Thanks for the reviews and advice guys! I really appreciate it! Especially to my first reviewer Starlighz and my supportive friend boris-the-red.
Ever since Ruby and Jaune boarded the private, auto-pilot airship Professor Ozpin allowed them to use; Ruby had been reading the report diligently for herself. She would have asked Jaune if he wanted to read it with her, but not even a full minute after the airship took off, he immediately sprinted to the nearest bathroom, much to Ruby's amusement.
Ruby would know, she timed Jaune with her scroll.
"You couldn't even last one minute?!" Ruby teased towards the bathroom door through a fit of laughter.
As Jaune was hunched over the toilet, he shouted, "Shut up Ru-buuurrrrgg!" before he was interrupted by a stream of dirt-brown vomit bursting from his mouth. This sent her into an even harder fit of laughter that forced her to lean against the wall to steady herself.
After regaining her ability to breath, she started to get slightly worried for her friend. All she could hear from the other side of the door were moans of misery and the occasional cough.
"Is there anything I can do?" As much as she enjoyed teasing Jaune, she still cared about his well-being, so she would often try to alleviate his suffering anyway she could.
"Could you get me some mouthwash please?" he groaned, not risking lifting his head away from the toilet in case another surprise burst of puke would spew.
"Okay, I'll be in the seats when you're done."
After she turned the ship's storage room upside-down looking for a bottle of mouthwash for her friend, Ruby took a seat near the front of the ship next to the window to continue reading the report.
The report was very detailed and informative, even supplying pictures of the Beowolves that were responsible for the carnage that ravaged the village. As far as she could tell, the Beowolves did not look any different from average ones. But she learned a long time ago that looks could be deceiving. One piece of information that had caught Ruby's eye was the description of the Alpha Beowolf, the pack leader. The Alpha was seen barking orders to its subordinates from atop the various buildings.
"Wow, I've never seen a Beowolf do that. They really are intelligent.
As she was focusing heavily on the papers on her lap, flipping through pages and formulating plans in case they would encounter the beasts; her scroll began shouting "Come At Me! And You'll See! I'm More Than Meets The Eye!"
With a yelp of surprise, Ruby launched herself out of her seat, startled by the booming volume that was abruptly blasting out of her pocket.
"Dammit! Why can't I ever remember to turn the freaking volume down on this!?" Ruby reprimanded herself as she ripped the scroll out of the pocket in her hood.
"Wait. That's "I Burn". Yang must be calling!" Ruby ecstatically thought. Ruby wasted no time yanking the scroll open. It showed an enlarged picture of Yang blowing an exaggerated raspberry at the camera. Under the picture was a blinking rectangle that was flashing the word "Calling".
When Ruby pressed the "Pick-Up" button, the video chat activated and showed Yang smiling and waving. From what Ruby could see, the area Yang was in was teaming with trees and shrubbery.
"Hey little sis!" Yang greeted with joy radiating from her voice.
Ruby had missed her sister deeply since she was sent away last week. They had never been separated for so long since they were both in team RWBY. The two siblings loved each other deeply, if Ruby wasn't busy doing things with Jaune, she was almost guaranteed to be getting into mischief with Yang. Suffice to say, Ruby had been suffering sisterly withdrawals.
"Yang! How have you been? I missed you! Did you miss me? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, easy Ruby!" Yang intervened, ceasing Ruby's consistent series of questions.
"I'm fine, and yes, I've missed you." Yang assured her as she sat comfortably on the bleeding corpse of an Ursa she beat to death. She made sure to drop the lifeless husk under the shade of a tree as she relaxed from a hard day's work.
"So, how are things back home? Are Blake and Weiss getting along over there?" Yang asked, hoping the two had not come to another grievous disagreement while she was gone.
"Actually, they left the day after you did, but they were getting along just fine." Ruby informed.
Much to Ruby's surprise and Blake's approval, Weiss started becoming much more open-minded when it concerned the Faunus. While she did still resent the White Fang to a degree, she had moved past associating every Faunus with them. One time when Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were out shopping for supplies while Yang was away on her mission, they encountered a group of thugs surrounding a terrified Faunus woman with dog ears with the intention of mugging her, or worse. Ruby and Blake had immediately reached for their weapons to incapacitate the despicable low-lives. But before they even touched their weapons, Weiss had already swooped down upon the thugs and beat them into bloody pulps of unconsciousness. After she was done with them, she immediately went to console the shivering woman, hugging her and whispering soothing words into her ear. Ruby and Blake could only stare dumfounded until Weiss shouted at them, commanding them to call the police. This greatly improved Blake's opinion of her and relations between the ninja and the heiress have never been better.
"That's good, but you must be getting lonely over there, huh?" Yang knew that her sister wasn't the most social of individuals, but she knew that Ruby loathed being alone for an extended period of time.
"Nope! I got sent on a mission this morning with Jaune."As Ruby replied to Yang's incorrect assumption, Yang could not help but notice how merrily Ruby had said it.
"Oh, I see. Guess I don't have to worry about you being lonely, do I? I guess I know what you and Jaune do when the rest of the team is gone." Yang said through a Cheshire smile. Her lilac colored eyes were filmed to the brim with mischief Ruby could see as plain as day.
"Yaaaaaang!" Ruby whined as her face's complexion began to match that of her signature hood.
No matter how much Ruby would deny it and no matter how many mental exercises she completed to convince herself otherwise, Yang knew that Ruby had a crush on "Vomit Boy". Everyone knew it. The only person who was completely oblivious to that fact was the blundering knight himself. With that in mind, Yang never passed up an opportunity to tease her baby sister concerning her crush.
"Did you at least keep it out of our dorm? I'm not gonna have to spray the room down when I get home, will I?" Yang teased, reveling in Ruby's embarrassment.
"Can we change the topic please?!" Ruby screamed, hoping to stop Yang before she continued.
"Fine fine, so where are you and Vomit Boy heading anyway? And what type of mission is it?" Yang questioned, deciding to stop teasing her and abide by her sister's wishes…..for now.
Hoping to avoid anymore teasing, Ruby gave her a complete description of their task, explaining everything from the village's condition to the Beowolves responsible.
Yang was not pleased at all. Her little sister was being sent to a possibly hostile environment with only one teammate, and while she liked Jaune and all, she had very little faith in his abilities, even if he has improved over the months.
"Ruby, I can't say that I'm comfortable with this at all." Yang said with discontent evident in her voice.
"Why's that. Is something wrong?" Ruby questioned, wondering what was bothering her sister.
"I just don't like that Professor Ozpin sent you on a mission like this without a full team backing you up." Superior or no, Yang was going to have a little talk with the headmaster when she returned.
"It's just an investigation mission," Ruby assured, trying to soothe Yang's discomfort, "and besides, he ordered us to call for back-up if we believed we needed it."
"If it's just supposed to be an investigation, why is he sending two of you?"
"Beowolves are nomadic; the chances of us encountering them are very small since they attacked over two days ago. He's just trying to be careful." Said Ruby, trying to defend her headmaster.
But Yang was not having any of it. If her little sister was going on this mission, she was gonna at least have one competent teammate.
"Hey Ruby, what's the name of the village and what time should you arrive there." Yang interrogated
Not understanding the purpose behind her questions, she decided to just answer the questions.
" Yagsara Village, and we should be there in about four and a half hours. Why do you ask?"
As Ruby was reciting the name, Yang was checking her map that was installed in her scroll.
"Yagsara…Yagsara…Oh, there it is." Yang thought as she located the small territory. It was a good ways away from any major cities, so it was no wonder that Yang had never heard of it.
"Let's see, judging from my current location, if I move fast, I should get there about half an hour before they do." Yang calculated, reminding herself to thank Blake for teaching her how to judge distance over time.
"I'm gonna meet you there when you get there. I'll be helping you with this." Yang declared while jumping up off her "chair" and wiping any stray fur off of her rump.
Nothing was changing her mind. She wanted to make absolutely sure that Ruby would be okay.
"Are you sure about this? Don't you have a mission you should be on?" Although Ruby would love to be with Yang again, she didn't want to interfere with her duties either.
"Relax Ruby, I finished an hour ago. I'll see-"
Before Yang could finish her sentence, Ruby's connection to her had been instantly terminated, showing a black screen where the video feed of her sister had once been.
"Yang? Yang?!" She called out, rapidly clicking the "Re-Connect" button, but to no avail.
"What happened? I hope she's okay…"
Having given up on re-establishing a connection after two minutes of failure, she put the scroll back in her pocket, making sure to turn down the volume to a reasonable level this time, and hoped that Yang would call back later.
She was so pre-occupied with the distressing thoughts of her sister that she didn't notice Jaune sit next to her.
Jaune called her name three times, but ceased when he noticed the frown on her focused face.
"Hey, you okay?" Jaune questioned while gently shaking her shoulder, genuinely concerned for her.
Lightly jumping from the unexpected physical contact breaking her thoughts, Ruby finally noticed the object of her affections speaking to her.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about it." Ruby assured him, giving him the most convincing smile she could muster.
Jaune had seen Ruby smile enough times to know when her smiles were fakes. It was painfully obvious that she was lying, and as much as he would like to help her with whatever was disturbing her, he trusted her enough to tell him when she was ready. So he simply left it alone.
"Oh yeah, Yang's gonna be joining us when we get to the village. You don't mind do you?" Ruby asked as she put the reports in Jaune's bag for safe-keeping.
"Of course not, I'm glad for the extra help."Jaune skeptically chuckled.
As much as he liked the idea of backup, he was slightly put off by Yang. He didn't hate her; he actually enjoyed her company despite the constant onslaught of teasing he would receive from her. It was just that she would always send him a venomous glare whenever he got close to Ruby. He didn't know what he did to offend her concerning Ruby, and wanted to confront her about it, but his fear for his physical health and his "boys" prevented him from doing so.
Eager to change the subject, Jaune asked, "So how long is it till we get there?" He had hoped that it wouldn't be long before he could return to the holy sanctuary that he called "land".
In response to his question, Ruby giggled while reaching into her pocket, pulling out the mouthwash she had retrieved, and gently put it in his hands, knowing the intent behind his question.
"Sorry Jaune, you've got at least four and a half hours before we land."
"Dammit!"
(Elsewhere)
He had thought that his assignment would be simple. Find the girl, capture the girl, and bring her back alive. It sounded easy enough, until he had begun observing the buxom blonde ever since she had entered the forest yesterday. Half of his mission was to observe her and gauge how strong she was, so in an attempt to do that, he sent one of his Alpha Ursas to engage her in combat, and possibly knock her out to save him the effort. But when he watched the fight he had instigated, his hopes for a relatively trouble-free mission had been obliterated, much like the poor Ursa. At first, the fight had been fairly even. The two matched each other blow-for-blow, but that changed instantly when the Ursa clipped a strand of her golden mane when it swiped at her with its enormous claws. As soon as she noticed the single strand of yellow on the ground, the girl roared with rage and erupted into a cyclone of fire and verbal vulgarity. The girl then proceeded to assault the poor creature, pummeling it for a full two minutes with her shotgun propelled punches, and then proceeded to rip its spine out of its anus. Having acquired her gruesome weapon of choice, she began to wrap the spine around its massive throatand pulled on it with all her might, robbing the poor creature of its ability to breathe. She did not stop until the Ursa had given one final twitch, and then remained still as it slipped into death's cold embrace.
The assassin was a man of logic. He had little room in his heart for fickle and illogical things like emotion. He had abandoned his ability to feel a long time ago. But it was at that moment that he began to feel an emotion that he had not felt in a very long time.
Fear.
This was an adversary not to be trifled with. If possible, he would attempt to avoid unnecessary conflict with the blonde behemoth all together. But for that to be possible, he would have to find a way to distract her so that he could move in and knock her out. A quick, sharp chop to the back of the head would suffice.
As he observed her from the cliff overlooking the forest the woman was in, he noticed her take out a scroll and begin to make a phone call as she used his deceased minion's corpse as a chair.
"Perfect" he whispered
He could not have asked for a better distraction. That scroll would serve swimmingly as a distraction. As long as he could close the distance between them without alerting her, he could end this mission sooner than he thought. With that in mind, he stealthily leaped off the cliff and landed on top of a tree with enough greenery to conceal him. After jumping from tree to tree, he stopped at the tree the buxom blonde had been resting under. He had made sure to position himself directly above her.
He could have initiated his plan right then and there, but had decided against it. He couldn't help but ease drop on the girl's conversation after he had learned that the blonde was speaking with her sister. Most people would have accused him of wasting time, but he believed in learning as much as he could about his opponent. It was a lesson that had served him well in his life as an assassin. Even though he was not killing his target in this situation, the same principles applied. Knowing your target, inside and out, was key.
"Hey Ruby, what's the name of the village and what time should you arrive there." The blonde had asked, with a slight edge to her voice that he had picked up on.
" Yagsara Village, and we should be there in about four and a half hours. Why do you ask?" questioned the sister through the scroll.
"Now this is interesting. Why would she be asking about Yagsara?" he wondered.
"I'm gonna meet you there when you get there. I'll be helping you with this." Yang affirmed with finality.
So that was it. The village had most likely called Beacon for assistance after the Beowolves had been sent on their test run. He would need to report this to his master after he was done here. If these other two hunters were as skilled as this one, then they could further complicate things for tonight's plan.
It looked liked the blonde was finishing her conversation. Now was the time.
Concentrating his aura, he raised the palm of his hand to align it with the scroll in the girl's hand.
(Yang)
"Relax Ruby, I finished an hour ago. I'll see-"before she could finish her sentence, the scroll's screen flashed a rapid series of colors, spitting sparks in all directions, blinding Yang and causing her to drop it while she covered her eyes to avoid any further damage.
"Son of a bitch!" she screamed vulgarly as she furiously rubbed her eyes attempting to ease the aching sensation in them.
Having no idea what had happened, she inspected her scroll that was at her feet.
The piece of equipment was completely destroyed. Its screen was shattered, the silver casing was charred black, and there were visible streams of smoke arising from the burnt remains. But what caught her eye was the reflection off of one of the shards of the destroyed screen.
Something was descending upon her from behind, and quickly!
With agility and reflexes developed from years of her huntress training, she shot her shot-gauntlets at an angle towards the ground and propelled herself away from her current position, dodging the assailant's attack by the skin of her teeth. Landing on her feet about ten feet away, she immediately began to inspect the bastard who had the balls to try and sneak attack her.
The man was a little bit taller than her and although he appeared to be skinny, she could see developed muscle poking through the dark blue combat suit he was wearing. He was equipped with what appeared to be a katana that was sheathed and strapped on his back securely. Much to Yang's annoyance, she could not get a good look at his face, due to the dark blue hood he was wearing that was attached to his suit. He looked as if he had just threw a punch, so it was safe to assume that it was him that caused her scroll to implode the way it did to distract her.
"Hey! What's your freaking problem?!" Yang shouted at the mysterious man, angered that he had just attacked her.
Ignoring her question, the man had shifted into his fighting stance, keeping his right foot forward as well as his right fist.
"My apologies, but I have orders to capture you and bring you in to my superiors. If you come willingly, we can avoid any unnecessary conflict and/or injuries. Please surrender yourself in a calm and submissive manner, ma'am." The hooded man spoke with the most tranquil voice Yang had ever heard. It was like he had said it many times before. She could only stare unbelievingly at the bizarre man.
"You destroy my scroll, knock me out, and now you're trying to capture me. And you wanna make requests?! Fuck you!" Yang screamed while raising her middle finger at the man.
"If you think that I'm gonna just let you take me, you've got another thing coming!" she shouted as she reloaded Ember Cilica, ready to fight.
"I figured you would say that, but I didn't want to make assumptions." He replied.
"Before we begin, its common courtesy for two opponents to make introductions before engaging in combat. My name is Johansen." He greeted politely.
Astonished by the manners her enemy was presenting, she decided to entertain him.
"Yang Xiao Long." She half-heartedly replied as she reciprocated his greeting, with eyes narrowed and focused.
"It is an honor to fight such a worthy opponent, Ms. Xiao Long. Let us begin."
The two remained still as stone for minutes as the wind gently caressed their motionless forms, waiting for the other to make the first move, but with Yang possessing the least amount of patience between the two, she began to fire her gauntlets rapidly at Johansen hoping she would land at least one shot. Showing grace and flexibility as he quickly closed the distance between him and Yang, Johansen had expertly dodged all of the screaming Aura spheres she launched at him. Now that he was close, he could engage Yang on her home turf; close combat.
He swiftly threw a barrage of powerful and precise punches aimed at her face and chest, all of which Yang had either blocked or dodged. Unwilling to let up, Johansen attempted a sweeping kick in an effort to kick her legs out and trip her, but Yang anticipated this and leaped over the appendage before it could make contact with hers. Before she landed back on the ground, she aimed a swift kick at the side Johansen's face. It met its mark and sent Johansen tumbling away a good five meters before he managed to fling himself back up toward Yang's direction, hoping to stop her before she sent another series of shots at him.
When Johansen got close enough, she hurled herself towards him, jumping in the air and swinging a round-house kick towards his face. Narrowly dodging the leather boot that had grazed the right side of his hood, he grabbed Yang's other leg and began to swing her around and around until he released his grip and sent her speeding through the air, twirling towards the same tree she had been resting under before the fight. Her flight was abruptly halted as her back made direct contact with the trunk of the tree which elicited a yelp of pain from Yang, a sharp cracking sound from the trunk, and a wet popping sound from her back. As she sunk from the trunk to the ground moaning in pain, she immediately began to feel her Aura repair the painful injury inflicted on her back and began to get back on her feet. Seeing the blue blur that was her adversary jet towards her, she propelled herself in his direction with the intention to meet him half-way.
As soon as the streaks of yellow and blue met, they began a fast paced cycle of punches, kicks, and counter-attacks. The two were moving so quickly and fighting so ferociously that every blow thrown created a gust of wind that was so powerful it was bending the trees surrounding them.
As Yang swung at Johansen, firing her right gauntlet for extra measure, Johansen leaped over her fist and kicked her left cheek in the process. Refusing to be staggered, she grabbed the foot attached to her cheek and began slamming him into the ground repeatedly.
"HOW! DO! YOU! LIKE! THIS!" Yang growled through her teeth, slamming him into the ground with more force after every word.
As Johansen was being flung around by Yang, he shoved his hand into his pocket, ripping out a throwing knife. With expert precision, he sent the knife flying into the shoulder of the arm she was using to grab his leg. With a sudden shriek of pain as the knife penetrated her shoulder, she released her grip mid-swing, sending Johansen flying into the air far away from her into a tree. As soon as he landed onto the highest branch, he rebounded towards her with his fists tightened.
Gritting her teeth in pain and frustration, Yang tore the blade out of her shoulder and chucked it into the bushes. When she saw that Johansen was once again zooming in her direction, she soared into the air towards Johansen using Ember Cilica. As soon as they met in the air, the foes began exchanging blows and matching each other while doing so. Their punches and kicks slammed into one another quickly and forcefully. Even after they had landed they were engaged in their vicious dance, determined to land a solid hit on the other.
As Johansen threw his fist at Yang's face, she crouched, letting the fist sail over her head. Taking advantage of the opening that presented itself as he missed his punch, Yang delivered the swiftest rising kick she could into the bottom of Johansen's jaw, sending him soaring twenty meters into the air above her. Wasting no time, Yang slammed her knuckles together, unleashing her Aura. Her eyes had instantly bled from a beautiful and soothing violet into a menacing and intimidating crimson red. The entirety of her body ignited and exploded into bright-orange flames as her golden locks flapped wildly due to the ferocity of the flames that had consumed her. Aiming to end this fight, Yang fired herself into the air behind Johansen, landing a fifteen-hit air combo into his arms, ribs, and head using the last of her rounds in Ember Cilica and her Aura enhanced punches. Finally, she brought the heel of her flame consumed foot on top of his head with as much force as she possibly could, launching him down into the forest at break-neck speed. His blazing body shot through the air like a cannonball, making impact with solid ground and creating an enormous shock wave that uprooted every tree within a twenty meter radius. A giganticdust cloud enveloped the area and the massive crater his body created upon impact with the ground.
Immediately after landing from her aerial attack, Yang swapped magazines and steeled herself while keeping direct eye contact with the enormous plume of dirt.
(Johansen)
This was not going well. He had hoped that in engaging Ms. Xiao Long in close combat, he could beat her into unconsciousness without damaging her too much, but it had become painfully obvious that he was out-classed by this woman in terms of hand-to-hand fighting. He was suffering second-degree burns on various parts of his body, the sharp pains in his ribs led him to believe that they were fractured, and Ms. Xiao Long had dislocated his left arm during her aerial combo. To add insult to injury, his hood had been incinerated by the flames that danced violently around her as she assaulted him, revealing his face to the world.
Feeling his Aura begin to patch the wounds littering his body, he picked himself up from the ground while popping his arm back into place, shrugging off the pain from doing so. His vision was completely obstructed by the dirt floating through the air, but he could sense and pinpoint Ms. Xiao Long's blazing Aura clearly. The woman was possibly his greatest challenge yet. If he was going to even stand a chance against the blonde inferno, then he would need to start engaging her with the intent to kill.
As he slowly reached for the katana sheathed on his back, his Aura had begun to sputter around his body.
This woman was indeed worthy, if she could force his hand like this…
(Yang)
Yang had been standing at the ready with her gauntlets ready as her ferocious Aura was still dancing wildly around her. Although she clearly had the upper hand in this battle, she could not afford to let her guard down, even for a second. This guy was giving her a run for her money and more. Not many people could say that they had forced Yang to unleash her Aura like this.
After thirty seconds of patiently waiting for the dust to settle, Yang started to make out a moving silhouette leaving the massive crater. Johansen was walking calmly in her direction without the hood concealing his face and his combat suit was dirtied and ruined.
"So that's what he looks like…" Yang thought as she began to inspect the physical appearance of her enemy.
He was as pale as Ruby with spiky, cobalt-blue hair. As Yang had seen earlier, his muscles were well-developed, a testament to the rigorous training he must have endured. But three things had caught the most attention from her concerning her enigmatic adversary. Firstly, his Aura had completely consumed his body in the form of crackling, neon-blue electricity, much like her flames had consumed her. Secondly, a pair of furry and pointy blue wolf ears stood rigidly from the top of his head, revealing him to be a Faunus, much to Yang's surprise. And finally, she was captivated by his electric-blue eyes that seemed to pierce her very soul.
His emotionless…hollow… vacant eyes.
"I must confess, even after observing you for an extended period of time, I still underestimated you. For that, I apologize. Please allow me to make amends, Ms. Xiao Long."
As Johansen's Aura continued to grow, he raised his right hand and fired what appeared to be an electric sphere into the sky above, only for it to disperse. To Yang's astonishment, the sky began to cloud over at an alarming rate. In less than ten seconds, the sky was smothered by an enormous, ominous cloud that allowed very little sunlight to faze through. With an explosion of thunder, a lightning bolt danced across the sky into the horizon, briefly illuminating the area.
Yang, to put it lightly, was completely baffled. Not only had this guy shook off her last attack like it was nothing, but now he was unleashing more aura then she currently was while summoning a massive electrical storm at will. She had to unleash her aura just to do some legitimate damage against him, but he was holding back the entire time. That fact alone had intimidated her, although she would never show it.
With a mighty roar, she drastically increased the amount of aura she was expelling, further feeding the raging cyclone of fire circling around her to match the flashing lightning storm her adversary was emitting. She needed to end this as soon as possible. Keeping her Aura unleashed for extended periods of time became more taxing the longer she sustained it.
With flames circling her right fist and fury in her eyes, the cyclone of orange fire charged at the electric storm.
With sparks zipping through his blade and vacancy in his eyes, the blue electric storm sped towards the cyclone of fire.
As the two explosive forces of nature met, Yang's gauntlet had met Johansen's katana in a struggle for dominance as their respective elements continuously obliterated the forest around them. The fist and the blade pushed and shook against one another, neither gaining any ground on the other.
That was, until, Johansen had begun to undergo a horrific change.
His aura had shifted from a blue that was as bright as the evening sky, to a blue that was darker than dusk. The white of his eyes slowly bled into black, and the blue of his irises had been replaced with a glowing crimson red.
The dark electricity clashing against the flames had become twice as ferocious, beating the flames into submission with each flash and crackle.
The force Johansen's katana was pressing against Yang's gauntlet had grown immensely, much to Yang's confusion. This menacing new power that had sprung unexpectedly from her foe amazed and terrified her as she was being pushed back by the blade. With a lightning bolt descending from the dark void above slamming into Johansen, he channeled the foreign electricity into his sword, electrocuting and blasting Yang into the forest howling in pain with her flames destroyed. Her airborne body slammed and destroyed every tree it met, shattering through the points of contact, only for the painful and excruciating cycle to continue onto the next tree. Her body had finally stopped and collapsed onto the grass as she collided with a gigantic tree thick enough to withstand the force of the collision.
Yang had never felt this much pain. Many of her bones were broken, blood oozed through her lips as she coughed, and small sparks of electricity still stung her, forcing a twitch of agony from her with every spark. As dark spots slowly consumed her vision and unconsciousness began to consume her, there was only one thought on her mind.
"Ru….by…I'm…..sorry…"
(Johansen)
Feeling the darkness begin to recede back into his core, Johansen began to feel his Aura return to its natural state, only for it to disperse. Johansen had never felt this drained before in his life. He could barely stand up on his feet, having to dig his blade into the ground and use it as a crutch. His breath was labored, his muscles screamed in pain, and he was beginning to see double. He would have liked to fall unconscious so that he could rest, but he needed to inform his superiors that he had completed his mission.
He slowly reached into his pocket, pulling out a black scroll that had been customized to resist excess amounts of electricity. Pulling the device open, he began to scroll across his contacts list, stopping at the name "Ivan" and pressing "Call".
(In the darkness of a hallway)
As Ivan power walked through the hallway, he could not even begin to fathom how this unexpected boon had come to be. Finding test subjects for his experiments had never been a difficult task. With the invention of his new Beowolf, the amount of test subjects brought in daily increased by a fair amount. But never in his wildest dreams did he think that he could acquire such a valuable specimen.
At first, he didn't think much of the girl. She was only a first-year student at Beacon and didn't look powerful in the slightest. She was only chosen to be captured because he needed a guinea pig with an unlocked Aura and she was alone, but to think that she could stand on equal ground with Johansen and force him into using his Aura. He could hardly believe it when Johansen had called him, giving him a full report of his mission progression. He had finally found what he had been looking for.
He had finally found another specimen strong enough for the transformation.
Having arrived at his destination, Ivan had allowed some of his Aura to seep slowly into the colossal doors in front of him. Immediately after he halted the flow of his Aura, the doors shuddered as they slowly opened, granting him access into the darkness of the throne room. As he walked further into the dark, his eyes slowly adjusted and he began to make out the figure sitting comfortably in the black throne in the center of the room. The figure slowly opened its eyes, revealing a sapphire-blue left eye and a ruby-red right eye.
"Ivan, why have you disturbed my slumber…" the figure questioned with a dark, transcendent voice.
"My most sincere apologies my Lord, I just wanted to inform you that Johansen has completed his mission. Soon we may have a second Forbidden." Ivan informed as he kneeled on his right knee.
As soon as he finished, Ivan yelped in pain as he felt his entire body tighten as it began to be stretched painfully as if he was tied to a rack. While his arms and legs were being pulled to their limits, he felt himself floating to the figure and stopping when he was directly in front of its face. Ivan found it extremely difficult to breath as fear began to overcome him when he was forced to stare directly into the pools of aloofness and malevolence that were his lord's eyes.
"You awoke me from my sleep to deliver me such trivial information? Do you believe me to be so dense that I need to be told the obvious? Do you have a death wish?" the voice interrogated calmly.
"B-B-B-But my Lord, I also have news concerning Yagsara! Two other students were sent there to investigate the attack!" Ivan informed, trying desperately to appease the monster before him.
Ivan could feel his throat begin to contract.
"THEIR NAMES ARE ROSE AND ARC!" Ivan screamed through high-pitched wheezing voice, hoping to Dust that the information would convince his Lord to spare his life.
Suddenly, all foreign force on his body vanished as he was dropped on his face at the figures feet. As he greedily inhaled oxygen into his abused lungs, he saw his Lord's eyes widen ever so slightly.
After processing the information presented to it, the figure glared at the wheezing scientist at its feet.
"Ivan, send the Beowolves to capture everyone at Yagsara Village, immediately." It commanded with ice in its voice.
Still fearful for his life, Ivan questioned, "A-And w-w-what of the two students of B-b-beacon?"
"EVERYONE!" the voice boomed in rage at the scientist's incompetence.
Ivan could not have ran any faster as he fled from his enraged master, praying that the Beowolves were ready to depart.
After the insect had scuttled away in terror, leaving a faint scent of urine behind, the figure slowly returned to its sleep chuckling sinisterly.
"Rose and Arc. How long has it been since I've heard those names?"
(Ruby and Jaune)
The trek through the forest had been uneventful so far. After landing from their flight on the outskirts of the forest, they immediately began to make their way to Yagsara. Ruby was busy navigating, focusing heavily on the map installed on her scroll while Jaune was directly behind her attentively observing their surroundings with Crocea Mors drawn, ready to defend Ruby if they encountered any Grimm.
"How much farther is Yagsara?" Jaune asked
"It should only be one more mile. We're almost there Jaune!" Ruby answered joyfully with a hop in her step.
As the two continued to walk, Jaune's mind began to fill with thoughts of the red-headed reaper directing him as he watched her. Although he would never admit it, he has harbored a crush for her for the past few months. She was one of the very few people that believed in him, despite all of his shortcomings. Whenever he started having doubts about his efficiency as a huntsman, Ruby would always be there to pick him up and reaffirm his confidence. Jaune often tried to tell her about his feelings for her, but his fear of rejection and ruining their friendship crippled his efforts every time. He also felt completely inadequate compared to her. She was the heroic and brave huntress prodigy that was a force to be reckoned with, and he was just a cowardly and weak no-talented idiot. If she was to find someone to be with romantically, he would want it to be someone deserving of her, not at all like him.
"She could do so much better than me…" Jaune dejectedly thought while dropping his head.
"You say something Jaune?" Ruby asked while keeping her eyes on the map.
Jaune flinched in panic, mentally slapping himself for speaking out-loud by mistake.
"Nothing! I didn't…..say…"
"Jaune? Jaaauuunnne? Jaune, what's wrong with you?" She asked, turning around to look at her partner.
Jaune looked horrified. His eyes and mouth were wide open, only stuttering wheezes could escape his mouth.
"Jaune, what's the matter!" Ruby exclaimed, shaking him by his shoulders.
All Jaune could manage to do was raise a trembling finger, pointing behind Ruby.
Following Jaune's index finger, she spun around looking towards the sky. Her face became a complete replica of his.
"Oh no…" she whispered in terror.
Over the hill, rising to the sky, was a gigantic plume of smoke. Dark smoke.
Something was burning. Something huge.
And all they could hear in the distance were screams of agony and terror.
The two horror-struck teens bolted the rest of the mile, fuelled by their internal pleading and praying that they were wrong.
They were not.
As soon as they ascended the hill overlooking Yagsara Village, all they could see were the angry flames devouring the village, the fleeing, screaming civilians, and the blood soaked Beowolves hunting them down.
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