Author's notes
Holy faque I've been bored. I'm on school holidays, and MAN it gets boring when you have the whole house to yourself. There's only so much anime and hentai I can watch before it gets stale. Even getting sucked into the black hole of time wastage that is Apex Legends can only last two days. So back to looking at a screen at 3 a.m, writing a subpar story featuring porn, shitty action, and a mountain of hints as to the fact I have no fucking clue what I'm doing! Ha ha, I need some liquid barbed wire. I'm coming for ya Jack!
Ruby took a long breath in through her nose, the fresh air firing off the last few nerves needed to enter what she'd call: 'This is perfect' mode. The tiny blades of grass pricked at her lower legs and bare heels, sitting in a funny little area between unpleasant and tickly, ironically making it all the more pleasant. It was all so peaceful, like a safe haven for serenity the little girl had stumbled upon. Feeling no form of distraction, Ruby felt like focusing on her senses to try and appreciate this feeling.
The grass was the first thing she focused on, now noticing a few blades reaching her through the red fabric of the dress she was in. Then came the purity of the air, the raw nothingness somehow smelling better than anything else in the world. Her eyelids stayed shut, as to not detract from her own amusement with watching specks of color dance across black. Her taste buds still were going over the engraved sweetness left on them buy the choc-chip cookies she'd downed on her way out.
The sound of… nothing…
Why? Why was there no sound? No rustling of leaves from swaying trees, no squeaks or chirps of woodland creatures, not even the empty howl of a soft breeze.
Why?
Finally Ruby's eyes cracked open only to force themselves shut again under a blinding glare. Inching one eye open, Ruby was confronted with a glare that blurred the sky into one indescribable colour. Slowly she adjusted, eventually being able to keep her eyes half open without feeling like her retinas were being set on fire. Sitting up, her head scanned around her. The trees surrounding her and the slope she was sitting on all felt strangely large. Then she looked down.
Her whole body seemed so much smaller than she recalled, like she'd aged backwards. Then she noticed the simple, knee length red dress she was wearing. It was hers. Her old favourite dress, the one she wore everywhere. Whether it was a trip to the store to get milk, meeting some of daddy's work friends in town or snuggling into bed with her equally coveted beowolf plush, she'd wear it. But she hadn't worn this dress in years, out growing it when she was 8.
"Something the matter, petal?" Ruby's head turned to see her father, Tai Yang Xiao Long standing at the top of the small hill, arms crossed. Ruby took in every detail of him, going up from the feet. Once she reached the head, she found it impossible to make out any details past the seemingly accurate silhouette, as his head was left a blurry shadow that mixed in with the glare of the sky. Just like the tops of the trees were doing.
"Daddy? Is that you?" She asked, her voice coming out in a pitch only a girl of tiny proportion could naturally produce.
"Of course it is. Why do you ask?" Tai asked. Something was strange about his voice, something that Ruby painfully found impossible to pinpoint.
"Why isn't there any sound?" the tiny girl asked. When her father only cocked his head, she turned back to the trees. "I can see the trees swaying and the grass following, but I can't hear the rustling of leaves or the wind itself. When I move on the spot, the grass gives way but doesn't make a sound. Why?" Turing back to her father, Ruby watched his head straighten back up.
"Maybe you've just gone deaf sweetie. I can hear everything you just described." he answered. As his words were replayed in Ruby's ears by tiny echoes she finally was convinced something wasn't right with his voice.
"Where are we?" She asked, a little louder and more alarmed than she meant to let on.
"What do you mean? This is your favourite hillside on Patch. Don't you remember me suggesting we come out here after your mom left to train with Yang?" Ruby went over all the details listed, playing everyone of them out in her mind only for none of it to seem familiar.
"No, I don't. The last thing I remember is, feeling cold. Then… warm again." Ruby noticed the speed of the shaking trees increase as well as the chill of the silent wind deepen considerably.
"Figures as much. You really did forget me, didn't you Ruby?" Ruby's eyes widened in alarm. He wasn't trying nearly as hard now. The formerly tiny imperfection Ruby made out in her father's- no, it's voice became much more apparent. Flicking her head around, Ruby could practically feel the scowl she knew was adorning its face.
"D-Daddy what do you mean? Why would I forget y-"
"Stop pretending Ruby!" it snapped at Ruby, making her flinch and stagger back. The previous glare of the sky was swallowed by grey. Breath heavy, eyes wide and heart thumping, Ruby looked over her shoulder towards the trees and their newly created shadows. Any intentions of running towards them held by the crimsonette were crushed when she noticed dozens of beady crimson eyes light up in the dark. She turned back to the figure, the wind growing in power by the second.
"There's no running away from me, Ruby. No more breaking your old man's heart." it bellowed at her, it's voice slipping further and further from her father's. "You forgot ME. You've lived your life just so you would never have to face the truth again. But there's no hiding in here! No distractions to save you!" As the figure spoke the shadow concealing it's face crawled down it's imitating form. "Even the 'love' you claim to have for Yang is a lie!"
"Shut up! I love her more than anything! I'd never use her like that!" Ruby felt her throat tighten as she cried out. It couldn't possibly be true. She loved Yang, more than she could ever describe. The figure only shook its head as the shadows that were eating away at it reached its feet.
"It's time to wake up Ruby! It's time, for you to grow up!" Before Ruby could begin to question why it kept saying things like that, the silhouette practically pounced forward like a cat. Like a reflection diving out of a mirror, the inky black features and bone white spines, claws and mask of a beowolf shot out of the figure. In the blink of an eye, the menacing imitation of Ruby's father was gone, replaced with a charging apex predator with crimson eyes that came to life with hunger.
Ruby wanted to turn on her heel and bolt for the trees, work her tiny legs for all they were worth. But her body refused, locking up every joint and muscle at the sight of her impending death. She was frozen solid, unable to so much as shift her gaze from the beast rapidly closing the gap between them. Ruby screamed at her body to move, every ounce of mental power trying to produce the slightest movement to no avail. The closer it got, the louder it's rugged, animalistic, hungry breath became.
Death was no more than 3 meters away, barely even a second for Ruby before it would rip her apart. Feeling movement grace her body again, Ruby used her second to live to turn away and ball up. She was doomed. There was no way she'd survive any longer than it would take the monster to kill her. All she was hoping was that the sheer force of its jaws would find her neck and snap it in an instant. Then it came.
Death.
"Why don't you have a seat Yang? Something tells me we're going to be talking for a while." Raven said in a tone that almost infuriated Yang at how calm it was. The crimson in the blonde's sight hadn't wavered for a second, nor did her glare move when she reached out and pulled her chair behind her. Raven's smirk held as Yang sat, scowl still trying to drill a hole in her impossible to read exterior.
"I'm sure you have more questions than I have time. I suppose the first one you'd like answered is why I left, correct?" Raven asked full well knowing the answer would be yes. Still, Yang's iron glare remained the same. "The simple answer is it would've simply been too dangerous for me to be around you, especially with Tai being almost guaranteed to marry Summer once we split apart." Yang sat silent, scowl only deepening at the answer.
"Did Qrow never tell you about his and mine upbringing?" Raven asked rhetorically. "Being brought up by bandits tends to entail earning your keep, which typically leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. It would've been bad enough for me to be around as I was to become the chief of our tribe, but adding in Summer made it impossible for me to stay a part of your life without constantly being concerned for your safety." The growl Yang gave indicated she especially didn't like some part of that.
"My safety?! Do you have any idea what the last 14 years has been like for me?!" Yang yelled, standing up from her seat. "I'll tell you. The moment I could comprehend you were my mom I started looking, chasing every little hint I could find as to where you were! I lost track of the amount of times I either risked my life or almost died years ago! And what, Summer had some criminal past that was even bigger than yours?!" Yang snapped
"And look what those 14 years have done for you. You became a fighter, one that conquered everything that was thrown at you." Raven answered as calmly as she'd been the whole time. "You talk about those near death experiences like they were major traumatic moments, and yet here you are, a huntress beyond most her peers. Hate it as much as you want, but my absence was more beneficial than anything. Granted, it birthed a dirty little secret, but most things do anyway."
The boiling anger in Yang cooled to an icy sense of alarm. 'There's no way she knows! We never told anyone, or heard any rumors go around. The only way she could know is if she caught us herself. She hasn't even been around for 16 years, there's no possible way she could've.' Yang awakened from her own whirlwind of disbelief by noticing Raven touching Ruby's cheek with a slight smile on her face.
"She really is a spitting image of Summer." Raven said, her mind freely reliving memories of her late leader. Her stroll down memory lane was cut short by Yang gripping her wrist. Looking back at her daughter, Raven was met with a similar dead stare as to the one she'd received earlier. Yang's face was a deadpan, with the ever so slightest downwards curve. As to be expected, a red hew dominated Yang's stare. What came as a surprise was the sheer nothingness they radiated.
Raven read Yang's expression a dozen times over, and still, all she only found was an empty void. The stare and the grip, they weren't the real threat Yang was making.
It was letting her see inside. And it was working.
The more Raven stared into the pure emptiness Yang emitted, the more she became unnerved. She needed to get Yang talking, to force the void to the back of her mind. Settling on an approach, Raven gave a laugh that performed a balancing act on the tip of a dagger between malicious and genuine.
"Sorry. I forgot you had dibs." Raven said, cramming as much smugness as possible into her words. Just as Raven had hoped, Yang's face crumpled into a frustrated scowl.
"How do you know?" Yang asked sounding like it was taking every ounce of restraint in her not to throw her mother out a window. That was good. Well, it did highlight to Raven just how easy it was to manipulate Yang's emotions, and angry didn't exactly translate to constructive conversation, but anything was a step up from that blank stare of nothing. Just mentioning it made the marrow in Raven's bones turn to ice.
"Well, it is in a mother's nature to want to be around their child every once in a while." She answered without answering at all. Yang was catching on to that being one of her mother's talents, and it was pissing her off. Reading the signals, Raven decoded further detail was ok to share. "While it's true I haven't had an active role in your life Yang, that doesn't mean I never stopped by to check on you." Yang clenched a fist in fury at the seemingly never ending cryptic answers.
How fucking hard was it to give a straight-...
Raven hummed with fake satisfaction at watching Yang's face drop through the floor. She didn't really like torturing her daughter like this, but Yang still needed to be taught a few lessons, and she needed to keep up her facade for consistency's sake.
"H-How…. Wh-... When. W-When were you there?" Yang felt like a cracking glass sculpture, like she was on the verge of shattering.
"The earlies time I can recall, would have to be 11 years ago. You marched out into the fresh snow, dragging along your sister in a cart. You were heading for an old shack based on a rumour you heard in town, but all you found was grimm." Yang didn't even need the ongoing narration. From the word 'snow', her mind had been playing back the memories like an old roll of film she'd crammed away in the hopes of never playing it again.
She'd almost died. Almost dragged Ruby to her death.
"After Qrow was done, I couldn't've been more than a meter away."
The final crack tore through Yang. She fell to pieces. One after another, her shards fell like dominoes into a mound. She was that close? Across all her life, how many times had she risked everything? And how many of those times had she been a meter away? How many times had she broken down, begged fate for her mother while she chose to stand just off to the side? How much pain had she gone through for this selfish, lying, cold hearted, bitch, who never even cared for her?
"Get. Out."
Raven didn't have the time to process the demand before she saw Yang's eye sockets flash scarlet. She had to leave, now! Lunging out of her chair at an unexpected speed, Yang almost managed to get an unbreakable grip on her mother's throat, but the fully grown woman threw all of her weight to the left, tipping her chair and causing Yang to stagger towards thin air. Taking full advantage of the second she'd bought herself, Raven caught herself before the chair pulled her down.
Just barely being able to put her feet under her, Raven bolted for the window. It was only 3 steps, and Raven still felt the presence of Yang lunging at her. Raven knew Yang was going to get a hand on her, a hand she wouldn't be able to pull or struggle out of. Her new best friend was momentum. Diving for the open window Raven felt Yang grip her ankle. As she was expecting, and hoping for. Raven managed to get her body down to the waist through the window, she knew the jolt that would stop her was half a second away.
Pushing her arms against the exterior wall, Raven gave her momentum a tiny boost, a boost Yang was completely unprepared for. Still holding onto her mother's ankle, Yang was yanked forehead first into the metal midsection of the window. Raven felt the hold on her ankle disappear and quickly felt her whole body be enveloped by the nighttime chill. Yang had reflexively grabbed at her head, stammering back and tripping on her own feet.
That was apparently enough to literally knock some sense in her. The drop outside the window 7 stories minimum. Even with her aura Raven would at least have broken a leg. For the second time boiling anger vanished and switched to chilling concern. Clambering to her feet, Yang shot her head out the window only to find nothing. How the hell was that even possible? Even if by some miracle Raven had managed to soften her landing there's no way she could've slipped into an alley that fast.
Then the thought occurred to Yang that she could've used her semblance mid free fall. Yang felt the same anger creep back into the corners of her mind. Half for Raven, half for herself. Years of searching and the goldmine of answers she'd been looking for literally appears right in front of her, and she drove it out a window. Almost as if on cue, Yang felt her scroll buzz. It was from a number that Yang didn't recognise, and a message that only served to deepen her self frustration.
[Seems like I chose a bad time me to drop in. Call me when you're in a mood to hear the honest truth, I'll answer any question. I'll only come once, so use it wisely. I won't be the only one dropping bombshells.]
Great. Not only did she have one chance now, but now she also had a cryptic warning to interpret while in one of the worst moods possible for such a task. Sighing into the cool night air, Yang closed the window and spared a glance towards Ruby.
She needed a distraction from all this. Booze might work, but certainly not tonight. History showed that drinking while too pissed only served to make Yang angrier and not have any of the desired drunk affects. Though tomorrow night might provide some relief. Even if it only lasted for as long as she was unconscious, any extended period of time not having so much shit on her plate was preferable.
Author's notes
Fuck me this took 7 weeks. Mostly because of assessments, procrastination and the fact I don't like sleeping normally. Any how, no idea what the fuck I'll do next, just know it'll probably take forever. Have fun forgetting I existed everybody!
