Chapter 45: Learning From History
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.(Chapter Start)
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October 1st
Tuesday
Very Cloudy
Azura stood before the door to RWBY's dorm for what was likely the thousandth time, not particularly wanting to knock on it. The room was clearly busy, if the noise within meant anything, and he could hear Ruby's muffled voice talking to Aurora. She was attempting to explain something, he thought.
"Standing here won't do anything, you know. Even your mother is getting antsy, and she's the most patient woman I've seen."
Azura smiled and shook his head. "I have no idea how you came to that conclusion." He then looked to Luna, seeing her watching him with an edge in her eyes.
Breathing out softly, Azura activated his semblance and knocked on the door. A moment later, the door opened to show Weiss standing there. Her face, while still holding hints of the warmth it normally did around friends, crinkled up with a very uncomfortable 'I'm still mad' look.
"Weiss, who is it?" Ruby asked, popping up behind her, her eyes lighting up at Azura. "Ah, Azura! Come in, come in! Aurora finally figured something out about her semblance!"
He didn't even have time to make any awkward statement to Weiss before he was grabbed by Ruby and subsequently dragged into the dorm room. Luna floated in right behind him, moving to float just behind Aurora and greeting the girl with her tail, while Weiss merely closed the door behind her.
Yang and Blake were missing, a single thought cast towards what they could be up to before he heard Ruby talk to Aurora.
"Can you do what you did earlier, Aurora?"
The girl shuffled under their gazes, soft or not, and spoke quietly. "I can try."
She closed her eyes, focusing on something, while they all stood and watched her. Azura watched closely as her aura flared for a moment, curious to see what it was that she was going to do.
Only for her to open her eyes and look down as her aura fell apart. "I...I can't. I'm sorry."
Luna rubbed the girl's shoulders while Azura shook his head. "No need to apologize."
"It shows that you're making progress with yourself, though!" Ruby pipes up, quick to make a positive comment. "I'm so happy to see that."
Azura smiles at her words. "We both are."
"Whatever you did, Aurora," She says, walking towards the girl. "You'll find it again. It's common for semblances to evolve or push forward, but so is it being rather difficult to get to that point."
"If you keep practicing with it, you'll get it. And we'll all help you with it." Azura said, also approaching Aurora. "How does that sound?"
"It sounds...good." The girl said, her familiar small smile coming to her face.
"Anywho…" Ruby draws the word out as she grabs Aurora's shoulders from Luna and pushes her towards the door. "You two need to have a talk."
"Huh?"
"Ruby!"
"See you two later, have fun!"
She was out the door with the girl within seconds, giving them barely any time to say anything back. Azura simply sighs, looking at Luna as he deactivated his semblance, then over to Weiss. She was merely looking at him with a level of surprise, as if she wasn't familiar with Ruby's antics.
"Well...Aurora's making good progress, don't you think?"
"While currently a fluke, it does show that Ren's training and you and Ruby's encouragement is doing something for her." Weiss answers, slightly absent in her speech.
Azura watched the girl for a moment, easy to see that she was distracted. "Why don't we sit down?"
Weiss nods slowly, coming back out of her thoughts. She sat on her bed, while Azura took the one opposite of her. Despite this, the distance between them was still rather short. He knew Weiss well enough to wait for her to speak first in this case, so he kept his mouth shut and simply waited for her to pick her words.
"Winter, my sister, is here for the next few days. I'd say you should meet her, but you...technically have. Not face to face, but you saw her…"
"Lose to Ruby's uncle?" He quips, humored by her immediate gawking. "Sorry, sorry. Please, continue."
"Honestly…" Weiss muttered under her breath before she raised her head. "You should meet her, though. She had asked about your semblance when I last spoke to her about my, er, friends."
Azura smiled at the hint of embarrassment he heard in Weiss' tone.
"I'm sure she'd be lovely." He said, not wanting to divulge that he had already met her. "I'd love to meet her if the two of you would want to."
"Of course." She replied, her smile rising and falling in the same moment.
Azura watched her face momentarily before deciding to dig into the reason for this conversation. Honesty was something that they both wanted, so he would be more than willing to give it.
"I won't apologize for my decisions, Weiss. I feel like I made the right decision in the end."
"I know." The heiress said, eyeing him. "I won't be happy about it, though."
"I know." Azura mimics.
"But," She continues, sighing. "I also know that you aren't going to stop or back down."
"I will apologize for my stubbornness, at least. So, sorry about that." He says, laughing. "I get it from my mother."
"Despite my appearances...I can't believe I can say this so easily...but, I do worry about you. Not just you, but everyone on the team, even if you are only honorary. I feel the same for team Juniper, just, not as heavily."
Azura nods. "I get what you mean. I never meant to alarm and cause worry, but you at least understand why, right?"
"Of course I do." Weiss replied sharply, as if offended that he would think otherwise. "You're at least smart enough to know that we would probably do…" She sighs, looking away. "Something stupid. We'd do something dumb, thinking that you needed some rescue party."
Azura laughs. "In fairness, I would do the same thing if the roles were reversed. I guess we both have room to grow, huh?"
"That we do, Azura. I may be rash and rude...and sometimes easy to anger, but I know that I'm young."
He nods to her words, in full agreement. Summer felt the same way, he could tell.
"Can I do anything to help you feel better about what I'm doing?"
Offering a solution to bridge the gap was more of a shot in the dark for him, but it wouldn't do any harm to do so.
"No, not really." Weiss answered, shaking her head. "I'm not angry with you, Azura. But we've all noticed a jump in the amount of dangerous things you do, and Blake seems to be fully on your side."
"We watch each other's backs." Azura said, leaving the 'most of the time' part out.
"I don't doubt it." She laughs. "That's part of the reason why Yang and I have cooled ourselves. We also talked about it, between the two of us, and agreed that being rash when you've been so cautious would cause more issues than fix the one we see."
"Yang agreed to that?"
"With convincing, of course. I think Blake's solo talk with her a few days ago played a part."
"You think?"
"I know. They're rubbing off on each other, if I must be honest."
Azura nods. "That's true."
They look at each other in silence, Summer lurking in the back of his mind while Luna keeps off to the side. He could tell that she wanted to say something more, so he simply waited for her to speak, as always.
"You do know what you're doing, right?"
"Depends on how you mean the question." He answered with honesty.
"You at least understand the trouble you've thrown yourself into for the sake of investigating the White Fang."
"Well, yes. But it's not just for that reason, either."
"It's because you want to help the psychopath who tried to kill you and would have if not for Summer."
"And Torchwick." Azura interjected.
"And someone involved with the breach of Vale." She added. "Do you know how insane you sound?"
"Uh…" He blinks once, a sheepish smile coming to his face. "Probably not."
Weiss stares at him, unimpressed.
"Regardless of that, I do know what I'm doing. It's the right thing to do."
"To help the violent group?"
"It's more complicated than that, Weiss. You know that."
She sighs. "You need to stop being right."
Azura stands up to move to Weiss' side. "I learned it from you."
"The ability to push until others cave into your demands?"
He laughs. "No, that's all you." he holds a hand out for her to take. "I meant that I learned how to make my side of an argument from you."
She looks at his hand with a raised eyebrow. "Are you trying to take me somewhere?"
"To the library. I'm falling behind on my work." Azura answers, half-jokingly.
Weiss rolls her eyes, then takes his hand to lift her up. "And now I'm mad at you again. Falling behind on your schoolwork is not okay, taught by your mother or not!"
A smile grew on his face as he saw the playful look in her ice blue eyes.
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.(Line Break)
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The chill of the Autumn air made Azura almost regret never having a jacket on him at all times, the only warmth on the drive through Vale on Bumblebee being from Blake, who actually had a hooded jacket on. Dark clouds obscured the evening sky and complimented the grim look throughout the city as they drove through the streets, more police and Atlesian robots roaming around. They were seen less and less as they drove through the poorer areas of Vale, on their way to a destination that Azura did not wish to really visit.
He pulled to a stop on the corner of a street that had no one around, sliding off of the bike and out of Blake's grip, holding it steady as the engine rumbled, looking around the cracked street and rundown look to the buildings momentarily. He looked over to Blake shortly after, lips thin as he spoke.
"You'll just have to keep your distance for now, keep Bumblebee safe and stay where there are at least some people, Or, really, just a place not shady like this."
Blake nods, sliding into the front seat of Bumblebee. "I don't think the bike is what should be worried about in this circumstance."
"No, I'm plenty worried about the bike." Azura says. "You know how to drive that thing?"
"Sort of. Yang's been teaching me."
"Adorable."
"Shut up."
Azura laughs quietly, taking a moment to return to a more serious composure.
"Worry about yourself and the bike before you worry about me." He says. "This is why we didn't tell anyone about leaving."
"That certainly was the idea. Was it a good one?" The Faunus said back, raising an eyebrow.
Azura shrugged in response. "It's going to have to be." He frowns as Blake's eyes narrow. "Look, I'll worry about Weiss and Yang later. I've just been busy."
"I'm aware." She says, shaking her head. "I'm honestly starting to think they want to know your life story, you know."
"You're telling me...enough of that, though." Azura said, looking around the corner just behind him. "I need to meet her, and you need to hide away for now."
Blake and Azura look at each other in silence before she speaks.
"I don't like not having sight on you."
"I'll be safe, you know that."
"Will you?"
"If I won't, then Summer and Luna will make me."
She smirks as a chuckle escapes her. "Good. Tell me when it's over."
"Of course."
Blake settles into the seat, a quick use of her bowtie tying her hair into a ponytail before she nods at Azura once, then begins to drive off. Azura raised a single eyebrow in concern, but did not deem her driving ability to be a hazard.
"She'll get used to it, I suppose." He says to Luna, turning around to walk down the empty street.
Luna rolls her eyes in response, floating ahead of him to survey ahead. Vale or not, it was still a poor district with few police or Atlesian forces around and at night, so they had to remain cautious enough to expect someone to possibly approach them to do something.
Not that the area around the once complete orphanage was particularly dangerous, but that's what everyone thought before the breach of Vale. It was certainly what he thought in regards to Aurora before she lost her home.
Azura sighed, looking up as he approached the crumbling and charred ruins that he had been called to by Neo. The girl had wanted them to search here first for something in particular, which he could only guess what beyond Lu having been in the White Fang.
"Perhaps Neo knows something about her we didn't?"
Azura frowned at Summer's words. "I don't know how I would feel if that was the case."
He looked around, trying to find the girl he was meeting with. "Speaking of...where is she?"
His question was answered not even a moment later as a flourish of pink color flashed before his eyes and revealed the short girl to him. Azura stepped back in surprise, having not expected the entrance at all, though he did laugh slightly as Luna curiously spun around the short girl.
"Illusions...invisibility. I should have made that connection sooner, I guess."
Neo rolls her eyes, nodding her head to the burned down building that was covered in police tape. Azura gazes over the building, not feeling like laughing anymore as he looks the place over. Too many lives taken without a chance, especially the children. It sickened him to think that Aurora would have joined them if it weren't for Neo.
"What are we here for? I don't want to be here long."
The message he read was brief, quickly broken down. "Woman here was part of White Fang, which is why I was there that night. If we're lucky, documents of the Vale branch of the White Fang should be here, unless they burned in the fire."
He nods in response, rubbing his chin with a hand as he sighs. "Let's get in there, then."
Neo blinks at him, seeming to contemplate something, then turns to walk forward to the rubble and ducks under the police tape that was surrounding buildings. Azura follows her, pushing the tape up to get through, and slowly walking up charred stairs, the wood groaning as he put weight on it, as the stone foundation holding it up. His nose wrinkled at the smell of the building as he entered the mostly non-existent entrance, seeing Neo rubbing the soot off of her hands.
Azura looked left, where a hallway lingered, and then right, where Lu's office was. The door that used to be there was now on the ground in a burned mess, leaving it open to explore.
"Luna, go investigate her office, please."
Luna was off with no more than a glance of suspicion thrown at Neo.
They moved in silence, going from crumbling room to crumbling room as both the age and damage of the structure became obvious to them. It was both harder and easier to recognize the rooms than he thought it would be, seeing as the structure of the rooms were still somewhat in tact, but there were obvious gaps and holes with the walls and ceiling, piles of rubble and soot lingering on the ground, and barely recognizable objects littered around.
Lu's personal room held the possibility of something that they could be looking for, but neither of them actually knew where it was. Azura certainly didn't, and Neo was beginning to just follow him as they went through. She clearly did not know the building well, which did not particularly surprise him.
It did make him wonder why she was here that night, though. What about Lu being in the White Fang drove her here the night of the breach?
Azura's thoughts paused as his feet did, stopping before a room that he recognized rather well. He looked at Neo, who was watching him with a relatively blank expression. If he wasn't so used to that expression being one of her normal ones, he'd be somewhat frustrated with the gaze that told him absolutely nothing.
"Sorry, it's just her room. Aurora's room." He said, leaving it at that.
Neo's head tilts slightly, then nods to the door. Azura simply turns his head back to the door, touching it gently and pushing it in as the metal used to open and close it shuddered and shrieked quietly, having been warped and deformed.
The sight before him was one he'd never share with Ruby, who he felt had been fond of the little space Aurora had made her own. He stepped forward into the ashen room, a lingering sadness growing in his heart as Summer's presence silently brought comfort and Luna placed a hand on his shoulder.
Nothing could even be recognized, not even the bookshelf in the corner, which now held dozens of charred and unrecognizable books. There was absolutely nothing that could be recovered, if the thought had even crossed his mind.
Even then, he still picked one of the books up to examine it, a hardly recognizable title cover on it. He wondered how many of these books he could have read to Aurora, and how many times she had likely read them while living here.
Azura is shaken from his thoughts by Neo grasping his arm, looking at him with that same expression of blankness. He shakes his head, placing the book down with a sigh, then nods to Neo as he exits the room. They had more important things to do than watch him mope about what occurred here.
"In and out, Azura. In and out."
Summer had a point, one that he intended to follow as he watched Luna move past him and begin to float alongside him as they made their way for where they believed Lu's room to be. He spoke to her as they walked, wondering if anything had even been found.
"I assume nothing?"
Luna nods at him, shrugging with empty hands.
"Figured...we can give it an extra look if we find nothing in the room, maybe find something you can't touch."
Eventually, as they continued to walk through the halls, the room they were searching for eventually turned up. The only reason it could be easily assumed to be the right room was that it was the largest room of them all, if only barely so. The two stepped into the room, Luna already peering around curiously, and found that it had been less affected at the very far back corner or the building. The structural integrity of the room was still rather damaged, if the creaking wood of the floor meant anything, but it seemed that there would be some luck to tonight's venture.
"I'll take one side, you take the other?" Azura said, posing it as a question.
He received a nod in response, then moved off to the left side of the room as Neo took the right. The first thing he did was enter the small bathroom on the left side, more so out of a curiosity than thinking he would find anything. Regardless, it would still be better to check everything they could.
Shifting through the cupboard under the sink and the toppled over cupboard that seemed to have fallen from the wall, he did not find much beyond pill bottles and simple first aid care. Finding nothing else out of the ordinary in the bathroom, Azura returned back to the main room and began shifting through charred material to reach towards the backside of the wall.
Taking a glance at Neo, he could barely see her pink and brown colored hair over the bed as she crouched on her knees. She seemed to be going through papers, so Azura resumed his own search in hopes of possibly finding similar things.
The effort and physical work put in just to find nothing was slightly frustrating to the boy, who sighed and pushed his hair aside as he stepped back. Another look at Neo found her throwing another piece of paper into the slowly growing pile behind her, so he assumed that she was also fruitless in her investigation for now. Looking the room over as he stepped further back and towards the entrance, Azura wondered if they were possibly missing something. This was the only room that remained so untouched, so if something was to be found, they'd find it here.
"Have you tried looking under the bed?"
When Azura received a nod in answer to his question, he was about to speak again before she paused and waved him over with some energy. Moving over to her side, he crouched down to her level to see what she wanted him to look at, finding a previously locked suitcase full of papers and journals. After a moment, she handed him the journal that she held in her hand, already open to a certain page.
He took it, then examined it to see what she wanted him to read. It was a journal entry written by Lu, given that it held her name at the top, faded words detailing a time long pass for the dead woman. The entry of the journal was dated seven years back. Azura skimmed through it, reading it to himself quietly.
"It's been a month since I threw the White Fang off of my trail. I do not know why they've been so relentless and bloodthirsty for deserters, but the reason does not matter. They are becoming restless, violent, and these old bones of mine won't get younger, so I need to run as far as I can before hiding. A new life, I think. One with peace, and truly helping those that require help." He read aloud, pausing to skim through the rest of the open pages.
The next entry caught his eye, surprising him with the content in it.
"There was an abandoned child here, eyes as pink as the dawn...skin as pale as snow. A snake Faunus, no less. She would have starved or died from the cold if I didn't decide to take her in. I...haven't decided a name for her yet, but she'll stay with me for now. At least until there's a better place for her."
Summer came to the forefront with gentle words. "Aurora. Keep the journal, but we still need to find something on the White Fang. That, and Neo is looking at you weirdly. Focus."
Azura looks over, finding that Neo was indeed looking at him.
"Sorry, what's up?" He asks, putting the journal away in the back pocket of his pants.
She holds out a set of papers, which turned out to be documents upon closer inspection, detailing locations and names. He takes them from her to read them, trying to gather as much information from it as he could.
"These are...more recent. Within the last year levels of recent...why would she have these?" He asks aloud, wondering how it could have happened. "Maybe she had someone she knew on the inside of the Vale branch? That would be crazy dangerous for both of them, especially for…" He trails off, his words not even being needed now.
He feels Neo nudge his side, scroll at the ready to be read. "It's likely that there's an insider that was related to this woman in some way. As for how a human was in the White Fang...it's possible, back all those years ago, I suppose."
"Very true. It was an entirely different time period back then." Azura replies, rubbing his chin with a hand. "But, these are very recent. Whoever this insider was...they might have known Lu from back then. Meaning that they stayed with the White Fang as they grew radical and kept in contact."
Neo nods, typing her next reply. "It's the most likely case, but it's still a long shot. I say we just get out of here, we got as much as we could. Not quite a cold trail, but we have several locations to search."
"Hm, true."
Neo crouches down and begins to regather the papers to place back away. Azura figured that she was attempting to hide their tracks, so he began to help. They finished with relative haste, working in silence while Luna kept an eye on their surroundings.
; ; ; ; ;
They stood back up, Neo kicking the case back under the bed where it was found and folding the papers up and slipping them into a pocket. She looks at Azura, causing him to look back. She tilted her head slightly, as if posing a question to him, but he wasn't exactly sure what the question was. If he came to know her better, he'd assume it would start to make sense, like with Luna.
"Ready to get out of here?"
She nods at first, then interrupts herself to hold a finger out towards him, typing on her scroll with her free hand. Azura rests a hand on his waist as he waits, reading her message when she shows it to him.
"We'll meet up at Junior's on the night of October 5th, this Saturday, around nine. While we do have this lead now, there's an order to where we need to go. The place is close to his club, a supposedly abandoned theater. Place reeks of White Fang activity, but it's aged. I'll give you the full details when we meet up."
Azura looks at Luna momentarily as curiosity lurks in their eyes, then turns back to Neo as he nods. "Sounds good. Until then?"
Neo simply smiles in return.
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.(Line Break)
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"Did you find anything in there?" Blake asked, looking over at Azura as she rested her hands on the rooftop, seated next to him as the night sky twinkled, legs idly moving as they hung off of the roof.
"Some documents detailing a friend of Lu's in the White Fang." Azura replied, hands folded to rest his head on as he laid on the roof, legs shifting slightly each time Blake's foot hit them as they hung. "Which reminds me, but I wasn't aware humans were ever allowed in the White Fang? At least, not until some days ago."
Blake's lips thin for a moment. "Years ago...before I was fully in it, few were. Only the most trusted of them."
He nods in response. "It'd make sense...not that I am very knowledgeable about such things."
"So, those documents." Blake said, catching his attention. "You think that this friend of Lu will be willing to talk, if you find them?"
"That's what we don't know. It's also unknown if we'll be able to find her unless we find a name and ask around. I didn't read all of the documents and she has all of them, so that's all I know so far until she tells me more."
"And the journal you have?"
The question makes Azura sigh, shaking his head. "I won't say that it's anything important to the investigation, but I think it might be important for Aurora."
"You want her to read it?" Blake asked, surprised.
"No, not at all." He quickly answered, eyes widening. "Her emotional and mental wounds are fresh and particularly deep, so I wouldn't dare to force her to live through them again."
"You think it would help you to help her?"
"I also don't know that, but I think it will help me understand Aurora as a person. And maybe give answers to some of my questions regarding her thought process and other things, such as why she's very particular about who she lets touch her. What makes me and Ruby and even Weiss and Luna okay, but not someone like Ren or...well, you?"
"That's...fair." She said, looking to the sky and. "I don't know much about her, but she seems just socially inexperienced, which would just make her anxious and cling to those she's come to bond with."
"Maybe, yeah."
"She just needs help, is all. You and Ruby do great, and I feel that everyone else is doing their part if possible. Between workloads, training, and eight people, we'll manage it."
"Mhm." Azura hummed in response. "Hey, Blake?"
"Hm?"
"Do you remember our talk about fear, some months ago? Back when I first went to help Neo?"
She laughs lightly, the quiet mirth breathing some warmth into the cool night. "Yes, I do remember that. I had told you-"
"That it was okay to be afraid. That it gives strength." He continued.
Blake nods as she goes to finish his words. "And that you remind me of someone I...someone I knew." She looks over at him, her bright eyes examining him curiously. "What about it?"
"Well, I was just thinking about it. Fear is something that both humans, Faunus or not, and Grimm use fear. Grimm use it to track while Humans can use it to gain strength. Grimm are almost compelled to follow fear, while Humans can also use it to manipulate." He pauses, looking at the broken moon hanging in the sky. "You told me once that you were afraid of things, Blake. Yet, you are one of the most fearless people I know."
He hears her laugh. "And as I said before, I have fears too. I mean, you even saw me run away when my cover was blown." She smirks. "You put too much stock into being unafraid. There's more to being a Huntsman than that, Azura."
"Yeah, I know." He replies, watching Luna glide around in the night. "Ruby's probably rubbing off on me."
"Or her mom."
"Or both."
They laugh quietly, humored by their own words. A pregnant pause befalls them, the stars twinkling and the moon gazing down from the sky as Azura and Blake stare at each other. They stay like that for several long moments before Blake breaks away from it.
"Hey, Azura?"
"Hm?" He asks back to her like she did to him.
"Does it feel like something big is going to happen? With the White Fang investigation you and Neo are doing, as well as the team's investigation?"
He eyed her curiously for a moment before sighing and looking back to Luna. "It's bound to, I think. We both know that there's something going on here. We all do."
"Yeah…"
"Something on your mind?"
She remains silent for a moment, as if debating the question. "It just feels...it feels like there's something major that we're missing. We know what the White Fang are doing, that there's someone pulling strings in the background, and that both Torchwick and Neo are involved."
"But?"
"But Torchwick is now locked away, and you seem to trust Neo that they were technically forced into it, and we stopped the breach of Vale. Yet, now they lurk in the shadows like they are waiting for something. The Vale branch of the White Fang are headed by someone who plans something greater than what they've been doing...or maybe I'm losing my mind." She finishes her statement with a nervous laugh.
Azura sits up as concern crosses his face with a frown, quickly replacing it with a bright smile and a nudge of his shoulder to hers to grab her attention. She turns to him, long black hair almost hiding her face from him.
"That's why we're doing what we're doing, right? To stop what you fear is happening."
She nods slowly, shifting her gaze to look over the edge of the building they sat on, hair falling down around her.
"Azura, I need you to promise me something."
"Of course."
Her hands, resting in her lap, grip tightly into fists. "If you end up finding a man with a red katana...run, please."
Azura's lips thinned as he tried to read into why she wanted him to promise such a vague thing. Summer kept silent, letting him think.
"I'll know him on the spot?"
Blake nods stiffly.
"Then…" He says, placing a hand on one of her own. "I promise, Blake." He smiles as he catches her eyes once more. "If that makes you feel better, or safer, then I promise to do what you ask."
"Thank you, Azura." She whispers.
Something was wrong with Blake, but Azura knew her well enough that she wouldn't share anything. If this was the only thing he could do for her at the moment, then he would do it.
"That's what friends are for, Blake."