Chapter 21:

We. Keep. Going.

A thin layer of snow had become now a thick blanket upon the exterior of the Dove, it was a heavy snowfall by the time Yang and Blake wanted to begin their journey to the city. The jet had become just another snowy mogul upon the blinding vastness of the white that was Atlas; wisps of snow skirted around on the icy surface of the lake, the falling flakes didn't seem to stick to the mirror-like floor, exposing the clear see through ice.

The interior was cold as both girls prepared themselves for the walk into to town, Yang was packing her backpack with the necessities and at the same time finishing off some food they brought with them. They had disassembled the tent when they woke up, it opened up access to the exit hatch, they just had to work up to taking the steps outside.

As Yang was taking the last few bites of breakfast, which was something akin to dried meat she noticed Blake had left hers untouched, her current neutral expression became a slight bit annoyed. "Blaaaake... " Yang grumbled. " Hmm? Yes?" Blake looked up from her own backpack in which she was stuffing things into. "Eat something." Yang spoke sternly.

Blake sighed and complied. "Fine..." Blake quickly ate what she could and zipped up her backpack. Both girls now stood in the midst of the small passenger section, facing each other with nervous expressions. Yang asked. "So where do you think we should start? Weiss is probably at her home but getting in there will be... difficult I bet." Blake shrugged shifting her weight to a different side. "Let's just focus on getting there... oh! Check the manifest for any clothing."

Yang opened her scroll, looking for anything she could find. "Yeah... in C1, doesn't say what though..." Blake moved to the aforementioned compartment, she opened it. "There's a bomber jacket and an overcoat, I'll take the coat, here." Blake passed yang a brown bomber jacket and they both slipped on their make shift winter clothing. TC appeared before the both of them in a sudden small flash of light.

"Good thinking, it is currently minus five Celsius outside, and as I said there is still some Grimm activity going on though it is strange I can not determine what kind of Grimm it is... curious." Blake faced the tiny A.I. "Thank you, say is there any way we can reach you from outside the Dove?" TC spoke again. "Why yes indeed there is, Yang hold out your scroll towards me." Yang cocked an eyebrow at TC then glanced to Blake who nodded, prompting her to do it.

"Here ya' go lil' dude..." Yang extended her scroll and TC placed a hand on the screen, where his hand touched a golden light illuminated the spot, after a few seconds it disappeared, he spoke again. "I've created a kind of phone number that you can call to reach me, I'm available as long as I'm still functioning." Yang nodded and pocketed her scroll, she looked to Blake.

"Ready?" Yang asked, Blake only nodded in response as she turned to face the exit. "TC, open it." Blake spoke calmly. The hatch opened slowly, the outside light shined through into the Dove, it was nearly blinding but there they were, in the tundra's of Atlas.

Gusts of snow blew into the Dove on the light winds of the outside, some hit the girls' skin making them shiver and recoil, a wanton welcome. Yang put on her sunglasses to mitigate the bright light the snow gave off, Blake on the other hand was fine due to her Faunus features.

Yang was the first out the door, she paused slightly before lifting her right foot and then planting it into Atlas terrain, she kept walking on to the ice with Blake right behind her.

"Team RWBY has landed..." The blonde whispered to herself then spoke again. "Hey... you see the Grimm he was talking about? All I see is... white." Blake took a few glances around before drawing Gambol Shroud. "No I don't... just be careful." Yang turned on her two weapons and continued a calm walk to the south east.

"Ice might not be the same thickness in some places... watch your step." Blake stated as she took cautious steps across the surface. "Yeah..." Yang kept her eye's down. Yang could feel the snow piling on top of her head as she kept looking down, her breath visible but something happened to the ice beneath her feet, its colour became suddenly darker.

Something was under the ice, some monstrosity of a Grimm. It made the hair on Yang's neck stand up, an ominous feeling, the kind of feeling that grabs you with the fear of the unknown.

"Blake? You see it?" Yang came to a halt and Blake did the same as she looked down to view the odd behaviour of their footing. "I do... don't move... I think it's a Hellshell." Without moving Yang turned her head back to speak to her partner. "A... a-a fuckin' what now!?" Blake rolled her eyes and spoke. "Did you pay any attention in class."

Blake scanned the ice further with worried eyes. "It's a Grimm that resembles a turtle except... massive and nigh impossible to kill... I don't know if it knows we're here or not." Yang sighed and spoke. "Great... so what do we do then?" As she finished speaking the shadow under the ice moved in front of them and Blake was right it was huge, they couldn't see it directly but they could easily guess it was about fifteen to twenty feet long, with it now ahead of them they could see it's red glowing eye's through the layer of ice.

Blake looked to the horizon at the edge of the lake and just ahead of them she could barely make out what seemed to be a shack or possibly a log house, she made a plan. "Ok see that house up ahead, we're making a run for it and hopefully it gives up by the time we get on land, got it?" Yang nodded before getting ready to run, Blake made the same stance.

With fleeted feet they were off, both girls ran with haste as they felt falling snow hitting their face's as they darted across the ice. The Hellshell swam underneath their feet following them, it's massive size cast a shadow on every bit of terrain they trekked, Blake thought to herself. 'Shit! This won't work...' She spoke. "Yang! Fly us out of here!"

Yang looked to her right side as she heard Blake's words, just before she took action the Hellshell made it's move. At first it was a quick sound of ice breaking then chunks of thick ice came flying at them accompanied by the head of the Hellshell. It had massive black jaws, it's head was coated in scales of the classic Grimm face mask. It made a snap at Yang who had to dash backwards with her airburst.

The girls ran past it and the beast growled loud, then submerged to resume hunting them from below. Blake yelled at Yang. "I'll throw you my gun and ribbon!" With that, Blake hurled her pistol at Yang, the blonde had to spin around to catch it, being on her right side but she received it effortlessly. "Got it!" She yelled and Blake replied. "Ok! Let's go!" Blake tightened her grip on her end of the black ribbon.

Yang stopped running and summoned all of her aura to handle the combined weight, she took a knee and blasted upwards, destroying the ice beneath her, Blake was soon airborne as Yang tugged her upwards, about ten feet below Yang. The Hellshell used the ice Yang destroyed as a target and swam upwards to try and catch them in its jaws.

It shot up from the ice once again, extending it's neck as far as it could go. Blake shrieked as she viewed the monstrosity coming for her with an open mouth, but it wasn't stopping, it kept climbing up. It was going to get her if she didn't do something.

It may have been out of instinct or luck but Blake left a shadow clone of herself as bait for the beast to stop it's upward assault and it worked. It snapped it's jaws destroying the clone, Blake's eye's were wide and her breath was heavy. Both girls now were too high to fear another attack, Yang carried them to the southeastern shoreline, it seemed the Grimm was done, it gave up.

It spied the girls from a distance and eventually submerged once again as it growled out of frustration, it swam completely out of view.

Yang set Blake down first on to the snow then herself; she wiped some sweat off of her forehead then spoke. "Geez... how close was that, here's your weapon back... did you see how thick its scales were? Glad we didn't fight it." Blake took it and sheathed her weapon. "Too close... too close." They had arrived at the house they spotted earlier, both girls were still facing the lake, Blake turned around to face another obstacle.

She let out an 'eep' as she was face to face with an old man, Yang turned to see what the commotion was and shouted. "Ah! who tha' hell are you!?" It was a short old man with too thick of eyebrows to see his eyes and a very large grey moustache, he was hunched over when he spoke. "Name's Smoke... an' this be ma' house yer' at girly."

Blake muttered under her breath. "What the fuck is wrong with Atlas..." She spoke audibly now, seemingly adjusted to the new problem in front of her. "You live next door to a Hellshell? Anyone ever tell you that might not be wise?" She pointed out towards the icy lake."

Yang scoffed and scratched her head, turning away from the awkward old man, not knowing how to switch between the rapid scenarios, she just separated herself. "I been known to see a thing or two in ma day, ol' Shirley don' usually act like that."Smoke replied.

Blake had a look of confusion and spoke. "Are you... ok?" Smoke gave a short laugh and said. "Been known ta' be called whacked out ma' brain too hehe." Blake looked over to Yang with a shocked expression, Yang only laughed in return. Blake mouthed the words 'What the fuck is going on?'

Blake shook her head, but as she did she noticed a road near them, she saw it as a topic change and possibly an escape from the old man. "Just... tell me one thing, can we take that road to get into the city?" Smoke spoke some more of his homemade jargon. "See na' you's wanna go down to da' end dere see? den' take da' dirt left an-" Yang was laughing out loud at this point, taking steps away from the two. Blake's jaw was dropped when she looked to Yang.

She stuck her thumb out to the road and spoke. "This guy's crazy... let's just go." Yang kept laughing as they walked away from Smoke, setting foot on the road. "I's gon' watch yer' flappy flier for ya's den." Blake groaned as they walked away.

"Seriously, could you understand him like at all?" Blake questioned, Yang finished laughing then spoke as they kept walking. "Grimm attack aside that was entertaining as hell, no I have no idea what he was talking about but that old man right there, that's the old man I aspire to be." Yang giggled a few more times as the kept travelling down the snowy road. "Yeah real funny, things just need to slow down right now."

Blake groaned again as she took steps down the road, they couldn't see the city yet but they were closer than they knew, each step a little bit closer to Weiss, a little closer to being whole again.

The road was mostly slushy ice and some solid snow, large snow banks on either side of them, it seemed someone maintained it as there were sets of tire tracks that appeared relatively new. The road had twists and turns in it but they followed the compass on Yang's scroll, it was evident that they were on track although the city was still not visible yet.

It took a good twenty minutes of walking to see some resemblance of skyscrapers but they still had a bit of a walk to go, the thin road they were traversing eventually led into a much larger area, seems they were on a country road. At this point they were coming up on some buildings beyond the outskirts of the city one was a large brick building that had crude words painted on its side that spelled 'Food and warmth' Yang was confused and wanted to get a closer look.

The country road merged into a highway, and the building was on the other side, Yang spoke before they crossed. "I wanna' check that place out, maybe ask a few questions bout' Weiss." Yang began to scan the highway looking for the right time to cross, Blake spoke. "I don't know if that's a good idea Yan-" Yang yelled. "Now!" The blonde spotted a lull in the traffic and dashed across the highway as Blake regrettably followed her.

They approached the building that said 'Food and warmth' Yang had no clue as to what it was, she had never seen anything like it before, she was too far ahead of Blake for her to stop her. Blake thought while trailing behind. 'She doesn't know... she doesn't know what this place is.'

There was a young woman sitting outside leaning against the building with a blanket wrapped over her, she was a mouse Faunus and she held a sign that said. 'Refugee. Spare some Lien' Yang was standing right in front of her as Blake finally caught up. Yang kneeled down to the woman's height and asked. "What are you doing here? Are you like... lost" The woman shook her head and replied. "No... can't be lost if you have nowhere to go heh... I'm from Vale, well... I used to live near... Beacon, I was evacuated here and now I can't get back... doesn't matter, I lost everything there anyway." Yang gulped at the words she heard and immediately searched her pockets, she pulled out twenty Lien and placed it in her hands.

"T-take it, it's yours...I-uh no wait hold on take this too..." She pulled out another twenty Lien eagerly giving it to the woman. Blake placed a hand on Yang's shoulders. "That was kind... but we should go."

Yang returned to stand and waved a short goodbye to the woman, and they walked to the corner to come around to the front of the building, Blake thought they were going to the back an unfortunate mistake.

As they turned the corner they were met with the stares of at least one hundred more Human and Faunus refugee's, they looked sick and hungry, some were even children. Blake swore under breath as she watched Yang's expression change dramatically, her eyes were wide and tearing up, her mouth was wide open in shock and awe.

Yang rushed to them, she had never seen a homeless person before, she didn't know the reality of it but most of all she felt a torrent of guilt knowing it was her shortcomings that contributed to the Fall of Beacon, to her; this was her fault that these people suffered, she didn't know how to handle the stress and rapid emotions.

"No... no fu-... oh- oh my fuckin' god no." Yang rushed to them, escaping Blake's side. The refugee's were lined up out the door of the building and Yang ran to the very back to work her way up.

"Take it..." She gave the last person in line a ten Lien note, then the next and the next and so on and so forth. Blake only watched with a hand covering her mouth, she was holding back urges to cry at her girlfriend's display of charity. The type of building, she knew it well. She could tell what it was from a mile away but what Yang was doing was completely new to her.

Yang gave her money away like it was candy, but she wasn't rich, she only made it a third up the line before she started searching her pockets in front of the next person holding out their hand. "Um... hold on, I swear I have more... just wai- oh no..." Yang noticed this particular person didn't have a blanket or a coat so she removed her new bomber jacket and handed it over, she moved the next person.

"Blake! Get over here!" Yang called out. Blake rushed to her, asking her as she wiped her own half formed tears away. "Yes?" Yang questioned. "How much money do you have?" Blake spoke. "Like eighty Lien but Yang we can't just give it away... look how many people the-" Yang yelled. "Hand it over now!" The blonde was angry and Blake complied, awe struck at Yang's passion to help. Yang whispered as she grabbed the money.

"That's eight more people I can help then..." She worked her way up through the next eight people before getting down to her last bit of change. She fumbled with the coins in her hand dropping them to the ground.

A couple of refugee children ran over to grab them, seeing this Yang began to break down. She took some steps back, not knowing what to do and she stood there staring at them, Blake finally had enough and intervened. "Come on damn it..." Blake wrapped her arms around Yang's shoulders and tried to drag her away. The blonde immediately stormed off the scene, as she left she heard words from the refugee's like. 'Thank you Miss.' And 'You are so kind.' In Yang's mind that translated to 'Thanks for making me an orphan.' Or 'You could have done more to save us.'

Blake followed her and they found themselves behind the very same building, Yang was pacing while trying to vent. "You saw that right! Those people! If we had more money... Fuck that! If I was stronger! If I could've beat Adam I could've helped Pyrrha beat Cinder and the fucking world would be fine! God fucking damn it!" Blake tried to console the raging blonde.

"It's not on you Yang... there's no telling what could've happened that night." Blake kept her eye's low, subtly thinking of those possibilities. Yang faced Blake and her hair ignited, her eye's growing even more blood red. "It is on me!" There was a small pause, Yang took heavy breathes."It's on you, me, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Ruby, Weiss, All of us! we failed them Blake... every one of em'..." Yang stared into the silent and motionless Blake.

The blonde made a rash decision.

Yang turned to face the building, she wiggled Ember Celica off her arm, exposing her bare fist. She grit her teeth with a growl and slammed her knuckles into the thickness of the building's structure, purposely deciding to not cover her hand in aura, she wanted to feel some pain as though she had to atone, right there and then.

The muscles on her arm tightened as she felt the pain, but her expression was unaffected, Blake motioned to stop her but Yang wanted to keep going. "Don't you fuckin' dare stop me!" Yang spoke without facing her partner; Blake lowered her eyes and let it happen.

The structure vibrated when she punched it, some material crumbled under her knuckles, she wound up another strike. This time with a somewhat loud roar and once again she plunged her fist into the wall. The second time she winced at the pain for but a second then resumed for a third hit. After this one her fist started to bleed but it mattered not, she wasn't done yet she continued for another few strikes, each time more blood and each time Blake cringed at the sight.

She was a in a violent rage, inconsolable anger towards herself and the guilt of her failures, finally after about a dozen wild left straights she felt her hand break. At least two knuckles were fractured, she halted her thirteenth punch mid swing to gaze at her hand.

It was mangled, muscles on the fingers were showing through and it was bleeding profusely, Yang mumbled to herself. "Useless anyways..." Her eye's returned a raged stare at the wall and she struck it again, only instead of her hand it was her forehead. Her head slammed against the hard wall with a resounding crack and she saw stars, she fell back onto the ground and was slightly disoriented, she held her bloodied hand to her head, smearing some onto herself just above her eyebrows, she was sat on the ground dazed.

Blake had enough, she was going to damage herself to much, she kneeled beside the raged blonde and tried to lift her up. "C'mon Yang... tha-that's enough... you won, you beat the wall... we got to go." Yang took a few seconds to reply, her fire extinguished, she looked once more to her hand and began to weep. Tears ran down her face before she spoke in a high pitched sad and crackling tone. "Oh god Blake... Wha- how do we fix... this... how do we make it right, everywhere we go people die..." Blake was stunned at the words, she had no reply, Yang spoke again. "Wha-... what do I do Blake?... god, what do we do?..."

Blake measured the words she heard and tried to make an appropriate response to her crying and distraught partner, she found some words. "We. Keep. Going... simple as that Yang, we have to keep trying... we have to." Blake began to lift Yang to her feet.

Once more Yang was back up to stand, she stared at her hand as Blake spoke. "Let's go, I knew what this place was... I've seen places similar when I was with the Whitefang, I should've stopped you, but... now you know the reality of it all I guess, a hard learned lesson." Yang nodded as she tried to wipe away her tears with her wrist rather than her destroyed hand.

They began to walk away more towards the city now, Blake had her arm around Yang's waist as they walked, Yang spoke. "Blake?" Her girlfriend responded. "Yeah, what's up?" Yang took a deep breath. "I'm sorry... I just... I hate this place." Blake gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and spoke. "I can see why...at least I have you and you have me, we're together and well... being with you is a big reason that keeps me going, now more than ever we have to find those reasons to keep going so we can get Weiss back and Ruby so...I don't know maybe I'm being sappy."

Yang scoffed and said. "I dunno' why you put up with my shit... my anger, I just don't get it." Blake replied. "Because I love you, you big bimbo... get used to it because I'm done running from my problems... guess you could say I found the solution, you."

Yang smiled and blushed as they walked closer to what seemed to be a railway station, it may not have been the best direction but both of them subconsciously wanted to go somewhere, anywhere but the place they were just at. Yang rested her head against Blake's shoulder and whispered softly. "Love you..."

A/N~ My artist friend had a whole bunch of sketches that he wanted to send to me but he's just recently moved and can no longer find them... great huh? anyways If anyone wants to take a shot at drawing something from my fanfic that would be appreciated, just PM me the result if anyone ends up doing something.