Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any references in this story. I would like to thank the RWBY Wiki for their informative website, which was beneficial in developing this story. Basically I decided to write my first fan fiction from a first-person perspective. This is merely for entertainment purposes only. Enjoy.
Also, before we begin Chapter 12, I'd like to announce that I've decided to do a Questions and Answers part at the end of the Carbon series. Ask me anything about the story, me, future stories, etc. There's no limit per person. Just leave questions in the reviews section or you can send them to me in a private message. I'll make sure to answer all of them once the series is complete.
With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!
After several hours of walking through the forest of Forever Fall, the sun begins to slowly rise. The forest is indeed beautiful with the dust-red colored trees and leafs. This type of terrain has one crucial benefit; If and when I am forced to put down anybody or anything that dare gets in my way, the bloodshed will be concealed due to the color of the area.
As I continue farther North, I stumble upon a White Fang patrol of at least a dozen soldiers walking along a path. That's more than enough to tell me that the Stronghold is nearby. I activate my semblance, and begin to stalk them from afar. After following them for about ten minutes in silence, I hear one of the soldiers break the silence.
"You guys go ahead. I gotta take a leak." The one says as he slows his pace, and walks off to the side of the path. He stops at a tree with his back towards me, and begins to do his business as the patrol continues on.
'This is an opportunity to steal a uniform,' I think to myself. I decide to take the chance as I slowly advance towards the soldier from behind. As I get within arms reach of him, he zips up his fly. At that moment, I draw my baton, wrap it around his neck, turn and throw him to the ground. Using the leverage I have over him, and yank back with all my strength. *CRACK* I snap the soldier's neck, killing him instantly.
"Sorry, buddy. Can't have the risk of you warning your friends." I whisper to him as I drag him off the path and into the treeline. From there, I quickly remove his white vest, silver mask and bracers and set them aside. Since I have a black combat shirt on, there's no need to take his. As for his pants and boots? There's no time, and besides, I wanna desecrate his corpse any more than I have to. I quickly put the gear on.
As soon as I put the mask on, however, I become overwhelmed by the stench of body odor. 'Christ! Did this guy take a dump in his mask or something?!' Doing my best to ignore the smell, I make sure everything is adjusted and fits before emerging from the treeline. I decide to not take his rifle, since I already have Bangalore in hand.
I begin to jog down the path towards the patrol, and by now they've nearly arrived at the entrance to the Stronghold. Just as they enter through the main gate, I join formation.
"Jeez took you long enough. You good now?" one of the soldiers asks me. I just nod in response, since there's no way I can say anything without raising any red flags.
I follow the patrol for a short time until we begin to maneuver through the hallways of the barracks, and I decide to break off when nobody's looking. 'So far so good...' I think to myself as I walk.
"Hey you!" A voice calls out to me.'Crap...maybe I spoke too soon.' I turn around see a soldier approaching me, but to my surprise, his uniform is completely black. I can only assume he's an officer.
"Sir?" I say as I stand at attention.
"Your pants and boots–" as he points to them, "–They're not standard issue."
"Oh really?" I respond as he continues to walk towards me. When he gets within range, I knock him out with a roundhouse kick to the head. "Too bad..." as I drag his body out of sight and chuck him into a garbage cart.
From there, I leave the area and head outside towards the tarmac to see if I can find vehicle, all while avoiding contact with other soldiers. If I find Blake, I wanna make sure we've got a getaway. As I carefully walk along the side of a hanger, I open the side door to spot multiple gunships lined up and ready to roll. 'Perfect' I close the door and turn back to head for the main building.
Just as I get about 25 feet away from one of the side doors of the main building, a figure comes walking out. I dart to the side and activate my semblance to remain hidden. I watch the person as they walk, and I realize something; red and black hooded vest w/ a medal shoulder plate, compound bow and quiver. That's the guy who took Blake, and he's carrying her in his arms towards the hanger. 'There's no way I'm letting you get away a second time...' I think to myself as I continue to watch him like a hawk. This time, I'm out for blood, and I have the advantage.
As the distance between us increases, I slowly emerge from hiding and follow him, being careful not to be spotted. He follows the same path as I had taken to get to the hanger. He goes through the side door, and after a few seconds, I quickly move to it, stack up with Bangalore slung over my shoulder and my pistol in hand. I slowly turn the doorknob to find it jammed. 'Blast! He must have barricaded it.'
At that moment, I hear the engine of one of the gunships fire up, and the main doors of the hanger groan as they open. Out of panic, I dash towards the front of the hanger. As I turn the corner, the gunship is already starting to roll, and seeing as I'm directly at it's 3 o' clock, I see the side doors are open, and spot Blake strapped into one of the back seats, facing the cockpit. 'Hang on, baby girl. I'm coming for you!' as I sprint towards the plane.
The engines begin to turn themselves to prepare for vertical takeoff, causing the downwash to throw me back and land flat on my back. I scramble to my feet, tear the White Fang mask off my face, and charge once again at the gunship while also tearing off the stolen vest and bracers. As it begins to take off, I jump and grab the side, hanging on for dear life. I manage to pull myself inside the passenger compartment just as the side doors begin to close. I quietly run over to Blake and rest a hand on her cheek.
"Hey sweetheart. I'm gonna get you out of here...I promise" I whisper to her as I lean in and kiss her on the forehead, and she gives a faint groan in response. 'She must've been drugged.'
I turn my attention to the cockpit, and ready my pistol as I slowly creep inside. Just as the kidnapper comes into view and within arms reach, I jam my pistol into the side of his head, taking him by surprise.
"Give me an excuse..." I say in a cold, monotone voice.
"Listen..." he calmly replies. "I rescued her. I have no intentions of harming her okay?"
"Why should I trust you?" as I raise an eyebrow.
"Because she wouldn't be alive right now... Ask her. If I'm lying. Then I'll let you drive a bullet through my skull."
"Well that's a little hard to do when she's barely awake from what ever Godforsaken drug you gave her."
"Cinder-" He stutters over the name. "Cinder... she arranged her to be drugged. I killed the person drugging her... a close friend, just to save her."
"If that's the case, what made you have a change of heart? Enlighten me!"
"Cinder... she killed someone close to me." he replies, with a sense of sadness. "Not just that, but she has something big planned and I need to stop it. You need to believe me...we...Blake, don't have a lot of time left."
"And why should I care? I'm only here for Blake. Why should I believe what you're saying. What proof do you have to back it up?"
"Its called the Genesis III Project. It was a program designed to create Super Soldiers... I'm one of them. Back up, and I'll prove it."
I try to fight the urge to refuse, but I eventually give in.
"Fine...but do anything stupid, this whole situation becomes a much simpler matter. I'll drown in your own blood, then chuck you out of this plane. Understood?"
He nods his head as he activates the autohover and slowly gets out of the chair; turning around and revealing fangs, red eyes, black hair, and red veins that flowed through his face.
"Listen, Blake is dying... in any minute she is going to experience excruciating pain, unless you get her to Beacon and give her a blood transfusion. Its the only way."
I look at him carefully, and I can see that he's holding back some information, so I decide to dig deeper. "That's it? What the heck is inside her anyways?"
He hesitates, but eventually replies, "Grimm blood..."
"WHAT?!" I exclaim. "Y-you can't be serious!"
"I've been injected with it too... first it's pain, then hallucinations... then you your muscles rip and shift out of place... then, you die."
"Oh Christ!" I look back at Blake to see she's still unconscious. I let out a sigh in defeat. "Fine, what do we do?"
He walks towards Blake to look at her. "You need to get her to Beacon quickly. They'll have the medical equipment to perform a blood transfusion..."
"Damn it...fine." I reply as I pull my handgun back and holster it.
He lets out a sigh. "Huh listen, if she experiences hallucinations before you get her to Beacon, then give her this." He reaches into his pocket and hands me a syringe filled with red dust. "This'll slow down the effects, but you can only give it to her after the hallucination stage!"
I cautiously take the syringe. "Thanks..."
Suddenly, the aircraft is struck by something, knocking the both of us off balance. I look out the side window to see Cinder standing near the hanger, launching fireballs at us in an attempt to bring us down.
"That's my call!" the Faunus, whom I'm assuming is Ulysses, says as he walks towards the side of the gunship and opens the door. He pulls out his bow and equips an arrow to the string. "Good Luck. I hope one day you and I meet eye to eye as comrades." He says as he leaps off the gunship and free-falls towards Cinder.
At that moment, I am somewhat shocked at what he just did and said, but there's no time to dawdle. I run back to the cockpit, take a seat, deactivate the autohover and begin to fly south towards Beacon. 'Good thing that pilot I knew back in the Army gave me some pointers...' I think to myself.
My thoughts are cut short, however, as I see another gunship on the radar tailing us. By the time it registers in my mind, we are already taking fire, and the left engine is blown out.
"Damn it!" I yell as I struggle with the controls. No doubt we're about to crash, but at least Blake is strapped into her seat in the back. "HANG ON, BLAKE!" I yell as the plane makes contact with the ground, and we slide a good 100 feet before coming to an abrupt stop, causing me to be ejected through the windshield, crash into a tree, and be knocked unconscious.
*NOTE: If you could take a moment out of your time to check out my good friend "redjoker27," that would be greatly appreciated! Him and I are now beginning a crossover with his story, "Genesis III Project." We have been working diligently in order to prepare for this, so stay tuned for more to come from the both of us! In the event that he is unable to release other chapters in a timely manor, do not fret as he is currently busy with both school work and personal matters, but he will do his best to write and complete his story as soon as he can.
Also worth noting, "The Assassin's Mentor" is requesting OC ideas for his story, "Ghosts of Remnant: United Offensive," which is a RWBY and Call of Duty: Ghosts crossover. I'd appreciate it if you could check him out and lend a helping hand with ideas of OCs to add to his story. More information will be at the end of Chapter 4 in his story.
Other than that, that's all for this week. I look forward to posting the next chapter next week. Until then, farewell...