Yang screamed as she was dragged deeper into the darkness. She writhed desperately as her back scrapped against the stone and her hair caught on rocks and dirt.
It scratched and bled her, aura gone completely. She screamed until her throat ran raw.
She kicked out with her left foot, bashing it against the skull of the Ursa as it clamped around her right didn't give so much as a grunt of pain and sank its teeth in deeper.
A strangled gasp left Yang as it reached the bone, and it splintered under the strength of its jaws.
Her mind cried out as she sobbed painfully.
She was going to die.
She was going to die she was going to die she was going to die.
She didn't st[p struggling, hoping that by some miracle it would give up if it was hurt enough. But she knew better. Grimm never let go of their prey, killing was worth more than their lives.
And it was going to kill her.
She was dragged deeper and deeper, the Ursa thrashing its head back and forth as she tried desperately to escape. He body was like a rag doll, with only one arm she couldn't keep herself stable and was bashed on the rocks of the caverns.
Yang could barely see in front of her now, nothing but the glow for coal-burning red eyes, and the drop behind it.
Her breath quickened, she was hyperventilating now. If she went over the edge she was dead.
She kicked and screamed and punched as had as she could but it was useless. This Ursa was shrugging it off like it was nothing.
Qrow's words echoed in her mind. The Grimm here were far stinger than anything she'd faced before.
She let out a wretched sob. She wasn't going to kill it. Wasn't going to stop it from dragged her down to her-
She gasped, the twisted, horrible idea coming to the forefront of her mind.
She didn't have time to doubt it. She didn't even have time to think.
Yang raised her fist; she only had one part of Ember Celica now.
But it would be enough.
She cocked it back.
And drove it down, not into the Ursa.
But her own leg.
She choked on her pain, the new sensation of agony rocketing through every nerve she had. The shotgun blast has torn out a chunk of her kneecap, spurting blood everywhere and splintering bone.
Her auraless body had no way to stop or even heal it.
She did it again.
She screamed with a newfound voice as another chunk of flesh and bone was blown off. She'd bitten down on her tongue and blood was leaking from her mouth. But it didn't even register compared to the feeling in her leg.
She sobbed louder and did it again. And again and again and again.
She couldn't even bear to look at it; the messy shrew of bloodied and beaten flesh that was her leg. It was hanging on by threads, if the Ursa pulled hard enough it might just take her leg before it reached the edge.
She couldn't take that chance.
She slammed her head back, trying to dull her consciousness in an effort to ignore the pain.
Yang screamed out in pain and anger as Ember Celica came down one last time, separating her knee from her body in a hail of gory red and white splitters..
The Grimm didn't notice, and with the significant decrease in bodyweight to pull on it tripped as it tugged back, stumbling and rolling messily. It fell off the side of the cliff and it roared the whole way down.
Yang didn't even have a moment to breathe. She was still skidding down, her momentum on the uneven ground carrying her the rest of the way.
Whatever adrenaline that surged through what was left of her body was enough for her to twist on to her front and claw desperately at the ground with her remaining hand. Her fingers gave way to earth and stone, and in turn the earth and stone gave way.
There was a sickening churn in her stomach as the ground suddenly vanished beneath her stomach. In one last desperate grab for her life, she reached out and clamped down on the edge of the cliff.
There was a wretch, like a rubber band being snapped as she flamed into its face.
But she stopped.
There was a second of ragged breaths as yang dangled from the underground cliff with one arm. She was alive. She just had to pull herself u-
Her vision blurred, her head began to spin. She coughed up blood and spit as her heartbeat rang in her ear.
"No." she gasped out. "No, no, no."
She'd lost too much blood. She was losing consciousne-
Her fingers slipped as the strength she was known for left her body.
She didn't even have the energy to scream as she fell into the abyss.
I'm dead.
The thought was a soft one, filled with none of the panic she'd felt just half a second before,
She knew it now. Nothing she could do would save her, and no one was here to save her.
She was going to die. She hadn't seen the bottom. Maybe the fall would kill her. Maybe it would be the Grimm at the bottom. She might just expire from a lack of blood.
Maybe that would be a peaceful death. She might find out.
Her eyes drifted shut for a moment, opening, closing as she lost more and more of her alertness.
All she could hear was a ringing and the sound of her own heart.
Her eyes opened again and like she always did, she saw hallucinations.
It was a shape, a person in red and black reaching out to her as she fell.
She couldn't see who, her sight was too hazy for that, but she could tell she was falling because the wind whipped at her back as she did.
The shape got closer, closer.
There was a pull as it reached for her, but that didn't make sense, it wasn't real.
Yang barely felt the rough stop, or the roll as the figure used their own body to shield hers as they hit the ground. She didn't feel the stop or the sensation of moving in a different way than before. She heard the growling of Grimm though, and she saw a flash of red.
Was… was someone actually here?
Ruby?
The flash of red moved, cutting through shadows by the dozens as they threatened to search her. Yang watched it all like a dream. She… was lying on her side. Why was she lying down?
Something shook, there was a flash of orange and heat. What was that.
And… voices. The red and black figure was facing something. Someone, in white.
"Stay back… who are… do you want…"
"You have to trust…I … save…"
They were… speaking. What were they saying?
"I… take her… keep her alive and…. Where you can't…."
"No!"
"Trust me… my word."
The red figure that had made the heat turned to Yang. Its head was white. No, that wasn't its head. It was... a Grimm mask.
Yang could barely keep herself awake now, but…there was something familiar about them.
It had glowing eyes.
And then there was nothing.
…
…
"Yang!" Ruby cried, falling to her knees as she scratched uselessly at the cave Yang had been dragged into. The entrance had caved not seconds after and blocked Ruby from following.
"No, no, no, no, no please Yang." she choked. Her fingernails scratched on the stones as she tried to dig her way through like an animal, but she didn't have the strength for that.
All she was, was a child, clawing desperately after her sister.
"Help me!" she shouted over her shoulder to her team, who followed her into the massive hole. They looked horrified, agonised even.
Good, then they'd help.
She dug her fingers into the cracks of the rubble, any openings she could find to heave the rocks away.
"Ruby," her uncle said. "You need to stop."
What? Stop? Why?"
She didn't, and Qrow took a step forward.
"It's already too late Ruby," No, he wasn't saying that. "By this time Yangs already…"
He was. He was saying that!
"Help me!" she cried.
The wretch in her voice jolted her teammates into action, and they hurried to take hold of any loose pieces they could find. If they could open up the entrance they could follow.
"Ruby stop." Qrow said again, he voice dipping into a growl.
No, she wouldn't stop. This was her fault. The beowolf had gone for her, like it was meant to, all because of her Avatar. She hadn't been paying attention, she'd been stupid. No… more than that she'd been unlucky. This was to do with Qrow just as much as her.
And it had been Yang who had suffered.
He barked the order out again but she didn't even listen, didn't even perceive what it was he was saying. She had to save Yang, she needed to save her sister!
A shoulder latched around her shoulder roughly and yanked her away she stumbled back and fell, looking up at Qrow in shock. Weiss and Blake froze.
"I said stop!"
"No!" she screeched, voice high and frantic.
He grit his teeth. "She's gone Ruby. She's not coming back. We need to leave, now."
Leave? As in go back to Beacon without her.
She felt growl escape her throat and shook her head. "No." she said with finality. "Not without Yang."
"Ru-"
"I'm not going to abandon her again!" she screamed, voice cracking. Qrow looked taken aback by the girl's volume.
Or maybe it was the rage in her eyes directed right at him.
Like a blade through the chest.
"You can hate your sister all you want," she snarled. "But don't project your issues onto my sister." She turned back to the entrance, digging with her hands again.
Qrow made to step forward, but froze when the heiress and Faunus let their hands fall to their weapons. The warning was clear.
The grizzled Huntsman stared at them. "You do realise by the time you find her she'll be dead don't you? I've seen this before Ruby… you can't get your hopes up on this. The Grimm don't stop."
"Then we'll-" her voice cracked. "Then we'll bring back her body."
Qrow shook his head in disbelief. Sheer disbelief in what he was hearing, the naivety, or maybe the foolishness. He checked his scroll. There was still no signal. He sighed. he hadn't been in this situation before.
But it had been close.
"I'm going back," he told them. "I'm bringing back transport. It might take days to prepare everything… I'll give you three days."
Ruby's shoulders stiffed, but she'd heard him.
"That's what it'll take for a bullhead to bring medical supplies. If you haven't found Yang after three days-"
"Then we'll keep looking." She snapped, unwilling to hear any of it.
"Ozpin won't let you stay out in a place like this-"
"Fuck Ozpin!" the silver-eyed warrior gnashed. "Fuck him and his lies and everything to do with him! I won't lose more of my family because of him!"
There was silence, all to be heard was the sound of fingers working way on stone. Then, the sound of footsteps, slowly retreating. Ruby knew the fluttering of wings would follow.
She didn't stop digging. She wouldn't she'd find Yang. They'd have to drag her away to stop her.
"Ruby?"
Her head snapped to her partner, who looked at her with concern.
"You... still have blood on your face."
Oh… right. Yang's blood had… she'd forgotten. The Reaper grabbed the edge of their cloak and wiped her face. The red speaking into it.
"I-I'm fine Weiss. We… we just need to…"
Blake rested her hand on her shoulder. "We'll find her Ruby. We won't stop until we do."
Right… of course. They cared about Yang too. They wouldn't abandon her or her sister. They wouldn't end up like her uncle's team.
They wouldn't end up like team STRQ.
…
…
When Yang came to, she was met with the sight of a bright light.
The first thought she had was to question whether or not she was dead, but, no, she was sure the headache she was experiencing wasn't something that transferred over to the afterlife.
It would really suck if it did.
The second was realised she'd been laid out on a table.
Not a wooden table but a table-table. As it a rectangular, white one they used in labs.
Was she in a morgue?
No, that wasn't right. Looking around she could see screens and boards with diagrams pinned to them.
Lab it was then.
But why was she here?
She looked down at herself and frowned.
There was a white sheet over her chest and draping over her whole body and she could feel… she wasn't in her clothes. She was in some sort of hospital gown.
Who had taken her clothes off while she was asleep? Who had dressed her while she was asleep.
Wait… where was she again? What had she been doing before?
The blonde groaned and made to sit up, pushing herself up with her arm.
She didn't move.
Or, she did, raising her body up, but falling back when she had nothing to lean on.
Her breath quickened. She reached over with her left arm and tore back the sheet.
Her eyes fell to where her arm should have been. Where her leg should have been.
They weren't.
She bit down on her lip so hard she drew blood and her eyes burned with tears that threatened to spill over.
She'd lost her arm. She'd lost her leg.
Her two right limbs were gone, wrapped in white bandages but doing nothing to hide the reality.
They were gone.
A scream built up in the back of her throat but she stopped it down.
She wouldn't cry.
She couldn't scream.
E-everything… was g-going to be fine. She-
She tried to sit up again using her good arm but she pulled at tubes she hadn't realised were there, latched onto her arm. The stand on her left fell over and hit the flow with a deafening crash in the otherwise silent room.
Her chest tightened. She couldn't even sit up. She was useless, less than useless. What was she going to do? What was she supposed to do now!? Her life was over!
There was a second crash.
She flinched, but froze when the sudden shuffling of feet could be heard.
In front of her was a door, like, a plain regular door, and out of it a man with a stack full of messy papers in his arms. He saw her and his eyes widened.
Or, eye. The other was a red glowing light.
"Ah you're awake. Thank goodness, I was beginning to worry."
She blinked. "Um… who are you?"
Just looking at him was an experience. He had messy, sporadic white hair, moustache and beard. Not only that, but with an overly large white lab coat, he looked… kind of goofy. Like a cartoon character.
"Oh!" he gasped in an overly cheerful voice, or, not overly cheerful so much as airy, as if he was some kind of clown. "Where are my manners? I am Doctor Merlot. I'm sure you're confused about the situation so please let me know if you want to know anything, but more importantly, what do you last remember?"
She frowned. "I…"
What was the last thing she remembered?
It didn't happen like in the movies; there weren't flash of memories followed by a headache that revealed the truth like some sort of slideshow, but something did trickle at the back of her mind.
More like feelings rather than memories, but accompanied by images.
Dread and fear, an Ursa. Desperation and despair, darkness and falling.
Shock and relief… and a woman in red.
Yang looked around. "There was a woman. She saved my life. Do you know where she is?"
The doctor huffed. "I'd like to think I had a part in saving your life also, being the one to stop you from bleeding out."
"S-sorry," she laughed nervously. She made a motion of scratching the back of her head as she did it, only to realise again she'd tried it with her right arm. The one that was missing. Something wretched at her heart and she looked away from the stump. "A-anyway…yeah, know you help, but… do you know who she was?"
Merlot didn't comment on her sudden dampened mood even if it was clear to see, instead, he shrugged his shoulders and turned to one of the boards surrounding the room.
"I'm not sure to be honest. She wore a mask you see, and her voice was muffled. She was a Huntress though, that I could tell by the scores for Grimm she'd slaughtered protecting your body. SHe vanished shortly after however."
"Really? I don't remember that." Yang admitted.
"I don't expect you to," he laughed. "You were already dipping in and out of consciousness when I arrived but there were a lot of Grimm corpses. I would have been saddened by all the specimens she destroyed if it wasn't for you there."
"Me?" she blinked. "Well I guess that makes sense, human life and all that."
"Hm? Oh, yes, that too but more you specifically."
What was that supposed to mean?
Merlot must have seen the question on her face because he suddenly looked as confused as her.
"Your abilities," he tried to explain, for all the good it did. "It's not often you find someone with the rare talent to-"
Whatever else he said was lost to her as the voices returned. The whispering and the screaming all sounded the same now, it was so loud it had her gripping her head with her good hand, she clenched her teeth and shut her eyes. Her pills; she needed her pills.
She looked out over the room desperately in search of her things, her pill should with her clothes, they had to be.
There! Just on her right in arms reach were what was left of her outfit and weapon. The pills just next to them. She sighed in relief, reaching over to take them-
Only for them to be snatched out of her reach.
"Ah, ah now!" Merlot chastised with a wagged of his finger. "We can't have you taken these."
Her eyes widened. "Give them to me!" she gasped frantically. "I need them."
"No you don't." he refused in a calm voice, as if he knew exactly what he was talking about.
She reached out again, trying to snatch them out of his hand. He just took a step back, and when Yang tried to follow her lack of an arm or leg had her falling off the table.
She landed painfully on her right side and rolled onto her front.
There was a pause. An embarrassed sort of awkwardness and Yang tried to pull herself up using the table as leverage. she managed to get back onto the table again, but it looked like the heat had gone out, leaving her to stare at her missing leg silently.
Doctor Merlot had the decency to look guilty and cleared his throat.
"As I was saying," he coughed. "You don't need these."
"I do." Yang mumbled, though there was no strength in it. "I have visual and auditory schizophrenia… they stop me seeing things and hearing voices."
The man hummed. "That sounds about right… your symptoms I mean. It's not schizophrenia, it's magic."
Yang blinked. Twice.
"What?"
…
…
Blake and Weiss watched in a stunned sort of awe at the sight in front of them. They liked to think they had a good grasp on their leader's skills. Yes, she was a prodigy, the kind that got her moved up two years and into Beacon academy without any formal training. But this?
"Whoa." It wasn't a word Blake used often, but Weiss couldn't help but agree.
After hours spent shifting rubble aside they'd managed to open the cavern entrance up enough to make their way inside. That in turn had opened up into an entirely new cave system; one with dozens of directions and potential places Yang could have been taken. That in itself mightn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the Grimm.
The Huntsman had been right: they were stronger than the ones in the emerald forest. These ones were tougher. They took more to take down, they shrugged off hits that would have crippled weaker ones and they hit much harder.
And Ruby tore through them.
She was a blur, her face covered by her hood all they could see was a figure carving through Grimm like paper. There wasn't a single moment where she stopped moving, not a second where she wasn't using her semblance to rocket her momentum into blinding strength. Her scythe had changed too, straightening into a war scythe.
The sound of steel slicing through muscle and bone was only eclipsed by the beasts' cries of pain.
By the dozens.
"When could she do this?" Blake whispered.
Weiss had the same question.
In combat training, Ruby was good. She was definitely in the higher part of the glass when it came to one on one combat and spars.
But nowhere near this level.
Dark limbs were sent flying continuously and black ichor was scattered on the stones.
"She's motivated," the heiress told Blake. "In her mind, the faster she kills these Grimm the faster she can get to her sister. She doesn't care about hiding anything right now."
The Faunus bit her lip. "You think she's been holding this back this whole time?"
"You don't?"
Blake didn't answer, but the thought was there, silently stirring in the back of both their minds.
With Ruby's secrets, the confrontation with her Uncle, the mention of the headmaster and now this…
They knew there was something going on. Something big.
Weiss steeled herself. "When this is over, we can find out what's going on. But for that to happen we'll have to find Yang. I'll give her a right earful for letting her guard down."
"You… really think she's alive?" There was something in Blake's voice that made her pause. Something small and dark, hidden under the worry and concern. Weiss knew what it was instantly; cynicism. The Faunus has been through horrible things in the White Fang, she'd seen people die and she wasn't one for hope.
She expected to find her partners corpse.
What that said about her…. Weiss wasn't sure.
"She'll be fine." Weiss told her. "Yang's strong. Stronger than us. If she can't get out of this none of us can."
She believed that. She had to.
"Come on," the heiress pressed. "I'm not sure she needs it, but we should help Ruby hurry this up as best we can."
"Any ideas how we can do that?"
Weiss felt a glyph form beside her at her call, the beginnings of an armoured hand formed.
"A few."
…
…
"So… magic?" Yang said again. She'd been waiting on the table for a few minutes now, after Merlot had asked her to give him a moment to 'set things up' or whatever.
He was still in the middle of arranging tables in front of her, with diagrams and some kind of medical x-rays. It took her a second to realise it was her, the picture a full buy image on a skeleton missing an arm and a leg, but there was something else on it; weird lines that travelled around it.
The old man let out a huff as he stepped back, taking it all in. he put his hands on his hips and nodded.
"There," he said. "Now we can get down to it."
"Riiiight." She stretched the word out slowly. "Well I don't think there's much to explain. You believe in magic. That's… cool I guess."
How an old man with half his face covered in robotics could pout was beyond Yang, but the doctor seemed to pull it off magnificently. "You could at least wait for me to explain my research before brushing me off."
She winced. "Sorry, guess I'm just not in the right state of mind to be nice about it." She gave an emphasis to the 'mind' part of it. "Go on."
"Right then," he nodded. "First things first we should look at what we know about the Grimm. Tell me if you've heard this before: the Grimm are creatures of darkness that have existed for as long as humanity. They are monsters of pure evil intent on destroying everything around them. It is unknown how they reproduce or even how they came to be in the first place, but they are something we see as a part of the world like the sky itself."
"Okay, I'm following so far." Yang nodded.
"Good, now, you see that description is a little bit wrong of course. Two things in particular are their method of reproduction and what the Grimm in fact are."
"And you know?"
"Precisely." He cleared his throat and turned to one of the boards. It was littered with several kinds of Grimm from Beowolves to Ursa to some that weren't even native to Vale. "The Grimm come in many, many shapes and sizes, but they all have a clear similarity in the darkness that leaks from them like smoke. That in fact, is the residue of what holds them together."
He ran a hand through his hair as he though out what he was going to say. It was as if he was getting back into a groove. He was a teacher, Yang realised. The tick was something Oobleck did all the time.
"Grimm are complete manifestations of magic in its wildest forms. Magic is chaotic, a force of nature that destabilises everything around it. Grimm blood is poisonous you know? Not when it's ingested, our aura's deal with it then, but if it gets into our bloodstreams it causes our organs to shut down, the chaotic nature of their blood sending the order of our bodies into a spiral. "That's what happened to you," he turned back to her for a moment. "But we'll get to that in a moment."
Right… get back to Grimm blood in her system, somehow that was the least crazy thing Yang was hearing right now.
"This chaos also gives a reasoning for their destruction: they seek disorder, or freedom, or wildness. The world returned to what it was before us. As such, they attack humanity and its creating, because they are not that wildness. We have magic in us, but Grimm do not have actual physical bodies, theirs are simply magic taking a solid form."
"Wait, wait, wait," Yang waved. "We have magic? Don't you think we would know if we had something like that?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you call aura and semblances?" he asked reasonably. "Or the dust we use in everyday life?"
"That's science," she argued. "We have explanations for that."
He scowled. "You have explanation yes, and yes, it isn't magic in the way the Grimm are, but is a step towards it! Ozpin repressed that," he growled. "He buried history, transformed religions and turned lies into truth for people to believe as they liked."
"Ozpin?"
"Yes, what do you see here?" he asked suddenly, pointing to a new part of the board. On it was photos and paintings of a person. No, she realised, different people, hundreds and hundreds of different people. Why had she thought they were the same for a moment? Was it… the cane…
She drew a breath. "That's-"
"Ozpins cane. Funny little thing really, something you don't notice until you see side by side comparisons." He nodded. "He has existed for centuries, millennia even, warping events and changing the very course of history as he did so. I do not know the reasons why, but he has always been there, manipulating things."
"That's insane." Yang tried. "What you're saying is impossible. How does that have anything to do with aura and semblances?"
"Don't you see? He changed them! He changed the people's perceptions of something given to us by the soul and made it mundane." Again, he ran a hand through his hair. "Admittedly there is some difference; magic as I am explaining it is fundamentally different that aura and semblances, and it is wider, more exotic than anything you could do with a semblance, but it's a gateway. There is a specific link between the two forces that Ozpin erased."
"Okay, okay." She allowed. "So if we just think for a second what you're saying is true, what does that even mean? What is magic?"
He smiled at her. "Good question my dear. "Now, it is a harder question, and with so much of history hidden away it's hard to find everything, but what I've learned is that magic used to be far more plentiful that it was today."
He paused, turning to the third board, this one with a map of Remnant, and covered in red dots and circles.
"Thousands of years ago, the world was filled with creatures and people so fantastic you couldn't even imagine it in your wildest dreams. Giants, dragons, elves, sprits and thousands of other beings coexisted with humans. Even then the Grimm existed, fare less and far more manageable than they are today."
"But how?" she asked. This whole thing was crazy, like a fairy book, but damn it if this guy wasn't telling her something amazing. She wanted to know more, had to know more. Something was calling to her. "If the Grimm and all this was there along with humans how did we even last this long?"
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I believe it has something to do with a race of humans with silver eyes."
…what?!
"They existed later than the rest of humanity," he went on, missing the shock that rippled across her face. "The passages were rare, and references to them are vague, but from what I could gather these silver-eyes warriors were peacekeepers. They received orders from... something. There are many words from them in an ancient language, and while it was lost along with history, I managed to get a rough translation: Guardians, warriors, Vanguard and sometimes even destroyers."
His hand ran across the map, along the circles.
"From what I could tell, they held no allegiance to anyone, no Kings or Queens. No Kingdoms or Empires . Yet they had a task, something old and sacred. It was to keep order. However they managed it, they seemed to be able to stop magic or… keep it in check. The passages I've read by scholars are all over the place as it is with several thousand-year-old writings steeped in magic, but some claim that they were the opposite of chaos. Keeping order."
He sighed.
"These points on the map are the last known locations of their strongholds: three in Atlas, four in Mistral, three in Vacuo, three in Vale, two on menagerie and.. one here." he said, pointing to the Dragon continent. It was what teachers called it in school – for its shape if that was't easy to tell – a place claimed completely and utterly by Grimm. Unscoured and undocumented, every expedition there resulted in failure, with not even a single person returning.
"This one was said to be the first line of defence against the biggest population of Grimm. 'A fortress on the edges of darkness holding back the endless end'. Castle Schwarz. Apparently the Silver-eyed warriors there constantly battled Grimm while the other castles kept the peace between Humanity and all of magical kind."
He sighed. "And then one day they were gone. Along with any mention of how. It was as if they simply vanished. No trace of them exists in the world anymore."
He was wrong.
The thought was a hysterical one as it permeated to the front of her mind. Her sister, Ruby had silver eyes. It was something she'd never so much as blinked at. Her sister had unique eyes, what else was she supposed to have thought about them? Sure it might have been strange that she'd never seen anybody but Ruby and her mom with them.
But this?
This was insane!
"S-sounds like a story, but what does this have to do with me exactly?"
"Ah well that's the interesting part!" Merlot said, spinning around to face her and taking a lecturing pose. "Tell, me what is it you see in your hallucinations?"
She blinked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything, go on," he pressed. "What do you see?"
She frowned, figuring that she might as well humour him and closed her eyes, trying to think. It was… strange… her frown deepened. Why was she having trouble remembering what she saw? It happened all the time. It was… like something had been cut off. But… there was something.
"People." She said. "I… see people, or things because sometimes they're not people and… I hear voices but I don't actually hear what they say. It's all just like… noise in my head. But that's just schizophrenia, the doctor even said so."
Merlot snorted. "Yes, a doctor who learned all he knew at a school, reading textbooks by people he'd never met, approved by the councils of the kingdom, which were set up by Ozpin, who had suppressed almost any mention of magic from anything but myth. Very reliable don't you think?"
She swallowed. "What are you trying to say?"
"That you don't have schizophrenia." He said matter-of-factly. "In fact, you have a gift, but it's been repressed and mismanaged so much it became your weakness."
He turned back to the board before she could speak.
"I realised who you were when I checked your blood. Yang Xiao-Long, interesting for sure, a family of huntsmen, but what's really important is your mother."
She swallowed again.
"Raven Branwen." He finished with a smile. "Interestingly, the term 'Branwen Tribe' is something tossed around nowadays in Mistral. Bandits, killers and thieves. A shame, considering what they used to be. You see, the Branwen Tribe has been around almost as long as the silver-eyed warriors, but even more interesting is that they disappear every few centuries before reappearing. Their members don't have to be related, and in this day and age it is filled with people with no real relation, but there is always someone with the same Branwen among them."
"You see, the Branwen's have always had a special ability, on routed in science as much as magic. Magic, needs a source, but instead of aura or the soul, its something physical, and as I told you with the Grimm, that physical thing can manifest into something." Have you ever hear of something called DMT?"
The blonde tilted her head. "Um… no. what is it?"
"Nothing, not anymore anyway." he shrugged. "Centuries ago before the King of Vale or his predecessors came into power it was a drug, or an ingredient in a concoction that allowed regular people to see spirits, connecting with the world in a way that is impossible today. It was siphoned from a plant that was of course wiped off the earth in a crusade long ago. We produce this chemical you know? It is produced in the pineal gland, what people nowadays would jokingly consider our third eyes." Merlot wasn't laughing.
His gaze locked onto her again. "The Branwen bloodline is special in that it produces an amount of this chemical nearly twenty times the dose of regular people. It wasn't until the King of vale and his predecessors as I mentioned before came into power that things changed. They started finding ways to limit the Branwen bloodline, diluting them in some way. They couldn't stop them entirely however, and the tribe disappeared until a few decades ago."
"Raven and my Uncle." Yang whispered.
"Precisely. They joined Beacon academy, and what do you know the headmaster at the time was none other than professor Ozpin. He needed spy's, loyal eyes to see what even he couldn't. He gave them other abilities to be sure but the most important was the chance to 'see more' again. Then your mother had you a few years later and it was passed on… to you."
"So…" she said slowly. "All this time. I've been thinking I was crazy, and delusional and seeing things that weren't there when I was actually seeing ghosts and hearing real people?"
"Yes. The drugs given to you by your doctor would have helped if there was actually something wrong with you, but instead it disorganised your brain. The visions come in patches don't they? When emotions run high or low you start to feel it on the edges of your mind?"
"Y-yeah! It just happens at random times. I can't control it!"
"Would you like to?"
She froze, staring at him in wide-eyed shock.
"Y-you're kidding."
"Not at all." He grinned. "I may not be able to do it myself, but there are enough references to it in history referring to the Branwen's to find out."
She laughed in disbelief. "Where do you even find all of this history?"
His lips twitched, as if he was hiding a frown for just a second. She noticed it, but it was gone a second later.
"Let's just say… I have some contacts that were willing to provide me with the truth on Ozpins crimes."
He shook his head. "Anyway, before that there is the short order of getting you back on your feet."
"You mean that as a figure of speech right?"
"No, I mean it literally."
Yang should have known from the start that this guy had a thing for dramatics, because as he said it, he pushed a button on his desk, and said desk opened up with a hiss.
Two panels shifted and rose and Yang stared at what she saw in front of her:
Four glass cylinders a meter in height; one was empty, one had some kind of… black, moving ichor, but the ones that grabbed her attention were the last two.
It was an arm and a leg, made of a smooth, black crystalline substance, and intricate swirling carvings ran along them.
"Is that…?
"Obsidian," he explained. "A volcanic material said to hose the properties of fire water and earth, which I have shaped and fitted with individual cores."
Yang didn't ask what that meant, she couldn't tear her eyes away from them.
"What are they?"
The grin returned with excitement in his eye. "Have you ever heard of a golem?"
…
…
About an hour later, Yang sat on the edge of the table. After what was basically a world-shattering series of revelations, having to watch the old doctor fit on the black leg seemed oddly muted.
But when it was connected with her leg by some sort of inscribing where the flesh and rock met, she gasped.
"I can feel it!" she whispered. She could. It wasn't all there, not entirely. But there was feeling. It was a numb sensation, like she'd sat on her get for too long, but as she wiggled her toes she could only gap as the feeling was there… this wasn't just some prosthetic.
"Indeed," he nodded. "These are magical catalysts, connected to your body and mind as if they were the real thing. You can cut off that feeling if you so choose at opportune times as well, and what you do with them is up to you. You won't be able to walk on it right away, and we'll hold off on the arm for a while, until your body adjusts.
"To the leg?"
"No, to the blood."
She blinked. "Huh?"
"Oh! Oh dear I forgot to tell you. Remember when I mentioned that Grimm blood was poisonous? Well some of it got into your system earlier. It shut down your heart and I had to have it replaced."
"My… heart or my blood?"
"Both." He hummed. "I replaced it with a dragon heart."
He… she was…
"What?!"
"Oh you know how it is," he waved as if it was a normal thing, when no, it most certainly wasn't. "This mountain is an ancient dragon burial mound. Dozens came here to die thousands of years ago there's even a Grimm dragon sleeping in the peak of the mountain but it doesn't really count. I managed to collect specimens early on in my research and this was the perfect opportunity to use them."
"You…" she stuttered, still a bit slow on the uptake. "Gave me a dragon's heart?"
Her eyes snapped to the boards again, to the x-ray of herself she'd brushed off earlier. Those lines weren't just there for decoration. They were arteries!
"Well, a baby dragon's heart, it had fully formed in the egg but never hatched. A fully grown dragon's heart would be far to bg. Don't worry, it won't grow too large in your chest. It'll adapt. You know, dragons blood a heart was said to cure all ailments and grant nearly eternal life. You're probably healthier than you've ever been."
"How did you even get it in!?" she shrieked.
"I cut open your chest." He blinked, pointing to her. She looked down, and pulled at the hospital gown. She gaped. Right there, on her chest over her heart was a thin white line. Miniscule and barely visible from anything but the closest distance.
He'd cut her open!
He'd replaced her heart with a dragons!
He'd… probably messed with her hair too!
Her eyes flashed red as she glared at him.
Merlot seemed to realise he was in trouble judging from how he flinched back.
"N-now hold on now! What I did was a good thing."
"Merlot!" she roared.
Let it be known, that when the Doctor Merlot of Merlot industries, scientist and researcher, was faced with an angry teen missing half their limbs, he ran like it was nobody's business.
...
...
So that's the end of another chapter. It was a big one on terms of information, maybe a little bit of an exposition dump but an important set piece. You'll see why soon.
Just to let you know, I used the german word for Black as the name of the castle. Since the Brothers Grimm were german I thought it a good link to make.
Other than that I got plenty of messages either saying that it was horrible Yang was dead, or that they didn't believe she was. More of the second than the first but it was still fun to see how many people seemed genuinely upset about it. Don't you guys know the rules? Unless they die on screen their not confirmed dead.
Or, well since this is writing, not until it's written down.
Anyway, let me know what you think? Did you like this chapter? Did you hate it?
Let me know what you think.
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Bye!
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