*walks in three years late with starbucks* So, what I miss?
"Do you think your prank worked?" Weiss asked Crue, sipping from a cup of tea. The trio had decided to go out into Vale once their training was done.
"Hope so." The Faunus smirked, imagining the situations he may have put Cinder into by changing her gravity. If it did work, she was definitely pulled towards him, as he had stayed completely still while he was using his Semblance.
That meant he was heavier than Cinder. He frowned for a second, glancing down at his tea. He had put quite a lot of sugar in that. "You're not fat." Blake said, seeing Crue's expression. The Faunus looked up surprised that Blake could tell what he was thinking.
"You've got the same expression when Cinder couldn't get you off her lap." Her reasoning was followed by a rough cough from Weiss, who had choked on her drink at the information.
"You were what?!" The Heiress hissed, knowing Crue's disdain for the girl and wondering why on Remnant he was on her lap.
"Don't." He stopped Blake from explaining, the Faunus closing her mouth slowly. "It's her fault. So, she doesn't get to know." He smirked as he drank some more tea.
"So you'll tell me later when he's not here, right?" Weiss asked.
"Oh absolutely."
"BLAKE!" Crue cried out indignantly, as the two girls broke into laughter. The scene caused a few people to glance over at the cafe they were in, but soon went back to their own conversations. Crue sighed, to himself, shaking his head as he drank the rest of his tea.
He coughed some up slightly when he noticed a head of grey hair on the opposite side of the street from the cafe. Blake and Weiss noticed, pausing in their laughter to look at him with concern. "I'm good." Crue held up a hand in reassurance.
He drank some more tea, almost wishing he was wearing his glasses so he could keep track of Mercury without the others noticing. Luckily, Crue's body was facing the street he saw his enemy walking on. The Faunus did stop and wonder if Mercury was actually his enemy.
From what he remembered, Mercury was the son of an assassin, who was not the best of fathers. But, that was all he knew about him. Aside from the fact he helped Cinder take down Amber and participated in the fall of Beacon.
"Enemy. Definitely." He decided, talking to Blake and Weiss but not completely keeping track of the conversation. He drank some more tea, humming in an answer to a question, before he quickly swallowed a lot of liquid to prevent him spitting it over his friends.
A woman had approached Mercury. She was wearing a tight business suit, and shining blonde hair tied in a tight bun. "Whomst the fuck…" Crue trailed off, accidentally speaking aloud. His words caused Blake and Weiss to spin their heads around immediately and both gave quick gasps before turning back and hunching close together.
"Do you think he's on a date?" Weiss whispered. Crue gave an immediate snort, remembering how Mercury acted around most women via Neo. The memory brought a slight frown to his face, reaffirming his earlier decision of enemy.
"Maybe. But I've never seen that woman in Beacon." Blake countered. "Unless she just got here for the Vytal festival. Which is possible." Crue was surprised at how intense the two were getting in regard to gossip.
"You two, have not had a lot of gossip in Beacon have you." Crue said. Two sets of eyes levelled him with a glare. The Faunus quickly busied himself in his tea.
Crue knew Mercury had no chance with any woman under the sun, which automatically made him suspicious that someone who was dressed so well would give him the time of day.
He watched as the two before him discussed theories. Across the street, Mercury spoke quickly and quietly to the woman. To anyone watching, the boy was simply scratching his cheek as he conversed. Crue's eyes narrowed, realising he was blocking his mouth from the café.
"Not that it would help, I can't read lips." The Wolf Faunus thought. But he was still taking precautions. He wasn't sure if Mercury knew that he was there, but a crowded café could hide a lot of people.
"Which means he's up to something he shouldn't be." Crue's grip on the porcelain tightened. He was there on Cinder's orders. Which meant that whoever that woman was, she was connected to her and was probably there to help the Fall of Beacon.
"We could follow them." Crue suggested, before realising the words had come out of his mouth. Blake and Weiss immediately turned to him with wide eyes.
"I don't like him." Crue said. It was true. A lot of that dislike came from his knowledge of the future. Or at the very least what was the future. He didn't know how much he had changed, but presumably Cinder's plans wouldn't be foiled just by him being a dick to her.
The rest of his dislike came from how he acted towards Neo when they were dating. The reminder immediately caused Crue's nose to scrunch up. "You're thinking of Polly?" Weiss asked.
"You two have got to stop reading my mind." The two girls shared a small chuckle. "A traumatised psychiatrist from Mentis would tell you it's not a nice place to be." Crue had his own laugh, as Weiss and Blake quickly shared a confused glance.
"Regardless." Weiss quickly began. "Do you truly wish to follow him? Do you think he'd get up to no good with that girl?" Crue thought, watching as Mercury and the mystery woman turned and began to walk away, the woman making a show of linking their arms together.
"Frankly, I'd be more concerned for his balls if he does anything she doesn't like." Crue spoke bluntly, causing Weiss to cough and look away with a red tint while Blake hid a small laugh. "But honestly, yeah. I just, don't trust him."
"Because he's an assassin working for the woman who will destroy the school." Crue didn't say. The two girls nodded, standing up as they each brought out some Lien to pay for their drinks. They left it on the table and quickly crossed the road, a flash of grey and blonde turning the corner.
"I'll go high, you two stay low." Crue said, using his Semblance to quickly scale a building and walk along the rooftops, staying close to the edge to keep an eye on Mercury and the unknown woman. He spied Blake and Weiss down below, carefully hugging the corner of the building and observing the duo.
Blake was an ex-terrorist, and was stealthy regardless, so there was no doubt in his mind that she could stalk and observe Mercury without him noticing. Although, he was the trained son of an assassin. Which might even the playing field.
Weiss appeared to have some stealth capabilities of her own, carefully tiptoeing after them when appropriate, and leaning back when she thought one of them might turn. Crue's brows creased into a frown when he realised it could only be learned from sneaking around at home.
Crue had his own ways of remaining hidden. And luckily, one of the earliest lessons he'd learned from his classes with Oobleck. "People never look up." He whispered to himself, watching the blonde hair cautiously.
He had never seen this person in the show. Was she someone made up by the 'Author'? Had the show progressed since he left? God, what year was it now. He was only a few months on Remnant's soil, but it felt like years sometimes.
It didn't matter what her origin was however, as Crue watched them enter a store that caused the Faunus to stop in his tracks. The shop in question had a bright pink neon heart above the tinted glass windows.
The fact the heart contained an 'XXX' was what stopped the Faunus. It did not, however, stop Weiss and Blake. The two continued, either not realising or not caring about the shop and its contents. He lost track of the monochrome duo as they entered the store.
It took approximately 5 seconds for them to reappear. Both of them bright red in the face and staring at the ground as they powerwalked away. "Welp. They definitely didn't notice." Crue walked alongside them atop the roof, before jumping down in an alley and slipping out to walk behind the two girls.
He waited until they were around the corner before speaking. "So…"
The yelps that the two girls gave caused Crue's ears to flatten against his head. Blake and Weiss were both still red, the colour more noticeable on the Heiress. "They- He- She- WHY DOES A PLACE LIKE THAT EXIST?!" She shrieked.
Blake looked equally as embarrassed. "He saw us." She told Crue, his blue eyes widening. "But, he didn't think we were following him." Within her bow, her ears crinkled as she looked away from the Wolf Faunus.
"What, why wouldn't he think…" He trailed off, his mind slowly putting things together.
"He said:" Weiss hissed, her face still beet red. "Huh, I didn't know you two were like that." Crue desperately tried not to laugh. He honestly tried. But the sound of a dead man came from deep within his throat as the two before him levelled glares that would have made a Grimm turn.
"Well. At least he doesn't know you were following." Crue's voice came out at a somewhat high pitch. And why would he. Blake and Weiss had no suspicion on them. Well, no suspicion of what Cinder and hers were planning.
Now, however, there may be some suspicions of them being together. "Huh. Checkmate." Crue thought idly. "Let's, get back to Beacon before anyone else thinks you two are suddenly a lot closer than teammates."
Crue felt he might be six feet under by the time they reached Beacon if he made another joke about the two of them based on their glares, so he wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. The Wolf Faunus glanced back as they were leaving, still wondering who the woman was.
He was going to find out, one way or another. But he couldn't. If the woman was working with Cinder, she could report his face and presence. He'd lose any chance of stopping the Fall.
No, Crue couldn't investigate the woman…
But the Wolf could.
…
Cold wind bit into The Wolf's skin. His long emerald cloak doing its best to ward off the chill as he perched high atop a building in Vale. He couldn't help but think back to the last time he was in this get up.
"Raven was no help." He muttered angrily. "Not that I should be surprised. Deadbeat mam." The Wolf shook his head slightly, refocusing on task. It was dark out, not that it mattered thanks to his Faunus vision.
He wouldn't have had any chance of tracking the woman from before. It had been too long, and he couldn't have gone right back into Vale after getting back to Beacon with Weiss and Blake, it would have looked too suspicious.
That left him with two options. One, do his best impression of a caped crusader and leap from building to building, posing edgily next to gargoyles in the hopes he could spot his prey. Or two…
"Ask Neo…" The Wolf frowned beneath his green helmet, attempting to reach up and pinch the bridge of his nose, but failing thanks to the armour in question. "I haven't talked to her since we broke up…"
A part of him knew that he shouldn't be taking the breakup so hard. He had never planned to start a relationship with her, and they were only really together because Cinder told her to get close to him. But, it didn't matter to him how fake or how unexpected the relationship was.
"I was happy. I was in…" The Wolf sighed, unable to finish the sentence, standing up from his crouched position and planning to move to another building. He got to the edge of the building and took out his Scroll. He slowly opened the Contacts app, his thumb hovering over Neo's name.
Their messages to another were still there. The last message had been on the day of the dance, with her telling him that Cinder was on her way to the CCT. He wanted to scroll up and reread their old conversations, but decided not to, for fear of breaking his heart more.
"I need your help." He typed out. He let the message sit there, his hand flinching above the send button. The Wolf grumbled to himself, looking around for an excuse not to send the message.
To his amazement, he found one.
Across from him was a hotel, and through one of the windows stood the blonde woman from earlier. Still in the same grey suit as earlier, but a series of packages dotted around the room. The Wolf quickly looked back to the Scroll, making sure he hadn't accidentally sent the message to Neo and quickly deleted it.
He didn't want their first correspondence after close to a month of no contact to be something to do with the whole reason they broke up in the first place. "And all because I promised I wouldn't interfere with Torchwick's business."
He pocketed the Scroll and stretched out. He wanted to just jump across and crash through the window, demanding answers. But, there was always the chance that this woman was just an innocent who was somehow dragged into Cinder's plan.
Eyebrows raised beneath The Wolf's helmet. An innocent woman with a wide variety of sex toys, if the bags lying next to the window were any indication. She must have bought something in the shop she and Mercury had entered.
A brief idea of the woman pegging Mercury entered The Wolf's mind. He physically flinched and felt himself heave. "Oh god please be evil so I can fight and get that image out of my head." He backpedalled, before running across the roof and leaping, gripping the edges of his cloak and pulling it taught as far as he could.
The Air Dust embedded in the clothing activated, propelling him to the hotel. His grip slackened as he approached the wall, activating his Semblance as he hit it with a soft thump. The Wolf winced at the impact.
It was a solid wall, and he doubted the noise would be noticed for what it was. Hopefully anyone who heard it would just assume it was a neighbour getting amorous. He slowly crawled his way over to the woman's window, positioning himself so he was above it.
A brief thought of how creepy he was being floated through his head. He dispelled the notion, reminding his brain that this was to make sure she wasn't working for Cinder. "Or Salem…" He murmured.
The Queen of Grimm had other agents in the field apparently, aside from the ones he had seen in her palace. "Watts, Tyrian and Hazel." He remembered, very carefully lowering his head so that he could observe the room.
The woman was fiddling with the tight bun on her hair, before it exploded into a mane of blonde that would make Yang jealous. "Jesus. She needs some conditioner." The Wolf muttered, analysing the room while the hair obscured him from view.
It was a normal hotel room from what he could tell. Double bed, dresser, a door that probably led to a bathroom. "And more sex toys than you could shake a sex toy at." The Wolf sighed, bringing his head back and leaning against the wall.
"Maybe I'm just being paranoid." He thought, putting a hand on his chin. Chainmail rubbed against his helmet, making an annoying noise that The Wolf's ears didn't much care for. "Maybe Mercury actually had some luck with a woman for once…"
He trailed off at that thought, quickly glancing back into the room. Deep blue eyes stared back. "Fuck!" The Wolf suddenly cried, leaping back into the open air from the gaze. The shattering of glass was the first sign that he wasn't going to make it.
Something coiled around his ankle and dragged him back into the room. His body went flying, landing on the bed and bouncing before hitting the wall across from it. The Wolf quickly got to his feet, staring at the woman and getting into a fighting stance reminiscent of Yang's.
The blonde woman smiled widely, a glowing whip slowly being reeled in. "Oh, the Wolf, I presume." Her voice was light. Airy. But it had a certain tinge to it that sent the Faunus' instincts on edge. "And here I was meant to find you before the festival, but you found me."
A hand reached up to cup her face, her fingers spreading out so she could still see her opponent. "How fun.~"
The Wolf swallowed once. "Oh fuck. She's a yandere." He needed to check something first. "So, you do work for Cinder then." He tried to edge his way from behind the bed, so that he could either get an easy hit in or jump out the window if need be.
"Hm? Oh, yes. Cinder is who I work for." She smiled once more, as though she was playing an amusing game. So, she worked for Salem, Wolf realised. But he wasn't meant to know about Salem.
But it did prove one thing, as The Wolf started to laugh, the sound echoing in his helmet. "I knew it!" He cried in joy, causing the woman to frown in confusion, her grip on her whip tightening. "I knew Mercury couldn't get a date!"
In a flash, The Wolf moved, his claws coming out with a snkt. The woman's eyes seemed to light up, as she made absolutely no intention to move. The Wolf swung, his claws scoring three lines diagonally down the woman's chest.
A cry of pain was the sound that The Wolf expected to hear.
It was not.
A cry not unlike the ones he had heard Neo give, or ones she had given him, sounded out from the woman upon impact. The claws left three distinct marks on her otherwise pristine suit. "Yes!" She cried out, moving closer to The Wolf instead of further away.
"More! Again! Ravage me like the wolf you are!" She cracked her whip and sent it flying towards The Wolf, the trespasser slack jawed behind his mask as he barely dodged.
"SHE'S A FUCKING MASOCHIST TOO!?" He cried out, angling himself so he could propel himself from the walls of the room to get another attack off on the woman.
Another slash of his claws, and another cry of pleasure from her. The Wolf shivered involuntarily. Was everything tonight determined to remind him Neo? "Oh, you really are an animal." The Wolf had an immediate urge to call out her racism, before reminding himself she didn't know he was a Faunus.
"Look, if you're just gonna let me hit you, can I at least know your God damn name so I can bleach it from my memory." The Wolf asked, holding his left hand out of her view.
Through brief pants of breath, the woman ran a hand through her wild mane of hair. "Oh, if you must know my name. If only so you can scream it later." She smirked, a hint of bright white shining through. "You can call me Solaris, and I think it's my turn."
The name immediately rang a bell. It was one of the contacts in Watts' Scroll. Solaris was on the same level of importance as the rest of Salem's immediate minions. "Fu-" His curse was lost as Solaris struck.
Despite the impact being caused by a single point, Solaris' whip, The Wolf felt several slashes across his chest as he was flung back into the dresser, shattering the furniture and leaving him in a slump as he reached to where he had felt himself struck.
His eyes locked onto Solaris' chest, and he ignored how that might have sounded, as he noticed the slashes in her clothing. "Great. What is with blondes giving back what they get?" He asked sarcastically, standing to his feet.
"Oh, you figured it out." Solaris giggled, the sound not suiting the woman at all. "What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment." She struck with her whip once more, The Wolf quickly ducking and rolling across the bed as a pillow exploded into a cloud of feathers.
"Glutton for punishment. Gluttony. Fucking kill me with these Seven Deadly Sins references." The Wolf sighed internally, but he got what he came for.
"Yep. And that's all I needed." The Wolf said, now with his back to the open window, the wind blowing in and causing his cloak to billow. "I just wanted to know if you were working for her or not. Can't wait to see what you're actually gonna do."
"Oh, that's sweet. You think you're going to get away." She brought a hand to her cheek once more, and to The Wolf's curiosity, and concern, she tossed her whip away.
"All I have to do is jump, and I'm away from you." He edged backwards but froze as Solaris laughed once more.
"I never said it was me you had to get away from." At her words, the world seemed to light up white. The wind that had been blowing in now billowed, as a voice sounded out.
"Attention! We have you surrounded! Come out, with your hands up!" The Wolf froze. That wasn't the police. General Ironwood was in charge of security for the Vytal Festival. Which meant…
The Wolf turned his head, seeing several Atlesian Dropships point searchlights into the room. "HELLLLLP!" The Wolf flinched slightly, turning back and seeing Solaris cupping her hands to her mouth, a wide smile on her face as she screamed.
"THE WOLF IS TRYING TO GET ME! HELP ME PLEASE!" She screamed, never losing the smile that warned The Wolf of things to come. The growl emanated from the helmet, as he weighed his options.
An agent of Salem, or the Atlesian Military. Well, that was a no brainer. "Time for some property damage." The Wolf said, raising his hand up high as Borradh stopped spreading Dust, and now crackled with electricity.
Solaris saw it, her smile falling as The Wolf brought his hand down, slamming it into the Fire Dust. The explosion was great but confined to the room and with an easy way out. The Wolf let the blast take him, throwing his hands and cloak out wide so that he could catch the updraft.
The Air Dust that was weaved into his cloak reacted poorly with the explosion, sending him higher than intended and crashing into one of the Dropships. The military fell back into some manoeuvre or other, The Wolf didn't have time to think about it, as he quickly leapt from the bottom of the aircraft to the side of a building and ran.
He could feel how low his Aura was, and knew he had a limited time to make it back to Beacon. If he even could. He knew Semblance use was linked to Aura. And he was always quite gratuitous with using his Semblance.
He had a large Aura, he knew. But not large enough to take on a portion of the Atlesian Military. And certainly not- BANG!
An impact caught The Wolf's shoulder, as he let out a cry of pain and stumbled, falling from the side of the building and onto the main road. He let out a groan as a he pushed himself up, and immediately wished he had never gotten out of bed that morning.
Standing a few dozen feet away from him, was none other than General Ironwood himself. "You've got some nerve attacking a civilian under my watch, Wolf." The General said, flicking the chamber on his gun and reloading the singular bullet he used.
"It's The Wolf, thank you very much." The Wolf said, standing to his feet and shaking his hands. "And despite what you may think, I don't go around attacking random civilians." His feet brought him backwards, away from the General.
Instead of responding verbally, Ironwood simply raised an eyebrow, and let his eyes flicker over The Wolf's shoulder. The helmeted man cringed, before nodding. "Not my best moment. But between her and you, I'd take you."
His words seemed to give the General pause. "You'd rather face the General of the Atlesian Military, than, whoever was in that room." He gestured to it with his gun, but kept it trained on The Wolf.
"Oh, believe me." The Wolf shuddered, the action noticed by Ironwood. "I would take a Beowulf over her. The thing would probably scare me less." Through all of his words, he was constantly shuffling back, and Ironwood was continually following.
It got to the point where Ironwood was where The Wolf had originally fallen, and the Faunus in question felt the ground beneath him change from stone to metal. "Do you play chess, General?" He asked.
The question was so out of the blue, Ironwood couldn't help but falter. His eyes narrowed, a faded blue that analysed every inch of his opponent. "Occasionally. What's your point?" His eyes were quickly darting behind The Wolf, who realised he was probably going to under arrest rather quickly.
"No reason. Just that, when you get a piece to the other end of the board, just cause it's on the other side, doesn't mean it's not on your side." The Wolf said, his hands reaching down to his sides.
The General was quiet for many moments, before his gun lowered ever so slightly. "What?" He asked, such genuine confusion in his voice that it gave The Wolf pause. He sighed, the sound echoing in his helmet.
"God I fucking suck at analogies." He took out a small box from his back pocket, and Ironwood immediately was back on guard. "Alright, blunt time. The woman in there is not the Queen. She's a pawn." At that, Ironwood stilled completely.
"And now, for a magic trick." He slipped the tiny box open and took out a singular match. He placed the head against the igniter and got his other hand ready to flick. "I'm on your side, General." He said, as Ironwood clicked back the hammer on his gun in caution.
"But I can't help from a cell." He flicked the match, the motion causing it to ignite and soar through the air, the General following its trajectory as it landed at his feet, igniting the small pile of Fire Dust that lay there.
A tiny explosion, comparable to that of a firecracker, went off at the General's feet. It did no harm, aside from scuffing some perfectly clean boots. Ironwood's head quickly snapped back up, seeing The Wolf gone, and a spinning manhole in his place.
His men were already running forward, intent on following The Wolf through the sewers. He doubted they'd catch him. He trusted his soldiers implicitly, but there was something about the man that felt, abnormal.
He recalled what Ozpin had said before, about The Wolf possibly being on their side. That was confirmed now, and why he had given him the chance to talk, but it raised a greater and even more concerning question.
How did he know about Salem?
Evening all. So, luckily, I am not Crue. So I have no problem apologising for how long this story has remained dead. Well, in a coma, seeing as I'm finally updating it. And hey! The next chapter won't take another three years to come out! Only a week, how's that?!
But for real, I am sorry for those of you who liked this story and enjoyed reading it. I almost can't believe how old this story is now, granted it spent more time not being written than it was. But, this story was written even before Volume 4 came out. And as the show progressed, I found myself unable to figure out how Crue would fit in. I've fixed that, now. Or at least for seven more chapters. I would also like to say thank you for the people who left comments, even while it wasn't being updated. They helped me find my motivation, and now it's back.
But, I think that's all. I'm back from the dead and ready to write. OH! Solaris is an OC of my own creation, because like I said before, this story was written before all of Salem's minions were revealed, so I had the idea for the 'seven deadly sins' type of villain group way back when, and decided to finally bring it back up. She is also based on Darkness, from KonoSuba.
Now, that is definitely all. I hope.
Speaking of hoping, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you did. And as always...
Until Next Time
-Friday