Mama Yang-14
The room was dark and quiet, but the ringing of metal clashing metal could be heard breaking that peaceful silence, as Pyrrha was fighting in the arena of the training battle room, fighting against four of the five members of Team RWBY, in combat, making easy work of them.
"An' that's the match. Well done Ms. Nikos, you should have no problem qualifying for the tournament. That goes for the rest of you as well." Glynda said, as Gajeel brought up the screen of combatants and their aura gauges. "As you can see here students, Team RWBY lasted quite well against Ms. Nikos, and even managed to deplete her aura down to half before she bested them in combat. Now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we do have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?"
"Me." Athena called out, raising her hand at the same time as the silver haired boy, Mercury.
"Well, seems we don't have to waste time on her picking her partner." Glynda said. "Ms. Xiao Long, she is your daughter, are you okay with her participating in the match?"
"I don't have a problem with it." Yang said, standing up, cracking her back. "I'm more concerned about how Haven's gonna react to having one of their students bested by an eight year old."
"What is she even doing here exactly?" Emerald questioned. "She's only eight, as Yang said."
"An eight year old who wrote a well-recognized thesis in the science community, on a Dust Powered Cold Fusion, Arc Reactor, graded and praised by Atlas's top Scientist Pietro Polendina, himself." Ruby said taking her seat. "She even helped to take down a Giant Nevermore at the beginning of the year."
"Those… are quite the accomplishments for a child not even ten years old yet." Emerald said, sitting back down in her seat.
"So, if you're done wasting the class's time with pointless questions, we'll begin the match." Glynda said.
"Alright, combatants, to you stations." Gajeel said. "An' begin."
Athena stood across from Mercury as she took a fighter's stance. She smiled as she wasn't wearing her mask. With the start of the match signaled, and the lights dimming out again, Mercury went charging at her, and brought down an axe kick, to which she dodged by pivoting on her foot, standing up straight, before she completely twisted around, and swept Mercury's feet out from under him in a sweep kick.
As he fell to the ground, Athena brought her knee up, making sure to cover her leg in her metal scales before slamming it into his back, accompanied by the momentum of his fall, causing a loud cracking sound to echo out, and the lights came back on signaling the end of the match as Mercury fell to the ground.
"Impressive Tiny Terror." Gajeel said, with a smile and a slow clap. "You managed to take Mr. Black, out in one swift combo move."
"I could smell his legs were made of metal, from the mid-thigh down, and gambled on the theory he didn't have proper senses in his robotic legs, so I used that to my advantage and knocked him down, and since his legs are made of metal, he couldn't use an aura shield on them. With that I knew his aura would be stronger with more of it spread out on the rest of his body, but if I were to do some internal damage, his aura would automatically be depleted as it tried to fix the problem immediately." Athena explained.
"Tactful, even under pressure, one of the many traits looked for in a Huntress." Glynda smiled. "Now, with that class is dismissed. An' remember the dance is this weekend, but you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."
As Team RWBY walked out of the training hall, Emerald waited at the doorway for Mercury, who came out a second later.
"Learning is so much fun." Mercury said.
"What did you find out about Salem's kid?" Emerald asked.
"Can she really be called that? You and I both know her DNA was spliced and rewritten to where she's the child of Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladonna." Mercury said.
"You and I also know that the process was stopped at 98%. Which means she's still got a bit of Acnologia and Salem, forming her biological structure." Emerald said.
"Fair point. I'll tell you what I learned when we meet up with Cinder." Mercury said.
~Team RWBY~
"Blake, are you doing okay?" Yang asked, noticing how Blake kept nodding off, and spacing out, as they were walking towards the Mess Hall.
"I'm fine." Blake said.
"The bags under your eyes say otherwise." Weiss said.
"Blake, you've been staying up all night for the last two weeks, and that is not healthy." Ruby said.
"I'm fine. I don't need sleep." Blake said. "I just need to figure out what the White Fang, and Roman Torchwhick were doing together."
"Mama, you have to stop." Athena said, grabbing Blake's hand. "If you keep at it like this, you won't be healthy enough for the dance."
"I don't have time for a stupid dance, Athena. I thought you'd understand that." Blake said, removing her hand from Athena's and storming off. "Guess I shouldn't have expected more from a child."
"Mama?" Athena asked, sounding hurt.
"Now that was just uncalled for." Weiss exclaimed with a huff.
"It's okay sweetie." Yang said, putting her hands on Athena's shoulders. "Your Mama's just concerned that's all. We've managed to bring in Torchwhick, but Neo and the White Fang are still out there, and that's what worries her."
"Still, she didn't have to act or talk too coldly to Athena." Ruby said. "Let's talk with her tonight."
~Weiss, Blake, Ruby's Dorm~
"You what?" Blake questioned as if Ruby just asked her to turn inside out.
"We want you to go to the dance." Ruby said.
"That's ridiculous." Blake said.
"Blake we're worried about you. This investigation is starting to mess with your head." Yang said.
"You can't sleep, you hardly eat, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering, and you were the first one to be knocked out of the match against Pyrrha in combat class today. You even lashed out at Athena. Your own flesh and blood." Weiss said. "Yang had to leave her with Summer and Professor Blacksteel, because she was scared you'd yell at her for no reason again, and refused to come with us."
"You think I care about grades?" Blake questioned, practically shouting at the top of her lungs. "People's lives are at stake."
"We know, and we're all still trying to figure out what Torchwhick was up to before he was arrested." Yang said.
"Thanks to you we know they're operating somewhere outside of Southeast Vale." Ruby added.
"An' the Schnee company record singled out Vale as the primary targets for Dust robberies over the last few months." Weiss stated.
"Don't forget about their missing military tech to." Yang added.
"But there's still unanswered questions." Blake stated.
"Blake you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open." Ruby said.
"All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day." Yang stated, holding up a pointer finger.
"It will be fun. Yang and I will make sure of it." Weiss stated.
"Yeah. We're planning the whole event." Yang said.
"Excuse me?" Blake asked.
"Team CFVY's away mission took longer than expected." Weiss said.
"So Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off." Yang explained. "An' now we can make sure you can have the perfect night."
"An' once it's all over we can return to our search, well rested and ready." Weiss said.
"So what do you think?" Ruby asked.
"I think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake said, getting up and moving to leave the room, before the door was kicked open with a bang, and a steel toed/spiked boot.
"Alright little missy. You're coming with me." Gajeel said, grabbing Blake and slinging her over his shoulder. "I gave your teammates a chance like Summer requested after Athena told us what's going on, but the fact you're not even gonna consider your teammates feelings and concerns for your wellbeing, means it's my turn to step in."
"Hey what are you doing? Let me go." Blake said.
"Sorry kid. But this is for your own good." Gajeel said, sticking a tranquilizer needle in her thigh. A minute later Blake's struggles began to slow, before coming to a complete stop as she fell asleep. "There. Sorry for intruding ladies, but I'm afraid Ms. Belladonna is gonna need to spend some time in my solitary confinement cell, for a while."
"Is this… normal for Beacon?" Weiss asked.
"Oh yeah. This happens more than you'd think. Students going days, weeks without sleep, thinking that they need to sacrifice their own health to stop something in Vale from happening, and then they end up losing their minds, getting sloppy in fights, or worse they could end up dying if sent out on a mission in that state. The solitary confinement cell was built for this express purpose in mind." Gajeel said. "A couple days in there otta straighten out her behavior."
"Will she be okay?" Yang asked.
"She'll be fine. To be honest the sedative I shot her up with should have only lasted a minute with how much I used. I just gave her body the kick start it needed to get to work on making her catch up on sleep." Gajeel explained. "Ms. Xiao Long, I think that come tomorrow evening you should stop by the cell to pay her a visit. Once she's well rested, you should have an easier time getting through to her then."
"Right sir." Yang said.
"Oh, one more thing." Gajeel said, only this time he seemed a bit more nervous to say it. "Ms. Rose, Ms. Xiao Long, I'd recommend you go see your mother she has some very important news to tell you." Gajeel said.
"Okay." Ruby exclaimed.
Gajeel stepped out the door, and turned his head to the left looking at someone to their confusion.
"Mr. Arc, I can guarantee you that you're not gonna get Ms. Schnee to say yes to go to the dance with you, if you sing her the song I caught you writing in class. So go put that guitar away, and go as Ms. Nikos instead. I know for a fact, she's been dying to hear you ask her out on a date." Gajeel said, before turning to the right, and walking off with Blake still asleep on his shoulder.
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang poked their heads out of the open door, to see Jaune standing there with a guitar. He spotted Weiss and was about to start playing when Weiss interrupted him.
"No." Weiss said, before coming back in, pulling Ruby and Yang with her, and using a glyph to close the door. With the door shut, she turned back to Yang and Ruby, seeing them giving her weird looks. "What?"
"An' that is why they call you the Ice-Queen." Yang said.
"All my life boys have just been interested in the perks that come with my name." Weiss said. "Besides, I've already got a date in mind."
"Date or not, none of this will matter if we can't convince Blake." Ruby said.
"Hopefully sometime in the solitary confinement cell will help." Yang said. "Until then, why don't we go see what mom wants?"
~Cinder's Dorm~
"An' finally Pyrrha Nikos." Emerald said.
"Ah, the Invincible Girl." The amber eyed woman said. "What did you find out about her?"
"Aside from her immense speed and strength in a fight, nothing." Emerald explained. "Dumbass over here was supposed to find something out about her, but ended up fighting Salem's daughter instead."
"Hey, it's not my fault we raised our hands at the same time for the sparring match." Mercury said.
"A match to which you got your ass handed to you in." Emerald said. "He does have some information though."
"What did you learn?" Cinder asked.
"She's the same kid that interfered with our plans of you stealing the Fall Maiden's power." Mercury said. "She recognized my fighting style, and didn't even need to use her Semblance to dodge my attack. Because of that, she was able to take me down within ten seconds of the match starting. But that also puts us, at a disadvantage, because we have no clue what her Semblance, even is."
"How could she have recognized your fighting prowess?" Cinder questioned.
"The starting move I used in the match today, was the same starting move I used against her all those months ago." Mercury said. "She managed to dislocate a vertebra in my spine, and my aura depleted itself to heal that dislocation. She knows how to take down an opponent extremely fast, and she's not afraid to use what she knows."
"She's also incredibly smart. Insanely smart. I found the thesis she wrote on a Dust Powered Cold Fusion Arc Reactor online, and it is insanely detailed, all fifty pages." Emerald said.
"Interesting, add both her and Pyrrha Nikos to the list. We'll try to bring the girl in alive for Salem, but we'll definitely need to take care of Nikos." Cinder exclaimed.
"You should be able to take her no problem." Mercury said.
"It's not about overpowering the enemy, it's about taking away, what power they have." Cinder exclaimed. "An' we will, in time."
"I hate waiting." Mercury sighed, lying flat on the ground.
"Don't worry Mercury. We have a fun weekend ahead of us." Cinder said.
"But there's one more thing that concerns me." Emerald said. "If she was able to recognize Mercury's fighting style, then it's possible, she's already identified us as the attackers who went after the Fall Maiden."
"If that is the case, then I guess we'll just have to send her back to her mother, as fast as possible." Cinder said.
"Question though, with Torchwhick arrested, who's gonna take his place?" Emerald questioned.
"Oh, that won't be too hard. Salem has already brought in someone… very much equipped to help deal with the meddlesome Dragons of Team RWBY. An' he's a real, Demon of a man. Sends a chill, right to the bone."
~White Fang Hideout~
"What are we supposed to do now that Torchwhick is behind bars?" A White Fang grunt said.
"I don't know Perry. That Neo chick announced that someone would be taking his place, guess he'll be here soon."
"Sooner than you think boys."
The two White Fang grunts turned around as an icy chills went down their spines and their breaths could be seen as the ground became covered in light lavender colored frost.
"Now then, I believe you've been expecting me?"
A/N: Just a filler this time, hope you liked it.