Ch:21 Departure

"What the fuck!" Maru exclaimed, forcefully brushing debris off herself. Surveying the remnants of the corridor, she grimaced at the scattered debris, lingering ash and overwhelming smell of burnt flesh. Her gaze then darted behind her. "Fuck! That frosty bastard managed to escape!"

Taking the time to check whether she was injured or not before she stood, Maru noticed that apart from her coat being slightly singed she was perfectly fine. "Never been more happy to have a shit ton of aura."

Maru turned to where the other fight was happening. "Yo, anyone alive and what the fuck was that!?"

Coffing came from down the corridor as a figure stood shakily in the ashen haze. "I did not think that through." Came the response from the figure.

The haze cleared up and revealed a shaky looking Thalia. She was covered in soot and her clothes had singe marks but otherwise she was fine.

"What the fuck was that!?" Maru called out again, gaining the attention of Thalia.

Before Thalia could reply, a door in the wall next to her was kicked across the corridor making a dull thunking noise. "Yes Thalia, what was that?"

Out of the darkness of the room came Sienna looking better then both Maru and Thalia, but Maru could tell that she was furious about the situation. Sienna's stern gaze was fixed on Thalia, awaiting an explanation for the fiery spectacle that had just occurred.

Thalia scratched the back of her head nervously. "Uh, well, I sort of got a bouquet made out of fire dust and... you know, things escalated."

Maru burst into laughter, surprising both Thalia and Sienna. "You turned a bouquet into a makeshift firework? That's genius! Remind me to never underestimate you, Bun bun."

Sienna, however, wasn't as amused. "We're in the middle of a covert operation, and you're playing with fire dust?"

Thalia shrugged. "Hey, it worked, didn't it? Besides, it got us out of a tight spot."

"I thought you said you weren't gonna use that unless absolutely necessary." The trio turned to look further down the corridor where two figures were approaching.

"Well you still activated it." Thalia snarked back .

"Bow kid! Virdi!" Maru yelled happily as Virdis and Orion came fully into view.

Virdis just sighed. "You all seem to have ended up well."

"Yeah, apart from the Schnees getting away which won't matter they will just end up running into Nyx and he can handle it, apart from that everything was fi-." Before finishing, Maru froze and started to look around frantically.

Sienna showed a confused and concerned expression. "Maru what's wrong?"

But Maru didn't have to answer as a pile of rubble between her and the rest of the group started to shift out of the rubble stood Aurora, ice was flaking off her body, the older woman looked significantly worse for wear compared to the others, her once pristine white cloak singed so heavily and covered in soot that if they didn't know better they would of thought it was always black, her icy blue hair was patched in an with an ashen gray, and over her right eye a severe burn mark stood as proof that the fire broke through her aura.

The icy glare Aurora was sending Thalia sent shivers down the poor girl's back and before anyone could react a large spike of ice shot from the ground towards her. Thalia's aura fought against the force the spike was exhibiting but it was ultimately fruitless as with a wet squelch the ice was driven through her stomach.

Absolute silence descended upon the group as they digested what had just happened, no one dared move or make a sound until it was broken by Aurora's deranged laughter. "Serves the little shit right! AHahaha! This is what happens when you trifle with Atlas! This is what happens when you trifle with Aurora Fro-!!"

She was cut off by a fist to the face, Maru's sword lay forgotten on where she once stood, holding the specialist's collar she cocked her arm back sending out another powerful punch, the blow broke through the remainder of Aurora's aura and sent out a loud crack leaving her nose deformed and blood running down her face.

Even through the broken nose Aurora's deranged smile stayed plastered on her face causing Maru to cock her arm back and bring it down with a furious scream, the enraged Faunus didn't just stop at that she punched the older woman again and again each time with a scream, even when her screams turned from incensed to pained, even when the woman in her hands stopped resisting, even when she was punching nothing but the ground she continued over and over again.

Slowly her punches began to slow, her howls coming to a stop, after a while of just sitting there and breathing heavily Maru's fist relaxed its grip on Aurora's collar. The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the ragged breaths coming from Maru and the sobbing from Orion who was trying to wake Thalia but it was all in vain the young girl's eyes had long since glazed over.

___

"I wonder if that lot is okay." Nyx wondered out loud looking towards the now setting sun, he then chuckled a bit. "The fuck am I worried about they have the crazy fox bitch, though I wonder what that rumbling was earlier, did Maru set off an explosion." He sat there in thought before he laughed again. "Pfft, yeah right as if it was her, if it was the whole damn building would of come down, it's one of the few things she's good for, well that being a pain in the ass and killing."

Nyx's external monologue was interrupted at the sound of the metal door slowly scraping open. "Oh you guys are finally back. I've been waiting a whi-, huh well I stand corrected." Out of the door came the two unexpected figures of Jacques and Winter Schnee, Jacques had his arm over Winter's shoulders and she was helping him walk. "Well this is unexpected."

The two schnees looked over at Nyx faces filled with slight surprise and in Jacques' case fear. Nyx just laughed at that before asking in a lazy tone. "I don't really care because it means some fun for me but how did you get past the crazy fox."

The two scowled at the mention of Maru, Winter slowly let go of her father in favor of her sword, the older man limped back and away from what would surely become a battlefield, Winter got into a rigid stance and answered his question. "There was a large explosion. I'm sure you felt it even up here."

'Well that rules out Maru causing it.' Nyx smirked and walked a couple steps forward. "So I'm guessing you're after this baby." He slapped the side of the bullhead he was now standing next to.

Winter's scowl deepened, only causing him to laugh. "Don't worry I haven't done anything to her. I was gonna take her for a spin after and maybe teach Maru how to skydive and just between you and me it would be without a parachute." Seeing no response from his impromptu audience Nyx sighed and pulled his dual scythe off his back. "Guess they're right when they say I shouldn't be a comedian."

Twirling the large weapon around Nyx got into a loose stance and was about to dash towards Winter but was stopped by loud static coming from his belt. "Come in, come in, Nyx come in." The voice of Sienna came out of the radio he had attached to his belt.

Nyx scowled before roughly grabbing it and promptly ignoring Winter. "What do you want, I'm kinda in the middle of something.

If Sienna was unimpressed by his tone she didn't show it in her voice. "We need immediate evacuation, we are retreating." Her words caused him to freeze to the spot then look towards WInter but before he could answer Sienna continued. "You must hurry… There has been a casualty."

Nyx's scowl deepened with a muttered. "Fuck." Under his breath. "You Schnee bastards got lucky this time, but it won't happen again." And with that he disappeared in a cloak of shadows leaving the two schnees alone bewildered.

___

Yay I released on time for once anyway I don't really know how to feel about this chapter because it didn't really turn out how I expected it to but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway thanks for reading if you have any questions or suggestions do tell and thx:). Btw there's only one more chapter till this arc is finished and after that only one more arc till cannon.