Shattered Feelings

Volume I - Chapter XIV: Black & White Pt. II

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

"Gotcha."

It hurt like hell. Didn't everything hurt like hell? Everything iN THIS STUPID FUCKING WORLD!

Areyn breathed, she rasped. Really, she was trying to focus on anything besides the chainsaw ripping apart her body.

They say that your life flashed before your eyes when you die—Areyn had conclusive evidence that that was false, but she wished it was real. That your life really did flash before your eyes. Maybe that's what they were talking about, that it hurts so much that you need a distraction—and what better distraction is there than your entire life?

She'd lashed out, Areyn remembered. Back at that supply crate where Yang had yelled at her, she'd lash out. When she had the strength to move again—Areyn had been angry—at herself. What had she been doing? Being pathetic, that was it. Pathetic and weak and—

The White Fang had found her, standing over the body of one of their own. They had attacked.

Areyn had been angry—angry and boiling with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

She didn't remember what happened next—just that there were a few more bodies on the ground when she could feel and see things again. Black smoke made the perfect cover to get out of the area.

She had wanted to run away—the others didn't need her, didn't want her, and they had good reasons—logical reasons. Areyn was useless and weak and not worth the effort to save. She'd had done everyone a favor if she disappeared into the night.

Then she'd saw a body fly across the Port, crash into an aircraft. She'd looked in the direction the body had come from, found a battered blonde and a dark-haired figure. She'd paused, faltered, and watched. She'd seen them—her team—run and seen the White Fang man with the chainsaw rise and give chase.

Areyn didn't know what she had been thinking. What the hell? Why did she have to put herself in the face of danger? In this world of hurt?

Why—

—did she have to face this reality?

Her semblance was fast. The chainsaw ripped her body apart, her semblance mended it back together. Dark tar flew. Areyn couldn't see anything but black—pitch black nothingness. And she thought—

—get it over with.

She was worthless anyway. Trash. She'd spent her life living the 'what could've been's and the 'if only…'s. She'd spent it wasting away when she was too afraid to face reality—too afraid to live.

This was her punishment. Eternal punishment. Fitting. Ironic. She could get behind it—if she hadn't been the one.

"DIE!" Jason—she'd figured out his name by now—pulled his chainsaw out of her body. It made a sound that deafened Areyn's ears, it took a few seconds for Jason to unstick the chainsaw.

Areyn didn't look down—she couldn't if she wanted to. She wanted to say she could feel it—but she couldn't. She was numb, and somehow, that was worse than anything.

Jason raised his chainsaw for another go. Areyn didn't have the energy to stop him—didn't have the will.

"AREYN!"

—Pyrrha?

Areyn thought she could see moving red in the corner of her eyes.

—No.

—No.

No one was dying for her—she wasn't important enough, she couldn't hold that burden.

Areyn summoned strength in her legs—she jumped, the black tar following her, leaping into the air. She didn't know what she was aiming for—all she needed was to stall for time. She slammed her shield into Jason's mask. Jason's mask cracked and he covered his face.

Areyn fell to the ground, scraped her left side. She couldn't move—couldn't feel. She felt like she was floating in the air—separate from reality. Oh, so this is what Death really feels like.

"R-Run," she rasped. Get out of here—this is your chance to leave me..

Black tar crawled towards her and her world went dark.

Pyrrha stumbled in front of Jason.

She couldn't stop it.

She couldn't stop him.

She had failed—if Areyn wasn't Areyn, she would've failed.

The life of a human being would have ended because of her.

Too slow.

This was what they had been training for, what her entire life revolved around. Protecting the people who couldn't protect themselves.

She'd been scared—scared of confrontation and that had stopped her.

Areyn crashed onto the ground behind Jason—only when tar started creeping towards the prone body could Pyrrha take solace in the fact that Areyn wasn't gone, not yet.

"R-Run," Areyn rasped.

"RAHH!" Yang's aura flared, her hair seemed to light on fire as she slammed her fist into Jason's side.

Jason flew—but a ribbon wrapped around his waist and dragged him back down.

Pyrrha hadn't ever used her Semblance like that—slammed a metal crate into someone with the intention to hurt them—but she did, and bones cracked and the impact sent Jason off the Port, into the ocean.

Neo—that was the name of the small, umbrella girl, Pyrrha remembered—tilted her head, gave a little clap, and snatched Pyrrha by her outstretched arm. She pulled and slammed Pyrrha into the ground.

Pyrrha saw stars—saw a chainsaw cutting through a person and knew that the image would be burned into her mind forever.

How could—

—such atrocities exist in this world?

Blake knew it was all her fault. Again. Always.

Adam was right, but then—when was he ever wrong?

She knew she should apologize, apologize and expect no forgiveness. How could anyone accept what had happened to them—what Areyn experienced?

She had wanted to—well, she didn't know what she had wanted anymore. To prove the world wrong? That the White Fang hadn't stooped so low as to work with the likes of Roman Torchwick? Or had she already known—the direction that Adam had been taking their branch? Had she just wanted to see the fruition of his dreams with her own eyes and think—

—You've gone too far, after all. You'd promised me you wouldn't.

Jason had fallen down the same hole Blake had, believed a little too much in a broken man's ideals. She knew he'd dedicated his life to Adam—and it scared her, that she could've been him.

She wanted him gone—reminders of her past—so when Yang hit him hard, but not hard enough, Blake caught him with her ribbon and planned to—

—She didn't have a plan. She never had a plan.

What were you thinking, Blake?! Oh, I forgot...you never think.

Then Pyrrha had slammed a metal crate into Jason—and Blake had sighed in relief. But they'd forgotten about the other one, Neopolitan. Blake had heard whispers of a dangerous mute shapeshifter loyal only to Roman Torchwick—she had assumed they were falsified truths, like most things.

Blake was tired—tired of always fighting, always running, and never accomplishing anything in the end.

What was it all for?

What had it all been for?

She watched Neopolitan slam Pyrrha into the ground, winced for the red-head, moved to help but—

—they weren't going to win. She knew they couldn't win. Areyn had had the right idea, 'run'.

Blake recalled Gambol Shroud, shifted it back into a sword, and struck.

Neopolitan dropped Pyrrha's arm. She turned, deflected Gambol Shroud. Then she jabbed at Blake. Blake dodged, caught her sword, and fired her pistol. Neopolitan opened her umbrella and the fabric caught Blake's bullets. Neopolitan closed her umbrella and leaped for Blake. She kicked Blake in the stomach. Blake skidded across the field, aura flickering.

Behind Neopolitan, Yang's eyes caught Blake. Yang motioned with her hand. Blake didn't understand—she couldn't tell what Yang wanted to say. Pincer attack, maybe? Get out of the way?

Blake—

—She didn't know Yang that well.

Neopolitan moved for Blake, took her umbrella and unsheathed a sharp blade. Blake tensed.

"...!?" A dark figure tackled Neopolitan from the side. Neopolitan kicked Areyn off—and Blake stared as Areyn moved sluggishly, eyes red and shadows rolling off her skin. Then it was gone and maybe Blake had imagined it all, because Areyn fell forward and collapsed like she'd used all of her strength again.

Neopolitan stood back up, looking vaguely shell-shocked.

Yang didn't miss the opportunity to hit the ground with an explosive dust combination. Neopolitan shook and turned around—

Blake threw Gambol Shroud at Neopolitan. Yang caught the end of the ribbon, wrapped it around Neopolitan, pulled. Pyrrha raised her head and a hand, Neopiltan's umbrella flew out of her hand.

Neopolitan didn't struggle. She just shrugged, tilted her head, and smiled in her bounds. Yang surged forward—-

—Boom!

There was ringing in Areyn's ears, like the echoes of a bell. Her head pounded, her body felt like it had been thrown through a garbage compactor—which it might as well have been.

She woke up on the ground—her nerves fried and her senses erratic. The world spun, every pore of her body screamed danger, that stupid ringing wouldn't go away.

—Boom!

Was that—

—fireworks in the sky?

Hey, it was raining—

—dust and embers.

Nope, she had to be imagining things. She sat up, coughed tar and hacked up dust, and tried to see—anything that made sense.

Neo—?

Neo's eyes widened, her face shifted from smug grin to something more anxious—distressed. Her image shattered into glass and she appeared outside of her bonds, running for the explosion.

"What was that…?" Yang managed.

"Something shot the bullhead—Something a lot stronger than the middle the White Fang used to shoot yo—" Blake began.

"No, not that. That." Yang motioned to Gambol Shroud, lying on the floor. "The glass—"

"Oh...Her Semblance," Blake said, deflating.

"S-Shit," Areyn said—out of pain, for the most part, but—something powerful enough to obliterate a bulkhead, something that could make fireballs.

Blake and Yang started, looked at her. She couldn't read their expressions, she didn't think she wanted to.

Pyrrha stood up shakily, looked at the sky, raining debris. "W-We need to go. Areyn—"

"I can move myself—" Areyn tried to stand, her back snapped and she barely managed to hold herself in a kneeling position. Useless. When are you going to stand on your own two feet, for once?

"Here."

Areyn looked up. Yang stood over her, holding out a hand. Something flickered in her eyes, she looked...a little at a lost. Areyn took the hand and Yang supported her, held her steady.

…

"...Sorry," Yang said quietly, when they trailed behind the others. "For before."

Areyn glanced at Yang. She looked on ahead, into Vale. She watched the sun rise to a new day on Remnant—turning the sky orange and purple. Like Earth, she thought, but then, when was the last time she'd seen the sun rise on Earth? She smiled, self-deprecating.

"I think—I think I'm the one who should say 'sorry'."

After all the time she had wasted—all the lives she'd thrown away, maybe—

—Maybe it was time to change.

"We were too late."

Weiss looked at the Port, burning and broken. She sighed, put a hand on her hip. "Don't sound so dejected," she told Ruby, "The mission was a success."

"And Roman Torchwick is dead!" Nora hit Ruby on the back. "One less evildoer to worry about, eh?"

"Actually, he would have been more beneficial alive—" Ren started.

Nora glared at him and he closed his mouth.

Weiss strengthened her hold on their discovery—pieces of papers documenting certain planned events.

"Someone wants the fall of Vale," she said, turning away from the Port, to her teammates—turning away from the attack they'd known would happen but ignored, the attack that had finally given them an opportunity to search that warehouse.

"We're going to find out who."

"...!"

Ignored.

A sigh. "If you must know, we've been compromised. I really had no choice in the matter."

Lie. Lies.

"Remember where you stand, Neopolitan. If you really wish to honor Torchwick's memories, you can start by helping me."

"..."

"I'll send further details and coordinates tonight. In the meantime, tell your White Fang lackeys—yes, yours, Torchwick's gone now, isn't he?—to clear out that warehouse as soon as possible."

"...?"

"We're proceeding to Phase Two."

A pause. Glowing fiery eyes.

"—And I won't hesitate to end anyone who even breathes in the wrong direction—my direction."

A/N:

Boy, I have a killer headache, but I guess I managed… hip, hip, hoorah for disgusting Chinese herbal medicine…

Anyway, Shattered Feelings is taking a one-week break in between Volume I and Volume II—it'll be back in two weeks!

Reviewer Responses

TrilbyBard: Let's just say none of the other members of ABYN will be able to meet Areyn's eyes again anytime soon, hehe…

Mew Shadowfang: I'd certainly take a meatshield over deadweight any day… :)

EmptySpot: Well, a lot of things can kill us all with extreme ease—even on Earth. I think the people of Remnant just deal with it like it's a natural phenomenon. Like, news reporters will go: 'looks like the Grimm are blowing over Argus tonight' and watchers are like: 'next'. Lol, I dunno.

xenocanaan: :)

The Wizardrous Magicman: ...lol, I can't—okay, I have to admit, that got me good.

Adoravke: ;)

poaling12: heh, wow, thanks! gotta keep it up though, I outline my stories—but things tend to get out of hand, but, then again, that's what the one week break is for

merendinoemilliano: man, I'm excited to finally get ABYN to a working functional team in Vol II…

Fennec9: lol, I wouldn't say 'the first'...

Writing P atreon: www.p atreon / arosz

Shattered Feelings - Volume I [ADRIFT]

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