the armour for weak spots. There was no way he had heard her approach him. He must have a motion scanner somewhere close, or he had spotted her approaching him in the window opposite to the building. She created one of her clones, ducked low and swept at the target's legs. He jumped over het attack, attempted to bash his shoulder into her clone's stomach and found out that it wasn't solid.
Yet. She then gripped her katana tighter and unleashed a blurring salvo of slashes, using additional shots form her pistol to propel her between the roof and the ground. The soldier managed to block or evade most of them, until two hits broke through and impacted on his chest. The plates protected him, but the impact did stun him enough for her to slash at him with her cleaver, using her momentum to empower the strike.
But he jerked strangely and recovered mid-stagger, diving underneath the blow again. But she was still faster than him and she loaded her weapon with a magazine filled with yellow Dust. As the soldier thrust his knife towards her throat, she created a very solid clone made of stone and jumped over his head. The knife impacted on the clone and carved the head right off.
Blake landed just in time to witness the soldier snarl in frustration and ram his arm into the manifestation of her semblance, smashing it to pieces. The ferocity took her back; that was an animalist display of rage. Were all of these people Faunus? Or was it just the ones that Onyx expected her to encounter, knowing that she would show mercy or downright hesitate? If so, she had to give the organization more credit than she had initially done.
The soldier growled at her and stepped towards her, lowering his head in an aggressive gesture. Blake knew that she couldn't keep messing around with people whom she suspected to be Faunus; if they were with Onyx, they died. Such was Ruby's will and such was her own promise.
With a small cry, she jumped forwards again and hacked away at his defenses with both her cleaver as her sword. With only one knife, the soldier couldn't possibly hope to outmatch her and soon, she was forcing him on the defensive. Aggression had no place in their fight, for she was focused and her mind was clear. When the two of them approached the window, she feigned an overhead strike and lunged for him pushing him out of the window he had used to snipe at Ruby.
She quickly threw her pistol-attachment and shattered one of the windows of the other building, where her ribbon wrapped itself around an iron pole. Hanging from the side of the building like that, she watched her adversary fall to the ground. He attempted to safe himself by digging both of his gauntlets into the wall. He only half succeeded; he still fell the last ten or so meters and smashed into the ground together with a rain of glass that originated from the windows he had shattered in his last ditched attempt to save himself.
Blake gasped in relief. She had been curious as to just what that man had been, but she didn´t want to waste too much time fighting while Ruby and Weiss were carving their way through the VPD on their own. And Yang probably needed some help too…this didn´t go entirely as planned. But at least their true enemy had revealed themselves now, which had been Ruby´s purpose all along.
The Faunus was just about to swing her way down to street-level when she spotted motion down below. She watched in partial amazement as the soldier got to his feet again, brushing the broken glass off his body. He glanced up at her and flexed his shoulders. It was impossible; no human could possibly survive such an impact and live. Just what sort of people did they have to kill?
A fiery explosion signaled Yang had another mood-swing and the soldier looked down the street, glaring at the source. Ignoring Blake, he turned around and left for the town square.
Blake let him. She had better things to do anyway and Yang could enjoy toying with someone that didn't immediately die in her grip.
"They are so misguided. Their struggles are futile though; I want all four of them alive and casualties on our own troops as low as possible. I am giving you control over all of our Field Agents. Take Scarletina and Adamant and recruit Jason M. Cho from the Vale Police Department; we need all would-be students we can get on this one. More is at stake than you know.
Conversation between General R. Eventide and Lieutenant Yale.
Next time: more familiar faces!
