A/N:

After a week, the 3 chapter is out and there is something special with this one.

A fellow comrade, Commissar Sarrisa, graciously helped me out on the fight scene.

So read his fic Eastern Wolf for more of this action.

Anyway, enjoy this desperate battle :)

Chapter 3

Strength

Not even thirty seconds after the unique blade duel started, the headstrong Ivory quickly found herself on the defensive. The duel had become a trial of survival. Ivory's opponent was completely reckless. Every step she took was forward, and every step accompanied by the swing of her knife. She had left the other in Brad's spine. Despite her seeing countless openings, countless gaps, chances to misstep, to trip or push back. Being emotionally overwhelmed, Ivory's instincts for survival outweighing her desire for revenge.

The duel had long left the road of destroyed drones, bleeding bodies and burning vehicles. Still, within the barrier created by the trap, the duel now entered the surrounding forest. Tired of being on constant defense, Ivory took a risk. She sidestepped her opponent just as she maniacally lunged forward with her knife. Luck had it that right behind Ivory was a stout tree. Her opponent's careless knife planted itself in said tree and refused to leave.

Taking this advantage, Ivory, with her left arm, gripping the perpendicular handle of her Tonfa to the point her knuckles turned white, swung the bladed tonfa with a twist at the waist, aiming to cleave the psychopath in front of her head off. Her elbow blade would be stopped as Eirwen freed her blade and swiftly parried the attempted decapitation with a single hand, she too, twisting awkwardly at the waist. The smirk growing on Eirwen's face fell as Ivory fell to her knee, withdrawing from the deadlock. Taking the advantage of Eirwen's curious pause, she reached for her out left shoulder with her right elbow, tearing Eirwen's black field blouse and grazing her midsection, stood up and brought her elbow down diagonally, leaving a gash that quickly bled across Eirwen's cheek.

Ivory quickly crossed herself, using Sutton' Grace as to form a shield. Using her semblance, she hastily poured her aura into the interlocked blades. Releasing it all at once she created an controlled explosion, sending the unmoving Eirwen, curious to see what she would do next, skidding back.

Having fallen backward after tripping on an inconveniently placed tree root. Eirwen did a kick up to get back on her feet. Having also turned off her Aura beforehand, she reached up and ran a finger across the deep cut across her cheek. Examining the blood on her finger, she gave it a little kiss, shuddering slightly from the sensation. She flipped her knife, holding it in reverse she wiped the remaining blood on her blouse's black sleeve. Utilizing her semblance, she ran two fingers down her knife, the increasing its length, expanding and replacing the cold steel of her knife with an even colder material consisting of ice, but this ice was different. Once she was done, she formed a perfect katana covered in a deep red ice.

"Shall we dance?" She offered to the stunned Ivory, having witnessed her entire display. Stepping forward with her left leg and placed her other behind her. She flipped the reversed blade into proper handling, quickly remembering to remove the ice hand-guard previously placed to protect her hand.

She centered her blade and offered Ivory a coy grin. "Come on now, haven't got all day do I?" Her taunts seemed to work as Ivory let out a low growl and charged her.

'Doesn't differ much in tactics does she?' Eirwen calmly thought as she swiftly deflected Ivory's recurring elbow swings with a flick of her wrist, occasionally stepping to the side to avoid backhand swings or aggressive punches aimed at her face or chest.

Deciding to play with her prey, Eirwen hopped, switching her feet while flipping her katana to hold it in reverse, sidestepped Ivory's next predicted punch and stepped forward, twirling under the girl's outstretched arm while bringing her blade behind her, keeping the dull end of the katana against her own flank.

She stood up straight behind Ivory crossed legged. A piece of Ivory's white jacket resting on the blade's tip. She spun around, untangling her legs and raised her fist, knuckles facing herself, up to catch a counter-attack from Ivory. She cocked her head to the right as she saw the hilt of Ivory's tonfas pushing down against her katana. Upon quick examination, Ivory was holding her right tonfa underneath the thin, but sharp blade running the length of the synthetic weapon.

Shrugging, Eirwen let her right-hand drop, crossing herself, she grabbed Ivory's arm and jerked it back across herself. Cuffing Ivory in the side with her blade before letting go of her arm she shoved the Faunus back.

Shaking her head, Ivory slid back, even more, creating a small amount of space between the two, crouching down she leaped forward, twisting herself midair so that her left blade's tip would come into contact first, where then she would swing with her right, keeping minimal time between both strikes.

She didn't predict Eirwen to roll under her while she was still in midair, as she landed Eirwen landed three disciplined strikes onto her exposed back. Each creating a bleeding mark upon the gray undershirt. Quickly sparking her aura she jammed her left fist into Ivory's spin. Launching her a short distance. Eirwen slowly approached Ivory, waiting until she got onto her knees. Before tapping into her semblance and flicking her left wrist, causing a small spear of ice to emit out of the ground and stab into Ivory's side.

Eirwen retracted the spear. Seeing Ivory's aura shatter with the first spear, she flung her hand to the left and created a larger one, sending Ivory flailing into the forest.

Eirwen frowned, staring at her left wrist. She had let her lust of blood get the better of her at that moment. Sighing, Eirwen quickly walked after her flying opponent.

Not a minute later Eirwen found her opponent struggling to stand up. Having sent her flying into the air in such a thick forest left her with countless bleeding, smaller cuts with even smaller chips of wood lodged into her figure. Eirwen was partly surprised to see the sight of herself give Ivory a sudden burst of strength, which she used to stand up.

Ivory shook furiously, her frozen face boasting ferocious bared teeth. Eirwen calmy approached the Faunus, stopping a foot in front of the struggling girl.

Having gathered enough strength that she didn't have, Ivory let out a wordless war cry and stumbled forward sluggishly swinging her right elbow over her head, having lost her other tonfa in her flight.

Eirwen would not let her final act of bravery go unpunished, stepping swiftly forward, making sure to avoid the wild elbow blade of Ivory's, she skidded forward as she swung the blunt end of her katana, using her momentum to worsen the blow. She made sure to jerk Ivory forward as her blade connected with the girl's stomach. Stealing all the miserable reserves of air in Ivory's lungs.

Eirwen walked past Ivory, preoccupied with attempting to keep standing up and to continue breathing. Eirwen left a final slash across Ivory's back, causing the Faunus to fall to her knees. Grabbing the girl by the collar of her grey undershirt. Eirwen hefted the girl up from the ground and onto her feet. Raising her right foot she kicked back at Ivory's left leg, causing her to buckle with a cry.

Seeing how the crippled girl was still standing, Eirwen used another spark of aura, grabbing the Ivory by the neck, she slammed her into the damaged tree she had crashed into earlier.

Eirwen was amused. 'With all this punishment, she stays standing,' She thought while looking over the Faunus as she gripped the bark of the tree with such a degree that it caused her one finger gloved hand to bleed through the fabric, all in the effort to stay standing. Ivory glared at her with a single hazy eye. The other closed one seemed to be uncooperative with her.

Eirwen raised her katana to her own bleeding cheek, only to take a few more drops of the tip of the blade to satisfy her current urges for blood. 'Funny, how her companions snapped like twigs yet here she stands.'

Ivory hardly stood, slouching forward. Her legs begun to fail her, her aura drained to a point she had forgotten she had one. She was bleeding heavily from her opponent's wounds and the small wooden afflictions did not help either. With her one working eye, she gazed over her opponent, suffering only the slightest of grazes and a wound she allowed to be afflicted on herself.

Ivory managed to tear her shaky hand off the scarred tree. Using her hand, she reached down with great effort to her left boot, retrieving two dust .45 bullets from one of the three ammo belts she had on person. It would have been easier to reach for her belt but she felt that it would somehow hurt more.

She accidentally dropped one of the bullets as she raised it to eye level. Taking her remaining tonfa, she pressed the magazine release, opening a slot on the handle's side. She slowly placed the shaking bullet into the handle. Not at all caring that Eirwen patiently stood in front of her, intrigued.

She placed the bullet in position, closing the slot, she raised the tonfa, aiming her fist in Eirwen's general direction, she pressed the button on top of the handle, firing the .45 bullet.

Ivory stumbled back at the recoil of the hidden firearm. She used her left hand, drenched in drying blood and her torn glove reaching to her elbow having no help in the sanity of her wounds, to steady herself once more on the tree she held a large hate for.

Ivory let out a weak gasp. 'If I just aimed a little bit higher…' Ivory's bullet had, by pure luck, landed in the middle of Eirwen's 'combat' skirt. A black hole in the middle of the red fabric, the bullet skimming past Eirwin's legs.

"I'm… weak…" Ivory muttered out before collapsing against the tree she had bled multiple times on.

Eirwen slowly approached the fallen girl and knelt down by her. "You're not weak, not at all. You fought bravely, though brashly and misguided, bravely nonetheless." She spoke in a different tone, an angelic one. She gently raised Ivory's head with two fingers placed under her chin.

"I could… use you." Eirwen spoke to herself as an idea formed into her head.

"Who… a-ar-are you?" It was a feat for Ivory to speak at the moment. Eirwen put a finger against her mouth, shushing the child. "Save your breath. If you couldn't tell you're severely injured. Rest."

Standing up, she reached into her mainly untouched military blouse and pulled out a cylinder. Pressing the small red button found on its crown, the cylinder began to glow. The crystal blue dome around the area evaporated.

Ivory lost consciousness as the forest around her animated with the strong winds created by the descending bullhead.

Sunday

9:00 am

Unknown Location

Current Weather: Not Visible

When Ivory regained consciousness, she awoke to a white and silver room, where she found herself chained to a chair. The room looked plain but had necessary living arrangements; A bookshelf that seemed very ornate, a desk with very intricate writing utensils, and a plain bed in an embroidered frame. The room in all its entirety looked like something out of a royal palace, but the chains made it seem like a lavish prison cell. Ivory was wondering why she was here, but the door started to open, and a figure entered the room. That figure was her assailant holding a tea set that looked like 100,000 Lien. "Oh, you're awake," the assailant spoke, "Here, let me get that for you."

She walked over and unshackled her. Ivory first instinct was to get revenge but was confused by the sudden change of heart, adding to the lack of feeling in her right leg, she simply just sat there.

Her assailant walked back to the tray, picked it up, and set it down on a tea table. After doing so, she gestured for Ivory to sit in the chair in front of her. Ivory, still confused, got up and sat in the chair in front of her assailant, and her assailant did so in kind. Ivory was the first to speak up, "Where… are we and who are… you?"

The assailant responded after taking a sip of tea. "My name is Eirwen Roenfaust, and you are in my manor." Ivory searched her brain for where she heard that name, and she found that name was the name of one of the noble families of Atlas by overhearing a conversation by Brad and some higher up White Fang members. "Oh… what does one of the noble families want with me?" Ivory narrowed her eyes, not thinking fondly of a public execution.

"When we fought, I saw some- potential, that can be easily used in a much more, superior, manner." She tested out the word, thinking to herself. Lowering her teacup into her lap and looked away, as if she was just asked a question at a prestigious tea party.

"What do you mean?" Ivory was puzzled.

"The White Fang was not always like what it is now. For I know the atrocities they have committed."

"What?" Ivory, herself not knowing the full history of the White Fang. thought she was lying for information, but she wasn't prepared for what was next.

"When I was a young girl, I was just like any other wealthy military family in Atlas. I could get anything I wanted with a caring mother and an inspiring father," Eirwen paused, "Of course, like any loving family in Atlas, all of that changed one day when my mother went to the market, just like any day she would, always wanting to do things herself, hardly letting our servants even lift a finger in the manor, but she never came back. She had died in a White Fang biological attack when I was 7. And that's where it all fell down," Ivory could see a single tear fall down Eirwen's cheek. "Every night, as you would expect, my father was so engulfed with grief that he always came back from work with a wine bottle in hand. Whenever I tried to tell him about school or other things, he got outraged," Eirwen stood up and rolled up her sleeves and took off her gloves, "This is some of what he did."

Eirwen's arms were covered in various scars from broken bottles, kitchen knives, cigar burns, and belt lashes from the tip of her fingers to the start of her shoulders. Seeing this made Ivory reminisced about a similar memory when she was young.

"I'm... sorry," Ivory said while almost coming to tears because she was a human, she and her father were monsters. But even monsters hurt each other. She had all the right to hate them, but she was lied to, by everyone. She knew full well they killed people, but they killed officials and military. She never imagined such use of warfare against such a defenseless people.

"It doesn't stop there," Eirwen said, recomposing herself, "When I was 12, I was at a speech hosted by my father where he got shot right front of me. His last words, if I remember correctly, was 'do good for the family' and that was it. He died right there, in my arms. I had thought myself free for the moment, but of course, The White Fang was still attacking, using their so-called reason 'for rights' so I had to fight through about a dozen White Fang soldiers. I could recall one with an aura. Following that, they finally seized a weak 12-year-old girl with wet blood all over her, covering up the dry. Then, they tortured me for 3 weeks-"

Eirwen paused, a sickening smile grew on her face. Ivory gave her a worried stare, recalling two specifical actions she had committed in her previous memory,

"But, I escaped and ran through the forests until someone found me." She scoffed to herself. "And to think I wanted to do something with my life besides being in every cliche ever written before."

When Eirwen finished, the door opened with a butler wheeling in a tied up, beaten Brad. Eirwen stood up, setting her tea down to the side, walked over to Brad to take off the tape. Suddenly, Brad awoke with red eyes and looked around to see Ivory in a chair and his assailant standing next to her.

"Get away from her," Brad snarled as he attempted to lunge forward but was stopped by the chain.

"No Brad," Ivory responded with tears in her eyes

"Why Ivory, she killed Ash and Shade."

"NO, SHE DIDN'T," Ivory yelled out," Brad, you lied to me."

"What are you talking about," Brad said puzzlingly

" Did the White Fang kill innocent people," Ivory said in an angry tone. Brad was silent." Did they?!"

" Yes they did, but they were not innocent. They ridiculed us, they oppressed us, they tormented us!"

"That doesn't make it right!" Eirwen handed Ivory her standard issue dust pistol.

" Then, make it right." Ivory held the pistol up to Brad's head height, with tears overflowing in her eyes.

" You lied to me to kill innocent people."

"No, you're just like a human, weak and easy to take. You don't even belong in the Faunus race, you-."

"SHUT UP!" When Brad opened his eyes, he was staring down a barrel, and he looked to the left to see a half smiling Eirwen when everything went black. A bang was heard as the dust bullet exited the barrel into Brad's skull. The force knocked him and his chair back on to the ground. Ivory immediately dropped the gun and started sobbing in her hands after and fell to the ground. Eirwen followed her down, grabbing her from behind into an embrace. " It's okay now," Eirwen whispered into her ear," We'll make everything right together." After that, Eirwen started to grin.

A/N:

That's the 3 chapter folks

I think it turned out well.

Please tell me what you think

So the next chapter is going to be fun

(P.S: Water)