Chapter Text
“You ever been on one of these before?” Hong asked, looking at the hooded figure sat on the back of the guard truck with them.
“No, I haven’t. I always travelled by air before.” The hooded woman replied, fiddling idly with the bracer on her right wrist.
“Fancy, bit of a leap going from air travel to guarding a caravan.” She just shrugged.
“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. These are trying times after all. You said you’ve been doing this for a while now?”
“Yeah, going on four years now.” They replied rather smugly. “Never lost a shipment.” The hooded woman just groaned. “What?”
“Let’s just say I made some claims like that once and the universe didn’t like it.” Her eyes were already scanning the woods alongside the road, looking for something.
“Pfft, you’re being paranoid, the universe isn’t out to get yo-.” Their scoffing was interrupted by the hooded woman leaping to her feet and spinning the barrel of her bracer around, aiming at something moving out in the woods.
A Beowolf flew out of the forest at one of the trucks further back in the convoy only to be caught mid-leap by a spike of ice impaling it and sending it crashing lifelessly to the ground.
“You were saying?” She sighed, as several howls echoed from the woods. “You want to put those four years of experience to use?” Hong nodded dumbly as the hooded woman backed up a bit for a running jump out of the back of the truck onto the roof of the one behind.
She looked back along the caravan as a few more of the guards were emerging from where they were arranged along the convoy. More Beowolves emerged from the woods, running up alongside the trucks which accelerated to try and get away but the pack kept pace. The hooded woman’s truck shook as Hong’s massive frame landed on the roof alongside her.
“Let’s clear these beasts out!” They called out, the other guards hollering in approval as they levelled a large shotgun at the nearest Beowolf. The hooded woman was just about able to cover her ears in time, the retort of Hong’s gun rang out and the Beowolf was reduced to a dark mist.
Unwilling to let herself be shown up, the hooded woman spun her bracer and launched a wave of fire at the pack, immolating a few and sending several others running.
“Not bad!” Hong complimented as they loaded another shell. “But there’s still more!” Glancing back, she saw the rest of the guards weren’t faring so well against the rest of the pack, their mishmash of small arms and rifles not making enough of an impact.
“Can you stay up here?” The hooded woman asked and Hong nodded, aiming at another Beowolf that ran up beside their truck.
“Go.” Taking off quickly, the woman hopped from truck to truck towards the struggling guards. She flinched involuntarily as a Beowolf slammed into one of the trucks, causing it to veer wildly and sending one of the guards balanced on top crashing to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Pulling out her side arm, she fired a few shots at the pursuing Grimm that went wide. Cursing, she brought her right arm up again and several spikes of ice lanced out, landing lethal blows on the Beowolves. They were thinning the pack, but there were still a great many chasing alongside. A couple tried to climb onto one of the trucks but were taken down by concentrated gun fire.
The truck the hooded woman was stood on rocked violently as another Grimm latched onto the side. Switching her side arm, she swung her blade down at the beast’s arms and was immensely satisfied when it cleaved through cleanly, leaving the Beowolf to fall to the ground to be trampled by its brethren.
She looked back along the caravan and saw that they were slowly but surely beating the attackers back, smoking corpses left in their wake. Soon the last of the pack fled and the rest of the guards started cheering.
That is of course, until they were drowned out by a loud howl. There was a massive crashing, and bursting from the trees came a truly massive Alpha Beowolf. Barrelling out of the woods, it leaped onto one of the trucks between the hooded woman and Hong.
“Shoot it!” The cry came from behind and she had to duck as a hail of bullets flew overhead, only to plink uselessly off the Alpha’s armour.
“Stop shooting, you’re wasting bullets!” She screamed at the guards, who reluctantly stopped firing, allowing her to get up and run towards the Grimm, hopping the gaps as quickly as possible. She had to admire the skills of the drivers, able to keep control even whilst under Grimm attack. The alpha was moving ahead, advancing on a kneeling Hong who fired a blast from their shotgun, which seemed to stagger the beast but ultimately didn’t kill it.
Gritting her teeth, she ran faster as the Alpha made it to the same truck as Hong, bearing down on them as they struggled to reload quickly enough. Her heart froze as she saw them look up at the beast, its massive clawed arm raised, and close their eyes in acceptance.
No, she was not going to lose anyone else. Feeling her aura course through her into familiar patterns she’d been avoiding using the last couple of days, a set of glyphs manifested between her and the Alpha, propelling her forward even faster.
The claw descended as a wing seemed to materialise between Hong and the Grimm.
They gazed up in shock at the grey and white feathers as the wing flexed, throwing the Alpha off balance and the hooded woman took its place, thrusting her hand forward, a spinning red glyph manifested and spewed massive gouts of flame. The Alpha roared in what could have been pain as its flesh scorched and burned, but the woman did not let up. Gritting her teeth, she poured more and more aura into her bracer and the Fire Dust within.
With a final howl the Alpha crumbled into ash, which was itself vaporised by the heat. Letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, she let her hand drop and the glyph dematerialise and relative silence fell over the caravan that was swiftly broken by some wary cheers from further back.
“Thanks Ivory, you really saved my ass there.” Hong was breathing heavily and accepted her offered hand, pulling themselves to their feet. In all the excitement, their saviour’s hood had fallen down, exposing her snow-white hair and piercing blue eyes.
“It was nothing, Hong.” Weiss reassured the guard.
Weiss hadn’t truly been aware of just how insulated Patch was from the rest of the world until she got off the boat and onto the docks. The air was thick with tension, as though something could go wrong at any moment. Most of Vale had been reclaimed, but there were still frequent attacks, often from Beacon where the giant Grimm still sat frozen atop the tower. Pulling her cloak tighter around herself and checking that her hood was up, Weiss made her way to the harbourmaster’s office.
Inside was a harried looking young man sat behind a desk, looking over several large stacks of paper and muttering to himself.
“No no no, this isn’t right at all.” She heard him groan as she cautiously approached.
“Excuse me?” She asked and the young man snapped his gaze to her, irritation flaring in his eyes.
“Yes, what is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?” He snapped sharply and Weiss took a step back in worry.
“Sorry, but I need to get a boat to Menagerie.” At once, the young man’s eyebrows raised and he gave her a once over, she could tell he was looking for her trait. Sighing deeply, she moved her cloak aside and flashed him a wing.
“I see… Let me have a look at the manifestos.” He mused, sifting through the papers as Weiss walked closer, tucking her wing away again. “Ah, here we go, Menagerie...” He gave her an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry, it looks like the boat to Menagerie left a few days ago, the next one won’t be for another three weeks.”
“Three weeks!?” Weiss’ jaw dropped. “Surely you’re mistaken.”
“I’m afraid not Miss, the journey itself takes about two weeks and this is the only boat that does the route from Vale to Menagerie. It’s not a very popular journey.” Weiss’ head drooped in despair. If she couldn’t get to Menagerie fast enough, who knew where Blake would go after that. And worse, how long would she have to go before her family was restored.
“Please, I need to get to Menagerie as fast as possible.” She looked up at the man, eyes pleading.
“I’m sorry miss, but there’s nothing I can do.” He shook his head, then paused. “Although...” He grabbed a piece of paper and began scrawling something down on it.
“What?” Weiss stood on tiptoe to try to see what he was writing.
“I think I know how you can get there only a day or so after the boat you just missed.” The ex-heiress’ eyes widened.
“How?”
“What with air traffic down except for emergency usage, there have been a lot of caravans leaving Vale to take supplies out to the other cities in the kingdoms. More than usual at least. If you can get on one leaving in the next day you can cross the continent to Dolmen, they run a more frequent service there.” He grinned, looking extremely proud of himself for coming up with the route.
“Yes, that’s perfect thank you!” There was still hope!
“Yeah, I don’t blame you wanting to get out of Vale as quickly as possible, what with all the anti-Faunus stuff going around.” The young man continued, as he scribbled something else out, making Weiss pause in her silent jubilation.
“Anti-Faunus feeling?”
“Oh you know, since the White Fang were involved in the Fall there’s a lot of people thinking it’s alright to blame all the Faunus for what happened. Complete and utter rubbish if you ask me, blaming you all for the actions of a few, but that hasn’t stopped them. I’m surprised you hadn’t noticed.” He looked at her curiously.
“I just got off the boat from Patch.” Weiss said faintly, her heart sinking.
“Ah, that explains it. It’s like another world over there. Anyway, take this. A cousin of mine’s friend works for the caravan dispatch on Emerald Way. His name’s Gris. He should be able to help you get on one, though you’ll probably be expected to pull your own weight.” He passed her the paper with his untidy scrawl, somehow even worse than Ruby’s.
“Right, I’ll get over there right away. Thank you for your help.” The man waved her off as she quick walked out of the office and towards the edge of the docks. Qrow had been right about things being a mess, as if having the capital of a kingdom half destroyed and international communications down weren’t bad enough, people had to go stir up hatred against the Faunus as well. It was no wonder there were still Grimm attacks with negativity like that going around.
Yet again Weiss checked her cloak fully covered her wings and her hood obscured enough of her face. She’d been well known enough before her outing on live TV, she wouldn’t be surprised if she was the most well-known Faunus on all of Remnant. Most of the streets close to the harbour had been rebuilt, it being the safest place, though very few stores were open. Weiss was particularly disturbed to see a great many had signs depicting a crude drawing of the White Fang logo crossed through. The meaning was painfully clear. Faunus weren’t welcome in Vale any more.
Weiss shuddered to think of what Sun would have gone through if he’d been in Vale tailing Blake for the last two months. As she got further into the heart of Vale, though a lot of the major damage had been repaired, there were still signs of the recent invasion, street lamps that had yet to be removed and replaced, buildings with broken windows that had been cleared out but not fixed. There were fewer people too, those she did encounter were walking swiftly, staring resolutely ahead.
It wasn’t until she reached the main square that she saw more people, but it wasn’t a welcome sight. A makeshift stage had been set up in the centre and a large banner overhead proclaimed: ‘Get the Animals out of Vale!’
“These sub-human beasts brought our great city to ruin, after we did so much for them. We let them roam our streets, gave them rights, we even gave them a place to call their own! Well we say we pack them up and send them to that island, Vale for the humans!” Weiss felt sick as a red-faced woman screamed her hateful rhetoric into a megaphone, several others standing behind her. Even worse was the substantial crowd surrounding the stage, roaring in support.
This was awful. Weiss skirted the square as fast as she could whilst the woman continued to rant and rave about the supposed evils of the Faunus. Why was no one doing anything? Why weren’t the police or any of the hunters still in Vale stopping this?
As soon as she was out of sight of the rally, Weiss broke into a run, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the angry mob as she could. Once the sounds of hatred faded, Weiss slowed down a little, breathing heavily. This was so wrong.
After catching her breath, Weiss steeled herself and headed resolutely towards Emerald Way. Stepping delicately around debris and roped off areas she eventually found herself right on the outskirts of Vale, she could just make out the fence through gaps in the buildings. There were more people here, milling around, most carrying crates and sacks to various idling trucks and other vehicles. A little further along the street a makeshift sign hung over a building declaring it as the depot and Weiss’ destination.
Dodging around a few people, she made her way into the building, a grizzled man looking up from something she couldn’t see behind his desk.
“Can I help you miss?” He drawled, raising an eyebrow as Weiss stepped over to him.
“Yes, I’m looking for a man named Gris.” She told him, gaze wandering a little as a few armed men walked out of the back and out the main door. The man raised an eyebrow but leaned back to holler behind him.
“Hey Gris, got someone lookin’ for ya!” There was a short pause, then a voice called back.
“Alright, I’m comin’.” Another moment passed, then an incredibly thin man stepped out. Weiss could tell why he was named Gris with his hair and eyes a steely grey. “What do you want?”
“I was told to find you. I need to get to Dolmen.”
“This ain’t a passenger service, sweetheart. You’d better look elsewhere.” Weiss didn’t like him already, but she needed his help so she gritted her teeth and continued.
“I have a note to give to you as well.” She held the piece of paper out which Gris took reluctantly and looked over it.
“Ugh, Umbra has the worst handwriting.” He groaned, squinting at certain points in his reading. “Say if I were to let you on a caravan, can you pull your weight? You don’t look particularly strong to do any loading.” He looked sceptically at Weiss’ admittedly slender body.
“I’m a lot tougher than I look, I’ve got huntress training too.” Gris raised an eyebrow at this.
“Fancy, you got your weapon with you?” Weiss moved her cloak aside to reveal Penny Dreadful. Gris gave her another appraising look.
“Alright, you need to get to Dolmen, we’ve got a caravan headed out later. You can be on it on the condition you work as a guard, just keep the convoy safe from any Grimm or bandits and we’ll consider that your payment for the journey. Sound good?” It was better than Weiss could have hoped for and it wasn’t going to get any better.
“Sounds good.” She agreed easily and Gris walked around the desk to lead her out the building.
“I’ll introduce you to the head of the guards and you can help finish off the loading.” He told her over his shoulder as he walked towards the end of the street and close to the gates leading out into the wilds. It was a flurry of activity around as people were walking by, loading goods onto trucks and fuelling them up, getting ready for the long journey ahead. Leaning up against one of the vans, not actually hauling but instead watching over the loading was an absolute monster of a man, easily a foot taller than Yatsu, with a gun to match slung over his back.
“This is Hong. They’re head guard on this run. You listen to what they say.” Hong lazily stood to attention, looking over Weiss critically.
“Who’s this you’ve brought me Gris?” They asked, voice surprisingly light for someone of their size.
“This is...” He had a brief double-take and looked down at Weiss. “Sorry, I never actually got your name.” Weiss froze for a moment. She hadn’t thought of that. It would be suspicious if she didn’t answer soon so she just said the first thing that came to mind.
“Ivory, it’s Ivory.” She stuck a hand out to try and distract from her momentary pause. Hong took the outstretched hand in a firm grip.
“Nice to meet you, Ivory. I hope you can handle yourself, I’d hate to lose someone as beautiful as you to the wilds.” Weiss raised an eyebrow.
“I have a girlfriend.” She told them flatly and they just shrugged.
“Good for you, sorry if I offended, I have a habit throwing out compliments every once in a while.” They apologised, letting go of Weiss’ hand allowing her to wave it off.
“Just, maybe try to keep them to a minimum, please.” They laughed softly, grinning down at the white-haired girl.
“I think we’re gonna get along just fine. Now why don’t we go and help with the loading, huh?” Weiss nodded in agreement. “Thanks for bringing her to me, Gris.”
“Yes, thank you for your help.” Weiss chimed in, as Gris turned to head back to the depot.
“Yeah, yeah. Just try not to get yourself killed out there.” He called over his shoulder, leaving the pair alone.
“Shall we?” Hong gestured towards what looked like a makeshift warehouse on the other side of the street.
“We shall.” And with that, Weiss happily followed them. At last she was underway. First Dolmen, then Menagerie, and when she got there she would make sure Blake regretted ever running away like she did.