Chapter 10:
White leaves Red snow
River stared up into Yang's raged eye's, his own deep blue paled in comparison to the red in the young woman's iris's, he wanted to retaliate but another fight is something he desired even more to be absent for awhile. "You know... you got a hard head kid... let me up." Yang did just that, her hair was flickering with flames slightly but they quickly dissipated, she took a few deep breaths to let herself calm down even more and backed away from the man slowly, she took to a corner near the door.
The good doctor staggered to his feet, rubbing the area where Yang connected. "I uh... didn't take Blake as that kind of a person... but I guess I only knew her for a short while." He was referring to Yang's reason to find her partner, Yang was confused at his change of attitude. "You were ready to attack me a second ago?..."
"Oh well... I'm not too thrilled about the situation with you and your girlfriend, she's a suspect sure but I have no definite proof at this moment, whether or not she was with the Whitefang... just got a little heated sorry." River sat back down in his chair and set his weapon aside.
"She's not my girlfriend she doesn't... she doesn't know how I feel." Yang's expression lowered, she grew a frown, she opted not to sit, eager to leave. "Spare me... please, honestly if you're not here to fight Grimm I don't care what you do, but don't expect any help from us if you go out there." Yang gave him a stern glare. "And if I find her?" River took a moment of thought. "Bring her here, I'd like to question her but you can do as you like, go where you want."
Yang put a hand on the doorknob to leave the office. "You can use the barracks if you want... gunna' have some vacancies, courtesy of the Grimm just don't expect it to be permanent, take some food with you too." Yang smiled slightly. "Why the massive change of heart?" River looked away. "On the off chance you do find Blake and she's somehow not involved with last night's raid... I'll need her, now... go."
Yang stepped outside of the office then exited the building, as she closed the door behind her she took a deep breath through her nose. She smelled death, smoke and if fear had a smell it was there too. Yang checked the GPS on her scroll, she was a few kilometers south of Beacon but too far west, she put her scroll away and looked to face east.
She could see a rag tag barricade manned by a few guards, that was her gateway to the red forest. Yang walked at a brisk pace, each step felt like a small bit of progress towards her goal, she approached the guards. Yang walked right up to them as though they weren't there.
"Hey... Hey! Hey what the fuck are you doing You can't go out there, get the fuck over here!" A guard tried to stop Yang from entering Forever Fall, his fellow guardsmen was close behind him. Yang gave him a quick glance and proceeded to give him a kick from a few feet back, only a kick of compressed air, sending him to the ground on his back. His partner saw this and only held his hands up in there air, as Yang passed him she pointed at him and spoke. "Don't, just don't"
Yang wasn't taking anyone's shit anymore, not when she was this close to Blake, she was nearing the edge of the tree's. She paused briefly and thought. 'Please... just let me find her.' She began her pace again, walking into the maze of tree's.
Red leaves fell as the season of fall in Vale was shifting to winter, with the leaves, falling snow flakes drifted through the air, if Yang wasn't so determined she may have spent much time taking in the shear beauty the forest had to offer.
Yang walked in the dense forest for what seemed like hour's, there was no sign of Grimm or Whitefang, in fact it seemed almost completely devoid of life whatsoever. Yang had no idea how hard it actually was to see in the distance, it seemed hopeless to locate a missing girl but she was adamant in her search.
As the long walk continued she contemplated flying above the tree's to see what she could see, but came to the same conclusion, no clear sight. It was frustrating, seeing tree upon tree, not even being able to tell if they had any differences. The snow was piling up fast and she was beginning to leave footprints. She was worried something might follow them but instead she found different tracks first, she had come across clawed markings in the snow, Grimm.
It was all too silent, the tracks had to be fresh though they looked as new as her own. Yang was not an avid tracker but she recalled a few classes from Beacon, her lessons and latent knowledge led her to believe they were Boarbatusk tracks. It was too late though, the Grimm had saw her first, it was stalking her now.
Yang took a better notice to the silence and it didn't feel good, didn't feel safe. She was bent over observing the tracks, now she was slowly raising herself back up to stand. She looked left, more tree's and more snow, she looked right.
The young Huntress only had a scant second to react, as a large Boarbatusk charged past her attempting to gore her with it's tusks. Yang, slipped past the attack, narrowly dodging the charge, she stumbled backwards, somehow activating Ember Celica. She could take a fighting pose now, she took a stance and watched as the Grimm prepared for another charge.
It was surprisingly too fast for Yang and it's next charge landed directly into her abdomen, her aura took the brunt of the damage, it sent her flying through the forest until her left shoulder collided with a tree trunk. 'Dislocated... shit...' Yang quickly made a mental note, she was now relying solely on her feet to win.
The tree trunk halted her, but also planted her face first in the snow, she brought herself up to her feet awkwardly, blood was dripping from her mouth. The Boarbatusk caught up with her and stood several feet away, it snorted like it was taunting her.
Yang slammed her shoulder into the same trunk that dislocated it, after the slam it went back into place, it was still throbbing with pain. "C'mon! that just tickled! let's fuckin' go!" Yang let out her own taunt and the fight resumed.
She knew her arm was better but the pain made it still useless, however this was coming to an end. Yang ran full speed at the Grimm and it reciprocated, just before they collided Yang jumped at it and used her left leg to deliver a swift kick to the side of it's head, the shock wave plates took care of the rest, it was dead and disintegrated on the snowy ground.
Yang could barely raise her arm to wipe the blood from her chin but once again she won the fight.
She became lost after the battle, she was heading east, but now she couldn't tell what direction she was going, she was too deep in the forest for a signal to reach her scroll, she went off the basis of not having a signal meant that she was going anywhere except north or west.
Yang wandered through the red forest for hours, eventually the sun would set and the cold crept in. "Ok! I'm done for the day, this forest sucks and I'm tired and my arm hurts." She had to verbally justify herself stopping, even if no one was around to hear it. The sky grew darker by the minute and Yang gathered enough fire wood for the night, it took her a little longer than she liked, on the account of a single hand to do so.
When she gathered a generous pile, she ignited it by shooting a some fire dust from Solar Volcanica into her makeshift fireplace. She laid out her bedroll under a tree and camp was set.
Yang stayed awake, for awhile at least to wait for the snow to stop falling, she could keep the fire going all night with her dust as well, Yang turned towards her bedroll to grab some food, as she did something in the distance caught her eye, another fire.
It didn't occupy her mind too much, as she knew from the angle of her own fire, the people over there wouldn't be able to see hers, they were a good distance away and there was a decent chance they weren't going anywhere. She would question them in the morning perhaps they knew something about Blake. She kept her eye's on it for a few minutes waiting to see movement, but there was nothing.
The snow stopped and it was time for a few hours of sleep for the young blonde. It was a dreamless night, just darkness and her own wandering thoughts. It was short lived though, she couldn't waste any time sleeping.
Yang woke suddenly, staring up at a cold, cloudless blue sky, it was still very early it seemed. She clambered to her feet and rotated her shoulder a few times confirming that her aura healed the damage, she quickly packed up her bedroll and was on her way to the other encampment.
It was only a few minutes of walking until she was in the last bit of brush before the campsites clearing, she could see two men and their tents.
She revealed herself, with a wave she spoke, "Hello... I'm Yang, a Huntress, I don't wanna' hurt you I'm just looking for someone who might be out he-" Her words came to a halt as one of the men spotted her and spoke, Yang noticed they had weapons. "Sweetie... you just made the biggest mistake of your life... you're in the Whitefang's territory... you're a human I take it, so basically that means... you're about to die."
Yang watched with wide eye's as two wolf Faunus rushed at her, she truly didn't want to hurt them, knocking them out would suffice for now. The first man swung a sword at her, it was a simple dust infused blade, Yang side stepped the swing and her knuckles met his chin for a stiff left cross, he was out before he hit the ground.
The other threw what appeared to be a normal spear, nothing to it, it was literally just a spear, Yang caught it midair, she laughed slightly and said. "You two have to be the worst soldiers in the Whitefang, what's your name loser?" The wolf Faunus responded. "Nova..." Yang replied with. "Well, Nova, let me introduce you to my friend Solar Volcanica." Yang dropped the spear and shot a burst of air at him, knocking him into a tree and out cold.
"Well atleast I know I'm close righ-" Yang's world came to a sudden halt.
She glanced to the side and she saw her target, her friend and the love of her life.
She had found her.
Finally. Blake Belladonna.
After the initial shock of seeing her sitting up against a tree from the side, Yang's pupils dilated, knowing she was alive, that she was truly right there, she spoke no words as she walked in front to face her, her emotions were that of ecstasy but what she saw was about to change her life forever.
Blake was just unconscious when Yang found her, but she wasn't so sure that Blake was even alive, she wasn't the same girl she knew. Blake's face was beaten and bruised, her left eye was completely shut, her lips were split and her cheeks were black and blue. She was skinnier than before, she was being starved and dehydrated deliberately, her right arm had a stylized cut on it, a blade had spelled the words 'Traitor' on the inside of her arm, the cut's were heavily infected. On her left was a rope that tied her to the tree, her fingernails were gone, ripped out from either scratching at the rope or removed forcefully. She was a victim of prolonged torture.
Yang saw red, only seconds after viewing her friend her hair ignited into a hell storm of fire, her eye's burned so hard that they themselves felt aflame. She couldn't handle it, she wanted revenge immediately, she wanted wanted blood and lot's of it.
She walked away from Blake to the men she just incapacitated, the man she knocked out first was bound to die. As she walked to them her hair was a roaring flame, she let out bestially roar's, she was gripping her fist so tightly it was bleeding. She flipped the man known as Alec onto his back and began to rain hell on him.
Ember Celica was retracted, it didn't matter she brought down punch after punch to his face, he woke after the first two and tried to stop her, his hands grabbed at her face upwards, she bit off his fingers with unrivaled power from her semblance and planted a knee onto his chest to stop the struggling. She brought her fist down and down again, too many times to count, his screams could make the fiercest Grimm cringe, her attention was caught by the other wolf Faunus.
He was trying to get up, Yang grabbed his spear beside her on the ground and threw it directly into his chest, he fell backwards, almost dead. The strikes continued onto her first victim. Blood spattered into her face and the man was limp, the hits went on and on and eventually Yang was hitting the ground where his head used to be, she took her first life.
The rage was not subsided as she raised herself up and activated Ember Celica, she walked to the man who took the spear to his chest, he was coughing up blood through his words. "What... wha- what the fuck... are you doin-" Yang shot a round directly into his face and his skull crumbled due to the force, more blood coated her face and body, her kill count grew into two.
Yang stood over the man, breathing heavy with her aura exploding around her, she let out a long and intimating yell, it sounded like the vocal embodiment of sadness and anger, her eye's were stained with blood, they looked entirely red now, both iris and sclera. Most of the campsite was covered in snow covered white leaves and red bloodstained snowy ground, a true sight of carnage.
Yang got a taste of revenge, but nothing in the whole of Remnant could stop her from bringing Blake back from the hell she was in, Yang's attention turned to her partner, Blake had her head turned, she was awake and watching, but for the first time in what seemed a very long time, Yang's eye's met with Blake's.