Hello again! A little bit of a longer wait this time due to a family reunion a state and a half over from where I live. Eight hour drives in a straight line aren't as bad as people say they are: Just turn on cruise control, lock the wheel in place with your seatbelt and enjoy a little nap at 80 miles an hour (for legal reasons, this is a joke).
This chapter is also up to par in terms of length. I could go into detail about how difficult some of these scenes are which would help explain why the chapter took so long, but who reads these things anyway? Am I right, or am I right?
One last thing, in the first chapter, I said this fic will be split into three books, and those books will each be different fics. Weeeeell, I changed my mind. The entire story will be written in this fic, but will instead be split into three parts. This is part one, and the other two parts will be a secret for the time being. because of this change, I will have to inevitably go back and change some of the formatting in the earlier chapters, as well as some of the chapter names, potentially. So don't be surprised if you are bombarded by update notifications sometime in the future, that's just me adjusting the fic to fit what I imagine it to be.
Enough rambling and back jokes, onto the story!
Part I
The Lost Child
January 12, 2545 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system
Zwei's eyes opened to the sound of Reveille playing on the camp-wide PA system as it did every morning prior. Ruby had told him that Deep Winter had told her that Ambrose was really into classical things from over five hundred years ago. When Zwei said that made no sense, and there were much better, more modern, alternatives to literally everything from that time, Ruby had said she said the same thing to Deep Winter, and Deep Winter said the same thing to Ambrose. Alas, their commanding officer would not be swayed from his traditions.
It took Zwei no time at all to leap from his bed and complete his morning routine. Every single Spartan around him did the same as they made their bed to the impossible standards of the SCPO, whipped on their PT fatigues, and made their way out to the fields.
Mendez was waiting outside, his eyes staring at the watch on his wrist, no doubt timing them, and disliking what he was seeing. When the last member of Beta Company arrived on the field in formation - he noticed, sans Ruby - Mendez spoke.
"Hmmm. Three minutes and thirty two seconds." Zwei internally whistled at that. Before their augmentation, their record was five minutes and forty eight seconds. "It seems I have failed you as Spartans. I expected each and every one of you to be present three minutes after Reveille. It is clear to me now that I expected too much." Mendez said. Here we go, now we're going to be punished for not meeting a standard we didn't know we had.
"I cannot stand failure. So, to make up for my mistakes, you will be running PT double time." Mendez said, his voice was carried by the wind to the whole company.
"And don't think PT will be half as long because of your double time. Today, we are running PT twice. Am I understood?"
"YES, DRILL SERGEANT!" Zwei joined two hundred ninety eight other voices in responding to Mendez, before hurriedly beginning their run. For the last day or so, they had been adjusting to their new augmented bodies. As such, their normal schedules were replaced with a more lenient one. That didn't mean it was any easier. Each step was accompanied by stinging growing pains, their hand-eye coordination had to be recalibrated for their faster reflexes and speed, and they couldn't keep their eyes open for more than a few hours without getting a serious headache from the sudden increase in perception. Their brains and bodies simply weren't used to their new abilities.
Unfortunately for them, last night was the end of most of the Spartan's adjustment period, and now, since they were enhanced super soldiers, Zwei easily assumed their training would increase in intensity by a lot. Turns out he was right.
Zwei made it halfway through double time PT without breaking a sweat, however. These augmentations work better than I would have thought! He turned his head on instinct to share his observation with Ruby, but sighed in disappointment when he realized she wasn't there. It looks like he was getting that free sparing win after all. That thought didn't fill him with any joy, though.
Every time he asked about Ruby's condition, he would get half-assed answers, people blatantly dodging the question, or no response at all. One time he really hounded her doctor for information, and had received all three. Eventually he gave up, and decided to wait. He knew she was in the infirmary since everyone had been taken from the Hopeful after the end of their augmentations, and he kept an eye on the entrance every chance he got, which was less than he had hoped for, waiting for her to be released.
Zwei, along with every other Spartan present for PT, was panting lightly by the end of their run. Mendez looked satisfied at their pace, and motioned for them to head to the showers and get cleaned up for their first class. This one, like the one yesterday, would go over the intricacies of being a super soldier: how to operate their armor with their new bodies, how to interact with non-enhanced individuals, and how to best utilize their augmentations in battle, et cetera et cetera.
Zwei sat alone near the front of the classroom as Deep Winter spoke. Surprisingly, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose had joined in the lecture. He seemed rather knowledgeable in the nuances of being enhanced like they were. If the rumors were true, Ambrose was a Spartan II - which would explain his height - the fact he was so comfortable with this topic gave Zwei the proof he needed to believe those rumors.
His attention was focused solely on the speakers during the lecture, but he fought the urge to think about Ruby the entire time. In the end, he decided he would pay extra attention, and relay the information back to her once she got out of the infirmary.
The lecture concluded as it usually did, and they had their discussion afterwards, as they usually did, and by that point it was time for lunch. Afterwards, there would be a short block of individual training, he would probably focus on his firearms skill today, and then it would be time for company-wide sparring lessons. Zwei looked forward to that the most.
The day went by as planned. A few people made small talk, reassuring him that Ruby would be fine, and that if anyone would get through a botched augmentation, it would be her. Zwei appreciated the sentiment, but didn't want to get his hopes up until after she was awake again.
Despite Zwei's augmentations, his firearms performance was lackluster. The drill sergeant supervising the firing range noticed, and had given him a stern talking to; something about how she could tell he wasn't really there, and might as well not shoot if he was only going to waste ammo. Zwei listened, but he didn't really pay attention, his mind was on Ruby.
He packed up his things and returned them to the armory. He tried not to linger there too long. While he was fond of the memories it brought him, he would be left with a subtle emptiness whenever those memories faded out of his focus again.
He made his way over to the infirmary. He still had some time before the company spars, and he might as well spend it trying to see Ruby.
A couple times in the last few days, Zwei had wondered exactly what had caused him to worry so much over his friend's welfare. Of course he would feel concern for anyone he called friend when they were injured, but this felt like more than just concern. His heart hurt whenever he considered Ruby in pain, or suffering a life changing injury. He cared about her, almost more than he cared about himself, and he didn't know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. In the end, he simply labeled her as his favorite person. Out of all the people living in human controlled space, given the choice, he would prefer to spend his time with Ruby, over anyone else.
Before he could ponder his relationship with Ruby for too long, he arrived at the Camp Currahee infirmary. He was a few meters from the entrance when the metal doors slid to the side, revealing several figures in grey fatigues and lab coats.
Zwei's chest erupted with joy, and he broke into a jog when he saw Ruby walking among them. Was she okay? He had to know.
"Ruby!" Zwei called out. Everyone in the group turned to see the newcomer, but he only cared for one set of eyes. A pair of silver- and red, he noticed - eyes.
"Hey, Zwei." Ruby said. Luckily for him, Ambrose and the other doctors remembered how much he pestered them to see Ruby, and they moved along to give them some privacy, a rarity in a place such as Camp Currahee.
"Are you okay, Ruby? What happened to you?" Zwei looked her up and down for any indication that something was wrong. The only noticeable physical differences were the clear increase in muscle mass, and her eye color.
"I'm fine, Zwei." Ruby raised her arms to prove to Zwei she was fine. "For the most part. Heh, it looks like I'm gonna have to give you that win."
"That doesn't matter. I don't care about that. All that matters is you're okay." Zwei let out a sigh of relief.
"That's right, so you can let go of that concern on your face, you worry wart." Ruby said, poking her finger at his nose. His face contorted at the touch, but he didn't protest it. At first it was annoying, but recently, he had grown to miss her invasions of his personal space.
"What happened, anyway? What made you sleep for an extra two days?" Zwei asked.
Ruby put her hands on her hips and huffed before she said, "Well, apparently, I had a stroke while I was being injected with the retina enhancement drugs. But, Deep Winter saved me before any negative symptoms could develop. Other than long term memory loss, that is."
"Long term memory loss? What did you forget?"
"Nothing important. Only the first few days at Camp and basically everything before that." Ruby shrugged. Zwei's brow furrowed, the concern returned to his face
"That's a lot of memories to have forgotten. You seem to be taking it well?" Zwei said.
"Yep, everything important is still up here," she rapped her knuckles on her scalp, "I'm still the Spartan I was before I went under the knife."
"The procedure was a chemical injection, not surgery."
"It's just an expression."
"Where are you learning these expressions?"
"Books." She shrugged.
Zwei held eye contact with her for a few moments. He was unsatisfied with the answer until he recalled all the times he had gone to see her before Mendez had called lights out, and noticed her sitting on her bunk reading. She must have had a new book each week.
Behind them, one of the doctors coughed into his fist in a gesture for them to hurry it up.
"It was nice talking to you, Zwei. I need to go, the doctors still don't know exactly why I'm so fine. They're going to be running some more tests on me until they know what's happened." Ruby said. She rushed off to meet them, but stopped when he caught her wrist.
"Wait, what about your eyes?" Zwei asked.
"My eyes? What about them?"
"They were completely silver before, but now there's red outlining the silver."
"Do I have bloodshot eyes?" Ruby asked as she tried rubbing the bloodshot away.
"No, the whites are still white; the sclera is fine. It's the outer part of the iris that turned red." Zwei said.
"Hmm… I'll have to take a look at them later, I gotta go now, Zwei, see you later." Before he could get another word in, and before the doctors could get even more impatient, she ran off to meet the group on the other side of the infirmary's lawn. She stumbled several times along the way, unused to her new augmented muscles. She could've used my help in understanding her body more. Zwei thought, innocently.
Only as long as he watched her go did his melancholy remain. As soon as he realized she would be alright, his mood changed drastically.
Over the PA system, an electronic bell rang throughout the campgrounds, signaling for all available Spartans to make their way to the sparring grounds. Zwei did so happily. Up until now, he had been half-assing his training, and for the next few hours or so, he would have to make up for those missed opportunities to better himself. As Mendez always said:
"It's time for a hundred and ten percent."
The pelican ride out of Camp Currahee was spent in silence. Ruby was told they didn't have the facilities to properly test her new energy at Camp, so they were on their way to another secret research facility off campus. She watched as the landscape zoomed by below, her mind racing as she wondered what this might be. One thought stuck in her head, however: I hope I don't become some sort of guinea pig for the rest of my life. The thought was vaguely amusing, yet an impending possibility.
After an hour of flight, they came to a stop somewhere deep in the woods. Ruby had thought it best not to try and remember how they got there. If this place was truly top secret like Ambrose had said, then anyone, even her, could be interrogated for its location. Who knew what kinds of people would want to get their hands on whatever may or may not be in this place.
It was a short walk into the main building. It was the same plain concrete as every other building on this planet. This better not be what architecture is like on all UNSC planets. The thought came as a distraction for the growing nerves in the pit of her stomach.
As they disembarked from the Pelican, one of the lead doctors held a hand up in front of Ambrose, stopping him before he could make it all the way down the ramp.
"I'm sorry, sir. But, you aren't authorized to enter this facility. This is the end of the journey for you. Please, head back into the Pelican, and make your way back to Camp Currahee." The doctor said. Ruby looked from the doctor to Ambrose, wondering what the Lieutenant Commander would think of the somewhat rude way the doctor had spoken to him.
"Very well. I will take my leave." Ambrose said, no hints of anger or frustration in his voice. He turned to Ruby before leaving, however. "Good luck, Ruby." He said.
"Thank you, sir." Ruby said. He moved back into the pelican, and watched them leave as the hatch slowly blocked them from his view. The Pelican flew away in a different direction from where they had come from. Proving to her that no one was to know where this place was. She felt a chill at the idea that this place was so top secret, that a director of a super secret super soldier program couldn't even see it. What did that mean for her?
They entered the squat building, and made their way down a long, dimly lit hallway towards a door at the end. They stopped, and the lead doctor bent over to scan his retina. The door clicked after a beep of confirmation. This place is really locked up, isn't it? Ruby thought to herself.
Inside was an expansive room with a high ceiling, and rows upon rows of work stations, both sterile and not. As they walked, Ruby's eyes darted left and right as she saw things she could easily guess she wasn't supposed to see. Artefacts, the best word she could have used to describe them, of a glowing silver floated in the air. At least a hundred glass cases held shards of the metal, each one intricately decorated, with some sporting glowing orange accents, and others blue. It took her only a minute to ask why she was allowed to see these things.
One of the doctors, the same one who scanned his retina, answered. "You aren't familiar with this architecture? Oh, that's right, the stroke. You would have forgotten." Before She could ask for more details, a low, masculine voice yelled out from the other end of the room.
"Hey! Eggheads! What's going on out there? What took you so long?" An older man of Hispanic descent popped his head around a corner from a hallway leading further into the compound. His brown eyes widened in recognition at the sight of them.
"Well, I'll be damned, you certainly grew up, huh?" He turned the corner, showing his uniform to her fully. He wore a stark black suit emblazoned with a captain's insignia, as well as the all seeing eye of ONI.
"Sir!" Ruby snapped to attention almost immediately.
"At ease, at ease." The man said.
"My, has it been some time. If my intel is correct, and it's always correct, you don't remember me." He had to look up to meet her eyes as she was almost a head taller than he was.
"That's correct, sir, unfortunately. I seem to have forgotten a lot of things recently." Ruby said.
"No matter, I supposed I would have needed to reintroduce myself anyways, you were just a child when we first met. I am Captain Jeremy Gomez. I'm somewhat of an unofficial superintendent of all that happens here on Onyx. It is a pleasure to meet you again, Ruby." Captain Gomez said.
"You know my name?" Ruby asked.
"That I do. But that story will have to wait. Now, it seems, you have developed an interesting characteristic. One that the Labcoats over here couldn't understand without my instruments. Let's get started." Gomez said. Ruby watched him with narrowed eyes, but was moved into an adjacent room before she could ask any more questions.
"Alright, Ruby. Up until a few hours ago, we had no way of analyzing this new energy of yours. However, thanks to designs from Deep Winter, my team and I have repurposed this chamber," She was guided into a large, cuboid metal room, there were no seams in the walls, no light fixtures, nothing. Just a continuous silver lining that belied the room's utility.
"Yes, sir." She said as she sat down on the metal chair in the center of the empty room. "You know, I wouldn't have expected an ONI agent to lead a research facility like this. I would have thought one of the scientists would be the one to lead me through things like this." She gestured to the metal walls around her.
"Well, it's within my pay grade to know how this stuff works. Plus, between you and me, I get a kick out of correcting the Eggheads whenever they get something wrong." The man gave her a slight chuckle before he made his way out of the room.
Ruby sat in silence for several minutes before a voice came from an intercom leading into the room, it was about a half square foot of tiny holes embedded into the ceiling directly above her.
"Alright, Ruby," It was an unfamiliar voice, probably one of the other scientists. "We just need you to sit on the chair and last as long as possible, okay?"
"Okay?" Last as long as possible? What am I outlasting? Before she could start making wild theories in her mind, a barely audible hum filled the room. She sighed in resignation as she crossed her arms and leaned back on the chair.
For fifteen minutes, the hum remained exactly as it was, and only at the end of those fifteen minutes did she feel a slight discomfort. Her exposed skin felt hot, and her head felt fuzzy. She looked down at her hands to see the barest hint of red floating lazily about her finger tips.
"Excellent, Ruby. We need you to remain there for a few more minutes. The test will be over soon." The scientist said. Ruby glared up at the intercom speaker. If they could see her they would know how much she disliked this test. If I have to deal with this feeling for another fifteen minutes, I'm gonna lose it.
Alas, another fifteen minutes went by, and Ruby was none too happy. The discomfort she felt was greater now than it was before, and it was only growing as time went on. The pulsating red light had spread from her fingertips down to her elbows. It came with a strange sense of fear… as if she needed to get away from whatever was causing it to flare like that. She could also feel it flowing across the top of her skin, despite the light itself existing a few inches off of her body. Every strain of red light felt as if someone was touching her, or more accurately, harming her.
It only took two minutes for her discomfort to turn into pain. The red glow enveloped her whole body now, not just her exposed skin. Her jaw clenched, and her hands were white as she gripped the armrests on the chair.
She couldn't take it anymore, she shot to her feet, and ran over to where the door had been and pounded on it. She hit it so hard, the metal sported inch deep dents everywhere her fists struck it. "Get me out of here!" She screamed.
The hum abated. She let out a sigh of relief as the red light dissipated. Her back hit the damaged door and slid down it. She sat on the floor against the wall, and waited for someone to get her.
It was Captain Gomez who opened the door, a cold glass of water in hand. She grabbed it without a word and drank greedily. "Thank you, Captain Gomez, sir."
"Please, call my Jeremy. Captain Gomez was my father. Come, let's get you out of here." He said, as he placed a hand on her back, and guided her into the next room over. This one was much larger than the last, and housed several terminals and monitoring equipment. One of the monitors had a video feed of the room she was just in, the dents on the door were clearly visible on the screen.
"Well, that was a bit of a reaction, wasn't it?" One of the scientists, a bald man with thick glasses, said.
"You spend a half hour in there, and we'll see how you like it." Ruby said sternly. She wished she hadn't as soon as it left her mouth. With Jeremy, a superior officer, there, she had to be as respectful as possible. It was ingrained into her from her training.
"Don't mind Bill here. He's an asshole." Jeremy said, as he smacked the top of Bill's bald head a little harder than could be considered friendly.
"What matters is what your results of this test tell us about this energy of yours." Jeremy said. He motioned for Bill to explain.
"Yes. Well, Ruby, this chamber has a hightech system that bombards the occupants with variable intensity non-carcinogenic microwave radiation. I call it the VICMR room." Bill moved his hands in an arc in front of his face, emphasizing the name.
"You stuck me in a microwave? I spent the last half hour being cooked in a microwave!?" Ruby said. Her respectfulness was quickly forgotten.
"Precisely. Don't worry, it wouldn't have done any significant damage, at least, not for a very long time. At least an hour in there, and then we would have worried." Bill said. Ruby rolled her eyes. She was already hating being a guinea pig, even if it was potentially for her own benefit.
"What we have learned from this experiment, is that with an increasing intensity of the microwave radiation, in amounts that should make you feel pain, and provide some harm, but wouldn't have seriously hurt you, the light produced by your body activates and engulfs you in its glow. Now, several monitors were in place to read your vitals, body temperature, et cetera. We've received no data indicating you were harmed during the experiment. Your body temperature remained normal, and your heart rate only increased a small bit, not enough to suggest serious stress on your body. It appears as if your brain only simulated the pain in order for you to realize that, should the microwave radiation continue, your body would have been damaged." Bill said. Ruby scratched her head in thought.
"That's a lot to take in. What does it all mean?" Ruby asked.
"It means nothing for now. We need to do more tests if we want to say for sure what this energy is." Jeremy said. "For now, let's keep the painful tests to a minimum. It's getting late, I think you should hit the hay while we devise more tests for you. Trust me, I'll keep the pain levels as low as possible. Okay, Ruby?" She looked at him for a second. No one, not a single person from ONI, that she could remember, had talked to her like that. Like she was a child. It should have frustrated her, but, in all honesty, it was more refreshing than anything.
"Okay." She said easily.
It would be his first spar since his augmentation, and the first in a long time where he wouldn't have the support of Ruby.
He cracked his knuckles, and then his neck, as he stared down his opponents. Yep, there were two of them. Spartans Roland and Jonah. Zwei had seen them training every once in a while; they were good, he supposed. He didn't know if they could hold a candle to Ruby and him, but that might've been a bit of personal bias in his opinion on the two.
Spars against multiple opponents weren't unusual. Learning to take on more than one combatant, both to understand how, and to know one's own limits, had been a valuable lesson to learn. After all, there were more aliens than there were Spartans.
It was the circumstances leading to the spar that were unusual. Zwei, after having his worries fade away once he saw Ruby, had told Mendez he needed to make up for his lackluster performance earlier in the day, and so wanted to subject himself to one of the drill instructor's most physically and mentally demanding exercises.
Since he was doing this willingly he was at least given the opportunity to decide which pair he would fight. He had thought for a while, considering whether he wanted a challenging fight or not. That part was decided easily: he needed a challenge. It was who would provide this challenge that had troubled him.
In the end, he had chosen Jonah and Roland. Individually, they were good, as good as any other Spartan, but he had seen them work together. Their coordination and teamwork put them on par with Ruby and him. Of all the Spartan teams in Beta Company, they most often came in second place to them.
The two in question looked to each other, then back to him, wariness in their eyes. Are they nervous? They can't think I'm that good. Zwei thought to himself.
Another choice he had to make was whether he wanted them to come at him one at a time, or both at once, and from where. Zwei considered himself a well adjusted person, but to anyone watching the spar, they would think him insane: both combatants would be attacking at the same time, and they would do so from opposite directions.
To his left, Roland stood, to his right, stood Jonah. In front of him, Mendez stood, a whistle in his mouth, and his hand in the air, prepared to call the start of the match. Zwei never thought he could get so tense.
The same instant the whistle was blown, and the hand fell, all three Spartans leapt into action.
Roland and Jonah understood their advantage in numbers. They both sprinted forward, keen on overwhelming Zwei, and ending the spar in a matter of seconds. Zwei rolled forward at the last moment. The duo ran past each other, lest they impact, potentially giving Zwei an opportunity to attack.
Zwei spun on the floor. Shot to his feet, and charged towards Roland, the closer of the two.
He engaged with a jab to Roland's throat. His fist was blocked by Roland's forearm, and he followed up with a kidney punch with the other hand. Roland took it with a grunt, stepped into his guard, and elbowed him across his forehead. Zwei fell to the mat, and rolled out of the way of Jonah's punch to the back of his head.
Zwei interlocked his legs with Jonah's, and spun like an alligator, bringing the Spartan to the mat with a hard thud. He kicked Jonah in the stomach, causing the boy to cough, showering the mat next to his head with spittle. Roland brought his foot down on Zwei's chest before he could continue his attack on Jonah. Zwei caught his foot before he could pull back to kick again.
Roland used his free foot to kick Zwei in the head. He managed to move just before it struck, lessening the force of the blow as it skimmed against his ear. With Roland's foot still in hand, he decoupled from Jonah, and brought his legs up to Roland's waist and tensed, knocking him to the floor.
He crawled away from the two before they could swamp him. Roland and Jonah got to their feet at the same moment as Zwei.
"Come on, he ain't so tough." Jonah said to Roland, his breath coming out in heavy pants.
"If you think so, go get him." Roland said.
Zwei, for a split second, focused his attention on Jonah, only for Roland to sprint ahead. He turned just as a fist whizzed by his ear. Zwei grabbed his arm and spun, lifting his opponent over his back, Roland hit the mat and gasped as the air was forced from his lungs.
Zwei donkey kicked behind him and struck Jonah in the leg, killing his momentum. He spun, and landed a haymaker against Jonah's cheek, sending him to the mat.
Roland tackled him from behind. He landed face first with Roland on top of him. Roland sent back and forth elbows into the back of his head before he could spin. Zwei caught his arm and twisted, forcing the other Spartan off of him.
He rolled out from between the two before any of them could stand. Zwei went on the offensive. His leg struck the side of Jonah's knee, knocking his leg out from under him. His foot reared back and impacted his nose, once, twice, three times before Roland jumped on him.
Zwei's arms shot up to protect his face as Roland threw punch after punch. He never let up as he looked for an opening that Zwei wouldn't make. He noticed Jonah wobble a bit as he got to his feet. This isn't good. As soon as I get Roland off me, Jonah will jump in.
Zwei kept his guard up as he thought of a plan. Slowly, Jonah inched closer, prepared to replace Roland on top of him when he needed a breather. Unfortunately for him, he got too close.
Zwei jerked Roland into Jonah's legs, knocking them both to the floor.
Zwei, in a desperate bid for dominance, jumped on the jumbled mix of limbs, and started swinging.
Every opportunity, every opening, every body part, Zwei struck with a ferocity he seldom exhibited during his fights. He never let the duo regain their bearings. Every time Roland would get to his feet, he would shift his assault onto him from Jonah, and vice versa. They would land the occasional blow against him, but, unfortunately for them, he was, as Ruby liked to put it, 'in the zone', and nothing could throw off his rhythm other than a devastating hit that he would never let land.
Zwei pushed himself as hard as he could until the two finally wised up and disengaged from him. His chest rose and fell with even breaths, fists raised in front of him.
Roland and Jonah looked far worse. Blood was running down Roland's nose, and Jonah's eye was slowly swelling with purple and black. They circled him like wolves around prey much larger than them, hissing and snarling past their pain.
Zwei noticed Jonah's slight limp and rushed forward, diving into Jonah's injured leg, earning a growl for the effort. As soon as he was on top of Jonah, he reared back and landed one powerful punch on his throat, leaving him gasping for air on the floor.
Roland jumped on his back and snaked an arm around his neck; squeezing tight, his air and blood flow to his brain was cut off. He only had a few seconds to retaliate.
He stood from over Jonah, reaching to his full height, and jumped as high as he could with Roland's weight on him and leaned back. He landed on top of Roland with as much force as he could manage. The Spartan joined his partner in struggling for breath as Zwei rolled off of him.
Neither of his opponents stood from the mat as they fought for air. Zwei swayed, putting his weight on one leg, then the other as he waited for them to get up, or for Mendez to call the match.
Not a second later did the whistle shriek over the three of them. Zwei dropped to his knees as soon as the spar was called. Small puddles of sweat and blood were left over from his hands as he crawled to the edge of the mat and desperately drank from a water bottle. He tossed two more over to Roland and Jonah a moment later.
"That was a damn good fight. The winner is Spartan B312, due to the incapacitation of his two opponents." Mendez said. Zwei listened absentmindedly as the SCPO discussed with Roland and Jonah what they could have done better. Zwei didn't think he'd have anything for him, he didn't think he had ever fought better than just now.
This one's for you, Ruby.
January 24, 2545 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system
Over a week and a half. Twelve days. That's how long Ruby had been poked and prodded with varying degrees of painful experiments and tests.
Her silver and red eyes - that had been a surprise. She didn't really believe Zwei when he told her, but now her eyes had a red tinge near the edges, completely surrounding the silver. She guessed that was cool - opened. The barren ceiling stared back at her, and the cool sheets begged her to stay. She tugged them off all the same, and got ready for another day as a guinea pig.
After her little stint in the microwave, she had adamantly stated she didn't want anymore of these tests to hurt. No one listened. The experiments following had been designed to test the properties of her energy. If she knew her energy acted as a protective barrier from physical harm, she would've gone AWOL.
Needles, knives, hot, cold, blunt objects, single hits, continuous hits. She had drawn the line on bullets, but she didn't think the eggheads would hesitate if they had the chance.
Jeremy had been her only source of comfort during those tests. He always assured her things would be okay, and that she wouldn't be hurt, not seriously, anyway.
Not that it mattered. One of the major discoveries about her little shield had been that it was only the barrier that took damage. Her body hadn't had the slightest clue it was hit with a bean bag fired from a twelve gauge shotgun. It still hurt, though.
Another important thing they learned was the limited durability of her shield. After a certain amount of damage, the shield would break in a bright flash of red. It was discovered that the light spectacle indicated her shield had broken when her body took the brunt of the damage from the ancient warhammer one of the scientists just so happened to have. He had quickly become her least favorite person after that incident.
On their last test, yesterday, she hadn't been told about a 'surprise attack' that would test her shield's ability to protect against unforeseen attacks. Instead of being hit by an antique baseball traveling at fifty miles an hour down a narrow hallway which was too narrow to doge, she ran away, accelerating until she was running with the ball. She finally stumbled and fell. The ball flew over her and hit the wall, leaving a dent in the metal.
Ruby was rightfully furious when that happened, but the eagerness of the scientists wouldn't let her remain angry. They spoke at a million miles an hour as they discussed what her speed might have meant. She shouldn't have been able to reach those speeds, even with the augmentation. It could have only been her shield that allowed her to push herself faster than any human has moved before. It was her recalling her legs being filled with a warm sensation that cemented the idea that she could use her natural barrier to enhance her physical abilities.
Today would involve exploring exactly how far she could push herself.
After a short shower and a light breakfast of an apple and some toast - she had finally been given real food on a regular basis, probably for the first time in years - she made her way out of her makeshift sleeping quarters and into the forested area surrounding the ONI research facility. She made sure not to wander, heaven knows how far it was until the next ONI base, and by that point she would probably be shot. ONI hated it when people knew things they weren't supposed to know.
Just as quickly as all the other experiments were set up, a series of obstacle courses, running tracks, and free weights had been constructed. Ruby whistled at the amount of physical tests she would be subject to.
"It's quite a lot, isn't it. I think this'll be the most fun day yet." Jeremy said as he approached from behind.
"Oh, I'm looking forward to this." Ruby said. She had always liked the physical training at Camp Currahee, the nonviolent sort, of course, although the spars came in a close second.
"Excellent, we should get started right away, there's only so much daylight." Bill said as he made his way onto the field. In his hands were his signature data pad, as well as a multipurpose timer.
"So, Ruby, what do you want to do first?" Jeremy asked.
She pointed to the straight running track and said, "Let's start with a speed test. Running from that baseball felt right to me, and I want to see what my limits are."
"Very well, whenever you're ready."
Ruby, having known of the nature of these tests beforehand, had worn running shoes, and her PT fatigues. She knew she wouldn't get to wear clothes as specialized for running as these during combat, but she wasn't testing her combat ability at the moment, she was testing her maximum physical output.
Her feet stopped at a white line painted on the track near the beginning of the pavement. Jeremy stood by her, Bill stood at the end of the track, and several other observers were spaced in varying places in between. Ruby tried to recall how it felt to run from the baseball, how her legs were enveloped with a soft warmth that she had never experienced before, and she didn't think she ever would from anything other than her shield. She took a deep breath, and let it go.
"Ready." Ruby said.
"Go."
Her legs beat the ground as she accelerated towards the other end of the track. The warm feeling only licked at her muscles as she passed the finish line a few seconds later. She came to a stop soon after.
"That was good. We measure you at forty five kilometers per hour. Fast, but not nearly as fast as you were before. Make sure you engage your shield as you did when you were running from the baseball." Bill said as he transferred the readings from the timer to his data pad.
"Yeah, that's what I was trying to do. Let me try again, I think I just need to get the feeling down a little better." The scientist nodded as she walked back the hundred meter long stretch to the beginning of the track.
The second trial had gone just about as well as the first. She only managed a single kilometer an hour faster than the first trial, and that was probably because she was simply warming up.
By the time she completed the third trial, her breath began to grow heavy. Sprinting three hundred meters in quick succession would make anybody short of breath. Fortunately for her, she was beginning to get the hang of this.
The fourth trial had been much better. She had managed to isolate what it felt like to use her shield as energy for her muscles, and support for her bones, ligaments, and tendons. She managed a record breaking seventy two kilometers per hour.
"Good God!" Bill said. "That's faster than any recorded sprint in human history. You're something special, girl." Ruby watched with a proud smile as he scribbled on his data pad. In fact, she might have let that pride get to her head.
"I can go faster. Let me try again." Her smile turned fierce.
"Very well, just… remember not to push yourself too hard." Bill said. Ruby nodded, and made her way back to the starting line.
"Okay, Ruby, you've got this. Easy peasy." She let out a whoop as she stretched one final time before her feet stopped on the white as they had four times before.
She took a deep breath. "Ready?"
"Ready." And let it go.
"Go!"
She kicked off the pavement, sending dust and small rocks behind her as she willed her legs to pump. Her hair flapped violently in her wake. Her eyes began to water at the force of the air against her face. She pushed herself forward through the discomfort and pain of running at high velocities all the same.
She crossed the finish line at the end of the track, but was moving too fast to slow down easily. Her shoes couldn't grip the loose pine needles and other detritus covering the forest floor. She stumbled and fell, literally flipping head over heels at the loss of her balance. The last vestiges of her momentum were killed when her back struck a tree, driving the air from her lungs.
Her vision blurred, she could hardly make out the figures rushing towards her. Her heart sank a moment when a dark patch grew in the center of her vision, but her worries went away as the patch did as quickly as it had appeared.
"Ya… ugh… how fast was that?" Ruby slurred her words as best she could. "I-uh… I'm fine… by the way."
"That was a big crash. Are you sure you're okay?" Jeremy said. His hand was outstretched to help her up, she gladly took it.
"Yeah. I'm feeling better by the second. So, how fast was that?" She dusted herself off as she spoke, then turned to Bill for his answer.
"I'm simply astonished. You managed a whopping one hundred one point six kilometers per hour. Heaven knows you won't be allowed near school zones anytime soon." The scientist laughed.
"I don't know what that means, but that's pretty awesome. You think I could get any faster?"
"With proper training, surely. But, let's save that for later. Both because we need to move on to the other tests, and because we don't want you killing yourself running into a tree."
"Yeah, that would be bad." Ruby scratched her head in embarrassment. It didn't last long, though. Her achievement was too great for her to be upset over a poor landing.
None of the other tests were as spectacular as her sprint. She could lift heavy weight with her augmentations, but her shield allowed her to almost double her strength. Naturally, pushing herself that hard would cause her to become lightheaded. It had taken her a half hour to recover from her max deadlift of six hundred kilograms. She couldn't help but think her shield was overpowered at this point.
The obstacles went just about as well as anyone would've expected based on her performances in the last couple experiments: extremely well. Jeremy said if Ambrose was here, she would give him a run for his money. She didn't know exactly what that meant. She had her suspicions on the nature of the Lieutenant Commander, but she didn't think they had any credibility until he said that.
All in all, the experiments lasted from first light, to a little past noon, and by the end Ruby would've killed for something to eat. As well as a year long nap. She was able to satisfy her first desire with a trip to the facility's dining hall.
"Hmm. Curious. It would make sense that your achievements done with the aid of your shield would increase your metabolism." Bill said as she grabbed two plates full of food.
"It definitely feels that way." Ruby said.
"Hell, you've probably burned a day's worth of calories in a single morning. You better eat up."
"Gladly." Ruby ate as if she had never eaten solid food before. The first plate with four turkey sandwiches was gone in minutes, and the second one with a pile of fruit and veggies were gone almost as quickly.
"Here, your blood sugar might still be low after such an intense workout, have one of these." A scientist whose name she didn't know said. Ruby looked at her outstretched hand with a bit of confusion. A small, circular food made of some sort of baked dough rested on her palm.
"What's this?" Ruby asked.
"It's a chocolate chip cookie."
Ruby looked at it for a moment longer, shrugged her shoulders, and popped it in her mouth.
"Mmmmm!" Her eyes lit up with delight as the sweet pastry danced across her taste buds. "Where have these been my whole life!"
"You've never had a cookie before." The scientist asked. Ruby shook her head.
"Oh. Well, there's a whole tray of them over there if you want more." The scientist said before she walked off.
Ruby's vision zeroed in on the stack of delicious goodies from across the cafeteria. She was about to launch from her seat and chow down until another presence sat down in front of her, blocking her view of the cookies. Stupid Jeremy, always getting in the way.
"Hello, Ruby. I believe I've got some questions of yours to answer." He said as he rested his arms on the cool table in front of him.
"Questions? I don't have any questions. I've actually gotta do something so if you'll excuse me-"
"No no, sit. Even if you don't know them, I still think those questions should be answered." He said as he gripped her wrist lightly, keeping her from enjoying her new favorite food.
"What is it, sir?" She said politely. Even if he was disturbing her new found pleasures, he was still a superior officer.
"Do you remember where you came from?" Jeremy asked?
"To what extent? I'm pretty confident I came from a vagina, if that's what your asking." Ruby's face remained blank. Jeremy tried to do the same, but his snort gave something away. Amusement probably?
"Not exactly. I should say: do you remember how you came into the Spartan III program?"
"No. I can't say I do."
"What can you tell me about what you think happened when you joined?"
"Well. From what the others have told me, they were approached by ONI to get revenge against the Covenant. Most of them had their lives ruined by the war. They're training to give some of their suffering back to the Covenant." Ruby said.
"And what's your reason for fighting this hard?"
"I'm not here for the Covenant. I'll still stomp some split chins, but they're not what drove me to get up at five in the morning. I remember being told my family was killed by the Insurrection. They're who I want to get revenge against. And I'll get it, even if I have to kill legions of Covenant to do it."
"That's a good reason to fight. But it doesn't explain how you ended up in the program to begin with. I know how you got here." Jeremy said.
"You do?"
"I was there. It was a research facility like this, not too far from here. Bill and his team were working on one of those pieces of alien technology you see around the facility. The reason why they aren't being hidden from you, is because you came from one of them. By a certain point of view, you are one of them." Ruby simply nodded her head. She had no memory beyond the first week of Camp. As far as she knew, what he was telling was the complete truth.
"I can't go into detail on exactly what it was, we're still trying to figure that out ourselves. But, out of the blue, you appeared, crying for your mother." Jeremy said. He reached into a bag he had carried with him, and pulled out a crumpled up card of a woman in a white cloak, with silver eyes and dark hair turned red at the tips.
"When you happened upon our facility, you carried with you a small purse. This identification card was one of the items in the purse. I would assume it's the only image of your mother you've ever seen, and might ever see again." Jeremy handed the card to Ruby. She held it in her hands gingerly as she inspected it. Her eyes roved over the woman's features, comparing them to her own. They had the same eyes - up until after her augmentations at least - the same nose, the same jawline, and the same hair.
"This is my mom." Ruby said. She didn't know what to feel. Any other person might have felt sorrow at never knowing their mother, maybe they would feel relieved to have finally seen who gave birth to them, or perhaps they would be filled with an instinctual happiness that can only come from seeing one's mother. She felt none of those. It was her mother, and that was it. She didn't know, didn't remember, anything else about her.
"Was there anything else I came here with?" Ruby asked.
"Not much. Not much of importance at least. You were wearing this cloak." Jeremy reached into the bag again, and began pulling out a long red cloak made of, what she had to guess was, a soft yet durable fabric. Ruby took the cloak and rubbed it between her thumb and index finger, trying and failing to make something connect in her brain. Anything to let her remember what her past had been like.
"I don't feel anything. I see these things, you tell me they're important, but nothing's clicking for me. This is just another person who happens to look like me, and this is a cloak that I might have worn a long time ago." Ruby said. Jeremy's expression shifted ever so slightly. His eyes betrayed hints of somber acceptance. He had probably been looking forward to showing her her past, and it seems she had disappointed him.
"I guess, after a long time, people's attachments to things can't last. Very well. Would you like to keep these? Or would you like me to take them back?" Jeremy asked. She closed her eyes for a moment, contemplating her answer.
"You hold on to them for me, will you? Maybe I'll appreciate them again in the future." Ruby said. She watched as the items were hidden inside the bag again. She felt the same now, after seeing them, as she did before she even knew they existed.
"It's always a good idea to hold on to relics of the past. You never know when forgotten memories might show up again." Jeremy said.
"You're very wise for an ONI agent. I would have expected you to spend your days cooped up in an office all day." Ruby said, attempting to return the atmosphere into a more light hearted one.
"Heh, trust me, I've spent my fair share looking at a screen. I just make sure to take time and read. I especially enjoy the classics."
"I like reading, too. Maybe, send me some books sometime? That way, we can keep in touch, and I'll be around whenever I… If ever I regain my memories."
"That sounds like a plan."
March 30, 1361 KE (Remnant Calendar) / Remnant
Laughter filled the Xiao-Long household as a trio of girls celebrated their midway milestone through their enrollment at Signal Academy. Yang, and her two friends, Savannah and Scarlett, sat bundled up in thick blankets, with half eaten snacks scattered about the floor, watching their fifth scary movie of the night.
"That last one was more cheesy than scary." Scarlett, a tall girl with dark hair, half dyed the shade of her namesake, said between mouthfuls of popcorn.
"You were screaming just as loudly as the rest of us, don't lie." Yang said, pointing an accusatory finger at her friend, all in good fun.
"This next one should be the scariest one yet. It's about a group of teenagers going on vacation to a town far outside of Mistral, they stay at this cabin on a lake, but there's a killer that lives there too, and they have to fight to survive against his murderous rage." Savannah said, as she scanned the movie's plastic case.
"What's it called?" Yang asked.
"Saturday the fourteenth. Starring Kyle Bacon, Adrienne Queen, Henry Crosby, Jean Taylor and Mike Nelson. It's supposed to be pretty good. Some people have called it an instant classic." Savannah said, waving the case around for emphasis.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Put it in!" Yang said. Once the movie was playing, they snuggled in their blankets, turned out the lights, and passed around several snacks.
The trio was engrossed by the realistic visuals, terrifying score, and impeccable acting of the cast. Each suspenseful scene, each on screen death, each time the killer killed, one of them would scream, sometimes two, sometimes all three. They didn't remain afraid forever, though. They found the other's fear too amusing to remain frightened. The movie ended with a triumphant escape from their favorite character, as well as the killer living to murder another day.
"See! I told you it was good!" Savannah said as she pulled out the disk from the DVD player Yang had rented from an old lady's movie store she knew in town.
"You know," Yang began, "that movie sorta reminds me of something that happened around here not too long ago."
"Really? What?" Scarlett asked.
"Well, about ten years ago, this family was living in the woods on the island of Patch. Really similar to where we are right now. It was said they lived next to the town sheriff. Because they lived so close, the family and the sheriff shared almost everything: pots and pans, a weed whacker, a cup of sugar every once in a while, that sort of thing." Yang gestured with her hand, flipping it back and forth to emphasize the mundane nature of their lives.
"Then one day, the sheriff came home from work, and the mom of the family stood near her mailbox, ready to talk to the sheriff, as she always does. But, the sheriff doesn't even acknowledge her. He just walks on by as if she was never there. He continues to ignore them for several days. Until, one day, the sheriff doesn't show up to work. All the cops down at the station are like, 'where's our boss?' and 'What happened to our boss?' and stuff like that. So a group of cops make their way down to the house of the family and ask, 'Have you seen our boss?', and the dad goes, 'No, I haven't. Have you guys noticed him acting weird lately?', and the cops were like, 'Yeah.'. The man suggests they go check up on him, make sure everything's okay. The cops and the dad make their way over across the street and they find traces of the family left all over the sheriff's driveway. You see, the dad was at work all day, and it's not unusual for him to come home to an empty house, since the mom works too, and the kids like to play in the forest nearby." Yang gestured out the window, pointing to the woods outside as an example. By this point, Savannah and Scarlett were as interested in Yang's story as they were with Saturday the Fourteenth.
"So they see all the family's stuff scattered all over the place. They see the kids toys, the mom's purse, some of their dishes they had lent to the sheriff a while back, and eventually they see it. One of the cops noticed drops of blood staining a clean white fence the sheriff had painted the summer before. Now they're really worried, thinking the sheriff has gone insane." Yang's two friends were hiding almost completely behind their covers.
"They make it the rest of the way up the driveway, seeing more and more blood as time goes by. The man says to the cops, 'You should call for backup, we don't know what we will find.', but the cops go, 'We are the backup, nothing ever happens in a town as small as this.'. They run across the porch and barge into the sheriff's living room. There they see pools and pools of blood staining everything. The walls, the carpet, the furniture, everything is covered with blood. The cops rush through the house, trying to find the sheriff and the man's family. They search the whole house, but find nothing. Finally, they make it up to the sheriff's attic, and see four bodies, hanging from the ceiling. The sheriff… The mom… and the two kids." Yang's audience gasped in horror.
"The first cop says, 'Who do you think could have done such a thing?' and the other cop replies, 'I don't know, but whoever this sicko is, we have to find him.' They hear the footsteps of the dad entering the attic… and then the sound of the stairs leading into the attic close behind them."
"The dad goes, 'You've already found him.', and SLASHES the two cops with a giant knife." The two girls cowered under their blankets. It was only Yang's efforts to tell them that the story wasn't over that got them out.
"The whole island turned into an uproar once they discovered there was a killer in their midst. For a year, they searched the woods. Every square inch was investigated, but they never found the dad. To this day, the killer remains on the loose. Waiting… plotting… watching. Ready… to kill again!" A man clad in a white ski mask pounded on the open window with large fists. The girls inside let out screams of terror and jumped off the couch and ran upstairs, away from the deranged killer.
It was Yang's hysterical laughter that convinced them to come down. Her dad, Taiyang Xiao-long, stood in the doorway, the white mask pulled up to reveal his face, bent over laughing almost as hard as Yang was.
"You JERK! Stop laughing! That's not funny!" Savannah screamed.
"Oh my gods! You should have seen your faces!" She burst out into another fit of laughter upon seeing the disgruntled looks of her friends. For five minutes, they berated her, and for five minutes, she couldn't stop laughing.
"Can we be done watching scary movies? I'm not in the mood for them anymore." Scarlett said, as she tried to sink into her spot on the couch.
"Yeah, I think you should quit too. I need to go to bed, and I don't want to hear you screaming all night." Taiyang gestured to the three of them. Scarlett looked positively relieved at having the grown up on her side.
"Alright, you party poopers. What do you want to watch?"
"Definitely not what we were watching. What's the opposite of scary movies?" Savannah asked.
"Funny movies?" Scarlett suggested, snapping her fingers to point at Savannah.
"I could go for a funny movie. Which one do you want to watch?" Yang said. She walked over to the stack of DVD's they had either rented for the night, or bought over the years. She gathered all the comedies she could find, and arranged them like cards for her friends to see.
"What about this one?" She held up a movie case with an Atlesian airship, appropriately titled Airship!. It was an older film, made in a time where whether something was funny was more important than anything else.
"I've heard that it's really good. Like, one of the best. I think my older brother watched it a while ago, and I had to yell at him to stop laughing so loud." Scarlett said.
"Perfect! Dad said no more scary movies because he didn't want us screaming. He didn't say anything about us laughing." Yang said, rubbing her hands together as a cheap movie villain would.
"Plus, I think it's more funny to try to hold in your laughter, than when you can laugh as loud as you want." Savannah said.
"Bingo! Then it's decided. Airship! it is."
"Hold on. Before you put it in, do we have enough snacks?" Scarlett said. Yang and Savannah took a moment to scan their surroundings. Both quickly came to the conclusion that, yes, they were running low on goodies.
"No problem, I've got plenty more in the back." Yang said. She stood up from the floor and made her way into the back hallway of her house, and into the back room. It was a dimly lit room, with only one lightbulb at the center illuminating the entire space. Anything the lightbulb couldn't light up was probably covered in the mountains of stuff stored there: rusty hand tools, old gallons of paint, older baby toys, and a million other trinkets that blended in with the rest of the stuff stored in the room. Her dad had used it as a workshop, her mother had used it to store her gardening tools, she and Ruby had used it to put their old toys in. Anything their family didn't want, but still needed, ended up here.
It was the bin full of Ruby's old toys that gave her pause. It had been a few years since she had gone through it all, and even longer since she had played with any of them. She picked up a doll on the top of the pile, and was flooded with memories of her lost sister. She and Ruby had played with this doll outside once, and traces of dirt had wriggled their way into the crevices of the joints. Now the doll would never move properly again. It's arms would click and creak whenever Yang tried to force them to move.
She placed it back down on the pile of toys before she could fall any further down that spiral of memories again. It had stopped being painful only recently. Or, more accurately, stopped being unbearably painful. It still hurt whenever she thought of her, but it was more subdued, thanks to the distance she made between her and her sister's things.
The pile of goodies sat patiently in paper bags near the back of the room. Yang gathered several bags into her arms, but stopped at the sight of something she hadn't seen before.
Yang noticed a corner of a photo sticking out from underneath an old tool box. The photo, the parts she could see at least, was of her uncle Qrow. He looked younger, stood in front of a forest background, and was holding his weapon over his shoulder.
She placed down the paper bags, and lifted the tool box, taking the photo out from underneath.
Her mouth hung open as she examined it: Uncle Qrow, her father, her mother, and another woman in red posed for a camera. Qrow and the woman held weapons, while her father and mother leaned against an oak tree.
Yang felt moisture flow down her cheek as she focused on her mother. She was so young, she could tell, despite her white cloak hiding half of her face. She didn't remember much about her appearance, but she recognized the dark red hair, turning lighter at the tips.
"Hey, Mom." Yang said. She tried to ignore the shakiness in her voice. "Long time no see." She suddenly felt guilty for not having visited her mother's grave in well over a year. She tried to justify it by the fact that her little sister's 'grave' was right next to it, and she hated seeing that. It felt unfair to her to only feel hatred whenever she was near her mother.
The door clicked behind her, and she saw her dad, clad in a dull yellow robe, clearly ready for bed, walk into the room. He paused at seeing her, then again once he noticed the photo in her hand. Finally, he sighed, for a reason unknown to Yang.
"I'm sure you have some questions about the woman in red, don't you?" Her dad said.
"No. Why would I?" Yang tilted her head. Her father frowned. It seemed they were both confused.
"Doesn't it seem a little strange how she looks almost identical to you?" Her dad asked.
"Not really. Her hair is dark, her eyes are red, and she's a lot taller than me." She was almost as tall as her uncle, and he was almost a head and a half taller than her.
"That's only because you're still a kid. And she does look like you. The hair looks the same, even if it's a different color. Ignore her eyes for a second, and look at her face. She looks exactly like you." He approached her, and pointed at the lady. Yang studied her for a moment, then hummed in agreement.
"Yeah. I guess she does look like me. Why is that?" Yang asked.
Now her father really sighed. "I think it's time I tell you who your real mother is. Or who your birth mother is." Her dad added after getting a confused look from Yang.
"That person is Raven Branwen. Your uncle's sister. She's the reason why you call Qrow your uncle, and the reason why you exist." he paused to look at her, but she didn't betray any emotion just yet. "That's your real mother, Yang. She's the one who gave birth to you, not Summer."
"Huh. I always wondered why me and Ruby looked so different." Yang said.
"Trust me, I've had more conversations about that than you could imagine." Her dad chuckled at the thought.
"So me and Ruby were only half siblings? Why do I only remember Mom as being my mom?"
"That's because, when you were just a baby, Raven left. I don't know where she went, but she left. She never talked to me beforehand, she didn't even leave a note. We went to bed one night together, and the next day she was gone." Taiyang took the photo from her hands, and ran his thumb over the woman, probably reminiscing about a mother she never knew.
"I didn't know when I should've told you. I thought that by the time you were an adult you would have accused me of lying to you, but I didn't know when to tell you as a child either. I didn't know when you would be ready. And then, with Summer and Ruby's pa-" Yang glared at her father, she knew what he was going to say, and didn't like it, "-being gone, I didn't want to overwhelm you. I guess now is as good a time as any."
"Not really, I do have friends over and all. They might think it weird if I go to get snacks, and come back wide-eyed and crying after learning that I actually still have a mother." Yang said. Her father looked at her with a strange expression. A mix between amusement, anger, and even a little bit of shame.
"I suppose not. You're taking this a whole lot better than I'd have expected. Do you plan on looking for her, now that you know of her?" Her dad said. Yang thought about that for a second, before quickly coming to her answer.
"Nope." Yang said with completeness in her voice.
"Nope?" Taiyang said with surprise in his voice.
"Nope. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Ruby is not dead. I need to look for her. She's more important to me than a mother I never knew. Unless she can help me find Ruby, I have no reason to meet her." Yang said sternly. She had a feeling her father would argue with her about the mortality of her sister, as he always did, so she tried to be as stubborn as possible in hopes of winning the argument before it starts. Her father only lifted a single eyebrow.
"I don't know whether I should be happy that you don't want to waste time trying to meet your mother, or if I should be disappointed that you still want to look for your sister."
"Easy. Be happy for me, and let me worry about finding Ruby." She nodded her head once in a gesture of finality.
"Alright then. I'll be happy for you. Let's be done talking about this, why don't you get back to your friends; and take your snacks with you, I can hear their bellies rumbling from here." Her dad handed her the bags she placed on the floor, but he kept the photo, and placed it in his robe pocket.
"Thanks, Dad. Goodnight, we'll try not to be too loud." Yang said as she gave her father a hug.
"Thanks for thinking of me, my sunny little dragon. You have a good time with your friends."
"I will."
Yang hurried back to her friends. She was greeted with the sound of appreciative whoops as she quickly got to handing out the candies and popcorn she had bought for the sleepover earlier in the day. The trio stayed up into the early hours of the night, laughing at comedies, eating junk food, and enjoying each other's company in a way only children could. Yang appreciated their presence. Despite the lingering thoughts on her lost sister, and hitherto unknown mother, she allowed herself to focus on the movies, and her friends and their antics. That night, as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon, Yang was quick to fall asleep, and had pleasant dreams of her friends, and wondrous dreams of her sister.
Done and done. I swear, during the week when I'm writing the chapter, I think of all sorts of things to put in the Author's Note, but, as soon as the time to write it comes around, all those ideas are completely gone. Nowhere to be seen.
I just remembered halfway through review responses! Do you guys want me to explain the dream sequence in the last chapter, or leave it a mystery for the readers to figure out? let me know.
And another thing. Well, more of a disclaimer, because I know people will question it: JUST BECAUSE RUBY HAS RED IN HER EYES, DOES NOT MEAN SHE IS QROW'S DAUGHTER! Please refer to his disclaimer should you have any inkling of the contrary. It's funny, because as soon as I decided it might be cool to have some physical change done to Ruby by the augmentation - and I chose her eyes because of Carter's eyes changing from the same procedure - the very next thing that crossed my mind was how many people would think I did that to suggest Qrow is her dad: HE IS NOT, AND NEVER WILL BE (at least, in this fic)
Time for review responses.
C3l3st14: Keyword in your question: "Warhammer style". This isn't a Warhammer fic, it's a Halo fic. Which will follow the rules of Halo. I don't know enough about Warhammer to write for it, and I'm gonna keep it that way. And her Aura is already enhancing her strength on top of her augmentations, there's no need for mechanical addons.
firewyrm2: I probably could have said what their ages were, but I don't want to bore people by writing it each time. Their dates line up, and if you really want to, anyone should be able to figure out what their ages are. Ruby's age will be explored once she returns to Remnant. Be patient my friend, all will be explained in due time.
Samuel Warshaw: Always a pleasure to read a review from you, and thanks for your interest in my decisions for the plot, as they are probably one of the most common things I question myself about when I'm writing; I want to make sure my story is as interesting as possible. And don't worry, I don't want to be that person that abandons a beloved work. I try to make this story as entertaining for me as I'm hoping it is for you, and that certainly keeps me motivated.
DarkySunRise: Thanks for the review, and you reaction to my chapter notification, it really brightens my day! The dream scene went as dream scenes go: unexplainable due to the strangeness of the mind. I am willing to explain it in full if people want that.
CykaBlyatintensifies: Thank you very much, sir or madam.
LazyMan5503: Thanks for the review.
SuspectNutria: Sir, I am not worthy of the holy title of "Based". I am honored you believe me so.
BigbossHayden98: Thanks for the compliment. Her semblance, MJOLNIR, and future training will be covered in time. I don't want to spoil the surprise ;)
Guest: OOooOOoH, complex characters are afoot! I can't wait for you to read it *evil laughter*
Lorenzo Ferrari: Salem will surely have an interesting time with a Spartan trained silver-eyed warrior pitted against her.
Cooldude: Thanks for the review. I'm gonna be honest, chief, I'm a little confused at what you meant in your review, so I'm just gonna take the easy route and agree whole heartedly.
Zifryt: Thanks for the review! She will be given lots of things, and you, as well as all my other readers, will discover that along with her as time goes on. Don't worry child, I have thought, or will think, of everything!
lovecrazyhedgehog: Those memories will be very important indeed, sir. Thank you for the review!
Until next time. (I remembered this time! yes!)
