RWBY
The Strength of Revenge
Chapter 11 - Volume 1 - A Real Punch in The Gut
The echoing sound of Velvet's footsteps through the hall on her way to the dorm hung heavy around her. Ebris had asked her that dreaded question that she was so afraid to answer, not only because of the consequences the answer might bring, but also because she was so confused about her own feelings, that she doubted she could give him a clear answer even if she wanted to.
Having not forgotten that she was out past curfew she made sure to look left and right as she approached a cross in the hall, making sure no one else was around, before she turned right around the corner and finally found the dorm room door. She quickly stepped inside and looked up sheepishly, Coco being the only one who arrived before herself. Fox, Yatsuhashi and Ebris, must have still been out and trying to get back.
"Hey Velv" Coco said with a soft smile, sitting on her bunkbed and already adorned in her usual sleepwear "You ready to hit the hay?"
"U-Uhm, yeah, sure" Velvet said shakily, still nervous from her encounter with Ebris "Just need to change into my uhm, s-sleepwear"
"Velvet are you okay?" Coco grew a concerned frown at Velvet's stammering "You seem nervous. More nervous than usual I mean"
Velvet sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Realizing that there was no point in trying to hide anything from her team leader, she decided to come forward and confess her confusing emotions.
"No, I'm not fine" Velvet walked over, her ears hanging low, as she sat on her own bunkbed underneath Cocos "I'm just really confused about something I doubt I can figure out on my own"
Coco smiled and jumped down from her bed before settling down beside Velvet.
"Tell me everything"
Velvet looked at her nervously, but nodded in reassurance. A team is supposed to help each other out, and she knew to trust in her leader. Coco was very wise for her age, and she was often the pillar of reassurance that Velvet needed whenever she was unsure of herself.
Velvet took a deep breath, tried to collect her thoughts, and begin to spill what she had been trying to figure out herself for the past several weeks.
"Okay so… I really don't know where to start. I've been experiencing a lot of confusing feelings lately, from jealousy, to loneliness, to genuine happiness and everything in-between. And I feel like I'm ripped apart by each of the three"
Coco nodded and smiled, letting Velvet continue with her spiel.
"Ever since Ebris joined CFVEY, I've doubted myself and asked myself about everything twice. I doubt whatever decision I make in regards to him, and whenever he's around I feel like my chest is about to explode. I don't know if I like him or not, but even if I do, I feel like I'm being childish. I mean, I've only known him for a few weeks after all! Something like that doesn't happen overnight!"
Velvet had begun to run along a tangent, but Coco allowed it, feeling like Velvet needed release from the thoughts that plagued her.
"I feel like it's going way too fast, and my head tells me I need more time to think things through, but the more time that goes by the more it hurts to be around him because I'm so confused and I don't know WHAT THE HELL TO DO!"
By the end of her spiel she had left herself short of breath and even Coco was surprised at Velvet's harsh tone towards herself in the end.
"I… I just need to be reassured. I just want this feeling to go away. I don't want to feel like that towards him if it means being even more nervous about everything than normal"
Coco smiled again. She herself had gone through that thought process, but had managed to move on from it. So she knew exactly what to do.
She draped an arm around Velvet's shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.
"Shh… Take a breath, Velv. It's gonna be alright" She whispered softly, trying to make Velvet relax.
Velvet teared up and nuzzled her face into her leader's shoulder, finding reassurance from her warm embrace before pulling away and taking a deep breath like instructed.
"I just need to know where all this came from, Velvet" Coco mumbled softly "Why are you suddenly acting like you're about to implode on yourself?"
Velvet sighed and let her gaze fall.
"Well, after we ran away from Goodwitch, Ebris and I ended up on the roof. And after some talking, he ended up asking me why I tried to avoid him the first week he arrived at Beacon"
"Oh right, I noticed that too. I was wondering about the same thing honestly"
Velvet nodded and sighed a deep sigh again.
"Right. And I wanted to answer him, but I honestly couldn't, because I don't even fully know myself. I feel like I wanted some space to figure things out on my own, but it's only become so much more confusing since then"
Coco nodded and gazed down at her lap, crossing one leg over the other as she tried to think of a game plan. Velvet grew a little nervous and impatient, but nevertheless allowed her leader to think stuff through.
Coco finally nodded to herself and smiled before turning her face towards Velvet and patting her shoulder.
"I'll figure something out, okay?"
"And there you have it guys. We might have a serious crisis here"
A couple of days later, Coco had gathered the others, RWBY, JNPR and CFV_Y, in the library of Beacon, for an emergency meeting. Weiss was disinterestedly gazing down at her scroll in her hand as the rest of her team was leaning over the table.
Jaune and Pyrrha were walking back and forth behind the huddled group of friends, trying to figure everything out.
"It sounds like someone has a bad case of 'Lover's Decease'" Yang said with a smirk "Why not just tell the dumbass that she likes him?"
"She told me it's because she doesn't want to distract him from his schoolwork and training" Coco said with a shrug "I guess she still feels guilty about his heart attack"
"I personally think its Ebris' fault in the first place" Weiss huffed, feeling like putting in her own thoughts to the conversation "He's about as oblivious as Jaune is"
"Wait, what do you mean?" Jaune mumbled in surprise, making the rest of the group collectively facepalm.
"Never mind that now" Pyrrha dismissed, a blush having crept onto her face "What do we do about Velvet and Ebris?"
"Hmm… Good question. Maybe we could-" Started Yang, when Jaune suddenly began panicking.
"Librarian!"
Everyone grabbed their books and began to pretend to be studying, the librarian turning a corner and shooting the group a nasty glare before heading off towards another section of the library, and out of sight, leaving the rather large group of students and friends to begin to relax with short sighs of relief. All except Weiss, who were sporting a satisfied smile.
"If you guys had actually studied, you wouldn't be in that predicament" She exclaimed proudly, her books stacked neatly beside her on the desk.
"Whatever, miss 'I can barely dance in these boots'" Ruby shot back "Admit it, you had just as great of a time as everyone else a few days ago"
"Well at least she found time for her studies" Blake intervened.
"Seriously guys, you're off track again!" Said Coco sharply "We were talking about Velvet and Ebris, remember!?"
Everyone nodded, and Ren sighed.
"Why do we even feel we should do anything?" Ren said softly "Not that I don't want to help, but I believe that in such situations, it is best to let people figure things out on their own"
"Even though one of those people is completely oblivious to what the other is feeling, and the other barely even has courage to talk to him in any normal situation" Yang interjected with a raise of an eyebrow.
"Okay, fair point, but all I'm saying is, they'll probably figure it out" Ren concluded.
A low chuckle from beside him warned him that Nora had gotten another of her famous lightbulb ideas.
"Not with me around, they won't!" She smirked, standing up and slamming her fists down on the table top "Friends and fellows, we have a new mission! We are gonna figure out a way to help them out!"
"but how?" Asked Pyrrha.
"By spying of course!" Nora laughed "Come on guys! I already bought all the equipment!"
"Wait, when did you have time to buy equipment for a spy mission?" Asked Ren, but was promptly ignored by Nora's rambling.
"And what would spying on him help at all?" Jaune asked silently as Nora proudly put one leg on the tabletop, looking like a general who were about to go to war.
"We figure out what he likes and then Velvet can use that to her advantage!" Nora said excitedly, making the bunny faunus hide behind her ears in embarrassment "Come on guys! This is the perfect opportunity!"
"OR," Blake interjected with a frown, having gotten enough of Nora's crazy antics "We could give them space, respect their privacy, and let them figure things out on their own."
The rest of the group was stunned by Blake's suddenly harsh tone. She was the kind of girl who only ever spoke her mind when she felt it was necessary, and very rarely raised her voice.
"Whoa, what got your panties in a twist, girly?" Yang asked with a smirk splitting her face up in two "You would think with all that smut you have hidden, you would be all over this!"
This comment made Blake blush past both her ears.
"It is not smut!"
"Whatever you say"
Yang popped a rock candy in her mouth and smirked up at the group.
"Don't worry guys. I got it"
"You, got it?" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow "How?"
"Oh don't worry" Yang's smirk began to curl evilly "I have my ways of getting people to do what I want"
The next day, Ebris was packing his stuff into his bag after the last lecture of the day, Professor Port in full swing of putting away his blunderbuss after another lively story of his younger huntsmen days, when he noticed Yang waiting for him by the door.
"Hey, we never did have that sparring match, did we?" She asked, feigning casual disinterest as she leaned lazily on the doorframe "How about we figure out who's the strongest?"
"After what happened to me?" He looked up at her in surprise "I was just discharged from the hospital Yang! Do you honestly think this is a good idea?"
He quickly packed his stuff and prepared to leave. He knew how persuasive Yang could be once she had settled her mind on something, and he just needed to get away from her.
Yang looked back at her team with a smirk, her team ushering her to press on. She turned back towards Ebris and sported her best smug smirk as she jogged up next to him.
"What are you, chicken?" Yang taunted, folding her arms as wings and flapping them up and down "Buck buck buck!"
"Yang, no" Ebris mumbled, trying to hide a furious growl "It has nothing to do with my courage"
"Oh, is it because I'm a girl?" Yang asked, feigning playful insult "You know fully well that I can 'pull my punches'"
"I'm just gonna ignore that terrible pun" Ebris mumbled, repressing an exaggerated groan.
"Oh I get it!" Yang laughed mockingly "You're afraid Cardin is gonna see me kick your ass!"
This sentence stopped Ebris dead in his tracks, and made him shoot a deadly glare back at Yang.
"What did you say?"
"You heard me, edgelord" She smirked, crossing her arms over her chest defyingly "You're afraid to be humiliated in front of your friends, Cardin, and little Velvet. Isn't that right?"
Ebris' embarrassment cracked his angry front a bit, but he drew Sinistral and Dextral all the same, looking at Yang defiantly.
"I am gonna kick your ass!"
He rushed forward but yelped as Yang just laughed and grabbed him by the collar.
"Alright alright, come with me then!" She laughed as she dragged him along the hall "Let's go to the sparring arena!"
"Let go of me!" His arms and legs swinging and kicking wildly, making Yang laugh even more "Let go of me so I can kick your butt!"
Somewhere behind them, a certain orange haired boy smirked as he watched Yang drag off with Ebris. She was one of the strongest students among the first years, and nobody had managed to beat her in combat. He was sure it wasn't gonna change anytime soon. And he couldn't wait to watch Ebris have his ass handed to him.
"How about a little wager!? The loser has to do anything the winner says for a week!"¨
"That's a freaking deal! I am gonna kick your sorry butt all the way back to Patch!"
On the sidelines, their respective teams as well as Team JNPR, were watching with deadpanned expressions, Pyrrha's containing a tinge of worry.
"Are you guys sure we shouldn't break this up?" She whispered to Jaune, not wanting to break the two fighter's concentration "This could end badly you know?"
"As much as I want to, I don't think there's any stopping them" Jaune mumbled back, Ren nodding up at them from the seat in front.
"Nope. They're both too stubborn to listen to reason" he mumbled.
"Plus, I've actually been waging whether Yang or Ebris would win in a fistfight for a while now!" Nora laughed "50 bucks on Yang kicking Ebris' ass!"
"Hah, I'm in on that!" Ruby laughed as the two girls highfived.
Ebris lowered his posture and tightened his grip on his daggers before dashing forward with a forward thrust, Yang easily dodging to the side with a smirk before punching at the blunt side of Sinistral, pushing Ebris off damage and stumbling back.
She didn't give him time to recover and followed after, jabbing a few quick blows across his abdomen and chest, before he recovered and dodged, grabbing Yang's arm and pushing it upwards, and recoiling with a few slashes across her chest.
She retaliated by using the slash's momentum to whirl around and kick at the lower part of the back of his left leg. Collapsing on the ground with a grunt, he widened his eyes and rolled to the side just in time to dodge a powerful downwards punch on the ground. He gulped as he realized the ground which he had been laying on just moments before was cracked and sunken.
He growled and blocked another flurry of blows as he scrambled back on his feet, his daggers shaking in his hands. He struggled to block her powerful attacks, so in a desperate attempt to gain some footing, he activated his own semblance.
'Alright. Left hook, right uppercut, followed by a combo hit to the chest'
He smiled, yet panted in exhaustion, as he nullified his semblance and duck under Yang's left hook, making her widen her eyes in surprise. She followed with her right uppercut and a few meek attempts at hitting him dead center in the chest, but he smirked as he dodged every punch for a few seconds, before grabbing Yang's arm again, turning around and throwing her on her back onto the ground over his shoulder.
Rather than allow Ebris to continue his onslaught on her, she jumped back to her feet acrobatically, but was surprised to see Ebris fall back, and put some distance between the two of them. Possibly to catch his breath.
"Not bad, Xiao Long" Ebris smirked, wiping some sweat off his forehead "I'm impressed you can hold yourself that well against a second year"
"Please, you only got in on the headmaster's special permission" Yang retaliated, cracking her knuckles "Though I'm surprised. I thought for sure you would fall for that left hook"
"Guess you have to step up your game"
"Damn straight!"
She cocked back the top of her gauntlets, and to Ebris' massive surprise, fired shots directly at him! It was like Yang's gauntlets worked like shotguns, except these shots were redirected in midair to fly straight at him! He dodged the best he can, but the lower half of his body was caught in one of the explosions, leaving him sprawled on the ground and his aura taking massive damage.
"Argh… Damn! DOES EVERYTHING TURN INTO A GUN AROUND HERE!?"
He grunted and hit at the ground in frustration, before getting back up weakly. His aura must have been pretty depleted at this point, and if he didn't do something, he would lose for sure! He was even pretty sure that Yang hadn't even broken a sweat yet.
"So even distancing myself from her won't work" He mumbled, dodging another barrage of explosions "Then I need to go on the offensive!"
He dodged another shot and rushed forward, raising his daggers in feigned attack, making Yang raise her arms in defense. As she did he smirked and lowered his body in a slide, sliding under and behind her before slamming his arm backwards in a slash. To his surprise though, Yang had grabbed his arm mid-swing, and was smirking up at him with a vicious look in her eyes.
"Game over"
Before he could retaliate she raised his arm out of the way and hit him multiple times in his abdomen, several combos of powerful attacks leaving him breathless and unable to focus. Before he had even registered what had happened he found himself sprawled on the ground, and the blaring alarm over their heads calling the match to a close. He had lost.
He groaned and held his sore stomach muscles as he tried to get up, but was proved unable to. His legs simply refused to cooperate with him, and as such he stayed on his knees.
He hadn't even seen what happened, but judging from the pain resonating throughout his entire body, he would say that Yang had somehow gathered so much speed that she was able to hit him across all his vital points during a very short period of time. This basically forced him to take huge amounts of damage all at once, and that pretty much shattered what little aura he had left, leaving Yang as the victor of their brawl.
Yang smiled and stepped over to Ebris, holding a hand down to him in a friendly offer of help.
"Come on, get up" She said with a smile as she heaved him onto his feet.
"I… I don't understand…" Ebris mumbled in complete disarray "H-How the hell did you do that? How could you hurt me that badly, that fast?"
"It's my semblance" She smiled and Ebris noticed how her hair seemed to flare with a fiery aura, her eyes having turned blood red "the more damage I take, the faster and stronger I become"
She also showed her gauntlets, which she informed him was named Ember Celica.
"I might also be using the recoil of my gauntlets to speed up the direction I want" She explained "If I want a more powerful left hook, I shoot my gauntlet right at the moment I throw my punch, and let physics take care of the rest"
"That. Is. SO FUCKING COOL!" Ebris exclaimed as he held Yangs arm in admiration, staring down at Ember Celica as if he had just found the secret treasure of Atlantis.
A thought struck a certain red-hooded huntress as she stared at the two brawlers, biting her lower lip.
'Oh my GOD, he likes weapons too!'
She could tell from the way Ebris was staring at her sisters' weapons. He absolutely adored the power which they possessed, just like she herself had when Yang had shown her the plans she had drawn up for them back in huntsmen school.
'I need to know if he likes comics too!'
Yang smiled and explained to Ebris just why he lost.
"First off, you underestimated me dramatically" She said "I've seen you fight before, so I had a nice assessment of your skills. You on the other hand, have only ever seen me fight once, and that could barely be called a fight. I never even took it seriously"
Ebris nodded.
"Another thing is, that most other students have had professional huntsmen training from before they entered a proper huntsmen academy, either if it's from a parent, or an instructor in huntsmen school. You however, I assume, have only ever trained alone, correct?"
Ebris nodded again. Since he lived with a foster family, and they didn't have any money, he had never been able to join a huntsmen school and get any real training. So he had trained his coordination and speed on homemade training dummies in the back of his foster family's farmland.
"Don't worry, you're strong enough as is" She said with a smirk "But as a rule of thumb, never underestimate your opponent. I know that sounds weird coming from me, but trust me. I learned it firsthand"
Ebris smirked and nodded, clenching his fist in newfound determination.
"Right!"
Just as he had predicted, Ebris lost. Lost big time. He had even managed to record the whole thing on his scroll, much to his and his team's satisfaction.
"So any idea what to do with that footage, Cardin?" Sky asked with a sly smile, running his hand through his long hair as he and his team walked through the hall, having just exited the arena.
Cardin smirked and gazed down at his scroll, playing back and forth over the moment Yang's fist had firmly connected with Ebris' jaw, giving him quite the gelatinous look in slow motion as he was burst backwards with one of the funniest looks on his face Cardin could imagine.
"Oh I have several" He said, pushing a button to send the video to social media "Time for some payback"
A/N
Hey guys, thank you once again for reading this chapter!
So what do you think Cardin will use that footage for? Do you possibly have any ideas for me? Please let me know by leaving a review.
Thank you so much for all the support you guys have given me, not just on my return to fanfic writing, but in general. I love you all, and I will try to get the next chapter out as soon as I humanly can!
Thank you once again, and I hope to see you in future chapters!
