NOTE: I changed the last chapter a bit. Feel free to check it out. I received a review about the chapter and after re-reading it a few times, I feel like a change would only make it better. I was too sleepy yesterday night when I posted so I guess it's not that ideal and it became a fan service chapter. I apologize.
NOTE AGAIN: I deleted this chapter just now because there were too many errors. I've edited it and this is the latest version. I'm sorry!
#
Yes, it's going dark.
Yes, it's getting nearer to Weiss and Yang's reunion in chapter 1.
If you like my stories, you can support me on Pa-treon as 'The Tanker'. I also have a FB with the name "IBurn 'Tank' RWBY Fanfic Author".
I do not own RWBY. If I do, Lancaster will NEVER be canon.
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Chapter 20: Beast
"Blake."
The Faunus turned to her boyfriend slash mentor. She was sitting on a rock near Forever Fall, taking her sweet time to admire the wonder of red surrounding her.
Blake had grown up a lot since she left Signal. She was way taller now and had more muscles due to the training with her mentor.
She lived with Adam in his house and they would train near an abandoned farm everyday.
Approximately a year after, they were recruited into the White Fang. Blake was more than happy to join the force because not only did they fought for Faunus right, but they did it in a calm and peaceful demeanor.
That was, until Adam became the leader.
Peaceful protests were turned into organized attacks; they would set fire to the shops that refused to serve them - all kinds of violent activities were carried out.
At first, Adam convinced her that they were accidents. They had to kill in a fight, or they would be the ones killed. Blake wasn't sure, but she believed her boyfriend.
Then it gradually became self-defense; he always had ways to justify his actions. In the end, it was an inevitable decision in order to light the fire of revolution. Under the lead of Adam they targeted the Schnee Dust Company; although they didn't have anything against the Faunus, Adam felt that by attacking the biggest company in the world, it would leave a great impact on the governments.
"It's time."
Blake turned to the bull Faunus; he started wearing Grimm mask ever since they joined the White Fang.
"Okay."
When they were running towards the train that carried a large amount of Dust, Blake began to think that this was wrong.
SDC didn't do anything to them; in fact, they helped the Faunus a lot. Blake knew her crush had taken over the company a few days ago and she did everything she could to grow their influence. Then, they would help the Faunus that weren't treated right or misguided back to the correct path.
She justified this mission by repeatedly telling herself that it was just Dust robbing. No one would be harmed in the process.
Adam needed a significant amount of Dust for the White Fang members; thus, this mission was basically killing two birds with one stone. Warn the public on what the White Fang was capable of, and of course, preparing their ammo.
With a jump they got onto the train; Adam slashed the tight vault apart with ease as they broke into the cart.
As they landed, they were surrounded by guardian robots.
"Looks like we're gonna be doing this the hard way." Adam said.
The robots all activated at the same time; they glowed in red light and the masks covered their faces immediately. They turned towards the two intruders as they got into battle stances.
"Don't be so dramatic." Blake replied as she grabbed Gambol Shroud.
The head of the robots pointed its arms that were made of machine guns at them and soon a monotone voice was heard.
"Intruder, identify yourself."
Adam nodded and Blake took the hint.
Clashes of metals and gunfire were heard as the two fought their way to the front carts.
After some intense battles, they arrived at the cart that held the most expensive type of Dust.
The bull Faunus opened the chest and smirked.
"Perfect. Move on to the next cart. I'll set the charges." He turned to his girlfriend.
Blake frowned immediately.
"What about the crew members?"
"What about them?" Adam said coldly.
This was it.
Blake couldn't recognize this monster in front of her anymore. He was no longer the Adam Taurus that she knew; he had finally turned into a cold-blooded devil.
Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation…
The Faunus started to think that being with Adam was a bad idea.
She still loved Weiss.
Although she tried to use Adam to forget about the heiress, she couldn't. Five years passed and Blake's feelings for the man never changed.
They called each other boyfriend and girlfriend, but Blake never stopped seeing him as her mentor.
She could forgive him for the stealing and robbing.
She could forgive him for hurting people that deserved it; herself included.
But this had obviously crossed the limit. The Schnee crew working on the train was completely innocent but the man didn't care for their lives. They were simply doing their jobs and it would be unfair to just ignore them and blow them up.
Adam had even abused her in the past. Well not physically, but whenever he doubted her love for him, he started snapping.
"Do you still love her?"
"I'm your true love my darling. Stop thinking of that heiress. You belong to me, and only me alone."
"Do you love me, Blake?"
"Why won't you even kiss me, Blake?"
The Faunus could never bring herself to do anything further than hugging with Adam - and she knew why.
A robotic click was heard behind them and they quickly turned around.
It was a spider droid – the most powerful guardian robot on the train.
With a few blasts they were knocked out of the cart.
After struggling for a while, Adam activated his semblance as he sliced the robot apart. When he finished his stance, he turned around and ran to the cart at the most front.
However, he came to a halt before jumping to that particular cart, because his beloved girlfriend was standing there and looking at him with complicated eyes.
His hand reached out as Blake slowly unsheathed Gambol Shroud.
"Goodbye."
With that, she slashed the joint connecting the carts and disappeared into shadows.
#
"Yah!" Yang landed a nice punch on the fortieth Beowolf charging towards her.
The cave was really deep and the inside was surrounded by Dust crystals of different properties. Weiss would be so happy to discover this place.
The blonde took the chance to steal (well not exactly, since no one owned this place) some fire Dusts as she used up a lot of her own in the previous battles.
It had been a smooth mission ever since she started; she had never lost a single strand of hair.
She remembered the description stating that there were at least two Alphas, but either she didn't encounter them yet, or they were dead under the hands of other huntsmen who arrived before her.
An hour or so later, she arrived at the most inner part of the cave and immediately a large crystal about twice the size of her came to view.
It was the most expensive Dust type and it shone in a beautiful shade of sky blue.
"I'm rich." Yang smirked.
However, a few terrifying growls were heard shortly after she touched that huge piece of Dust crystal.
"One, two, three, four…you have got to be kidding me!" She yelped.
One Alpha Deathstalker, two Alpha Ursai and two Alpha Creeps.
She smiled as she put her knuckles together, flame bursting out her body.
I will gladly accept my demise.
"Yaaah!" She charged towards the hoard of overpowering Grimm.
#
She survived.
Despite being surrounded by five Alphas, she survived.
And that had costed a lot.
She lost a significant amount of blood and she was certain that she had serious inner bleeding and bruises that required serious medical attention.
Nevertheless, she got an SS level job done.
Alone.
She was proud but also disappointed at the same time.
Her heart wished that she could just die a glory huntress and be remembered forever in the black market history. Death would make her forget about the pain and hurt of Weiss rejecting her – but she knew she still loved Weiss very much and she wanted to see her. Perhaps that was why she managed to survived all these difficult missions. She had a strong motivation.
She limped out of the cave; there wasn't a single Grimm along the her path. Now she just wished that her brain wouldn't forget about the details inside the caves so that she could compile them together with the pictures she took into a report in order to complete the job.
Yang taking difficult missions alone was not because she wanted to prove how strong she was.
It was more of a suicidal attempt.
She felt cowardly if she just slashed her wrist or jumped down from from the top of Mountain Glenn. If she wanted to die, she might as well die helping people. Or doing mission.
But no matter how impossibly difficult the mission was, she always survived; deep down the bottom of her heart she knew she didn't want to die.
She still couldn't let go of Weiss – the one and only girl she would ever love in the world.
Maybe doing all these suicidal missions was a way to punish herself for leaving behind the people that loved her the most.
She snorted at herself sarcastically.
I'm such a useless person.
#
After debating for half an hour whether she should return to her own apartment or Junior's club, she went for the latter.
The man quickly helped her when she kicked open the entrance door and collapsed to the ground.
"This idiot…" Junior sighed as a friend of his arrived along with the twins.
"Hello Junior." The man greeted.
"Doctor Pattillo." Junior greeted back.
"Berserker getting in trouble again?" Doctor Pattillo laughed.
"This idiot. I shouldn't have accepted that SS level mission." The man shook his head, "I knew she'd be going for it."
"Well she got you a lot of money didn't she?" The doctor opened his medical case and started to inject aura supplements into Yang's wrist.
"Money is the last thing I care about!" Junior half shouted, "She's seriously going to die if she continued down this...self destructive path."
"You care too much about her."
"I can't ignore her." Junior's eyes were full of mixed emotions, "I guess...I saw myself in her."
"You were a lot like her when you were young." The doctor chuckled.
"I suggested letting Miltia and Melanie to go with her but she always refused the idea. I think half the money she got from this mission will go to her medical care."
"Hey, I'm the only doctor around you that takes the cheapest payment okay!"
Junior laughed as she turned to the twins, "They'll be here if you need anything. I'll go deal with the club."
#
Yang struggled as she opened her eyes.
She felt tubes connecting to her body and she could heard the beeping of a machine she was too familiar with.
It was the one keeping Ruby alive.
"Ugh…" She groaned and immediately two figures dashed to her.
"Yang, are you okay?" Two voices talked in unison.
"Me…lanie…Mil…tia…"
"Hmph, it's good that you didn't die." Melanie crossed her arms while straightening her back, scowling at the blonde.
"Yang you idiot!" Miltiades scolded.
"Mo…ney…Ruby…"
"Yeah yeah we got it. Sleep, you dumb dragon." Melanie huffed and walked out of the room, followed by her sister.
Ever since she started taking missions, she would only take enough money to pay her bills and perhaps buy some drinks at Junior's club. The remaining amount was for Junior to donate to Qrow and Summer for Ruby's medical fee.
Of course, all of this was done anonymously so that they wouldn't figure out Yang's location.
She looked at the fancy ceiling of Junior's guest room as her thoughts drifted to her past.
Blake…I wonder how she's doing. Maybe I should pay Roman a visit too…and Topaz. I've never been to Topaz's grave ever since I left…I'm so sorry, buddy.
Maybe it is time…for me to go back?
I left…without saying anything. They must really hate me.
I want to see Weiss though…but at the same time I'm so scared to see her. What if she…rejects me once again? I don't think my heart can take that uh. She's taken over SDC…which means she'll be in Atlas. Probably won't see her there. Alright!
Yang nodded to herself as she made the decision to visit Secret Base for the first time ever since she left.
To the place she considered home.
She had no idea how to face Blake if they saw each other, but she thought they could figure it out if they indeed meet one another.
They had grown up and matured a lot; they had gone through high and low too, so Yang believed that they were capable of solving their issues.
#
It took the blonde a whole week to fully recover from the injuries. As usual, Junior took ten percent from the payment and handed around four thousand liens to Yang while the rest was sent to Atlas for Ruby.
She rode her motorcycle to travel to Secret Base while wearing a helmet that covered her head completely to make sure none of Weiss' man could spot her.
Dragon Tears Forest never changed at all. The scenery remained the same; the only difference being it was summer when she left and it was winter when she was back.
Everything was covered beneath a blanket of snow.
She reached Secret Base not long after. The first thing she did was to clean Topaz's grave and speak to him.
"Hey Topaz." She whispered while sitting in front of the grave, "I miss you."
As she poured out her feelings to her departed family, she sensed someone inside that dark cave.
The blonde quickly jerked up, activating Ember Celica and stared at whoever that was inside. Only she couldn't see in the dark.
Just when she was about to yell, faint sobbing came to her ears - and she recognized the voice.
"Blake?" The blonde walked slowly into the cave; her eyes were adjusting to the dark.
"Yang?" Came the Faunus's answer.
Yang quickly channeled her semblance when she saw her friend.
It was snowing, and the temperature was extremely low. And yet Blake didn't wear any protective clothing; on top of that, her clothes were torn and she had cuts and bruises all over her body. Parts of her clothes were stained red and judging from the smell of iron, it was blood.
"Blake, what happened?" She pulled the shivering kitten into a hug.
"I…" Blake sobbed intensely as she clung on to that human furnace.
Then she remembered how she thought of Yang when she left.
"No…" She pushed Yang away.
"No Blake, you're freezing! Come!" Yang tried to share her warmth with the Faunus but she kept pushing the blonde away.
"No Yang, don't…I don't deserve it…"
"C'mon, warm yourself first. Anything we'll talk after that." Yang grabbed Blake by force and after a while, the Faunus gave in.
She relaxed under Yang's warmth and when she wasn't shivering that much, she started talking.
"Yang, it's okay…it's enough."
"No kitten. You tell me what happened. You tell me everything. Who did this to you?" The blonde's eyes turned to crimson.
"No Yang…I don't deserve you…"
"Belladonna, talk." Yang scowled, "I'm not in the mood for excuse."
Blake flinched because of the intense heat she was emitting; after five years, the blonde had evidently grown into a woman, a tough and skilled fighter. Her muscles were even more toned than before and her aura was totally overwhelming.
She might be even stronger than Adam.
"After you left…" Blake began talking.
She told Yang how Weiss and she had enrolled in Signal. She mentioned about her new friends, Ren, Nora, Prryha and Jaune. She hesitated before telling Yang about her parents' death, but told her anyway. The blonde mumbled consolation as she hugged her friend.
"I…Yang, I like Weiss too." The Faunus confessed.
"I know."
Blake's eyes widened in shock as she continued.
"And…I was a total bitch Yang…"
"No Blake you weren't."
"I was! I…I am still a bitch now." Blake pushed herself away from Yang, "I was happy when I knew Weiss slapped you! I was overjoyed because I knew I had a chance that Weiss had rejected you! I shouldn't feel that way Yang! It's wrong! It's plain wrong and selfish and…but…I told myself, that maybe, if I can always stay by her side, then it doesn't matter if we can't be together, but I still have hope!"
After the sudden outburst, she panted for breath before she continued.
"She left! She went to Atlas leaving me here and…a guy approached me and I thought he could help me forget Weiss but he couldn't! I even left Signal to live with him…but I still can't let go of her…anything I do reminded me of her…she paid more attention to you even if you disappeared and ignored me who stayed all the time…I was so jealous Yang…"
"Weiss wasn't into me, she likes guys."
"I know…but I don't care. If she's happy then…even if it hurts me…it doesn't matter…I genuinely thought that Adam could change my heart and that I would fall in love with him…but I couldn't even kiss him!"
"Adam? Was he the one that did this to you? Did it involve-"
"No!" Blake shouted, "Yang, stop caring so much about me, I don't deserve it!"
"Hey, this is serious kitten. Let me help you."
"Don't, Yang…" Blake shook her head, "I took advantage of you when you went missing. I should not be pitied."
"This is not pity, Blake. This is helping a friend. Helping my best friend."
"I don't deserve to be your best friend. Yang, I joined the White Fang. I was a criminal."
"That doesn't matter. What mattered to me is-"
"Weiss."
Yang swallowed upon hearing her crush's name. She knew Blake was trying to trigger her, so she tried her best to remain calm.
"You matter too. You can't compare that."
"No I don't. I didn't even visit Ruby ever since she's moved to Atlas."
"Neither did I. I only knew she's been moved there after two years. Just tell me who that Adam guy is, I'll go beat up his ass."
"No Yang." Blake quickly moved and tried to run but Yang had grabbed her hand in time to stop her.
She certainly had grown up - if it was in the past, Yang could never have such amazing reflex.
"If you don't want my help, then why did you come to Secret Base? You miss me – miss us, and you trust us. So let me take care of that Adam whatever. Tell me who he is."
"I didn't come here because I miss you. I came here because this is my home and it will never stop being my home."
Yang didn't register what happened but a moment later Blake escaped from her solid grip and ran. She was holding an empty copy of Blake that disappeared upon the original one running.
What a convenient semblance.
Yang sighed.
#
She thought she had no one left when she dated Adam. She was glad that Adam could be there for her; he valued Blake very much and he cared for the Faunus. Whenever Blake felt insecure, he would always stay by her side.
Perhaps she didn't love him as a lover, but the bond between them was really strong.
So when her most treasured mentor turned out to be a beast, she didn't know what to do anymore.
She had absolutely no one now.
The last person that she had hope on had vanished like ashes.
Who could she go to now?
Her crush left her; her most respected mentor became a monster; her parents died; Yang was missing; Ruby was in a coma and she left the four friends that cared about her the most.
She was in deep despair as she clutched her hair, tears dropping from her amber orbs.
She felt a little bit of guilt leaving Adam. The man cared about her and she could tell that much, but he was too possessive – to a point where it turned abusive.
A week had passed since she left her mentor on the train.
And on this particular day when she had finally decided to try and contact Nora and the gang, a man located her in an abandoned warehouse near Signal Academy.
"Hello my darling."
Blake turned to face the man she feared the most in the world.
"A-Adam?"
"Why did you leave me Blake?" Adam sounded so hurt, but his tone was calm and cold, "I love you so much; I tried to look for you everywhere for this whole week but I couldn't find you. Why did you hide from me Blake?"
The tone that he used to speak her name was so gentle.
And horrifying.
"Is it because of her? The heiress?" Adam withdrew his blood red katana.
"No…" Blake wanted to run, but she couldn't escape her mentor. Adam pinned her on the ground as he stabbed the katana into the ground just beside her head.
"You betrayed me…why? We were supposed to light the fire of revolution together...as lovers!"
"I…I didn't want this!" She cried, "I wanted peace! I wanted equality! I wanted love!"
"What you want, is impossible!" The man yelled, "And love? Don't I love you enough Blake?"
"You didn't care for other people's lives! I'm scared Adam! I'm scared that one day you would go crazy and-"
"Crazy?!" Adam held Blake's cheek lightly and smiled, "My love, you know how crazy I am for you."
"You weren't like this before Adam…why? Why did you change?"
"I should be the one asking you." Adam stroke her cheek gently, "Why must you hurt me Blake?"
"Yah!" Blake activated her semblance, leaving a clone behind as she struggled free from the bull Faunus' grip.
Adam transformed his sheath into a rifle and shot twice near Blake's legs. He knew aiming for her body would be a huge disadvantage for him as she could predict it and dodge. He knew all her weaknesses.
Five years of partnership weren't for nothing.
As expected, Blake lost her balance and fell. Adam slapped her hard and grabbed her shoulder so tightly it almost caused a dislocation.
"Why Blake? Why?"
"…"
"You never loved me, have you?"
Tears rolled down from the Faunus' eyes.
"All this time, you still love her aren't you? Even if I'm just by your side, even if I love you so deeply…"
"I'm sorry…"
"You will have to suffer for your betrayal, my love."
#
Blake should've predicted that Adam would come for her.
She just didn't expect him to be this efficient. Her clothes were torn and she had wounds everywhere; she was tired but she didn't stop running to the place she thought was the safest.
As she curled herself into a ball, desperately seeking for warmth, she heard a voice coming from the outside of the cave.
It was the dragon that could rival the sun.
"Blake?"
"Yang?"
#
I tried reversing the time a bit, just wanna try some new technique. Is it confusing? Need some feedback on this.
Anyway, thank you for reading.
As you can see, I kinda like Junior's character. I don't see him as a villain; he just simply want to protect his club. Duh.
When I first started this story, I didn't think to link certain incidents that happened in canon in this. But as I continue writing, I feel like mixing the two universe sounds interesting. That's the reason I used the yellow and black trailer.
If you like my story, you can support me on Pa-treon as 'The Tanker'.
I do not own RWBY.
