“-Ruby, how are you and the girls making out?” The Courier called over the Scroll.

  Ruby tried to respond, but she was finding it hard to. Even with her eyes closed her vision was swimming, and her brain was drowning. Her body ached from the impact of the blast that had struck her. She had no idea what had happened, only the vaguest idea of where it came from. She hoped, as the thought struggled through her mind, that the others were ok. Because she certainly didn’t feel that way.

  “… Girls, are you there?” The Courier called again. “… Sun?”

  Ruby’s eyes slowly managed to open, only to find the world as disorienting as when they’d been closed. It had almost made more sense when she’d had them closed.

  Dust and smoke filled the air where Ruby lay, slowly settling onto the ground. Bits of debris laid scattered across the surrounding ground, a bit of metal sheeting lay over her lower half. She briefly realized she was lucky it hadn’t landed on its edge. Rain continued to fall from overhead, slowly pushing the clouds of dust down. Ruby flexed her grip slightly, and found Crescent Rose was still in it. Shakily, she began to push the debris off and pick herself up, her hand briefly moving to her Scroll to respond. She cleared her throat and went to speak.

  She was cut off before she could even make a sound.

  Another wall of force burst through the air. It sliced through the dust and smoke around her and scattered the rain, briefly, opening a clearing around her that revealed the state of the Arsenal.

  As she had feared, the blast had come from further near the gate. Where Yang and Weiss had been sent. Several of the whats-it huts had been knocked over, laying in heaps over their original contents. Several of the White Fang who’d been passing between them were recovering, slowly. Some who had already recovered were pulling their comrades to their feet. Overhead, roaring through the air, Bullheads fled. Ones she had no doubt were from the very airfield they were trying to protect. But they only served to further scatter the dust and smoke as they began their flight.

  The one to blow it all away was the Bull.

  He stood with his blade drawn and ready, arm extended at the end of a stroke, looking a bit dusty, but otherwise unharmed. A cold scowl crept over his face as he stared Ruby down.

  “Where were we?” He growled, feigning forgetfulness. “… Oh, right.”

  The Bull charged towards her, sword flashing back into sheath. Ruby’s hand returned to Crescent Rose. Its muzzle thundered as she fired, quickly cycling the action to loose another shot. Even as she did, the Bull caught the bullet on his blade once more in an act she was growing familiar with. The second shot landed in the same fashion as she forced herself to her feet. Right as the Bull was upon her and drawing his blade, Ruby back stepped, giving her room to raise her scy-fle. As the Bull raised his sword to strike her, she dashed forward, raising her scythe blade as she passed. Her Semblance granted speed to her swing she wouldn’t have normally managed. Despite this, the Bull weaved to the side of the strike. Her foot struck the ground, skidding as she tried to reverse course. Crescent Rose swung back towards the Bull once more.

  And once more, the Bull weaved to the side, moving to close the gap. Instead of drawing his blade, he pulled the trigger on his sheath while his weapon remained undrawn. The resulting blast rocketed his blade forward, hilt first. The pommel of the blade struck Ruby squarely between the eyes, and she felt the full brunt of it bounce into her skull. Instinctively, she flourished Crescent Rose, batting the tumbling sword to the side, her eyes blinking closed at the hit.

  Then next thing Ruby knew, something crashed into her leg and swept it out from under her. She tried to recover, diving to the side. But the only thing she could do was fall to a knee or risk flopping to her side uncontrollably. There was something else that kept her from doing it as well.

  The tip of something sharp and hard pressed against her throat.

  She opened her eyes again. The Bull was looming before her, stark shadows cutting over him in the gloom of the rain, his red hair illuminated by a similarly crimson aura. He radiated nothing but malice and hatred for her. She’d never even met him before tonight!

  “Everything she cares about.”

  His crimson blade flashed away from her throat, arcing outward.

  At that moment, Ruby Rose realized she would die.

  The thought froze her.

  “Ruby!”

  The voice of her sister shattered that hold.

  A hair’s breadth away from the blade striking her, Ruby threw herself backward, allowing her back to hit the ground as she flung Crescent Rose in front of her. She grit her teeth and cycled the bolt of her scy-fle, lining the end of the barrel with the chest of the Bull. His swing carried through as he realized that he missed.

  She fired.

  Just as quickly, she missed as well.

  At the last moment, the Bull bladed his body with the muzzle of her weapon, teeth set on themselves, his blade away from her, the muzzle of his sheath pointed to the ground. Already, he was preparing himself to resume the attack. Thunder roared.

  Then Yang came flying in from the side, arms lagging behind her, providing an impulse of thrust. They curled into her sides as she flew up beside the Bull. She came so close she almost crashed into him. But her fists landed first, lashing out simultaneously in a pair of three-inch punches, her gauntlets thundering as they landed.

  The combined force blew the Bull back as Yang skidded to a stop, the shells exploding out from her gauntlets as they emptied themselves. With deft and practiced ease, Yang whipped a pair of shell belts from her pockets and wrapped them back into the magazines of her weapon. She cycled them just as quickly, ready to resume before the Bull even had a chance to realize she’d even needed to reload. It was a speed that left Ruby dazed.

  “Back. Off,” Yang growled, radiating heat with an intensity that would’ve made Ruby believe her semblance was active. The lack of fiery hair proved she wasn’t.

  The Bull recoiled, calmly finding his feet. He looked at Yang, then Ruby, and scowled once more.

  “It seems Blake’s been busy,” the Bull said, returning his sword to its sheath once more. “So quick she is to build a new life.” He fell calmly into another stance, ready to fight as though he had not just been struck. “She’ll abandon you just as quickly.”

  “Stay away from my friends,” Yang said, not moving an inch.

  “Yang, be careful,” Ruby said, her ears ringing, body trying to replenish her Aura. “Me, Blake, and Sun fought him and couldn’t beat him, he’s dangerous.”

  “I’ve got this, Rubes…” Yang said, not turning to look at her. “Just hold tight.”

  “You should listen to… what’d you call yourself again? Red Hood?” the Bull asked, chuckling, mocking Ruby’s choice of name. “Could’ve gone with something better. Like Short-stop. Or Body-bag.”

  Yang flew at the Bull and swung. Seamlessly, the Bull weaved around the punch, Yang’s gauntlet flying silently passed his head before retracting. She followed it with a combination punch that missed on the first strike as well, and was caught by his blade as he raised it in a guard. As Yang’s fist retracted, the Bull continued taunting her.

  “Since you’re the second blonde Blake’s got with her, I guess that makes you Another-dumb-blonde-joke,” The Bull sneered. “I didn’t laugh at the first one. Maybe you’ll be more entertaining.”

  Yang roared as she lashed her fists downward, gauntlets launching her upward, knee lashing forward. The strike missed, and she transitioned into a downward punch, once more caught against the Bull’s blade. Rather than let her fall continue, the Bull flipped backward, legs catching Yang in a kick. The two somersaulted backward through the air, before hitting the ground, Yang rolling and springing to her feet even as the Bull casually landed on his own. As they did, the Bull moved to steal the fight from Yang. He spun on his heel and drew his blade, and its keen edge scraped along Yang’s gauntlets as they flashed up in a guard. The blade passed and her guard lowered as she moved to strike, only for one of her arms to rise to it once more, as the muzzle of the Bull’s sheath took aim. The bullet fired and deflected off her smaller guard, only for the Bull’s blade to come singing around once more. Her other arm rose to connect with the strike, the blade skating off her guard as her other fist snapped out in a counter-punch.

  The Bull effortlessly dodged the strike once more, his leg swinging out in a counter-strike of his one.

  Yang caught the Bull’s leg and twisted at the hip, tossing him to the side.

  The Bull twisted as he flew through the air, landing on his feet once more. Before he’d had a chance to retaliate, Yang lashed out with her gauntlets. A pair of glowing projectiles flew through the air at the Bull, one missing as it flew past the Bull and crashed into one of the Whats-it huts exploding in a gout of fire. The heated air further cleared what dust remained in the air, revealing to Ruby that the rest of the White Fang were already recovering and rousing themselves.

  With ease, the Bull caught the second projectile with his blade, the explosion arcing over its edge. The tongues of fire that erupted from it curled back towards the blade, folding into the metal as it rippled and glowed.

  As it did, Ruby could see the White Fang around them, the ones who had spent their time and attention on stealing from the arsenal. Now their attention was on the fight that was transpiring.

  How quick they were, to take up arms. Seeing them do it reminded Ruby of just how many of them there were. How much harder their fight would’ve been if they’d all taken up arms instead.

  Within seconds, more than a dozen gun barrels had begun pointing haphazardly toward her sister.

  Some at Ruby as well.

  “Yang!” Ruby shouted cycling the action of her scy-fle. She dashed forward and flew straight for her sister, throwing what little Aura she could muster into her Semblance, her body only briefly reformed as she wrapped her arms around Yang. Surprise briefly passed over Yang’s face, as Ruby began to drag her backward, dissolving into a cloud of red and yellow rose petals.

  Half a second after she did, a storm of bullets hammered down on the spot Yang had been standing.

  Ruby did not carry her sister more than a meter or two, enough to take them both out of the line of fire. As soon as they were, she let them both reform, her Body spinning past Yang’s as she slung the muzzle of her scy-fle up. With a practiced hand she fired the weapon, the first shot striking its mark as she worked the bolt and loaded another. The second striking its mark and causing them to stagger back into another of the White Fang, causing them both to stop. She continued firing as the White Fang each attempted to adjust their aim.

  She then swung the muzzle of her weapon forward, away from the White Fang. Right in time with the Bull, who came crashing towards her and Yang, his blade carving downward as Yang deflected the strike, skating it off her gauntlet. Before she could counter punch, the Bull’s sheath rose sharply, cracking against her chin as it spun around. It then flew and caught the muzzle of Ruby’s scy-fle, knocking it to the side of him right before she pulled the trigger. Ruby held her fire as the muzzle veered off course.

  “Just another bad joke,” The Bull huffed, smirking coldly

  “JUST ANOTHER BULLY!” Ruby snapped, her ears ringing again. “-needing to be saved by his @$$hole friends!”

  Her hand flew up to the receiver of Crescent Rose and pulled back on the handle. The blade of the scythe snapped out, then forward. The spine of the weapon struck the Bull’s ribs as it swept into its war-scythe configuration.

  The Bull hissed and pulled back, his head dipping backwards and only narrowly avoiding the uppercut Yang threw, the muzzle flare lighting his face in stark gold. He broke away from them and swung the muzzle of his sheath towards them. He returned the shot immediately, the muzzle aimed for Ruby, only for the blast to be intercepted by Yang, who moved to shield her sister. Ruby felt her heart jump into her throat as Yang did. She knew her sister could handle the strike, but seeing her do it sent a spike of worry through her.

  Ruby knew she had little Aura left to use, and no time to replenish it.

  How much more did Yang have?

  The Bull steadied himself, leering at them. The rest of the White Fang steadied and fixed their aim on them. Some even from the wall that ringed the Arsenal.

  All at once it was as though the world was holding its breath. The dust settled and the storm around them came racing back into focus. Ruby found herself surrounded by destruction and mayhem. Her friends missing. Her Aura low. Not enough time to call for aid.

  Surrounded by people who wanted her and Yang dead.

  The White Fang were going to win. That thought settled on her just as heavily as the realization she’d been about to die, had.

  It just made the ringing in her ears even louder.

  After a moment, however, Yang quirked her head to the side “What’s that noise-”

  …

  “Come on!” I shouted, sprinting full-tilt down the corridor away from Oakholme, passing the body of the inmate Waylon had smeared. My hand flew to the receiver of Clark’s rifle and dropped the mag, a new one flying into the well and locking it in place, before swapping it for my lever-action. I topped the tube off as we ran, then let it fall back to my side. Penny kept even pace with me as we went. Likely could’ve outran me if she’d wanted to. She knew the map of the prison on a level of detail I couldn’t. I don’t know if she was taking pity on me for everything else that had just happened or not. But right then, I wouldn’t mind the boost she’d given the night before.

  There was nothing fast enough to get us from A to B short of teleporting. Which itself was limited by the speed of the wave frequency. Not that it would’ve done any good indoors anyway. But I knew Penny’s control over her thrusters, boosters, whatever they were called, wasn’t the best. Adding my weight to it only gave her more to try and account for, on top of doing it in the confined spaces of the prison. She might have been as good at math as any other computer, but I knew there was a limit to what she could do.

  Following the corridors back through the prison, we made our way back to the server room. From there, it was easy finding our way to the arsenal checkpoint. Not much more than a turn really, though it was even easier to find since the alarm for it was blaring. A constant, high-pitched note that was somewhere between a big-horner bleating and tinnitus made manifest. That, plus the flashing lights, said either the White Fang hadn’t paid much attention to procedure, or my teammates hadn’t. Either was possible, completely realistic, really. Further evidenced by one of the sets of doors having been forced completely open, a pool of hydraulic oil spreading over the floor. Made passing over it a hazard, slippery floors always were, but there was enough dry ground yet for me to safely pass. Penny skipped the whole mess by launching herself over it. It would be disingenuous to say the oil hadn’t looked a bit more like blood, under the flashing lights of the alarm. Just the right dark shade that it looked like it through my mask. I knew it wasn’t though.

  I had more than enough to compare it to outside.

  No more than a dozen feet from the door I was hit with a smell I never got used to. Had encountered it more than a few times in the Mojave, from various places. The metallic tinge of blood mingled with the gases and odors the body builds between the organs. A smell that was, under the best circumstances, repugnant. A hind-brain reaction, made to warn you that there was a dead human nearby. Make you be cautious while having your skin crawl.

  We found where it came from shortly after.

  Just beyond the doors was the sight of a massacre. I didn’t have time to pick out the gory details, and I didn’t need to. The White Fang had sent a party out in advance to the arsenal. We’d seen them come in on a Bullhead. The guards responded. They weren’t ready.

  Result: a dozen butchered men and women. Guts left spilled out and blood seeping into the ground.

  Different time, different place, I might have waxed poetic about the horror of it. How senseless all that violence was.

  But not then. I’d seen and done the same, if not worse. Even if the banner was different.

  My friends were in danger. There could’ve been a mountain of them and it wouldn’t have mattered beyond telling me what I was up against.

  Though I could tell by the reaction Penny had, it wasn’t something she could stomach. It probably hadn’t been for the girls and Sun either. Another one of those small things that blurred the lines between her and ‘people’.

  “I-I-...” Penny tried to say.

  “Don’t,” I told her, holding a hand up, trying to divert her attention away from the bodies. “They’re already gone. The ones that did this; They’re the ones currently fighting our friends. Focus on that. On trying to keep them safe.” I looked back at her, locking eyes. “We can’t do anything for these ones.”

  She looked at me for a moment, her green eyes glowing in the low light. There was worry and heartbreak on her face at what she’d seen. But her eyes were clear. I could see them dilating in small, quick motions, her mind running whatever qualified as a computation for this. She looked down at the bodies, briefly, sadly. “…I’m sorry,” she said, mournfully

  She then took pace with me as we ran past the scene.

  We’d honor them by stopping that mess. That was the best we could do.

  After clearing the massacre we left the lights and cover of the prison behind. Immediately the wind and rain of the storm that’d been gathering crashed down onto us. It had probably been going since about the time we’d separated, and it had only just now gotten around to unleashing itself. It came crashing down in massive sheets of water and wind. Even if it hadn’t already been dark out, it would’ve been a challenge to see anything more than a few feet ahead of you. Despite that, the path to the arsenal was clear enough to follow, the structure itself illuminated by industrial light.

  Penny raced up alongside me as a green glow began to surround us. I had a feeling I knew what was coming next. Despite that, she asked, “Ready?”

  “Can you handle it?” I asked back.

  “I’ll only be able to sustain thrust for a short time,” Penny explained. “But I calculate I can clear this distance 77.38% faster than running. That’s accounting for the current weather conditions.”

  “…” I nodded, accepting what was about to happen. “Be gentle.”

  “Don’t worry, Friend Six,” Penny chimed, smiling as her arms locked onto me. “We’ve got an 86% chance of landing safely.”

  “… Wait-” I said, my stomach dropping out. “What do you mean 86-”

  Green light emanated from behind us as Penny’s blades arrayed themselves, eliciting a high-whine. We rocketed upward into the stormy air, the ground disappearing beneath us, the wind and rain pelting against the lenses of my mask increased exponentially as we gained speed, the force streaking them off just as quickly as they appeared, which didn’t do our clothes any favors. With my coat being in near tatters by that point it wasn’t doing much to protect me. Penny wasn’t even wearing anything beyond her normal clothes. Though I also didn’t know if she needed to be either. If the look of focus on her face was any indication, she at the very least wasn’t outwardly bothered by it.

  There came a point where our ascent leveled out and we seemed to be just flying forward through the gloom. The thrum from Penny’s blades grew louder and more discordant in their tone. With the wind hitting us, it was impossible to tell if she was struggling to bear the combined weight. But she remained focused as she carried us both through the storm, the tatters of my coat whipping and snapping at the rain. I could see the lights of the Arsenal getting closer, the structures beginning to loom out of the rain and gloom.

  Just like the tree-line we raced headlong into.

  “Oop-” Penny squeaked, pivoting sharply. Her grip on me briefly wavered as she suddenly reeled backward, her array lurching ahead of us to try and slow us down. Despite that, we still went crashing through the upper limbs of the trees. Most of them, thankfully, thin enough to break as we passed.

  I tried to grab one or two as we went, slow down our sudden collision course.

  Our descent began shortly after. And I could see where it was going.

  Right on top of a thicker limb.

  “Brace for landing,” Penny chimed, her blade arrays practically roaring in my ears as she tried to bring us to a halt. I tried to angle myself with her descent, make it so our feet connected with the bough. They did.

  But then the rain made it so I slipped, and bumped my ass on the way down.

  Then the bough broke from our combined weight hitting it, only managing to slow us down.

  “Sorry!” Penny squeaked, continuing to angle her array, now just trying to make sure we didn’t go completely crashing to the ground. She gripped me tightly again as we continued forward aiming for a thicker sturdier branch.

  This time, when we hit it, she managed to push us completely to a stop. The tree limb beneath us creaked and groaned, but otherwise held.

  “… 14% chance of failure,” I mulled, heart hammering in my chest. “Guess that makes sense, didn’t think we were going to be aiming to land up here.”

  “This was actually an 8% chance of landing up here,” Penny replied sheepishly. “The remaining 5% was my Vector being wrong and having us crash into the ground.”

  “… Oh.”

  I tried to take a deep breath after that nugget of information. Well, at least math was one of her strong suits.

  I took another deep breath to get my heart under control and tried to survey why we were up in a tree. It became clear, when I recognized how close we had landed to the arsenal, perhaps only a few yards away from its outer wall. The layout reminded me a lot of Nellis, albeit scaled down significantly and with better fencing.

  My brief bird’s-eye told me that a bomb had indeed gone off. Several, for that matter. One of what appeared to be several Quonset huts had been detonated by something. The blast had taken a chunk out of the arsenal and flattened a few other huts. How extensive the damage was, I couldn’t tell, but I could see several other huts had been flattened or bowled over. A miracle their own contents hadn’t been detonated. Most artillery munitions were stable to begin with unless armed, so it must’ve taken something powerful to cause something like that. The lingering after effects of Dust littered the Arsenal as well. Fires, ice spikes, and rocky outcrops sitting in places they’d no earthly place of being. No signs of how they got there beyond the mind-numbing but obvious answer. The visibility was even worse due to the ice and fire filling the already clouded air with a backlit mist.

  There was one spot, however, that appeared clearer than the others. It was helping to rapidly clear the rest of the mist and dust from the air as well. It was near what appeared to be the arsenal’s airfield.

  I was annoyed by the sight of seeing several Bullheads were already missing, about maybe seven of them. How many were because of the White Fang, I didn’t know. But I knew more than a few of them were.

  But more pressingly, I saw Ruby and Yang. Both fighting some red-headed dipshit dressed all in black.

  I could understand why they hadn’t answered now.

  Clark’s rifle slung back around my shoulder, my hand wrapping easily around the grip. Penny was tracking my motions, and I knew she could see what was going on better than I could.

  “What’re the odds you can launch us into the middle of that?” I asked.

  “95.3%,” Penny answered. “4.7% chance we overshoot it by an inch.”

  My eyes tracked Ruby and Yang as they fended off the red-head. He was fighting with a sword, looked like some class of katana, and a gun built into its sheath. He was doing it wrong, supposed to be using two hands. Was winning anyway. I opened VATS long enough to spy at least another six White Fang who were obviously visible. The silhouettes of maybe another half dozen. Each armed, firing on Ruby and Yang, pressuring them back.

  “Launch at the one in black,” I told Penny. “We need to buy Yang and Ruby room.”

  “What about the others?” Penny asked. “I can see at least thirteen in their immediate vicinity, more elsewhere, and I don’t see Weiss, Blake, or Sun.”

  “Make them your priority once we’ve helped Ruby and Yang,” I said. “But we should start with the guy who’s dressed like he’s in charge first.”

  Penny nodded, and began angling her array once more. “Calculating… Ready when you are.”

  I flicked off the safety on Clark’s rifle. Took a deep breath.

  “…Hit it.”

  With only the brief sound of Penny’s array spooling, we rocketed out of the tree line, gravity and the thrust of her array blurring everything around us as we cleared the trees. A blink after that we roared over the top of the Arsenal walls, passing into what was left of the dust and mist, only to them immediately come crashing out the other side of that as we came into the arsenal proper.

  As soon as we did, VATS opened. Mere seconds to work, stretched into tens.

  VATS closed.

  Clark’s rifle swept across the upper wall as we fell. Shots rattled off as the muzzle passed over each of the White Fang there, seven total. Center mass, best chances of hitting the mark. Only winged one of them. The rest were blown back.

  As the ground raced up to meet us, the muzzle of Clark’s rifle swung down to its last target.

  The red-headed dipshit whipped towards me and Penny.

  I rattled the trigger of Clark’s rifle at him, center mass.

  With impressive speed, he managed to bring his sword around, slashing the bullets out of the air, right before they’d have gotten him. Three shots emptied the mag.

  He only caught two. The last one slammed into his chest and he recoiled bodily, feet sliding back along the ground.

  I dropped the magazine out of Clark’s rifle and slung it back over my shoulder, whipping Knock-Knock into its place. The axe head swung down through the air and connected with the sword and sheath he narrowly raised to catch it.

  Unfortunately for him, physics applies to everyone, and me and Penny were no exception.

  The momentum from our descent continued forward and down onto him, all that extra speed and force transferring through Knock-Knock’s edge. At the same time, the combined weight of Penny and me bowled into him.

  He was blown back like a mortar had gone off where he’d been standing.

  Physics is a bitch.

  The red-head went crashing back as Penny and I stuck the landing. No sooner had we come to a stop did her arrays shifted, splitting from the large clusters that had boosted us there, into the weapon groups. Three of them, each consisting of three blades. Her eyes glowed a brilliant green as they took aim with equal speed and unerring accuracy. A low hum elicited from each of them as they fired green bolts of energy.

  Would need to pick her brain on what those were, when we had a minute.

  The bolts of green light flew out and struck the White Fang who were on ground-level with us. They hit their mark. Anyone who wasn’t hit was forced to scatter to avoid tasting the proverbial power of the sun. Penny released me, and I slipped Knock-Knock back over my shoulder. I drew my shotgun and started over towards Ruby and Yang.

  They looked at me in surprise. Both of them were looking bedraggled, drenched from the rain and grimy with dust, the two combining together to form a thin film of muck on them. Their clothes were torn, and I could see bruises form on what little skin was visible. The closest thing there was to visible damage while Aura was active. The paint on their weapons was scratched and the material nicked, but otherwise appeared functional yet.

  They were beaten, they were battered, and they were almost bloodied. But they were breathing.

  “When I call, you answer,” I said, sternly, approaching them. “Get that through your heads. You can’t expect me to come crashing-in every time something goes wrong.”

  “Look out!” Ruby shouted, her gaze trailing upward. I already knew where.

  I hadn’t forgotten about the one I’d winged.

  I twisted at the hip and angled my shotgun up at him. He’d been doing the same to use with the weapon in his hands. Submachine-gun of some kind.

  But I was faster on the draw. My shotgun rocked back in my hands as a fire slug flew from the barrel, as far as I could remember, the last one. Wasted too many of the others trying to stop Waylon, needed to do a headcount. The glowing slug zipped through the rain filled air, practically trailing fire as it went. Unlike before, I hit the Grunt at center mass.

  Unlike the other times I’d used them as well, the slug proved far more effective on a smaller target.

  The round burst on impact and fire blossomed over them. It was like watching a bucket of napalm get dumped over him and lit from a single point. Which would’ve likely been even more reactive had I tried it with smaller projectiles, such as shot or flechettes. More experiments for later.

  But the fire washed over the White Fang Grunt in a blink, causing them to howl and panic almost as quickly. They let off a quick belt of panic fire as they flailed their arms out, before stumbling backwards, sending them over the ramparts and off the wall of the arsenal, out of sight.

  I cycled the action and prepared to turn back to Ruby and Yang. Instead I did a full one-eighty when I caught the glint of red-steel from the corner of my eye. I spun and raised my lever-action to catch the strike. The red-head had come back on the offensive. Even as I caught the sword, he was swinging his sheath around. Trying to angle what I knew was a muzzle at my head.

  My grip on the shotgun tilted, and I let the blade slide down to catch against the lever. A small twist and I locked the blade’s edge between the lever and receiver. All it took was a shove to push both it and the muzzle wide of my head, missing me completely.

  “Shame on you,” I growled. “Life is short, and you’re really going to waste the five minutes you’ve got left like this? Wait your turn.”

  Pushing the barrel of my shotgun downward, I leveled it with his chest and fire, this time making him catch a chest-full of Magnum Buckshot. Combined with the 12.7 round, that should’ve been enough to punch a hole in his Aura. As it was, he at least took that as cause enough to give me room. Further so when Penny began to rocket towards us. He dove out of the way, and I finished backing toward Yang and Ruby.

  “I’ll save judgment for after this is over,” I said, casting them a quick look. “What happened, and where are the others?”

  “I don’t know,” Ruby answered quickly. “We had a plan until we got stuck fighting him.” Ruby inclined her head towards the distant red-head, who was glowering at us. “Blake, Sun and I were fighting him almost the entire time, then something exploded.”

  “That was me and Weiss,” Yang said, scowling. “There was an accident, I don’t know where she is right now. I saw him attacking Ruby and moved.”

  “I don’t know where Sun and Blake are either,” Ruby finished. “They were caught in the blast…” She paused and when she next spoke there was some dread in her voice. “Sun– Sun was hurt. Bad.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “…Fuck,” I cursed, and returned my focus to the situation at hand. Penny joined us and began quickly looking over Ruby and Yang. I could tell she was checking them for injuries, assessing their Aura and similar minutia. As she did, I could see more of the White Fang beginning to rally themselves, crawling from the wreckage. Before long they’d have a handle on what happened. Then they’d be back to fighting, or stealing, whichever had been happening.

  Their goal was still to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down. I wasn’t going to bet that a few teenagers attacking them had changed that goal. All that had changed was that our goal was now split. We had to both try and stop the White Fang from stealing anything else, and make sure we were all ok.

  The writing on the wall made it clear how unlikely at least one of those objectives was.

  But, fuck it, after everything else that had happened, what was one more hiccup?

  I spied more than a dozen White Fang pulling themselves together. More on the way.

  “Penny, can you locate Weiss, Sun, and Blake?” I asked, not taking my gaze off the red-head still fuming at us.

  She paused for a moment, then nodded. Not answering how she could.

  “Then take Ruby and Yang, go find them,” I said. “I’ll take things from here.”

  “What!?” Ruby squeaked. “But Six-”

  “If Sun’s hurt he needs medical attention,” I told Ruby calmly. “If Weiss and Blake are just as bad off, they may need it, too. We’re on the losing end of this thing here, Ruby, and back-up from Beacon’s on the way. The smartest thing to do right now is make sure our friends are ok.” My gaze tracked the White Fang as they joined with the red-head, still spread out, avoiding being clustered together. “What I’m doing isn’t smart. But it’ll take some of the pressure off you while you try to find them. Go.”

  “But-”

  “Ruby,” Yang cut her off. She turned and looked at her sister, and I could see something unmistakably tired in her eyes. Like that warm glow she normally had was dying back to coals. It came with the understanding of how bad things were.

  Just knowing that set my blood boiling. They were out here for one purpose: trying to stop things from getting worse. All the while surrounded by the ones actively making it worse.

  And they were failing.

  We were failing.

  Anyone who could find the bright side in that was a fool.

  But I would’ve paid for there to be one.

  Reluctantly, Ruby nodded, accepting what was being asked of her. I doubted she didn’t understand the importance of making sure everyone else was ok. But I also knew she didn’t want to let this lie, not after everything that had been done. I could understand that. But priorities had to be kept.

  If letting our friends die was how we were going to accomplish things, then we’d already lost. Especially over something like this.

  “C’mon,” Yang said, ushering Ruby to the side, Penny moving with them. They couldn’t well and cut back through the gathering crowd of the White Fang, they were going to have to skirt around them if anyone was in that direction.

  I watched the red-head’s gaze track them. Easy enough to do as he turned his head slightly after them. It was as he did, that I noted the black shapes jutting from his hair, likely his skull. A pair of horns.

  Calmly, I pulled Clark’s rifle from my back and popped a new magazine into the receiver.

  “I’m guessing you’re the one they call ‘Taurus’?” I asked, in about the same way I did when speaking to any number of undesirable people I’d come across in the Mojave.

  The red-head turned back towards me and sneered. “And you look like the mess Bane told me about. So I guess that makes you ‘Crazy Steve’?”

  “You sound unimpressed,” I answered neutrally, paying careful mind to how far the girls were from us.

  “For someone who’s supposed to have caused us so much trouble, I was expecting more,” Taurus answered. “Thought you would be some strong, headfirst fighter. Instead I find a beaten down pile of rags, hiding behind traitors and young girls.”

  “I’m a firm believer any one of those girls could’ve taken you in a straight fight,” I answered, watching as Yang and Ruby were just about out of sight. “You’ve got it backwards too. Hiding behind them would mean I wasn’t dismantling the rest of what you’d done in the prison. I’d have been here with them otherwise.”

  “A joke and a coward,” Adam scoffed, smirking derisively.

  I didn’t answer him until Ruby, Yang, and Penny were completely gone.

  “… In two weeks, I’ve dismantled the majority of what you’ve done. Brought your work to a grinding halt,” I said, calmly. “All while doing it in a far less effective and efficient way than I otherwise know I can. Because I’m trying to do better.”

  “Because you lack conviction,” Taurus spat, shifting into his stance. Thinking he was subtle enough that I couldn’t see it.

  “No,” I answered, still calm. “Because I’m surrounded by those who cannot fathom the word.”

  Without speaking, Taurus launched at me. His Aura blurred his stride, making him so fast it was like watching a cazador in motion.

  But he wasn’t as fast as Weiss.

  He’d be lucky if he was as fast as Ruby.

  Taurus closed on me and slashed his sword at me, one hand on the hilt, the other on his sheath.

  I weaved to the side of the blade with equal speed, throwing my Aura through my core and legs. I felt the muddy ground churn under my feet as the blade narrowly missed my armor. Taurus realized he missed almost as soon as it happened, and his sheath swung towards me.

  But he’d already left himself open long enough.

  My right hand flew from Clark’s rifle, lashing out in a Scribe Counter as the Cow Puncher snapped forward. Power output at max.

  Electricity arced and crackled off the knuckles as the rain hit them, burst outward in chaotic Lichtenberg patterns as I struck him in the side of his face, arcing every which-way to ground themselves. Even as Taurus took the full brunt of the strike and tumbled backward, I could feel the electricity tingling and feeding back through me. Felt it tingling through the Cow Puncher.

  I shut it off and let it return to my side. It wasn’t going to do me much good in the rain, and I got the sense that risking it would be bad for my health.

  It definitely was for Taurus’.

  He flew hard to the side, tumbled to the ground and staggered to his feet, shifting and wavering as he.

  He hadn’t been wary of me before when I sucker punched him. Pride told him it was a fluke.

  I’d just proven it to be a fact.

  The rest of the gathering White Fang immediately grew restless, and began rallying themselves. Quick scan said there were roughly two dozen then, more coming still.

  “You hold your sword with one hand,” I said, calmly, hand falling back onto Clark’s rifle. “Swing it around like a machete rather than wield it like the work of art it should be. You attack people who can’t or won’t fight back for the sake of causing chaos. You spill blood because restraint requires too much. Violence because you lack the will and words to be heard.”

  Taurus began getting to his feet.

  “I’ve seen words work just as readily as they’ve failed,” I said, calmly. “But you’d forsake them in the name of endangering countless lives, ending them should it suit you. Because you’d rather let your blade be the messenger?” I shook my head, disapprovingly. “No. You’re the joke. You’re a coward. You’re so far from knowing conviction, you’d mistake it for whatever self-serving dogma you’ve put into your head.”

  A White Fang leapt from the gloom, a machete in his hands, voice raised in a howl. He came out of nowhere and thought I wouldn’t react in time for it to matter.

  I batted his machete to the side with the bracer on my forearm and kneed him in the stomach. He came to a grinding halt in front of me.

  Then I blew his knee out with a shot from Clark’s rifle.

  Blood and bone splattered apart as he collapsed to the ground, screaming.

  A ripple went through the White Fang like water. Like a bunch of lakelurks that could smell that the water had been chummed. I couldn’t tell if they’d realized what was about to happen to them, or if they cared.

  But I could still see Taurus. Saw the way he watched what I was doing.

  He couldn’t have cared if I’d ripped the Fang’s guts out.

  It told me enough.

  I walked around the Fang as he clasped at the gaping wound in his leg, screaming. I put one in his head and began to back slowly into the gloom. Knowing the White Fang were about to follow after.

  “Why don’t I show you?” I offered, calmly. “What that word really means.”

  I stepped further back into the gloom of the rain, further and further separating me from Taurus. His gaze didn’t leave me as I did, but he didn’t rise to immediately give chase. I’d clocked him good, so I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Even knowing the White Fang was bearing down on me, I kept an even pace through the gloom. Moving until I was mingling with the wreckage of the Quonset huts.

  Then I broke line of sight and started to run.

  Not far, not to escape.

  Just so they couldn’t find me.

  I ran a hut over and leapt into the wreckage of one of the huts. As I did, the Grunts went barreling past me. They could’ve seen me if they tried, I was sure. But the only thing they knew for sure was I’d just tweaked their leader’s nose and put down one of them. If they even cared about that sort of thing.

  As soon as they’d completely passed me, I posted up on the rubble with Clark’s rifle. The foregrip braced against something to help with my aim.

  As the grunts reached the end of the yard that Taurus was at, they slowly came to a stop, clamoring. I could tell they were trying to figure out where I’d gone.

  Taurus already knew.

  He bolted for the alley I’d disappeared down.

  I didn’t wait for him to get far.

  With the support of the wreckage, I opened fire on the grunts. A pair of shots split the heads on two of the grunts, dropping them immediately. I followed it with three less-well-placed shots, striking three more of the Grunts as they hurried to react. One in the chest, another in the shoulder, the third in the throat. Got a better idea of how impactful the rounds were with the last one. Waylon had skewed it due to his Aura, the soft tissue damage should’ve been far greater than it had been. The one who got hit in the throat dropped back no different than if he’d been hit in the head. Impact force, I imagined. Would’ve been enough to collapse the throat, damage vertebrae in the neck.

  The five of them hit the ground as the rest of the grunts began to wheel around in the direction I’d attacked from. But I was already in motion, passing the rest of the way through the ruins and back out into the open. Rattled off another three shots as I left concealment completely. Floored at least two more, before turning on heel and pressing my Aura into my legs. Boosting my stride to clear the ground back out of sight. The shouts and calls the grunts made said that at least a few of them saw me.

  I knew that Taurus had.

  As I’d sprinted back across the ground, he’d practically leapt over the crowd to chase me down. Had cleared it by the time I’d returned to the cover of the ruins. I hit the ground and slid underneath beams and fallen sheet metal, passing crates of munitions, disassembled artillery. Surrounded me well enough that there was no seeing in or out. Passed through it to a hole on the other side. Came back out into the storm, sprang off the ground, turned and fired.

  Came up in time to catch Taurus right before he’d have met me.

  He skidded to a halt on the wet ground and raised his blade, catching the shot. His Aura warbled over the blade where my shot struck. A shake went through his arm as it did, all the excess force and energy having to transfer somewhere else. Another point against, for not using both hands. It resulted in his attempted counter slash coming at me more slowly than it should have. I dove backward, landing on my back as I fired another shot at him, emptying the mag.

  Rather than try to bring his sword around, Taurus weaved sideways and let the shot pass him, using the momentum to swing the muzzle of his sheath towards me. He pulled the trigger on whatever gun was built into it, rifle, pistol, couldn’t tell. I hit the ground and rolled to the side, heard the shot hit the soggy ground next to me, blowing up muck and rain water. As I did, I let my arm fly out and pull some of the wreckage over me, a bit of the metal that had made the hut’s roof. The shot that followed the first hit that and punched through, but hit my armor even slower for it. Landed more like a hard punch than a hammer blow.

  I dropped the mag and slapped a new one into the receiver, releasing the bolt. Taurus leapt to close the distance again, sword flashing around to stab down at me. I kicked the sheet of metal off me to intercept him, his blade punching through the thin metal, slowing him down and making his blade cumbersome. He reared back from me and kicked the sheet off his blade, leaving him briefly open.

  I opened VATS and closed it just as quickly.

  Clark’s rifle raised and I got a shot off, hitting him center mass. His Aura broke, and he bared his teeth in a pained grimace. I followed it with a second shot that almost caught him the same as the first, both roaring as loud as the thunder of the storm. Despite that, the second shot missed. Taurus swept out of the way of it and wheeled backward. The shot was followed with a third and fourth, both missing their mark as Taurus retreated.

  Getting hit with Clark’s rifle twice and still maintaining that level of clarity was no mean feat. He was either smart enough, or cowardly enough, to know that standing his ground and trying to race it was a bad idea. Ruby’s rifle would’ve had near the same power, just not the rate of fire.

  As I got back to my feet, some of the grunts came to replace Taurus, peering from beyond the wreckage. I shot one of them in the face before resuming my mad sprint. Even as I did however, I knew the crowd of them were going to begin swarming the spot I’d been. Find their way around the wreckage.

  Or in some cases, returning fire.

  More bullets riddled the ground and walls around me as I ran, puffs and splatter of muck and masonry popping out from any place the bullets hit. Felt some tug at the fringes of my already ruined coat. I didn’t bother trying to return the favor. Panic fire could sometimes buy space, but it wasn’t worth the ammo that time.

  I went the span of one, two huts, then ducked into one of the intact ones, my boot coming up and kicking-in the back door, ripping it off the hinges. Inside the hut was a multitude of crates, all varied in age. Some newer, sporting polymer and plastic shells. Some older, being made of treated lumber and having tufts of straw poking from them. Most of it was still crated up and closed. Some of it was busted open, either by hand or by having been knocked to the floor. Whatever explosion had ripped through everything had been enough to rattle the place something fierce.

  There was a White Fang inside, who appeared to have been getting his wits about him. Had probably been beaned by a falling box and was only just now coming-to.

  I shot him in the face as I passed through the door. Slowed my pace slightly as I weaved around the crates. Watched my step as I avoided stepping on what appeared to be munitions of some kind. Though I paused as I went over them, looking down at some of them. They were shaped oddly. Too blocky to fit into what I knew to be conventional weaponry, what little that it applied to the weapons I’d seen around Remnant. They were also arced as well, curving backwards slightly. There was also text on the surface of it that I could read, printed into large, raised lettering.

  It read: ‘Front Towards Grimm’.

  A moment of studying it, and I realized what it was. Or as close to what I understood it to be. I hadn’t brought any bottlecap mines with me. But I recognized it was likely a similar design.

  ‘Must be Christmas… in July.’

  I grabbed two of the mines off the floor and perched one of them on one of the weapons crates, front facing back towards the door I came through. I armed it and resumed my run through the hut.

  Right before I would’ve stepped out the front door, thunder roared from the back of the hut. Like a shotgun the size of a howitzer had gone off. A brief glance back as I went out the front door showed half of the back wall blown out. Not sure how many it took with it, but it would’ve taken someone to set it off.

  I turned back forward and stepped out the door of the hut, sweeping with the muzzle of Clark’s rifle.

  Taurus dropped down on me from above, the tip of his sword thrust down. It led just barely ahead of him, and was the only warning I’d had that he was there.

  My Aura flared and I launched myself forward in a roll, spring to a knee and spinning back around as he landed. His gaze was locked on me as pulled his weapon back from the dirt, similarly on one knee. His sheath was locked under his arm, one hand still on the trigger, the muzzle pointed at me.

  But the surprise on his face was greater when I planted the second mine in front of me. Saw his brow shoot upward, and his mouth opened in sudden panic.

  It gave me the one second I needed.

  I rolled back on a diagonal and dragged the tripwire with me, triggering the charge.

  Taurus reacted nearly as quickly. A torrent of explosive force and shrapnel flew at him, back into the hut. I saw it shred the sheet metal of its outer walls like paper as he threw himself to the side, sheathing his blade. He scrambled away and scowled back at me.

  I’d already gotten a bead back on him.

  My finger twitched, and the rifle cracked back against my shoulder.

  With the same level of ease he’d avoided the blast, Taurus weaved to the side, only narrowly avoiding a solid bullet through his shoulder. Instead it clipped the side of it. His Aura, which he must have regenerated briefly before engaging me again, shattered once more. The result was the round tearing a massive channel through his upper shoulder, ripping a chunk of meat with it. Pity it’d only been his off hand. Would’ve been happier if it was his sword arm.

  He shouted in pain as it happened, his good arm flashing up to the wound, still clasping his sword. His gaze traced back to me in a snarl as I cracked off a follow-up. This one he was ready to catch with his sword, and did so with a quick spin of the blade, the crimson steel flourishing and wind-milling with surprising dexterity.

  Couldn’t do that with one hand, I’ll admit. But most people couldn’t catch bullets either.

  Taurus had only proven he caught them both ways.

  Before I could get another shot off, Taurus moved for cover, and the rest of the crowd began to catch up.

  I pushed to my feet and turned to face them. Despite having taken out several of them by that point, there were still more than two dozen of them. More had been moving to join the fight, abandoning their original objective. Fewer of them had managed to grab firearms than the ones that I’d taken out at the start. But few weren't none.

  I fired the last two shots in the mag at a pair of grunts carrying sub-machine guns. One got shot in the chest and flew back. The other had the shot go high, but since it had only been center mass, it just translated in another blasted-out throat. Even as they fell though, the crowd was still rushing towards me, more than a few getting close.

  Clark’s rifle slung back over my shoulder and pulled my lever-action in its place. The first of the White Fang to get close earned himself a mouthful of magnum 3/0 buckshot. More than he could chew, since it took the top of his head off. I cycled my shotgun and gave the next one who got close an upset stomach, and he collapsed, clutching at it. Not trusting it’d gone through his Aura, I cycled the last shell in and put it through the top of his head. To be sure.

  Even as this was happening, I was already in motion. Trying to clear the open ground back to the other side of the Arsenal. Back to whatever cover the huts provided. My hand slipped into my coat and gripped a handful of magnum shells, the other breaking open the action. I began trying to load them as I ran. I only managed to get two of them in before one of the grunts came charging at me. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, like some kind of banshee. I snapped the action shut and showed her my shotgun was louder.

  But even as I did, I knew I wasn’t gaining enough ground quick enough. Even as she hit the ground, three more grunts came running to replace her. I cycled the action once more and dropped another of them with the remaining shell. As the others began to close in I threw my lever-action back to my side, and shells into my coat. My hand reached back and levered Knock-Knock around in front of me as the other two grunts closed on me.

  I let my Aura pulse through my shoulders and back, swinging Knock-Knock as hard and fast as it would allow.

  The first grunt practically ran head first into the axe bit. It cleaved through their Aura and sank half-way through their head and face on the first swing, stopped them dead. The second one saw this as they approached and quickly pulled to a stop. Even as they did, my boot reared up and kicked the first grunt off my axe, tearing chunks of bone and viscera with it. They flopped back as I rounded on the second one who raised their weapon, a sword, to block the strike. It worked, in that Knock-Knock didn’t cut them. That didn’t change the difference in mass, however.

  Knock-Knock’s edge hit the flat of the blade and the thinner weapon flexed heavily on impact. All the extra kinetic energy passed through the blade and into the wielder. The grunt bent from the impact as a result, and buckled out of the way. Knock-Knock passed where they’d been as they staggered forward. They took the chance, even as they struggled to find their feet, and slashed upward.

  I caught the strike on Knock-Knock’s haft in kind. Let it slide down to the butt of it as I shifted my grip, then swung it at them in a counter-strike. The haft-butt connected and caught them on the jaw, making them cry out.

  My hands flashed back into place on Knock-Knock, and I swung it on the backhand. The adze at the back of its head shot back with the swing and buried itself in their face, cleaving through their mask. A quick twist of the handle did something wicked to their head, made their final moments rather gruesome. They let out a death rattle as I pulled back, dropped their corpse forward.

  I was back in motion just as quickly, keeping my hands around Knock-Knock as I made for cover. The crowd was getting closer with every step. I was going to need a moment to get another mag into Clark’s rifle, shells into my lever-action. I needed to break line of sight first. Something that was easier in the rain than on a clearer night. But it was only buying me so much room. Especially since I knew whose senses were sharper in this case. Wasn’t counting the fact that Taurus was actively looking for openings to attack from.

  The alley between two of the huts loomed in front of me as he made another play. He came rushing up behind me, managed to get another good hit in. It passed through my Aura, as such attacks do, and caught itself against my armor and coat. But I could tell it wasn’t the sort of thing to take lightly either. Even if the harder components of my armor were holding, it would only take so much. The same as it was with Knock-Knock, it only did so much for the blunt force of it as well.

  I spun and back stepped into the alley, facing towards Taurus. He kept low as he moved to strike again. Favoring his sword arm, his off-side hugging closer to himself, not attempting to use the sheath’s gun-function. The sword slash missed as I weaved around it, swung my axe back hand. Taurus leaned back and the strike missed him as well. Despite that, I continued to retreat into the alley.

  Then the crowd was on us. Blocking the space behind Taurus.

  But it was a cramped space, between the huts. No more than for one or two of us at a time.

  Taurus was getting first dibs.

  Seeing the odds in front of me, I did what I thought best.

  Gave Knock-Knock a flourish and flipped Taurus the bird.

  We then charged at each other swinging.

  …

  Ruby Rose hated herself.

  It was a feeling she didn’t normally have. She knew, at least in this case, that everything going wrong wasn’t their fault. They’d done everything they could in their power to try and do things right. There were things that were just beyond their power to control. Or change.

  But it burned her up inside because that had been the whole point! They’d been trying to change things for the better!

  Instead, all she’d accomplished was getting beaten senseless, choked out, and blown up.

  She suppressed a shudder as she recalled what it had been like, when the one large White Fang had grabbed her. There was no time in her mind previously where she’d felt as helpless as that. Save for, perhaps, initiation. Even then, Six had run to help her.

  The hatred redoubled as she, Penny, and Yang continued to run through the Arsenal. The White Fang they had previously been fighting didn’t even give them a second look. They either gave her and her sister a half glance, and went back to hauling crates. Or, worse, they ignored her entirely and ran straight for the fight that was happening behind them. Something that, if she’d been allowed to join, might have alleviated some of what she was feeling. Or, at the very least, masked it.

  Instead she was left to sit with the fact that they were being ignored. So low on the White Fang’s radar they might as well not even exist.

  “Over here!” Penny shouted, running through the wreckage of the Arsenal. “Weiss should be over this way!”

  Ruby cringed, slightly, at the casualness with which Penny was acting. Yang wasn’t aware of Penny’s nature, and wouldn’t know how Penny was able to find Weiss. Despite that, perhaps due to the funk her sister was in, Yang didn’t seem to pay it any amount of attention. She was being as sullen and moody as… Well, Blake and Six. Something that also worried Ruby and made her, rather irrationally, hate herself even more. She didn’t even do anything wrong!

  Pushing those negative feelings down, Ruby kept pace with Penny and Yang. The former of whom led them to a pile of rubble made from battered steel and ammo crates. Wordlessly, Penny began lifting the material away, which was soon copied by Ruby and Yang.

  Ruby gripped one of the larger pieces of steel and began to try and push it away. The weight of it was massive. Even with her Aura, Ruby struggled to move it. Even as her sister and Penny joined her, the three of them struggled to move it. As it finally began to shift however, Ruby could see why. The metal had been reinforced. Given structure to support it, beams that had been broken by the blast and left to point downward jaggedly.

  Just beneath the wreckage, they found Weiss.

  A glyph was glowing beneath her, and she stared up at her teammates, a look of intense strain on her face. Ruby’s stomach did a scared little flip as the thought of her teammate being injured suddenly dawned on her.

  “Are you alright, friend Weiss?” Penny asked innocently.

  “…Fine,” Weiss answered, stiffly, after a moment. Her glyph faded behind her and she slowly sat up, gripping her sword. “I’ve been trying to get my bearings since the explosion. Only had enough presence of mind to keep myself from being crushed.” Shakily, Weiss picked herself up and began trying to dust herself off. A futile effort as the rain quickly began to sink the grime into her coat. Not that laying in a puddle of the muck hadn’t already accomplished that. She grimaced as she looked around them, recognizing the situation. “… Why are they ignoring us?”

  “We’re not worth worrying about,” Yang said bitterly. “They’re either finishing what they came to do, or going to go fight Six.”

  “Oh, I guess he is here,” Weiss said, suddenly recognizing that Penny was there.

  “I really want to ask why everything exploded, but we need to find Blake and Sun,” Ruby said. “Sun got hurt right before the explosion happened. If we don’t find him he might…” Ruby shook her head. That was a reality she wouldn’t accept. Not with everything else that was happening.

  Penny, understanding the next part of her objective, began to swivel her head about, scanning. After a moment, she locked on a location and took off running. “They’re over here!”

  Weiss watched after her as she went. “How…” She shook her head. After everything else, Weiss felt she should be more concerned about having a concussion.

  The three of them followed after Penny once more, skirting their way around the wreckage as they went. A few of the White Fang gave them the side eye as they went, but didn’t bother to try and stop them either. Ruby almost felt tempted to attack one of them on principle. They were a threat, dang it!

  …They were supposed to be.

  Penny made her way back through the wreckage, arriving at a point that seemed similar to the one they found Weiss in. However, unlike the one Weiss had been found at, this one had already been overturned. Leading away from the wreckage, a trail. Or rather, the churned and tramp dirt of someone being half-dragged away. It did not take them long, either to follow this trail to its end.

  Where they found Blake.

  Sun as well.

  The scene might have been something sweet, in other contexts. If it hadn't been pouring rain, or in the middle of the night. If they hadn’t been previously pitched in the middle of a life or death fight. If the way was tending to Sun didn’t obviously betray the fact she was trying not to break-down.

  If Sun’s arm wasn’t dangling from his body by little more than tendons and a prayer.

  They found Sun and Blake together, the blonde Faunus resting his head in Blake’s lap, his back to the muddy ground. He was unconscious, and some part of Ruby realized that was a mercy. His weapon lay beside him, wrecked. His arm near it, forearm bending the wrong way from it. The pools of mud were stained with the blood he had lost. The sight sent Ruby’s mind back to what they had seen not even an hour prior, just outside the prison. All the death and destruction.

  The only thing that kept Sun from joining it was the black ribbon pulled tautly around the stump of his arm.

  Blake’s head swiveled up to them. It had to have been the rain. That’s what was running down Blake’s face.

  “I don’t… I don’t know what to do,” Blake said. “I… I tried to stop the bleeding… I don’t…”

  She quit trying to speak, bowing her head.

  “…We need to get him out of here,” Weiss said, gathering herself, taking command of the situation. “He needs a doctor, surgery, not having his arm sitting in muddy water.”

  “Sure, let’s just drop everything and run,” Yang said. “Because that’s going to change anything. The nearest hospital is back in Vale!”

  “Well I’m trying to think of something!” Weiss snapped back.

  “Please,” Blake begged, not even raising her head to look at them. “Don’t start fighting.”

  Weiss and Yang looked at each other for a moment longer, before letting their gazes fall as well. They knew there wasn’t anything they could do. Fighting each other didn’t make either of them feel better. Reality was settling over them as the adrenaline of combat faded. Sun was likely going to die. The White Fang were going to escape. Everything they’d done had been pointless.

  They’d lost.

  The rain continued to wash over them, and the cold began to seep in from it.

  Ruby Rose hated herself.

  She hated how powerless she was to change any of what was happening. All she had succeeded in doing was endangering her friend’s lives and getting one of the mortally wounded. Left another to fight for his life as they cleaned up their mess.

  That hatred began to spill over inside her. Grasping, touching, and tinging everything it passed. All her memories, her struggles, her hopes, dreams, and anything that it could grasp at. She could feel it sinking downward in a spiral. All pointing toward the ones responsible for it. She hated it. She hated them.

  She hated the White Fang.

  Ruby felt her hand closing over the handle of Crescent Rose. Her gaze began to track through her surroundings, eyes burning and her heart hammering in her ears. Adrenaline started to wash back into her as she locked her gaze onto the nearest member of the White Fang.

  She could see it as it happened.

  Crescent Rose swung up.

  Its muzzle flared.

  The high-impact rifle cartridge splattered their head like some cheesy slasher movie.

  She started to run, Crescent Rose unfolding from behind her as Yang shouted after her. She charged to the nearest White Fang she could see and cut them in half. Dashed away from them to the next. The weight of her blade made cutting easy. All she had to do was give it the momentum. It could cleave through people just as quickly as Grimm.

  Through the White Fang.

  She kept going. Hack. Slash. Scream.

  Anger.

  Pain. Pain. Pain.

  “Did you hate them?”

  The Courier’s words snapped Ruby from her thoughts. Brought her back to reality faster than the ice-cold rain hitting her face. The words he’d said to her played back through her mind as she watched the White Fang run away. No more than a few seconds had passed.

  “Hatred is petty, needful, and all around worthless. It takes and doesn’t give…”

  Ruby felt all the anger she’d held suddenly lift off her shoulders. It hadn’t gone away. She could still feel it there inside her. Eating a hole in her. But it had lessened, as though she had been choosing to let weigh on her.

  “You don't fight for hatred. You fight because there's something you love, something you care about. The fire in you is not one of hate, for your enemies, the monsters that harrow you. The fire is your love. The love for your friends. Your family.”

  The White Fang had hurt them now. Hurt her family and friends. Wanted to hurt so many more.

  For what?

  What to them was worth all this now?

  There was nothing that Ruby could think of that would justify it. Menagerie existed, the civil war was long over. Faunus weren’t always treated well, but she didn’t know many people who treated them badly either. They were just as capable as anyone she’d ever known, and some were even cooler!

  There was nothing that justified it.

  That thought alone lit Ruby’s anger.

  “That righteous fury that someone might hurt them, hurt anyone… You don't fight because you want people to die. You fight because you want them to live.”

  Ruby closed her eyes and steadied her thoughts. Let the beating of her heart leave her ears. Tried to calm her mind so that the only thoughts in her head were about saving everyone. That’s what she needed then. Not to fight, or kill, or anything else. Just try to save her friend. Even if the rest of it hurt no matter what else she did.

  “…I hope you girls never have to know what it's like, to have to live the kind of life I've had to. Not in a world like this.”

  Ruby’s heart calmed, yet she felt a tickle in it.

  How often had Six needed to do something like this? Had he always been able to?

  Why did it take a situation like this for her to learn how important it was?

  No wonder he was always such a grump. If it was something like this he’d been worried about, things made so much more sense to her. It did nothing to change how she felt. Did nothing to change what had happened. But, amidst all the storms and rain she felt she understood her strange friend a little bit better. Perhaps that was why he had taken so much time to learn so many strange things…

  Ruby’s eyes opened wide.

  The night world flooded back into her vision, sharp and clear. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and took everything in.

  Her heart began to hammer again, but this time she was in control. Not the wild and furious emotions within her.

  She knew what she had to do.

  She had to hurry. Ruby didn’t know how long Sun had, but she couldn’t afford to wait. Not if she wanted to stop one more thing from going wrong that night.

  Ruby turned and began to leap back through the wreckage the way they’d come.

  “Ruby?” Weiss asked. “Where are you going?”

  Ruby looked back at her and didn’t bother trying to hide the smile on her face. She was upset. She was tired. She was achy all over, and she knew there was no way of turning everything around. But she smiled anyway. Hopeless as everything was, she was going to try anyway.

  Her teammates saw the smile on her face. Warm, strong, and glowing like moonlight.

  But they saw something else as well, and couldn’t tell what it was. Even Blake found her head rise to it. It was curious to them, and had no rhyme or reason. Against the gloom of the storm and the dark of the night, it was impossible not to see it. Perhaps a trick of their tired eyes. Weariness from everything that had happened.

  There stood Ruby Rose. Dirty. Tired. Tattered.

  A brilliant smile on her face.

  Her silver eyes almost seemed to glow.

  To Ruby, she knew exactly what she needed to do and, gosh darn it, she was going to do it.

  “I’m going to get our ‘doctor’,” Ruby said. “Keep Sun safe, ‘kay?”

  Without another word, she turned and dashed forward into the night. Letting the rain meld with the rose petals her body scattered into.

  …

  Taurus swept to the side of my axe as I swung. His blade skated past it in a counter-strike. In turn it only grazed over my armor as it swept by. Both of our arms reeled back in time to backhand our weapons into each other.

  One of the grunts tried to cut in and I struck him back into the crowd with a Ranger Takedown as I slowly crept backward down the alley.

  Turned out that forcing them to only come at me like that had been a sound move. Most of them were content to try and support Taurus than they were to face me themselves. Something that became more obvious to both them and me after I’d put down another two who had tried ‘cutting in’. Unfortunately I knew I was also setting myself up to be backed against the wall as well. Eventually I was going to run out of alley and have to go a different way. Once the grunts realized they could flank me, things were going to start changing.

  But until that point, I bought time trading blows with Taurus. Every second was one more for my teammates to lick their wounds. One more where back-up got closer.

  I’d no intention of this being a last-stand, but I’d at least set myself up for a good one.

  Taurus flourished his blade at me, and I could see the exertion in his face as he swung. Between only having the one arm, and marginal movement in the other, he was losing steam.

  “What’s wrong, boy?” I growled. “Not so fun when you’re not picking on little girls?”

  Taurus scowled and threw himself at me, whirling around in a slash that took almost the entire width of the alley.

  I ducked beneath the strike and swung Knock-Knock up as I moved, catching him in the leg. He tumbled forward and managed to roll back to his feet, lurching around to return the favor. I parried his blade off the head of my axe and sprang back towards him, rising so I could bring my axe down in a mauling chop. As I did, I realized I’d allowed him to put himself at the back of the alley and his grunts at the front.

  Fucker had flanked me doing a bullshit move.

  I’ll admit, I hadn’t seen that one coming. He was more skilled than I was expecting, but that was clever.

  A smirk crept onto Taurus’ face as the grunts realized their opening and began to charge at me.

  Not wanting to be sandwiched, I spun and swung Knock-Knock into the siding of one of the huts. Using the leverage that earned me, I launched myself off the ground using my Aura and onto the quonset. As my boots gained purchase on the wet roof, I ripped Knock-Knock upwards and began trading over the curved roof.

  Taurus launched up to meet me, blade slashing outward.

  I raided Knock-Knock in a guard and let him crash into me, letting gravity and the slope of the roof push back on him. Let his attack serve to balance me. As he did, I stuttered VATS, surveying the surroundings.

  Most of the grunts I had to worry about were still gathered at the mouth of the alley. The kind of space that would’ve been nice, if I had any of my grenades left. But even then, it meant that I had more open ground to work with. Those that weren’t were still making to try and get away with the Bullheads.

  I knew I needed to stop them. That we needed to. But with the rest of the madness, I couldn’t justify that objective to myself. Not then. All I could do was try to thin the herd.

  VATS closed.

  I pulled a Khan Trick, throwing whatever random-bullshit I had in my pocket into Taurus’s face.

  No clue when I’d picked up an ash-tray, but the three-pound hunk of hardened glass worked. It flew out of my hand and cracked into Taurus’ face of the bias, staggering him. Gravity shifted, and he began to tumble backward, down into the alley.

  I turned and ran as gravity tried to take me with him. About five strides later, I launched myself off the hut and back into the open field of the Arsenal. I managed to land on my feet and keep running, flourishing Knock-Knock onto my back. I replaced it with Clark’s rifle, loading a new magazine into it

  That was as far as I got, before a hunk of rubble landed at my feet and a voice roared.

  “YOU!” it boomed.

  I turned towards it and was surprised by the distance that it both carried from and the debris had flown.

  Back in the direction Ruby, Yang, and Penny had gone, an old challenger approached. Still big. Still menacing. But after dealing with Waylon earlier, I didn’t feel anymore intimidated by him than I did anyone else in that place.

  The same Big White Fang with the chainsaw I’d seen the night previous trudged through the rain towards me. Acting like I owed him some kind of grudge match.

  “I’ve been waiting for this!” the Big Fang Roared

  “… Déjà vu,” I muttered, raising Clark’s rifle. Lined the bead up with his forehead and was a hair’s breadth from activating VATS again. Was saved needing to though.

  A ball of rose petals crashed into the Big Fang, sucking him in like a sandstorm. The flurry of petals cleared the distance between me and him in a blink, before racing past me, towards the Bullheads. As it did, it slowly began to arc upwards.

  Then the Big Fang was spat out and he went flying out onto the airfield at fifty miles an hour, the ball of petals arcing backwards and up through the air. Going until it was right over top of me.

  Then it faded, forming back into Ruby.

  She plummeted back to the ground and had Crescent Rose out in a flourish of red steel. Her feet hit the ground beside me, and she slid into a low crouch, before steadily righting herself. Her face was focused, determined, and just barely obscured by her red hood.

  For a brief moment, I swear I saw something glowing underneath it.

  “Nice entrance,” I told her.

  “Thanks,” she said, not looking away from the grunts. “Sun’s hurt worse than we thought. I need you to help him.”

  “Kinda can’t do that from here,” I said, nodding towards the White Fang.

  “Then we need to deal with them, or let them run,” Ruby said.

  Her answer caught me off guard, and she must’ve noticed.

  “I’m not letting someone die over this,” she said

  “…”

  I didn’t know whether to be happy she had that as a priority, or sad knowing how much learning that must have hurt.

  “We did this to stop them,” I reminded her.

  “We did this to stop them from breaking everyone out of jail,” Ruby said. “You said it yourself. We were too late to stop this from happening.”

  The grunts began to rally, pulling back from the alley to face us. Seeing them and knowing what was coming, I wanted to keep fighting anyway.

  “There’s still a chance we could,” I said. “I take the dozen on the left, you take the dozen on the right?”

  Before Ruby could answer me, the crowd of grunts began to part. Taurus walked through them and stared out at us from across the way. Sword now in its sheath, still looking beaten and absolutely pissed about it.

  “… Whoa, you actually managed to hurt him,” Ruby said, almost amazed.

  Taurus looked at the both of us and scowled, before letting his head turn to the side. Towards his true objective.

  “… Everyone clear out!” Taurus shouted. “Move it! We’re leaving!”

  There was a brief pause as his words echoed through the air, as everyone processed them. But, without complaint or argument, the grunts began to do as they were bid. They began to run for the airfield as the Bullheads began to spool en masse. Not all of them, perhaps six or seven total. But that was still more than I was happy to be losing.

  But Ruby had made it clear where our priority needed to lie, then. We couldn’t stop all of them without losing Sun.

  Taurus’ gaze fixed on us as the White Fang made for the bullheads.

  “This isn’t over,” he said. “I’ll deal with you in the same way I’ll deal with Blake.”

  “Buddy, I’ve had worse hangovers than you,” I called back. “You’re delusional, chump.”

  Taurus smiled coldly. “That so? Well, here’s something to sober you up. Consider it a parting gift.”

  His Aura began to glow.

  Before I could react, a bright light emanated from his sheath as he drew his sword.

  “Look out!” Ruby squeaked. She grabbed my arm, and before I could protest, she dragged us both upward into the air as a flurry of flower petals.

  I was glad she did.

  Beneath us, a wave of energy rippled out, lashing at everything it touched. It flew from the edge of Taurus’ blade, and burned through everything in its path. Unimpeded, it carried on to the far side of the arsenal, washing over the wreckage as it petered out.

  Had Ruby or I been standing in it, the result would’ve been bad.

  I could see, then, how Sun could’ve gotten so hurt.

  Ruby’s Semblance faded and we both plummeted back to the ground. We hit it in a muddy heap, throwing water and muck everywhere.

  As we regained our wits, I could hear the spooling of turbines. My eyes tracked to the nearest of the Bullheads, the others already taking to the skies.

  Taurus was climbing aboard. He turned back with a smirk and gave us a one fingered salute. Mouthing the words, “see you soon.”

  I swung my arm towards him, VATS snapping open as Clark’s rifle whipped in his direction. It was a fast and dirty motion that would’ve just been a waste of ammo. But I did it anyway.

  Clark’s rifle cracked back against my palm, blowing wildly off course.

  I missed Taurus.

  But the head of the grunt next to him blew apart in a shower of gore and bone, catching him completely off guard.

  Then the craft lifted off with the others and disappeared into the storm.

  We were left with nothing but the rain.

  “…I’m sorry, Ruby.”

  “I know,” Ruby said, giving me a sad, pained smile. “I guess this means we lose. Huh?”