The Main Avenue at Beacon was quiet, the only sound being the chirping of the summer crickets. The sky was a calming shade of midnight blue, the large body of water separating the academy from the city was so still it reflected the heavens above like a pristine mirror, and the lit-up buildings in Vale were bright enough that they could be seen even from this distance. It was a far cry from earlier that morning when students were mingling and bustling around, ready to set off on missions to protect the world. The day may have been lively, but now the night seemed at peace.
However, James Ironwood was not relaxed at these sights. Not even when his own personal airships hovered in the skies around this otherwise peaceful view. He stood perilously close to the edge of the docking bay watching Vale with the same cautious expression he always seemed to have. As though this peace was only the calm before the storm.
Slowly walking up the behind him, was Glynda Goodwitch. "Trouble sleeping?"
Ironwood looked back, gripping his left arm. "Arm was acting up."
"Of course, so logically you got out of bed, dressed yourself completely and decided to gaze menacingly out into the distance." Goodwitch remarked as she approached all the way to his side, looking at him concerningly. "What's wrong?"
"I've trusted him for years. We both have. I just...I can't help but feel like he's keeping us in the dark." Ironwood answered.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Goodwitch leaned her head over to Ironwood. "You know very well that we are not the ones in the dark."
Ironwood laughed humorously. "That makes it worse! I refuse to believe that a man that I've trusted for so long would act so...passively." Ironwood's face grew more serious. "Especially when the situation has grown into something much more than it once was. Then it ever was."
"What do you mean?" Goodwitch asked.
"You don't need to be coy with my Glynda, you know exactly what I mean. I haven't exactly been subtle about it." Ironwood looked up in deep thought, while Goodwitch stayed cautiously quiet. "I've always loved astrology. Have I ever told you that?"
"No. But I'm hardly surprised, you do always seem to aim for greater and greater heights." Goodwitch playfully smirked. "And it does explain certain design choices in your office."
"Well you aren't wrong there. I've always looked up at the night sky and wondered if there was something…more out there. Something greater that we were missing out on, something better that was just out of reach." Ironwood stretched his arm up to the night sky, tightly grasping a handful stars. Then slowly lowered his arm, and looked down at his closed fist solemnly. "But instead of us reaching to their level, they stooped down to ours. And now that they're down here: some under our watch, others hidden in the shadows, even more somewhere over the horizon in who knows where…I can't help but think about how much they have already integrated themselves into our world and our conflict. I can't help but wonder why it is they came here? What they want with our world? And I don't want to just sit down and wait to find out."
Goodwitch looked earnestly at Ironwood. "James…you always look forward. At the what if's and what might's. And as invaluable of a skill that is, you sometimes look past what is. And what is happening right now is that there is group out to disturb the peace of this world who we need to stop. Nothing more than that. And if there was more than that, then you and I both know that Ozpin would know about it. And I truly believe that whatever course of action he would take, would be the best one not just for our world but for theirs as well. Those two are just as much victims as anyone else in this, perhaps more so, and despite that they still put themselves in harm's way to protect our way of life just like any Huntsman or Huntress would. Or were your words to Ms. Navy earlier today a lie?"
"…No." Ironwood looked sincerely at Goodwitch. "No, they weren't."
Goodwitch put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You're a good person James. You've always done what you think is best for the people, even against strong protest. It's admirable, but it's high time you stopped talking about trust and started showing it." Goodwitch dropped her hand as they stared into the distance together. "Ozpin has experience that the rest of us lack. And I think that's something worth remembering."
Far away from the peace of the city, Remnant's moon shone brightly in the sky unimpeded by artificial light or foreign airships. Tonight it was in its full-moon phase, the phase that due to its angle made the moon seem almost whole, almost complete again. This also meant that the moon on this night created much more moonlight than any other time of the month. And at this moment that light was being used to shine over the ruined buildings of Mountain Glenn, and the lone Beowolf searching through the rubble.
The Beowolf was being observed not only by the constant watch of the moon, but also through the red crosshair of a sniper's scope. The Grimm looked up briefly, staring dead centre of the crosshair for a moment, before looking away and continuing its rummage as the crosshairs panned away.
After staring through her weapon's lens, Ruby lowered her weapon and sighed in tiredness as she kept a lookout over the destruction just outside the room where her teammates slept. Yang, Blake and Weiss were all lying around the burning campfire, with Doctor Oobleck sleeping higher up over their heads with a small hole to check on the students in the ceiling/floor.
The wood on the campfire crinkled and spat as the flames it produced were burning it, as the tree members of Team WBY slept with their eyes closed…Or at least they pretended too.
Yang opened her eyes. "Blake, are you awake?"
"Yeah." Blake answered with her eyes still closed.
"Why do you think he asked us about being a Huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?" Yang asked, rolling over to look at Blake.
"Maybe he was just curious." Blake answered.
"You think?"
"…No."
Yang sighed, rolling onto her back to look at the ceiling. "Weiss, are you awake?
"Of course, I'm awake! You two are talking." Weiss loudly answered, making Yang flinch. "And I think he...when I said I wanted to honour my family's name, I meant it. But, it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a...moral grey area.
"That's putting it lightly."
Weiss leaned up, off her sleeping matt. "Which is why I feel the need to make things right! If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it." Weiss finished, lying back down.
"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right." Blake started talking and looked up at the ceiling, in the shadow of the flames she made out a familiar symbol of a flower. "I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for everyone. I joined the Academy because I knew that Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I-how can I undo so many years of hate?"
Yang counselled. "I'm sure you'd figure it out. You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake.
"But I am! I do it all the time! When you learned I was a Faunus I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my Semblance! I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!"
"…At least you two have something that drives you." Yang rolled onto her front. "I've just kind of always, gone with the flow, y'know? And that's fine, I mean that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a Huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that. I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today."
Weiss leant back up. "Well, she's still just a kid."
Blake joiner her "She's only two years younger. We're all kids."
Yang sat on her side, resting her head against her right arm. "Well, not anymore. I mean, look where we are! In the middle of a warzone and armed to the teeth!"
"It's the life we chose." Blake pointed out.
"It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads. But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people. And whatever we want, will have to come second." Weiss summarised.
When Weiss finished talking the three girls looked to each other less confused, more understanding of what they were doing, and above their heads the apparently-sleeping Oobleck formed a small smile on his lips. His head tilted to the left, maybe because he was tired and it just fell that way, or maybe so he could get a better view inside the other room that was covered in darkness.
Down there, Robin lay spread out on her matt. It was so dark that she wasn't quite sure if her eyes were still open or not, but she couldn't sleep either way. It was cold being surrounded on all sides by concrete, and the night without a fire or blanket to warm her up, but she could take it. Just like the pain and gurgling that was in her stomach from not eating any dinner. She had to take it, needed to take it, at least she felt like she did.
Suddenly a bright flash of light lit up Robin's face, making sure that if her eyes weren't closed before they were tightly shut now from the sheer intensity.
"Aah!" Robin shouted.
"Sorry! Didn't mean to shine it in your eyes." A familiar sympathetic voice said.
Robin put her hands in front of her face to shield herself from the rays and gently opened her eyes. "Kai?!"
The light seemed to change from a concentrated beam, to a more spread-out glow that evenly brightened up the room that Robin was sleeping in. The source of the light came from the screen of a scroll, a scroll which Kai slowly put on the ground.
"Sorry about that. Not too used to the settings on the app." Kai apologised. "But I thought since you were still up, you'd appreciate the light."
Robin frowned. "How did you know you didn't just wake me up?"
"Because you were completely quiet in here, and I've spent enough nights sleeping next to you to know that you mumble in your sleep." Kai answered.
"I do not mumble in my sleep." Robin's frown intensified.
"You do. As well as drool." Kai looked around Robin's sleeping matt. "And I don't see any puddles."
Robin angrily gasped. "You may think I mumble but I definitely don't drool!"
"Uh huh…" Kai murmured unconvincingly.
"Seriously I don't!" Robin defended.
"Sure, you don't." Kai's expression began to soften and he reached for something behind his back. "Look the reason I came here is because I came to give you this…"
Kai extended his arm closer to his scroll, letting Robin see a bread roll in his hand.
Robin squinted at it. "Why do you-?"
"I don't know what happened, but you came in here before we ate and you didn't come back. I know you're stubborn but I don't think whatever you're feeling is worth starving yourself over, especially after an exhausting day like this one." Kai explained.
Robin looked down at the roll. "You don't need to be concerned. I didn't join everyone because I'm not hungry. Besides…" Robin looked away guiltily. "Beedrill did all the work today, I didn't do enough to work up an appetite."
Kai looked at Robin seriously before hitting her over the head with the roll.
"What was that for?!" Robin yelled, as she rubbed her head.
"Everyone needs to eat Robin, multiple times every day. It doesn't matter if they ran ten miles, or sat on a chair the whole time. They need to eat. And so do you." Kai explained kindly.
Robin went to argue but as she saw the bread so close to her face, she felt the empty feeling in her stomach grow deeper. "…What's in the bread?"
"I don't know. Flour, water, yeast maybe?" Kai shoved the roll further forward. "Just eat it."
Robin sighed in defeat and snatched the bread roll from out of Kai's hand. She tore a piece off with her teeth and chewed it spitefully, before immediately mellowing out and stuffing as much as she could into her mouth.
"Woah, woah, slow down! You'll choke." Kai reached behind him again, pulling out a canteen. "Have some water."
Robin grabbed the canteen without a word of argument and paused chewing to take a gulp of the cool, hydrating liquid. She quickly finished off the bread, wiping the crumbs off her face and taking another big sip of water.
"Better?" Kai asked.
"…Better." Robin returned the canteen to Kai bashfully. "Thank you…I didn't realise how much I needed that."
"It's fine. Just next time don't go on a hunger strike when you get in a bad mood." Kai asked kindly. "It would be a crime for someone who enjoys themselves that much over a piece of bread to go skinny."
Robin looked blankly at Kai. "Are you saying I'm fat?"
Kai quickly tightened up. "Uh-! Um-! No! But if you were that'd be fine! As long as you're healthy I don't think it matters what shape you are! Unless you want to lose weight in which case go for it! But don't feel like you need to be pressured into-!" Kai went into a panicked frenzy until he saw Robin smirk at him. "I'm looking too much into things again, aren't I?"
"Yup. Honestly it's too easy at this point." Robin teased.
As Robin looked at Kai, she found herself thinking about today, about the question she was asked much like the girls in the other room did.
"I do not mean what has brought you on this mission! I mean what has brought you down this path…what has brought you here?"
The memory of Oobleck's question went around inside her head. How she compared becoming a Huntress with challenging the Kalos Pokémon League.
Kai picked up his scroll and started to turn around. "Well now that you've eaten something, I'll leave you in-"
"Why did you want to beat the Champion?" Robin suddenly asked.
Kai stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Why do you suddenly want to-?"
"Just answer the question." Robin interrupted.
Kai turned around completely and put his scroll back down on the floor. He stayed quiet for a moment, placing a finger under his lip in thought. "It's been a while since I thought about it but I guess the main reason was…because it was the end."
"The end?"
"Yeah, you know. It's not like you stop playing a video game before the final boss, or finish a book without reading the final chapter." Kai explained. "I wanted to beat the champion because she was at the end of Victory Road, at the end of my journey. I didn't want to feel like I missed anything out. Does that make sense?"
Robin disappointedly looked down. "…Yeah…it makes sense…"
Kai sensed that wasn't the answer Robin was looking for and thought a little harder. "Although I suppose I never looked at beating the Champion as its own thing. It was always just one small part of a larger experience."
Robin looked up. "Huh?"
"Everything that happened when I set off from home, after getting my Froakie from Professor Sycamore and catching Fletchling, I treated as one big thing. Every gym battle, every evolution, every new move learned, every win and even every loss." Kai's eyes lit up and he looked at Robin. "Wait here a moment."
Kai suddenly left the room, leaving his scroll behind. Robin curiously looked out the hole he left from when he quickly returned holding his gym badge case.
"Guess it's a good thing I arrived late, otherwise I wouldn't have brought my bag and I couldn't show you these." Kai opened the case up, proudly displaying his eight gym badges. "See when I look at the Cliff Badge I remember back when Greninja was a Frogadier and despite being paralyzed by Amaura's Thunder Wave, he managed to hold on and take her down. Oh, and when I look at the Fairy Badge I think about how when Sylveon's Cute Charm infatuated Doublade, she got immobilised and took so many attacks head on, but she still kept fighting, and how right when it all looked lost she suddenly learned Iron Head won the match! Oooh! Oooh! And the Iceberg badge, now I've told this story fairly recently but-"
"Kai, I-I get the point." Robin stopped Kai. "You…really have a lot of fond memories of your journey. All those victories."
"Not just victories…" Robin looked back at Kai as he picked one badge up from the case. A bronze one with green accents that look similar to an insect. "Whenever I look at the Bug Badge, I never actually remember how I earned it. I always remember the first battle against the gym leader, the one where I lost."
Kai stared deep into its round green areas. "When I first entered the gym, I didn't even notice the dew drops making a path on the spider web. I just charged head first and had Froakie and Fletching face every trainer until I made it to Viola. So by the time I got to her, they were both already worn out…" Kai sighed. "It wasn't even close. We got crushed completely. That night Froakie and Fletching were basically at each other's throats, and I couldn't help but feel like I failed them as a trainer. I was seriously considering just giving up right there and then."
Robin saw the lingering regret on Kai's face and suddenly remembered how he acted toward his Pokémon earlier that day when dealing with the Grimm.
Noticing the large number of Grimm, they had slain, Kai looked over to Aegislash. "Are you tired Aegislash? If you need a break, I can tag you out and have one of the others take over."
Realising the regret from that experience still lingered on, Robin looked empathetically at Kai. "So why didn't you give up?"
Kai put the badge away and looked at two of the Pokéballs on his belt. "I realised that it wasn't just about me, that it was our journey. And just giving up after one loss would have be more painful to them then all the damage they took in that gym combined. So once we processed our loss, we set to work immediately on how we were gonna do better this time."
Kai looked sympathetically at Robin. "Robin…I'm…not perfect."
"I've gathered." Robin remarked.
"Well neither is my battling record. I've lost plenty of times even after getting my first gym badge. Even after beating the Champion. And sure losing sucks but…I don't think losing is always a bad thing. That making mistakes isn't necessarily a bad thing. Neither Talonflame or Greninja hold a grudge for being worked so hard back then, and in the long run that experience helped us grow closer." Kai rubbed the back of his head. "I guess what I'm trying to say is…as long as no serious harm was done then I don't think you should let these things get to you. Me and my team aren't amazing but we're still pretty good."
There it was again; the thing Robin couldn't quite get. Kai's acceptance of failure, how he could be content as a good trainer and not a great one. And how despite that mindset he had somehow achieved incredible feats that most trainers couldn't even achieve with a life time of hard work. It should have been infuriating hearing the words come out of Kai's mouth…but it wasn't. For Robin it felt like the opposite in fact, like something she needed to hear.
"So don't blame yourself Robin…I know that your Pokémon don't." Kai sympathetically finished.
Robin placed her hand over her Pokéball pouch on her belt, and formed a subtle smile on her lips. "…So you're telling me you seriously would have just given up and gone home after losing to your first gym leader. I've lost plenty of times in the Pokémon League and I'm still planning on challenging them again first thing after I get back home."
"That's…not the take away I expected you to get from that, but technically I would have only stopped my Gym circuit run. I couldn't really go home because I was kind of obligated to continue travelling Kalos because I agreed to help Professor Sycamore with his research. You see I actually only got a Froakie from him because my mom signed me up for-" Kai suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, a dark epiphany going off in his mind that made the light vanish from his eyes. "…mom…"
"Hmm? Kai why did you-?"
"The last thing people saw me do before I came into Remnant…was saw me run into Professor Sycamore's Pokémon research lab. It was falling apart. I never came out. Nobody saw me…" Kai had a horrified look on his face. "All this time my mom…must have thought I died."
Robin's mouth opened slightly hearing Kai's grim revelation. "Kai that's not your-"
"I-I need some air." Kai quickly left the room, leaving his scroll and his gym badges behind.
As he went through the hole in the wall, he sneaked past the three sleeping girls around the fire and put on Gant Blindé on his arms, just in case he ran into any trouble. He looked around one more time to see Ruby still on night shift, her attention entirely focused on what was ahead of her instead of what was around her, giving Kai the opportunity to sneak out on his own.
The position of the moon seemed to lower itself closer to the ground, a sign of time passing throughout the night as the dawn of a new day slowly approached. Kai noticed this because for quite some time he had sat alone on a rooftop, watching the moon quietly. He wasn't quite sure how long ago it was that he left Robin and the others to go off on his own. At least an hour or two maybe? Maybe longer? But the length of time out on his own wasn't his main priority, that belonged to control and remove the feeling of tightness in his chest.
"In…out…in…out…" Kai looked down at his chest, placing his right hand over his heart. "It's not working! No matter what I-!"
"Awoooo!"
The howl of a beowolf in the distance interrupted Kai, his face grew serious as he took another breath. "Right, I need to calm down. Especially around here…but…"
Kai's mind started going back, years and years to one particular moment.
Three Years Ago…
Alright do you have everything you need? Money? Food? A spare change of clothes? Your Pokémon? Those items the Professor gave you-?"
It had been a just under a day since Kai had made the decision to travel Kalos, helping Professor Sycamore learn more about Mega Evolution and explore the world along the way. Of course, he had decided to wait until morning first, giving his mom plenty of time to return home from work and lovingly see him off.
"Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes to a half a dozen other things you're probably going to list off." Kai looked sincerely at his mom. "Mom, I'm ready."
"I know you are sweetie..." Kai's mom placed a hand to her cheek. "I know your father's not here to see you off but-"
Kai's mom choked up, putting a hand over her mouth. Kai's expression dampened but he managed to form a smile for her.
"I know…he'd be proud of me." Kai took a breath. "I think it's time I set off mom. If I wait any longer it might be dusk before I reach Santalune forest."
Kai opened the door, letting the cool autumn air blow into the house. The colour of the leaves on the trees similar to the reddish-brown of his mother's hair. He was only one step out of the door when his mom suddenly grabbed his hand.
"Just promise me one thing sweetie. Just promise me…that you won't forget that I'm still here waiting for you. No matter what I'll be here." Kai's mom promised.
Kai looked over his shoulder and gave his mom a more earnest smile. "Sure mom. I promise I'll never forget."
"I'm sorry mom…" Kai weakly murmured back in the present. "I broke my promise…I'm-"
"Gwooof!"
The sound of an animal barking brought Kai back to his senses, suddenly going on high alert. He quickly prepped his weapons, turning the dome on each weapon, to arm them both with Ice Dust ammunition.
"Woof!"
Hearing another sound, Kai triggered his Perception allowing him to envision the soundwaves travelling from the street below to the rooftop he was on. He raised his gauntlets, stretching out his fingers to ready a blast of compressed Dust and leaped into position on the edge of the roof…only to see Zwei taking a leak on some ruins.
"Zwei! Zwei, where are you? Zwei!"
Kai's Perception suddenly picked up a familiar voice coming from below. "That voice! That's-!"
"Huh?" Walking outside the building was none other than Zwei's owner Ruby. "Zwei, this is a wasteland! You literally could have done that anywhere!"
Realising the danger was all in his head and seeing one of his friends up as late as he was, Kai exhaled peacefully as he de-activated his semblance. "This place really is starting to mess with my nerves. The sooner we finish exploring the better."
Kai lowered his arms and exhaled exhaustively while shaking his head, while down below Zwei finished his business and walked up to Ruby, being picked up in her arms and barking loudly in response.
"What was that?"
A third unfamiliar voice asked, making Kai and Ruby tense up. Ruby squatted behind cover while carrying Zwei, while Kai crouched down and maintained his position from above.
"What was what?"
Another strange voice prompted Ruby to peak behind cover with Zwei, while Kai triggered his Perception once again giving him an extended view of the area in his head. From both of their viewpoints Ruby and Kai saw two, armed White Fang guards talking to each other while they were scouting the area
"I thought I heard a Beowolf or something." The first guard reasoned.
"Hmph. Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base." The second guard turned and started walking away down the street. "This place gives me the creeps."
'I want to get down there and team up with Ruby, but if I do I might alert the guards. They are faunus so I can't rely on the dark of the night to hide me from sight.' Kai thought as he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist. 'For now, I guess I'll just have to track them from above, outside their field of vision and hope Ruby doesn't attract their attention.'
Kai fired the metal knuckle on the end of his gauntlet, using it to grab onto part of the next rooftop. He pulled on his gauntlet and dragged himself along the cable, travelling from one rooftop to the next as silently as he could.
While Kai repeatedly swung from roof to roof, Ruby and Zwei sneakily followed the two guards on foot. The Huntress in training held out her rifle and walked on tiptoes, before rushing jaggedly between any optimum spots of cover.
After they followed the two White Fang members for several city blocks, Kai eventually managed to pull himself up to a lower-level building just ahead of the guards. He watched them walk around a corner before spotting Ruby on her tiptoes, pausing to watch them on one foot before losing her balance and tossing her weapon into the air.
Kai went wide-eyed at Ruby clumsily about to give away her position, as she frantically teetered back and forth. She rapidly waving her arms up and down to try and regain her balance, before she caught her weapon before it hit the ground and zoomed further back. Leaving the surveillance to Zwei who she lifted up and positioned around the corner.
Kai sighed in relief and put a hand over his heart before turning his attention back to the White Fang guards who seemed to be approaching a ruined building with a pair of metal doors. The two guards took one final look around and seeing nothing suspicious, opened the metal doors before shutting them behind them. The sound of their closing echoing into Kai's Perception granted extrasensory hearing. The sound of the echoing was quickly followed up by another one of Zwei's barks, a signal to let Ruby know that they were in the clear.
"Oh! This is it! This is it!" From behind her hiding spot Ruby brought out her scroll and tried to call her teammates only for the dial to be interrupted by a 'LOW SIGNAL' message popping up on the screen. "Aw man! Come on, we gotta get the others!"
As Ruby and Zwei set off down the street, Kai tried contacting Robin on his scroll hoping his higher altitude would provide better service. Unfortunately, the same 'LOW SIGNAL' message came up on his scroll too.
"No signal here either, perfect." Kai sarcastically remarked. "Come on Kai, focus on the positive. We've found them; just head down, meet up with Ruby, and go get-"
CRACK!
Kai's pupils narrowed at the sharp penetrating sound. He looked around only for everything to look the same. "Was that my-?"
CRACKLE!
Kai heard the sound again; this time sounding much louder, and coming from a lower place. Kai slowed down and tried to focus. He started to think about where the sound was coming from.
'Okay so the city has survived this long, so I doubt it's breaking down all of a sudden on its own. I haven't moved so I doubt it's me. If it was a Grimm I'd probably also hear the raspiness of its breath or the scratching of its claws. And I just saw the two guards finishing their shift, so I doubt there are any other White Fang members in the area. The only thing around here that could cause it could be-'
CRACK!
A third even louder sound rang in Kai's ears, this time allowing him to pinpoint it to his source. He turned and looked down the street to see Ruby walking down it, unaware of the small nearly unnoticeable cracks caused by the strain that her weight was putting on the weakened ground.
Kai started running and fired his fist onto a nearby piece of the ruins, using it to swing himself from the roof onto the road.
"Ruby! Get out of that spot!" Kai called out.
Ruby heard her name and looked to see Kai running over. "Kai?! What are you doing on out here on your own! I mean I'm on my own too but that's not important! I found-!"
"You need to get out of that spot!" Kai alarmingly repeated.
"Huh?" Ruby replied in confusion.
Zwei walked up to Ruby when suddenly she felt the tarmac beneath her feet begin to sink, bringing up dust. Ruby looked down to see the road was splintered and starting to crack, this time being loud enough for Ruby to hear it.
Before she could move in time the asphalt beneath them suddenly caved in, forcing Ruby drop her weapon onto the road and grab onto the ledge with one hand. The other being used to catch Zwei before he could fall into the pit.
CRACK!
Kai heard the dreaded sound again and ran even faster toward his friend. "Ruby!"
Ruby looked down into the depths below before flinging Zwei into the air, letting him land safely on the surface. She started pulling herself up when the ledge she was holding onto suddenly broke off,
She tossed him up out of the hole and begins to attempt to pull herself up. However, the ledge she was holding onto suddenly breaks off. With literally no ground to stand on Ruby screamed as she plummeted deep below the surface.
"RUBY!" Kai shouted, finally arriving at the edge. "I…wasn't fast enough…"
Zwei looked down and barked after his owner, only to fold his ears and whine at the realisation that she was trapped down there.
"This is…just like what Velvet said happened on her teams' mission. Ruby's down there and I…couldn't save her…" Kai just looked down into the dark depths of the underground, his chest going tight and his face losing colour. His fear of underground caves started to trigger. "Maybe I should have sent out Greninja or Talonflame ahead of me? Why didn't I? Why didn't…?"
Kai's head started to ache as he felt a painful memory come up to the forefront of his mind.
"I hear som...on…"
"Kai wai…sto…!"
A much clearer sounding interaction went on in Kai's head as he looked into the abyss Ruby fell into. While still looking down he started walking away backwards.
"…I shouldn't. It's not like this is one of those times where I really have too. I should just go back to the others and tell them what happened. If I go down on my own then I'll…I'll just get other people hurt when they come for me…like last time…I'll just get someone else-" Kai's stopped when he felt the back of his heel brush up against something hard.
He looked down at his foot to see Ruby's scythe up against his black boot. He crouched down and gently picked it up off the road and stared at it.
"Bark!"
Kai suddenly heard Zwei barking toward him, snapping him out of what he was stuck thinking about. Zwei barked again and pointed his nose down toward the hole, as though he was pointing Kai to it. He barked one last time before running off on all fours, towards the camp that Oobleck and the others were set up at.
Kai watched Zwei run off to get help and sighed to himself, shaking his head and making a brave face. "Looks like it is one of those times."
Kai walked up back up to the edge of the pitfall, raising his right leg and hovering his foot over the gap. Ready to take the step into the unknown.
Then Kai quickly retracted his foot. "Actually that looks really deep. I should probably just have Talonflame lower me in slow-"
Before Kai finished, he suddenly heard a loud crack. He felt the road beneath him start to sink as it splintered and chipped. All Kai could do was stand there preparing for the inevitable.
"Of course…" Kai groaned.
The small section of the road Kai was standing on suddenly broke down and collapsed just like before, with no ground to stand on Kai fell deep into the dark pit. Vanishing from sight as he went so far down that light couldn't reach.
At the campsite, Yang perched her left foot on a piece of rubble close to the observation point. Having taken over night watch duties from her younger sister, she seemed unaware to Ruby's search for Zwei and subsequent fall into the underground.
Yang soon decided to call it in and turned around and stretched, before returning to her sleeping teammates. "Hey Weiss, it's your...Ruby? Hey, where's Ruby?"
A faint knocking sound was heard before Oobleck suddenly popped his head around the entrance. "What?"
A barking sound was heard when Zwei came running into the room after him. He quickly scampered up to Yang, panting tirelessly.
"Zwei?" Yang crouched down and stroked her whining pet.
Blake got up from her sleeping matt, pre-emptively putting her weapon on her back. "What's going on?"
"Kai? Are you finally-?" From her own dark room, Robin finally emerged rubbing her eyes. "Why's everyone awake?"
"Ruby's missing!" Yang summarised, Zwei barking in her hands.
Weiss realised something and looked to Robin in concern. "And if you're Kai's not with you then-!"
"He's gone missing too." Blake finished.
"Grab your weapons!" Oobleck called the girls attention. "Your leader, and your friend may be in trouble."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-Oof!"
Ruby's back finally hit the bottom of the abyss. She panted in pain and leaned up, rubbing the back of head with her hand. When she finally recovered from her fall, she blinked and finally took in her shocking surroundings.
Despite being in a sub-terranean cave far below the surface, she found herself sitting over an entire city filled with ruined buildings. It looked almost a dark copy of Mountain Glenn located directly beneath the very same city she had spent exploring itself.
Right as she got to her feet, Ruby heard the sound of a door opening behind her. She turned around, only to raise her hand to cope with the sudden light being flashed in her night-time adjusted eyes.
"Freeze!"
"Where did she come from?"
Ruby's eyes slowly adjusted enough to identify two different White Fang guards than the ones she had followed, standing in front of an opened door that filled the area with light. She continued to squint her eyes as she tried walking backwards to get away from the two only to find herself losing her balance and nearly falling over.
"You're a long way from home, little girl." One of the guards taunted.
Ruby looked behind herself to see that she hadn't landed on the cavern's floor but rather on the roof of another building, and while she may have survived one serious fall that night, she wasn't willing to place her bets on whether she could survive a second.
She stared down the guards and reached for her scythe, only to grab at nothing and realize she didn't have it on her. She gasped in fear at losing her prized weapon, when one of the guards grabbed her arm.
"Hey! Hands off!" Ruby fought back.
She jerked her arm out of the guard's hand and threw all her force into punching the guard in the chest. It…wasn't very effective. Ruby threw another punch, only for the guard to block it with his left arm, and punch Ruby in the face with his right.
The single blow was hard enough to knock her down, leaving her hurt and disorientated as the guard approached her.
"The boss is gonna want to see this one..." The guard raised his boot, preparing to stomp down on Ruby's head.
"Look out beloooooowwwww~!"
Hearing the strange incoming voice, the guard stopped what he was doing and looked up. "What the-? Rraaagh!"
Kai crash landed directly on top of the guard, getting the jump on him and taking him out of commission.
"Uuugh~" Kai groaned as he leaned up. "Honestly, that was a much softer landing than I thought."
"Kai?" Ruby weakly called his name.
Kai quickly looked back at Ruby. "Ruby?! Are you alright?"
"Hold it right there!" The second White Fang Guard cut off. He aimed his rifle at Kai, who looked turned to look at him. "Let me see your hands!"
Kai got off the previous White Fang guard and stood on his feet, looked seriously at the White Fang Guard, noticing his rounded glasses over his mask. He raised his gauntlet covered arms over his head making sure his fingers were unclenched and stretched out. "Okay take it easy. You want to see my hands…Then take a good hard look!"
Inside his weapons casing Kai flexed his hands, making his palms glow with a frigid blue energy. Before the glasses-wearing guard could react Kai shot two compressed beams of Ice Dust at him, freezing his body, and leaving him unable to move anything but his chattering teeth.
Kai exhaled and looked back down to see Ruby happily spotting Crescent Rose near Kai's feet and happily cradling it in her arms. "Was that all of them? Or were there any others that left to inform the others?"
Ruby was brought out of her happy reunion with her weapon by Kai's question, folding it away on her belt and standing back up. "Nope. Just those two."
"Good. That means no one else knows about us being here yet." Kai pulled out a Pokéball from his belt. "I'll get Talonflame to get us out of here and then once we meet up with the others, we can figure out a plan and come back."
Kai went to open the capsule but suddenly stopped, looking past the frozen White Fang member and toward the door. "Except these two were sent out to investigate the sound of us falling down here. If they don't contact whoever sent them out, then they'll get suspicious. And with those Abra they used back at the docks, and those remotes the scientists all have…it wouldn't take them long to evacuate if they needed to."
Kai looked down and deeply thought about what to do. If Kai left to inform the others Oobleck would almost definitely want to come up with a strategy, or maybe even call for reinforcements both of which would take up time they didn't have. On the other hand, while Kai did have experience soloing Team Flare those were in confined buildings or labs, not an expansive underground city that may or may not also be crawling with subterranean Grimm. By the time he knew where to look it could already have been too late, whereas Oobleck seemed much more knowledgeable about the city and the geography. Would bringing the rest of Team RWBY be more efficient to comb the area and fight of threats? Or would they be caught off guard by an unknown Pokémon move and be put in another hostage situation like the other two times he came face-to-face with Xerosic? Would he be able to keep his composure underground long enough? What about Robin? If he was forced to choose between getting himself home and getting them both home would he freeze? Kai was frozen in place unsure of what the best decision to make was.
Ruby suddenly cocked her Sniper Rifle. "What are we waiting for then Kai? Let's go find that mad scientist!"
Kai abruptly looked toward Ruby. "Hang on a minute Ruby! What about the mission? What about your team, and Robin, and Dr. Oobleck? Shouldn't we inform them about this before we do anything rash?"
"I know all that Kai but…but I also made a promise to you! That I would help get you home. And if the key to doing that is down here than I'm going to find it!" Ruby reminded Kai confidently. "Besides, Zwei knows what happened. I'm sure he's already half way back toward the camp right now. It won't be long until the others come find us, I just know it!"
"Well he did seem surprisingly intelligent." Kai found himself taken in by Ruby's confidence and felt his concerns begin to fade. "…Alright Ruby I'm with you. If Xerosic really is down here, then I'm not going to keep him waiting."
The Huntsman and Huntress in training both looked to each other and readied their weapons in their hands, passing by the incapacitated White Fang guards, and venturing together through the open door and into the unknown.
Unbeknownst to them both, they were being watched through an orange visor. Standing on a lower-level building was Aliana, her boots on the edge of the platform as she watched Kai and Ruby head off.
"I knew those Grunts were useless." She smirked as she put her fingers against her visor. "Dr. Xerosic. Kai Emblem has arrived ahead of schedule. It's time to commence with phase two."
Back on the surface, Zwei lead Oobleck, Robin, and the remainder of Team WBY to the hole that Ruby and Kai fell into. Zwei came to a stop at the edge of the pitfall and barked to the others.
"A hole in the ground?" Yang asked herself.
"I don't remember seeing anything like this anywhere else in the city today." Blake pointed out.
Robin stared into the ground remembering Kai's phobia of caves and the underground, her fists tightened. "If Kai is down there I guarantee: either it wasn't his choice, or he didn't have a choice."
Weiss walked up to the edge. "Do you think they fell?"
Oobleck immediately rushed over. "Fell?"
Weiss looked down into the depths. "Down there."
"Oh my." Oobleck looked down with her, before frantically moving his head all around himself. "Of course! Of course, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!"
"What is it?" Blake asked concerningly.
Oobleck paced behind her and Yang. "How could I be so stupid?!"
Yang looked toward him. "Dr. Oobleck, what's wrong?"
Oobleck appeared in her face, going back and forth between all the girls. "Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to thousands of people! Working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"
Oobleck crouched to Zwei's level, who whined at Oobleck's sudden ephiphany.
"Doc, what are you saying?" Yang asked.
Oobleck put his hands on the young Huntress' shoulders. "My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an under-ground crime network!"
"They've been working in caves?" Blake asked Oobleck as he zipped past her to the edge of the hole.
"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defence, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start!" Oobleck quickly explained, as the girls and Zwei all walked up to him. "As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival, they took up shelter beneath the city. In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface!"
"An underground village?" Yang summarised sceptically.
"In a matter of speaking, yes. A-a safe haven…until...an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels…creating the world's largest tomb. If Ruby and Kai are down there." Oobleck pulled out his flask, extending and transforming it a long club, reminiscent of a wooden torch. "We must find them..."
"Ah ha ha! Oh, they've already been found!"
A strange female voice came from behind Oobleck, he turned around just as a red figure rose out of the hole in the street. Robin unknowingly tightened her fists when she looked up and saw Aliana, hovering in the air thanks to a pair of rocket thrusters expelling from the soles of her red boots.
"Just not by the likes of you." Aliana ominously taunted.
The ruins beneath ruins seemed oddly empty. Normally seeing such a site in an abandoned state, would be the normal expectation. However, considering this was the apparent base of two conjoined extremist groups, the isolation couldn't help but feel alarming.
Kai looked over to his left seeing a bunch of shipping containers identical to the ones the White Fang and Team Flare teleported away back at the docks. He then looked to his right to see a train on an old track, with one of the cars wide open at the side to show the inside was completely empty.
"Still no sign of any White Fang members or Team Flare grunts." Kai then looked to Ruby. "Any luck contacting Beacon?"
Beside him Ruby held her scroll in her hand attempting to call Jaune, only for the 'LOW SIGNAL' message to re-appear on her screen.
"I still can't get through." Ruby sighed, when she noticed Kai seemed distant. "Kai, what's wrong?"
"Something's not right." Kai came to a stop and surveyed the area. "Everything here looks…half finished."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Look around, a refurnished train ready for transport with nothing in it. Even though there's an empty container lying right over there. And where's the Atlas technology they stole? Where's the Wild Pokémon they locked up in crates. It's like they had a plan but…stopped all of a sudden."
"You mean they gave up?" Ruby suggested.
"No, more like…they changed their strategy. It's just a feeling but…maybe my Semblance can point something out that I missed." Kai calmly concluded.
He took a breath and closed his eyes, taking in the dark atmosphere of the cave. His eyes suddenly opened wide with a flash of blue as he felt the information come to him. He frowned as the world around him suddenly looked flat, as though he could reach out his hand and touch the edge of space.
"Wait, this looks familiar." Kai stretched out his gauntlet covered hand. "This is-!"
Kai suddenly saw a familiar figure from behind the layer in front of him and quickly stretched his fingers to fire a beam of Ice Dust. The beam shattered the space in front of Kai into tiny pieces, and continued trailing until it collided on contact with a familiar parasol.
Ruby stared in shock at the world breaking down. "This semblance…I remember it from when we fought that robot."
"You should have remembered that your illusions don't work on me…Neo." Kai announced.
From behind the cover of her accessory, Neopolitan lifted her frost covered parasol and whipped it over her shoulder while closing it in one motion. The thin layer of ice broke off, and yet the stare she gave Kai was infinitely colder.
"…" Neo's grip on her parasol's handle tightened as she stared down the person responsible for her boss' incarceration.
"Hmph, guess taking you by surprise is out of the question."
Kai's ears picked up an unfamiliar masculine voice, as his attention was once again drawn to the train cart. However not that Neo's Overactive Imagination had been shattered, Kai could clearly see the White Fang Lieutenant standing inside with his chainsaw in hand.
Ruby stared down the lieutenant, raising her Sniper Rifle toward him. "How did you know we were here? We took out your guards?"
"…" Neo playfully smiled at Ruby and mimed zipping her lips shut.
Kai picked up a Pokéball while aiming one gauntlet at Neo. "Guess they're lips are sea-"
"Heeheeheehee!"
Kai's enhanced hearing picked up on am eerily faint laughter that was getting louder by the second. Without moving his line of sight, Kai's Perception alerted him to a lanky figure leaping through the air behind him and suddenly landing in-between him and Ruby.
"Surprise!" The skull-masked faunus cackled.
Kai's Perception let him react immediately, turning his attention away from Neo and throwing a punch. The scorpion faunus bent his back to make Kai overswing, and rotated his body to throw a low uppercut at Kai's jaw. Kai reacted fast enough to use his other gauntlet to block the swing, but the force pushed him back.
In the seconds that passed Ruby finally recovered from shock and spun Crescent Rose into its scythe configuration, swinging at the faunus now that this back was turned. Her blade went to slash the side of his neck, when his scorpion tail swatted away Ruby's wrist. Ruby was knocked off balance and the skull-masked faunus capitalised by spun in place and delivered a roundhouse kick to Ruby's head. In mid-air the top of Ruby's scythe scraped against the ground before Ruby landed on her feet, stabbing the tip of her weapon into the earth to slow her to a stop.
Kai looked at his attacker and frowned. 'Even with my Perception I could just barely keep up with his speed! Is this guy seriously just another White Fang member?!'
With the pair split apart on either side of him, the skull-masked faunus chuckled. "Oh come now! Surely you can do better than that can't you? It would be an insult to the Queen if after all the trouble you caused, you were taken down so easily."
Kai looked around, seeing the three serious threats surrounding him. 'This is bad! I knew something was wrong but I didn't expect an ambush like this!'
Kai desperately scanned the area one more time. "And where's Xerosic?"
While the fight was only just starting, in a deeper section of the caverns Xerosic stood on the platform of a building looking straight ahead. In front of him was an army of White Fang members, heavily armed and standing next to the stolen Atlesian Paladins, and a small number of Team Flare grunts.
"The time is close at hand! Members of the White Fang, your retribution against the humans draws near. Stay in your designated squads and remain close to your assigned Neo Team Flare personnel who will await my signal." Xerosic slowly turned around. "That will be all for now."
Xerosic started walking away, leaving the White Fang members huddled up and left to mumble amongst themselves. His words lacking the charisma and motivation that Torchwick's silver tongue had on the masses.
"Honestly, this conflict between the faunus and the humans of this world is so frightfully dull and illogical. I suppose I should be thankful that Kai Emblem showing up will finally put an end to me having to manage them. Although…"
Xerosic thought back to the other times he and Kai had faced off. When his Doublade defeated him years ago and Xerosic offered Kai the choice between the two buttons to fire or disable the Ultimate Weapon. When he arrived to rescue Roman Torchwick and prepared to kidnap Yang to find out what made Aura in this world work. And lastly when he retrieved the Pokémon he had lent to the White Fang.
"Always at the right place at the right time aren't you. You might as well be the embodiment of chaos theory. As a scientist I wish nothing more than to study your behaviour and see if your extreme probabilities can be replicated." Xerosic's expression became serious, as the sounds of fighting could be faintly heard in the direction he was walking. "But as a loyal follower of Lysandre and the one who has taken over his ambitions in this new world. I realise that the only way to ensure those ambitions come to fruition is take you out of the equation…permanently."
So remember how I said at the end of the last chapter that as things move forward with this arc it will start to play out differently...yeah I wasn't kidding. Hopefully my little alternative glimpse will be satisfying because the action and intensity will only escalate from here.
So until next time, this is Kallerston signing out!