Nightraze: thanks for the compliments. I am glad to see that you liked it! I think that I might even need to split this story in several parts, as I have a LOT more things planned.
Tuutje07: me? Raising questions? I have no idea what you are talking about!
My philosophical reflections are mostly my own. Sometimes I read a book that has an interesting vision that I think adds weight to a chapter, but most of the times I cook them up myself. Anyway, thanks to see that you liked the madman speech, as it was a daring project indeed.
"The relations between Fauna and Humans in the Kingdom of Vale have been strained due to the painful interactions between the White Fang, Schnee Dust Company and Onyx. However, it is not the worst scenario out there. There are events going on in other Kingdoms that can only be identified as active warfare. And it doesn't seem like the Fauna are winning that war."
Speech by undercover "Yale", at a violence awareness-raising event. Pt.1
Operation: MENAGERIE
After a short burst of fire, the last body fell to the ground and Cal Lima Two-One waited for more of the bastards to show their faces. When nobody ran out to meet their challenge, he slowly lowered his weapon and focused on scanning the area with his enhanced senses. He was a natural scout due to his Faunus-heritage and that had saved their asses more than once.
They had been fighting for at least half an hour, pushing deep into the enemy's territory at the docks. The local crime gangs had given them quite a challenge, but in the end even their sheer numbers had not been enough to fend Fireteam Lima off. Most of the slavers were dead and those that had managed to escape the slaughter had retreated –and only because they had let them escape. Cal knew that letting those guys off the hook would only come back to bite him, but he had bigger priorities now.
"All clear!" he called and Two-Three and Two-Four took up positions near a tilted car.
"We'll cover you," Two-Four told him and he moved towards the large container that the slavers had been guarding so jealously. He had an idea of what would be inside it and he wanted to be right. He wanted this Operation to be a success, even though a success would only mean a verification of the true twisted nature of these people.
He risked stepping out in the open and, despite having heard or seen nothing in the gloomy morning, expected the sharp bite of a round tearing through his body
But nothing happened and he was free to advance. Taking careful and measured steps, the Faunus made his way to the container. He could hear vague sounds coming from the interior, but he needed to be clear. He needed to proceed with the utmost caution even though it meant time would drag on. He hated having to do so, but the moment that the mission would be completed successfully often meant that soldiers left their guards down. They had been trained specifically to NOT let their guards down. Not ever.
But their time at Beacon had made them a bit less cautious.
Cal approached the container and carefully tried to open it. The lock was rusted and jammed, but it didn't withstand a few bashes of his rifle. On the third hit, the lock cracked and sprang off and the large doors could be opened. The container was approximately ten feet high, ten feet wide and thirty feet tall. It was a very large piece of work and it had been scheduled for leave this very morning. If they had arrived even half an hour later, it would have been gone. And their window would have been shut.
He pried the doors open carefully, knowing that light could play havoc with your sights. An unpleasant odour assaulted his senses, but he ignored it and continued to open the door with deliberating slowness. Once it had been opened up a full feet, he placed himself at the entrance and peered inside.
Despite the long training that he and the rest of his team had been put through –the hours of martial art sessions and disciplining lessons- he still could not prevent his body from reaction to the sight that lay before him. He couldn't help it; not even the most battle-hardened officers could stay emotionless at this sight. And those that could stay emotionless at this sight deserved to be punched straight in the jaw.
The container was filled with children. Ragged, dirty and quiet children. Some of the, were lying on the ground and others were slumped against the wall, but none of them were crying. The occasional sob here and there, sure, but not crying.
In a heartbeat, Cal assessed the situation more than thirty kids packed closely together under terrible conditions…and all of them were Fauna too. The ears…the tails…the horns…each and every kid that would have been sold into slavery was a Faunus.
The sight filled him with anger, but no sooner had he opened the door or the first kids started to react. A few merely stared at him with sad little eyes, but the large majority backed up against the wall, directly away from him. It was a good sign, as bitter as the situation might be. If the children had lacked response altogether, they would have suffered mental damage.
"Shit," Two-Four muttered when she peered through the opening. "Look at them…about to be shipped overseas. Who in his right mind would pay to have this happen?"
Cal thought of the feud between the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company. "I think I have an idea," he replied softly. "But not now."
He opened the door wider –the closest children flinched- and stepped inside.
"Hey," he tried to make his voice sound kind and caring, but his helmet would only muffle his words. And scare the children.
So he took it off. As the only Faunus on the team, he served many uses. Most times he simply kept his helmet on because it wouldn't be worth the drag of having people stare. Doing so in this situation was a clear violation of protocol, as taking of your helmet in a combat area was equal to screaming for a headshot, but he did it anyways.
"I'm a friend," he told them and kneeled so that he was on the same level as they were. "I'm not going to hurt you."
He gently reached out for the nearest kid and tried to make contact, but the poor little boy scuffled backwards as far as his environment would allow. It was so pitiful to see…and Cal didn't know what to do. He was almost eighteen years now and he still didn't know how to deal with civilians. Velvet had been the exception to that rule, as he had been capable of helping her his own way…but this? He didn't know what to do…he was lost.
He almost let his hand fall again, but Two-Four –Lily- placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him an encouraging nudge. Perhaps she knew what he had been thinking and perhaps not. But the gesture was important; if he could talk and have fun with Velvet, he could do anything. Her memory only served to prove that he wasn't messed up –nobody in his team was. Careful bonding and a tight friendship had proven to be more effective than indoctrination. They could handle this…it was why they had been chosen to help Beacon. They weren't as messed up as the Operatives; he could do this.
"The bad people are gone now," he said and extended his hand again. "We are here to safe you."
A few children in the group were staring at his head –or more accurately, the fox-ears on top of his head- and slowly started to move.
Towards him. Good. Lily was a girl and almost all of the criminals had been guys, so they would feel encouraged to be near her. Two-Two was keeping Two-Three away from the container, as a sight like this was one of his triggers.
"Signal Onyx Command," He told his teammate. "Tell them that we've found the package…and that their suspicious were right."
Lily didn't move. She was staring at the miserable forms of the packed up kids and softly whispered: "It's happening again...they're going to do it again. All over again."
"No," he softly replied. "This is nothing like that…these are slavers, those are extremists. It's not the same. Now do as I asked and contact command."
sob
Those that had started sobbing spurred on those had had remained quiet and soon, almost all of the captured children were crying. Weeping. And there wasn't a thing he could do to help them…because…he didn't know what to do. He just stood there, watching the crying little Faunus kids, knowing full well just how close he had gotten to such a fate himself.
But these were lucky. They were going to be saved. They were going to live. They were going to be alright and survive the coming days.
There was a reason that the Schnee Dust Company killings were also called the Final Solution Killings. They left a particularly bitter taste…one that he did not ever want to feel again. He knew that Greystone had shot White Fang troopers, but the remainder of the civilian population didn't.
And perhaps there were even a few people in Vale that knew of the true Final Solution taken years ago.
Lily was wrong. This wasn't that. This was just a slaver ring that they had mobbed up. Nothing else.
"Come on," he told the nearest child. "We're going to get you out of here. Where are your parents?"
No answer. Just crying.
Day 48 – Monday- 9:20 – civilian-class Airship
"So, basically what happened is that the Grimm figured out how to counter Aura?" Jaune asked Professor Matt with a rather skeptical expression.
"If that is how you want to explain it, be my guest," the Professor replied. The airship had a pretty large lounge and even though it was still a ship, the room had an actual fireplace near one of the walls. It was still raining like crazy outside and the current altitude, combined with the lack of sunlight, made it look more like evening than morning. "But no, that's not basically what happened."
Professor Adamant seemed to have gathered a lot of attention from the students from team JNPR and for once, Ruby was thankful that there weren't any positive conversations going. Team RWBY was currently positioned around a small, cozy table next to a soft couch and while the JNPR's were distracted by a certain bowtie-wearing man, she had all the time she needed to discuss a few important things with her team.
And there were a lot of important things to discuss. Most important of all was the role that Onyx played in all of these events…and the sacrifice that had almost cost them dearly.
Weiss had told her what had happened. All of it. How, before Professors Goodwitch and Adamant had shown up, someone else had gone all out to protect her. How Will had not only taken one, but two killing-blows that had been aimed at her before literally shouting down the mental Grimm. They had yet to go and see him…but the doctors that were frantically working on him didn't allow anyone to see him.
Ruby didn't even know how severe the boy's wounds were, but judging by Weiss' story, he couldn't be very healthy at the moment. His deeds had been weird at first…but then something had clicked together inside of her mind. Loose pieces of a larger puzzle had connected and she was slowly starting to see; to understand. During his fight with Mantis, there had been a large hole in the wall from where the Operative had blasted her way in and Will had entered the room using a door –a door that was unlocked. He could have just as easily backed away or fled from Mantis, but he hadn't. The same thing had happened later, during his time as the Saboteur working for Roman Torchwick. He could have surrendered at the start, or halfway through their fight. But he had fought them till the very end, where Yang had beaten his mask off. And now here…he could have stayed out of all this. He could have stayed away from the village and later, during the fight with the Grimm, he could have left her and Weiss alone.
In all of those encounters where he had gotten hurt, it had been completely possible for him to avoid the worst brunt of the damage simply by backing out. Deducing that had been the easy part, but the hard part was finding out just why he hadn't done such a thing. The whole 'whatever the cost' creed for mankind was one thing, but why would he go through equal extents for them? Even Blake had to admit that he had to care about them to some degree…and her previous hatred for him had already made way for respect. It hadn't cleaned the slate with her like it had been with Yang and Weiss, but the Faunus had to admit that Will was not the sociopath she had thought him to be.
And now, Ruby wanted to find out just what the Operative really was. For starters, she wanted to thank him for saving her life. And after that, Yang would probably also want to thank him for doing that…perhaps even with a kiss.
Ruby briefly lost her string of thought and traveled back to that intimate moment with Weiss. She still couldn't really believe that she had kissed with the Heiress; did that mean they were girlfriends now? Or didn't it work that way? What would Yang think of that? Ruby knew that her older sister merely wished her the best in her life, but would she frown upon that? Would she be happy? Would she tease her with that?
It was really difficult for her to get her thoughts straight and she felt so guilty for that. One of her friends might be dying and here she was, thinking about kissing with her best friend. It was so…well, childish. She had her priorities and now she needed to set them in order.
"You know," she softly said, "I want to visit him. I don't care what the doctors said…I want to see him. He needs to be alright."
"Of course he is alright," Yang told her with a smile. "He's Greystone; if he can survive me beating his ass, he can survive some thirty-foot tall monster beating his ass."
"You didn't see it," Weiss replied with a mournful expression on her face. "That thing tore him apart…I don't think he is going to be fine,"
"He is going to be just fine," Yang replied a bit more forcefully than she had probably intended. "He's tough as nails."
"Nails can get broken," Blake ominously said.
Ruby carefully got to her feet, eyeing the discussing Professor and JNPR's. "I know. That's why I want to be sure that he is alright. The things he might have done in the past don't weigh up to the things he has done for us today...right, Blake?"
Blake glanced over her shoulder and softly replied. "I want to talk to him privately once this is over. "
"You mentioned a source before," Yang asked the Faunus-girl, "who did you talk to? Those were some pretty painful accusations you spoke back there."
"I really don't want to go in detail about that," Blake replied. "Later, but not now."
"That's fine," Ruby quickly said. She didn't want to enter an argument either right now, as that would only serve to waste what precious time they had. "I just want to see him now. He saved my life…probably Weiss' too…he deserves to have someone with him now, doesn't he?
"He does," Yang said without question. It was good to see that the Operative's actions had earned the blonde's respect like that.
Ruby nodded gladly and then turned to leave the room, glancing over her shoulder to see if Professor Adamant was looking at them.
The bowtie-wearing man was busy inspecting some rather large, white sheets covered with drawings and from the looks of it he was very distracted by them. Team JNPR was also staring at the sheets, but they looked more confused than interested. All in all Ruby was happy that the Professor was causing such a good distraction for her.
And as she snuck out of the door, keeping a careful eye on the bowtie-man, she could have sworn that he raised his head just a little bit at the wrong moment. But he didn't say anything and she didn't allow the gesture to stop her.
"You know, if he's really in such a bad shape," Weiss asked after a few minutes of traveling, "it would be smarter if only one of us were to visit him."
"I agree," Ruby said. The room where they had been recovering from their injuries after their treatments was on one end of the ship and the medical rooms were on a completely different end. But she had memorized the hallways and soon she spotted the same white wall that she had seen before, signaling the beginning of the various doctor-filled rooms.
Weiss smiled at her and the redhead instantly blushed. It seemed that little Schnee hadn't forgotten about their intimate moment. Good. Perhaps, if everything was going to turn alright again, they could continue in the evening. Undisturbed.
She liked that thought.
"I'm going to look for Johnson and ask about his gun," Yang told her with a smile and turned around to leave.
"I'll go with you," Weiss said. She gave Ruby a wink and quickly added: "I want to have a talk with…Braunschweiger. About his…curious friendship with Johnson."
Ruby briefly considered that last statement. Curious friendship? Braunschweiger and Johnson? What did she…ah.
She felt her blush deepen and quickly looked away. She had NOT considered that possibility. Why would Weiss even want to ask after that? That was just plain weird.
She shook her head and then looked at Blake, who made no such attempt to leave.
"I'll wait around until you are done," the raven-haired girl told her with a straight face.
Narrowed eyes…sign of repressing emotions. Slight pull around mouth indicates pent-up anger or…stress. Eased muscles around the forehead mean honesty, but the slight tilt of her head indicates that she is unhappy.
Blake wanted to discuss the Schnee Dust murders with Will. The timing was really, really bad…but Ruby couldn't really stop her.
And neither did she want to. This was obviously very important to the girl and trying to stop her would only insult her. But she wouldn't allow Blake to visit the boy before she had seen him herself –and neither would she let her hurt him. Will had proven to be capable of so much more than simply following orders and killing things. He had saved her life…prevented a lifelong trauma for her team and probably helped save the lives of everyone in the village.
He deserved happiness.
Ruby nodded and then walked over to the door where she had determined that Will would be. There were quite a few things she wanted to hear from him…but the most important reason for wanting to see him was making sure that he was unhurt. That he was going to live.
She took a deep breath and opened the door.
The first thing she noticed upon closing the door behind her was a heavy silence, interrupted only by the steady beeps of a heartbeat monitor. She didn't really understand what the measures for a healthy human were supposed to be, but she did know that they weren't supposed to be weak, fluttering and incidental.
She tore her gaze away from the eerie monitor and looked at the broken body of the young Operative. He was lying on top of a white bed that was stained with blood. Most of his torso was wrapped in thick, heavy bandages that were covered with deep patches of red and he had a plastic oxygen mask on his face. His skin was really deadly pale and she couldn't even see his chest moving.
For one chilling moment she thought that help had come too late for him, but then the boy slowly opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. His heart rate fluctuated a bit.
"Hey," she weakly said. Will looked absolutely pitiful and it made her heart ache for it. She didn't want to see him like that; she wanted to see him like the healthy, skilled young guy that he was. She wanted to see him as the friend that they were taking care for; the person that might have been broken in the past, but who would never ever get broken again.
She looked to the side and spotted another monitor, this one with a diagram of the human body in 3d in the screen. The arms were yellow, the head was green and the torso was a deep shade of red. A tear ran horizontally through the body and she could clearly see a crack in the spinal area. The legs didn't have a colour.
Ruby looked back at Will and met his grey eyes. She could understand why his name was Greystone. But there was also something else that she could understand…something that she wanted to tell him. See how he reacted. The oxygen mask was transparent enough for her to get a bead on his facial expression. Despite the terrible pain that he must be enduring, he looked satisfied that she was there. Perhaps he just wanted to be someone who cared for him? He couldn't really have a lot of friends…especially not now that half of Vale thought him to be a genocidal monster.
It was a terrible thing that had happened. Of course she had had her doubts at the beginning, but the more she thought about it the more obvious it got. There was no proof for his deeds; nothing that could prove that the Fauna had been truly innocent. Now she despised murder no matter the reason, but at least she could understand why he had done it. But due to that anonymous tip, the entire city thought that he was a psychopath. It was a cruel and unnecessary punishment…and it must have wrecked him.
But that wasn't what she had understood about him. No, she had understood something else. Something that ran deeply within Will's person…something that seemed to define who he was.
She sat down in a chair. "Mind if I sit here with you?"
The boy should not be capable of answering her question, but he kept his gaze on her and didn't flinch. Neither did his –for a lack of better description- happy face disappear. She was good to go.
"I wanted to thank you for saving my life," she said. "You risked everything you had not only to help us complete our mission…and you didn't stop there. You saved me...and in doing so, prevented Weiss from having to watch a loved one die in front of her eyes."
She paused for a second. Had it been smart to call herself a loved one of Weiss' in Will's proximity? He might not understand the concept to that degree; he might think that she implied a romance. There was a romance, but that wasn't what she had meant. Oh well.
"You know, I've been thinking for a bit," she told him and winced as she realized that she had started off the same with Weiss. Hopefully this conversation would be as successful as that one. "During your fight with Mantis, you could have run. I'm not saying that you should have, but you did."
No response.
"And," she continued, "during your time as an undercover agent for Roman Torchwick, you could have surrendered to us before or during the fight. You could have slipped me a message or warned someone, but you didn't."
His eyes narrowed slightly, but he kept looking at her. It wasn't the type of angry narrowing, but more the type of tired narrowing.
"And today…as thankful as I am…you could have stayed away. You could have left me to die…not one, but three times. But Weiss said that you kept going at it until you couldn't walk anymore…and then started shouting at the Grimm just to gain its attention. I think you insisted on fighting Mantis and team RWBY knowing that you were going to lose…and I think you attacked the mental Grimm knowing it was going to kill you." And there was more. She just now understood the full extent of what had transpired. Roughly a few weeks after something had happened to him, the Operative had sought out a group of criminals to fight. Only he had been betrayed by someone and he had gotten captured and tortured. After that he had broken out and shot them all without reflecting on it…and he had never talked to anyone from Beacon about it. Now that could either be because he was too hurt to talk about it…or because something else had forced his hand. It was entirely possible that he had been betrayed into torture…but it was also possible that he had deliberately messed up and gotten himself captured at their hands.
No response. Not even a biological one in his heart-rate. She could feel the temperature rising as she was reaching a conclusion unlike she had ever seen before. Never had she actually read a person to such a degree; she had never managed to delve so deeply into someone's personal like that.
"Will," she said with a voice that almost betrayed her uncertainty, "I think you are actively seeking out danger to get yourself hurt. Why?"
The boy's reaction was inscrutable. His eyes were telling her something, but what? He didn't do anything to confirm her suspicions, but neither did he deny it. It was all kinds of strange.
Everything the boy was accentuated his state of mind: he saw himself as a weapon to protect the innocent, whatever the cost. That was no life –no way of living. But he had started to open up slightly before Operative Mantis had gotten to him, after which he had grown increasingly stoic until took the mantle of Saboteur. And then he had been forced to open up all over again. Yet his actions did not neccesarily reflect his believes; his death-seeking tendencies did not fit there. He had not given an explanation...except it was the natural reaction to a deeply-integrated trauma. He had fought in one of the most desperate and violent wars as a little kid right after he had murdered two dozen living, breathing people. Those things were enough to break a man…or so she had read in a book. There, a general suffering from Posttraumatic stress disorder had been broken and twisted enough to turn into an omnicidal maniac. And while she was perfectly aware of the 'literature' and 'fiction' status of the book, it had been written by a former military man. There were lots of elements of truth in there and she could recognize quite a few things.
And as much as she wished she were wrong, she couldn't help but think that Will somehow longed for death. If that were true…if his actions were truly because of a desire to die…she wanted to do everything she could to snap him out of that. He was just as old as her sister was and if Yang still had an entire life to look forward to, why not him?
Of course she wasn't really sure about that, hence why she was talking a bit openly about it. She could be wrong.
She wanted to be wrong.
Will averted his gaze, but didn't look completely away. So Ruby continued. "But I could be wrong about that. Either way, you saved me. So you care for me in some way. That sort of implies that you don't live to serve, as you also lived for someone you care for."
A flutter in his heart-beat.
"I think I have almost overstayed my welcome here," Ruby then told Will with a smile. "I just want you to know that you are not alone out here. If you want anyone of us to come and visit you…just give a call, alright?"
No response. The flutter in his heart-beat was gone already and there wasn't really much else for her to say or do.
So she left. She walked to the door, glanced one more time at the wounded soldier and then smiled encouragingly at him, hoping that it was enough for him to pull through. She didn't know of the screen with the body was representative for his injuries, but if it was…he wouldn't be walking away from this.
And then she pulled the door close behind her.
Greystone watched the redheaded girl take her leave, feeling like she had been speaking all sorts of nonsense to him. Even though his body had almost been carved in half, his mind was still sharp. He had felt like he had enjoyed her company for some reason, but her words did not make sense. How could he protect mankind if he was dead? It was silly.
But she hadn't been the first one to speak nonsense to him that day; when he had been brought into the room for emergency treatment, there had been two doctors discussing about how to treat him. They had talked about things like "unusual chemical presences" and an "unexpected premature rejection to Q-meds". He hadn't understood anything about it as he had been delirious, but now that he had had some time to think about it he still didn't understand it.
It didn't really matter though. He knew better than that; he knew that he hadn't committed himself to the fight because he was a death-seeker. He fought because...because it was his duty. He fought to protect mankind –to serve humanity. There wasn't anything else to it, despite the events of eleven months and seven days ago.
The oxygen mask on his face annoyed him. He had never been so weak; jumping in front of a lethal attack wasn't like an Operative. Onyx has stated it many times before: the life of an Operative is more important than the life of a single civilian. The mission demanded priority and if the soldier died before the mission had been completed, many more would suffer.
But he hadn't been on a mission…he had heard the radio chatter purely because he had been listening for any mention of Mantis or Blackwood. After that…by no means could he have simply sat back and watch as helpless civilians were murdered by droves of wolves. It was his duty to protect those people and, by extent, the Hunters of Beacon. So he had made it his mission. When it was his mission, he was allowed to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
The boy wanted to groan, but he didn't have the breath to do so. He hadn't even been capable of slipping into a coma; his body had stayed awake throughout the entire procedure and he had hated ever second of being conscious. One of his lungs had been ruptured…he had major internal damage and he couldn't feel his legs. It was all the result of a conscious action, nothing else. He had chosen to protect the students because their deaths would only harm mankind.
And yet…he had been happy when Ruby had come to visit him. And before that, when he had collapsed due to his wounds, he had actually been yearning for a friendly face. Someone who knew him and cared for him…but there was no 'one left. Mantis was AWOL, Blackwood was an unknown factor at best…the people he had been sworn to protect hated him for a crime that he hadn't committed, just like Blake and Weiss did…
…and then there had been Yang. Through the blurry and black haze that had been his sight, he had been capable of seeing her blonde hair very near him. Years of training had automatically kicked in and suppressed his desire for human contact, rationalizing his mind and keeping him logical.
But some unknown part of his brain had overwritten that, pushing the severe training aside with little difficulty and forcing him to reach out for the girl. She had been warm…and through his blood-stained hands he had felt that warmth. It had been comforting.
Will didn't fear death. It wasn't like Ruby had said though, as he didn't long for death- he simply knew that there were worse things out there than dying. He had a mission to accomplish in his life and he would live to see it through…or he would die to see it through. It was the reason he had saved Ruby, nothing else.
He wanted to fall asleep. He wanted to drift away and forget about the agony that plagued his body. But he could not. His mind was restless and he couldn't figure out why; he had been over this. He had given up his body to save Ruby just for the sake of mankind and he would do it again should the situation warrant it. Yes he had been glad to have her company, and yes he had been glad to have been able to reach out and touch Yang at the moment his mind had decided he needed it. That didn't mean anything. He hadn't grown attached to them.
Then why did he care for their opinions? He had fought for them and against them. He had gotten to know some of them and he had even told them about pieces of his past. They knew his face and they knew his name…he couldn't give them more signs of trust. It had been completely involuntary, but he hadn't felt angry or resentful after they had figured out his name. It had felt right…trusting them had felt right. And that mutual trust that had been going on had been destroyed by the anonymous tip with the Vale News Network. It had hurt him…but it had hurt them more. And that hurt…that look of disgust on Ruby's face and that look of shock on Yang's face…those had been unpleasant to see. Their unhappiness had caused him hurt.
No. he cared for their opinions because it had made operating in Vale nigh-impossible. His deeds –and with it, his area of operations- had been made obvious to the public and that had made his work almost undoable.
But…but he had cared for these people in the past. He had done things that could have been deemed unnecessary. He had talked to Ruby after Operation KALEIDOSCOPE and he had allowed members of team RWBY to lecture him on how to act. All in good faith; to show them that he was willing to work with them. That was unnecessary, so why had he done that?
Because it would make performing his duty that much easier.
He pondered about his actions for some time. It could have been an hour, but it could have also been minutes. Without a clock nearby, it was impossible to tell how much time passed. The only window in the room was a small one and the day hadn't really gotten any brighter. His body ached and the painkillers that the medics had injected simply didn't work. Professor Greene's message had declared that Mantis had injected him with military-class chemicals that wouldn't have any negative side-effects, but he hadn't actually felt any of that 'not negative' aspect of the drug. The effects were…weird. He hadn't slept any different after the battle, but he had no longer gotten knocked out during active combat. He knew from experience that hits like Yang's would have caused an immediate KO in the way they had hit him and during the fight with the mental Grimm, his body had been torn asunder without him reacting to it. It was more than the normal combat-adrenaline; it had been unnatural. Was that what Mantis' drug had done? Caused him to be impervious to shock? Why would she do something like that? And under whose orders?
And the Grimm…the abomination that should not have existed. It had placed whispers in his mind; whispers that had been telling him the exact same things as his nightmares had told him. Whispers of failure…of dereliction of duty and death. Whispers of pain and loss and sorrow. They had been playing with his most intimate weaknesses and it had infuriated him.
As if he needed some telepathic monster to inform him about his failures. No, the monster hadn't informed him about anything he hadn't known before.
Will closed his eyes and tried to calm down. The blood-loss had made him dizzy and focusing was becoming a hard thing to do. Ruby…had been compelling. Understandable. He knew of his failure…of the pain that it had caused. He knew that he had messed up and focusing on his duty had been one of the ways to escape that. Emotions made him weak, faltering made him weak and thinking about the past made him weak. He never wanted to be weak, as if would mean compromising his missions.
But he wanted to be weak now. He wanted to think about the past, because it hurt. He didn't deserve the grace of fighting on without worry or apprehension and he didn't deserve the friendship that team RWBY had offered him. For his failure, he deserved exactly what the Grimm had given him-
Greystone cancelled that line of thought and opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling as he just realized what he had been thinking about. He was thinking about deserving to suffer…about how his fight had given him his well-deserved end. That was…that was almost the same thing as Ruby had said. Had …had he been looking for unwinnable fights because of that? Was Ruby right? Was he seeking death?
No. No! He wasn't searching for death. He had been seeking to carry out his duty, that was all!
But he had felt like he had deserved what had happened. He could have backed off during his fight with Mantis, as he had known that she would win. He could have stopped KALEIDOSCOPE with a single message or action; he could have surrendered to RWBY and escaped without the beatdown. He could have allowed Ruby to die at the hands of the Grimm-
No. He could have never let Ruby die, as he cared for her. Ruby was important to him.
Will's head hurt. A lot. A painful pressure that was familiar to the mind-numbing effects of the mental Grimm was pressing down on his thoughts like a thick cloak and he was slowly losing control of his thought process. He had been wrong…so wrong. He had unconsciously been looking for punishment for his failure. The torture at the hands of that crime gang…he had missed the one shot that would have killed their leader and disrupted the entire organization. He had missed a shot that had been impossible to miss and he hadn't even been surprised about it. It was so obvious now…so obvious.
And Ruby…he had sacrificed himself not because it had coincided with his mission, but because he cared for her. She was important to him and that was why he had jumped in-between her and the Grimm. He had been so wrong on so many levels…it was obvious now.
Somewhere in his head, something fell in its place. It was subtle at first and he barely recognized what it was. Something had changed in his mind, something that he could have never fathomed at first. Eleven months and seven days ago, he had walled off that part of his mind that was involved in his emotions, his feelings, his desires and his hopes. He had locked away everything that had made him human and a few days before he had been sent to Beacon, he had also banished the memories of that fateful day. Mantis' interference had torn down those memory walls…and the realization that he did care for Ruby tore down the other, majority of walls.
It was painful. The mental blockade simply fell apart underneath the thought. He had deliberately been fighting the unwinnable fights just to punish himself…and he cared enough for Ruby to abandon the thought of preserving himself for the greater good of mankind without a second thought. The realization freed him.
It killed him.
Everything that he had done to protect himself…all the barricades in his mind…they were no match for the sheer emotional response. He could feel them crumbing away before the familiar sensations and a white-hot flood spread through his mind. It was so painful to feel every mental skill he had ever used fall apart just like that, like a floodgate failing to protect a city from a lethal flood. He recognized it even after a year of separation. He should have expected it.
He couldn't have expected it.
It was his Aura. He hadn't used it for so long…and it was still so much like him. It was representative for who he was. It was decayed, damaged and incomplete. It was exactly how he had expected it to be. His Aura…his soul...his memories. His time with RWBY had destroyed the barricades that had been protecting it from it and without them he had no way of stopping the flood of warmth and throbbing. There were so many holes…more than the half of what it used to be had been torn to pieces. Twisted. Corrupted.
He felt awed before the experience. It nearly brought him to tears, feeling the pure sensation of who he had been and who he was. How lost he was without his past. How helpless he was before the raw spinning hurricane of feelings that he had neglected for over a year.
He wanted to scream; to cry out and vent all of his bottled up emotions and frustrations. He wanted to tear and snap and strike and destroy everything around him until he was all alone in the mess that he had created, with his knuckles damaged to the bone and his mind finally able to cope.
But he could not. It was who he was; scattered and helpless. Weak. Ruby had been right and he had been wrong…so wrong. He could feel his Aura, held back for so long, rushing through his body and reaching each and every single wound in his body. His back twitched and forced him to spasm wildly, lurging upwards with his chest and falling down again. The faint beeping in the room grew wilder and faster, but he didn't care.
Why should he care? He didn't understand. Nothing made sense anymore. Emotions, feelings, none of them made sense. And he was so tired…so dead tired. Part of him was probably already sleep, having surrendered to the relentless stress and pain. He didn't even understand which part it was. And he didn't care.
"Farewell my treasured friend."
He wanted to get up and go out in the field, breathe in the air that he had been missing. Experience the thrill of combat and the victory of a successful mission for himself. He could feel his insides turning and twisting and it felt good. It made him feel as if, for the first time in months, hope was in sight. He wanted to live.
"Just close your eyes now."
He wanted to die.
"Next time we meet it´s forever."
His chest ached and he groaned, unable to get the air into his lungs that he so desperately needed to live. He felt trapped, entombed and captured. He wanted to be out…to be free.
Operative Greystone tore the oxygen mask off of his face and breathed in fresh air with his newly healed lungs. His throat was aching. Water would be nice.
The heart-beat monitor was acting weird. Someone should probably check that out.
"You know," Yang told Johnson casually as she inspected his really big gun, "you could blow up the whole damn ship with this thing."
"That is why there are two safeties," the Sergeant-Professor replied with a huff. His enormous cigar was hanging on his lip like it weighed nothing and she had to admit that, even though smoking was disgusting, the thing was just plain badass. "To prevent an accidental discharge after preventing an accidental discharge. Now then, you came to me about some new and rare ammo?"
"Yeah," she replied and handed the Professor one of the black slugs. "I shot it and friggin' spikes came out of it. It was so awesome."
"Ah," the dark-skinned man replied gruffly. "Flechette rounds. Deadly anti-personnel munitions that can shear through even the toughest armour. Where'd you get this?"
"It was a souvenir," she replied with a smile. Onyx airlines, anyone? She wasn't going to use this against humans. Grimm good, men bad.
"Be careful with this, you could hurt someone-" Johnson replied, but no sooner had he started talking or a sharp alarm cut him off, whining through the room and probably all other rooms in the ship too. At first Yang felt annoyed; the sound was loud, annoying and the perfect cause for a headache. People were trying to sleep here!
But when she heard alarmed voices yelling to each other and talking about a 'medical emergency' she started to realize that something had to be very wrong. Only one person she knew about could be a medical emergency and that was the guy who could turn anything into an emergency.
"Hey, what's the ruckus?" she asked one of the random medics that was running past them. He didn't even reply to her. So rude. The guy was simply running down the hallway, following one of his medic buddies to a room that was very familiar to her.
Apprehension bit at her mind and she thought about the last time she had seen Will. Nearly torn in half by the Grimm, bleeding and incoherent. Worse than she had seen him before. If he was a medical emergency…he must be dying.
She cursed under her breath and followed the doctors to the boy's room, hoping that she had been wrong and that they were simply out of laugh-gas or something like that.
But the medics stopped at the soldier's room and then barged into it without warning. Yang wasn't able to see what was going on though, as the two idiots had suddenly stopped after moving a few feet into the room.
"What's wrong?" she growled at them, but after a second or two of silence they suddenly turned around and ran away, looking like they had just seen a ghost.
"Yeesh," she muttered and turned her gaze to the medical emergency in the room. The first thing she noticed was that the bed was empty. The sheets were bloodied, the mattress was stained and a nearby monitor had shortened out, causing sparks to jump between the air and the exposed circuitry.
The second thing she noticed was a certain grey-blond-haired boy standing near a cabinet, his naked back turned to the door. He was well-built, with lean muscles and a very pale skin. He didn't look buff like those guys that worked their asses off in a gym and he was actually nice to look at.
The room was roughly four by three meters large, meaning that the doctors had gotten into the room without the boy realizing it. Personal space and all.
No, what troubled her the most was his sudden healed appearance. Yang had been one of the few people saying that Will could recover from his ordeal, but this? This was just pushing it. There had to be something wrong. Either this wasn't the Operative she was looking at, or…well, she didn't really know what else it could be.
She wanted to speak to the soldier, but a scar on his back got her attention. And with scar, she really meant scars. Plural. He had quite a few of them. Will was the sort of guy who would have scars, right? He had even promised Ruby to tell her a story about some of them. "Hey killer." She greeted him cheerfully despite the uncertain situation. No use to lose her cool in the face of chaos, right? "How are you feeling?"
The boy raised his head at her voice and then turned around to face her. He had a pretty impressive collection of scars on his chest, too. Nothing that indicated that he had been bisected by a Grimm, but there were still some impressive and strange marks on his body. Yang saw his face and knew that this was Will and not some guy who had come to take him away. How had he healed so quickly?
"I've been better," he replied with a grim smile. For some reasons, the collection of small scars on his face was even more pronounced than before. "How's the gang?"
Why did he sound bemused? What was wrong? "You didn't happen to have hit your head back then, did you?" she cautiously asked him.
"Maybe," he replied with a shrug. "Do you know where my stuff is?"
"Ehh, nope," she replied, eyeing some civilian clothes that were draped across a chair. "Care to tell me why you are not dying from blood-loss now?"
"I…" the soldier hesitantly said, "…I don't really know. I think it was Aura…but not how."
She raised an eyebrow at that. Since when had Will been capable of using his Aura? He hadn't used it to heal or protect himself before, that was for damn sure. "Aaaalright then." She had something a bit more serious to talk about anyhow. "I wanted to thank you for saving my little sister. You did something that I had never expected of you…not once, but twice. I don't think you know what saving Ruby meant to me, but…"
"No sister should lose a sibling," he replied. "I couldn't watch Ruby die."
She smiled warmly at him. "You know, the way I remember it, you still owe Ruby a story."
"I do?" he replied with surprise.
"Yeah," she replied and crossed her arms. "And I want to hear it as well."
"They're just scars," he replied dismissingly and turned away, probably to look for his clothes. Was it just her, or did he act different? He was more…how do you put it…willing to reply? Was that it?
"Well, I like scars," she replied. It was easy to imagine that the boy was ashamed of his scarring, after his torture at the hands of a criminal gang. Might even be why he was looking for his clothes; to cover his marks up, as her seeing them might make him feel uncomfortable. Yang didn't want him to feel uncomfortable. "Scars hold stories…intimate or not. Care to share some of them with us? I'm sure that we can share some stories as well. "
His head snapped up and he stared at her with a strange expression in his eyes. It almost looked guilty. "Now?"
She shrugged. "Sure, why not? Ruby and Weiss are drinking coffee in some cozy room, Blake is…somewhere…and JNPR is discussing things with Professor Goodwitch. We got the time."
The Operative was silent. She could almost hear the little gears in his head turning round and round in a futile attempt to process her offer.
"Sure," he eventually gave his answer. Yang still couldn't help but stare at his naked upper body. She was simply the kind of girl that appreciated manliness in its various ways. A beard might be impressive to some, but not neccesarily manly. During their first night at Beacon, she had seen plenty of guys –Jaune notwithstanding- walking around with a nice body. But Will's body looked different from their; he looked more like he had acquired his appearance over the course of years of fighting and working instead of weeks of senseless training in a gym. Was that how Onyx trained their soldiers, or was it a direct result of his rather unique line of work?
"Good," she replied with a smile that she could easily picture as being smug. "I think you got some clothes lying over there."
While the soldier replaced his bloody rags and scraps of fabric with some real, simple clothes, the blonde thought of a different thing that she had wanted to hear about. There were a lot of secrets surrounding Will and she had the feeling that he might be willing to share a few of them.
Starting with a peculiar quote from a few weeks ago. "So what fire-bombing were you talking about?"
"What?" Will replied.
"Back in that club, in Vale? You mentioned having escaped a fire-bombing. What happened?" She asked.
He finished dressing himself and squared his shoulders, as if testing them. "There are organizations out there that directly oppose Onyx. About fourteen months ago, one of those groups caught wind of an Operative engaging one of their cleansing-squads, they weren't happy."
"Cleansing squads?" Yang asked, immediately dropping her cheerful demeanor when she recognized that word. It was not a very happy word. If Will noticed her sudden change, he didn't respond.
"Yeah," he replied and walked out of the room, forcing her to follow him. "They ordered a napalm strike, killing seven of their own and destroying an area a quarter the size of the city."
"Dumb idiots," she muttered. The Operative didn't seem to have any problem recounting that experience though, so she didn't raise the issue. Cleansing…that was genocide. If Will had truly been fighting genocide squads, he couldn't be the murderous sociopath that others thought him to be. She knew that already, but this had to be undeniable proof to others that still thought so.
Cough Blake cough.
Together with the freshly healed Will, Yang walked to the room where her younger sister was still waiting for her. She opened the wooden door in a rougher manner than she had wanted to and spotted Ruby and Weiss sitting on a red couch near the fireplace. The two girls quickly let go of each other's hands.
That was strange.
JNPR and Professor Adamant were nowhere to be seen and Blake was still skulking around somewhere for personal reasons. They had the room for themselves.
"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed and jumped to her feet, nearly stumbling over the couch she had been sitting on. "You are back! So early! How is…how…" The girl grew silent and pulled a very scared face when she saw who was standing behind Yang. "Ehm…what? How…what?"
"How is that possible?" Weiss said with a large frown on her face. "You were dying! Unless… has this happened before? "
"Once," Will replied, "after the Death-War. We were pulling back from a Storm-Event in the Kingdom of Ettaïnen. I took a shot to my leg and fell, but I knew that if I stopped moving there, I would die. So I removed the projectile and kept moving. I always thought it was because of the adrenaline."
"Ehm…Storm-Event? " Ruby asked?"
Will sat down on the couch –Weiss quickly checked if he was bleeding anywhere before seemingly allowing it- and then ran a hand through his hair. "Long story…nasty weather."
"So," Weiss then said and lifted a finger in the air. "Your semblance is most likely high-speed regeneration. Why didn't you use it before? It could have saved you a lot of trouble."
"Weiss," Ruby told the white-haired girl, "I don't think it's that easy."
"I never consciously used it," Will stated. "It wasn't comfortable."
"I think you just need some rest and a higher level of blood-sugar," Ruby said with a smile. "When we get back to Beacon, I'll treat you to cookies."
"Don't they have anything to eat on this ship then?" Yang asked.
"A ship boarded in an emergency in the span of roughly half an hour? No, I can't possibly imagine there being a shortage of food," Weiss then sneered. She was probably being sarcastic too.
"Anyway," Ruby quickly added, "everything is alright now! The villagers are save, Will is in once piece and we can all go back to Beacon!"
"But we encountered a new Grimm species more powerful than all others thus far, one that is capable of fighting with its mind…and not even two Professors could beat it," Weiss than grimly killed the happy moment off.
Ruby's happy expression disappeared and Yang hurriedly poked Will in his ribs with her elbow. He threw a questioning glance at her and she gestured with her head towards her younger sister.
"So," Will blurred out, "want to hear a story?"
"What?" Ruby and Weiss exclaimed nearly simultaneously. Again, that weird interaction between the two of them.
"I owned you a story, right?" He told them.
"Yeeeees?" Ruby carefully replied, probably unsure of what was going to happen. "You did?"
"Cool," Yang cheerfully said and leant back against the couch. "Go ahead." It was interesting to see how Will had changed in the short time between him disappearing from Beacon and reappearing near the village that team RWBY had been supposed to evacuate. He had stated that things weren't like they seemed and she was inclined to believe him, but that didn't go for everyone. She could imagine the members from team JNPR and LACG still hating him and Blake had a very valid reason too. But at the moment, it seemed that he had changed for the better due to his experience. And now the question was: what was that experience?
"A few weeks before I got shipped out to the Death-War, I encountered a Faunus commando on a mission," he replied. His calm and relaxed expression changed and he touched the scarring near his eye. The collection of small pricks and one larger cut looked very strange indeed. "She wasn't happy to see me there."
"Did you know him?" Ruby asked. She seemed completely immersed in the story, even though Will had just started.
She was just that fond of story-time.
"I was aware of her existence," he cautiously replied. "But I didn't expect her to be there."
"So?" Weiss asked. "What happened?"
The Operative smiled bitterly. "I let my guard down for a split-second and she bashed my head in."
Ruby and Weiss hissed through their teeth when they heard that and Yang too had to admit that it sounded very painful. Suddenly the story had taken a very disturbing direction.
"Damn," she replied. "How did that happen?"
"As a Faunus, she had powerful claws and nails," Will replied. "As a commando, she knew how to throw punches. She shattered my visor with a single blow."
"Shattered?" Weiss asked, "As in…pieces?"
"Ewww, nasty…" Ruby commented. "Is that where your scars came from?"
"The shards went straight into my face. The only reason I got away with just these scars is because of the medics. They patched me up after I retreated."
"A Faunus commando scarred your face?" a new voice spoke up –one that Yang recognized very well. She turned around and saw that Blake was standing in the door-opening, with her arms crossed and a serious expression on her face. "White Fang?"
"Sympathizer, "the Operative replied.
"Was this before or after the killings?" Blake asked and walked into the room with slow and careful movements.
"Before. But it had nothing to do with that operation."
"Then why did you do it?" the Faunus demanded. Even though she sounded less angry than before, her attitude was still somewhat hostile. "I did some research on the matter. Nobody is really certain about what happened that day. The body-count is more often than not around the two dozen, so you spoke the truth about that." She paused a moment to let her words sink in and then softly added: "But you have deceived us before. More than once."
"I know," Will quietly replied. "I wish it could have gone differently."
"It can still go differently," Blake replied and walked up to him. The soldier was so deeply wrong in so many ways. He had no respect for human life, he had no idea how to talk to people without insulting them and now he also seemed to have no concern for his own safety. But…he had been fighting and killing in the most violent war in the history of Vale at the age of fifteen. He had sacrificed so much of himself for what he believed in…and he had saved Ruby from a violent death by jumping in front of a killing-blow. There was so much good in that kid…and if Blake could just see it, this whole thing could be over within seconds. "But I need to know if I can trust you. If we can trust you. I can't cope with your organization threatening my friends."
Will looked her in her eyes and was about to give his reply, but he was interrupted by the doors to their room violently bursting open.
An elderly woman screamed at the figure that had just darted inside of their room but her screams were rather inaudible and Yang didn't think that they were in trouble yet.
There was a different problem though. The figure was a half-naked figure.
"Yikes!" Yang amusedly said and prevented herself from purring in satisfaction when she saw that the man who was interrupting himself was the young Professor Adamant. He had a pink towel wrapped around his shoulders and he was wearing a pair of baggy jeans.
"Ah! Greystone, there you are!" Adamant called. He was waving back and forth with his scroll and he looked very excited and- judging by his hair- also like he had just exited the showers. "And you already found RWBY, excellent! I figured all kinds of things out. The woman with Ivan, one of the crime lords who survived your rampage at the Warehouse, has a sidekick-"
Will lowered his head until it hit the table with an audible 'thud', while Weiss and Ruby exchanged a meaningful glance between the two of them.
"-the same one that Fireteam Lima had been chasing all over town until they were repelled with alcohol and arrested on eleven different charges. This woman had intercepted some letter in which orders to an Operative were written down. The name 'Greystone' was linked to the word 'subject' and-"
"Professor Adamant, slow down," Ruby asked. "What happened?"
"Little hooded Rose, how do you get around with a brain as slow as yours?" The man-without-bowtie annoyingly said and walked down the chairs, using the towel around his shoulders to dry his hair. "A letter that had been given to an Operative, telling him or her to use the attack at Beacon to get close to a target and initiate an operation. I initially thought it had been addressed to your friend over there, but things changed. The woman that had been in possession of said little letter is in Vale. She has a sidekick. If we find that sidekick, we find the missing Operative and we find out what happened that day."
Yang looked at Will and saw that he looked very uncomfortable. She had heard of the whole 'slaughter' at Warehouse six and Ruby had even taken the team to investigate. The deaths had been unfortunate, but it wasn't like anyone would lose sleep over the people that had been killed. But the little Operative was probably thinking that he had just messed up all over again.
"So," the Professor said with glinstering eyes and an expression that wouldn't be unfit with a child about to get a present on his birthday. "Anyone up for a road-trip?"
Weiss sighed and Ruby laughed. "Ehm…Professor Matt? Did you just exit a shower?"
"Yes, I did," he said and crossed his arms. "Why?"
"Do you keep your scroll with you in the shower?" Blake said as she threw a questioning glance at the very electrical device in question.
"Yes, I do."
Weiss tried to create a condescending, questioning or sneering sentence and promptly failed to utter any intelligent remark whatsoever. In the end, she settled with angrily crossing her arms and looking the other way. She still had problems when it came to coping with insanity, it seemed.
"Professor Adamant," Ruby told the man with a smile, "we'll gladly help you on your little hunt as soon as we have resolved our problems. "
"And it looks like you got problems of your own," Yang pointed out. The Adamant turned around just in time to see a large, angry-looking woman stepping towards the door-opening.
"You madman!" she exclaimed. "You leave soap, water and dust in at least five hallways! And why you have a lady's towel?"
"Ah," the madman muttered. "Yes. I was busy tracking down a very important little person. I needed water to do so, because there was an escaped fire. And I had been showering. And the Dust was escaping. Here, take this."
With that, Matt Adamant draped the towel across the angry woman's head and walked out of the room without saying another word.
"Okaaay," Yang muttered as soon as the two adults had disappeared. "So…what just happened?"
"Your rampage?" Ruby said and raised her eyebrows. "Can't wait to hear that one."
The soldier sighed explosively and burrowed his head in his arms. "It is classified on a need-to-know basis."
"Meaning?" Blake asked with a playful tone.
"I will talk about it on our way to deal with this target," the boy said with a hopeless look.
What was that saying again? Things had to get worse before they could get better? It looked like things could only get better from here on.
"There are confirmed reports of well-armed and well-organized slave traders that are involved in Faunus trafficking, specializing in your children. Yesterday, one of our Fireteams in Vale have intercepted one such cargo. The children have been secured and various parties are already looking for a place for them to stay. The problem is that this isn't the first time this has happened…and we have reasons to believe that these kids were going to be sent to Atlas. We need to form an alliance with the students from Beacon Academy to track these actions back to that Kingdom."
"Request denied for the moment, Lieutenant. You are sympathizing too much with these children. Stick with supervising their expedition to the northern continent. That is enough Beacon for the moment."
"Yes sir."
Conversation between Lieutenant "Yale" and General Randall, 24 hours after Mental Grimm appearance.