Clementine Davidson
Hey, can't believe we've got this much attention in only one chapter. Thanks, everyone! You're all the best!
This part of the prologue has a very different feel compared to the first one. It'll explore more of The Fall - or, our version of it, at least.
"Hey," you might be asking. "Why are you splitting up the prologue into parts? And why is the prologue so long? And how many parts are there in the prologue?!"
Well, you see. The reason why the prologue is split into parts is because… well… it's too damn long to be posted in a single chapter. The reason why the prologue is long in the first place is because it's necessary for us to show our AU and what's so different about it from the original RWBY universe. Basic rules (how auras work, characters' semblances, etc.) will stay the same, but many things is entirely different in this AU.
As for the last question… four parts. In total, the prologue is split into four parts.
FeugoFox42
Clementine isn't kidding with the attention: 16 favourites and 28 followers from just the first chapter alone. Holy balls, y'all are so good! I don't know whether that's because of the pairings (likely), because you love my writing (highly unlikely), or for your love of Clementine's writing (most likely, let's be honest), but it means so much to us that you're reading this.
And c'mon - four parts, four members of RWBY… in all fairness, it's a weak reason and (spoilers) it won't focus on all four members, but that's how the cookie crumbled.
Clementine Davidson
So… yeah, enjoy!
Beacon was secure once more. After the second leg of the Quarter Finals was cut short at Penny's dismemberment, the broadcast that rang across the CCT Network from the Black Queen Group gave way to a large wave of Grimm attacking the stadium and the surrounding area. Many of the Huntsmen (in Training or fully qualified) jumped in immediately to fend off the wave of darkness that descended upon the people of Vale. Even Penny aided in the battle, having not been completely destroyed in her fight against Pyrrha, but rather had her left arm ripped from her body.
Even though she wasn't in the best of places mentally, Pyrrha was a Four Time Champion at the Mistral Regional Tournament. It had already been embedded in her from such an early age; the instinct to fight and win.
She knew something was off when her own weapons started bending in her vision without her willing them to. And to top it off, winning by a landslide was what everyone was expecting. Frankly, having someone challenge her like this was new and exciting, as much as the warrior hated to admit it.
But when she forced Penny's eight swords away from her with her semblance, Pyrrha wasn't expecting or even aiming to rip Penny's arms off, and she especially wasn't expecting such a nonchalant response from the robot girl. It all made perfect sense to the Amazonian girl now. Penny always had such odd, robotic mannerisms. It was because she was a robot.
She did her best to fix Penny, but she wasn't exactly an expert on wires or technologies, much less an expert on robots - or was it 'cyborg'? It also… disturbed her how nonchalant the girl was acting in spite of getting her arm ripped off. The girl was armless, yet not out of the fight. She also told Pyrrha that she thinks Pyrrha won the battle, which was… nice of her to say.
There was shock in the audience, but not full blown terror, even at the sight of a girl's arm being severed. Penny's response was almost one of disappointment at the fact she'd lost a body part, even muttering "not again" to herself at the sight, which put a few people's minds at ease. And both of those factors greatly decreased the wave of Grimm that attacked everyone from what it could have been.
Blake did her best to help where she could. As a Trainee Huntress, it was her duty to protect the people during this time. And having been secluded in the library when the announcement came, Blake was on the front line when the Grimm started showing up. But in that time, she couldn't help but think about earlier. How Yang had basically snapped at her, how she had accused her of being like both of her moms in the past. She knew Yang was hurting, but her words hurt her just as much as her silence hurt Yang.
And suddenly, it seemed like the Gods were listening to her and taking pity, because catharsis for all the pent up anger and frustration had a perfect outlet in the form of a Grimm invasion.
Weiss and Ruby eventually found Blake again wondering back into the main courtyard at Beacon after the fighting had all but ceased, the cat girl far more at ease with her emotions after the waves of Grimm she tore down single handedly. The few Grimm that reacted to the crowd of the Vytal Tournament when Yang punched Mercury's leg were dispatched before the border, and the ones that did make it to the grounds of Beacon were killed before they could do much damage.
"Are you two okay?" Blake asked, running in to greet her two teammates with a hug.
"Considering the circumstances, I think we're in pretty good shape," came the reply from an aching but still functioning Weiss.
"None of the robots hurt you?" she asked again, already scanning her teammates with vigilant eyes, searching for any signs of injuries. She didn't know whether or not they were presumed dangerous, but she didn't want to take any chances and let her guard loose. Not with what had happened.
"Nope!" came Ruby's overly cheery reply. Blake could see how much she was forcing that smile; reality had reared its ugly head and it had reared it hard, to the point where even seasoned Huntsmen were uncertain of the outcome.
Ruby couldn't possibly remain that positive through it all, unless Blake was being really cynical, and Ruby could in fact maintain such a high level of positivity, in which case Blake would need to grill Ruby as to on how Remnant she could stay that chipper through the horror of the last 40 minutes. "I sniped the ones I saw first, cut down the ones that got too close."
"And even then, we didn't have much to do," Weiss added with a flick of her hair. Blake saw through that too. Weiss could see how all of the military tech was Atlas based, and there was a small hint of guilt in her eyes that part of the destruction around them came from Atlas, just as Blake thought with the White Fang, however small those numbers were. "What about you? When you ran off we were worried, but when the Grimm started attacking, neither Ruby or I had the time to contact you."
"I managed," came the blunt answer, skirting away from any potential follow up questions by outright not inviting them in and cutting that conversation off there.
"I don't get it," came the irritated voice of Roman Torchwick who, after being released from his cell on the Atlas ship, made his way down to ground level to escape the many security robots that were chasing him and Neo on the ship, only to be apprehended by more security robots on the ground, "you're just a bunch of kids! How could you beat us?"
"Uh… you attacked us," Ruby pointed out.
"Yes, that was the poi-"
"On our turf," she added.
"Yes. That. Was. The-"
"Which is a school for Huntsmen."
"Okay, yeah, that bits a li-"
"Consisting not only of Team RWBY, but four years' worth of students." Roman sighed at the logical onslaught from Ruby, either blissfully unaware or deliberately antagonising the master Conman with her reasoning. "Currently hosting the Vytal Tournament, where there are other Huntsmen schools here."
"Okay Red, I get it."
"Each with at least two years' worth of students in attendance."
"Red, that's enough. Your point it ma-"
"And the teachers too, who are all ex-Huntsmen or Huntresses and are far more skilled than us kids."
"Get me outta here please," the criminal begged of the Atlas soldiers holding him there, small smirks on their faces that clearly told him 'no'.
"And," Ruby mentioned, breaking only slightly beforehand because she initially forgot about them, but was reminded when she glanced off to one side and spotted a metallic corpse being transported away, "the Atlas Military and their cool robot soldiers."
"All of whom," Weiss added from her own knowledge of the project prior to attending Beacon, "have their own systems made to counteract any malware entered into them, meaning any sort of hostile takeover of their OS results in either it being purged within a few minutes or outright destroying the machine and the malware with it."
"Really," Ruby admitted, "you couldn't have picked a worse time to attack this place. No offense." She gave a nonchalant shrug. The continued insult to the plan he agreed to be part of made the conman scream in agony.
"And in all seriousness, how did you think this would play out?" Weiss asked the cigar smoking criminal, who remained silent from sheer embarrassment. "How could you plan something like this and expect it to go off effortlessly? Beacon is one of the four Huntsmen Academies of Remnant, each having their own level of security and countermeasures for people like you." She pointed her finger, her face marred with disgust. "What, did you expect Beacon to fall just because some Grimm and a few White Fang members tried to invade?" She was borderline shouting at this point. Blake cringed from the volume… and from the wrath of the infamous Ice Queen. "This is a school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, for Dust's sake! Are you actually that dense?!"
"Alright, that's enough." As one of the soldiers told the other to move on, Blake noted that even he looked thrown-off by the heiress'... explosion. "You've made your point kids, and we've had our fun."
As Roman was finally taken away, the man muttering praise to the men releasing him from that personal hell of being grilled by "a gothic 15 year old with a scythe" and her "fair haired snob friend", Blake turned to Weiss in concern. "You okay there Weiss?"
"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well," her Faunus mentioned, "you did kind of explode at him."
"I…" in the months since Beacon started, Weiss did acknowledge her standoffish nature and worked at bettering herself from who she was. Reflecting, she saw that Blake had a point. "I suppose you are correct. It was a bit explosive, wasn't it?"
Something clicked in the team leader's mind on hearing Weiss say that. "Wait. Where's Yang in all this?"
"Yang?" Weiss asked. "You're right. I would have expected her to join us with all the fighting. But I didn't see her once during the whole ordeal." The three girls searched around the courtyard from their positions on the ground, not finding any luck. Using her glyphs, Weiss even made a few steps so that RWB_ could search from a marginally higher vantage point.
Ruby turned to her friends, determination in her eyes. "Weiss, Blake, split up. Beacon is a large place, but we'll find her. I'll head back to the dorm and make my way back here. Weiss, search left of us. Blake, do the only other thing." With that, Ruby was replaced by a sea of red rose petals and a strong gust of wind.
"'Do the only other thing'? That's not very specific," the Faunus admitted as Weiss lowered them to the ground, trying not to sound overly emotional about going to search for Yang, but also not to sound monotonous in her delivery. Basically, she was trying to sound as far from Blake as she could whilst still staying true to Blake. It was a very hard task, she deduced. Yang was still a sore subject in her mind, and where part of her wanted to let Yang find her own way back, the other part knew that she would feel annoyed at herself if she didn't. Just because they had a disagreement doesn't exclude her from worrying about her wellbeing and safety, especially as her girlfriend. "Where should I start?"
"I'm not so sure," Weiss admitted. "But you're her girlfriend, a fact I can now quite easily see adds up on further inspection," she observed sarcastically, "surely in all the time you've been spending together, there were places you would frequent that she might go to when things got bad for her."
"Okay, please don't go shouting that out to everyone."
"Embarrassed?" Weiss' voice was monotone, but Blake clearly understood the teasing that was layered underneath.
"No!" came the all too speedy reply, one that made the ears atop Blake's head flatten underneath her bow. "No, it's just… we weren't ready to say anything yet."
"It's fine, your secret is safe with me."
"And Ruby?"
The heiress thought about her response before admitting, "...your secret is... with Ruby." Weiss mockingly placed a hand on Blake's shoulder, finishing her sentence with, "I wish you all the best keeping that under wraps," a gesture and comment that brought a small giggle to both girls' lips.
"But, in retrospect, I wouldn't exactly want the media hearing about our relationship. I'd be hounded just as much as she would be, and I think we could both do with none of that."
"That's understandable, I guess," she said, mumbling the last part. She never got the luxury of shying away from the media spotlight, particularly with her family's status in life. "Okay, we do actually need to go and search for Yang," Weiss admitted.
Blake felt the pang in her chest when Weiss said her name. She was already beginning to feel the guilt of what she had said earlier, and the consequences of it were starting to weigh on her shoulders. "Why?" she muttered to herself in response to her own stupidity.
"Excuse me?"
Amber eyes darted to the Heiress next to her, impatient blue staring and waiting for an answer. "Why would we need to?" Blake tried to defend. She wasn't exactly expecting Weiss to have heard her. "Ruby's going after her. She'll find her."
"Oh please," she scoffed, "that is your reasoning for not wanting to go look? Pathetic excuse, if you ask me." Weiss was right, and Blake knew it; there really was no excuse for not looking for Yang. She was just trying to find ways of not hurting herself anymore. "When you ran away, did Ruby find you?"
"No," Blake admitted.
"And why is that?"
The Faunus glared at her teammate, frustrated at the constant questioning sent her way. "I don't need you to be my therapist, Weiss!" Unimpressed, Weiss raised an eyebrow at the response. Blake broke first, sighing before stating that, "she didn't find me because she didn't know where to look."
"And she will know where to look with Yang?" she replied, playing the Grimm advocate in the scenario.
"Because they are sisters, Weiss. It's what they do."
"Yes, I know they're sisters, Blake," scoffed the heiress as she rolled her eyes. "You don't have to remind me how close they are." Weiss released a long sigh, and her mask of indifference crumbled a little; it was obvious now how much of this - how much of everything that had happened - took its toll on her. A pang of empathy shot through Blake. "Yang is… an important aspect in Ruby's life." Understatement of the year. "And I get the feeling Yang would never want her 'precious little sister' to see her like… well, a wreck," she bluntly put it with a tinge of awkwardness. "Yang would never want to show Ruby the more… human side of her. That dolt would never know where Yang would go. The only one who would know is someone she trusts, someone who she trusts more than any member of our team, someone special to her." Weiss paused for a moment. Her words slowly sunk into Blake's mind, making her realize what the heiress was trying to tell her. "There's only one person who would know where to look for her, Blake."
Weiss' words set something off inside Blake's head, and she turned towards the school once more. Stopping herself from reprimanding the secret Faunus for fleeing, Weiss let a small smirk cross her face as she saw Blake take off with a purpose.
She was going to find Yang, and apologise to her for what she had done and what she didn't say.
FeugoFox42
By now, hopefully you can see what sort of AU this story is taking place in. And we're not even done yet! For those of you who came from Clementine's story 'Fans and Girlfriends' - first of all welcome - you should realise that there was still one part of the extended preview that hasn't cropped up yet.
In the words of Samuel L. Jackson; "Hold on to your butts", 'cause it's coming… next time.
Clementine Davidson
So, that's that. Yay.
The next chapter will solely focus on Yang's character, AKA, the character who I love to write most. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like to write all the characters, but it's always been easy and more fun for me to write in her POV than in other's.
It will have lots of angst, heartbreak, and angst. Oh, did I mention there will be heartbreak?
Heh… Hehehe…
HAHAHAHA! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR HEARTS BREAKING!
FeugoFox42
...um…
As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated
Clementine Davidson
Thanks for reading our story, guys! Have a wonderful day! And lastly, bananas!