Title: Embrace
Author's Note:
Hello! Thank you very much for opening this story, as it presumably means you will read it. I'm still kinda new to the whole 'writing fanfiction' thing, so I hope you will forgive my mistakes and not let that deter you. Part two of the author's note is after the story, because it contains slight spoilers. Also, it probably isn't what you think it will be at any given time. Now, without further ado, the story!
Roman Torchwick was in a good mood today. After months and months of long, boring days, and almost constant planning, he finally got to put his operation into motion. The bombs were planted around most parts of the city, filled with dust of all types, and everywhere else had a few dozen highly trained soldiers, all loyal to him and Cinder, preparing for their assault. Of course, there was still one problem. Beacon academy was nearby, filled to the brim with some of the best fighters in the world, as well as countless hunters – or huntresses- in training.
But Roman had thought of just how to solve that. Recently, quite a few of the staff members at beacon, as well as almost all other hunters that were spread throughout the city, had receive various forms of communication that led to them being far away. Wether it was a call from a sick family member, to a desperate plea for aid, all but three of the various hunters had left Vale, and wouldn't be returning for a least a day or two.
Roman walked into the operations room, and told his guards to signal for the attack to begin.
/SCENE BREAK/
"Well, that's about all we have time for today! Make sure to cover the assigned reading!"
With that, the class ended. Yang quickly stalked out of there, closely followed by Ruby.
"Hey guys," Ruby started "I just have to go do something. I'll catch up with you later." Ruby vanished in a puff of rose petals before anyone could ask what she was talking about.
As soon as they were back at their dorm, they started voicing their opinions. "I can't believe it's possible to make combat class THAT BORING!" Yang whined, stretching out various muscles that had locked up due to underuse. "How is sitting around reading books a COMBAT CLASS?"
"You know Yang, if you actually read the book you might just learn something!" Weiss countered. "It's full of strategies that could easily save your life in a dangerous situation!"
"It was kind of boring." Blake added, pulling out a book and sitting down.
"How is it helpful Weiss? We should be out practising!" Yang asked.
"Well, page sixteen explains how you can escape being surrounded by clever use of your surroundings, using trees and trails to your advantage, preventing any sign of your presence being known to the enemy, and avoiding a fight while still not having to take a detour on your way to wherever you happen to be going."
"Wow Weiss, that suuuuuure is useful!" Yang replied sarcastically.
"Hey!" Weiss said, annoyed. "Just because you think charging into every fight, all guns blazing is the best method available doesn't stop strategy and tactical thinking from being important!"
"Guys!" Blake said, sighing as she put down her book. "Just agree to disagree."
"That I can do." Yang said jokingly, as Weiss stormed off in frustration.
"Think we should go after her?" Blake asked.
"Nah, just give her a minute. Let her cool down." Yang replied. Blake shrugged assent and went back to her book. Just then, Ruby walked in, back from whatever she had been doing. "Oh, hey Ruby. Where were you?"
Ruby averted her gaze, and Yang immediately knew something was wrong. "Oh, not much. Just wanted to grab a bite to eat."
Okay, that last bit was probably true, but Yang still knew something was troubling her, and decided not to press for details. Ruby clearly didn't want to talk about it.
"So, what's up with Weiss?" Ruby asked.
Yang laughed. "Oh, the usual. She just got annoyed at my lack of interest in class."
"Well anyway, I'm going to try and have a nap before our next class." Ruby said, climbing into her bed and laying down.
"Sure thing, sis! I'll wake you in a few!" Yang's response was met by soft snores coming from Ruby.
"Well, falling asleep didn't take her long. She must've been really tired." Blake said to Yang, not looking up from her book.
"So, what're you reading, Blakey?" Yang asked, climbing into Blake's bed to sit next to her.
Just then, Weiss came back in, looking just as on edge as she had when she left. Yang quickly got up and went to greet her, only to be ignored as Weiss walked to her bed and lay down on it in silence.
"Cat got your tongue?" Yang asked teasingly. Weiss only sighed in response, so Yang paced around impatiently, waiting for their next class. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Blake put her book down and got up. "Time to go?" Yang asked, receiving a nod.
"Woooo!" Yang yelled. "Come on Ruby! Come on Weiss!"
"I thought you didn't like classes!" Weiss replied.
"Even classes are better than sitting around here with nothing to do! Besides, I just remembered we have a field trip into town!" Yang replied enthusiastically.
A sharp intake of breath signalled Ruby waging up. "Ten more minutes." she mumbled, barely awake.
"Hey Ruby! I made cookies!" Yang replied. Ruby shot out of bed in a whirl of rose petals, appearing next to Yang. Her smile faded.
"You lied to me." She said unhappily.
"Come on Ruby, we have class." Yang said, pulling her sister into a hug.
They all dashed down the hall, Ruby trailing behind, to their next class. Upon arrival, they found themselves very confused to find a new teacher standing at the door. After a few minutes, in which the rest of the teams arrived, Endre announced that Professor Oobleck was absent, and due to various other teachers being absent, leaving no one to replace him, he, Professor Endre, would be taking them instead.
"Now, as most of you undoubtedly know, we are going to visit a museum dedicated to past hunters. I hope that what you see will inspire you to further dedication. Now, please follow me." Ozpin said, calmly leading the amassed students to an airship.
/SCENE BREAK/
"Well, we're here!" Yang called out cheerfully as the airship landed. She immediately made her way to the exit, closely followed by her teammates. Once again, Endre was waiting for them.
"Come along now, students. Once we get there, you are free to roam the museum as you see fit, as long as you are back on this airship in two hours. Failure to do so will result in the airship departing without you, so do try to be on time." Endre calmly opened the door and lead the students through the streets of the town, coming to a stop just before a grand building made almost entirely out of marble. "Here we are. Try to enjoy yourself; field trips are usually more strict and have a general goal in mind." With that, Endre calmly walked back to the airship, leaving the students there.
"Well… I'm glad he'll be keeping an eye on us." Yang said sarcastically, as they all stood there watching him leave for quite some time. "Well, let's not fall behind. Some of the other students have already reached the museum."
It was true; aside from and a few students who were just distracted or uninterested, they were the only ones not in the museum.
They slowly made their way to the museum, Weiss in the lead. And that's when the building exploded.
The shockwave knocked them to the ground, temporarily deafening and blinding them. They struggled to their feet, only for it to start raining shrapnel. They sprinted as far away as they could in panic, and as they slowly regained their breath they each stuttered about being fine, with the exception of Blake, who had a large piece of shrapnel stuck in her left arm. Blood was seeping steadily from the wound.
"What the hell was THAT!" Yang yelled between coughs.
"Blake, are you okay?" Ruby asked. Blake collapsed to the ground. "She needs medical treatment!" Ruby said panicky.
"What about the people in the buildings?" Weiss asked. "Our class mates… Ren… Nora… Pyrrha and Jaune?'" Weiss asked, struggling to regain her senses. After a few minutes, when they could all see vaguely well, they looked at the building and stood in stunned silence. It was nothing but a crater. There were a few parts of walls left, but everything else was charred.
Nothing could have survived that, and they all knew it. "Why would anyone do this?" Weiss asked, furious. Just then, they heard a scraping of metal behind them, and spun to find themselves surrounded by members of the White Fang. Almost all of them were holding guns, pointed in their direction, and they started to fire.
Ruby vanished in a spray of Rose petals, and Yang launched herself back with a few shots from Ember Celica, taking cover around a corner, both escaping unharmed. Weiss and Blake were not so lucky. Weiss flung herself back with her glyphs, and created a wall between her and the bullets, but a few got through, and she cried out in pain as her legs exploded as holes were created all through them, flinging herself aside in a last-ditch attempt to escape harms way.
Even so, Blake got the worst of it. She had been struggling to stand, and had just succeeded, when it started raining bullets. Her aura shielded her from countless bullets, but she had been too surprised and dazed to do anything as they tore her to shreds. Blake collapsed back to the floor, hundreds of bullet holes torn into her in seconds. Oh well, she thought. At least the pain had stopped. Her shallow breaths stopped almost immediately.
At nearly the same time, Ruby appeared behind their assaulters and started hacking at them. There had been twenty when they had been ambushed, but by the time the realised were Ruby was, all but five of them were in capitated. Ruby caught a glimpse of Blake's body, and collapsed to the ground in shock. One of the remaining Faunus raised their gun and was about to fire, when Yang shot a few blasts from her gauntlets, screaming in rage, with white-hot flames surrounding her as she charged forward and started pummelling the remaining members of the white fang to death.
After a few minutes of pummelling their dead bodies, Yang collapsed into a similar state to Ruby, only being broken out of it when she heard Weiss's moans of pain. Ruby and Yang picked themselves up. They could grieve later, for now all they could do was try to stop their being a second person to grieve for. A few minutes later, in a daze of pain, confusing and grief, they stumbled into a hospital carrying Weiss between them. The nurse at the front desk had shouted in horror when looking at the still-living woman they carried between them, and summoned a doctor, who arrive almost immediately and rushed Weiss into an intensive care unit.
A different doctor then came over and tried to take the two girls with him, but by then they had started to recover, and Yang's burning hatred overcame any need for medical attention, as she stood up and ran out of there. The doctor tried to stop her, but Yang shoved him out of the way, hard.
Ruby, on the other hand, seemed quite calm. She slowly stood up and walked after her sister, ignoring the now unconscious doctor, apologising to the nurse on her way out. She quickly lost sight of Yang, but soon heard screams of pain coming from what she presumed to be members of the white fang who tried to attack her. Ruby started a slow jog, and found herself watching a one sided fight between yang and what appeared to be a squad of soldiers who were sent out to find their missing teammates.
A small Jet appeared, Ruby hearing it long before it came into view, dropping of reinforcements by Yang… Including Torchwick himself. That broke through Ruby's confusion. This man was responsible for the death of one of her teammates, and that would not be taken lightly. She vanished in a puff of petals and appeared behind him, swinging her Scythe and firing for extra speed. He heard her and ducked, the scythe sailing over his head and decapitating one of his guards. A spray of blood flew from the guards severed head, as Ruby struck at Torchwick again and again.
Torchwick didn't have enough time to parry, only dodge, so Ruby's rapid blows were still dealing devastating damage to any guard unfortunate enough to still be near him. The sound of whirring woke Ruby from her haze of bloodlust, and she dove out of the way as the machine gun that was mounted on the jet fired at her, taking the chance of shooting Torchwick to save him from inevitable death.
Ruby looked to her left and saw Yang dealing with the last of the fighters that had been sent her way, a pile of bodies, more often in multiple pieces than not, and turned and saw Torchwick. It didn't seem possible, but seeing him there seemed to make Yang even more angry. She was no longer visible through the flames that surrounded her, as she sped towards the man, who had hopped back into the jet to take a tactical retreat.
The machine gun turned to Yang, and Ruby realise to late what was going to happen. She started to cry a warning call, but before she could finish, the machine gun spun again, firing thousands of shells in a few seconds. Yang collapsed, and as the fire faded Ruby saw that she was in pieces at most the size of her small finger.
But this thought didn't seem to process in Ruby's mind. No… Yang was invincible. She couldn't just… die like that. She stood in a stupor, and heard someone calling at her. She looked at the jet, and heard Torchwick's voice.
"Well, Red. It has been a pleasure to meet you again, and I must say that today has been quite an eventful day." The pilot, whoever they were, turned the machine gun at Ruby, and it started spinning, but at a call from Torchwick, stopped. "I'll see you again soon!" Called Torchwick, smirking at her as the plane retreated out of sight.
Ruby collapsed and lost consciousness.
/SCENE BREAK/
Ruby woke up in a white room. She looked to her left, to find Weiss there, sitting by her side and looking concerned. Upon seeing her awake, she let out a sigh of relief, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"I thought I'd lost you, too." Weiss mumbled, hugging Ruby and crying. "You were unconscious for almost a month… I was so afraid I'd lost my first and only friend." She sobbed into Ruby's shoulder. It took Ruby a second to understand what Weiss meant, but then the memories came back and hit her like a ton of bricks, and she fell unconscious again.
A few hours later, she regained consciousness, and saw Weiss lying on the second bed in the room, fast asleep. Ruby went to sit up, and noticed some tubes of some kind attatching her to a machine. She pulled them out and stood up, her muscles groaning in protest. She looked around the room for her Cresent Rose, and saw it lying by Weiss's bed, next to Myrtenaster. She had probably insisted for it to be there.
Ruby started crawling over to it, grief wracking her heart as she thought about and finally came to terms with Yang's death. The machine behind her let out a frantic beeping, and Weiss woke up just as Ruby reached her bed. She looked at Ruby in confusion, still not properly awake.
"I'm sorry." Ruby said, half to herself and half to Weiss as she cocked the gun beneath her head.
And pulled the trigger.
Author's Note 2:
I hope you enjoyed the story, then stopped enjoying the story and started planning to send passive-aggressive to outright abusive reviews expressing your distaste at the twist ending! This is most likely a one-shot so any further updates will grammatical, descriptive, or just to add a tiny bit to the plot.