Chapter 10: Down the Rabbit Hole
Hathaway kept a close eye on everything happening in the camp. Thanks to his Scroll, he took several photographs and eyed the rest of the camp. He'd pulled the hood tucked under his collar up over his head, and, thanks to the black fabric of his clothes, had remained undetected during the last fifteen minutes Jack had been gone.
However, it was quickly approaching dawn. That advantage would not last long if Jack didn't make it back. He was beginning to worry. The moment the light started parting the darkness through the trees, he'd have to retreat, and at that point, more of the camp would be awake.
What was she planning?
He was tempted to call her, but his Scroll lit up before he had the chance. A message from Jack. He opened it.
'Be there soon. Get ready.'
Get ready for what?
He looked around. Right now, there was nothing going on. He flipped back to his camera and kept looking out for something, anything that might be amiss.
Then, he noticed Jack.
She was running into the camp. It looked like she had taken a blow to the head, with a trickle of blood streaming down her face at her right temple. He watched, as she was intercepted by one of the guards with a gun. She raised her hands and looked like she was pleading with him, pointing into the forest.
And the guard lowered his weapon, calling for more of his buddies. Three other bandits took formation around the entrance. Jack looked up at Hath, nodding at him.
What was happening? He was completely confused, until he saw the guards open fire, and heard the familiar, alarming howl of a Beowulf.
Dear Gods, she didn't-
Jack took off towards the tent Evelyn was in as a few more of the bandits trickled out of their tents and headed for the front of the camp, weapons armed and eyes still glazed from being awoken by the commotion.
Hathaway pocketed his Scroll and slipped down the hill, moving to his right to head behind the camp and into the rear of the tent.
Black Thorn sliced a slit down the middle of the tent's rear, and he entered to the sight of three bewildered bandits and a scared, angry Faunus in a cage. The bandits turned to face Hathaway, but then were called away as Jack entered the front of the tent.
Two of the bandits looked fairly average in size and strength, but the one closest to Evelyn was a hulking mountain of muscles. Jack immediately dropped into a crouching stance and dared the two smaller ones to come at her. They drew knives and headed her way as the larger one attempted to grab at Hathaway.
The action was faster than he anticipated, and the man hooked his coat's collar with his ham-sized fists. Hathaway swung Black Thorn and connected with the man's Aura shield, which forced him to let go. He spun around to face the bandit, Black Thorn pointed behind him, blade running parallel to his forearm.
Hath glanced at Jack. The two men attempted to swing their knives at her, but were countered hard by a series of punches. One of her fists connected with one assailant's throat, dropping him as she spun to sweep the legs out from under the second man.
The huge bandit again tried to grapple Hathaway, but only caught air as he sidestepped the grab and swung his right fist at the larger man's side. Using Black Thorn, he fired a railgun round to speed his fist up, and felt the connection between the prosthetic and skin and bone buckle at the shock absorber as the metal, accelerated punch landed right at the last rib of the bandit. Hathaway immediately shot a kinetic blast through the man at the point of impact, doubling the force and sending the man coughing to the ground on one knee.
Jack nailed one of her opponents with a knee to the face, but was surprised when he merely stumbled. He shook his head, shaking the daze from his head, and blinked a few times.
"Bollocks..." Jack said, and clenched her fists. There wasn't much choice. She began becoming shrouded in a blue aura, and the air in the tent started getting crisper.
Evelyn looked at Hathaway. "What is she doing?"
"Activating her Semblance and drawing the movement energy of everything around her into her," he explained. "It's complicated. We can explain later."
"Dammit," the large bandit spit out. "Kill her!"
The two men she had been fighting drew pistols and began firing, but their bullets were barely hitting her with any force once they passed her absorption field. They fell harmlessly to the ground with each shot, which Jack only smirked at.
"That's not enough," Hathaway noted, and pointed his railgun and left hand at her. "Jack!" She looked over at him, nodded, and tensed, preparing for the blow.
Hathaway fired both several telekinetic blasts at her and a single round from his railgun. The combined force supercharged Jack quickly, and in a matter of moments, she dropped her Semblance, releasing the field and smirking.
"Sorry," she said, before practically vanishing. Evelyn gasped as she watched Jack suddenly disappear and reappear in front of one of the men she had been fighting, her fist landing so hard in his gut he went flying backwards through the hole Hathaway had created in the back of the tent. She spun and super kicked the second guy in the chest, which laid him out flat on the ground.
The larger bandit stood and charged Jack, but took another blow to the gut for his effort. He bent over, Jack's fist still buried in his abs. "Should have stayed, down," she whispered to him.
She looked at Hathaway, who crouched down, before leaping into the air. Where he had been, a small crater had formed from his launch. He spun in the air, pirouetting in the air before landing boots first on the man's shoulders, right at his spine. Jack backed away as the force of Hathaway landing on him toppled the man, driving him to the ground. As soon as he had hit the floor, Hathaway sprung from him, using a telekinetic blast to launch off his body and knock him out cold. He did a flip and landed on his right hand and boots, skidding to a halt.
Jack took a deep breath. "There's no way they didn't hear that commotion," she noted. "Get Evelyn free and let's go."
Hathaway nodded and pointed Black Thorn at the lock, firing a single round that blasted a chunk of the lock and its latch off the cage. "Can you stand and move?"
Evelyn stood up, dusting herself off with bound hands. "Yeah. They didn't like it when I threw up the big guy, so they forced some pink chalky medicine down my throat. I feel better, if a little weak from everything."
Hathaway nodded and grabbed her tonfas from a crate near her cage. As she exited, he cut the ropes off her wrists and handed her weapons to her.
"Alright, let's go," Jack said, and headed for the back of the tent.
"Wait," Evelyn said, rushing to the desk on the far side of the tent.
"Wait? We don't have time to wait!" Jack snapped, pointing at the exit. "We'll be up to our armpits in bandits here in a moment. I couldn't get that many Grimm to follow me."
"Just a moment!" Evelyn didn't bother looking at Jack, instead staring down at the desk. Hathaway saw her eyes go wide, focusing on something neither of them could see.
"Dammit, Carrots! We don't have a mom-"
"Give her a second," Hathaway interrupted. Jack gave him a shocked look. "She's using her Semblance. Remember? Looking into the past? We might yet still finish this mission."
Jack opened her mouth the speak, but then looked back at Evelyn, who looked as if she was reading something. She watched as Evelyn pulled out her Scroll and began feverishly typing something down, and she sighed. "Alright, but we can't stay here much longer."
"I know," Hathaway said.
The two gave Evelyn almost a full minute, but they could hear the commotion outside dying down. In addition, Hathaway already had to knock one of the smaller bandits out again. It was getting too risky to stay here.
"Alright! I got it!" Evelyn proclaimed, turning around and grinning. "Score one for the bun bun!"
Jack grumbled with her hands on her hips. "Are you done? Let's go!"
The three of them headed out the back of the tent. The man Jack had sent flying was gone, which sent Hathaway's hairs into overdrive as he looked around. There was nobody, but that didn't mean he didn't wake up and was calling people over.
They darted back into the forest, Hathaway looking back to see if they were being followed. "Don't worry," Evelyn said. He looked at her and noticed her eyes again. "I'm watching what's happening a little bit ahead of us. We are in the clear."
They ran for a while before Evelyn began getting tired. Still weak from hunger, throwing up, and lack of sleep, she slowly came to a stop almost a mile away from the camp, panting and feeling extremely lightheaded as they all leaned against trees. Jack took out a handkerchief and began wiping the blood from her temple. The bleeding had stopped and the wound was already healed once she stopped suppressing her Aura during the fight, so all that was left was the drying red streak.
"Hey Evelyn, what were you typing?" Hathaway asked, coming over to her and sitting next to her.
"Oh, well, I found a message that I think was the one we were supposed to find on a notepad that was on the desk at one point," Evelyn explained. "I couldn't read all the words, but I typed what I understood down so we could give it to whoever."
"Good thinking, kid."
A voice caught all three of them by surprise. Jack spun and lifted her fists up, though in their positions, Hath and Evelyn had no fancy post to assume.
Behind them stood the drunk from the inn. He was holding his longsword up against his shoulder and smirking at all of them. He looked considerably less drunk than the last time any of them had seen him.
"Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting you guys to pull that off."
"Were you spying on us?" Hathaway asked, a little defensively.
"Yep," he answered simply. "That was my mission. I have...a bit of rapport with the leader of those bandits, you could say, so I could have stopped things if they got too out of hand. Thankfully, it didn't come to that."
Jack shook her head. "Ozpin doesn't trust us, then?"
"It's not that," he tried to explain. "It's all about that document you just typed."
Evelyn took her scroll out. "Yeah, what's with this? Referencing Spring?"
The man thought for a moment, before shrugging. "Well...I'll need to see the message first, so I know what you're talking about."
Evelyn used the number he had texted her from before to send him the message. The man raised an eyebrow, before feeling his Scroll go off. He pulled it out of his pocket and read what Evelyn had written down.
And his eyes narrowed. The laid back appearance was gone, replace by something more akin to concern and a need to inform someone of something rather dire.
"Sorry kids," he said after a moment. "Can't say any more on this."
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, frustrated.
The man shrugged. "Look, it's for your own good. The less you know, the better. Let Oz and I take care of this."
"You mean, after all this, after I was poisoned and dragged and captured, we get nothing?" Evelyn whined. Jack shot her a dangerous look.
"Again with the poisoning shit?"
"I'm never letting that go," Evelyn said, returning the dangerous glare. The tension started to rise, and poor Hathaway was caught in the middle.
The man gave a short chuckle. "Good luck, kid," he said to Hath. "I gotta jet, get this over to Oz."
He turned and started walking away and Jack turned away from Evelyn. "I assume you'll tell him everything you saw?"
He paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Almost everything. Some details aren't important." He gave her a small smirk, before continuing on his way.
Jack turned back to her partner and the Faunus. "You're on your own, Carrots," she said, contempt in her voice. "We're done."
Hathaway retrieved a couple of protein and fiber bars, which he usually kept in his coat's large pockets, and handed them to Evelyn. "I'm sorry this didn't go as well as we all would have liked."
Evelyn took the bars, but never looked away from Jack. "You're right," she said. "It didn't." She then looked back at Hath. "Thanks for rescuing me."
"It was a team effort," Hathaway said quickly, feeling heat and cold all at once coming from Jack's direction, and not knowing if it was her fiery glare or her Semblance activating.
He stood and waved goodbye to her as she scarfed down the bars to recover her strength. She assured him she'd be fine, and she'd make her way back to Shion shortly for much needed recoup time before heading out on her own again. While that helped ease some of his anxiety, he still worried about Evelyn.
"Jack, shouldn't we-"
"Don't." She said, her tone dangerous and sharp. She turned and looked at Hath. "You can go back and help her. That's your choice. But I'm not going to be insulted again and again by the likes of her and just take it. I refuse."
Hathaway faltered, stopping in his tracks as Jack started walking again. When she didn't hear him behind her, she turned around. He was looking down, thinking.
"You really want to, don't you?"
"It's not right to just let her stay there in that condition."
Jack didn't say anything. Instead, she just closed her eyes and shook her head before starting again, leaving Hathaway behind. Hathaway watched Jack leave. Watching her walk on, away from him, after they had promised to help each other, hurt. But even still, if he didn't go back, he'd never forgive himself.
And with that, he returned to Evelyn. She looked surprised. "What are you doing? Where's blondie?"
"She went on ahead. I'll catch up with her." He offered her a hand up as she finished the last of the four bars. "I didn't feel right letting you go on your own while you weren't one hundred percent."
Evelyn smiled, but after a moment, a shadow of doubt crossed her face. "Thanks. I appreciate it. I hope I didn't screw your friendship up."
"Let me worry about that. Come on. Let's head back to Shion. I can find Jack once you're set up at the inn."