"Are you crazy!?" screamed team JNPR.
"Seal this car!" barked Maria Calavera, her elbow uncannily nudging Dudley's broken arm. "Seal it or I'll do it for you!"
Dudley, now agitated and in even more pain, withdrew his scroll to activate the train's security system. Seconds later, metal bars crossed over the windows. Armor plating unfolded over sections of the cabin.
Seeing all these made the assassin slap his knees in laughter. "Are you asking for a death wish!? You're all staying here with me!"
"Correction," the old lady huffed, raising her cane towards him. "You are staying over there."
The rest of them were as confused as Callows until something burst. A wake of compressed air whipped against their faces, leaving them stunned upon seeing the assassin folding into himself after being speared in the gut by the pommel of the woman's cane.
Miss Calavera followed up with a heavy swing, knocking Callows back into the empty cubicle at the end of the railcar. A well-timed move as automated sensors on the sliding doorway triggered and locked him inside. Infuriated, he repeatedly smashed himself—fists, gauntlets, stinger, and all—against the door. Maria hobbled back to the Empress and her companions with a bright purple sheen coating the eyelets of the skull-tipped 'walking stick.'
Gravity Dust. Very potent gravity Dust.
"Open the next cabin," she wheezed. "We're moving to first class."
"There are other passengers in there!" Dudley protested.
"So? They haven't taken all the seats," Maria snorted, inching over with a crick in the neck. "Heh, still got it. And they say I'm too damn old for this..."
"Okay, what is going on!?" Jaune snapped.
"Crazy ex-frumentarius in there wants to kill us all," she clapped back, shoving the blond to the end of the railcar with her cane. "Now shut up and move your ass! Hey, mullet man! Unlock the door, will 'ya!"
"It's a ponytail," Dudley groused. He clicked away at his scroll then rested his broken arm over the handle while the bars holding it in place retracted. "A little help's appreciated, y'know."
Pyrrha raised her hand and the door came loose of its own accord, allowing the howling northern gale to pelt them all with snow. One by one, they filtered outside onto the gangway. Ruby tried not to loose her balance given the limited space they had; she pressed herself as close to the railcar as possible, wrapping her hood tightly around her head to stave off the stinging cold.
Jaune snatched her wrist. "I got you! Stay close!"
"There!" Dudley hollered. "We're cleared to enter!"
Boom!
The cabin shook so violently that nearly half of them nearly fell off the gangway. To their horror, a ball of fire now consumed the rear portion of the railcar. The cubicle that had housed Callows was now an ugly gash of rebar and slag bent outward in the shape of a hideous flower.
"What the fu—"
"Nora," Ren gulped. "Was that one of your grenades?"
Nora's eyes went wide and she quickly patted herself down. Indeed, one of her satchels was missing. Half of her explosive ammunition had been pilfered during their struggle and was just used to blow apart a chunk of an armored railcar. Callows cackled from the back then roared over the howling gale. He sped out of the smoke, landed on the gangway across from them, and speared his telson into the coupling below.
Sparks.
Callows leapt at them as soon as the railcar had been completely separated from the rest of the train. Jaune met his attack with his shield and ended up being hurled through the door back into the burning cabin. Pyrrha rushed inside where, with her Semblance, she did her best to divert or deflect the metallic stinger that was constantly zoning in on her partner's face. Ren and Nora joined in the fray quickly thereafter.
In ensuing scuffle, something noticeable had dropped onto the carpet: Nora's stolen shells.
The case-less Dust grenades spilled out of the open satchel. Ruby immediately recognized the design—there was a button at the bottom of the cartridge that delayed the detonation of the shell by five seconds after impact.
Maria nudged her. "I see it, too, Your Majesty. What are you planning—"
The Empress ignored her. She ran in and scooped up one of the grenades with her thumb against the primer.
Click!
The plasma ring around the shell glowed a bright red; detonation delayed. Ruby looked up to see Jaune bash his shield in Callows's face, staggering him for a few precious seconds.
With a burst of her own Semblance, the young sovereign closed the gap between them and stabbed the Spiders' dagger into his thigh. There was some resistance—his Aura definitely—but the blade sank deep and Callows shrieked. The assassin stumbled back, vivid surprise on his face. That surprise morphed into anger, contorting into a devilish snarl that terrified Ruby when she first saw it as a child; those piercing eyes turned bright purple and burned into her.
"You bitch!"
The scorpion faunus made a single step forward. And Miss Calavera, propelled by her cane, speared into him, pommel first. The assassin was thrown back into the flaming ball of slag. The old lady then seized the glowing shell from the Empress, threw it into the satchel along with the others, and tossed the entire pouch into the smoke.
"Abandon ship!" she cried out, grabbing Ruby by the wrist and pushing Jaune and Pyrrha back out onto the gangway where Ren and Nora had fallen back to assist Dudley in carrying the nearly desecrated corpse of his companion.
The railcar was easing to a stop in the middle of the railway. Between miles of empty tracks and an unassailable mountain side, they were left with the option to risk a drop onto the icy tundra forest below.
"What the hell are you all dallying around here for!?" Maria barked. "Jump!"
Ruby hesitated. Alas, this old lady had a vice grip on her arm and was already taking the first step off the gangway.
"Wait! Maybe we should—"
Maria ignored Jaune and went for the plunge, taking the Empress along. They were airborne for three seconds before their rears started to scrape the frosted surface of the cliff. It was cold and bumpy but somehow, they managed to slide painlessly down to the bottom. Team JNPR followed thereafter alongside Dudley who, despite his broken arm, did his best not to let go of Dee's body on the way down. Upon landing, they were hit by the shockwave of another massive explosion.
Ruby dropped prone into the snow to protect herself from the debris raining down around them. A moment later, she was surrounded by the rest of their posse, all gawking up at the much larger fireball eating up the entire decoupled cabin.
They waited.
And waited.
Until Miss Calavera spoke. "No sign of him."
"We clear then?" Nora asked.
"Clear as can be," Maria concluded.
The Empress kept staring up at the burning railcar, however. Her heart was still beating wildly and a part of her dreaded the sudden appearance of the assassin, alive and gunning for her head. Yet, nothing emerged out of the smoke. Callows was gone. Dead? She hoped so. Aura could be overwhelmed by an explosion like that.
"Everyone alright?" the old lady barked.
Team JNPR gathered themselves, brushing off snow and recovering whatever was left of their possessions. All the while, a fuming Dudley set down the body of his friend under a tree.
"Alright, what the hell is going on!?" he raged. "Who the fuck are you people!?"
"Calm your tits, mullet man," Miss Calavera harked.
"It's Dudley, you crazy bat!" Dudley stomped over to Jaune. "You! You're the leader of this crew. What's your deal, huh!? You trying to fuck with me!? You trying to screw me out of this fucking job 'cause good news, asshole: I'm definitely fired!"
"We just wanted to get to Argus!" the blond replied defensively. "We didn't want this to happen! Really!"
Pyrrha stepped between them, physically keeping them apart. "Perhaps we need to simmer down a bit."
Dudley backed away, wrapping his head in his hands as he mumbled at the snow. "I'm fucked. I'm so fucked. I'm so fucking fucked. And it's all because of you! You fuckers and your fucking baggage!"
"I said calm your tits!" boomed Maria. She trudged over with her cane and bore her glare up at the Huntsman so fiercely that the latter had to take another step back. "Get a hold of yourself or you'll attract the Grimm."
"Fine! Fine... I'm calm. I'm calm." He winced and returned to Dee's body. "Shit. Holy shit, this hurts... Damn it, Dee...why'd it have to be you, man?"
Ruby stood there, watching. She moved across the snowdrift, glancing around for anything that belonged to her. Or anything useful. Nothing but simmering debris. Jaune and Pyrrha were brushing each other off. Ren and Nora were going over their weapons and what remained of their ammunition. Maria Calavera adjusted her spectacles and fiddled with the dials under the pommel of her cane. Meanwhile, a licensed Huntsman grieved the death of his friend while nestling his handicap.
The Empress felt useless and almost entirely at fault. The assassin had been after her. He could not have done all this if she were not on that train. If she were not here to begin with...
"Ruby, are you alright?"
She glanced up at Jaune and Pyrrha. "I feel lightheaded."
"Here." Pyrrha dragged over one of the dislocated train seats. "Sit down."
Ruby slumped onto the leather cushion and dropped her head into hands. Gods, why was this happening? She was exhausted, she was freezing, she was in pain. A whimper wormed up her throat. She wanted to cry.
"Hey," croaked Miss Valkyrie. "You okay?"
Team JNPR huddled around the Empress. Nora tacked on her best grin, though the unsure tilt in her lip betrayed her facade. Ren flashed a brief smile. Jaune rubbed her back while Pyrrha squeezed her hand. The young sovereign tried to be optimistic; she was still alive, her friends were okay, and the assassin was gone. Then again, they now had two people thrown into their lot: an eccentric old lady and a wounded licensed Huntsman. In fact, the five of them noted the former approaching the latter.
"How's Argus?" Maria asked.
Dudley scowled. "What?"
She frowned. "Argus. I said how's Argus?"
Dudley growled. "Argus is still Argus. What else?"
"Stop dancing around the question. State of affairs, troop presence, security. Do I have to spell it out for you or do you want to still keep sucking on that broken arm of yours?"
"I'm wounded, damn it! That bastard broke my Aura and you're badgering me for shit I don't know!"
"Um, excuse me," Pyrrha politely interjected, tacking on her most disarming smile. "Maybe a kinder approach would be appropriate in this circumstance. Monsieur, what is going on in Argus?"
"Same old, same old," Dudley grunted dismissively. "I don't know what this hag here wants from me but that's all I got."
"There's got to be something more than that, right?" Nora pressed.
"What the hell do you want from me?" snapped the Huntsman. "I'm basically crippled, I lost my friend, and I'm sure as hell going to be fired from the only good job for me in this fubar kingdom. Hell, I might as well be arrested for breach of contract the moment I set foot into Argus!"
"Please," Jaune jumped in, raising his hands which were shimmering with a honeycomb glow. He leveled his open palms over the older man's broken arm and, to Ruby's and Dudley's surprise, channeled his Aura. "Just let us know what's going on. I—we—have family there. They need us as much as we need them, especially during this...mess that Mistral is in."
"Please," Ruby added. She dropped her hood for the first time since the encounter with Callows. "Just tell us."
Dudley recoiled. "What the fuck? Y-you're the...y-you're...you're the Empress of Sanus! The missing regent! What...who the fuck...what the hell is going on!?"
"Long story," Nora barked. "Unless you want to hear it."
The Huntsman shook his head in disbelief. "This ain't real, this ain't real... This is crazy!"
"Could be crazier," Maria retorted. "And I thought I'd seen it all."
"You can't be the real deal, right?" Dudley stammered. "You're a pretender! This is all fake! This is all some kind of—"
"Oh, quit it with the conspiracy crap!" snapped Miss Calavera. "Everybody damn well knows there's no one else on Remnant with silver eyes other than the Imperial bloodline!"
That was debatable, Ruby thought. Pretenders to the throne were nothing new and with how densely populated the world was, there was bound to be others out there who were born with the same trait as hers. As far as she knew, neither her nor her mother nor her grandfather nor her ancestors were the only people to have ever existed who naturally possessed silver eyes. The many others who did either went about their lives or tried to exact a futile claim on the power that was built around such a rare trait.
Regardless, Maria's argument was enough to calm Dudley down to be negotiable. She did, however, threaten to push her cane into his broken arm if he kept being ornery.
"Alright, mullet man. I'm going to ask again. Is it safe in Argus?"
"Safe as a rich, walled city is," the Huntsman conceded. "Look. I don't pay attention to the news that often, alright? I just know that Mister Tin Man—"
"Marshal James Ironwood," Ruby corrected.
"Yeah, him. He's put Atlas on high alert because of this crisis. Somehow, that translated to sending more of their troops to their garrison in Argus. It's not against international law and he ain't violating any treaties or whatever but it's riling up the folks there and last I heard, they're not to keen on opening up the city to any more visitors right now. Especially with Sanus squeezing Mistral by the balls. Which...I don't know why Sanus is doing this to us in the first place."
Ruby exhaled. "I don't know either."
"Excuse me, your 'missing' highness," snorted the Huntsman, "but what do you mean you don't know?"
She sighed. "The Empire shouldn't be going on the offensive. Not at this time. There's no need... This isn't...it's not what...things shouldn't be this way. This wasn't supposed to happen."
"What the hell do you mean 'this wasn't supposed to happen'!?" Dudley snarled. "It wasn't like the whole kingdom wanted your head. We just wanted to move on with our lives and forget the past!"
Ruby wilted. "I'm sorry. But please understand. My people are acting out of emotion, they're being volatile, they... They're not acting on my orders right now..."
"What Her Majesty is implying," Pyrrha reframed, "is that someone else has taken over the Empire in light of Her Majesty's, uh, disappearance. Lord Protector Ozma, her chief advisor, assumed emergency powers and is initiating a punitive response against the kingdom. His decisions are his own and do not reflect Her Majesty's will in any way."
"Basically, we're looking at a Third Expedition and I'm sure you don't need a history lesson to know what that's going to mean for all of us," Maria added.
Dudley slumped against the tree next to the body of his fallen comrade. His mouth opened and closed like a displaced fish until his eyes fell into an aimless, hopeless stare. "Fuck, man. This is worse than fubar."
"You're telling me," Jaune muttered.
ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: March, 2020
LAST EDITED: April 26, 2020
INITIALLY UPLOADED: April 26, 2020