Yang watched in horror as her arm fell from her body. She sank to her knees and clutched at the bloody stump with her robotic one as the blood began to spray from her severed arteries. Adam stood in front of her, the smug bastard.
Yang tried to raise her other arm to fire when he thrust his sword through the palm and destroyed the internal shotgun.
"How well did that go?" he gloated while he slowly strode around to her now armless left side, his blade kicking up sparks and flames as he scratched it against the stone floor showering the wound in fire.
Yang barely felt her arm being cut off but the burns made her scream as she collapsed to her side. "How can you be so damn useless? No wonder your own mother wanted nothing to do with you." Adam jeered as he kept circling her.
Yang tried to get back up but when she did a boot crashed hard into her back. Sending her back to the floor. "Your own mother abandons you and then your next mother up and dies because she can't stand being around you and your broken fucking father." He sneered.
Yang looked up and saw Summer looking down at her. Her face was twisted in disgust and shame. "Why out of all the sisters did my daughter have to be related to you and your wretched mother".
All of Adam's barbs and jeers had been enraging but Summer, hearing her say that, broke Yang's very core. She curled into a ball and clutched at her bloody stump of a left arm and cried as she heard the voices of her team one by one starting with Weiss. "It's a damn good thing Ruby has me for a partner because she certainly couldn't rely on you!"
Ruby was next " You should have just stayed at home with dad, now you're just a liability." Ruby's tone was gentle but that made them sting more, she was trying to hide her anger, she was trying to be nice to someone she didn't want around.
Yang braced herself for Blake to speak but was given silence. "Don't worry about her" Adam gloated. "She'll find her way back to me, she always does, you know this isn't the first time she's run away. Last time I had to kill like nine people before I was able to convince her that she was meant to be by MY side and nobody else's."
Yang felt her vision clouding from blood loss as her body went cold. She managed to weakly look up to see Blake clinging to Adam side with a look of shame either at being back with or for having left him Yang couldn't tell.
Adam looked like that cat who ate the canary as he drew his sword and swung it in a large downward arc straight for Yang's face.
…
Yang lurched awake swinging her arm into a blocking pose, almost smashing Jaune in the face while he was trying to shake her.
Yang's eyes adjusted to the darkness and reached for her left arm, finding it still attached and warm from her blood flow she started to cry. Yang tried to turn away from Jaune but he wouldn't let her snaking his arms around her and pulling her close as she instinctively wrapped her arms around him and her legs around his.
Yang knew she was vulnerable right now and she knew that she should be careful of what she did right now but Jaune's arms felt safe. Maybe it was the warmth they gave off, maybe it was how they felt strong but not crushingly so.
Yang buried her face into his shirt and cried. She kept crying for a minute until she was able to bring herself back to reality. When she looked up she saw him looking down at her clearly worried about her. "It happens some nights," she said. "Some are worse than others."
"You can talk about it," Jaune told her in an even but firm voice.
Yang knew what he was doing. He chose his words carefully, probably part of the training Glynda no doubt gave him to help with Nora's nightmares. He hadn't asked if she wanted to talk about it because she didn't. They told her she was allowed to and left the implication that she should out there for her to pick up.
She knew what he was doing but all the same it worked. "It's Adam, he," Yang stopped for a moment to steady herself from the jarring memory, "he cut my other arm off."
Jaune slightly tightened his grip on her for a moment if only to remind her that she was safe. Yang felt herself still shaking, she wanted to tell him the rest but she wasn't sure she should. That last thing they needed was doubt and that was pretty much all she brought to the table right now.
"I need some air," Yang said slowly, getting out of bed and heading for the backyard. Jaune, probably still tired, rolled back over in bed and went back to sleep.
Yang silently walked through the house glad that it was late since it meant she was alone. Once outside she heard someone follow her and thought it was Jaune. "I just need some…"
She turned to see Oscar standing in the doorway with the dart gun on his hip. "You and I need to talk." he motioned to a set of chairs and the implication of what would happen if she refused was obvious.
Yang opted to humor him and sat down in the chair she liked better. She also turned on the bluetooth locator for her scroll that was located in her arm and hoped Jaune was kind enough to bring it to her.
"I don't trust you" oscar said bluntly
"And why do I need your trust?" Yang asked in an equally blunt tone.
"Because whether you two admit it or not my father seems to like you and you seem to like him." Oscar said, leaning back in his chair a little. "Which brings us back to me not trusting you."
"I have no intention of breaking Jaune's heart, I don't understand why everyone keeps saying that" Yang snapped annoyed at the repeated insinuations
"Either way, I just need you to know that if you ever hurt I will find a way to make you sorry for it, I don't care how long it takes," as Oscar spoke Jaune appeared in the doorway holding Yang's buzzing scroll stopping when he heard what was being said. "I don't care what it costs me" Oscar drew the dart gun and pointed it at Yang making Yang more than a little nervous. She had survived one dart but that might be a different mix since they mostly used them to stop Nora and Nora was getting resistant.
Oscar seemed like he was about to pull the trigger, most likely to sedate Yang as a way of proving how serious he was when Jaune reached over him and grabbed the gun, yanking it away from him and also ripping part of the barrel off in the process.
Yang could see in Jaune's eyes that he was beyond mad, Yang knew anger, and Jaune was livid. Oscar's eyes went wide in shock as Jaune grabbed him by his collar and all but hoisted him into the air. "Yang, I think JR. and I need to have a talk, could you give us the yard please."
Yang was wondering if Oscar was about to get beaten half to death but opted not to ask as she headed inside and left Jaune to deal with his son.
…
Yang watched from her hiding spot in the hallway until she saw Oscar return into the house with his head hung low in shame. She expected him to return to the RWBY room but instead he went up the stairs in the direction of the JNPR room.
She wondered about that but she also knew that Jaune had her scroll so she headed for the backyard. It was a crisp night but it had begun to snow by the time she went out to find Jaune hunched over in the chair under the awning.
"I wanted to hurt him," Jaune said when he heard her behind him. "I wanted to beat him until he was too sore to walk" Yang was pretty sure she knew where this was going but she kept quiet to see. "But I also know that hurting him would only hurt me more."
Yang sat down next to Jaune and rested a hand on his shoulder." I grounded him, he isn't going to be leaving the JNPR room for anything other than the bathroom and showers for a week." Jaune turned to face her. "Am I supposed to feel bad about that, he did something stupid and that needed punishment so why do I feel like I did something wrong?"
Yang smirked and said. "Because he is your son, and you don't like punishing your children. You're a good man Charlie Brown" Yang said having a thought, hesitating for a moment then leaning in and kissing Jaune's cheek and calmly walking inside.
…
Salem wallowed in her castle in despair, the gods were never going to return. She was never going to die, she was to be forever apart from her love. Her misery had drawn more grim to her and they in turn had made sure she was less likely to see anyone.
That was good though, she didn't want to see people anyway, right.
Hello everyone, some of you may have noticed that this chapter was shorter than normal, well there is a very simple reason for that. I now have a job that runs good hours, so I am not able to write as much as normal. don't worry I will still be posting every week at the longest, but it just might take me longer to tell the full story.
As always if you want to get my writing a week early among a few other things you can find that on my account (still getting used to saying that). Either way, thank you for reading and God Bless.