Reputation: Book One

Tripp

So, a little bitty hint of advice I've learned:

If you have any sort of 'supernatural' person on your team, or heck, even as a friend... Have them be your first pick for anything bad-guy related, because after nearly half a year of having Talitha stay home when we go out and fight was such a blind mistake. We're all realizing how totally badass she is with tearing arms off and creating huge, bloody messes, and now kicking ourselves in the face for not letting her out sooner. I mean seriously; Qrow jumped and screamed and covered his face like a baby when that arm came off. So did Autumn. Weaaak!

I'm now considering plotting to create my own team with Jerzei and Talitha so we can go sniff trouble out and be way better than Autumn and Qrow combined, but that would be treason and Qrow would probably dump me on the spot if he found out I did something like that.

After finally finishing off Hanaya, Talitha started acting really wierd for a second. She was doing that glitch thing where she goes blurry and then jolts around as she screams, holding her hands over her ears as she kneeled to the ground. I was skeptical about it, but as Autumn is, she just brushed it off and said, 'that's what she did for a while after we brought her home. It's okay, it's just her adjusting again' and went right back to ordering us around. I was kinda nervous about leaving Talitha to 'settle' as we scoped out the parking lot like she said just in case her team would be planning an ambush, thinking, if anything, she would be the one to turn on us.

"It must've been some sort of set-up," Qrow suddenly says as he pulls away from the last car window.

"Yeah, like a distraction?" Autumn asks.

"But why would they want to crash on us and then run?" I ask with a puzzled look, turning to Qrow.

"Oh shit!" Autumn gasps suddenly, her eyes wide and her face pale. We all snap to her, startled.

"Uh, 'oh shit' what, Autumn?" Qrow asks in a low voice. She covers her face, exhaling sharply as she runs a hand through her hair.

"The girls!" She yells. "The girls are home alone with Abbagayle!" She cries.

I feel my body go hollow as we all quiet. As a group, we all sprint for the car, flinging the doors open as we clambered inside. "I'm driving," I say, tumbling into the seat.

"Please go, go, go now," Autumn whimpers. I toss my seatbelt behind me and throw the stick into gear, my tire squealing as we lurched into motion.

"I'll try to get ahold of Abbi, but all I want you to do, Tripp, is to ignore everyone and just go home as fast as you can," She says as her voice goes weak, the light of her cell phone illuminating the inside of the car.

"I texted Jerzei, she should be there right when we get there," Qrow announces.

My heart smashes against my chest as I slam my foot down onto my pedal, thanking the roads as they clear. The drive here was seven minutes tops, and speeding the way I am now would get me there in four. I fly through each intersection, keeping the vehicle steady under my trembling hands. If Liz did anything to the girls, I swear on my father's death, I would not rest until I was the one to drive a blade through her throat.

After what seemed like hours, I swerved onto Autumn's street, the pavement eerily dark and still. I had a really bad feeling begin to grow in the pit of my stomach.

"Don't drive any further," Talitha croaks, but her tone stern. "They will see us. They are there."

"Oh God," Autumn wails into her hands and I skid to a stop at the curb, reaching forward and flipping off my lights.

"Please let them be okay, please don't let them hurt my baby girls," She sobs. Qrow speaks comforting words to her as I climb out, my blood boiling in hate and anger. Too far, I thought to myself as I popped open my trunk, yanking out my concealed pull-out weapon case. Please, Liz, this is too far...

"Everybody get out and load up," I command, slapping a full magazine into my favourite glock, jamming it under my waistband as I gather another pistol. Autumn comes around with tear-stained cheeks and I couldn't fight the urge to grab her. Her eyes widened and I forced her to look at me.

"All they want is Talitha's stupid little necklace," I whisper, a plan building up inside my head. "Do you have some sort of mimicry decoy that could buy me just a little time?" I ask. She slowly nods, sniffing.

"I-I think," She whispers back. "What are you gonna do?"

A car with no headlights on turns onto our street and I immediately recognize it as Jerzei. A wave of relief washes over me.

"The girls' playroom is now downstairs, right?" I ask. She nods again. I glance to the house. I honestly had no idea what I was planning to do, but it was all coming together. Kinda.

"We need to figure out where they are at," I tell them. "Talitha, can you help us out?"

She nods and closes her eyes, taking in a calm breath. We all wait in silence as fully-dressed Jerzei falls out of her car, running to her trunk and loading herself. Not going to lie, she was really hot in her old uniform with the combat boots, high ponytail, and all the leather tight around her curves...

"So do we just start shooting?" She asks, turning around and softly closing her trunk.

"I-I can't find them," Talitha says, her face twisted in effort.

"Someone... Is... Fighting me..." She grunts, her eyes darting all around under her eyelids. She lets out a pained cry, her hands flying to her hair as she kneeled to the ground.

"I-I... Almost..." She stammers, panting.

"Talitha, baby, talk to me," Autumn pleads.

"I don't want to fight you," She suddenly growls under her breath, her small body trembling. Her hands gripped at her roots as she lets out another pained cry that makes me flinch. I didn't like the sound she was making. I knew she was hurting.

"Get out of my head!" She shrieks, jolting upright, still holding her head tightly between her hands. Her top lip was raised and she was growling like an animal, her chest heaving.

"What the hell is going on with her?" Jerzei asks, her face flickering with anxiety as she reaches or Talitha. Her long ears lay back, her throat vibrating with another low growl.

"She's helping," Qrow says simply, holding an arm out to block her. "Let her fight it out."

My heart was pounding, my ears were ringing. I didn't like this at all. She was hurting, screaming in pain as we forced her to do this.

"I'm going in," I finally announce, turning around on my heel as tears gather on the rims of my eyes.

"Whoever wants to come, let's go. I'm not waiting for someone to hurt themselves just to waste more of our precious time to save our daughters."

I know it's slow, and I'm sorry! But school starts and it's just super stressful. Hope you guys understand. Don't forget to vote! Xx

-Elissa-