(AN: I got a few questions about why Markus isn't angry over Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Nora, and Ren abandoning him at Beacon. And it's a multi-part answer.
One - he is still angry, but given the situation he's in, trekking across Mistral and preparing for months on end, he's more or less set aside those feelings, not willing to jeopardize the relic over personal feelings. Yang is an exception because of the direct physical harm and the torturous aftereffects she'd subjected him to.
Two - he's distracted. As said in part one, he's too focused on the Mistral arc of the volumes and has been trying to ignore his personal feelings over the matter, hence why he subconsciously activated Mettle over it.
Three - he's scared of pushing them away. Like how his secret was exposed, while he holds contempt over the others for leaving him at his weakest, he still harbors some of that blame for himself, thinking it could've been avoided if he hadn't been so secretive, which he felt made him look like a villain after Adam exposed it.
I originally didn't plan on Yang going back together with Markus, but given circumstances, personal feelings the two may have, as well as more character development yet to come, things may change in the future. The love interests for Markus are: Yang and Emerald, with Liya being a hard maybe.)
"If I knew we were going to rent a whole house for ourselves, I probably shouldn't have bought all of those extra sleeping bags yesterday," Pyrrha said sheepishly as she leaned on the wall and yawned, as it was very early in the morning.
"Don't worry about it," Jaune reassured his girlfriend. "We'll probably end up using them as we keep traveling. Better to have and not need than need and not have, you know? Plus, I don't wanna give up my sleeping bag."
"Still, we'll have our own rooms now," Liya said, looking around the area as she walked inside. "Much better than a single cramped hotel room."
We were in our new temporary house, a rentable residence big enough for all of us to live , plan, and even train in. Pyrrha had stepped in to pay for this as well, since she was the richest out of all of us. We refused Roman's offer of paying since none of the money he had was his anyway.
The house was different from what the main characters had stayed in throughout Volume 5, it was larger, a bit more luxurious, and came with a spacious backyard for training purposes. It was near an empty part of the city, fairly far from the hotel we had stayed at earlier. There were several empty rooms, alongside many beds available. It even had two kitchens, four bathrooms, a basement, and much more.
Qrow had one room, and Roman had another. Reese and Emerald shared - much to the latter's annoyance - as did Nora with Ren and Jaune with Pyrrha. Liya insisted on sharing a room with me, and Ruby would room with Oscar.
Vernal had been smuggled out of the hotel via portal, mainly me and her waiting in the room before I used my own semblance to copy Raven's portal semblance , taking us both to Ruby at the rented home before tossing her into the basement. Vernal was surprisingly compliant, though sulking, no longer thrashing as if she had rabies. She did smell bad though, I wonder if they even let her have a shower. I didn't even want to think about who had to let her use the restroom.
The basement was large and spacy, as well as dark and damp. It was very empty, save for a sleeping bag and several bottles of water and ration bars. I recalled Roman kicking her down the stairs to the basement with a haughty "Hah," resulting in a rageful "MMHJGBHKJN" from Vernal before the thief shut the basement and dusted off his gloved hands. Roman had his gray scarf back as well, having washed it three times while Qrow used a cleaner white rag he bought as a gag for Vernal.
For today, we were all relaxing, taking the time to just spend time together. I was talking about this amazing game world called "Dungeons and Dragons" and everyone was listening with interest. With all the chaos and emotions we'd gone through, no one had thought to ask me what my world was like. Ruby was the first to ask, specifically what kind of movies and fun things Earth had.
I almost cried when I realized how in the many months...no, probably over a year I'd been here at this point, that I never really talked about my old life. And so, I started with Dungeons and Dragons. Specifically, the extensive process that was making a character, statistics, personality, weapons, equipment, a backstory, and much much more.
Then there was the idea of making our own parties to travel in, and the idea of a Dungeon Master was appealing. We spent hours working out the concept, and we decided to write up our own campaign, based off of stuff from video games, fantasy books and various other franchises, ultimately making a mish mash of history that still involved mechashift weaponry.
In the end, we all ended up making fantasy versions of ourselves, except for Jaune, who went out of his way to make his character look cooler, and Pyrrha, who went out of her way to make sure her character ended up with Jaune's as soon as possible. Emerald decided to model her character after Roman, snarky, one to always get in trouble, as well as a horrible ladies man. He didn't appreciate that very much.
All the while, we ended up making a list of stuff we needed to buy, which included lots of six sided and twenty sided die, whiteboards and markers, and a bunch more stuff. Qrow went out to get all these things, as we all wrote up our character sheets on paper.
Oscar was the most excited, never having played such a big group game before, or any game in general. Ozpin surprisingly didn't interfere, no doubt interested in what mess of a story we built. After Qrow got back, we managed to start, with Roman being the dungeon master.
While Roman could make for a great dungeon master with how theatrical he could be, he also made for one incredibly annoying and broken one with all the obstacles he threw in our way. One example was Roman deciding to throw a brothel in the first village we stopped by, making our first quest to be all the girls to stop all the boys from being seduced by the drunk strippers who used their feminine wiles on us.
While Roman was being very hard to deal with, it was still a lot of fun. We ended up spending some more of our relaxation time on our own after lunch. I was going to train on my own when Liya stopped me.
"Look Markus, I know we haven't talked much after we finally reunited," Liya said right off the bat. "But are you alright?"
"What do you mean?" I asked. "We did talk. We hung out, trained-"
"I mean we never really talked. Not only one on one, but...you never really wondered how we were doing. It was an 'are you alright?' then a 'back to plotting against the queen of the Grimm and her army' like...what happened?" Liya asked. I looked down at my prosthetic, and Liya backtracked immediately. "S-sorry, bad question-"
"No, you're right," I said. "I'm sorry. I really have been distracted, huh?"
"Yeah, but I get it," Liya said before pulling me into a tight hug, leaning on the wall. "I can understand, I really do. I just hope you'll let us help."
I chuckled as I nuzzled my partner. It was just like old times back in Beacon, the two of us helping each other because we were basically tied at the hip. I frowned softly before looking up at Liya.
"...Jaune and Pyrrha visited me," I said. "On Ironwood's ship, while I was healing. Why didn't you come see me?"
Liya looked sheepishly away. "I...I knew Ironwood was helping you. He told me you were having the best medical care with no expense to you or any of us. And so...I thought you didn't need me. Plus everyone was still dead set on you being some traitor before Ironwood explained everything like a few weeks later and I got all caught up trying to defend you and recovering and-"
"Hey. It's alright," I said sadly, trying not to seem like she hurt me. She really didn't, but I was afraid of sending the wrong message. "Things were rough. But...I really needed someone, you know? Therapy was lonely...and grueling. My arm still hurts...or rather, where my arm used to be."
Liya held my prosthetic, clasping her fingers around the wrist, and I let out a shuddery sigh. "I still feel pain. Phantom pains never go away. And I'd rather not take medication for it, if it even exists...I wanna use this as well as Yang's probably using hers. I don't want it to be a crutch..." I whispered.
"You know," Liya said after a few moments of silence. "I tried to beat up Yang when I heard she assaulted you at Beacon. When I heard Ironwood say that you were found broken, bleeding...at the verge of death. When you see Yang again-"
"I don't know," I said. "I never stopped loving her. I don't think I can. And Yang was in a blind rage when she did that to me. She was...emotional. We all were. From what I've heard, she doesn't even know what she did to me."
"If she sees it, I hope she breaks down crying, begging for your forgiveness," Liya said in a rare show of spite. I wasn't really surprised, I'd likely want to see something similar if someone hurt Liya as badly as I did. Scratch that, if someone hurt Liya period.
"I...don't want that. It'd feel awkward," I said. "Honestly, I'd run."
"Ooh, that's even better," Liya said. "I wanna see her cry after the object of her affection denies her love and runs away from the consequences of her actions."
"...you're sick, you know that?" I said. Liya giggle before she pet my ears.
"You know...I could braid your hair," she whispered. "Or give it a nice ponytail. You look really nice with it."
"You notice how I'm skinnier too?" I asked sarcastically. "Reese brought up how more feminine I am." Liya responded by gripping my hips, making me arc my back and twist in an attempt to get out of her hold. My hips were sort of ticklish.
"You have wide hips. You sure they aren't for bearing children?" Liya teased.
"I'd really rather not test that," I said, successfully breaking free. "I really need to build up more muscle mass, I spent weeks knocked out after Beacon."
"I dunno, your clothes fit you quite nicely with your figure now," Liya said.
"It doesn't matter about looking nice, the fact is I have to keep getting stronger if we're gonna go up against Cinder," I said.
"You've been training nonstop from what Oscar told me," Liya said. "Seriously, you look less girly than you did at Beacon. You're a lot stronger already. Take a breather, alright?"
I was about to rebuke, but I refrained. The last thing I wanted to do was force an argument with my partner, especially after we finally had the chance to talk for real. "I..." I said before Ruby slammed the door open.
"Weiss is back!" Ruby screamed before racing to the living room using her semblance. Liya and I immediately forgot our former conversation and rushed to the living room after the speedster. We'd clean up the rose petals later.
JNPR was currently surrounding Weiss Schnee in her Volume 4 dress, holding a few bags of luggage. Weiss was laughing as Jaune and Nora hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her closed eyes as she embraced them without restraint. Qrow was watching from the kitchen, smiling as he swirled his flask.
Weiss hugged Ruby next, before croaking for Ruby to quit straining her bones with her intense grip. After Ruby let go, Weiss turned to see me and Liya, gasping shortly. I noticed her eyes trail down to my prosthetic, and I just knew she was going to get emotional.
"Hi...ice queen," I said sheepishly. Weiss jumped over and tackled me in a hug, burying her head in my shoulder as she squeezed my neck.
"I missed you...so, so much!" she whimpered. "I'm so sorry."
I hugged her back, smiling. "I missed you too...and please stop apologizing? I'm still too ticked off to talk about that." I really didn't want to dwell on it, since I'd only forgiven the others for abandoning me for the sake of not getting distracted. And the fact everyone was still bringing it up was annoying as hell.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if I could really stay cool with them. Like with Yang, I was remembering their abandonment of me, and I was really scared I'd blow up at them if they kept pushing apologies. The last thing I wanted was to push them away. As upset as I was with them, I really needed to push aside the memories of Beacon if we wanted to save the world.
After a hug from Liya, Weiss began to tell us of everything that happened in Atlas. She talked about all the parties her father forced her to attend, much like the fundraiser Liya and I attended after the Breach, and she talked about how Ironwood and Robyn Hill all supported her in her plans to run from Atlas. She talked about how Ironwood explained the situation in Vale, and how Atlas was providing relief and repair aid to the kingdom in hopes of recovering what was lost to the Grimm.
She talked about how she bribed a cargo airship to get to Mistral, and how the Atlesian battleship and its squadrons of Manta airships destroyed a swarm of Lancers and conveniently turned a blind eye to the cargo airship while saving several other airships in the process when passing over Lake Matsu. Apparently, Jacques had learned of his daughter's disappearance within hours and had demanded a search for her at once, which wasn't an issue for Atlas to do, given that Ironwood never called for an embargo nor the closing of borders.
The Atlesian battleship was over Lake Matsu not only to patrol the borders of Anima, but also to search every Atlesian ship that passed by. Fortunately, Ironwood was looking out for Weiss. I made sure to text him a message of gratitude for that.
Weiss even talked about the debacle at one of the parties her father forced her to sing at, when she accidentally summoned a boarbatusk that nearly mauled one of the snobby partygoers, and we all had a good laugh at that. I remembered that scene, especially General Ironwood's remark over Weiss needing to be locked up.
"Ironwood is such a cool guy," Liya chuckled. "He just walked away after saying thanks?"
"Yes," Weiss said, having gotten over her slight embarrassment over her breakdown in the party as she sighed. Smiling, she giggled. "Winter was there too. She smiled at me when that happened."
"That bitch deserved it in my opinion," Nora said, and we all laughed at the dead tone she used, Nora joining in later. Our laughter stopped when Emerald entered the living room.
"Reese is still napping like the dead," she said as she rubbed her eyes, unaware at how Weiss had gone deathly still. "What'd I miss?"
Everyone in the living room leapt and tackled Weiss to the ground before she could whip out Myrtenaster and summon something that could kill Emerald or destroy the house. "Emerald is on our side!" Ruby cried.
"What are you talking about?!" Weiss demanded as she struggled with the weight of all of us on top of her. Eventually, she calmed down long enough for us to get off and explain the situation. We told her about how the only reason she was with Cinder in the first place was because she was a street urchin, Cinder being the only hope at a better life she had. Weiss's anger slowly dissipated when I explained what Emerald had to go through under Cinder - being ordered around with her blind loyalty being completely taken advantage of.
Weiss looked down, likely wondering if this was how she could've ended up, had she continued to serve Jacques Schnee the way Emerald felt the need to obey Cinder. "Well, I suppose I understand. But she still did very terrible things! People died because of her actions!" Weiss pointed out.
"And Cinder tried to murder her," Qrow chimed in. "Plus, she's been trying to make up for it for a while now. She's been pretty helpful."
Ruby blinked before blushing. "Oh yeah. Don't get mad, but Roman Torchwick is on our side too," she said. I face palmed at that, at Ruby forgetting subtlety and the fact that we forgot to bring him up as well.
Weiss nearly summoned the Arma Gigas when she heard that.
I sat Weiss down and explained the situation I was in. How I was brought back by the gods to fix their mistake not unlike how they had Ozpin - or more appropriately, Ozma - do the same. I told her how I changed events to avoid the eventual victory Salem would have, and how I worked with people like Qrow, Ironwood, and Ozpin to prepare the world more for Salem's eventual onslaught.
Ozpin vouched for everything I just said, and the both of us further explained Salem's capabilities and history. Weiss's emotions were varyingly conflicted when we brought up Ozma's curse and cycle of constant death and reincarnation, how he'd been forced to fight Salem because the Gods themselves couldn't be trusted to fix their own mistake.
After much more explaining, and Weiss needing to go find her own room to sleep in, we all decided to cook dinner as a group when the time came. Though, I chose to cook something a little earlier, for Vernal to eat. I was seriously wondering if she would go mad from being stuck in such a cramped body position for days on end, even if there was plenty of space in the basement for her to roll around.
I made a few hot chicken and veggie sandwiches and brought them down to the basement, only to see Vernal lying in place, still tied up and looking very miserable. She looked at me before narrowing her eyes in a poor attempt at intimidation. But all I could see was basically a kicked and tied up puppy.
"Seriously? I swear, it's like everyone forgets about you," I grumbled, selectively putting aside the fact that I'd forgotten about the bandit as well. Setting the plate of sandwiches down, I moved to untie her so that she could move around. I was fairly certain that she was tied in place for most of the time we had her.
I was later proven correct when she bolted right for the basement door, shoving me aside in the process, only to collapse with an agonized scream behind her gag, hearing cracking as her arms and legs seized up and cramped badly. She didn't make it more than a foot before flopping on the floor, legs and arms locked in awkward positions.
I couldn't help but wince. "Ohhhh...OK..." I said awkwardly before I pulled her back from the stairs and towards the wall so she could lean against it. Luckily, she was in too much pain to try and fight me off. Cramps were an absolute bitch to deal with. I was pretty sure she was either crying or just screaming in raw anger from the pain, so I waited for her to quit screaming over the pain.
Ruby walked down the stairs of the open basement to see me sitting next to a moaning Vernal, cradling her own arms and legs. "Oh no...did Roman forget to untie her?" she grumbled.
"Forget?" I asked knowingly. "He literally kicked her down the stairs while she was still tied up, remember?"
"Weiss wants to talk to you," Ruby sighed as she shook her head at Roman's somewhat sadistic tendencies. "Do you mind?"
"Nah. just wanted to make sure she's not being starved," I said before getting up. "You gonna make sure she's alright?"
Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose. "She'll be fine," she said before nodding her head towards the stairs. I got up and headed to the door, making my way to Weiss's room. I found her on her bed, scroll in hand. When she saw me, she put her scroll aside and quickly patted her hand on the spot on the bed next to her.
Raising an eyebrow, I sat next to Weiss, realizing just how much of a height advantage I had on her. "Is something the matter?" I asked, concerned for the former Schnee heiress.
Weiss fiddled nervously with her fingers before sighing. "Can I...do you think I can braid your hair?" she whispered.
I was surprised. "Really?" I asked. "You can do that?"
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, suddenly offended as she placed her hands on her hips, even though we were sitting.
"I thought you had servants who did that stuff for you 24/7 or something," I said. Weiss smacked my arm, and I laughed for a bit. I guess it made sense for Weiss to know how to do her own hair, especially since she has that ludicrously large braid in Volume 7 and 8.
"Do you want me to do your hair or not?" Weiss asked, pouting. I decided not to bring up the fact that she wanted to do my hair in the first place, but I wisely fell silent. I was actually curious as to what my hair would look like in a braid. She hummed quietly to herself, mainly the songs she sang before like Mirror Mirror. When she was done about five minutes later, she showed me what I looked like in the wall mirror of the room.
I looked even more like a girl than I already did. She'd given me a long and thin French braid on the left side of the back of my head. When I stood up, it went down to the base of my back. I wasn't sure if it was this long before the braid, but Weiss managed to make her own hair even longer with the braid she sported in Volume 7, after all. I looked pretty good.
"Thanks," I said as I turned around to get a good look at the hair. I didn't notice before, but my bangs had grown out as well, and were swept to the side. Since Weiss only did my braid, I was pretty sure it was my natural look. "Man, I feel sexy."
Weiss giggled, and I forgot about feeling angry at her for a second. "About Yang-" she said.
And those feelings were back.
I didn't wait to hear any more of what she had to say, standing up quickly to leave the room. Weiss grabbed my robotic arm at once, pulling me back down before I could get away. "You have to listen!" she demanded.
"Nope," I said, before detaching my arm, causing her to stumble back onto the bed. With lightning fast reflexes, she locked the door with a gravity glyph on the doorknob. Knowing I was stuck, I had to turn around and face that insufferable smirk she'd no doubt have at winning.
She didn't. She was looking at me in an expression of clear concern. "You can't keep avoiding this. You know we'll see her again. You have to talk to her," she said.
"I...I'll talk to her when I see her," I said. "Do you seriously want me to talk to her after months of radio silence over a scroll?"
"No. But Ruby told me how you and Vernal got here," Weiss said.
No.
"No, I refuse," I said. "You want me to portal to Yang and go 'wassup bitch' like nothing ever happened?"
Weiss cringed. "Goodness, no! Not in those words! I already told Yang to expect you and...you talk. You'll need to get over your demons if we're going to be prepared for the battle you say will happen," she said.
"I'm not ready. Not yet," I said.
"You'll never be ready if this keeps up! You can't be ready for something like this. Do you know how long it took me to work up the courage to leave home for Beacon?" Weiss asked. "And it was hard for me to leave home recently too! I wanted to go back to you so much, and I was scared because...my father still had control over me..."
She turned and looked out of the window with a forlorn expression. "But I finally did. And I feel much better for it. Don't you want to feel liberated? To work past your obstacles?" she asked softly.
"I...do you really think she wants to see me?" I asked. It was a terrible question, and we both knew it. I knew Yang was too nervous to contact me, but I was too scared of what would happen, of what I might do.
Would I even be able to handle it?
There was no way I could avoid it forever. Maybe seeing Yang and getting it over with would help? Maybe we could set aside what happened at Beacon and forgive each other? Maybe she and I could be girlfriend and boyfriend once again?
I honestly didn't know. And that scared me to death.
Weiss just turned and looked at me, clearly expecting an answer. She didn't answer my previous question either. "I really don't know," I said. "I just...I can't think about it. Every time I do, I just...I see Yang when she blasted off my arm. And...it's nightmare fuel."
"She doesn't even know you have a prosthetic arm!" Weiss exclaimed.
"And what do you think she'll do when she finds out?" I asked. "She'd feel bad. She'll beg me to forgive her, or she'll avoid me even more. I...I need to find a way to tell her so we don't end up in this stupid cycle of depression." Weiss fell silent, and I sighed. "Just...please drop it?" I asked.
I received a somewhat angry nod, and the glyph locking the door was lifted. I left and headed to my room, flopping in bed out of sheer exhaustion and anxiety. That conversation took a whole lot more out of me than I expected. Honestly, I was sick of the others bringing up Yang all the time, always asking me what I'd do if I saw her again.
They didn't understand that I just did not have an answer, that I didn't know what I'd do. That I was afraid of what would happen if I saw her. I know it's weird, but this was a situation I felt should best be delayed. At least until Haven gets attacked.
Yawning, I rolled over in bed and sighed. "Why did things have to turn out this way..." I mumbled. I was really surprised Raven hadn't come in yet to try and rescue Vernal. Then again, Qrow did manage to deliver a letter stating to meet them at Haven in less than a month for Vernal, resulting in us having to speed up preparations and training. Oscar was improving fast, thanks to Ozpin, but he didn't do very well under pressure.
Plus, we had the advantage of forcing our opponents to speed up their own preparation. There was no guarantee of how things would still go. It was agonizing to be waiting for the upcoming engagement, and it was difficult to stay focused with training when the possibility of death was practically around the corner. The others had asked how the battle went, and I brought up Jaune's semblance unlocking - I didn't tell him what it was for fear of ruining its possible arrival. I also told them of Blake's return, Weiss's near death, and the details of Hazel Rainart's origins and reasons for joining Salem.
Ozpin seemed saddened for his part in Hazel's downfall, and Emerald confirmed while he was no doubt an enemy, he was still a kind man, one of the nicest she'd known. Nonetheless, we all agreed that we were not to hold back against any enemy we may come across.
I was in the backyard of the house, practicing with my belt when Qrow came up. "Hey, kid," he said. "Mind if I talk to you for a bit?"
"Go ahead," I said, practicing with a copy of Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, swinging the staff around and rehearsing on maintaining my grip on the weapon despite the fast spins.
"About Raven's offer. Did she say anything else beyond that?" Qrow asked.
"You mean other than your sister wanting me with her and her bandits so bad she offered to sleep with me? Nope, not really" I said, noting Qrow's repulsed look. "Though she did confirm something for me."
"Yeah? What's that?" Qrow asked.
"She's still too afraid of Salem to do shit," I said. "Cinder forced that alliance on her, which means she'll still play it safe and meet us at the designated time. No more fooling around, and no more tricks. Though I'm wondering if we should expose her as the Spring Maiden for Cinder."
"As much as I'd like my sister to pay for everything she's done, that other bitch with two maiden powers would be very inconvenient," Qrow mentioned. "Guess we should do her a favor and keep Raven's little secret."
"And if Vernal dies by Cinder's hand?" I asked. Cinder didn't have the Grimm arm - or the Shadow Hand as it was called - I wonder if she had that Grimm glove from when she stole half of the Fall Maiden's powers many years ago.
"We'll deal with that when we get there," Qrow said before an explosion rocked the ground. Recalling my Dust, both of us rushed to the front of the house, where all of us were running out to. "What in the..." Qrow said.
The top of the mountain was alight in flames and explosions. People around us screamed and panicked as they rushed to their homes or any other shelter they could find. "What's going on?!" Ruby cried.
"Haven's under attack!" Jaune called. He and Nora were dragging out Vernal, who was tied to Nora's arm from the rag used to gag her earlier. "We have to go, now!"
"What, is Raven attacking? Still need your bargaining chip?" Vernal asked smugly before Nora kicked her in the back of the leg. "Ow!" she yelped.
"How do we get up there?" Reese asked. She was in her normal combat attire, albeit disheveled, likely from just getting up out of bed. She looked and sounded anything but tired, however. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing rapidly.
"Airships," Qrow said. "Shit. we need to get going now!"
All of us grabbed our weapons and rushed for the nearest airfield, alarms blaring throughout the city. Pyrrha had Vernal's weapons on her sides, whilst Nora dragged Vernal along by the arm, often making her trip, forcing her to quickly scramble to her feet comedically.
Explosions continued to ring out, and the whir of Bullheads was barely heard over the sounds of the infernos and crumbling of buildings up above. I was unsure if I was the only one hearing this, but I knew without a single doubt in mind that everyone could see Bullheads, dozens of them, flying towards Haven in all directions.
"The White Fang," Weiss said, out of breath as we all ran.
"Did they jump the attack?" Roman asked.
"Not sure," I said. "Ruby, call Blake and Yang. Tell them Haven's under a preemptive attack earlier than planned."
"On it!" Ruby said at once, quickly grabbing her scroll from her pocket and calling up her teammate and sister. Reese got on her scroll and began calling someone as well.
"This is bad. If Haven's under attack now, there's no telling how many Grimm will come for the city," Ozpin said, keeping up with all of us. "Mistral will have to fight the White Fang and Grimm simultaneously."
"Shit, this is Beacon all over again," I grumbled angrily.
We arrived at the airfield within minutes. Airships were taking off one by one, loaded with Mistralian police forces and the local huntsmen and huntresses - as few as they were. One was empty, with a pilot and a few Mistral riflemen rushing inside.
"Wait for us!" Reese yelled, and a dozen plus one of us ran inside. "We have to get to Haven!"
"Students? You kids can't be here!" the pilot yelled as he began to start up the ship.
"Our school's under attack! Get us there now!" Reese screamed hoarsely, as Qrow grasped the skater girl's shoulder.
"Hey, calm down," he said before calling up to the pilot. "I'm responsible for these kids, and they aren't pushovers. Mistral's low on huntsmen and we need every fighting hand we can get."
"It's the White Fang, we can handle them," the closest rifleman said before another explosion ripped through the air above.
The second Mistralian rifleman shook his head. "Dammit, we have no time. Dust off, we'll have to make do," he ordered before grumbling to himself. "It's gonna be the fall of Vale all over again."
"Not if we can do something about it," I said. The airship took off, and joined dozens of others towards Haven. We reached the top of the mountain in minutes, and we could see that many were already in dogfights with other Bullheads already circling the academy.
The academy grounds were littered with burning debris and the destroyed twin CCT towers of Haven Academy. Barely any tall buildings remained standing. Dozens of White Fang soldiers were exchanging fire with a few huntsmen, as well as many Mistralian police forces on the ground, using fallen buildings as cover while more Bullheads came in.
"Drop us off near the Grand Hall!" Qrow ordered.
"We can't land!" the pilot said.
"No need!" Qrow said before he jumped out of the main transport hold of the airship, the rest of us following. Vernal ended up hugging Nora from behind as to not get slingshot thrown by Nora's acrobatic tendencies, angrily cursing us for being insane. I paid no mind, she likely never had to deal with a battle this big since bandits never tended to go for big fish.
We landed in the middle of all the chaos, close to the grand hall. We immediately began engaging the White Fang, sweeping aside many troops at a time. Surprise was the absolute best advantage they had, and because of it, Haven Academy was now half buildings and half rubble, almost like Beacon.
What made things worse this time around was the fact that both CCT towers in Haven were destroyed. While things wouldn't be as bad due to the fact that contact wasn't lost amidst a public event with plenty of negativity, the fact was that the kingdoms now lost contact with one another.
I was mad. No, I was absolutely drop dead furious. I didn't hold back as I sent goon after goon flying, using tendrils of Dust to swing around and plow through group after group rushing me. Qrow was covering for the others as well, cutting down one after the other with Harbinger. Roman fired up at the Bullheads, downing a few with the explosive shots from his cane.
We pushed through the chaotic scenario towards the Great Hall, which remained unharmed. Weiss froze several Faunus in place before ducking from enemy fire alongside me. "Yang and Blake are still in Menagerie!" Weiss said. "We need them now, Markus!"
I growled, though this time, not just at the idea of seeing Yang again. I was annoyed over how much of a shitshow we'd become entangled in. If I couldn't conjure up the bravery to see my ex-girlfriend, the universe would apparently force the necessity on me.
"Alright, cover me!" I said, immediately bracing as I brought up my aura. Weiss quickly conjured up an ice wall as I whipped out a portal, straight to Yang's location. "Get in there and tell them to hurry up and get on out here!"
Weiss ran in, as I smacked aside another White Fang grunt that had come around the wall of ice, ready to swing at me. Struggling to keep the portal up, I turned to see the others making it to the Grand Hall.
"Well, well, well." I turned to my left to see Adam Taurus and the White Fang lieutenant approaching. "It only makes sense that you'd see this coming and be one of the first to respond, isn't it?"
I growled, clenching my shaking fist as I felt the strain of keeping the portal open breaking down on my aura. How could Raven handle this semblance?
"I see you've done well with Sienna's forces," I said, trying to distract myself from the headaches. "Throwing them into a losing battle against the police. What kind of leader throws his pawns away like garbage at street rats?" Not the best analogy, I know.
Adam snorted before he turned to the chainsaw wielding man. "Go help our friends in the hall," he said. The lieutenant clearly hesitated, unsure of leaving his leader alone, before he eventually ran towards the Grand Hall. Adam turned back to me and drew Wilt, the long and straight red blade pointed directly at me. "So what do you hope to do, boy?" he demanded. "I've destroyed not one, but two huntsman academies now. Haven is gone, and the entire kingdom knows exactly what we can do. What we are capable of. Do you honestly think you can stop the White Fang?"
"No," I growled, gritting my teeth. "The White Fang is an idea. A movement. One you've corrupted because you want vengeance a bit too much. I don't need to stop the White Fang. I just need to stop you."
Adam grinned as he bent his knees, clearly ready to charge.
"Markus!"
I turned around to see several individuals behind me, having exited the portal I made. And good timing too. I quickly closed the wormhole, and I felt my knees buckle for a bit as I felt my aura begin to focus on replenishing. I knew I wouldn't have enough to fight for long, but I had enough to stay alive for a bit, at least.
Weiss was in front of Blake and Sun, the three of them with Myrtenaster, Gambol Shroud, and Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang respectively. Ilia Amitola had come with them, Lightning Lash in her hand albeit inactive, and Ghira Belladonna was here as well, clearly ready to fight. Blake was wearing her Volume 4 outfit with zero changes. Guess I shouldn't be surprised since her running away this time around was no different from last time.
The one I was focusing on, however, was Yang herself. She was wearing the same black pants and knee high dark brown boots in her Mistral outfit, but with the same brown belt and pleated brown piece of skirt-like fabric reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist from our days at Beacon, though without the white fabric. She had a brown jacket short enough to be showing her midriff and half opened to reveal her orange crop top, and she had her signature orange scarf.
"M-Markus?" Yang whispered. Her voice was so raspy and shaky from all the emotion, that I almost couldn't hold back my tears. Yang's lilac eyes...her beautiful lilac eyes, looked to be on the verge of welling up in tears as well.
Those lilac eyes turned red for a split second, and I turned away. "Go help Ruby and the others," I said coldly as I felt my left arm flare up in pain. "I can deal with this guy."
"Markus, you can't handle Adam, he's too strong!" Blake immediately cut in. "It's my fault that he did this, I have to-"
"Blake, shut the fuck up and listen!" I shouted. "Adam's out of your league. You can't beat him alone. And Ruby needs you. All of you. I can hold the line here."
"Do you honestly think so?" Adam asked, laughing as he began to circle me.
Sun and Ghira walked forward. "Blake, go help your team, now," Sun said, flipping his staff into his gunchuck form. "Leave this jerk to us."
"Go, Blake! And take your friend with you," Ghira said. I turned to look at him and saw just how massive he was. He had his cloak off as well, revealing his muscles.
"I-" Blake said before Ilia pulled her towards the Grand Hall. Yang hadn't moved an inch, still staring at me with a shocked and longing look. Several White Fang grunts had surrounded us now, rifles and swords at the ready.
"Markus...I..." she said, gulping nervously. Feelings lunged out as I struggled to turn away, facing Adam and bringing out my Dust in preparation for a harsh fight.
"Go. Now," I ordered. Yang stepped back, clearly shaken by my near emotionless answer, before she turned and ran, going after Blake and Ilia towards the Grand Hall. With her out of the way, I could focus on the fight
With a roar, Adam violently charged at us alongside his grunts. I remember roaring back as his sword clashed with my Dust.