"aww c'mon, why not cole. She's sexy, foreign to human tastes, sexually available, and single" Rachael complained childishly, falling on the back seat hoping to push him to try dating someone more ideal for Cole so he'd complete his mission faster.
"No way in the grimmlands, am I doing that" Cole said, putting the pump in the holster and taking the keys from Rachael.
"You gay or something, I just want to see if you're good at it as you claim to be" she argued, getting in her car.
"No, I'm not gay, that's all you; I've had those moments with women exclusively." Cole gripped the shifter and stomped on the gas without buckling up so ilia did it for him hoping it would just end.
"Cole I'm just asking as a friend/ your personal GP- (general practitioner)- and you seem like the only guy I know of that-"
Cole shut her up with a glare and slammed on the brakes, "trash bin, I swear to God's- you personally tried it on me, and you failed, I almost blew you to pieces ilia is a friend and my 'GP' as you put it." He turned to ilia and softened his tome toward her, "Sorry if I don't see you like that, but I'm not attracted to you, I will never see you like that, plus you don't seem to look at me that way"
Ilia felt like she needed to tell him something but kept it to herself and just blushed as she huffed a "It's not a big deal"
The silence Inside the truck had felt like a crushing weight and was so tense it choked out anymore conversation from the two women. Cole turned over the truck and huffed in annoyance. "Thank you"
Driving was as time-consuming as it was quiet and Cole felt no need to make the silence end, so Rachael chose to do it for ilia and the first thing they all heard was a radio show about the reports of a five kilometer sinkhole in mistral, cole switched it and more followed up with the sinkhole...in fact that's all these radio stations have been talking about and when he was close to shorting out the radio he found a radio station that talked of the white fang and a new group that called themselves the "saviors".
"Some things just can't be negotiable, the saviors doesn't mean they're good people and those who left the fang were killed by the saviors."
Another voice keyed in to interrupt the man talking "but what about the woman in black Atlesian power armor? She was reported to have the same fighting style as the former white fang general Ezra valentine AKA, the silver kitsune of mistral?"
"You mean the same woman that died with-"
The man from earlier interrupted. "She's been dead long enough to be copied by her students and she taught many fangs, don't twist conspiracy theories and you can stay on my show"
The woman spoke after a moment of silence, "anything on the fang and saviors are free to speak of, but I get why you feel that way; we have the name of the copycat fighter but also the names of two other members that aren't as secret as they try to be."
Holding the breaths of every single person listening, member and listener alike. The world grinding to a stop the show host cleared their throat to break the tension.
"The names are as odd as the descriptions, but they are as follows: the armored woman adorned in the power armor, lilac luster. The man who fires lightning from his body as red as blood: the red baron. And lastly the poetic serial killer and self-proclaimed remnant's assassin: The reaper. Honestly, it sounds like a crock of shit but these are their names. Next on the show, the sudden sinkhole in the Mistralian wilds-"
As the radio continued to buzz with news of the mysterious group and the sinkhole, Cole's thoughts raced. He glanced at Ilia, who seemed deep in contemplation, and then at Rachael, who was fidgeting nervously. The truck rumbled along the road, carrying with it a sense of foreboding. Cole finally broke the silence, his voice low and serious, "We need to keep an eye on this. It might be more than just rumors."
"Master, if I may ask, last night, what do we do about plans to go after that woman you slashed in the stomach?"
Cole sighed and said, "I think she's dead, Rachael; I couldn't care either way. If she survives almost being cut in half, then she'll be dead from the trash in that truck."
She hummed at that, put the blinker on signaling left, and drove off to a docking ship, steering onto its deck. Cars littered the entire length of the bottom portion of the ship ranging from rusting and breaking to lavish and sparkling with a wax finish.
An hour of diagnostic maintenance went by for Rachael to have nothing but text and code to sift through. Extensive as it was, she went through it all. After she finished, she gave a smile and felt like talking about it.
"We're on our way to Vacuo and on time; get some sleep, and I'll wake-" she stopped mid-sentence when she turned around then saw Cole and Ilia asleep together, clutching each other like they were lifelines to one another.
"You need friends more desperately than you know, Master," she chuckled, watching Cole's Grimm arm hold her with so much comfort that she saved a picture in a folder titled: adorable moments.
Comfort and sleep were far from what Cole had gotten to experience for so long since waking up in that city of a laboratory, but the fact that Cole had been allowed this brief sliver of comfort was not enough.
With all the over-thinking Cole had done and contemplating what he was doing and why this hell was his to live, this wasn't not fair, but he greeted every day like it was his last.
His only solace took the form in a friend like Ilia and the potential family he'd be building after this ends with Weiss or even someone else if things didn't fall through for the heiress.
Unbelievable as it was to explain-thankfully, no one saw it-the Grimm arm writhed and wriggled about like hundreds of snakes in a fleshy bag. Its change had given a more human visage by taking the bone plating away and leaving white nails and inch-long thin blades resembling hairs-too thin to actually cut anyone. Although the skin was no thicker than before, it did stay as human as it could look, almost like it was a separate entity. No one had noticed the subtleties, but the Grimm appendage had begun shifting into things Cole needed and seemed to use his thoughts to shift and change.
Outside the car was a hurricane rolling in twenty miles off, so the crew went to work locking down every car by the tires, locked the doors, and sealed everyone in to ensure no flooding occurred.
"Sir, we got people complaining about the lockdown down in car lot 2B section 8," the phone operator said, listening for the quartermaster and captain.
The captain sighed tiredly and grabbed the headset, adjusting to all frequencies on board, "Ladies, gentlemen, and my beloved crew, this is Captain Keystein speaking. I'll graciously thank you for being aboard my ship and will take this moment to say: there's no reason to panic when this ship experiences hectic shifts in directions, so please secure yourselves and cooperate. Thank you and have a pleasant afternoon."
The captain handed the headset down to the operator's hands, lighting a cigar on his chair nearest the windows overlooking outside in hopes that his headache would settle to a more bearable condition. "I shoulda just stayed in the military; civies have no grit these days," he grumbled, dragging a long puff of his cigar and blew it out the small window despite the storm.
"Sir, with all due respect, you can't expect the results of enlisted from civilian contractors," the boatswain said, grabbing a line near the window, pulling down a blue and orange flag.
"Son, the day I need council from you is the day I run for the office of a Vacuian council seat, so just leave me to mine, and you'll stay aboard," he gruffed, taking a drag from the last of his cigar and tossed it out the window.
"All I mean, sir, is just be a bit flexible, and your crew will improve," the young boy smiled and added, "plus, my job is also the cook, so I'd appreciate it if you could make an effort for us if not yourself."
The captain stared at the boy with curiosity and a bit of agitation from being put in his place in such a passive way that he abhorred most.
The rest of the crew, however, didn't take kindly to the captain doing what he'd been doing, so they had a few plans in the works to set a few records straight.
Later that afternoon going into night, Cole left the truck with Ilia to buy food from the galley, but thankfully, the crew didn't charge them full price...well, technically, they got fed for free like everyone else, but Ilia insisted they pay for the food regardless.
For the first time in months, Ilia saw Cole and not just looking at him. She noticed why she was so strange around him these past few days. His teeth looked almost like a Faunus, feline, or maybe weasel, his attitude nowadays was more primal than he'd been in the past...kind of like Blake's dad.
"Cole, can I ask you a personal question?" Ilia asked quietly.
Cole looked up from his third helping of a bowl of Meatballs with Bulgogi Sauce Roasted Green Beans, Ginger Rice Sriracha Crème. "I know I'm eating a lot of food, but you're not the one who ate protein goop for the last month."
She stifled the laughter in her fist and said, "It's nothing like that, I was just wondering...have you noticed the changes you've gone through? Since we were together on the road, I figured we'd nip this in the bud while it's fresh."
Cole let the questions simmer in his head for a moment, hoping to have a more dignified answer for her, but he didn't. For once, he actually had no clue what to say or how to say it. Ilia saw it written all over his posture, so she decided to rephrase it.
"Alright, Cole, I'll ask differently then, what happened after you died?" Cole felt her hand on his wrist but made no move to take her hand off him...if anything, he wanted to talk, confess his life after they separated. "I can't tell you that," he heard himself say but didn't know if he had said it.
"Why? What happened to you that you won't talk about?" she pressed further but not too hard.
"Because if I talk about it, it's like I'm reliving hell. It's too much for me right now," he looked right into her eyes, struggling to keep from showing his pain. "That side of my life won't be spoken to even my mother. I want to but I just...can't."
Ilia huffed softly to the side, breaking eye contact to look around at anything but him. Galley workers were doing their normal duties while taking glances at the two exits; one near their spice racks and the other near where she and Cole sat. She knew what this meant thanks to her White Fang days, so she nonchalantly took Cole by the sleeve and walked slowly and steadily took him out of there.
Cole didn't understand how he sensed her feelings, but he had, and he was dumbstruck at her control over them. Her skin wasn't changing a shade as they left, but as soon as they had, she bolted off, and Cole followed her without struggle in matching her speed -even though she wasn't that fast-. They got to the truck with relative ease and locked the door, covered the front, sides, and back windows with cardboard Cole found in the bed of said truck.
A deckhand saw this but gave them a thumbs up and chuckled, "Happy anniversary, you two." Cole ignored it but blushed hard while Ilia's spots turned hot pink and YANKED Cole in.
"What- Ilia, I didn't get to finish-" Cole complained but was silenced with a bowl wrapped in plastic wrap with "steak tips" written in marker.
"Just trust me, shut up and eat!" she blurted as she ripped a blanket from under the front seat and cocooned herself head to toe refusing to look up from the front seat.
on the bridge 30 minutes prior*
Kitchen crew watched the couple leave with the look of what they assumed was the 'young love jitters'. "Let's go over the plan one more time," the chef said grabbing a box with makeup and wigs, "we go in with these disguises and kill him when he's really into it-"
The salad girl growled and shoved "ast them and said agitation building, "Oh for- just let a real woman do this part, you moron."
All the worst days to plan a mutiny, today was it because unbeknownst to the entire cruise ship, a storm made its way to their location. Five minutes later, they'd successfully made their way to the bridge, one person went in and a beautiful wolf Faunus woman went right to the captain and massaged his shoulders and giggled at his moans.
Cole sighed at her sudden change in attitude, wolfed the food down, tossed the trash out the cab into the bed of the truck, and went to sleep for a few moments when the ship's stern shook with a violent blast of thunder and crashing waves, throwing the ship on its side but thankfully not sinking it.
The suddenness "woke" Rachael up r"ght away, and she went right into action, smashing the windshield off and helped Ilia and Cole out just as the truck was lifted from the ground.
Taking a moment to look around, Ilia saw chains holding the other vehicles in place, twisting and snapping, and heard the thicker ones had groaned but all the same held on as best they could. Sadly, most weren't able. Cole heard the metallic snap he was all too familiar with and used all he could to blast Ilia away from the car flying straight for her.
Unfortunately, Rachael wasn't so lucky and was hit by a chain slashing open her left arm and took some of her midsection out, but not so deep she couldn't just melt it closed. Nonetheless, it was horribly spewing blue and purple blood all over the place. As she gasped for breath, Ilia reacted no faster than Cole, and both reached her just before a sports car had the chance to crush the android between itself and a support beam.
Cole and Ilia looked in each other's eyes and nodded. Both grabbed both ends of the bleeding robot and ran for cover.
"Where the hell can we hide where it's a guarantee we'll survive is highest!?" Cole hollered.
"Well, most would think of the rooms or lifeboats," Ilia yelled just as loud, hefting Rachael over a car and helped Cole hold her more stable. But his annoyance made it clear mobility was more important, so he shouldered Rachael and said, "I have an idea of where, but it's insane."
"I'm scared to ask," she replied, holding out to take the bleeding droid when Cole heated both into a room labeled "anchor compartment."
She was wary of his choice in hiding places, but in the end, she let herself be dragged inside the anchor compartment and watched Cole seal them all inside by melting the hatch closed. "Well, be safe here till the storm dies down."
"Um, Cole?" She asked, sitting on the rust and grease-coated floor.
"Not now Ilia, I need to figure out how the storm hit this ship without any warning.
Sensing that he'd ignored her, she glared and said firmly, "Cole, this storm isn't why the ship tipped over; it was the crew."
She was absolutely fed up with the man pacing in front of her and got up, walked toward him, and added, "You do realize, you didn't see it coming earlier, right?"
Cole looked her in the eye and asked, "What do you think?! I know I didn't, but what did you expect outta me; my only concern right now is to get to Vacuo and hide from my problems for a while."
"This," she gestured to him, "is the man that fought and beat a grown Ursa Major but doesn't have the balls to recognize that the White Fang took over the cruise ship and sailed it into a type 3 cyclone, and your solution will be to hide."
Cole stood there staring into her eyes and asked, "What should you propose we do; Rachael is dying right in front of me and you almost died...and the first thing you say is 'we shouldn't hide, we should fight the Fang,' but then what, we sail through violent waves and with the gumption of a platoon of Remnant's top students from the four kingdoms, we get to Vacuo?"
His words were harsh but his voice "asn't. Cole broke from that and punched the wall, denting it with his Grimm fist. "I won't bury everyone I care about, not anymore."
"On that, we can agree," a voice rang from behind and was all too familiar to Cole. He rushed to cover Ilia and shot the most condensed bolt of lightning he had and lit up the compartment, revealing for a second too long the face of someone who he thought dead for nearly his whole life.
The figure grabbed a few small tub"s, cracked them in their hands, and shook vigorously, then dropped them on the greasy floor.
Ilia was confused about the woman standing in the room while Cole's face twisted in mortification and rage. His Grimm arm reacted to his thought and twisted into dozens of tendrils and made what looked like an arm made from black muscle fibers, and on the black flesh formed white plating like the armor from an Atlesian knight's arm. The fingers had made blades for fingers, and said fingers fused so that it made a three-bladed spear-like claw.
"My, how you've grown so much since the days of beatings and defending kittens, haven't you Cole Foster," she said lovingly.
Cole took it in, simmered with the comment she'd uttered from her mouth, and like a feral beast, he attacked her. Cole hunched down low, growled as he pulled his arm back, then yelled as he threw his arm forward like a whip. The claw went right for her chest and- TING.
The blades went right through her like she wasn't there and changed against the wall. He retracted his arm whip and yelled in terror as well as frustration, "Why- how'd you- what the hell is going on!?"
"Daaawww, sweet baby brother. You expect me to be fake; I'm hurt," she dramatically sniffles walking towards him immediately serious and cold. "You weren't there after I vanished but after I was blown out the window and crushed beneath my home because of you, I pushed my aura toward the darkness; I was scared and needed to hide somewhere, gods it was pure agony."
Cole tried hitting her again, morphing his hand into a fist, but it slipped through like she was a cold fog. Smiling, the woman hugged Cole to her chest and rested her head on his shoulder, humming in delight. "I wanted to do this for the past fifteen years; it's a gift honestly."
While Cole tried processing it, Ilia took the opportunity to try talking before trying to fight like Cole often did as of late.
"Who are you, miss? I've never seen you before."
"Yes, you have actually," she flicked him on the nose before poofing away from his retaliation and appeared behind him, pressed to his back.
"You saw me after you landed in the wreckage of that bullhead four years ago. I showed you your sigma form in the Fang camp with Taurus. I stopped you from killing Baron, and most importantly, I was there when you found the traitor who sold us out to Raven Branwen." The more she spoke, the more worked up she got, and she was close to tearing up but couldn't cover it up. Cole was a confused mess as he heard this woman list her every meeting with him, but none of it clicked. Why couldn't he remember?
"Well, this is nice and all, but who are you?" Ilia questioned as she offered her hand to Rayla.
"Rayla Foster, Cole's older sister," she said, pulling her in while thrusting a hand towards her gut. But for once, Cole didn't ignore the instinct screaming at him to act, so he did.
Cole acted faster than he'd known possible and shifted his hand and forearm into a sickle, hooked it around her throat. He bore the wrath of a thousand hunters but the slaughter lust of a legion of sabrewolves.
"I'm no brother of yours; in my entire life, I knew Ray. She never had purple eyes, and I'm not a Foster. I'm a Valentine." He emphasized the last word, separating her head from her shoulders.
Her body caught the head by its wavy obsidian locks and put it back as it moved to the ceiling of the box.
"If you truly think the Valentine legacy is worth defending over one woman, then watch this." Rayla leapt on him, digging her fingers into his skull. At first, it was blank. After a literal second, Cole saw Ezra for who she'd been prior to him.
"Move east, and the train will smash through this swamp; Fang casualties will be zero, but humans will not be so fortunate," young Ezra said as she grabbed a map and added smirking, "I swear I'll be there, son; just meet me with our convoys, and we'll get everything done in moments."
Another memory showed Ezra crying, with an irate Adam stomping away with her gift to him for his birthday: a blood-red choto and sheath. "I'll prove I am worthy of father's name and abandon yours; weakness in the Fang in my cell is punished with exile...only way you'll live, General Valentine." His tone was cold and ruthless, but his intent was remorseful.
The final major memory played as s"ch. Cole screamed out, but in his mind, he saw Ezra lovingly holding Cole in her arms, humming the song "The World Could End with You." He unconsciously smiled and wormed his fingers through hers, holding her hand.
Rayla was gone by the time Cole had stopped screaming and collapsed, bleeding, and puked on all fours. He was panicking, but Ilia wasn't useful this time. He had to calm down and fast...the fallout could reduce the ship to a sunken mystery, and he could not let it happen.
He forced himself to think about h"s absolute best moments he loved most and who he truly loved more. But because his mind was flooded with his worst fears, rage, and memories he rejected and had been hit with a hard truth: his adopted mother was a Fang general, and her son was Adam Taurus! His emotions got to their peak volatile state and blew almost a third of the compartment out in front of him.
"Cole!" Ilia exclaimed, grabbing his body as he collapsed.
As the ship sank, Ilia threw Cole over her shoulders and had to walk through two floors of waist-high flooding and jumped off the deck to the icy waters below after finding a clearer spot to jump into. It took her a good 10 seconds to surface back up and fish Cole out onto a chunk of what was left of a lifeboat and passed out on his chest, listening to his heart.
"You don't need an heiress, brother; Reaper has that pleasure," Rayla snidely said, sinking into the ship and rose in Baron's office, smiling.
"Report, you meat puppet," the figure of Baron said with a very drunken, gruff voice. "And...it better be good news," he glared her way. "Cause Android RA9 is offline, and Reaper is missing; the heiress ran off, he chased after like a horny dog."
"I successfully got Cole the memories we fabricated together-"
The glass bottle shattered near her head, and half her face was twisted and bloody. "I FABRICATED THEM ALL; YOU DONE WAS IMPLANT EM IN HIS HEAD!"
She stood up and smiled. "I gave him the truth; your memories were not viable...John wouldn't have failed me." She spoke almost like her voice had shifted from hers to his queen's, but maybe he was too drunk. Either way, Rayla dissolved into the shadow, and he yelled ragefully, "Raven killed him, you bitch, him and my ex-whore; you're no daughter of his, you fake!" He let loose in his office, shattering everything into piles of glass, wood, and drywall.