This week was a little less busy, fortunately. I helped my dad move some things on Monday, but aside from that, it's been a typical week. I got time off this weekend, so I'm hoping to get another chapter of Last Sage done. I will likely get a raise soon, just have to pass a skill assessment. I already know I passed the written assessment, and if I can pass either the verbal or the hands-on, all I'd have to do is retest the one I fail, and I get my raise. If I fail both, well, it's back to square one.
Chapter Fourteen: The Stray
Beta: HybridAlabaster
Cardin had spent the entire day dreading the trickle of rumors through the school. He kept his ear to the ground, catching stray whispers from groups at lunch, peering at Scrolls as students texted each other. He had his teammates keeping tabs on JNPR and RWBY, watching who they talked with and when. Weiss wouldn't say a word, and he doubted Ren would either. Blake would keep her mouth shut if she knew what was good for her, but he had Russell watching her just in case. Ruby would likely tell a teacher, Yang might if she was in a vindictive mood, and Nora would tell everyone in a five mile radius.
Except, they didn't.
Days passed, and not a single word of his learning difficulties made it out of that study group. Initially, he had chalked it up to them not knowing what to make of his performance, but Blake had dashed that hypothesis in their most recent reading session.
Blake and Jaune had a second date, Pyrrha descended further into depression, Nora had taken to following him whenever possible and polishing her hammer with a menacing smile, Ren kept her distracted with an endless supply of pancakes from the school's kitchens, Weiss met up with him on the rooftop again, she kept arguing with Yang, and Blake kept reading for him and teaching him how to dodge.
After a week, Cardin felt his hackles relax. He had called a stop to the constant surveillance of the study buddies, though he had his teammates continue the weekly sessions, and he shifted his attention to the Vytal Festival. Students from the four Kingdoms trickled in by boat and Bullhead. He and Sky gathered every scrap of paperwork that could be bribed and cajoled out of customs officials and Hunter regulators. Piles of data gathered on Sky's Scroll for each team, from the weapons on their backs to the tactics they employed. School records, expenditures, medical history, each was another weapon in his arsenal.
As he pored over team BRNZ's recorded matches, a knock came at the door. With a single tap on his Scroll, the data disappeared behind encryption and firewalls.
Weiss glanced past him at the empty dorm room and fixed him with a scowl. Without a word, she pushed past him, closed the door, and rounded on him.
"Did you know?" she asked. "About Blake?"
"Know what?" Cardin felt the floor tilt beneath him.
Weiss took a deep breath and stared up at him. Her eyebrows rose and fell, and her jaw worked silently as she tried to figure out what to say next.
"Never mind that." She sat on Sky's bed, straight as a bar of iron, and clenched her fists over her knees. "I just – I learned something, something about Blake I don't entirely like. I thought, well, you must have known."
"Supposing I did know something," Cardin said slowly, "I would not be at liberty to say."
It was as good as admitting he knew, but there was no point in denying it now.
"And supposing that you did know something really bad, something illegal, you would do nothing about it? You wouldn't tell Ozpin, or the police?"
"Ozpin would already know," Cardin said. He hid a smile as her eyes widened. "Someone would have had to fake her records."
"So you do know."
"Know what?"
Weiss scowled and threw her arms up at him. "How long?"
"Months."
"Months," Weiss repeated. "You kept this from everyone for months."
"Kept what?"
Weiss stood and stalked over to him. She grabbed him by the collar and yanked, but Cardin remained seated on the bed. "I had a Faunus for a teammate for months and never knew. I thought I could trust her. I thought I knew her. Then we get in an argument over some stupid Faunus we ran into and I find out she was a member of the White Fang, she ran off, and now she's gone."
"She's a member of the White Fang?" Cardin asked.
"You're impossible right now, you know that? Ugh, fine, I don't know why I bothered."
Weiss slammed the door when she left. He peered through the peephole on the door before letting out a string of expletives. As he fumed over Blake's disappearance, he crushed his pillow in his hands.
After taking a deep breath, he took out his Scroll. He spent ten minutes crafting a text, typing and deleting message after message, trying to cram as much subtext as possible into a single sentence. Once he had his masterpiece, he read it to himself, word by word, letting it tumble over his tongue, before sending it.
Blake never showed up that night.
The next afternoon, he kept an eye on Team RWBY. Blake was nowhere to be found. When Weiss went off to study at the library alone while Yang and Ruby went out into town, he followed Weiss and tapped her on the shoulder.
"What happened to Blake?" he asked.
"She ran away," Weiss said. "She left yesterday and hadn't come back. Yang and Ruby went to look for her, but I have better things to do."
"Any idea where she went?"
Weiss frowned. "No, we don't know. I don't think she could have left Vale so soon, but that's about it."
Cardin shrugged, but every muscle in his body tensed up. He felt himself sweat, but he resisted the urge to wipe it away. "Guess you'll be needing a new team member soon."
"Yeah." She scowled and said, "I hope the next one isn't hiding a set of ears."
"Blake's a Faunus?"
Weiss gave an exasperated sigh and stomped off into the library. Cardin's smile evaporated, replaced by a worried grimace as he ran off to a wooded corner of Beacon's grounds. He called Blake. It went to voicemail. He tried twice more before she picked up.
"It's over," Blake said. "I'm not coming back."
"Weiss didn't hear it from me," Cardin said.
"No, no she didn't," Blake agreed. "I slipped up. And now I'm gone."
"Leave now, and I'll have the police hot on your trail. Come back, and I can see about smoothing things over with Weiss." He brought his voice to a harsh whisper that he knew would rasp on the other end. "Don't forget that I'm still in need of a reading partner."
The silence at the other end was broken by the deep, hollow sound of a freighter's horn. Once it echoed into silence, Blake said, "Listening to you was a mistake I won't make again. I don't care anymore. I'm going to prove the White Fang aren't behind the Dust robberies, and then I'm going home. Go find someone else."
The line went dead. Another try went straight to her voicemail. He slumped back against a tree and stared down at his Scroll. Her words rolled around his mind, and the ship's horn blared as background noise. In a sudden moment of inspiration, it all clicked into place. The Schnee freighter coming into docks this evening would make a juicy target for the White Fang.
His first instinct was to tell Yang, but he didn't have her number, and she could be anywhere in Vale. What would he even say if he did? If he expressed too much interest in Blake, Yang might put the pieces together, and an angry Yang was the last thing he needed. He could try contacting the authorities, saying he got some insider advice or the like, but using political connections would draw too much attention. Using Ren? Too obvious. Talking with Weiss? Too risky.
In the end, all that was left was to go himself.
He looked down at his uniform, wondering what the odds were that he'd have to fight Blake and whether it would even be worth wearing armor. In the end, he strapped it on. As he packed his mace and some Fire Dust, he called Russell.
"I'm going out to that Schnee freighter pulling in. I want to see if they have any Gravity Dust they're willing to part with. Want to meet me at the docks?"
"Can't," Russell said. "I'm with my mom."
Cardin grinned. "Is she doing alright?"
"Just got done with another round of chemo. It's getting better, but she's not clear yet."
"Want anything while I'm there?"
"Some Lightning Dust. I'm running low." After a pause, Russell said, "Why don't you see if Sky can go? You shouldn't be wandering around alone."
"Sky went back to his parents', remember?"
"And Dove went to his dad's place," Russell said. There was a long pause on the other end. "Be careful."
"I got my armor and I'm bringing my mace," Cardin said. He pressed the button, and the chain unfurled with a soft whirring noise. "Nice job cleaning it, by the way."
"Yeah, should be fine. Let me know if the chain feels a bit sticky, there might be a bit of that crud left."
Cardin ran a finger along the metal links. They felt smooth and cold. "Nope, it's perfect."
"Great. Don't get into any trouble." A clatter came from the other end. "Oops, gotta go."
Cardin strolled out of Beacon Academy, got a lift on one of the Bullheads stationed at the school's entrance, and wound his way through the city. Day to day life flowed around him, people heading home from work, or going out for dinner, chatting with friends. He walked against the grain of human traffic, bumping shoulders and tripping over feet. He got a few scowls and curses, but they all started away when they saw the armor. The crowd thinned as he got closer to the docks, replaced by a leaner, quieter sort. The sky turned orange as the sun dipped below the rooftops, and amber light danced off the storefront windows.
He rounded a corner and found Ruby walking towards him, about twenty feet away. Next to her was a girl he had never seen before, a girl with a rigid posture, tight orange curls, and a gray skirt. He started towards them, hoping to bring Ruby with him to the docks, but Ruby pulled her companion by the arm and started in the other direction.
"I'm sure she's this way," he heard Ruby say as they rounded a corner.
With a shrug, Cardin went the other way, towards the docks. He went past the passenger docks, which housed the ferries and cruise liners, without a glance, and made for the freight docks further south along the river. A canal had been carved to handle the influx of traffic from the sea, and ships floated side by side in the water as they waited their turn at the unloading stations. There, giant cranes grabbed crates off the ships and loaded them onto the backs of flatbed trucks.
He could see the Schnee liner pulling into an unloading station towards the back end of the docks, well away from the thin trickle of pedestrian traffic in this part of the city. He strolled along an alleyway, watching workers in Atlesian uniforms haul crates and operate machinery. There were no guards.
He watched the rooftops for any sign of Blake or the White Fang, but as the sky darkened and the workers left the site, he saw neither of them.
Cardin glanced at the time on his Scroll. Another hour, and he'd have to rush back to Beacon before curfew. Not to mention, he'd have to stop at a Dust shop first. He checked his wallet and leafed through wads of lien. Dust prices were rising, but he could say they only had the basic elements on the freighter.
Just as he was about to turn around and seek out a Dust shop that hadn't given Torchwick the five-finger discount on their entire inventory, he heard the whining of Bullheads. Three transport Bullheads swooped in from over the canal and hovered over the Schnee freighter. Faunus wearing Grimm masks dropped down from open doors, trailing cables, fastened them to crates of Dust, and hauled them up. One Bullhead touched down, and Roman Torchwick strolled out, smoking a cigar and swinging his cane.
A hook fell off one of the crates, and it dangled sideways in the air. Torchwick struck the responsible Faunus with his cane. "Are you trying to blow us to the fucking moon?" The White Fang member muttered something and reattached the cable while Torchwick stomped off.
Cardin nervously licked his lips and hid behind a dumpster. His brain raced through a list of options – calling the police, contacting his father, creeping away through the alleys. Before he could make up his mind, Blake dropped down out of thin air, right behind Torchwick, and placed her blade at his neck. She tore off her ribbon and asked the White Fang why they were working with a human criminal, but Torchwick laughed it off. Cardin watched, urging her on, hoping she'd have the spine to slit his throat. She didn't. Her grip faltered, and Torchwick took advantage of the hesitation to shoot the ground and escape in the cloud of rubble.
White Fang members crowded around Blake, swinging at her with knives and clubs, but she wove through the attacks. Her strikes disarmed, but did no lasting damage, and any that lost their weapons simply used their fists.
Blake was cornered by two Dust trailers and a crowd of thugs. Just as she was about to be beaten down by sheer numbers, another Faunus, this one a blonde in a white coat with a monkey's tail, dropped from a lamppost and swung his staff in a circle, toppling half the attackers. Blake took advantage of the opening to sprint past him and swing at Torchwick. He blocked her with a lazy swipe from his cane.
"Aww, does the kitty cat want to play?" he said with a cocky smile. "Why don't we figure out how many lives you have?"
Blake leapt and darted at him, blades flashing as they struck at Torchwick, but he kept her back with the longer range of his club. He danced on his feet, whirling and sidestepping, letting Blake close in before jamming the butt of his cane at her face. She fell back as a copy took the hit, but Torchwick followed through with a swipe that caught her in the side of the face. With a cry, Blake fell against a crate. Torchwick aimed his weapon at her and fired, but Blake sprang up and over the crate, taking cover behind it. The round pinged off the crate's metal surface, leaving a sizable dent.
"You sure you want to hide there?" Torchwick asked with his cane ready for another shot. "One more might set off the Dust."
He waited, but she didn't move. With a growl, Torchwick circled around the crate with his cane leveled at it. He paused and blinked when he had completed a full circle without seeing her.
Blake came at him from behind. As her blades jabbed at his back, Torchwick spun and hooked one of her arms with his cane. He brought the arm up and over her shoulder, twisting her around at a painful angle. Gambol Shroud fell from her fingers, and she hissed as he spun her around to face him.
"Ooh, looks like someone's been a naughty kitty. No one was supposed to die tonight, but for you, I can make an exception."
"You leave her alone!"
Blake's friend roared and charged at Torchwick. His staff broke apart into a pair of nunchucks, and as they whirled, shotgun blasts fired from both ends. Torchwick flung Blake away and brought his cane up, forcing the first shots over his head.
"Hey, watch the hat, that's worth more than you are."
"Sounds like someone got robbed at the clothing store," the Faunus said with a smirk.
"Yeah, and it wasn't me kid."
Torchwick and the Faunus spun around each other, frantically attacking and parrying. Rubbing her shoulder, Blake recovered her weapon and charged into the battle. Just as she was about to stab one of his legs, Torchwick caught her neck with his cane, spun around her, and pushed her into the other Faunus. As they fell together, the nunchuck-staff got tangled with Gambol Shroud. Both weapons fell in a useless heap on Blake and her companion.
The White Fang grunts gathered in a circle, weapons raised. Torchwick regarded them with a disdainful sneer as he poked Blake with his cane.
"What does a master criminal have to do to get some decent henchmen around here? First, Junior's thugs get beaten up by a little girl, then you lot get tossed around by these idiots." Torchwick took off his hat and inspected it. Cardin couldn't see anything wrong from his distance, but Torchwick had a better view.
"You see this?" Torchwick asked, poking his finger through a hole in his hat. "Now I have to steal another one. I was thinking about tying you up and leaving you here, but I have a much better idea." He turned to one of the Faunus. "Hey, Steve!"
"My name's Mark, actually."
"Don't care. Do you have some masks that you could share with these two?"
"Why? They're not members."
Torchwick covered his face in disgust. "If we just leave two corpses here, it's going to look like they tried to stop us and we killed them. If they're wearing white masks, however, they were terrorists that got iced by their own kind. Capisce?"
"We don't have any extra."
"Then give them your own!"
"But what if someone sees our faces?"
Torchwick swung his cane and caught the Faunus in the gut. He toppled to the ground, wheezed, and curled up in a fetal position.
"You, Steve," he said pointing at another Faunus. "Take his mask and yours. Slap them on the kids, slit their throats, and get in the Bullhead. We're behind schedule as is, so get a move on."
Steve took the masks and tied one over Blake's face. Cardin sweated and clutched his mace as he watched everything unfold from the alley. He was trying to calculate whether he would have a better chance surviving a fight with Torchwick or failing to get rid of Pyrrha, but his brain was stuck. A dull ache throbbed between his eyes, and his legs burned with the urge to run.
Once Steve finished fastening the other mask, the Faunus drew his knife. He knelt next to Blake, pressed the knife against her throat, and muttered something that Cardin couldn't hear.
Before he knew what was happening, Cardin had the entire dumpster raised over his head. His arms tingled like beehives, and he felt his chest tighten as Aura rushed out of him. With a heave, the dumpster went flying dozens of feet into the air. Steve looked up, saw the dumpster falling towards him, and scrambled out of the way. The dumpster fell ten feet short and bounced to a stop at Blake's feet. Rotting broccoli stir-fry and egg-fried rice spilled over the two captives.
Torchwick and his two-dozen White Fang all looked at where the dumpster had come from. With a deep breath, Cardin strolled out of the alley, swinging his mace in imitation of Torchwick's carefree style.
"Cardin?" Blake asked as she wiped teriyaki sauce out of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
Torchwick looked back and forth between them. "Great, another one? How many stupid teenagers are there in the city?" He nodded to the nearest White Fang thugs and said, "Get him."
Four Faunus sprinted towards him. His mace caved in the skull of the first one, and the second got a smashed ribcage. The other two hesitated, staring nervously at their dead comrades. Cardin ran forward and swung at a jaw. Blood spilled from the Faunus' mouth, and two teeth flew onto the pavement. The fourth backed away. Cardin stalked after him, parried a frantic knife thrust, and head-butted him, cracking the mask. His mace slammed into the Faunus' shoulder. Bone snapped. He howled as he slumped against a crate.
Torchwick took out another cigar, snapped open his lighter, and puffed until he got a flame going. None of the other White Fang grunts moved.
"Gotta say, kid, I like your style." He blew out a puff of smoke and flicked some ashes towards Blake. "You're not with those two, are you?"
"I'm just here for the cat," Cardin said. The White Fang members bristled, but Torchwick smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me walk away with her, and you can get on with stealing all this Dust."
"And the monkey?"
Cardin shrugged. "Do whatever you want with him, I don't care."
"Hey!" the monkey Faunus yelled. "I'm right here you know."
Torchwick tapped his cane on the ground. "Tempting. What happens if I say no?" He pointed the cane at Cardin, and a scope sprang up at the end. "Do you think you can win against me?"
"No, but I can hold out for five minutes." Cardin took out his Scroll and held it up for Torchwick. "Just long enough for the police to get here."
Torchwick snorted. "I paid off the phone operator. They'll just blow you off."
"Then it's a good thing I have the commissioner's phone number."
The cigar hung limply at Torchwick's lips as he stared at Cardin. "What is your name?"
Cardin had the sudden sense that he had just stepped into the middle of a busy street. Any step he could take might get him flattened under a set of wheels. But before he could say anything, Torchwick's eyes widened, and he gave Cardin a huge grin.
"The kitty said your name. Cardin, wasn't it? Cardin Winchester." He turned towards the White Fang around him. "Hey, listen up. We just hit the jackpot. Tie up those two and load up some more Dust. I'll deal with him."
Cardin's fingers flew on his Scroll, but Torchwick shot it out of his hands. It broke into pieces as it clattered across the pavement.
"Should've had him on speed dial," Torchwick said. "Now what?"
Cardin looked around him. The jumble of crates and shipping equipment left by the White Fang gave him no room to use his chain. Instead, he ran behind a crate and cracked it open with his mace. Torchwick cursed and ran after him, but Cardin had enough time to scoop a handful of yellow powder into the Dust capsule in his mace. The weapon quivered in his grip. He gave it an experimental swing as Torchwick closed the gap between them, and the head rocketed towards Torchwick's chest. He blocked it with his cane, but the blow passed through his guard and gouged out a chunk of his aura.
Cardin kept Torchwick on the back foot with swipe after swipe, his mace moving too fast for his eyes to track, but his swings went wide, the mace pulled him into awkward positions. His feet scrambled to keep up.
Torchwick smashed an empty wooden crate and scattered the planks across the ground. Cardin stumbled over the wooden obstacles and fell forward. The thief swung at his shoulders, but Cardin flung his mace at the ground. Concrete cracked, and Cardin was flung back by the recoil of the blow. The cane whistled through the air an inch from his nose.
The mace died in his hands, growing cold and heavy as it consumed the last of the Lightning Dust. He fumbled for the Fire Dust in his pocket, but Torchwick pressed close, hammering him with blow after blow. His armor blocked most of it, but he felt his Aura slipping away piece by piece. Gritting his teeth, he activated his Semblance. The mace felt light as a feather in his hands, but even with the added speed behind his blows, Torchwick parried them and pressed closer into his guard. The master thief barraged him with the butt of the cane, his feet, his fists. He spat out the cigar and jabbed it at Cardin's eyes.
Cardin's back hit a shipping crate. Torchwick's cane struck at him from every angle. The few Cardin dodged left dents in the metal behind him, and the rest carved his Aura like dried wood. By the time Cardin slipped back into open ground, he was panting hard and out of Aura. One knee stung, and that leg refused to straighten.
"Just give it up already," Torchwick drawled as he gestured with his cane. He glanced down at his watch. "Well, looks like it was about eight minutes. Guess you were right." The cigar fell to the ground, and Torchwick crushed it with the end of his cane. "Too bad you didn't make that phone call."
Cardin stifled a groan as he took a deep breath. His chest and arms felt as though he let the agility machine toss him around all day, and his legs burned with the effort to keep him on his feet. His chuckle came out hoarse and dry, and each word hurt his throat.
"Who said I didn't?"
Torchwick rolled his eyes. "Really, you're going for the bluff? Come on, do you think I was born yesterday?"
Another dumpster went sailing through the air. Torchwick had to duck and scramble to avoid getting hit by it.
"Hey!" Yang shouted from above them. "The circus is that way!"
Both of them turned towards the shout. Cardin didn't care if she'd break his nose afterwards. He'd kiss her for such beautiful timing.
Torchwick muttered a curse and pointed his cane at her. "These kids keep coming out of the woodwork. Neo! Keep her busy, and try not to get blood on my coat."
He couldn't see very clearly, but he heard Yang fighting. From all the grunting and shouting, it sounded like she was losing. Torchwick turned back to him and straightened his coat.
"Right, where was I?"
"You were about to kidnap me?"
Torchwick smiled. "Ah, that's it! Usually, someone in your situation would say something stupid like 'you were going to let me go' but you have the guts to be honest. Good for you. Your prize is a first class seat on the brand new Torchwick Airlines, your one-way trip to being my meal ticket."
Cardin knew that Yang wouldn't come alone. Ruby was out there, and she wasn't going to be very far behind. "Aren't you going to at least tell me why you're stealing all this Dust? I thought you knew better than to piss off the Dukes."
Torchwick shrugged. "I'm not really into the whole stereotypical villain speech schtick. Besides, I can tell you're stalling. Now let's go, or am I going to have to break your legs first?"
"Hey, Torchwick!"
This shout came from behind him, but he recognized Ruby's voice. Torchwick looked up and ground his teeth.
"Nope, I am not doing this tonight." He took a radio out of his pocket. Cardin tried to slap it away with his mace, but Torchwick swept the blow aside and knocked him on the head. Cardin saw stars as he staggered to the ground.
"Hawk one, shoot the girl. No, not the yellow one you imbecile, the red one. I don't care about the casualties, just do it now!"
A Bullhead swooped down, and the barrels of its machine guns started spinning. A high-pitched crackling sound came from behind him, and a green laser split the night sky, along with the Bullhead. Flaming pieces of scrap tumbled onto the loading dock, clattering off metal crates and setting off small bangs anywhere they touched piles of stray Dust.
Torchwick examined the burning wreckage and looked at Cardin. With a sigh, the thief turned around, ran through the docks, and leapt onto a Bullhead. The other Bullheads veered away and disappeared in the rising smoke.
Cardin kept an arm over his mouth, coughing on the smoke, as he stumbled through the wreckage. He found Blake and the other Faunus tied to a lamp post, both struggling to wriggle free of the rope as the fires crept closer. Even through his ash-stained sleeve, he could smell the slime coating them.
He found Gambol Shroud tossed to the side a few feet away. He picked it up, dragging the tangled staff with it, and cut the rope. Blake staggered to her feet and rubbed at her chafed arms.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"You're really asking this now?" the Faunus said. "This whole place is burning around us!"
"The monkey's right," Cardin said. "Let's go, your team's waiting."
He offered Blake a shoulder, but she walked past him. The other Faunus tried to lean on him, but Cardin withdrew and went towards the alleys. He watched just long enough to see Yang and Ruby rush up to her before slipping off to a Dust shop.