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Requested by : Laurel
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Back by… Very particular demand, lmao, thanks to Laurel.
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The district reactor was built into a towering building that spanned, from what he could see, from the ground to the surface. Where, he was told, there would be surface access and a landing pad. Somewhere standardised and specified for airships to offload Dust to power it, and onload empty canisters to ferry back to Vale proper. And, from what he could guess given the nature of Mountain Glenn, probably a convenient excuse for a sturdy support column a skyscraper's width and close to that in height.
Which was… Clever.
They had a decent view of it from two blocks away and sheltered on the fifth floor of an old, mostly collapsed shopping complex that spiralled half as high as the district's power system. Almost everything above them was just rubble, which sloped off to either side all the way down to the base level, floor by ruined floor. Which left them in the middle, like they were kneeling in a hidden room at the top of a pyramid of some kind. While, below them and between their little hiding place and the building, Grimm meandered to and fro.
"Thirty one." He grunted, kneeling at the hole in the wall they were using as a window. It was large enough for him to stick a head out, if he wanted, but no more. Turning, he looked into the room and said, "I haven't seen any more wander in."
"Good." River nodded, leaning back against the wall beside the top of the stairwell they'd climbed to get up to the hallway they were all resting in. Turning to peer down its ruined stretch, she said, "Still don't want to have to push through that many, though…"
"We could go over the roofs." He suggested, gesturing up the road with a jerk of his head. "Half block that way, we can scale a ruined building. It fell across the road, so it serves as a bridge into the next after floor seven or so."
"Into one building." River sighed, "How far will that get us, though?"
"Across the street." He answered frankly, "From there, we find our way."
"Alley could work, after." One of the others said, laying at the far end of the stairwell, head and shoulders resting on a door blown out by rubble from inside. "It'd be a thing, keeping direction, but…"
"We could always not go." Cerulean suggested quietly, "What do we gain by going there?"
"It's a strategic point." River explained simply, "The Faunus are going to have crew there, keeping the lights on. The heat."
"Might even be able to spot out other places they're nesting." The man from before said, adjusting on his comfortable looking spot. "Track power distribution from the control room and pick out hot spots. Nine out of ten times, that'll be a rat's nest."
"Rat's nest…?"
"Faunus camp." River explained, turning to shoot him a look, frowning deeply. "Old lingo."
"Mhm…" He sighed, turning back to keeping watch on the road down below.
"And they wonder why this conflict persists…" Guiding Light murmured, right into his ear. He nodded, ever so gently, and his Ghost hummed wearily. "Ah, well. Perhaps this little venture will be… Over, soon, and we can leave these Atlesians long behind."
"Sounds like a plan."
"What was that?"
"Talking to myself." He answered the woman without even turning to look back at her. "Ignore me."
"Alright…" She sighed, standing and coming over to kneel at the little view hole beside him. He shuffled over a bit, just enough to let her see out, and she frowned under her helmet. She leaned out and turned, looking up the street, and sighed again. Like she hated agreeing with him when she withdrew and said, "Cerulean has the best plan. Fifteen minutes to rest, recheck gear, and then we circle around to the back of that apartment building and use it to cross. And quietly."
"Yes, Ma'am." The other soldiers called out as she turned and rested against the wall.
"You should rest, too." She told him, "We've been running for a couple blocks already, and you've already fought more than a few Grimm."
"I'm fine."
"Trying to look tough is a good way to-"
"I know my limits more than you do." He growled, turning to give her a look sharply enough she actually flinched, just the tiniest fraction. Not out of fear, of course. She was a soldier, a firm tone wouldn't frighten her, obviously. But out of surprise? Definitely. Ignoring her, he turned back to watching the Grimm and frowned. "They're getting stirred up down there."
She turned to look out the window, sighed wearily in a resigned sort of way, then frowned a bit more and returned to her resting spot, rifle across her chest, and growled, "Well, I'll just let you do you, I suppose."
He considered responding, for a moment, but…
It was better not to stir the Grimm up, he decided.
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Inside, the generator complex was humid and hot and almost foggy, with a dull, thrumming roar that rumbled lowly in a tone that ached in her ears. Her breath stank just enough to bother her behind her borrowed mask but experience taught her that it was just the Dust burning. Red Dust as impure as they tended to find it burned dirty, and left the lower level she was passing through clouded by smoke. It scratched at her throat, too, and that same experience told her that her throat would be sore the next day.
If she made it there…
"Hurry up!" She heard a booming baritone growl as she pushed through a door and into a mostly empty warehouse with a door at the other end that lead into a hall that curved around to the generators to either side. Banesaw stood over the last dozen or so White Fang, stacking and tying up the last supply crates on a rolling trolley, and he growled, "We have to get out of here. Now! Before Atlas shows."
"Got it, Boss." One answered, grabbing the handle of one of the carts and turning it. "Taking this one out now."
"Good." Banesaw nodded, turning at her approach and sighing deeply. "You're back."
"I am." Neither had wanted to see each other again, but she dropped the old Scroll she was carrying on one of the crates and frowned. "Took a hit while I was out there. Beowolf, cracked it."
"Replaceable. People are not." He gave her a look, and the question was clear.
"Brought them all back, just fine aside from some scrapes and scares. Kids could use some rest, but… Well, they're waiting on floor eight." She said, crossing her arms and jerking her head back the way she'd come, to where the stairs were. The elevator, too, but… With everything happening, no one was using those except to carry the trolleys of Dust crates up towards the surface.
"Good work." He nodded, then paused and sighed. "Thank you."
"That looked painful…"
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be." Banesaw snapped hotly, turning and pulling out his own Scroll. "Watcher four, report. What's the route like to the old apartment bridge?"
No one answered until a few seconds passed and a woman asked, panic laced throughout her words, "Uh… Four? Are you out there? Four?! Franklin, answer the damn line!"
"Sarah," Banesaw snapped, "calm down."
"But-"
"Blake." He grunted, closing the Scroll and turning toward her, leaning on the crates beside him and bowing his head slightly, "Can you head for the apartment-bridge? A couple blocks that way," he pointed, "look out post. I need to know if ground crews are clear to make a run."
"Alright." She nodded, "After?"
"Depends." He shrugged, "If Grimm got them, kill 'em. If Atlas did, you won't kill 'em."
"Obviously."
"So sneak off." He shrugged, "That case, it's too late for you to-" Gunshots, muted through the concrete, snatched her attention away and she spun towards them. Banesaw, more than experienced with Faunus whose hearing was superior, immediately went quiet and asked, "What?"
"Gunshots."
"Grimm?" A second passed and more gunfire echoed through the walls and the floor.
"No." She shook her head, "It's coming from outside and inside. So-"
"It's not just first line." Banesaw growled, shaking his head and turning to the Faunus still working at getting the last Dust together, rushing now as much as they could with Dust canisters. "Forget it. Set charges and get out."
"But-"
"Do it." He snarled, turning to Blake and shaking his head. "You won't help."
"I can't…"
"Won't." Banesaw barked, "Go. Get out."
She nodded and turned, jogging away while the man barked orders into his Scroll.
She already had her exit planned, and scaled the stairs nearly three at a time as she headed for the seventh floor, and a stretch of rooms where the walls had been blown out and the Faunus hadn't dared set up camp. From there, she could sneak away into Mountain Glenn and head back out the way she'd come in, through an old service lift. But, as she leaned out to climb down an old access ladder, she felt the entire building shake right above her.
On the eighth floor…
She froze, hand shaking around one of the old, weakened rungs, and bit her lip until it hurt. She'd done enough, she knew that. The Fang would have the kids on the way out already. To the surface, then to Menagerie. She should leave, get back to Vale to find a hotel she could make her excuses for staying at. Staying here was stupid! Stupider than anything she'd done for-
Above her, a wall exploded in arcs of electricity, showering her in rubble and she hissed. "Explosives…?"
No… Atlas' explosives didn't trail electricity like that. Which meant-
"Hunter…" The Faunus couldn't keep a Hunter at bay long enough for the others to get away. And if Atlas got them… She pulled herself up and snarled behind her mask, "Damn it!"
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Cerulean lunged as another White Fang soldier in a ragged uniform came for him, swinging his sword wildly. The sword went over the Guardian's head as he came in and slammed his shoulder into the woman's sternum, using his weight, with all his armor, to bear her into the wall behind her hard enough she snapped back against it and collapsed, groaning. A second came from behind him and he pivoted at the waist, snapping an elbow into his mask with enough force to crack it and throwing his head and shoulders back as his feet tried to carry him forward, which sent him wheeling through the air as he flopped on top of the first woman and the hallway fell into tense silence.
Aside from a dull, distant, thrumming roar Guiding Light told him came from the generator.
"Clear!" He called, turning to the door into the room they'd managed to climb to along the ruined exterior before they ran into a Fang soldier.
The team swept out almost before he'd finished speaking, splitting their unit to either side and leaning against the walls while River took the center. The hall ended and split a few feet away, going off to either side, and two soldiers moved to peer around the corners while River came to him and frowned, looking between him and the downed Faunus. Before he could ask what the problem was, she sighed.
"We'll handle the Faunus from here." She said, "You stay in the room. Hold our exit against the Grimm."
"You don't want my assistance?" He asked, more… Suspicious than he was against the idea. Why he was suspicious, he couldn't say.
But there was an odd instinct, in the back of the mind and cold in his gut, that made him concerned.
"Your job is just the Grimm, far as I care." She answered coolly, turning to look down at one of the Faunus when she groaned and rolled onto her side, clutching her ribs. "We're past the Grimm, so while we do our job you do yours. Cover our asses against the Grimm. We'll need an exit no matter what, and worst comes, we'll need a quick one."
"Alright." He nodded, slipping by her, "Good luck."
"Mhm." She grunted, waiting until he reached the door to add, to the others. "LVTs. Category four."
He only had a half-second to consider the words before Guiding Light hissed, "Guardian-!"
Two twin bursts of two rounds each cut the Ghost off and he spun, drawing his hand cannon on pure instinct. He expected Faunus, expected a fight. Instead, he froze, watching the red spread across the white of the Faunus' uniforms. Faunus he'd already dealt with. Already put down…
"What…" He shook his head, something… Hot building in him, suddenly. Roaring up from his stomach as River turned and pursed her lips. Shaking his head, he let his gun arm drop and shook his head. "What did you do?"
"Low Value Targets." She answered simply, "Not worth extracting, through the Grimm. If you have a problem with that-"
"Of course I do!" He snarled, "I beat them! They weren't a threat!"
"How do you expect us to protect them all the way to evac?" River asked hotly, "How many Atlesians should we put between terrorists and Grimm? They aren't worth it."
"That isn't up to you!"
"I am the commanding officer here!" River argued, gesturing back the way they'd come and going on, "It literally is up to me. If you can't stomach us doing our jobs, then find your own way out."
"But…"
"You'll still get paid, mercenary." River sighed, snapping her fingers and apparently ordering the other soldiers watching the hall to turn to face him. "That's all your type cares about, right?"
"I'm a-" Guardian, he almost said, before he cut himself off and shook his head. "I protect people! I don't murder them on the ground!"
"You aren't a soldier, mercenary." River said like it explained everything, shrugging when he just shook his head. "Orders straight from the General. And if the General says it, we do it. That's the job."
"You're insane…"
"No, we're soldiers and good soldiers follow-"
"They'll kill everyone!" A woman suddenly cut in as she slipped around the corner behind River and leapt for the closest soldier. She landed on his shoulders and bore him down, face first into the floor, and cracked him across the head twice. Hard enough he didn't try and get back up. One of the others turned for her and she turned, gun snapping up to put two rounds through his calf and drop him, too.
"Any Faunus too poor for the city comes to the Fang!" The cat-eared woman hissed as River spun to face her and brought her rifle up. "There's kids on this floor! Families! Atlas won't care-"
Automatic fire shoved her back and she stumbled, turning and rolling around the corner as the Atlesians reformed and alternated peppering her corner with short, accurate bursts of fire. River let her standing soldiers slip by and snarled, "Huntress! Mercenary, we need you or we're going to-"
Cerulean took her by the back of her armor and turned her around, shoving her against the wall with his free arm against her throat, and asked, "What about the kids?"
River was quiet for a moment, as one of her men turned to her, before she said, "We'll get 'em out, of course."
He wanted to believe her, of course, but… He'd seen how Vale treated the Faunus. Heard how Atlas was worse, and heard how they talked about them. Did she even consider the White Fang and the Faunus separate at all? Or were they the same, in her eyes? In the General's eyes?
Finally, he shook his head and said, "I don't-"
A burst of heavy, automatic slammed into his head and took him by surprise, ripping through his Light barrier as another burst caught him in the side and threw him toward the outer wall. He turned and put a shot into the man's armor, hoping it would stall there and just knock him back.
Instead, it punched through and impacted something past it with a heavy metal 'thwack' and he collapsed against the wall and slid down it.
"Bastard!" He turned as a rifle butt slammed into his helmet and knocked him aside. He caught it when it came again and turned, pitching River against the corner of the door while the Huntress screamed and ran out of cover, tackling the last soldier into the wall and turning, using her weight to hurl him across the hall before she followed, a machete in her hand now that she brought down on his rifle. It came apart, but he couldn't follow what else she did after River threw her rifle at Cerulean's face as he stepped toward her.
He batted it away, but she was already drawing her sidearm. His came up on instinct, to answer, and both fired.
His helmet snapped back as two rounds ripped through the corner of his visor and the center, shattering it and spraying glass into his eyes. He snarled in pain, blinded by the shards, and turned to call Guiding Light out with a hand while he blind-fired another three rounds in River's direction.
"I have you." The Ghost whispered, coating him insoothing, mending Light that restored his vision instantly. As he vanished, the Ghost said, "We can repair your helmet. Later."
He ignored the Ghost, though, looking down as River clutched the hole he'd blown in her throat in both hands. She snarled as she fought the bleeding and he knelt, reaching for her as one hand fell away-
He caught the hand she tried to use to drive a knife into his side by the wrist and sighed, "Why?"
"Soldiersh. Follow…" She went still, finally, and slid to the side as he hand fell away and Cerulean's stomach sank.
He stood as footsteps reached him and he turned, meeting the masked face of the Faunus from earlier. She paid River a glance, then turned to him and said, "I… Heard your argument. I thought I could help."
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"I'm alive." He said, his voice echoing in the open air, now. And… Reminding her of something, somehow. She ignored it, listening as he turned and asked, "What do we do next?"
"We leave." She answered, "No other squads are nearby. The Fang are retreating, so we just… Leave, now."
"You're not a member?"
"No. I just…" She sighed, shaking her head and turning toward the hallway, ears flicking at a distant echo of footfalls. White Fang, probably. Heading up stairs, with smaller, faster steps intermingling. Which had to be the little ones. "I helped set up this camp, a long time ago. I couldn't just let the good people I knew here die because of a handful of bad ones, you know?"
"Mhm." He nodded, "You lead, I follow."
"Right." She nodded, turning to him and pursing her lips. They had to have met before… Then, she remembered and muttered. "The airport."
"I'm sorry…?"
"Thinking out loud." She answered, shaking her head and turning. "Come on."
He was the Huntsman that went along with team Cardinal, on their mission before the Breach. She recognized his voice, now, even with his helmet damaged. Shaking the risk of staying near him and being recognized off, she turned and knelt by the man she'd shot and reached for him.
"Let me help you, and we'll-" A knife scraped off her Aura and she scrambled back as he snarled.
"Fuck of, animal!"
"I'm not-" She shook her head, "I'm trying to help you. If Banesaw finds you-"
"If he doesn't want help, leave him." The Huntsman grunted quietly, almost… Distantly, somehow. She turned to him and he just gestured at the still unconscious first man she'd taken down. "Let them get out together."
She didn't like it, but…
"Fine." She nodded, "Come on."
Getting out was harder, now, with the Grimm stirred up by the gunfire and all the heavy emotions from the soldiers. But stealth was her element, and Cerulean, as he had introduced himself before and did again, quietly, when she asked, was decent at it as well. What few Grimm they came across they dispatched easily and quietly, between her blades and his axe. But, even knowing where she recognized him from now, she couldn't help a strange… Feeling, around him.
One she couldn't quite place…
But, finally, they emerged at the edge of Mountain Glenn's broken wall, right where she'd snuck in, and she turned, "You know the way back to Vale?"
"Well enough." He nodded, "You?"
"I'm going my own way." She said, "No offense, but…"
"Secret identity." He guessed halfheartedly, gesturing at her mask and turning. "Goodby then."
She watched him go and frowned, turning back to Mountain Glenn and trying to quash the guilt already welling up in her gut. "You idiots should have let me help you…"
But you couldn't force a horse to drink, she knew.
So she turned and jogged off, headed home as the dawn started creeping along the horizon. Getting to Beacon was a no go, but… She knew a few hotels that'd be happy to take a bribe to say she'd stayed overnight. And who would question a Huntress wanting a night on the town?
And, a distant part of her mind wondered…
What had that strange flash been, back in the hallway? She knew she'd seen it, but he didn't have a light…
"Let it go." She grumbled, fatigue finally catching up with her. "You have a long enough day not to worry about weird stuff like that…"
At least, for now…
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Guiding Light floated along behind his Guardian in silence, for a while. The sun was coming up, and it looked beautiful, but the armored Risen didn't seem to be paying it any attention. And he could guess why, given what had happened. So, after a while, he let his cloak fall and slid past him to float along backwards.
"Guardian, are you…"
"I didn't mean to kill anyone." He said quietly, "I just…"
"You defended yourself." Guiding Light said, trying his best to reassure him. "But… They chose their path, and it wasn't one you knew you were on. And they couldn't be allowed to keep going."
"I suppose…"
"Just think of the lives you saved," he told the man, "and keep moving forward, to save more. It's all that you can do, now."
"I know." Cerulean sighed, "I'm just… I need time."
"Alright." He answered, "Time you have."
And plenty of it, too, he left unsaid. Guiding Light himself had lived for centuries, by now, and Cerulean would, too. This was a low point in their long journey, sure, but… Nothing could rob them of their tomorrow. And of all the hope that came with it.
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"She came to… Help?"
"Y-Yes, Boss." The tiny Faunus said, sitting in a cramp looking room and looking nervously into the screen. "Helped out with some evac, dealt with a few Atlesians we, uh, cleaned up the usual way and… Banesaw let her leave."
"I see." Adam frowned, pursing her lips and leaning against the wall of his cabin in the small ship he'd paid to ferry him from Mistral to Vale. So, Banesaw thought he could betray him, too, then…
"I will deal with this personally." He nodded, turning back to the screen and frowning. "Good work, Perry."
"I-It doesn't feel very go-"
Adam hung up and sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I hate sheepish so-called Faunus…"
But as long as he was loyal, Adam would put up with people like Perry. For now. Banesaw, though, needed a more… Immediate consideration. Before more Faunus thought they had a right to go against him, too, without paying the price.
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I still need practice at multiple people with guns fighting lmfao.
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Anonymous Pumpkin (Laurel) :
His death is ambiguous, but largely, he just died out there. The details are left purposefully unsaid, for now.
Cantstopreadingpleasehelpmeh :
Yeah I got voluntold to keep going as you can see lmao.
RohanVos :
Oh see it she did. XD
She doesn't know WHAT she saw but… See it she did!
Dark Draco :
If you 'get tired' of seeing black people, you're a racist. If you 'get tired' of seeing women, you're a sexist. On and on.
