8. Team-Attack



"Blake, what are you doing here? Where have you been? We looked everywhere for you!"

The faunus girl cringed at Ruby's words. She stumbled back some more, trying to create as much distance as possible between them on the limited space of the rooftop.

"You shouldn't be here! You need to go now! Take Yang, leave and never come back! Please!"

"What are you talking about, we just found you! And why are you dressed like a... wait, you didn't..." The red-hooded sniper was still finding it hard to process, it was just too much. It wasn't possible.

"I did what I had to protect you! Adam was going to kill you all, I couldn't let that happen! It was the only way!" The White Fang member was screaming, all the while fighting back the tears. All she had sacrificed for them was on the verge of collapse.

"Are you a hostage? Are they keeping you here by force? Then you can just come with us, and go back to Vale!"

"NO, I CAN'T! I came here because I wanted to, Ruby. No one made me." Despite all her best efforts, tears were now rolling down her cheeks. It was overwhelming, even for someone as composed as her.

"I- I don't understand..."

"I found Adam during the Battle of Beacon. We used to be partners and... more than that, but he became insane. He thinks that if he can't have me, no one can. He was going after everyone I love, which includes you, Weiss and Yang. So I left with him. It was the only option to keep you safe."

It was Ruby's turn to stumble in shock. When they had found no body, they assumed she had run away from the fight, and was holed somewhere safe, waiting for it all to blow over. There was no may the cat girl would simply go down without a fight. None of them had considered she could have joined the enemy, much less willingly.

"We can fight for ourselves! We can help you, Blake! We can get you out!"

"Damnit Ruby, no you can't! Tell me, when was the last time you saw Sun?"

"...Sun? He... went back to Mistral..."

"No, he didn't. He tracked me down and tried to break me out. I was forced to watch all the things Adam did to him until the very end. This is not a fairy tale, and people like me don't get a happy ending. I can't let anyone else be caught in the crossfire, especially not you. So if you won't leave by yourself..." Her hand slid the handle of Gambol Shroud away from its sheath. "...I'll just have to knock you out and carry you away."

The speedster gripped her own weapon while it extended into scythe form. She didn't want to fight her friend, but the black-clad ninja wasn't giving her much of a choice. Her brain was going through multiple possible outcomes trying to come up with a peaceful solution to the confrontation. And that concentration was the reason she nearly missed the dark blade flying her way.

She dodged it at the last second, the thrown sword slicing the air where her face used to be. It was a dangerous move, but Blake knew it wouldn't hit. She had, in fact, planned for it, and the next blow was delivered flawlessly.

Out of Ruby's line of sight, Gambol Shroud stopped its trajectory, yanked back by a pull of the ribbon, and fired. The spray of bullets struck the red-hooded on the neck right below the base of the skull. Her Aura shielded most of the damage, but not the pain it caused, blurring her vision for a few seconds.

Thrown off-balance, the scythe-wielder tried to brace for the impact that would surely come next. She could see a vague outline of her opponent closing in, but didn't realize it was a clone until she took a swift kick to the back of the leg, bringing her to her knees. Using the memento to roll forward, she felt the wind of another kick that had just missed her head. The White Fang member was going for vulnerable areas, but refrained from using the weapon too much, as her objective was to incapacitate, not kill.

Ruby's objective, on the other hand, quickly became running away. She hadn't kept her training in day, whereas the dark-haired faunus clearly had maintained in shape. She couldn't win that fight on her own, particularly against someone who knew her weaknesses so well. Luckily, she knew Blake's as well.

Getting up on the opposite end of the roof, just at the edge, she saw the ex-teammate on the other side picking up the sword at the tip of the ribbon, preparing another assault. It was the perfect moment for her plan.

"Blake, look, tuna!" She pointed energetically to the left, but the other girl didn't even bother to turn. She did, however, stop walking towards her.

"Really? Wow, you think I'm stupid AND you're racist." But that was the opening the speedster was seeking. "Wait, what are you..."

Before the faunus could finish, she spread her arms and dramatically threw herself off the building. In the time it took the raven-haired girl to reach it, she had already activated her semblance and run off elsewhere, successfully throwing off the chase.

She needed to reunite with the team, to check on the mission. It wasn't much effort, she just had to follow the explosion noises. Bringing her sister to a stealth and discretion mission had been a miscalculation from the start.

It wasn't long before she spotted in the distance the two girls fending off a horde of White Fang grunts. The lowly criminals were no match for two highly trained huntresses, but the sheer number managed to somewhat balance the fight.

Ruby turned into a whirlwind of petals, dragging the scythe along to slice through the barrage of cannon fodder. In no time she was shoulder to shoulder with her sibling and the Ice Cream Queen, before they even realized what had happened.

"Didn't I say no explosions? Damnit Yang, you had one job!"

"Ruby? What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to cover us?" Yang punched a faunus in the throat, sending him tumbling backwards through the asphalt. Other two jumped over his inert body, sparing no time in joining in the brawl.

"Yeah, well, change of plans. It's a long story. Where's Roman?" She pulled the trigger, propelling herself upwards, and then fired again, twirling down in a spiral of slicing doom. The unsuspecting terrorists below weren't fast enough to dodge.

"Hell if I know! My hands are kinda full here. Does our gracious leader have a plan?"

"Strawberry Sunrise!"

The blonde didn't need to hear anything more. She blasted her gauntlets at the ground, making the soldier in the way lose their footing. Taking the opportunity, she stretched both arms out and grappled two of them, pushing them behind her back.

Having two enemies behind their lines would normally be a bad move, but they were being propelled into Ruby, who was spinning around with her weapon. It was like being thrown into a blender. A very angry blender. Between the blade and the wall, which was Yang and her prize-winning fists, the two poor freedom-fighters had no way out, and no chance for redemption.

It was a crushing team-attack, but it wasn't sustainable, as it left both girls rather vulnerable. Neo was having to fill in the gaps, blinking around the battlefield and leaving only shattered glass behind. The red speedster stopped the motion, as two bodies fell down, victims of that unbreakable sisterly bond.

"Strawberry Shortcake!"

Neo took a quizzical glance their way, trying to understand what was the deal with the non-sensical names. Yang picked up on it and explained, before returning the activity she so loved: smashing faces with her shotgun-gauntlets.

"It's her team-attack for you two! Oh, just indulge her, and do it quick!"

The fun-sized maniac nodded and jumped up, landing on top of Crescent Rose. Ruby raised the weapon high and took a shot, the recoil making them both fly high above the crowd of White Fang members, who mistook the move for an escape, and concentrated the assault on the remaining blonde fighter. It wasn't very smart of them, but they couldn't have known.

Neo jumped off the red rocketship, and Ruby, still in flight, lined up a shot straight at her. When she took it, the multi-colored girl broke into little pieces of sharp and dangerous glass, that just so happened to be rapidly falling on the clueless terrorists. Some of them screamed, feeling the pain of being impaled, and those who successfully avoided any shards soon saw a red reaper descend from the heavens to get them.

Before they could recover, the assault moved on to the next phase.

"Baked Alaska!"

Yang stood back in waiting, fists raised up, while her girlfriend set the stage. One moment the two were there, and the next there were six Neos on the battlefield, forming a circle outwards, and nobody else. Whenever anybody tried to attack one of them, they shattered and the perpetrator received a mighty hit from an invisible Yang. Afterwards the mirror clone was replaced, and none of the enemies knew where there real trickster was. It was a great strategy for defense, considering neither girls were taking damage, but it still wasn't enough. The terrorists just kept on coming.

"Ugh where is Roman? I had attack names for him too!" Ruby pouted through the wild swings of her scythe.

"Oh shut up with your crappy ship names, we need a new plan. There are too many of them. Y'know, now would be a great time for some Special Eyes mumbo-jumbo!"

"I can't control it, Yang! It happened just that one time, because of Pyrrha. Unless you're volunteering to die, I think it's out of question."

"Then how about that hurricane thing you did at the food fight? That could buy us enough time to escape!"

"All right, give me a second." The reaper vaulted over a grunt, and leapt out of the action. "You might wanna hold on to something."

The masked criminals stopped attacking and traded confused glances between one another, trying to make sense of those words and the strange poses the girl was making.

She started running at a pace almost indiscernible to the eye. There was only a blur, speeding through the pavement, rotating until all that was left of her was a red bullet-like projectile. The air began to seem lighter, slowly at first but not long after with power of raging storm. Men and women struggled to grab anything that would keep them grounded, as the wind force began to lift them.

Yang and Neo were desperately gripping one of the nearby vehicles, hoping it's weight was enough to keep them from flying away. One White Fang member attempted to do the same thing, but all it took was a firm punch to the jaw and he went with the rest.

The whirlwind continued until no faunus was still anywhere near, all of them helplessly thrown like ragdolls. Ruby gradually slowed down and stopped to catch her breath.

"That. Was. AWESOME! Now let's go, sis, we have to move now!" Yang expressed her impressions of the transpired events by grabbing her younger sibling's arm and pulling her away.

The sniper allowed her body to be handled by the brute, too tired to even care. That attack was particularly draining on her stamina. They ran all the way to the outer-perimeter fence, which the blonde destroyed with her gauntlets, and then kept running until the terrorist base was out of sight. The three girls took a break to catch their breath.

"Well that didn't go as planned."

"Does anyone else feel like we forgot something?"

Neo shot them both a murderous look, rage burning within with an overbearing strength. It took them a little to understand what the reason for the glare was. Yang got there first.

"Where's Roman?

"Oh no... He's still at the base!"

Roman struggled against the shackles, but the rope stayed firmly in place. He knew that in a compound full of career-criminals they knew well how to bind a man with no way to escape, but in truth he just wanted a little more breathing room. Having your arms tied up behind your back wasn't the most comfortable position to be in. At least they had the decency to give him a chair, otherwise it would've been nothing short of torture.

From the darkness at the opposite side of the grey and windowless room came the creaking sound of a heavy metal door being dragged across the floor, followed by approaching footsteps. A woman all dressed in black emerged from the shadows, and the mobster suppressed a grimace at the new company.

"Kitty Cat! Fancy meeting you here!"

"It's been a while, Roman. Chains look good on you."

"Of course, I can make anything work. Didn't take you for the bondage type, although it makes perfect sense now that I think of it."

"Drop the jokes. I want you here as much as you want to be here." Blake wasn't smiling. She had a dead serious expressions, clouding her face from showing her true feelings.

"Oh, so this wasn't the worst booty call ever? Then why I am here?"

"I don't know."

To fill the void in both their understandings, a voice was heard from within the dark.

"He's a gift. For you." The man who spoke stepped forward. His red hair was still as vivid as Roman remembered, contrasting with his less than lively personality.

"Do you plan on torturing him too? I couldn't care less about this one even if I tried." The dark-haired faunus didn't seem at all pleased to see Adam, and neither was the retired criminal.

"Hey, hey. No need for torture, we're all businessmen here. And businesswoman... businessfaunus or whatever." No one paid any attention to his pleads.

"Oh no, I don't intend on doing anything to him, my love. He was, after all, your enemy, right?"

Blake nodded reluctantly.

"So, I want you to kill him."

Sorry if this chapter was more dark and action-oriented. There were a few jokes I ended up removing because they felt out-of-place, and I needed to set up the finale. Angsty and gritty is kind of my thing, I'm honestly surprised I managed to keep it light-hearted going for so long.



I took a few liberties with how Neo's semblance works. It's never really explained in detail, and there's a chance we won't be seeing her again in the show, so I thought it was a safe bet. I usually don't like to work with things that might be proven wrong by canon in a few months. And I really wanted to make team combos.



As always, don't be shy about your opinions. Reviews are welcome, the more constructive the better.