Chapter 35: For The Cause

Monday 0740.
Four months and three weeks after F.B.

Fox was furious. Every fiber of his body screamed to lash out and rearrange Blake's canines. But he had to be smart about this. So he sent a bit more of his aura out, trying to formulate an action plan. But for that, he needed a bit more time.

"So that's it then, Blake? You would sacrifice an entire city for petty revenge?"

"Hardly. It's so much more than that, Fox."

"Then enlighten me because I don't get it." The door is behind her. Made out of wood. That won't hold a good impact. But how do I get there?

"Those Bullheads won't make it to the city. You know that. As soon as they leave this base, they'll get spotted by Coco and the others. They'll never make it."

"Actually, I don't know that. There's no guarantee they'll get spotted at all. They haven't been so far. We don't even know where the exit of this base is. For all we know, it could be in the middle of the city." There's no way I am fast enough to dodge before she fires, not in this position. And at this range, her weapon will do severe damage to me. "You really gonna risk the lives of everyone just for a shot at him? He's really not that important, Blake."

"Yes, he is!" That came out like a growl, and Blake's gun shook for a brief second. Fox certainly hit a nerve there. "After all you heard just now, how can you still not see it! What he's capable of? What he's going to sacrifice? What he's willing to do?"

"He's a fanatical idealist; what do I need to know more? That's nothing new, Blake." Maybe if I push her buttons enough, she'll make a mistake. Giving me an opening.

"Don't make the mistake of stigmatizing him! This has nothing to do with agendas! He does not care about ideals; he wants revenge against everyone who hurt him. And he won't stop at ANYTHING to get it. Against humans, against the SDC, against me …. He hurt Yang just to hurt me …!" Blake's voice cracked slightly at the last sentence. An Fox did not let that slide.

"Oh, NOW you care about Yang! And here I thought you couldn't give a shit about her getting sliced into pieces or burned to a crisp." Maybe that's the wrong button to push. But it sounded like ….

"IT'S ONLY EVER BEEN ABOUT YANG!" Bingo. Gamble Shroud shook violently in Blake's hand, but it still had not moved far enough from Fox's head. Still, Blake was visibly shaken, her cat ears folded back angrily. "It has always been about her! She can never be safe as long as Adam is alive. He knows he can hurt me through her. Adam will always hurt me through her. He needs to be stopped before he can hurt her again! Nothing is coming between Adam and me until I END him. Until she's safe, and I can come back to her. I don't CARE what it will cost me. You hear me?"

"Okay, alright, calm down, Blake." Fox slowly raises his hands, open palms to the ceiling. "I get it; I am not going to stop you. But let's be reasonable about this. Do you really think Yang would want you to sacrifice Vale City? That she would forgive you for that? You might not care, but what about her?"

That seemed to give Blake a little pause. Fox's gamble appeared to be paying off; she was clearly compromised. "It doesn't matter … if that is what it will take ... if she hates me for what I must do; that'll still be better than seeing her get hurt again. "

"But it doesn't have to be that way, Blake." Just … a bit … more. "She is clearly important to you; I understand that."

Blake huffed derisively. "Yeah, right. Mr. 'let's hide who we really are behind silly nicknames so we do not have to care about our emotions' suddenly understands. How about you call me Lucky again and pretend you got it all figured out."

"I am fully aware who I am talking to, Blake. There's a time and place to shut our past lives out. This is clearly not it. We came up with that idea to protect who we were. Be somebody else for the duration of the war. Someone who does what it takes to get the job done, without compromising who we wanted to be. We offered you that courtesy too ... but you clearly never wanted to put up a facade. You're all Blake; always have been. Compromised and all; that much is clear now. I haven't called you Lucky since you pulled a gun on me, in case you haven't noticed. "

"And that's supposed to mean something, Fox?"

"It does to me, even if you don't understand it." Fox took a deep breath. He had formulated a course of action. Now it was time to put it into motion. "Look, you are not going to shoot me. Shooting me will likely alert the White Fang, and your entire plan is to sneak on board that ship heading for Adam. And I don't want to fight you and lose the precious time I need to stop these bullheads. So let's compromise."

Blake huffed, her cat ears still folded back, breath still ragged. "Fat chance."

"Hear me out, okay?" Now to test a theory …. "You let me fix our radio signal, and I'll warn Coco of the bullheads. She'll set a trap for them before they reach the city. And in return, I won't cause a scene, and you can sneak on the last airship. Just a few minutes to fix the radio. That's all I ask."

Blake shook her head. "And risk Perry dipping and not flying to Adam after their plan failed? No."

"That's your only concern? Or is it because you know I can't fix the radio? Because there's nothing wrong with it. You blocked it after we found the lab cells. That's what that thing in your pocket is for."

Blake's eyes narrowed, and her free hand touched a small hidden device in her coat. Her eyes followed her hand briefly, and that was all the opening Fox needed.

Fox relaxed his body and closed his fists. Sharp Retribution's guns came to life with two mighty roars, the recoil of the guns in his arm blades was too much for his relaxed legs. His aura protested sharply as he let his weapon push him abruptly to the ground. Blake, to her credit, reacted almost as fast. But almost was not good enough, and Gamble Shroud's shot whizzed above Fox's head into the opposite wall. Before Blake could readjust her aim, Fox found his footing and, with a mighty thrust, connected his fists with Blake's stomach. The faunus' eyes widened in shock before Fox fired his weapon again. The impact sent Blake flying through the door behind her, the wood splitting and shards shredding her coat and aura, impaling her.

Fox was halfway through the door as Blake reappeared on the metal walkway behind the door, her impaled shadow clone slowly fizzling out of existence. Again, Fox blades swung out, but the faunus had enough time to react this time. Metal blades clashed as Blake blocked his attack with her sword and sheath. Fox tried to fire again, but his shots only ignited a fire clone. The clone exploded, spiking Fox backward into the metal ground. He grunted and sent out his aura just in time to notice Blake dropping down on him, sword in both hands. Fox rolled to the side, gripping the railing as he briefly rolled off the walkway, swinging himself back around. Blake landed with her sword hitting nothing but metal. Fox came about from his swing, both feet nailing Blake in the head, just before he felt his momentum coming to a sharp hold as Blake's clone dissipated, leaving enough ice to stop him mid-air. Blake landed with a back flip and immediately charged towards Fox. Fox cursed and blasted the ice away with a shot of his weapon, but before he could face Blake's charge, something impacted the walkway and sent them both flying.

Fox hit the ceiling and then the ground, depleting a good chunk of his aura. He sent out an aura pulse and noticed that Blake had somehow managed to land on her feet but also that her attention was no longer on him.

"Belladonna. Of all the places you could have shown up … Adam will be furious for not being here. He misses you dearly."

Fox let out a curse. That was clearly that Perry guy's voice. He sent out another burst of aura, and only now did he notice that the walkway he and Blake had fought on was spanning over the hangar with the bullheads. He could sense half a dozen bullheads around him and, surprisingly, a body of water on the west side of the hangar. Ah. That's how they get into the base. From the coast. Clever. Several dozen White Fang had their rifles trained on him and Blake, but the more pressing concern was the massive grunt standing next to Perry. Built like a tank with a pair of tusks sticking out of his mask and, more importantly, an outstretched arm with a massive, smoking sidearm that clearly fired whatever obliterated their walkway.

"What do we have here? Could I be so lucky to find two of the bitches that killed my brother? Maybe today is a good day, after all." Fox recognizes that voice as the third one from the earlier conversation.

"Restrain yourself. You know Adam wants Belladonna alive. So only ruffle her up a bit. I don't care what you do with the trench monkey. Now, if you excuse me. I have to contact Adam. If they are here, our plans might be compromised."

"Oh no, you don't!" Blake darted forward immediately. Perry's eyes widened for a second before he drew his sidearm and fired a few shots at Blake. Other grunts joined in the shooting, but Blake managed to dodge most of the fire with her clones. Before she could reach Perry, the giant elephant faunus fired his gauntlets at her, green liquid hitting one of her clones and slowly dissolving it and the ground around it. Acid. Great. I'll need to tell Yang later, that she had it easy with the fire. Blake dodged another spray of acid, and Fox moved into action. He escaped a few poorly aimed shots from the grunts and came up close to the big faunus. His blade slice was blocked by the faunus gauntlets, and Fox kept the pressure on. Can't melt me to goo when I am stepping on your toes, buddy.

Fox figured between him and Blake, they could make short work of the big faunus, but the second the elephant faunus had his attention on Fox, Blake dashed for Perry, who had started to make a getaway. Fox let out a curse. Of fucking course, Blake would ditch me. If I get out of this, I'm killing Coco! Dodging under a swing from the faunus' other gauntlet, Fox tried to slice the stomach of the faunus before gunfire forced him to back off. Oh, the peanut gallery has balls. That's a problem. Before he could think of a solution for the grunts, he barely noticed the distance between him and the big guy in time. The acid spray melted the floor he had stood on just a moment ago. Fox tried to close the distance again, but the grunt's gunfire and the acid sprays were becoming more challenging by the second. He tried a few shots from his gauntlets, but the big faunus managed to block or dodge them without losing distance to Fox. This is bad. How can he be this fast? I need to figure out a way to reach him, and fast.

Fox rolled under another spray of acid, but something impacted before him before he could get to his feet again. A violent explosion threw him back … right into the tail-end of the acid spray. He somehow managed to prevent the acid from hitting his head, but the upper part of his armor got covered in fluid. A foul stench hit his nose as the acid started to dissolve the armor. Cursing, he dodged more gunfire and rolled behind cover in front of a bullhead. He immediately began to shed part of his armor, afraid that, given time, the acid would completely burn through. His cover came under immediate heavy fire from the grunts, effectively pinning him. Throwing off the last pieces of his upper armor, he sent out an aura pulse to locate Blake, but the faunus was nowhere to be found, likely heading too far out of reach in pursuit of Perry. Fox cursed and tried the radio again, but nothing. Reaching out with his semblance to contact Coco, he missed the telltale sound of a kinetic round flying through the air. His cover was destroyed by the rocket's force, and he was sent backward hard, crashing into the side of a bullhead. His aura broke immediately as the airship's metal bent under the impact.

Coughing up blood, he knew that he was done for. Disoriented and without his aura to reach out, he had no idea where the enemies were. Now, he was truly, completely blind. He tried to get up, but a sharp pain immediately stopped that plan. Something's broken … so much for that. Resigning to his fate, he exhaled and waited for the subsequent acid spray to melt him through the airship. But instead of getting dissolved, he heard a sound, long etched into his brain, synonymous with power and safety. The pained grunt of the elephant faunus as he was violently thrown back by gatling fire brought a small smile to Fox's face.

If Fox had aura to spare, he could have sensed his partner standing on Brush's bullhead. The airship slowly emerged from the water; Coco, an oxygen bottle on her back and a diving mask on her face, mercilessly coating the White Fang grunts with bullets. But since he could not sense the spectacle, Fox, for his part, was more than content to let himself drift into unconsciousness; fully knowing that his partner had it handled.