Chapter 4: Three (Not) Damned Girls
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A/N: Sorry for the angsty emo shit… I swear this is supposed to be a happy story where love and justice prevail, but it seems I have reverted to my edge lord habits. I will try to get back on track, but this chapter might be a little darker than even the last two. Just fair warning.
Also I swear this isn't a Yang bash story. She will become the happy and confident Yang once more soon, but right now is sad time… sorry.
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Disclaimer: Depictions of violence and bullying. But worst of all… politics...
Yuck…
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Struggling beneath the weight of a bar, Yang pushed upward, slowly releasing her breath in a hiss as her muscles screamed for relief. She was going to be maxing out today and if she was going to get stronger, she needed her body to obey her every command. Including… lifting… this… bar!
She powered through and forced the bar up and then slowly back down. This continued for another four reps making five in total of four hundred and twenty pounds. A new record… Yang's head was blissfully empty as white noise and her own pounding heart was all she could hear. Her skin was slick with sweat, her face a bright, flushed red, and her tank top was totally soaked. Carefully drying her hands Yang went over to her clipboard and wrote down her totals as she walked over to the Cardio Area to cool off. There she found Weiss.
Yang scowled but was too tired to actually say anything. Weiss was a blur on the treadmill as booked it on the highest setting for a few moments before returning to a normal pace. Interval training? Yeesh…
The idea with those were to go as fast as possible and then slow done suddenly. Hunters did it naturally when fighting, but training your speed was another beast. Grimm were fast and Huntsmen were supposed to be even faster.
Interval training simulated this, but it killed your body. You would push your maximum heart rate to the absolute limit and then slow it down, giving it just enough time to not kill your heart before suddenly speeding up at an incredible rate. Yang saw Ren and Pyrrah doing the same thing on other treadmills while a red-faced but clearly still energized Nora was dragging off a dying Jaune to the weight benches.
Yang liked to go slower but could still probably keep up with the tiny heiress if she wanted to. While she was usually up and doing a similar routine as Weiss on her Cardio days today was a lifting day, so endurance was the name of the game. Yang set the treadmill at the highest incline and slowly built up a slow easy pace.
This was a cool down cycle. Nothing major. Twenty minutes later and she would be done, seeing as they still needed to shower before getting to Forever Falls. Tomorrow she would do drills on the speed bag and some technique drills, maybe get Nora to spar with her… then go look for Blake.
Yang usually loved working out. It gave her time to just not worry about things. Granted she spent most of her time avoiding worrying about things but that wasn't the issue. As she walked Yang's mind drifted through the foggy haze that was her mental state to the argument last night.
Weiss… this irritable little- no… after all that Yang knew where she was coming from… and she hated it… Weiss was right to be concerned. Hell, if it were her, she would have probably freaked out and got the hell out of dodge or gone to attack the White Fang head on, but there she was. Pint sized, with a chip on her shoulder and another in her back pocket just in case, was Weiss. As much as she hated to admit it the girl had grown on her. But then there was Blake…
If Yang was honest (and she was, brutally so), she had no idea what it was like to be a Faunus. She couldn't imagine living everyday like that. Ruby understood it but Yang? Confidence incarnate? God's gift to male, and female, kind? No… Yang didn't understand and even if she did, she wouldn't want to. But Blake… Blake was her partner. They were to try to understand each other. There was probably a reason why-
'She abandoned you…' the cold, twisted voice that lingered in the back of her mind hissed.
Yang grit her teeth and tried to focus on running. She turned up the speed.
'If she really cared she would have at least stuck around to say why she had to go…' the voice whispered again. 'If she really cared she would have at least told you why she had to leave you alone…'
Yang was in full on sprint mode. If this had been a track, she might've made a mile in five minutes. Finally Yang fought back.
'Screw you!' Yang mentally screamed. 'I am Yang Xio-Long! I take shit talk from nobody! Even me! Blake had her reasons! She had to get away from Weiss! But Weiss also isn't totally wrong and- Blake… Blake-'
At this point, Yang actually roared as she sprinted even faster, and the treadmill suddenly started slowing as the emergency stop was activated. This caused her to slip on her own sweat that had made the track slick, and she nearly took a nosedive onto the tread.
It was going so fast right now it might as well have been a belt sander. She was about to hit it face first when she was suddenly stopped by a bright white snowflake. The machine was turned off completely and Yang was unceremoniously dropped. It stung a bit, but she had her Aura up. Yang glanced up to find a panting Weiss and her at the moment bright red, scowling face. Yang was content to just lay there for a minute though.
"You waiting for a thank you, or do you got somethin' ta say?" Yang slurred as Weiss just stared at her, hovering...
Weiss huffed before she slowly, but surely began to speak.
"I just wanted… to apologize for last night…" Weiss said coldly, but uncertainty. It was like she had never apologized before. Yang raised an eyebrow. "I'm… sorry… for what I said. I shouldn't have unloaded all of that on you both. My family history with the White Fang has nothing to do with you two. I was freaked out and… I'm sorry."
Yang sighed. This was her life now… Bratty heiress, lost puppy little sister, and a Faunus who was possibly a terrorist… She looked up and saw that there was no deception in the heiress' eyes, just sincerity and a tad of hope and nervousness.
"First, thanks for the save. Second, apology accepted. For what it's worth… I'm sorry too." Yang said trying to look the girl in the eye, but the way blood was pounding in her head Weiss looked a little fuzzy. "I may not be able to change all that fast, but I will do my best. I'm sorry I tried to intimidate you. That wasn't cool."
Yang cursed herself. She had tried to be intimidating to get her way. That wasn't how a Huntress was supposed to act, but couldn't she have worded that better? To her surprise, Weiss laughed at her lack of prose. An actual laugh. She was kinda cute when she did that…
"If you call your little tantrum intimidating then you should see the White Fang… Well, if you can forgive me then I suppose I can forgive you as well." Weiss said offering her a hand up. Yang looked surprised for a moment before she smirked and took the hand. "Now, let's see if your sister is done with her 'remedial combat lesson'…"
Yang's face darkened. Ruby had talked to her earlier that morning about it. She was going to try and tell him off this morning and-
The sound of slow, shaky footsteps came closer. Yang felt a deep seated rage and hatred rush to her, tired or no, expulsion or no, she was going to kill Cardin. Ruby was clutching her sides, gait unsteady as she limped forward, but the worst part was the way she was breathing. Harsh, wheezing, like every breath was labored.
Yang knew immediately that Ruby had broken ribs…
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Thirty minutes earlier…
"Glad you can make it Red!" Cardin said with a pandering smile. "We have a new pincer technique I wanted to work out with the boys."
The boys chuckled as if Cardin had made a joke. Ruby was shaking. Before her was the one person on the planet, excluding Torchwick, that Ruby Rose could honestly say she hated. He had been nothing but insulting and just plain mean to herself and everyone she cared about. She had told Yang everything yesterday… at least what they'd do… but not what they'd say. Yes… Ruby hated him… but she also feared him… She hated that she was trembling… she hated that she was so scared her heart was racing like a rabbit after a run.
Ruby moved her cape and Cardin's eyes narrowed.
"Red… what are you doing with Crescent Rose?" Cardin asked in a dangerous tone. "You trying to hurt us Red? You know what just one of those bullets from a freaking fifty caliber will do to even an Aura protective foe…"
Ruby drew Crescent Rose and wielded it in front of her. "C-cardin! I… I… I don't want to fight you! I don't want to be your punching bag! I also don't want you to-"
Cardin smacked the weapon out of her hand. Ruby stared at her now empty hands and couldn't believe all of this was happening. Dove went over to pick it up as Cardin held her gaze. Disbelief and fear crept into her heart.
"Damn Red… I thought you were a better friend than that." Cardin said as Ruby's blood turned to ice. "Well, since this is the first infringement, I think we can let you off easy. Tell you what…"
Cardin put a hand on her shoulder. Ruby was so scared. She messed up. She severely overestimated her own strength. Even with Crescent Rose, how could she think she'd be able to beat them all? She- she just wanted them to stop! She wanted them to go away! She wanted them to stop trying to hurt her friends and just leave her alone! She didn't want to hurt anyone!
"How about we show you what your little toy can do to any one of us." Cardin said backing away as Dove leveled Crescent Rose at her. "And we will even go easy on you and not post the pictures. This time. Do it again… well… you know what will happen… Now, smile!"
Ruby's eyes didn't have time to widen before the gun fired with an echoing boom and everything became pain.
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Weiss stood back as Yang began treatment on Ruby's chest. Yang own eyes hadn't gone back to their normal lavender shade staying a burning crimson.
"Now… I am usually the one who breaks the ribs, but I do know a thing or two about fixing them." Yang said putting the cold compress on Ruby's chest. She had a large, ugly purple bruise on her normally milk white skin. Ruby had been shot dead-on with her own sniper rifle.
Weiss apparently had a hard time with her monthlies sometimes, and had an old fashioned rubber hot water bottle thing. They ended up filling it with ice and some extra cold water from the compact sink in their dorm to make emergency cold-pack.
Ruby's Aura had taken the brunt of the damage, but taking a fifty caliber to the chest was something that even her Aura couldn't completely protect against. She was lucky. If she didn't have Aura, she'd be dead, no eviscerated, at being shot that close of a range. Her Aura had shattered in a single blow…
"Now you should probably keep it still and try to regenerate your Aura… If your lucky you will be able to be fully healed in a day or two with no complications." Weiss said trying to sound stern but with obvious sympathy in her voice. Ruby hugged the compress and winced as the cold brought on goosebumps along her arms but soon the pain became only from the cold and her labored breathing.
"You sure?" Yang asked. Weiss nodded with a shaky sigh.
"I… I one time I was attacked by some White Fang members at a concert. They took control of the Knights by leading Geist Grimm into them. One of them managed to get past my guards and…" Weiss said softly subconsciously touching her scar. "My Aura shattered and my retina… took some damage. The doctors were afraid I wouldn't be able to use my eye, or that there would be some kind of permanent damage my Aura couldn't fix, but I healed up fine… If I can heal part of my eye, she can heal some broken ribs. Aura tends to work outward-in anyways. That's why you will see some hunters with some scars but not as many with say, back problems or head trauma."
Yang scowled… well further than she was already scowling as she put some more water in the ice tray and put it in the mini fridge. Yang's scowl deepened when she turned to Ruby though. The bruise had spread over most of her chest and the look of pain in her face not hurting nearly as badly for Yang as the look of defeat in her sister's eyes. She was so small and hurt and-
"I'm gonna kill him." Yang hissed. "This is going to far! This whole thing is too far! I gonna-"
"Please don't…" Ruby begged softly. It hurt to breathe much less talk. "I'm going to tell a teacher… but please… I don't want you to get expelled. Please…"
Yang's eyes was still burning scarlet. She was shaking. "Shut the hell up Ruby! Can't you see this is too far! When I see him next, I will break him…"
Ruby flinched at her tone. Yang's semblance was on, she looked seconds away from rampaging. Her eyes were scarlet and her hair glowing like an ungodly flame was illuminating them. This actually, was the normal part. Ruby had seen this look anywhere from Yang getting serious in a fight to when Ruby snatched the last cookie. What wasn't normal was that the fiery dragon, the wrath of god incarnate, had eyes that seemed so…cold. Yang being angry was normal, but this was different. This wasn't anger. It was pure hate.
The last time Ruby remembered Yang being this angry… was one year ago and Yang didn't even talk about what happened, but it was the first time Ruby had ever felt afraid of her sister. Seeing her sister this mad… it was scary.
Yang saw that Weiss was a statue of uncertainty and mild anxiety. But what nearly broke her heart was Ruby, her Ruby, backing away from her and looking scared. Scared of her.
Yang suddenly looked like someone slapped her. Her semblance turned off immediately and her wide, now, lavender eyes searched Ruby's silver ones as they stopped cowering.
"Ruby? …you know I would never hurt you… right?" Yang said voice breaking a bit. She sounded so small then… so fragile… Ruby looked down cursing herself. "Ruby?"
"Yang, I know you would never hurt me. I love you and I know you love me." Ruby said smiling firmly, slowly rising and pulled her sister into an awkward one armed hug as she tried to keep the cold compress on her chest. Yang needed calm clear affirmations to get her to stop hurting. Despite her taking care of her throughout the years, Ruby also tried to help Yang. Even when her eyes turn back to lavender, she still had that look of utter hate in her eyes… Ruby sighed… but there was no way she could know that Yang felt that way about herself.
Yang felt awful.
She should have noticed. She should have been there. Done something. Anything. But she was too busy being caught up in her own stupid ass problems and now…
"You are the best big sister ever, and I am glad you are mad for me. I will always need you. You are my best friend and I know you won't leave me." Ruby said softly, missing the way Yang flinched. "I know that you want me to be more independent. I want to be too. I need to fight my own battles and, it is really nice to know you have my back, but there are times when I must stand on my own."
Yang just held Ruby. It was a long awkward hug as Yang slowly unraveled. Tears fell. Ruby smiled some when Yang calmed down. She put on her best and brightest smile but didn't see the haunted look in Yang's eyes as anything more than sisterly worry. Yang felt as if she had been shot by Ruby's rifle…
"Don't worry about me Yang. I got this." Ruby said trying to put some confidence in her voice. "I'll tell an adult and Cardin will probably get expelled. You don't have to worry about a thing. But right now we need to not make a scene. Velvet is still a target. Now Jaune is on their radar…"
Yang grimaced. Ruby turned Yang's gaze back towards her.
"I made a mistake. I shouldn't have tried to threaten him with violence. That's on me." Ruby said glancing at Crescent Rose. "This… this is a learning experience! I now know how bad my gun hurts… honestly, I think it might pack more punch than the scythe! I'll have to see if I can make a 'people safe' mode!"
Weiss glanced at the gun-scythe as well. Now that she thought about it, she thought it was weird how she never used the sniper function in a fight, but now she knew… Ruby had known and was trying to avoid hurting people despite the way her fighting style worked. She had been holding back. Weiss unconsciously clenched her fists before releasing them as a single errant thought entered her mind. Why?
Weiss couldn't understand why someone as childish and naively kind as Ruby would have a weapon meant to take out was meant to take someone's aura down to zero in a single blow… To hurt them even they had their Aura up. Weiss thought back to the entrance exam where she freaking sliced the head off a Nevermore by running up the side of a cliff… If she used the gun's kick back, which would be considerable, anyone caught in the blade's terrible embrace would be sliced in two…
Cardin was in the wrong for hurting Ruby, but Weiss couldn't help but wonder if Ruby might be in the wrong for adding the weapon into the mix in the first place. Weiss was looking at the weapon with a newfound fear and awe of the insanely dangerous weapon her partner wielded. A chill ran down her spine as she realized that she was glad Ruby was childish and naïve. If she wasn't that weapon could kill her with two taps of it's trigger. Once for her Aura and the second…
Weiss shuddered as her attention focused back on the two sisters. Ruby looked at them, addressing them not as the normally cheerful and happy girl, but as their team leader. She was calm and collected and what was more she had a soft, quiet sense of dignity despite being basically naked save for the cold compress pressed to her chest and her shorts.
"This morning was a mistake. I will try again later. For now we need to prepare to go to the field trip. I will be going despite my injury." Ruby said waiting for the protests but there were none. Yang looked sullen, defeated, and just… tired. Weiss was frowning but didn't say anything either. "If Cardin gives me trouble, I will get you guys for help. We will be out of scroll service range so he can't him sending pictures. We will have one chance to tell the Glynda without fear of him and possibly take away his phone. However, Cardin might be planning something already. I almost screwed up the entire plan by trying to play the hero at the wrong time… thankfully only I got hurt this time."
Ruby's hand clenched. "But if all goes well now, I should be able to be Cardin free by this time tomorrow. I will have to ask you two, however, to play along. He can't know we are planning to turn him in, or he might just not go on the trip. Worse he could upload the pictures before he went and we would never know… so… Weiss, keep checking the Beacon social page. If anyone asks, just say you are curious about the dances. Yang, this is going to be tough for you. I need you to pretend that we had a spar and you hit me too hard. That will give me some more leeway to act as if my ribs are sore so I can have a bit more of an excuse to talk to Glynda. It will also be a cover for you so Cardin can think you are just sad you hurt me not that you know about the bullying. Are you two okay with that?"
Yang looked lost but nodded. She glared however when Weiss spoke up.
"And what about Blake?" Weiss asked. "What cover do you have planned for her?"
"Didn't have her permission slip signed anyways." Ruby said glancing at Blake's bed. "After we deal with Cardin, I will need both of your help tracking her down. We will stay together so nobody gets lost or attacked."
"You expecting something to happen?" Yang asked tiredly. She wanted to defend her partner… but after all the shit that had happened today, she was just too tired to put more fight into it. "Do you honestly believe Blake would attack us, or more likely Weiss?"
"Not really." Ruby said glancing towards Weiss. "I just don't want to leave her alone in the middle of Vale. She is high profile and that Roman guy is still out there. I know she can protect herself, but Weiss is also new to Vale and it would be easier to see her with me. Yang, I know you go out on your own a lot so you can call your guy and have him look for Blake as well. I don't want to scare her off."
"What do you plan to do about…" Weiss started before trailing off. Everyone already knew what she was going to say. Ruby looked down.
"I have given it a lot of thought. Blake is our team mate. If it is okay with you Weiss, I want her to have a chance to explain why she ran and stayed gone this long. I want to hear her out with an open mind before jumping to conclusions. Yang, she is your partner. I need you to hear her out. She has obviously had a rough past and I can't see her opening up to either me or Weiss. I barely know her, and she seems pretty set on seeing Weiss as a bad guy so that leaves you." Ruby said sounding off logically, but there was a hollow tone to her voice. She honestly didn't know what to do, but they had to do something. "If you don't want to, that's fine, I can try, but I feel I would be biased in her favor since I really just want her to come back home and I don't know if I have the social skills to tell if she does decide to lie, for whatever reason."
Weiss was impressed. Ruby actually sounded like a team leader there except…
"Except wouldn't she be biased too? I mean Yang seems to want her back, but she could also have some negative feelings towards Blake for leaving." Weiss said before jumping as Yang's fist found the wall. There were some cracks.
"I swear, everything that comes out of your damn mouth is custom made to piss me off." Yang muttered under her breath before speaking up.
"Ozpin accepted her application, which including the background check. If she is another innocent Faunus Weiss pissed off, Blake might have just needed a few days to cool off and that's fine." Yang said ignoring Weiss' indignant glare. "And if she is a White Fang member and has been lying the entire time, I'll… I don't know… cart her off to the cops I guess…"
Weiss glared but said nothing. If she thought she had changed Yang's mind about Blake with that apology thing earlier, she had another thing coming. Yang Xio-Long didn't abandon her friends.
'Liar' the twisted voice said. Yang clenched her fists and grit her teeth.
Ruby frowned, noticing. Something was really bothering Yang… She'd… Ruby sighed. She'd have to be a team leader and talk to each of her team about what was bugging them instead of worrying about Cardin. Ruby hated when Weiss was right… An anonymous tip to a teacher and Coco would have been enough to stop this whole thing in its tracks, but she had to go play the hero. Ruby felt like a piece of her was dying. That naiveté and childishness was slowly crumbling and being replaced by world weariness and experience. Ruby felt a small spark of something grow larger and larger throughout though. Hope. She knew what the world was going to throw at her and… she was okay with that.
"Alright girls. Seems like we have a plan. How about we get showered off and head to Forever Falls?" Ruby said before her face broke out in a sly grin. "I call first shower!"
With that Ruby rushed off shutting the door behind her. The other two girls blinked before…
"RUBY!" Yang and Weiss yelled. Yang in playful exasperation and Weiss with a true bit of malice in her words. Note to self. Weiss hates being sweaty.
Yang forced a smile and began to mess with Weiss.
'Fight down the anger, fight down the hurt. If you have to let them see you sweat, never let them see you cry.'
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She kept yelling at her through the door as Ruby took a closer look at the wound. In a few minutes her Aura would slowly return, but her chest was still an ugly blueish purple. Even without meaning to her Aura slowly began to heal the outer damage as Ruby waited for the water to get warm, though that would take some time in Beacon's famously cold 'chastity showers'. Her bruising healed layer by layer outward then in as she focused.
Aura tended to be accumulated much like accumulating real stamina. Ruby just needed a break from physical exercise but mental and emotional strain. On of the first things they taught you at Signal was how to meditate and that was what Ruby did. Ruby honestly couldn't sit still, so unlike normal meditation Ruby focused on mindfulness. Every action she took she 'revved her engine' by using an Aura.
This would seem counter productive since it used Aura, but it honestly helped her feel alive, focus on the now and helped her with the psychic element of her injury. The problem wasn't just that she got shot with a fifty caliber. The problem was she had been shot by Crescent Rose. One of the reasons her weapon was able to sustain the damage it could without losing it's edge was because of the Aura protecting it. Her Aura… so if there was any kind of trauma associated with the weapon in question… it would be bad.
Ruby pictured Crescent Rose being leveled at her against her will and being fired by Dove. She slowly unraveled her hatred, hurt and betrayal and let it all go down the drain with the cold water. Ruby had a curious relationship with weapons.
When her Uncle was teaching her how to use the Aura Lock technique, the technique used to cover a weapon in Aura, she had been told to picture the gun as her best friend. This mentoring had resulted in her quirk of seeing weapons as people and turned her into a full blown weapons nut.
'Oh Crescent Rose! I'm sorry! I… I should have held a better grip on you! It wasn't your fault okay? You are still my favorite weapon in the whole wide world! This was no different than me accidently cutting myself on you when first learning to sharpen you! This is just a learning experience and we both know how much those can suck.' Ruby thought, resonating her Aura with it. Slowly the bruising was fading. It was already a mottled splotch of sickly yellow and blue-purple.
Her mind slowly felt the water pounding on her chest, the heat run into her bones. Ruby was aware of everything and anything in the bathroom. She could practically feel Yang and Weiss outside the bathroom as she cleaned herself. It was disconcerting and comforting at the same time. It was like both of them were in her personal space, but she recognized it as Aura Sensing.
Ever since learning about Aura speed Ruby had been studying. She had no idea there were so many different applications to Aura. With practice a Huntsman could do anything from the uncommon Aura Area Sense where someone could sense the layout of a building to the famous Aura Slash where one could create an arc of energy to kill targets from afar. To Ruby it was like she found a book of magic spells, and every one of them brought her closer to her mother.
Ruby didn't remember her mother's semblance being ever mentioned however her Aura techniques were always part of the stories. She could remember her father or Uncle telling her about the techniques, but the Huntsman jargon had usually been lost on her. Now she had a better understanding of what her mother could do.
Unlike Weiss, Ruby didn't measure herself against a letter grade. She measured herself against Summer Rose. She would ask 'What would mom do?' and 'Could mom do this?'.
The saddest part was that Ruby's memory of her mother was fading. She had been only five when her mother died. She remembered her being gone and some little things here and there... But that was it… Yang would tell her stories and that would be all she knew. It was ten years ago. So in some way… Ruby was chasing after a ghost. Nobody knew what happened to Summer Rose. The grave marker near her house was decorative. They had never found a body.
But Ruby dreamed. Ruby liked to think of her mother like a fairy tale. That maybe, just maybe, her mother wasn't gone. That perhaps if she could be just like her, Ruby might be able to keep her legend alive. Ruby turned off the water and wrapped herself in a towel. Though she looked a lot like her mother, she couldn't be exactly like her.
The Summer Rose in her mind wouldn't be bullied by Cardin. She would be able to protect Velvet. She wouldn't make the mistakes she did. She wouldn't have been a bad team leader. Ruby didn't know what to think.
'Mom wouldn't be so weak…' Ruby felt before plastering on her best 'hero smile'.
'I'm going to make sure everyone is okay! Defending and protecting them from evil! Or my name isn't Su-Ruby Rose!'
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It was a four hour drive to Forever Falls giving Weiss enough time to really think about what happened last night. Ruby was snoring softly against her shoulder. She had used up most of her Aura to accelerate the healing on her ribs. The girl currently drooling on her overcoat was where Weiss had the biggest issue. She was naïve and childish, but she was also just trying to be a good person. Weiss… wasn't…
That was where Weiss had a problem. Was she racist, or something? Weiss didn't know the term, but she was apparently being petty, discriminatory and just plain rude to Faunus. So much so that she made someone run away from her. On the other hand… said person might be a member of the White Fang... Weiss fought down the feeling of discomfort and glanced at Ruby
If she was raised the way Weiss was, been hunted by the Faunus, and had her family and friends murdered by them, would Ruby herself be any different? Or was her partner just a better person than her?
This was the question Weiss had been plagued with. Was she wrong? Weiss had to look hard at her beliefs. One part of her rejected the idea of betraying her family by changing her mind...
On the other hand she was uncomfortable because she found she almost agreed with some of the things she had argued against. If she was a single mother, a Spider Faunus with poison sacs, trying to look after her children, how would she feel getting rejected from work over and over again? Weiss wasn't blind to her company's way of running things. Her Sister insisted it was all for the good of the company, but would it really be wrong to hire someone like that? Especially if they had gotten a surgery to make the poison sacs non-functional?
Weiss was reading the article on her scroll. 'Single Mother Refused Work for being a Faunus in Ministral! Winter Schnee, CEO of the SDC Opening Up World's Largest Dust Mine Might Be Able to Give Her Work!'
Apparently, Winter's trade deal with the Minister of Vacuo, a Faunus, had included the loosening of laws surrounding Faunus working in the SDC so they could get more Faunus labor to help mine. This in turn had begun a ripple effect and knocked over a lot of political dominos.
Winter hated the White Fang, Pro-Faunus regime, and even the Faunus themselves with a passion not many could muster. She had been there when her mother had died and had been the target for many attacks during her adult life. Winter had saved Weiss' life more times than she could count.
As the head of the SDC she was the one people thought of as the face of Faunus Discrimination through her stubborn refusal of loosening the policies surrounding Faunus in the work place. But now with the recent turn of events Winter's stance on the Faunus had changed for money and that had gotten under the skin of both Pro and Anti-Faunus movements for conforming to these demands as well as not really changing much.
Weiss couldn't blame her, however. The Gia Purchase was the largest know deposit of Dust in the world. Though the overall cost of Dust would drop dramatically, likely saturating the market and putting a lot of people out of business, the Schnee Dust company would be able to supply the Atlassian Military and their Huntsmen for centuries and with their superior technology take out the Grimm once and for all.
There was however the most recent attack on their cargo The Great Robbery. The single greatest robbery in history. Basically because her sister had signed the agreement to allow Faunus workers to help with the mining. The White Fang had gotten it into their heads that the SDC was planning on using Faunus labor for the more risky operations and made up some rather unflattering stories about the mines in order to sell this 'social regression' propaganda they were insisting on. They were claiming that this was no better than when the Faunus were enslaved to work in Dust mines in the past. But, because the Gia Purchase was one of the most lucrative mines on the planet, many Faunus either ignored or dismissed the White Fang… which they took as an attack to their power base and thus an act of aggression.
In retaliation, several months before she enrolled in Beacon, an entire robot guarded cargo train was robbed by a lone White Fang member known only as Tarus, The Red Bull or The Great Robber, in 'protest'. The train was blown to smithereens with high yield explosives and a chain dust reaction. The entire cargo was lost and over a billion Lien literally went up in flames along with several million Lien in the security detail.
Strangely none of the crew's operators were harmed as Tarus had disconnected the part of the train the crew and operators from the back of the train. Still the White Fang was rallying around this as a cry for yet another war against her family. However, Winter had her hands tied now. She could act in retaliation and repeal the Faunus clause of the bill and lose the extremely lucrative venture which she had already invested millions if not billions of Lien into or she could just grit her teeth and bare it. Guess which she chose.
The White Fang was emboldened by this, however. Seeing that the SDC wasn't going to fight back they had only become more vicious and vocal in their attacks. There had been a peaceful protest right before Weiss had entered Beacon, she had recalled it playing on the news. The Faunus were protesting the White Fang despite many of the Humans taking this as yet another sign of aggression. The White Fang undermined their protest by coming in and causing a small riot further destroying the peace and many were arrested.
This was just one of many instances since she enrolled of the White Fang getting out of control, even with their own people. Weiss scrolled over the picture of the Faunus protest used in the news reel. The peaceful protest had signs like 'We are not animals!' and 'Our time WILL come!' being the supposed messages of the protestors… except those were the White Fang members… Scrolling further down Weiss could see the signs of the actual protestors. 'Faunus for Gia!', 'The right to WORK on equal terms!' and 'This is NOT OUR WHITE FANG'.
Weiss shook her head, closing her scroll. Weiss had come to the claim the opinion that perhaps Humans were more discriminatory than she had originally thought, however groups like the White Fang were still on her shit list. But that left what Weiss was really going to do about Blake… if they found her… and if she wasn't a criminal…
The trees there were forever in Autumn, but they weren't there to sightsee. The goal here was to harvest some of the sap from these trees to see what potential medical compounds they contained. Something about how the trees might actually be in a state of bio stasis due to the unique mixture of Dust that these trees grew in. If they could harvest sap from the trees, they could potentially put a human in bio stasis. Huntsmen that would bleed out in the field could be put into stasis and then operated on days, even weeks, later with no difference to the patient. They would, for all intents and purposes, be frozen in time.
Weiss looked out at the forever falling leaves of the trees. There were a lot of similarity to these trees and people. Humans and Faunus.
'If nothing changes, nothing improve. And if nothing improves, never becoming any different, never trying anything new, never accepting change because change is painful, are we not damned?'
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A/N: Sorry about the huge blocks of world building… and the angst… and the melodrama… *sighs* Kinda needed to world build… and character build… and. Just. ARGH!
I have an important announcement. After I finish Volume 1's story I will begin releasing this story like a serialization or 'I will write out the entire volume/arc and then post it weekly.' This will be done to help me reduce errors, give me some time to think about direction and not just make up a bunch of bullshit.
The downside to this, however, means chapter release will have small month long hiatuses between Volumes with perhaps a character short or some other small vignette chapter kinda like the OG show would do.
Let me know what you think and Review if You Love Me!