We Were Close

by Half-Blind Otaku

An old flame from Blake's years in the White Fang catches up with her at Beacon, but what does she want? And can she be trusted, or resisted for that matter? Mina Carfax is a fragile soul despite all outward appearances, and though she puts on a self-assured face for all the world,Blake knows her better than that.

89. No Choice At All

Mina had long since lost track of the amount of time she'd spent in her cell – although 'cell' might perhaps have been unduly charitable description. More like what had once been an office with only one door and no windows and a filing cabinet on the other side of the door to hold her in. The carpet was worn and ragged, and all the furniture had been removed, leaving her hemmed in with nothing but a floor, four walls, and a ceiling.

It was peculiarly peaceful, really, though that could hardly be the intendedeffect. Mina could only assume that the room's barren nature was meant to instill a feeling of isolation, that the victim might contemplate just how alonethey were before the end, but, for Mina, it was almost a relief.All was quiet, and she'd spoken her peace to Blake. If that was the end, she had but to sit and wait. Cut off from Blake – alone –she might as well be dead already. What was a few hours' or days' wait more? If nothing else, it was quiet…

Well, except such occasions as the filing cabinet was pushed aside and the door opened, only to find that it was not yet time to actually die."Hello again, Mr. Torchwick… Miss Neo…"

The small female silhouette leaned back against the door after it closed, the tip of her parasol on the floor, but Roman stood directly in front of her. "Evening, Blue Eyes – I wish we could offer better hospitality, but the bull-bastard won't have it…"

"Your kindness knows no bounds…" Mina answered dryly.

The quip didn't faze Torchwick, though, who replied to the remark with surprising sincerity, "Well I dolike you, Blue Eyes…"

"Funny… I've seldom heard those words in my lifetime." Mina managed a weak little smile. "And of all the ironic sources…"

"Laugh it up Blue Eyes," Torchwick sighed, "but what if I could help you?"

"You cannot get me out of here, Mr. Torchwick."

"No… I can't…" he admitted, tipping his hat in acknowledgment of her keen perception, "but, I mightbe able to furnish a last request…"

Mina raised an eyebrow under her bangs. "You've already done that, Mr. Torchwick…"

"That was your 'one phone call.'" Torchwick shook his head. "I mean something for you."

"Afraid that I am not so selfish as I led you to believe all that time ago." Mina teased weakly. "Rest assured, Mr. Torchwick; I am…"

The Thief chuckled bitterly. "Well you ain't acting like it. Though that's mighty cocky of you to assume that I give a damn…"

"No one ever accused me of modesty, Mr. Torchwick," Mina softly rejoined, "case and point: What could you offer me at this juncture?"

"Well… you must be thirsty by now if all that 'bloodsucking whore' business is actually true…"

"It is, after a fashion," Mina allowed, "and I am… But it won't long matter much…"

"Maybe not, but that's no reason to die hungry." He reached into his coat pocket and then extended a few slightly bloated pouches to Mina. "Hope you like B Positive…"

Mina looked up slightly in token of acknowledgment of the charity, before nodding in faint gratitude. "It will serve…"

As Mina sank her fangs into the first little pouch though, Roman stepped back and pulled out a cigar, but then, noting the confined space, thought better of it – a consideration he'd not have made for most. "I've said it before, I'll say it again Blue Eyes… You're something else."

"I've had more than I could ever have hoped in my life, Mr. Torchwick," Mina said, pulling the pouch from her lips, "and I am grateful for every momentof it, but if this is to be where it ends… I've no complaints, I suppose."

"Don't you wantto live?"

Mina sighed, leaning back against the wall. "What is that expression about spilled milk, Mr. Torchwick?"

"You don't cry over it…"

"And so I haven't been."

"That's one hell of a way to look at life – your life…" He shook his head. "It ain't for me Blue Eyes, but to each his own I suppose…"

"Although…"

Roman – and even Neo – both looked back at Mina now. "Oh?"

"I changed my mind…" Mina smiled. "Have a Bloody Mary for me…"

The crime lord tipped his hat as he departed. "Will do Blue Eyes."

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Blake, Yang, and Ruby stole through the night in total silence. Weiss hadn't come to meet them before they departed Beacon, and there was nothing else to be said. All there had been to do was to find their way to one of the breaches and follow the subway line to the White Fang. Though, that in itself entailed navigating the streets after dark and in violation of emergency curfew.

Order had been mostlyrestored, though Ironwood wasn't about to give the 'all clear' until he was absolutely surethat every last stray Grimm had been erasedfrom the city limits. Curiously though, they'd left one breach – the outermost – open, albeit under heavy guard. Ironwood, it seemed, had the same idea regarding a counter attack, but he, like Weiss,lacked initiative it seemed. Whatever reason Ironwood had for his delay, though, the half dozen Paladin armors and company of Knight Automatons would certainly complicate their rescue…

"We need to get past that blockade somehow," Blake whispered, peering out around the corner at the wreckage of the building out of which the breach to Mountain Glenn yawned. "There's so many of them…"

"Can't we just ask them very nicelyif they could let us pass…?" Ruby whispered, drooling slightly despite the circumstances at the assembled weaponry, "I mean… they arethe good guys, right…?"

"Good guys with orders to shoot anything that moves cause nobody's supposed to be out this late…" Yang remarked.

"Oh… Right…"

"That said, we can't really smashour way through them either…" Yang added, "So Blake… Got a plan C?"

"We'll need a distraction…" Blake pronounced at length, chewing her lip as she mulled over what kind of distraction they could manage.

"Sorry; fresh out of pet Beowolves," Yang remarked.

"Most of those are AI…" Blake thought aloud, "and if we panic the Paladin operators…"

"Yeah… But that sounds risky…" Ruby worried aloud, "One of us would have to…"

All that you'll accomplish is forcing Mina to listen to you die first!Blake closed her eyes, deliberately banishing Weiss's words from her mind, No…"One of us… will have to stay behind to draw them off… then give herself up once the others are through…"

"But then how will we save-"

"I don't know!" Blake quietly snapped, "Somehow! I just… We have to…"

Yang looked around the corner, and then to Blake, before letting out a sigh, "I'll do it."

"Yang-!"

"Someone'sgotta do it, right Blake?" Yang spoke understandingly.

Blake swallowed, but looked away.

"Thought so." She shook her head. "Besides, youhave to be there for Mina. And Rubes, let's face it, you'regonna be able to slip by a lot easier than I can."

"But Yang-"

"I'll follow you if I can, okay?" Yang reassured, before turning to Blake again. "What are friends for, right? Although… these are going to be really small odds at best Blake… Weiss was right about that much. This,is your last chance to back out."

Blake shook her head. "Not for me; thatwas never a choice…"

"Right." Yang nodded her understanding. "Then give 'em hell for me."

Blake hesitated, then nodded with more certainty than she felt. "Right."

"Okay, so we'll have to be sneaky about this-" Ruby whispered, beginning to sketch out a plan, only to have Yang make the call for her, bolting around the corner, into view, and making a beeline for the far end of the street.

"Hey tin cans! Come get some!"

Ruby face-palmed "Yang…"

But Blake was single-minded in her focus, grabbing Ruby by the shoulder and making a break for the breach the instant Yang had the security force's attention. "Now's our chance! We have to move!"

"Blake! Wait!" Ruby cried, but Blake could not be dissuaded, bolting from cover, and Ruby had no choice but to follow in her teammate's wake. "Blake, I don't like this plan-!"

"We haveto move!" Blake shot back, never stopping, "I can't leave her!"

Ruby bit her tongue and followed quickly after Blake, running clear behind the distracted Athenian Knights and the Paladin operators, slipping down the rubble and into the last remaining breach. Fortunately the ranking paladin operator had gotten wise to Yang's ploy quickly, as none of the Atlesian war machines were firing now, but the distraction had served its purpose and Blake and Ruby had gone unnoticed.

Down in the dark, Ruby was all but blind, though Blake had plenty of moonlight to see by. The wreckage off a freight train car was in evidence, as well as several work vehicles left behind from the rubble-clearing efforts earlier in the day, presumably to be used again come morning. Seeing these though, Blake had a better idea concerning the best use off these vehicles.

"Ruby, come on, we'll use one of these."

Ruby hesitated, but eventually nodded. "Right."

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Blake killed the engine of the work vehicle as she saw the tunnel ending and the area ahead opening up. She wasn't the best driver, but it wasn't the most complicated of machines. Whatever the case, it had saved them some considerable time en-route, but now it was time to quietly approach on foot, stealing through the shadows in silence. At first it all seemed like some forsaken, subterranean ghost town, but as Blake and Ruby worked their way around what looked to be the ruined husk of a once-prosperous cityscape, it became clear soon enough that the White Fang hadn't yet fully cleared out. Here and there could be seen the odd White Fang sentry patrolling the area, but the real giveaway was all the industrial-sized Dust canisters haplessly discarded by the loading platforms of what had once been a train station – no doubt they had been used to construct the bombs that had breached the city and invited the Grimm.

In retrospect, Blake preferred not to think of her good fortune in not encountering any Grimm in the tunnels; the breaches outside the city walls still yawned out to the night sky, but it would seem that after the way into vale became impassible to them, the creatures had lost interest and moved on, and any that may have come back in this direction must have been repelled by White Fang defenders. In any case, there were no Grimm here now, so she hadn't really taken any additional unnecessary risks…

"So Blake-"

"Shh! They'll hear you!" Blake hushed her young leader's hesitant query.

Ruby whispered now in response, although in point of fact she was not all that much quieter, "What's the plan?"

"We find Mina," Blake murmured back under her breath, not sparing Ruby a glance from her vigilant search of the area as they slowly and quietly crept along.

"Well yeah, but-"

"Shhh!"

Ruby swallowed. "But how…?"

Blake was silent, instead peeing around a corner and nodded determinedly. Found them…

Across the way was a fortified complex comprised of high barricades erected between several of the better-preserved buildings. She could see bored-looking riflemen in several outward-facing windows, and the entrance, though there was no gate to speak of, was barred by a dozen White Fang soldiers and a single Atlesian Paladin repainted with the extremist group's sigil.

Blake cringed. That's going to be tough to get into... Wait…Out of the corner of her eye, on one of the windows at the farthest building in sight and with the shortest, most poorly lit distance between the wall of the complex and cover, Blake saw an odd white speck… Is that…?

Blake had to squint, but it was…there was a piece of paper, swaying outward in some kind off breeze – which meant that the window was open.

"Ruby, over there…"

"Where is 'there'?" The comparatively night-blind crimsonette asked. No doubt she could see the complexas the interior within the barricades seemed quite well lit, but she couldn't spot the details.

"There was an open window…"

"That… sounds like a trap…" Ruby worried.

Blake glanced back at the Paladin at the entrance on the adjacent side. It didn't have a view of the window, fortunately, though Ruby still had a valid concern… Blake shook her head. "It's our only choice."

Ruby peered over to the towering war machine, "Yeah… I guess 'possible trap' beats out 'certain death…' Though if we're reallysmart about it we could-"

"A frontal assault would raise an alarm," Blake shot the eager redhead's idea down before she could finish it.

"Oh… right…" Ruby sulked a bit. "Lead the way then…"

Though her every instinct screamedfor her to run straight for the possible route to Mina, for once Blake chose caution and drew further away into the dark so as to go unnoticed on their approach. After detouring around a small, broken-down building, though, the pair were sotantalizingly close… From there, Blake could make out that there seemed to be something writtenon the paper, but from ten yards away, she couldn't tell what.

Looking up, Blake couldn't even see a single gunman in the windows above, possibly owing to the fact that this side of the complex was facing awayfrom the tunnel, but whatever the case may have been, it boded well for their infiltration. Without a word, Blake signaled with her hand, Ruby nodded, and the two of them quickly and quietly crossed the gap, flattening themselves against the wall.

Now that she was up close, inspection revealed that Blake's hunch had been correct; a single first-floor window was left just slightly ajar. More puzzling still, there appeared to be a window-fan placed on a desk opposite the window, blowing out… It was all tooconvenient to be a mistake. Unable to resist her need to know as cold fingers of doubt and dread closed around her heart, Blake quietly took the piece of paper down from the window where it had been taped upand pulled it to her face to read…

"Out to Lunch – Roman Torchwick-" Blake whispered at first, but the words died on her lips as she read the second line. 'Don't screw this up Kitty-Cat…'

Blake dropped the sheet of paper, letting it drift to the ground, prompting Ruby to a whispered question, "What was that?"

"This isn't a trap…" Blake responded flatly, trying to convince herself that she believed it as she pushed the window fully open as quietly as she could. "Let's go…"

What was Torchwick playing at? Mina had tried to tell her that perhaps the repulsive man might be worth the benefit of the doubt but… she'd never believed it. She'd always just assumed that Mina's worldview gave the man undeserved credit, but this… No! Can't get distracted.

Keeping her ears open as she pulled herself in the window, she then turned around to help Ruby inside after her. Once Ruby was in, she drew her weapon and scanned the room. Her first instinct was to shut off the fan to make it easier for her to hear, but she thought better of it when she considered that it would also help obscure their own noise as well, provided they were quiet-

"Hey Blake, check this-"

"Ruby!"

"Sorry…" Ruby swallowed, before continuing quietly. "But look at this!"

Ruby handed Blake a second piece of paper, this one from the desk. Unlike the first one though, this was not simply a sheet of notebook paper with handwriting on it, but rather a printed floor planfor what looked like the second floor of the very building they had just broken into. Better still, one of the rooms was marked.Blake grimaced with displeasure as she noted the cartoon bat that Torchwick had used, but she got the point. Finally, though, at the bottom, there was more of Torchwick's handwriting: 'This is all you get Kitty-Cat. Good luck.'

"What do you think?" Ruby asked in a hushed voice.

Blake swallowed. "It's… as good a start as any…"

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Every instinct within Blake screamed not to trust Torchwick, to get out of there, none of this was safe,but Mina…If there was even an infinitesimalchance to save her, then, for Blake, there was no choice at all.

She lead the way, being the one who could actually see, but that was only an excuse; no power on Remnant could have made her let Ruby take the lead there – leader or no. They had a close call by the staircase up to the second floor, but a little excruciating patience saw the patrolling sentry move off and the pair went up the stairs, quickly and quietly, without harassment.

The second floor was similarly dead for the most part, though out one window facing the interior of the complex Blake could hear a lieutenant barking orders to pack up materiel and get ready to move, so that probably explained the lacking security. She dared a glance out the window by way of confirmation and then motioned for Ruby to check the next room until finally they reached a room adjacent to Torchwick's insensitive little caricature.

The door was carelessly cracked open, but the next room wasn't empty. There were two guards that Blake could see, standing to the left and right of a locked door. Even worse, the right-hand side of the room was one large plate-glass window overlooking the interior of the makeshift compound. One of them was snoring…

'What do we do now?'Ruby mouthed after peering through the crack as well.

'Wait here,'Blake mouthed back, pulling her bow loose. With any luck, her ears could buy her a few seconds. 'You'll know when to come help.'

Ruby nodded, and, taking a deep breath, stood. Right… time to bluff…

With Ruby flattening herself up against the wall, Blake confidently opened the door and looked the conscious guard square in the eyes. "Adam says it's time to move the prisoner."

"H-huh? Wait, who are you? I don't recognize you-"

"Do you wantto piss Adam off?"

The masked sentry hesitated, but then shook his head in response to Blake's challenge. "No, no… We'll get her going, only… Who are you again…?"

Blake rolled her eyes and mustered a contemptuous scoff. "Never mind that, Adam is notpatient!"

"R-right!" The hitherto dozing sentry declared, a little loudly for Blake's comfort, more out of a desire to avoid a reprimand than out of confident agreement.

Blake stood aside as the first guard fumbled with his keys and cast a brief sweeping glance over the room. It used to be office space by the look of it, but now it was just a testament to disuse. Everything that wasn't broken was covered in dust – everything excepta pair of gauntlets on a rusty desk across the room… Her eyes widened just so at the sight, and glancing back at the guards, she crossed the space as they opened the door, facing away. Never taking her eyes off the sentries, she reached behind to quietly claim the bracers and the bundle of stakes as quietly as possible…

"C'mon whore, on your feet," the first sentry ordered into the dark room that had been made into Mina's cell, "boss man says it's time…"

Blake's heart skipped a beat as a tiredly sarcastic reply emerged from the darkened room, "Did he? I was beginning to fear that I'd been left to rot…"

It's her…..Blake's heart soared in spite of the circumstances as Mina was shoved from the cell, and a quick glance told Blake that she had been heard and understood. As the first guard headed for the door through which Blake had entered, leaving his partner to shepherd Mina behind him, Blake counted the seconds – heartbeats– as he crossed the threshold, until Ruby sprang into action, clubbing the guard over the head with Crescent Rose's compact form and knocking him to the floor. Before the other guard could raise the alarm, Blake used her ribbon to garroted the second guard until he fell limp. As her victim fell to the floor, Blake discarded him and took Mina in a sobbing embrace.

"Mina!" Blake buried her face in Mina's shoulder unable to get any other words past the lump in her throat. Her knees threatened to fall beneath her just to feel Mina and hold her close again. She forced herself to stay on her feet though; she couldn't very well expect Minato support herat a time like this. "Oh Mina…"

"Dearest…" Mina returned the embrace with all her strength. Even tired and sore as Mina must have been, Mina still managed to drive the breath from Blake's lungs as she herself raggedly drew in a shuddering gasp of relief. Blake lost herself in the warmth, only to feel cold seep back into her as Mina's trembling arms faltered. "Mina?"

"You…" Mina shook her head. "You should not have come…"

"Blake," Ruby whispered into the room from her lookout at the door, "we should go…"

Blake ignored Ruby though, "Mina… what do you mean-?"

"Where are Weiss and Miss Xiao Long?" Mina softly interrupted, her head perking up as she activated her Semblance.

"Yang stayed behind as a decoy," Blake reluctantly explained, "and Weiss…" Blake's tone darkened, "She wouldn'tcome."

To Blake's surprise though, Mina didn't look hurt – instead, she nodded serenely, which only served to confuse Blake's sense of betrayal – before Mina let out a sigh. "I love you Blake."

"Um… guys…?" Ruby whispered again in a more stressed tone over the sounds of heavy – if not hasty footsteps from the floor below, "we should probably get out of here…"

Mina pulled away from Blake at the sound, immediately setting about re-arming herself with a solemn expression. "Miss Rose is right; whatever the wisdom of it, you havecome, and grateful as I am, now we must-"

Mina's words died on her lips all of the sudden, and a second later Blake understood why; the footsteps from below were coming up the stairs toward the hall. With a silent nod between them, Blake and Mina took the unconscious guards and dragged them out of view of the doorway before all three of them took cover behind abandoned and unused desks. Recalling her years of stealth training in the White Fang,Blake forced herself to calm down and controlled her breath as the heavy footfalls reached the top of the steps.

"Perry, ready the prisoner," a gruff, throaty, and above all, familiar voice resounded through the empty hall as the huge Lieutenant from the stadium made his way to the makeshift prison, "it is time for her punishment."

"What do we do?!" Ruby quietly panicked. "He's coming this way!"

"Hush, Miss Rose…" Mina whispered, before glancing Blake's way for comfort herself, "if we take him all at once…"

Blake nodded with more confidence than she felt. "We can do it… just… be careful."

The door swung open with some force which bespoke the confidence that all was as expected, only for the quaking footfalls came to a stop in the doorway. There was silence until a clicking noise signaled a heavyweapon being drawn from the towering Faunus's back. Then there was another step. As the Lieutenant took another step forward, and with the third, the three infiltrators began moving silently around the desks to avoid detection. He stepped between the two separate desks which they'd concealed themselves behind, and the girls were flattened against the far sides of the desks. When he reached Mina's former 'cell' they had again changed positions to keep the desks between themselves and the suspicious Lieutenant. Silence was key, untilRuby looked over her shoulder to make certain that no one else was coming through the door which now stood behind them, inadvertently knocking Crescent Rose against the metal desk.

The reaction was instantaneous. A chainsaw revved and, in a split second, the desk that Ruby and Mina were hiding behind was demolishedby the massive weapons grinding, angry teeth. Ruby sprang back and out of reach, and Mina tucked and rolled beneath the blade. Before the swing was complete, Blake vaulted over her desk, drawing Gambol Shroud as she leapt, and delivered a flurry of blows while the chainsaw's inertia carried the swing through empty air. The Lieutenant staggered, but before Blake could follow up, a massive knee connected with her stomach and knocked Blake backward and down from the desk.

"Dearest!" Mina cried, lunging forward into the berserker's side with her shoulder to keep him off-balance, before drawing a stake slamming it into his back. Though the blow was blunted by his Aura, he still stumbled forward, giving Blake time to recover, if only a few spare seconds.

Shouts could be heard rising from the rest of the complex now – nobody, it seemed, had failed to notice the sound of a chainsaw tearing through a desk – and the sound of Crescent Rose deploying to scythe mode wasn't exactly subtle. Blake figured that they had seconds before more White Fang arrived, and, slow as he was, the Lieutenant in the room with them simply wasn't going down. They had to think of something – any way out –fast.

Ruby went for an overhead swing with Crescent Rose, only to have the colossal Faunus block the scythe's razor-sharp tip on the haft of his weapon, then put the momentum into a full circular swing, blindsiding all three young huntresses. The breath was driven from Blake's lungs even despite the protection of her Aura, and all three were sent flying into the room's plate-glass window. It shattered on impact and did little to stop them from careening out into empty air. Time seemed to grind to a halt as Blake fell, and her vision cleared just long enough for her to see Mina pitch a stake into the side of the building before reaching out to her. When her mind cleared enough to appreciate what was happening, Blake extend her own hand and they took hold of each other at the wrist. Mina jerked her forearm as soon as Blake took hold, and the winch built into her gauntlet seized up, breaking their fall until Mina twisted her wrist just so to begin a much more manageable descent.

Blake glanced down as they went but almost immediately wished that she hadn't. Ruby had broken her fall with a few well-timed shots from Crescent Rose, but armed White Fang Thugs were closing on her fast and in force. What was more, Blake could see Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and the woman who must have been 'the Witch' that Undine had talked about in a blazing red dress at the edges of the crowd. The red woman gave a slight nod to the other two former infiltrators of Beacon before turning and walking off to board a Bullhead prepping for takeoff. The implication was clear: finish them quickly.

"Ruby!" Blake cried even as Ruby braced herself for a fight and Mina and Blake herself reached the ground, "watch out!"

"It's okay! I got it!" She called back before launching into a spinning attack to take a handful of thugs to the ground, only to be interrupted mid-stroke as Sustrai bolted forward, ducking under Ruby's blade to catch the shaft with her sickle. The interruption to her spin threw Ruby off-balance. "W-whoa!"

Blake and Mina rushed forward to help, only to have Mercury Black lunge forward to help, and then to hear the Lieutenant roar from behind them as he jumped from the shattered window to pursue them. Blake's gaze shifted between Sustrai, Black, the Lieutenant, and all the other White Fang fighters, frantically calculating their rapidly dwindling odds. No… no…

"Hold it!"

Blake's blood froze.

The White Fang all parted before him as the source of the gruff voice boomed through the complex, and Adam Taurus came to the front, a not-unpleasantly surprised smirk on his face. "Well, well…" He chuckled, before casting a glance at the Lieutenant behind Ruby, Blake, and Mina. "I think we've got this handled; go watch the gate in case anybody comes looking for them." With a nod, The Lieutenant disengaged his chainsaw and moved off, leaving Adam to address the three of them again, "Saved me a lot of trouble Blake. Awful nice of you to come take responsibility."

Blake gritted her teeth as Mina and Ruby tensed, backing towards the wall. "I'm not the one who needs to take responsibility here,Adam! What you're doing is – what we did is wrong! It will only make things-,"

Blake was violently silenced as the White Fang ringleader fired wilt from its sheath, striking Blake in the solar-plexus and diving the breath from her lungs as he signaled for all of amassed malefactors to attack at once. "Good luck with that…"

Author's Note: Hello everybody, and A thousand apologies for the abnormally long delay on this chapter; those of you who also read 'The Diary of Glynda Goodwitch' probably already know that it is because of the unfortunate fact that my computer pretty much exploded, and it took me a while to get it replaced... Now though, I'm back, and after this... well I only have two more chapters planned before we call it a tentative finish (I say tentative because I really like Mina and may come around to writing more depending on what Volume 3 holds for us) but I do have every intention of actually finishing what I have plannedbeforethe next season rolls around... In any case, I hope that you enjoyed this, and as always, a big thank-you to KillamriX88 for the edits. Have a good one everybody.