A/N: I like my chapter titles. I hope they're a point of interest for readers since I put more time into them than I care to admit.
Anyway, I would like to recommend another story on this site. This one is partially responsible for my foray into this whole fanfiction writing business. It is a RWBY/Dark Souls crossover called Maidens, Ashes, and Souls by QueequegTheater. As it stands now, the story is on hiatus and it is not clear when the author will return to it since its last update, but I do believe that it deserves more attention.
Chapter 11: Chords in the Hearts
It wasn't long before teams RWBY and JNPR found themselves surrounded by glowing red eyes, stalking them from the trees. It was nothing they haven't seen before, but it never did get any less creepy. The eight students turned their backs to each other, forming a circle to face their surroundings.
"Oh, jeez, that's a lot of them," Jaune gulped as he raised his shield, bringing his form lower with his feet spread apart for stability—just as Pyrrha had taught him.
"How many of them are there?" Nora asked, though not particularly worried, twirling Magnhild before catching it in a tight grip.
"I count at least a dozen." Ren answered, unholstering the StormFlowers and flicking the blades into place.
"There will likely be more as soon as we begin fighting," Pyrrha noted, striking a similar guard as Jaune, with Miló sticking out from the Dipylon-style shield.
"Just the way I like it!" Yang roared, slamming Ember Celica into each other.
As if on cue, a series of howls sounded from the trees, immediately recognizable as Beowolves. The first of which pounced at the blond brawler, but was immediately met with a fist, the shotgun shell exploding on contact with the Grimm. The force sent the Beowolf flying back, hitting another as it jumped out of the woods as well. Ruby held Crescent Rose in front of her, its frame compacting into its rifle mode before she began firing into the two Beowolves to finish them off. She heard the growl of another behind her, the sound of which was quickly closing in. She smirked when the sound turned turned into a whimper, as its body slammed into something solid. Ruby turned around to see an ice wall had formed; the sound of the Beowolf on the other side being dispatched being heard before the ice wall fell, revealing Weiss looking at Ruby confidently. "You should watch your back."
"I just knew you'd be there for me," Ruby beamed as Crescent Rose's frame extended back to its scythe form.
"You should both be paying attention," Blake interjected, throwing Gambol Shroud in between them as it wrapped around the neck of a Beowolf pouncing at them. She pulled it towards her with little effort, the momentum of the Grimm making up for much of the force. The Cat-Faunus stepped aside, allowing Yang to step forward with a grin, punching the Beowolf's head into the ground, creating a small crater from the impact.
Meanwhile, Nora was gleefully twirling around the battlegrounds with Magnhild before the face of the hammer met a Beowolf's side, the blast rag-dolling the Grimm back into the forest. Jaune braced himself behind his shield as a Beowolf charged at him, headfirst into its surface. The blond turned slightly to allow the Grimm to slide to his side and into the ground. He reared the sword of Crocea Mors back before thrusting its blade into the Beowolf's neck. Another was already charging at the boy before he could pull the sword out, but his ever reliable partner came to his aid, slamming Akoúo̱ into its face. She reared the shield back once more, bringing the edge of the shield into the Grimm's face once more to disorient it, allowing her momentum to spin her around. The red-haired warrior flicked Miló into its javelin form before finally her momentum carried the weapon directly through the Beowolf's mouth. The body of the Grimm dissipated around her weapon, revealing another already behind it, swiping its claws at her. Pyrrha raised her shield, deflecting the blow away before slamming it into the Beowolf's chest.
"Ren!" She called as she forced the Grimm away from herself and towards her teammate. The jet black-haired boy looked to the source only to find a Grimm speeding through the air towards him. He tightened his grip around StormFlower before striking their blades into the back of the Beowolf once it was within reach, using its momentum to throw it to the ground before unleashing a stream of bullets into the Grimm. After it began dissipating into a cloud of smoke, Ren took aim and fired at another lunging for him, though his weapons lacked the stopping power to prevent its attack. The Beowolf was suddenly hooked at the neck before being flung high up into the air. Nora only grinned at her partner before running straight at Pyrrha, who knew the drill. She took a knee and propped Akoúo̱ face-up. Nora jumped onto its face and crouched down until Pyrrha propelled her up into the air with the makeshift launching pad. The orange-haired girl hooked the hammer head around the neck of the Beowolf once more before throwing it back down. "Ruby, heads up!" Nora fell back to the ground, smashing in the head of another Beowolf with Magnhild upon her landing.
Ruby looked up to see a Beowolf falling directly at her. The young leader jumped up, dragging the blade of Crescent Rose behind her. Gravity did the rest of the work, as the Grimm's neck met the scythe's edge, decapitating it. Blake fired Gambol Shroud at the remaining two Beowolves until one of them pounced at the Cat-Faunus. She somersaulted over it, only to find the second Beowolf waiting below her. Her vision was then filled with the sight of a glyph floating in the air, an opportunity she did not allow slip. Blake kicked off the glyph and brought the blade of her weapon straight down, cutting a Beowolf in half while Weiss elegantly dodged the swipes of the other Grimm before thrusting Myrtenaster through its jaw. With the pull of a trigger, she unleashed a dust-powered shot through its head, giving the Grimm a quick end as it disappeared in a black mist around her weapon.
"Too easy," Yang smirked as she approached the others.
"Yeah, let's call it that." Jaune said as he rolled his shoulder after sheathing his sword.
"You did good," Pyrrha smiled at her partner, who clearly had taken her training seriously.
He looked at her before grinning proudly. "Thanks!"
"That can't be it." Ren said as he began looking around. "The professors would be here if it was all over."
"It's not. There are people nearby," Blake said with a frown, an ear flicking in its ribbon.
"It could just be the professors, y'know." Nora shrugged, casually lifting Magnhild to rest on her shoulder.
The Cat-Faunus shook her head. "It doesn't sound like their footsteps. And there's more than just two." The group immediately tensed up. There shouldn't be anyone else in the area other than just them, and certainly no ordinary people would be lurking in the Forever Fall. That left few possibilities. Either there were more like Henryk and Leo, or that rumor Blake had heard of a White Fang camp residing in the Forever Fall was true.
"You were right. Those kids are quite the warriors." Leo applauded the two teams, though they were too far to hear it anyway. "Now I wish I had an aura, too, if it means I could pull off those kinds of acrobatics," she laughed.
"It does make one envious," Henryk said plainly. The Hunter placed a hand over his midsection as his stomach growled. He grimaced, knowing what that hunger meant—what the beasthood demanded. Henryk glanced at the warrior beside him, who was already eying him peculiarly.
"In need of blood, are you?" Leo asked, receiving a tentative nod in return. "Alright, give me a moment."
The Hunter looked back in the students' direction, frowning when Blake suddenly froze, as if she was listening intently to something. Henryk's hearing may not match hers, but at the very least, he was observant. The students appeared to tense up as Blake pointed towards the direction of the anomaly. "Something is wrong."
"Then we should hurry."
Henryk looked back to Leo, who had a gauntlet off and held a knife in hand. Crimson eyes only stared blankly at her. He expected some sort of blood vial—the common way to transfuse blood in Yharnam. "You want me to…" The Hunter trailed off as he glanced at the soft skin of her forearm.
Leo looked between the blade, her arm, and back to Henryk before she felt the heat rise to her face once again. "Just shut up and drink it."
The two teams chose to investigate the source of the noise Blake heard, hiding behind trees and in the brush as the sounds got closer. Her suspicions were confirmed when they saw two White Fang members patrolling the area. "Oh, my—" Nora was cut off by a hand over her mouth, courtesy of Ren.
"White Fang." Blake grimaced.
"What do you want to do?" Weiss asked her Faunus teammate. The heiress wanted to bust the criminal group, but she—and the rest of their team—made a promise to each other to ask each other for help.
Blake stared intently at the White Fang members as she repeatedly curled her fingers. They did set up a camp here after all. Likely to discreetly collect Dust shipments from the railway line that runs through the Forever Fall. "We take them down."
Weiss smiled. That's what she wanted to hear. "Okay."
Ruby turned to face the other team, who were looking at them in return for a sign on what to do. "Hey," she began whispering. "You guys don't have to do this with us."
"What? No way," Jaune protested. "We're in this together."
"We want to help," Pyrrha assured. "We're your friends, too."
Blake smiled to herself, overhearing their conversation. She has friends she could trust. Friends who were willing to help her, even in a situation like this. Friends she had no doubt would go to Hell and back with her if she just asked. "Thank you," she muttered quietly, but it was not lost on those present. Yang settled next to her partner and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as the Cat-Faunus turned to look at her. The blond smiled without saying a word.
"What the hell are we doing here?" One of patrolling White Fang said to the other. "If you wanted to take a break to smoke, you could've just said so."
The other White Fang member was in the middle of lighting a cigarette when he looked back at his partner. "I swear, I heard something out here. Sounded like fighting."
"Yeah, sure. That's why you have a cigarette out, right?" He put his hands on his hips, shaking his head.
"Hey, why can't I do both? I can smoke while we check this out, okay?" He took a long drag of the burning roll of tobacco before releasing it into the fresh air. He frowned when his vision was suddenly filled with rose petals instead of smoke. "What the—" The back of his knee was hit hard, bringing him to the ground.
"Shit!" The other White Fang member pulled out a gun from its holster, taking aim at the red-hooded figure who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He pulled the trigger, but the bullet was stopped by a glyph that manifested in front of him. The White Fang member cursed, looking around to find the source, only to be met with a flash of yellow to his face. The force sent him flying, shattering the glyph and into his partner. The two teams surrounded the White Fang members as they writhed on the ground.
Blake stepped forward, standing over the two with her arms crossed. Before she could say anything, a familiar voice called out to them. "What are you doing?" The students—sans Blake—looked to the source, finding Henryk and Leo approaching them.
"Uh, busting some criminals. That's not a problem, right?" Yang spoke up, almost sheepishly.
"Criminals?" Leo rose a brow as she lightly pushed past them, finding the two on the ground. "Oh, I recognize that symbol. White Fang, correct?" Blake nodded to confirm.
"What an interesting group. I don't completely disagree with them and their methods." Leo noted.
Blake looked up at the warrior, surprised to hear her comment. "Really?"
"I think it's a shame that the White Fang have been branded a criminal organization—partly anyway. To be seen as equals is a noble cause and in my experience, nothing is won without having to fight for it." Leo nodded slowly, despite the frown that formed over her brow.
"You think what they're doing is okay?" Weiss asked.
"That's not what I said." Leo sighed. "I am aware of their recent exploits and do believe that most are more dangerous than a solution to their cause. However, I do respect their sentiment."
"Why are we wasting our time?" Henryk interrupted, though his crimson eyes peered at the two White Fang members. If nothing else, his chilling glare made them think twice before trying anything. "We came here for one thing and one thing only. The elimination of…Grimm." The Hunter almost referred to them as beasts again.
"This is not a waste of time," Blake argued.
"Yeah, these are bad guys!" Ruby pointed at the two White Fang members, who only sneered in return.
"We are just trying to do the right thing." Pyrrha added calmly. "Their operations could harm a lot of innocent people. It is our duty as Huntsmen and Huntresses to uphold the peace."
Henryk looked between the three students. This clearly mattered to Blake. Her usually reserved and cool demeanor was shed, revealing her underlying passion. Her fingers were curled into fists at her sides. It wasn't lost on him that she was a Faunus either, so whether or not she is affiliated with the group, it was likely a cause she sympathizes with despite their recent actions. Her friends must know—he recognized a deep level of trust in between them, especially her team. That is good. It is fortunate that they can trust each other in their line of work. He wasn't going to deprive them of their purpose. The Hunter sighed before looking back to the White Fang members, pulling out Evelyn from his belt.
"Whoa, what are you doing?!" Ruby protested.
Henryk pointed it at the White Fang member's face, who long since dropped his cigarette. "Alright, where are the rest of you louts? I know they are around."
"As if I'd tell a filthy human." The White Fang member laughed. "You're not going to shoot me."
Henryk rose a brow. "Hmm. I suppose you are correct. I will shoot him." The Hunter pointed the gun at his partner.
"You're bluffing," he smirked.
The smirk quickly disappeared when Henryk took aim his partner's knee and pulled the trigger. "Fuck!" He screamed as he held onto his leg, falling onto his side with his eyes squeezed shut from the pain.
Jaune flinched at the sight—the others having similar reactions as well. "H-he actually did it."
Henryk returned the now smoking barrel to the squirming man's face as his crimson glare pierced the eyes of the other. "I will figure out one way or the other. One of them includes your deaths. You decide whether or not it comes to that."
"Alright, alright!" The White Fang member relented. "Just keep walking in that direction," he said, pointing. "It's near this big cave, you can't miss it."
The Hunter looked in that direction before returning his gaze to them. The White Fang member gulped. "I swear, okay? I told you, just let us live."
Henryk kept Evelyn's barrel aimed at the writhing man before hooking it to his belt once again. "If it is a lie, I will find the both of you and finish the job." The Hunter turned away from them and began walking in the direction the White Fang member pointed at. After a few moments of walking, he turned back to see that only Leo had followed him. The two teams seemed uncertain of leaving the White Fang members unattended. "Will you have me doing this alone? Did you not want to find them yourselves?"
They took one last glance at the two criminals before following Henryk and Leo, who continued walking as soon as they were certain they weren't falling behind. "You sure it's okay to just leave them like that?" Nora asked.
"It will be fine. They hardly seem like the harmful folk. They just got caught up with the wrong people." Leo noted, Henryk nodding his confirmation.
"Was it necessary to shoot him?" Ren added.
"Never allow a wasted moment. If it means reaching your objective faster, consider it necessary." Henryk answered.
Leo rose a brow at her partner before looking back at the students. "Different situations call for different approaches. However, I do not necessarily disagree with Henryk's method here."
"It still felt wrong." Ruby said glumly, with her eyes to the ground.
"Acts of goodness are not always wise, and acts of evil are not always foolish, but regardless, we shall always strive to be good." Henryk noted the words of Logarius that Alfred has passed on to him.
"How do we know what the right thing to do is then?" Blake asked as she thought about her past.
There was a long pause before Henryk finally answered her. "That is something we decide for ourselves."
Marvelous Chester leaned against the cliffside as he oversaw the operations of the White Fang camp. He yawned as they moved around Dust cargo to and fro.
"Help me!" The call of a young girl sounded from the nearby cave in the cliffside. "Help me!"
"Hey, boss-man. Who do you have locked up in there?" One of the White Fang asked him.
"None of your concern." The man in the snickering mask answered in a slow drawl. "Get back to work." The White Fang member sucked his tongue against his teeth, shaking his head before returning to his duty. Chester sighed to himself as he leaned his head back to look at the sky. "What a bore." It wasn't long before the relative silence of the camp suddenly turned into a ruckus. "Oh, is it getting interesting now?" The mysterious man looked back to the camp, seeing the White Fang getting tossed around left and right. The camp was quickly turning into ruins as it was invaded by ten outsiders. The air was filled with rose petals as flashes of red danced around the camp, the White Fang falling one by one. A girl dressed all in white jumping on materialized platforms as everywhere she pointed with her rapier froze solid, while a blond and a pink-haired girl smashed them apart. A boy and girl—both with jet black hair—fired their weapons upon more of the White Fang, pressuring them as two with swords and shields in hand pushed in to knock them out. Perhaps the most impressive display of strength appeared in the form of a knight wielding an impossibly massive hammer, destroying structures in single fell sweeps. In all of the chaos, he spotted a man walking straight for him, wearing similar attire to himself.
Almost as quickly as they came, the entire camp was destroyed, with the rest of the group now following the man who made his way towards Chester.
The masked man sighed heavily. "What a useless bunch of animals." Chester remained relaxed, keeping the same exact position as before they had appeared. "To whom do I owe the pleasure?" He asked in his perpetual slow drawl. His strange mask did not go unnoticed, and how different it was from the Grimm masks of the White Fang.
"You lead the White Fang here?" Blake asked with a brow raised.
"Darling, do I look like one of those folk?" Chester gestured towards his attire, a stark contrast from the White Fang.
"Well, you're not here to sightsee, that's for sure." Yang crossed her arms.
"You're going to stay here until the proper authorities come." Weiss stipulated.
"Oh, that's not necessary. I am nothing more than a businessman." Chester noted in his usual tone.
"What kind of businessman wears a mask like that?" Nora scoffed.
"This kind of businessman, dearest." Chester sighed. "Besides, you think of me as a criminal? Do you even know what those two have done." The mysterious man pointed at both Henryk and Leo, who frowned in return.
"What could you possibly know about us?" The Hunter tightened his grip around Evelyn.
"What could I possibly know? The more proper question would be how could I not know? I have lived for a very long time." Chester nodded slowly, crossing his arms. Henryk looked at the masked man in surprise. There were more like him and Leo? The man in the snickering mask chuckled at the reaction. "Did you think you two were the only ones from before. How narcissistic."
The students looked in between the three adults. So there was another like them after all. Either way, this man was clearly different from Henryk and Leo. The impression he gave off was difficult to describe other than that it felt off. While Leo is the personification of radiance and Henryk a cold authority figure, the man before them was simply off-putting because they felt nothing from him. The fact that he was associating with the White Fang camp immediately places him as a potential threat.
Chester glanced between all of them, the intent to arrest him being clear in the air. He didn't want to risk fighting through them. The kids were no pushovers and there was no chance he could take either Henryk or Leo. He had seen them fight before, now that he recognized the two. He had to stall them. "Hey, kids. You have no idea what those two have done, do you?" The mysterious man said in his slow drawl. "That man," he pointed at the Hunter. "Has murdered more people than you can even imagine. All because he couldn't contain his greed. And that woman," he pointed at Leo. "Let all of her friends die. She knew exactly what she was doing."
Henryk clenched his teeth at the words. He was no murderer. Though, Djura thought so. Still, he had to remain composed. They will have this man detained and be able to ask questions later. The warrior choked up at the words, tightening her grip around her hammer. "Shut up."
"Leo, calm down. That is exactly what he is aiming for." Henryk said.
"What I am aiming for? What, telling the truth?" Chester noted.
Leo punched the cliffside next to his head, creating a crater in its place. "I'm calm." The warrior shook off the dirt from her gauntlet before stepping away.
"Help me!" The call of a young girl sounded from the nearby cave. Chester smirked underneath his mask. Perfect.
Pyrrha frowned. "You kidnapped a girl?"
"No, not me. The White Fang did. They said something about filthy humans and I wasn't really listening." Chester shrugged.
Henryk grabbed him by the shoulder before shoving him in the direction of the cave. "Take us to her."
Chester almost tripped before standing up straight once more, looking back at the group who watched his every move. "Naturally…" The man in the snickering mask led them to the entrance of the cave. The girl called the same words from the pitch black darkness. Leo rose a hand before an orb of light materialized, leaving her hand and floating above the group. The students looked at the display with awe.
"Wow, Leo. What can't you do?" Jaune spoke in amazement.
"Save her friends, apparently." Chester answered, receiving a kick in the back, causing him to fall over. He looked back from the ground, seeing that Henryk was the culprit.
"I hear another word from you like that, I will make sure you never speak again." The Hunter threatened.
"My, my. What a gentleman." Chester said in his constant slow drawl before standing up, leading them through the cave towards the source of the voice.
"Help me!" The young girl called out once again. "Help me!"
Henryk frowned as he heard the continued phrase. The tone in itself sounded genuine. It begged for someone—anyone to come to her aid. Yet every time he heard it, he began to realize that it was said the exact same way, every time. It was called periodically in perfect intervals every single time. It was a trap. By the time he realized, it was already too late as the masked man had led the group to the source. Leo's light illuminated the area, revealing a giant Grimm at the end of the cave. Its red eyes peered from the bone mask with long, branching antlers. It released a low, rumbling growl before they heard its call once more. "Help me!"
A/N: This chapter's title is part of a quote from Edgar Allen Poe's, The Masque of the Red Death, "There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion." If you have not read the short story, I strongly recommend you do. It is probably my favorite work of Poe's.
Anyway, I forgot how difficult but rewarding writing fight choreography can be when it includes multiple character actions. I hope I wrote it well enough for you to be able to visualize it clearly, since it took up a significant portion of the chapter.
Thank you for reading and as always, I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time.
