DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
I lean my back against the wall as I watch Ruby walk in the girls' room, dazed and confused. She's been in Ozpin's interrogation room for hours, I don't really blame her, knowing Ruby, she's probably bored to death, more than she was nervous.
"RUBY!"
Yelled a familiar voice from across the hall. We were about to welcome Ruby back, but Penny Polendina rushed to her side the instant Ruby popped her head in.
"Where did she come from?"
An irritated Weiss asked.
"Ohhhh Ruby! I'm sorry you had to go through that! Are you okay? Are you hurt? OWL didn't hurt you did he?"
Of course I didn't. I may have had reason to do so before, but not anymore. What I find frustrating is that I'm not the least bit bothered by the fact that Penny assumed that I would hurt Ruby, that part is normal. To her eyes, OWL is a criminal after all, it's this stomach turning feeling of the need to explain to them that it's all complete wrong, that I am getting blackmailed. Of course, it's not something that I can divulge to them... well, not yet at least.
"What do you think Ezra?"
Blake nudged my shoulder, breaking my train of thought. I look up to see that the gang were all staring at me, unaware that I was never part of the conversation that they were currently having.
"About what?"
Weiss groaned, before explaining.
"What Penny said. This criminal OWL seems to have tech stolen from Atlas."
So Atlas soldiers do remember me. I ignore whatever joy I got from the small acknowledgement the Atleasian government has given me, and simply shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't know, you two are the Atlesians. You tell me."
Unsatisfied, Weiss continued to scowl at me.
"Can you at least pretend to be interested? Ruby got attacked, mind you."
She does bring up a fair point. I was being silent in an attempt to disassociate myself from the OWL incident, but it would seem to have the opposite effect if even Yang is prying.
"Something on your mind?"
A lot, but you'll never know half of it.
"No, sorry. Shouldn't been paying attention. If you think the tech's Atlesian then it probably is. It's not like I've ever been to Solitas, so how would I know?"
Blake nodded and shrugged her shoulders, agreeing with what I just said.
"Yeah, no that makes sense, but we were hoping..."
Yang smirked and placed her hand on her hips, while she finished Blake's statement.
"You'd know a guy. I guess you don't have connections to everything."
So that's why everyone was looking at me. Huh. Have I really used that phrase that much for them to think I know everything? Weird.
"Sorry to disappoint."
I smiled back at them, as I slip my hands in my pocket.
"Nevermind that!"
Ruby added. Oddly enough, the very person who were supposed to question never was asked anything, but now that she's raising her voice, the spotlight is solely on her, and it would seem that the interrogation did nothing to change her cheery demeanor. Makes me question where she gets all this resolve from.
"Dad sent us a package!"
Yang grabbed the package in her hand and opened up the tube, all of us curiously staring at black fluffy thing that slid out of it. The ball of fluff slowly began to unfurl and stretch, revealing a... corgi of all things.
"How... I have so many questions."
But before I could ask any of them, Ruby jumped for joy while Blake retreated to Ruby's side of the bunk bed.
"ZWEI!"
"He sent a dog!?" Blake complained. "In the mail." Said Weiss
Yang scoffed and laughed, dismissing the absurdity of the situation Blake and Weiss were implying.
"Oh, Dad does this all the time?"
I raise an eyebrow, legitimately confused.
"Your dad or your... dog?"
Again, Yang smiled at me with the intent of implying something that only I would understand.
"Dad. He's pretty peculiar when it comes to this kind of things. You'll know what I mean when you meet him someday."
Wonderful.
"I can't wait."
I replied sarcastically. Me and Blake stared at Zwei while Ruby and Weiss cuddled him in their hands. Yang began reading a letter from her Taiyang explaining why the dog was sent our way to begin with, and just then, the intercom rang.
[All first-year students please report to the amphitheater.]
"Well that settles it! Well team, Zwei will be here when we get back! Let's go."
All of us began to walk out the room, Penny included, except for Ruby who was still petting Zwei.
"Ez, you think it's a bad idea to bring Zwei along?"
I shrug my shoulders and slouched my body against the door.
"Yeah, but you're still gonna take him anyways so why ask for my opinion to begin with?"
Ruby poked her tongue out as she gently pushed Zwei inside her bag.
The team and I made our way towards the amphitheater as instructed. There, we... I- stood bored as Ozpin rambled on about the history of the huntsmen and huntresses of history, and the unity between kingdoms as I impatiently tapped my foot, ready to get this whole operation to get going. Finally, after about half an hour of talking, Professor finally let us go.
We found ourselves in front of a myriad of holographic screens filled with mission listings scattered around Vale. The plan was simple: find a huntsman to shadow focusing on the southeast area of Vale, and as Yang suggested: 'give em' the slip during the night.'
"Oooh! That one's perfect! It's a grimm extermination mission and it's in the southeast!"
Ruby frantically pointed out. The team and I nod in agreement, but as Ruby entered our information, our application was swiftly denied.
"Wonderful!"
Weiss jeered at the flashing red sign on the screen.
"Any other ideas?"
Blake asked Ruby, but our fearless leader obviously had no idea what to do.
"WE MAIL OURSELVES THERE!"
Me and Yang placed our hands on our faces at the same time and gave her an exasperated sigh.
"Well that's one option..."
To our surprise, Ozpin came out of the shadows with a soft smile on his face, and slowly made our way towards us.
"Unfortunately, the grimm concentration on that area is too extreme to be left to first-year students. For some reason, that particular area seems a bit too popular. So popular that I have a sneaking suspicion that the five of you will make your way towards that area no matter what job you choose."
He's obviously on to us. Rule number one in these situations: PLAY IT COOL. Do not give anything away, which thankfully, everyone in our team is doing, except for Ruby who was nervously laughing while scratching the back of her head.
"Ahahaha. What gave you that idea."
Well there goes that.
"You know..."
Ozpin raised his coffee closed to his face, momentarily glaring at it before shifting his sights towards us again.
"I'm still wondering how you all found yourselves at the docks last semester. I'm interested to know how you really learned about a hideout in the southeast. And I certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots and rose petals in a dance club some time ago."
Drats... We've been caught. I began to rack my brain for an excuse, fully expecting Ozpin to question us further, but to my surprise, Ozpin began to play coy and shifted the conversation elsewhere.
"I doubt I'll ever find the answers I'm looking for. So how about this, instead of me waiting for the five of you to break the rules, why don't we just break them?"
With a wave of his cane, the screen began to shift revealing a new set of missions previously inaccessible by us. Ozpin elegantly dragged his finger across the screen and zoomed in a particular mission that he deemed appropriate to our skill level and urged Ruby to accept.
Without the slightest hint of hesitation in her face, Ruby flashed a bright smile towards Ozpin and recklessly signed us up for the mission without even reading the details. Feeling forced to be the responsible and actually read the fine print, I sneak my way past the girls and carefully examined the mission listing since no one seemed interested enough about the minor details. That's where the devil likes to hide after all.
I slowly skim through the wall of text that tediously explained the context in which the mission was being conducted, but towards the end, I was met with something I never expected...
Yang POV
The five of us began to gather our bags after Ozpin ominously gave us a warning about the dangers of the mission he just authorized for us behind the faculty's back. Which makes me wonder: If that the mission was so dangerous, why authorize it to begin with? I scour every inch of my brain for a possible answer, but I end up with nothing, so I decided to defer to Ezra, who tends to be more analytical when it comes to these situations.
"So, what do you think about that Ezra?"
To my surprise, Ezra was just blankly staring at the ground.
"Huh? About what?"
Panicked, Ezra raised his head and flashed an obviously faked smile my way.
"...about what Ozpin did... something wrong?"
But Ezra decided to keep up the charade instead of admitting that he was spacing out.
"Oh. That? Beats me."
His carefree attitude about the whole thing is very irritating. I try to pry further, but something tells me that he's just gonna keep blowing me off so I decided to keep my distance till he's ready to spill the beans. We ran into team CVFY on the way to our transport and had a whole conversation with them, but still, Ezra remained distant up until we said our goodbyes.
"Why hello, Team RWBEY! Who's ready for the fight of their lives?"
My worry for Ezra quickly faded away when the eccentric Professor Oobleck suddenly appeared in front of us.
"Professor Oobleck?"
A disturbed Weiss protested. Oobleck examined us from head to toe and shifted his attention to our bags.
"Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship."
He tilted his glasses up his nose then glared at Weiss.
"And... It's Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn the PhD for fun, thank you very much! Anyways, come now children. According to my schedule, we are already three minutes late!"
Just then, Team JNPR, Neptune, and Sun appeared out of nowhere. We all joked around for a bit before Oobleck urged us to hop onto the airship, all the while Ezra continued to remained silent.
"Where are you all going?"
Ren asked.
"Just somewhere outside the kingdom."
Ruby vaguely explained, to which Neptune easily caught.
"That's pretty vague. Did you even read your listing at all?"
I sure as hell didn't, and judging by the girls' dumbfounded looks, none of them did as well. We decided to play it off to save ourselves from the embarrassment, but Ezra suddenly decided to end his streak of silence.
"Mountain Glenn. We're going to Mountain Glenn."
All of the laughter between us friends stopped, fully aware- Team JNPR included, that that's where Ezra came from. Mountain Glenn. That explains why he was silent this whole time. He's going back to his hometown. The place where his life started to fall apart. I slowly raise my hand to reach out to him, every inch of my body wanting to console him, but before my hand could reach his shoulder, Ezra began to walk away.
"C'mon, Dr. Oobleck's been staring at his watch for a full minute now."
Me and the girls followed awkwardly behind him. Even on the flight to Mountain Glenn, Ezra kept to himself in the corner as Oobleck rambled on and on about the history of the mountain as if we don't already know. Before long, my worrying for Ezra made me lose track of time as we quickly made it our destination. We jumped down the abandoned city, locked and loaded, fully expecting to be trounced by a horde of grimm, but all that greeted us was an eerie silence. The kind you'd expect from a ghost town like this.
Once more, I set my sights on Ezra who's absent mindedly just staring at one of the broken down buildings.
"Ezra..."
I called out to him.
"Yeah?"
His voice was low and somber, almost to a whisper. I could barely hear him. If it wasn't for the fact that I saw his lips move, I probably would have told myself that I was hearing things. Seeing him like this- in pain. It's an unbearable feeling. Even more so cause I know there's really nothing I can do to console him.
"Are you okay?"
I know he's not, but I ask anyways.
"No not really, but-"
But before he could finish what he was about to say, the commotion Weiss, Blake, Ruby and Dr. Oobleck was making caught our attention. It would seem Ruby decided it would be a good idea for Zwei to tag along. I'm a little bit upset, but not surprised. Really don't have the energy to question Ruby's decision at this point, cause I'm more worried about...
"EZRA!"
Weiss yelled. My attention shifted to where he was standing, but he was no longer there. I put my head on a swivel, desperately trying to look for him, till I saw a thick mist dashing towards a pack of grimm. Me and rest of our crew ready our weapons, but what we saw next shocked us so much that we simply stood there, frozen in our spot.
Ezra had not only defeated the pack of grimm by himself, but he was viciously mutilating them. Stabbing the already dead grimm relentlessly. His sword shattered countless times, rebuilding it just as quickly with each break. Before I knew it, Oobleck was already running towards him, so I quickly followed. With each step, the closer I get to him, the more Ezra's anger became apparent. He raised his sword as high as he can and looked down on the grimm he pinned down and began to violently swing down, but Oobleck came just in time for him to grab his wrist and stop him.
"Mr. Flyheight."
He whispered.
"Please, calm yourself. The grimm is dead, any more animosity will only lead to more grimm. We're safe."
Ezra growled at him with his teeth clenched. For a moment, our eyes met before he quickly looked away. His face began to soften as he slowly stood up with his back turned against us.
"We're in Mountain Glenn. Nowhere is safe."
He expertly twirled his bladeless katana in his palms then quickly hoisted it back to his utility belt.
"Ezra?"
Ruby asked, the concern in her voice was clear. Ezra took a deep breath and forced a smile our way before shifting it away from us once more.
"I'm okay, Ruby thanks for asking."
Seeing his face in pain, made my heart ache so much that my legs began to move on their own.
"Hey."
I softly wrap my hands around his and leaned forward, almost as if I was about to give him a kiss.
"You're gonna be okay, we're here."
Ezra squeezed my hand tightly and scratched the back of his neck apologetically.
"I-I lost my cool there, I'm sorry. I know this part of Mountain Glenn, a lot memories here I'm trying to forget."
Oobleck scratched his chin and wondered.
"I've heard rumors about you Ezra, and I'm not really one to believe such hear say nor do I pay attention to them, but I hear them nonetheless. And based on your reactions, those rumors that you used to live here, was true then?"
Ezra hesitantly nodded.
"Yes."
Oobleck raised his head, intrigued by his response.
"How's that possible? Mountain Glenn's been abandoned for a long time. Way before any of you- us have been born."
Ezra shrugged his shoulders and looked around the abandoned city.
"We didn't build the infrastructure, no, but we did use it as a make shift city. We thrived for years, but the constant grimm attacks took its toll."
"Interesting." Is all Oobleck was able to say. "This changes the dynamics of our mission here. Well, mine at least, from an archeological standpoint. In any case, it would be best for you to control yourself next time Mr. Flyheight, if we want to have a relatively safe expedition moving forward."
Ezra tucked his body closer to mine, trying to hide his embarrassment.
"Of course, Dr. Oobleck. I apologize."
Satisfied, Oobleck moved on and left us alone for a bit.
"Yang?"
Blake asked.
"Yeah?"
I looked at her confused, but all I was greeted with was a cheeky smile on both her and Weiss' face.
"How long are you gonna hold his hand?"
Crap! I totally forgot! I looked at Ezra with a blushing face and frantically let go of his hand. The four of them began to laugh at me, which is really annoying, but I'm just honestly happy that whatever I did was enough to lighten Ezra's mood. With that, we followed Oobleck to whatever destination he wanted us to go to.
We trudged along the abandoned city, slaying grimm along the way. Hours went by, and the exhaustion I felt from fighting grimm nonstop and worrying about Ezra began to take it's toll. It was difficult enough to keep myself up, let alone fight like this consistently and worry about my boyfriend at the same time, so when Oobleck decided to lob thought provoking questions my way, I wasn't really... well up to it.
"Ms. Xiao Long, why did you choose this line of work?"
I know the professor enough to know that nothing short of the truth will get him off my back, so I pushed my ego aside and told him the just that- the truth.
"The honest reason? I'm a thrill-seeker. I want to travel around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I help people along the way, then that's even better. It's a win-win, y'know?"
I was fully expecting a snide response, but to my surprise, all he said was 'I see.' I can tell there's more to it than that and I know he wasn't exactly going to tell me. Like I said, it was meant to be thought provoking. Normally, I would just whisk this to the side, I still have Ezra to worry about, Ruby and Zwei too for that matter, but the way Oobleck asked the question, and simply walked away right after was nagging on me, like an itch I couldn't get rid off.
My mind floated for the rest of the day after that, jumping between the doctor's question and Ezra's state of mind. Soon we found ourselves setting up camp, while Ezra, Ruby, and the doctor scouted ahead. The three of us sat there, silently staring at the fire.
"Hehe."
I chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
Weiss asked.
"Nothing, I just find it ironic that I was worrying about Ezra dozing off earlier, when I'm the one now staring blankly at an empty space like he was earlier."
Blake gave me a look that screamed 'I know what you're talking about.' It wasn't all that difficult to guess that Oobleck asked them the same question. I wanted to ask them what it all meant, but my attempt was interrupted by Ruby, Ezra, and Oobleck's arrival.
"Ah! Wonderful! A textbook campfire!"
Ruby and Ezra quickly made their way towards the fire, almost cuddling together.
"Hurry up and eat your dinners and go to bed, We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?"
Oobleck was rash, almost rude, but he was logical in what he just said.
"Yo."
Ruby raised her hand, nonchalantly volunteering for the job Oobleck asked for, as we watch the professor walk away from the camp. Ruby's upbeat personality is fascinating, the fact that she's not the least bit shaken says a lot about her, and as her sister I'm proud. But honestly, I'm kinda jealous that she has all this positivity in her.
"Ruby, did Oobleck ask you? About why you wanted to become a huntress?"
Confused, she looked back at me and quickly answered.
"No. Well haha, that's weird. Anyway guys, goodnight!"
Paying it no mind, Ruby walked off. I watch as Ezra began to turn over, but not before I stopped him asked the same question out of curiosity.
"How about you Ezra? Did Oobleck ask you?"
Ezra laid down on the cold concrete and crossed his hands behind his head then looked at me with a smile.
"No."
Not wanting to push the issue any further, he shrugged his shoulders, turned his back on everyone and went to sleep, leaving me with more questions than answers.
Ezra POV
"Ezra... Ezra..."
I was awoken by Ruby's soft whispers and light shaking as I slowly began to focus my vision on the dark concrete below me. My whole body was sore, partly because of all the grimm extermination we did all morning, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's also because of this sorry excuse of a bed I'm laying on.
"I'm awake Ruby, I'm awake. Is it my turn yet?"
Not wanting to make any more noise, Ruby simply nodded. I quickly made my way to the lookout point and let Ruby take my spot to sleep on. I must have zoned out the moment I sat down because Yang wasn't next to me when I first started this watch.
"Couldn't sleep."
She explained, not that she needed to.
"Yang.. about that outburst earlier..."
She leaned closer and hugged me, giving me a kiss on the cheek all at the same time.
"Don't. I understand, it's too much sometimes. You just needed to let it all out."
I smile at her attempt to console me, but I can tell from her face that she too was worried about something.
"What about you? Are you okay? Oobleck struck a nerve?"
Yang closed her eyes then forced a smile.
"Yeah."
It seems both of us are out of it.
"Well I'm glad you're here with me at least."
Me and Yang smile at each other, and began to lean in for a kiss, but speak of the devil, Oobleck suddenly appeared out of nowhere, panicked and distraught.
"We have an emergency! Everyone wake up!"
I attempt to hide my anger and quickly glanced at Oobleck. I swear, somebody better be dying.
"What's wrong?"
Blake woke up, complaining. Can you really blame her?
"Your leader appears to be missing?"
My jaws began to drop. I was joking when I said 'somebody better be dying.' I know full well the dangers of this city, and just the thought of Ruby wandering this cursed place alone is enough to make me sick to my stomach. Before I knew it, my legs began to move on their own. I quickly grabbed my backpack and jumped out of the lookout point. All I could hear behind me was Yang's voice yelling my name.
My heart began to beat faster and faster, the longer I don't see Ruby, the more anxious I get because I know that this place holds a secret that only I know. Grimm aren't the city's only inhabitants. The only reason why my tribe was able to survive this place this long was because this place has an underground tunnel system...
"How could I forget!"
As I turn the corner, I was greeted by a massive hole on the street, with Ruby's weapon laying right next to it. She's fallen inside and might be hurt... or worse. If she's alive then it's only a matter of time before grimm gets to her... or the White Fang!
"This is also Torchwick's place of operations!"
I grabbed hold of my backpack and slowly pulled out my OWL helmet, carefully contemplating on how to save Ruby.
"Who am I kidding, there's only one answer to this question."
I dawn my OWL suit and fearlessly jumped through the whole to save Ruby.