A/N

Hey everyone! I said I would be coming back to this story and I meant it! I was planning to write another chapter for my RWBY story today, but I have quite a few chapters banked up and am in no rush to finish it just yet (that and ideas for future chapters have to mature, like fine wine). So instead I dedicated an hour and a half to finishing up the fourth chapter for this story.

I'm working out an upload schedule, but with university starting back up for me I have to allocate lots of time to my studies. In the meantime, enjoy periodic updates... I'll have a proper roadmap by the next chapter, promise.

Chapter 4…

"-and with the completion of this mission, we will be one step closer to ensuring the IMC's goal of ensuring humanity's future on the frontier," General Marder droned, his wrinkled face creasing with some level of satisfaction as he finished his speech.

The man- no, hologram was standing at the front of the board room, directly in front of a large screen that was displaying the finer points of his plan.

Loud, slow claps reverberated through the long room as the speech concluded…

Ashley turned her head behind her in curiosity to find the source of the noise. It's source was a shorter man with a wiry shock of mousy brown hair. His name was Templeton, one of the new recruits Blisk had hired on for the job ahead.

Templeton frowned and his clapping slowly came to a standstill when he realized no one else in the room was clapping along; his rat-like face faltered and burned red under the glare of the other pilots.

Ashley scoffed under her breath and turned around to face the hologram of Marder again, but deep down she felt a twinge of secondhand embarrassment.

"Oi, don't look at him like that," Kuben Blisk chuckled in his usual low tone, rising from his seat at the far end of the table. "Thanks for showing some enthusiasm, Templeton."

"Thanks, Blisk," Templeton muttered in an equally low tone.

"Well, General Marder," Blisk stalked down the length of the table, his gloved hand gently smacking the back of each chair as he approached the hologram. "That was a rousing little bit of jargon, mind reminding us good workers what our little payout is?"

Although he was transmitting his appearance in the form of the hologram and Ashley was sitting far away, the dark haired woman could spot the General's nostrils flaring.

"Mr. Blisk, as punctual as ever," Marder sighed, reaching up a hand to rub the bridge of his nose. For a slight moment his hologram flickered, but the emitter soon caught up and began working properly again. "As agreed upon this contract will guarantee a payout of two million credits upon completion."

"Wonderful, get us the money and we'll get you whatever information we can pull from the servers."

"Fine," General Marder stiffened. He turned his calculating eyes to the six other pilots sitting in the room, Ashley amongst them. "As for you six, any pertinent questions?"

Ashley frowned and wiggled deeper into the soft leather of the chair she was seated in. The job seemed simple enough- a high altitude drop into a militia held stronghold with the intention of downloading the information from their servers.

She had run plenty of jobs like that… against the militia and other enemies of whoever was paying her…

"Yeah! I got a question!" One of the other pilots shouted out, standing up from his seat and planting his hands on the table. He was a tall, burly man with a face like a pile of bricks; he had introduced himself gruffly as "Dirge", although Ashley had no idea if that was his real name or not.

"Go ahead, pilot."

"We usin' our titans for this?" Dirge growled out, his teeth clenched.

"I will leave the formulation of the plan up to Mr. Bli-"

"To answer your question, Dirge… yeah," Blisk interrupted, barely hiding his smug grin as General Marder glowered at him. "I think General Marder meant questions pertaining to his little utopia…"

General Marder certainly did not look pleased… the room remained silent.

"No? Lovely…" Blisk chuckled, turning and reaching a hand to the wall-mounted controls of the hologram emitter. "As usual General Marder it was a pleasure speaking with you…"

"Do not think for a moment that you have th-" General Marder spat out with a scowl, but he was cut off when Blisk turned off the holo-emitter; the aged General blinked out of existence.

"Christ alive," Templeton chuckled, rapping his fist against the table. "That guy likes to hear himself talk!"

"He smells like mothballs too," Blisk laughed, approaching the head of the table and leering over its top. "Now… I'll be helping to properly plan the little party ahead and I'll keep you six informed. Should take a week or so… so get ready in the meantime. Good?"

A small chorus of "yesses" rang out as the pilots affirmed to Blisk that they were in agreement. The scraping of chairs was heard as the professional soldiers stood up to leave. Ashley did not join them however, instead remaining seated and watching as the other pilots filed out.

Blisk's eyes locked on the dark haired woman as the last pilot closed the door behind them. "Problem, Ishiskara?"

"Just a quick question," Ashley muttered, crossing her arms and using her fingers to tap her elbows; she leaned back into her chair and felt it recline.

"Shoot."

"I know I've been out of the loop for two years-"

"With your lips wrapped around the neck of a bottle."

"Shut up!" Asher growled at Blisk's interruption, but the brown haired man looked amused. "Anyways… how did things get this bad?"

"Bad?" Blisk chuckled, tilting his head in curiosity.

"Two years ago the IMC was a force to be feared," Ashley complained, lifting her legs to rest atop the table and holding up her hand to inspect her fingers. "Now I just learned that the militia's got them on the run? Demeter was a major loss… but you mean to tell me that the IMC bumbled at every other turn since then?"

"As you can see, the head of the ARES division has some lofty dreams," Blisk chuckled, taking a seat on the edge of the table and turning his torso to face the other pilot. "It's not as bad as it looks, but until the reinforcements get here the IMC keeps having to put out fires."

"How long till the reinforcements come?"

"A few years," Blisk shrugged and tapped his fingers on the tabletop. "I for one hope they take the scenic route…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Don't be daft," Blisk chuckled. "You know why…"

"Less IMC infantrymen… the more work for the Apex Predators," Ashley deadpanned.

"Bingo, clever woman you are…"

The interaction between them settled into an uneasy silence. Ashley knew that she would never feel fully comfortable around Blisk, they were work colleagues… in their business friendships were dangerous.

"My turn to ask a question," Blisk muttered, his eyes narrowing curiously at the dark haired woman below him. "If your willin' to answer it…"

Ashley frowned and adjusted herself in her seat. "Depends on the question…"

"How about I just go ahead and say it? Ishikara… how did you get off Demeter-"

Now, Kuben Blisk was not a stupid man… and he wasn't a gullible or oblivious man either. The mercenary fully witnessed the shocked look highlight Ashley's face, only pretending to not notice so that he could finish his train of thought.

"-because there were only a few other evacuation ships," Blisk tilted his head, watching the dark haired woman squirm. "I honestly thought you were dead… I was about to shed a tear when I spotted you sitting around in the medical bay-"

At this point Ashley had drawn her pale lips into a tight line, fixing her dark eyes on the top of the table. Blisk frowned at the non-committal display and leaned in closer.

"-funniest thing," Blisk chuckled darkly. "I don't think I'd ever seen you looking properly scared until that day… almost like you had seen a ghost…"

"Or a planet… and everyone on it, reduced to cinders," Ashley muttered under her breath, her obsidian eyes now turning up to glare at the South African man.

"True," Blisk shrugged. "But you didn't answer the question…"

"I don't want to!" Ashley spat, shooting into and upright position and curling her hands into tight fists. "I'm not answering, Blisk!"

The dark haired woman stomped past her employer and almost punched the control button on the sliding door; she heaved out angry breaths as the panel moved to reveal the hallway outside the briefing room.

"That was two years ago, Ashley," Blisk muttered, making Ashley pause for a brief moment. "You need to look past what happened…"

"We got off…" Ashley muttered back in a low tone. "Don't be so callous to all the people that died there… it was like they were wiped out by the hand of God."

"God?" Blisk snorted in derision behind her. "I never took you for a religious type…"

"I'm not," Ashley shook her head, squeezing the doorframe with her hand and not turning around to face Blisk. "Humanity killed off its Gods a long time ago Blisk… the power of life and death rests solely in our hands now…"

"Is that a bad thing?"

Ashley bit her tongue and walked through the door, the sliding panel shut behind her.

A few hours later Ashley found herself sitting in her personal quarters, freshly assigned to her by the ship captain. One of the few privileges pilot's received over grunts was that they got their own personal living space… but Ashley wasn't really sure if she liked it or not.

It was a small room, only a few sizes larger than the ship's janitorial closet. There was a personal bathroom and a tiny bed had been shoved into a corner. Outside the window stars lazily drifted by as the Medusa cruised at impulse speed.

The gentle click of a mag release sounded as Ashley removed the empty magazine from a Hammond P2016. As soon as the cartridge was removed Ashley gently placed both the gun and the magazine on the ground in front of her, letting her hands over the objects.

Ashley closed her eyes and took a moment to breathe deeply. "One, two, three… go!"

Dark eyes snapped open and Ashley's hands got to work. She snatched both the gun and magazine off the ground and in a practiced motion loaded the Hammond P2016. One quick pull of the slide and the weapon was ready to fire, although for safety reasons it had no bullets in it.

Ashley hummed in the appreciation of her loading speed and quickly took out the magazine for a repeat run. She had the proper chance to fire off the gun earlier at the ships provided firing range. The vibration in her hands from its recoil felt familiar to her, even though she had not properly used a gun for two years. The dark haired woman had tried out plenty of other weapons as well and was pleased to see that she could still achieve accurate shot grouping.

In under three seconds Ashley had the gun loaded and the safety flicked off… better, but not as fast as she used to be able to. More and more stars drifted by as Ashley repeatedly practiced, but she dared not stop, lest the lingering thoughts of her interaction with Blisk crop back up.

Damn it… why did she have to think about him? Now he was on her mind again… that man and the nerve he possessed, asking her about Demeter.

The mercenary had known it would be a loaded question, didn't stop him though.

Ashley gingerly set down her pistol and drew in her legs, laying her hands on her knees and closing her eyes. This wasn't the first time in the last two years that her mind had been drawn to Demeter. Somewhere out there the blackened husk of that planet still loomed, a silent graveyard for the millions who had died.

But not Ashley… she had lived… unlike the rest of her unit.

"Ishikara! Where are you running to? Theres still time to stop this!"

"Shut up, James!" Ashley growled at the voice of the long dead man. "Just shut up…"

"Ashley! What the fuck do you think you're doing!? Where are you going?"

"Hey lady… come on! We all want the same thing you want! Put it down! Please!"

Ashley squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth, trying her best to drown out the wailing chorus of ghosts.

"You- you… I can't believe… WAIT PLEASE!"

The sound of the gunshot was still ringing in her ears two years later.

"What the fuck did you do to them!? Good fucking God, Ashley!"

"SHUT UP!" Ashley roared, spittle flying and her pale face contorting with animalistic fury. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST STAY DEAD?"

The dark haired woman's roars reverberated around the room, echoing for a moment before finally dying…

Ashley grumbled under her breath, picking up the pistol and sliding the magazine out for another practice run.