This chapter felt longer then it should have been but whatever. Time to humanize and demonize some of my characters so keep an eye out for that. Just hope I can finish this story before the one hundred chapter mark.
The night was cool and the white fang grunt couldn't help but admire the cloudless sky nor the beautifully shattered moon this day. His wolf ears perked upwards as a large smile spread across his face. There had been word of dangerous people hunting them down but the wolf faunus felt pretty confident that he'd be ok.
He was slacking off but on a beautiful night like this it was almost a shame to be hard at work. After a few more minutes of taking in the night air the wolf faunus decided to return to the vans to help out with anything left undone. When he returned he noticed there wasn't a sound coming from anything but the bugs.
"Hello" he called out hoping someone would answer him. When there wasn't a reply the wolf faunus huffed slightly "bet those guys finished up and didn't even bother to tell me, bunch of jerks". The faunus moved passed the vans, towards the doorway and was ready to give his teammates a piece of his mind when he found them, only to freeze as a masked figure stood a few feet away from the door next to a slumped figure.
The masked figure held a single pistol with a silencer attached to it in their hand but didn't seem to notice his presence. It took the wolf faunus a second for his eyes to recognize the slumped figure was one of the other grunts he was working with earlier. This was bad and he had no idea if the others were dead like the one he saw just now so he thought he'd take the chance to get out of there while he could.
The second he went to take a step back the masked figure turned his way but made no motion to follow and for good reason. The grunts foot slid back so he could turn and make a run for it when the long handle of an axe pressed against his jugular. "Woah there buddy" a voice spoke from behind the grunt "you aren't planning to run off without greeting us are you"?
The wolf faunus's head slowly turned to the right to see another masked person next to him. His mouth opened to scream but the handle pushed further into his throat cutting off his airway before he could. The faunus struggled for a moment before the masked man loosened his death hold on him.
"If you want to keep your head attached to the rest of your body I'd recommend you follow my orders without a fuss...okay"?
The faunus didn't know if he was allowed to answer and the masked person seemed to notice this as well "just nod if you understand" he said. The grunt nodded as instructed. "Good, now you and me are gonna have a little chat with each other away from here".
The masked man steered the faunus away from the building until they were far enough that most or any wouldn't be able to notice what they were doing. "This should be far enough" the handle moved away from the faunus's throat before a hand grabbed the back of his collar and pushed him forward. The grunt fell to the floor and was kicked onto his back a moment later.
The wolf faunus felt something cold press against his face and noticed it was the top end of the masked man's axe. This was it wasn't it? He was gonna die without making the world better for faunus kind. The regret was almost enough to make him want to cry but he wouldn't give his murderer that satisfaction.
"Hmm, you seemed to have resolved your inner turmoil easily enough so how about answering my question now"?
The wolf faunus remained silent as he glared at the masked man in front of him. "Well this isn't getting me anywhere-" he said sadly "-but I guess I could make you talk if I chopped off enough of you I suppose". The remark was delivered with such a casual tone it made the wolf faunus tremble where he laid.
The axe moved away from the faunus's face and pushed down into the ground so the masked man could lean on it like a makeshift cane. "I normally don't do this but how about a trade"?
"A trade"?
"Yup, your neck for the name of the person who sold you these weapons" he said as held up the hand gun that used to be on the grunts holster. The faunus looked down at his waist and noticed his weapon was missing "when did you"? The weapon was tossed aside a moment later after the ammo clip was ejected "just before I let you go" he answered.
"Now where was I again...oh right the trade. I'm sure you'd like to live to see tomorrow and spend more time with friends and family, so how about it"?
The grunt couldn't tell if he was telling the truth or not but every part of him didn't want to meet the business end of the masked man's axe. He gave up what little information he had and waited to see if the masked man would keep his word. The axe was lifted off the ground and placed on the masked man's shoulder "alright last thing before I let you go...can I use your scroll real quick"?
The faunus was a little confused at first but did agree and handed over his personal scroll. "Damn didn't think I wasted that much time out here" he said after a minute on the scroll. The masked man tossed the scroll back to the wolf faunus "okay you can go now, and make sure I don't catch you around here again".
The faunus nodded, picked up his scroll and took off running away from the abandoned building as fast as he could. "Name's Jekyll by the way" he called out to the retreating faunus before turning around and heading back to his teammate. Belle pushed a brand new clip into her hand gun before looking down at her scroll "he sure is taking his sweet time".
"Did you miss me"?
Belle jumped to her right and held her gun at the ready until she realized who it was that snuck up on her "don't do that, I almost shot you" she hissed. Jekyll waved his hands in front of him in a mock surrender as he laughed "sorry, sorry, was just checking to see if you still had your guard up". Belle huffed slightly before looking away "we're on a mission, I'm not slacking off if that's what you think".
"I know but the people we're up against are strong enough to make even me worry" he said honestly and all too seriously. Belle thought about what that meant before letting out a sigh "okay" she conceded before walking to the entrance "come on". Jekyll nodded and quickly followed after her through the hallways of the abandoned building.
It took a little bit but they managed to find the room where new initiates were waiting to be welcomed into the white fang. A lot of chatter was going on and nobody noticed their presence yet. Jekyll turned to belle before he clicked the underside of his helmet near his ear engaging the voice masker.
"So how do you want to handle this" he asked.
Belle followed suit and clicked the underside of her helmet before reaching into her coat "with these". In her hand were two element fire dust grenades.
"That's a little excessive don't you think"?
"Well butchering people with an axe is inhumane and I'd rather save my bullets for more important things" she fired back. "Point taken" he said before taking one of the grenades and clicking the red button at the top. The whole grenade was silver - probably because it was atlas made - with a small black rectangular screen on one side with three colored slots built in as a strange type of timer.
Once one of the three slots filled in, both Jekyll and belle tossed their grenades into the room full of unsuspecting faunus's. A few random faunus had the chance to look down to see what landed by there feet before being engulfed in a massive explosion of fire that gave them a painless transfer to the next life. The few that were too far away to earn a painless death were left in agony and pain, if the screams and crying were anything to go by.
The door was barely hanging from it's hinges when Jekyll and belle pushed on them, knocking them to the floor. They entered the room and saw blood as well as bits of flesh spewed around the room from the faunus's too close to the explosion. Belle left her partners side as she spotted someone sticking their hand up from under the gravel of the walls.
Jekyll watched her approach the injured faunus before she whispered something only he could hear thanks to his helmet "I'm sorry" she whispered. Belle's hand gun aimed down at the injured faunus and fired a single shot into his head, putting him out of his misery. There was no telling if this made the killing easier for her but he would find out later when this was over.
The room was larger than expected which meant those faunus further back were less effected from the explosion. That thought proved true when several white fang members got to their feet with very little damage on them. Some probably had their auras unlocked so they'd at least be given a chance to fight or flee if they wanted.
Jekyll pulled his axe free before giving it a few easy swings as he waited for the fang to collect themselves. The blast must have left them pretty confused since it took them a bit before they realized what happened. The head of Jekyll's axe leaned against his shoulder while he took the time to count the few remaining faunus's still able to move on their own.
"One, two...fifteen in total huh? That's a lot more then I thought would go unharmed".
The fang looked around, saw what happened to their brothers and sisters and immediately put two and two together. Their eyes fell on him and knew he was the one who caused it. A fang member with glasses on his mask let out an angry roar before leading his brothers and sisters against the wicked monster in front of them.
It should have been a glorious battle where the fang took vengeance against the inhuman monster that killed their kin. Fate as it would seem thought differently.
The faunus leader threw a punch for Jekyll's head but only caught air when the masked man went low. He spun in half a circle with the axe and landed a blow into the faunus's gut causing him to double over. The sharp side of the axe didn't finish the job because of the faunus's aura so Jekyll spun the opposite way with his axe before letting his left hand leave the shaft so he could strike another faunus in the face.
The grimm masked cracked when the back end of the axe slammed into it. The faunus who wore the mask was thrown back into her teammates leaving Jekyll to finish his three hundred and sixty degree spin uninterrupted. Jekyll's left hand caught the shaft of his axe as it came overhead before he brought it down on the faunus leader he left as a crumpled mess. The faunus had a little training in aura control but not enough to keep his aura active after taking significant physical damage.
The axe bit deep into the leaders back causing bones to snap and muscles to be torn. Jekyll felt the axe get stuck in the faunus's body when he tried to pull it free so instead he used a great deal of strength to swing the man with his axe. Blood flew and the leaders body came loose from the axe before it slammed into a few more faunus's, knocking them down.
After seeing how their leader was mercilessly killed in front of them, the white fang weighed their options. Jekyll was almost sure the fight would continue but watching the fang turn tail and run as fast as they could caught him off guard. It took him a second to collect himself before he moved to give chase. He was much faster and would have caught them if not for a bullet flying past his face.
Another bullet and Jekyll was forced to jump back to get out of the way. His axe came up to deflect the next set of projectiles that flew his way only to notice it was ice shards instead of bullets. "Didn't know the fang had anyone who could manipulate dust in such a way".
"They don't" belle warned.
Didn't take long for Jekyll to realize why. Weiss, ruby, yang and pyrrha blocked the path the white fang ran off in a moment later "freeze" ruby yelled. Only an idiot would have listened in this situation, except that it was ruby who dished out the order and naturally he felt compelled to listen.
"Jekyll" belle called when he froze in place.
"Hmm? Oh right"! Luckily belle snapped him out of his idiocy when she did because yang was several seconds from knocking the blonde out of him. Her fist missed his face by merely a few centimeters before he delivered a backflip kick to the underside of her jaw.
/
Yang took a few steps back and rubbed her jaw. When she saw this guy freeze up at the site of huntresses she assumed he was just a person who capitalized on destroying the weak with underhanded tactics but the maneuver he used just now suggested otherwise. She put her guard up and was ready to move in when she noticed the man's mask "that's"?!
Yang wasn't the only one to notice the red mask the man in front of them wore. The conversation they had not that long ago with squall was pushed to the forefront of each of their minds. "Shit, I didn't think we'd be the ones to run into the guy squall was chasing" yang said nervously.
The masked man's body seemed to flinch at the mention of squalls name which was as much as a confirmation as they would get that this was the right guy. Ruby glanced towards their leader and saw an expression she'd never really would have associated with pyrrha of all people because of how kind she was. Pure hatred.
If this truly was the man that took pyrrha's father away from her then ruby couldn't help but feel it was justified. Pyrrha tightened her grip on her weapon but made no move to engage her opponent. She needed to calm herself because without a cool head it would only cause her to make a ton of mistakes she normally wouldn't make.
The masked man turned away from them the next minute and the girls believed he'd make a run for it, only to be surprised when he lifted his axe to guard against a new arrival. Alec appeared quicker then the girls could react, sword sliding free from it's sheath only to clash against the masked man's axe. "I finally caught up with you...Jekyll".
There was no response from the masked man but it was clear that things had gotten a lot more complicated.
/
Behind the mask jaune's teeth gritted in anger "belle we're retreating, if you have another of those grenades now would be the time"!
"Girls make yourself useful and deal with this guy's pal, she's a little further back" the elder man ordered with a sinister smile "can't have her coming to rescue you now can we". Jekyll didn't wait for the girls to react to Alec's orders. He pulled his axe downwards and allowed the head to hook on to the katana. Alec moved accordingly to avoid having his blade ripped from his grasp and spun in a three hundred and sixty degree maneuver.
The blade scraped against metal of the axe before cutting the air. A low whistle could be heard as the blade followed it's master arm and came around to try and behead the masked man. Jekyll ducked under the attack, spun on the spot and returned with own slash.
Metal clanged against one another and the two took a step back to correct their footing. Alec's sword reenter it's sheath before he stepped onto his dominant foot and went to draw his sword again. Even though Jekyll correct himself he knew because of the axe's weight there'd be no way he could stop Alec's attack in time.
Do or die time it was so Jekyll released his grip on his weapon and charged forward, slamming his shoulder into the elder man's. The two remained frozen against each other with their foreheads pushed together. "That was reckless even for you" Alec hissed as he fought against Jekyll's hand for control of his weapon.
Jekyll's right hand pushed against the hilt of Alec's weapon to keep it sheathed while his left hand gripped Alec's left to keep him from escaping. If only he could have said something the elder man could have heard. Instead he asked how belle was doing on her end.
His question was answered when belle yelled to call back later.
Alec had had enough of the stalemate and released his grip on his sword to reach up and grab Jekyll by the collar. The world spun as Alec leaned back, placed a foot on Jekyll's stomach before launching him over. He had thought the sudden shock would get the masked man to let go of his weapon as he flew...he was wrong.
Jekyll's grip on the katana tightened when he was thrown and because Alec had let go of it the blade came free. The two quickly got to their feet but instead of Jekyll facing off with Alec again the masked man rushed off to help his teammate.
Belle jumped over ruby but didn't get very far when weiss used her glyph to launch both yang and pyrrha into the air after her. Pyrrha slammed her shield into the masked woman's chest before yang used ember celica to knock her back down to the ground where she bounced off the floor and slid into the wall behind her. When her back hit the wall the last fire dust grenade fell free from her coat before she could catch it.
Belle reached out to grab it when a glyph appeared under the grenade and launched it towards weiss. The heiress would have caught it if she wasn't blindsided by Jekyll and received the pummel of Alec's sword to the side of her temple. Jekyll quickly spun on his foot and held out his free hand so the grenade flew straight into his palm before he clicked on the red button at the top.
The timer was set and he quickly tossed it to yang who looked like she just saw death in the face. Fear gripped her brain and she stared dumbly at the grenade as if it would disappear at any moment. Ruby screamed her name but before she could even reach out to her cousin another figure got in her way.
Alec grabbed the grenade with his right hand and pushed yang away with his left before trying to through it away from them. The grenade got a short distance away before it exploded and engulfed the area in fire.
/
The ringing in ruby's ears made it hard to hear what was happening but with her vision she saw the masked man carry his partner away in the midst of the confusion. It took a minute to get her bearings but eventually ruby's hearing returned in time to hear weiss calling out to her.
"Ruby where's pyrrha"?!
"Pyrrha? She was just here with the rest of us before the explosion" ruby replied before pushing herself to her feet.
"Your friend ran off after Jekyll and his partner" a voice cut into the girls conversation. Ruby and weiss looked over to see yang kneeling down next to squall. The elder man had a serious look on his face but what really drew their attention was the blood dripping from the stump that was once his arm.
His aura had been shattered and he was barely able to remain on one knee after taking the blast at such a range. "Don't move" yang scolded "I'll call for an ambulance right away and we'll get you patched up". She pulled her scroll out of her pocket but before she could do anything Alec placed his left hand over her scroll "that's not important right now".
Yang smacked his hand away the next minute, eyes red from her semblance and fury close behind "don't act all macho with me dumbass. If it wasn't for me you'd still have your arm, you'd have been better off letting me take the blast". A fist collided with yangs face, knocking her over "if you haven't noticed this-" he motioned to the remainder of his arm "-is what I got with a full amount of aura, what makes you think you'd have held up any better"?
Yang rubbed her cheek as she gritted her teeth cause she didn't know how to answer. Ruby rushed over to alec and tore off a piece of her cloak to use as a makeshift bandage. While she worked on that alec continued talking to yang.
"If you got time for self pity you should be going after your friend. She's out there alone trying to stop a man who had no trouble blowing up a bunch of people up and executing them without mercy".
The blonde flinched slightly at his words. "I'll be fine but I need you all to prioritize catching Jekyll and his partner" he said in a softer tone. When ruby finished she moved over to yang and helped her up. The three girls stood next to each other and looked to the elder man with worried expressions. Alec smiled warmly at the three "go, I'll take care of this and get myself patched up".
Yang nodded "you better stay alive old man" she said before rushing off with the two other girls.
Alec watched them take off before looking down at his missing arm. It was wrong in a sense but he couldn't help but feel proud of jaunes actions cause it seemed he was willing to seriously harm or even kill his close friends with that little stunt of his. Speaking of stunts the man couldn't help but look at his own "damn one time rule".
The only reason he even came here was because jaune and his partner blocked the cameras he placed here with those damn grenades. Then there was the fact that he realized he sent a bunch of beacon students to kill jaune - which they obviously wouldn't even attempt. Now he was forced to save ravens brat otherwise she could have gotten herself blown up. A smile spread across his face at that "and here I thought I was never going to get a chance to use that rule" he whispered to himself.
He pulled his scroll out and typed a message to neo to come collect him cause this one time he couldn't help but feel he was getting too old for all this excitement. That and he was feeling off because of the blood loss.
I did say it would be two but it looks like it'll be three parts instead. Has anyone seen the latest episode of RWBY? I knew jaunes team always had a better story then ruby's team.
I heard this from a friend and can't help but agree but he said rwby is better when ruby is not involved. That's kinda funny in my opinion but that's just me.