The wind rips through Blake's hair on the stolen motorcycle. She tries not to think about how a Yarizaki bike is anything but Altas military issue so the former owner was likely a civilian, because the deaths in the radio station were tragic enough as it was. She hadn't made it out of the station in time to directly tail Adam's van, but that was probably for the best. The roads to the dockyard are all backroads, and someone following him for any length of time would make him paranoid. The element of surprise was still her best weapon against him, what with Gambol Shroud broken.
She grimaces under the flared collar of her jacket. Weiss, no insult to her, couldn't take Adam alone and Gambol Shroud's pistol rounds are barely going to dent Adam's aura. She bites her lip, shaking the thought off. Weiss doesn't have time for Blake to run down to a forge and repair Gambol Shroud. Blake will improvise. She's not running anymore.
The dockyard comes into view through the trees, immediately followed by the Atlesian Sea filling the horizon. She steers the bike towards the winding road that leads down to the dockyard entrance. There's a flash in the dusk light, and Blake spots a ship shifting in the water as it slowly separates off from the pier it's tied to. Blake's Faunus night vision kicks into high gear, spotting a shape crossing the gangplank to the main deck dragging a... stark white shape. She couldn't be sure but she hasn't seen anywhere wearing that much white in all of Argus besides Weiss.
Blake grips the handlebars of the bike hard enough her palms hurt, then shifts away from the winding path down the hill. She launches herself over the side of the grassy knoll, the clenching of her teeth the only thing keeping her from screaming as she falls towards the slope of the hill. With a bone-rattling bounce the bike touches down halfway down the hill and Blake lets out a cry as she struggles to keep it upright. She has to physically kick it from falling to the right at one point but she manages and finally takes a glance up at the boat.
The boat has pulled out past the pier already, though it hasn't gained any real speed. Blake mutters a curse under her breath as she reaches the level ground of the dockyard. Her quick descent gives her the momentum to plow through the dockyard at breakneck speeds, swerving out of the way of crates and dock workers alike. She hears angry grunts behind her from the latter but she twists the accelerator so far forward she wonders if it will break. She flies over a small staircase and crashes down on the pier the boat left from, racing down it at top speed.
Blake stands on the bike and reaches for Gambol Shroud before the bike flies over the edge of the pier and she leaps as high as she can. Gambol Shroud is whipped out towards the stern, the weapon wrapping around a towing hook as Blake hits the water. The water hits her like a truck and Blake can barely hold onto Gambol Shroud, but she quickly begins pulling herself towards the boat. She can feel herself moving faster, the boat must be picking up speed. Her lungs ache as she reaches the tail end of the boat and she quickly glances up before breaking the water's surface with a gasp.
Her ears, waterlogged as they may be, pick up footsteps immediately after she surfaces. Panicking, Blake inhales as deep as she can and dives under again, being pulled along but hidden by the waves the boat's making. She looks up to see Adam staring down at her. Her heart seizes in her chest and she had to grind her teeth together to keep from opening her mouth in a panic. Adam... doesn't move though. He glances back towards the dock, then back down directly at where Blake is submerged, but only scowls.
Blake's relief in realizing Adam can't see her is immediately cleared away as her lungs strain for air they no longer contain. Blake watches Adam as her heart pounds and her vision starts to fade, praying to whichever Gods Ozpin said were real that Adam would give up. Her mouth cracks open in an automatic reaction, desperate for air and seawater fills her lungs and Adam moves, turning back towards the bow. Blake pulls herself to the surface with every muscle in her arms, her legs kicking wildly and she breaks the surface again with a frantic grasp. She clings to the stern of the boat, frantically panting as she's dragged through the icy water. She has to muffle a few coughs to expel the water from her lungs.
Blake finally takes one last deep breath, her body satisfied with her oxygen intake once again. She's glad she has the right boat, at least, and didn't nearly drown sneaking onto a regular fishing vessel. She flattens her ears to her head and peaks up over the stern. There's a large cabin on the deck, stairs leading to the roof of the cabin which is presumably an upper deck. There's deck all around the cabin from the looks of it, and given how deep the stern of the boat goes beneath the water, Blake is sure there's a lower deck as well. She looks in through the doorway of the cabin, seeing what looks like two rooms. The first, and closer to her, is a sitting area. Through a door on the other side of that room is definitely the control room for the boat. She could hazard a guess Adam is there now.
Confident she won't be caught just by getting onto the deck, and also quite sure another minute in this water will give her hypothermia, Blake quietly pulls herself onto the deck. She regretfully ditches the leather jacket she got from Saphron. It's soaked through, and as soon as it dried it would be no different than a straight jacket. Blake moves up to flank the doorway of the sitting room. She peers inside, checking the corners she couldn't see from the back of the boat. No Weiss. Blake grabs at a mounted ladder to the upper deck, lifting herself up. She quickly scans to find it empty as well. That left two places to find Weiss, the control room or the lower deck.
Blake slides around the side of the cabin, making her way to a side window of the control room. With a steadying breath, she slowly peaks into the room. Adam is at the console, thankfully facing forward. Weiss isn't in here with him. Blake notes a set of stairs going down behind Adam, probably the lower deck stairs she needs, of course right beside Adam. She pulls back, slipping towards the stern of the deck again. She shivers, hugging herself momentarily to warm up her exposed arms. There can't just be one way down to the lower deck, can there?
She spots it not a moment later, a hatch in the rear deck. Glancing towards the cabin again, she crouches down and lifts, rewarded with the sight of a ladder going down. She slides down quickly, making sure to close the hatch as quietly as possible.
The hatch leads to a storage room, mostly empty and completely dark. Blake doubts the White Fang has been able to smuggle much into Mantle these days, the ship was probably in mothballs before Adam called. There's a door in the far wall which she slowly opens. Her ears twitch in irritation at the pounding of machinery, she's in the engine room. Two large engines dominate the room, the outer walls dotted with shelves and fuel tanks and unlike the storage room, the lights are on. She moves between the two engines, stepping quietly out of habit despite the loud noise in the room to mask her movements. The noise seems to disappear as her ears catch the one thing she wants to hear more than anything else.
"Blake!" Weiss half whispers, half shouts. Blake's head whips to the left, Weiss is there, smiling despite her bruised and battered body and clothes. Blake can feel her own expression melting into one of relief and she lets it, they both deserve a moment of peace. Blake hugs Weiss, only realizing Weiss's arms are handcuffed to a pole behind her when Weiss doesn't return the hug. Blake makes short work of the cuffs, her days of breaking into SDC storehouses finally proving useful. The hug Weiss gives her in thanks is strong and now Blake understands why Yang said Weiss gives the best hugs. For a so called ice queen, the warmth that comes off her teammate is absolutely breathtaking. They separate far too quickly for Blake's liking, and Weiss steels her expression.
"What now?" Blake asks.
"Can we get off the ship the same way you got on?" Blake thinks back to the bike, clearly at the bottom of the bay with the accelerator jammed at full speed.
"No, I didn't catch up via boat." Weiss quirks an eyebrow in confusion but doesn't comment further. Blake hands her Myrtenaster and she checks the dust stores, spinning the weapon's chambers about.
"Gambol Shroud is broken, isn't it?"
Blake doesn't reply, instead drawing the weapon. the cut short blade folds out and Weiss winces.
"I'm sorry," Weiss says with a sympathetic look.
"Pistol form still works, so I have that much at least..." Blake trails off. Weiss sighs.
"We're in over our heads still, aren't we?" Blake smiles sadly and confirms it with a small nod. Weiss puts a hand on Blake's own.
"At least we're together now."
Blake's reply is cut off when the lights go off throughout the lower deck. Blake grabs Weiss by the wrist and drags her around the side of an engine. The engines cut off at that moment, and Blake can very clearly hear footsteps above them. A glance at Weiss's face confirms she can hear them too, as they transition from deck to stairs. The creaks of the cabin staircase feel as loud as the engines in the now quiet engine room and the two girls duck out of sight.
Adam stalks into the room, pausing momentarily to see the unlocked cuffs and Weiss missing. Blake can see his expression through a gap in the engine's piping and the snarl on his face sends a shiver down her spine. She's seen it so many times before, he would kill innocents, or get rough or... The nervous spiral of her thoughts fades to the background as Weiss presses a hand to Blake's arm. Mental demons later... real demons now. Adam begins a slow, deliberate walk towards the other engine.
"I thought that I warned you, Schnee. If you tried anything... I'd make the things I've done to you so far feel like a slap on the wrist. That you'd know pain like no one on REMNANT has ever known! I assure you, heiress, I will be sure to make good on my word," Adam suddenly spins around the opposite side of the engine. If he chose the right engine instead of the left, the two would be staring him in the face right now.
Blake motions quickly for Weiss to follow and Weiss mouths that she can't see. Blake grabs her teammate's hand and they two quickly move into the room Adam came from, a bedroom. Blake shoves the two of them up against the doorway wall as Adam's sword being drawn rings out through the silent engine room.
"There's nowhere to run, Schnee! You'll face all the pain the Faunus have suffered because of your Father's greed!" Adam shouts out, the threat echoing throughout the boat. Blake can hear Adam's bootsteps pounding towards their last hiding place. When he doesn't find Weiss there either, he smashes his blade into something, the clang loud and ringing. Blake takes that as their moment and leads Weiss through the dark bedroom up the stairs to the main deck.
"He'll hear every footstep we make up here, come on," Blake says as she turns to Weiss. The heiress picks up the pace and the two are on the rear deck as Adam comes pounding up the stairs. The two members of team RWBY look to one another, nod, and draw their weapons.
Finally together!