Chapter 41
Yang Xiao Long
"It feels like this stuff should put me to sleep before it has any effect…" Yang thought as she looked around to her teammates. "…but, there's no way I could fall asleep with my mind racing like this." She finished. Her teammates, still in much the same position as earlier, seemed to be zoned out while they watched the television. The sedating effects of the substance seemed to be clearly present as each of the girls yawned and were arranged in the most comfortable position they could.
"We all fell asleep after we returned to Beacon, so none of us should actually be this tired…How long has it been?" Yang thought as she looked at the digital clock which read 10:30 am and 14 seconds. The clock also kept diligent track of the seconds as they passed. "Almost an hour since he gave us the Omni-dust. We should be feeling something, but I feel tired more than anything else." She continued as she glanced away from the television to the carpet. Yang suddenly began to drift off into a trance-like state as she stared at the carpet intently. Slowly, the carpet began to rise and fall as though one was looking at a waterbed.
"I guess things are starting…" Yang thought as she looked away to the ceiling which was completely white. She, however, saw the vague beginnings of the visual distortions occurring. The visuals looked incredibly intricate, just as Lionel had stated. "He said I wouldn't be able to describe this…but they look like a bunch of flowers mushed together so you can't see past them. And they're flowing to beautifully…" she thought as she continued to stare at the ceiling.
"What was some of the other stuff he said? Sensitivity; check. Tired; check. Visuals; check. What else did he say? Believability; no I'm not quite there yet…I'm still aware that this is the Omni-dust. He said something about time distortion, but I just looked at the clock a moment ago and it was 10:30." Yang said as she slowly reconnected her eyes with the clock. She couldn't read what it said. "What time is it?" She asked slowly in a quiet tone.
"Don't worry…keeping track will only make it more stressful…" Blake slowly mumbled as she glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Why does he have a clock in a different language?" Yang asked herself as she looked back at the ceiling again to see the previous visuals were significantly more pronounced. The visuals were in much the same patterns but looked as though they were coming out of the ceiling and getting closer to her.
She moved her head again to the carpet which was, at this point, moving wildly, even though she felt immensely calm. As she focused on the carpet, she began to notice that the visuals were still in the shape as the one on the ceiling, though they were affecting the carpet differently. Each individual thread within the carpet looked like it was moving independently from the rest, but it all flowed together so perfectly.
"Damn, that looks so pretty." Yang thought as she looked back at the clock once again, by pure instinct. "Wow, that's dumb. Why can't he have a normal clock, I can't figure out what time it is." She thought as she looked back to the carpet to her left, only to have her attention take a detour.
"Hey, Little Dragon. What's the problem?" Tai asked as he saw her daughter's annoyance.
"I don't know what time it is and I can't use that clock up there." Yang stated.
"What do you mean?" Tai asked as he pressed a button on her scroll, which was placed on a nightstand next to her.
Yang slowly sat up from her bed and managed to look at her scroll which read 8:00 am. "That's kind of weird…" she mumbled.
"Well, it's time for you to get ready. Are you just going to skip your hunt today?" Tai asked as he began walking out of her room.
"Oh, yeah…" Yang muttered as she examined her bedroom. She didn't notice anything all too different, so she proceeded to take a look outside her window. As her fingers slid in between the curtain to pull it apart. Beyond her crystal clear room was an infinite sea of rotating geometric shapes with no clear end. The shapes moved in a way that can only be described as immensely calm. She closed the curtains and proceeded to get herself out of bed. "I hope Ruby got enough sleep for the hunt today." Yang said as she began her morning ritual of showering, getting dressed, and eating breakfast.
"Good morning! How're you feeling?" Ruby said as she finished eating her meal.
"Hey, Rubes! I had some weird déjà vu during my shower, but I'm good. Ready for today?" Yang asked as she pulled out a blender for her morning protein shake.
"Of course! The ships are going to be here to pick us up soon." Ruby said as she drank the rest of her milk.
"Does everyone have what they need for today?" Weiss asked from Ruby's right.
"When did you get here?" Yang asked as she glanced across the cafeteria table at her teammate.
"I just went to put away my dirty tray…I haven't been gone for that long." Weiss said.
"Oh…I must still be a little tired." Yang said before she looked down at the cafeteria table only to see a filled blender in front of here while everyone else had a tray of food.
"You going to drink that?" Blake asked from Yang's left side.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about today." Yang said as she poured the liquid out of the blender into a cup sitting on the table.
"At least it's a good day outside, right?" Ruby inquired making small talk.
Yang finished with a drink of her protein shake and looked toward the windows. The outside looked much the same as before except the feeling had more anxiety embedded with the calmness than before and it looked as though it was leaking into her immediate surrounding. Every surface that she looked at, from a wall to her teammates' face, had a very pronounced visual distortion. Yang perceived these distortions as simply being inconveniences to her vision, but did not see them as being out of the ordinary. The distortions look like a multitude of different lines connected in the most intricate way, but they moved too fast to make out any known shape. The movement of these visuals can only be described as highly digital in their movements.
"It's a good enough day for hunting…" Yang stated.
"Well, you'd better hurry and finish your drink." Blake said as she continued to check her weapons for any faults.
"Yeah, I know." Yang said as she downed the rest of her drink and put the cup to her side. She checked her gauntlets to make sure they were loaded and cocked before going through her supplies on more time. Occasionally she would look outside of the airship only to be introduced to an increasing intensity of the situation. The visuals seemed to get stronger every time she looked at them, though she was still under the impression that they were normal.
"Five minutes out." Qrow called out from the pilot's seat.
"Are you gals ready?" Yang asked only to hear no response. She turned her head to the left to see nothing but a seemingly endless sea of calm, flower-like visuals. "Guys?" she asked with an intrepid tone.
"Yang?" a voice called out very faintly. Her name echoed throughout the endless reality of visuals that she was currently inhabiting. A massive, horizontal line appeared, in the center of her visual field, which slowly opened completely destroying the visual field she was seeing.
"Yang?" The voice called again which seemed to give the horizontal opening even more strength than it previously had. Finally, the line completely opened revealing her teammates lying on the couch much as they were before. Suddenly, a rush of memories entered her head; she remembered that she had been administered Omni-dust and the purpose of this experience.
"Damn…that's some crazy stuff…but not really all he hyped it up to be…" Yang slowly mumbled.
"What do you mean…?" Blake asked from her side. Blake had taken to wrapping her arms around Yang's stomach and lying her head against Yang's breast.
"This Omni-dust can be really crazy…I thought I was somewhere else…" Yang stated as clearly as she could from her drowsy state.
"I don't think it's over yet…" Blake said in a confused tone.
"How do you know there's more?" Yang asked as she took a drink of water.
Blake slowly raised her body from Yang's to look at the clock on the wall. "Yang…you should probably look at the clock again…" Blake stated as she returned to her more comfortable position around her girlfriend.
Yang took a moment to respond to her partner's words, as was normal at the moment, but she eventually was capable of moving her head to the position of the clock. Yang's eyes went wide as she examined the clock; it read 10:30 and 32 seconds. "What the fuck…?" Yang whispered to herself.
"What's wrong?" Weiss asked with her eyes closed as she rested her head on Ruby's shoulder.
"I saw Yang with a pained expression on her face and called out to her." Ruby explained. "I think the Omni-dust is affecting her faster than us…" she said quiet enough for only herself and Weiss to hear.
"Oh, shit…" Yang stated as her head fell back against the couch.
"Don't worry, Yang…I'll be right here with you the whole time." Blake said through Yang's grunts and moans of anguish.
"I'll be good. I can handle this. I know he wouldn't put us through this unless he believed that we were strong enough…so I'm going to get through it." Yang said confidently as she tried to raise her head back.
"Yang, don't fight it." Blake said as she placed her hand on Yang's cheek. "He said to let happen whatever is going to happen." She finished.
"I feel like it's trying to pull my soul out of my body…it's getting stronger every second." Yang stated.
"If you don't mind my asking…what do you feel right now?" Weiss asked as she opened one eye.
"Right now…like I have to do something I really don't want to do. He wasn't kidding; when you find yourself losing so much of your mind, all you want to do is hold onto your thoughts." Yang explained.
"That makes it more difficult." Blake said.
"I know." Yang said slowly.
"What do you mean when you say 'lose your mind'?" Weiss asked. When a reply didn't come quickly she continued, "…but if you'd rather not say, I understand."
"No…losing it isn't the right thing to say. It's moving too fast. A million thoughts run by in a moment and everything feels more sensitive. Sound, vision, smell…" Yang said before trailing off in the end.
"That might be why time is so distorted; if you have 'a million' thoughts in the same amount of time you would normally only have ten-or-so, then it seems like time is going by slower to your brain." Weiss explained, in an exhausted tone, before looking at Yang for a response.
Yang's chest slowly rose and fell with each individual breath; it was obvious she was out cold from how shallow her breaths are. "Who's there?" Yang yelled into an infinite darkness.
A series of meaningless syntax was the only response.
"I can't understand you? Where are you? Come out!" Yang demanded. As soon as her intentions were made clear, unbearable fear and anguish soon washed over her body. She fell to her knees as tears began to run down the side of her cheeks.
"You will listen." An ominous voice called out.
"I…will…listen." Yang repeated without hesitation. The overwhelming feelings quickly subsided allowing her to stand once again. "Why did I give in so fast?" Yang thought.
"Because you understand that you have no control here." The voice called out.
"How did you hear me?" Yang yelled before realizing that she had not even opened her mouth.
"Verbalization is for naught here. You cannot use it." The voice called out.
"What am I doing here? Who are you?" Yang asked.
"You are here of your own volition. We are one and the same." The voice called out.
"That doesn't make any sense. And I definitely didn't come here on my own." Yang countered.
"You did, however. Now, we must speak." The voice called out as the darkness gave way to a sea of visuals once again. The visuals, after encompassing everything within view, slowly began to forms different structures and models. It eventually looked like a perfectly symmetrical landscape using only the most digital and fractal shapes one could think of.
"Yang!" a voice yelled from behind her. As Yang turned to see who it was, she was delighted when she saw her younger sister. Ruby quickly jumped into her arms and they both embraced in a bear hug.
"I'm glad you're here; I thought I was going crazy." Yang stated.
"I assure you that is not the case, but you may very well disagree for the time being." The voice called out from below her. She looked down to her sister to see that same digitalized fractals making up the model of her sister. Yang let go and stepped backward as the fractal pieces of her sister began to shatter and fall right in front of her eyes.
"Ruby" Yang yelled as she ran toward her in an effort to save her sister. As soon as her hand made contact with Ruby, her body shattered into thousands of pieces.
"Who are you? Son of a bitch…I'll kill you!" Yang asserted before the familiar sensation came back to her. The unparalleled fear and anguish seemed to start out of nowhere and, once again, brought her to her knees. "Fuck you!" she yelled through the tears.
The sensation slowly came to an end which eventually allowed her to open her eyes. She opened them only to be met with the sight of her teammates, her friends, body's hanging from the ceiling. The bodies were mangled, disfigured, and completely unrecognizable without the clothes. Yang couldn't even bring herself to cry or scream as she stared in shock.
"I could have saved them…" she mumbled.
"Why do you care?" The voice asked.
"I'm supposed to be there for them!" Yang yelled in reply.
"No; only real hunters care about their comrades. You said it yourself: 'You want a life in which you won't know what the next day will bring'. You don't give a damn about these people or the good of Remnant's citizens." The voice stated mockingly.
"No. NO! You're wrong!" Yang yelled as she gripped the side of her head.
"Yang…" a second voice celled out meekly.
Yang looked up to see the body of her sister, barely alive, raising its' arm to Yang. She quickly rushed to the body, which was still hanging from the ceiling. Upon arrival, she tried to grab Ruby's hand, but it fell lifeless before she had the chance.
"No…" she mumbled as footsteps approached her from behind. She turned her head to be greeted by a black, shadowy figure that still somehow looked familiar to her.
"You don't care…you never cared." The figure said. It was the same voice that had been calling out this entire time.
Yang was enraged, but, like an abused puppy, she didn't move an inch lest she get attacked by the terrible emotions again. "Go away." Yang said as she turned her head back to her teammates before closing her eyes.
"Make me." The entity said smugly.
Yang swallowed slowly, completely ignoring the entity behind her. "I love you, guys." She said. "I love you so much, Rubes…I love you, Kitty…and I love you, Ice Queen." She stated slowly. Yang opened her eyes to be met with a field beautiful, white, chrysanthemums. She stood up, looking around as she rose up, finally noticing a girl, behind her, facing away.
"Hey!" Yang said as she walked up to the girl. "Can you give me a hand?" she asked as she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.
The girl turned around; It was Yang. This Yang had her standard outfit on and was standing next to Bumblebee with her helmet under her arm. The original Yang looked down to examine her body and the clothes that she had on. She looked to her right and saw another Bumblebee as realized she was holding onto her helmet too. They were mirrored with one another, the only difference between the two being the color of their eyes. The original Yang's eyes were their normal lilac while the other Yang's were red.
"It's your fault, you know." The red-eyed Yang said.
The lilac-eyed Yang slowly exhaled before putting her helmet onto the bike's seat, to which the red-eyed Yang mirrored perfectly. "No, it's not." The lilac-eyed Yang said.
"They're dead because you weren't good enough to help them." The red-eyed Yang stated before the lilac-eyed yang quickly activated her gauntlets and fired at the other. Just as with the helmet, the mirror copy of her did the same thing at the exact same time. They were both knocked back onto their backs and slid quite a bit. "Try as you might, it will –"
The red-eyed Yang was cut off by laughter. "I called it." The lilac-eyed Yang said as she raised her head to meet the other. "You aren't the enemy…you're me. Or the bad me, I guess." She finished with a laugh before jumping back to her feet.
"Indeed. It seems you still haven't learned…" the red-eyed Yang said as she focused her gaze upon the original. After a moment of nothing occurring, she stepped back in annoyance.
"Having trouble?" The lilac-eyed Yang mocked.
The fake Yang was enraged, "Listen to me you –"
"Shut up." The original said. "You're just one of my vices. Get out of my face so I can move on with this shit…" she said with confidence. Much like before, a massive horizontal line began to break apart everything in her visual field; the other Yang was gone and only a feeling of euphoria was left as her vision was destroyed by said horizontal line.
Yang's eyes opened, once again, to reveal her teammates to be in much the same shape as her; comfortably sitting on a couch. She looked at the clock, once again, and was relieved when she saw 1:47 and 52 seconds upon it.
"That was too easy…" she said as she looked around the room. After taking a much-needed drink of her water, she quickly noticed the visuals getting stronger once again.
"Damn…here we go again." She thought as her mind began racing again. Her head fell back to the couch before she awoke in another strange place.
"How did I get here…?" Yang thought as she began to walk throughout her new reality.
As Yang's head fell back against the couch again, Lionel took another sip of his coffee. He was watching the entire ordeal through the cameras in the room. "Sorry, kiddo. I've never met a person with only one vice. You just have to keep going back until you come to terms with all of them." He said to himself as he kept a close eye on the vitals of each of the girls.