Vale
Three Years Ago
Blake clutched her katana with a white-knuckled grip. It was the only outward display of emotion she exhibited, and that alone was a deviance in her typically emotionless demeanor.
Before her cowered a Human male. Perhaps in his forties, brown-haired, balding, and with spectacles. Tan shirt, ripped slightly but well-made, spoke of some wealth, though the slacks looked to be a simple black. Of his shoes, there was no evidence.
She could only clinically note the details of the figure in front of her, lest she fall into the trap of regarding it as a… person. Someone who might have a family at home waiting for him to arrive after work. Someone who had friends who would miss him when he didn't show up for their weekly get-together at a restaurant or bar.
A person who was obviously terrified out of his mind, shaking so badly that the chair he was tied to practically vibrated in place.
Still, his mouth was left unbound. It wouldn't do to muffle him when the whole point of this endeavour was to get him to talk.
That wasn't her job, though. Her's came later, but she was forced to watch the proceedings anyway. Watch as White Fang specialists took their time with him, sharp and cruel instruments digging in, ferreting out the answers they wanted. The information was spilled from frothing lips soon enough, in between pained screams and desperate pleadings.
Finally, satisfied with what he'd obtained, Adam looked over at her with a sadistic smirk.
"You're up, darling," he said with a low murmur.
She pushed it all down, tamped it behind steel doors. Her fears and apprehension for the detested tasks she was still given to test her loyalty. Her self-loathing for being too cowardly to take another path, for bowing to the wishes of the man she once considered a mentor, a friend, a lover.
Face unchanging from her neutral mask, Blake stepped forward. Her hand flashed out, the sword neatly severing the bound man's head from his shoulders.
As she emotionlessly watched the blood spurt upward from the stump atop the corpse, Blake didn't react at all to the arm that wrapped around her waist.
"Well done, my love."
She didn't reply. It was much easier to simply let it all fall away from her, like rain sliding down a pane of glass.
If she couldn't feel, she wouldn't succumb to the madness awaiting her just at the edge of the shadows.
Wordlessly, Blake followed the White Fang members as they departed, leaving behind the headless corpse as a calling card, along with the three bloody claw marks left on the wall of the abandoned warehouse.
The door to her emotions bulged ever so slightly, but she firmly pushed them back. This was her life now, even if in her dreams she sometimes recalled happier times spent with her team. Those pleasant dreams were becoming less frequent and cloudier with each life that she callously took.
Blake wondered, dimly, how long it would be before her insides matched how cold and heartless she was on the outside.
Atlas
Today
The Bulldog cut through the air smoothly, the dark stealthy vessel arrowing across the water towards their destination. All four former students sat in much the same arrangement as when they'd flown to Vacuo, with a couple of important differences.
Blake glanced across the aisle to see Yang with her head back and eyes closed. She was sweating a bit, the smell she gave off rancid and putrid to her senses, but she understood what that entailed.
Her body was beginning to detoxify.
Aura was a funny thing, sometimes. It could protect a person from harm and heal a wound if one was taken that it couldn't prevent. Aura gave muscles a boost and powered semblances.
Some wounds couldn't be healed, though. If a Hunter suffered massive internal injuries, enough that their aura was depleted for an extended period of time, those injuries would heal at a much slower rate and frequently not all the way.
The raven-haired woman allowed her gaze to slide down towards her former lover's right arm. Aura was also woefully inadequate at regrowing lost limbs.
Toxins, now, reacted in different ways. Poisons and the like seemed to be unaffected by aura. As for long-term alcohol usage… Well, as was evidenced by several alcoholics she knew, permanent liver damage was a rarity for those with their aura unlocked.
She wasn't sure how Yang would react, though, with her attempt to cut the consumption of alcohol entirely out of her life.
And then Blake's eyes slid over to the platinum-haired woman currently leaning up against Yang, her short-cropped white bob half covering the side of her face as she slept against the blonde bruiser's shoulder.
I wasn't expecting that, she admitted thoughtfully.
The Cat Faunus tried to ascertain how she felt about the two of them hooking up as they seemed to have done overnight. It didn't take long for the realization that she didn't really care, one way or another. Yang's love life was certainly no concern for her any longer.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?" a soft voice murmured at her shoulder.
She glanced over, blinking as she focused on a chin instead of the silver eyes she expected to be there. Blake's ears gave an irritable twitch as she realized she'd almost fallen back into the old mindset of her team.
The Faunus woman instead looked up and into the smirking face of her team leader and lover, grey eyes dancing with a degree of emotion not seen often since they'd reunited.
"I think you might have an idea," she stated drily.
Ruby gave a muted chuckle as she faced forward again, leaning over slightly to bump her shoulder against Blake's. "Any regrets?"
"With her?" The raven-haired woman shook her head briefly. "No."
"And us?"
That got Blake to smirk, glancing back with one eyebrow raised. "Definitely not."
"Good." Ruby leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "Had to use my aura this morning to heal my back."
Blake blushed as she remembered the long bloody furrows she'd left. "Sorry about that…"
"Hey, did I say I minded?"
"Er, no…"
"I don't." Ruby chuckled lightly, her eyes still closed. "Lookin' forward to the next time, maybe I can return the favor."
If anything, Blake blushed harder, unused to both discussing such things openly or the warm feeling she got in her belly when she reminisced upon the previous night and thought about the opportunity for an encore. It's nice to... feel again. I missed it.
Before she could answer, though, a rough voice interrupted them.
"I swear to Oum, I don't wanna be here for this conversation," Yang grumbled irritably.
"Go back to sleep, Yang," the brunette retorted mildly.
"Yeah, yeah…"
They were quiet for a few moments before Blake felt the Bulldog bank slightly. Evidently, they were coming into Atlesian airspace now, their pilot adjusting the flight to accommodate for commercial patterns.
"You think she can do this?" the Faunus whispered. "Dry out?"
Ruby was quiet for so long, she wondered if the brunette had heard her. Finally, the black-cloaked girl stirred slightly.
"You know… I think she can."
"The old Yang Xiao Long, sure, most stubborn and willful girl I'd ever met aside from Weiss. Now, though…?"
"She's trying," Ruby murmured just at the edge of her hearing. "And Weiss will help. As will I."
Blake nodded slowly. "As will I," she echoed. She grinned at the sideways glance the brunette gave her. "We're a team again. As much as our past defines us… We have to look past that. Keep moving forward."
"Yeah." Ruby let out a long, contemplative sigh. "Haven't really felt that way in some time."
"Neither have I."
A brief hiss preceded their pilot's announcement over the cabin speakers. "We're five minutes out," Nix announced with her usual cheer. "Sure you don't want to get to the safe house first?"
Ruby levered herself up and poked her head into the cockpit. "No, what we have is time-sensitive. Won't be long before she gets wind of our efforts to track her down."
Blake could see the redheaded Fox Faunus nod her head agreeably. "No worries. We should be in range of the towers now."
Both Weiss and Yang had stirred during the conversation, and upon hearing the latter, the platinum-haired woman immediately pulled a bag out from under her seat. "I'll get set up now," she announced levelly.
Ruby sat back down and watched her former partner assemble her gear. An advanced laptop was paired with both her scroll and that of Ren's. Soon enough, she was ready to go, nimble fingers flying across the keyboard as she enabled the complex algorithm to triangulate Lie Xiao's scroll.
"Pretty damn impressive that you could throw something like this together," the blonde commented idly.
The pleased smirk across Weiss' face was as fleeting as the blush that accompanied it. "Yes, well… I didn't actually write the program, that was done by an employee in the SDC R&D department. I have, however, modified it for our means."
"Still, pretty damn impressive," Yang repeated.
Ruby and Blake shared a smirk. "Such a cute couple," the brunette commented.
"Mmm."
"Oh, do shut up," Weiss retorted with only a trace of asperity, an absentminded frown on her face as she scanned the readout in front of her. She leaned back slightly and angled herself towards the cockpit door, though her eyes remained trained on the screen. "Nix, northern quadrant, city proper."
"Roger that," their pilot replied tersely. The stealth Bulldog banked once more as it put on a brief spurt of speed.
"Right," the diminutive woman murmured, finger poised over the keyboard. "Should be… just about… here!" Weiss gave an exultant shout, tapping a few more keys before pulling the cord from her scroll and tucking it into the folds of her white pants that she wore under the dark blue cloak around her shoulders. "Set us down, Nix!"
"On it!"
Weiss turned towards the others with a confident smirk. "Looks to be coming from a marketplace nearby. I can't triangulate any further, but if we hurry we can still catch her."
"Right." Ruby stood up, drawing her own black cloak around her body. "We all clear on the plan?"
"Crystal," the Cat Faunus reported tersely.
Yang gave a confident nod, though her movements seemed a little wobbly. "Not gonna let you down this time," she grunted, one fist clenched at her side while the other gripped an overhead restraint.
The brunette gave her a nod of acceptance. "I know you won't," she replied softly, though her face remained unreadable.
As they turned towards the side door, Blake caught sight of Weiss gripping the blonde's fist, coaxing it into an open palm for her to slip her dainty hand into.
Yeah, maybe they're going to be good for each other. Better than the two of us were, anyway.
"Down in one," Nix announced. "I'm gonna have to dust right back off again, but I'll remain on-station."
Weiss nodded in reply as she pulled the dark blue hood over her head, concealing her white hair that was a dead giveaway to her identity in a place where there existed a warrant for her arrest. "I'll keep my scroll hooked into your system, should be good out to three miles."
And then they felt the bump, the doors sliding noiselessly open. All four women darted out into the early morning light that illuminated the half-full parking lot they found themselves in. As soon as their feet hit the pavement, the black-coated Bulldog was lifting again with a quiet whine of repulsors.
Ruby turned wordlessly towards Weiss, who had her scroll out again. The smaller woman pointed off towards their right and they immediately fanned out.
"Comm check," the brunette murmured.
"I hear ya."
"Affirmative."
"Mmm."
"Stay within sight of each other," Ruby continued as they reached the edge of the marketplace. It was fairly busy for that time of day, and rather unlike any of the open-air markets in Vacuo or Vale. The stalls here were polished chrome and glass, the displays able to easily slide up and inside to be locked at night. Both vendors and shoppers were of a much higher class, causing Blake to frown slightly.
"We're going to stick out," the Faunus woman murmured.
The brunette shrugged slightly. "Can't be helped. We get in and out, few casualties as possible."
"Right," Yang grunted, her lilac eyes scanning the crowd as they moved. "Lotta innocents here."
"Collateral damage draws unwanted attention," Ruby agreed absently.
Blake noted the brief scowl that flashed across the blonde's face at the seemingly callous attitude, but Yang quickly settled back into a thoughtful look. "Weiss…"
"Yes?"
"What are those thingies up there?"
The platinum-haired woman paused, glancing upward before she pulled her cloak tighter around her face. "Shit."
"Problem?" Ruby asked sharply at the unusually vicious utterance from her former girlfriend.
"Possibly. Facial scanners, I've likely been tagged already."
"That's… bad," Yang commented worriedly.
The brunette growled quietly under her breath, though it carried just fine over the comms. "How close are we?"
"She's moving away from us," Weiss reported, eyes fixed on her scroll. "Same aisle… I think…"
"Got her," Blake murmured quietly. "Short dark grey hair, purple coat with gold trim."
"Right, I see her," Ruby stated. "Let's…"
The brunette broke off as multiple thrusters sounded nearby. A pair of military Bulldogs soared overhead, disgorging platoons of droids who landed with dull, metallic thuds.
"Ahhh, fuck me," Yang breathed.
Before anyone else could reply, hidden speakers overhead blared to life. "Attention, please. This area is under military lockdown. Weiss Schnee, you have been identified in the vicinity, do not attempt to flee or resist. All civilians, proceed to the nearest exit and evacuate the area."
"Yup," Ruby sighed, popping the end of the word. "Target escaped already."
Weiss spun in a circle with a fierce scowl on her face as she peered down at her scroll. "Damn. Yes, she's turned her scroll off as well." Her scowl intensified as she tucked the scroll into her pocket, allowed her dark blue cloak to fall from her shoulders, and pulled her rapier out.
"Would you like to burn off a little of that frustration?" Ruby asked with a trace of humor.
The platinum-haired woman nodded as she gazed around. The stalls had all closed up as the vendors fled the area along with those perusing the marketplace. Only the droids were left as they closed in, weapons pointed at the small group.
"Yes, please. I am sorely vexed right now."
"Vexed? Really?" Yang snorted. She raised her hands in surrender as Weiss directed her glare upon the blonde woman. "I mean, yeah, vexed is bad. Um… go get 'em."
With that, the pale woman was off, a white glyph at her feet propelling her forward. Seemingly without effort, more glyphs sprang into existence as she ricocheted around the marketplace, bouncing back and forth and leaving a trail of broken machinery in her wake. A few of the droids got some shots off, but they were unable to track the mobile diminutive woman.
At one point, Blake had to duck instinctively as she felt a breeze pass overhead from her teammate's passage. "Well, I see what you meant, now, about her holding back at the warehouse."
"Oh, this is nothing," Ruby chuckled, arms crossed as she witnessed the mechanical carnage. "Wait until she gets really pissed."
Shortly thereafter, Weiss came to a halt in front of the trio, panting lightly but with a pleased smirk on her face.
Blake gave her a respectful nod. "Feeling better?"
"Yes," she replied primly, smirk unabating. "Much better."
The four of them turned at another loud drone of engines. From behind the tall building nearby, a larger military airship, armed with a multitude of guns, came in fast before slowing overhead. More droids dropped down, including several Paladins. The area around them resounded with the sharp clangs of metal feet hitting the ground.
"Right, that's enough," Ruby grumbled. "Nix, we need pickup, fast."
"I see you," the pilot came back, her voice tight with worry. "But they can see me, too, if I fly in there. This baby won't hold up against the guns on that airship!"
"I have the airship," Blake growled, unlimbering Gambol Shroud. "Can you all handle those on the ground?"
Weiss was already striding forward, her rapier out to the side. A large, glowing, silvery glyph spun into existence next to her, pulling forth the ethereal shape of a towering armored figure with an enormous two-handed sword.
"I think we can keep them occupied," Ruby grinned. "Be careful."
The Cat Faunus nodded, watching Yang as she strode forward, remaining at Weiss' side rather than charging forward on her own. "Don't have too much fun, now."
"I'll try not to." With that, the brunette was gone, a few dark, blood-red rose petals drifting to the ground in the spot she'd just been.
With a grunt of effort, Blake used a shadow clone to propel her forward and up. She angled her approach towards a neighboring building, eyeing the large airship as it swiveled around, disgorging one final platoon of androids.
She landed on graceful feet atop the roof, immediately racing ahead. The Faunus woman flung herself off the edge of the building, still a goodly distance away from her target.
She pushed her semblance to its limits, clones flaring in and out of existence as she gained altitude from the bursts of momentum. Soon enough, she landed in a crouch atop the flight deck of the airship, surprising several soldiers who had lined up to gawk at the battle unfolding below.
Without remorse, Blake spun in, her weapon flailing about in its Kusarigama form while the sheath clutched in her left hand flashed out to sever limbs. Her opponents could only scream briefly, unable to even unholster their weapons before they were dropped into bloody piles.
She didn't hesitate in racing forward along the port bulwark, amber eyes scanning the stern of the airship. There should be a hatch nearby, one which would lead her towards the bridge…
A portal opened in front of her, spilling out another pair of soldiers. These members of the Atlesian military were ready for her, however, and immediately opened fire.
Blake twisted to the side, allowing a clone to absorb the gunfire, while she continued on her forward sprint. Another flex of her will caused an additional pair of clones to emerge from the shadows behind the men, knocking them to the deck and allowing her to send gunfire of her own into their vulnerable bodies.
She didn't pause as she leapt over the bodies and through the hatch. Directly ahead was a stairwell and the Cat Faunus raced up to the next level unopposed.
Several twisting turns later, and numerous startled aircrewmen who were quickly deemed not to be a threat, Blake finally ended up at the bridge. She recalled how the older models had the bridge open directly onto the flight deck, smirking at the last time she did an infiltration like this.
Well, not exactly like this. Today she was turning more pirate than infiltrator.
The Cat Faunus, mindful of her companions fighting below, darted towards the hatch leading onto the bridge. Though they seemed to have things well enough in hand from the terse reports over the shared comm, even Yang who was gleefully turning androids into scrap metal, she knew they needed to evacuate the area soon before more reinforcements showed up.
As her shoulder slammed into the hatch, popping it open, she ducked and rolled inside, leaving a solitary clone standing upright. It was enough to confuse the few naval crewmembers who were attempting to defend the bridge. Gunfire shattered the consoles around her as she ducked and sprinted forward in a low crouch. On the other side, near the captain's chair, she rose back up, surprising the senior naval officer there.
The look of surprise remained on his face as his head went flying across the bridge.
Blake's lips peeled back in a snarl as she tumbled forward. Every crewman was on their feet, firing wildly with the bullets slamming into the bulkhead and instrumentation.
Dammit, who taught these idiots how to fight on an airship! They're going to crash us before I can take control!
Sure enough, as she twisted and turned around a different console to impale another incautious bridge crew, the deck under her began to tilt, tossing everyone to the side. With a growl, she made a lunge forwards the helm, only for it to explode in her face.
Howling furiously, Blake leapt back, flinging shadow clones out in every direction while she attempted to regain her bearings. From what she could see from the viewport, the large armored airship had gained some altitude but was quickly drifting sideways.
Right out towards the water.
Oh, Dust damn it all…
Crimson warning lights began to flash and a klaxon blared with an insistent pulse. Those crewmen still alive shouted in alarm as they scrambled towards the exit and the escape pods as a mechanical female voice advised everyone to abandon ship.
Deciding that was an awfully good idea at this point, Blake turned and fired Gambol Shroud at the viewport, finally shattering the tough glass completely. With a running leap, she threw herself outside, tossing a shadow clone ahead of her to cushion her fall.
"Blake!" she heard Ruby's insistent voice in her ear. "The hell is going on?"
"Airship disabled," she panted as she raced towards the starboard bulwark. The ship was tilted and drifting towards the port, but if it ended up dropping out of the sky, she'd much rather be behind the impact site, thank you very much.
"Yeah, we gathered that, Nix just picked us up! Where are you, we'll come-"
"No time!" Blake shouted, cutting her off as the end of the ship came near. She looked over her shoulder, terrified to see that they were already out over the bay. "I have to jump!"
"Blake-"
With a frenzied shout, she flung herself off the edge of the tilted airship, another clone giving her a boost. Her scant hope that the starboard edge was still over land vanished at the sight of the cold, blue water directly underneath her.
"Son of a Grimm," she breathed, bracing herself for impact.
Ruby was crouched over their pilot's shoulder, peering ahead anxiously at the battleship careening out of control over the water. Several escape pods had launched, the majority of them hitting dry land, though a few splashed down close to shore.
"There!" she shouted, spotting the dark form just as it hit the water. "Get down there, fast!"
"On it," Nix gritted out, pushing the controls forward to send them into a rapid though controlled dive towards the water's surface.
As she did so, Ruby turned and began to quickly strip off her clothing, muttering dark curses under her breath.
"Ruby," the blonde began hesitantly while Weiss finished up bandaging the shallow gash on her left arm. "What are you-"
"Stripping," her sister replied with the tone of voice that berated her for what was obviously a stupid question.
"Yeah, I see that, but why-"
Ruby grunted as she pulled her shirt over her head and plopped to the ground, tugging off her boots and leggings. "Yang, have you ever known Blake to voluntarily jump into a body of water?"
The blonde's mouth opened and then clicked shut. "Oh," she murmured, face paling.
"Er, does she not know how to swim?" Weiss asked incredulously.
Yang just wordlessly shrugged, rising from her seat as Ruby threw the door open, standing there in nothing but her underwear.
The Bulldog soared in low, coming to a rapid stop and almost tossing the women off of their feet. "At the site!" Nix shouted.
No sooner had the words left the Fox Faunus' mouth than Ruby hurtled herself out of the craft, knifing into the ice-cold water.
The brunette felt the shock of the freezing water but quickly flared her aura, enabling her to resist the extreme temperature. She began to swim down with broad, powerful strokes, feet propelling her deeper and deeper.
There! A flash of pale skin off to the left had her changing course. Fortunately, the water in the Atlesian harbor was clear enough for her to see a good distance, but what she saw made her redouble her efforts. Blake was weakly struggling to free herself from the long dark overcoat, thrashing about ineffectually. Her movements were already slowing by the time Ruby reached her.
With quick, sure movements, the brunette stripped the jacket off from around the numb Cat Faunus and wrapped both arms around her waist from behind, Gambol Shroud pressed in between them from where it was sheathed. She pushed her semblance into her legs, causing the pair of them to shoot quickly towards the surface as they churned behind her.
They shot out from the water a foot into the air, both of them gasping before they fell back again. Ruby struggled to keep Blake's head above the surface, but fortunately, hands were quickly grasping onto the both of them, hauling them up and into the Bulldog.
As soon as Yang yanked the door shut, she slammed her prosthetic fist into the bulkhead. "They're in, go go go!"
Nix obediently banked hard, firing the engines to move them away from the crash site. Behind them, the armored airship finally hit the water, sending a giant plume up into the air.
With trembling fingers, Ruby worked to strip the soggy clothes from the bedraggled Faunus woman. Blake was shivering violently, her eyes screwed shut and her teeth chattering as she clenched her hands to her chest.
"I've got her," Weiss murmured, moving around to pull the raven-haired woman's boots off. Yang joined in, stretching her partner out from the ball she'd curled into so that they could remove her tunic.
Ruby nodded shakily, the cold beginning to creep in as she was forced to let go of her aura. "Y- Y- Yang," she chattered. "S- S- Semblance…"
"Ruby…" Yang gave her sister an anguished look. "I… I can't, I'm sorry, no matter how hard I try…"
The brunette nodded once more, trembling as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. "It's… o- o- okay," she murmured.
"Coming up to the safe house," Nix announced with an anxious glance over her shoulder.
Yang and Weiss looked on as the pair of women trembled on the deck of the Bulldog, ready to run them inside the house as soon as their transport touched down.
Blake slowly peeled her eyes open. She was in an unfamiliar room and in an unfamiliar bed, without a scrap of clothing on her body and someone's arm snaked around her waist from behind.
Normally that would be plenty enough to send her straight into panic mode, but the scent that had hit her nostrils as soon as she drew in a breath instantly put her at ease. She pushed herself back a little, grinning slightly at the feel of the naked woman behind her.
Ruby let out a small hum. "I gotcha, Blake," she murmured sleepily. "Don't worry."
The Cat Faunus' grin widened. Though she remained groggy, she resisted the tendrils of sleep that threatened to claim her again.
"Didn't think you'd care," she mumbled.
The brunette chuckled quietly, rubbing her nose in between her Faunus ears. "Nah, I don't."
"No?"
"Nope. Just too much effort finding someone I can tolerate to share a bed with."
"Thought so," Blake smirked. Consciousness flew from her soon thereafter as soft snores joined the quiet purr that rumbled in her chest.
A/N: I'm assuming one would use naval terms to describe the parts of an airship, rather than aircraft terms. Just a hunch. So close, yet so far. Let's see if our anti-heroes have any better luck next chapter tracking down their elusive quarry…
Fun fact, I keep mistyping Bulldog as Bullgod, which has an entirely different annotation. It's been pointed out that they're actually Bullheads, but whatever. We'll call them an upgraded version.
So, this marks the point at which I'd finished writing. Everything up to this chapter is pretty well set without a need to go back and fix things… but from here on out they get a little stickier so far as the plot goes, and that's what I need to work on, though I've managed to sort through most of what was giving me trouble. At this time I don't have plans to keep at this anytime soon, we'll just consider it on hiatus until further notice.
Stay shiny!