Dark eyes blinked away sleep as the White Fang lieutenant awoke from an uncomfortable nap. He reached up and rubbed his eyes as he tried to remember when and where he'd fallen asleep, not noticing that his mask and gauntlets had been removed. He shivered, hugging himself to stave away the cold as he took in his surroundings
"You know, that deep voice of yours is much less impressive now that I know it's just because of your gills." A female voice spoke. Banesaw spun and crouched, eyes locking on to the duo behind him. Dragon was leaning against a door, silhouetted against the city skyline while throwing and catching Bane's mask. His companion was sitting on an AC unit while wearing a familiar white coat.
"Tigress…" Banesaw rumbled, "Why am I alive, they told me you felt no mercy, that your heart never beat."
Tigress chuckled behind her mask, "And they told me that you felt no fear, I'm glad to know that if the White Fang is right about one thing…" She leaned in, lifting her mask above her jaw to show a sharp grin "That it's about me." Banesaw flinched back involuntarily, coaxing another laugh out of Tigress and Dragon.
The male of the pair walked towards the man on the floor and crouched down, offering the mask back to him. Banesaw made to take it, flinching again when Dragon withdrew it just as he was about to grasp it.
"You will get this back after you answer a few questions of ours." He said calmly, in a voice with something… wrong with it. It wasn't just that it sounded like he was gargling gravel with every word - there was something else that put the hardened warrior's hair on end.
Slowly, deliberately, Banesaw stood. His captors made no effort to restrain him but that meant nothing when it came to these people. The stories he'd heard, the rumours that spread amongst his ranks, they all spoke of inhuman - infaunus - monsters. It was said that Dragon was a racist, that he worked only to destroy the faunus race and that his alliance with his partner was one of mere convenience. It was said that he had dominion over others, that he forced his partner to do his bidding with blackmail, mind control, fear.
But his partner, she was someone who simply thrived in chaos. She could dance through a hail of bullets without a scratch. She could walk blindfolded and deaf into battle and come out covered in blood with none of it her own. It was said that the proof of dark gods at work came from their partnership, that for two souls so violent, so bloodthirsty, so meant for each other to have found each other was a curse on the White Fang themselves. Banesaw was never one for such pointless rumours or extravagant hyperbole. But - when confronted with these two side by side, he believed he could almost see his thread of fate between them, and that together they would cut it short.
He looked down. "What… what do you need to know?"
"Adam Taurus. He's a person of interest to us. Tell us where he is, what he's doing." The male voice said.
Tigress spoke up. "We'd also like you to finish your little speech, why are you working with Roman and what is your plan with all these new recruitment drives. Seems like you need a lot more manpower and a few more leaders for something."
"Like I would betray our entire mission like-" Banesaw was interrupted by surprisingly sharp gloved fingers wrapping around his windpipe.
"Speak. Now." His assailant growled.
Banesaw wheezed "If you think I'll trade dying to you now for being tortured by the Fang later, you're wrong."
"We can torture you if you'd like." Tigress piped up helpfully.
"Ignore her, she's got a hairball caught in her throat." Tigress narrowed her eyes with a growl.
"I was going to warn you that he's going to try and stab you, Dragon. But now I think I'd like to see that happen."
Banesaw reached into his belt and jabbed his hand forward wielding a knife, which was then promptly caught by Dragon and returned rather quickly to Bane - or rather his neck - which came as quite a shock to him.
Dragon recoiled, trying to dodge the spurts of blood as he withdrew the knife and utterly failing in that matter.
"You had thirty whole seconds to warn me he was going to try that, Lucy." Dragon said.
"Drake, just be thankful I warned you at all."
"Gee, thanks." Drake curtseyed dramatically. "Didn't look like he was going to talk anyway and we have no idea what they're planning."
Lucy smirked. "Oh ye of little faith. Did you forget who I almost made you shoot? The stray was here, and I doubt she was here on her own."
"So what? She somehow figured out what they're planning?"
Lucy looked at Drake, confused.
"She was at the meeting, that obviously means you were wrong, she's still part of them so she knows what they're planning."
Drake covered his eyes with his gloved right hand. "That stupid mask of yours, you couldn't see what she was wearing. She wasn't in a uniform, she wasn't even in her usual outfit. She was trying to blend in - I doubt she would do that if she was still part of it."
"Ugh, you and your logic. Either way, if RWBY were doing their thing then they've probably got info."
"So let me get this straight, you went to the meeting and saw Roman, but then a masked faunus appeared out of nowhere and started attacking before he even got to say anything?" Yang asked, leaning against the wall with Neptune. Weiss had to admit that they looked… 'cool' together, but that didn't change the fact that she and him would have made a better pair.
Sun sat on Blake's bed, his hand on her shoulder. "Yeah - didn't get two words before this crazy chick and her crazy friend started attacking. White masks though, maybe another Fang group? More radical ones?"
"Just when I thought those terrorists couldn't sink any lower they attack their own people." Weiss scoffed "Did you at least get anything of value?"
"Uh yeah, that big robot? You were there - seems like they've got some heavy equipment. I coulda sworn I saw an Atlas flag on it - shouldn't you know what's up with that? Bein from Atlas and junk?" Sun said, articulately. Weiss rolled her eyes.
"And surely I am aware of anything and everything that occurs in the Atlas military. You're right - I should know, I'm sorry." Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Actually…" Ruby spoke up, raising her hand as though she were in class. "When I was following Penny earlier, I saw this demo in the square - Atlas was showing off their new machines to fight the Grimm. That robot we fought was called a - uh… Paladin! Yeah it was a paladin… but the General said it's not supposed to see combat for a few months."
That got everyone thinking. They all saw the artillery the fanciful crook brought to the table but if they weren't even supposed to be used for months? That was new. The fact that they had one of the most advanced pieces of military equipment on the planet meant not only that they had a strong backer, but that they most likely had an array of equipment far beyond the realm of petty thugs and lowlives that the media liked to portray them as. The fact that none of them had thought of that possibility earlier was a slap in the face too. They knew that Roman must have been bringing something to the table, but that they didn't notice even when he had used aircraft for heists multiple times? That should have indicated earlier just what kind of backing they had.
"Think they've got more than one?" Neptune asked hesitantly.
That sent a chill through the room. One paladin took all of Team RWBY to deal with, even with a clearly non-military trained pilot who couldn't see out of one eye past his orange mop. If they had more of them plus pilots with any dress sense? Then they- Vale - were in trouble. It was insane that nobody had noticed them transporting that thing to the warehouse in the first place, either they'd got the world's strongest trailer or they were using the world's largest truck.
"Transport…" Weiss realised. Yang and Neptune looked at each other quizzically.
"Transport?" Yang asked.
Weiss stood from her seat on her bed. "Transport!" She shouted, waving her hands for emphasis quite uncharacteristically. "They weren't storing the paladin in that warehouse, that would be moronic even for terrorists. They must be storing their supplies somewhere, Atlas weaponry, stolen dust - it's all got to be transported. We don't need the White Fang to tell us where they are, we just need to follow them! And this-" Weiss withdrew her scroll, flashing the files she'd received from her call at the CCT, "Will tell us more than just what was stolen, it also has the exact locations and every detail about this case. Once we look through this, plus Blake's research in the library, we'll have them! There's no way anything could slip past us now we have this."
"Good point, but you're sure you're that observant?" Sun asked.
"Have faith, I've always been quite observant." Weiss boasted, crossing her arms with a smirk.
"Yeah.. sure… It's two in the morning, so where are Lucy and Drake?"
Ruby was never one to appreciate mornings, her first day at Beacon was the exception - and who could blame her? She was officially a huntress in training! If anything, Weiss was the strange one for wanting to sleep in. Anyway, it was strange for her to have awoken later that same night.
She heard mumbling to her right, which had also become normal. She looked over the side of her bed and found Drake Jade, wide awake with a tiger faunus thrown over him, muttering into his chest while fast asleep.
"For it is in loving… we achieve… ..mortality…" The muscular woman spoke. Team RWBY had begun to get used to their tag-alongs' eccentricities - though Blake still seemed to want nothing to do with them. For example: Drake always wore a glove on his right hand and a scarf across his jaw even while sleeping. He had a telepathic connection with his partner to the point that they often finished eachothers' sentences, and Lucy would mumble in her sleep while producing a puddle - an ocean of drool.
Drake, still wide awake, noticed Ruby watching him from above - probably when she cooed at how cute she found the sight of the lovebirds embracing each other. He tilted his head and gestured to the door with the hand that wasn't crushed beneath his girlfriend's (Ruby assumed) form. Ruby nodded, she rolled off the bed and landed gracefully and definitely not in a tangle of bedsheets that thudded painfully against the carpet. Drake gently lifted his partner as though she weighed nothing and placed her back on their makeshift bed before walking towards the door. Ruby joined him.
"Can't sleep?" He asked her when they were both in the hallway with the door closed.
"Yeah…" Ruby replied, scratching the back of her head. She wore a black sleeveless
pyjama top with a heart symbol on and white bottoms with red polka dots. Drake was in black pyjama bottoms and a dark green button up that looked a few sizes too big for him and rolled up to his elbows, his right hand was still gloved but his left was littered with tiny scars. He caught Ruby staring.
"Training with Lucy." He answered to her silent question. "She's always one to follow through on any attack she sees." He chuckled. "Even if it might be too far by most standards, we never go easy on each other. So any particular reason you can't sleep?"
Ruby laughed nervously "Yeah we uh… had a team outing earlier." She replied, trying not to reveal Blake's secret. It wasn't her story to tell and Ruby didn't have Weiss' big mouth - seriously, who would have guessed that Weiss would be the one to tell Team JNPR about Blake's kitty ears? "I'm still a bit amped up from the excitement earlier." A giant robot that punched Yang through a pillar? Having to take it down with team attacks and the power of friendship? Awesome! Plus - Weiss made a joke! That was a moment to go down in history, Ruby just wished she had thought to take a picture for her besties scrapbook.
Drake nodded. "I get that, whenever Lucy and I are out painting the town I'm always up all night… just a warning: you won't want to talk to me in the morning. It's not always a bad thing though, by staying up I can comfort her in her sleep. She always sleeps the same way after a night out - I'm practically an oversized pillow for her."
"That must be nice, I heard her mumbling earlier, she must have been having a great dream."
Drake looked away. "Yeah… seemed like it."
"I heard 'For it is in…' at least, she's dreaming about having her aura unlocked. I remember mine, it was the morning of my first day at Signal. We were outside our house back on Patch and everyone was there - Yang, Dad, and Uncle Qrow. I still remember exactly what Uncle Qrow said:
'For it is in family that we achieve immortality,
Through this we become a watchful guardian to protect our own,
Burdens sealed and- unbound by gravity.
I release your soul and by my eye, release thee." Ruby smiled, "Yang and Dad clapped, I think Dad was still half-asleep but he was there." She looked up at Drake, "How was yours unlocked?" She asked.
The two made eye contact and for a moment Ruby felt as though she was being judged by him. Evidently he judged her wrong when he obviously evaded the question.
"'For it is in loving that we achieve immortality
Through this we become a vestige of light to guide our kin
Infinite in wisdom and unbound by sorrow
I release your soul and by my heart set you free.'
That's what she was mumbling earlier. I've heard it enough times to know it by heart… and to know it wasn't a joyous occasion." He said.
"Why is that?" Ruby asked innocently.
Drake sighed. "It's not really my place to say, but I'll tell you all you need to know. That chant, her aura being unlocked, that was the last time she ever saw her mother." Ruby blanched. Oh. She thought. That was the only thing she thought, your aura being unlocked was supposed to be a happy memory - at least it was for most of her friends at Signal. Drake continued. "It's not the worst memory for her though, despite what you might think. 'A vestige of light to guide our kin', I've always liked that phrase, Violetta Blanc watching over her daughter even through death. That's beautiful, no?"
"Violetta Blanc? Shouldn't her name be Violetta Violet?" Ruby asked.
"A Violet family tradition, the children take on their mother's forename as their surname. That's another thing I can't tell you, her story is hers to tell - and to be honest I doubt she'll ever tell you. No offence intended, she doesn't trust easy."
"She trusts you though." Ruby said.
"That took years of being the only person to tolerate her to accomplish." Drake chucked.
"How did you two meet?"
"Uh, to be honest I can't really remember." Drake admitted. "It was in northern anima, I can't remember exactly what happened for us to meet, all I remember is Lucy running past me then getting a crossbow bolt in my side." He saw Ruby's shocked expression. "Oh don't worry it wasn't from Lucy," He said all too nonchalantly "She was too busy hiding behind me. After that it's a big spot of nothing and then us in a big red clearing. But we stuck together so it must have been a good first impression.
Ruby thought she had had it tough, what with her mother dying and her father dying on the inside after all. But these two? They were a whole different breed. Lucy being hunted by people with crossbows and Drake actually getting hit by one? She couldn't imagine being in a situation like that.
Who are these people?
I really wanted to have her think Who is Lucy Violet and who is Drake Jade, and what are their motives? like in the story bio. Alas, I think this works better. Also yeah, Banesaw has gills, he's a big fish man. They never show his faunus feature in the show so I'm just picturing him like The Deep from The Boys.
And woo, longer chapter written the day after the last one was posted. Who knows, I might actually start uploading more.