Nightraze: thanks for the review! I hope to crank up the WhiteRose from here on…and the moral ethics too.
Tuutje07:I aim to please. It's good to see that my writing style made things easier to read.
Sierra10: He promoted himself after the theme-song scene :P
Day 48 – Monday-07:12—Beacon dormitories—room RWBY.
Loud…voices… annoying…so loud… too voicy. They need to stop being voices…she wanted to sleep. Soon she would wake up and school would start…
"Ruby!"
Nope…not going to wake up. Too tired…too sleepy.
"Wake up Ruby!"
She slowly opened her eyes and saw that the door –which she could see perfectly from her bed- was trembling rather violently. Now why would her door be trembling like that?
The girl rubbed her eyes sleepily and tried to discern what was going on. Her alarm-clock said that it was some time over seven…if that was the case, she could get back to sleep again. It wasn't even that late
"Oh, let me handle this!"
An annoying whirring sound echoed in her ears and she groaned with annoyance. Why? Too much noise, soon she would-
The redheaded girl shot upright in her bed and growled angrily. It had happened. They had woken her up and now she was awake and awake. No she couldn't get to sleep again. Damnit.
Ruby Rose wasn't a very gracious waking person…and neither was she a morning person. Well, at times she could be. But she had a thing with Mondays…Mondays never seemed to work with her. Any other day was just fine by her book, but Mondays just couldn't get through to her. She hated them and they hated her. It was an intense hate relationship.
The whirring intensified and the door clicked open. Blake woke up too and squinted her eyes to get a view of who was disturbing them, just like Ruby was doing. The redhead's little eyes caught the appearance of black fluffy hair, long purple hair and big helmet. Who did she know that was black-haired and fluffy?
"Blake?" she mumbled and frowned deeply when she realized that Yang had blonde curly hair and not purple long hair. Strange.
"I'm here," a voice at her side spoke and she closed her eyes again when her brain processed that Blake was still sitting in her bed. So the person standing in the door…was not Blake.
"Ruby, Yang, whichever one of you can wake up the fastest, do it now!" Not-Blake called out, but she was just too tired to understand what was going on. The pieces of this little puzzle were just barely forming in her head and she understood that the person wielding a helmet was a soldier from Onyx.
"Will?" she muttered.
"Damn, Two! Training activity beta, do it!"
What is a beta- oh god!
Ruby screamed loudly when a wave of cold and wetness washed over her body, nearly throwing her out of her bed and instantly waking up every single fiber of her being. Her clothes stuck to her body and she immediately jumped out of her bed, covering herself with a pillow she stole from Weiss' bed.
Weiss' head hit the harder side of her matrass and then she was awake too. "Hey!" she complained.
"Was that…water?" Blake asked incredulously. Somehow, the little cat had managed to escape all of the freezing wetness.
"Yeah," the fluffy-headed Cal replied and entered the room. "Figured we might have needed it.
"What's with all the noise?" Yang groaned from her bed, having pulled a pillow over her head to prevent the noises from getting to her.
"What the heck!" Ruby squealed and clenched her fists. Water was dripping from her, her clothes and her bed and she was all too aware of her semi-transparent nightgown being even more transparent now. "Why?"
"You need to get dressed, armed and ready," Lily calmly replied. "Your mission of checking out the village to the north has been scrapped."
"What?" Weiss exclaimed. "You listen here-"
"It´s a rescue mission now!" Call interrupted her. "Our Intel suggests a large wave of Grimm is moving towards the village. In just about fifty minutes they will strike, killing every last man, woman and child. Unless you can evacuate them."
"Evacuate? How?" Ruby sharply asked him, her anguish for being wet and cold completely disappearing and making place for apprehension.
"Get dressed now!" Two-Two barked at them. "There is no time! We'll explain while you put your clothes on!"
Every single person in the room turned to face him with calm, skeptical expressions. Even Cal.
"What?"
"Dude…girls need their privacy," Lily then hissed at him.
The big guy shrugged. "I'll turn around."
Ruby had to work really hard to not facepalm and drop her pillow. In the opposite order.
Lily worked the two soldiers out of the door –Yang waved at them as they left- and then started to explain the finer details. She was wearing her complete armour and she had her helmet under her arm, which meant trouble. Or a mission. Or trouble and a mission. "Some time ago, the higher-ups at Onyx found out that a village higher up in the Kingdom, north of here and just on the border, was about to be crossed with the domain of a lot of Grimm parties. Eventually, the swarm of Grimm broke off of their natural habitat and headed to the village. ETA on their arrival was sixty minutes at that point, fifty minutes now.
"How long will it take to get us there?" Ruby replied as she wrapped a cape around her waist, pulling the hood over her head. Next to her, Weiss was pulling on her skirt. And she was trying very, very hard not to look.
"An hour on the Beacon dropships," Lily replied and a cold pit fell into Ruby's stomach. She turned to look at her and was surprised to see that the soldier didn't look remotely worried or sorry. Just from the look on her face, she could see that there was a plan.
"We'll never get there in time," Blake said, not without panic. She hadn't seen the expression yet.
"No…unless we take you there."
"Excuse me?" Yang asked as she put her gauntlets on.
"I'm a certified pilot. I can take your team in our dropship and get you there within thirty-five minutes."
Ruby smiled widely when she heard that offer. A week ago, the soldiers would have most likely never offered something like that. It was a testimony to how much they had grown to trust the students from Beacon…and also how willing they were to protect the innocent after all.
"You said evacuate," Yang asked the girl a minute later when they were all armed and ready to leave, walking out of their room and heading for the hangar bay where the dropship was most likely to be stored. "Why can't we just kill all those Grimm and be done with it?"
"Ever had to protect civilians while under hostile fire?" Lily then asked her, shutting them all up with a statement that was way worse than the soldier thought it was. "It's abysmal to do so. A swarm of frenzied Beowolves won't do much damage to a well-trained group of warriors, but they are too fast and focused to kill all of them. We've worked together with the army in the past to stop an assault of this size against a village that was better protected than the ones you need to help...somewhere in Vacuo. Fifty or more Beowolves were killed in the opening salvo, but two dozen got past us in their single-minded push. Something had forced them to head straight for the village, like they were in a trance."
"What happened?" Weiss asked the girl with a soft voice.
Ruby already knew what had happened. She could hear it in Lily's voice…see it in her body, even though her back was turned to her.
"Two dozen Beowolves against a population of three-hundred. Fifty civilian casualties before our team could stop the rampaging monsters." The soldier sounded bitter and…resentful? Sorrow was clearly audible in her voice but…why was she bitter? "Another thirty while we did. Point in case: you don't defend against the Grimm like that, not with a vulnerable target. Don't make our mistake; clear the civvies out first."
"I'm sorry," Ruby told the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. Lily immediately stopped moving and looked at Ruby's hand, before turning her gaze to Ruby's face. She looked shocked and confused, but like always her emotions were well-hidden. It took a very watchful eye to spot them and even then, Ruby wasn't too sure.
Lily's gaze softened, but almost immediately hardened again and she pulled her shoulder away. "Don't be. Things like that happen."
"So how do we evacuate them then?" Yang asked.
"The village is positioned south of a large river and the villagers have one large airship. You get there in time, get the civilians on that ship…and you'll be in the clear."
Ruby wanted to ask her for more information on that previous mission, but decided against it. It would only hurt the young soldier to speak of it again and more details would distract her team. Such a loss of life was terrible…and it would not happen again. Thirty-five minutes…that left them with a fifteen-minute window. Five minutes had been wasted with getting to the dropship and the other ten had to be used in getting the civilians on the ship.
"Why didn't your team rush to the village when you heard it?" She asked the soldier as soon as they stepped inside of the hangar bay –a different one from Will's. "You would have had more time."
"We have different things to do," Lily replied and pressed a button on the side of the ship, lowering the hatch so that they could enter. The hatch was positioned at the rear of the ship, below the tail and with enough cover for soldiers to march out without having to fear for enemy fire. "I drop you guys off and rendezvous with Fireteam Cotton, for a torch-and-burn operation."
"What's that?" Yang asked, her interest piqued by something. Whether that was the word 'burn' or some neat item on the interior of the dropship was up to debate.
Lily dropped her helmet on the ground and opened a door that led to the cockpit, where all sorts of meters and screens were flaring to life. She reached up at her hair and tried to tie it in a knot, but failed. "It's us mopping up a slave-trade outside of Vytal, to the west-coasts. When I drop you guys off, someone from Beacon will have to take you back."
"No, I meant this!" Yang replied without having really listened to that explanation, reaching for a black ring of shotgun shells that was draped over a chair.
Weiss sighed and walked over to the cockpit while Ruby took a closer look at the shells. "Looks like black dust…think they will fit?" she asked her older sister.
"Hell yes!" Yang exclaimed and grabbed the bandolier that was filled with the shells. "I want to test these babies!"
The redhead smiled at her older sister and looked at Weiss standing in the cockpit, helping the less gifted soldier in the arts of fixing hair. "Stop struggling, let me help you. Tie it like this and use this to keep it like that. There! Now take your helmet and slide it carefully over your head.
"Being the hair-expert there, Weiss?" She asked the pale girl with a smile. She had initially thought that being around Weiss would feel strange and awkward, but it didn't. It just felt right to be around her.
"Just helping around where I can," the Schnee Heiress replied and then left the cockpit again, moving to retrieve the soldier's helmet so that she could start doing her piloting job.
"You said a slave-trade?" Blake asked after a few minutes of silence. They had just left Beacon with the ship, gaining more altitude and speed than normally possible. Even though the door was closed, some form of internal communication still allowed them to converse with each other.
"Yeah. Some messed up people are neck-deep in Fauna trafficking. We're going to link up with Fireteam Cotton and shut them down."
"So Onyx does care about the abuse of Fauna?" The black-haired girl then asked with a hint of doubt and suspicion in her voice.
"More about the 'slave' part than the 'Fauna' part, but yeah. We do."
Blake fell silent after that statement, looking a bit guilty. What did she look guilty for? Opinions were things that everyone had and whether they were correct or not wasn't important. Blake shouldn't be feeling guilty for having shared her opinion…unless there had been more going on than just that opinion. The girl had been very sneaky lately…disappearing in the evening, meeting with mysterious persons that she didn't want to talk about.
They were silent for another fifteen minutes, during which both Yang and Weiss were starting to understand the things that Ruby already did. The scale of their coming conflict, the sheer urgency that Fireteam Lima had shown when they had woken RWBY up and the amount of people dying should they fail to hold the line.
She was already starting to overthink strategies that could help her save the city. The Grimm couldn't be allowed to remain unopposed, but they would simply charge past RWBY on masse to head to the village. Something was driving them towards those poor people…and if her team would try to stop them, at least a dozen would get through. A dozen bloodthirsty wolves that stood taller than seven feet? With claws that could rent through steel? No way that the villagers would be able to defend themselves. No, RWBY couldn't afford to leave the people alone. They would have to focus on evacuating them ASAP. It was a very good thing that they had an airship ready, but would that thing be big enough? Would it be able to carry all the people and still take off in time? If even one Beowolf managed to get on board of that thing, they were grounded.
Fifty or more Grimm…driven to kill like in a trance. This was what she had been training for. Not people with guns terrorists, but real monsters that they didn't need to hold back against. This was going to work…once the villagers were safe, they could kill all the Grimm and head back to Beacon.
But ten minutes was really, really tight. Would they even be fast enough to evacuate all those people?
Another ten minutes passed by and Ruby wished that the ship had windows of some kind to look through. The interior of the dropship was divided in two rows of seats, with about four feet of room in-between them. It allowed for at least twenty soldiers to sit down and another ten to stand. Where did Onyx get this tech? How many resources did they even have? They had information, resources and people. Where did all of that come from? And how had Onyx even heard about the Grimm attack? This couldn't be a trap, as she trusted Lily and Cal, but this still didn't fit right.
"Ehm, Lily?" she asked. "Did Headmaster Ozpin agree to this?"
A burst of static came over the radio and then the soldier's voice broke through. "He did. We came to him first with the Intel and he wasted no time in sending us down to you guys."
She nodded, but that didn't mean she had to feel sure about what was going to happen. Time was always just an estimation and if someone –anyone- was wrong by even a minute, team RWBY would arrive too late at the scene.
And that was something she wasn't ready for. Not by a long shot. Seeing remorseless criminals getting shot cleanly in the head had been enough to plague her dreams for a few days, but seeing a crowd of innocent civilians being torn apart by monsters that they had allowed to pass through? She would never be able to deal with that.
How could any person deal with such mass-death? It made her wonder just what had happened to the soldiers from Onyx that they were able to shrug it off. Except…when she looked at the smaller details…they hadn't. Lily had visibly been stricken by her team's failure and Ash…well, something had very clearly traumatized him. He had yelled the name 'Vacuo' like it was some dark secret that nobody should ever find out about. But Lily had said that Onyx had avenged the murdered civilians…so what was wrong with Ash? What had happened for him to lose himself so completely like that? And Will…in the Death-war…with the many thousands of casualties on both sides. Knee-deep in mud, soldiers drowning and dying before the conflict had even gotten bloody…how could anyone live with that?
Yang hadn't found the Operative anywhere. He had simply disappeared form Beacon and nobody could –or even wanted to- talk about where he was. It seemed that not everybody was having doubts about the Final Solution killings. That had been…problematic.
Still it had given her additional time with Weiss. That had not been problematic.
"Coming around the village now," Lily told them coolly and the ship lurched downwards, not feeling very much unlike the last ship that had been transporting them. So much for diversity because of a badass and technically advanced ship; it could still induce motion sickness in some people. Like Jaune.
But Jaune wasn't very much here.
"Why can't you drop us in the village?" Blake asked.
"Those people don't exactly trust outsiders…especially not such a military-grade vehicle. You'd never organize them in time. I'm setting you down fifty meters to their east."
"Right," Yang replied and rolled with her eyes. "Got it."
The dropship's descent stopped and the hatch opened, allowing a fresh if somewhat cold wind to gush inside. But Ruby didn't mind the cold that much; she had been born in the north, where the temperatures were even worse. Yang had been brought to the north by her father where he had met the woman whom he would come to fall in love with. Things happened and then Ruby had been born, roughly two to two-and-a-half years younger than Yang was. They had spent another year or two in the north, before venturing southwards and eventually settling in Vytal.
So perhaps her unnatural resistance to the cold came from that?
"Move it people," Weiss told them, "let's not waste any time here!"
The four of them jumped out of the ship and the hatch immediately closed behind them, sealing the dark interior of the dropship off and trapping them in the dark interior of a wide, open area surrounded by trees.
"So…what now?" Yang asked and fixed her hair, which had gotten slightly winded due to the take-off of the large ship. They were standing in the middle of a large open field, roughly fifty meters wide. The sky was dark and cloudy and Ruby could already feel droplets of water landing on her face.
"We could…orient towards the north?" she proposed, but Blake was already turning to one direction and pointing with her finger.
"That way," the Faunus-girl stated with utter certainty.
"You sure?" Yang skeptically asked.
"Trust the ears," Blake replied and wiggled the ears that she had once again hidden underneath her bow. She hadn't been certain of the villagers' opinion regarding Fauna and it would be smart to hide anything that might make team RWBY untrustworthy in their eyes.
"Alright, let's trust the ears," Ruby uneasily said and started towards the general direction hat Blake was pointing at.
Day 47– Monday—08:14—Vale Police Department
"This guy?" Cho asked and reached for a photograph.
"Yeah," a fat commissar replied. He had a big, grey moustache and a distinctive lack of hair on the top of his head. Lisa was sure tha Matt would get distracted by that, but didn't have that specific urge to touch moustaches that her brother had. She was here for other reasons…important reasons. "The name's Sandy Wilkson, bomb-maker and well-known terrorist. He has been spotted near the commercial district, striking some sort of deal with a gang there."
"That's the guy," Grace confirmed with a nod. Bombs were her specialty and the fact that some terrorist was out there messing with people using her tactics should be insulting to her. And sort of hardish.
"Where can we find him?" Cho then asked the Police Officer with his bald, shiny head.
"Probably in one of them warehouses," the man gruffly replied. "Won't do you any good though; bastard's rigged the entrance. Anyone attempts to enter the building, kaboom! Lots of little pieces."
"Right," Lisa replied with a hint of disgust at that choice of words. "And the Police haven't brought in any bomb-squads because…?"
"Sandy's a smart bastard. By the time we can diffuse the bomb, he will have bolted…or finished whatever it is that he's doing in there."
"Well, I got a nice surprise for you," little Adamant told the man with a fake smile. When Matt had told them that a terrorist with connections was in Vale, he hadn't been kidding. The entire situation had to be a complete disaster for Grace's nerves and she didn't like it when things hurt her best friend. "We got the best Demolitions Expert in all of Vale. Bring us to the Warehouse and tell your men to be ready."
"Can't do that ma- aaaahm…actually, scratch that. Sure can do ma'am!"
A little persuasive maneuvering from her Type-25 always worked wonders with guys.
Cho nodded at her and tore the picture form the wall, taking it with him as he led Alessa and Grace through the door.
"You can't do that!" The officer yelled after them, but Lisa quickly closed the glass door behind her and followed the Cho.
"Guess he just did that…" a helmeted officer then chuckled and reached for a donut. Lisa did not want to know how he was going to manage that. She had seen enough helmet magic at Beacon.
The dark-haired and serious-faced Cho procured a Police car and opened the door, allowing for Grace and Alessa to enter the backseats.
Only badasses were allowed in the front and that was why she rode shotgun.
"Are you alright?" Alessa softly asked Grace after a minute of awkward silence.
"Sure," Grace replied sharply. "Let's just find this guy and deal with him."
Grace had been raised by her grandparents ever since she was four years old, dumped with them after weeks of discussions and arguments between officials and judges. Her grandparents had fought tooth and nail to receive responsibility for the girl and in the end their sheer stubbornness and tenacity had overwhelmed the reclusiveness of at least three different boards. Even though Grace had then lived a relatively happy childhood, things had still been…sort of tense… between her grandparents and their neighbors.
Grace's parents were notorious terrorists, killed in a military engagement a roughly two days before she had turned four. And while the girl had always said that she hadn't really known her parents nor cared for them, Lisa still knew that it couldn't be easy on her, having to fight a terrorist that specialized in bombs.
"This is the place," Cho told them after another ten minutes of silent driving. His skills with a police car were surprisingly good…he had probably received a lot of training with that sort of vehicle during his time at the Police Department.
Not that she wasn't a good driver. On the contrary; she was so extremely good at driving that nobody wanted to enter the same vehicle as her. "You sure?" she asked.
Jason threw her an annoyed gaze. "Yes."
"Right," she cheerfully said and threw the door open. "Let's go kick some asses!"
Team LACG jumped after the vehicle and moved towards the Police barricade ahead, in front of one of the warehouses. Cho lagged behind because he had forgotten the brakes and the road was a bit sloped.
"What's the situation?" Grace asked one of the policemen as she watched the lit Warehouse. The structure was surrounded from all sides and there were at least three different watch-lights aimed at the windows.
"The bomb-maker is in there," a rookie with blond hair replied, "all exits are covered and teams are ready to breach when the order is given."
"What about the bomb?" Lisa added.
"No idea Ma'am. You four from Beacon?"
"Yes," Cho told the man as he brushed him aside, marching through the barricade. "Let us handle this."
LACG's leader led her team towards the warehouse and was frustrated to see that the entire front-door was rigged with complicated lights and wires. "Think you can handle this?"
Auburn shrugged. "We'll find out."
The three of them took up a position by the Demolition Expert's sides and covered her while she started working at the bomb.
Lisa didn't miss the occasional law-enforcer backing up nervously. Such trust they had…why were her feet slowly moving away from her friend?
The brunette worked tirelessly at the door for at least a minute, during which Lisa grew increasingly tense. Never had a bomb been so serious that her friend couldn't immediately disarm it. Grenades turned into duds, shaped charges were removed and explosive belts all failed within a few seconds of her touching the explosive. Why couldn't she handle this? Was this so serious?
"Almost got it…" the girl muttered as she cut another two wires with a knife. "This is more advanced than anything I've ever seen before. When we grab this guy, I want to have a little chat with him."
"Can you do it?" Lisa nervously asked.
"Yeah, no prob- uh-oh." The "expert" sounded moderately freaked out. "Cho smack it smack it!"
That sounded outright panicked. But the Cho didn't waste a second in pulling his High-Impact Stun-Baton and whipped the door, slamming the electrified weapon right into the red light that Grace was pointing at.
The light blinked two times and then faded.
"What the HELL!" Lisa snapped. "Did you just mess up? You messed up didn't you?"
"Technically no," Grace unhappily replied and awkwardly rubbed her back. "I sort of needed an electrical discharge at the sensitive compartments to disable the fourth failsafe. I just didn't know it would detonate three seconds after exposure."
"Yay for Cho…" Alessa dryly remarked.
"Yeah, thanks for the quick reflexes," the blonde thanked her partner and then turned to the Demolitions girl. "Finish it, will you?"
Grace nodded and with one smooth gesture, ripped the disk-formed explosive from the door, taking at least seven wires with it. "Done."
"She did it!" A voice from behind them yelled and at least seven different voices joined in a loud cheer, before another voice broke through the noise. "Commence the attack!"
As the law-enforcers charged the building, Lisa subtly walked to the side of the building and peered around the corner. The officers were too busy with breaching the now-secured front-door and they didn't really have eyes on the back of the building. "He's running," she remarked.
"Cho's turn," Grace muttered and knelt beside the explosive. Jason burst into a sprint and went after the terrorist, while Lisa joined her friend with the bomb.
"What do you think?" She asked the brunette.
"I think…" Grace muttered as she pried the disk open, "…that I really want to see Cho's interrogative skills in action."
Lisa smiled at her and then turned around, very nearly missing Alessa gently rubbing Grace's arm. "This is Adamant," she spoke into her scroll once she had dialed the right number. "You there Adamant?"
"Adamant here," the voice of Matt broke through. Lisa could hear echoing footsteps through his side of the call and he sounded a bit out of breath. "Reading Adamant clear."
That rhymed. "Are you running?"
"Totally not chasing a hot assassin. What do you want?"
"We totally did not catch a terrorist," Lisa smugly replied as she watched Cho round the distant corner, dragging a thrashing and squirming Sandy with him.
"Then hurry up! Any minute now he will blow up a lot of people!"
Should have expected that…"Matt…idiot…sarcasm. We caught the bastard. Cho is bringing him in as we speak."
"Ah! Much excellent! Get him to the VPD, give him some cavity searches and-"
"WHAT?" She exclaimed. "Tell me I did not just hear that!"
"Would you trust Grace to be devoid of explosives at any time?"
"No, but-"
"Make sure he is unexplodable when you get him in the holding cell."
"Right. Whatever."
"Cheerio."
She terminated the link on her end and groaned in frustration. The struggling and fighting form of the terrorist was annoying to see –this was one guy who was willing to kill dozens of innocent people just for the sake of…what, vengeance? Making a point? Whatever it was, she liked to have a little 'talk' with the man.
Cho might not be a very large man, but his body was well-defined and muscled. He stood shorter than Pyrrha or Yang, but he might well be as strong as Cardin was. He was definitely as broad. The terrorist would not escape his grip.
"Gotcha," Grace growled and closed in on the man, inspecting his outfit for explosives with her keen eyes. "You won't need that!" She snatched a knife out of his boot and threw it aside in disgust.
"Signal the Commissar," Lisa told Cho. "We're bringing the prime suspect in."
Day 48 – Monday-07:51—unidentified village north of Vale. ETA on Grimm arrival: 9 minutes
"So how are we going to do this?" Blake asked as the group headed through the forest. It was silent, cold and wet. The air felt heavy and malicious, like the very atmosphere wanted the village dead. Would they get there in time? Weiss couldn't hear the howling of the wolves yet, but she knew that they had to be close. They had to be approaching them with a speed that no human could reach on foot.
"Simple. We'll walk in there, yell about Grimm and how they are all going to die and then jump on a ship!" Yang sarcastically replied.
"Not exactly what I had in mind," Ruby replied. "We'll introduce ourselves, tell them our thing and convince them to get out."
"Something tells me it's not going to be so simple," said Blake. "Why would they believe us? They might think us to be conmen, seeking to steal from them."
Damn…that was one responsibility that she hadn't thought about yet. They had stressed so much to get to the village in order to evacuate them that they hadn't really thought about a way to actually get them evacuated. She asked: "Can't we just prove to them that we're from Beacon? They should know about Beacon, right?"
"True," Ruby responded. "If we tell them we're from Beacon they might believe us…but what prove do we have? What prove did Lily have? Onyx said this and I believe her, but why should they?"
"This is still hard to believe," Blake mused. "What if this was a trap? Lure us out of Beacon and then strike somehow?"
"You're paranoid," Yang cheerfully said and stretched her arms above her head. "Ruby trusts them and that is enough. Besides; we would have still gone to this village regardless of Lima's warning. Beacon had been worrying about Grimm long before this morning, remember?"
"You know," Weiss then told them and tried to propose her own idea. "It doesn't even need to be proven. They enter their ship, get away from the village and wait it out. IF the Grimm do show up, we'll drive them off. If they don't, we'll blame the shady military organization that told us this. Deal?"
"Deal," Ruby quickly said. "They don't need to believe us for long, just for ten minutes."
"Talking about ten minutes, how long did Lily say we had?" Yang then addressed another problem. "I don't think we have very"
A long, high-pitched howl echoed in the distance and instantly caused shivers to run down Weiss' spine. She had yet to overcome that innate fear for the Grimm…and nothing was scarier than hearing a wolf howling in the darkness, especially not when the air made it look like it was night.
"You had to open your mouth…" Blake sighed and gripped her sword closely.
"We might want to hurry!" Yang yelled and started to sprint, but after a few meters she already slowed down and skidded to a halt. "Watch out! Someone's there!"
Weiss readied her Myrtenaster and squinted her eyes, trying to see past the trees and foggy air that were interrupting her line of sight. "What do you see?" She carefully asked.
Blake closed her eyes and started to talk, slowly and uneasily. She still had to get used to the uncanny senses of a Faunus, even if that Faunus was a close friend. "One person…moving slowly...heavy-built, adult."
"Come out!" Yang yelled at the unknown stalker, heat flaring from her body as she wildly gestured with her arms. "There are Beowolves out there and we don't have time for-"
The figure that was approaching them from the direction of the village stepped out of his subtly-used cover and revealed itself.
Weiss gasped and the remaining feelings of doubt and fear were instantly flaring up again. A cold pit formed in her stomach and she slowly opened her mouth, trying to speak the words that she had wanted to speak for quite a while. But all of that came out of her throat was a small gasp of surprise.
"You?" Blake snapped angrily and pointed her sword at the armed person in front of them.
Nonreflective visor, armoured plating and black clothes…black rifle carried in his arms and a steady advance that was only found with trained individuals… it was Will.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby softly asked him. The confusion was audible in her tone; last time anything about the Operative had been brought up, it had sort of brought her to a emotional breakdown.
The Operative approached them until he was standing in front of Ruby, at which point both Weiss and Yang pointed their weapons at him. "Get away from her!" Weiss bit at him. White Fang or not, this person was capable of murdering dozens of people without giving it a second thought. He had everything that made a sociopath a sociopath and she didn't want to have him anywhere near her…friend.
"Don't come any closer, please!" the blonde urged him and held her hands up, signaling him back. "Tell us what you are doing here first!"
The Schnee Heiress looked at Yang, not understanding why the girl had a pleading tone on her voice. Since when did Yang of all people ask for something? Shouldn't she be ordering the soldier to stand down, instead of asking?
"You won't get to the village in time," Will slowly told them. His voice was strangely tensed, calm but forced…and if she didn't knew better, she would have thought that it was because of an emotion. That his voice was charged with feeling or something like that.
"Why?" Blake aggressively asked him. "Are you going to stop us?"
"Blake!" Ruby exclaimed with shock.
"We can't trust him! He's not sane!" The Fauna then snapped, leaving a shocked silence in the aftermath of her statement. And an aftermath it was. Both Ruby and Yang were unable to form a proper response and they simply stared at the Faunus-girl, aghast.
Weiss wanted to protest; say that Blake was going too far, or saying that emotions were clouding her thoughts. But…it hadn't sounded like an accusation…and neither had it sounded hateful. It sounded more like a statement…a statement that was brought as sadly as it was angrily. And because of that, Weiss understood that it was based on something. What had Blake heard?
"What…?" Ruby softly asked after she had recovered and threw a questioning glance at the Onyx Operative. "What do you mean?"
"I-" Blake's eyes widened as she realized she had made a mistake. She knew something and now she didn't want to share just what she knew. "I…I've been talking to someone. S-she-"
"Blake, don't be stupid!" Yang growled with frustration. "It's not true! Right?" That last part was directed at Will…who didn't immediately answer.
"There isn't time!" Weiss then yelled at the group, angry with Blake for sounding so extreme. Angry with Yang because she didn't realize that time was of the essence –worried for Ruby's well-being. "We have a mission!"
"Later," the helmeted soldier told Yang softly and then faced Ruby, making sure that he wasn't looking at Blake while doing so. At least he understood that he wasn't exactly in a position to do so. "You won't evacuate the village in time. The wolves will be here too soon."
"We have to try though!" Ruby firmly stated. "They don't have any warning! They'll be slaughtered without help!"
Will subtly cocked his head, like a little confused bird. "You need more time."
Yang's eyes widened suddenly, as if she had realized something of great importance. Her expression grew solemn and serious, but she kept quiet. What was going on?
"Stop talking and help us then!" Ruby impatiently snapped,, even as Weiss realized just what Will was planning on doing. Why didn't little Rose get that? She was supposed to be the empathy; figure out what other people were feeling just by looking at them. Was her own mind trying to protect her against more pain?
"Ruby…" she gently gained the girl's attention and while the redhead was looking at her, the soldier walked past her.
Yang didn't stop him. Blake didn't stop him.
"I'll stay here, buy you the time you need," Will then told them, like an ultimatum.
"Don't be stupid," Blake said with a frown. "They'll just swarm past you and strike the village."
"Not if I use this," the soldier then brandished a black canister, roughly a foot high and ten centimeters wide. "Alpha Beowolf pheromones, Death-Stalker venom and artificial enzymes. When subjected to air, it spreads like perfume and drives Beowolves in frenzy."
"That would leave you to deal with half a hundred crazy beasts," Yang softly told him. "Alone."
Will's fingers twitched and he raised his head. "The protection of mankind…whatever the cost." His voice sounded low, almost depressed. Final. "I'll hold them off long enough."
Weiss glared at Blake, wanting to see how the girl looked now. It was funny that, at first, she had been the one whose vision and mind were too narrow and judgmental. And how Blake had lifted that ignorance. She wanted to do the same for the Faunus-girl, even though Blake didn't realize that she was being just as judging and hateful as she had once been.
Blake's expression was…unreadable.
"Why did you come here?" Ruby then asked him once more. "Were you ordered to?"
He was silent for a few seconds, but then…"It's what she would have wanted."
"She?" Weiss asked with surprise and looked at her partner, to see if she had a clue as to what the boy was talking about. But instead of seeing a face that was illuminated by an idea, or even confused by the lack of idea, she saw a face that was only shocked and hurt. Every single time they got themselves involved with Onyx, it would result in physical or mental traumas.
"Thank you," Ruby then told the Operative, officially dropping the hesitation and doubt and visibly trusting him.
"We'll be back!" Yang told him and then reached out for him, perhaps intent on comforting him in the face of a battle he could not win.
The boy flinched and stepped backwards, as if guided on muscle memory and remembering how Yang had hurt him in the past. It was apparently enough to hurt her in some manner; .the blonde immediately withdrew her hand as if she had been stung and lowered her gaze, an unsure expression clearly visible on her face.
Blake averted her eyes and Ruby gestured for her team to follow her. No more time wasted. If Will was willing to sacrifice himself for team RWBY just to buy them time, they shouldn't be wasting that time. But Weiss knew that nobody was going to die here, this day. The Operative would do his thing, murder the Grimm and allow them to do their thing. A win-win situation, right?
…then why was she having such a bad feeling?
"Let's go over this again," Cho asked the man sitting in front of him, handing him a sheet of white paper. "Sandy" the bomb-maker was a skinny-looking, elderly man. His orange-red hair was cropped short and simple, making the man appear relatively ridiculous. "Charges: three cases of attempted murder, two cases of manslaughter, eighteen cases of assault and seven charges of hostage taking. Six charges of damage to property and multiple instances of terrorism. Add to that a body-count of twenty-three…and we got seven lifetime sentences in prison."
"Screw you!" The caught bomber snarled back at him, his dark eyes virtually oozing hatred. Too bad that the bruises and split lip made his face substantially less threatening.
"You're not exactly in the position to screw," Cho replied with a sigh. "There are a few ways this can go…you can disappear in prison, for example."
"Jail ain't scaring me!"
"I'll bet," he replied to the criminal with a hint of sarcasm. He had dealt with crazies and thugs in the past…this guy wasn't a psycho, so he wasn't immune to things like intimidation and fear…and he was good in utilizing fear. "You'll be the bravest man without martial skills sent to prison by a bunch of teenagers. I heard the big guys like bravery."
The bomb-maker snarled and jumped over the table, his shackled hands reaching for Cho's throat. Except he was much faster than Sandy was and before the scrawny-looking fellow could do much more than reach at his general direction, the interrogative specialist punched the man in his chin with a quick uppercut and then bashed him with his Stun-Baton, knocking him straight to the ground.
And he hadn't even needed to sit upright. People like Sandy made him sick; emotionless bastards that didn't stop at anything to get what they wanted. They deserved to die, all of them. But now, Sandy had made a mistake. Students from Beacon couldn't just go ahead and attacking people without a reason, but now…now he had a reason. A proper one.
"Tell me," Cho barked at Sandy as the man crashed to the floor, his hands pulled to his face in pain. "Who do you work for?"
The bomb-maker remained silent for a second or two, which was all that Cho needed to proceed with his idea. He hadn't even shocked the guy yet, but he would now. Electricity had many positive aspects, as well as negative. And if you yielded to the voltage, you wouldn't stop talking. That was why it was so effective in interrogation and torture; with enough managing, it wasn't lethal. But it was excruciatingly painful and it always, always worked. Well, almost always. He had been unable to incapacitate the Saboteur with a near-lethal dose of his electricity and he had fought with at least one classic sociopath that was simply immune to being tortured with a high voltage.
But Sandy wasn't that. He might be ready to kill hundreds of people at a moment's notice, but he would almost certainly lack the nigh-impossible to attain discipline that let a person withstand his shock-torture. That was, interrogation.
Cho dialed the power up and prodded the man in his stomach, causing him to burst into as fit of spasms and thrash around on the ground. But no longer than a second or two, equal to the man's silence. After that, he withdrew his weapon and allowed the terrorist to breathe easily again.
Cho looked at the one-way window in the four-by-four cell, where the rest of the team was watching him. He had been whittling at their target's endurance and patience with sharp questions for ten minutes now and it was time to wrap things up.
"We are students from Beacon," he told the man. Poor ol' Sandy couldn't have met a worse team; he was a first-class interrogative expert and didn't give a damn about the things he would have to do to get men like these to talk. Lisa's occasional black-and-white way of seeing things allowed her to apply moral dissonance with great efficiency, effectively killing any empathy she might have had for this man. For Grace, this was personal and Alessa rarely had any empathy or pity for other people. At least not that he had seen thus far.
In short, Sandy was boned. Cho just had to make him realize it.
"You ain't got shit on us!" the terrorist growled. "You kids got no idea what you got yourselves into!"
Right. Because dealing with a secret, seemingly infinite-funds possessing military organization wasn't enough for Beacon to grasp a scale. "Try me. What do we got ourselves into?"
The man spit at Cho's general direction, which was usually one last-ditched attempt for a criminal to show that he wouldn't talk. Prior to the criminal talking of course.
So the interrogative specialist jammed his baton between the ribs of the terrorist to let him know that he wasn't amused. "You are a terrorist. We are Hunters-to-be. You know Glynda Goodwitch? Famous Huntress? Our teacher. Matt Adamant? Famous Huntsman? Also a teacher."
The man laughed hoarsely, spitting and coughing while doing so, but still laughing. "You people got rules. And you just broke them. The Police takes me in, sets me before a jury and decides that any and all information was forced out under threats of violence and torture. You just messed up boy!"
Sandy was right. If he was put on a trial and judged, violence performed during an interrogation would make all evidence obsolete. The terrorist would walk away a free man, despite overwhelming evidence and eye-witnesses pointing at his guilt. There was just one problem with that; electricity didn't usually leave a mark if employed correctly. And the bruises and potential broken ribs?
"You fell down a flight of stairs when you tried to escape," Cho told the bomb-maker and sat down on the chair.
"Bullshit!"
"I know. That you thought you could get away while tied up. Ridiculous."
"Nobody is going to believe that!"
Cho twisted the chair so that he directly faced the man and decided that he had roughed him up enough. It was time for phase four of the interrogation. Now that Sandy had been hurt, wounded and exhausted, his resistance had been broken. He would be searching for a way out and now it was up to Cho to provide that way out. "Does the name Onyx Academy ring a bell?"
It sure did, judging by the terrorist's eyes suddenly widening and virtually all his blood leaving his face. Yet he remained quiet.
So he continued. "We follow rules alright. We judge and sentence according to the law. Those guys? They don't. If they were to decide that you are a terrorist, they'd do whatever it takes to get their hands on you and make you talk. Think you can stay quiet when Onyx wants you to talk?"
"Y-you're bluffing! Even if that were true, there's no way that you can contact those guys without getting killed in the process!"
"True. Unfortunately, Onyx has already decided that they wanted to contact us…a month ago. They're allied with Beacon now."
Of course Cho was bluffing. He didn't even know if Onyx was interested in some terrorist at the moment and even if they were, he was in no position to make them interfere. But the name itself was obviously enough to scare this man half to death. What did he know about Onyx that scared him like that?
"I'll cut you a deal," the student then stated. "You give us our information and Onyx will stay out of this."
"You can make that happen? Beacon can hold those people off?"
Doubtful. "They don't need to know. Work with us and we won't tell them anything." Unless Onyx found out without anyone having told them, like they had proven to be capable of doing many times already.
It took the bomb-maker quite some time to decide on what to do, but once he did the deal was struck rather quickly. "Fine. I'll talk and you guys protect me?"
"You talk and we won't tell Onyx," Cho corrected the man. If the paramilitaries wanted to send an Operative after Sandy, there was pretty much nothing they could do to stop them. Will had proven to be capable of mass-execution, so he'd probably stop at nothing to kill his target. And he didn't want his team to be stuck defending some scumbag while he came for them.
"Deal."
Cho nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Want some water?"
Day 48 – Monday-07:51—unidentified village north of Vale. ETA on Grimm arrival: {DATA EXPUNGED}
Blake looked around the various buildings and structures as she and her team pushed deeper into the village, heading towards the tallest building that would most likely be the city hall. Or town hall.
"Is this smart to do?" she asked Ruby while keeping a close eye on the people that were keeping a close eye on them in turn.
"Probably…we just need to find someone official to make this work," Ruby replied and pulled her hood deeper over her head to escape the gazes of the suspicious civilians. The fighting had yet to start and the eerie silence was not very good for her nerves.
Blake had to admit that Will's arrival had come as a surprise. She had truly expected him to stop team RWBY then and there, because of some stupid order that he had been issued. She hated the boy's guts; hated him for what he has done to her brothers and sisters from the White Fang and for his general disregard for life in general. It was because of people like him –humans like him- that the Fauna had been suffering so long. Morons that were blindly following orders…that kind of humans only make the world worse.
But now? Now that same blind devotion towards duty and the greater good had resulted in him facing a giant wave of Grimm, just to help Ruby get more time. It would get him killed…and for what? And why? He hadn't been ordered to, right? So why would he go so far just to help RWBY? She had always thought that he was a sociopath…but a sociopath wouldn't sacrifice himself without being ordered just like that. And his words…no, this wasn't just a duty—related thing. This was something else…something that had driven the Operative to do this. But…why was he willing to die for people he didn't know? Or even worse, for four people that hated him?
…could it be that Will was seeking to prove that he wasn't the kind of person that others thought him to be? Or was he redeeming himself? It didn't make sense.
Blake promised herself to ask Ruby for her opinion regarding that subject. It was a bad idea to keep thinking about it.
"Is that a police building?" Yang suddenly asked and pointed some structure to their right. Blake followed her finger and saw what the blonde was talking about; a two-story building with sturdy windows, doors and…a large sign saying "Police Department".
"I think, " Weiss said sarcastically, "that it might be. Do you want to verify it?"
"Whatever," Yang shot back and ran towards the open door. "How many people would ignore a bunch of policemen yelling around frantically?"
Back in Vale? A lot.
"Good idea!" Ruby exclaimed and followed her older sister inside the building. Weiss was quick to go after them and after a brief moment of hesitation, Blake too went inside. Due to Yang's enthusiasm and Ruby's high levels of energy, the two sisters were already arguing with a few guys by the time she arrived. Weiss was glaring disapprovingly at the unfolding scene and Blake had to admit that that wasn't such a bad idea. The three policemen were extremely reluctant to believe them and from the looks of it, they had half their minds set on simply throwing the girls out of the building.
"It's true!" Yang exclaimed loudly, gathering the attention of two other policemen. And one woman. "There's like fifty of them and they are heading this way!"
"Get out of here, before we arrest you on grounds of public disturbance and general threatening," one of the males barked at them.
Was 'general threatening' even a real thing?
"It's the truth!" Ruby cried out. "We've had military sources declaring that they can be here any minute now and we have heard them!"
"Our friend has stayed behind to stall them, stop wasting time and evacuate this village!" Yang then called with an ever-increasing level of frustration in her voice.
She still thought of Greystone as a friend? Or had she changed her mind already?
"It was funny at first, but you should quit this now!" the lead Police officer then barked at them and crossed his arms. "You have no prove, no evidence and-"
The thunderous roar of a rifle discharging echoed through the distance and the officers froze. The initial shot was followed by a second one and a third one.
"Proof enough?" Weiss asked angrily, but before anyone could reply to that statement, the noise of gunfire picked up once more and didn't fade away again. Now the shots came with a pattern with about two shots every three seconds.
"That's gunfire!" the most intelligent one of the policemen cried out and pulled his sidearm out of his holster. "What is-"
One of his colleagues punched him on the shoulder, shutting him up and making the faint howling of wolves stand out even more.
"Beowolves!" they yelled together and then they finally stopped wasting time. The men headed towards the exit, while Ruby threw Weiss a concerned glance.
Weiss nodded at the redhead and together, they drew their weapons. To her, such nonverbal communication between humans was a rather…unfamiliar sight. Since when had those two such a synergy together?
"Think he has enough ammo?" Yang then asked Blake, shaking her out of her musings.
"Who, the policemen?" she replied uncertainly.
"No, Will!" the blonde replied and started towards the exit, forcing the Faunus-girl to follow her to keep the conversation up.
"Why are you worrying about him? We have better people to worry about," she replied and kept her face serious and calm as Yang turned around to give her a questioning look.
"What?"
Behind her, both Ruby and Weiss walked out of the police quarters. The distinctive whining of an alarm tower became very audible and it occurred to Blake that they should be guiding the distressed civilians to the airship instead of having an argument with her teammate. But she still wanted to make her point and explain why she felt like that; why she might sound so…extreme to her friends. "We are here to save innocent people. Greystone made his choice."
"What choice? Staying here to help or the choice that he made two years ago? You don't even know for sure!" Yang snapped at her, but before the two of them could continue their argument, Ruby stepped in.
"Girls? We have people in panic," the redheaded girl told them and pointed at a random house, where a group of at least four citizens was uncertainly taking their very first steps towards safety. "Airship first, arguing later?"
They nodded and by some unspoken agreement, decided to bury the issue until later. Yang headed towards the policemen to assist them in organizing the retreat to the airship, Ruby and Weiss moved to the place that could only be described as a town square, where the shopping district with the most people lay, while Blake decided that she could spent her time the best by visiting house after house and sending the citizens to the general direction of the airship.
"Head towards the north, where the airship lies," she would tell one group after another. Most of the civilians were terrified people who had never seen a Grimm before in their lives. So that raised the issue…why was this village being targeted? What had changed lately to make these people victims? And why were the wolves heading straight towards the village without killing the defending parties first?
It wasn't that Blake didn't trust Fireteam Lima with their information; she trusted them enough to not want to risk an incident like this simply because of petty stereotyping and hatred. She hated Onyx, yes, but she was wise enough to know to whom she should extent that hatred and to whom not. Operative Mantis –or Alice, as she preferred to be called- had told her that there Fireteam didn't have any dirt on their service record. She had had two other meetings with the Operative after their fist and –initially at least- hostile encounter, during which she had come to like the girl more and more. No, it was more than simply liking her; she trusted her. Alice was one of those very rare humans that truly understood the pain that Fauna underwent in general –and Blake in particular. Even more with Alice than with Sun could she allow herself to accept her past and the consequences; the soldier didn't hate her for who she was, didn't fear her for what she had been and didn't despise her for what she still was. The only human that had shown true understanding was Ruby…but Ruby was simply different.
Ruby made her feel like she had a friend; like she could be accepted in a group. Mantis made her feel…like she had more. Like she could be accepted not only in a group-connection, but also in a deeper, more personal level. Her rare moments with the Operative had a…intimate quality to them. She cherished those moments with her whole heart, even though she knew deep down that she shouldn't keep them hidden from her team. But for the first time in a very, very long time, Blake had something that was just for her. For her and her alone.
If she told her friends about the defected Operative, they would probably tell her to stop seeing her. In their eyes, Alice was the enemy. But in her eyes…Alice was a friend. Perhaps even more than that; a beacon of hope and understanding in exceedingly dark times. Their preference went to Greystone, but her preference went to Mantis. And that would probably not change one bit…until the truth came out. For even Mantis had not known what had happened that fateful day during the Schnee Dust Company killings. She had confirmed that twenty-three bodies had been pulled out, so that part of the rumors was already wrong. But until then, she would not give the boy the benefit of the doubt. She would have granted any other person that benefit, or even forgiveness, but not him. Will's wrong mindset was an insult to everything she stood for; he was so incredibly willing to do whatever it took to execute his duty, that it hurt other people. He was indoctrinated and brainwashed; lives meant nothing to him and he killed without remorse, just like partner had been willing to in the past.
Perhaps that was why she hated Will so much? Because he reminded her of everything that the White Fang had done wrong? Was he a testimony to their fallen believes, or was he the core reason of their violence?
She didn't know for sure. What she did now, was that he wasn't even aware of his own faults. He honestly believed that he was doing good with his life, while he only resulted in death and suffering. Such an existence could only be painful for him…and the truth would probably traumatize him more than it would others.
For her sake, but even more so for his, wouldn't it be the best if he were to pass away? Would such an action be murder, or a mercy-kill?
And would she be the one to do so?
-and whatever you do, do not use your Aura. I know that you haven't used it in almost twelve months and I know that you are probably not capable of doing so now, but nonetheless, do not use it. And Greystone? Come visit me sometimes. I don't know if you have made any friends at Beacon, but if you did…please take them with you."
Pt. 2 of Message received on Operative Greystone's scroll, Sunday 06:44. Sender: Professor Karen Greene.