Ch 25: A Change Of Mind PTIII

I arrive in the sleeping quarters assigned to me to find Ren, Weiss, Blake, and Jaune. They all looked surprised as I walked in. "Wow, you are already able to walk? You just got back." Stated Weiss as she looked at me with a puzzled expression."Trust me, I'm able to do more than just walk. You and Ren over there are going on a mission with me tomorrow night to Eastern Vale. We are going to find Professor Port." The two look shocked.

"But you just got back. Are you even ready for this?" Blake blurts out.

"Yea, are you sure?" Adds a worried Jaune.

"I'm fully capable of taking part in this mission. Now will the two of you go with me or not?" I ask, starting to get frustrated. "Because honestly, I need to know if I can rely on the two of you."

"I'm all for it." Replies Ren. I then turn my sights towards Weiss.

"Fine, but if you mess up like some sort of dunce, I'm not dragging you back here. Now let me go to sleep, we had a long day here at the fort." She says and turns to her bed before laying down on top of it. As the rest of them do the same, I walk over to Blake's bed. I motion for her to follow me outside which she does.
"I missed you so much, are you okay? You seemed really frustrated back in there." She says as she quickly wraps her arms around me with a tight hug.

"Just a little flustered about some things. Being held prisoner doesn't exactly help my attitude at all either. But one thing has been stuck on my mind ever since Torchwick told me during my interrogation." Blake looks at me with a blank expression.

"What did he tell you Mako?"

"He told me that I indirectly helped the GICD slaughter a Faunus Village." As the words leave my mouth Blake's expression changes to a confused one.

"What do you mean, you never attacked a village? Did you?" She starts to tear up as she says this.

"Blake, when I attacked that WF compound it turns out that it was watching over a Faunus Village, and when I destroyed the AA Batteries in the compound, I provided the means necessary for the GICD to bomb the compound which, in turn destroyed the Faunus Village." I clench my fists as I punch the wall behind me. "Blake they used me, the GICD used me as weapon to get to their means of an end. I guess I am a monster, hell the WF even started calling me "The Demon" during my 2 month long guerilla war against them."

"I don't know what to say Mako. This is just too much. I'm going to bed." She turns around and walks back into the quarters. Fuck, she doesn't even know what to say. I fucked up. I follow her back into the room and to my own bed. I guess I will have to sort this out when I get back.
- The Following Night-

I stand in the hangar next to the dropship that will soon drop myself, Weiss, and Ren off in Eastern Vale. I sit down and use my prosthetic hand to sharpen my sword as Ren begins cleaning his weapons. "When is Weiss going to get here Mako?" He asks me without looking up.
"I don't know man, we need to leave soon. The pilot is waiting." Just as I finish saying this I hear the distinct noise of Weiss's boots walking on the metal floor. She was accompanied by, honestly, the last person I wanted to see after what happened the previous night: Blake.
"Mako before you leave, I just wanted to apologize about last night. I was too caught up in the thinking about a whole Faunus Village being wiped out. I just let my emotions get the best of me." She said as she quickly hugged me before I could react. "And I realized that what happened really isn't your fault, like you said, you were used."
I hugged her tightly as the other two watched us. "Thanks for saying that, you have no idea how much that meant to me. I thought you were mad at me, and I felt I could do nothing to fix it."

"Just be safe, and find Professor Port as soon as possible so everyone can put this behind them." She says as she lets go of me.

"Time we leave" Yells the pilot, "I need to get you and your team there as quickly as possible" Without hesitation I wave goodbye to Blake as I get into the dropship with Ren and Weiss.

"The flight should take about 4 hours, best if you all sleep for a bit, it's going to get really boring up in the sky." The pilot says as we get into our seats.

"I don't need the sleep, I'll just continue checking my gear." Ren says as he starts through his pack of gear. Seems Ren is ready to rock, I however need some sleep. I close my eyes and drift out of conscious and sleep, waiting for hopefully a swift assignment.
-3 ½ Hours Later-
"Time you wake up Mako" I hear Ren's voice say as I open my eyes to see him and Weiss ready for what was in store for us.

"I'm going to drop y'all off farther from the home than what was originally expected. It seems the WF have the estate on lockdown." The pilot says as we begin our decent.

"Have we been detected by them?" I asked, worried about another botched mission.

"No, it seems they haven't noticed us" He replies to my query. "30 seconds!" Weiss spins Myrtenaster as she readies herself, this is followed by Ren locking and loading his dual SMGs, which he called Stormflower. The dropship made contact with the ground, and the three of use leaped from the ship. Seems we are in a clearing, the estate should not be that far from here. I motion for Ren and Weiss to keep low but to follow me through the forest. We carefully make our way, making sure not to bring attention to us.

"The estate should be pretty close to us, apparently Professor Port lives in an old hunting lodge when he is not teaching at Beacon." I tell them as I glance at the surrounding forest, which was only lit by the moonlight.

"If the pilot said there is WF there, we should prepare ourselves for a fight." Ren says as he un-holsters his SMGs.

"Weiss, you have been really quiet, are you okay?" I ask worried about the young heiress.

"Just trying to focus up for a fight." She answers to my question. After about 10 minutes of slowly hiking our way to the estate, we come to another clearing which luckily turned out to be the grounds that the estate was on. I held up my right arm, which meant for Ren and Weiss to stop moving as I glanced at the security. Seems there are only about a dozen guards. It's too open to sneak up on them. I better tell Ren and Weiss what we should do.

"Okay, I say we go in loud and try to catch them off guard. Before they do anything. Also, this place is really secluded so I don't expect reinforcements to get here anytime soon to back them up." As soon as I say this, Ren begins sprinting headstrong into the open space, unloading on the WF soldiers. Holy hell he is going all out. The poor guys had no idea what was happening as Weiss and I begin to sprint after Ren. By the time we got to Ren, he had already essentially finished off all of whom were guarding outside of the mansion.
"You could have gone easier on them Ren." I joke with him sarcastically.

"It's not necessary to prolong one's suffering, you out of all people should know that" Ren replies. He is right. I should know this. A swift end is better than a prolonged one. However if Torchwick, Cinder and Adam provided me a swift end, I wouldn't exactly be here. These thoughts continued to race through my mind as the three of us made our way to the front door. The tall brown double doors that led to the entrance of the mansion were untouched, as if nobody had even gotten inside of the house. Odd, maybe they never made it here? I open the door when all of a sudden a sharp blade attached to the end of a staff is in my face.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" a raspy voice comes from a hooded figure. I remain silent, "Answer me or you are as good as dead." the voice booms as the blade gets closer to my face.
"Devin, my lad is that really necessary" a recognizable voice says, as none other than Peter Port shoves the staff out of my face. "They just ended the standoff between the WF and the rest of your men, not to mention I recognize them from Beacon." So this is the mercenary. "Quickly come inside before more come." He motions to the three of us as we walk inside of the entrance to the mansion to, what I guess was, a trophy room that contained countless stuffed Grimm.
"Professor Port, we are here to take you back to Fort Winter." Ren says as he holsters his two SMGs.
"I had a feeling Ozpin would send help soon enough, come sit down tell me of our situation." The Professor retorts to Ren's statement.
"Well Professor, for starters we need to know if you are in possession of the Horn of Grimm." Weiss blurts out.
"Why yes I do have it in my-." The Professor is cut off by the mercenary.
"Weiss, is that you?" He asks in now a quiet voice as he lowers his hood revealing white hair, which was almost as white as Weiss's.
"Yes it is Devin, I haven't seen you since I was 15." She replies as her face begins to blush.
"You two know each other?" I ask, puzzled by what is happening.
"Devin used to be the head of my security when I was younger, even though he was only 18, he was phenomenal at what he did; however, my father thought we were getting too close to each other. So he was relieved of his position." She replies to my question.
"And now I am a gun for hire." He finishes the statement as he swings his staff behind him, holstering it with a sling.
"I know it's great and all for the two of you to see each other again, but we need to signal the GICD for lift out of here." Ren cuts into the conversation. "Also, where are the rest of the soldiers that are supposed to be with you?"
"Only 2 of the original 8 remain, I had them cover the second floor. I will go get them while the Professor gathers his things." Devin says as he turns around and heads up stairs.
"Now then, back to what I was saying, I am in possession of the Horn. We must take it back to Beacon for safe keeping." The professor states.
"Professor, you are aware that the WF controls all of Vale, which includes Beacon?" I ask him.
"Precisely, that is why we will attack Beacon with full force once we leave my mansion." He responds as he walks over to a mount above his fireplace which has his trademark blunderbuss battle-axe.
"Excuse me sir, but do you really mean attack Beacon?" Ren states, questioning the professor's sanity.
"Why yes of course, with all of the soldiers from the GICD at Fort Winter we will surely have enough men and women to take it back." He replies.
"So instead of taking it back to the Fort we are going to instead take it directly to the WF, what could possibly go wrong?" I say sarcastically as I walk outside of the mansion and fire off a flare, signaling for a dropship.