Fusilier

Sentry One-One

    Donnie was jolted awake. While he shook off the residual daze from sleep he realized he'd been woken up by Yang shaking him. He stopped himself from taking a swing at her when he noticed the look of panic on her face.
    "Get up get up get up! She's just gone! I mean how did I not-"
    Donnie cut her off, "Fuckin' hell Yang what?! What the hell is wrong?!"
    "It's Ruby! She-she's gone!"
    He scrambled to his feet, scooping up his equipment, "Gone?! What do you mean gone?!" He noticed that Blake and Weiss were already gathering their things with Dr. Oobleck currently crouched to inspect Zwei.
    "I don't know, I just finished my shift when I noticed that she was gone! Crescent Rose is missing too!"
    Donnie rushed to shoulder his rifle and sling his shotgun over his back. Dr. Oobleck rose and nodded at them, "It's time we found your leader students," he looked down at Zwei, "I believe our furry friend here shall lead the way." With that Zwei turned and darted off into the early morning darkness. Intermittent barks acted to keep them on the trail.
    It was the work of only a few minutes to lead their group to a great, yawning hole in the street. On the very edge of the chasm laid Crescent Rose, still folded up in its rifle form. Yang reached it first and immediately scooped it into her arms.
    "She'd never leave this behind!"
    "So where the hell is she," Donnie asked as he cautiously leaned over the chasm. Producing his flashlight from his webbing, he tried unsuccessfully to pierce the darkness.
    "Christ you don't think she fell down there do you? I mean what is this thing a cave or something?"
    He didn't have to wait long before Oobleck answered, "Not exactly Mr. McManus. When the citizens of Mountain Glen came to the realization that the tide of grimm on the surface could not be contained they retreated underground. They survived for a time until routine expansion opened up a cavern filled with subterranean grimm. Their sudden appearance turned their refuge into a tomb."
    Donnie swore under his breath and signed a cross over his heart. Blake spoke next, "You're saying that there is an entire city under ground here?"
    "Precisely."
    The ensuing stunned silence was interrupted by a bark from Zwei which directed their attention to an old, metal door set into a nearby building. When they approached he looked between them and the door expectantly. Blake reached over and grasped the handle. The rusted metal screeched in protest as it was pulled open to reveal a stairwell. Immediately noticeable was the fact that the overhead lights were still running. The lights allowed them to see that they were currently the only occupants. Carefully, they crept down to the bottom where they came upon another door. This one seemed better maintained and offered less resistance when opened.
    They stepped out into another world. In the dim light of a few sparse streetlights that remained functional they realized they stood on an overlook over an underground city. Like the city above the buildings were empty shells. From their position Donnie could see many of the buildings were in similar forms of ruin as their siblings above. With holes like gaping wounds providing the only evidence that the residents had tried to resist their fates. Although he figured the resistance couldn't have been much, he could not see any of the defenses erected like the ones from before.
    Turning his attention his immediate surroundings he could see similar forms of destruction. The position of the stairwell had allowed them to step out behind a half destroyed wall. Looking about he noticed that the others were caught up in their wonder at the hidden city.
    It was then that he heard something. His ears had gone on full alert as a force of habit from Earth and had allowed him to notice what sounded like a shuffled step. When he turned to warn the others he noticed Blake met his gaze and nodded. Blake crept along the ruined wall to where it opened up onto a small pathway that seemed more like an alleyway than a street. Meanwhile, Donnie waved his arms to get the attention of the others. Before they could ask what he wanted he silenced them by holding a finger in front of his lips. He motioned for them to follow him along the wall to catch up with Blake.
In this time the the shuffle had turned into audible steps, the clicking of boot heels on the path told him it was a lone patrol. As the steps grew so close Blake sprung into action. Without warning she leapt around the corner with Gambol Shroud in hand. In the pathway Blake spotted the patrolman barely a foot in front of her. They were wearing the uniform of a White Fang grunt and was clutching an old dust rifle. The grunt was taken off guard as she swung, hilt-first at their head. The swing struck them across the temple causing the grunt to crumple into Blake's outstretched arms while the rifle clattered to the ground.
She dragged the grunt's unconscious form back around the corner and in front of the rest of her team. Lowering the grunt to the floor, she reached back around to retrieve the rifle. Quickly it was tossed over the edge of the overlook and was lost to the ruins below. Looking back at her team her face flushed a bit with embarrassment at the sudden display.
"That was damned beautiful," Donnie broke the stunned silence and crouched to inspect the grunt. From the short, trimmed beard he could tell the grunt was a man. An inspection of his white cloak revealed no pockets so Donnie moved on to his pants pockets and the belt strapped around his waist. In the pants pockets the only thing of interest Donnie found was a wallet with an old library card inside. Tossing it aside he moved on to the belt. He was disappointed to find only things attached to it was a flask and a few extra magazines for the now discarded rifle. Before standing up he made sure to grab the spare magazines.
The magazines he turned and tossed over the edge before moving back to the entrance of the path. He turned to the group, "Ok, I can't imagine they'd send a lone man out on patrol so his friends have got to be around here somewhere. That one didn't have a radio or anything on him so I can imagine whoever's in charge must be the one carrying one. I get that about right Blake?"
"Yes, and usually the White Fang patrols in groups of three. Their commanding officer should be wearing a specific armband with a chevron on it."
Donnie nodded and made to move down the path, catching himself he turned back and motioned for them to follow. It was only a short minutes walk to reach the doorway of a building. The door was missing, allowing them a good view of the two people in White Fang uniforms inside. One was sitting in a ragged armchair closer to the entrance. A pair of wolf ears sprouted up from the top of the hood of their uniform. An arm hung over the edge of the armrest displaying the red band around their bicep. A single gold chevron was stitched across it.
Across from them stood the third member of the patrol, a visibly nervous grunt who paced back and forth. When he turned his back to the entrance they could make out a rabbit tail sprouting from the rear end of his uniform. From their vantage point Donnie could hear their conversation.
"Tor would you just calm down," came the annoyed voice of officer in the chair. The voice was unmistakably feminine.
"But he's been gone too long, I mean he just went to check the door right? And I mean what was that noise?"
"You know Rouge, he probably dropped something, he's always been clumsy. And besides, he's probably off peeing somewhere. He always has that weird thing about 'marking his territory' or whatever."
At this point Donnie stopped paying attention to the conversation and turned to the group. Careful to make as little noise as possible he motioned for them all to wait and readied himself. He closed his eyes and took a moment to breath deeply. All at once his eyes snapped open and dashed through the entrance.
He made for the nervous grunt first, in an instant he was on him. Donnie brought his rifle around and struck him across the temple with the butt. Like their friend before he crumpled to the floor and stayed there. Before the Officer could react he drew his revolver with his right hand and shoved it into her face. She was frozen with surprise, there was a dust rifle leaned against the side of the armchair that Donnie kicked out of reach before shouldering his rifle.
"Don't do anything stupid. Not if you don't want to try breathing through the back of your skull."
The rest of team RWBY and Oobleck rushed to join him. Immediately, Yang began questioning her.
"Where is she! Where is my sister!"
"Wha-Who? Your sister?" The White Fang officer was panicked, she kept looking between them.
"Yeah my sister; dark hair, wearing red and black."
In the sea of fear and fury a sudden clarity emerged in her eyes, "Wait you're here for her? She-She's with that human by the train."
They all looked at each other before Donnie asked the obvious question, "Where's this train?" He also lowered the revolver to his hip but kept it leveled at her. Hopefully not having a gun in her face would make her more cooperative.
    "Just around the corner and guarded by an army of my brothers and sisters."
    He cursed himself; she'd only grown defiant and when Donnie met her eyes the intensity of her quiet rage surprised him. He suppressed a chill in his spine and tightened his grip on the revolver. In his head he begged her not to try anything. Don't do this. God please, don't do this.
    "We'll find a way."
    The Officer laughed, "You humans are so naive." An alarm bell went off in Donnie's head at her tone. All too late Donnie looked at her raised hands, her nails were wolf claws. Maybe if he had things would've turned out differently.
    "Naive and stupid."
    Suddenly she lunged out of her chair and at Donnie. He jerked his head to the side, causing her claws to narrowly avoid his throat. They began to grapple, one of her hands tried to wrestle the gun from his hand while the other tried to claw at his face. The scuffle had gotten the attention of the others. Donnie sent a look their direction that he hoped would keep them from interfering.
    Donnie focused on the struggle for his gun. He could feel her pushing against the barrel but she couldn't dislodge it. He had it jammed into her gut and all his instincts screamed to pull the trigger. But a small piece of his conscience begged him not to. You don't have to, it's been months. This isn't the Schnees. This isn't France. He wanted to listen, with every fiber of his being he wanted to, but he knew he couldn't when he saw her eyes. They told him nothing else would keep her from slashing his throat. There was a fire in there that wouldn't let her.
"You or me," they screamed at him.
    With a great effort he shut out the small voice and squeezed the trigger. The shot caused her grip to loosen. With a push she stumbled back against the chair. There was an instant where Donnie held the hope that she had an aura and had just had the breath knocked out of her. But he knew better. The rapidly spreading stain of crimson across her white uniform told him that.
    He raised the revolver again, hammer cocked. He met her eyes and time slowed. Despite her wound the fire remained. In that brief instant he found himself memorizing every detail of her angular face. The small, pink lips, her sharp chin and nose, the high and prominent cheekbones. He noticed that she had freckles on her cheeks and a small scar on her upper lip. He noticed locks of her ginger hair had emerged from under her hood during the fight. And then there were her eyes. They were two green orbs that bore into him. They held a deep, unfathomable hatred for him and everything he represented. Of every human that had ever wronged her; every human that drove her to this moment. He memorized all this in an instant. A part of Donnie thought that she was breathtaking, that this was the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Then the moment passed and he pulled the trigger.
    The blast was deafening and its effect instantaneous. Her head snapped back as the round punched through her skull. A spray of gore coated the room behind her as she collapsed to the floor. A rapidly spreading pool of blood began to emerge from under her. Donnie holstered his revolver and stepped over her intending to crouch down and search her and found himself staring at her face again. There was a neat hole drilled into her forehead and her eyes were still open. There was nothing left; no fire, no life.
    He willed himself to look away and searched her as he had the grunt Blake had knocked out. The front of her belt held only the usual spare magazines. On a whim he turned her over and found her radio. It was a small, store bought model. He removed it from her belt and examined it. The black plastic of the radio was already sticky with blood and he had to wipe the display with his hand. He found a lone button on its left side and pressed it. The display lit up; it listed the volume, signal, and frequency it was set to. He set the radio aside and turned her back over.
    His conscience returned in this moment as well as the urge to check her pockets. The only thing he found was a wallet. He opened the small, leather thing and found a drivers license. It identified her as Cana Pine from the Kingdom of Vale. He was about to close the wallet when he noticed something, a small picture was tucked into one of the folds. He extracted it and his breath caught.
    In the picture Cana stood next to a man, their arms were wrapped around each other. Behind them he could see a ferris wheel and the sea. He flipped the small picture over and inspected the back. It was dated to a few years before and the words "Always thinking of you! Love, Luke." Donnie memorized every detail he could about the picture and tucked it back into the wallet before returning it all to her pocket. He stood up and retrieved the radio.
    When he turned back to the group he paused when he saw their faces. Weiss and Dr. Oobleck looked sorrowful. In his time with the Schnees unfortunately this hadn't been the first time Weiss witnessed him kill. Oobleck was an experienced huntsman so he guessed this wasn't something entirely new to him. To his surprise the look on Blake's face was something akin to grim acceptance of the situation. Donnie didn't know what to think about her, she'd admitted to being a former member of the White Fang but she hadn't let on much more than that.
Yang's reaction was more what he expected. She was horrified; he'd always made passing comments about killing in the war and occasionally being forced to while working as Weiss' bodyguard before Beacon but never the details. She was used to knocking people out, sure some bones might get broken but they got back up if they weren't grimm. The look burned his soul. He quietly thanked God that Ruby hadn't been there. She was their leader but to him she was still a kid.
The silence was interrupted by the squawking of the radio. The signal wasn't strong underground but they still caught what was said.
"Sentry One-One what's your status we heard shots?"
"Sentry One-One come in," there was a pause, "Sentry One-One what's your status?"
The next pause was even longer. When the voice came back it was worried, "Gods Pine pick up the damn radio! What's going on over there?! We're sending another patrol over to check your status."
Donnie removed his rifle from his shoulder and motioned towards the exit of the building. This one led out into an open street.
"Well it looks like they know we're here. We need to move. Fast and loud everyone. Ruby's counting on us."
Yang turned and sprinted out into the street, Weiss and Blake followed closely behind. Zwei led the three of them. Donnie made to follow and was stopped by Dr. Oobleck who offered him a handkerchief from his coat. When Donnie gave him an odd look he gave a comforting nod and explained, "For your face Mr. McManus."
Donnie felt his face and his fingers came away bloody. He guessed it must have been from the second shot and took the handkerchief wordlessly. He gave a few wipes before receiving the go ahead from Oobleck who took it back and returned it to his coat. The both of them sprinted to catch up with the three remaining members of Team RWBY. It wasn't difficult, they began hearing explosions as Yang cleared the path. Behind her she left scores of White Fang reinforcements lying unconscious. They turned the corner of the street and into a giant clearing. True to Pine's word there was a train, and an army guarding it.
Near the engine of the train in the distance, they spotted Ruby. She was flanked by two members of the White Fang and behind her stood the unmistakable figure of Roman Torchwick. When Ruby spotted them she used her semblance to escape her distracted guards and began to run towards them. Torchwick and every White Fang grunt that wasn't already shooting began firing on them. Donnie stopped and took a knee hoping to find a good target. He spotted a grunt had taken aim at Ruby, it was one of the guards that was holding Ruby.
Donnie brought his rifle to his shoulder and took aim. He found that any other qualms about killing had faded and he took a deep breath. When his lungs were full he released the air and while his lungs deflated her fired. The shot was difficult. The range was further than he was used to and he was trying to avoid catching Ruby in the cross fire, but the shot was true. He saw the guard spin and collapse as the round impacted his chest.
By now Ruby's semblance had carried her to them and she leapt into Yang's arms. Yang spun with her while they embraced. She showered her with her concerns which Ruby tried to wave off. She excitedly accepted Crimson Rose from Yang and began launching into a new plan.
"I'm fine Yang really, but something more important is happening. Torchwick is using that train to get to Vale we need to stop him!"
Oobleck laughed the idea off, "That's preposterous. Why those tunnels have been blocked off since the fall of the city. There's no way they'd possibly use that."
With pin-perfect timing Roman Torchwick's voice cut him off over the intercom.
"Everyone still out there finish loading up whatever you can and get on board. This train is leaving the station!" As he said this the horn of the train blared a single warning. This was soon followed by the hiss of the brakes disengaging as the train began to move into the tunnel.
They ran to catch up and managed to leap aboard the last car as the train picked up speed and plunged them into the low-light gloom of the tunnel.
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Just wanna say that I certainly appreciate you guys for sticking with my procrastination and delays for this thing. It really means a lot.
On another note this chapter was one of my personal favorites to write.