Chapter 26: Into the Fire - I
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"There was nothing I could do to apprehend Tyrian Callows without risking Weiss' safety." Penny finished, standing stiff shouldered and with her hands clasped before her in the wide windowed office. "I also could not- I was unable to prevent-"
"Young Ruby from being taken by that cowardly wretch." Thel snapped, pacing behind the youngling and shaking his great head. He saw Penny flinch for his words and felt the distant pang of remorse, before it was washed away by his mounting fury. "He struck young Weiss low from the shadows, like a lowly assassin, and used her to prevent pursuit."
"So I understand." Ironwood murmured, only just loudly enough to hear from his place at his window, looking out over the city. Still watching the city, he asked, "Is that all?"
"E-Excuse me?"
"I asked if that was all you had to report, Polendina." The man repeated, turning on a heel to meet her gaze and then the Arbiter's when he turned to stare at him. "I have a city's worth of wounded, missing persons, and worse to contend with. So again, is that all-"
"Are you serious, Jimmy?" The last person in the room muttered from the corner by the door. Surprise and disbelief echoing in his voice, Qrow came to the Arbiter's side and chuckled, "Obviously, you get this is a big thing. You'll help."
"Qrow-"
It's Ruby!" He bellowed suddenly, shaking his head. "Jimmy, you have to help us find her. Save her."
"Qrow, I…" The general blinked and seemed to shake ever so slightly before he grimaced and turned away. "I don't have the manpower now. Too many of my drones were destroyed, and too many soldiers were killed or wounded. Or are needed to patrol the walls, and prevent another attack. An attack that I'm not confident we could thwart as easily as we did this one, without bolstering our forces. Our supplies."
"And how long will that take then?" Thel asked through a growl, "A day? A week, perhaps? What is your best estimate, for how long we must wait and allow our fellow to suffer such dark unknowns as our enemy could levy on her?"
"As long as it takes."
"But Ruby-"
"Would never want us to risk innocent lives to save her, Penny. You know that as well as I do, I'm sure." Ironwood answered, stepping around and falling into his chair with a weary sigh. Meeting all three of their eyes he said, "I want to save her, too. Tyrian is… Well, not exactly the kind of man I would wish on my worst enemies, to say the least."
"Yeah…" Qrow murmured, shoulders drooping and hand drifting to a familiar place on his waist. "And he has Ruby… All to himself, in some dark damn warehouse or something."
"We cannot abandon her. I quite simply refuse it, as, I am sure, does Qrow." The dishonor in that would be… Too great for him to carry, alongside all else that bore down upon him. Still, he had to admit the General had a point. Ruby would never forgive them for putting her ahead of so many, regardless of why they did it. "I will search for her alone, if I must."
"Presumptive of you to think I'll simply allow you to wander my city-"
"Oh, fuck off, Jimmy." Qrow snapped, stepping between them and pointing a long finger back at the Arbiter. "All the shit you pulled, and first word o' Grimm, he was out there risking his neck for 'your city'. You got him fucking tracker tagged, and he went out there to help anyway! And now he wants to go off and save Ruby, my niece, and you can't trust him? I should come over there and-"
"I'm not worried about trusting him, Qrow." Ironwood cut in, frowning and leaning forward, palms spread on his desk. "Mantle has been devastated. The people are frightened, and there are already reports of anti-Faunus groups seizing their chance to make moves against the citizens. What do you think those same people will do if they see something like him wandering around, barely armed and more or less unattended?"
"He won't be!" Qrow grunted, waving at himself, "I'll be with 'im."
"With your Semblance?" Ironwood raised a brow, shaking his head and holding up a hand when the Branwen man scoffed loudly. "And besides, one man against a bunch of thugs? You'd handle yourself, I'm sure, but I'd prefer the fight not happen at all."
"As would I." Thel rumbled, turning a glowering look to the floor, "The Master Chief, perhaps…"
"Assumin' he's gonna hang around after he gets off his call?" Qrow asked, shaking his head. "Don't even wanna know what can put one o' those bastards on their backs…"
"My prayers are with him." Thel rumbled, pursing his mandibles and shaking his great head. "If your people elect to step between me and Ruby, then such is their fate, Ironwood. But I won't be stayed for fools."
"Because Miss Rose would want that, right?" Ironwood snapped, "You beating innocent civilians down to get to her."
"I would not call the kind you describe innocent, per se…"
"You know damn well what I'm saying, Split-Lip." The Human snarled, slamming a fist down into his desk with thundering force. Thel growled and Ironwood's eyes narrowed, one hand slipping closer to the edge of his desk almost unconsciously.
"I'll go with him." Penny suddenly said, breaking her long silence and finally looking up. Her face was grim and cold, lacking the warmth and brightness that, even for how short a time he had known her, had always been present. Ironwood's frown, impossibly, deepened even more and Penny rushed to defend her idea. "I'm a representative of the Atlas military, and as the Defender of Mantle, I've… I can keep people from doing anything untoward to the Arbiter while I am with him."
"And if I need you somewhere else?"
"You will manage." Ironwood's brows shot up at that, and Penny explained, her voice firm. "I am going to help find my friend, General. You will just have to make do without me until she is recovered."
"You are an Atlesian soldier-"
"No, I am not." Penny argued quietly, and hotly enough that Thel sensed this was not the first time such an argument had taken place. "I am under enlistment age in both the literal sense and the more applicable intellect based one. I have not as of yet pushed for legal action, but with Ruby at risk, I will do so if I must to retain my independence and-"
"Fine!" Ironwood suddenly snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. After a moment, he sighed and nodded, "Fine. I can give you a day before your absence becomes a problem. A lethal one, at that. After that, Arbiter, you will be on your own with Qrow. Is that clear?"
"Yes."
"Works, I guess."
"Indeed."
"Good." The man sighed, turning away and growling, "Now get out of my damn office."
Nodding, Thel turned to follow the other two out of the great doors to his office. With all that had happened, the hall outside was empty beyond a pair of guard-drones that looked far older and out-moded compared to their sleek white brethren, with their dull grey, boxy limbs. Only one was even properly armed, with a rifle whose barrel nearly touched the floor and ended in a long bayonet. The other wore a long, ovular shield on one arm and carried a short sort of club in its hand.
Neither paid them any mind as they made their way, and Qrow took that for the invitation to snap, "I can't believe the balls on that metal bastard…"
"He is doing what he believes is best for his people. We cannot hate him for such, even if it flies in our faces..." Thel growled, hating the words even as he said them. Still, he owed it to the man's entire race to offer such charity.
"Speak for yourself, Mister Scaley." Qrow growled under his breath, shaking his head and stalking ahead of the both of them.
"Hmph." He shook his head, watching the man. Fury could be good, it drove him even now, but he worried the man would lose his head. "We need to focus. Especially with our time so limited…"
"Will you give up, if we cannot find her in the time given to us?" Penny asked quietly, turning a bright eye on him.
"No." He answered lowly, after a moment to look for ears around him. "I will not."
"I see…" She nodded, turning her gaze away from him and sighing. "Good."
"What will you do, then?"
"The General gave me his orders." She answered coyly, "I am certain he expects them to be followed."
"That is not an answer…"
"No, I suppose it is not." Penny murmured, falling into a silence and unnatural stillness even as she walked that… Unnerved him, somewhat.
"I see…" But then, he supposed from her hard tone that he knew what her actual answer was. Perhaps he had misjudged her…
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They'd been walking for what felt like an hour, now, crossing through back alleys in a weird, dizzying pattern Ruby didn't understand. Besides the obvious, that it let them cross block after block without even once crossing a road. Whenever she flicked a look back at him, Tyrian would lower his Scroll and grin, waving playfully at her until she shivered and turned back to the way they were heading.
But every time she looked, he was looking at his Scroll…
As they rounded a corner, she ducked and shot forward, petals trailing behind her as she leapt up, onto a heavy dumpster cemented in place by layers of grime she didn't want to think about. Grunting, she leapt for the fire-escape on the apartment above them, and felt her fingers close around it. But the ladder didn't come free even under her weight even when she lifted herself up and let herself drop, putting all her weight into it.
And she felt her heart plummet as Tyrian cackled.
"Oh my, are we stuck?" Tyrian laughed, leaping up and onto her back like some sort of gremlin.
She squealed as he leaned into her face, grinning, and then rolled back, pulling her off the ladder with all his weight. She tried to hold on, but he only did it again, and this time her fingers slipped and she fell, flailing. As they fell he let the initial roll carry her around and under him in a smooth motion that drove her into the concrete and forced every scrap of air out of her.
"Ah, but you're a naughty one, aren't you?" The Faunus laughed, stepping off of her and then driving a foot down in between her shoulder blades when she tried to get up. She saw stars and felt her eyes water as her chest slammed back down into the filth, but she didn't let him hear her make a sound.
She wouldn't give him that.
Instead, she coughed, "D-Don't you think someone will see you?"
"Oh, they already have." The killer laughed, using the same foot he'd driven her down with to flip her onto her side and then kneeling beside her to press one of his curved blades into her face, the points so close to her eye she was sure that if she dared to blink they'd cut her. Grinning, he raised his voice and screamed, "Ohhhh, help, someone! Some mad man is about to carve a girl's eyes out in the alleyway! Oh, won't someone do something!?"
To her surprise, no one so much as told them to be quiet…
"See?" He chuckled, waving a hand around them at the buildings as he rose, "No one cares what I do to you. Not back here, at least."
"What kind of place is this…?"
"The fun kind." Tyrian laughed, waving for her to get up. She made it halfway up before his foot snapped out, into the side of her knee, and sent her sprawling in the muck again. Laughing, the man said, "Whoops! Silly me. Now, up you get. Places to be, people to see! If you're lucky that is…"
This time, at least, he didn't knock her back down. Which didn't do much to help her throbbing knee as they walked, until her Aura started to work on it.
Finally, after another ten minutes of walking, they came into an alley and a door opened. A moustached man in a coat that was definitely too high end for this area. He eyed her up and down once, then dismissed her, speaking past her to ask, "You didn't detour, I trust?"
"Of course I didn't." Tyrian snapped back, "I'm insane, not stupid!"
"Fair enough, I suppose." The man sighed, turning away and slipping back into the dark, rusted door he'd come out of.
When she didn't follow right away, Tyrian shoved her toward it and she frowned, trudging forward as slowly as she could get away with.
The old door let into a run-down, but startlingly clean, one-bedroom apartment. It was mostly empty, aside from a metric ton of computer terminals that covered one wall and a kitchenette at the back. There was also a dingy looking wooden door in a cut off corner she guessed the bathroom was in, but beyond that and a couple cots tucked against the front wall, it was completely empty.
And didn't have a way she could see to get into the rest of the building, which was… Kind of weird.
"See that corner?" Tyrian said, gripping her shoulder and pressing his cheek against hers so he could steer her around to look at it. He pointed her at the corner next to the bathroom, and gave her shoulder a squeeze, "You sit there until we leave. If you try to go anywhere, then I'll carve out one of your eyes, fry it, and make you eat it. Understand?"
"And face the corner." The other man called over, "It won't be long, so be patient."
Nodding, she paced over to the corner and plopped down, staring at it like a kid that had stolen a cookie.
For a second, she wonder why they hadn't tied her up or something. But then, she figured, Tyrian probably wanted her to try and run again. She had to cross the whole apartment, after all, and he'd fallen onto his cot by the door, so she was likely to actually make it. And she couldn't fight him, either…
So, for now, she'd just have to bide her time. And later?
Later, she'd make them regret not taking her more seriously.
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They found the Spartan near the landing pads, leaning against the wall with his head down and his rifle clutched tight against his chest. What few soldiers there were gave him a wide berth as they came and went, and even the drones avoided him, following in their handlers wake. Or simply going on patrol routes that didn't route near the Spartan, which Thel was sure had been done on purpose.
He knew the Spartan was aware of the three of them as they approached, but he still raised his voice and spoke, "Spartan. How is your kinsman?"
"Out of the fight." He answered, pushing off the wall. "But alive. He took a hit that blew through half of his breastplate, but it held. And we have a spare for him on the Sun."
"I am pleased beyond words, my friend." Thel rumbled, bowing his head. "Forgive me, but I haven't the time to celebrate your fortunes."
"Mhm." The Spartan nodded, flicking a look to Qrow's glower and Penny's guilty, forlorn look and grunting. "You're going after her, then."
"We are, yes."
"Then let's get to work." The Chief grunted, turning and stalking away, towards a landed transport that was seemingly waiting for them. Or merely for their next job, it didn't matter. Over his shoulder, the Spartan said, "Roland is standing by to comb through the city's security grid. He only neds access, and a connection point."
"What kind of connection point?"
"Somewhere with enough software space to house his outreach, and the clearance to use it." The Spartan answered, watching while Qrow explained that they were taking the shuttle and then shoved past the technician that had gotten in their way. As they climbed in, the woman turned to talk into an ear-piece and then frowned, sighed, and got to work readying the ship to move.
Ironwood's aid, no doubt, weak and quiet as it truly was.
"Would… Would I work?" Penny asked after a few moments, sliding to a seat at the back of the craft, her chin on her knees. She didn't meet any of their looks when they turned to her, instead explaining in a flat voice, "I am the most advanced autonomous unit in the entire Kingdom, and so far as I know, the only true artificial intelligence. And I have the clearances he will need as well. Further, I doubt General Ironwood would offer your AI that sort of access if we asked him to."
"I suppose." And though it sounded oh so invasive, the Arbiter couldn't fault the logic. Or go against her atonement for her failing either, for that matter. It would insult her. And when no one else ventured to either, he sighed and asked, "Demon, would this work?"
The Spartan only nodded quietly, and Penny smiled forlorn but somehow hopeful sort of smile, "Tell me what to do, then. Whatever it is, I'll do it. Anything for Ruby."
He could feel the dedication in her words and nodded for it.
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Yangn33 :
Aura is no less bullshit than a ton of powered armor that can let you more or less hurl cars at people if you really want to. *shrugs*
The Polish Sausage Roaster :
First, splendid name. Second, yeah, Kelly held her own due to how I interpret Adam. I view him as a very speed based kind of fighter. Move fast, hit hard kind of deal. So I pit him against the one character I felt could match him blow for blow.
Joe Cola :
Glad you enjoyed, lol.
Nantono :
Hmmm… Atriox….
KPMH :
I originally planned a longer scene for Oscar, but cut it down considerably to give Adam and the Spartans a proper fight.
Smokey Panda :
To be clear, Adam never penetrated Mjolnir. He only really managed to get in blows through the much weaker, though strongly rated against ballistics, undersuit. Even the blast that knocked Fred out of the fight didn't pierce.
Snow in the Darkness :
Like I told Baz, Spartans - Chief included - regularly listen to what others have to say. ESPECIALLY if, as Ruby does, they are someone who inherently knows more about a topic. Further, Arby had her back, so he was less 'listening to Ruby Rose' and more 'listening to someone who the Arbiter respects'.
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