Yang POV
I hummed quietly to myself, fingering the Ember Celica bracelet on my left arm absently.
"Yang, look." Weiss leaned out of the driver seat window and pointed down the street. I sat up from where I was laying on KBW 2.0's hood and saw Dante and Ruby walking towards us. They seemed to be talking intently about something urgent. Huh, I wonder what they're talking about. When they were still a little ways off, Dante took Ruby's wrist, pulling her to a stop. She was gesturing almost desperately and her voice rose just long enough to hear some of the words.
"-get into anywhere like that, we're all dead!" Ruby glanced our way and said something quietly. Dante glanced our way as well and her mouth snapped shut, then she started talking lower. Ruby shook her head and started walking again, leaving Dante standing there looking like she was trying not to tear out her own hair. She finally threw up her hands and followed Ruby sullenly towards us.
"Yang," Ruby said when she reached us. "I need to talk to you." I nodded and crossed my legs, waiting. She glanced into the car, saw Anna, Cali, and Weiss sitting forward, not even pretending they weren't eavesdropping, and nodded. "Okay. Um. . ." She paused looking for the right words to say what was obviously troubling her. "Dante and I were attacked." She blurted suddenly. Dante winced, then nodded.
Immediately Weiss was out of the car, gripping Ruby's shoulders tightly and checking her worriedly.
"W-weisss. . .I'm fine!" She whined, but she didn't seem to mind too much. Weiss coughed and backed up.
"I'm glad you're okay." She said quietly, blushing a bit. Anna laughed.
"Quite concerned, aren't you, Weiss?" Weiss sniffed.
"I won't apologize for being worried about my partner's welfare." Anna smiled and nodded.
"Of course, just kidding ya." Weiss turned back to Ruby.
"What did the assailant look like? Did you see?" Ruby paused, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
"She was tall, and she wore a mask with red markings, she wore her hair like this," I bit my lip to keep from interrupting her as she demonstrated with some of Cali's hair. "and she had this weird full body suit. She called herself-"
"Spectra." Dante whispered the name quietly, flexing her fingers and staring at her palm. I grimaced.
"Yeah, I know her." That got everyone's attention.
"Who is she?" Dante was staring at me intently. I shrugged.
"Let me rephrase that, I met her briefly in a hallway at school." Ruby's face paled considerably.
"You mean she's the one that attacked you?" I mimed shooting a finger gun in her direction.
"Bingo." Dante mulled over this.
"She wasn't there to attack us." She mumbled. We looked at her.
"How do you know?" Cali asked, her face blank as usual. Dante scrubbed her palm against her jeans and stared at it oddly.
"She said she was looking for her 'betrothed'." Ruby nodded.
"She asked to. . .examine Dante to see if she was the one." Anna eyed Dante, who was still wiping her hand on her jeans.
"Did you let her?" Dante glared at her, eyes narrowing.
"No. Why the hell would I?" Anna shook her head.
"I don't know, I just thought-"
"You thought I'm a total whore who lets strangers 'examine' me, is that it?" She snapped, undisguised venom in her tone. Anna shook her head.
"No!" Cali stepped forward and grabbed Dante's hand, turning it palm up. Dante flinched.
"I don't know what it is! It just won't come off, no matter what I do." Cali peered up into Dante's face.
"Dante. . .there's nothing there." Dante blanched and looked down at her hand.
"O-of course there is! I-it's a-a black smudge!" Cali shook her head slowly, and Dante cradled here hand to her chest. Her eyes darted back and forth like a cornered animal, and she started backing away. Ruby moved slowly toward her, hands out in an attempt to placate the frantic girl.
"Calm down, Dante, let me see your hand." Dante reluctantly let her inspect her hand, though she kept twitching occasionally. Ruby shook her head slightly.
"Are you sure you're not just seeing a shadow on your hand? Because I don't see anything." Dante froze, then looked down at her hand.
"A. . .Shadow?" Ruby nodded encouragingly.
"Ehehehe," She chuckled a bit nervously. "Of course. Yeah, a shadow, that's all. Just a shadow." Apparently, shadow was the magic word, because she seemed to be calming down now, her shoulders relaxing some and she straightened up, standing taller. She coughed lightly into her fist.
"Well then, I got shit to do. Bye." Then she turned and walked away. I shook my head, watching her leave with undisguised bewilderment.
"What the fuck just happened?" Ruby shook her head, deep in thought.
"I don't know." Weiss scuffed her boot on the sidewalk and glanced around.
"So you're saying that somewhere out there is a masked woman with the ability to walk through walls? She could be anywhere! She could be anyone. Ruby stiffened and started mumbling to herself.
"Wait a minute. . .Spectra. . .she. . .wasn't that the hand she kissed?" We all stared at her. Surprisingly, Cali spoke first.
"What happened?" Ruby took a deep breath and started from the beginning, giving us the Norm's notes version. Awkward silence followed.
"So. . ." Anna began. "Dante took you to a private room in a strip club, Spectra appeared and scared the shit out of you guys, and then you left?" Ruby shrugged, fidgeting and giggling nervously.
"Yeah. . .Pretty much?" Cali surprised me yet again by starting to hum a tune that I didn't recognize. Anna grinned and began dancing around, pointing at Ruby with either hand in an alternating pattern and singing.
"Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you're a womanizer, oh, womanizer, oh, you're a womanizer, Ruby. You, you-you are, you, you-you are, womanizer, womanizer, womanizer. . . (A/N: Lol. I have no idea if that's recognizable when you read it, but oh well.)
Weiss stared at her hands, which she'd begun wringing, and scowled down at them before stopping and shaking them a bit.
"Um, why were you in the strip club anyway?" Ruby froze and her mouth opened and closed soundlessly, temporarily useless.
"That's. . .We. . ." She sighed and stared at her boots. "I can't tell you that." Weiss sucked down lemonade, clearly hurt by this turn of events, but too proud to outright say it. I watched in morbid fascination as her expression flattened and vanished. Before I could intervene, Weiss aimed and pulled the trigger.
"I see." She said coldly. "I suppose it's none of my business what you guys did." Ruby gaped at her, waving her hands frantically, as if to clear the insinuations from the air.
"No! It wasn't like that!" Weiss shrugged.
"Would it even matter if it was?" Ruby flinched and I grimaced. That was awful, even for Weiss. Ruby shook her head, trembling from head to toe. I don't know if it was anger or what, but I knew that Weiss had only succeeded in pushing her farther away.
"You're awful." She spat at Weiss, then got in the car and crossed her arms. "Take me back to Beacon, please, I'm not going to put up with this crap." I hesitated. Clearly, I waited too long, because she got out and stomped away. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.
"Obviously this was a really fucking bad idea. Let's go get Ruby and get out of here." Weiss crossed her arms and sniffed haughtily.
"I'm staying for the concert." I made a frustrated noise in the back of my throat.
"Have fun walking back without your weapon, Bitch Princess." I snapped at her angrily. "Why even bother going at all? You only came because of Ruby, but now all you've done is pissed her off!" She glared at me, but couldn't exactly disagree. Cali spoke softly, timidly, as if afraid to upset me.
"I-I'd like to stay too." I swore mentally and resolved to keep my voice lower. Her big, multicolored eyes pleaded with me and I felt my willpower start to crumble. I bit my lip, calculating the gas money required to drop Ruby off, come back out here, and then drive back. Anna's gaze was sympathetic.
"It's up to you, Yang." I sighed, then nodded.
"Alright, we'll stay. I'll go find Ruby, maybe see if Dante wants to join us." Weiss stiffened and I understood. She's jealous. I smirked nastily at her. "Unless of course, Weiss has a problem with that. Does that upset you, Weiss?" Her gaze said she'd have liked nothing more than to skewer me with Myrtenaster right then, but at the moment, she was the weakest out of all of us.
"No." She spat. "Why would I care?"
"Because you're jealous." Judging from her grin, Anna was enjoying the shift in animosity too much, so I shook my head.
"Alright, enough." Cali nodded, moving to stand in between them.
"Yes, please stop." Both girls visibly softened and back up grudgingly. I smiled at her and turned to follow Ruby, fuming internally. I swear, the next time she or anyone else runs off, I'm going to fucking duct tape them to the car.
Ruby POV
Weiss's accusations chased me down the street, taunting me with this sick mixture of anger, hatred, and betrayal. I wanted to punch a wall and scream at the top of my lungs, but I held myself in check. Freakin' Weiss. So friggin hot, but still so damn cold.
"Stings, doesn't it?" Said a familiar voice. I ignored her and kept walking. She was suddenly beside me, walking backwards and keeping her strides even with mine. "Rejection. S'a bitch ta deal with, innit?" I rolled my eyes and she chuckled lightly. "We're trying out different ways of speaking, to increase our chances of blending in. . .bro."
"Look, Sparky was it?" She bristled and I bit back a snarky laugh. "I'm not in a good mood, so please leave." Spectra giggled and spun, still keeping perfect pace with me.
"Ah, but don't you see? Your stormy mood and dark disposition are what led us straight to you!" She leaned close and I could hear her inhaling through the mask. "It's such a beautiful scent. We could live off of it alone." I decided to go back to ignoring her. After a while, she spoke again. "How's your friend, Dante Stryker? We didn't scare you too badly did we?" Did she sound. . .nervous? Still I refused to take the bait. Her tone became wistful and she placed a hand over her heart. . .or where I assumed her heart was. . .If she even had a heart. "Ah, what a magnificent lover she must be, are we correct?" I shrugged.
"Wouldn't know." She made a strange noise in the back of her throat, a sort of half moan half yelp.
"Then that means she is free of any romantic obligations?" I sighed.
"I wouldn't know, I just met her today." Spectra laughed, delighted.
"Perfect!" She paused. "However, if she is not the Betrothed, then we suppose naught can be done about it. . .homie." I sighed.
"Ugh, nobody really says that anymore." As if the universe was bent on proving me wrong, two guys just in front of us did the whole hand-clasp and one-armed-hug thing and said:
"Hey, wassup, homie?"
"Not much, I'm good homie." My eyebrow twitched and I could almost feel the sarcasm in Spectra's laser beam gaze searing a hole through my head. I pushed between the 'homies' and kept walking.
I walked for a good two minutes before she showed up again.
"Are you sure that you and Dante Stryker are not lovers?"
"Look," I growled. "Leave me the hell alone, and leave Dante alone too." Her shoulders slumped and I wavered. Was she really feeling upset, or was she acting to get me off guard? I couldn't tell.
"But we cannot!" She whined. "We are undeniably attracted to her. She has the most wonderful fearful expression, we loved the way her perfectly perky breasts heaved as she gasped in terror, her silky soft feathers, and those wonderfully plush lips!" She hugged herself and squealed like a fan-girl. . .which in a way she was. "We believe that this feeling. . .it is what you humans call a crush, correct? We have become strangely enamored by her. Now we have suddenly started to harbor visions of ravaging her beautiful body." I took a large step away from her.
"Drool's leaking from your mask." I said dryly. She felt her chin and neck, then shook her head, huffing.
"Mock us if you will, but we wish to learn more about her." I shrugged.
"Good luck." She stepped in front of me and I fought the urge to turn and run away from that creepy laser beam nongaze. She placed her hands on my shoulders and focused solely on me.
"Will you help us?" I tried to shake her hands off, but her grip tightened. I fought back a rising tidal wave of terror and tried to still my.
"No. Let go of me." She clasped her hands together in front of her chest.
"Oh please, please, please, pleeease?" I shook my head.
"No. You threatened to kill her!" That gave the woman some pause.
"But I-" Her attention shifted to a point over my shoulder, she leaned forward a bit, as if to get a closer look at something.
Then I heard a whistling sound, growing louder and louder with every passing second. Spectra swore, grabbed my waist, and leaped into the air. I twisted and squirmed desperately in her arms.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" Then I felt an explosive wave of heat and air, accompanied by the woefully familiar sound of. . .well, an explosion. Spectra dropped lightly to the ground and growled.
"Don't you know it's not nice to randomly attack people like that?"
"You're one to talk," Yang scoffed. "Now get away from my little sister." Spectra pushed me unceremoniously to the side and crossed her arms, scowling belligerently.
"Your puny mortal rules do not apply to beings such as ourself." Yang cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders, activating Ember Celica and walking backwards around Spectra, forcing her turn to continually to keep Yang in her field of vision.
"And what the hell are you exactly?" Spectra stiffened, then shook her head as if clearing it.
"We've divulged too much already." Then she glided smoothly into a small alleyway and was gone. Yang and I stared anxiously after her for a long time before relaxing. Almost immediately, a nearby dumpster began to rattle as something, or someoneΒΈ began moving around inside.
Terrible place to end, I know, but I want to get this up before Monday. If you have an OC you'd like to see in the story, I'm accepting the first three requests I get (from different people).
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Aaaaand I'm done! Ciao.
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EDIT 2: It's done, there are no more spots.