Chp XIII: Invasion

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

"/Black the beast descends from shadows/" ~ 'Red Like Roses' by Jeff Williams

I followed Yang down the trail-or to be more accurate, I tried my best to catch up to the blonde.

Yang Xiao-Long was a fast runner.

Well, Neo wasn't having much trouble following me…

Perhaps I was just slow then? The idea was quite embarrassing.

Anyhow, I wasn't quite sure how we were possibly supposed to find the Belladonna house in the midst of all the houses that just so happened to line Menagerie.

As it turned out, it was quite the baseless worry.

I simply had to look for the biggest, grandest house in the city, at the very end of the street, far away from any other homes, surrounded by masked faunus (faunai? fauna?) and...it just lit on fire.

I stumbled to a stop. Neo slammed into me. She glowered as if to say 'what the h-?'.

Yang reached the house, or to be more accurate, mansion, and preceded to slam her fist into the nearest White Fang. Hard.

From the brutality of it, it seemed she hasn't exactly moved on from the Fall of Beacon.

The White Fang member crashed into the giant doors of the Belladonna mansion with enough force that he swung it right open.

Now that I could properly see the Belladonna mansion, I could tell that it was quite traditionally Mistralian. It has likely been here for a while then. It resembled a training dojo, with its free-form use of triangular rooftops, brown roof tiles and...wooden sidings.

Curse traditional Mistralian houses and their use of extremely flammable building materials!

And now, it seems I have developed exaggerated humour as a way to cope with my traumatic experiences.

As Nora would say, 'darn it'.

Yang continued her rage-induced rampage and charged into the mansion, taking a few White Fang remembers with her.

Neo glared at me impatiently. I had the feeling that if I didn't do anything within the next second, I was about to witness some very creative language.

"Er…" I managed. "Go on ahead of me. I have to...ready myself."

'Oh, you've got to be kidding me! We worked on this!'

"Neo...that's really not how phobias work. They're called irrational fears for a reason." Talking helped.

'Fine. I'll stop blonde firecracker from blowing up the house for the White Fang herself.'

"Thanks…"

Neo rolled her eyes. Her faunus disguise peeled off to reveal the brown and pink haired Neo in all her glory. Made sense, Neo wouldn't want to bother with keeping up a disguise and fighting at the same time. She ran towards the house.

I groaned in frustration and pinched my nose. I must look like an idiot, standing in the middle of the street as the mansion in front of me goes up in flames.

I shook my head. If I was going to face her someday, I had to be prepared. This was a good way to do it.

After all, how is a person possibly going to get over their debilitating fear of fire besides running into a burning mansion?

That was bad...I dislike my bad sense of humor. But, nevertheless, I decided I've had enough stalling and ran towards the mansion.

Fire be damned, I wasn't going to let innocent people die on my watch.

Not on the watch of Pyrrha Nikos.

Yang and Neo had already dealt with most of the faunus outside of the mansion. The ones I could see were sprawled on the ground, groaning and sporting new red bruises.

Mildly, I wonder where the faunus residents were. Holed up in their homes, I'd wager.

I couldn't blame them, no one wants to get into another person's mess. Though a small part of me is annoyed by the lack of action.

As I came to the entrance of the mansion, I saw two Menagerie guards leaning on the pillars of the house. One of them had an ugly gash down his chest and the other was struggling to breath.

"Who's in there?" I asked the one with the gash. He seemed to be in more of a stable condition than the other guard.

"...a blonde and a brown and pink haired girl just passed…"

"Who else?"

"T-the Belladonnas. A-a monkey faunus. Some of the Menagerie guard. The White Fang...the Albanian and a chameleon girl, I think." The guard frowned. "Who are you?"

"A friend of the Belladonnas," I dismissed.

As I stepped into the house, my internal compass went haywire. There was no fire in the entrance hall (yet), but the smell of smoke filled the room. I gagged.

My vision flickered to...then. I ignored it. It's been months since the incident now. I've traveled an entire continent away. I'm…

I'm not going to bow down to a baseless fear!

I moved towards the sound of fighting. It wasn't hard to hear the clash of metal against metal or the sounds of firing weapons, but the shear size of the mansion meant reaching my destination was inevitably going to take a little while.

If this was truly Blake's house, what could have possibly made her turn to the White Fang? She seemed to have it pretty nice.

I ran through the hallway at the end of the entrance hall. It was large and mostly empty. Impressive or not , it's appearance was still ruined with the signs of a battle. Slashes lined the walls and flicks of blood spotted the floor.

I tried my best not to step on the blood. My guilty conscience wouldn't allow for it.

I swerved and found a flight of stairs. Without thinking too much about it, I ran up the steps. I found myself in another hallway. Honestly, how many of those are there in this mansion? I shook my head and sniffed the air for smoke. I was getting closer, but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. The stairs had led me to a large one-way corridor lined with doors on both sides. There was no choice but to try all of the doors until I found the right one.

I started with the first door I see. It turned out to be a supply closet. I grimaced. This might just take a while.

As I go to open another door to my right, a White Fang member bursted out. He looked half-crazed and haggard, his uniform a destroyed mess. He immediately lunged at the nearest person he didn't recognize, also known as Pyrrha Nikos.

Surprised, all I could do was stumble backwards. My hood fell off, revealing my face to the White Fang member.

"Human," he hissed.

I felt a shiver down my back. The only words that could describe his expression were pure hatred and it was paralyzing-but not enough that I couldn't push him back with a thrust of my hand. The White Fang's metal mask propelled him backwards and he slammed into the ground. His skull made a crack sound. I cringed.

How could he tell I was a human without a doubt? Perhaps it was instinct-a sixth sense that tells you when someone is simply different than you. How depressing.

And how optimistic and naive to blame the world's problems on a single race. Heh, if only things were that easy.

I let out a tired sigh and walked into the room. It would be...a very stupid complication if White Fang members suddenly ambushed me from behind because I left them in peace.

The room had evidently been a dining room in the past. In the past, as most of the room had been destroyed. A table was flipped on its side and covered in dents, books littered the floors (perhaps they had been used as shields? I don't believe books could actually stop bullets…), and bodies laid motionless on the ground. A woman was tying up a White Fang member with horns.

She made a sound to herself. "Tsk."

The woman wore a black hakama with gold trims. She had short, black hair and amber eyes. Purple eyeshadow lined her eyes in a catseye style-which was fitting, because on top of her head were two large (and fluffy) cat ears.

If I had any doubts in the past that this mansion's Belladonna was the same of that of Blake Belladonna, they were shattered in an instant.

This woman was most definitely related to Blake in some way, shape, or form. I'd bet on it.

The woman's cat ears twitched and she spun around. Suddenly, I found a gun leveled at my face.

I tensed. Much to my relief, the woman was quick to her gun.

"You're not supposed to be here," she said by way of greeting. She pulled the White Fang member to a chair and began tying the faunus to a chair.

"I want to help," I said. "Er...my name is Pyrrha Nikos."

Introducing yourself is common courtesy.

The woman frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Is that a popular name…?" She looked like she was trying to place the name 'Pyrrha Nikos' somewhere in her memories.

"Well, no matter, I'm Kali Belladonna. Nice to meet you. It's a shame that my house is under attack at the moment, otherwise I'd make you tea!"

I do like tea-but that wasn't important. As Kali had said, mansion is under attack. "I'm...I'm trying to find where the smoke is coming from. You wouldn't happen to have a guess?"

Kali frowned. "The meeting room or the-no, it can't be the entrance hall if you made it through. Don't go looking for trouble, dear. You'll only regret it."

Don't go looking for trouble, huh? A little late for that.

"Where's the meeting room?" I asked. "Please. I need to help in any way I can."

That's right. I have to help-I can't not. It's my duty.

"Tsk. Children shouldn't fight adult's battles." Kali sighed. "But there's no stopping you kids is there? You're a huntress, aren't you?"

I mutely nodded. There was no time to question how she could tell I was a huntress when my weapons were still stored away under my cloak.

"In the hallway, go through the double-doors closest to the pink flowers. You'll be in another hallway. Go through any of the doors you see on the inside of the hallway and you should be in the meeting room."

"Thank you," I said. My brows furrowed. "What about you?"

Kali smirked. "Oh, don't worry. I'll be perfectly fine." She pinched the cheek of her captured White Fang (who was still strapped to a chair).

I believed her.

"Besides, if worse comes to worse, I can always jump out of the window! Afterall-" I cringed at the signs of a- "a cat always lands on its feet!" -...bad pun.

I quickly backed out of the room. Hopefully, Yang and Kali never meet and have a discussion over tea. Ever.

Back in the hallway, I looked to my left and right for the pink flowers Kali had mentioned. The flowers were to the left, opposite of where I came from.

I wasted no time. I raced to the doors and swung them open. As Kali had said, I was in yet another hallway. I followed her instructions and opened another set of doors.

Instantly, a plume of smoke bursted out of the opening.

My eyes watered and I coughed violently. My lungs felt as if they were contracting at a speed of 100 miles a minute.

I froze. Suddenly, my head has conjured up an image of her, haunting me. She's always haunting me. I can't...I can't get rid of her!

Her skin is pale...sickly white? She has long, pitch black hair...or is it white? Her glowing amber eyes...or was it red? made me want to curl into a ball out of fear. Her distinguishing feature was the fire that came out of each of her eyes, the signals of great powers that were supposed to be in the hands of good (...of me). Or was it the black vines that run up her arms and face that proved her to be...? Her name was...she was…

I felt as if needles had inserted themselves into my brain. In other, more brutish, words, it hurts like hell. Two images were overlapping each other, fizzling and merging-both trying to take center as the thing I feared the most in this world. My hardest obstacle.

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. At the very least, the confusing images allowed me to ignore her. ...even if she was getting distorted. I ran into the clearing.

"Come and get me!" Yang-it was undeniably her-shouted at the top of her lungs.

I was on a balcony of some kind. It lined the wall and circled around a opening that lead to the lower floor. That floor was where I would assume the 'meeting' in meeting room happened.

I rushed to the fence and looked down.

At the current moment, it would seem that the meeting room was serving as a proxy arena for an all out brawl.

Case in point, I watched Yang punch a bat faunus in the face at such an angle that his body flew back and his head spiraled into the ground.

I winced for the faunus (though he probably deserved the pummeling-to a degree).

Meanwhile, Neo...Neo was sitting on top of a spider? faunus, looking very smug as she cleaned her fingernails and ignored the chaos going on around her.

I sighed. I was going to have to ask her about her behavior later.

Then there was a giant, dark-haired faunus fighting off two tall faunus in red robes. The faunus in red robes' appearance made them seem like they would be important members of a cult of some sort, in this case, the White Fang. Meanwhile, the dark-haired faunus wasn't wearing much of anything on the upper part of his body. His black hair and amber eyes made me think of Blake-likely a Belladonna then. Blake's father, if I had to wager.

One of the robe-wearing faunus, the one with the large pointed ears-feigned a kick, then quickly dodged as the other shot a dust bullet from a drill-like weapon. It hit its target, the maybe-Belladonna in the chest.

For his part, he ignored the shot and carried on with a slash of his arm, revealing claws where a human's fingernails would be.

A few years from him, a monkey faunus and a...human? were locked in combat.

A monkey faunus? I've seen him before...blonde (like Jaune), leaves open his shirt so the world can see his abbs, uses a staff that turned into nunchucks which also turned into shotguns.

That's right, he was the leader of a team that represented Mistral in the Vytal tournaments. What was he doing here? And what was his name again…? Had something to do with the sun...

More importantly, why was he fighting a human (a human with brown hair and noticeable freckles)? He didn't seem like the type to be White Fang...then again, neither was Blake (in her case, formerly). Though what would a human be doing in Menagerie? I frowned. There wasn't time looking for answers I can't get.

Speaking of Blake, she was standing up and wincing. Her left hand was holding her side, where I assumed she had been hurt. She had gotten rid of her bow, revealing her cat ears. Blake had changed her outfit too. Now she wore a long white tailcoat over a black tank top instead of a flowery vest. Blake stared at Yang in utter...well, utter confusion, bewilderment, and fear.

I supposed it wasn't everyday that you see your former partner crash into your house and beat up your local terrorist organization. The same terrorist organization that has cut off said former partner's arm.

...I really can't blame her now can I?

There were stairs on the other side of the balcony. They were too far to do me any good considering that I needed a fast way to the lower floor.

So I jumped.

I landed on the ground with a grunt. Pulling out my swords, I rescanned the field. Currently, I was closest to the faunus with the red robes and the dark-haired faunus.

And Yang. Because she had just rushed towards the red-robed faunus with the fluffy tail. She let out a guttural cry and jumped into the air. Her fist was pointed straight at the faunus's face. Clearly, she underestimated him because the faunus dodged out of the way with surprising speed and turned as Yang landed. He aimed his weapon at her.

Darn...I did not want to know what would happen if I tried ranged magnetism with metal already in my hands. I threw one of my swords at the faunus.

He barely managed to spin and intercept my sword with his dagger in time. The force sent his dagger flying out of his hand. It clattered to the ground.

Yang turned her head in my direction. "Better late than never?"

The faunus looked at his hand, then at me. His brows furrowed. "More complications," he muttered. "Wonderful."

He backed towards his weapon.

"Pyrrha?" Yang asked, standing up.

I nodded. "Let's do this."

I was a bit nervous. I don't believe I had ever partnered up with Yang in the past. The closest would be...running away from the Nevermore and Death Stalker, I believe. Which may as well have been a lifetime ago. Hm..considering I had...left, that may not be too far off. I shook my head and focused on the situation at hand.

Yang had already taken first move, rushing into battle like she always did.

Meaning that we were going in without so much as an inkling of a plan. Improvise it is then…

I ran towards the faunus. Yang was charging towards his side while I his front, so it would be a pincer attack...sort of.

Along the way, I tugged on the metal of the sword I had thrown at the faunus. I frowned when it didn't return. I tugged harder. The sword shook as it laid on the same spot on the floor and I winced from a burst of pain in my head.

... i-it looked like I wasn't going to be using my polarity this battle.

I ignored the implications.

Yang reached the faunus just as he retrieved his weapon. She threw a punch, which he dodged.

Maybe I could use White Rose's gun form-but I don't have any ammunition left. I cursed my lack of preparations, though to be fair, we hadn't been expecting a fight.

You should always expect a fight.

I moved towards the faunus-who was still engaged with Yang, picking up my other sword along the way. Of course, the faunus saw me-I wasn't exactly being sneaky-and stepped out of my range, dodging Yang along the way. He finally had enough of Yang's constant punching and held up his dagger. It was already charged. So that's what he'd been waiting for…

He activated the weapon. A spiral of wind flew out of the blade, sending Yang flying. She slammed into the ground a good few feet away.

I slashed at the faunus. He dodged the first slash-and the second, but while he rebalanced himself, I connected my swords to form a lance. I didn't waste any time striking him.

"Ghhh…"

The faunus's aura flickered. He's started to get exhausted…

He swiped at me with his weapon. I grunted as I intercepted it. That was close…

Where was Yang?

I had to block another strike while I searched for Yang. She...where was she?

This time, when the hit came, I blocked it and rotated us around for a better view. Though I was nicked on the chin in the process. I grimaced-aura negating weapons were banned in most places, and for good reason...though terrorists and criminals certainly weren't one to care for regulation.

Clang! The sound of metal against metal reverberated in my ears as I went in to attack and was blocked. The faunus's weapon suddenly turned red.

I frowned. Oh crud.

The faunus wasted no time releasing the tornado. I spun my lance in an effort to negate the wind. I was still knocked back quite a bit and almost thrown off my feet.

The wind dissipated and the first thing I noticed was a streak of blonde behind the faunus. Or it would be more accurately described as a streak of fire-Yang's hair was literally on fire.

That was... scary.

The faunus stood no chance. Yang's fist went barreling into his stomach as he turned. He soared-there was really no other way to describe it-he soared through the air as if he was weightless.

He flew past me and I had to steady myself with my spear. I looked back. The faunus crashed through the wall and landed somewhere in the hallway. Dust clouded the view.

I gulped involuntarily. "I...don't think that force was necessary, Yang."

I caught Yang's eyes turn from red to it's normal purple coloring. Her fist was smoking. "Eh."

"Brother!" The other red cloaked faunus exclaimed and turned. His face morphed from controlled to unbridal rage. He aimed his own drill-like dagger-it was glowing-and fired.

Literal fire burst out of the weapon.

My instincts reacted by freezing my body in place. Then I was flashing back to-

The fire was blocked by a familiar, scary umbrella with an equally scary user. I forced out a calming breath and made myself ask a stupid question.

Why was Neo's umbrella fireproof? I suppose it was a weapon.

"So now you help," Yang grumbled.

'I just saved your ass and for the record, YOU told me to 'stay out of the way',' Neo typed coolly. Her umbrella was still blocking the fire-though Yang and I had to crouch as to stay in its area-of-defense.

"Not like sitting out of the fight 'stay out of my way'! You just did that to piss me off!"

Neo shrugged.

"Er, you two," I said, pointing at the red-cloaked faunus charging in our direction now that the flames were gone. "We're still fighting."

I readied my lance-which turned out to be unnecessary as the large savage dark-haired faunus intercepted our would-be attacker with a good kick.

For a fraction of a second, everything was scarily still (besides the fire that was slowly burning the house down-but I tried to ignore that).

Then: "STOP!"

Blake? I turned. She was looking at the monkey-faunus whose name I couldn't remember and the girl that looked human. Both of them stopped fighting, the girl pinned against a pillar by the monkey-faunus's staff, and looked at Blake with varying degrees of confusion.

Next to me, Yang tensed. She gripped her left arm.

Blake's eyes teared up. "Please…" she whispered.

Neo stepped into place next to me and plopped down on the floor. Sheathing her umbrella, she yawned loudly. My eyebrow twitched. Please show some respect…

I frowned. "Neo," I whispered. "Did you check if the red-cloaked faunus isn't still a threat?"

I received a blank stare.

Definitely not then. I hurried onto my foot. Then I raced to the prone body of the faunus.

Which turned out to be less prone than I would've liked. As I reached him, he rolled away and stood with impressive speed. He backed away slowly, his weapon pointed at me. I raised my spear.

Before anything could happen between us, a low rumbling caused a distraction. The faunus was the first to notice, his eyes focusing on something behind me. I kept my lance aimed at the faunus and followed his eyes.

A pillar had broke loose-the same pillar that the girl had been pinned to by the monkey-faunus. The monkey faunus easily noticed the crack and disengaged, jumping out of the way of the pillar.

Anyone with half a mind could tell that the girl wasn't going to make it. Not with how disoriented she was.

I felt the familiar urge to run into danger-to disregard my own life for someone else's. Before I knew it, I was running towards the girl.

Which was stupid, because while the girl that had no chance of jumping out of the way of the pillar, I had even less of a chance to making it there on time and saving the girl. Though admittedly, I had a better chance of getting crushed with the girl.

The world suddenly disappeared. Dark, empty, pitch black. It lasted for less than a fraction of a second. Less than the time someone could snap their fingers or say 'I'.

When the world was back, I was next to the girl.

I had time to think: what? before instinct took over. Grabbing the girl-who looked as surprised as I felt-, I dived out of the way of the pillar.

It crashed down behind us, sending a ploom of smoke and wood splinters our way.

I waved the dust away and looked for the girl. I found her scooting away from me as fast as humanly possible.

I was quite offended.

But alas, manners came first. "Are you alright?" I asked.

She gave a noncommittal grunt...but didn't even slow her obvious attempt at escaping from my proximity.

"Erm…" I started, fully intending to ask her what her problem with me was.

"Dad, look out!" Blake yelled. She was doing quite a lot of yelling. Unusual, considering how quiet she was in Beacon.

The dark-haired faunus started. He wasn't fast enough to dodge a blow from behind. The red-cloaked faunus hadn't wasted any time while I was busy. He stabbed his dagger into the savage-looking faunus's back.

Yang was on the red-cloaked faunus in a blink of an eye. She kicked him away from the dark-haired faunus. A black rope wrapped around the red-cloaked faunus's leg, courtesy of Blake, and tripped him. He fell on his face. For good measure, Yang stomped on him-not enough to cause any permanent damage, but more than enough to knock him unconscious and give him a concussion.

The dark-haired faunus pulled the dagger from his back. He didn't even looked fazed, as though things like this were just an average Tuesday.

Neo let out a whistle of appreciation. Apparently, she was impressed.

"Well, looks like the lot of you have things just about wrapped up around here." Kali appeared at the large main doorway, her captured victim in tow.

"Mom!" Blake ran and embraced her mother, who unceremoniously dropped the knocked out and tied up White Fang in order to return her daughter's hug.

"What have you done?!" a voice rasped darkly from the hallway. The fluffy tail faunus was back on his feet. "You ruined everything…" he inhaled for dramatic effect. "EVERYTHIIIIING!"

I doubt the flair was necessary. Perhaps he was growing a little unhinged from being so soundly defeated? (They were stupidly easy opponents, given the fact that they were high-level terrorists. Why so?)

The faunus pointed his dagger at collectively, everyone that was still on their feet. We tensed, with the sole exception of Neo, who was still as noncommittal as ever (which was starting to get quite grating on my nerves).

Either way, the faunus was still almost definitely going to lose. His odds were not good, which meant his stand was likely his way of saying 'I'm not going down without a fight. I will stay true to my values to the very end.'

Like I had.

Before he could do anything, the faunus was zapped by a sudden streak of electricity and fell down shaking. I looked in the direction of the streak. The girl-the one that had been furiously scooting away from me-was lowering her spiral sword.

"It's over…" she whispered. Then she broke down crying.

What a confusing day.

"Sir! Ma'am!" a guard appeared in the hallway, delicately stepped over the shaking form of the red-cloaked faunus. "Are you all alright?"

"Thankfully." Kali sighed.

A beat of silence. We were all suddenly acutely aware of how the mansion was slowly burning down around us.

The guard coughed. "I believe it would be...pertinent to evacuate the area immediately."

No one argued with that. I, for one, was highly motivated.

Minutes later, I found myself standing at the front gates of the mansion.

Frankly, when I heard 'evacuate the area', I had thought, 'evacuate a good few hundred feet (maybe a few miles) away from the giant, burning mansion,' I had not thought 'move from the meeting room to the front entrance of the giant, burning mansion.'

Alas, as it were, apparently the world had it in store for me.

As soon as we got out of the mansion, guards rushed up and tied up the White Fang members we had brought out of the house with us (minus Kali's prisoner, who was already thoroughly tied up). A group of them ran into the house to look for any more stragglers. One of them, probably the captain, rushed to Blake's Dad and gave him the run down of the situation. I didn't listen, too busy practically collapsing onto the ground out of a combination of mental and physical exhaustion. I wasn't the only one, the monkey-faunus and the girl were quick to do the same. Yang leaned on the wooden wall of the mansion, arms crossed. She twitched in response to whatever Neo was showing her on her scroll. Neo wiggled an eyebrow. I'm not sure if I wanted to know what they were discussing...which was compounded when Yang released an impressive wave of killing intent.

Blake was looking over the crowd of faunus who had suddenly and mysteriously appeared in front of the house. I was dumbfounded. Just where in the world had they come from? Where had they been when the Belladonna Mansion was under attack? And most of all, if they hadn't bothered to help during the attack, why did they decide to appear when the mansion was still on fire and still held White Fang members?

I wanted to bang my head against something.

Then Blake sighed and walked down the steps. She started talking to the crowd.

I found this distinctly un-Blake-like and by Yang's surprised reaction, she had a similar line of thought.

She had grown then. Grown and changed in the time I had been gone. Like Yang had. Had everyone I knew changed? In a way, leaving me behind?

Tsk, what did I expect? It should've been expected.

...which doesn't stop it from hurting nonetheless.

In my self-pity, I had missed most of Blake's speech. It must have been very impressive, because after the girl from the meeting room said 'I'll stand with you!' to the resistance of the guard captain for some reason, a domino effect rippled through the crowd and suddenly they were all rallying to join Blake in her journey to stop the White Fang from destroying Haven Academy.

...wait, what?

My brain did a quick back-reel. Apparently, someone named Adam Taurus was attacking Haven?

I turned up a blank on a few crucial things, such as but not limited to: why, how, when, who, and (still) what?

They weren't answered when the monkey-faunus joined Blake, nor were they answered when Blake's Dad said that they had about two weeks time before the attack and that they had to arm and train civilians within that time (which sounded like a horrible idea, I might add),, nor were they answered when Kali said that they would need transportation.

Essentially, it felt as if everyone was going a hundred miles an hour except me.

This day is too confusing!

Then Blake said that she knew a ship who owed them a favor.

Which sounded...familiar?

While I was desperately trying to get my head around everything, the crowd dissipated with a new buzzing energy about them and the guards took the White Fang away, presumably to the nearest place with bars. Some firemen finally came to put the fire out as well.

Which left the monkey-faunus, the girl from the meeting room, Neo, Yang, the Belladonnas, and me all in one place without any of the usual bothersome distractions such as the White Fang, a burning mansion, or a bunch of rather useless faunus.

Awkwardness practically radiated from Yang and Blake, who were trying to juggle the rather difficult task of avoiding each other and staring at each other at the same time.

Blake's parents did not 'catch the memo' as they say.

Kali gave Yang, Neo, and I a beaming smile. "I certainly wasn't expecting help from some traveling huntresses-in-training!"

Neo twitched at the 'huntresses' part. Yang twitched at the 'in training' part.

"You're welcome to stay in Menagerie for as long as you want," continued Kali, oblivious. "I would invite you into my house, but as you can see, it's in bad shape at the moment."

"We always have the vacation home, dear," Blake's Dad reminded Kali.

"You...have a vacation home," Yang said in disbelief. This time, she didn't bother trying to hide staring at Blake.

Blake made an uncomfortable noise in the back of her throat.

"Whaaaaat," monkey-faunus emoted, but he took care to stay away from Blake and Yang in a way that suggested he was scared the two of them might explode if not handled carefully. I could relate.

Kali swatted Blake's Dad in the arm. "We don't use the vacation home, we haven't in years."

"Do you see any other options?" Blake's Dad pointed out.

"...no." Kali pouted. I was under the impression that grown, fully matured woman didn't, and couldn't, pout. I was wrong.

Kali sighed. "Well, alright then. Vacation home it is. I said you three were welcome to stay in Menagerie as long as you want...so if you need a place to stay-"

Before I could say 'we couldn't possibly be a bother', Neo, who had probably predicted my course of action, had written 'YES' and shoved her scroll in Kali's face.

I nearly fainted from the disrespect.

"You. Are. Adorable!" Kali practically squealed, missing how Neo positively fumed at the statement (and how Yang and Blake simultaneously shivered). "If that's settled, it's time for introductions!"

Blake's Dad stood to the side. He wore an amused look on his face as he watched his wife become a complete socializing war machine.

Then Kali put her hands on Blake's shoulder-quite literally the only person Yang, Neo, and I didn't need an introduction to. "This is Blake, my daughter."

Neo giggled. She couldn't contain herself and blew up in full-blown laughter. Yang gave her a murderous look.

Kali frowned. "Am I missing something?"

"Um...mom?" said Blake.

"Yes?"

"She's…" Blake pointed at Yang nervously, "...one of my teammates...my partner, actually."

Kali blinked. Then she blinked again. Suddenly, Blake's Dad was interested in Yang.

Neo's laughter only grew louder.

"The blonde one with the puns and big chest who likes punching people?" Kali asked. Her voice was unnaturally innocent.

"SUN!" Blake's look could scorch the Earth itself.

"Whoops, haha...sorry?" the monkey-faunus scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.

Neo was practically rolling on the floor now.

Yang radiated killing intent. She was also definitely blushing.

"...I haven't made a pun in a long time," she finally said.

"I like her better than the monkey," Blake's Dad declared.

"Dude!"

Meanwhile, the girl from the meeting room rubbed her arm awkwardly. She stood away from everyone else. Antisocial?

Hm...I didn't quite understand the dynamic here. She and Sun had been fighting back in the meeting room, but seen on fine terms now. For lack of better wording, 'what gives?'

Kali grinned at Blake and Yang. "Looks like the two of you have some catching up to do. And you'll have plenty of time on the walk to the vacation home."

Kali's utter confidence and positivity showed that Blake probably hadn't filled her parents in completely or at all during the time she'd spent with them.

Blake coughed, a mixture of awkward and nervous.

Yang turned uncharacteristically quiet.

The two of them avoided eye contact.

I had a feeling this was going to be a long walk.

Neo was still laughing.

Blake

When Corsica Albain suddenly crashed through the wall and into the meeting room, Blake half-expected her Dad or even Sun to be responsible.

She did not in a million worlds expect Yang Xiao-Long of all people to appear out of the newly formed giant gap in the wall.

Blake's mind sputtered to a stop.

What?

She felt her stomach lurch, then drop from sudden pain and anxiety.

Yang stood in the hole momentarily. Blake could've sworn the blonde stared at her for a split-second, then it was gone and she was seemingly surveying everything in the room but Blake.

Everything became even more confusing when an associate of Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan, if Blake remembered right, showed up strangling a White Fang member. She was just as tiny as Blake remembered.

What's more, Neopolitan and Yang weren't trying to rip out each other's throat. In fact, they seemed to be working together seeing as they were right next to each other.

Blake wasn't sure what to make of that. She didn't want to think about a few of the conclusions she could reach.

"Stay out of my way," Yang said to Neopolitan (nothing Blake couldn't pick up, she did have cat ears). "I get violent."

Neopolitan shrugged. Something seemed to suddenly occur to her and her mouth formed a devilish grin.

Yang frowned and narrowed her eyes at the miniature woman.

Then the room erupted into chaos with the arrival of Fennec Albain, White Fang grunts, her Dad, and Sun in a flurry of attacks, dodges, and blocks.

Which left Blake blissfully occupied with the situation at hand and not the (newly armless) teammate she had run away from.

Distracted, Blake left Ilia open to shove her off. The chameleon faunus kicked her into a chair. Blake saw stars for a moment and when she regained consciousness, Sun had engaged Ilia in combat.

Things were moving too fast. She needed-needed...wanted to get out of the situation and run again. No...not again. Never again, not after what happened with Yang.

Blake got up. She winced and covered her side. Ilia kicked hard.

Ilia and Sun were still fighting. Her Dad took on both Fennec and Corsac at the same time. Neopolitan...wasn't doing much of anything. She sat on a White Fang member (notably not the one she had strangled) with an exaggeratedly smug expression on her face. Yang delivered a particularly harsh punch into the face of a White Fang member. Her gauntlet was left smoking afterward.

Was she always that violent?

Okay…Blake closed her eyes. She could work with this. The only person she didn't particularly know too well was busy examining her nails and sitting on someone. Blake already knew how every other person in the room fought. Her best chance was probably dealing with Ilia. The poor girl was at fate-determining crossroads like she had been. Maybe Blake could push Ilia into choosing the right path. She wanted to. Badly. In a way, it would be reflective and atone for some of her many, many mistakes.

Then Blake opened her eyes and saw a flurry of white. She blinked.

Huh?

Her brain quickly processed what she was seeing. Not a flurry of white, someone in a white cloak. Who had jumped off the balcony.

The person stood up and Blake got a clear look of their-her face.

Blake's first thought was: Ruby?

But the girl's eyes were a bright green. Not Ruby's unusual silver. Upon closer inspection, she clearly wasn't Ruby. Her hair was too red and her face wasn't nearly as round.

The girl was taller and older too, unless Blake's memories were playing tricks on her.

Then the girl pulled out her weapons, two red and white swords. Any doubts that the girl was someone else were quickly blown away.

Blake may not have spent as much time with Ruby or know her better than Yang, or Weiss, if she was honest with herself, but even Blake knew that Ruby would never replace her precious Crescent Rose. No matter what.

But the eerie resemblance to Ruby was still uncanny. Blake had half a mind to think Yang didn't tell her about another sister. She suppose it would be fair, Blake hid far bigger secrets from Yang (that she had a feeling she was going to dearly pay for in the near future).

Yang surged onto Corsac and the girl threw one of her swords to distract him.

Blake didn't see the rest of their fight. She was too preoccupied with her own problems. Namely, Sun and Ilia.

When the pillar came down, Blake had thought the worst. No, her mind had repeated. No, no, no, no.

It was like Yang all over again. She couldn't do anything, just stand there as someone got hurt because of her actions. Blake was always watching people get hurt, but not doing anything. Or worse, running away. In that way and many others, she was a horrible person. She never took action when the world needed it.

Then the girl from before, the one that looked like Ruby was suddenly there.

Blake could've sworn she saw white rose petals appear with the girl. One second she was practically on the other side of the room, the next she was below the pillar and throwing herself and Ilia out of the way.

Blake let out the breath she was holding. Blood was still pumping in her ears and her heart was still going a million miles an hour, but she felt a large weight lift itself off her.

And she hated herself for it.

Because she should've been the one trying to save Ilia.

Then she turned her head and saw Yang with a haunted look on her face and her Dad-

"Dad, look out!"

After her (mentally exhausting but worth it) speech to the faunus of Menagerie, Blake found herself in the worst, most awkward, most anxious, most despairing position she'd ever been in.

Her mom didn't help with matters.

"Looks like the two of you have some catching up to do. And you'll have plenty of time on the walk to the vacation home," her mom said cheerily, referring to Blake and Yang.

Blake found herself coughing to hide the panic attack she was having.

She mentally cursed herself for not staying so closed off with the situation with Team RWBY.

Karma was clearly a very, very real thing.

Blake dreaded this 'catching up'. Which she couldn't run away from because she had promised to herself and Sun she wouldn't (and Sun would probably force her into it anyways, if she had). More importantly, she owed it to Yang.

Yang...who she sincerely hoped she hadn't lost.

Who she hoped she still had a chance with.

Who was completely in the right to hate her right now and forever.

She didn't feel so good.

A/N: woo! Double chapter! I got a flash of super inspiration! Ahem. So it's been a while. I'm not gonna make any excuses. I was just a complete lazy ass. Then I got OFF my ass and started writing and I realized, 'hey, writing this story is really fun! I forgot how much I love putting people through suffering!' I hope I can do more updates with this lovely new mindset. Also, I kinda got more depressing stuff planned for down the line that I really really wanna write so...yeah!

Also, I read this comment on a YouTube video that suggested that Adam was originally supposed to be the character that gets a redemption arc, not Ilia, but then fans of the show hated him for cutting off Yang's arm and Miles and Kerry switched gears and basically in-canon bashed him.

I mean, if you think about it, he actually wasn't all that bad in the first two volumes. He had Blake's back in the Black Trailer and let Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald into camp to discuss plans (and didn't kill them after he said no). Blake also described him as a mentor and partner (and Monty wanted him to be that), not a crazy abusive love interest. It's interesting and I think it would've been cool. It'd get rid of the White Fang's 'generic terrorist group w/ generic bad guys' problem in a few swoop.

Also, there's gonna be an Adam Short in two weeks. I'm excited. Tell me what you think!

Reviewer Responses are in next chapter.

Also, I'm looking for a BETA! My brother isn't great at the whole constructive criticism thing and most of his criticisms are 'this story is too sad' and 'there's not enough fighting'. He's decent at corrections though, so I keep him around. Nyahahaha.

Twitter: ArosCao_ARC

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