Volume Three Chapter Eleven: Innocence Lost
AN: I think we've officially reached the point where I shouldn't even bother trying with excuses as to why this took so long. Work's been a pain, school's been a pain, but that doesn't quite excuse a six-month delay. Let's see how this goes.
A quick twirl brought Crescent Rose to its fully engaged form, which she quickly used to slash the door open and admit her entrance into the Atlesian ship. Ruby knew something was wrong, had known it since it had fired on its fellows and left the skies clear for the Grimm to attack in full force. Did the White Fang attack Atlas' ships, too? Did it have anything to do with Bob getting real quiet all of a sudden? How many people died because of –
No, stop, Ruby berated herself. Now wasn't the time to worry about that. Mourning could come later. Now was the time to make sure that they didn't take anyone else. She stopped, took a deep breath, flipped open her Scroll and turned on the flashlight, and stalked deeper into the heart of the ship.
The Atlesian cruiser looked like the prime location for one of those horror games Yang had tricked her into playing a few years ago: the lights were dim and flickering where they worked at all, the whole ship was silent as a tomb apart from the sounds of operation, and there wasn't a soul to be found. It honestly looked like the entire crew just decided to smash all the lights and jump out the airlock. There weren't even any bodies to be found. Where was everyone?
Following the marked signage for several minutes – several agonizingly long, painfully silent and paranoid minutes – led Ruby to the bridge of the ship, where the story was much the same as it was throughout the rest of the craft. The terminals, at least, blinked their updates, their warnings and their calculations and their figures. She swept the room through Crescent's scope, and only after making sure she was alone did Ruby march up to the center console. Navigation… set on autopilot. Weapons systems offline, Atlesian Knight contingent looks like it just got dumped out the back. Wait, "Queen's Gambit" executable? What's that?
Ruby never got the chance to find out. Glass shattered behind her, making her snap up and whirl around as fast as she could – just in time to get smacked in the face with a pink umbrella. Caught off guard as she was, she couldn't defend in time from the stiletto boots that slammed into her stomach and punted her out the massive windows. The onslaught of wind nearly blew her off the ship entirely, and it took unfurling her weapon and digging it into the hull to arrest her premature flight.
Almost daintily, her assailant stepped onto the outer hull of the ship after her, and after having seen her twice Ruby would have been hard pressed not to recognize Neo – if nothing else, it was completely impossible to forget Neo's choice in wardrobe. Infuriatingly, Neo perked up and waved at Ruby, as if they weren't on the outside of the last ship that can possibly hold the line against the airborne Grimm.
"What are you doing?!" Ruby yelled, hoping her words could carry against the wind. "Without these ships, the Grimm are going to destroy everything!"
Neo simply blinked, before beaming a huge smile at her and nodding.
She ripped Crescent Rose out of the armor it was embedded in, having finally balanced herself, and aimed its barrel at the girl across from her. "But why?! What do you get out of it?"
At that, Neo actually paused. After a few awkward glances to the side, the tiny girl just shrugged. Ruby's eyes widened. She… she didn't even know? Or worse, she was doing this because it was fun?! How could she even justify that?
Before anything else could be said, though, Neo shattered into glass panes, and at the same time a heel dug itself into the back of Ruby's knee and forced her on all fours. She grunted but rolled with the blow, dodging out of the way of the follow-up strike and coming back up a few feet away. Ruby briefly considered ignoring Neo and dashing straight for the bridge again, but threw the idea out as soon as she realized that she didn't have a hope of figuring out how to undo what Neo did before the girl caught up with her. No, the only way to fixing the situation was by going through Neo.
Neo tried to go on the offensive again but had to back up when Crescent came around and spun in a defensive circle; bulletproof or not, a parasol had no chance of standing up to her scythe, and both girls knew it. Ruby pushed her advantage by sending the next swing towards her opponent's midsection, but Neo just bent double in a casual display of remarkable flexibility before coming back up and jabbing her parasol at Ruby. For her part, Ruby yelped and had to jump away in a panic as a blade shot out of the end of the umbrella and nearly took her eye out.
Her next attempt at a defensive twirl of her scythe failed, as Neo once again showed utterly inhuman flexibility and dodged out of the way before shattering into mirrors again, this time making Ruby shout as she got stabbed in the back, her Aura the only thing keeping the blade from piercing through her heart. Ruby growled, pulled Crescent's trigger, and used the recoil to snap her weapon back to where Neo was. Was, until she shattered into mirrors yet a third time, only now trapping Ruby's arm in an elbow lock and letting her scythe's own momentum rip the weapon out of her hands and nearly off the side of the ship.
She eventually managed to break free, and stumbled back to her feet just in time to see Neo teleport to in between Ruby and her weapon. Neo knew the situation, too, for she just leaned her parasol across her shoulders and beamed a huge, far-too-friendly smile at Ruby. One-off incidents aside, Ruby was legendary for being unable to fight without her baby. Something that Neo thought she knew.
"Remember, Ruby." Almost as if bidden, Weiss' words came rushing back. "The greatest weapon in any fight isn't made of steel. Your greatest weapon isn't Crescent Rose – it's your mind. And information is the ammunition a mind uses. Good information is absolutely invaluable… and misinformation can cripple even the strongest enemies. If you can control what your enemies know, then you can control your enemies entirely."
Neo stalked forward, popping the blade out of her parasol as a matter of course. Ruby was beaten, after all… why wouldn't she be? She'd been separated from her scythe, and everyone knew that Ruby was useless at hand to hand combat. Ruby closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and reminisced that she'd be stealing yet another play out of Kassidy's playbook: when in doubt, cheat relentlessly.
The sonic boom that nearly swept the both of them off the ship as Ruby pushed her Semblance to its limit was still secondary to the nearly solid wall of rose petals that trailed after her. Everything, from securing the skies to getting the robots under control, depended entirely on Ruby's ability to beat Neo, and so she held nothing back. She completed a score of laps around the girl in a mere second, trapping her in a veritable tornado of rose petals and pressure waves that overwhelmed the smaller girl. The bladed parasol stabbed into the maelstrom repeatedly, blindingly trying to find her. Well, Ruby thought, all thoughts of morality put aside for the moment, if she's looking for me, I'd better oblige her.
Ruby made it pretty easy to find her. It would be hard not to, what with Ruby stabbing her knife into Neo's hand at supersonic speeds, penetrating with such force that it ignored the short girl's pink Aura. She could see Neo's mouth open even wider than her eyes, emitting a scream that sounded only of a hideously pained rasping. Finally, her Aura was down – even if momentarirly – and Neo was too distracted to do anything. Now was her chance!
She didn't… Ruby didn't even know what she did until she blinked. Crescent Rose was in her hands again, but it usually wasn't so heavy. Or so red…
Perched on the end of the weapon was Neo, the gigantic blade erupting from her chest and nearly cleaving her in half vertically. Ruby's legs and stomach both failed her almost instantly, dropping her weapon in front of her and dropping her dinner over the side, over the red that her hands were absolutely dripping with. It took a few minutes, but she finally worked up the nerve to pick up her weapon again, the lifeless corpse sliding off it. Ruby nearly threw up again, and only managed to avoid doing so through sheer force of will. The only solace she had was that Neo's wounds were so extensive that she had to have died almost instantly, before she could have felt any pain.
Ruby trudged back into the bridge slowly, fighting her legs and her stomach the whole way. She had to figure out a way to stop this attack… but was she even better than them, anymore? Did she even have a moral high ground? Some way of knowing that she was right?
Probably not. Murderers don't have a moral high ground.
I hope I haven't made a horrible mistake.
I've made a horrible mistake.
With nearly every other opponent she's faced over the course of her entire life, Kassidy has never felt completely outclassed. Whether bands of roving government agents, heavily armed militias, Grimm, her fellow students, White Fang… Kassidy knew, outside of one or two spectacular exceptions, that she could beat them eventually, somehow. If she wasn't stronger than them, she could be faster than them. If not, she could be smarter, trickier and more devious than them. If all else failed, there had been more than one fight that she'd won by sheer endurance, outlasting anyone she met. Even in the few situations where she couldn't, like with Raven, she could still run. Never once has Kassidy felt so hideously outclassed that the situation seemed hopeless.
Until now.
She had assumed that Adam Taurus was just another grandstanding terrorist piece of shit whose ego was orders of magnitude greater than their skill or threat. He'd just waltzed into the room, stared her down, and loudly and proudly declared how he'd get revenge on her for all his prized, cherished, and beloved comrades like so many before him had. This should've been just another fight.
But it wasn't.
Kassidy wasn't fighting Adam. Like she told Roman Torchwick back on the train those months ago, a fight implied that both sides had an equal chance of winning. But as time went on, Kassidy found herself being forced to accept a simple truth.
She couldn't beat Adam. She couldn't even try to beat him. He was stronger than her. He was faster than her. He was more experienced than her. And – thanks to the universal bullshit that was Aura – all her tricks were completely useless.
This thought only went through her brains erratically, though, in between the frantic dodging, parrying and out-and-out fleeing for her life that consisted the time she and Adam have been locking blades. Acting on pure instinct, she Aura glided to the left, underneath Adam's arm as he swung just a hair too high, only to nearly trip over the detritus on the ground trying to backpedal from a red blur that she assumed was Adam's sword swinging at her at a pace so fast it probably would've made Ruby dizzy. Baton nearly got knocked out of her hands as she made the mistake of trying to block instead of parry, but it did buy a fraction of a second for Rogue to come back into the fight. Unfortunately, its appearance this time had about the same results its previous appearances did, as Adam ducked underneath the first two shots and nearly took one of Kassidy's limbs off in retaliation.
This was a disaster, in every sense of the word. Kassidy was getting her ass handed to her on a silver platter. Forget confronting Cinder, Adam was going to take her out of that fight before it even began. Assuming, of course, that she even made it out of this room alive. And she only had one plan left to make that happen. One plan, one shot, one chance…
The next time Adam rushed her, Kassidy completely abandoned her defense, instead pumping her Aura into her legs and hoping it cooperated with her when she needed it to most. She dove head-first past Adam, deep into the middle of the cafeteria, in the midst of all sorts of debris. Adam stopped on a dime and turned towards her again, but she still had enough time to pull Rogue back out and change its magazine. She didn't use her ice ammo much, but the previous times she used it, it wound up saving her life – hopefully, this one would live up to its predecessors' examples.
The moment Adam launched his attack, Kassidy emptied the entire magazine. Not at Adam, of course; whether dodging, blocking, or flat-out ignoring the bullets, Adam's shown to not really care what her gun can do. So instead, Kassidy pelted the floor between them. Ice spikes several feet tall grew like mushrooms, as the already treacherous floor suddenly grew a thick layer of ice that made secure footing all but impossible. Just as she hoped, Adam aborted his attack in the face of such an obstacle, and indeed seemed more interested in fighting his balance rather than her. Which left him wide open for her to compound the situation by getting an Aura Pulse ready, once again pulling on Ren's trick to save her hide.
Before she could do anything, however, a black katana on a black ribbon flew right in front of her face, before being yanked back in the direction it came from. In the moment it took Kassidy to realize that Blake had emerged from her hiding place, the girl's ribbon had wound itself around her throat, and Kassidy's plan fell apart as she got strangled and pulled to the floor. By sheer back luck, she cracked the back of her head against one of her own ice spikes on the way down, ruining any semblance of her plan she had left and leaving Kassidy unable to see past the stars in her vision, or hear past the ringing in her ears. She blinked furiously, and managed to focus on Baton, her sword having fallen scant inches from her face. She was already in about the worst spot she could find herself in. She needed to focus, she needed to get her weapon back, she needed to…
Without warning, a shoe slammed onto her wrist. Kassidy cried out in pain as its owner ground down, trying to turn the bones in her hand into dust. "You have killed so many of my men," Adam said, voice lowered and… almost sad. "So many people who didn't have to die, people ended by your hand." Thankfully, Blake had collected her ribbon back from Kassidy's throat, but that was about the only improvement her situation had. "We were so close to forcing the Kingdoms to see, forcing the Kingdoms to treat us like equals. And you had to try and ruin it. And for what? Do they not treat you the same way they treat us? Do you not suffer the same prejudices and indignities that we do? Are you truly so addicted to your own slavery that you would fight and die for those who suppose themselves your masters?"
"It isn't like that at all," Kassidy ground out, heaving breaths where she could. "Throwing a Kingdom-sized temper tantrum isn't the way to get respect. Why should anyone respect you for doing this?"
Adam pushed down harder, making tears prick at the corners of Kassidy's eyes as she grit her teeth. "I don't need to explain myself to a traitor like you. All I need… is for you to suffer like we have suffered. I want you to lose exactly what we have lost." Unsheathing his sword, Adam declared, "I want you to know that you've failed. That I will destroy everything you love."
Before Adam could do anything, almost as if following some demonic script or cue, Kassidy caught a flash of gold out of the corner of her eye. Yang rounded the corner, blasted a White Fang grunt in the face, and cried out at the top of her lungs, "Kass! K, where are you?!"
"The girlfriend," Blake softly commented to the side. At that, Adam's grin grew just this side of feral, and Kassidy's eyes widened.
"No…" she begged. "Please, don't."
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. What didn't fall on deaf ears, however, was the result of Adam stabbing his sword into her hip, just below her armor. Kassidy screamed from the agony, feeling her Aura dip down to the very bottom, knowing that one more hit would shatter it entirely and leave her defenseless.
"K!" Yang yelled, whirling towards their direction. When she saw the scene arrayed before her… Kassidy could see the exact moment all reason fled her girlfriend, when anger and rage and fear and desperation took over.
Desperately, hoping against hope that Yang would listen, Kassidy cried out with her suddenly weak voice, "Yang! Run!"
Her hope was short lived. With a shallow breath, Yang bellowed out, "Get away from her, you monster!" and blasted herself at Adam as fast as she could.
Even as fast as she was going, though, it all happened painfully slowly for Kassidy. Excruciatingly slowly. Adam was ready for Yang. He was ready for Yang. The pose, the guard, the readiness. Adam was ready for her. He was going to hurt her. Adam was going to hurt her. Adam was going to hurt Yang. No… he was going to kill her. Adam was going to kill Yang.
Adam was going to kill Yang… and she couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. Kassidy was… Kassidy was weak. So weak. Too weak. Blake had taken over guarding her, for all that Kassidy could barely move through the waves of agony rolling over her. Yang nearly crossed the room, her fist cocked back for a punch that would never land. Adam's sword clicked in its sheath, and Kassidy could barely see it begin to slide out.
How many times… how many times had Kassidy been forced to take the blame for someone else's problem, someone else's fault? How many times had Kassidy been used as a Scapegoat? And now, the one time she wanted to take the pain, to take the hit for someone else, she couldn't do it. She was too weak to do anything. Anything but beg whatever could hear her thoughts. Please, don't do this. Don't take Yang. Take me instead. Please, I'm begging you. Don't take Yang. I'm begging you!
Please… take me instead.
It was roughly half a second after she launched herself that Yang knew: she fucked up.
That… bastard that had dared to hurt her K. He did that on purpose. He was expecting her to retaliate. And he was going to make her pay for it.
Well, shit. Hindsight always was twenty-twenty, and as the seconds seem to drag on Yang couldn't help but think on just how many times K had warned her to not let her emotions control her. And what does she do, the very instant something serious happens, at the one time she shouldn't have let her emotions control her? Well… it doesn't matter, now. Now, she'd just need to weather the counterattack, and plan her next moves. Which would probably need to involve grabbing K and running, because it would take a miracle for this bastard's next hit to not completely trash her.
And then, a miracle happened.
One moment, she was flying through the air, watching the sword start to slide out and hit her with something that would hurt a lot, and the next… was hard to describe. If she had to, it would be like something was trying to force her through a drinking straw, an immense pressure squeezing her on all sides, so much pressure that she had to close her eyes against it. As unpleasant as it was though, it ended quickly, and the moment it faded Yang opened her eyes back up. Except, when she did, nothing made sense. She was sitting? That bastard that had hurt K wasn't in right front of her anymore? He was standing a good ten feet away? Apparently, yes, and staring at a puff of bluish-black smoke, out of which… flew Kassidy.
Wait, K? K!
Yang was so surprised, not to mention the period of time so brief, that she couldn't do anything but stare. Stare as, complete in slow motion, Kassidy soared right past the bastard, his sword slicing clean through her arm and severing it completely. The bastard was so surprised he completely froze after following through his attack. Kassidy was so surprised that she didn't even cry out in pain after the attack, merely grunting as she hit the ground and rolled up to Yang's feet. Yang was so surprised that she didn't even react until something hit her arm, and it took her a good second to realize that she was holding her girlfriend's right arm in her hand!
It was eventually that Blake girl that finally broke the silence. "Did… did they just switch places?!"
Only when those words were uttered did everyone finally begin moving again. Kassidy curled into a ball, instinctively clutching at her profusely bleeding stump that was all that was left of her right arm. Yang scrambled to her hands and knees, trying desperately, so desperately to get to her girlfriend, to make sure she was safe, to get her out of there, to do anything! Before she could close the gap, though, something wound itself around her neck and hauled her to her feet. Yang choked and coughed at being strangled, fighting the whole way up but couldn't get any leverage against the black ribbon.
"They did," the bastard said. "That's a dangerous power. One we can't let her live with." Casting a dismissive glance her way, the bastard looked over Yang's shoulder and said, "Keep the other blonde there for a moment. This won't take long."
The words got Yang to fight against her bond with renewed vigor, but all she managed to do was nearly choke herself out on the ribbon. Meanwhile, Adam stalked next to Kassidy, next to her girlfriend, and knelt next to her. "An impressive effort, to be sure. But like all your other efforts, all your other labors, you have failed. Know that you have failed for the last time, that you have only delayed the inevitable." He tilted his head up, and smirked a sickening smirk at her. "Look to your lover," he commanded Kassidy. "Know that you have failed her for the last time, and that she will die moments after you do."
To her horror, Kassidy did look up at her. Yang tried to apologize, tried to tell K how much she loved her, but with Blake pulling at her windpipe Yang was struggling even to stay conscious at this point.
She'd failed. They… they'd failed. And now they were going to die.
Which made it all the more confusing when Kassidy smiled at her, and winked, right before the bastard's red sword plunged into her back and made her amber eyes go wide.
Wait, amber eyes?
The bluish-black smoke rose quickly and faded even more quickly, and Yang found herself staring at the horrifically contorted expression of Blake's face. Almost as if to confirm what she was seeing, the ribbon went slack around her neck and a body fell against her shoulder.
It was hard to tell who screamed louder: Blake, or the bastard that K had managed to trick into stabbing his own partner. Yang couldn't decide which was worse, either. One was filled with shock, terror, betrayal, and pain; the death rasps of someone that had been both literally and figuratively stabbed in the back. The other was filled with surprise, loss, grief, and rage. And amidst all that, she only heard one word, whispered so weakly against her ear: "Run."
"Blake!" the bastard bellowed, his emotions bleeding into his Aura and making the very ground tremble around them. One part of Yang felt sick at watching a man being tricked into murdering his own girlfriend.
The other part, the part she was ashamed about, relished in the just desserts. Served him right for trying to murder her K.
But that didn't matter. Not right now. Yang spun around, scooped up an already-unconscious Kassidy into her arms, snagged her sword while it was there, and sprinted out of what used to be the cafeteria. Anything to get them away from that… that monster.
AN 2: Yeah, this is long enough I'm not even going to try with this second note. Again, my deepest apologies for how long this took.
Coming up next: The second-to-last (normal) chapter of Team Rookie, and the conclusion of the Battle of Beacon.
Kill List: Penny Polendina (?), Mercury Black, Team ABRN, Neo Politan, Blake Belladonna1
