Fusilier

Training Day

    Back beneath the ruins of Mountain Glenn in the recently abandoned train station Dimitri observed the remnants. Many of the White Fang grunts that Team RWBY had fought had only been knocked unconscious and were now being herded into a neat group in the middle of the station. They were surrounded on all sides by subterranean grimm.
    Presiding over the grimm was Dimitri. At the urging of his mistress he had cleaned up somewhat. His hair was trimmed back to above his shoulders and the dirt and grime of years spent in isolation were washed away. His armor and dagger had seen similar treatment, with fresh repairs and polishing they gleamed in the light.
    He'd been frustrated as of late. He was a special grimm bred for war but he'd been leashed since his retrieval. Salem had provided small tasks to keep him sated. Mainly small assassinations and the executions of deserters from the White Fang. But he longed for more. Memories of his time before isolation emerged. Nighttime raids on isolated villages, the lives of dozens of men, women, and children cut short by his hand. It made the petty hunts now pale in comparison.
    With some mild amount of interest Dimitri looked back at the platform and noted that at least one in the square was dead. Approaching the body he leaned in close, savoring the scent of blood as he appraised it. The grunt was face down in a puddle of blood. Turning him over he spotted the single entry wound in his chest.
Seemingly pleased with his brief investigation he rose and began to focus his mind. With some slight effort he reached out mentally to the grimm nearby. Though his heightened intelligence made him more human (or faunus) than he cared to admit, Dimitri was glad that Salem had granted him this limited version of her capacity to influence and control grimm. While maintaining his imprisonment of the surviving White Fang he reached out to grimm further down the tunnel. They had been tasked with searching the train wreckage and he was curious about what they'd find.
The mind of the common creep was always a bit of a jumble, more focused on food than anything else. If nothing else Dimitri had always found them eager to please. Through the mess he pieced together details. Report, he commanded. A high-pitched voice responded, We find meat, we eats yes? Back on the station platform he frowned and worked to get them back on track, No little one, not yet. I wish to see them first. Again came the voice of the creep, Yes we understands, you look, we no eats. Returning his focus to the station he commanded the grimm surrounding the grunts to maintain their positions and strode into the tunnel.
It was a long walk to the crashed train. While he walked he appreciated his newly repaired armor. The rust had been polished off and it had been reformed to better fit his frame. Similar work had been done on his dagger and he longed to put them to the test. Lacking this he found comfort in the clinks and clanks it made as he walked. When he arrived Dimitri was greeted by a creep who led him to the carriages in question.
The smell of blood in the first carriage welcomed him like a friend. The crash had thrown the it and its contents askew but he could see the bodies. All save one were blown apart. Limbs and, with no small amount of admiration, he noted a healthy amount of entrails. He inspected the mostly intact corpse. He prodded at its split skull with his armored finger before moving on to the next carriage. He found it less interesting but did take care to analyze the more cohesive picture of what had happened.
He saw a single set of bloodied footprints on the floor and began to recreate the fight. He followed the steps with his own like they were choreography. He stopped when he reached the other end of the carriage and looked back over the bodies. The wounds made by blades interested him the most. When he had become acquainted with the new Remnant he had been told of firearms and hated them. He felt they deprived warriors of truly proving themselves. And with the cuts he saw he felt a growing excitement.
The voice of a creep interrupted him, it told him that the rest of the carriages were cleared and empty. On his way out he gave the creeps the permission they craved. He made his way back down the tracks, the sound of tearing flesh and gleeful creeps fading into the distance.
As he stepped back onto the platform he rasped to his prisoners, "A number of your brethren were killed here. Did any of you see the warrior who did this?" The crowd shuffled and murmured amongst themselves. At last a single hand rose from the crowd.
    "Step forward."
    Out came a single, nervous rabbit faunus. "I s-saw him sir," he said while eyeing a nearby creep. It leered up at him hungrily.
    "Is there anyone else?"
    Suddenly a larger man stepped out of the crowd. He was a full head taller than the rabbit and had a neatly trimmed bearded. Peaking out from under his hood were a small set of goat horns. He stepped to the rabbit's side. He spoke up first,"Me and Tor here both saw him. He killed our CO." Tor looked up at him but said nothing.
    "Anyone else?"
    When no one else stepped forward he beckoned for them to step past the ring of grimm. Before Dimitri could move on he felt something poking and prodding at the back of his mind. He froze and began to focus on the presence but was stopped by its overwhelming force. It was then that he heard the voice of his mistress, Now now dear, remember your purpose. Dimitri quietly submitted and turned back to the crowd.
    "Did any of the intruders possess silver eyes?"
    Someone spoke up from the crowd but he couldn't place who, "Yeah that one little girl in the black dress but only a few of us ever got close to her." Now came another voice, "Yeah that human and Perry and them."
    Dimitri gave an exasperated sigh, "And where, pray tell are they?"
    "Well the human, Perry, and Janet were on the train and Steve is well over there."
    Dimitri returned to the voice of his mistress, The girl with the silver eyes was here but none were close to her save Torchwick and his guards. The responding voice was soft and sweet, almost maternal, Then it seems they are no longer useful. These soldiers have failed in their duty, I leave them to you.
    Dimitri smiled to himself and reached out to the grimm and allowed them their wish. He turned back and ushered the two faunus who had spotted the warrior he sought to follow him. As they walked away the screams of the remaining White Fang faded into silence. Their echoes joining the ghosts of the dead city.
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It had been two weeks since the breach in the center of Vale. Thankfully the arrest of Roman Torchwick had helped to ease tensions in Vale itself but Donnie's main concern was with his team. Ruby was alright, she hadn't been there for most her rescue and Blake and Weiss were keeping a respectful distance. They both seemed to be content with putting what happened behind them. Yang bothered him the most; she kept her distance as well and he caught her making frequent glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking. She had nightmares, he could tell; on sleepless nights he could hear her tossing and turning. Surprisingly enough even Doctor Oobleck seemed content with silence on the matter. Outside of classes the most they had spoken was a quick "congratulations" following the battle.
Ruby had picked up on the tension quickly but, not knowing the reason, decided to try and defuse it herself. Trying to use the upcoming Vytal Festival to their advantage she proposed holding joint training sessions between themselves and team JNPR.
These joint sessions were how they found themselves standing on the parade ground. They stood on the far end of the field close to the forest. Opposite them and closer to the docks, workers were busy setting up tents and booths for the upcoming festival.
    Ruby stood in front of them, a collection of shovels laid out at her feet. At the site of the shovels Donnie's heart dropped into his stomach
Seeing her team and team JNPR gathered in front of her Ruby clapped her hands together. "Ok everyone I hope you're ready to get dirty because I have something special planned for us today."
    "Oh no you don't mean..." Donnie began in anguish.
    "Oh yes I do! Today we're separating into pairs to dig trenches!"
    "I didn't tell you about those things as a guide kid. I hate 'em."
    "Enough complaining, besides I already found all these shovels. Now let's get started, Donnie you're with Yang." He nodded and shuffled off to join his partner. He tuned out the rest of Ruby's assignments as he turned to her. To his dismay she avoided eye contact with him.
    "We should get started," she said before quickly rushing past him to grab a shovel. Focusing back on his leader he caught the end of the speech. "...the best trench gets a reward!"
    Yang came back with two shovels. Thrusting one into his arms she asked him, "So you're good with these things. Where do we start?" Still gauging her emotions he decided not to argue and observed the ground. Quietly he probed the earth with his shovel until he found a piece of ground suitably malleable.
    Using the tip of his shovel he notched out a five by five by four foot rectangle in the dirt. Looking up he said, "Well we ought to get a start on this." Wordlessly they started digging. After a few minutes the silence started to get to him. Deep down he was craving one of Yang's dumb jokes. He couldn't stand the awkward glances and the memory in the back of his head of her nightmares.
    He stopped to light a cigarette and eye her, "I suppose we need to talk." Yang straightened up but didn't meet his eyes, "Talk about what?" He sensed the underlying cautious hostility in her voice.
    "If I had to guess then Mt. Glenn."
    "And why would we talk about that?"
    "Well since we got back you haven't made any jokes, we've barely spoken, and hell you won't even make eye contact with me."
    Her voice dropped with her response, "You-You killed someone. You just shot them. And the people on the train, what about them? You were covered in that red stuff."
    "Aye, and you know I did the same back home. You've heard my stories."
    "But those are stories dude it's different seeing it happen! And you just kept going. Even right now, it's like it didn't happen!"
    Donnie took a long, slow drag on the cigarette before answering, "Of course it bothers me Yang. You're not exactly the only person losing sleep around here. It always does, I've just learned to live with it. Hell it bothers me more that you're so affected by it. Taking a life is a nasty thing and I can't guarantee that none of you will have to do it but I can at least hope that what I do is my burden alone."
"I can't just NOT think about what happened. I just need some time, look can we just dig this thing?"
Donnie nodded but didn't continue his digging. Instead looking around he gauged his friends' efforts and Donnie couldn't help but laugh. "Oh Weiss is gonna kill her." This got Yang to look up. Donnie was pointing at Weiss. She had been partnered up with Nora for this little activity and just like everyone else had not been warned to change into anything more comfortable. Her previously white dress was now covered in dirt and Nora (who she had been partnered with) was laughing at her. He laughed again when he saw her face. Nearby Ren watched quietly, he'd been made to partner with the both of them when Ruby realized the odd number of participants
    "Look at that. That is a legitimately mournful Weiss. I haven't seen that face since the cake butler got fired."
    "Cake butler?"
    "Oh yeah this uppity 'pastry chef' or whatever he wanted to call himself. I think Jacques Schnee didn't like his cake one day so he exploded on him. Fired on the spot."
    "Seriously?"
    "Nah he let him pack his bags first," Donnie looked over and noticed the story had elicited a small smile from Yang. She looked to Ruby who was already taking a breather next to Pyrrha.
    "At least Ruby doesn't mind the dirt."
    "No but she's winded and they've barely made a hole."
    "We aren't doing much better."
    "Eh just give us an hour two and we'll have this marked bit of land as a nice new slit trench. Well we best get back to it." Tossing his cigarette aside they set about returning to their work. It took about an hour before Ruby finally gave up and called the contest to a close. In that hour Donnie and Yang had made a serviceable slit trench. Only four feet deep and two feet across it wouldn't be stopping a German assault anytime soon but it would keep someone out of the line of fire for a bit.
    Looking around the lack of experience was evident on their friends' efforts. Looking at Weiss, Ren, and Nora's project it was really more of a lopsided pit. Ruby and Pyrrha's was about a shallower version owing to Ruby's frequent breaks. The closest thing resembling a real trench was Jaune and Blake's a bit wider and shallower than Donnie and Yang's, it showed a fine effort at least.
Ruby inspected them all carefully before stopping in front of Donnie and Yang's trench. When she turned back to them she looked at Donnie skeptically, "It looks kinda tight. I thought you have to fight in these things."
Donnie sighed and decided it would be better just to show her. Hopping down into the trench he found it came up to his chest. Hunkering down by laying across the embankment in front of him he looked back.
"You have to really hunker down but I've done plenty of fighting in these ones. If you gave me a month I could probably make a big one for you." He paused for a moment, "Don't even think about asking me to dig one. You'd have to pay me."
    "How are you supposed to fight in one of these? It's so tight."
    "Well you aren't really supposed to let them get this close. The whole point of a trench is not getting your butt shot off. Besides getting up close in any trench is nasty."
"What do you mean 'nasty'?"
"Ruby, there is nothing I would hate more than to recount that particular part of the war." Ruby took the hint and decided to leave it at that.
    "Well since you're the expert I guess you win. I don't think this was a very good exercise."
    "Ah don't beat yourself up about it. At least now you know what a slit trench is I guess. Now how about that reward?"
    Now smiling, she reached into a pocket of her dress and produced two chocolate chip cookies. They were cold to the touch and when Donnie bit into his own it was rock hard; from the taste he could tell they were freezer burned.
    "Ruby, how long have you had these?"
    "About a week."
    "Damnit all I nearly broke my tooth. If you needed cookies I would've made more for you."
    "But you did," she spoke through a cheeky grin."You made these last week remember? I just forgot those in the freezer."
    Donnie grumbled to himself, all that trouble for old cookies. This was interrupted by Ruby suddenly yawning, "Well I'm done, same time tomorrow?"
"As long as you don't make us dig anymore." This was met by a chorus of agreements and the gathered teams began to disperse back to their dorms. In just a few short weeks the Vytal festival would be upon them, and they couldn't be more excited.