Chapter 22
Atlas
Day 6: Morning
The clatter of a tray on the floor of his cell and a voice grunting "Breakfast." woke Qrow from his light doze. He opened his eyes just as the forcefield locking him away from the outside world reactivated. He groaned and sat up on his 'bed', which was essentially just a glorified metal slab. He looked up just in time to see the guard exiting the room. On the floor of his cell rested a metal tray with a glob of what he could only assume passed for food around here on it. In the cell next to him, Robyn was already awake and walking back to her cot with her own tray, frowning at whatever the hell it was that they had been brought that morning.
Other than the visit from Clover, Yang, and Blake the previous morning, the guards delivering their food were the only other people they'd seen in the last twenty four hours. They'd felt the island rise into the air and felt it tremble a little while after that but the guards had been deaf to their questions about it, apparently under orders to keep them in the dark.
Their other cellmate, Arthur Watts, was already up and eating his food, a disgusted sneer on his lips. He'd quickly learned to keep any comments to himself after Robyn had cussed him out with a string of expletives so colorful Qrow was certain that Salem herself would have flinched, which honestly only made Qrow like the woman even more.
They'd both been upset that their allies on the outside hadn't been able to stop Ironwood's plan, Robyn most of all, as the fate of Mantle had hung in the balance. Even now the two of them had no idea what was happening to her home; Qrow knew she was putting on a brave front but was scared and anxious on the inside.
He sighed, got up off the cot and grabbed his tray. "Anything good this morning?" he asked as he sat back down.
"I'm pretty sure this used to be an egg…" Robyn said, holding up a gray rubbery mass, her voice slightly distorted by the forcefield between them. She arched an eyebrow and poked at her tray with her plastic spoon, "I think I spotted some chunks of ham, but the rest of this is completely unrecognizable."
Examining his tray, Qrow couldn't tell what any of the 'food' was supposed to be either. He sighed, scooped up a spoonful, and put it in his mouth. He instantly gagged, but managed to swallow it down.
"I genuinely didn't think it was possible to mess up breakfast this badly." he said with a slight laugh, "This is somehow worse than the time Ruby tried to make breakfast for me when she was a kid…"
He trailed off, the thought of his niece brutally reminding him that Ruby was missing. Likely freezing somewhere out there on the tundra, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it; at least not until he was out of jail anyway. Hell, she might not not be freezing, she could be-
"Hey." Robyn's voice interrupted his thoughts, "You're spiraling again." she said gently.
"Wha-How did you?" he asked incredulously.
She gestured at his spoon which he realized was tapping out an aggressive rhythm on his tray. "Sorry.." he mumbled, stopping the tapping and putting another spoonful of food in his mouth.
"Don't apologize…" she said with an understanding smile, "You know you can talk to me right? It's the least I could do after you listened to me rant for hours last night about all the ways Mantle might have escaped harm."
Qrow remained silent, digging at his food. Robyn knew men like him, they were too proud to share their burdens and feelings. He needed a push.
"You really love her, don't you?" she said gently.
"Who?" he asked, looking at her in confusion.
"Ruby. Every time her name comes up you retreat into yourself. She must mean a lot to you."
He nodded, "She does. She's a great kid…" He said, smiling fondly, "She takes after me, even though we're not blood related. I'm the one who trained her how to use a scythe, and someday she's going to be an even better huntsman than me…" he trailed off, a small smile on his face. "She's kind of a bright ball of energy and sunshine; always trying to look on the bright side of things." He smiled, "She's got a knack for winning people over too. She even made Weiss actually tolerable to be around; well…for a Schnee. Even more so when they started datin-"
He shut his mouth quickly, looking up at her with a surprised expression. "Uhhh, you weren't supposed to know that…" he said sheepishly, "But it's kind of an open secret, you'd have be blind not to notice to be honest." He sighed softly, "But I digress, she's a great kid. I'd love even if she wasn't my niece."
Robyn studied him closely, "That's not all there is to it, is there?"
He stiffened, "I don't know what you're talking about." he said gruffly.
"Yes you do." Robyn replied, "Qrow, even without my semblance, I'm pretty good at reading people."
He sighed, conceding the point, "She's…Ruby's all I got left of her…of Summer…"
"Summer?"
"Ruby's mom…and my…teammate at Beacon." A look of sorrow passed across Qrow's features.
"You two were close?" Robyn asked, Qrow's poignant pauses not going unnoticed.
"You could say that…" Qrow replied, shrugging, "She died when Ruby was very young…kid never really got over it, and neither did I if I'm being honest…"
"Well," Robyn said, "If she was anything like her daughter, I bet she was an amazing person."
Qrow smiled fondly, "She was…" he was silent, lost in thought for a few moments.
Robyn was just about to open her mouth to reply when the door to the holding cells hissed open and Winter Schnee strode into the room. Qrow immediately noticed the metal frame supporting her upper body and legs.
A guard stumbled into the room right after her, "Ma'am?" he asked, "Can I help you?"
"These two are being transferred to another holding facility, deactivate the forcefields.'' She held up two pairs of handcuffs.
Qrow saw the guard's hand subtly move toward the pistol holstered at his hip, "Ma'am, I was given orders by General Ironwood himself to not allow you near the prisoners. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
She sighed heavily, "I apologize Corporal."
He nodded, visibly relaxing slightly, "It's quite alright-"
Qrow's eyes widened as white beowolf materialized behind the man, immediately slamming its massive paw into the guard's head, sending him crumpling to the ground unconscious.
Winter's summon faded away as she strode rapidly toward the control panel, deactivating the forcefields around their two cells.
"What the hell is going on here?" Watts asked as Qrow and Robyn stepped out. Winter pointedly ignored him.
"What he said." Qrow replied, "What's going on here Ice Queen?"
Winter paused for a moment, "He sent them out there on purpose." she finally said, "Ruby and Weiss…Ironwood knew the base was dangerous and sent them anyway."
Qrow's eyes widened, "What are you saying Schnee?"
"I'm saying he used them as bait to spring the obvious trap." Qrow reeled back as if struck, Winter shook her head, "I knew James was a bastard but I never thought he'd stoop to using children. To make matters even worse, he never even looked for them when they went missing and he lied to all of us to cover his tracks."
"Is that why you're breaking us out" Robyn asked, "'Cuz you need help kicking his ass?"
Winter shook her head, "No, James can wait, besides, he's too well protected right now. I need your help finding Weiss and Ruby; time is of the essence. In another six hours, they'll be too far away to get there and back in a Manta without refueling."
Qrow nodded, "So why come to us? Take some of your soldiers with; or hell, take Penny with, I'm sure she's itching to find Ruby."
Winter shook her head again, "Ironwood won't let me close to a Manta, and Penny is undergoing maintenance and…" she paused, "She's not in a very stable emotional state should…the worse come to pass." she paused a moment before looking back up. "So," Winter continued, "Seeing as I'm a 'goody-two-shoes' as you've so eloquently put in the past, I can use some people on my side that are good at being scoundrels and are willing to do whatever it takes to screw over James Ironwood."
Qrow and Robyn looked at each other, "Well you've come to the right place," Qrow said with a sly grin, "I happen to be a professional scoundrel."
"And screwing with Ironwood is one of my favorite pastimes." Robyn said with a malicious smile.
Winter nodded, she didn't have a terribly high opinion of Qrow but she was glad to know he was on her side, at least to protect Ruby. She turned to Robyn, "Ms. Hill, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, you have no personal stake in this mission. I would be happy to drop you off somewhere in Atlas on our way out if you wish."
Robyn thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Ironwood's goons would probably just find me again in no time. Besides, you need all the rule breakers on your side that you can get. Plus," she added, "I promised Yang that I'd look after this crusty jerk." she grinned and playfully elbowed Qrow in the ribs.
Winter allowed herself a small smile as Qrow glared at the other woman. She liked Robyn Hill. "Fair enough." Winter said, "We should get going before someone notices all the unconscious guards."
"Plural?" Qrow asked, his eyebrows shooting up, "We really need to work on your stealth, Schnee."
She rolled her eyes and turned to walk out of the room.
"Wait a sec," Qrow said, "Need to take care of something real quick." He turned, and walked over to Watt's cell and slammed his fist against the forcefield, startling the man who had settled on the cot. "If I find out that you had anything to do with this, if they're missing because of you. I'm going to come back here and fucking kill you." he snarled, his voice low and dangerous.
Although Watts said nothing, Winter could easily tell that he was incredibly intimidated. She would be too, Qrow was a man without a whole lot left to lose. She had zero doubt in her mind that he would absolutely follow through on that promise, gods help the poor bastard that hurt his family. He might be a scoundrel, but he was loyal almost to a fault and Winter could respect that.
"Ok, now we can go." Qrow said, walking out through the door.
She followed him out the door so they could retrieve Robyn and Qrow's weapons.
Yang plodded slowly down the hallway as she and Blake returned from the dining hall. Her steps were heavy, still being utterly mentally exhausted from the day before; the day that Ironwood had all but forced the two of them into a press conference lauding them as the heroes that had saved Atlas. He'd made them recount the battle to protect the shield pylon from hordes of Grimm. Forcing them to, once again, relive the moment where they'd realized that something horrible had happened out on the tundra, likely to Ruby and Weiss.
They'd both mentally shut down when they reached that part of the story, completely forgetting they were live on mic. Luckily Marrow had completed the story for them and the press conference had ended soon after. Yang had spent the rest of the day keeping herself busy and trying to fight off anxiety and worry, before getting a few fitful hours of sleep.
Yang sighed, and tried to push the returning thoughts of her sister out of her mind, she didn't want to start another downward spiral. She couldn't. Not again. All she wanted to do was to get back to training.
They came to a branch in the hallway and Yang turned to go to the training room but Blake turned the other way, clearly intending to go back to their dorm.
"Where are you going?" The sadness and exhaustion in the Faunus' voice made Yang stop.
"Training room." Yang answered with a sigh, still facing away from her partner. Knowing she couldn't take the face she knew that Blake was making.
There was silence for a long moment. "You spent more time in the training room than in our dorm yesterday." Blake said quietly.
"I'm sorry." Yang said, still not turning around.
"I don't want an apology, I want you to talk to me."
Yang shook her head, finally turning to face her partner. "They're all I can think about." she said, her voice trembling, "And if I keep thinking about them, I'm going to spiral until I break again. If I'm training, I'm not thinking about them. I can't shatter." She paused for a long moment before continuing, desperately trying not to cry, "I can't crumble again… Because…" she swallowed the thick lump in her throat, "Because I can't protect people- I can't protect you if I'm broken. It's my job to take the hits that you can't. So I'm going to train until I can't train anymore."
Blake frowned sadly, "That doesn't seem healthy…"
"It's not." Yang admitted, but also felt a slight pang of annoyance, "But it's not like you haven't been burying your nose in your books more than you normally do." there was slightly more bitterness in her voice than she intended.
"Fair." Blake acquiesced with a sad shrug.
Yang watched as her partner started to withdraw from her, Blake's shoulders hunching and a faraway look in her eyes. "Dammit…" Yang murmured under her breath, snipping at each other was getting them nowhere.
"I'm sorry…Really. I'm just so worried about them and there's nothing we can do until Clover finds out more about what's going on. The second we step out of line, Ironwood will have us in cuffs."
Blake nodded in agreement, "He sings our praises in public but hasn't said so much as 'Thank you' to us privately." she sighed, "We can't just wallow in our misery, and honestly, I don't want to be by myself right now."
"Me either." Yang agreed. Distracting herself by punching things was fine, but she'd be lying if said that she hadn't missed Blake a lot yesterday. "Ok, let's compromise." she said after a moment, "Why don't you come train with me for a little bit, then we can watch a movie or something back in the dorm room. Maybe go bother Clover for an update later."
A small smile tugged at the corners of Blake's mouth, "I'd like that."
Yang smiled back and exaggeratedly offered Blake her elbow, "Shall we, m'lady?"
Blake smiled back. "We shall." She said, grabbing Yang's arm. Linked together, they began to walk down the hallway leading to the training room.
In front of them, three figures turned the corner and began walking rapidly towards them. It took Yang a moment to realize that it was Qrow and Robyn with Winter close behind them. The five Huntsmen all stopped and stared at each other.
"Uh, what are you guys doing out of jail?" Yang asked warily, a confused expression on her face.
Qrow opened his mouth to respond but a blaring alarm cut him off. "ALL PERSONNEL, QROW BRANWEN AND ROBYN HILL HAVE ESCAPED CUSTODY. USE CAUTION, THEY ARE TO BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS."
"Dammit…" Yang heard Winter mutter as the PA system shut off. She looked apologetically at the two of them and flicked her sword.
Completely without warning, both Yang and Blake were bodily lifted off their feet and moved rapidly down the hallway. It took Yang a moment to realize that a white manticore was rapidly carrying them with its head, the two of them wedged between its horns. It suddenly veered sharply to the right, slamming the two of them through a wall and into a maintenance corridor on the other side.
They landed hard, the air driven from their lungs but there was no time to catch their breath. They sprang straight back to their feet, weapons deployed and ready to fight the manticore as they tried to get their lungs working again. Yang was just about to launch herself at the beast when it seemed to give her an apologetic look and dissipated into white dust. Qrow, Robyn and Winter charged aggressively into the corridor before quickly coming to a stop, sheathing their weapons and holding their hands up, showing that they meant them no further harm.
"Sorry about that," Winter said, "it was the only way to avoid the surveillance cameras without arousing suspicion."
Yang gawked at them, "What the ABSOLUTE FUCK is going on here?!" she yelled, looking at the three like they were insane, not daring to drop her arms from her combat stance.
"Can't get into it now kid," Qrow said, "But we're going to go look for your sister and Weiss."
Yang's arms slowly lowered. She opened her mouth to speak, but Blake was slightly faster.
"We're going with you." The Faunus woman said, her voice filled with conviction, echoing Yang's exact thoughts.
Qrow sighed, instantly sagging a bit, clearly wishing they hadn't run into them during their escape.
Winter shook her head no, "We're the ones that can go. The two of you still have influence in the military and with the public, the three of us are 'burned' so to speak. After what I've done, my military career is over and these two should be in a jail cell. "
Robyn nodded in agreement, "Besides, if we want to take Ironwood out, we're going to need the Ace Ops on our side." she said, "There's a certain dog Faunus that I think we can convert, maybe Elm too. You guys staying behind is best for everyone."
"Except for us!" Yang yelled, "We have to sit here and listen to Ironwood praise us with a fake smile on his face while he keeps us away from anything important. I can't be-"
"You can't come with us!" Qrow yelled, cutting Yang off, his eyes scared, "I-We don't know what's out there," he said more quietly, "We might not even come back…I can't let you get hurt too. If all of us don't come back…what does Tai have?" He looked at her pleadingly, "Please Yang, if not for me then do it for your dad."
Yang growled in frustration, "Fine." She said shortly, "We'll stay, but I'm not happy about it."
"You don't have to be." Qrow said with a sad smile, "You just have to-"
"Dammit." Winter interrupted, looking at her scroll, "Ironwood just locked the hangar down. And it looks like he's stationed a bunch of soldiers in there to protect the Mantas." She shook her head in frustration,
"That hangar is the only way out, how are we supposed to leave?" Robyn asked.
They were all silent for a few moments.
"We, uh…we have someone who might be able to help." Yang said hesitantly.
"Who?" Winter asked.
Yang and Blake shared a look. "I think it might be best if we kept that to ourselves for the moment." Blake said, "The important part is that this person pledged themselves to give us any help we needed in finding Weiss."
Winter still looked skeptical.
"I mean, I trust the kids." Qrow said with a shrug, "Not like we have much of a choice at the moment."
"But we-" Winter started to say.
"There's no time," Blake interrupted, "We need to stage a fight in here and you three have to get moving."
"Fight?" Winter asked.
"Yeah," Robyn replied, drawing her crossbow, "They'll suspect something if there's no damage and the girls aren't a little beat up."
Qrow flinched, "I don't think that's nece-"
"No, she's right." Yang agreed, "It has to look convincing."
The five of them quickly tore up the length of the corridor with their weapons and Winter's semblance, making sure to scatter spent shells down the length of it. After that Yang and Blake struck a few body blows on the adults, Yang punching Winter in the ribs with her mechanical arm several times. The only thing to do now was to make sure Yang and Blake looked like the losers of the fight.
"Sorry kiddo…" Qrow said, as he prepared to swing Harbinger at his niece.
"Just do it." Yang said with a taunting smirk, "I can take it, you hit like an old man anyway."
He gave her a small smile. Then, without warning, he slammed the flat side of his sword into her ribs, knocking her into the opposite wall and taking a larger chunk out of her aura than she had anticipated.
"Ow…" she muttered as Blake, who had gotten a similar treatment from Winter, extended her hand to help Yang off of the floor. She readily accepted and Blake hauled her up with surprising ease.
"You guys need to go now," Blake said, "We'll make sure you get some help."
"Good luck you two." Qrow said as he ran towards the main hallway with Robyn close behind him, "Stay safe."
Winter nodded to the two girls, and turned to follow Qrow when she felt a hand clamp down on her wrist. She turned and saw Yang's violet eyes burning into hers.
"Find her." Yang said, her voice shaking slightly, "Find my sister."
Winter nodded, "I will. I'll bring both of our sisters back home. I promise."
Yang nodded and released her pulling her scroll out of her pocket.
Winter dashed out the hole in the wall and back down the corridor. As she ran she could swear she could hear Yang's voice say the word "Willow." But couldn't be certain before her voice faded into the distance. She pushed it from her mind, there was a much more important task she had to focus on at the moment.
A few minutes later the three of them arrived at the closed and presumably sealed door to the hangar and stopped to catch their breath. Winter tried entering her override code but quickly found that she was locked out of the system. She sighed, "Guess we have to do this the hard way." she wedged her sword into the door crack. "Be ready for anything." she said to the other two. She sent ice dust down her sword and into the door, quickly freezing it solid.
She stepped away and Qrow slammed Harbinger into the doors, easily knocking them out of the frame; the three of them surged through the door, weapons drawn. As the air cleared, they saw a dozen soldiers as well as Clover, Harriet and Elm aiming weapons at them.
To their right, a thundering clang echoed throughout the hangar as massive metal blast door sealed, preventing any Manta from exiting or entering. There were plenty of crates and large equipment littering the hangar to use for cover. The Ace ops looked calm, albeit angry, the soldiers behind them looked twitchy and nervous, they could use that to their advantage if it came down to it. All of them stood between the three of them and the row of four Mantas at the back of the hangar, she could see several technicians standing by them, all looking very nervous, not quite sure what was going on.
"Specialist Schnee." a voice crackled over the PA system, "I must say that I'm quite disappointed in you." her head snapped up to the second floor of the massive hangar and there was James Ironwood, standing behind the glass windows of the control room, glaring down at them with a scowl on his face, "But I'm not surprised. You have ten seconds to give yourselves up, you will not be leaving this city today."
"I'm going to find my sister," Winter spat, glaring back defiantly, "And none of you are going to stop us."
"So be it." Ironwood said, sighing, "Take them down."
"Let's do it!" Clover said as he led the charge at the three of them, his mouth a grim line; the two other Ace Ops close behind him and the soldiers following in their wake. Harriet looked all too happy to be fighting them. The technicians and mechanics all quickly ran for cover behind the Mantas as the operatives rapidly closed the distance.
Clover deftly ducked under a swipe from Winter's sword before ducking behind her and swiping at Qrow with Kingfisher. Qrow easily blocked the attack and used the opportunity to strike out at Clover, throwing him off balance. Clover bounced back quickly and rapidly closed the distance between the two of them, locking their weapons together and getting close to Qrow's face.
"I'm going to try to get you guys out of here." he said quietly to Qrow, "the two of us will put on a good fight, then you'll take me hostage and walk over to the-"
Qrow punched him in the face, sending Clover staggering back, "Good plan." Qrow said quietly as he leapt at his friend, his sword held high, "Besides, I think Schnee will have a great time taking your soldiers down a peg." he said as he watched Harriet skid across the hangar on a sheet of ice created by Winter.
Clover smirked, "She could stand to let off a little steam." he lashed out at Qrow again, wrapping Kingfisher around his leg and pulling.
"Okay, I think it's been long enough." Yang said, leveraging herself up from the floor of the maintenance corridor where they'd been sitting for the past ten minutes, stretching her muscles as she stood.
Blake nodded, "Time to make our cover look good."
The two of them staggered back into the main hallway. As they came back into view of the security cameras, Blake heavily exaggerated a limp in her right leg and Yang held her side where Qrow had struck her, making sure to wince in pain with every step.
Blake tapped her earpiece, "Control, Yang and I were ambushed by Qrow Robyn and Winter. We've just managed to pull ourselves together, what's the situation?"
*Your assailants are currently trying to escape via the hangar.* came the reply from the comms officer, *The General has put out a call for Huntsmen assistance.*
"Copy, we're on our way." Replied Yang, "Though I'm not sure how much help we'll be, those old people hit surprisingly hard." That earned a chuckle from the comms officer before they closed the channel. It definitely didn't hurt to leave a trail of excuses, they'd have to throw the fight if they had to confront their fellow conspirators.
A few minutes later they finally arrived at the shattered doors to the hangar. Peering in, they saw a dozen soldiers in various states of incapacitation; most of them lying on the floor nursing various non lethal wounds, a few more, much to Yang's amusement, were plastered to the wall with ice. Movement by the far wall of the hangar caught their eyes as they saw Qrow backing towards the Mantas. He had Clover's arm pulled behind his back, and his sword at his throat; Robyn and winter flanked him to either side, keeping their weapons trained on Harriet and Elm as they advanced cautiously on them. Blake noticed several mechanics cowering behind the Mantas, looking even more nervous as the conflict moved towards them.
"Stay back!" Qrow shouted at Elm and Harriet, "I'll kill him!"
"You wouldn't." Harriet snarled.
"You have absolutely NO IDEA what I'll do for my family." he spat right back. Blake saw Clover flinch slightly, now not entirely convinced that Qrow was bluffing.
"Qrow, you don't want to do this." Elm said, "We can work this out!"
Yang and Blake heard noise in the hallway behind them, they turned and spotted Marrow running towards them, several more squads of soldiers close behind him. When he reached them, they all ran into the hangar together, quickly moving toward the confrontation.
Three crossbow bolts embedded themselves in the deck at their feet, forcing them to pull up short. "Stay back kids," Robyn said sharply, "We don't want to hurt you again."
"Listen to them Qrow," Clover said, "Let me go and surrender, this won't go well for you."
"Shut up." Qrow growled, jerking the Ace Ops Commander's arm, making him hiss in pain. The three escapees and their captive were almost to the first manta in the row now.
"Enogh of this!" Ironwood's angry voice came over the loudspeakers.
Suddenly Yang and Blake were buffeted by a deafening BOOM as the four Mantas simultaneously exploded, showering the hangar with flaming debris and throwing the escapees and Clover several feet through the air before roughly slamming to the deck.
"Fuck…" Yang whispered under her breath. "I didn't think he would-"
She wasn't even able to finish the sentence before the screaming started, Blake and Yang both simultaneously realizing that it was coming from the Mantas, from the poor people that had been hiding from the battle.
"He's a monster…" Blake breathed, her muscles tensing, preparing to dash over to what was left of the Mantas and try to help.
But there was almost no time to process that information as another explosion sounded from the far end of the hangar as small pieces of the blast door flew inward. The smoke around the door slowly cleared, revealing a hole in the door large enough for a person to fit through. A burst of gunfire sprayed through the newly breached hole, forcing Yang, Blake, and the Atlas soldiers to scramble for cover in the crates sitting on the deck.
Once the gunfire died down somewhat, Yang peered out from behind the metal crate they were sheltering behind. She immediately spotted four figures dive out of the hole and begin to sprint across the hangar, keeping the sheltering soldiers down with covering fire as they made a beeline for Qrow, Robyn, and Winter. Blake noticed that they were sort of dressed like Atlas soldiers, but their armor each had several personal modifications and paint that were clearly out of normal uniform regs. They also moved like trained soldiers but at the same time they moved less formally than the soldiers they were used to.
Finally reaching the trio, the soldier in the lead said something to Winter before directing the rest of his comrades to find cover and open fire on the real Atlas soldiers.
Qrow, Robyn, and Winter, under the cover of the latter's glyphs, made a break for the blast door. Blake could clearly see a Manta waiting for the two of them outside the hole.
"STOP THEM!" Ironwood yelled over the PA system.
Yang and Blake looked at each other, they still had to maintain the ruse that they were loyal to Ironwood, they had to attack the new arrivals. They wouldn't go after their escaping allies, but they could help defeat these new arrivals. With a grim look on her face, Blake signaled a plan of attack to Yang with a series of hand gestures, getting a nod of agreement in response.
Blake leaned out from cover and threw Gambol Shroud as a hook, wrapping the ribbon around one of the intruder's ankles as he raked gunfire across the Atlas soldiers in cover. One solid yank and the man was pulled off his feet. Yang quickly leapt from cover and ran straight at the man as he got to his feet, quicker than either of them had anticipated. He has almost managed to level his rifle at her when Yang's fist slammed into his midsection, holding her strength back a bit so as not to kill him; the man still skidded backwards a few feet from the force or her punch. Yang smirked, she had felt the telltale crackle of an unlocked aura against her fist, she didn't have to hold back anymore. She surged forward, landing an even stronger punch into the man's side and another on his jaw now that she knew he could take it. He dropped to the ground, dazed but not unconscious yet.
Apparently, his accomplices didn't like seeing their comrade getting punched in the face and opened fire on her, forcing her to deflect a few rounds with her right arm, much too far into the open to run for cover in time. Luckily, their momentary focus on her allowed Ironwood's soldiers to pop up from cover and open fire on the intruders, allowing her time to refocus on the rest of the battle as the intruders turned their weapons away from her.
There was a crackle of electricity and Harriet flew by Yang at top speed, aiming straight for Qrow, Robyn, and Winter, who were now a mere twenty feet from the home in the blast door.
She must have been staring too long because the dazed soldier at her feet leapt up, drawing his pistol and leveling it at her head. She only had a fraction of a second to realize what was happening before Blake suddenly appeared behind him and, with a deft kick, swept his legs out from under him once again. Yang seized the opportunity on the still airborne man, slamming her fist down onto his chest, sending him slamming violently into the deck and knocking him out cold.
Yang looked up just in time to see Harriet approaching the fleeing group, drawing back her fist to strike at Robyn. Yang saw Qrow turn his head and stare angrily at the speedster and all of the sudden the Ace operative was tumbling head over heels across the deck at high speed, having apparently lost her footing.
Yang smirked as the trio quickly climbed through the hole and onto the waiting Manta. Qrow was the last one through; he paused and looked back at her. She gave him a nod, a silent plea in her eyes to find her missing family. He nodded back and she knew he would either find them or die trying.
He ducked through the hole and the Manta pulled away moments later. A shout of anger drew her attention to the control room and she saw Ironwood slam his fist into the computer panel, a look of rage on his face.
"STAY!"
The shouted word pulled her attention back to the fight as Ironwood's soldiers slapped cuffs on the intruder that Marrow had just immobilized. The remaining two intruders intensified their fire, hitting several Atlas soldiers and sending them to the ground, bleeding.
"Enough!" Elm yelled, bringing her launcher up to her shoulder. She unloaded two rockets into the remaining intruders, blanketing the area with debris and smoke.
When the air finally cleared, the intruder's bodies lay on the floor, very clearly dead. There was silence for a few moments, then everyone began to hear groans of pain, not from their captives but from the still burning wreckage of the destroyed Mantas.
As one, Yang and Blake turned and sprinted towards the wreckage. As they ran, Blake spared a look up at the control room and spotted Ironwood walking away from the window, an angry scowl on his face. But she didn't have time to process that as they arrived at the debris. Working together with the Ace Ops - minus Harriet - and soldiers, they dug through the twisted, flaming wreckage and began to pull survivors out; Yang's near-inflammability being instrumental in pulling several of the victims from under red-hot metal.
Of the seven workers that had been present in the hangar , three were dead and the other four badly injured. The disaster teams were hard at work extinguishing the fires and medics were diligently working on the four survivors and soldiers that were injured in the firefight. All Yang and Blake could do now is stay out of their way and watch.
Now that the adrenaline had worn off, all Yang felt was anger burning deep inside her, causing small embers to drift off her hair. And judging by Blake's white-knuckle grip on her metal elbow, she felt the same way too.
Yang jumped slightly as she heard a sniff beside her. She hadn't even realized that Marrow had been standing next to her for some time. He looked haunted, his jaw quivering slightly, whether it was from anger or grief Yang didn't know, but she understood either way.
"How could he do something like that?" He asked quietly, his voice shaking "Qrow, Robyn, and Winter weren't even a threat, they just wanted to leave…These people died for nothing…"
All Yang could do was shake her head, afraid if she opened her mouth all that would come out would be a long stream of curses aimed at Ironwood. But the dog Faunus didn't seem to share her filter.
"He has to be stopped." Marrow said, his voice much too loud considering the amount of soldiers and medics near them, "We have to do something…we have to-"
"Go help clear the remaining Grimm from the city?" The three of them jumped, not realizing till just then that Clover had come up behind them, "That's an excellent idea, Lieutenant. It'll be good for the people to see the heroes of Atlas out on the streets protecting them." He looked at Yang and Blake, indicating he thought they should come with him as well.
"S-Sir," Marrow said nervously, sweat visibly breaking out on his forehead, "I didn't mean-I-"
Clover put a calming hand on his shoulder, "It's ok Marrow, you're among friends here." he said, giving Marrow a significant look, "But there's too many ears here, we can talk properly in the city, understand?" Marrow nodded and let out a nervous breath, now significantly calmer. "Good man," Clover said gently, "Lets get going, you three, we're just getting in the way here.'' he turned and walked towards the door.
As the four of them headed out of the hangar, Yang couldn't help but notice Marrow glancing back at the wreckage and bodies before they turned the corner. Honestly Yang was just glad for the distraction, and judging by the look in her eyes, Blake was too. Yang gave her a small smile and laced their fingers together; Blake gave her a reassuring squeeze.
As they walked hand in hand to the landing pads, Yang, who never considered herself particularly religious, offered a prayer to the Gods. Begging them to help Qrow, Robyn, and Winter complete their mission and come home safe.
She just wanted her family back dammit.
Woah, a little over a month turnaround on this one! I'm a little proud of myself.
Ok lets all say it together this time: "FUCK IRONWOOD." he's actually pretty fun to write as an out and out antagonist. You may notice that I don't write from Blake's perspective very often, and honestly it's because I have a hard time getting into her headspace. I feel like I understand RWY pretty well but Blake eludes me for some reason, so my apologies if you're a fan of her. The next two chapters of this story are going to be absolutely nuts as our two storylines are finally coming together. So buckle your seatbelts!
Speaking of the next two chapters, The current arc of the story will be ending at chapter 24. I'm planning on taking a hiatus from this story for a while before starting back up again for the second arc. This is for two reasons, one: I have the whole second arc outlined but I still need to type write my rough draft so it'll give me time to do that. And two: This story is depressing as FUCK and I need a break from it. So I've decided to give our two dolts some happiness. During the hiatus, I'll be typing up and posting some wholesome, cute Whiterose content. I'll have more details later but look out for the first of those sometime in May or June.
Comments on what you thought of the chapter are always appreciated! As always, thanks to my wonderful wife, V, for being my beta/editor and thanks to YOU for reading!