Hey, welcome back to Wilting Rose! No, this is not an April Fool's joke. At least, not the entire thing. Actually, the only fool's-like thing about it is a... let's not spoil it.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY and am not part of RT in any shape or form besides being a watcher of their content.
Chapter 24: Gains and Losses
"Alright," Weiss huffed, turning in a circle at the middle of the arena, "Where's our teacher?"
The classes were over, and Team DWBY were stuck in one of Beacon's domed arenas, waiting for Qrow to show up at any time for their first lesson. "He's already four minutes late," Weiss seethed.
"Relax, Weiss," Yang assured, lazily sitting on one of the benches lining the walls of the circular room, "He's almost always like this- and I actually mean always."
Weiss let out an angry breath through her nose. "I don't know," Daniel came to Weiss's defense, "If we're supposed to be prepared for anything to happen at any time, shouldn't Qrow at least be ready for us?" He turned a small cube of metal over in his hand absentmindedly, leaning against the back wall, "We all have better things better to do."
Blake was her usual silent self, reading another one of her novels at the edges of the room while her ears perked every time someone spoke. As she was immersed in her book, she wasn't paying attention to a small barrel poking through a window high above their heads. Her only warning was an earsplitting bang before a bullet was hurling towards her.
Looking up in horror, Blake didn't have time to move out of the way, but luckily for her she didn't have to. Before the bullet reached her, a metal wall formed out of the ground, the bullet ricocheting off and almost hitting Weiss in the process. The four teens scrambled into various stances with their weapons out, filling the room with the sound of gears humming and four sets of hearts pounding out of their ribcages.
While the four of them rushed to stand back to back in the center of the room, the entrance to the arena swung open as a familiar uncle stepped into the room with his weapon strewn across his back. "You kids are getting softer and softer these days, I swear," Qrow sniffed as he looked at the paranoid four.
Yang straightened out of her stance as she glared at Qrow. "What the hell?" she demanded, "You could've taken off Blake's head!" She emphasized her point by swinging her arm towards Blake's direction while her teammates all glowered at their "teacher".
Qrow shrugged lightly as he unscrewed his flask. "Not my fault you aren't paying attention," he claimed, raising his alcohol to his lips. Then, without warning, he spun around as another shot streamed towards him before bouncing off the blade protecting his back. Qrow nonchalantly took a sip before putting his drink back into his jacket. "See?" Qrow faced the flabbergasted teens who were all staring at Daniel, "Daniel's got the right idea."
Daniel snorted before putting down his own sheath-gun hybrid, the barrel still smoking. Weiss's eyes darted between the two violent males. "What is wrong with you people?" she shouted, "Haven't you ever heard of being courteous?"
"You're thinking of duels, Princess," Qrow corrected.
"Same thing," Weiss snapped.
"Wrong," Qrow shot back. He groaned as his head tipped back, a hand rubbing his face like he was already tired. "You guys have a long way to go." Qrow faced DWBY seriously, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Number one: I'm here to teach you how to fight, not anything else; not dueling, not training, not anything but how to take down someone else. Number two:" he stared at Weiss especially, "if you want to survive, anything goes."
"That's barbaric," Weiss spat.
"It's life," Qrow declared, "Number three:" He stared at Blake this time, "be prepared for anything at any time. So far the only person that's starting to understand these rules is Daniel.
"Alright, here's your first test." Qrow walked forward while the four teens stood their ground. He stopped when he was just a few feet away from the glaring teens. Reaching into the inside of his jacket, Qrow pulled out his flask and made a big show of waving it around. "Take this away from me, any of you, and the person that grabs it walks out of here for the rest of the lesson."
Now that their interests were piqued, Qrow pushed his flask back into its rightful place in the left inside of his jacket as the four teens tracked it like a pack of hungry wolves. "Well?" Qrow asked as he drew his sword, beckoning them forward with his other hand, "Come and get it."
He might have been better off tossing a raw steak into a tiger pen because the four were on Qrow in an instant. Weiss was the first one to have a go at Qrow, and even from the start, it didn't look in her favor. With a small smirk, Qrow already predicted the lunge Weiss would perform and sidestepped it with ease, a small smirk donning his face, as he tripped her when she fumbled pass him. Yang was also easy enough to deal with as she threw a flurry of quick punches his way, each one either dodged or deflected with his blade without a second thought.
As blows rained down on him, Blake snuck around to his backside before leaping at Qrow, hungrily reaching out to his jacket. Almost like he had eyes on the back of his head, Qrow, threw himself back and down, skidding under Blake and away from Yang mid-punch as her fist sank into Blake's cheek. With a horrified look, Yang stared at Blake as she slammed into the ground before running to her side to help her partner up.
Qrow didn't have any time to care as he got to his feet while Weiss came back, this time sped up by her glyphs. The black-haired Hunter tried bouncing lightly on his feet but found out he couldn't, glancing briefly at the black glyph at his feet. Qrow clicked his tongue as he shook his head. Meanwhile, Weiss's rapier was a foot away from Qrow's jacket with the intent on cutting away his clothes to expose the flask. She didn't intend, however, for Qrow to duck down into a crouch as if he was preparing for a sprint. As Myrtenaster passed overhead harmlessly, Qrow shot forward, slamming into the poor girl's stomach with the force of a Boartusk.
Weiss was blown back, her concentration gone along with her wind as the glyphs she formed dissolved underneath Qrow. As Qrow was trying to get to his feet, though, he found his hands shackled and his feet bound together by the floor itself. He couldn't help but chuckle as Daniel walked up slowly, boots clicking against the floor as he looked up at the faunus's smug face. "I'll be taking this," Daniel said, reaching into Qrow's coat only to don a confused look. "What the…"
This time it was Qrow who had a smug expression as his hands shot out of the bonds like they were made of loose dirt, sinking the flat of his blade into Daniel's knee. Then, as Daniel was brought down to his other knee, the blade met his chin as his world went black for a few seconds.
When he was brought back to the real world, Daniel heard Qrow yell out, "Stop." Daniel sat up groaning, his jaw felt like someone had taken a steamroller and drove over his mouth. Slowly. When he looked around, all of his teammates were writhing on the floor in some sort of pain, even Yang, who was at Qrow's feet while nursing her chest.
"You all failed in a spectacular fashion," Qrow jested, sheathing his sword, "As soon as I said that only one of you could walk away, you all lost." Qrow looked at each and every single member as they stood up, groaning and cursing.
"Weiss," Qrow called out. Her eyes shot toward him with a look of circumstantial hatred. "Horrible. Selfishness, arrogance, anger, and sloppiness. That's all I was fighting. Fighting me one-on-one when you have three other teammates? Really? And without your posture and military precision when you swung wildly at me, you had nothing. For someone with that much diversity in their fighting style, you're too predictable.
"Yang." Yang looked up with a mix of interest and annoyance. "Communication. Your recklessness is going to get you killed if your teammates aren't watching your back. For that, you either get rid of your recklessness, not likely," This got an indignant, "Hey!" from Yang, "or you make sure your teammates have your back whenever you need it." And with a small mischievous smirk, Qrow added, "Punching your friends isn't going to help that either.
"Blake." Qrow had to stop and think before going on, "Not great. Your strategy was good, trying to get me from my blind spot. But yet again, you're getting greedy, and that led to you being sloppy. And again, you need communication."
By now, everyone but Daniel was up on their feet since he had taken two extremely painful hits. That and his knee felt like jelly. "And Daniel," Qrow called out. This time, a small admirable smirk made its way on his face. "Close. You probably could've done it faster if you had communication, but being solo, you didn't do badly. But," couldn't help but gawk as Qrow pulled out his flask from his sleeve, "you have to pay attention." Qrow took a well-deserved swig as he explained, "Sleight of hand and misdirection- two easy ways to keep your enemies on their toes."
And as a demonstration, Qrow mimicked his trick of hiding his hand behind his jacket as he snuck the alcohol into his sleeve. "Not entirely your fault for not catching that," Qrow went on, "but you can't get too ahead of yourself. Always have backup plans behind backup plans.
"So," Qrow clapped his hands together to wrap things up, "What did you all learn from this amusing lesson?"
"That you're an asshole?" Yang muttered.
Qrow nodded and replied, "Stating the obvious, but yes. Anything else?" When no one else answered, either because they were still in pain or they were trying to hold in angry thoughts that probably would've gotten them thrown out even a prison (Daniel was both), he went on, "You all have one goal, so help each other achieve it. You guys have to help each other, even if only one of you actually gets what you want. Second- be creative. That's why I wanted you, Yang," he gave his niece a pointed look, "to get something else. You punch stuff, great. But that's all you can do. Daniel was the closest, and Blake did decently, but you and the Ice Princess behind me," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the glowering individual. "I'll give the four of you five minutes of rest since this is day one, but you're going to have to learn fast- make your mistakes here while you can."
"But the test was to get the flask," Daniel protested with a grin. He held up a shiny silver flask, complete with Qrow's insignia on the side. "Can I leave?"
Qrow stared at him in surprise before shooting him an annoyed look. "Nice try, kid," he denied, "But you have to get the original." Qrow pulled out his actual flask from his sleeve and not Daniel's convincing replica. "And also, the test's over." Qrow pointed the flask at him, "Can't leave anymore."
This only made Daniel's grin broaden which made Qrow acquire a look of confusion. Without him realizing, Blake's roped blade knocked his flask out of his hand from behind. As Qrow fumbled forward to try and snatch it back, Daniel slammed his hands against the ground, using his Semblance to form a pillar right under Qrow's chin. The Hunter got a taste of what he did to Daniel as Daniel walked over and swiped away the flask. Qrow rubbed his now aching jaw as Daniel held up the flask in triumph. Then, he looked back at a smug cat faunus, reeling in her weapon nonchalantly.
"Both lessons learned," Daniel announced, "and Rule two followed; anything goes. Misdirection and sleight of hand learned as well."
Even with his jaw shooting rivulets of pain every time it moved, Qrow chuckled as he nodded, genuinely impressed. "Give me my drink back," he demanded as Daniel tossed him his flask. His hand switched from pointing to Daniel to Blake and back multiple times as he announced with a small smile, "You two: get out of my sight."
Daniel and Blake grinned as they gave each other a high-five before walking towards the exit, a small limp in Daniel's step. Qrow watched the pair leave with a shake of his head. "Freshmen," he scoffed as he unscrewed his drink, tipping its contents into his mouth. Nothing came out of it, however, making Qrow's eyebrows furrow together as he took another look at his flask. Realization set in quickly, his head snapping toward the closing door which briefly showed Daniel's smirking face staring back. "Daniel," Qrow shouted as he threw Daniel's replica flask against the heavy metal doors, a loud clang bouncing around the domed room.
-xXxX-Line Break-XxXx-
Half an hour later, Yang and Weiss stumbled into their dorm room before collapsing onto their respective beds. Both groaned from various bruises as Blake patiently continued to flip through a book on her bed. "Training session went well, did it?" the faunus asked innocently.
"I officially hate you, Kitty Cat," Yang replied, her voice muffled by the pillow she buried her head into.
"So, it didn't go well?" Blake intoned, blinking at the two exhausted teammates.
"What do you think?" Weiss tried to growl, but midsentence a slight shift made her arm be pierced by a dozen invisible needles, clenching her teeth on instinct. "After you left, Qrow trained us like we were supposed to make up for you two. Not to mention his horrendous attitude when Daniel ran off with his drink, making this the worst training session I've ever taken." Weiss tilted her head towards her exhausted counterpart. "How can you stand your uncle?"
"He isn't this ruthless," Yang protested, "At least, not unless you're someone he hates or competing against him."
Blake's smug, fake-innocent expression evaporated as she sobered up. "The battlefield does that to people," she agreed cryptically.
Yang bashed her head against her pillow, trying to fluff it out. "By the way, where's Ruby?" she questioned.
Blake held up a small note with Ruby's writing before returning to her book. "Off to another session," she answered offhandedly.
Just as the words came out of her mouth, the door opened again. The three girls turned towards the red-hooded girl that walked in without a word, head covered and bowed so not even her face was showing. Ruby sulked over to her bed with her shoulders slumped, hopping up and curling up into a small ball at the head of her bed so her back was facing the others. "Ruby?" Yang called out, concern painted on her face, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Ruby replied in a meek voice.
"Did…" Weiss started, "Did everything go alright during your treatment?"
"Sort of."
Blake narrowed her eyes as she started to piece a few things together. "Ruby, take off your hood," she suggested.
"No," she denied quickly, pulling her knees even closer to her chest.
"Come on, it's natural that this would happen sooner or later."
Yang took a small glance at her partner, eyeing Blake with an annoyed look. "Are you just going to keep egging her on or are you going to tell us what happened?"
-xXxX-Line Break-XxXx-
Outside, in the halls, Daniel was walking down to Team RWBY's dorm with Qrow's flask in hand. When he was reaching for the doorknob, a blood-curling screech rang from the other side of the door, causing him to jump out of his skin. In an instant, he was pounding away on the door, rattling the doorknob like mad. "Guys, is everything okay?" he demanded in a panicky voice.
"We're fine," Daniel heard Yang shout back, an amused undertone creeping in her voice.
"So, can I come in?"
"No," Ruby exclaimed, followed by a massive rustling sound like someone was fighting off a person.
Despite Ruby's words, Blake opened the door a crack, peeking through a small crack with a neutral expression. "Just…" she began before sighing, "Just don't judge her." She opened the door fully and stepped to the side as Daniel took a step forward.
With a slightly worried but determined gleam in his eyes, Daniel looked up at Ruby's bed. Yang's eyes glimmered with the same humorous she usually reserved for a horrible joke as she stared at her sister who was curled at the head of her bed, a mass of blankets covering her body. "Ruby," Yang sang out as she tried to pull the blanket away, "Daniel's here."
"Don't let him in," Ruby demanded, pulling the covers back over herself stubbornly.
"What's going on?" Daniel inquired as he stood on the frame of Weiss's bed, peering just over the edge of the bed.
Ruby poked her head out of her little fortress for just an instant before burrowing back into her little safe haven. Unfortunately, that brief second gave Daniel just enough insight for his jaw to almost audibly drop. "Oh," he breathed, "That happened."
With a defeated sigh, Ruby threw her blankets across the bed at Yang, finally giving everyone a good look at what happened. Yang sported a small grin, slightly ashamed at what she was laughing at, Weiss and Blake stared at her blankly, and Daniel was gaping like a fish on land. "You're-," Daniel sputtered softly, "You're-."
"I know," Ruby snapped, burying her hairless head into her knees. "I'm bald," she cried out, "It's horrible!"
Daniel tilted his head in consideration. "Eh," he diffused with a shrug, "Not really."
Ruby stole a peek at Daniel. "What?" she asked timidly.
For a few seconds, Daniel continued to examine the girl he loved. Sure, her baldness was different, but that's about all it made him feel- indifferent and not much else. "It's not that bad," Daniel claimed, hopping up to the top bunk. He let his legs dangle over the side as he stared at a teary-eyed Ruby. "I can't really say what you're feeling, but it doesn't really change much from my view."
Ruby's face met her knees again as she replied, "But I lost my hair, though!"
Daniel crawled over to embrace Ruby as she leaned against his chest. "And I lost my wings," he reminded. With a small wince, he unconsciously rolled his shoulders, feeling a phantom limb that used to be on his back. "Still feels awkward without them."
Ruby didn't budge as she snuggled further into Daniel's stomach as he tightened his hug. "It doesn't matter to us," he cooed, resting his chin against the top of her head, "It hasn't mattered to me, or Yang, or Weiss, or Blake, and I know for sure JNPR's not going to care."
"But what about everyone else?" Ruby sniffled, her voice muffled by the fabric of Daniel's shirt.
"Anyone that says otherwise is a jerk," Daniel declared, "And if they do say that to you, I give you permission to kick them in the shin."
"You're not my doctor," Ruby teased, her lightheartedness finally coming back into her voice, "You can't tell me to do stuff."
Daniel grinned as he rubbed circles into Ruby's back. "There's the Ruby I-we know and love," he said.
The other three girls had been silent up to that point, but now they all sported giant ear-to-ear smirks while they cooed at the same time, "Aww." Noticing their positions, Ruby jumped back out of Daniel's arms, her red face shining brighter than any star. Not knowing what to do with his arms, Daniel rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Get a room, you two," Yang teased before a pillow slammed into her face, almost knocking her off the bed.
Ruby huffed as her throwing arm came back to hug her knees close to her chest. "I hate my sister," she grumbled to Daniel who boomed out a laugh.
"Love 'ya too, sis," Yang shot back along with the pillow.
As the sisters started to bicker lightly, a loud rustle was heard at the door as Team JNPR rushed through the open door. "Is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked, "We heard someone screech." And then she glanced up at Ruby's bed, watching with an indifferent look. "Oh," she quietly breathed.
The others in her team looked up with various reactions; Ren froze up for an instant before shrugging and surveying if they had any damages they had to clean up, and Jaune had a similar reaction as Daniel's, his mouth flopping open and close every few moments. Nora, on the other hand, was already up on the top bunk as she pestered Ruby with questions while Yang hopped off before the bed collapsed on top of Weiss's. "Ooh, what happened? Is it permanent? How long do you think it will take to grow back?"
As a sort of escape from the questions, Ruby threw herself into Daniel's arms while the surprised faunus almost toppled over from the unexpected force. "Nora," Ren called out.
The girl in question stopped mid-rant, looking back with a bright smile. "Yes, Ren?" Nora quipped.
"Please," Ren grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "don't pester Ruby so much. It must be hard on her already."
"Okay," Nora chirped happily before hopping down.
Ruby took her face out of Daniel's chest and coyly glanced at the four new people. "Hey," she greeted meekly.
Jaune blinked, at a loss for words. "So," he managed out, "does this usually happen to people with cancer or…?"
"It happens to people who take chemo, according to the doctors," Ruby groaned, "I was hoping it was just going to be the bangs, though."
Pyrrha tilted her head in consideration, making Ruby ever more anxious by the second. "Is that all the surprises you have?" she asked.
Ruby nodded. "Yep," she affirmed, "Nothing else." Under her breath, she mumbled, "Hopefully."
From her response, Pyrrha shrugged. "I don't see a problem," she concluded.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened after Pyrrha's announcement. Then, the redhead found herself tackled by a hug from Ruby who clung onto her with a bright grin. "Thank you," she whispered.
Pyrrha gave her a weird but genuine smile as she hesitantly patted her on the back. "My pleasure?" she responded in a quizzical tone.
With that, the tension surrounding the group of friends evaporated as everyone donned a bright smile. "Alright," Jaune chuckled as he lightly tugged Ruby away from his partner, "Let's stop before it gets awkward." Ruby pulled away as she rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish smile. "Right," Jaune continued, "Crisis averted, so let's head back to our room, right guys?" He was treated to a collection of weird looks. "Guys?" Jaune repeated, a bit more unsure.
Daniel cracked the blonde a smirk. "You have to stop hanging out so much with Pyrrha," he informed, "She's been rubbing off on you."
"Excuse me?" Pyrrha exclaimed, a bit scandalized.
Daniel glanced nervously at the inflamed girl. Then, his smirk returned as her intentions were brought up unconsciously. "On second thought," he backtracked with a teasing undertone, "Spend as much time with her as you like."
Jaune raised an eyebrow in confusion, but Pyrrha had a completely different reaction. Her cheeks tinted with red so much that it matched the color of her hair. "I-," she sputtered out, "I…" And without another word, she was out the door, slamming in Jaune's face.
Still not knowing what was going on, Jaune turned around back at a group of teens with Cheshire grins. "What just happened?" he questioned, blinking rapidly as he tried to process the last few moments.
Nora was at Jaune's side as she draped an arm over his shoulders, shaking her bowed head in mock disappointment. "Jaune," she said condescendingly, "Jaune, Jaune, Jaune, Jaune- you are so clueless." She led him out the door with Ren following shortly behind. Even out of eyesight, RWBY and Daniel could hear Nora continue, "You have so much to learn."
The five remaining all exchanged mischievous glances. "Five Lien says that Pyrrha is the one that kisses Jaune," Daniel betted.
"Not taking that," Yang denied lightly, "Jaune's so clueless he'd have to be serenaded and told literally by everyone in Beacon before he takes the hint."
"No question about it," Ruby joked. Then, with a finger pressed against her chin, she mused, "Then again, Pyrrha's too shy to actually do that."
"True," Blake joined in with a feline-ish grin.
"Are you four really doing this?" Weiss criticized with a serious expression. Then, a hint of a smile snuck its way onto her lips. "Very well, I'll put five Lien on Pyrrha kissing Jaune."
"That's the spirit," Ruby boomed with a laugh, "I'll take you up on that!"
"I can already tell this is going to get out of hand," Daniel cautioned as he stifled a laugh, "I'll see you four tomorrow." He crawled to the edge of the bed before stopping, letting his legs dangle over the side. Without warning, he snapped around, leaned over and pecked Ruby on the nose. "Bye, Rubes," he teased, jumping off and rushing out the door.
Four pairs of eyes followed Daniel as he left the room, then three of them settled on Ruby who continued to stare at the doorway with a giddy grin. After a complete minute of staring, Ruby turned back to her teammates, her grin turning into one of embarrassed horror. "Are you sure you two aren't together again?" Yang teased, "Sure looks like it."
"We aren't," Ruby exclaimed, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.
"Sure," Blake drawled, rolling her eyes with knowing smirk.
"We aren't," Ruby repeated while she covered her face with her hands.
"That's believable," Weiss remarked.
"Guys," Ruby groaned.
"I'll give it two days, tops," Yang bet the other two girls, "Anyone taking me up on the offer?"
"No deal," Blake replied as she went back to reading her novel.
"Sorry," Weiss denied, "You're just stating the obvious."
Ruby buried her face into a pillow to muffle a scream, mixed with anger, embarrassment, and a small trace of humor. "This is too easy," Yang chuckled.
-xXxX-Line Break-XxXx-
The next day, Daniel met up with Yang and Blake in the same arena, ready for their next torturous lesson. He looked around the premises before asking them, "Where's Weiss?"
"Semblance training today," Yang replied with a slight sigh, "At least Qrow's not teaching us."
"Thank the heavens for that," Blake exasperated.
"Hopefully Mr. Griswald's is easier than Qrow," Daniel grumbled.
"Well," Griswald announced as he walked into the arena, making the three in the room turn toward him, "Depends on your definition on 'easier'." A polite smile appeared on his elderly face. "Hello, children," he greeted in a chirpy tone, "Ready to go to war?"
Daniel shrugged. "If you're here to teach us, then we probably aren't," he hypothesized.
Griswald waved him off. "Never mind. So, you're probably wondering how I'm going to train your Semblances." The three teens nodded, "Well, it's a sort of spiritual thing. You understand yourself, you understand your Semblance. To evolve your Semblance, you have to evolve yourself. Any questions?"
All three hands went up from the three confused teammates. "What do you mean by evolve?" Daniel asked first.
"Well, there's no such thing as actually changing your Semblance," Griswald answered, "To do that, you'd need to be an entirely new person. There's only evolving or adding onto what your Semblance already does. I'll put it this way- if your Semblance is Fire, you can't make water, but you can make harmless light. Or smokeless fire."
Daniel nodded while Griswald spoke, but Blake's hand still remained in the air. "How are we supposed to train, then?" she asked.
"You don't necessarily train a Semblance, you adjust it. Weiss is a special case with her glyphs, and that's why her sister is teaching her." Griswald started making wild gestures as he continued, "Semblances are based off personality and character. So, change the personality, and you change the Semblance. The easiest and most effective way to change a personality is through acceptance."
"Acceptance?" Blake echoed.
"Accepting yourself for who you are and building upon it," Griswald replied, "Tell me, Blake, what is the extent of your Semblance as of now?"
Looking just a bit shy, Blake answered, "Shadow clones that can take a hit for me."
Griswald shook his head in slight disappointment. "You're going to have to be braver," he suggested, drawing out a judgmental look from Blake, "That's only the shallowest side of what your Semblance can do. You saw my version of yours, how I made two literal versions of myself. You have to embrace every aspect of yourself. Only embracing the fact that you are cowardly is what gives you your version of this type of Semblance." He spread his arms out to summarize things, "Thus, acceptance is the solution."
"What about mine?" Yang asked, her curiosity grabbed by the man's words, "Mine is supposed to be every time I'm hit, I hit harder."
Griswald tilted his head in thought, a distant gleam in his eyes. "Don't continue to draw your power from anger," he suggested after a few moments, "Try to draw it from every emotion you have." From Yang's confused look, he explained, "If you're punched, what's your initial response, usually? Anger. And that's how your Semblance is fueled."
Yang's mouth formed a perfect 'O' as things cleared up just a bit for her. "And mine?" Daniel inquired, "What's the best I can do?"
Griswald turned to Daniel as his smile turned into a thin line. "I don't know," he admitted, "Your Semblance is unique to me. The only thing I could relate it to is a couple of Hunters and Huntresses that can manipulate the elements. And that's a stretch on its own right." He shrugged in defeat, "Sorry, but we're going into yours blind."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Yang commanded with a clap. The others turned to her donning a giddy smirk. "Let's get started."
-xXxXxXxXxXx-
"So," Yang said as she stretched out her arms in front of a line of punching bags, "How do we start?" Daniel was in the corner as he concentrated on creating different things out of random materials while Blake was practicing her cloning.
Mr. Griswald stretched his hand out towards the blonde. "Your hand, if you would." When he now had Yang's Semblance, Griswald took back his hand as he stepped up to a punching bag. "You say you're only able to increase your strength when you get hit, correct?" Yang nodded. With a small knowing smirk, Griswald went on, "What if I said you can increase it no matter what you do- as long as you're fighting, anyway."
Yang's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "How do you do it?" she demanded, "The only way I can see that working is if I someone try and injure myself every time I try and attack."
"Your emotions and feelings power your Semblance," Griswald explained as he experimentally started to punch the bag in front of him, "Yours, Yang, mainly stem from your anger during battle. If you can draw from other emotions, say elation, or feelings, like pride, you can theoretically pull strength from anything."
"Cool," Yang acknowledged, "But how am I supposed to do that?"
A response was not given back for a minute or so as Griswald continued to punch away at the bag. "I'll show you," he said eventually, "Can you steady this for me?" Griswald put a hand on the bag and waited for Yang to get behind it, steadying it at arms-length. "This is all my force," Griswald announced before slamming his fist into the bag.
A grunt was heard from behind the punching bag as Yang steadied herself from the hard punch. "Ready?" Griswald asked as Yang stood firm.
"Yep," Yang announced, shuffling her feet slightly in anticipation.
"And here's full force again." This time Griswald hit the bag with almost twice his normal strength. Yang, unable to handle the sudden shift in power, had the bag forced into her stomach as she was thrown off her feet, landing on her rear hard. "You see?" Griswald beamed as he stepped around the bag, "This is what you can do." He reached down to pull Yang up onto her feet. "You want to get started?"
An excited gleam sparked in the back of Yang's lilac eyes. "Let's go," she exclaimed giddily.
-xXxX-Line Break-XxXx-
A day later, Daniel strolled down the hallway to RWBY's room in higher spirits. Without having the feeling of completely drained as Yang and Weiss felt while training under Qrow. With Griswald, it was a sense of tiring satisfaction, like how a person would feel after a long and hard day, knowing they had achieved something. Not feeling like you had the energy to do one more single thing that day but yet still had the feeling of pride- that's what the four's training was like.
Daniel stood in front of the dorm room, knocking three times. "Hey, guys," Daniel yelled to the occupants, "Come on, breakfast's almost over."
With a slow creak, the door swung open, revealing a Yang Daniel had only seen once before- right after she had been told Ruby had cancer. Her luscious blonde hair was ruffled and untamed, seeming to lose a good portion of its luster. The clothes she wore bore wrinkles like they had been kept in a crumpled pile for weeks, and her naturally vivid lilac eyes seemed more of a stormy, bloodshot eggplant color. "What happened to you?" Daniel exclaimed, recoiling back unconsciously.
"Ruby," Yang choked out before another sob wracked her body. Composing herself, she cried, "Ruby's gone." Yang collapsed into a stunned Daniel's chest, letting the tears roll free. Daniel barely registered the girl crumbling into his ribs as his body stiffened and numbed, closing all feeling off from inside.
AN: Yep. That's how this chapter ends. And that's how the story ends. This is the end of Wilting Rose… I say that on April Fool's day. But seriously, that's the end of the chapter. The end of Ruby? Maybe… (Yeah, definitely not).
Hey guys, Fireflame here. So, there you have it. Qrow's back and he's a sadistic trainer, there's a new OC, Ruby's bald and pseudo-dead, and the plot's rolling along. Everything's coming to a close, but the poll still has 1 chapter left.
7 votes for Weiss to live, and 5 votes for Blake to live. Still no change.
Quick thing I want to say about the poll: the poll is actually going to matter. I've got like 3-4 endings planned out, and there's 1 that's a "fairy tale happy" ending, where everyone good survives and everyone bad gets locked up or whatever. Everything else, there's at least one sacrifice.
And now, review time!
ClyxicRyse: One thing I should straighten out- I completely fumbled the last Author's Note in the last chapter. I wanted to see Blake win because Blake is better than Weiss in my book.
But I wanted to put up the poll for 2 reasons. One, it gave you guys a voice in the story, and I wanted input from you guys. If I was going down a path I thought was cool but you didn't, I wanted you to have that opportunity to correct it. The cancer thing was an exception; that was happening no matter what.
Two, I wanted a challenge. I wanted to see if I could make multiple scenarios to how something would play out and if I could write them. Simple as that.
DePlexx: Yep, it's closing in the last couple of chapters. Not gonna lie, I'm actually really sad about it. The story was a big part of me this year and finishing it is like saying goodbye to a friend one last time. I'm still going to be writing, but this story… it's on its last stretch.
ThatGreenDooredBookshop: Yeah, Emerald isn't one I'm planning to necessarily kill. Harm, definitely, but not kill. What train wreck did you entail, by the way? The one where everything goes to crap? Because that was more like a spectacular car crash than anything. And the training regiment. Sorry if Griswald's training was cut short- I just ran out of ideas on how to train Daniel's and Blake's. On the subject of him, Griswald's just a Griswald OC. Nothing to do with Dishonored. Sorry man.
Guest (Back in Daniel's bio): Black is going to be reoccurring for a bunch of my work. I've got the hard mind of thinking there's no light without dark, Ying without Yang, yada, yadda, yadda. It's sort of like how Daniel pulls Ruby away from her imagination of darkness, and in turn, Ruby pulls Daniel away from a reality of darkness. Balance is extremely key for me.
And that's it! Chapter 24. Let's make it all the way through to the end, huh? Thanks for reading, and if you've been here since 2016, thank you for continuing to stick with this story.
Signing out, Flames of Fire.