Editorial Notes: I am so sorry for the time it took to release this. I'm restructuring my writing process and believe that I can get the next chapter out in 3 months. Shout out to the wonderful Pedro Alonso Buby Huayanay Zamudio who Beta read this chapter.

️❗FanFic has a notification problem. Every 90 days the system will opt-out everyone from receiving notices. That means no chapter update, no PMs, no notifications of any kind. Can't fathom why they would program that feature in (It's like cutting the breaks out of a moving car). Anyway, you have to opt-back in.

[Account Settings - Email Opt-In - Select 'Yes']

️❗Insane schedule conflicts meant I won't be able to release this Issue (which is massive) before the end of the year. That is not fair to y'all, so I have split it into 2 roughly equal chapters (Part I & II), the first part of which you can enjoy Right now!

️❗The previous chapter (Issue 3)'s "teaser tag" was changed, though the plot point it foreshadows won't happen until Part II. It now reads: Next Time on What if Ruby was VENOM: Yang Punches Professor Goodwitch in the Face!


The Black Suit Arc

Green was the only way to describe the Emerald Forest. Majestic tall pines numbering beyond the billions, sprouting up through every inch of soil. Deep wandering roots interconnecting into a vast underground labyrinth. Forming intricate biological transit systems far more complex than anything synthetically possible. Throughout the temperate basin they spread, sending sugars and nutrients from the trees of fat reserves, down to the tiny saplings that needed it most. Acres, upon acres, upon unfathomable acres they swept across the valley. An entire verdant world breathing in and out that micro-decibel symphony of life and sensation.

The rolling greens shepherd all who'd come to live in their home. Moss tapestries decameters tall sowed themselves onto bark models. Their sweeping figures casting shade over the ferns and shrubs which could never survive an overly bounteous sun. Crawling critters big and small, unintentionally carried a divergent plethora of seeds within their fur and scales. Every which way they scampered, new forest wards sprouted up with the most unexpected flora combinations. Carnivorous predators stalked through timberlands, feasting on the diverse myriad of prey. Each kill taken, repaying the verdant trees for their endless bounty by protecting them from the insatiable plant eaters.

Even the Grimm had their place. For as long as their incalculable numbers infested the beryl groves, no logging enterprises would dare plunder paradise. The colossal pines of the Emerald Forest had stood watch over their beautiful world for centuries before. Just like they were supposed to for countless more.

*SNAP!*

Orange hungry flames clawed their way up the tall trunks. Insatiable in appetite, they devoured every forest pillar down to charcoal splinters. Dark cinders rained from above, caking the once grass green grounds in pitch-black ash. More than two-hundred thousand acres of lush timberlands were suddenly ripped from life and made fuel for the gargantuan blaze.

And still the ravenous fire coveted more, hurtling up an almost gigaton of soot as it searched for every fiber of unclaimed green. Billowing up into the night sky the smoke extinguished even starlight.

Every insect, ever bird, every creature capable of locomotion fled in blind panic! The slow were devoured. The weak and lame incinerated. The unlucky, those that ran and ran only for a change in wind or an unexpected cliff to corral them back into the inferno? Their blood was boiled, their bones cracked, their flesh melted off their very frames! Unimaginable agony nipped at the heels of every woodland creature. Even the Grimm fled for their abominable lives. Nothing was sacred to the flames.

It came from beyond the atmosphere; far above the tallest tree's reach. A superbolide spiraling down into the planet's crust, exploding with the force of a 500 kiloton bomb. Its shockwave thunder-clapped throughout the basin. Blasting apart ancient ruins, displacing entire rivers by hectometers. The terrifying force radiated kilometers out with no signs of stopping, until it crashed into the overlooking cliffs. Seismic waves tore through rock and earth as they scaled up unimaginable heights. Atop the tallest bluff, the Hunters' school was struck with such tremendous force that its very foundations cracked and crumbled. Entire classrooms were torn out, desks and all. Thrown down into the darkness below.

The destruction caused by Moon Fragment #17 (MF-17), as KASA scientists would later name it, ranked easily as the worst impact event in Vale's recorded history.

But in the charred ashy remains of a once proud forest corner, a second smaller meteor came screeching down. MF-18 was petite by comparison. Crashing down with barely a whimper, any roar of its impact was deafened by the wildfire's far louder scream. Yet, what emerged from the crater was much more abhorrent than any out of control conflagration.

A raging rat's nest of meter long tendrils pulled themselves out of the pit. Faceless twisting hydras, writhing by the hundreds of thousands, twitchedly contorted themselves in the dark noxious air. Lit up only by the falling embers, their sickly green and red flesh formed into a bulbous sludge that crested over the lip.

Any layman on our Remnant could instantly tell that its "body" was all wrong. Thicc, sloping wet tentacles swam through seemingly sentient liquid. Beaching themselves on the former forest's floor, they dragged the alien's runny mass across the planet's face. Pungent fluids leaked out from dozens of gaping orifices, each shark-toothed maw ever shifting across its fleeler's flesh. The expelled bile broiled against the red hot earth, crepitating in a painfully high pitched whine that made 'nails on chalkboards' sound angelic.

The hobby scientist could tell you that this monstrosity was an aberration to all things Oum created in our beautiful world. But the biologists, ecologists, zoologists— infact any member of the scientific community. They would rush at you! Grabbing your face, shaking your shoulders. Screaming with all their might that it just Wasn't Possible! Nothing like this should have any possibility of existing!

Millions of tiny moving.. things could be observed snaking all over the tentacle feelers. 'Red fleshy hairs on legs' was the only logical way to describe them. Each strand crawling over and under each other like a colony of frenzied fire ants. Melting in and out of the star beast's sinew, redistributing entire kilograms of mass with the comparable ease of blinking. Were they all being directed by some form of anencephaly consciousness, possibly through the use of alien pheromones or hive mind influence? Or were the individual follicles actually gifted with their own form of sentience?

It is impossible to say which hypothesis was more terrifying. Something so anatomically heathenistic could not, should not exist.

Even the Grimm followed the basic principles of anatomy. That's how they could be defeated. Weight bearing bones could be cleaved, muscles and tendons be cut. Cells could be destroyed with no fear of regeneration. But this thing. Did it even have cells to kill?

What arrangement of molecular compounds could form this living abomination? Its viscous tissue mass, wriggling and writhing in ways no terrestrial organism should ever evolve into. Gasping, half formed throats vacuumed the air into itself, sending it down tubes that snaked through its body with no rhyme or reason. Never reaching any identifiable respiration system, yet sucking up gallons of air all the same. Not once ever exhaling. The fundamental gaseous-exchange principle all life operated by was utterly spat on by this being.

It was a parasyte through and through. Straight down to whatever this thing used instead of DNA.

I̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ When its kind turns their bloodsucking gazes to our planet, what could be done to stop them?

What could eradicate what could regenerate? How could one cause system failure in an entity that had no system? How will the people of our world fight against this invincible detestation? What heroes would dare fight against the manifestation of all we do not know?!

🔥krackle

Hiszzzz Pop!🔥

fwoooOOOSSSH!🔥🔥🔥

A knobbly tree root, barely poking out of the ground, suddenly gave into the intense heat and caught ablaze beneath the creature. The Symbiote screamed in pure agony as brilliant orange flames took to it like an accelerant. Burning a great gaping hole into the thing's flesh. Expanding rapidly outward, almost in righteous pantomime of the first meteor's shockwave. The green mess flung itself onto the dirt in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames. Screaming in its species' tongue. Words older than the stars, never meant for mankind's ears, rang out through the night.

Just as it finally managed to smother itself, another root combusted behind it. The being sprang its incongruous mass away in escape, only for an additional root to ignite.

And another, and another and another! They were bursting into flames all around it. Corralling it with a converging ring of fire. Snapping faster and faster at its flammable goo.

It tried to warp its mass over the blistering oxidation, but the gravity of this planet was far too strong. The moon's pull, where it had lived for millennia, was nothing compared to this. It had grown soft, lackadaisical. And now, beset on all sides by wildfire, Remnant had the chance to purge this invader from its biosphere!

The Symbiote's many tentacles coalesced upon themselves, coiling down into an oily green globule. Beneath it, red baseball sized sacs grew with something skeletal jittering inside. As they expanded those skeletal 'somethings' became more and more pronounced. Insectoid appendages shifting through fluid filled pouches. Stretching the alien membrane to its breaking point.

In impossible synchronicity all five cysts burst as one, drenching the earth in a spray of solvents and chemical solutions not found within this heliosphere.

The fire ate them up all the same, awashing the viral beast in intensifying orange illumination.

*¡KtthUNK!*

Five meter long chitinous legs snapped out and struck into the scalding ground! Thick viscous liquid dribbled down their red hairy insectoid frames. Pooling down to the red hot earth where it sizzled, but never kindled.

Heat alone would not be enough to kill it. But the only thing that could was closing in rapidly.

The exothermic chemical processes of fire were uniquely antithetical to its species. Something about the specifics of the chemical chain reaction. The unique way that combustion tore apart molecular bonds would rend it from existence.

It was upon it, ready to burn the Symbiote down to atoms. The gelatinous lifeform crouched down on its massive spider shaped limbs, and just as the flames were about to reach its tarsal claws, it-

*Hop*

The aliens' flew over the fire with the grace of a drunk acrobat. Sailing outside the fiery ring to land in a sprawl of limbs. It seemed to take a second to dust itself off. Teetering and tottering against the planet's pull, before going very still.

Nightmarish giger muscles swelled from its leg joints, sending out tendons or veins. It was impossible to be sure which. Snaking down the tibias to tarsus and up along the femurs. The squirming tendrils that made up its globular "head" grew thick and heavy with newly created muscular.

It had evolved in mere moments! Adapting perfectly to this new planet, now unquestionably under its domain.

The Symbiote turned its gaze back around. White arachnid eyes emerging slowly from churning oily green. It looked down at the burning roots. Angry red veins cutting through the orange glow reflected in its cornea.

The creature lifted one of their hirsute limbs up into the air…

And slammed it into the earth! Dirt flew, caking the lit root. Snuffing out the flame in one swift motion.

The root was met with a tentative prod. When no embers rose the monster smashed the burnt thing to bits. Stopping on the pieces with each of its five legs.

Not much could harm them, and even less could outright kill them. But fire? That painful hellish agony it shared with almost all lifeforms in the cosmos.

Bass lips emerged at the center of its head. Exposing rows of long, yellow sharp fangs stretching up to meet its eyes.

Fire was pure suffering. Undiluted!

'And what monster would I be,' the sloshing actinism that made up the Lasher Symbiote's consciousness thought, 'if it kept that beautiful sensation all to myself?'


What if…

"I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu…takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.""

-Oppenheimer

Ruby was Venom

Issue 4. Pâro

Part I


Smoke crept in through the cracks in Beacon's castle walls. Rising through the broken stairwell. Snaking over the rubble and railings. All pooling together into a thick dark miasma ceiling. Hung barely above the gray-slate floor.

"GWAAAAAAAAAAUH!" A terrified scream reverberated down the chute as two figures blindly plummeted through the smokey well. The black-clad one coolly held her weapon (now a modified bungee cord) in one hand, while bridal carrying Yellow in the other. The blonde brawler meanwhile was clawing onto Blake with all her might. Screaming bloody murder straight into her hidden cat ears.

The falling pair shot out underneath the last layer of haze to see the ground {Just feet away!} → Shooting Up At Them!

"SHIT!"

Slitted amber eyes engorged in shock as Blake clenched her weapon's ribbon in a vice grip. Skin and fabric screamed against each other as she desperately tried to bring it taught. The scalding friction burned away at her aura. Fracturing it out into amethyst shards. Deciseconds left and she couldn't stop them!

"Gwaaaaa–AARGH! Yang grabbed the ribbon as well, shearing away at her own aura. Yellow fragments mixed with Violet as both teammates gripped their lifeline with all their strength.

Sk-KrrrreeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

SHIT!

SHIT! Yang's thoughts screamed at the tungsten-laced floor leaping up at them.

SKREEEEEEEEECH!-

*...tap…. tap….. tap..…..Tap*

Blake's toes tippy-tapped across the dense floor as the ribbon swung steadily back and forth. Its fabric groaned in protest, but it held out all the same.

Inches away from calamity, the two teen girls swayed gently in place. Both grasping their chord with vice iron grips. Their hands still alit with the power of souls.

"Holy Fuck! That was…" Yang turned up and found herself a breath away from Blake's face,
"..close".

Gold and violet intertwining fractals cascaded from above, illuminating the pair in the dark. Lilac eyes traced their fall down onto long black flowing hair. Braiding each strand in the most beautiful starlight.

Ethereal motes fell all around them in an unchoreographed dance. Twinkling off the ravennette's dark fae features, down onto the blonde's cute button nose. Enchanting, dazzling light washed over every contour and curve of their faces.

A single solitary mote, fused violet-gold, slowly twirled down to them. Coming to a float in the hair's width between their lips.

Someones' breath hitched.

And then the fractals dimmed. Leaving the two alone in total darkness…

"Do you… want to stand?" Blake asked.

"Oh yah! Yah!" Yang bounced down, "Standing's great. Everyone's always talking about how nice it is to 'sit back and relax', but I'm a stand up gal!" she blurted out, dramatically pointing a thumb at her chest.

A long unbroken quiet filled the well. Yang began anxiously rubbing the back of her head. All the while Blake's amber eyes stared unblinkingly at her.

"So um…-

"I'll check the hall," Blake quickly off marched towards the exit. "Someone could have heard that and we need to be prepared".

"That's *uh* a great idea. I'll do that too!". Holy Shit! She's intense.

The doorway was cramped. Both girls had to squeeze themselves in, bodies pressed as flat as possible to opposite halves. Neither side willing to acknowledge the other only half-an-inch away.

What the Hel was that?!

Blake's eyes lazer focused down the right path, taking in the dark corridor with stark clarity. Nothing was hidden from her feline eyes. Every bit of obstructing broken masonry was cataloged. Every stray fold or scuff mark analyzed as a potential sign of Beacon staff presence. All the details were crystal clear to her.

What the Fuck was That?!

"There's no threats on my end," Blake kept herself monotone, "How's yours?".

"My end?! It's uh…". Yang stared left down along the green emergency light stripes until they reached a closet door, only a meter away.

"It's all good here. Everything is okie dokie"

'What the Gods Damn Fuck was That?'

"I'll keep looking though… Just incase!". Her eyes traced the door's placard. Large, Times New Atlas font, spelling out Janitorial Supplies. The text, barely legible in the radioluminescent glow.

Im..Bi?

When?!

HOW?!

WHY NOW?!

"We should keep moving," Blake's voice came back from down the hall. 'Hey! What? Wait!' "The smoke hid our faces. But if another Professor grabs us, they'll confine us. Probably even expel us".

"Hold on! They can't just expel us for rescuing my sister?" Yang demanded, quickly catching up with Blake.

*shhhhh!* "Not so loud. And yes, they can. We're breaking curfew during a crysis to go on an unsanctioned mission. They have every legal right to throw the book at us".

"But-but, we're saving an innocent person from the Grimm. That's the whole point of this place!".

"In my experience, what things should be and what they are, are rarely the same". They crept up around the corner as quietly as possible. Peering down the pitch black corridor. Faint, haphazardly busted rad-guiding lights did absolutely nothing to improve illumination.

Blake pulled out her scroll, Yang wincing at the sudden light. "This is a map of the school. It doesn't have these basement corridors and maintenance tunnels, but we can still use it to guide our direction".

"Look here," she pointed at a large orange square in the upper left side. "This is the cafeteria. It's the closest building with an unobstructed shot to the Skydocks. We keep moving east towards it. There must be a kitchen elevator right below''. Her hand gestured around the map with second natured ease.

"Whoa- Wait, how are you getting reception?" Yang pulled up her own scroll's flickering half bar.

"It's just a photo. I took one of the map placard everyone walked by at the Skydocks"

"That's genius!"

"It's nothing," Blake absentmindedly curled a finger through her hair. Cute?

"You would have done the same".

"Yah….yah. I should have." Fuck. Why didn't I? Quickly learning the lay of the land is Huntressing 101.'

Her right arm twitched. She should be better than this.

'Did I let my guard down because it's Beacon? No-' her eyes blinked red, 'I should've been better. Ruby needed me to be better!'

They tore through more completely ravaged corridors, each one more desolate than the last. Large fissure cracks cut clean through the castle walls, opening their passageway up to tiny slivers of the outside world. Rubble was everywhere. Piles ceiling high painted in by the moonlight. The pair had to squeeze through jenga towers that groaned with every stray touch.

Yang followed lock-step behind Blake. Her mind a whirlwind of thoughts; her eyes catching every bounce of silky black hair…

It felt good, watching the strands refract the pale-violet moon beams. Serene river light guiding her in the dark.

You're Worthless

A pit of shame grew inside Yang. Quickly it spread its ice cold feeling, sickening thick sludge sloshed through her veins. Pushing up against her skin.

Worthless Big Sister

She felt sick. Nauseous liquid pressure twisting around her core. What was she doing?!

'Ruby's trapped in the middle of a Grimm frenzy and I'm— Checking someone out!' She clenched at her clawing arm, eyes bleeding red.

'I… don't want this' Yang thought, 'I didn't ask for this. I- don't need any of this!'

Her foot snagged on a bit of rubble.

"Motherfucker!"

"Are you Ok-

"Yes! I'm fine," Yang snapped.

She had to force her eyes back up at Blake, needing her to lead her. Gritting her teeth, she made sure to keep her thoughts on mission.

You're pathetic

Blake nimbly glided over the debris. Cool, calm and collected, she kept them on track past rows and rows of spiraling corridor entrances. Each beckoning them down endless mazes.

'I should be like that. Ruby needs someone who can keep their shit together and focus!'

'DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!' Blake silently screamed, 'One Day! You couldn't go One Fucking Day after Adam before falling for someone again'.

'What, someone tanks a gaudy pillar for you and that's enough to catch feelings?!' Blake abruptly cut them down a passageway, almost missing it in her tirade. 'I could've dodged it. I didn't need her help'.

'But she helped me, and she needs my help. A little girl needs my help'.

A human girl. I'm risking my life to save a human.

She smiled. Adam would be so disappointed.

"Bargain-bin Vergil fuck".

"What's that?"

"I said we need to swing left past these bins. It's the only path to the Cafeteria," Blake's expression never wavered. The perfect picture of professionalism.

'Just like a real Huntress' Yang thought.

Blake put her hand on the ceiling high wreckage. The end of their tunnel had completely collapsed, blocking any hope of exit.

"Step aside," Yang's gauntlet cocked. Eyes blazing, "I got this".

"No wait! It'll fall on top of us". Blake sprung inbetween!

"But-but I have to save my sister. This is the only way out!"

"We can't. It'll pull down all the floors above us".

Yang stopped in her tracks, eyes back to purple.

"We can still go through. We just have to be careful about which parts we move". Blake knelt down and began poking and prodigy the misshapen stone wall. Some parts creaked ominously. Their sounds reverberating throughout the hall.

She avoided those.

Yang knelt down next to her and together they carefully removed the rocks one at a time. Slowly, a tiny pile of stones built up beside them.

I'm coming sis. Just hold on.

Please…


Thick, noxious, abyssal black. It crept over Patch's green hills, suffocating everything in their path. Giant voluminous cloudbeds rolled down the slopes, clinging to every blade of grass. A gutted Grimm let out its last breath of life, dissolving into dark vapors that joined the midnight mantle.

Ruby stumbled out of the haze gasping for air. Lungs that never fully developed wheezed pitifully. Throwing her in and out of consciousness.

Her body was raked raw with injuries. Lumps of flesh missing from all over. Her legs could barely stand. The patchwork of alien muscles that kept them up was dissolving away into white powder flakes.

'Come on Ruby look. Your house is there. At the bottom of the hill!' the Venom Symbiote encouraged.

'Just kill that last Grimm and we're home free'.

Grimm?

Her mind ponderously rolled her eyes down left towards the sounds of yapping. A small Beowolf was held by the neck, constantly snapping at her hand.

When did I?…

'You can do this Ruby. You're strong. You're the strongest person I know!'

Klyntar claws shot out of her nails! Extending into the flesh of that monster. With a satisfying *Crunch!* she made mincemeat of its spinal column.

'You're Amazing! We did it. We're home!'

It came out from the ink-tinged mist! An alpha Beowolf gigantic in size, hunting the little human. Watching… Waiting for when she was weakest. When she finally had hope.

Quarter foot fangs clamped down on her right arm! Before she even knew it she was on the ground. Feeling it biting through with a horrific—

*CrrRUNCH!*

Deep, sickening pain must have exploded through the dustling's mind. Bones shattered, flesh ripped. And the human thing in front of it screamed and screamed and screamed.

The Alpha enjoyed the agony. And with a powerful twist of its head it

Ripped Her Fucking Arm Off!


Yang kept her eyes locked forward as she moved another piece of rubble out of her way. Her arms had become a patchwork of oozing blood, electing to save her aura for when they finally got to Patch.

Her hands clenched down on the rock she was pulling out. With it gone, their passageway had a diameter of half a foot.

Mother fucker! she swore. It had been almost an hour and she was Still Stuck In Beacon! She needed to be on Patch. Gods Damn It All!

'You know what Grimm do to people they find all alone,' her mind darkly whispered.

"no…" Yang whimpered. Blake turned her head in concern.

They take their time. Causing all the agony they can. And right now, they've all the time in the world with your little sis.

Yang crushed the piece of stone in her hand. She could hear it. The crunching of Ruby's bones. The tearing apart of her flesh. Her screaming as they tore her apart limb from limb. Gods she could hear the screaming.

"Yang, are you ok?"

Her arm spammed. She was hyperventilating.

*skerrekt*

And the wall still was still fucking here!

Her semblance exploded. She cocked back her fists and blasted apart everything that didn't look load bearing!

*BANG!*

*BANG!*

*BANG!*

"YANG STOP!"

She blasted a path in between the rubble. One wide enough just to squeeze through. And….the structure held.

Yang let out a loud sigh of relief.

"Get Down!"

Blake tackled Yang into a fissure crack in the wall. Bodies pressed on top of each other.

Gods damn it!

"What are you doing!?"

"Stay down!"

*skererrt—kt*

Something was there in the dark! She could hear it behind them getting closer. *skererrt – krrt-krt-kt*

It was coming. Every second getting louder and Louder! She looked at the exit gap. They'd never make it through in time!

*SKErerr kt-RI*

Tiny bits of broken tiles began bouncing around. Faster and faster! Whatever it was, it was humongous.

*SKErerr-RIEck-ki-kieK*

A massive machine of pure chrome raced down the corridor. Magnetic feet and claw shaped appendages scramble-danced in sync in front of powerful belted-treads. Scooping up whatever rubble was in its path as a gigantic red eye, placed atop a comically thin neck, swept over every knock and cranny.

The Cleaner-Droid ate up everything in its path, no matter the size. Its oculus constantly searching for even the slightest irregularity. Beeps-boops echoed out as sensory data was rapidly translated into a series of 1s and 0s for computation. Snaking the data through exposed copper wires back to a strange red-purple striped antenna coarsely affixed on its back-That's a transceiver!' Blake thought.

The bionic eye snapped around the corridor. Synthetic technobabble echoed throughout as it cycled between its many visual spectrums. Infrared… Ultraviolet…Thermal Imaging. Blake and Yang had nowhere further to squeeze. Barely protected by a foot high fractal.

'I know that antenna,' Blake thought, 'I've used them before!' Memories filled her of a time with c̶o̶m̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶ suturing them to unstable dust. Multiple antennas all linking together to form an CCTS-independent cloud network.

'Its transmitting everything it sees,' Blake thought with rising apprehension. 'Incursing Grimm, structural weakness, even us. Especially us'. She clenched her fist.

'Everyone carrying a receiver can use it to find us. They'll know where we are. Who we are!'

The giant eyeball's "pupil" widened, swallowing its Red iris nearly up to the rim. Every spare bit of processing power was now lock-focused on one horizontally long foot-high piece of debris near the cracked wall that its sensors clocked at an elevated temp.

Its neck extended, coming closer and closer to the girls' hiding spot. Loud *ku-thinc kssssssssss* marked each segment shift on the telescopic neck. Its bionic eyeball coming nearer. Its presence looming larger. The lens, capable of detecting motion range in nanometers, searching for any irregularities.

And then, it just abruptly retracted.

The droid made a sharp 2-point turn, speeding off down the corridor it came. Leaving behind what the data showed was an empty hallway.

…Blake kept gripping her shard of ice dust even as her fingers went numb. Carefully, she extracted herself before reaching back for Yang.

"Th-thanks," she said through chattering teeth. The Ravenette pocketed the slightly melted dust and brushed herself off.

"What was that?"

"A jury rigged security system. A back up, in case the main one gets taken offline". She glanced up at one of the many broken cameras they had passed thus far. This one had its lens shattered.

"Guess that blast was way way worse than we thought," Yang realized.

"We should go. There will be more, and if we get caught like that again…" Blake looked at her partner.

"I-I'm sorry"

Blake nodded and began squeezing herself through the gap. Yang followed suit, the walls groaning dangerously. Threatening to collapse in on her.


In an Alternate (Alternate) World of Remnant

Ruby Rose sat on her bed safe at home. Silver crutches propped within reach. But she wouldn't be needing them for what awaited her next. No, all she needed was her scroll. Because any second now Yang would call and tell her all the wonderful things that happened on her first day at Beacon!

The drop off at the skydocks… had gone okay-ish. Dad couldn't find parking and missed the entire send off {She would be having words with him}. But aside from that, the whole thing went super-duper. Yang was all smiles the entire time.

Even if some felt a little forced.

It was just her imagination. What could she be upset about? She was off to Beacon! The school of heroes. People were finally gonna see how super-special-awesome she was!

Ruby hugged her scroll in excitement. She just couldn't wait to tell Mom. Oh she would be so proud!

Well, maybe she could wait. Just a tiny bit. Dad hated didn't like her going alone, even with Arnie. And Signal work + Huntsman work probably meant that he'd only be free for a bit on Saturday.

But that was ok! Best to let Yang experience as much of Beacon as possible before she went. Then she'd have so many cool things to talk about with Mom.

7:20 pm

A cataclysmic boom echoed throughout Patch. Responding immediately, Ruby's Atlas Knight "Arnie" took action. By 7:22 it had stowed its charge in their house's Grimm shelter and was now contacting the family to let them know she was safe and sound.

Their shelter was built to survive a Level 10 Grimm event. Ruby's safety, to the relief of Yang and her father, was immutable.


It was all her fault.

Yang followed Blake through the corridor box canyon. Walls jittering at her every accidental brush. Threatening to cave in.

It's all her fault.

She would follow Blake. She knew what she was doing. She would lead her to Ruby.

Ruby's already dead.

"No.." she whispered. "no no no no no…

And it's all your fault.

End of Pâro Part 1!

To be continued in Pâro Part 2…


A.N.

No excuses, this took too long, but I have the outline for Part II finished and I'm getting to work on the draft ASAP. I want to drop a chapter every 3 months at the least. My beta reader Pedro Alonso Buby Huayanay Zamudio is helping speed things along, but ❗more beta readers can only help. If you join, you'll get chapters and plot details months in advance (Albeit a little rough around the edges).

Meta-Notes: The romantic attraction between Yang and Blake was what stalled this chapter the longest. I had to get that right or else. Not having a chance to write for Blake before this 'Do or Die' crysis sucked. Not getting to write a 'Day in the life of "Teen Yang"' sucked just as bad. I know why writers go slow in the first few chapters to introduce their characters. It's not just for the audience's benefit. Y'all have already watched RWBY, you've been introduced to the cast and setting. In theory we could take off running, but I was inexperienced writing Blake's and Yang's dynamic. After 10+ drafts, dozens of different outlines and character sheets and close to 5 months of non-stop writing, I am confident to say I have the experience necessary going forward.


Reviews: Your reviews lets me keep my finger on your pulse. If I'm allowed to get to know my audience then I won't spend months second guessing myself. So please review. And, if you ask a question about the story in the review board I will PM you an answer back ASAP!

Gogmazios: Glad you love the story. Hope to keep the love strong.

JHcola: Humbly accept the god emperor of mankind's praise.

firewyrm2: So about not putting Yang through any more distress… Yah, suffice to say things aren't looking too bright for her. But it's always darkest before the dawn… hopefully. She really needs a win 👍

emap7070: I am deeply humbled by your proclamation and hope to reach it.

I would love to have you join my beta reader(s). I tried to PM you about this shortly after Issue 3 dropped, but seems to be having issues with sending out notifications.

Kolomte'49: Young Yang was a dark scene to write. I hated every moment in that monochrome room.

Blake, when push comes to shove, wants to do the right thing. She wants to be a hero. I hope this chapter (and the next one) did/do their jobs revealing her compelling motivation for her recent actions.

Monster King: Request heard! Sorry it took so long 🙏

TooBad69: I'm glad you like the story. I try to keep the quality control up to the exceptional standards this far. Regrettably, this is time consuming. Fortunately, I have a much more intimate understanding of Blake and Yang's characters and motivations. Issue 4 pt. II should come out within the 3 month time frame. I also have a beta reader now, so I can stop shouting my ideas into the void