A/N: Hey all! We live! Sorry about that unexpected break, you can blame that lovely Hurricane for punching poor Florida in the face and thieving my electricity for days. Thankfully, it's back now, and so are we! YAY!
Hugs,
D
"If I'm walking into a trap, avenge me."
"...'kay."
Blake could tell Yang was barely half-awake at best, but the sleepy smile and thumbs up from her partner was enough to sate her rampant paranoia. She clasped Yang's hand for a moment, giving it a light squeeze before turning and heading back out into the night.
Frowning, Blake drew her sword and made a beeline for the cracker packs. She left them on the ground as she passed them by, one by one, until finally... she made it to a pile of twisted scrap - a heaping mess of technical panels and strange mechanical parts that she couldn't quite place. The upper half of a vending machine peeked out the top. The glass was cracked wide open, but it was still filled with wrapped, perfectly edible snacks of all kinds. Though, someone had cleaned out nearly the entire bottom row, where one solitary pack of crackers remained.
It was easy to see how the others had missed it- one of the large panels leaned against it, making it invisible from the direction of the camp. But how had the trail been laid?
The wind moaned softly across the top of the coliseum. It barely stirred the dust at ground level. Nothing else moved and there was no other sound.
At first, the silence set Blake even further on edge... but the longer nothing happened, the more her white-knuckled grip on her sword loosened. Eventually, she sighed, and sheathed her sword. This was stupid. She was going to go hunt.
As she turned to go, there was a small throat-clearing noise from the edge of the junk heap.
A girl had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Her hair fell in two colors over her shoulder- the pink showing lighter in the dimness. She had a cautious look in her different colored eyes, her once white jacket was stained and torn, and she held a big cardboard sign that said 'TRUCE' in thick black marker.
Both of Blake's swords were in hand in less than a second, amber eyes blown wide at the girl standing before her. Neo. Roman Torchwick's lackey. The diminutive girl who had single-handedly shattered Yang's confidence for weeks. Blake bristled in secondhand anger... but Yang's description of the smaller girl's reactionary fighting style kept her from making any sudden moves. The sign was... also very odd. The girl Yang described would never ask for a truce... Unless... "You know you're outnumbered... don't you?"
A flicker of tired surprise crossed Neo's face and her gaze skirted Blake's, as if she were looking for the others present who were outnumbering her. Either that, or she genuinely hadn't considered being outnumbered. Regardless, she shrugged one shoulder in mild assent, taking a careful step backwards to put some extra distance between herself and Blake's swords.
Blake watched her carefully, not moving an inch from her own defensive stance. If this girl was here, Torchwick couldn't be far behind... and yet, she didn't see or hear anyone else in the near vicinity. She lifted her flattened ears to better listen for any potential sneak attacks. "...Where is Roman?"
Neo avoided Blake's eyes, her cardboard sign lowering. She gave another, smaller shrug. After a moment, she looked back up at Blake. Would she accept the truce?
Silence stretched between them, leaving room for Blake to relinquish some of her tension. Slowly, she rose from her defensive crouch, but not once did she loosen her grip on her weapons. The downtrodden girl looking up at her was a far cry from the confident fighter she'd glimpsed back beneath the highway and in the train from Mountain Glen, and farther still from the vicious opponent Yang had described to her. She seemed... far less manic.
Ren and Nora had mentioned fending off White Fang members in the city, so she'd assumed Torchwick and his ilk had fled by airship as per usual. But if Neo was still here... had Torchwick...
Blake immediately stamped down the small bud of sympathy trying to take root in her. For all she knew this could be some kind of tactic - a ploy to gain her trust before stabbing her in the back. ...Though, the smaller girl didn't seem to be carrying her parasol. Not that Blake was entirely convinced that Yang's description of the item counted as a weapon... and not that a common item that inconspicuous would be very difficult to hide in a camp littered with piles of scrap.
A long, lone howl sounded off in the distance, far too low in tone to be anything living. Blake bit her lip, taking a deep breath to calm herself and avoid actually attracting any Grimm.
This girl was dangerous, Blake knew that without a doubt, but she also seemed... exhausted, and willing to work together, if that request of hers for a truce was genuine anyway.
As much as Blake despised admitting it, survival took priority over grudges. She squared her shoulders. "Does anyone else know you're here?"
Neo pointed her thumb over to the cluster of tents, brow raised for clarification. She made a middling sort of gesture with her hand.
The others had no idea who she was.
Blake tilted her head at the... peculiar response. She assumed the gestures meant something along the lines of "yeah kinda"... which meant Neo was probably the "girl from Emerald's team" Ren had mentioned in passing... which also probably meant the others weren't aware of her criminal standing... but that was a whole lot of assuming.
It struck Blake then that they'd had this entire standoff without a single word from the other girl... Blake glanced once more at the cardboard sign, then back at Neo, her brows furrowing in curiosity. "Do you... talk?"
Neo's expression soured, and she tucked the cardboard under her arm as her hands darted in front of her in a flurry of deft movements.
Sign language.
She finished by holding her 'TRUCE' board out again and pointing at it.
Heaving a great sigh, Blake sheathed and stowed Gambol Shroud. She knew enough to recognize the sign language for what it was, but that was about as far as her knowledge reached. The small glowering girl could have just spouted a slew of obscenities for all she knew.
Regardless, if Neo had been a harmless part of Pyrrha's group of survivors for this long, Blake saw no point in stirring up trouble. Even a begrudging ally was preferable to an enemy. "I'm fine with a truce," she said with an air of indifference, "but... I can't speak for the rest of my team."
Neo searched Blake, as if to see if she meant it. Her shoulders dropped a little, in relief or defeat it was hard to tell. She looked tired more than anything. She motioned up to the vending machine and then over to the tents- namely the tent Ruby and Weiss were staying in.
Blake squinted, trying to decipher what the other girl was trying to convey. Did she want to show Ruby and Weiss the cracker machine? Did she want to bring them crackers? Was she... trying to infer that the crackers in the tent had been left as a peace offering? "...Crackers?" ...And that was about all she understood.
...This was surprisingly difficult - especially when lingering paranoia kept whispering quietly into Blake's ear that this entire encounter could just be a ploy to get her alone and off her while everyone thought she was hunting. She shook it off though, scrunching her eyes shut and rubbing her temple. Blake knew fatigue when she saw it, and this girl was in no condition to pick a fight.
That same flash of sympathy from earlier returned, refusing to be pushed aside. Neo was alone. Torchwick could have easily played the same game of hiding in plain sight - no one here new his face... but he wasn't here. Neo was alone, for whatever reason, and Blake knew that feeling all too well. Not to mention, if they were going to be working together, she could use a hand...
Frowning, Blake crossed her arms and side eyed the smaller girl, hoping she wasn't just going soft. "This might be a little left-field, but do you by any chance know anything about hunting?"
A frown developed on Neo's face. Her head cocked to one side.
In the morning, Ruby woke up feeling... empty. The canvas walls of the tent were less dark with the indirect light of the dawn sky. She blinked at them for a few minutes in the quiet. Eventually, she took a deep breath, the air filling her lungs not quite filling the hollow feeling she had. The fingers of the hand she hadn't tucked under the sleeping bag were stiff with cold, and she had a face full of her partner's white hair. She pushed herself up on her elbows, trying not to pull it and wake Weiss up as she spit to get her hair out of her mouth.
She looked around the dimly lit tent. Blake wasn't there. She must have slept someplace else after she'd gotten back from hunting. Who had been on night watch last night, Ruby wondered. Did Pyrrha keep a night watch going? It wouldn't make sense not to, with so many Grimm around.
The muffled 'clunk' of a log being added to a campfire confirmed that there was in fact a watch outside. Now that she listened, she could hear the snap and crackle of the fire.
Weiss didn't usually sleep hard, but she didn't even stir when Ruby extricated herself from the sleeping bag and pile of blankets. She only mumbled something incoherent and rolled over when Ruby had to slowly pull most of her cloak out from under her.
That done, Ruby pulled on her combat boots and did the laces and buckles as quietly as she could. She looked at the entrance to the tent, mustering the will to get up and go see who was awake.
At last, she did, steadying herself on a pile of crates as she lifted the heavy canvas flap and made her way out into the early morning air.
The remaining half of SSSN were the only ones present. Neptune looked up at her, probably the only person in camp tall enough to see over Sage's shoulders. Sage's back was to the tent, but Neptune stood beside the small fire-pit Ren and Nora had built for the camp's night watches. He smiled at Ruby and tried to wave, an act made nearly impossible by the sheer amount of firewood in his arms - far more than an actual fire needed, but the Haven-born huntsman in training actually knew very little about campfires.
Ruby lifted her hand halfway to wave. She'd never seen anyone carry firewood stacked up in his arms till it was over his head like that. She took a few steps over to the campfire, rolling her one shoulder to try to get some of the stiffness out. She still felt tired, like she had yesterday, but yesterday she'd mostly ignored it. Today it was strange, like someone had resoled her boots with cement when she was asleep.
Maybe it would wear off when she was a little more awake.
"Hey," she greeted the two by the fire as she practically dropped to a seat on one of the blown out stadium seats they'd set up around its edge. "See any Grimm last night?"
Far above, sitting atop the crumbled of the coliseum walls, Pyrrha watched the camp below, cracking a small smile at Neptune dropping his entire armful of wood when trying to swing his hand wide, probably to describe the lone Nevermore that had flown a bit too close for comfort. He looked better after a mostly uninterrupted night's sleep... as did Ruby.
Sighing, Pyrrha leaned against the rubble at her back. She envied them - just a little - since she could hardly last an hour before something jolted her awake. Probably nightmares... not that she could remember any of them, which was probably for the better. Still, she let her eyes fall shut as her mind wandered to Ren and Nora. They'd been out the entire night, but they were together, so there was little reason to worry over their safety. Folding her arms, Pyrrha hugged her rifle close and tried to relax, wondering when they might return, and whether they would actually succeed at the wild hunt she'd sent them on.
Behind her there was a short flutter of wings, and then footsteps that slowed on the crumpled metal a few yards from her.
It was Qrow. Of course it was Qrow. He stood empty handed.
Pyrrha sighed, turning just enough to see the familiar tattered edges of red cloak whipping out to the side, bolstered by the morning breeze. "I see Nora and Ren found you."
"Yeah, you could say that," or you could say he heard the hyper girl making up an off-key song about how Pyrrha wanted to talk to him. The lyrics described a bunch of weird reasons he figured were invented on the spot. He righted a stadium chair that had gotten torn out and flung up to the rim among the other debris and sat down. "So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you don't want my world famous pancake recipe."
"That would be a no," Pyrrha confirmed, turning to face the older man. Streaks of grey ran through his hair where they hadn't before. Looking at him was still difficult - Pyrrha could feel raw anger swelling in her chest within seconds - but she managed a deep breath. "I wanted to apologize for last night." She could feel herself starting to seethe, so she looked away, watching the sun peak over the trees. "As much as I sympathize with Amber's... displeasure over your presence, I shouldn't have allowed her- myself- to treat you so poorly."
"Hey, take it easy on yourself. I probably would've done the same thing," he shrugged and leaned on the less mangled arm of the chair, "After all, I've never exactly been a harbinger of good news."
"You did say everything was going to get worse." Pyrrha quietly watched the broken rays of sunlight stretch across the expanse of trees below, lost in thought.
Aside from that short transfer student who stumbled her way into the coliseum midway through their first hectic week, Qrow was the first person to make it to their camp after the city's collapse. There were so many things she wanted to know - favors she needed to ask... Her eyes traced a ray of sun to the city. "So, in the spirit of making things better, if you can, you should tell... whoever it is sending defenseless ships here to please stop."
Qrow raised an eyebrow. He'd seen the ships. They were basically canned monster food delivered straight to the jaws of that old dragon.
"Yeah, you really think they'd have gotten the idea after the first two or three," he searched Pyrrha's profile. "I get the feeling that isn't why you wanted me up here, though."
For a long while Pyrrha said nothing, idly rubbing her hands over the lumpy metal plating covering her forearms. At length, she turned to face Qrow again. "I want to know what on Remnant is happening out there- I need to know," she appended. Distant red flashed in the corner of her peripheral vision, drawing her eyes back down to the coliseum's ground level, to Ruby.
The young team leader was, in fact, the only rightfully appointed leader present in their small group. Teams SSSN CFVY and even her own were all currently missing their leaders - a position Pyrrha had been unanimously voted into, but felt like she just barely managed. And while Ren stepping up as her right-hand man had helped her stay together this long... she was so tired of bearing the burden of leadership alone. "We need to know," Pyrrha appended a second time, lifting a hand in Ruby's direction.
A small chunk of metal dislodged from the wall and flew in a gentle arc, dropping to float in lazy circles around Ruby's head in a bid for her attention.