I'm glad you all loved the horror of last chapter! I had a blast writing it and apparently you had a blast reading it lol.
I'll have to try it again some time. But for now, the horror is over and Tortuga has been saved. And we're about to see the results of that!
"Harriet, I understand you're nervous, and I'm not going to tell you to calm down." Clover began, quickly clarifying when the woman's head snapped in his direction, pink eyes staring daggers. "But you are literally wearing a hole in the floor."
Harriet glanced downward, seeing Clover's words were true. There was a noticeable groove in the ground. As though she could be blamed. They had sent off Crue to bring back Tortuga. A single man, performing a task that would normally have an entire squadron of Atlesian Specialists and support of control teams back in Atlas.
How could she not worry? It didn't help that ever since that time she and Crue drank together, he had pointed out some feelings that she herself hadn't realised she had. It only came to a head the next morning, after a hangover she swore she'd pay Crue back for, did the events of the previous day connect.
Apparently she liked Tortuga. And what's worse was the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't disagree. Which was a problem, because it went against everything she believed in in terms of team cohesion.
You weren't meant to make friends, you weren't meant to have relationships. They were problems to be cut out and ignored so that it doesn't conflict with the mission. At least, that's what she had been taught.
But, as Crue plainly put, that was fucked.
And, yeah, crude as he was, he had a point. He said you fought harder when it was for someone you cared about. And Harriet knew that if she were in Crue's place there wasn't a damn thing that could stop her.
She'd do the same for any of her team. The realisation was confirmed as she looked up from her pacing to find Clover staring at a random point in the warehouse they were in. It was on the very outskirts of the city, and within was a concerningly familiar looking craft.
An Atlesian Manta, an older model at least, but one that they had no idea that was there. The interior of the ship was being checked out by Elm and Vine, with Winter inspecting the outside at a limp.
Harriet let out an angered sigh. "I just- I feel like shit. Standing here. Doing nothing. Trusting someone else to save her." She scowled at the ground. "And it isn't even someone we know well. Or who trained with us. It's- It's Crue!"
They knew next to nothing about the Faunus. Where he was from, where he trained, what his skills were. Aside from what they had seen first hand with him escaping and fighting them. And even then, his skills seemed to focus on getting away from danger.
"He said he would." Clover responded, his tone suggesting that he wasn't entirely convinced.
"I can't believe I am going to be the one to say this, but..." Harriet and Clover looked over to see Winter, a hand still on the Manta and a slight frown on her face. Her blue eyes stared at them as she spoke.
"You should trust in Crue." She seemed amazed by the words coming out of her own mouth. "As much as I would hate to say it, I believe him fully capable of saving Tortuga. He has, in his own words, been fighting Grimm for as long as he has been on Remnant."
Winter's words caused the eyes of Harriet and Clover to widen, and for Elm and Vine to pop their heads out of the Manta to look at her in disbelief. "You're kidding." Elm stated.
"I truly wish I was." Winter frowned. "But he told me so himself. He said he had defeated a hundred or so Grimm before he even had his Aura unlocked."
"Are you certain he wasn't just, you know, lying?" Vine suggested. Winter glanced at Vine with a raised eyebrow and a disapproving gaze.
"Of course I thought of that. But, he said it to me when there would be no logical reason to lie. It was after we had fallen. And, I did consider he might be lying but... not even a few moments before he said he continues to fight even after his Aura is gone. And the way he said it, there was so much anger in his voice that I felt like I had to believe him."
Her words brought silence to the room, each of the Ace-Ops looking to one another in confusion and disbelief.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Everyone startled, hands going to their weapons on pure instinct as their heads snapped to look at the entrance to the warehouse. The same pattern repeated, and then a voice called out.
"Will you let me in!? I can't do the secret knock with my head!" Crue exclaimed. Almost immediately, Harriet was at her door, using her Semblance to get there as quickly as possible, wrenching the door open.
"You're bac-ugh!" Harriet leapt back from the doorway, allowing Crue to enter and for the rest of the Ace-Ops to share in her revulsion. Crue was stained red with blood, his normally emerald cloak now a disgusting shade of crimson.
But, on his back, unconscious, was Tortuga. "This is the part where you tell us none of that is yours, right?" Elm asked, leaving the airship to run over along with Vine.
"Hm?" Crue glanced downward, as if only noticing the blood now. "Oh, no, I'd say about a quarter of this is mine. I think?" He looked decidedly unbothered, and maybe a little lightheaded, about the fact, whereas the Ace-Ops looked extremely bothered.
"But, more importantly, none of it is hers." He said with a nod of his head backwards. "Uh, speaking of, would anyone mind...?" He hunched himself over slightly, and everyone save Winter moved forward to grab Tortuga.
The minute she was off, Crue stood up and rolled his shoulders. "Grand. Hey, is there anywhere soft to lay down here?" He looked around, seeing nothing of the sort. When none of the Ace-Ops gave a confirmation, Crue continued. "Ok, cool."
With that, Crue felt straight down and laid flat on the cool, concrete floor as he let out a sigh of relief. "That's better." He continued to face the floor, as Winter limped over to him, after checking on Tortuga.
"Crue. What happened?" She asked, attempting to crouch down to Crue's level, but stopping with a wince as the pain in her leg became to much.
"We were spotted meeting." He explained. Winter froze, as did the rest of the Ace-Ops in the process of getting Tortuga onto the Manta. "You know that truth forcer guy?" Crue asked, still facing the ground.
There was no verbal response, and Crue kept his head against the ground, unable to see if they nodded or not. "Yeah, that guy." He tried to wave. "He was there, and I got asked what I did after I left the tavern."
"Plus, the entire Guild was there. Or Crime Family. Or, whatever the fuck." He groaned, trying to push further into the ground. "Pain in my god damn hole." He cursed, deciding to roll over onto his back and spread out his arms.
He stared at the ceiling unblinking, before Winter appeared in his vision, blue eyes wide. He raised the one eyebrow that he could, waiting for her to speak. "To clarify." She began, sounding strained. "You walked into that estate, and found an entire guild of criminals."
"And instead of retreating and contacting us, you decided to handle it yourself?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Crue nodded from the ground. "Oh, wait, no. Turns out they were going to try attack Haven in a repeat of what happened at Beacon. But, took care of them so no worries." He said, holding up a finger as though Winter had missed something as simple as the weather.
Winter's mouth opened and closed, as she made a motion of trying to articulate something with her hands, before finally bringing her hand to her mouth to help close her jaw. She let out a long breath through her nostrils.
"I think if I do take that time off I'm going to spend it recuperating from being in your presence." She sighed, as Crue chuckled from down on the floor. Despite that, Winter couldn't help but gain a smile of her own.
It faltered, as she observed Crue closer. He had said only some of that blood was his. "Did you fight without Aura again?" She asked.
Crue's single steely blue eye looked in the other direction. "You could say that..." He refused to meet her eyes as he spoke. Winter scowled at the recklessness of his actions.
"You recall how you said you saved me, partially because Weiss would be upset if I died?" She hunched down as best she could, as Crue finally turned to meet her eyes properly.
"The same goes for you." She stated, reaching out to flick the middle of his forehead. Crue's face scrunched up at the 'attack' before his eye left Winter's and stared upward, contemplating her words. As he did, Winter brought her hand back to stare at the finger that flicked Crue, noting it was slick with blood.
"How exactly did you manage to defeat an entire crime family and come out alive?" Winter looked back to Crue, who blinked and refocused on the situation at hand.
"Uh, don't worry about it?" He gave an awkward smile. Winter returned it with an unimpressed stare. Crue shrugged, before wincing as he glanced down to body.
"Hey, so you know how I'm laying here still bleeding? I think I should probably do something about that." He sat up, straining as he fought against his injuries. "Think you could hurl me at a sink?" He requested.
"Crue, I'm certain we have actual medical equipment available." Instead of responding verbally, Crue looked up to Winter, and then glanced down to her injured leg. It still held the makeshift splint he had made after they had fallen to the river.
He returned his gaze upward with a raised eyebrow. Winter did not flush or stammer or do anything of the sort, but she did sigh and close her eyes with a nod. "Fair enough." She stood up straight as she could and held out a hand.
Crue took with a short 'thanks' and got to his feet. He turned around to look at where he had been laying. The term 'blood angel' popped into his head and he immediately regretted it along with the images it conjured within his mind.
"That's going to haunt me for a while." With a sigh he turned, looking around for a bathroom of some kind. With this presumably being a place of employment, or at least it used to be, it should have a toilet. It was probably a requirement, but Crue didn't know enough about what this world's version of OSHA requirements would be.
Winter gave a small cough. Crue turned to see her pointing at a singular grey door. There was a faded symbol that vaguely looked like a stickman. He gave a grateful nod and made his way over as Winter returned to the Manta.
She entered the craft, immediately locking her attention onto the small medical stretcher within. Tortuga was on the bed, eyes closed and sans her Atlesian jacket. Thanks to her shell, however, her modesty was still intact.
The same could not be said for the rest of her. Distinct cracks could be seen along the front of her shell, and her arms were covered in bruises. There was a swelling just above her left cheek, and her dark green hair was tousled and greasy.
"If it wasn't for the fact Crue got to them first I would be breaking down their damn door." Harriet growled out, her fingernails digging into her gloves. Everyone within the ship shared the same feelings, and each probably thinking of their own personal ways of getting vengeance for their ally.
But, whether luckily or unluckily, vengeance was already fulfilled. People often said that revenge solved nothing, and being mature adults who had experienced life the Ace-Ops were inclined to agree.
But damn if that didn't mean they wanted to find the ones who did this and show them what fully trained Atlesian Specialists were capable of. But, once again, Crue had gotten to them before they had the chance.
"Did he say how he managed to get her out of there?" Clover asked, looking to Winter as she entered. Vine and Elm both glanced her way, wondering the same, while Harriet kept her gaze on Tortuga.
"He said 'don't worry about it'. Which was about as satisfying an answer as you might imagine." She sighed, her brows pinching together as the rest of the group shared in her annoyance.
"But, regardless, he did what he said he would do, and apparently stopped an assault on Haven before it could begin." Some of the Intelligence Officers back home would be up in arms that something like this was discovered and then taken care of in the span of two hours.
It might put a few people out of a job. "As glad as I am everything worked out, we need to talk about the Goliath in the room." Clover sighed, glancing to the ground. His words caused some confusion, as there didn't seem to be any major issues left. "What Goliath?" Elm asked.
"Crue. Are we taking him with us?" "Oh that Goliath."
The Ace-Ops glanced at each other, none speaking a word. Crue was still technically wanted for questioning in regard to Beacon. However, he had already told them all he knew, and it had become quite clear he had no hand in the attack.
The fact he just foiled a second attack on another school definitely proved that as well. "There is no warrant out for his arrest. Only the Wolf's." Vine stated.
"Yes. But Crue is probably the only person in this world who's met Salem and lived to tell the tale." Clover looked uncomfortable at his own words, but the others knew he had a point. Crue could hold invaluable information in regards to the fight against Salem.
"We could just ask him." Elm suggested. "I mean, he's been pretty reasonable with us given everything we put him through." She scratched the back of her head as she spoke, knowing that a fair bit of what 'they put him through' was her swinging her hammer at him.
The thought apparently hadn't occurred to them, though once it did, every head turned to look at Winter. The woman looked surprised at the sudden attention, and immediately realised why they were staring at her.
"You cannot be serious." Her face fell into a familiar disapproving scowl.
"You've known him longest." Clover pointed out.
"Harriet drank with him." Winter deflected.
"Ugh, don't remind me." She grumbled, hand going to her head at the very memory of the hangover. Still, she looked back to Winter. "He put himself between you and a train."
Winter wanted to curse, but held her tongue. It was a damning piece of evidence and she knew it. She relented with a sigh. "Fine. I shall ask the man who has constantly run away from Atlesians if he would like to go back to the place we come from."
With a roll of her eyes she limped back out of the Manta. As a Schnee, it would be undignified of her to mutter obscenities at what she was required to do. But as a soldier... "...make the injured one walk some more why don't you..."
Grumbling her way towards the bathroom, she noticed the door slightly ajar. Rather than push it open and possibly witness a naked Crue, she reached out to knock.
"Oh." Crue's voice came from within, freezing her movements. "That might be a fucking problem." Disregarding her previous worries, Winter threw open the door.
"Crue?" She spoke aloud, concerned he might have an injury that required serious attention. The sound of something slapping against flesh rang out, and Winter's eyes immediately found Crue.
He had been hunched over a sink, staring at a mirror, before slapping his hand over his left eye and standing straight. His cloak was in the sink, running water washing the blood off and his shirt was open, allowing Winter to see the multitude of injuries.
A dozen or so gunshot wounds of various sizes were scattered across his chest, with even more slashes and scratches. They looked to only have recently stopped bleeding, and Winter's eyes were wide.
"Winter! Hi! What's up?" Crue asked, trying desperately to be casual as he rested one hand on the edge of the sink and kept the other pressed against his eye. As he pushed down on the sink, he lost traction due to the overflowing water and ended up thrusting his hand out.
This ended up in his elbow slamming down against the porcelain and striking it. An unpleasant sensation of static shot through his forearm and down into his fingers, which clenched in pain as he bit his lip and sucked in a breath.
Winter's mind had come to a grinding halt and was trying to reboot, while also desperately trying not to laugh at his misfortune. "Are you alright?" She asked, her voice raising an octave. Crue caught the tone, and looked as though he was going to call her out on it.
However, the pain that came from hitting his funny bone prevented anything other than a wheeze from exiting his mouth. He winced at the sound, took an annoyed breath, and tried again.
"Fine." He managed to grunt out, standing up straight and looking around. He snatched something from the sink, and turned away from Winter, fiddling with his head. When he turned back around, he was wearing his eyepatch again.
Winter wondered why he hid the presumable scar across his eye, yet had no issue with every other one. "What's up? Are you ready to head?" He asked.
Winter nodded, briefly realising that the others were right to send her for this as she was able to translate Crue's words. "Yes. We plan on leaving soon. Tortuga is... stable. Though she will have some lasting injuries."
Her expression was mirrored by Crue, a scowl that wished he could have prevented the injury in the first place, rather than destroying the ones who caused it. "That's good. Does Atlas have good medical care?"
"Of course. Especially for someone who was injured in the field." Winter answered, before shaking her head slightly and getting back on track. "Regardless, we will be leaving for Atlas."
She stared at Crue, waiting for him to respond or catch on. "Oh." His one eye widened and he made an expression with his mouth similar to a goldfish. Winter smiled inwardly, glad she didn't have to say it outright.
"Guess I should go say bye, huh." The smile died an ugly death as Crue began to button up his, vaguely clean, shirt. Winter wanted to slap her hand against her face, but managed to refrain. She watched as Crue fixed up his shirt and grabbed his cloak from the sink.
He held off on putting it on, instead flicking it to dislodge any remaining blood and water and hanging it. "I'll grab it when I've finished." With that, he walked out of the small bathroom and toward the Manta.
Winter followed, if only so she could get a first hand look at Crue's expression once he realised what it was she had tried to get across. Crue made his way towards the Manta, standing in the doorway and rapping his knuckles on the metal exterior.
"Hey, you guys are heading out?" He called, catching their attention. They each shared a look of surprise at his presence.
"You're coming with us?" Harriet asked, pink eyes wide as it seemed as though the world had been turned on it's head.
"What? No, I came to say goodbye. What the Hell do you mean coming with- oh." Crue's expression morphed into one of realisation, and Winter savoured the moment and saved the image within her mind.
"That's what you meant, wasn't it?" His head hung low as he spoke aloud. Winter gave a simple hum of acknowledgement. "God damn it. Ah well, fuck it. I was going to say goodbye anyway. Can't leave without it, it's the Irish way."
"It's the what way?" Clover murmured, before Crue stepped towards him. He had his hand outstretched. Clover looked surprised, but smiled widely as he grabbed it and shook. "You've been a pain."
Crue looked like he wouldn't rather any other compliment. "And you're too damn lucky." They broke the handshake, and Crue barely had time to turn before he was pulled into an absolutely bone crushing hug.
"Oh! I can't believe I'm going to miss a criminal!" Elm said, nearly tearing up as she swung Crue like a ragdoll within her grasp. At any other time, Crue probably would have been more than happy to be hugged by Elm, or at all.
But given he was still out of Aura and injured, all he could manage to do was breathe out "Vigilante." Before eventually he was freed, thanks to Vine placing a hand on Elm's shoulder. He dropped, and the skinny man presumably raised an eyebrow at him as he smiled.
"I'll be thinking up some philosophical questions of my own to badger you with, until we next meet." Crue tried to respond with something snarky and clever, but he was still getting his breath back from Elm's bear hug, and so settled with a wave and a roll of his eye.
He turned his attention to the final, conscious, member of the Ace-Ops. Harriet looked to Crue, before glancing to Elm and raising an eyebrow, as if asking if he expected the same. Crue shook his head with a smile, his eye flicking to the resting Tortuga behind her.
"Take care of her, Wabbit." He said simply, holding out not a hand, but a fist. Harriet gave a roll of her eyes, but there was no hiding the smile she gained.
"Take care of yourself first, dumbass." The two tapped the sides of their fists together, before Crue smiled widely and stepped back. He turned to leave the Manta, only to find Winter standing in the exit.
She raised an eyebrow, waiting for whatever words Crue might have for her. "I'd hug you, but I think you'd kill me."
"You'd be correct." Winter smirked, as did the rest of the Ace-Ops. The same smirk grew on Crue's face, having been expecting that answer.
"So, instead, I'll just ask you pass this onto Weiss for me." Crue stepped forward, regardless of the danger, and wrapped his arms around Winter in a tight hug. The Specialist froze, her blue eyes going wide as her allies shared a similar reaction, Elm's jaw dropping in shock.
Winter would be lying if she said she didn't suddenly feel a surge of warmth swell up inside her, not able to remember the last time she was shown such affection. It was gone much too soon, Crue releasing her from the hug and clapping a hand gently on her shoulder.
"That'll probably tide her over until I can give her an actual one." He smiled. The words immediately clicked in Winter's head.
"You intend to head to Atlas?" She asked. This was amazing news. It meant they didn't have to worry about not getting his knowledge on Salem to share.
"Course. I mean, eventually." He nodded. "Have to show Weiss I'm still alive in person. And, you know, I'll probably help out Coppertree while I'm there." He made the last part sound like a rather boring chore, but Winter couldn't find it in her to correct him on the name.
"I'm certain both Weiss and the General will appreciate your presence. But, what do you intend to do next?" Winter was curious to know, if only so she had a timeline of when to expect him in Atlas and make sure the General had plenty of headache tablets ready.
"Uh, get to Haven. Hopefully run into Ruby, Ren, Nora, Jaune." He held up a finger at each plan. "Hopefully find Blake and Neo. Hopefully find Cinder to punch her in her stupid face." He held up a full open palm.
"Uh, yeah. Lotta 'hoping' is what I plan to do next." A fanged smile sprung to life on his face. Winter huffed in amusement, stepping to the side and clearing the doorway.
"Well I hope you find everything you're looking for." Crue smiled to Winter and made his way out of the Manta, before stopping dead and spinning on his foot to face the Ace-Ops entirely.
"Before I go, one more thing." He held up a single finger, and those watching were immediately worried they were going to hear some god awful pun. "To make sure you guys can't get in trouble for 'letting a criminal go'."
His air quotes and mocking tone showed exactly what he thought of that. "I would just like to say- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" He suddenly pointed towards the front of the Manta. Everyone spun, hands on weapons to find... nothing.
The sound of a door slamming turned their attention back to where Crue was standing. Correction. Had been standing. A communal sigh rang through the ship, before Winter stood up straight.
"Oh no." She said flatly. "The nefarious villain Crue Cullen has escaped our custody. Unfortunately, we are under strict orders to return to Atlas-" SLAM "Forgot my cloak!" Crue's voice sounded from outside. "Bye!" Another SLAM.
Winter's eye twitched, before sighing.
"Let's get the Hell out of here."
Well I think that ended rather well. I had originally planned for Crue to get away from Ace-Ops by jumping from the Manta into a hoard of attacking Grimm, but this seems more in character for him. Especially because the 'Irish Goodbye' stereotype that has somehow become popular could not be more wrong.
And Irish Goodbye is hardly even a goodbye, because you get up to leave and then continue talking all the way to the door, at which point you talk literally in the doorway until finally, like ten minutes after you said you were going to leave, you leave.
...weird tangent over. Anyway, this chapter was just the one perspective, but we'll be jumping around quite a bit next chapter. Maybe checking what some antagonists are up to...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you did, and as always...
Until Next Time
-Friday