Resurgence: A RWBY Fic

By Kraven Ergeist

Chapter 10

It had been weeks since Blake's last meal.

The city of Vale was all but abandoned. Packs of Grimm roamed the streets, hunting for any signs of life. The city had become a larger, more tightly packed version of Mountain Glen. The Grimm drove away the wildlife, leaving slim pickings for hunting, and the stores had been mostly cleared out by looters and other stragglers trying to survive, not to mention the resistance.

Blake was loath to try to steal from a group that ultimately existed for a good cause, but she also needed to survive out here. Had it been some well-organized militia unit, a few missing provisions might have gone unnoticed. But this was a mere handful of Huntsmen and Huntresses, and every scrap of food counted. Plus, while she adept at hiding from Grimm, Huntsmen and Huntresses were harder to fool. This group may be mostly students, but they were still well trained, and their presence in the city put them on hyper alert status. Blake didn't like her odds should she attempt to loot their larders, nor did she like the thought of getting on their bad side should she get caught.

So she was down to foraging through un-looted stores, which carried its own share of risks.

It had taken her days of careful looting, but finally Blake had lucked out, and managed to break into the backroom of a general goods store that hadn't been completely picked over. It was a risky move – there was no sneaky way to open a sliding metal shutter, and very often, it never even paid off, and Blake was left running from Grimm attracted to the noise with nothing to show for it. But desperate times called for desperate measures. And as luck would have it, this store had some food left over. It even had some canned goods, so she could be sure they were still safe to eat.

Blake quickly helped herself to armful of canned food (mostly tuna), when suddenly her ears twitched and her pupils dilated.

Something didn't smell right.

Dropping her provisions, she leaped into a defensive position, sword drawn, just in time to dodge the pair of bronze sickle blades that would have gutted her.

"What the…?" a surprised voice sounded, and Blake recognized the green hair and olive skin of one of Cinder's lackeys.

Emerald, if she recalled correctly. Though how the thief managed to sneak up on her was a mystery. Her hunger must be getting the better of her.

"How did you…?" the girl said, looking genuinely confused that she had missed her mark, when he eyes suddenly lit up. "Damn it…you're Faunus aren't you? Should have known…I'll have to mask my scent next time…"

Blake said nothing. Her eyes were darting back and forth, trying to figure out a way out. Emerald was blocking the way she had come in. Rookie mistake, letting the enemy get between her and the door, Blake chastised herself. There was always the front entrance, but that would take time to get through…

To Blake's surprise, however, Emerald stepped off to one side, keeping her weapons raised but leaving ample room for Blake walk past her, and gestured with a nod of her head towards the exit.

"Alright, beat it," she snorted derisively. "Unless you're looking for a fight."

Blake narrowed her eyes. What exactly was going on here?

"You're…letting me go?" she asked, cautiously, not taking her eyes off her opponent, nor taking a step in any direction.

"Sure, if that's how you want to think of it," Emerald said with an amused smirk. "Thanks for finding this place for me, but a girl's gotta eat. So leave the goods where you found 'em, and this doesn't have to get ugly."

Blake was stunned. She thought she was finished for sure!

"I don't understand…" Blake blinked in confusion. "Don't you work for Cinder?"

Emerald's expression darkened. "None of your damn business, freak! Now scram before I get pissed!"

Blake held her position, trying to put the pieces together in her head. If Emerald was hunting for food for herself…but was letting Blake off the hook…that could only mean that she wasn't with Cinder anymore.

"We're…in the same boat here, aren't we?" she finally reasoned, giving the girl a curious look.

"Finally figured that out, did you?" Emerald said, raising her guns to point them at Blake. "Now if you're finished gawking like an idiot, I suggest you—"

She didn't get to finish her thought, as the roar of a Grimm out in the street reverberated throughout the entire shop, taking Emerald by surprise.

Blake had been doing this long enough to know that the Grimm wouldn't be far off, and leapt at the chance. Grabbing a handful of food – not nearly as much as she needed, but enough for a few days, at least – she shadow-stepped past Emerald and out into the street.

"H-Hey!" Emerald blurted, stumbling after her.

Blake ignored the other girl and instead focused on evading the trio of Ursi that were shambling towards the source of the commotion, as they both let out a ferocious roar as they spotted a moving target and barreled after her in a furious rush.

Blake bit her lip. She needed to get back up on the rooftops. Her climbing ability was hampered by her burden of foodstuffs. She needed some kind of ledge that she could leap to if she wanted to get a sure path. Otherwise, she'd be forced to choose between her food and her life.

She let out a curse, however, when she bounded down an alley that was supposed to offer a narrow enough passage for her to slip by without letting the Ursi follow her, but found the passage to be collapsed, leaving her trapped in a dead end.

She turned on her heel, only to see the Ursi closing off her escape.

She gritted her teeth. No choice now. She dropped the handful of cans she was carrying and drew her Gambol Shroud, wrapping the tether around her wrist as she hurled the folded blade up towards the rooftops. The blade dug into the cement walls and found purchase, and Blake yanked on the tether to pull herself up the wall.

Her feet cleared the street just as the Ursi charged where she had been standing and plowed into the debris of the collapsed passage, missing her by a hair's breadth.

Blake's hair was standing on end as she pulled herself up the wall, running on an adrenaline fueled high until she reached the rooftops. As soon as she did, she put her hands on her knees, doubling over to catch her breath.

She cursed under her breath as she grimaced in disgust. Her stomach was growing in anticipation of finally getting a bite of food, but now there was none coming, and she was exhausted to boot. She had no way to power her scroll to check for sure, but she suspected that her aura was running particularly low at that moment. It was too risky to try to reclaim what little scraps she had dropped down below. She could always check back at the store after the Grimm had finally gone, but by then, it would likely be picked over, either by the resistance or by that green-haired thief.

Her ears pricked up, however, when the sound of gunfire caught her attention, and she realized she may not be out of the woods just yet.

Crouching low behind the ledge of the rooftop, she followed the sound of the gunfire until she dared a look back down into the street.

There she saw Emerald, several cans of food in one arm, one of her weapons in the other, firing at the three Ursi that had clearly given up on Blake's trail, and had the girl cornered in another dead-end alley.

Blake's first instinct was to run, like she always did. It wasn't Blake's fault that Emerald was in this situation, and really, it was her own fault for trying to pillage from someone who was simply trying to forage for herself. And after all, whether or not she still worked for Cinder, she was still at least partly responsible for the sorry state the city was in. And now she was reaping what she had sown.

Emerald nimbly lept clear of an Ursa as it snapped at her feet, but was cornered by the other two, growling savagely, and she backed up even further against the wall, unwilling to part with her provisions. She must have been even hungrier than Blake was.

Blake wrinkled her nose. Whether she realized it at the time or not was immaterial – the fact of the matter was that Emerald was receiving her comeuppance.

But something stopped Blake from running. It just didn't seem right. Never mind that she and Emerald were in the same boat now, never mind that it made her feel dirty leaving the other girl to such a sorry fate, never mind that helping her was the right thing to do…

But more than anything, Blake was sick of running. She was sick of proving Adam right, time and time again.

So she made her decision.

SHUNK!

Emerald let out a gasp and turned to see the bladed portion of the Gambol Shroud, embedded blade-first into the cement pavement behind her, its tether leading all the way up to the rooftops where Blake had been hiding.

"Grab on!" Blake called down to her.

Emerald's expression was unreadable, but she was quick to act, leaping to grab onto the proffered lifeline. As soon as she grasped it, Blake began to pull. Even as she did, the Ursi were lunging for the girl, who screamed and kicked away, an Ursa's claws leaving a sizeable gash across her bared calf.

That was all that they got, however, as Blake pulled the girl to safety. When she reached the ledge of the rooftop, Blake reached down to clasp her by the arm and with a mighty heave, dragged her over the ledge of the rooftop, both her sword and the girl's burden of provisions clattering to her side as the two of them collapsed onto their haunches, both gasping for breath.

For a while, neither of them moved as they simply sat there together, both recovering what could have easily been their last night on this world. Blake still had the tether of her sword wrapped around her wrist, but she made no movement to reach for the weapon itself. She didn't want to accidentally spur the other girl into another needless fight if she could avoid it; she simply didn't have the energy to spare.

"You're..." Blake said quietly, breaking the silence. "You're not with Cinder anymore...are you?"

It was posed as an observation, not as a question. Emerald didn't respond.

"Got rid of you as soon as she was done with you, huh?" Blake asked, pointedly. "That about cover it?"

Without speaking, the girl in green got to her feet and hurriedly collected the tin cans she had managed to carry – five in total – and made for the far edge of the rooftop, ignoring the gash on her leg.

Blake got to her feet as she watched her go.

"You're welcome," she called out, indignantly.

Emerald came to a halt.

"Don't get the wrong idea," she said without turning around. "This doesn't change anything. We are not friends. You don't know a thing about me. And you're an idiot for sticking your neck out like that. Out here, it's kill or be killed. You should know that by now."

Blake said nothing in response. She simply stood still, watching as Emerald stood with her back turned, before the girl finally gave up and disappeared over the far ledge.

Blake sat back on her haunches, feeling defeated. She was practically starving, and her body was shaking at the extortion of pulling not just herself but the other girl up to the roof.

Maybe Emerald was right. Maybe she was an idiot for sticking her neck out. She certainly felt like one.

Clunk!

The sound of a metal clatter caused Blake to sit up with a start, ears prickling as she looked around, and found a single can of tuna sitting on the rooftop next to her where it had been thrown.

"There," the sound of Emerald's voice over the ledge called out. "That makes us even. Got it? Don't expect any more charity from me!"

Blake peered off the edge of the rooftop to see Emerald's retreating form as she bounded across the rooftops towards the other side of town. Blake then hurried over to the can of tuna, sniffing it briefly, before using the edge of her sword as a make-shift can opener, and wasted no time in greedily wolfing down the contents of the can.

It was the best thing she had ever tasted.

After she was done and her stomach was satiated, she sat back and looked up at the stars. All around her was desolation and destruction. It was unthinkable that anything good could possibly come from such a precarious predicament as her.

Yet amidst all the carnage and chaos, it was remarkable how much better a single good deed made her feel.