Chapter 68: One Way Trip

In which Yang lands in Mistral, Azeban has lunch, and Weiss nearly dies again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're approaching our final descent into Mistral. Please close your tray tables and ensure your seatbelts are securely buckled. We know you have many options when you fly, so we'd like to take a moment to offer our thanks for choosing Shopkeep Air."

Stretching her arms up…her arm up, Yang stepped off the airship and took a look around. She'd landed in northern Mistral, exactly where the latest reports of major bandit activity had been sighted. It was kind of funny; she'd only had her robotic arm for a few weeks, but she felt naked without it. Getting it through a metal detector would've been a nightmare, though, so it had to join Bumblebee and Ember Celica as baggage.

Killing Raven wasn't going to be easy. When your opponent had a semblance that was literally a get-out-of-trouble-free card that could instantly teleport them away from the battlefield, a head-on approach wouldn't work. Poison might work, but that required her to get access to Raven's food. A sneak attack had been the next idea, but a bandit queen and master huntress like Raven probably kept her aura up all the time. Plus, she kind of wanted to see the look on her bitch of a fake mother's face when she got her ass kicked by the same daughter she'd abandoned. Bloody revenge as a gratifying form of cathartic, self-indulgent healing was the whole point of this, anyways.

Thus, Yang was going to have to do this the old fashioned way. However, she saw no reason to pass on stacking the odds in her favor. Raven might be the leader of the Branwen tribe, but that title wouldn't mean jack shit when there wasn't a Branwen tribe to lead. If Yang could take our all of Raven's allies, there would be nowhere for her to run. No friends, no emotional bonds, no portals out of there. Well, except for Uncle Qrow, but he wanted that bitch dead as much as Yang did.

The first order of business was to find the Branwen tribe. Yang would pick them off one by one until it was just her and Raven. Then, it was time for some good old-fashioned matricide.

Walking through the halls of Haven Academy, Azeban felt about as comfortable as a prostitute in a church. This place was literally founded for the express purpose of telling him to fuck off and die. Glass cases full of weapons seemed to glare at him as he strolled by on all fours. Even though most of the students and teachers were occupied by midterm exams, all it would take was one of them leaving the classroom for a piss break to ruin this. Of course, the alternative was meeting Watts outside of the academy and being carried to Lionheart in a cat-carrier, so maybe this little stroll along death's door was not so bad.

The headmaster's office came into view, and Azeban broke into a run to complete the home stretch. Raising a paw, he rapped twice on the door before glancing over his shoulders. The voices within ceased and after a moment, the door opened just a crack. Leonardo Lionheart stuck his head out, looked both ways (and not down), and quickly shut the door.

Azeban sighed and knocked again. This time, he slipped into the room between the old Faunus' legs when the door opened.

Azeban nodded to Watts. "Doctor."

Lionheart nearly tripped over himself when he spotted the horseman beneath his feet. Watt, on the other hand, nodded back, his eyes swimming with mischief.

"Rat."

"If you wish to insult yourself by inaccurately classifying me, that's your call. But I do believe you were the one to summon me, were you not?"

"I suppose I was."

"D-Doctor Watts, what is that…thing?"

"That, dear Leonardo, is a Grimm."

"Again, boy, it's up to you if you wish to be wrong…though here I was thinking you prided yourself on intelligence."

"What's a Grimm doing in my office?"

"What's an Atlesian criminal doing in your office?"

"Those charges were never proven, rat."

"Because they thought you were dead, boy."

"Do not call me boy."

"To me, you may as well be a toddler. I am your elder by centuries."

"And I am your better, Grimm."

This was going nowhere. Azeban scurried to the top of the bookshelf and leapt onto the headmaster's head. From there, he hopped to the desk before the old Faunus could shriek. Grabbing hold of the upper drawer's handle by his hind paws, he dangled upside down and opened the bottom drawer. A Seer Grimm floated out.

"My Queen," he greeted, righting himself and offering a bow as Salem's visage appeared in the sphere's center.

"Azeban. I see you've made it to Haven."

"Yes, my Queen. Though it seems that the local wildlife is feeling, eh, less than cooperative."

"Doctor Watts. Headmaster. Please don't dillydally. Tyrian reports that the Spring maiden has been captured."

Watts grinned beneath his mustache and jutted out his jaw. "Mmmmm, already? My my, Tyrian. You put the rest of us to shame."

The bumbling Faunus oaf, on the other paw, seemed taken aback by this announcement. "Captured? But the Spring maiden has eluded us for years! And if she'd been training all this time, she must be a force to be–"

A tentacle wrapped around his neck, silencing his prattle.

"Raven Branwen was the Spring maiden for those years, and Azeban killed her. Now, Ruby Rose has succeeded her. She is young, inexperienced, and new to her powers. Untrained, she cannot yet tap into them. With her, the lamp will soon be ours. I've ordered Tyrian to take her directly to Haven before bringing her to me."

The tentacle rescinded, and Lionheart massaged his neck.

Watts scratched his chin at this revelation. "I don't believe you'll be able to control the boy for that long, Alan Whatshisface. Honestly, I'd suspect he's simply waiting for Tyrian to turn his back. Never trust a Faunus."

Lionheart coughed pointedly.

"Present company included. Very much included."

Azeban grabbed the Seer with both paws and shook it violently. "So, what are we to do?"

Salem, either unaware of Azeban's actions towards her vassal Grimm or uncaring of them, answered. "When the girl is forced to open the vault, she may become more…in tune with her powers. It is even possible that she will resist. Should that happen, it will take more than the three of you and Tyrian to detain her. Amass a greater force than you currently possess and bring her to me. Alive."

The last word was delivered with steel in the Queen's voice, and Azeban knew that killing her would be viewed just as unfavorably as losing her.

"The Faunus boy?" asked Watts, stroking his chin.

"Tyrian will handle him."

Azeban plucked a tentacle off the Seer and shoved it into his mouth. "Can you send us Kraken? We could use a ride if we're taking this girl across the seas to the castle."

"I shall consider it, my child, though I doubt he will arrive in time. Though I must point out, if you need allies…you are already in Mistral."

If Azeban had a digestive system, it might've shit itself. "Th-Thrace is certainly busy. Definitely. Busy little beaver, that one is, what with the upkeep of our contract to Leo here."

"Azeban."

"I'd hate to disturb him. He's overworked enough as it is–"

"Azeban!" she barked.

"Very well, my Queen."

Even though Azeban was not bound to obey Salem as the other horsemen were, he still knew that this wasn't the hill to die on. Thrace was a loose cannon, but there was no denying that his presence in any battle would likely turn the tide. That breath of his…Azeban shuddered.

Still, Salem was the greater monster, and he'd already forced her to raise her voice. Azeban was aware that as the horseman of choice, he already danced on the edge of the dark chasm simply by his existence. Any defiance could spell the end.

Watts cleared his throat, saving Azeban from Salem's ire. "I recall a contact from my younger days who was quite adept at procuring…less than legal items. One Little Miss Malachite, if I do recall correctly. I believe she and her Spiders may be available for hire…for the right price." The good doctor placed an arm around Lionheart's shoulder. "I'm sure a well-paid headmaster can help me out with financing an army for hire."

Lionheart gulped.

"Excellent. This it is decided. Azeban shall seek out Thrace, and Watts shall obtain the aid of these Spiders."

Azeban would've rolled his eyes if he had pupils. Of course the humans got to play patty-cake with some lethal criminal mastermind while he was stuck with the hard job.

"Excellent plan, my lady."

"Oh, uh, yes. Yes, Queen Salem."

"As you command. Erm, one last thing. May I…?"

Salem sighed and grunted in approval. Azeban smashed the Seer against the table, not hard enough to kill it, but just enough to burst it open so that the really tasty juices inside leaked out. As he lapped them up, he could feel the humans' eyes fill with disgust. It didn't matter, though; he was the one filling his tummy with a nutritious meal, while they had to go hungry.

"Ugh, you Grimm are sick beasts. Eating your own." Azeban flipped Watts the middle finger of his paw without looking away from the tangy syrup.

The Faunus raised a hand. "Uh…Allison…"

"Azeban."

"Azeban. What exactly is a, um, Thrace?"

The Seer ran out of blood, so Azeban crushed it to death, crawled over to the windows, unlocked them, and crawled out. No way was he running the schoolyard gauntlet again.

"Thrace is destruction."

"I hope they'll be okay," said Weiss.

"I'm sure Friend CEO Whitley and Friend Miss Kali will do excellently," said Penny, reassuringly.

"I just feel bad," admitted Weiss. "I only just got back, and now I'm already leaving."

"Our presence was not without benefit – we dispatched all members of the White Fang on the premises of the manor. Furthermore, I am not sure that staying would have been any better. Friend CEO Whitley will have a tough enough time reforming the SDC as it is, and due to the public's misguided image of your beliefs, your presence at his side would only serve to undermine his new initiatives."

"I guess Blake was right after all," Weiss said bitterly. "In the end, it took murder and mayhem to get any real change done."

"While I believe that Blake was neither a good person nor a good friend, I will admit that it would be wasteful to not attempt to salvage some positives out of the outcome of her actions. If it were possible, I would not hesitate to go back in time and attempt to stop her from all of the pain and death she brought to Beacon. Unfortunately, we cannot, so our only option is to move forward and use her actions to our benefit, however reprehensible we may find them. Perhaps this way, Friend Russel and Doctor Oobleck's deaths will not be in vain."

"You're right about that, Penny. Now, where are we headed?"

"Friend Ruby contacted me moments ago in response to a text message, stating that she is on her way to Mistral City. She advised us to meet her there. Headmaster Lionheart had been advised and will be waiting for us upon our arrival."

"Excellent. How soon can you book a–"

"Done. Would you prefer window or aisle?"

Weiss would never admit it, but it was nice to travel in style once again. Her allowance had been significantly downsized by Father when she left for Beacon, but Whitley had promised her his complete support from here on out. Weiss had vehemently offered to stay, but Whitley was the one to insist that he would be fine with Kali, and that her teammates needed her more.

That had been an awkward conversation. Weiss had forced herself to admit to Kali that she was the one to land the final blow that killed Blake. She had been fully prepared to endure any revilement from Kali, but the older woman had simply nodded and asked some questions about her daughter's time in Beacon. Blake apparently hadn't seen Kali since the White Fang split them apart (save for a very brief meeting to recruit Kali into her scheme), and Kali had wanted every little detail about who her daughter had become before she died – how she did in school, what she liked to eat, her favorite books. Weiss had told the woman everything. She wasn't sure why, but she also told Kali how she'd loved her daughter. It just felt like…someone should know, someone close to Blake, just so it wasn't lost.

In the end, they'd parted on good terms. Kali seemed to accept that Weiss had been forced to kill Blake with no other option, and she promised to regularly updated Weiss on her brother's endeavors. Weiss had also warned Kali to never let a woman calling herself Winter Schnee anywhere near her or Whitley.

Weiss and Penny say in first class aboard the airship. Mistral City was a long way from Atlas, and their flight was expected to take several hours. Penny had placed her solar panel up against the window of the airship, so Weiss decided that now was as good a time as any to catch up on some rest. Pulling a blindfold over herself, she sat still and waited for the calming embrace of sleep to wash over her.

Crescent Rose was in Weiss' hands. Help wasn't coming. She needed to act, or Ruby and Yang were going to die. She needed to move!

Blake had just swung Gambol Shroud, blinding Ruby and stopping the endless stream of silver light. There was no time to waste. Weiss swung the scythe with all her might, and the blade went straight into the Faunus' back, the tip poking out just above stomach. Dark blood poured out of the wounds, and Blake slumped to the ground. Weiss resisted the urge to check on her and instead rushed to the sisters. Yang was bleeding profusely from the wounds that Myrtenaster had given her. Weiss frantically tore off strips of fabric from her skirt and pressed them to stop the flow of blood.

"Help! Help, please!"

This was the hospital. Where were all the doctors? Yang groaned and shifted as Weiss tried to summon a time dilation Glyph to slow down the bleeding, but her aura was too low, and the Glyph disappeared as soon as it was created.

"Stay with me, Yang! Don't you die on me! Not after everything we've been through! I can't lose…n-not in the same night!"

Green light poured through the frozen doorway, and the ice melted quickly.

"Friend Weiss!"

"P-Penny? Help me! Ruby's stable, but Yang is losing blood fast…"

"I will tend to Friend Yang. You must check Friend Ruby. We may still be able to save her!"

Penny grabbed some medical equipment off the shelf and began to treat Yang, moving with lethal accuracy as though she had planned out Yang's treatment from start to finish. Having access to the entire Atlesian database, she probably had some medical knowledge, so Weiss decided to trust her. Ruby was howling like a Beowolf and clutching at her eyes, but the fact that she was still conscious meant that she was probably going to live. Weiss dragged herself to her fallen leader and pulled Ruby's hands away from her face.

Weiss had done this before.

She remembered that Ruby's trademark silver eyes were supposed to be blinded. The corneas would remain silver, but her pupils had changed into a milky white when the blood stopped.

Except they weren't blinded or white right now. They were something else.

"Friend Weiss!"

"No!" screamed Weiss. "This isn't right! This isn't real!"

"Friend Weiss!"

"Penny, something's wrong with Ruby's eyes. This isn't how it happened!"

"Friend Weiss!"

Weiss pulled off her blindfold to see Penny's freckled face pressed close to hers.

"Friend Weiss, you must wake up. The airship is going down. I've sent out a call of help, but we need to evacuate now!"

"What happened?"

There were screams behind them.

"A creature of Grimm!"

"Just one? We're huntresses! We can stop it!"

"Not this one."

Weiss looked out the window to see both engines ablaze. The other passengers were frantically being led by the pilots and cabin crew to the front of the ship where the escape pods were. A low hum came from outside. Weiss stepped across to the other side of the airship and peered out the window.

The Grimm was massive, larger than anything Weiss had ever seen. It must've been 30 feet, no, 50 feet tall. Eight feathery tentacles descended from a dark black dome lined with enormous claws. Weiss had only ever read about Tempest Grimm before, and most of the books she'd seen them in dismissed them as half myth, likely exaggerated by frightened pilots and inexperienced airmen. Now, there was one leisurely coiling its barbed tentacles around the wing of her airship, so she figured that those books had probably been the mistaken party.

The wing began to crack as the Tempest pulled on it, and the metal hull of the ship began to creak. Weiss looked down out the window and saw that they were probably only about five miles from land.

"Those escape pods are not going to make it if we don't do something, Penny."

"It is too large to eliminate, Friend Weiss. Even my laser cannons would only be able to wound it."

"We don't need to kill it. We just need to slow it down enough for these people to escape. Quickly, seal the door!"

Penny shot a sword out of her back and stabbed the control panel by the front door, locking the two of them in. Weiss reinforced her stance with a gravity Glyph and shattered the window, causing a loud stream of air to flow out the opening. Aiming for the tentacle grabbing the ship, Weiss launched a barrage of ice shards. The Grimm did not scream (it had no mouth and was likely incapable), but the humming changed pitch. Weiss shot more ice at the tentacle until it was severed off of the Tempest's body, and the airship lurched forward at the sudden release.

Weiss saw another tentacle shoot towards her. Penny looped a sword around her and pulled Weiss out of the way with its string before the Tempest could grab her, but the gargantuan limb tore off the entire right wall of the airship, taking much of the roof along with it. The noise of air whooshing by them intensified as they were exposed to the fast-moving atmosphere relative to their vessel. Both girls were thrown to the back wall of the ship. The Grimm shook free the broken chunk of metal from its tentacle, and it fell to the ocean below. The engines failed, and they began to lose altitude.

Weiss could barely hear Penny's shouting. "Friend…pods…gone!"

"What?"

Penny pointed out the opening, and Weiss saw the tiny escape pods parachuting down to safety. Atlas rarely ever put enough evacuation pods into their transport bullheads for international flights, but this trip had only been booked half full.

As the final escape pod popped free of the failing airship, Weiss watched in horror as a tentacle wrapped around it. She tried to raise Schachmatt to summon a fire Glyph, but the high velocity air whipping against her made it impossible to lift her arm without feeling like it was about to break.

"Penny, help them!"

Swords shot out of Weiss' partner towards the evacuees, but another tentacle caught them before they hit their mark. The Tempest yanked on the string-attached weapons and dragged Penny towards the outside of the airship. Weiss desperately managed to grab hold of her boot before the robot was thrown out entirely.

Unfortunately, Weiss' grip was not stronger than a Tempest's, and the Grimm jellyfish simply threw them both towards the sea. Penny shot another sword towards the Grimm's head and was able to harpoon one of its teeth, but it wasn't enough to seriously damage it. Weiss held on for dear life as she and her partner dangled from the Grimm. If the winds had been strong inside the airship, then they were downright tremendous outside of it. The Grimm had now tangled itself thoroughly within the rapidly nosediving ship's destroyed chassis, and Weiss, Penny, and the last escape pod were being taken along for the ride.

Once we've saved those people, Penny can fly us down to safety. We just need to break its grip for a moment…

Weiss held tightly to Penny's foot and used her other hand to create a Summoning Glyph. A miniature swarm of Ursa crawled out, climbed their way up Penny's strings, and began to attack the Tempest, but they were just a distraction. Weiss focused with everything she had and made a second Summoning Glyph. The two simultaneous Glyphs took a lot of her aura and brought her a splitting headache, but there was no other way. A snowy Geist flew out of the second Glyph.

Weiss' father had forced her to fight a copy of the possession based Grimm while it had haunted a suit of armor, something of an aptitude test before he acquiesced to her attendance at Beacon, but the Grimm had tried to escape by fleeing the armor. She'd still managed to vanquish it, and now it seemed that killing it in its natural form was a blessing. The summoned Geist swam through the air towards the half-destroyed airship, now barely distinguishable from scrap metal, and disappeared into it.

The Tempest had wrapped its arms so deeply into the airship that there was nothing it could do when the metal came alive. Weiss willed her Geist to move, and the hull of the ship crunched itself down on the tentacles. The real Grimm's humming changed pitch once more as it tried and failed to disentangle itself.

The wing of the ship bent towards the Tempest, and Weiss watched in relief as the engines came back to life and shot flames into the dome-shaped head. The Tempest let go of the last escape pod and instead used that tentacle to wrap around the engines and tear off the airship's wing, but Weiss let her summoning Glyphs fade away as her aura approached the low yellow, something she knew by sheer familiarity with her body's limits after years of hard combat. They were above land, the passengers were safe, and Penny could carry her to safety. Let the Grimm die in the shipwreck when it crashed, for all Weiss cared – it didn't matter now.

Penny's rocket boots activated. She moved her palm backwards and the string leading to her sword tensed, but it didn't come back to her.

"…stuck…on teeth!"

Shit! Based on how high they were, they'd have no more than ten seconds before they hit the ground. There was no time to send another Summon up there and free them.

With no other option, Weiss pulled herself forward to the middle of Penny's body and grabbed hold of Schachmatt. Penny's back compartment was wide open and only one string coming out of it. Weiss sawed at it with her weapon for two seconds before it snapped. The Grimm, the airship, and the sword all were caught up in the fiery inferno when they collective masses shook the surface of Remnant. Penny and Weiss pulled up at the last second, avoiding the crash, but it wasn't enough to stay in the air. Both girls burst down through the treetops, and Weiss lost her grip on Penny as she fell.

Tree branches broke as she hit them, slowing her fall, but her aura still dropped down into the red when she landed. She probably would've died it Penny hadn't tried to level off before they hit. Instead of landing perpendicular to the ground, she probably hit it at 30°.

"P-Penny…" Weiss feebly muttered. The Atlesian robot was nowhere to be seen, likely having crashed into a tree or fallen elsewhere. Weiss managed to flip herself over just in time to see the last bits of the Tempest disintegrate.

That will be a useful one to summon, she mused.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Weiss lifted herself up with her arms, but the pain was too great, and she fell back down. Her hands hurt. Her everything hurt.

"Hallelujah, it's raining women!"

Laughter broke out. Weiss inclined her head upwards to look at her rescuers, except they weren't rescuers. Weiss recognized the scruffy, poorly armed huntsman-wannabes by their crooked grins and illegal weapons instantly.

Bandits.

The leader stepped forward. "Looks like we've hit the jackpot, boys!"

Wait, she looks just like–

A boot to the face prevented Weiss from finishing that thought.

Omake

Tempest: *exists*

Weiss: I've seen enough tentacle hentai to know where this is going. Fuck this! *leaps out of plane*

Next Chapter: Nice – Nice.

Author's Notes

I think we all know who the bandit leader is…Willow Schnee.

A little clarification before people get the wild crazy fan theories going. The Tempest Grimm wasn't doing this on Salem's orders, it was just a wild Grimm that strayed away from the pack and tried to digest a local airplane. Penny couldn't phone it in to Salem to call it off since she was in A̶i̶r̶p̶l̶a̶n̶e̶ ̶M̶o̶d̶e Airship Mode

It's not cannibalism to eat a Seer since technical yonder Rakkoun is not a Grimm.

We're coming up on a big chapter next week – an important milestone for any up and coming author to reach.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!