Forest Confrontation
“Make sure you two stay safe out there.” Ruby shook a finger at John as if she was a scolding mother, “We don’t want to have to respond to your distress beacon again.”
“Okay, okay, but only if you promise to make sure our horses make it back in one piece.” John gave a lopsided grin, “I’ll just have to suffer the ride back to Vale after we find Emerald.” Autumn giggled.
John and Autumn were standing in front of Ruby, Yang, and Weiss saying their goodbyes before they made their way out of Atlas and into the forest to try and capture Emerald. John adjusted his bag and weapons before turning and walking towards the gate that lead out of the town. As Autumn was turning to follow, she was interrupted by Weiss.
“Autumn, wait!” Weiss approached the taller girl and put a hand on her shoulder, then spoke softly, “Remember what I told you the other night.”
“You mean the thing about John actually caring for me more than he expresses?” Autumn glanced over her shoulder, just to make sure that her Shadow wasn’t listening in.
“Yes, that. Just remember that John chose to be your Shadow and he went through hell to make sure that he would be strong enough. Just give him a little bit of time to open up to you.”
“Alright.” Autumn stepped towards Weiss and embarrassed her with a large hug. “Thanks Weiss! And don’t worry, I’ll keep John out of trouble.” She jogged off after him, waving over her shoulder and calling, “See ya.”
By the time she caught up with him, they were out of the city proper and were beginning to see the end of signs of civilization.
“Thanks for waiting up for me,” she attempted a joke, only to be met with a serious answer.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re putting yourself in more danger if you lag behind.” He spared a glance from the path ahead at her, “Maybe you should try to keep up with me next time.”
Autumn nodded her head and smiled as soon as John turned to continue walking. Maybe Weiss was right. If nothing else, he did seem to be softening towards her—once she learned to understand what he meant when he talked.
Hours of fruitless searching later, Autumn and John agreed that it was getting too dark to effectively continue. Based on recon performed by Atlas intelligence and their personal observations, the area had little to no Grimm activity, so they figured they could camp in the open with minimal risk.
“Alright then,” John said once they’d found a good spot to camp, “I’ll go see if I can’t find any water or firewood nearby. Just set up the tents and get a fire-pit built for once I come back.’
“You got it boss.” Autumn saluted jokingly.
While she got started with her tasks, he shouldered his weapon and headed into the forest.
Right around the time Autumn was finishing with the tents, she heard footsteps behind her.
“Fire-pit’s dug and ready to go!” she announced cheerfully, “Did you find any wo…?” The question died on Autumn’s lips as she turned around and saw the decidedly-not-John figure standing before her.
Instead of John, Autumn was met with a small woman with pink and brown hair holding a parasol over her shoulder. The mystery woman smirked at Autumn, letting out a small noise that may have been a chuckle.
“Hey, who a…”
Before Autumn could finish her question the mystery woman charged at her with her parasol collapsed and held as if it were a sword. Autumn reacted quickly and rolled sideways towards the spot where she’d set down her weapon. Within seconds, she was standing again, the point of her spear leveled at her attacker. Autumn blocked another strike, then jumped back, creating a distance between the two of them. She tried again to ask her question, with more success this time.
“Who are you?”
The mystery assailant’s only response was another smirk, then a lunge in Autumn’s direction.
This time Autumn was ready. She charged forward to meet her attacker head on. However, the attacker took advantage of her horizontal slash to jump and flip so she landed behind Autumn. She felt an impact on the small of her back and whirled to meet its source, assuming a defensive stance. Who was this woman? Was she somehow affiliated with their target? And where had John gone?
While Autumn had been setting up the tent, John had been gathering firewood. As he was walking back, a bundle of wood in his arms, he heard the sound of fighting in the distance. John froze, the wood tumbling to the ground. No. Not again. Before he could think, he was running full-speed towards the camp. But he was interrupted by figure stepping out from behind a tree and positioning herself right in front of him.
The figure was of a woman with tan skin and green hair. He recognized her, easily.
“Emerald.” He didn’t have time for this. Pyrrha—Autumn—was in danger. He pulled his sword out and leveled it at her, ready to knock her out of his way. But she didn’t respond aggressively. Her weapons weren’t even out. Instead, she just sighed.
“Hey,” the green-haired woman crossed her arms and leaned back against the tree she’d just jumped down from, “I know what we’re ‘supposed’ to be doing, but you can go ahead and put that away.” She followed John’s gaze towards their camp and added, “The Maiden’s fine. Neo’s just distracting her so she won’t be able to find out about this.”
Distracting her? What was that supposed to mean? And why wasn’t Emerald putting up any kind of fight? Were it not for his training, he may have dropped his sword in confusion. Instead, he just lowered it slightly.
“What are you talking about?” John hadn’t dropped his guard.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Emerald groaned as she placed a hand over her eyes. “Did Ozpin not give you a message, letter, anything that told you what was actually going on here?”
John paused. Oh, that was right. Ozpin had left him a message on his scroll before they left. Somehow, he’d never gotten around to checking it. He quickly opened the message and read over it.
“Understand that even though this mission states that you are to capture the target, that amount of effort will not be needed. Before Cinder and her group fled, Ms. Sustrai left us a message stating her desire to desire to defect from Cinder’s faction and has agreed to feed us information in exchange for allowing Cinder to believe that she is discovering information from us (False information that we are knowingly providing her). The true mission is to receive her latest information and transport it back to The Agency HQ. Do not let this information out, the only ones who know about this arrangement are the higher-ups in The Agency and yourself.” Well, that explained a lot.
“So what, you just want to do the right thing all of a sudden?” John sheathed his sword, but he still remained on guard as he approached Emerald.
“Believe what you want.” Emerald shrugged and stepped forward, holding out her scroll. “Here’s what I got. Hold out the scroll you were given and I’ll transfer the data. It’ll take a bit so if you got any questions now’s the time.”
John handed over his scroll and Emerald began the transfer process. After a moment John asked the only question he could.
“Why did Cinder do it? Why did she want to attack Vale?”
“All she told us was that humans had become too used to living in safety. The world is dangerous and we had forgotten that part of it, and Cinder wanted to remind us.” Emerald leaned back against the tree as she looked at John, expecting another question.
“Why help Cinder then? If she wants to wipe out humanity, then shouldn’t you be trying to stop her?” The woman’s face darkened, hardened.
“You have no right to ask me that,” Emerald spoke softly, but each syllable carried all the sharpness of her knives. She glared at the ground for a moment, then took a deep breath, calming herself, “All you need to know is after I saw what was happening I couldn’t take it anymore. There were too many innocents getting hurt.”
Fortunately, before things could get any more awkward, a beeping signaled that the transfer had finished. Emerald tossed John the scroll.
“Okay, our business is done. I’ll call Neo off your Maiden.”
“Who?” That was the second time she’d mentioned that name.
“One of Roman Torchwick’s lackeys. He died in the Battle of Beacon, and I think she wants Cinder taken down the most out of any of us.”
Autumn skidded to a stop, grunting in frustration. This wasn’t getting anywhere. She would try and try to land a hit on her opponent, but every time she got close, the smaller woman would just somehow jump or flip out of the way. But despite having every opportunity, the pink-and-brown-haired girl hadn’t hit harder than a tap. It was like she was getting toyed with.
“I’m getting sick of this.” Autumn dropped her weapon and stood still, focusing herself. Maybe her attacker could dodge a spear, but could she stand against the power of the Fall Maiden? Fire came from Autumn’s eyes and she unleashed a blast straight towards her assailant.
The moment the blast appeared to hit the woman she was facing shattered and disappeared.
“Where did you go?” Autumn prowled the clearing like a predator, her eyes still glowing as she hunted for her opponent.
“Don’t worry about it.” Autumn jumped and spun to face the person who’d spoken, calming down when she saw that it was John. Her Shadow continued, “That was one of Emerald’s associates. She’s been known to play with her opponents and just vanish like that.” John walked up and placed a hand on Autumn’s shoulder. She thought she felt him squeeze her shoulder slightly, but she couldn’t be sure. For now, she felt it would be better to act like he didn’t.
“It was just so frustrating!” Autumn complained, “I couldn’t land anything on her, then when I might have finally had a chance, she just disappears!”
“It’s fine. What’s important is that you’re alright,”—was his hand shaking?—“and we got what we came for. I found a hideout when I was looking for the firewood. It was deserted and had been for a few weeks. This lead is a dead end. After tonight we pack up and make our way back to Vale.”
“But what about the woman who attacked me?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say she was here to destroy what was left of the hideout. Not much of a point going after her, though. After that trick, she could be anywhere.”
“Wasn’t there any clues in that hideout? Maybe if we go back we can figure out where they went.” Autumn was talking rapidly but something didn’t quite feel right. Suddenly she felt legs giving out, and John went from resting a hand on her shoulder to holding her up.
“Whoa there, calm down.” He leaned forward, looking her over, “That was your first time using your Maiden powers, wasn’t it. That’ll wear you out.” He shook his head, “You’re in no shape to continue this investigation. We’re heading back to Vale and that is the end of it.” Autumn opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything, everything went black.
“Okay, Autumn,” John rolled his shoulders, giving his charge a slight jostle, “I know your exhaustion from the Maiden powers doesn’t last this long. Now get off of me.” Autumn let go of John and let herself settle to the ground, boots making a soft thunk on the paved ground. He had carried her part of the way to the airport the Agency’s planes departed from and although she’d walked as much as she could, she hadn’t been quite up to her full strength and had required another lift. And if she’d stayed on his back a little longer than she needed to, well…
“Aww, I was having fun.” Autumn jogged toward the plane that they were going to be using to get back to Vale. As she boarded the turned and yelled towards John, “Come on! We’ve gotta make sure they have barf bags!”
John groaned as he walked up the loading ramp to the plane trying to ignore the sickening feeling that was growing in his gut. He was not going to enjoy this flight at all.