Today's chapter is going to be a strange one folks, originally I had planned to do a touching Father's Day chapter exploring Team RWBY's differing interactions with their daddies. Complete with my own special iteration of Dusty Rhodes' "Hard Times" promo during an argument between Bálor and Weiss.
However depression can be a major wrench in any artist's plans (not that I think myself an artist, my drawings are terrible, and my writing can be as volatile as my mood. When I got down, my plans went with it. and things are about to take a turn to the Dark side again. :'(
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth
The Bullet Club belongs to NJPW
Special Chapter: Fathers
It was parents day at Beacon and the academy was abuzz with excitement as Hunters and Huntresses reunited with their loved ones for the day, Jaune Arc would be dealing with his over excitable parents who had assumed he and Pyrrha were engaged to be married, Weiss had to deal with the double threat of both her haughty stuck up sister Winter, she also had to deal with the ice cold glare of her father Gideon. Needless to say things were tense with the Schnee family on this day. Not much was seen of Blake on this day as she never spoke about her parents, and the few students who did manage to catch sight of the feline Faunus knew immediately by her cold hard gaze to stay the hell out of her way.
However none of those situations compare to the sheer insanity that the icy silence between Yang and Ruby (who had been on less then amicable terms since the night both girls professed their love for Bálor.) and their father, Taiyang Xiao Long who now looked on helplessly as his daughters glared at one another like bitter rivals.
"Qu-quite the fun day we're going to have, right girls?" He would say with as bright a smile as he could muster, but it would be of little use as the blonde brawler and the crimsonette reaper would continue to glare daggers at one another causing the older man to sigh sadly. Even Zwei, the family dog would whine worriedly at the tension in the dorm room, he would walk up to Ruby and sit quietly, looking up at her hoping to get some attention from her but still the icy stare-down would continue.
"There must be a reason for all this, my little girls have always been so close to one another." Taiyang would try thinking through the many reasons the two could possibly be mad at one another, his eyes would widen as it came down to one logical conclusion.
"Oh sweet Dust, it's a boy!" The older man would hold back his anger as he looked between Yang and Ruby quietly wanting only to get to the bottom of this animosity and get his family back in one piece. He had lost enough over the course of his life, one wife had left him due to unknown circumstances, while he had lost his second wife to the perils of being a Huntress. Taiyang was not about to let some boy's errant hormones destroy what was left of his family.
"So what's his name?"
The two Huntresses would finally snap, as Ruby stood up defiantly and head for the door.
"Ruby wait!" Yang would sigh and look over at her younger sister who had stopped at the door, the blonde would try and fight back her own tears of anger as she summed all her anguish into one solitary question.
"Why? Why would you spoil such a wonderful moment between me and B?"
Ruby would grit her teeth at the questions, her body trembling with an anger that was not-so Ruby as she glared back at Yang furiously. "A wonderful moment? Is that what you call what the two of you were about to do that night? A WONDERFUL MOMENT?!"
Taiyang would raise a curious eyebrow as he watched Yang blush deeply before she stood up and stared down at her younger sister.
"How dare you! How dare you even think that I would do that with Bálor on what would have been our first night together?!" Ruby would leave in a burst of speed leaving the room with Zwei running out after her as the door closed, soon father and daughter will find themselves face to face with plenty of unanswered questions hanging between the two.
"Yang, you know I love you and that I will support you no matter what it is you decide to do with your life." Taiyang would say this in as calm a voice as he could muster with a mind full of horrible speculations at what his youngest daughter was alluding to. "But I need to ask, did you..?"
Yang's eyes would flash red briefly as she balled a fist in anger "Dad! Are you seriously going to ask me that question right now?!" Her eyes would return to their normal lilac color as they filled with tears as she sat back down on her bed. "No, okay? Bálor and I haven't done anything yet." She would sob quietly as she stared down at the floor, sadness overcoming her.
The older man would sigh as he carefully took a seat next to his daughter, careful to try and not bump his head on the bottom of Blake's bunk. "Why don't you try and explain this from the beginning, tell me what happened last night."
The blonde would dry her eyes carefully before taking a deep breath before she looked at her father.
"It was supposed to be something romantic: I had gone out that day and looked through every store for the perfect dress, finally finding this great little red satin number. I made it back to the dorm, got dressed, got my hair absolutely perfect." She could see the gears melting in poor Taiyang's brain and she smiled sadly, wondering how Summer managed to keep his attention during conversation. "You should've seen the look on his face when I told him I was wearing that dress for him, it was like he couldn't believe that he was the lucky guy."
Taiyang would smile wistfully, looking at his daughter and seeing a lot of her mother in her as he thought back to those better days. "Believe me I know the feeling, to be the one that the prettiest girl in the room would have her eyes on you and only you. It's quite the shock to the system."
Yang would laugh, shaking her head gently as she hugged her father.
"But it shouldn't have been a shock, I've liked him from the day we first met." The brawler's eyes would light up as she thought back to that night in the entrance hall of Beacon. "He's wild, totally up for a scrap, there's such a shine to him now that wasn't there when he started here." Her father would smile as he saw the glimmer in Yang's eyes this was definitely more than a crush to her, she was genuinely head over heels for this boy.
"Well, maybe this boy may actually be good for Yang after all." Taiyang thought to himself as he listened to the blonde brawler describe her beloved. "But he'd best keep his hands to himself if he knows what's good for him!"
Bálor watched as his fellow Hunters and Huntresses reunited with their parents, it was a feeling he himself would never know thanks to the Vacuo military.
"I've had enough of this fucking confinement, Dust knows the Bullet Club would never put up with this crap!" He exclaimed as he pushed his swivel chair to his closet door and opened his closet, hoping to rock his best Bullet Club related apparel as a sign of defiance against Ozpin who had used him as a weapon to keep the Grimm at bay, defiance against Goodwitch for her constant mistreatment and contempt towards his since his first day at Beacon, and perhaps most importantly defiance against the happiness happening around him because dammit he was just pissed at everything after the events of last night. Thankfully, he had prepared for this by having finally gotten around to doing the laundry before he had gotten to work on weapon ideas. Soon he was be dressed in the Bullet Club's shirt, a pair of Bullet Club inspired gloves, dress pants he had spray painted with the Bullet Club's logo, the matching shoes, and after a long arduous struggle with a brush the war paint.
"Alright, time to get out there and breathe the sweet air of freedom!" He would make a break for the balcony, intending to make a grand leap down to the ground as part of a grand entrance.
What he didn't count on was running straight into a very infuriated Blake, her Gambol Shroud drawn and pointed at his throat angrily.
"Everything was perfect before you showed up, my team was united, Beacon was standing strong against the White Fang! WE WERE GOING TO CHANGE EVERYTHING!" She would try and cut him down with a single slash when he leaped away, only to be struck by Blake from behind.
"What the hell? How could she be in two places at once?!" Bálor would stand firm despite the pain from the gash in his back. "Some team unity you have there Blakey, Weiss keeping Ruby on an anklet while you ignore your partner's feelings!" He would lunge to the side to avoid a strike and roll back into his dorm room to avoid a second strike from a second Blake. "Copies?" He would look back towards his closet, wondering if he even had time to open one of the cases before the feline Faunus cut him down. "And as for Beacon standing strong against the White Fang? That's a joke, this academy's done nothing to retaliate against them since that little Grimm invasion in Vale a while back!" He would step back, dodging her first strike from the front while rolling away from a Kusarigama attack from behind, he felt the old instincts bubbling to the surface as his eyes began to glow.
"No, NO! I will NOT have another repeat of the Cardin situation!" His mind would flash back to the anger he felt during that tense battle, and that was just a sparring match. If he were to lose control here during a true fight then Blake might not make it out alive, and he'd be right back in Vacuo's prison cells awaiting execution.
"Stop running away and fight!" She would continue trying to cut him down as he leaped from his crouching position on the floor as he leapt from his desk, to his bed, to the closet door as she continued to miss him by a hair. "Grr! Goodwitch may have not be able to kick you out, but that's because she lacked the balls to handle you herself!"
Bálor would be breathing heavily as he faced Blake, his hands trembling once again as he thought about unleashing his weapons to fight back against her, the Eight Blades combined with his telekinetic Semblance provided a near impenetrable defense along with a punishing offense but those were the "Demon's" weapons, only used when Ozpin demanded it. No matter how angry and hate-filled Blake was at the moment he would never cross that line, he couldn't bear the thought of Yang grieving over her fallen partner while he lived on.
"I have to stop this." He would think this even as Gambol Shroud was stabbed through his shoulder, causing him to cry out in agony even as he grabbed her free wrist.
"I hate you." Blake would wrench her wrist free and slapping him with her freed hand before choking him, her eyes gleaming with madness. "I hate your wolf stink, your cocky arrogance!" She would tighten her grip on his throat, grinning as he began gasping for air and clawing at her hand. "Yang was such a free spirit before you came along, now your name comes up every other sentence!"
Bálor would gasp and keep trying to fight back even as the air continued to leave his lungs, he looked deep into her eyes remembering the few interactions they'd had together.
"She always moved away."
"Never had one good thing to say about me."
"Fa-ther…" He would croak out even as his vision began to blur and spin as Blake choked what little life was running through him.
"That's right, call out for your father!" She would cackle madly as she eased off her grip. "Go on, call for him again! Call out for the miserable wretch that sired you!"
Bálor would take a small, shallow breath as she relaxed her grip on him. "You're wrong..I wasn't..calling for him." The feline Faunus would raise her eyebrow questioningly at this remark. "Then what were you..?" His amber eyes would glow brightly as he slammed Blake against the wall viciously, cutting her off mid-sentence as he gasped for air. "I was comparing you to him!" He would pull Gambol Shroud from his shoulder with a groan, kicking it out to the balcony as he approached her slowly. "My old man was a drunk, always blaming others for the things that went wrong in his life instead of putting down that bottle and facing his fucking demons!" He would slump down onto his bed, pinning down the female Faunus as he continued to bleed. "He wouldn't be worth calling out for even if I were on my deathbed." She would glare up at him, spitting at him viciously as she did.
"Why are you telling me this, are you hoping I show you sympathy? Maybe even get me to fall for you too?!" She would growl and struggle underneath his surprisingly firm one armed vice grip.
"Like I told the Ice Queen a few nights ago: you wouldn't be able to handle me woman, I'm just too sweet" He would laugh at his own joke before taking another breath and looking down at her, a serious look in his eyes. "But in all seriousness; between you and me, I'm hopelessly in love with-"
Before he could finish his sentence the door to his room would be opened, Ozpin stepping through as he surveyed the scene before him in silence. "I had come here to inform you that your confinement was over." He would stare at the shocked Faunus duo with a sigh before turning away. "However it seems I may need to reevaluate that decision." He would leave the wolf's room without another word, and when Bálor thought to release Blake from his grip he would find that she had vanished, Gambol Shroud and all.
Well, there you have it folks: Two very differing Dichotomies when it comes to a Father in someone's life.
Knight, I got your suggestion and there will be an Ironwood chapter somewhere down the line.
For now though, stay tuned for another RWBY/Kingdom Hearts crossover that explains where the hell Ruby went for the rest of this chapter.
No new chapter tomorrow (obviously.)
Til then folks, take time to visit your fathers. Give 'em a call, drop by for a visit and enjoy the time you have together.
