10. Seeing Things
The Boarbatusk charged up its roll, spinning fast and hard against the cement before launching itself directly at Neo. It sailed right past her, and for a moment, it was surprised, for she had been squarely in its path not a second before. From behind, her blade cut right through the Grimm, and in three cuts, she'd diced it into pieces that fell limply to the ground.
"That's it," Mim resolved. "I'm adopting her."
The group of now nine was taking the long route to Beacon. Roman had explained the basics: it was a school where Huntsmen and Huntresses were trained, and ruled over by those who were basically the government of Vale. The castle-like institution stood at the far end of the kingdom. Taking the main road would have been quicker, but there were far too many people in the kingdom who would have recognized Roman on sight, and while Mim, Aghoul, and Neo all rather wanted to try the odds at fighting everyone in Vale at once, the others agreed it was more practical to keep a lower profile. After all, they had no opportunity to dress up Fiammetta Incandescent here. And besides all that, there were all the more Grimm in the main streets, and larger ones, too. Taking a winding pathway through back alleys and side roads was more time-consuming, but it was also far safer from the monsters.
"This…Ozpin," Mozenrath asked. "He was the…king?"
"More or less," Roman answered. "He was the head honcho of the goody-two-shoes buzzkills. Unfortunately, it looks like we're more than guaranteed to go up against him or his lackeys if we want that Dust. Well, that's assuming the others didn't kill him. Come to think of it, Junior didn't mention Ozpin specifically. I wonder who he meant by the drunk one…"
Something was wrong, he realized as he turned onto the corner of a slightly wider street. It was far too quiet. With the WHAM ARMY in tow, it should never be quiet. Roman turned to look behind him and was met with the sight of an empty street.
"Uh…Righty?" he said in confusion. "Archie? Where did…okay, Neo, this isn't funny. Take off that invisibility illusion or whatever you did."
He was met with no response.
"Neo…?"
Only the distant sound of Grimm squalling answered him.
"Okay…" Roman took a tentative step back. "Weird…"
Where could they all have gone? Why would they all have left him? He knew he couldn't just go on toward Beacon without the rest of them. First of all, as confident as he usually was in his ability to survive, he knew that the others lent him a bigger blanket of security when they were together. Strength in numbers, after all. Second, if he did reach the Dust without them, and they caught up to him, they would probably kill him for leaving them behind. He knew Neo would want to.
Before Roman could wonder any longer, a great shadow fell across the street. There was the sound of swooping, beating wings, and then the absolute last thing Roman wanted to see appeared.
An enormous Nevermore landed on the asphalt, stretching out its head to give a sonorous caw.
On instinct, Roman brought up the Cudgel, aiming it at the bird's head. It dipped its great beak downward in an attempt to swallow Roman up, just like the last one had, and was met with a hearty attack from the gun. The blast gave it pause, making it shake its gargantuan head. Roman fired again and again, aiming for the beast's heart, but it didn't seem to have any effect. It was almost as if the shots were just bouncing off its hide. Then one shot did literally that, bouncing right against the feathery skin and ricocheting back toward Roman. He'd never seen that happen in a battle against a Grimm before.
Roman quickly ducked the blast, letting it sail over his shoulder and strike the wall behind him. That was when he realized there was a wall there. He didn't think this street was a dead end, but now it had no exit. Only an entryway from which he'd come, and that was blocked by the Nevermore.
The bird let out another cry, and Roman practically felt the street shake with the sound. He absolutely wasn't going to go down without a fight. Doing his best to ignore the fact that his heart was pounding out of his chest, he charged beneath the bird, firing again at its chest, hoping to slide beneath the Nevermore and back to safety.
The bird's massive wing caught him square in the chest, flinging him down onto the street. A claw then pinned him. The Cudgel went spinning out of his hand, flying across the the road.
"No…" Roman squirmed, kicking out at the bird's claw. "NO! I AM NOT GOING TO DIE THIS WAY, YOU F – "
"SNAP OUT OF IT, TORCHWICK! WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?"
Roman frantically looked around. He knew that voice, and it belonged to someone he would have been more than grateful to have the help of. But its owner seemed to be completely absent from view. "Will you get over here and HELP ME?" Roman yelled as he struggled desperately.
The Nevermore screamed yet again. It was about to go in for the kill. Roman watched in horror as its beak plunged downward.
It wasn't supposed to end like this.
...
"This…Ozpin," Mozenrath asked. "He was the…king?"
"More or less," Roman answered. "He was the head honcho of the goody-two-shoes buzzkills. Unfortunately, it looks like we're more than guaranteed to go up against him or his lackeys if we want that Dust. Well, that's assuming the others didn't kill him. Come to think of it, Junior didn't mention Ozpin specifically. I wonder who he meant by the drunk one…"
Roman then stopped in his tracks.
"Go on," Mozenrath commanded.
Roman didn't go on. Instead, he turned around slowly, looking at his eight traveling companions, his eyes skirting right over Snatcher, Mozenrath, Mim, Neo, Aghoul, Wuya, Yzma, and the Huntsman. In fact, it seemed more like he was looking right through them.
"Torchwick?" Snatcher asked in concern. "What ARE you doing?"
"Uh…Righty?" Roman replied.
"What is it?" Mozenrath sighed.
Roman didn't reply to Mozenrath. "Archie?"
"Torchwick," Snatcher responded, "I – "
Roman cut him off. "Where did…okay, Neo, this isn't funny. Take off that invisibility illusion or whatever you did."
All eyes flicked to Neo, who just shrugged. She had as much of a clue of what was going on as everybody else.
"Neo…?" Roman repeated, looking directly at the Huntsman.
"Something's wrong with him," the Huntsman realized. "He doesn't think we're here."
"And what is THAT supposed to mean?" Yzma asked.
"Okay…" Roman stepped backward, away from the others. "Weird…"
A theory took shape in Neo's head. It momentarily chilled her.
"All right, Torchwick," Snatcher sighed, stepping right out in front of Mozenrath. "I've had about enough of this – "
He stopped in shock when Roman pointed the barrel of the Cudgel directly at him. The blast from it would have hit him full force had Mozenrath not put up a deflection shield.
Roman kept firing, and Snatcher got the point now, making a run for the sidewalk. The shots sailed past, toward Yzma, who quickly dove to the ground to avoid colliding with one of the explosive bursts. Mim, Wuya, Aghoul, the Huntsman, and Neo all raced out of the line of fire.
As Neo rushed for cover, she looked up to seek evidence for or against her theory. There, atop one of the roofs, was a flash of movement. Just as she'd thought. She skidded to a halt between Snatcher and Mim, pulling on their sleeves.
"WHAT is it?" Snatcher roared at her; Mim just turned in confusion.
Neo dipped down to pick up a chunk of asphalt that had been displaced by one of Roman's wild shots. She passed a hand over it, and it took on the appearance of a sparkling green gem. When she passed her hand back the other way, it became asphalt once more.
"Didn't Roman say he worked with someone named Emerald who could give hallucinations?" Mim realized.
"He thinks we're some sort of enemy." It hit home with Snatcher immediately for reasons he didn't even fully want to acknowledge.
Neo pointed up to the rooftop where she'd seen the flash of movement. "Get you up there?" Mim asked. "So long as you promise the battle will be bloody!"
"Did somebody say bloody battle?" Aghoul skidded in right alongside them. "Count me in!"
Mim made a circular gesture with both hands, and she, Neo, and Aghoul all disappeared. Snatcher turned his attention back to the rogue Roman.
Mozenrath had taken a different approach from running. "Turning on me wasn't a good idea, Roman," he remarked as he caught one of Roman's blasts in his gauntleted hand. Turning it blue, he launched it right back. Caught off guard, Roman ducked, letting the blue bolt sail over him. Roman then seemed startled as he looked at the open street behind him, obviously seeing something that wasn't there.
"GET THAT WEAPON AWAY FROM HIM!" Yzma yelled, running back into the fray.
Roman charged Mozenrath head-on, firing shot after shot. Mozenrath deflected them all easily. "I really hate to do this," he said rather mournfully, charging up a deadly bolt of blue in his right hand. "But if you're just going to be a danger to me, then I suppose I don't have any choice."
"NO YOU DON'T!" Snatcher intercepted Roman's entire body, coming between him and Mozenrath, knocking Roman to the ground. Once both were down, Snatcher pinned Roman there, hands on forearms and knees digging into thighs. Seeing an opportunity, Yzma waited until Roman flailed the Cudgel outward, then grabbed it by the barrel and yanked it away from him, disarming him.
"No…" Roman thrust his knee upward, right into Snatcher's stomach. The impact almost caused Snatcher to let go and roll away in pain, but he held his position. "NO!" Roman growled. "I AM NOT GOING TO DIE THIS WAY, YOU F – "
"SNAP OUT OF IT, TORCHWICK!" Snatcher yelled at him. "WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?"
Roman paused momentarily, eyes wide. He'd heard, Snatcher realized. Out of everything, that was the only hint of reality Roman had picked up since he'd lost his perception. Roman struggled to look around, searching for something. "Will you get over here and HELP ME?" he cried as he resumed trying to struggle against Snatcher's grip, but to no avail.
...
Emerald Sustrai had been left with no direction. There was no Cinder to follow anymore, not since the great incident. The woman had been frozen on top of Beacon, in Ozpin's shattered office. Emerald had tried a few times to sneak in when no one was looking and wake her – screaming at her, shaking her, making all sorts of noise – before she realized that she didn't really want Cinder awake after all.
Mercury had fled, and Emerald presumed he'd gone to seek Cinder's employer. She supposed she should have done the same, but why? The longer she let everything sink in, the more she realized this wasn't what she wanted. She remembered the offer Cinder had given her in the beginning: go with her, and never be hungry again. Emerald thought she was willing to do anything to that end.
It seemed she'd made an error in judgment. All around, she watched the wreckage and the carnage grow every day. She'd been a part of the events that had made all of it happen. Yes, she had been well fed, but was it worth it?
Sooner or later, she realized, Salem would come for her if she didn't report back in. Salem would figure out that Emerald was having second thoughts. Every new day that dawned, Emerald resolved to go and find her…and by every afternoon, she had resolved not to go after all, but to remain in the city of ruin. She was once more stripped to the life of a thief, abusing her Semblance for food and other necessities.
She had never wanted this. Not truly. And she wasn't ready to do it all over again, like she knew Salem and Mercury would want. She didn't dare contact any of the White Fang, either. They would either rope her into their rampant destruction or kill her for being human, now that Cinder wasn't around to keep the peace between Fang and human associates.
And Emerald blamed Cinder. There were days she wanted to go back to Beacon and kill the frozen woman. Drive a blade right through her heart. She'd almost done it, once. But the weapon had shaken in her hand and fallen right out of it. For whatever reason, she couldn't do it. She blamed Mercury, too, but was almost afraid to try and find him. The man had always been volatile, unhinged. Had she been that way, too? It seemed hard to believe. She blamed Salem, but there was no touching her. She blamed Adam Taurus, but he was as intimidating as Mercury. And she blamed Roman Torchwick, but he was dead. She'd seen Blue-2 go down in a rain of fire, with Nevermores picking at its deck.
Her surprise when she heard his voice coming from one of the back streets was indescribable.
More than one person had taken to the rooftops of Vale in order to move about without being seen. Emerald was among that group. Heading from one side of the ruined city to the other, she caught wind of that familiar timbre coming up out of the alley. Peering over the side of the roof, she confirmed what she'd thought she'd heard. About to round the corner was Roman Torchwick, leading a new band of…lackeys? Associates? Emerald didn't care. She was livid, seeing his smug swagger back in town. By all rights, he should have gone through as much hell as she had, and there he was, chatting away happily. Of course he loved all the death and destruction he had caused. Of course he never regretted a moment of it, the way she kept going back over it in her head and thinking about what she should and should not have done. He wasn't haunted by screams at night, the screams of the people she'd helped to kill.
Maybe he deserved a little haunting.
Thinking back to his reported final moments, she dredged up an image of what would harrow him most. A Nevermore, she decided. That would do nicely. She kept her eyes on him and focused, breaking into his mind. Quickly she spun the picture he was to see: his new companions gone from sight, and in their place, a monstrous Grimm, ready to devour him. If she was lucky, he'd shoot.
And watching him nearly gun down his companions brought her a sick satisfaction. She wondered how long she should keep it up. Should she just give him a taste of fear, or should she wait until he'd downed at least one of his fellows before waking him up?
She didn't have time to make the decision. Neo had looked up. Neo had noticed her. She turned to flee, leaping across the rooftop, knowing that as soon as she got too far away from Roman or lost her concentration, his vision would fade.
In a flash of light, Neo appeared on the other rooftop, right in Emerald's path, accompanied by Mim and Aghoul. All three grinned sadistically, indicating the ill will they bore toward Emerald.
And her concentration snapped.
It was no longer the claw of a Nevermore holding Roman to the ground. He blinked rapidly in surprise when he realized it was Snatcher holding him down. Perplexed, he craned his head around to see Yzma holding the confiscated Cudgel and Mozenrath standing by with a glowing blue fist. "…What just happened?" he asked.
"If I let you go," Snatcher asked coldly, "are you going to attack us again?"
"No!" Roman insisted. "What do you mean, attack YOU? Did you NOT see the giant Grimm in the middle of the…road…" Realization was beginning to dawn upon him.
"Miss Neopolitan suspected a former associate of yours, out for revenge, was meddling with your mind," Snatcher informed him. "You shot at all of us point-blank, you know."
"Green," Roman hissed. "Okay, okay. I'm good now. I promise not to shoot anybody. Just let me up, please?" Having Snatcher pin him down and stare him right in the eye with those deep, shining navy blues of his own was making him sweat. Not in the bad way, he thought to himself, but he didn't need to be distracted by certain thoughts at the moment.
Snatcher relented, moving off Roman and taking his hand to jerk him to his feet. "You know," Roman told him casually, "I can stand up on my own."
"I'm well aware," Snatcher replied, nonplussed.
Roman reached out for the Cudgel Yzma held, but she jerked it away from his reach. "Not until we're SURE," she insisted.
"Dammit, Green…" Roman hissed.
"I'll be holding onto this," Yzma informed Roman. "Now, we simply have to wait until Mim, Aghoul, and Neo return."
"Where'd they go?" Roman asked.
Up on the rooftop, Emerald gritted her teeth. Neo on her own was bad enough, but now she had an entourage. Neo was already twirling her parasol as she advanced on Emerald; Aghoul swung a scythe out of thin air.
Emerald knew she had two choices: fight or run. If she ran, she would be caught up with. You never turned your back on Neo unless you had a death wish. Fighting her wasn't that good for your chances of survival either, but it was slightly better than running. She reached around to where her twin bladed pistols were strapped against the small of her back.
Neo advanced; Emerald sidestepped, drawing her guns. She set off a round of fire at Neo, who somehow managed to avoid every single glowing green projectile while barely moving at all. Aghoul twirled his scythe, deflecting two of the energy bullets right back at Emerald. As Emerald leapt into the air to avoid them, Neo leapt as well, unsheathing and swinging her parasol blade. Emerald deployed the blades of her guns, parrying the thin blade once before both women hit the ground. Emerald spun, letting her blades fly on their chains, trying to catch Neo in the line of fire. Neo simply danced over the chains. Watching the whole scene, Aghoul simply laughed. Emerald wondered what was so funny.
Then she found herself lifted off the ground by a gargantuan purple claw. Inspired, Mim had taken on the form of an Ursa, and Neo's brawl with Emerald was just the diversion she needed to sneak up on Emerald from behind. "GOT YOU NOW!" Mim crowed.
Emerald struggled briefly before realizing that it would do her absolutely no good.
Mim thought about gutting Emerald right there and then, but for once in her life, it occurred to her to put someone else's happiness first. After all, Aghoul had done so little in this battle. "Would you like to do the honors, Ghoulie?" Mim giggled.
"Would I ever!" Aghoul rushed forward, brandishing his scythe.
"NO!" Emerald cried.
There was a flash of silver. Emerald's body went limp and her head hit the rooftop, rolling like a ball. Mim let the rest of her slump down before returning to human form. "Well, THAT woman won't be bothering us anymore!" Mim remarked, making a gesture of dusting her hands off. She and Aghoul each put a hand on Neo's shoulder as they walked away from the site of the battle. "Neo, you were absolutely wonderful! I think this is the beginning of something beautifully HORRENDOUS!"
Emerald's heart pounded as she watched the trio turn their backs on her. Controlling one mind was an art. Controlling two was strenuous. Controlling three was a feat she had thought was impossible until her very life depended on it. All she'd had to do was make Aghoul think she was a foot more to the left than she was, and when the scythe swung, she'd managed to imprint upon all three minds present that her head had been bloodily severed from her body. Mim had let her down, and there she was careful to lay very still, hardly daring to breathe. Somehow, she'd managed it perfectly, and they all thought she was dead. When they vanished, she waited a few minutes longer before daring to peel herself off the roof and move as quickly as she could away from the scene. That would be the last time, she promised herself, that she would mess with Roman Torchwick, particularly while he was in the company of that trio.
Mim, Neo, and Aghoul materialized back into view on the street below. "Well, we just took care of our little Emerald problem," Aghoul announced.
"Can I have my weapon back now?" Roman asked Yzma. He barely waited for her to present it before swiping it out of her hand. "Let's just get this show back on the road already."
He was tense, and the entire group could feel it. He turned on a heel and practically stormed down the road, right through the space Emerald had made him think was a solid wall.
"Torchwick," Snatcher began, catching up to him first.
Roman already knew what he wanted to ask. "I'm fine."
"You don't look fine at all."
"I said. I'm. FINE," Roman growled.
"What exactly did she make you think we were?" Snatcher asked.
Roman halted for a moment. "A goddamn Nevermore," he answered. "Happy now?"
"All I wanted to know," Snatcher replied with a dismissive shrug. He now understood. Emerald had given Roman flashbacks to his own death. Of course he was shaken. But if he was that determined to walk it off, Snatcher surmised the only proper thing to do would be to let sleeping dogs lie and not bring it up again. He was confident Roman would shake it within a few minutes and be back to his loudmouth self. Still, the events of the past few minutes had been disconcerting.
"Does he get like this a lot?" Mozenrath asked Neo.
Neo shook her head.
"Good," Mozenrath replied before picking up the stride.
Neo had her own concerns for Roman, but it seemed Snatcher had the situation more or less under control on his end, so she left well enough alone. She'd overheard what Roman had seen, and as much as she enjoyed torturing people, she could only think of that as a bridge too far.
Though the revenge run had been quite fun. She was completely sold on Roman's new entourage now, especially the morbid duo who had rode into battle with her.
Far above, the other person who had taken to the rooftops of Vale in order to keep out of sight watched, yellow eyes wide with fright. She, like everyone else in the kingdom who had seen Roman that night, was shot through with disbelief. How could he still be here? How could he still be alive? It wasn't supposed to be this way. Things were bad enough.
She fled the scene as quickly as she could. This shouldn't be happening, her mind said as it raced. She thought she was done dealing with him. Her plate was already full; Adam Taurus was still MIA but very much alive. And now, the man who'd driven her crazy was back for another round.
She remembered the days when the sight of him was enough to send her flying into battle, not flying away as fast as her legs could carry her. But, Blake Belladonna ruminated, times had drastically changed.
...
As Ruby, Sora, Jaune, Kairi, Ren, Riku, and Nora neared Vale, Riku felt the presence of the Darkness increase. At one point, he actually stopped in his tracks, barely able to go on. The others had watched him worriedly before he shook his head and forced his way, ignoring the stench. There seemed to be a reversing effect after that point: the deeper he walked into the Dark parts of Remnant, the more he got used to it and the more it seemed like it wasn't really there at all.
"So that's your home," Riku finally remarked as the gables and rooftops of Vale came into view.
"It wasn't always like this," Ruby sighed.
"Well, maybe we can do something to help fix it," Sora suggested. He caught sight of the lines of monsters squirming into and out of the streets. "Are those the Grimm?"
"Yup," Jaune sighed. "That's them."
"They don't look so tough," Sora remarked.
"Don't look so tough!" Jaune cried. "What do you mean, they don't look so tough?"
"I've taken worse!" Sora bragged.
"He has," Riku confirmed. "And so have I."
"I'm…getting there," Kairi added.
"If you fight things worse than that on a daily basis," Nora asked, "how hasn't the place you're from been wiped from existence?"
"Well…about that…" Sora scratched the back of his head. "It…might have been, once. But we fixed it."
"Maybe you can help this world after all," Ren resolved.
...
The Boarbatusk revved up its charge, whirring into action. As it launched toward Sora, Sora swung the Keyblade like a baseball bat, smacking it toward Riku. Riku laughed as he picked up the save, whacking the spinning Grimm-ball to Kairi. Kairi twirled a brief pirouette before knocking the Grimm back to Sora, who dealt it the coup de grace, slicing it neatly in half. "Ta-daaaaa!" Sora bragged as he, Riku, and Kairi turned back to the Remnant quartet, striking poses of various dramatic effect. "That's the power of the Keyblade!"
The stars in Ruby's eyes were all the more prominent.
"This is great and all," Jaune pointed out, "but we've been wandering around for a while, and we have no idea what we're even looking for."
"Can you sense any Darkness nearby?" Kairi asked Riku.
Riku shook his head. "There's too much all around. It all blends together."
"Roman and his new buddies could be anywhere!" Nora groaned. "They could be to the left!" She pointed in that direction. "They could be to the right!" Point. "They could be North! They could be South! They could be East! They could be West! They could be down!" Down at the street this time. "They could even be up!" This time, to the rooftops, where something moved quickly away after being singled out by Nora's pointing.
"I saw something!" Kairi cried.
Ruby looked desperately around for a way to get up to the roof. "I need to get up there!"
"Here!" Sora knelt on the ground, holding the Keyblade out like a lever. Ruby, taking the hint, stepped on the flat of the teeth, and as a golden glow surrounded the blade, Sora launched Ruby up high. She caught hold of the rooftop and scrambled up. Sora followed, able to launch into a second jump in midair so he could also hit the rooftop.
"Was that his Semblance?" Nora asked.
"That's just something else Keybearers can do," Riku explained.
"Okay, seriously, can I just HAVE one of those blades already?" Nora squealed.
As soon as Ruby landed, her eyes alit upon the shape running from her at top speed. Just as she had suspected, it wasn't Torchwick, nor was it anyone allied with him. But it was someone all the more worth chasing. She took off at high speed, her Semblance allowing her to gain on the retreating figure. "Blake!" she cried. "Blake, WAIT!"
Sora didn't understand quite why Ruby was chasing after the girl with the long, dark hair and the pointed cat's ears atop her head, but he could tell from the way she called out Blake's name that this was a friend, not a foe. He tried his best to catch up, though Ruby was leaving him in the dust.
Blake led them over several rooftops, leaping over the gaps nimbly. She could hear every single one of Ruby's cries. It was chance that had run her across the girl's path, just as chance had run her across Roman's. But she refused to stop. No matter how Ruby screamed ("BLAKE! BLAAAAAKE! IT'S ME, RUBY!"). No matter how much the tears threatened to well up in her eyes and blind her. But she knew that no matter how fast she ran, she was no match for Ruby's speed Semblance, and it was only a matter of time before the younger girl had placed herself out front of Blake, spreading her arms to block her path. "Blake, please," Ruby begged, and the tears were visible in her eyes; she wasn't holding them back.
"What do you WANT?" Blake spat.
"I want to talk to you," Ruby told her. "I miss you. I couldn't believe it when Yang said you just…ran away."
"You can't talk to me," Blake replied sternly. "You shouldn't. It would be better for both of us if you just left me alone."
"But, Blake - !"
"Hey!" Sora's voice broke in; he'd only just caught up. That had been even more of a workout than racing Riku back on the Destiny Islands. "That's no way to talk to your friend!"
Blake whirled on him. "What do YOU care?" she spat.
Sora was taken aback. "I just…don't want to see you hurt each other."
"Neither do I," Blake hissed. "That's why I want Ruby to leave. Me. Alone." Did Adam know the names of her friends yet? Ruby? Weiss? Sun? He'd already gotten to Yang, and Blake still couldn't be confident that he was through with her. What if he was watching right now? Even this boy, whoever he was, would be in danger if Adam connected him to her. Would that Adam would mistake Torchwick for her friend.
"You think she's better off without you?" Sora asked. "That she's safer without you?"
"I KNOW she is," Blake insisted, glancing around nervously.
"I have a friend who thought that once," Sora told her. "I left him back in the street, but if he were here right now, he'd tell you you're wrong. Because he was."
"DON'T TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Blake screamed. "You think I WANT the rest of you to end up like Yang?"
"Who's Yang?" Sora asked.
"My sister." Ruby's voice was small and meek.
"What…happened to her?" Sora asked with trepidation.
"She – " Ruby began.
Blake saw her opportunity and turned to dart away. Ruby quickly turned to grab her forearm. "Ruby, let GO!" Blake cried, tugging away but not fighting so hard as to hurt Ruby.
"Blake, please," Ruby begged. "It's not your fault. It wasn't you. It was – "
"I KNOW whose fault it was, okay?" Blake tugged harder, breaking free of Ruby's grip. "You think you can just bring me back to you and Yang and everything will be okay? Well, it won't!"
"It might be, if you try!" Sora argued.
"You know what?" Blake straightened up to full height as she turned to face Ruby and Sora directly. "If you really wanna play hero, I saw one of our old enemies heading toward Beacon."
"Torchwick," Ruby identified.
Blake flinched. "How did you know?" She shook her head. "Never mind. He's got new henchmen now. They're tough. I saw the end of a fight they got into with…someone I think was Emerald Sustrai. Torchwick's more dangerous than ever. But if you're looking for something easy to fix…you've dealt with him before."
"She's got some tough friends of her own, too," Sora informed Blake. "She'd have even more if you'd come and help."
Blake shook her head. "I told you enough times. I already put you both in danger by talking to you."
"More danger than Torchwick?" Ruby asked indignantly.
"You don't know Adam," Blake said under her breath.
"You're right," Sora told her. "I don't."
Before Sora could ask who Adam was, Blake told him, "Let's keep it that way."
Then she was off running again. Sora turned to follow, but halted when he noticed Ruby, the more likely of the two to catch up with her, standing perfectly still. "Aren't you gonna go after her?" he asked.
Ruby shook her head. "She doesn't want to be followed. She doesn't want to come back. I thought maybe if I just talked to her…but she doesn't want to talk, either."
"What happened between you two?" Sora asked.
Ruby looked down at the rooftop, and Sora could see her distress, right down to the droplets of water that streamed off her face. "Are…you okay?" he followed up. "You don't have to talk about it – "
"It's okay." Ruby wiped her tears off with her sleeve. "You should know. And we should go back to the others and tell them we know where Torchwick is going." She set back out to where they'd left Nora, Ren, Jaune, Kairi, and Riku. "I'll tell you on the way."
"Okay," Sora agreed, falling into step beside Ruby. "But only as much as you want."
As they tread the rooftops carefully, Ruby wove a sad tale of four friends who had forged a nearly unstoppable team, and the forces that had driven them apart.