Reunion
To say that Yang was happy, was an understatement. Ever since their talk, Blake had become a lot more assertive. There had been no more scurrying around behind Yang's back, and she had even taken the lead once or twice. Blake would probably deny it, but the look on her face as they had slid down the hill towards the temple had given her away: She had even had fun for a second or two.
Yang had been worried that she might have said too much, but it seemed to have done the trick. Now, with a relic in hand, all that remained was a leisurely walk back through the forest. Not exciting by itself, but it was some more quality time with her partner before they would have to deal with the rest of their classmates again.
Yang was just about to suggest that they set out when a bone-chilling scream echoed through the forest. She turned in its direction and was surprised to find that it had come from the north-east. There shouldn't be anyone but their classmates in the forest and they shouldn't be out in that direction. Someone must have shot well past the ruins and gotten themselves into some trouble.
"Blake, did you hear that?"
Her partner didn't answer. Yang turned around with a frown. She had thought that Blake was slowly breaking away from her silent act, but she might have been mistaken. What she found was as curious as the scream itself. Blake was focused on the sky, her face marred by confusion.
"Blake?"
Instead of giving an answer, her partner's gaze dipped down for a moment seeking eye contact before she looked back up and pointed skywards.
Yang finally took the hint. A red-and-black speck was dropping like a stone from the sky. Yang blinked in disbelieve, once, twice, but there was no doubt about it: Her little sister was falling from the sky and, by the looks of it, it wasn't much of a controlled fall. Her arms were flailing wildly, and a faint and drawn out "Heads up!" could be heard.
The situation put Yang in a bit of a quandary. The surrogate mother in her wanted to rush in and save Ruby from the fall, but the big sister in her knew that Ruby could save herself and shouldn't be coddled too much.
The closer Ruby came to the ground, the stronger Yang's protective side became. Especially, since Ruby showed absolutely no sign of having any plan aside from stopping her fall by colliding face first with the ground. It shouldn't kill her, but she was nowhere near as sturdy as her older sister and might get seriously hurt in the process.
Yang was just about to spring into action when a second, very familiar sounding, scream caught her attention. Another figure popped into her field of vision and collided with Ruby midair. Both were thrown off course and crashed into the dense foliage of the nearby trees.
"What the…"
Ruby's head was hurting. Ruby was hurting, all over. That much she was sure about. Everything beyond that was a different matter.
There was the vague sensation of falling, or rather of having fallen, but now she was sitting on something hard so she wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.
Her vision was blurry, and she had trouble keeping herself upright. Was she upright? She wasn't sure, but it felt like she was leaning against something so she had to be.
She squinted her eyes, and things started to come back into focus. There was a lot of green and brown. Leaves. Branches. Right, she had crashed into a tree. But she had been on her way down headed straight for some ruins, not the forest.
She tried to sit up straight with some success before a dull pain in her left side stopped her. It felt like she had run into one of Yang's punches, but she was fairly certain that her sister hadn't been in the air with her.
Ruby shook her head, hoping to clear it up further. It helped to stave off the dizziness, but her headache thrived on it. She groaned.
Something had collided with her mid-air. She remembered now. She had jumped from the nevermore she had been riding on. It might not have been the best idea she had ever had, but she hadn't been able to take Weiss's nagging anymore.
When she had spotted some ruins right below her, she couldn't believe her luck. Not only had the nevermore randomly flown her in the right direction, she had also gotten fed up with Weiss at the exact right moment.
Then she had spotted Yang's golden locks and knew that she had found their target only to be shot out of the air by… something.
"What was that?" she groaned.
Somebody close to her cleared their throat. The voice sounded familiar, but Ruby's brain wasn't back in full working order, yet. She looked up and squinted again. An upside-down figure slowly came into view.
"Hey, Ruby," it said casually.
"Hey, Jaune," Ruby said as she leaned back with a sigh.
It wasn't the smoothest of landings, but it was better than her improvised plan had been, which included mostly crashing into the ground and hoping for the best. A straight drop with no trees or anything to grab on to on her way down hadn't left her with many options.
Jaune, however he had managed to do so, had done her a favor. Aura shielding or not, Ruby couldn't just smash a crater into the ground, dust off her clothes, and walk away with a laugh.
Yet another thing to be envious of…
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, showing a surprising lack of inflection given the situation.
"Yes…"
Yang was just about to check on Ruby when she heard a muffled explosion from the other end of the clearing. It was followed by the sound of something breaking through the underbrush. Yang put a hand on her hip and watched the rustling trees with a raised eyebrow. Usually, she would welcome the stray grimm or two to liven up her day, but there was a sister in need of attention, and Yang was in no mood to play.
Luckily, the intruder didn't keep her waiting for long. A lone ursa burst out of the underbrush. An annoyance at best, but it would have to be dealt with.
It stumbled forward, roaring and wildly flailing its arms. Something wasn't right. Ursi weren't the frantic sort. They were powerful but sluggish, and they only moved when they had to.
A cloud of pink smoke and lightning exploded from its back with a loud "Yeehaw!" before it fell over. A small, orange-haired figure was thrown clear. She landed in a roll and got back up like a spring.
Yang recognized the girl. Nora—according to Blake—was followed by a boy in a green tunic who emerged from the path of destruction the raging ursa had caused.
Nora turned around and tapped the grimm's head with the tip of her boot. "Aw, it's broken…"
Her companion had caught up with her just as she was inspecting her fallen playmate. He leaned on one of the large bone spikes jutting out of the bear, panting heavily.
"Nora! Please, don't ever do that again."
Nora ignored him and came running towards the temple.
"Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?" Blake had crossed her arms in front of her. Her body language all but screamed disapproval for Nora's actions.
Yang grumbled. The sudden influx of craziness around her made things more interesting, and there was a lot of work to be done yet to make Blake lighten up a bit, but she was more concerned with Ruby's well-being than with riding ursi, no matter how much fun it looked like it might be.
Nora skipped into the forest temple and came to a dead stop in front of the statue of a yellow tower. She leaned down in wide-eyed, child-like wonder and snatched it from its pedestal. She broke into a happy dance, striking all kinds of weird poses featuring the statue, accompanied by an improvised sing-song of "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
Yang watched, baffled. She knew that some people considered her random and unfocused—personally, she thought that she couldn't hold a candle to Ruby in that regard—but Nora topped them both, easily.
"Nora!" Ren chided her as he walked up to the ruins still catching his breath.
Nora froze with the statue perched precariously on her head. "Coming, Ren!" She jumped over the pedestal in front of her and skipped back towards her partner.
Yang had enough of this nonsense, and—judging by the look on her face—so had Blake. There was a little sister waiting to be checked on.
A number of frantic roars caught Ruby's attention. She perked up on her branch and pushed some leaves out of her way. Down in the clearing lay a fallen ursa, getting prodded by the orange-haired girl she had seen in the locker room that morning. Ruby frowned. She couldn't remember seeing anyone with her sister while she had been falling. Could she be Yang's partner? Time to investigate!
She jumped down from the tree and ran towards the ruins. Jaune, still stuck in the tree upside-down, had slipped her mind completely, and any attempt of his to draw her attention remained unanswered.
The ruins came into view and Ruby spotted the orange-haired girl doing some sort of happy dance. The melody was catchy, and Ruby thought about chiming in, but the jig came to an end at the request of the boy that had been with the girl in the morning. That had to be her partner then.
Ruby spotted what she had been looking for on the other side of the ruins. There stood a yellow ball of hair next to a monochrome figure, both watching the pink girl with a frown on their faces. Ruby sighed. Yang had gone after Blake and gotten exactly what she wanted while Ruby was stuck with the Ice Queen. Fantastic…
She closed in on her sister, waving. "Yang!"
Both Yang and Blake noticed and turned in her direction.
"Ruby!" her sister chirped happily and raised her arms in a very familiar motion.
Ordinarily, Ruby would complain about Yang's overbearing displays of affection in public—she wasn't a little girl anymore, after all—but, after the day she'd had, a good hug didn't sound like such a bad thing.
She jumped into her sister's arms who twirled her around once before putting her back down.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ruby said, wondering if Yang would ever stop worrying about every little scrape.
Ruby looked at Blake, who was standing a step or two farther back than she had to, almost as if to say that the meeting had nothing to do with her. She was watching them carefully, though. Could she be waiting for an invitation to join in?
Ruby smiled at Blake. "Hello again."
Blake nodded. "Hey."
"So, the two of you are partners?"
"Are we ever!" Yang said with a wide smile "You should have seen us on the way here, kicking ass and taking names like nobody's business!"
Of course, they were. It was hard to imagine Yang doing anything less.
"Congratulations…"
Ruby had tried to sound genuinely cheerful, but Yang wasn't biting. She looked at her little sister with a worried expression.
"Ruby, where's your partner? You do have a partner, don't you?"
"Of course I have!" Ruby snapped.
"It's not Vomit Boy, is it?"
"No, it's not Jaune."
A sigh of relief escaped Yang. Ruby hadn't expected her sister to be happy about the thought of having Jaune as a partner, but she didn't have to be that obvious about it. He was the closest thing to a friend she had at Beacon after all.
"He's a nice guy, you know."
"That doesn't mean he belongs here or that I'd like the idea of my sister having to rely on someone so… wimpy."
"Well, we can't all get what we want, can we?"
Yang cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. "Ruby, who is your partner?"
"Weiss," Ruby mumbled under her breath.
"Wh—"
"Weiss Schnee?" Blake gasped.
Ruby and Yang's heads snapped in her direction. Blake's serious and emotionless mask returned in a heartbeat.
Ruby was reminded of the encounter at the airship docks the day before. At the time, she had been glad to have an ally and had put no further thought into the matter, but this was the second time Blake had reacted strongly to Weiss, and she had broken up their gathering the night before very quickly after Weiss had shown up. Was it just a coincidence or did they have a backstory with each other?
"Oh!" Yang interfered before she could ask Blake about it, "already ditched her, eh?"
"No! I mean, well, not exactly… And even if I had, she would have deserved it!"
"Yikes! I was just joking. You didn't go after her just because you didn't know anyone else, did you?"
Ruby studied her sisters face closely. There was a hint of guilt hidden below her jovial manner. Good, she deserved it for trying to avoid her and rubbing Blake in her face without wondering how she had fared after the only two people she might have been interested in were off limits.
"I didn't choose her at all. I just… sort of almost crashed into her, again." Ruby's aggressive tone was quickly replaced by resignation. "I was running along, thinking about partners and stuff, when I jumped a bush and she was just standing there. I stopped, she looked at me, and walked away without a word."
"She left you to make your way here all by yourself?"
"No, she came back right after she ran into Jaune hanging from a tree—don't ask!" Yang's comment died in her throat. "I really tried to get along with her. There was a speech about what a great partner I would make. It didn't work. Then we got attacked by a pack of beowolves and I tried to show her, but we ended up setting the forest on fire and running away."
"Oh, they were yours then."
"What?"
"We smoked a pack of half-done beowolves on the way here."
Ruby and Blake groaned in unison. There weren't many things Yang was bad at. Puns were one of them.
"I bet you didn't stumble over each other's feet so much you almost got yourselves killed."
"Are you kidding?" Yang asked. "Blake cut them down so fast I could barely keep up."
"Which had more to do with your single-minded interest in the alpha than with my skill."
Yang laughed and rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment while a surprising smirk grazed Blake's face.
Ruby knew it was petty, but the scene annoyed her. Her sister and her partner weren't just getting along in a fight, they were already bantering and joking with each other like old friends while all she and Weiss had done was bicker and fight.
"Good for you. We almost died. Then we got lost. And I mean really, really lost. Little miss perfect probably never set a foot out of her palace before, but she insisted on leading the way anyways."
"That bad?" Yang asked.
"Worse!"
"And that's when you ditched her."
"No, I mostly watched her walk back and forth talking to herself. But she did give up eventually and let me lead. She would be here if she'd jumped when I told her to."
"Jumped from where exactly?"
Ruby looked up. As if on command, a large black shadow had appeared in the sky.
"Uh," she pointed towards the new arrival, "there."
"That's a—"
"Nevermore." Ruby finished.
"A big one."
"It's a lot bigger close-up."
"And the white rag hanging from its claw…"
"Weiss."
Blake cleared her throat. "There won't be any actually dangerous grimm out here."
Ruby looked at her. Blake had done a half-decent job of imitating Yang, but hearing her sister's over-expressive speech patterns from her usually subdued partner was more than a little jarring.
Yang laughed nervously. "You remember that, huh?"
"It was part of a memorable conversation."
Ruby watched the two girls share a knowing smile. It was so not fair how well those two got along already.
A faint "How could you leave me?" drew her attention away from her sister's fortune.
"I said 'jump!'" Ruby yelled back at her partner. It wasn't like there was anything else she could do, after all.
"Look on the bright side," Yang said with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, "she's missing you already!"
Ruby crossed her arms in front of her and frowned. "So not funny."
"She's gonna fall," Blake said with all the emotion of a news anchor.
"She'll be fine," Ruby said with a huff, refusing to look up.
"No, she's falling," Yang said.
Ruby wasn't quite sure what to make of Yang's happy tone. Her sister hadn't exactly warmed up to Weiss, but she was her partner, and she felt an obligation to look out for her even if they didn't get along. Then again, Yang was her sister…
She sighed and let it slide. Weiss was closing in fast and she would bring along enough reasons to quarrel all by herself.
Trees. Hanging from trees. It wasn't such a bad experience once one got used to it. Maybe there was some value in it for recreation. Like, a ride in a fair for people with motion sickness. Instead of getting on a rickety roller-coaster just waiting to derail and being sent to a terrifying death, one could hang in a tree for a couple of minutes and relax far from the stress and responsibilities of modern life.
Preliminary tests showed that it worked. Jaune had been quite stressed hanging from that giant scorpion's tail. Being flung through the air for a second time; also very stressful. Crashing into Ruby and a tree; more painful than stressful. Getting stuck hanging upside-down; disorienting, somewhat stressful, but, after a while, one forgets the precarious situation one is in and just enjoys the freedom of dangling in the wind.
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. Ruby had abandoned him without helping him down. Somewhat annoying and stressful, but the relaxing tree treatment—he might have to work on the name—was a full-on success. The groundies had to deal with wild roars and explosions while all the danglers had to do was dangle.
Thing's had quieted down a while ago, and, while dangling started to appeal to him more and more, he had chosen a very inopportune place to do so. If his tree was somewhere in Vale and he had the opportunity to turn around now and then to stop the blood from rushing to his head, he could see himself dangling for hours.
But he wasn't dangling in Vale. He was dangling in the Emerald Forest, and if he wouldn't get down soon, he might get left behind. No amount of dangling could make up for the stress of being stuck alone in the grimm infested wilderness would cause. Especially once it got all dark and spooky.
Jaune wasn't sure who was around, but some of his classmates were in the vicinity. He had seen Ruby, and someone else had caused a stir. Pyrrha, hopefully, was among them—without the scorpion. He really hoped she would be. She was his partner, after all, and he couldn't just abandon her, could he? She was Pyrrha, and if there was one person among their classmates who would be fine by themselves the something-or-other-times champion of whatever tournament it was would be it.
He groaned. Either way, he had to get down first, preferably without breaking his neck in yet another dead drop.
Jaune tried to wriggle free his legs, but they were stuck.
"Stupid branches…"
He started plucking away at leaves and smaller branches with little effect. It couldn't be helped. With every failed attempt to yank free his legs, he got bolder. The looming abyss below him slipped his mind until the resistance disappeared, and he dropped with a surprised yelp. The split-second he had to comprehend his misfortune was spent with thoughts of how much nicer dangling was compared to falling.
The thought was quickly replaced by a dull pain as his head hit the branch Ruby had landed on. His arms and legs grasped for it instinctively, and, before he knew it, he was dangling once again. Only this time, it was far less relaxing. He made another mental note for his ride: provide dangling harnesses for safety.
Having to hold on by his own strength was stressful and uncomfortable, and it wouldn't last for long. He could already feel his hands slipping. There were only two options: drop and hope for the best—not his favorite—or try to get on top of the branch and find a less painful way down.
Some muttered curses and painful groans later, he had managed to make his way topside.
"Right, Jaune," he told himself, "now what?"
The ground had come about six feet closer. It was a start, but not enough. He couldn't see what was going on down below and he didn't want to just cry for help and wait to get rescued again. He was supposed to be the knight in his story, not the damsel in distress.
"How could you leave me!"
Jaune perked up. It was faint, but he was sure that the voice belonged to his counterpart in the starring role. He peeked through the foliage and, much to his surprise, found his Snow Angel high up in the sky clinging to… something really big and decidedly grimm-looking.
He was about to curse his luck when the monster passed by over his tree—even if he could have gotten up there, there was no way he could fight something that huge—when he realized that Weiss had lost her grip and was coming down within his reach.
His moment of glory hat finally arrived. Jaune was perched on his branch, ready to jump. The fall still scared him, but heroes had to take chances. And, thanks to Pyrrha, he had that aura-thingy now, which should protect him.
He could see it already: Jaune Jr. and the little Snowflake sitting around a roaring fire in the castle mansion he would build from the money earned by selling dangling rides and matching dangling harnesses all over Remnant listening, on the edge of their seats, to the story of how he rescued their Mother from falling to her death by a heroic leap of faith.
It was now or never! Jaune dived off his branch and met his falling Snow Angel with his arms spread wide. Time seemed to slow down, and, almost like a hint from the universe itself, she landed in his arms in a perfect bridal carry.
Weiss was stunned in confusion, but Jaune was not deterred. He put on his best smarmy smile. "Just dropping in?
The moment was perfect. The hero had come to save the day and did so in a dashing way that would make every adventure story proud.
He kept his confident smile and was waiting for Weiss to show any reaction. She looked down. Jaune's eyes followed, and he realized what he had done. Time hadn't slowed down, and they were plunging fast towards the ground with no plan in mind to save the day.
"Oh god," he mumbled as his bridal carry broke up and they tumbled downwards, two distinctive entities once again.
Jaune belly-flopped into the grass with a loud thud. His force-field was not up to the task. At least not entirely. He was alive, but he was hurting all over. There might be some broken bones if he was unlucky. Bruises were a guarantee.
Still, being alive beat the alternative, or so he thought. A moment later, he wished he could take it back. Something heavy plunged right into the small of his back with unbelievable force. A pained yelp escaped him and he was convinced that his spine had been snapped in half. It would be just his luck to get paralyzed out in a monster-infested wilderness devoid of modern medicine.
"My hero," the heavy object he could now identify as Weiss said, sarcastically.
"My back," Jaune groaned. The tale of their adventures would need a lot of embellishing before it was ready for the little ones…
"Well, they seem to be okay," Yang said in complete disregard of Jaune's state.
"Yang!" Ruby chided her.
"What? He fell out of a tree. If he can't take that much he should never have come along."
Yang meant it too. Nice or not, he was a danger to everyone around him if he couldn't take care of himself.
"Either way, we should check if he's injured and see if we can find his partner," Blake said.
Any further discussion was cut short when a shrill roar echoed through the forest. It was different from the snarling growls of a beowolf, the full-bodied roars of an ursa, or the bird-like shriek of the nevermore. It was something, Yang had never heared before.
The sound of falling trees and rustling leaves was interspersed with hissing and clacking noises. Whatever was causing the commotion had to be big.
A red-and-bronze-colored figure burst out of the underbrush in a dead run. Pyrrha? Any hope of finding the time to have a quick bout with the famous champion away from prying eyes and heavy-handed rulebooks was lost when the edge of the forest exploded outwards. Two massive pairs of pincers had ripped a gaping hole through trees and bushes alike before eight armored legs trampled the greenery into splinters.
A giant deathstalker. Yang had heard about them, but never gotten anywhere near one in the flesh. The challenge it would pose made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in excitement.
Pyrrha seemed less happy about her discovery. The deathstalker was hot on her heels, swiping pincers left and right in hopes of catching her.
Yang watched with interest. Someone with Pyrrha's reputation shouldn't be in too much of a danger despite the size of the scorpion, and the situation provided her with an interesting glimpse into the champion's abilities, which would become relevant soon enough if Yang got her way.
Pyrrha was good. Nimble, fast, and seemingly impossible to shake mentally. Her face was serious and set in heavy concentration without a hint of fear or worry even as she had to avoid the swipe of a pincer the size of a small dust-car by jumping through the open end or when the follow-up blow graced her hair as she rolled under it. The girl might more than deserve her reputation, which made Yang look forward to squaring off with her even more.
"Did that girl just run all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked.
Yang tore herself away from the spectacle in the clearing and mustered Blake from the corner of her eyes. Perfectly straight face, not a hint of emotion betrayed by her voice. Spoken, not like someone who might be next on the menu, but like a distant onlooker in perfect safety.
Yang smirked. Whatever her insecurities in dealing with people, her partner was tough as nails in the field.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled.
"Jaune!"
So, the champion got stuck with the buffoon. At least she can handle herself.
Unfortunately, the short moment of distraction was enough for the deathstalker to get lucky. Pyrrha tried to dive out of the way of the sweeping pincers, but she was too late. The huge, armor-covered extremity swiped her most of the way across the clearing.
Pyrrha wouldn't be much of a champion if that was enough to bring her down, though. She caught herself mid-flight, landed in a roll, and knelt poised with her sword ready to strike.
The deathstalker hesitated and brandished his arsenal of oversized stinger, pincers, mandibles and pointy feet as thick as tree trunks. With Pyrrha out of its immediate range, there were a lot of viable targets around the area. It must be confused as to which it should go for first, but there was no doubt that it would come for all of them or die trying.
"Great! The gang's all here. Now we can die together!" Yang said, jokingly.
Unfortunately, Ruby took it a bit too seriously. "Not if I can help it!"
Yang tried to grab on to her, but all she got was a hand full of dissolving rose petals left in Ruby's wake.
"Ruby, wait!"
Damn that speed semblance!
First a giant nevermore, now a giant deathstalker. Yang's assessment of the dangers they would have to face during their initiation had been woefully mistaken. Not that Blake could complain. she had agreed with her partner, after all.
Their situation posed a serious problem. One grimm that size on their tails was bad, two of them at the same time might spell disaster. There were eight of them against two grimm, but they barely knew each other or their respective fighting styles and skill levels.
Improvising a competent strategy with two people was difficult, with eight it would end just like Ruby's misadventures with Weiss. They would get into each other's way and present easy targets.
Split up and run, blend into the forest and leave the pursuers behind. That was what they should be doing, but Blake could already tell that it wasn't going to happen. Not with a certain pair of sisters in the mix. Yang's impulsiveness and overconfidence seemed to run in the family. There was no other explanation for Ruby charging off, all by herself, without a moment's hesitation.
She was fast. Faster than she should be. A speed based semblance. A red aura, matching her cape that broke off into rose petals. While most people's aura manifested as nothing but a faint glow surrounding them, in some rare cases, they took more complex shapes. Blake's was one of them, manifesting as a sort of shadowy smoke that had inspired her insignia. So was Ruby's by the looks of it.
It was no time to analyze the minutia of her classmate's aura, though. Yang's hesitation and the worry in her voice as she called out after her sister bothered Blake. It had nothing to do with the appearance of the deathstalker itself. That much Blake was certain about. She had caught a glimpse of her partner after it had appeared, and the blond brawler had looked like she had just gotten the best present in the world.
Wanting to face the beast herself and seeing her little sister charge headlong into danger were two entirely different things, though. Much to her surprise, Blake shared the sentiment, but Yang knew better than anyone what her sister was capable of. It was one of those instances, where she would leave the lead to her partner, no matter if she liked it or not.
Ruby had made it most of the way towards the scorpion-like grimm in the blink of an eye. Crescent Rose—the small girl's massive scythe—was drawn and at her ready. She broke her superhuman sprint by firing a bullet from the built-in rifle, launching herself straight at the grimm.
High recoil weapons used for movement. They might not look much like sisters, but there were undeniable similarities in their gestures and fighting styles that removed any doubts about their claim. One such similarity, unfortunately, was a very straight forward attitude to combat. Ruby had put no thought into her attack beyond hitting her target. A strategy that might work against a beowolf, even an ursa with a bit of luck given the heft of her over-sized weapon, but a deathstalker of that size was a heavily armored tank.
The massive grimm showed little concern for the approaching huntress-in-training. Ruby's weapon connected with a pair of pincers and glanced off with no effect.
The girl was swatted out of the air like an annoying insect and landed on all fours. She was back on her feet in no time, showing no visible signs of injuries, but the stagger in her step was unmistakable.
"Damn it!" Yang growled as she charged towards her sister.
"Don't worry! Totally fine," Ruby stammered.
She wasn't, and the deathstalker was still focused on her.
Blake had hoped that Ruby would dash out of the grimm's reach as fast as she had moved in, but the blow must have rattled her brain enough to keep her from using her semblance. Not much of a surprise. Sustained powers like hers usually required a lot of concentration.
There was no point in delaying the inevitable. Blake was a couple of steps behind her partner. Fight or flight. The decision had been made. At least for the time being. Once they got Ruby out of harm's way, they could still make their exit.
As if. Once in the thick of it, she would bet every book in her collection that Yang would go for it herself.
The deathstalker loomed over Ruby, snapping its pincers and mandibles. She shot the monster's head, but her bullet grazed off the heavy armor plates with barely a scratch. The weapon's recoil gave her enough of a boost to jump out of the grimm's range and start running, though.
Good, very good. If she got away far enough before they met, Yang might still be open for a hasty retreat.
Blake's ears perked up. There was some noise in the background. It sounded like… wings flapping! In the heat of the moment, she had forgotten all about the nevermore circling the area. It was headed right for them.
Blake had expected it to dive for them like some nightmarish bird of prey, instead, it stalled midair and, with a flap of both wings, sent a barrage of feathers at them like darts.
"Yang! Watch out!"
The black projectiles were raining down over a large area, starting at Ruby's end and making their way towards them. The unlucky—or lucky depending on how one looked at it—girl was pinned through her cape and yanked down violently as she reached the end of her tether.
Blake and Yang were by no means safe from the attack. One of the feathers went straight through Blake's chest and buried itself two feet into the ground. The clone she had left behind as she had flung herself out of harms way dissolved into black smoke, revealing the true size of the creature they were facing. The quill was as thick as her neck and it stood twice as tall as her despite being buried into the ground. Aura shield or not, there would be no getting back up after being hit by one of them.
Yang didn't seem to share her concerns. Blake watched in horror as her partner was about to be speared through her side. Instead of doing the sensible thing and dodge the projectile, she raised her arm and swiped the feather off its course. The quill collided with Ember Celica and shattered. A cloud of splinters and barbs engulfed Yang, but she didn't miss a step.
Blake's time to marvel at her partner's abilities was cut short when another feather almost ran her through. She flung herself back with another shadow clone and flipped out of the nevermore's death zone to regroup.
Fortunately, the feathery barrage didn't last for very long. The nevermore had to work to stay airborne like any other bird and was off to circle the area once again. It would be back soon enough, but, for the time being, it was down to them and the deathstalker, which was closing in on a pinned Ruby.
Blake jumped back into the maze of feathers. Going the long way around was not an option if she wanted to have any chance of reaching Ruby before she ended up on the wrong end of a massive stinger. Yang was further up ahead, but even she was cutting it close.
Too close, in fact. The deathstalker was mere feet away from Ruby and about spear her any moment while she, like her elder sister, was defying common sense by trying to pull the feather that had her pinned her from the ground. All she had to do was cut the cape and run. Was she trying to get herself killed?
Out of thin air, a glowing, white circle appeared in front of Yang. It looked like something out of a fantasy novel marking a spell being cast. The design certainly matched the intricate nature of lines and arcane symbols often depicted, but, at the same time, it was very familiar. In the center of several circles adorned with indecipherable runes sat a stylized snowflake.
"Jump through the rune!"
Yang didn't hesitate or question Weiss. She fired Ember Celica at the ground to her feet and went right through the center of the glowing circle. The moment she came in contact with it, she was flung forward with a surprised yelp. She was tumbling uncontrollably at first, but, as expected from someone who had integrated that particular way of movement into her core arsenal, recovered quickly.
The deathstalker had wound up its tail, ready to strike at a distracted Ruby. Blake was hanging on by the skin of her teeth. It didn't look like Yang would make it in time to grab Ruby and get her out of the way.
When Ember Celica's barrels flared up again to adjust the direction Weiss had set for her and add another boost of speed, Blake realized that Yang had no intention of dragging Ruby to safety.
"Yang! Don't!" she yelled, but it was too late.
The deathstalker's tail shot forward to impale Ruby, but it never reached her. Instead, it collided mid-air with Yang, who won the contest of strength between her and the massive, golden stinger. She had grabbed on to it with both arms—the tip exposing the deadly venom to the world buried somewhere around her abdomen—and was flung over the grimm, dragging its tail along.
A surprised hiss escaped the massive creature as it was yanked back a couple of steps.
Yang landed with enormous force. Her heavy boots dug deep into the soft topsoil only to be pushed in even further as she hoisted her capture over her shoulder.
It took Blake a moment to make sense of her actions. What point was there in a tug of war with a grimm that size? Keeping it from Ruby for a short while? Dragging it away? No, Yang's intentions were far more ambitious.
Accompanied by a loud scream, the wildly flailing grimm was lifted from the ground and thrown back into the forest.
Blake looked at the scene with her mouth agape. Yang was standing hunched over, breathing heavily. The sound of breaking branches and falling trees marked the grimm's landing somewhere out of sight. Yang's golden mane—Blake had only just realized that it had started to glow of its own accord at some point during the struggle—was fading fast.
Was the golden glow the manifestation of her aura and the fire she had seen before part of her semblance? It could have been caused by dust, but Yang didn't seem the type to bother with the intricacies of handling raw dust.
Blake snapped out of her stupor and hurried towards Ruby. She didn't bother to look back at the rest of their classmates, but the surprised look on Ruby's face spoke volumes: Even the little sister wasn't aware of the full extent of Yang's insane strength.
Granted, Yang had made good use of the speed she had built up—partially thanks to Weiss—but even so, Blake had never seen anything like it. Just how far could the blond push the effects of aura manipulation, anyways? Or was it her semblance, after all?
But there was a more important question on Blake's mind. Yang had just caught the tip of a giant stinger filled with deadly venom with her habitually exposed abdomen. It clearly hadn't ran her through as it should have, but it wouldn't have taken much to introduce the venom into her bloodstream.
The equipment they had been provided for their initiation did not include any form of antidote. Blake could only conclude, that the appearance of a giant deathstalker was not part of whatever plan the faculty had hatched for their initiation. Without immediate medical attention, their partnership might not last very long.
By the time Blake had arrived at Ruby's side, Yang was standing tall and stretching her arms over her head with a groan. There wasn't a single scratch or bump on her body as far Blake could see.
"Are you—"
"I'm fine," Yang cut her off with a cheeky grin on her face. "Just a bit out of breath. That stupid scorpion was heavier than it looked."
Blake shook her head hoping to stave off the headache she felt incoming. No matter how sturdy she was, her cavalier attitude was worrisome. Hits, especially those which could prove fatal on a scratch, should be avoided. Not getting hit was the only truly safe way of defense. Yang was too sure of her aura shield for Blake's comfort.
For the time being, however, the important thing was to leave before the grimm returned. While Yang's feat of strength and toughness was impressive, it hadn't won the fight for them. She had only bought them some time.
Blake drew Gambol Shroud and went to cut Ruby free. She was stopped by a frantic girl throwing herself over her cape.
"What are you doing?"
"Cutting you free, so we can leave before they come back."
"You can't just cut my—"
"Ruby!" Yang stood over the prone girl with her hand raised.
Blake was shocked. She wouldn't hit her little sister, would she?
Yang squatted down and gave Ruby a symbolic bump on her head before she ruffled her hair. "What were you thinking?" Her voice was a lot more subdued and gentle than Blake had seen so far. "Not just charging in headlong," the pot calling the kettle black, "but sitting around like that?"
"I couldn't—"
"I know how important the cape is to you, but I can always fix it," Yang can sow? "or get you a new one. Do you really think Mom would want you to get hurt because you didn't want to tear your cape?"
Ruby looked down with a pout on her face. She gave in and shook her head.
Yang smiled gently and stood up. "Good. Now—" She grabbed the feather pinning Ruby with both hands. The muscles in her arms and stomach flexed visibly and the feather gave way in a smooth motion. Yang made it look effortless, but Blake knew from experience how difficult it was to pull a well-placed fence-post out of the ground.
A white blur shot past them and the temperature dropped by several degrees in the blink of an eye. Weiss had plunged her sword into the ground, causing one of her snowflake runes to appear at their feet. A jagged wall of ice formed around them moments before they were caught in yet another shower of nevermore feathers.
The ice wall sustained several hits. Cracks started showing. One feather even made it through but stopped after a foot or so. The wall held.
"Do you people ever watch your surroundings?" Weiss asked, "Or do you just go off in your little fantasy worlds and hope for the best?"
Blake had no excuse. She had gotten so wrapped up in her partner's exchange with her sister that she had missed the nevermore's approach, again.
"And you!" Weiss homed in on Ruby. With her sword in one hand and the other planted firmly on her hip, she leaned down, looming over her partner. "You are so childish!"
"Weiss?" Ruby asked, seemingly confused about what was going on.
"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style!"
Blake had just about enough. Weiss wasn't exactly wrong, but the way she lorded over the younger girl rubbed her the wrong way. Being a condescending ass wouldn't help their situation.
Before she could give Weiss a piece of her mind, though, she felt a hand on her arm. Yang had moved to her side and was gesturing her to move back a bit with a nod of her head. Blake frowned, but relented and did as Yang had asked.
"They need to sort this out among themselves if they ever want to learn to work together," Yang whispered. "Just let them have their moment and things might look up. Worked for us, didn't it?" she added with a smile.
Blake couldn't help but smile back. Something about her partner managed to draw out that very underdeveloped side of hers a lot more often than she was used to.
"I suppose, I can be a bit… difficult," Weiss said, "but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do it together. So, if you quit trying to show off, I'll be… nicer."
"I'm not trying to show off," Ruby said "I want you to know, that I can do this."
"You can," Weiss said and turned to walk back towards the temple.
The sincerity in her final statement caught Blake by surprise. She hadn't expected Weiss to throw Ruby a bone at all. Coming from the arrogant and hostile heiress, it was almost a compliment.
Ruby sighed in relief. She closed her eyes and chanted "normal knees" under her breath with a smile on her face before she got up and followed Weiss.
Blake's confusion over Ruby's knees was cut short when a familiar blond figure invaded her personal space and poked her arm with her elbow.
"Aren't they cute?" Yang asked in a tone, that came annoyingly close to baby-talk.
Blake rolled her eyes and followed Ruby.
"What?" Yang asked as she followed on her heels.
Eight hunters-in-training met up at the forest temple to enjoy a brief reprise from the array of interruptions and attacks that had kept them from saying so much as hello to each other. The peace was deceptive. The nevermore was still circling the area like a vulture and the deathstalker Yang had removed from the field could be back any moment.
Yang and Blake were the last to arrive back at the gathering, following closely behind Weiss and Ruby. Blake took the chance to cast her eye over the four people among the group she was least familiar with.
Pyrrha seemed to be the serious and reliable type, and her reputation was nothing to sneeze at.
Ren was a blank slate. Aside from a no-nonsense attitude, a lack of stamina, and a saint-like tolerance for Nora, Blake knew nothing about him.
Nora was another wildcard. Blake wouldn't have put much stock in her usefulness, at all, if it hadn't been for her entrance. Getting within arms reach of an ursa without suffering serious injuries was not an easy task. Treating it like a disposable plaything in the process reminded her of Yang, which was both reassuring and worrisome.
Jaune, unfortunately, was useless. Everything he had done had reinforced Blake's first impression, and, as far as she could tell, he was nothing but a liability. Not that her impression of Ruby had been much different, but Yang seemed to have faith in her sister. Blake just hoped that it wasn't misplaced and about to put the younger girl in danger she couldn't handle.
"Guys? That thing's circling back." Jaune pointed at the dark spot in the sky. "What are we gonna do?"
Yang smashed her fist into her palm. "Ground the overgrown chicken and pluck it!"
Everybody in the group stared at her. The dangerous glimmer in her eyes was quickly replaced by confusion.
"What?"
Blake sighed. She had known it. Once Yang got a taste of the fight, she would want to go all the way whether they were ready for it or not.
"Look," Weiss took the initiative, "there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."
"It's the relics, right?" Jaune asked nervously. "Not the huge monsters that are, kind of, right in front us, too?"
"Of course, it's the relics!"
"And then we have some fun?" Yang asked in an almost pleading tone.
"Yeah! Let's play!" Nora chimed in, happily.
Blake had expected her to side with Yang. Luckily, the two of them were still heavily outvoted.
"No, Weiss is right. Our mission is to grab a relic and make it back to the cliffs," Ruby shared a nod of approval with Weiss before she turned to face Yang head-on. "There is no point in fighting these things."
Blake watched as the formerly insecure and childish sister chided the older. The only thing more surprising than the mature and authoritative tone in Ruby's voice was that Yang responded to it. The blond looked slightly disappointed, but conceded her point without any further arguments. The dynamic between the sisters was as curious as it was confusing to Blake. The roles of rational adult and petulant child seemed to switch between them almost at random.
"Run and live? That's an idea I can get behind," Jaune said.
Blake watched Ruby and Jaune walk the rows of pedestals. Ruby grabbed the second white knight without hesitation while Jaune seemed lost at first, but eventually picked up the second white rook.
A matching set to theirs, making Blake wonder, once again, if there was any significance to the pieces beyond simple retrieval. There was one very uncomfortable implication about Ruby's choice mirroring her sister's: She might end up on the same team as a Schnee.
Ren had continued to watch the sky while Blake had mostly worried about the deathstalker returning. There was no sign of the latter—not even to Blake's sensitive ears—but the nevermore was closing in again.
"Time we left," Ren said.
Ruby had just returned to the group. "Right, let's go!" She waved for the others to follow her and took the lead.
Everyone—even Weiss—fell in. The youngest member of their group had somehow become their interim leader by silent vote without Blake realizing it.
She was about to follow when she noticed the exception. Yang hadn't moved an inch. She had her arms crossed and was watching Ruby with her head cocked to the side. If she had decided to challenge her sister's leadership position or wanted to push them for a fight after all, she had chosen just about the worst possible time.
"What is it?" Blake asked, hoping to find a quick and diplomatic solution.
Their eyes met for a brief moment before Yang turned back towards her sister and smiled. Blake's gaze followed. Ruby had just climbed on top of a boulder, waving once again for the group to follow. Between the flaring red cape, the confident look on her face, and the troopes rallying behind her, she looked like one of the heroes of old, ready to make history.
"Nothing," Yang said before she got moving.
Blake smiled and fell in at her partner's side. Pride, not discontent…
Author's Note (now rant free! as if…)
Surprise! I know I said there would be one release a week until the end Part Two, but I've decided to get it done as quickly as possible. Mostly, because I find myself stuck in the editing purgatory of diminishing returns. I should be working on Part Three—which is about halfway done pre-editing—but I keep trying to… fix Part Two despite already being kind of okay. Lost of wasted time that I could have used to create more content instead, which is why I need to get Part Two out so I'm no longer tempted to 'improve' it.
The remaining chapter is about 12k words long and I'm not sure if I'm going to split it or not, but either way, it will be released in it's entirety by the weekend or earlier.
Now, I'm fully expecting to catch some flak for this chapter. I changed the temple fight and Yang is a bit… overpowered. That was the intention, but I might have gone a bit over board.
Yang is actually sort of a problem. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake are mostly explained, but Yang is still uncharted territory in many regards. There is just a bit too much going on with her (semblance, aura, eyes, family, …) that feels unexplained and I had to invent some explanations for how she works…
So yes, she is stronger than her canon counterpart. And there is a good reason why she is more subdued at school/during tournaments/etc and doesn't have a cereal box with her face on it. Luckily, my explanation also fits Volume Three like a glove (at least the first half, I barely remember the second… probably some trauma induced memory loss or something) despite having been created before it was released, which is why I'm confident about going ahead with it. You just have to trust me until a certain training fight gets resolved during Part Three, which will, for the most part, explain my interpretation of Yang's powers.
And let's be honest. Yang needed a boost. If you look at the team compilation, you got Ruby as the all-rounder and strategist, Weiss as the support/mage-type, Blake as the sneaky thief, and Yang as the front-line fighter (actually, that sounds like an awesome lineup for a JRPG… please tell me that there is a doujin project for a RWBY JRPG out there, and if now, how do we go about creating one?). Only, Yang got shafted in every single fight in the series so far. Seriously, look closely and you'll see what I'm talking about.
In small fights (Mountain Glenn is a prime example) she punches out one guy before Blake charges in and takes out half a dozen guys in a single strike. Ruby and Weiss do the same. Granted, Yang is the single-target heavy-hitter and the others probably have a leg up on her in crowd control, but not by that much.
But even against the big targets, she doesn't do well. Not going to spoil next chapter (although everybody knows already what's going to happen), but let's look at Yang vs. the military mecha-suit in Volume Two, which was one of two, possibly three, defining moments of Yang's in that volume (the others being her heart-to-heart with Blake and her fight against Neo). It was spectacular and she was the only one doing any real damage without hacking away on it over and over again, but then we get to the train and Ruby/Ooblek face like a dozen of them. I get that Ooblek can handle them, he's a teacher, after all, but suddenly a single bullet of Ruby's is enough to throw them about as well? Kind of invalidates Yang's achievement…
Or take the first fight in the Vytal tournamet: 4 vs 4, everybody in team RWBY does well. Everybody but Yang, who gets her ass handed to her against another hand-to-hand fighter of all things. Sure, she gets the ridiculously staged 3-in-1 KO thing (which seemed to be the way every single 4-on-4 fight ended…), but that was a group effort that used Yang as a glorified hammerhead…
Really, the same applies to just about any fight in the entire show so far. Yang (as I understand it) is supposed to be the big fighter of the group, but most of the time she's just a joke (or not even included, but I've ranted about the stray cat arc and about how much I hate Sun enough for a while).
My version won't turn into the Yang-show. She won't be without weaknesses, steal every kill, win fights she's not supposed to win, or invalidate the other team member's contributions, but she will have a more pronounced role because I think that's how it's supposed to be, and I'm looking at the Yang/Blake side of things for the most part, so obviously, they will be more important in many instances.
And to any Weiss fans out there who might think that I undermined her in this chapter, I would argue, that she got to save the day twice in my version (Yang would have been too late without the rune and they would have been killed by the nevermore because… they're stupid and don't pay attention) whereas in the original, she only got to save Ruby, once.
Another thing I noticed and completely screwed up is Ruby's rise from clumsy and useless girl, to respected expedition leader. Honestly, the original screwed that up and I just went along with it, but if you look at the change in attitude towards Ruby (Weiss's especially) over the entire initiation arc, it makes absolutely no sense. I should have made some effort to actually put some sort of a character arc in there that would explain it, but it's too late for that. If I had to do it again, I would probably rewrite large portions of the Ruby/Weiss scenes for that very purpose…
Also, I hate claws, and pincers, and pairs of either. Seriously, I have no idea what the correct terminology is when talking about the grabby ends of a scorpion in different situations. And I've decided I don't care and will probably wildly and incoherently switch between them. It's just such a pain in the ass to get that part right and I'm unbelievably happy, that there won't be any more deathstalkers in the story for quite a while once initiation is done with…
That is all.
