Yang was breathing heavily, she had not been to the Tomb of Heroes since it was closed to the public eight years prior. She had always thought that the halls had seemed so long due to childish exaggeration, yet they just kept on going and going. She heard a whoosh as her sister appeared next to her, yang noticed that she wasn't even sweating. unlike Yang, Ruby's dedication to their old training regimes was absolute.
Yang wondered for a moment if she should have trained more, before quickly dismissing the absurd thought, lazy days with Blake beat running laps any time. plus she still had a punch like a cannon, and rack bigger than her head. She was secretly pleased that ruby had never quite caught up with her on that front. "You alright, sis?" ruby asked, stooping down to be level with her hunched sister.
Yang forced out a laugh, "I'll be better when we find some terrorists to punch" she wheezed, Ruby pulled her up with a smile, "well then you better get your war face on because they'll be here in like 10 seconds", a thousand questions flooded yang's mind, before she shrugged then off and activated Ember Cecelia, who was she to question someone doing something dangerous and/or stupid, she did that on a daily basis after all.
The Halls thundered with the sound of boots as a small army of masked soldiers rounded a corner she hadn't noticed, brandishing an assortment of ancient weaponry, it seemed they had wasted no time in looting the heroes' graves. Even in inexperienced hands, the raw power of ancient weapons made them a serious threat. Though, the main problem with thousand year old weaponry was definitely the lack of any ranged option.
A mixture of high calibre rounds and slugs ripped through the crowd, yang was about to mock them for their shoddy display of power when a paladin rounded the corner with the clanking of gears. A smile spread across Yang's face, she had become bored with the ranged approach anyway. "Time to being the party to them sis" she shouted over the noise. Without a word ruby seized her sister and shot forward, flinging her fist-first into the horde.
Dodging axes and blades, she danced around the panicked troops, upper cutting one, jabbing another in the throat and kicking a third across the hall, this was her element. Seizing a disarmed hunter she drew back her arm to educate him on the effectiveness of explosive rounds, but a strong hand closed around her wrist. Dropping the boy she span around with a snarl, to find her sister holding her, a look of worry on her face. Remembering herself she looked around at the white fang grunts. They law strewn around the hall, most unconscious, some simply too exhausted to fight, and one regaining his feet with a groan. Ruby's eyes brightened in recognition, "clement?"
The orange haired boy waved sluggishly, "hey Ruby, thanks for not letting her cave in my head" he turned to yang "And thanks for not doing that, I like my head how it is" he grinned proudly, well, he grinned as proudly as someone who had faced Yang Xiao Long could, so, timidly and with a few teeth missing.
Ruby's brow furrowed in frustration, "what are you doing working for a Terrorist organisation, you're-" she stopped, her face going slack, no doubt remembering the headmasters warning. she rushed the boy, crossing the hall and slamming him into the wall in the blink of an eye, "where's Rosie" she growled. He laughed again, unfazed by her sister's death stare. Yang had to wonder whether the boy was brave or just mad, regardless, he was kind of amusing.
"She's with the rest of my team digging up corpses and nicking their weapons" he chewed his lip thoughtfully, "or maybe she's off kissing that Bear guys arse" he laughed "wherever she is she's probably having more fun than I am" Ruby's eyes narrowed "your whole teams alive?".
"turns out they're really into terrorism" he said, smirking.
she let him go, stepping back "not you?"
He got to his feet shakily, rubbing the red handprint on his neck. It would probably bruise, "in my defence, they had a very strong argument"
Yang was curious as to how persuasive they had to be to convince a 17 year old human to join a Faunus terrorist organisation which focused on killing humans and inciting a race war, but he answered before she could ask "aka I woke up to three angry hunters with weapons to my throat, and a choice, join them or get chucked off the dorm roof". He chuckled "bet you can guess what I chose". Ruby shook her head. "just get out of here before things get messy".
He laughed, making no move to leave, "things aren't that simple ruby, my dear" who the hell says 'my dear'? ,yang thought, it sounds like something a creepy old teacher would say. his smile faded and his shoulders slumped, he suddenly looked exhausted. "why the hell do you think they're still here?, you think they haven't found what they came for? They found it first day"
He grimaced "problem wasn't finding it, it was getting it."
"there's something else here with us, picking us off one by one, laying traps for our patrols, booby-trapping paladins to crush their pilots" he jumped onto the smoking ruins of the paladin, " some say it's a vengeful spirit, others say it's some new Grimm spawned from hell specifically to kill us, but they haven't seen her" he slapped his chest "I have".
He stared down at them "I woke in the night to find a woman standing over me, with hair as red as the blood that coated her blade." He let out a pained laugh "I don't think there could have been a worse way to meet my idol."
Ruby stumbled back, mouth hanging open in a way that reminded Yang of a fish out of water. "The Red Blade was here? Why would she leave her team?" Ruby began shaking as she always did when she was particularly emotional. Though it was more like vibrating, an excited jig gone turbo thanks to her semblance.
"You know the story don't you? The first organised hunters. The knights in shining Armour who pulled humanity from the darkness, who slew giants and forced back the Grimm, founding great cities and bringing forth a golden age." He sighed "of course, they're all dust now, just like their great kingdom." he dropped from the ruined mech, slowly stepping towards the sisters
"But their wishes survived with the people they protected, and since the fall they have stood guard over their rulers legacy." He stopped short from them, his eyes flicking between them, "They passed their mission onto others, and on and on it went. For all we know every hunter entombed in these halls may once have stood to defend them."
Ruby had slowed now, and her brow was creased in thought as she absorbed all that clement had said.
"So when her team vanished, she came here? Using their disappearance to take herself off the grid?"
Clement nodded, before spinning on his heel and beginning to pace the hall, skipping over his fallen comrades as he continued his show "The Officers feign ignorance, but they know something. you should have seen their faces when I told them, there was fear for sure, and confusion, but behind that I saw dread. The kind of dread schoolboys get in the pits of their stomachs when they get told to go to the headmaster for some misdeed, like they knew it would happen eventually, and yet they had dared to hope that it never would"
His voice was getting quieter, his skin had gone pale, and as his voice turned to a whisper he fell. Seems like his beating left him worse off than she'd thought
Yang watched her sister rush to the boys side. Regardless of his affiliations, He had been Ruby's friend back at signal. she'd always had a soft spot for the tubby ginger, with his thick rimmed glasses, and serious lisp, he wasn't quite on par with the hyper athletic redhead, yet their friendship had flourished over their obsession with hunters, they could spend hours debating weapons and tactics, or talking about all their favourite hunters.
The man that ruby was helping up was a far cry from the boy at signal, he had grown much taller, towering over both of them by almost half a foot, he was lean, yet to yang every movement betrayed the strength he held. the arm that ruby had hooked over her shoulder to hoist him up was thick with muscle, not the bloated kind attained from reps in a gym, but the kind found on manual workers, hard packed and solid from hours of work. Yang could respect him for going the distance, but the knowledge that such strength was wrapped around her sister's neck was disconcerting to say the least, even if he was an old friend.
As she stared accusingly at clement, he glanced around, "ain't there usually more of you?" "Yeah, ice queen's off playing boss". yang couldn't help but laugh at the glare ruby shot at her, it seemed her sister was just as touchy about her jibes as her partner was, almost like a –
"That still leaves one"
both sisters' heads whipped towards him. "What?" They said in unison, his smirk flickered "well, unless as bad in math as I am with keeping my teeth in my gums then that only accounts for three of you, usually teams have four members". He lifted his eyebrow questioningly at the duo as they spun around, searching for a Girl that wasn't there.
Yang felt her stomach knot as she realised she hadn't seen the Faunus since they had rushed ahead into the Tomb. Leaving the Faunus in their dust. Alone. Against the White Fang
There it was...
Yang had been planning to show Blake the library, she was going to surprise her with it, seeing she'd never visited the Tomb before she wouldn't have known. Yang had almost told her in the elevator, but had somehow stopped herself.
It was the biggest in remnant, the Tomb had been a hub of information in its heyday, in fact when it was first built they had planned for it to hold all of humanities knowledge, of course they gave up on that very quickly during the wars, yet its archives were still massive. Yang knew Blake would have loved this place, No, Blake WILL love this place, yang was gonna find Blake alive and well and everything would be fine and they would all live happily ever after, and anyone who said otherwise would get a face full of Boom.
Kicking the door open she marched in, stopping in shock as the smell hit her. Ash. Looking around her she saw that the towering shelves where gone, replaced with great mounds of ash, the thousands of ancient tomes that she knew blake would have taken to like catnip, smoke and ash. Her shoulders slumped, this day was just getting worse and worse.
The Orange bastard was still with them, now brandishing a weird looking revolver. he whistled through his teeth
"seems someone was having a little B-B-Q"
he chuckled.
his chuckling grating yang's already frayed nerves
"I doubt we'll find anyone in here"
he leaned over her shoulder to look at the scroll, before waving his arm in the direction of the black blip on the Tracker "let's go then, chop chop" he began trekking through the ash piles, yang followed on angrily muttering with ruby glancing around warily before she followed.
Clement stopped with a curse, "oh this gets better and better" he muttered angrily, before whipping around "hit the deck" he hissed, diving into the ash piles. The sisters dropped, ruby digging into a large pile of ash and yang simply falling face first.
The figure drifted over the ash, its dark Armour twinkling in the light from the open rotunda, shadows shifted around it like steam or mist, no, that was its aura, an inky blackness.
Black
BLAKE
In yangs rage blinded mind this was a terrible insult, this man had the audacity to steal Blake's colour? she would beat it out of him. Discharging Ember Cecilia into the ground she was flung forward, landing in a roll and coming up swinging, the Thief didn't seem to register her assault, but danced around her blows regardless.
Enraged, yang activated her semblance. The flames making the things Armour shimmer. yang whipped towards it, a fist connected and she was sent sprawling. The thief drew a sword and brought it down two handed, but scythe caught blade and ruby was beside her.
Regaining her footing the sisters re-engaged the shadow, but their shots missed and it seemed to drift around their attacks. Its blade sang as it swung between them, poking at their defences, testing them, gauging their skill.
Her rage had died with the first punch, and now she could understand truly what they where facing.
"A Little help, clement?"
Her sister shouted, of course, Mr."i'msofunnyandstrong" would definitely be able to help them, if she couldn't get a hit then what chance did that prick have?
The air was cut by gun shots and the thing stumbled. Yang's next jab hit home and she followed it with an upper cut, while ruby slashed its legs from beneath it. Causing the shadow to flip backwards, landing on its neck with a loud crack.
As its life faded it let out a gurgle, before its aura evaporated, and the Armour collapsed. "It's empty?" Yang spluttered, scattering the pieces with a kick. she had been looking forward to dancing on its grave.
"Allow me to introduce you" Clement announced loudly "to white fangs new secret weapon mark.402" he grinned triumphantly "you get it? Because all their 'secret weapons' fail, so they probably have a couple hundred prior attempts at secret weapons" his eyes flickered between the two sisters before he sighed "too complicated?"
"Secret weapon?" Ruby asked with a frown.
"yes, ruby, a weapon that is secret" he unloaded the revolver, letting the empty rounds fall to clatter against the tiles.
"This is the red blades revolver, or one of the matching pair at least. All I know is that It can hurt those things, and It need to go north."
He laughed
"She might have said some other stuff too but i was busy debating wether to be terrified or elated."
Yang was still considering knocking him out and leaving him, but ruby would never forgive her, and he did just save their lives. They would just have to put up with his gibberish for a while longer. She sighed, this was the problem with thinking things out, it hardly ever lead to her punching people. Checking the scroll again she realized that the blip was far nearer than she had thought. Slogging through the thick layers of ash she rushed to the nearest door, planting her shoulder into it, causing it to shatter. As she burst through gunfire erupted from down the hall. In the direction of the blip.
Yang raced through the halls, reloading ember Cecilia as she ran, as a last ditch effort she concentrated her aura into a speed boost, whipping down the hall in a blur of motion that made her muscles scream, but when she flagged her sister was there dragging a whooping clement behind her. She turned the final corner with her eyes glued to the scroll, She only looked up when she heard the others gasp.
According to the tracker Blake would be just down... this...hall.
The hall was bathed in blood, white fang troops lay in piles, corpses covered in gashes. Many of which still bled. Chunks of stone and soldier alike littered the hall. by the looks of it whoever they were fighting brought half a ton of explosives with them. Yang heard her companions gag at the stench, though clement still let out a weak chuckle. In a moment yang was among the corpses, searching, hoping, dreading. A quiet voice called her name and she jolted up, her eyes settling on the dark figure slumped against the remains of a door.
Throwing herself over the bodies she embraced the Faunus "you're not dead!" She cried ecstatically, before her mad grin wavered.
"I thought you were dead" she whimpered, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes.
Blake just smiled, like she always did.
Yang loved that smile.
The chains clanked, they had been tested a thousand times before, and they were always secure, the knight could do little more than keep on trying, the first few weeks had been spent dreaming in the millions of violent ways to kill the jailer when he waddled by, or that wretched black haired whore and her arrogant little attack dogs, but now the only dreams where dreams of escape.
Dreams of home.
Dreams of her.
They said she was dead, they said that they were all dead, but their auras where strong. They didn't know the rings felt one another, that they felt the aura that flowed through them, the very life-force of the wearer. Three heartbeats echoed through a dull mind, a reminder of what meaning life had left.
The Iron Gate creaked open and she was there again, the snarky harlot, but she had swapped her dogs for a new pet.
"Hello again, kin" she smiled "still in a bit of a grump I see" laying her hand on an iron clad shoulder she continued "well, At this rate we'll never have you ready in time for our guests, and we reeeeaaaallly need you there. So, I've found you a fun little friend to play with, maybe they will convince you to come out of that little shell of yours". Kin didn't want to listen, but after days of silence any sound was a gift graciously accepted, even if that gift came at the price of the dumpsters touch. The pet stepped forward graciously, he was skinny, like a twig, kin could snap him between two fingers, his hair was white, matching a stupidly long beard, which hung limply down to his knees.
"Greetings exile, we haven't met before but I assure you, you would have heard of me. Though divulging my name may lead to my untimely death, so I prefer to remain anonymous." He laughed that annoying laugh that all overly confident people seemed to have "I am very interested in you, in your story, as is our lovely hostess. I have been asked to put my powers to use to make you divulge this information, as attempts to make you talk have been vastly unsuccessful, so..." His hands began to glow, and kin struggled with the bonds once more, but there was no escaping the witch and her little sniffer dog, two wrinkled hands clasped the hood, and a deep cold filled kin's mind.
"Let us begin"