Here we go
Cover Art: Serox
Chapter 38
Matthew Fields' lifeless eyes stared up at him, dark pits of black now that the pupils had expanded outward. Jaune stood before him, panting harshly for breath and holding onto his stomach with one hand. He could taste blood on his lips from the last punishing strike.
It did little to take his vicious smile away. Deep inside, a small part of him felt he shouldn't feel so happy, that he should have found himself here at the point of revenge and instead felt a great deal of nothing, that he should walk away unsatisfied, retire and live a simple life on a farm. That was how the movies always portrayed it.
The movies lied.
A heady rush of pleasure had his breath shuddering out as his eyes fluttered. Finally, finally, his father's killer was dead – and it felt glorious. He wanted to laugh, cry and cheer at the same time. He wanted to run over and hug Blake of all people, scream in pure ecstasy and then burn this place to the ground. Speaking of.
"You." He stared at the blonde, making her snap to attention. "Your Semblances creates fire, right?" He nodded down to Fields' corpse. "Burn it. Burn the body to ash."
"W-What? Why?"
"He's right," the Schnee rasped. "Matthew Fields is a genetic library of stolen Semblances. Even dead, he's valuable to whoever takes over."
Understanding dawned and the blonde's eyes hardened. She stepped forward and past Jaune without further complaint, eyes flickering to red as her hair glowed. Wisps of smoke coiled off her body and she knelt, touching both hands to Fields' unmoving chest.
Jaune tried his best not to be impressed. It was hard. He nodded anyway, standing behind her and watching the dead man's skin blacken and burn. The smell was horrid, enough even to dampen his glee. Jaune turned away despite wanting to watch it all, holding a hand over his mouth and nose as skin, muscle and bone burned down. It was not a quick process, nor was it an easy one. Minutes passed by as crackling and popping sounded, and Yang had her eyes scrunched shut, mouth drawn into a sickened grimace as she worked.
They couldn't let his body fall into the wrong hands. It would mean all this starting over again. Whatever secrets the body held had to go, but that didn't mean the work was done. Jaune moved past Yang and the smouldering corpse and behind the desk, stooping to rifle through the drawers.
"What are you doing?" Blake asked.
"Chivalric's research doesn't die with him." He yanked a drawer out and hefted it up and over the desk, scattering its contents over the surface before throwing the drawer away. It shattered on the tiled floor. "This whole place has to go."
"Ruby is still in here somewhere as well," Weiss said.
"Then we're still working together for a while. Neo?"
The mute girl strode up and brought out a small satchel she'd had tied behind her back and under her coat. Unzipping its contents, the numerous charges of high explosives within made Weiss and Blake gasp.
"You can't! Not while Ruby is still here!"
"Blowing up an upstairs office wouldn't bring the building down," he said, zipping it shut again. "We'll get your teammate out and set the charges along the way. Alright?"
"Give them to me," Blake said urgently.
"Don't trust me with them?"
"I don't trust you to care about Ruby. Let me plant and use them."
He didn't hand the bag over. "Are you sure you can? Not going to get cold feet halfway through and run away like a coward?"
Blake scowled, took the bag and yanked it out his hands, then threw it over her shoulder. Jaune shrugged and went back to rifling through Fields' documents.
Financial reports, a rental agreement for the building they were in and a few forms of one sort or another. Jaune ripped the last drawer out and emptied it of a stapler, ball point pens and a calculator before chucking that away angrily.
"You're looking for evidence." Blake said.
Angrily, Jaune picked up the corner of the desk and rocked it back, hurling it onto its back. A gun was strapped underneath, but that wasn't enough to make anyone raise an eyebrow for a military contractor.
"He's not going to keep incriminating documents in his desk."
"Why would we need them?" Yang asked. "The guy tried to kill us, kidnapped Ruby and admitted to stealing hundreds of Semblances over the years. Everyone here is going to get arrested."
"Don't be naïve!" Jaune spat.
"What? I'm not-"
"They did kill Jaune's father, did kidnap him and his family and did experiment on them," Blake cut in. "And no one cared, Yang. They're not going to change their tune just because it's us. In fact, we could be in serious trouble. We've killed an innocent man."
"Innocent!? Fuck off! He tried to kill us and harvest our bodies for Semblances!"
"That's not how they'll see it. Or spin it. Three huntresses working together with wanted criminal and terrorist to attack and slaughter their way through a registered business, then kill its owner in cold blood and burn the body. How do you think that'll look?"
Yang's mouth worked without words. She looked from Blake to Weiss, hoping for support, but Weiss only grimaced and remained silent. "S-Seriously? But we're- shit. W-We need proof then, don't we? We need proof he's doing shady shit to clear ourselves. And before Atlas gets here!"
"Atlas won't be coming," Jaune said.
Blake shot him a wary look. "How do you know that?"
Jaune shrugged in answer but nodded to the windows. If Atlas had been on its way, they could have surely made it by now. The cityscape outside was silent, however. Dark. Not even the police had responded yet despite their attack having started almost half an hour ago.
"I couldn't present any evidence even if I found it," he said instead of answering her question. "I'd be arrested or killed, and then they'd claim it was falsified anyway."
"We, on the other hand, can push it through Beacon. Is that why you brought us along?"
Among other reasons. He had needed them to help against Fields, though he hadn't known at the time how strong the guy would be. Ultimately, their main use was in giving a different point of view to Chivalric. No one would believe a serial killer, but a team of young girls training to be huntresses, one of which was a Schnee and the other a victim of said company's experimentation? Well, that was a sob story right there. People would eat that up.
"We'll take photos along the way." Weiss said. "We need to find Ruby anyway, and wherever she's being kept may as well serve as evidence. Fields mentioned other people in the building, too. Scientists. If we captured some of them, they could be interrogated by Beacon."
They'd be taken away by Atlas before that could happen. Who would trust children to interrogate suspected criminals? He didn't argue, though. It was his best shot, and it didn't matter too much if it worked or not. He was already a wanted criminal. It would be Team RWBY facing the consequences of his actions tonight, and he wasn't sympathetic enough to care if they suffered.
You said you were willing to pay any price to get your teammate back, he thought. Let's see if you're willing to pay the same prices I did.
"It's done." Yang stood up from the body. Even the bones had been burned down until all that remained was a pile of dusty grey ash that Neo scattered with a kick of one heeled boot. It fluttered in the air, all that remained of the one who had taken his family.
"Good. Let's go find your teammate."
/-/
The door to the operating studio burst open and a man on a silver wheelchair rushed in, his dark face wrought with fear and worry. Ruby was about to beg him to release her and hope he'd prove more friendly than Penny when the girl herself spoke.
"Father. Hello. What is wrong?"
"Penny!" he gasped. "We're leaving! Quickly, help me gather the research notes!"
"Uncle Fields told me to watch over Ruby here-"
"Uncle Fields is dead!" the man said harshly. Ruby's heart almost exploded out her chest. Dead? That man-? Uncle Qrow? Dad? Yang…? Did this mean she was being rescued?
"Dead?" Penny asked, shocked but not entirely hurt, Ruby noted. "He was here talking to me not long ago. How did he die? He did not appear to be suffering from any heart condition."
"Murdered. We're in danger, Penny, grave danger. We can't be found here!" The man's chair wheeled him over to the metal desk by Ruby's bed. He rummaged around in it, pulling out several folders and stuffing them under his arm. "If we can make it back to Atlas with some of the material, we'll be looked after. They'll shield us from investigation so long as we're useful. It'll be like we were never here."
"What about Subject-S?" Penny asked, gesturing to her.
The frightened man looked at her as though he'd only just noticed the girl tied to a bed in a white hospital gown, strapped down and covered in sweat and tearstains. He swallowed loudly, looking away with clear guilt in his eyes. For a moment, Ruby dared hope he might release her.
"S-She's a witness, Penny. She's seen our faces – my face. We can't leave her here. It… It would be best if she… if she died…"
Fresh tears appeared in Ruby's eyes, helpless and warm. Desperately, she looked to Penny. Her friend wouldn't kill her, would she-? Not like this, tied down to a bed and unable to protect herself. "P-Penny…?" she whispered. "Please. It's me, Ruby. We're friends. Please don't do this!"
"Subject-S claims we have met before, father. Is this true?"
"No." the man lied quickly. "You've never met her. Quickly, please, just… make it quick. We can… We can leave after. Return to Atlas. Stay there. Hide. There's no need for anyone to know what happened here."
Penny stared at her father for a long time. "Kill her? Kill Ruby?"
"Yes. Yes, just get it over with!"
Panic gripped her. Ruby closed her eyes. I don't want to die. I don't want to die!
"I cannot kill her, father."
Ruby's eyes snapped open.
"What!?" the man cried. "Why not!?"
"Uncle Fields gave me a direct order that I was not to allow harm to come to her. You, yourself, told me I cannot go against his orders. Therefore, I cannot kill Ruby, nor can I allow you to."
"W-Wha-? Fields is dead, Penny! He is dead!"
"Regardless, his commands persist."
"Right. Of course." The man wrung his hands together and looked nervously to the door. "Well we can't leave her here to tell everyone we were involved. Fine. Restrain and bring her with you. Perhaps Chivalric will be even more generous if we're able to bring them one of their test subjects."
"Yes father." Penny smiled, nodded and moved over to Ruby's side, unshackling her wrists but tying them together with wire she produced from her own body. "Do not struggle, friend Ruby. You are coming with us."
Friend...?
/-/
"News from Atlas, Winter?"
"Several calls," the Specialise replied. "I instructed them all that you were busy with handling the security for the Vytal Festival and that, as ordered, you were turning a blind eye to anything done by Chivalric Arms. They were not best pleased, sir."
"I expect not. Look at this." Turning, James indicated a display screen that brought up several monitors each looking out over Vale and with a targeting reticule.
"Are these our targeting computers?"
"Displays attached to them, yes. They are affixed to our main canons."
"What is the point of-?" Winter gasped suddenly. As one, the screens began to move, each zeroing in on a specific part of the city. "Sir! The cannons are targeting the city! You can't mean to-"
"I have ordered no such bombardment. Curious that they are moving independently and aimed at where I believe Chivalric Arms' Vale HQ is currently based." James tapped on his intercom. "Override and shut down our weapons systems. That is an immediate order."
"We can't, sir!" a panicked voice replied. "They're not responding! Our systems have been hacked!"
"Looks like they are trying to destroy the evidence," James remarked.
"No!" Winter cried. "If we fire on the city then-"
The Vanguard shook as all forty-eight of its canons fired in unison. The recoil rocked the entire battleship, which was designed to fire in concert. Ironwood gripped his chair as they listed to the side, Winter catching herself on the doorframe and holding on for dear life. Luckily, the battleship's systems and skilled crew were quick to compensate, activating thrusters and pulling them away, righting the course over the city without sending them crashing down.
"The damage!" Winter gasped, struggling to her feet and staring at the screens. "How many casualties…?"
The monitors showed Vale in its pristine condition, and the block the canons had been aiming at looked remarkably whole for a payload that should have devastated the area, destroying all houses within a radius of five-hundred metres or more.
"How?" she asked.
James touched the intercom again. "Clover. Report."
"Clover here. All weapons systems associated with automatic targeting and control were unloaded six hours ago, as per your orders. We were able to keep it to a select crew of trusted individuals. You were right, sir. They wanted to frame you for the attack and remove you."
"Of course they do. One can only go against the established order so many times without consequence." He chuckled at the stunned expression on Winter's face. "Look into the hack, Clover, and do not allow the weapons to be armed again. I will report on the misfire myself and explain that our quick thinking safety protocols helped prevent a disaster." James cracked a nasty smile. "I'm sure they will be relieved to hear it."
"Shall I send a team down there?" Winter asked. "I can lead it myself and see what they are trying to hide."
"No need." James checked his watch. "I wouldn't want to give the Council any more ammunition, either. If all goes well, we should have answers within a few hours anyway."
/-/
Yang fixed Ember Celica on a man in a white doctor's uniform and watched him back slowly into the corner with his hands held up before him. Though he retreated from her, his wide eyes were locked on Jaune Arc, Null, the known killer who was busy looking over a whiteboard behind her.
Blake and Weiss were busy looking through the small lab which didn't contain any living specimens but did have plenty of mathematical equations jotted down on the boards.
"My sister," Yang explained as calmly as she could. "Ruby Rose. Short, dark hair, silver eyes. Where is she?"
"S-Subject-S?"
"She has a name!" Her fist knuckled under the man's chin, promising to blow his head off if he dared call Ruby that hated term again. Though she'd meant it to intimidate, she could visualise the image of his head exploding into gore and she wanted to pull her hand back.
The thought was nauseating, especially now that she'd actually taken a life. If it wasn't for Ruby needing her, she might have given up already and thrown up in a corner. Ruby did need her, though, and nothing was going to stop her saving her sister.
"Her name is Ruby. It's not Subject and I'll break every bone in your body if you say it again. Where. Is. She?"
"I-I don't know. I promise. I'm just a junior doctor. I run errands. I do backup research. I don't know where any of the test- where any of the people are kept!"
"Is she on site?"
"Yes! Yes, she's in the building. That much I know."
"What does all this on the wall mean?" she demanded, pointing to what Blake and Weiss were trying to look over.
"It's a chemical compound-"
"For what? What does it do?"
"It's a healing compound. Or it's meant to be." He shrivelled up when she angled the barrels of Ember Celica with his eyes. "I promise it is! We were trying to synthesize a person's healing Semblance into a gel we could give out to Atlas soldiers. It didn't work, though. Without the aura powering the Semblance it's just dead genetic material."
Weiss shrugged and Yang sighed, pulling her fist back only to drive it into the man's stomach. He buckled over her, heaving and passing out. Yang caught and slid him down into the corner, propping him up so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. It was a better fate than what Null had given the last guy to talk back to him.
Would I feel any more forgiving if they'd experimented on Ruby for months?
It bothered her that she wasn't sure. Jaune Arc was possibly the natural progression of what she could have become if it were her and Ruby in his spot. She'd already killed one person to prove she was prepared to do anything to save her, and that was only with Ruby gone for a day. Null lost most of his family, then had his parents killed. One of them by her and Penny.
"This is a bust." Blake said.
"We'll take the details about the Semblance." Weiss drew them out and stuffed them into a hidden pocket on her skirt. "I'm not sure it's illegal to experiment with a dead person's Semblance but if that person went missing or died mysteriously, we might have something."
"Might. This isn't helping us build a case…"
"We'll have a case once we find Ruby," Yang said. "Kidnapping is a crime."
"Set a charge here anyway," Jaune said.
"Not while an innocent is unconscious in the room!" Blake argued.
"Innocent? He's a researcher for Chivalric!"
"Junior. He wasn't even working on anything bad-"
"That you know of. That he said! He could have been slitting little children's throats in his spare time for all you know."
"Or he could have been saving them for all you know. You're acting as bad as Adam, Jaune."
"At least Adam knows what loyalty means!"
"Enough!" Yang took Blake by her shoulders and shook her. "Calm down. The charges won't go off until you set them, so we'll just make sure everyone is out by then. We'll tell someone in the next room to take this guy out. Let's check the next lab," she said to Jaune.
He nodded after a moment's hesitation, letting her take the lead. Once they were away from Blake, he said, "She doesn't have the spine. When the time comes, she won't blow this place up."
"That's my partner you're talking about…"
"And she was Adam's once. It didn't stop her turning on him when things got too complicated."
"I know about her past. She's told me-"
"That Adam and the White Fang changed? That we became violent?" He shook his head, laughing harshly. "Don't be naïve. Do you really think the White Fang suddenly up and changed like that? Blake left not even a week before Beacon started. The White Fang were a terrorist group for years before that. You know that, right?"
Of course I do. The White Fang had been around for ages and she'd done her research once Blake came clean. People tended to think she was an idiot because of how reckless she could be, but it wasn't like she wouldn't do a few quick searches online to help sort the trust issues between two of her teammates. Weiss had a right to hate the White Fang, just as Blake had a right to feel the Schnee family contributed to its rise.
The timeframes had bothered her, though, even if she never admitted it. Blake had left just before Beacon by her own admission, and it wasn't like the White Fang had been a charity group before then.
"Blake knew what the White Fang were," Jaune said. "She knew how violent they were, what lengths they'd go to, and just how much blood would be shed. Blake knew and she accepted it. Agreed with it. The White Fang didn't change. Adam and I didn't change. Blake did."
"Is that so wrong?" she asked. "People can change…"
"Sure. And if she came to us, expressed her worries and said she wanted out, then I think Adam would have been prepared to offer her a way out. No one wants someone on their side whose heart isn't in the fight. The problem is that she didn't. Not once. Time and time again she let us think we could trust her, then backstabbed us at our weakest moment. Stranded me in Vale and nearly fucked me over."
"I don't think she wanted to hurt you…"
"I don't care. It's the hypocrisy that gets me. If Adam and the White Fang had changed then I'd have accepted it, but they didn't. They were the same when we parted as when I first met them. Blake is the one that changed, and she blames it on me, Adam and the White Fang because it's easier to blame us than admit she made the wrong choice supporting them for years."
That… Yang wanted to argue Blake wasn't like that, but she didn't know enough to say it. For all that her partner was a friend she'd risk her life for, she was aware they'd only known one another for a couple of months. It made sense Blake would feel guilty about what she'd done in the past, she thought all of the team had come to accept that. People made mistakes. It was learning from them that defined you, or so dad had always said.
Blake had learned, she was sure, but there was no denying she always talked about the White Fang like they'd once been better, like they'd been led astray and only she had seen the writing on the wall. That's not true though, is it? The White Fang took and executed prisoners years ago and Blake was still a member then.
It was easier to blame others than accept it yourself. Easier to say everyone else had changed, rather than admit she'd been a terrible person turning a blind eye to the awful things happening for so long. Yang closed her eyes, releasing a long breath.
"Blake is still my partner. Still my friend. People make mistakes…"
"They do." Null agreed. "Just don't expect me to forgive her. Next lab," he said, pushing the doors open. A soldier turned with a gun but died with a hole blown through his chest. The three scientists scattered, two dropping to the floor in fear as the third held up a clipboard defensively.
Yang wasn't sure if she should be upset that the cold blooded murder didn't upset her. At least she could take some small relief in finding it sad. Still, the guy had been ready to kill them.
"You two go back the way we came," she ordered the cowering scientists. "You'll find one of your own unconscious in the last lab with two huntresses. Tell them I sent you, carry your colleague out and escape. You won't be harmed."
Wisdom of following the advice of someone so young aside, the two couldn't have scrambled fast enough to comply.
The woman was left behind, looking visibly ill behind her clipboard and no doubt feeling very vulnerable since she'd been singled out and not allowed to leave. Really, it was just because she had grey hair and looked older. Yang assumed that meant she was more official or something.
"I-I can help you," she said.
"Good." Null lowered his gun. "Start by explaining what this is."
"This-?" she looked to the nearest wall. "It's not something I wanted to work on, I swear. We don't get a choice around here. Once you're in, you're too deep to back out. Most of us were just looking for work and thought Chivalric Arms was interested in coding or chemical polymers-" The gun came back up and the woman flinched and quickly jumped to the point. "It's a sterilisation agent!"
Yang scowled. "For cleaning? I thought this was an arms company, not a kitchen appliances firm." The woman looked visibly ill and Yang's stomach dropped. "It's not for kitchens, is it?"
"It's… oh, to hell with it! I hate it and I hate this place! It's a forced sterilisation drug. It attacks the reproductive systems and forcefully sterilises the host, preventing them from every being able to have children. I can't stand it!" she babbled, waving her clipboard about. "I studied for years in the hopes I'd be able to cure cancer or develop a wonder cure, not something like this!"
"You made this?"
"No. Not even. It was synthesized in Atlas. I was just tasked with making more here. Enough to…" Her eyes closed miserably. "Enough to account for all of Vale during the Vytal Festival."
"What!?" Blake, Weiss and Neo couldn't have arrived at a better time.
"Tell them." Yang demanded.
Defeated, the woman sat in one of the seats, hunched her shoulders and started to talk. "It's orders from above – from Mr Fields and the Board of Directors. At first, I wasn't sure what we were even dealing with. I was told that I was to synthesize more of it and that it would be disseminated into the water supply of Vale. I was nervous, of course, but we were assured that everyone would be drinking it, including ourselves, Mr Fields and the representatives from Atlas, so it couldn't have been a poison."
"Our first clue something was wrong was when we were mass producing it. The chemical structure wasn't difficult to piece together as a sterilisation agent; it includes several well-known contraceptive compounds, though in a dose you wouldn't find in temporary measures. They were inert, though. Clearly inert. As far as we could tell, it was safe to drink. I even tested it on rats and then tried some myself when there were no side-effects. My blood tests came back clean."
"Then what's the point of it? Population control? I know Vale had an issue with overpopulation that led to the Mountain Glenn disaster, but isn't its population lower since then?"
"It can't be that." Weiss argued. "Even assuming the Council of Vale would be so cartoonishly evil as to forcefully sterilise its population, they wouldn't do it during an international festival. The backlash aside, you're wasting money making so much when you only want to affect your people."
"Exactly," the woman said. "It's not for Vale. It's not for most people in fact." Her eyes lingered on Blake. No, not on her, but on her ears. Her bow had come off during the fight with Fields, exposing her faunus features.
Yang felt sick. "It's for faunus."
Blake rounded on her. "What!?"
"It's true," the scientist wept. "This… This thing is designed to trigger when it is ingested by a faunus. There's difference enough in genealogy that the detecting compound triggers and releases enzymes, activating the sterilising agent and completely destroying the host's reproductive ability. Invisibly, too. You would never know, and the compound would pass through your urine before long. It wouldn't affect humans at all."
Release it during the Vytal Festival, though, and you could spread the agent across most of Remnant. It wouldn't affect every faunus in the world obviously, but it would impact the population all the same. At least by a quarter since Vale's faunus population would die out, then they could repeat the same steps at the next Vytal Festival, tackling the Kingdoms one by one, tagging along with Atlas to each event until all the Kingdoms had been contaminated.
"Why?" Blake asked painfully. "Why target us?"
"I don't know. We hire faunus. No one has ever cared about them before. We weren't even told what this was, the only reason we know is because we all got curious and dug into it. When I raised it with my supervisor, I was told to stay quiet and get on with my work."
"Would you be prepared to testify that?" Weiss asked.
"In court? Ha." The woman sagged. "You're stupid if you think it'll get that far. Or that I will. My name and character will be ripped apart and I'll have committed suicide `out of shame` before the trial. You can't beat Chivalric Arms. You're fighting Atlas."
"Would you be willing to try?"
"Why bother? It's not… hah. Fine…" The scientist smiled ruefully. "I'm dead either way for telling you this. If you think you can get me there safely, I'll talk. You'll need to move quickly, though. They're already moving to contaminate the water supply."
"I guess that's our evidence," Yang said. "We'll take some of these papers as well in case anything happens. If we can get her to Beacon and not let any police take her, I bet we can force someone to act."
The look on Null's face said he thought she was being naïve again, but Weiss and Blake nodded. If you didn't have faith in anything, you'd never make it work. It might be hard, but they'd get it done. Yang had faith someone would act in their favour, even if it was just Uncle Qrow and her father. With Ruby's story on top, they'd surely have enough.
"Ruby! We need to find her."
"Where would the live subjects be kept?" Blake demanded of the woman, glaring hatefully at her.
"In the operating theatre, I imagine. They might have tried to move her by now, though. People are running left, right and centre. I can access the specimen cameras…?"
Yang's fists clenched at the word `specimen` but she nodded all the same. The woman scooted her chair over to a nearby computer and quickly logged in, Team RWBY crowding behind to lean over her shoulders.
"We only have access to the cameras for research purposes, but each testing lab can be monitored remotely in case we need to check on the subject." She flicked through a few rooms, each a sterile white colour with a bed in the centre. They were all empty, though one had a bloodstain on the floor that made Yang's stomach flip.
Thankfully, it wasn't Ruby. They caught her on the next camera, dressed in a white gown and being pulled up over the shoulder of a familiar orange-haired girl who Yang could have swore died at the docks. Penny turned with Ruby slung over her shoulder, bound by her ankles and wrists, and followed a dark-skinned man in a wheelchair out the door.
"Where is that!?" Yang snapped. "Who is that?"
"Pietro Polendina. He's new, I think, but he's already a head researcher. As for where, it's Operating Room 6. That's on the other side of the facility-"
Weiss gripped Yang's shoulder when she made to run and asked another question. "What are the evacuation protocols?" she asked the scientist. "Where will he be going with her?"
"Evac is normally straight to the hangars but there aren't any here. I guess it'll be upstairs and out the front entrance. There's emergency elevators dotted around the place. I-I could show you to the nearest one…?"
"Do it."
"Blake." Null said. "Give me the charges. This place goes, too."
"If there is evidence here-"
"There's evidence alright!" he snapped. "Evidence on how to make a compound to wipe faunus off the face of Remnant. Do you want people getting hold of that?"
Without a word, Blake tossed him the bag. Jaune Arc opened it and threw a charge to Neo, trusting her to take one wall while he did another. With the previous scientists out and the testing labs empty of victims, the building would be as empty as they could make it. Once they escaped, that was. Then they'd just need to save Ruby.
And explain to everyone why we helped a wanted terrorist bomb a building and kill half the people inside. Yang swallowed her fear and firmed herself. The only thing that mattered was her sister. Anyone else who got in the way would suffer the consequences.
We're nearing the end of this story now. I don't know for certain, but I think it'll have between 45-50 chapters. A little more than I initially anticipated, but only because my plan basically had "raid of Chivalric Arms" as one point, and I didn't bother thinking that single bullet point might be more than one chapter, lol.
Next Chapter: 16th November
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur