Chapter 8: Call me Nick
Nick saw nearly the whole thing; when he saw Qrow his anger subsided. And after he saw the Specialist trip, he thought, well, at least she landed on her arse. It might've taken her down a few pegs too. She got up and slipped as she tried to reproach Qrow, and Nick remained a bit unimpressed. Then Qrow helped her up, and Nick saw the look in her eyes. Uh-oh…
She stormed off, and ran into him, the very person she was looking for. "Are you the Ace of Spades?" she demanded. In the split second before he answered, Nick thought, Ace of Spades? Only Ozpin knows me as that; Ozpin and his cohorts anyway. What's her connection with them? She's Atlasian, so possibly an aide to Ironwood, or successor… not likely: no guards, no adjoining fleet. Who is she? And what does she want?
"You first," he replied, giving a smirk, "who are you, and what do you want with me?" "That's classified," she said. He smiled and cheerily said, "Then screw off." He turned to leave. A glyph appeared beneath his feet, and he stuck fast to the floorboards. He looked down in confusion, then realized, Great, she's a Schnee; this is gonna be so fun… wait, a Schnee from the Atlasian Military? I thought they were Dust moguls; Capitalists. She Stepped up to him and whispered, "I'd prefer to explain myself in private." He turned to her and said, "Well you'd better get in line and wait patiently, Miss Schnee."
She didn't like that. At the end of her fuse, she respectively said, "At least hear me out." "Will you let me go then?" The glyph disappeared. They walked outside, breezing past Weiss and Ruby. The snow crunching beneath their feet, they walked for a fair distance. "General Ironwood, the commander of the Atlasian Military, sent me to find you and bring you back with me. I don't know why or what for." He turned to her, waiting a moment before he spoke, "Alrighty then, how about a deal? You fly me, Qrow, and his band of misfits over to Patch; and I'll think about It." she turned to him in suspicion and anger. "Why are you going to Patch?!" He sighed. "Apparently, Qrow wants me to go play physician." Disgust joined suspicion in Winter. "Are you telling me that you are with that insolent-" She stopped, reigning in her fury. All he did was shrug his shoulders. "You do know that he was drunk!" he deadpanned, "yeah, so what's new? You on the other hand…" he returned to the tavern, keeping that last part to himself, leaving a thunderstruck Winter.
Weiss couldn't sit still, not after seeing her sister leading that man –Nick– out the door. "Weiss." Weiss responded to Ruby's call. "Ugh, what is it?" "Um, are you okay, you're acting kinda… antsy?" Weiss sighed, "It's Nick, I have a strange feeling about him. He never gave you or me his real name. For all you know, 'Nick' isn't even his real name." Ruby stayed silent, as did Ren and Nora. Weiss looked around at each one of them, "Look, whoever he is, he's the man Winter's been after. I don't know why she's after him…"
Blake and Jaune entered, and stood there staring at Weiss. Weiss turned and saw them, as did everyone else. "u-uh h-h-hi w-Weiss," Jaune nervously said. Blake held herself, starting to look away. Weiss rushed over and gave her a hug. She stepped back, saying, "It's really nice to see you again Blake." Blake nodded. "Thanks Weiss, I'm glad to see you too." They all sat down, making small talk.
And in came Nick, much to the notice of Weiss. She stood up. "Alright you!" he looked at her, now what? "You're going to tell us your real name, now!" He deadpanned at her. "That's it? That's what you're babbling about? Sheesh." He shook his head and chuckled, "Alrighty then, It's Nicholas R. Gadsten, Nick for short." Thank you. Nicholas," Weiss sat back down, "Now why does Winter want you?"
Winter? Is that the girl outside? Hmm…Winter Schnee… well this girl's name is… White? No… Weiss… Yeah, that's it! Weiss… I didn't catch a last name. Nick shrugged. "Best I can figure It's because I'm the White Wolf, of the Four." He walked into the bar, leaving Weiss bug-eyed.
Nick walked over to Qrow, sitting at his table across from him. "Alright Qrow, I got us a ride to Patch." Qrow looked at him, and swilled his second glass. "What'd you do?" Nick took a deep breath and answered, "I made a deal with her." Qrow groaned. Nick stood up and left.
Winter entered the tavern right as Nick left the barroom. Well, she's pissed Nick thought when he saw her. As they approached, she drew her sword and pointed it at his chest, clenching her jaw hard enough for the muscles to bulge. He grabbed the tip with his thumb and two fingers, moving it to the side. "Alright listen, it's getting late, can we do this in the morning?" Her scowl deepened in response. Nick sighed, "Look, I don't wanna start a fight; I'd rather not get into a fight over this; in fact, 'I don't need to fight to prove I'm right; I don't need to be forgiven.'" Winter pulled her sword out of his grasp and pointed it at his face.
"You are going with us to Atlas, Immediately," She ordered through clenched teeth, in handcuffs if necessary. "Or what, you'll treat me to a shish kebab? Put your overgrown skewer away." She didn't move. "Either you take my deal, or you crawl back to your general empty-handed." She swiftly swung at him. He, quick as lightning, drew his tomahawk and blocked her blade with its metal neck. Winter stepped back and evaluated Nick, who stood calmly, his face neutral, if not sober. "I thought you said you didn't fight." He shook his head. "I'll fight if I have too, I'm a fighter; I just don't start them. You're the one looking for a fight." She swung again, this time her blade was knocked aside by a backhand. She swung again; her blade was parried by his strange tomahawk version of a fire axe.
"Take him down, Winter!" Weiss cheered. "Get her, Nick!" Ruby interjected. Qrow walked in to see what all the commotion was about, seeing Winter striking and swinging at Nick, who was parrying and lightly striking back almost faster than she was; he only slipped up once, giving her the opportunity to strike; she did, her sword slashing and impacting with his forehead. It's like he knows her move right as she starts to make it; like he perceives things faster than we can… Qrow was more right than he thought. Suddenly Winter stepped back and swung a kick at Nick's wrist, disarming him. His tomahawk clattered on the floor, and she said, "Concede now." She raised her sword, pointing it at him. He simply stared at her; I'll need to end this soon. She thrusted her blade; what happed was unbelievable. He dodged her stab, grabbed her wrist in his left hand –pulling it to the side– and delivered a powerful jab to her exposed ribs with his right. Within that moment, he let go of her and threw a southpaw haymaker to her head. Winter staggered backwards, caught off guard by those sudden powerful blows. Nick stood there, not pressing an obvious advantage. "Why are you just standing there?! FINISH HER!" cried Ruby. He glanced at her, then back to Winter.
Winter cleared her head and focused, now a little more cautious of him. Only someone with advanced military hand-to-had combat training could be that skilled, she thought. She deployed her second blade and charged. With each swing she threw, he blocked using his metal-backed fingerless gloves. Suddenly, he got close and kicked her in the gut, sending her sprawling. She hit her head on an end table, and her aura flared. Lying sprawled out on the floor, she faded in and out of consciousness, when suddenly someone gently but firmly grabbed her beneath her arms and set her in a chair.
And she blacked out.
That kick gave a sickening thud; but when Winter lay sprawled out on the floor, Nick rushed to her side, hoisted her into a chair, and checked her head. She would be out for a while, but otherwise fine. He took a bandage roll out from one of his pockets and proceeded to wrap Winter's head.
Weiss, however, leaped out of her chair, shouting, "YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Ruby and Blake quickly caught Weiss before she attacked Nick. However, a glyph formed on the floor, and suddenly a white Boarbatusk charged at Nick from behind. As fast as lightening, Nick drew his knife and spun around in a crouch, splitting the beast in two with a single swipe. He turned to them with an ashamed look; and they all stared at the deep gash in his forehead.
"She'll have a bruise and a headache when she wakes up, but she'll be fine." He sat down in another chair. They asked him something –along the lines of "Are you okay?"– But their voices were distant as his vision faded into darkness. The last thing he remembered saying was, "Her ship is outside, ready to go. We're moving out in ten. Get both of us on board or…" and then his brain went into safe mode; but he did finish his statement, "… or there'll be the devil to pay!"
An eternity ago… in another universe…
The red sand stretched to the horizon, only interrupted by the dust cloud of a ground vehicle; two vehicles. They drove in silence, not needing to say anything, and observing radio silence. Their jeeps, basically oversized dune buggies with armor and gun turret, hummed beneath them. They were to meet with the 451st battalion in the mountains ahead for a joint raid on an abandoned mining colony now occupied by insurgent paramilitary forces, an Operation appropriately named Chasm Doom.
One of the men looked up and saw a blurry cloud on the horizon. "Uh, guys, there's something on the horizon, 7 o'clock." They all turned to look –except the drivers– and saw the same cloud. Only one of them spoke, and he wore the burning skull. "It's a haboob… sandstorm." He turned to the driver, "how far is the rhondezvous point?" "'Bout ten minutes, it's right up ahead."
The vast mountain range loomed before them, but the haboob raced behind.
"We'll need to bunker down ASAP." He said. A man with a two-eyed, one x'ed out, smiley face engraving spoke up with a Russian accent, "and we stay together, we lose no one." The rest agreed and stayed silent.
They arrived at the rhondezvous with little time to spare. They unloaded, tied down the jeeps, and warned the already hunkered down 451st of the sandstorm.
Then it hit. Thankfully, the mountains protected them from the full brunt of it, but still the 451st lost several men, including their CO. Burning skull met their acting commander, Maj Reginald Joanes, inside the pressurized command center. "Major Joanes?" he said, "I'm agent Yankee, commander of WP9. What's your intel?"
The major explained that the only way into the mining colony was heavily guarded. The rebels were using the facility as a garrison and supply depot. Their plan of attack was simple; the 451st would two-prong the main gate while the Special Forces team would run up the middle. Once inside, they would capture and detain as many as they could.
As he left the command center –having to stop for depressurization as he did when he entered– the man with the one-eyed smiley face with it's tongue sticking out the side called out, "Yankee!" the man wearing the burning skull –Yankee– turned to the voice, "yeah Vlad?" "The jeeps are full of sand; it will take days to flush them out." Yankee grunted, nodding. "Also, Synth has a report for you." Vlad continued, before turning to leave. Yankee, with lightning fast reflexes, grabbed Vlad's suit's armor and held him fast. "Alrighty then, brother, let's go see your sister."
Winter awoke with a throbbing headache. She groaned, trying to think clearly and remember what happened. She looked around, trying to figure things out; like how he was on a bunk in a metal hut. And what is that droning noise? Then it came to her. Wait! This is my ship! She slid out of the bunk, apparently the top one, and landed in a not-too-graceful crouch. Cautiously standing up, Winter made her way to the cockpit. As she passed the passenger seats, she saw her sleeping sister resting her head on her partner's shoulder, who was lightly snoring herself. Winter stopped in a daze and remarked to herself, it almost looks like they're sisters. She walked on; but suddenly Qrow left the cockpit. They stared at each other for a moment, before Qrow said, "Good morning, Ice Queen." Weiss mumbled in her sleep at that. Winter furrowed her brow. "What are you doing?!" she hoarsely whispered, "Where's the Ace of Spades?!"
A voice from inside the cockpit answered, "We're flying to Patch, and I'm up here. And just so you know, you can call me Nick."
A/N: yeah, I know what I said, "It might be a WHILE for me to upload," the thing is, this was a big chapter for me, and I wasn't sure how my schedule would work. But yes, another flashback -I like to call them flashbacks- to the distant past... or is it? If any of you guys (or gals, whichever the case may be) guessed where the flashbacks take place, type it out in your comments.
and now the reviews for the previous chapter...
merendinoemiliano: thanks, I was hoping it was a good fight scene! I never actually said Qrow was her father, I implied that he might be.
GamehunterMC: Epic fight? did you say that it was an epic fight? well, here's epic fight part two for ya, Hunter!
KnightSpark: ugly is such a dirty word... but yes, it did get a little ugly.
thanks to all who read this, it really means something to see that my... hobby... is enjoyed!
