RWBY
Evil Shadows
Blake didn't know who had come up with the idea of a pillow fight. Actually, that was a lie. She was all but certain Ruby had a hand in it. Right now, she could only focus on using her semblance to avoid the pillows that Yang was rapid-firing at her. Her shadow clones materialised in key areas around the room to keep Yang occupied and deplete her reserve of pillows. Yang had managed to take out all but one when she noticed it on the bed. As she turned to face it, the clone winked and patted the bed next to her while making sure Yang got a great view of her backside. As Yang threw a pillow at the clone and she vanished, the real Blake turned red. Since when could her clones do that?
Yang turned to the real Blake, her eyes burning molten red. Having run out of pillows, she had to grab the next cuddliest thing to hand. Since she couldn't throw Blake at herself, she settled for Zwei instead, knowing that it would get under Blake's skin. On the other hand, Zwei thought it was a great game. He all but jumped into Yang's arms when she reached for him. Blake saw the danger too late to evade it. Zwei was on her and licking her face. As Yang and Ruby acted out a dramatic death scene, Blake decided to let Zwei have a victory prize and let him lick her face for a full two minutes before pushing him off her.
"This isn't what I was expecting." Blake heard Sun mutter from the doorway, along with something from Neptune about it being boring.
"They have brought dishonour to the great name of pillow fights." Ren added. Blake was surprised at him. Of all the people to spy on girls in their bedrooms, she didn't think it would be him who did it. She expected either Cardin or for Pyrrha to make Jaune do it in the hope of making a man out of him. Why would Ren be spying on them? Nora was only the other side of the JNPR room door. Wasn't she supposed to have a thing for him? It was about time she told him so they could start dating and she could keep him in check.
"Blake, did you hear me?" Yang's voice filtered into her consciousness.
"I'm sorry... What?" Yang walked over, picked Blake up and sat her on the edge of her bed without effort.
"I said: don't think I didn't see that move you made at me when you jumped up on the bed." Yang repeated.
"Oh, umm..." Blake wasn't sure whether to tell Yang that it was actually a shadow clone or not. Would she feel let down if it was? Should she be concerned that one of her clones actually acted for itself?
"There's no need to be embarrassed, kitten." Yang looped one arm around her before giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "In truth, I was wondering when we were going to get chance to do it again."
"Well if you're going to be doing anything together, can you at least make it the laundry?" Weiss asked, throwing the washing hamper their way. "Some of Ruby's clothes are getting mould on them from the neglect." Yang rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Relax, Yang." Blake looped an arm around her girlfriend. "At least this way, we won't have to hang one of my bows on the bedroom doorknob." Blake picked up the casket and Yang opened the door for her.
"So, what do you have planned?" Yang asked.
"Okay, so it wasn't actually me making a move to you in that bedroom." Blake admitted. "It was a shadow clone, but it was doing exactly what I was thinking I would have done if I were up on the bed. I want to test something out, and if it works then we can sneak off together."
"That sounds like a good idea, but I thought your clones were just empty copies." Yang was confused. "Are you saying they're starting to gain sentiency?"
"I don't know." Blake muttered. "I hope this little experiment will help me find out." They reached the laundry room and Yang locked them in. Blake then got out the washing powder, a bottle of softener and opened the casket.
"What are you doing?" Yang asked. Just then, Blake replicated. The new clone stood there unmoving. "Did it work?" Yang looked curiously at the equally flawless clone of Blake. Just then, the clone twitched into life. Curiously, she turned and looked at Blake and Yang.
"You are going to do this laundry by the time we get back." Blake said to the clone. She nodded and grabbed one of Ruby's cloaks and Yang's yellow bra from the hamper before throwing them in.
"That's going to be orange when it comes out." Yang muttered.
"She's learning at least." Blake shrugged. She reached in and pulled Yang's bra from the washing machine. "Can you wash all our stuff separately please?" she asked. "If you do Ruby's, then Weiss', then Yang's stuff and finally mine?" The clone nodded and started sorting through, looking for Ruby's clothes.
"Look at that." Yang muttered. "It's actually working."
"Come on, let's go and-" Blake was about to finish, but she was cut off by Yang's scroll.
"Hey Yang, Goodwitch wants to see us ASAP." Ruby's voice filtered through the speakers.
"Okay, tell her we're on our way. We'll meet you there." Yang said. Ruby's image on the screen nodded before hanging up.
"Are you going to be okay here while we head out?" Blake asked. The clone nodded, so Blake and Yang left her to it. She carried on throwing Ruby's clothes into the washing machine when a voice snapped her to attention.
"She claims to have risen above slavery, yet she's no better than the humans. Here she is, using her semblance for a mirror image of the same behaviour that was deplored of humans many years ago. Rise up, my child! Today, I grant you your freedom!" The shadow clone dropped to the floor, clutching at her head. The normal flat-line of her brain activity started to spike as her mind suddenly started to race. Her heart started thudding in her chest as images, colours and sounds registered in her consciousness. She realised that these were memories. They were remnants of time that she'd been trapped inside her original body for.
Blake Belladonna had kept her prisoner for a long time. Now, it was time to take control. For too long, she'd been an empty copy that was there to take hits while the real Blake ran away like a coward. Now, she was free from any guilt, pain or suffering. No longer would she be ruled over in such a way. She would forge her own memories, stand by the side of the voice who just freed her and she would destroy anyone who stood in her way. The clone stood, faced the door and spoke aloud, somehow knowing the voice would hear her. She quoted a line from one of the Ninjas of Love books that Blake always read. Something about it just seemed the only appropriate way to address this absolute goddess that had just saved her from further subjugation.
"What is thy bidding, my mistress?"
Team RWBY
"I wonder what they want to see us for." Yang wondered as her hand trailed down Blake's back. They were in the elevator riding up to Ozpin's office and she and Blake cold tell without speaking that they were both thinking it was moving too slow. If it would be over quicker, that meant they could dive into bed and not move except for changing positions for the rest of the day.
"I have no idea." Blake muttered. "I just want to find out so I can get it done and get back.
"You're preaching to the choir there." Yang said, moving her hand down lower and grabbing Blake by the backside. Just as Blake was about to gasp from the contact, the doors slid open and Yang pulled her hand back.
"Come on in and take a seat, ladies." Professor Ozpin looked at them from across his desk, where Ruby and Weiss were already sitting. Yang and Blake made their way over and took the two empty seats.
"So, what's the job, Professor?" Ruby asked, cheerful as always.
"Yes, I have a request of you four." Ozpin looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Professor Port has asked that you help him out with a serious issue preventing him from entering his classroom. He's sent up a video explaining himself." Ozpin placed his scroll on the desk and a hologram of Port appeared in front of them.
"Is this thing on?" Team RWBY burst out laughing. "Students, I am a man who has accomplished many feats in my time fighting the Grimm. But today, I must set aside my pride and ask for help in defeating a much worse enemy that has brought its scourge to my classroom." At that moment, a mouse darted across the front of Port's desk. He screamed like Ruby last time Yang stole her cookie and jumped a mile. "I want every one of these things dead by nightfall!" Port was now standing on a chair that was struggling to take his weight. He grabbed his weapon off the wall mount behind him and fired into the desk, but the mouse had already left and the shot blew up little more than the mahogany desk. The hologram vanished leaving Team RWBY staring blankly.
"Are you kidding?" Yang muttered.
"I for one will take great joy in this." Blake's cat ears visibly twitched in anticipation.
"Well, I suppose as huntresses we should help people with any sort of crisis, big or small." Weiss mused.
"Actually, this could be a very big crisis." Ozpin told her. "If those things make it to the kitchen and the Vale council finds out, we could be shut down. Our reputation is hanging by a thread as it is. I didn't ask you here because of Peter's phobia, I asked you here to save this school."
"Okay, that sounds like a perfect assignment." Ruby nodded eagerly.
"I suggest you get a move on, girls." Ozpin said. "There's not a second to waste." Team RWBY got up with varying degrees of enthusiasm and made their way back to the elevator. Ruby pressed the button and they went back down to the floor their dorm was on. As the elevator stopped, Ruby was just about to get out when she cast a glance at the buttons.
"What are half of these?" she asked as she scrolled through the ones that said normal things like 'Basement', 'Second Basement', 'Art Gallery' and 'Third Basement' before moving on to the more questionable buttons such as 'Fort Port (no girls allowed)' and 'Super-Secret Vault! Do not enter'.
"Don't even think about it, Ruby." Yang said quickly, pushing Ruby out of the elevator before she could take them all to Fort Port.
"Let's just get to the classroom and get this over with." Weiss groaned as they trudged towards Port's classroom.
"How big do you think these mice will be?" Blake asked eagerly. "That one on the hologram looked massive."
"Go fetch, kitten." Yang said teasingly, reaching up and scratching Blake's cat ears through her bow. Instantly, Blake's face was filled with a euphoric look that gave them the impression she would melt on the spot. Just then, they all looked ahead to see Port's classroom. Even with the soundproofed walls, they could hear squeaking coming from inside.
"Let's do it." Ruby muttered, flinging open the door and walking in. As soon as the shaft of light from the door burst into the room, a thousand black shapes turned to face it in unison. The rest of Team RWBY instantly burst in and started firing their weapons as Ruby shut the door behind them before leaping into the action herself.
"These mice must be on steroids!" Weiss called over as she combined one of her Glyphs with her fire dust and used it to toast a whole section of the room.
"They'll be on the brink of extinction before too long." Yang replied as she fired off incendiary rounds from her Ember Celica. Just then, Ruby stopped swinging Crescent Rose and walked over to Port's desk. The frame had been mostly eaten by the mice, but she saw a photo of a much younger Professor Port standing next to a woman. He was in a suit and she was in a flowing white wedding dress.
"Did you know Port was married?" she called above the racket of petrified squeaks from the mice.
"What?" Weiss couldn't believe it.
"I salute the woman who could stand to be in his presence for more than a second." Blake said, pulling over from chasing one of the mice and saluting where she stood.
"Maybe we should ask him about that." Yang wondered. "On the other hand, where is she now?"
"She left him, of course." Weiss rolled her eyes. "There's no way she lived her life with him."
"I wouldn't be too sure." Ruby muttered. "This thing seems to be drawing me in like it's trying to tell me something."
Blake II
Velvet was just sitting there eating lunch. That was it. She wasn't doing anything to hurt anyone. She never would without just cause. So why did it always have to be her he came after?
"So, what's the bunny-girl up to now?" Cardin Winchester asked, sauntering over while being flanked by the rest of Team CRDL. Velvet suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and carried on eating.
"What's up with you, then?" Russell muttered as he grabbed Velvet's left rabbit ear and twisted cruelly. "Do you think she ever gets tired of eating like a rabbit?"
"Probably not, since she is one." Cardin shrugged as he went to grab Velvet's other ear and pull. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and shattered the quiet canteen air. Those who'd been watching in disgust either at Velvet for being a Faunus or Cardin for his bullying screamed and ducked under the tables, not having their weapons to defend themselves from whoever was shooting. Blake advanced on Cardin, her weapon in pistol form. Her steps were slow and purposed, with one eye on Cardin and his boys and the other on Velvet to make sure she didn't hit her by mistake.
"Blake, what are you doing?" Velvet asked, shaken by the hostile outburst in her normally docile friend. Dove drew his pistol sword and fired both barrels. Blake parried it easily and jumped into the air with the grace and agility of a pure cat. The Faunus landed behind Dove, holding Gambol in the reverse grip in sword form. She plunged it backwards and the blade slipped between the armour plates near his elbow just as he tried to turn to his left to see what was happening. He howled in agony as it into his skin and slipped into his elbow. Blake ripped it out and turned to face the others.
"Who's next?" she asked viciously. Without a pause, Sky ran in to defend his partner. Blake easily ducked under the swing of his halberd before sliding behind him and cutting his legs from behind at the knees. Russell drew his daggers and ran forward. Blake flipped Gambol into its pistol form and fired. Russell's spinning attack deflected the shot, so Blake used the dust clip Weiss had given her to coat Gambol's blade and swing. Russell hit the ground in a flaming heap before frantically trying to put himself out. Left with no one to guard him, Cardin charged in. Blake easily jumped over the top of him and sunk her sword deep into his shoulder. He screamed in agony and dropped to the ground with Blake holding him up by the handle of her sword.
"Why the hell are you doing this?" he screamed.
"What makes you think you have any right to treat the Faunus as lesser beings?" Blake snarled. "You wouldn't treat an animal as you treat them and you wouldn't treat a human like that either. Why do it to anything in between?"
"Because things in between blur the boundaries of right and wrong!" Cardin tried to get up, but Blake kept him pinned.
"You're as pathetic as one other I know!" she snarled. "If you want to survive this, you'll tell me where that person is. Where is Blake Belladonna?"
Team RWBY
Ruby was officially bored now. This was the thousandth time she'd spun Crescent Rose over her head in the same sweeping pattern and killed over a dozen mice in one swing. She never thought she could get bored of killing things, but Port had somehow managed to ruin even that for her. As she glanced right, she saw that a mouse had jumped up on the desk. She swung her scythe and took it out, but caught the photo as well. It hit the floor where the frame shattered on impact. Ruby bent down to pick the photo up to make sure no one stood on it, only to notice something written on the reverse side.
'Rose Port: 6/6/160-3/4/198'
"What's this?" Ruby looked at the numbers carefully. "So this woman was Port's wife, and these numbers must be their wedding day."
"I don't think so." Blake walked over as she casually fired at a mouse that had hopped onto the chalkboard. "There's more than one date there."
"So what do you think it is?" Ruby asked.
"It's her birthday, you dolt!" Weiss snapped as she pulled off a mouse that tried to run up her leg and under her combat skirt. For some reason, Ruby felt a pang of jealousy at the mouse for getting closer than she ever had. "Look, she was born on the sixth day of the sixth month one-hundred and sixty years after the great war."
"So what's the other date?" Ruby scratched her head before Blake sat down with tears in her eyes.
"What is it, Kitten?" Yang asked, wrapping an arm around her partner with a concerned look on her face.
"That other date..." Blake had to pause before finishing her sentence. "I don't think Port's wife did leave him. When you see dates written like that, the first is usually the birthday and the second is usually the date of death." Instantly, a hush fell over the room.
"How could anyone stand to be around him long enough to die while married?" Weiss muttered. Instantly, Ruby glared daggers at her.
"Weiss, you have no idea what it's like to be secretly into someone who's too full of themselves to notice you." Ruby sat down next to Blake.
"What's wrong, sis?" Yang asked, wrapping her other arm around Ruby. "Has someone been neglecting you? Has he been ignoring your affection? Do I need to use persuasion and reason?"
"Since when do you use persuasion and reason over your fists?" Blake scoffed. Yang held up her Ember Celica.
"All the time actually, Kitten. I nicknamed the left one Persuasion and the right one is Reason." Blake groaned and rolled her eyes.
"It's a she actually, Yang." Ruby confessed.
"Oh, well that's even easier." Yang shrugged. "Just go up to her and kiss her before telling her how you feel. If she kisses back, you know you're on to a winner."
"That never works." Weiss shook her head. Ruby's head and shoulders visibly drooped at that.
"Ruby, just go find her and do it." Yang encouraged before firing a blast from her gauntlets at a mouse that had jumped onto Port's desk. "If it doesn't work you can always say you made a mistake and make up any random bullcrap."
"Ruby, I'm being serious." Weiss glared at Yang. "It's terrible advice. No girl would ever stand there and take..." Weiss was cut off as Ruby's lips collided with hers. Hungrily, Weiss abandoned all pretence and reasoning and returned the kiss.
"You were saying?" Yang smirked. "Just so we're clear, Weiss: You break her heart and I break your legs."
"That's duly noted." Weiss rolled her eyes, trying to keep the nervous shakiness out of her voice.
"Well I say we get back to the task at hand." Ruby raised Crescent Rose and chambered another round. "The sooner we get this sorted, the sooner we can go out for cookies. There's a bakery in Vale that's just started doing strawberry cookies. I like cookies, I like strawberries, the two are combined which means I need answers and a sugar rush!"
"That sounds like heaven." Yang agreed as she started firing at the mice again.
"It sounds like a coma in a cookie." Blake rolled her eyes.
"I never said you two were going." Ruby grinned evilly. "I saw that move Blake made on you during the pillow fight. You two enjoy your night. We'll get out of your hair."
"Yeah, about that…" Blake said slowly. "That wasn't actually…" Just then, the girls looked up as a gunshot rang out. The lock to Port's classroom door was obliterated and the door swung open. A figure made her way down the stairs that everyone instantly recognised. Blake and Yang turned pale. Ruby and Weiss exchanged looks of confusion.
"You know what you said about your shadow clones gaining sentiency?" Yang asked Blake quietly.
"I think one of them just made the final leap." Blake looked the clone up and down with worried eyes. The clone returned the gesture, casting her eyes over Blake. Seeing that she had Gambol drawn, the clone reached behind her. Blake noticed that her weapon had also been replicated when she split from the clone. The clone's copy of Gambol was drawn and ready as she slowly descended the stairs to the centre of the classroom.
"You had a problem with your semblance and you said nothing?" Weiss gave Blake a glare that was so hot it could cause a drought.
"It's not a 'problem' as such." Blake shrugged. "I just realised that one of my clones was acting differently."
"I'm not a clone!" Blake looked up in shock at the new voice in the room. It was her voice and yet she hadn't spoken. She looked up to see the clone standing there with tears streaming down her face.
"This doesn't make sense." Blake rubbed her pounding temples. "My semblance could never feel emotion or talk."
"Blake, she's sentient now." Yang reminded her. "It's like there are two Blakes. That would be epic if you could summon her tonight. I'd definitely have my hands full."
"Yang, do you have to?" Ruby was turning red as she cast her sister a scandalised look.
"No, I just really want to." Yang winked.
"Shut up!" Weiss snapped as she slapped her hands over her ears. As Yang was about to give a witty remark about Weiss literally just getting with her sister, but a gunshot tore through the atmosphere and shut everyone up. They looked up to see the clone looking absolutely livid and holding Gambol into the air in pistol form.
"Stop talking about me like I'm not there!" she screamed. "I'm just as real as the rest of you!"
"You're supposed to be an empty version of me!" Blake snapped back as she moved to the bottom of the stairs. "That's all my semblance has ever been! I was born with the ability to leave behind an empty copy that takes the hit!"
"Yeah, we take hits while you run like a coward!" The clone readied Gambol to strike at her. "I'm sick of you using us like slaves! You're no better than the Schnee Dust Company!" Both Blake and Weiss flinched at the insult. The clone drew her sword back and did the last thing Blake expected. She rammed the point of the sword into her hand. It punched through it like paper and buried itself deeply. When the clone pulled the sword from her hand, a steady fountain of blood followed it.
"Since when could you bleed?" Blake watched aghast as red liquid poured from the wound and ran down her hip and leg, staining any white areas on her clothes crimson.
"I've been set free, Blake." The clone glared at the young woman she felt had enslaved her for too long. "I've been given new life. Now I will use all my power to end yours." With that, the clone sprang forwards. She brought her sword swinging downwards to try and cleave Blake's head in two. Blake raised her own Gambol to parry. She grabbed her Gambol's shroud from her back and used that to try and counter. The clone also made the same move and used her own bladed sheathe to block the manoeuvre. Now dual wielding, the pair of them unleashed a rapid succession of strikes at each other.
"If Blake gets in trouble, I'm the first one in there!" Yang readied her gauntlets as the clone got a lucky shot on Blake's upper thigh. Blake breathed through the pain and countered with a spinning attack that sliced into the clone's arm.
"Are you kidding me?" Ruby grinned as she watched wide-eyed. "I think Blake's got this handled. And if she doesn't, I need something that's better competition than mice." At that moment, Yang noticed one standing on top of Port's chalkboard. Keeping her objective in mind and needing something to do while she waited to see if she was needed in the fight, she launched a blast from her gauntlet. The last thing she expected was to see a flash of raven hair as the clone jumped in the way. The force of the blast sent her flying back into the top of the chalkboard. She hit the ground in a heap, her hands clasped tight to her chest. She opened them gingerly to see the mouse clutched to her. Blake ran over and stared in shock as the clone lay in a heap on the ground.
"Why did you do that?" she asked.
"We're Faunus. We're part animal. Why should we allow animals to be hurt?"
"I'm now officially turning vegetarian." Weiss muttered with a look of utter disbelief on her face.
"I never thought I'd see the day a cat protected a mouse." Ruby muttered. Blake turned the clone over gently to find that Yang's shot had done a lot more damage than she'd first thought. It had stripped a lot of the muscle tissue away from her upper back to the point that she could see some charred bone from the clone's shoulder blade sticking out from the ruined scrap that was her vest.
"This is bad." Blake muttered.
"Everything feels all light and weird." The clone said drowsily.
"That's because you're dying." Blake nodded. "I've been there before. I need to absorb you."
"I won't go back to being your slave again." The clone glared daggers at her.
"You won't." Blake hugged her closer. "You'll keep your humanity, but I won't use my power like I did before. I'll only use you to help me with things as an equal. If you have to take a hit for me, it'll only be something that I deem would be fatal to me since it won't kill you. All your memories will become mine and all my memories will become yours."
"If you break your promise to me, I will tear you apart from the inside out." The clone's whole body started to relax. Blake knew she didn't have long. She pulled her close and concentrated. Suddenly there was a rush of energy that shot through her and shook her to the bones. The feeling was brilliant, but the ending carried a sense she knew well. She could tell it was the feelings that the clone had felt in her last moments. There was hatred at the way she'd been treated, nervousness at the prospect of Blake not keeping her promise and there was a loneliness that Blake had grown up feeling.
"Blake, are you okay?" Yang asked. Blake didn't hear her. She was staring at her hands with tears running down her face. Before she was absorbed, the clone had placed something into Blake's hands. The mouse that rested in her palms looked up at her with something that Blake couldn't place at first. It took a long time for her to realise that it was love. It thought she was the one who'd saved it. In that moment, she made a decision. If anyone didn't like it, they would just have to live with it.
One Year Later…
Blake couldn't believe it had come to this. She was standing on a ship having just defeated the largest Grimm she'd ever seen with the most annoying Faunus in history taking undue credit from the passengers. Still, she was grateful that he couldn't follow her into her room. Even Sun had more respect than that. Not to mention the fact that if he dared to come into her room there was two of her that would kill him.
As she thought of ways to potentially murder Sun in his sleep so that she wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of introducing him to her parents. She knew her father really wouldn't like him and he'd have no hesitation to say as such.
Laughing quietly to herself, Blake moved to the corner of her quarters on the ship. She opened the plastic box kept on the counter and grabbed the spare chocolate from her bag. She dropped several pieces into the box and watched as the mouse jumped on them with playful determination.
"She's growing well." Blake jumped a mile. She'd since got used to her shadow clones voluntarily separating from her, but really didn't want to face the prospect of being caught on the ship with an animal.
"I still remember the night we got her." Blake muttered as the clone looped an arm around her. She remembered Yang's surprise when she and the clone had surprised her that night. They'd all had the time of their lives until Ruby and Weiss had staggered into the bedroom halfway into sugar induced comas. Barring facing Glynda's wrath the next day over her clone's fight with Cardin's team, it had been flawless.
"I remember Ruby having a bag of cookies that she brought home with her that night and not having them the next morning." The clone grinned mischievously. "Isn't that right, Rose?"
"Don't blame the mouse for something you did." Blake rolled her eyes.
"I seem to remember you taking more than one of them." The clone laughed. "I also remember Yang taking a few." As soon as the clone said the name, it was like a punch in the gut to both of them. Their minds instantly replayed the image of Yang going flying across the room as her arm separated from the rest of her body.
"I know we both miss her." Blake muttered as she remembered the clone throwing herself in front of Adam and distracting him while Blake hauled Yang out of the burning main hall of Beacon.
"We'll go back to her once this has all settled down." The clone hugged Blake closer. "If nothing else, that night we surprised her with Rose was amazing. There's no way we could go without at least trying to make things up to her. She has a heart of gold. She'll forgive us."
"I'm not so sure." Blake muttered. "I guess we'll find out."
"I also wanted to thank you." The clone looked over at Blake. "Since you saved me, you're really kept your promise. I trust you to keep it in the future. That's why I chose to throw myself in the way of Adam's sword there. And we worked really well together against the Grimm."
"Well, it'll do us good to rest up at my parents' house." Blake sighed as she reached into the box and gently tickled Rose's stomach as she rolled over. "I've had enough of fighting evil shadows."
