Chapter Two - Coming to Terms
(22 Days after the Fall of Beacon)
Xiao Long-Rose Residence
07:15
Epsilon walked over to the kitchen sink, turning on the hot water, letting it run for a few seconds until it was hot enough and washed the black blood off his face and arms, the black blood draining down the sink. After a minute, he turned off the tap and dried himself off, went into the cupboard and grabbed some cereal, and some milk from the fridge and made some breakfast, sitting down at the table and eating, while thinking to himself.
Why wasn't his scroll working? He tired to access it hours before but no signal came through, despite multiple attempts at refreshing and restarting his scroll, it wouldn't work. He wanted to contact his brother, find out what happened while he was hijacked and what happened to Beacon, and Vale. Epsilon wouldn't admit it, but even though Ultra was a terrible...thing...he was still his brother, and even as a fellow AI, he could still be destroyed. Penny was proof of that. But if his scroll wasn't working, and it had happened in the past, but not for this long. Epsilon thought of the worst case scenario, the CCT tower in Vale was destroyed, but, that couldn't happen, right? What could possibly destroy the tower?
Epsilon groaned, rubbing his forehead. There was so much he didn't know, it was infuriating. Epsilon sighed and finished his cereal, putting the bowl in the sink.
"Epsilon?" He turned to see Taiyang in the doorway to the kitchen, a surprised expression on his face.
"Oh...hello...we haven't met before...who are you?" Epsilon asked.
"I'm Taiyang Xiao Long, Yang and Ruby's father." He answered.
"Right! That's right, sorry, I remember now, Qrow showed me a picture of Team STRQ." Epsilon remembered, clicking his fingers.
"You're awake." Taiyang told him.
"Yeah, I am, very observant." Epsilon muttered sarcastically.
"Do you...know what's happened?" Taiyang asked.
"No, the last thing I remember was holding onto Penny's body, and I kind of blacked out, and woke up here about seven hours ago." Epsilon explained. "How long was I out? A couple of days?"
"Epsilon, you've been out for over three weeks, we were getting worried you might never wake up." Taiyang explained, sitting down at the table.
"Three weeks? Damn..." Epsilon rubbed his head, sitting down opposite Taiyang. "Look, I know that you must have questions, but I have to know, why isn't the CCT working? I've been trying to contact my brother-"
"The tower was destroyed. A giant Grimm Dragon flew right into it, tore the clockwork and Ozpin's office apart. Now, that Grimm is stuck up there, frozen." Taiyang explained to Epsilon.
"Holy fuck, a Grimm Dragon!? And the tower is gone, how are people communicating?" Epsilon asked hastily.
"They're not, it's all assumptions right now, the other kingdoms are blaming Atlas for having their robots attack Vale-"
"Makes sense, they were hijacked just like I was." Epsilon noted.
"-and now without communication, all the kingdoms are confused and afraid, basically baiting the Grimm to their borders." Taiyang finished.
"Okay...okay...giant Grimm Dragon destroys CCT, now frozen there, Atlas is blamed and the world in in chaos. Right, what about the others? Ruby?" Epsilon asked worryingly.
"Ruby's fine, she was unconscious at the base of the tower, David and Qrow got her out." Taiyang assured, Epsilon sighing in relief.
"Wait, David, he came back?" Epsilon asked, getting more and more confused.
"Yeah, he killed a lot of Grimm, probably helped save Vale from a total loss. There's a safe zone set up, and a lot of people made it out, but unfortunately not everyone." Taiyang said sadly.
"Wait...who?" Epsilon asked cautiously.
"It's best if you talk to Ruby and Yang, they were there and can tell you what happened." Taiyang told him. "I'm going to make them some breakfast, can you go wake them up?"
"Sure thing." Epsilon complied, getting up to leave. "And hey, thanks for letting me stay while I slept, I hope I wasn't an inconvenience."
"It's fine Epsilon, you might have been the only thing that Yang paid attention to when she came back." Taiyang told Epsilon, who shuddered, remembering her missing right arm. "And you took the name Xiao Long when you were made, and you protected my daughters at Beacon. As far as I'm concerned, you're family too."
"Wow, I-I can't thank you enough, I was afraid that you'd be less accepting of me because...you know-"
"You're an AI? You have aura, and a soul, you're still a person in my eyes, metal being or not." Taiyang told him.
"You're not like those things we saw back there." Ruby told Penny. "You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!"
Epsilon shook his head. What was that?
"Hey, you okay?" Taiyang asked.
"Yeah, I'm good." Epsilon lied. "I'll see you later." Epsilon exited the kitchen and knocked on the door he exited earlier, knowing it was Yang's room. No response came. He opened the door to see Yang looking at the sunrise out of the window. She was wearing a dark yellow short sleeves shirt and black shorts. "Yang?"
Yang visibly tensed when she heard her name, and turned to Epsilon, a shocked expression on her face.
"Epsilon?" Yang whispered, almost not believing what she saw. Epsilon saw down on the bed next to her, and before he could say a word, she wrapped her left arm around him and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back, feeling tests fall on his shoulder. "I thought I lost you."
"Lost faith in me that quickly, huh?" Epsilon joked.
"Epsilon, three weeks. Three. Weeks. Epsilon, I thought you were dead, you don't exactly have a pulse. I had you sitting at the base of my bed so I could keep an eye on you at all times." Yang explained, letting go of him and wiping her tears.
"Yang, I know this will be hard, but I need to know what happened the night Penny died." Epsilon told her.
"You don't...remember anything?" Yang asked.
"I was hijacked, I don't remember anything I did, or what happened, that night." Epsilon explained.
"Epsilon...you killed 312 people that night." Yang told him. Epsilon froze, eyes widening in complete horror.
"I-I-I killed people?" Epsilon couldn't believe it.
"Ultra told me before he left, and you told him when you were about to kill Jaune...and Pyrrha." Yang told Epsilon.
"Oh my god." Epsilon whispered, putting his face in his hands. 312 people. They were dead because of Epsilon. Epsilon and his stupidity. He should have noticed there was a bug in the system, he was a goddamn AI, he watched Cinder as she fought Ruby after implanting the bug, and he just entered the system without a care in the world. He should have known there was something seriously wrong with the CCT, he should have said something. Detected something. Why was he so useless!?
"Epsilon?" Yang asked, shaking him a little.
"Huh? Sorry. That's a lot to take in." Epsilon told her, rubbing his eyes, and looked at her bandaged arm. Or lack there of. "Yang, what the fuck happened to your arm?"
"The White Fang happened." Yang answered grimly, all previous signs of positive emotion washed away. "I was at the cafeteria, all the glass was broken and it was on fire. Blake was fighting a faunus, a bull faunus with a red sword."
"Adam Taurus." Epsilon knew who he was.
"H-He stabbed Blake in the stomach, I just, I got so angry. I screamed and swung at him...and then a woke up here. He sliced my arm off, Epsilon." Yang finished, quietly crying. Epsilon shuffled closer and hugged her, patting her on the back lightly. "And Blake- And Blake just ran again, without a word. And Weiss was taken away by her father, and we can't even talk, can't even tell me if she's fine. B-But Blake...Why did she leave me?" Yang cried more.
"Shh." Epsilon told her, calming her down as she cried onto his shoulder more, dampening it. After a few minutes, Yang breathed heavily and let go, eyes red from tears, not anger. She wiped away the tears, calming her breathing again. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop that. It was my job to protect you."
"You couldn't help it. I don't blame you for something you couldn't change." Yang assured him. "I'm just glad to have my brother back."
"I appreciate it, but you still have Ruby, and you're dad." Epsilon reminded her. "Look, I know it's been a while since we've talked, and I would over nothing more than to continue, but I need to talk to Ruby about what happened." Yang sighed heavily, but nodded.
"Okay, I understand. Just...don't take too long, okay?" Yang asked.
"Got it." Epsilon assured. "Oh, and Taiyang's making breakfast, he'll bring it in soon." Yang nodded as Epsilon left. She sighed and looked out the window again, looking at the crow sitting on the tree.
Epsilon knocked on the other door, which he assumed was Ruby's room.
"Come in!" Ruby yelled, Epsilon opening the door to find Ruby getting out of bed, wearing a matching dark grey long sleeved shirt and pants with faded red polka dots and a white lining at the front and collar. Ruby turned to Epsilon, and she smiled widely. "Epsilon!" She practically leapt onto him, hugging him tightly, Epsilon shocked a little but hugged back. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
"Thanks Ruby." Epsilon thanked with a small smile. "How are you, I heard you fell unconscious."
"I'm all better now, I've been hunting Grimm every day to keep up with my training. Can't slack off, can I?" Ruby asked him.
"Still hunting Grimm, even after what happened to Beacon. Good girl." Epsilon complimented, Ruby blushing at the compliment, muttering at him. "Ruby...we need to talk, it's probably best if we sit."
"Oh, okay." Ruby said, sitting down on her bed, Epsilon sitting on the opposing bed.
"Who's bed is this? Yang's?" Epsilon asked.
"Yeah, it is. We always shared a room." Ruby told him.
"Then why-"
"Is she in the guest room? She needed time to recover, still does." Ruby answered, lowering her head slightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Epsilon told Ruby.
"It's okay. So...what is it?" Ruby asked, crossing her legs on her bed.
"Taiyang told me that you were unconscious at the top of the CCT tower, and David and Qrow got you out. What happened up there?" Epsilon asked. Ruby's smile faltered a little, and she took a deep breath.
"Jaune and Pyrrha were at the tower when Cinder made her way to the top. Pyrrha sent Jaune away in a locker and she went to fight her on her own. Jaune contacted me and Weiss to stop her, and we made our way there. But...when I reached the top, Cinder shot Pyrrha in the chest. I-I watched Pyrrha turn to ash before me. And after that, I remember my head hurting, and a white light. Then...I woke up here." Ruby explained to Epsilon, who slowly took it in.
"First Penny...now Pyrrha...did anyone else die?" Epsilon asked her.
"Roman Torchwick. Me and Ultra fought him and Neo on one of Atlas' Airships, Neo flew off the ship, but I think she's still alive. When Torchwick was about to kill me, Ultra put a machete in his chest, and fed him to a Griffon. That's the last I saw of Ultra, but I know he survived." Ruby told him.
"Stuff really went down, didn't it?" Epsilon asked her, and she nodded. "But, how did you get away from Cinder?"
"Well, have you heard of the Silver Eyed warriors?" Ruby asked Epsilon, almost excited.
"Vaguely, fairy tales about them." Epsilon informed Ruby.
"Well, according to David, I froze the Grimm Dragon with my Silver Eyed abilities, and now it still clings to the CCT." Ruby said.
"Wait, you have abilities?" Epsilon asked Ruby.
"Yep. I don't really know what they can do yet, but David told me that the Grimm feared them, and that my mother was one too." Ruby explained. Epsilon sighed and looked at the floor. "Epsilon?"
"This all happened in one night? All this death, destruction, fear, everything that happened was caused by Cinder?" Epsilon asked her.
"Yeah...why?" Ruby asked him, cocking her head to the side slightly.
"That's exactly it, Ruby. 'Why'. We know who did it, what they did, when it happened, where it happened and how it happened. But why did they do it? What was their motivation?" Epsilon asked rhetorically.
"I-I don't know." Ruby answered.
"It was rhetorical, Ruby." Epsilon told her. "Ruby, this goes way back, all the way back to the day you stopped Roman at that dust shop. Cinder and her group decided to destroy Beacon and cripple Vale, and leave the rest of Remnant in fear and confusion. I know what you know, Yang know and Taiyang know, but that's only a glimpse at what has really happened, and why."
"So...what now?" Ruby asked Epsilon.
"I'm going back to the source, where everything began, and I'm going to find out why Beacon fell, and find those responsible." Epsilon told her, and she nodded. Epsilon was going to bring justice to Yang, for losing her arm, to Penny and Pyrrha for their deaths
"I have to go back to Beacon."
End of Chapter Two
Right, so this chapter is purely Epsilon catching up on the events of the Volume 3 finale of RWBY, and his perspective on the events. The thing about Epsilon is he is completely unaware of anything that happened, and after three weeks, he can't even find out about the repercussions because the CCT is down. Next chapter, Epsilon will return to Beacon, forcing his way past an army of Grimm to find clues. Additionally, an enemy will appear next chapter, who will be reappearing throughout the story as a conflict to Epsilon, but more on that next chapter.
If you liked what you read, leave a review and don't forget to follow and favourite, and I'll see you all in
Chapter Three: Welcome back to Beacon...Again