RWBY: MRRN
VOLUME 2, CHAPTER 10: Fight Between Friends
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.
"Go, Pyrrha, go!" Math cheered as he watched his girlfriend fight Team CRDL. They were barely able to land a single hit on her as she fought against all four of them. Plus, it was about time the team of bullies learned a lesson in humility.
"Yeah, you go, Pyrrha!" Ruby cheered as Pyrrha knocked out Sky Lark.
"It's about time someone taught those pricks a lesson," Nasser told his teammates. "I just wish it was us."
Pyrrha fell under a barrage of attacks by Dove and Russel, but she managed to parry all of their attacks before managing to get away and fire several shots at Cardin, deflecting them with his mace. Math had to hand it to Cardin; he may've been an asshole, but he was incredibly skilled with that weapon.
Pyrrha then took out Russel with a wide swipe of her spear, leaving only Cardin and Dove standing. The swordsman fired several shots at the Amazon, who blocked them before making him flip back. To everyone's shock, Cardin swung his mace and took out Dove, leaving him alone with Pyrrha.
"Did he just take out his own teammate?!" Math gasped in disbelief. Cardin unleashed an explosion with his mace; Pyrrha dodged it and mercilessly took out the leader of Team CRDL. Just like that, Pyrrha bested the entire team of bullies that once tormented her team leader.
"Whoo!" Math cheered. "Pyrrha, you're awesome!" His girlfriend could easily hear his cheers and comments, making her blush heavily.
"Well done, Ms. Nikos," Goodwitch congratulated. "You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."
"Thank you, Professor," she replied.
"Alright, students, we have time for one more match," Goodwitch announced "Any volunteers?" Even though a few of the students raised their hands, the combat teacher was immediately focused on Blake Belladonna. Ever since Team RWBY received their punishment for the Paladin incident, she had become much more distant and grouchy than usual. This made her suspicious of the student.
"Ms. Belladonna?" she called, Blake reacting by immediately shutting her book close. She didn't want Goodwitch's attention, but it was too late.
"You've been docile for the past two weeks," she pointed out. "Why don't you-?"
"I'll do it," a new student offered. Team MRRN looked past Team RWBY to see a young man with silver-gray hair, a semi-muscular build and appeared to be a martial artist.
"Who's that?" Math asked.
"Mercury Black," Ruo answered. "He's a transfer from Haven."
"Mercury, is it?" Goodwitch asked for confirmation. "Very well, then. Let us find you an opponent."
"Actually, I already know who I want to fight," Mercury replied. "I want to fight…her." He pointed at Pyrrha, to everyone's shock.
"What!?" Math barked, rising from his seat. Before he could say another word, Ruo grabbed his shoulder and sat him back down.
"Someone's a little touchy," the martial artist insulted, making Math narrow his eyes at him.
"That's enough," Goodwitch demanded. "Ms. Nikos just finished a match. I recommend you choose another partner."
"Then I'll volunteer," Math offered.
"No, no, it's okay," Pyrrha assured her boyfriend. She knew he was just being protective, which she appreciated, but this was no time for him to act on impulse.
"I accept your challenge," the Amazon answered Mercury.
Mercury went to the locker room, where he equipped his gun greaves and walked into the arena.
Math hated the condescending look Mercury was giving Pyrrha. He smirked as he approached the woman he loved, making the swordsman clench his fist.
"What was that about?" Ruo asked his team leader. "You know she can take him."
"I know," Math whispered. "It's just-"
The conversation stopped as soon as Mercury landed a kick on Pyrrha's shield, but she immediately counterattacked, making him fall and backflip from the fight for relief.
As the fight continued, Mercury seemed to be doing a good job holding his own against her, something very students could do at Beacon. His merciless kicking attacks made her on the defensive, something that surprised Mathdon along with something else.
"Am I the only one thinking he's not giving it his all?" the swordsman asked, remembering his own matches against Pyrrha. Every time he fought her, he always had to be on his guard, especially due to her Polarity. Mercury, on the other hand, didn't seem that interested in fighting her.
"No, you're not, Math," Ruo replied. Pyrrha knocked Mercury's boot away before he kicked at her and bounced off her shield. She charged at him, but what happened next was unexpected.
"I forfeit," Mercury told Goodwitch.
Math's eyes widened at what just happened. First, he had the gall to act so arrogant towards her and then forfeited without giving a real match.
"Did he just dis her!?" he angrily asked his teammates. As Pyrrha stopped her charge, she looked over at Mercury.
"What's the point?" he asked with a shrug. "You're a world famous fighter. We're obviously leagues apart." Math caught the expression on Pyrrha's face, sharing the same one as him.
"Very well," Goodwitch spoke with disappointment in her tone. "Pyrrha Nikos wins. Next time, think harder before you choose an opponent, Mr. Black."
"I'll be sure to do that," he smugly answered.
"Smug jackass," Nasser mumbled. The bell rang, signaling the end of class.
"Remember, the dance is this weekend," Goodwitch reminded. "However, your missions start on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."
As everyone left, Ruo immediately noticed Blake was falling behind, having her eyes glued to the book she was holding. At this point, all of them were worried about Blake.
Her grades had been suffering badly. She was barely eating or sleeping. She didn't interact with anyone, even her own teammates despite their attempts to speak with her. All she cared about was finding information on Torchwick and the White Fang, which she had to do subtly since she was stuck on campus.
"Hey, Blake," Sun called out, approaching her. "You doing okay?"
"I'm fine," she answered, trying to be somewhat polite.
"I heard there's this dance coming up," the monkey Faunus replied. "Sounds kind of lame but…you and me, not so lame, huh?" Blake and her friends raised their eyebrows in confusion to Sun's statement.
"What?" Blake asked.
"The dance this weekend," Sun repeated. "Want to go or what?"
"Sun wanting to go to the dance?" Nasser whispered to his teammates. "I didn't think he'd be interested in something like that."
"I think he's more interested in going with Blake~" Yang replied.
"I don't have time for a stupid dance," Blake replied. "I thought you of all people would get that." She then walked away.
"That was uncalled for!" Math called to Blake. She stopped for a moment before continuing to walk away.
"Man, she's really not herself at all," Ruo pointed out. "She can't keep going on like this."
"She won't listen to us," Weiss replied. "She won't accept that she has to let this go."
"Every time we try to tell her that, she just gets mad," Ruby informed.
"But we need to get her to listen," Yang explained. "She can't go on like this, especially since we can't leave."
"Has she tried to leave?" Math asked.
"Luckily, she hasn't tried it yet," Yang answered. "But I'm getting a feeling she will soon."
"I hope not," Ruby replied.
-0-
"Why would Mercury fight you and then just forfeit?" Math asked his girlfriend as they were having lunch. "To me, it doesn't make sense."
"I felt something was off," Pyrrha replied. "It's like he was barely trying. It's like he wasn't trying to win."
"Then he acted all smug about it," the swordsman grumbled. "But that's not the only thing on my mind."
"What else?" Pyrrha asked. "Is it also about Team RWBY?"
"No, not that," Math replied. "I mean, I'm worried about them, but I'm also worried about the Iron Knights."
"Those men you fought at the Vytal Committee?" Pyrrha asked for confirmation.
"Yeah," he answered. "Those men were trained to fight and kill Huntsmen. At first, I thought they were just blaming all the bad stuff on them. But after what Ozpin told me…" He stopped.
"Math?" Pyrrha asked, reaching out to hold his hand.
"Pyrrha, can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Math sighed, remembering what Ozpin had told him the night Team RWBY had been arrested.
"Do you think Huntsmen should be above the law?" Pyrrha's comforting scowl changed to a solemn and stern one.
"No, I don't," she answered firmly. "We're entrusted to become the defenders of the kingdoms. We are the strongest fighters in Remnant, but it doesn't mean we should be allowed to abuse our power. I think it means we have to be more responsible with it. Why do you ask?"
"When we told Ozpin that Team RWBY had been arrested, he told us that Huntsmen used to be above the law," Math answered. "When I fought Nachtfel at the Vytal Committee and I asked him who he was, he said 'a devil you created'. The law that created the VSU to put the Huntsmen in check was passed fifteen years ago, so I wonder…what did the Huntsmen do to him that would make him want to wipe them out?"
"Whatever happened to him must've been horrible enough to spearhead a crusade against them," Pyrrha assumed. "Unless it's all a lie for something else."
"My gut's telling me it's true," Math admitted. "It's…to be honest, it bothers me. Huntsmen being above the law because when I think of that, I think of them being able to do whatever they want and they're not held accountable for it."
"It bothers me too," Pyrrha agreed. "When I was training back home, my father told me that a Huntress has to be disciplined, responsible and brave. He always told me 'it is wrong to seek power just to abuse it'."
"Your dad sounds like he's a good man," Math complimented.
"Yes…he was," Pyrrha replied, looking down. Math's eyes widened at what he just said.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bring him up if it's too painful," he apologized to her.
"No, no, it's okay," she responded. "You didn't know. Yes, he was a good father. What about yours?" Math sighed; he hadn't told Pyrrha about his father, Donovan, who had emotionally and verbally abused him before he left the family.
"The same cannot be said about my dad," he confessed.
"Why not?" Pyrrha asked. Math exhaled as he prepared to explain about his absent parent.
"My dad, Donovan, didn't understand my condition. When the first methods he tried to help me didn't work, he started becoming…abusive."
"Abusive?" Pyrrha gasped. "Did he hit you?"
"No, not like that," Math denied. "He'd shout at me, get angry at me, not bother to control his temper, call me names…my mother wouldn't stand for it and told him he had to stop, but all he did was deflect the blame. He'd say stuff like 'I'm doing what I can to help him, but he won't listen!'. My mom called him out on it, but…again, he refused to listen and acted like everyone was at fault but him."
"So your father abused your family and then blamed them for his faults?" the redhead asked with contempt in her tone. "What did he do?"
"He decided he didn't need this, filed for divorce and left," Math answered. "Whenever he tried to 'contact' us in the past, he would only do it by text or email. If we tried to call him, it'd always go straight to voicemail. Coward."
"I'm sorry, Math," Pyrrha apologized sympathetically. "So…is that why you look up to Forest and Glaucus as father figures?"
"Well, more towards Forest, but I don't mean any disrespect towards Glaucus," the swordsman explained. "But…if you don't mind me asking, how did your father die?"
"He got sick," Pyrrha replied. "He was diagnosed with cancer and we couldn't do anything about it." She looked down, hiding her eyes from her boyfriend. He saw a tear fall onto the table, prompting him to impulsively slide across the table and sit next to her while holding her.
"He died when I was 14," Pyrrha revealed, tears flowing down her cheeks. "I stayed at home for a week just to deal with it."
"I'm sorry, Pyrrha," Math comforted as he held her close.
"I'm sorry, Math," she apologized after realizing her tears were falling onto his shirt.
"It's fine," her boyfriend assured.
He knew too well the pain of losing someone who was supposed to love him, but in his own way. Pyrrha lost her father because he was struck with a terminal illness while Math's ran away and only ever contacted him to bash him. When he was certain that Pyrrha was okay, she slowly looked up at him as she sat back up.
"Sorry," she apologized, referring to the small tears that fell onto his shirt.
"Don't worry about it," the swordsman replied. "Remember, we have the dance coming up. You looking forward to it?"
"I am," she replied. "I was never able to go to any of those kinds of occasions with someone."
"Well, now you can," Math assured. Pyrrha smiled brightly as she hugged her boyfriend.
-0-
"I'm sorry, guys," Blake whispered to herself as she went down to the locker room to get Gambol Shroud. "I have to do this, no matter the risk."
Once she had her weapon, she made her way to the top of the roof of one of the dorm buildings. She then looked around, trying to find a safe and subtle way out of Beacon.
The transports had been informed of Blake not being allowed to leave, so going to the docks wasn't an option. She could try going through the Forever Fall forest, but it would take too long and she'd probably wouldn't be able to make it back by morning.
There was only one safe option: going through the parking garage then making her way to the city from there. She'd have to move quickly to avoid being caught by any of her friends, not just out of fear of being busted, but so she wouldn't hear them trying to stop her.
"I helped the White Fang," she spoke. "I helped destroy lives. I have to do this…for all the crimes I committed. If I have to face expulsion or arrest, then so be it."
She snuck her way to the elevator, making sure the entire time that no one was following her. However, upon getting there, she saw that the elevator was already in use.
"I'll have to take the stairs," Blake decided to avoid drawing attention. She looked around for the entrance to the stairs and opened it upon finding it. When she looked down, her eyes widened at the vast number of stairs.
"You've got to be kidding me," she groaned. Instead of walking the stairs, she instead leapt off the rails to save time, which she did greatly thanks to her natural agility. What would've taken minutes of walking only took one of leaping off railings to reach the entrance to the parking garage.
She entered and, much to her disdain, recognized that the exit that would lead to Vale was on the other side of where she was. But she didn't care; she moved from one hiding spot to another to make sure no one saw her.
It took longer than she'd hope, but the exit was finally in sight. It was only a little further before she'd be on her way to stopping Torchwick.
"Don't do this, Blake," a voice told the Faunus, nearly making her jump. She turned around to see Yang leaning on Bumblebee, a stern and serious look on her scowl. After managing to recover from the shock, Blake looked at her teammate dead in the eye.
"I need to do this," she told Yang. "I will not stand aside and do nothing while lives are at stake."
"Not caring about lives is how we ended up confined here in the first place," Yang reminded her teammate. "Are you forgetting what we did that night?"
"It wasn't our fault," Blake denied, not wanting to be reminded of the damage they caused. "Roman was the one who killed those people, not us."
"But we did nothing to contain the damage," Yang harshly reminded Blake. "We didn't help those people! It took me a while to realize just how badly we screwed up, but now I understand."
"You don't understand at all," Blake replied angrily. "I have to do this."
"Says who?" Yang argued.
"Says me," the Faunus answered. "I helped destroy innocent lives during my time in the White Fang. I did nothing to stop their terrorism. If I don't do something to stop their plans now, then what am I?"
"You'll be someone who learns from their mistakes," Yang replied. "Our mistake was not thinking it through that night. We thought we were ready, but we weren't. Next time, we may be, but not if we destroy ourselves."
"You don't understand!" Blake claimed.
"No, you don't understand!" Yang shouted, her eyes turning red. "I know perfectly well what happens when you let an obsession control you. I know because it nearly got Ruby and I killed!"
Blake stopped. She examined her teammate, who was having enough of her irrational and extremely stubborn behavior. Now it looked like her obsession with the White Fang had pushed her far enough and she had it.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked in a much gentler tone than she had been using for the past two weeks.
"My real mother, Raven, left when I was born," Yang explained. "At first, I didn't' know because I had another mom at the time, Summer, who disappeared when I was young. Only after finding a picture of her did I find out."
"So…you lost both of your moms?" Blake asked.
"Yes," Yang answered. "After I found a clue I thought would lead me to her, I put Ruby in a wagon and went on my way. When we got there, I was too tired to call for help when Grimm attacked us. I thought I had gotten us killed, but my Uncle Qrow saved us."
There was no noise for a few moments. Blake processed the feeling of sympathy for her teammate and Ruby.
"My stubbornness nearly got us killed that night," Yang concluded. "I let my desire to find the truth cloud my judgment and I put myself and Ruby in danger because of it, just like you're letting this whole Torchwick thing change you."
"I'm sorry for what happened, Yang, but I'm not a child," Blake responded. "You cannot tell me to stop when-"
"I'm not telling you to," the blonde brawler responded. "I haven't stopped looking for my mother. To this day, I still want answers. I want to know why she left me. But I won't let that search control me. If we destroy ourselves in the process, then what good are we?"
"I…" Blake started, but couldn't find the right words. "I have to do this! I need to!"
"And we'll have our chance," Yang told the Faunus. "Missions are next Monday. We can find a mission leading to the southeast and investigate, but you won't be able to if you're stuck behind bars or found dead in an alleyway or too tired to fight."
"I'm the only one who can do this!" the Cat Faunus shouted. "If you won't help me, then you're just in my way!" Blake walked towards the exit, but Yang leapt in front of her.
"I won't let you get yourself killed because you won't listen to reason," Yang snarled. "For now, we have to let this go!"
"I'm the only one who can do this!" Blake repeated.
"No, you're not!" Yang argued.
"Yes, I am!"
"No, you're not!
"Yes. I. Am!"
"NO. YOU'RE NOT!" Yang finally had enough and activated Ember Celica before getting into a fighting stance. Blake's angry scowl quickly turned into one of worry and fright.
"Yang?" she asked somewhat weakly.
"If you won't listen, then I'll make you," Yang growled. "You're my best friend, Blake, but if I have to do this to get you to listen, then I'll do it. If you want to get to Roman, you'll have to go through me." Blake shook her head.
"No," she refused. "I will not fight you."
"Well, I'm not giving you a choice," Yang replied. "Either you come back to the dorm with me or you fight me to get to Torchwick." Blake took a few steps from Yang, trying to create some distance between them.
"I don't want to fight you," the Faunus replied.
"Neither do I," Yang responded in a more gentle tone. "But I won't let you destroy yourself like I almost did."
Blake sighed heavily. She didn't want to fight her partner and teammate, but the brawler made it perfectly clear that she would not move if she intended to go after Torchwick. She either had to give up her search or fight Yang. Much to her dislike, she unsheathed Gambol Shroud.
"I'm sorry, Yang," Blake apologized before rushing to her.
As Yang suspected, her attacks were weak and sloppy due to her lack of strength. She easily deflected every attack the Faunus threw at her, allowing her easy opportunities to counterattack.
Blake unleashed a barrage of katana strikes on Yang, but soon her lack of strength caught up with her as her attacks became slower and easier to block.
"Just move, Yang!" Blake begged out of not wanting to fight her friend and realizing she was much weaker than she thought.
"No," Yang refused.
Blake groaned in frustration before grabbing the scabbard of Gambol Shroud and unleashing a flurry of attacks on Yang, which she easily dodged or block with her gauntlets. She had to stop Torchwick, no matter what.
"Is this really the price you're willing to pay to stop Torchwick?" Yang asked Blake after knocking her to the floor. "You really want to throw away all the friends you made, all the laughs you had, and your future just so you can stop the bad guy!?"
"No, I don't!" Blake finally admitted, letting her weapons drop to the ground. "I did nothing while the White Fang destroyed lives. I came here to Beacon to make up for what I've done. I…" She couldn't continue, instead falling to her knees and sniffling.
"I want to make this world a better place," Blake continued. "I didn't want to be the one to hurt people, I wanted to be the one to help them." Two arms wrapped around her, obviously belonging to Yang.
"You will be," she assured her teammate. "But not if you go down this road. We will have an opportunity to stop Torchwick, I promise. So please…stop doing this to yourself." Blake returned the embrace.
She finally understood. Her obsession with stopping the White Fang was destroying her. She was willing to sacrifice friendship, her future and even her health for the sake of stopping Torchwick. Yang was not the one to start the fight, Blake was; it horrified her to know how far she had been willing to go.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm sorry for everything. For ignoring everyone, for being so-"
"It's okay," Yang interrupted before breaking away from her. The blonde brawler grabbed Gambol Shroud, sheathed it and handed it to Blake.
"You need to take it easy," she insisted. "Have fun this weekend. I'll make sure to save you a dance." Blake smiled as she took Gambol Shroud and placed it on her back.
"Let's head back," Yang suggested. The Cat Faunus nodded her head as the two walked over to the elevator and pressed the button.
"Aren't you going with Ruo?" Blake asked.
"I am, but I'll make sure to let him know I saved you a dance," Yang assured.