Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Been almost five months since the last update. Still not a lot closer to knowing where I'm going here overall. I've been able to get some work done but various issues both with the writing and things that have nothing to do with it have made this a difficult endeavour.
Don't really know that I'm ready to put this chapter out in the grand scheme of things, but I was feeling the itch to get something out so here it is, despite any reservations I may have about it. Don't know when the next one will see the light of day.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 26
While working to create an antidote for the virus that Cinder Fall had introduced into the CCT system, Pietro Polendina found something else within its routines and lines of code that he didn't like. The four main towers in each kingdom were supported by numerous small relay booster towers in an effort to provide a strong signal across all of Remnant. It wasn't foolproof and there were zones that had difficulty getting a good signal but improvements were being made when and where possible.
Although, the one glaring 'elephant in the room' about the global CCT system, was the lack of a primary tower in Menagerie. In Pietro's mind and in the minds of many others, this was tremendously unfair and was a situation that should have been remedied by now. The relay towers were set up to push a signal to Menagerie, but that signal was often poor in quality making for spotty communications and could be disrupted by weather and leave the island cut off from the rest of the world for hours or days.
He knew that a new, next generation relay tower had been put on on the southern most tip of the continent within the last year, but he had heard through some of the Faunus patients of his clinic that it hadn't improved communications to any great degree when they tried to contact friends and relatives in Menagerie. His other duties up in Atlas hadn't allowed him time to look into it, but while waiting for his anti virus simulations to run, he had plenty of time to nose through the system.
All of the setting in the CCT system were meant to be optimized to provide the best and most reliable signals possible. However, it seemed that someone had introduced a subroutine into the software that monitored the signals being directed towards Menagerie that randomly altered their signal strength and it was rarely hitting the optimized settings. No wonder they had problems with poor quality and frequent outages. To make matters worse, the new tower was not even putting out a signal. The status screens for it said otherwise, but those readings were false.
It was likely the work of a system operator who was anti Faunus and thought it would be fun to mess with them. It wasn't fun, it was dangerous. Lack of reliable communications could effect commerce and if there was a disaster they might not be able to call for assistance. Not to mention the effect of being cut off from the rest of the world, being unable to contact friends or family off the island and not being able to receive any news of what was going on in the rest of the world.
Pietro was not going to let this continue. First he optimized all of the settings to what they should be and made some of the upgrades to the code that should have been done but hadn't over the last year. Then he brought the new tower on line and optimized all of its settings before isolating the part of the system that dealt with Menagerie and secured it with his own password and made sure that if anyone tried to get into it and mess with it again, he would receive a notification. The end result was that three days before the official opening of the Vytal Festival and the tournament, the people of Menagerie began to get a vastly improved and much more stable and reliable signal.
One of the happy beneficiaries of those improvements, was seated on a couch in front of her television, in the largest home in Menagerie's main settlement of Koa Kuana. If Kali Belladonna couldn't go to the Vytal Festival, she liked to at least be able to watch the coverage of it and remind herself that it was possible for Humans and Faunus to get a long, and to hope that things continued to get better.
Perhaps that was wishful thinking, especially when one considered the current tactics of the White Fang and of all the other racially motivated groups out there. As if the Grimm weren't problem enough. She truly wished that all people could see how futile and stupid all of this hate was and put an end to it. It was such a pathetic way for people to live their lives.
She was enjoying a cup of tea while watching the Vale News Network's morning show that was being broadcast live from the grounds of Beacon Academy. When an explosion was heard in the background, and the camera panned to show a column of black smoke rising from somewhere in the city, she got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. The scene switched to the air terminal and she when she saw two people in the distinctive garb of the White Fang she very nearly dropped her tea cup.
"Ghira!" she called to her husband who was doing some paperwork in his office.
Heavy footfalls thudded down the hall and he burst into the room. Her urgent tone of voice had brought him immediately.
"What is it Kali?"
"The White Fang are attacking the Vale air terminal," she answered.
His gaze snapped towards the TV screen and an instant later his shoulders sagged and he dropped onto the couch next to his wife. He was certainly well aware of the White Fang's violent tendencies, that shift in methods was the reason why he had stepped down as its leader after all. Even if the CCT signal to Menagerie was unreliable, he had caught numerous news reports of violent actions that had involved the group he had originally created. It never failed to sadden him and always brought back the many arguments he had had with Sienna Khan and others over the shift in tactics.
Sure, a more violent stance might get them what they wanted and get it faster, but those were results that could not and would not last. Creating a climate of fear was not going to allow them to sustain any gains they might make. When the general population had reached the point where they were tired of it and no longer willing to live in fear, they would push back, hard, and things would be worse than they were before. A foundation built on fear was a weak foundation that was destined to fail and this attack might just be the breaking point that would take the White Fang past the point of no return.
The chaotic video from the air terminal was stunning enough, but when the shot went back to the morning show set at Beacon, a small explosion drowned out the voice of the commentator and an airship came up over the cliff behind them, smoke trailing from the tail section as the ship heeled over to its left and slammed down onto the landing pad. Panic ensued, and people began to go in every direction.
Whoever was operating the camera was being jostled about but tried to maintain their position and film what was going on around them. Four young girls that must be students of one of the academies came into view, trying to get the crowd to move back towards the school. They were only in the shot for a few seconds but that was just long enough for one of the girls to catch their attention. A dark haired girl who looked like a younger version of Kali.
Her hand latched tightly onto her husbands arm. "Ghira... was that...?"
"I-I don't know," he stammered.
They stayed glued to the television as the coverage went back to the newsroom at VNN's studios in the city. The news anchors tried their best to keep up with and communicate the stream of reports they were getting. Sporadic video footage from Beacon and various places in the city and around its perimeter showed attacks by the White Fang and hordes of Grimm.
Later in the broadcast and as it looked like the attack was winding down, there was video footage from outside the part of the school where they had set up a casualty station. Six students were approaching and the dark haired girl was one of them, though only one of the others was from the shot they'd seen of her earlier. A blonde haired girl who looked a little woozy was being helped along by a blonde haired boy. The dark haired girl was being helped by a boy with dark hair and a magenta coloured running strip through it. In a guarding position around them was a short ginger haired girl wielding a large hammer, and a redhead they recognized as Pyrrha Nikos.
The dark haired girl was wounded, her left arm was bound across her chest and a bloody makeshift bandage covered her shoulder. She looked pale and was in obvious pain.
"Ghira!" Kali gasped through a choked sob. "Our little kitten... our Blake!"
Ghira put his arm around his wife and pulled her close. Neither of them tried to stem the flow of tears that ran from their eyes. It had been five years since they had last seen their daughter. Five years of worry since she had run off in a fit of youthful and naive idealism. There had been no contact from her or anyone in the White Fang that let them know where she was or if she was alright. That quick glimpse that they almost missed earlier and now this video of her obviously hurt was the first time they had seen their daughter in five years.
It seemed obvious that she wasn't on the side of the White Fang. She wasn't wearing their garb and she was with a group of humans and they all looked ragged from battle. Had she broken away from the White Fang? Was she attending one of the Huntsman academies? Just what had life been like for their little girl these past five years?
Their hearts very nearly stopped when the video footage swung to show a gigantic Grimm, a Wyvern breaking out of the side of a mountain and swooping in towards Beacon. How was anyone supposed to stop and ancient Grimm of that size? Beacon and likely all of the city of Vale would be destroyed. They were left speechless just like everyone else witnessing it when something small rose into the air before the giant Grimm and virtually exploded, sending out visible shock waves of power that wiped out dozens of the smaller Grimm that dotted the sky.
The Wyvern shrieked in defiance and unbelievably it stopped in mid air when whatever it was that had risen to confront it roared back. That roar struck something deep down in their souls, in the souls of every Faunus that heard it, but none would be able to tell you what it was or why. A growing ball of crimson energy formed in front of the new arrival and fired off in a long expanding cone, totally enveloping the Wyvern and leaving absolutely nothing of it in its wake. It had been totally incinerated.
They couldn't believe their eyes and could scarcely believe their ears when the reporters said that all of the Grimm were fleeing as fast as they could. Sure enough, whether it was on hand held news cameras or closed circuit feeds from around the kingdom's perimeter, the Grimm were shown to be in full retreat. Over the next couple of hours the resistance by attacking White Fang members came to an end and it was revealed that Adam Taurus had been killed during the attack at Beacon.
In his guts it didn't surprise Ghira that Adam was involved and he couldn't help but wonder how involved Sienna Khan was in this. They had certainly disagreed on methods, that was why he had stepped down as leader after all, but she had never given him any reason to think that she would advocate an operation such as this. Nor like the one that happened weeks earlier down the old train line from Mountain Glenn for that matter. Those events went even beyond the state of near open warfare against the Schnee Dust Company.
What this would mean for the White Fang overall, he wasn't sure. Taking a more violent stance had gained them some ground, but anyone with any sense had to realize that such gains could not be long lasting and in the long run did more damage than good. The majority of the action the group had been taking paled in comparison to the two most recent events and he knew that there were factions that had sided with the more violent methods that would not condone these escalations.
The losses in personnel from Mountain Glenn and this attack would have all but wiped out the Vale chapter and had cost them one of their highest profile members. That alone could very well be a crippling blow to the organization, and this attack would certainly see known members hunted down more intensely than ever before. Sadly it would also mostly likely mean an increased backlash against innocent Faunus.
While many of these same things filtered through the back of Kali's mind, her most prominent concern was for the welfare of her daughter. It had been such a shock to see her face on the television screen that she nearly hadn't believed it at first. To see her again later, bloody and wounded, that had almost been too much but she was on screen long enough for her to confirm for sure that it was Blake.
It had been nearly six years since Blake had left, angry at them for stepping down from the leadership of the White Fang. She had been all of twelve years old and while she was much more aware of the dynamics of race relations between humans and Faunus, how did you explain to an idealistic child that the new direction the organization was taking was wrong and could never work? How did you explain to her and make her understand that the decision to leave had all but been taken out of their hands by the aggressive group that was determined to change the way the group operated?
She didn't blame Blake for her naivete, she had been little more than an impressionable child after all, but she did blame whoever had been whispering in her ear and persuading her to follow this new direction. She didn't know if it had been Adam Taurus or Sienna Khan or someone else, but she did know that she would never forgive them for it, whoever it was.
She had certainly heard about many of the things the group was doing since then and the reputation they were gaining and she had to wonder how much of that her daughter had been caught up in and she worried constantly about her well being. She knew that there had been casualties on both sides, Faunus and Human, and she refused to believe that Blake would be one of those willing to spill blood in the name of the cause and she hoped and prayed everyday that she hadn't been hurt or killed.
What she saw today on the television screen suggested that Blake was no longer with the White Fang and she just might be training as a Huntress. She had grown so much and was such a beautiful young woman now and it made her heart hurt to know that she had missed so much time with her, that she hadn't been able to see her grow up and guide her along the way like a mother should. She knew that Ghira felt the same way. They had been such a close knit family and they had missed doing all of the family things they should have been able to do together. But the most important thing of all right now is that she knew their daughter was alive and that was worth more than anything in the world.
They continued to watch late into the evening and as the live event coverage wound down as any remaining resistance was mopped up, some of the earlier video clips from within the midst of the chaos were shown again along with commentary and analysis, hoping to make some sense of it all and find some rationale for it. At one point they looked at each other and knew they were thinking exactly the same thoughts. They needed to go to Vale.
Vale, Later That Evening
By the time Winter made it back from the Emerald Forest the battle was over and the mopping up was well under way, with the wounded having all been transferred to the main hospital in Vale. She made for quite a sight as she entered the building. A torn and dirty uniform, her hair out of its usual arrangement and still sporting a few twigs and leaves that had been stubbornly tangled in it, and she moved like someone who had just gone ten rounds in the ring with the world champ.
It didn't matter. All that mattered was finding Weiss and seeing with her own eyes that she was alive, albeit wounded. Normally she would have respected the protocols of the hospital and it's staff and acknowledged that visiting hours were long past and perhaps not entirely feasible given the large influx of patients. However, she wouldn't be denied and insisted that she at least be able to verify her sister's state in person.
She had also gotten an accounting of her injuries. A shallow gunshot wound to the back of her left shoulder, a laceration to her abdomen that had fortunately been halted before it went deep enough to do any critical damage. A broken nose, a damaged knee, and various other bumps and bruises. She had been assured that she was fine and the wounds had been treated without difficulty, thanks in part to her depleted Aura having been recharged shortly after she had been injured.
Even with those assurances, her stomach was still fluttering in dread when she reached the room. It was a ward room and the other beds in it were occupied by the members of her team. In a nearby waiting area, another team, JNPR she believed they were called, were sleeping in the uncomfortable looking chairs. Well, three of them were, one, Pyrrha Nikos, a face she recognized, had yet to fall asleep and noticed her when she quietly edged into the room.
There was something about seeing a loved one in a hospital bed that never failed to have an impact upon you, even if you knew they were alright. Propped up in her bed Weiss looked so vulnerable and even smaller than she actually was. Under other circumstances the two black eyes and the bandage across her nose may have elicited some humour, but that wasn't to be had here right now. But just seeing her and knowing that she was safe and that she would be okay undid most of the knot that her stomach had been tied into.
After quietly speaking with Ms. Nikos for a few moments she made her way to the roof. She needed some time alone to decompress a little and after what she had learned from the Mistralian Champion, she didn't trust herself to maintain a sense of decorum around anyone else at the moment.
Ms. Nikos had been short on details, only getting a very hurried and condensed account of things herself, but apparently Weiss had been injured by Adam Taurus and he had been a hair's breadth away from killing her. She had been saved by her partner, who also ended up being injured by the terrorist and thankfully one of their professors had arrived in time to save them both and put and end to Taurus for good.
She had to make a conscious effort to calm herself. She had been that close to losing Weiss. Her outer demeanour, even to her sister, much to her regret, was usually not a warm and comforting one. But she loved Weiss dearly and she wanted the best for her, wanted her to live the life that she wanted to live, to make friends and learn who she was, something she couldn't do while under the thumb of their father. She may not show it but she worried about her and wished that she could maintain closer ties with her but she was so busy most of the time that it was very difficult to do that.
She had to admit that she also seemed to lack a certain capacity for that. When she defied their father and went out on her own and joined the military, it had been a road travelled mostly alone and she seemed to be predisposed to putting Weiss in that same position, telling herself that she was giving her the space and freedom to do things her own way. That lonely road had prompted her to immerse herself in her military training and she had excelled. But it made her rigid and unyielding and she was still very much a lone entity with virtually nothing in the way of close acquaintances. She didn't want that for Weiss.
Of course, Weiss hadn't been the only one to be on the receiving end today, but thankfully her own wounds were much milder. A lot of bumps and bruises and a diminished Aura. There had been a lot of Grimm and they had fought constantly for most of the morning. There weren't a lot of ground based Grimm, but plenty of Griffons to dive down out of the tree tops at them while the bigger Nevermores stayed above the forest canopy duelling with the Manta's.
They were relentless and with casualties mounting and everyone's Aura getting low, things weren't looking so good. But at mid morning, at about the time she would discover later coincided with the beginning of the attack on Beacon, most of the Grimm left, presumably heading for the sudden surge of negative emotions they felt coming from Vale. They had gone into the mission with thirty six robots and sixty two human soldiers if you included the air crews.
Two thirds of the robots were scrap with the rest having various levels of damage while human casualties, dead and wounded, totalled twenty eight with everyone else being exhausted and low on Aura. Five Manta's had been destroyed outright and two more were heavily damaged and couldn't fly, while two more were banged up but airworthy.
The only Faunus they found in the camp was the one Qrow reported that Adam had executed. When the White Fang left the camp they had only taken what they needed for their attack on Beacon and left everything else. The only tent that had anything in it that might be useful for intel was the one she assumed must have been occupied by Adam Taurus. There were maps of the city and of the Beacon campus with markings on them that showed approach vectors and landing points as well as schematics for the Vale air terminal and numerous pages of hand written notes. She gathered everything up for later scrutiny.
It had been hard to make contact with General Ironwood and the reason why became obvious when she finally did so and was told of the attack. Considering how many flying Grimm were present over the city it wasn't advisable for them to try flying back right now, and especially not since their Manta's would be over capacity now even if they left the robots behind. When the attack was over the General would come with his flagship to pick them up. It made for a tense few hours both for the wait itself and not knowing how the battle was going, and for the occasional attack by wandering Grimm.
She had been fully prepared to give her report and be debriefed when the General arrived and was puzzled initially when he said it could wait. Then he told her that Weiss had been injured and her heart nearly stopped. He hadn't known the extent of her injuries but he had gotten a report from one of his officers on the ground that had seen her being helped into the infirmary. He gave her leave to go and see her once they got back to Vale.
She had time on the way back to get cleaned up and have something to eat but did neither. Instead she sat inside a Manta on the hangar deck where no one would see her shaking in nervous dread about her sister's condition and fearing the worst. Thankfully the worst hadn't come to pass and Weiss was going to be alright.
She breathed deeply of the night air, as the adrenaline of the day finally began to release its hold upon her as she looked out over the city. The strobe of flashing lights could be seen all over as emergency crews worked to recover those killed or wounded in the attack, and others combed the city for straggling Grimm or White Fang. She had to wonder, how much had they missed Adam and his strike force by? Minutes? Hours? She supposed that it didn't matter, days or hours, missed was missed and wondering wasn't going to help the dead and wounded or those traumatized by the violence.
She supposed that she really should be out there helping but she likely wouldn't be of much use being sore, exhausted and now crashing from the adrenaline high. Maybe she'd go camp out in Weiss's room or in the waiting room with the others and when her sister awoke she just might hug the daylights out of her, image be damned.
A Few Hours Later: Ichigo and Yoruichi's Apartment
Yoruichi stood as stiff and still as a statue, the hot water pounding down on her from the shower head doing nothing to ease the tension of her body. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her arms shook, her head was down, her gaze was directed downward but her eyes didn't register the water as it swirled down the drain, carrying with it the dirt and the blood of the last thirty six hours.
After Cinder had fled they set about on a mop up operation. They scoured the campus for any remaining Grimm and White Fang. The Grimm were gone but there were a couple of small pockets of White Fang still operating. One surrendered easily but another that was determined to attack the only target they had left to them, the infirmary, were taken down hard. Then came the more grim task of bringing in the casualties they found. Wounded and dead civilians. Wounded and dead students.
Their anger, their rage had to be held in check as they went about their work and once the campus had been cleared they went down into the city to lend a hand to the Huntsmen, military, and law enforcement personnel who were doing the same. Again, there were no Grimm there and a small group of White Fang that were soon rounded up. Worse however, was a group of human supremacists that had decided to take advantage of the confusion of the attack to launch one their own against a predominantly Faunus neighbourhood.
No one would have to worry about that particular group ever again.
Seeing all of the casualties and destruction caused by the attack reinforced to her that she had made a mistake. Seeing her own students in the infirmary, two of them wounded by the hand of Adam Taurus himself... she had fucked up and fucked up badly. Instead of humiliating him she should have killed the son of a bitch. With him out of the way, who would command the group in his absence? After the Mountain Glenn incident there was no one left in the Vale branch that had the charisma or experience or who inspired the level of fear that Adam did. Without his leadership it was extremely doubtful that Cinder would have been able to make use of them.
But no, she had decided to play with the White Fang like a cat with a mouse. They were a terrorist group for crying out loud, not some gang of street thugs that could be humiliated out of business. They should have either supplied the authorities with the information about their hideouts and supply dumps, or taken them out themselves and forced the group to vacate the city and go back to hiding in the woods and openly confront them there where collateral damage was no longer an issue. She had considered the possibility that Adam might go off the edge and go it alone, but saw it as unlikely. So much for that.
Ichigo had felt like he was at fault for not finding Adam before he did, he had been on the lookout for him after all, and their ideas of who was to blame for what came into conflict and it escalated into a pretty boisterous argument, something they hadn't had to any meaningful degree in years. Sleep deprived and angry about the things that happened and the things they saw, it didn't take long for it to degenerate.
She had trained for decades to recognize and handle situations like this and worse, but she had made the wrong decisions. When he tried to share the blame because he had agreed with the course of action they had come up with, she as much as said that the only reason he did so was because of her training, which he lacked. When she wearily suggested that they should have taken Cinder out regardless of Amber's condition, citing the age old argument of the needs of the many versus the needs of the few, he accused her of sounding like the Old Man. She countered by yelling that maybe the Old Man was right and that the evidence of it was all around them.
Of all things, she had been the one to immaturely walk away. Fatigue and self blame for the things they saw over the last thirty six hours had made her talk like she was the text book version of the Captain of the Second Division and head of the Onmitsukido, not like Yoruichi Shihoin, who just happened to have held those posts. When that had been her life, yes, she had found herself in positions where she had to make decisions like that. But whenever possible she always tried to find ways arrive at an outcome that didn't require sacrificing an innocent life.
If not before, she should have killed Adam when they discovered that he was part of Cinder's plan. As for Cinder, she should have taken her down the night she was in that warehouse practising at making the transformation of her weapon look believable. She could have beaten her down and they could have stuffed her in one of Ironwood's stasis pods and kept her sedated until Amber was able to safely take back the power that had been stolen from her.
In that setting, if things didn't going quite as smoothly as planned, the only collateral damage would have been an old and abandoned warehouse rather than the possibility of it being a dorm full of students, or a tournament arena full of spectators. If those two things had been done, then there would have been no attack and the Vytal Festival would be ongoing for all to enjoy and the only cost paid to make it that way would have been Adam and Cinder.
The problem it seemed, was arrogance. Not the overt, in your face, 'we're better than you arrogance', but a more subtle, 'don't worry, we can handle anything that comes up' kind of arrogance. The kind that operated more out of your subconscious mind and you didn't know it was there until you tripped over it and landed hard on your face.
True, they had been trying to find out as much information about the plan itself as they could and if there was a back up plan, but they hadn't looked more deeply at what kind of action they could have possibly taken instead and considered the consequences it would have. They didn't look at all sides of Cinder's plan or all of the options they may have had to deal with it. Arrogance and the belief they could handle whatever came up had made them complacent.
Taking the White Fang out of the equation would have been helpful, but that alone would not have killed Cinder's plan. They were her disposable scapegoats, the ones to take the blame for the attack while she slipped in during the confusion and stole the rest of the Maiden's power. If they ultimately triumphed or failed it wouldn't truly matter. They weren't vital to the plan, but more of an enhancement to ramp up the despair and negativity and to reinforce and increase the disharmony and divide between Human and Faunus.
Without them, the level of negativity generated would be less, but not crippled. There would still be more than enough to draw large amounts of Grimm to do the job, and they were already part of the plan to start with. Taking Cinder out that night as she practised her weapon transformation ruse, she had deemed it a risk because they didn't know if she had a back up plan or not and they were still gathering information. It should have been glaringly obvious that with Cinder's own level of arrogance, it was highly unlikely that she even saw the need for a back up plan.
And if she did, and she was taken out, then who would have enacted it and why? She wouldn't have trusted execution of such a thing to her pawns Mercury and Emerald, and Neo would have just seen it as her opportunity to bail out. Since Cinder's prime objective was the remainder of the Maiden's power, then there was no feasible back up plan to be made if Cinder was out of the picture. It wasn't like someone else could have gone in and taken the rest of that power. It was a blatantly obvious case of 'acceptable risk' and she had not taken it.
The eradication of the virus had ensured that Ironwood's robotic soldiers wouldn't be turned against the people and make his kingdom look like an invading force, but by not shutting down this plan when they could have and should have, they had ensured that Atlas was still going to get a black eye out of this attack. It was a lot better than the alternative would have been, but it still didn't need to happen and she was willing to bet that they were going to have problems with Ironwood when they all got together to discuss the aftermath of this debacle they had produced. Atlas was still going to take heat over this.
The subtle arrogance of power had been brought about by nearly four hundred years of there being nothing that posed a threat to them and their abilities and power. Because of that, instead of being proactive to protect Beacon and Vale from a discovered threat, they had sat back waiting for the right moment, a moment that was never going to be the right moment. They had not adequately weighed all of the pros and cons.
The chance should have been taken when they had it, the odds of success would have been far higher and in their favour and they would not have had to spend thirty six hours clearing the campus and scouring the city for any remaining White Fang and Grimm. They would not have had to spend the time collecting the dead and wounded, visitors and students that had fallen in an attack they should have been able to stop before it started. They would not have had to see their own students hurt.
Her clenched fists tightened even more and she ground her teeth. What the hell was wrong with her? Had all of the breakdowns she'd undergone since they woke up in this world eroded her brain and robbed her of her ability to think tactically? How could she let the reality that nothing on this world really did pose a threat to them, become so embedded in her thinking, so embedded in her subconscious? Damn it! That was the exact type of thinking that had permeated nearly all of the noble families in the Soul Society and she had hated that with a passion and she hadn't even been able to see it.
They wanted to protect this world, to keep it from a fate like the worlds they had already lost. That's what they kept saying, but what they put into action had done more to help the enemy than stop them. They had gotten just full enough of themselves in their own power to become just arrogant enough to lose perspective. Nothing posed a threat to them, but what about everyone else!
Hindsight, was a merciless, conscience shredding bitch.
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't know that Ichigo had joined her until he pressed up against her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He ran his hands down her arms and wrapped them around her trembling fists. She sagged and lowered her head as the anger and tension rushed out of her like air from a popped balloon. Her fists uncurled and he intertwined his fingers with hers.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. He couldn't see the tears on her face for the water from the shower, but he could hear them in her voice. "I said a lot of things to you that I shouldn't have."
"No, you said everything that you should have and you were right," he told her. "You trained to handle situations like this and you put that training to use for a long time and you know how to think through these situations. Me, I have no training. I may have learned a lot from you over the years, but I am not a trained strategist or operative. I'm the blunt instrument that is used to jumping into the middle of things. My role is to be the devil's advocate, the untrained guy that suggests things from a different perspective." He smirked. "The guy that asks 'why can't we just bust in and break shit', and then we look at the situation and see if we can or not because sometimes that really is the right solution."
"Should have taken that suggestion," she said. "If we had just gone in and broke shit this wouldn't have happened."
"Except for the fact that I didn't do that this time," he said. "You said we were being arrogant and that made us complacent and you were right about that too. I was being arrogant in a way that is way too much like how I used to act. All fight and no plan, thinking that I'd find a way to make it work once I dove head first right into the middle of it or if things suddenly went sideways. Only this time instead of it being me that got hurt, it was a lot of other people. People like Blake, and Weiss and Ruby and Yang. Kind of ironic since for weeks we've been telling them and the others that doing it that way was the wrong way."
"We had the power and the ability to end this before it started," she said. "But instead we went with a plan that was more like what Ozpin and Ironwood would have been forced to go with because they didn't have that ability. We've got blood on our hands here. Blood that never should have been shed because we didn't look deeply enough at what we could have and ultimately should have done. We just assumed that we'd handle whatever happened, whenever it happened because we had the power to take on and beat anyone."
Still holding her hands, he brought his arms up and wrapped them around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Yeah, we do have blood on our hands, and unless we're going to go run off into the wilds and become nomads again, we have to stand and face that. Accept it and deal with it no matter how much it hurts or how long it hurts. We fucked up and we know we fucked up. We have to own it and make sure we never fuck up like that again."
"We said we were going to protect this world, but it shouldn't be us that it needs protection from," she sniffled.
"Yeah," he agreed, silent tears running from his eyes as well now. "Guess it goes to show that no matter how long we've been around and how much shit we've seen and done, even we still have a lot to learn. We're not gods and we aren't perfect. Far from it."
"As bad as this was I suppose it could always have been worse," she said. "Not that there's a hell of a lot of consolation to be taken from that."
"Maybe not," he said. "But it's true nonetheless. Now, why don't we get cleaned up and get some much needed sleep. We might not wake up feeling like new or like everything's suddenly okay, but we'll have to feel a lot better than we do now."
Around the Same Time: At the Hospital
Weiss thought she knew what it meant to feel helpless. She was the daughter of Jacques Schnee after all and while under his thumb there was very little that you could do that was outside of what he wanted or what he might allow. That however had nothing on the feeling of helplessness and despair she felt while injured, out of Aura, and seeing her partner, her best friend, up against the wall and with the point of Adam Taurus' sword at her throat.
She couldn't move no matter how hard she tried and she couldn't activate a glyph or any of the Dust in Myrtenaster. There was nothing she could do but watch helplessly as Taurus smirked at her, expecting her to choose the method by which Ruby would die, the method by which he would murder her.
"You seem to be having trouble deciding," Adam said, his tone mocking. "Let me help you with that."
She tried scream, to tell him to stop but no sound escaped her lips and with a flick of his wrist the tip of his sword cut through the artery on the right side of Ruby's neck. Blood sprayed from the younger girl's neck and her eyes, those unique and beautiful silver eyes, widened in pain and terror. Her hands reached for her neck to try and stop the flow of blood. She staggered forward and sunk to her knees as the rapid blood loss made her weak.
Why couldn't she move? No matter how hard she tried she could not move from where she stood. Why couldn't she speak? She could feel the effort as she cried and screamed and called out to Ruby, could feel her throat going raw, but not a sound could be heard. The look in Ruby's eyes became a pleading one, begging her to help her. She tried even harder to move. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest at the effort. It felt like it was going to burst... then it felt like a knife pierced it as the look in Ruby's eyes suddenly became accusatory as her life ebbed away.
Why? Why won't you help me? Why are you just watching me die?
Suddenly, everything before her lit up in a flash of white... and she lurched upright in her bed, her wounds throbbing at the strain of the sudden movement. Her breath was coming in great heaving gasps and tears were streaming from her eyes.
"...eiss! Wei...!" She thought she heard someone quietly but urgently calling her name but it was hard to tell over the pounding of her own pulse in her ears. She heard it again and quickly turned her head to the left, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head as she saw Ruby in the bed beside hers, looking at her with a great deal of concern. There was no blood. No pleading or accusing look... it took her a moment to realize where she was and how she had gotten there.
"Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby asked her.
She let out a long breath and sagged back against her pillows. "Yes... I... I had a nightmare. I'm sorry for waking you up."
"You didn't," the girl said softly, her tone understanding. "I just had one too." She had dreamt that she had arrived just a second too late, arriving just in time to see Weiss crumple to her knees as she tried in vain to hold her guts in.
Weiss took a moment to order her thoughts before speaking again. "Ruby... thank you. I know how inadequate that sounds but I can't seem to find a better way to put it. You saved my life and I am in your debt."
"I'd say we're even actually," Ruby chirped. "You did save me from that Deathstalker during our initiation remember?"
She'd actually forgotten about that. Even so, she still felt that she needed to find a better way to properly thank her. "I ran into him by accident and I tried to get away but he cut off my way out. I had no choice but to fight him and I kept trying to get away but I couldn't get past him or out of his range." She shuddered, recalling that helpless feeling. "You got hurt because I couldn't get away from an enemy I shouldn't have fought."
"I got hurt because I hesitated," Ruby countered. "If I hadn't I could have used my speed to grab you and get us both out of there."
"Even if you had gotten away, Adam would have followed," Blake spoke from across the room, startling them. "He wouldn't have given up until he caught you. Ever since I came to Beacon I was afraid that my past would catch up to me and cause problems. I never thought I would make friends with anyone here but I did... and I now I have to see two of my friends in the hospital because of it."
"Pretty sure you're not responsible for the choices he made," Yang said.
"Did I wake everyone up with my nightmare?" Weiss asked.
"I woke up when Ruby did," the blonde answered. "I usually do when she has a nightmare."
"I may not have been responsible for his choices," the Faunus continued. "But I wasn't able to move him in another direction either. I'm just glad the two of you survived him and that he won't be able to hurt anyone else."
"Needing to be saved twice in the span of a few minutes," Weiss mused. "That certainly drives home how far I have to go yet."
"Yeah," Yang sighed. "That does wonders for your sense of perspective. If not for JNPR, Blake and I wouldn't be here either."
"Well the best thing is that we are here," Ruby said. "We may be injured but we're still alive and we can learn from it."
"I'd rather the lessons not be quite so painful," Weiss grimaced. "But there's no denying how well they stick with you."
"And how well they make you listen afterwards," Yang added, remembering her own painful in class lesson with Yoruichi and Ichigo.
"I think we've done pretty well so far despite being in our first year," Ruby said. She glanced down slightly to where her wounds were covered beneath the sheets. "And despite where we ended up," she added a little more quietly.
"I certainly hope we're not going to start marking our progress by the number of hospital visits," Weiss huffed.
"It seems to work in the movies," Yang chirped.
"I don't think too many screenwriters have been through it themselves otherwise they wouldn't treat it so lightly," Blake added.
"That's not going to be a thing," Ruby said firmly. "Being in the hospital sucks."
"Hopefully it won't be a long stay," Yang said optimistically. "Thanks to the Aura boost you guys got from Ichigo and the one we got from Jaune we all got a head start on healing up."
"It's just so hard to believe that something like this actually happened," Weiss said. "If it wasn't for the very real wounds I would think that the whole thing was just a nightmare."
"Our nightmare and Adam's dream," Blake said, her tone still filled with remorse and self recrimination. "Cinder's plan was just the type of thing he wanted to do but hadn't been able to yet because of a lack of resources in weapons and transportation capability. With him, it became more about spilling human blood than about the cause. He seemed to revel in it."
"That was pretty clear through some of the things he said," Weiss said gravely.
"Like what?" Yang asked.
"That's... something I'd rather wait to talk about until it isn't quite so fresh and raw in my mind." Weiss answered. "I think the best way for us to deal with what happened is to talk about it and since we've all gotten so close since we started the advanced combat course, I think we should wait until we're all together and not in the hospital."
"I can imagine what he may have said and I'm sorry," Blake apologized, her gaze dropped to her clenched hands in her lap and her cat ears drooped.
"Still not your fault," Yang said. "Never was, never will be. We're really going to have to do something about your whole self blame thing. Maybe we need to hug it out of you." Yang went to get out of bed and jump her partner.
"Remember what happened the last time you tried to get out of bed?" Ruby reminded her.
She froze, then settled back in the bed again, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah, got dizzy and fell on my face."
Well, given the size of certain natural assets she didn't quite land on her face, but you get the idea.
"And the attending nurse threatened to tie you to the bed if you tried it again," Weiss smirked.
Yang turned her gaze to her snickering sister. "What are you laughing at squirt?" she asked through a crooked grin. "She threatened to sedate you if you didn't stop continuously pushing your Aura to your wounds. Like you are right now."
"Eeep!"
A light giggle came from their Faunus friend. It seemed that more and more the antics of her friends were able to penetrate the gloom she seemed so determined to surround herself with and let in some much needed light and warmth. She wasn't convinced that her feelings of guilt were misplaced, but she knew that she could not continue to wallow in them and give in and allow them to become her default mood. No, she couldn't let them continue to be her default mood. This had been going on too long and it was no way to live.
The mood lightened and they all relaxed and soon went back to sleep.
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