Arc I; Meetings
Chapter 3
Club "Nevermore"
Ruby smirked as she watched Yang's antics on the dance floor.
It always amazed her how much energy Yang seemed to possess. Ruby herself was hyperactive, sure, but Yang simply had energy. After all, if not for the split lip and boxing gloves strapped to her waste, one wouldn't be able to tell she was in a fight an hour beforehand.
The blonde was dancing, laughing and from what Ruby was seeing from her spot on the barstool even made a friend or two.
Ruby always envied her for that. Being able to make friends was... Challenging for Ruby. Every time she tried to talk to someone she ended up either mumbling to herself or speaking very fast about guns.
End result was the same though; everyone save a select few ended up avoiding her. Ruby also was sure that the only reason she wasn't teased was because Yang was her sister.
Still, it could have been worse. Right now she was sitting at a bar, drinking alcohol free cocktails and watching her sister having a blast. If Nora didn't have to work tomorrow, she would have even had someone to talk to, but that was a minor gripe all things considered.
Throwing one last glance at Yang, making sure she was okay, Ruby pulled her scroll pad out of her backpack and started looking over some diagrams for her various projects. She figured Yang would be partying for at least a few more hours and since dancing was not one of Ruby's strong suits, she preferred standing at the bar.
Picking a file from her "Unfinished" folder at random, Ruby started looking over the file, searching for something that she might have missed.
The file she selected turned out to be an old flare gun design she was trying to make wrist mounted. The trigger though always seemed to escape her as most of her ideas made the entire design impractical at best.
Sighing, Ruby put her ear buds in and started her music up.
Quickly becoming engrossed in her own little world, Ruby literally jumped as someone touched her shoulder.
"YAAA!" Ruby screamed and fell backwards, hitting someone along the way.
"Ow," the brunette muttered as she rolled to the side and off whoever she managed to fall on.
This is why I don't enjoy going to clubs as much, Ruby thought and started getting up. I've got no idea what I'm supposed to do here.
"What are you doing?" a shrill voice caught Ruby's attention and she quickly turned to see that she had managed to fall onto a white-haired girl, who appeared to be the same age as Yang.
"Uh, sorry!" Ruby apologized quickly. "But you startled me and…"
"Do you have any idea of the harm you could have done?" the white-haired teen continued to berate her. "
"Look, if you hadn't startled me,…" Ruby tried to explain, but the other girl wasn't having any of it.
"And furthermore, aren't you a little young to be in such a club,…"
"I'm here with my sister and…"
That however seemed to strike a nerve with the angry teen and she stopped her ranting for a second, giving Ruby a chance to speak freely.
"Look, sorry I fell on you," the younger girl began unsure. "How about we sit down and forget it happened? Start over?"
The white-haired girl raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, looking uncertain.
"Start over?" she drawled out, as if this was a foreign concept for her.
"Yeah," Ruby nodded, her cheerful smile returning. "I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose!" she said and stuck out her hand tentatively, waiting for the blue-eyes girl's reaction.
"We…Winter, Winter Fiel," the white haired girl offered, taking Ruby's hand in a firm handshake. To Ruby though, the handshake felt cold.
"So,… Um…" Ruby began unsure what to say next. After all, this was pretty much the farthest she'd ever gone before when talking to someone new. "Want to sit down?"
"Sure," Winter nodded and followed Ruby toward the bar. "Oh and you dropped your… Drawings." She added and handed Ruby her scroll pad.
Ruby snickered at the expression as she took the pad. When she saw the dark look Winter was giving her though she stopped.
"Sorry, it's just,…" Ruby began to dig around for the right words to explain her sketches. "They're not drawings, they're designs for weapons." She explained and watched as the well-known to her look of unbelievable confusion swept through Winter's face.
"You came to a club," the white haired girl began unsure. "To design weapons?"
"Oh I do it anywhere!" Ruby exclaimed. "It's fun!"
"Fun?" Winter repeated as she seemed to struggle to understand Ruby. "How is it fun?"
"I don't know," Ruby shrugged. "Why is anything fun? I simply enjoy doing it."
"Don't you have any friends or such?"
"Um," Ruby struggled to find the correct answer. "Well,… My hobbies don't exactly appeal to that many people." She admitted. "Not to mention that… Guns are just easier to relate to then people."
Much to her surprise though, Winter didn't just up and leave like most others people had by this point.
"I,… Think I know what you mean," the older girl admitted. "What are you working on right now?"
"Well, it's a…" Ruby began to explain, but before she could get very far, the sound of violence reached her ears and she knew even before she turned around that Yang was in some sort of trouble.
Turning half around, the teen had her fears confirmed.
"Down!" Ruby shouted on instinct and pulled Winter down with her to the floor, just as someone was thrown over their heads.
Now, having a bit more time to look over the situation, Ruby saw that Yang did indeed manage to get into a brawl.
The good news was that from where Ruby was standing, Yang was currently winning, judging by the cries of pain and bodies falling to the floor. The bad news was that more and more of the patrons were joining in and sooner or later Yang would run out of steam.
Ruby did wonder for a moment what sparked the argument, but she was cut short by Yang.
"Ruby!" her sister shouted over the noise generated by the brawl. "Need an exit! Now!"
Her shoulders slumping slightly, Ruby started rummaging through her backpack for the pair of flash bang grenades she carried. The original purpose was for them to merely be fireworks, but right now they weren't going to be used as intended.
Ruby pulled out the two home-made devices, which consisted of metal tubes, filled with the mixture from the same shotgun shells she used to wake Yang. The ignition mechanism for each was a simple wick, but she simply lacked a better alternative.
"Close your eyes, open your mouth and cover your ears!" Ruby ordered to Winter, who was taken aback.
"Do you honestly expect me to…"
"Your loss," Ruby sighed and lit the fuses as she tossed the two homemade devices in different directions, one right in front of her and one behind Yang. Human behavior dictated that they would jump away from the bright flash and sudden noise and Faunus behavior dictated that they should be clutching their ears in pain. Either way it was a straight shot out of there. Knowing that she only had three seconds, the brunette girl immediately followed her own instructions and waited.
What felt like an eternity later, there was a thud that Ruby felt, even though she took all protections to not go deaf. Knowing that was her signal, the girl grabbed her reluctant companion and sprinted out of the club, following the trail of unconscious bodies left in Yang's wake.
Streets of Vale
Weiss was now sure that the universe hated her.
After all, she wanted one night, one stinking, miserable, insignificant night in which she wasn't Weiss Schnee, heiress to the greatest mining corporation on Remnant.
She just wanted to have fun for Remnant's sake!
But no, she had to walk into the one club in Vale where a fight broke out. The one club in Vale where a teenage gun nut was there to fall on her. And the one club in Vale where she was blinded deafened and now dragged out of by said gun nut.
As Weiss ran headlong, hand being yanked forward, her blurred vision slowly started returning to her and she could finally start making out sounds properly.
"Nice save Ruby!" was the first clear thing Weiss heard and immediately her heart sank. She knew the voice.
It was Xiao Long's voice. Narrowing her eyes so she could bring images into clear view, Weiss saw that she was indeed running after a mane of yellow hair.
Upon the realization, Weiss immediately dug her heels back and pulled her hand free of the younger girl's grasp.
"Xiao Long!" Weiss snapped, putting on the coldest voice she could muster at the moment. It seemed to have the desired effect though as both of the other girls stopped dead in their tracks.
Now that she wasn't being dragged headlong through Vale and could actually catch her breath, Weiss saw that before her was indeed Yang Xiao Long, who appeared to be fresh out of one of her ridiculous boxing matches. What was peculiar right now though was that there was someone, clearly unconscious, slung over Xiao Long's shoulder.
The blonde brawler turned around and her lilac eyes narrowed at the sight of Weiss.
"Schnee!" the blonde hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Ask your… sister," Weiss suggested with a taunting smirk. "She's the one that dragged me here."
"'Schnee'?" the younger girl asked confused. "I thought you said your name is 'Fiel'?"
"I lied you dunce!" the Schnee heiress protested.
"Hey, don't insult my sister!" Yang yelled back. "What'd she ever do to you?"
"Oh, nothing," Weiss taunted further. The one thing that Xiao Long was good for was that Weiss didn't have to pretend to be a bitch with her. She actually hated the blonde. "Besides deafen and blind me!"
"Hey, I told you to close your eyes and cover your ears!" the smaller girl protested.
"You're a hazard to my health, now shut up!" Weiss snapped at her, causing Ruby to jump backwards from her. "Let the grownups talk! And speaking of which, what is your sister doing in a bar? She's too young for that you know!"
"Oh, excuse me if am trying to get my sister a life, princess!" Yang shouted back, but then smirked. "And what, in Remnant's name were you doing there? Did someone let your leash go enough that you were actually allowed into the real world?"
The words hit Weiss like a slap and stopped her next retort in its tracks.
Mostly because of how true Yang's words were. While better off than her sister, Weiss had been confined between school and her home for the most part. The major source of her outings were family functions and events.
She steeled herself though as she couldn't let Xiao Long see how right she was. After all a Schnee never showed weakness.
"I go where I want!" Weiss bit back. "And why is there a person over your shoulder?"
At that the blonde appeared to become skittish and started scratching her head in embarrassment.
"Yeah," Yang began. "She sort of walked in right as Ruby was setting off those flashbangs and I knocked her out. Couldn't just leave her to get trampled."
"Figures you'd knock someone out just for being in your way," Weiss scoffed, crossing her arms.
"I've got half a mind to knock you out, Ice Queen!"
"What mind?" Weiss laughed, though as she saw that Yang was advancing toward her.
Before any actual violence could be achieved however Ruby interrupted their quarrel.
"Um, you guys," the younger girl called hesitantly. "Is he okay?"
Desperate for a diversion, as she was sure Xiao Long would kill her very soon, Weiss stalked toward the spot the younger girl was staying and saw what had caught her attention.
Right behind one of the dumpsters, lay a man, significantly older, probably in his late 30's. He was sprawled face down onto the ground, his limbs bent at odd angles. Then Weiss noticed the smell.
While mostly covered up by the stench of the dumpster, a thick metallic scent reached Weiss' nose and it immediately drew her attention toward the man's clothes. There she noticed two neat holes near the center of his chest.
"Back, both of you!" she snapped at the approaching two girls.
"You ain't the boss of me Schnee!" Xiao Long protested and Weiss had to fight the urge to let the blonde incriminate herself very hard.
"Look, Xiao Long," Weiss snapped and moved in front of the larger teen. "I don't like you and I am not going to pretend otherwise! But I am not letting you tamper with a crime scene!"
The words seemed to freeze Yang in her place, her mouth hanging open in an unspoken retort. If not for the situation they were in, Weiss would have probably pulled out her scroll to take a picture at her biggest detractor's expression.
"Wait," Yang's sister came to the realization first. "You mean he's actually,…" the words died in the younger girl's throat as she spoke them and for a brief moment, Weiss' mask slipped and her expression softened.
Only for a moment though.
"Yes, he's dead," the heiress nodded. "Murdered probably." She added glancing at the two, what she presumed, bullet holes. "Which means, we need to call the police."
As Weiss pulled out her scroll though, a stray little thought entered her head; she was about to call the Vale Police Department. Check. Tell them that she was at the sight of a murder. Check. Give them her name. Check. Her father finding out and killing her for sneaking out of the house…
Son of a Faunus! Weiss cursed inwardly, staring at her scroll. No way could she report this. Not unless…
"We will have to make it anonymously though," she explained, trying to sound as natural as possible.
"Why?" Ruby asked innocently. "I mean it's not like we killed him, what do we have to worry about it?"
Weiss bit back several more curses that delved quite deep into the family trees of Faunus and started to look for a logical reason to actually make this into an anonymous call.
Then it hit her.
"We have to make it anonymous because we were just involved in a brawl because of you two," Weiss lectured them and she didn't even have to lie, since it was true. "Do you honestly think that the VPD will overlook that or the explosives she detonated?"
That got the reaction Weiss desired as both girls appeared at a loss for words as she dialed the VPD emergency number.
"Hello? Yes I would like to report a dead body. Yes, a few block away from club 'Nevermore'. My name? Oh, yes,…" with that Weiss cut off the call. "I suggest we leave and never speak of this again."
"For once Schnee, I agree!" Yang declared. "Come on Ruby!"
The younger girl followed her sister, but Weiss saw her throw one last glance backwards before pulling on her hood.
Did she look… Hurt? Weiss questioned, but quickly dismissed the thought. She had to get away from here as well and start making her way home.
Xiao Long/Rose Residence
Soft.
That was the first sensation Blake awoke to.
And it was a very frightening sensation, but she quickly reigned in her fear.
The last thing she recalled clearly was walking into the nightclub and getting hit hard by something. Given that she was in a comfortable bed right now instead of a jail cell, told her that someone brought her somewhere.
The question was who.
Unfortunately for her, someone from the White Fang seemed the most obvious answer as there were very little residence of Vale, be they Faunus or Human, who'd just bring a stranger with no ID into their home.
That meant she needed an escape plan.
Moving as little as possible, Blake started to take note of her surroundings, but that proved hard as the only thing she could see without moving from her current position was a wall and a few books stacked on the night table. Not risking turning around for a better look, Blake carefully extracted on of her hands from beneath the covers and grabbed the book sitting on the top of the pile.
Given her weariness, she really didn't trust her own limbs right now and a weapon, even one as improvised as this was a welcome feeling.
Just as Blake was able to hide the book under the cover, her Faunus ears, still thankfully under the bow picked up approaching footsteps and soon after a door opening. She didn't hear a lock though which was odd, but it was something easily chocked up to overconfidence on her captor's side.
A few seconds later, the footsteps stopped and Blake felt someone hovering over her. Not wasting the opportunity, Blake slung the book in her hand as fast as she could from her laying position and was rewarded with a jolt going through her limbs and the satisfying sound of someone falling to the ground.
Not wanting to waste any more time than she already had, Blake jumped out of the bed and was greeted by….
What appeared to be a fairly normal bedroom.
Wallpapers of various bands adorned the walls, hiding the mostly faded orange wallpaper. A desk was sitting directly across the bed, mostly buried under notebooks and scattered pieces of paper. In one corner of the room, there was a boxing bag that hung from the ceiling. On the other side of the room there was a large dresser, with a gym bag in front.
Feeling that she made a very big mistake, Blake glanced down and saw that the person that was sprawled on the floor, holding the side of their face was a girl, looking around the same age as her, golden blonde hair that almost looked unnatural. What drew Blake's attention though were the bruised knuckles on the girl's hands as well as what appeared to be a split lip.
"Ow," Blake's victim complained as she slowly got up from the floor. "Port was right… Literature is going to be the death of me."
"Are you okay?' Blake asked, helping the girl to her feet.
"Weirdly enough this is the first time someone's knocked me out when not in the ring," the blonde mused. "And I guess that does make us even."
"Even?" Blake asked, eyes narrowing and immediately felt her right eye sting a bit.
"Well, I did give you that shiner last night," the blonde smirked.
"You knocked me out?" Blake asked.
"It was an accident," the other teen protested. "You walked in as I was making my escape! Oh, name's Yang by the way." She introduced herself and extended her hand.
Blake eyed the other girl, slowly moving between the outstretched hand and her face, searching for any signs of deception, but found none.
"Blake," the Faunus offered. "Blake Belladonna."
"Bella… donna…" Yang said musingly. "Oh I can have some fun with that!"
Before Blake could ask what Yang meant by 'fun' there was a gunshot sound and Blake dove down on the ground on instinct, dragging Yang along with her.
"Yeah" Blake heard Yang speak. "Probably should have warned you about that."
"About what?" Blake asked, still searching for where the sound came from.
"My sister is a bit of a gun… enthusiast and it gets a bit noisy around here." Yang explained and started to get up.
"Enthusiast,…" Blake breathed, trying to get her heart rate under control. She was used to fighting, but it didn't matter how much one was exposed to it, sudden gunfire, caused one's pulse to skyrocket. Having ears that were so sensitive to sound, also didn't help.
"Does help you not oversleep," Yang admitted.
"That it does," Blake nodded, fighting the urge to rub her cat ears. As she looked for something to take her mind off the problem, she did notice that she wasn't wearing her normal black and white attire.
"Why exactly am I wearing an oversized stripped sweater?" Blake asked in a perfect monotone voice, gesturing to the yellow and black wool monstrosity she was wearing.
"Since your clothes… Well,… Reeked," Yang answered. "This was pretty much the only thing in my wardrobe that could fit you."
Blake fixed the other girl with her best stare, which seemed to have the desired effect.
"Look I have someone coming over to see if she can whip something up for you," the blonde explained. "In the meantime, do you want something to eat?"
At the question, Blake's stomach growled in response.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Yang declared and started dragging Blake out of the room, before the Faunus could protest.
The room Blake was dragged into was spacious, perhaps even a bit too spacious, as the lack of furniture, made the entire place seem kind of empty. The only things in, what Blake assumed was a living room were a table surrounded by three sofas, all arranged around a wall mounted TV. Behind the sofas there was a dining table with four chairs, which was littered with notes and what Blake would assume was schoolwork.
There were three other rooms, besides the bedroom Blake was pulled out of and a small kitchenette housing a rather large refrigerator.
How does she afford this? Blake asked herself as she looked around the kitchen area. Everything seemed new. Maybe her sister is ol…
"Ruby! Breakfast!" Yang called out.
"Coming!" a cheerful voice called from one of the rooms, immediately dismissing Blake's notion that Yang was supported by her sister.
"So, Blake-y, anything you might want?" Yang asked, drawing Blake's attention, not only with her question, but with the sheer sense of familiarity she used when addressing Blake.
Blake narrowed her golden eyes at Yang, studying her.
This girl, not older then Blake herself, took a stranger into her home, where she was living with her sister alone, by the looks of the place, was now referring to her with a sense of familiarity that Blake hadn't heard from anyone in her life, save…
Blake shook the thought away and refocused. Now was not the time for self-pity or distractions. She needed to get her bearings, get some food and then run.
"Do you have any tuna?" she asked politely.
"Yeah, I doubt it," Yang scratched her head. "Would you mind leftover pizza or sugary cereal?"
Blake resist the urge to cringe barely, but even so she couldn't exactly be picky.
"Cereal," she relented and sat slowly on the table, several of her bruises from last night making their presence known.
"Coffee or tea?"
"Tea," Blake replied.
"Here ya go!" Yang announced and placed a bowl of cereal and a coffee mug full of tea in front of Blake.
Over a day of not eating and physical exertion took their toll and Blake started inhaling the cereal, table manners forgotten. About half-way though the bowl, Blake heard a laugh and saw that the other teen was concealing her mirth badly.
"I'm sorry…" Yang managed through bursts of laughter. "But that was hilarious. I haven't seen anyone eat this fast in a very long time!"
Before Blake managed to decide if she should ask who could eat faster than that or apologize, there was a ring on the door.
'That should be my friend," Yang explained. "Just relax and whatever you do,… Don't. Show. Fear!"
Leaving Blake to ponder on her words Yang went toward the front door.
Xiao Long/Rose Residence
Yang opened the door and was greeted by a sight she had grown accustomed to, whenever she called for fashion advice, be it for herself or Ruby.
In the stairwell hallway stood a girl, taller than Yang herself, with fair skin, and wavy, dark brown hair, which was dyed in gradient red in one end. She wore a cocoa-colored long shirt with a dark brown corset, combined with long dark brown trousers with ribbons on the left side. Yang saw that she had a pair of belts, one black and one that was a matching color to her shirt. On her feet there were a pair of dark brown high-heeled leather boots with buckles. Completing the entourage were fingerless black gloves, pair of scarves and a black barrette on her head.
Coco Adel, a woman who was both a master of fashion and the only other person to be able to go 15 rounds with Yang before both of them collapsed from exhaustion in the middle of the ring.
"Hey Coco!" Yang greeted and pulled the girl into a hug. "Glad you could make it!"
"Hey Yang," Coco greeted much more studiedly. "And you know I'm always available when it comes to fashion."
"I could tell by the interrogation you put me through on the phone," Yang joked and her eyes drifted toward the huge bag next to Coco.
"What?" the fashionista asked as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "How would I know what to bring if I didn't ask you all that?"
Looking skeptically, Yang mimed holding a phone and put on her bet impersonation of Coco.
"'And don't forget to check the toes for nail polish!'"
"Okay, so maybe that was a bit much," Coco relented, though she did appear a bit put off by the mimicry. "Now come on!"
Grabbing the bag and swinging it effortlessly over her shoulder, Coco strolled into the apartment as if she owned the place and marched straight toward the table, where Blake was looking rather intimidated by Coco's scrutinizing glare.
Knowing what was going to happen next, Yang simply sat down on the table and quietly started on her own breakfast.
True to form, after several minutes of scrutinizing, Coco grabbed Blake and along with the giant bag dragged them into Yang's room, as Ruby finally emerged from her bedroom, looking a bit ragged in Yang's opinion.
"Rubs, you okay?" Yang asked worried.
"Yeah," Ruby nodded, but quickly relented as she accepted a bowl of cereal from Yang. "Not really, couldn't sleep to be honest."
"Anything I can do?"
"Besides erasing last night from my memory?" the younger girl asked with a sigh.
"Kept you up too, huh?" Yang admitted.
Yang herself wasn't able to sleep that well. After all, that was a dead body they saw last night. The adrenaline and the sheer rush that the night had been up to that point pretty much dulled the effects (Schnee being there as a distraction really didn't hurt matters), but when Yang and Ruby got home, it hit yang exactly what they saw.
Almost immediately after Yang placed Blake in her bed and bid goodnight to Ruby she went into the bathroom and heaved. The nightmares that came later, didn't really help things.
She wasn't a romantic like Ruby and knew pretty well that her father being a military contractor translated to a lot of people dying, but even so it was something… abstract. Something she'd never really experienced or seen up until now.
Last night was… Fresh, real.
"Yeah," Ruby admitted. "Managed some sleep though." Her little sister added in a more upbeat tone, clearly just trying to cheer Yang up.
"Better than nothing," Yang conceded.
"So," Ruby drawled out, her tone suggesting to yang she was trying to change the topic. "Did our guest wake up?"
"Yeah, actually managed to talk to her a bit." Yang nodded, happy for the change of subject. "Said her name is Blake Belladonna. Didn't get much further before Coco showed up."
"You knocked the girl out and now you're subjecting her to Coco?" Ruby asked with a chuckle. "Yang you might end up charged for torture."
"Not my fault that the girl didn't have any clothes with her," Yang defended herself valiantly.
Thankfully before Ruby could protest, Coco re-entered the room, but before Yang could needle her about not taking her time, when she saw the girl's eyes.
"Coco, what's up?" Yang asked, getting up.
"Velvet called from the café," the older girl explained. "Nora's there crying and claiming that Ren got arrested."
"What?!" Yang and Ruby asked in unison.
"What I just said," Coco replied. "Grab your new friend or leave her here, I don't care! We're going to get the whole story!"