[X] There was someone standing at the door, positioned as if they were leaving, with their head turned towards Yang.
Groaning as she looked up, making sure to leave her injured and bandaged leg flat on the ground to avoid putting more stress on that than was needed. She looked up, towards the figure in the door, and took a moment to look them over.
It wasn't anyone Yang was familiar with. She had the vague feeling that she'd seen him before, but she couldn't quiet put her finger on it. He wasn't anyone who had come from out of town, and he didn't look like he was dressed like a member of the staff.
Where were they, anyway? Was everyone who worked for the Schnee hiding in some basement somewhere and Yang just hadn't been able to find anyone? Did they run as soon as they started noticing things were up? It hadn't been that long, the authorities hadn't even arrived yet, as far as Yang could tell.
So who was this, then?
"Who are you?" Yang asked, wary. There was too much she didn't know here. Someone she thought she could trust had turned out to be with the silver knight or whatever, and Yang still didn't know where Penny stood on things. Was Ciel betraying Penny was well? Was Penny with Ciel? Why had Penny bandaged Yang's leg if she was an enemy? Why was Ciel wandering with her and listened to her when Penny told her to carry Yang to a lower floor?
She didn't understand enough about people she thought she knew. A complete mystery? She wasn't sure if she was going to trust that at all.
"Me?" The boy asked at the door. "Oh, don't worry about me. I've done what I was sent here for."
"What do you mean?" Yang bit back. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I've had a real shitty day. Not in the mood for people being vague."
"Straight to the point, then?" The boy asked. "Alright then."
His posture shifted, and Yang threw herself to the side, biting her lip as she felt pain shoot through her leg. Gritting her teeth as she rolled to a stop, she saw the Dust round slam into the ground where she had been a moment ago.
Another enemy, then.
"I thought you wanted this done with quickly?" The boy asked, as he looked over at Yang. "Why make this take longer then it needs to be?"
"What the fuck do you want?" Yang spat back. "Why are you here? Why are you attacking us?"
The grey haired boy looked Yang over for a moment, before shrugging.
"Why should I tell you anything?" He asked. "It's not like you're in a position to make me say anything. Or stop me from leaving, even. I've done what I came here for."
"Fucking tell me!" Yang screamed, as she pushed herself to her feet. Her leg bent at an odd angle, as pain shot through it, but before the grey haired boy could step to his feet, she stood up. Throwing her arm back, Yang smashed it into the wall, and let it sunder at the force behind her blow. The boy stopped as he heard the smash, and turned to look at the cracks she had put in it in one hit.
"That's reinforced, treated steel." Yang explained, snarling. "My legs fucked, but I could get to you before that door shut. Do you want to see how well your Aura holds?"
"...Heh." He smiled, looking back. "Didn't your mother ever tell you to not to be violen-"
Yang threw her fist into the steel wall again, punching through the wall in the process. The cracks spread around more, and it wasn't a large hole, but it was enough of one to make her point.
"Enough shit." Yang bit out. "What were you doing here?"
The boy seemed to consider it for a moment, before smiling.
"You got anyone here you wanted to know about?" He asked. "I can tell you about a few of the people I ran into. Like the girl in the library? Last I saw her, she was going down a three floor drop with basically no Aura. Know any maids?"
He looked over at Yang's facial expression, which was getting angrier at his answers, but didn't reflect anything noteworthy.
"Nobody you knew, then?" He asked. "I'm running out of things I did that you might care about. Let's see, there was the butler guy, the cook, the girl in red-"
Yang stepped forward with her good leg, stomping down hard enough to crack the floor at her feet. "Explain."
The grey haired boy raised an eyebrow. "You know the red girl? Found her hiding in a box in the weapons room, just to the left of here."
"What did you do to her?" Yang asked, the hatred dripping thick from her voice.
The boy smiled. "There's no point worrying about red anymore."
That was it. Stomping down again, Yang sprang forward, throwing herself through the air towards the boy. He stepped out of the door as Yang approached, but before he could even act like he was moving to close it, Yang was there. Her fist tore through the air between the two, and struck him in the cheek.
He flew into the opposite wall with a deafening smash, and Yang felt a surge of pain flow through her spine as the movement of her arm shifted the rest of her body. She hit the ground a moment later, with all the dignity of a wet rag slamming into the floor.
The boy groaned as he pulled himself out of the wall, rubbing his cheek as he did so.
"Ow." He complained, rubbing his cheek. "Are you a student or a truck?"
Yang shook her hand, which was starting to sting. Well, sting. If this had been her first injury today, she'd probably be in a lot of pain, but her leg had a spear through it and her other hand was broken. It hurt, a lot, but compared to what else she had gone through, it wasn't that much.
The boy walked around Yang, his heavy boots clicking into the floor. Yang lashed out towards him with her good hand, and the grey haired boy jumped back to avoid her swipe.
"Not getting hit by that again." He noted to himself. "Now, let's start with-"
There was a flash of white, and the boy turned to the side to bring his arm up, blocking the incoming kick.
Turning her head to get a better look, Yang turned her gaze to Melanie Malachite, glaring down her leg to look at the attacker.
...Huh. Not who Yang would have expected to see here.
The boy with grey hair looked surprised for a moment, with his arm shaking, before he started talking.
"...Malachite, isn't it?" He asked, his voice low. It took Yang a moment to put her finger on it, but there was an edge to his voice that wasn't there before. Like he wasn't taking things seriously before, but was now.
"What's it to you?" The girl in white asked, as she pulled her leg back and stood on her own two feet.
"You don't remember me?" The boy asked. "It's me. Mercury Black. From the fight club? You kicked my ass?"
His knee shot up, hitting Melanie in the stomach, and the girl doubled over in sudden shock from the blow. The lower half of his leg shoots upwards with astonishing speed, throwing Melanie off the ground, and as Mercury let that leg fall to the ground, he brought his other up above Melanie's head.
With another downward stroke, Melanie was on the ground, and Mercury lined up the heel of his boot to shoot her in the face.
"That wasn't really a good day for me." Mercury continued, as he walked down Melanie's back to approach her knees. "Dear old dad wasn't really happy with my progress there. It took him a while to get it done, but it really, really, wasn't much fun."
With one leg pinning Melanie's back down and stepping forward to put his foot on her knee.
"Here, let me show you!"
He stomped his foot down, firing his boot guns at the same time. Melanie cried out as she tried to pull upwards, and tilted her head to the side to try and glare at Mercury. Yang saw her burning red eyes for a moment, before Mercury fired his gun again.
Another round fired, as Mercury stomped again, while Mercury started to laugh.
"What's the matter?" He asked. "You aren't that much when you've gone a few days without your precious Intoner's song, then? What, did it wear off? Withdrawal throwing you off? Or are you just this pathetic usually?"
Yang dragged herself forward, drawing closer to Mercury and Melanie, while the girl in white cried out.
What the hell was going on now? Mercury knew about the Intoners? Knew enough about how they worked to know Melanie was stronger through the song?
Forget it, she was getting distracted, Miltia's sister and twin was getting the shit beat out of her.
Mercury seemed distracted, by his suddenly obsessive need to smash through Melanie's armour for... Whatever reason. Something his father did or something. Wasn't important. For now...
Using her good hand to throw herself towards Mercury, Yang smashed into Mercury's legs, tripping him up. He falls to the floor, on top of Yang, and Melanie takes the chance to pull her legs out from under the two. The heels of her bladed shoes sliced at Yang's side, but nothing serious, and nothing bad.
Mercury pushed Yang back down, and placed his boot on her head.
"Don't fuck with me." Mercury snarled. "I need this-"
He stumbled off of her, as Melanie stepped forward and punched Mercury in the face. Her heel sliced up across his stomach, and kicked out to push him away.
"Let's go." Melanie decided, as she turned to Yang. The yellow haired girl pushed herself up, and Melanie grabbed the collar of her shirt to pull her up faster.
Yang stumbled as she stepped forward, her bloodied and bandaged leg failing her as she stepped forward, but with Melanie pulling her along, the two of them managed to get into the room Yang had fallen into, before Mercury's boot fired. Melanie's Aura flickered, and she let go of Yang as they burst into the room.
"Get through the window." Melanie ordered, as she turned back towards Mercury. "Get out of here."
Yang blinked at that. Didn't Melanie not like her? Why would she stay behind to buy her time?
No, no, who cares. She needed to get away from Mercury before she could help Ruby. Stumbling forward, Yang powered through the pain in her leg to reach the window, pulling her hand towards it to-
Pain shot through her hand as she reached for the door, and Yang realised that she had tried to use her broken hand. Tearing it away, she reached again with her other hand, even as she heard conflict behind her.
Forcing the window open, Yang looked back in time to see Mercury punch Melanie in the face, sending her stumbling. With that distance created, he stepped forward again, jabbing his leg up to trip her, and bring her to the ground. As she fell, Miltia threw her hands to the ground, boosted the rest of herself up, and spun in place with her legs extended to the side. Mercury fell back as Melanie turned into a blender for a second, before she jumped away as well, towards the window.
Good enough.
Forcing her way through the window, Yang heard Mercury fire again, and quickly threw herself out faster. She landed on her broken hand, and screamed as the bones cracked even more, the breaks in them multiplying. The Dust round soared out the window, past Yang, and she smiled as she watched it soar off into the air.
Then it paused, and changed directions, slamming back down towards Yang. Eyes wide, Yang brought her arm up to block her face, sacrificing the borderline useless limb with a broken excuse for a hand to protect her head.
The bullet never struck, and after a minute, Yang looked up to see why.
Em stood in front of Yang, her body in the path of where the shot had been and Yang, arms stretched wide. Em cried out as she process the pain, and after a moment, turned to face Yang.
Looking up at Em, Yang asked the first question that came to mind.
"...Why are you still here!" She spat out, as she looked at Em. "You idiot! You're going to get yourself hurt!"
"Don't worry about it..." The green haired girl replies, as she looks inside. Stretching her hand out, she pointed towards where Mercury would have been, and closed her eyes. "Semblance is great for this situation."
Yang couldn't see what was going on inside, but she could make a guess based on the conversation that followed.
"White!" Em called into the building. "Get out of there. I'll keep him held as long as I can, but I've never done this for long before."
She seemed to be straining, as Melanie responded.
"What are you-"
"I'm holding him still." Em continued. "You won't get through his Aura before he breaks free, if you attack him, so hurry up and get out."
Realising she was still under the window, Yang pulled herself away from it. A moment later, Melanie stepped out of it, her Aura low but still intact. She panted in exhaustion, but worked through it.
"Time to go." Em said, as she stepped back. "White, get Yang, and-"
"I'm not leaving until I find my sister." Yang bit back. "I don't know where she is. There's too much going on, and I just... I have to find her."
Em turned towards Yang, her eyes still closed in concentration, and she opened her mouth to speak. However, she didn't say anything, and after a moment, held an ear to the air.
"...Does anyone else hear that?"
Yang took a moment to focus, to see what she was talking about, and noticed it too, after a moment. Some kind of propeller spinning, like some kind of old airship.
"Looks like help is nearly here." Melanie noted. "I did good. She'll be happy with me."
Putting Melanie's statement out of her mind for now, Yang looked up towards the top floor of the building. Over where the battle had probably been earlier. She could see flashes of red and green light, repeating over and over, but couldn't hear the battle over the sound of the still present alarm.
If she couldn't hear that, then the airship must be close to be audible.
Well, that was good. Yang could get some help finding Ruby now. She just needed to buy time.
Em took a step back, turning her closed eyed gaze back towards the window as she concentrated on Mercury, and Melanie roughly grabbed Yang's shoulder and pulled her to her feet.
"Wait by the gate." Melanie muttered softly, under her breath. "Most likely landing spot. Can run if something goes wrong. Saf-"
She trailed off, and Yang looked towards the front gate to see why.
The figure walking down it was a familiar one. Yang had seen her earlier today, in fact. And the fact that she was here now filled her with dread, on some level.
If Blake was here now, with a trail of smoke kicking up as she stepped forward and approached the Schnee manor, then what had happened at the orphanage?
What had happened to Winter?
Yang looked back at Em, who was still closing her eyes and focusing on Mercury. She turned to Milti- Melanie, who's Aura was low. And she looked down at herself, with her busted leg, useless hand, and lack of weapons.
...Damn it. A possible rescue would be here soon, but there wasn't enough people here who could fight the White Fang terrorist.
Em had guns, Yang could see them at her belt, and Yang could probably shoot one if she asked. Or she could try something else.
They couldn't run, not yet. They could hold on for a while in a fight, maybe long enough that the rescue airship would arrive, but who knows how bad they would be hurt in that timeframe?
But what else could they do? It wasn't like there was anywhere they could hide outside the manor, and going back inside without Blake noticing them while letting her pass through meant being in a room with Mercury when Em's concentration faded.
...But, maybe...
[X] No, it wouldn't work. Just get one of Em's guns, Melanie could grab the other one, and they could try to hold their own until help arrived.
[X] Get back in the building and hide. If Yang and Melanie held Mercury down, then when Em's Semblance stopped working, they might be able to keep him down as well.