Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

It had to be serendipity that the moment Ilia made her play was also the moment Eve lunged for the Weiss with the bloodthirsty snarl of a woman possessed, because quite frankly the probability that the bull even was even registering her presence right now seemed low. Twin columns of glyphs were already awaiting her, of course, but the subsequent bombardment of projectiles was evaded with surprising deftness given her current mental state, the taste of blood on her lips and the second object of all her accumulated rage and loathing within her sights. There would be no compromise, no retreat. As far as she was concerned, at least one of five was leaving the room in a bodybag. Her front-facing offensive dodged and back still squarely facing Ilia, it seemed the heiress had nowhere to go.

Then, right as Ilia flicked her wrist and unfurled her whip, she spoke.

"Do you seriously think I'd allow myself to be ambushed in a warehouse full of ninjas?"

The whip was mid-crack when it was suddenly snagged, what felt like inches from making contact with Weiss's skin, and the gently revolving glyph holding it fast abruptly split into five as Lightning Lash's current made them spark and crackle. Those present felt the hairs on the back of their neck stand on end, their senses assailed by the faint taste of ozone.

KRAKOOM

Then, in a manner not dissimilar from Blake's turbulent entry, five bolts of premium grade lightning ejected from the glyphs like missiles, bent on striking Ilia into submission with equal parts her own weapon's charge and Myrtenaster's lightning canister.

The good(?) news was that aiming without turning took concentration, and while Ilia's whip had made it within inches Eve's clawing grip was now barely centimeters away from the councilwoman's throat.




Far from a helpless old man even in his current state, the trail of blood spoke to the amount of distance Carnelian had managed to cover even in what appeared to be a dazed stagger—Perhaps less so than it spoke to the sheer amount of damage wrought upon his face. The indistinct strip of flesh Eve had spat out wasn't particularly telling, but the volume of blood being lost and the fact that Eve had been channeling the destructive lethality of her semblance through her teeth painted a picture.

Blurred as her vision was, she still felt two rounds wing his left shoulder even as he started to move before they were fired, and his movements were jerky rather than smooth and gliding per usual as he rounded a corner behind some crates. That was around when she heard an impact proceed the thunderstrike amid the sudden cacophony of violence, and any amount of attention paid to the other skirmish revealed one half of a pair of enormous metal greaves extending from a larger-than-average glyph projected above and in front of the maiden, its plated boot brought down on Eve's sternum as it slowly increased the pressure. Somehow the bull was still writhing, clawing, still reaching out towards her enemy as if unaware of any imminent threat to her wellness.

Crack.

Weiss hadn't even uncrossed her arms. She dropped them politely in front of her with hands clasped and continued to affix Blake with that same placid, expectant look, very much carrying herself as above the violence she was inflicting even as Eve continued to howl and buck and squirm and her bones continued to voice their objections.

Crack.

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"You have my terms, Belladonna. Now you have to decide. Give the order and this stops now. Don't? And it doesn't."​

Blake tried to stumble after Carnelian after he duck behind cover, but even the slightest amount of weight put on her bad leg had it crumble underneath her, and she fell flat to the floor with a whisper of a scream that somehow still carried the full weight of her rage and frustration.

Then she heard the snap that didn't come from her own body, and her face whirled towards Weiss in a downright manic display of fury, a portion of her face still hidden behind the ruined Shadow Fang mask. She forced herself up to her knees and jammed Gambol's blade into the floor, somehow putting enough strength into it to pierce the warehouse' metal floor. She pulled herself forward a foot, her armored clothing screeching against the floor, that short distance taking a full second to cover.

"I'll..."

Then again.

"I'll... kill you..."

She wasn't even processing Weiss' words at this point. She was a crippled and cornered apex predator, eyes wide and fuzzy, ears picking up every iota of sound but discarding the specifics as unimportant in favor of locating the danger and prey. The concept of surrender was one Blake spat on when she was lucid, but it didn't even exist in her mind at this point

Again.

She had to help Eve, and there was only one way she knew how. Anything that wasn't destruction or the tools to reach it had been stripped from her long ago. It didn't matter if was a physical impossibility at this point; the look in Blake's eye was that of a woman, a monster, that was determined to burn every bit of energy she had to snuff Weiss out so she could never hurt Eve again.

Again.

She'd kill her, she'd kill her, rip out her throat, claw out her heart, puncture her brain, kill her, kill her, KILL HER, KILL HER, KILL HER-

Halfway through the fifth scraping pull across the floor, she stopped, face thudding against the floor as her arms went slack and her knees gave out, a bloody, uneven trail of stab marks left in her wake behind her as her thoughts were snuffed out.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Blake tried to stumble after Carnelian after he duck behind cover, but even the slightest amount of weight put on her bad leg had it crumble underneath her, and she fell flat to the floor with a whisper of a scream that somehow still carried the full weight of her rage and frustration.

Then she heard the snap that didn't come from her own body, and her face whirled towards Weiss in a downright manic display of fury, a portion of her face still hidden behind the ruined Shadow Fang mask. She forced herself up to her knees and jammed Gambol's blade into the floor, somehow putting enough strength into it to pierce the warehouse' metal floor. She pulled herself forward a foot, her armored clothing screeching against the floor, that short distance taking a full second to cover.

"I'll..."

Then again.

"I'll... kill you..."

"You cannot be serious."

The maiden's tone was flat with disbelief, but it was also practically drowned out by the screams of outrage that accompanied Eve's violent resistance against the Gigas's boot doubling in effort with each scraping heave Blake took across the floor. Blind to her own body's damage, blind to whatever words were spewing from the Atlesian bitch's mouth, blind to anything save the fact that Blake was in no condition, that she couldn't finish it, that she needed her help. Blind to everything save the thought that somehow they could still finish this, so long as it was the two of them.

There was more give under the knight's crushing weight than there had any business being.

It wasn't enough.

She wasn't even processing Weiss' words at this point. She was a crippled and cornered apex predator, eyes wide and fuzzy, ears picking up every iota of sound but discarding the specifics as unimportant in favor of locating the danger and prey. The concept of surrender was one Blake spat on when she was lucid, but it didn't even exist in her mind at this point

Again.

"Blake."

By the third scrape, Weiss was beginning to get the distinct impression she wasn't being listened to. She hated that. The irritation in her voice was still there, the twinge of Napoleonic ire sparked by those who dared disregard or undermine her authority, but it was different now. Something else lay beneath it, quiet and cautioning, cold like a layer of ice in the darkest depths of the ocean. A vacancy, almost; a detachment. Like Weiss wasn't even there. Like she was somewhere else watching it all happen.

"I suggest you think carefully about what I just said. And then think very carefully about what you do next."

She had to help Eve, and there was only one way she knew how. Anything that wasn't destruction or the tools to reach it had been stripped from her long ago. It didn't matter if was a physical impossibility at this point; the look in Blake's eye was that of a woman, a monster, that was determined to burn every bit of energy she had to snuff Weiss out so she could never hurt Eve again.

Again.

There was precious little that actually surprised Weiss, but she was incredulous right now. What was wrong with these people? How could they hate her so much? How could anyone hate anything so much? She slowly peeled her gaze from Blake over to where Eve was pinned, still thrashing pointlessly in spite of continuously aggravating her own injuries, still clawing and attempting to drag herself in her vague direction.

No, she realized, slightly widening her eyes. No longer in her direction.

In Blake's.

The display almost seemed to wake something up in her, and she blinked twice as her thoughts inevitably veered to another's injuries, in another place. The first blood drawn on a night full of it, as it were. Why did there have to be so much? Where did it end? When did it end?

"Blake."

The repetition was far quieter than the first utterance of the name, surprisingly free of the condescension and superiority that came before it. Just the muted plea of a tired young woman for Blake not to fight her on this one thing. To just give the order.

She'd kill her, she'd kill her, rip out her throat, claw out her heart, puncture her brain, kill her, kill her, KILL HER, KILL HER, KILL HER-

Blake was scarcely inches from Weiss's feet by the time she initiated her last, desperate heave, and it was only then that the Arma Gigas suddenly vanished. The councilwoman's expression was inscrutable as she looked down at her foe, eyes partially obscured by the absolute travesty that were her bangs at this point, a soft, defeated sigh of bitter resignation as her shoulders quaked softly with the exhale.

"Okay, Blake. Okay."

Eve sucked in a frantic gulp of air and somehow, someway was on her feet before the second was out, brain still a dynamo of pure, blazing instinct, ignoring the horrific pain in her chest that made a good case for being the worst she'd ever felt. She didn't even know what was broken, didn't stop to check. There was only one thing on her mind, only one thought consuming her, and she lurched towards the pair with arms outstretched once more.

Halfway through the fifth scraping pull across the floor, she stopped, face thudding against the floor as her arms went slack and her knees gave out, a bloody, uneven trail of stab marks left in her wake behind her as her thoughts were snuffed out.

Blake was just beginning to fall when she felt an arm hook under hers and encircle the waist as Eve threw herself onto her own knees at her side. Her back faced the heiress she had been so obsessed with murdering just a few seconds ago, and a harsh, raspy huff barely made it out of her as she used her own posture to brace them both, like she was amused somehow.

"You're fine. Stop... complaining."

Even in a lesser condition it probably would've been hard to forget how many times Blake had heard those exact words, in that exact tone, when they were younger, how many bad situations they had preceded the two of them getting out of, how Eve's staunch refusal to never acknowledge how bad a situation was getting had always been strangely rallying in a dumb way, how—

Shnk

Spoiler

How she looked with the thin blade of a rapier jutting through her chest, and how for those few moments the world seemed to fade solely to shades of black, white and red.

It was a pathetically small sound in the end, barely higher than a whisper. The noise that followed was far louder as Weiss planted her heel against the bull's back to pull Myrtenaster out in one smooth motion, simultaneously kicking Eve over onto her front to let her blood drain out through the wound as she swiveled to pin Blake on her back whether she was still conscious or not.



"Don't ever try to call my bluff again."

Either way, a swift kick to the head ensured that a second later, she wasn't. Weiss stepped back to look over the carnage in the room with a humph of dissatisfaction, then gingerly put two fingers to her ear.

"I need a medical team."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It was an ordeal that grew equally stranger and the more hectic the further the conflict went on. The shadow fang that had been ferried away found themselves sequestered within the expanse of a a room roughly the size of a shipping container. Only there was no door and what lighting available was an eminently dim bulb suffocated by the utter darkness, serving to allow for the natural dark vision of the faunus to navigate the room's breadth. It was furnished with the barest allowable, purposefully spartan in its design with more concern given towards available first aid kits and equipment in expectation of dire circumstances.

With the full knowledge of one of their own and his relationship with the proprietor of the warehouse, it would naturally click. It was a question of when, some arriving at the conclusion faster than others whether it was by remembrance from a passing footnote in their briefings or intuition.

This was where Panther had retreated to, the room naturally left off from the warehouse's schematics. His departing was as eerie as the coming of the ferryman of the dead, wordless without any clear indication of his next move. That was if they were oblivious to the sit rep emblazoned within their masks, or the absence of one ongoing such for Tiger. Her mask's destruction evoked subtle trepidation from Panther, who understood he'd have to start with where she had last been and find her, take her if she was still alive. He had no doubts whomever held her focus had to be a worthwhile opponent for the faunus and that prompted the question of whether they or she were dead. Or both.

The Hand would surely appreciate the initiative undertaken by her pupil, who navigated the warehouse's depths with impossible alacrity to find where the mask of the Tiger had last been. It was with caution he emerged from the metallic floor, akin to the askance groundhog, scrutinizing the immediate surroundings and noting just from the wanton damage the outcome of the fight. An unnatural twist that saw him swivel to take in the scenery further and--

Wait. Those round ears. The burnished brown hair. The sheer, absolute gall that radiated from her personage. It was rank with familiarity that provoked the Talon to emerge completely in bemusement despite the risk inherent to the act, coincidentally side by side the unconscious Tiger.

"You?" The reticent tone characteristic to the faunus was replaced with sheer incredulity, his posture bent out of place from his typically composed one. His right slowly ascended, terminating in his pointer leveraged for her in an accusatory fashion that was only possible in a particular kind of relationship.

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"What are you doing here, sister?" The wolf growled toward the rambunctious raccoon, the proverbial hackles undermined by his guard borderline shattering on sight.

The figure he swiveled to face was little more than a groundhog-esque head sticking up through the solid floor in its own right by the time he did so, ears scrunched and face obscured from view even as he connected the dots in his mind regardless. Dots of an entirely different nature were being connected in the barmaid's mind at her sudden discovery, dots she was hoping not to have to veer close to tonight, and the stillness of her form made it hard to envision what sort of expression might have adorned the face angled away from him.



Had he been able to see, he would've recognized it as one of complete and utter trepidation. She swallowed hard.

"A'ight then. Guess I'm gonna hafta kill this dude."

Then there was the unmistakable click of a boxcutter being unsheathed as she deftly palmed it from her sleeve, and with a deep, remorseful breath—

Why did she recognize that voice?

"Hold up. Hoooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllld up. HoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooLEEEEEEEEEEEEE CRAP YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!!!!"

She sprang from the floor with the spontaneity of a wack-a-mole, swiveling to land on her feet and practically hopping from foot to foot as she thrust both fingers at the wolf with downright comical levels of outrage.



"HEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! HE'S DOWN HERE! MY DUMBASS LI'L NO-GOOD TWERP OF A YOUNGER BROTHER WHO'S GONNA GET HIMSELF KILLED IS DOWN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"​

 

[MidwayLives]

The second Ilia got snatched mid-air by the super quick Ruby Rose, the chameleon just redirected the momentum she already had and spun to slam her knee right into the feral wolf girl's nose with a ferocity that seemed way more characteristic of Eve Taurus or this Blake Belladonna but it came out of the tinier Ilia all the same, her teeth just as bared as Ruby's own.

*KRACK*

"AGH!!"

Ruby's grip didn't lessen but her nose looked even more off-center than it'd already been.

The bridge of her nose was scraped and bloodied and fresh trails of blood ran down from her nostrils.

But even in the throes of agonizing pain, she sought to keep holding on....Until a wave of pain overcame her.

Her grip loosened for the briefest of moments...
​

"No? No?!? Screw you!" She shook wildly in Ruby's grip, both hands reaching up to pry her grip loose and at the same time struck out with another kick, angrily planting her boot right into the girl's stomach. The moment the heavily injured Rose's grip loosened,

"Stop..."

Ruby gripped onto her nose with her artificial hand.

"I said..."

*CRACK*

Her nose was roughly snapped(mostly)back into place

Grabbing her scythe, Ruby turned and reached out towards IIia.

"STOP!-"
​

Which was when both of them were swallowed up by a blast that, while not 100% exactly like this, was sorta close to it.

"I have had enough distractions. One way or another, this is OVER."

The blast shattered Ruby's aura and left her flying back.

Landing upon the ground, her hair-messy as it was- covered her eyes as she quickly lost consciousness...

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

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Which was when both of them were swallowed up by a blast that, while not 100% exactly like this, was sorta close to it.

"I have had enough distractions. One way or another, this is OVER."​

Such was the mood as they got engulfed by that blast of maiden magic and then some.

No attention of hers was given to the wild Ruby, no matter what she tried to say and even as the girl got flung back from the force of that overwhelming assault and began to drop into unconsciousness at last. For the chameleon's part...it was much the same. Her aura was completely full, having managed to keep from getting entangled in any of the fights spreading out through the area. Not even a small bit of it had been spent. But taking the brunt of that assault did a fucking number on it nevertheless. The scorching heat of the fire raging in, the shocking power of the lightning coursing through, more on top of that. It all knocked the tiny faunus around like a doll caught in a hurricane. The pain was unimaginable, too much to put into words. Despite that all, however...

Ilia didn't scream out with the agony. She refused to give the two-for-one maiden even the slightest hint of satisfaction, biting down on her tongue so hard that itself even drew blood. Nothing. Not a single cry would escape her. That was a vow that held true even as the blast began to vanish and even when it had fully gone, she still had not. When the dust cleared, Ilia was lying prone facedown on the ground...but only for a few moments before a fist lightly thudded into the ground, followed by the second one and the chameleon pushed back up, stumbling to her feet. Her rainbow aura crackled and flickered, hanging on by the smallest of threads. From full down to one step away from empty...so much so that it felt like a finger flick could dispel what remained...incredible power.

"No, this isn't--this isn't...."​

Shnk

Spoiler

How she looked with the thin blade of a rapier jutting through her chest, and how for those few moments the world seemed to fade solely to shades of black, white and red.

It was a pathetically small sound in the end, barely higher than a whisper. The noise that followed was far louder as Weiss planted her heel against the bull's back to pull Myrtenaster out in one smooth motion, simultaneously kicking Eve over onto her front to let her blood drain out through the wound as she swiveled to pin Blake on her back whether she was still conscious or not.

"................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................."

Her silence then had little to do with about not giving Weiss any satisfaction and everything to do with just being...purely shocked. Like what she had just seen had not happened, couldn't have happened, it wasn't real. This world had beaten down the bull enough. That couldn't have been...but it was. The two of them fell over and she could just stand there, watching as it happened, mouth wide open and body trembling with so much and such intense negative feelings it was a miracle some Grimm didn't spontaneously pop into existence right then and there.
​

"Don't ever try to call my bluff again."

Either way, a swift kick to the head ensured that a second later, she wasn't. Weiss stepped back to look over the carnage in the room with a humph of dissatisfaction, then gingerly put two fingers to her ear.

"I need a medical team."

"You....you........FUCKING BITCH!!!!"

Ilia rushed forward despite all the pain she felt, body aching and mind reeling, teardrops falling from her and staining the floor with each swift step until she closed the distance between them. No weapon in hand, barely any aura left but she still tried to reach out, grab at the woman's collar, lifting a fist as if to attempt punching Weiss right in her scarred face, but she just...couldn't. The fist slowly and shakily lowered, Ilia's gaze likewise dropping towards the ground. She didn't like hurting people, never had, and right now it would accomplish nothing. It wouldn't make her feel good about any of this.

"...Why. Why did you have to-what's wrong with you? She was already beaten, you cold-hearted...you didn't h-have to..." Ilia sniffled, lifting her eyes back up to look at Weiss and those mismatched eyes of light blue and dark red. Even when she had gotten ambushed in her own home, yeah she fought back but only with enough force to knock them all out. It hadn't been lethal, so why...what changed? She had to know, to try and make sense of it. Desperate for a chance to understand. Unless Weiss pulled away or pushed her off, Ilia's head almost involuntarily leaned down closer and whether she was right there or knocked back, either way, her voice came out in a harsh and pained whisper, practically begging.

"Why?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The blast shattered Ruby's aura and left her flying back.

Landing upon the ground, her hair-messy as it was- covered her eyes as she quickly lost consciousness...

"You....you........FUCKING BITCH!!!!"

Ilia rushed forward despite all the pain she felt, body aching and mind reeling, teardrops falling from her and staining the floor with each swift step until she closed the distance between them. No weapon in hand, barely any aura left but she still tried to reach out, grab at the woman's collar, lifting a fist as if to attempt punching Weiss right in her scarred face, but she just...couldn't. The fist slowly and shakily lowered, Ilia's gaze likewise dropping towards the ground. She didn't like hurting people, never had, and right now it would accomplish nothing. It wouldn't make her feel good about any of this.

"...Why. Why did you have to-what's wrong with you? She was already beaten, you cold-hearted...you didn't h-have to..." Ilia sniffled, lifting her eyes back up to look at Weiss and those mismatched eyes of light blue and dark red. Even when she had gotten ambushed in her own home, yeah she fought back but only with enough force to knock them all out. It hadn't been lethal, so why...what changed? She had to know, to try and make sense of it. Desperate for a chance to understand. Unless Weiss pulled away or pushed her off, Ilia's head almost involuntarily leaned down closer and whether she was right there or knocked back, either way, her voice came out in a harsh and pained whisper, practically begging.

"Why?"

Weiss had used the intervening time while Ilia looked on in horror to cross the floor to where Ruby lay and kneel down, tutting as she looked over the girl's state and primly parted her own bangs into something more presentable before proceeding. She placed her palms on Ruby's stomach and concentrated, the twin jets of frayed magic denoting her unnatural status springing forth from her eyes as she poured it into Ruby's aura, amplifying it enough to jumpstart the healing process without immediately waking her up.

There was something oddly stilted about the way she moved, as if she were underwater or dreaming, or like the connection between her soul and her body wasn't entirely there. Indeed, it spoke to how numb and preoccupied she was that she seemed to have entirely forgotten Ilia was present before she screamed, starting a bit and offering little in the way of resistance when she was grabbed and hauled to her feet.



"You're the other one," she stated quietly, tracing the faded scar on Ilia's wrist with her eyes before they went to her face. They were calm eyes in the face of Ilia's incoherent anguish, though it seemed to unsettle her a bit as she moved her head back only slightly. "Look, don't imply this is what I wanted. You think I enjoy being an executioner? I delivered an ultimatum. Blake refused to cooperate. She had plenty of chances to avert this. She refused."

The redundancy of the repetition was the only sign that Weiss was any less confident in her position than she usually was, though it lent credence to the notion that she regretted the act of killing no matter how single-mindedly dedicated to her destruction the victim had been. Her eyes flickered to where the two faunus lay slumped, Eve's blood already beginning to pool around her chest. It was a sight that had her quickly avert her gaze back.

"They've done nothing but make themselves my enemy at every turn. What, am I supposed to feel bad? When either one of them would've gladly ripped my throat out with their bare hands if given the opportunity? No!" She moved to brush Ilia's hands off. "Belladonna has spent too long running from the consequences of her actions. It's time she was held accountable."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You're the other one," she stated quietly, tracing the faded scar on Ilia's wrist with her eyes before they went to her face. They were calm eyes in the face of Ilia's incoherent anguish, though it seemed to unsettle her a bit as she moved her head back only slightly. "Look, don't imply this is what I wanted. You think I enjoy being an executioner? I delivered an ultimatum. Blake refused to cooperate. She had plenty of chances to avert this. She refused."

The redundancy of the repetition was the only sign that Weiss was any less confident in her position than she usually was, though it lent credence to the notion that she regretted the act of killing no matter how single-mindedly dedicated to her destruction the victim had been. Her eyes flickered to where the two faunus lay slumped, Eve's blood already beginning to pool around her chest. It was a sight that had her quickly avert her gaze back.

"They've done nothing but make themselves my enemy at every turn. What, am I supposed to feel bad? When either one of them would've ripped my throat out with their bare hands if given the opportunity? No!" She moved to brush Ilia's hands off. "Belladonna has spent too long running from the consequences of her actions. It's time she was held accountable."

"I..." Her voice faltered, unsure of what to say. She wanted to vehemently deny that they would have done that, but she couldn't. This Blake looked every inch like the friend she knew back home, and yet at Haven, how hard and fast the cat faunus had tried to kill her was a memory not easily shaken. Not to mention Eve had just literally bitten a part of someone's face and tore it off in one vicious move. Ilia looked away, eyes shifting to either side in shame from how she couldn't immediately call that out as a complete and utter lie. She shook her head lightly, not resisting as her hand got swept away and she took a hesitant step backwards. She finally said the only thing that came to mind. "And what about you? Who's going to hold you accountable for everything you've done, huh?" ​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"I..." Her voice faltered, unsure of what to say. She wanted to vehemently deny that they would have done that, but she couldn't. This Blake looked every inch like the friend she knew back home, and yet at Haven, how hard and fast the cat faunus had tried to kill her was a memory not easily shaken. Not to mention Eve had just literally bitten a part of someone's face and tore it off in one vicious move. Ilia looked away, eyes shifting to either side in shame from how she couldn't immediately call that out as a complete and utter lie. She shook her head lightly, not resisting as her hand got swept away and she took a hesitant step backwards. She finally said the only thing that came to mind. "And what about you? Who's going to hold you accountable for everything you've done, huh?" ​

Weiss just stared at her like the answer was obvious.

"Nobody. I'm rich."

The beat that followed implied she had more to say, but her lips were barely parted when her eyes veered towards something behind Ilia instead. And widened.

The chameleon felt a hand grab a fistful of her hair and yank so sharply it was a miracle it wasn't all torn out in a clump, the assailant twisting her over his shoulder in a toss that resulted in her first full view of him as she crashed down on her back.



Atlas's military leader had looked better.

From just above his left eye to just beneath the jawbone, much of the tissue and sinew had been stripped away to expose the skull beneath. It would've been disconcerting enough in its own right even if it hadn't also exposed the amount of work Carnelian had had done over the decades, a Frankensteinish patchwork of experimental cybernetics spanning eras, the eye that burned red like the flames of hell so much more than just an eye, entire portions of bone reinforced and even replaced by a copper-colored alloy. He had always been far more monstrous than any of the faunus he hated; now he just looked it.

That didn't mean he hated them any less.

"General," Weiss attempted. He said nothing.

What was left of his features were contorted in more rage than seemed humanly possible, made all the more monstrous by the Frankensteinish patchwork of metal, bone and flesh, and it appeared he had designs on taking it out on whatever faunus in the room remained standing. A swift kick drilled Ilia in the ribs, followed by a stomp downward she barely managed to roll away from that doubtless would've broken them had it connected. He was already advancing, already bearing down on her, and whether she realized the danger of her positioning or not there were milliseconds in the difference of whether she managed to evade the door being slammed shut on her head in the doorway she'd ended up in, leaving a spiderweb of terrifyingly long cracks reaching across the wall.

And once again, he was practically already on top of her.

"CARNELIAN."

The second try was far more forceful, which meant it was clear by the time Carnelian upturned a table and brought it down on wherever Ilia was now in a rage, barely any time to react between his offensives.

He wasn't listening.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Weiss just stared at her like the answer was obvious.

"Nobody. I'm rich."

The beat that followed implied she had more to say, but her lips were barely parted when her eyes veered towards something behind Ilia instead. And widened.

"...And some of you wonder why so many faunus don't like or even hate--" Whether that had been a joke in poor taste or an actual serious reply, Ilia took it poorly either way. Not that she had time to linger on it. Or really do much of anything before:​

The chameleon felt a hand grab a fistful of her hair and yank so sharply it was a miracle it wasn't all torn out in a clump, the assailant twisting her over his shoulder in a toss that resulted in her first full view of him as she crashed down on her back.

...that. Which was more than enough to wipe out the sliver of aura that had remained after Weiss's encompassing blast and left the poor chameleon at her most vulnerable in a room with a maiden and a mad as hell looking general. Nope. NOT GOOD IN THE SLIGHTEST. She didn't even have it in her to move from where she landed, just letting out a long, pathetic sounding wheeze.

But the terrifying as hell looking soldier wasn't about to just stop there.​

What was left of his features were contorted in more rage than seemed humanly possible, made all the more monstrous by the Frankensteinish patchwork of metal, bone and flesh, and it appeared he had designs on taking it out on whatever faunus in the room remained standing. A swift kick drilled Ilia in the ribs, followed by a stomp downward she barely managed to roll away from that doubtless would've broken them had it connected.

Pain lanced through her torso like wildfire, so intense it felt like she had just been struck by a cannon. She couldn't remember the last time she had been hit that hard. Certainly not in a long time. Yet the pain jumpstarted her survival instinct and she rolled right in the nick of time, narrowly avoiding a vicious stomp by what seemed like the smallest of centimeters. And kept right on pushing herself to try and stay just out of reach of this horrifying juggernaut fuck off you Mr X wannabe steadily chasing her down. The man was hardly giving her the room to FREAKING BREATHE. Ilia herself seemed to hear Weiss about as much as Carnelian himself did. That is, not at all. There was only this, herself and the man hellishly determined to put her in agony. No aura, weapon lying discarded on the ground and even her faunus trait would probably not help much with that cybernetic eye. Yeah, really really not good.

As the table came down, she did what she could to push back, both feet planted against it and hands grabbing hold as she willed every muscle to maximum effort. Yet even so, at best that seemed like delaying the inevitable. I'm going to fucking die here aren't I.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Pain lanced through her torso like wildfire, so intense it felt like she had just been struck by a cannon. She couldn't remember the last time she had been hit that hard. Certainly not in a long time. Yet the pain jumpstarted her survival instinct and she rolled right in the nick of time, narrowly avoiding a vicious stomp by what seemed like the smallest of centimeters. And kept right on pushing herself to try and stay just out of reach of this horrifying juggernaut fuck off you Mr X wannabe steadily chasing her down. The man was hardly giving her the room to FREAKING BREATHE. Ilia herself seemed to hear Weiss about as much as Carnelian himself did. That is, not at all. There was only this, herself and the man hellishly determined to put her in agony. No aura, weapon lying discarded on the ground and even her faunus trait would probably not help much with that cybernetic eye. Yeah, really really not good.

As the table came down, she did what she could to push back, both feet planted against it and hands grabbing hold as she willed every muscle to maximum effort. Yet even so, at best that seemed like delaying the inevitable. I'm going to fucking die here aren't I.

No sooner than the table became something Ilia put between her and her deranged hunter did she hear the wood shriek and warp in protest as Carnelian started pushing down on it from his side. There was an even more disconcerting—and far more jarring—BANG as she saw the table jump where the general's fist had presumably just collided with it, then another, even louder BANG preceding the explosion of woodchips and splinters that was said fist coming right through the varnished surface like it was made of wet cardboard, stopping a hair's breadth from Ilia's face, so close she could see beneath the torn and tattered skin of his knuckles to glimpse even more Atlesian iron—

The fist slackened, pulled back, and then vanished.

Then two sets of fingers appeared, gripped each side of the hole he'd just made, and ripped the table clean in half like it was less than cardboard. Like it was the packaging the cardboard came in, not varnished oak emitting a desperate final creak as its death rattle. One half was tossed away, the other the recipient of a hard, straight elbow to one of its legs that saw it snapped off with a jagged end, and the monster's glowing eye gleamed like a targeting reticule as he gripped the makeshift weapon in both hands, pulled it back over his head, and brought it crashing down right for Ilia's jugular.

Where it stopped, the proverbial executioner's axe seemingly brought to a standstill mid-fall of its own volition if not for the gently pulsating glyph keeping it from descending any lower, Weiss lazily letting her hand drop from where she was pointing at it as she began to chide firmly.

"Do not ignore me-"

The way he whirled on her, grabbed a fistful of her own white hair and wrenched so she was bent backwards at an awkward angle looking up at him was so sudden, vicious and completely outside the realms of expectation that it actually drew a yelp from the icy maiden, whose first instinct was surprisingly to stutter and trip over her own words rather than unleash any of the magical hell she was no doubt capable of, hands flying to the grip on the back of her head. He leaned in, and it stood in terrifying contrast to the horrific injuries he'd accumulated and murderous vengeance he'd personified with Ilia that his tone was pointed, calm, and very, very low.

"It's called discipline, girly. Didja forget what that word means? Was your old man too soft on you kids without uncle Borous around to show him how to command the proper respect in his own home? You Schnee women and all your little notions, you think I don't see, think I don't hear you when you look at me, when you take pity on these disease-ridden ingrates, your father may have been too much of a gutless snowflake to lay down the law properly but at least he stuck by his own kind-"

"Borous..."

Weiss gasped, an unusually dry, scratchy quality to her songstress' voice as she opened her eyes from where they'd been screwed shut.

"Shut up."

The simultaneous icy touch of an icicle's tip pressing against either side of his temple was the only warning he had of his mortality's current precariousness, ready to be spiked unceremoniously into his brain from both angles if he went spoke so much as a word further out of turn. It was a threat with no real teeth; too many of Weiss's plans depended on an installed military official amoral enough to obey her will unconditionally in return for being scooped from his exiled obscurity. But there was enough cold-hearted conviction in her tone to make him question whether, at least in that moment, she truly cared or not, and the councilwoman had been careful to devise a means of clouding her full intentions from him before they ever had any dealings.

More importantly, it was enough to remind him of the positions they both sat and how precarious they truly were, and after a solid five or ten seconds of that steady, menacing stare he slowly let her go.

"My sincere apologies, councilwoman. Pain's clearly clouding my judgment. Don't suppose you'd be inclined to help with that."

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"And what exactly do you expect me to do about it? Wave a magic wand?"

Silence. His gaze wordlessly shifted to Ruby's form—already burn-free and with naught but faded scar tissue where there had only recently been open wounds—and back, though he already knew she knew what he meant.

"Medical units are that way. I'm positive they'll do what they can." She continued helpfully, giving him a curt nod of dismissal.

More silence. More staring. Ilia was more than likely still recovering, but even she felt the temperature in the room plummet to what felt like sub zero. It went on long enough that Weiss finally broke the silence again with a sigh, hand alighting on her hip.



"I learned a great deal from you and my father, general. One lesson I remember particularly well. You reap what you sow."

Carnelian grinned.

It was a rare expression from him. Too uninhibited, too reflective of the monster within he did such a good job of publicly hiding. The most he ever allowed himself on the job was a smirk. He grinned like a shark now, made all the more disturbing by the fact that one corner of his lips was outright missing, all the hidden angles of a smile exposed. He didn't let that grin waver one bit as he turned and stalked silently from the room, nor did his eyeline ever break from Weiss's until the moment he rounded the corner out of sight.

It was so soft as to almost be imperceptible, but a quiet, drained huff of relief broke Weiss's own neutral stare back at him before she turned and swept across the room for where Blake and Eve lay, Ilia still a perennial non-factor in her mind.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Ruby Rose going top speed was a force to be reckoned with.

It was also, as it turned out, too fast for Penny to pick up on her extra sensors. Which was why Ruby turned a corner and got immediately speared by a very startled penny who'd been about to turn the exact same corner in the opposite direction. Thankfully for everyone involved, the robot ended up smashing into the steel wall and Ruby into her, instead of pinning the poor rose between two chunks of steel like a petal in a book. They impacted hard enough that Penny didn't actually hit the floor afterwards, a Penny shapped dent in the hallway with the Penny still inside it, her sensors resetting by way of blinking eyes that shot to wherever Ruby had ended up.

"Ruby! Whats happening up there?!"

 

[Indolent]

The figure he swiveled to face was little more than a groundhog-esque head sticking up through the solid floor in its own right by the time he did so, ears scrunched and face obscured from view even as he connected the dots in his mind regardless. Dots of an entirely different nature were being connected in the barmaid's mind at her sudden discovery, dots she was hoping not to have to veer close to tonight, and the stillness of her form made it hard to envision what sort of expression might have adorned the face angled away from him.

View attachment 801988

Had he been able to see, he would've recognized it as one of complete and utter trepidation. She swallowed hard.

"A'ight then. Guess I'm gonna hafta kill this dude."

Then there was the unmistakable click of a boxcutter being unsheathed as she deftly palmed it from her sleeve, and with a deep, remorseful breath—

Why did she recognize that voice?

"Hold up. Hoooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllld up. HoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooLEEEEEEEEEEEEE CRAP YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!!!!"

She sprang from the floor with the spontaneity of a wack-a-mole, swiveling to land on her feet and practically hopping from foot to foot as she thrust both fingers at the wolf with downright comical levels of outrage.

View attachment 801999

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! HE'S DOWN HERE! MY DUMBASS LI'L NO-GOOD TWERP OF A YOUNGER BROTHER WHO'S GONNA GET HIMSELF KILLED IS DOWN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"​

Stream didn't even so much flinch when he heard the unmistakable sound of the boxcutter's length extending. Nor did he under his own sibling's bombastic eruption fromt he ground that was just so comically familiar after a fashion all her own. The wolf's fleeting shock was replaced by sheer disbelief that radiated as he thrust one finger out in reply. Anything he could've said would've been so easily drowned out by the raccoon's obscene hollering and so it was quite characteristic that he'd let the moment pass before taking the reins back, right?

Wrong.

There was just something about her, an innate quality to his sister, so inscrutable he'd given up forever ago trying to comprehend it. Instead, he was given to a natural response frequently seen between squabbling siblings.



"What the hell are you doing here, you two-bit idiot raccoon? You're supposed to be in mantle scamming mayors instead of here, where you could die. Moron!!!"

And without missing a beat, he lunged at her to instigate a confrontation something perfectly at home in slapstick comedy.

"You're coming with me!"

 

[Gus Gungus]

Stream didn't even so much flinch when he heard the unmistakable sound of the boxcutter's length extending. Nor did he under his own sibling's bombastic eruption fromt he ground that was just so comically familiar after a fashion all her own. The wolf's fleeting shock was replaced by sheer disbelief that radiated as he thrust one finger out in reply. Anything he could've said would've been so easily drowned out by the raccoon's obscene hollering and so it was quite characteristic that he'd let the moment pass before taking the reins back, right?

Wrong.

There was just something about her, an innate quality to his sister, so inscrutable he'd given up forever ago trying to comprehend it. Instead, he was given to a natural response frequently seen between squabbling siblings.

View attachment 802360

"What the hell are you doing here, you two-bit idiot raccoon? You're supposed to be in mantle scamming mayors instead of here, where you could die. Moron!!!"

And without missing a beat, he lunged at her to instigate a confrontation something perfectly at home in slapstick comedy.

"You're coming with me!"

"OOOOOHOHOHOHOH NO, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S GONNA DIE, PIPSQUEAK!!!!!!!! YOU'RE GONNA DIE RIGHT NOW! I'M GONNA GUT YA LIKE A FISH AN' FLY THE CASKET HOME TO MOM SO SHE CAN RESURRECT YA AND BURY YA ALIVE SO YA CAN SUFFOCATE AND DIE AGAIN!!!!!!!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TA BE AT SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!"

All this shrieking was emphasized by her continually shanking her brother in the gut with the boxcutter, Blake Belladonna's mysterious and deadly apprentice promptly finding himself in the fight of his life against the delinquent, directionless older sister who had terrorized him when he was small. She was also weirdly flexible now.

All this and more was on display as the ball of violence sank into the floor, leaving one in the room speechless.



"What... Have I borne witness to..."

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

No sooner than the table became something Ilia put between her and her deranged hunter did she hear the wood shriek and warp in protest as Carnelian started pushing down on it from his side. There was an even more disconcerting—and far more jarring—BANG as she saw the table jump where the general's fist had presumably just collided with it, then another, even louder BANG preceding the explosion of woodchips and splinters that was said fist coming right through the varnished surface like it was made of wet cardboard, stopping a hair's breadth from Ilia's face, so close she could see beneath the torn and tattered skin of his knuckles to glimpse even more Atlesian iron—

The fist slackened, pulled back, and then vanished.

Then two sets of fingers appeared, gripped each side of the hole he'd just made, and ripped the table clean in half like it was less than cardboard. Like it was the packaging the cardboard came in, not varnished oak emitting a desperate final creak as its death rattle. One half was tossed away, the other the recipient of a hard, straight elbow to one of its legs that saw it snapped off with a jagged end, and the monster's glowing eye gleamed like a targeting reticule as he gripped the makeshift weapon in both hands, pulled it back over his head, and brought it crashing down right for Ilia's jugular.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--​

Where it stopped, the proverbial executioner's axe seemingly brought to a standstill mid-fall of its own volition if not for the gently pulsating glyph keeping it from descending any lower, Weiss lazily letting her hand drop from where she was pointing at it as she began to chide firmly.

Wait, wha-​

"Do not ignore me-"

The way he whirled on her, grabbed a fistful of her own white hair and wrenched so she was bent backwards at an awkward angle looking up at him was so sudden, vicious and completely outside the realms of expectation that it actually drew a yelp from the icy maiden, whose first instinct was surprisingly to stutter and trip over her own words rather than unleash any of the magical hell she was no doubt capable of, hands flying to the grip on the back of her head. He leaned in, and it stood in terrifying contrast to the horrific injuries he'd accumulated and murderous vengeance he'd personified with Ilia that his tone was pointed, calm, and very, very low.

Oh, um, is that--​

"It's called discipline, girly. Didja forget what that word means? Was your old man too soft on you kids without uncle Borous around to show him how to command the proper respect in his own home? You Schnee women and all your little notions, you think I don't see, think I don't hear you when you look at me, when you take pity on these disease-ridden ingrates, your father may have been too much of a gutless snowflake to lay down the law properly but at least he stuck by his own kind-"

"Borous..."

Weiss gasped, an unusually dry, scratchy quality to her songstress' voice as she opened her eyes from where they'd been screwed shut.

"Shut up."

Is it too much to ask that they take each other out or--​

The simultaneous icy touch of an icicle's tip pressing against either side of his temple was the only warning he had of his mortality's current precariousness, ready to be spiked unceremoniously into his brain from both angles if he went spoke so much as a word further out of turn. It was a threat with no real teeth; too many of Weiss's plans depended on an installed military official amoral enough to obey her will unconditionally in return for being scooped from his exiled obscurity. But there was enough cold-hearted conviction in her tone to make him question whether, at least in that moment, she truly cared or not, and the councilwoman had been careful to devise a means of clouding her full intentions from him before they ever had any dealings.

Are they actually gonna--​

More importantly, it was enough to remind him of the positions they both sat and how precarious they truly were, and after a solid five or ten seconds of that steady, menacing stare he slowly let her go.

"My sincere apologies, councilwoman. Pain's clearly clouding my judgment. Don't suppose you'd be inclined to help with that."

--guess not--​

More silence. More staring. Ilia was more than likely still recovering, but even she felt the temperature in the room plummet to what felt like sub zero. It went on long enough that Weiss finally broke the silence again with a sigh, hand alighting on her hip.

--or maybe they will? Ilia didn't know what to think as she just laid there, silently observing. Part of her hoped they would but another part of her didn't dare be that optimistic. This was freaking nerve-wracking!​

"I learned a great deal from you and my father, general. One lesson I remember particularly well. You reap what you sow."

Carnelian grinned.

It was a rare expression from him. Too uninhibited, too reflective of the monster within he did such a good job of publicly hiding. The most he ever allowed himself on the job was a smirk. He grinned like a shark now, made all the more disturbing by the fact that one corner of his lips was outright missing, all the hidden angles of a smile exposed. He didn't let that grin waver one bit as he turned and stalked silently from the room, nor did his eyeline ever break from Weiss's until the moment he rounded the corner out of sight.

It was so soft as to almost be imperceptible, but a soft, drained huff of relief broke Weiss's own neutral stare back at him before she turned and swept across the room for where Blake and Eve lay, Ilia still a perennial non-factor in her mind.

When all of that was finally over and it seemed she had a moment to recover, she...simply continued to lay where she was, gritting her teeth from the still aching pain and trying to contemplate whether there was any realistic chance she could sneak out of here now that her presence was known...or even if that was she wished to do. Uncertainty dominated her mind after all that. So much shit had just happened and she had NOT BEEN PREPARED FOR SO MUCH OF IT OH MY GOD. She had never asked to get on this DAMN ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTION!​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Ruby Rose going top speed was a force to be reckoned with.

It was also, as it turned out, too fast for Penny to pick up on her extra sensors. Which was why Ruby turned a corner and got immediately speared by a very startled penny who'd been about to turn the exact same corner in the opposite direction. Thankfully for everyone involved, the robot ended up smashing into the steel wall and Ruby into her, instead of pinning the poor rose between two chunks of steel like a petal in a book. They impacted hard enough that Penny didn't actually hit the floor afterwards, a Penny shaped dent in the hallway with the Penny still inside it, her sensors resetting by way of blinking eyes that shot to wherever Ruby had ended up.

"Ruby! Whats happening up there?!"

For just a moment there, Ruby really thought she would end up a Ruby Rose sandwich, stuck between the uncompromising metal of one of the walls and the far friendly Penny-shaped metal that she'd just ran into and bonked her head off of, but it was luckily not to be. Penny hit the wall instead. There was a low sigh of relief that she was not the one stuck in the wall. Fistbumping Penny had been painful enough, that could've been so very very bad! The moment passed, and Ruby's face shifted to concern, bracing a boot against the wall and grabbing one of Penny's hands with both her own and tugged, attempting to pry her out of there. "A not good situation, that's what! Jerk Cinder showed up and tried to attack me but cool Cinder showed up after and prevented that and now they're fighting high in the sky and I don't know how long the cool one can manage to keep that up, we gotta help!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

When all of that was finally over and it seemed she had a moment to recover, she...simply continued to lay where she was, gritting her teeth from the still aching pain and trying to contemplate whether there was any realistic chance she could sneak out of here now that her presence was known...or even if that was she wished to do. Uncertainty dominated her mind after all that. So much shit had just happened and she had NOT BEEN PREPARED FOR SO MUCH OF IT OH MY GOD. She had never asked to get on this DAMN ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTION!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ilia continued to go ignored as she lay there, the exact focus of Weiss's attention difficult to surmise from her back. It was clear she was preoccupied though, and the chameleon was afforded a few seconds to catch her breath before a lightbulb practically sparked into being above her head.

"Oh yes," she finally murmured to herself, as if remembering to turn the stove off. She straightened up where she was kneeling, brushed off the tattered folds of her skirt and rose, swiveling on a heel to stride over to where Ilia lay and look down on her superciliously, inverted from the faunus's point of view.



"So. Where were we."

She gave a poised snap of the fingers, and Ilia's mind probably couldn't help but flash back to their first fateful encounter aboard her private airship as twin glyphs with glowing centers sprang into existence on either side of her.

---

And so arrests were made, injuries were tended to, and the appropriate figures were taken to either medical wards or the prison wing; where Winter's eyes practically bugged out of her head at the sight of Wolf, Bear, Tiger, and lastly Blake Belladonna herself being wheeled into their own cells on the same strip as her and Yang's, all unconscious but seemingly stable.

It was late that evening by the time Weiss had finished pulling all the strings she needed to make this disappear off the record entirely, sighing as she pushed away from her desk, crossed to the view over the Atlesian skyline and swirled her wine glass around agitatedly. As far as official military knowledge extended, there were no Shadow Fang in Atlas. She'd feed a supposed affiliate's intelligence through the proper channels tomorrow, raise the threat level and have androids start conducting surreptitious searches throughout the city from there. They'd find them. It was fine. She had won. They weren't a threat without their leader. They were effectively neutralized. She won.

Weiss finished her drink and took a deep, solemn breath.

Then she screamed. Nothing so juvenile as cursing; just a single, inarticulately shrill expression of pure frustration and outrage, accompanied by her turning and pitching the empty glass for the other side of the room, where it shattered on impact in time with her sliding down to the floor, back against the window and head slumped in her knees.

Four arrests.

These people came into her city, tried to bomb her in her own sanctum. Hurt someone whose only sin was being stupid enough to be near her, forced whatever stupid childish dalliance she'd been preoccupying herself with to an end, and this was all she had to show for it. Four people who wouldn't talk.

She didn't move for a long time.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"So. Where were we."

She gave a poised snap of the fingers, and Ilia's mind probably couldn't help but flash back to their first fateful encounter aboard her private airship as twin glyphs with glowing centers sprang into existence on either side of her.

That's exactly where her thoughts went and with everything else that had happened, the auraless and weaponless chameleon lowered her gaze to the floor and resigned herself to however the rest of this would play out. It wasn't like she could resist to any effective degree anyway. The best she felt she could hope for was that it was quick. And it was. All that happened after Weiss turned her attention back to her, it hit just as hard as she had been struck back when Weiss had unleashed those meteor glyphs during her failed airship infiltration. She felt not even her Lightning Lash could be that shocking.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

When she finally came back to consciousness(again), it was the bright white sterile lights of an Atlesian medical bay that greeted her. She winced, closing her eyes for a quick bit before blinking rapidly, forcing them to adjust to the really bright lights. A brief look around her surroundings followed before she focused on herself. There was still aching pains in the spots where the dust crystals had been sticking out of her arms but it was more a dull throbbing pain rather than the intense spike of before. And there were the bruises as well, the bruises that came with fighting that HUGE faunus blow for blow, head to head. Other than those? She felt pretty alright. With that in mind, Nora Valkyrie took it upon herself to discharge herself from medical aid while the staff dealt with others or were otherwise occupied.

She slipped out of the ward with cheery casualness but the instant she turned a corner into a different hallway, her walk became decidedly more hurried into a purposeful stride as she went to go check up on how Yang was doing.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Ruby had taken what'd felt like a battle's worth of damage in just a couple of hours or so.

Her body once wracked with bleeding wounds and old scars running anew was whole once again.

Having refused any further aid if it was offered, she climbed out of bed and looked down at her chest and stomach.

Old scars, new scars, all the same.

'How many times do I have to be beaten like a dog before I figure out what I want from this life?'

First it'd been her sister taking payback for years of the abuse she'd suffered at the Masque's hands, then it'd been the encounter with her other that'd gone sour. The 'reunion' with her own world's Yang didn't go any easier. She'd been left a sobbing feral mess that didn't know where to go. But as she surveyed her body which looked to be more scar tissue than anything else at this point, she couldn't help but sigh. Maybe that's all she'd ever amount to: a feral wild woman who'd die alone on some battlefield pocketed with gaping wounds and the flesh of her enemy between her teeth.

'But...what kind of end is that?'

She got a response and not one she liked.

'Face it, Ruby. We're not like the others. Never have been, never will be. We're just a girl playing dressup and failing at it.'

Ruby turned her head. That voice sounded so familiar, familiar enough to be-her?

Sitting on the side of the bed beside her was herself. Or at least a version of her dressed up in similar clothes to her aunt. With the addition of practically being covered in blood. "You look scared, Ruby. Like you've just seen a ghost.'

"Stop it..."

'Ruby' reached out towards her counterpart.

"Stay back..."

She didn't.

"STAY AWAY! LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEE!" Ruby screamed as she swung outwards.

But despite the sweat running down her face, Ruby had never actually screamed or moved her arm at all. She was still sitting on the side of her bed in the ward, hands clutching at the sheets. What'd she seen, what she'd heard. Her gaze hardened and she pushed herself up to her feet.

"My self-doubt coming home to roost."'

She moved to try and make her way out of the ward.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

For just a moment there, Ruby really thought she would end up a Ruby Rose sandwich, stuck between the uncompromising metal of one of the walls and the far friendly Penny-shaped metal that she'd just ran into and bonked her head off of, but it was luckily not to be. Penny hit the wall instead. There was a low sigh of relief that she was not the one stuck in the wall. Fistbumping Penny had been painful enough, that could've been so very very bad! The moment passed, and Ruby's face shifted to concern, bracing a boot against the wall and grabbing one of Penny's hands with both her own and tugged, attempting to pry her out of there. "A not good situation, that's what! Jerk Cinder showed up and tried to attack me but cool Cinder showed up after and prevented that and now they're fighting high in the sky and I don't know how long the cool one can manage to keep that up, we gotta help!"​

"That is a not good situation!" Penny said in solemn alarm, the wall groaning in protest as Ruby pried her out of it. She came out with a grinding pop and landed nimbly on her feet, and with all the grace of an albanian farmer wrangling a goat snagged Ruby's arm in return and flipped her over her shoulders. "Grab on!"

She shot off like a rocket as soon as Ruby complied, her thrusters going full throttle as she activated her internal comms, and her voice soon echoed across the entire facility

"Attention resistance still on station, we are under attack! Class S! Noncombatants are to enter lockdown."

She knew of this Cinder, even if she'd never met her herself. Apparently she was the mastermind behind the fall of Beacon back home.

A plan that could not have succeeded without Penny's help, however unwilling and horrible it was.

Her gaze narrowed as they neared the surface.

"I have very strong personal feelings about this fight, Ruby. Please inform me if I act too erratically!"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

When it came to exfil strategies, it was almost always better to stick with simplicity. If one was on the retreat, it was likely because things had already not gone to plan. Attempting to execute a complex ploy at such a juncture, when the variables were already out of sync, was a laughably bad idea. Simple was best.

Simple didn’t have to mean obvious, however.

Insofar as Atlesian Military intelligence knew, the semblence of the Talon known as Panther was a known quantity; Shadowwalking. The ability to enter a patch of darkness and emerge from another in sight. A dangerously potent semblance, especially in the employ of the Fang and their tendency to stick to the dark and create it where they did their bloodiest work. It was also a complete fabrication. A performance put on by the young apprentice and helped along by master and Snake. His semblance, much like a good exfil plan, was far more simple; insubstantiability. The ability to pass through objects entirely.

The warehouse was a frozen glacier. Ice that thick did not allow shadows through, and the few entrances Weiss had left for her own teams were overloaded with lighting for this very reason. It was quite almost close to inescapable.

But nothing was going to stop Panther from falling straight through existence, all the way through the super structure of Atlas itself. Far below Atlas, almost a mile beneath it, and well away from the ships patrolling the warehouse itself, was an innocuous cargo vessel, idling, its ID tags that of a local, well established (faunus run) union of steel workers.

It suddenly jerked downwards as a payload of about four people suddenly slammed into its hold at terminal velocity. The pair of heavy duty mattress, along with their aura, ensured that none of the new passengers were broken beyond all belief on impact, just dreadfully sore.

Then the airship’s outsides shifted in a flicker of electronic noise, and an Atlesian war vessel with matching tags tore off into the night. The officer who’s tag it broadcasted had been assigned a top secret mission days earlier. Snake approximated his corpse would be found anywhere from ten minutes to an hour from now, if the hornet’s nest was as stirred as it seemed. She didn’t intend to stick around long enough to find out. Her eyes briefly flared, the red a dark and dangerous glow in the dim lighting of the cockpit, before her chair swiveled and she regarded the quartet with a solemn frown.

“... This was my fault. I’m certain of it. Not an hour before, I-”

“Turn this bucket of bolts around IMMEDIATELY!” Feri shrilled as she unburied herself from where she was tangled amidst dog and chameleon legs. “My idiot sister is still up there, along with half your comrades! What is wrong with you people!?”

Snake’s eyes hardened slightly.

“A healthy sense of survival is wrong with us. The Hand knew what was at stake when she gave Panther those orders. I doubt any of you except for Panther himself would’ve made it out alive had she and the others not played interference. Be grateful for their bravery, and more to the point, don’t squander it-”

She stumbled over her next words as she saw that it wasn’t a quartet, but a quintet of people in the back of her personal vessel.

“I… who is that-”

 

[Gus Gungus]

“I… who is that-”

"-Oh, who'm I?" Interrupted a sunny affectation from the tanuki faunus, though currently she looked to have more in common with an anaconda of some kind as she slowly and mercilessly strangled Panther with her legs. Perks of not having to focus on all these other losers.

*Click*

That was the sound of the absurdly intricate-looking boxcutter she held coming unsheathed to its full extension, which frankly seemed unnecessary for a boxcutter given it was about as long as a bowie knife.

"I'm the crazy bitch who's gonna cut ya if ya don't pull over an' let me'n this bozo off this wild ride right NOW, sister."

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Even in her broken state, Blake had to be heavily sedated throughout the entire healing process, after one nurse had a scalpel put into her chest, saved only by the fact that the military elite medical teams didn’t bring non-aura enabled personnel into the field. The dosage had to reach downright dangerous levels before her body finally went limp enough.

She had to cling to consciousness. She’d been on the brink of it through the final moments of the battle with Weiss, though calling it such was a glorification of what it really had been. For not the first time, and probably not the last, Blake’s stubborn, inhuman willpower had stopped the universe from giving her mercy;



She’d been awake. Immobile, shattered, barely able to breath, but awake.

She’d been awake to feel Eve hold her one more time, and it broke her just like she’d always been afraid it would. Just like it had back at Beacon. Just like she’d always, deep down, hoped it would. A reminder that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. That no matter how monstrous she became, no matter her sins or the blood she bathed in, this person would be waiting for her at the end, if she could only reach it.

She’d been awake to hear her voice. To know that even at the end of the line, in the literal face of her two personal demons given form, Eve still tried to be, was a defender first, Her defender. For all the justified rage and anger, for all she claimed to be broken, her instinct had always been to put Blake first. Her last words, a gentle reminder to get back up and fight.

She’d been awake when those words were cut off in a spray of blood, burning Blake’s eyes and getting in her mouth, coating her already ruined armor in red.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, to get Eve help, to hold her as she drifted off, she wanted to kill all the people who let this happened and everyone else beside, she wanted to run far, far away, she wanted to die herself, she wanted to tear out her heart, that had gone from a roaring flame of hatred to a blazing inferno of grief in an instant.

She didn’t do any of those things. She just breathed slightly more erratically and shuddered a bit in the arms of a corpse until Weiss Schnee kicked her face in and delivered her to the blessed dark.


-----------------------------

"Well it's a relief to see she finally came to her senses about something."

"....Hey, you got a spoon-"


------------------------


However long after that travesty of a conversation, Yang was lying in her bunk with a concerted frown, her bottom lip worried between her teeth as she ran through the events of the last hour again. She'd messed up. Well, no, she hadn't, because if stopping some dude from exploding on top of Weiss was the wrong choice then she didn't want to make the right one, but still. Weiss had been shaken up pretty bad. Bad enough that she seemed to think the best way to protect her good best buddy Yang was to... arrest her. Like a kid on time out.

Honestly. It wasn't the first time she'd been blown up. It wasn't even the first time she'd been horribly maimed! and there'd even been a magic maiden lady to help out this time!

Yang knew that wasn't really it, of course. She knew (ok, guessed in the educated sense) the reason Weiss hadn't made any friends in this world was because she'd seen them as a weakness, a chink in the armor, and Yang had to go and prove her right. She wasn't in here for her own safety, she was in her because Weiss felt it was the best way to cover her Achilles heel. Obviously this wasn't ideal, but hey, at least it meant her wondrous charms had been working this whole time; now she just had to convince Weiss that she was a friend worth having, and remind herself that this was just how Weiss showed friendship obviously, and that Weiss still deserved to be her friend too and wasn't-

She didn't shoot up in surprise when the new prisoners started getting hauled in. Wowee, prisoners? in my prison? Stop. But she did glance to the side, and one eyebrow raised when she saw the absolute units that were Tiger and Bear being dragged in by three guards each.

Then she saw the the faunus in third, and she shot up so fast that she smashed her head straight into the bunk above hers in shock. "B-BLAKE?!"

The faunus didn't reply, and Yang's face softened to concern when she saw just how battered and bloody her clothes were, if no longer the faunus herself.

She didn't have to wait long for the other woman to begin to stir, and she anxiously clanged her arm against the bars in an attempt to get her attention. "Blake! Blake! its me! Specifically the me that I'm pretty sure you hate but still, are you-"

"SHUT UP!"

Yang actually jolted back from the bars as Blake's voice came out a slurred, bestial howl as she slammed herself against the door to her own cell, then again with a far more wordless scream. She beat her first against the bars, pulled against them, smashed her forehead off of them, and screamed all the way through, scars new and old bloodying as she ripped them open against the metal of her cell.

It... Yang knew this wasn't her Blake, but the sight was harrowing, horrible. and she tried to loudly tell this Blake to stop.

It didn't come out very loud, and Blake didn't stop.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Then she saw the the faunus in third, and she shot up so fast that she smashed her head straight into the bunk above hers in shock. "B-BLAKE?!"

"Do you have a SINGLE bearable trait?!" Winter snapped as Yang felt the aforementioned mattress creak under the weight of her newly minted cellmate jerking upright, having been taken out of her own cell and unceremoniously shoved into Yang's (with very loud protesting) shortly before the new prisoners arrived. These were privately built, the guards all on Weiss's patrol rather than servicemen, and when she caught sight of the new arrivals herself she immediately understood the need to make room. They were prisoners that more or less demanded sole occupancy.

She recognized each of them just as readily as Yang recognized Blake, sans the scowl-inducing tone of familiarity, but held her silence as she watched each of them be detained with varying amounts of difficulty. Whatever Tiger and Bear's struggles though, it was Blake her eyes settled on, and on Blake they stayed right up until the outburst she had some vague instinctual awareness was coming came.

She did not, however, expect it to be anywhere near that magnitude, and even her own eyes looked a little bit rounder the third or fourth time the terrorist slammed her head against the bars as she finally possessed herself enough to slide off the bed and stride over. She had better luck projecting her voice than Yang did, ultimately unmoved by the display outside of its sheer gruesomeness as her tone cut through Blake's bestial screams with crystal clear authority regardless of what side of the bars she stood on herself.

"Stop—Enough. I assure you no one watching is intimidated, but they will activate the pacification measures if you force their hand."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Do you have a SINGLE bearable trait?!" Winter snapped as Yang felt the aforementioned mattress creak under the weight of her newly minted cellmate jerking upright, having been taken out of her own cell and unceremoniously shoved into Yang's (with very loud protesting) shortly before the new prisoners arrived. These were privately built, the guards all on Weiss's patrol rather than servicemen, and when she caught sight of the new arrivals herself she immediately understood the need to make room. They were prisoners that more or less demanded sole occupancy.

She recognized each of them just as readily as Yang recognized Blake, sans the scowl-inducing tone of familiarity, but held her silence as she watched each of them be detained with varying amounts of difficulty. Whatever Tiger and Bear's struggles though, it was Blake her eyes settled on, and on Blake they stayed right up until the outburst she had some vague instinctual awareness was coming came.

She did not, however, expect it to be anywhere near that magnitude, and even her own eyes looked a little bit rounder the third or fourth time the terrorist slammed her head against the bars as she finally possessed herself enough to slide off the bed and stride over. She had better luck projecting her voice than Yang did, ultimately unmoved by the display outside of its sheer gruesomeness as her tone cut through Blake's bestial screams with crystal clear authority regardless of what side of the bars she stood on herself.

"Stop—Enough. I assure you no one watching is intimidated, but they will activate the pacification measures if you force their hand."​

the smashing came to a halt with the order, the sound of the voice catching her attention more than the words themselves. A slow recognition worked its way across Blake's visage, marred by an already bruising gash above her brow that had rivulets of blood pouring down the right side of her face. She gripped the bars hard enough that her arms shook and in far more gentle fashion put her forehead against the metal as well as she locked eyes with Winter.

A Schnee.

Hatred spewed from those eyes like blood from a far more violent wound than the one Blake had given herself. Winter, and even Yang to the side, could tell there wasn't a single thought in Blake's head in that moment that didn't involve savage, grisly violence against every inch of flesh Winter had. the voice that came out of Blake's mouth was hoarse and drug slurred, yet with a clarity of thought worthy of the grandest speeches that was wasted on debase anger that was deathly quiet.

"I'm going rip out your entrails and bury your sister's head in the stomach acid until she drowns."

"...gross, wha-"

"You're going to die. She's going to die. Your shitstain of a mother and little brother are going to die. I will raze everything with your name to the ground"