A Foreboding Refuge

Mistral Black Market

'Blast it all,' thought Drake as he peered through the scope of his rifle, 'I'd hoped that what I'd heard was just rumors. But seeing her now, there's no doubt left in my mind.' The panther Faunus had posted himself on the roof of a rundown building that overlooked the main street of the Mistral black market, which was currently less crowded than normal due it being the lunch hour. And coming down the street was someone that Drake had been told was dead. Now that they'd managed to track her down, he hoped he could insure that she stayed that way.

"Drake, have you got a visual?" Questioned May over his earpiece as she observed their target from her own hidden position.

"I see her alright," replied Drake, "What about you Ilia, any problems at the moment?"

"She doesn't appear to have noticed me yet," said Ilia, "Let's hope it stays that way."

"Just remember the plan," said May, "Even if she is powerful, all we really need is one good hit to turn the tide in our favor."

"But also remember that this is Cinder we're dealing with," said Drake, "She won't hesitate to involve civilians and she's even stronger now than she was when she attacked Beacon. So the moment she steps into the deserted section of the market, we hit hard and fast, no hesitation."

"Roger," said Both Ilia and May as they readied themselves for a tough fight. 'I don't know how you survived your fight with Ursario and Branwen,' thought Drake, 'but your string of luck will end here.' The panther Faunus's finger hovered over his trigger as a familiar feeling washed over him, of a predator about to overtake its prey. Taking one last moment to adjust his aim, something caught his eye. A dark-haired girl was trudging along some distance behind Cinder with an umbrella held tightly in her hands and a black bowler hat on her head.

'Wait, black bowler hat with a red line around it,' thought Drake as a memory flashed through his mind of a human he really didn't care for. 'TORCHWICK!' the panther Faunus realized as he contacted Ilia. "Ilia pull back!" Said Drake, trying to hide the worry in his voice, "She's not alone out there!" The chameleon girl stopped in her tracks and was about to ask what was wrong when May took her shot.

The round sailed through the air, crossing the distance in a seeming instant. Despite this, the shot was stopped short as the girl following Cinder moved with incredible speed, opening her umbrella to deflect it. "May, give Ilia covering fire!" Exclaimed Drake as he began taking shot after shot at Cinder and her apparent accomplice. An accomplice who suddenly shifted her appearance to that of a girl with pink, black and white clothing and differently colored hair and eyes.

Cinder had found herself some help, in the form of Neo. The umbrella-wielding girl skillfully deflected Drake's rounds with simple, elegant movements, a small smile on her face the whole time. Cinder stood back to back with her as she knocked away bullet after bullet from May before noticing Ilia retreating back into the alley and started shooting fireballs at her. "May, keep shooting, I'm getting Ilia out of there," said Drake as he got up and leapt off the roof he was on down to another one and then another lower one after that.

He repeated this process a couple more times, stopping and taking the occasional potshot to keep their enemies on their toes. As Ilia was about to get out of sight, however, the image of Cinder and Neo suddenly shattered with the impact of May's next round. Drake cursed under his breath as he leapt down to the street before catching up to Ilia. "Who was that," questioned the chameleon Faunus as they turned a corner.

"Her name is Neo," said Drake, "She was Torchwick's right hand in Vale, but she's way more dangerous than him."

"Quite right," said the voice of Cinder as a fire ball landed in front of them, forcing them to stop. Their two targets came dropping down from the rooftops then, blocking their exit. "My, my, if it isn't Drake Beller. I thought you'd given up hunting down humans."

"You're a threat to both Faunus and human kind," said Drake as he converted his rifle into dual blades, "Yes, the White Fang was lost before you showed up. But our worst acts were committed after you forced us to work with you."

"I offered your organization the chance to become something more," said Cinder as a flame formed in her hand, "You could've shared in that if you'd stayed."

"We are something more now," Said Drake, "You, on the other hand, seem to have lost it all."

"I still have my life," replied Cinder with a slight smirk, "Which is more than I can say for you!" The maiden shot another fireball at them then. But Drake leapt over it and kicked off the wall. Cinder materialized her own dual blades while Ilia pulled out her whip to use against Neo as the four fighters engaged each other. Drake and Cinder traded blows while Neo danced around Ilia's strikes in her usual, playful manner. 'We won't be able to hold out for long,' thought Drake as he blocked a kick which knocked him into the alley wall before moving to avoid a vertical strike, 'we need to get out into the open.'

Ilia seemed to come to the same realization as Neo dodged around several of her whipping strikes before jabbing her in the gut with the handle of her umbrella. The chameleon Faunus stumbled back and would've fallen if Drake hadn't caught her. "I think we might be a little outmatched here," groaned Ilia.

"Maybe directly, but we got a few other tricks," said Drake as he released his black mist semblance, bathing the alley in darkness. This bought them enough time to get out of the alley, but not as much as they hoped for as the mist itself was blown away by a surprisingly strong wind. 'She couldn't do that before,' thought Drake as they looked back to find that they were now the ones being pursued.

"We can't let them live," said Cinder to Neo as they chased Drake and Ilia down another alley into an open area, "It'll be trouble if they report our whereabouts." Neo nodded her head as she conjured a couple images of her and Cinder in front of their prey. It wasn't much, but it was enough to stop Drake and Ilia in their tracks before they slashed through the mirror images. Neo took the opportunity to flip over and land in front of them.

"Guys," said May over their earpieces, "I haven't got a shot and Mistral police's closest unit is thirty minutes away. They need time to get an airship ready."

"We don't have that kind of time," remarked Ilia as she and Drake stood back to back.

"Guess we'll have to go with plan 'E'," said Drake as he conjured more of his mist while also opening his fire dust canister, "Let's leave 'em in the dust!" The panther Faunus sent a wave of flames at Cinder while Ilia blocked Neo's opening attack. But Cinder held up both of her hands and generated a wall of flame of her own.

"A valiant effort," said Cinder as the flames faded and she conjured her signature molten swords, "But also futile." The maiden charged forward then as Drake crossed blades with her, doing his best to hold off her attacks as he parried and struck low with a sweeping kick. But Cinder easily leapt and spun out of the way of his strikes before managing a strike under Drake's arm, cutting into his jacket and leaving a scorched slash. The panther Faunus countered with a couple of low swings before suddenly jabbing upward towards her head.

Cinder moved her head aside, the blade inches from her flesh, before managing a kick in Drake's chest, knocking him back onto the ground a few feet away. But as she was about to step forward, the current fall maiden noticed that her feet were stuck. Looking down, Cinder noted with irritation that Drake had frozen her feet using a small amount of his mist combined with ice dust. "I think you should realize what our efforts even are before you mock them," said Drake as he released more of his mist, timing it with Ilia's moves before adding ice dust.

"Now Ilia," said Drake as he squatted down. The chameleon Faunus, who'd been getting knocked around a fair bit up to this point, managed to flip over to Drake before leaping up with a hand on her partners back to kick Neo away. At the same time, Drake released more ice dust, just managing to catch the nimble fighter off-guard and freezing her feet to the ground.

"You'll regret that," said Cinder as she produced flames from her feet to melt the ice.

"Maybe," Said Drake as he tripped a new canister of wind dust, "But not today." The panther Faunus then released a large amount of his mist, creating a massive gale wind which completely obscured their opponent's vision. Cinder was quick to surround herself and Neo with a whirlwind of her own, deflecting the gale aimed at them until it subsided. But once it did die down, their quarry was nowhere to be seen.

"Outstanding," said Cinder with irritation, "We don't have time to play hide and seek." Neo gestured at Cinder, letting her know that more trouble might be on the way. "Yes you're right, we need to get moving. We'll deal with them if and when they show themselves. For now, let's proceed to our original destination, and I'll tell you how we can get our revenge on 'little red.'"

Brunswick Farms

"I don't understand this," said Ruby, "Every other deserted place we've been too usually had signs of damage, or they were unfinished. But this place seems, fine."

"Except for the part where it's, ya know, completely deserted," commented Aegis as they approached the main house, having stored the bikes in one of the nearby buildings.

"Maybe everyone got out in a hurry," suggested Weiss as she was leaned up against the post on the porch, shivering slightly from the cold, "Before things got, well bad."

"Either way, be ready for anything," said Qrow as he tried the knob, only to find that it was locked. Everyone nodded as they pulled their weapons out. The veteran huntsman proceeded to kick the door in as everyone poured in behind him, their weapons sweeping the immediate room to find it, deserted. The inside was decorated in a very traditional look with wooden floors and white walls that held a few pictures, plus old furniture scattered around the room. Some stairs on the left appeared to lead up to the bedrooms.

"It's freezing in here," complained Calavera as she came hobbling in behind them, "At least close the door."

"Our apologies for exercising the slightest bit of caution," said Wayne sarcastically as he pushed the door closed with his foot. The old woman didn't reply to that as they finished sweeping the room for anything dangerous before pushing one of the nightstands in front of the door to keep it from flying open with the high winds.

"This house has a chimney," Blake observed, "We should be able to get a fire going in here."

"That sounds wonderful," said Weiss, "I'll go find some blankets."

"Yang, you go give her a hand with that," said Qrow as everyone split up to look around the house. Wayne and Aegis moved into the kitchen, trying to find anything that resembled food.

"So," said Aegis, "This place giving you the creeps as much as it does me?"

"We're all a bit on edge right now," said Wayne as he inspected the inside of a cupboard, "Any abandoned place will seem foreboding right about now, especially with that storm outside. At least that's what I'd like to say."

"A little foreboding I can handle," said Aegis, "This place just screams 'something bad is about to happen.'"

"Well with luck we won't be here long," replied Wayne, "Because this place smells like dea-." The both of them were startled from their thoughts by the sound of Weiss screaming upstairs. The two brothers rushed out of the kitchen and leapt up the stairs in hardly no time at all, joining everyone else as they rushed in to find the ex-heiress and Yang both on the floor staring in horror. Wayne covered his nose with his sleeve then as an awful stench hit it, and it took only a moment to find the source.

At the far end of the room sat a bed and in it were what appeared to be a husband and wife, or what was left of them. The corpses had been decaying for some time, leaving little more than brown husks that appeared human. 'I guess we were wrong about this place being deserted,' thought Wayne, 'the ones living here never left in the first place.'

A Short Time Later

It took a bit for everyone to get over the shock, but once they did the majority of the group headed downstairs. Wayne decided to take the unhappy job of wrapping the bodies up and moving them somewhere out of sight, for the sake of everyone's current sanity and because he had a better idea how to block the scent so he, Aegis and Blake wouldn't be getting big whiffs of them. As soon as he finished with that, he headed back downstairs to find everyone except Qrow, Blake and Aegis around the fire. One look was really all that was needed to tell that everyone was still spooked to one degree or another.

"First time seeing a decayed body," asked Wayne as he put an extra blanket he'd carried down from upstairs around Weiss's shoulders. The white-haired girl jumped a little, her trembling now caused more by fright than by the cold.

"I just," Weiss squeaked a little, "What could've caused that?"

"I'm not sure I want to find out," replied Wayne as he sat down next to her to warm his own hands by the fire. The sound of the door opening then banging shut signaled the return of Qrow, Blake and Aegis, who all came in brushing the snow off of themselves.

"Every house is the same story," said Qrow as he kneeled down by the fire to warm his hands on Weiss's left side, "Decaying bodies, all in their beds. It's like they all died in their sleep at the same time."

"Then we should get out of here," said Weiss, "Staying here is clearly a bad idea."

"If I thought there was somewhere else close by, we'd already be gone," replied Qrow, "But the storm outside's only getting worse. With no idea where exactly we are, we'd likely freeze to death before we reached another settlement. So for now, we're stuck here."

"Well then, if we're going to be here awhile, we may as well make ourselves at home," said Maria Calavera as she hopped off her spot on one of the couches and made her way over to a large bookshelf.

"Good luck with that," commented Yang as the old woman picked out one of the books.

"Well in that case, we should probably do something while we're waiting," said Ruby, "Since we know this place wasn't abandoned now, maybe there's some supplies still here."

"This is a farm right," said Oscar, "Maybe they have a vehicle or something we could use."

"I'll get back out there and sweep the grounds again," said Qrow as he got up and walked towards the door, "No one else goes anywhere by themselves."

"Me and Yang can check some of the other buildings for vehicles," said Blake as she stood up.

"If it gets me out of this house, I'm all for it," said Yang as she stood up and headed for the door as well, with Blake trudging behind her somewhat shyly.

"Aegis and I will check the other houses for supplies," Said Wayne, "With luck, we'll find some medicine or travel equipment."

"Weiss and I will check around more in here," said Ruby, "Come straight back if you find anything." The Ursario brothers both nodded as they headed out into the heavy snow fall. The wind had picked up, causing the visibility to drop a bit as the brothers headed for the nearest building, what appeared to be a storehouse of some kind. Aegis, managing to get there first by practically running into the door, pried it open, letting Wayne go in first before heading in and pushing the door closed behind them.

"This storm reminds me of that one winter in Blue Forge," Said Aegis, "You remember the one where the town gates got blocked by snow."

"How could I forget," replied Wayne as he began looking through the numerous shelves which lined the storehouse, "We got a little short on meat that winter, so Mom and Dad took turns taking us out to hunt as part of our training. That was probably the most I've ever seen you shoot a rifle."

"Ah you know," said Aegis, "when it comes to guns I prefer scatter shots, or something that goes boom. I always had a problem lining up long distance shots."

"Well you do prefer up close and personal," said Wayne as he shifted aside some of the items on the shelf.

"Speaking of problems," said Aegis, "how you holding up? I know you're not okay, none of us are really 'okay' after what we've learned. But it's rare for you to get emotional enough to let your semblance loose like that."

"Well it's also rare to find out the secret history of the world, and learn that the dangerous technique you learned to help stop evil, was actually started by said evil in the first place."

"Fair point," Said Aegis as he leaned his shoulder against the wall, "The special genetic trait of the rage mode turns out to be some form of magic that was granted to several predatory Faunus, and the same person was also the original teacher of the aura shadow technique. Come to think of it, have you still been seeing things?" Wayne glanced at the window before answering. Staring back at him wasn't his face or Aegis's, but the image of the shadowed figure that had been haunting him, and had laughed when they'd found out the truth.

"Not as much right now," said Wayne as he turned back to his brother, "it only makes sense, though. Thanks to me going wild with the technique against Cinder in the vault, my body's produced more negative energy than it can handle. If Ozpin wasn't lying when he told me, I'll have to wait some time before I can safely use the technique again. For all the good it's wound up doing."

"Hey, that technique's managed to save your skin a few times," said Aegis, "You would've been skewered on at least two separate occasions if you hadn't used it. Not to mention there's no telling what else we're gonna run into on the way to Atlas. My rage mode is good but it's not strong enough on its own and you know it. You want my honest opinion, you've done more good than harm with that technique regardless where it originally came from! And besides, I personally think it's too early for regrets, don't you?"

"We can have regrets at any time," said Wayne, "But now that you mention it, I suppose that works both ways."

"So, survival now and whine our sorry ##$ off later then," said Aegis as he held his fist up.

"Well we'll at least scale it back to minor complaints for now," said Wayne as he and Aegis bumped fists, "Now let's find something to use in this heap." Aegis agreed with a nod as they got back to work. In time, they managed to find a few seasonings for food, and lots of salt. That night, after everyone got back together, they ate a good bit of canned food that Ruby and Weiss had discovered in a wine cellar and made a plan for the next morning. Then came the hard part, trying to get to sleep. It was especially hard because a single thought kept whispering in the backs of their minds. They weren't alone in this place.

Our heroes have found refuge from the storm. But the ominous presence lurking around the farm may turn their refuge into a grave. Hello everyone, hope you enjoyed this latest chapter of Team WA and the mounting horror it's setting up. As always, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or a neat idea you might have. Be sure to stop in next time as the crew encounters the evil within the farm, and Wayne and Aegis deal with their own inner evil. 'Til next time.