Welcome back, folks! So last time, Team RWBY picked up another OC, and so did Cinder & Co!
But forget about the second point for the moment, let's check in on our group of now 10 lovely ladies and see what they're doing…
Warning: contains brief, strong language.
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"ZWEI!" Crimson squealed, shoving her way past the others and scooping up the corgi up in her arms and hugging him tightly, "Oh my God, you have no idea how happy I am to see you, you beautiful, stupid dog!" She nuzzled him to her cheek, giggling as he licked her in response.
"OK, RJ said, pointing a shaky finger at the (currently former) battle hardened woman, "I saw her beat you guys down like it was nothing, and this is like...twenty times scarier than that!"
"Hey, I haven't seen my dog in years," she protested, "let me have this!"
RJ threw her hands up in surrender, stating "Whatever..." and stepping closer to the rest of her doppelgängers.
"So what happens now?" Ruby asked. "We've got another me now, and I don't know about the rest of you guys, but the room is starting to feel pretty small to me now."
"Plus, someone cut our day at the Vytal Festival short," Yang added, shooting an icy look at Crimson (who made no indication that she noticed it, enamored as she was with Zwei).
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, giving Zwei nosies.
"Can I have a turn?" Cress asked with stars in her eyes, to which Crimson simply held up a finger.
"If nothing else, she at least has the sense to treat Zwei properly," Weiss noted to herself. Then she turned to Sister. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.
Sister shook her head sorrowfully. "I'm afraid not… I was unable to find any information relating to this phenomenon we've all found ourselves in."
Rubin let out a frustrated grunt.
"Do you wish to say something, Miss Schnee?"
"...Well, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to stay here very much longer," she said, "but since it's apparent that I'm the only competent one here, that doesn't look like it's going to happen anymore, does it!?"
"Don't sugarcoat it, Rubes," Yang quipped, hopping up to her bunk, "tell us how you really feel."
"I would," she snapped, not picking up in the sarcasm, "but you people always take offense whenever I bring up the animals you've let run around this country as if it were some kind of zoo- Hey! Let go of me!"
Crimson handed Zwei off to Cress (who squealed with glee) and grabbed Rubin by the nape of her cloak, dragging her out the door. "I'm gonna hit the gym," she informed the other girls, "and she's gonna spot me."
"Get your filthy hands off me!" the petulant débutante protested, "You have no right to treat a Schnee like this!"
"I'll remember that the next time I meet one!" could be heard as the two alternate Ruby's disappeared from sight.
"...Not gonna lie," Yang said, "that was pretty cool."
"Her leaving or the fact that she took Rubin with her?" Weiss asked.
"Eh, maybe both?" she shrugged. "She still has a way to go before I stop being mad about my arm, but it's a start."
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The two Ruby doppelgängers drew stares as they made their way down the halls of Beacon- though it was actually more like Rubin struggling to break free of Crimson's iron grip on her cloak -heading for the nearest training arena. Crimson simply ignored them, focused only on her destination, while Rubin was too intent on escaping from the clutches of her latest captor to worry about what the plebeians thought of her.
"Has anyone ever told you how feisty you are?" she asked, her grip on the débutante's cloak refusing to loosen. "I know you're supposed to be Weiss and everything, but I don't remember Ice Queen ever struggling this much for me."
"That's because I'm not her, you...you…!" She tried to think of an insult for the woman dragging her, but was unable to come up with any that could be said in polite company. (She still had an image to maintain, after all.) "...I-I'm a Schnee, I demand you show me the respect I deserve!"
"Oh, trust me, I've been doing nothing but!" She suddenly turned and burst through a set of doors, emerging into an empty arena. "Sweet! Now I don't have to kick anyone out!" She tossed Rubin to the floor ("Ow!" "Oh relax, this is what you wanted.") and walk to the middle of the arena, stretching. "You might want to limber up before we start."
"I don't even want to be here!" Rubin protested as she picked herself up, "What make you think I'll just do what-"
Before she'd even realized what happened she was on the floor again, this time looking up at Crimson's smug grin.
"Because that," the older woman said, walking back to the the center, "Now, do your warmups and-"
"RAH!" Rubin screamed. She'd had just about enough of the one eyed woman's utter lack of respect; forget what that even paler reflection of Rose said, she wasn't going to stand for it any longer! Rubin brandished Eidlerote (They'd thankfully forgotten to take it away from her upon returning to Beacon.) and lunged right for Crimson, using a glyph to give her an extra boost of speed.
Her target was Crimson's heart.
What she actually ended connecting with was a finger that Crimson held up, somehow halting all her momentum.
"You're too emotional," the woman critiqued, "granted, I'm not exactly the posted child of emotional composure myself, but that doesn't-"
"Hah!" She pulled her sword away and cast a glyph under Crimson's feet, holding her in place, and cast a speed glyph on herself as she renewed her assault, slashing wildly.
In the blink of an eye Crimson pulled out her knife and parried her younger doppelgänger's attacks, not moving an inch.
"You will show me respect," she cried, "even if I have to make you!"
"Not how that works, Twinkletoes," Crimson said, effortlessly keeping Rubin at bay, "You can 'demand' respect all you want, but no one's gonna give it to you unless they want to; it didn't work for the White Fang, and it's not going to work for you."
Then something inside Rubin snapped. "Don't you dare compare me to those animals!" she screamed, breaking off her assault and leaping back, sending a wave of ice towards Crimson. The battle hardened woman easily punched the ice apart before it swallowed her, and quickly parried another lunge as Rubin attacked her from the opposite direction. Rubin didn't stop at that, instead rapidly jumping between various "air step" glyphs and occasionally coming at Crimson from the woman's blind spot on her left.
Touched a nerve there, methinks, she thought as Rubin to rain blows on her.
"I am nothing like those pests who think that they're even remotely worthy of the dirt they sleep in, much less being treated as equals!" she ranted. "They're filthy, uncultured, self serving, degenerate monsters!" she yelled, punctuating each word with an attack, "All they do is leech off of humanity, expecting them to somehow believe they won't stab us in the back the first chance they get!
"If I could have my way, I would personally hunt down and eradicate every last one of those sadistic, savage, uncaring…!" She once again broke off her attack and made ready to lunge at Crimson, blinking back tears. "You may not be a damn, stinking furry," she said, her voice threatening to break, "but you're closer to them than me, and that will have to do." She pointed Eidlerote at Crimson's neck, "I'll be sure to make it slow-"
Thwack! She felt something hit her right in the middle of her forehead, causing her to stagger back in shock. A moment later she heard the sound of something metal clatter to the floor, immediately followed by three quick gunshots hitting her chest, pushing her further back.
Suddenly Crimson was right next to her, her face completely devoid of all the mischievous coyness she'd displayed since they met her. "If you want to make me suffer," the dangerous woman said, "get in line and try harder." She then tripped Rubin up, knocking her to the floor a third time and pinning her there with even more knives. (Where she'd been hiding them, Rubin could only guess.)
"You could probably get out of those easily enough," Crimson told her, "but if you don't want this to keep happening, you shut up and listen to what I have to say. You indulge me, and I'll let you up, no questions asked. OK? Nod if you understand."
Rubin nodded, still in a bit of a daze from her head injury.
"Good." Crimson plopped herself down next to the incapacitated doppelgänger, sitting cross legged and reclining back. "Now, I'm not the sanest of individuals, I'll cop to that right now, and I've seen shit that no one person, human or Faunus, should ever have to see-" she gestured to herself "-which is why I'm the well adjusted woman you see before you today. But you?" She looked at Rubin pityingly, "You're a special kind of fucked up I haven't had the pleasure of reaching yet." She then leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her face with her hands, "So why don't you tell Auntie Crimson exactly what the Faunus did to you that made you hate them so much?"
It took Rubin a moment to register what Crimson said, but then it clicked, and a wave of memories she'd struggled for years to keep repressed began flooding back at once.
"It...wasn't me they hurt," she mumbled, "...it was my sister."
"Ah, that actually makes more sense."
"I-it happened when I was twelve," she continued, "on my birthday. Winter took me on a trip to Vale to go look for a present. She d-didn't tell Herr Schnee where we were going, so we didn't have any guards with us. We were on our w-way to Gavino's for lunch when these fur- ...Faunus...came up behind us and drugged us; the next thing I know I'm ties up in the corner of some dingy warehouse."
She paused, looking conflicted about recounting the event further as she, unsuccessfully, fought back the tears. For her part Crimson remained silent, waiting for Rubin to continue of her own accord.
Eventually Rubin sniffled and continued. "W-we were there for four days before anyone came for us...and those were the worst four days of my life!" Crimson leaned over and started pulling her knives out of Rubin's clothes. "They…." She gulped. "Those beasts made me watch as they beat Winter senseless the entire time!" She slammed her fist on the ground, "They tortured her, and they made me watch the whole time!" By now her sobs were starting to break through the last of her composure. She tried to rub away her tears, but the floodgates had been opened and it was a losing battle.
"Yeah," Crimson sighed, tucking her knives away again, "that'll about do it."
"Like you actually care!" Rubin accused, trying to sound condescending and failing. "Nobody has ever cared about me: not the man who made me, not my peers...even the animals that kidnapped me left me out of any threats they made to Herr Schnee when they ransomed Winter back to him!" She sat up and drew her knees to her chest, "So why should you?"
"Well, the clichéd reason is that I sort of am you," Crimson said, "but the actual reason is that I'm probably the only other person here who knows what it's like to have nothing but shit piled on you for years. ...except for maybe little Rosey."
Rubin huffed. "Great, I can get pity from the Faunus…."
"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is," the one eyed woman shrugged, "not how you want to hear it." She stood up, offering a hand to Rubin. "So you wanna go another round, or are you fine with letting the past control you?"
Rubin glared up at Crimson, fully intending to refute her claims that she was letting the past control her. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to see when she looked up, probably more flippancy if she were to hazard a guess, but it certainly wasn't the look of someone who genuinely wanted to get to know her, no agendas attached.
She only remembered seeing that look on one other person in her entire life, and that person had almost gotten turned into a vegetable.
"I'll give you a free hit," she offered, wiggling her fingers tantalizingly, "one sorry excuse to another?"
This caught Rubin's interest.
"I don't need any handicap," she said as she got other feet, "but it's clear that you're the better fighter between the two of us." She went to retrieve Eidlerote from where it fell, "So how about you show me why I never seem to be able to win against anyone here instead?" She faced Crimson and held the rapier at the ready.
The battle hardened woman chuckled and took out her knife again. "OK, if that's what you want. Don't expect me to go easy on you, though."
Rubin gave a cocky smirk and selected her cyan Dust. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
to be continued...
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See? I told you Rubin would be getting some character development before the end! (And if the email notifications I've been getting are any indication, you people really want to know more about Crimson! Well, you'll have to read Sina of the Future to do that, since she isn't the main focus of this little ensemble story here.)
So since we won't see the final Profile until the last remaining OC officially joins the team, I figured I'd show you guys the glossary I've come up with so far for said OC's native language.
Mhastina = Master/Teacher (Female form)
sala possessive prefix for addressing self
ah = oh
Irsa! = Wait!/Wait a minute!
Ksa! = Damn!/Dammit!
Mhag = magic, used for spells and incantations
keh sinnen = roughly "I summon", used for spells and incantations, particularly summoning
And there you have it! Secretly, half of the words I made up for that language are only meant to sound otherworldly, so you can at least get the gist of what's being said. Hopefully…
Anywho, next time we'll check back in with everyone in the room. (Maybe Blake and Rosey will have gotten back from the library by then…?)