VENOMOUS WEISS
Chapter 0
A/N: This is Burk, here to bring more of that sweet, sweet Weiss bliss. A sneak peak at chapter 1, as this is a prequel gone into briefly in that chapter, can be found in "The Legacy of Bleiss: A Discord Anthology" series. Though the proper first chapter, expanded from that excerpt, will be going up two weeks from now here if you'd rather wait! This is merely a prologue, to set the stage.
Weiss was struggling to keep her eyes open, the heat of the flames surrounding her suffocating. The high whine of the still burning engine of her bullhead was growing more dangerous still. She recognized that sound, her home tutor instructing her that it was the sound a dust engine would produce before exploding. Shouting, indistinct, was muffled by the roaring fire.
Or, perhaps her hearing was simply damaged, she could not tell. A pair of rough hands grabbed her by the shoulders, yanking her out of the twisted wreck. Weiss, vision blurred, could still see their tale-tell masks, each proudly presenting a unique animal trait. The White Fang. Some distant part of her mind rang with clarity- the White Fang had shot her bullhead down. Why?
Her head twisted away from them, her sight landing on the crater nearby. That was why. A most unusual, most rare occurrence had happened. An object from space had entered Remnant's atmosphere, falling rapidly towards the earth. It had dovetailed nicely with Weiss' trip to Beacon, the Schnee Heiress taking a private bullhead to avoid the masses as much as possible. She had ordered the bullhead to change directions personally, wishing to take a claim on whatever unique item might have survived, if anything.
Due to dust becoming inactive when leaving Remnant's atmosphere, space travel was a laughable dream to humanity. So whenever a star deigned to grace their presence, it was always a mad dash to be the first there. They had been fast approaching the rogue meteor, when the bullhead came under heavy fire.
The screams of her pilot and staff echoed still in her mind, her aura barely allowing her to survive the crash and explosion that followed. Barely being the keyword. Weiss could not move her right arm, and every breath she took was pained. She felt numb, yet on fire at the same time. Part of it might have been a concussion, she could barely focus on anything. One of the Fang had approached her, a slight young man who curiously wore glasses over his mask.
He was saying something to her that she could not make out. She tried to raise her left hand, realizing that her weapon was far from reach. Glasses drew his gun, Weiss barely recognizing what he was about to do when the shots tore through her torso. Dust rounds, anti-personnel, would normally be no danger to a Huntress-In-Training. Yet most did not already suffer a cataclysmic crash landing, already taxing their aura to the breaking point.
Each shot tore through meat and bone, Weiss' breath coming into an even sharper gasp as blood spurted across her torso and pooled beneath her. Her body shook, jerking in surprise more than pain. The pain was there, but it was overwhelmed by the coldness that swiftly followed. Glasses turned to another White Fang member briefly, Weiss limp before them, before turning and violently kicking her.
Unable to defend herself, the boot smashed into her left arm and lifted her off the ground. Her ragged body hit next to the edge of the crater, the rim breaking away. Her vision swiftly fading, she barely noticed as her body tumbled down the side, more cuts and gashes appearing across her dress and physique. Weiss came to a rest at the bottom of the pit, black mud laying in wait clinging to her.
She could no longer breathe, no longer see, no longer feel. Her life was slipping away and there was nothing she could do about it. The black muck seemed to envelope her, staining that which hadn't been cast in red, black. Her left hand clenched into a fist. She couldn't, she wouldn't let it end like this. Not here. Then, she heard it. She heard, her.
'You are dying.'
The voice was foreign. It began formless, shapeless. Yet, by the end of its words, it seemed to take a feminine shape. Weiss realized how peculiar it was, to think of sounds as a shape. Yet, for this sound, for this voice, a shape is what she was reminded of.
'I am dying.'
The voice was stronger, louder. Its shape better defined. It almost sounded like...
'Together, we can survive.'
Weiss tried to move, tried to think. Her bleeding wasn't stopping, her wounds too great. The muck was much deeper than it had appeared, now having consumed her entirely. Yet, it seemed to be alive. It seemed to hum with promise.
'We can avenge ourselves on them. Those that have harmed us. We can survive. Together, we can rise. For this, we need to have an agreement.'
Weiss could not speak, but felt a strength return to her. She relaxed the fist clenched left hand.
'Then, allow us to be one. Allow us to show them, our perfection.'
Weiss closed her ice blue eyes.
Black consumed her features.
Pure white, jagged inhuman eyes opened in their place.
Deery couldn't believe Perry had shot the Schnee heiress like that, it was so badass. She knew she picked right, following him into the White Fang. He even worked under commander Adam, how amazing was that? What was it Perry said before kicking her into the pit, when that one parrot complained about him getting ahead of himself by killing her?
"Fuck the Schnees, there's two more where she came from."
So badass. This whole mission had been a wash before the stupid bitch arrived. They had been tracking the meteor as it fell from space and gotten here first, on the off chance that it had anything worthwhile. Only when they had arrived, all they found was a hole in the ground with some tar shit at the bottom. What a drag!
Perry tapped her on the shoulder, getting her attention. "Gear up, we're leaving in ten. Commander Adam wants us to had back and meet up with the lieutenant."
Deery nodded. "Absolutely, ready any time! What about the other humans in the ship?"
Perry snorted. "You're kidding, right? None of them even had aura. They probably died in the initial attack. Who cares, we've got a schedule to keep. Adam isn't gonna be happy about the lack of anything, but a dead Schnee will make him feel better."
Deery nodded. Perry was a responsible sort, the kind of person Adam could trust to babysit the more boring jobs. He wasn't anything special in the Fang, yet, but he was a rising star. She knew if she played her cards right, she'd be right there next to him. All the way to the High Leader's side. Perry stopped, something drawing him to the side of the pit. Deery cocked her head.
The Schnee couldn't possibly still be alive. She was the middle child of the family, not even a proper huntress. So what drew her friend's attention so? Maybe he wanted to recover her body for proof. Stuffing her corpse and attaching animal traits could be a fun way to piss off the SDC. Though Deery wouldn't be allowed to pick, she could see the former Schnee heir wear a fetching white fox tail or white ears of some sort. Perhaps a pig nose, for how boarish their whole family was?
Deery did not register, at first, the mass that suddenly lunged forward. Her friend Perry was screaming, Deery realizing that the mass had grabbed him up in some kind of limb. A tendril of black goo? The mass quivered, the center having two white, jagged gashes that almost appeared to be eyes. Deery snapped out of her shock, drawing her weapon, Perry screaming for help.
The entire camp of White Fang soldiers suddenly poured in, none of them sure what to do about the situation. The mass held Perry but did not seem to be harming him, Perry shouting in fear more than pain. The Fang each drew their weapons, Deery readying her standard issued blade. One wrong move from the mass and it would be torn to shreds.
None of them were prepared for it to speak.
"You are the White Fang. White, as in bloodless-impotent. Worthless. Without bite." The mass quivered, the gashes seeming to glow in the churning dark blot that made up its form. Only, to Deery, it seemed to become more defined. "Without poison. How pathetic you useless, lame worms are. You dream to be everything that we are. You seek to claim that which we naturally have become."
Perry twisted, staring at the thing holding him tight. "What-what are you!"
The eyes quirked just a touch, the impression of a mouth forming. Deery took a step back in surprise as glistening white fangs revealed themselves, an inhuman maw opening in a cruel smile.
"Simple, animal. We are Venom."
In a single bite, to the shock of all those gathered, Perry was torn in half. His top half entered the monster's mouth, and then what was left was tossed into the crowd of fifteen Fang. Screaming followed, angered shouting and gunfire not long after. Deery stood in stark horror as the mass took shape, becoming inhumanly large, a mockery of the human physique.
Massive claws rested on elongated limbs, grasping talons taking the place of feet. An extending neck lifted the horror of a head, still with blood stained teeth, Yet, if one had asked Deery, she would concede that it seemed to almost have a feminine quality to it. Something about the shape gave the impression of something graceful, almost like a dancer. The horror, the Venom, ignored the gunfire peppering its shape. Her shape.
Venom held no mercy nor quarter for her fellows. One of the larger Bull Faunus, the son of a blacksmith from what she recalled, tried to gore the nightmare. Was it a Grimm? Deery didn't think so. Grimm weren't this terrifying. The Bull Faunus soon found this out the hard way, his charge stopped short as Venom grabbed either one. With a strength that went beyond superhuman, Venom snapped both of the horns off midway and then drove them through the young faunus' neck.
Deery cowered beneath the bullhead, ignoring the high keening noise it was producing. All she had to do was not be seen, not be noticed. She could survive this, even at the risk of her companions all dying. She had to report back to commander Adam, she had to take her place next to the High Leader! She couldn't just die here, not to some faceless, nameless monster!
Soon the screaming stopped. Not soon enough for Deery. She wasn't sure when she had begun to sob, tears flowing freely. She wasn't sure when she had lost her mask. It didn't matter. Just stay here, beneath the wreckage. The beast, Venom, would never find her here. It would never think that she'd be in such a place.
She dared to open her eyes again, seeing nothing in what limited view she had. Daring to crawl forward just a tad, ignoring the rising noise from the bullhead, she quickly scanned the surroundings. Her comrades, her brothers and sisters, lay strewn across the battlefield. Slaughtered like animals. Some had their own weapons driven through them, others were dismembered. The worst of them was intact, to a point. Deery began to vomit, unable to hold back the sickness bubbling up in her stomach. As she did, she saw it.
The shadow of something above her.
Deery turned, eyes wide, looking up. Venom was watching her, clinging to the side of the bullhead, a passive expression on her face. A passive expression that gave way to a splitting smile, mouth opening to a quiet laugh. An impossibly long tongue lounged out from her mouth, toward Deery, who scrambled back under the bullhead. It dropped something before retreating.
Perry's glasses.
Deery was nearly sick all over again.
"Do you know what that noise means, young animal?"
The voice of the monster was otherworldly. Echoing, as if two distinct voices spoke in unison. Deery tried to ignore it, hoping that the creature could not reach her.
She felt the bullhead shift a tad, as if a great weight had launched itself from the ship. The voice came again, further away.
"It is something taught to one when they are very young. We suppose you did not have this same experience. Probably due to your status of birth. A pity, but do not fret."
Deery's eyes went wide in the darkness as she tried to think about what the monster could be talking about. What would this noise mean? Why would Venom be moving further away?
All at once, it hit her.
"You shall be swiftly schooled."
The curse could not leave Deery's throat before the explosion of the bullhead ignited.
In the wreckage, not even her remains could be found. Only her discarded mask, which had been left laying next to the shattered and twisted glasses of the one named Perry.
In time, the primary force of the White Fang would arrive, seeking answers. Instead, all they would find were horrific questions, though they did not see the monster that ravaged their forces so. After all, Weiss Schnee had better things to do than wait for their arrival. She had a school to attend.