Rogue Huntsman
EVAC
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Damn her. I didn't have to come get her. I didn't need to do anything.
But damn Anoel for making this seem so important to her… Like Arex was in need of my help.
Damn my l-
I ground to a hard stop when I felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere's temperature. The wind died at the gate I passed through, wreathed in shattered ice.
"The hell?" A shift in pressure tore the air forward, nearly yanking my black cowboy hat from my head as it swept through the tails of my coat and erupted from the trees.
Its pull drew the temperature with it, heat crawling through the large manor's foundations to find its way inside. The sweeping draft… dropped the degrees in the immediate area by an unmistakable chunk, and left the forest at an unstable temperature near freezing.
Somebody was-
The gate behind me groaned and shattered as a neon orange light filled my eyes, a tidal wave of fire erupting from the center of the mansion just ahead of me. Blazing heat seared the sky in an amber flash and fanned the clouds away in a slow, parting circle…
Every morsel of heat sucked inside came crashing back out at an alarmingly higher temperature as that fire tore through me before I could even blink. It burned me, and sunk the ground beneath my feet to shove me back on my heels and into a skid.
The ground tore up in chunks. Roots, rocks, wood, metal, it all ripped up from their foundations. What was burnable turned to ash, and what was more durable came crashing down from the widening ball of neon fire.
My eyes just barely caught sight of something gold splitting through the illumination of pure orange. A bolt of lightning shot out and broke through the blaze surrounding it… taking off into the sky, before the neon light overtook its trail and left it to vanish.
It was a blinding glow that illuminated everything, leaving me to dig my hand into the ground to bring myself to a stop from the force of the expanding energy.
It reeked of the same scent Anoel's fire bore… but untainted. It was far sweeter, softer… hotter. It burned straight through my clothes and incinerated my skin. My Aura immediately kicked in to save my bones from getting eviscerated.
Damnit, Arex!
The initial burst of fire finally blew past me, its rolling wave dispersing in the air and melting into the ground.
Trees burned like torches all across the mansion's once green, standing gardens… A quietly rumbling, vibrant haze settled over the area. The smokeless air painted the razed manor in a somber tone now, and as I stood, black ash scattered from my feet and fell from my body in streams.
The place was a fiery graveyard now… beset by an illusory sun grazing the sky. There was enough light coming from Arex's fire to make it seem like dawn was breaking, basking the night air in an amber hue.
You always have to make things emotional…
I growled to myself as I trudged forward, kicking traces of ash out of the way as I pushed through a stubbornly still-standing front door. It swung before tipping, breaking from its hinges then shattering against the blackened floorboards.
There was a whole other story to this place. Several. But the entire building was leveled to the ground by that explosion of fire. Arex's fire.
Who knew the girl actually had it in her.
Come to think of it, she didn't have that in her. I would've known. This was something more than her, and something told me that was Sylvius's fault.
I broke my way through wall after wall of fallen, blackened debris. Fires still blazed, flickering lights besetting my path as I found a direct route to where I sensed figures still moving, clustered together. The rest of the bodies scattered throughout the manor's remains were motionless, but still pulsing with Aura.
That fire probably knocked them out, but didn't kill them. They were lucky to have enough Aura left to take the brunt of a blast like that.
When I got to the source of the fire, the doors leading inside were blown open… And the entire floor looked like it'd collapsed down from the second story. Which was probably where the room was first when Arex decided to go nuclear on the second level of a mansion.
Surprisingly, and luckily, the floor was all still intact. As far as floors were concerned. I couldn't say the same for any walls or glass that so much as pretended to be the support structures that surrounded her when she went off.
Two bodies were completely unconscious. One with gray hair and clothes, the other matched in red. They weren't getting back up any time soon, but they definitely weren't dead. They had Affinities too, but I had a feeling it was still just their Aura that saved them.
Arex's fire wasn't malicious enough to rip through that, but I had a feeling she was trying to blindside someone with everything she had.
My eyes flicked to the only area in the manor that was left unscathed… A small, personal circle of untouched, mildly scorched wood sat near a still standing bedpost. The rest of the damn thing was blown to hell.
Arex lay curled up on the ground in the middle of that patch of solid wood. Kit knelt over her, entirely untouched from the blast.
If anything, her spotless white nightdress, hair, and fur stood in stark contrast to the world of drifting black and flickering orange that surrounded her. A white blight in a sea of tainted black.
How the hell was she untouched if she was at the epicenter of that bomb going off?
"Oooo, that actually stung a bit! Ach! At least I can't complain about getting a tan now…" an annoyingly familiar voice sounded out as I heard coughing.
I was actually content to ignore it. Part of me thought it was dead. Lifeless. A corpse just pretending to be alive.
"That's gonna take a while to heal…"
I was wrong. He was still breathing. "Stop complaining," I spoke out, stepping with a dusty creak into the ruined room. My eyes snapped to Dante, barely standing straight on his feet.
Half his side from his shoulder diagonally down his torso to his hips was burnt straight through to the muscle, each surface blackened to his skeleton. But his bones looked pristine, glossy even. They just… weren't white.
They were as black as his charred skin. And entirely undamaged. I guess that was a fun little perk that ran in the family, from what Ciel and Leo said. Must be nice having indestructible bones.
It almost sounded like cheating.
"Stop complaining?! Have you ever tanked Hell Fire set off twenty feet away from you?! It sucks man!" Dante's eyes flicked to me as he did his best to not topple over. "Even you'd complain! Not that you don't already about everything. Is there anything you don't complain about actually?"
"All I hear is more complaining," I deadpanned, slowly stepping over ash and wood to get to where Arex lay. Kit's eyes didn't regard me at all, and neither did her attention.
She was focused on where her hands clutched Arex's. Her ears were tuned to nothing else but the soft breathing of Arex's unconscious body. She'd burned all of her Aura in that blast. Used it as fuel, among the heat she pulled from the area.
"How about I ask my partner to replicate the experience for you next time and we'll see who's whining," Dante said as he patted his body down behind me, brushing off the dust and ash.
"Don't bother. She'll probably do it anyway once she sees you in that condition," I replied. I slowly crouched down, checking Arex's injuries over with a careful touch against her arm.
"Contrary to your superior beliefs, not everyone is an idiot," Dante returned.
"Oh, forgive me if I just assumed she'd try to hurt me out of everyone else here once she sees you," I said back, focusing on my quick scan of the phoenix on the floor.
"Only if you were being an absolute dick, she probably would…"
This was aggravating. "And I don't fit that description?"
Dante paused. "Not always anyway. You're just… aloof, I guess?"
Aloof wasn't the word I'd use.
Arex was stable, her breathing unhindered. The only things wrong with her were a few patches of bruises on her arms and back, the worst of them just beneath her wings, and her sheer perseverance. That was her biggest issue.
Kit finally moved now that I was down beside her, in her peripherals. A shaky hand pushed its way beneath Arex's lying shoulder, the other stayed limp at the kitsune's side. It looked like she had an injury of her own she was dealing with.
The girl silently rolled Arex toward me slightly, a wordless expression resting on her face.
"I'll pick her up. But only if you can walk," I translated, giving Kitsuki's bare legs beneath the hem of her dress a quick glance. They looked unharmed, just like the rest of her. Save for her arm.
Kit gently took her hand away from under Arex's arm, my own replacing its support on the opposite side of the phoenix. The kitsune herself stood in her spot, shaking, but otherwise fine. Her white tails tightly curled down and tangled around her legs, holding them anxiously.
She was overly worried.
"She's fine." I actually softened my voice a bit, just to calm her down. "Just out of it."
I calmly slid my arms beneath Arex's limp legs and back, cradling her against me before standing with the girl nestled in my grasp. Small chunks of debris still fell amidst the crackling fires. But beside that, I caught the stray noises of figures beginning to gain consciousness. And the low rumble of an incoming bullhead just over the tree line.
"Looks like a ride's coming in," I stated, shooting Dante a look. "Did you call for anyone?"
"No…" Dante shook his head, his eyes falling to Arex now in my arms. "But let's just cross our fingers that that's not a ship full of people wanting to shoot us. Otherwise, we have more cleanup tonight."
I grumbled and turned my attention to it again, trying to see through into the cockpit to see if I recognized the signatures.
My jaw tightened when I recognized one of them.
"One of Ano's friends, and… someone I happen to know," I said, watching the vessel break just over the edge of blazing trees and begin setting down.
"An unfortunate acquaintance? Now I have to talk to them!" Dante exclaimed, annoyingly.
"Not unfortunate. Just… someone I've known for a long time." Thanks to my father, anyway. He knew her father, and the two actually worked together between their two separate networks. "She'll be able to airlift everyone you brought with you out, from what it looks like."
That bullhead was a reinforced passenger vessel, equipped with more armor and thrusters than a traditionally supply transport. It just tended to lack weapons to defend itself.
"Thank goodness…" Dante actually sounded a little tired, pausing to look at his burnt arm that healed enough to conceal his bones. "Ugh… This would be uncomfortable to look at for anyone else… Got any bandaids? Or bandages? Or something I can cover this with except dirt?"
"Does it look like I carry a medkit?" I asked in a dead tone, glancing to see his skin slowly healing.
"For all I know, that coat you're wearing can be some mystical nonsense I know nothing about that carries all sorts of things. Same for the hat. I'd be surprised if you weren't hiding anything in there," Dante said.
Even if I was, I wasn't about to lend it out to a man half-burnt alive and looking to hide himself. "There's probably a blanket onboard or something."
"Yeah, but the point is not to make anyone puke beforehand," he replied, frowning before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh wait! I can just do this!"
His arm suddenly blanketed itself in black Aura, forming twisted, segmented armor and covering everything from his fingertips to his half-burnt body.
"Haha! Success! How do I look?" The immortal held his arms out in a standing pose. I just wish he gave a twirl, too, so he could look that much more stupid.
"Angelic," I commented dryly.
Dante smiled. "Awww, you can say nice things sometimes."
"Sure…" I turned my eyes from his arm to the scattering wind kicked up from the parked bullhead, watching a cloud of ash scurry away from its opening bay door. "We need to start picking teens off the ground and-"
Something held my tongue. The tiny, almost silent beat of something sinister broke into my senses and drew my gaze back down to where Kit stood. She was trying to get a delicate set of fingers around her necklace.
She wasn't touching it in any affectionate way, but testing to see if she could get her hands beneath it. To find purchase under the tight piece of jewelry.
"Hang on," I muttered, moving Arex slightly in my grasp to keep her weight mainly on one of my arms.
I moved my left hand up, nudging Kit's fingers away to lightly touch at the tight jewelry clasped around her neck. A cold, numbing touch immediately seeped through my hand on contact with it.
That asshole got his hands on nullification Dust. I frowned for a moment as I turned my fingers, grasping the necklace between my thumb and forefinger… then crushed and shattered the link between them.
Kitsuki silently lifted her hand again as her necklace fell to the ashy floor, touching the spot where it once rested against her skin. I adjusted Arex back into my arms in the meantime and caught the smallest of unnatural breezes suddenly passing through the area. It felt like the wind was alive again.
Looked like she was getting her grasp back on her air Affinity, after having it suppressed from that necklace.
"Now we can leave," I said, turning my gaze back to Dante. "Don't scare the kids with that creepy half-armor now."
"I think they'd be more scared of the burns, but whatever you say," the teen replied, starting to walk his way over to the door I came through on my way in. I'd cleared a path from the entry to here, so we can take that back out.
"Nah, the burns suited you more," I replied.
Dante waved his unscathed hand over his shoulder at me. "Har har… You're sooo funny that I think I might actually die from laughter."
"If only…" I turned my senses to the scattered, but weak Aura signatures just now starting to stand throughout the mansion's ruination. Excluding two behind us, who seemed to have been thrown from the blast.
They still had large chunks of their Aura left, which made sense, given who they were.
We'll leave Ray and Quinn for last.
"Go start saving people or something. I'm sure you're just itching to run around and pick people up to get them to the airship," I said, flicking my eyes back to Dante just as he stepped out of the threshold of the room leading out of here.
Guess I should be following soon.
"That sounds really sinister and creepy coming from you, but I'll still go and help out some people," the immortal said before stopping. "Oh right… How's the other little bird? She doing fine?"
"She's healing," I answered. Ano was safe, at least, and in capable hands. Hands Arex needed to reach after we airdropped the Beacon students back onto their campus to get sorted.
"That's good to hear… Well, I'll go round up the rest of the little rascals we brought. Brb friendo," Dante said with a wave, then disappeared into the haze of ash.
That last word made me want to vomit more than seeing his grotesquely burnt body.
"We'll get you and Arex to the apartment last. I don't know what kind of condition the students are in right now, so they need infirmary attention first," I explained to Kitsuki behind me. I knew what her condition was, and Arex's for that matter.
They were going to be fine, regardless of when I got them back to Ly. The rest might not have had that kind of luck. But something told me their Auras held up just fine against that blast, given it wasn't directed at them.
I finally let out a breath and started moving, but stopped when I felt a sudden pull on my clothes keep me in place. That soft tug came matched with a pair of arms wrapping around me from behind.
I actually didn't see that coming… from the mute kitsune.
She sunk her face into the back of my coat for a long few seconds in the hold before letting go, giving me the freedom to move again before stepping around me. Kit glanced at me for just a second before moving ahead of us and leading the way.
"Don't mention it." I figured it was a way of thanks, if I read that right. But seriously… never mention you hugged me and didn't die.
People would get the wrong idea.
Clenching my jaw, I followed the kitsune out of the manor. It took me until now to realize she was walking in a pair of white slippers, probably to match her nightdress. And for the record, I wasn't worried about the ash and soot staining her feet.
I was more intrigued by the way the path cleared around her steps, like the particles were afraid of touching her. Like tainting her alabaster skin or frosty-white attire would damn the world into the fires of Hell.
It annoyingly took me an extra second to notice the guiding trickle of an air current circling her body with a frail wind. She was using her Affinity to keep the ash off her.
As for me, I got a free ride just following behind the kitsune, considering she was clearing the path for the both of us. Or more specifically, the softly breathing phoenix I cradled in my arms.
When the bullhead came into an unobstructed view, I watched a series of masked individuals hop out and start for the teens still scattered throughout the place. Hoods up, half their faces covered, eyes either shrouded in shadow or hidden behind a fully drawn up cover. Detail-less attire.
"Alright losers! There's a 100k bonus for whoever eliminates the most stragglers! Keep it clean, we ain't got all night!"
The usual tell of Maide's assassins doing their job. A network that ran parallel to Anoel's widespread grid for information trading.
"Their school Headmaster won't be happy if they go and off his students," I commented, stopping just short of the transport's boarding ramp, but far enough forward to stand at Kitsuki's hesitant side. "The only stragglers here are wounded helpers."
Maide regarded me with dark blue eyes and gave me a crooked smirk. "They don't need to know that. It's just added incentive."
The young woman cocked her hip to the side as she placed a hand on it. She kept her other hand up to brush her hair out of her face, black strands that faded down to white. She wore the same damn sleeveless dress she was always known for, indigo in color, and accented at the bottom with a white floral hem.
Underneath that were a pair of black stockings, leading down to a small indigo pair of heeled boots that clicked with every sudden shift she made to keep herself stable in her hovering aircraft.
You'd think the leader of an assassin's network wouldn't want to broadcast her presence like that with the loudest footwear you could have.
"Doesn't surprise me," I said. I felt Arex shift in my arms for a moment and turn her head, something Kit's eyes turned to regard while I turned my own attention to a pair of seats further in. "I'm dropping these two off. Which one called you?"
I made my way into the bullhead's main body and stepped past the young network leader, a pair of lightly padded steps following after me as I sat Arex down. I left her in the seat closest to the pilot's cockpit wall, leaving Kit to buckle her in and steal the seat to her immediate right.
"I'm sure you know him. Blonde, tall, bit of an asshole… Offered me a favor for a favor, hence why I'm lying to my boys about money," the woman calmly replied as she watched me. "None of us are getting paid for this."
"Explains a lot," I replied, moving away from the duo to grab an overhead beam by the door and step out beside Maide. "You forgot the part where he's lying unconscious in a field of ash right now next to someone he wants to brutally kill."
The slightest of chuckles emanated from her as she turned to watch the burning building and surrounding forest keep the area illuminated. "I'm not worried about that. He's got a tendency for being stubborn. I learned that the hard way."
"It's not exactly something you have to learn about him," I said. My eyes roamed over to spot out the carefully moving teams in the graveyard of beams and soot, keeping away from the fires. Ruby's team seemed to be in one piece. So was that blindfolded chick's, whoever the hell she was.
If anything, the blast looked like it really did just strip Aura when it reached a certain distance away from its intended target. I wonder if that was by design and desire from Arex, or just sheer luck. Because as soon as I threw my own Aura up, her blaze stopped eating into me.
"No, but you can't deny it's true, Niro," Maide replied lightly as her eyes focused on the approaching students. "Besides, I'm not here for him, I'm here for them."
Yeah, that particular batch of people probably wouldn't have survived the stretch home if any Grimm happened to be wandering by. A bonfire like this would've drawn their attention for miles.
I wasn't keen to carry more than two if Maide didn't show up. So it was either GHOST's job to bring in EVAC, or I was leaving everyone else behind after getting Arex and Kit back to the apartment suite.
"Once everyone's in, I'll drag Ray in here. If he isn't already up," I stated, watching Dante clear another path through a field of stray fires to get the team he found through. I needed to start learning names, or start making them up at least.
The team he was leading was that blind girl's one, or rather, the one pretending to be blind. Oh, and Ciel and Leo were with them.
Fun.
"Alright you degenerates, on the ship with you all," Dante ordered with a clap once he was in hearing range. The ambient, crackling fires made that range a little too close for comfort than it would've been.
Ciel bumped into his side as she stepped past him. "The only degenerates here are us, big brother."
"True, but hey, I'm working with something. On the ship you rascal." Dante returned her bump, and was immediately and playfully bumped harder in return. The girl started it anyway.
The two white-haired twins clambered aboard and left Dante on his lonesome. He was counting on his fingers, then counted again. For someone so sure of himself, you wouldn't think he'd need to double check his math on his hands.
Then again, who knew he'd walk away this damaged from someone as fragile as Arex.
"That makes everyone. Whew. Good thing Arex didn't break my eyes. Or brain," Dante said.
"Yeah, too bad…" I said, tone full of disappointment.
"I heard that you happiness and sunshine hating death machine!"
Four teens climbed aboard after Ciel and Leo sat down, each looking startlingly different from the last. But they lacked vibrant color, something Ruby's team made up for when they started climbing on next.
That blue-haired TA was one of the last to board.
"Welcome aboard Air Maide, it is within company policy to ask all passengers to take a seat and securely fasten their seatbelts," Maide began cheerfully as she eyed over the students boarding the bullhead. I kept my eyes out to scan the rest of the ashen graveyard of the manor. "There won't be any refreshments on this trip, but I'm sure you'll all find yourself some when you get the hell out! Have a great flight!"
Maide's echoing clicks of her boots tapped their way into the depths of the vessel as I counted the only two figures still left outside.
Looked like Kyzal and Gabriel took a hike as soon as they could, missing the explosion entirely. Probably took something while they were at it, or a few somethings.
"I'll get Ray," I called into the ship, slipping my hand away from the beam overhead to take a step out. The assassins were just making their way back onto the airship too by then, two of them carrying the gray-clad girl and red-clad boy I spotted in the same room I found Kit and Arex. But I stopped before I could take a step off the vessel's door.
That glow… UV energy just surged in the fiery grave and tainted the fires closest to where Ray and Quinn rested in a dark, angry purple.
Great, the kid was awake. And pissed.
It looked like Dante felt the change too.
"I think it'd be better if you took us up now, actually," I calmly said, stepping back into the ship. "Leave him."
"Yeah, please do," Dante stated, following me inside. How chivalrous to leave himself for last. "I don't feel like getting charbroiled again. And not by that pissed off ball of fury."
Maide lifted a delicate finger to prod at her chin for a moment before she sighed. "Yeah, he seems a little upse-"
A faint crack of glass shot into the air like a gunshot, my attention turning back to the purple fire again.
He didn't just- Chaotic, familiar sand-strewn streams of red leaked through the air, beset by the violet glow of the UV energy seeping into the ground. The same energy I stole from Scarlet to level a mountain.
"Take us up. Now." I growled, punching the button to start the closing of the door before leaning out and yanking it shut.
Maide whirled on the spot and slammed the door to the cockpit with her fist. "We're leaving!"
The engines on the ship roared to life as we felt the aircraft immediately shudder into a vertical liftoff, heading straight up as the air was shook by a powerful crimson blast. Scarlet's energy was in whatever crystal Ray just crushed in his hand, and it viciously rammed itself out of its breaking confinement as soon as it could.
The fire in the area immediately vanished from a sweeping shockwave that hit the broadside of our turning vessel on its way out, that crimson blast expanding for just half a second before freezing mid-burst.
It was like the energy changed direction itself, forcibly clawed back to fuse with Ray's Aura.
That machine was going to get himself killed using his partner's energy like that.
"He either has a death wish, or he has nothing holding him back from trying to take that woman out with him," I muttered quietly, the powerful concussive blast receding now as we accelerated over the tree canopy.
"When you remove potential casualties from a dangerous situation, leaving no one but yourself and your worst enemy, would you hold back?" Maide quietly questioned, her cheerful facade faltering for a moment.
Potential casualties was subjective. I only had a few who actually mattered, which was surprisingly more than one now. So if they were nearby…
"No," I answered. "But he better kill her this time."
Back to back explosions echoed in the distance behind us as we sped out of the area, each distant blast ramping up in its destruction. Like the combined energies battling inside Ray's body were feeding off of each other to rip its conglomeration apart more violently each time.
"You give someone with what's essentially the mental capacity of a ten year old that kind of power, and they're obviously not going to control it. Much less kill the person in question unless they get lucky," Dante stated with a sigh, relaxing in his own seat opposite RWBY.
I stayed by the door.
Maide turned to look through the small porthole just past me. "He'll be fine. I'll just pick him up when he's finished."
"Might be a while," I replied back, feeling one last shockwave shake our escaping vessel before we broke through the cloudline.
Things were smoother once we got up there.
A bolt of gold snapped through the clouds over Mistal's mountain range. Its shine illuminated the dark skies over the Kingdom as it ripped down from the stars and struck a distant rooftop overlooking the lower districts of the mountain.
Sylvius landed in a stumble, appearing in a flash of clinging light as thunder struck and he shook out his arms.
The cuffs of his white and gold jacket were charred, torn by Arex's blaze and still smoking. Trails of gray slipped away from his simmering form as he stood there, white smokey streams emitting from every limb and tailored material over his body as he took a deep breath.
"That was eventful," he murmured, brushing loose ash away from his torso and trailing coattail where the fabric smoldered and burnt up in the heat. "Always wondered how she did it."
He gave a half shrug with a tilt and shake of the head, smoke trailing behind the fluttering strands of his hair in the night air of the city overseas.
"I'd say!" a new voice appeared in a flash of white Aura as a hand patted Sylvius on the shoulder. "She cooked you pretty good. What do you think? Medium? Medium-rare? Or well done?"
"Could've been worse. She's feisty, and stronger than she lets on," Syl replied, glancing to the hand before brushing it off with his. "You know, I'm curious how you heard what I said before you appeared out of nowhere."
"Was passing by when you bolted. No pun intended. So I followed you to make sure they didn't carve you up too badly."
"It was under control." The Maestro gave another half shrug as he turned away, regarding the city beneath them with a calm, dim glow in his irises. "Everything I thought would happen, happened marvelously. Until the end, anyway. Overall, you weren't really needed this time, Cross."
"So you say…" Cross said with a chuckle. "I can feel the stench of his Aura on you. So he was there too, helping the little phoenix no doubt."
"I told you he would," Sylvius replied, glancing down to where Cross's platinum-gold eyes glanced over him. Roaming over a couple blackened tears in his suit that still smoked from Arex's outburst, where Dante's sword nearly cut into his skin.
"It's in his nature as 'Her' Watchdog. Can't really help himself I'm afraid," Cross mentioned with a shrug.
"Funny when she's the canine of the two," Syl pointed out, turning his own stormy gold eyes back to Cross. "I don't suppose you have an extra suit on you?"
"Picked one up just before I left. Just in case you needed one," the man said, handing over a large, recently pressed and hangered dry-cleaning bag. "Tavriela's not with you? I hope she didn't die or anything. She escape?"
"When things started to… 'escalate', I had her take off out of precaution. I'll let Tavi know where I want her tonight, just not in the city. Picking her up like usual isn't an option right now," Sylvius took the wrapped suit and swung it over his shoulder, looking past Cross to the empty rooftop terrasse he landed next to.
Tables were dotted about in a semi-organized fashion beneath a vine-worn wooden overhang, glittering with strings of lights. Stone tiles spanned over the floor of the open area, pairing well with the white chairs and tablecloths.
"Right right. They'd obviously be on the lookout for you. They're probably thinking you'll hit them again so soon. Heh, idiots," Cross said.
"Wouldn't you?" Sylvius asked, passing his glance over his shoulder to the silver-clad man as the Maestro walked toward the glass door leading inside. "With such a meticulous plan to hit them all while they were separated, nobody would expect an immediate subsequent attack. Of course, though, they'd still be ready for it. So I say we should start gathering our forces, should we not?"
"Regroup and see who does what. I agree."
As Cross spoke, Sylvius passed his hand over the door's lock and traced a pulse of electricity through its bolt system. Just as his hand fell onto the outward handle, the glass door unlocked and he slid the rooftop entry open.
"Didn't care to pick up a suit for yourself?" Syl asked, leaving the way in wide open as he turned around in the dark, marble-floored establishment.
Cross was wearing his usual zip up hoodie, jeans, and dress shoes. All a matching silver-gray. Unfashionable and incredibly bland, but very him, Sylvius supposed. The young man sported brown hair, medium length down to his chin, and neat outside of a slight uncaring messiness.
Syl never cared to tend to his own hair outside of keeping it at his prefered length. With the energy coursing through him at all times, the ends of his hair tended to drift slightly with faint traces of light.
Besides, why style it if you already look good?
"It's Sunday!" Cross paused briefly, checking the time on his Scroll. "Sorry, Monday. I was out for some things and thought I'd be back in time. Turns out that wasn't the case. Besides, I'm not always feeling fancy enough to wear a suit. A bit hard to move in, too. This? Total free range movement!"
He demonstrated his statement by doing a few lunges and twisting his body around a few times.
"It all depends where you go, Cross," Sylvius stated, catching the glint of the night cityscape over the surface of Cross's left wrist bracer as he moved. It was silver, as per his simple taste, and embossed with an angelic wing pattern.
"Obviously." The young man raised his arms up. "If we were going somewhere fancy, then I definitely would have worn a suit for the occasion. You know me. Proper with a sense of improper," Cross finished with a short bow.
"Remind me to take you to my personal tailor. He makes the simplest of colors look extravagant with detail." Sylvius's eyes gave a purposefully disgusted look as he passed them over Cross's full silver-gray attire again. "The material is flexible and durable as well. Good for combat… and terrasse lunges."
"I know that look. The color silver… Well, it's… an acquired habit from my power," Cross replied absently. "A necessary 'condition' really. Like an urge I've never had before that was suddenly planted in my head."
"You said that about crêpes and dumplings last week," Sylvius stated blandly, turning his attention to his dangling suit before sliding it out of its protective wrapping. The lights around him flicked on out of reflex to the dark atmosphere inside.
"So? What's your personal take on him? The Watchdog, I mean," Cross asked, following the Maestro inside and folding his hands together. "Subtract everything I've said before about him and use your own words. What do you think of him?"
"Strong. Careful. Determined. Willing." As Sylvius listed things off, he followed the seams of the suit Cross brought him. They weren't horrendous, but that was unavoidable if you failed to find a good tailor on short notice. "Adaptable. I suppose that last one is the most important… Impervious to pain. Deflective to magic, it would seem. Not to mention his new form."
"New form…?" Cross said, his face hardening into a serious and interested expression.
"How many have you seen him use?" Sylvius asked instead, gliding his fingers down the interior lining of the new jacket. It was wearable, but only to take him to an actual tailor for a replacement.
"I haven't really 'seen' both," the silver-gray Cross answered. "I've only seen one and heard about the other. Hard to miss that gruesome armor of his after the Drakian Hydra."
"I find it humorous how everyone seems to know it by name…" Sylvius distractedly commented, taking his eyes away from the suit for once. "That Dremoha was the first Hydra seen this century. And on that scale too… Makes me curious just what lured it out of the ocean. They hate traveling over land, you know."
"Maybe someone made it angry enough to not care about land and tear through it until it found what it was looking for," Cross offered. "Rage is an excellent motivator you know."
"Not for a feat like that. The Hydra traveled over a large majority of the continent just to get to the school. I don't blame it, though. Curiously enough, it was probably irritated by our resident Grimm magnet going to school there," Sylvius concluded. "As for Dante, I'll put something together about everything I saw from his new form later."
"Come on, give me a blurb. I've got to know. Anything new about him is necessary for me to know." Cross stepped in front of Syl and gave him a look of need.
"Envision this, then," Sylvius replied, sliding the sleeve of his suit back into place before hanging it over his shoulder. "Demon fox, nine tails, white fire, and nine katanas. Named after Dakini, a blessing from the Goddess herself, it would seem."
Cross stood up straight, mouth moving into an "o" form before he let out a laugh. "So that's how it is!" he stated excitedly.
"After I scrounge up the data streamed from my cameras inside, I'll give you a little sneak peak of the entire fight as well," Sylvius added. His golden-streaked gaze turned to the stairwell door further in before taking his crimson scroll out. "It won't be without its damages, of course. A certain AI made it a little less seamless."
"Don't you see, Sylvius?!" Cross asked, planting his hands down on Syl's shoulders and shaking him slightly. "He's on the rebound! On his way to the peak once more!" He let go and moved away to laugh. "And that means we're a step closer!"
"I suppose so. For now, I need to scrounge up a personal boat to ferry Tavi here," Sylvius said, pulling up his contacts and starting a call. "A good yacht will do."
"Ooh! Been a while since I've been on one of those!"
"I'll hire a few sushi chefs then." Sylvius's eyes glanced to regard Cross again before turning his gaze to the dark skyline outside. The line picked up after the first ring. After all, leaving it to the second is just bad business. "Good morning, Lia. Party of three. Full tour."
"Of course. Which service would you like, sir?"
"Discretion, thank you."
"And the catering?"
"Well armed," Sylvius replied, turning on his heel as he started walking deeper into the room.
"Your yacht will be ready for departure in an hour at port seven 'S', your favorite. It's nice hearing from you again, Syl."
"Likewise." Syl snapped his scroll closed as he paused in his step, glancing back to Cross. "Interested in dinner? I'm buying."
"I could go for some food, after earlier," Cross said with a sigh.
Sylvius smiled. "Excellent. I know just the place."
I waded through the stares of several teens as I made my way through the bullhead bay. One of the downsides to having an open compartment with exterior access and seats lining the walls was the lack of privacy.
So the worried gazes constantly shooting Kitsuki's and Arex's way was really starting to get annoying.
Kit's gaze didn't track to me until I crouched in front of her, resting my arms on my knees as I gave her and the unconscious phoenix a careful, unguarded gaze.
"Everything alright?" I asked, keeping my voice even, but not low. The others probably wanted to hear this too.
The kitsune's gaze flashed between me, the gazes around her, and her exhausted partner… eyes eventually turning to the floor past her upward curled legs and tightly encircled tails.
She started typing on Arex's scroll, since her injured arm was still limp. 'She's not waking u-'
"She needs rest, and won't be awake for a little while," I cut her off, keeping my attention on the way Kitsuki flinched slightly and lowered her hand. "I was referring to you."
Her tails tightened just a little around her bent legs. And for a moment, she tried to fake a look of relief and gratification, but it fell when I gave her a disbelieving stare.
'I'm fine.' Kit typed, her gaze falling away from mine now.
She wasn't fine. She was shaken up, still mentally reeling from everything that happened. With Sylvius, with Arex, with everything the Maestro did amidst the chaos, her lingering fear was still written across her face. She still dreaded she wasn't safe from the problem yet.
I sighed to myself. I wasn't good with upbeat one-liners or words of hope. I was better at stifling both of those and trampling them into the dirt, because it didn't matter in the end. At least, it never mattered to me.
Selfishness wasn't going to put this kitsune at ease here.
"I guess that was a 'sick burn', huh big brother?" I heard Ciel say in the awkward silence of the bullhead.
"Haha, so funny…" Dante replied as I glanced back, seeing him flicking his sister in the forehead.
Maybe it was better to leave the mental security blanket to Arex. The best I could do was offer a secured lock over physical security.
So I glanced back to the kitsune and made her a promise. "I'll be hanging around for a while. You don't have to worry about him coming back."
Her eyes didn't flick back to me until the last two words of what I said, and then I watched what it meant register in her mind.
Sylvius wasn't going to step foot in an area that reinforced, especially if characters like Dante and Inuba were around to add to the tally.
That, and we knew about him and his intentions now. Not all of his intentions, just the ones regarding Kitsuki. That was the only intention that mattered at the moment.
It made him predictable now.
"Hard to imagine him ever getting so close to any of us again. Unless he targets the weaker links if they're ever alone," Dante stated.
It wasn't that hard to get someone alone. "We don't know his limits right now in what he avoids, but we can assume he doesn't know about our safe haven. She'll be able to lie low there," I said.
As far as we knew, he had nothing on Lylac's apartment or its location. And there was a safe bet Ray had it specifically placed off the grid across any records of the place existing under Lylac's name.
"He knew us down to the finest points with exception to me," Dante replied back, casually singling himself out. "He even managed to plan around you. I think you're not the kind of person to fall for the same trick twice, but… what's stopping him really from trying again?"
"Nothing," I answered. There wasn't anything truly stopping him right now, save for a few assumptions. "But we know about him now and what he can do. It wouldn't be hard to assume he knows that, and needs time to figure something else out to deal with us again. Scattered or not."
"Right… As it stands, you and I are the two 'undefined' variables that are going to be hard to pin down and plan around. Unfortunately, he has his partner the Midnight Huntsman that acts as an equally undefined variable. And his lacky that tried murdering me a bit ago before this nonsense tonight," Dante listed off.
Was he purposefully trying to make Kitsuki feel worse? "We talked about the Midnight Huntsman at my bar, and I said he wasn't my problem so long as he kept away from what I own," I replied, my gaze leveling on the floor for a few moments before looking back to Kit. "If this keeps up, I won't be able to say that anymore. So he'll need to be taken care of too."
"We seem to keep bumping into each other a lot, so hopefully I get the chance," Dante said with a shrug. "But this guy… He's got no morals or anything binding him down if he wants something. If any of us has something he wants, safe to say he'll pay any of us a visit when he damn well pleases."
"Then don't have something he wants." I drew my gaze past the window, watching Beacon's lake drift by beneath the clouds. We were getting close to the school now. "And considering you ran into him 'a lot' and still haven't taken care of him by now, then make sure you have at least one more competent person with you to handle him the next time he shows up."
"Hey, we've technically fought twice by now excluding his minion." Dante's gaze shot to the side to spot out the resident blue-haired rabbit faunus sitting nearby. "Thankfully, our TA helped me kick his ass a bit."
"Who, me? Oh, I didn't do all that much handsome!" The word 'handsome' actually made me cringe. "Besides, you did most of the work. I just kept him off balance."
"It helped though."
"Then take one more person if she wasn't enough. We don't need to fight both Sylvius and your Midnight Huntsman on both fronts," I cut in, glancing over to the TA as well. The girl had an ice Affinity, which should've been enough when paired with whatever Dante could do.
It only made their inability to get rid of him more disappointing. Either that, or one of them was holding back.
And as much as I wanted to blame Dante for that one, I doubt it was him.
So why the hell would someone as strong as Elisia not care enough to actually put her power forward?
"Who's this minion you keep mentioning?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the TA as we started our descent toward the airdocks.
She happily stared back.
"A bitch that likes to kick a lot," Dante answered. "And uses black ice that lessened the effectiveness of my Aura based attacks."
Another ice user? "Maybe I'll run into her sometime. Give her a try," I replied lowly this time, slowly dragging my gaze away from the only ice user on the airship. Aside from Weiss. "What does she look and sound like?"
"Hard to say. She wore a kind of helmet mask that I'm pretty sure changed her voice a bit. She was lithe all around, save for the legs, which were actually… impressive." Dante seemed to have his priorities straight… "And she was fast too. Way too fast for a normal person. And… she really liked toying with me."
If she was all that… "Then this conversation stops here," I said. If there was so much as a hint of suspicion on this aircraft that someone was playing us, then that conversation needed to die. Now. "We're here anyway."
I stood as I said that. I'd already let slip about a safe haven, but I was careful not to mention any locations. And surprisingly, I was glad Dante didn't either.
If that suspicion led to being informed on, that location being revealed might've destroyed our plans before we even made them.
"Alright kids," Maide's voice spoke out from the cockpit's doorway, the young woman strutting out just far enough to lean against the open frame. "I don't want anyone falling as they jump out of this thing, so watch your step. We're not exactly landing."
Considering the tight schedule to get to Ly's, I'd rather we not stop for too long anyway.
"B-Before we go," Ruby's voice cut in, and my eyes snapped to her as the bay door began to open amidst our low hover. "Can I ask you something?"
"You already are," I deadpanned, watching her fidget around in her seat.
Yang leaned forward to cover for her. "She wants to know if we'll be seeing Arex around school any time soon. And if we'll be able to see her when she's okay."
"We understand the need for secrecy, but…" Weiss spoke up as well.
Apparently she couldn't find the words to admit she was worried too. And Blake was sitting there having trouble saying something at all.
"If we can figure out how to make the campus grounds safer than where you had initiation," I replied, the bay door just barely touching down against the airdock platform now. "Then I don't see her staying away for too long."
"Yeah, don't worry about that too much! We've got you guys covered!" Dante said with a reassuring smile and thumbs up of his armored hand.
They had plenty to worry about, even if you say that.
The few teams present, and the TA, all hopped their way off the bay door and onto school grounds. Aside from worrying about Arex, and what our next plans were, they looked mostly relieved to be back on familiar turf.
I wondered if they had the foresight to get themselves checked for injuries on top of that. All of them tanked the low end of Arex's blast at the manor.
"You're not coming handsome?" Elisia asked with a coy smile. If she was putting up an act, it was a damn good act.
"No. Gotta get back to my partner for the time being, so I'm going with. And hey, you two idiots better not burn down the school like you almost did a few days ago fighting over pudding! I mean it!" Dante shouted to his siblings.
They only gave him their thumbs up as they walked away.
"And do your homework!"
Sure… like that's the important part.
A few of them waved goodbye as we slowly lifted off from where we hovered, door quietly closing again to shut them away.
Good.
We didn't need to keep Ano and Ly waiting.
"So… Got any other hobbies besides being a bartender? Or making onions cry just by glaring at them?" Dante asked.
I slowly turned my gaze back to the supposed immortal as he smiled at me. It was somehow grating.
"Hey, just asking. You've got some seriously freaky abilities," he said with a chuckle as he leaned forward. "And quite frankly, they're a little bit intimidating. It's not often people give me chills."
"That's too bad," I replied, stifling my instinctual response to see every word he spoke as annoying. "I was actually considering mentioning something about a spirit animal, a date, an unexpected faunus child, and carrots… but that wouldn't be freaky enough for you."
"Dude, anything small or boring is enough. Details man!" Dante's eyes lit up. "What was the spirit animal? Who was the date with? Is the faunus child just a child or something more? And were the carrots tasty enough? Most importantly, who was the date with?"
And just like that, his personality switched again. It wasn't as aggravating as all the times he did it before, at least. "A grimm, a brunette, just a child, and she ate three."
"What kind of Grimm? Dragon? Minotaur? Panther? And who was the brunette? Someone we know or go to school with?" the immortal spoke with some excitement to his tone.
"Ask the grimm yourself if you see him," I replied, carefully deciding whether or not I should even answer the rest of his questions. It's up to the lion if he wanted to kill Dante or make friends with him. "You've met her. And considering the date was a front for an investigative unraveling that could hardly be called a genuine conversation, then you can probably figure her name out."
"Mmm… There's thirty seven different brunettes I've met coming here… Which one, which one… Oh!" Realization seemed to dawn on him. "No way. Ice Cream girl? How'd that happen?"
"She stalked me through a forest and into an ocean. Then we ate dinner," I replied. Part of me wondered what he'd make of that list, the other part was just annoyed.
"Ooh! The aggressive type! Fun!"
He had no idea what she was capable of…
Co-Author: HydraFlow
Co-Author: andy2396
I'm part of a Discord server now? Link below.
Shorter chapters now to make things more digestible. Some Niro too. Just in case you forgot, whenever you see any chapter written in first person, that's Niro. He's actually choosing to stick around for once, too, which is kind of unexpected from him…
But they'll need the sense of security. Sleepovers might get a little dicey though with how he interacts with the others. Particularly with Dante and Ray.
You'll also notice a new perspective in this chapter. I wanted to give a bit of a look into Sylvius as well, now that he's more introduced. What do you think of him?
You saw him from Arex's perspective, but now this is a bit more behind the scenes. So I'm curious what you might think.
For the omake, Shepherd239 mentioned an idea that I wanted to test. What would happen if I pulled Xera from XSRA's Flame and dropped him in front of Arex?
So I did.
If you don't know who that is, feel free to skip this omake. Though I still think there's a little humor in there you might enjoy whether or not you get the full reference.
For now, Favorite and Follow the story.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP
Also! If you wanted to speak with me more freely, I'm part of a Discord server with a handful of authors. Feel free to drop in and say hi and stay if you want to stick around.
[ discord . gg / YU8A6Bp ]
Don't forget to remove the spaces if you do use the link. FFN is finicky with formatting.
Omake: by Xera Stark
Arex sat with Nira calmly settled in her lap, eyes cautiously regarding the boy sitting across from her. They'd ran into him during their trip to the mall and he offered to buy them something to eat in the food court… but she couldn't shake an awkwardly familiar feeling from looking at him.
"Sorry if it was a little out of the blue offering you food like this," the boy apologized, sitting back in his chair with his hands tucked away in his hoodie's front pocket. "My name's Xera."
"Right…" Arex felt Nira's head perk up at hearing the boy's name, but she focused her attention on his eyes. They were the same colors as hers. "I'm Arex."
Xera gave a thoughtful expression before returning to his calm and casual demeanor, meeting the phoenix's gaze. "I'm a little lost here and you looked like someone I could ask for help."
Did she…? "Okay… What did you need help with?" Arex's voice fell into a light and airy tone, unsure of whether or not she'd even be able to help the stranger.
"You might not believe it, but I'm kinda stuck here…" Xera shrugged his shoulders and let his eyes roam around the mall's interior. "From a different reality, I guess."
Oh…
"I believe it," Arex answered in a surprisingly calm voice. "It's not the first time it's happened."
Nira and Xera gave the girl a mildly shocked look before Arex saw a flash of yellow spark in the boy's irises.
Wait…
"Xera, why… do your eyes keep changing color?" Arex slowly asked, tightening her little hold on Nira's body to hold her still.
Xera's expression grew calm again. "Same reason yours do."
"You too?" Arex realized, getting a nod from him. "Your reality has our kind?"
"I think yours has a bit more of an abundance than mine does, but yes. I'm a phoenix," Xera answered plainly, taking his hands out of his hoodie pocket now to rest his arms on the table between them. "Do you think you can get me home?"
"Maybe?" Arex was starting to struggle with keeping Nira still, the girl incessantly turning her gaze back and forth between the two talking. Like she was comparing them in excruciating detail. "To be honest, I don't really know how the bridges between realities work."
"That's fine. But I had a feeling there may have been a certain immortal wandering about here. I think they'd know a way," Xera replied, his gaze flicking down to see Nira's attentive eyes now. "Is she always this engaged?"
"N-No, she's usually really distracted…" Arex mumbled, staring down as Nira's delicate brow furrowed and her lips pursed. "Nira, you can tell us what's on your mind. You look bothered…"
Nira's gaze met Arex's for a moment before it turned to Xera again, then brought it back to Arex unsurely. "You two look like you're staring into a mirror."
Did… they?
Arex glanced up to Xera for a moment before meeting Nira's gaze again.
"I didn't think we were that similar…" Arex replied.
Nira's face scrunched up at the blatant ignorance of those words and gave Arex the most serious look she could muster. "We need to get him home. Seeing two of you is confusing."
"But we're not the same…" Xera agreed slowly, drawing Nira's gaze his way.
"You two even sound the same," the half-pint pouted, giving a soft whine. "We should go find Danni."
"Danni?" the boy quirked a brow at the name before realization hit him. "Oh… he's a girl here."
"N-Not usually, but yeah… he is," Arex replied, watching a moment of confusion pass through Xera's eyes before sighing at Nira. "If you want to get her, go ahead-"
"Arex!" Anoel's voice echoed through the food court like a stake straight through Arex's coffin. "There you ar- who's this?"
Anoel's query abruptly stopped as she stopped, eyes snapping onto Xera in his seat with the attentive lethality of a squirrel.
"I'm Xera," the boy answered, then brought his gaze back to Arex. "You… have a sister?"
"Unfortunately," Arex replied, getting a scowl from Ano. "But I love her."
"You better! I don't take care of my sweet adorable little sister for nothing." Anoel draped her arms over Arex's shoulders and trapped her in her chair, kissing the top of the younger phoenix's head before her attention focused on Xera. "Why do you and Arex look so similar?"
"W-We're not the same." "We're not the same."
Arex and Xera's voices blended together as they both responded to Anoel out of reflex, but Arex's was easily distinguishable from the stutter alone. And the shared moment immediately brought a light orange to their irises in embarrassment.
"Right…" Anoel slowly replied, not a hint of belief in her tone. "Can I adopt you?"
Xera's mouth opened to respond, but he silently closed it at realizing he didn't have one.
Something Arex often did…
"It's settled. I'm getting the legal documents," Anoel said, squeezing Arex in her arms before standing up straight. "Ly! I'm getting us a smol phoenix boy!"
Ano's voice loudly sounded through the bustling food court just as Lylac walked up, Rae's hand tightly locked in hers. "I thought this family was 'yuri only'."
"Shit, you're right," Anoel's face soured before she looked down to Nira. "What river did you say you fell into again?"
"We're not throwing him in a river!" Arex hesitantly declared, staring up at her sister in disbelief.
"If we can turn him into a girl then I'm happy to throw him in!" Ano argued.
Arex grimaced, her voice coming out more and more confused. "W-Why do you want him so bad?!"
"Because I want two of you!" Anoel grinned as Arex's face suddenly flushed red, matching Xera's confused embarrassment. "Alright Xera, you're coming with me. I'll strip you if you don't want your clothes getting wet."
The boy visibly stiffened in his seat before he slowly started to get up. "I-I… think I'm going to find my own way home."
Anoel's smirk grew. "I can help you with that afterward."
Arex did not like that smile…