Chapter Forty-Nine: Final Choice
Weiss and Blake ran down the hall towards the closest stairs at the end of the hall, the building shook as more explosions went off. "I didn't know the White Fang had access to artillery." Weiss grumbled when she stumbled slightly with the latest explosion.
"It's makeshift at best so it lacks the power of true artillery," Blake explained as she pushed open the door, "Up or down?"
"Down." Weiss pointed as she dashed down the stairs two at a time. Blake left a shadow pointing down for when Yang followed. "We'll need to reach the ground floor to find the armory. The hanger will likely be close as well so that will be a good place for you to wait for Yang to catch up."
"What are you planning to do once we get our weapons?" Blake questioned.
"Facility like this are a labyrinth once you break into the main part, full of catwalks and different levels." Weiss explained, "If I had to guess I'd say this facility as roughly twenty more levels below ground and that's will Ruby will be. Once we have our weapons I'll search for Ruby and bring her back to the hanger."
Blake nodded as the building rocked causing a chunk debris to fall from the ceiling and took out a portion of the stairs making both girls jump back. "Shit." Blake hissed as a piece of metal clipped her shoulder.
"You alright?" Weiss asked looking over at the panther. Blake nodded seeing as there wasn't any major damage, "Good. Think Yang can make that jump?" The gap between them and were the stairs picked back up was over twenty feet and Weiss wasn't sure if the blonde could follow if they continued on.
"Easily." Blake nodded her assessment. Weiss didn't respond but summoned a line of glyphs to bridge the gap. Quickly they returned to descent jumping broken stairs or gaps barely breaking stride as they did.
"Here." Weiss said stopping at a door and pushing it roughly open. "Left." She directed. Blake once again left a shadow pointed left to make sure the blonde wouldn't get lost. "The armory will probably be guarded, you'll have to take them while I shield you." Blake nodded as they turned a corner and saw two guards posted nervously beside a door. Both of them flinched when the building shook again before spotting the two girls running at them.
"H-Hey!" One of the guards called out bringing up a rifle, "Halt." When the girls showed no sign of stopping both guards fired, only for the shots to get caught in a solid white glyph. Blake slide underneath the glyph and quickly popped to her feet as a black glyph appeared below her propelling her up and over the second round of shots. The panther landed behind the pair of guards lightly on her feet making the two guards turned, with quick movements Blake yanked the gun out of the hands of the guard on the right while directing left guard's gun to face the unarmed guard just as the man fired. The round tore through the guards armor making him slump against the wall a trail of blood following him but Blake didn't stop as while guard who had just shot his own partner hesitated the panther put the rifle up to his chest and fired putting him down before he could retaliate.
Weiss just nodded as she came up beside the black haired girl. "Now we just have to break in." She looked at the door, "Standard steel, no blast reinforcements or position locks, check to see if that one has an ID card on him." She turned towards the first downed man and started going through his pouches hoping of find what she needed rather than have to wait on Yang to show up. Reaching into the second to last pouch she felt the plastic surface of a card. Pulling it out she gestured for Blake to help her drag the body closer to the door. With a swipe of the card and pushing the dead man's hand against the screen they were granted access to the armory.
Seeing their weapons, minus Crescent Rose which made Weiss pause, why was Ruby's scythe missing? Shaking her head she summoned a repulsion glyph inside the lockers that held their weapons and blew the doors open.
Blake looked at the Heiress for a moment in confusion, "Ummm Weiss, if you could blow that locker door off its hinges why didn't you do that to the door?"
Weiss sighed as she filled her rapier with Dust, "The Schnee family semblance is very powerful. Allowing it to act as platforms, Dust conduits, and as the wielder reaches the later stages it allows them to summon slain enemies, I haven't reached that point yet but I'm working on it. But there is one weakness of our semblance, we can't use it if we don't have direct line of sight with where we want to use it. Since this locker allowed me to see inside it I could place a glyph there, the door didn't."
Blake looked at the Heiress before she started to snicker, Weiss huffed and glared at the panther. "Come on Weiss it's pretty funny that your semblance can be defeated by something so trivial."
Weiss huffed again, "Well most semblances can if you think about it. Yours requires a shadow to summon a double, enough light and yours is useless. Yang's needs her to be injured or at least hit hard, hit her harder than she can cope with and she can't retaliate. Ruby's high speed needs friction for her to grip to, eliminate that and she can't move." The Heiress shook her head, "But we're getting away from the topic at hand. Grab Ember Celica and the shells then head further down this hall to the left that's where the hanger will be. Hopefully Yang will be able to catch up with you there." Blake nodded as she clipped the blonde's weapons to her belt and put the shells in an empty pouch.
"Where are you going?" Blake asked as she noticed Weiss was gearing up with more Dust.
The Heiress' eyes grew cold as she placed her rapier at her hip, "I'm going to find Ruby and kill that son of a bitch that did this to her." There was a moment where Blake could have sworn she saw a tremor of fear pass through her blue eyes before they hardened again, "And this time I'm going to make sure he stays dead." As they walked back out into the hallway Weiss gave her a tight nod before summoning another glyph below her feet and set off as fast as she could to find her partner.
Blake took a steading breath before racing down the hallway that Weiss had said would lead her to the hanger. She didn't encounter anyone but she could hear yelling and the sound of gunfire as she neared what she assumed was her destination. Turning the last corner she saw a large door that had a man cowering in the corner as a battle insured in the. With no hesitation the panther drew her weapons and switched one to it's gun form and fired one shot before the man could even register she was there. Flicking it back to a katana she placed her back against the opposite corner and used the reflective surface to check out the room.
She could see two groups in the room fighting, on one side behind heavy crates she saw a group of roughly fifteen SDC guards with assault rifles and on the other end by the large hanger doors that had been blown open she saw a group of thirty or more White Fang members with all sorts of weapons trying to enter the hanger but being picked off by the guards each time they attempted an advance. The panther pulled back and checked her weapons; fifteen rounds in each magazine three extras for each gun, a red Dust loaded into the chamber of the right one and blue loaded into the left chamber. She made sure the black chains were attached from the wrist bangles she now wore. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, she had to clear the room and secure it to make sure they had a way out of this mess and to do that she would have to see everyone in the hanger as her enemy. Blake knew that there could easily be some of her old friends on the White Fang side and that while she might not recognize them in their uniforms they would recognize her and she knew they would feel betrayed when they saw her killing them. The panther shook her head, she couldn't think like that. They had chosen to fight for Adam and his version of the White Fang not the peaceful one her parents had created. Steeling herself Blake opened her eyes and moved.
Sprinting across the floor Blake headed towards the SDC guards who were the bigger threat, they didn't even she her until she was amongst them her blades glinting as she spun ripping three of them to shreds in a matter of seconds.
"What the hell?" A guard shouted as she kicked his weapon into facing the guard next to him just as he fired killing him as the bullet hit him in the neck. The guarded didn't have long to worry about killing his comrade as she slide her blade between his ribs cutting open his heart. Blake moved though the guards like a black whirlwind of death. Every move she made brought another guard down in a spray of blood. The panther wasted no movements as she shifted from katana to chained scythe to gun with ease, she would really have to thank Ruby for how fluid the weapons flowed from one form to the next and back, the wolf really had a thing for weapons design.
While she was decimating the SDC guards Blake was keenly aware of the fact that the White Fang members were closing in around her. Without even looking she threw her left katana to the side and with a light whip of the chain it transformed into its scythe form and wrapped around the neck of the closest White Fang member. "Shi-!" Was all the Faunus got out as Blake jerked the chain up and then quickly down at a diagonal lifting the unfortunate victim up off their feet and towards her, breaking their neck with the motion. Continuing her motion Blake pulled the body into the way of bullets that had been fired at her, the bullets hit with just enough force to push the body close to her. Activating her semblance Blake used the shadow to give her some height as she jumped over the body flicking her wrist to release the chain from around the body's neck and flicked her other katana into it's gun form and fired at the group of new opponents.
As the second katana came back to her hand she landed with a roll and set the gun back to its katana form and triggered the new feature of the weapons. With a light pulse of her Aura the dust flowed along the vents of the blade and coated the cutting edge, the right one took on a red hue while the left took on a blue tinge. Crossing the blades in front of her Blake slashed outward sending out a red and blue arc in each direction.
A few of the White Fang members were smart enough to duck under the twin arcs but those that were either not smart enough or to slow to evade the attack were cut in half as the beams passed through them. Blake gave them no reprieve as the members watched in mixed shock and horror as their comrades were cut down.
"You traitorous whore!" A member cried as he charged to meet her.
Blake forced herself to no think about who might be behind the mask as she clashed with them, sliding to her left while pushing to break their guard. As they staggered she twisted her right blade up opening their jugular vein as she passed. The panther gave no quarter as she continued her attack. She passed from one White Fang to the next her black blade flashing as she cut through them. Blood flowed freely to the ground as Blake continued her dance of death.
Jumping away Blake gave herself some space to catch her breath when she heard a familiar sound that made her leap to the side. Just as she moved from where she had been standing the red blade of Wilt sailed past her and impacted with the sternum of one of the remaining White Fang members.
Knowing what was going to follow next Blake twisted to the side just as Blush barked out twice the shots barely missing her stomach but hitting the same member Wilt had stunned tearing two large chucks out of them.
"BLAKE!" Adam bellowed as he charged in grabbing his sword just before it fell to the ground and took a wild swipe at her. He continued his chase after her making her dance backwards a few paces before he finally disengaged. As he faced her a sneer pulled at his lips. "It must be my lucky day. I was hoping I'd be able to steal Leviathan from the SDC, but now that I find you here as well I'll be able to finally be able to drag you back to where you belong."
"I'll never go with you Adam." Blake spat as she glared at him. "You've turned the White Fang into murders and terrorists. You've twisted the cause my parents created into something perverse. The White Fang use to stand for equal rights and freedom. Now when every someone talks about it they talk about the people we've killed and the lives we've ruined."
"Your parents were weak!" Adam snarled as he started to circle her. Blake followed not allowing him to get in an advantageous position. "They didn't have the will to do what needed to be done! They thought they could raise our lives through fancy words and empty promises. If anything you should be thanking me! I've taken their dream and made it into a reality! No longer are Faunus thought of as second class citizens, no longer are we hunted like animals, no longer are we abused as free labor in cities. The humans fear us! They know they can't treat us as animals anymore knowing we could strike anywhere."
"That's not equality Adam." Blake snapped back at him, "That's simple fear. We'll never get equal treatment so long as they fear the White Fang. That fear drives them to hate us even if they don't show it, that fear drives them to look for more ways to discriminate against us and if the White Fang continues down your path eventually they will turn back to their old ways and we'll be facing another fight. Only this one will be even more violent than the first one."
Adam just sneered, "You're wrong Blake, if the human's want a fight then I'll make sure we crush them under the heel of the White Fang. I'll use Leviathan to do it."
"Leviathan is not a weapon." Blake shook her head thinking about Weiss' sister and how she had sacrificed herself to save the young Heiress. She knew that Weiss would soon want to rescue her and decided that she would be beside her when they did. Stealing herself she ready her weapons. "And I'm never going to let you get anywhere near her."
"Then it seems you've made your choice." Adam gripped his weapon harder and took his stance.
"I have." Blake lowered her stance. "I choose my family, my friends and my stupid blonde. And I choose to stand against you." With a final snarl Blake dashed forward her blades flashing as she spun. Red met black as their blades clashed and sent sparks into the air.
Using her momentum to slide passed up Blake let her left blade transform into its sickle form and threw it trying to wrap it around one of Adam's legs hoping to pull him off balance. Adam jump just as the chain started to tighten and kicked out clipping her shoulder making her grunt as she rolled flicking the weapon back into her hand.
Flicking the other blade into its gun form she fired at him as she dodged to the side, the Dust infused bullets smashed into Wilt causing it to flicker as Adam poured his Aura into it. Trying to keep him on the defensive Blake quickly flicked her weapons back into their sword form and dashed forward. Keeping her attacks quick and precise the panther tried to keep as mush pressure as she could on her opponent. She knew that if she allowed Adam any opening he'd have her on the back foot in no time. Years of training with him filled her made as she ducked and wove around him her blades becoming blurs as continued her attack.
They had spent hours with each other honing their skills with their weapons to become the deadliest member of the White Fang. Hours of practicing the same swings over and over again until they became instinctual, imprinted into the memory of their muscles. The more time they spent together the more their deadly dance grew familiar, the more they grew closer. But that was then, and now, now Blake was going to put everything she had into ending Adam once and for all.
"Enough!" Adam lashed out, Blush barked out firing Wilt into the air just as Blake stuck out, her strike hitting nothing caused her to over extend herself. Adam brought his knee up hitting her hard in the stomach. She felt a few of her ribs crack as the air was driven from her lungs; blood and spit flew from her mouth.
Adam caught Wilt by its handle just as it fell hitting Blake hard across the back causing her vision to swim as she fell towards the ground. Trying too stay conscious Blake barely managed to catch herself and roll to the side just as the tip of the red blade dug into the ground. Continuing her roll Blake managed to fired a few shots towards the Bull Faunus making him jump away.
Getting enough ground between them Blake rolled to her knees as clutched her stomach trying to lessen the pain. "There's nothing you can do against me Blake. I trained with you, sent hours with you every day memorizing move after move. I know everything you're about to do before you even do it. In a one on one fight you cannot win against me."
Blake took deep breaths as she still held her side, her hands very slowly drifting towards her belt. "Your right Adam." She wheezed out as she pushed herself up on one knee. "One on one, you are the superior fighter. You always have been, it's what you accelerate at. But you forgot one thing," The temperature around them spiked, "I don't fight alone anymore!" Her hand shot out as two golden bracelets flew through the air.
"You Bastard!" Yang screamed as she sprang over a group of fallen crates. Her fists cocked as slipped Ember Celica over her wrists and transformed. Like a burning meteor the blonde brawler crashed to the ground just as Adam jumped away barely missing her attack. The blast that she sent out cracked and splintered the ground. As a large piece came up Yang punched it towards Adam knocking him into a pile of crates. Instead of following Yang jumped away and landed lightly on her feet beside her partner.
"Hey Kitty Cat." Yang smirked as she held out her hand. "Having trouble with the ex?"
Blake huffed as she grasped Yang's hand and got to her feet. "You sure took your time." As she wavered Yang caught her and held her gently around the waist. "What kept you?"
Yang's face set into a hard line. "Klon was, tougher than she seemed." Shaking her head, "Now let's finish this." Blake nodded as she looked toward where Adam was.
A large growl sounded out as the crates where sliced apart. "You!" Adam shouted as he looked over at Yang. "How dare you show your face before me! You took Blake from me. You tainted her with your filthy ideas, you twisted her against me!"
"You did that yourself." Yang shook her head as she pulled Blake against her. "When she realized that she was being used by you she got herself away for you and became her own person. She saw through your lies and chose to raise herself above it. If you want someone to blame for losing her, blame yourself." Blake smiled at the blonde's words and took a step up and stood beside her partner.
"It's over Adam, I've taught Yang how to fight you, if you try to take on both of us you will lose." Blake said as she readied her weapons.
"No one can beat me." Adam sneered as he took a low stance. "Die!" His blade flashed out before either could blink but they were ready. Dodging in opposite directions the pair avoided the slicing attack. Together they came at the Bull Faunus from both sides. Adam was forced to block the attacks, Blake's swords sparked with Wilt while Blush clashed against Yang's fiery fist.
"Ugh." Adam grunted as the weight of both attacks pushed him back. The two didn't press the attack as they pushed and jumped of to the sides crossing around him.
"Did you really think that would-" Adam sneered just as a thin black chain snapped taunt around his arms. "What the hell?" He had failed to notice that when Yang and Blake had split up Yang had grabbed the chain that hung off of her weapons, when they had crossed they had wrapped the chain him.
"You failed to pay attention." Yang gritted as she swung around and unleashed a thunderous blow at the Bull. Adam was just barely able to flick up his red blade up in time to intercept the blow. Yang's fist met with the blade shattering it at the point of contact, the tip flew off behind her. Blake came rushed from behind just as Wilt shattered the tips of her swords aimed at his back.
Adam twisted at the last second, Blush sliding down one of the blades. As he twisted he jumped and rotated to the side ripping the sword from her hand and unraveling the chain. Rotating the blade up he fired blush into Yang's chest before catching the blade on its rebound and transformed it into its gun form firing it at Blake. Three bullets pierced her shoulder causing pain to rip through the panther.
Both Blake and Yang quickly disengaged and put ground between them and their opponent. Adam smirked, "Is that all you've got Blake?" He flicked the weapon back into its sword form, "I must admit I am disappointed. Here I thought you actually meant what you said." He sneered down at Yang as he turned to face the panther, placing the blade at the blonde's throat. "But I guess I'll just have to motivate you." A small line of blood trickled out from where he laid the blade as Yang clutched her chest wheezing.
"No don't!" Blake yelled as she lunged forward.
"Hey, dillhole." Yang coughed. "I'm not finished yet." Adam glanced down at her just as she knocked the blade away and lunged forward, the tip of Wilt clutched in her right hand.
Adam jerked back, the sword flashed upward, a spray of blood filled the air, the tip flipped to her other hand. Blake brought her blade up. Yang jammed the red tip deep into Adam's chest just as a black blade erupted from his back.
"Now die." Yang hissed as she held the tip of the against the Bulls chest with her left hand, blood dripped down the stump of her missing right arm.
"YANG!" Blake screamed in horror as she saw the wound.
"How…" Adam coughed, blood began to poor from his mouth. "No." He slumped against the blonde, "It's… not… possible…" He wheezed out as Yang shoved him to the side, his body fell to the ground as Yang fell forward.
"Yang!" Blake cried as she caught her allowing her to gently lowing her gently to her knees. "Yang what, why, why did you do that?"
"I wasn't going to just let him use me against you Kitty." Yang chuckled before grimacing, "Fucking shit this hurts." Blake look down at the wound and grimaced as well. She knew Ruby had said her new blades were sharp but to see it cut through Yang's flesh and bone so easily made her shudder. Yang's right arm now ended just above where her elbow use to be. Fortunately Adam had cut her with her flame dust infused sword which had cauterized keeping the blonde from bleeding out but it wasn't completely sealed.
"You idiot." Blake sighed as she placed her forehead against Yang's, "You colossal blonde idiot." Tears started to stream down her face as she held on to the blonde. The smell of lavenders and gun powdered filled her nose along with blood.
"But I'm your idiot." Yang chuckled as she wrapped her remaining arm around Blake.
"Always." Blake nodded, "Always." She backed away and looked over at her weapon that was still clutched in Adams hand. With a flick of her wrist she summoned the chain back into her bangle and into her hand. "Hold still idiot. I'm going to finish cauterizing the wound. Triggering the releasing button on the magazine she pulled out the remaining Dust rounds and found a red tipped bullet. Letting her Aura coat the bullet she created a burning flame in her hand just above her skin. "Ready?"
Yang adjusted her mouth and clamped down on the collar of her jacket and nodded. With a steading breath Blake pressed the flame into the blondes skin, the smell of burning flesh filled the air causing them both to gag. After a few seconds Blake pulled back and nodded at her work. "Let's find an operable Bullhead, there should be a first aid kit on board."
Yang nodded in agreement and with Blake's help she got to her feet looking down at her cut off arm as it lay on the ground. "Yeah that's gross." Yang shook her head as she nodded at it, "Umm can you like burn it or something? Please?" Blake nodded and after removing Ember Celica she dropped the red Dust bullet to the ground causing it to once again ignite engulfing the discarded arm in flame.
As they made their way towards the remaining Bullhead Yang kept glancing over at the panther. "What Yang?" Blake asked as they opened the aircraft.
"Marry me?" Yang blushed as the words rushed out before she could realize what she had said. Blake's eyes went large as she stared at the blonde. "Well what I mean is, ummmmmm, I've been kinda thinking about it for a while and I've been really wanting to ask you but there's never been a really good time to ask because of all the craziness and now you know there's the whole we almost died thing and there's a chance we still might die cause the building collapsing and unless Weiss finds Ruby in time there's a chance we might not make it so I thought I might as well ask because knowing that you'd actually want to marry me and you know do the whole family thing might make it a bit easier to die here. But we also just killed your ex and then there's the whole I lost my arm so I really didn't mean to ask it right now but ummmmmmm…."
Blake blinked all through the rant before finally lunging forward and capturing the blonde's lips with her own cutting her rant short. Finally when she pulled away Yang blinked a few time in surprise. "So was that a yes?"
"Hai watashi no kinpatsu no baka." Blake replied as she kissed the blonde again. "Hai."
(Yes you blonde idiot. Yes.)
"So I'm guessing this isn't where the girls went." Qrow sighed as he sat on top of a pile of unconscious bodies.
"Really? What was your first clue?" Raven snarked back as she rolled her eyes.
"Well the fact that shit's not on fire is a good clue that Yang's not here." Qrow replied as he pulled out his hip flask. "That and well you know. The Ice Princess would be a lot more pissed off if she caught us storming the building her sister is behind held in."
Rave just shook her head as she ignored her brother, though she did wonder why the girls weren't here. "Did she not know they moved Leviathan?"
"Winter." Taiyang sighed as he came out of room carrying an unconscious woman with white hair. She was clutching a small doll that looked like the young Heiress to her chest even in her sleep. "Her name is Winter, Raven. Even if she is one of the Doctor's failed experiments she's still a human being." He gave her a pointed look making her flinch before nodding.
"So we've got the girl but our girls are missing. So what do we do next?" Qrow questioned as he looked at the woman in the man's arms. "Hey sis isn't your semblance suppose to be able to open portals to people your connected with?"
"It does." Raven snapped and glared at her brother before deflating, "But having never connected with Yang I am unable to open one directly to her. The only reason I was able to get us to Winter was because Oz gave me the coordinates to this facility."
"So it's a no go on Yang then?" Tai questioned making Raven shake her head sadly. The man sighed as he looked up to the sky as if asking for a sign. Oh how he wished Summer was still here, she'd know what to do. "Alright, let's go back to Beacon and trace out their flight path. Maybe we can find something that way."
"Better than nothing." Qrow nodded in agreement. "Let's go sis. Hell who know by the time we get back they may already be on their way."
Raven shook her head as she opened another portal, "With the Doctor involved, I highly doubt it."
A/N: Note at the end. And I mean end end. So 51.