Hello everyone, J. Van A here, and wow. Three chapters in one week. I may just keep up this pace until I finish this arc I'm working on.

Anyway, we get detective Eva and some additional information, like the origin of Blaise's coat, along with a slight plot twist. (Kaimi, btw when I got specific about the time skip was about the same time I PM'd you)

Enjoy


After leaving the club, Eva went over to the airship docks where her airship was. After she started it up and engaged the autopilot to fly to Torrine.

She practically fell asleep as soon as the airship ascended. In her defense the Manos Company's leather airship chairs were extremely comfortable. She tilted her head back then immediately winced from the pain in her chest.

The Beacon doctors told her to avoid combat for a few weeks, but she had fought twice in two days, and she was going into the field trying to find Blaise which probably involve a lot of fighting. Reaching into her coat pocket, Eva pulled out a small black pouch with three dust crystals. Pulling out a crystal from the pouch, she rolled up her shirt and placed the crystal against her burn and sent a small pulse of aura through the crystal to activate it. The healing dust crystal felt warm against her skin while it was working on healing her burn.

"What if Blaise really never did leave the White Fang?" Eva asked herself as the healing dust stopped working.

Then she put the now half crystal of dust back into the pouch and just watched the scenery go by. Since the airship was a high speed ship, there wasn't much for monumental scenery like a sunrise since the sun was passing through the sky at a rapid speed. She could see the coast of Vacuo approaching fast, so she assumed that she lost track of time while the healing dust was activated.

"Come on, Blaise," she said slowing down the ship slightly as the airship passed over a large portion of the Vacuo desert, "I know you're still out there."


"So, interesting news," Lapis said opening his scroll as he and Zaria walked over to the Beacon fairgrounds, "It seems that our favorite archer/kickboxer attacked a nightclub after she left this morning. She's apparently taking her anger out on people she believes may know where Blaise is."

"I guess…" Zaria said drooping her head. "Maybe we should've gone with her. I mean, Blaise is our leader. If there is any chance that he is still alive, we should go try to find him."

"Zaria," Lapis said running ahead of her then walking backwards to face her, "It's Blaise, he's alright. He's too stubborn to die. Remember, he did die once before. Maybe Blaise ditched his coat in the middle of a fight and it just happened to get pinned to the airship. Blaise is fine."

"Still, he may be in serious danger," Zaria said looking up and grabbing Lapis's collar.

"Who's in serious danger?" Alex asked approaching the two with his team trailing behind.

"Just Blaise," Lapis said looking at the team. "He went MIA yesterday and his siblings think he's dead, but obviously that's not true."

"Blaise dead?" Quinton asked laughing a little bit before Reita jabbed at his side. "Seriously, that guy has been impaled several times. I'm sure he wouldn't die fighting some grimm."

"They found his coat with a four inch wide hole in the back stained with blood," Zaria said causing everyone to get silent.

"Shit," Quinton said. "Maybe we should get worried."

"I mean, it is a bit disconcerting, but yet again, this is Blaise we're talking about," Lapis said looking over at everyone.

"Yeah. Even if he was dead, Blaise would travel across the existential plane of hell and kick the grimm demon's ass just to get back to Eva," Shizuko said getting several nods from everyone.

"Anyway, if you guys plan on going, we'll go with," Alex said looking to his team for confirmation. "I mean, the Vytal Festival is great and all, but there'll be another one in two years."

"Thanks, if we hear anything from Eva, we'll contact you," Lapis said as he, Zaria, and AQRS started to wander around the fairgrounds together.


Eva landed her ship on the outskirts of the desert town of Torrine. Then she went out and paid the airstrip owner for parking for the day and made her way into town. It was already afternoon where she was and the sun was beating down on the area. She didn't know the area at all, but she knew exactly where she was headed, The Death Stalker's Tonic.

Approaching the bar, Eva adjusted her jacket and pulled on her shades. She entered the building causing some of the patrons to look at her. She ignored the gazes as she walked over to the bar stool and sat down next to a fox faunus girl who seemed a bit nervous. Moments later a fox faunus who appeared to be the owner walked over to Eva.

"Torrine gets more popular every day," he said to Eva handing her a menu. "So, what can I do you for."

"I'm looking for someone," she said catching his attention. "Tall, wolf faunus, black hair, red eyes, grey aviator trench coat, and his name is Blaise Campione."

"Can't say I know of a Blaise Campione," the man said catching the fox faunus girl's attention. "There was a guy who kind of matched that description, but his name was Timber and he wore a sleeveless jacket. Why are you looking for this Blaise guy?"

"He's a friend, and he went missing," Eva said then suddenly there was a crash as the fox faunus girl dropped her glass onto the floor causing it to shatter.

"Ash, what's wrong?" Carl asked his daughter as he started walking around the counter to come clean up the broken glass. His daughter didn't respond, she only stared at Eva in shock. "I'm sorry Miss. Ashlyn went on a mission the other day that kind of went south fast and it seemed to be somewhat traumatic. She hasn't said a single word since she and FLME got back."

"What kind of mission were they doing?" Eva asked him looking up at Ashlyn.

"Apparently it was to kill some grimm, but then they were ambushed. I tried asking FLME more about what happened, but they just left in a hurry," Carl said finishing cleaning up the glass. "Timber didn't come back though. According to Frederick, something happened to him."

"I do have one last question," Eva said looking at Carl who raised an eyebrow. "Did this timber have a scar going down across his left eye kind of giving him an intimidation factor?"

"Yes, but I don't understand how that seems releven-"

"I'm borrowing your daughter for a few minutes," Eva said grabbing Ashlyn's arm and pulling her outside of the bar. Outside of the bar Eva pushed Ashlyn against the wall and took off her glasses. "Spill. Where is Blaise?"

Ashlyn didn't say anything, she just looked blankly at Eva.

"I don't really have time for this. Blaise is out there injured and alone. If he is still alive, I need to find him, and I don't have time to track down this team FLME. So, just get your ass out of this self pity mindset and help me save my boyfriend," Eva said to Ashlyn still not getting a response. then suddenly her hand moved up and her finger started to twitch. "What? What are you doing?" Eva asked her looking at Ashlyn's fingers that seemed to be moving in a pattern that repeated itself every fourteen twitches. "Give me a sec." She pulled out her scroll and held the keyboard portion open for her to type on. After a few moments two words started to appear over and over again. "Apex predators? What do you… give me a second." She quickly typed it into the scroll's browser and pulled up a site about a children's story. "The Apex Predators are legendary grimm from the dawn of humanity that are part of a children's fairy tale also called the Guardian Grimm. What does that have to do with… wait." She reached into her coat and pulled out Blaise's scroll and typed in the code 3826 and opened it to the photos app. The first image she found seemed to have been taken from an airship. On the image was a giant grimm beowolf that seemed to be several stories tall with a spiked tail. She turned the scroll to face Ashlyn. "Is this the grimm that attacked you guys?"

Ashlyn screamed at the sight of the grimm before crumpling to the ground weeping. Moments later Carl and several other patrons ran outside to check in on Ashlyn.

"Ash! What's wrong?" Carl asked her running up to check on his daughter. Then he turned to look at Eva. "What did you do?"

"I found out what happened. Don't worry about it, I didn't hurt her. She's actually really lucky to be alive if they were attacked by what I think they were attacked by," she said pulling on her shades. "'Timber' saved her from a really dangerous grimm, but he was forced to be left behind. From what she saw before they left, she was shocked and she felt helpless as she tried to convince FLME to go back to save him. It may take a while, and maybe some professional help, but she'll be fine." She reached into her coat pocket and wrote down a name and number before handing it to him. "There is a therapist who specializes in grimm trauma that worked for a research division for my father before moving to Vacuo. He's a great doctor and if you hand him this card, you won't have to pay a thing."

"Uhhh… thanks," Carl said looking at Eva, then to his daughter. "What are you going to do?"

"Find Blaise," she said calling a number on her scroll. "Lucia, where exactly is the camp where you found Blaise's coat? I'm in Vacuo." A pause. "I got here with a high speed ship, but that's not important. Location, now." She pulled out Blaise's scroll and typed in a location. "Thanks. You guys take care while taking down facilities."

"So…"

Eva closed her scroll. "I'm leaving. Everyone should be safe here," she said then quickly drew her crossbow and fired an explosive bolt into the air piercing a bus sized nevermore in the neck before blowing its head off, "just keep an eye on the skies."


"Who was that?" Ozella asked Lucia as she closed her scroll.

"It was Eva," Lucia said then reached into her pack and pulled out a sewing kit. "She's in Vacuo and she thinks she found a lead on Blaise, but she's going to go to the White Fang camp and try to find anything."

"Do you think she'll find anything?" she asked her sitting down next to her on the couch.

"It's Eva, she has an eye for detail and not to mention he's her boyfriend, so she'll find him," Lucia said as she started sewing Blaise's sleeve.

"So, what's the story behind this coat? Blaise never went a day without wearing that thing and whenever we would ask him where it came from he would just tell us that he liked it," Ozella said looking at the aviator trench coat.

"Of course he would never tell you guys the true story," Lucia chuckled to herself continuing the sew. "A few years back, after Blaise and I left the White Fang, he and I were walking around the city of Vale. While we were wandering around looking for an apartment, Blaise saw that jacket on display and he practically fell in love with it. So, for his birthday I snuck into that store and stole it right off the mannequin. Oh, you should've seen him when he opened his present. Even though the jacket was big on him in the beginning, he grew into it just fine."

"Wait, so the story behind the infamous aviator trench coat was that it was a stolen birthday present? I thought it was going to be that you worked hard for several months to afford it or something?"

"Ozella, we had to take odd jobs to pay the rent, and it's not like we could access the Campione family fortune. After the family house burned down, some third party drained the whole account, and that was the main reason why we all had to go to the White Fang in the first place," Lucia explained finishing the stitch. "Not to mention his birthday was the middle of June, so we only had a month in Vale before his birthday."

"How sweet," Ozella said as Lucia switched to the other sleeve.

"Hey, we were stealing from the rich asshole humans. To be honest, we both enjoyed the story of the coat," Lucia said as she began the stitch. "We had fun in those few years. I remember the story of how Blaise came to hating cats with a firey passion."

"We have a few stories about his time at the assassins as well. I remember the time Blaise hunted a coyote faunus across the entire desert of Vacuo from north to south with only a motorcycle, one of his pistols, and a boulder," Ozella said chuckling to herself.


After Eva landed in the field she was greeted by several grimm. Exiting the ship, she fired off several crossbow bolts hitting the beowolves. Then running at the group she javelin threw her spear into a nearby ursa's head. As soon as the spear impaled the grimm, Eva fired off a round from her boots rocketing her onto the head of a centitrax. Then she fired off another round at point blank range creating a giant hole in the centitrax's head rocketing her back. She then reached into her crossbow's quiver and threw an explosive ice bolt at the feet of an ursa sending ice chunks in all directions killing several grimm. Drawing her longsword, Eva quickly turned it into its longbow form. Then she notched three explosive arrows and fired them hitting three separate ursa in the head.

The grimm each looked at each other and made a group decision. Moments later they all had retreated into the forest.

"Damn right," Eva said dislodging her spear from the dead ursa's head.

Looking around at the camp, eva could see the damage the grimm had caused. The ground at the center of the camp had been broken from beneath. Then there had been a completely destroyed line of trees going on several miles. Catching sight of Blaise's airship, Eva ran over to it.

The cargo ship seemed to be almost as advanced as the Manos high speed jet, but it had a cargo bay that apparently was holding some crates. In the open door was a railgun cannon that was mounted onto the floor. Looking at the rest of the ship, Eva could see that the grimm spikes were only impaled on the right side of the ship, so it seemed that Blaise had the ship facing the giant grimm. Then she looked into the cargo bay and saw three empty shells that she assumed were from the railgun cannon.

She looked at the door and saw the three spikes impaled into the door and the blood stain leading down from the middle spike onto the field ground. Wiping her hand down the length of the blood stain, she stopped at the ground and looked around. Several feet away as a thin hole in the ground where it appeared a broadsword was impaled into the ground then later removed. Looking at the hole, it appeared that the sword entered the ground nearly straight down and removed at an angle towards the north.

Starting to jog towards the north, Eva noticed a single black object in the distance. As soon as she approached it, Eva noticed that it was a single detachable black railgun pistol holster, Blaise's holster. It also appeared to have blood covering it.

"Well, if Blaise lost this during the fight then there wouldn't be blood on it," Eva said to herself as she continued walking north for a few feet until she saw it. A few droplets of blood on a single lily flower, the droplets seemingly bright red on top of the flower.

Pulling out her scroll, Eva activated the airship's autopilot hover mechanism and set it to follow her scroll. Moments later her airship was hovering just over the tree line as Eva began running into the forest finding a few blood droplets avery thirty feet or so.

Then she saw a large blood spurt on a tree. Continuing down the trail, Eva saw another blood spurt pooling on the grass leading straight down the trail towards a clearing. Just before she entered the clearing, Eva saw to her right several destroyed trees that appeared to momentarily have been on fire. She then entered the clearing and saw signs of an airship landing spot and in the tree line she saw some of the trees had broken tops leading in one direction.

After calling her airship down, Eva got in and followed the line of broken trees straight ahead leading to the forest.


A day and six hours ago


"Oh shit, look at this place," Sharon said looking at the White Fang camp as KROS flew towards the camp. "What do you think happened here?"

"That team from Torrine said that this was a grimm attack, but this is a bit extreme," Rosa said pulling on her backpack. Then she walked over to the bay doors of their airship. "I'll fly up ahead and keep an eye out for any grimm. Oh look crates of stuff."

"You can go through one crate and take what you want, but focus on the mission," Kyle said as Rosa jumped out of the airship and activated her backpack's transform mech. "So, do you think Blaise is down there?"

"If he's not there we can check the White Fang facility about ten miles southwest," Octavian said descending the airship above the field. "I'm going to fly around the area in case there are any dangerous grimm around. Radio me when you need a pickup."

Kyle jumped out of the airship and landed on the ground as Sharon teleported right next to him. They then looked around the camp and saw the destruction. In random parts of the camp there were fires, there were several corpses on the ground that seemed to have been impaled by grimm spikes. The final sight the two saw was an airship that appeared to have been impaled several times by grimm spikes and on the middle spike was a body of someone who seemed to be trying to pull the spike out of him.

"Sharon, go," Kyle said starting to jog to the airship. Sharon nodded and immediately blinked out of existence and reappeared next to the body.

Sharon immediately recognized him. "Blaise?" she said slightly getting his attention.

"Of course… you would be my angel of death," Blaise said then his eyes rolled back in his head before his body went limp.

"Kyle! Hurry up! I think he's dying!" Sharon shouted to her leader as she grabbed the grimm spike and tried to pull it to no avail. "Kyle!"

"I'm here," Kyle said reaching his teammate. Looking closely at the spike he saw that pulling it out wouldn't work. "We're going to have to pull him through it."

"Kyle, the spike only gets bigger as it goes down. It would cause an even bigger wound that would kill him if he isn't dead already," Sharon said then looked at Kyle's belt. "What about your axe? We could break it off next to the wound then pull him through."

"Alright," she said pulling his tomahawk off his belt. Then with one swing, his tomahawk ricochet off the grimm spike completely unaffected. "This won't work. We'll have to pull him through."

"Maybe not," she said then grabbed Blaise's coat and took his arms out of the sleeve. "I could try teleporting with him, but if his coat is pinned between the spike and the ship I might end up teleporting the whole thing possibly killing me."

"Do it," Kyle said.

Sharon quickly grabbed Blaise's arm and focused her semblance. Then she blinked out of existence and reappeared sixty feet away holding onto Blaise. At that moment Blaise's remaining holser slid off his leg due to it being slick from his blood.

"Ok, I have him," she yelled over to Kyle then held her hand in front of Blaise's face. "He's breathing, just barely. I think the spike pierced his lung."

"Good job," Kyle shouted back then pulled out his scroll and called Octavian. "Sharon has Blaise. We're going to need a pick up."

"I can be there in a minute," Octavian said over the radio. "Shit, you guys might need to come to me."

"Why?"

"There seems to be a lot of grimm coming this way," Rosa said over her scroll then fired off several sniper rounds. "I think we should head north. There aren't any grimm that way."

"Rosa, you cover me and Sharon. Octavian, on the way in there seemed to be a large clearing of broken trees where I think Blaise fought some big grimm. Meet us there. It's not too far away and probably is the only clearing for miles that an airship can fit," Kyle said then picked up a large railgun pistol that was at his feet. Then he began running towards Sharon and on his way he spotted Blaise's broadsword and pulled it out of the ground. "Sharon, we need to get going!"

"What? Just get Kyle to come here," she said struggling to hold Blaise up.

"Grimm. No time," he said handing her Blaise's weapons then grabbed the wolf faunus and wrapped Blaise's arm over his shoulder and started jogging to the trees.

"Are you going to carry him by yourself?" Sharon asked him keeping pace with her leader.

"Well, you're a bit drained," Kyle said as they entered the forest. As soon as they did, from the other side of the camp several beowolves, ursai, and centitrax started running from the woods on the opposite side of the field. "Anyway, I'm a lot stronger than you."

"Always the charmer," Sharon said then teleported a little distance ahead.

Kyle could feel Blaise's heart beating heavily through his arm. "Don't…" Blaise said returning to consciousness looking over to Kyle.

"Don't what?" Kyle asked him as he jumped over a root. "We can't just leave you here. We came all this way for you."

"Don't tell… my team," Blaise said then coughed spraying a nearby three with blood. "Don't tell them I was here." He then coughed again leaving a large pool of blood on the ground.

"Come on, buddy," Kyle said as he and Sharon neared the clearing. "Don't die on me now. We have a facility about a half hour flight from here. State of the art medical equipment. You'll be good as new when we get you there." He could feel Blaise's heartbeat begin to slow as the two came real close to the airship.

"Who… the hell are you?" Blaise asked Kyle as he laid him down in the airship.

"That's not important right now," Kyle said as Sharon began looking over Blaise. Really close behind them, Kyle could see a centitrax busting through the trees. thinking quickly he grabbed the large railgun pistol from next to Sharon and aimed it at the Centitrax before pulling the trigger. The bullet traveled through the air hitting the centitrax throwing it back through ten trees before the round exploded killing it. Kyle himself seemed unaffected by the recoil from the pistol. Then jumping into the airship, Kyle it the door to the cockpit signalling for them to go.

"I'm going to have to keep it low because I saw a flock of nevermores in the area and I don't think we want to mess with them," Octavian said as the airship ascended and hit the top of several trees breaking them off as he began to accelerate. "Is he going to make it?"

"As long as he's even a little bit alive, he'll make it if we get there," Kyle said looking over towards Sharon who had her fingers on Blaise's neck.

A couple moments later she moved her fingers to the other side of Blaise's neck. Then she picked

up Blaise's hand and pressed her fingers against his wrist. Finally, she placed her hand over Blaise's heart for a few seconds before she began to tear up.

"I don't think we have to hurry," Sharon said letting a few teardrops fall and hit Blaise's face. "He doesn't have a pulse. And he's not breathing."

"You can't be serious. Blaise is the second toughest guy I know," Kyle said walking over to Sharon.

"Thank you," Octavian said scraping the airship against another tree top accidentally.

"Come on, Blaise," Kyle said pressing his ear against Blaise's chest ignoring the blood that was going into his hair. After a few seconds Kyle stood up. "God DAMNIT!" he shouted punching the wall of the bay area denting the airship.

"What do we do now?" Sharon asked him.

"I don't know. There isn't really anything we can do," Kyle said sitting down on a nearby bench. "Blaise is dead and we can't bring him back to life. We're way behind on that technology."

"We should probably call his family or his team, or something."

"No, he didn't want anyone to find out," Kyle said running his hands through his hair. "We go to the medical facility and have them cremate his body. Then we send the ashes to his family. The normal procedure. We can even spend the rest of the night at the facility and clean up, then we can go back to Vale before the singles round starts."

"I think that may be the only option we have," Octavian said.

"Kyle, I'm sorry," Sharon said sitting down next to Kyle and hugging him. "We can't save everyone."


Oh, did you guys expect Blaise to actually survive? Well, he's dead.

Oh yeah, in case you guys are wondering why Eva was a good tracker, here's a refresher. Eva spent her childhood being raised by her uncle in the woods of Mistral to be a hunter. It was only when she was older she moved back home after her mother died.

I thought for a while about what the origin story be for Blasie's coat, and I ran through several ideas. It was originally going to be that he just bought it, but that didn't give much reason as to why he always wore it and even used aura to repair it. So I thought, what if it was a gift from his sister, then maybe it would seem more sentimental. After I came up with that idea, I thought of putting in a joke, so then Lucia stole it.

Anyway, in the next chapter we might get some Eva vs. KROS action. That should be pretty interesting if she can somehow manage to beat Octavian.

And did everyone catch Kyle getting a bit emotional over Blaise's death. That'll be important later. And before anyone suggests it, Kyle isn't gay. There is another reason for it.

Everyone have a nice day,

-J. Van A