Author's Notes
le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP le BEEP
That's the new story alert! For some reason, it's French this time - I guess a little bit of France must have accidentally seeped in when I was cleaning it, and now the whole thing's going to be like that until it cools off! Anyways, on to the new story.
We've got action! We've got romance! We've got Freezerburn! We've even got Zwei! That's right, the epic ballad of DUST BITCH has finally arrived!
Yang didn't mean to run over that girl with her motorcycle, but can you really blame her when the young woman was lying face-down on a backroad in the middle of nowhere in Patch in the dead of night? Fortunately, Yang's unintended victim is a huntress and survived the hit, but now Yang owes her one. And in this case, one happens to mean helping Weiss Schnee avoid a trail of assassins and mercenaries dead set on stopping Weiss from traveling across half the world to get home.
Dust Bitch, the newest RatCrimes fanfiction story, will be posting this Wednesday. Be sure to give it the old gander!
Happy rats, and don't do crime!
Chapter 57 – Mutual Assurance
If nobody can lose, then everybody wins.
Blake had no idea if the councilman and his wife returned to the other survivors in disgrace, if he somehow turned the situation around to make Team Job sound like the villains, or if he just lingered in some room along the hallway while pretending he was participating in the battle, if it could even be called that.
Jaune propped her down in the snow outside against the exterior of the building before running off to join Velvet, who was armed with a longsword, in destroying the Grimm that the turrets didn't get to. The bleeding had stopped at that point, but Blake's aura was still fully devoted to repairing whatever internal damage she'd sustained during the Deathstalker's surprise attack.
She kept her hand on Gambol Shroud, ready to gun down any Grimm that crossed to close to the perimeter, but nothing was making it close so far.
Sitting down like a bitch sucks. I wish I'd let the Grimm snip that man in half instead of being reduced to this.
Blake shook her head and frowned. As much as she disliked the man, it was wrong to think that. That was a White Fang viewpoint.
Is it, though? He's willing to leave people behind to die. Is that murder? Would I be worse for wishing death on him? But he's not exactly innocent, and the people he wanted to abandon are.
Blake didn't have nearly enough red blood in her body to have this ethical debate with herself. For now, she was going to have to table it for later, in addition to the other moral qualms she had, like how she was starting to think of every evil thing in her life as a 'White Fang' thing to do.
Instead of getting hung up on all of that stuff, Blake just focused on not focusing on the pain in her chest and tried to not think about the life choices that had gotten her into this position.
And she failed.
It was a long line of choices that had led to Blake lying in the snow with a long scratch along her exposed chest, with a sex club to her back and a client inside who was never going to be giving them a red lien unless they pried it from his cold, dead hands.
Her time with Adam was something she'd gone over and over again in her head, to the point that there was really nothing left to regret there. He'd been using her, and she, in her childish naivety, had called it love. It was a desperation borne out of yearning for the storybook life that she'd read about that drove her to willingly blind herself to what was happening, and it would forever be her worst regret.
But it wasn't her only regret. No, Blake continued to make a string of bad choices that quite possibly built up to this very moment.
Going to Beacon and taking no precautions to prevent the administration from seeing her coming a mile away was easily the next. It was obvious in hindsight that they would recognize her, and the way she'd obliviously assumed she could sneak right in with no effort was cringe, plain and simple. If she could have just jumped straight into Team Job without ever having met Ozpin and Goodwitch, they would be blissfully unaware of her very existence.
And Team Job, was that even a smart choice? They'd briefly soared in financial wonder for a minute or two, but now they were neck deep in debt, working a job that wasn't going to get them the promised triple payday for a man who was barely worth saving. Had the Deathstalker's grip been a few PSI tighter, Blake might have bled to death for that prick.
Jaune and Velvet were fighting nobly in the defense of humanity, swords proudly raised, but Blake had been unceremoniously plopped down like a burden and left to shoot down the Grimm that weren't coming anywhere near her. In a complex where turrets could obliterate Grimm by the thousands, Blake and her sword-pistol weren't worth a solid damn right now.
From her spot on the ground, Blake could barely see a difference between Team Job and the hunters of Beacon. Both got to be the heroes, but Blake the Faunus was a poor little nobody who stayed on the sidelines.
It hurt. Blake hurt. Her body hurt, and her pride hurt.
Blake knew she was just being pissy because she was in an uncomfortable position (and she didn't mean how Jaune had placed her down), but it still hurt.
A fledgling Nevermore flew over the others and was too small to be caught by the turrets, which were currently occupied with a mass of Ursai. Blake sniped it out of the sky after missing two shots.
Wonderful.
Jaune was out there, the knight in shining armor from a proud family line, the human man who got to be the kingdom's hero, while Blake sat down here, the failed scion of a failed father who'd let down everyone in her life by how pathetic she was. It was no wonder that the sex-pest mayor guy went right to Jaune with his proposal…why everyone went right to Jaune.
Blake could have cried.
Fucking Jaune Arc, fucking asshole, who'd ruined her life by living the one she'd wanted. His noble cause, never getting to be a hunter but trying anyways, was far greater than hers, being a terrorist because she wanted to impress her mother/sister figure Sienna.
This was how it felt, she realized after a minute or two of taking down the aerial Grimm. How he must've felt, on our first mission. Alone, watching from the sidelines as death inched nearer.
She'd left him to die. She'd been prepared to end a life because she wanted his cut of the pie.
The councilman inside the building was scum, and Jaune Arc was a perpetual reminder of the fact that she was no better when it came to it. Maybe it was her lowest moment, but it was proof that she too would buckle under pressure. Blake was with him all the way whenever it was easy, but his life had nearly been forfeit when things were tough.
And it's not like everyone is secretly bad underneath all of those layers. Now that I'm helpless and injured, he (and Velvet) have put themselves in the path of harm to protect me and the lodge's residents. They face hordes of Grimm while I get to heal up and take it easy.
Just once, Blake wished that she could have a chance to be the one who got to sacrifice. She wished that she could be the victim who was trapped by the squid Grimm or kidnapped by the teleporting huntsman or had to hold off the army of Grimm while Jaune or Velvet remained in safety.
B̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶'̶d̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶p̶l̶e̶n̶t̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶o̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶u̶n̶i̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶.̶ ̶ ̶S̶h̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶i̶z̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶.̶ ̶ ̶B̶l̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶B̶e̶l̶l̶a̶d̶o̶n̶n̶a̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶w̶a̶r̶d̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶e̶y̶ ̶c̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶f̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶p̶o̶o̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶d̶o̶w̶.̶
Gambol Shroud unleashed the rest of its magazine into a Gryphon that threatened to fly into the resort, leaving Blake fully and completely powerless.
There were aerial Grimm still swarming around. Without ammunition, how was Blake supposed to…to…
Maybe this was one of those moments, where Blake got to sacrifice. Maybe it could be, if she just chose to let it be one.
Blake couldn't stand because of the pain, but that didn't mean she couldn't crawl. The snow left her fingers numb as she dug holds into it and slowly and pathetically wriggled toward the undefended main hall of the resort. It took great effort to do, and it was probably doing some sort of lasting damage to her partially healed internal organs, but wasn't that the definition of a sacrifice? Blake always played it safe, but if she wanted to be the hero she resented Jaune for being, she was going to have to give something up.
Her legs still refused to give her anything, but when a mid-sized Nevermore swooped down to gore her with its beak, she chucked Gambol Shroud and cleaved it clean in two. The ribbon of her weapon pulled it back to her, and Blake grinned in spite of the pain.
The next Grimm that came her way was too fast for Blake's addled senses, and it snapped the sword with its beak midair and tried to carry it away. Blake held tight to her ribbon with one hand and let it drag her until she hit the paved floor of the inside of the building. Then, she began to reel it back in towards herself.
Another Nevermore announced its presence with a caw, and Blake decided that if it was so eager to join the party, it should at least have a dance partner. Twirling the ribbon midair, she flung the captive Grimm right into the other and pulled them down until they smashed onto the floor next to her. One was instantly crushed by the other, and the survivor was too mangled to fly again. Blake crawled over to it, caught it by its legs, and tore them both down the middle.
I may not be a huntress like Velvet or a hero like Jaune, but I'm not useless. I won't give up, not until every damn person back in that lodge is evacuated to safety. To hell with the consequences – if I break every bone in my body, I'm still not backing down. Not today, not again!
Blake's eyes were skyward, so she was the first to see the second airship rolling above in the sky. The few aerial Grimm that remained were too focused on the terrified folks still on the ground to even care about it, though the same went for the rest of the humans and Faunus here.
"Jaune! Velvet!" Blake cried, trying to reach their attention over the steady thrum of the turrets and roars of the Grimm. "GUYS!"
It wasn't loud enough, and it was only a matter of time before the Grimm saw them.
Blake reeled Gambol Shroud towards herself again and hurled it towards Jaune, hoping that it might clip his shoulder and draw his attention to her, at which point she could wave upwards or somehow indicate that their ride had pulled into a parking spot.
Gambol didn't reach him.
Damn it! And Velvet's even further!
Both of them were cutting down the Grimm one by one with their blades, and Blake couldn't help but notice how the buzzing of the turrets was far softer now. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that only about a third of them were even doing anything. The rest continued to spin, but their supplies of ammo had been completely drained.
Her legs were still too frail, or maybe it was her core, but either way, Blake couldn't stand. Her throwing arm was about ten meters short.
Crawling it is, I guess.
If Blake had had the foresight to spare a single bullet, just in case, she could have avoided this whole thing. But then again, just one bullet spared would've meant just one more Grimm sneaking through their lines and flying down the hallway and massacring the people they'd come here to protect. Every action taken, ever choice made in the heat of battle, was a trade-off to some extent.
She didn't need to drag herself through the snow all the way to Jaune; in fact, if she got that close to the active combat, it would probably get her killed. Only two turrets were still firing after all this time. No, Blake was solely focused on getting close enough to throw Gambol towards Jaune and grab his attention.
After a tense two minutes of pulling herself by the strength of her fingers and elbows alone, Blake finally decided she was close enough. Mustering up every last drop of strength in her body, she flung her sword in Jaune's direction.
At the last second, he lunged towards a Deathstalker (Blake's new least favorite Grimm species) that Velvet was cutting up, and Gambol flew right past him.
"No," Blake rasped.
The Deathstalker slammed its tail into Jaune's shield, and he was sent flying backwards. Velvet managed to skewer it through the eyes with her Hard Light rapier.
Picking himself up, Jaune tripped over Gambol Shroud on his first step. Looking down at what had caught his foot, he saw the familiar weapon, and his eyes turned back towards the resort – the same direction as Blake. Their eyes locked, and she thrust her arm upwards.
I take it back, Deathstalkers. I love you guys.
Jaune followed her pointed finger upwards to the airship, and he shouted to Velvet for her attention. Her rapier converted back into the old minigun, a classic, and she began to clear out the Grimm in far greater numbers, likely in preparation for their imminent evacuation.
Jaune himself raced over to Blake, picked her up, and began to run back towards the lodge.
"You'll move faster if you put me down," Blake said.
"Yeah, but you look like S-word, and I don't think you're in any condition to defend yourself," he said back.
Damn this man. Today had been her epic moment of nobly throwing down her own life, and he still had to one-up her by being even more righteous and heroic.
He carried her all the way from the burst open door to the end of the corridor before setting her down. This time, the narrow hallway that led to the panic room was full of Grimm that had snuck past Blake and lodged their way into the crevice.
Many of them snarled at the security consultants' arrival, but their frantic desire to get to the tasty people on the other side of the narrow space had gotten them stuck, and Jaune cut them down like fish in a barrel.
"Let's go!" he shouted to the people within. "Evac's outside! We need to move now!"
Jaune went to pick Blake back up, but one of the prostitutes intervened before he could.
"We need you to fight, huntsman! I can carry her."
Jaune nodded and let them. Blake imagined that he might've objected had it been the councilman or his wife, as foul play might've been involved, but anyone else was fair game, and she would be a hindrance to his sword hand.
In the end, it actually took two hookers to fully support Blake. When the large group of people arrived outside, all of the turrets were run dry. Velvet was still pushing the remaining packs back, but Benson's airship had landed in the space she'd cleared.
Jaune raced over to join her, but he stopped midway when an Ursa tried to charge the airship and began to combat it.
"Everyone get one, now!" Blake insisted. She may have been reduced to a burden, but she was still the only one out here with any semblance of leadership skills (present councilmembers included), and that meant she was the one to call the shots.
The door to the airship slid open, and Benson reached a hand down to Blake. "Damn, you kids are really moving up in this world."
She had no idea if he was being sarcastic or genuine, but she batted his hand away, nonetheless. "Get everyone else on first."
In this case, it wasn't actually about proving something but about making the most logical choice. Barely ambulatory though she was, Blake still had aura, and she might still have some use in the fight. Jaune had returned Gambol to her, and she could still swing it.
Plus, my presence on that airship would probably attract ten times as many Grimm.
"I can fit about forty folks," Benson said, pulling the nearest hooker up by the hand into his ship's cabin. "Assuming people don't mind standing."
"Just get them in there," Blake hissed. "And take off as soon as you're full!"
In the end, it was the physical limitation of how many people could be crammed into back of the ship that forced them to stop, not the weight load. Still, that ended up leaving only three people on the ground, and the Job Hunter could probably handle that many.
Jaune had come back to help them load up further after fending off the Grimm that got too close. When he did, he grabbed Councilman Virgil by the shirt on his chest and pulled him off with but one hand.
"Oh no you don't," Jaune said. "Not you."
"W-What?"
Blake was about to intervene when Jaune pointed over to their own airship, which stood a few hundred meters away. "You didn't want to be seen with the commoners? Well, your wish has come true, sir."
He stuttered for a few seconds, unsure of this was intended to be a punishment or act of kindness before realizing that it didn't matter either way. Blake may have been the one calling the shots up until now, but Jaune's return meant that that role had fallen to him. Whether or not the councilman wanted it (or Blake), Jaune's demands would be met.
The three, now four, remaining civilians and two security consultants watched the airship lift off into the sky for a few seconds before deciding that their time would be better spent getting aboard the Job Hunter. Velvet's Dust supply had run out entirely, and she was now using one of the barrels of the turrets that she'd torn off as a dagger to stab at Grimm.
"Load up," Jaune commanded, and the people obeyed.
Benson's airship was already flying off into the horizon by the time they made it to the Job Hunter, and after depositing her in the copilot's seat, Jaune began the liftoff sequence.
"We'll stay low and pick up Velvet on the way," he said. "We don't have a ladder, so I'm gonna ask you to lower the ribbon of Gambol and hoist her up. Can you do that?"
Blake nodded. At this point, she probably couldn't, but if she tied the ribbon to her chair and dropped the sword out the window, it would work just as well. Jaune didn't care for the specifics; he just needed to know that she could make it work.
"Isn't your flying license a learner's permit?" Blake asked as they rose off the ground with a grinding whirr of engines that were bogged down by more people than they were meant to carry.
"No time for humility," Jaune grunted. "I memorized the flying handbook and aced professional simulators. I'm probably as good as a pro."
He maneuvered them to where Velvet was fighting on the ground and nodded at Blake. She had already tied the ribbon and merely tossed the other end of her sword down towards the snowy ground.
It would've been impossible for Velvet to not have noticed their presence at this point, and she immediately dropped her makeshift weapons and began to climb up the ribbon as soon as it was lowered her way. Jaune tilted the airship to avoid a charging Gryphon, causing Velvet to swing back and forth like a pendulum for a few seconds, and then they rose up into the sky.
Whatever avian Grimm tried to give chase were easily dispatched when Velvet began to swing the rope beneath her like a lasso and skewered them with the hook on the other end.
I sometimes forget that she instinctively knows how to use my weapon exactly as well as I do. It's almost a bit scary at times, just how tough she is.
Velvet had killed more Grimm today that Blake had probably killed in her entire lifetime, and now she was crawling up the robe towards the airship like it was nothing.
Beacon really does churn out a different breed of monsters, don't they?
It would have been impossible for Jaune and Velvet to switch seats midflight, so he piloted them the rest of the way home. Blake, her self-actualizing ordeal now done, tried her best to recover from the Deathstalker-inflicted wounds in her seat as they headed back home.
"We can fly you directly to a hospital," Jaune offered.
"No need," Blake said. "I only got hit because my aura was down. Downside's that the attack goes through, but it's balanced by the fact that it didn't break. I'm healing up at a breakneck pace since I'm green and able to pour it into sealing the cut."
"Alright. In that case, can you take out your scroll and look up the most secluded airship landing bay? I'm talking about lowest rated, 1 star, zero foot traffic."
Blake knew that the passengers in the back couldn't hear them, but she couldn't resist looking over her shoulder at the councilman anyways. "You know he won't pay us. Buttering him up is a waste of time."
"Yes, but if we publicly announce he's a whoremonger and drop him off next to whatever Benson landed, he'll have nothing holding him back from taking revenge. This way, his secret's at least safe. Should he try to destroy us or outright outlaw security consultants, someone might ask what his interest in the matter is, meaning that everyone now has something to lose from that outcome."
It sounded a lot like blackmail to Blake.
"It's not," Jaune said, addressing the obvious before she even needed to ask it. "We aren't asking him to do anything, nor are we threatening to reveal sensitive information. It's just ensuring that everyone has a stake in keeping this whole thing buried." Jaune sucked in his lips awkwardly. "I mean, we will have a nuclear option of going public, but I don't think we're even gonna need to mention it."
"Instead, we just let him infer it." Blake slumped down in her seat. "Not bad, Arc. You know, you might've done well in my previous place of employ."
"I…is that a compliment?"
Blake, herself, wasn't entirely sure.
Mission Complete: [Redacted]
Client Review: Horrible. Do not hire. [0/5 stars]
Current Holdings (lien): Ⱡ 17,295
Current Debt (lien): Ⱡ 50,000 at 20% compound monthly (5 days)
Current Holdings (assets): Job Hunter airship, 10 handcuffs, 3 taser stun guns, long range tracker and console, tent, 3 binoculars, basket of disguises
Current Holdings (realty): Team Job office (Vale branch)
Employees: 3
Coming Soon: Oh for Two
With their track record starting to reflect as many losses as they have wins, Team Job must find a new client…or d̶i̶e̶ be poor!
Author's Notes
Blake's perspective is written from real life experience. The pain part and cursing Jaune, that is, not her grappling with her own morality, that is. When I stub my toe, I'm often moments away from cursing everyone I know and love in a fit of rage.
Team Job suffers yet another moral victory and financial loss. So much for triple pay pulling them out of their debt in a quick manner. Fortunately, Jaune's quick thinking is enough to prevent them from acquiring yet another enemy in a high place on the council. They really do like swimming with the sharks covered in seal blubber, don't they?
Happy rats, and don't do crime!