I am going to go ahead and say that, while I do NOT like how this chapter went…at least the middle part of it… I already started rewriting the series. Still wondering whether to silently replace the chapters, or post it as a new fanfiction altogether though…"
RWBYbomb21: oh don't worry. She'll get her moments :p
Tuutje07: well, you know…Matt and Yale have a history together. I feel very glad that I managed to make you really get into the fight again. It wasn't very easy, believe me. Anyway, I feel humbled :3
SusipiciousCook: this is next episode. Shall we find out?
Cliffdiver: Well, Lisa and Blackwood's weapon is based off of the Meta (and in turn, Halo) but I have more in mind for the lovely Brawler than simply being based off on an existing character. Happy to see you like the romance though. Yay me!
A Flying Tomato: that guess is pretty accurate ;)
I think that mentioning to Yang might have to wait until the chapter after this one though.
Nightraze: by the time you read this, there is a good chance that you have posted a new review. Still, I wanted to thank you for the ones you posted already :D
"And thus Lady Cassandra placed one piece of the puzzle, which led to the cataclysmic series of events that led to the fall of the Dancer, yet she alone did not lead to her fall from grace. How very predictable. Yet only after the howling dance on to the fire did she begin to leave her dreams to go dancing with the dead.
Day 61 – near unidentified fishing-community, Northern-most section – 12:44
As the enormous vehicle raced down the slippery road, pieces of ice and snow flying through the air, Weiss watched the people that were sitting in the back with her. The open air was getting colder and colder and she was certain that she wasn't the only one who was having the shivers, though she could escape much of the wind of she dove deep within her jacket and kept her head down. Despite the fact that there were two of the humongous cars, everyone had seated themselves in this one, so that they could crawl together and share their warmth. At least, that was the idea behind it. The truth was clearly that everyone was too tired and mentally exhausted to split up. A certain level of fear had crept into their minds and Weiss too couldn't shake the dread off. The very moment that…that psycho had appeared…it was like that creepy Grimm all over again. Voices in her mind, animalistic and primal. Her limbs unable to reply, her being forced to watch the enemy approach…only this time her friends had felt it too, instead of just her. And while shared misery was half misery, she still didn't know whether that was supposed to be a good thing or not.
"It's awfully quiet," remarked Lisa. She was one of the few that had not been fazed to any degree by the encounter; she hadn't been wounded and from the looks of it, she also hadn't felt that fear-effect. Weiss had initially thought that it was just her who had been frozen like that…paralyzed by the dread. But later, she had learned that even the most gifted individuals like Pyrrha had suffered from it. In a way, that had been a relief. Like a burden had fallen from her shoulders, allowing her to carry herself on with new hope. On the other hand, it proved that not even skill could defend you from your own mind, which was more painful than anything.
"Not really much to talk about, I guess…" replied Jaune. That dunce was being surprisingly level-headed about the situation, despite everything that had happened. He was sitting prepped up against Pyrrha, with a scrape on his cheek from where he had skidded across the ice. It wasn't really surprising to see that Pyrrha was more exhausted than he was, as she had done most of the work. In fact, she had saved them all.
"Well, here's something then. What the hell happened out there? Why were all of you watching instead of fighting?"
Weiss scowled, but she refrained from answering. The truth was that she felt ashamed of her inability to act; not only had she been too scared to act, she had also wasted all of her energy when she had finally recollected herself. It was so stupid in hindsight, but she had thought that, were she capable of keeping that thing down long enough, she could have ended the fight without anyone getting hurt. She had heard the stories about…about the Operative…but she had thought that they were greatly exaggerated. .
"It's not that simple, Lisa," Blake told the girl. She was one of the few who had gotten away with little more than a few cuts and bruises, mostly from dodging and jumping around. "You heard about the Mental Grimm, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Blackwood-"
A shiver ran down Weiss' back when she heard that name.
"-has some sort of ability that attacks the mind. Only you, Yang and Nora were capable of shrugging it off."
"How does that work, anyway?" Ren asked Will. "Was that his Semblance?"
There was no reply. Will was sitting in the corner, with his helmet lying next to him and his arm wrapped around his knees.
"No," Ruby softly spoke up. She was even paler than normal, sitting next to Weiss with her hood over her head. It was no secret that Yang had almost died out there and while she had survived it with no permanent damage whatsoever, Ruby was still deeply shaken. And who could blame her? Had this all transpired without that happening to Yang, everyone would have been happily chatting and comparing their injuries. "His Semblance had to be protecting him."
She sounded so down…and even Yang, who was normally cheerful and sunny enough for three people, was now simply sleeping.
"I shot him," remarked Nora. "It didn't work."
"We all shot him, Nora," said Pyrrha.
Cho sighed. "And we all got attacked in the mind. That's two Semblances."
"You can't have two Semblances, idiot," scoffed Weiss. She couldn't stand it that that guy was so calm, even now. Though perhaps calling him an idiot was a bit too much.
Cho gave her a look and she realized that, what she had first thought to be calmness was in fact just exhaustion. "I know. Which leads us to the question…which one of the two was it?"
"Guys, we still beat him," Jaune weakly protested, but there weren't a lot of people who listened to him.
"You could have warned us, you know," pointed out Alessa. She too was talking to Will and she too was ignored by him.
"Hey!" Grace snapped and picked up one of the smaller rocks lying around. "We're talking to you!"
When the soldier kept quiet for a third time, the demolitions expert surprised Weiss by actually throwing the rock at him. She hadn't expected that Grace, ever cool and laid-back, would actually display such violence.
The improvised projectile bounced off of his arm and Pyrrha frowned.
"That was uncalled for," she remarked, but Will stirred and looked in the direction where the rock had come from, his eyes resting on Grace within a second. He did not look very happy.
"It worked," Lisa softly pointed out.
"What?" the Operative snapped, suddenly aggressive.
"Blackwood's semblance. Why didn't you warn us? Why didn't you tell us what he could do?"
Will averted his gaze. "I didn't see him for over a year. The details were vague."
"What do you mean vague?" asked Alessa.
"Someone's Semblance doesn't change, right?" Jaune asked Pyrrha, who shook her head.
"Our Semblances are…unstable. Chaotic. One attack would harm him, another wouldn't. Then the same attack would no longer harm him, while the other one suddenly would."
"Eh…our Semblances?" asked Weiss. "I thought your Semblance was-"
"Yes I know," he brusquely cut her off. "Also completely at random. Done?" Without waiting for an answer, he looked away again and resumed his stance of utter unresponsiveness.
…which was still remarkably expressive for him. Had they pressed his buttons too much?
"Guys," Jaune loudly proclaimed, this time gaining everyone's attention. "We still won. Yes, I know we all got hurt. We nearly lost our friends and the fight was a terror. But we all lived and we beat him! We made it to the North because we worked together, not despite of it. "
"He's right," replied Ruby, lifting her head. "We shouldn't be fighting each other like this. That's the fear talking, not our hearts."
The dark tension that had been hanging over them like a thick carpet eased up. At that moment, Weiss truly understood why Ozpin had chosen Jaune as JNPR's leader, and not Pyrrha. Being a leader wasn't about giving orders or devising strategies; it was about inspiring your pupils and raising motivation. She was nowhere near as good as Jaune and Ruby were in that aspect. Jaune had just raised himself in her regard.
"Yeah, you're right," remarked Grace. "We should be looking ahead, not back."
"That's easy for you to say," said Blake, a small smile creeping on her face. "Your teammate looks like he's not even capable of looking."
"What?" Lisa exclaimed and looked at the Cho, who had slowly slid down the wall and was now lying on the ground. That was three people who were sleeping, as Mantis had not woken up after the fight. "Are you kidding me? Really?"
Ruby laughed briefly and Weiss had to resist giving the girl a hug, "His facial expression hasn't even changed! He's still stoic Cho!"
Weiss was impressed how quickly Jaune and Ruby had cheered everyone up. Well, almost everyone. Yet, it was only appropriate that they should reflect on the fight and learn from it, as they had almost lost. That did not happen...was everyone still in denial?
"
The giant vehicle eventually stopped, leading Blake to peek over the edge and declare that they had arrived. Weiss, wanting to verify it for herself, was among one of the first who jumped out of the back. Nora had to be helped, as her leg was getting in her way. Blackwood had done a ton of damage to their teams, which had naturally caused their hesitance in talking about it. It was because of an unspoken agreement that they all remained quiet, even as the kind lumberjacks bid them farewell and drove off again.
"This place looks fun," remarked Ruby as she gazed upon the buildings that were scattered across the harbor. It looked like a small settlement, with various wooden docks and ships spread across the coast. The sky was dark, the water was dark and the weather was freezing. Weiss could not envision just how this place was supposed to be any fun. The sooner they got out of here, the better.
"I think we should split up and search the area," said Lisa. "I'll take LACG to search the left side.
"We'll take the right side," replied Jaune. "Will, Mantis, will you…ehm…where are our Operatives?"
"Come on," said Ren, "did you really have to ask?"
Naturally, the two soldiers were nowhere to be found. Had Weiss not known that the two loathed each other, she might have thought that they had a thing going on. So it was back to three teams to solve their problem. Great.
"So…what actually happened back there?" asked Blake. Now that it was just the four of them again, Weiss knew that it was time to breach the heavier subjects. "That was Blackwood, right? The third Operative?"
Ruby shot a careful glance at Yang before nodding. "Yeah. He must have been following us."
"But why? Because of Alice or Will?"
"I don't know. I really don't…"
"Yang, are you alright?" Weiss asked the blonde, who was being awfully quiet. It was just not like her to be this down. "You're being suspiciously silent."
It took Yang some time to reply and when she did, she was still very hesitant about it. "I've just…I never encountered anything that could counter my Semblance like that. I've taken every hit possible and…never did I go down like that."
"It was terrible," Ruby said with a small shiver. "Watching you fall…and not getting up again…It was like a nightmare."
"What did that guy even do to you? Did he knock you out?"
"No, it was…" Yang sighed explosively and kicked at a nearby traffic sign, tearing through the metal as if it was wet paper. "Damnit, why am so frustrated! I couldn't do anything about it –I've taken so many blows before, and I always got back up. Always!"
"He stopped her heart," said Ruby. "He hit her chest and…and somehow stopped her heart."
"If I encounter that asshole again, I'm going to rip off his head and stuff it up his ass!" Yang snarled, her eyes turning dangerously red. "It was a low blow, nothing more! Next time he's dead meat!" the ground around her, otherwise covered in patches of ice, was starting to melt. Blake slowly backed off, demonstrating a key awareness of what was going to happen next. Weiss followed her example and stepped back as well.
"Yang, calm down. He's buried at the bottom of a river with tons of ice on top of him. He won't be coming back," Ruby told her sister, looking clearly disturbed by the sudden aggression. "You didn't get a chance to get fired up and still you did what Pyrrha, Will, Mantis and I couldn't do; you beat him back. You forced him on the defensive on your own and that was enough for Jaune, me and Lisa to set up our plan."
For a second, it looked like Yang wouldn't listen. But then her fists, trembling and clenched, slowly relaxed and the fire that was starting to ooze from her body faded away. "But that wasn't enough. He still nearly killed a few of us."
"Actually, you were the only one who was close to death," pointed out Weiss.
"Gee, thanks. Just what I needed," Yang growled back.
"Talking about need, what are we even looking for? A plane, right?" said Blake.
"Yeah. Will said that Onyx had a ship waiting for us. We just need to find them now."
"Why do we even need to search?" Weiss said with a loud sigh. "You would think that they would be ready to take off, right?"
"They are unfamiliar with this village, Weiss. They are probably hiding and waiting for us to find them," replied Blake.
"How would you know that?"
Blake simply stared at her, after which Weiss remembered who she was dealing with. "Right, whatever."
"Anyway, Will warned me that Blackwood's Semblance was also absorbing damage and using it as energy. Yet just now, he said that the details were vague. I think that's a little bit odd."
"You don't think he was secretly hoping for Blackwood to win, right?" Blake asked with a worried expression.
"No, Blackwood attempted to squish Will's head and Will tried to stab Blackwood to death." Ruby paused for a moment, then softly added: "These Operatives really have issues with each other, right?"
Yang crossed her arms. "Yeah, no kidding. And not only with each other. Mantis is a bitch."
"What makes you say that?" Blake replied with shock.
"Come on," said Ruby. "Don't tell me you didn't see how she looked at us? When she looked at Jaune, she considered herself above him. When she watched the rest…well, she does not like us. To say in the least."
There was no arguing with Ruby's magical face-reading, yet Blake refused to believe her. "She had just been stalked to exhaustion by Blackwood. I think it's safe to say that nobody would be looking at each other nicely."
"Yeah…why did he even stalk her in the first place? To kill her?" asked Weiss.
"Do not ask me to explain the enigmatic machinations of the mind of a madman," Ruby said in a very official-sounding tone. It was so ridiculous that Weiss cracked a smile.
"Where did you get that quote from?" Yang asked, also with a smile. Ruby had an uncanny ability to turn every single bad situation around at the flick of her wrist.
"Sometimes cartoons can be educational," replied the redhead.
"It's ironic how those three are supposed to be the best soldiers that Onyx can muster, yet only one of them is even moderately healthy in her head," remarked Weiss.
"What, Will pulled another skewed priority when I was down?" asked Yang.
Ruby and Weiss looked at each other. "Ehm…not exactly."
"What-"
"Hey!" Someone to their left yelled and Weiss exhaled relief. She saw everything that had happened after Yang's defeat and explaining what had happened to her since would have been very awkward.
"Lisa?" shouted back Ruby. "You found something?"
"Alessa did! It's a ship and there are two pilots!"
Ruby pumped her fist in the air and uttered a victorious "hah!" after which she sped off towards team LACG. Weiss reluctantly followed her to a small clearing half a mile away from the village, where both team LACG as JNPR as waiting for them. Just like the lumberjacks' vehicles, the dropship took a while to be spotted. Unlike those vehicles however, it was not unintentionally hidden. Its metal trunk was covered by leaves and snow alike and even the tracks of the pilots were completely hidden.
"Ship!" Ruby cried in total glee. "Yes! Finally!"
"That thing looks impressive," stated Yang. Weiss thought that it was a bit of an understatement; the dropship that Onyx had brought to bear during the Battle of Beacon had been half the size of this thing. It looked like it could carry all of Beacon's first-year students. Jaune, Pyrrha, Lisa and Cho were waiting outside of the craft, probably for them.
"So where are the pilots?" asked Blake, looking around.
"Inside," replied Pyrrha. "They and Ren helped Nora onboard. Her leg is indeed broken, but it will heal with time."
"So they have been expecting us?" asked Ruby.
Jaune shrugged. "I think so. They didn't try to shoot us on sight…although I don't know if Will told them about the defected Operative."
"Would they shoot her if they saw her?" asked Blake, concerned.
"That depends," replied Yang. Why was she sounding sarcastic? "If they are proper people, they will understand. If they are Onyx, they'll be like "grrr! Orders orders! Pew pew!"."
"That is actually a good imitation," said Ruby. "I think the moment that Will refuses orders, the world will implode."
"Probably," Weiss impatiently said. "Shall we get on now? I'm starting to get cold!"
Much to her annoyance, Yang and Jaune snickered.
"What!"
"You're always cold, Weiss," Yang said with a bright smile. "It's part of your charm!"
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Ruby placed an arm around her shoulders and navigated her to the dropship "Nothing, Weiss. Nothing at all. Why don't you sit down in the roomy ship next to someone really friendly, yes?"
"Are you patronizing me?"
"Maybe."
"You insufferable red-"
"Can't hear you, it's too cold outside!"
Ruby gently pushed Weiss into the dropship, where the rest of LACG and JNPR were already sitting. She could see Will conversing with one of the pilots, while Mantis was sitting as close to the entrance as possible. Ruby and Yang filed into the plane too, quickly followed by Jaune and Pyrrha. The interior was similar to the Beacon dropships, but way larger and padded with seats at the side.
"Everybody here?" asked Ruby. "JNPR complete? LACG lacking anybody? No? Good! Let's go!"
Silence. Mantis silently stared at her from behind her visor, her teammates were blankly staring at her and the pilots refused to start the vessel.
"All units accounted for, prepare for lift-off," Will told the pilots, at which point they flicked some buttons and activated the plane."
Ruby looked very disappointed, but she was about the only one who was. It didn't happen a lot that she got blatantly ignored like that.
"I guess that not everybody has a sense of humor," remarked Yang.
"Honestly Ruby? Did you expect anything else?" asked Blake.
"Yeah, people from Onyx rarely have a sense of humor," added Jaune. "Remember how Will didn't know what sarcasm was?"
"At least he learned symbolic speech."
Yang scoffed. "He didn't. Yesterday, I heard Pyrrha asking him how he was holding up. He said: "with my arms"."
"That is true," replied Pyrrha. "It was…surprising to hear that."
The Operative returned from the cockpit, his expression once again inscrutable. "Good news and bad news."
"Yeesh, what a surprise," sneered Yang. "Hit us."
He stared at the blond with a blank expression. "What-"
"She means give us the news," Ruby quickly said.
"Right. We got new supplies and a clear LZ where we'll establish our forward base on the primary target zone."
"Err…and the bad news?" asked Lisa.
"We're landing in the middle of a blizzard. We'll have to wait there until it dies down."
"That's going to be cozy. Will we freeze to death?"
Will shrugged. "Probably not."
"Wait, what do you mean with probably?" Weiss asked, feeling very suspicious at the use of that word. And Will not replying to her made her feel even more suspicious. He was being a bit…distant, even for him, what with his lack of replies to direct statements. Ignoring was rude; didn't his parents ever teach him that?
So as the Operative sat down and fastened his helmet in his head, Ruby leant towards Weiss and smiled. "I wonder if our old home's still there."
"That's right, you used to live in the north. How were things there?"
"Well," Ruby softly scratched behind her ear while she thought for a moment. "We only lived there for a year or so…and I don't really remember much of it. Our father took us to patch when I was only a few years old."
Her father? Single-use? What happened to her mother? "Why did he leave the North?"
Ruby laughed. "Weiss Schnee who didn't listen to the teachers? That's new!"
"What-"
"Ozpin and Matt said that the North was overrun with Grimm, remember?"
Weiss gasped, memories of the whole reason of the expedition flooding into her mind. "Did you –were you forced to-?"
"No, nothing like that," Ruby quickly said. "But, the North was just completely ravished. The few remaining cities were so cut-off that everyone just…wanted to leave. Which he did."
"And your mother?"
Before Ruby could answer, the plain shook violently and threw all sorts of supplies around its interior. Weiss had to duck in order to prevent a large crate from smashing into her face.
"What was that?" asked Cho. A boy should not sound so dull in times of distress!
"Guess that's the turbulence of the blizzard," commented Mantis. That was also the first time that she saw fit to…mingle…with them. These people were really, really odd.
"How are we flying in a blizzard?" asked Blake.
"Excuse me for stating the obvious, but how are we going to take shelter from a snowstorm? Will we dig holes to sleep in?" sneered Weiss sarcastically. She had no desire to mess around any longer than was absolutely necessary.
"There's an abandoned village not far ahead."
"We all know how that works," Lisa said with a huff. "It's always the abandoned villages in the middle of nowhere."
"The blizzard. How are we flying in it?" Blake asked once again, but whether it was because she was nervous or simply curious, Weiss could not tell.
"We'll plan for the rest of the journey once we're in that village," Ruby remarked. The redheaded girl smiled and crossed her legs, relaxing. "I could use some rest. "
"Amen to that."
Perhaps it was because of the extremely brutal nature of the encounter with the rabid Blackwood that the conversations had turned to a lighter note during the day. Pyrrha could feel how the beloved people around her were carefully avoiding any indication to what had happened, with those who had been affected the most being the ones who were the most careful. It was a shame though, as it prevented them from confronting what had truly hurt them. With time, perhaps, they would be ready to face the true impact of the day.
"Is this the place?"
"Guess so. Seems desolate."
Because she knew why they were all carefully avoiding the nature of their feelings. Pyrrha knew why her friends were insisting on talking about light-hearted matters like nothing happened. For all their encounters with Grimm, criminals or other enemies, neither of them had ever been this close to death. The experience could well be traumatizing for many of them…for Ruby, Jaune…Yang. Maybe even Blackwood himself. He had come at them with such ferocity and such savagery that there could not possibly have been a human mind behind that helmet. The way he had growled…the way his throat had convulsed such animalistic, guttural sounds…he could not have been sane. Will had been right; a severe psychosis must have gotten to that soldier in the past. But what? What could have possibly reduced a man to the mental capacity of a Grimm? And why?
"See that building? We're going to spend the day in it. Let's get there before the blizzard picks up again."
And unless she was mistaken, her comrades knew this. They all knew the reason for their silly banter and measures…it was to prevent them from having to face themselves. She knew this…because she had been doing the same thing. Not just here, after Blackwood, but in her past too. When the last person to see her for who she was, disappeared, she indulged in all the positive aspects of her life just to escape the loneliness. For moments of bliss, she would ignore that which had effectively ruined her life as an individual. At least, until JNPR. Until Jaune.
"Well, pick up the pace then. My ass is freezing right off!"
But perhaps now, her friends were starting to realize the full nature of their being. Not just here, in the North, but as Hunters as well. Sometimes the danger came from fellow-humans…and one will have to learn to retaliate with lethal measures. She had killed only once before and only in self-defense, but it had haunted her for a long time. That had not stopped her from giving her everything against Blackwood, using the upmost of her skill to end him. And for once, she hoped that the death of her enemy was certain.
But at the very least they had found another reasonably safe place to stay. The Onyx craft had dropped them off right on top of this abandoned little village, after which they had dumped the supplies in front of the largest building around and taken off again. They had not been the most social ones around. But she had come to suspect that from the professional soldiers that the organization employed…even for soldiers, they were stoic and silent. It made her wonder what they had seen or done in order to be like that; there was none of that gung-ho chest-pounding behaviour with any of them and she would not have minded had there been. It would serve to remind the people around as well as themselves that they were alive; that they were actively protecting the innocent. Even after weeks of social interactions with his friends, he was still silent and quick to take lethal measures for little reason.
"It's cold!" Jaune quietly complained.
"It is," she agreed. It was very noticeable that they were now in the North, as the snow had had become very hard to see through. Pyrrha had to resort using her aura to keep her body protected from the freezing elements and even then she was shivering. The building that had looked so much like a city-hall was just ahead though; she could see its outline through the storm. Said storm was picking up though, so they had better hurry up. "We must move with haste."
They stumbled their way through the ankle-high snow, occasionally slipping over patches of ice that nobody spotted. The village was completely and utterly abandoned; half the buildings were destroyed and every now and then, they would walk past a frozen skeleton, often with old pieces of armour still attached.
"It looks so desolate," she heard Blake say. "So lonely…was this all the Grimm's work?"
Ruby's voice sounded distant when she replied. "Our father always told us that this place used to be filled with thriving cities. The North…even the name of the continent was eventually lost with the attack. This place won't even look bad compared to where the full brunt of Grimm struck."
"Can you imagine it?" said Grace. "Thousands of Grimm, charging en masse…there's no saying what they looked like back then. This place never stood a chance."
"And they are not stopping," said Weiss, a hint of anger creeping into her voice. They keep changing and they keep coming."
Cho's voice sounded remarkably close when he spoke. "Can you imagine what the people had to do to survive? What they had to resort to?"
"I don't think I want to know," said Jaune. It occurred to Pyrrha that, in a way, the creatures of Grimm could be seen as a deadly plague. They adapted, they changed and they always came for you. The thought was not a pleasant one.
Yang kicked in the front door and they all filed inside of the building. Pyrrha had always thought of people who broke into empty buildings to sleep there were doing wrong, yet here they were doing the exact same thing. It was funny how such things could go.
"We are finally where our mission demands us to be," Weiss said with a frustrated demeanor as they fanned out across the room. "So why are we still hiding in some building? What are we even supposed to do here?"
"Weiss, I'm not going to let anyone out in that storm like that. People could get hurt."
"But we're wasting our time here! Vale needs us."
"Weiss, Beacon has a dozen other teams. They'll be fine."
"But-"
"No buts. They'll be fine. We've come a long way and a lot of us have gotten hurt pretty badly during this expedition. I'm not going to watch anyone else get hurt."
That was an endearing thought. One that Pyrrha could easily find herself agreeing with. Even as the teams made their way to a very large hall in the middle of the building, she came to understand that this had to be Ruby's way of coping. The little redhead had seen her sister nearly die at the hands of a foe who had been mentally dominating them all; it was only normal for her to want to safeguard all her friends.
"I am freezing," exclaimed Lisa. "Seriously though, we are going to die tonight unless we get a fire going."
"On it!" Ruby called out and almost immediately, she had raced from one end of the room to a large, empty fireplace, where she inserted a sturdy chair.
"Ruby," the Adamant tentatively spoke, "I know I said that I was freezing, but you don't need to stuff me in a fireplace to keep me warm. I'll pass."
Ruby laughed. "Nah, don't be silly. We just need fire going!"
"On it!" Grace shouted, after which she unslung her flamethrower and unleashed a short stream of shimmering flames, which nearly blasted through the wall. The chair was on fire though.
"You know, I could have done that too," remarked Yang.
"But not as stylish," Grace said with a smirk.
"Please. A flamethrower is not stylish," said Weiss. She crossed her arms and it looked like she was setting her mind to be exceptionally stubborn.
"Depends on who does the flaming," smiled Grace. "You should see me stuffing this thing with metal-containing Dust. It's damn lightshow!"
"I'd almost pay to see that," Jaune said, hauling another chair to the fireplace. "But I think you should spare your fuel. We are in the coldest region of the world right now. A little fire will come a long way."
"And if all else fails, we still have a survival-expert with us who can read moss," Yang said with a smirk. But Pyrrha saw that the person she was referring to wasn't there. Mantis was sitting in the corner, looking out of a window, but she was the only Operative in their company. "Right, Will?"
"Ehm…where did he go?" asked Ruby, who had just been poking the fire with a large stick.
"You know, someone should really put a bell on him or something," said Jaune. "That would make this a lot easier."
"You are not the first one with that idea," replied Cho.
"I just said that nobody should leave!" Ruby exclaimed on a frustrated note. "Why didn't he just listen?"
"You'd think that following orders would be one of the things he would actually do," Ren dryly commented.
It occurred to Pyrrha that this might well be because Will did not see himself as part of their teams. If he refused to listen to what any of them had to say and followed his own agenda…that would only serve to further distance him from them. Was that what he wanted? Was he even aware of that?
"We should focus on making this place habitable for the night," Lisa softly said. "We have a fire, but we need that fire going to stay warm."
"And to stay warm, we need to barricade the windows and holes," Cho finished her sentence. "There's only one problem."
"The bigger a room is, the more heat is lost. We need something smaller to survive the cold," Grace then said.
"So basically, we need to separate and find small rooms to sleep in?" Ruby was quick to conclude.
"Basically, yes."
"Well…split-up time then! This hall will be our meeting-point for when we leave tomorrow. Is everyone ok with that?"
They were. And seeing how it was the only way that this situation could be resolved, even those that might not have agreed with the plan had no choice but to go along with it. Coupled with the fact that there were only two or three people who could resist the cold in their group, Pyrrha had to admit that they would have to resort to less elegant solutions to their problems. She would have preferred a simple, short journey filled with fights and tension as supposed to this. The constant seeking of shelter and waiting things out was mildly irritating to her. It made her feel like she had no control over her own journey; as if something was guiding her the entire way, leaving her with no room to maneuver. They had constantly been traveling from one point to the other, always depending on the willingness of others to help them. Even the two-to-three hour-long journey in the airship they had so narrowly reached had been prematurely scheduled for them. And yet they had been pushed to multiple limits, both mentally and physically. She had never been this far away from civilization before and she had seen many things along the journey, both amazing and terrible. So when the moment came where they would reestablish contact with the surviving human population, she would opt for an immediate return to Vale, where things were normal.
However, strong as her Aura might be, Pyrrha was starting to feel the bite of the cold. It had been subtle at first, hidden by the heat and warmth that her body produced during the hard work to make a habitable sleeping-room. But as the hours crept by and exhaustion was slowly creeping in, so was the freezing edge of the never-ending winter. Just as they were boarding up the last hole in the floor, she felt the very first shiver running down her back. By that point, both Jaune and Ren were already shivering and stuttering from the cold. It was time for them to finish their work and return to the central room, where the large fire that Ruby and Grace had made was still burning. It would not help them sleep through the night, though that was not its point. The idea behind it was that everyone could take a burning portion of the wood and use that to create a smaller, but more useful fire in their improvised bedrooms. There were six such rooms scattered around the large one, all of them with only one entry and all of them filled with aged tables and broken chairs. Apart from the few corpses scattered in the courtyard outside, the majority of the building was empty, if severely damaged.
"So how come this place was ransacked by Grimm, but we are expecting other outposts and cities that are still intact?" Jaune asked at one point, while they were moving a part of the wall to make place for the fire.
"We don't know what happened. There aren't any Grimm bodies," Ren replied as he made a circle of rocks to contain the flames.
"Yeah, this place could have easily died out of boredom," Nora replied as she was juggling with three rocks. "What were they doing here anyway? It seems so dull…"
"This is a city hall," said Ren. "People used to come here to make decisions, I wager."
"But there were many surviving humans after the war, right?" asked Jaune. "We're supposed to contact them, that's the whole point."
"We know, Jaune," Pyrrha said as she placed a burning piece of wood into the circle of stones. "It won't take us too long now."
"I know. There is one major city out here somewhere. When we find that, we're done!" Jaune placed more pieces of wood and old books into the hole, feeding the fire. "There. One fire. That means we're finished here."
"I'm hungry!" Nora then loudly declared. "Let's go, I want to eat. Do you think we finally got that pancake-mix in our stuff?"
Ren sighed and patted her on her shoulder, walking past her and guiding her with him. "I doubt it."
Jaune gave Pyrrha a bright smile and then followed his two teammates to the central room.
Pyrrha smiled back, but as soon as Jaune turned to leave, she felt her smile fading away again. She had had a chance to tell him how she felt about him…and she had not taken it. She had withheld herself at the last moment…as if her courage had deserted her. Had it truly? She had never had any qualms about facing Grimm or other enemies…there were few things that she feared. She could resolve almost everything with her skill and clear thinking…but that did not hold for this. She could not use her experience or skills to solve an emotional problem. Was that why she lacked the courage? Because she did not know how to deal with this?
She shook her head and tried to focus on the bigger picture. They were here on an expedition organized to safe an entire population of humans locked in a stalemate with the creatures of Grimm. That should be her priority.
Pyrrha followed her team downstairs, where RWBY and LACG were already preparing their evening meal.
"So what's for dinner?" Jaune asked as he sat down next to Ruby.
"Let's see…MRE…MRE…Weiss' family toothpaste…sealed evil in a can…something that looks like a Grimm head…" each word was accentuated by the girl removing all sorts of canned goods and supplies out of a bag. "…more kecks…and choco-paste. Huh, that's new."
"Do we have anything to spice that mess up?" asked Yang.
"Yeah, I got a pack of salt…no wait, eww…that's salted fish. Gross…"
Pyrrha could have sworn that Ruby was now in the sudden possession of Blake's undivided attention.
"Salt is salt," Lisa said with a shrug. "Maybe we can make this army-crap edible to eat."
They were well into the evening by the time that Will returned. The door was flung open with a loud smack and a figure appeared in the opening. In a matter of a second, every single student had their weapons aimed squarely at the white apparition.
"Ghost!" Grace said with way too much enthusiasm.
"Worse," Lisa said with a small laugh. "Operative!"
The soldier violently closed the door and proceeded to wipe his visor with a frost-coated hand. It didn't help a lot.
"What were you doing out there?" Weiss asked with a condescending tone, like an adult scolding a child. "We were looking for you, do you realize that?"
No reply. Now that might have been because his joints had frozen up during his wandering outside, or because his mood was worsening. Judging by the way he trudged right past their group without saying anything was a dead giveaway though; something was definitely wrong.
"Talk about grumpy," muttered Yang. "What's eating him?"
"You know, I really thought that he was simply strolling around the building," a frowning Lisa commented, her gaze following the soldier all the way until he was gone. "Did anyone notice him going outside?"
"Not really," replied Blake. "But…we had other things to worry about, didn't we?"
"Do you think that Blackwood got to him as much as he got to us?" Pyrrha asked softly. She had been worrying about the young Operative before, but now his behaviour was just plain unsettling. It was like the first days all over again; with him being silent and antisocial to the point that he was offensive.
Jaune had picked that up too. "You know, I thought that he had shown that he did care about some of us, but this is just rude."
Pyrrha could not imagine anything that could have wronged the Operative in the past. He had shown that his moral priorities were reasonably skewed, meaning that things like fighting his fellow Operative could not have hurt him in any way. The only thing that remained a plausible explanation for his behaviour was that he did not like traveling with them.
"I think we should leave him be for now," Pyrrha slowly said.
"Yeah," Jaune told Yang, "he did not take your injury very well."
"Excuse me?"
"You should have seen him when you went down. He was pretty beaten-up about it. No pun intended."
"I didn't know," Yang said, a confused expression on her face. "I mean…at one point I saw that he was carrying me, but I kind of had other things to worry about."
Pyrrha was just about to point out that the Operative had served a major role in saving Yang's life, when Cho formed an unconventional method of distracting by spontaneously combusting.
"Damnit Cho!" Lisa shouted as she beat at his flaming arm with a piece of clothing. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?"
"What?" Weiss exclaimed while dosing Jason's arm with a freezing burst of her weapon. "Is this considered normal in your team?"
The boy sat back with a defeated sigh and held up his arms. "I give up. I'm not even going to try to find out where that came from."
Grace had lost her collective attitude. She was lying on the ground, laughing while clutching her stomach. "And they say that Lisa has a small temper!"
"Did Cho just spontaneously burst into flames?" asked Blake incredulously.
"Yeah," Alessa said with a small hand-wave. "That happens."
"That happens?" Jaune repeated loudly. "What, people just freely catch fire in your team? That's considered normal?"
"We believe," Lisa said while she helped her partner upright, "that the name 'Jason Mauve Cho' is at the top of the devil's list. Whoever created this world has got to have it out for him."
"I knew I would need fire-proof leather," said a very pale Cho.
"Are you alright?" asked Ren.
"Yes."
"Believe me, if fire could kill that guy, he would have died long ago."
"Thanks…"
Now that it was clear that Cho was alright, Pyrrha allowed herself to relax and crack a smile. For some reason, team LACG managed to create the silliest and stupidest situations and turn them into hilarious things.
And later that evening, it turned out that they made for excellent story-tellers too.
"So I'm just sitting in my grandmother's home, no big deal," a laid-back Grace told the group after a less-than-pleasant dinner. Despite the fact that only Blake and Nora had actually managed to enjoy their meal, they were all in a very good mood. "You know? Watching her knit, explaining to her how a combination of four towels and certain chemicals can create a smokescreen the size of a city-"
"As we all tell our grandparents on a daily basis," Ren dryly commented.
"She has her priorities in order, you know? Anyway, so we're sitting there, relaxed and easy, when all of a sudden we hear the sound of glass breaking."
"A burglar?" asked Blake.
"We wish. No, our back-window had been shattered to pieces and on the ground sat Lisa, clutching her head like she had just headbutted an Ursa."
Jaune and Ruby burst into laughter and Pyrrha chuckled. It was so easy to picture the Adamant jumping through a window for no apparent reason.
"And how old were you then?" asked Weiss, who was obviously not enjoying this tale so much.
"Oh, a year or twelve," said a smiling Lisa.
"You jumped through your friend's window when you were twelve?" asked Yang.
"Well, not exactly."
"So I get up to see what was wrong. You're never certain these days, you know? Anyway, grannie doesn't even get up or anything. She's just like "Gracey, is that a friend?" and I'm like "yeah, that's Lisa" and she's like "oh, how nice". And then…freaking Professor Matt appears with a grumpy face and yells "not good enough!"."
"No," gasped Jaune. "Did he seriously…is that…what?"
"Ayup," Lisa said with what had to be the most self-confident and smug expression of the day. "Part of the training."
"And then he pulls her out with one arm, repairs the glass with one movement…and proceeds to throw her through the window again."
Yang and Nora burst exploded in laughter as well and Pyrrha slowly shook her head, unwilling to believe what she had just heard.
"Aren't Hunter educations supposed to start at the age of thirteen? Four years combat school, four years advanced classes?" asked Ruby throughout a series of hilarity-induced hick-ups.
"Yeah…Matt always took it a bit too serious." For a moment, Lisa's face turned serious. "Guess that's part of the tradition…preparing the next generation…"
"You mean the next generation of Hunters, or just the next of kin?" asked Ruby.
"That's pretty much the same in the Adamant line. A lineage of Hunters that guess back all the way to the first war with Grimm."
Jaune nodded. "I know the feeling. Famous ancestors and all…"
"Yeah…but the odd thing is that I haven't heard of any of their accomplishments…" Lisa said, her serious expression shifting to a borderline frown.
"What do you mean? Everyone knows of the Adamant family. Saving villages, killing notorious Grimm, important research…those sorts of things!"
"You know, that's precisely the point. Every Hunter in the family has done one major, great thing…and that thing gets repeated endlessly."
"Your point?" asked Weiss.
"My point is that I never hear anything else. Oh, I hear about stupid personal things and all that crap, but not about what they what else they have done in their life. Like they are keeping secret that they are in fact all fast-food workers or something. Only grandpa Adamant ever talks about things that he did and those tales rarely end happy."
"How does a tale told by an awesome old guy not end happy?" asked Yang.
"To sum it up: he broke the Adamant code when he was younger, during the war. Or wars. There were more of them."
"I heard you say that before. What's the…Adamant code?" pointed out Ruby.
"Oh boy, here we go…" muttered Cho.
"It's simple, really. As a family dedicated to the protection of the people, an Adamant must never fall to the point of the enemy he is fighting. That basically means no killing people, no needless violence, no crimes against humanity, and all that stuff."
"And that's a code for a family that's dedicated to being Hunters? Seems hard to uphold," commented Blake. "What if you are forced to kill someone to protect someone else?"
Lisa shrugged. "Hey, it's not my code. If a guy threatens to blow up a building filled with orphans and puppies, I'm damn well blowing his head off."
"I think we all need to make that choice sooner or later," said Yang.
Ruby shook her head. "It is because we can do better that we're here. I won't hesitate to do what is needed, but I will also not lose myself while doing it."
"You know," said Grace, "I would have replied with "what's the big deal about killing bad guys", but I think that still remains a sensitive topic around here. We've all seen what the other side looks like. It's not too pretty."
"We'll get to the decision when the moment arrives," Blake replied as she stood up from the table. "We should focus on our journey tomorrow; we have no idea where the closest city is, let alone the capital city."
"The blizzard will die down tomorrow," replied Ruby. "The pilots dropped us off close enough. I think we don't need to go much farther."
"Any idea on how are we going to get back to Vale though?" Jaune asked, getting up as well. "I don't really feel like walking all the way back home."
"We'll call for a ride I guess," replied Yang. "Onyx's transports got us so far."
"You're probably right."
When they had all picked up their things and prepared for the evening, Pyrrha moved to one of the side-rooms to check up on Will. He had been growing somewhat tense and apathetic even before the Blackwood incident and she could not imagine that it had gotten any better.
"You go ahead," she told Nora when the girl spotted her moving to a different room. "I will join you shortly."
Nora saluted her without any questioning and joined her partner, who was probably tending to the fire. Pyrrha then carefully pushed the door open, thinking that the soldier might be sleeping. If she was wrong and he had simply been tired, she did not wish to wake him. But if he was still awake and…brooding…he might welcome some company. She didn't know what else there was to do.
She silently walked into the room and looked around. There was a small fire burning in a corner and a rifle stood against the wall. It took her a moment longer to notice the Operative, who was sleeping on the ground.
Pyrrha frowned. "Hello?" What she saw did not look like a very peaceful sleep. Actually, everything pointed to the contrary: Will's legs were kicking softly, one of his hands was clawing at nothing on the ground and his other hand was secured around his throat. It looked like he was stuck in some terrible nightmare.
Pyrrha did not hesitate when she knelt down next to him and reached for his shoulder. She could think of several reasons why he was dreaming so vividly and none of them were any indication that she should not help him-
The second she brushed against his shoulder, his body stiffened and one of his arms snaked out, grabbing her hand in an iron clasp. Before she could react, she was looking down the barrel of a pistol.
"What-"
The weapon discharged.
Grace yawned and pried her sleeping bag open. It was warm and nice and the fire shined comfortably. She did not want to think about sleeping outside with this weather. How anyone be certain that the blizzard outside was going to die down anytime soon? For all they knew, they could be trapped here for weeks. In that case, someone would need to find a way to contact…someone.
"One of the better evening's I've had," Lisa remarked as she slid into her own sleeping back. "Though the food was still awful."
"It wasn't that bad," replied Cho. "I've had worse with the VPD."
"That doesn't take away your right to complain ,you know?"
"I know. It's just that-"
A gunshot echoed through the hallways and cut him off.
"Gun!" Lisa cried out and jumped to her feet –only to fall straight on her face when her sleeping bag did not come off."
"Move!" Cho snapped and barged outside the room, followed closely by Alessa.
Grace hesitated. "Lisa…?"
"Go ahead, I'll join you!" the blonde replied, struggling with her bag.
"Gotcha!"
She just knew that something like this was bound to happen soon. Either someone had had an accidental discharge, or they were being ambushed. Grace really hoped for the first one, though she knew that the chances for the latter one were way higher. Desolate city, sheltering for storm? Key elements for a raid of some kind. If there were bandits out there, they had picked the wrong sleeping teens to wake. Aura allowed them all a sixth sense of some kind; they could feel danger approaching them before it could harm them. It was what enabled Hunters to camp in dangerous areas and it was what was going to screw over any bastard seeking to stab them in their sleep.
By the time she had reached the central room, she could hear a pretty big commotion. Everyone had leaped to the call the moment the gunshot had alerted them, but there were no baddies in sight. RWBY was there, Weiss had her hair loose and Ruby was in her pajamas. JNPR was there; Jaune was in his pajamas as well and Pyrrha…Pyrrha was carefully backing out of a different room, looking shocked. She was followed by an evenly stricken-looking Greystone, on whom her attention was directed at, completely undivided.
"I'm sorry," he told her. The fact that he was looking scared did not bode well.
"It's alright," she softly told him. Her face was straighter than his, but she too appeared frightened. What had happened?
"Pyrrha," yelled Jaune. "Are you alright?"
"What happened?" asked Ruby.
"Pyrrha?"
"I didn't mean to," the soldier said, half-extending a hand to Pyrrha. "I'm sorry."
"I understand," Pyrrha said hastily, "I understand."
"Hello," said angrily said, "someone fired a weapon in here!"
Jaune was one of the first people who seemed to get a grasp on the situation. "Wait…you shot Pyrrha?"
"Jaune, it's alright," Pyrrha quickly said.
Wait…Greystone had shot Pyrrha? With an actual gun? What the hell!
"I'm sorry," the soldier said again, looking solely at Pyrrha. "I didn't want to harm you!"
"You didn't, you did not even hit me!" she was sounding reassuring, but she sounded like she was not very reassured herself.
It began to dawn on others as well, but it was Jaune, who was standing closest to the pair, who walked up to Will and confronted him. "What is wrong with you? You don't shoot your friends!"
"It was an accident," replied the soldier.
Jaune pushed him, his expression uncharacteristically angry. "That's it? An accident? After all the things you've already pulled?"
Will pushed back, albeit with less force than Jaune. "It was."
Then, Jaune did something that Grace had never expected even Lisa to do, let alone him: he hit Will. Jaune's arm snapped out and the boy actually punched the Operative, who had easily killed a hundred people without a second thought in the recent past, straight in the face.
Granted, Jaune's knowledge of how to throw a punch was limited at best and he didn't follow up with additional strikes. The soldier still reacted as though he had been nailed by Yang however, as he completely averted his face and moved with the blow the second Jaune's fist impacted.
In an instant, Grace and at least six other students had their weapons unfolded and aimed to the two guys. Not because of Jaune's sudden hostility, but because of the lethal replies that Greystone always had for those he saw as hostiles. And now that mister Arc had topped his list of awesome deeds with punching an Onyx Operative square in the face, his reply might as well be a bullet to his face. These people were psycho enough to do that.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled, reaching out for her partner. "That is not necessary!"
Operative and Arc stared at each for a few seconds longer, the people around them tense enough to jump at a single movement. Will did not show any indication of hostility towards Jaune and neither did he react with violence of his own. "It was," he repeated.
Grace lowered her weapon when she saw that the air wouldn't be filled with testosterone-induced murder-fits. Hell, had she been decked in the face by Jaune she wouldn't have even come up with a response that did not involve roasting him. He was the least skilled fighter of all of Beacon and was tied with Ruby and Pyrrha in levels of kindness, displaying perhaps even greater naivety than Ruby. He was the least likely person to react with violence to things.
So clearly, Greystone had passed a line that he should not have.
It was silent after that display of violence. Pyrrha gave Jaune a difficult look and the Operative averted his gaze, his facial expression pretty much inscrutable.
"That…was awesome," Lisa broke the silence in her own unique way.
"I…what even happened in there?" Ruby asked with audible distress in her voice. The fact that she wasn't trying to prevent additional brawling from happening made it obvious that she was either not worrying about the psycho-Operative from murdering Jaune, or that she had bigger things to worry about. "Why did you shoot Pyrrha and why did you punch Will?"
Alright, perhaps she did worry about those things after all.
"It was a reflex," Will replied in a low voice. "I really didn't mean to…I thought someone was assaulting me."
"Jaune?"
"I…" JNPR's leader rubbed his neck and looked at the ground, in the same manner as the Operative he had assaulted did. "I thought he had hurt Pyrrha. I remembered what he did to LACG-"
"Which we still pretend didn't happen!" Lisa curtly snapped.
"-right."
The silence grew even more awkward after that. The implications were pretty clear to Grace; timid, kind guy punches disturbed killer because he nearly and perhaps accidentally hurt a girl? That sounded like one of the most obvious signs of love to her.
"Well," said Ren, "I think we're safe now."
"We'll discuss this tomorrow," Weiss sternly said, placing her hands on her hips in a scolding manner. "We don't punch our allies and we most definitely don't shoot them. Even when you don't know a thing about being a Huntsman, those things should be clear."
Grace half expected the two boys to reply with a shy "yes ma'am".
"That settles it I guess," said Yang, stretching her arms above her head. "Crisis averted –back to bed. See you all tomorrow."
" Yeah," Lisa added with a mischievous smile on her face, "some of us get really grumpy in the morning. I'm not calling any names…Alessa. Grace."
Grace felt a warm feeling rising to her cheeks. "I can't deal with people flipping my damn bed over at five on the morning, yeah!"
"You don't?" said Cho. "Disappointing."
"Shut your Mauve, Cho."
Remarkably, Grace did not feel endangered when she followed her leader back to their room. Partially because she knew that the four of them could take Greystone on if they needed to, but also because she understood that the boy had not willingly tried to harm Pyrrha. At some level perhaps, but not consciously. An emotionally stunted guy like him could not fake such feelings and Pyrrha had downright confirmed that she wasn't angry or disappointed by what had happened. She had actually looked like the person who was the friendliest with him at tha point, as Ruby had been as flabbergasted as if her cloak had been pulled upside down and Weiss…well, Weiss.
"So what was that all about?" Lisa asked ten minutes later, when they were trying to sleep. Her timing…
"Pyrrha disturbed Will in his sleep," replied Cho. "Back with the VPD, we had some guys who thought it funny to try and scare their colleagues. The Officers who had dealt with deranged murderers, people committing suicide or other disgusting matters, were the least funny to scare."
"Why is that?"
Grace heard Cho turning around in his sleeping bag. "Because they react with instinctive violence. You don't scare people that went through traumatizing things."
"Because they don't get scared?"
"Because they get scared."
"It's the same as trying to take a martial artist by surprise," said Alessa.
"I know that," replied Lisa. "They react with muscle memory; kicking ass without thinking about it. Wait…are you saying he's a martial artist?"
"We know he is trained in martial arts," Grace said, suppressing a large yawn. "We also know he went through war. That's probably the cause."
"Martial artists mainly punch then," Alessa then commented, cementing the biggest issue of the night.
"So did the Police Officers. I never heard of someone pulling a gun and firing it unconsciously. That's bull."
"So he did it on purpose?"
"On some level. Or he didn't recognize Pyrrha."
"But," Lisa then slowly said, "who did he think he recognized?"
Grace could practically feel Jason shrugging as he answered. "Don't know. Does it matter?"
"I guess not…" Lisa was silent for about twenty seconds, before she chuckled and said, "Damn, that Jaune. He just took about…ten levels of badass. Punching a freaking Operative. Shit."
"It was impressive," Grace agreed. "And dangerous."
"Which is why it's awesome. Everyone except our teams is afraid of him. Cardin thought it was a good idea to get painful payback on Pyrrha Nikos who, as was said before, was the best fighter of the entire Mistral Region. What did she even do before?"
"Embarrass him for a stupid mistake," remarked Alessa with a surprising amount of growl in her voice. She was still not letting go how much of a bully that Cardin was.
"Right, she embarrassed him with half a sentence. And what did lovely marksman do?"
"Dump him and his team in the mud," replied Grace. Sociopath or not, that action had been one of his best.
"Right, dump his entire team in the mud. And still Cardin was too chicken to even react to that. And freaking Jaune punched Will right in the face because he nearly hurt Pyrrha. Which her Aura would have prevented anyway."
"As I recall, Cardin met a similar fate when he tried to harm Pyrrha through Jaune's blackmail."
Lisa was silent again. Then: "Damn, that's right. Guess that's enough to teach the entire school not to mess with him, right?"
"Better to not mess with Pyrrha."
"Mess with Nikos and Arc will mess you up," laughed Lisa. "I like it. Wonder if he'll also punch Blackwood if he shows his brawly face again."
"…too soon."
"Too soon."
Cho snored.
"Yeah yeah…right…" Lisa mumbled, before turning around as well and going to sleep, Grace followed her example, but her night-rest was nowhere near as peaceful as she had hoped. Her dreams were filled with shadowy people that blew up anytime she got near them and in the end, a voice kept calling her name. When she woke up, she noticed that everyone around her was already busy with things.
And holy hell it was cold.
"Morning," Alessa greeted her as she donned her claws.
"Morning…where is everyone?"
"Preparing. We're going to leave now."
"Now? No breakfast?"
"No. The city we're supposed to find is close-by."
"And the blizzard?"
"No idea. That's why we're going to move."
Grace yawned lazily and started packing her gear. As it turned out, everyone had pretty much prepared herself while she had been sleeping. By the time she had holstered her Dragon's Foliage on her back, everyone was waiting for her and Weiss who, just like Grace, had been allowed to sleep for a little while longer.
"It is f-f-freezing!" muttered Weiss. She was standing with her arms wrapped around her waist and she was shivering like crazy. She wasn't the only one; Blake, Ren and Lisa were all trembling in the cold. Heck; the only ones that weren't actively quivering were Ruby and Alessa. Even Yang didn't look as amused as before. They had all added several warm pieces of clothing to their outfits long before the conflict with Blackwood, though only LACG had radically changed their actual appearance. But even with winter coats and leather straps of varying colours and widths, they could see every single breath they took in the form of a white cloud. It was seriously, freaking cold.
"It's called the N-N-North for a r-reason," retorted Blake.
"Actually, you will find that it is simply called the North."
"N-not funny."
It was a very good thing that their injuries were neither crippling nor long-lasting. Between Nora's damaged leg and Ren's broken arm, they were actually pretty good to go. Though the wind had died down enough for them to actually see where they were going, they were still in danger of getting frozen in place. Alessa didn't seem to mind though; Grace knew that her partner had originated from the North as well, but that was it. Alessa rarely spoke of her past –she rarely spoke at all, which wasn't that odd all things considered. Her lack of social interaction might well be a result of her blindfold…which did not serve to hide an injury or something like that, Grace had found out. Alessa's eyes were anything but normal, but their appearance still did not explain a blindfold.
They walked for about an hour without communicating much with each other. The surroundings were desolate and abandoned; with very little vegetation growing around them. The trees had disappeared completely, leaving behind only a few small bushes. The sky wasn't even bright; it was just grey and gloomy and depressing. The snow was creaking groaning underneath their feet and more than once, one of them sunk half a meter deep into the white, cold ground. Their shoes were not enough to deal with the unstable ground and their gear only managed to keep them on the brink of discomfort, never allowing them one warm moment. Ruby had said that they were lucky enough to have the wind in their backs, otherwise they would have had to cover their faces up completely.
Grace, having just sunken through a particularly deep pit of snow for the third time, was starting to feel very frustrated. She was cold, wet and hungry and she felt like the cold wind had penetrated to her bones. The constant sheaving of fabric against her legs was driving her mad and worst of all, the wind was picking up dramatically. It was getting very hard to see even a few meters in front of her and the worst thing was that, while Jason and Lisa were relatively easy to see, Alessa seemed to blend in perfectly with her surroundings.
"Did you see Will somewhere?" Ruby yelled somewhere in the distance. Or was it her who was standing in the distance? Orientating was pretty difficult…
"Don't get lost," she heard Lisa's voice over the howling of the wind. "Stick together!"
Half an hour passed and throughout it, the snow grew thicker and thicker. Snowflakes were sticking to her clothes and she could barely feel her feet.
"Lisa?" shouted Grace. "Where are you?"
"Over here!"
She cursed under her breath. "Where?"
A bright, blue flare exploded into the distance. "Grace! Over here!"
"That you, Cho?"
"Yes! Now come on, we're going to lose Alessa!"
What? "Is Lisa there?"
"She's after her." Another bright flash illuminated the white curtain that was blocking her view and she took a few tentative steps towards it. "Hurry!"
Grace shook off the freezing chill that was numbing her mind and increased her speed. She had not been anywhere this cold before, but she knew the stories. To get lost in the snow was to die a certain death. She lost track of time, the only indication of it passing at all being the ever increasing sense of freezing worry. She stumbled forwards, bringing her arms to her face as the wind grew even stronger. Snowflakes were pelting her face and scratching every bit of unveiled skin and she was feeling a strong urge to simply fire her weapon, just to enjoy the brief heat. But she couldn't waste fuel…or risk it freezing over. She had to push forwards, though her legs were trembling and her heart was pounding in her throat. "Cho!" she screamed. "Where…where are you!"
Another blue light flared up and this time, it was much closer than before. Grace forced her legs to keep moving her forward, towards the source of the light. She did not care what it was or who was responsible for it; she wanted to find her friends and seek shelter.
Grace had her eyes narrowed until they were slits and with her arms in front of her face, she could barely see what was in front of her. It was only when she ran face-first into something cold and heavy that she realized that she might have overlooked her surroundings.
"What…" she muttered, her head feeling heavy and her legs refusing to respond. The snow didn't feel so cold anymore…
"Come on," said a female voice. Grace could feel a cold hand gripping her wrists and pulling her up, but she couldn't stay on her own feet for too long. When she started wobbling, someone wrapped arm around her waist and supported her. "We've found shelter."
"R-R-RWBY…" mumbled Grace. Her were lips too stiff for her to form coherent word and her body was now involuntarily trembling. "W-where…"
Something dark passed over her head and for a moment, she thought that she was being assaulted by Nevermores. Then the howling of the wind died down somewhat and its painful effect on her face lessened.
"We don't know. ' the voice, Grace now realized, belonged to Alessa. "I hope Ruby and Jaune led their teams somewhere else."
"How…they were…just there…" she was starting to feel sleepy.
"No," Cho's voice sounded from somewhere around her. "We've been separated for at least an hour. Maybe more."
"Lisa…?"
"Deeper into the facility, making sure we're alone."
Facility? What facility? "Where are we?"
"Can't make it out yet. Glare's too bright."
"That's the snow," remarked Alessa. "If you're in the snow too long without protection, it'll blind you temporarily."
Alessa was right; Grace couldn't make out more than a dark, grey blur. She hoped it would pass soon. "So…where are we?"
"A research facility."
"How do you know?"
Alessa gently hauled Grace back to her feet and then let her go. When she did not fall, the girl spoke up. "I…I can't say."
"Why not?"
"Because…I'm afraid."
"Of what?"
"That I recognize this place."
"It is intriguing that Subject Brimstone's reappearance only reasserts my certainty in the power of the human mind, under extreme stress and trauma, where it manages to devise all sorts of mental effects in order to deal. Dissociative amnesia, split-personality disorder, even forms of Dementia. All figments of the mind; fabrications of reality. And yet, each fragmented peace of the living consciousness fits into a puzzle…many puzzles make up a change in society. Blackwood's puzzle is unsurprisingly Bonded to Brimstone's…and the offspring's. But do they know? Can they…deal?"
Next time: split up from each other, the three teams have no choice but to delve into old horrors, investigate preserved graves and aid a settlement locked in the bitterest form of warfare with the Grimm.