Altius Parkas Wafers
Yang was sitting in the airplane waiting on the others to arrive aside from Pyrrha who was sitting next to her, asleep as she tried to catch up on the sleep she’d missed the previous few evenings.
Mercury had shown them to the plane and then left to make arrangements to keep this gym he was in charge of running open.
The pilot was on his way which just left the two of them.
She resisted the urge to fidget so she didn’t wake up Pyrrha. Her own mother was involved somehow in kidnapping Ruby. But why? After so long with nothing why now of all times? Why Ruby the daughter that wasn't hers at all?
None of this made sense.
“You know it’s not like you to think so hard,” a voice from the side said that made Yang’s breath catch.
“Dad,” Yang said breathlessly as Tai Xiao-Long stood across the plane smirking at her.
She wasted no time throwing herself into his arms and basking in his embrace. It had been so long.
“Worried about your sister?” Tai asked needlessly as Yang nodded into his chest.
“But not about me, or your mother? Such a selfish daughter!” Tai said strangely as Yang felt some sort of cold feeling wash over her. She looked up and saw his eyes glowing red.
“Wait, why are your eyes red?” Yang asked as she suddenly felt unsafe, like a small child left alone in the dark with no light.
As the doppelganger reached for her a much more welcome voice rang out. “That’s enough!”
Yang’s eyes popped open as she tried to catch her breath a tired looking Pyrrha looked at her in concern.
“Are you alright?” Pyrrha asked softly. “You were shaking and muttering.”
“I...bad dream I think,” Yang said as she tried to will away the headache she was feeling.
“Hmm. Anything strange about it? I ask only because of the strange circumstances. We have no idea who or what we might be up against so it seems foolish to discard anything no matter how trivial,” Pyrrha asked.
Yang’s first instinct was to brush it off, but Pyrrha was right, as she all too often was.
“My dad was here telling me I was thinking too hard. That I was worried about Ruby, but something was wrong. He had red eyes and was angry at me for not thinking about him or mom. I…don’t know how to describe it but then I heard someone say that was enough and I woke up,” Yang explained.
Pyrrha pursed her lips at that for a moment and nodded. “I see.”
“Do you think it means anything?”
“I…don’t know,” Pyrrha said as she looked away and Yang narrowed her eyes at that, well aware of Pyrrha’s tells.
“You know you can just tell me you can’t talk about it right?”
“I’m sorry. You’re right if I’m right I can’t say anything. I don’t believe it’s harmful to you, however if that helps,” Pyrrha said, squeezing Yang’s hand in her own.
“Can you tell me anything about it at all?”
After a few minutes of silence Yang closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She only barely heard Pyrrha whisper to her before she fell back asleep.
“It means we’re on a timer that might be running out.”
“So you’re not going to explain any of that?” Weiss asked incredulously.
“What’s there to explain?” Sun said with a shrug.
“The whole dynamite metaphor, the supernaturals in the city issue, our girlfriend, who you’re working for, our gear we came back to get,” Velvet listed on her fingers.
“Well as far as your gear, and weapons go we did manage to get that for you,” Neptune said, gesturing to a few duffel bags set to the side. “There’s a few changes of clothes in there we had a female officer get for all of you as well, but as for the rest? Not really.”
“You aren’t just saying that to be dramatic are you?” Winter asked icily.
“Nope. Our uh boss I guess you could say has a vague interest in seeing certain events play out but if we told you who it is then we’d be dead before tomorrow.
The rest is pretty self explanatory. Outside of your little neutral club area, crime, especially any involving supernaturals, has been going through the roof, and when your little girlfriend got kidnapped it spiked to an even higher level.”
“Is there anything you can tell us?” Winter asked, looking back and forth between the two as Velvet and Weiss checked on the duffel bags.
“Only that something is coming, and soon. I don’t know how long before things come to a head, but there’s this feeling in the air that something big is going to happen, and soon. I don’t even know if it’ll happen here or just residual aftereffects from whatever it is,” Sun said looking nervous.
“After effects?”
“Yeah. Once you get old enough you get a sense, kinda like danger radar. This is huge, like potentially world ending huge, or at least continent ending big. A few days ago I was further up north and the feeling was worse up there so I’d bet it’s gonna have something to do with Atlas or that area, but we’ll still feel the effects here,” Sun shivered.
“It’s agitating the other supernaturals, almost driving them to be more hostile or flee if they're weaker. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a dozen more of these cases just for us within the day or so,” Neptune said as he rubbed a bit of blue hair out of his eyes.
“We’d best get out of your way then,” Winter said as Neptune slid a few witness statements over to them.
“We already had these filled out for you. They’re typed so just read over the basic cover story, that you didn’t know anything and haven’t seen her since last night, and were coming to visit. Sign the bottom so we’re covered,” Neptune said.
Winter, and the other two signed as Weiss handed over the duffel bag of Winter’s or rather the gear she was loaning her sister.
“For what it’s worth I hope you find her alive, and unharmed,” Sun said as Weiss suppressed the urge to glare at the man and settled for nodding not wanting to be held up any longer.
“Stairwell will be clear on the far side so take that,” Neptune offered as they left the room.
“Your boss isn’t gonna interfere with us finding Ruby, or hurt her are they?” Velvet asked before the door closed.
“I promise you they have a vested interest in things staying the same so they want this wrapped up as fast as possible,” Sun promised as Velvet nodded after a long moment and shut the door.
As they were descending Winter broke the silence.
“It would seem we’re on the clock so to speak.”
“We’re gonna find Ruby. I know it! We have to!” Velvet said running a hand over where her ears would be if they were out, out of nerves.
Weiss took her hand. “We will. She’s not getting away from us that easily.”
“This strikes me as odd,” Penny commented as she looked at the former home of the Malachite's which now appeared nearly deserted.
Neo frowned as she kept the parasol over her head to avoid the sun directly shining on her. Even so she was on a timer so she lightly tugged on Penny’s sleeve to get her moving before she rotted away. True it would only be an inconvenience to find a new body but she rather liked this one since it was her original.
Thankfully Penny was a clever sort so she got the hint and in no time they were inside her bosses manor.
Strangely enough there was almost no one there. She did however see signs of a fight. Wait! There was noise. Turning to Penny she saw her frown as well.
Good at least she was on the same page.
They both stuck to the shadows and slowly made it further inside . A few destroyed tapestries or splotches of blood now covered the floor as well as piles of dust and mildew.
Neo wrinkled her nose knowing what that meant before she felt Penny’s hand on her wrist.
She blinked as Penny used her own abilities to open a small cut on her wrist before she began signing to her with one hand.
Neo glared back. The time in the sun hadn’t weakened her that much!
Penny obstinately held out the wrist and continued signing.
God damn it fine. Stupid having friends not wanting her to get hurt.
She took in a deep breath near the wound and watched the colors make their way toward her and blinked.
She felt, much fuller much faster than she expected, and…vibrant, feverish, almost full of energy. She hadn’t felt this good in…well since she’d been alive.
What was Penny made of?
She tapped Penny’s wrist and the girl merely nodded as her wound sealed itself.
The sound of movement snapped their attention back to the matter at hand as they carefully ventured even further into the mansion.
Cinder rubbed her head in frustration. That was the third person in the last hour Hazel had, had to escort out of the restaurant.
Footsteps let her know Beckett had arrived.
“You feel it too? Drawing closer with every heartbeat,” Beckett asked even though he clearly knew her answer as she nodded.
“Would you be opposed to doing a small favor for me not entirely related to research?” Cinder asked.
When Beckett merely raised an eyebrow she continued. “I’m having my sires sword reforged. With everything in the city happening I’d feel safer were someone capable on hand in case something went wrong,” Cinder explained.
When he merely raised an eyebrow at her she rolled her own. “You can take any book but my masters with you to pass the time while you watch them.”
“Delightful. What priority should I rank them?”
“Sword, their retainer then the smith but only if you have to. I have every confidence you’ll manage to save them all. Marie was last sighted in Vacuo so it’s not as though she’ll be showing up to bother you soon,” Cinder said.
“True enough. I already know where they are. I’ll take a book and make my way there,” Beckett said leaving the room.
Cinder glanced at her phone which remained silent and frowned before going back to work.
“Ouch,” Ruby said, rubbing the middle of her forehead where Willow had accidentally slammed her elbow into it when Ruby had tried peeking over her shoulder.
“Oh my. Are you alright child?” Willow asked as she turned around to look at Ruby and froze.
“Ugh my head hurts,” Ruby complained, rubbing her forehead and wincing as her fingers came away slick with blood.
“You hit hard,” Ruby said before she saw Willow sitting totally still, eyes transfixed on her blood.
“I…feel no desire to take your blood,” Willow said, sounding perplexed.
“Uh I know Cinder doesn’t really need to either. Is it because you’ve had a lot of practice?” Ruby asked as she put some napkins Willow handed her over her injury.
“No. I’ve had precious little practice to be truthful. I should be struggling and yet I am…entirely calm. In fact I feel almost uneasy at the thought,” Willow admitted.
“Is it cause I got the needle?” Ruby asked with the syringe in her free hand as she tried to see through the napkins.
“I somehow doubt it,” Willow commented.
After a few seconds of silence Ruby fidgeted which seemed to break Willow’s spell as she pulled out a few more notebooks to share.
“Here, let me explain these properly while I can,” Willow said shoving the book toward Ruby.
When Ruby gestured at her wound Willow quickly returned from the nearby bathroom with a medical kit and pulled out a roll of gauze she handed over with a wet washcloth.
“Thanks. Head wounds kinda bleed for a bit though. I guess I can just wrap up the washcloth and rewrap it in an hour or so,” Ruby thought out loud as she got to work.
“Miss…Rose. Can you tell me how my daughters are?” Willow asked as she continued to pull out notebook after notebook.
“Oh sure. Let’s see. So Winter is…”
“Oh poor Russel, left all alone by his friends,” Tyrian sing-songed at the convalescing vampire who glared weakly at him.
“Now don’t be mad, I brought you a get well present!” Tyrian said as he tossed a random body in front of Russel.
“Drink up, we havework to do tonight! Doctor’s orders,” Tyrian said seriously.
Russel weakly shifted himself and pulled himself out of bed and grabbed the body.
His head still swam and hurt despite the blood he’d already drank but he knew better than to argue with the maniac as the hole in his chest attested.
Still, at least he brought him something to eat. He didn’t bother looking too closely at the body not caring overmuch as he sunk his fangs into their neck and began to drink.
He nearly moaned at the incredible ecstasy this blood caused. It was so vibrant. He could feel his wounds closing already. He drank more deeply ignoring the figures' sudden movements indicating it was awake at last.
Too bad for them he wasn’t letting go until every last drop was gone.
He felt his powers grow with every mouthful. Exquisite! Not even his first taste of blood had been this satisfying.
The words of the meal were ignored as their struggles grew weaker and finally stopped.
Before too long he let go with a satisfied sigh.
“Good?” Tyrian asked with a wide smile.
“Best I ever had,” Russel admitted as he stood up and let the body hit the floor. His mind felt clear now. He idly looked down and felt his blood run cold.
There on the ground was Sky, his face contorted into one of agony as he slowly turned to ash.
He felt himself dry heave and almost felt like he broke into a cold sweat.
“This. This isn’t real! Get up man!” Russel said as Sky’s body broke down into ash.
“YOU!” Russel thundered as he looked a smiling Tyrian.
“Yes?”
“What did you do to him?”
“Why nothing! You’re the one who drained your poor friend dry, and after he stuck up for you. Tsk-tsk,” Tyrian said as he waved a finger.
“What did you do to me?”
“I’ll never tell!” Tyrian sing-songed once more as he began pacing the room.
“To diablerize your friend like that? Very nicely done. You’re much stronger now too! Not to me, but compared to your other friend, Cardin was it?” Tyrian asked as he paced around Russel, seeming to be completely at ease, almost begging to be attacked.
“I’ll-”
“You’ll what?” Tyrian asked deadly serious. “Attack me? By all means but I’m not helping you heal from your wounds and will expect you to do your part tonight regardless.
Tell on me? To who? Cardin? You’re going to tell your other friend you ate one of you?
Every supernatural with eyes and a few years on them will know and see your blackened aura. You’re a marked target, and the only way you survive is if someone stronger is protecting you for the few years it’ll take for your aura to clear.” Tyrian said, walking well inside his personal space.
“So tell me should I take care of you here and now or are you going to be a good little boy and help with the attack tonight and maybe I bother to keep you alive?” Tyrian asked as he smiled widely in his face.
“I’ll...do it. Just, you can’t tell Cardin. You can’t!” Russel begged the older man.
Tyrian put both of his hands on either shoulder and squeezed gently.
“Oh don’t worry I won’t. That’s none of my business unless you make it mine. Understand?” Tyrian asked softly as he started applying more pressure to Russel’s shoulder.
Russel whimpered but nodded.
Tyrian gave his shoulders a final pat and stood back. “Good man.”
As he got to the window he paused as he snapped his fingers. “Oh I almost forgot, meet at the usual place tonight, and if you were thinking of telling the good doctor?” Tyrian trailed off with a truly sinister smirk.
“Who do you think told me to make it happen? Try not to eat anymore friends. Ta-ta for now!” Tyrian said cruely as he jumped out of the window, his mad laughter echoing behind him.
Russel sank to the floor where his friend had been and gently placed his hand on it, trying to find or feel anything that could remind him of his friend.
Sadly he felt nothing at all as even the ashes of his friend were long gone.