A/N: 'ello all! It's been a bit hasn't it? Welp, after much procrastination and revision, I finally succeeded in finishing this chapter and getting it out to you all. Lots of perspective swapping in this one, hopefully I won't confuse anyone! As always, a big thank you to the RWBY writing Nook for inspiring me to write this and reminding me to actually you know, publish it.
Aura hunter waited until she heard the door to her workshop click closed before moving, hopping out of her charging cradle. She had been waiting all day for this! She'd been cracking codes and slipping through loopholes via her net connections for hours yesterday, gathering as much information on the base as she could, and calculating the best way out. It shouldn't be too hard, there was a weak spot in the defenses near the exit of this bunker. Assuming she could get out of the bunker without being spotted, she should be okay. She took a moment to check over her externals in a reflective piece of metal laying in the workshop.
She looked herself over. Metal? Polished! Spikes? Sharpened! Paint? Bright and clear! Still, it felt… incomplete. She looked around a bit, then grabbed a black piece of cloth from a table and wrapped it around her waist. Perfect! She wasn't entirely sure why she was so concerned about her appearance; it had never bothered her before. Something else to add to the mounting list of questions she had for him. She grabbed her blades, putting them into improvised scabbards on either side. She didn't know why her father had not thought to give her somewhere to put her blades, but he hadn't. Another question question to ask her father she supposed.
After concluding that she was prepped and ready to go, she activated her optical camouflage systems, and opened the door. Her camouflage systems automatically matched her environment, meaning she was mor or less invisible to both the human eye and to cameras. She crept down the hallway, avoiding the light where possible, better to not take any chances. Thankfully, the bunker was almost empty this late, other than the occasional guard, making the rounds. She noticed as she moved through the halls that none of the doors seemed to have locks like hers did. Did that mean she was dangerous, or that others a danger to her? She'd have to ask her father, or perhaps the General. This was his facility after all. After several minutes of creeping, she found herself at the exit door. She took a deep breath, (or at least, as much of a breath as a machine can take) and opened the door.
The cold wind blew in, and while she did not feel the cold, her sensors did show a distinct drop in temperature. After a quick look in the immediate vicinity, Aura hunter bolted from the door, not stopping until she reached the fence. From there she grabbed onto the fence and waited for it to stop vibrating. She knew she only had a few seconds before they started investigating. Her camouflage prevented her from being seen, but that didn't stop her from leaving footprints. She now began to climb the fence, arm over arm, until she reached the top, and threw herself over. She mentally cringed as she heard the barbed wire scratch against her plate. She was going to lose some paint for that.
She hit the ground, the snow billowing up around her. She stood up, brushed the snow off, then ran, as fast as her mechanical limbs could carry her, towards where her internal GPS told her Mantle was.
Aura Hunter had been running for hours now, and while her GPS told her otherwise, Mantle didn't seem to be getting any closer. She was going 40 miles per Hour, surely it wouldn't take that long, right? Did her father come by foot as well? How fast *was* he!? Geez, he must be amazing to come here in this cold. I mean, she knew she didn't have to worry about the cold, but surely, he did as a human. Humans were squishy, they had to deal with the environment, and Grimm, and–
Her train of thought was cut off by a growl from behind her. She whiled around to a see an Ursa, looking around confused. It could clearly sense her aura and emotions, simulated as they were, but evidently not see her, confusing the beast, and that just made it angry. It lashed out, sweeping mindlessly in her direction, trying to destroy this confusing, annoying thing. Aura Hunter backflipped away, drawing her swords, the blades sliding silently from the sheaths. She moved her swords into a ready position, preparing for the Ursa to attack again. It obliged, barreling forward, attempting to us it's bulk and long reach to trap her beneath it to be crushed. Aura Hunter waited until it drew close before diving beneath its hind legs, sliding out from the other side. The Ursa was confused for a split second as it's arms swiped through empty air, and Aura Hunter used this moment to stab her blades into it's rump, and using them as makeshift pommel horse to pull herself up and over onto the beast's back. The beast felt the pain in it's rear and her feet on it's back, and raged, shaking violently to throw her off, but to no avail. Aura Hunter used her blades to scale the beast's back, plunging her blades in as she moved, arm over arm up towards the Ursa's head. The beast, unsurprisingly, did not take kindly to this, and did its best to dislodge her from its back, but to not avail, her mechanical grip too strong and the blades plunged too deep. She made it too the head, and raised her left blade up, over the Ursa's head, and plunged it down, burying it to the hilt in the beast's skull. The Ursa bellowed an enraged roar, before stumbling down to the ground, its death throes knocking Aura Hunter off its back. She landed face first into the snow, and by the time she looked up, the Ursa was already fading away into black dust. She raised herself from the ground and retrieved her blades. However, when we sheathed them, the blades went straight through the make-shift scabbards, rendering them useless. Today was just not her day. She took the blades in each hand, then renewed her trek to mantle.
It had been a long day. Jaune was currently sitting on a couch, watching an old black & white movie, a blanket covering him. Most of the group were asleep, he and Wiess the only exceptions, though even Weiss seemed to be dozing off.
After Ruby had dragged him and Weiss back to the house, they had mutually decided to eat at home that day. Unfortunately, Ruby only knew how to bake cookies, and Weiss didn't know how to cook at all, so it was up to him to put something together. Luckily, they had some Vacuan diskbread and some cheese, so he was able to craft up some quesadillas. Apparently, Weiss had never had any, but she inhaled them fast enough, so he made a few more. Then a few more. Then some more. Ruby watched, dumbstruck, as Weiss proceed to consume 6 whole quesadillas. For someone so small, Weiss could eat a lot when she set her mind to it. An hour or so later, the rest of the group began to trickle in, with Ren and Nora being the last to arrive. He, Ren, and Blake had crafted up a Mistrali dish, a "Hot Pot", and the group had sat around the table, laughing, eating, and having a general good time.
After dinner, they had begun a movie marathon, watching everything to documentaries about the tribes of vacuo, to cheesy, mind-numbing action movies. As the night had dragged on, the other members of their group had checked out, going to their various bedrooms, until he and Weiss were the only ones left. After the other's had left, he and Weiss had discussed ad nauseum the finer points of film and storytelling. Eventually though, they had to just stop critiquing and just watch the movie.
A faint snore broke Jaune out of his recollection. He looked over to see Weiss with her eyes closed, snoring away. Jaune looked at the clock on the wall, 2:24 AM, he should probably get some sleep as well. Jaune got to his feet with a grunt, stretching a bit. He turned off the TV set and grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa. He carefully laid the blanket over Weiss's sleeping form, then walked back to his team's room.
Aura hunter hoped she was being stealthy. She was currently hiding in an alleyway in Mantle, the moon bright in the night sky. Occasionally a person would walk by quickly on their way to and from work, bundled up against the cold. They hadn't noticed her yet, but she couldn't help but feel exposed. She'd been moving from alleyway to alleyway, climbing up fire escapes and peering in windows to see if her father was inside. She'd had a few… awkward encounters to say the least, luckily, she was gone before anyone had realized she was there. She felt a bit bad for prying on these people. Was looking through windows wrong? She wasn't sure. She'd have to ask him.
Looking up at the next fire escape, she steeled herself. Once she made sure no one could see her, she ran and made a flying leap, grabbing onto the side of the escape and puling herself up and over. Darn, she'd bent the railing again. After mentally scolding herself, she looked in the window. Inside were 3 girls, a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette. This was not who she was looking for. She climbed up the stairs to the next room. This one had 4, a girl, a couple boys and… THERE HE WAS!
She let out a robotic approximation of a squeal and attempted to pry open the window. Luckily for her, it was unlocked, and it slid open without a sound. She crept inside and moved stealthily by the girl with the bright orange hair to his bed. She looked at him for a moment, admiring his features. This was him! The one who'd gave her life. She out one of her swords on the ground and nudged him with a finger. He mumbled something and turned over. She sighed and poked him again.
Jaune slowly awoke to a finger poking him in the back. There were only 2 people who would wake him up like that, Ruby, and Nora. Ruby was nice enough to not wake him up in the middle of the night unless it was an emergency, and if it was an emergency, she'd shake him awake, rather than poke. Therefore, it had to be Nora. Jaune sighed and rolled over to face the one poking him.
"Whaddya want Nor-AH!" he exclaimed, recoiling from the sight of a red and black machine standing over him, and sword in hand. He looked around frantically for anything to defend himself, before his search was cut short by the android swooping down on him. He raised his arms to block the blow, but to his surprise, he was suddenly pulled into a bonecruching hug by the android. He heard a mechanical squeal, followed by a light, mechanical voice telling him, "I finally found you!"
"Who- who are you!?" he asked, both scared and confused.
The machine pulled a way from him a bit, allowing him to at least look it in it's face.
"Why, I'm your daughter!"