The ship's engine turned off, leaving the noise to echo across the valley as silence crept in. Then, multiple sets of boots on pavement. A dozen Mistral military men and women surrounded Twilight Crusade, assault weapons pointed to their heads. Greyson stayed still in his kneel of surrender, heart beating out of his chest and hoping with every ounce of his being he would not hear the crack of gunfire.
One soldier, with more stars adorning his thick, white, military coat than the rest approached. Greyson was shoved forward, and his face slammed into the frigid ground as he felt the cold steel of handcuffs around his wrists.
"You're Greyson Skye, correct? Leader of Twilight Crusade?" the military officer questioned in a gruff voice.
"Yes sir," Greyson confirmed. "...The girl with black hair, wearing the skirt. She's injured. Please be careful with her."
"Yeah, sure," the officer apathetically replied. He turned to the rest of his squad. "Load 'em up."
Greyson was forced to his feet, and shoved onto the airship with his friends. It gave Greyson the slightest hint of nostalgic sadness, reminding him of the airship he had flown across continents, which was now no more than a hunk of steel slowly being swallowed by the snow. He was shown to one of many seats lined up on the wall of the ship, backs to the window. All of Twilight Crusade joined him apart from Kita, who was ushered to the onboard treatment center in the back by a woman with mint green hair, and Azure, who followed. Being treated as a victim rather than a criminal, she had the slightest bit more freedom than her friends.
"Cold, pale skin, rapid heart rate, and shallow breathing," the medic analyzed, hunched over the huntress who lay on the seat before her. "Much more time, and this would have been a case of exsanguination."
"I tried my best at treating her, but I couldn't do much about the tongue. That's where she ended up losing most of the blood," Azure explained. "She'll need a transfusion, right?"
"Right. Is the patient's blood type known?" the medic responded. Azure paused, searching her mind for any memory from the last time Kita had been hospitalized.
"It is red," Kita replied.
"Go ahead and list that one as unknown," Azure responded sheepishly.
The medic looked in the airship's drawers for several seconds, before the sudden shock of the airship taking off nearly knocked her off her feet. Several bottles of pills and medical tools clattered across the floor. She started picking them up with Azure's help, before a bout of turbulence shook the cabin. The medic swore, and left the back room.
"The patient needs a blood transfusion as soon as possible," she urged. "We need to land. It would be best if we found somewhere with a spare bed."
"A spare bed in Northern Mistral?" the pilot scoffed. "Good luck. If you find a place, sure."
Greyson's head rose in attention. "Actually," he said. "...I think I know a place."
After several minutes of arguments and deliberation, the airship slowly lowered from the layer of clouds. A familiar building came into view, the hexagonal cabin on a concrete slab Greyson and friends had lived in during their investigation of the Shrouded Fox.
One of the soldiers forced his way inside, and the rest followed with Twilight Crusade in tow. Immediately, a wave of warmth hit Greyson, the first he had known just over a week. He took it in. At times, he no longer knew if he would ever feel warmth again, or rest on a chair's cushions with a roof over his head. The building was a welcome change of pace.
Most were ushered to the living room on their right to be held for questioning about why they had come North, what they saw in the villages, and if they were the ones to commit the crimes of which they were accused. Throughout, Alexandra nervously glanced around the squadron in front of her, hoping for even the quickest glance at Kita, who had gone with Azure, the medic, and a lower-ranking soldier to the bedrooms, heavy cases of medical equipment in their arms.
"Azure," Kita called in a hushed whisper. "Does this mean we cannot visit the Shrouded Fox?"
"Yeah, I think that's what it means," Azure replied empathetically. She opened her mouth, about to suggest they come back. Yet, without an airship, coming back was near impossible.
"Shrouded Fox, huh?" the medic responded from across the room. She turned around, anaesthetic syringe in hand. "You're one of them?"
"...Yes," Kita admitted. "We had come up North, as I wished to visit my home and the celebration of me becoming an adult would be soon. We were accused of a crime we did not commit."
"That's why we know about this place," Azure explained, pointing to the ceiling. "We stayed here back when we went to Beacon, because we were assigned to a mission. We helped stop a grimm attack, and Kita joined us."
"You know, I really shouldn't believe any of what you're saying. You guys were ordered to be taken in dead or alive," the medic stated. "...But, I was the one that treated the bounty hunter, and the one to look at the bodies left in the villages. The arrow wound to White Death looked intentionally non-lethal. The bodies had no wounds consistent with any of your weapons. It looked to be mostly done by dust, a rapier, or a lance."
"The Garnetts," Azure concluded. She looked to the door, then back to the medic. "Don't believe a thing they say. They abducted me. I want to be with Greyson, I'm not a hostage! They sacrifice faunus!"
"Look, I'm just a medic," the green-haired woman began. "I'm not in charge, but if need be I'll put in a good word for you two." She focused in, eyes cold and honed in on the injection she administered into Kita's tongue. "Once we're done here -maybe in the morning, actually- I'll let you and whoever the other guys let free go on a little walk, alright?"
Kita tried to respond, but found her tongue unwilling to move. "To the Shrouded Fox?" Azure guessed.
"I'll let you out for, I don't know, a couple hours? You'll be supervised, but it's none of my business where you decide to go," the medic said casually.
The rest of the night was surprisingly uneventful. Alexandra joined Kita in the medical room, spending the night sleeping at her bedside. Twilight Crusade took turns in the building's shower, washing off layers of grime and letting the warm water return feeling to their fingertips. Later, they filled the bedrooms, each door guarded by a member of the military. For a bit, at least, Greyson could forget all that had happened. As he lay awake, eyes opened to the pale grey ceiling, he nearly fooled himself into believing everything since the Shrouded Fox investigation was a bad dream. Of course Alexandra was a welcome addition to the team, and his crew had saved a fair few lives, but Greyson reminisced of the times before the Fall of Beacon, before the Church of Awakening and before being framed as public enemy number one. Eventually, he drifted to sleep.
Just after dawn, the medic allowed Kita, Azure, and Alexandra on their supervised walk. Kita led the way, yet Alexandra noticed something. She carried herself with uncharacteristic unease, casting nervous glances to the woods every few steps, hands fidgeting. After roughly half an hour, they reached the crest of a hill, and Kita looked down on what had been her home.
"A village?" one of the soldiers questioned. He readied his weapon. "You brought us over here so you could let us watch your dirty work, did you?!"
"No, no!" Azure urgently cut in. "This is her home. My friends told you this is why we came, right?"
Kita removed her sheathe from her belt, and placed it at the feet of the nearest soldier. "My tribe does not take kindly to outsiders," she explained. "Please wait outside. To prove we have no ill intent, we will leave our weapons here."
"...Fine. Just be back in time," the highest-ranking soldier yielded, watching Azure set down Moonbow. He turned to Alexandra. "You too, young lady. I bet you can guess why I'm not keen on letting a dust wielder roam wherever she wants."
Alexandra sighed, then raised a head-shaped block of stone from the ground, and placed Crown Jewel on it. "Fine, I get it. But careful with this, okay?" she pleaded. "Don't touch it."
She followed behind Kita, with Azure taking up the rear.
"Three outsiders approach!" a man with the usual Shrouded Fox accent shouted from the guard tower. "State your tribe, wanderers!"
"I am Kita Kurayami, an exile with honor restored," Kita said. "I am returning home to visit, and I have brought friends."
"...Very well," the man replied. "You may enter."
Kita bowed, and continued forward. The village was just as she remembered, a spiderweb of stone and wood huts, and streets of packed dirt. Despite the overnight snowfall, the roads were already clear. It was custom for the eldest male of each Shrouded Fox dwelling to clean the roadway nearest their house during the mornings of the Season of Cold. Seldom did a section of roadway not get cleared.
Kita led Alexandra and Azure near the village center, where a dwelling sat in the across the road and in the shadow of the tallest, most regal hut. Though dwarfed by the building it sat next to, it was larger, and built of a sturdier wood than huts further to the edges of the camp. Its roof was made of dark wood planks, as opposed to the thatched-roof design covering most of the village.
Staring down the building she grew up in, Kita hesitated. Her heart pounded, and her breath escaped in uneven clouds of mist. "What's wrong? Don't you wanna see them again?" Alexandra inquired, gently putting her arm around Kita's shoulders.
Kita stepped forward from Alexandra's arm. The dust wielder pulled her head back, sad look of confusion flashing across her face. Finally, Kita knocked on the door.
A man opened the door, dressed in robes of red. He was middle-aged, yet despite his wrinkles and hair beginning to thin, one could tell he was handsome in his prime. His hair was pulled back, and wrapped at the crown of his head in several inches of red fabric, until popping out in a bushy ponytail. At a low table near a fireplace, a woman looked up from her painting, which Kita noticed was of a red and black-clad young woman wielding a sword. She was dressed in all black and looked exactly like Kita, plus a few decades.
"Kita! You are home!" the man exclaimed. He hugged his daughter, then backed up as his wife abandoned her painting to take her turn. "...And you are injured!"
"I fought a foe much stronger than any I have encountered," Kita explained. "But I will survive. Do not fear for me."
"Yes, yes. 'Be proud of your scars, for they are mementos of battles you have won,'" Kita's father proudly said.
"The Great Shrouded Fox told me of your coming in a dream," Kita's mother began. A smile came to her face. "And, She has told me much else. She told me you were involved in a grand battle, one which changed the course of history. Then, during the Season of Warmth, you helped save a great many lives twice, and once more during the Season of Harvest." Her countenance shifted, happiness fading. "...Yet, She had fallen silent recently. I feared for what had become of you, until She said you found someone you loved, and you were returning soon."
Kita's heart halted in her chest.
"You did not bring this man?" Mr. Kurayami inquired. "If you were coming to visit, I had hoped to meet him."
Kita took a deep breath. "I brought... her," she struggled.
Feeling the eyes of Kita's parents burning into her, and seeing a plethora of blades mounted to the hut's wall, Alexandra managed an awkward smile and a shaky wave.
"It is... another woman?" Kita's mother inquired.
Kita's heart continued to pound. "Yes. I... I am sorry. I do not know if the Great Shrouded Fox approves. I am worried She does not, and she no longer casts her grace upon me. But this woman has shown me the most genuine bond I have ever felt. I truly love her."
"The Great Shrouded Fox told me you found someone with the strength to move mountains, a warrior who survived a land of searing heat for a decade. She told me the warrior will treat you well, and make you happier than anyone," Kita's mother said. "Therefore, I approve. I feel She does too."
Kita's lower jaw hung open slightly, wide eyes beginning to form tears of joy. "I... I have been so scared!" she admitted. "I abandoned my tribe, I have loved a man who loved another, then loved a woman. I felt surely the Great Shrouded Fox no longer looked upon me. But I guess I was wrong."
"Kita, She has given you her blessing this entire time," Kita's father comforted. "Before Elder Aozora joined the stars, late in the Season of Warmth, he too thought of you."
"Elder Aozora has joined the stars?" Kita inquired sadly. "So... Aka now leads. With my absence, who did he take as his wife?"
"Midori, of the Shinri family," Kita's father stated.
"Ah, she was as a sister to me in my youth," Kita reminisced. "Is she here? May I see her?"
"Midori is on a hunt. She said she would return at noon," Kita's father replied.
Kita sighed wistfully. "Sadly, we cannot stay long. Do tell them I wish them happiness."
"Is that a flute?" Kita's mother cut in, appearing at Alexandra's side.
"Oh, yeah!" Alexandra nervously replied. "I made it from desert stone."
"Desert? What is desert?" Kita's mother asked in reply.
"It's where I grew up," Alexandra began to explain. "It's really hot, and there aren't any trees. Just a lot of light brown stone and sand. Oh! But sometimes the rocks stick up into the sky, kind of like trees. And they make... mountains, you could call them. With steep sides and flat tops."
"Sounds far different from the land we know," Kita's mother responded. She turned to her daughter with a slight bow. "I have a gift," she stated. She walked to the other side of the hut, where she found a flat wooden instrument, with strings held up across it by bits of stick that protruded from the base.
"Our koto?" Kita asked, taking the instrument in with two hands.
"Yes," Kita's mother confirmed with a bow. "Perhaps with this you two can play a duet, as those in love do."
Kita's eyes once again began to water as she hugged her mother in a thankful embrace. Kita's mother then welcomed Alexandra to join the hug.
Before long, Kita knew it was time to leave. She said her goodbyes, then met back up with the military men at the top of the hill. The walk back, Kita was far more at ease. Halfway through, her fingers interlocked with Alexandra's. Not long after they returned to base, they were loaded on board the airship.
Restrained to his chair, Greyson looked to the cloudy skies through the windows on the other end of the cabin. No matter how hard he tried to use his semblance, there was no telling what lie ahead for him. Of course, the Garnett family could afford better lawyers. That alone put him at a disadvantage. Whether this would lead to his imprisonment, he could not tell. All he knew was the era of being on the run was over. The slightest feeling arose in his head. Suddenly, he was sure of one thing.
His journey had nearly reached its end.
A/N: That's a wrap for TC Volume 3! This one was full of big fights, so the answer to this might have changed. What's your favorite fight in the series so far? And what are some other favorites that stick out to you?
