Chapter 33
"Stairs are seriously the spawn of evil." Yang whined as they continued down the stairs.
"You're going to say that now of all times? When we're about to attack something that might very well be the actual spawn of evil." Blake questioned as she covered their back flank.
"True. But at least I can punch this bastard…punching stairs just don't help at all." Yang joked.
"Would you rather go up twenty flights of stairs?" Blake asked.
"You saying that made me have a mild heart attack." Yang stated.
"Punching the 'spawn of evil' right? That sounds like a great movie idea." Clark commented as he walked down the stairs next to Ruby, in the front.
"Do you know who we're talking about?" Ruby asked.
"No. However, I can assume you're talking about whoever is doing this to the White Fang." Clark stated.
"That would be correct, unfortunately." Weiss said.
"Who is he?" Clark questioned as though he was making small-talk.
"Given the situation, you sound rather calm. Does this not surprise you?" Weiss asked.
"Am I supposed to panic?" Clark asked sarcastically.
"Okay, valid point. 'He' isn't a person, but rather a Grimm; an intelligent Grimm." Blake said.
"That's sounds like an oxymoron to me." Clark joked as they finished their fourteenth flight of stairs. Clark slowly sat down on the bottom step as he attempted to catch his breath.
"You good?" Yang asked when she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah…I'm just not as young as I used to be. Literally." Clark stated.
"Lionel's distress signal hasn't changed locations. It looks as though he is in a small room." Ruby explained as she took the moment to examine the layout that the distress signal was relaying.
"They probably have in in a cell." Yang said.
"Why would they put a cell so close to the central base of this entire outpost?" Weiss asked.
"I dunno. Maybe it's a special cell just for him since he's, you know, the Knight-General." Yang stated.
Blake and Ruby both looked to the heiress for a smart-aleck response. "That's…very possible…" Weiss trailed off with a sigh.
"See?! I know things!" Yang said as Clark began to laugh which slowly turned into a hacking cough.
"Does your semblance always take this much out of you?" Blake asked.
"As a young hunter, no…but trying to do it at my age, it does take a lot. To be perfectly honest, even I'm surprised how hard it is on me." Clark stated.
"We should all take a moment to rest, anyway. We never patched ourselves up after the turrets." Ruby said.
"Yes, please. I've got this one wound that simply will not clot." Weiss said as she raised the side of her shirt to reveal a bullet hole on the left side of her waist as well as a few cuts from her fight with the White Fang.
"Hold on, that looks pretty bad; it could have punctured your kidney. How do you feel?" Blake asked as she examined her wound.
"It looks worse than it actually is. I got that kidney removed in my childhood." Weiss explained.
"It doesn't have an exit hole, so it's probably still in there." Yang said as she pulled the largest of supply bags off of her waist and sat it on the ground.
"Unfortunately, it seems that way. Can someone help me cover the wound?" Weiss asked.
"I got you." Yang said as she pulled out a roll of gauze and unrolled about a foot of it. She folded the foot of gauze to make sure it was thick enough to absorb plenty of blood. Yang placed the folded gauze on the wound and began wrapping the rest of the gauze around Weiss' waist to keep it secured as well as covering the cuts. "How's that?" Yang asked.
"That will work. Thank you." Weiss said as she sat down to examine the rest of her wounds.
"We did really good. We hardly have any wounds from earlier." Ruby commented.
"I can see why; you all obviously work really well together. Did you get to pick your team?" Clark asked.
"No, our teams were actually randomized." Ruby said as she finished stitching a wound on Blake's shoulder blade.
"How so?" Clark asked.
"We basically had to fight our way through a forest to get a chess piece. The people who obtained the same type of piece were put into the same team." Yang said.
"You're Beacon students?" Clark asked.
"Heal yeah." Yang responded.
"Then it was definitely not randomized. Nothing Ozpin does is random." Clark said.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked as she began to clean a wound on Ruby's neck.
"Ozpin is very meticulous and tedious about training. If he is the one who set up this 'random' challenge, I can assure you that he wanted you to be put in the same team." Clark said. "And, from all that I've seen, he certainly wasn't wrong." He stated as he stood up.
"You ready?" Yang asked.
"I'm fine. Are you all ready?" Clark asked mockingly.
"You don't have to worry about us, we only stopped because of you." Weiss said, mocking him in reply.
"All done." Blake said as she cut off the excess stitches from the wound on Ruby's neck.
"Okay." Ruby said as she jumped up. "We're all good to go?" she asked.
"As soon as I have someone to punch." Yang said as she took point and began walking down the next flight of stairs.
"An intelligent Grimm, huh? What else do you know about it?" Clark asked as he followed behind Yang, next to Ruby.
"Not really. The Knight-General said that it was responsible for the Grimm War." Ruby said.
"Yes, it was called the Alpha." Clark said to which the girls turned their heads to look at him.
"I know you're getting on in years…but you don't look several centuries old." Weiss stated mockingly.
"Again with my age; you all hurt me so much." Clark said sarcastically as he pulled out his wallet to reveal the insignia of the Knights.
"You're a knight!" Ruby half-squealed.
"Indeed. It's actually against the rules for me to even say anything about it…that's how we've been able to prevent his resurrection for so long." Clark stated as they continued down the stairs.
"Will you get in trouble for telling us more? Because I really want to know more." Yang stated.
"Trust me…I don't think I would get in trouble." Clark laughed.
"Wait, are we interfering with a mission?" Weiss asked.
"What do you mean?" Clark said.
"Did you mean to be in here? In the cell, I mean?" Weiss clarified.
"No, no…Trust me, there was no intention of getting thrown in a cell. There's not even a mission." Clark explained.
"So they just came and picked you up off the street? Why? Were you high-ranking back in the day?" Yang asked.
"I'll have you know, I'm still high-ranking." Clark said.
"Then why are you here?" Blake asked.
"We can worry about that later…right now, I think you would all benefit from knowing a bit more about the Alpha." Clark said as they all reached the last flight of stairs.
"I wish we had more time to learn about it. The more information we have, then the more damage we can do." Weiss stated.
"I agree, however, given the situation, this will have to do. Put simply, the Alpha is the first Grimm, which I'm sure you know. What probably has not been said is how it retained its' intelligence. The Alpha, before it was corrupted, was born with an incredible semblance. It can forcefully infiltrate people's minds and 'copy' parts of it for its' own use." Clark explained.
"It can see your memories and intellect?" Weiss asked.
"Yes. At first it wasn't so bad, he used it for good or neutral purposes. But he kept wanting more and, with time and training, was eventually able to copy more advanced things like skills and talents. When he was corrupted, his power increased yet again and, as with all Grimm, he sought out negativity. At this point, the Alpha is capable of even copying semblances and auras if it has enough time in your head." Clark stated wearily as they each waited at the door.
"How long does it need to be in your head?" Ruby asked.
"During the Grimm War, he only needed a few hours of studying your mind, most of which it would do while you were asleep. You would wake up only thinking you had a bad dream." Clark said with a sigh.
"You said 'during the Grimm War'; has it changed at all?" Blake asked.
"Yes. With the invention of purple dust, his ability has only increased. I couldn't tell you exactly how long he was in my mind, but I assumed that his power wouldn't have grown all that much with a bit of dust…I was sorely mistaken. He knows my semblance now." Clark said with anger.
"You'll still haven't explained your semblance to us." Weiss said.
"That's because we're running a little low on time." Clark retorted.
"I agree. Blake, is there anyone outside of this door?" Ruby asked her teammate.
"Nothing more than a few patrols. The next one will pass by the door in about three minutes and we'll have about six minutes before the next one after that." Blake informed them.
"Then we need to know exactly where we're going." Ruby said as she pulled out her scroll. "As soon as we exit from this door, we take a right and head down the hall. We'll reach an intersection of halls and we'll take a left. We stay straight as we pass three more intersections, then we take another right. The next intersection we reach, after that, there will be a door to our left instead of a hallway. That's the door we're looking for.
"Okay. Right, left, straight, straight, straight, right, and then the door on our left at the next intersection?" Yang asked.
"Yes." Ruby said as she put her scroll back in her pocket.
"What happens after that?" Weiss asked.
"The Central Intelligence room will be at the end of that last hallway we'll be in. I guess, once we have Lionel, we assault the enemy and see where that gets us?" Ruby pondered.
"Regardless…" Blake whispered. "…those guards are passing us right now." She finished with a light whisper.
The ladies and gentleman were silent as they heard the footsteps pass the door they were hiding behind. "Okay, watch for other patrols." Ruby whispered as she opened the door.
They each stepped out into the hall to see what looked like the fire alarm going off, just without sound. "What's with the lights?" Yang asked.
"That alarm is to let people know that there are intruders. It's not like they forgot about us." Blake stated.
"All the more reason to hurry." Weiss said as she activated a mild glyph, sending a gust of wind straight ahead before hiding behind the corner of the intersection. She hid right before another pair of guards walked through the intersection to their left and looked in the direction that Weiss was hiding. She remained perfectly calm as the footsteps got closer until they ultimately took a left to head in the direction that Weiss had led them too. "Let's go." She said as she jogged to the left and remained straight.
"How did you know they were coming?" Blake asked.
"After working with you all long enough, you learn how to really read your teammates." Weiss stated to which Blake raised an eyebrow as they reached the first of three intersections that they would pass. "Whenever a noise startles you, your left ear twitches." She explained with a smirk.
Blake's ears slumped low on her head as though she was annoyed. "Don't worry kitty, it's cute." Yang said as she patted her partner's back.
"Let's keep going." Ruby said after making sure she that there were no more guards coming down any direction.
"We're almost there, guys." Ruby said as they each passed the second intersection. As they approached the final intersection, they each saw two guards come from the hall to their left and right in the upcoming intersection. "Hide." Ruby half whispered and half yelled.
Before anyone could react, they had each been tackled to the ground by Clark. "Clark, what the fu–" Yang was cut off by the familiar sensation of an aching head as images blurred through their fields of vision. Before they could make sense of the world, they were all falling over each other in an incredibly small, dark space.
"Dude, warn us…" Yang complained.
"They probably would have seen us if I hadn't done it…" Clark said in the darkness.
"I agree with Clark…but a warning would be nice…" Weiss stated.
"Where did you take us?" Ruby asked.
"The door we were trying to reach." Clark stated.
"What?!" Ruby asked in surprise as Weiss activated a small fire glyph in her hand to illuminate the area.
"We're in a freaking closet, Clark. I think you need some target practice with that semblance of yours…" Yang stated as she stood up.
"No…" Ruby said as she looked at her scroll. "This is…it." She said in confusion.
"What?! Where's Lion?" Yang asked as she looked at Ruby's scroll.
"Here." Blake said as she looked at the ground in the corner. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all looked over her shoulder to reveal Lionel's signature jacket on the ground.
"That's it? They just threw his jacket in here?" Weiss said as she dug the distress signal out of the pocket.
"Seriously?" Ruby pouted. "And the mission was going to so well, too…" she whined as she quickly began to mess with her scroll while in the process knocking over a box in the closet. "There has to be some way to look at where the beacon was first activated…or maybe we–" Ruby was cut off by a loud knocking on the door.
Clark and the girls were silent as they hoped that the knocking would go away. After a few seconds of silence, Team RWBY heard the unfortunately familiar sound of a gun being cocked before bullets began to fire through the door. "Cover!" Ruby yelled as each of the team members attempted to duck onto the ground, though they were unable due to the small space and the pure chaos of the situation. The light that Weiss had generated was gone as everyone panicked. They each ducked as low as they could, blocking as much as possible with their weapons in the darkness, simply waiting for that one final blow. Every so often, a screech could be heard from one of them as a bullet impaled their body, making the idea of 'waiting to die' all too real for the ladies.
After the bullets finally ceased their rampage, Ruby slowly opened her eyes. The holes from the bullets allowed small amounts of light into the room to which Ruby was able to make out a certain figure in the air. Ruby opened her mouth, to speak, but was cut off by a fiery explosion. In the moment, she managed to assure herself that the explosion was the end of the line, but, again, she reopened her eyes to see the room illuminated by light due to the absence of the door. Weiss was standing, barely, as she drew as much breath as her lungs would allow. Blood was running down her body, staining her beautiful white clothes, as she pulled Myrtenaster up, readying to strike anyone that entered her sight.
"What the hell happened?" Yang yelled in surprise. Ruby managed to take her eyes off Weiss to see both Yang and Blake guarding Clark's unconscious form with their bodies. They had significantly more wounds than before entering the room but were still capable of continuing.
"She created a glyph at the last second to shield us from the bullets…" Blake said as she stood up to glance outside of the room into the hall, but saw no one. "If they didn't know we were here before, they do now." She stated.
"What about the explosion?!" Ruby asked as Weiss fell to her knees with Myrtenaster still ready to strike.
"The glyph I made…I mixed red dust…at the end…I fired it…" Weiss said in between breaths.
"Hold on…" Ruby said as she took her partner's hand and began to focus her aura through her body.
"Clark, wake the fuck up!" Yang yelled before Blake fired her weapon into the hall.
"They're starting to show up to find out what happened." Blake stated in between firing her weapon into the hall.
Weiss' wounds slowly began to stop bleeding as Ruby clenched her teeth and concentrated. "Ruby…that's enough…I'll be fine." Weiss said as she let go of Ruby's hand to stand back up.
"Weiss!" Ruby protested.
"No. We need to hurry and finish the mission. I feel much better now, so there's no need to worry." Weiss stated in her normal tone, which calmed Ruby slightly. Weiss began to wrap her more serious wounds in gauze, to which Ruby began to assist her.
"What's the play?" Yang asked as she took the other side of the door next to Blake, guarding the hall.
"I think the Central Intelligence room is our next bet." Ruby stated as she finished wrapping Weiss' left arm.
"Then we need to keep moving." Weiss stated as she placed the supplies back in her pack.
"What about him?" Yang asked as she looked at Clark.
"Hold on." Ruby said as she placed her hand on his chest and, once again, began to focus her aura. Clark's eyes shot open as he began to hyperventilate.
"Damn…what'd you do?" Yang asked.
"I increased his heart rate and pushed adrenaline." Ruby explained. Another sudden explosion shook the room, forcing Yang to her stomach. "Yang!" Ruby yelled as Blake began to fire outside of the room once again.
"Son of a bitch!" Yang yelled as blood poured from her left shoulder and shoulder blade and dripped from her chest and arm. "What the hell happened that time?" she yelled again.
"It was an RPG." Blake said as Yang stood back up and began to peel her white and black 'Hunter' jacket off, leaving her in her boots, a skirt, and her sports bra.
"Yang…" Ruby said as she approached her.
"No. Save your power…I'll be fine." Yang said in annoyance.
"We have to move, now!" Blake said as her head darted outside of the closet.
Yang raised her eyebrow, "What's com–"
"Now!" Blake yelled as she ran out of the closet to cover her teammates. Ruby and Weiss ran out next as Blake covered them.
"C'mon, bro. We have to move." Yang said as she helped Clark to his feet.
"It's here!" Blake yelled as an Atlesian Paladin emerged from the corner down the hall.
"Are you fucking serious?!" Yang yelled as she and Clark exited the room.
Team RWBY and Clark managed to turn the corner right as the mini-gun began to fire through the hall. "Keep running!" Ruby yelled as they made seemingly random turns through the halls.
"Over here!" Blake yelled as she jumped into a door on her right. Everyone else followed close behind before Blake shut the door. A few seconds of silence passed before the Paladin could be heard passing the door that they had just entered.
"Don't they have state-of-the-art detection equipment? How did hiding work?" Weiss asked silently.
"This room had a sound-canceller." Blake said in a normal voice.
"Why?" Yang asked as she looked around to see a normal looking, small bedroom. "Actually, why is there a random bedroom in one of the main halls for the top terrorist organization's outpost?" Yang inquired.
"Yeah, I thought these rooms would be for things like the armory, medical bay, and other stuff." Ruby said.
"Yes, all of your need can be found in one of the rooms down here." Blake stated.
"Then why is this bedroom here? I thought the dorms were upstairs?" Yang pondered.
"They are…like I said. All of your needs can be fulfilled down here. This is a room for conjugal visits." Blake said with a straight face.
"Wow." Weiss said unsurprisingly.
"What's does conjugal mean?" Ruby asked.
"I'm in the same boat, Rubes. What is that?" Yang asked to which Blake whispered something into Yang's ear. The older sister seemed to forget all about her recent injury, as her faced turned red and she urged Ruby to think about the mission. "Ruby, we need to find Lion. What's the plan?" she asked quickly trying to change the subject.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ruby shrugged her shoulders as she pulled out her scroll. "Okay. I've got a plan." She said as she sat on the ground and opened up a larger version of her map.