HOO BOY. It's been a minute. I literally typed up this 12k-word chapter in two weeks. I'm kind of in a forced break from my audio dramatization of Forlorn Remastered right now, so I GRASPED the opportunity to just WRITE. Anyway, it's not perfect and it does need to be looked over eventually, but I think it gets the job done. Hope you enjoy!
Yang was halfway undressed in her room when her scroll lit up. She snatched it from her bed and checked the message.
It was from Blake. Finally.
But.
Blake: I'm sorry.
That was all she'd said. That was all Blake had finally replied with. Nothing else.
Yang wanted to hurl her scroll across her room. Maybe hard enough to send it through her window. Instead, she clenched her teeth and wrote back:
Yang: Shove the apologies Nightshade. First you almost kill me, now it's some other innocent person.
Yang: Sorry only means something if you change.
She chucked her scroll back onto the bed after, continued undressing – this time angrily. Mimic might have made it clear that Blake's behavior was uncharacteristic, but that didn't change the fact that Blake wasn't helping her case. She was intimidating and wasn't afraid to use it to her advantage, she categorically refused to help Aurora take down problematic vampires, and she kept running away instead of facing Yang and explaining herself. So, yeah, Yang was angry. Angry at wasting so much fucking time trying to find something redeeming about this damned monster.
In her pajamas now, she paced back and forth for a moment, rubbing the back of her neck, trying to ease the tension out of her limbs. It was a useless attempt.
Her scrolled dinged, and Yang grabbed it.
The message wasn't what she was expecting.
Blake: You won't find anything at Cryolife.
Her eyes widened. Part of her reeled and she physically took a step back, but then she shook her head at herself and scowled. Of course Blake knew about their plans. Obviously she knew. Yang didn't know how, exactly – whether Blake was always watching from the shadows or found out through some other means thanks to her claws apparently being hooked in everything – but they should have already been prepared for this outcome. It only served to anger Yang more.
Yang: You're protecting vampires who kidnapped 22 people and haven't let them go for 2 weeks
Yang: You better not stop us
Blake: I'm not protecting them. I'm protecting you.
Blake: We've been over this.
This woman was going to make Yang scream. There was only one other person that could make Yang this furious with so few words. She wasn't too sure how she felt about Raven and Blake competing for first place in that department. Seemed kind of disturbing, quite frankly. Almost like she had mommy issues or something. Yang scowled harder.
Yang: How bout less protecting an more helping huh
She just wanted Blake to fucking explain herself, and couldn't, for the life of her, understand why Blake refused to do so. The ancient had been so willing to give Yang all the information she'd ever wanted to know before, so why not this, too? What was different?
Blake: You don't understand the danger you're risking.
This was bullshit. In a fit of rage, not caring if Pyrrha heard whatever was about to ensue, Yang pressed the call button. And as soon as she heard the line connect, Yang snapped. "I understand perfectly fine that you have a huge stick up your ass and think we should all be puppets dancing from your fingers! But guess what, Nightshade? We can deal with it after. We'll figure it out! There are people who need saving right now."
"Yang. The danger is me. I don't know how many times you want me to repeat it. If you die, you are making all of Vale my next meal."
"Then stop me from dying! Don't stop me from living or doing my job, but protect me when my two feet are in the shit."
"Listen to yourself!" Blake seethed. "Do you realize the position that puts me in? I'm not your guardian angel, forced to watch your every move and be at your beck and call – "
"Oh, like you're not already watching everything we do," Yang growled. "And quite frankly, I don't know how you can wallow in all that guilt and shame but not be trying everything in your literally huge power to save every person you can possibly save. It's a fucking joke. You're a massive hypocrite."
There was a silence on the other line. A long, heavy, cutting silence. Yang had gotten so worked up that she could feel her heart beating in her ears and pressure at her brow, and she had to make a conscious effort to calm her breathing. She closed her eyes for a second.
Eventually, and just as Yang was starting to think that maybe the call had disconnected, Blake's voice came back. Quiet, calculated. "Are you done?"
Yang clenched her teeth. "Yeah."
So, Blake spoke again, deliberate and low still. "This may come as a surprise to you, but I've been trying my absolute fucking damnedest to 'let you live and do your job'. But you keep poking your nose in my very personal business at every damn turn and I don't have a choice but to stand in your way." Her voice, amazingly, softened. "It's not what I want. Stars, if you only knew how easy I'd like to make this for you. But we're both stuck here, aren't we?"
Yang opened her mouth, but her reply suddenly died in her chest. She felt her throat tighten, swallowed hard against the unexpected distress seizing her. She roughly passed her hand through her hair, rested her forehead against the wall by the closet. There was a question burning on her lips, the same question she'd been asking over and over again since the night prior on the roof of the library. It should have been easy to ask now. She'd been dying for the answer.
But now she didn't know what she'd do with it if Blake provided. She didn't even know what she wanted to hear anymore, if it mattered one way or another. What would it even change?
Of course it matters. I'm shaking. There was heat behind her eyes and her stomach was in knots, and Yang hated the hold this ancient vampire had over her – no, she didn't hate it. That was the problem. She hated all the space between them, and that the hand Blake often seemed to reach out towards Yang could have just as very well been to wrench her into her fangs instead of pulling her into an embrace.
She hated herself for so anxiously wanting to be wanted.
Always by the wrong fucking people.
Yang gathered her courage, tried to finally say something.
But she'd waited too long.
Blake let out the quietest of sighs and murmured with that strange, genuine regret, "Goodnight, Yang."
And then she hung up.
Yang just stood there, head on the wall, eyes closed, and tossed her scroll back on the bed behind her. It was almost three in the morning. Again. Two straight weeks of terrible nights. Yang was exhausted. And she knew it was only exacerbating all the other problems, making everything else seem probably worse than it was. Probably.
She'd never wanted to go home before.
Except she didn't really have a home to go to anyway, did she?
There was a knock on her door.
Yang sighed deeply and blinked several times before going over and turning the knob. As expected, there was Pyrrha at the doorway, eyebrows creased into a concerned frown.
She didn't look like she was doing much better than Yang, actually.
"Were you just on a call with Nightshade?" Pyrrha asked, tired disbelief in her tone.
"No, with your mom."
"Gods, Yang, you look terrible."
Yang cracked a bit of a smile. "Thanks. So do you."
Pyrrha shook her head a bit, and then they were both silent for a moment. Eventually, though, there was a shadow that darkened Pyrrha's gaze. She looked down, thinking, and when she met Yang's stare again, she seemed to have found her resolve in whatever she'd been meaning to say. "I think, Yang… I think if the opportunity presents itself again, we shoot Nightshade to kill. No hesitation, no questions, no more chances."
Yang's stomach dropped. It was suddenly hard to swallow. But what was she supposed to say to that? Pyrrha was right. And it wasn't like Blake was giving Yang any valid reason to keep delaying the inevitable, either. Yang lowered her eyes. "…Yeah."
"Look at yourself, Yang," Pyrrha insisted gently, putting a hand on the blonde's bicep. "I've never seen you this torn and lose so much sleep over a single person. If she was worth it, she wouldn't be doing this to you."
But…but she's not doing this to me. I'm doing this to me. Because Blake was right, too. She wasn't going after Aurora, wasn't hunting enforcers, wasn't going out of her way to make this investigation as hard as possible for them, wasn't even using her power on Yang's name to command her to stop – Blake was quite literally just existing and being forced to react and take preventative measures against her stuff being meddled in.
It was entirely possible she wasn't trying to hurt Yang at all – that Yang getting hurt was just a consequence of her own hand sifting through the private drawers.
Except that was exactly Yang's job. There were rules for a reason, and she was one of their enforcers. Blake's mere existence was a threat to it all. Maybe things would have been different if she was just a passive bystander, but she was slowing them down in her attempts to continue doing…whatever the fuck she was doing. Yang clenched her fist. "Okay, Pyrr… Next opportunity, we shoot."
Pyrrha nodded her head once, gave Yang's bicep a slight squeeze before letting go. "Get some sleep, okay? I'm worried about you, and we need you sharp for tomorrow."
"I'll do my best. G'night, Pyrr."
"Goodnight, Yang."
And with a small, reassuring smile, Pyrrha left Yang's doorway.
Sun and Ruby looked ridiculous in their business attires. Well, actually, they looked great, but they were both so uncomfortable that they made it look ridiculous.
"Are you sure I can't just leave this unbuttoned and loosen up the tie?" Sun complained, fixing the cuffs on his chemise. His monkey tail twitched in annoyance behind him.
From the couch, Yang laughed, and Pyrrha said, "You have to look professional. Appearances are basically more than half the battle."
"Okay, but the glasses can't be necessary," Ruby grumbled from across the living room. She was practicing her walking in heels. Because she'd never been forced to actually do that before. Her first several steps had been wobbly and, quite honestly, life-threatening.
"Ruby, you barely look eighteen," Yang snickered. "Nobody's gonna take you seriously as a health and safety evaluator. At least with the glasses, you look like you could know what you're talking about."
"Ughhh."
"Also, c'mere, I think your skirt is backwards."
"Ughhhhh."
Still, Ruby carefully made her way over to Yang. She was already starting to get the hang of the heels, but Yang just hoped her little sister wouldn't have to make any sudden movements or get into a fight with them. Ruby definitely wouldn't be up to the challenge then.
Yang stood up and fixed Ruby's skirt with another laugh. "Silly, the slit doesn't go in the front. It goes on the side or in the back." She was wearing a pencil skirt and a business blouse – not anything that was Ruby's usual punk-leaning style, and although Yang could see it wasn't bringing out any confidence in her sister, she had to swallow back a knot in her throat when she realized how much Ruby resembled Summer like this.
Almost the spitting image.
Minus the glasses.
Yang forced a grin. "There, now you're all set. I'm so proud of you, off to your first day of work."
"Thanks, mom. Did you pack my lunch, too?"
"No, you're an adult now, you should do that yourself."
They stared at each other for a second and then devolved into giggles, Sun joining in this time as well.
"Alright you three. Time for our checklist," Pyrrha called out as she finished loading up with ammunition and strapping her guns to her thighs.
They gathered in the center of the living room to review every step of their immediately coming mission. Ruby and Sun would be inspecting the main laboratory and offices – they'd prepared a set of several generic questions, and researched specific things they could pretend taking a closer look at, but their real goal was identifying vampires and searching for anything suspicious happening inside. They were also tasked with trying to speak privately with Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck and get any information they possibly could out of him with regards to Cryolife, other vampires, and the relation to the Schnee Minerals Company.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Yang would be picking up Edrick Beryl and attempting to get into the warehouse with him so that he could retrieve the list of all vampires that had purchased blood there.
Blake may have said they wouldn't find anything – but Yang had the sneaking suspicion the ancient was just trying to dissuade them from even trying. And it wasn't going to work. Yang was resolute – that list was the most important piece of this investigation so far, and the possibility, likelihood, of it containing the name of Summer and Taiyang's murderer made it personal. And getting some brownie points with Raven for completing this would probably be nice, too. Yang wasn't going to let Blake stand in her way this time.
"Good luck to us all, we got this!" Sun exclaimed with a fist-pump.
"Let's go!"
Outside, Pyrrha and Yang got into the redhead's vehicle. As Pyrrha started the engine, Yang put in Edrick's scroll code in her own and called him.
He picked up after the third ring.
"Edrick Beryl speaking."
"Hey, this is Detective Ember. Just letting you know that we're on our way to pick you up, we'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
"Detective!" Yang's eyes widened at the obvious urgency in Edrick's voice. "Detective, I've been waiting for your call. Listen, I think you should know this. It's Nightshade. She…" He stopped, hesitated with what he wanted to say.
Oh, no… She what, Edrick?
"You said you'd protect me from her. But she came to see me. After over fifty years, she visited me again. She was here yesterday, two hours after you and your partner left."
Yang had never felt her stomach drop so far. It was like the inside of her body just suddenly became hollow. She set her stricken gaze on Pyrrha, who had thinned her lips and creased her eyebrows. Yang was almost afraid to ask, "Are…are you okay, Mr. Beryl? She didn't hurt you…did she?"
"No. No, she didn't. But…" On the other line, Edrick took a slow breath. And then he continued, "I had to tell her that you were here. I had to tell her why."
Motherfucker! Shit. So, that was how Blake had known. Because she'd literally gone to see Edrick two hours after Yang and Pyrrha had. Yang wanted to scream. They were powerless and she felt even worse about lying to Edrick now. She clenched her other fist on her lap and said, "It's okay, Mr. Beryl. That's not going to stop us. Was there any other reason for her visit?"
"Uhm…yes. Her main reason for coming to see me was to get Vale's Historic Library and Museum's and Cryolife's ownerships transferred back to her. But I've delegated a lot to my son recently." Edrick took another unsteady breath. "I told her he was hosting a charity event at Jasper Lounge in…it's in two days now. She'll meet him there."
Oh, my gods. Oliver's in danger, too.
"Edrick, how much does your son know about Nightshade?"
Edrick was beginning to sound helpless when he said, "He doesn't believe me about her. I tried to warn him yesterday, but Nightshade had been gone for so long that I thought… I thought maybe I could spare him from even worrying about her. But she's back, and now he thinks I might be losing a bit of my mind in my old age."
Yang slowly looked over at Pyrrha again – Pyrrha, who had probably heard the conversation no problem from the driver's seat. The dread in her eyes mirrored Yang's. This wasn't going to end well.
"Detective…I don't think I should help you further. You haven't shown me that you can protect me, and now my son's life could be at stake."
"N-no!" Yang clamped her mouth shut, struggled with keeping a rein over her more visceral reaction. He couldn't back out. They needed him to get in. Yang needed that list.
Pyrrha tapped Yang's arm, and when Yang looked over, she saw that Pyrrha was asking for the scroll. Yang gave it to her, tried to stop shaking.
"Mr. Beryl, this is Detective Akouo speaking. I'm terribly sorry about Nightshade getting to you so soon after we'd just promised to keep you safe. If it's any comfort, we don't believe Nightshade will ever resort to murder or physical harm – there will be grave trouble for her if she does, and she knows this. Think – you said it yourself, that she never hurt you before."
The look Yang gave Pyrrha was wild. How did she keep pulling those half-truths out of her ass to gaslight so effectively? Yang had literally never known her to be a manipulator.
…But I have.
She did it often, in fact. Every single time they needed a vampire to cooperate with them. Pyrrha always knew the best things to say – Yang had noticed that. Even when Pyrrha was talking to Yang, she only had the kindest words, the most impactful points. And Yang had never thought Pyrrha ever did it with malice or an intent to manipulate, only coming from a place of empathy, but just now with Edrick…Yang wondered.
There was a silence on the other line as Edrick seemed to consider Pyrrha's argument. And then Yang heard him say, "You're right, I suppose. I don't like it, though." He paused, and eventually added, "Detective, if anything happens to my son, I am going to find the organization you work for and sue you into oblivion. I won't stop until you have nothing left."
Yang let her head rest back on the seat. Good luck with that, Edrick. Good…fucking…luck.
Pyrrha nodded a bit, as if Edrick could see her. "That's perfectly understandable, Mr. Beryl. I would do the same in your position. But we don't think it will be necessary. Now, as my partner said earlier, we'll be there in about fifteen minutes. See you soon."
"Goodbye, Detective."
Pyrrha disconnected the call and gave Yang's scroll back to her. She was quiet for a moment, and then sighed before putting the car into gear and started pulling out of the driveway. "I hope you realize Nightshade is going to be there waiting for us."
Yang hung her head. Massaged the bridge of her nose.
"…Yeah. I know."
At Cryolife's entrance checkpoint gate, Pyrrha stopped the vehicle in front of the arm barrier. In the backseat, Edrick rolled down his window to speak with the security officer.
"State your business," the officer said with a bit of a bored tone. This was a different, much younger guy than the first time Pyrrha and Yang had come here.
Edrick handed his pass card over to the guard, saying, "Hello, I'm Edrick Beryl. Let us in."
The guard swiped the card in his system and his eyes widened when he saw on his screen who Edrick was. "Mr. Beryl. Uh…you… Were you expected today?"
Yang glanced back at Edrick, who firmed his expression. "No. It doesn't matter. I'm the owner, raise the barrier."
The officer looked uncertainly from Edrick to whatever his computer was telling him. He typed a few things, seemed to probably be double-checking his instructions. Eventually, he sighed and shook his head. "I'll let you in. I apologize, sir, was just trying to follow the rules. Don't fire me."
"Don't worry, you're not going to lose your job. Thank you, officer."
"Have a good day."
The bar rose, and Pyrrha drove through. Yang breathed a bit of a sigh in relief. That had turned out to be much easier than they'd thought.
They carefully drove around towards the warehouse, parked the vehicle in an empty space near the main door. Yang and Pyrrha triple-checked that all their gear and ammunition were accounted for, and then exited the car with Edrick. They followed him into the building.
They immediately found themselves in the main hanger. The ceiling was several dozens of feet above their heads. It was very clean inside, and kind of dark, save for the outside light shining in through the frosted windows behind them. There were crates and pallets meticulously organized off to the sides between support columns, a lot of them with plastic sheets thrown over them. The lift machine was parked over by the hanger door.
"This way," Edrick murmured, and started walking forward. Pyrrha and Yang followed him, their footsteps eerily echoing on the waxed concrete floor. They made their way across to the other end of the chamber, and then Edrick veered off to the left.
And stopped.
Yang and Pyrrha both froze, too.
Further off ahead, an ominous silhouette was leaning against the doorframe leading into an office, arms crossed. The faint light contoured them and hit their face in just the right way to make their glowing glare terrifying, other parts of their body fading into the shadows like they weren't even there.
Yang felt the breath catch in her throat. It was like she kept forgetting how stunning Blake was, kept being spellbound at every unexpected encounter. The ancient was wearing something so simple, too, just a waist-high pair of tight-fitting black pants with a loose white satin-silk blouse tucked into them – but the outfit accentuated her figure in all the right places, from the lithe and smooth form of her shoulders and arms to the dangerous, agile curves of her waist and hips. She was a ghost, a threatening shape in an obscure view, but her mere presence lured and captivated every speck of attention.
Edrick didn't move again, so Yang started stepping forward anyway. Blake watched her, marble and stone, irises glinting mostly crimson now. Mimic's voice resonated in Yang's mind. "I've never seen Blake hungry. Not once. And tonight, she was hungry."
And it looked like that hunger was worse today.
Yang took another step, just a few feet away from Blake now, and suddenly heard the silenced ping and whistle of a gun being shot. Once. Twice. Three times.
The bullets all found their mark in Blake's chest.
Realization slammed into Yang. Seized, she found Pyrrha beside her, glaring at the ancient from down the barrel of her glock. Yang switched her shock back to Blake, unholstering her own gun without thinking.
But Blake was unmoved. And not even bleeding or sizzling from the UV-C liquid light.
Her body just dissolved into black smoke before fading and becoming one with the darkness around her.
Behind them, Edrick let out a small gasp.
Shit. Some kind of shadow clone? Illusion? Her power is insane.
"You really thought I wouldn't learn from the first time?" came Blake's voice, low and icy and resounding all around them, sourceless, like she was the darkness.
Yang checked on Edrick, saw that he was slowly backing up, eyes wide with fear, his hands raised in surrender or plea.
Pyrrha was making a visual sweep of their surroundings, intently searching for her target, Yang knew. And all Yang could really do was try and do the same, although it was quite apparent the effort was useless.
Blake suddenly materialized out of wisps of smoke between them, ire reflecting sharply in her eyes. Before either enforcer could react, she grabbed both of their wrists, and Yang felt the impossible strength in the ancient's grip a second before Blake flipped them both onto their backs with a vicious tug downwards. Pain pulsed through Yang's flesh arm from the strain on her muscles, and she dropped her gun with a yelp just as her back hit the floor.
There was a clatter as Pyrrha must have also lost her weapon for a similar reason, and Blake reached down with unnatural speed, taking their other guns from their holsters. Pyrrha jumped up, unsheathing her silver spear in one smooth motion, and swiped at Blake with it – but the ancient was already gone.
Yang got to her feet as well just as Blake reappeared behind Pyrrha and slammed her hand into the redhead's back.
"Akouo!"
Pyrrha stumbled – flew – forward, tried to recover, but Blake emerged from nowhere in her space first and twisted the warrior's arm behind her back, other hand mercilessly pushing and digging into Pyrrha's nape.
Yang watched, horrified, at how easily her partner was rendered defenseless.
"Let go of your spear!" Blake hissed, holding firm. Pyrrha groaned and Yang saw her very obviously fighting against Blake's strength, but the ancient vampire was immoveable, not a single trace of struggle in her posture or expression.
"Ember, do something, help me!" Pyrrha cried, pain and panic flashing across her face. If she kept trying to free herself, there was a very certain chance Blake was going to break her arm.
And Yang wondered if that anger in Nightshade's irises would make her squeeze her fingers and crush Pyrrha's neck, too.
Yang activated the gauntlets on her wrists. They deployed, clasping over her forearms and fists, turning her hands into silver pummeling weapons. And then she dashed at Blake, came right up into her space and threw the hardest punch she could at the ancient's face.
And hit nothing.
Her momentum brought her tumbling into the floor, but she was fast to roll over and get back onto her feet.
Pyrrha was free, moving into a defensive stance again – although she switched her spear to her other hand with a wince, her good arm evidently weakened.
They looked around quickly, trying to find Blake. To no avail.
"I don't want to fight you, enforcers," came her voice once more, whispering in their ears, and Yang had to resist the urge to look over her shoulder, knowing Blake wasn't really there.
There was a grunt and cry that came from much further behind them, somewhere close to the entrance of the warehouse.
Edrick. He must have tried to escape.
"No!"
Yang and Pyrrha both turned in unison, ready to sprint to go save him – if it wasn't already too late – but they stopped before they'd even taken two steps.
"Talking is much more civilized."
Blake came into view from around the corner, pushed Edrick to his knees in front of them. There was a monstrous, clawed hand made of shadows wrapped around his face and throat. But Edrick's stare was vacant, calm. No fear in his eyes, no tension in how he stayed on his knees. He seemed perfectly fine, not the slightest bit bothered about his life being threatened.
"What did you do to him?" Pyrrha demanded, leaning forward.
"Nothing permanent. Just ensuring he doesn't make this harder than it needs to be."
Yang swallowed with difficulty, glancing from Edrick to Blake several times as she tried to understand. It had to be some kind of charm, something that Blake couldn't do to Yang and Pyrrha because of their bracers protecting them.
"I would like to live, Detectives," Edrick then said, but he sounded relaxed, almost drugged. "Please, do as she asks."
"What do you want, then, Nightshade?" Pyrrha snapped, the muscles in her jaw working.
"I want you to leave Vale."
It was such a simple request. But Yang couldn't stay quiet anymore. She met Blake's stare. "We can't do that, Blake. We need that list."
Something in the vampire's glower changed. The shadow of regret, of unfathomable sorrow, darkening her mostly red gaze. "You can't have it."
"Why not?" Yang dared to take a step forward. "What does it matter to you?"
"Discard your weapons, enforcers, and I'll let Edrick go. He doesn't need to be here. I'm sure you agree."
Yang lowered her eyes towards Edrick, saw the faintest plea in his expression.
"Don't leave me by myself, Detective. You promised to protect me."
Fucking fuck. They'd already failed to protect him once, were in the process of failing a second time. He was an innocent in this, they'd convinced him to help them, and now he was paying the price. It wasn't deserved. They owed him any sense of security they could give him. And Yang had no doubt the threat of suing also extended to his own life if something worse than this happened. Not that the suing itself was the issue, obviously – it would be the reprimands from Aurora that were less than ideal.
Yang looked over at Pyrrha, saw her considering her options in frustration, too. "Go with him, Akouo. I can do this."
Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you all by yourself with –"
"She can't kill me, Akouo. She won't, unless she's been lying about absolutely everything," and Yang dared Blake to prove her wrong with a glare.
Blake only looked down.
"You'll be safer outside. I'll convince her to give me the list." To go along with her words, Yang retracted her gauntlets back into their bracelet forms, and took them off. Set them down on the floor, making no sudden movements so Blake wouldn't get spooked or go shadow-claw-happy on Edrick.
"That's a lot of unwarranted audacity, Ember," Blake murmured, thinly veiled annoyance in her tone. But she was still frowning at the space on the floor in front of her instead of aiming that annoyance at Yang, directly, so the blonde was starting to feel like just maybe, wildly, she was safer than she thought.
Pyrrha observed this, too, and Yang thought she could see the smoke coming off her partner's head from the gears turning so hard inside it. Finally, though, Pyrrha said, "Don't be reckless, Ember. We'll be right outside waiting for you."
"Thank you, Akouo. Trust me, I'll be fine one way or another."
Pyrrha sighed deeply. "I trust you. But I don't trust her." She then collapsed her spear and sheathed it on her back again, keeping her gaze on Blake warily. She took a few slow steps towards Edrick.
Blake released him, the monstrous shadow-hand vanishing, and whatever charm she seemed to have been exercising over him relented, too, because panic returned to his face and he quickly stood up so that he could start getting out of there with a lot more hurry than his aging form should have normally permitted.
Pyrrha went after him, but she slowed when she reached Blake. They stared daggers at each other, both tensing as if ready to attack again, and then Pyrrha narrowed her eyes even more before shaking her head and continuing on her way, her taller and more muscular form disappearing around the corner.
Blake returned her gaze to Yang. Infinitely more tired now. But there was still a sharp, hungering edge to the crimson taking over most of the gold in her irises, something ready to snap if picked at one too many times.
It was only after they heard the warehouse doors shut that Blake spoke. She tilted her head, nonplused. "I don't know why you think I'm going to give in to you."
Yang didn't reply right away. She kicked the floor idly, wondered if it was worth being a bit stupid. Maybe. Anything to get what she needed. She looked up, gave Blake a half-hearted cheeky smile. "Because you have a soft spot for me?"
Blake just leaned her shoulder on the pallet next to her and crossed her arms. "I do."
Yang was immediately flustered, opening her mouth a couple times but finding nothing witty or charming to throw back. She hadn't been expecting Blake to just admit it.
But the vampire's gaze was red steel. "But if you think your sunny smile and fiery personality are going to sway me when it comes to the livelihoods of people who have done nothing to deserve being put on a watchlist, and get interrogated every other week, and be monitored like criminals – then maybe you're not that interesting to me. I will not allow Aurora to destroy the peaceful lives so many vampires have struggled to find."
Yang paused. Furrowed her brow and glanced around, felt something like guilt crawling up through her stomach. "What…are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the waiter working to earn some extra cash who got poked and prodded and cut open because someone heard a rumor and wanted to verify the truth for themselves." Blake motioned to the side, beginning to raise her voice in her exasperation. "I'm referring to a mere boy getting rejected at school because his eyes glow and it's scary and not normal, and why does he keep puking up the food the supervisors try to get him to eat at lunch, what's wrong with him?" Blake stepped forward, voice lowering again into a soft, chilling murmur, "I mean the single mother just trying to provide for her young children but is terrified of being arrested because she needs to eat, too, before unimaginable accidents happen. Accidents that have happened before."
There was heat burning like fire across Yang's skin, shame and guilt prickling and scratching at her insides. She could only stare, only lower her eyes, because there was nothing she could say. Nothing she should say.
"Those are the names you're going to find on that list. Those are the people you're going to enter into your database of suspects and villains. Those are the lives you're going to ruin." And Yang suddenly felt Blake's cool fingers cup her jaw, exercise just a bit of pressure to force Yang to meet her far too gentle regard. "So, tell me again, Operative Ember, why you think I'm going to give in to you."
Yang searched the vampire's eyes, could barely hold the stare. She'd never felt more wrong about what she was doing – because although the situations Blake described weren't what Yang wanted or intended, they were still a part of the consequences of Aurora regulating vampires in the world. And Yang, for the longest time – up to this very point, even – had been brushing it off and moving on to her next mission, because it had never affected her to this extent.
And she'd never really felt like she could change her fate, anyway.
But she firmed her jaw, clenched her prosthetic fist and pressed down on Blake's wrist with her other hand to sever the touch. Blake didn't resist. "I just want to save innocent civilians," Yang said, low and deliberate. "You know where they are. You have the power to free them. But you won't – because you're, I don't know, scared about whatever happens after for some reason, as if that makes you any better than me. We're literally not even on opposing sides, our methods are just different. So here I am, asking for your help in whatever capacity that you will. Give me something."
Blake took a step back, slowly shaking her head. But her expression hadn't firmed or narrowed – no, she actually seemed thoughtful, if not a little frustrated. She raked her fingers through her raven hair, cat ears leaning backwards, caused a bit of an unfairly alluring mess with it. And, after a moment, she said, "Come with me. But don't hold your breath."
She strode past Yang, and Yang watched her for brief second, regret twisting her gut. This didn't feel like a win. It felt a lot more like she was about to lose more than she could currently imagine. But she followed Blake towards the office in the corner without saying another word.
The office wasn't anything special, just a computer and a printer on a desk, filing cabinets against the back wall, two chairs by the desk. The only thing that seemed rather out of place was the thick metal freezer door in the corner of the righthand wall. Yang wondered if that was where the bloodpacks and bottles were being stored.
Blake walked around the desk and accessed the computer. She was silent as she searched. Yang just stood by the doorway, unable to keep her eyes off the ancient's face. She did try, but her gaze kept being drawn to those artful cheekbones and rich-ridged lips and laser-focused red irises under those permanent faint furrows of tension at her brow – and Yang wondered about them, at just how much stress an ancient vampire had to be under for it to actually show like that on their face, wondered if it was a physical proof of Blake truly caring and worrying about things to the extent Yang hoped so badly she did.
Some small part of Yang still wrongly longed to ease that tension away, to take some of the infinite weight Blake seemed to carry from her shoulders.
Somehow. Stupidly.
And, apart from all that, it was also kind of fascinating watching a creature who was over three-thousand years old use modern technology with so much familiarity. Just another proof of Blake keeping busy in her immortal life.
Blake glanced at her. "You're not subtle."
Yang felt her face redden again. "Yeah, well, we've established I'm uselessly gay, and you're fucking beautiful, so."
"Mhm. Is that all?"
This time, Yang narrowed her eyes. Blake's reply had been rather noncommittal, so it was hard to tell if the question was rhetorical, sarcastic, dryly teasing, or if she was flirting and fishing for an elaboration. And after all the tension they'd been dealing with, Yang wasn't sure she wanted to risk putting her foot in her mouth again. She stayed quiet.
But then she couldn't keep doing that, either. "What are you doing?"
Blake sighed. "Trying to see if I can help you, Yang. Again, don't hold your breath."
So, Yang slowly exhaled. "Oh. Okay." She really hated waiting and standing still. She fiddled with her prosthetic fingers, switched her weight from one foot to the other. And then she closed her eyes for a second before trying, "Blake, I…"
Blake's attention moved back over to Yang. Quiet. Waiting.
Always so patiently waiting with that damning bright gaze. But this time there was something more sinister forming there, hunger lurking and begging behind the calm. It did make Yang uneasy, being looked at like she was prey, like Blake was just waiting for her to try and bolt. Try being the key word.
Yang thought about apologizing, but then she wasn't even sure what for. There was so much. And it didn't feel right to thank Blake, either, because the consequences were too grave and it would be an insult more than anything else. So, finally, Yang managed, "I just don't understand what you're scared of."
Blake hung her head for a moment, but Yang still saw the muscles of her jaw work, the strain in the side of her neck. Eventually, their eyes met again, and Blake's tone was foreboding. "I'm going to tell you what's going to happen if I personally intervene – because, yes, I could save your victims within minutes, it would be incredibly easy. I'd drop them off in front of your safe house and you could do your little mind tricks to make them forget vampires did those things to them, and you'd then send them off to the hospital to get better. Everyone none the wiser."
Yang shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I mean…" But that was pretty spot on. She couldn't see the problem, though.
Blake continued, "But your job wouldn't be done, Aurora wouldn't let you leave Vale until the problematic vampires are taken care of – which I am a part of. So you come to me again, batting your eyes and wringing my heart, because yes, you're right, I should be doing everything in my power to make up for my past. Including helping you end my own existence. And I go, and I find those problematic vampires and I kill them. Again, incredibly easy." The furrows of tension on Blake's brow became more prominent and fury simmered in her tone. But the only thing shimmering in her eyes was sorrow. "Except there's another ancient vampire to deal with, and they're not going to go down without a fight. But it's my responsibility anyway, so I fight them. And Vale gets razed to the ground. And Aurora finishes off the winner – which you hope and beg is me, or maybe you don't – and now you're all uselessly scrambling to cover up the truth in the aftermath."
Yang was silent, trying so hard to find some other outcome, some flaw in Blake's narrative, but…
"I'm scared of myself, scared of how powerless I am in my 'great power', scared that it doesn't matter how much or how little I do, that it will never be enough." Blake suddenly glared and walked back over to Yang so she could murmur scathingly with a finger to the enforcer's chest, "And here you are, asking me for a damned list of people I can betray because you won't listen to me when I tell you you're going to die."
Yang threw her hands up, matching Blake's annoyance and upset. "Then what do you want me to do? Nothing?! I'm supposed to honestly just waltz out of Vale like I didn't literally sacrifice my mortality so I could save people from vampires?" Yang paced off to the side, huffing in frustration and roughly passing her hand through her hair before facing Blake again with more irritation. "And, actually, while we're at it, what's your plan, if ours is so bad? If your hands are so tied, what were you possibly going to do to make this all better?"
"Not rush in head first, guns blazing, that's for sure," Blake retorted, crossing her arms. "I accomplish things through other people and working from the shadows. One of my main problems is that I don't know where or who that other ancient vampire is. But as soon as I know, I can start pulling strings. And I can lay a trap, mitigate the damage done enormously."
Yang considered that, putting her hands on her hips. "Okay. So, maybe we can help you. Or…I don't know. Something. But we obviously both don't want the worst possible thing to happen." She was the one to sigh this time, slumped her shoulders. She couldn't look at the ancient when she muttered, "And I don't think I could bring myself to kill you, anyway."
To Yang's absolute amazement, Blake suddenly laughed. Yang looked up, shocked, saw Blake try to muffle her amusement with her hand. She shook her head. "You couldn't pull the trigger when I put your gun to my head the second time we met. You're a bleeding heart behind your bravado, even if I don't deserve it." Blake returned to the computer, her smile fading. "I know you only mean well. I know your hands are tied, too." She paused, took a short breath. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we can both find ways to tug each other a little free." And then Blake typed a few extra things before Yang felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket.
She checked it, saw that Blake had sent her an electronic file. Yang opened the file, found a short list of just eight names written there.
Cardin Winchester
Flynt Coal
Fox Alistair
Yatsuhashi Daichi
Henry Marigold
Bartholomew Oobleck
Brawnz Ni
Blake Belladonna
Yang creased her eyebrows, felt the frustration surging again. She looked back up, saw that Blake was partially sitting on the desk in front of Yang now, arms crossed. "What is this? There's only one name I don't know on this list – the rest are vampires Aurora is already aware of."
Blake was impassive. "The records are showing that Brawnz Ni has stopped by the warehouse for the first time three days ago. He's come by every day since to pick up only one blood pack each time. I haven't been able to track him down – and, quite frankly, as long as he's not causing issues, I have no reason to beyond checking if he's alright and letting him know who he can go to for help – but I don't know who he is. He's either a recent newborn, or he very recently moved to Vale. He may be able to provide information on your culprits."
Yang stared. Blake had barely given her anything. Summer and Taiyang's murderer wasn't even on that file. Mimic wasn't there. Mocha – whoever they were – either.
"To be clear, I don't think he's one of your suspects, because if he was, he wouldn't be stopping by Cryolife to get blood. So, I'm asking you to speak with him as nicely and humanely as possible, and then leave him alone."
So much for tugging each other a little free. Blake may as well have spat on the rope and called that help. But, on the other hand…beggars couldn't be choosers. Yang had asked for something, and this was it. Still, she had to know. "Why just one name?" She stepped forward, raised her hand – realized she'd been about to touch Blake's arm, and forced her hand back down. She sighed, lowered her voice. "Is there not anything else you can give me?" One vampire who killed two people decades ago. You gotta know.
For some reason, Blake suddenly seemed tense, exhaling the quietest of breaths before visibly swallowing and then not inhaling again. She wouldn't meet Yang's eyes. "I'm sorry, Yang. There are more vampires in Vale, but I know who they are and they aren't your suspects nor would they know your suspects."
And Yang gave up. At least for now. There was nothing else she could say, and…it didn't feel right to keep insisting. If anything, in this strange kind of way, she felt like there'd been trust built here – trust in Blake's character, in who she was, exactly.
Someone with more integrity than Yang, anyway.
And that felt pretty fucking solid.
Yang nodded, closed her eyes for a brief moment before saying, "Yeah… Okay. Thanks, then." And she started to turn away.
Blake touched her wrist.
Yang's eyes widened and she turned back towards the ancient, found Blake looking conflicted, almost distressed. Her fingers went further around Yang's wrist, more of a cool caress than a grip, imploring gently. "I have no right to ask," Blake whispered, "but please let me feed. Please." And her eyes finally met Yang's, hungering, desperate crimson. Her voice came out hoarse as she added, "I'm not safe when I'm hungry and I'm terrified of losing control. I hate this feeling of helplessness so much."
At first, Yang was bewildered. Her heartrate accelerated, and she wondered what the fuck Blake meant about being helpless when she could so easily take what she needed from Yang. How quickly she'd disarmed both enforcers and forced them to capitulate earlier could only be a hint of what Blake was capable of. But it was as if feeding from Yang without her consent wasn't even an option for Blake somehow, insanely, even when faced with how much of a danger she claimed to be – and Yang couldn't believe that for one second, not with how adamant Blake had just been about not wanting to bring Vale to ruin. The two things could not both be true.
So then Yang was angry, angry at being guilt-tripped, angry that Blake was doing this right now after giving so little, angry that Blake seemed to think that if she batted her eyes and wrung Yang's heart, Yang would give in.
And, ironically, Yang supposed she hadn't really helped her own case, either.
She tore her wrist away from Blake's hand. "You attacked me out of nowhere on the roof of the library and you weren't even hungry. You act like I somehow have power over you one moment and the next you dictate my life like I don't. Make it make sense, Nightshade!"
"Yang, you're too close," Blake muttered, almost a plea, her voice was so tight and small, and Yang realized she'd leaned further towards her in her tirade. The ancient's eyes kept glancing towards Yang's throat, afraid, predatory. She put her hand on Yang's shoulder, pressed firmly without fully pushing. "You need to –"
"Let her go!" came a voice from behind them. "Hurt her and there will be hell to pay!"
Yang moved away from Blake, fast, snapped out of the moment, and saw Pyrrha at the doorway, both guns that she must have recovered from somewhere nearby aimed directly at the vampire.
Sheer anguish took over Blake's expression as she clenched her hands into fists, drawing them back down to her sides slowly.
"I knew I shouldn't have left you alone. You were taking too long, I couldn't stay out there," Pyrrha said tersely. "Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah," Yang mumbled. She reached over and put her hand on Pyrrha's forearm, hesitated on if she wanted to try deescalating the situation or not. But she finally said, "It's not what it looks like, Akouo. At least, I don't think."
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes, looking from Blake to Yang a few times, but she didn't lower her weapons. Blake was silent, cat ears flat on her head, and her expression was just…grief. Tormented. It seemed so real. Like behind the steadfastness and calculated calm, Blake really was terrified and fragile and hurt beyond comprehension. And it made Yang feel awful, regardless of little sense it made.
"Did you get the list?"
Yang firmed her jaw. "I have a lead. It's better than nothing."
"It's also worse than a list." Pyrrha glared at Blake. "Nightshade, give us –"
"Akouo." Yang squeezed Pyrrha's arm, knew this wasn't going to go over well. "She gave me what she could. It's enough for now."
Pyrrha observed Yang. Just Yang, this time. Uncomprehending. "How can you trust her? After everything she's done?"
And Yang slowly looked over at Blake again. Blake, who was still standing there, regaining some composure, but the strain in her neck and tension on her brow hadn't yet eased, nor was it so obvious if her gaze was devasted or murderous.
Yang took her hand away from Pyrrha's forearm. "Because maybe sometimes people are more complicated than their actions," she said quietly. "Maybe, sometimes, people can change."
Blake met Yang's stare. Initially with vague surprise. And then, just faintly, there among the intensity of everything else, something softened. Just a little glint, a small, tender twinkle.
Tiny but genuine affection, gratefulness, just for Yang.
Something in her chest pulled and ached.
Pyrrha lowered her guns and heaved a huge sigh. "Gods above. We're doomed."
"Come try to kill me again at Jasper Lounge in two days," Blake finally spoke, wryness peaking through the stress. She shook her head, any brighter glimmers vanishing. "You might not have a choice by then anyway. Now please leave, both of you. Go bring Edrick home."
Yang and Pyrrha shared a glance, and Pyrrha definitely seemed conflicted and wary in the crease of her eyebrows and how she kept checking on Blake, but then she holstered her guns and said with a frown, "This is unbelievable. I guess there's nothing else we can do here, then. Let's go, Ember. You and I need to have a little chat." She started heading out.
Yang looked at Blake one last time, saw that terrible regret come over her expression as soon as Pyrrha's back was turned. Red irises lowered to the floor. "See you soon, Yang."
"…Bye, Blake."
And Yang followed Pyrrha out of Cryolife's warehouse.
Yang had a problem.
Which – big duh.
Actually, it was more like Yang had a problem stacked on a problem stacked on another problem stacked on shiny new problem.
And they were all somehow alive and growing and forming nervous connections between each other, so Yang couldn't just unstack them because then there'd be, well…hey, guess what? An even bigger, messier problem.
As it was, from across the living-room-remade-meeting-space, Raven and Glynda were giving Yang – and Ruby and Sun – the most expectant disapproving expression they'd ever had the joy of experiencing. Beside Yang, Pyrrha was quiet, waiting, also somewhat having to shoulder the judgement of the older enforcers. It wasn't supposed to be like this – Pyrrha didn't deserve the consequences of any of these failures.
"The reports you provided Aurora about the double infiltration mission you staged were disappointing, enforcers," Glynda eventually said with an arched eyebrow, looking up from her holotab. "It was a well-crafted plan using the new resources and intelligence you yourselves collected, there was no reason for you to have returned with your hands so empty."
"They knew we were coming!" Sun protested, leaning forward. "They humored us and showed us around but anything important or suspicious was hidden and there were very obvious places they wouldn't let us go investigate. There was nothing we could do without getting way too many mortals involved."
"At the very least," Ruby chimed in with a frown, "we were able to confirm that Dr. Oobleck is the only vampire working with the science team. Even if he refused to give us any information."
There was a short silence, and then Raven's voice cut in, flat and sharp like a knife. "And since when do we allow a vampire to withhold information, Private Crescent?" Her auburn gaze traveled across everyone, narrowed and merciless. "Have you forgotten your obligation to the mortal world, enforcers? Vampires are dangerous; allowing them their secrets and letting them go about their lives however they please will only lead to countless more deaths."
Yang had to resist hanging her head in a sudden pang of misery. "Vale gets razed to the ground. And Aurora finishes off the winner – which you hope and beg is me, or maybe you don't – and now you're all uselessly scrambling to cover up the truth in the aftermath."
Even Blake would agree with Raven, at least with regards to herself. Maybe it was entirely applicable to all ancients, too, no matter what.
"What are we supposed to do, then?" Sun asked, his tone uncharacteristically frustrated as he crossed his arms and his monkey tail flicked and curled unhappily down the side of the armchair he was sitting on.
"What are you supposed to do?" Raven repeated in disbelief. "You do what's necessary. You wait for Bartholomew to come out of that building and you capture him, and you don't let him go until he speaks." And faced with the wide eyes her response elicited, Raven rolled hers and snapped, "There are innocent victims getting fed from every day and most likely slowly dying against their will, and you're hesitating and wasting time because some faster option wouldn't be ethical?" Raven let her question hang before she added harshly, "Evidently, some of you need to be sent back to headquarters and replaced with enforcers who will do their job."
"Dr. Oobleck would have nothing to do with the missing civilians!" Ruby pointed out, firm, and Yang was immediately proud of her.
She was also immediately horrified. At Raven. At herself, when she realized how similar their rhetoric was.
Is this what I sounded like to Blake? What is wrong with me?
"I'm afraid you can't really know that, Ruby, until you have proof to confirm it," Glynda said, deliberate, thoughtful.
Ruby didn't let that trip her up. She shrugged, "I can take his word for it instead of treating him like a criminal just because he's a vampire. Sun and me's main mission so far has been to find out what is going on at Cryolife, exactly, and how that all links to Atlas and the Schnee Minerals Company. There aren't any known lives on the line for that." And now she was the one to raise her hands incomprehensibly. "And even if there were, we still wouldn't have suspicions valid enough to justify capturing that guy in particular. If you're gonna be on our backs about something or send us anywhere, maybe going back to Atlas would be our next best step."
Amazingly, Raven seemed to consider that – and not even angrily – instead of doubling down on her initial point, and Yang's shoulders relaxed a little. Maybe this wasn't going to turn into fists flying, after all.
But before Raven could share her thoughts again, Glynda suddenly stood up, swiping through a few things on her holotab with urgency and saying, "This conversation is going to have to wait. Vale police are now looking into a fire that ravaged a subway terminal near your first encounter with Nightshade. They're reporting to have found a metal coffin of sorts in a power generator room in the tunnels."
"Shit," Raven cussed, standing up as well. "We're going to have to cover that up. Operatives Ember and Akouo and Privates Crescent and Ruyi, you're coming along. Gear up, we're leaving now."
Near my first encounter with Blake? Yang thought, getting to her feet. Once again, coincidences did not seem to happen in Vale. As Raven and Glynda left the room, she unholstered her guns, the ones she'd retrieved from Cryolife's warehouse on the floor, just to doublecheck her magazines before she left.
They were empty.
Yang's eyes widened, and her stare found Pyrrha's. Pyrrha, who had just found out the exact same thing, guns clicking ammo-less-ly in her hands.
"Are you guys okay?" Ruby wondered, stopping at the archway of the living room with Sun.
"…She took our UV-C bullets," Pyrrha uttered, disbelieving. "She has almost four full clips of UV-C bullets."
"Who does?" Sun creased his eyebrows.
"Nightshade," Yang answered, not understanding. "Why?" Had it just been to make sure they really couldn't shoot, even if they recovered their weapons? But this was Blake, always seemingly two steps ahead. At a science facility. What was her purpose?
"Maybe you can just ask her," Pyrrha said under her breath, holstering her guns once more, "since she's practically got you in her bed, I guess."
"That's not –"
"We don't have time for this, we have to go get more ammo in our stock and then leave. Come on." Pyrrha turned on her heels and headed out.
Yang shared awkward and concerned glances with Ruby and Sun, and gulped.
"Is…is that true?" Ruby wondered, uncertain.
"Of course not!" Yang exclaimed, upset, the heat of a mortified blush rushing up to her face. She shook her head and briskly walked past her sister and Sun. "I'm not that stupid." Gods, I think I am that stupid. I can't ever let it get to that. "Now let's go."
There was a silence between the three as they made it outside, and Yang suddenly heard Sun mutter from behind her, "Total boss power move, though, if you were fucking an ancient vampire."
Yang nearly tripped all the way into space while Ruby smacked some part of her own body audibly.
"What the fuck, Sun."
"You did not see or hear about a coffin here or anything that made you think of vampires. The fire was a freak accident and a specialized team has taken over the case. You can leave and not worry about this again."
From between Yang's hands at his temples, the officer nodded his head. "Right. Thanks."
Yang released him, blinked several times to clear the haze of focusing on his mind and memories, and said, "A good day to you, sir."
"Yup. Bye." He turned and headed for the staircase leading up and out from the subway terminal.
She sighed. She, Raven, Glynda, and Pyrrha had been forced to repeat this process with about a dozen people so far. There were only a few witnesses left, and they were starting to look at the enforcers with a whole lot of suspicion as their fellow policemen, firefighters, and detectives were leaving one by one after interacting with them.
Sun and Ruby were at the top of the stairs, making sure nobody came back down and diverting unwanted attention.
The fire had fortunately already been put out and the power turned off by the time the enforcers had arrived on site, but they were still stepping on charred ground and having to be careful about small portions of the ceiling that had collapsed. In a stroke of luck, and much to everyone's relief, there had been no victims, as this particular terminal was located in a poorer area of the city and the desolate state it was in made Yang think it might have been practically abandoned.
Once the enforcers had gotten all the mortals out of their way, Pyrrha opened up her scanner tool on her scroll and confirmed what they'd all been thinking – the fire wasn't natural. Those strange heat signatures were all over the place, meaning either the other ancient vampire or their protégée had been here, had caused this.
"But they didn't take or kill anyone," Yang protested with confusion. "There's nothing here for them. What was the point of this?"
Raven took out her SUV's keys from her pocket and said, "You and Akouo start investigating the generator room. Myself and Dust are going to set up the BMMR – this early after the incident, we should be able to identify our targets. Speculations don't matter."
Yang narrowed her eyes, resisted the urge to challenge her mother on that last part. "Fine."
"Come on, Ember," Pyrrha called out, taking out her flashlight and starting to head towards the narrow walkway lounging the side of the subway tunnel.
Yang rolled her shoulders and got her own flashlight out as well, following Pyrrha into the darkness. The maintenance door they were looking for was several dozens of feet in, already smashed open. There was nothing special to look at in this first room – it was the next room inside, through the metal door with an electrical hazard warning symbol on it, that was the point of interest.
Yang slowly entered the space beyond the doorway and held up her flashlight. Pyrrha came in behind her just as cautiously, panning her own light over the area as well.
"Gods, it really is a coffin," the redhead murmured, shocked.
There was a lot of broken and melted…stuff…all over the floor, pieces from electrical machinery that appeared to have exploded, but the most noteworthy object was right smack in the middle of the room. It rose vertically from the rubble like a misshapen pillar made of silver. The heat had made parts of it ooze and cool along the length, but it wasn't so destroyed that the hollowed interior and the cover barely hanging on to the hinges were impossible to recognize.
"Doesn't look like any old, regular coffin, though," Yang finally replied with a hard swallow.
This had definitely been for a vampire, to imprison a vampire – the fact that it was made of silver left little place for doubt. But there were no signs of a burnt corpse anywhere. It was impossible to know if a vampire had, at one point, occupied the coffin, or if a vampire had been meant to occupy it eventually.
And why it was here or why it had been destroyed by the fire ancient and company was even more of a mystery. It didn't make sense.
Yang stepped a bit closer, examined the inside of it. "What's with all the glass? Even in here, some of this isn't melted silver."
Pyrrha had approached the wall, shining her light there and over the floor. She was quiet for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face, until she finally said, "Ember…do you remember that one time we had to visit a vampire in Chasma?"
The blonde immediately knew what Pyrrha was talking about. They'd gone to Aurora's specialized jail facilities because one of the inmates knew information about another vampire they'd been trying to track. Yang remembered the sheer amount of silver in every wall and bar, the dark, oppressing purple and blue glow of UV-C lights, feeling farther and farther away from any place on Remnant the further they walked into the mountain, and guards with shocking ammunition and UV-C bullets at every corner…
Vampires did not leave Chasma of their own accord or ability, that was for sure.
Yang creased her eyebrows, turning to look at her partner. "Uh, yeah? Why are you br – oh, shit."
Pyrrha nodded, lips pressed into a thin line.
"This is the same technology." Yang took in the destroyed room with newfound wonder. Horror. Confusion.
"Not the same setup, obviously, but…all this melted glass? Lights. So many lights."
Yang stilled. She shined her flashlight slowly over the floor, back to the inside of the coffin, thinking, trying to make sense of it. "We don't, like, know about Aurora having little setups like this anywhere, do we?"
"I feel like this wouldn't warrant being kept secret from us. Aurora would provide us with the locations of these if they were a thing other agents did, to help us."
It was Yang's turn to be quiet. With that possibility ruled out, something else came to mind. A terrible, raucous voice coming out of a disgusting, half-decomposed, seething creature as it struggled against its restraints. "This is my first active hunt in over fifty years!"
And the fact that this was located very near the spot Yang had fought Blake the first time in the alley…
"This is where she was," Yang murmured, stunned as the realization dawned on her. "This is how she disappeared."
Pyrrha gave Yang a bewildered frown. "What are you talking about?"
Yang motioned at everything around them. "Blake. She was in this coffin for over fifty years. This is where she came from that night she attacked me." Yang massaged the bridge of her nose, still not grasping the full picture. "She…she must have locked herself in here willingly. Nobody could have forced her."
Pyrrha stepped closer, still frowning and shaking her head imperceptibly. "How can you be so sure?"
And Yang could only think of every single time Blake had expressed a lack of will to live.
"I've been trying to starve myself to death. Or weaken myself sufficiently for someone to be able to kill me."
"You try existing forever, failed attempt after failed attempt at killing yourself…"
"I cannot reach redemption. I cannot try."
Yang shrugged lamely, gave Pyrrha a guilty smile. "I'm in bed with the enemy, remember?"
"Oh, Ember…" Pyrrha sighed and drooped her shoulders. "Listen, I'm sorry. There's just been a lot of stress, I know you're not actually…" her voice trailed off and she checked Yang's expression, smiled a bit. "You better not be, anyway."
They both laughed a little.
"Don't worry. I'm not suicidal." Yang hesitated and added, "But I'm sorry, too. I know I'm not exactly being smart, either."
"I can't fault you for having emotions. Just…" Pyrrha met Yang's eyes. "Just make sure you don't let them blind you." She shook her head again and looked around, returning her attention to their task. "This all still begs the question why. Why did they do this? And while we're at it, how did Nightshade get out in the first place, if she really did shut herself in here?"
Yang creased her eyebrows. She was wondering the same thing. For all intents and purposes, it had sounded like Blake never had an intention of coming out – and this room would have been left undisturbed forever, probably, based on how left to waste away the terminal seemed. So Yang wasn't entirely sure that Blake, herself, even had the answers to those questions. But something told her the ancient would want to know about this one way or another, if she didn't already. "Let's finish up in here and report back to Omen and Dust. The BMMR should hopefully tell us more."
Pyrrha nodded, and the two enforcers spent the next few minutes snapping pictures of the room, collecting a few pieces of glass and broken machinery, taking notes, and searching for any fingerprints on the coffin – although that last effort proved in vain.
Once they had everything they needed for documentation, they made they their way back to the terminal area and helped Raven and Glynda finish setting up the BMMR.
The holographic reconstruction was fuzzy from flames ravaging a lot of the biological material, but they saw that a singular person had come down here. A man, slightly hunched – Yang and Pyrrha recognized him as being the same one who had dumped one the corpses at the docks. But this time the facial details were clearer. Pale-ish hair, small, dark eyes.
"Running facial analysis now," Glynda said, standing over by the wall with the computer.
They watched him put his hand out, saw the flames start. He kept on his way, blasting his surroundings with fire, until he walked off towards the tunnel and out of the projection area.
"You said in one of your reports that this man wasn't the ancient, Ember?" Raven asked sharply, eyes boring into Yang.
Yang shifted uncomfortably, hoping her mother wasn't about to start digging further into why Blake had so readily provided her with that information. Quite frankly, it was suspicious that Raven hadn't already pulled Yang aside much earlier and grilled her about it. "Yeah. According to Nightshade, he has this ability because the other ancient shared some of their power with him."
Raven's auburn gaze observed Yang for a moment. Indecipherable. Yang stood her ground and did her best to just be normal, but her heartrate accelerated nervously in her chest. Something told her that sooner rather than later, Raven was going to start poking and scratching for details, and that whatever her reasons had been not to do it so far, Yang wouldn't be quite as well prepared for the dissecting because of them.
"His name is Mercury Black," Glynda announced. "He worked at Vale's Historic Library and Museum as a nightshift security guard for about twenty years before taking an early retirement. There isn't much after that."
At this point, Yang wanted to start punching herself in the face. This wasn't a coincidence either. Blake had to know who he was. He probably knew who Blake was, too, if he was doing this here in particular. But his motives were still a mystery.
Initially, Yang had hazarded that he was goading Blake, as crazy as it was. But if he were really doing that, why would he have destroyed a thing that had kept Blake imprisoned?
But she was in there willingly, implying that coffin was wanted. Ugh, this doesn't make sense.
"Thank you, Dust," Raven called out. "Save the recording. Let's pack this up. Akouo, contact ERAC-U for this one."
Pyrrha's eyebrows shot up and she shared a bemused glance with Yang. "ERAC-U? Wow, haven't had to call them in a quite a while."
Yang let out a laugh despite herself. "Poor guys, they're practically out of a job."
ERAC-U was Aurora's third division – Evidence Retrieval and Clean-Up – but they were almost obsolete these days. She'd heard that they'd been indispensable once, long before Yang became an enforcer, as they were an entire team tasked with covering up grave incidents with vampires from the mortal world. Incidents like what had happened at Brunswick Farms over a century ago, where the collateral damage was too great for a few enforcers to wipe some memories and sweep the rest under a rug.
In this case, Yang supposed it made sense to call ERAC-U and get them to come collect the coffin and the destroyed UV-C lights, but it was such a small request compared to their initial purpose that Yang felt bad about how much they must have been twiddling their thumbs. SUN and the SRO had been working so diligently over the centuries that vampires just didn't cause massive problems like that anymore – because there just weren't that many vampires now, especially not powerful ancients.
With how things were going, though, Yang was starting to wonder if they'd be calling the ERAC-U team again for the kind of terrible task they were made for, sometime in the near future…
She hoped not.
But if push came to shove, and pull came to wrench…
Something was going to snap.
IT'S NOT A GREAT CHAPTER ENDING. I KNOW. I'll most likely rework it eventually. In the meantime, I welcome all comments, even (especially) constructive criticisms! The next chapter is going to be...a long one. Like, almost 20k words. You'll see why. Fortunately, most of it is done already. But lemme know what you thought of this one!
Be safe out there, everyone.