Chapter 19
Author's Note: Wow! The first week of the semester is done! Only 14 more to go… I hope you guys are having a wonderful start to all of your school years (if you still attend). We're finally getting to the meat of the story; it's been a long time coming. As always, thank you for reading and I pray to receive your acceptance. And if I do receive your acceptance, you'll be spared when I conquer the world and bring forth the new world order. Please let me know what you think of the chapter and I hope you enjoy!
Hasta la bye-bye for now!
Weiss brought her blade up to be chest level with Yang as she pointed the tip of the blade at her. The red symbols covering her body began to light up whilst the yellow dissipated, immediately followed by a barrage of flaming projectiles being shot toward Yang. Yang stood tall and crossed both of her arms to defend her body from the attack.
"As expected. You would rather block these attacks than dodge them." Weiss thought. The projectiles began to hit yang one after the other. The first hit her left arm, which was crossed in front of the right one, and completely shattered her defense. The flame was not the reason since Yang could easily handle the heat. She didn't notice that the only symbol that dissipated was the yellow, leaving the white lit up in combination with the red.
The sheer force of the white dust's power knocked Yang backward with each hit until she finally began to dodge the attacks after she was hit six times. When Yang looked forward, Weiss was nowhere to be seen. She stood, waiting for any sign of the Ice Queen to show herself until she heard a rustle coming from above her. Without hesitation, Yang began to fire her Ember Celica into the trees until her gauntlets were emptied, setting them ablaze. She continued to look around as she reloaded her Ember Celica with long ranged shells in her left gauntlet and pulse slugs in her right gauntlet.
As the fire began to spread, a thin coating of ice, like the frozen dew in winter, began to cover every burning leaf and branch. Weiss emerged from the trees and used her glyphs to jump around her opponent until she was behind her. She landed on another glyph which, again, propelled her forward toward Yang, who did not take the chance of getting hit with her blade again. Yang jumped to her side as Weiss passed through where she was standing before stopping a few feet farther.
"I see you're learning not to take my attacks head on. Good!" Weiss said in a mocking tone. Yang did not respond; she pulled her right arm back and fired her right gauntlet at her opponent. Weiss pivoted to her right to allow the single shot to fly past her until it hit the tree just a few feet behind her. It exploded with a force stronger than a grenade which knocked Weiss' body forward violently.
However, before Weiss hit the ground, she was stopped by a hand wrapping its fingers around her neck. Yang lifted her up by her neck and began to repeatedly punch her in the stomach before throwing Weiss to the ground as hard as she could. While being punched in the stomach, Weiss had dropped Myrtenaster, which Yang kicked further away as she made her way toward the heiress who was laying on the ground.
Weiss turned onto her back as Yang was looming over her about two feet away. Just as Yang pulled her arm back again for another attack, Weiss activated another glyph under her body, which Yang thought would propel her up into the air. Yang was dumbstruck when Weiss came flying, at amazing speed, toward her and head-butted her square in the middle of her face. Yang was knocked on her butt, by the sheer force of the impact, while gripping her face.
Weiss scrambled to get Myrtenaster back but was tripped by Yang grabbing her ankle and pulling her back. Weiss tried to kick Yang's hand away from her ankle, but each kick was intercepted by one of Yang's gauntlets. Yang, tired of the kicking, grabbed Weiss' ankle with both of her hands and slid her closer. She grabbed Weiss by the abdomen, flipped her onto her back before she jumped onto her stomach, and started wailing on Weiss' face.
With each punch, Weiss' face became slightly less noticeable through all of the blood and swelling. After about a dozen punches from each arm, Yang finally let up her onslaught and looked down at her shattered opponent. Weiss was breathing almost peacefully, no heavy hyperventilation or wheezing. Yang brought her knee up and was about to stand before a hand landed on her face with their fingers sprawled across.
The purple color began to light up and sent a shiver through Yang's body. Before she could reconsider, Yang felt an unparalleled rage build up in her body. Without removing Weiss' hand from her face, she pulled her right arm back one final time and punched Weiss with every ounce of strength she had. Weiss arm fell to the ground, the thud bringing Yang out of her rage.
Yang stood up and looked at the bloody face of the heiress she had just faced off against; she was on the verge of tears as Blake and Ruby ran up to see the final result. Yang lifted her hands to see them covered in blood…more blood than should be there from how many hits Weiss took. They were completely red, as though she hand stuck her hand into a bucket of gore…and she didn't know where all of the blood came from.
"Weiss!" Ruby yelled as she got closer to where the two girls were at.
"Yang!? What the hell were you thinking?!" Blake yelled as she kneeled down next to Weiss.
Tears began to stream down Ruby's face as she finally reached her partner. "Weiss! W-W-Wei-Weiss!" Ruby shouted through gasps and sniffles.
"She's not breathing!" Blake said as she pulled out her scroll and began to dial the emergency response number.
"But…I didn't hit her that…hard…did I?" Yang asked in dumbfounded confusion.
Ruby was crying rivers at this point, lifting Weiss' body up and hugging her with all of her strength. "Weiss! Please, Weiss…wake up!" she yelled.
Yang, still completely in shock, looked at her former opponent lying on the ground blood exiting from the wounds on her face and the burning wound in her chest. "Did…I do…that?" Yang asked in a daze.
"Yang, shut up! Damnit! I can't get any signal out here…we're too deep in the forest…" Blake said as she began to stuff gauze into the wound in Weiss' chest. When the hole was filled with antiseptic-soaked gauze, she began to perform CPR.
Yang looked down to her hands again to see many strands of Weiss' hair with blood dripping from it. She looked back up to see Blake performing an incision right in the middle of Weiss' throat with an Ambu bag close by. "Did I do that…?" Yang asked, still in a daze, as she saw Weiss' crushed throat.
Ruby looked back at her sister with tears and hatred filling her eyes, but said nothing before turning her attention back to Weiss. Blake grabbed the Ambu bag and began to fill pump the air into the hole that she made before handing the bag to Ruby so she could begin CPR. "Yang, how could you do this?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Blake yelled as she performed compressions.
Yang stammered, "I didn't mean…it was a fight…how did…why–"
"Shut up, Yang!" Ruby yelled.
"Rubes?" Yang asked with tears starting to flood her eyes.
"SHUT UP! GO AWAY!" Ruby shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Rubes…I'm sorry…I didn't…" Yang stammered as she placed her hand over her mouth while tears threatened to fall from her eyes. Yang pulled her hand away from her face after remembering what was on them. Again, she looked back at her teammates only to see a portion of Weiss' scalp burned black with the hair missing. Blake was placing gauze on Weiss' head to stop the bleeding and Ruby was yelling Weiss' name.
Yang looked down to her hands and saw that one of her long-range shells from her left gauntlet was missing. "But…I never shot it…I never got a chance to…" Yang stammered with utter disbelief at her actions.
"Shut up, Yang!" Blake yelled as she covered the gauze over Weiss' burned area.
"Ruby…I didn't…" Yang tried to explain.
"GO AWAY, YANG! JUST GO, YOU MONSTER!" Ruby yelled.
Yang's tears started to fall down her cheeks, "Ruby–"
"She's not breathing…" Blake said as she placed her hands over Weiss's chest and began compressions. After a count of thirty, Ruby placed her lips over Weiss' and began to breathe into Weiss' lungs before Blake started compressions again.
"Ruby…how did you…where's the Ambu bag?" Yang asked when she saw Ruby give breath into Weiss' lungs. Yang looked lower and saw that the hole Blake cut into Weiss' neck was gone. "Didn't I…" Yang stammered. Again she looked lower and the hole in Weiss's chest was nowhere to be found. "How did…" she mumbled as she looked at her hands for the fourth time. Her hands had much less blood on them than before…a reasonable amount, given the circumstances.
"Yang, call emergency services!" Blake yelled while Yang was still looking at her hands.
"But you said we were too deep in the…forest." Yang said with her voice trailing off at the end. "We're not in the forest…we're at Lion's house." she said before looking around only to not see Lionel's manor anywhere in sight. "When did we leave his–" Yang looked at her teammates, but was shocked to find no one. "What the fuck?" she thought.
Yang heard a rustle come from behind her and turned her body around as fast as she could. As soon as she could see behind her, she saw the familiar, swollen, bloody, but living face of her opponent. Weiss was without a hole in her chest, crushed neck, or a burned scalp…just a bloody and bruised face. She had her hand stretched out with her palm flat on Yang's chest. Without missing a beat, Weiss activated a glyph on her palm which sent Yang flying backward until she hit one of the roman-style support pillars on Lionel's porch.
Weiss ran through the trees until she reached the opening in which they were training earlier only to see Yang struggling to get to her feet. Blake and Ruby jumped out of the tree line and took their place next to Lionel, who was still sitting on the steps from when he was talking to Weiss.
Weiss, once again, entered her fighting stance and waited for Yang to get to her feet. "What the fuck happened?" Yang shouted as she reached her feet.
Weiss didn't answer; she stood completely still as she waited for Yang to enter her boxing stance.
"Well?! I thought I fucking killed you!" Yang shouted.
"Purple dust is most commonly used for mental patients…it manipulates the mind." Lionel said.
Yang looked at her opponent with her eyes wide and bloodshot, "So that…"
"…never happened." Weiss finished.
"You bitch! I thought I fucking killed you!" Yang snarled.
"Who's to say that you wouldn't have? You're not exactly the friendliest of people when your 'hulking out'." Weiss stated.
Yang was angry, but she knew that Weiss was right. "I can't control myself when I'm like that. What if I hurt someone I care about…What if I hurt Ruby?" Yang thought.
"Please, don't get all depressed now. We're in the middle of something important." Weiss stated as she, again, raised her blade vertically while holding the hilt at her stomach. The blade began to glow yellow as Weiss formed a glyph under her feet. Yang glanced at Ember Celica before looking ahead; the moment Weiss' glyph activated, and she was sent flying forward, Yang shot both gauntlets behind her, launching her at amazing speeds as well.
Both ladies met in the middle, each of their attacks held firmly where they hit. Their eyes were wide as they both looked upon their respective target. "I'm afraid we'll have to save the conclusion for another time…" Lionel said as he released Myrtenaster's blade from his right hand and Yang's fist from his left, the blast from each attack being almost completely deflected by his aura.
Weiss looked at him in confusion, "What do you–"
She was cut off by an alarm going off all across the campus. An explosion could be heard in the distance and, as Lionel and Team RWBY looked in its direction, they could see a plethora of military airships taking off.
"Beacon is being attacked. Ladies, I need you to head back to the school and get everyone out who might be trapped. Try to avoid fighting, if you can." Lionel explained.
"What are you going to do?" Ruby asked.
"Counterattack." Lionel stated with a confident and smug expression as he seemed to teleport to the top of the wall around his land.
"Can you see what's going on?" Yang asked.
"It's the White Fang…SHIT! I have to go! Hurry up and get everyone to safety!" Lionel stated clearly. "And DON'T try to fight them head-on unless you've got no other option." He finished before disappearing behind the wall.
"Guys, we have to go." Ruby said as they ran to the front gate.
"Holy shit…" Yang said as they reached the already open gate only to see a dozen White Fang members on the ground. "Must've been Lion's handiwork." Yang concluded.
Blake noticed the motto 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' that was on their shoulders right above the White Fang insignia. "They're the strike force. This isn't some intimidation tactic; this is a full-blown assault." She explained.
"Then we have to hurry." Weiss said as they began running through the courtyard heading to the cafeteria.
As they neared the door, it busted open with a White Fang member flying through. Team RWBY looked back at the door to see Pyrrha walking out with her spear in hand as well as several of the academy's professors, in a sort of defensive perimeter, in the cafeteria. "Pyrrha!" Ruby shouted.
"Oh! Hello Everyone!" Pyrrha said before she looked at both Weiss and Yang's beaten forms. "Is everything okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I was just showing the Princess how to fight." Yang said sarcastically right as the rest of Team JNPR walked through the door.
"Is that what you call it? I'm fairly certain you were the one crying." Weiss retorted.
"Whatever." Yang said as she rolled her eyes. "Do you guys know what's going on?" she asked.
"Not really. They showed up out of the forest…the only other thing I heard was that they were looking for someone; don't know who, though." Jaune explained.
"Do you know why?" Blake asked.
"No. But Ozpin has been expecting this to happen." Ren said.
"How do you know?" Ruby asked.
"Immediately before the attack started, he ordered everyone to go to the elevators, at the end of their halls, and to take it down to sub-level D." Ren stated.
"Weren't the sublevels off-limits?" Yang asked.
"Most of them still are, but we were allowed to access level D." Jaune said.
"Who all didn't make it?" Blake inquired.
"The only ones that we know of are held up in the kitchen behind the cafeteria. That's why we're all defending these to entrances as well as the employee entrance in the back." Pyrrha stated as she pointed to each of the defensive areas.
"Then if everyone is safe, we need to go and help Lion." Yang stated.
"I agree, we can't just let him and Ozpin do this alone." Blake said with a monotonous voice.
"I saw Ozpin heading to the front courtyard" Ren stated.
"We need to stay back and help the professors keep this area secured. Besides, with all of the training you guys have gotten, you'd be a much bigger help than us anyway." Jaune said nervously.
"So be it." Weiss said.
"C'mon!" Ruby yelled as they ran around the building heading toward the front entrance of the academy.
As they were running a group of White Fang ran out from the tree yelling at them. "They must be trying to encircle the entire school from the trees." Ruby stated.
"Then we'll just blow a hole straight through 'em!" Yang said as she fired one of her pulse slugs. It hit the leading member of the charging White Fang, exploding on impact and killing the rest of the White Fang around him. "Just leave the big groups to me." She finished.
Right as the ladies reached the corner of the building, they heard Ozpin speaking with someone. They all looked around the corner to examine the situation unfolding.
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to take her." Ozpin said rather calmly.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." Another voice said sternly.
"How cocky." Glynda said from Ozpin's side.
"I have no reason not to be." The White Fang member said.
"Who is that asshole?" Yang whispered.
"I will give you precisely one chance to leave here peacefully, Adam." Ozpin said.
"Adam? The leader of the White Fang?" Weiss asked in shock.
"Yes, that's definitely him." Blake said.
The buzz of the antimatter rifle could suddenly be heard from behind the girls. "Put your hands up, now!" A voice yelled.
Ozpin, Glynda, Adam, and the other White Fang present all turned their heads to the corner to see the bloody remains of the person unfortunate enough to sneak up behind Yang. "More guests?" Adam asked to no one in particular.
"So it would seem." Ozpin said as all four of the ladies walked out into their sight.
Adam took no time at all noticing a certain black-haired girl with them. "So that's how you've been able to crack so many of our codes recently…" Adam said to Ozpin before turning his head to Blake. "It's nice to see you again, Dear." He finished while looking at Blake with killer intentions.
Yang wanted to kill him right then and there for that 'dear' remark, but she wasn't about to underestimate the leader of the largest terrorist organization in the world.
"Don't call me that." Blake said coldly.
"Even after all this time, you still hurt me so much…you need to be taught a lesson, dear." Adam stated with hunger in his voice.
"As touching as this reunion is for you, I'm afraid we have other business to take care of." Ozpin said calmly.
"I'm not sure what you have planned, but this is what I've been waiting for…" Adam said as he snapped his fingers. In just a few seconds, Beacon courtyard was filled with dozens of soldiers coming out from the forest, to their sides, and cutting off any possibility of escape from the airships docks.
"I didn't want it to come to this, but we have no choice." Ozpin said as he picked his cane up like a sword. "Ladies, could you please head to the safe room…Glynda and I will handle this." He said while glancing at Team RWBY.
"There's too many of them for you two to take on!" Yang shouted.
"Girls! Leave, now!" Glynda yelled.
"I'm afraid they will not be leaving, but worry not…they won't be fighting either." Adam said as White Fang began emerging from the corner where Team RWBY came from.
"I'll kill every single last one of you bastards!" Yang growled.
"The Knight-General told you to avoid confrontation, ladies…leave now!" Ozpin said in a slightly irritated tone.
A group of White Fang rushed toward Team RWBY. Yang fired one pulse round into the group, killing most of them and separating the remaining. Those who survived were picked off by Ruby, Blake, and Weiss within a matter of seconds.
"I didn't order them to attack, but they did anyway…" Adam said with a slight chuckle. "You should always follow orders, ladies. Even those of us in the White Fang do so, because when you don't…" He stopped in the middle of his statement to whistle, followed by the sound of a gunshot. "…people get hurt." He finished as the sound of a loud thud behind Team RWBY echoed through the courtyard.
Ozpin, Glynda, as well as each of the members of Team RWBY, turned around to be met with the sight of Yang lying on her back grasping her neck as blood spurted out.
"YANG!" Ruby yelled as she ran toward Yang. Some of the remaining White Fang behind them took advantage of the situation and darted forward before any of the girls could notice what was happening. One White Fang soldiers hit Ruby in the back of her head with the butt of his gun, knocking her out. Ruby fell to the ground close to Yang who removed one of her hands covering her throat in a futile attempt to reach out to her unconscious sister a few feet away.
Weiss was tackled to the ground, but the soldier that hit her was impaled by Myrtenaster. She pushed his body off of her as the red dust activated summoning over a dozen small red glyphs around her body. Each of the glyphs shot off at the same time hitting most of their targets, incinerating them instantly.
"Fall back, we have what we need!" A White Fang lieutenant yelled from next to Adam causing the soldiers to jump back to the corner they emerged from.
Weiss darted her head back to Adam and saw Blake, who had her hands tied, being carried away on the shoulder of a White Fang member while two more ran alongside him as guards, one of them with Gambol Shroud on his hip. Weiss stepped forward with Myrtenaster aimed at them until Blake shouted, "NO! Save Yang, Damnit!"
"Shut up!" One of the soldiers said as he punched her in her jaw, knocking her out.
Weiss glanced back to see Yang still inching her way over to her sister's unconscious form with her left hand clenched tightly around her neck, the blood not slowing down as it pooled all over the ground. She turned her head back to Blake who was being carried toward the White Fang airship which had just recently arrived. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and activated the White Dust again. Weiss opened her eyes as tears began to flood down her face and shot out a spherical glyph toward Yang. It seemed to phase through her body and hit the ground she was lying on, summoning a glyph which looked like a large clock showing the current time, 11:47am.
Yang seemed to stop moving, the blood stopped spurting from her throat, and her eyes glued in a state of stasis while locked on her unconscious sister. Time was completely frozen for her.
Weiss turned back around to see Blake being thrown into the airship with Adam following close behind. She started running toward the ship as the hatch closed, firing projectiles from Myrtenaster as she moved. The energy shields of the ship were too strong for Weiss' exhausted attacks and simply destroyed her attacks on impact.
"Weiss, stop!" Ozpin yelled while stopping Weiss with his left arm.
"Get out of the way!" Weiss yelled as the airship began to take off.
"You can't save her right now; you'd only get yourself killed." Ozpin explained.
Weiss watched in horror as the ship began to accelerate away. "Move!" She yelled as she pushed Ozpin away as best she could and fired more projectiles from Myrtenaster, still having no effect.
Static could be heard from the radios of the fallen White Fang, behind Weiss, until someone speaking broke the silence. "All units, retreat to your designated LZ and hold position, we have them both." Adam said in a calm and cool manner.
Weiss, again, fired many flaming projectiles, this time much larger, completely destroying their bodies until only ash remained. "Damn it…" Weiss mumbled as she fell to her knees with tears rolling down her face.
Glynda walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder before speaking, "Weiss…"
"Why didn't you let me go?!" Weiss yelled.
Glynda raised an eyebrow, "Weiss, I–"
"I needed to save her…why didn't you let me?!" Weiss continued to yell.
Glynda was doing her best to calm the heiress, "Weiss, they–"
"How could you let them go?!" Weiss shouted.
"WEISS!" Ozpin yelled, silencing her. "If you had left to attempt to get Blake, you would have likely died. And Yang would have certainly died…this was the best case scenario." Ozpin explained as he looked over to Yang.
Weiss looked to Yang as well with worry in her eyes. "I know…I just…" Weiss said softly.
"We will get her back. I promise." Ozpin said in a caring tone causing Weiss to glance back to Ozpin before looking back at Yang a second later.
"That glyph will only last about fifteen more minutes…we need to get Yang to the medical center." Weiss said as the hum of around a dozen airships flew over them and began to land in certain areas around the campus.
Weiss stood up and raised Myrtenaster, but was immediately stopped by Ozpin. "They are leaving, so let them." He said.
"I can shoot down some of the ships!" Weiss stated.
"We need to regroup and plan our next move." Ozpin said as he scratched the back of his head while watching the airships take off and fly away. "We've lost this battle, but the war is far from over." He finished.
"Besides, you're in no shape to fight. Get those two to the infirmary…and get yourself checked out while you're there." Glynda said.
Weiss nodded before walking over to her teammates, summoning a glyph under them which caused them all to start floating a few inches off the ground. "Do you know why they wanted Blake?" Weiss asked.
"There are many things I don't know…Why do the need her? When Adam ordered a retreat, he said they 'had them both', who is the other one? Why does he need the other person? How did they get through our scanners without being detected?" Ozpin began listing off countless questions which only raised their concerns even more. "The bottom line: There is much I have to find out about what is going on." He finished as he was looking out to the airships flying away in the distance.
The glyph that Weiss and her teammates were on began to float higher. "If you need anything, let me know. I have access to the SDC's network, and I will provide anything I can to help." Weiss stated.
"Thank you." Ozpin said without turning to face her.
Weiss continued as though she didn't even hear Ozpin. "And we'll be ready for a fight when we do figure this all out." She finished.
Ozpin turned his head, slightly, to see her, "I know." He said with a small grin.