Desertion Part Two: A Ghost's Beginning

by DatRtfantho

The Sequel to RWBY: Desertion. After their most recent battle, Gage Sim and Yang Xiao Long are left scarred. Gage physically, and Yang mentally, all while Blake Belladonna continues to hold her secret from them, however, the coming months ahead of them will test Gage and Team RWBY's strengths... as it seems like everything they've fought for will soon come crashing down around them

39. Conquer

Author's Note (IMPORTANT): Hey guys, I'm not dead. Sorry about the wait, but I don't think I can lie about the real reason behind the slowness of uploads this year… and frankly, it's because my drive to continuously work on this thing every day of the week has dwindled. That isn't mentioning my slight-depression (nothing serious), housing problems, and social stuff. Yeah lol, i actually have irl friends now. I have the time to write this, i just procrastinate now. Ain't that something?

This one chapter is hopefully the only one that takes forever to upload, because this one is pretty long, and I hope 20k+ words, a battle, and some character development is enough to make up for my absence. But, if you feel that some certain moments seem rushed, then just know that the quality there was sacrificed so this chapter could get to you guys quicker. I just hope it doesn't show easily.

Adding to what i said in the first paragraph, there's also the problem that i'm not exactly in love with the source-material for this story anymore, or at least not as much right now. Yeah, i'm saying it. I don't like RWBY as much anymore. Volume 4 was what Season 2 of The Walking Dead was in my eyes, (Boring with barely any memorable moments. Just there to bridge the gap between seasons really. This is just my opinion)

I honestly enjoy my own works more than i do the actual show, currently at least. Heck, i still try and search for OC stories that take place between Volume 1 and 3 because of how much i hate the change-I also only read oc stories btw-And i'm a person that can usually deal with change well, but this one not as much for some reason.

*sigh* ...Listen, I'm not going to go in-depth about my dislikes, and again, sorry for the long note. But i am writing this right after Volume 5 Episode 3, and so far V5 is pretty damn good in comparison to last season. It even gave me a boost in interest to finish this a lot quicker so… that's a pretty good sign for the future.

Now don't worry, i'm not going to stop the story or talk shit about the show. I still love it for a lot of reasons, like the music, characters, lore, and the world of Remnant as a whole. I mean i wouldn't have stuck around this long if i didn't enjoy RWBY at all, so what I say now can change down the road. And I do have other things motivating me to keep going, i just wanted to properly explain what's been going on with me.

Anyways, i'll just say this as an ending note for this chapter. Desertion's Three Year Anniversary is on November 15, and I know I won't be able to upload by then. If I do, it will be a goddamn miracle.

So as an apology for that and as a way to celebrate, I will not being making an Author's Note for the next chapter, chapter 40, because that will be our OFFICIAL, 100TH CHAPTER OF DESERTION. (Holy shit, that coincidence right?!) And instead… i'm going to make something small, but it'll hopefully be a special start to Desertion: Part Two's third act.

I will also begin production on Búcsú Testvér chapter two as well, so look out for that, and I'll see you guys whenever the next chapter comes out. Oh, and in celebration for our 100th… make sure to tell me what your favorite moment has been so far in the Desertion series, whether it be review or pm! And please don't say the lemons! XD

(Also as a little fun fact, I listened to the Volume 5 intro song 'Triumph' the whole time I wrote the main conflict in this chapter… so there's something fun to do!)

Song: Somewhat Damaged by Nine Inch Nails.

…

The sun was still raised ever so highly in the sky, and was beating down on Alizarin's head as he walked endlessly alone through the brush of a forest by himself… until he approached a clearing, found himself standing in front of a wall, and was shaded by it's large, rusted gates.

This, was the entrance to the Village of Keji.

He sighed with bitterness and banged on the piece of metal once before he took a step back, kicked some dirt around for a brief second, and looked up at the top of Keji's sealed off entrance to be met with the gaze of two others.

These two men were Skinwalkers themselves named Kory, and Reno. Two lesser known people who have been apart of the village's leathered guard, as they came to be known by the ones they were protecting… the leathered guard was also another name for Orin's group.

The gate and connected wall were around fifteen feet tall, and bordered off the entire village so that any sort of attack would have to be made from the front gates… even though they would soon enough be opened,

"Well, your group took their sweet ass time… heh, that means that you must've found a shit ton of stuff though, right?"

"...No. We lost it all."

This first man, Kory, who looked a lot more older and unkempt than Al, just shook his head and leaned forwards against the railing that was laid across at the top of the wall so the guards wouldn't fall off by accident.

"To what, the Grimm? Jesus, why hasn't Orin killed you already!" He asked while rolling his eyes, and as he unholstered a Beretta M9A3 semi-auto pistol, holding it casually in his hand.

"He's dead Kory." Al said this and raised his hands in defense immediately afterwards, but of course the leather-wearing keeper didn't believe him. "Yeah right, as if i'd believe your sorry ass…"

"You can send a group out to Tsuro if you think i'm lyin', because there's still three fresh corpses spread throughout the entire town!" The sheriff yelled in response.

That small plea was enough to finally get the other guard interested, and he hesitated a bit… but eventually stared down at Alizarin, looking very saddened by his words. "...Owen and Greed too?"

"Don't give him that shit Reno!" Kory shouted at his partner while he lightly slapped his shoulder, and raised his gruff and grainy voice even more. "Clearly he's lying, he doesn't even have Magna to prove his shitty fib neither!" Magna, being the name of Orin's treasured cricket bat.

...And, they made it very, and abundantly clear that it was worth more than a single person's life, which Al knew would become the go-to topic eventually. "...I can bring you to it-"

"No, you ain't! And we aren't going anywhere until you bring us physical proof!"

The other guard, Reno flinched and brought up a SPAS-12 Combat Shotgun, with the stock folded up, and he just aimed it down at Alizarin. He cocked it, but all that did was cause the old sheriff to sigh and lower his head along with his body as he shrugged and shook his head with complete annoyance.

"...Look, if you just let us inside i can tell the whole story." He repeated again, this time with even more anger while he clenched his teeth, and looked up again as Kal squinted down at him with confusion by what he said. "'Us'? What, your girls are still alive too?"

"Yeah, and this other guy we found too! *sigh* ...It's a very, very long story, arlight?"

"Oh i'm sure it is…"

They went on to haggle the gunslinger even more, just to see if he could slip up and admit to it… but that wouldn't happen, as this was all part of the plan. Because right then, both guards had an orange set of eyes planted on them, which belonged to Ileana.

At that moment, she was sort of… perched, or hanging from a tree rather that was located in the treeline that surrounded Keji, but made sure to remain well hidden within the brush.

She had her feet planted against the bottom of a tree branch, and hung from it upside down like she had done before thanks to her semblance. All while she hit her bow in her hands, with it's string pulled back and the arrow aimed up high.

Meanwhile, Gage and Riley were taking cover behind a different tree located on her left side, standing right below her as they all were listening at the conversation Alizarin was having with the two Skinwalkers,

"*sigh* ...This is never gonna work…" The heavy sighed, while covering her face with her left hand. Ileana even hissed at her so she would stay quiet, but that just prompted her to ask a follow-up question, "Illie, just level with me… what if you miss?"

"...I won't. Don't jinx me please!"

The spider-faunus said this with utmost confidence without even turning to look at her best friend, and only increased her focus even more… as her pupils split in half, and made it look like she had two of them now.

That made Gage kind of become tense, so he instead just put his hand on Riley's shoulder and nodded over towards their village, gesturing to her that it was their time to shine, "Come on, we need to get into position!"

"Yeah yeah yeah…"

…

Twenty Minutes Earlier…

…

"Jesus, so you fought off a Manticore with one arm… and you lived?" Alizarin asked Gage, as he was trying his best to bandage the ghosts injured arm and see if looked like it was going to be infected or not.

"Trust me, i'm just as surprised as the rest of you..." Gage replied with a wince as Al poured peroxide on his wound, causing him to shut one of his eyes due to the immense pain. "*sharp inhale* ...But who knows, maybe my luck really is looking out for me!"

They were still in the same campsite from before, and had decided to take about a ten minute break to rest and reload since Gage and Orin's duel ended not that long ago.

And in that small amount of time, the ghost thought he could get some much needed info before he could actually come up with an attack plan, but it didn't seem that hard to do either way. "Yeah, well you're lucky that we won't have to amputate your other arm, I'll say that much..."

Gage shrugged it off and just continued to watch the peroxide begin to foam and bubble a bit on the bit wounds before he soon began to worry again… but for something that was considerably minor than the peroxide.

"Hey, so… you think I'll be needing a rabies shot?"

"Not unless you want to become a walking corpse." Al mumbled this to himself and was about to stand up again… until he saw the ghost shut his eyes a little bit and look away a bit sheepishly, "...YES, you'll be needing a rabies shot…" He confirmed it.

His look of disappointment and hatred of the word 'rabies shot' completely threw off the whole, 'confident leader' vibe he was giving off five minutes ago. It even made Riley snicker a bit as she came to them with a bottle of water,

"What? Heh, you afraid of needles or something?" She asked him, mockingly.

Gage had nothing to say and was about to reply with a grunt of annoyance, but luckily enough for him, Ileana had his back this time around. "Hey, as long as he isn't afraid of bullets, i won't judge!"

"Thanks…"

His face reddened a bit as Riley handed him her water bottle, and he poured it on his arm before he took a long sip from it, lowered it, and began to bandage his arm slowly once Ileana handed him some medical bandages, "A-Anyways… what kind of stuff are these guys packing?"

The sheriff then finally stood up, and walked a few steps away so he could pick up his Ak-47, and cock it's ejection port lever before he just started to list off their armaments,

"Semi and 'matics, explosives, AP rounds with a bunch of dust to go along with it, bunch of leather and motorcycles, and even an old-world Humvee with a fifty-cal on top of it, so…"

"They're well armed..." Gage interrupted him as he finished bandaging his arm, and closed his fist while he made sure that the whole thing covered his entire hand, except for his fingers. However, the ghost didn't look worried at all, because of one simple fact that anyone could have realized. "But, they're still nothing compared to the White Fang."

"That's one way of looking at it…"

They didn't have mechs, or armor, airships, Atlesian and military grade-weaponry, and they weren't as organized as the cult were at all. Who, didn't even have much coordination to begin with.

"And that's going to keep us from getting killed?" Riley asked him sarcastically before she just picked up her M249 again, and pointed at herself, "I'm sorry, but i'd rather not have a hole in this pretty face by the end of today."

This just made Ileana sigh, grip the bridge of her nose, and roll her eyes due to the unnecessary sarcasm. "*sigh* ...We still have the numbers either way. They just don't know it."

"You mean you have people on the inside willing to fight with us?" Gage questioned her as he stood up, and was reassured with a quick nod from Alizarin. "Yeah. Sixty plus population with a… sixty-forty difference. Orin's people being the forty percent."

"Wait, then… what kept you guys from taking Keji back before you found me?"

"You can't plan a coupe with low morale, poorly-trained fighters, and little kids running around constantly…" The heavy mumbled under her breath.

"Maybe… " This urged Al to grumble to himself once more, but not before he also chose to give his own input of what he thought would be best. "...But, a surprise attack should catch those bastards off guard long enough for the rest of us to get situated."

The ghost was starting to try and figure out some sort of way to do this without making any sort of contact initially… but he knew it couldn't be done.

His semblance couldn't last forever and it would strain his aura incredibly if he had to stretch his abilities out to three other people, not to mention that his aura still hadn't been fully regenerated since his fight with the Manticore.

So in his mind, Al's plan of attack was the smartest and pretty much the same thing he would have came up with, but how they get inside Keji was probably going to be the hard part. "That's the direction i'd take, other than asking nicely to be let inside."

Gage said this while he picked his prosthetic off of the floor since he wasn't wearing it at the moment, and looked over at Riley before she could insult him again for no particular reason.

"Yeah… asking isn't exactly my strong-suit either." She replied, nonchalantly. Luckily for the two of them though, they both finally seemed to have something in common, which made the ghost smile at her for the first time. "Hehe, that makes two of us."

"...Three." Alizarin stated as he just walked in between the two with his assault rifle in one hand, and his M1911 in the other, now seemingly itching to get this whole rodeo said done with. But It wasn't like it was going to be his last either, "You gave me a reason to kill these psychos, so I'm not gonna keep myself from 'em anymore."

Although, this only began to worry Ileana even more because of her own concerns for the other villagers being caught in the crossfire, the ones that were unable to be rise up and help in the fight with the rest of the Skinwalkers. "...What about the others?"

"They'll be fine. I made sure to tell everyone the keyword we picked out, and what it means."

"Keyword, so... like a safe-word?-" Gage was only halfway through his question before he could feel Riley's foot kick against his rear, and it made him jump a bit with a painful scowl afterwards. "Ow! I wasn't trying to go for that type of joke! Or one at all!"

"*sigh* ...Can you just focus on thinking of a way to get inside right now rather than some more stupid questions?" The sheriff huffed angrily while he lowered his head, shook it, and facepalmed.

"Trust me, we've already got a way."

"Besides that… all we need is a distraction to get things started-" The ghost tried his best to seem both vague and informative, even though he couldn't shake off the pain very well. "-And what would be noisier than killing a few guards?"

Yet, he was still vigilant enough to use the awkwardness to get his suggestion across… somehow. "Questions? Concerns?"

Riley was still standing there holding her LMG by it's barrel/forearm area looking unimpressed while Ileana had her hand on her bow's strap, and Al just pulled down his hat a little before he just smirked deviously, and walked past Gage and into the brush in front of them.

"...Nope. Let's do it live!"

The sheriff even began to arm himself again before he disappeared into the treeline, and the three teens were left amongst themselves for a few seconds until they began to follow slowly.

Illeana just smiled about by her guardian's reaction… but blankly, even though she still sighed with some relief, "He's always been ready for this-" She said as she turned back to the heavy and the ghost, "-But are you two good to go? Because i know i am."

Right as Riley went to nod 'yes', Gage pretty much just interrupted her as he painfully reattached his prosthetic arm, and regained his control of it before he just gave the two girls a thumbs up with it,

"I'm, 'Armed and Ready'!"

Yeah. Haha, soooo funny… and of course his shitty pun immediately made Riley glare blankly over towards the ghost as she started walking ahead of him and Ileana, and did not look amused at all. "...You're gonna get shot for that." She replied.

Gage of course became a little tense after her possible joke, but then he thought of Yang's impact on him again and just sighed as the heavy moved on with her machine gun at her side. It was almost like these blonde girls had it in for him now...

The spider faunus saw his sudden change in emotion and went from stifling a giggle because of his terrible pun, to looking over at him while he became quiet again… appearing to be a little surprised by his quick swap.

He looked a little annoyed and embarrassed at the same time, but not in a good way… and it was very noticeable to Ileana, so she sprung into action immediately by tapping on his shoulder as she was walking in pace next to him,

"Look at it this way, if we actually live through this and save everyone, then i'm sure that Riley won't be harassing you anymore! ...Probably."

"I guess that's something to look forward to…"

The ghost pretty much had a, 'this bitch' type of feeling whenever the heavy would approach him to say the least. However, he also had the same type of mentality when it came to Weiss… at least that's what he use to feel like around the heiress.

Either way, he's dealt with someone similar, so it shouldn't be too hard to trudge through all of that relationship-building stuff again, if he decides to stick around afterwards that is.

It was still highly unlikely for him to do that though, but Gage was still appreciative of Ileana's positivity, despite their current situation. He was just glad that he didn't have to project the optimism for once.

"That's more like it! Now come on, we all need to get moving!" She then nudged his shoulder and went on to walk ahead of him a bit, but not without giving him another wide smile which made his own red-eyed glow with passion… until she finished up her words of encouragement for him,

"...Cuz this team can't function without their leader!"

"…Pfft." Was all Gage could process as he watched the archer stride ahead towards the the other two in their group. It even made him stop dead in his tracks, only for him to continue and think deeply about that single word as he watched them all now.

Alizarin was still ahead of the group with his AK in his right hand while Riley remained at his side, but barely as she too was walking with Bronze Bess dangling from her left as Ileana caught up with them. She also had her bow slung over her shoulder…

...Yet, she was still looking back at the ghost, like he was the odd one out as he just stood there in awe, with his eyes looking downwards a bit while his eyes were narrowed, and began to question himself. "A team? Heh, that'd be the day."

…

...Now

…

The two leathered guards named Kory and Reno went on to argue a bit with Al for about five more minutes after seeing him again, and managed to pull his own words back around onto him.

That was to be expected, since these skinwalkers were known to lie, cheat, and steal to get what they wanted, with the sheriff's death being their goal. Though, at this point they were both just wanting to fuck with him a little bit before any conflict could happen.

"Now I'm not going to lie to you, I hate you and everything you stand for." And Kal just continued to flail his revolver with nearly every word that he spoke, "The reason why i'm telling you this is because i'm not lying, but you are!" He said, now pointing the weapon downwards at the gunslinger again.

"I know ya'll get antsy up there doing nothing all day, but is threatening an old man really the best way to get some action?" The older man responded with a rather casual, and slightly irritated expression.

Alizarin wasn't exactly as humble with his replies anymore considering he was being held at gunpoint by the people who were supposed to be protecting his home and other friends, but he still kept his hands up despite that.

However, Kory didn't go back to flailing around his gun after that. This time, he just kept his eyes and pistol-barrel dead on the lawman's figure… because now he was done playing games. Dead Orin or not, he's had it with this wash-up walking back in here acting like Keji was still his home.

So, the skinwalker shook his head, chuckled to himself once more, and just scowled down at the sheriff once more, with a smirk on his face. "No… but killing one should probably do the trick!"

"...Then just do what you gotta do."

Kory went on to pull back the hammer on his M9, and smirked too as the other guard pumped his shotgun and held it closely, just in case if Al wouldn't end up going down without a fight.

Now with a fully loaded weapon traced on his body while another firearm remained primed and ready nearby, Alizarin sighed quietly and just lowered his hands so they were at his side again.

He may have looked solemnly composed on the outside, but soon he began to sweat a little bit as a long silence came upon the three of them, with the sheriff only becoming more and more tense as he looked up and stared at the two Skinwalkers.

"Illie, if you miss then I will make god-damn sure that I come back and haunt you till' the end of days!" He thought to himself as he began to breathe a little more quicker than usual.

His eyes soon drifted over towards a row of wooden, hand-crafted stalagmites that outlined the front of the entrance, and all he could do was stare at their pointed bloody tips, One of them even had a white-winged butterfly perched on top of it.

It just rested there for a few seconds as the winds breezed on by him and deafened Al from hearing anything else as he went on, and just watched as the beautiful creature let itself go by letting the winds carry it back up into the sky...

...And it made him smile. A little bit because of the irony, but mostly because of the hope it gave him. At this point, he didn't care if this attack would work or not. Just being able to get here, to be finally have that chance to rise up against these people… it was all he ever wanted.

But now, it was time for him to get busy dying. "Wait... *sigh* ...Shit. gimme a second." Kory suddenly spoke up again and lowered his weapon a bit, looking a little disappointed himself as he rolled his eyes, "...I can't kill you. I have too much beef with you, and i can't be too sinful today! So-"

Then, he smiled and turned to Reno, who was… staring straight ahead at the treeline for some odd reason, "-He'll do it for me! Right old pal?-" Right before something light made contact with his head, and caused him take a step back due to the impact of the object,

"*THOKK!*"

His body became tensed off after that, and Kory just patted his shoulder a second time to get his attention again. "Hey! I'm trying to... let you have some fun…." His words soon began to slow and release any enthusiasm they had, as Reno just turned to look back at his friend, and was gave him an image that no one could forget.

He stood there with his shotgun in hand, and smirked back at Kory while… an arrow had lodged itself deep inside of his left eye socket. It went right through his skull, with the arrow tip going out the back of his head as the back of the bolt, or the nock, was protruding from that same eyehole while a thick line of blood rolled down Reno's left cheek.

After that, the man opened his mouth and tried to mumble something that was supposed to express acknowledgement, but nothing came out of his mouth… and he soon just became deadpanned on the inside, and the outside as he leaned to the side a bit, and fell off of the guard post.

Kory stood there in shock and just watched as his friend become impaled on the spikes below, but he could only look down for a few seconds before his wide eyes drifted back down to Alizarin. "Y-Y-Yu… R-Reno…"

This, just prompted the gunslinger to look back up at the man with an absolutely care-free shrug and a smirk to go along with it right as Gage de-cloaked next to the guard, and planted Mistletoe's barrel against the Skinwalker's eardrum before he whispered his condolences, and just pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"...I'm sorry it had to be this way-"

"*BANG!*"

What was left of Kory after that initial blast was blown back by the force of the single shot, and even more of Gage's skin was stained by the color red, and a little bit of Al's too as a few droplets rained down onto him. "JESUS! What's with you and completely obliterating people?!" He exclaimed as he pulled the front of his hat down a bit.

"*gag* ...It's not like I enjoy it!" The ghost stood there for a few seconds afterwards, in the same position and stance, but mostly because he had been blinded by that same crimson color, causing him to turn his head to the side and cough as he lowered his weapon, and wiped his eyes slowly. "Riley, just open the gate! *cough!*"

"On it!" As soon as Al heard the heavy's voice, he hastily made sure to get out of the way from the front of the village's entrance, and it made Gage smile as he watched from above.

Everything was going according to plan, as he also managed to sneak Riley inside Keji's walls as well thanks to his own semblance, and soon enough a barrage of bullets came flying through the large wooden gate.

The rounds made a very wide and disorganized line across the large door, and when the line was complete, the bottom half of the large door fell forwards onto the ground.

And the moment it hit the floor, Alizarin ran inside and just patted Riley's shoulder for a few seconds before he unholstered his M1911, and ran past her with nothing but a devious smirk across his lips,

"Now move like you've got a purpose!"

He went on to charge ahead towards a small weapons crate where two other skinwalkers were sitting, and they pretty much just watched their village's invasion begin before the old sheriff ran by and shot them dead, without any words being spoken.

Not even a few seconds passed before Gage dropped back down from above and landed next to the heavy, only to lean his head up again and watch as the gunslinger disappeared over the hill.

...Only then did the ghost finally lay his eyes upon the real village of Keji. "...How the hell did they hide all this behind such a crappy wall?" He asked this, because the place looked like a total gem in his eyes.

The way it was structured was very similar to Tsuro's own layout, with the town pretty much being a few rows of buildings, but having four rows of them instead of two, which also had a clear center in the middle and appeared to have more of an… old-western type of vibe to it. Hell, it could've looked like that village straight out of Django Unchained if it wanted to.

Another thing about the place was that it was also more open and… green. Aside from the clear dirt roads that were plowed as pathways throughout the main town and up to the main entrance, the rest of the place was surrounded by green grass, with a few farmland crops outlining the east and west ends of the main wall.

However, the one thing that stood out above everything else in Keji, was the large estate-looking brick home that was located at the very back, or southern end of the village, and it was sitting at the top of a short hill. For a village that was supposed to be thriving outside of Vale's walls and housing seventy people, while being under a dictatorship type of rule… it looked pretty damn beautiful.

"They didn't." Riley soon turned around to face her home as she let her MG's smoking hot barrel hiss quietly at her side. "They just used it to trap whatever prey that thought it looked pretty… like me-"

The ghost had his head halfway tilted towards the heavy as she spoke, but their little moment was soon interrupted as Ileana came sprinting inside the broken entrance, and stopped right behind the two while panting.

"*pant* ...Crap, am i late to the party already?" The spider-faunus huffed lightly.

Riley was already praying for something to get in between them, and luckily her prayers were answered. "Pfft… Don't worry Illie, Al's just lighting the candles." She answered with a small downwards wave.

As for Gage… well, he just chose to drop it for now. Not because he wasn't interested, but more that he just was appalled by her sudden openness, even if it was small.

"Yeah… And nice shot by the way Ileana."

"*pant* ...Awe, thanks!"

He followed up with a reassuring nod, and took a couple steps forwards without saying anything else to the two girls. Mostly because he suddenly became fixated on the weapon cache that Al had pretty much left behind for them.

So when he approached it and pushed the two dead bodies off of it, he opened up one of the crates and scavenged everything he could. Shotgun rounds, revolver speed loaders, some gravity dust, a grenade or two, and… an old-world 60mm dust mortar of all things?

Gage held it up, and brought it closer to himself a little bit so he could stare at it even more. Parts of the metal casing being rusted along with a few parts that looked clean, and it was even dented a little bit, but the explosive still looked usable.

"Hey… they don't happen have a bar down there, do they?" He asked the two girls ominously with narrowed eyes, while the mortar was still in his hand.

Riley could see the fire in his eyes, and she knew just as well as he did what type of damage could be done with the thing, if it doesn't end up going off in his hands prematurely that is.

"Ohoho yeah..." The heavy answered with a nod as a devious little smile crept across her lips. "A lot of the skinnies' usually run the place dry almost every day, so... it shouldn't be too hard to spot."

"...Good." Was all that the ghost uttered afterwards, and that was when he decided to keep the explosive. Because if war movies and games had ever taught him anything, it was how to prime one of these with your hand instead of using a launcher.

He just hoped that the dust in the thing hadn't lost any of it's destructive power, because since they clearly weren't in a position to fight civilly, they would need every last bit of chaos they could use in combat.

But that would come later. Now, they had to make sure to move and plan accordingly… or Ileana wanted to at least. "Well, what's the game plan scruffy?" She asked Gage with crossed arms.

That was when he finally broke his gaze with the old explosive, and he quickly turned to face the spider-faunus with barely any time to pause and think, as he had already made sure of what their next step into battle would be, "Blow Through."

"Me and you will be following Al into town, with me on the ground and you on the rooftops so we'll have someone covering us." He said that to Illie, and then he pointed back at Riley immediately with a sort of deadness inside his red eyes, "And you'll take care of any guards near the wall. Most of them'll be attracted to the village center, so that way we'll be able to box them in-"

"*BANG!* *BANG!*

Right when he was about to finish his statement, two pistol shots suddenly rang out down from within the center of the town. This made all three of them flinch and turn towards it with concern, but Riley was the first to move as she just nodded again and patted Gage's should before leaving,

"I'll be sure to make some noise. Now get going before our plan goes to shit!"

"Right!" The ghost was about to say something similar before she best him to it, and once the heavy broke off from their group, he went to turn back and face Ileana… but she had already started to run towards the main town without him.

After that, he made sure to put Mistletoe on his back and started to charge after Ileana with Javix drawn instead this time, all while he just hoped that they would be successful today.

Because maybe, just maybe after this fight was finally finished… then maybe Gage could start thinking about seeing Yang one last time if and when he would make it back to Vale. Maybe...

…

Meanwhile…

…

Alizarin ended up sprinting the whole way towards the center of town, and slowed down more and more once he began to see a few familiar faces on the way there.

He expected them to try and stop him to have a conversation, but only when they saw that his gun was when they stopped looking at him entirely, as what was going to happen next became obvious.

So the minute he came around to where their saloon was, the old sheriff just continued on with slow steps as he pulled back the hammer on his M1911, and soon became face to face with two more skinwalkers.

They were on the deck of a building on the row of structures to his right, and could see the two ex-faunus holding up an older man and his teenage daughter, with a bowie knife being held against the kid's throat while her father watched.

Incidents like these tend to happen every other day and would usually lead to nothing, but occasionally it would result in a death for a very stupid or immature reason. That, would only happen while Orin was gone though, so Al knew this wouldn't end well,

"Now Jared, you best make your little gal apologize unless she wants to sound like a smoker for the rest of her life, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?" The thug with the knife asked the father.

"Baby… just do what they say-"

"No! They need to know that we're not afraid… t-that i'm not afraid anymore, of them!"

The girl's clear bluff was hilarious in the eyes of the two men in black leather, and it made the one with the knife lightly slap her across the face with a smile."Is that right? Haha!"

But before the situation could escalate even further, the sound of two spinning spurs could be heard coming from behind the four men, and the sound eventually stopped once the Alizarin stood behind them all with his gun still drawn,

"...Let go of the girl Derren." He demanded as the teen and her father turned to look at the gunslinger.

The two skinwalkers came to look at each other when the older man threatened to end their 'fun', and simply laughed at his suggestion. "Or what Al? You gonna kill us?" The second one chuckled.

"...Well-"

Then again, it was their own fault for thinking that it was just that, a suggestion. Which unfortunately, resulted in them both being rid from this world, as Al shrugged again, and fired two random shots at the two men.

"*BANG!* *BANG!*"

A split second passed before the man with the knife flinched and fell backwards due to one of the bullets being sent right through his forehead, and the second bullet merely incapacitated the second lackey's leg.

But that was enough for the teen to grunt, and take the bowie knife out of his dead mugger's hand before she just grasped it, turned, and plunged it deep into the other man's throat."-EGH!"

He choked and sputtered while some blood poured down from his neck, and all he could do was silently scream as the young girl slit his throat from ear to ear, and pushed him off of the deck and into the dirt of the main road.

Alizarin kind of stood there in awe for a few moments, but shook himself out of the shock once he saw the girl look back up at him for guidance along with her father, who only started to panic more now that his daughter was freed,

"What the- Al, what the hell is going on?! Is… Is it time?"

The sheriff looked down for a little bit, enough so that his hat would block out his eyes. Then he smiled, and stared back at the father ominously before he nodded reassuringly, and replied with only a few words being spoken...

"Heh… Yeah. Now, go forth, and CONQUER."

The girl and her father stood there wide eyed, almost appearing to be completely thrown off by what they had just been told.

Their small pause wouldn't last forever though, as they soon just smiled as well, picked up two pistols off of the two dead skinwalkers, and raised them in the air so they could cry out that single word for the whole village to hear,

"CONQUER!"

That small incident went on to start something else. Because not that long after, more residents began to come out of the woodworks. They were old and young, male and female, and both human and faunus. But despite their diversity, they all were doing the same exact thing.

They shouted that same word, CONQUER, together as those who would want to fight armed themselves from hidden armories, or just stole the weapons from any random skinwalker they came across and killed together.

Only then did the fighting really start, with the civilians instead firing the first few shots, and inciting the first few attacks rather than those who were to be their conquerors.

Gunfire, screaming, war cries, and of course chanting of the word 'conquer' became the overwhelming noise of the village of Keji. The streets and town would soon be painted red, but for now, it was still up to Gage, Riley, Ileana, and Alizarin to make sure that happens.

As the small revolt began however, some of those who weren't exactly aware of the situation only thought the sounds of battle were nothing more than a ruckus, those people being specifically the skinwalkers who were in the aforementioned bar from earlier.

There were around… fifteen of them still in there, so almost forty percent of their forces to be exact, and they still just sat there while the gunfire began. Either at the bar, or the multitude of tables that were inside the main room of the saloon. Some even continued to play a game of pool at the table in the far back of the room.

The bartender just stood there, serving a man wearing the gang's leather attire, and he was beyond wasted at this point, badgering the old man behind the counter to fill his glass more and more while a nearby jukebox was playing some random scratchy tune.

The drunk man just sat there, laughing and sneering at the bartender while he kept a pistol aimed at his crotch so he could keep the drinks flowing. "You best not cut me off! *hiccup* -'Less you want a hole between your legs!" He slurred angrily.

The man behind the counter simply rolled his eyes and continued to wipe a mug down for a few seconds before he put it down, and grasped a bottle of vodka so he could go and fill up the drunk's glass once again.

Something kept him from doing that though, as the shouts and shots finally began to resonate through the walls of the bar just enough so the bartender could hear the word… conquer. Just that. CONQUER, over and over again.

He knew what it meant, he just couldn't believe that it was finally being chanted after so long. It was so distracting, that he nearly dropped the vodka bottle and poured the liquid all over the man with the gun,

"*Clink!*"

"Hey, watch it! That stuff's worth gold nowadays!"

The bartender fumbled with it for a few seconds, but quickly grasped it tightly once again so he could finish pouring the drink, and when it was filled… he took a step back so he could stare down at the bottle himself. "You're right…"

He kept the thing in his hands for a few more seconds, and soon chose to drink from the bottle as the chanting began to grow louder and more spread out, not caring about whether or not he got shot for it or not.

Luckily for him, his customer was already guzzling down his drink with the bottom up in the air, so it gave him a chance to… finally do something that he had always wanted to do before, and this time he knew it wouldn't be in vain.

The bartender looked down below the counter, and spotted an old MARS automatic pistol. Something he used to ward off any type of Grimm whenever they would try to Invade Keji back before Orin and his group took over the place.

But now… for him, it was finally time to take his town back. So he placed his hand on the heavy sidearm, and looked back up at the drunk with the gun out while his finger inched it's way more towards the pistol's trigger, "...You enjoying yourself there?"

"*hiccup* ...Very much so. Hehe!"

"...I'm glad-"

"*BANG!*"

A random shot rang out from the old pistol, and the drunk flew back into a table that was occupied by others at the time, while his drink and own pistol clattered onto the floor. It drew the attention of everyone in the room, who all soon just looked over at the bartender like he was a monster for doing so. And of course, they all soon pulled whatever weapons they had out, and aimed them at him.

The man was simply looking down at the dead skinwalker with a grin on his face, and came to smile at his corpse before he put his hands in the air in the manner of shrug, and raised his eyes up to stare back at everyone else in the room.

He knew what was going to come next, anyone would know. But he didn't care, he chose to rise up with everyone else in his own small way, and that was all that he wanted. So, he embraced death for the first time, and chuckled smugly at his enemies.

"Sorry. Hehe… guess i forgot to mention it was his last call."

They gunned him down the second his mouth shut once again, with pistol, and shotgun rounds tearing his body to shreds as he was blown back into liquor bottle display behind him.

Then, not even a few seconds after his mutilated corpse fell to the floor, more random bullets from outside broke through the windows and caused the rest of the skinwalkers to finally come to realize that that all that noise was something to be concerned about.

One of the men in there shook his head with annoyance and just began to stomp towards the front door of the saloon. "What kind of hell is raging on out there?!-"

But when he tried to get through the door, another random gunshot went off, which caused him to scream in agony. After that, he was pulled out of the door, and was beaten on the forehead with something before he was thrown back inside.

"MOTHERFUCKER! MY HEAD! MY LEG!"

He fell onto the wooden for with both of his hands clasped on a part of his body, one hand on his leg that had been shot and the other on his forehead, which had seemingly been slammed into by a metal object of some sort.

Another skinwalker looked down at the other with squinted eyes, feeling confused, and soon walked towards him whilst he scratched his head and tried to catch a glimpse of anyone on the other side of the saloon's front doors. "...What the hell?"

The sound of the two doors opening came near, and it made everyone aim their guns over towards the entrance again… but all that came through it was a small metal mortar, which went across the room and landed face down on the floor. And it was just close enough to the Skinwalkers, that they were all able to be disintegrated by what came next,

"*dink!*"

…

A few seconds earlier, Gage eventually found himself sprinting through the village's own main road, and was alarmed to see that by the time he had gotten down there, a few buildings had already caught on fire and there were already bodies in the street, both belonging to the rebels and the Skinwalkers.

The smoke still obscured his vision from whatever lied ahead of him, but he still kept running towards the center of town with Javix in one hand and his newly-acquired explosive in the other, with the intention of shooting anything that moved and was wearing black leather.

He didn't have time to think about where he was going, but once he made his way deeper into the black fog until he could hear… the sound of thunder, or something else similar coming from the right side of the path, where that bar/saloon turned out to be.

At that point he could see two other villagers on the left side of the main road shooting at the windows of the place while they were inside the building opposite to the one all the Skinwalkers were in, and the gunfire immediately caught theirs, and Gage's attention.

When he made his way into the view of the two villagers, they aimed their weapons at him for only a few short seconds before he raised his metal arm up in a defensive way, and mouthed the word 'friendly' at them both, causing them to lower their rifles.

Silence came again, and the ghost used this to his advantage as he quickly crept back over towards the entrance to the bar and stayed stacked up against the door, but in a way that no one would see him unless they would come outside.

"...What kind of hell is raging on out there?!"

He heard this coming from inside of the place, and waited a few more seconds before that same man came out the front door, and when he did, Gage lunged and threw him off guard by slapping Javix's pistol barrel against the side of his face.

Then as he stumbled, the ghost grunted, looked down, and quickly shot the man in the kneecap so he could plant the skinwalker against the entrance with his elbow on his throat to keep him quiet, but there wasn't really a need for that anymore.

What he needed to do next was to take care of everyone else inside, and with his mortar still in hand, he sighed once again, and slammed the butt of it down onto the forehead of the skinwalker before he threw him back inside of the building.

Gage could hear his body as it fell onto the wooden floor before the man screamed bloody murder, "MOTHERFUCKER! MY HEAD! MY LEG!" He screamed, right before shuffling could be heard from the back of the bar.

The ghost now knew that the mortar in his hand was primed, and it took him a few seconds of clarity until he realized that he could blow off another one of his limbs within the next second if he didn't move quickly. "*pant* ...OH SH-SHIT!"

He peered down at the thing and cursed to himself briefly before he nearly dropped Javix, threw the explosive into the bar with an overhand toss, turned his body around, and tried his best to run away.

Initially, he stumbled out of fear as the mortar detonated, and he would have fallen over if the force of the explosion hadn't end up launching him halfway across the main road of the village, only for him to land in the dirt with a roll until he laid on his side.

Fire came bursting through the front door and the windows of the bar, which had been shattered due to the shockwave, and the roof was nearly blown off the top of the place, but it instead crumbled and caved in on the entire building, which was now set ablaze.

The damn thing somehow managed to cause more damage than Gage anticipated thanks to the burn dust that had been infused into the mortar, as the explosion pretty much vaporized everything on the inside…

The raging flames began to roar, and all it really did was make Gage groan with angst as he used one hand to raise himself off of the ground a little bit so he could look back at the damage he had done. "*pant* ...Why the hell do I keep volunteering for these things?!"

He stated this with one of his red eyes open while his neon green aura flickered with weakness and instability, as it had luckily taken most of the impact from the blast and any shrapnel that would have tried to pierce his body, but it of course still left a lot of pain in his bones.

The ghost laid there on the ground for a few moments in pain, staring at the burning bar as he tried to get his heartbeat steadied again, but that wouldn't end up happening for a while. Instead, it only intensified as Alizarin's voice managed to make its way through the ringing in his ears. "Well, that's one glorious way to get their attention!" He said with a slight chuckle.

Gage exhaled painfully, and looked away from the wreckage so he could watch as Al marched through that same black smoke that he had walked past only two minutes, and he wasn't the only one to come out of it.

Behind him came what could only be described as a small militia of around twenty armed men and women, and they all appeared to be holding some type of rifle whether it was automatic, semi, bolt-action, or a shotgun, it didn't matter.

Then just as soon as it came, a gust of wild wind blew the cloud of smoke away to reveal another ten fighters, adding their total up to around thirty people, not including the son and the father from earlier, and our current main four.

They all stopped behind Alizarin as he looked down and held his hand out to the village's new visitor with another smirk across his lips. "Come on now, this battle is just getting started. So you know that i can't leave you here!" To which Gage laughed at,

"*pant* ...Heh, yeah. You're not!"

The sound of their hands clasping together followed this, and the sheriff pulled the ghost back up onto his feet before he looked turned to look at the surrounding area while he picked Javix off of the ground as well. "There you are!" A random voice said from above the two men.

They, and the rest of the militia turned and looked up at Ileana, who was now standing on the roof of a building that was located next to the now burnt down bar, and she just looked down at them all with her hands on her hips,

"Now not to alarm you guys, but the rest of the skinnies are coming down from the north end of town."

"So… they're basically going to be right in front of us?" Alizarin asked her as she finally equipped her bow, and pulled a single arrow out of her quiver before answering. "If you want to look at it that was, then yes. Anyway, I'll scout ahead, so you better be right on my ass!"

She then made a nearly impossible leap onto another building that was ahead of her, and all Gage could do was question how much power her semblance had on her body, and if she even realized what she had just said.

Either way, he didn't want to be shot somewhere where the sun don't shine, by an arrow or a bullet, he just chose to keep his mouth shut and sighed internally as he rolled his eyes too. "...So-"

"*CRACK!*"

Another rather shot rang out, and it clashed against the metal plates of Gage's prosthetic arm and caused him to stumble to the side a bit, but one of the villagers quickly put their hand against his chest to keep him from falling, again.

This shot turned out to be the turning point in the battle, as everyone else looked ahead of themselves and could see a few random skinwalkers give off some pot shots before they turned and ran, which caused the rest of the villagers to charge blindly after them in pursuit.

The man who caught Gage watched at all his acquaintances let out a war cry and run into the fray without him, and he didn't want to be left out of that one big moment that would allow for the two sides to finally clash once and for all.

"CLEAR UP, LET'S GO!" The man yelled as he let go of Gage, patted his shoulder, and turned to face the Skinwalkers head-on with the rest of his fellow fighters.

The ghost stood there for a few moments with his hand of flesh covering the spot on his metal arm that had been struck by the stray bullet, and he panted quietly as he went to look back at Alizarin again… but he wasn't there anymore either.

He had gone right ahead with everyone else in the militia and left him in the dust to look ahead with confusion. Not because of their reaction, but their drive. Because at this point it seemed like they were just wanting to charge right into a firing squad and get gunned down.

Then again, it wasn't like Orin's followers would be that focused to set up a trap during a revolt… it would still a very interesting sight to see though. Now, all it needed was for the ghost to be right there next to the people he had helped free.

Yet, Gage didn't do that once he realized that he was lagging behind. Among everything else he was feeling, or had felt for the past few weeks, this moment, right here and now… he felt unbelievably anxious. It was nearly unexplainable to him.

Maybe it was the fact that his emotions were constantly conflicting with each other, that almost every part of his body was aching/stained with dried blood, or that he was just afraid of his luck running out now after it had pretty much kept him alive this long.

Hell, he could have died twice within the last two minutes, maybe some unknown force just kept the world from striking him down once and for all. But he didn't feel invincible either. That was what kept him from taking that one step forward. Luckily for him, there was still someone else who would be able to help give that extra push if he couldn't end up doing it himself,

"...It's okay Gage. I'll say your peace If I have to. Now get up and go to war!"

…

While that battle was starting to ramp up all by itself, Riley was already having one of her own on the eastern side of the Keji, at one of the village's main guard posts to be exact. It had already been populated by the Skinwalkers, but half of them got up and went to go check out was going inside the main town.

This worked to her advantage thankfully, and things were going pretty smoothly for her… if completely mowing down enemies with a machine gun axe thing could be considered as, 'killing them softly'.

"*BRAK!* *BRAK!* *BRAK!* *BRAK!*"

She ran along the side of a long-going scaffolding, which was really just a makeshift catwalk that would allow the guards to look over the village's main wall, and she was squeezing her trigger finger with a painful amount of force as she decimated five men that were headed straight for her.

The ones that also had firearms didn't even have time to fire back by the time they became pumped full of lead, except for one of them, but all he had to use against her was some weird linked assortment of spiked chains. "*whistle!*" The heavy taunted the man

He grunted with frustration and twirled the chains around like a lasso for a few seconds before he threw them at her, and wrapped the front of Bronze Bess's barrel with them.

It was all apart of Riley's plan though, as she tugged her weapon back hard, and flipped it around so that the gun's blade-bipod was visible. This all happened as the straggler was pulled forwards, and Riley simply kneed the guy in the shin, and rammed the axe blade's down onto the front of his chest.

"AAAGGH!"

The blow to his knee caused him to kneel with that one leg, and scream as Riley pretty much used him as a surface to keep her M249 leveled so she could fire off another small flurry of shots, which ended up taking down two more Skinwalkers that weren't that far behind the group that came before them.

And this second barrage caused enough force that the two blades that were plunged into the first man's chest moved slowly across his body until they slid free of his skin, and allowed him to fall onto the ground, where he would inevitably bleed to death.

Once he was rid of her weapon's grasp, the blonde haired girl sighed again as she started the shifting process for Bronze Bess so it would turn into it's axe form, because she was starting to hear a single set of footsteps come from behind her.

Then almost casually, she flipped her axe around again and swung it backwards, but instead of hitting herself with it, the double edged blade curved around the back of her head and became planted right into the side of the person's skull.

Some bone crunched, and the final Skinwalker stopped moving immediately until she got the weapon free again and caused him to topple over onto his side, which caused her to shake her head with disappointment.

"*sigh* ...How was i ever scared of you guys? Seriously-"

Right when the sharp edge was removed from her enemy's skin yet again, a random and loud explosion rang out from down inside the middle of the town… but it wasn't the one that Gage had set off. That time had already passed.

The blast sounded more controlled and mechanical even, which was soon followed by a thunderous rumbling sound. This made Riley nearly facepalm, and she soon just shifted her axe back into its machine gun form. "Oh fuck, that better not be the damn tank!"

She then exhaled heavily and began to run down towards the center of the village so she could regroup with everyone else, and help in the fight against the…-WHOA WAIT WHAT?! A TANK?!

…

"Push up god damn it! We have them on the run!" One of the armed villagers yelled as he looked ahead, and gunned down another random skinwalker.

He was apart of the group's 'vanguard' and was trying to coerce everyone else to continue charging ahead blindly, as the smoke from the building that Gage had blown up earlier was now spreading throughout the town, and was screwing with everyone's visibility.

Now the ghost and Alizarin were still moving along Keji's main center with their own forces, but made sure to stay behind everyone else. Well, it was more so that the others weren't as cautious as they both were, "No don't! They could be have a trap set for all we know!"

Nothing Gage said could change their mind at this point although, and around ten of the fighters went on to ignore any warnings he could give. The only thing they did in response was to look ahead and blind-fire into the black smokescreen with whatever weapons they had in their arms.

Ileana went ahead as well, and this made the two men sigh before they too went into the dark smog slowly with their weapons at the ready in case anything would pop out at them from the other side…

...But, they never could have guessed at what came next.

"*DOSH!* *DOSH!* *DOSH!* *DOSH!*"

Bullets whizzed through the cloud of smoke and were followed by screams of pain and agony, which caused Gage to stop in his tracks and raise his right hand in the air, as it had been made into a fist in order to signal everyone else to slow down.

"Hold up!" He hissed at everyone In a hushed and angry tone.

The ghost knew that going down the middle would mean death for them all, so he looked back at the rest of their strike team and saw that the remaining twenty had been bunched up. This made him swing at them with his raised hand, but with a cutting motion.

"Split, and take the right and left flanks. We can't have everyone getting mowed down at once!"

And thus the group became split. Ten of the fighters went to the left, while the other ten stayed on the right side of the main road, and Gage and Alizarin just stayed put in the middle as they all now began to inch slowly out of the dark smoke.

But when the world became visible to them again… they found only a few of their fallen comrades that had ran too far ahead, and what ended up killing them was sitting only a few yards away, Which, was in fact an old and rusted M1A2 Abrams Assault Tank.

It was sitting there in the middle of the main road, painted black with two .50 Caliber turrets connected to it's two top hatches, and sounded like it was about to blow a fuse by how loud and broken it's engine was… but it still was beyond scary.

The moment it's metal outer frame became visible, Gage and Al both lowered their weapons in awe. It was mostly because how unbelievably fucked they felt in that moment, and also because they had that, 'deer in the headlights', kind of feeling.

They also stopped, and pretty much acted like if the tank was a T-Rex from the Jurassic Park movies. You know, where the so-called, 'beast's' vision is only based on movement? Yeah, that was how out of touch with reality the two became. "Br…"

Gage was close to muttering something along the lines of, BRUH, but was rudely interrupted by the abrams tank, which sounded like it was powering up by how loud and high pitch it's cannon seemed to whine,

"SCATTER!" The ghost yelled as he pushed Alizarin down and to the left with his prosthetic arm while he too tried to turn and run in the same direction.

The tank's cannon puffed out a small cloud of dust and dirt as the shell was launched outwards and detonated in the center of general area where Keji's Militia group where, so pretty much right behind where Gage and Al were standing.

Luckily the shot was very delayed and everyone managed to backup a little bit more to avoid it, even if the shrapnel damaged their auras slightly. Other than that, no one was injured… mostly because everyone was already standing clear of the middle of the road thanks to Gage's earlier decision to split the group.

He now threw himself down onto the floor and slowly inched over to the left row of buildings along with the older sheriff, who was already taking cover in a small gap between one of the buildings and was currently trying to dust any sand or dirt off of his AK-47.

An unbelievable ear-sore of a gunfight broke out after that first initial explosion, and the ghost was still shaken by the surprise so much that he just laid on his side and kept shooting Mistletoe blindly at the tanks front hull armor.

The rest of their Militia did the same, but were also smart enough to run and form a perimeter around the vehicle so they could suppress it from all angles. Even Ileana, who was now on top of last building on the right row of structure, kept firing arrows at the tank.

Not just randomly though, she instead decided to take aim at the two gunners that were on top of the tank and were using the two .50 Cal turrets that were attached to the tank's two roof hatches. Man, so much for Skinwalkers being, 'unresourceful'.

When the Abram's main cannon turned away from Gage's position, Al eventually came in and grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar so he could drag him into that small gap he was just in while the ghost continued to fire randomly.

"...WHAT THE FUCK. I THOUGHT YOU SAID THEY ONLY HAD A HUMVEE!"

He was beyond furious at this point out of fear and frustration, and the old sheriff kind of rubbed the back of his head once he let go of his ally, whose aura began to glow white once again. "...That's not a type of tank?" Alizarin asked him, feeling bewildered.

"Really dude?!" Summer subconsciously yelled.

The moment he was free again, the ghost just covered his ears, leaned back against the surface behind him, and looked up at Alizarin with his burning red eyes as he opened his mouth and just threw one of his arms up into the air with exasperation,

"OH! WHAT AN ASTUTE OBSERVATION!"

The sheriff sighed and tried to say something to get him back on the task at time, but he was quickly cut off. Gage was beyond done with this day at this point… i mean a tank? A MOTHERFUCKING TANK? REALLY?!

"You could've just said, 'oh holy shit they have a tank by the way' and I would've gotten the memo! But NOOOO! Just what the fuck man?! A tank is a fucking tank!"

"Rrrgh… will you just quit your yelling and use those grenades in your pack before they fire off another shot?!"

"*huff* ...Fine." So the ghost shook his head and dropped his knapsack so he could get two of his grenades out of it. Then he put one on his belt and crawled up against the wall that was opposite to him in that small passage, where Al was stacked up against. "But tell me, how are we gonna lob one in there without getting torn to bits?"

He asked this as he peeked out the gap and towards the tank with Mistletoe in one hand, and his 'nade in the other. "We just sit here and wait for the right moment?"

"Yeah… whenever that'll be." Al replied sarcastically as he used both of his hands to grip his M1911. They both exhaled with annoyance once it felt like they were going to have to wait a while…

...Even though that wouldn't end up being the case. You see, the tank was pretty much sitting there in the center of the road, but the path wasn't going in a single direction. The road or trail where it sat was actually paved in the shape of a 't'.

Gage and Alizarin were both taking cover on the tank's north side while its eastern side was blocked by Keji's right row of buildings, and half of the other fighters were suppressing it's southern side, or the vehicle's rear.

This meant that there was still a road that was converging into the one the tank was already blocking, and it was located on the tank's western side… where it wasn't currently facing. None of it's gunners were either, as they were focused on trying to pick off the remaining Militia members that were engaged with it.

So, it still had a blind spot, and it allowed for Riley to finally make her entrance as a random Skinwalker, which had his aura under the heavy's influence, was launched into the tank's left side so hard that a dent was made, which also screwed with the vehicle's treads.

It's track was thrown out of whack, and thus it's mobility had been disabled. Now all that everyone else needed to do was to kill the two gunners, push in, and destroy the tank with any explosives that they had on hand.

"...Guess that's my cue huh?"

Gage began to sweat once the realization came, and he looked back at Al to see if he'd quickly stop him from going out there, but that didn't happen. The gunslinger just stared at him with confusion, and nodded.

After this, the ghost rested Mistletoe against the wall he was taking cover behind, and took Javix out as he closed his eyes, sighed, and prepared himself for the sprint towards the vehicle. "*sigh*...Crap!-"

Then he forced himself out of that small gap, made sure to use all of his still weakened aura towards protecting his body, and he started to make a mad dash towards the Abrams tank.

During that same moment, Ileana looked down towards him since she was still overwatching thanks to the high ground she was on, and let out a small gasp before she turned and yelled down to Riley, who had taken cover in the building she was on top of after she made her entrance.

"Riley, get them to focus us!"

The heavy let out a very audible growl as she peered over the large broken shop-window sill she was camping behind and watched the ghost as he pulled the pin off of the grenade in his hand, and pretty much dunked the explosive into the tank's main cannon, since it was being aimed in his direction.

It wasn't able to roll into the vehicle's cockpit or detonate the shell that was loaded, because it had already been fired. Instead it just exploded inside of the cannon and blew the metal tube open from the inside, destroying it. But the reason why Riley sighed was because Gage took a second grenade out of his pocket, and if he was planning to throw that thing into one of the tank's hatches without getting killed, then at least one of the gunners had to be taken care of.

So… she creeped her head out of the window sill and looked across the street to her right to see that a few of the other, about five militiamen/women were taking cover as well, and one of them signaled towards the heavy with a small wave.

She waved back of course and lifted Bronze Bess onto the sill bar so they could purposely watch her cock it before she mouthed the words, 'get ready' to the five of them. That group understood and eventually got the word around to the other squads in cover that they would have to suppress the tank, and Riley got a thumbs up not that long afterwards.

"Okay…" She followed this up with a small exhale, and got her bipod setup for her machine gun in preparation for the bulletstorm. "...Sorry Sheila." She quietly whispered towards the tank.

Once she said farewell to the rusted beast, the heavy narrowed her brow and stuck her hand out of the window again so she could start counting down with her fingers, starting at the number three.

Three...

Two…

...One!

"SUPPRESSING!" Each of the fighters cried as they all finally peeked over whatever they were hiding behind, and began to light up the back end and the top of the tank.

This immediately grabbed the attention of the two gunners, and they both turned away from Gage's direction right as a stray bullet went through one of their heads, leaving the ghost with only one turret to worry about.

He ran and slid on one knee to quickly get out of the way when the tank's main cannon exploded from his grenade, and he quickly raised himself back up off of the ground so he could turn back and climb onto the vehicle's lower half.

"First a Manticore, and now a Tank?!" He thought to himself as he took out his second grenade ,and pulled himself up onto the upper half of the Abrams. Hmph, guess he forgot about the Goliath from eight months ago...

When he finally got on top of the vehicle, he spotted the second gunner, who was turned away and firing blindly at the villagers with the mounted .50 Cal turret.

And taking into consideration that this dude didn't even notice that his friend had been killed, and that the top of the tank had just gotten a lot heavier, the ghost just panted and kicked the skinwalker straight in the back of the head out of spite.

The force of it sent the front of his face straight into the back of the already heated machine gun, making the gunner scream with fright as he held his forehead in pain, and quickly looked behind himself to watch Gage as he pulled the pin out of his second grenade!

"Aaagh! ...Rrrgh, damn kid!" The man hissed at the ghost, and followed with something completely unexpected.

He grabbed onto his turret's frame, which was a revolving circle-shaped piece of iron that allowed the huge gun to turn a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and he just spun it around violently.

It turned right around and caused the already hot and metal-made turret barrel to slam right into Gage's right ankle/lower knee area, and it made him lose his balance along with the grenade, as he dropped it.

It clattered onto the steel surface that was right next to the tank's open second hatch, (which had it's door raised and pulled back) and luckily it landed on the side where safety lever was, and it kept the grenade from exploding that second because of the sudden impact on it. That would only save him momentarily however, as the skinwalker started to climb out of his own hatch so he could take care of his attacker.

Gage fell to the side a little bit and nearly hit his head on where the tank's cannon tube would usually start to protrude from, and since he figured the man was already going to attack him, he turned a bit so he could land on his back instead of one of his shoulders.

This sudden change in his positioning made the pain in his ankle increase immensely, but it also allowed for Gage to quickly steady Javix with both of his hands, look up, and fire a single gunshot through the gunner's stomach before he could try anything.

"*BANG!*" As soon as that last shot went out the cultist's back, he lost his balance as well and fell backwards off the back of the tank.

The ghost didn't even care if he hadn't fallen, because right after he pulled the trigger, he pushed himself to get back up and went on to simply lean upwards and kick the grenade into the small door he had been hovering over earlier, and he ended up bank-shotting it into the open hatch.

"*pant* *pant* *pant* ...Come on!"

Gage slammed his fist down onto his right thigh to compensate for the pain he felt, and tried his very best to get up without being too slow before he threw Javix randomly down towards the dirt, and leaped off of the front end of the tank as the grenade detonated.

He could feel the heat as it spread closer and closer towards the skin on his back as it pushed him outwards until he crashed on to the ground hard, rolled onto his back, and accidentally whipped the side of his head into the hot dirt below him.

Fire and smoke then spewed out of every opening that riddled the tank's weak and rusted shell, but it didn't end up breaking or exploding entirely. It's body just began to burn from the inside and caused more flames to be pushed out of it, which soon engulfed the surrounding area in black smoke, with a shade of brown.

His ears rang with even more intensity thanks to the trauma to his head and the explosion, but even through all of that, he was still able to hear the cheering and cries of joy that came from Keji's people.

Soon they began to chant the word 'CONQUER!' again whilst repeatingly raising their weapons into the air as a way to celebrate their victory against the tan., right as the dark dirt-colored smog consumed the surrounding area yet again.

However, Gage didn't know what was happening just yet, because now they were no longer visible to him, and it also sounded like they were screaming in pain, like they were dying. Their screams intensified, and that was enough for the ghost to lift himself off of the ground yet again. He stood up and could feel a burning feeling sensation all across his back, along with the pulsation of his now broken aura.

He panted and looked around himself numerous times as the cheers started to gain a sort of… echoey, or angelic tone as the dirt-colored dust and smoke formed a vortex around him. After that, he could barely see two feet ahead of himself, like the explosion had just started a sandstorm or something that only targeted him.

His continuous breaths began louder and louder as he sucked in more of the unclear air and started to cough, as he could barely breathe now. And when he eventually stopped at a single direction so he could try to walk forward… he didn't get far.

Gage's eyes fluttered, and he was only to take two steps before his left leg gave out, and he fell forwards onto the ground again.

He fell slightly to the left and came to rest on his side while laid his down too, and could only look straight ahead as the cloud began to part so someone could approach him.

Unfortunately he couldn't get much of a glimpse of them aside from their feet, and a little bit of their arm… but from what the ghost could tell, the person had brown and golden-colored zip up boots, and black pants with the fabric of one of their knees being colored purple.

Other than that, the person had long golden hair that was barely even visible, and their right arm looked to be… made of metal, and spray painted a shiny type of yellow. They began to kneel down close to his level, and they lowered their metal hand down onto the dirt before sliding it over to Gage's own as he huffed and began to lose consciousness,

"You see this right? Is this who you want me to become? ...To become like you?"

He couldn't breathe, he couldn't blink, he couldn't even talk as he glanced upwards out of his peripheral and saw his lover Yang kneeling before him, wearing her aviators and sporting a dead glare that was aimed directly at him. "Y… Yu…"

The ghost tried to mumble her name, and reach out for her hand… but her own metal fingers immediately fell apart, losing their color and turning into something close to the texture sand before they fell onto the ground and dissipated.

Not that much time passed before the rest of her figure did the same, and came apart like it was a wet sand sculpture as a few other people came within Gage's peripheral right as his vision finally faded to black, and the swirling dust finally consumed him.

…

Three Hours Later…

…

~Bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung.~

As the light faded from his vision, all Gage could hear for the next few hours were the sounds of rushing winds, whispering, and a few small giggles that sounded a little too familiar to him. It was almost like someone was watching him suffer… and that they were enjoying it.

Unbeknownst to the ghost, Keji's Uprising really ended after the destruction of the Skinwalker's Abrams tank, thanks to him of course. The fighting slowly died after the villagers rounded up whoever else they found of the twisted gang, and made sure to make sure that there was no one left alive, right as the sun finally settled over the land.

Night came not that much later, and everyone made sure to try and fix up their new red eyed, 'hero', who actually fainted because of dehydration and that quick blow to the head he suffered during his assault on the tank.

And during the time that he was knocked out, Alizarin and Ileana made sure to explain to their citizens what the new traveler had done for them, while Riley slowly began to vouch for his actions as well.

~Bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung, bung-~

They told of how he was found by their group, was thrown into the fray only to survive again and again, and how he dispatched of Orin for the time being before choosing to attack the Skinwalkers head on with only three others at his side.

The general reaction of the villagers was to think that he was mad, until some of them began to think back and remember seeing the kid being reinforced with both a white and green colored aura… and this caused them to see him as something else than just a child. They saw him as their savior.

Alizarin and the two younger girls just laughed at this thought and reassured everyone that it was all pure luck that they were still alive, and they went on to bring the unconscious ghost up to the estate-house at the back of the village, which was behind the main town and overlooked the rest of Keji like a watchtower.

This all lead up to now… as Gage finally opened his eyes once again to feel the sweet and soft cushions of a leather couch that he had been set on to rest until he would regain consciousness.

~-Mr. Sandman! Bring me a dream, make him the cutest that I've ever seen, give him two lips like roses and clovers, then tell him that these lonesome nights are over!~

He had been placed in the house's main living room, which had a connecting kitchen that was small, but was located about a yard from the left side of the couch he had been placed on, specifically on the side where his feet lied. There was also a staircase that appeared to the left of the kitchen's entrance, and it appeared to go up and loop back into a hallway on the second floor.

Just then, the sounds of a TV, an old music player that was playing Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes, and whispering filled Gage's ears as he groaned with pain and could only look a little bit to his right to see that Riley was sitting near his feet in an old chair, wearing just her beige-colored sweatshirt and some black short shorts.

She was watching whatever was on their TV while Alizarin stood next to her with his arms crossed, and his back turned to the ghost as he finally chose to say something to them, "Hey… what happened?"

He spoke with a dry mouth and a very tired tone of voice because of how dazed the pains meds he was given made him feel, and he also noticed that he had a new bandage wrapped around his forehead as well.

"Hmph. You really won't give yourself a break, will you?" The old sheriff asked in return as he glanced back to face their injured friend.

Gage then leaned up and looked around for a few seconds before his eyes began to drift towards the table that was in front of the couch he was lying on, which was Javix been set. He tried to grab it the moment he laid his eyes on the revolver, but Al quickly stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"*exhale* ...Hey, easy Gage! You won't be needing that for the rest of the night. So just relax, alright?"

The ghost was very confused, and also exhausted. Where had he been taken? Was everyone else alright? What the hell did he see before passing out…. and was it real, or was it all simply a product of his cracked, and now shared mind?

He shuddered for a short moment before he grasped the front of his head painfully, and looked back up at the gunslinger with a very unsettled stare, "The Skinwalkers, where's the rest of them? D-D… Did Orin come back?!" Riley giggled at his cluelessness, and waved him off with another laugh.

"Pfft, nope! So far it seems like you made the old asshole bitch out!" She answered with a smile. Alizarin rolled his eyes to this, and made sure to explain the whole thing pretty clearly. "Kid, It's over… we won."

This only made him question as to how long he had passed out for, but Alizarin soon sighed and knelt down next to the ghost, and took a water bottle off of the table so he could hand it to him.

"...Just like that?" He asked again as he took the water from the older man.

"Destroying that tank kinda killed their morale, and well… we cleaned up the rest after you got knocked out. Now, we're fixing to set out for Vale in the morning… but i'm starting to wonder if you're actually going to come along or not."

"Um, Al… Can you slow down for a second?" Gage became a little nervous after he said that, but also winced again because well… it was really hard for him to try and follow along at the moment. "I think the rest of me is still trying to wake up…"

"Yeah, sorry…" Al nodded and began to scratch his head, feeling a little embarrassed by how unmindful he was being towards someone who honestly could have easily fallen into a coma. "Look, you just sleep on that thought... I've got something to attend to."

So that prompted him to apologize briefly before he chose to walk away… towards the back of the estate-house, where a door to the backyard was located, and it was already slightly ajar.

He also had a picture frame in one of his hands, and had a six pack of beer set outside and right in front of the door… strange. "Hm… What's he up to?" Gage asked as he turned to Riley with wide eyes.

From the ghost's point of view, he could barely even see anything outside in their backyard except for a fold up chair, a gas can, and that previously mentioned six pack of beer. It also didn't help that the door wasn't exactly close to the couch, and that it was also pitch black outside as well.

Then before he knew it, Alizarin stepped outside and closed the glass door behind himself… and the blonde had already been closed beforehand, so now all Gage could do was guess as to what the gunslinger was up.

"Don't ask about it. And please… don't go out there." The heavy replied vaguely.

Even this request seemed to be unlike her, as she didn't seem like the type to beg anyone to not do something. Threaten maybe, but not the type to make a polite request. It obviously confused him at first, but only until he remembered that he was still technically a guest, and that intruding on someone would probably be impolite.

"*sigh* ...Alright, fine." So he chose to instead look back at the blonde girl and sigh with some slight annoyance in his voice, still trying his best to put his curiosity in the back of his mind for the rest of the night. "So… what now Riley?"

Gage asked her this because the minute he agreed not to look into the previous matter any further, Riley's brown eyes lit up and she let a small smirk form slowly across her face, which was another strange sight to see coming from her.

And she continued this trend while also being to strike fear into his heart as he soon looked at the table in front of him, and spotted a silver tray that had a… syringe-pistol? It was hard to figure out, but Gage saw a vial that was labeled, 'rabies vaccine', loaded in the back of where the pistol's slide would be.

"Now, i get to stick you with this thing!" She replied, with a slightly-crazed grin.

The heavy then took the thing off of the tray and cocked it back as she got out of her chair, and paced around the table quickly towards the ghost, who stared back at her with a a nervous scowl,

"You guys purposely held off on giving me that, just to see my reaction?! I could have gotten completely infected by now!"

"Don't be such a drama queen, 'Mr. Plot Armor'." Riley rolled her eyes and waved the medical pistol casually as she pushed her 'patient' back a little bit, and sat down next to him. "I honestly doubt the world would let you die from an infection after all this shit. Now… do you want to hold my hand so it'll be easier?~"

His red eyes flared a little bit brighter in that moment, but he was still too tired to lash out at her for all the teasing. So he looked away and began to roll back his right shirt sleeve "...Bunch of assholes-"

"*SSTCH!*"

To his surprise, when Gage chose to sit on one side of the couch normally to make room for her, Riley basically lunged at him, stuck the med-gun's barrel against his right wrist, and squeezed the trigger hard.

"A-AGH! WHY?!" He screamed as the heavy started laughing, and pressed her back against the couch cushions with her head leaned back as well. "Hahaha! That's for the shitty pun you made from earlier!"

Her laughter began to become quieter as he just sat there with his mouth slightly open, and slowly closed it before he could get any louder. "Rrrgh…"

He figured that she did just cure him, so she earned back the right to tease him for a moment… and yeah, it was a really bad joke. The reminder of it also influenced him to ease up a bit on his hostility, because the thought of Yang crossed his mind yet again.

"Hehe… Alright, calm down. I'm done for the night, i promise." So with that, Gage sighed and turned towards Riley as she pointed down at his right hand. "Now give me your hand. Your bandages teared during the last battle, so I've gotta redo 'em so your cuts don't get infected."

The heavy then looked up into his red eyes after making her intentions clear… but watched as they became blank, like something was distracting him on the inside. But when she tried to see what caught his eyes… she saw that it was their old TV that was placed in front of the couch they were on.

It's remote had been placed on the table that was also in front of them, along with a plate of cold pasta that had been made earlier. At first that's what she thought he was staring at, but it was actually the movie that was playing on the screen. Casablanca.

"Go ahead." Gage mumbled in a low tone.

"Okay…"

This was a movie he was actually very familiar with. Sure it was old, but it was still his cup of tea… old films always were. The thing about this one however, was the fact that it was once regarded as cinema's greatest love story.

That was at least what Gage remembered from one of his film classes back when he was still in school in Atlas, but that's besides the point. Currently the movie was nearing its end, and right in the middle of the couple's final goodbye.

The ghost was drawn into another trance-like state from this, obviously because of what happened not that long ago. Two lovers caught in the middle of a war, with two paths being present that both could travel down without the other… which ended up being the way they became separated.

"And i said i would never leave you…"

"...Where i'm going, you can't follow. What i've got to do, you can't be any part of!"

Gage managed to catch theses few lines before his eyes became glued to the screen, and his hearing began to fade away with the moment as quick flashes of the night he left his own lover started to repeat within the depths of his mind

Yang's tears, and the way she pleaded for him to stay while Gage had blood on his hands, and was afraid that someday it would be hers instead of the enemy's. Sure the two stories were incomparable, but they still had the same principle, and made the ghost feel the same emotion. Regret.

All he could do now, was continue to watch the film as the protagonist named Rick put his finger under the chin of his past lover Ilsa, and said one last line of consolation to her as he smiled, and she began to quietly tear up.

"Now now… here's looking at you, kid."

That line made the ghost open his mouth a little bit before he reached for the remote that was on the table in front of him, leaned back, and pressed a button on the device so the channel would change.

His expression didn't look angry or sad. It was more of a mix between the two if you could even picture that, and he looked down at his hand again, as Riley managed to get the old bandages off and was now putting some alcohol on all the red cuts that were on Gage's arm.

He was so distracted by that film that he didn't even audibly react to the pain, all he did was flinch and clench his knuckles as the heavy looked up at him briefly before she glanced back over at the TV,

"You not into old movies or something?"

"No, it's not that…" He replied hoarsely.

She exhaled silently once she saw the numbness in his eyes. It was obvious what the reason behind his sudden change in emotion. "*sigh* ...You know, for a while I really couldn't understand how you were able to survive everything we put you through on the way here."

"...But, then you told us your story, and I get it now."

"I get why you sucked it up... why you took all of that." So when another awkward silence began to develop between them both, Riley chose not to stay silent about it this time, even if the relationship between them was rocky. "It was because you were thinking about someone else… that girl."

Her words made Gage raise his head up so he could look at her only with one of his eyes, and didn't even change his expression when she pretty much caught him red handed. "Hmph… You got me!" He replied with a grin.

"Hehe… yeah, I thought it was something like that from the start. And i think i'd know, because i use to have someone too… but he's gone now." She revealed, as her voice was now a pitch away from being a whisper.

This information turned Gage's smirk back into whatever was on his face a few seconds earlier, and he grew quiet again as well. Not only because of how fast the mood of their conversation changed, but also because of how calm the heavy seemed as she went on.

"His name was Alex. Alex Frost."

She didn't even stop herself as she continued to wrap the new strand of bandages over ghost's wounds. However, he realized that Riley kept her eyes on his hand as well, almost as if she couldn't even stop to look him in the eye.

So he figured that it was still a touchy subject, but who knows… maybe her significant other wasn't killed like she was alluding towards. "...Where's he now?"

"Over there,-" She was quick to reply, but did so in a depressing manner as she pointed to her left, over towards a picture frame that was on top of their kitchen counter, "-And in here." Before the heavy was able to top it all off by gently pressing her finger against the side of her head.

Gage immediately looked away from her and mouthed the words 'god damn it' to himself. It wasn't supposed to be done in a way that could be thought as inconsiderate, but it was more that he was annoyed at himself for making the wrong guess, and having to make her explain her old lover's fate.

But that was exactly what she ended up doing. He then cautiously turned over towards the photo and managed to get a good look at it… and it honestly made his heart ache.

In it, Riley (Who is 5'7) appeared to be out in the forest with her boyfriend Alex, who had light blonde hair, blue eyes, stood near 5'11, and looked to be around sixteen years old at the time.

He was standing behind the heavy, who looked beyond happy with a blush and a smile on her face as her lover had his arms around her chest area, and hid apart of his face behind her head with a visible smile.

"...We tried to run from this place once Orin began to take over, me and him. But we obviously didn't get far. I didn't have my Axe named Bess with me back then… but I doubt it would've changed anything."

"They split us up, took me back to Keji , and i never saw Alex again. But when Orin came back with an eye that was ripped out of its socket… i didn't want to know happened to him. I just knew that he was dead..."

By the time she finished her explanation, Gage pretty much had his eyes focused on her as he watched the girl work on his injury… and she hated every second of it on the inside, but figured it was her own fault for being put into this position.

"I suppose this what I get for being a total cunt towards him this whole time.…" Riley thought to herself. She wasn't one that liked to be pitied clearly, but she thought he deserved some info on her after today.

But It was another thing entirely once the ghost started to put his own thoughts into the matter. "...You don't know that for sure. I mean, if I was that injured, it'd take me awhile to get back-" So the heavy chose to interrupt him, but as kindly as she could.

"It's been two years, If he was alive, he would've come back for me by now!"

That thankfully managed to shut him up for a few seconds, which was just the right amount of time for her to speak quickly, and make sure that whatever came out of Gage wasn't the typical consoling bull-shit she'd heard time after time.

"...Just, don't get me theorizing again. I've recovered enough from losing him already, and it made me stronger. Things can only get better now that I've accepted it."

"Okay… I understand." He answered with dullen eyes, as he was now feeling a little defeated on the inside, and for her of all people! "I'm sorry, I'm actually not that collected when I'm with people who don't want to kill me… and I'm still kinda drugged too, so..." This somehow made her snicker.

After that, Riley finally mustered up the courage to raise her head back up and look the ghost dead in the eyes with a smile, as she had just finished wrapping up his right arm and hand. "Don't worry about it."

"...You sure? Because at this point, I think I'm still dreaming with how nice you're being… n-no offense."

"Yeah I'm sure, Hehe. I'm kind of a 'tough love' type of person, so that general bitch type of vibe I give off is all apart of the package..." She said with another smile.

However, at the end of the day, Riley still had to give credit where credit is due, and she knew this. Like she had said earlier that day, they couldn't have fought off the Skinwalkers with poorly trained fighters and little kids running around.

They couldn't, until he came along and made the villagers believe that is, but now the heavy just hoped that her 'thank you' wouldn't sound too sappy, because that surely would have been the end of the world...

"...But I still gotta admit, I don't think any of this would've happened if it wasn't for you, and since I don't really have any evidence to deny it… Thanks, I guess."

Gage's eyes opened up a little bit when he heard her, despite his right eye still being bruised from the constant fighting that seemed to be going on. "Hehe, that's the best apology I'm going to get from you, isn't it?" He asked her sarcastically, but also with a slight chuckle as well.

His remark made the heavy huff before she just slapped his right wrist hard, since it was where she had just injected him with the rabies vaccine. This made him groan and hold his arm in pain yet again as she pointed back at him, and stood up off of the couch.

"Don't forget, I saved you twice on the way here so… yeah. You're welcome!"

"Hmph. Thanks again... I guess..." He replied, clearly trying to mock her at the end there.

She just rolled her eyes with a smirk and turned so she could move towards the stairs before she began to walk up them as well, letting out a yawn as she made it halfway up the first set. "*yawn* ...Well, i'm going to finish the night off with getting drunk in my underwear, so… see you in the morning dipshit!"

Gage stood up from the couch after watching her walk upstairs and he put his hand on his left thigh, as it seemed to hurt once he put more weight on it.

He sighed and soon started to limp over towards the staircase, but in an effort to follow Riley so he could see what she was actually doing. In all honesty, he just wanted to find a window to look out of.

"*sigh* ...I need some air."

…

The ghost managed to get up the stairs very slowly, while also holding the right side of his abdomen again, which he realized should have healed by now. "pant* ...Maybe, *pant* ...It is a good time to take a break from all this fighting…" He whispered to himself with a few slight wheezes.

He didn't want to say it to anyone, but EVERY part of him seemed to ache. Even his eyes, probably because he was tired though. Hmm, If only Riley could have saved one drink for him, then maybe he wouldn't be complaining as much…

When he painfully reached the top of the stairs, he slouched forwards a bit and soon felt a cold breeze blow against him from outside, which made him look ahead before he began to slowly walk down towards the end of the hall, where open glass door appeared to be.

This didn't catch his attention until later, because along the walls of the hallway were a collection of framed pictures. Some were old, some were new, and some looked like they were… watching him. Their eyes stayed on the back of his head and watched as he tried to move ahead, and he too could feel a presence there with him.

It felt… familiar. Like the eyes were Lilac colored, and thus the self-hatred began to take form along with a feeling of cluelessness. "Why the hell am i getting visions of her now anyway?" Gage thought to himself, as if Summer wasn't enough for him already.

Maybe it was the guilt, but that couldn't be a good explanation for when he saw the blonde at the end of his battle against the Skinwalkers and their battle tank. So what would it have been then? Could it have been an early symptom of rabies, or a byproduct of hunger and dehydration?

The ghost couldn't put his finger on it and he just wanted for his mind to stop triggering these weird episodes, because the last thing he needed right now was for his new allies to think that he's really a total nutcase.

"*sigh* ...I really can't get over it, even now, after all of this..." He tried his best to suppress the thought of Yang once he got to the open glass door, and peered his head out of it to check if there was anyone occupying it, and unfortunately for him, it wasn't exactly vacant at the moment.

Turns out, it was actually Ileana who was sitting out there by herself. She was sitting on the balcony, with her slightly-bent right leg resting on top of it's railing while her left hung off of it, just behind the railing in case if she accidentally lost her balance. She was also wearing Gage's own black suede jacket over her usual clothes for some reason...

Gage then took a step outside the door and made sure his foot was loud enough to alert the spider-faunus of his presence, which it did. "...Oh. Hey! You're awake a lot earlier than I expected!" She turned and greeted him, with a wave to go along with it.

"Yeah, sadly…" He expertly changed his expression in the blink of an eye, and took her greeting as invitation to take that full step out onto their porch. "Hey, is that my jacket?"

"Oh… yeah. Orin gave it to me the night we found you, and i honestly forgot it was yours. Do you want it back, or...?"

"Uh… No. I was just curious is all." He did want it back in reality, but figured it would be very easy for someone he knew to spot him if he wore it, since it had his symbol on the back of it. "...So, did you need some fresh air too, or do you just like the view from here?"

"A bit of both." Ileana answered him with smile before she turned back and looked out over the rest of the Village, but with a blank smile. "Everyone else is getting their stuff prepared like we planned, and we're going to head out for Vale in the morning, so it's going to be a very busy day."

He nodded in agreement on that fact, but looked a little crestfallen at the same time oddly. "Yeah… I'm thinking of staying here tomorrow so I can get some rest, and maybe clean myself up a bit." Yet, Ileana chose to act like she wasn't phased by his decision.

"H-Hehe, yeah... I figured..."

She looked away and smiled awkwardly, trying her best to avoid eye contact with the the ghost as he limped over towards the edge of the balcony, and put his hands over the railing. In truth, Ileana really wanted him to come along with everyone else initially because he seemed a lot more familiar with the city than anyone else.

It was apart of their plan back when they mentioned it to him a few days ago, but Alizarin said he would give him a choice to come with them or not, since the only local Skinwalker that could be alive now was Orin. Riley and Alizarin were both past residents of the city as well, but the heavy wasn't exactly that civil, and Al hasn't been there in over ten years.

Plus, they all thought that Gage had some good connections inside of the city, which wasn't exactly a lie. However, the arachnid didn't want to press him too much about it.

They could probably find a way to Patch without the ghost, it would just take a little longer. "So... what's it like in Vale?" She asked him.

"Are you not from there?" He turned and stared at her confusingly, like he was surprised that she even asked him such a question. This just made her shake her head with an actual smile this time,

"No, my parents were, but they dropped me off here after I was born. Figured it would have been better for me since I can pass for a human, but boy were they wrong..."

"Oh, so… you've been here all your life."

"Mmhm, I was pretty much raised by the whole Village… kind of a miracle i turned out like this really." Then suddenly, her voice dipped in it's pitch and she looked down a bit as she scratched the back of her head. "But uh… h-honestly, I couldn't really read or write until Riley came here from the city with her boyfriend…" She was of course visibly embarrassed once she let her one secret out, but it wasn't so bad.

He was the only one who didn't know about it anyways… and it did make him stifle a chuckle, only to cough it out seconds later with a pained grin, "*pant* ...Yeah, she told me about him right before I came up here… but Really? You seem more of a talker than her, and more of a city-girl too."

"She thought the same thing, but it's probably because I'm more of a friendly gal compared to her… now I am at least."

Again her voice lowered to a more silent tone, but this time it was more somber than awkward like it was earlier. This was because Ileana wasn't usually one to casually give information about one of her friends to someone who didn't ask about it.

For Gage though, she saw it as an exception. It was better this way for him to know through her instead of Riley herself, because if anyone really wanted to ask the blonde about, they had to be close to get an answer.

"Riley kind of… ran from the city before she and Alex came here." Ran away from the city eh? That would have sounded a little too familiar, only if the truth had a slightly darker difference. "Bad foster parents I think she said was the reason, but I don't like to ask about it too much. I'm just glad that Al's been able to deal with the two of us, considering he took us both in."

"He does seem like the fatherly type, at least to you guys."

"Yeah, I don't think I'd ever find myself calling him that. But i'll still call him my guardian, and a good friend too… kind of like you."

Her words made him blush momentarily, only for it to disappear quickly, mainly because of the next question that she decided to ask. "That reminds me,... you are coming to Patch with us, right?"

The way she questioned him was a little too casual for him, and it made Gage tense up a bit. He did this, because he had already figured out his answer the second Alizarin presented him the question of whether he wanted to come along or not.

"...I don't know." Gage stated quietly, looking down at his hands as he began to feel uneasy. "Yang, the one i told you about, is from there. And i can't see her again until i fix myself, and finish what i started."

"...Why can't you?" Her orange colored eyes glistened thanks to the moonlight, and they nearly shined when she turned to face the ghost with a frown. "She was special to you, wasn't she? What am i saying, of course she was…"

"Yeah, she was!" He was quick to answer, and glanced over at her with one of his red eyes and a look that told her that he really didn't want to talk about this. "That's why i can't let her see what i am now. Because this… this wasn't who i use to be." He said, as he looked down at his injured right arm.

"Gage, if she truly loves you... then there's no way that-"

And that was when he finally put his foot down, "Illie, just stop. I've already made up my mind!" He did this not just because of the thin ice she was treading on, but also because he knew what her end goal was.

Ileana just wanted to find away to coax him into coming along with their group, no matter what it took. As to why she wanted him to come with them so badly, he didn't know… but at this point he didn't care.

The spider-faunus got that message pretty quickly when the ghost raised his voice above that of a pained whisper, and she realized that his voice was beginning to fade. To her, it meant that he was already pushing himself to keep talking up until now, even if he didn't exactly want to.

This thought made her body tighten due her silent frustration, and thus Ileana grew silent. She crossed her arms and looked down at herself while she tried not to look too saddened by his choice…

"S… S-Sorry, i just… get attached easily. Isolation will kinda do that to you after a while…"

Gage knew that. I mean… of course he would, right? He's been exactly the same in that respect ever since Team RWBY brought him back from Mountain Glenn… or, maybe he was the same way all that time ago. Maybe, but not anymore.

It hasn't really been that long since those days though, which he thought was beyond strange. It was the main reason why his affection and feelings for Yang developed so quickly, so… was the person that he use to be already dead?

His red eyes darkened once again, and all sense of annoyance left him. It was replaced with a fragile feeling, like the ghost could sense that he was a shell of someone else now. Then, after all of that, he got real… quiet. "Listen, i…"

Then he stopped speaking entirely and held his right hand against his forehead, both in an attempt to soothe the aching pain and so he could momentarily block the spider-faunus out of his vision.

The ghost could tell that it seemed like he didn't care about her and everyone else here if he just went up and left after such a victory, and he couldn't shake the feeling of disappointment in himself…

He wished that he could say something along the lines of, 'These people would be better off without someone who was being targeted by the White Fang anyways', but she would try and counter that too. So, when Gage lowered his hand again and looked up towards Remnant's shattered moon… he made his choice. He chose to tell Ileana a story instead.

It was one that you've already heard before, the only difference was that the ghost wasn't going to just talk about himself this time… and he was going to make it quick. That way he wouldn't hate himself too much by the time he was finished…

"...I had this friend. It was a long time ago, back when i was a normal teenager… and his name was Mal. I don't really like to talk about him that much because i was kind of an asshole back when I knew him. Or I was at least more of one than i am now… i mean i was a kid after all."

"...He was pretty much that one nerdy kid that was too young to be in his grade, and that would always follow you around. He annoyed the shit out of me for a while, but he always still stuck around like you'd expect him to. Sometimes i wouldn't even talk to him, and he'd still sit there across from me and try to get me to reply to whatever came out of his mouth."

"We met, because he somehow managed to save me from a fight i knew i couldn't win, at least back then. A fourteen year old kid saved me from a twenty one year old psychopath, and i didn't even thank him for it… never got to really, and I hated myself for it. I still do…"

"But, that didn't change the fact that he was my friend. Distance, or whether or not he knows I'm alive or dead. He cared. I didn't before, but I do now. It didn't start out the same way for me and you, Riley, and Alizarin, at least not exactly the same. "

"What I'm trying to say is that i know i won't forget you three, or what happened here today. I can't, because i care more about people now than i have before. It just hurts to know that I'm going to disappoint even more in the future because of the choices I made in the past, and up to now. It'll haunt me… but It'll be alright, because I know that I can take it."

The whole time Ileana could hear his low and scratchy voice as it went on until he eventually became silent once again… and she could tell that for the first half of it, he wasn't talking to her. He was admitting one of his own faults. Gage was… ashamed.

However, that small glint of clear self-hatred didn't distract her enough to make her forget about what he said about her and her people. He cares, and he feels guilty about leaving them, but he also couldn't get over the mistakes in his past life.

It seemed that they were what kept dragging him down, and led him to tell this confession to some stranger he met only a few days ago. Not a lot people would go ahead and do that randomly.

Maybe it was out of complete trust, or maybe Gage just figured that it wouldn't matter if she knew or not after today, either way, Ileana started to wonder if she was actually being selfish or not.

He clearly had his mind set on where he was to go next, and he did just save their entire village from a bunch of crazy cultists so… she smiled, and raised her head to look at him once again.

"Well, you know… it's not so bad to stop right now, and look back on everything that you've done up to this moment in your life. It could be... like an occasional reminder, if that makes any sense."

"...Of what?" Gage asked, still staring straight up at the night sky.

"The good, and the bad." Her response was quizzical to him, but it didn't cause him to have too much of a headache when he thought about it more. "You can be reminded of the evil you've done, and that way you can keep yourself from repeating it over again. And as for the good, well… I think it'll just keep you going."

Just like Doctor Oobleck would always say to his history students, 'History is important. If you can't learn from it, you're destined to repeat it'. This was the one rule that the ghost had to follow from now on, because to him, all of this was just another cycle.

Gage had already deserted the kingdoms once after losing everyone he cared for to the darkness of this world, and now it was happening again. This 'cycle' was repeating. The only difference this time, was that there was still someone out there for him to go back to… so maybe this could still be fixed, at least when the time's right.

"...Hm."

~…~

…

~Where is the sun, that shone… on my head?~

…

Out behind the house, Alizarin stood near the front of a very large bonfire pit that was already apart of the property as he finally kept his CD player from playing Mr. Sandman one more time, as it was on a loop by his own choice. Now, the song switched to a little unknown tune made by the Bee Gees, which was called Spicks and Specks.

He did this so he could try and distract himself from what he was doing previously,but it didn't end up working, as he soon turned back over towards the fire pit with a empty can of kerosene in one hand, and a beer in the other.

~The sun in my life… it is dead, it is dead.~

The smell of gas filled his nostrils and since he was smoking a cigar at the time, Al exhaled some smoke from his mouth with a large sigh, shaking his head as he put the gas can down, and looked at the horror that he himself was about to commit.

I say horror, because inside the fire pit was a complete mound of bodies that belonged to the Skinwalkers. Just the bodies too, the ones that were intact. He didn't take any of their parts that were blown off in the battle from earlier that day… he left their limbs for the buzzards, and was satisfied with that knowledge.

Thousands of flies circled around the pit, crawling out and inside of each individual corpse with some just choosing to crawl all over, and you might think that the villagers chose for this to happen unanimously, but they didn't. Alizarin did all of this himself, because today was his own personal victory.

~Where is the light, that would play… in my streets? And where are the friends, I could meet, I could meet?~

As for the reason behind such a cruel act, it was simple. Orin took his family away, so the sheriff decided to return the favor. Only this time he wouldn't allow the old psychopath the option of getting to see his followers before they were to be buried… but I guess the old man wasn't the only psycho in town after all.

Once he began to hear the music become more upbeat and loud enough for the other three inside his house to hear, he puffed his cigar one last time, and took it out of his mouth so he could stare at it while he held it in his right hand.

His husband Aaron always did ask him to stop smoking when he was still alive, and it was probably because it was the only part of his past self that remained after their daughter came into their lives. That old fire-obsessed criminal that lived outside the kingdoms… they called him The Arsonist.

~Where are the girls, I, left far behind? The Spicks and the Specks, of the girls, on my mind.~

That version of himself died a long time ago, and for the better too. He had his other half to thank for that, but now that he was gone… Al only had the people of Keji to keep him sane now. So yeah... maybe it was a good time to quit smoking. Right. This. Second.

He went on to lightly toss his cigar into the fire pit, which caused the gasoline to ignite and expand until flames engulfed the entire pile of lifeless bodies. They grew and waved with the force of the late night breeze as cinders and ash began to rise into the air, and Al just watched for a good long while… with a very obscure smirk.

It soon went away once the smell of seared flesh and fabric became more prominent, and it just led the arsonist to take a few steps back before he sat in a lawn chair he had set up next to an end table that had a picture of himself, his husband Aaron, and his daughter Hannah.

~Where is the sun, that shone… on my head?!~

The photo captured them as were simply together out in front of their house, and the young blonde girl was being held up by both of her dads, with one of her legs resting on one of their shoulders. Things were simpler back then, and Remnant wasn't perfect, but it was still something the three of them could live in.

...Only after the two things he cared about were gone did Alizarin finally acknowledge how much your loved ones can block your vision from being able to see how cruel life can be.

And even if Al didn't know it, him and Gage both saw Remnant as the same shade of black and white. But it wasn't their fault. Because whether someone could live to be as strong as the mountains, or as weak as a pile of ashes, one thing was still obviously certain.

...Love in this world can drive one mad.

~The sun in my life... it is dead, it is dead!~