Ch. 13

"Hey, pick up the pace! We're almost there!" yelled Lieutenant Corvus. The White Fang soldiers under his command continued to dig through the massive hole they made in floor of the factory's supply basement. Its wide open space and high ceiling allowed them to bring in digging equipment, such as large drilling machines, into the building. Although, the stone pillars did provide a bit of a hindrance.

The White Fang had secured the building over a week ago, and Corvus was put in charge. His mission was to obtain a Longinus fragment and bring it to Adam for safekeeping. Seemed easy enough to him since there was no one around these parts of Vale anyway. The fact that the building was surrounded by a strong, thick steel wall was a bonus as they didn't have to worry about Grimm breaking in and interfering.

"Getting closer!" The drills continued to dig further, their movements causing the lights overhead to shake. Corvus was still surprised the power was still operational. All he had to do was turn on the circuit breaker in the factory's engineering room. Still, the place was messy, dusty, and crawling with bugs and rats. It wasn't pleasant, but he dealt with it anyway.

The drills continued to dig until a portion of the hole collapsed into a medium sized cave.

"Hold it men!" Corvus commanded.

The drills halted and the operators made the massive grey machines back away from the opening. Corvus and a small armed group approached the cave. He pulled a small device from his pocket, it was similar to a scroll but only had one function: to detect energy. The device had a red blip on its screen and started beeping as soon as he entered the cave.

"Stay here," he commanded his soldiers.

They nodded and formed a perimeter around the cave mouth while Corvus entered with a flashlight in hand. As much as he respected his fellow faunus brethren, he didn't want them near the Longinus fragment. The information he was given about its properties made want to exercise extreme caution. The beeping of the energy device grew in pace as he traversed further. A few minutes later he found an opening into a small circular room. In the middle was rock pedestal, and on top of it was a glowing crystal. Corvus put away his flashlight and approached the pedestal. The crystal was shaped like a regular dust crystal, but a little larger and colored black and white. In fact, the colors seemed to move around the inside of crystal like liquid. Corvus slowly grabbed the crystal in his hands. As soon as he grabbed it, he felt both a cold and warmth spread through his hand, like it was trying to spread its contents through his body. Corvus, remembering what Adam told him, steeled himself. The cold and warmth immediately retreated from his hand, only to be felt from the surface.

"That was close. I could've lost it right then and there," Corvus said with a sigh of relief.

He pocketed the crystal and turned his flashlight back on, proceeding to exit the cave. When he exited the cave mouth, one of his soldiers quickly ran up to him.

"Sir, I've got bad news. You should come check the security cameras," the soldier said.

Corvus merely nodded and followed the soldier up a ladder out of the hole to the main Atrium floor. They walked to into the security room, shutting the door behind them. They approached a large table that was stuck into the wall opposite the door. It had several computer screens spanning the wall above it with a control module to rewind, fast forward, pause, and change position of the cameras. Some of the screens were blank since not all the cameras worked, but one in particular caught Corvus' attention. The camera in the upper right hand corner showed a group of seven people running down the many hallways of the complex.

"Huntsmen? Here?" Corvus said, somewhat agitated. How the hell had huntsmen found this place?

"That's not all sir," the White Fang soldier said. He pointed to another screen just two spaces to the left. It showed a boy standing among a throng of four dead bodies. He was currently holding a struggling White Fang in his outstretched right hand. "That wolf has already killed most of our men and seems to be heading towards us."

Corvus ground his teeth in anger as the sight left a bad taste in his mouth. "Tell everyone to get ready for company. And don't hesitate to kill them, Understood?" The sharp edge to Corvus' voice shot a small pang of fear in his subordinate.

"Y-Yes sir," the soldier said before readying his rifle and running out of the room.

Corvus picked up his own weapon, a modified chainsaw, and walked out the room to get his men prepared for the worst.

XXXXXXX

Abaddon threw the dead White Fang soldier to the floor. It was a futile effort, trying to stab him in the back. Abaddon promptly grabbed and strangled the fighter before he could so much as touch him with a weapon.

The boy continued his trek through the building, heading towards the basement. He could quite literally feel the power of a Longinus fragment emanating from down there. He surmised that the White Fang may have been here for a while. They were either gathering dust again or, if they knew it was here, trying to get the fragment as well. Abaddon also noticed that no more White Fang appeared to get in his way.

"This is either a good thing, or I'm heading into a trap," he thought.

He ran down a hallway and descended one more flight of stairs until he came to a double door. The words "Storage Basement" were displayed over them. Abaddon went through the doors, only to be met with the sight of a small army of angry and armed White Fang, including a familiar face.

"Surprised to see me again Corvus?" Abaddon asked with a smirk.

"I knew you'd reappear, but how did you find this place?" Corvus demanded more than asked.

"I don't know, just dumb luck I guess." Abaddon didn't need to count how many soldiers surrounded him, they were going down anyway. "But enough talk," he said as he brandished his swords. "Let's fight!"

XXXXXXX

Kathleen and the others continued their desperate attempt to catch up to Abaddon. He must've been running on all fours to be so far ahead. They sprinted down hallways and flights of stairs, following their teammate's path of destruction, but with every dead body they came across, team KAJE only grew even more wary. Why was their leader acting this way?

As they passed the last of the bodies, they continued downstairs. Apparently the trail led towards the basement. They stopped at a pair of double doors that led there.

"Alright, he should be in here," Cinder said as she pushed the doors open.

They entered and found five bodies on the floor, each sliced nearly in half. They were surrounding by an army of White Fang, who were currently watching a battle between Abaddon and a White Fang soldier wielding a chainsaw weapon.

"I have to admit, you've improved a bit Corvus," Abaddon grunted as he parred a blow from his opponent.

"I had to. I don't plan on losing to you again!" Corvus screamed as he revved up his chainsaw.

They clashed, the conflict between their weapons causing sparks to fly all over them.

"Abby!" Emma screamed for her brother.

Emma's voice attracted everyone's attention.

"Stay back!" Abaddon yelled, but this distracted him long enough for Corvus to slash him, sending the boy back against a stone pillar.

"This is just like before. Wherever you find us, you have other huntsmen to back you up," Corvus said, then turned to his troops. "Take care of those huntsmen! Don't let them interfere!"

"Like before? What does he mean by that?" Kathleen mentally asked herself, her doubts from before increasing even more.

Corvus' soldiers all charged towards Emma and the others with guns drawn, swords out, and clubs at the ready. Team's KAJE and MNCE pulled out their weapons as well. Mercury and Emerald advanced the White Fang with a flurry of kicks, Cinder and Kathleen slashed through with their swords, Emma fought while interchanging between her scythes dual and singular forms, Neo outmaneuvered the enemy and parried their attacks with her umbrella, and Jurano fired his double barreled revolver while wielding his chain scythe.

During the battle, Corvus stayed low, trying to attack one of the huntsmen from behind. He laid his eyes on Emma, who seemed to be the smallest. Circling around, Corvus made sure she didn't see him before he charged through the crowd and lunged at her with his chainsaw.

"DIE!"

But before his weapon could even touch her, Emma teleported behind Corvus and hit him with a rolling vertical slash. Corvus tumbled to the ground, but quickly stood back on his feet. "What the?"

"That's not gonna work on me big guy," Emma said with a glare.

Corvus charged again, his chainsaw revving, his frustrations boiling, but as he sprinted towards Emma a hard fist crashed into the right side of his face. The impact sent Corvus sprawling through the air and into a nearby support pillar, cracking it. His vision blurred momentarily, Corvus stood up once more. He shook his head and his vison cleared to see Abaddon standing between him and Emma.

"Looks like you can take a hard punch and just keep on tickin'." Abaddon cracked his knuckles, adorning a glare that, coupled with his black and red eyes, cast a tiny tinge of fear into Corvus. Although, not enough to make him cower.

"I'll only tell you this once Corvus. Keep your hands off my sister," the boy growled.

"This isn't going well for me," Corvus thought to himself. He was nearly out of energy, and this guy could literally fight nonstop for several days. Corvus knew he couldn't win against Abaddon, especially with his damn friends present, so he thought of a plan. Something that would buy him some time.

"Come on you filthy traitor! Finish me off! Or are you scared?" Corvus made the 'come at me' gesture, which prompted Abaddon to steadily walk towards him.

"That's it, just a bit closer." Corvus was hoping his plan would work, he just need to be a little patient. When Abaddon was about two feet away from him, Corvus made his move. "White Fang, flash bangs down now!" Corvus swiftly pulled a flashbang from his pocket and threw it at the ground. A few of his soldiers followed his example and threw more flash bangs, blinding the other huntsmen. It was a good thing their masks protected them from being blinded.

"Follow me!" Corvus ran towards the other end of the basement, with what was left of his soldiers in tow. They made it to a stack of crates, which Corvus moved to reveal an underground tunnel.

"Everyone get in!" he commanded.

His soldiers did as they were told and quickly filed in, with Corvus being the last. He pulled the crates back into place, then reached in his pocket and pulled out a handheld detonator.

"The timer is set to give us about a five minute head start, before even this tunnel collapses. By that time we'll be long gone. Too bad for those huntsmen." He looked back towards the opening and, with a smile, activated the switch.

XXXXXXX

"What the hell was that about?" Jurano exclaimed. The flash bang was like a huge flare from the sun, momentarily disorientating his vision and dulling his senses. After recovering, he looked around at his teammates. It seemed everyone was present, and also recovering from the same experience.

"Everyone alright?" Abaddon asked as he and Emma joined their friends.

Everyone nodded as they regrouped near the large hole the White Fang dug into the floor. Once they were all present, Emma chose this time to swiftly turn around and slap Abaddon across the face, hard. The harsh sound caused the others to flinch.

"Whoa," Emerald said in mild shock.

Mercury nudged Jurano's shoulder. "Uhhhh, remind me not to get slapped by her."

"Noted," Jurano replied.

Emma's slap left a large red mark across her brother's right cheek. Abaddon gazed back at her, but remained silent.

"Why?" Emma asked. "Why did you kill all those faunus Abby?"

"It's nothing to be concerned about," he said, then looked away from her.

"Like hell it is!" Emma whined.

"Abaddon, how can we be a team if you can't trust us with the truth?" Kathleen pleaded.

"She's right Abbs, you can't leave us in the dark any longer," Jurano added.

All three of Abaddon's friends wanted to know what he was thinking. Dishonesty, especially from the team leader, would cripple their effectiveness as a team, not to mention ruin their bond. Cinder and Neo kept quiet. They knew all too well that no matter how much they kept from the others, it wouldn't stay secret for long. Mercury and Emerald stayed silent as well, but were also curious of what Abaddon had to hide. Emerald also gazed at Cinder.

"Whatever he's hiding, I bet Cinder and Neo know about it too."

Abaddon sighed, and just as he was about to speak a series of explosions shook the building. Charges placed around the factory, including several support pillars in the basement, went off.

"I'll tell you everything you want to know later. We have to get out of here, now!"