Hey y'all. Sorry I'm late. I've been dealing with a lot of personal shit in my life that makes writing difficult, both physically and mentally. Like Weiss, I feel I can use a hug. *sigh* anyway, onto the good stuff. At least, I hope it's the good stuff.
The night air hung frozen in the low-lying mountains north-west of Mistral. Stars twinkling in the space between treetops were like church bells in the abject stillness. The wind whistling through the scraggly branches the pipe organ.
His shallow breathing was nails on a chalkboard in comparison, foggy plumes escaping out into the otherwise still night, a practical smoke signal for anyone watching. He grabbed a handful of fluffy snow and chomped down on it. His hot breath ran through the cold filter and burned his lungs.
It was a cold night, but his blood boiled.
It was so cold that his semblance would be affected to the point where it would take a concentration of effort to maintain. But he didn't need to hold it for long, just enough to glide over the stone's throw between him and the slumbering encampment without leaving footprints. He was a ghost in the dark as he slipped past matter's restraint and took up residency in the hollow breeze.
He drifted just above the snowpack, riding that dense pocket of air past the scant underbrush and its unknowing inhabitants. A snow hare perked up its ears as he floated by. A chipmunk cocked its head in return of his whispered journey. The guard sat unaware in the cold hollow of a tree away from the fire, a thick fur cloak and to keep him warm.
The man's features were hidden by a large hood and dark wrappings, as much against the cold as to being spotted. Black on black, ensconced in the split trunk of the pine tree, he was nigh invisible if one did not know he was there. And even if they did, most would only see the beady eyes like pinhole cameras scanning the bleak taiga laid out in front of him.
Our phantom knew he was there, though. And unlike humans, he could smell the man beneath the misleading scent of his furs. And unlike most everyone else, he could sense the beast that lay beneath the skin of the man. He had no qualms about doing what had to be done.
He dropped out of suspension like a leaf, the only sound that he was there was the brief crunch as his bundled feet slipped through the iced surface.
And by then it was too late.
His hand reached out through the bulk of the tree and into the hollow on the other side. It was a strange feeling, forcing his essence through the reluctant cells in the living framework, them trying and failing to breath his gaseous state. Don't worry tree. This will be quick.
By the time the watchman figured out the footsteps had come from behind him, a knife was already buried into his spinal column. His mind continued to work furiously for a few seconds longer as his bodily functions shut down in succession without the commands keeping them alive.
The body slumped over in its niche with even less sound than his careful footsteps. He pulled his rudimentary blade back out through the protesting trunk, taking the midnight-colored cloak with it. He tossed it around his shoulders and pulled the cowl up over his pointed ears and face, ignoring the cold patch of blood fast-frozen on the back of his neck. He repressed a shudder.
He was grateful for the ample cover the hood provided. It hid his unforgettable face from them, as much as it hid the almost sick expression etched there from himself. He couldn't afford to indulge in self-depreciating emotions. Not yet, anyway. Not until this was over.
He buried his frown deeper into the shadow cast by the small fire burning in the center of camp. Black yurts hugged the pure snow like abscesses, a plight among this forest that was trying to heal the land.
But no matter how much he justified it, there were still humans inside of those cancerous mounds. And by the time this was over, many more would be dead by his hands.
Existing inside the Township wasn't as bad as Weiss had first suspected.
It was worse.
A few hours after her first solo venture, the rest of her team had set out together to meet with the community's elected leader. The title was variable, depending on who asked, and more symbolic than anything else given the only semi-autonomous nature of the Township. Then again, their whole presence was symbolic as well, so it was only fitting.
Together, their meeting was not a good omen for things to come.
They had made it to the humble abode without incident. Weiss was thoroughly wrapped up so that all her iconic features were hidden, and traveled in the center of their entourage for extra measure, flanked on all sides by the rest of team RWBY, plus Penny.
They had been greeted at the door by the leader's spouse, an agreeable man who portended leniency with his soft features and even softer mane. They were ushered in hurriedly out of the cold and set up in the almost cramped living room across from the decider of the Faunus community.
The matronly woman greeted them amicably over tea brought in by her husband, shared pleasantries with the captain of their squad and the token Faunus on their team. But that was when things went downhill.
"The General informed me that he would be sending a Schnee in to our midst." The once kind face scrunched back in a sneer that revealed elongated canines. "I honestly thought that he was joking. Now I see he thinks we are the joke."
It could have almost been alright if it was just a slight on her family name, but first impressions were critical if they wanted to establish a good working relationship.
No amount of character defense from her team could convince the August woman otherwise. Weiss wasn't even allowed to speak for herself, advised continuously against it by both Blake and Penny through hushed ques and hidden hand gestures.
But after continuing to bear increasingly inflammatory remarks which condemned both her and her family, she could no longer sit humbly in silence. She should have headed their advice, because the moment she opened her mouth she only made it worse.
The once kindly old man had shown them the door abruptly, tossing their winter coats out after them. The two-bedroom home was like a community center, so the bystanders watched their ejection judiciously. And in little time, many were drawn to the commotion surrounding it. Rumor spread quickly, and despite their efforts to once again disguise her presence, the townsfolk were soon aware of the Schnee in their midst. A small mob followed them doggedly, rabid at the chance for blood after having endured their own silent captivity for so long.
They managed to get her back to the flat at the outskirts of town before things got too out of hand. Still, some less-restrained among the crowd chucked a few snowballs with stones buried at their center at the staggered young woman, marking another blemish on her pretty porcelain face. The team hurried her back inside with the immutable Penny posted outside as guard.
Words were spoken in consolation, to her and the townsfolk. But she didn't hear them, and they didn't want to listen. Eventually Blake convinced the rest of them to go back and try to make amends, leaving Weiss in the relative safety of the flat. Their task had already been made that much harder by the whole, snowballing incident (Yang's attempt at humor earned her many stern glares). Their captain reluctantly agreed, as long as Penny stayed for security.
That had been two weeks ago, and the only thing that had changed was the lack of an ice pack on her forehead as Weiss sat perpetually at the kitchen table. Her head cradled in hand as she stared despondently at her reflection in the tepid coffee cup in front of her.
The rest of her team ventured out dutifully every day well before the crack of dawn, trying to make recompense for all the wrongs the government of Atlas imposed on their Faunus residents. And Weiss was relegated to the gloomy flat with Penny only sometimes hanging around to make sure no one tried anything foolish. The android's guard duties had become increasingly infrequent, though. Her reluctance to leave Ruby's side a strange and recurring argument.
It didn't seem to matter, however. No matter how hard they labored, no matter how many humanitarian works they assisted, and no matter how many good deeds they perpetrated, it would never take the place of an actual concession by the Atlassian government. At the end of the day it was impossible to hide the fact that it was still just a gilded cage.
The debilitating ennui of their white-haired teammate was starting to rub off on them. How were they supposed to accomplish anything without any tools? How were they supposed to correct centuries of animosities in just a few weeks? They were throwing pennies into a fountain to try and fix it.
It began to seem like they were set up for failure from the beginning. And if the request had come from the Dictatorship, they would have bet on it. But from what Glynda had told them, it had come as a personal request from Ironwood. By now they all knew the man's faults and foibles, but never would they take him for someone who would send them to fight a hopeless cause.
They were starting to question even this, though.
Weiss didn't even flinch as the door banged open and the rest of her team poured in out of the snow which was blowing almost horizontally. She didn't so much as raise her eyes as the mass of bodies bumbled about in the foyer, trying to remove their snow-caked clothes in the tiny space and making a comic mess of it in their desperation to avoid the storm outside.
"Phew! I can't believe we made it back!" Yang revealed herself from underneath a bright-red scarf and patterned knit cap which she tossed at the clothes rack before shoving her way further into the open floorplan between kitchenette and living room.
"Yeah, but we didn't finish, so we still have to go back tomorrow." Blake sighed, removing only her black-wool overcoat which was shedding sheets of ice, and staggering onto the couch with the rest of her warm clothes on. "And now we're going to have knee-deep snow to dig out before we can even start on the next foundation."
"Don't care!" Yang yelled flippantly over her shoulder as she hurried up the staircase. "That's tomorrow, and right now I'm going to take a lukewarm shower and head to bed, because I am beat!"
It was hard to appreciate their accommodations, but after a while they learned how to do it. Nothing in the flat worked right, and was all in varying states of disrepair. Much like the shower, which never ran above a trickle. But it made them appreciate how good they had it back in Beacon. It also gave them good insight as to how the townsfolk lived their lives. The rented space being typical for the enclave, and if they were being honest, better than a lot of other 'homes' they had seen.
That was why they had spent the better part of the last week helping to build new houses to replace the more unlivable hovels that were on the verge of collapsing. With this storm that had just rolled in the last 24 hours, a few of those huts were probably already gone, and so the endeavor was started none too soon.
Ruby sighed as she shuffled in, looking back and forth at her ragged team before hanging her ushanka on a low hook and walking into the living room.
"I guess I'll light a fire."
"That would be nice." Blake muttered weakly, staring at the cracked ceiling with an arm resting across her forehead. Never would any of them have thought that they would be relegated to doing manual labor, or that it would be so exhausting.
"I shall help!" The ginger android declared cheerfully, following in her ward's footsteps.
"That's alright, Penny. I got it." Ruby waved her off, grimacing as she noted the scarcity of wood inside. She would have to go get more from the stock under the eaves outside if they wanted their heat to last more than an hour. "If you could get dinner started, though, that would be awesome. I'm not sure I trust myself to handle anything sharp right now."
She gave a lopsided smile and held her excoriated hands up for emphasis. They were red and raw from the amount of physical work she had done. Blake glanced over and winced at the sight. The older woman felt a certain amount of guilt, even given the decrepit state of her own body. Ruby's semblance allowed her to work at a furious pace, zipping back and forth around the construction site and hopping from one job to the next. It took a toll on her, doing in hours what work would normally be accomplished in weeks.
But the girl didn't mind, and merely disguised the wince with a smile as she picked up the rough logs and stacked them in the wood stove. Despite how nasty it looked right now, with popped blisters and split callouses peppering her palm (eww, eww, eww, don't think about it!), by the morning it would all be healed without a mark to show for it.
Such was the benefit, as well as the burden of being a Jinchuriki, as she was now finding out. She had barely learned how to pronounce it, before having to learn all the ramifications it presented.
The sounds of automatic chopping like a woodpecker echoed from the kitchen as the android set about her task preparing vegetables for that night's stew.
Stew was easy and warming on a cold night such as this. Plus, it wasn't hard to cut back on the ingredients being added, and make up for the bulk with fillers of various kinds. Though the military made sure they never lacked for sustenance, they couldn't justify their lavish living when so many of their new neighbors were starving daily.
All of them sacrificed something for the sake of the mission. Some more than others.
Such was the expectation when becoming huntresses, and so they didn't anticipate any medals or recognition for their good deeds. They bore their duty in silence with the hope that their examples would change things, if their actions wouldn't.
Maybe it was working, but like plate tectonics, so slowly that no one would notice.
But the thoughts of silence and examples drew Ruby's attention away from the black metal box in the center of the living room, and over to the kitchen where one could always find Weiss. She felt her frown deepen and a low rumble coming from her chest like a growl as she bore witness to her partner, unmoved since that morning.
She was about to make her way to the kitchen, ostensibly for a box of matches but really so that she could talk to the despondent young woman, when Blake sat up and caught her arm.
"Let me take care of it." She sighed and stood up laboriously, crossing the few paces into the kitchen.
She reached around the industrious Penny and into a squeaky drawer, fishing out the rumpled cardboard box, quick as a flash. But before she left that tiny room, she stopped next to Weiss moping at the table.
The white-haired woman leapt back in her seat as the box of matches was thrown on the table in front of her. Her hand shot out, knocking over the cup and its cold, liquid contents. She managed to catch it before it hit the ground, though not before it splattered against the far wall, adding another stain to the already patched wallpaper.
"Blake! What the hell?!"
"You could offer to help, you know." Blake spoke clearly down at the seated girl.
Penny by this time had halted abruptly in her work, unsure of whether to intervene, or clear the obvious blast zone. Thankfully, the only slightly more socially adept Ruby gave her visual clues from the living room, a shake of the head telling her not get involved. This still confused the robotic girl, but she shrugged and went back to chopping, leaving the humans to their eccentricities, but keeping close enough to take notes.
"Help with what? Lighting the fire?" Weiss huffed, using the paper napkin to mop up the spill which was within reach.
"Sure, start with that." Blake sighed heavily as she tossed herself into the opposite chair. "Anything to just get yourself back up and doing something."
"Oh, and what should I do after that? Dust the furniture? Wash the dishes? Clean the bathrooms?"
"Why not?!" Blake growled back at her petulant sarcasm, undeterred but already short on temper after a long day. "Do something, anything at all, because right now sitting around and moping isn't going to do anyone any good, least of all you."
"And it'll do me good to become a housemaid?" The young woman scoffed at the repugnant idea. "I'm supposed to be training to be a huntress, not doing menial labor."
"You mean like what we've been doing?" Weiss stopped, and Blake took a deep breath, careful to remain on the high ground of the argument. "Day-in, day-out for the past week we haven't done anything remotely like what we trained for. So are you saying that it's not worth it? That we're wasting our time by giving these people a place to sleep at night that won't collapse?"
Weiss shifted one leg over the other and stared down at the floor.
"No, I'm sure that the people appreciate it. But that should be the job of public services or some other government agency, not people like us."
"Well guess what? The government isn't doing anything and isn't likely to do so in the near future. So while ideally you might be correct, when have our lives ever been ideal?" Weiss's left eye twitched as old scar tissue tightened in the cold.
"But this isn't our job…"
"Then whose is it? We're being paid for it, in case you haven't noticed. If I had to guess I'd say it was out of Ironwood's own pocket, given the stance Atlas's government continues to have on 'the lower classes'."
"That's…" She hadn't considered who had commissioned them in the first place. If she gave it any thought she would have realized from the start that their tiny contribution would still be a 180˚ shift in policy for the conservative government.
"But even if we weren't being paid to do it I for one would still want to help these people however I could. If that means spending the next few months up here in the frozen peak of the world doing nothing but drudgery, then I would do it gladly. Especially if it means possibly preventing a war." Blake swallowed as she leaned back in her seat and folded her arms over her chest, a chill running through her blood now running how. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to kill anyone again if I don't have to."
"But what am I supposed to do?" Weiss whimpered out, nursing the empty cup in her shaky hands. "I can't even show my face out there without being hunted down like some…" She didn't finish her sentence as Blake looked at her coldly. "I can't do any actual work to help you guys. And don't tell me to be content with puttering about the flat like some kind of housewife while you are all out there actually doing something. That's unfair. No, It's impossible."
"What would you know about impossible? You've spent your whole life trying to break away from the handouts being given to you. You've never had to go without, even now that your father has made Whitley the inheritor. You still have everything you need to survive."
Weiss flinched at the mention of her brother. This was the first time they had spoken of it since she broke the news to them right before they got on the Bullhead away from Beacon. But she didn't have anything else to say against it.
"You've never been in a position like these people have. I haven't. When I was young I had my parents looking out for me, and even when I joined the White Fang I had my brothers and sisters to rely upon. We got by with sympathetic donations and whatever we needed to steal to survive." Blake hid her own shame admitting this darker part of her past, but unlike before, Weiss had nothing condemning to say.
"These people… they're stronger than you or me. They are the ones that chose not to join the violent movement sweeping among our people. They decided that they would continue to calmly bear the oppression with a smile while their rights were taken away one by one. They worked humiliating jobs without complaint for years, just to prove that we aren't the animals everyone makes us out to be.
"How can we expect to help them if we aren't willing to sacrifice the same? Everyone knows that we need their support, even the bigshots back in Atlas. The difference is that they want to get it by force. There's just so far a people can be pushed before the start to push back."
Weiss continued to remain silent. If she had an answer to that argument she wouldn't be in this situation now. She could condemn the White Fang all she wanted, but in the end, she couldn't deny that the path they were headed down now would inexorably lead there, or perhaps even something far worse.
"I'm tired," Blake rubbed her face with her chapped hands, intuitively feeling the bags under her eyes. "Gods am I tired. But this fatigue is only fleeting. Soon enough we'll be able to rest, but when I do, I want to know that I've given it my all. Because when we return to Vale there's no coming back to do things over. We have to live with what we did, or didn't do."
It was strange for Blake, not only admitting her own failures, but lecturing about morality in the same breath. But who better to give the lesson than one who had made all the mistakes? And who better to be the listener than one who had purposefully shut her ears to anything and everything?
Weiss still didn't know how she was expected to carry on in this situation. It was true that she had never been the one with the cards stacked against her. She had come from her high tower with dreams of flying free without it propping her up. But she had never seen the view from the ground, where the sky was just a mythical place beyond the ceiling owned by skyscrapers. She just didn't know how to start climbing.
Without another word, Blake rose from her seat and walked over into the living room. She handed the box of matches to Ruby and paused as she took them. Blake met her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile before continuing to the narrow staircase.
She flowed around Yang who was coming down the stairs, a damp towel in her hands as she carefully dried her hair. She only registered a slight breeze as they passed one another, and looked up to see an oddly quiet room.
"What'd I miss?"
A crow watched as the youth traipsed about in the darkness like a ninja. The cloaked teen incapacitated another half-dozen guards with only a handful of whispering strikes, while his partner picked out the layers of hidden traps like they were pastries on a shelf, disposing of them ravenously. No one in the camp was any wiser as their kin fell like flies.
His kin, he reminded himself. He couldn't afford to separate himself from these beasts, because deep down he knew he was one of them. He sent the two youths to do his dirty work, while he lingered behind in conflicted agony.
It probably made him scum, but that was a price he could pay for this end. But he was not idle. He was silently gathering his own courage to do what needed to be done. He had been doing so for the better part of a decade now. This whole operation was the culmination of that, and his first step towards atonement.
When the time came, he would confront the greatest hurdle to their success, his most tenacious regret and meet her head on. It didn't matter if he gave his life in the process. The two teens would do fine on their own. He was not yet old, but he was becoming superfluous. The world would go on fine without him, but he wanted to know that he had left it a better place for those that stayed behind.
That was the difference between himself and his sister. He still held that modicum of care for others. She was right. It would be the death of him.
A blade flashed blue in the moonlight and was seen by those beady black eyes. The crow cocked its head at the sign and glided down from its perch, alighting on the frosted ground with a soft crunch of snow under leather boots.
He looked up to see the second, black-clad teen by his side, curved blade coated in coal to keep it unseen in the light from the mirrorlike snow, and wool coat speckled with white flakes like stars. He met the hollow blackness in the hood where eyes should have been.
The time was fast approaching.
Weiss looked at herself in the mirror. The cracks in the glass pane ran parallel to the marks on her face, splitting the pale complexion in two. In that fluorescent blue light, she looked even paler than before. Or maybe it was just from being stuck inside for so long. The dark bags under her eyes only added to the disparity.
But it was still her. It would always be her. And to everyone else it would always be a Schnee, a legacy tarnished by time and the actions of a few. History might yet be kind to her family, but she was concerned with the now. She didn't want to live the rest of her life in the shadow of her father, but here on his doorstep it seemed she had no choice.
She had kept the old scar under her eye. She wondered if she would keep the new one, fresh salmon-colored skin running down her forehead through her temple. It would be another reminder of never letting her guard down, another testament to her struggle for independence.
How many more would there be?
How many more would she need before she learned her lessons? How many more until her face was so marred and grotesque that no one, not even her own family would recognize her? Would there ever be enough?
Her fist crashed into the fractured glass, shattering her image and slicing deep into her knuckles. But past those droplets of splattered blood, and the spiderweb scars which broke up that perfect image, it was still her. That pale skin and perfect profile, even in a mirrored fun house would still be Weiss Schnee.
She drew her hand back and stared at it. Deep, clean cuts running rivulets of crimson down her white knuckles and into the waiting basin. There was so much blood she couldn't even recognize her own hand.
She couldn't smash that image of herself no matter how hard she tried. It wasn't fair, but she knew this.
She found the sewing kit she carried everywhere, resting on the sink. She fished around, pulling out a naked razor blade.
There was no single thing she could do to change the way people saw her.
There was only a way to start.
"Not bad…"
He wasn't sure if she was commenting on the way he dodged her blast, or the sheer quantity of death he had delivered before even being noticed. Judging by the cruel glint in her eye, it could have been both.
"With a few more years, we might have even asked you to join. But did you really think you could take us out so easily?" She crossed her arms in condescension, icy blue eyes looking down upon him as he crouched low to the ground just beyond where the earth was torn asunder.
He held his tongue, not wanting to give his teammates away and not wanting to be baited into attacking, like he was prone to do. He was the one who held the advantage now, the lifeless tents around them silently testifying.
"You think that taking out a few weaklings means you're hot shit? Please, kid. They were nothing compared to me, and even less compared to our leader." She continued to mill about lazily in her minimalistic clothing, unaffected by the motionless cold.
"They were your comrades." He couldn't hold himself any longer, his voice quivering with rage. "How can you dismiss them so casually?"
"They were pawns." She spat the word like a bad taste. "Something you're going to have to learn sooner or later, the strong survive and the weak die. Well," She smirked and unfolded her arms, planting one on her hip. He felt the hairs on his ears stand on end as it seemed she was done gloating. "you'll find out soon enough."
He hopped back as another lightning bolt lit up the night sky and struck the ground where he just was, the ice sublimating into a gaseous vapor which obscured his retreat. She laughed haughtily but followed him through the colorless cloud.
"Running away already? How disappoint-"
A hand reached out through the mist to cut her off mid-jibe. The punch sent her to a knee, but she was quick to pick herself back up. Or rather, she would have, if midway through the movement a felt-wrapped foot hadn't shot out of the same cloud, sending her barreling back over the fire.
He felt himself smirk underneath the borrowed hood as he stepped out of the air and onto the ground. He took back his earlier reluctance, it wouldn't be that hard to make himself fight this royal bitch.
"You little shit…" Across the waning fire she pushed herself back onto her feet. She wiped her hand across her mouth, snagging the dribble of blood coming down. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hit a girl?"
He didn't answer. He just shifted his twin daggers into his hands under the pall of his cloak. The smile on her face excited him, promising him an entertaining fight. But the half-crazed predatory glint in her eye made him shy away. It reminded him of why he was here, and the profuse amount of blood already spilled for her capture. This wasn't something he could take lightly.
She saw the young man's hands shift under his shroud, presumably drawing his weapon. She decided she hit a nerve and was unhesitant to hammer upon it.
"What's the matter?" She shifted into a more prepared stance with feet firmly planted on the ground and arms held in tense anticipation at her side. Her ear's twitched as the second intruder hovered just outside of her cognizance. "Someone have mommy issues? Did she go and leave you all alone with a deadbeat dad?"
He wasn't listening anymore as he charged across the camp circle at her, blades held low almost scraping the ground. For once he wished he had a ranged weapon.
She smirked as her provocative remarks appeared to strike true, and the foolhardy youth ran straight at her despite the fire pit planted firmly between them. For all his apparent skills at assassination, he was too quick to anger and too brash to amount to a serious threat to someone like her. She didn't know what her leader saw in the two of them, but it wasn't her place to question.
Everything about her, from her short-cut auburn hair to her unwillingly bestowed power was Raven's to command. Vernal was, and had always been a weapon. But for Raven, she would be so gladly.
And the elements were her weapon as she bent them to her will. The sudden onset of a spring storm blew through the camp and streamed into the dying campfire, waxing it anew and spitting forth orange flames at the charging assassin.
She felt the shock as the young man faltered in his attack and was soon consumed by the flames. She charged in herself immediately afterwards, knowing that the attack was all bark and no bite without the fuel for combustion. The huddled black cloak appeared silhouetted in the flames as she leapt through the blinking embers.
The wakizashi she brandished, a gift from her leader and mentor, struck out at the still smoldering mound of fur like the stinger of a wasp. She had enough control about her to aim for a non-vital area. Her orders had been to take them alive, if possible, and she would never live down the shame if she failed to do just that.
She needn't have worried, for the blade snagged on the empty cloak instead of passing cleanly through it. And as the cape was pulled back like a magician's big reveal, she was confronted only with an abandoned spear planted firmly in the ground, propping up the ruse.
She bit back a curse, but turned on her heel, flicking the furred garment out at her opponent who was about to strike her from behind. He too was snagged on the thick material but seemed to flow around it, second blade already free to engage her as her boots struggled to find footing on the ice.
The dagger skittered off the marginally longer blade, sparks leaping off and dying into the night with the last of the embers. She kicked out at the younger male who was trying to get into her guard, but had to quickly retract her leg as the second blade whizzed dangerously close. With a grunt of effort, she used her height to force her attacker to disengage, and backed off half a pace to take advantage of her superior reach.
But the enemy was undeterred by the obvious inequality, and continued to press her headless of her ranged killing zone. His smaller size and ferocity of attacks made him dangerous at close range, but he still had to get to her first.
She warded him off with the short sword at arm's length held parallel to the ground. He nipped at the bait, knocking the tip back and forth with his knives as he skirted around her defensive stance, but with only a flick of the wrist her sword was back on target, and he had yet to find an opening. Now she had him going at her pace, and had only to hold him off to charge up another attack and subdue him.
Her delaying tactic only lasted a second before he abandoned trying to find a way around, and simply stepped through her guard and her blade. Her mouth hung open for a fraction of a second before her instincts kicked in and she threw herself back. But it was long enough for the bone-handled dagger to score a deep cut in her arm which nearly caused her to drop her precious blade.
"You bastard!" She cried out, the elements shrieking out with her until their voices united and became a roaring crack.
He had to drop his semblance quickly to avoid being atomized by the blindingly hot bolt which seared the very air above his head. In fact, the magnetic field surrounding the artificial lightning was so strong that he was thrown back violently, crashing through two of the unoccupied tents and barreling off into the darkness.
The brunette heaved deeply trying to catch her breath after the last attack. She had complete control of her maiden powers for some time now, but commanding lightning in such quick succession was still draining. She winced as she tried to raise her right arm and felt the severed muscles scream out in protest.
She glared down at the weeping wound with unrestrained disgust before tracing the severed line in her bicep with two left fingers. Static sparks plumed off behind them, closing the cut up with a tingling flash and the smell of burnt flesh which overcame that of lingering ozone.
She transferred the blade into her left and gave it a couple of experimental swings. Not her preference, but she had been trained so that it wouldn't be too much of a burden. Besides, her opponent wouldn't be expecting this ability, and was probably thinking that he had just about won the fight. How wrong he was.
Wherever he was.
She frowned as she approached the collapsed structures, probing them only uncovered her long-dead comrades. There was no trace of the uncloaked youth, nor even any footprints indicating where he had gone. But then she recalled the phenomenon which had cost her mobility of her arm, and she closed her eyes in frustration.
Only she wasn't. She was calming herself down to better read the environment around her. She was the Spring Maiden. She was the patron of new life, and everything living was within her ken.
As she stood stock still in the darkened camp, moonlight seemed to spotlight her as something of consequence began to take place. All around her feet, the perpetual ice sheet began to recede, radiating out from where she stood like a ripple on a quiescent lake. The air above shimmered as the abrupt warmth mingled with the cold. Not too far away, aura spiked at the shock of the approaching bubble.
"Got you."
Compared to harnessing the natural power of electricity, heating things up by a few degrees was a walk in the park. She held out her hand and the universally expanding heat bubble was concentrated in a column, projected out in the direction of the aura flare.
It wasn't so much like a burning sensation when the first tendrils of hot air reached him. In fact, it almost tickled. Tickled, like an unreachable itch running down the tract of his windpipe. Then it was like tearing, but tearing not of flesh from flesh, but muscle from bone, matter from mind.
And then in one swift movement that coincided with the clenching of her fist, he was forced out of his suspended state and onto the still snow-covered ground, reeling from the lingering pain in his chest that felt like his heart was trying to leap out of it.
Repaying his action, she gave him no time to recuperate and was on top of him before he could so much as glance up. He still managed to parry the wakizashi which tried to pin him to the ground, but could do nothing for the boot which smacked across his masked face. He couldn't see anything as his face was buried into the snow. His head was still spinning when he rolled over in time to avoid a curb-stomp meant to drive him into unconsciousness.
He wasn't even fully awake when he threw himself off the ground and engaged the violent woman in another close-quarters blade-fight. He just let his instinct guide his hands and his blades, repetitious form being drilled into his body which was a clean slate, and soaked up muscle memory like the savory taste of Ramen he was genetically geared to enjoy.
Their blades struck ferociously at one another, animal against animal as the fight returned to a primordial bout deciding the fate of the world. The hot air danced and swirled around the two like a typhoon, melting snow lifted into the air only to rain back down on the fighters and mingle along with sweat on their concentrated brows.
They were one in the same phenomena on that earthly plain. But they would always be fundamentally different, as one strove to rip off the veneer of humanity, and the other tried desperately to realize it.
He pinned her blade between both of his and suddenly realized he had been forced into a ring. The bubble of warmth a stage of her choosing. She had already managed to understand his Semblance and find a counter. He mentally ran through the eventualities as he struggled against the standstill. She must have seen the realization in his eyes, because she allowed her vanishing smirk to show itself once again.
"Finally figuring it out, brat?" She yelled above the now roaring wind. "You're no match for me. I have you right where I want you. Give up now and I might even spare your life."
He scoffed and snuck out a low kick towards her left leg which was trembling just slightly more than the other. Her smirk grew in turn as her knee shot up to intercept and she pressed down on his now unbalanced form with her superior weight.
Suddenly realizing his mistake, he dropped to the ground suddenly and shot forward, skating across the slick, muddy surface and between the widely spaced legs of his opponent. The woman faltered at the audacity of the move, but had little time to protest as she was kicked in the rear and sent sprawling, ass over tea-kettle.
She spun on her right elbow pivoting in the mud and swung wildly with her sword, warding off the young man trying to get a jump on her.
"You insignificant little twat!" She spat a wad of muck out of her mouth, and with her right arm hurled a glob at the assassin who just cocked his head to the side and avoided the wet projectile.
"Now you've done it," She muttered staggering to her feet. "I was going to be nice and let you live. But now? Now I'm going to make you live. Make you watch as I carve up your little girlfriend in front of you."
He froze in his cautious approach, cold sweat mingling with the mud running down his back. He had assumed she had just been bluffing about knowing who he was and why he was here. But not only was he evidently compromised, all of his friends were by virtue of being associated with him.
Too late, he realized they had been foolishly eager.
She saw the hitch in his step and smiled in victory behind her mud mask.
"Surprised? Of course I know about Raven's daughter. Was she the one who put you up to this, or was this your own little romantic notion?"
He almost let out a breath of relief when she began going off on an unconverging tangent. But he refrained, as new questions popped up in place of the old, further clouding his own grasp of the situation.
He fiddled with the knives in his hands as he considered what to do next. The plan was still to capture her alive and hopefully find the relic with her assistance. The need for information only furthered this plan of action. The only question was if he was still up to the task.
"You think I care if she finds out I killed her?" She saw him play with his knives and assumed he was considering betraying her to her leader. "Hell, I bet she'd thank me. I know she has a soft spot for that blonde bimbo. And if there is one thing she's taught me, it's that those kinds of weaknesses aren't something we can afford in this world."
There was only one way to find out.
He wasn't going to allow her any more words, he needed to end this as soon as possible. Shifting his blades into reverse grip, he dug his heels into the soft ground and crouched down, acting on a thought made in the spur of a moment. Surely Qrow wouldn't mind if she was missing a limb or two.
She sensed an immanent building of energy coming from her masked enemy and immediately rose to action, gathering her own dynamism into the shell behind her, using the dense, moist air like a capacitor.
Both energies were released at once. Twin blades of cold wind like liquid steel flew at the Maidan as a bolt traveling at a fraction the speed of light struck down from the bubble's ceiling on top of him.
She threw herself to the side just as the crossing blades tore up the earth besides her and shaved a few hairs from her head. Her weapon was caught in the passing, though, and the top third was neatly sheared from the grip.
He was not so lucky.
Once again, the bolt missed him only by a small margin, the speed of electricity still greater than he could currently hope to surpass. And like last time, he was close enough to be severely affected by the magnetic field which spiraled around the current and blasted him back into the stormfront wall.
Rather than stop him completely, the dense lens refracted his path, hurtling him back towards the earth which had re-solidified in the sub-zero temperatures. He bounced only once before rolling along the ground, sliding to a halt in a crunch of broken ice and bones. Still, he struggled to pick himself back up, Aura already kicking in to heal what it could.
But as soon as he turned over on his back, a heavy foot pressed down on his windpipe.
"Dang… so close." She looked at her broken blade in pity before turning her cold blue gaze at him and sneering. "Life isn't fair, is it?" She ground the toe of her boot further up into his neck under his chin, cutting off any response that might have been forming. "Well, you did break my sword, something precious to me. I really should take something of equal value from you, but I'm feeling generous."
She raised the cleanly severed hilt above her head, the remaining third cut as straight as a guillotine.
"I'll just settle for your life, instead."
Before she could make so much as a twitch towards claiming her prize, a shadow descended on the two of them against the light of the moon. She saw the reflection of the shadowed figure in his eyes just before the blade struck, and she lashed out with the broken hilt for defense.
The paltry weapon saved her head from being severed, but it was knocked far out of her grasp and she was left completely exposed as the blunt end of the curved blade snapped back and bit her in the face. She stumbled backwards, releasing him from under her heal.
A black gloved hand reached down, offering him help up which he gratefully accepted. No words were spoken between the two of them as they turned from each other and back against the battered woman.
She snarled at them with pearly white teeth stained a muddy burgundy from her bleeding lip. They both started to slowly flank her with weapons drawn, twin knives like fangs and a scorpion tail of a blade on either side.
"Two on one?" She chuckled darkly while quietly as possible she gathered her powers. "That hardly seems fair."
"Hmm." The newcomer harrumphed with a familiar contempt, and she felt his dark-hued eyes stare down at her beleaguered form. "I would have thought that someone like you would have known by now…"
She took a step back as the two drew ever nearer, but in that simple movement, a foreboding feeling was revealed as she crossed paths with another new presence. A darkly powerful, but oddly familiar sensation which loomed just over her shoulder.
"…life is never fair, kid."
"Finally." Yang flopped backwards on a pile of waiting lumber, wiping her brow and throwing the snow shovel down disgustedly. Using Ember Celica would have been easier, but according to her team, also a waste of good dust and a provocation they didn't need.
It had taken the better part of the morning, but team RWBY with the help of sympathetic townsfolk had managed to clear the remaining parcels of their recent snowfall. The hope was to have the last three families moved in by the end of that day, but with the short daylight they had available to them it wasn't looking likely. Just prepping the foundations had exhausted them, and they reluctantly agreed to break for lunch now rather than interrupt work later. It would take a concentrated effort, but if they devoted every last minute of the remaining workday, they might just meet their goal.
But they couldn't get anything done without fuel to burn, and in their haste to leave that morning they had neglected to take their prepared lunch with them. Food wasn't a problem for the robotic girl, and so she volunteered to fetch something. Of course they had also forgotten to check on their fourth member, who had been even more aloof than usual since her talking to from Blake. They hadn't even seen her when they got up that morning.
"Here you go." The three recovering huntresses looked up from their individual breaks to see two, neatly bundled parcels set down on the hub of an obsolete crane.
"Awesome! That was fast, thanks Penn-!" Ruby's cry of elation was cut short as she realized that this was not the person she had been expecting. The lack of hair and bulky orange coat made that obvious. The stranger turned and blinked confusedly at the suddenly mortified girl.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I took you for someone else. I don't think we've met mister-er-miss-uh…brother?" Ruby struggled with her apology, stabbing wildly at the person's identity and wildly missing the mark when she guessed 'monk'.
The look of confusion on the large, yet oddly familiar faced morphed before their eyes into a smile, as if happy at being unknown to the three. But that was before their team captain started guessing at the proper way to address the stranger, and their face fell into a look of furious disbelief. They opened their mouth to unleash a harangue like no other.
"Sorry I am late everyone!" Just then Penny showed up from the far end of the construction site, several paper cartons perfectly balanced on one hand as she approached the motley group with an oblivious greeting.
"I couldn't find the meal that I had prepared last night in the kitchen, so I had to stop by the canteen and purchase other sustenance." She set down the too-tall stack of takeout right next to the other parcel brought by the stranger who Penny had just interrupted and continued to overlook.
She noticed the other stack of food before the person, blinking owlishly in surprise before her gaze shifted upwards. The look of confusion continued for only another fraction of a beat before her normally unflappable smile overcame the illogical situation.
"Good morning Weiss! So glad that you could join us!"
The other three huntresses looked at the cherry-faced and hairless young woman with disbelieving looks of scrutiny. Ruby even took out a group picture and held it up for comparison. It wasn't until the woman's icy-blue eye started to twitch dangerously that any of them made the leap of faith.
"I like what you have done with your hair." Penny quipped cheerily.
"EEH-!"
"Don't you dare!"
A collective expression of shock was cut short as Weiss held out a single accusatory finger to her shocked teammates. They all stopped cold with the look of fear being sent their way.
Weiss sighed and let the anger slip away in favor of a little observed humility.
"Look, I know I have been acting a little… childish as of late. And for that, I want to apologize." She looked at Blake who was immediately ensnared by the uncluttered visage. "Especially to you, Blake. I know we've been through this before, but I just want to let you know that I'm starting to understand and appreciate what the Faunus have been through."
The dark-haired woman nodded appreciatively but remained silent. Weiss continued.
"I'll never fully understand, of course. But I should take what examples you've shown me and put it to good use. I know I'm not well liked here." They each took cautious looks around at the Faunus workers who were watching the gathering with suspicion, but Weiss continued to ignore them. "That's no excuse for not helping you though. It's no excuse for not helping them. I wanted to be a huntress to prove that I'm not like my father, but I didn't understand what it meant to do that.
"It means that I have to go outside my comfort zone. Do what I know is right in spite of, not despite the obstacles against me." She looked past the four to the townsfolk who had apparently caught on and were shooting dower looks in her direction before turning back to her friends. "In the future, no matter what I'll stand by you guys." Like you do for me.
While the other three held in cascades of tears at the heart wrenching scene in front of them, Blake just smirked and sauntered up to the formerly white-haired girl who was kicking her booted feet in the mud, waiting for confirmation. She placed a hand on the woman's new coat and she looked up.
"What took you so long?" Weiss smiled back softly.
"Sorry, I had to stop and drop some things off… and get some 'new' clothes."
She scratched her arms in what looked like embarrassment. But it was just the wool coat she had on which itched like crazy. The saffron-colored and threadbare garment she had exchanged for her usual, pristine designer coat which was hopefully keeping someone in the community warm. It went a long way to Ruby's confusing her with a monk, and it didn't help that the rest of her outfit had also seen a downgrade.
"And… the hair?" Ruby poked her head over Blake's shoulder. The woman rolled her eyes and caught her childish leader by the ear. Amidst pained cries, Weiss managed a small smile as she explained.
"Well, I guess I went a little… overboard with that." She answered, not admitting the darker thoughts she'd entertained with razor in hand. "It's just, I realized that my appearance is what caused a lot of the animosity directed towards me here. Just as it does outside of here." She realized now just how hard it was to pretend to be something you weren't, and thus just how hard Faunus really had it.
"And while I can't change the fact that I'm human, I can change how I look." Of course, there were even more drastic things she could do. More drastic things individuals of the Faunus species had done in order to remain anonymous. She just hoped it was enough to convince some of the more die-hard of her detractors.
Of course, she would find out soon enough, as the leader of her opposition approached swiftly from an alley leading to the main street.
"Schnee." She sneered as she walked up to the student team who gathered around their comrade to head off any potential confrontation. The aging woman stopped just in front of the defiant Weiss who stood unmoved. "I thought I told you that you weren't welcome here."
"Madame Vashmont," She inclined her head in deference to her elder who looked ready to gore Weiss with her horns. "You did indeed make that clear. However, I don't need to be welcome in order to do my duty."
"You're here for our benefit girl. And right now, the best thing you could do for us is to leave."
"And my friends?"
"They can stay, and finish the task they started."
"Then I will stay too and help them to help you."
"Now listen here, girl-"
"With all due respect ma'am, I will not."
As the argument grew more heated, they attracted more and more attention. Soon the construction site was surrounded by curious onlookers who waded into the ankle-deep mud to see what their leader was doing to do with the obstinate Schnee. Weiss ignored them, and focused all of her restrained determination at the weathered face which was staring down at her.
"I have listened and abided by everything you have told me since the minute I set foot in your town. And by doing so, I ignored my duty not only to my superior, not only to my teammates who could have used my help, but to myself as well. I decided to become a huntress to prove to everyone that I was different than my father. But by doing so I also took an oath to help people in need, whether they like it or not."
Weiss's words were not above a respectful volume, but they rang out over the icy yard, through the silent crowds and into the thick woodlands beyond.
"You Schnee are all the same." The graying woman's voice was equally icy, and made the huntresses flinch. "No, you humans are the same. You strut around as if you have all the answers. You condemn our race as inferior, yet the history of humanity is nothing but a recap of past mistakes. What gives you the gal to think that what are doing is the right thing by us?"
"Because I have made mistakes and I'm trying to learn from them." Weiss clenched her gloveless fist, blue fingers turning red as she thought back on how many lives her mistakes had cost. "I'm just asking for a chance to try and make things right."
"By what? By giving away a few clothes? By getting a haircut?" Weiss felt her cheeks heat up, but bore the embarrassment with as much quiet dignity as she could muster. That was her intention, after all. To show that she was not shallowly concerned with appearance, and that she could in fact could swallow her inherited pride. "You think one little change can undo generations of hatred against our kind from your people?"
"I'm not trying to undo human history," She flexed her fingers that were going numb. "I'm just trying to fix my own. Please," She let go of the tension she had been holding and bowed her head, exposing the clumsily shaven back of her neck to the esteemed village elder. An instinctual sign of submission, no matter what the language. "please just let me do my job."
There was a brief moment in which all the observers wondered if the old woman was going to reach out and snap that petit neck like a twig, given so perfect an opportunity. Had she known, she would have scoffed at them. She had not aged so gracefully without learning restraint. Not that the thought hadn't crossed her mind.
But the seconds passed in which nothing happened. Seconds past in which the cold wind tickled the back of Weiss's neck and made her realize for the first time just how much she truly missed having her hair. The woman's voice, now wearier than any of team RWBY now felt, relieved her from her genuflect.
"One week," Weiss looked up to see the woman turned away from her. "Ten days. Do you think that in those ten days you can compensate for a single lifetime of mistreatment?"
"Ma'am," The young woman felt a smile worm its way onto her face, more optimistic than even the one her teammate had elicited. "I can start."
"Then best get to it, you're wasting daylight." She cast the remark behind her as she walked through the stunned crowd that parted for her. She then stopped and turned around. "Oh, and get a hat to hide that hideous head of yours for goodness sake."
Weiss's smile never left as she nodded to the venerable woman and turned around to face the task at hand. Drawing a concentrated breath, she flexed her Aura for the first time in days. An instant later the stack of wood Yang had been reposing on shot up into the air, white glyphs around their midsection. They flew over to their proper positions which had already been marked out in chalk, and with little extra effort were sunk deep into the ground.
The crossbeams followed shortly after and adhered to the vertical columns with equally-sized black glyphs. Nodding to herself, Weiss walked over to where her captain stood continually gob smacked. Giving her leader a simple smile and a nod, she reached past her and grabbed the hammer and nails before turning back to her work.
The other four watched her before Yang sighed and began to roll her sleeves up once again. She was stopped by Blake, though, who shook her head and pointed to their formerly-gloomy teammate.
"Look." She urged. Yang did, and saw the intense look of determination on the sheltered girl's face. And, dare she say, contentment?
"Come on, let's get some food and then go help her." They turned back to see both the meal that Weiss had delivered alongside the plethora of food Penny had brought in addition. They pondered over what to do with the excess before they noticed the other workers standing about watching the young woman work, afraid to get in her way.
"Well, at least it won't go to waste."
They called the other Faunus over to share in their repast. For the hard work they had done continually over the past week and for a lifetime, they had earned it. They all ate ravenously while Weiss toiled away. Sometimes they would wince if the woman happened to injure herself because of a novice mistake. But then they would see her work out her frustrations, and dive back into the task with renewed vigor.
Soon enough they would be back at it too.
He only had a second to realize what was happening before all their hard efforts that night would be lost. A half-crazed smirk, a depraved wink of the eye from the woman and Qrow shot forward. Jamming two fingers into her mouth, he had to bite back his own cry of pain as she bit down hard enough to cut flesh down to bone.
"Please refrain from doing that." The man bit out as his captive gagged on the offending digits. His two accomplices watched from behind him with looks of shock and scrutiny.
"If I remove my hand, can you promise me that you won't try to bite your tongue off again?" Blue eyes like lightning bolts trying to fry him was the only response he received. He would have liked to keep them there a little bit longer, make the woman deal with gouge she just put in his hand and suffer the blood trying to drown her. But he had little choice in the matter. They needed questions answered, and they needed them now.
She coughed and choked and spat when he pulled his hand back. He turned abruptly on his heel while clamping down on the injured appendage. He nodded sharply to Sasuke to take over as he stomped off to find a bandage and work off a little pent up frustration.
The dark-haired boy reluctantly approached the formerly dangerous woman now bound to a tree and further restrained with Aura-suppressing cuffs. He took a knee in front of her as she glowered at him.
"Your name is Vernal." He stated evenly, as if reciting a recipe. "You're the Spring Maiden. You have possession of the relic entrusted to you." She growled deeply like a caged animal but didn't respond. "These are things we already know."
"So I bet you want to know where I hid it, huh?" She smirked, baring her teeth. It didn't faze Sasuke in the least. He had seen much worse.
"If you feel like telling me." He shrugged nonchalantly. She spat a wad of blood in his face and it dribbled down his nose from his forehead.
"What do you think?"
"I think…" Sasuke began as he carefully wiped the spittle from his face, not showing any visible sign of agitation. "…that I have many other questions I'd like to get answered. Since you're being difficult I'm going to focus on the most important one. Now, we can do this the easy way or-"
"-Or what, the hard way?" She laughed at him but choked on some blood that made it down the wrong pipe. "In case you haven't noticed," She wheezed out, "I'm prepared to die for my leader. Nothing you say to me can make me betray her, so you're just wasting your time."
"No," Sasuke said patiently. "Wasting our time would be to come all the way here and have you kill yourself. We went through a lot of effort to take you alive, so it isn't that much more to make sure we get what we need. So rest assured, we can be here a long time if that's what you want." The woman found herself falter slightly at the callous way this mere teen was addressing her, staring at her like she was already a corpse.
"Now, that isn't what I want, so why don't you just make this easy on the both of us and answer my question?"
Sasuke leaned into her face, so close their foreheads were almost touching. He reached out and grabbed her, making sure she couldn't turn away, as his thumb peeled her eyelid wide open. Vernal was breathing hard at the sudden aggressive motion and the feeling of helplessness that came when staring point-blank into the young man's eyes.
She had seen some fearful things, strange things in her short time alive. There were people that even made her leader look like a child, and those were some of the people they were running from. But this man, this boy, he had eyes like them. The moment she locked on to those bleak stain glass windows of crimson and black, she knew that she would have fallen to her knees and begged for forgiveness.
"Now tell me: where the hell is Raven?"
Addendum: you can tell how messed up I am because I forgot the scene breaks first time around. Also, little note: Vashmont is like French for "Totally". Literally, it translates to something like "Cow-ly". Just for a giggle.