Chapter twenty-three: The Autumn (totally not punning the word Fall here)
"Don't get too handsy with her, alright?"
I sighed, smiling down at my beautiful girlfriend as I leaned in, pressing my lips against her forehead. "Don't worry, I'll save that for you." I said, feeling a smirk tug at my lips as her face flushed. She always looked so cute when she was blushing. I reached up, lightly pulling at my collar, god I hated wearing these monkey suits. How could Ren wear them all the time? I reached into my trench coat (yeah, I wasn't ditching that), smiling as I lightly pat my revolver. Ready for anything. I was about to walk out the door when I heard Blake speak up again. "Jaune wait!" I heard. I turned around, seeing Blake rushing towards me, just as I had my hand on the doorknob. She reached up, slowly pulling the bow from her head, the string coming undone as she held up the ribbon. She reached over and, without a word from me, tied it onto my left arm, just below my shoulder.
"Promise me you'll come back." "I always do." I said, leaning in and kissing her one last time (a/n- that uh… that sounds way darker than it should.) before I turned around, pushing open the door, out into the streets of Vale. I saw the throngs of traffic sweep through the streets, an electric current on a wire. When somebody threw the breaker, one side stopped, another side went. The only ones that didn't stop were like me, walking along the unbroken sidewalk. There weren't many of us granted, but we were there. Vale was the opposite of Mistral in that regard. In Mistral, the only people that owned cars were wealthy, and the rest of us had to walk on the sidewalks, most often filled with cracks and bumps and holes (other than the ones supposed to be there of course). "Guess that's why I still walk… never could get used to driving." I thought, smiling slightly as I looked up, searching for the brief patches of starlight through the vibrant orange streetlights.
That was the one thing I hated about Vale with a passion. There was no reconciliation for it. The skyline. "In Mistral it's all sky… here it's all building and streetlight." I thought. I looked down again, my eyes wandering around the streets. I saw children playing in the streets, their clothes tattered, faces smudged in dirt, their eyes wide awake despite the hour. There were two of them, kicking around a wad of paper. I looked over to the right, and there was another child. This one was smiling at the ground, saying a few words to himself once in awhile. His eyes made it clear where his mind was, and it wasn't on earth. He was on cloud nine, up with the other druggies. I couldn't help but frown at him, "In Mistral, kid might work his childhood away, drink a little too early… but we never had it THIS bad." I couldn't help but think as I turned away. If you lived in Vale, you had to get used to turning a blind eye to injustice. I hated doing it, but I had to survive didn't I?
After a few minutes, it was like you'd crossed into a whole other world. The litter on the ground was gone, replaced by clean sidewalks, free of even the tiniest crack that wasn't meant to be there. There were barely any people on the sidewalks, almost everyone driving the newest model car to the latest fashion show. Vale wasn't like Mistral in that way. It was two cities. One incredibly rich, the other incredibly poor. I looked around, "There both rusty bars of iron. One just looks better than the other." I muttered. I saw police officers running near constant patrols, anyone that even looked suspicious being stopped and ID'd. It didn't seem legal… but then again, who was there to challenge it? I saw a woman sitting against a nearby building, bleeding from her stomach. A police officer walked over. Did he help the woman? If it were northern Vale, the cop might've called an ambulance, secretly hoped she died before it came at worst.
Southern? They put cuffs on her and drug her into a cruiser.
If she survived, she'd be charged with loitering, thrown into the county jail. If she didn't, no one would ever hear about her. She'd been dying, but they didn't care. Commissioner Ironwood only cared about one thing. His image. I kept walking, reaching up and lighting a cigar, taking a breath in before letting it go, making sure not to it fall to the sidewalk by accident. Wouldn't want them to arrest me for 'dirtying the city' or some other stupid law they'd made. I looked down at a slip of paper Chief Ozpin had given me. "Yep, this is the place." I thought as I looked upward. One of the tallest buildings in Vale, a shining monument to the builders of the city, the poor, Mistralean immigrants who built this city. "Yet now we won't even let them in…" I couldn't help but think as I walked towards the building, pushing inside the revolving door.
"Sir?"
I looked over, letting out a puff of smoke as I looked to the receptionist. He was a fairly tall man, dark skinned, bald, a pair of spectacles on his nose. "I'm here to see Pyrrha Nikos." "Certainly Mr. Arc, I'll ring her up." he said, his voice layered thick with an accent I couldn't quite place, a gentle yet, somehow creepy, smile on his face the entire time. He picked up a phone, dialing a number before I walked over, hand on my gun. He was about to call her whenever he looked over at me, "Something the matter sir?" "How do you know my name?" I asked, squinting slightly at him. It wasn't exactly unheard of for someone to know who I was in Vale, unlike in Mistral when it's a dead giveaway something's wrong, but for him to refer to me as Mr. Arc… something wasn't right. He smiled, "Ms. Nikos told us to expect you. A blond man with deep blue eyes." he said. I slowly nodded… I wasn't sure why but, something still didn't feel right.
"Yeah… I'm here to get her to relax a little. Ironwood's been riding our asses again to get the Torchwick case solved." "Ah… it must be troubling work detective." he replied. Major red flag and a minor red flag. Torchwick Case is closed, minor, and she reports to chief Ozpin, major. You'd think he'd know that… then again, he might not. Too early to be sure. I looked around the lobby, lightly drumming my fingers on the table. "So… how long you been working here?" I asked. My eyes never left the phone. He was still trying to dial Pyrrha. I had a feeling he wasn't trying to dial Pyrrha at all. Or if he was, it wasn't to tell her I was here. He shrugged, "I've worked here two years now." he said simply, raising an eyebrow at the phone. I could tell something was up with this guy now, it wasn't that Pyrrha wasn't picking up the phone, the call wasn't getting through. The way he was dialing the number was wrong too. With the interconnected phone systems, you had to dial the number of the floor, then the number of the room in order to dial it.
"Not a chance you've worked here for two years." I thought. That was three flags, one minor and two major. I walked around, coming behind the desk and giving the man an easy smile. I needed to warn Pyrrha, but first I had to contact her. "Let me have a go, she won't ignore me." I said. The man stepped aside, and the second I stepped past, I saw the gun in his coat. He wasn't working here, there wasn't a doubt in my mind of that now. I dialed the right number, looking down and noticing that Pyrrha was on the top floor, not good. It made it that much harder to get her out. I dialed the number, holding it up to my ear. It rang for a few seconds before Pyrrha's familiar voice answered. "Hello?" "Hey, it's me. How you doin' dollface?" I said, smirking and adding a flirty tone in hopes she'd understand something was up.
…
I slowly stood, walking over towards the phone, raising an eyebrow. Here I was just putting on my dress when I saw that the phone was ringing. Was Jaune here already? I picked up the phone, "Hello?" "Hey, it's me. How you doin' dollface?" I heard Jaune's voice say, in a tone that made me blush. That already set a strange feeling in motion. Why would he be calling me dollface when he already had a girlfriend? More importantly, why was he calling me in the first place, it should be the man downstairs -Madison- calling me if I had a visitor. Something was off. "Hey, did you pick up my smokes? I ordered them from Atlas so… yeah, I'd kind of like to know where they went." "No… sorry, I don't know where they are." Now I knew something was wrong. For one, I'd never heard Jaune call his cigars 'smokes', and two, he smoked Mistralean cigars, not Atlesian. My only guess was that he was talking in some sort of code. Someone was listening in.
"Yeah, sorry but we might have to walk. Department's too cheap to buy a new heater for the car. I about bought my own for it. Hehe." he did a half decent fake laugh, I'd give him that. Ironwood was far from cheap, so that wasn't it… heater. That was the code. He was telling me to come armed. I figured I'd try my hand at this, try and find out what's going on. "So, is the lobby packed? Lot of people there?" "Nah, only two. Me and the man at the desk. Two years rolls by in a flash huh? I've never even met the guy before." he said. I felt my eyes widen, Madison had been working that desk for almost six years, and if the man Jaune had met at the desk has said two years, and Jaune had called me… uh oh. "Yeah, I'll be up in a few minutes to help you pack your stuff down alright? Just hang tight." "Okay… I'll see you in a minute." I said.
I hung up the phone, walking over to my cabinet and grabbing my handgun. It was standard issue, a Springfield XD 45ACP, the smallest gun I owned. I'd pack my shotgun but, it was in the cruiser in the parking lot at the moment. I grabbed a small box next to it, opening it to find five, preloaded clips. I slid one into the gun before I reached down, grabbing a long, black band. I usually wore it in my hair, but tonight I figured I'd let it flow loose. Glad I did. I pulled it up around my left thigh, grabbing the clips and sliding them in through the cut in the dress near the legs. Unless someone was on the ground looking up, they would be invisible. I flicked on the safety of the gun before I pulled slightly on my dress, setting it between my breasts. I looked up in the mirror. "Guess these things are for more than just looks." I thought with a small smile before I walked into my bedroom, shutting the door behind me. I chose the bedroom thanks to it's lack of windows, in case someone was possibly ready to snipe me. I put my hands in my lap and waited for Jaune, hoping he was just being paranoid about something.
Of course, I knew he wasn't.
…
"Good, she understood."
I thought as I stepped slightly to the right, reaching into my pocket before hanging up the phone. With my body blocking it, he no doubt didn't see me reach behind the phone and subtly cut the power cord, making it so any calls he sent through wouldn't make it. "Just in case…" I thought as I stepped back, nodding towards the man. He nodded back, his easy smile all the same as it was a few seconds ago. When he walked over he picked up the phone again. He didn't check the cord, no one ever did, and started dialing that same number again, still not knowing why it wasn't working. This time though, I knew the reason. I walked towards the stairs, no way was I standing in an elevator with the very real threat in the room, and started my way towards the top.
Nothing happened in the stairwell, surprisingly, and I was at the top floor before I knew it. I pushed open the door, looking around before I stepped in. No suspicious characters, nobody at all. Good, it meant less potential threats. I walked towards Pyrrha's door, number 12, and gently pushed it open. When I looked in, I could immediately tell why she wasn't in the main room. Mostly on account of the large windows inside. This was basically asking a sniper to fire at her. "Pyrrha?" "JAUNE!" I heard her shout, pulling open her bedroom door, ducking down and dashing over to me. I felt her wrap her arms around my neck, closing the door with her foot as she slammed her lips against mine. I was shocked for a second before I melted, pressing her against the wall. I felt a twinge of guilt as a head of black hair flashed through my mind, but it passed quickly. "No… I'm not cheating on her… we're doing this as our cover. We can't let them know we're suspicious of them." I thought as Pyrrha pulled back.
"Missed me?" "More than you know. Now… we heading out? Or are we going to have some fun in the cruiser~" she said, smirking at me. I had to admit, she was playing the role of the thirsty girlfriend incredibly well. If I didn't know this was a cover, just looking in, I'd think we'd really been dating for awhile, and we'd not enjoyed each others company in far too long. I smiled, "We're heading out tonight… then after we might have a little one-on-one, okay~" I said, smirking at her as I looked down, gently laying my hand on her hip. I would've laid it on her rear, like I would've with Blake in this kind of situation, but… that was a line I wasn't willing to cross for a cover up. That and, I'd specifically promised said hot faunus that I wouldn't get too handsy with Pyrrha, and I was not about to go back on a promise. Especially not to my Blake.
She held up her hand as I looped my arm through hers, slowly walking towards the door. I leaned in, and to anyone watching it no doubt looked like I was kissing her cheek. "You have a gun?" I pulled away. She nodded before leaning over, actually kissing my cheek. My face was bright red, but Pyrrha's… well, Pyrrha's just looked a little pink. It honestly could've been some light makeup she had on. I turned to face the doorway leading out through the staircase when I noticed something. On one of the doors, the one just before the staircase, there was a small puddle slowly leaking out. At first I thought it was water, leaking through the carpet. Then, I smelled it.
"GET DOWN!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
I felt something force me and Pyrrha back as I fell, slowly tilting my head around. The series of explosions had come from the apartments of the other residence, the gasoline I'd seen pouring from the doorway having ignited, slowly spreading in front of the door with the stairs. "Pyrrha!" I shouted, turning around and seeing her laying down. I shed my coat, setting the gun and the bullets to the side as I laid it over her, desperately trying to put out the flames lapping at her dress, as well as her skin. It took a few seconds before I pulled back, letting out a sigh of relief when I saw that the flames hadn't killed her. She looked up, her left eye shining at me, filled with tears and nearly closing. I looked down, my eyes widening as I saw what had happened.
One of those explosions must've been right next to Pyrrha, and she'd taken the brunt of it. The right side of her face looked suddenly more like charcoal, with bright red skin swelling her eye shut. Most of her dress was gone, exposing a badly burned right side to me, and when I moved her, her entire body, damaged or not. Now, if she wasn't burned and things had turned out differently, I might've been highly aroused. I mean, she was gorgeous. But right now, all I could feel was panic and worry. I looked up, my eyes widening as I saw some of the supports coming down, the fire eating through them. "Someone planted bombs… dammit! I cut the phone line! How'd they know!?" I thought as I saw something I hadn't expected to see.
The woman from Mistral.
The woman, who had sicked a group of bounty hunters on me (that I'd immediately turned on each other) and the woman I'd shot, was standing right in front of me, holding a small pistol in her hand. I saw Pyrrha grab her gun, aiming at the woman. The dark haired woman didn't flinch as she fired a round at Pyrrha's other arm. "AH!" she shouted, falling without the support of her left arm. It was a miracle she could even move it given how damaged it was. She must've been running off sheer willpower. "We meet again, Mr. Arc. The little bastard who smashed my precious violin. You're honestly too smart for your own good." she said. I was about to say something when she started talking again.
"You figured out our man downstairs was a fake, of course he was an idiot. You figured out we'd planted bombs in the elevator, and you can imagine our man's surprise when he looked in and found no Pyrrha. She figured out she was in danger thanks to you. You knew how to turn my hunters against each other, and against me. I-" she fired a bullet at my gun, which I'd planned on using to shoot her before she finished talking. I saw it slide out of my reach, just a few inches away, near a burning support beam. She smirked, her eyes going wild as she walked over. She kicked me back, stomping on my chest with her high heeled shoe and, likely unintentionally, making it very apparent she wasn't wearing anything beneath the dress.
"Don't you know how to respectfully listen?" "Don't you know how to wear underwear? You really need to shave by the way." I said, smirking up at her. I hoped to get her flustered, hoped to get her to loosen her foots position on me so I could knock her over, hopefully stab her with Crocea Mors. No such luck it seemed, as she only smirked right back. "Looking up my dress hmm? What a naughty boy you are. Hmm… no. You don't deserve the mercy of death." she said, stomping down on my chest. I felt myself slightly relieved at that. If she didn't kill me right now, that meant I had a chance to get rid of her. She smirked wildly as she leaned down, "GAH!" "Instead I'm going to take you. I'll beat you, violate you, I'll make you mine. You're cute enough for me to enjoy, and you're strong enough for me to enjoy breaking you~. I'll never let you forget who your ass belongs to~" she said. She'd stabbed a piece of wood into my shoulder, splitting it off and tossing it away from her.
She leaned down, surprising me by forcing her lips on mine, nearly stabbing her tongue into my mouth. I was so shocked I didn't even bite down, or fight as I felt a shiver run through my body. She pulled back, smirking down at me, "A smoker too? We'll kick that little habit. Don't worry though, I'll get you addicted to me. Before you know it you'll be begging me, pleading with me for just one more taste of your master~. First though," she stood, taking the piece of wood she hadn't stabbed into my shoulder. "I have to deal with this red-haired bimbo." "AAAH!" Pyrrha yelled, and I winced as I saw her jam the piece of wood into Pyrrha's right heel. (a/n- … I had to go back into that episode… and watch that scene… to find which heel it was… the things I do for this story… I tried so hard to get that scene out of my head. It almost worked… okay, back to a week of binge watching RWBY Chibi to get it out of my head again.)
She moved over, trailing a hand down the side of Pyrrha's face, the normal side. "Poor baby. Who's going to save you now?~" "I'm not saving her, "
BANG!
"I'm killing you." I heard a voice say. I looked up, my eyes widening as I saw the long, black cloak at the end of the hallway, the revolver in his hand. Mercury Black, one of the most infamous killers of Mistral, had just murdered who I could only guess was The Fallen. At least, based on how she went about trying to kill us, that's who I assumed it was. She fell forward, her body crumbling on the ground as the man walked towards me. I moved over, grabbing my gun and aiming it at him. He put his gun away, holding up his hands. "I'm not here for you. I promised I'd bring her head, and I will," then he reached down, grabbing a large knife, "Well, part of it, anyway." he said, walking over to the fallen assassin. He reached down, pulling her head back and placing the knife just beneath her hairline.
"TRAITOR! (a/n- haven't heard that since TR-8R... hey, someone had to say it.)"
The Fallen screamed, rearing her hand back, punching Mercury off of her. Mercury let go of the knife, which she grabbed easily, slamming the handle into Mercury's forehead as he crumbled, holding it. Then she reached down, grabbing her gun and firing at his knee. Seeing my chance I dashed forward, gritting my teeth as I took the wooden spike from my shoulder. She aimed at me, but I just slid down on my knees, ramming her spike into her right heel. "GAH!" she shouted, firing off a round ineffectually at the wall as I stood, staggering back a bit. She glared at me, until I put my barrel right on her forehead, dead center. "Tell my sisters I said hi."
BANG!
She fell back, a hole through her forehead as she fell back, her mouth hanging open as, fittingly enough, a support beam fell down right on top of her, ensuring she was did. "Live by the flame.. Die by the flame. Ow…" Mercury said, slowly standing up, right before he crumbled to the ground, clutching his knee. He grabbed his knife, sheathing it before he fell, and I could've sworn I saw a few tears drop to the ground. "Damn… can't even walk…" he said, slowly pulling back his hood. My eyes widened when I saw his face. I'd seen him before but, at a distance. This close up… well, he didn't look that much older than I was. Heck, we could be the same age for all I knew! He shut his eyes, tears dripping off his face as he laughed. "Funny… I hated my old man for so long… yet now… I live just like him… and I die just like him." he said, falling to the ground.
I frowned towards me, gritting my teeth as I hoisted Pyrrha up, leaning her over my shoulder. I grabbed Mercury's hand, causing him to look up. "Get up! We need to get out of here!" "Just leave me… I'm won't make it ten feet out there. Hehe… guess this is some… real fucked up kind of redemption huh?" he said, smiling up at me as he panted. I ducked lower, the smoke was making it kind of hard to breath. I glared towards him, reaching down and wrapping my arm beneath his shoulders, grunting as I pulled him up, shoving my gun into my trench-coat (which was still wrapped around Pyrrha so… not that easy mind you). He looked over at me, his eyes clouded in confusion as I guided us around a burning support beam, towards the stairs. "Why are you… helping me?" "Shut up and at least try and walk! We need to get out of here before the whole floor collapses!" I yelled. Who asks questions when you're running out of a building that is on fire and collapsing around you? Seriously!?
I stopped in front of the door. There was no way through it, the gasoline from the other apartment had moved further, blocking the open door. Mercury sighed, "Guess we're all fucked… great." "No we're not! Not yet!" I said, grunted as I hoisted the assassin up, ignoring the blood falling from his knee as I hoisted him over one shoulder, Pyrrha over the other. Thankfully Pyrrha was relatively light, and Mercury… well, I could at least carry him. I crouched lower, "What are you doing?" "Something incredibly stupid!" I shouted, dashing forward. I felt the heat lapping at me as I dashed forward. Time seemed to slow as I saw my feet stomping on the flames, extinguishing them for brief seconds before they reignited beneath my shoes, reaching up to strike me. I saw the flames lapping at what little remained of Pyrrha's dress, as well as my coat. I felt myself burst through the door, only for more fire to be on the stairs, slowly moving down. I made a split second decision, putting my foot on the railing and jumping.
Time seemed to resume as I fell, shuddering as I hit the ground. I slowly stood, leaning against the railing as I looked up. We'd fallen two floors, maybe thirty feet at most. My legs hurt like hell… but I mean, it was that or burn to death, what other choice did I have? "You… You are a crazy bastard." Mercury said as I set him down, him leaning on the railing. I shrugged, giving him a slight smile as I wrapped an arm around him, helping to guide him down the stairs. We walked in near completely silence for the way down, the only sounds Pyrrha's ragged breaths as I hoped she wouldn't die from her injuries before I could reach the lobby. "You know… me and her are gonna die soon." "Not if I can call 911 first. Just need to get to the lobby…" I said. Then I remembered.
I'd cut the lobby's phone line.
"Dammit! I forgot I cut the lobby phone already." "Why do you need to call 911? They'll see the fire." Mercury said, raising an eyebrow at me. I… actually, he had a valid point. The hospital and the fire station weren't that far from this building, and no doubt everyone would be calling 911 about the explosion on the roof of one of the largest buildings in Vale. I just nodded, giving him a slight smile before I kept guiding him down the stairs, until the point where we finally reached the lobby. Sure enough, I already saw a few firemen running towards me, guiding their hose out from there. I saw a few reporters nearby, some paramedics running towards me. Two of them took Pyrrha as a third took Mercury, the last one guiding me towards the exit, a few reporters that must've been nearby taking pictures and shouting questions over everyone else.
It was all a blur as I felt the medic set me down, stitching up the wound in my shoulder as I watched Pyrrha' being led out on a stretcher, the last medic repairing Mercury's leg. The reporters crowded around Pyrrha, no doubt getting as many photos as they could of the naked and half-burned police officer for the papers. The medics guided me and Mercury into the back of the ambulance as it started moving through traffic, faster than any of the other cars would ever dare to go. I saw them working on Pyrrha as Mercury turned to me. "Why'd you save me?" "What? Did you think I would just leave you there to burn to death?" I asked, giving him a slight smile. He didn't smile back, if anything looking more confused.
"Do you… know, who I am? What I've done?" "I know enough Mercury. You're a hitman. Don't expect me to call you out on it though, criticize you… I mean, that'd be really hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?" I said, chuckling slightly. The ex hitman criticizing the man that was now a hitman, who did things far more humanely than he did? Yeah, that's a laugh. Mercury raised an eyebrow, "Then why didn't you let me die?" "You'd still owe all those people you killed. One life for hundreds isn't really a fair trade, now is it?" I asked, keeping that easy smile on my face as I leaned over, feeling the slight sting of the stitches on my shoulder. He looked up at me, his eyes slightly widening at my statement. "Think about it. You took away everything they could ever be. You ended their hopes, their dreams, their chances at happiness, that's not even counting what you did to their families. You can tell me the death of one man is going to make up for that." I said.
Mercury shook his head, frowning at me. "No… what else can I do?" "Well, look at what I did. I started trying to save people's lives, make them better, instead of ending them. You can't be all bad, if you were trying to kill The Fall-" "Cinder." he interrupted. I raised an eyebrow, Cinder? Was that The Fallen's real name or, was he talking about the cinders of the fire we just escaped? "Cinder Fall… that was her real name. Don't ever call her The Fallen again. It's what she wants." "Then what do I call you? Mercury Black was your assassin name, right?" I asked. I mean, the amount of sense it would make for him to use his real name as his assassin name was next to none. There was no way he was dumb enough to- "Nope. Real one." I sat there for a few seconds, trying to process what he just said…
"He uses his real name… are Mistral police THAT dumb nowadays?"
