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Chapter 5

Despite all the past lives she had led, Blake could never adjust to being in the middle of an explosion. She blamed her own heightened senses. What she widely considered to be her greatest advantage over her human teammates became her greatest weakness as said senses were overwhelmed by the resulting stimuli.

Blake pushed through said stimuli, though, scanning the alley in order to get her bearings. Weiss shifted from her spot in the rubble, not unconscious but also not having recovered. Her attention was quickly drawn away from the former heiress by the unmistakable sound of Crescent Rose's mechanisms coming to life.

Ruby held her scythe in attack position, having already turned her attention in the direction the projectile had originated from. Blake followed Ruby's eye-line to a nearby rooftop, finding a figure with a primed grenade launcher staring back at them. The figure, covered head-to-toe in Atlas tech, waited a second before turning and retreating in the opposite direction. Ruby, obviously without thinking, disappeared in a cloud of rose petals and flew after them.

Blake's first instinct was to follow, knowing that Team RWBY's leader would likely need backup. This line of thought was cut short, however, by the team's last member bursting from the rubble.

"Where?" Yang growled, her eyes the deep red that indicated her semblance was active.

Blake would have gestured in Ruby's direction had she not heard the sound of a weapon's safety being clicked off through the ringing in her ears. Reflexes kicked in, with her diving forward and knocking Yang back to the ground to keep the spray of bullets from making contact. Both of them immediately looked upward for their would-be assailant, finding a second figure brandishing a pistol and wearing armor identical to the first. Also like the first, they turned and ran.

"I'm going after them!" Yang called out as she pushed herself away from Blake.

"Alone?" Blake immediately questioned, having instantly known her intent from the tone of her voice.

"You're out of practice, and-"

"I am not out of practice!"

"And I need someone to check on Dad!" Yang barely turned around as she spoke, already moving to pursue her target. "Just listen to me, for once!" Yang didn't bother to add to that last thought as she was soon out of sight.

"You can argue with her later," Weiss said as she finally stood upright. She drew Myrtenaster as she started to walk forward "Now we have to focus."

"And where are you going?" Blake asked, aware that she was being a bit more impatient than she normally would be.

"To make sure a certain dolt doesn't do anything stupid." Weiss' speed glyphs lit up under her and soon she was gone.

Blake took a deep breath, knowing that someone needed to keep a level head to keep this fight from spinning out of control. She turned to a hole in a nearby wall, deciding that doing as Yang asked and checking on her father would likely do less harm than good.

Ruby slammed into her target as they lept between buildings, causing them to crash into the muddy road below. Ruby managed to get her bearings just in time to land on her feet, immediately training her vision on her opponent after that. Good thing she did, as the assassin tried to bring up their grenade launcher again as they tried to stand.

"No thank you!" Ruby yelled as she snapped Crescent Rose to her rifle mode. She fired a single round that knocked the launcher from the assassin's hand. "I've done with having stuff blow up in my face!"

"We'll see," the assassin replied calmly, her voice somewhat distorted by her helmet. Gaze moving from her launcher to Ruby, she finally opted to reach for her melee weapon. "Your team isn't exactly a cohesive unit right now."

"Yeah, well..." Ruby racked her brain for a good comeback. "... we'll see about that too." Her response must have been really effective, because her opponent charged as soon as her weapon was fully brandished.

Ruby grinned upon seeing that the assassin's weapon of choice was a rapier of some kind. If there was one kind of opponent that Ruby had experience fighting, it was fighters who favored that kind of sword. First and foremost, the assassin would be aiming for precision, and for that she would need to get in close.

Without thinking, Ruby pushed herself backwards and out of the way of her opponent's first strike. She followed this movement up by effortlessly swinging her scythe around, connecting with her opponent's sword and knocking her off balance.

Ruby pressed her advantage, closing the distance between them. The assassin managed to parry Ruby's first strike, but wasn't fast enough to anticipate Ruby's follow up. Ruby brought Crescent Rose around again, hitting her opponent with her scythe's shaft and sending her flying off to the side.

Satisfied, Ruby brought her scythe to rest on her shoulder. As tempted as she was to gloat, she knew there was a time and place for that. Instead, she put on her serious face.

"We don't have to fight like this," Ruby tried to reason. "Just surrender and we can talk about this."

"Because that's what Ozpin trained you to do, right?" the assassin countered. "Talk?"

The response surprised Ruby, but she wouldn't get a chance to ask for clarification. Whether it had been on purpose or by accident, the assassin had landed next to her grenade launcher and had brought it around one more time.

Ruby anticipated the first pull of the trigger and dodged to the side, letting the projectile land almost harmlessly in the middle of the road. No one was hurt, but any onlookers that remained screamed and scattered.

Ruby mentally kicked herself as she watched them flee, disappointed that she had managed to forget about the civilians. This disappointment doubled when she noticed that the assassin had just had the same realization. With maybe a second of consideration, she turned the launcher on a pair children who had chosen not to run away.

Instinctively, Ruby triggered her semblance, throwing herself in between the children and the grenade at the very last second. Luckily for her, her aura absorbed most of the blast before it broke. Unluckily for her, she was left vulnerable for a moment. By the time she came to, she had a sword pointed in her face.

"I thought you were done with stuff blowing up," the assassin taunted. Whoever she was under the mask, Ruby was convinced she kicked puppies in her spare time.

Ruby didn't stress herself with making up a comeback this time, though, due to a familiar white light appearing nearby. Said light then took on the shape of a Deathstalker, which grabbed hold of the assassin and ripped her away from Ruby.

"What was that about not needing supervision again?" Weiss asked in the condescending way that only she could.

"Mr. Xiao Long!" Blake called as she stepped through the hole and into the decrepit building. "Are you okay?"

"Not if you keep me calling that," came a reply from a shifting pile of rubble. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Weiss: just 'Tai' is fine."

Blake smirked before moving towards the elder Xiao Long to see if he needed help. He sat up as she got closer, revealing himself to be essentially unharmed.

"You don't look injured," Blake pointed out.

"I'd hope not," Tai replied as he dusted himself off. "Semblance should of caught whatever my aura didn't."

"What is your semblance exactly?" The topic had never come up in any conversation she had had with either Yang or Ruby.

"I'm pyrokinetic, which comes with a side of being fireproof." Tai strained as he picked himself. "Any damage is from old age, not the explosion."

"We should probably get moving then."

"Let me guess... Ruby and Yang both tore off after our attacker."

"Attackers," Blake corrected as they moved back outside. "There were at least two of them, both using Atlas tech."

"Well, we knew that was a possibility." Tai paused for second as he stared off into the distance, likely to listen to the sounds of battle going on.

"Weiss went after Ruby," Blake stated, hoping it would alleviate any worry he might have.

"Which means we should follow Yang," Tai replied with resolve.

"Of course, she was doing her best to make it seem like she didn't want any help." If Blake sounded more annoyed than worried, it was unintentional.

"Is that gonna stop us?" Tai grinned, his tone making it clear he knew how she felt.

"No," Blake answered as she unsheathed Gambol Shroud. "She makes stupid decisions when she's hurting."

"You should go on ahead then. I bet you can get there quicker if you're not waiting on me."

Blake didn't try to disagree. If speed and stealth were something that Tai specialized in, he likely would have passed them on to Yang. She simply nodded instead, and started to move. The noise of the fight got more erratic as Blake got closer, which did not fill her with confidence about how Yang was handling herself.

Yang whipped around a street corner, using the streetlight at the corner to slow her turning speed and then propel herself forward. The group's second assailant was still in her sight and only just out of her reach. Enough was already going wrong that day, so she wasn't about to let them escape.

Her target had occasionally taken chances to look back at her, likely to gauge their chances of making a clean getaway. Probably realizing how slim their chances were, they finally turned around and dropped down to street-level.

"You're persistent," a male voice said through the helmet's voice filter.

"It's one of my better traits," Yang quipped as she brought up Ember Silica for her usual fighting stance.

"I doubt Belladonna would agree."

"Excuse me?" Yang barely had a chance to yell her response before her opponent had charged forward, swinging around some kind of high-tech rapier he had drawn.

Yang didn't attempt to dodge, instead blocking the blade with her right arm. Aura or not, she knew her prosthetic's metal alloy could withstand the strike. With the assassin now well within her striking range, she drew her left arm back for a counterattack and then threw her fist forward. The assassin seemed to anticipate this, however, dodging to the side as her gauntlet barely grazed against him.

"Would you hold still?" Yang could feel the heat from her semblance building up even further.

"Hearsay is that that's a request you make often."

"Don't you psychoanalyze me!" Yang shot forward and brought her fist down hard. She missed again, though this time it was intentional. The impact left a small crater, the formation of which caused her opponent to lose his footing.

Yang moved to follow up, but the assassin simply dropped to the ground to dodge the punch. Her eyes followed him downward, in time to watch him slash at her leg with his sword. She fell to a knee, and soon he was the one standing over her.

"Will you yield?" The assassin pointed the sword closer to her face.

Yang glared back at him. "If you know me as well as you think you do, you know the answer."

The assassin shook his head before lifting his sword to strike again. Yang didn't move, only flinching when she realized Gambol Shroud had intercepted the blade.

Weiss marched forward, putting herself in between Ruby and the Deathstalker she had summoned. She glanced back at the former, looking for some kind of response to her previous question. The bitter look on Ruby's face made her wish that she hadn't.

"I know what I'm doing," was all Ruby said before turning away.

A clenching feeling forming in her chest, Weiss had to turn away as well. She tried reminding herself she had already made peace with the possibility of Ruby resenting her, but that still felt like a lie at this point. Not that Weiss had the time to dwell on these feelings. Remembering the advice she had just given Yang, she refocused on Team RWBY's would-be assailant.

"Who are you working for?" Weiss asked, both quietly and sternly.

"Do you really think I have anything to say to you?" the assassin asked back. Even through her helmet's voice filter, Weiss could tell she was young, possibly younger than herself and her teammates.

"I think you have quite a bit to say to us." Weiss slowly closed her right hand, with the Deathstalker tightening its grip on the assassin in response. While she unfamiliar with the exosuit model her captive was wearing, she was sure it could take amount of pressure the claw was currently applying. Still, the young assassin didn't have to know that.

The assassin groaned and squirmed as her armor bent and cracked. Weiss tried not to let her conscience get the better of her, knowing what this girl's earlier intentions had been. She was in control and knew how far she could push things.

Or at least she was in control, right up to the moment when the Deathstalker disappeared, dropping the assassin's at her feet. Weiss allowed herself to be surprised for a couple seconds before admitting to herself what had happened.

"Low on aura?" the assassin taunted as she picked herself up. She was correct, of course. A significant portion of Weiss' aura had been drained while absorbing the earlier explosion.

"It won't help your chances," Weiss replied as she brought Myrtenaster forward. Her aura levels would only be a small hindrance, as she still had all her other training to fall back on.

The assassin charged first, swinging and jabbing her rapier wildly and randomly. Thankfully and a bit ironically, this style of fighting actually made her predictable in Weiss' eyes. She had fought enough opponents that she could easily spot one who was untrained and sloppy.

Weiss dodged and deflected where necessary, knowing that an opening would show itself. Eventually, it did.

One of the assassin's swings left her footing particularly exposed, giving Weiss the opportunity to drive Myrtenaster into ground. Having already cycled her dust chambers to one containing gravity dust, she pulled the trigger. The blast knocked the assassin upwards and ended with her landing on her backside, struggling to get to her feet.

"That's hardly proper form," Weiss pointed out.

"Proper form is overrated," the assassin countered, swinging her sword one more time as she did.

The difference between this swing and all the others, however, was that the blade segmented and split apart into pieces all connected by a chain. The blade wrapped itself around Myrtenaster, pulling it from Weiss' hand and tossing it aside.

Weiss berated herself for not anticipating her opponent's counterattack, but this frame of mind would only last until the second swing of the sword. The chain-blade lashed Weiss across the chest, finally breaking her aura and sending her flying backwards. Before she knew it, she was at the assassin's mercy.

"I was hoping I'd be the one to gut the Schnee brat," she muttered to no one in particular. She raised her sword to strike before pausing to raise a finger to her ear. "Now? But I'm in the middle of-"

Her conversation was cut off by Ruby, the scythe-wielder slamming into her with as much force as could given that her aura was depleted and that she was dragging her weapon around with her. The assassin staggered backwards as Ruby brought her scythe up into a defensive position.

The assassin stared them down for a second before reaching for a grenade on her belt. "She won't be around to save you next time, Schnee."

The flash-bang went off, leaving Weiss and Ruby unable to prevent their new enemy's escape.

Yang looked up and made eye contact with Blake. The mutual feeling between the two of them seemed to be that neither of them were ready to speak to the other yet, so Yang stood back up without a single word. The two of them both focused their attention on their shared opponent.

"Give up," Blake instructed. "You're outnumbered."

"Which might actually help my chances in this case," the assassin replied with next to no emotion.

He broke off from his clash with Blake and jumped backwards. Yang and Blake both charged after him, which was probably their first mistake in retrospect. Usually the pair of them would time their attacks to keep their opponents off balance, but that obviously wasn't going to be the case here. Attacking at the same time from the same direction meant their opponent would have an easier time dodging. They were out of sync, and Yang knew there would be consequences for this.

For starters, the assassin dodged as Yang had predicted. Secondly, it meant neither of them were able to cover the other he counterattacked. He drew his sidearm and opened fire on Blake. While her aura seemed to absorb the bullets, she went down all the same.

Yang knew she'd end up the same way if she sat still. She threw her left fist forward, firing a shell that hit true and knocked the pistol from the assassin's hand. She chose to press her advantage, leaping towards her enemy with the intent of delivering a powerful right hook.

The kink in that plan was her opponent's readiness for his attack. The blade of his sword collapsed into a kind chain-whip as he reeled back and cast it forward. The blade wrapped itself around Yang's right arm and, before Yang could even try to pull free, released an electric shock that coursed up and down her arm.

The blade released and Yang's arm fell limply to her side. She tried to move it, but the sword had somehow completely shorted out her prosthetic.

Yang's instincts were to ignore the loss and keep on fighting. After all, she was more than capable of fighting with one hand. Unfortunately, her half a second's worth of hesitation was half a second too long, as her opponent's weapon was soon flying back towards her.

The blade stopped just short of her face, however, having wrapped itself around another blade instead. It took a Yang second to realize that the blade in question wasn't that of Gambol Shroud, but that of another weapon.

Yang followed the blood-red blade to its hilt, before her eyes wandered to its owner. She found herself only looking at jet-black hair, however, as this individual was currently staring down the assassin.

"I'm giving you one chance to retreat, child," they commanded. "I would accept this offer before it expires."

The assassin stared at the new huntress for a few seconds, awe seeming to show even from behind his face-mask. He eventually retracted his blade before turning tale and running away.

Yang wanted to pursue, but stopped once she found herself looking into the red eyes of her mother.

Author's Notes:

Bit of advice: If you're the kind of writer who doesn't enjoy writing fight scenes and have to walk away from a story for an extended period of time, don't walk away right before a chapter that's almost completely comprised of fight scenes. It will effect your momentum and motivation when it comes to returning to said story.

Anyway, always confused by the naming of Ember Silica. Are they considered one and the same? Is Yang's prosthetic considered Ember if they are two separate gauntlets?

Also, for picking Taiyang's semblance, I took inspiration from the lack of clarity around Yang's semblance back in Vol. 1. As for his weapon... I haven't decided that yet.