Back again with some more of the story. I hope you like it. Leave a review or PM with any ideas you might have for the story. Enjoy.
"You what!?" Blake said. I was sitting in the corner of the room sharpening my sword while the rest of them argued about the upcoming dance this weekend. Weiss and Ruby were trying and failing to convince Blake to come to the dance, increase morale and all that.
"We want you to go to the dance." Ruby said. Blake shook her head. The bags under her eyes were incredibly dark and she was slouched while she was sitting.
"That's ridiculous." Blake said. Wiess sighed.
"You haven't slept, youve hardly eaten, and your grades have been dropping steadily. We're worried about you." She said.
"You think I care about grades? People's lives are at stake." She half-yelled. Her expression hadn't changed.
"We know that. But thanks to you and... Yang, we also know that they're operating somewhere outside of Southeast Vale. Weiss also figured out that Vale is the only city that's been experiencing such a huge spike in dust robberies." Despite continuing on with her conversation, Ruby wasn't able to hide the brief pause and voice break as she said her sister's name. She was still very tender about Yang's near death experience.
Currently Yang was in the hospital under the name Jane Doe, and we had filed that she had needed to take some time off to deal with something at home. She had only woken up a few days ago, but she was still very weak and pale. Her aura had almost refused to regenerate until just yesterday, and it's been a slow crawl.
"But there are still unanswered questions." Blake argued.
"You won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open. All I want is for you to take it easy on one night." Ruby said. Weiss nodded.
"It'll be fun. I've been planning and Yang has been texting me ideas whenever she can. If we're lucky she might even be able to make it." Weiss told Blake this and sent a sideways glance to Ruby, but there was no reaction on her part.
"She- What?" Blake asked, completely against the idea of Yang not getting the rest she needed.
"Look, Team CFVY's mission is lasting longer than expected, so were picking up where they left off." Ruby said.
"And after the dance, we'll return to our search, well rested and ready." Weiss finished. They both looked at Blake expectedly.
"I think Yang needs to rest, and that this is a colossal waste of time." With that said Blake left the room, leaving Weiss and Ruby with distraught faces.
"Well that went amazing." Weiss said and put her face in her hands. I turned over to them.
"Well, we could always just wait until she collapses." I offered. Ruby looked up at me with an appalled face.
"That's a horrible idea." She said. It was true. I more wanted to see how long she could keep going like this before then. It was already impressive. Six days and only a few hours of sleep. Most people would have collapsed by then, being more than halfway to the point where you die of sleep deprivation.
"Why don't you try talking to her? So far you haven't said a word about this issue. It's almost like you don't care?" Weiss said. Ruby gave her a look while I thought it over.
"In case you forgot, my 'talks' are the sole reason that JNPR refuses to speak with any of us." I reminded Weiss.
"First of all, you've got to fix that at some point. Second, I said talk, not fight. You know, with words, emotions." Weiss argued. I sighed.
"You know, emotions aren't really my thing. But why not, I'll give it a go. If nothing else I'll get a solid 'I told you so' out of the whole ordeal." I answered, picking up my sword and walking out of the room. If I jogged I could catch Blake before she got to the library. So I increased my pace. Barely two turns down she I caught her by the shoulders and steered her onto a different path.
"What the- Darren? What are you doing?" She asked, trying to get out of my grip.
"We're going to the training room. It's best to keep your instincts sharp." I told her. She jerked again but I kept a hold on, puching her in the direction I wanted. The training room was just a few doors down.
"They're sharp enough!" She argued, spinning around to face me. As she did I summoned a point on one finger and placed it in between her eyes, drawing a single drop of blood. She crossed her eyes as she saw it drip down. "Obviously not, now come on." I said, pointing at the heavy metal door. She grunted and turned around towards it, wiping the blood away.
"Fine, what are you going to try to teach me?" She said in a scathing voice.
"Nothing, you've already made it very clear that you don't want me to help you get better. I'm just going to watch you run a few Grimm simulations, then you can go and read, alright?" I said. She sighed again and drew her blades, entering the simulation room.
"Whatever. Let's just get this over with." She said. We both walked into the hexagon clad room and closed the door.
"Randomize. Level 2 Encounter." I called out. The room shifted beneath our feet, throwing us into a dark forest with a hot temperature and thick moist air. Blake waited, her stance off from normal and her forehead already covered in sweat. The fight had yet to start.
I heard a growl and her bow twitched towards the sound, then in the other direction where nothing was. In just a few more seconds a simple Beowolf came at her from behind. She barely reacted in time, raising her blade and sheathe in defense. The Grimm's claws sparked against the metal as it pushed its assault on the cat faunas.
A few more clangs could be heard as I continued watching Blake be pushed on the defensive. There were dozens of openings that she did not take. Just a few seconds later she took a hit, her aura barely catching the claws against her arm. Three thin lines of blood were drawn as she jumped back. I heard another growl and pulled out my scroll to check her aura.
I watched the yellow aura hit orange as the second Beowolf teamed up on her and gained a hit. She was having immense trouble with the two and on the third hit she took I saw the edges of her body blur as she attempted to activate her semblance and failed. Orange turned to red as she fell and dropped her blade. A third beowolf creeped out of the forest unknown to her.
She struggled on the ground as she desperately tried to stop them with her remaining sheathe. She was probably wondering why the onslaught was still happening, and that was because before the room changed I had flipped the safety switch, making it so that the Grimm acted as primal as they would in a real battle, and would not stop unless the second person in the room said for it to happen.
"Just ask for help if you need it, but then we're gonna have to have a talk." I said calmly, sitting on a stump and watching her struggle. Blake took a gash in her leg and screamed as she rolled away from the third Grimm that snuck up on her. She looked for her sword desperatley, skipping over it in the medium length grass. She tried to jump backwards but her leg buckled and she succeeded in flopping on her back. Another scratched her in the cheek as she did this.
As the three Beowolves crowded around her and readied to kill her, I saw something in her eyes break, probably her resistance. "HELP!" She finally cried out.
Fast as I bullet I jumped over and ran the first wolf through, tossing his body into the chest of the second. I kicked and broke the leg of the third and stabbed him in the neck with a summoned dagger and tossed a knife of the same kind into the one that was getting up. As that one died the room grew brighter and a voice chimed 'Simulation Over'.
Blake was on the ground panting and staring at the ceiling I stood over her and stared her in the eyes. "Now, about the dance." I said, holding out my hand.
"The dance... Is a waste of time." She said, reaching for my hand, I pulled her up and smashed my head into hers as she fell back down. "OW!" She yelled.
"Yeah, yeah it is. Now, I could give you this whole speech full of emotion that I'm worried about you and that you need to rest for us, for Yang. The truth of it though, is that you are in the way. You can't kill a single beowolf in your condition, and you would have died had I not been there. You are useless to our investigation like this." I told her.
She rubbed her forehead and I put out my hand. "Now about the dance." I said again. She looked at my hand again for a few seconds before grabbing it again. This time I didn't attack her. "You want answers, how about you eat, get some sleep, and maybe you'll actually be able to get some." I told her.
"I still think this dance is a waste of time." She told me. I pulled out my scroll. "Let me just text that to your deathbed partner who has spent all her time awake planning it." I said. Blake's eyes widened as she reached for my scroll.
"N-No! Okay, I''ll go." She relented. I closed my scroll and put it in my pocket. "Don't just go. Enjoy yourself. Make a night out of it. Maybe even make a memory or two. In this line of business, you never know how many of those nights you have left." I ordered. She sighed and nodded.
"Now come on. You need to go tell them you're going so they can shut up about it." I told Blake. She followed me out of the training room and back to the dorm.
Night of the Dance
I made a tuxedo of sorts to wear to the dance after Ruby forced me to go as well. I wasn't dancing though. I was going to drink spiked punch and laugh at Ruby as she struggled to walk in heels. I was sitting in the corner doing just that until I heard Ruby squeal in surprise, then start arguing with worry. Weiss was joined in with her and Blake remained oblivious, dancing with Sun.
What had happened was Yang rolled into the dance room with a dress on and a leg cast, signed by a bunch of fake names. She had already convinced Ozpin that she had gotten injured helping her family member out when she was absent. I knew of course, but was asked to keep it on the down low to surprise them. While I watched them rejoice, I noticed two figures enter the room.
Emerald and Mercury walked side-by-side into the dance floor, but their teammate Cinder was nowhere to be seen. I kept an eye on the two of them during the next half hour or so. I didn't trust them or Cinder after our brief encounter. They could say exchange students all they wanted, but I knew better.
After pouring the entirety of a flask into my punch, I noticed a Ruby walking out into the courtyard. She was already standing outside, but something in her stride spelled interesting. Anything was better than this dance, so I followed her quietly. Her patch took her outside and away from the building, towards the CCT. I kept on her tail as I tried to figure out what she was following.
I heard her gasp as she looked to her left. We both saw the knocked out Atlesian Guard lying near the bushes. Ruby typed a button on her scroll and I heard the roar of a rocket. Her gear was on its way. I took this opportunity to slip into the bushes and wait. Ruby armed herself and went inside, I followed, keeping my visibility as tangible as possible in the dimly lit rooms.
There were more guards. Ruby checked a few pulses to confirm they were alive before heading to the elevator, the only other exit to the room. I walked a mere inch behind her, mimicking her footsteps. As she turned I slipped behind her and we rode upwards. The elevator opened and Ruby slowly walked out. I made sure no one else was looking before slipping behind a desk as she called out.
"Hello?" She asked, tripping on her heels a moment later. "Is anyone there?" I watched her walk deeper into the room. A woman in black clothes and a mask slowly rose out from behind a similar desk as mine.
"Excuse me, it isn't a masquerade party, so why don't you take off the-" Ruby was forced to defend herself from a sudden flurry of flaming glass projectiles that the woman had summoned. Ruby fired her weapon multiple times, but the woman bounced each high-caliber round off her palm before jumping back and firing three arrows of glass at Ruby that exploded. The elevator next to me beeped.
When Ruby turned, the woman fled out of an open window. I moved as a shadow across the room. The man in the elevator was Ironwood, who pulled out a pistol and shot at me as I was moving. My form was blurred enough to conceal my identity as I jumped from the window after the woman. I continued in my fluid shadow form.
The masked perpetrator made to head back to the ballroom before noticing she was being followed, and turned. I poured power into speed, quickly outpacing her and gaining. Still we made it to the edge of Beacon's Cliffs before I caught her, appearing and solidifying on front of her, the cliff at my back. "You again." She said, and summoned a glass bow to fire at me.
I raised my power high, not wanting to deal with a fight tonight. I blocked all three arrows with a shield of aura extended from my palm. The explosive force pushed me back maybe an inch. Out of the fire the woman sliced with her sword at me. I dodged sideways and caught the upswing that she attempted on me. The blade fell to ash in my hand.
I felt a prick on my neck as she attempted to stab me, but her blade shattered. She jumped backwards, waiting for a retaliation. Much faster than anyone should be able to react, I threw a knife at her mask. She recoiled in pain as the black material shattered and the face of Cinder looked at me. "Well then. Want to tell me what you just did up there, Cinder?" I asked.
"I can tell you everything and there would still be nothing you can do stop it." She snarled. I held up my hand. "Now what if I told you I don't want to stop it?" I asked. Her expression flickered in confusion. I took her silence as a que to continue. "I don't know what you did, but I can assume it's because you want to destroy the school, right?" I questioned.
"Why should I say anything?" She asked, but her posture was no longer combative.
"It's because we might have a common goal. I'm taking my time here, enjoying myself, but my end goal is to see this place full of dead bodies and burning buildings." I told her. I was taking a large chance here, but if things went wrong, I could always kill her.
"And just how would you plan to do that?" Cinder asked coyly, tilting her head and smiling.
"Brute force. I'll kill each and every one of them myself if I can." I said. Apparently that was a tad bit insane to her because she took a step back, but kept talking.
"Listen here, I don't know how strong you think you are, but you cannot kill this place alone." She said. I smiled, and revealed just a fraction of my true form. Immediately her expression changed to one of absolute terror, but she held up well. Most people would be running in fear or clawing their own eyes out, but she stood against it. Albeit there was a large amount of sweat dripping of her face and every muscle was taught like bridge wire as she held herself in place.
I forced my presence to recede until I seemed human again. "I think you're out of your weight class here, but I'll cut you a deal. Message me your plans, and I'll let you continue operating, but I want to hear everything." I told her, and tossed her my scroll to program my number. Once she tossed it back to me I turned to leave.
"Oh, and one more thing." I said, before rushing directly beside her and clawing needle like appendages from my fingers into her shoulder as I whispered into her ear. "Never, cross me." I said, and walked away slowly. She dropped to her knees as I licked the blood off my fingers. And awaited my messages.