Chapter 5: The Deadweight
Emotions brought Grimm. Yeah, I kind of forgot at the time, I wasn't worried at present. Not even worried about my kidnapping Blake and possibly screwing the timeline. I didn't give a fuck about that, not now. Although Blake had to make A choice and soon, I'll have to force her away or leave her somewhere because having her as my prisoner wasn't my idea of a good time. The rest of those Faunus would be either dead or wiser,
The third of my goals was at least doable now, getting stronger was any Saiyan's goal, I had an advantage from any other due to my past-memories. In my past I had trained in boxing with my dad which was my only experience fighting, that was about the only fitness I did before. There were a lot of possible training exercises I could utilize from my boxing training, a few stretches or warm-up exercises could add to my core-training but besides that I had no real need of the rest. My Saiyan self however was a brawler, at least before the merge of our souls or memories… what ever had combined us, anyway. A brawler with no style at all, that had changed with me planning my punches against the enemies I had gone up against so far, punching Adam in the face reminded me so much of my sparring days-
I could reminisce later, the point was training was in my best interest from this point forward, after I had found a place to fucking land. Shit's sake, there's goddamned Grimm are everywhere, not to mention these trees are making it harder to spot anything. I had to pay attention to my surroundings for now, it would be getting dark soon.
Flying for a few more hours and on the brink of exhaustion, I managed to find A perfect place to hide, which I noted was tucked into A hill surrounded by thick trees and shrubs. The Grimm weren't my problem, hiding from the moon which blutz-waves will force me to transform if I so happen to look was what I was most worried about, especially with Blake in my possession. This place however would keep me from becoming A great ape. I would instead become A caveman. Stifling a laugh at the thought, I landed at the mouth of the cave. Resting at the mouth of the cave should be fine, as long as I don't look at the moon, I should remain the same. Remain mentally-sound.
The first thing I done was to secure Blake, she was still outcold. I then dropped her weapon and put my spare armor nearby behind a boulder, an attempt to hide both of the equipment before taking back Blake onto my shoulder. I needed to grab some wood, I couldn't trust Blake not to run off in the meantime and giving away my position, should she wake up. I had some time before the sun would set, time in order to gather some supplies from nature's bounty. An hour of searching, checking my scouter from time-to time in idle moments I was able to scrounge up enough sticks for an erecting a fire and enough to keep it burning, at least for one night. There was a lot of small rocks gathered to mark-out a fire-pit and so come the time of hauling the loads to the entrance of the cave. After another half an hour of gathering, my fire-pit was set up and ready for my starting it. Once that was done, I noticed that my pretty prisoner was beginning to come-to.
The mossy cave my new prisoner had woken up too had immediately worried her, as she went from groggy from sleep to aware and attempting to get up from the cave floor. Attempt… as she struggled to move while I had put my foot onto her backside, pushing her down, now aware of me she grunted and looked toward me with a look of pure hatred.
"I didn't say you could get up, don't panic now… we are far away from your comrades" I lifted my boot from her back, and sat down on a boulder, watching her rise from lying down into a sitting position on her knees. She looked around her surroundings, curious about her new surroundings or looking for an escape route.
She turned once more to gaze at me, her expression calmer than before.
"Who are you, and why didn't you just join our cause? Being who you are, you should know what its like, being targeted negatively against by humans-
"I thought you heard who I was, from that idiot you were with. Names Kron." I nodded at her mockingly, before continuing. "Now Lady or should call you by your name" I gestured to her within her eyesight, limited at the moment as it was before waiting.
"B…Blake. My name is Blake now answer me, right-
"Blake…, I'm not like you or yours. I said it before… but I'm much worse. Anyway, until I figure out where I'm at and what to do with-
"Judging from the treelines I see from the mouth of this cave, we are either inside of Forever Fall or real close too it. Let me go now or you'll regret this" She interrupted me, rising from the ground before leaning against the cave wall. Pointing at the trees she looked back at me, the look at least looked calmer then hostile. I followed her fingers pointing at the trees, the leaves themselves were not green but red and orange.
"Right… and what, you think I'd just let you go back to those punks you run with? OK answer me this. What were you and Adam, preparing for when you came to get your stranded forces? Tell me everything and I might just let you live" I wanted to know if the train her and Adam raid was their mission before the confrontation with me.
"What, you think I would-" I had instantly raised from my seating position to cup her throat, choking her briefly. She kicked and attempted to pry my fingers from her, even pinched my fingers but her attempt was laughable.
"Tell me, and I'll let you live. But try my patience again and I'll do something that hurts, trust me on that" I released my grip from her throat and stepped back, she gasped for breath by heaving or coughing. Catching her breath, she looked toward me before continuing.
"We were preparing to blow up A train belonging to the Schnee dust company, but before we could begin, we got an incoming call from a downed Bullhead, reinforcements that Adam was gathering" She breathed out, sighing before turning in my direction then spitting in my direction.
"Do you know how many lives you took, do you care? They were your people and yet you refused to join, instead you slaughtered them until the situation alerted the Grimm which finished the rest…" she looked distraught, before glancing at the cave floor in deep thought.
"Why should I care about you and yours? Besides you idiots asked for it. Like you said, you were prepping A job to blow up some train. A SDC train which must be filled with their dust, where do you think it goes to? It goes either to Vale for hunters and huntresses or to the surrounding villages and you were planning to blow it all up. Take a good long look at yourself before judging me, Dust is a commodity your terrorist organization were perfectly willing to be rid of-
"We are not terrorist's-
"You are terrorists, but enough arguing the point, at this conjuncture it is a waste of time. So do you plan on leaving now? I really have no use for a prisoner. You could say, I saved your life. The life of my enemy out of the others" I stared at her, eyes judging and keeping my eyes off the skyline which the sun was just about gone behind the trees. It would be dark soon.
"I don't know, I don't know why I should say this but… I get it OK. I get why you would think we were terrorist's, but the Faunus deserve to be treated fairly and the same as human's, everywhere. I don't know what the White Fang has become honestly, but staying in the group… I was thinking of leaving but now I'm not sure-
"Why's that, you've seen what your commander's orders had wrought. Trying to forcefully recruit me ended in your group being sent to the next dimension. At this point, why not try any other routes towards your equality. Because I'm not sorry to say that any White Fang operative I run into from hence-forth are my enemies. As you've seen from before, I kill my enemies and often brutally" I interrupted her, her eyes shone forth more hatred in my direction before gritting her teeth, she continued on
"I don't want to be like you, A huntsman. You'd have to be one, you're that strong-" I started chuckling, then continued into full-blown laughter and then I stopped.
Blake had a stunned look on her face. I raised my left fist toward the sky, flexing before I told her.
"I'm actually not A huntsmen, they usually have weapons and work in teams. I'm A nomad from the deserts of Vacuo, A strong person yes but you have to be tough to live in the desert, away from the city itself. Even have no aura-unlocked if my light-scratch marks from... what's his name, the idiot with the sword are any indication. But a huntress… that could open doors for you, to help bring that 'equality' you're preaching about" Why do I care? Her face scrunched up into a though-fall expression, I decided to give her weapon to her, A sign of trust if anything. Reaching behind the boulder, my tail wrapped around her weapon before bringing it to my hands. My tail re-wrapped around my waist, the movement and the sight of her weapon snapping her out of her head.
"Here, take this and fuck off. You can think about it elsewhere, I got some monkey business to do. And remember, you give a hard-long think about what your future should be. A girl like you ought to decide before you reach a line you can't recross."
I threw her weapon toward her, she caught it barely with hands shaken. Blake looked outside the cave mouth, then to me as I had gotten up. I watched her carefully before turning my back on her, heading deeper into the cave.
I heard footstep's hurriedly catching up to me.
"I think I'll stay here, at least until tomorrow, I can see in the dark yes, but it is getting cold out" she told me, walking along side me. We ended in silence, walking guarded in her case but without A care for me. It wasn't even twenty or less minutes before I was interested in talking to her again.
"Can you see anything ahead? I didn't clear this place out yet" Blake's hands tightened onto her weapon, turning to me then towards the blackness of the underground. I wasn't worried, my scouter should pick up any nearby enemies, but Blake didn't know that. Gives her something to do besides talking my ears off.
Focusing on more of my inner thoughts, while keeping an eye on Blake as we walked further into the cave, I thought about what I should do next. Simmering on these thought's, watching my step as we searched through the various cracks and passages of the unlit cave I attempted to stem my racing head. However long we trudged down here wasn't long enough, just about another ten or so minutes had gone by before we reached the end.
No Grimm or dust crystals, no water or even edible food sources, Oh well.
"Alright, lets head back up to the entrance. Do you know of a food source we could utilize out here?" asking, my hand on her shoulder as I guided her around before pushing her, they way we came. Though the cave was dark, I caught her smoldering look, she wasn't pleased with my pushing it seems.
"I thought you knew where we are, the trees have A sap that can be eaten, although you'd have to avoid the rapier wasps or occasional Grimm but both should be rare. Stop pushing me" she paced further forward, out of reach. Chuckling, I continued walking behind her.
The cave would my hideout for now, but I did need food soon, I needed to survey the surrounding area. I could also go and rob a store or two in Vale but that had its problems of its own, something to think about.
Reaching the surface, Blake walked towards the outside but then looked back. She peered outside before turning around and finding a place near the walls of the cave, she removed her White fang issue jacket before laying it onto the ground. Looking towards the exit, I couldn't make out if the moon was yet out or not. I decided to sit and watch Blake.
A half an hour later and she was still up, of course she wouldn't trust me seeing as I slaughtered her fellow-revolutionaries but still from where she was lain, an eye watching me for any move on my part. I didn't deign her anymore attention then with one eye I had on her, the thirty minutes or so was A air-breather both for my mind and body. Prior to my sitting down I had removed only my top armor while leaving on the latex body suit, I was still wearing two of them, so I wasn't cold. The shiver's Blake tried to hide from me told me she was, but with no wood and not trusting myself into venturing out for more wood for the fire which was slowly dying. I should have grabbed more wood or even a few trees, my prisoner would be fine.