Chapter 8: Rain ships it
"This suuuuucks." Yang groaned, "Why do we have to walk? Don't you have your own airship or something? This is too hot and boring."
"Firstly, there is a point to everything we are going to do. And I do mean everything. Second, stop your whining; I've considered killing you every time you open your mouth to bitch at me. It's only been a day-and-a-half, for crying out loud. The more time you waste complaining, the longer it will be before we get there."
"Can't you make an ice umbrella or something? Screen us and cool us at the same time."
"That would be a waste of dust, not to mention impractical. Do you want to hold a heavy slab of ice over our heads for hours on end? Because I don't. And another thing-" Rain cocked his head again. "You know what? You take a break. I'm going to go check out something behind us." He then clapped his hands and an umbrella of ice appeared, sticking up out of the sand. Then he turned around and walked off into the dunes.
Rain was starting to get pissed at Ozpin; all these secret messages that kept pushing his plans into a different time frame than he wanted. They made him look crazy to everyone around him. To make matters worse, he refused to reveal anything about his whereabouts. If Rain found Ozpin he could hand over responsibility of the Soldiers to him. He didn't want to be the one to kill any of his team of they went rogue. He'd grown to think of them as friends, despite the fact that they were all almost irredeemable scumbags. He knew that most people didn't kill their friends themselves. Sadly, everyone he would think to hire to kill his team was already on the damn team!
As he crested the next dune he saw Blake dash into the slope of another one. "You can come out. It's just me. I need to give you some new instructions."
Blake stepped out hesitantly and he couldn't help but realize how attractive she was. Her usual clothes were concealed by a brown cloak that worked to conceal her in the desert and keep her cool. Somehow he was attracted to the idea of the unknown quantity under the cloak. Her fear of losing everything conveyed itself to the naked eye as shyness, which for some reason he liked. He didn't usually think of anyone like that. That teasing on the boat seemed to have caused some kind of mistake in his brain. He had originally meant to simply mess with her, but now he actually seemed to be considering her as a romantic interest. He needed to stop this soon: That path wasn't in his future. Only death waited for him. It had been that way forever.
"What 'new' instructions could you be giving me? The original instructions were pretty simple."
"Tonight I want you to get close enough to hear me and Yang talking. I'll ask her a question, and after she responds I want you to join us. The choice is up to you, but I would recommend you join us."
"I can't see her; she wouldn't want to see me. It would bring up too many bad feelings."
"Doesn't matter. If you ever want to reunite with her, you have to face those emotions. I might not experience most emotions, but I understand them. So trust me when I say that you should do this."
"I've known you for about a week and you haven't really given me anything to make me trust you. Why should I trust you on this? This is kind of an important thing."
"How about this? If you don't at least listen, I'll kill you and leave your corpse for the grimm."
Blake couldn't tell if he was joking, but she figured it was a good idea to assume he wasn't. "OK. I'll listen at least. I can't promise I'll join you two afterwards."
"That is all I ask. Thank you. Now I should probably head back. Yang might have started to worry. Probably not, but it's still nice to hope."
"Wait. What is your end goal in all this? Why do you want to reunite me and Yang? What are you getting out of it?"
"What do I get out of making my sister happy? That is a tough question. Maybe I just think you two belong together."
"'Belong together'? What does that mean?"
"Whatever you want it to mean, Blake. Bye." With that he blurred and disappeared, leaving Blake alone among the dunes.
Night had fallen a few hours later and Rain had set up camp among a jumble of rocks they had come across. He had built a fire pit and was in the process of cooking a savoury-smelling stew. Yang was sitting on a boulder, keeping watch.
"Soup's on!" Rain shouted to her, "Come eat it before it gets cold."
Yang climbed down and accepted a bowl from Rain. They sat together in companionable silence until they had both finished their meal. Yang did the little bit of washing up that was needed, and they sat across from each other over the fire.
Rain seemed to make up his mind about something and looked at Yang. "I need you to answer a question for me, and I need you to tell me the absolute truth."
"What's the question? It sounds pretty important."
"If Blake were here right now, what would you say to her?"
Yang instantly went on the defensive, "Why? That isn't something you need to know."
"Because I am your commander on this mission and you will do what I ask or I will send you home. Now answer the question."
"Well, I suppose I would tell her that I forgive her for running away. But I would also tell her that I don't understand it. I would tell her that she caused me terrible pain when she left and for the months after. I'd tell her that I wish we could go back to the way things used to be, but that that is impossible. That what she did can't ever be forgotten, but that I wish it could. I'd tell her that the pain of her leaving was like a hundred knives forced into my chest and twisted around until my organs were mush every single day, including today. Is that enough?"
Rain looked over her shoulder before he answered, "I don't know. Why don't you ask her?"
Yang stood up and slowly turned. She felt apprehensive. When she turned around she saw Blake with tears streaming down her face, "Blake? Why are you here?"
"Yang," Blake choked out between tears, "I'm so sorry. I thought I was helping you. I didn't... I didn't know. How could I ever make it up to you? What I've done is unforgivable." Blake fell to her knees and her body shook with great, heaving sobs.
Blake suddenly felt a certain large, blonde mass envelop her in a massive hug. She could feel tears dropping on to her shoulder. "You stupid kitten. You've already done it. You stayed and talked to me instead of running away. You have no idea what that means to me."
Blake and Yang stayed like that for awhile: kneeling, hugging, and crying. Eventually they were interrupted by the sound of Rain clearing his throat. "While this is all very beautiful and moving, I do have some things to discuss with the two of you."
Yang got up and turned towards him with tears of fire in her eyes, "You bastard!"
"That is factually accurate. Thank you for pointing that out."
"You found her! You kept her from me this entire time! All so you could play some kind of emotional mind game! Do I have that right?!" Yang was giving off so much heat that the sand under her was slowly turning to glass.
"Yuppers."
"I could kill you!"
"You could try, but we do have more pressing issues. Now sit down, shut up, and listen!"
Blake and Yang sat down together, across from Rain. Blake placed her hand over Yang's in an attempt to calm her down. "So. You're finally going to tell us everything we need to know?"
Rain burst out laughing, "Hahahaha. Nobody gets the full story, Blake! I don't even have all the info. I'm going to tell you everything you need to know now. What I reveal later will be piecemeal and it probably won't be very satisfactory. Moving on: our enemies are currently going after someone called a 'Maiden'. A maiden is basically a demigod and can use magic even with a depleted aura. There are four of them at any given time, but our enemies have already stolen the powers of one of them and are closing in on the second, who is based in Vacuo. Our job is to find, retrieve, and escort her back to the ship. After that I have an undisclosed location that the ship will take her to. It's also part of our job to kill their Maiden if we can. That power should definitely not be in the hands of evil... no matter the cost."
"What happens to the power?"
"What?"
"The magic or whatever. What happens to it after we kill this... dark maiden?"
"Love that name. I think I might trademark it." Rain seemed to start zoning out.
Yang chucked a rock at him, "Rain! Question! Answer it!"
Rain shook himself back to the present, "Sorry. That happens sometimes. Ehrm." he cleared his throat, "To answer the question: It moves on to somebody else. Normally, it should be the last person in their thoughts. If that happens to be a man or an old woman, it goes to some random, young woman. It isn't entirely known how the dark maiden stole the powers of the Fall maiden. I have a few pet theories, but nothing conclusive. As long as we can kill her though, it doesn't matter all that much. The power will find a new host and we'll just have to find them."
"Why does it have to move to a young woman? Why not a man?"
"A few reasons, all of them total bullshit. The power always goes to a woman because in the story it was originally given to four sisters. As far as I know, it has never chosen a male host. But with the dark maiden stealing the power it is possible a man could have the power. Why they always have to be young is not something we have a definitive answer for. The prevailing theory is that it has something to do with innocence. The older you get, the less innocent you are. The less innocent you are, the more liable you are to turn evil."
"So it could literally be any young woman anywhere in the world? There's no other process of determination? That seems odd."
"Well, we haven't found any other criteria yet, but it's magic that is thousands of years old: it isn't like there are a lot of people that even understand it, let alone anyone who can perform tests."
"Then it could transfer into one of us? And we actually might have a better chance if we kill her? Is that what you're trying to tell us?"
"Yes. I'm telling you as a warning: If you receive the power and decide to turn dark, I will not hesitate to kill you."
"But I thought you were lower on the pecking order than a maiden." Yang finally spoke outside of a scream, "Qrow told me that."
"Technically he's right; in a fight against a maiden who has mastered her powers I would almost certainly die. However, it usually takes awhile for a maiden to get to that level. If you slip up in that time, I am still very capable of killing you. Anymore questions, or can I get some shut-eye?"
"Yes, actually. It's something I've been wondering since we met, brother."
"Fire away."
"Why is your name Rain?"
Rain seemed to actually be nervous for once, "It's short for something. Why does it matter?"
"What is it short for?"
"It doesn't matter!"
"Hey! You know everything about me. I deserve to know this. Now tell me what Rain is short for. Please."
Rain mumbled something under his breath.
"What was that? Couldn't quite make it out."
"I said: 'It's short for... Rainbow."
Yang sat frozen, trying desperately not to laugh. Surprisingly it was Blake who burst out laughing and promptly fell over, rolling in the sand.
"That's it. I'm going on patrol. Have fun catching up while I keep your asses from getting eaten by grimm. And if I come back and find you making out, I will be extremely pissed."
Blake immediately ceased her laughter, "Why would we be making out?"
"Um, because Ozpin told me you two are partners. Isn't that the term people use now? I keep getting confused because society feels the need to change everything every few years."
"We're fighting partners at Beacon. It's how teams are made. Partners are decided and then each group of partners finds a relic. Whoever chooses the matching relic becomes the other half of the team."
"Huh. That's stupid. What if you end up with people you can't work with?"
"I guess you learn to."
"Man am I glad I can never be a huntsman. It sounds exhausting. Much better to be a contract killer. Be safe." With that he disappeared into the night.
"Your brother is kind of weird."
"Yeah. But I think he's a good person. Almost like there could be something golden at the end of all his cynicism and pain." Yang had to hold back a giggle at her own joke.
Blake didn't seem to hear Yang. She was looking out past the boulders. "Hey Blake." Yang reached over and poked her partner on the cheek. "What's up? You look like you're a million miles away."
"Just thinking about what we're going to do once we get to Vacuo. Who we might see."
Yang scooted closer to her partner, "You're thinking about your monkey boy, aren't you?"
"I've never heard you call him that. It sounds kind of rude."
"Meh. It's what Rain calls him. I guess he must be rubbing off on me."
"I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing."
"I think it's somewhere in the middle."
A.N: Dialogue and emotions are hard to write/portray. I spent a long time agonizing over those in this chapter. Actually came close to scrapping it and starting over. But that feeling I got when I finally got it how I wanted? It was like nothing I could really describe. I think I finally get why people are able to speak with the passion that they do about the things they love. It was like an explosion of joy inside my brain. I really cannot describe it better than that.
