Hello again, everyone! I will not blabber today at all since I am sure a lot of us are not in the mood.
Chapter 52 is up! I hope you like it! Thanks a lot for following/favoring/reading the story!
I will see you all next week and until then I wish you all the best! Be as healthy and as happy as possible!
"Finally, there are two vantage points right behind the alley, one day's worth of walk from here." Sophia hummed and noted the information Kendrick provided her down in her scroll.
"You have been such a nice boy- go to sleep now" she smiled poisonously at the faunus who simply shut his eyes and started snoozing.
She rose from the chair she had been using while interrogating the man and turned around to leave. As soon as she did so, her eyes fell on Weiss who was staring hatefully at her.
"Keep looking at me this way and I will make you regret it" she walked in front of her. "You made me kill helpless captives- there are not many worse things you can do to me right now."
"This is your fault" she coldly replied. "Nothing like that would have happened if you just behaved." The alabaster girl's mouth hung wide open.
"You have no right to demand my obedience! Who the hell do you think you are?" The woman's lips slightly curled upwards. It unnerved the huntress to no end.
"I am the one who decides whether you live or die, Ms. Schnee. So I suggest you start showing me your best behavior." Weiss bit her lip, trying to keep the proper response from coming out.
She failed "I would rather strip naked, make night calls to your guards' chambers and then slice my throat in a gutter than behaving to earn your affection."
Carmel brought the chair in front of Weiss and sat. She lit a cigarette and took a quick whiff before replying. "I preferred it when you were jumping to protect me screaming 'My Lady' like a love-struck fan girl."
A sound of disgust was her reply "this wasn't me; it was a puppet you created with my body and mind. I feel so tainted now that I heard that."
"Big words from someone who has a criminal's blood running inside her veins" Sophia shot back. "I am not responsible for my father's actions- and I will not accept any association with him" Weiss countered.
"Once more, you talk big. You can't escape what you are Weiss." The Schnee groaned. She really, really wanted to lash out and break that perfect teeth of hers till those full red lips coughed blood.
Still, there was something weird on Sophia's behavior. Something familiarly weird. "Are you truly talking to me? Or is it your own self you are trying to convince?"
She closed her eyes and gave a haughty smile "don't flatter yourself; I am merely telling you that I can't stand people like you, who think they can wash away the sins that stain their blood simply by acting like goody two shoes."
Her voice was flat but, unlike the previous time, Weiss could feel the pulsing hatred from behind it. "You have no right to judge me, murderer."
Sophia narrowed her eyes and took a large whiff. "Funny thing; that whore of a mother I had told me the exact same thing the last time I saw her before she died."
Whore of a mother? "You are curious, aren't you?" She rose from the chair "unfortunately, I have no intention of telling you." Weiss glared at the woman.
"Have fun, Ms. Schnee. And try contemplating what I told you by the time I will require your services again." She walked away under the huntresses' fierce glare and slammed the door behind her.
She had smoked two more cigarettes by the time she reached the communications' room. Wenge and the other two of her men who had technical knowledge were inside, trying to fix the broken equipment.
"How are we doing?" she asked as soon as she stepped in. "I am sorry" the dark-skinned man replied. "The damage is beyond extensive. It will take a considerable amount of hours and with the upcoming blizzard-"
"Enough; I get the point." The situation was really bad; Fenris had his lair near the valley, so he was one day ahead of them. As soon as the blizzard stopped, he would be able to quickly reach the tomb.
"How's the antenna doing?" She addressed the technicians. "A simple maintenance should be enough for it to work, but without any sort of central mainframe, there is no reason to do so."
"Go fix it" she pulled her laptop out of her bag. "Reprogram the antenna to use my laptop's network in place of the central control PC. And hurry, before the blizzard catches up to you."
They both bowed and left the room. As soon as they exited, Wenge turned around to his Boss. "How are the prisoners?" he asked.
"Why do you ask?" Sophia replied. "You have visited them three times already and every time you return even more furious, Madam."
"I don't need your sympathy, Mr. Knight." "You need rest, Ms. Carmel" he insisted. "Just, go sleep; for a couple hours. Until the antenna is reprogrammed at least."
Her eyes closed for a mere second. The temptation of sleep was so sweet; luring her to a world where she would be calm and serene. Where her parents were still alive.
A world where she didn't have to smoke half a pack of cigars to throw away the image of her mother's smile as she flaunted her sins to her father.
"Just for a few minutes…" was the only thing she managed to say before her exhaustion caught up with her.
-o—
Matthew Moose opened the door of his cabin and took in the spectacular view. The morning air was strong, fresh and cold, coming straight down from the depths of Aegis Forest.
The tall, brown haired man with the antler horns got quickly dressed and picked his axe. The work of a lumberjack was a heavy one, but he paid no mind.
He loved his isolation and nature truly provided him with everything he ever wanted. Save from the traders who came by once a month to buy his stock, and the occasional convoy passing by towards that Communication Facility in the forest, no one bothered to get that close to the mysterious woods.
Which was why he got really surprised when the distinct roar of engines disrupted the peaceful winter morning. Always cautious, he gripped his weapon and turned towards the source of the sound.
Two black snowmobiles, polished and brand new, steadily approached his cabin. When they stopped next to him, he saw three people were riding them.
They wore red winter suits with heavy jackets and pants, accompanied by hiking boots. Their heads were covered in scarves and woolen caps. Snow glasses covered their eyes. His eyes narrowed. They were all armed.
The one riding on her own, a medium sized slightly curvy girl removed her glasses as she stepped down her vehicle. A pair of eyes colored like freshly polished steel looked at him.
"Excuse me" her tone was serious, but her voice had a tinge of childishness in it. "Could you please tell us the way to Gloomharrow Valley?"
Matthew's eyes opened wide. "Why would you ever want to go there, Missy? This place is forgotten by everyone- and for a good reason, mind you."
"My friends are in danger and I have to reach them" she flatly replied. "Please, if you know how to, just tell me." Rubbing his chin, the man stared to the north. He didn't like what he saw.
Just a few kilometers away from the cabin, Aegis Forest in its all white and green splendor spread. Observing it from above, reaching up to the lowest clouds Everfrost Peak, the passage for Gloomharrow, stood.
And down from it, a thick, white mass of clouds slowly advanced. Judging from the colors and the sudden heavy wind in the area, it could only mean one thing.
"Look, Missy" he replied. "I will tell you, but only after this blizzard passes by." The silver pools opened wide in shock. "If there is a blizzard coming, then we must go as soon as possible!" she protested.
The man shook his head in disapproval. "Where are you guys from?" "Patch Island, Vale" she replied. "We are from Mantle" the only boy of the group said from behind her.
"That makes sense. If you were from around here, you would know not to even think brave the weather. The snowstorms of Solitas are not city fluffy snowflakes. They bring cold wind, snow and pain with them."
"We are seasoned huntsmen!" she protested. "Then you should know what you are asking for, is suicide!" he replied. "Your friends will either survive the blizzard, or die before you even reach them, simple as that."
"…" she balled her fingers into fists and Matthew tightened the grip on his axe. They stared at each other for a while, before the boy grabbed her shoulder.
"We won't help them if we die out there, Ruby" his voice was calm and soothing. "Why don't we place our trust on them? You know better than anyone how tough they are."
Ruby gulped and her shoulders sagged. "I feel like I am abandoning them, Albus" she whimpered. "Don't be" the lumberjack intervened. "What you are doing is the best for them, trust me Missy."
She hung her head in defeat and nodded "I am sorry about my previous behavior- my entire team is there and I am so worried about them."
He flashed an approving smile "don't mind it. I can more or less understand your fear. But dying out there helps nobody." He scratched his head and pointed to the garage of his cabin.
"Put your vehicles inside there and come in- it's better to be in a warm and safe place and you will be able to go out as soon as the snowstorm passes."
"We wouldn't like to impose-" "thank you very much!" Ruby cut the boy off and proceeded to parking her snowmobile in the small room below the cabin.
Alex yawned as the three of them stepped inside the well-furnished home of the lumberjack. "Your affinity for sleeping is, as always, weird" the brunette told her friend.
"You are merely jealous" she replied as she snuggled in the warm couch next to the window. "I am going to take a nap until we see what we can do."
A pair of silver eyes rolled and Ruby stared at the entrance. A few pine stalks were beautifully placed above the doorframe and the windows.
The interior was warm and cozy, made entirely of wood, fur and plants. She admired the handiwork and wished she could show her team this place. Maybe they could go together for a short trip after-
The door opened wide and the two men stepped in, carrying chopped wood for the fireplace. "Of course she would hit the couch already; my apologies for her manners, Mr. Moose" Albus groaned.
"Nah, its fine. I like people who don't put on any act." He stared at Ruby "is everything all right, Missy?" The girl, who must have unconsciously started crying, quickly wiped her eyes.
"No, everything is fine…I was, um… admiring the decoration. Those pine stalks are beautiful." He looked at the door and laughed heartily "thank you for the compliment- but they are rosemary stalks, not pines."
"Oh" Ruby blushed and looked away in embarrassment. "Now that you mentioned it" the young man pondered "I saw a few of them in the garage as well. You are really fond of it."
Matthew moved next to Alex and covered her with a blanket. The faunus smiled in her sleep and immediately tugged the blanket in her arms, leaving cute satisfied sounds.
"It's a very, very old story. Before the Great War." He stared out from the window; the cloud had covered half the forest already. The wind had subsided, but he knew it was a matter of time before it came back.
"Before Atlas lost the war, all faunus were forbidden from living in the cities. You are aware of that, right?" Ruby nodded "they worked in the mines, but lived in farms all over Solitas" she silently thanked Blake.
The man started pouring them soup "folk tales and stories were very common back then; now only a few of us remember them. They became songs and myths, but back then people truly believed them."
"Tie the rosemary in stalks… A Grimm silently now walks…" the brunette hummed, surprising both men. "You know that song? I am impressed, young lady."
She nodded and gave him a melancholic smile "my partner… Weiss… loves it. She has been singing it a lot lately…" "I see" he rubbed his face with a towel and licked his lips.
"It's one of the oldest and most… adult ones. It talks of a Grimm so powerful it drove every single soul away from Aegis Forest eons before the city of Mantle was even built" the man continued.
Ruby and Albus exchanged a worried glare. The huntress didn't like that. It was too… fitting for her tastes. "Do you believe that?" she reluctantly asked.
"I am not sure" the man poured them some soup "but I know that wind blows weirdly in the forest. And I am sure the harsh climate is not the only reason this place has remained untouched for so long."
The leader of team RWBY walked next to the window. Her silver eyes stared at the pine trees, now barely visible behind the barrier of wind and snow.
She licked her lips and rubbed her fingers. She only hoped that Sophia Carmel and Gray Fenris were skilled enough to keep her team safe until she kicked their ass to kingdom come.
She would laugh at the irony, if she didn't find the situation funny at all.
-o—
"Where did this wind come from?" Ilia shouted so that her companions could hear her voice above the roaring winds. "This place is as crazy as the last one we went to; and a lot colder!" Yang groaned.
She wasn't used to feel the cold and this unnatural chill annoyed her to no end. The snow cloud not-so-slowly filling the forest was another reason for her being angry.
"We have to find a place to pass the blizzard!" Blake, walking ahead of them, screamed. "And what about Weiss? She might be in danger!"
"With all due respect Yang" Ilia walked next to her "if this Grimm finds us right now, we will not reach the Ice Queen. "Except maybe in a hundred pieces of mutilated meat!" the cat girl added.
Rubbing the part where her metal joint met her flesh, the brawler tried her best to calm down. Why in the heck did they have such a streak of bad luck lately?
"I NEVER THOUGHT THAT WEATHER OF ALL THINGS WOULD BE STANDING IN OUR WAY!" she fumed, trying to let her frustration out.
"Never underestimate a harsh climate" Ilia instantly replied, slightly trembling. "We must soon find a safe place or we will freeze to death. Or fall down and get eaten by Beowolves."
"I seriously doubt any Grimm hunts in such a snowstorm!" the black-haired girl objected. "Still, I do not want to ensure whether this is true or false, so let's get going."
They moved for quite some time. It was truly exhilarating; their eyes hurt from the snow while trying to stay on path. Their flesh, even below the winter outfits, was half-frozen. They were hungry and thirsty.
And every single moment, the monster from before could easily jump and kill them. They knew that, at least in that part, they had been quite lucky so far.
Blake moved forward, eyes and ears trying to notice any sort of movement- or any sort of makeshift hideout. She jumped over a large log in the middle of the road and stared forward.
A small house or, more accurately, the remains of what once was a small house, was carefully placed on a tiny natural-made platform.
A huge pine tree had grown out of it, tearing the roof apart. The well had quite a few vines and plants coming out of it as well. However, the stone walls were in relatively good condition.
She ran back and climbed the log again. As soon as she saw her friends, her ears perked in worry. Yang was carrying half-unconscious Ilia in her arms.
"What happened?" she jumped down next to them. "She felt weak and dizzy. Unlike us, she has barely slept or eaten anything" the blonde girl explained.
"I found a small house behind the fallen tree. It's in bad shape, but we could probably isolate a small room and try to warm ourselves with some fire dust."
Yang's eyes lit; she didn't show it, but she must have been pretty exhausted too, Blake thought. "Let's go. Thankfully, we can melt some snow and drink it. I am dehydrated."
It took them some time –and most of their remaining dust- to manage seal one of the smaller rooms and light up a small fire. They melt some of the snow and, ignoring the horrible taste and appearance, drank.
As usual, Blake took first guard, with Yang and Ilia snuggling next to each other to try and share body heat. "Don't get any weird ideas" the tall woman half-joked "I have an overly territorial girlfriend."
"Well" the chameleon girl, still hungry but much better than before, replied "if I were dating you, I would be overly territorial as well."
Yang narrowed her eyes and Blake rolled hers, before they all chuckled to remove the tension away. "Question; how are we going to take this thing down with only twelve dust bullets left?"
"We rest so that when it reaches us, we can run as fast as possible." Yang exhaled, much to the as-of-that-moment-napping chameleon girl's protest "I feel so ashamed; we should be able to easily kill it."
"You saw what it did Yang" her partner stared at her. "When was the last time you met a Grimm that could control plants?" She licked her chapped lips "you know we never have so far."
"It reminded me how much we have learned about the origin of Remnant, but how little we know about the Grimm as entities" the yellow-eyed beauty said. "We had no idea such a thing existed."
"Just like the Eldergrimm" Yang completed her partner's thoughts. "What did Ozpin tell us in one of his rare honest moments? It was about good and evil I think."
"Evil and Good are bound to coexist; you can't completely erase either of them from the world- or from the hearts of people. Weiss gave him a very good verbal beat down afterwards, didn't she?" Blake replied.
The mention of the alabaster girl made Yang's heart flutter. "You know, with all the stuff happening, I hadn't quite realized something until now" she sheepishly told her, staring at the makeshift fire.
Her partner looked at her in question. "I have no idea what to do and how will I manage to well, go on, if something happens to her, Blake."
"Nothing will happen to her, Yang. Weiss is strong-" "I know" what cut Blake off were not the words, but the tears forming in her friend's eyes.
"I know how strong she is and how prideful; I see and fall more in love with it every day. But…" she stopped for a second trying to not wake up Ilia "not everything is on our hands all the time."
The faunus lowered her gaze. She wanted to comfort Yang, but it was not that she hasn't afraid of the exact same thing. An enemy with the ability to manipulate one's mind was truly dangerous after all.
"Let's just hope Sophia Carmel has better things to do than dealing with Weiss." "And if she doesn't? If she hurts her, if she…does even worse, I will kill her, Blake. You will have to stop me if she takes my love away from me."
Blake controlled her breathing to ease her nerves. Now was not the time for a breakdown. Everyone needed her at the top of her game. However, there was one thing she had to make clear at this point.
"If she kills Weiss…" she replied coldly "if she kills my friend… you will have to stop me from cutting her down, Yang." Yellow and lilac locked on each other and slowly nodded in mutual understanding.