Bloody Retribution Bandits
POV Fury
Strife, Fury, and Neo had set out from Mistral without incident. The guards advised them against leaving, sure, but did not stop them. They ignored the concerned glances they got from people as they were leaving. Ghira had helped them prepare, so they had supplies and instructions in case they needed to stay outside overnight.
Strife was sure that they could manage fine, but accepted the well-intentioned help regardless. After leaving Mistral, they headed Southeast towards where Cinder's Bullhead had crashed on their horses, and found the site abandoned already, with Mistral having already come here to gather evidence and bring back the bodies of the deceased.
Even knowing that they wouldn't find anything, they still took a quick look around for any sign of Cinder, but they found nothing, so they resumed riding southeast in search of the Bloody Burrow Bandits, to rescue Cinder and deliver some bloody retribution.
It was nearly sundown when they saw their first sign of other people, in the form of what appeared to be a family surrounded by bandits with what looked like a blood-colored handprint on their backs, signifying that these men were of the Bloody Burrow Bandits. that seemed like reason enough to Fury to charge at those bandits with Mayhem "When you find an opportunity, try to get those three to safety, Neo, but don't be reckless" Fury ordered her, to which Neo could only nod.
Fury could not see Neo, as she was focused on the enemy while riding Rampage, but she trusted that Neo would do as instructed, and Strife immediately urged Mayhem into a change just a moment later then Fury had.
When they approached the bandits, the men panicked, frightened by the appearances of Rampage and Mayhem.
"Shit, demons, just kill them!" the leader suddenly ordered while in a panic.
Fury felt Neo leave the saddle behind her, though the bandits did not, since the bandits didn't react to that, she guessed that Neo was using her semblance to make the enemy still see her in the saddle.
Unexpectedly. the Bloody Burrow Bandits ignored Fury and Strife and promptly all started attacking the woman, the man, and the sleeping seven year old girl that the man seemed to be carrying, which was presumably the couple's daughter.
Seeing the larger force ignore them and start attacking the civilian trio infuriate Strife and Fury, and they swiftly slaughtered the bandits. During the fight, Neo had managed to take the young girl away a bit using her semblance to hide what she was doing, but once the fight ended and Fury and Strife went to Neo, the young girl had passed away, and Neo was crying.
Similarly, the man and woman had also died. They had wanted to save these three, but instead had received a harsh lesson, that they couldn't save everyone. In fact, their heroic efforts may have had the opposite effect of what they had intended, as they might not have killed the three if they hadn't panicked at the sight of their group.
Fury and Strife both knew that they needed to move fast to try to save Cinder, but they still took time to dig shallow graves for the girl and her parents before continuing to track the bandits back to their camp. When Nightfall, came, they were forced to set up camp since it was too dark to track tonight.
After enduring the night, the trio, who were still pissed about the family that they had failed to save, arrived at the camp of the Bloody Burrow Bandits just before midday. The camp was pretty hastily made, but it was easy to see that there were differing levels among the people here, primarily based on gender. First off, just like they'd heard, all of the bandits were men, while the women were slaves, with the men in camp doing obscene acts to the slave women out in the open.
The camp kept young girls prisoner as well. though they were deemed too young to breed with just yet, many of the girls had glazed eyes from the horrific things they had seen. The young boys were all born into the tribe, and had tormented the girls as well, so even the younger ones were not immune completely from abuse.
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POV Strife
Among the young girls, one stood apart from the others, as her eyes hadn't glazed over yet, and she was still fighting back, even though two young boys were trying to undress her. Strife was pissed since the girl was at most nine years old and the boys looked to be twelve or thirteen.
Strife and Fury were both quick to reach a decision., immediately attacking, with Fury going after the men that were closest, while Strife charged through the camp, towards the more distant boys that were openly trying to humiliate a girl, and very possibly take things to another horrifying level like some of the debauchery going on with the men that Fury had already begun terminating with extreme prejudice.
Neo didn't need to be told what to do again, infiltrating the camp to start helping the younger girls slip away while Fury and Strife were in the process of what could only be called a massacre.
By the time that the bandits could get their act together and start grabbing their weapons, many were already dead. Strife and Fury sent away their steeds, causing them to disappear, and Strife stayed near the girls, shooting any boys and men that came too close.
There were a small minority of men that were shabbily dressed and appeared to be malnourished, so they were concluded to be slaves, and neither of the siblings targeted them, but everyone else was going down like flies to Fury's whip and Strife's guns.
When Fury got to the Bandit's leader, he was able to defend against her, which pissed her off.
"Please, don't let her kill him. He took my mommy last night." the nine-year old girl said to Strife. The girl had long dark hair, and very light blue eyes, with a complexion as though she were a light-skinned person with a slight tan. If Death were there, he'd say she looked like she'd used a bit of the spray-on tan that his mother and sister both liked sometimes in his previous world, though in the girls case, it was her natural color.
"Capture that one!" Strife called out "We need to interrogate him!" he then proceeded to shoot the leader in each of his legs, which allowed Fury to finally overpower him and restrain him.
Strife and the young girl approached Fury and the leader.
"Where is my mommy?! What did you do to her?!" the angry girl demanded.
"She was weak, couldn't even survive one night with me." The leader answered, stubbornly resisting groaning in pain.
"Give me my mommy and my daddy back!" the girl yelled and charged at him while reaching behind her back a moment and retrieving a hunting knife from it. His aura was taken down by Fury, along with being immobilized, so he couldn't even dodge as the little girl plunged the knife straight into the mans neck, hilt deep, killing him.
Strife and Fury were both surprised by the little girls actions, followed by her shedding tears and knelt and hugged Strife "Th...thank you for saving me and letting me avenge my mommy and daddy."
"We're happy to help" Strife smiled at the girl "My name is Strife, and my sisters name is Fury. our friend is Neo." Neo had just joined them near the girl.
"My name is Vernal Qui....well, just Vernal...My family is gone so that name can die. The Vernal from before is gone, now I'll just be Vernal." The girl explained with determination.
The girls, that had been moved away from the camp came running back in fear. Thinking that it might be a Grimm attack, Strife, Fury and Neo rushed towards them to help, but what they found was a group of men and women approaching, with the one that looked like the leader being a woman wearing a rather intimidating mask.
Since their were women among the group, they clearly were not Bloody Burrow Bandits, but that did not mean that they were not trouble. "If you're looking for the Bloody Burrow Bandits, they are dead!" Strife called out.
"I was looking for them, to kill them, but it seems that I wasted a trip." the masked woman admitted to Strife "For a handful of kids, you are pretty capable, I'll give you that." she removed her mask and smirked "You know, if you are willing, my tribe would be happy to have such capable young people join us."
"Thanks for the offer miss, but our only interest right now is rescuing our friend Cinder, who was on the Bullhead these bandits shot down." Strife answered simply "After we find her, we'll bring her home."
"Cute girl, around seven, pale skin, long dark hair and brown eyes?" The unmasked woman asked them.
"You've seen her?!" Strife asked with surprise.
The woman nodded "I did, and I sent her to an acquaintance of mine in Vale She is in Vale now, probably on the island of Patch. Her injuries were not fatal, but her eardrums were in a nasty state. She's probably going to be deaf, or close to it, for at least a few months." she surveyed the scene a bit "Originally I was going to let Mistral deal with the rescue, but I'd heard that they would need a week to prepare, so here I am. I guess we can return to our own camp now." she turned and left, accompanied by her tribesmen, while putting her mask back on.
"I have nowhere else to go. Since you rescued me, I'll serve you" Vernal told Strife bluntly "I pledge to you my life and my eternal gratitude."
Strife was a bit surprised, after all they had come all the way out here to save Cinder, but in the end she'd already been saved by someone else. They still helped other people, which gave Strife a good feeling inside. "Alright Vernal, it's a pleasure to meet you. Lets start gathering what we can and then make our way to Mistral."
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POV Cinder Fall
After waking up, Cinder found herself in an unknown bedroom, and saw a younger blond girl looking at her. The three-year old girl with violet eyes had surprised expression appear on her face "Mommy, daddy, she woke up!" the girl called out.
Cinder felt relieved that at least she was able to hear again, being unaware that it was only due to Death healing her eardrums. Had he not healed her with his semblance, she would have regained her hearing to a certain degree, but it is likely that it never would have returned to what it had once been, but thanks to him she not only recovered, but did so completely.
"Wh...where am I?" Cinder asked, her mouth feeling a bit parched.
"My name is Yang. You're in our home after you dropped out of the sky and daddy caught you, and big bro healed you." little Yang explained to her.
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POV Raven Branwen
"I don't want to question you, but I'm curious why we let them all go?" one of her tribe asked Raven after they had walked a bit away from the Bloody Burrow Bandits now laid to waste camp.
"Those two...They are unusual..." Raven admitted to the man "We saw what they did, and from what I can tell, they were still holding back considerably. If we had fought them, then I am sure I could have defeated them, but it would not have been quick, and many of our people would have been hurt or died. Even if some of those girls would have grown into competent members of our tribe, their numbers would have been too small to compare to the men and women we would have lost to obtain them."
"I see. You are wise This is why you are chieftain, we didn't even notice." the bandit answered now that he understood the reason for her choice.
"More importantly, have our scouts reported back concerning Egil and Flora?" Raven asked to the bandits around her.
A nervous looking man approached after she asked that "Miss Raven. we found them. It appears that the Bloody Burrow Bandits....killed them..."
"Damnit, if they weren't already dead I'd kill them myself." Raven said with anger at her people being killed "What about the girl? What of her fate?"
"S...same as Egil and Flora. I'm sorry." The scout apologized.
"Slipping those two into Mistral and liberating her from Haven Academy was not easy. All our work to obtain that girl has gone down the drain." Raven was definitely not happy about losing that girl, who really could have been a great asset to the tribe, but it was pointless to worry about it now. With Flora dead, and all of the Bloody Burrow Butchers being men, there was no way for her to figure out who the next spring maiden was. It would be someone completely random since the last person she saw wasn't a young woman or a girl. Raven asked no further questions, but if she had she would have learned that someone else had killed the Bloody Burrow Bandits that killed their two people and the Spring Maiden, and she might have deduced that it was the kids that they had left behind.
Unfortunately, she had not told her tribesmen about the maidens and the scout had no idea about how significant that information was, so when Raven seemed to have heard enough, he said no more about it and put it out of his mind.
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POV Neopolitan
Since Neo wasn't able to speak, she could only quietly walk with Strife and Fury as they led the others to Mistral. What had taken the three of them a day and a half to travel took close to four days with all the women, girls, and the few male slaves that they'd rescued, since on the way there they could use their horses and now they couldn't
The whole trip back, though, Neo was haunted by memories of that poor girl staring at her and saying she didn't want to die. Neo wanted to promise her that she'd be fine, but had no voice to do so, but if she had it would have made her a liar, because within ten seconds the life had disappeared from the girls eyes, after which a strange energy erupted from the girl and Neo felt it enter into her.
Neo had no idea what that energy was or if it had done harm to her, but Strife and Fury were busy with fighting and hadn't seen what had happened. The only thing she could do was try to find a method to communicate with others later. Suddenly, to Neo, learning to read seemed like a great idea. Living on the street she had never had the chance to do so, but now she wasn't alone, so learning became even more imperative.
When they entered the city, they caused quite a stir since a fair number of the missing from the Bullhead crash were returned, with news that they'd been rescued by three kids. Strife, Fury, and Neo were questioned a while, though obviously since Neo was mute, she couldn't say anything. When the police tried to communicate with her via writing, Strife and Fury realized that she couldn't read.
The Mistral authorities had to settle for questioning Strife and Fury, but eventually they returned to where the Belladonna's were staying and they could rest a night and prepare for leaving the next morning. Neo was relieved when she heard Fury suggest to Kali teaching Neo how to read, and she was more relieved when Kali Belladonna agreed to it.
The next morning, before leaving, Strife sent a message to Argus, letting Cinder's father know what happen, including what the strange masked woman said about Cinder being on the Island of Patch, though they would not be able to look for her until they reached Vale in around eleven months. As her father, Strife did not want the man to worry when news of the Bullhead Crash reached Argus. He hoped that Cinder would manage to reach out and let him know that she was alright.