The Phoenix Cape Effect
Rainbow Dash slumped down in her chair. "Ugh. Paperwork. Twi, do you have to look so happy about this?"
Twilight couldn't quite keep the smile off my face. "You might groan, but this is something that I'm actually good at."
Rainbow blinked. "Twilight, are you okay?"
"Yeah," Twilight said quickly. Too quickly, in Rainbow's opinion. "I'm fine. Why would you even ask?"
"Because you don't sound fine," Rainbow said. "You sound nervous."
Twilight hesitated, looking down at the scroll in her hand. "I just..." she trailed off, and finally put the scroll down on her desk. "I understand why I'm here: I'm the tech support, and someone has to do it since Penny is still so untested. No offence, Penny."
Penny was watching videos on her scroll - they had given it to her to keep her distracted while they worked, kind of like a little kid - while sitting on her bed. She looked up. "What should I be offended about? Did you use a bad word?"
"No, I...never mind," Twilight said. "The point is that I'm not a real huntress and I don't belong here. What if...I guess the huntress in training stuff is freaking me out a little bit. Sparring lessons, grimm studies...what if I get called out? What if I have to fight someone? What if someone finds out that I don't know the difference between how to take out a beowolf or a boarbatusk? What if-"
"Calm down, from goodness' sake, and take a breath," Rainbow said sharply. She picked up her chair and moved it closer reversing it so that she was sitting on it spread-eagled, arms resting on the back. "Twilight, you're the smartest person I know hands down, no question. You're gonna ace every single class, I know it."
Twilight pursed her lips. "And sparring?"
Rainbow shrugged. "At the end of the day you can always forfeit. A few people might think you're a wuss but who gives a damn?"
"Team spars?" Twilight asked. "Missions? The Vytal festival?"
"Twilight," Rainbow said, as she reached out and took hold of Twi's hands. "What are the roles of this team? What do we say?"
Twilight took a deep breath. "We say...we say that you will take the bullet."
"That you will fix what's broken," Rainbow added.
"And Ciel will get us home," Twilight murmured.
"What do I do?" Penny asked.
"You kick all the ass Penny, and save the world," Rainbow said, without turning around. "Twi, it's going to be okay. I'll take care of you, I promise."
"I don't want you to get hurt because of me," Twilight whispered. She smiled, but only for a moment. "How would I explain that to Pinkie, that you got hurt saving someone like me?"
"Someone like the cutest genius in all of Atlas, you mean?" Rainbow asked. She grinned. "Pinkie knows, all our friends know, that I'm a soldier of Atlas. They all know what that means even if that isn't the life they chose."
"By our sacrifice shall the city prosper, and our enemies fail," Ciel said. She sat nearby, legs crossed primly, her scroll resting in her lap.
"Yeah, that," Rainbow said. "Now, we should probably get to work on these train heists.
Since Sunset wouldn't give up the name of her White Fang contact - yet - RSPT had decided to look at which trains had been hit compared to the ones that had made it through to Vale and see if they could work out what the difference was between the two of them. General Ironwood had supplied the manifests for all the trains running from Cold Harbour to Vale in the last few months, and they were going to see if there was a pattern to the dates, the cargo, anything.
It was the kind of thing that made Rainbow Dash's head hurt, but it was also the kind of stuff that Twi and Ciel excelled at, so they ought to make some progress even without Sunset's help.
"Okay," Twilight said. "As far as we can tell the first robbery was of a Schnee Dust Company train carrying processed dust from the Atlas refineries down to retailers in Vale," Twilight said. "Unusually it wasn't an automated train, although the crew was minimal; the engine was disconnected from the cars carrying the dust; said cars were later found stopped on the rail line, empty, all security droids destroyed. That happened three months ago and it doesn't really fit the pattern of later robberies."
"They must have evolved their methodology," Ciel said.
"What was different about it?" Rainbow asked.
"The severing of the engine from the cars, for one," Twilight said. "Most engines attacked have been destroyed by explosives."
"All subsequent engines have also been fully automated," Ciel said. "Maybe the White Fang wished to spare the crew?"
"Since when do the White Fang care about sparing innocent lives?" Rainbow replied. "Besides, aren't most of the engines that run on that route full automated?"
"The cargo trains, yes," Ciel said. "Due to concerns over crew nervousness travelling through grimm-infested areas, and of said nervousness attracting creatures of grimm, most trains on that line are fully computer guided. However, the Schnee Dust Company has not fully upgraded its rail fleet to excessive cost of upgrads and continues to run a constantly diminishing number of manned engines."
Rainbow nodded. "Okay, what next?"
"Next two more trains got through to Vale intact and unmolested," Twilight said. "They were both Atlesian military trains; the first one was carrying meals ready to eat-"
"Meals ready to gag, more like," Rainbow muttered.
Twilight glared mildly at her from over the top of her glasses. "Meals ready to eat, spare parts for skygraspers and APCs and letters addressed to the Atlesian Forces Post Office here in Vale."
Rainbow nodded. "And the train after that?"
"Empty," Ciel said. "It was a hospital train; it entered Vale, picked up sick and wounded men invalided home to Atlas plus an armed escort, and then returned to Cold Harbour likewise without incident."
"The train after that though, wasn't so lucky," Twilight said. "It was the next one to be hit. Cargo was weapons and small arms ammunition, plus spare parts for knights. The engine was destroyed, as were the spare parts, but the weapons and ammunition were taken."
"After that was a troop train," Ciel said. "It carried troops to replace Atlesian garrisons throughout Vale; the train arrived without molestation and disembarked our forces successfully. Another train, carrying units rotating back home, also reached Cold Harbour safely."
"Which cannot be said for the next three trains: another Schnee Dust Company train, a train carrying heavy ordnance and explosives and a third carrying prototype Atlesian paladins. In all cases the engines were destroyed along with any and all security droids and anything the thieves didn't want."
There was a moment of silence.
"I believe that the pattern is obvious," Ciel said. "The White Fang are attacking trains carrying weapons - of whatever kind - ammunition and dust. Anything else is of no interest."
"Guns, ammo, heavy ordnance, mechs, dust," Twilight murmured. "They're building an army."
"If General Ironwood believed so too that would explain the presence of our fleet," Ciel declared.
Rainbow frowned. "So...are we saying they know what's going to be on the train before they hit it?"
"That is what the evidence suggests," Ciel said. "The alternative is a staggering coincidence."
"I agree," Twilight said. "There's no way that they could be this lucky - or unlucky, I suppose; they have to have advanced knowledge that enables them to plan their robberies with impeccable precision. It's the only way to explain how they've managed to always hit the targets that interest them and ignore the ones that they don't."
"So somebody's talking to the White Fang," Rainbow said. "Tipping them off about the cargo."
Twilight winced. "It's starting to look that way."
"Damn it," Rainbow spat. It's bad enough we have to fight these guys but somebody on our own side is selling us out? It was nearly unthinkable for her to consider, so much so that she wouldn't have thought about it at all if it hadn't been staring her right in the face. How could anyone do that? How could anyone betray their comrades, people who called them friend, to a bunch of thugs and killers?
Rainbow Dash might be a faunus but she would never say that it was the most important thing about her; she wouldn't even say that it was one of the top five most important things about her, hell it might not even make the top ten. She'd never sell out Twi or Pinkie or Fluttershy to some random jackass just because they were faunus and her friends weren't, because she was their friend before she was a faunus. She wouldn't sell out Ciel, because she was a member of Team RSPT before she was a faunus. She wouldn't betray Atlas to the White Fang because she was a soldir of Atlas before she was a faunus. They were all soldiers of Atlas and all their blood ran white; how could anyone - faunus or not - betray that bond?
And more importantly, how did they find them and shut this down?
Blake put one foot upon the low wall surrounding the rooftop on which they stood and gestured out in the rough direction of the White Fang meeting, the same one outside of which they had caught their unwitting informant. "The meeting might not have broken up yet, we could still get in there and-"
"And explain our arriving late how?" Sunset asked. "It's too dangerous."
"We have to take risks if we want to get to the truth."
"We don't have to be stupid about it!" Sunset snapped. She clenched her fists to stop her hands from trembling. "You think that they're just going to spill all to the new recruits: here's Roman Torchwick and here's why we're working with him? Newbies won't get told anything vital, and besides if we go in there we'll get made by somebody for sure."
"You don't know that."
"Maybe I don't know that, but you don't know that we won't and you don't have a plan to get us out if we do."
"Why are you acting this way?" Blake demanded. "You didn't have to come along at all but you did, so why are you suddenly so afraid to do what has to be done?"
"Because I'm scared, okay?" Sunset yelled, the words flying out of her mouth before she could stop them. She gasped as she realised what she'd just said, waiting for the look of derision in Blake's golden eyes, waiting for her to turn away in disgust, waiting for her to spit on Sunset for a coward.
Waiting for something that didn't come. There was no hint of scorn in those eyes, only pity and no small amount of understanding.
"Scared," she repeated. "Of Adam?"
Sunset scowled. "He had me. Twice. He had me dead-" she stopped, and laughed bitterly at that choice of words. "Dead to rights in that warehouse. He was coming right at me and there was nothing I could nothing I could do about it. If Ruby hadn't taken the hit for me then I wouldn't be here."
"I've...never been on the receiving end of Adam's semblance," Blake said softly, so softly like a woollen blanket on a cold night. "But I've seen it...more times than I'd like to remember. When the world turns red and so does he...it's terrifying even if you're not the one he wants to kill at that precise moment. Having him come for you...I can't imagine what that was like."
"I wish I could only imagine what that was like," Sunset said hoarsely. "And then, later, in the dark...if it hadn't been for Pyrrha, I..." she trailed off, and shook her head. "I can't...if he was there then I don't know what I...when I see him again I want it to be on my terms: ground of my choosing, situation of my choosing; somewhere I know what I'm doing, where I'm in control and I can pay him back for what he did to me and my team." She shook her head. "I know that you want answers Blake and you want them now but please, please, can we be smart about this."
Blake looked away from her for a moment. A slight breeze, disturbing the night air, ruffled the dark tangle of her hair. "I have to stop this. The bloodshed, the madness, the cruelty, the...the pointless waste of it all; I have to stop it. I have to stop him. I have to stop him because every day I don't...is another day when his victims are on me."
"You aren't responsible for his evil."
"I helped make his evil what it is," Blake replied. "There were times...there were times when he came to me for reassurance, times when he doubted himself and the righteousness of his path...and I could have told him no, you're wrong, turn away before it's too late. But I didn't. I told him that we had to keep going, to bear what we were doing because it would all be worth it in the end. And that's what he did, even when I couldn't bear it any longer."
Sunset's brow furrowed. "You were that close?"
"I loved him, once," Blake said. "I...I suppose you could say that I adored him. He…he was everything that I admired in the world; until one day I opened my eyes and realised that it was the ideal that I loved, not the man."
Sunset scuffed her foot back and forth. "We need to be smart about this, Blake. I hope, I really hope, that that isn't just my fear talking. We need to be smart about this."
Blake frowned. "Do you have a plan?"
Sunset thought about it for a second, running through scenarios that didn't involve walking into the ursa's den. And then, like a bolt from the heavens, inspiration struck her. "Torchwick doesn't know you. Some in the White Fang do but he doesn't. He never saw you in the fight at the warehouse."
"So?" Blake asked.
"We don't have to go inside the faction meeting," Sunset said. "We just have to get there before it breaks up and then when it does we follow Torchwick, get him alone, and grab him. He doesn't know you, so if you approach him with your mask on he won't suspect a thing until it's too late."
Blake was silent for a moment, before a slow smile spread across her face. "I like it. Let's go, we haven't much time."
They moved, leaping from rooftop to rooftop until they were perched on top of a warehouse, looking down from above upon the next warehouse over where the White Fang were having their meeting.
Judging by the faunus filing out, taking off their masks and stashing them away, they'd arrived just in time.
"They look so normal," Sunset murmured, as she watched the White Fang recruits depart from the warehouse. Dressed in shorts and T-shirts, trainers, jeans, she could have passed any one of them on the street and never realised that they had just joined a terrorist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of the system of the world.
"They are normal," Blake replied softly. "Normal people who've been pushed too far."
"Careful," Sunset said. "Or I might think you still have sympathy for them."
"I don't agree with the White Fang's methods anymore," Blake said. "But I'll always have sympathy for faunus who are pushed down and trodden on until they just can't take it anymore. If I didn't...I wouldn't be here."
"I guess," Sunset muttered, watching the White Fang leave the building. No sign of Torchwick yet, where was he?
Ah! There he was, she could see him now coming out; unfortunately he was accompanied by his young bodyguard, the one with the hair dyed on one side.
"You've never fought the girl, have you?" Sunset asked.
"No," Blake whispered. "Is she tough?"
"Very," Sunset said. "But you can't defend against an attack you know is coming, so when you distract them both I'll take her out; then we'll grab Torchwick."
"She's smaller than Ruby," Blake said. "How old do you think she is?"
"No idea."
Blake was silent for a moment. "You're not going to kill her, are you?"
"No, just knock her out so we'll be away with her boss by time she comes too," Sunset said. "Come on, we should follow them."
Blake nodded, and wordlessly brought out her mask.
They followed Roman and the girl from above, as the two of them sauntered casually down the street. They followed as the White Fang dispersed in a hundred different directions, waiting for whatever call to action had been agreed upon for whatever course of action had been announced at the meeting, and all the while Roman Torchwick and his diminutive, youthful looking bodyguard continued on, blithely unaware of Sunset and Blake following them from above.
"Are you hungry? Cause I'm kinda hungry," Roman said, his voice rising up out of the street to reach the ears of Sunset up above. "Herding cats has given me an appetite."
The girl replied in sign language, which Sunset couldn't read.
"Pizza? Sure, why not? You deserve a treat after spending all night with those animals. You know, I'm sure there's a new place opened up around here somewhere."
Blake dropped off the roof into a nearby alley, and alley from which she emerged in front of Roman and his mute bodyguard, wearing her White Fang mask over her face.
"Torchwick," she said. "You need to come with me."
Torchwick groaned. "Really? Come on, kitty, we just got down with the meeting. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm done for the night."
Blake advanced upon him. "Adam needs to talk to you. He sent me to bring you to him."
"Why, is he too much of a bigshot to come and see me himself?" Torchwick asked. From her perch up above, Sunset saw his stance alter noticeably. "And when he did get back to Vale, anyway?"
He's onto us. Sunset decided to act, even if Blake was able to lie her way out of this it would only take them activating their auras to make things that much harder.
She stood up, pointed her finger at the girl like a gun, and fired a beam of bright green energy from her fingertip.
Whoever this girl was, whatever her specific deal was, she was good. Good enough to fight Pyrrha to a stand still (Pyrrha didn't have her weapons, admittedly), good enough that she seemed able to waltz through the battlefield without a scratch.
But you could only defend against an attack you knew might be coming. And she had no idea that Sunset had her in sights.
The green burst from Sunset's fingertips struck her in the small of the back and sent her careening forward with a gasp of pain. She didn't dodge, she didn't block it with her parasol, she didn't even have her aura activated. She took the hit and the hit pitched her forwards onto the ground where she lay in a crumpled, unconscious heap.
"Neo!" the cry of alarm that tore from Roman Torchwick's mouth took Sunset by surprise for how sincere it sounded, as though he was really worried about her or something. "What the hell is this?"
Does the criminal have a heart after all? Sunset didn't ponder the question for long. As Roman Torchwick began to raise his cane towards Blake Sunset grabbed her rifle and aimed it at the back of his head. "Drop it, Torchwick!"
Blake drew her own weapon, in its pistol configuration, and stood with it gripped tightly in both hands and aimed at Torchwick.
Torchwick looked at the unconscious girl – Neo – on the ground, and seemed to hesitate. He chuckled. "You know, it would be absolutely terrible for my reputation if anyone found out I let myself get held up by a couple of punks without a fight. Death on the street, metaphorically speaking. But if we fought it out…she might get caught in the crossfire." His cane hit the tarmac of the alleyway with a clatter. "Let me guess. You're not really White Fang."
"Good guess," Sunset said as she dropped down from the roof, still keeping her gun trained on Torchwick.
Torchwick glanced over his shoulder. "You?" he laughed bitterly. "Attacking a girl from behind doesn't seem very noble. Aren't you huntsmen supposed to righteous champions of justice or some crap like that?"
Sunset snorted. "Do we look like a couple of storybook heroes to you?"
"I just wonder what Little Red would say about your despicable choice in tactics."
"Don't talk about her," Sunset snapped. "Not now, not ever, understand?"
That was a mistake, she could see at once. She'd let him know that he'd struck a nerve, and he'd remember it. Still, for now he only grinned and said, "Well, if you don't want me to talk then what did you come and find me for?"
"We want answers," Blake said, as she circled around Torchwick so that she was standing not far from Sunset, both the young huntresses facing the criminal from the same direction.
"But first, kick that cane over here," Sunset said. "And the parasol."
Torchwick chuckled. "I'm impressed. Most people think it's an umbrella."
"Most people have no class, kick them over."
Torchwick kicked first his cane, and then the parasol, so that they skidded down the road towards Sunset.
"I guess I should thank you for not killing her when you had the chance," Torchwick said softly. "It was a cheap shot but…thanks for making it non-lethal."
"We're not like you," Blake growled.
"Hey," Torchwick snapped. "I've never hurt a kid in my life."
"Not for lack of trying," Sunset muttered.
"Your teachers may call you a child, fireball, but where I come from carrying a gun makes you an adult," Torchwick said. "I've never hurt a real kid."
"No, you just send one into battle for you."
"You don't know the first thing about Neo or me."
"I know that she's a real kid, look at her!"
"You don't want me to talk about your little friend in the red hood?" Torchwick demanded. "Don't talk about Neo!"
"Enough!" Blake shouted. "Why are you working with the White Fang? Why is the White Fang working with you? Who are you working for and what are you planning with all the dust and the weapons and everything else you've been stealing?" She took a deep breath. "And who killed Tukson?"
Torchwick took a deep breath, before he let out an equally deep sigh. "You want me to answer those questions in the same order you asked them or can I mix 'em up a little bit?"
"Just talk, smart-ass," Sunset growled.
"Or what?" Torchwick asked. "You'll kill me? Like you killed Neo? Like you said, pretty-bow, you're not like me. I don't have to see into both your eyes to know that you're not killers. You don't have the guts to kill an unarmed man in cold blood."
Blake's pistol transformed into a black sword as she stalked towards him. "You have no idea what I am," she snarled. "Or what I'm capable of."
Torchwick stared at her, staring in the eyes of her White Fang mask, while a smile played across his features. "I think I can guess," he said mockingly. "You used to be White Fang, just like that guy who got capped you wanna know about. Yeah, you used to be one of those mangy animals running around with a sword and a cause. Maybe you even killed a few people, until you grew a conscience or found religion or something else happened to make you change your mind about the whole thing. And now you think that you can make it all better by fighting the good fight and stopping bad people like me and your old buddies in the White Fang." He laughed bitterly. "I got bad news for you, pretty-bow: there ain't no such thing as redemption."
"Like someone like you has even looked," Sunset said derisively. "Quit stalling and start talking: we know that you're not the mastermind behind all of this so tell us who is?"
Torchwick's eyes narrowed briefly, possibly surprised that they already knew about his mysterious puppet-master. "No offence, but you don't scare me half as much as she does."
"She?" Sunset said. "Thanks for narrowing our suspect pool by fifty-percent. Care to be a little more specific?"
"I'd rather stay alive," Torchwick muttered. "You're too short for this ride; you, little Red, the Mistral Princess, blondie boy, all of you. You can't stop what's coming, the White Fang couldn't stop what's coming, all those ships up there sure as hell can't stop it. The world is going to change, girls, and whether you get on the train while there's still time or stand in front of it yelling stop ain't going make one bit of difference…except I'll still be alive when all of this is over and you'll be roadkill."
Blake grabbed him by the collar and dragged him forward as she put her blade to his throat. "Tell us who you're working for and what you're planning, right now!"
Torchwick smirked.
"What?" Blake demanded. "What are you smiling about?"
"I think Neo's woken up now," he said
Sunset looked at the unconscious form on the ground. "Wh-" she managed to get out before the illusion shattered and the real Neo appeared into view and kicked Blake in the face.
It was a high kick, straight up to the jaw. Blake groaned in pain and staggered backwards. Neo followed up with a high kick that knocked off Blake's mask and set it flying into the nearby wall.
Sunset fired, she was using fire-dust rounds tonight and the bullet streaked like a fiery comet across the dark street to explode when it struck the girl, whose illusion shattered into a million glassy shards on contact.
The real Neo appeared right in front of Sunset and delivered a round-house kick to the gut. The metal of her breast-plate rang like a gong where the girl's foot impacted with it, but Sunset didn't feel it the way she would have done even through her aura. Though she was forced backwards by the sheer pressure – and she retreated even further, scuttling backwards out of range of further immediate attacks – she didn't feel the pain through her aura the way she would have done otherwise.
Thank you, Lady Nikos.
Unfortunately it still meant that Neo had gotten her parasol back, and she threw Torchwick his cane.
"Thank you, Neo; perfect timing as always."
Neo curtsied, or performed a rough approximation of the same.
Something about you can get very annoying, Sunset thought.
But I've got some new tricks since we last met.
Sunset kept her rifle raised with her right hand - it was a bit of a struggle, and it trembled a bit, but she was just about able to keep it supported - while with her left hand she touched the right sleeve of her jacket.
Her newly dust infused jacket.
Aura into my left hand. Sunset still wasn't able to project her aura out of her massively far the way she would have liked for her still-developing finishing move, but she'd put the work in and she was able to do what she needed to do here: she touched her sleeve, and her aura sparked the dust - some of it, at least; most of it - infused into the leather. The spark spread across the jacket, igniting the fire dust infused into the material as fire rippled up Sunset's arm and across her back until half her body seemed to be burning with flames of crimson and gold. And yes, she had chosen the colours to match her hair because if you were going to do this then you might as well make it look cool.
Neo stared at her, cocking her head to one side as if she wasn't sure what Sunset's display was supposed to accomplish.
You don't know the half of it.
For a moment the four stared at one another; none of them speaking, none of them moving.
Then Blake attacked with a soft growl through her gritted teeth as she charged towards Torchwick.
Neo looked her, and by the movement of her feet Sunset knew that she was preparing to intercept.
Sunset wasn't going to let that happen.
She attracted the girl's attention with two shots from her rifle. Neo caught them on her parasol, but the explosions from the fire dust rounds must have damaged her aura, if only a little. Sunset charged, shouting as the flames on her jacket streamed behind her; even if she couldn't beat Neo then so long as she could keep her busy then Blake ought to be able to deal with a thug like Torchwick.
Not that Sunset had any intention of not winning. She had the gear, she had the dust, and she had a plan.
And she had to show Lady Nikos that that money wasn't being thrown away.
Sunset thrust her bayonet forward. Neo dodged gracefully, bending out of the path of the weapon and letting Sunset's momentum carry her forward. Her foot lashed out for a sweeping kick into the small of Sunset's back. Sunset couldn't quite keep the grin off her face.
There was the bang of an explosion as the flames of Sunset's back leapt momentarily higher in the instant before Neo's kick struck home, engulfing her foot in its old-fashioned boot within the crimson and gold of the inferno. Neo leapt back, letting out a kind of gasp that might have been surprise or pain or hopefully both.
Sunset spared half a glance for Blake, who was fighting Torchwick hand to hand, her sword and scabbard alike slicing through the air as she battered against his cane over and over again, before she returned her attention to Neo. The younger girl was looking just a little less cocky now.
It worked! It actually worked! Truth to tell Sunset hadn't been entirely certain that it would, or that she had the necessary control over her aura to pull it off, but she had believed that the theory was sound and decided there was nothing to be lost in giving it a try: saving some of the dust infused into her jacket for when she was about to take a hit, then activating it then to achieve a blooming of her phoenix cape - that was what she was calling it, because she couldn't exactly call it 'I ripped off Yang Xiao-Long's aesthetic' could she? - to hit any enemy before they could hit her. It was more active than armour, and unlike a magical shield it didn't immobilise her in the process.
And judging by the way the cocky smirk slid off Neo's face, replaced by a look of grim determination, she didn't think it was too shabby either.
A spike emerged from the tip of Neo's parasol, and she came for Sunset once again.
Sunset's training with Pyrrha had focussed - and continued to focus - a great deal on evasion. Sunset didn't have the muscle that Pyrrha did, that would let her take punches and then dish it back out again. Instead Pyrrha was teaching her how to dodge, to weave, to be as sinuous and slipper as any snake or eel; to fight almost exactly as this girl Neo fought. It was a battle of two weavers, each trying to wind their way around the attacks of the other, to poke a way through the guard of their opponents, to prick them without being pricked.
Neo was better at it. Of course she was, she'd been doing it longer and she was doing it like a pro however young she was. But Sunset had dust now, she was ablaze with the fruits of Lady Nikos' generous patronage, and every time Neo managed to slip her feet or fist or parasol through Sunset's guard, every time Sunset's efforts to parry with Sol Invictus came to nothing, then the flames that burned on Sunset's jacket would leap high enough to burn her.
And a good thing too because Sunset wasn't scoring any hits the conventional way. Every time she shot, every time she swung, every time she thrust Neo did something about it. Either she turned the blow aside with her parasol or more likely she just wasn't there at all and not in the sense of illusions either; more like she could sense what Sunset was going to do before she did it and could pull away in time. Too bad - not! - that she couldn't pull away from the results of her own attacks.
Of course she was still hitting Sunset in the process; it was turning into a battle of who's aura would run out first. Neo must have realised that too, because she started avoiding Sunset's arms and back where she was ablaze, while Sunset tried to make sure that was where her blows landed.
Sunset winced as she was kicked in the side, but she heard Neo exhale too. So which of us has the more aura, huh?
If you've got as much as Jaune I'm screwed.
But judging by the look on Neo's face, which had gone past determined and into what Sunset could only describe as a nervous rage, she didn't have that much aura and she knew it.
Sunset smirked provocatively. Now who's feeling smug about themselves?
The smirk on her face died as she heard Blake gasp in pain. She turned to see Torchwick catch Blake with a blow to the side, and then to the face that knocked her flying backwards, hair askew.
"Blake!"
Torchwick laughed as he aimed his cane at her while she was down.
Neo charged again, her parasol held before her like a lance.
And Sunset made her decision.
Her first teleport carried her to Blake's side, where she grabbed the other girl by the shoulders.
Her second teleport carried them up to the roof from which they had stalked Torchwick down this alley. She heard the explosion of Torchwick's rocket going off where they would have been just moments earlier.
Her third teleport carried them to the edge of the furthest rooftop she could see from where they were before Torchwick and Neo could decide to follow them.
Her fourth teleport repeated the trick, as did her fifth, carrying them a little closer back to Beacon each time.
And after her sixth teleport she let go of Blake and collapsed onto her hands and knees on the flat roof, gasping for breath while her heart pounded in her chest.
Six. Six teleports. At least I'm finding my limits, I guess. Not that that was much consolation as Sunset gasped and wheezed and waited for her heartbeat to slow down just a fricking bit so that she didn't feel as though she was going to drop dead right there and then.
"What do you think you're doing?" Blake demanded as she got to her feet. "Now he's going to get away!"
Sunset glared up at her, and if she'd been feeling a little less exhausted then she would have had some very tart things to say in response to that, but as she could barely muster the breath to get a few words out she made do with saying, "You're welcome."
Blake scowled. "I didn't need to be rescued."
Sunset took a deep breath. And then another. The flames on her jacket slowly died away. "That's not what it looked like to me."
"I had enough aura to take that hit."
"What about the next one? Or the one after that?"
"He got lucky," Blake said. "I could have taken him."
Sunset climbed slowly and somewhat ponderously to her feet. "Are you sure about that?"
Blake's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I agreed to help you find the truth and stop the bad guys, not help you die."
Blake took a step back, and stared at Sunset without replying for a moment. "Is that what you think this is?"
"Am I wrong?"
Blake turned away, sheathing Gambol Shroud and slinging it across her back. She began to walk away, but stopped after only a few paces. "Do you think he's right? Do you think that redemption is impossible?"
"I think he's a scumbag who's full of crap," Sunset said. "I hope so, anyway."
"No matter the things that we've done?"
"If that's the road you're on then I'm done," Sunset said sharply. "I'll have no part in that."
Blake bowed her head. "It's not what I want," she said. "But…I sometimes wonder…if that's what I deserve."
"I can think of others who deserve it more," Sunset muttered. "What do you want, Blake?"
Blake was silent, for moments that dragged on and on under the light of the moon. "I want…I want justice."
"At what cost?"
"At any cost! I'm tired of compromising, of doing bad things for the sake of some greater good that never seems to come, of watching while bad things happen and doing nothing because it's easier or because someone promises that things will get better eventually!" Blake cried, looking back at Sunset. "I want justice, for all of us."
"Though the heavens fall," Sunset whispered. "I…I'm sorry if I over-reacted."
"It's better than you being okay with letting me die, I guess," Blake said. She sighed. Tonight was a bust."
"Not completely, we learned some things," Sunset said. "We learnt that Torchwick has a boss pulling the strings, and that she's a scary lady."
Blake snorted. "Okay, but I was hoping for something a little more concrete."
"It's night one, there'll be other times," Sunset said. "We should head back to Beacon. With luck we might get some sleep before morning."
"What about your bike?"
"I'll come back and get it in the daylight," Sunset said. Assuming nobody finds it and steals it before then. It was a risk, but she didn't want to go back for it now. "Listen…I think we might have been a little ambitious trying to do this by ourselves. Maybe we should bring our teams in on this."
"My team doesn't know."
"Did you think about telling them?"
Blake gave her a look that spoke volumes.
"Okay, my team then," Sunset said. "They already know."
"Are you alright with putting them in danger?"
"We'll be in a lot less danger with Pyrrha backing us up," Sunset replied. "Just…think about it, okay?"
Blake hesitated a moment before she gave the briefest, most minute nod of her head. "Okay. I'll consider it."
Together the two of them dropped down off the roof and started on the long walk back to Beacon.
