RedGOzilla: actually, the military shovel was THE go-to weapon in the trenches for WWI and an excellent close-quarters weapon in WWII. It could be used to make fire, dig a foxhole or bludgeon your enemies. Japan has recently developed an actual RWBY-ish weapon-system using this sort of shovel; it can fold, unfold ,turn into different things and stuff.
Let's see…there is only one person Will would be obsessing about right now, and it's not the big Brawler :3. Oh well, the first scene is for you then.
Tuutje07: I did warn you, didn't I? Anyway, I love that gray and gray morality. At times like these, I can conclude that I picked the right title for this story.
So this chapter will be mostly flashback, but it will still have some present-day segments. It's not hard to notice.
"So why did they name the girl 'Attera'?"
-Professor J. Jet, to Professor Y. Taupe
"The same as 'Ancilla'; both of them are from the A-group, so it's gotta be an A. Attera mean 'dark victory' in the old language from the Founding Ages."
-Professor Y. Taupe
"And Ancilla?"
- Professor J. Jet
"White slave."
-Professor Y. Taupe
"Man, that's a bit…awkward."
- Professor J. Jet
"Not so much; the names reflect how the girls' personality once were, when they were first brought in. Apparently, Attera was like a wild cat. Went for the eyes, until the soldiers started wearing helmets. Ancilla was like a little angel, only crying and trying to run. So adorable."
-Professor Y. Taupe
*Loud laughter*
- Professor J. Jet
(Attachment Alpha)-'Dark victory' is most likely an indirect translation of the verse "a victory won through bloodshed", pointing to the fresh blood that humans possess.
(Attachment Bravo)-'White slave' is an indirect translation in the same verse as seen in Attachment Alpha, pointing to the nature of the subject and its *pure* state of mind.
Atlesian research facility, outskirts of Vale
"Give me some suppressing fire!"
"Get down, get down!"
"Air-support's here!"
Atlesian gunships broke through the thick layer of clouds like birds of prey descending on their unwary victim. High-caliber rounds filled the air with such a volume that the desperation of the Atlas military became visible for all too see.
The bullets impacted on Operative Blackwood's suit, which was already battered and burned. One punched straight through his body and came out on the other side, together with a spray of blood. The second one flattened itself against one of his ribs, knocking the wind out of him. The third one tore through a few centimeters of muscle and flesh before losing its momentum and the fourth one pinged off of his body.
The Operative hissed, but not because of the pain he felt. Pain was one of the first things that faded away for him in combat, soon followed by regard for personal safety. A dozen broken and limp bodies lay scattered around him, slaughtered with single hits. The gunships frustrated him greatly, but not as much as the Atlas soldiers. Oh how they shone brightly, with their ego and their Aura and their shiny suits. How much they annoyed him with their chattering voices and spastic movements. To one such as him, they moved like children.
Gravel exploded underneath his feet as he broke into another sprint. The soldiers just kept firing at him with their bright weaponry, unaware of the fact that they had long since ceased to be effective.
"Fall back!" One soldier yelled, priming a hand grenade. "Fall back!"
He threw the explosive device at the rapidly-approaching soldier, which appeared more like a black figure than an actual human. A creature of Grimm. Unkempt, black hair that reached to his shoulders, black pieces of armour strapped to various parts of his body, a face that was too pale to be healthy. It might as well be another Beowolf for all the humanity he possessed.
Blackwood weaved to the left to dodge another gunship-salvo and caught a flicker of movement in the corners of his eye. He side-stepped to the right again and pivoted around, taking half a second to deflect the incoming grenade with his elbow and sent it flying to one of the gunships that had dared hover too close to the ground.
The pilot had time to scream when the explosive breached his cockpit and sent shrapnel in every single one of his computers and consoles, before the ship spun out of control and impacted on its sister-ship, which had been tailing it to support it with covering fire. Together the two Atlesian vessels crashed into the ground, sending soldiers scrambling for safety.
Blackwood watched it happen, allowing himself to feel a small semblance of satisfaction. He punished himself for allowing that sense of happiness to slip through though; after all, he had failed to keep his promise to her. He was allowed only pain and suffering. The same as the hated ones. All of them would suffer with him.
The first Atlas soldier was unable to dodge what had to be the AWOL Onyx soldier that the General had warned his unit about. He shouted and attempted to bring his weapon to bear, but something impacted on his chest and the world went black before he could even feel the pain. He fell to the ground with a sharp gasp and Blackwood stepped over his dead body, picking up the fallen rifle as he went.
"Man down!"
The Brawler took a second to observe the rifle, searching his fractured memory for anything that might instruct him on how to use it. He remembered "trigger" and "reload mechanism" and linked it with the painfully-bright weapon.
It had to do.
Precision fire tore through the hasty cover that the remaining Atlas soldiers had made out of the crashed gunships and at least three men fell to the ground, nailed by weaponry of their own side. What was left of their motivation broke down and fell to pieces, and half of them turned to flee. Blackwood attempted to gun those down, but his rifle suddenly stopped working. Click. Click.
Nothing.
He growled and threw the rifle away-
A flash of the brightest red lit up the sky and more movement distracted him before the weapon could even hit the ground. His arms moved before he could even process what was happening and he found himself exchanging blows with another one of the creatures he despised so much.
He wanted to scream at her, turn her into an object of his hate and frustration. Vent the hurt and emptiness and challenge the world to dare to take his life, as it had hers. But his throat had stopped functioning long ago. All the screaming and self-inflected injuries had taken their toll –the only sound he could muster was a choked growl.
Good enough.
The woman brandished a red blade that seemed too large for its sheath, but the only thing that Blackwood could even see as a priority was that this wretched creature did not shine as bright as the others. She was dark, clad in black and red. Bearable to look at. Her face was hidden behind a pointy, white mask and her "hair" existed out of a long tail of feathers.
That blade…he remembered it. Somewhere within his fractured mind, Blackwood felt a little piece of a puzzle click into place.
He made it out all the while deflecting overhead strikes from the human's sword with his forearms. The blade carved through his skin and flesh and reached to the bone, whereupon he would shift his weight and lean forwards, preventing it from damaging his bones. Blood poured from the opened wounds and stained the ground with his blood. The blade came down time and time again, calm and serene like water, opening up a dozen wounds within seconds.
"Where is she?" he wanted to scream at her. What escaped his throat was a menacing snarl, which the woman took for a challenge. When the slashes aimed for the soldier's neck didn't seem to work, she jumped back and observed her foe.
Brimstone was no fool. She could see the difference between a hit and an impact. Whoever this Onyx hound was, he was no ordinary boy.
Boy. Most of the soldiers she had hunted down had been boys. Some barely the age of her estranged daughter…seventeen, maybe eighteen. It was hard to justify killing someone when the victim was a confused teen, staring at you with feral eye, failing to comprehend why it had to die.
The soldier did not look like he belonged to Onyx. No suit, no helmet, no weapons. Just eyes filled with the most burning, untainted hatred and rage she had seen in a very long time. The appearance of a feral animal.
Her strikes had become increasingly ineffective during the brief moment they had clashed; a moment wherein she had gauged the skills of her foe. The first cut had gone to the bone, allowed by the boy. The second and third ones had done so too. After that…they had become increasingly ineffective, as if his flesh was blunting her weapon.
Had he retained his mind, he would have attempted to have her strike at the same wound over and over again, to keep up the appearance that nothing was amiss. But he didn't…and he hadn't.
She knew him. Just like he knew her. He was Operative Blackwood, the only one whose name did not matter anymore. The only one whose name had truly been lost. Not "Will" Greystone or "Alice" Mantis. Just Blackwood, the fighter. The Brawler.
She hated him. And he hated her. She was the reason he had had to lose his humanity and he was the embodiment of what she fought against. A foe that she had to put down, if not for her peace, but his. A mercy kill. He was the one who had hurt her daughter. He would pay for that, too. She readied her blade and imagined how victory here would feel. Killing this creature, saving these men…none of it would harm Onyx. None of it would reunite her with her daughters.
The ground underneath Blackwood's feet shattered and Brimstone only had one second to react; she side-stepped and brought her blade to bear, which was all she could do before the Brawler stepped up close to her and struck with an open-palm strike.
She parried the blow with her blade, but never before had she felt such ferocity and power behind the attack. Controlled, contained and utterly overpowering, the simple jab was enough to send her reeling. In order to recover, she dove to the side and diverted the next series of attacks.
What power this creature possessed! Surely this could not be human?
Blackwood hissed and assumed a new position. To him, fighting always had a reason. Normally, those would have been human in nature. Now they weren't. He only had one reason to fight left in his life; to find her. Kill everything that stood in his way, dim the blinding lights that appeared everywhere he went and get her back. He had to get her back; she was not happy with her life. He needed to make her happy again.
Howls started to pick up in the distance. More howls replied in kind, much closer.
Then, the replies started coming from within the city. Shadows and figures slowly appeared from the abandoned buildings and shattered ruins, moving towards the fighting party.
"Oh shit," one of the surviving Atlas soldiers muttered. He could see dozens of the creatures appearing as if out of nowhere, coming for him and his unit with frightening speed. Dozens of them. "Run!"
Brimstone jumped back, looking on with surprise and disgust when the wolves sprinted past the fallen bodies of the Atlesian troopers. Sprinting past Blackwood to get to the live prey. The monsters that existed to hunt down all of mankind ignored the Brawler.
Onyx training facility [DATA REDACTED] – 12 years ago
Two heavy steel doors slid open without a sound, allowing entrance to the cavernous room. Two children marched in, accompanied by two handlers -drill instructors in camouflage pattern fatigues. They had circles of fatigue around their eyes and the grey pajamas looked like they barely fit them.
Professor Greene remained silent until the doors closed again, after which she walked towards the raised platform in the center of the room. Concentric rings of dark-grey surrounded her, empty for now. Overhead lights focused and reflected off her lab coat, making her feel warm despite the chilly air of the facility.
"Welcome," she spoke. Her voice was devoid of doubt and mercy. "Because of the martial state of the world, you two are hereby conscripted for the Onyx Operative program."
The two looked confused and frightened. The boy tried to get up and leave, but his handler placed a firm hand on his shoulder and pushed him down again.
"You will be trained. You will be taught. You will be an instrument of humanity's survival."
They didn't look all that interested in what she had to say; they looked even more confused than before and now, the girl tried to get away as well. She too was violently pushed down again.
"This will be difficult to understand. You cannot return to your parents."
Greene liked the look the girl had on her face. Fierce, aggressive. A bit wild. It would be interesting to see what sort of soldier she would make.
The boy on the other hand looked like he had difficulty fighting his tears back. At least he wasn't actually crying.
"You will not need a home anymore. The battlefield will be all the home you need. Rest now; your training starts tomorrow."
The children started talking; asking questions and demanding to know where they were, where their parents were. But they would not get their answers; the instructors pulled them up and took them with them, out of the room and towards the new barracks. After eight days, they would meet Operative Blackwood. Hopefully they would have their own designations by then; it would make team-cohesion easier.
"Keep them busy tomorrow," Greene told the guard who had taken up a position behind her, in case anything went wrong. "Don't give them time to think about what happened."
"Yes ma'am."
"Wake up, soldier!"
Alice groaned and closed her eyes again. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was aware that there was someone in the room with her. She was too tired to care-
A sharp object touched her spine and her entire body jumped with pain and heat. She cried in surprise and fell out of her bed, which was smaller than she remembered. The floor felt harder, too. Where was the green carpet?
She groaned and shook her head. Where was she?
"Want me to repeat myself, trainee? UP!"
A man with a black and grey uniform stood bowed over her, holding a black stick in his hand. It sparked and blue lights jumped off of it.
Alice yelped in fear and quickly crawled backwards. The man looked bad; he was going to hurt her more. Where was her father?
The bad man stopped moving when she jumped to her feet, just as he had asked. Alice heard footsteps and she turned around to see another man walking inside of the room. They had her trapped!
"My name,' he said, "Is Sergeant Dusk. You will address me as "sir, yes sir!" at all times. You will do exactly as I say, when I say. Are we clear?"
Alice quietly exhaled and looked around the room. There was a bed with a thin sheet draped over it, a small pillow and a metallic frame. No windows, no closets to climb on.
The man with the stick stepped towards her and jammed it between her ribs. She screamed and fell to the ground, her muscles cramping up and going out of control.
"I said, are we clear?" the other man rose his voice above her screaming without trouble.
The stick was pulled back and Alice wrapped her arms around her chest, too stunned to even cry. "Y-yes…" she gasped.
Something large and heavy smashed against her side and she crashed against the ground for the third time in the brief time she had been awake.
"I SAID ARE WE CLEAR?"
Her eyes stung, but she bit on her lips and forced herself to look at Sergeant. "Yes…sir."
He nodded and pointed at the door where he had come from. Where both of them had come from. "Showers are to the left, just like clothes. You will wash and return to the field on the right."
W-wash? She didn't even know where she was, why would she-
"Are you deaf, soldier? On the double!"
Alice saw the stick coming at her again and dove underneath the man's arm. They would hurt her again if she didn't obey –if she was fast enough, they wouldn't hurt her, right?
When she came outside, she saw that she wasn't home anymore. That the sun hadn't come up yet and that the sky was purple. There were fields of grass and steel buildings everywhere she looked, but no people. Fences in the far distance, woods behind those. A building up ahead had the words SHOWER BLOCK A grafted at its top, so that had to be the wash place.
Alice hesitated when she approached the building. There really wasn't anybody around, but that didn't mean that there weren't any people showering. Would they hurt her too? Were there even other girls here?
When she reached the showers, there wasn't anybody there. No girls, but also no women. Nobody. Alice stripped, placed her clothes on the rack and stepped under the showerhead. The water was freezing cold and cut her breath when it hit her already-shivering body with large jets. She rinsed herself and checked the spot on her chest that had been hit by the sparkling stick. Whereas most of her skin was pale and covered with goosebumps, there was a red blot about the size of a grape right in the middle of her chest.
She closed the water off and stepped towards a chest that probably held the clothes that the two bad men were talking about. Grey underwear, thick socks, sweats and thick boots that felt too heavy for normal shoes. They did fit her perfectly. How did they know her size?
Up ahead, the grass field looked about the only thing normal in this place. She wasn't the only one though; the blonde kid she had come into this place with was also there, with Sergeant standing right behind him. He looked afraid.
Now that she had had the cold shower and time to think, Alice was starting to remember. The ship, the shadows that moved like they people…the dark belly of the ship. They had stabbed her with something thin that hadn't hurt at all and she had slept for a long time…
"Squats!" Sergeant barked at them. He was very loud for a person who stood a few meters in front of them. "Count off to one hundred. Ready, go."
Alice was about to ask what squats were when the other man –the one with the hurting stick- started the exercise. She glanced at the boy, who met her gaze for a second. She didn't know what to think of him; he looked like a wimp, but she wasn't exactly certain of what to do as well.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she decided to simply imitate Sergeant. The boy did so as well, and for an excruciatingly-long time they did their squats. It involved bending through the knees with your hands on your head. It was painful and tiring and soon, Alice's arms and stomach started to burn. Sweat trickled down her back and each new squat came with a small groan.
After the thirty-ninth squat, the boy grunted and stopped. The other man was on him in an instant, beating him with the stuck in his ribs. The kid doubled over and fell to the ground. "Did we give you permission to stop?" the man snapped. After that, the boy uncurled and continued.
Why them? Why just the two of them? What had she done to deserve this? Had she been bad –did her parents not love her anymore?
It dragged on and on. After what felt like eternity, Sergeant shouted: "Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one-hundred."
Alice drew a deep breath and dropped to the ground, panting like she had never before. Her throat was dry, her muscles hurt terribly and her heart pounded so hard that it might jump out of her chest.
"Push-ups!" Sergeant dropped to the ground. "Count off to one-hundred. Go!"
Alice rolled to her belly and pressed her hands against the wet grass. Her arms trembled and she was slippery with sweat; it was like the shower hadn't done anything!
Time blurred together into a mishmash of agony and terribleness. She moaned and grunted with each heaving push and when she pushed herself for fear of getting the stick again, she threw up.
They showed her no mercy. The hated man was on her in an instant and she hastily forced herself upright again.
Alice wanted to scream and cry and hide, but she couldn't. Even thinking became harder and harder. She would get hurt if she stopped, but her body was so sluggish…
"Sit-ups," Sergeant continued without mercy.
She thought that she would faint. She wanted to faint. Make the pain and exhaustion go away. But she did not; it went on for forever, until finally a voice yelled something and they were allowed to rest.
Alice flopped on the ground, struggling to catch her breath. She was soaked in respiration and everything in her body hurt. She didn't have the breath left to ask for her dad to safe her.
The sun was up now, coating the strange collection of buildings with its warm and kind light. Alice risked glance at the boy who was stuck here with her. He sat crouched down on the ground, holding his sides. Blonde hair, grey eyes, small posture. He looked like the type who would get bullied at school.
Nobody talked. Someone dumped a bottle of water on the ground, right in-between the two of them. Of course Alice grabbed it first; she was always the fastest. She downed half its content before she saw that there wasn't any other water, and that she was supposed to share.
Again she glanced at the boy. He eyed her as well, probably having his own opinions about her. He had to be thirty.
Alice hesitated for a moment, but then she handed him the water. And after a brief moment of hesitation on his side, he took it.
She didn't have a lot of friends at her school; popular girls talked bad about her and that made people not want to play with her. It wasn't a good thing; it made her feel lonely at times. But her parents always made her feel better, because they knew what to say to make the hurt go away. Make her feel good about herself.
Having them not be here made her feel lonelier than she had ever felt in her entire life. When were her parents going to pick her up? Where the boy's parents going to pick him up?
"Time to run track, soldiers," Sergeant then yelled. "On your feet!"
Alice wouldn't risk anything; despite the hunger that racked her body, she still climbed to her feet. The boy joined her and together, they followed the two adults along a path with stones and water and trees, through the forest and over a large hill. They stumbled and fell multiple times and every time they did, they would get the stick.
The boy stopped to stare at a long road covered with wooden planks, where fully armoured soldiers were firing large weapons at dummies. They were shorter than the two mean men, but still taller than Alice. This time, they weren't punished for stopping. The metallic rattling that the weapons produced disturbed her, and she was almost glad that they continued their run.
They marched for a very long time before they finally stopped, this time at a stone building with horizontal slits in the walls. A metal door blocked their path.
It looked like they were expected to enter the building, but why? What would be inside there for them?
"Alright trainee's, this is as far as we go for now," Sergeant said. Alice was relieved; she didn't think she could take another step without collapsing. They had been running all morning! How could she not feel weak!
He opened the door and revealed a normal-looking classroom. Alice and the boy groaned and sighed within a second of seeing what reminded them of boring school and classes, but Alice fixed her attitude right away. A simple lesson where she could catch a nap and recover her energy was just what she needed. Then, she could think of a way to escape this place and find her mom and dad again.
"Welcome children," the teacher said. It looked like Alice and the boy were the only ones there, even though there were enough seats for…twenty kids. "If I am correct, Sergeant Dusk already taught you how to respond to your instructors?"
They nodded.
The teacher raised an eyebrow. Her hair was short, reaching only to her shoulders. It was still shorter than Alice would have wanted her own hair to be, but her mother always told her that girls shouldn't wear their hair like boys do. This lady wasn't like a boy either, but something in her face looked just like Sergeant.
She hated Sergeant.
"You may refer to me as either sir, or madam, whichever you prefer. I would ask you to stick with your choice though; we wouldn't want a confusing climate, would we?"
Alice thought that meant they had a choice. She didn't know what madam was, but it had to be another word that the adults liked to be called. Like how mommy and mother both meant mom, but mother was more spectful.
The lady introduced herself as Miss Indigo. She would be their teacher for a long time. Blah blah blah. Alice didn't care for listening to boring teachers and when Miss Indigo started telling them about the four Kingdoms of the world, she lowered her head to the desk to sleep.
"But humanity is dying."
Alice inhaled sharply and nearly jumped upright. That got her attention alright. She ignored her grumbling stomach and watched as the teacher made a table appear from out of the ground, with a silvery screen. An image of the world then appeared, with all the Kingdoms on it. Black mist started to creep in through the corners, coming closer and closer to the lands. The upper part of the world turned completely black.
"What do you know about the creatures of Grimm?" Miss Indigo asked.
The boy raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"They are the monsters that live outside the cities," he said. It was exactly what Alice had been taught at school. "It is the job of Hunters to kill them, but they aren't dangerous anymore."
That was right. Humanity had won the war and the Grimm had run away.
"Is that what they taught you at school? That we won?"
"Yes madam," they said in union.
"They lied to you. All the adults you knew lied to you. The truth is that this –" the map of the world shimmered and changed and the mist disappeared. "-is where we used to live before the Grimm came. Two billion humans. You cannot count that high. But now-" the mist reappeared, more than ever before. It swallowed everything until the four Kingdoms were all that remained. "-there are only a few million humans left. That is the size of this circle, reduced to the size of this circle."
A blue ball appeared in the air, floating above the magic table. It grew smaller and smaller, until the beach ball size had been reduced to a tennis ball. "The monsters are winning, children. Never forget that."
Had the adults been lying? But these people were not her parents! Her parents would not lie to her…would they?
Miss Indigo showed them a battle between two-hundred soldiers and two-thousand Grimm. Numbers Alice couldn't understand without seeing who were fighting and where. The battle took place in a large open field, where the large group of soldiers started shooting at the Grimm with weapons.
Alice couldn't take her eyes off the slaughter. Swords flashed, claws struck and blood flew. So much blood. This couldn't be fake; this was a real fight, lost by the humans. But humans never lost their fights according to the teachers at Alice's school…so they had lied to her, because the soldiers in this recording all lost. They all fell to the never-ending horde of monsters, until the last one disappeared under a pile of wolves.
Miss Indigo explained how these men and women, soldiers, were not trained well enough. Soldiers were people who fought for the innocent and killed the monsters, but if they died, they could no longer protect and help. Then more people would die.
Alice saw the logic. She understood.
During the battle, Miss Indigo gave them bread and water. The bread was dry and stale, but Alice still wolfed it down within seconds.
"Would it be more or less logic for the people to work together and fight off this enemy?" The teacher asked.
"More logic, madam."
Madam smiled somewhat. "Then why don't they?"
People didn't work together? That was stupid. If they didn't work together they would die, that was only logical.
"Imagine this. Somewhere, there is a country where a hundred people live. Ninety-five out of these hundred people are hungry and poor. They have to work all day to survive for the next day. Five out of these hundred people are not poor. They have lots of money. What would be the logical thing to do?"
"Give the money to the people," Alice replied. Again, it was so simple.
"Do you agree with this, trainee?"
The boy nodded. "If everybody has money, nobody is poor."
"Then why don't they?"
Because they were made-up? No, that wasn't right. Answer the teacher's question. Because they didn't want to? Because they couldn't? They had their money locked away?
"You cannot think of anything?"
"Because they don't know the others are poor?" the boy tried.
"No. No, they do know. The five people do not want to share because they do not want to lose their money. They can let the ninety-five other people live without food and water because they already have their money."
The boy frowned. "That's stupid –madam. If they work together, they can get more money."
"Indeed. But they do not work together. Before, I said that humankind was dying. For every living person, including you and me, there are more Grimm than you can count. But humans spend more time fighting and bullying each other than the monsters that want to kill them."
That was so stupid. Were people really that stupid?
"We call this corruption. We will get back on this next lesson, when I show you what people do to each other. For now: how do we solve this problem?"
"Make the five people share?"
"Get everybody to talk it out?"
"Yes, tell them to share?"
Miss Indigo listened to their ideas for a while, before saying, "And what if they do not want to listen? What if they do not want to share, not ever?"
Alice didn't know what they should do then.
"The solution, is simple. If those five people are no longer there, the other ninety-five can take their money and share it themselves. But you have to be certain, children! If you tell them to go away, they will return for payback. The true solution for these people we talk about? We kill the five people to safe the ninety-five."
That was a bit extreme. But it was just an example, and Alice was too hungry and tired to really care about the fates of hundred people who didn't exist. Was it lunchtime? Or already dinnertime?
"That's all for today, children. Tomorrow I will show you how Hunters fight."
"Hunters?" Alice said. That would be more interesting to talk about than stupid things like poor and hungry people who didn't exist."
"Yes. I do believe Sergeant Dusk has returned; you should find him outside."
Alice sighed. She couldn't wait.
"Welcome to the live-fire exercise," Sergeant later said, when they had had their short run to the next building. More people had shown up watching Alice and the boy with weird expressions. "If you cross the road ahead, you'll find the very first playground of this training facility."
A playground? For real? That would be the best spot to just sit down and think for a few moments. At least, if it was that simple. Alice didn't think that the playground would be a fun one.
Sergeant opened the door and gestured with his arm. Alice didn't hesitate for a second and quickly dove into the room, closely followed by the other kid. There wasn't a lot of room inside of the building, but there were places where people could sit. There were also large gaps in the wall, which might have been windows had they had glass in them. Now, they were just holes.
She wanted to sit down and take a rest, perhaps even a nap, but she would get punished if she did. So she was left with her trembling limbs and the aching hunger in her stomach. And the road to the playground was not a real road. Metal wires were suspended at the height of her knee, above a long bad made out of mud.
"Gross," she muttered.
"This will be a live-fire exercise," Sergeant told them again. "See those guns on the side?"
Guns? What were those again?
"Those will be firing real rounds. If you as much as stick your head up, you will lose it."
What? He couldn't be serious!
"So here's some advice: keep your head down. Move it trainees!"
This time, Alice was the one who couldn't move. Not only was she too tired, she also refused to go lie down in mud. She wouldn't.
The boy took a few steps towards the lane of mud and looked around. "I don't see a playground."
Seeing how the two of them weren't willing to jump in their stupid pool of mud with wires, Sergeant nodded at the other man, who raised his stick.
Alice was too slow to dodge, or she just didn't try hard enough. Only when she was lying on the ground, trembling without crying and gasping for breath did she realize that she was really alone; that these men could do a whole lot worse to her if she didn't obey their every wish.
She glared at the men with their steel eyes and their unyielding gazes. Those inhuman faces.
"I said," Sergeant yelled as he kicked the boy in the stomach, showing about as much mercy as the other man had done to her. "Move it!"
After that, they did not hesitate anymore. Both of them jumped into the thick pool of mud and both of them found themselves trapped in the thickest, coldest goo they had ever touched.
Alice grunted and groaned, but could not pull herself away from the black mud that was pulling her in. Movement became a desperate struggle, winning her only a few handfuls of distance per minute.
And then the explosions started. Sudden, thundering explosives right above her head. They hurt her ears and made everything sound like ringing. They came with metallic rattles, hundreds per second, thousands, she didn't know!
She wanted to scream and run away, but she would get hurt if she so much as raised her head. What should she do? What was the smart thing to do?
The boy overtook her, but he didn't leave her. He stuck to a spot half a meter in front of her, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if she was still there. His mouth formed words, but she could not hear them over the sound of the weapons. Would she stay deaf? Would she never hear again, or was this just a moment?
The gross crawling lasted for so long. Her arms and legs were weighing her down, her clothes looked exactly the same as the mud she was dragging herself through and she could taste the stuff in her mouth.
Finally the two of them reached the other side. They hadn't gotten shot by the guns, they hadn't gotten cut by the cutting cables and they also weren't deaf forever.
"What?" Alice shouted at the boy when he said something she couldn't understand.
"Will!" he repeated. "My name is Will!"
Ah. An introduction. "Alice." Grown-up people always gave each other a hand and she wasn't a grown-up. She didn't give hands.
No, she used to bite them when she was younger. But that was a different thing.
The room was about as far away from how playgrounds were supposed to look as the dentist's was. There were black items scattered on green crates and a long, stretched-out room with wooden pieces of doors and furniture and fake cardboards of houses. It looked like a play, but one that was very far away from them. A long play. Were they going to watch some boring people say boring things?
The men joined them in the room, where the two of them were trying to get the worst of the mud off of their bodies. There was Sergeant and the one with the stick, but also a woman with long, green-grown hair and a few people who looked like soldiers.
"Welcome to the playgrounds," Sergeant said. "This will be your most important game ever; the firing range."
More cardboards popped up from behind the various rocks and building-fakes. But they weren't cardboards, they were people! At least…they looked like people. Were those living people? Captured just like they were?
"Those are your targets," the woman told them. Her voice was serene and collected, as if she was a mom. Alice liked her. "If you destroy them, you win."
The boy raised his hand.
"Yes?" Sergeant said.
"What do we win?" he asked.
"Dinner," one of the mean people said with a deep chuckle. Tonight we are serving baked potatoes, roasted chicken and ice-cream."
Ice-cream! Chicken! Alice was hungry enough to eat three plates of hot food! They only had to destroy the people-things? That wouldn't be a problem.
"There are multiple weapons scattered throughout the room," Sergeant added. "Pick one with a blade and use it to kill as many of the enemy as you can. Don't be stupid; if you miss one, there will be no dinner tonight."
It would be easy to destroy all of the cardboards…but they looked so real. Like they were real people. She wasn't going to hurt anyone, was she?
"You have sixty seconds to complete your mission, Can you count to sixty, soldier? Get a move on!"
Alice wanted to shout at the man that she could indeed count to sixty and that she wasn't some stupid kid. But she knew that they would hurt her if she did, so she just around and looked for something to break the people. And it looked like Will beat her to it anyway.
"Yes madam."
Judging by the sudden silence and quiet chuckles of the rest of the adults, he had said something funny. But judging by the way Sergeant's trembling moustache and bulging eyes as he beat Will around the room, he had said something very rude.
That meant Miss Indigo would be called sir as well. Wait…no, she wanted them to stick with what they called her. No confusion. She had probably taught them a bad word, so they shouldn't call anybody else that. Indigo-madam and…everybody-sir. Everybody-yes-sir.
"ARE WE CLEAR?"
Yes sir.
Sixty seconds…that was…not very long. There were black and grey things lying around, but also things that looked sharp. Sharp things were bad, her parents had taught her that. But they were only bad because they hurt; if she hut the people-things with it, she would win dinner!
Will looked around as well. He spotted one of the L-shaped things and picked it up. "What's this?"
"That's a Kochler M1822 handgun, trainee. A gun. Does it have a blade?"
The kid looked again. "No sir."
"Then move on. Grab a knife and get ready! I'll teach you about it another time."
The knife looked dangerous. Alice's parents had forbidden her to hold sharp objects and with good reason. They could hurt people. These cardboard-things looked like people. Did they need to hurt people too?
They were told to climb over the "firing range" and attack the images. But Alice quickly found out that they were anything but images; they had some strange field around them, which made it hard to properly touch them. And they looked so real; one of the women further down the range had long hair that moved like it was real. All of them looked so real!
The first one was a man with a plain shirt and trousers. He had a thick belt with one of the guns hidden inside of it.
"Fifty-five seconds," a booming voice came from the ceiling. Alice didn't bother looking up; she wasn't going to waste time by staring at distractions!
She lifted her knife and looked at the "man". Her blade was as long as her entire forearm, if not longer. Easily the size of an adult's shoe. She hesitated.
Will stepped next to her, holding a blade of his own. He too looked at the man, before stabbing him in the chest with the knife. He was too short to properly strike though, and his blade sank into the soft part right underneath the chest.
Alice winced; the field did not block the knife. The man was not real, but the damage felt real. There was even a small reaction before the field completely collapsed; an expression of pain and big, gazing eyes. Then the image of the man disappeared and all that was left behind was a blue skeleton without anything that made it look human. A dummy. A doll.
"Fifty seconds."
Grabbing her hand, Will pulled her deeper into the firing range. "Come on," he whispered. "They are not real."
They looked real enough to her, even though they were still images. That didn't prevent her from stabbing the second man they encountered, taking it upon herself to strike him before the boy could. She too sank her knife deep into its stomach and this one too flickered and "died".
"Forty seconds."
They moved on like that, "killing" the other people one by one. Women, men, all of them died when stabbed. Hitting them in the arm or leg didn't seem to destroy the field that kept their images, so they were forced to stab every single one in the area from the belly to the chest.
"Ten seconds."
When they got to the last one, Alice hesitated. Will was about to strike when she grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"What?" he asked.
"Look," Alice replied. "She's old!"
This lady could have easily been her grandma. She walked with a hunch and a cane and her face was layered with deep wrinkles. She looked so old…why did they need to "kill" her too? What use was that?"
"She's not real," Will said again. "If we don't, we won't get dinner."
"I know, but…I don't want to. Please."
Now the boy hesitated too –for a second too long.
"Time's up."
Someone stepped behind them and grabbed them both by their shoulders, pulling them back.
"What's the matter?" Sergeant barked at them. Now that Alice had a closer look at him, he too looked old. He didn't have wrinkles, but he was as old as her dad. Maybe older. His dark eyes were cold and his moustache didn't tremble, but he sounded angry. "Why stop?"
"She's just a grandma," Alice weakly replied. "I-"
She didn't get to finish. Sergeant ripped the knife from her hand and threw it at the old woman without even looking at her. The knife hit her full in her face, right between the eyes. Sank deep into her head, until the blade was halfway stuck.
The image disappeared.
"Did you not see her own knife, trainee?" he shouted, not necessarily at Alice alone. "Your "grannie" was getting ready to stab you too!"
Alice didn't understand. And while she and Will ran behind the adults back to the firs building, she tried to make herself understand. She really did. How could an old lady be dangerous? She hadn't even seen a knife! Why was it necessary for them to fight other people anyway?
They got a bottle of water a person, and then they both walked to their individual beds. Alice didn't have anything; no belongings, no stuffed animal or posters. Nothing.
She wanted to cry, but she was too tired. Everything hurt. She drank her water, but it did nothing to take the hunger away. She would have liked bread now.
The moment her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
The next day was just like the previous one; a rough awakening at the hands of shouting people with sticks that glowed and sparkled, then doing training and running all morning. Alice didn't feel half as thankful when she reached Miss Indigo's classroom as she had felt yesterday; she was still angry with everyone for making her miss dinner and the lesson was bound to be something dull and stupid.
Today, Miss Indigo taught them about Hunters and Huntresses. Tough-looking people with flashy weapons and cool clothes. One of them fought a hundred Grimm all on his own, without help. There were more children today, but Alice ignored them. Will did so too. The only thing they were good or was not looking where their bread went; she stole some extra pieces when nobody was looking and chowed them down while watching the woman fight the monsters.
It was amazing to watch. With a long sword, the lone Huntress sliced a path through the wolves that attacked her. Indigo explained that those monsters were called "Beowolves", named after one of the most ancient poems on Remnant. She said that they were the smallest, but also one of the fastest types. Like there were different animals, there were different Grimm.
The fight was long and grueling. The Huntress killed many Grimm, but there always seemed to be more. It lasted so long that Alice honestly thought that the lady would die; that she would be eaten by the wolves just like the soldiers. They struck her when she got sloppy, but their attacks never harmed her. It was like the dummies that they had had to stab; a small field around them that protected against sharp things.
"Aura," Miss Indigo explained when the holographic video was over. "Every living being has a soul. Trainee, do you know what a soul is?"
Their conversation turned strange. They talked about "manifestations" and "Aura" and how it protected a person from attacks, but how they needed to be trained. Every person had Aura, so Grimm couldn't kill them easily. But humans could kill other humans easier than Grimm. And they did so, too. Many times. Indigo told them that there were more wars between humans and humans than humans and Grimm. That humans killed each other over the most stupid and egoistic reasons. When she said that money was worth more than a life to others, a few children mumbled in quiet anger.
"Those people are the most dangerous," Miss Indigo said. "They can be corrupt, or they can be sick in the head. They can be heartless, or mean, or needy. They have a soul, but it is black. I talked about the hundred people yesterday with all of you, yes? People who value money or items above other people are bad. When they actually cause pain and loss, they are dangerous. Some dangerous things are so dangerous that they must be killed or destroyed, to protect all others. Those we call "threats". Will, can you think of a threat?"
"Someone who enters your home to take your things, but tries to hurt your dog?" he replied.
"Correct. Children, life is the biggest treasure of all. Those who are willing to waste it are threats. That is one of the reasons you are here. You will be trained to kill the threats. You will be trained to protect the innocent people. Now, if you would focus on the following image…"
They all split up again after that. A second playground had been added to the training-town they now lived in; something called an "obstacle course". It was very large and long, built above water. From the start of the course, Alice could see bridges and nets and ropes. It looked difficult.
"Have fun," Sergeant told them. "If you can make it to the other side, you will have breakfast tomorrow-morning."
They didn't make it. Both of them lost to the playground when they had to climb underneath a ladder that hung between to bridges; their hands were too slippery and their arms too weak. They fell before even coming halfway across the ladder and were forced to swim back through the cold, muddy water.
One final challenge left; the firing range. There were more of the not-people this time, with some who looked like they weren't even adult yet. The grannie was still there, in the back.
"Pick your weapons," Sergeant yelled. "Trainee, what did I tell you about that gun?"
"Sir, you said another time. Isn't it another time now, sir?"
Alice winced, but they didn't beat him up. Instead, Sergeant walked up to Will and grabbed the weapon from his hands. He toyed with it, observing the things inside and aiming it at the wall. "Not yet. After dinner, I'll take the two of you and take a look at some good gear."
After dinner. They needed to win dinner first.
She was through with this exercise. She didn't want to go hungry again just because some stupid dummies looked like people. The moment they were allowed to start, she lifted herself over the counter and went for the first person. Not a man, not a boy, but something in-between.
Her knife slashed through its thin shield and went deep inside its belly. She ripped it free again, doing even more damage this time. It died quicker.
They quickly found out that, if they worked together, they could go for easier kills. Will could support her and she could stick a knife in a face or throat, or she could give Will a shoulder and help him stab a neck. The people died quicker, but it also costed them more energy.
"Fifteen seconds."
Alice looked at the grannie again, observing her keenly. There it was; a small pocket-knife in her wrinkled fist. Stupid lady.
Will slashed at her knife-holding hand while Alice stabbed her in her chest. Because she stood hunched over, she was easier to strike in important areas.
Sergeant watched them. He didn't say anything, but when they returned from the training and sat down next to the caches of weapon and knives, Alice could nearly imagine a smile flickering across his face. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't.
"Good job soldiers," he said. "Let's get back to the barracks and chow down."
This time, Alice could bring herself to smile. She looked at Will and saw that he smiled, too.
"That went well," he quietly said. He might look like a wimp –and act like one at times- but Alice was glad she wasn't alone with this.
"Guess so. So where are you from?"
Will shrugged. "Never learnt the name."
Great. Neither had she.
The days passed rapidly, and her parents never came to get her. They spent their time drilling, training and running. So much training. There was never a moment where Alice's limbs weren't on fire, or where her body wasn't covered with sweat. She grew to hate Sergeant Dusk for being the one who put her through the worst day of her life, every day. She grew to respect him for being so tough and…well, easy to understand. He was consequent. He hurt them when they didn't do the things he wanted them to do and rewarded them when they did.
And most important of all: he taught them. He taught them many things that Alice would have never learned at school. She learned that his name wasn't Sergeant; it was Dusk. Sergeant was a rank. Trainee referred to their rank; soldier in training. He also took them to weapon handling, teaching them how to handle their weapons. He respected Will's interest in the guns and taught him how to fire it. He taught Alice how to properly wield the knife and how to kill faster with it. Every night, just before sleeping, they went to the firing range to kill the dummies. They didn't hesitate a moment anymore. Dusk used new technology to simulate Aura and Armour, forcing them to try all sorts of new things to kill them faster. That involved new techniques, new movements and more teamwork. Miss Indigo taught them about how the thing called 'Onyx' and how it functioned like certain killer-cells in the human body, killing things that were bad and did not belong there. How this Onyx was the self-cleaning function of Remnant, a system to prevent humanity from dying out.
They learned about Faunus and how they could both be good and bad. Will shared that he had a Faunus "sister" and that she was the kindest and toughest person he knew. That she had always protected him from things like bullies, dangerous things and even himself. And when the class had ended and Alice and Will had gone to their "bunks", he had told her how this "Jasmine" was going to bust them straight out of this camp. How the Faunus would save them, because she had made him some silly promise.
Alice didn't believe a thing. After all, if her father hadn't come to rescue her, how would some wolf-lady?
On the eight day, they were woken from their sleep with less violence than normal. It didn't take long for the reason to reveal itself; haircuts.
She screamed and fought for hours. Plunged the facility into chaos and using every breakable object as a distraction to keep her hair. She first escaped by diving underneath the instructor's arms after kicking him against the shins, after which she smashed a mirror and grabbed several of the shards to use as makeshift knives. Wrapped her clothes around the edges to make handles, then escaped into the vents.
Sergeant Dusk gave her owe chance to get out and she didn't take it. After that, he personally threw smoke bombs into one end of the vent and waited for her at the other. She didn't want to choke to death, so she had been forced to emerge right into his arms.
Still carrying her improvises weapons. She had never been capable of cutting Dusk, no matter where she aimed. His hands were too tough and his clothes too thick. And when she went for his throat, he simply forced her to the ground and pinned her arms on her back.
They shaved her hair off at one side before she managed to break free again. Either Dusk let her go on purpose, or he hadn't expected her to suddenly pull away again. Either way, she grabbed her fallen hair and darted away again. Over the course of the following ten minutes, she broke three fingers and a toe before finally getting caught again.
At that moment, she learned that she wasn't physically strong enough to fight the adult men. They would easily hurt her in various ways and she only could do so much damage before they got her. She vowed to teach herself how to do better; to learn how to hurt without getting hurt.
Will hadn't fought when they cut off his hair. When she asked him why, he answered her that he never cared very much for how his hair looked. He was a boy; that was only normal for him. But now that her hair was gone, she looked terrible.
"You want payback?" he asked her.
Alice nodded before fully realizing what she did. But when she thought about it, it made sense. She didn't really want payback; she wanted to escape. Still wanted to escape. "Not payback." Payback was for little children, after all. "Just home."
He nodded too. "They said we can't go home anymore."
"I don't believe them."
"They never lied before."
"They do now. Everyone lies."
"That's not true. Dusk never lied."
Not out loud no. "He also keeps us here. I don't want to be here anymore."
"Me neither. Do you have a plan?"
No, she didn't. No plan, no ideas. Nothing. "Not really."
"We'll think of something." He nudged her shoulder and she bumped him back.
There were times where Ruby doubted whether her sister was fit to be a Huntress. On one hand, she was easily the strongest member of their team, capable of going toe-to-toe with everything that didn't have "Blackwood" in its name. On the other hand, she had severe problems with keeping her emotions under control and her she was so very impulsive.
"Yang, this isn't exactly diplomatically correct," Blake said as she tried to keep up with her blond teammate. "Just think about this."
"Everybody knows that Coco is about as intolerable to our friends is as Weiss is to Faunus," Yang loudly said.
"Hey! I take offense to that one!"
"Sorry. Needed an example."
Ruby sighed. She didn't have a problem keeping up with her hot-blooded little Yang, but Weiss and Blake were too nervous to know how to properly keep up with her. "You're worried. I get that. But I don't think anything bad will happen."
"Ruby, it's us. Him. Of course something bad will happen! Miss Fetish said it herself; nothing positive is going to happen to them. Someone is going to get hurt."
"Yang! Don't say that!"
"You know it's true, Weiss! Someone always gets hurt!"
"Not every time. Not this time."
"You're right; not this time."
"Yang!"
Team RWBY made its way outside of Beacon and towards the staging area, where teams would get on dropships for their missions. Coco was leading CFVY towards their dropship, which would drop her and the group off at the position where Will was last located.
Ruby was the last person to admit that she didn't like team CFVY; Coco was just too much of a egocentric person for her tastes. Too focused on her little world and her own view to be able to broaden her opinion and think of other people. Not a narcissist, just narrow-minded. It was just that her narrow-mindedness would cause too much harm if left unchecked. That was her in a nutshell.
"Adel!" Yang barked, getting the brunette's attention.
Coco turned around before she entered the dropship, placing a hand on her handbag. Was that a threat? A self-comforting gesture? Perhaps even a reflex? Coco was the type of girl who wanted to be in control of everything, be it her team or a fight. And not in the self-assuring way. If anything went out of her control, she would force the situation to change for the "better", no matter the cost. So a first-year student calling her out? She would need to assert her dominance to feel better about it.
She had the wrong person with Yang if that was the case.
"What?" the girl said, her voice filled with ego and confidence. Or disregard.
"Don't you hurt him," Yang growled, stepping to close to Coco that anyone with a smaller ego would have stepped back to create more room. "Just bring him back/"
CFVY's leader didn't get the message. "That all depends on the psycho himself. If he behaves nice and proper, he won't have a thing to worry about. If not…"
There were multiple teams hanging around the staging area. JNPR and multiple older-year students. They had been talking and doing their things prior to Yang's outburst. Now that Coco had given her reply, it had grown remarkably quiet. Velvet looked very uncomfortable, and their big guy was looking back and forth between the two girls with the same uncertainty. And the threat hung in the air.
Yang didn't even bother to correct Coco's particular choice of words. Her red eyes and her clenched fists however, spoke volumes. "I'm telling you to watch it!"
Red eyes, very bad. Air growing warmer, even worse.
"She means that he won't act violent to you if you do," Blake added, stepping next to Yang. She looked worried. "It won't have to come to a fight."
Coco fell quiet for a few seconds, sizing Yang up from behind her glasses. Wearing sunglasses made it easy for one to hide what they felt and experienced, even if the mere act of hiding behind glasses made some other things very obvious. "If you had raised that little freak better, you wouldn't have to worry," she hissed at Yang, ignoring Blake completely.
It grew completely quiet after that remark. Even people who had been ignoring them now were listening in. Velvet reached for her shoulder, but Coco shrugged her off.
Ruby frowned, giving the girl a better look. Blake placed a hand on Yang's arm to keep her from punching Coco's face off, which was something that Ruby could easily imagine herself doing if this went on like that. Apparently, that girl was like Cardin in that she was a bully who sought to hurt others with their weak spots, but she was different in that her victims weren't necessarily weak ones. She hurt them without touching them, which was a hard thing to defend against for people like Yang. Yang was…sensitive. Very much so. Physically she could stand in the middle of a Storm-event and get out without as much as a scratch, but it didn't take a lot to get her fired up. And then she made mistakes.
She was about to go on the assertive route and tell Coco that she should watch out who she insulted, when someone familiar interfered with the scene.
"You know Coco, I've seen a lot of things when things went down in Vale." Jaune said, casually strolling towards the girl who had swung a minigun around like it was no big deal. Not a care in the world. "I've seen you fall when the Tormentor glanced at you, and I've seen Cal and Lily running around for fifteen minutes dragging you and half your team to safety. While under fire from Nevermores, dodging six house-sized legs trying to flatten them and fighting off dozens of Beowolves and Ursai. You owe your life to these "freaks". The least you could do is respect them."
"And who might you be?" Coco condescendingly said, sizing Jaune up as well. Was this all a game of intimidation and standing to her? She didn't seem to have learned her lesson then.
"Just Jaune Arc, my leader," Pyrrha said, walking up to Jaune with a confident smile on her face. "JNPR's leader."
Coco's posture changed. Her shoulders sagged somewhat, she lowered her head and she shifted her weight from one leg to the other. Talking down Yang was easy. Being smug to Jaune was something everybody could do. But sneering at Pyrrha Nikos? That was a different story.
And it opened up new roads for Ruby. Because if Coco was "intimidated" or "impressed" by a relatively mundane thing like fame or reputation, it made her insecure of herself. Or more insecure since her mind had been ravished and abused by the Tormentor. When it had attacked Weiss and herself, it had felt like a physical assault. A Tormentor augmented by that Leader-Grimm? Very bad. Coma for twelve hours also tended to leave some stress.
So this was either some very mild form of PTSD manifesting itself, or a twisted coping-mechanism. Ruby was all but certain that she had seen various forms of PTSD in her time at Beacon, ranging from small to severe, and this didn't really look like one to her. She didn't even know Coco well enough for that. So a coping mechanism to get her confidence back?
For a brief moment, it looked like Coco would keep her attitude up. But then she scowled, gestured at her team and continued on to the dropship, ignoring the other people around her.
Ruby sighed with relief and nudged her sister. "You are too impulsive."
"She's been waiting for a chance to harm any of them for a while," Weiss said. "After all, she's been on Cal's tail for days when she found out he and Velvet are involved."
"Wait, involved?"
"Literally speaking, Rubes. They interact and she doesn't like that."
Blake crossed her arms. "She won't harm Will."
"And how do you know that?" Yang asked.
Raising her eyebrows in an amused sense, Blake replied, "Because our Operative is trained in guerilla, urban and attrition warfare and has been known to take on entire teams on his own."
Funny how Blake now used "we" instead of "your". "That's the problem, Blake."
"What?"
Ruby watched the dropship take off. "Against LACG, he held back. Against us, he held back and wanted to be captured. Not to mention his…unhealthy focus on…certain objectives." Finding euphemisms for "attempted suicide" was harder than it appeared. "But now…"
"He has nothing left to lose, but everything to win," Weiss said.
"So basically, no reason to hold back at all. Team CFVY is now a threat…"
"…and we all know what happens to threats," Weiss darkly finished.
They fell silent for a few moments, during which Ruby contemplated going to Jaune and thank him for his intervention. But he only gave her a brief nod before returning to his own duties, making that particular choice moot.
"Well, standing around brooding is not going to help," Yang then decided. "I'm sure it won't get to that. We've still got our lessons and Johnson will make us all do push-ups until one of us passes out if we don't hurry up."
"That is so like him."
Again, Ruby didn't think it was that easy. The "fallout" that had been predicted was still moderately under control, even though the students of Beacon Academy were very divided in their view on the matters.
And as if it had been waiting for a faint moment of doubt, Ruby's scroll started buzzing. Silently praying that it wasn't more bad news, she reached for the device and answered the call. "Team RWBY here."
"Ruby, Ash is gone. He disappeared before sunrise and we haven't been able to find him. "
"How bad is it?"
"What do you think?" Cal sounded really angry. "He went wild when the news hit. Lily had to strangle him just to keep him from harming himself, and now he's gone, because he hasn't had time to calm down."
"Strangling him into unconsciousness didn't calm him down?" Ruby asked. A few third-year students gave her odd glances and she mentally slapped herself for speaking so loudly.
"No. You think this is bad now, with Greystone and Mantis running around? Wait until the civvies start dropping like flies."
Ruby's heart skipped about four beats when she heard that. "He'll go after innocent people?"
"Innocent people don't exist to him, Rose. Just faceless soldiers that could potentially be a danger to him, just because one so happens to glance at his direction."
That was so messed up. "We're not permitted to leave for the city without official permission –and if we stay away from class, Johnson will get suspicious. I don't think we want people to know this."
There was a soft curse on Cal's side, before he continued. "We just need more manpower."
Manpower. Henchmen. "Where are you now?"
"In the city, staying hidden from patrolling policemen."
"Right. Listen to me: we will get you some reinforcements. Not much, but all we can do right now. Ehm…wait at the little shop called "Tukson's books" for further instructions."
"I hope you know what you're doing."
Yeah, she really hoped so too. Ruby put her scroll away again and looked at her eager teammates. "How well do you think Braunschweiger and Junior can get along with each other when helpingtwo notorious Onyx soldiers with searching for their psychically-disturbed friend?"
"Decency. That word…has plagued my mind for a long time. When are you decent? When you help an elderly lady across the street? When you give some Lien to a homeless man? When you prevent a toddler from being run over by a car? All of those are aimed at improving the lives of people without expecting something back. So if you improve the lives of others while losing something yourself, be it money, energy or even health, does that make you more decent? And if you help more people than one, more than ten even? Does that make you even more decent?
The things that I have admitted…the things I have done…there are crimes that cannot be punished severely enough. Mistakes that cannot be forgiven. Deeds that can never be undone. We have been keeping everyone away from the Catalysts' bodies for years. Only a select few are allowed inside, and they are being picked off one by one. I understand why. If I could go down there and leave one of the girls a rose, I would. God knows I would. Often enough I asked myself: if I had the chance, would I do it again? Ruin all those lives, knowing how much you will cause? I always said 'yes, I would', because we are alive to think about it and I will be damned to see that change. This world hasn't ended yet, and as long as there are people left to be saved, I will commit the worst atrocities to keep them that way. Burn a hundred innocent so that a thousand might live.
And yet…would I?"
General R. Eventide, personal diary –last entry
Next time: more flashbacks Operative "Will" Greystone versus Beacon team CFVY: everything but pretty.
