"What's going on?!"
Together, the four ran side-by-side toward the docks. However, Weiss had no idea why. One moment, everything was dandy until a random crow appeared. The former heiress had never been so confused. Her other crewmates were acting the complete opposite of how they were before.
"Our crow is the signal that there's danger," Ruby explained, which earned a skeptical look. "We'll explain later."
"That makes no sense!" Weiss yelped.
To prepare for whatever this danger was, Weiss unwrapped her makeshift eyepatch. Underneath, a single line was carved vertically. The wound had mostly healed. For extra caution, she tugged on the red hood to cover her face more.
"Looks good," Ruby reassured, which earned a light blush.
Before Weiss could reply, the captain held out the red switchblade she had bought for her earlier. "Please take this. You don't have Myrtenaster with you and it'd make me feel a lot better if you have some kind of weapon right now."
The threat was that immense? So immense that Weiss needed a weapon now? She didn't want to, but she accepted the switchblade. She trusted Ruby's judgment. The captain wouldn't want her to take it if it wasn't serious.
"Fine," Weiss relented, gripping the blade's handle.
After several moments of sprinting, Yang spoke. "What do you think's wrong? Do you think it could be…?"
"Maybe," the captain admitted with a solemn expression.
"Dammit," Yang grumbled.
"Who could it be?" Weiss asked, wanting to know the possible danger.
From the question, the sisters drifted into silence. Knowing they didn't want to talk about it, Blake rushed to her side so she wouldn't be completely in the dark.
"It could be the Khans," Blake whispered.
"The Khans?" Weiss repeated lowly, intrigued. "Who are they?"
"Enemy pirates," the faunus answered. "There's a lot more to it, but there's no time to explain right now."
From the mere mention of pirates, Weiss finally realized the danger they were in. They were pirates themselves, but certainly not the brutal, tyrannic type of pirates. Quite the opposite, actually. The stereotypes she'd been exposed to seemed to ring true for the Khans.
Now, a heavy atmosphere suffocated the four. Although Weiss had never heard of the Khans, she could tell her crew had a past with them. Certainly not a good one.
At last, the crew landed onto the deck of the Howling Thorn. All it took was a boost from a few glyphs to hop on board. As anticipated, Qrow was there to greet them with obvious distress. Normally, he was level-headed under pressure, so to see him like this…
"Uncle Qrow," Ruby addressed solemnly. "What's going on? Is it…?"
"A Khan was following me," Qrow said with urgency. "There's no doubt about it. I saw their brand."
"Shit," Yang cursed, which confirmed her fears. "What're we waitin' for? We gotta go!"
Rather than fight the Khans, the Thorns preferred to avoid conflict if possible. The typical Khan fought anyone and everyone for money. If the Thorns could avoid a fight, they would.
It was then that the door leading to the bedrooms inside opened. It creaked slowly, causing the Thorns to drop into defensive stances. Everyone on their crew was on the deck, so this was definitely an intruder.
Scratch that, two intruders.
Two women gradually stepped outside and into the sunlight. In their grubby hands were bags of money. The Thorn's money. The money that'd been stashed in the deepest corner of the ship. They tracked it down and found it. It looked like their entire savings.
One of the women was clearly a faunus with stripes on her arms, while the other was a multi-colored haired human. A short one at that. They stood with confidence and a sense of superiority like they owned the ship.
The Thorns weren't angry that the intruders acted like they owned the ship. They weren't even angry that the Khans basically robbed them. They were angry because of their faces. The face of one woman in particular. The tiger faunus. She caused their blood to boil.
"Blake," the tiger faunus addressed evenly. "You seem to be doing well."
Instinctively, Blake's cat ears flattened on her head.
"Sienna," Qrow growled to defend his crewmate and then glanced beside her, to the woman with multi-colored hair. "Neo."
It looked like the intruders were basking in the rage that consumed their victims. Then again, maybe Sienna wanted to see their expressions up-close. It'd been a while.
To Qrow, it was strange to see the leader of the Khans doing the dirty work. Normally, Sienna would send her crew to rob her enemies for her. Not join them.
Leisurely, the tiger faunus dropped the bag of money onto the floor. "It was simple to find. Hiding money under floorboards is common."
Growling, Qrow grit his teeth. "What the hell do you want?"
"My, my, nice to see you again, too," Sienna purred sarcastically, her pierced ears flicked. "Did you not know this is Khan territory now, Qrow?"
His name was spat like venom from her mouth. Like it was poison.
In reality, the Khans controlled a large section of land. They must've recently conquered Carnation territory, where Qrow thought it was safe.
"When will it be enough for you?" Qrow questioned.
Before Sienna could respond, Yang shouted. "Greedy bitch!"
"Woah," the tiger faunus said smoothly. "Feisty as always, Yang. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Huh, guess not."
If there was one way to get under Yang's skin, it was to mention her mother. Before the blonde could lash out, Blake grabbed her arm and simply stared at her. Somehow, those yellow orbs calmed her.
"Can't say I didn't try," Sienna said darkly, trying to get a rise out of her.
Threateningly, Qrow stepped forward with one hand on his scythe. "Give the money back."
"This?" Sienna asked while holding out the bag, unamused. "This will buy me another fur cloak. It's nothing to me."
Carefully, Weiss examined the situation. The tiger faunus was materialistic and greedy. For some reason, her friends hated this woman. Even Ruby was struggling to keep her anger in check. Blake was acting as an anchor. A loose anchor that couldn't keep Yang in place for much longer.
For a few moments, the Thorns and Khans were in a standstill as the tides reached their ears. The ship lightly swayed under their feet. Each person was waiting to make a move.
It took all of Ruby and Yang's willpower not to launch at their enemy. Worried for them, Blake glanced at the sisters. Their fists were shaking. Just seeing Sienna triggered them.
"Hm," Sienna scoffed. "You're so few in number now."
That earned a loud "shut up!" from Yang.
Undeterred, Sienna stared at the newest crew member. Her hood covered most of her face, but Sienna could tell she had never seen her before.
"Welcome to hell, child," the tiger faunus said to Weiss.
"Who the hell are you?" Weiss demanded to know, tightening her defensive stance.
That elicited a dark chuckle from Sienna. For some reason, she didn't look surprised by the question.
"Spunky, I like it," Sienna said somewhat genuinely and faced Qrow, who frowned. "You didn't tell her? All pirates should know their enemies. That's rule number one of being a pirate. The second is knowing where to tread safely. You failed in both aspects."
An audible growl rumbled from Yang. "Give us the money back or I'll make you."
The money took priority. It would take several months before getting that much again if they couldn't take it back.
As a challenge, Sienna picked up the bag of money from the floor and held it out. She dangled it in front of their faces to taunt them, causing them to grit their teeth.
"If you want it so badly…" Sienna trailed off with confidence. "Then take it."
An invitation to fight.
Qrow reached out for the blonde. "Yang, don't-"
Too late. Even Blake couldn't keep a hold on her.
"I'm gonna kill you!" With all her power, Yang cocked her fist back and aimed it directly at Sienna's face. "Agh!"
In a rage, lilac eyes warped to blood red. Her hair burned with sparks as the two briefly locked with their arms strained.
"Yang, stop!" Blake pleaded.
From Blake's shout, her crew debated whether or not they should get involved. When Yang was like this, she was dangerous.
Her plea wasn't heard. Instead, Yang focused her rage on the enemy in front of her. She readied another punch, but the tiger faunus simply deflected her arm. This caused Yang to stumble before using a foot as leverage and fired a kick to Sienna's torso. The tiger faunus grunted and stumbled back from the blow.
Meanwhile, Neo was bored and let out a yawn.
Multiple grunts filled the air.
Yang and Sienna slid into fierce melee combat once more. Several punches and kicks were exchanged. Neither getting the best of the other.
"Enough!"
The shout came from Weiss, who refused to let this go on. Whoever Sienna was, she wasn't someone to be messed with. That much was certain.
A simple shout didn't stop them from fighting, so she took matters into her own hands. A small glyph appeared under Yang's feet. Before the raging inferno could rocket another punch, she was launched into the air.
"W-woah!"
Briefly, Sienna noted that it was the newcomer's semblance. Now that her opponent was finally away from her, the tiger faunus jumped back to stand by Neo.
"It was nice seeing you all again. Now get out of my territory," Sienna warned with a smug smirk as she twirled the bags of money. "Until next time, Thorns."
With that as her cue, Neo waved her umbrella. Before they could go, Qrow tried to land a hit on them with his scythe, but they shattered into hundreds of tiny glass shards. The Thorns were left to stand there, processing what happened.
Suddenly, Yang landed on her rear after being launched pretty high. "Ow…"
"Does anyone want to fill me in on what's going on?" Weiss asked, feeling totally out of place.
Angry, Yang stood as she approached her crewmate. "You let her get away!"
"I let her get away?!" Weiss yelped like the suggestion was insane.
"If it wasn't for your stupid glyph-" Yang stopped herself and grit her teeth. After she took a deep breath, her eyes shifted back to lilac. "Forget it."
Successfully, Yang managed to control her anger. It probably helped that Blake had been holding onto her arm.
Noting that her crewmate was calm, Weiss felt it was safe to ask. "Who is she?"
"The one person I'm gonna kill."
Shocked, Weiss was speechless. She thought those words earlier were from anger. Not from legitimate intent.
Now downcast, Yang whirled around and began to walk away. Worried for her, Blake followed. She didn't want to leave Yang alone after that.
Qrow heavily sighed. "Great. Now we have basically no money."
Trying to lighten the situation, Weiss said. "I don't think they took the money in my room. Although, it's not that much…"
Ruby shook her head. "Your version of 'not much' could last us months."
From her tone, Weiss got quiet. Ruby looked so sad. Weiss wanted her back to her normal, dolt self as soon as possible.
"I'll answer your questions later," Ruby said gloomily. "I'm gonna go for a bit."
Uncharacteristically quiet, Ruby headed for her room.
"What about-"
When Weiss turned to look to Qrow, he'd already took a swig from his flask and was walking away to sulk.
Weiss was left standing there.
Alone.
Sienna & Neo enter the fray! That's right, they play a huge role in this story. Canon didn't give Sienna anything, it was so unfair. So I'm giving Sienna something. Take that!
Stay dandy,
~Toto
