After the Fall

by E. C. Myers

  “Yeah! I’ve been waiting for this.” Bertilak gestured Yatsuhashi forward. Yatsuhashi lunged for him, but Velvet grabbed his arm.

  “Yatsu! No!” she said.

  “He has it coming,” Yatsuhashi growled.

  “Yatsuhashi, stand down. Right now we need to fight the Grimm, not each other,” Coco said. “When everyone’s safe, you can sort this out with Bertilak—but you’ll have to take a number.”

  “I’m ready anytime,” Bertilak said.

  “She’s right,” Carmine said. “Let’s focus on surviving this attack instead of killing each other, or we’ll all be dead.”

  “Carmine, Bertilak, you protect Gus and Edward. You’ve been through this before, so work with Slate and Velvet to organize an evacuation,” Coco said.

  “Oh, come on,” Velvet said.

  “Not now, Velvet.” Coco looked at Yatsuhashi and Fox. “We’ll hold off the Grimm.”

  “We don’t take orders from kids,” Bertilak growled.

  “It wasn’t an order. It was a suggestion.” Coco lifted her gun and turned away from him. “A strong suggestion.”

  “Bertilak,” Slate said. “We need you.”

  Carmine drew the sai from her belt. She clicked their hilts together and then pulled them apart to extend them into a long bō with bladed ends. “Locked and loaded.”

  Coco tapped Fox on the shoulder. “Can you push a message to everyone at once, like before? Tell them the plan? Try and get them to calm down.”

  Fox hesitated and nodded. He lowered his head, and a moment later, Yatsuhashi heard his voice in his mind, while Fox spoke aloud, slightly out of sync.

  “Attention. Please try to calm down. Your emotions will only draw more Grimm to you. Make your way to the west end of Feldspar as quickly as possible. Slate is organizing an evacuation. Bertilak and Carmine will keep you safe, and we’ll keep the Grimm busy to cover your escape.”

  Fox pitched forward and Yatsuhashi caught him. Using his Semblance to that extent took a lot out of him.

  “Okay?” Yatsuhashi asked.

  “I can fight,” Fox said.

  “Not what I asked, but it’s good enough for me.”

  “You have what you need, Velvet?” Coco nodded to the camera in Velvet’s hands.

  Velvet gave her a thumbs-up. She locked eyes with Yatsuhashi for a moment.

  Yatsuhashi nodded. He turned and ran toward the screams.

  Fox and Coco were just behind him. Up ahead, Yatsuhashi saw a Ravager beating its wings over the heads of a red-haired woman and her child. He recognized them as Amaranth and Ash.

  These people weren’t just strangers. He had spoken with many of them, heard firsthand about all they’d been through. He didn’t know how people could live this way. Maybe people in the other kingdoms had gotten spoiled with their home’s relative stability, since this was just how things were in Vacuo.

  He and his team had been upset about losing Beacon for the last year, but the desert nomads never even had homes for long. Their whole existence was centered on picking up and moving on. And it was the other kingdoms that had created this situation for them. No wonder they didn’t want to get involved in Remnant’s politics.

  Yatsuhashi ran toward the huddled mother and son, yelling to draw the Grimm’s attention. It flapped up and turned to face Yatsuhashi, shrieking back at him at an ear-piercing pitch. Yatsuhashi winced and gripped his sword tighter. The creature flew up, up, up, and then it dove, moving far more quickly than he’d expected.

  It opened its mouth, still blasting him with sonic waves and baring four wicked sharp teeth, each the size and shape of Fox’s arm blades. Yatsuhashi clenched his jaw and readied himself.

  Just before the Ravager reached him, he vaulted up and over it, twisting in midair and slashing down with his sword, slicing the bat diagonally in half. The two pieces fluttered down on lifeless wings before the Grimm evaporated into black smoke.

  Yatsuhashi landed on his feet, planting his sword tip in the ground to get his balance. Ash gaped at him with his eyes and mouth wide open.

  “Head west. Look for Velvet,” Yatsuhashi said. “She and the others will get you out of here.”

  “Thank you!” Amaranth picked up Ash and ran toward safety.

  Yatsuhashi saw Fox battling a Dromedon, delivering swift kicks to the monstrous pitch-black camel’s head to prevent it from spitting venom at him. He delivered a punch to the Grimm’s misshapen hump, which expanded like a balloon before it burst with a soft boom.

  Coco was protecting a group of children from a Jackalope, a huge four-legged beast with black fur, branching red-and-white antlers extending from its bone mask, and powerful hind legs that could propel it a great height and allow it to run fast. She couldn’t get a clean shot with her gun, so she was fighting it with her bag and fists at close range. Finally having enough of that, she grabbed the Grimm by its horns and flipped it over her head.

  It landed on its leg and kicked, flying toward Coco and ramming her with its antlers, knocking her down. It scrambled onto its feet and snapped at her with slavering teeth. The inside of its mouth glowed as red as its eyes.

  Coco held her ground. She shook out her gun in one smooth motion, planted her feet, and reduced the Grimm to smoky black shreds with her Aura-charged bullets.

  The group kept advancing deeper into Feldspar. As they went, they checked every shack, tent, and stall for survivors. Checking every body they found. Yatsuhashi knew many of their names, too, and recalled the conversations they had shared only days before. Each fallen person spurred him on to reach the next tent while he could still help them.

  Yatsuhashi had seen the long-necked Ziraph advancing quickly through town toward them. Its three heads bobbed above the short roofs, while it kicked anyone and anything that crossed its path.

  “You want to handle that?” Coco asked Yatsuhashi.

  “You’re asking me?” His eyes tracked it as it strode toward them on four long legs covered in razor-sharp, bony plates. Its skin was black with glowing red spots like a leopard’s with two short but pointed white horns over its fiery red eyes.

  “It’s tall. You’re tall.” She reloaded her gun with Dust bullets. She frowned and he realized she was already running low on ammunition.

  Yatsuhashi thought back to Professor Port’s lesson on the desert-type Grimm. He wished there was more information about the creatures that gravitated toward Vacuo, and that he’d paid more attention at the time.

  “We can’t get too close to the legs, but if you can bring it to its knees, Fox and I can go for the necks.” The five-story-high heads made a large target, and he had a large sword.

  “You got it.” Coco braced her Gatling gun on the ground and took careful aim. She fired a short burst and the Ziraph pitched forward as its front right leg gave out.

  “Great shot.” Yatsuhashi ran toward the Ziraph, Fox keeping pace with him. It went down on its back knees as Coco continued firing, trying to be conservative with her bullets.

  Fox picked up speed and reached the Ziraph first, jumping up and springing off its body with one hand and somersaulting his way up its side. He then ran up the Grimm’s central neck, making quick slashes along the way with his tonfas. When he reached the head, he stabbed his blades into either side of it.

  The Ziraph bellowed and bowed its neck, shaking its head to knock Fox off. Another head snapped at him, while the third tried to gore him with its horns.

  As the creature came in range, Yatsuhashi leaped, pushed off one of its knees, and flew toward the right-hand neck. He brought Fulcrum down hard. At the same moment, Fox flipped toward him and landed on the top edge of Yatsuhashi’s sword, providing enough extra weight and momentum to help drive it clean through the Ziraph’s neck.

  A long, dark tongue wrapped itself around Yatsuhashi. He waited until the Ziraph drew him back to one of its two remaining heads, then lopped off the tongue and stabbed into the neck as he fell, splitting it open. The head fell, lifeless, to the ground, while the
last head swiveled around, to face Yatsuhashi. It opened its mouth, its grotesque tongue emerged—

  And a black line appeared across the neck, just before the head tipped forward and tumbled down. Fox waved from his position where the head had been a moment before he had sliced it off. He jumped down as the Grimm collapsed onto its side and dissipated.

  Coco guided more townspeople to the evacuation in the north.

  “Can’t be too many more of them.” Coco whipped the beret from her head and wiped sweat from her forehead. She slicked her limp hair back and restored her beret. It was getting on toward noon, the hottest part of day. The worst time to be marching in the desert, especially without adequate time to prepare and pack food and water.

  “I hope not,” Yatsuhashi replied. A moment later he wasn’t sure if she was referring to the people or the Grimm. But there were still plenty of the latter to fight, and they needed to buy time for the evacuees to get away.

  Surviving the Grimm was just the first step. The desert could just be a slower death, if they didn’t reach the western shore quickly. But the Vacuans could handle the heat, hunger, and thirst; all Team CFVY could do was fight to give them a chance to live.

  They pushed through to the eastern end of the settlement, where the invading Grimm were thickest, still flooding into the town. But without the high emotions of the townspeople to draw them, they were wandering around looking for prey—which was exactly what the Huntsmen were doing.

  They rescued a couple of stragglers from a trio of buzzing Lancers that had cornered them in their shack.

  “Anyone else, Fox?” Coco asked.

  Fox slowly turned in a circle, his face strained with concentration and fatigue. He’d been pushing himself hard for too long. They all had, but he, Velvet, and Coco had been up all night on watch duty with little opportunity to rest. And Fox and Velvet had already been out in the desert, fighting a King Taijitu.

  “That’s everyone,” he said. “The Grimm are starting to thin out a little, too, but some of them are still following the evacuees.”

  “Damn,” Coco said. “I didn’t think of that.”

  “We can’t rejoin the others yet,” Yatsuhashi said. “We’ll just lead even more Grimm toward them.”

  Fox knelt on the ground, head bowed. “So we draw them somewhere else,” he said softly.

  It showed how tired he was that he’d simply spoken aloud rather than use even a little of his Semblance to communicate. Yatsuhashi gathered he didn’t have much to spare. He didn’t have to check an Aura monitor to know that all it would take was one heavy hit and Fox would be down for the count.

  Yatsuhashi looked around. He would make sure no Grimm even got close enough to breathe on Fox until he’d regained some of his strength.

  “How many people do you think made it?” Coco asked.

  How many people did we lose? she meant. But she was always the optimist.

  “Most of them got out of town,” Yatsuhashi said. “Maybe one hundred and twelve?” He couldn’t say whether everyone who escaped would last. Several of them had been injured, some grievously, and there wouldn’t be much opportunity to stop to treat them, or even supplies to treat them with, in the open desert.

  Coco nodded. “Not bad.” She took off her sunglasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes closed. Yatsuhashi noted the dark circles under her bloodshot eyes before she slipped her mask back on. “Could have been better. We could have avoided all of this.”

  “We can only do our best,” Fox said.

  “I want my best to be better.” Coco shrugged. “We’re still on the clock, so let’s go.”

  “Where to?” Yatsuhashi asked.

  “They’re going west, so we go northwest,” Fox said. “Get as many of them off their trail as we can. Then we lose them in the desert and rendezvous with the others at the shore. Then hopefully we bring the Caspians back home with us to Vacuo.”

  Team CFVY had been living in Vacuo for a year, but none of them had yet called the city or Shade Academy home. It wasn’t Beacon, but even so, Yatsuhashi would be glad to be back there.

  “We can do this,” Coco said. “Hang in there, guys.”

  “Aye, aye. Hanging in there, chief,” Fox said.

  “I hope they’re okay.” Yatsuhashi looked to the west thoughtfully.

  “Velvet’s with them,” Coco said. “They’ll be fine. As long as everyone sticks together and sticks to the plan.”

  “Let’s just review the plan one more time before we go,” Velvet said. She looked around at the others gathered in the ballroom: all the members of teams RWBY and CFVY. They were standing around a large round table scattered with Weiss’s notes on what was going where, who was doing what, and what was happening when.

  Team CFVY had been tasked with planning the Beacon Dance, a formal affair that students anticipated with a mixture of eagerness and dread. Velvet had been excited about getting to mix with teams from other schools, and having the chance to plan a really fun event for everyone, but then Coco had volunteered them for an optional extra mission that had just come in. Coco assured them they’d wrap things up with plenty of time to fulfill their duties, but Velvet wanted to have a backup just in case, and she couldn’t think of anyone better than Yang and Weiss, who respectively brought the enthusiasm and the stubbornness necessary to get the job done.

  “A Bullhead’s waiting for us,” Coco said.

  “This is important!” Weiss said.

  Coco’s expression didn’t change, but Weiss pointed at her.

  “There! You just rolled your eyes, didn’t you?” Weiss demanded.

  “It’s just a dance,” Coco said. “It’s no big deal.”

  “No big deal?” Yang threw her hands up in the air. “This is the social event of the season!” She put her hands on her hips. “Aside from, you know, the Vytal Festival itself. But this is going to be fun!”

  “Fighting is fun,” Yatsuhashi said.

  “True,” Yang said. “But this is different. Dancing is like fighting—with music! And, uh, hormones?”

  Ruby sighed. “I’d rather fight with weapons. You guys are so lucky to get assigned to an important mission.”

  “Yeah, we’re lucky,” Velvet said glumly.

  “Hey! Here’s an idea.” Ruby held up her hands, fingers wide. “Picture this. Instead of the Beacon Dance, it could be … Beacon Battle Club! It would be good practice for the tournament. We could play music while we actually fight! All the best fight scenes on TV have awesome rock songs playing that reflect the themes of the episode and the hidden yearnings of the characters.”

  “Which would be terrible if real life was anything like that,” Weiss said.

  “Oh? What are you hiding, Weiss?” Ruby asked.

  Weiss rolled her eyes. “I just rolled my eyes at you, Ruby.”

  “I know! I can see your eyes.”

  “I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

  “I appreciated that courtesy,” Fox said.

  “Thank you,” Weiss said.

  “Fine, but let’s hurry it up, okay?” Coco paced.

  “We will not turn the dance into a fight club,” Velvet said.

  “Cage matches?” Ruby asked.

  “No.”

  “Rock, paper, scissors?”

  “No.” Velvet shook her head. “The decorations are pretty straightforward. Streamers, tablecloths, flowers.”

  “And doilies, of course,” Weiss said.

  “What was that, Grandma?” Yang asked.

  “Doilies are very refined.” Weiss sniffed.

  “Doilies are absurd and elitist,” Yang said.

  “What did you call me?” Weiss asked.

  “I didn’t say anything about you. But your taste, on the other hand …” Yang held out a hand, indicating that it spoke for itself.

  Fox leaned close to Ruby. “You guys do like each other, right?” he asked. “I’m picking up on a lot of tension here.”

  “Things have been sort of … stressful
lately,” Ruby said. She slumped over with her elbows on the table, chin on hands.

  “Sounds like our first year here,” he said. “It gets better, though. We had some rough patches early on, too, and now look at us. The important thing is to talk to one another.”

  Ruby sat up and smiled at Fox. “That’s great to hear. Thank you. And I think that’s the most words I’ve ever heard you say at once. For a while there, we wondered if you ever talked.” She covered her mouth. “And now I should stop talking,” she said with a muffled voice. “Ah! Shut up, Ruby. Idiot.”

  “You’d be surprised how chatty I can be.” Fox grinned. “But I’m about to use up my word quota for the—” He stopped.

  Ruby waited and then prompted him. “Day? Week?”

  He winked.

  “Oh!” She laughed. “I get it. I didn’t know you’re funny, too.”

  “Every team needs some comic relief. Right?”

  Ruby nodded. Then her eyes widened. “Am I the comic relief?” She shook her head. “No! Impossible! Yang is funny, too. Funnier than me! She’s always saying goofy things like, ‘Let’s start things off with a Yang!’ I don’t do that. And Weiss. Weiss is always joking with me.”

  “Or is she making fun of you?” Fox asked.

  “You think so?” Ruby rubbed the back of her head and frowned while thinking about that. “Hey …” She glared at Weiss. “We’ll talk about that later.”

  Fox laughed.

  “Stop laughing! I am not funny.” Ruby pouted. “I’m the leader. Leaders can’t be the comic relief.”

  Fox raised his eyebrows. “Jaune.”

  Ruby looked stricken. Then she put her head on the table and hid her face in her arms. “I am the comic relief!”

  “Coco can be very funny, too,” Fox said with a straight face.

  “Right, Fox?” Velvet said. Everyone turned to look at him. Startled, he stood bolt upright.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The music. For the dance?”

  “Right. Got it covered,” he said. “You’re gonna love the DJs.”

  “Great.” She pointed across the room. “My photo booth is going to be over there. We’ll get everyone to take silly pictures.”