Black and White
Sunset frowned. "Are you… playing video games?"
Ruby's thumbs moved quickly across the screen of her scroll, tapping the surface lightly. "Yep."
Sunset threw up her hands in exasperation. "But… we're supposed to be on a mission! We are on a mission! The enemy might arrive at any moment!"
"But they're not here yet," Ruby pointed out.
"I know that, but…" Sunset clenched her jaw. "You're the one who wanted to stop these robberies; the least you could do is take it seriously!"
"I will take it seriously, once the bad guys show up," Ruby assured her. She looked up. "You don't like this, do you?"
Sunset's tail twitched. "Honestly, this feels like another 'ten out of ten for guts, five out of ten for sense' situation," she answered. "Actually, it's not even five out of ten for sense. Three out of ten, maybe. Only this time, the three of you have all been dragged into it too."
They were at the northern edge of the docks, taking cover behind a stack of SDC-branded shipping containers – handily colour-coded, in case anyone only wanted to steal fire dust or the like – while they waited for something to happen if it was going to. Pyrrha, Jaune, and Yang – Ruby's sister had joined them during the day and agreed to join this plan, though she thought it was almost as mad as Sunset did, and was compensating for Jaune's lack of a ranged weapon - were at the southern side of the dock, while Blake and Sun were to the west. If the White Fang arrived, they would catch the group from all three landward-facing sides.
That was the plan, anyway, and it was a plan that meant that the White Fang – if it was them, if they showed up – would have a hard time getting away overland once the trap was sprung. On the other hand, if they came by sea – if they had a boat of their own, say – then they would have an easy escape that way. Worse – and this was really making Sunset's hands itch – there was a chance that the enemy might run into any of the waiting pairs as they were entering the dock, and that might lead to some real problems.
Ruby put her scroll down. "Sunset… I get it. I've thought about what you were trying to tell me about the training mission, and I get it now. I didn't get it, because I was too annoyed that you and Pyrrha were treating me like a kid," she added, putting her hands on her hips. "But I get it."
"Do you?" Sunset asked. "So what do you get?"
"That it didn't matter if you and Yang and Weiss had failed to kill the apex alpha grimm," Ruby replied. "Because even if the whole horde had reached the defence lines, then the huntsmen and the Defence Forces and the Royal Navy would have stopped them before the grimm hurt anybody. What the other students did wasn't as smart, but it was the right call."
"'But'?" Sunset said, because she knew with absolute certainty that there was a but coming.
"But if that hadn't been the case, if there had been a village in the path of the horde, if this hadn't been a training mission but the real thing, then… then it would have been worth all of your lives to stop the horde. I'm not saying that because I want you to die but because… because some things are worth dying for," Ruby insisted. "And it's the same thing here; this isn't a training mission, this is real."
"And you really think that this is worth our lives?" Sunset replied. "This… dust? Money in the pocket of Weiss's father?"
"Weapons in the hands of the White Fang," Ruby pointed out. "We're still protecting the innocent, just… indirectly. Isn't that what we signed up for?"
"I signed up because I wanted to be famous," Sunset muttered.
"Well, then think how famous you'll be once we foil a massive dust robbery and catch the guys that nobody in the police could stop," Ruby countered cheerily.
Sunset snorted. "Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For not telling me that I'm a selfish jackass with the wrong motivations," Sunset replied.
"We've all got our reasons; the important thing is that we all do the right thing now that we're here," Ruby said. She fell silent for a moment, and the croaking of a corvid could be heard echoing across the night sky.
Ruby glanced towards the sound for a moment, before focussing her attention upon Sunset. She smiled. "Also, cheer up and try not to worry so much. Nobody's actually going to die today. So long as we all work together, we'll get through this and stop the bad guys for sure."
Sunset grinned. "Yeah, sure we will. So long as we work together." So long as the enemy gives us the chance to work together. "Hey, Ruby?"
"Yeah?"
"When all this is over, I'm going back to the dorm room, and I'm going to sleep until Monday morning," Sunset declared. "So don't wake me, okay?"
Ruby giggled. "I won't."
Sunset looked up. The sky was dark, and for all that it was getting dark pretty early nowadays, that didn't mean that they weren't well into night by now. It wasn't snowing, which was a good thing, and the moon – the clouds having cleared away – offered up a little light to see by, but nevertheless, it was dark and late.
The night air was quiet; not many people were about in this part of town at this hour, the workers at the docks having departed for home hours ago.
But then, the quiet of the air was disturbed by the whine of an engine, by the whining sound of many engines, the engines of the flock of Bullheads that flew over the dock from the east, sweeping their searchlights – two in the nose of each airship – over the deserted docks, the white beams passing over the containers of dust.
Some of the Bullheads hovered in the air; others continued to circle around the dockyard; some began to descend for a landing at the large, open eastern side of the dock where no containers had been placed.
The doors of the descending Bullheads, and of those airships hovering in place around the containers, opened up. Warriors began to disembark, warriors in black and white, armed with blades and axes and boxy Valish assault rifles, descending to the ground and beginning to spread out across the dock.
Many of them had faunus features visible, rabbit or pony or feline ears sticking out from holes in their black hoods, tails coming out of their pants; sometimes both. One man who did not have any visible faunus features was the man in the white suit who descended from one of the Bullheads, trifling with his cane as she strode down onto the dock.
"Roman Torchwick," Ruby hissed as she and Sunset peered around the edge of the shipping container.
"We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves right now, so why don't you animals try picking up the pace a little?" he demanded.
Sunset took a deep breath. "Okay. Stick to the plan: we'll open fire to signal-"
"Brothers and sisters of the White Fang!" Blake's voice echoed across the dockyard.
"Or we could announce ourselves, I guess," Sunset muttered, resisting the urge to smack herself in the head.
Blake hadn't wanted to believe it. She had not thought that Tukson would lie to her, but at the same time, she hadn't wanted to believe that the White Fang were behind this. She hadn't wanted to believe that they would sink so low.
Apparently, she had underestimated the extent to which her old comrades could descend.
"It's them, huh?" Sun asked softly.
Blake closed her eyes to block out the sight of the white grimm masks, the black hoods, the bloody wolf's-head emblem on the white jackets of the warriors. "Yes," she murmured. "It's them… but why are they doing this?" She opened her eyes and shook her head. It didn't matter why, not right now. Or at least, she could guess at the general reasons well enough to not have to worry about the specific ones. She could hear Adam's voice in her head, talking about the need to make humanity pay, to strike back, to make an impression that could not be ignored.
"We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try picking up the pace a little?"
Blake's eyes widened. Her ears pricked up. Who was addressing the White Fang that way? It wasn't a voice she recognised; it didn't belong to Walter or Perry or Cotton or Gilda or anyone else whom Blake might have expected to be leading this raid in Adam's absence. Nor would anyone who had spent any amount of time with Adam still talk that way. In fact, she couldn't imagine anyone in the White Fang who talked that way.
The voice belonged to a human, a human whom Blake recognised from police reports: Roman Torchwick, one of the most notorious criminals in Vale, last seen attempting to rob a dust shop.
But what was he doing working with the White Fang? Or rather, what was the White Fang doing working with him? Had they truly fallen so far from the ideals of the movement that they would ally with a common thief to… to do what? To simply get rich?
Blake had rejected the extremism of the movement, but she still believed in the ideals that inspired it, that motivated it. She had left the White Fang because she wasn't willing to get so much blood on her hands, but what of the stains that were already there? She had fought, bled, killed, comforted others after they had killed, and all for what? For criminality? Was the White Fang nothing more than another gang?
As Blake thought this, she was moving, darting around the containers, leaving Sun behind, dashing out of cover and into the open space on the northern side of the docks to grab Roman Torchwick by the neck and put Gambol Shroud to his throat.
"Brothers and sisters of the White Fang!" she cried. "Why are you aiding this scum?"
The warriors of the White Fang stared at her, all of them turning towards her, guns trained on her, blades pointed towards her. Some, able to see her feline ears, did so less readily than others. None answered her.
"Blake?"
Blake's eyes flickered to her right. Perry stood there, lean and wiry, the moonlight glinting off his round spectacles, his katana gleaming like a streak of silver.
"Perry," she murmured. "It's been a while."
"Not long enough, some would say," this voice was deeper by far. Walter's voice.
The sound of shuffling footsteps alerted Blake to certain of the White Fang moving towards her, pushing through the ranks of their fellows. Walter, as large as a bear and corded with muscle, his face wholly concealed behind a mask; Cotton, her rabbit ears emerging from beneath her hood, wearing a pink cape over her white jacket; Skoll, his lupine tail shaking eagerly back and forth; Billie, who wore horns on her mask like Ilia. Not the discontented old guard that Tukson had spoken of, these were Adam's men, his officers. The size of this operation was apparent simply by the number of fighters involved, but the importance of it was clear by their presence.
"So, the gang is almost all here," Blake muttered. "Is Gilda going to leap out behind me?"
"I wish someone would," Torchwick growled.
"Quiet," Blake snarled.
"Gilda drew the short straw," Perry explained. "Someone has to stay behind and keep an eye on the shop."
"But what are the rest of you doing here?" Blake cried. "Why are you working with a common criminal, and a human criminal at that? A man who despises you?"
"Why are you holding a blade to his throat when you should be leading us?" Skoll demanded gruffly.
"I'm here to stop you," Blake said.
"Why?" asked Cotton. "For Vale's lien?"
"Because it's the right thing to do," Blake snapped. "How many people are you going to hurt with all this dust?"
"None who do not deserve to be harmed."
Blake shivered, despite herself. That voice had not come from Walter or Perry, nor from Skoll or Cotton or Billie either. He was here. She should have known that he would be here. She should have known that he would be here from the moment she spoke with Tukson.
Perhaps a part of her had known. Perhaps a part of her had wanted this, even as the rest of her dreaded it.
Adam strode out of the shadows. The Sword of the Faunus was tall, as tall as Cardin Winchester, and though he was not as broad in the shoulders, he carried himself with an air of strength that Cardin lacked. The smell of death clung to him like perfume. His mask was lined with streaks as red as blood, as though he had sliced a man's belly open and never bothered to clear up the splatter. For the rest, he was garbed all in black, even his hands concealed behind a pair of gloves. Black too, the scabbard of the sword he wore at his hip, though Blake knew well the blade beneath was crimson.
Adam Taurus, the White Fang's Lord of Battles, their champion and their great hope, Captain of the Vale Chapter… and the captain of Blake's heart, upon a time that seemed at once so near and yet so long ago.
He stopped about ten feet from her. Though his mask concealed his eyes – his good eye, and the one the SDC had ruined beyond repair – she could feel his stare upon her. She fought back against the urge of shiver in fear, as she had done when his black moods were on him.
"You should not have come here, Blake," he said, in a voice so gentle that it reminded her of when he had courted her, and she had thought him the most gallant of men. "This is no place for you."
"I had no choice," Blake declared.
"I suppose you thought not," Adam replied. "You could never stand idle, could you, Blake? That's one of the things I liked about you." He smiled, a smile that cut like a knife. "Kill the human, if you wish; I have no need of him."
"Hey!" Torchwick exclaimed.
"Isn't he your partner?" Blake demanded.
"My partner is the one who engaged his services," Adam said. "They find him amusing. But I doubt they would lose much sleep if he were to fall in battle."
"What's going on, Adam?" Blake asked. "Why do you need so much dust, why are you recruiting an army, why are you working with humans?"
"The world is changing, Blake," Adam declared. "The old ways of fighting are not enough, if they ever were. The world is changing, and much that seemed permanent and everlasting will be swept aside. I won't let the faunus or the White Fang be among them."
"'Swept aside'?" Blake repeated. "Adam… you're talking about-"
"Our oppressors," Adam said. "As I said, none will be harmed but those who deserve to be harmed."
The resonance of her own words to Rainbow Dash were bitter in Blake's memory. She thought of the tears in the Atlesian girl's eyes, the anger in her voice. "Children?" Blake asked. "Innocent-"
"Amongst those who profit from our oppression, there can be no innocents!" Adam roared, spittle flying from his mouth as his rage erupted from beneath his calm exterior. "Nor any neutrality when bigotry is the state of things!" He calmed himself with a visible effort, an effort that did not prevent his hands from shaking. “Blake,” he growled. “I give you one last chance: come with me. Rejoin your family, in the place where you belong.”
Blake shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
For a moment, Adam was still and silent. “Very well,” he growled as he placed a quivering hand upon the hilt of Wilt. “Then you will suffer the fate of all traitors.”
He drew his sword, the red blade shining.
There was the sharp crack of a rifle before a faunus of the White Fang dropped, aura broken but otherwise unharmed, like a sack of flour upon the concrete of the docks. There was another bang, a deeper, booming sound, and another of Adam’s fighters was thrown across the yard.
Blake looked in the direction of the shots, looking north to where Sunset and Ruby had emerged from cover and were letting loose into the confused and chaotic mass of the White Fang. Pyrrha’s rifle and Yang’s gauntlets joined the fusillade as they, drawn by the sound of shooting, lent their weapons to the assault from the south.
There was a flash, and another bang much closer to home as Torchwick fired his cane – his cane was a gun? – down at their feet. Blake felt the heat pass over her, felt a slice of her aura torn away as she was tossed sideways, rolling to a crouch, Gambol Shroud still in her hands. She saw Torchwick picking himself up not far away.
“Leave her!” Adam bellowed. “Hunt the rest down from the skies, but Blake is mine!”
Sunset’s eyes widened as the bull in black drew a tall, blood red sword from out of his scabbard.
“Let ‘em have it, Ruby!” she yelled. She’d been willing to let things play out while it seemed as though Blake might have things under control – if she’d been White Fang, maybe she could talk them down or something; maybe she could talk them into their cells – but the guy drawing his sword had made it abundantly clear that she had lost whatever control she had possessed. There was neither need nor incentive to delay. Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and opened fire. Her rifle cracked as fire exploded from the muzzle, and her target fell.
Ruby planted Crescent Rose into the ground, the scythe blade digging into the tarmac to act as a monopod. She, too, began to fire, tossing fighters of the White Fang backwards as her shots found their mark. The White Fang began to scatter in confusion, some throwing themselves to the ground, some darting for their Bullheads, others running this way and that as the shock of the ambush – a shock doubled once Pyrrha and Yang opened up on them from the other side.
Sunset spotted a big faunus with a chainsaw trying to restore order amongst the White Fang; she shot him, but his aura was tougher than the others, and her bullet barely seemed to faze him at all.
There was an explosion, and both Blake and Torchwick were thrown aside. The fellow with the red sword – the leader of the White Fang, clearly – brandished it wildly above his head.
Sunset took aim at him and fired.
He turned and deflected her shot aside with a swipe of his blade.
She could see the smirk on his face from here.
Cheek.
Before she could do much more than take umbrage at the nerve of him to be so skilled, Sunset was distracted by the fact that some of the White Fang had gotten themselves organised enough to return fire, the yellow tracer rounds spitting from their boxy rifles in her and Ruby’s direction. Sunset threw out one hand, the green glow of magic engulfing it as she projected a shield in front of them against which the bullets slammed. Sunset could feel the echo of the impact reverberating through her arm.
“I think we need to move,” Sunset muttered.
The sound of engine whine caused Sunset to look to the left. “Sunset!” she cried, aiming left and up. Crescent Rose barked once, then twice as Ruby opened fire on the pair of Bullheads bearing down upon them, but even the high-calibre sniper rifle did nothing against the skin of the airships.
Sunset threw out her other hand, conjuring a second shield to their left as the Bullheads each opened fire with a pair of machine guns mounted in the nose.
So many airships, and with guns on them? How did a terrorist group get their hands on all this stuff?
“We really need to move,” Sunset declared, watching as one of the Bullheads flew straight into a drone that happened to be passing overhead. The larger airship smashed the smaller machine to pieces and continued on as though it wasn’t even there. Her shield wavered from the impact of the heavy bullets. “Hold on, Ruby!”
“Wha-?” Ruby didn’t have time to finish as Sunset dropped both shields, grabbed Ruby by the waist, and teleported away.
They reappeared only a short distance away, concealed from the airships – for now – by the labyrinthine corridors formed by the haphazard stacking of the dust containers. They were still on the north side of the dockyard, and they could hear the Bullhead engines as the White Fang airships kept up their search.
And they could hear the guns firing elsewhere in the dock.
“Jaune,” Ruby murmured. “Pyrrha, Yang.”
“Yeah,” Sunset muttered, snapping Sol Invictus open so she could reload.
“We need to help them,” Ruby cried.
“We need to reload and come up with a…” Sunset stopped as she abruptly realised where they were.
Thank you, Mister Schnee.
This, Pyrrha thought, is not going precisely to plan.
It had started off reasonably enough. Sunset had given the signal by her fire, Pyrrha and Yang had emerged from out of cover to catch the White Fang – there were an awful lot of them, more than Blake had thought would be there – in a crossfire.
And then the Bullheads had started shooting back.
Pyrrha wasn’t an expert on the White Fang, but she was reasonably sure that none of the news reports of their activities in Mistral had involved such large scale air cover. That was supposed to be Atlas’s department.
Bullets slammed into the side of the dust container just behind them. Pyrrha leapt, and as she leapt, she turned and snapped off a shot at one of those that were shooting at her, getting her man before her feet touched the ground and she started running again. Yang stopped, shots bursting from her gauntlets as she let fly at the pursuing Bullheads, but she might as well have been spitting at them for all the good that it did.
Pyrrha contemplated trying to rip them out of the sky with her semblance, but unfortunately, while she was dealing with one, the other would have emptied its rounds into her, which was to say nothing of the White Fang fighters who, conversely, she possibly could have dealt with it if it weren’t for the airships.
“Split up!” Yang yelled, turning to the right and darting into the maze of containers. One Bullhead broke off to pursue her, two more kept on the trail of Pyrrha and Jaune, who was running in front of her.
Bullets thudded into the concrete behind her, but Pyrrha was just a step ahead of them, her feet pounding as they drove her forwards.
Jaune tripped in front of her and went sprawling on the ground. Pyrrha stopped, turning at by like a bear defending her cub, and as the Bullheads bore down upon her, Pyrrha called upon her semblance.
Pyrrha’s free hand became wreathed with black outline as she called upon Polarity, the power of magnetism which she kept hidden from the world – hidden even from her own teammates – and projected it out towards the nose of the lead Bullhead.
She didn’t do much. She didn’t tear the airship from the sky any more than she tore the weapons out of the hands of her opponents in the arena. Rather, just as in the arena, she gave the airship a little nudge.
The nose of the Bullhead was thrown off course, bullets missing Jaune and Pyrrha wildly as the airship jerked, forcing its fellow following just behind to swerve to avoid a collision – which they didn’t quite avoid in any case, the two airships bumping into each other with a solid metallic thump.
Pyrrha turned her back on them as they recovered themselves, grabbing Jaune by the arm and pulling him to his feet, half-leading and half-dragging him along as they took cover amongst the shipping containers.
Twilight squeaked in alarm as the camera feed from her drone went black.
“Twilight?” Flash asked anxiously. “What’s going on?”
“I found Blake… and lost a drone,” Twilight muttered, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she vectored in several more drones towards the scene of the action. She tapped her earpiece once. “Rainbow Dash, I’ve found them!”
“Great job, Twi… wait, what do you mean you’ve found ‘them’? Who are ‘them’?”
“Blake and Team Sapphire,” Twilight replied. “They’re at the docks, fighting the White Fang.”
“You mean Blake brought the White Fang, and they’re fighting Team Sapphire?”
“No, I mean it looks as though Blake is fighting the White Fang alongside Team Sapphire,” Twilight clarified.
“But…” Rainbow muttered. “Blake is the White Fang! What’s going on over there?”
“How should I know?” snapped Twilight. She took a deep breath. “Sorry, I just…”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t,” Twilight replied. “Or at least it might not be. I lost my drone over the docks, but before it got taken out… Rainbow Dash, the White Fang are present in strength. Like, Canterlot Wedding strength. And they have a large number of Bullheads in the air too. They’ve got Team Sapphire on the run.”
“Bullheads? Air support?” Rainbow said. “Vale,” she huffed. “Don’t worry, Twi, we’ll show them the real meaning of air support. Get some more drones overhead, keep me posted, don’t activate combat protocols until we arrive.”
“Understood,” Twilight said. “Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful out there,” Twilight murmured. “I don’t know what I’d… what I’d say to the girls if anything happened to you.”
For a moment, the only sound that Twilight could hear was Rainbow’s footsteps hammering on the pavement. “Don’t worry, Twilight, this isn’t going to be like last time. We’re armed, we’re ready for them, and we’ve got a guardian angel watching over us. I’ll be fine.”
“I believe you,” Twilight whispered. “Good luck out there. Good luck to all of you.”
“Copy that. Dash out.”
Twilight tapped her earpiece, ending the connection... though, of course, Rainbow could reactivate it from her end at any time. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again as she got back to work, redirecting her drones to descend upon the dockyard and get some eyes on the fighting there.
“What would Team Sapphire be doing at the docks?” Weiss asked. “And fighting the White Fang?”
“From what I saw, there were a lot of SDC containers down at the yard,” Twilight said. “Maybe they were trying to stop the White Fang from robbing them?”
“That’s not their job,” Flash muttered.
“They appear to have made it their job,” Twilight replied.
Flash groaned. “Sunset, why do you always have to be so reckless?” he asked rhetorically. He paced up and down, turning rapidly upon his toes. “Twilight, how bad is it down there?”
“Pretty bad,” Twilight admitted. “If the White Fang didn’t have air support, that would be one thing, but as it is, there doesn’t seem to be any way that-”
“I’m sorry, I have to go,” Flash said, walking towards the door.
“Wait!” Weiss called. “Where-? Are you going down there?”
“In my car, I might be able to make it in time,” Flash declared.
“In time for what?” Weiss demanded.
“I don’t know,” Flash admitted. “But I… whatever Sunset and I… I can’t just let her die and do nothing.”
“Of course not,” Weiss murmured. “Then I’m coming with you.”
Flash’s blue eyes widened. “Weiss-”
“I’m a huntress, and I’ll not leave fellow huntresses in jeopardy,” Weiss declared. “Furthermore, as I am your team leader, either I go, or you don’t.” She tilted her chin upwards and looked down at him – somehow, Twilight wasn’t quite sure how she was managing to do that – as if daring him to take issue with it.
Flash nodded. “I’ll be glad to have you. Twilight, will you-?”
“I’ll be fine,” Twilight assured them. “Go.”
“But we’re not driving; it will take too long,” Weiss said.
“Then how-”
“Do you remember what happened before our first Combat Class?” Weiss asked.
Flash’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious.”
“I don’t see any alternative,” Weiss replied.
Flash hesitated for a moment. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“What are you guys-?” Twilight began.
“You don’t want to know,” Flash assured her, before they left.
Twilight Sparkle watched as they both disappeared out of the RSPT dorm room. She didn’t know whether to wish them luck or hope that they arrived late. Hopefully, by the time they did get there, the situation in the air would be a little less hostile.
Of course, there was something else that she could do for everyone… even if they wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it.
She picked up her scroll and called Professor Ozpin.
Now that her attention had been drawn towards the docks, Rainbow could see all of the Bullheads buzzing above it like angry wasps, searchlights blazing and machine guns firing. Rainbow couldn’t help but wonder what the neighbours thought; it wasn’t as if the area by the docks was completely deserted.
Hiding under their beds, maybe.
“I don’t understand how the White Fang have so many airships,” Penny said, keeping pace with Rainbow Dash as the latter ran without the aid of her semblance, so as not to leave her teammates behind. “Aren’t they supposed to be terrorists?”
“Valish sloppiness,” Ciel declared. “Atlas would never allow so much dangerous hardware to fall into the wrong hands. Rainbow Dash, what is the plan?”
“You’re going to get up onto high ground and signal the Gallant to clear the skies,” Rainbow ordered. “Once that’s done, we’ll back up Team Sapphire and rout the enemy.” She’d flesh out that last part once Twilight’s drones started giving her a more detailed sitrep.
“Understood,” Ciel acknowledged. “What do you mean to do about Belladonna?”
“I… I don’t know yet,” Rainbow admitted. “By the sounds of it, Blake is the least of our problems. Let’s worry about her after we deal with the more obvious bad guys.”
“A reasonable decision.”
“Are you ready for this, Penny?” Rainbow asked, because this would be Penny’s first time in a live fire situation.
“I’m combat ready.”
“Penny,” Rainbow said sharply. “Look at me.” They kept running, even though their heads were turned towards one another, Penny’s green eyes locked with Rainbow’s magenta orbs. “This is serious. This isn’t school or a training exercise or a tournament. This is life and death. Are you ready for this?”
Penny was silent for a moment. “How will I know if I’m ready?” she asked.
Well, Twi, I guess this is where we find out if Penny has a reason to fight. Rainbow’s lip twitched. “You won’t until you get in there. But don’t worry too much. You’ll be okay, so long as you do three things: keep an eye on your aura level, show no mercy, and remember what you’re fighting for.”
“I do,” Penny declared. She hesitated. “Will we be in time to save our friends?”
Rainbow grinned. “Sure we will, Penny; heroes always arrive in the nick of time to save the day. And saving the day is just what Atlas does.”
Torchwick laughed as Team SAPR and Yang were chased around the dockyard by the White Fang Bullheads, and by some of the White Fang fighters too, although most of them seemed preoccupied with trying to attach some of the big SDC dust containers to the unengaged airships.
Blake watched as the battle – if you could call this uneven contest a battle – swirled around her, but touched her not.
It touched her not because Adam had commanded it so, and Adam was the lord of the Vale Chapter whom none dared defy.
Except that she had defied him, and now, he meant to make her rue it.
His smile was as sharp as his sword. “If you were counting on your friends to overwhelm me, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Although, I’m a little disappointed that you’d try. It’s better this way. We should settle this alone.”
“She’s not alone!”
Oh no, Blake thought, as a banana sailed out of the dark to splatter across Adam’s mask, blocking his eye slits. Adam cursed as Sun leapt down from on top of a container, one foot outstretched for a flying kick.
Adam stepped back, sensing the incoming assault even blinded, sidestepping nimbly so that Sun struck the unoccupied ground where Adam had been standing.
His back was to Adam.
“Sun!” Blake shrieked.
Adam slashed, his red blade streaking through the night. Sun leapt forwards, away from the blow, but not fast enough to completely avoid the stroke, as the impact sent him flying rolling across the ground.
Adam tore the banana from off his mask, casting it aside. An angry growl escaped his lips.
Blake lunged to her feet and charged at him, Gambol Shroud in one hand and her cleaver in the other, arms pounding as she closed the distance between them, slashing with her black blade.
Adam turned with preternatural swiftness, parrying with Blush, the scabbard of his sword, before slashing at her with Wilt. His blade passed through a clone as the real Blake made a spinning kick aimed at his side, but Adam twisted nimbly out of the way so that her foot passed through the empty air. He kicked upwards, connecting with her leg, knocking Blake off balance. He levelled Blush, which was also a gun, at her chest and fired. Blake winced in pain as she felt the barking blow hammer into her aura, knocking her backwards, first onto her back and then her front as she was tossed head over heels.
Sun charged, the staff in his hands spinning. It whirled in his grasp, a blur of motion, but Adam was just as swift, if not swifter still. Sun’s staff struck again and again, and again and again, Adam parried with his blood red blade, blocking every blow. He looked almost bored as he endured Sun’s fury, like a mountain enduring the futile hammering of the wind.
Blake regained her feet and went to Sun’s aid, attacking Adam from behind, sword and cleaver alike both slashing through the air.
But Adam was the equal of both of them, the greatest warrior in the White Fang, perhaps one of the great warriors of the age. Maybe Pyrrha would have been a match for him, his speed, his strength, but Blake and Sun were not. Blake used her clones to nimbly move from one position to the next, to come at him from angles that he did not expect, but he always did seem to expect it, to be in position to parry her next stroke, to counter at the place where she would be, not where she had been. Sun whirled his staff from every direction, but no stroke landed.
Not only were they not making any impression upon Adam that Blake could tell, but she was finding it difficult to avoid his blows, to dodge or to parry. When their blades clashed, she could feel the force of his hideous strength jarring down her arm, making her aura tremble, and she was sure that he must be weakening Sun’s aura at least a little too.
Sun’s staff split in two, and then those two halves each split again into a pair of nunchucks, a pair of nunchucks with guns in them which Sun fired one, two, three, four into Adam’s chest.
Or they were aimed at his chest. Adam’s Wilt, his red sword, took the blows, and as Sun fired his four shots, the blade glowed brighter and brighter with a lava-like intensity.
Sun stared, boggling at the failure of his ace in the hole.
“Thank you,” Adam said, before he raised Blush and shot Sun twice in the chest, blasting him backwards.
“Sun!” Blake cried, before Adam whirled on her and struck her across the side of the head with Blush, knocking her to the ground.
“You chose that!” Adam roared. “You chose that over me!”
Blake pushed herself to her knees. “It’s not about that. Adam, you’ve let your hate consume you! Can’t you see how much of a monster you’ve become?”
“Then I am a monster that men have made,” Adam shouted. “A monument to all their sins. I am what happens when the underdog bites back. I may be a monster, Blake, but what about those who made me monstrous by wounding me… what about you?”
Blake could only stare up at him, wide-eyed, wondering what he meant to do to her.
“I should strip away everything you love,” Adam murmured. “I should hunt down every last person you care about, until you are all alone and your heart has turned to ash and you will know the debt is paid. I loved you, once.”
“I believed it so,” Blake murmured.
“And I believed it of you, also, and was the more deceived,” Adam replied. “And yet, out of love, I will spare you the suffering that you deserve.” He raised his gleaming sword above his head. “I’ll kill you now and end it quickly!”
A scarlet laser beam split the night sky, lancing into a Bullhead which exploded in a shower of molten fragments.
Blake’s eyes widened, but Adam seemed undeterred.
The sword swept down.
A rainbow flashed before Blake’s eyes.
The progress of the blade was arrested as it slammed into the gloved forearm of Rainbow Dash.
The Atlesian girl growled as she struggled against Adam’s strength, her arm trembling just a little as the sword pressed down upon her.
Blake gasped. “Rainbow… Dash?”
Rainbow glanced over her shoulder, the intense look on her face replaced momentarily by a cocky grin.
Rainbow winked at her. “I’ll be right with you,” she said, before turning her attention to Adam once more. “I just gotta take out the trash, first.”
Ciel Soleil climbed up the metal ladder that ran up the outside of the HM Customs office that sat upon the edge of the dockyards. It was a large building, which, when open, housed enough staff to process all the goods passing through the docks at maximum capacity and any duties that might accrue to them.
Fortunately, it was unoccupied that night. The last thing the situation needed was for the White Fang to take hostages.
She climbed. The metal was cold against her fingers, as cold as the night itself. Her breath turned to a light mist as she climbed. It was cold here, but not as cold as the northern wastes where only the hardiest of flowers bloomed.
Ciel climbed, and as she climbed, she prayed.
Lady of the North, strengthen the arms of my Atlesian sisters, let their hearts be gold and their wits be sharp.
Lady of the North, strike confusion into the hearts of our enemies and bless us that we may confound their designs and thwart their plans against us.
Lady of the North, watch over us with thy benevolent grace.
Lady of the North, accept my offering of skill and valour and deeds done in the service of Atlas.
Not many people were religious these days, but Ciel Soleil was not most people; she had no doubt that there was some power watching over the great-hearted children of the north, guarding them, guiding them, urging them on to victory after victory.
She hoped the Lady would be pleased with the work they did tonight.
Ciel gained the roof of the customs building and crouched down as she crept across the flat roof until she was overlooking the dockyard.
She could see the Bullheads swarming overhead like angry wasps. Some of them were having dust containers attached to them, others were engaging targets on the ground – Team Sapphire, presumably. Ciel doubted they had the heavy weapons necessary to adequately engage airships.
She herself had such a weapon; Distant Thunder, which unfolded in her arms to its quite prodigious length, could easily penetrate the armour on a Bullhead. But that would draw attention to herself, and she didn’t have the fast rate of fire to clear the skies swiftly.
No, they had another method in mind to deal with the impertinence of the White Fang.
It was time to remind these scoundrels who controlled the skies.
Ciel tapped her earpiece twice. One tap was for the Team RSPT private channel, two taps was for the Atlesian secure channel one. “This is Rosepetal Two to Gallant, requesting a fire mission. Verification Tango-Sierra-Alpha-Indigo-One-Seven-Two.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Verification accepted, Rosepetal Two. This is Gallant Actual, what do you need?”
“I’m at the Vale docks. There are multiple hostile airships engaging ground targets, danger close,” Ciel said. “Requesting sky clearance.”
Another pause. “Airships detected. IFFs show Valish civilian ID.”
“Airships White Fang and hostile,” Ciel declared. “Repeat, request sky clearance.”
“Copy, Rosepetal Two, this is Gallant Fire Control. Tagging airships as hostiles. Locking main guns.”
“Affirmative, Gallant,” Ciel replied. “Fire at will.”
The Gallant was an Atlesian Skylord-class air cruiser, currently stationed off the coast of Vale. It had flown Team RSPT – minus Penny – to Vale for her retrieval, and when the decision had been made that RSPT should stay in Vale, the Gallant had – with the full and express permission of the Vale Council – remained also. Because one never knew when the support of a man-of-war might come in handy, for extraction or, as now, for fire support.
It was but a moment later when the first scarlet laser beam from the Gallant’s main battery pierced the darkness of the night to hit, with absolute precision, one of the White Fang Bullheads.
Another beam soon followed, and another Bullhead went up in flames. By now, the White Fang pilots were struggling to react... or more accurately, to evade the fire that was raining down on them from far beyond their range.
But they could not escape. Every laser beam hit home, and with every strike, another Bullhead fell.
Weiss kept her face straight as the locker shot through the skies of Vale at terrific speeds, covering the massive distance between Beacon and the docks with all due swiftness. Unfortunately, the distance was still great enough that they had several minutes between launching and arriving at the combat zone. Time enough for her to think of what she was going to do.
Priority one was to assess the situation and identify the locations of both allies and enemies. Priority two was to link up with the closest allied forces and assist them as necessary, Priority three was to stop the White Fang in their tracks.
A shudder ran through the terrifyingly coffin-shaped locker. Weiss could feel her heart thudding in her chest even faster than it had before. What was happening? Did Winter feel like this at all?
Winter. She had to be like Winter. She was calm. She was grace. All the glories of the Schnee legacy resided in her spirit. She was all that was good in the world, and she would oppose all the evil in the world.
The locker rotated, and through the slits, she could see the lights of the city of Vale at night. Humanity, or at least a fourth of it, was laid out in front of her. All those glimmering lights that she had sworn to protect. At least, she had sworn to protect them in her mind and heart, but the official oaths at graduation would mean nothing if they weren’t first made within.
The locker shifted into a sudden downward direction, and Weiss had barely enough time to realize that before her flying coffin slammed into the ground.
Somehow, through means she couldn’t begin to understand at that moment, she had survived, and with only a minimal jolt as well. The locker door was stuck, and she could hear all manner of racket outside, so she threw an aura enhanced kick into the thin metal blocking her way. It dented, and she hit it again. It bent, and she hit it again. The door flew open, and she exited the locker to find that she had jumped feet first into hell.
There was sound and fury everywhere. The booming of firearms and the ringing of swords echoed throughout. One of the Bullheads that the White Fang had been using had been shot down, and in its burning fragments, she could see the corpse of a faunus laying in twain with a piece of shrapnel almost as big as Weiss herself embedded nearby as the clear culprit.
A logical part of Weiss’s mind noted that this was good, as that was one less opponent to face. An emotional part of Weiss’s mind noted that the poor unfortunate soul had raccoon ears, just like Laberna Seacole, and brought forth a dozen happy images of her nanny’s smiling face as she told her that she would always love her no matter what. An instinctual part of Weiss’s mind deflected an attack from a White Fang member with a lizard tail and a machete before stabbing back with a flurry of attacks that dropped his aura and knocked him to the ground.
Her opponent was down. Neutralized. Onto the next threat. Keep moving.
She found Flash within the next few seconds. Now she had to find the others. It was chaos around them, but they had to rise above it.
Sunset gritted her teeth as she hauled open the doors of the blue SDC-branded shipping container. The doors creaked and squealed against their hinges as she pulled them open, but they yielded before her, and the door opened to reveal, hidden in the darkness within, crates and crates – still branded with the Schnee snowflake, lest you forget – of ice dust.
“Alright,” Sunset said gleefully. “I think we can work with this.”
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Ruby asked anxiously.
“It should work,” Sunset said guardedly. “Plus… we can’t shoot them down, my semblance isn’t powerful enough to take them out, and while I could try just throwing the containers at them, I think this should work better. We don’t have a lot of other options here.” Plus, I always wanted to give dust a chance.
She glanced down at Ruby. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
Ruby shook her head. “No, you’re right. This is the best plan we have, and I’ll do what I can to make it work. Are you ready?”
“Not quite yet,” Sunset said. Her hands glowed with magic, and the crates popped open, the lids falling open to reveal the ice blue powder within.
Sunset raised her hands, and the dust rose with it.
“Now I’m ready,” Sunset said, striding back out of the container. “Let’s go.”
“Right,” Ruby agreed, pointing Crescent Rose at the ground and firing, using the force of the recoil to carry her upwards and onto the roof of a nearby red shipping container.
She spun Crescent Rose in her hands, planting the scythe blade into the metal beneath her. “Hey!” she yelled, as she opened fire on the nearest Bullhead, the shot of her rifle barking in the night as the bullets struck futilely against the airship’s skin.
The spotlight shone on Ruby Rose a moment before the Bullhead, like a shark, began to turn towards her. Its engines levelled horizontally as it closed in.
Ruby jumped, leaping off the container ahead of the bullets which spat from the machine guns to rip into the container’s sheet metal.
Sunset raised her hands, and as she raised her hands, she threw with telekinesis all the ice dust at the Bullhead. It streamed out of the container in a pair of crystalline serpents, flowing through the air, moving greedily towards the Bullhead, surrounding it, engulfing it.
Sunset didn’t use dust. The fact of the matter was that she couldn’t afford it. But right now, she had all the dust in Remnant to play with, courtesy of the SDC, and she was looking forward to having some fun with it.
Starting right now.
A spark of magic leapt from the tip of Sunset’s finger, flying through the chill night air to strike the cloud of dust that swirled about the Bullhead. A spark of magic to charge the dust and turn it all to ice, a great ball of ice from which the spikes shot outwards like a morningstar as the Bullhead was consumed by it.
“Yes!” Sunset yelled, pumping her fist as the Bullhead in its ball of ice dropped like a stone. “One down!” She held out her fist to Ruby. “Don’t mess with us, right?”
“Yeah!” Ruby agreed gleefully as she bumped Sunset’s fist.
A red laser beam, originating somewhere out to sea, emerged from out of dark to destroy a Bullhead in a single shot. Another followed, and then another, and two more Bullheads were turned to fireballs descending to the ground as more crimson laser beams erupted from over the ocean, targeting the Bullheads with precision even as they tried to evade the fire that had suddenly started tearing them apart.
“What is this?” Ruby muttered.
“It’s covering fire from our support cruiser, the Gallant,” Penny explained, as she vaulted over a green shipping container, arms spread out on either side of her, and landed gracefully on her feet. “It’s stationed off shore and is going to clear the skies for us.”
“Penny?” Ruby gasped.
“Hello, Ruby,” Penny said cheerfully. “Are you hurt?”
“No, Penny, I’m-”
“Wonderful!” Penny cried, grabbing Ruby by the head and pulling her into a hug, pressing Ruby’s face into her chest as she swayed gently back and forth. “I was so worried that we were going to be too late, but it’s just like Rainbow Dash said: heroes arrive in the nick of time.”
“I’ll bet she said that,” Sunset muttered.
“Excuse me: hello to you, too, Sunset.”
“Hi, Penny,” Sunset said. “Can you let Ruby go before she suffocates?”
Penny gasped. “I’m so sorry!” she cried as she released Ruby.
“It’s okay, Penny,” Ruby gasped, as she took a step back. “But what are you doing here?”
“Saving the day!” Penny declared, throwing a salute. “Because that is what Atlas does!”
“We definitely need to get you away from Rainbow Dash,” Sunset said. “But maybe later; for now, since your friendly neighbourhood cruiser is clearing the skies, do you want to help us clear the ground?”
Penny beamed. “Absolutely.”
The distinctive sounds of Yang’s Ember Celica told Pyrrha that Yang had worked out the same thing as she had: with the White Fang’s airships dropping like flies, courtesy of their unseen friend in high places, now was the time for a counterattack. It was true that the Bullheads had had them on the run, but now, this was becoming a straightforward contest on the ground, and on the ground, Pyrrha feared no enemy.
Although she was a little concerned about Jaune in these conditions.
“Stay close to me,” she urged him as she led the way, with him behind her, out of the warren of containers and into the wide open space on the north side of the docks near the customs office. There, she could see Rainbow Dash – Team Rosepetal was here – battling with a faunus with a crimson sword while Sun dragged Blake to safety. She could also see Yang, her hair ablaze, battling with numerous members of the White Fang, punching them clear across the docks with gauntlets barking.
Without wishing to demean Yang’s skill, that told Pyrrha that their enemies were none too impressive. It made her feel better already.
She led the way into the fight, raising her voice in challenge so the White Fang would have someone besides Yang to focus on. It worked; her call was answered by a swarm of faunus in those white grimm masks, their faces hidden and their heads concealed, so that they almost looked like monsters rather than men.
But they were not monsters, and she had never lost a fight against a man yet.
Pyrrha met their charge, dashing towards them, her gilded armour gleaming in the moonlight, Akoúo̱ held before her and Miló in spear mode drawn back to strike. She struck one opponent square in the chest with her shield, knocking him backwards before turning out her toe, her spear lashing out to catch two enemies with it and toss them aside. An enemy slashed at her, but wildly, and she had no need of her semblance to evade the blow before sweeping his legs out from under him and slamming her shield into his face to knock him to the ground.
Bullets slammed into the ground near her feet. Pyrrha leapt aside, rolling to a stop, Miló transforming to rifle mode in her hands as she fired a shot to knock the White Fang rifleman off his feet. She threw her shield at a rabbit faunus charging towards her with an axe; no one seemed to notice when it flew back to her waiting arm after knocking the White Fang fighter out cold.
She glanced at Jaune; he was fending off a stag faunus with an impressive set of antlers but, it seemed, little knowledge of how to use the short, curved blade he was holding. Pyrrha was rapidly coming to the conclusion that these White Fang fighters were not particularly skilled.
She was distracted by another attempt to attack her, as two more fighters of the White Fang fell upon her before she dealt with them almost immediately, having the leisure to then watch as Jaune swept the blade out of the hand of his impressively-antlered opponent and batter him into submission with his shield.
He’s doing so well.
Unfortunately, the next opponent who sought Jaune out did not seem to be so unskilled as the rest of this rabble, who were so useless that Pyrrha wondered why the White Fang had even brought them here. Jaune’s next opponent held his katana in such a way as to suggest that he knew how to use it, and he moved in such a likewise fashion.
Pyrrha would let Jaune try his strength, but she would also intervene if she thought that an opponent was beyond him; she wasn’t about to let him get hurt, or worse, because he had gotten in over his head.
It took her all of two strikes, in which Jaune’s new opponent set him reeling backwards, trying desperately to parry, to decide that this was one of those moments.
Pyrrha ran towards the developing battle. A wolf faunus tried to bar her way, a knife in one hand and an axe in the other. His tail wagged back and forth eagerly as he slashed at her with the axe, trying to split her head in two as the knife darted towards her eyes. Pyrrha stepped back, and with a deft touch of polarity shifted the blow of the axe off course and away from her so that it passed down beside her and left her opponent’s guard open. She drove her spear forward, Miló extending outwards by a foot with a bang to strike him in the chest and hurl him back. Pyrrha leapt over him, her feet pounding on the tarmac as she ran towards Jaune and his unequal battle.
Another fighter of the White Fang got in her way, a rabbit faunus with a pink cape that fluttered behind her as she swung at Pyrrha with a great stone hammer – a hammer with a gun on the other end which she fired as the hammer reversed itself. Fortunately, the barrel was made of metal, and Pyrrha was able to ensure it missed, even at such close range. The rabbit swung the hammer at her again, cracking the tarmac with the force of her impact. Pyrrha leapt onto the hammer, dashing up the shaft to kick her White Fang opponent in the face hard enough to make the other girl drop her weapon as she flew into the air.
Pyrrha was getting close to Jaune now. Her hand was wreathed in the darkness of her semblance as she turned the blows of the bespectacled swordsman’s katana away from him, closing the distance and slamming her shield into the other man’s head. He was knocked into the nearest shipping container so hard that the metal crumpled beneath the impact.
“Thanks for the assist,” Jaune said nervously.
“It’s alright. I’m sorry for leaving you alone; I should have stayed with you,” Pyrrha said.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry for slowing you down,” Jaune replied. He looked anxiously at the three, somewhat skilled faunus who had all recovered themselves somewhat and were now closing in on Pyrrha and Jaune. “Are you going to be okay with this?”
Pyrrha gave a small smile. “Don’t worry, Jaune. I’ve got this.”
She attacked, her red sash flying behind her as she feinted towards the wolf faunus in the centre, jabbing with her spear before switching Miló from spear to sword form to round upon the swordsman with the katana. Their blades clashed once, twice, three times, crashing together before Pyrrha found an opening, dealing several swift slashing strokes across his chest to drive him back in disorder. The wolf faunus with the axe and the knife in his off-hand tried to come at her from the side, but Pyrrha nimbly dodged his downward stroke and threw Akoúo̱ straight into his face, hurling him backwards. Miló switched from sword to spear mode in Pyrrha’s hands as she parried the hammer-blow of the caped rabbit faunus, turning the stroke aside and spinning, her flame-coloured hair whirling around her, to hit her opponent across the jaw with her spearbutt. Her opponent staggered. Pyrrha hit her again with the butt of the spear, beneath the jaw, lifting her up into the air. Pyrrha leapt upwards, higher than her foe, descending downwards upon her like a thunderbolt, driving Miló into the chest of her foe as she bore her enemy down with such force that the dockyard surface split beneath them.
Miló switched from spear to rifle mode as she shot the swordsman once to render him incapable.
Her last shot was for the wolf faunus, who tried to rise unsteadily to his feet as Akoúo̱ flew back into Pyrrha’s hand.
Jaune gasped in awed admiration. “That was… awesome!”
Pyrrha felt a faint blush rising to her cheeks. He thinks I’m awesome. Success! “It’s… all in a day’s work, I suppose,” she said modestly. “But the night’s not over yet.”
Ruby cut swathes through the White Fang, red rose petals trailing behind her as she scythed through their ranks. Penny’s backpack opened up to reveal a dozen swords on wires which she wielded like drones, slicing through the masses of the White Fang to send them flying like bowling pins, or else, the swords collapsed into carbines from which green laser beams spat. Actual drones circled overhead, opening fire with small arms emerging from beneath their squat bodies. Green blasts similar to Penny’s – only this time of magic, not lasers – flew from the palms and fingers of Sunset Shimmer, landing like grenades amongst the enemy, kicking up dust and fragments of concrete. And that was before Sunset decided to open up another container of actual dust – fire dust this time – and start getting some use out of it before the SDC decided to charge. She twirled in place, scattering the fire dust in lines with her telekinesis, activating it with her magic to set off smoky explosions to hurl the White Fang into confusion, or else, she tossed crystals into their masses wherever they tried to gather in a group and then setting it off like a bomb.
I wish I could use dust more often, Sunset thought.
These White Fang fighters were really no good at all, and some of them seem to know that, because as they were assailed by Ruby’s speeding scythe, Penny’s striking swords, Sunset’s magic and… appropriated dust, more and more of them began to break for the few surviving Bullheads which began to lift off, leaving the precious dust behind, dodging – or trying to dodge – the laser fire of the Gallant as they made a break for freedom and an escape from the trap in which they had been caught.
Roman Torchwick was one of them. Sunset could see him walking away. Walking, not running, as though he had some kind of regard for his dignity as a master criminal. He was walking towards a Bullhead, and as much as he might deserve to get blown to smithereens by a shot from an Altesian laser cannon, as Sunset watched one Bullhead make it out of the line of fire through skilful manoeuvring and some very good luck, she didn’t really want to take the risk.
She watched which Bullhead he was heading for, and as he climbed inside, she teleported.
Sunset appeared in a crack and a burst of green light right in front of him, Sol Invictus pointed in his face.
“Going somewhere?” she asked, before she shot him twice in the chest and blasted him clean out of the bullhead to skid along the ground.
Torchwick reached for his cane, but Sunset hit it with a blast of magic to send it skittering away from him as he strode across the dockyard to plant her foot upon his chest and her gun and bayonet in his face.
“I don’t see your little friend around anywhere,” Sunset observed.
“An absence I am beginning to regret,” Torchwick muttered. “I don’t suppose I can tempt you to switch sides with some talk of injustice against the faunus?”
“Not a chance,” Sunset said. The White Fang had done nothing but make her life harder by giving people a reason to be racist; she wasn’t about to start doing them any favours now.
“Figures,” Torchwick moaned. “Still, it was worth a shot, right?”
“Shut up,” Sunset snapped.
“So, what’s the plan?” Torchwick asked. “You’ve caught me, and now what?”
“Now, in case you hadn’t noticed, my friends are currently kicking the ass of your minions.”
“Sure they are, but then what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to club you into unconsciousness if you don’t shut up!”
“Sunset, he’s coming at you!”
Rainbow felt the pressure of the sword upon her arm. She could feel it cutting through her aura. She didn’t know how this guy was doing it, but if she hadn’t concentrated her aura to her forearm, then he might have taken her hand off.
As it was, she’d stopped the blow, and she still had some aura left, so that was a win.
Now she just had to win the fight.
“You won’t regret this, sir.”
Rainbow cocked her head slightly. Red hair, red sword… was this Adam Taurus? Wanted for just about everything in every kingdom Adam Taurus.
I guess this is my lucky day.
I’m glad Twilight’s not here.
Adam’s face contorted with irritation. “And who the hell are you?”
“Rainbow Dash, Atlas Academy,” Rainbow declared proudly.
Adam bared his teeth. “A faunus betraying-”
“If you finish that sentence, I’ll blow your kneecaps off on principle,” Rainbow growled.
Adam exhaled through his nostrils. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
Rainbow smirked. “Neither do you, buddy.”
“Then show me, dog of the Atlesian military!” Adam snarled, stepping back and drawing back his sword for a slashing stroke.
Rainbow didn’t give him the chance. She activated her semblance and instantly the whole world was plunged into syrup. She could see Adam’s sword descending, but slowly, oh so slowly. Too slowly. A rainbow glowed around Dash, and trailed behind her as she closed the distance faster than his eyes could follow, slamming her fists into his gut once, twice, three times until he was doubled over, winded, and she swung a right hook for his jaw.
Adam caught the blow with his black gloved hand. He slashed at Rainbow with his sword. Rainbow caught the blow in her left hand, feeling her aura drop as a result. The two struggled against each other, grappling, their hands locked. Rainbow kicked off the ground, slamming her forehead into Adam’s mask. He recoiled, releasing her.
Rainbow flew upwards, a short jet burst from the engine of the Wings of Harmony carrying her upwards, spinning over Adam’s head as she drew her SMGs, Brutal Honesty in her left hand and Plain Awesome on her right, and as her arc carried her above and behind him, Rainbow spun in the air and opened up on Adam Taurus.
Perhaps some of her bullets hit home; it was hard to tell because he turned so fast, his red sword whirling through the air, tracing blood red lines in the darkness as he deflected her shots.
He raised his gun at her, and Rainbow’s Wings of Harmony unfurled to carry her up into the air as his shot passed beneath her feet.
“Kill this traitor to our race!” Adam bellowed at the few men he had left.
They might have been borderline incompetent, they might have been mostly taken out by Team SAPR, by Penny, or by Ciel, who was sniping them from the roof of the Customs building with a gun that was much bigger than she needed, but the few fighters that the White Fang had left had guts. They didn’t hesitate to raise their rifles into the air and start shooting, tracer rounds leaping into the sky.
Rainbow grinned, despite the severity of the situation. She was glad the White Fang had given her a chance to fly. She soared in a circle, wings outstretched, jinking first to the left and then to the right, diving down and then rising up, firing with both guns all the while, strafing the ground-bound fighters who tried to shoot up at her until all the ones with guns were down on the ground and most of the ones with blades as well.
Her pistols were empty, so Rainbow holstered them both and dropped to the ground, kicking a couple of guys with swords they looked as though they couldn’t use in the face as she did so. Rainbow drew her shotgun, Unfailing Loyalty, over her shoulder and pumped it just as the White Fang attacked her. She shot one guy in the chest, pumped her shotgun, hit another guy in the face with the stock, then clubbed a third with the barrel. She held Unfailing Loyalty in one hand as she shot someone else with it, then backhanded a fifth guy into insensibility
She pumped her shotgun again as she faced Adam.
They called him the Sword of the Faunus, but Rainbow Dash remembered something that the General had told her once: when she went to war, she was more than just a huntress, more than just an Atlesian soldier; she was Atlas itself, the embodiment of the Kingdom at war. So he could be the Sword of the Faunus, although he’d never done anything for this faunus; he could be the sword of those that would have him, because Rainbow Dash was the gauntlet of Atlas, part of the armour of Atlas. The strength of the north kingdom flowed through her veins, and nothing would stop her.
Only the revving of a chainsaw alerted Rainbow Dash to the attempt to blindside her by a guy who was as big as General Ironwood and just as surprisingly fast, for all that he was lumbered with, well, a clumsy chainsaw for a weapon. He was nevertheless able to drive Rainbow back as he brandished it like a burning brand in the face of an animal.
“Adam, go!” he bellowed. “Get out of here!”
Adam didn’t argue; he began to run for one of the last waiting Bullheads that might get him away.
Or they might get him killed, but Rainbow didn’t want to take the chance. She shot the big guy in the chest with Unfailing Loyalty; amazingly, he took it without much fuss, barely taking half a step backwards before he slashed at her with his chainsaw again. Rainbow retreated, jogging back a few steps before she rushed forwards. She fired again, and once again, the big guy took the shell to the chest and barely flinched from it.
He swung his chainsaw. Rainbow ducked beneath the swing, pirouetting around the guy to lash out with one foot, kicking him in the back of the knee. That did something; he dropped to one knee with a groan of pain as Rainbow shot him again, knocking him onto his side.
“Protect Adam!” he cried.
Rainbow heard the crunch of footsteps on the tarmac surface of the dockyard. Two White Fang fighters with blades gleaming charged at her. Unfailing Loyalty barked once, hurling one of her enemies backwards. Rainbow pumped the shotgun and fired again, taking care of the second guy, but by the time she’d done that, the big guy with the chainsaw was on his feet again.
And all her guns were out of ammo.
Dammit!
The big guy swung his chainsaw. Rainbow avoided the clumsy blow easily and punched him square in the chest.
And as she punched, she used the last of her aura for an aura boom, the power of her soul erupting out of her in a blast, accompanied by a sound like thunder, a blast which sent the big guy and his chainsaw flying into a dust container so hard that metal crumpled underneath him.
But he had beaten her nonetheless, because now, her aura was gone.
And Adam had nearly reached the Bullhead.
Precognition on!
Ciel’s eyes glowed a more intense than usual shade of blue as she activated her semblance. She hadn’t needed it so far, but as Adam Taurus made his escape, she might need it now.
She could see him. She could see not only where Adam was but also where he was going. She could see the echo of his future self running ahead of him, she could mark how he tried to dodge any fire with his movements, and despite his best efforts, she knew exactly where to hit him.
She aimed for where he would be by the time Distant Thunder’s round had travelled through the air and fired.
Distant Thunder roared. An armour-piercing round travelled through the air, bearing straight for the location of Adam Taurus as he stepped into the line of fire.
And parried the shot. His red sword cut through the air, sliced into the bullet and a round that should have knocked the blade out of his hand if not shattered it into pieces… it was if she’d shot a pea-shooter at him. His sword glowed a smouldering shade of red.
Ciel ejected the cartridge, which slammed into the rooftop beside her. She released the breach, chambering a new round. She aimed again. Lady of the North, let me strike true. She fired again. Distant Thunder bellowed to the heavens once again.
And once again, Adam’s sword cut through the air and sliced away her shot as the blade glowed redder still.
What manner of demon is this?
It almost seemed to Ciel that he was smiling at her as he resumed his journey towards the Bullhead.
“Sunset, he’s coming at you!” Rainbow yelled.
Sunset kept one foot planted on Torchwick’s chest as she aimed Sol Invictus at the faunus with the red sword, the one who had started his fight when he drew his blade on Blake.
She fired. Once, twice, three times until the chamber of Sol Invictus were empty, and Adam’s sword only seemed to be glowing brighter and brighter with every shot that seemed attracted to the blade instead of the man who wielded it. Green laser bolts leapt from Penny’s cut down weapons, but he parried them to, the blasts being absorbed by that blood red sword.
Sunset slung her rifle onto her shoulder and threw out both her palms, a beam of magic lancing out to fly… into that sword which drank it all so greedily, which ate her power as though its appetite was bottomless, which consumed it all as though it were some living blade, some artefact of magic forged and wound about with spells to guard its master well.
And as Sunset’s magic sputtered and died, the sword began to glow a bright and shining crimson.
And not just the blade; the red hair of her enemy now burned like fire, and the lines upon his mask, they glowed like hot coals.
Sunset had the feeling that she had screwed up.
She wasn't entirely sure what she'd done or if there was any way she could have seen it coming, but she guessed he wasn't lighting up like that to attract a mate.
And then he smiled at her the way that a shark might smile at a minnow or a cat at a mouse, and Sunset knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had screwed up.
And then he charged.
Sunset had known fear before. The first time that she'd ever seen a grimm, she had been terrified. She'd been afraid every time she had to walk home in the dark and there had been any human men close by. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to how afraid she felt in that moment as her whole world turned as red as blood, save for the man who came to kill her. Everything slowed, everything but the man with the sword himself, rendered as dark as death against the crimson that had consumed the world, bearing down upon her swifter than he had ever moved before.
Sunset was rooted to the spot. She couldn't move, couldn't defend herself; she could only watch with mounting terror as he descended upon her and know, know with absolute certainty, that her blood would soon be used to paint the world as red as it now seemed to her.
"Sunset, no!" Ruby cried, as she struck Sunset in a burst of rose petals, pushing her out of Adam's path.
She was not quite fast enough - or Adam was too fast, and his semblance made others too slow - to get fully out of the way herself.
Ruby shrieked in pain, her voice as high as a whistle as the red sword clove through her semblance and sliced through her side.
Ruby struck the ground with a solid thump, her lifeblood pooling around her.
Already, her skin was starting to pale, and the rose petals that now fell to the ground around her were all wilted.
“RUBY!”
Adam leapt aboard the Bullhead as it took off, rising into the air and heading out towards the sea.
Ciel tapped her earpiece twice. “Rosepetal Two to Gallant, requesting fire on a priority target.”
“This is Gallant fire control, main guns are still recharging after the last fire cycle.”
“Understood,” Ciel growled. She raised Distant Thunder to her shoulder, aimed down the scope, and fired.
The first shot hit the engine on the port side of the airship. It began to burn, and the airship wobbled unsteadily as it flew out across the water.
Her second shot punched through the fuselage. So did her third.
Ciel’s semblance showed her the future echo of Adam leaping from the airship before he leapt. She fired again.
And as he fell, he did not parry.
He spun in the air, pinwheeling, arms and legs outstretched.
And then he hit the water, moments before the airship with its burning engine struck the water too.
And then there was no sign of him.