Note: Nani!? A third chapter this week? We've been in a writing mood. What can we say? If only we would update Yang's Eternal Hotness, too. Then again, maybe the world can't take any more of that. But yeah, we're well into the second half of the final battle now. Who knows what's going to happen next? We hope you've been enjoying the end of LUBYP. Love and appreciate your support. Thank you. Enjoy.
Yin slowly picked her head off the ground. Everything smelled charred. Rough, smoky pebbles brushed against her skin.
What…what the hell…
The world was hazy—a confusing blur of heavy greys and blacks. The sun was beating down on her, yet the sky had become so filled with the fog that she couldn't see the blue above her anymore. Her ears were ringing, but she could hear a distant cry trying to break through.
"Yang! Get up!"
Was that Ruby, or coming from inside her own head? Her body felt weak like her muscles were about to slide off of her bones. She tried to get up to her knees, but she couldn't even maintain her balance long enough to not faceplant back into the singed pavement.
How…
More cries pierced through the veil. A hundred of them. Desperate. Fierce. Her eyes rolled up toward some massive structure in the distance. The Embassy? It was so far away. Something else was there: One dark shape vibrating and writhing amidst the smoke. The massive thing was up within the building, but it leaped down to her level, causing the whole earth to tremble underneath her. She watched it spread itself wide and grow, cementing its dominance among all other things in her sight. The dark creature became suddenly very still, and then its color started to change. A red glow formed in the center of her vision. The ringing in her ears was replaced by a rising, droning frequency.
The world snapped back to focus. Yin drew her breath in and slammed her fist into the ground. She shot the pavement beneath her to send herself spiraling off to the side, and it was by the skin of her teeth that she got out of the way before another massive beam of energy launched out of the Grimm's mouth. The laser slammed into the ground, and the snake head dragged it up through the air, spreading the beam's reach across the entire square. The energy reached the remains of the fountain and exploded through, obliterating the stone and permanently scarring the pavement beneath. The beam traced a path directly up the building across from the Embassy, and within a few moments, its exterior lit up in a violent series of explosions. The heat was so intense that even far away Yin could feel it against her back, and the light from the fire was enough to expose every inch of the Grimm's three faces.
Yin looked back in horror. That much power…it was impossible…
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a red flash, and Ruby flew in out of nowhere, stumbling to a stop. She crouched down and grabbed onto Yin's shoulders, screaming at her frantically.
"Yang! Yang!" she shouted. Her voice finally broke through, letting Yin hear every shaky syllable. "Focus! We need to get out of here!"
Yin's eyes darted weakly around the corners of Ruby's face, unable to center on any one feature. That idiot. What was she helping her for? They were trying to kill each other a few seconds ago. Stupid. How weak did she think she was? Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She wasn't weak. She didn't need any sympathy. She was fine. She could fight anything.
She was invincible.
Yin shoved Ruby out of the way and clamored to her feet. "Get out of my way." Ruby was shocked as Yin forced her aside, reaching out to stop her sister as she charged straight toward the Grimm. Nothing could stop her. She was going to run straight through it. It wanted to heal itself? She would pull it so far apart that it wouldn't be able to find the pieces to put itself back together. She swore she would annihilate every fucking molecule of it if she had to. Her rage pushed her forward, carrying her faster than should have been possible on her tired legs. The three heads' eyes had regrown with the rest of it, and together, all six stared at her expectantly, still, practically begging her to challenge their dominance. Yin launched herself forward. There was no pivot to her movement. Nothing fancy. Just a straight, simple charge toward that Grimm's stupid, stupid, stupid brain.
She was only a few feet away when the snake lunged forward, intercepting her out of mid-air. It swatted her like a fly back into the pavement. The wind was knocked out of as she planted back first into the ground, but she had not time to recover. The snake head dove back toward her, seeking to swallow her whole. She rolled to the side out of its way—directly into the path of its talon, which swatted her away like a plaything. She never even saw it coming.
Yin tumbled against the sidewalk, and her thoughts rolled with her.
When did that snake move? It had been so still. She had it where she wanted it.
Did it get faster?
No, how did it…
It couldn't be faster than her.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
She stopped rolling and lay face down into the dirt. She groaned as she tried to right herself. She had to right herself. She had to get up. Was she seriously going to let that thing beat her? She had a lot more left in the—
The talon rammed into her again out of nowhere, and she went flying again. She sailed the rest of the way over the square like a projectile, breaking through two hedges and crashing into a parked car, nearly tipping the vehicle over. Yang slumped against the metal, exhausted. The trauma suddenly burst through her spine, and in a split second, before the fatigue could set in, all of the pain converted itself into energy and jolted her back to life. It sent shockwaves through her mind, overwhelming her.
"God…goddammit…"
It wasn't fair. How was it so strong? She was able to take it out so easily before. It was just an insect to her. A pathetic, squishy insect. She had battered it, sent it flying, and now that was three—three, three, three, three—times in a row that it hit her without retaliation.
She slammed her fist into the ground, cracking it beneath her gauntlets. She rose up to her knees and straightened out her spine, cracking her knuckles and shoulder blades.
"You think you're stronger than me?" she growled.
She reached behind her, grabbing the door through the broken window. Her fingers sunk into the shattered glass still lining the edge.
"You think you're fucking stronger than me?"
Her muscles spasmed, and her hair suddenly lit aflame, casting her face into heavy shadows.
"No one…"
With all of her strength, she pulled and arced the car over her head, throwing it across the square.
"…is stronger than me!"
The car careened through the air, flying toward the Grimm. Yin watched it fly, ready to charge after it. She didn't notice the buzzing.
A brilliant red flash appeared behind the car, and the Grimm's laser blasted right through, exploding it in half. Yin gasped but couldn't escape; the energy crashed into her, launching her backward. The beam exploded through the building behind her, carrying her, absorbing her screams into the droning frequency. She was blown through wall after wall after wall. The rooms she passed through exploded into rubble the moment she left them, ruining whatever was inside. The energy didn't stop until she tumbled out the backside of the building and onto the street beyond, collapsing into the concrete—which promptly exploded, sending her flying again.
Yin rolled onto her back, staring blankly up to the sky. That…that hurt. Aura? Her Semblance? They saved her life, but their shielding felt like paper. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Her muscles, God, her everything. The blast was primarily concussive. Physical energy. All of that trauma coursing through her veins like a drug. It should have felt good, or at least better. But all of the injury, not just from the Grimm, but days and days of harm from Beacon and Vale, had left its toll on her. She felt her energy return, but it carried no life with it. No pleasure. No mirth. When she forced herself to sit up, it was the aura of the undead, a broken corpse rising back to life.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
She…
She just had to hit it harder.
She let herself go soft. Soft. Soft
She didn't have the spirit.
She was going to die.
No, she wasn't.
Yes, she was.
God, her head…Why did her fucking head hurt so badly? There was buzzing everywhere. Was it from the laser? But it sounded like it was from within her own head. It was growing louder and louder and louder and she needed it to shut up before she twisted her own head off. It was creeping, worming through her ears and probing into her frontal lobe. The entire world tilted off its axis. A deep chill ran through her muscles. Spasms. Memories of the time she was in the forest, fearing for her life…wait, no. Not her. The other. Them? Oh God, it wouldn't shut up. Why would it not just be quiet for one goddamn minute and let her kill something?
Yin stumbled through the gaping hole in the building. There was no one else around her. The ants had fled the fires long ago. She peered through the smoldering remains of the building's innards. There was a perfect, clear line of sight toward the square. She saw the Grimm far away, battling against something. More red. Ruby. Fucking Ruby. What the hell was she doing? She was going to die. That dumbass. Why was she still fighting when there was no hope for her winning? Did she have a death wish?
"So stupid," Yin groaned. She clutched her head as she made her way through the shadows of the building, grimacing in agony. "Stupid. Why?"
Ruby flew around the Grimm's heads, trying to divert its attention away from Yin. It didn't bite at her. Hell, it didn't even seem to think she existed. She landed on its back, swiping her scythe against its back. The metal scraped against its hide, entirely ineffective. She needed to do something to draw its fire, but the Grimm was bored with her. It knew she wasn't a threat, and its hunger lied elsewhere. And with all of her injuries, all that blood dripping down her arm, it wasn't like her strikes carried any weight anyway.
"Come on!" she screamed at it. "Look at me!" She noticed Yin stumbling back into the square, and the Grimm's heads perked up as she started to approach. "No, no, come on." She jumped off and flew across the square, trying to cut Yin off before she could make another mistake. Yin was strong, but she was out of her element. She didn't know that the Grimm was based on her powers. She didn't how much more powerful the Grimm became every time she injured it. And now a laser beam? If Yin tried hitting it again, who knew what other horrible mutation it could develop? The innocents were out of the way now. She had to stop her sister at all costs and get out of that square before anyone else was hurt.
Yin saw Ruby approaching her and growled.
"Get the hell out of my way!" When the rose petals got close, Yin tried to batter it out of the air. Ruby barely managed to swerve out of the way, stumbling off to Yin's side. No problem, she thought. Yin was still furious, but she would try again. Except when she turned around, she saw Yin charging—not at the Grimm, but straight at her. Yin threw herself at Ruby, but unlike before, Ruby was able to step back out of the way, causing Yin to stumble and faceplant on the road.
"Yang, stop! Please!" Ruby let out an exasperated cry.
Yin closed her eyes tightly, shaking her burning head. "Stay still, dammit. I'm not finished with you."
"Yang, this is crazy!" Ruby said desperately. The Grimm was watching them from afar, twitching, like it was mocking them for fighting each other. Yin didn't care. She just needed to kill something. Like Ruby. Ruby was right there. Easy to break. So easy to snap like a goddamn twig. Yin threw herself again, so disoriented that she could barely keep herself upright. Ruby dodged her attack but horrifyingly realized that Yin's fist still punched straight through the road beneath like a bomb. Yin threw herself again, and Ruby dodged, focusing on the new threat. She didn't know what was developing on the other side of the square.
Blake and Weiss had traveled through the city as fast as they could. After freezing Adam in place, they made sure he was no longer a threat before returning to help Ruby. Floating over the streets on glyphs, they saw the last of the civilians fleeing the area or recording the distant destruction on their Scrolls. They were the only two people heading toward the square, where occasional bursts of red light appeared behind the distant buildings.
"Where are the other Huntsmen?" Weiss asked, panicked. "Shouldn't they have acted by now?"
"They could be coordinating their response," Blake theorized. Though it felt like an eternity, the attack had actually only begun less than ten minutes ago. There was so much chaos that Blake wasn't sure if anyone would be able to figure out what was happening. That said, she wanted the cops as far away from the Grimm as possible. Not just because of her past with authority, but if they were going to attack the Grimm, they needed to be able to kill it. Anything else would just make it stronger. That said… "And what the hell is that glowing?"
"I don't know," Weiss said, the wind whipping through her hair. She looked forward and clutched her sword tighter. "Come on, Ruby. Please be okay."
It seemed to take forever to reach the battle, though a large part of that was Weiss's own anxiety. She had already failed to stop the Grimm once. What was returning going to do for her? The most she could hope for was that her powers would miraculously reappear, and even then, she couldn't be guaranteed that would do anything. All she could do was hope…and what the hell had that ever gotten her?
They didn't know exactly what they were going to see when they arrived in the square, but the first thing that caught their eyes was the Grimm standing in its center, unmoving, waiting. They followed its line of sight all the way across the field, and that's when they saw her. Weiss, in shock, lowered their glyphs to the ground, sprinting forward and watching the sisters fight from afar.
"Is…is that Yang?" she gasped. The figures were far away and blurry, but she was almost certain of it. That blonde hair was recognizable anywhere, even if the woman herself looked burnt and bloody. That was a variable she hadn't seen coming. She barely knew how to process it other than stuttering out a few pathetic questions. "What is she doing here? H-How did she even get here? Blake? Blake?"
Weiss turned around, but Blake hadn't followed her onto the square.
She was just standing there. Staring. Like she had seen a ghost.
Weiss grunted and raced toward the others, leaving Blake behind. She had no time for trauma. Her protective instincts went into overdrive. Ruby was in danger. She had to protect her. She leapt through the air and jumped onto a glyph that carried her quickly across the ruined lawn. She made a wide arc around the Grimm, keeping an eye on it in case it decided to attack.
Blake watched the action from a distance. She still didn't move a muscle.
"Ruby!" Weiss shouted, grabbing the attention of both sisters.
"Weiss?" Ruby shouted back. "You need to—"
"Don't look away from me!"
Yin lunged forward and grabbed onto Ruby's weapon, trying to force it away from her. She lost her footing, falling over herself and trying to drag down Ruby with her. Ruby struggled to hang on, but she realized that Yin wasn't even pulling on her. She was holding on for dear life, too.
"You…why won't you just stand still and let me do this?" Yin pleaded. She screamed in pain and let go of Crescent Rose before Ruby fought back, folding her face into her palms. "Why won't you just leave me alone? What is wrong with you?"
Ruby stammered. "Y-Yang? Are you—"
"Ruby, duck!"
Weiss flew over Ruby's head and gave a swift kick to Yin's head, causing her to stagger backward a few feet. Precious distance. Weiss stood in front of Ruby and held her arms wide to protect her, panting hard and trying to look in every direction at once.
"Dammit…dammit…" Yin growled, tugging at her hair. Ruby thought she was frustrated, but she could sense something worse within her.
"Ruby, we need to go," Weiss said frantically.
"But Yang—"
Yin fell to her knees and slammed her forehead into the ground. She clutched her ears, trying to block out the entire world. "Why…why is this going wrong?"
"We'll come back for her!" Weiss exclaimed.
"How?"
"I don't know and I don't care!" Weiss shouted. "We need to—look out!"
The Grimm came charging toward them out of nowhere. Weiss summoned a glyph beneath them and launched toward it, sliding beneath its belly to dodge out of the way. The bird head snapped at them on their way beneath, and even after they passed through, the snake made one last jab toward them, pulled a few feet short by the rest of its momentum. Yin wasn't as fortunate. Lost within the turmoil of her own thoughts, she didn't see the Grimm coming, and was taken off-guard when it snapped its jaws and bit into her leg. Yin gasped in pain, but didn't scream as the Grimm hoisted her up in the air and began to shake her around. She dangled from its mouth like a ragdoll, upside-down with her arms loosely flopping over her head.
She didn't fight back.
She couldn't.
She thought her head was going to explode.
Why couldn't she hit Ruby? Why did she miss? She was right in front of her. It should have been easy, but she was so weak. All of that energy, all of that pain built up, and she could barely stand.
What the hell was happening to her?
Yin's eyes flickered, threatening to close completely. But, as she felt her draining blood rush to her head and the darkness encroach, her vision was forced to the opposite end of the square, and for just a moment, even hundreds of yards apart, she managed to lock eyes with the woman in black.
"Belle?"
Something crawled through her mind, pulling her further into darkness. Yet it was different than before. Her vision pulsed and she saw flashes of memories that weren't exactly hers. Somehow, her head hurt even more, so unbearable that it numbed every other nerve in her body. It didn't matter how hard the Grimm thrashed her about or how much blood drained out of her. Blake became her focal point, a single fixed visage that never broke or shifted. It drew those awful sensations out of her, stirring something she prayed had been buried.
Ruby flew toward the Grimm's head out of nowhere. "Leave my sister alone!" She landed on top of the bear head and plunged her scythe into its eye. The Grimm yelled in pain, dropping Yin to the ground and rearing back on its hind legs. That was finally enough for it to pay attention to Ruby again; the snake lunged toward her, only to receive a mouthful of energy harpoons courtesy of the ex-heiress standing to its side. It shook its head wildly, and when that didn't stop it, Weiss summoned a glyph between its teeth and generated a massive block of ice, sealing its mouth completely shut.
"Ruby, let's go!" Weiss shouted again.
"Right!" Ruby agreed. She hurriedly unhooked her weapon and flew down beneath the standing Grimm, where Yin was lying pathetically on the floor. She grabbed onto her sister's arm. "Yang, get up! We're leaving!"
Yin barely moved. "I…I can't…I can't…"
"Yang, snap out of it!" Ruby screamed at her. "We have to—"
The Grimm dropped, planting itself on all fours and hovering over them. Ruby hadn't realized where they were position, and they were in perfect biting range as the bird head on its underside landed directly on top of them. Ruby was forced flat onto her back as the bird tried to drill its beak down onto her chest, and she was only able to hold it off by transforming her scythe into its spear form, planting it next to her, and jamming the pointed end up into its mouth. The tip of the spear penetrated the back of the bird's throat, but with twitching forceful determination, it pushed itself further down the spear, inching closer to the young Huntress. Ruby screamed in horror.
"Rub—" Weiss tried to scream, but the snake's mouth suddenly glowed, and another energy beam launched out of its mouth, exploding through the ice with ease. The snake whipped around wildly, throwing its head around toward anything in its vicinity. A line of explosions rocked the entire square, blasting apart everything in its wake. Weiss frenetically dodged out of its path, doing everything she could do to skate around the monster and avoid its fire.
Underneath the beast, Ruby pinned herself to the ground as the bird eagerly inched its way toward her. Black fluid pooled out of its mouth dripping onto her torso and hands, causing her grip on her weapon to slip. "Yang, help me!"
Yin couldn't move. She curled up helplessly on the ground, whimpering to herself. "Why…why can't I stop it? I'm supposed to be…it's not fair…"
"Yang!" Ruby screamed desperately. It didn't matter. Yin was lost inside her own head. The Grimm was collapsing on top of them, but nothing she did would ever make her care. Ruby looked around for help, but Weiss was unable to assist, too focused on dodging the laser to do anything. The entire world seemed to be exploding around them, and Ruby felt the heat from the explosions on every inch of her skin, but there was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable.
But help did come from behind. Whatever it was, something had snapped Blake out of her trance, and she finally raced across the field to assist her teammates. She slid feet first underneath the Grimm, sliding past its talons and coming to a stop directly next to Ruby. The bird barely seemed to notice her until she reached up and plunged Gambol Shroud into its eyeball. Blood spurted from its wound, and Ruby and Blake seized up in disgust and fear as the bird's descent down the spear was finally stopped. Blake sneered and shouted in anger.
"Okay, Ruby, for the record: This was a stupid plan and I fucking hate you!"
"Not the time, Blake!" Ruby exclaimed. She readjusted her grip on her spear and got ready to roll to safety. "One, two, three…move!"
She and Blake withdrew their weapons from the bird's head and shifted in opposite directions. Blake's afterimages pushed her away to safety, while Ruby grabbed Yin and flew away in a rose petal flurry. The bird crashed into the concrete, pinning itself to the floor. It tried to pull itself free, but for just that moment, it had trapped itself in place. Ruby landed not far away from it, perhaps only a few yards, too tired to carry Yin any further out of the square. She grabbed her sister by the shoulders, trying to knock any sense into her.
"Yang, you need to move!" Ruby pleaded. She had no idea how long the Grimm would hold. Her own body was giving up on her. The mission had failed. They needed to escape now.
But Yin refused to budge. "I don't understand. What am I missing?"
"Yang!"
"I can't let it beat me. I can't. I have nothing else."
The Grimm's screams of anguish grew louder. Ruby heard Weiss and Blake calling to her, telling her to run. Weiss tried to distract the snake head while Blake sprinted toward the sisters, struggling herself to stay upright.
"Hey, you two! What are you waiting for?" Blake shouted.
That voice—that brought life back to Yin's face. Her red eye darted upward, catching a glimpse of the assassin running toward her. And in the split second, all of those hazy memories cleared up. The headache dissipated. The world straightened. She remembered it, clear as day, directly in front of her.
The memory of being left behind in Beacon by that fucking cat.
"Belle."
She dug her fingers into the dirt.
"Belle…"
Blake was only a few feet away, but she slid to a screeching halt when Yin glared up at her furiously. She worriedly pulled up her sword. "Oh, shit—"
"Belle!" Yin shoved Ruby off her once more and charged toward Blake, throwing punches as hard as she possibly could toward Blake's head. Blake ducked the wild blows with manic grace, stammering in frustration.
"Are you serious right now?" she shouted. "Do you really think this is the best time for this?"
"Belle! Belle! Belle!" Yin shouted over and over again. Each utterance of her name was like a shot of adrenaline, fueling the next punch when the rest of her energy was gone.
That Faunus.
That goddamn traitor.
Left her for dead.
Took her love and threw it in the gutter.
She would kill her.
Rip out her fucking entrails.
Poke her damn eyes out.
Tear off her claws.
Kill her.
Ruin her.
Kill her.
Belle.
Belle.
Belle.
Belle.
Blake tried to fight back without hurting Yin, but she was making that difficult. Extremely difficult. She knew Yin had a right to be mad at her. Hell, everyone had a right to be mad at her. But could she seriously not have waited until they escaped the giant monster before she decided to get her revenge? Ruby was too exhausted to help and Weiss was distracted, so surviving Yin's onslaught was something she had to do all on her own. Unfortunately, that meant focusing all her attention on the damaged woman in front of her, and it meant taking her attention off the Grimm, which managed to free itself from the ground.
The three heads aligned toward the blonde throwing punches at the other Humans. It had let her destroy the other pests before, but no longer. It was hurt and hungry, and though it lacked any conventional or comprehensible desires, its hatred of the woman that tore it into pieces ran deep. The Grimm planted its feet, and the three mouths opened up wide. A deep glow began from within its tissue, and the haunting frequency returned, quickly charging up to full power.
Weiss realized it was about to strike and launched a fireball at it. When that deflected off its hide, she launched a wall of ice. And then another. And another. Blake and Yin hadn't noticed the Grimm charging up its attack, and she raced toward them. She tried to summon a gravity glyph beneath them, but Myrtenaster could only materialize glyphs within a certain distance, and she hadn't noticed at the time, but her efforts to dodge the Grimm's destructive laser had taken her out of range. She tried rushing toward them—but it wasn't long before she realized she wasn't going to make it to them in time.
Blake vanished into an afterimage, gaining enough distance from Yin that she was out of her range of attack—and unknowingly, out of the interests of the Grimm. She and Yin noticed the frequency reaching its peak at the same time, and while Blake was out of the target zone, she instinctively reached out toward Yin to try to protect her. Yin turned toward the Grimm and froze in place as the energy beam launched out of its mouths. Three of them at once, merging into something even more powerful. Headed straight toward her.
Huh.
Yin didn't have time to brace herself. She didn't even have time to fear it. There was, maybe, one brief second where her anger toward Blake disappeared, plunging somewhere into the pits of her mind, but if it existed, she certainly didn't realize it. All she saw was what seemed to be all of reality absorbed into a blinding, brilliant red light, and the heat from the laser rushing toward her face, and the bitter disappointment when she realized that it was probably over.
And then she felt Ruby slam into her from behind, knocking her out of the laser's path.
Huh.
Yin fell onto her knees. The heat of the laser passed safely behind her—and then silence filled the air. Blake stared in shock at the abyss behind her. Yin heard Weiss gasp in horror. Yin slowly turned around.
"R…Ruby?"
The ground behind her was charred. A long line had been carved out of it like a knife through flesh. Yin carefully traced her eyes down the scar, scanning the smoky ruins for her sister. The beam of energy had traveled down the entire square, leaving a pure path of destruction in its wake, and it had pierced through one of the office buildings, turning its front wall into rubble.
And there, sticking out of the chunks of rubble, Yin saw a red scythe sticking upright out of the ground, next to a young redhead, lying limp and unmoving amongst the carnage.
Blake stared blankly at the destruction.
Weiss clasped her hand against her mouth, fighting back tears, too shocked to scream.
Yin's eyes never broke away from Ruby's body. She rested on her hands and knees, unthinking, unmoving, waiting to see if she saw any sign of movement.
She saw nothing.
And as that one moment stretched into an eternity, Yin's red eyes flickered—and spontaneously morphed back into a shade of lavender. Her expression changed. Her world shifted. She let out a broken scream.
"Ruby!"
The walls of the office building cracked, and massive chunks of debris fell into the pile as the entire building started to collapse on top of Ruby's body. Yang desperately lunged to her feet, reaching out to her sister despite being so far away.
"Ruby!"
She took a step forward—but before she could get any closer, something wrapped around her from behind and grabbed onto her face. The hand muffled her cries, and with startling despair, Yang realized that the hand that was grabbing her was a copy of her own. A voice screamed at her inside of her own head.
"No…no you don't!"
Another hand grabbed onto her collar from behind. And another onto her leg. Yang stared out at Ruby through the cracks in her own fingers, reaching out, trying so hard to get to her. She was helpless as she watched the walls collapse around her.
"You are not getting out. Not now…not ever again!"
Another hand grabbed onto her wrists, pulling her own arms back. She saw a piece of rubble fall directly toward Ruby's prone head, but before she could see the impact, another hand wrapped itself firmly around her face, blocking out her vision. She felt something pulling her backward, down into the earth.
"And you…you are not…"
Yang grabbed one of the hands around her face and pried it off—only to see Yin furiously charging toward her, eyes glowing mad.
"…taking this away from me!"
Yin tackled Yang, the arms pulled hard, and the ground beneath them suddenly gave way. All of reality broke around them, disappearing into a thick, black void.
Yang screamed Ruby's name, but that too faded into nothingness.
Yang awoke to the sound of crashing waves. She sat up in a hectic panic, looking around for her sister. Despite calling her name, she couldn't find her anywhere. In fact, she couldn't find anything from just a moment before. The square, the office buildings, the Grimm, Weiss, and Blake…they were all gone. She stood up hesitantly and examined her surroundings. She was situated on the edge of a rocky cliff on a cloudy day. Violent waves smacked against the edges of the stone fifty feet below. In front of her was a small, round table, where a set game of chess had recently been completed. The whole world was in black and white; even her own skin was dyed in the otherworldly hue. She felt light on her feet, almost like she was levitating. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen all this before.
"Welcome to my seventeen-year Hell."
The voice from behind her was distorted but unforgettable. Yang turned to face her, but when she raised her arms, she realized that her gauntlets had vanished. She was defenseless as the woman approached her. No, not a woman. A thing that was indescribable, a vicious mutation of her past. She saw the feathers of a bird and the mechanical chambers of her gauntlets, engine components from her motorcycle, blood and exposed sinew and gang patches and so much more morphed and merged into the shambling, angry shape of a Human being stumbling toward her. The only thing Human about it was the fraction of her own face that it shared: streaks of blonde hair, a wide, beaming grin, and those ever-burning red eyes, the only splash of color in a grey world.
"We've been at this dance too long, haven't we?" it asked her. Yang stepped back into the chess table, scattering the pieces onto the rocks. The queen rolled and tumbled off into the sea. "Raven was right. There's no point in putting it off any longer."
"Yin," Yang said breathlessly. "Let me out of here. Ruby is—"
"No. It's too late for her," Yin said bluntly. "This is about me and you now. Just like it always has been. I tried so hard to make you see reason, but you just couldn't let go."
Yin tilted her head, and the blood that pooled at her feet suddenly began to morph and shift and take on a new form all of their own. Yang watched fearfully as they grew into two massive red claws outstretched over Yin's head, cracking their knuckles. Yang looked around for any escape, but there was nowhere else to go inside of her own mind. She couldn't believe this was even happening.
"We don't have to do this."
"Yes, we do," Yin grinned. "I'm not going back here. This is my body. My mind. And if you won't give it to me willingly…" Her smile dropped, but her sadistic intent remained. "I'll just have to take it from you."