When the Darkness fights back, the light intensifies. The light blinds those who wish to find the truth. Unfortunately, the shadows cover the truth. But if you look carefully enough, you can see it as well. You won't see the color of the rose that is in front of you, but you should know…
That rose is white, but be careful about its thorns.
Mercury and Emerald walked into the building. They were supposed to meet another group here, but it seemed as if the Vale police got there first. They each had a tied up group of what appeared to be ninjas nearby each of them.
So much for their 'never been caught' reputation.
Then again, they had the latest in Atlas tech, and seemed to be too skinny for a normal person.
Probably androids. Shouldn't be a problem.
"Grah!"
Or maybe not.
Mercury and Emerald were being forced into a corner, with Emerald's semblance being rendered useless on non-sentient foes, she was at a disadvantage. Mercury's 'broken leg' tactic was rendered useless due to his opponents being robotic.
The twenty-four androids converged on the two thieves.
"I think we need to try a different strategy!" Mercury called, retracting his kneecap turrets.
"Oh, you 'think'!" Emerald yelled, she was already irritated at having to retrieve her weapons that had gotten disarmed earlier.
"Yeah! We could use some help right about now." He called out, narrowly evading the energy blast shot by one of the androids, "Woah!" He wiped his forehead, "Call someone! Call Neo! Call Cinder! Call Roman of all people!" He kicked one of the robots that had charged him, "Call Ruby!"
"We can't! These bastards are jamming the signal!" Emerald panicked as she tried to bring out her scroll to call the young girl, but found it to be futile. "We'll need a different method of messaging her!"
Mercury thought for a moment, and was struck by realization, "We'll need to cause enough destruction to attract a paladin and-"
"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Emerald yelled, tearing off the head of another robotic knight with her chains, "IT'LL DESTROY THE PLACE!"
"Exactly, and what follows destruction? - Panic." Mercury winked.
Emerald got the message. Time to get the help of their… Other allies.
Several explosions were heard off in the distance, from there, a girl eating a healthy meal consisting of turkey sandwich, a chicken salad, a packet of almonds, and a bottled iced tea.
"Interesting choices, there sis."
Weiss rolled her eyes, "I need the protein, Winter."
Winter rolled her eyes back at the living girl, "Nevertheless, we must remain diligent."
"Then you watch the news, while I read a paper." Weiss replied, as she got a newspaper out of her bag that she picked up earlier. 'Hmm… The Stallions defeated the Junglecats in the annual football championship.'
"Sister! The news!" Weiss looked to where Winter was pointing. Snatching the remote control from the counter, she increased the volume on the television.
"This just in! There seems to be several explosions in the street! The police have reported to capturing several Ten Kit Empire members, and are currently engaged in pursuit of two potential associates of the criminal empire and… Wait, this just in! The authorities are releasing an atlas-military Paladin!" Weiss watched as the two thieves started to utilize various dodging techniques to make the mech hit various objects.
"Hmm, I like their tactics. Evading hits and forcing the giant mech to cause collateral damage is sure to put Atlas tech in a rather unflattering light." Winter noted.
Weiss wasn't interested in that. Rather, she was interested in who was doing the running.
Their hair seemed to resemble some of the people from Ruby's family photo that was placed on her bedside.
"Winter, do they look… Familiar to you?" Weiss asked.
"Yes…" Winter observed. "They are familiar indeed."
Winter motioned to the door, "We should help them."
"What? Why should we help them?" Weiss exclaimed.
Weiss noticed the odd looks she was getting. She simply took her food, and left the building.
Ruby was with Cinder. They were waiting for Mercury and Emerald's progress inside a small Motel.
Cinder indulged herself a bit by telling the front desk that she was meeting up with her daughter. She still felt uncomfortable being unable to actually get Ruby to call her any variation of the word 'mother' though.
"My Queen," Cinder's right eye twitched as Ruby exited the restroom, "It appears that Emerald and Mercury are having… Difficulties with their mission."
Cinder turned her head to the left, "How so?"
Ruby then used her scroll to forward the newsfeed to Cinder's scroll. Putting the thought of as to why her surrogate daughter was watching the news while in the restroom away, she noticed the feed of Emerald and Mercury running from a large paladin, using dodging techniques to trick the large mech into breaking public property and such.
Thankfully, they were masked so they wouldn't be so easily identified.
"They seem to be needing assistance, shall I deploy the White Fang-"
Cinder cut her off, "No. The White Fang are needed elsewhere. You go and assist them."
Ruby was about to question why, but decided against it. She grabbed Rending Thorn and started towards the door. "I will not fail you, my Queen." The door closed behind the assassin.
"Be careful, my sweet daughter." Cinder prayed solemnly. Unbeknownst to her, Ruby had heard her.
"... I will… Mother." Ruby's emotionless grey eyes gained a bit of it's sparkle back.
Emerald and Mercury were running out of buildings to hide in. Several buildings were being torn apart in their efforts to escape the large mech. Fortunately for the city, they were all abandoned.
Unfortunately for the duo, the buildings were abandoned. No getting any grimm to show up.
The paladin had started using its weaponry early in the chase, launching missiles, firing 50 cal bullets, deploying buzzsaw blades, and (for some reason,) spraying them with Isidro brand juice.
"Oh, yuck! It's in my hair!" Came a whine.
"Shut it Mercury. We have bigger things to deal with than your hair!" Emerald replied.
"I disagree!" Mercury argued.
"Shut up." Emerald replied.
"Ugh, that copter just won't let up!" Mercury complained, evading a set of buzzsaws.
Emerald ducked behind a car to avoid the bullet storm that was aimed at her, "We can't keep moving forever! As long as that copter keeps following us, we can't get away!"
Mercury shot another buzzsaw out of the air, "Any suggestions?"
Almost as if the universe heard him, a blast came from a far off rooftop and encased the rotors in ice. The pilot's and passengers' panicked screams filling the air as the airborne vehicle started careening towards them.
A flash of red moved them out of the way and into a building.
The flash happened to be Ruby.
"Squirt!" Mercury exclaimed, "Am I glad to see you! How'd you knock down the copter?"
Ruby looked at Mercury for a moment, "I just got here. What do you mean 'How did I knock down the helicopter?'"
Emerald looked startled, as did her partner, "But, if you didn't," She looked to the direction that the helicopter crashed, "Who did?"
Their questions were placed on hold as the paladin crashed into the building they were taking shelter in.
The odd thing about it, was the person on top of it, relentlessly hitting it with hatchets that were enhanced by ice dust.
"Ice Queen?" Ruby was shocked. Never had she seen Weiss going all out like this. She'd typically take a support role, Usually opting to enhance their team's attacks with her glyphs and dust.
"Fall?" Weiss was startled, she thought it was a coincidence that Ruby had the two criminals on a picture with her, maybe at some kind of event that she attended or something. She wasn't expecting her to actually know them.
"You know this chick, squirt?" Mercury questioned.
"My name is Weiss, and YES SHE KNOWS ME!" The white haired girl screamed, "AND I COULD USE SOME HELP HERE!"
"Tch, snow bitch is right," Emerald observed, "We gotta bring this thing down, or it won't stop." She unleashed her weapons, using the chains in an attempt to trip up the mech.
"Ugh, I hate it when you're right," Mercury groaned. He started to blast at the joints with his blast boots, "But, whatever."
Ruby merely grunted as she set about her rapid slash technique.
"This won't work sister," Winter called worryingly. Weiss narrowly avoided one of the arms of the advanced mech.
Winter was met with a glare from Weiss, "What do you suggest then?" The younger girl asked with venom in her voice, ignoring the odd stares that were sent her way.
Winter shot a glare at her sister, "You know what to do."
Weiss nodded. She reached into her satchel and pulled out some yellow dust. "Cover me! I have a plan!"
Mercury and Emerald turned to Ruby. "We'll be dead if she doesn't." The red girl reasoned.
The duo simply shrugged. They started to smash and slash at their mechanical foe.
They were knocked back as their aura finally gave out. The paladin readied a final blow until Ruby appeared in front of it, slashing off the mech's arm.
"Alright!" "Way to go!" The duo congratulated Ruby on successfully downing the giant mech.
Then the stub started to glow a bit.
Emerald noticed first. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw what was happening.
Mercury noticed next, mouth agape at the sight he was seeing.
Ruby flinched, feeling fear for the first time in years.
The glowing end started pulsating, wires emerged from its slashed stub, latching itself onto the nearby metal debris, smashed up cars, and metal support beams. The mech reconfigured the new material into a new arm.
Emerald started, "Ohh…"
"Shit." Mercury finished.
"Ice Queen! Whatever you're going to do, do it now!" Ruby ordered with malice.
"That's just unfair!" Mercury complained.
"Done!"
Weiss had loaded the yellow dust into Staubblatt, pushing one end of the blade into the ground. The electrical current flowed through the ground.
The ground began to crack open, undead hands reaching up towards the mech. "WHAT THE FUCK?"
The voice came from the mech. The 'head' of it opened up, revealing a pilot that was wearing standard issue Atlas armor. The pilot jumped from the cockpit, attempting to escape the doomed mech.
The hands started to shift their target and grabbed the pilot by his legs, restraining him. "No! NOO!" He screamed in agony.
He was being dragged down, still screaming for help, desperately clinging onto an old piece of scrap metal that was protruding out of the floor. Weiss walked up to the man, the other blade in hand. "Y-you're Weiss Schnee! Wh-Why are you doing this?"
Weiss started loading a bullet round into her hatchet, "Because I don't appreciate people attacking my teammate's friends."
"Wh-what?"
"And because the light killed my sister. I don't appreciate that." She finished both her sentence, and loading her bullet round.
"Boo! Motherfucker." Winter appeared to the man and, by extension, Ruby and her friends.
"Ah!" The man's grip weakened, and he got dragged down into the abyss.
Weiss leveled her gun at the man's head, "When you get to hell, tell my father: 'Fuck you.'" She fired.
Mercury, Emerald, and Ruby all seemed frightened, shocked, and awed respectively. Weiss turned to them as Winter faded out of their sight.
"Are we done here?"
The group were heading to their proper destination, swapping stories about what their motivations were for joining this side of the revolution. They were five blocks from their destination.
"Your sister was killed by a hunter?" Mercury asked.
Weiss nodded, "More specifically, my father," She scowled at the word, "Hired him to try and scare her off at all costs…" She trailed off.
"I'm sorry to hear about that." Emerald consoled.
"Don't be, you weren't the asshole who killed her." Weiss brushed off. Four blocks to go.
"What was his name?" Mercury asked.
"I think it was Griffith or something. I don't remember his last name, but it was probably something stupid."
"Griffith. Griffith Undertone." Ruby replied from the front, "I got a chance to try and kill the bastard, but some girl killed him… Though, now that I look back on it, the weapon she used seems kinda familiar." She trailed off.
"Shame, I was hoping to get some payback." Weiss grumbled. Three blocks.
"Whatever. Bastard thought threatening my Queen was a smart idea." Ruby mumbled.
Emerald winced. After a long night of drinking, Cinder had drunkenly told Emerald why she hated it when Ruby referred to her as 'Queen'. She found it depressing. After Cinder's hangover, Emerald had offered to try and help out Cinder.
She told her not to interfere unless she wanted severe burns.
Two blocks. "Queen?" Weiss questioned.
Emerald placed her hand on the heiress' shoulder to hold her back for a while and explained to her what that entailed.
One more block.
"Hurry up!" Ruby and Mercury were halfway at the end of the block, with impatient looks on their faces.
The two girls turned their slow walk into a light jog to catch up to the other two.
"What were you two talking about?" Mercury asked.
Emerald just glared back. That seemed to shut him up. "We're here to meet up with the members of the Ten Kit Empire, why are you here Ice-cess?"
Weiss had a look of confusion for a moment, until she realized that Emerald was referring to her, "I'm here to meet up with Salem's herald to get golem bodies for my spectral companions." She replied.
"Ah." Emerald noted.
"You don't seem surprised that Salem exists. What's up?"
"We have a…" Mercury trailed off, as if he were searching for the correct word, "Contact with her as well. 'Our allegiances align.' is what our boss says."
"Alright, we're here. Our contacts should be arriving sometime soon-"
Ruby got cut off by Weiss, "-There they… Are?"
The new arrivals looked familiar.
In fact, they looked, too familiar.
"Weiss? Ruby?"
"Yang? Blake?"
To be continued...
AN: Well, we have a cliffy here. Next chapter: The Stinger edition. White Rose I guess? Eh, probably not. I doubt Ruby would appreciate Winter spying on her and Weiss… Horizontally dancing… Wow, that was a weird euphemism… Or who knows? This Ruby might not care at best, or find it kinky at worst.
I have a weird brain.
And that reason is why this thing is rated 'M'. Because of my weird brain. Anyways, I have a poll on my profile, vote if you want to. It has nothing to do with Bloody Evolution, It's all about Aftermath.
Disclaimer: RWBY Own Don't I.