Chapter 26: Ass-Kicking and Clothes Shopping


It was maybe five in the morning when team ASHNRWBY were rudely awakened to the sound of loud knocking.

"Wake up, it's time," Yang called barging into the room.

Nova awoke startled, he wasn't in a very heavy sleep because he missed the warmth of a certain red leader. "Holy shit Yang the sun isn't even up yet!" Nova seethed and Yang just shot him a death glare.

"Arena, you have ten minutes." She said firmly before leaving.

Hex shuddered at the cold glare in her girlfriend's eyes. Yang noticed and turned smiling sweetly, "Morning love, you're bout to watch your leader get her ass kicked." She turned and walked off.

"Ugh come on guys we need to…" Hex said but only got a response of loud snores from Luna and Nitro. "HOLY SHIT HOW HEAVY DO YOU SLEEP?!" She said tazing Nitro and ripping the covers off Luna.

The two groaned, "Is it morning already?" Luna said rubbing her eyes.

"Nova's got his match with Yang." She said to which the others bolted up and started getting ready.


-In the Arena-

Nova was clad in the same outfit he wore yesterday with a black dress shirt and tights that probably belonged to Luna and the same black flats he borrowed from Weiss. He didn't bother with new clothes because he'd just get them dirty in the fight, and in terms of a shower, all he took was a face washing because he'd have to take a shower after... provided he was still alive.

"This is going to be hell to fight in…" he said looking at himself. Asura was unsheathed in its katana form, he tried using the scythe but it was almost three times as tall as he was. The scabbard weighed a ton and the sword was no slouch on heaviness either. His arms were showing signs of pain from holding it up in a ready stance.

Yang looked at him, a mix of confusion and anger, she knew his fighting style was sword drawing techniques or scythe skills so having the sword already drawn seemed to her that he was looking down on her. "You're not holding back are you?" She glowered.

Nova shook his head, "Not in the slightest… I'm just not used to my own weapon's weight, don't worry it's not going to be a problem," he said half hopeful.

Yang grinned, "Good…" without so much as a warning she dashed toward him with blinding speed. He barely had a moment to react as Yang's fist soared past his cheek within a hair's distance. Using the momentum of his reaction he leaned back and backflipped kicking Yang across the chin sending her backward. She recovered and landed on her feet, wiping the dirt from her chin in the process, while Nova stood there gawking at himself. He'd never been able to successfully backflip before unless he was ten feet in the air.

Nova was surprised at how incredibly flexible this body was, he'd never have been able to do that in his old one. Yang spared him no chance to ponder as she sent several shots from Ember Celia at him. He managed to dodge one but the other collided with his stomach knocking him backward. His aura took a subtle hit but it wasn't bad.

It should be about now… come on hurry up and adapt... his semblance was still adapting to the weight of the weapons, he had maybe two to three seconds left. Yang wasn't in the mood to allow him to stall so she launched herself at him again, giving no chance to breathe.

SHNRWBY filed into the room just in time to see Nova get smacked into a nearby wall, his aura levels dropping to 75%. "Holy shit Yang, a delicate flower such as myself could never hope pack that much punch!" he said in mocked admiration.

"Delicate flower my ass... " she grunted quite annoyed that he was making excuses.

"Well once I manage to peel myself out of here, you'd find out that I have thorns..."

"Damn, Yang isn't pulling any punches…" Nitro commented the red-haired boy reclined in his seat putting his feet up on the rails. "You'd think she'd give him some grace given that he isn't as strong as his old self."

"She said he needed to be ready for anything if he's going to be my boyfriend…" Ruby said nervously.

"That's what this is about? I thought he just messed with her hair again," Nitro said half-heartedly.

Hex just rolled her eyes, "Come one this is important… for both of them," Luna returned.

"I just hope he'll be okay…" Blake said nervously.


Back in the arena, Nova rose from the crater he was in, Asura now sheathed in its scabbard. He gave her a smirk, "Come on Yang… now the real fun begins!" there was a scary glint in his eye when he launched himself at her. It was like he blinked out of existence at that moment, if not for her instincts Yang would be missing her head.

She had barely managed to bring up her guard in time to block Asura's vibrating blade, the resonance between the metals sent her propelling backward. Asura could not cut Ember Celia, or maybe its owner chose not to cut them. Without letting her rest, Nova released Asura in its scythe form, the massive weapon towering over him as he came down in a deadly spin. Like a violent pinwheel, the scythe crashed down onto Yang attacking her from every direction. All she could do was tank the damage mid-air until she hit the ground.

Her aura deep in the yellow zone. "You know what they say, don't poke a sleeping dragon." Nova stood above her, scythe resting at his side. His long white hair slightly messed up in dust, it was a miracle Yang hadn't singed any of it off.

Maybe it was his semblance adapting him but his body was beginning to move naturally again.

Yang said nothing as she rose from the pit, her hair now glowing yellow and her eyes a burning red. Oh shit… was all Nova could manage to muster in his mind as Yang's fist shot through the haze of dust and smoke colliding with Nova's chest, the damage sent his aura into the yellow in an instant because of his opponent's semblance. Nova recovered and tried shot a few rounds of Asura at the ground to steady his landing. He then relaunched himself at Yang utilizing one of Ruby's techniques, using the sniper recoil to propel his body forward.

Yang caught him mid-air with her enormous strength and held him up with one hand around his neck choking him. Everyone in the room looked on in shock at the brutal choice of attack from the blonde.

Nova gasped for air, Asura dropped to the side clattering on the floor, his aura dropping slowly.

Ruby gasped in horror, "YANG YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!"

Even Luna and the others were feeling uneasy now. Had Nova been fighting at his full power, Yang wouldn't have lasted even a few seconds.

Nova meekly shot Ruby a thumbs up and choked out a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Yang said darkly as she slackened her grip enough for him to speak.

Nova smiled, "Just… figured out… how to… use this… body…"

Yang looked confused but refused to let him do whatever he was planning. She tightened her grip and was about to bring Nova's head smashing into the ground when he gripped her forearm tightly. Nova channeled his powers, draining his aura to the point just above red and burning Yang's arms with his fire.

Yang roared in pain releasing Nova from her grip, just before he fell to the floor he wrapped his legs around Yang's neck and bent backward allowing his hands to touch the floor. He then used the momentum to fling Yang across the room. While mid-air, Nova picked up Asura and propelled himself forward with a series of flips, hooking Yang In the blade of the scythe and channeling his power through it.

The dragon's crystal glowed a fiery red, acting as a conduit to fuel his power. Flames then erupted from the scythe, burning through the blonde's defenses like it was paper. With a heavy swing, Nova sent Yang crashing into the arena floor, her aura quite literally depleted.

Ruby stormed onto the field rushing over to Yang in a flurry of rose petals. "Yang oh my gosh are you okay?" she asked desperately checking over her sister.

Yang coughed violently but got up none the less. Her face was scratched and bruised and there were definitely purple spots on her back and lower abdomen, her wrists had some pretty nasty burns as well.

"I'm fine Ruby… nothing a little aura won't heal…" she stretched and a few audible pops were heard, Ruby winced. Yang rotated her shoulder a bit, "You got me good flamethrower, I approve of your relationship with my sister… but just know that if you break her heart or hurt her in anyway…" she said dangerously.

Nova nodded in understanding, Yang just smiled genuinely, "Not that I'd expect you to anyway…". The young dragon was taken aback by her overwhelming confidence in him.

"You almost had me, not gonna lie, I thought I would've lost. You fought perfectly, not giving me a chance to rest, switching up your attacks so my semblance wouldn't be able to adapt to the damage. Honestly, it was quite impressive." Nova smiled walking up and grasping the blonde by her forearm in the form of a solid handshake.

"Bah don't give me too much credit, had you been fighting at your fullest potential, you'd have mopped the floor with me," Yang said shaking the hand of the other girl. "When you said you'd figured out how to fight… what'd you mean?"

Nova relinquished his grip and spoke, "This body… while it might not be as physically capable as my male body, it is incredibly flexible." he explained.

Yang quirked his head and Nova stepped back a few paces. "Here watch," he said before proceeding to bend his spine all the way back so her hands touched the back of her heels. Then using the momentum of his body, backflipped, then cartwheeled into a split. Everyone just gawked in surprise.

"That's… incredible…" Weiss said quite amazed.

Hex just patted Ruby on the back, "Looks like nightly activities would be… very interesting… lucky for you, huh?" she snickered, causing Ruby to look on bewildered.

"I don't understand…" the red leader said confused, Nova blushed madly from the implication while Yang leaned in and whispered something into her sister's ear that sent the girl into an overheat.

"Oh god Yang we aren't ready for that!" she playfully hit her sister.

Nova wasn't too sore, his aura healed him up quite nicely while Yang was groaning in pain. They insisted she stay behind on their shopping trip but, a quick visit to Elain in the infirmary and she was as good as new.


The bullhead ride to the city was rather calming. His sense of balance in his new body was astounding, surprising him and to the extent, everyone else when he climbed on top of the ship and did a handstand, thankfully he was wearing a pair of slacks today ... much to the disappointment of the other passengers. This is so much fun… I might not even WANT to change back if I get too used to this, he thought.

Nova felt like he was dragged around the equivalent of four hundred stores throughout their escapades. He was thoroughly thankful he wasn't forced into heels.

"This one looks cute~" Hex said as she held up the equivalent of lace with a few fibers attached.

"I am NOT wearing something that revealing… I have at least some modesty…" He said turning his red face to the floor.

Weiss smirked, "Maybe not publicly but I'm pretty sure Ruby would love it."

Nova paled and looked to his girlfriend who was pretending not to have overheard them. "Ruby?"

*High pitched whistling*

"NOOOOOO! I trusted you!" he reached out to her only to miss and fall over.

"Come on girl you need to loosen up, think of all the cute outfits you get to wear now…" Yang said referring to her own outfit.

"You have a point…but I rather like being edgy." He said with a pout, which just looked way too cute in his current form.

"Not when your face looks like that you don't ." Weiss pointed out. "Here try these on."

Nova was forced to the changing rooms while everyone stood outside awaiting him to be done.

There were a few strained groans and exasperated sighs before he finally emerged wearing a fiery orange jacket with black undershirt., accompanied by a black short-skirt and orange and black striped knee-socks. His face was pure red.

"Oh….my…he's in a skirt." Weiss started.

"And…it …looks…amazing…" Blake gaped unable to contain her giggles. She quickly pulled out her scroll and snapped a picture.

"GUYS SERIOUSLY?!"

"Yeah gotta…burn this into my memory for…research purposes." Ruby said studying her girlfriend.

"Oh, god Ruby not you to…"

"Okay… it's official." Hex said eyeing her leader.

"What's official?" Nova asked quite scared.

"You're wearing that for the rest of the day."

"WHAT?! FUCK NO! I am changing right now!"

"Oh no, you're not…" Weiss snickered as she froze his old clothes solid, thus forcing the dragon to unwillingly wear a skirt all day.

"Legs…for…days…" was all Yang could utter as they walked down the streets of Vale. Despite the copious amounts of clothing that they bought for Nova, they had no bags. This was courtesy of Hex's hyper-compressed storage cubes. The look on the cashier's face when she shrunk four bags of clothes into a tiny cube then strolled out the store was priceless.


Nova felt his scroll vibrate in his jacket pocket signaling he had a notification. He pulled it out and observed it curiously.

"Hey, guys I got a text from Ozpin."

Everyone stopped in their tracks looking at him curiously. "Oz wants me to pick up semi-liquid dust... Wait does dust even come in liquid?"

Weiss flinched, "Not exactly, it's semi-liquid because it's essentially extremely powdered dust. The dust crystals are ground into a powder so small that it flows like liquid and is dispersed easier than ashes since they can't stick to inorganic material."

"Why have I never heard of this before?" Blake asked curiously, wondering why only the SDC heiress was aware of it.

"That's because it's highly illegal, due to its extremely light density, if a person were to inhale it, the dust goes straight to their bloodstream and diffuses like a drug. Inhaling the raw stuff gives people hallucinations like a type of high. Why would Ozpin need such a dangerous substance?" Weiss explained.

"It says here it's for my mom. She needs it to work with the nanomachines." Nova confirmed checking the follow-up message.

"Oh that makes sense, the dust particles are small enough to bond on a cellular level with the nanomachines and Nova's blood. She must need it to formulate the cure." Luna realized bringing attention to the fact that she inherited her mother's genius.

Ruby ruffled the smaller girl's hair, "That still doesn't explain why he's asking you for it." she pointed out. "How does he expect you to acquire black market goods. It's not like you're friends with a crime lord…"

Luna and Nova looked at each other awkwardly.

"You're kidding…"

"The real question is how Ozpin knows that I am." he replied with a head tilt.

"The all-powerful Wizard of Oz knows all." Hex said waving her hand in the air.


The group of girls wandered into the slums of Vale. One would think it would be the last place a group of pretty girls would want to be walking in alone, especially two Princesses and an Heiress. But they would be wrong since anyone who would have the unfortunate experience of approaching them would probably end up crippled at best.

Once they all reached a familiar crossroads, Nova and Luna stopped.

"Guys, why are we stopping?" Ruby asked nervously.

"NOIR! COME OUT HERE!" Nova screamed out causing everyone to flinch from the sudden increase in volume.

They waited a few moments. "Nothing's happ-" Weiss started but faltered when she saw a horrifyingly tall man with a hunched over stature, in a black trenchcoat and plague doctor's mask, emerging from the shadows of the same alleyway as the night Nova met him. The way the coat wrapped around his figure made him look inhuman.

"To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?" came his rat-like voice. He rested heavily on his cane and they could see several armed men in suits pulling up behind him.

"Stuff it Noir. It's me, without the mask this time. Or have you forgotten the one person you're indebted to?" Nova placed his hands on his hips staring down the older man. One could see his wrinkled eyes widen behind his mask as recognition dawned upon his face.

"Alexandrite? Well… this is a pleasant surprise. I thought you were a man? Your disguise was much cleverer than I'd imagined."

"I am a man. This is just an unfortunate accident." Nova said gesturing to himself. "I'm going to cut straight to the chase. I need semi-liquid dust."

Mortus began to chuckle, "And why would you need that? And who're your friends? The only one I know is the Schnee."

Everyone else visibly flinched. "Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Hex, Blake and you already know my sister Luna" he introduced them in order much to everyone's horror.

"Should you be giving a shady guy like this our names so easily?!" Weiss asked in alarm.

"It's fine. He won't harm you now that he knows you're with me. Right Mortus Noir? Underground King of the Rats?" Nova said stepping forward and staring up at the man.

The man's wrinkled eyes went up in what one could assume was a smile, "Indeed Mister Lucius. I do honor my debts. So… why do you need the dust?"

"I need it to work on a cure for changing my body back. I know you can deliver so have a crate delivered to Beacon Academy. You shouldn't have a problem with that right?" Nova asked, his voice all business with no room for argument. Even as a girl he was just as commanding as when he was a man.

"Very well… will that be all your highness?" He asked mockingly.

"Yes..."

Mortus chuckled, he'd been expecting this visit for some time. Within seconds Nova felt his scroll vibrate, a contact had been updated with speed dial.

"What's this for?" Nova asked curiously as he observed the new contact labeled MR.

Everyone peered into the scroll bewildered, why would an infamous crime lord give a kid his contact number? Did he want to be constantly pestered for favours?

"I get the feeling you might need my help again in the near future..." He said almost ominously.

"Uh... thanks Noir... I know I our debt still stands but... I feel like I should repay you in some way..."

Noir held up his hands, "I will accept no acts of charity. My debt to you can't be repaid so easily. Besides, I… it's no longer a point of debt. My prince."

Nova gaped and everyone else felt a shock reverberate through their bodies. "How did you…"

But he was already gone, the only evidence he was there was the lingering stench.


I tried getting work done today and all I came up with was the void so I did the only thing I could when I was in a rut, and that was write. I hope you enjoy the early chapter because the next one won't be out til Friday.

I sat down and mapped all the plot points from here to the end of volume 6. This fic may very well go over 50 chapters... maybe... depends on how much content I can squeeze with the stuff I'm pulling for vol 4.