It's a Job Chapter 17: All Aboard
A dull boom somewhere in the distance let Blake know that Ruby and her crew were still burning out remnants of the horde. She dearly wished that she was with them, but Ruby had left her in charge of evacuating the wounded, and as she was ordered, she obeyed. Dawn was breaking, and Blake's recovery team had nearly finished sweeping the cathedral and what was left of the houses around it. The damage was extreme. This "Nora", whoever she was, had struck like an asteroid. Her initial assault had hurled grimm and debris alike for a hundred yards in all directions. Blake was certain she had killed both Ruby and Yang, but when the dust settled, all the huntresses were still standing.
And then, they had gone to work. Ruby, as always, had been a blur of precision and lethality. Yang's battle fury was terrifying to behold, even from a safe distance. But it was Nora who stole the show. Screaming with berserk laughter, she charged into the melee, knocking grimm around with contemptuous ease and firing grenades with reckless abandon. The resulting property damage was extreme, but the results were undeniable. The White Fang had broke and fled. Most of the grimm retreated with them, except for a few that hurled themselves at the defenders in a suicidal rearguard action. Rallying what was left of her forces, Ruby had given chase, determined to wipe out as much of Watts' army as she could.
"Sergeant Belladonna!" A SDC merc jogged up and saluted. Blake returned the salute. "At ease. Report."
"All houses cleared. We're ready to move the last truck of wounded back to the clinic."
"Well done. I'll accompany the truck. Put the squads on roaming patrol. I wouldn't expect a renewed assault, but vigilance can't hurt."
"Yes ma'am!"
Blake found her way over to the evac truck, and swung herself into the bed. Five men lay on stretchers in the back. They were the least seriously hurt, saved for the last run because they were in no danger of bleeding out. Still, Blake couldn't help but wince the sorry assortment of bandages and crude splints.
"Hey," Blake greeted the men, trying to sound cheerful. "It's almost over, guys. We'll get you some help."
One of the men sat part way up as the truck started rolling. "Sergeant. Good to see you made it. It was an honor to fight with you."
Blake nodded. "You fought well. You saved your people here tonight."
"Don't sell yourself short," another man spoke up. "You made the difference when the line was going to crumble. Without your leadership, it would have been a bloodbath. Thank you, sergeant."
Blake laughed humorlessly. "I'm no sergeant. I'm a faunus slave." She tapped her collar for emphasis. "I've got next to nothing to lose. You men, you have houses, families, futures. And you risked it all. That's heroism. I didn't save you, you saved yourselves."
They rode in silence then, and as the sun began to come up the truck reached its destination. Mallet Island was equipped with a small but highly modern medical facility. The island was remote enough that it was necessary to have the ability to treat almost any condition, and for once the extravagant wealth of the SDC played to the advantage of the general populace. Armed personnel and first aid workers swarmed around the clinic, and the five injured men in the truck were rushed inside to be attended to.
Blake watched until the last of the injured had been carried inside, then realized she wasn't sure what to do next. Ruby had given her no orders beyond assisting with the evacuation at the cathedral, and that task was complete. Maybe she should find some food. It had been almost a day since she had had a proper meal, and she was starting to feel it.
"Belladonna! Wait! I need to speak with you." Blake turned, and suppressed a hiss of annoyance as she saw Weiss Schnee hurrying towards her. She couldn't think of anyone she wanted to see right now less than the prickly heiress. On the other hand, this was the first time that Weiss had addressed her by name, and not as 'faunus' or 'slave' or some similar put down. So she put on a carefully neutral face, and waited as Weiss hurried over.
"Miss Schnee. Good morning."
"Walk with me." Wiess ignored the greeting and turned down the street toward the waterfront. Blake fell in beside her.
"I heard you did some good work last night at the cathedral," Weiss began.
Blake shrugged. "It was fight or die. We all did what we had to."
"Uhuh." Weiss sounded sceptical, and Blake went on full alert. This conversation could go awkward places in a hurry. "I'm not stupid, Belladonna. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm an honors graduate of Atlas Academy. I have trained with the Atlas Long Range Reconnaissance Brigade. I am in charge of security for the entire SDC. I know a lie when I hear one, and I've been thinking about you. You obviously know your way around weapons. You fought on the airship. You helped Xiao-Long and I take down the headquarters. You led an organized defense, and don't sell yourself short on that. I heard all about it. There's only one place a faunus could get that kind of training and experience. So tell me, Belladonna, does your master know you were White Fang?"
Blake felt the wind sucked out of her lungs. She was caught, and they both knew it. With what this girl had gone through in the last week, Blake could expect nothing but grief-fueled vengeance. Visions of prison, torture, and firing squads danced in her head.
"Well? Does she?" Weiss asked again.
"Yes." Blake admitted, resigning herself to her fate. "She found out soon after she acquired me. Yang knows too."
"I see. And why, may I ask, did she choose to bring you on a high-stakes rescue mission knowing your history with the very organisation we would be fighting?"
"Because I earned her trust, I guess. Ruby and I have some history. The White Fang left me to die, and Ruby saved me. Believe me when I say I owe them no loyalty, and I would die before I betrayed her."
Weiss seemed to mull this over in her mind. Finally, she spoke. "Rose and I may have radically different professional styles, but on this point I am in agreement with her decision. Over the past 24 hours you've had literally dozens of opportunities to stab us in the back, and in many cases it would have bettered your situation to betray us, but you haven't. I'm not going to pretend that I have any great love for the faunus, because I don't. On the whole, they are criminal, lazy, dishonest, and dishonorable. That said, you appear to be the exception to the rule. Maybe your time with Rose has made you a better person."
"Thank you," Blake replied, uncertain whether to feel grateful or insulted.
"Anyway," Weiss continued briskly, as though she suddenly realized she had complemented a faunus, "We have a great deal of dangerous work ahead of us. I expect you to continue to do your job with clear-headed decisiveness. We've set up a food line out the back of the headquarters building. Get some breakfast, and be ready for new orders when the sweeper teams return. Dismissed."
Weiss stepped aside to converse with three militiamen that were passing, obviously done talking. Blake kept walking, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts. That could have gone so much worse than it did. She had apparently been elevated to the position of "useful tool" in Weiss's eyes, and that was probably the best she could ever hope for. The next step was almost certainly an assault on Watts in his stronghold at the dust mine, and if Watts was there, Hazel Reinhardt was there too. And if Reinhardt was there, her son couldn't be far away. Nothing was going to stop her this time, Blake swore. She'd come too far, and was too close. She'd die before she left this island without her son.
"Vaporized." Nora Valkeryie stated matter-of-factly as she swallowed another pancake.
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and blinked once, trying to stave off a headache. If there was a god, she was convinced he had placed Nora on Remnant as some kind of practical joke. Useful as she was for plowing through grimm, or practically anything else for that matter, Nora was a constant thorn in the side of Weiss's sense of professionalism. Looking up from the map that she was studying with Jaune and Ren, she fixed the boisterous huntress with an icy stare.
"And why, may I ask, are you so certain that Tyrian Callows was vaporized?"
"Simple. He was right in the middle of where I smashed." Nora drained a glass of milk with an atrocious slurping noise. "He'd be squashed like a bug. We found no trace of him when the shooting was over, so he must have vaporized."
"Assume Callows escaped and is still active in some capacity," Ren announced without looking up.
"What-ever. I'm going to find breakfast. This smasher don't run on blue sky and inspiration!" With that announcement, Nora scooped up her hammer and skipped out of Weiss's conference room.
"Breakfast?" Weiss repeated in a brittle whisper. "Breakfast?"
"Nora eats enough for any five men," Ren explained. "Those pancakes and milk were probably just her first appetizer course."
"Here!" Jaune exclaimed. "What's this? He stabbed his finger at something on the map.
"Rail line from the mountain to a dust refinery a mile outside of town," Weiss replied.
"Rail line, eh? How fast does the train go?"
"Maybe thirty miles an hour, if it's empty. It's not built for speed. It's a heavy freight trolley built for moving cars of raw dust ore."
"Perfect. That's our way through Watt's grimm and remaining guards without risking our one Bullhead."
"There will be a significant amount of raw dust at both ends of the line," Ren mused. "There could be real risk of blowing ourselves up if we get into a shootout."
Weiss leaned back from the table and smiled deviously. "I think we might be able to use that fact in our favor. Come on, let's find the others. The sooner we get our strike underway, the less time Watt's has to think about it."
"Blake Belladonna? Hey! Blake? Wake up. I brought you coffee."
"Huh?" Blake's head snapped up in confusion. Last thing she remembered, she was sitting against the wall of the SDC HQ, eating a plate of pancakes. Her exhaustion must have finally caught up with her. The sun was higher in the sky now, and she knew she must have been asleep for at least an hour. She scrambled to her feet. "My apologies. I didn't mean to fall asleep. Please forgive me."
The tall, red-haired woman standing in front of her smiled, and held out a large paper cup. "Nobody is blaming you. Here. I brought you coffee. I'm Pyrrha Nikos. I'm with Jaune, Ren, and Nora."
"Thank you." Blake accepted the coffee. "In my line of work, it's not often people wake me up to give me food."
Pyrrha's faced darkened. "Slavery is an abomination. It's my honor to help out my comrades in arms."
Blake took a swallow from the cup. "Ahh. Thank you. That's more like it. It's not been the easiest couple of days, but we've made it this far, I guess. What's the next step?"
"Ruby, Yang, and Weiss are going to try a lightning raid on Watts's stronghold. Eventually, Atlas is going to get their act together and descend on this island with overwhelming force, and Weiss wants to snatch her brother before he can be used as a hostage, and also to have him out of the way in case the mine explodes and vaporizes the mountain. It's going to be a quick hit, in and out."
"Good plan," Blake nodded. "When do we leave?"
"We're not going anywhere. You're supposed to stay here and guard the town with me and the rest of JNPR."
"What? Did Ruby say that? She knows I have to go with them." Blake was perplexed and angry.
"Yes, Blake, Ruby said that. She said it would be a suicide mission for you to go without aura. She told me to tell you, and I quote, "I'll come back, and I promise we'll solve the custody dispute." She said you would understand."
"Understand? Understand!" Blake's temper exploded. "She's going to leave me here and say I'll understand? Where is she? I want to talk to her!" Blake started forward, but Pyrrha laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Blake, but that's impossible. Ruby and the others have already left for the dust tram station. Don't worry, Ruby is a caring and capable person, and I'm certain-"
Pyrrha's attempt to reason with Blake was abruptly cut short by remaining contents of the coffee cup exploding in her face. "Wha- Oof!" A ringing blow caught the unprepared huntress on her collarbone, and sat her down with a thud. Now it was Pyrrha's turn to be perplexed and angry. Swiping hot coffee out of her eyes, she scrambled to her feet.
"Blake! Blake, get back here immediately!" Her shout was ignored, and Blake sprinted around the corner of the building. Gritting her teeth in anger, Pyrrha gave chase.
Blake burst into the street, unsure what to do next, running on pure adrenaline and thoughtless instinct. She saw a mercenary standing beside a motorcycle. Perfect. He never saw her coming. Blake leveled him with a two-footed jump kick, and sprang onto the motorcycle. She cranked the ignition and gunned the throttle. The motor roared, and the tires spun, but she did not move. Blake looked down in confusion, and realized to her horror she was hoovering about an inch off the ground, and a strange black halo danced around the motorcycle.
Pyrrha strode into view, her jaw set sternly and one hand extended. "Stop!" She commanded.
"No! Put me down!" Blake slapped the handlebars in frustration.
"I will not. You forget your place, Belladonna. Slave or free, this is a military operation and you will follow orders."
"Please, Miss Nikos, you don't understand! You have to let me go! I have to go with them! It's a matter of life and death!" A desperate edge crept into her voice.
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. Ignoring the gathering crowd and the coffee dripping from her hair, she advanced on Blake. "You seemed awfully eager to charge into a fight that will almost certainly kill you. So tell me, Blake, whose life and whose death are you referring to?"
Blake swallowed hard, looked Pyrrha straight in the eye, and rolled the dice. "My son's."
"I think I'm starting to get the picture. A custody dispute, huh? And who is the defendant in this custody battle?"
Blake lowered her voice. "Hazel Reinhart. He runs slaves and guns for Watts. He's at the mountain now."
"You're saying you had a child with Hazel Reinhart?" Pyrrha repeated, as though trying to decide what to do with this information.
"Not... by choice." Blake said softly, and laid a finger on her collar.
Pyrrha studied her for a long minute before speaking. "Will you give me your word of honor that if you don't catch up to Ruby at the rail station you will turn around, come back, and leave her to handle it?"
Blake's heart skipped a beat. "Yes. I'll promise you that much."
Pyrrha relaxed her resemblance, and the motorcycle settled onto the concrete. "Good luck, Blake."
"This is going to be awesome," Yang announced as she walked over to Ruby. "I don't know about you, but I am having a great time."
"Stay focused, Yang," Ruby retorted. "There's a devastated town behind us and a fortress full of bad guys ahead of us. This is not my kind a good time."
"Suit yourself." Yang clapped her sister on the shoulder. "Let's go see if Conductor Schnee has the train ready."
They found Weiss inspecting the contents of a dust trolley that a team of workers had just coupled to front of a chain of cars. "We're all set," Weiss announced crisply. "Four dust cars in front and two in the rear, all loaded with raw ore. Should be almost fifteen thousand pounds of explosive material."
Yang whistled appreciatively. "I gotta say, Weiss, I think I misjudged you. This plan is straight up insane, and I love it."
Weiss scowled. "Believe me when I say that if I had a better option I would use it. The collateral damage we are about to cause is going to put Mallet Island in the red for three years, minimum. That said, I can replace lien. The chaos should give us coverage to snatch Whitley, and that's my only objective at the moment." She stepped away from the car and clapped her hands. "Ok, rally up over here!"
The workmen gathered around, and Weiss stepped up on a switch box to address them. "All of you will be generously compensated for the risk you have taken here today. The road back to town should be clear. Return to your families, and know you have my gratitude. We'll take it from here."
The SDC men started for their trucks, and Ruby took a deep breath. "Ok. I guess the only thing left to do is to do it. You can operate this thing, right?"
"Of course I can," Weiss replied. "Let's- oh what now?" She trailed off with an annoyed grimmace as a motorcycle roared into the trainyard.
"You gotta be kidding me." Yang muttered as Blake slid to a halt ten feet away. "Ruby, I thought we talked about this."
"We did," Ruby sighed. "Blake, what are you doing here, and how did you get past Pyrrha?"
"Never send a Girl Scout to babysit a rogue," Blake replied as she dismounted the motorcycle and slung an assualt rifle over her shoulder. "And you know good and well why I'm here. The better question is, how could you abandon me, knowing what's at stake for me?"
"Of all the..." Weiss's pale skin turned visibly red as she advanced on Blake. "Listen, slave, I can see that Rose has been far, far too lenient with you. If one of my faunus spoke to me like that I'd have them flogged senseless. How dare you! How absolutely dare you!"
Ruby zipped between her servant and the enraged heiress before they could come to blows. "Weiss, please, let me handle this." Ignoring the furious snort behind her, Ruby looked Blake square in the eye. "I left you because I didn't want you to die. We're going to be outnumbered 50-to-1 in there. Speed is our only chance of survival. Hit quick, and get out. You wouldn't be able to keep up, and we couldn't slow down. Beside that, we've got aura. We can take some punishment. One lucky beowolf or a stray bullet, and you're laying on the ground bleeding out. I understand your problem, Blake, believe me, I do. But that's not my job right now. My job is to rescue Whitley Schnee, and I must stay focused on that."
Blake's eyes blazed. "All the while knowing full well you could be leaving my son to die?"
"What?" Weiss choked out.
"And the plot thickens," Yang chortled. "When were you going to tell us about that, Rubes?"
"I wasn't going to," Ruby responded, frustration edging her voice. "We were going raid Watts and save Whitley, Blake was going to do as she was told and wait in town, and we were going to deal with Reinhardt in due time."
"Ok, stop! I demand a full and immediate explanation!" Weiss crossed her arms, glaring at Ruby and Blake.
Ruby opened her mouth to reply, but Blake beat her to it. "I left the White Fang because I was tired of the killing, and in return they gave me over to be Reinhardt's toy. You can't possibly imagine what that was like, Schnee. You can't possibly, possibly understand what it takes to make you want to die because your existence has become so horrible. You can't possibly understand what it's like to have so little that you would be willing to die for just the slimmest chance of a future. Yes, I bore that monster a son, and he has my child up there in that mountain. I'd sooner take a knife to my throat then I would walk away now. There. Now you know. Are you happy?"
Weiss paused, uncharacteristically at a loss for words.
"I'm in." Yang's blunt announcement caught her sister by surprise.
"You are?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. A mother willing to take that kind of risk to get her kid back? Now that's a cause I can get behind."
"Now hold on." Weiss held up a hand toward both Yang and Ruby, seeming to have recovered her composure. "You are missing the entire point. We are not going up there to rescue this child, however just Blake's cause may or may not be. We are going to rescue my brother. That's what started all this, remember? That's what I hired you to do do. It is your job, and we cannot afford detours, not now. Even if this boy is there, we have no idea where, and we simply cannot search the entire mountain for him."
Ruby hesitated, and Blake took the initiative. "Look, Schnee, I know you don't care about me or my child, so let's make a deal. Help each other. I'll come with you, and help you get your brother back, and then stay behind the use the cover of the chaos you will cause to rescue my boy."
"That sounds fair." Yang chimed in. "Incredibly dangerous, but fair."
"A pointless bargin," Weiss sniffed. "You stand no chance of survival."
"Ahhhh!" Blake dug her her fingers into her hair in desperate frustration. "Why wouldn't you take me? Don't you see? I have nothing to lose. A criminal to your kind and a traitor to mine, twice-damned, with only one thing in the world to call my own. I don't care what the odds are. If there's even the slightest chance of recovering my boy, I'll charge down the gates of hell with you. You're prepared to do whatever it takes to save your brother. You should understand!"
"Yeah," Yang continued. "What loss is it to you if she dies? Why should you care? I say let her come."
"Fine." Weiss waved her arms in exasperation. "She's your slave, Rose. If you don't care if she throws her life away in this mad endeavor, then I'm not going to stop it."
Ruby looked seriously at Blake. "Weiss is not wrong. Our objective is Whitley, and must remain so. The risk you run is extreme, and we won't be able to slow down for you. I'm begging you, don't throw your life away for something we can probably solve tomorrow."
"Probably? Can you one hundred percent guaranteed to me that my child will survive whatever fight happens up there and that you will apprehend Hazel Rinehardt and rescue him? Can you?"
"Blake, you know I can't absolutely guarantee that-"
"Then I'm coming."
"Ok," Ruby nodded. "This is your choice, Blake. I don't like it, but I'm not going to stop you."
"Thank you. This might be just a job for you, but it's a calling to me."
"Well, if that's settled, let's be on our way." Weiss turn on her heel and stalked away towards the engine.
"By the, thanks, Blake." Yang said.
"Thanks? For what?" Blake asked in confusion.
"For bringing me a motorcycle."
Author's Note:
Mostly Blake talking chapter is mostly Blake talking. Originally, this was just supposed to be the first part of a chapter, but it got longer than I planned, then the next part was getting than I planned, so I'm breaking it into two chapters so I can upload more often.
Then again, this story has really been about Ruby and Blake from the beginning, so I suppose it's not a bad thing if our faunus finally gets her own chapter.
It should not suprise anyone that Yang is a sucker for a happy ending 'mommy and me' story. We all have our weak point.
It also should not surprise anybody that Weiss is still an arrogant racist at heart. Please do not be too hard on her, she is a product of her environment.
And yes, we will see more JNPR.
Fav/follow/review, and come back next time to see how RWBY fares on their scenic island train ride.
