Chapter 5: Unexpected Reunions

"Looks like we got trouble." Jesse pointed up at one of the monitors that was blinking red. Another district was taken out.

"The Golden Road?" Ruby said shocked. "Then there's only one district before it comes here right?"

"Whatever it is." Jesse said. "I reckon we head out and take it down before it spreads Ratchet."

Ratchet looked at the people panicking more now. The threat was closer and it was now making people scared. "Yeah. Let's head out to District 3."

District 3: Power Grid

Power Grid was the name of District 3. All electricity that ran through Districts 2,4 and 5 come from here. Think of it as a massive electrical plant that people work and live in. Despite the alerts about The Golden Road and Cliffs Edge, Power Grid stayed up and running. The Sun District was still up and well and that's all that mattered.

One of the electrical engineers was off today. She walked down the streets of Power Grid until she saw something in the sky flying from The Golden Road. People in the streets saw the massive black tornado but they just waved it off, not even caring if it can become a threat and head towards them.

But she knew better than these civilians. The woman quickly headed home and changed into appropriate gear for such an occasion. She wore black trench boots, dark blue jeans that were torn in a couple spots, and a biker jacket she stole from some chump a while back. The last thing she needed was her weapons.

She looked at her spiked gauntlets and smiled. It's been some time since I used these bad boys. Putting on her gauntlets and letting them wrap themselves around her wrists and up her arm until they stopped at her elbow, she checked herself out in the mirror.

She fixed her long blonde hair that went down her entire back and cracked her knuckles.

"Yang Xiao Long is back in action."

Border between Districts 2 and 3

Ratchet patiently waited for the girls to come back from their bathroom break before they all headed to Power Grid. He thought Jesse was joking about the name but at the same time he wasn't all that surprised that it was something so simple.

He sat on the ground with his arms propped up on top of his knees. He looked up at the sky. Its getting dark again. The wind is picking up…I haven't slept…neither has Ruby.

Ratchet slowly started to drift off but he shook his head and woke himself up. Falling asleep now wouldn't be the best idea. He would just have to pull through. If Ruby can do it, so can he.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath and exhaled as he thought about what's gonna happen. So much to do…so little time…

"Ratchet? You ok?"

He opened his eyes and saw her again. He knew she wasn't there but it was too real to ignore.

"Ash. Why are you here?" He asked, clearly tired.

Ash giggled. "Why don't you just go to sleep? You don't need to keep fighting all the time."

"If I don't stop Freedom, who will?" Ratchet asked.

"Nobody but that's ok right? You beat them before and I'm sure they won't cause anymore trouble." She tried telling him reassuringly.

Ratchet chuckled at that. "That'll be the day."

Ash sat next to him and held his hand. "It's ok. Your fight ended years ago."

"No…its just starting." He said, more tired than before.

"Just sleep. There's no need for you to be awake anymore. Let the world go."

Ash slowly leaned in and put her lips to his ear. "Come with me." She whispered.

Ratchet slowly closed his eyes. They stayed closed for what felt like an eternity but he felt something shaking him. He tried ignoring it but it was clear whatever was doing it wanted him awake. He opened his eyes to see Ruby and Jesse looking at him with worried expressions.

"Are you doing ok?" Jesse asked. "You seemed like you were dead."

Felt like I was…He thought to himself. Ruby helped him up and he rubbed his eyes. "I'm alright. Just…tired. Let's go ok?"

The two girls didn't believe he was ok but they didn't want to press on about it. The three made their way through the border and into Power Grid.

Power Grid

Nick landed in an alleyway, almost dropping his friends on the way down. They caught their breath and quickly got ready to move. The fog wasn't just going to stop ripping through Queens.

Ivin sheathed his blade and dusted off his pants. "We need to warn these people. Anna, whose in charge of Queen?"

Anna shrugged. "No idea. But I'd say The Widow is since she's the only person I know who has connections and information all around."

Nick checked his fuel and frowned. "Well shit…I don't have enough fuel left to really get us anywhere. Maybe a couple feet but nothing crazy like what we just did."

"No problem Nick." Ivin reassured him. "You did a great job getting us out of there."

The three made their way out of the alleyway and onto the streets. The ground was cracked and ripped apart, with massive wires going through it. The wires had electrical currents going through them and touching it would most likely burn anything to death. Nick grabbed one with his metal hand and it super charged his plasma cannon/sword.

"Well holy shit! That could come in handy!" He said excitedly.

"I hope so." Anna commented.

Ivin looked around and saw nobody was worried about the black fog that was slowly moving towards this area. "Are they aware of what that is and what it's been doing?"

"Nope. And they sure as hell don't care." Said a woman from behind the group.

The three turned around to see an attractive woman with lilac eyes, extremely long blonde hair and a chest like no other. Nobody who knew her could forget her. Yang Xiao Long.

"Yang?!" All three of them said in shock.

Yang raised her hand. "Yup. That's me. Right here."

"But…how long have you been here?!" Anna yelled.

Yang shrugged. "A year or two? Ever since that White Rose character showed up out here."

"Wait," Ivin didn't like what she was saying. "You think White Rose is Ruby Rose don't you?"

Yang didn't like putting it that way but there was no other way to say it. "Yeah. But I won't be surprised if it isn't her. I just want to be sure."

Nick scoffed. "Yang you are gonna ask a killer if she's your sister just to be sure? That doesn't make sense. It's stupid and crazy."

"So was trying to fight and evil organization hellbent on dropping the moon on the planet." She shot back.

"Alright cool it you two." Ivin being the voice of reason as always. "We are here to find her as well Yang. But we're here to stop her."

"Why?" Yang questioned.

Ivin looked at Anna. "That's…a good question. Why are you looking for her?"

Anna sighed. "To be honest…I wanted to know too. I'm hoping it's just a crazy bitch with Ruby's scythe."

"You and me both." Yang said quietly.

A loud siren blared across the district and it alerted the group to the immediate threat that was headed this way. The fog seemed to reach the border between Power Grid and The Golden Road but it stayed put.

"The laser grids." Yang said shocked. "They're actually working. It's keeping it back."

"But for how long?" Nick asked.

"I helped put those up some time ago. I'd say we have about three days before it breaks. Maybe even two." She replied.

"Let's hope it's three." Ivin said. He looked around and spotted a rather tall tower. "Yang can we get up there?"

Yang looked at where he pointed and smiled. "You kidding? That's the best view in the house. Come on." She ran toward the tower and the others followed.

"Why are we going there?" Asked Anna.

"We need to know exactly how big this thing is." Ivin said as they ran to the tower.

Power Grid

Jesse led the way towards the massive tower. Ratchet and Ruby needed to get up there so they could see what exactly is going on. If they got up there and used Ruby's scope, they could figure out what the threat is and try to stop it.

Black smoke appeared in front of the group as they headed towards the tower. Jesse stopped dead in her tracks and pulled out her revolver, which was aimed at the head of a ninja. The ninja paid her no mind and looked at Ruby and Ratchet.

"From The Widow." He said and revealed Ratchet's gauntlets and Ruby's scythe.

The gauntlets had tubes on the side of them that seemed to have a orange liquid in them that almost looked like liquid fire. The knuckles were spiked and the gauntlets were reinforced to withstand a lot more punishment than thought possible. They also had a new coat of paint, black with red flames coming up from the fingers. The gauntlets when put on, covered his arms up to his elbows.

Ruby's Crescent Rose didn't change in appearance but the blade was much longer and sharper. The ghostly white was even more pale than before. As if slicing it would kill anything physical or spiritual. She still loved it anyway and was glad her weapon was back where it belonged.

The ninja took out a smoke bomb but before using it he spoke again. "The Widow says to take care of the threat. Then she'll tell you more about Freedom." The ninja disappeared in smoke after that.

"Didn't she say these would take two days to fix up?" Ruby asked.

Ratchet shrugged. "Ninjas work fast."

Jesse holstered her weapon and sighed. "Y'all are strange. Come on! We gotta hurry to that tower!"

The three waisted no time getting to the tower. As they were finally on the same street as it, they saw four others running towards them.

"Civilians?" Ruby asked

"No…them don't like civ's." Jesse replied.

Ratchet wasn't going to say anything until he saw the long golden hair of the woman in front of the three. "Oh no…"

Yang and the others were having the exact same conversation and reacted the same way when they saw White Rose. The two groups stopped and met in front of the doors heading into the tower. Nobody moved as they made eye contact with one another. Ruby tried desperately to not look into Yang's eyes but she couldn't and Yang knew why.

It was her sister.

"R-Ruby?" She said with tears in her eyes.

Ruby didn't know what to do so she tapped into her semblance and zoomed into the tower. Yang shouted for her to wait and chased after. Ivin, Anna and Nick went after them but Jesse shot three bullets into the ground next to their feet.

"Hold it. You aren't going anywhere." She said with a sly smile as she reloaded.

Ratchet couldn't believe his old team was here but it's not like they would recognize him right away.

Nick scanned the two in front of him. "The girls name is Jesse. The guy…Ratchet?" He said in disbelief.

Fuck me… he thought.

Ivin and Anna just looked at Ratchet and if they removed the beard, scarf and cloak, it was him.

"No…way…" Ivin said shocked.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Anna screamed in frustration.

Ratchet sighed. Then chuckled. Then just laughed. "Yeah. Now you know exactly how I felt when Irene popped up out of nowhere four years ago."

Ivin drew his sword. Nick readied his cannon. Anna released her ghostly scythe. Jesse aimed her revolver and Ratchet activated his gauntlets. It wasn't the greatest reunion ever, but it was a start. A reenactment of what happened four years ago with Irene at the docks was now going to take place in the Badlands but instead of Irene looking like the bad guy, it was Ratchet.