After receiving their instructions from Petal, Rose and Shimmer began walking towards the east, following the odd smells that Shimmer and the others had been picking up. The forest around them was still just as densely packed together as it had been everywhere else, but now she began seeing signs of stony cliffs, and she even heard the sounds of rushing water in the far distance. They continued down the uncomfortably wild terrain, stepping past brush and squeezing between trees when needed. Small animals like squirrels were calling to one another as they jumped from one tree to the next, and the world was growing more orange as the sun was beginning to set on the world, signaling that it would be dark in a matter of hours, though maybe less out here, where the sun was mostly hidden behind large collections of overhead branches.
Rose looked over at the quiet girl from Atlas, thinking of the way Mila was concerned for her safety, the way he looked at her, as if she was the only thing that mattered in all of Remnant. Rose then recalled the way Petal always looked at her, which was the same look that the young faunus looked at all of her teammates, and many of the other students back at Haven. Petal thought of them all as friends, which was well and good, but for Rose, she had thought, or maybe hoped that they were different from the rest. It was an odd sensation, one that she had never felt with another person before. Ever since she first met Petal, the way the girl was perched on the table at the festival, and the odd movements that she made while following her around, she felt different about her, attached in some way. She remembered the way the girl acted and her ignorance of what it was like to live in one of the major cities. These memories from only a short few months ago made her giggle, but it also brought with it a faint agony in her chest.
"Jealousy, perhaps?" Rose questioned, silently, placing a hand over her heart as she walked behind Shimmer, whose blue and white hair now had a tinge of crimson mixed in with the white ends and highlights. "Jealous of what though?" she then muttered.
Rose was sincere with this question, as she truly didn't understand why she felt this way. Sure, that other girl, the faunus one with the bow, Taiga, had been eyeing Petal since their encounter in the woods. The image of the new girl smiling and playing around with Petal caused a fire to well up inside of Rose's chest, and she scowled at the thought of how flustered Petal had gotten afterwards. There were many times that her team-leader would become aggrivated, or flustered over something, like a test score or Mila outdoing her in some stupid game, but this was different, she knew that for a certainty.
"I'm being stupid." Rose murmured, shaking her head.
"Are you talking to me?" asked Shimmer, her voice a near whisper, per usual.
"N-no, just thinking out loud, Shimmer." Rose stated.
"Good. I apologize, of course, but I was paying more attention to what's up ahead. I am pleased that I wasn't ignoring you."
Rose smiled as the girl looked back at her, her red-infused, glassy white eyes gleaming in the faint traces of sun that managed to reflect from them. "No need to say sorry, I should've kept it to myself."
Shimmer gave a brief nod in return and faced the road ahead again. As silence came bearing down on them again, Rose found herself still focusing on Taiga and Petal, which she was repulsed by, simply for the fact that it was distracting her from the task at hand. Still, despite how much she willed it to go away, the thoughts persisted, festered, and only grew more foul in her mind.
"Shimmer, with all of the girls that are always around Mila, do you ever feel weird about it? Does it ever make you worry that they might take him?" Rose asked, building up her courage to force the words out.
Shimmer gave her an odd, blank look, glancing over her shoulder. After blinking twice and looking ahead again, she seemed to be confused by the question.
"Shimmer, did you… well, understand the question?" Rose inquired.
"Not at all. Why would it matter to me if girls were around him?"
"I don't know, maybe it would make you jealous of it, or maybe you would be worried he would leave you for somebody else." Rose suggested.
"Leave me?" Shimmer questioned. "He followed me all the way here from Atlas, I don't think he would ever leave me after doing something like that. Besides, he promised he would always look out for me, and Mila is a man of his word." Shimmer stated, firmly and confidently.
"That's not exactly what I meant." Rose muttered. "I meant it as… I don't know how to really explain it. I guess, if he would stop dating you and go out with another girl instead." she said, deciding to be blunt about what she wanted to know.
Shimmer nodded her head. "I understand now. I believe you are misunderstanding the situation, Rose. Mila and I have never gone out. I was always more of a sister to him. Besides Blaine, he was normally alone. When he met me, however, I kind of took on the role of a sister, somebody for him to look out for and to protect if need be."
"So you two have never…"
"We kissed, one time, a long time ago," said Shimmer. "It was the day I was leaving the village, and I wanted to know what it felt like. I was curious to see if there was anything there, and I saw adults kissing all of the time to show affection for one another. On the last day, I knew it was my final chance to try it, and after a couple of years of not giving it a chance, I forced myself to be a little more courageous than normal. I kissed him, but he never really kissed me back. It was kind of awkward, honestly. It was like kissing a wall, really." Shimmer stated, and Rose gained a thin grin.
"That does sound like Mila." Rose said, quietly.
"He has gotten better since we were kids. There was a lot of stuff going on back then. But, to answer your question, no, we were never anything more than friends. Mila always had his eyes on somebody else, I suspect. Why do you ask, anyway?" Shimmer questioned.
After a sigh, Rose decided that she could admit it to Shimmer, and she trusted that the girl could keep a secret, given her solitary personality.
"It's Petal. I think I like her, but I don't think she sees me in any other way besides a friend and teammate. Now there's that Taiga girl and she seems to be trying to get close to Petal. I don't know why it's bothering me so much, I just find it so annoying." After a brief pause, Rose looked up and gained an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, Shimmer, I shouldn't be bringing this up on a mission. It's stupid anyway, you should just forget I said anything."
"I think she likes you too." Shimmer said, softly.
"I mean, as more than a friend, Shimmer."
"I understood what you meant." Shimmer assured her. "She smiles more with you around than she does with Mila or myself. I believe she talks more with you as well. Though, she and Mila do seem to be getting closer lately."
"Do you think Mila is interested in her?" Rose questioned.
To this, Shimmer shook her head. "I don't think so. I see similarities between them. They were both raised out in the wild by people besides their parents, which both have lost at some point in their lives. They have both also been through quite a bit more than most people our age, I imagine. Despite living with her, I still don't know too much about Petal, but what she has bothered to share reminds me of how Mila was when he was younger. He wanted to do what he thought was right, and even if it hurt him in the process, he would go out of his way to see it through. Petal seems like that kind of person to me. She could've lived in some village, she didn't have to become a Huntress, or whatever she is. She chose to do it so she could protect others from going through what she had to experience. To be honest, I simply see close kinship between them, and nothing on an intimate level. It's nice to see, actually. Mila needs somebody to lean on from time to time, even if he doesn't want to admit it."
"Doesn't he have you for that?" Rose questioned.
"No. He never wants to rely on me. Not for his problems, not for protection, not for anything. I told you already, I play a specific role for Mila, and for one reason or another, he doesn't want me to leave that position. I am to be protected, not the other way around."
"That doesn't sound like him, and it's stupidly sexist."
"I don't think it's because I'm a girl that he does that. I think it's just how he sees me, and how I fit into a certain hole in his heart. It's why he's so overprotective of me now, and I suspect that it's why he followed me here when I had nowhere else to go. He just doesn't want to lose another friend, that's all. It would be the same if I was a boy, I think anyway."
Rose gave Shimmer a sympathetic look as the girl continued moving ever-forward.
"That reminds me, you never told us what happened in Atlas, what forced you to come here for schooling. "
"Are you done talking about Petal, then?" asked Shimmer, and Rose could hear a faint trace of hesitance in her voice, as if she didn't want to talk about her past at all.
"You don't want to tell me, do you?" asked Rose.
"No, I don't. The only thing you need to know is that I got expelled. Can we just leave it at that?"
"Yeah, I suppose so." Rose answered.
"Thank you." Shimmer said, nearly whispering.
"You listened to my nonsense, I kind of owe it to you." replied Rose.
Shimmer didn't respond to that, and instead remained silent as she pressed on, slipping past a couple of trees that stood in their way. Rose moved through the intrusive obstacles and continued behind Shimmer, who seemed to be picking up her pace slightly.
"Are we getting close to anything?" asked Rose, who did not have the benefit of an animal's keen senses.
"I hear engines, water… Hmmm, that's about all I can make out. The smells are powerful though. There is definitely something ahead, and we will soon see it."
Rose began consciously making herself move much more quietly as Shimmer did the same. As they continued their march through the landscape, the sound of water had gotten much closer, and she could even smell the faint trace of an airship, be it from the fuel or the engine itself. The pair of them continued creeping along before stopping at the edge of a massive cliff, one that had an extremely steep drop into the bottom of a canyon. At the base of the ravine were some rapids, crashing against the rock walls on either side, and sending its cool mist flying high enough to even be felt by the two girls atop its fifty or so foot barricade. Rose's pink-red hair was blowing around as the rising winds from within the canyon found her, causing her to sweep and hold some loose strands of it behind her ear to keep it from her face and eyes. Beside her, Shimmer was scanning the area and seemed to spot something, which she hastily pointed out to Rose, who was still looking straight down into the rushing waters.
"It looks like a compound of some kind." Shimmer stated.
Rose looked over, following Shimmer's outstretched, clawed finger, and saw two separate buildings, both of which were protruding from the cliffside, and both of which were connected by a large landing zone that hovered over the water, supported by four massive metal beams at each corner. Red and green lights were flashing in several locations among the base, and on the landing area was one of Mistral's airships, docked, and being boarded and unboarded as the people that inhabited the compound carried large amounts of crates back and forth. She couldn't make out the inhabitants too well, but thought she recognized the outfits as Atlas Military attire, though she couldn't be sure. The only thing she could be certain of was that they were all wearing white and black, and all seemed to carry themselves with a sense of purpose and responsibility.
"Atlisians." Shimmer muttered, angrily.
"You can tell?" asked Rose.
"I've seen those uniforms almost everyday for nearly eight years, I couldn't mistake it." Shimmer snarled, and the red in her glossy eyes began darkening, and the scarlet in her hair became more pronounced.
"I wonder what they're doing here." Rose whispered, feeling even more inclined to remain as quiet as possible, as if they could be heard from the other side of the ravine. "Do you think we should get any closer?" Rose asked, looking at Shimmer again, who had deactivated her semblance, and had returned to her normal appearance.
"No. I would like to, but Petal didn't want us to get involved on our own. We found out who was behind the noises and smells, and now we should probably head back to the village to meet up with her and Mila."
"You're probably right." agreed, Rose, beginning to silently raise herself from the ground.
Just as the two girls made it to their feet, something slick and dark coiled around them from the ground. It slithered around Rose's body, tightening until she could barely breathe any longer. She winced from the increasing pressure and glanced over to see Shimmer struggling to break free, her features taking on a crimson hue as she squirmed and growled.
"Well, well, well, look at this, sister." said a boy's voice, cold, deep, but still young.
Rose couldn't tell where the voice had come from, but she instantly hated this situation worse than she did a second before. If the tendril was from a Grimm, she could handle it easily enough, but if it was from a person, that was a different story. Rose had never actually fought a person before, not outside of sparring, anyway, and the idea of using her weapons and semblance on a fellow person didn't sit right with her.
"Oh, I see it, brother." came a girl's voice, just as youthful in tone, and just as untrackable. "Some trespassers in our forest. I guess he was right, huh?"
"He was." replied the boy.
A boy softly landed on the ground in front of her, having fallen from a nearby tree, and she glowered at him with a fiery distaste in her pink hued eyes. He was thin, and had short black hair that was slick and swept to the right. His crimson eyes looked back at her as he straightened up, and he was laughing all the while. Mary's furious expression didn't change, even as the boy brushed a hand through his hair and smiled wickedly.
"Oh, a pretty one too." he said.
"Two pretty ones." said the girl, and when Rose looked in the direction of the voice, she saw the girl hanging upside down from a branch above the boy, her eyes locked onto Shimmer as a playful grin creased her lips.
The girl had the same dark colored hair, the same crimson eyes, and even similar facial features, such as their nose and mouth. Rose assumed that they must have been twins in order to be so close in appearance to one another. Rose looked to Shimmer and saw her glowering in both of the strangers' direction, her body tensing as she tried to force herself out of the slimy bindings.
"Tsk, tsk, stranger, no shortcuts." said the boy, wagging a finger at her. "Sister, go ahead and do your thing. We were instructed to capture them, might as well get it over with before this gets any more eventful."
"But I wanted to play with them," said the girl.
"Later. For now, we have a job to do."
"Fine, fine. I'll take care of it." the girl stated.
She began to hiss faintly and Rose felt something puncture her leg and arm, though she couldn't see what it was. Instantly, she felt her body growing heavy, and when she looked to Shimmer, she saw the girl already growing limp and distant. Shimmer's head drooped to the side and her body went slack as her semblance deactivated once more. Rose then looked to the boy as he moved closer.
"Oh, you're still awake." he said, getting close enough to touch, if her hands were free, that is.
Rose's nose crinkled in anger as she used her own semblance. Her body instantly vanished and reappeared over the boy, and now in her hands were the two halves of her staff. She swung it down as she fell towards him, but he swiftly dodged the hit. Upon landing, Rose stumbled and dropped to a knee as she dug the end of her left weapon into the ground to steady herself. Whatever was injected into her body was starting to take hold, and she knew she didn't have a lot of time before losing consciousness.
"I have to use what I have in the best way possible." she muttered, looking up at the boy, who was putting a hand on his hip, and showing an expression of amusement.
Rose forced herself to her feet, though she did sway slightly. She readied her weapon and scowled at the brother, clenching her fists so hard around the shafts that her knuckles were turning white. She ran ahead, prepared a swing of her right weapon, and the boy readied himself to avoid or counter. Just as she was about to reach him, a portal appeared under his body, pulling him into the ground. She spun to add some momentum to her hit, and when her bladed edge was coming around, the boy's body fell from another window overhead, falling directly into the attack. He flew a foot or two before falling towards the ground again, where he was once more met by one of Rose's windows. He fell through it and another window opened up just in front of Rose. The momentum of his fall and roll sent him into the air, as if the portal had spit him out, and she brought both halves of her weapon down into his stomach, forcing him into the dirt, and causing an eruption of autumn leaves to surround him.
She flipped both weapons in her hands so the blades were pointing down and raised them in preparation to hit him again. Just as they were an adequate height, something slick coiled around her waist, and pulled her backwards. A window enveloped her body once more and she vanished into it, becoming free of the girl's odd semblance. As Rose burst from another window, her staff was together and she spun, bringing the weapon towards the girl's body, as she had appeared beside her in the trees overhead. The girl flipped backwards, using her hands, and wobbled as she corrected herself on a thinner portion of the branch, further away from the rising trunk. Rose swirled her bladed staff and then slashed at the base of the branch, severing it, and sending it falling towards the forest floor. The girl jumped and flipped backwards, landing in another branch. She held out her hand and Rose felt another tendril grab her waist and left leg. She broke her weapon apart to cut them but felt another prick in both places before she managed to get free.
The world instantly went upside down and as she took a step forward, her legs gave out from under her. She slipped and fell from the branch, releasing both halves of her staff, before hitting the ground with a loud thud, and a faint crackling sound as a pink aura appeared, coursed around her, and shattered into dust particles. Her last sight was of the laughing siblings walking towards her, and then there was nothing else but darkness as her eyes shut tight.