Chapter 25

Neo continued to struggle, trying to keep Torchwick from talking. Blake put her blade to Neo's throat. "Let him speak." Blake ordered. Neo stopped fighting him. "Well, what's your story?"

"My story?" Torchwick said. "No, this isn't about me. It's her story. Life's really sucked for her. It wasn't always bad though. She was a famous singer and dancer in Plegia once."

"And what happened?" Weiss asked. "How'd she end up with a scumbag like you?"

"I'll get to that." Torchwick replied. "Her singing and dancing, it had the power to inspire. She would perform for the Plegian army before battle, boosting the soldiers' morale and strength. Then, she was performing during a war with Ferox. An arrow came out of the sky and hit her in the throat. The clerics were able to save her life but she was left mute. Without her voice she had nothing. No one was going to pay to see a mute singer. I've been teaching her, but when we first met she couldn't even read or write." Blake and Weiss looked skeptical. "Neo, show them."

Neo shook her head and covered her throat with her hands. "Just show us." Weiss said. Her tone was far less harsh than Blake's. Neo sighed silently and moved her hands away. Torchwick helped her undo her blood-stained scarf. It dropped away from her neck revealing a jagged scar just above her sternum.

"See?" Torchwick said. "Anyway, she got involved in prostitution because there really wasn't anything else for her to do." Neo shook her head and slapped Torchwick across the face. "Okay, okay, not prostitution. She went into robbing idiots looking to pay for sex. Though she was forced into relations a few times, quite against her will. Well, I was going to be her next victim but I caught her in the act. When she pulled her dagger on me I twisted it out of her arm. She was terrified of what I would do, I could see it in her eyes, but I'm savvy enough to see an opportunity when it presents itself."

"So what, you forced her to join you?" Blake accused.

"No, I made her an offer." Torchwick answered. "Join me, help me in my thieving, and I'll take care of you. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. She had the skills and the desperation to be a great thief, and I had the brains to know who to target, and more importantly who not to target."

"How did you end up as a mercenary?" Weiss asked.

"Well, we were doing alright." Torchwick said. "Some minor thievery combined with some forgery was making us a decent quantity of coin, but the authorities were starting to get wise. We did one last heist and took off. It just so happened we managed to steal some weapons with special powers. Robbing careless travelers and holding them for ransom was easy, lucrative, and could be done far from the rule of law, so that's what we did. Put together a nice little crew until you broke it up."

"I'm not going to apologize." Weiss said.

"I wouldn't expect you to." Torchwick continued. "Well, we were in pretty bad shape after you left us last. We headed to a village near the border with Ferox and Ylisse. I figured with the war there would be some opportunities to make money, but it was over before we got the chance. Then Adam comes along looking for mercs. We still had our weapons, and the guys that survived our little encounter were still around. He paid up front. How could I say no? I was planning to flee at the first chance, leave him in the lurch, but the opportunity never arose. He made sure that if I wasn't in his sight Neo always was. I think he knew what I was planning. And, well, that's how we ended up here. When you guys started kicking our asses I called for a retreat. Adam wasn't thrilled and he attacked Neo. You know the rest."

"Is all of that true?" Weiss asked.

Neo nodded. She kept her eyes on the ground, clearly ashamed of her past. "What should we do with them?" Blake asked again.

"After attacking us twice, they don't deserve mercy." Weiss said. Torchwick sighed. "But after all Neo's been through, she does. And you...what's your name?"

"Torchwick." He replied. "Roman Torchwick."

"Torchwick…you're a greedy scumbag, a criminal who should be executed for his crimes…" Weiss said. Torchwick sighed again, nodding in agreement with Weiss' assessment. "...but you've shown yourself capable of goodness. You took Neo in, you protected her today. You too have earned a reprieve."

"Really?" Torchwick gasped. Weiss nodded. "I need to make enemies like you more often."

"I don't think this is a good idea." Blake said. "What if they turn on us? It could all be an act."

"If they turn on us they won't survive." Weiss said. "And they know that. We'll take them to Chon'sin. I'm sure the castle can use a few new servants. If they behave, I'll reevaluate their situation after the war's over."

"You're really something else Princess." Torchwick laughed. "I've tried to kill you twice, admitted to being a thief, forger and murderer, and you're still going to let me live."

"You're a terrible person." Weiss agreed. "But there is still some good in you, and for that you are worthy of a chance at redemption. What you do with that chance is up to you, but I suggest you remain within the law."

"What you're doing for me and Neo...hell...I'd clean the floors of your palace with my tongue if that's what you wanted." Torchwick laughed.

"I don't think that'll be necessary, but perhaps you would make a good butler." Weiss suggested.

"I'd prefer steward." Torchwick said. Weiss glared at him. "...but I'll take whatever you're willing to give."

"And Neo might do well as a maid." Weiss said.

Neo shrugged. It was better than any expected alternative. "I'll give it my best shot." She signed.

"Now, Pyrrha, come heal her." Weiss said.

"Wait." Blake said. "I have a better idea." She whispered into Weiss ear.

"Excellent idea." Weiss said. "We'll let Torchwick show his dedication."

"I don't like the sound of that." Torchwick groaned.

"Our mage, Ren, can heal Neo, but only by draining some lifeforce from someone else." Weiss said. "Well Torchwick, are you willing?"

"I suspect I don't have a choice, but even if I did, yes." Torchwick declared.

Ren walked over and knelt by the pair. "I'm very sorry." He said. He grabbed Torchwick by the throat with one hand and placed his other on Neo's wound. He and Torchwick began to glow as the latter grunted in pain. The glow around Torchwick faded as Neo began to glow. Her wound closed, leaving behind a long scar. "All done." Ren reported.

"That sucked." Torchwick complained.

"Better than being dead." Neo signed.

"True." Torchwick agreed.

"Alright, let's get going." Weiss said. "Restrain them and let's move on."

"On it." Nora said. She walked up to Torchwick. The mercenary helpfully held his hands behind his back and Nora tied them tightly with some rope.

"You have no concept of how to be gentle, do you?" Torchwick complained. Nora tightened the rope further. "I'll shut up."

Blake approached the kneeling Neo, carrying a length of rope. Neo stared at her as she approached, her eyes wide. She started shaking. Blake ignored it, stepped behind Neo and grabbed one of her hands. Neo resisted but Blake wrenched her arm back and grabbed her other wrist. Now Neo struggled hard, fighting against Blake's attempts. "Just hold still and this won't take long!" Blake shouted. Neo fought harder, choking out sounds of panic. She tried to pull her whole body away. "I said hold still!"

"Stop!" Torchwick yelled. "Be gentle! You're scaring her!" He sighed. "Being bound holds bad memories for her."

"I'm just trying to tie her damn hands." Blake growled. Neo stopped struggling and fell limp. Blake just let her fall, exasperated by the situation. Neo curled up in the fetal position, covering her face with her hands and hyperventilating. "If she's not going to cooperate we should just deal with her here."

"Blake, step back." Yang advised. "Let me handle this."

"What?" Blake gasped. "You care about her now?"

"I care about a scared little girl." Yang said. "I have some experience with one." She looked back over her shoulder at Ruby.

"Fine, whatever." Blake said. She stomped away, frustrated.

Yang knelt at Neo's side. She took off her gauntlets and placed them on the ground, picking up the rope Blake had dropped there. She began gently stroking Neo's hair. "Neo?" Yang said softly. "Neo, please look at me." Neo slowly pulled her hands down from her eyes, gazing in terror and confusion at Yang. "I promise you, on my honor, I won't harm you. No one here will hurt you either. I'll guard you myself." Neo cast her gaze at Torchwick. He smiled and nodded at her. She closed her eyes and nodded towards Yang, holding her shaking hands together behind her back. "That's alright, I'll tie them in front if it's better." Neo opened her eyes and looked upon Yang's friendly, smiling face. She smiled back and moved her hands to her front. Yang began to tie them, slowly and carefully. "Let me know if it's too tight." Neo shook her head. When Yang finished she grabbed Neo under the arms and lifted her to her feet. "There. Are you okay?"

Neo nodded, leaning into Yang's arms. "Can we get this show on the road?" Blake asked impatiently.

"Are you ready?" Yang asked, holding Neo at arm's length. Neo nodded. "Then let's go."

"What about the bodies?" Pyrrha asked. "We can't just leave them to rot."

"Why not?" Blake shot back.

"It's sacrilege." Pyrrha said. "They might be evil. They might be our enemies. They're still people."

"There's a village nearby." Weiss said. "We'll pay them to take care of it. Pyrrha's right, we can't just leave them for the beasts."

"It's better than they deserve." Blake said.

"Blake…" Yang started but decided against saying anything.

The group headed on. After a brief stop at the next village they headed on toward Chon'sin. A roadside inn on the border between the two duchies was their home for the night. Yang, Nora and Pyrrha took turns guarding the prisoners, but Neo refused to leave Yang's side. Yang did not mind and the other two were just forced to drag Torchwick into the room where Yang was sleeping. True to his word he did not try anything. In the morning they group headed out again, reaching Chon'sin by midday. Taiyang had already secured the city and his army was camped nearby.

After dropping off the prisoners at the castle, Weiss took her group to meet with Taiyang in his command tent. "Princess, welcome." Taiyang said with a bow. "We faced no resistance and the city readily opened its gates to us."

"Unfortunately we did run into some trouble." Weiss reported. "The one positive is that Adam and his breakaway exiles will no longer bother us."

"Is everyone alright?" Taiyang asked with obvious concern.

"No casualties." Blake replied. "Adam is dead, along with his men."

"Anyway, that's not why we're here." Weiss said. "Report general."

"We encountered no resistance." Taiyang repeated. "The Imperial forces fell back on the capital. My scouts tell me some detached to reinforce the fortress at Steiger to block any moves to the southwest."

"That's fine." Weiss said. "We're not moving to the southwest. The emperor is in the capital and that is where we shall go."

"There is a complication." Taiyang admitted. "Apparently a force recently moved into the capital, coming from the south coast."

"Who are they?" Weiss asked. "Who leads them?"

"No idea." Taiyang replied. "They bore no identifiable standards and wore armor our scouts had never seen before."

"That's...alarming." Weiss sighed. "But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. How long before the army is ready to march on the capital?"

"It's ready now, but I suggest we wait." Taiyang advised. "More new recruits join us every day. Even more will surely flock to our banner now that you're here in person. If we wait a few days our forces will be so large that nothing the emperor can field will be able to match us."

"What if your father flees?" Yang asked. "We can't let him slip away."

"He's not going to run." Weiss said. "He's too arrogant, too stubborn. General, you say our ranks are growing. What of the Imperial forces?"

"We've received many defectors." Taiyang answered. "They speak of low morale. They know which way the wind is blowing."

"Good." Weiss said. "Offer any defectors amnesty but disarm them. We can't take any chances."

"I think that falls under my responsibilities." Yang said. "What should I do with the other new recruits?"

"They can defend Chon'sin when we move on." Weiss replied. "I'm ordering three days of rest for our forces. Then we march on the capital."

It was late at night but Blake could not sleep. She wandered the halls of the palace, eventually coming to the main hall. There she walked up to the destroyed throne Weiss had occupied the day the two had met. If Weiss kept her promises, it would soon be hers. As a duchess or as a queen, she could not say, but it really did not matter. Everything Blake ever wanted was within her grasp. She would have her birthright, and her exiled people would be able to return. So why did it all seem so meaningless?

Blake stared at the throne for a few minutes. It was taboo to do so, a borderline act of rebellion, but she forced herself to sit upon it. She looked out on the dark and empty hall. Dark and empty… The door at the far end creaked open and Blake leapt to her feet. In walked Weiss and Yang, the former lighting their way with magic. "Blake, what are you doing here?" Yang asked.

"I...I couldn't sleep." Blake stammered. "I decided to take a walk around."

"And sit on my throne?" Weiss asked.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty." Blake sighed.

"It's alright." Weiss said. "It should be yours anyway. And soon it will be."

"Yeah." Blake said sadly.

"Alright, enough dancing around this." Yang said. "Blake, please talk to us."

"I'd rather not." Blake groaned.

"I poured my heart out to you." Weiss said. "I feel like it helped me. Now Yang and I are here to help you. You haven't been you since what happened with Adam, and rightfully so. Please, tell us what's on your mind."

"Fine." Blake said. "I guess I may as well go through the whole thing."

"Only if you want to." Yang said.

"I'll have to eventually." Blake said. "I may as well do it now. As the rumors say, my father was the last heir to the throne of Chon'sin. My mother was his lover, a maid. My illegitimacy means I'm technically disqualified from the succession, but from what I'm told, he didn't care and wanted me to be next in line. None of that mattered because he was murdered, along with my mother, by assassins sent by the emperor. They were supposed to kill me too, but the soldier hesitated to kill an infant and guards arrived to stop him just in time.

"I never really knew my parents, and for a long time I really didn't much care what had happened to them. I was raised by some of the leading exiles for a few years, but eventually they decided my royal connection was more trouble than it was worth, and I was thrown in with other orphans who were being trained as soldiers. Apparently some of the leading exiles still held out hope that the rebellion could be revived, even if it had to wait a generation. That's where I met Adam. He was older, and his parents had both been killed in the last big battle of the war, the one in which Summer died. He had a virulent hatred of the Schnee, maybe stronger than even Raven's.

"Adam and I were the only fighters with any talent or dedication to the cause, so we ended up training together a lot. He became something of a mentor, and when I reached my teens we started to have a kind of romantic relationship. I felt like he was the only one who really cared about me. To him I was more than just an orphan, I was the Rightful Queen of Chon'sin. When other exiles cast doubt on my lineage or my claim he would defend me. He was the only one who ever did. I really loved him and I thought he loved me.

"As we got older he started to change though. His hatred of the Schnee started to consume him. He would go on angry tirades, lash out and break stuff, he even hurt some people. He never turned his anger on my though. Still, something felt wrong about him...about us." Blake started to tear up. "He wasn't as nice to me anymore. I started to realize he probably never loved me, even though he said he did. He...he just wanted to use me as a way to get power. He was a minor noble but I was the queen. He wanted to be the king. He didn't care about me or who I really was, just my blood.

"He took everything from me." Blake sobbed. "I lost it all when I realized he didn't love me. I felt like a fool for being tricked, for loving him. I still do. I wanted to leave him, but I was afraid of how he would react. He had never turned his anger on me, but by then he had killed a few people. I knew I could easily be next. Then things suddenly changed. Raven split off to form her own faction and Adam joined her. With him gone I was free. But of course I wasn't really. The leading exiles knew about our relationship. They knew he trusted me. So they sent me to spy on him. I didn't want to go but I had no choice. Then he took me here, to kill you. When I saved you, part of me hoped he would kill me, just to end it. I had nothing left.

"But you gave my life meaning. You showed me the truth and you gave me a cause worth fighting for. Then we ran into him again. I didn't want him to kill me anymore. I wanted to kill him. But he just left me maimed. I was still pathetic compared to him. Even after everything I was still useless."

"That's not true." Weiss said. "You're far from useless."

"I know now." Blake said. "When I killed him...it felt so good. But it also hurt so much. He took everything I had, but killing him didn't get it back. He was just dead. Revenge...it's meaningless. It didn't make me happy. It didn't fill the hole in my heart. Having Chon'sin, if you decide to give it to me, isn't going to fill it either. What does any of it matter if I'm not happy?"

"I am going to give you Chon'sin." Weiss promised. "But you're right. Killing Adam, ruling this land, it's all meaningless if you're not happy. But things like that, titles, power, revenge, they're not what make you happy. People who love you are."

"That's why we're here." Yang said. "We love you and we want you to be happy. It hurts us to see you hurting. If you have nothing in the world, you'll still have our love, and I hope we'll still have yours."

Blake walked beside the throne and placed her hand on it. "You're right." Blake said. "I'm a fool. I spent all this time focusing on revenge, focusing on my birthright, focusing on stuff that doesn't matter, stuff that won't really make me happy. What I should have been focusing on was right in front of me all along. I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course we forgive you." Weiss said. "We weren't angry in the first place. We just want you to be okay."

"And I am, now." Blake said, managing a smile. "Thanks to the two of you."

"So, how about a little cuddling to make it all feel better." Yang suggested.

Blake laughed. "Who am I, the princess?" She asked. "I'm down for more than a little cuddling."