"Well then, what do you say?"
Pyrrha didn't know what to say. On one hand it was yet another cliché plan, and not exactly one of the brightest ones, and that in itself was saying something considering the things her and the others got into back at Beacon. What Lil'Miss was proposing essentially boiled down to them sneaking into Haven and confronting the group responsible directly.
"Uh huh... right." Pyrrha refrained from any hostility or humor in her tone. "So... how exactly do you plan on going through with this?" She wanted at least some sort of explanation or reasoning before making any decisions, considering that stealth seemed to be a main theme of planning when it came to mischief on their end. In all honesty it sounded like something Blake would be down for, but unfortunately they had yet to reunite with her.
"They often collect protection money from the many businesses and merchants around the city." Lil'Miss told as a sly spark crossed her eyes. "They're dressed in uniform with masks and hoods to hide their identities, not unlike that of the White Fang. If you could get your hands on them you might be able to waltz right in depending on how they handle security checks, also there is a chance they might have some info on them that you can use."
That sounded a bit better, but Pyrrha still had some worries. "What if their security questions us or has another form of identification set up?"
"In the case of that I'd ask that you give me a call. I'll send a few men to cause a little 'accident' to draw away attention and you should be able to quickly get inside. How you infiltrate is up to you so long as it gets you in the building. From there you need to search for any sort of documentation on what they're planning, or if you're really desperate get a few words from the many grunts most likely patrolling or mingling about. Many of my men tend to get bored at times with nothing to do, and resort to small chatter amongst each other; I have no doubt it's the same inside."
"Alright." Pyrrha let out as her eyes narrowed. "So let's suppose we succeed and find something: are you going to want it sent to you?"
Lil'Miss smirked as she leaned back. "No need to hide your intentions, I know you don't trust me. I'll be completely honest with you: we're after the same thing, you and I. All I care for is getting them out of the picture, and whether you chose to do so lethally or not is entirely your decision. Have them arrested if you wish, or kill them if you choose. As long as they're not a thorn in my side anymore I'll consider it more than enough payment for any information you need to see the task through. Along with that I'll throw in a personal favor to sweeten the deal."
"Wow, you really hate those guys huh?" Nora commented as Lil'Miss chuckled.
"I suppose so."
"There has to be more to it though." Ren gave as Lil'Miss settled into a calm look, yet there was a considerable edge to both it and her words.
"I don't like it when people take what is mine. I've kept Mistral moving since I'd first settled here, and I'll be damned if I allow some start-up punks to trample all over my hard work." Lil'Miss settled back into an eased look. "So yes, you can say there's more to this, however that is my business, and my business alone. Now do we have a deal?"
"We need some time to think it over." Pyrrha told as the older woman nodded.
"Very well, how does a week sound? At that point I'll set my backup plans into motion, and I can guarantee they won't be nearly as elegant or gentle as what I'm sure you would have in store for them." Lil'Miss warned as Pyrrha looked back to the others, and with a few whispers she turned back.
"Deal."
"Good. I'll contact you when your time is up, or you can drop by if you make your decision earlier."
With that they left the shop, all the while everyone seemed to be cleaning up after the battle. Several were moving various amounts of rubble, while others had covered and cleared away some of the unfortunate few who fell prior to their involvement. Pyrrha scowled on the inside at the body bags being moved away, and the several clearly distraught who followed after. She counted at least four dead, but even one was too many in her book. Yet she knew there was nothing to be done, and that acceptance burned in her heart. Pyrrha hated the fact that they were so close to the chaos without knowing earlier. Had they been seated outdoors then they would have seen the Grimm immediately and have been able to stop anybody from dying.
Pyrrha shook herself, knowing full well there was no need to dwell on what could have been. All they needed to look towards now was the present, and how they would handle the challenge headed their way. However a slight ding drew away her attention and she saw Ruby pull out her scroll.
"We've got a message from uncle Qrow asking where we are." She said as Yang let out a sigh.
"Finally, he's back. So we telling him what happened or no? He might freak if he learns we talked with Lil'Miss on our own."
"I think we should. Even if he gets upset he still might be able to help us decide on whether to take her up on the plan." Ruby looked back to them. "But I want to know what you think first."
"I don't mind, he's done way worse before so he can't get too mad." Yang said as a smirk crossed her lips.
"He might be able to come up with a better idea if he doesn't like it, so I think it's a good idea." Jaune told as Ren nodded next to him.
"I agree with Jaune, we don't really have anything to lose other than pride."
"I'm with Renny." Nora stated with conviction as she leaned against the boy.
All of them looked to Pyrrha who had yet to answer, and all she could do was roll her eyes. "You should all know by now what my answer is."
"True." Yang's voice held a certain playfulness to it. "Loverboy already decided, and you'll follow right along."
It was clear to Pyrrha Yang was taunting her, but she never let it get to her and just waved the less enjoyable blond off.
"It's decided then. We'll get uncle Qrow's help."
The group set off, albeit with more grimace than drive. They were determined to put a stop to whoever was responsible for the current state of fear in Mistral, but the sight of just one attack from their foes was enough to have them question just how much damage the inevitable battles to come would entail.
Qrow didn't react all too kindly to what they had done.
"So let me get this straight: you explicitly ignored me when I said to head back to the room; you wandered directly into the one wildcard who could potentially cause problems; you fought directly against our foes in a easily visible public space, and to top it all off you agreed to a plan to infiltrate what you believe is the main hideout for our enemy; All without filling me in or even shooting a text my way?"
"Okay..." Yang stretched her words a bit with a small flinch. "Put like that it sounds pretty bad, but hear us out. In our defence we never went out looking to run into her again, it just so happened she ran a café."
"Yeah, but you weren't supposed to be out in the first place. We're trying to lay low here, and a day on the town is anything but." Qrow chastised with a stern look.
"You can't expect us to stay cramped up all the time in this tiny room, and besides, a little time to air out isn't so bad." Yang countered as Qrow raised a brow.
"And the fight in the streets? A little time out isn't so bad yeah, but the battle only served to draw attention. You should have just left. Sounds bad but when pushed Lil'Miss and her goons were more than capable of handling the situation, but until forced she'll use anyone at her disposal to do her dirty work; it just so happened she ran into you, and now our enemy is almost certain to know we're here."
"People were dying." Ruby's tone was surprisingly strong as she stepped forward between both him and the others. "Even if they could have handled the situation it still would have taken too long. I refuse to stand by and knowingly allow innocent people to die when there's something I can do about it."
Qrow grit his teeth, and yet there was a softness in his voice. "Nobody's saying saving them is wrong. You did what was right, as both a huntress and as a person. All I'm saying is that it drew attention to you, and now we have to assume our opponents know we're onto them, or at least looking into them. If you weren't there in the first place then none of this would have happened. There is a chance that the attack was specifically designed to draw out potential threats along with reaffirming their hold over everyone."
"But even so the attack would have still happened." Pyrrha spoke up this time with leveled conviction. "People would have still been in danger, and more would have died had we not been there. Along with that the enemy most likely knows about us already; I doubt there was only one spy after all. How can we call ourselves hunters if we choose to ignore the people we've trained our whole lives to protect?"
"You're right, it is your job to defend them, but it's also your job to defend humanity as a whole, and when it comes to making decisions as a hunter you have to ask if these smaller battles will ultimately lead to making things better, or worse. We could save a small group, but it may end up causing more damage later on. You need to be able to face these decisions with a thoughtful mind, and if you make the wrong call and more people end up dead because of what you did... what will you do then?"
Qrow's speech had everyone shift, each and every one of them looking uncertain on what to say. It seemed as though they couldn't find an answer to what Qrow had asked. Even Ruby was silent, only this time she held a look of confliction as she grit her teeth, hands shaking as what appeared to be a raggedness echoed within her breathing. They all wanted a definitive answer to what he asked, but they had nothing.
All save one.
"I would own it, and I would take full responsibility for the suffering I had caused." Pyrrha's tone was no different than her usual speak, and yet the blatant confidence she spoke with tore everyone from their doubts; with Ruby herself looking to the girl with a spark of wonder. "We can never know whether our decisions are right or wrong, and sometimes our choices could have the opposite effect of what we wanted, but even so I've always strived to do what I thought was right." Her eyes shifted to the veins along her arms, taking note of the apparent charcoal burn it left along her pale skin. "Sometimes we make the wrong choice over some misguided ideas or faith, and it costs us everything, but even then we can't let our fear of what could happen overshadow what will happen if we stand by and allow events to transpire on their own."
Qrow's lips shifted to a tiny smirk, which soon exploded into a cocky grin as he failed to hold back a series of chuckles. "Got me there; well said Grimm-knight. Good to know at least one of you has your emotions figured out." He looked to the others. "Take what she said to heart, because if you're dead set on making these types of dangerous choices you need to be willing to see it through no matter how much it hurts. Now then, how about we talk about this 'plan' of yours a little more."
Slowly they mellowed out and began storming up ideas for infiltration and what could occur, however Pyrrha found her mind wander slightly as a particularly disturbing realization had made itself known midway through her speech.
She was getting angrier and more abrasive, to the point where Pyrrha found it hard to recognise herself anymore. Her emotions almost went rampant at times, and disappeared at others. The girl at this point could only fathom one solitary question upon the realization of what her change was causing.
Am I still even myself anymore?
.
.
Ruby found herself in a dark room, lit only by a few candles lined along the walls. There was a massive table in the center which the four were seated around. Prim sat across from her, Gasket to her left, and Duster her right. In the center lay a map of a particular area of the desert, and while sat on her lap Pebble leaned closer while looking over it with childish interest.
"Shall we begin?" Prim proposed as they all looked to be in agreement. She nodded to Duster who placed his hand on the map, just above what looked like another part of the vast desert.
"This is where it all went down." The man stated as he looked over to Ruby with narrowed eyes. "We found it while scavenging for parts. Most who fly over the sands often throw their ruined utilities and chunks overboard. Despite being a little banged up we can usually get them working again."
"You're welcome by the way." Gasket quipped with quite a bit of a snarky tone, all the while Prim merely rolled her eyes.
"Regardless." Duster set them back on topic. "We ended up coming across something we'd not laid eyes on before; a small gem that was almost... distant."
Distant? Ruby admittedly didn't know what the man was getting at, but that was soon alleviated as Gasket saw fit to clarify.
"What he's trying to say is the gem appeared to be faded, and not in the color variety. It was almost ethereal, fading in and out of the physical world. It was similar to that of a specter, only much more real."
That cleared things up much more significantly, although it did little to explain what was really going on. Ruby pondered the information for a moment before asking her question.
"What's so special about this gem, and just what did it start?"
"Honestly that's what we'd like to know ourselves." Duster spoke with considerable irritation. "We tried to take it, only for it to burst apart and cover our whole ship at the time with some sort of fog. It-"
"It's killing us." Prim interrupted, and Duster silently leaned back while looking to her. "We're on the clock now, and if we can't figure out just what the gem did or how to reverse it's effects... well, I'm certain you can figure that out for yourself."
Ruby raised a brow, and yet allowed herself to push aside the sudden outburst. If she were any younger she'd have chalked that little scene up to the woman showing fear over her impending doom. The thought was scary enough: a mysterious item seemingly sets both you and all of your friends on the path to death, and there's nothing you can do about it. Ruby knew that fear well, having experienced it for what must have been hundreds of years at this point. She knew what it meant to be faced with your unstoppable end, and how many people would react to such a truth.
But she wasn't that same little girl anymore.
Ruby recognised the way Prim spoke, the way she hid her words, and most importantly of all the timing of which she had her little outburst. Prim had cut Duster off at the crucial point of his explanation: the very moment he would tell of what the gem did to them. Instantly this told Ruby that Prim was hiding something from her, however she was unable to truly decided on whether this was out of malicious intent or not. Prim along with all the others held a true fear for their lives, and what she'd seen being led into the base had been a textbook example of people being forced to accept their upcoming ends. All the signs had pointed to the claim of their potential doom being true, and still Prim had seen fit to withhold something.
Ruby had learned long long ago that forcing someone to spill their secrets was often much more harmful than good, and instead she'd focused on presenting herself as best of an ally as she could to allow them to naturally come clean with whatever dirt her friends or others had swept under the rug.
Ruby decided she would allow them their secrets for now, as she had now reason to seek them out yet; however she knew that could very well change with time, and she would be ready should the necessity of those secrets arise.
Prim clapped her hands. "We'll move out tomorrow. It's best to show you things directly rather than try to explain. Rest up, we'll need all the energy we can for tomorrow, because after we take our little trip we'll move right along into finding a way out of this mess."
Everyone took their leave, with Prim guiding both her and Pebble down several more halls to a small bedroom. The woman left with nothing but a cheeky smirk as her eyes shot between both Ruby and Pebble, and the former held back her tongue as they stepped inside. Ruby had to remind herself that both Pebble and her looked nothing alike, and that as uncomfortable as it was relationships with the young was normal in the current era; despite that fact however the idea still disturbed her.
With the two alone Ruby wandered over to the bed and took a seat. She patted the spot next to her and Pebble wandered over taking his place beside her.
"You've been quiet all day, and might I add a bit distant. Is something the matter." The boy's visible discomfort around the others was obvious to Ruby, and at first she chalked it up to the events of the previous kingdom, assuming it had placed some paranoia towards strangers in him. Yet as the day went on and things unfolded Ruby noticed how his eyes would watch more with caution rather than any real fear. It would sway however and he'd display a look of confliction, which had gotten her worried.
The boy had stayed silent for a moment, and Ruby placed a hand over his.
"Pebble?"
"Can we go to bed?" Ruby stayed silent for a bit, realizing his tone was once again filled not with fear, but more along the lines of indecision. He might have wanted to say something, but decided against it.
"Alright."
He would speak when he was ready, she accepted that, and yet as they cuddled up she couldn't quite pluck the sprout of worry rooted deeply in her heart.
Author's note
...
Hey all, another chapter here.
Things are beginning to pick up, and soon we'll get a few answers once again; although they may be unwanted answers.
That's it this time, see you later.