Chapter 2: Déjà vu all over again

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Plato

It had just started raining, so I could see the many puddles forming on the road. To get from our house to Beacon, I have to drive through Beacon's wonderful gardens on my way to the airships. They have been maintained beautifully throughout the years by Beacon's gardeners.I am hurrying since I don't want to miss them, who knows what would happen to Ruby and Weiss if I'm not there to protect them. My big sister instinct was primarily focussed on Ruby but it had somewhat extended to Weiss and Blake as well. I can't imagine my life without them now. My speed is already considerably fast but I have to keep accelerating, the environment is now passing by at an alarming rate. I am getting increasingly closer but I still wasn't going fast enough. Finally, I can see the many Bullheads standing on the landing platform in the distance; I'm close enough to see that there was tons of people but not close enough to discern anyone. A few minutes later, I'm relieved to find out that I had just barely made it on time.

Vale's distress sirens and Beacon in turmoil were pretty much synonymous. because all hunters and huntresses, both teachers and students, are loaded into Bullheads and brought to the area with the troubles. Nobody ever knows what is going on or what part of Vale they are even taking us to. All that we know, is that we have to prepare for a fight because there is rarely not a fight when Vale's distress sirens were activated. Everyone looks really nervous, and I can't really blame them, I am quite nervous myself. Every yard we progressed, we just get even nervous than we already were. Now, my little sis Ruby might look ok, but I figured deep down, she really wasn't.

Maybe I should really try to cheer her up a little.

"Hey Ruby, how are you holding up?" I ask her gently. I don't know if I should expect an answer but if it takes too long, I might go crazy; I know I'm not the most patient of people.

"I could be better but all things considered, I feel pretty good." She said.

Ok, is she lying now or isn't she? I always think I can see through her disguise but it really happens less often than I really cared to admit. I think I better ask her again.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about anything, sis?"

"Yes Yang, I'm fine, you don't need to worry about anything." Suddenly, I see her eyes twitching.

Now I could see she was obviously lying. She sometimes has a tell and it's always really obvious to me. It's weird that she doesn't want to tell me about it, she usually almost everything but because of this, I decided to not really go through on it. If she doesn't want to tell me, there's no real way for me to force her to do it, which has always annoyed me quite a bit.

Somewhere in the corners of my eyes, I can see the iceprincess, fretting like she has never done before. She likes to be in control but obviously, this doesn't always work; and this was one of the moments where she wasn't. She doesn't really know where she is going so she can't prepare properly. A good preparation has always been of vital importance to her and she feels very vulnerable without one. I better not talk to her since she can be a bit bitchy on these moments and I really don't feel like dealing with that now.

Of course Blake wasn't there but my thoughts still went out to her. I really didn't want to paralyze her but I don't regret doing it, since I really don't want her to get hurt while fighting. I wonder how she's doing and I really hope she will understand why I did it . I wish I could explain her how I really feel when I'm around her.

Maybe I would be able to one day but now is not the right time, because I can feel that the Bullhead is descending, we must be approaching our destination. When I look around, I see faces that are even more nervous and worried than they were before I last looked, which was rather unsettling to me. Usually I can convince myself that everything will be alright but this time, I was having a really hard time doing that.

Ruby interrupted my train of thought. "Yang… where is Blake exactly? Me and Weiss were expecting her to arrive with you, when she didn't, I assumed she sneaked on board, using her Faunus stealth, but I don't really see her anywhere." she states curiously. I have been fearing that they would ask that question for a little while now; so eventually they did, I suppose, but… I was proud on my little sis for noticing that Blake was missing, a good indication of her improved leadership skills. Now... I can either lie to them, or tell them the truth, but I personally see more good in the latter, there's not much point in keeping the truth from them since they will hear about it at some point when they talk to Blake.

"Ehm… I… I may have knocked her unconscious; before I went to the airship, I put her on her bed."

Apparently, Ruby has come to the conclusion that this interrogation of sorts would go a lot smoother if she would keep Weiss from eavesdropping, keeping her as far from the conversation as possible. She probably thinks I would feel a lot more comfortable, but in reality, it doesn't make all that much difference to me. Yet, she's still sorta pushing Weiss out of the conversation and continues alone. "But Yang… why did you do that? We can really use Blake over there." she asks at last.

I sigh, this question is not at all comfortable to me but I suspect Ruby to get really suspicious if I decided to not answer this question; I'd rather answer it than having to face that suspicion. "Look… the thing is. I did it because the sirens were blaring right next to us and I could see her stressing about it; I couldn't take it anymore. You don't have to worry by the way, she will sustain no permanent injury from it. The only effect that she will encounter, is the unconsciousness she's going through now; it can also be accompanied by a slight dizziness afterwards but that usually disappears rather quickly. I… I'm very sorry for doing this, I know I acted against the interests of the team."

I have to look away from Ruby's sad face, it has always been my soft spot concerning my little sister. "Yang… we get why you did what you did, but you also have to understand we can't just ignore it either. You can't just force Blake to not do something she really wants to do, even though you don't like her decision. You have to learn to let Blake live her own life.

""It's…you're right, sis. What I did was stupid and I will try to improve this behaviour."

"Yang, please don't make me pull ranks again please, I really don't like it." Her discomfort hit me harder than I expected, although I already knew she wouldn't like this.

A couple of minutes later, I feel the Bullhead stopping, I can see the doors opening and I go over my landing strategy one last time. That's for the best, since one of the crew members signals that the Bullhead can't land properly and that we have to jump some landing is one of my specialties, it's not much of a problem to me, but that's not something that can be said about everyone. Some of them already had to sacrifice some of their Aura to fix some of the damage they sustained; aura that could be used later on, in fights. Even the tiniest amounts of aura can make the difference between life and death; but since some students were first years, they don't know; they simply don't have enough experience yet.

I can remember the first time breach, the first time I heard Vale's sirens. The circumstances were slightly different then. Instead of a Bullhead for instance, we were right in the middle of the problem, a train which let its cars explode, made holes for Grimm to come through, and finally made an opening in the centre of Vale for the Grimm to cause a lot of death and destruction. Luckily, the problem was solved rather quickly, but, I still want this one to be worse than the last one and that seems to be the case. More buildings have been destroyed than last time and there are also a lot more corpses scattered around. The corpses give me mixed feelings: on one hand, I was glad because this was a sign that it's going to be a harder battle; on the other hand, I feel sorry for the deceased people and my thoughts go out to their families. I look around to assess the situation and see that there are already fights between Grimm and hunters in training. The fact that general Ironwood and his soldiers are back in Atlas now, is going to make things even harder. Lets just hope it doesn't get too hard now.

I go to the nearest skirmish to assist the first years a bit, they certainly need it the most. The things attacking them were just some Ursai, solo, not really, but there were quite a few, so the challenge was present… and still too little. The first years trying to fend them off are seemingly having some troubles with them, so I launch myself in the air with two shots, then problem is solved with salvos from my gauntlets. I then approach two of the townspeople, who were being attacked by those Ursai as well, to get some more information about what is happening.

"Hey, you two, citizens, it's not very safe here for you, let me escort you where you can give me some information. Is this ok for you? I ask them gently.

The couple nodded, which makes sense, they want to get to safety as fast as they can. I start to walk, and the two persons were eagerly following me, always making sure they were on my tail, looking around nervously for any threats that could have appeared.

It's somewhat of shame I'm not seeing any Grimm. Damnit, I really need something to fight here, I need it to put my mind off things, my emotions are pretty much all over the place these days. I normally don't really show my emotions all that much but that has changed recently. I'm not at all used to it and it's very, very frustrating. My emotions don't really matter as much as the lives of these two citizens though, so it turned out for the best.

Due to me constantly thinking to myself, I'm not even noticing we've arrived at the marketplace where we got dropped off. I see that they were able to clear the area of Grimm and that some airships are currently landing. I motioned the two townspeople to come closer to me, so I could finally ask them the questions I desire to know.

Now that we're safe, can you tell me what's going on exactly?" I ask while they slowly approach me.

The husband, they are obviously married, tells me the story as soon as he's close enough: "We were just watching some television, at ease, when we both suddenly heard what seemed to be a massive explosion. Logically, we went outside to check what was happening, like many others did, and then it happened… we were stormed by a large amount of Grimm, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Of course we can defend against 1 or 2 of them [(but… it's just… there were just so many…) or (but there were too much for us to handle)]. Hundreds of us were slaughtered almost immediately. The only ones who survived , were ex-hunters, others who went to a fighting academy or those who had found a great hiding spot."

I now know what happened but of course, I still have some questions first: "So… it's like that breach we had earlier, about 4 years ago? Why didn't you escape as soon as you had the chance, it was not really safe where I found you?"

"Yes we remember that incident 4 years ago quite well, but I would say it's a whole lot worse now. Back then, almost nobody died, we had minimal casualties, it's pretty much the opposite this time around. We did try to escape from here, yes, but the only way to do that is by going through the south-east, but when we went there, we noticed that the south-east has been sealed by large pieces of debris, probably caused by that huge explosion we heard earlier. There's even a huge hole in the ground over there, and I reckon that's where the Grimm have been coming from."

I'm having a terrified feeling now that I know this, this is almost exactly like 4 years ago, only, it seems to have succeeded far better now. Goddamnit, it makes me think about all those helpless victims again. Who could be behind it this time? I decide to start talking to the two townspeople again. "I'm pretty sure that the airships are going to be able to land any second now, and I bet they're about to send even more airships to pick up all the survivors and bring them to safety. I suggest you join them". They obey my suggestion meekly, they don't know what else to do anyway.

now that I got that out of the way, I'm going to go to one of the coordinators who have just set up and are now making sure everything is going as planned. I have to make sure I can find Ruby and Weiss so I can tell them about what I have learned recently. After talking to one of those coordinator guys, I know their locations, it's not terribly far from here. That's good, the earlier I can get to them, the better. Maybe the have an idea about how we are going to handle this situation. I like how fast that guy could get their coordinates; I'm leaving as fast as possible now that I know them. I was running faster than I ever have, that's how flighty I am.

When I arrive at the coordinates that were given to me, I'm seeing absolutely nothing or nobody, very strange. Suddenly, I hear screaming coming from above me, so I step aside to be able to take a better look at what's causing the screaming exactly. I can just about see a touch of red and white racing past me, after which I hear a reasonably loud thud; Ruby and Weiss are also suddenly lying next to me.

"Oh my god, are you guys alright? Are you hurt?" I ask worried.

Luckily, they are still able to respond, Ruby started talking. "I don't think we're hurt, our Aura took a big part of the blow. We…"

For the sake of us all, I unfortunately have to interrupt her. "Shh, I think we should move somewhere safer, prior to exchanging information here."

Obviously, Ruby and Weiss agree to that, so, several minutes later, we find ourselves in a nearby alleyway. It looks peaceful enough, as far as it can be at the moment, anyway. Of course we first check the environment to see if it's actually as safe as we think it is. We take a look around the corners at both sides, we're even looking in the container, even though we know a Grimm can't exactly fit in there. Only when we know it''s absolutely safe, we allow ourselves to relax a bit. Before I can start telling my story to Ruby and Weiss, they want to tell their own story.

"So… this is what happened: We were being chased down by Grimm, quite a lot of them, we were being driven in a corner on the roof of that building and we were unable to go anywhere, so, your dolt of a little sister thought it would be a good idea and to break our fall with my glyphs and shots of Crescent Rose. The only problem is that, obviously, that didn't work out too well." I don't know why but I think it's hilarious when Weiss is this irritated by something.

"But…how come they didn't come after you?" I wondered.

Apparently, Ruby thinks it's a good idea to take over from Weiss, probably because she's starting to feel embarrassed by her. "No, they weren't really able to come down very quickly. When we reached the top, the stair collapsed due to the weight of the many Grimm, which caused some of the Grimm dying and the survivors stuck up there for a while, but I don't think they'll be stuck up there forever."

Meanwhile, Weiss is sitting at the sideline, she didn't really like it very much so she's getting increasingly more impatient. It's clear that she's about to intervene so I'm not surprised when she eventually did. "Ok, so… Yang, now you our story, I think it's time to tell us 's so important you came to us for?" she eventually asks, with very good reason.

My worries about my two teammates almost made me forget why I am here in the first place, to tell them about what I have learned from those citizens. Of course, that's what I'm going to do then, Ruby and Weiss seem to be all ears as well, so I start telling the story, making sure I leave not a single detail behind. Ruby's and Weiss' facial expressions as the story goes along, from sadness to surprise and rage. When I get to the end of my storytelling, I can slowly see the sun rising from the east, which is making me realise that time had progressed a lot faster than I anticipated.

Ruby's leader instincts, which had developed astonishingly well during her 4 years at Beacon, immediately come back up. Like an experienced leader, she starts thinking about a plan, and, of course, she wants to involve us into the thinking as well. "We have to come up with a plan, but what? And how?" she suddenly wants to know of us.

"Ruby… there's not much point in making a plan right now. We can't exactly do a lot with the three of us against a Grimm army with this kind of size and scope. I think we should return to the bullheads, senior-hunters and coordinators, we'll be able to come up with a better plan over there, one that involves everyone that's available."

"You're probably right, it would be incredibly stupid to execute any plans ourselves. We would probably get terribly hurt, if not worse, and…"

I don't love interrupting Ruby at all, but in this case, I really needed to. "I would like to say that it would probably be fine with me around, we would probably not get severely wounded, but I'm going to agree with Weiss here, it would be more beneficial to construct a plan with the other people."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what makes you think that you can make it so we wouldn't be hurt?" It's obvious that Weiss is about to start an argument, and I for one, am not really willing to do this, since we are in the middle of a bloody massacre, but Weiss has to know at some point.

"Oh you want to know why I think that way? Well, for starters…"

"Please, you two, stop it! Quarreling isn't going to help us, quite the opposite in fact, we're making a lot more noise, which makes us more noticeable and it might cause us to get in trouble if we're not careful."

Ruby's harsh reality, her intervention, hits me pretty hard. What am I doing if I even start a fight with one of my teammates while we're possibly in danger? "... you're right Ruby, we should head back to the temporary crisis centre." I suggest.

The way back is really unsettling, the atmosphere around our little group of three got really chilly after that little incident, I suspect it to improve after a certain amount of time, but it's hard to judge how long that will take exactly.

A few minutes later, surprisingly, without too many Grimm attacks, we finally arrive at our desired destination. The atmosphere over here seems to be even chillier than the one we just experienced, which startled all three of us. We can definitely see people, but they only seemed to be focussed on one single thing. When I look at what they are focussing on exactly, I understand why things where this quiet over here. A large army of Grimm, bigger than any I have ever seen, was standing about 100 yards from the temporary camp, about to attack it.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. I also hope that the change between Durandal's writing style and mine won't cause a lot of whiplash. Next chapter should be up next week, written by Durandal again.

(Durandal): OK, I may have forgotten to upload this yesterday.