A New Drive

I don't know when or how it started exactly. All I know is that something had happened to me. Something that changed me. I would say that I tried to fight it. Tried to keep myself the way I was. Tried to not get taken over by whatever it was that made me the way I'm now. But I can't help but feel that I would be lying, considering how good I felt in the end.

The first things that I noticed in my change were the dreams and my change in fighting. When I was fighting, I started to notice that I was more aggressive than before. This was also noticed by my teammates, who were quick to say how I took too many risks and needed to think more when fighting. But no matter how much they preached, I didn't change at all.

The other thing was my dreams. I started dreaming about fighting. At first they were just faceless goons, like Junior's people or White Fang thugs. But as time went on, they became people I recognized. There was team CRDL, CFVY and JNPR. I was eventually even fighting my own teammates. I didn't think much of it though. I always enjoyed a good fight, and what better opponents than those I knew were strong? I guessed that my need for a good fight started to affect my dreams as well.

I didn't think anything was wrong until I my dreams got more violent. Up to that point, I had only dreamed about fighting people I recognized. It was more like sparring than actual fighting. However, it all changed soon. I wasn't just fighting against people that I recognized. I was brutally beating them down. I was breaking their bones, beating them within an inch of their lives and even strangling them. I did this no matter who my dream opponent was. Whether it was a criminal like Junior or even Ruby, I didn't show them any mercy.

But the most disturbing part about my dreams wasn't what I was doing or who I was fighting. It was the fact that I never felt bothered by these dreams. I was surprised or mildly shocked, but I was never scared or terrified over what happened in my dreams. Every time I woke up, I felt completely normal, like nothing strange was going on at all.

This change eventually affected how I acted when I was awake as well. I was in Goodwitch's class and I was going to have a match against Jaune. Before the match even started, I felt this strange burning sensation in me. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that I needed to let it out or I would go crazy. Even though it was only a matter of seconds, I felt like it was an eternity until the match started. I needed to let go and quick.

When the match actually started, I lost all sense of what was going on around me. I didn't hear anything, smell anything or even see anything. My body was on autopilot as my mind focused on one thing. This feeling that I just let out. It washed over my body, bringing me to a new height of pleasure and satisfaction. Everything else was lost to me as I could only focus on this one thing.

I was only brought back to reality once Goodwitch used her Semblance to throw me away from Jaune. It was then that I realized just what I had done. The blonde boy's body laid on the floor, broken, bloodied and unmoving. I wasn't even sure if he was alive. Even if he was alive, I didn't know how badly he had been damaged. He might not have been able to walk ever again or worse.

The people around me were all yelling at me. Goodwitch, my teammates and Jaune's teammates were all yelling at me. Their faces were either ones of anger and hatred or of fear. However, nothing they said registered in my brain. It was all just a mess of noise for me. I was more focused on a new feeling that was taking me over. I'm not sure if I could call it fear, but I felt like I was being caged in. I felt like if I stayed there, I would never be free again. I needed to get out. I needed to get out and make sure that I was free.

I turned around and ran away. In my hazy escape, I threw away my Scroll, like it was some sort of extra baggage that I didn't need. I ran to Beacon's garage and got on my motorcycle. It didn't take long until I was speeding through the streets of Vale, trying to get away from everything as fast as possible. I didn't care about traffic lights or anyone else on the road. All I knew was that I needed to move and get away as fast as possible. Only once I had gotten out of Vale did I feel any relief.

The rest of my trip became a haze. I didn't know how long I was traveling or if I even stopped a single time. It was like I was half-asleep and could only register the fact that I needed to get to my destination, whatever it was. Nothing else mattered to me at that time.

Eventually I found myself deep in Vale's mountains at an old abandoned workshop. I walked in and looked around. Even though the place had been abandoned, I could still use the tools that were left there. There was even a generator that provided me with electricity for some of the tools that needed it.

I needed to do something to get my mind off things and started to use the tools to upgrade my weapons. There were enough materials to make my Ember Celica much more powerful and it was certainly better than simply sitting around doing nothing. I also somehow felt the need to do it, like I needed my weapons to be more powerful than before.

Days passed as I worked relentlessly on upgrading my weapons. I have no idea how long I worked as the time I spent in that workshop became a blur. I didn't know how long I slept or even how I took care of my basic needs. All I knew was that I needed to work on my weapons.

They would make me more powerful than before. No enemy would be able to beat me anymore. I would be a Huntress like none other. A perfect killing machine.

It was that thought that finally snapped me out of my daze. Had I just called myself a killing machine? Huntresses weren't supposed to be that. We were supposed to be protectors, not killers. Although my thought had been a surprise to me, it didn't really bother me. Somehow I actually liked it.

While I was snapped out of my daze, I noticed that I was holding something in my hand. I looked down and saw that it was something black and furry. It didn't take long until I realized that it was a Beowolf's leg. Upon realizing this, I noticed that it had bite marks on it, like someone had been eating it. I looked up at a mirror that was on a nearby wall and saw that my mouth was covered in the beast's black blood. I had been eating that Beowolf.

I quickly went to the bathroom, fully expecting to throw up. However, nothing came up. My stomach was completely fine with the Grimm flesh I had consumed. I felt no sickness or disgust at all. It was like I had been eating just regular food. I returned back to where I had been working and continued eating the Beowolf's leg. After all, if it wasn't bad for me, why waste the food?

Days went by as I continued my work. It all became a messy blur to me, where I would mostly remember upgrading my gauntlets with little flashes of me doing something else. Some of those flashes were quite violent and often involved me attacking something or someone. I chalked them up as dreams. After all, I had no idea of how much I slept. That was bound to come back in the form of such visions.

After all my work, the gauntlets were finally done. I put them on my arms to try how they felt. I had also made myself a metal mask of some sorts while I had been working on the weapons. It covered the lower half of my face as I put it on. I then walked up to a mirror to see how I looked.

I looked like a monster.

My gauntlets didn't cover just part of my forearms anymore. Now my arms from my fingertips up to my elbows. They were much larger now and made from stronger materials. I could block rockets with them now. The fingers were sharp and could tear through steel like it was paper. And the shotguns? The old guns had been replaced with something much more destructive. The cannons I had made the old guns look like harmless toys in comparison. To top off my new look, the mask I was wearing gave of an aura of pure menace. I doubted that anyone could look at me without getting chills.

While I was admiring my new look, I sensed some people walking up to the workshop I had been living in. Judging by the sound of their footsteps, there were three of them. I went outside through the front door to properly greet the visitors. For some reason, I wasn't surprised at all to see my teammates there. Weiss and Blake were angrily yelling something at me while Ruby stayed in the back and looked scared. I guessed that the way I left had not pleased my angry teammates, and I was pretty sure that my new look somewhat scared my little sister.

Weiss walked up to me and started yelling straight at my face about something. I couldn't care less about what she was complaining about. The princess always had something that she needed to whine about, so I didn't think it was necessary to listen to her. I simply pushed her out of my way and headed towards my other two teammates.

Blake wasn't apparently pleased over the way I treated Weiss and she was the next one to start yelling at me. Once again I didn't listen to the noise at all. I was too tired for that anyways. I just gave my partner a playful punch in the chest to show her that it was still the old me and continued up to my sister.

I stood right in front of Ruby, who stared up at me with watery and scared eyes. Did I really look that frightening? I suppose that once someone goes missing for some time and comes back looking like I do and you have a good reason to be scared. She still didn't need to be that scared of me.

Ruby started saying something while crying. I don't know what she said, but it looked like she was begging. I honestly had no idea why she was that scared, but I needed to stop her crying. I put my hands on her shoulders and told her to calm down. I told her that everything was okay now. That I was back.

She didn't answer. She was completely silent.

I snapped back to reality and saw that I had not put my hands on Ruby's shoulders. Instead, they were around her throat. I had strangled my little sister and now her limp body was hanging from my hands.

I looked behind me to see that Weiss and Blake were both dead as well. Sudden images appeared in my head that showed me what had really happened. I hadn't pushed Weiss out of my way. I had backhanded the heiress so bad that her neck had broken and she had died. And the punch I gave to Blake had not been all that playful. I had actually punched my fist through her chest, killing her instantly.

The realization of what I had done sunk deep into me. I had killed my teammates. I had killed my friends. I had even killed the sister I had sworn to protect.

...I liked it.

I dropped Ruby's dead body to the ground and walked up to my bike. It was time for the new and improved Yang Xiao Long to make her appearance. There was a new drive in me. Something instinctive that was guiding me and I was going to follow it. There were many people on my mind that I was going to give the same treatment as my team. CRDL, JNPR, CFVY, SSSN and many others. They would all get a taste of my new self and I would enjoy every second of it.

I had been reborn.

Author's notes: This is something I thought of not too long ago and felt like quickly writing it. It just seemed fun to write a quick one-shot about a character going psychotic from their point of view. This won't become anything longer and will remain as a simple one-shot. I hope you guys liked it as much as I did.

Anyways, we'll be back to our regular programming with ''Raven's New Summer'' and ''War for Ruby.'' I'm especially excited about writing ''Raven's New Summer,'' so I'll be working on it next.

Until next time.

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