The walk to the abandoned town wasn't as bad as the Courier originally thought it was going to be. The surrounding trees blocked any of the Sun's warming rays and the air was cool, unlike in the Mojave. However, having about thirty bandits also tagging along did bring a damper onto Courier Six's mood. They weren't taking this as seriously as he thought they would.
To his surprise, Shay was clearly the only one that was taking it seriously. He had a long gun draped over his shoulder and a pair of binoculars hung around his neck. The long gun given to him seemed to be the standard weapon given to the other bandits accompanying himself and Shay.
Raven and Vernal didn't accompany the raid, with Raven stating that she had to look over Vernal while she healed from the spar. Which seemed odd to the Courier due to the Raven's statements about how aura works. But he didn't care that much, he knew that he could make any band of undisciplined bandits and turn them into proper legionnaires if given the time.
Shay was leading the entire raiding party in the front, while the Courier walked behind him. Everyone else followed their lead. Shay suddenly stopped, making the whole group stop. He then looked at a patch of grass that apparently stood out to him. He bent down and felt the ground. He tsked and walked back to the group of bandits.
"Stay on your toes, there has been some movement around these parts."
Shay's comment got the bandits into shape, their slouching, unserious forms suddenly shot upright. Some even went into more ready positions with their weapons. Their demeanor completely changed, they all became stone faced, prepared to kill when given the order.
The Courier was slightly impressed with how Shay can whip his folks into shape. Although if Shay just properly disciplined his people during their training their carefree attitudes wouldn't have happened in the first place. If a legionary ever did something like this, they would have their tongue cut out. Before the Courier Six could internally scrutinize bandits further, Shay stopped again and faced his raider regiment.
"Everyone stay here. Six follow me." Shay said with some authority. Although his voice did waver a bit towards the end, he still remembered the Courier's threat towards him when they first met.
The Courier didn't make any affirmative gesture to Shay, he just up and left with him. Leaving the thirty bandits alone in the forest by themselves. Shay kept walking forward, with the Courier in tow behind him. Shay took a turn to the left and crouched down nearby into a bush, motioning for the Courier to do the same. The Courier did so and whispered into Shay's ear.
"Why are we doing this?"
Shay in response gave the Courier a little shush and brought the binoculars to his eyes. He moved his head around like a person looking for their house keys. Shay cursed under his breath, and brought the binoculars away from his face back to his chest, dangling like a necklace. No different to the mark of Caesar that the Courier wore.
"What was so important that you brought us away from everyone else?" The Courier asked.
"I think people are in the town right now." Shay answered, while handing the pair of binoculars to Courier Six.
The Courier took the binoculars into his hands and brought them to his eyes. Through the binoculars he had the scenery completely change near the town. The once dense forest thins out into a plains like area. The heavily damaged walls of the abandoned town still stand with signs of slight overgrowth from plants and huge scratch marks from some sort of animal. The gate leading into the town seemed more damaged than the walls meant to protect the town itself.
The gate's wooden gate had the same scratch marks as the concrete walls, but with more variety in its size and more common. It also seemed that the locking mechanism was broken, with the gate itself being slightly ajar. But the Courier didn't just see the outskirts of the town, he saw a little bit inside of the town as well.
He saw the rooftops of some of the houses to be in worse condition than the gate and the wall. With their roof tiles cracked and missing. The most extreme case the Courier saw of this rural town's decay was one of their rooftops being caved in, like an entrance to a forgotten sinkhole. But that wasn't the most important thing he saw within the decrepit walls of the abandoned town.
He saw a flagpole, which is completely normal for small towns to have. However by now, Courier Six would have guessed that the flag would have been taken down. But no, a flag was currently flowing around in the wind, supported by the flagpole. The flag had the symbol of a big cat seemingly wounded by three scratches. The big cat itself was colored red while the backdrop was colored red. With the big cat's expression contoured into a snarl
The Courier put the binoculars down and handed them back to Shay. "Has that flag always been there?"
"That's the flag of the White Fang, Six. No, it wasn't here last time I was here." Shay said, with his voice straining a bit during the last sentence. It was clear Shay was a little nervous now, since there may be tougher opposition besides untrained prospectors and wildlife.
"Look, how about I go in and talk to-"
Shay laughed at the suggestion made by the Courier. He calmed himself down before he could respond to the Courier.
"The White Fang don't negotiate with people, especially humans." Shay said, scoffing at the idea the Courier presented him with.
"Well, if that doesn't work, once you hear a gunshot, bring the raiding party there to reinforce me."
Shay sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. He clearly didn't like the option given by the Courier.
"Alright, you can go try what you want to do," Shay said while getting up and walking back further into the forest, to meet up with his fellow bandits. "But if you die we won't give you proper burial or do some other tribal shit like in Vacuo."
The Courier chuckled at the thought of him getting some Blackfoot ritual done to him after his death. Courier Six then nodded at Shay's comment and got out of the bush and started walking towards the gate that would lead into the decrepit, abandoned town.
As he got closer to the gate, he heard people talking from the inside, but he couldn't make out what they were talking about exactly. It was a lot like loud murmurs more than loud shouting. He looked through the slightly opened gate and saw a man wearing a white uniform walking by one of the other houses far away from the Courier. Courier Six then cupped his hands around his mask to make his voice louder.
"CAN I TALK TO YOUR LEADER?"
The man in the white uniform head snapped towards the gate and by proxy the Courier. He ran over to the gate, with his gun aimed at the Courier. As he got closer he revealed the mask he was wearing was a rounded white mask with fangs at the bottom of it.
"Why would we even consider talking to you human?" The White Fang member hissed.
"My people don't have any problems with yours. This is historic tribal land that you walk now." Courier Six said, forming a lie quickly.
The White Fang member gave a sarcastic, almost fake chuckle in response to the Courier's comment.
"No problem between us? You humans enslaved and lynched us faunus for centuries and you want to talk about land disputes?"
The Courier knew that the conversation wasn't heading in a direction that was good for him. He needed to redirect the conversation before it got too dangerous too quickly.
"Our tribe didn't collaborate with the old Mistral government back in the day. Your ideals align with my tribe." The Courier said while preparing himself for the worst, digging into his duster's right pocket to grab Blood-Nap.
The White Fang member seemingly had weights lifted off his shoulders like a man completing a deadlift. But he still had a typical soldier's stance, ready to shoot if given proper cause. The Courier needed to put this man at ease.
"I understand your frustrations, but I had no say in any of the problems of the past," The Courier lied with a convincing tone within his voice. "My tribe is in dire straits, we have been robbed of our ancestors' wealth by the SDC and we are running low on essentials. We need help."
The Courier Six's sham of a sob story seemed to affect the White Fang member's stance towards him. He didn't completely relax, however he did seem to be less dismissive and slightly less angry in his body language at the Courier. He didn't holster his gun on his back but he did stop pointing his weapon at him, showing clear muzzle control.
"Alright, I can't guarantee that Sister Trifa will even consider giving you the light of day," The member said. "Follow me and don't start any problems within our camp."
The Courier nodded and went into the camp guided by terrorist. The inside of this town was still rundown and beaten, much as the walls that were supposed to protect the town. The bricks in the street were loose or were missing, showing the streets age. Many of the houses were in a worse condition than the Courier realized.
Some houses' doors were off their hinges, windows shattered and destroyed by some sort of giant animal with huge claws. The sidewalks connecting the houses to the street were cracked with some pieces of the sidewalk missing in huge chunks. Lamp posts were on both sides of the street connected into the ground of the sidewalks in a linear fashion.
Then the Courier started to notice more about the current occupiers of the town. They were all wearing the same uniform with little to no differences besides the men having larger waists than their female counterparts. Some had rifles on their backs, others had swords on their hips. Others were moving crates around, some lounged about and others were staring at the Courier.
The White Fang member had guided the Courier to the center of town,where there stood a ruined town hall. But that wasn't the most interesting thing,however. There were a lot more White Fang members around here than there was before. In particular, he saw some White Fang members beat one of their captives, who was wearing a white uniform with a snowflake embedded into his uniform's arm.
There were two other captives with the same uniform, both men with pale skin. The amount of crates lying around nearly doubled, with the same snowflake insignia as the uniforms the captives were wearing. The Courier didn't say anything about the captives and the crates to the terrorist guiding him to his superior, but kept note of vantage points, possible escape routes and salvageable weapons if the White Fang decided to try and kill him. But then Courier looked to the right on him, and saw the other side of town. Since the town hall is about in the middle of the town and the town itself was rather small he should be able to see most of the other side of the town and what was going on over there.
But then he barely saw a figure of a train off in the distance, even with his perfect 20/20 vision. He squinted and saw the same insignia on the crates, and uniforms on the side of the train. If Shay's words were correct and truthful then the White Fang must have robbed the Schnee Dust Company's goods.
The Courier stilled at the implication because SDC doesn't like people who rob their goods from them. If their private security force did come for the White Fang, they would probably figure out where the Branwen tribe was located in time. He couldn't allow this to happen, so he had to cut the head of the snake. Either through falsehoods about tribal sacred land or through violence.
But the Courier had a very analytical eye. He noticed these faunas mutants have either some sort of ear or tail mutation. This could be completely cosmetic towards their bodies or have some benefits in their favor. They looked like an experiment that Dr. Borus and Dr. Dala made to one up Mobius and his army of robo-scorpions. Before he could monologue further, the grunt guiding spoke up.
"We are going to enter the town hall so you can talk to Sister Trifa, don't make any sudden movements."
The Courier simply nodded and followed the terrorist to the front of the town hall. The Town wasn't as ruined as the other houses in the town. The structure of the building was rather sound but it had signs of distress and use written all over it. Cracks and missing pieces of the once beautiful town hall. His terroristic tour guide was talking to the people guarding the door that would presumably lead to this Trifa figure he has been talking about.
After a few minutes of talking by his tour guide, the guards opened the door to both him and the Courier. They both entered the building with the White Fang grunt leading the Courier to his leader. Through countless twists and turns in monotonous decrepit hallways that seem to never end. Though if there was a good sign for the Courier, it was that there weren't as many guards on the inside of the building as there were on the outside.
The White Fang member stopped in front of a pair of red double doors, which most likely led to the leader of this little outpost. The tour of the newly proclaimed White Fang outpost has ended for the Courier. Now he had to find out if he could possibly convince a bunch of racial zealots to leave the area with his silver tongue.
He has done the unthinkable and the impossible before, so he had no reason to doubt himself.
The White Fang member knocked on the door with his fist twice in a rapid succession. An unwelcoming silence crashed over the two, with them waiting awkwardly for a few seconds before both doors swung open from the inside, pulled back by two White Fang members.
The room was much cleaner than the outside in the town or in the hallways leading up to it.It seemed almost untouched by whatever destroyed the town in the first place. The well carved wood table and the tile flooring. Along with well furnished leather chairs that flank both sides of the table. Although the White Fang banner just behind the bigger leather seemed to be a recent addition.
The two White Fang members that opened the doors to this rather nicely put together office shut the doors and walked back next to the bigger chair, with one flanking each side. The other White Fang grunt who guided him here was standing near the door. This meant that the Courier couldn't leave without causing a ruckus. All three had a rifle somewhere on their body, waiting for the order to get rid of him, to wipe him off the face of the Earth.
Then one of the doors opened behind the Courier, and the two White Fang members near the bigger chair that sat just across from him stood at attention. Courier Six turned around to see a woman enter the room, shutting the door behind her. She was rather young, around the Courier's age. She was wearing a black and gray uniform with golden buttons and a zipper.
Her front zipper was left open which revealed her upper chest. Which was completely unnecessary in the Courier's mind, but he wasn't going to voice his objections to the way the woman dressed. She had gray-blue eyes that held the sign of indifference within them. However her medium length gray-blue hair covered her right eye. Her pale skin and gray veins that led all the way down to her hands and her chest juxtaposed her black uniform.
Her only visible eye trailed up and down the Courier's face and body, clearly looking for any hidden weapons on him. However, the Courier has enough experience with sneaking guns into places where they weren't supposed to be in, so she didn't notice the lighter in his inner pocket in his duster.
"Why is a human in our… headquarters?" She said, coldly towards the rank and file members of the White Fang in the room. After a quick moment of silence following her question, the White Fang member who guided Courier Six spoke up.
"Well… he said to me that this is sacred land for his tribe and that they need help."
The higher ranking woman raised her eyebrow to her underling. Her one visible eye traced over the two other White Fang members in the room, to get any confirmation towards the claim. The two other guards look at each other and shrug their shoulders in response.
The woman then went back to eyeballing the Courier, before sighing and placing her right hand on her hip.
"Why would we help you, human? It is not coincidental that once we stop an SDC train that a human with some Atlesian technology on wrist appears crying to the choir." She said in a preachy tone of voice, clearly appealing to her more logical side. Unfortunately for her, the Courier was rather a genius when it came to pathos and ethos.
"Well, my name isn't human, it is Courier Six first and foremost. What's your name?" The Courier stated calmly.
"My name is Trifa, now you didn't address my concerns with you, human." Trifa stated while walking toward the desk in the room.
The Courier's teeth almost grinded itself into a fine dust at the level of disrespect thrown onto his face by some no-name woman with a skin condition. But he had to keep it on the inside, for sake of himself getting the nearly magical ability that is aura.
"Well Trifa..my tribe lacks the sufficient amounts of food, water and dust to survive through winter and beyond and we would appreciate it if you spared any supp-" But before the Courier could finish, Trifa interrupted.
"The White Fang isn't some charity, it's a vehicle for us faunus to bring change to the world," Trifa explained, almost spitting out her words at Courier Six. "I know that for you it may be hard to understand that."
The Courier took off his lucky shades to create a dramatic effect for what he was about to say. His green eyes became hardened and visible for Trifa to see. He made his face portray many emotions that he could. Sadness, and a slight anger could be seen in his face and body language now, even though he wasn't personally. It was a ruse to bewitch Trifa and her dogs into giving him what he wants.
"I understand what you are saying, Trifa. You may have had a rough childhood or upbringing due to your nature as a faunus. But at least you had a warmth of a mother and caring father-"
"You know…nothing about me. You, Courier probably had a decent life compared to mine-"
"I am going to cut you off here Trifa," The Courier said in a very dangerous tone. "I wasn't finished with what I wanted to say."
Trifa's only visible eye narrowed in a silent seething anger at the disrespect thrown at her by the Courier but she didn't stop him from continuing.
"The children out here only know constant pain and suffering. Their parents are stripped away from them by the wildlife or other tribes. Then winter comes around and the other ten children are all huddled together for warmth since it's below freezing. They wake up with rats, mice and cockroaches eating at their toes, fingers and body. Then they see the worst case scenario happen in the winter, one of toddlers or babies died in the night. Their once warm bodies and happy smiles are consumed by utter darkness and evil. Don't even try to say that I haven't suffered in my life just because I ain't some faunus like you."
The room was completely silent after the Courier's monologue. Trifa's once narrowed eye slowly widened to where it looked more neutral. The three White Fang members were silent, with their eyes not even looking at either Trifa or the Courier Six.
"Trifa, your people being here will hurt mine in the end. You know this operation will be busted by someone in no time. I know that you don't want dead children in your conscience. That will haunt you forever and the stains of the blood will never be washed off no matter how hard you scrub your hands in the sink."
Trifa looked offended for a split second, with a look of indignation temporarily on her face. But then it turned into a mixture of slight guilt and anger at the accusation. The other members of this terrorist organization looked a bit frazzled at the Courier's words.
There was another moment of silence between the members of the Panther and the enforcer of the Bull. Trifa stared at him once again to see if he was lying. Although the others didn't notice, the Courier saw Trifa's eye softened for just a moment, but they hardened almost immediately after.
Trifa sighed, while rubbing her nasal bridge. "We don't have much food or water, we have just enough for ourselves. But we have some dust left over that we can give to you."
The Courier smiled an insincere cheshire smile beneath his breathing mask. "And I take it that you will leave this town?" He asked with certainty in his voice.
"No, I was ordered by my two higher ups that we must hold this position until further notice," Trifa stated while walking behind the desk in the room. "You get your dust for now and you tell no one that we were here. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." The Courier responded with no identifiable emotions behind them, which made Trifa stop in her tracks for a moment before she resumed what she was doing. She opened one of the draws in the desk and lifted up a smaller crate of dust with a red snowflake logo on it. She placed it on the desk with a light thump noise.
"Careful with this, fire dust is flammable when it comes into contact with a flame." She warned.
"Of course I will," The Courier said. "Do one of you have a cigarette pack? We ran out recently at camp."
Trifa opened up another drawer in the desk and handed a carton of cigarettes to the Courier. He took it, removed his breathing mask and opened it up and put one of the cigarettes in his mouth. It was smaller than the usual cigarette, but he didn't complain.
"Can one of you light it?" The Courier asked while pocketing the carton of cigarettes and putting the breathing mask in his pip-boy.
Trifa started to look annoyed at his persistence of staying in her base of operations and asking for her cigarette carton. Oh well, she was wanting to get over her nicotine addiction someday, so it wouldn't inconvenience her in any way since he was taking it off her hands. She took her lighter out of the small drawer. She took out the carton of cigarettes and lit the young man's cigarette in his mouth.
The Courier smiled at Trifa, which made her stomach queasy. He gave her a smile a serial killer would give after giving into his deepest desires. He opened the locks on the side of the crate, and opened the crate to see the red dust for himself. His eyes portrayed an interest in the mined substance.
But then the unthinkable happened.
The Courier threw the case of fire dust at Trifa and the guards behind her and pulled out a lighter of his own, ignited it and threw the lighter at the box of dust that was about to hit her.
Trifa's eyes could only widen so much and before words could escape her mouth, the lighter's little fire ignited the fire dust, and it caused an explosion. It rocked the floor and shattered the few windows left intact in the building, shattered completely.
One of the three guards was consumed by the fire made by the fired dust. The other two either died or were knocked out cold since their bodies hit the wall and then the floor. Trifa on the other hand, was knocked out of the building through a window and onto the concrete outside of the town hall. Due to her aura, she didn't take much damage, but she felt one hell of an aftershock.
She struggled to stand up, but she did eventually after a few failed attempts. The ringing in her ear stopped, and was replaced by the songs of screaming of orders and gunfire. But who could that be? The Courier was by himself-
"SISTER TRIFA!," One young voice screamed out loudly over the chaos. "BANDITS ARE ATTACKING THE CAMP!"
Trifa gritted her teeth, the Courier was referring to some noble savage tribe dedicated to themselves. No he was talking about one of the infamous bandits in all of Mistral, the Branwen Tribe.
Trifa focused on the giant hole which was now in the town hall. She saw her tactical knife given to her by her higher ups. She put one of her hands up and felt the center of palm open up a bit, and then released a silky, colorless spider web strand that shot out and connected to her knife. She yanked on the strand which made the knife fly back towards her, which she caught in her free hand.
The sleek black handle felt comfortable in her hand. The steel shining and reflecting her face back onto herself. She saw in her reflection that she had light scratches on her face and her hair was in a messy state, but due to her aura she was mostly fine.
Then she saw a shadowy figure emerge from the orange flames. She hoped it was one of the White Fang members in the building at the time of the explosion. But no, her luck wouldn't allow that. The Devil himself walked out the flames, somehow untouched and unharmed by the very explosion he started.
He scanned the outside until his eyes, the Devil's eyes landed on her. He held a magnum revolver in his hand and cocked the hammer back with a smile.
"Time for talking is over. Your free trial to life is over, time to die." The Courier stated, clearly enjoying himself.
Trifa steadied herself and got into her fighting stance, with her knife's edge facing the Courier. She wasn't going up like some victim or martyr, she was going to see the revolution of her people through. She had to live up to the High leader's expectations of her and couldn't leave her parents childless.
She wasn't going to let some psycho bandit determine her fate. She ran from her spot with the spirit of vengeance behind her, dodging or deflecting any bullets shot at her by the Courier. Courier Six on the other hand was more stationary, aiming and shooting his Mysterious Magnum at the advanding threat.
That is until he ran out of rounds in his gun. He knew that Trifa was getting too close at the pace she was running at. So he put the Mysterious Magnum back into his pip-boy and took out Blood-Nap. He got himself into a more fitting fighting stance with his bowie knife. His body tensed with anticipation.
Trifa reached the Courier and swung her knife towards his head, with him just barely moving his head out of the way of her knife. Courier Six in return gave a few swings towards Trifa's body and neck horizontally. However, Trifa was skilled enough to dodge them and kept her distance from him.
The two opposing forces then clashed, with the Courier's blade harshly clanking and connecting with Trifa's knife. Trifa gritted her teeth at the aggression and force behind his strikes but continued to contest him in battle.
Trifa knew she couldn't clash forever, due to the human's larger figure but she had a plan of action. So she simply stopped attempting to clash with Courier Six with a graceful swerve backwards. She then rammed her knife forwards the Courier's throat, since her manver left the man open for her attack.
She felt her sweat cascade down her back and face, with its more sour smell reaching her nostrils. She had it in her hands now, she doesn't think that he has the reaction time to block it.
But then, almost as if he knew the attack was going to happen, ducked it and used his other hand to counter with a quick uppercut. Which sent Trifa stumbling back.
With Trifa on the backfoot, The Courier pressed forward, just like a shark when blood is in the water. He started to swing with his bowie knife more and more repeatedly like a trained soldier. Trifa evaded some of his swipes at her, but exhaustion started to affect her and her adrenaline started to depart from her veins making the hits she felt painful.
Although Courier Six had the upper hand for now, he tried to restrain himself somewhat to not leave openings for Trifa to take advantage of. All he wants to do right now is to sink Blood-Nap's tip into throat and watch her struggle as she leaves the material world.
The Courier knew Trifa didn't have it in her to keep moving forward. She seemed to let the drive diminished within her. It was sad for him personally, it gave him a worthwhile fight for the moment. But all things had to come to an end at some point-
Thwip
With the odd sound's appearance, the Courier's sight was suddenly impaired. Covered by some sticky, colorless substance that was on his face. It had to have been connected to something since he felt a hard, violent tug and made him lose his balance, making him fall towards the ground.
The web-like substance then was lifted from his face, and the Courier felt an object pierce and slice through the left side of his mouth. His gums and parts of his teeth acked in pain, with blood pouring out the newly extended part of his mouth.
The Courier felt around him for Blood-Nap, which he found rather quickly. After finding his prized bowie knife, he shot up from the ground, accidentally headbutting Trifa while getting up.
Trifa fell forward, and hissed in pain, and the Courier gave into his wrath. He started to swipe in almost every direction he could think of. It had an effect on Trifa, who was clearly exhausted and started to take more blows all over her body.
Courier Six knew that he couldn't keep fighting for much longer, the amount of blood pouring out of his mouth and its extension done by Trifa would have an effect on him soon. The taste of iron in his mouth intensified and got worse with each breath and action he took.
But for the Courier, luck was on his side, since he struck Trifa in her arm causing her to drop her knife, leaving her defenseless to further attacks for now.
Trifa looked surprised and slightly fearful that the Courier was still fighting and disarmed her. She looked behind her, seeing the chaos brought by the Branwen Tribe against her own people. The White Fang were losing, and the bandits were getting closer and closer to their commander.
She knew a lost cause when she saw one. The White Fang might be upset at her for failing at her given operation, but she knew that they preferred her being alive rather than being dead. She saw a formation of lamp posts that could lead out of this town with the use of her webs. So she did just that, and with a little thwip, her webbing came out of her hands and she pulled herself towards the closest lamp post.
Trifa felt the air push against her body. She hated to leave her comrades behind, but a White Fang member like her wasn't replaceable. She would report the incident to Yuma and then it would make it up the grape vine, and these bandits would finally be dealt with-
Trifa's webbing snapped and she felt someone grab and pull onto her leg with a death grip. It was the Courier, and with a very small smile, threw her to the ground.
The Courier capitalized on his enemies' down trodden state. He started to stab her repeatedly with Blood-Nap all over her place, most notably her neck. However due to her aura, the damage done by him was mitigated.
This only increased his anger towards the faunas. He started to stomp her head against the concrete, and mixed in a few punches with his free hand.
Eventually her aura broke, and the Courier grinned, ignoring the pain like he did during all of his shootouts and fights in the Mojave. He stepped on her chest and stared down into her eyes, the dull gray portraying a wide range of emotions a person felt when they knew they were about to die.
"You got me good," The Courier said, while wiping some of the blood off his mouth. "But you should have gotten me in my neck."
But before the Courier could sink his blade into Trifa's forehead, Shay interrupted his potentially euphoric moment.
"Hey Six, the White Fang retreated into the SDC train and started the train, should we pursue them-what happened to your face?"
The Courier turned to face Shay, and Shay cringed at the Courier 's wound as his eyes laid upon it.
"Nevermind that, we got to get you back to the camp to fix that wound." Shay stated. Shay then cupped his hands for a larger announcement to the rest of the bandits included in the raid.
"GET YOUR HANDS ON ANY DUST YOU CAN FIND, WE ARE LEAVING."
Shay looked down at the defeated White Fang commander, and simply smirked at the implications.
"You want to take her as a captive?" Shay asked, and the Courier nodded quickly to his question.
"Get something to bind her hands together, she has some mutation that causes her to produce webbing." The Courier stated
Shay nodded, while Trifa could only internally theorize on what they wanted with her. But she knew for one the walk wouldn't be short for them.
xxx
Raven and Vernal got what they wanted in their ambush against the Spring Maiden. It wasn't much of a fight, an untrained merchant off in a rural frontier town wasn't going to give it their all. It was almost paradoxical on how people that weak could inherit such a power.
But in the world at the end of the day, those with power are only powerful with the will to wield their strength. The previous Spring Maiden didn't have that drive about anything, just the maintenance of her own wares and goods at her store.
As Raven and Vernal got closer to the camp itself, they saw clear smoke rise into the air, signaling to them that Shay and his raiding party had returned from the old town. Hopefully it was a very quick in and out situation. As they approached the gate, it seemed that everything went well, the guards at the gate gave them both a nod of respect as they were opening the gate.
Both Raven and Vernal enter the camp to see a few things were off. The amount of dust taken was nearly doubled from last time. However it was in SDC crates, which implied one of two things.
One, Shay and the Courier robbed the SDC, or two the SDC company was expanding their operation into the frontier of Mistral. Neither of them was good news for the chieftain of the Branwen Tribe, but one was way worse.
Another thing that was off is that near some of the more safe dust types, there was a table of newer looking rifles and pistols that she hadn't seen before. However, that wasn't the only thing on the table.
There were a few masks that looked like a member of the White Fang would wear. Raven knew what this would imply, but she wanted confirmation first before she started to formulate any thoughts and plans in her head. So she scanned the camp for Shay or Courier Six, to ask about what exactly happened during the raid.
She first saw Shay walk out of some tent with bruises on his knuckles and grin. His eyes locked onto Raven and Vernal, and started to walk towards them. Vernal rolled her eyes, and walked away from Raven, not wanting to hear whatever Shay was going to say.
"So how did your's and Vernal's adventure go?" He asked with a joyful tone in his voice.
"It went better than expected, we learned more about the land east of our camp and the towns within them," Raven stated, telling half of the truth. "How was the raid on the town Shay?"
Shay leaned his head back in a happy manner and responded, "Same as you really, we got more goods out of this haul,". His smile faltered for a second before reappearing. "But we did have to fight the White Fang."
"Was it completely necessary to do so? I don"t want much attention on our tribe Shay…" Raven said accusingly.
"No,no,no! We didn't just shoot up the White Fang on sight! Courier Six tried to talk to them to get them to leave the town, but they attacked him first, so we just responded." Shay said with some panic in his tone.
"Do they know where we are currently?" Raven asked with her hand gripping Omen's sheath.
"Of course not!." Shay said with growing nervousness. "But-"
Raven grabbed Shay by his shirt and pulled him closer to her face, which was covered by her mask. "But what?"
"We took one, the leader, for ransom. She doesn't know where the camp is, Courier Six knocked her out after I used rope to bind her hands."
Raven let go of Shay and sighed, "Where is Courier Six right now?"
"He's in the tent that I came out of," Shay answered. "He's with the prisoner right now."
Raven nodded, and Shay took that as a sign of dismissal, so he left Raven alone to talk to the prisoner and Courier Six. She walked to the tent Shay walked out of and opened up the flap to see inside. She saw the usual, a small table with a chair with oddly enough history books on it stacked. With one of them opened up to a random page. There wasn't a bed in it, so she assumed that they were using this for the prisoner.
Said prisoner was hogtied, with a chain around her neck, keeping her connected to the pole keeping the tent up. Her face was full of bruises and one of her eyes swollen shut. She seemed to be morally defeated, with her face stricken with red puffiness and with her eyes portraying fear.
The Courier himself however was staring at the mirror next to the table intently, with his back facing Raven. She saw that in one hand he had a needle and the other a thread role. He was wincing every so often from the pain from whatever he was doing.
Raven coughed into her hand to get the Courier's attention. He turned around and revealed to Raven the extent of his injury from the raid. The entire left side of his face was cut open, and was sewing back shut. It looked like he was nearly completed with his process of fixing himself.
"That's going to leave quite the scar," Raven stated. "You survived that whole ordeal and managed to make it back here to fix your wound. Not to say almost losing your jaw is impressive, but at least you didn't die.
The Courier grunted in agreement. He continued on sewing until he finished up dealing with his wound, which left both the prisoner and Raven in awkward silence for a good minute or two. After finishing dressing his wound, he wrapped a cloth around it.
Raven looked at the prisoner, and then back at the Courier. She looked at Courier Six's knuckles, which were much darker in shade than Shay's. This led to one conclusion that Raven believed wholeheartedly at the moment.
The prisoner is the one that did that to him. But that didn't really concern Raven too much, a grudge between two non-Branwen Tribe people didn't really bother her.
"The White Fang took dust from the Schnee Dust Company, and we took the dust from them. The White Fang doesn't know your current location either," The Courier said. He then looked at the prisoner with a look that could kill.
"Her name is Trifa, she led the White Fang operation in the area. I doubt they will continue it after what Shay and I did there."
Raven hummed at the summary, "Were there any employees of SDC at the camp at all?"
"There were two, I don't know where they went after the fighting started."
Raven mentally noted to herself to look for people with SDC company uniforms tomorrow. She walked closer to the Courier and placed a hand on his chest.
"Well you upheld your end of the deal, so I will give you what I owe you." Raven stated.
"For it is in risk that we gain survival. Through this, we become a paragon of duty and sacrifice to outlast all others. Infinite in reach and unbound by ties, I release your soul, and by my hand, set thee free."
As she finished her chant, She saw the Courier's black colored aura flicker in and out of existence, before setting within him. Raven tsked, how can a man with a warrior's spirit have such a low amount of aura given to him? The Gods must be playing a cruel ironic joke on the blond man.
"You have a smaller amount of aura than the average person, but with what I know about you so far that shouldn't be a problem."
The Courier simply nodded at the information given to him. He wasn't a complainer like most, which was a good trait to have Raven thought.
"I read about some things in the books over there. Can you answer a question for me before I leave?" The Courier asked
"Sure" Raven answered, knowing that his questions would be rather easy to answer.
"Out of all of the huntsmen academies in the world, which one would be the most prestigious in your opinion?"
Raven thought about her answer for a few seconds before saying the name of the school that she noe loathed.
"Beacon Academy in Vale produces the best freelancing huntsmen while Atlas Academy is best for rising the ranks in Atlas's army." Raven said.
"Okay, thanks for everything. Caesar's Legion provides those who help them in their times of need." The Courier stated.
He walked by Raven and shot one last look at Trifa, which made her look to the floor immediately. He opened up the tent flap and walked out of the tent itself. After he left, Raven cursed in her head for letting another one go to that cursed place. But all well, she could just go and stop him now. Even if she caught up with, she knew that he wouldn't listen to her.
She sighed, knowing the fate of her own team and how the cycle was just going to repeat itself year after year due to the meddling of one man.
To get the thought of said man out of her head, she walked over to the book that the Courier was reading before he left. The title of the page in the history was The Geography of Remnant.
That was odd, she was even sure even the youngest people in this world knew what it looked like.