Janus stared at the wall in his quarters. A week had passed, and he'd memorized nearly every nook and cranny of his room. Thankfully the ship had been large enough to grant each member of OAQE their own quarters, while RWBY doubled up in the larger suites. The transport was by no means luxurious, but for a military vessel, it did boast more amenities than Janus would've expected. Next door he heard the subtle grunting of his team leader taking out her fury on a helpless training dummy stolen from the gym.
Which brought Janus right back to the reason for his latest bout of insomnia. The young man brought his knees to his chest and huddled in the corner, where the head of his bed met two walls, and yanked the scratchy wool blanket up over himself. To be frank, Janus wasn't entirely sure what he did wrong, only that it was something he'd said. Val had immediately intervened and worked everything out, but the pit in Janus' stomach was still there. He'd done something wrong, and messed with the team dynamic. He'd hurt the most important person in his life, and he felt lost.
That's when the Dreaming happened. They came infrequently, and disjointedly, and with no other evidence to the contrary, Professor Cole had told him it was his semblance. It made sense, at least. Where his teammates had all expressed some form of supernatural ability, Janus had not. He'd won the tournaments at Sanctum and Beacon with his own physical strength. If this was his semblance, he'd rather be a Null, someone born without a semblance.
The dreams showed darkness, death, a red sky, and a full moon. Janus had immediately went to Headmistress Goodwitch with his problem and she'd promised to help him through it. Countless sleep aids, anti-depressants, and therapists later, and Janus was just as messed up as ever. Each Dream showed more and more darkness, and Janus was convinced he was seeing the future.
Goodwitch assured him that everything would be fine, and that people with Sight often saw things that could be rather than things that would be.
He still didn't sleep. And he still felt the darkness inside.
A knock on the door spurred him from his black thoughts and he cleared his throat before softly speaking up, "Come in."
It was Miss Xiao Long.
"Hey, kid," she said awkwardly.
"Ave, Miss Xiao Long." He stood quickly, the blanket falling to his feet, and he saluted, his right arm outstretched, parallel to the ground, and his fingers held together.
Under Yang's lifted eyebrow and stare, Janus slowly lowered his arm and flushed crimson. "Sorry," he said quietly.
"Nah. Force of habit from your combat school, I understand." Yang looked around at the spartan room and grimaced. Janus shifted from foot to foot, still only wearing grey boxers and a white tank-top. His gaze lifted from the floor to find Yang's appreciative glance that quickly flitted away. "Look, kid," she spoke up, taking a seat on the foot of his bed and patting the space beside her. He sat. "Something's up. I can tell, Ruby can tell, everyone can tell. Even the captain said something to me. I just wanted to make sure that you're okay."
Janus breathed out slowly, his steel-grey eyes staring at the familiar shadows on the wall. "I am...broken," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "My team sees me as...something I am not. I keep up this act for them, because it makes them strong."
Yang nodded but said nothing.
"Lia and I had an argument. I angered her. She has said that all is well but...I feel in my heart that this is not true."
"Have you tried talking to her?" Yang asked.
"You do not understand. It is hard for me to talk to her."
"Oh, I think I understand more than you know." Yang's eye twinkled and she smiled softly at him. "You can't see them anymore, but...my body was covered with scars. Some I gained in battle, others were accidents. The newer ones were...for darker reasons." Janus noticed her absentmindedly tracing a line up and down her wrist. "Believe me when I say that no one knows darkness like I do, kid."
"How do you live with it?" Janus asked, his voice suddenly hoarse.
"You find the strength within to carry on. Find the will to say 'Fuck you, world,' and keep breathing."
"That is easy for you to say when you have a companion to help you through the darkness."
Yang sighed softly and took Janus hand in her own. Her hands were warm against his pale skin. "It wasn't until I was able to accept myself that Blake and I were able to mend our rift, Janus." Yang patted his hand then released it. He clasped it to his chest, willing the warmth to thaw his cold, weighted heart. "You've got friends, kid. Good ones. Don't let your darkness convince you otherwise."
With a grin, the blonde stood and ruffled his hair before walking out of the cabin. Next door, the sound of flesh on rubber had stopped and Janus wondered if Lia had heard the whole thing.
He glanced down at his hand and he flexed the muscles. Darkness will not conquer me, he thought. He stood and walked to his footlocker to dress himself.
Sun put his hand to his brow to block the blinding sunlight. "I can't believe it's been eleven years since we were home..."
"We're barely in Vacuo, Sun," said Scarlet. He adjusted his coat straps and sighed. "It's been too bloody long, though."
Neptune strode forward and planted his trident in the sandy ground. Behind them lay the Vale border—dusty plains making way for dustier deserts. "Never thought I'd see it again."
"Perhaps it is for the best," Sage said quietly.
Sun fiddled with the makeshift turban on his head and glared at the approaching figures. "Anyone else find it odd that we're running away from a person hell-bent on killing us, just to run back to our homeland that's also hell-bent on killing us?"
"Maybe they've forgotten?" Scarlet asked hopefully.
"Yeah, right," was Sun's reply. His necklace seemed to double in weight.
As the figures resolved themselves, Sun's stomach suddenly knotted and he thought he might puke.
"Hello, Babi," said the tall, blonde woman. "Or should I call you by your new name, Sun Wukon?"
"Sol Kameha," Sun said, tersely. "Hello, sister."
"Come, quickly my little lotus," she whispered quietly. "Through the courtyard, quiet as a mouse."
The pre-teen boy nodded in understanding. Holding tightly to his sister's hand, they ran across the courtyard, their bare feet barely brushing the stone walkways. Circular stepping stones criss-crossed the yard, which contained small rock gardens, bamboo fountains, and one large statue in the center.
As the siblings passed the statue, the older girl gingerly touched the godly statue, silently praying for guidance. "Hey!" one of the Prismgard shouted. His torch shone on the royal siblings and his armor reflected the light, blinding them. He took two steps forward before a soft hiss-thunk sounded. The soldier pitched forward and fell on top of his torch, stifling the beam.
However, the other three guards were already on their way to investigate the commotion. Three more hisses and three more thunks, and the guards were no more. Chang'e looked up to the heavens to offer thanks to the gods, but instead saw the lean, muscular silhouette of her savior. A long, red scarf flapped in the wind. He leapt the three stories down from the steep pagoda roof into the garden.
As he approached, the shadows melted away and revealed his form. Wearing mottled grey-black silk trousers and tunic, he seemed to shift between the world of shadow and the physical plane. His face was covered by several layers of silk strips, leaving only his black eyes bare. Thick, spiky black hair was drawn into a sharp ponytail, and the patches around his eyes were stained black with dye.
"Come with me if you wish to live," his voice said, muffled by his makeshift mask. He held out a hand and Chang'e took it.
Salty sea air sprayed over the bow of the ship and Blake smiled at the soft drops that fell across her skin. The days were getting colder as autumn approached, and Blake had taken this opportunity on one of the few warm days to wear her black bikini. The crew of the ship found the sight very distracting, but not one of them reported it to the captain.
Yang leaned against the bulkhead and smiled, watching the faunus' hair whip in behind her, the tiny cat-ears twitching in the wind. Yang was always amazed at how Blake could manage to sit anywhere and keep her balance, and the stem of the ship was no exception. The blonde quietly shrugged off her duster and walked forward, quietly so as to not disturb the meditating huntress. Though Yang knew Blake would sense her from a mile away, it had always been a kindness that Blake would act pleasantly surprised anyway.
Today was no different, and as Yang straddled the steel beam that protruded from the bow, Blake hmmed quietly and leaned back into the other woman. Yang buried her face in Blake's neck and wrapped her arms around the smaller woman, holding her tightly. The faunus reached a hand back and cupped Yang's cheek gently, stroking the warm skin of her personal space heater.
They sat like that for a long while, with Blake purring gently and Yang's lips lazily skipping over the soft skin and silky hair before her. Behind them, Ruby and Weiss stood, arm-in-arm, staring at the horizon.
"This is just..." Ruby started to say before the boat suddenly lurched forward. Yang found herself slipping from the beam and Blake was on her feet and grabbing her girlfriend before the blonde could even blink. The sky went from soft orange of the setting sun to grey in a matter of moments.
"You had to say something!" Weiss was shouting, as Yang hauled herself back behind the railing.
"I didn't say anything!" Ruby said defensively.
"Everyone," came a voice from the door of the bridge, "get below decks! We've got one hell of a storm coming in and I'm not losing any passengers!"
The team pushed through the wind towards the portside stairwell. Ruby and Weiss disappeared into the belly of the ship and Yang started to descend when a flash illuminated the sky. For a brief moment, the entire ocean was illuminated and time seemed to slow. Something reached from the water and Yang stared into Blake's wide eyes as she was torn from the deck and flung overboard.
Without thinking, Yang vaulted up the steps and over the railing, plunging into the deep.
The water hit her like a ton of bricks and the breath whooshed out of her. Quickly, she surfaced, sucked in a lungful, then dove beneath the choppy waves. I really hate water... she thought. Focusing her aura, she tried to conjure the fire within her, only to have it sputter and die.
She flicked her wrists to extend Ember Celica before realizing she'd left them on the ship. Great... I am SO screwed... Yang kicked her feat and continuously pulsed her aura, briefly lighting up the darkness for moments at a time. She extended the tendrils of her mind and searched desperately for her lover.
Blake! she screamed, mentally. BLAKE!
The sensation that ran against her legs caused her to spurt some of her precious air into the water, and Yang kicked away from whatever slime had just brushed past her.
Oh gods... Yang would've started hyperventilating, if she'd had more than half a lungful of air left.
Blake! she screamed again. Then she felt it, something faint a few meters down and to her left.
Blindly, she kicked, lashing out with her aura to illuminate the way. Blake lay suspended in the water, slowly sinking into the murky depths, no sign anywhere of what had grabbed her. Yang grabbed her and pushed their lips together, breathing a small amount of air into Blake's lungs. The woman coughed and gagged, expelling water, then tried to suck in a breath only to have more water invade her lungs. Blake's eyes bulged and she began to panic. Yang placed a hand on her cheek and stared into her lover's eyes.
Calm, she projected. Blake nodded frantically and began to kick upwards. Yang helped and they'd almost broken the surface when the same slimy thing that had brushed past her earlier grabbed her.
She reached out, but her wrist simply slipped through Blake's hand. Yang was dragged down into the murky depths and Blake could only scream.
The rope cut her fingers to the bone, but Blake held on as the crew hoisted her aboard. She coughed water and puked on the deck before sucking in several deep breaths, then puking again. "Yang," she gasped between breaths, "where is Yang!?"
"We didn't see her!" said cried one of the sailors over the cacophony that was the storm.
The captain hooked his thumbs in his belt and chewed on the end of his pipe before grimacing and turning back towards the helm cabin. "Keep this rig moving!" he commanded.
"No! We have to search for her!" Blake yelled.
"If we stop in this storm, we're dead to rights," the Captain shouted back. His mouth was set underneath his white beard and he opened it to explain further when one of his sailors interrupted with a cry.
"WATER SPOUT!"
The five crew members on deck whirled around and searched frantically for the source of the helmsman's distress. There, ahead of them, was a sight that the captain, in all his fifty years of sailing, had never seen.
Three spouts stretched from the sea to the heavens, circling one another, and flinging sea water everywhere. Every few seconds, the sky would crack with lightning and thunder, and the true horror was laid bare.
The thing was huge, a slimy pillar of flesh rising from the ocean, massive tentacle arms flinging about everywhere, one of which was heading straight for the ship. Blake cloaked herself in shadows and expanded her form to double its size. "GO!" she yelled to the crew. She caught the tentacle in her hands and sank her clawed fingers into it. With a mighty shout, she jerked it to the side and cleaved it in two with a blow from her arm blade.
Two more tentacles were already reaching for her and she slashed one before jumping on the other one and crawling on all fours towards the creature. On closer inspection, the creature was slimy, but instead of scales, it had matted black fur. Grimm! The tentacle shook back and forth, trying to rid itself of the unwelcomed passenger, but Blake dug in deep with her claws and held on for dear life.
As the shaking stopped, she stood and balanced herself on the tentacle, glaring at the creature. The thing was shaped like a squid, though the entire top half, the mantle, was hard, white, and masked. A single, pupilless red eye glared at her with malice. "I'm going to kill you now," Blake said coolly.
She lifted a hand and forged a shadowsword but before she could strike the creature, something very bright, very yellow, and very loud burst from the surface of the sea. "—uuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Yang cried as she sailed towards the creature with fists of fire.
The huntress was wearing her mask and after burying her fist in the creature's other eyeball, she flipped backwards and landed on another tentacle. Reaching out towards the boat, she whistled sharply and two thin, black circlets flew towards her. The gauntlets slammed onto Yang's hands and extended themselves. Blake grinned and summoned her own mask, stark white against her black Paladin skin. The boost in power was...almost insignificant. Blake was taken aback. Have I grown this much?
There was no time to dwell on it, as Yang launched her counterattack. Blake sprinted up the tentacle, slicing with each step, before reaching the pillar of furry flesh that was the Grimm's hide. She grabbed the fur and buried her hand into the creature, extending the blade to its maximum length of five feet. Then, channeling her aura into her feet, she began to run anti-clockwise. When she'd completed her circle, Yang dropped from her position at the eyeball, bloody red ichor running down her arms and legs, and placed her feet in Blake's clone's hands. The clone launched her outwards and she saw the damage she'd done. A waterfall of red eye juice leaked from one side, and a deep gash of red circled around beneath the creatures mantle.
Then Blake was behind her, the real Blake and not some clone, and she placed her hands out. Yang's feet landed squarely on the platform, and Blake fired her girlfriend like a bullet from a gun.
Yang streaked towards the creature's good eye, fire enveloping and encasing her. As she flew, the mask broke away and fell behind her. Her yellow fire blazed white, and Ember Celica almost whistled as she meteored into the creature. The bulbous eye exploded in a blast of red, and Yang kept flying. She emerged from the other side in a spew of bloody ichor nearly the size of the creature itself.
For a moment, nothing happened. The creature let out a deep, warbling howl, and Yang turned, flinging the gore from her body. The creature creaked slightly, then split. The masked mantle tore free from the lower body, bisected at the wound inflicted by Blake.
The creature sank beneath the waves and Blake and Yang stood, shakily, on the surface of the water. As the ropes flew towards them, they grabbed hold and the crew hauled them aboard once more.
As the fell to the deck, they were greeted by the sight of nearly the entire crew, their other two teammates, and their four wards, staring at them in awe. As they stared, Blake's mask also cracked and faded away. Deep inside, Blake knew that she would never be able to call upon the mask's power again. But she also knew she would not need it anymore.
"Was that...was that a Leviathan?" huffed Yang.
"No," the captain said with a sly grin, his pipe puffing, "that was only a kraken."
Author's Note: So you may notice I am juggling more plotlines with this arc. Since this entire story is basically a practice run for my fantasy novel, I felt I needed to expand my writing repertoire and include multiple plotlines going simultaneously. So while RWBY and OAQE fight the White War, we'll also see what Team SSSN is up to on the Vale-Vacuo border.
Also, SUN'S SISTER WHAAAAAAT? Yeah. Take that. Now what.
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