Chapter 1: Wayward Son
Same Team, New Players.
That was the mantra Alice repeated ad nauseam as she fidgeted in her seat. She found no solace, despite the repetition, though it was not as if she had many options. The calm she often found in checking her revolver, the satisfying clank of a shell chambered in her Cassidy, was tantalizingly out of her reach. Yet it barely kept on her on the edge of sanity, cramped as she was inside a bustling dropship going gods know where.
She wasn't a greenhorn on her first mission, she tried to reassure herself. She was a huntress-in-training, well into her third year in attendance at Beacon Academy. She had faced more than her fair share of monsters. Many a time she faced the Creatures of Grimm with nothing but her trusty revolvers and her steady hands to win the day. When facing down the never-ending maws of those nightmarish creatures, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that, so long as she kept her Dead Eye steady, she was going to survive.
Despite all of that, she was still as jittery as a first-year student fresh off campus.
Instead of giving into her nerves, she tried focusing on the team. Her new team. She'd been alone over the last several months and didn't think the headmaster would place her on a new team so late in the term. Although she probably shouldn't be surprised . Some teams would have to be down a member or a bunch of scattered teams would have to be cobbled together in order to stave off attrition. The latter was practically unheard of barring a major catastrophe that saw numerous hunters-in-training cut down. The former was not so rare.
Seated on either side of her in the troop compartment were her new teammates, Shirosuke Yamada and Anya Metzler. Both were transfer students from Atlas Academy and had been partnered on the same team before they were transferred. They also both happened to be faunus.
Anya's trait was not difficult to spot as the occasional blonde feather peaked through her flaxen tresses, which was accentuated by her pale complexion. Otherwise, she was the picture of a typical Atlas Specialist in her white battle attire and her hair tied back in a tight ponytail. Though Alice had yet to witness her new teammate in battle, it was hard to miss the seven-foot- long spear she brought with her onto the bullhead.
As for Shirosuke, or " Shiro " as he preferred to be called, he was harder to figure out. He was clearly of Mistrali descent, despite transferring out of Atlas Academy, with short, spiky white hair. Unlike his partner, he wore a black and white gi. Outside Atlas, this sort of attire was not rare amongst hunters as it was very common for hunters to express themselves through their wardrobe. Yet, what particularly caught Alice's attention was his arms. From the bicep down, Shiro had prosthetic arms. From what she could tell, they were fully articulate and functioned as good, if not better, than the average person's organic arms. What she couldn't quite figure out was his choice of weaponry, although, if she were a betting girl, those prosthetics were the weapons. His faunus trait was difficult to pick up on as he looked like any other twenty- year-old, although she could have sworn she saw a flash of sharp fangs whenever he spoke for too long.
She had been surprised to learn of her teammates' faunus heritage; she hadn't expected any faunus native to Solitas would want to join the military of a nation with a reputation for terrible human-faunus relations. Perhaps that was why they transferred to Beacon Academy? At any rate, it didn't matter; they were more than welcome in her book.
Despite her ruminations on her teammates, it still didn't kill her creeping anxiety.
"Is there something the matter, Ms. Darby?" an authoritative voice spoke up.
It was her combat professor and superior on this mission, Glynda Goodwitch, seated across from her in the bullhead's troop compartment. Professor Goodwitch was the headmaster's majordomo and was certainly dressed for the part in her white long-sleeved pleated top and her black high-waisted pencil skirt. Like Anja, Professor Goodwitch was also of light complexion and light blonde hair, although the professor's hair was set in a tight bun. Her frown confirmed Alice's suspicions, that she preferred to be back at Beacon, preparing for the semester that was days away. Doubly so, considering she was also responsible for helping with preparations for the upcoming Vytal Festival. Professor Goodwitch remained transfixed on Alice, expecting a quick response.
"No ma'am, just a little excited I guess," Alice lied. She cursed herself, was she that transparent? It never occurred to her that she was so lost in her own thoughts that Goodwitch would take notice. She just hoped her professor wouldn't see through her lie. To her relief, Goodwitch's features softened.
"I suppose that's to be expected. After all, it has been over a year since we have seen hide or hair of Mr. Fenrys. Let's hope that he's no worse for wear."
And there it was; the crux of it all. Her former partner, Luc Fenrys, was spotted in the wilds east of Vale by an Atlas reconnaissance squadron. If the reports sent in were true, the Atlas team made contact with him while on a completely unrelated mission and, for reasons yet to be determined, a melee ensued which resulted in the deaths of five scouts. Her team's mission was to bring him in, if possible.
She supposed it wasn't necessarily a lie to say she was excited, but it certainly wasn't the whole truth. Yes, it was certainly true that Luc had been missing for some time and yes, she was certainly eager to see him again. But, he hadn't just left, he abandoned her. Oh she was certainly angry, at first. He was her best friend and someone she trusted with her life. Maybe she still trusted him with her life. If she didn't, she wouldn't have searched for him as many times as she did. Perhaps she fooled herself into thinking that she would have succeeded if not for her teachers stopping her before she could even get off of campus.
Luc left her, just after losing two of their teammates, to go on a personal quest for vengeance. As if they weren't her friends as well. As if she would just be dead weight.
If they find him, when they find him, she wasn't sure if she'd hug him or shoot him in the leg.
Maybe both. Probably both.
The bullhead pilot's voice crackled in her ear piece. "Time to drop zone: T-minus 120 seconds. Get ready, hunters."
"So what do you think, Boss?" Shirosuke chimed in, "Is there anything we should expect from your old partner?"
"Don't call me 'Boss, ' Shiro. We're teammates, not soldiers." Alice quirked a half-smirk. Truth be told, she wasn't sure what to expect. The Luc she knew didn't go out of his way to pick a fight with an Atlas reconnaissance squad. Yet, that's exactly what happened. "And he took out half of an Atlas scouting party on his own, so you tell me."
"So anything, got it. It'll be interesting at least." Shiro chuckled as he reclined in his seat.
"Well, he uses a one-edged sword and has an armored gauntlet on his left arm that also shoots 12-gauge slugs."
"Ah, so he's got a mean left hook? Good to know." Shiro shrugged with his own lopsided smile. Alice could barely stop herself from chuckling. Shiro knew how to lighten the mood, she'd give him that. She almost forgot this was her old partner they were strategizing about. Almost.
"Hopefully we can avoid any potential altercations, Mr. Yamada. This is a search and rescue mission, not an assassination." Professor Goodwitch stated. Apparently she did not appreciate Shiro's humor like Alice did.
"Yeah, like I need the reminder. I'm just surprised General Ironwood went along with it. You should've seen it, the dude popped a vein on the flight over to Beacon the second he heard."
"Yes, well, the general did want to send the Ace Ops in," Anja chimed in, almost apologetically. "Luckily, Professor Ozpin talked him down."
"Indeed, Ms. Metzler. The Headmaster was particularly persuasive in that regard." Professor Goodwitch noted.
Persuasive? From what Alice had heard, Professor Ozpin practically twisted Ironwood's arm to let Beacon dispatch a team to bring Luc in, despite the fact the skirmish caused an international incident.
"DZ appears to be a break in the forest, a copse. Touchdown in 20 seconds, godspeed hunters." the pilot announced. The bullhead lurched as it made its final descent. Clutching Cassidy, Alice held her breath as the side doors slid open. Without a word, the four hunters leapt from the troop compartment and several feet into the forest below. She was on the clock now and there was no more time for second-guessing.
Gods, she wished she would stop second-guessing herself before she leapt because the second Alice landed, she barely managed to stifle a gasp. She took in the forest before and her jaw dropped.
"What on gods' green Remnant happened here?" Alice muttered.
The pilot was wrong; this wasn't a natural break in the forest. It looked like a bomb had exploded mid-air and flattened the surrounding trees. For several hundred yards ahead of them, the trees that were present had either shattered to pieces or were left standing at unnatural angles.
It was after the dropship returned to a higher altitude that she realized the woods were dead silent. The Grimm exclusively hunted humanity and even in the most heavily infested territories outside of the kingdoms, the native fauna was left alone. Yet no matter how hard she strained her ears, nary a bird could be heard. If the arrival of the dropship scared them off, she would have at least seen them scatter as the team dropped in.
They needed to figure out what the hell happened and fast as there was no telling if whatever caused this was still nearby. The nearest tree, which was more like the base of a trunk that somehow managed to escape the carnage mostly intact, was only a few feet away. If there was anything to glean and quickly, it would be there.
As she walked towards the tree, she heard the tell-tale crunch of dried leaves and twigs along the forest floor. The ground was hard, which meant it hadn't rained for some knelt down and brushed her gloved hand along the length of the trunk. Three deep claw marks ran vertically along the length of the trunk. They were relatively fresh, maybe even within the last several hours. It was too small to be an Ursa. A Beowulf maybe, but definitely not an Ursa.
She grimaced as she came to her feet. Not even a pack of Beowulfs could have caused all of this damage. All these damned claw marks told her was that there was a Beowulf here recently.
None of this made a lick of sense. They were supposed to be dropped near Luc's probable location, based upon the report sent in by the Atlas scouting party. The skirmish reportedly ended the moment they were ambushed by Creatures of Grimm, after which the party apparently lost contact with Luc. Unless they lied and followed him here, there was no conceivable way one person could have done all of this damage.
"Holy crap, there's somebody still here!" It was Shiro's turn to break the silence, pointing towards the epicenter of the crater.
Alice blinked and, before she was aware, ran off at a dead sprint towards the epicenter. Professor Goodwitch shouted some words of warning but Alice was too focused to take heed. If there was even a possibility that it was her partner, she needed to know.
She was practically out of breath when she arrived before the figure Shiro spotted. It was a young man, not much younger than Alice was, and he was slumped against the hollowed out remains of a great tree trunk. The young man's wild jet-black hair obscured his face and Alice moved closer in order to get a better look. She gingerly brushed aside the hair covering his face and her breath caught in her throat.
It was Luc, though she could scarcely recognize him. Three jagged scars ran parallel to each other across his right eye. His normally healthy olive complexion was more pallid than she remembered and judging from the condition of his hair, he hadn't seriously washed or trimmed it since he left Beacon over a year ago. The armor that he wore, the armor he definitely didn't leave Beacon with, was pitch black and covered his chest and shoulders.
Alice's eyes widened as she caught sight of his left arm; it was a metal prosthesis from the elbow down. When had he lost his left arm? And how? Tears threatened to swell as she took in the sight of him. She finally found him and it looked like he was already half dead.
She shouted for Anja to catch up but nearly bit off her tongue when she realized the rest of her team had already caught up with her. Anja politely brushed Alice aside and checked for Luc's pulse. After a moment, she sighed with relief.
"It's alright, there's a pulse. It's faint but it's definitely there." Anja said. "I'll perform emergency first aid but we need to call the pilot back now. He needs an ER doctor and there is only so much I can -"
Everything that came after was a blur. Luc's eyes snapped open as he grabbed Anja's hand at his throat. With his good hand, he yanked Anja to the ground and brought his left iron fist to bear. Shiro, who had been watching his partner work over her shoulder, shoved her aside as she fell forward but caught Luc's iron fist for his trouble.
All the while, Alice raised Cassidy and the world truly slowed to a crawl. It was the effect of her Semblance, what she affectionately called her " Dead Eye ", that sped up her perception of time and gave her matching reflexes to boot, albeit for a span of 5 seconds in real time. So by the time Shiro crumpled to the ground, Alice had already fired off three rounds. Each struck home with nigh-deadly precision; two rounds dug into the side of Luc's breastplate while the third pierced his right thigh.
Luc crumpled against the tree once more, no more alive than he was mere moments before.
Alice barely stifled a laugh as she dropped to her knees. She could scarcely believe that she just shot him, let alone that he would attack them the moment they tried to help. Why did she even shoot him in the first place? If he was half dead, there was no way he had any aura left to absorb the bullets.
"Good work students, it seems we were able to avert an altercation after all." Professor Goodwitch said calmly, too calmly for Alice's tastes. Alice had to drill a steely resolve into herself to be a better marksman, so what was Goodwitch's excuse?
"Oh yeah, that was a mean left hook alright." Shiro laughed as he clutched his jaw, "Fuck, it hurts to laugh."
Alice looked over to Luc and saw that Anja was back on her feet. She supposed Atlas discipline had it perks every now and then, though she caught the slight tremor in Anja's hand as she fiddled with the display on her left forearm.
"He is alive; his armor stopped the two bullets aimed for chest but the third is embedded in his leg. I can stop the bleeding but he needs to be in an O.R. as soon as possible."
"The bullhead is already on its way back; we can have Mr. Fenrys brought back to Beacon within the hour. Good work, Ms. Metzler."