Man, it's been a while. Nearly a year. I do hope I'll be able to get a bit more regularity going in my updates from now on, but I'm afraid to make any promises considering my track record, so I won't.
MIKandIk3: Thank you very much for the review. I tend to notice spelling and grammar errors only after I've uploaded, and by that point I usually can't really be bothered to fix them. There's only one in the story that I put there intentionally, way back in chapter six. As for Adam…well, you'll see. I'm glad you like it so far, and I certainly welcome any feedback you might have for me.
With that done, one last word of warning. I really screwed up with the distances and times, much like Ruby did in the show itself. I've…mentioned that in this chapter, but I'm not going to retcon it at this point. So, I'm sorry for the mistake there! Please Read and Review, and enjoy!
Chapter Fifteen: Shipping Woes
The inn where Dr. Oobleck was staying was close to the ferry docks. It had a massive billboard outside advertising more alcoholic drinks than I even knew existed, yet somehow the building itself seemed to be swallowed by the two larger buildings on either side of it, giving it a very dark appearance. If someone had told me that an inn on a bright and sunny island could look so shady I probably wouldn't have believed them.
"This looks more like the kind of joint Qrow would hang out in," Yang remarked.
"I must admit I had expected Dr. Oobleck to have slightly more…refined…tastes," Weiss agreed.
"Well, maybe he's trying to stay incompetent," I said with a shrug.
"Incognito, but I suppose you might be right," Weiss said hesitantly.
"Well, only one way to find out," Yang said.
She threw open the door and stepped inside, with the rest of us right behind her. The inn smelled like old cigarettes and the walls had dirty brown staining all over them, even though they were supposed to be whitish. At least, that's what I thought their color should be. A series of round tables was scattered around the room, all occupied by gruff-looking Faunus, who all turned to look at us when we entered.
"He couldn't have been more stereotypical if he'd tried…" Yang said softly. Then, putting on a bright smile for the customers in the inn, she said, "Good morning, everyone! We're looking for our teacher and apparently he's staying here. Is he here?"
The Faunus at the bar scoffed. "I'd be surprised if he's up yet. The amount of booze he sunk last night would put anyone into a coma," he said.
"Booze? That doesn't sound like Dr. Oobleck," Weiss said doubtfully.
"That's because Dr. Oobleck isn't here," a very familiar voice behind us said.
"Uncle Qrow!" I shouted happily, and threw myself around his neck.
"Called it," Yang remarked to no one in particular.
I let go of Uncle Qrow's neck and asked, "What are you doing here? Where's Dr. Oobleck?"
He gave me a short smirk, but then his face turned serious as he looked at each of us. "Back at Beacon. Let's go to my room. We can talk there."
We followed Uncle Qrow up a narrow set of stairs and through a hall which somehow looked even grimier than the bar area downstairs, which was only lit by a bunch of incredibly dim bulbs, and a little bit of light that fell through the dirty window at the end of the hall. Uncle Qrow stopped walking in front of a door, which had '166' written on it in flaky letters. He rummaged through his pockets and retrieved the key, and a moment later the four of us were sitting on the bed, while Uncle Qrow leaned against the desk. The room felt even more cramped than Henry's house had done.
"So, what's up?" Yang asked.
"Cinder Fall and her friends have gone missing at Beacon. There's no trace of them anywhere and that's worrying given all the trouble they went through to get into Beacon in the first place, especially in light of the information that Bartholomew supplied us with," Uncle Qrow said.
"How could she have disappeared with the entire Atlesian army there?" Weiss asked sharply.
I almost chuckled at how insulted she sounded. Her Atlesian pride must have been wounded a bit. Uncle Qrow shrugged. "Ironwood is just about as pissed off as you are about their lack of success in finding her, but he hasn't given up yet. In any case, because Bartholomew is one of the most experienced Huntsmen on Beacon's staff, Ozpin thought it would be better for him to stay at Beacon."
"So does that mean you're coming with us now?" I asked hopefully. Having Uncle Qrow with us would be awesome!
"Sorry, kid," Uncle Qrow said with an apologetic look. "Oz needs me to keep spying on the White Fang, especially now." He paused for a moment and thoughtfully looked out the window. "Lately, there's been a lot of discussion among the White Fang about someone called 'the Guide'. We don't know who it is, but Oz says there used to be a powerful figure known as the Guide; a warlord who held immense power centuries ago. It's hard to say how many of the stories about him were true, but from what Oz says he was at the very least a great commander in battle."
"But…if that was centuries ago, this 'Guide' couldn't be the same one, right?" Weiss asked.
"Probably not, no," Uncle Qrow admitted. "But the White Fang aren't the only ones talking about it. A lot of the Human underworld is also buzzing with rumors about this Guide. We have absolutely no idea who it might be; for all we know it's Cinder Fall herself, but hopefully the four of you will be able to find out more."
"Wait, our mission is still on? Even without an experienced Huntsman to guide us?" Weiss asked.
Uncle Qrow sighed. "It's not exactly ideal, I'll give you that. But I trust Oz, and he says that you should continue the mission. I'll be keeping tabs on you as much as I can, but I don't know how much that'll be."
He fell silent. I wasn't sure how to feel about what he'd told us. Despite chuckling at Weiss's anger earlier, Cinder disappearing couldn't be good. Then, I remembered something. "Wait, what about Torchwick?" I asked. "He was working together with Cinder, wasn't he?"
Uncle Qrow nodded. "Yes, but we don't exactly know where he is, either. We're pretty sure that both he and Cinder are still in Vale, and that they're planning to make a move during the Vytal Festival's finals. Ironwood has upped security even though Oz told him not to." He grimaced. "Everything together, Vale's one big powder keg right now. The army is making people nervous, Oz and Ironwood are on rocky terms, the White Fang is…doing something; we're not even sure what now that all Dust stores are basically fortresses."
I looked at my friends, who seemed to feel as troubled by this as I did. What if something happened in Vale while we were out here chasing ghosts? Part of me wanted nothing more than to go back to Vale so we could stand beside our friends if stuff really did begin to happen there, but I knew that Professor Ozpin must have had a reason to send us on this mission. He would not have done something like this if he didn't believe we could be of help.
So, despite the news, I smiled and said, "We'll find out what the White Fang are up to, and then we'll stop them."
Uncle Qrow chuckled. "Always the optimist, huh? I hope that part of you never changes, kiddo. We could use some more positivity in this world of ours." He looked at all of us and became serious again. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but somehow couldn't find the words. "If it hadn't been for my false information, you wouldn't have been following Adam's little treasure hunt for all this time. So…I'm sorry for all the trouble you've had to go through."
He gritted his teeth, clearly expecting us to scold him. Then, Weiss did begin to scold him…sort of. "Don't give me that! We've been nearly killed on several occasions, we lost all our stuff, we've been walking through a forest for weeks, and all you have to say is that you're sorry for it?! No, don't interrupt me," Weiss said, warningly pointing at Yang when it seemed like she wanted to break in. "I'm not finished yet. See, I'm not sorry that we've done this at all."
Yang's mouth fell open. Weiss looked at us with a fierce look, then turned her gaze on Uncle Qrow. "We're Huntresses. This is what we do, just like Dr. Oobleck told us when we were with him at Mountain Glenn. It's not like a real lead would have been any more comfortable. Besides, we haven't exactly wasted our time. Cinder's cover fell through because of it, no matter her disappearance. A missing person or a wanted fugitive? I think that difference alone is going to hinder her plenty, even if her whereabouts are unknown. And if we hadn't gone down this path, do you think Blake would've reconciled with her parents? Do you think that Ruby and I…" She fell silent and blushed. I blushed too. I hadn't expected Weiss to mention anything about us, but I liked that she did. Weiss quickly recovered and went on, "Do you think that we'd be as close as we are now? Because I don't. Yes, the lead was false, but if Mr. Belladonna has managed to find us a real one, don't you think it was worth it? I'd call that serendipity, if anything."
Of course, Weiss had to finish her speech with a word I didn't know. It seemed to cheer up Uncle Qrow, though. He laughed and shook his head. "I really underestimated you the first time we met. I never thought I'd ever meet a Schnee this passionate about anything," he said with a grin at Weiss, which she half-returned. "Well, I guess you four should head back, then. For all of our sakes, I hope that you'll get an actual lead this time. The White Fang are planning something big, and whatever it is, it won't be good if they can pull it off." He hesitated for a moment. "Whatever you do, though, be careful. Without Bartholomew with you, you shouldn't take unnecessary risks. It may be better to be covert if at all possible." He looked at me. "That means 'no fancy scythe combat unless absolutely necessary'."
"I know what covert means," I said. I was a little insulted that he'd think I didn't, because I'd been a fan of Jim Bont ever since I was little. How could I not know what covert means?
"I know you do, but you get carried away quite quickly," Uncle Qrow said with a smirk.
I sheepishly looked at the floor. Well, if he put it like that…
"I'll let you know if we discover something important," he said.
"How will you find us?" Yang asked. "We don't even know where we're going yet."
"Unless you leave the planet itself, I'll find you," Uncle Qrow said mysteriously.
"That wasn't creepy at all…" Weiss muttered.
"We'd better go," Blake said. "The sooner we get on the road, the better."
I knew why Blake was so anxious to get going again. She wanted to stop Adam as soon as possible. I didn't blame her. We said goodbye to Uncle Qrow and began to head back to Blake's parents' house.
When we arrived back at the house of Blake's parents, Mr. Belladonna was already waiting for us. He smiled broadly when he saw us, so I hoped he'd have some good news for us.
"I have good news," he said.
Awesome!
"I've spoken to a dear friend of mine. As it turns out, he has been monitoring the White Fang in his area for quite some time. He wouldn't tell me exactly what he has discovered, but he said it was big."
It sounded good, at least it sounded good to me. The others didn't seem convinced, though.
"Is there any chance he's working with Adam?" Blake asked with a dark look.
Mr. Belladonna frowned. "If I thought there was a chance of that, I never would have contacted him. No, Bluefield has always been against Adam's methods and…"
"Bluefield?!" I interrupted. "As in, Jim Bont's archnemesis Bluefield?"
"Ruby! You can't just interrupt someone like that!" Weiss scolded me.
I chuckled nervously and muttered, "Sorry…"
"It's quite alright," Mr. Belladonna said with a laugh. "Although I wouldn't advise mentioning Jim Bont around him. He's quite annoyed that they gave a fictional character the same name as him."
After Weiss forced me to promise I wouldn't mention Jim Bont or anything related to it while we were visiting Mr. Bluefield, Mr. Belladonna continued his explanation.
"You'll meet up with him in Atlas, in…"
"Atlas?!" Weiss shouted.
"And I'm not allowed to interrupt…" I muttered.
Mr. Belladonna gave her a blank stare. Weiss gave an embarrassed cough. "Please continue," she said with a weirdly high-pitched voice.
With a last glance of the 'are you serious' kind at Weiss, Mr. Belladonna once again continued his story. "He lives close to the city walls and has a network of contacts throughout the city, both within the White Fang and outside of it. He told me he's close to uncovering something big, and that it had to do with a 'guide' of sorts, but he didn't say anything else…though by the looks on your faces, you seem to know what he's talking about?"
We quickly told Mr. Belladonna about our meeting with Uncle Qrow. When we were done, he nodded thoughtfully.
"It's troubling. I've studied many historical conflicts when I was younger; I looked for their causes, direct consequences, long-term consequences…and key individuals in them. And yet, never has there been any been any mention of someone using the title 'the Guide'." He paused for a moment and seemed to think carefully about what he was going to say. "I don't want to sound mistrustful of your headmaster…" he said, using a tone that made it clear that he very much doubted our headmaster, "…but it seems a bit convenient that he would be the only one to know of this Guide. I've never met Ozpin myself, but I have heard stories about him, and one trait that always returns is 'reticent'."
I shot a questioning look at Weiss, who rolled her eyes and said, "It means he keeps his real thoughts hidden."
Mr. Belladonna nodded. "Exactly. I've heard that James Ironwood is starting to have his doubts about that as well. I can't help but wonder what else he's holding back."
I remembered what Headmaster Ozpin told me when I said that Weiss had seen my appointment as team leader as a mistake. I have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child alive. At the time I thought he was just exaggerating, but now I wasn't so certain anymore. I also recalled something Professor Goodwitch had said when we'd just gotten our assignment. Why didn't you tell them? I didn't like to admit it, but Mr. Belladonna had a point here, didn't he? It was a bit suspicious that Headmaster Ozpin was the only one to know anything about the Guide. But if he was holding back information, what did that mean for our mission? Did he actually expect us to succeed at all?
No. I couldn't think like that. I had to have faith in Headmaster Ozpin, have faith that he knew what he was doing, and that our mission was important. Uncle Qrow trusted him after all, didn't he?
"I'm sure Headmaster Ozpin has a reason for not telling us everything. He has a plan, I'm sure of it," I said. I hoped my friends didn't notice the doubt in my voice.
A couple of hours later, we sat waiting around on a hill next to the docks, watching how workers were craning large containers onto a ship, the very ship we'd be using to get into Atlas. Mr. Belladonna had spoken to the ship's captain and managed to get us hired as additional security while it made its trip to Atlas. The trip would take about a month and have a short stop in Mistral about halfway through, which confused all of us a bit since as far as we knew we'd taken about twice that time to walk south from Mistral to the ferry, while it should have taken us about half a year. I mean, I could understand if our estimates of how long we took were off by a few days, but off by five months? In the end, we'd decided to not worry about it and focus on the path ahead.
On a trip this long, there were bound to be some Grimm attacks and I wasn't too sure our weapons would do all that much against them, judging by the incredibly massive guns this cargo ship sported. Even so, the captain had been glad for the extra security.
I glanced at Weiss, who had a distant look in her eyes. Ever since we'd found out we were going to Atlas, she'd been very quiet. I knew it was because she didn't really want to see her father, but I had no idea how to help her. I shuffled closer to her and accidentally on purpose nudged her with my shoulder. She blinked a couple of times as if she was just waking up, then looked at me with a questioning look.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she started looking at the sea again. "I'm not sure," she said eventually. "It's been a long time since I was in Atlas. My father and I didn't exactly part on the best terms. I know we're not going there to see him, and if I can help it at all we won't see him, but still. The thought of even being near him is…difficult."
It was hard for me to imagine how Weiss felt. I loved my father, and even though I didn't remember my mother all that well I still loved her as well. I couldn't really imagine not wanting to see them. I knew that Weiss still loved her father, despite everything, and that just made it sadder that she'd rather avoid him now.
"Well," I said hesitantly, "Whatever happens, we're all here for you."
Weiss half-smiled, gave me a quick kiss, and then jumped to her feet. "Come on, they've finished loading up." Without another word, she began walking down the hill.
Slowly, the cargo ship moved out of the Menagerie docks. Blake's parents smiled and waved as we moved off, and the four of us waved back, Blake with tears glistening in her eyes. It made me happy that Blake's relationship with her parents was back to normal. Even though Weiss was heavily against it, I still hoped that while we were in Atlas we'd get a chance to meet her family as well.
As soon as we'd cleared the docks completely, Yang said, "I hope we'll have to fight a Kraken. I heard those are really tough."
"For all of our sakes, miss, I hope not," a sailor who happened to be walking by said. "It's hard to really grasp just how big Krakens and Leviathans are unless you've seen them. They don't attack often, but when they do, it usually means your ship is done for."
"So what does usually attack ships?" Yang asked.
"Believe it or not, Rosmar," the sailor said.
"Rosmar?" Yang said disbelievingly.
It wasn't hard to understand why Yang reacted like that. Rosmar were walrus-like Grimm. Like normal walruses, they looked incredibly dorky and clumsy. On land, they were so slow that you could escape from them by calmly walking away.
The sailor, however, nodded gravely. "Their tusks can tear through the hulls of smaller ships with ease and in the water they're very fast. Unlike walruses they don't have to stay in shallow waters or come up for air. They're very aggressive and usually attack in great numbers. Their tendency to stay underwater makes them very hard to shoot with our cannons. Usually when they attack we just power through and hope they don't do too much damage to the ship."
"Have they ever taken down a cargo ship?" Weiss asked.
"Many times. We've been lucky, so far, but cargo ships do fall prey to Rosmar occasionally. In some areas submarines are sent to escort all cargo ships, just to keep them safe. We don't have that luxury, although we do have harpoon guns and depth charges with us so we're not completely defenseless."
We shot each other uneasy glances. None of us had really expected that Rosmar could ever be such a huge problem, and none of us had any experience with fighting at sea. Well, maybe we'd get lucky and the Rosmars wouldn't bother us.
The first attack happened just after dinner. We were still at our table, talking, when a sailor approached us and said, "Sonar has detected a large group of Rosmar ahead. The captain says you're to report on the foredeck and help fight them."
I nodded. "Right."
I looked at my friends, who all looked about as worried as I felt. Still, this was, officially, why we were on the ship. We'd have to earn our keep here. Moments later, we stood on the foredeck. Since it was a clear night, the water in front of the ship was calm. I couldn't see anything but water, but Blake narrowed her eyes.
"I can see them," she said. "The water in the distance is littered with them."
I took out Crescent Rose and unfolded her into sniper mode. I looked through the scope, and with the aid of the zoom and the night vision, I could see them. Their black bodies, the white, bony nubs along their backs, the huge tusks. At our current speed, we'd go right through them in just a few minutes.
"Weiss, how much ice Dust do you have?" I asked.
"I restocked on Menagerie, so quite a bit. Why?"
"Can you line the hull with ice? I'm hoping it will limit the damage their tusks can do," I said.
Weiss nodded uncertainly. "I think so."
"Good. Blake, what's Gambol Shroud's range?"
"Somewhere around 200 meters," she replied.
"Okay. I'm going to open fire to try and pick a few off before we get there. Blake, open fire when you think you can. Weiss, when Blake opens fire, ice up the hull. After that, create stepping stones for Yang with your glyphs, between the Rosmars. Ember Celica doesn't have the range to hit them from up here."
I knew that what I was proposing was risky, but it was the only idea I had. None of us were used to firing harpoons, so I didn't think we'd be able to do much with them, and none of us had fought at sea before either. I just hoped the ship's depth charges would take care of the ones below the surface, and that the ice armor would hold until we were clear. The others were giving me a huge amount of trust, going along with this. I hoped their trust would be well-placed.
But now wasn't the time to worry anymore. We had to fight either way, and fighting was what I did best. I took aim at one of the Rosmar in the front and fired. To my great relief, the shot went right through its head and it began disintegrating. I took aim at another one and fired, but barely missed. I took a deep breath and lined up my next shot. Around me, I could hear the sailors readying the harpoons. As we got closer, I scored more hits, but there were just so many of them that my kills seemed to amount to nothing at all.
Then, Blake opened fire. Almost immediately, I heard the familiar sound of Weiss's glyphs and saw white light flashing up around the bow of the ship as the ice armor took shape. Weiss was right on time, because the light had barely faded when we smashed into the army of Rosmar. I heard dull thumps, both from the Rosmar that the ship was crushing, as from the other Rosmar smashing their tusks into the ice barrier Weiss had created.
Weiss raised Myrtenaster and summoned glowing glyphs on the surface of the waves, between the mass of Rosmar. Yang, using the recoil from Ember Celica, leapt off of the bow of the ship and landed on one of the glyph islands. Almost immediately, several Rosmar broke the surface of the water and jumped up at her, but she was ready for them and began launching them into the air like ragdolls.
"Blake, keep up covering fire from up here, Weiss, maintain the glyph islands for as long as you can. I'm going down to help Yang," I said.
Weiss nodded, but she had a worried look on her face. "Be careful," she said.
I grinned. "Aren't I always?" I asked, before jumping off of the ship and landing next to Yang, unfolding Crescent Rose into her scythe form.
Just like Yang, I was immediately attacked by a large number of Rosmar. The sea was shockingly cold, and, remembering what happened the last time I'd gotten soaked, I increased the power of my Aura to keep the worst of the cold out.
For the next minutes, I had no time to think. I could only react, swing Crescent Rose, fire her gun, leap and jump, and hope that Weiss would be able to keep glyphs appearing at the places I'd land, but it felt great. The calm sea turned out to be a fantastic battlefield. With all this room to work with, I could fight the way I liked to fight: fast and flashy.
After cutting a Rosmar in half in midair and landing on a glyph which appeared just in time, I saw that Yang, too, seemed to be having a blast. This was the sort of fight I loved to have. As much damage as the Rosmar might be able to do to a ship, they weren't powerful when fighting agile opponents like Yang or me.
On and on we fought. There had to be more Rosmar here than there were Laceratilia in the swamps, but eventually their numbers began to shrink. Throughout the fight, the ship had kept moving forward and we'd been jumping alongside it using the recoil of our weapons and the power of Weiss's glyphs, and now it seemed we'd finally made it through the pack.
"Yang!" I shouted. She looked up after launching another Rosmar. "Back to the ship!"
She nodded and waved at Weiss, who immediately understood and changed her glyphs to allow us to jump back up to the bow.
I grinned at my teammates, who all looked tired but satisfied. "Showoff," Weiss said, but she smiled warmly.
With a flash of light, the ice armor Weiss had created disappeared. It was then I realized that the sailors, who had been manning the harpoons, were all staring at us.
I saw the ship's captain walking up past the containers. He'd stayed on the bridge, which was near the back of the ship, for the whole battle. He looked stern as he came closer. Heh, stern. You know, 'cause we were on a ship? Never mind.
"Huntresses," he said when he got closer. "You have my gratitude for your aid in fighting off the Grimm."
"It was no biggie," Yang said cockily.
"However," he went on, and Yang's grin got a bit smaller, "In the future I'd like you to clear any plans that will influence the ship with me. The ice armor was very useful, but standard procedure during an encounter with Grimm is to go at flank speed. Flank speed is never very good for the engines, and with the increased drag from the ice armor we could very well have irreparably damaged them, if our helmsman hadn't noticed what you were doing and decreased power output accordingly."
I looked at the deck, a bit embarrassed. I hadn't given any thought to what kind of effect the ice armor might have had on the ship. What if I had ruined the ship's engines? In that case, we'd have been stuck in the middle of an army of Grimm. We'd never have been able to fight them all off. I looked up at the captain.
"I'm sorry, sir," I said. "The ice armor was my idea. I should have thought about the effects and I didn't. If you're going to punish anyone, it should be me."
I tried to sound brave, but I've always found pitched battles with murderous monsters of darkness to be a lot easier than dealing with people.
To my surprise, the captain laughed. "Punish you? There's no need for that, Miss Rose. Like I said, our helmsman noticed what you were doing and lowered power output. The engines are fine and thanks to the shield, we've sustained no damage at all. All I ask of you is that you clear such plans with me beforehand, so we'll be able to adjust our power throughput accordingly. Now, I suggest the four of you go get dried up and get some rest. There's no telling when we'll run into the next group of Rosmar, and I want everyone as ready and rested as they can be."
With a final nod, the captain turned around, and the ship's crew began to cheer for us. I'd never been slapped on the back as much as I was at that moment, while we tried to get ourselves below decks again. I think just about every crewmember had thanked us when we finally reached the small cabin the four of us shared. It was warm in the cabin, a welcome feeling after the icy cold spray of the waves. If my clothes hadn't been soaking wet I'd have dropped myself on my bunk immediately.
"That went well," Yang said. "For a moment I thought the captain was about to tear us a new one, though."
"Well, he was right. We could have damaged the ship. I'm glad we didn't," Weiss said with a troubled look.
Yang shrugged. "Oh well, it turned out okay in the end, didn't it? In any case, I'm going to hit the showers."
That sounded like a very good idea to me. I quickly grabbed my shower stuff and ran after her to the ship's showers.
I stared up at the ceiling of the cabin. Our room was dark, but from the hallway, a faint red line shone in through the crack beneath the door. I listened to the sounds of the ship. The distant rumble of the engines. The muffled sounds of the waves on the hull. The occasional footsteps in the hallways and the decks above us.
"Ruby?" Weiss's voice from the bunk below mine shook me from my half-sleeping state. "Are you awake?"
"Sort of," I replied truthfully.
"I just wanted to say, you did a really great job today," Weiss said. "None of us knew how to fight at sea, and you just came up with a plan and made it look easy."
I blushed at the compliment. Girlfriend or not, Weiss was still more of a 'tough love' sort of person in general, so an outright compliment was rare.
"Fighting is what I'm good at," I said. "It's the reason they let me into Beacon early." I frowned. "But I could have gotten us in big trouble today because I was only thinking of winning the fight."
"Yes, and you immediately took responsibility for it even though all of us were to blame. You're really getting better at being a leader," Weiss said.
I blushed again. Weiss really was giving me a lot of compliments all of a sudden. I considered climbing down into Weiss's bunk so I could hold her, kiss her, and perhaps…I cut myself off before my thoughts could go there. There was no way I'd ever do something like that while in the same room as my sister, no matter how much I might want to. The time for…things like that…would come. Someday. But the thought of her touch was just so…nice. No. Nope. Not now. I wondered if Weiss ever had thoughts like these. If she did, she managed to keep them hidden really well. I closed my eyes. I immediately saw the kinds of images that made me grateful none of us could read minds. I opened and closed my hand a couple of times, then made a decision.
Over the next few days, there were several more attacks by Rosmar, both during the day and during the night. But with the help of the ice shield and the same plan we'd used the first time, none of the fights caused much damage and we got better and better at fighting them.
My biggest problem was actually me. More and more often, I found myself glancing at Weiss. The thoughts I had while doing that were definitely not family friendly, but there really wasn't much I could do to stop them. At night, maybe, but certainly not during the day. I began to notice that Weiss was probably in the same situation as I was. At least, one time I caught her looking at me with a bit of a wild look in her eyes, which didn't make things easier for me. I had to bite my own tongue that night to keep quiet.
All in all, I was really happy when, after two weeks of internal torture, we sailed into the Mistral docks early in the morning. We'd have one day ashore and set off again at the end of the day.
"It's so good to have actual land beneath me again," Yang said as we walked down the gangplank. "Even though we're leaving again tonight," she added. She looked at the rest of us. "So, what's the plan for today?"
I shrugged. I hadn't really given it much thought, considering I had…other things on my mind.
"Maybe we could visit Mr. DeZwart," Blake suggested. "After all, we did leave rather quickly last time."
That sounded like a good idea to all of us, so we headed into the city.
Henry was happy to see us again. He was kind enough not to mention the way I ditched him last time I'd been there, and instead asked us about the things we'd discovered in the time we'd been gone. When we finished telling him about Adam, he frowned.
"He said the operations here were complete? That's very odd," Henry said.
"How so?" Weiss asked.
"Well, just a few days ago I overheard two Faunus, whom I suppose were part of the White Fang, discussing the fact that the replacement mechs were taking too long after 'those Huntsmen' destroyed them."
If they were waiting for replacement mechs, that would mean that the ones we destroyed at the rally were real. But Adam had said they were just decoys, hadn't he? Unless…
"So…Adam was lying?" I asked.
"I'm not certain, of course," Henry said. "But it would certainly seem like it."
"But if that's the case, what else did he lie about?" Yang wondered. "Blake?"
Blake, who looked both troubled and angry, shook her head. "I don't know," she said through gritted teeth. "Adam's always been good at manipulation but I thought I knew him well enough to tell the difference. Now? I don't know. I still don't think our escape and our clues pointing to Vacuo were coincidences, but everything else…he might have been bluffing."
I wasn't sure how to feel about this. On one hand, it was good thing that the White Fang's plans for Mistral had been delayed after all, but on the other...it was just more uncertainty. It seemed so obvious that Adam would lie. After all, what would he gain from telling us the truth?
"It doesn't matter," Weiss said forcefully. "Whether Adam told us the truth or not, we're following our own path now. Whatever he wanted us to do, we're not doing it. We've got a new lead, one which definitely isn't working for Adam. Whatever his plan is, we're going to stop it."
I understood why Weiss seemed so angry. We were heading to Atlas because we'd thought that Vacuo would be a massive trap. If it turned out it wasn't, then Weiss would risk running into someone who knew her for nothing. But despite that, she knew that the plan we had now was the best we had, and that we had to see it through.
The rest of the day, we talked about more casual things. Movies, music, even games. It turned out that Henry had an old console, and we had a lot of fun playing games that were about twice our age.
Late in the afternoon, we said goodbye to Henry, and we promised him to visit again once our mission was over. In the orange light of the slowly setting sun, we headed back to the docks.
The two weeks that followed had a lot of downtime. Yes, there was an occasional attack, but for most of the time there wasn't much to be done. That didn't really help my…problem, which had returned in full force after our discussions about Adam began sounding like broken records.
My idea that Weiss was in the same situation as I was, though, was pretty much proven to be true. Sometimes she actually looked quite deranged and I feared (and a part of me hoped) that she might jump me at some point. To my great relief, however, Yang and Blake either didn't notice or were tactful enough not to say anything about it.
At long last, however, we slowly rolled into the docks of Atlas. As Weiss had become more stressed out the closer we got to Atlas, I'd become more easily capable of setting aside my 'thoughts' and just being there to support her.
"It's going to be fine, Weiss," I said, while the ship's crew was busy preparing for the final docking. "We'll visit Mr. Bluefield, and then we'll probably leave Atlas again."
I wasn't sure if that was true. For all we knew, we'd be staying in Atlas for weeks on end. It didn't seem very smart to tell that to Weiss, though. Weiss just nodded grimly. It pained me to see that she hated being here so much. I wished I could do more than just stand next to her and whisper encouragements, but I had no idea how.
A shudder went through the ships when the engines cut out. I heard Weiss's breathing speed up, so I squeezed her hand and whispered, "Deep breaths, Weiss. Deep breaths."
She nodded and followed my advice. She gave me a shaky smile. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now, let's get going."
We said goodbye to the crew of the ship. The captain especially was sad to see us go. With us gone, they'd actually have trouble with the Rosmar again.
We came ashore, and for the first time I looked around at Atlas. By the looks of the buildings, everything was incredibly high tech here. In the sky, one of General Ironwood's airships moved lazily around, scanning for threats. The ends of the piers were all tipped with massive gun installations, and the roofs of the buildings had machine guns on them. Atlesian knights patrolled the walkways and piers. Beyond the docks, we could see the massive wall around the city proper. There were gun installations at regular intervals along the wall, as far as I could see. It was cold, and I was glad we'd bothered to buy winter gear in Menagerie before we left. A cold gust sent shivers up my spine and I increased my Aura a bit more to warm up.
"So, Weiss, where to?" Yang asked.
"According to Mr. Belladonna, Mr. Bluefield lives near the northern wall," Weiss said. "We'll need to go into town, then take the monorail to..."
"Edelweiss Agnes Schnee!"
And there we are. Yeah, the hormones have been dialed up a bit. Also, Weiss's full name (at least in this story) is mentioned. Both Edelweiss and the St. Agnes flower are white flowers, so I figured it would fit. But who's the person using it? You'll find that out next time!
