Week 15 – Saturday
She ducked under my arm and immediately lashed out with her leg, impacting my weak side and staggering me in the process. My breath was forcefully, painfully extracted from my lungs even as her umbrella caught me under the chin.
I stumbled backward fully this time but managed to block her latest kick with Ultimatum. The follow-up umbrella-jab was redirected and I lashed out with my shield, desperate to buy some time to collect myself.
The weapon impacted her face and, for a split second, relief surged through me.
But then, she shattered into millions of glass fragments.
My eyes narrowed and I sucked in a breath just as I felt something hit the back of my legs. They failed under the pressure and my knees hit the pavement. I threw my left arm out and caught myself just as her leg swung around and hit me on the side of the head.
Pain.
My vision flashed and I forgot what I was doing for a brief moment. When awareness returned to me, the ground was mere inches from my face and-
A grunt escaped me with the collision but I fought through the pounding, pulsating pain – agonizing and relentless as it was – to flip myself over onto my back.
Just in time to see her umbrella descend upon my face. Her leg stomped down on my shield arm and her other one planted a knee in my chest.
Breathless, it was all I could do to catch the weapon with my left hand.
A struggle ensued. Her strength and her leverage against my strength and my desperation. My vision was still shaky and my lungs had yet to recover completely from her onslaught but still, I held my own. Even as she grunted in exertion and sweat beaded on my forehead, the umbrella shaking between us, I held my own.
She threw her weight behind the umbrella and the strain on my left arm increased. My right arm was still pinned and my legs weren't responding and her face was twisted into an expression of pure malevolence and hatred.
This woman wanted me dead.
She opened her mouth-
"Enten?! Melkweg!?"
-And out of it came a boy's voice. Panicked. Frantic. One that I did not recognize.
She hissed under her breath and redoubled her efforts to spear me through with the pointed tip of her weapon, drawing me from my thoughts even as she opened her mouth again-
"Hey! Get up!"
Her form flickered and suddenly I was-
Lying in Beacon's medical room, blinking the sleep from my eyes and she wasn't there anymore but she just was! It must be one of her illusions. One of her tricks. She wouldn't just give up, not when she had me so close-
A hand grasped my shoulder suddenly-
Blindly, I lashed out with my left arm on instinct and pain. Pain!
"Fuck," I yelled, swinging my other arm up to grasp at my shoulder because why the hell was it hurting-
My body convulsed when I touched my shoulder and I gasped, rapidly blinking my eyes to get them to focus. She was here. She was always here! I needed to focus. I needed my wits about me. I needed-
"Enten," a voice, close by, said. I thought, for a second, that it was Neo… but this was a boy's voice. It was not her voice and… and this was not the warehouse where we were fighting…
I was in Beacon's medical room? I… Yes, sure enough, as the shadows of the room faded in the face of Remnant's moonlight, I could make out the familiar beds and tables lining the long, narrow room. The heart monitor was racing. Where was the doctor? Where was…
'Oh.'
A nightmare. Another nightmare. They plagued me so often now that I should be able to readily identify one once awake but… the waking mind and the sleeping mind were nothing alike. They might as well live in two separate realities, given how hard it was to move between them.
A sigh escaped me and I rubbed at my face.
"Hey! Dude!? Are you done?"
The boy. Right. I looked in his direction and nearly came face-to-face with a blond that was probably just about as tall as I was. He was wearing a muscle shirt and shorts and the unkempt hair atop his head was flecked with something… was that blood?
I narrowed my eyes, trying to focus.
"Blood," I asked groggily.
He shifted and his hands were lifted up to his hairline. Amidst the movement, I saw a tail swing behind him, agitated.
"Faunus," I muttered this time, still confused. "Why are you here?"
Who was he? What did he want? So soon after Mercury's visit too…
The boy stopped messing with his hair abruptly. "Oh! You gotta get outta bed, now! I went to Weiss but she was all snobby and wouldn't let me come with her and then your… what was it- some other guy came along and backed her up and then-"
"Hold up," I cut across, holding up my hand and trying – unsuccessfully – to wake myself up. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here."
"Shit," he spat. "Your teammates. Torchwick and his cronies have them!"
Suddenly, wakefulness came very, very easily.
Week 15 – Sunday, Vale's Docks
My injured arm was wrapped. It laid, secure, against my body and out of the way. I needed Sun's – the blond who woke me – help to do it, but we managed once we pilfered some bandages from Beacon's medical stores.
We were on the tram now, flying over Vale's residential district on our way to the docks at speeds that conventional automobiles could not hope to match. The interior was plain. Light from below occasionally filtered into the railcar in which Sun and I sat but, by and large, the car was mostly dark.
My Scroll was still attempting to sync with the nearest radio tower. There were two more after this one between us and the docks so I wasn't concerned with it right now. I knew where Yang, Ruby and Blake were. I knew their location, even if they could not answer my messages. I knew where Weiss was. I knew Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Hvid Gamle and Neilikka Kyyhky were with her, traveling by car. I knew they were heading to the south side of the docks and I knew RWEBY's missing members were on the north side.
I knew all of this because of one little application.
Fear fled me in the face of this information. I knew there were thirty-nine people within a half-mile of my teammates. I knew four of those people were currently in the warehouse where they were being held. I knew none of those people were near my teammates, provided they still had their Scrolls on them.
They did. Their signals were moving, ever so slightly, consistently.
They were safe. For now.
This I knew.
The Headmaster was wise to have me develop this.
The map flickered and froze, indicating that I just moved out of range of a radio tower. Immediately, it began searching for the next closest one.
"Their numbers are worrying," I muttered to Sun, attracting the blond's attention. We were alone in the railcar but for one other person – a man, I thought, though his heavy overcoat made it hard to tell. That was common for Vale's homeless – wearing heavy outer-clothing, especially given the weather was starting to cool – so I paid him little thought. I just needed to word my statements carefully, just in case he wasn't actually asleep like his steady breathing suggested.
"Last time," I continued when Sun only stared. "The leader only had a dozen thugs with him. There are more, now. A lot more."
"Last time?"
I nodded. "A boy ran away from school, my leader went after him – she has a big heart… sometimes it gets her in trouble. That's partially why I'm so unforgiving. I don't want her to lose that. It's part of what makes her, her."
"You mean Ruby," the blond asked even as the man in the corner grunted and muttered something under his breath, evidently in the throes of a dream.
"Yes. Let me make the hard choices. I'll bear the burden. Eventually, though…"
Eventually, I wouldn't be able to keep her – and the rest of the team – from the darker side of a huntress' life. We were already starting down that path now, I could feel it… And it was all thanks to a fool that left Beacon, a fool that refused to accept the help that was offered to him.
A scoff escaped me. That was the night I found out about Jaune's secret. The night I began to use him to RWEBY's advantage. It was ironic, in my mind, that RWEBY only met Torchwick, Neo and their cronies because the blond wasn't mature enough to realize he needed help.
In a way, I was still cleaning up his mess from that night.
So be it.
"Eventually," I muttered, watching as the map started moving again. There were more bodies, now. Fourty-three. "Eventually, I'm… terrified that I won't be able to keep them from it. From the violence. The betrayals. The darkness. So, I'm trying to prepare them for it, instead."
Sun did not speak for several seconds, only swallowing audibly. When he did, his voice was quiet.
"That's depressing, man. You really think our lives are gonna be so horrible?"
"How many hunters and huntresses die of old age?"
"…Not a lot," he admitted, solemn. "But if we go out fighting the Grimm, then that's a worthy death. We'll be helping Remnant as a whole. No better way to go."
"True enough," I agreed, watching as one of the dots in the girls' warehouse moved to another, unlabeled one. They were all obfuscated, I could not see their names, I could only see their positions. "But Grimm aren't the only thing we fight."
I turned my Scroll around and extended it across the aisle, toward the metal bench he was sitting on, opposite my own.
"There are fourty-three of them now. Ruby, Yang and Blake are here," I said, indicating the girls' location on the Scroll. "There are four people inside the warehouse with them. Three of them are clustered into the group and one is near the southern exit."
I retracted the device and switched to a picture of one of the sheet metal warehouses that Vale used to store its goods.
"This is the model of warehouse they are in. There's a large door, for machinery, on the east side; additionally, there are two more doors – one on the south side and one on the north side. The north side is our best bet. Most of the activity is occurring south of the warehouse in question; it's on the outskirts."
He nodded, his brow still furrowed. There was a small, downward curl to his lips and he was fidgeting with his hands.
"Nervous," I asked.
"Didn't realize there were so many," he muttered. "But that's not it…"
"Next stop: Vale Docks," the feminine voice called over the intercom. The light filtering through the windows began to slow in time with the tram.
"Best deal with it now," I muttered, standing and stretching out my good arm. "We're here. We're getting the girls back and we're probably going to make a few enemies along the way… But they already know about me. Not you. Are you sure-"
"Yeah!" The boy was standing now and his expression was twisted into one of anger. "Of course I'm coming with! I'm not just gonna… abandon Blake and them to those bastards! Why do you think I came to get you after your teammate brushed me off?!"
"I'm glad you've dealt with your doubts," I muttered, a smile on my face. Sun was a good guy, he reminded me of Ruby, in a way. "Because we're about to walk into the worst odds I've faced before and Weiss is still thirty minutes out."
Why she and my hierarchy members didn't use the tram was beyond me. It ran directly into the northern section of the docks… though, admittedly, it was largely an unknown. It also didn't have a hub too close to Beacon; maybe they thought taking a vehicle directly from the academy would be faster?
I forced the thoughts from my mind with a grunt. I had more important things to worry about right now.
Sun and I were about to walk into a potential fight wherein we faced an entire gang of fighters with unknown skill levels. We were students and I was down to one arm. My teammates were on the outskirts of the danger area and the peacekeepers had dropped the ball, again. My call to their dispatch was answered with an automated message about some sort of chaos in southern Vale.
We were alone. But that alright. I was used to that.
"Let's go," I said, stepping out of the tram car and into the chilly Vale night. Before me, the dockyards stretched out for miles, a maze of sheet metal buildings that held countless valuable goods.
'Hold on, I'm almost there.'
Week 15 – Sunday, Vale's Docks
The White Fang's emblem was very, very familiar to me.
When I was a child, I would see it placed all over my neighborhood. It showed up on store windows, on newspapers, on toys, on food packaging… it was everywhere. The faunus youth would draw it on sidewalks, adults would wear it on their clothing, some would even put it on their skin.
It was a symbol of pride. Faunus pride.
That was before the change occurred. Before the White Fang came under new leadership, a young radical that had never tasted war, I thought. The group quickly became violent and the faunus who only wanted peace quickly stopped supporting it. The emblems largely disappeared from public eye and instead started showing up in hidden places. In back alleys where the group's supporters would meet or on little slips of paper to be used as pass cards.
It went from a symbol of pride, to a symbol of hatred. A symbol of a new, radical generation that was tired of putting up with humanity's bigotry.
I could sympathize, certainly. I even considered joining the White Fang, before Beacon, before my team. Back when I only had my family that I needed to care for. The group was appealing to me, then – they offered protection in return for those who had fighting talent and I knew I could fight, even then.
That was then, this was now.
Now, the White Fang was working with Torchwick and Neo – if the 'umbrella bitch' that Sun described was, in fact, that woman.
Troubling.
"They moved," Sun muttered, disgruntled. "They're in between us and the warehouse now."
Drawn from my thoughts, I grunted noncommittedly in response. No longer could we sneak by the White Fang – faunus had night vision – and there were seven men and women between us and the warehouse where my team was being held.
"Look," I muttered, bringing up my Scroll. "The map just finished sync'ing with the new tower. There are still… twenty-six people on the other side of the warehouse, near the south door. Over here, there's only seven. The other ones… they must have left in those airships we saw flying away."
"So we don't have much time," the blond said quickly, glancing out of the door window in our warehouse. The structures were arranged in rows and we were currently one row away from Ruby, Yang and Blake. The White Fang members were moving two shipping containers – both labeled 'SDC' – in the space between the two rows. There was only open ground between us and the warehouse that held my team, no sneaking was possible.
Sun must have come to the same conclusion, because he said: "Okay, so they'll see us, but we can take them! We just-"
"And I thought Yang was battle hungry," I said, throwing the boy a sideways glance. "Yes we can take down these seven, probably. Assuming they're all untrained with the use of their Aura then we might even be able to take the rest of the White Fang presence here… but you said Neo was here as well and I couldn't take her down when I was fresh. It took both Blake and I to get her to retreat. We didn't even beat her."
The boy growled, his face contorted into a rictus of frustration and anger. "So what, then? We just let them-"
"No," I said, my voice firm. I brought my Scroll up in front of our faces. "We get help."
Sun glanced at the device – it was currently attempting to connect with Weiss – and immediately recoiled. "You're calling her?!"
Any reply was cut off when the girl in question appeared on the screen. "Enten," she said slowly, making eye contact with me. "What are- you?! I thought I told you to stay-"
Sun stuck his tongue out at the girl even as her eyes widened minutely.
"You woke up Enten," Weiss demanded of the boy. "He's injured! He needs rest! You're such an-"
"Weiss, Weiss," I called even as Sun resorted to laughing in the girl's face. I shoved him away and he squawked indignantly. "I need you to focus. We're at the docks-"
"You should be-"
"But I'm not. I'm at the docks and I'm not leaving the docks either."
I heard someone scoff out of frame on Weiss' side.
"Well, we're already here, looking for Ruby, Yang and Blake, so you can go back to Beacon. You shouldn't be out here, Enten," Weiss said, making eye contact with me. She continued, softer: "You'll get hurt… and this time it- no one is here to help."
I swallowed, honestly surprised that the girl would worry so much for my wellbeing. I didn't even worry that much… but then, I'd already lived one life. If I could use this one to make sure my team and my family could live theirs… I'd do it readily.
Maybe, just maybe, I overlooked something.
She cared about my life.
"I'll stay back," I assured her, a tranquil feeling overwhelming me.
It felt good to be cared for.
"I will," I said again when her lips tensed ever-so-slightly. Only four months of living with the girl allowed me to read that expression for what it was – doubt. "You know that application I've been making for the headmaster?"
She nodded.
"Well, it works now." Somewhat, but she didn't need to know about the list of minor details and bugs that needed fixing. Not now. "I know where every member of the White Fang is-"
"Wait, what?"
I stopped, having forgotten that she and the members of my hierarchy did not know who we were up against.
"Torchwick and his buddies have stepped up their game since we last saw them. They don't have those thugs Yang knew here; now, they have the White Fang and all the resources that come with it."
Seven airships. Just to rob some dust.
"The White Fang," Weiss repeated, a faraway look in her eyes. She swallowed and then the absentminded look faded, replaced by a furrowed brow and scowling lips. "The White Fang. Where are they?"
"North. Near… near warehouse seventy-eight. I think its district…uh." I glanced at Sun but he shook his head, just as clueless as I was.
"That's district six," Neilikka Kyyhky's voice said as the girl's face appeared next to Weiss'. Her bright purple hair – dyed, not natural or glowing like Suhoca's – fell freely around her face. "My dad works out here. He used to tell me stories about all the things Vale received."
"Six," I repeated, nodding. Hopefully Neil's father wasn't one of the bodies Sun and I found on the way to this warehouse. Two peacekeeper corpses and a handful of mechanical guards were hastily hidden behind a dumpster. Hopefully.
"We'll be there shortly," Weiss said, nodding, before her eyes widened minutely. She looked up, at something off screen. "Uhh, right?"
"Right," I heard Gamle laugh. "Let's get back to the car." Then, to me: "Enten, we'll be there in fifteen minutes. Don't do anything stupid."
The screen went dark.
I sighed. "Well, you heard the man, don't do- They're leaving!"
"What," Sun exclaimed, rushing back over to the door so that he could see as well.
"Yeah. Disappearing behind that warehouse… looks like they finally got their containers."
Sun nodded. "Right, so let's- hold up… one came back."
I tried but ultimately failed to see the person he was talking about. I could only assume that they were in the shadows of the warehouse across the clearing, hidden by the absence of moonlight.
"Okay," the blond said, seconds later, edging the door open. "We're clear, let's go."
So we did. The two of us hurriedly made our way over to the warehouse where my teammates were being held and I checked my map along the way. The three familiar dots were still there. Still in a line, still only moving minutely. Three of the other four unlabeled dots were still clustered together and the last one-
"Shit," I spat, shoving my Scroll in my pocket and grabbing Sun with my good arm. Hurriedly, I dragged him into an alley between the target warehouse and the next one down in the row.
"Hey man, what-"
A door slammed open and I snuck a glance around the corner just in time to see Roman Torchwick storm out of the sheet metal structure that held my teammates, his Scroll in hand.
"Yeah I- where did those buffoons go?! Did- oh."
He glanced down at his Scroll.
"No, no, they already got those. You know, as far as investments go, these guys are leagues better than those suit-and-tie chumps!"
Sun shifted next to me, leaning around the corner as well. Torchwick was facing away from us. It was a shame we couldn't hear what his contact was saying…
"Yeah," the man said. "Now we just have to keep them ha-" A pause. "Right, right. I'll just keep stealing dust," he sighed.
Suddenly, his shoulders grew rigid.
"No, no, no! I think you're doing a great-"
He laughed nervously.
"Of course not! I'll handle-"
Abruptly, he turned around and started pacing. Sun and I threw ourselves back behind the warehouse hastily.
"She's… difficult now. I think that last fight she got into, yanno, with that kid, really set her off. She does-" A pause. "No, I can control her."
Another laugh.
"She's tending to our guests right now. Great hostess, that one."
He grunted and stopped, facing away from us as he leaned on his cane.
"Yeah, why-"
A pause.
"Uhh… no?"
Another pause.
"Right, okay," he sighed. "No questions. Just rough them up. Alright."
Torchwick hummed.
"Maybe they're foreign? Part of General what's-his-name's fleet? Ironhead?"
He shrugged.
"You're the boss."
The called ended.
"Do this Roman," the man sighed, slowly trudging back to the warehouse. "Do that, and that, and make sure this works and this is all done. Man! I don't get paid enough for this."
"That bitch is hurting Blake and them," Sun hissed as soon as Torchwick shut the warehouse door. "We gotta go, now."
"Hold on."
"What do you mean hold on. These are your-"
"You don't think I don't know that," I spat, genuinely insulted. "You don't think I don't know that every single thrice-damned second we've spent out here increases the chances that my teammates, my friends, are hurt?!"
The boy swallowed and grimaced. "Sorry… just," he shook his head.
"We need to go in there with a plan," I said, pushing away my own worry over Torchwick's conversation. Their 'guests' were being tended to, likely by Neo, who was apparently a little unhinged after our fight.
But who were their guests?
"See," I muttered, tracking Torchwick's newly labeled dot on my Scroll. "Those three dots over there, the unlabeled ones? They're moving… that means that the Scrolls are moving which means those Scrolls are currently – likely – being held by people. These three dots over here represent Ruby, Yang and Blake, also moving, also meaning their Scrolls are likely still on their person."
"The unlabeled dots aren't anywhere near them," Sun observed.
"Right," I agreed. "And they haven't been. Not since you woke me up… I don't think those 'guests' are my team… I think they might be dock workers."
The boy grimaced. "You think they captured them instead of just offing them?"
I shrugged, watching as Roman's dot left the warehouse through the other door, the one closer to the bulk of activity. There were only eighteen dots left now.
Time was short.
And then, an explosion cut through the relatively peaceful night with a sudden ferocity that left me stunned. Shouting immediately erupted from the other side of the warehouse and I looked back down at my Scroll to find that Weiss, Coco, Fox, Neil and Hvid were here now.
A grin pulled at my lips.
"The cavalry has arrived. Come on," I muttered, darting over to the warehouse door Torchwick used only minutes earlier. The three unlabeled dots had split up. Two remained where they were – the guests, most likely – while one was heading over to the far door.
Now or never.
Light spilled through the door's window from within the warehouse as I reached it. Without hesitation, I shouldered it open and charged into the building. Immediately, I was met with metal scaffolding that held an assortment of metal pipes and wires. My good hand grasped one of the pipes even as I darted around the shelving and into the warehouse proper.
The girls were fine. All three sat in chairs, their arms bound. Two bodies, one vaguely familiar to me, lay across from them. Neo was on the far side of the warehouse.
Neo.
'Bitch.'
"Enten," Blake shouted, alarmed as I darted by her, throwing myself at Neo.
I landed on top of the shorter woman just as she turned around and threw my good shoulder into her torso. She shattered into thousands of glass pieces and – I struggled against her weight and her strength.
A growl escaped me even as I shook the thoughts from-
My left shoulder exploded into a furious mixture of pain, agony and mind-breaking anguish and I was sent sprawling to the ground. It accepted me into its unforgiving embrace harshly. My pipe clattered to the ground next to me.
I lay there for several moments, gasping for breath, shocked and numb. I could hear the girls yelling. I could hear gun shots. I heard Sun grunting and weapons flying and I-
Get up. Get up you fool. Up!
Slowly, I leveraged myself up to a knee with my good arm. Sun was fighting Neo now, wielding a bow-staff almost faster than I could track. The girls were all looking in my direction and, now that I stopped to look, I could see tear tracks running down Ruby's face.
Rage flooded my veins with a ferocity, with a swiftness the likes of which I'd never felt before. I saw my leader's eyes widened even as a scowl harshly pulled at my lips.
I turned back to Sun and Neo, feeling at my injured shoulder as I did. It protested my inspection with pain and when I drew my fingers away, they were bloodied. Red.
'Unhinged after the last fight. I'll put her down in this one.'
The pipe, about two feet in length, was grasped again and I threw myself into a charge.
Neo's leg had just extended, catching Sun in the gut, when I reached her and lashed out with my right arm. She avoided the blow, a smirk on her face, and spun into kick aimed at my bad shoulder-
I ducked, allowing the blow to pass harmlessly over my head even as Sun rejoined the fight with a flurry of gunshots. Neo retreated and I pursued her, channeling as much Aura through the pipe as I could in a desperate imitation of my Aura Bullet.
The force gathered in a split second, hummed metallically inside of its prison and unleashed itself in a visible display of power.
The Aura was purple.
It quickly closed in on Neo and the woman extended her umbrella out in front of her, expanding the device just as my attack-
The umbrella shattered and revealed the woman's shocked expression even as she was taken off her feet by the power behind my attack. My purple attack.
It was with a grin that I pursued her, heedless of my weak shoulder protesting every moment.
Rage was one hell of an anesthetic.
I reached her and sent my pipe forward in a jab. It missed, though, when the woman side-stepped the attack and lashed out with her leg, catching me in the thigh. I stumbled but Sun covered by shouldering me out of the way and engaging the woman with his staff. Without her umbrella, the boy looked to be on even footing with her.
On the ground now, I immediately made to get up. My leg faltered, though. It was not broken but it was delicate. I'd need to watch how much weight I-
"Enten, get your fucking ass over here!"
The shrill, high pitched scream startled me enough that I looked over at the girls. They'd been yelling at me since I engaged Neo but I'd been filtering it out as background noise. That scream though… that expletive-laden scream from Ruby of all people, was enough to get my attention.
"Get over here," the girl hissed, tears running down her face again. "Now!"
I looked back at Neo and Sun-
"Enten," Ruby yelled. "Now!"
So I did.
"I've never seen you do something so dumb," my leader railed when I drew near. "You're injured and she could've killed you and if Sun weren't here then…" She shook her head. "Did you see what she did to Emerald? To Mercury?"
What?
My head snapped over to the two bodies on the ground-
Mercury Black.
What?
"Enten," Ruby snapped, absolutely livid. "Untie us so we can help. We need to help. We need to stop her."
Silently, I went about doing just that.
"Four hours," Ruby muttered as I started on the rope tying her limbs together. "Four hours… and she wouldn't stop. No matter how much I yelled. She wouldn't stop. She… We need to capture her so she can't do this again."
"Best to kill her," I muttered, loosening the bonds enough that Ruby could escape.
"You stop talking," Ruby demanded. "I'm probably going to be sorry for this later but right now I've been watching a friend get hurt for four hours and I couldn't do anything about it and then you! You idiot! You decide charging in here with an injured shoulder is a good idea and now you're going to untie Blake and Yang and then you're going to stay out of the way! Do you understand?"
First Weiss' concern, now Ruby's.
"Yes," I muttered, my rage all but evaporated. I offered the girl my pipe, as a gesture of good will, and went about untying Blake.
"Good," Ruby nodded, accepting the pipe. "Now, I'm going to help Sun."
With that, she left. Immediately, I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't know I'd been holding.
"You are soooo gonna get a talking to, later," Yang taunted.
"Think I just did," I responded, freeing Blake. She rubbed her wrists and turned to me. Silently, she glanced at my shoulder and, faster than I could react, reached up and grabbed my ear, twisting it harshly.
"Ow. Ow! Blake!"
She huffed, let go and then stepped forward to give me a brief hug. Before I could return the gesture, she was gone too.
Silent, I watched her go.
"It wasn't easy," Yang muttered, a sad smile on her face as I started over toward her. "Ruby wasn't lying when she said we were here for four hours… never touched a hair on our heads once we were in these chairs… but Emerald and her buddy weren't so lucky."
"Mercury," I said quietly.
"Mercury," the blonde agreed. "It wasn't easy just… watching. Not when we've been training to do exactly the opposite of that. Ruby took it hardest, I think. She has it in her head that huntresses can do anything. I think this was a nasty wake-up call for her."
"She's got a big heart. Probably hurt her direly to watch it," I guessed. Given my leader's penchant for caring too much about everything and anything, I could easily see how watching a friend get beaten for four hours would harm her.
Yang grunted, standing up and flexing her wrists. "Good to be back," she said, punching me on my good shoulder. "Thanks big guy."
I nodded to her, relieved that she wasn't mad, as something in my peripheral caught my eye.
Neo, bolting through the southern door of the warehouse.
"She's getting away," I said, nodding toward the door.
"Right," Yang grunted again, running over to where Blake and Ruby retrieved Gambol Shroud and Crescent Rose, respectively. "Stay out of trouble," she called as she followed Sun, her sister and RWEBY's resident faunus through the door.
And just like that, I was alone with Mercury and 'Emerald'. A sigh escaped me. At the very least, I could try and see if they were alive.
"Are you two alright," I called out as I started their way.
Mercury remained unmoving but the green haired girl laughed weakly. "Do we look alright?"
"No," I admitted, leaning over the boy and searching for a pulse. I found one but his body was covered in bruises. I thought I spotted a broken under his bloodied uniform too. "His breathing is even, at least."
"Get away from me," Emerald muttered lowly when I leaned over her. She was too weakened to put up much of a fight, though, so I rolled her onto her back anyway. "I said get away from me!"
"I'm trying to help."
"We don't need your help," she returned. "We don't need anyone's help."
"I beg to differ," I countered, feeling along her ribs for any broken bones. None, at least as far as I could tell… which probably wasn't the greatest guarantee but it was all I could do.
"Get off me! Off!"
"Fine," I grunted, shrugging. "You two stay here and act like corpses, I'll be doing something useful."
She laughed when I turned to go. "Big talk from a-" She coughed. "From a trainee."
I continued toward the door, heedless of her taunts.
"I guess you did beat Pyrrha Nikos," Emerald called as loudly as she could. I had to strain to hear her. "Doesn't mean shit out here. That bitch would've taken Nikos apart. Easily."
My hand grasped the doorknob.
"It took three of your friends to drive her off, idiot. Without her umbrella. And monkey-boy wasn't looking so great toward the end of it. What do you think you can do?"
"I can observe," I said, pausing look enough to throw her a glance over my shoulder. "The power of the mind isn't to be underestimated."
She laughed again but I left her there, done with her defeatist attitude. I had work to do.
My Scroll was quickly brought to bear.
There were eleven unlabeled dots now, not counting Emerald and Mercury. Five we clustered together in a clearing and another five were clustered together, a little farther away. Neo's – still unlabeled – dot was being pursured by Yang's, Ruby's and Blake's. Sun's was unmoving some distance behind them.
Weiss, along with our hierarchy members, were several hundred feet to the south, near where another cluster of unlabeled dots just made their escape via airship.
They were running away. Torchwick, Neo and the White Fang were trying to leave.
I hopped up on a discarded shipping container and tried to line up what I was seeing on my Scroll with what was happening in front of me. Two airships remained, both were filled with unlabeled dots which meant Torchwick was already gone. Neo was still here, presumably keeping the last airships grounded until she could-
A storm of gunfire erupted in front of me and I darted toward the sound of battle. My Scroll indicated that another airship just left – indeed, I heard its engines over the firefight – and the other was still waiting for Neo. Yang, Ruby and Blake were pinned down now, near that last airship, as White Fang members fired upon their position.
Damnit all. Guns could only even the playing field so much against hunters and huntresses – our Aura training involved the use of it to almost instinctively block bullets. They traveled faster than we could see but our Auras were mysterious forces that almost had a mind of their own.
Still, against a well-trained group of riflemen, hunters would be reduced to their ranged weapons all the same.
I reached a shipping container a short distance away from the air ship, off to the side of where the White Fang were concentrating their fire. There were four of them and it looked like the pilot had joined in on the defense…
But there were five dots on my Scroll. What…
Quickly, or as quickly as I could with one hand, I went about investigating the signals I was receiving. Four were from Scrolls but the other one… was that the airship? Was the airship connected to Vale's network as well?
I could use this.
Neo boarded the ship and forcefully took the gun away from one White Fang member. The unarmed woman disappeared into the ships cockpit.
"Yang," I yelled over the gunfire. "Yang!"
The blonde paused in the middle of reloading Celica and glanced up at me, her eyes widening in surprise.
Hurriedly, I beckoned her over.
"I can't type with one arm," I said after she conferred with Ruby and Blake and finally, finally made her way over. "Type what I say, exactly as I say it."
"Okay…"
"Initiate –f air2090_2"
"It wants a password."
"Hit enter."
"Incorrect…what are we doing?"
"Lookup air2090_2 vale_whub2 –u BranwenR"
"It wants another-"
"#EDC4rfv"
"It worked."
"What's it saying," I asked hurriedly. The airship was starting to rise off the ground now. We didn't have much time.
"Uhh. Search returned-"
"The results, Yang. The results!"
"Fine! It says the 'ID' is atlasairship00024- Hey! Are you hacking?!" Her eyes widened. "Am I hacking?!"
"The ID, Yang."
"atlasairship0002493. Oh just wait until I tell dad about this."
"set id = 'atlasairship0002493'."
"Okay."
"shutdown –f –u BranwenR id."
"Access denied."
"Damnit. Okay… if brute force won't work, then maybe circumvent it somehow… Type 'rat start'."
"It says 'Remote Administration Tools-'."
"Good, type 'find id'."
"Found it."
"use id."
"Okay."
"service –status-all."
"Oka- Wow. That's a lot. What do they all m-"
"service gyro_nav stop," I said quickly. The airship was now about one hundred feet out. Ruby and Blake were running over and I thought I heard Weiss and co. approaching from the other direction.
"Okay. It says it was stopped."
"See how the airship just tilted? They don't have any automatic compensation for things like wind now." I didn't necessarily know that but I figured gyro_nav had something to do with the air ships balancing functions… shutting it down was sure to hurt it. "Next… shut down that one: service thruster_cal stop."
"This is so awesome," Yang muttered after she typed in the command. The airship lurched forward and stopped moving abruptly, instead it started hovering in place.
"They know something is up," I muttered. "Desperate times… try killall –u BranwenR –f"
"Pass-"
"Same one."
"It accepted it!" The blonde jerked her head up just in time to see the airship carrying Neo shudder and die. It immediately went into an uncontrolled spiral toward the ground, near Vale's shoreline. "I just hacked an airship!"
"Clean up time," Hivd Gamle said as he passed me, clapping me on the shoulder as he did so. "Good job Enten, Yang."
"Yeah, way to go champ," Coco inserted as she followed the fourth year. "First the mention in your interview, now you shut down an airship carrying away criminals… I'll have to come up with something better than a mission to reward you with."
"Same old Adel," I muttered, a grin on my face. Success was a drug that I would freely enjoy. "You can thank me by stopping Weiss next time she tries to buy me a skirt."
The second year laughed and turned to run off in the same direction as HRCN's H and HRCN's N. Fox Alistair trailed after her.
Suddenly, a hand grasped my shoulder and I was spun about to face one Weiss Schnee.
"Well," she said expectantly.
"Uhh…"
"Ugh, boys. Apologize to us! You were superbly moronic tonight and don't think taking down one measly air ship is going to change that!"
"But it had Neo-"
"I don't care if it had every White Fang member on it! You are more important, you dolt!"
"I hardly think I'm more important than every member of White Fang," I muttered, a frown on my face. "Seems like a good exch-"
Fast as a whip, Weiss slapped me.
"Shut up," she lowly. "I know you don't think much of your life, but we do." She gestured to the rest of team RWEBY behind her and nods accompanied her statement. Except Yang, the blonde only shrugged.
"We do," Weiss reiterated, elbowing Yang in the side. "We're a team, Enten. We care about each other. We let you care about us, let us care about you."
"I do. I was sitting in the medical room, healing, until I heard about you three getting captured," I said, indicating Ruby, Blake and Yang. "I was going to stay there too, had all of this not happened."
"We would have been able to handle it without you," Weiss said, her voice soft as she reached out and grasped my forearm. "Let us fight some of your battles."
"You never would have found them without me, Weiss. I knew where the warehouse was because of my map."
"And you couldn't have just called me from the medical room?"
That brought me up short. I never even considered staying behind when I had the power to make a difference.
"But… the airship. They would have gotten away!"
Weiss shook her head. "I don't care. I meant it when I said you were worth more than the entire White Fang organization to me. To me. You know what that means."
"I'm worth more to you than ending the White Fang," I said, slowly. "…Why? They're your monster under the bed. Your biggest fear! Your-"
"And you've taken it upon yourself to be my shield against that fear. You… you got me to talk. I've never told anyone about that, about what I went through as a child, I… I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you."
"Being a faunus," Blake said quietly. "It's not so bad now. Not as afraid to speak. Don't need to keep quiet. I feel safer."
A stunned silence fell over me and I felt like I should say something, anything, in the face of their admissions but…
My mouth moved but no words came out. I was speechless. Humbled. I was as important to them as they were to me. That… that was comforting. I'd always thought that I cared more because I was willing to go farther for them, to keep them safe. But all along, they'd been returning my affection and I'd only been too blind to see it.
Weiss sharing her fears and her doubts with me. Blake's faunus nature, the girl's walls slowly being broken down with each and every secret she shared with me. Yang… she kept me sane, I realized. She would find me in the library, working on one of the countless projects I piled upon my own shoulders, and always, always dragged me away from them. I'd thought of her as a distraction, when she did that, but now…
A smile slowly started developed on my face.
"I'd say group hug but…"
Ruby scoffed and threw herself at my right side. Yang quickly followed, then Weiss and finally, Blake.
"You're such an older brother," Ruby said, laughing softly. "You think you have to do everything. Like we're only here to be protected by you or something."
"I know you can all fight, you're all strong in your own right, stronger and smarter than me in-"
"None of that," Weiss snapped. "I can observe people too, Enten Melkweg, and I don't think you value yourself enough. I think you still blame yourself for your father's death and I think you're still trying to make that up to yourself. I don't think you'll be satisfied until you're dead."
I opened my mouth to refute that, I'd accepted dad's death, but the white haired girl continued before I could so much as get a word out of my mouth.
"You didn't even think about forfeiting that duel with Pyrrha when she tried to kill you the first two times because you wanted to prove to us that she wasn't invincible. Well, you did that when you punched her across the stage! You didn't need to go any further, but you did!"
"It was a really nice punch, though," Yang muttered. "Glorious."
"You didn't need to come here tonight, but you did. You didn't need to throw yourself at Neo, but you did. What you need to do, Enten Melkweg, is learn to rely on other people! Ruby doesn't have to be around to tell you to do that, you can trust us on your own! Just…"
She swallowed. "Just, let us in."
"Trust," I muttered. "I do trust you."
"Then prove it! Instead of trying to do everything by yourself, let us help."
"You didn't, though. I tried," I said, my mind spinning. I did try. I did trust them. "Back when I was using Cardin. I told you, all of you about that. I did that for you. For us. I did that for RWEBY. And…"
My breathing was growing uneven. I didn't feel like crying right now. I'd done enough of that for this lifetime.
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't trust us," Ruby said. "That just means we didn't think what you were doing was right. We're a team, Enten, we help each other… sometimes that means we disagree. Just… from now on, let us know what you're thinking? Please?"
"Please," Blake grunted in agreement. "Like talking to a wall, sometimes. Even if this wall talks back," she finished with a wry smile.
Open up to them. About everything?
"All my fears, all my doubts, all the concerns I have, the plans I've made, my thoughts on the map, on school, on our classmates, on the tournament… on all of this," I said, gesturing to the docks with a sweeping gesture of my arms. "You want all of that?"
Weiss nodded silently even as Yang said: "Well, we don't wanna read your diary or anything, but-"
"What my older sister means to say," Ruby cut in, "is: yes. We do."
I laughed softly. I never really considered sharing everything with them before. The things that would affect team RWEBY? Certainly. But all of the things I could do myself, the things that might not even concern them? I always kept those to myself.
A prime example, I'd been considering going to see Weiss' father myself. After tonight, especially, I knew we would probably need help. Team RWEBY was not ready to face down the White Fang. Letting the girls in on that never even crossed my mind.
I told Sun that I wanted to make the hard choices so that the rest of RWEBY didn't have to… maybe I was wrong? Maybe it was time I start including them in everything.
"Alright," I said. "First order of business, then: we need to go see the headmaster about Emerald and Mercury. He gave me some interesting information when I was in the medical room, namely that he's not here for the tournament and he's not really from Haven."
"Wow," Ruby muttered, her eyebrows arched. "Emerald too, then!"
"How 'bout sleep first," Yang interjected. "Beauty rest? Enten needs it bad."
"Nice shiner," I shot back.
"The purple matches my eyes."
A laugh escaped me even as Yang started off in the direction of the air ship.
"Stay here," Ruby said. "Let us deal with Neo. In the meantime, can you get Sun up and going again? He took a nasty hit from Neo while we were chasing her."
I nodded and turned to leave but stopped abruptly once a stray memory crossed my mind.
"Yang," I called. "Wait!"
The blonde turned, confused, but after a second or two, her eyes widened in recognition. "I forgot. I still have your Scroll."
"Not that," I said, accepting the proffered device anyway. "I need to speak with you about something."
"Can it wait?"
"You couldn't."
"What," the girl asked, her brow furrowed.
"Three hours," I said, watching her lips curl into a frown. I allowed the silence to stretch on for another few seconds and then: "For three hours I sat in the medical room, being lectured by my mother."
The blonde's eyes widened and a large grin slowly started developing on her face.
"I don't know if you've ever been lectured in public, around classmates and the good doctor too, but it sucks. And it was even worse because it wasn't my fault."
"So you liked my pictures," Yang said, glee written into every inch of her face. Behind her, Blake shifted and frowned.
"Well, I'm glad you took them clothed," I snarked. "Because now my sister only thinks you're horrible at taking pictures because she was using my Scroll and you knew that!"
"It may have come up in one of our previous conv-"
I took a strand of her hair between my fingertips and pulled.
She swallowed, her eyes locked onto the strand. "Oh, you did not…"
"Three hours, Yang. I got another talk!"
The girl snorted and the dangerous look fled her face immediately. Behind her, Ruby relaxed.
"Really?!"
I stole another strand of her hair.
"Hey! We're even now! One more strand, one more and-"
And another.
"Three hours! Three!"
She grit her teeth and clenched her fists, stomping up to me until she was inches from my face. "You take one more piece of my hair, Melkweg, and I'll break your other shoulder!"
But she didn't punch me. Three strands of hair and no physical reaction at all… this must be what women felt like back on Earth. This was a wonderful feeling – never before had it been socially unacceptable to beat the ever living shit out of me.
There was only one thing I could do in this situation: abuse it until Yang snapped.
It ended up taking four more strands of hair.
"Yang," Ruby snapped when the blonde socked me in the stomach. Given how angry she was, I went down wheezing.
"He's already injured and you know he was just trying to rile you up! You could've just walked away and ignored him but you stayed and then hit him! What if he gets more hurt? What are you gonna do then? Don't look away from me! You need to apologize!"
From the ground, curled up as I was, I managed to make eye contact with Yang only for a brief moment.
But that moment was enough.
"We're even," I mouthed.
Behind the blonde, Blake and Weiss rolled their eyes.
AN: That's a wrap people! Season one content: done! Mercury and Emerald got their butts whooped and Neo got captured – how's that for a plot twist?
And, as a reminder from your friendly neighborhood author:
RWEBY's hierarchy
RWEBY
CFVY
UHNS (Uhrglas Kristall, Hehku Tukko, Neste Tukko, Sjeverni Suhoca) They're the lazy team
HRCN (Hvid Gamle, Rod Seglare, Citrin Har, Neilikka Kyyhky) They're the divided-over-faunus-team.
Just a note for the future: I'll be on vacation when the chapter after the next one hits. That'll probably be delayed until Thanksgiving weekend.
And while I have your attention: this chapter felt like it was paced a little faster to me. Do you agree? If you do - did you like the pace? Too fast, too slow? Lemme know!
MrtheratedG: Right now we are at the end of season one in the canon storyline. Thanks for the kind words!
98Kazer: Realism and character detail is what I try to include the most of in my stories. I'm glad you like it! Thanks!
BionicKid: I admit, the correlation between his intelligence and his shield was one I missed. I had in mind another, more obvious, symbolic notion of choosing a shield for his weapon: his role as a protector. I do like the comparison though, it's flattering you put as much as thought as you did into it. Thanks for your review!
Guest: I like to think douche-dom is sort of like beauty: held in the eye of the beholder! Thanks for your review!
Guest-numero dos: Yang don't give no damns about what six year olds should/should not see.
Name-change guest: Neo rematch: yay. And again in the future: yay. Don't worry, you'll see more of this matchup. And yes, 'Cinder' wants to recruit them… Thanks for your review!
Jack Hunter: I think she just likes his legs. Or she just wants to embarrass him. Never know with women.
Dark habit: You can be certain that Blake did not agree to Yang's… efforts to embarrass Enten.
Eclipse-Sol: Let me reiterate how this iteration of Reiteration is the last iteration of season one content from canon. Iterate.
Till next time! I'm off to deal with DMV funsies (please apply the sarcasm now).
-Phailen