A/N: So remember back in RU when I borrowed (with permission) some characters to accompany Ilia on the precinct raid during the Downside riots, and I was a dumbass and forgot to properly credit the content creator in the chapter that I used them? Yeah, I did something similar last chapter where I forgot to properly give credit to a writer who was largely responsible for one of the more emotional scenes of the last chapter.
You might remember Joey from his many wonderful contributions to the Tales from the Avenger series of one-shot stories. I mentioned on the Discord server that I'd have to figure out how Ruby finds out about Beags, and Joey came back an hour later asking, "Something like this?"
So that scene where Yang talks with Ruby? That was, at it's core, Joey's work. I made some adjustments to fit the tone of the characters in a way that I felt was more in-line with their RW/RU personalities, but the vast majority of that scene remained largely the same as when Joey first sent it to me to ask what I thought of it.
For those of you still trying to live in the remote settlements, please reconsider. The Grimm have become far deadlier in recent months. XCOM will not help you. The only way you can protect your loved ones is to go with them to the city centers where ADVENT can repel the-
A black, monstrous claw crunched the radio underfoot. The faunus children cowering in the corner of the street did their best to not scream. Screaming only brought more monsters, after all. It was really hard not to scream, though, when the evil, blood-soaked visage of their worst nightmares was staring them down and slowly pacing towards them, one step at a time.
It must enjoy their fear. There was no other explanation for why the monster would draw their deaths out like this. If it was just hungry, it could have killed them, eaten them, and moved on to other prey in the settlement of panicking people. Instead, the thing kept its red eyes locked on them as it relished in the sight of two children realizing that they were about to die.
"We should have listened to the radio," the younger child whimpered.
His brother agreed, though it was easy to think the radio was right when the present situation was exactly what the message warned would happen. Their mother had been determined to keep raising the family out here in Lazulite, and she frequently commented that she didn't trust ADVENT's intentions. Indeed, the soldier they had met did rub him the wrong way, but that didn't change the fact that the decision to not move into the city was, at this point, very clearly the wrong choice.
"What do we do?"
Running wouldn't help, but what other choice did they have? The sounds of screaming, gunfire, and snarls from the rest of the settlement weren't making it any easier to think.
"That way," he said, directing his younger brother to a small alleyway. Hopefully there weren't any Grimm lurking in there.
"But-"
"Go!" He yelled.
That seemed to have startled his sibling enough to get the legs moving. He'd follow, but he'd be moving just a bit slower. How else could he make sure that the Grimm got him first?
The monster wasn't happy that its meal was trying to escape. Or maybe it was excited that the kill would be a little less boring? It snarled, and the older brother could hear the wicked claws scraping against the dirt pavement as it gave chase.
Only a few short seconds passed before all the air was knocked out of the young faunus's lungs. He was thrown to the pavement, and he realized that the last thing he would see was the terrified look of his younger brother turning to see what the noise was. He couldn't even scream at him to keep running.
"YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
… Was that their mother? The faunus felt a mixture of relief and fear. The first, because it meant his chance of survival just went up, even if just a little. The second, because he knew that his mother's had just plummeted.
The monster roared, and it sounded like their mother had managed to get the jump on it. For a moment, the young man wondered if they might all make it out of this scrap in one piece and could somehow escape the Grimm swarming Lazulite. It still hurt too much for him to move, so he just had to hope that his mother-
Her pained yell, and the cry of his younger brother, instantly quashed the boy's rising hope. They would die here, all because they didn't trust ADVENT enough to seek out their protection.
More yelling. More gunfire.
Wait, did those bullets sound closer? It almost sounded like they were hitting the monster that attacked their mother.
That didn't seem right. All the settlement guards were far away, and so were the shooting sounds from before. Did ADVENT show up? No… they'd been saying nonstop that they couldn't extend their protection to the settlements. But they'd also said that XCOM wouldn't help them either.
So who…?
"More contacts inbound!"
"Secure the children!"
More gunfire, much closer.
"Jace!"
"On it!"
He felt a hand gently press against his back, move to his neck, then slowly grip him by the shoulder.
"You're okay," the woman behind him said quietly. "We've got you. Now come on."
The tempo of the gunfire was different from what the young man had been hearing earlier. Where the settlement guards fired in a panicked and haphazard manner, the weapons around him now were timed and tempered, with calm voices issuing commands in between shots.
"She's alive, but needs a medic," another voice called out from several paces behind the elder brother. He summoned the strength to turn around and see his mother, crumpled on the floor with two of the mysterious saviors knelt over her.
He recognized the attire of the nomads instantly. Lazulite interacted with them fairly regularly, mostly to trade goods and offer services, but they usually kept to themselves beyond that. Even if they happened to be in the area when the Grimm attacked, why were they putting themselves at risk just to help Lazulite?
Then he saw it. A symbol that he didn't recognize on the arm of one of the nomads. A badge of sorts, but not one he had ever seen them wear before.
"We need to get you to safety," the woman said, both urgently and gently at the same time.
The elder sibling nodded, looking back to see his younger brother being picked up so that he could be moved with the rest of his family.
"How did you find us…?"
"Right place, right time," one of the nomads answered. He raised his rifle and started shooting before the young man even realized there were more Grimm moving towards them.
"More Grimm, heading towards the settlement," one of the other nomads said.
The shooter nodded, his weapon still trained on the other end of the street. "Our closest cohort is fifteen minutes away. If we can hold out until they get here…"
"... then Lazulite may still yet stand," the kind woman said. "Come, children. We need to get you to the city center. There is work to do."
"Who are you?" the younger sibling asked.
The shooter lowered his rifle and answered, "XCOM."
"That can't be right," the elder child shot back. "ADVENT said-"
"ADVENT isn't here right now, is it?" the shooter interrupted. "That Miss Fall says a lot of things about XCOM, but she's wrong about one more than anything else."
"XCOM protects."
The shooter nodded at the woman's answer. "Indeed. And you're about to see for yourself, my friend. Now let's move."
Among the shadows and gentle rain falling upon the Downside, a cloaked shadow stepped quietly. With ADVENT still not daring to show its face among the well-worn and homely streets, there was less of a need for discretion. However, there were still plenty of curious eyes down here, and if any of them saw her face and started rumors about her continued survival…
Even so, there were people in the streets below Atlas who needed Blanche. Not just for the coordinating, networking, and politicking that she could provide, but just the simple hope that her existence represented. The living embodiment of the Downside's resilience in the face of adversity. Those who she could trust to lay eyes on her used her willpower to inspire themselves to keep doing everything they could for the betterment of their friends, families, and neighbors.
She flitted across a darkened street, smiling wryly even while pulling the shadows around her like a cloak as she moved. It had only been a few days ago that Blanche would have considered her "inspirational willpower" a facade, as hollow as the cavity where her soul used to be. Only a few days ago she needed Lieutenant Kelly to force her to eat enough to sustain herself and not fade away into the nothingness that Blanche thought she'd deserved.
But now?
A clicking from above caused Blanche to look up, and she saw a familiar face waving from the rooftop. Even without her maiden abilities, it took Blanche less than a minute to scale the alley wall and reach the top where the one known as MacAuley was waiting for her.
"You're adapting pretty quickly to this stuff," he said, clearly impressed.
Blanche dusted herself off and looked around. While the Downside was often generally in a state of perpetual evening gloom, this part of the slums was especially quiet and deserted. Up on the rooftop, the sounds of people moving, talking, and working several blocks away were muted. Additionally, the heating units and their bulky distribution pipes provided plenty of cover that cast shadows upon the low lighting that was already present up on the roof.
It was ideal for a quiet meeting where neither party could afford to be seen. It was even more ideal for someone 'gifted' in the way that Blanche had been.
"It helps that I'm already accustomed to the supernatural," Blanche said. She frowned when she found herself to be alone on the roof with MacAuley and asked, "Where is Sserana?"
MacAuley grinned. A quiet hiss echoed from one of the more shadowy parts of the roof, and a familiar form materialized, seemingly out of thin air.
"She says that you might not be as accustomed to the supernatural as you think," MacAuley answered.
Blanche quirked an eyebrow. "You got all of that out of a single hiss?"
The human and the viper exchanged looks before MacAuley answered, "It's a close enough approximation. Still haven't quite nailed down all the subtleties of speaking Hiss, so I may have missed a few details."
Sserana's eyeroll did not escape Blanche's notice.
"So you left the dead drop asking for this meeting," Blanche said, steering the conversation back to business. "I assume you want the information I've collected?"
"And to provide you an update on our project down here, yes," MacAuley said with a nod.
Blanche reached into her cloak, pulled out a scroll, and handed it to MacAuley.
"On there, you will find all the testimonials from the people who were abused by ADVENT. Evidence of the payments they had to make for ADVENT's 'protection,' and video of the threats that those monsters made when payment was denied," Blanche said.
MacAuley's eyes went wide as he took the device. "Those idiots left a paper trail? How did they not collapse under their own incompetence sooner?"
"Fear," Blanche answered. "Fear of them, and fear of the Grimm that they claimed they were holding back."
MacAuley flipped through files on the scroll, then stopped on one that seemed to grab his attention in particular.
"Wait…" he said slowly, looking up at Blanche. "Am I seeing this right? Did they try to arrest you?"
Blanche smiled. "They didn't know who I was at the time, exactly, but they didn't like that I was confident enough to stand up to them and tell them I thought they were wrong."
"I'm guessing they weren't expecting the bystanders to stand up for you?" MacAuley asked. "From what I've seen so far, people usually just watch when someone gets booked because they're too afraid to draw attention to themselves."
"Exactly."
MacAuley kept scrolling for a little longer before shrugging and putting the device away. "I'm no Covert Operative, so I'm sure someone like Odei can make more use of this. From what I saw, though? She's gonna have a field day. You know how Skittles had that break-in at the precinct station during Warsaw?"
Blanche nodded.
"One of her buddies swiped a scroll that the guards had left out. Y'know, since they weren't expecting guests."
"I'm guessing there was some information on there?" Blanche asked.
It was MacAuley's turn to nod. "Took us a hot minute to decrypt it, but it gave some of our techs a fun challenge for an afternoon. Now that we have your information, as well as theirs? Odei can have the missing person details cross-referenced to see if ADVENT was on the up-and-up with who they were taking in."
"... And who they were sending to Merlot…"
MacAuley flashed a grin.
"This trial's gonna be fun, and Auntie Cindy doesn't even realize it."
Blanche already had a deep-seated respect for XCOM's competence, but they seemed to raise the bar each time she had the chance to learn more about them.
"So it sounds like the information you requested will be put to good use," Blanche said. "What about the project we agreed to?"
"Almost finished," MacAuley answered.
Just as she had handed over a scroll to him with the information on ADVENT and the civilian disappearances, the XCOM operative pulled out a device of his own and handed it to Blanche.
"What is this?"
"Your decryption key," the man explained. "We have a similar communication station built in Vale, but my team has made some security improvements to our system since we set that one up. We'll need to eventually send someone back overseas to roll out the upgrade, but for now? For now you'll be the proud owner of the MacAuley Protocol Dos-Point-Oh."
Blanche looked at the device. At first glance, it looked like any other closed scroll, but a closer inspection revealed that that was actually just a facade.
MacAuley continued his explanation. "Messages sent to you will be deposited at the relay station. They'll be a garbled mess, thanks to Yours Truly, and only that key will be able to rearrange the data into something comprehensible. So, uh… don't lose it."
Interesting.
"Sserana was indispensable in helping me get the relay station running without anybody noticing," MacAuley continued. "Your people were also great at getting stuff assembled."
Blanche remembered when MacAuley and Sserana had first approached her about the project. She had been impressed that Bradford wanted to build a system that would allow them to maintain contact. It would have been easy for him to just move on and leave the Downside behind now that they had served their purpose. But not only did he offer to keep some of his people stationed with Blanche, but he wanted to ensure she had a way to reach him, and vice versa.
For a cause like that? Blanche had no problem agreeing to lend MacAuley some of her best technicians.
"Given your new stealthy ways, it's probably best if you and nobody else uses the relay once we're done with it," MacAuley added. "That's the main reason why I'm only giving you the one key, actually."
It made sense. They wouldn't always have the luxury of a Viper keeping watch for people too curious for their own good. Blanche could slip in, check her mail, and slip out without anybody knowing she was even there.
"Fair enough," she said. "Was there anything else?"
Both MacAuley and Sserana shook their heads.
"Nope. Relay should be finished sometime tomorrow. After that, the two of us need to head back to the Avenger and regroup with Central."
The man hesitated, then asked, "Things working out fine between you and Kelly?"
"More than fine," Blanche answered. "I don't think you could have picked a better operative for me to work with."
That put a smile on MacAuley's face. He glanced at Sserana, who gave a near-imperceptible nod back to her companion before melting away into the shadows. Blanche hadn't quite reached that degree of proficiency yet with the Archon's gift. Given how she hadn't even noticed the Viper's presence on the rooftop when she first arrived, Blanche suspected it would be some time yet before she could even approach their degree of mastery over the art.
But for now? For now, it was enough that she could move unseen through the Downside.
It was enough that she could still help her people.
Central Officer Van Doorn looked out into the crowd arrayed before him. The perfect organization of the soldiers, operatives, technicians, and other personnel almost made him feel like he was Vader looking out over the rows and rows of stormtroopers aboard the Death Star. The Temple Ship certainly had enough firepower to give that death ball a run for its money, in any case.
But at least he wasn't here to issue some declaration of war, or rile up the soldiers about The Enemy, or any other such sinister parallels that one might try to draw between the Empire and whatever was going on here.
He glanced to his left to remind himself that Councilman Bailey was standing there up on the podium with him. The man had truly been a blessing for Van Doorn, which was as close to a 180 on the Central Officer's opinion of the Councilman as possible, given how things had gone down between Bailey and Bradford before the Disconnect.
The Councilman respected Van Doorn's authority, and he never once tried to overrule the Central Officer once a decision was made. He offered differing advice and suggestions often enough, but never said another word if Van Doorn chose not to take the course correction into consideration. He worked almost tirelessly to handle all of the administrative and political work involved in revitalizing Earth, allowing Van Doorn to focus on XCOM's logistics and security matters for the recovering planet.
Speaking of logistics...
XCOM's new Field Commander stood on Van Doorn's right. Josephine Lemelle, an operative who had joined XCOM about halfway through the Long War and had picked up the moniker of "Godmother" by her squad. Easy officer material, and she advanced to the rank of Captain shortly after the war concluded. If it wasn't for the fact that her fireteam had been deployed to quell a Grimm outbreak in Bangladesh when the whole Vytal Festival catastrophe happened, her squad definitely would have been one of the ones stuck on Remnant.
It was a good thing that she wasn't. XCOM had a lot of good personnel still on Earth who were fit for command duty, but it was pretty clear that Godmother was head and shoulders above the rest. XCOM would not have been able to mobilize into an effective global security and training network as quickly as it did without her leadership.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming," Van Doorn said. "I know there are a lot more who aren't able to be here. XCOM's duty never rests, unfortunately. But that is exactly why the world trusts in us. Because no matter what, no matter when, and no matter how… we are watching, and we will be there."
The attendees remained silent while Van Doorn's voice boomed from the front of the room. It was one of the smaller assembly halls aboard the Temple Ship, but 'small' was a relative term when the damn thing was capable of fabricating and storing Battleships. Still, it was easily large enough for all of XCOM's available personnel (as well as auxiliary units working with XCOM from the various Council Nations) to stand comfortably with room to spare.
Van Doorn continued.
"I don't need to tell you everything that we've accomplished."
XCOM's Grimm response teams alone were an incredible boon to Earth's recovery. Even with the Ethereals gone, their remaining "gift" of these soulless nightmare monsters would have easily overwhelmed the floundering nations if it weren't for XCOM's efforts to mobilize and train counter-Grimm teams across the globe to combat the new threat.
And then there were the catastrophe rescue teams that took XCOM's technological superiority and directed it towards those who were at the mercy of natural disasters. Because while the fear and panic in those hot spots inevitably drew in Grimm that needed to be dealt with, collapsing buildings, wildfires, and floods were all just as deadly. With XCOM's ability to be on-site anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, they were uniquely suited to backing up the first responders with the tools and skilled manpower needed to do the (sometimes literal) heavy lifting.
And then, of course, there was the political side of Earth's recovery. Some countries felt threatened by XCOM's power. Others wanted a piece of the military pie. Others still were happy to go back to international fighting now that the existential threat was taken care of, and they wanted XCOM's help in grinding out their neighbor. Van Doorn and Bailey were tasked with dealing with the more sensitive situations, but plenty of officers were dispatched to various nations in an ambassadorial role to help strengthen XCOM's ties with the nations that relied on its efforts.
And then there was the rollout of non-military scientific advancements.
"All of that is thanks to your hard work, after all," he continued. "The technology we acquired from the Long War will allow Earth to recover from the efforts of the Ethereals to cripple our species, and in fact to thrive in the wake of their thwarted attempt at global conquest.
"But we are still missing a notable portion of our identity," he said.
This was the real reason why he wanted to gather everyone here aboard the Temple Ship. While Van Doorn's Intel Division wasn't in the business of spying on its own people, he didn't need to have spies to know that morale was starting to flag due to any lack of real progress on finding a way to get Bradford and his operatives back from Remnant.
Of course, there wasn't anything he could really do about it until R&D made some kind of miracle breakthrough. But until then? At least he could try to offer up words of encouragement. Especially to those who had people close to them that were stuck on the other side.
Van Doorn looked out across the crowd and let out a small sigh.
"I like to think that you all know me well enough to trust that I won't lie to you, that I won't offer you empty platitudes and say that things will be alright as long as we just believe hard enough that they'll work out, or something equally optimistic," the Central Officer said.
He didn't need to glance to his left or right to know that Bailey and Godmother were wearing perfect poker faces. Of all the people here, they did know him well enough to trust that he was making a point.
The room remained still. There was no chattering or whispering in response to Van Doorn's words. No confused looks, or angry sounds of disapproval. Everyone was just waiting to hear what he had to say next. Respectful. Trusting.
Bradford would've been proud.
"It keeps me up at night sometimes," Van Doorn continued. "The fact that the best of us made the jump to Remnant without a second thought when the call came for action. If they are still there, I trust that they are making the most of their situation. Just as we are of ours. That's the only thing we can do, really. Wake up each morning, and put one foot in front of the other. That's what Councilman Bailey is doing in his effort to strengthen our international bonds in the wake of the Ethereal invasion. That's what Godmother is doing as we ramp up our fight against the Grimm. That's what each and every one of you is doing when you suit up with that patch on your shoulder and your country on your back.
"And that's what our research division is doing as they work around the clock to better understand the Hyperwave Relay to bring our boys and girls home," he finished.
Van Doorn honestly wasn't sure if the Ethereals knew the power they'd had at their disposal. Did they build it themselves? Or did they claim it from one of their conquered worlds? Either way, R&D seemed to discover a new intricacy or detail about the tech every week. Setbacks that needed to be better understood before they could confidently use the relay the way it had been used back when the original Connection had (somehow) been made.
"We trust that the citizens of Earth have faith in us as we execute our duty to keep them safe from the evils and monsters that lurk in the darkness. So, too, must we have faith that those who walk in Doctor Vahlen's footsteps carry out their work with the same determination and drive."
He nodded to the block of personnel in the front of the room and smiled. "Your work may be behind closed doors, and the people of the world don't even know what the Hyperwave Relay is, but know this: I do. We do. And we thank you for your work as you forge a path into the unknown."
On his left, Bailey started to gently clap. Godmother followed suit on his right. Van Doorn joined them. Within moments, the hall erupted in applause, a chorus of unity that reminded everyone present that they were all in this together. Despite the almost-cavernous size of the ship's "small" assembly hall, the force of XCOM's energy thrummed in the air, resonated in Van Doorn's chest, and revitalized his soul.
"And so we shall fight," he shouted over the din. "We will do our part -one and all- to keep Earth safe, to make it something worth returning to. So when our colleagues solve the mystery of the Relay? We'll be ready for whatever may come."
As Van Doorn said the words, he knew he truly believed them in his heart.
Because facing the impossible was what XCOM did best.
Sienna walked down the path leading towards the desert front. A path that, she reminded herself, was expanded, improved, and fortified by the 'Crimson Fist' kids that now worked under XCOM's tutelage. What was before simply just a slightly-beaten footpath had now become properly flattened, widened, and reinforced to protect travelers against variations in the terrain as they moved between the desert and Kuo Kuana proper.
It made it much easier for ground-based personnel to swiftly reinforce the frontlines, regardless of whether it was with large numbers or heavy equipment. It was something cooked up by XCOM.
And now it was something that the Albains apparently intended to use to harm the very people that built it.
Sienna wasn't a fool. She knew that XCOM was following her to make sure she didn't bite off more than she could chew with this meeting. Part of her was offended by the idea that they thought she couldn't handle herself. However, she also knew that Misha was right. Regardless of whatever else Bradford had said about XCOM's relationship with the Belladonnas, the faunus of Menagerie, and Sienna Khan herself? She was also an investment.
Bradford had deployed a contingent of personnel to stay on Menagerie for the foreseeable future. A contingent that was, for XCOM, a significant commitment. It was meant to build bridges, both figuratively and (in the case of the new wooden slat steps that lay ahead of her) literally. XCOM intended to prove to the people of Kuo Kuana (and perhaps to Remnant at large) that it was committed to the betterment of the people. But it was also meant to keep a watchful eye over high-priority, high-risk targets.
And who was more high-priority than the High Leader of the White Fang?
Nestled along the path, about a ten minute walk from where she currently stood, was Sienna's destination. Of the two outposts they had built, XCOM had chosen one to be high up in the hills while the other was down lower by the front lines. The two worked in tandem, with the former providing superior recon sightlines while the other served as a storehouse keeping the city's defenders equipped with fresh supplies for combat.
Whether the Albains chose the recon outpost because it was more secluded or because they were trying to keep up their facade of wanting to show her a new threat didn't really matter. Sienna was going to assume the first motive regardless.
With Cerberus Whip wrapped firmly around one arm (to ward off any Grimm trespassers, of course), Sienna took the final steps towards the outpost and strode inside.
It was larger than she had expected, admittedly. For a location that was meant to be a recon perch, Sienna had assumed it would be little more than an almost-cramped room with a closet or two for supplies and a view of the desert below. Instead, the inside was fairly spacious, came equipped with a loft-style second floor, and extended deeper into the mountainside than one might expect from an outside look.
And standing at the back, hands together in their usual near-maddening unison, were the Albain brothers.
"Ah, Lady Khan," Fennec said, looking up with a smile. "We are honored to be graced with your presence."
"You called me here," Sienna answered flatly. "Said there was some sort of new threat that was too dangerous to ignore."
"Indeed there is," Corsac answered, wearing the same smile as his brother. "And so here you are."
Sienna was liking this situation less and less. She swore that the looks on their faces was part glee that she had actually come out here to meet them. And the way Corsac phrased that answer…
She resisted unfurling her whip, and instead asked, "So what is it? Where is it?"
Fennec's smile grew malicious, and he answered, "Lady Khan… it is you."
The hairs stood up on the back of Sienna's neck as her aura screamed at her to move. She did so just as she heard the crack from above in the loft, and hissed when she felt the glancing bullet burn her side.
When she looked up again, the brothers had their weapons out and their smiles were long gone.
"What is the meaning of this?" she hissed, Cerberus Whip now firmly in her hands. She was ready to fight, but there was something in that surprise bullet that was making Sienna feel a little dizzy.
"Cavorting with XCOM?" Corsac asked. The two brothers stepped forward, and Sienna stepped back. "Allowing that filth to pollute our town and the minds of our youth?"
"They're helping," Sienna spat.
"They're plotting," Fennec retorted, "And we cannot trust one who has been corrupted by their influence to lead the faunus with good intentions. We cannot afford to let you leave here, Lady Khan."
The door behind Sienna flew off its hinges, and a burst of gunfire toppled the thug that had taken her by surprise.
"Nobody move!"
Sienna didn't know whether to laugh or to groan at Lieutenant Rogers's timely arrival. Because of course Sokolov had informed him of this meeting, and of course he ignored her request to not intervene.
"Exactly what we were saying!" Corsac cried out. "You've grown too soft to lead, Lady Khan, and XCOM is taking advantage of you."
Why was he smiling again?
"The only one here trying to take advantage of Sienna is you assholes who convinced her to come by playing to her sense of duty to the people of this community," Rogers shot back. "Come quietly, and we can resolve this insurrection peacefully."
Corsac shook his head. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary, especially since you have so conveniently offered yourself to be the perpetrator of the crime that we ourselves had planned to commit."
"If you think I would ever turn my gun on The Khan, then you've got another thing-GGUUHHHH…."
Sienna whipped around (perhaps a little too quickly) just in time to see Rogers slump to the floor while a grinning henchman of the Albains stood menacingly behind the soldier's unconscious form. Those cinder block-sized fists told Sienna that her savior was down for the count, but the more alarming detail was the very distinct half helmet obscuring the upper part of the thug's face.
"You might not," Fennec said to the lifeless body, "But we don't need you to do it."
He turned his attention back to Sienna and asked, "How are you feeling, Lady Khan?"
Poison. That bullet had definitely been laced with poison. There was no way that the Albains would have trusted themselves to come out on top against her in a fair fight, and so they had done everything they could to even the odds.
"ADVENT?" She asked incredulously. "You claim that XCOM is here with ill intent, and yet you align yourselves with ADVENT?"
"A necessary alliance," Corsac said. "And besides, we have received multiple gifts from Lady Fall to prove her loyalty to our cause."
She should have expected this.
CRACK! CRACK!
What she didn't expect was for the massive henchman to yelp in surprise when several bolas exploded through the wooden wall of the outpost and wrapped themselves around his neck, arm and ankle. Just as the burly man tried to move and regain his balance, ice bloomed from the floor around his feet and froze them in place.
The windows of the outpost shattered, the roof ripped open with a muted crump, and a contingent of six armed intruders swung in through the newly-made openings. Even as the poison started to make Sienna feel a little more dizzy, she could easily make out Mikhail Sokolov as one of the newcomers.
"Your reinforcements have been neutralized, khuylo," Misha spat while his squad spread out to surround the Albains. "Pretty trivial when they got cocky and thought that Buck was the only one we sent to back up the Khan."
Fennec raised an eyebrow, and Sienna had a bad feeling that her saviors weren't quite as thorough as they had thought. She'd never known the brothers to panic, but something about Fennec's look felt off. Coupled with Corsac's comment about gifts from Cinder…
"All of them?" Fennec asked, almost serenely. "Are you sure?"
Misha snorted. "As sure as I am that you're a little yeblan. But go ahead. Spring your little trap."
When a slight frown crossed the faunus's face, Sienna couldn't help but feel giddy at his misfortune. What was that word that Rogers had taught her a few weeks ago? "Schadenfreude"?
"You… you do have a trap, right?" Misha asked, waving his team forward to arrest the Albains. "I had assumed that your self-righteous, smug expression was there for a reason, but perhaps I was mistaken? Do you just always look like that?"
The Albains exchanged a look, but a quick three-round burst from Misha knocked Fennec off his feet before he could reach for his weapon, and a double-tap from one of the operative's allies trapped Corsac with the same ice shot trick that had disabled the ADVENT goon.
Good, because there was no way the Albains would have gone down without a fight.
It was only then that Sienna started to wonder if XCOM had truly succeeded in outmaneuvering the brothers. She would need to ask them what surprise they had uncovered and neutralized after this was all over. If it was related to the "gift" that Cinder had given to the brothers, then that was an actual threat that Sienna would need to know about.
The faintest whisper of a voice drifted across the room from Misha's ear to Sienna's, and though she couldn't make out what was being said, she could tell that someone was contacting the operative.
"Everyone," He said, his voice firm and authoritative, "Get down."
Even if Sienna wasn't used to taking orders, she knew XCOM well enough by now to understand that this was not up for negotiation. She dropped to all fours, and waited for whatever it was that Misha knew was coming. After a few seconds of nothing, a question started to form on the tip of Sienna's tongue, but the explosion of the outpost's front wall quickly stole the words out of her mouth.
Several black bodies flew into the room. Despite her slightly-addled state, Sienna's survival instinct was still well enough intact for her to dodge out of the way as the serpentine Grimm lunged at where she had been previously standing.
Even with Misha's forewarning, there were a few yells in the room from soldiers unlucky enough to be near the monsters' breach points. Sienna tried to lash out at the new threats with her whip, but she struggled to compensate for both their speed and her own stunted reflexes.
Gunshots rang out, the monsters hissed in response, and Sienna wondered how they were going to deal with this. She cursed when one of the Grimm used its tail to trip her while she tried to backpedal. She watched it rear up and knew that she didn't have the stability to dodge out of the way in time. Just before it struck, however, Sienna felt herself get yanked in an entirely different direction. Once her eyes cleared from the dizzying surprise, she found herself face-to-face with a different kind of serpentine creature.
This one, thankfully, was not Grimm.
"Thanks…" she muttered as the Viper unraveled its tongue. It (she?) gave a quick nod before slithering into the room to join the fray.
Another shadowy figure materialized, practically out of thin air, and leapt on the back of one of the Grimm snakes, shoving a bladed fist into the base of the monster's neck. The creature cried out, rearing in pain while the hooded assailant rode it like a bucking bull.
The Viper scored her own kill, striking with lightning reflexes at one of the Grimm that had been busy trying to squeeze the life out of Misha. With only one monster remaining, it wouldn't be hard for XCOM to wrap up and return their attention to the Albains.
…
… Oh, those fuckers.
"Misha!" Sienna called out, her voice sounding a lot weaker than she cared to admit. "They're trying to escape!"
"Santiago?" the operative asked.
The hooded figure looked up from his kill, and Sienna could see a faint green glow from the Reaper's mask.
"On it," he said, pulling the rifle off his back and dashing for the door.
Misha dusted himself off and approached Sienna with a smile.
"Rest assured that our man will get his mark. Why don't we lay you down, though?" He glanced at Sienna's hip and winced. "Whatever they nicked you with looks more than a little nasty. Have a seat for now, and we'll get you back to the city once we've got everybody else on their feet."
Sienna nodded wordlessly and sat down against the wall of the outpost.
"Thanks," she said. Misha gave her a questioning look, though Sienna wasn't sure if he was playing dumb just to force her to expand on her comment.
Ah, well. He deserved it, anyway.
"For having my back," she explained.
The operative sat down next to her against the wall. Their Viper backup had already taken care of the last Grimm, and the rest of Misha's team was licking their wounds (both figuratively and literally), so it seemed that he decided his focus was best served by keeping an eye on Sienna.
He cast a smirk at her, and Sienna braced herself for what she knew was coming next.
"Told you it was a trap."
Sienna rolled her eyes. "I know."
"But hey… if you were determined to use yourself as bait, we weren't going to pass up the opportunity to try and take down one of our high priority targets."
That earned Misha a harsh look.
"You mean you weren't just trying to keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't get in over my head?"
"Well obviously that too, yeah," Misha laughed. "But if you were intent on going to meet the Albains, of all people, then that was a nice secondary objective for us."
Fair enough. Sienna closed her eyes and leaned back. There'd be time later to deal with the Albains, and to discuss with Misha and Rogers how they should move forward in light of this betrayal. For now?
For now, Sienna needed to rest.
"We're almost there. Just keep your heads down a little longer, and we'll be home free."
Saphron Cotta-Arc didn't like this. She didn't like being a fugitive from ADVENT, especially since it put Adrian in danger by association. She didn't like having to take this XCOM operative at his word that her family was in danger unless they ran away with him immediately. He was nice enough to give them ten minutes to collect their most valuable possessions, but…
How was one supposed to decide which parts of their lives were the most important in only ten minutes?
The only reason why Saphron trusted this guy was because he slipped in a mention of Jaune's Pumpkin Pete's hoodie in their conversation. If he knew Jaune well enough to know that her little brother always wore that thing everywhere…
Saphron felt Adrian starting to stir under her jacket, so she quickly moved to grab the pacifier she thought to stuff into her pocket and gently pushed it into her son's mouth to keep him from crying.
"Is he hungry?" Terra asked under her breath.
Saphron shook her head. "He's not fussing, so I don't think so. Just confused."
"I don't blame him," the XCOM operative said from the front, "but you're both doing the right thing."
"That remains to be seen," Terra said, her tone frosty.
Saphron wondered if three hooded figures walking briskly at night didn't look any more suspicious than them casually walking during the day, but the operative said it was more important that they didn't get identified than it was that they didn't get noticed. He also said that them not getting noticed in the first place was his job, so Saphron just had to hope that he knew what he was doing.
Worst case scenario, if they got caught by ADVENT she could always tell them the guy forced her to follow under threat of harming Adrian.
"This way," the man said, gesturing down a nondescript alley.
Saphron froze.
"You want me," she said slowly, "to follow you. Into a dark alley. At night. With my wife and child."
The man sighed.
"I told Cyrus that we needed a better route," he muttered, looking around over Saphron's shoulder, presumably to make sure they weren't being followed.
Saphron and Terra shared a look. They'd come this far on just the guy's word, hadn't they? Going down the alley was another step into sketchy territory, but how far over that line had they already come when they agreed to only spend ten minutes packing their belongings before leaving with him in the first place?
"Alright," Terra said. "But don't try anything funny."
The man held his hands up. "Promise."
Not that his comfort meant much for people who didn't know him at all. But he knew Jaune, so that would have to be enough for Saphron.
Feeling Terra's hand slip protectively into hers certainly made her feel brave enough to go into the alley.
Mercifully, Adrian stayed quiet. This part of town wasn't nearly as well maintained as the suburb where the Cotta-Arc family lived, which didn't help Saphron with her nerves. Then again, if they were being taken to some sort of hideout, the seedier the better, right? Easy to stay hidden and away from patrols that way. Or something like that.
Almost as if to prove her point, the operative ducked into a small doorway and beckoned for his charges to follow. It wasn't well-lit, it smelled a little funny, and the walls were crying out for a cleaning and a fresh coat of paint.
If Saphron was trying to sniff out a secret underground operation, the abandoned door in the alleyway seemed like a solid first place to look. Then again, how many doors were there like this one throughout the city? And how would it look if someone were to go knocking down each one claiming to be smoking out an XCOM crime ring? So maybe this wasn't a bad place for a hideout after all.
"Voices low," the operative said. "Don't want to disturb the neighbors."
Not that Saphron or Terra were talking in the first place. Maybe the guy was just preemptively trying to tell them to keep Adrian quiet. No need to worry there, since the kid had fallen asleep again under the jacket.
The hallways in the almost slum-like complex twisted and turned in ways that Saphron was pretty sure were not their original intent. More than once, the operative led them into an abandoned apartment, used a side door to enter an adjoining unit, and then used a back door of that unit that was definitely not supposed to be there in order to come out into a different hallway.
"Last door, I promise," he said, gesturing towards the closed entryway before them. He looked at Terra and asked, "Would you like to do the honors?"
The two women exchanged another glance before Terra asked, "There isn't any sort of… I dunno… secret knock or something?"
"Nah," the operative answered, "If someone is able to navigate that maze back there and reach this point, we're pretty sure they're one of us.
"And besides," he added with a slight laugh, "I pity the ADVENT fool that tries to pick a fight with what's on the other side of the door."
That made it sound like this XCOM guy had a secret weapon in his hideout. Well, if it was on his side…
Terra shrugged, walked up, and knocked on the door.
Her firm tap was met with silence, and Saphron wondered if this guy was about to murder the two of them now that the ruse was up.
Click. Sliiiiiiiiide. Click click.
Or perhaps not.
The door swung open. Whoever was on the other side didn't bother to crack it open first to see who had knocked. They must either be very confident that nobody but friends would be knocking on their door, or-
"Oh."
… Or incredibly well-built, extremely muscled, and totally certain that they could beat the shit out of anyone who wasn't supposed to be there.
"Friends?" the swarthy man asked, glancing at the two Cotta-Arcs before glancing back to the XCOM operative.
"Jaune's sister," the operative clarified. "And her wife."
The man smiled, then stepped aside. "Arc's family, eh? Then they're friends to me."
The apartment within had a similarly rundown aesthetic to the rest of the complex, but it was clear that the occupants tried to spruce things up a bit to make it less dreary. Even so, boxes were lining the walls, paperwork was stacked high on a fold-out table in the corner, and clothing and personal effects hung off of chairs, couches, and the like.
The people who were living here didn't seem to concern themselves much with making their home look presentable. Then again, who would they be presenting themselves to?
"You know my brother?" Saphron asked. She was pretty sure she'd remember if Jaune talked about someone like this before.
"More accurate to say that my daughter does," the man called over his shoulder.
Oh good.
"Heard the name Pyrrha Nikos before?"
Saphron nearly choked.
"Wait," she said. "Seriously?"
The man chuckled. "Never get tired of that reaction."
Saphron almost blurted out, "Can I meet her?" before remembering that there was a good chance she wasn't here with her father. Instead she asked the second-most-pressing question on her mind while she jogged up to keep pace with the man. Her arms wrapped protectively around Adrian while she unzipped her jacket a bit so that he could breathe some fresh air now that it was safe to let him out.
"So how does Jaune know her?" she asked as she felt Adrian stir back awake in her grasp.
Mr. Nikos snorted.
"Do you want to answer that one, Cael?" he asked, "Or should I?"
Saphron frowned. "I don't-"
"They're dating, Saph," Terra sighed.
"More than that, I imagine," Mr. Nikos said with a laugh. "They fought in a war together, after all. Couple that kind of adrenaline with the raging hormones of young adults, and… well…"
The two halves of Saphron's mind, the excited and the scandalized, waged war to gain control of her actions while she walked further into the XCOM hideout.
"... Go Jaune," Saphron eventually got out. Adrian babbled, seemingly in agreement.
Mr. Nikos cast a glance at her and asked, "So you think he's punching up?"
"I'd be curious if your daughter felt that way," Terra commented.
That got a chuckle out of the burly man.
"You… I like you," he said with a smile.
Cael led them into another room in the apartment-hideout, and Saphron was greeted with her second shock of the last two minutes. The new area was filled with bits and pieces of discarded steel, which had been neatly arranged into tidy little piles along the desks and tables. Walls were lined with all manner of swords, spears, shields, and axes, all hanging by nails and within easy reach of whoever might need them. A woman with thick-rimmed glasses and short red hair was bent over a workbench in the corner, face taut with concentration as she whittled away at a piece of scrap metal.
"Newcomers, Ceres," Mr. Nikos said to the woman at the workbench.
Ceres, who had to be Pyrrha's mom, looked up from her project and smiled brightly at Saphron and Terra.
"Hello! I'm glad that Cael was able to extract the two of you safely." She glanced at Adrien, and her expression changed slightly. "I trust that you're alright? This is probably a lot of excitement for the little one."
Adrian, who seemed entranced at the sight of so many forbidden shiny things, looked up at Ceres with a big bright smile. The woman chuckled as she stood up, and after a silent exchange between her and Terra, she approached the baby and leaned in close with wide eyes. That got a giggle out of little Adrian, who reached out to his new friend happily, babbling and launching himself into Ceres's arms. Saphron watched, amazed, as her little ball of sunshine took a step she herself was hesitant to make, and relief flowed through her as Ceres gingerly cradled Adrian, rocking him softly until he eventually fell back asleep.
Yep. This is definitely Pyrrha's mom.
"Just a little confused, mostly," Saphron admitted. "We were told that we were in imminent danger, but… we didn't see anything to give us that impression."
"That's because Cael is good at his job," Mr. Nikos grunted.
"I'll put that compliment on my resume."
"You should circle it and put little gold stars next to it."
While the Nikos couple bantered with Cael, Saphron let out a small breath that she realized she'd been holding. Up until now, she had still been suspicious that this was all a setup. But seeing these two look comfortable and talk easily around the XCOM operative was helping put her worries at ease. Sure, this interaction could also be a setup to get Saphron to let her guard down, but…
"So what are we doing here?" Terra asked, looking around, "and is it just the five-and-a-half of us here, or are there more?"
This was why Saphron married this woman.
"Right," Cael said, gesturing for Saphron and Terra to take a seat in some of the chairs set up in the room. "To business."
Finally, maybe they'd get some answers.
Cael looked between the other occupants of the room before settling his attention on Terra and speaking.
"To your first question, priority number one is to help secure people who ADVENT might try to use as leverage against XCOM. I managed to get Ceres and Thal out of their home about a minute before ADVENT came knocking, which was a bit too close for comfort. With you two, though? I managed to catch wind of their plan a little earlier, so I didn't have to rush you quite as much."
Probably explained why they didn't see anyone chasing after them.
"As for what's next?" Cael gestured back into the other room where Ceres had been working. "Keeping an eye on ADVENT to see if there's anyone else they're planning to use while keeping ourselves equipped to handle anything they might throw at us."
"It's been fun getting back into arts and crafts," Ceres said. With a wink, she added, "I was never good at the art bits, though."
"So… weapons?" Saphron asked.
"Yep."
"And other gear," Cael added. "If there's one thing that Ceres is good at, it's MacGyvering scrap metal into useful tech."
Four sets of eyes looked at Cael with confusion.
"Right," the operative sighed. "Sorry."
Terra coughed politely. "And my second question? Is there anyone else, or are we it?"
"Nah, there's more people," Cael explained. "We have several safe houses set up in the city, and we try to keep people busy so that we don't draw too much attention to our facilities by having a lot of people in all at once."
Saphron looked around the apartment once more and agreed that it definitely looked like more than three people lived here. If Ceres spent most of the time in the room with the workbench, and Cael was working at that corner desk with all the papers, then was Mr. Nikos really the one responsible for the rest of the mess?
"Wouldn't it be more suspicious to have people coming and going more often?" Terra asked.
"Several ways in and out, and the people who go out aren't the ones ADVENT is looking for."
"Like us," Mr. Nikos (Thal?) grumbled.
"If it helps keep our daughter safe, then it's worth it," Ceres said.
So what did they expect Saphron and Terra to do? Terra worked with the local CCT division, so there were going to be problems if XCOM wanted to keep her hidden here. And if ADVENT really did want to nab her, they'd be able to do it while she was at work. Or worse, while she was coming back to the safe house at the end of the day.
On the other hand, Terra was incredibly good at figuring out how to make things work when she needed to. And besides, having a CCT technician was almost certainly something that XCOM could make use of-
Wait, why was she already thinking like she was working with XCOM?
… Right.
She turned to the red-haired bear of a man sitting in the room.
"Mr. Nikos-?"
"Thalassos," He corrected.
"Right," Saphron said. "Thalassos-"
"Thal," Ceres corrected again with a glance at her husband.
Saphron giggled.
"You said that my brother and your daughter fought in a war together…?"
Thalassos grinned. "You like stories, kid? Because one of the first things we learned after moving in was that Cael is full of 'em."
"Why don't you get some dinner ready, dear?" Ceres asked as she continued rocking Adrian. "I have a feeling that we're going to be here for a while."
Saphron and Terra exchanged glances. So far, everything they'd seen in the safe house seemed alright, but…
What had they gotten pulled into?
A/N: So on a slightly more unfortunate note, this whole baby business has proven to be a lot more time consuming than I had originally hoped. I knew that she'd occupy a large portion of my time, but I didn't really expect her to occupy almost all of it. She's beautiful, she's healthy, she's absolutely wonderful (poopy diapers and all), but she also leaves me with very little time to write, unfortunately.
As an example, she has recently started to develop colic, with the symptoms appearing every day late in the afternoon and persisting until just about bedtime. The only way she's able to be calm is if she's constantly in motion, which means she needs to go on a stroller ride. And since this happens during the only time on weekdays when I'd be home and able to write...
So I'll do my best to write when I can, but the pace of chapters will almost certainly be spotty until things settle down.