Well folks, we've come to the fourth and last of my RTX Outfit fics and as promised this truly was the most taxing of them all
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs solely to Rooster Teeth
There was a time when I viewed the world as one giant playground
Wide, expansive, just waiting for me to jump in and play
But then The Fall happened, and everyone went away.
Even my family, even the best friend I thought would always stay.
So now I burn like a phoenix, rising from the ashes.
No longer is my beauty Gold.
My eyes focused onto the long road back.
I fell to earth as a woman.
But I'll ascend once more.
And make myself a queen.
Yang Xiao Long was once a proud Huntress who valued the adventure and fun of her future career, no matter how big or small, regardless of whether or not her performance was going to be evaluated after the fact. It was the thrill of adventure that guided her actions back in those brighter days, before everything went to hell and everything she held dear was taken from her by forces she believed she was prepared to fight against.
Now as she sat outside on a stump with her childhood home behind her, Yang would be lost in thought and unsure of where and how to begin again…or if she even could.
"I can't believe it's already been three months since Beacon fell, Ruby left with the others to find answers in Haven, Weiss's probably caged inside of her family's mansion, Blake-" The blonde would ball her left fist tightly upon mentioning her now former partner, the cat Faunus had once been an important part of her life. Considering her a close friend, confidant, and during one very awkward night: Something much more. "I still can't believe she would choose to run away! I trusted her and helped her when she needed me most, is it too much to expect to expect the same in return!?" She could feel the familiar hum of her Semblance billowing around her as the anger built up inside the brawler as she stared up at the cloudless sky overhead, the phantom pains in her missing limb were nothing compared to the rage she had been keeping buried deep inside.
"BLAAAAKE!" Her eyes would flash red as the tears fell freely onto her white sneakers, her jacket falling back as she stood up suddenly and bellowed out in anger. "I nearly died trying to protect you, and you didn't even have the decency to be there when I woke up! What the hell kind of a friend abandons someone in their time of need!"
The sensation of a hand upon her shoulder would cause the brawler to spin around and try to deck whoever it was that dared touch her at such a vulnerable moment, onto to find that not only was it her kind soul of a father, but also that she had tried to punch with her nonexistent right hand.
"I heard you shouting out here and thought that maybe..never mind." Taiyang would shake his head before trying to muster up a confident smile as he placed his hands upon her shoulders. "Well, dinner's almost ready..maybe you should go inside and wash up. Get your mind off of this whole "Blake" business for a while." He would immediately regret mentioning the raven-haired Faunus's name as he watched the young woman's face revert into a scowl, bumping her shoulder against his as she made her way back inside the house.
"Blake's gone Yang…I don't know why but as soon as we hit the landing pad, she just bolted." Sun would lean over to move her hair out of her eyes, seeing the shocked expression on her face tore at his heart. The raven-haired Faunus had been partners with the now one-armed woman laying in the hospital bed beside him, thick as thieves and compatible with one another despite their differing personalities.
"Why didn't you try and stop her, you're obviously head over heels for her so I don't understand why you'd just let her go! Did you just not care?!" The blonde brawler winced in pain as she reached over to grab her arm, only to remember that it was no longer there. Even Sun winced in hurt as a look of despair crossed her face before she went silent once again.
"Of course I wanted to go after her, but none of us were exactly in the greatest of shape after having to fight off the Grimm, the White Fang, and out of control Atlas machines." He would sigh sadly as he gently patted her shoulder, frowning when he saw the blonde-haired woman wince in pain. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Yang would shake her head as she stared up at the ceiling in quiet reflection as Sun updated her on the condition of the rest of their friends, gasping audibly and feeling the sting of tears upon hearing about how the teachers could find no sign of Pyrrha, but perhaps what drove the point home for her was that Ruby had been unconscious for days with no sign of waking up.
"How could this have happened, wasn't this what we were being trained for?!" She would ball her fist up an anger, and even though her right arm was very much gone the phantom sensation of it balling into a fist could be felt. Along with another bolt of pain for good measure.
"There's no way we could've been ready for this, even with a full four years training and a top notch arsenal! Everyone was caught off guard when that attack happened, a lot of people were hurt…a few of them didn't even make it out of the battle alive." The monkey-tailed Faunus would frown in thought as he thought of the other teams who had lost allies, Atleasian soldiers who would be returning home to what was more then likely a social and political shit-storm, and of course Yang herself. "I'm gonna go check up on Neptune and the others, I'll talk to you soon Yang." He would try and smile in the face of such dire circumstances, even as the brawler had decided to stare out the window in silence.
"Yang? Yang, are you hungry? Yang?" Her father's voice would bring her out of the flashback she was experiencing as the blonde looked around to find that she was now sitting at the table where they usually had their meals, a plate set in the spot where her younger sibling sat.
"Dad, you set a place for Ruby again…" Yang would frown as she saw her father flinch visibly, it had been a nasty habit that he'd have whenever his mind was troubled and experiencing grief. He had done it constantly after Summer's passing, even though she and Ruby were barely holding together themselves at the time. It had gotten bad enough that Qrow had been forced to step in before something catastrophic occurred.
"I'm sorry, I guess it's still a little hard for me to believe that she would leave us with just a hastily written note." Taiyang would set a plate down in front of his eldest child: On it was a finely cut assortment of fruits and vegetables, some grilled chicken that he had managed to hunt and take down without much effort. "I'm just worried about her, I mean she was skipped ahead and put into Beacon, and she hasn't had the type of battle experience that you and other students have had." The older Huntsman would sigh as he looked down at his own meal worriedly even as Yang simply pushed hers away and stood up from her seat with a heavy sigh. "Yang, I know you're upset about what happened with the school, and the fact that your partner disappeared on you is devastating. But believe me when I say that dwelling on all of this isn't good for your health, I think it might be best if you decided to try and let go of all of this and move past it all." Taiyang would look to his daughter with a solemn look upon his face as he leaned forward to push her food back toward her before settling back into his seat and starting to dig in on his meal.
Yang however would just look down at her food with visible disgust before feeling a sudden swell of laughter overcome her, it was mirthless and hollow as she once again moved to leave the dining table as her father's worried gaze followed her every move.
"What's so funny dear, not that I'm complaining about this sudden burst of positivity or anything." Taiyang would stop speaking even as her laughter continued while making her way over to his side, his relief beginning to turn into worry as she looked down at him before letting her expression go cold.
"You wanna know what's funny to me? You telling me to let go of and move on, when almost everything around here has some trace of Summer and what I'm assuming is my mother since I don't remember either of you ever coveting a steel war fan!" She would slam her hands down on the older man's shoulders before he had a chance to respond to her argument. "What's funny is my own father telling me to move past my grief when our entire house is a monument to past grief: Summer's cloak hanging in your closet, the aforementioned war fan, the old voice messages on our answering machine that you STILL WON'T DELETE!" She would step back upon seeing his expression beginning to crumble into despair, the fiery cauldron of anger she had been feeling from earlier was beginning to dwindle and sputter out. "Dad I just..I just…"
The brawler would jog off upstairs as her emotional wall continued to crumble, narrowly missing a startled Zwei with her steps as she bolted into the washroom and locked the door and looking at her frazzled reflection in shame. "Why…why on God's green earth did I say ANY of that?" The mortified young woman would run her hand through her golden locks, stopping once she felt the lack of hair around the waist. "That's right, I cut it a while back..it just didn't make any sense to keep it so long when I have only one arm to manage it now." Instinctively she would clutch the pinned up sleeve where what remained of her right arm rested, the phantom pains she had first experienced since her injury had lessened greatly in the past few months. However they still had a terrible tendency to pop up whenever she became too stressed and frantic, something which usually only happened whenever she had a nightmare which involved her former partner resurfacing as a loyal and dutiful member of the White Fang. "I shouldn't have blown up at him like that.." Yang would stare at her now-remorseful visage with a sad sigh, doing her best to make herself look at least a little less broken before stepping out of the washroom, only to find her faithful Corgi companion Zwei looking up at her with his food bowl beside him.
"That's strange, Zwei usually has no problem feeding himself whenever he feels hungry. I wonder why he came all the way back up here." The buxom brawler would look down at her furry buddy, who whined sadly before pointing his nose towards Taiyang's room at the end of the hall. She would look over to see the door closed and no light emanating from beneath the crack in the door. "I think I really screwed up this time Zwei, I said something that I may not be able to take back again. Just like last time."
It had been two weeks after the fall of Beacon, and Yang was still very much in the dark clutches of despair. Something she had previously demonstrated after having explained what happened to the remaining members of their former team to Ruby before dismissing the younger Huntress, she had hoped to return to the silence of her own damned thoughts. But the universe seemed to enjoy kicking the once-confident woman as she now found herself face to face with a very unwelcome visitor in the form of a certain wolf Faunus.
"If you're looking for Ruby's room, it's the next door on the right." The lilac-eyed pugilist wanted to keep her words limited, lest she explode at him in the same fashion as she had with her younger sister. "Gotta warn you though, both my uncle and father are here in the house, so don't even think about doing anything even remotely stupid together."
The wolf would keep himself hidden in the shadowy corner of her bedroom, choosing to digest her pointed barbs in silence before finally deciding to speak.
"I'll admit it, I probably deserve that potshot you just took at me Yang. Lord knows I probably wasn't the easiest person to get along with before things all went to hell, but in all honesty I only came here because I was worried about you." He would ball his fist up tightly as his eye gazed at the bandaged stump that used to be her right arm, the very same arm she'd clocked him with when he had confessed to have romantic feelings for her younger sister. "I know that we may not have always seen eye to eye on every single interaction with one another, but when I heard what happened to you I just..I hopped on the first boat to Patch that I could find because I wanted to help you out in anyway I can."
Yang would stay unnaturally quiet upon hearing him say this, for all the annoying wrestling-related antics she had had to endure during his brief tenure at the academy there were very few genuine moments of kindness to balance the scales of karma that metaphorically hung overhead. And yet now he stood in the shadows of her bedroom, after having endured what was probably the bumpy morning ferry to get there and he was offering to aid her and her family in whatever way she dared conceive.
Most people would see this as a genuine gesture of kindness, while the more depraved would use this as an opportunity to use their enemy as a free manservant.
But Yang Xiao Long wasn't most people, and she certainly wasn't in the mood to see the benefits of using this particular individual as a servant.
"You wanna help, NOW? After all the stupid, idiotic, bullshit stunts you pulled throughout the last year. Now you suddenly feel like rolling up your sleeves and deciding to be a decent human being- Er, Faunus?!" The blonde would bristle visibly as her eyes flashed red. "You had your chance to be helpful a long time ago when we first met you. Instead you wasted a year of our lives subjecting us to pointlessly long gimmick entrances during sparring matches, spending your time outside brooding like an emo cliche, and Superkicking poor Jaune every time he so much as made eye contact with you!" Her golden mane would burst outward as the anger continued to build and her golden glow began shining through his shadowy corner, she would briefly notice the presence of heavy bandaging over his right eye but she was too infuriated to question him on what happened. "If you really wanna make up for what you put us all through then rebuild our friend Penny, resurrect Pyrrha from the dead, banish all the Grimm from Remnant, find me a new replacement arm and maybe..just MAYBE I can CONSIDER the thought of letting you help me in any way, shape, or form!"
The injured wolf Faunus would be struck silent by her tirade, he had expected some animosity from her given previous events but this was bordering upon downright abusive.
"I'm sorry Yang…but I can't do any of the things you're asking of me. Nothing short of a mystical genie could even hope to do half of those things." His voice lowered to a remorseful whisper as he bowed his head and reflected upon how useless he felt in that moment.
Yang to her credit would breathe a calming sigh as her brightly glowing hair came to rest upon her back once more, even though her eyes would keep a reddish hue as she glared at him.
"Then I'm just going to have to get well enough to leave this bed and find me a mystical genie, and when I do I'm going to make sure I get everything I want. Even if it means I have to sacrifice your life to bring back Pyrrha." The normally flirty woman's voice would adopt a cold edge as she closed her eyes and envisioned the scenario at hand, a giant genie demanding her sacrifice. "Because based on everything I've ever seen you do with your time in this life you'd be better off as a sacrifice: You contribute nothing to our fight against the Grimm, your very name defies the spirit of everything our ancestors fought for during the great war, and you're barely fit to serve as Weiss's manwhore let alone date someone as pure and sweet as my baby sister! Honestly I really wish I could do all of Remnant a favor and throw you to the literal wolves, but even they wouldn't find any sustenance from someone as emotionally deranged, mentally deficient, and physically repulsive as you Bálor Birugderc Moonlight."
Bálor would look at the once beautiful huntress in mortified awe at the depths of hurtful words she had managed to sling against him. No one, from his worst drill sergeant in the military, to the most vile prisoner in BlackVale Prison's Cell Block C had slung that kind of verbal mud in his direction. Even Glynda Goodwitch at her most furious wouldn't dare to go to such lengths in order to break him, and God only knew he had given her plenty of reasons to do so. Yet Yang Xiao Long, with one arm on her person and no fucks left to give had managed to do just that with all the ease of someone critiquing a so-bad-it's-good B movie.
Which made what happened next seem like the universe was giving both of them a middle finger.
He would let loose a strangled yell before pouncing on the blonde whose eyes were still smugly closed and wrapping his hands around her neck and throttling her as hard as he could, before being pulled off by a third party and pummeled into unconsciousness.
Yang's hand would subconsciously go to her neck upon remembering the day in question, had it not been for the fact that both her father and sister had heard him yell then there was a good chance that she would've died that morning. "If it weren't for Dad's quick reflexes and stone hands I would probably be resting beside Summer right now. To this day Ruby still thinks Dad was just being overprotective and tossed him out, but we both know that the truth would hurt her way too much." The brawler would watch her furry little companion chow down hungrily on his food, blissfully unaware of the fact that she was reminiscing upon darker times. "I mean sure I hated the guy, probably not as much as Weiss did but..I basically told him that his very existence meant so little to the world that he could be used as a human bargaining chip to mystical forces. If that's not going too far then I don't know what is." She would sigh audibly as she stared over at the picture of Summer holding a newborn Ruby on the counter, knowing that she would be appalled at the outburst she had directed towards her own father.
"I can't just keep sitting here boiling in my own anger like this, maybe I should try and move past this darkness..not to forget , but to seek forgiveness from those I've hurt and forgive those who've hurt me." The Golden-haired huntress would stare up at Remnant's broken moon with her lilac eyes on the verge of spilling tears, knowing that the path ahead of her would be physically demanding in terms of having to adapt her fighting style to compensate for her handicap and emotionally draining in terms of working through her various grievances towards others. "It's the right thing to do, after all: A Xiao Long never gives up the fight, no matter how hard things get. We always rise to the challenge and shine brightly."
Zwei would bark in agreement upon hearing her courageous words, and even Taiyang who had been silently watching them from the top of the stairs would nod his head in solemn agreement.
This truly was an emotionally draining experience for me as I had spent the entire day wrestling with the plot: In the beginning I had my mind set on making Yang a ruthless avenger, going off with Raven to train in the ways of the sword in order to hunt down those who hurt her (Blake, Adam, Ruby, Bálor, and eventually ending with Raven herself) but it seemed very...not Yang.
I then tried to go the route of traumatized PTSD patient who slowly learns to cope with what happened and eventually lead life as a normal woman, but I found this to be dry and even a little boring. Seriously, I fell asleep while writing it.
So I finally settled on the classic comeback tale, but not without addressing a few pitfalls in the other three fics.
Shadows of Mercy pretty much shows our Masked Protagonist being propositioned by Blake for a job, those who've read the summary know the deal. It would be kind of hard for him to do the job if Yang leaves with Raven
Separation shows that Ruby has been hunting for her lost friend under the false pretense that he had been sent away unfairly, unaware of what really happened and instead hoping for a happy reunion.
Sympathy for the Demon shows that Bálor kinda took Yang's jab about him barely being good enough for Weiss to heart, while also alluding to why he was so furious towards the brawler herself. Seriously, some of that stuff she said really can't be forgiven.
Sorry if any of this still sounds flimsy even after reading all four fics (and I'm REALLY sorry if you haven't)
That being said I have a bit of announcement to make: Starting tonight there will be a poll to decide which fic you guys think should take priority for the next month. The choices being the three fics previously mentioned, this fic, or my KH/RWBY Crossover fic Long Road Home. The poll closes at 9 AM Thursday so vote fast or forever hold your peace.
Thank you for reading, reviewing, or even voting if you felt up to it. I appreciate all of you for everything you do, it really helps keep my spirits up and reminds me why I should still enjoy RWBY.
Because outside of the wacky element of the FNDM, there are still some decent souls who'll give a shclub like me a fair shake.
Ta-Ta for now.