Chapter Text
Yang loved patrol. Yeah, her friends might think she’s crazy, but she often volunteered multiple times a week to leave the safety of Beacon’s walls to defend the compound from the threat of undead and The White Fang. She used to be scared of being out in the open, vulnerable to attack, but after living for years confined to a compound, she relished the opportunity to wander the abandoned city streets. Sitting in the back of the truck as they rolled through the city, Yang took a deep breath and for a moment simply felt the wind on her face.
“Grimm up ahead.” Pyrrha’s voice crackled over the walkie talkie. She was about a hundred yards ahead of the truck, scouting ahead so they don’t accidentally alert a massive hoard or something with the rumbling engine. The things are sensitive to sound and using a truck is dangerous enough when you’ve got someone up ahead of you. The only reason they risk it is so they can carry more supplies and escape any danger more quickly.
“Numbers?” Yang looked up at her friend Jaune, sitting on the metal bench of the truck bed just across from her. He’s never been cut out for patrols, but Pyrrha is able to keep his morale up and Yang refuses to let any other medic so much as touch her, so Jaune always gets stuck with them on patrols. He’s too nice to complain about it, but Yang can see the way it’s affected him.
“Not many. I can clean them up.” Pyrrha was definitely capable enough to do so. Yang knew her friends could take care of themselves, it’s something that she’s drilled into her head enough times to hurt, but she’s got a protective streak nearly two decades long.
“Please be careful.” Jaune told her over his own radio, his expression tense with concern. Gunshots rang out ahead of them, echoing down the dilapidated streets. Yang’s back went straight and her eyes scanned the blocks ahead. She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for. Gunshots shouldn’t scare her so much, not when Pyrrha has already told them that she’d be taking out infected.
“Was that you?” Pyrrha asked over the walkie, her voice hushed and heavy with concern. Yang felt her blood run cold.
“No. I thought that was you.” Another shot rang out and Yang could hear it ricochet off the truck’s metal exterior. “Get down!” She threw herself to the floor of the truck bed, and Jaune followed. She had no idea where the shots were coming from, but the truck gave them cover on all sides.
“It’s the Fang!” Their driver shouted as he punched the truck into reverse. Yang held onto the walkie talkie in a death grip, her hand shaking. She heard glass shatter and felt the heat of flames as their driver screamed. Idiot shouldn’t have left the window down.
“Fuck. Pyrrha! Regroup! We have White Fang on us!” Pyrrha said something in response, but Yang was distracted by a bullet that whizzed right over her head. She could almost feel it, and the sensation made her freeze.
“Face justice, you human scum!” A molotov soared through the air, but thankfully it missed and landed on the other side of the truck. They were in a vulnerable position, with no driver to get them out of it. If that molotov had landed, they’d both be cooking alive.
“We have to get out of here.” Yang reached over towards the truck’s cabin, opening the storage locker with all their spare weapons and ammunition in it. “Jaune, how’s your aim these days?”
“Getting better and better.” Jaune grabbed the rifle that she offered him. Yang peeked over the edge of the truck bed, in the direction that the molotovs had come from. From what she could see right away, there was only a few of them. There could always be more hiding, but for the moment there were four in their immediate area, all heading closer to the trucks.
“They’re coming closer.” She grabbed a grenade from the lockbox, pulled the pin and gave it her best pitch. She heard one of them scream as it exploded, and another screamed his name in horror. “Damn. Was hoping that would take out more of them.” They’re smart and they don’t cluster together. Yang aimed her gun over the edge of the truck bed, just alongside Jaune.
“The White Fang will crush you!” They may have good tactics, but the fuckers also have shit aim and Yang was able to take out two of them cleanly before she ducked back down again. She took a deep breath, willing away the tightness in her chest. She was not going to die here. Her friends weren’t going to die here.
A rifle fired. She peeked out and saw a flash of red hair on the White Fang’s flank, trapping them. Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos was a force to be reckoned with, with nearly every weapon imaginable. If you only ever saw her fighting Grimm, you wouldn’t believe how kindhearted she was. She absolutely refuses to kill people, but she’s so damn good at killing Grimm that Ozpin still sends her out on patrol anyway.
So The Fang may have had someone at their flank, but she wasn’t actually a threat to them. She fired shots in their direction so they knew that someone was there, psyching them out, but that was all really. Yang had the last one in her sights, her finger on the trigger, when a bullet ripped through his neck and he dropped to the ground, gargling on the pooling blood.
Yang lowered her gun, speechless as she looked over at Jaune. His eyes were wide, as if he couldn’t even believe it himself. He shook, his eyes grew unfocused, and his mouth opened and closed without a sound. Yang gripped his shoulder and squeezed hard, snapping him out of it and back to reality. She already knew that he’s killed people before, but sometimes you kill someone a bit too brutally and it gets in your head.
“Jeez...” Jaune muttered. His whole expression relaxed and he fell back against the edge of the truck, releasing a heavy sigh of relief. “Man, I hate it when we have to fight White Fang. I wish they would just give up already and stop trespassing. It never goes well for them.”
“Come on. I’ll drive.” Yang vaulted herself over the side of the truck and opened the driver side door. Sky’s charred body slumped to the side and she tried to fight the bile rising in her throat. She had to reach over him to unbuckle his seatbelt, and his corpse nearly fell on top of her. She barely managed to dodge it, watching as it hit the ground with a dull thump. Honestly, she expected it to crunch.
When she turned back to the cabin she cursed. The whole inside of the truck was also charred, and she wasn’t even sure it still functioned. They’re just lucky it didn’t blow up. She climbed inside, the partially melted seat still uncomfortably hot. She turned the key. Nothing. She tried again. Nothing happened.
“Dammit. The truck is toast so we’ll have to hoof it back to the compound.” She climbed out and slammed the door shut in frustration. Jaune was staring at her, too nervous to say anything but obviously concerned. Pyrrha approached them, her rifle hanging on her shoulder.
“Hey. Truck broken?”
“Yeah. Fucking molotov in the cabin.” They both glanced down at Sky’s body. Pyrrha grimaced. “Leave him. I’m not dragging his corpse all that way. We’ll tell Ozpin where we left him so somebody can pick him up later.”
“What a shame.” Pyrrha sighed before turning to Jaune. “Are you okay?” He smiled, even blushed a bit.
“I’m fine. Thank you.” He climbed out of the truck and stumbled a bit. Pyrrha reached out to steady him and Yang rolled her eyes as the two shared a smile. She honestly had no idea how the two hadn’t gotten together yet. Their mutual affection was painfully obvious to everyone except them.
A bottle clattered in a nearby building and they all drew their weapons. Yang couldn’t see anything, and she was not about to go walking right into an infected’s arms, so she stayed put. Pyrrha, far braver than her, stepped forward, her rifle raised but her finger away from the trigger. Jaune followed her.
“Is someone there?” Jaune spoke out. Even if it was infected, it was better to have it come out into the open than to walk into a crumbling building like that. You won’t get cornered out on the street. “Hey! Come out! I know you’re there!” Yang tensed. Jaune must have seen someone.
A woman stepped out of the building, slowly, cautiously, with her hands raised above her head. She was wearing soldier fatigues, just like all the other Fang, and she had cat ears tucked into her inky black hair. They may have been folded down in fear, but Yang could see them clear as day.
“Jaune, she’s Fang.” Yang took several steps forward to stand beside him, her rifle raised and aimed at the woman’s chest. “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you.” She noticed tears roll down the woman’s face, but she didn’t make a sound. She shook her head softly and raised her hands even higher.
“I surrender. Just let me go.” Her voice was quiet, but in the dead silence of the street it carried effortlessly.
“Let you go? You fuckers tried to kill us!” Yang took a bold step forward, but she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned to Pyrrha, her expression grave.
“Yang. I didn’t see her fire at us.” She couldn’t wrap her head around that. Why would a Fang not fire at them? Aren’t they enemies? Don’t they hate humans, especially huntsmen?
“Please.” The woman pleaded, her voice stronger this time, more confident. “I didn’t want anything to do with this. I’ll just go, and I won’t ever come back.”
“Bullshit! You Fang are always clawing for a chance to pick a fight with us! Now that you lost you don’t want to face the consequences? I didn’t realize you fuckers were so cowardly!”
“Yang!” Pyrrha hardly ever raised her voice, so it made Yang pause for a moment and listen. “She’s unarmed. She’s serious.” Yang wasn’t sure if she really believed that, but she did trust Pyrrha and her judgement.
Reluctantly, Yang lowered her weapon.
“I won’t kill her, but we’re bringing her back to the compound. We can get some information from her.”
“Yang…” Jaune started to object, but he was quickly silenced with a sharp glare.
“We don’t have time to stand here and argue. There’s no way our gunfire didn’t alert the Grimm nearby.” Whether they have the time or not, Yang was the commanding officer between the three of them, and whatever she said goes. She tried not to abuse that power very often, but she’s not about to just let a Fang go. “Check her for weapons.”
Pyrrha searched the woman before grabbing her arm and pulling her along as they began the walk back to the compound.
Luckily the walk back wasn’t long, but the faunus was silent the entire time. Yang was admittedly surprised. There were no pleas for freedom, no threats or snide insults, not even a short prayer. It was honestly sort of eerie. The woman seemed half-dead anyway. Her eyes were dull with heavy bags under them, her cheeks hollow, her steps staggered and weak. She wasn’t infected, she didn’t have the right symptoms, but there was definitely something wrong with her.
The gates were stationed with several lookout guards, each of them specially trained with the rifles in their hands. Yang was confident that they’d already notified Ozpin of the Fang hostage, but she ordered one of them to do so anyway. The faunus woman struggled against Pyrrha’s grip for no other reason than to protest her circumstances. She knew that she had nowhere to go.
“Yang!” She turned away from the Fang, already being handed off to guards who would take her to the cages. Ruby was running towards her, grinning ear to ear, and Yang was fully prepared for the tackling hug. She wrapped her arms tight around her sister and spun her in a circle with the momentum before gently setting her back down on the earth. “I can’t believe you left without saying goodbye! What if you died?”
“You were still asleep, and we both know you would have killed me yourself if I woke you up.” Yang answered with a laugh as she messed up Ruby’s hair. “Besides, I’m not gonna die on patrol. I wouldn’t leave you behind like that.” Ruby pouted, fully aware that the assurance had no structure behind it. They couldn’t possibly know when they might die. All they could do was be careful and avoid doing something reckless. “Oh, by the way, our truck is toast. Molotov landed in the cockpit.”
“Oh. That’s not good.” She pursed her lips in thought, probably going over all the possible causes and fixes. Ruby’s the best damn engineer that Yang’s ever known, and she can never understand a word her sister says once she’s in the zone. “I guess that means you had a run in with The White Fang?”
“Yeah. They killed Sky, but one of them surrendered so we might get some useful information out of it. At least it wasn’t a total loss.” Yang shrugged and started walking towards the armory to drop off her guns. Ruby followed her, a skip in her step and a smile on her face. Yang couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s good! Well, not good that Sky is dead. You know what I mean.” Yang chuckled warmly before she rang the bell on the armory counter. Ren approached them calmly, wiping his hands clean of gun oil. “Hey Ren. Got a rifle and a sidearm to check in.” He nodded but didn’t say anything as he took Yang’s guns and tucked them away in the lockers. The cage separating them rattled as someone slapped a hand against it.
“I saw your little pet on your way in.” Cardin sneered, his eyes trailing over her in a way that didn’t make it clear if he was sizing her up or checking her out. It made her skin crawl. “Guess who I didn’t see.” He spat at the ground as if it was supposed to make him look tough. “There a reason Sky isn’t with you?”
“Listen, shit happens, Cardin. People die.” Yang scoffed and tried to walk past him, to just ignore him, but he grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving.
“Maybe, but care to explain why you bring back his killer like this is a fucking vacation resort? You should have put a bullet through its head and ended its miserable existence quickly.” Yang almost flinched at the violent dehumanization, but she managed to stand her ground and level him with a cold stare.
“Touch me again and you’ll regret it.” She yanked her arm away from him to emphasize her point. He stared at her for a second before he scoffed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Good point. You probably have fleas.” He stormed off in a huff, no doubt running to their superiors to complain about her for the thousandth time.
“I hate it when people say things like that.” Ruby said quietly beside her. Yang spared her a glance, but she kept her attention on Cardin’s retreating form. He passed Pyrrha and Jaune and aggressively slapped Jaune’s back, causing him to stumble. “He doesn’t even see faunus as people.”
“Even animals don’t deserve that sort of treatment.” Yang added softly.
“Why do people have to be so cruel? If it weren’t for people like him, The White Fang wouldn’t even exist.” She declared with an angry frown. “I don’t blame them for hating us.”
“Careful what you say, Ruby.” Yang snapped, perhaps a bit too harshly considering how Ruby flinched. “You don’t want people thinking you support them. The White Fang are a cult, they’re crazy, and none of them can be trusted. Got it?” Ruby chewed her lip, making it clear that she didn’t agree, but she nodded anyway.