Sun leaned forward slightly over the railing, squinting through the darkness as the boat lurched into a turn. Weiss took several steps to the side as she copied his motion from the back of the ship, while looking back and forth around the back of the vessel.
"Sun, I don't… is there a life preserver somewhere? Vests? Or did Cinnamon not l-"
"Do you really need to ask that question!?" Sun cried as he finally spotted the figure flailing in the water once again. "I'd be willing to bet she rigged this thing to blow once we're within 500 feet of the lower city. Leaving us anything for safety seems pretty damned unlikely!"
"I'll… I'll check downstairs!" Weiss offered as she broke into a run, headed for the staircase. "Don't do anything st-"
Before Weiss could finish her sentence, Sun had launched himself over the railing of the boat and into the ocean, where he began swimming furiously for the floating planks a good fifty feet from the boat. Weiss stopped in her tracks and headed back to the railing as she looked out over the dark waters, quickly losing sight of her faunus friend.
"Sun!" Weiss cried as the engine of the boat shut off and Yang ran over to join her side.
"What the hell is he doing!?" the blonde asked. "The water's probably freezing!"
"Being Sun," Weiss replied with narrowed eyes. "Go and grab towels and look for anything to help downstairs!"
"What are you going to do?" Yang asked as she began to panic.
"I'll… I don't know! Whatever I can!" Weiss insisted as she began to hurriedly take off her heels. "Jump in, if I have to! You'd sink, with your arm!"
"Weiss, don't…!" Yang began, before shaking her head and running for the stairs. "Gods, damn it…"
Sun cut through the water with overhead strokes as he rapidly closed the distance to his target. Briny water stung at his eyes as he kept them locked onto the debris on the surface of the ocean. He pushed a plank of wood aside before diving under the surface to make it beneath a shredded tarp. Upon emerging on the other side of the torn plastic, he began to tread water as he reoriented himself and caught sight of a waving arm within the water.
"Here!" a voice called out, breathless and desperate. "Quickly! I… I don't know how much longer I can hold…"
"Hang on, man, I'm coming!" Sun called back as he turned himself in the water to spot the yelling figure. A man was clinging desperately to a floating wooden pallet to Sun's left, scrambling to secure his waving hand back within the slats of the wood.
"Thank you! Thank you, j-just…" the figure replied, only for his hand to slip on the smooth surface of the wood.
"Save your breath! We'll talk on board the boat!" Sun instructed as he swam up to the figure. The man's eyes were wild and desperate, and his face and short black hair were both soaked. "C'mon, wrap your arm around my back, and swim in time we me! Final push, we can make it!"
The man immediately threw his arm around Sun's back and began to swim toward the boat, where a light was shining on deck. Sun nodded in breathless thanks toward the waving light before beginning to swim in time with his charge. The pair synchronized almost immediately as they made their way through the water and kept their eyes on the boat.
"I… I-I feel faint," the man admitted as his grip began to grow loose around Sun's back.
"Don't you dare!" Sun insisted as he pushed forward with even more strength. "We're almost there, c'mon! I've got you!"
The man spit out a torrent of water as he nodded, gasping for breath. The pair reached the boat in short order, where Weiss was waving her illuminated scroll by the railing.
"Sun! Are you alright!?" Weiss called as she dropped her scroll to the carpeted deck of the boat.
"I'm fine!" the faunus yelled back. "Is there a foldable staircase, or some rope, or… something? We gotta get this guy out of the water!"
"I couldn't find anything!" Weiss yelled as she crouched down and offered a hand. "Hopefully Yang c-"
"Right here!" Yang interrupted as she dropped her armful of objects onto the deck. She knelt beside Weiss and offered her metallic arm beneath the railing, while Sun pushed up on the victim's bare, scar-covered back. Yang reached out to grip the stranger's slick fingers and hefted the male on board with help from Weiss, who grabbed at the man's muscular arm.
"Thank you! Th-thank you!" he said through shuddering breaths as he rose from the water and climbed the side of the boat. Sun's breathing hitched as he watched the man's waterlogged tail break the surface of the water as he was pulled up.
"No…" Sun whispered as he accepted Yang's offered hand. Sun planted his foot firmly into the side of the boat and climbed up to vault the railing in one smooth motion. He landed upon the carpet, dripping freezing water as he glared down at the man laying on deck, gasping for air. "You! What the hell are you doing here!?"
Weiss took a step back as she looked down at the soaked man, who had suddenly stopped his erratic breathing as he looked up at Sun.
"Sun, who i-"
"You," the prone figure hissed as Yang loomed over him with a balled metal fist.
"Corsac," Sun spat, the tip of his soggy tail twitching in fury. He immediately looked up, and locked eyes with Yang. "Hold him down!"
Yang knelt onto the man's chest without missing a beat, her eyes narrowing as she held down both of Corsac's arms at the wrists. The faunus didn't resist as he hissed in pain, and Sun crouched to regard him upside-down.
"Start. Talking," Sun seethed as Weiss draped a fresh towel over his bare back. "Otherwise, you're going straight back into the ocean."
"What's going on?" came a familiar voice from down within the stairwell. Sun's eyes widened as he looked toward the raised partition blocking view of the staircase.
"Weiss! Don't let Ilia up h-"
"Too late," the chameleon faunus responded as she rounded the corner. Corsac tilted his chin upward to lock eyes with the girl, and the pair narrowed them in tandem. Ilia cracked her whiplike weapon against the floor of the deck as she began a hasty approach, practically spitting her words. "Keep him steady, Yang, he owes me an arm!"
"Enough!" Weiss cried as she threw her arms down to her sides. "Please! I don't think I can take any more violence tonight, and none of you are thinking clearly! Everyone, calm down, and be rational!"
"What's going on!?" Jaune yelled from his place at the top of the staircase. The boy had his sword and shield drawn as he looked frantically around the deck. "Are we under attack!?"
"No, we…" Sun began, only to take a deep breath and stop himself as he held out a hand toward Ilia. "Alright, stop! Weiss is right! We're doing this once, and we're doing it right! Where's Maria?"
"Still asleep," Jaune deadpanned as his shoulders drooped ever so slightly. "We can fill her in later. What's going on?"
Corsac let the back of his head hit the carpet with a muffled thump and closed his eyes. "Is there a lifeboat on board? Just… give me a one-man vessel, and a day's worth of provisions, and I won't trouble any of you anymore. I'm no longer with the White Fang, you have me vastly outnumbered, and I am unarmed. Please, just let me leave."
"You're not going anywhere," Sun insisted as he kept his gaze locked upon Corsac's face. "Yang, lift him up, and keep his hands away from his pockets."
Yang did as instructed, and Ilia swooped in to help her press Corsac up against the wall around the staircase. The pair of girls kept his arms crossed behind his back as they mashed his face into the smooth surface of the wall, while Sun moved in and began to check the soaked pockets of Corsac's hakama-styled pants.
"Nothing. No scroll, no weapon…"
"No energy or will to fight, either," Corsac added as he closed his eyes. "Listen to your friend, Wukong- be reasonable."
"I think I've been more than fair thus far," Sun countered as he turned to address his assembled party. "For those not familiar, this is Corsac Albain. He's a White Fang terrorist that broke Ilia's arm while trying to kill her, and he and his late brother are partially responsible for burning down the Belladonna manor and killing Blake's father."
"I had nothing to do with the incident at the Belladonna manor! I was stationed with Cinnamon at the time, a-"
A resounding clang interrupted Corsac's words as Yang slammed her metal fist into the wall just beside his face.
"Enough excuses! You attacked one of ours and you aided the White Fang at Haven! Give us one good reason not to throw you back into the water!" Yang demanded.
"Because I have no love left for the Fang!" Corsac growled as Yang pressed him into the wall a bit harder. "Cinnamon threw me from her helicopter for attacking Ilia on Adam's command! I was simply doing my duty to the Fang, and I was left to die because of it!"
Ilia's facial scales paled as she listened to Corsac's words. "Bullshit. Cinnamon doesn't care about me, or you, or anything but her own quest for control! You were in her helicopter? You helped her set up Adam's death?"
"Yes!" Corsac insisted as Yang continued to press against the back of his head with her palm. "He was an unhinged liability by the time we arrived at Haven, and upon seeing him try to detonate the rigged explosives, I threw in my lot with Cinnamon immediately. I was spying on him and reporting his movements to her, and this is how she repaid me, just because I injured you. Even on opposite sides of this conflict, she wouldn't stand to see harm come to you, Ilia. That's the plain and simple truth."
"Why should we believe any of that?" Sun questioned as he began to pace. "Cinnamon just made an attempt on Weiss' life, and she's been playing the two of us since the attack on Haven."
"…she's been playing us for a few weeks, yes," Weiss agreed. "Timelines change. Plans change. He could be telling us the truth, and he likely has information about the White Fang's inner workings." The heiress shifted her weight as she folded her arms across her chest and approached Corsac. "Are you willing to give us information, in return for saving your life?"
"Yes," Corsac offered immediately, only for Ilia to let out a growl.
"He would barely know more than I do! It's not worth the risk!" the chameleon girl insisted.
"Hey, hey!" Jaune cut in as he sheathed his sword and rested it upon Ilia's good shoulder. "There's an advantage to that- you can tell us if everything he tells us is plausible. Not to mention- he's the last person to have contact with Cinnamon, right?"
"Contact," Corsac seethed. "If you would call being envenomed, punched in the jaw while writhing in pain, and then thrown out of a helicopter 'contact', then yes."
Sun grimaced as his mind raced with possibilities. His tail swished into overdrive, flailing droplets of water onto the carpeted deck as he lifted the towel from his shoulders and began to ruffle his hair with a frustrated noise. Ilia made one of her own, before letting go of one of Corsac's arms and making her way toward the staircase.
"I just want to say, before any decision is made, that I hate this entire situation… and I'm against anything that would benefit him. I also know I have no room to speak, since I was White Fang, too, before I turned it all around. I trust you, Sun. Whatever you decide, I'll stick to it… even if I don't like it," Ilia finished.
Jaune shifted his grip upon Crocea Mors and ran a nervous hand through his hair as he shrugged. "I… don't have enough personal experience with the White Fang or this specific situation to really weigh in, but I'll echo Ilia."
"And I feel the same," Yang agreed as she kept a firm grip on Corsac. "I'll defer to you. You're our leader now, and I trust you in that spot. There are more than enough of us on board to keep tabs on him until we get to Atlas, and then we can figure out what to do from there. Or… we can take the no mercy approach."
"Sun? What are you going to do?" Weiss asked, her voice uncertain as she looked away from Yang with a shiver.
Sun took one last, deep breath through his nostrils before exhaling forcefully as he shook his head. The boy dragged the towel from over his head down and around one shoulder, before shaking his head and staring down at the floor of the boat.
"Yang. Jaune. Escort Corsac downstairs. Let him have a hot shower, some clean towels, and some food from our stores. Rotate shifts guarding him in pairs, along with Ilia and Weiss. I'll drive us to Atlas."
Yang pulled Corsac back from the wall immediately and released her grip.
"Yes, sir. C'mon, Jaune- shift one is you and me."
"Right," Jaune agreed as he offered Sun a nod and moved for the stairs.
Corsac turned to face Sun, at a total loss for words. The man's muscles continued to twitch and shiver involuntarily as he met the teen's steely eyes, and finally, he looked away and shook his head.
"…why? Why do any of this for me? Had you been captured at any point in my time with the White Fang, you would have merely become a caged animal to act as a bartering chip, or slain. So… why?"
Sun clenched his jaw as he stared at the side of Corsac's head. "That's an answer you don't deserve. Get moving, before we treat you as hostile- and don't think you're getting off easy, either. Once we get to Atlas, your ass is getting thrown in a cell."
"Even so," Corsac began as he looked back up at Sun with a conflicted expression. "Thank you. Adam was wrong about you- you're a decent man. I won't forget this mercy."
Sun merely grunted in response and turned away from Corsac as he and his guards made their way to the steps. The faunus boy walked to the rear of the ship and grabbed at the railing once again, before letting out a heavy sigh while hanging his head. Sudden warmth sprang to life behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to find a spinning red glyph floating about a foot above the ground, spewing a gentle jet of fire into the air as Weiss held Myrtenaster and pressed two fingers against the flat of the blade.
"Come warm up," the girl insisted as Sun turned fully and walked to put his hands out near the fire. "Thank you, Sun. Thank you for not taking the more obvious, violent path tonight."
"Part of me wanted to," Sun admitted. "Even with Adam gone, there's still a bit of irrational anger fighting to come through. Maybe meditation with Yang is helping. Maybe I'm just too exhausted to fight anymore."
"You're still fighting," Weiss encouraged. "You're just fighting more intelligently and guarding your heart while you do it. We'll figure out where to take Corsac once we make landfall, and I'll do my part to bring him to justice. Please, get yourself a warm shower and towel once he's finished."
"Yeah, I will," Sun replied with a gentle nod. "He's been in the water a lot longer and needs it more than me… even if he is an asshole."
"He was at least right about one thing," Weiss pointed out. "You are a good man. Blake is rather lucky, to be quite honest. I can only hope that I one day find a man like you, as well."
"You will," Sun replied immediately. "Just don't be afraid to look in places you otherwise might not. Love's a weird and mysterious thing. Cliché, I know, but it's true."
Sun paused and looked up at the stars as his mouth tugged into a frown.
"I just hope she's having more luck than we are, so far…"
Author's Note:
Corsac out in the water, his rescue, and him 'joining' the party has been in the plan for ages, about as far back as Sun and Ghira chopping wood in the forest behind the Belladonna manor. I've been waiting to write this for so long, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. Next chapter, we'll be checking in on Team BKQN. Ruby's team will have to wait a bit, but once we get there… hoo boy.
-RD