RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC66: Twisted (Heroes and Villains)-5

Royal found what was left of the town huddled around a well in the square.

The place was a wreck but not so bad as the village of Dolor, as if the tribe had been anxious to take their captives and leave.

Some people were crying still.

"They took her," one older woman said. "She was hardly more than a girl."

They looked up at Royal warily.

"Where are the others Raven was sending?" he wondered.

Cinder was checking her scroll while following him. Her service was spotty, but finally she held it up, and a message appeared from Yang saying that they'd run into a swarm of Grimm and gotten delayed but they were back en route.

Should be any minute now then.

"They're still on their way," she said aloud. "Grimm."

"That just figures," Royal muttered. "Hey, everybody, why are you just standing there? We might track down those rogues if someone had paid attention to where they went. Maybe we can rescue your people."

"Argus?" one person said.

"Argus," someone answered them.

"That's a nice thought, mister," said the first one. "But it's too late. They're gone. This is what always happens. We've heard the stories."

"I knew we should have left here while we could," a different woman said, tersely. "They won't come here any time soon, you said. 'We can wait till after harvest is over.'"

She shoved a man who was likely her husband. Who just shook his head.

"They might be close," Royal objected. "Unless you saw an airship flying them away, they must have gone on foot. They probably aren't back to their hideout yet. Don't any of you want to try to get your girls and that one fellow back?"

They stared at him bitterly.

"We can't fight bandits," they replied. "It's over."

"Are you people for real?" Royal began to get angry all over again. "You would just let them take your own children, or friends, because you think you can't fight? Even if you couldn't fight, the noble thing to do would be to at least try. Don't any of you have the spine to stand up to those bullies? At least people tried before."

"And what became of them? They got killed or taken captive. That's what happens to those who resist. It's better not to resist," said a short man with a surly expression.

"I suppose when they take the brave people hostage, only cowards are left in their wake," Cinder remarked, which Royal thought summed it up pretty poetically.

And offended some of the people, who scowled at her, but others just looked away in shame.

"I'm sickened to listen to this," Royal said. "We don't even know these people and we're willing to try and you're not. Don't you care about them more than yourselves? Any of you?"

"We have to survive," said the man.

"Who wants to survive when this is what it's like?" Royal said. [Get him a Braveheart speech. Meridian can help.]

An airship flew overhead suddenly.

Must be the reinforcements.

"They are cowards," Royal agreed with Cinder's statement. "I can't even look at them anymore." He turned away in disgust.

Cinder shrugged.

"Wait." Suddenly a boy who might have been 14 or 15 stepped forward out of the knot of people. "I want to help."