Ye-ep. Here we are, back again!
Not a ton to say atm! More after the chapter perhaps?
Start Chapter 9
Ensign Elm Ederne of the Atlas Naval Fleet can't help but wonder what the point of all of this is.
She understands, in theory, why they need ships patrolling the waters in and around Menagerie. It's to protect the faunus ships from the Grimm, and to keep the seas safe from unsavory elements like pirates. It's also to protect important trade routes and shipping lanes.
And yet, during her time aboard the ANF Cutter 13, she's yet to see them really get up to anything of the sort.
Oh, they've certainly acted like they're protecting trade routes or shipping lanes, but the truth is, outside of the very occasional culling of a Grimm that's managed to get past the battleships further out at sea, all she and the rest really get up to is checking the cargo of one out of every ten or so ships that pass by.
And by checking, she means blatantly stealing from said cargo.
She herself has never actually participated in such actions, but she knows that the rest of the crew have no such qualms. If it's food being shipped, they'll each 'sample' it. If it's dust or any other valuable, then one can bet that they'll find a reason to make off with a decent chunk.
And the problem is, at the end of the day, those ships being checked by them can't – or perhaps simply don't – report such behavior.
And maybe it makes Elm a coward, but she doesn't report it either.
She sighs, even as their crew starts to prepare to board the ship that they're just about to come up upon. It's around a hundred meters out on the starboard side, and Elm's really debating whether or not she just wants to sit here and tell herself she's not involved. Maybe if she doesn't see the problem happening, she can pretend it isn't happening at all.
Cowardice, plain and simple, but it's the only real idea she has.
Unfortunately for Elm, she's nearly 2 meters tall – she'd hit a bit of a growth spurt in her younger years – and made of pretty much solid muscle, which means that the captain of her little ship usually brings her along to act as a sort of faux enforcer.
They can't actually threaten any of the crew aboard the ship they're investigating, but that doesn't stop the man from using her size and bulk to intimidate the other ship's crew into staying quiet.
And just as expected, as they pull up next to the other ship, and tie themselves to it, her captain – a shrew of a man with a nasally voice, who looks like he hasn't done a drill in going on ten years now, if his potbelly is anything to go by – calls her over.
"You're with me, Ederne. You know how this works by now, do you not?"
She debates saying something. She usually does. She probably should, it's just…
Well, she has a feeling all saying something's going to get her is yelled at, and one of these days, discharged on false charges, and then she's out a career.
So instead, she swallows, takes a breath, and says, "Aye-aye, sir."
"Hmph." The man harrumphs, his flat lips stretching into a broad smirk. "Good. Come along then."
The two of them aren't the only ones in the boarding party. Some of the other highly ranked officers aboard join the captain – likely just wanting to be able to select their own cuts from whatever is currently being shipped – and the rest as they walk across the metal bridge that's folded out to board.
Elm scans the faces of the men and women of the ship they're boarding as they make it across, and what she finds…
It's odd.
Normally, the crews of the ships they board look… resigned. Accepting. They already know what's going to happen, what's going on, and everything in between is just putting on a performance for the sake of it. Elm's captain and crew pretend like they're not just there to rob them, the other ship's captain pretends like they don't know that Elm's captain is going to rob them, and they go from there.
And yet the expression's on the faces of this crew look… scared.
No, that's not quite right. They look like they're trying to pretend that they're not scared. Like they're doing their best to present a normal front, but they can't quite manage it.
From the looks of things, Elm's the only one who's actually noticed. She thinks about saying something, but before she can, her captain has already started his spiel about 'inspecting the cargo', which means that Elm will just have to keep a lookout.
And yet, the other captain, a man with a salt and pepper beard and hard eyes, shakes his head 'no'.
"I-I'm afraid I can't do that, sir." The man said. "I'd ask you return to your ship."
Elm can sense something brewing. Her instincts have always been good, and even though nothing's happened of yet, she's already reached back towards her weapon – a standard issue Atlesian Sword, which she already knows is not something she'll be sticking with – and takes ahold of the handle, ready for things to kick off.
"And who are you," Her captain scoffs. "To tell me, a member of the Atlesian Military, about what I can and cannot do?"
"It's just… there's a bit of a situation on board, sir. S-Sick people below deck. Y'know how it is."
"Ah, 'sick people'," The man turns back towards his officers as he makes air quotes, and barks out a fake laugh. "Yes, well, how about we go and see to these 'sick people' ourselves. You can lead us there, captain."
"I'd really advise against that, sir!"
"I've just about had enough of your–"
And then another voice, dark, low, and sinister, cuts right through the others.
"Too stupid to take a hint, it seems."
Elm tries to turn towards the direction of the voice. It sounds like it had to have come from above her, and yet when she looks up, she sees nothing but endless sky, and the masts of the ship they're on. Her captain does the same, taking a step back and loudly yelling, "Whoever just said that, how about you come down here and try it again, hm!? See what happens!"
"Alright."
Elm blinks, and suddenly, there's a figure just behind her captain.
Her instincts flair at her, and yet, before she can try and push this new arrival away, they've planted their foot in the square of her captain's back, and kicked him forward.
The force in that kick is far higher than what should be present there. It's enough to send her captain – easily over a hundred kg – flying across the deck, and landing on the guardrail at the other end, nearly spiraling out into the open ocean.
Elm's the only one who had been prepared for such an event, having foreseen something as off, and so as the others are still reeling, she's charging forwards, drawing her blade off her back and swinging down with all her might.
And yet, despite that, their assailant lifts their arms, and catches Elm's blade with their own.
Elm realizes in the next moment that this person is no ordinary sailor. Perhaps she should've guessed that the moment she'd sent her captain flying, but it is only in that moment, when Elm – who probably weighs the same as her captain, except built purely of muscle – is unable to bring her blade down on her opponent that she truly realizes how grave a threat she is.
It is a woman, that's obvious from her general frame, and the sound of her voice. She's shorter than Elm by nearly 30 cm's, although she has two faunus ears – seemingly that of a cat's – that twitch and react atop her head to give her slightly more height. She also wears a mask, but it's make-shift, seemingly made of wood that looks almost freshly carved. She might've very well taken a chunk of the Divinity's hull and quickly cut it into shape.
The woman's frame is light, and not at all one she would've traditionally pegged as a body meant for fighting. She's seen others like it, of course, in her time in the military, but…
Those had only ever been from Huntsman and Huntresses.
Those who had aura to substitute for raw muscle, who could fall back on skill and technique instead of brute force and strength.
Elm much preferred the latter, but in this moment, she can see the value of the former as well.
Elm is knocked away as one of her other officers – she forgets the man's name… Marcus or something? – dashes forward with his own blade drawn, and attempts to spear their assailant on the end of it.
He's too slow, however. The lady jumps up into the air, does a full backflip, and lands a good three or four meters away from them.
At that moment, all hell breaks loose.
The other guards who've come along to board this ship – the Divinity, Elm's pretty sure it had been called – draw their guns, and aim towards the attacker. The Divinity's crew swear under their breaths, and before Elm can shout out not to fire, that there are civilians aboard this ship, her own crew has already begun to unload.
The dust bullets hit the deck and go right through, causing a round of screams to come out from below. Their assailant swears, then, and blitzes to the side, causing the gunmen to aim away from the ship, and towards the water. Then, she jumps into the air, and transforms her own weapon into some sort of firearm.
She hits both soldiers' shoulders with pinpoint accuracy, even knocking one right off the boarding plank. Elm swears and dives in after the man, worried he might not have enough strength to pull himself out of the water by himself.
She drags the man onto her back and swims on over to the emergency netting of their own cutter, then hauls the both of them on board. As she does, she occasionally takes peaks back at the battle, trying to see just what it is that's happening.
What's happening is that they're getting completely slaughtered.
Their opponent, the Faunus Huntress, isn't even trying to kill them. She doesn't have to. Every time one of the soldiers go at her, she effortlessly disarms them, and takes them out of the fight. No matter what, it's clear that alone, they're outmatched.
But they don't have to stay alone.
Elm looks towards the bridge of the ship, which, inside, holds the key to their salvation. A comms unit, one which she can use to contact the rest of the fleet.
It's clear the Divinity has been hijacked by this woman, if the crew's reaction had been anything to go by. They'd been terrified, likely under orders from this woman to stay silent, and try and get Elm's crew to leave without finding her, and whatever the reason is that she's chosen to hijack the vessel.
Elm hasn't a clue what a Huntress would want with a random ship from the eastern edge of Solitas, but then, she's never really understood the mindset of criminals much at all, so she supposes that tracks.
She ignores the battle itself, and rushes towards the comms unit. As she's going, she hears the sounds of battle briefly stop, as if something has shifted, but keeps going.
And then, she has no choice but to look.
"Stop!"
Elm's hand is on the door to the bridge when she turns back towards the battle, and her eyes widen at what she sees.
For there is the Huntress…
And she's taken one of the crewmen of the Divinity hostage.
It's one of the younger men aboard, his face pale, as if all the blood has entirely drained from his face. He's trying to struggle out of her grip, but the Huntress is strong. She's not budging an inch, even with the man hammering down on her arms.
"You," She's looking right at Elm. "Step away from the bridge. This battle is over. You are your crew have been defeated."
Elm swallows, looking over at where the rest of her cutter's combatants are. All of them are flat on the deck – hopefully knocked out – of the Divinity, not moving a muscle.
Elm curses under her breath, even as she refuses to back away from the bridge.
If she can just get in there… if she can contact the rest of the fleet, then…
Then they can prevent whatever this woman wants from happening in the first place.
They might be able to save many lives if her intents are truly heinous.
And yet… she'd be sacrificing many others. The lives of the crew aboard this ship…
"Do it, Ederne!"
The words shock her, and Elm turns to see her captain having pushed himself up, standing upon the deck of the Divinity, evidently recovered from earlier.
"This is more important than one man's life! Call the order into the fleet!"
Elm feels her heart leaping within her chest; panic building inside of her. She looks to and fro at the many different pieces of the current puzzle. There's the bridge, where the comms unit lies, then the Huntress, holding one of the Divinity's crew in her grasp. Then her captain, with a mad glint in his eye, trying to convince her the man's life is worth stopping this woman.
But is it? Can she – or even he – truly make such a decision?
Elm's hands shake on the handle, even as, with a harsh breath, she slowly lets it go, and pulls her hand away, holding it up above her head in surrender.
"What the hell are you doing, Ederne!?" Her captain screeches.
And yet, as Elm takes a step forward, as she moves towards the front of the ship, where the platform to carry her onto the Divinity lies, she sees the Huntress in front of her smile.
It's… an oddly real thing. It carries none of the sinister nature that she's been projecting for the last few minutes.
It's filled with… what seems almost to be gratitude.
"Smart girl." She whispers.
And then, in the next moment, the woman in front of her evaporates into shadow, and Elm's consciousness goes with it.
/
"I cannot believe that worked!"
Blake snickers below her breath as the crew of the Divinity go on and on. The captain, having tried to stop them from rabblerousing so much at the start, has evidently given up entirely, and now just sighs and shakes his head as he does his best to steer them towards Menagerie.
"I had no idea you had that level of… menace in you, ma'am!" The man she'd 'held hostage' earlier laughs. "I was actually scared, even when you told me ahead of time that you might need to do that if things got dicey!"
"That fear was crucial." She tells him, and she's honest. "I doubt you'd have been able to fool that woman with your acting chops alone."
The rest of the crew guffaw at the extremely mild burn, even as the man himself acts like he's been struck by a bullet, flailing backwards wildly as his friends hold him up, and laugh at his expense.
"You wound me."
"Yes, yes, I'm sure." Blake rolls her eyes. "In all honesty, that went as well as I could've hoped. I was worried there a moment when that woman," Elm, Blake thinks, unable to get her mind off of who she'd just seen, that was Elm. "Made her way towards the bridge. I thought she might go through with it even at the expense of someone's life. And if she'd made that decision… well, she rather quickly would've put together that our 'hostage situation' was a fake."
"Ah, well, no sense worrying about it." Another crew member states casually. "It worked out in the end, yeah?"
Blake supposes it had.
"Don't mean to alarm you all," the captain shouts out from his place at the wheel. "But if the lot of you want to get paid for this trip, I'd advise getting' yer' asses back to work!"
That seems to finally be the thing that finally gets the crew to stop celebrating a job well done, and return to their posts.
For Blake, it's the first time she can really take a breath in over two hours.
First, they'd been planning what they'd do when they'd be boarded, then they'd had to plan the likely event that things came to blows. Blake had had to coach each and every member of the crew on how to act, to pretend to be terrified of her, to run at the first sign of trouble. Things had nearly gone badly too, once the actual combat had started. The men with dust rifles had fired off shots that had nearly struck the people below in the hold.
Luckily, none of the bullets had hit at an angle to properly travel below the deck, but even so, it had been a far closer call than Blake would've liked.
She makes her way back over to the captain, trying to keep herself steady, reminding herself that they'd done it, they'd pulled it off.
"Ah, Ms. Weiss." He nods his head to her, and she nods back. "Excellently done back there."
"To you as well." She smiles. "You sold the idea of someone 'scared of something they can't tell you about' quite well when you were talking to the captain."
"Ah, well…" He scratches at his beard. "Wasn't that bad. All I did was imagine him figuring out what was really going on. Rest kind of came naturally after that."
Blake nods her head.
"So, they'll be fine, then?"
The captain laughs. "They'll be fine. We tied them up in the hold of their ship, but we turned on a low-grade transponder. It tells nearby ships that they need assistance, but not in a particularly urgent manner. One of the other cutters will probably find them within the day, but by then, we'll be docked in Menagerie."
"And then you and your crew can play the parts of a bunch of scared hostages, grateful to be free of my evil clutches." Blake smirks. "But still… that's good. I roughed a few of them up pretty bad."
"Frankly, I'm surprised you're worried about them at all, given everything the Atlas Military's done to the Faunus."
"It's… complicated, but I happen to know that not all within Atlas are horrible people. In fact, most are perfectly good. But bad apples have a way of spoiling the bunch. And Atlas has more than its fair share."
The ship captain nods his head. "Can't say I disagree with ya' there. Ah, well, if only the world could be simple, huh?"
Blake chuckles. "If only."
"Alright, I'm going to focus on making sure we make it to Menagerie within the next few hours. You can probably head back down to the hold. I'll have someone come get you if we end up needing you."
Blake nods her head, and decides that yes, she has had enough of… everything for a while.
So, just as had been suggested, she makes her way down, down, beneath the surface of the sea. Into the depths of the Divinity.
And then she takes a well-deserved nap.
/
Yang's really not sure what it is that's happened, but suddenly, about five kilometers out from Mistral itself, her stomach feels like it's going to burst.
She stumbles off of the forest path that she and Raven have been walking along for the past few hours and wretches rather painfully. She's not really sure where the bile and vomit that emerges from out of her comes from, given she hasn't actually eaten in around twenty-four hours.
Even still, when she looks down, she sees a rather putrid-looking black mass.
"Eugh…" She groans, wiping at her mouth and checking her clothes for any residue. It's bad enough that she'd gotten her hair cut to neck-length – she'd need to get some work done to make it look at least somewhat normal in Mistral – but if she had had to walk around wearing clothes stained with vomit, too?
Well, let's just say the Blacksmith and Yang would have been having words.
"You alright?"
Yang turns to see Raven peering at her from further down the path. She's… she doesn't look worried, but honestly, the fact that she'd stopped at all instead of just saying something like 'only the weak would ever throw up, if you want to be strong, you need to never vomit again' does at least warrant a serious answer.
"I'm fine. Not really sure what came over me just now."
Raven hums out in answer, stepping over towards her and gazing down at the pool of bile.
"That… does not look particularly natural."
"Yeah, tell me about it." She stretches out her back. "Anyway, we should get moving, no?"
"…Yes, I suppose we should."
It's another two or so hours before they eventually end up on the cusp of Mistral itself. The capital looms above them, its towering structure something that Yang never gets tired of partaking of. It's undeniably beautiful.
"Alright," Raven interrupts her ogling, and Yang turns towards her mother to see her looking up at the highest reaches. "I'm going to enter into the city, head near Haven, and then set up a portal for you to follow me. Keep an eye out for it."
"Are you going to fly up?"
"What?"
"Y'know… with your bird form?" Yang questions, and Raven's eyes widen. "…I know about the bird form."
"That…" Raven lets loose a harsh breath. "Never mind. Yes, I will be utilizing my corvid transformation. Await my portal. We do this quick and quiet."
Yang nods her head, and in the next moment, she watches her mother's body… change.
It's an odd thing to see in real time, the magics at play that change her mother's shape. Everything shrinks at first, and then some things elongate and stretch. It seems like it would be horrifically painful, but then, neither Raven nor Qrow have ever said anything about it being painful, so Yang sort of just assumes it doesn't really feel like anything.
The transformation completes, and Raven wastes no time soaring up into the air, headed for the very top of Mistral.
Evidently, that's to get them past those at the gates of Mistral, who might want to know why a wanted bandit chief is currently trying to enter into their city.
Which, in their defense, feels like a fair question.
Either way, while Yang waits for the portal to spawn, she decides to consolidate her thoughts on a lot of matters.
For one, where the rest of her team – and Jaune – might be.
Well… that's a bit of a hard one.
She's heard nothing of value that might point her in any of their directions. For all she knows, they could've been thrown into the city of Mistral itself, directly in front of her, and her chances of running into them would still be rather low. Remnant's a big place, and unfortunately for Yang, that means randomly coming across four people probably isn't going to happen.
No… she'd either need to make herself easier to find, or she'd need to keep an eye out for the others doing the same.
It feels like that's the best she's really going to come up with on such short notice, so when the portal opens up in front of her, she takes a breath, and steps through.
When she emerges, she finds herself in a familiar section of Mistral; just a half kilometer or so from Haven Academy itself.
And, far more importantly for their purposes, the Relic of Knowledge.
Which… does bring up an interesting question for Yang.
"So…" She murmurs as she and Raven begin trekking towards the school as quietly as possible, doing their best to stay entirely out of sight. "How did you get the Spring Maiden's powers?"
Raven's body flinches at those words, although she doesn't say anything in response right away. If anything, she seems to be taking time to consider what it is she wants to say.
"How much of the story do you know?"
"I know that the Spring Maiden ran away a decade and some change ago – or, well, for me, for you I guess that might've happened pretty recently – and that you didn't let anyone know that you'd become the new Spring Maiden. You told me once that what you did for the Spring Maiden was a mercy. Beyond that, though, I'm in the dark."
Raven takes a deep, somewhat painful sounding breath.
"…The Spring Maiden ended up in my camp on accident. She was weak, barely there. I nursed her back to health, tried to train her up to where she would be strong enough to survive. In the end, though… well… they got to her regardless. She was dying, and I… I did what I had to do."
Yang listens to the timbre of her mother's voice; can hear the lacings of regret within it. It's… more than Raven had been willing to admit the last time. But then, she'd kept to her bandit queen moniker the last time they'd spoken up until the very end.
The Raven in front of her, walking ahead of her, is being a bit more open with her.
"Alright."
"What, not going to call me a murderer?"
"Do you want me to?"
Raven doesn't say anything in response to that. She just transforms back into a bird, flies on top of Haven, and opens a portal for Yang to follow her.
She comes out on the roof alongside her, and they look down into Haven's courtyard together.
"It's in there," Raven points towards where the statue of Jinn stands inside of the main hall. "We'll have to be quiet. It's late, so no one should notice or even be here, but getting caught would be unfortunate."
"Got it." Yang nods her head. "You going in first?"
"Mm. I'll portal you in once I'm ready."
"Couldn't you have just done all this on your own, and then used a portal to get me in at the end?"
Raven turns back towards her, and shoots her a look. "I could've, yes."
Yang doesn't really know what to make of that at first. But then… she thinks she might have some idea.
"Were you… trying to get some time to talk with me?"
Raven doesn't dignify that question with an answer. Instead, she transforms, and sails off the edge of the building.
Yang can only sigh. It's not like she'd expected her mother to be articulate about her feelings, but still.
Eventually, a portal does open up, and Yang, again, steps through. She emerges this time directly in front of the statue of Jinn, which Yang only just remembers now they'd have to get to move.
"So, uh, what's the plan here?"
"It's a key." Raven shrugs her shoulders. "That's all. Lionheart's is the only one that's supposed to have the key, but I'm not an idiot. I copied it the last time I saw it."
Yang actually finds that quite humorous. "You made a copy of the key that leads down to the Relic of Knowledge? Without him realizing?"
Raven reaches into her armor, and pulls out, lo and behold, the same circular-shaped key that Lionheart had once utilized. It's definitely not as ornate as Lionheart's, and it seems to be made of a simple iron instead.
"Took a piece of clay and placed it atop Lionheart's key while he wasn't looking, then sent that piece back to camp with a portal. Our weaponsmiths used one of our broken swords to make a fabrication out of the mold."
"Huh." Yang can't fault her mother for ingenuity, certainly. "Have you ever actually used this before?"
"No."
"Oh, so it might just not work?"
"I suppose it might not, yes."
"Well, let's hope it does."
Raven just rolls her eyes, but there's a certain fondness there that Yang doesn't really know what to make of.
"You sound just like him."
"Hm? Who do you mean?"
Raven evidently realizes she's said that aloud, and instead clams up, turning away from Yang and making for the top of the statue, where she'll need to insert the key. She does just that, and there's a good five second period during which Yang thinks that this fake key Raven's made isn't going to quite do the trick.
And then the statue of Jinn begins to shift.
They're lucky it's a relatively quiet thing, the only real sound being that of the gears beneath the statue shifting and undulating. The statue itself moves out of the way, and the elevator down to the Vault of Knowledge is opened.
"After you," Yang bows dramatically, and Raven just groans as she steps onto the elevator. Yang follows suit, and the two of them ride down aboard the elevator as the statue begins to slide back into place above them.
The trip down is spent in silence. It lasts around thirty seconds; during the latter half of which Yang gets a brilliant view of the actual room that houses the Vault. The intricate stonework, the beauteous trees that shed golden leaves…
Well, also the magical vault that contains a Relic capable of, in theory, giving her mother the truth of the matter; that she really is a time traveler from twelve years into the future.
That's going to be a thing.
They make their way towards the vault, and Raven flexes the Maiden's power at the entrance, which causes the Vault to begin to open. It's a gradual thing, during which, apparently, Cinder had struck out at Vernal the first time, and then her mother and Cinder had fought.
Cinder had lost; one of the only defeats Yang had ever known the woman to take.
The vault stands open, however, and she can think such thoughts later. She follows along behind Raven as they step into what looks like a vast, endless desert. Her footfalls sink into the sand, and she does her best not to think about the impossibility of such a thing.
"Right…" Raven hesitates. "This is it; I suppose."
"Mm."
Silence fills the vault.
"You…" Raven's voice begins.
"What?"
"…Nothing."
Yang almost wants to laugh, but instead, she just shakes her head, steps towards the lamp, and says, "Jinn."
Immediately, time begins to slow to a crawl. Raven's seen this before, it seems, because she doesn't react at all as the sands stop moving, as the winds of this ethereal realm stop blowing.
And then from out of the lamp rises Jinn, in all her blue, naked glory.
Honestly, Yang's a taken woman, but she can appreciate beauty when she sees it.
And then, while her mind is busy coming up with stupid jokes, Jinn turns towards her, smiles, and says something she hadn't at all anticipated.
"Ah, Ms. Xiao-Long. It's been some time."
It's such a casual thing, but Yang can feel her mind racing, her pulse quickening as her thoughts quickly shift to account for the fact that Jinn knows her. Which…
That can't be true. She's never met her.
At least…
Not here. Not now.
And yet…
"How have you been these past few months?" Jinn asks.
It seems she very much has.
End Chapter 9
Alright, cliffhanger, sorry about that one. Jinn knows Yang, how is that possible? I don't know, find out next chapter. I'm also lying, I totally know.
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