(Chapter 24)
The first rays of sunlight peeking through the curtains found their way to Ciel's closed eyes. The girl's face scrunched up before she began mumbling as she slowly awoke, but as she did, the girl remembered what happened the day prior and jumped to her feet reaching for where she kept her guns.
Weapons in hand, the dark-skinned girl looked around the room to see that aside from herself and the lit fireplace, there wasn't anything or anyone else in the room save for her squad mates. As the brief rush of adrenaline subsided, the girl stowed her weapons and quickly moved to check on her friends.
Kneeling next to her team leader, Ciel could see that he was breathing but still unconscious and tried shake him awake. A few moments passed to no avail, before the boy began to stir gently. From his prone position, he awoke to meet the eyes of his partner looking at him with an unparalleled amount of relief, before she helped him sit up and pulled him into a tight hug.
Whitley rubbed the girl's back as he sat there, and thought he might have even heard a sniffle, but before he could question her about it, or anything else, they were drawn from their hug by the sound of the trumpeter coming to as well.
"Flynt?! Are you okay?"
The trumpeter rubbed his back in pain as he stiffly made his way to his feet.
"I'll live…What you two? Both of ya alright?"
Whitley and Ciel shared a glance before nodding back to their friend. As the white-haired teen was helped to his feet by his two friends, he looked around and saw Jaune asleep on the floor. A few steps had the young Schnee kneeling by his co-leader and trying to shake him awake, but upon seeing that the blonde wasn't responding, the younger teen started to get a little worried.
"He's not waking up."
Ciel came and knelt next to her partner before bringing a hand to the blonde's head.
"He's cold to the touch. We need to get him warmed up, now!"
Flynt was at his leader's side in a heartbeat before lifting him up and bringing him nearer to the fireplace. As he set the blonde down, Ciel came over and began looking the knightly teen over for any injuries, or brothers forbid, frostbite.
"Whitley, can you get me some water? And Flynt, do you think you could go find some more blankets, towels, or anything we can use to warm up Jaune?"
The two nodded to her and moved to go acquire what their squad mate requested. Whitley went to the kitchen sink and turned the handle for hot water to no avail, before trying the same with the cold water, only to reach the same outcome. The white-haired teen moved to the hallway, finding the door to the bathroom and trying both the kitchen sink and the shower, sadly, still no dice.
"The pipes must be frozen…"
Instead of going upstairs to check more water faucets, the young leader cut his losses and returned to the kitchen, looking for the largest metal pot he could find. Once he'd found a piece of kitchen ware of a good size, the teen went outside and filled two-thirds of the pot with snow, before returning and setting the pot in the fireplace, almost on top of the fire.
Meanwhile, Flynt had checked most of the closets on the first floor, still not having found any thick blankets or towels. Making his way up the staircase, the teen saw two doors on the second floor. Trying the one closest to him, the trumpeter was met with a mostly pink themed room. Entering the room, he saw pictures lining the walls and stuffed animals seated on nearly every flat surface of the room.
The funky teen turned his eyes towards the thick white blanket resting on the bed before pulling it off and moving towards the door when the sound of something hitting the floor caught his attention. Turning back around, Flynt spotted a book now laying on the ground.
Curious, he picked up the book and flipped it over.
"Trivia Vanille…"
The trumpeter made a sound of thought before coming to a decision, stowing the diary of the unknown girl into one of the pouches hanging on his hip.
'Maybe this will tell us why this place is abandoned.'
The teen shook himself from his thoughts, deciding to theorize later as he left the room, closing the door gently behind him. He went towards the door on the other side of the hall and twisted the knob. As the door moved inwards, the teen took not even a single step inside before his blood froze at what awaited him within.
The teen pulled the door shut near instantly, a grim look on his face as he made his way down the stairs trying to calm his breathing. Rejoining his friends in the living room, Flynt laid the blankets down next to Ciel as she looked up from where she was finishing up wrapping Jaune's arms with bandages.
"Thank you for finding these Flynt."
"No prob, but uh, what's wrong with his arms?"
"He rubbed the skin on his arms raw, probably trying to stay warm, and his hands were injured somehow."
The taller teen nodded while Ciel stood from where she had been kneeling. The girl stretched a bit, while she noticed her trumpeter friend's demeanor.
"Flynt, are you feeling okay? You're shaking."
The teen in question sighed as he answered his comrade.
"We…got people dead upstairs. Two of em', bedroom on the right."
"I see…that's…unfortunate. I should probably take a look at them before anything else to see if we can learn anything about how they died. Can you describe what kind of injuries they had before I go up there so I know what to expect?"
The teen thought back to the deceased couple, and after a few moments of thought, came to a stumping answer.
"I don't think I saw anything."
"What?"
"I mean, I didn't get closer to check on em' or anything, but I remember seeing any blood."
The beret wearing girl furrowed her brow before nodding and moving up the stairs. Taking a deep breath, the girl opened the door and was prepared, though no less disheartened, when she saw the dead couple in their death bed.
With a sigh, she moved closer to the bodies, and she noticed that even once she was at the side of the bed, she couldn't smell anything foul. Taking a look around, the girl studied her surroundings with extreme scrutiny, and true to Flynt's words, there wasn't a trace of blood anywhere in sight.
The girl took a hold of the blanket and sheet covering the deceased and prepared herself to pull the covering from the bed, as if the action would awake the dead couple.
With a sudden tug, Ciel exposed what was beneath the covers to reveal anything but what she expected. The couple was wearing pajamas, but aside from that, there was no blood, not on the covers, not on the bed, and not on the pajamas.
The girl took a step back, and the only thing that stuck out to the girl was the color of their skin. It was blackened, almost to the shade of charcoal, and their bodies looked gaunt. What was bothering the markswoman, was that there were no signs of decay. There was no telling how long these two had been dead, but aside from the skin discoloration, they didn't look like they'd begun to decay.
The girl looked away as she had to regain herself. She gathered the covers she'd torn from the bed and laid it over the two mysteriously deceased, making sure to cover their heads as well, and made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her.
She choked down the bile that had been creeping up her throat and made her way down the stairs. As she reentered the living room, the girl received no warning before the handle of an umbrella made struck her temple, causing her to crumple to the ground, vision swimming.
Ciel barely noticed Flynt and Whitley on the ground as whoever blindsided her ran towards Jaune. The last thing she saw before falling into unconsciousness were the pink and brown eyes that turned around to glare at her.
(Argus)
Marrow walked alone through the city, thoughts heavy with the events of yesterday. How does one tell a sister that her only brother went missing in the field?
It…never gets any easier, notifying the next of kin. Before yesterday, he'd only ever had to do it once. For his mentor Tortuga. The thing that breaks your heart when the news leaves your mouth is their eyes. They widen, and though they're looking at you, they don't really see you. Their imagining the face of whoever they lost while the tears begin to pool.
Much like Tortuga's fiancée, Jaune's sister had reacted similarly when he delivered the news outside the café. He couldn't bring himself to give the woman false hope, he wasn't cruel enough for that, so he didn't shy away from the truth.
After being led back to Saphron's house, the woman disappeared upstairs where she spent the remainder of the day locked in her room, though the woman's sobs were heard to any who ventured upstairs.
Marrow turned a corner while he was lost in thought, and as he stopped moving, he began looking around to survey his surroundings. During his walk, he'd found himself near the Atlas military compound. The gate was further ahead, and without anything else to really do, he continued to wander forth.
As his legs carried him, he looked past the fence to see recruits doing their PT drills, quartermasters looking over incoming freight, engineers doing mock field checks on the various vehicles, and all other sorts of liveliness. Within another few moments, the green haired man stood in front of the entry gate to the compound.
The gate guard strode forth, and upon seeing Marrow's credentials, snapped to a form perfect salute to his superior.
"Good Afternoon, Specialist!"
"Good Afternoon, and at ease."
The older man relaxed as he ended his salute.
"Sir, I have to call in your visit. Would you mind waiting here for a moment?"
Marrow nodded, and watched as the man stepped into the booth and began notifying the correct people. A few minutes later, and the guard returned.
"Sir, due to your unexpected visit, Special Operative Cordovin is on her way to personally greet you and give you a tour of the base should you require one."
The younger man nodded in response and ventured past the entrance. He waited patiently for a few minutes until a transport halted to a stop a few paces ahead of where he was standing. The passenger side door opened to reveal a short, older woman much like his client, before she turned signaled for the driver to go about their business.
"Well, this is an unexpected surprise. What brings one of James's top brass to Argus?"
"I'm a proctor for an academy squad's exam mission."
The woman raised an eyebrow at the admission, before she walked past him to begin the tour.
"A squad huh? So James is reinstating that format again?"
"No, at least, not fully. From what I've heard, this year is a test run to see if it can work better than the system we have in place now."
The woman hummed in response before speaking again.
"Well, I'm Special Operative Caroline Cordovin, leader of this installation."
"Specialist Marrow Amin, Ace Ops."
The woman actually seemed to almost stumble in surprise at this.
"Well now, not just a specialist, but a member of the Ace Ops, and so young. Color me impressed."
The man accepted the praise noncommittally while he looked around.
"Aside from the installations on Atlas proper, this is the most advanced military outpost the Atlas military has to offer. State of the art weaponry and transport, an advanced training program, and we even began funding our own experimental research division. Not to mention, we have over two thousand good men and women ready to respond to any threat."
It wasn't as impressive as what Marrow was used to seeing, but the tan male couldn't deny what the woman was proudly stating about the base she ran. What it made it slightly more impressive though, was that all of this was here, hundreds of miles away from Atlas, yet still in pristine condition.
"So Specialist, how long will you be staying in Argus?"
"Only until tomorrow. We decided to delay completing our mission due to…unfortunate circumstances."
The woman gave him a sidelong look waiting for an explanation, and Marrow felt himself sink further into the bad mood that had been plaguing him since yesterday as he recounted the mission thus far.
"By the brothers…and so now, you're staying with one of those children's sister?"
The man only nodded in response, causing Cordovin to shake her head at the news.
"It's a pity, those poor kids having lost their lives so young. If you feel like you need to we can accommodate you all here, we should have more than enough room in one of the barracks."
"The offer is appreciated, but I think we should be fine where we are for one more night. Besides I owe it to them to answer any questions they might have about what happened once they're ready."
A moment of silence peeked through before Marrow looked around to notice that they had arrived back at the gate to the base, and that more than two hours had passed. The man looked reasonably confused, and when he turned to Cordovin, the older woman sighed as she explained.
"We already had our full tour of the compound. I showed you everything that our base has to offer to protect the city of Argus. You seemed to be lost in your thoughts as I showed you around, so I decided let you think most of the time."
Had he really managed to tune out the world that much? To not notice his surrounding or what was happening around him for so long, the kid going MIA must have really been messing with him.
"Safe travels boy, and my condolences."
The man nodded in response as he left through the entry gates of the compound, feet carrying him towards the café he'd discovered the day prior. After the hour's walk, the man opened the door and pulled it shut behind him.
The woman who owned the café looked up and her soft smile came to her lips as she locked eyes with Marrow.
"Well, hey you."
Marrow managed a weak smile as he found a seat at the bar, noting to himself that the café was empty for his third visit in a row while the woman continued.
"You know, you keep visiting as often as you do, and people are going to talk. Then again, maybe you just enjoy my company that much~"
The smile she wore dissipated into a worried look as she saw the stormy expression the green haired man wore as his eyes met hers. The woman left her spot behind the counter and locked the door to her café, before returning to sit next to the canine faunus.
"Do you…want to talk about what's bothering you?"
Marrow looked at the countertop in silence for a few moments before sighing.
"I'm sure you heard some of what the students were saying yesterday when we were here. One of the kids that's still out there…we're staying with his sister at her house. When she asked me where Jaune was, and I told her…I watched a part of her die."
The woman said nothing, opting to say silent and cover one of his hands with both of her own.
"We leave for Atlas tomorrow. We're here on a mission escorting someone there from Mistral. I'm there proctor, more or less, and so if things get out of hand, I'm supposed to take the reins and bring everyone home safe."
The woman waited silently as Marrow adjusted his hand to grip her own while his other made a tight fist.
"I arrived in Argus with eight kids, and now I only have four."
The woman's heart broke hearing that. She watched as the man stared down at his lap, head bowed in shame as he thought about the students he lost.
"The worst part, was when we got back, we saw the sister to one of the kids who fell off the train."
The woman felt a pang of sympathy, both for the canine faunus and the sister as she rubbed the man's back.
"I was uh, training, one of them. Jaune was his name. He was a good kid."
"How did it happen?"
"A lot went wrong…we were getting attacked by a swarm and trying to defend a train full of passengers. And then, while all the fighting is going on around me, I turn around in time to watch Jaune and the other three fall off the train."
"Do you know where about they fell off?"
The man watched as the woman turned and pointed to a spot on the wall, and upon inspection, saw a map of Argus and Mistral, including the train tracks connecting the two cities. With an exhale, the dark skinned man walked over to the map with the owner following. After a minute of observation, the man pointed to a spot on the map, causing the woman to pull out her scroll, searching for something.
After a few more moments the woman's eyes widened, and she showed her scroll to Marrow.
"The military base here does bullhead patrols outside Argus and grimm exterminations, and they release weekly reports available to the public showing grimm concentrations so that civilians and huntsmen know what to expect if they leave the city. It's part of the agreement that they have with Argus that lets them have a military base here."
"Okay, but wh-"
"The part of the tracks you're saying those kids fell off train at is in a huge dead zone!"
This got a look of confusion from the canine faunus, and upon having the phone waved towards him, he gently grabbed it from the woman's hands and inspected it for himself. Sure enough, this area was practically devoid of grimm from the looks of the most recent patrol.
But, something was nagging at him, everywhere else on the report saw at least some sign of grimm activity, but not completely zero. As he saw an option to view older reports, he clicked it, and upon seeing what came up, he checked a few more before his brow furrowed.
"What is it?"
"Somethings…off."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, do you see anything weird about this?"
Marrow showed the woman her scroll, and watched as she seemed to think about the answer but shook her head negatively.
"This is a grimm report from four months ago. Everywhere else, grimm activity shifts and changes, but here, for months, they never saw a sign of any grimm."
The woman was surprised, and made an off comment pondering about why that was.
"Maybe there's nothing there for them?"
The gears turning in Marrow's head made him narrow his eyes as he spoke his own hypothesis.
"Or they're avoiding something there."
The woman looked at the Ace Op before she put away her scroll and grabbed him by the arm, shaking him and earning his attention.
"Do you know what this means?! Those kids are still out there!"
Marrow turned away from her as he thought about it. There was a chance they survived the accident thanks to their aura, and if they didn't have to worry about fighting off grimm, their chances of being alive got higher, even if just a little.
"There is a chance…but I can't go after them…"
The woman looked at him shocked, before she started to glower at him. Feeling the guilt of his statement, the man began to explain.
"I'm supposed to make sure these kids make it home, so I can't let them go off into the wilderness trying to find their friends who might not even be alive. And since we're supposed to be escorting a client, I can't leave them and the client to go looking for them."
The woman's look softened, and she knew that Marrow was just trying to do what he thought was right before she sighed.
"Marrow…if there's even a chance that those kids survived, don't you think their friends, their families, would be willing to bet everything on it?"
"Yes! But-"
The woman shushed him with a finger covering his lips as she cut him off.
"Exactly. So, shouldn't you be figuring out how where to look for your kids?"
"…I want to, but I have a responsibility to the mission an-"
"You have a responsibility to those kids stuck out there. So stop making excuses and go save them like we both know you were going to."
(North Anima Wilderness-Late Afternoon)
A few strands of sunlight slipping through the windows fell upon the still unconscious and restrained Whitley, Ciel, and Flynt. Roman Torchwick and Neo shared a look before the flame-haired man began poking at the teens with his cane.
A few groans could be heard as three pairs of eyes began to blink themselves open slowly and confused, before the teens remembered how they'd found themselves in their situation. They snapped to an upright position to see their captors looking at them with narrowed eyes, but upon studying the male, Whitley's eyes widened.
"Roman Torchwick!"
This earned the man's attention as he focused on the youngest teen in the room before speaking.
"I don't believe we've met. But yes, that would be me. And you're Whitley Schnee, aren't you."
Silence was the response the Whitley gave the man, who made a 'tsk' sound before he resumed speaking.
"Haven't your parents taught you any manners? Well, not like it matters, I know who you are."
The man pointed both his attention and his cane towards the other two conscious teens.
"But I don't know who you two kiddos are."
The three shared a look between themselves as Whitley swallowed a lump in his throat before nodding towards his two friends.
"Flynt Coal."
"Ciel Soliel."
Hearing their names, the man stopped pointing his cane towards them and moved towards the table in the kitchen, letting them be glared at by his petit woman partner.
The flamboyant man returned with two glasses of wine, handing one off to his partner who accepted it before returning her silent gaze to the teens. Roman took a sip before strolling in front of them casually, making his way to the coat rack next to the door and stowing his hat there.
After walking back to the living room, Roman sat down on the chaise, letting himself relax with his drink for a moment before focusing solely on the kids, a noticeable shift in the atmosphere as he did.
"Now. Why, pray tell, are you kids out here, in the middle of nowhere, in her house?"
He capped off the opening question of his interrogation by gesturing to Neo, who by this point had made a show of unsheathing the blade hidden within her parasol, inspecting it absentmindedly.
The three looked between themselves for a moment, before Whitley went to speak, but before he could, his breath caught in his throat with his eyes widened as the tip of Neo's blade was mere inches from the young Schnee's throat.
Looking up, sweating at the threat he was in, the small woman brought a finger to her lips, before pulling the blade of Hush away from him, and moving her finger to point at the mocha-skinned girl in the room.
"Ah, I believe you all got the message. But, just in case you didn't, Neo wants you to tell us why you're all here."
As he took a sip, he suddenly remembered something, and moved his drink away before speaking again.
"Where are my manners? Whitley, Ciel, Flynt; meet Neo, my partner in crime."
The three looked from the flame haired man back to his partner to see her studying Ciel's beret with interest, before she plucked it off the younger woman's head and placed it on her own, moving to inspect herself in the mirror. Ciel managed to gather some of her courage now that the woman with mismatched eyes was no longer right in front of her, and decided to speak.
"We were separated from our squad during a grimm attack. In the middle of our plan to protect our client and the passengers on board, something happened with the train car we were standing on, and then we crashed. We're lucky to be alive."
Roman hummed in response before over to Neo, who'd been observing herself from different angles with the beret. The short woman looked back to her partner waiting for his thoughts, and was met with a slight wince and a so-so motion, causing her to pout before placing the beret back where she'd taken it from.
"I see. Well, from what you're telling me, if any of it is true, then you are rather lucky to have survived. Now, you just said that you had a client, and you're all obviously too young to be hunters, so, you must be students? And if so, I'd say it's safe to say you're students of Atlas?"
A round of nods was his response, and the gentleman thief watched as the hat with the stitched brim was picked up from the floor and donned by Neo. Finding herself in front of the mirror once again, she only turned her head side to side once, before turning to Roman, earning a grimace and a shake of the head in return.
It seemed she agreed with his appraisal, as she nodded and removed the hat, placing it on Flynt's head as he was closest, before moving and picking up the other hat that had been on the floor, before going to the mirror to inspect herself while her lifetime friend continued his questioning.
"Alright, now that I know what you look like when you're telling the truth…"
With a flourish, Melodic Cudgel was aimed at the restrained teens, making them seize up in alarm as the man stared them down.
"Last question. What happened, to Jaune."
The students looked confused, and it was Whitley who spoke up to ask a question.
"Wait-how do you know J-"
Just as he was preparing to finish his question, Hush's blade imbedded itself into the wall behind next to the youngest Schnee's head. Whitley swallowed the lump in his throat; he hadn't even seen the petit woman move from where she'd been inspecting herself in the mirror. Looking up to meet her mismatched eyes, the white haired teen watched silently as she glared at him while Roman spoke.
"I believe I asked you a question first kids. So?"
Flynt and Whitley looked to Ciel, and the girl sat up straighter as she spoke.
"After the crash, Jaune and I were the only ones conscious. My aura was near empty, and he couldn't have had any more than I did. Whitley and Flynt were unconscious under a piece of rubble from the crash so we carried them, trying to make our way to Argus. On the way there, my aura broke and I passed out, and when we woke up, we were all in this house, but Jaune was unconscious and wasn't waking up. We were trying to warm him up since he was cold to the touch, but then…well, I'm sure you know what happened next."
The partners in crime shared a look, and just as Roman went to speak, an exhausted groan caught everyone's attention, and all eyes looked to see Jaune slowly, stiffly, beginning to push himself to a sitting position.
What happened next surprised the restrained students was the last thing they could have expected. In a flash, Roman had left the chaise and was kneeling by the blonde's side, and Neo had practically materialized next to the recovering teen. Her cold eyes, a mismatched brown and pink that promised pain vanished, replaced by a pair of white irises showing only concern.
"How are you feeling Kid?"
Jaune turned his head, and after focusing to clear up his vision, he saw Roman and Neo. Before he could think any further, memories of dragging his squad mates through the snow covered forest appeared in his mind, and the teen's energy seemed to surge back as he jumped to his feet. Immediately feeling pain throughout his body for doing so, the blonde winced as he wrapped his arms around himself.
"Hey, take it easy Kid, you've been out cold for a while, and you're inju-"
"Are my friends okay!?"
The two stared at Jaune in response, before Roman shook his head and let out a sigh with an exasperated smile.
"Don't ever lose that heart of yours Kid."
The gentleman thief shot a look over to Neo, who jumped over to where the restrained teens were before cutting them loose of their bindings. With their movements free again, and the tension seeming to be diffused, the students rushed over to Jaune.
"Guys! You're okay!"
The knightly teen was met with relieved smiles from his squad mates as they stood around him.
"Only due to your tenacity. Nevertheless, thank you for saving us. I suppose I'm in your debt"
Jaune gave Whitley a smile as he held a fist towards the younger teen.
"Friends don't keep score."
The white-haired teen bumped fists with Jaune though a tad embarrassed by the action, and coughed into his fist when he saw Ciel and Flynt shooting him their own grins.
After a few minutes or so of good-hearted small talk, the sound of a lighter lid flipping shut was heard, and the group turned to see Roman with a lit cigar held snugly between his fingers before Jaune addressed him.
"Oh yeah! So…not that I'm not happy to see you guys, but, why exactly are you all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?"
The older pair indulged in their vices briefly, Roman taking a drag from his cigar, and Neo taking a sip of wine from her glass. After exhaling the smoke, the flame-haired man stared at the lit end of his cigar for a moment in thought before speaking.
"That, is a long story."
(A/N)
Hey guys, hope you enjoy this chapter!
A ton of inspiration came out of nowhere, but I think it came from thinking about how to make the Vytal festival sound like a much more grand and momentous occasion that it appears.
Also, we should have maybe 1-2 more chapters left in Volume 1. Volume 2 will, hopefully, feel much quicker and to the point, but not rushed.
Besides that, come hop into the discord with everyone else, its a calm community, but you can bounce ideas around or talk things out whenever!
/dSbQbK7FTy
See y'all soon!
B.J.H.