Chapter 11: Yang's big game
Disclaimer: I can own anything you want, but I don't own this.
"Shouldn't we call Miss. Rose over? She is the only one who encountered the intruder, after all."
Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood were having a meeting in Ozpin's office. They'd just gotten to the subject of yesterday's events.
"There's no need. Miss. Rose is learning to control her new abilities along with miss. Polendina. We already know who is behind all this, so there is no need to involve them any more than needed." Ozpin told the general.
Ironwood turned around, his eyes wide. "We already know?! Who is it then? Do we know where they are now?"
"I've been keeping an eye on their every move. We already know much about their plans, but directly interfering before they think they've won will only end up worsening our situation."
Ironwood fumed, why couldn't Ozpin understand that any problem could be solved by throwing enough force at it?
Glynda fumed, why couldn't James understand that you can't fix everything by applying more force?
"Regardless, one of my associates sent me a description of the people who were looking for one of the CPU memories, which I confirmed with Roman Torchwick. We now know who, but not why. This is something we must first discover, before we take any rash actions." Ozpin's statement halts the building tension in the room.
"It's not that simple, Ozpin. If we don't know where to focus, we'll be spread too thin. We have the festival to worry about, most of my troops will be busy with the security of the tournament. You only have two people to send around at the moment."
Ironwood's words ring true, the festival would take most of their focus, and he didn't have enough people to shadow Cinder's group at all times. But he knew someone who might.
"The other world. Miss. Histoire left a way for me to contact her. The preparations for a portal to send our visitors back are still being made. But perhaps they have a way to send us some assistance."
Meanwhile, without a snappy comment this time- wait...
"Sooo, do you actually have a name in your HDD form or did you just take a placeholder by closing your eyes and choosing from a list?"
"I didn't get to choose anything! The author had no clue what to do, so he just used a temporary name until he thought of something and figures out a way to dump it into the story!"
"No way! Can't you just take a color like the rest of us?"
"I just took my last name because I was surprised! I didn't expect this to happen!"
"Well, nothing we can do about it now, guess we can just ask the reviewers later."
"Maybe Ruby heart, like the gemstone...? But that would be weird too with my name, right?"
Nep and Ruby were having a casual meta conversation, confusing the rest of team RWBY severely.
"Since when does she understand those weird things Nep always says?" Weiss asks Yang, maybe her sister knew more.
Yang just shrugged. "She's been able to understand her since yesterday, she tried to explain it to me all night."
Blake raised an eyebrow. "And? Was she successful or are you still as confused as the rest of us?"
"I fell asleep in the middle of it. I didn't understand a word of it, but she really put her HEART into that explanation, don't you think?!"
The other two were already gone, using ninja skills and glyphs to escape the pun through the window.
"Aww, come on it was pretty funny this time! Right sis?" A few rose petals falling down where her sister had been was her only answer.
"Wait, wha-? Is this how Nepgear feels every time I do that?" Nep was alone now, no one in-between her and the punnicane.
Yang's expression turned serious. "Now that we're alone, I need to talk to you about something."
"Whaaaat? When did I activate your flags?! I'm too young to marry!" Nep was shocked, and really getting the situation wrong.
"Don't start like that already! I need to talk about Ruby!"
"Why? She's fine, right? Nobody got hurt yesterday, except maybe that intruder chick."
"Ruby. Now." Yang's tone made even Nep understand the situation.
"Okay, okay! You're being pretty creepy about it though. Almost like a second Vert!"
"That one thing you said yesterday! About Ruby not aging anymore! What did you mean by that?!"
Nep blinked, even she knew what that meant. Never mind the fact that she didn't even know what aging was until HDN Victory.
"It means she's gonna stay her adorable little self for like, a gajillion years! C'mon, even I knew that!"
Yang's frown deepened even harder at this, she'd been denying it as hard as possible, but she knew.
She knew that she couldn't protect Ruby forever. Literally in this case.
Unless maybe... she did something, drastic. Maybe the others would be pissed at her, but she'd do anything to keep Ruby happy.
Besides, if this worked out, they had a long time to get over it.
"Whoa there, buster! That's the face of someone who just thought up a dastardly plan!"
Yang turned to the purple-haired protagonist in shock, had her thought been that obvious?!
"You're planning to do something that will prove my line about fanfics from a few chapters ago totally right! Count me in! I'll help you with anything you need!"
Dang it, now she had to try and- wait. Did she just say-
"You'll... help me? You do know what I'm planning, right?"
"Yeah, sure I do! I have a kid sis too y'know! I'd totally do the same thing!" Nep's smile was infectious.
Yang calmed down, she had one ally at least. Still, she couldn't just walk in and ask for one of those memory things.
"Okay! Just come over to our room later and we'll talk to the others about it! If they say no we're totally stealing it, right?!"
Yang did not know how to respond to that. These people kept getting weirder.
A few minutes later, after everyone regrouped
Today was, however, still a day where people had to go on special missions with a veteran huntsman.
Teams from academies from everywhere in the four kingdoms had gathered at Beacon for the Vytal festival.
Which meant it was really busy, and that there were a lot more interesting missions than usual.
"Okay guys, extermination mission? Or extermination mission?" Ruby zoomed at the screen.
"Don't just limit us to a single choice!" Weiss was the first to catch up.
"It would probably be for the best, though. We need to see how different Ruby's fighting style is now."
Blake came in third, followed by a suspiciously quiet Yang.
"Hey, guys! Check this one out! It's an extermination mission together with a professional huntsman on Patch!"
Yang visibly perked up at this. "You think it's gonna be uncle Qrow?"
"It has to be! Besides, taking a mission in a place we know is a good thing, right?"
"Fine, have it your way. I see no reason to not take this mission if you're so adamant about it." Weiss sighed.
"I've got no complaints either. Anything to get away from that monster you brought into our room."
Blake really didn't like dogs, which was either because she was a cat Faunus, or because she was a JoJo villain.
While they were choosing, team NBLL was having a simpler time.
"Killing monsters?"
"Killing monsters."
"I'm definitely not in the mood for a fetch quest, so killing monsters would be the best."
"Can you all just shut it and choose already!"
Team PPPT didn't even have to choose.
"Sir Ironwood has asked me to come to a special area to run some tests on my new abilities and to see if I function well as a team leader!" Penny tells her team excitedly, she was going to show everyone how much she'd grown.
"So, we can come along, right?" Uzume wasn't planning to leave a team member behind, even if she wasn't the leader anymore.
Penny nodded "Yes! He asked me to bring my team along if I could! The test will count as a mission for us!"
"Yaaaayyy, we get to fight together!" Plutia and Peashy suddenly appeared, they'd lagged behind quite a bit.
"What are we gonna do! Pea wants to know too!"
"It's probably just a few combat tests against unmanned paladins and the newest model of Atlasian knights."
"Yay! Pea gets to beat up mean robots!" The little girl was already exited at the prospect of fighting things.
The same couldn't be said for our local sadist.
"Awww, but robots are sooooo boring!" Plutia pouted, robots never truly satisfied her when they just silently took the pain until they broke down.
Penny looked a bit sad, something that Uzume picked up on instantly.
"They don't mean you. You're not a robot, after all."
"But, I'm not a real girl. It's not the same. I don't have parents and-"
"Neither do I. Or Nep and the others. Only Plutia and Peashy had parents, and they're our friends too. We aren't as different as you think."
This silenced Penny. Her friends were... the same as her. Just because they weren't humans didn't mean they were outcasts, they could make as many friends and be as happy as anyone else.
And if they could do it, she could do it too! If she gave it her all, she would be just as good as them! she wouldn't disappoint the people who believed in her!
Her smile returned. She already had more friends than she'd realized.
"Hey guys! We're going to leave now! Are you still choosing or are you coming along until we leave?!"
Nep's voice catches the attention of the entire group, they turn to the waving girl.
"We got a quest that's really close by. We have to be there and ready for combat in a few hours."
With Noire clearing things up, the group understood. They all went to see team NBLL off.
When they arrived at Beacon's entrance, a large crowd of students were gathered around a group of four.
"Look, team CFVY's back!" A random background character shouted.
The Gamindustrians instantly recognized an irrelevant character, he was male and yelled useless exposition.
The group of second-year students was used to this by now, they were a very popular team.
The nagging feeling that most of their fans were just there for Coco and Velvet was strange though.
"Ah! It's you, Plutia! Here's the book you lent me, it was very educating!"
And just like that, Velvet gave Plutia a book called 'How to become a Sadist' written by I. Heart.
Oh god what have I done with this crossover...
After they had a short conversation, they split back up from team CFVY.
"So, we'll see you guys again in the evening!" Nep waves at the others as her team leaves.
"Hold on, you can't possibly have found a mission that's so short?!" Weiss said in disbelief.
"Of course not. Our mission is simply requires us to travel to a different area each day. We return here in the evening."
Vert's word made sense, they supposed. Yang was especially relieved, since she had something important to do with them this evening.
And so, our heroes(?) went on their way. To a completely normal mission where they couldn't possibly cause chaos.
That evening
"Wow, I can't believe we caused so much chaos!" Nep sounded oddly proud of that.
"We?! You were the one who blew up half the forest" Noire yelled.
"If I remember correctly, you levelled a fair share of the forest yourself Noire."
Said Noire turned to Vert, her face burning red. "It wasn't my fault! If you and Blanc weren't throwing the other half of the forest around like Blanc's Lowee remotes, I wouldn't have had to throw myself to the side!"
"We fixed that issue ages ago. Don't bring it up again." Blanc did not like it when people laughed at the warning screen and then complained about the remotes flying off and hitting things.
"Hey! Are we gonna complain about Blanc's torpedo remotes all day or are we going to get back to Beacon?!"
"Don't act like you're the calm one Nep! You just want to get back before all the pudding is gone!"
Nep made no move to deny Noire's claim. She did run even faster than before though.
A pudding-starved Nep is a creature to be feared.
That was a lesson everyone at Beacon had learned soon after the group attended.
Which meant that all students of Beacon managed to jump out of the way of the Nep train when it crashed into the dining hall and made a beeline for the pudding.
The heap of barely-conscious students from the other academies were not as lucky.
Sitting down next to her friends, Nep released every single remaining pudding cup in the academy.
Which was still a quarter of the total. Which was meant for four schools worth of people.
It took her about twenty minutes to make it vanish. (With Peashy's help.)
"Teach me, dessert master!" Nora popped up out of nowhere.
And together, the three of them made the desserts vanish. The mystery of how they could eat all of it was never solved.
When everyone was done, they made their way to their team's rooms. With one exception.
"wassup, my Yang? You here for your magic rock?"
Yang didn't so much walk through the door to team NBLL's room as face fault through it.
"So, you wanted me to come by? I know what you said earlier but it's kinda hard to believe it would be this easy." Yang picked herself up and acted like nothing happened.
"Nope! I told them why you wanted it and they agreed!" Nep smiles as she walks over to the box holding the memories.
Yang looks at the others in the room in confusion.
"I'm an older sister myself, so I understand why you would want to try it." Noire shrugs.
"If Rom and Ram were set loose without me or Mina to stop them, Lowee would be destroyed in a single day. An older sister has to watch over their younger sisters."
And with her part done, Blanc returned to her book.
Nep managed to unlock the box and threw one of the memories to Yang.
Except it was caught by someone else before it could reach her.
"Not so fast, Neptune. I would like to see for myself if she is worth it." Vert placed the memory in her 'inventory'.
You know what I mean.
"Say whaaa? You never told me you had a secret plan too?!"
Vert ignores her as she turns back to Yang. "We will take this outside, take your weapons with you."
Soon after, the group found themselves in an open area away from the dorms.
"Not that I mind a good fight or two, but why this all of a sudden?" Yang asks the other blonde.
"A sister. Let's say that you lose here, you can protect her all you want. But give or take ninety years and you'll be unable to even walk on your own, let alone protect her."
Yang gritted her teeth. "And that's why I want- no, why I need one of those memory things. I will never let anything harm Ruby, especially not myself."
Vert continued as if she hadn't heard Yang's words. "And, when you eventually die, someone will need to comfort her. And maybe, once that is done, take the role of sister to take care of her."
Yang's eyes widened as she understood the meaning behind those words.
"Whoa, Vert. I know your siscon personality gets out of hand sometimes, but this is getting pretty dark. What if we lose readers due to your edgyness in a light-hearted fic like this!" Nep reminded everyone that they were here too.
"You... want to turn Ruby... into your sister after I die?!" Yang said those words as if she couldn't believe they were true.
"A sister is my only wish. And this is my one chance for a sister who will never leave me, one who I will never lose to time. If you want to protect your sister yourself, then show me that you can!"
Vert dashed at the brawler the second she finished her sentence, her spear appeared in a flash of green light.
Yang dived to the side to dodge the barrage of rapid thrusts, her gauntlets shifted into combat mode and she fired a few shots to launch herself back and keep her opponent at bay.
Vert spun her spear like a propeller to block Yang's shots, followed by a wide sweep that sent a blast of wind at her opponent.
Yang jumped over the cutting gale and launched a heavy punch at Vert, who countered with another sweep of her spear. The two clashed without any results for a while before distancing themselves from each other again.
Yang's eyes darted around, was there anything she could use to give herself an advantage?
Her eyes fell on a large bag, she recognized it as the academy's sporting equipment.
If some students wanted to play some sports on their free days, Beacon kept some standard gear around.
Yang dashed towards the bag, her opponent had summoned a few green magic circles in the meantime.
"Sylhet spears" Vert's tone was cold as the large stone lances shot out to pierce Yang.
Said blonde jumped, ducked and rolled in between the summoned lances, eventually reaching the bag safely.
She quickly unzipped it and then wildly threw its contents in the air. Then she punched them at her foe with all her strength.
Now it was Vert's turn to duck and weave in between the dangerous sport meteors.
She elegantly wove around the shots until her heel slipped in the mud and she took a basketball to the stomach.
That one made her mad.
Her spear vanished again as she used both of her hands to summon a large storm of wind magic.
All of the sports equipment, as well as a few trees and almost a Nep were caught in the raging winds.
And then they all shot towards Yang.
The brawler braced herself and punched most of the projectiles away, but many of them slammed into her.
She smirked, that was a good thing.
Her opponent had summoned her spear once more and shifted her stance.
"Kinestra-" Vert suddenly shoots towards her opponent, spear outstretched.
Yang activates her semblance, turning all the damage from Vert's last attack into her own strenght.
"RHAAAGH"
"-SLASH"
Yang twists her body, causing the spear to only graze her side. Her fist smashes into the CPU and sends her flying into a tree.
Yang couldn't celebrate her success, since multiple cuts sprang up all over her body and brought her to her knees in pain.
She then took a basketball to the head. It had been launched much higher than the other sports gear when she threw the bag's contents into the air.
"OW! Seriously?" Unfortunately, complaining was about the only thing she could do, her body was in no shape to get up anytime soon.
As she struggled to stand up regardless, she saw her opponent walking back towards her.
Vert's wounds were not as bad as Yang's, but she wasn't in any shape to fight much longer either.
Yang couldn't lift her head high enough to see more then her opponent's knees, she had no idea what would happen as Vert came to a stop before her body, but she still struggled to stand up and continue.
Until a small purple gem landed on the ground before her.
Vert was no Nepgear or Plutia and certainly no Rom, but she could heal a few wounds outside of battle with ease.
Yang took the CPU memory before her and took the hand of the now gently smiling Vert.
"Congratulations, you passed. I'd offer you to hit me for the deception, but you already did that."
Vert rubbed her cheek, that one would sting for a while.
"What, how, why, huh?!" Yang stammered in the same confused manner as anyone with common sense would.
"You kept pushing yourself for your sister, if you just wanted this for yourself, you wouldn't be able to fight like that."
Yang blinked and looked at the memory in her hand, that was why she said all that? To see if she really just wanted to protect Ruby? To see if she wasn't just jealous that her sister was so much stronger now?
"It's too bad that I can't make Ruby my sister anymore, but at least I still have my dear Nepgear."
The basketball returned for its third cameo, striking Vert in the back of the head and smashing her into the wall.
"Not this time you sister-stealing menace!" Nep had already gathered more projectiles to protect her sister's chastity with.
"Err, yeah... I'll just be going back to my room now. My aura will heal me by tomorrow, so no one will ask any weird questions."
"Aww, man! Aren't you gonna use that thing now? We're all waiting to see what stupid name the author will think of next!"
Yang shook her head. "I'll wait a little longer, it'll be awkward to explain this the next morning if I use it now."
And so, the group made their way back to their rooms.
In a distant forest, at a wide, empty clearing.
A dark purple portal opened, a group of four young girls stepped out from it.
"Ta-daa! We have arrived at our destination!" A woman who looked like Nep, but slightly older spoke to the other three, closing the book in her hands and the portal with it.
"If this is the place where the CPU's vanished to, then perhaps it's best to find them first?"
The girl who said that had blonde hair in short twintails, blue eyes, and a ridiculously large sword.
"There is no need for that, we simply need to find the evil that Histoire's ally spoke of, and destroy it."
The grey-haired girl next to her took on the most chuuni pose imaginable as she spoke.
There was a fourth one with them, but she was already halfway out of the clearing.
"Come on! A new world awaits us! And a new harem of half-clad girls awaits me!"
This one had long golden hair, a crown floated over her head and she was clad in royal-looking armor.
"Heyyy, wait you guys! Can't I look around for some rare butterflies or something?" The purple-haired one complained.
"No. according to the map Histoire printed out, we should have landed in a place called 'Mountain Glenn'. We should search for the secret base that should be around here." The grey-haired one replied.
The girl with the ridiculously large sword was getting really excited.
"All right! Let's begin this mission and get back in time for dinner!"
"It's almost midnight... but that is no excuse to deny a great feast!" The other blonde agreed.
And so, our mysterious(?) group set off. Who were they? What were they doing here?
Oh, who am I kidding? You guys already know who these are.
AN: aaand there we go! just to answer any name related questions, since there are a lot of those.
My account name. look at it. it's not there because it's funny, it's there because i really suck at thinking up names.
My current plan is to name the Remnant CPU's after gemstones or precious metals.
E.G. Penny/Silver, Ruby/Ruby (clever amirite?) Yang/Garnet
SPOILERS Weiss would be Diamond and Blake would probably be Amethyst or Onyx. SPOILERS
I hope it's not too bad. If you think of something that would be more fitting, please let me know.
Review time!
DaToskin: yeah, it's my first fanfic, so i wasn't going to try and pull off a masterful sneaky move with those CPU memories.
Cinder is pretty much like this in canon, only she's taken way more serious there.
true endings are great and all, but i always check out the bad endings too because i really like to see other possibilities. even the really shitty possibilities like conquest and Kurome's brainwashing fun time.
mactavish1208: would you believe me if i told you that's the actual canon password? Poor Ruby can't use milk anymore, but at least her transformation lets her pull a Neptune and she's not as doomed as Blanny-blanny-bii.
I know 'Rose Heart' is bad, but even i won't sink low enough for something like 'Weiss Heart'.
Those endings are pretty dark, but they're still better than the Peashy scene at the end of the anime's episode 10. i cry anytime i see that thing.
Nyamu: i know about the hashtag thing, but i wanted to use it in a joke, like how everyone in HDN can say MAGES. with a period.
Watching Nep die is Nepbreaking, sure. But watching Nep become a murderous psychopath that tries to choke Nepgear is kinda worse in my book.
Gamerman22: i'll admit, Dragon Heart was one of the names i considered for CPU Yang, but Neko Heart seems too... demeaning for Blake in my opinion. I'm going to try the gemstone theme, but thanks for your suggestions.
seeker213: It's pretty obvious that they'll become CPU's, but i've got some other suprises in store for you guys. speaking about suprises.
This is a little question for everyone who reads this story:
I've got a few surprises in store, but the first to be revealed will be your choice: will you take door number 1, 2 or 3? add it to the end of your review!