Chapter 5: Beast and Man
There was a huge smile on Yang's face as she tore down the streets of Atlas on a motorcycle. It was nighttime and Yang had made her way to the seedier side of the city. The streets there weren't particularly well lit, but that didn't stop her from pouring on the speed. Just for fun, she let the bike's clutch out, gunned the throttle, and popped a wheelie.
Weiss, who was perched on the bike's back seat desperately clinging to Yang's torso, let out a shriek. "You are absolutely crazy! Why does my father even have this thing?!"
"I told you he would!" Yang shouted over the wind as the motorcycle landed back on its front tire.
Yang had found the bike after an extensive search of papa Schnee's ridiculously large collection of motor vehicles. Weiss had insisted that Yang would never find anything so bourgeois as a motorcycle among the rows upon rows of luxury cars, but Yang had persisted. She imagined that every rich guy had a motorcycle or two stashed away somewhere.
Yang had found her prize in a forgotten corner of the garage, tucked neatly away under a tarp. It had even come with a helmet and riding goggles. The look on Weiss's face had been priceless. Yang had taken the opportunity to be insufferably smug about being right.
The motorcycle was white naturally, but Yang had been surprised by the complete lack of the Schnee family crest. Maybe the bike was some leftover of papa Schnee's reckless youth. Whatever the case was, Yang didn't really care. It had been far too long since she'd been able to ride, and she intended to enjoy every second of it.
Weiss shouted, "Are we actually going to look for your sister, or are we going spend all night on this infernal deathtrap?"
"Relax, princess," Yang said. "We just need to find what we're looking for."
"And what precisely are we looking for?" Weiss demanded.
"Some place just like…that," Yang said. She hit the front and rear brakes. Weiss yelp as the bike rapidly came to a halt.
Yang stuck her foot out to prop the bike up and lifted her goggles. She had stopped in front of a rundown bar. From the outside, the bar appeared to be nothing more than a tiny hole-in-the-wall, but the noise drifting out into the street and the bouncer sitting on a stool in front of the entrance told Yang that there was more to it.
Yang glanced over her shoulder at Weiss who had her eyes closed and a white-knuckle grip on Yang. "You can let go now. We've stopped."
Weiss's eyes flew open. She jumped off the bike as fast as she could.
"You know," Yang remarked. "You weren't this scared when Ozpin flung us into the Emerald Forest at a hundred miles an hour."
"There I had some measure of control!" Weiss said. "I wasn't at the mercy of a lunatic!"
Yang chuckled. It was good to have Weiss to make fun of again. She reached up and removed her helmet with a toss of her hair.
Yang was wearing the same cream-colored outfit she'd been wearing the night Team RWBY had tried to hunt down clues about Roman Torchwick's operation. Ruby had declared that day with her usual exuberance that everyone's "super-secret mission outfits" needed nicknames. She had affectionately dubbed Yang's "Hunter". The outfit's short skirt was not appropriate for the weather, but Yang's semblance was keeping her warm and tonight she felt like showing off. The only addition to the outfit was a black leather glove Yang wore over her synthetic hand.
Weiss was wearing the jacket-skirt combo Ruby had dubbed "Snow Pea". Weiss had objected to such a cutesy name but only halfheartedly. Unlike Yang however, Weiss was also wearing thick leggings, gloves, a scarf, and a fur hat. All of them were white of course.
Weiss took one look at the bar they'd stopped in front of and said, "I doubt very much that we're going to find your sister in there. They wouldn't even let a sixteen-year-old in."
"Aww, you kept track of Ruby's birthday," Yang cooed. "That's so cute."
"That is not what's important right now!" Weiss said in a huff.
"I know Ruby's not in there," Yang said. "But we might be able to get some info we need to find her."
"Your track record with bars and gathering information does not fill me with confidence," Weiss said.
Yang ignored the comment and started walking to the entrance. The bouncer guarding the door was a ram-faunus, and he had the curly horns to prove it. He was a mountain of a man. His crossed arms reminded Yang of tree trunks, and even sitting on his stool, he was eye level with her.
As Yang and Weiss approached, the bouncer looked straight at them with a glare so sharp it could've cut glass.
Yang, completely unintimidated, said, "Hiya! We hear this is the place to be!"
"Not for you," the bouncer said in a deep, reverberating voice.
"Ah come on," Yang said. "I know we look young, but we're eighteen. You can check our IDs!"
"I don't need to see your IDs," the bouncer said. "Get out of here."
"We could make it worth your while," Yang said playfully.
The bouncer stood and rose to his full height. Yang had to tilt her head up. He completely towered over her. She guessed he was at least seven feet tall. "Get lost. Now," he said.
Yang shrugged her shoulders. "Ah well. I tried asking nicely."
Lightning fast, Yang cocked her arm back and shot her fist straight into the bouncer's gut. She felt a weak aura that barely put up any resistance before her punch connected with his abs. The bouncer doubled over as the air left his lungs. Before he had a chance to do anything, Yang slammed her other fist straight into his jaw. He toppled over, and Yang had to resist the urge to shout, "Timber!"
"Was that absolutely necessary?" Weiss asked disapprovingly.
"He'll be back on his feet in a little while," Yang said.
"And I doubt he'll be very happy with you," Weiss said.
"Oh, I'm counting on that," Yang said coyly. She stepped over the bouncer. "Come on!"
Inside, the bar was very poorly lit. Yang was not surprised, and it only took Weiss a second before she figured out why. Every last one of the bar's patrons and staff were faunus.
"You brought me to a faunus bar?!" Weiss hissed at Yang.
"Don't worry, Ms. Schnee!" Yang said much louder than necessary. "I'm sure everyone here is very friendly."
Weiss blanched at the mention of her family name. In an instant, every single eye in the vicinity was focused on her.
"Are you trying to get us killed?!" Weiss whispered frantically.
"Relax. I know what I'm doing," Yang said.
"That's what I'm afraid of!" Weiss said.
Yang dragged poor Weiss through the gloomy room. Just as Yang had suspected, the bar was much larger that it appeared to be on the outside, although it still looked just as cheap and rundown. The floor was covered in dirt and discarded peanut shells. Rickety tables, crowded with faunus were all arranged haphazardly. Surprisingly, however, the horrid smells that usually permeated such places were absent, probably in deference to most faunus' sensitive noses.
Yang and Weiss passed through the maze of tables. The bar's patrons all stared openly at them. Weiss looked like she had a target painted on her back, which may well have been true. Yang marched right up to the bar and leaned casually against it. The bartender—a dog-faunus if the droopy ears on top of his head were anything to go by—glanced at Yang. He didn't say anything, however. He looked rather nonchalant, bored even, unlike everyone else around him.
"I'll have a strawberry sunrise. With one of those little umbrellas in it," Yang said like nothing was wrong. "You want anything Weiss?"
"No!" Weiss said.
The bartender still didn't say anything. He just wandered off. Yang laid even odds that he was actually going to fill her drink order.
"Enough playing around, Yang," Weiss said nervously. "What are we doing here?"
"We're looking for the White Fang," Yang said offhandedly.
The man on the stool next to Yang almost spit out his drink. He quickly emptied his glass and slipped away as discreetly as he could. If any of the bar's patrons hadn't been paying attention, Yang now had their undivided attention.
"We're what?!" Weiss asked. "How is that going to help us find your sister?"
"We'll never find her just by wandering around a kingdom this big. But if we look for what she's looking for, we're bound to run into each other," Yang explained, proud of her brilliant idea. "It was either that or lay out a trail of strawberries."
"There are so many reasons why that is a terrible idea!" Weiss said. "How do you even know there are White Fang members here?"
"Well, I don't," Yang admitted. "But this is a faunus bar, and I figured with you here…well…."
Weiss's eyes shot open in understanding. "You're using me as bait?!"
Yang had no doubt that Weiss would be screaming at the top of her lungs if she hadn't been concerned about drawing even more attention to herself.
"Well, it sounds bad when you say it like that," Yang said.
Suddenly the bartender reappeared and set a drink down in front of Yang.
"Hey, thanks!" Yang said. "No umbrella though."
"Why of all the…you…" Weiss sputtered incoherently.
Yang wasn't really listening to Weiss. She was concentrating extra hard on making sure she picked up her drink with her cybernetic hand in a completely natural manner. Holding a glass took a lot more finesse that punching your problems in the face, and Yang didn't want anyone to think that she was anything but in complete control.
Just as Yang raised her glass to take a drink, she spotted the bouncer storming in through the front door. He was joined by two suspicious looking men. Yang downed her drink in one go, enjoying the burn as it poured down her throat. She shoved her left hand into her pocket and slammed a handful of Lien cards down on the bar, keeping her hand on top of them. She would've rather used her right hand, but she didn't have enough sense of touch with it to find things in her pocket.
Yang said to the bartender, "Is there a back way out of here?"
The bartender looked at the money with the same indifferent expression he had worn the whole time. He casually pointed a finger.
"Thanks!" Yang said, lifting her hand off of the money and grabbing Weiss's arm. "Come on, Ms. Schnee. We've got to go!"
Weiss yelped in surprise as Yang yanked her away. Yang quickly weaved her way through the tables in the direction the bartender had indicated.
"Where are we going now?" Weiss demanded.
"We're leaving out the back so the White Fang catch us," Yang said. She finally spotted the back door and made a beeline for it.
"Don't you mean, 'So the White Fang don't catch us'?" Weiss asked.
Yang pushed the door open. She rushed out into the alleyway only to find five White Fang members in full uniform blocking both sides. Three were on one end and two were on the other.
"Nope," Yang said, popping the p.
One of the White Fang in the group of three stepped forward. He was the only one not wearing a hood, although he still had the symbolic grimm mask. His hair was short, spiked, and a luminous shade of silver. A wolf's tail poked out from underneath his coat. His hand was resting on a gun holstered on his hip. It was either a compact shotgun or a very large pistol.
A shiver of panic went down Yang's spine, but she repressed it. Although the wolf-faunus wore the same mask, he was not the monster with the sword. She would not be afraid of him.
"You know, I was just telling me mates a joke," the wolf-faunus said in a native Menagerian accent. "It starts off something like, 'A Schnee walks into a bar…'."
"It doesn't sound particularly funny," Weiss said, inching her way back to the door. Before she got there, it opened and the bouncer and his two buddies stepped out.
"Oh, it's right hilarious," the wolf-faunus said. "Unless you're the Schnee, or her idiot, loudmouthed friend that is."
Yang said, "I'd kind of like to hear the rest of the joke."
"I don't think there's any need for that, Yang," Weiss said, conveying with her tone just how displeased she was. "We'll just be on our way."
"Can't let you do that, love," the wolf-faunus said. "Besides, the punchline's to die for."
Weiss put on her best face of smug superiority and said, "You're obviously not from around here. Wearing those uniform openly on the streets of Atlas is going to get you arrested very quickly. You're not going to get away with this."
Yang rolled her eyes in amusement. She knew that Weiss's haughty tone would not impress the White Fang.
"Haven't you heard, love? It's a whole new world out there! Black is white! Up is down! And you'd be surprised what we've already gotten away with." The wolf-faunus drew his gun which turned out to be an oversized pistol. "Get 'em," he said.
"About time," Yang muttered. She activated Ember Celica, and Weiss drew Myrtenaster. The two of them locked eyes for just a moment.
"We are going to have words about this," Weiss threatened. Yang just grinned.
Without another word between them, Yang and Weiss simultaneously launched themselves in opposite directions. Weiss glided smoothly on a glyph toward the two faunus at the back of the alley while Yang blasted herself toward the three at the front.
Yang's first punch sent out a spray of shot at one of the hooded faunus' feet. The pellets bounced off his aura, but the force of the blast knocked his legs out from under him. Before he hit the ground, Yang swung around and hit him with an uppercut that launched him into the air.
Repositioning herself with a spin, Yang punched the other hooded faunus three times to disorient him. Then she grabbed his head, yanked it down, and smashed her knee into it. He went down instantly in a heap. At the same time, the faunus Yang had sent skyward finally came falling back down to the ground. Neither one of them got up.
The wolf-faunus, looking very alarmed that his comrades had been dispatched so quickly, fired off a few shots. On a whim, Yang batted them aside with her artificial hand. Aura or not, She'd probably go through gloves really fast if she kept using tactics like that, but seeing the look on her opponent's face was completely worth it.
The wolf-faunus twirled his gun and it unfolded into the shape of a one-handed war hammer.
"Hey, that's pretty cool. But my friend's got one that's way bigger," Yang said mockingly.
Meanwhile on the other side of the alley, Weiss was engaged in a two-on-one duel. Both of her opponents were wielding swords. Unfortunately for them, Weiss was matching each of their strikes with effortless parries. She was quickly driving them back.
Weiss, not in the mood to prolong the fight, flicked Myrtenaster's cylinder over to the cyan Dust compartment. She struck hard, breaking the guard of both faunus and then plunged her rapier into the ground. A mass of ice sprung into being, trapping her opponents' legs.
Weiss took a step back and switched Myrtenaster to yellow Dust. She thrust the blade forward and lightning leapt from it, striking both of the faunus. They cried out in pain and then slumped over.
Yang heard the crackle of energy from behind her. Weiss must have finished her fight already. As much fun as Yang was having, she knew it was time to wrap things up.
The wolf-faunus swung his war hammer wildly. Yang considered taking a hit just so she could feel the rush of her semblance, but she decided against it. Weiss was mad enough with her as it was. She blocked the next blow and then countered with several of her own. On the final strike she spun around, leaving herself with her back to her opponent. He teetered unsteadily. Without even looking back, Yang hit him square in the face with the back of her hand. He collapsed to the ground.
Yang looked down the alley and saw that the bouncer and his friends were still standing by the door. They were frozen with terror at the one-sided slaughter they had just witnessed. Yang took a few menacing steps forward, put her hands on her hips, and gave them an out-for-blood grin.
The three men wisely chose to retreat back into the bar.
"Pff. Pansies," Yang said. She wouldn't be surprised if some of them needed to change their pants.
"If you're quite done trying to get us killed, I have a few things to say to you!" Weiss said. Her voice was as shrill as Yang had ever heard it.
"Yeah? What's that?" Yang asked.
"Look out!" Weiss said, pointing behind Yang.
Yang turned quickly and saw the wolf-faunus back on his feet and charging at her. She dropped into a fighting stance again and said, "Oh! You want some more!?"
Suddenly, there was a blur behind the wolf-faunus and a thick piece of metal collided with is head. He stopped in his tracks.
Yang was instantly hit with intense déjà vu. She'd been in this situation before. It was a lifetime ago in the Emerald Forest. "Blake?" she whispered, her voice wavering.
All of Yang's confidence fled. Her chest tightened in something akin to panic. She couldn't see Blake again, at least not right now. That would mean acknowledging the scars on her heart that she was desperately trying to ignore. She stood paralyzed by the fear that she was about to come face-to-face with her old partner and also by the fear that she wasn't.
The wolf-faunus toppled to the ground. Behind him was Ruby with Crescent Rose in her hands.
"Are you alright? I…" Ruby stopped mid sentence when she saw who it was standing in front of her. "Yang? What are you doing here?"
Author's Note: It's much more fun than I anticipated writing Yang and Weiss interacting. I may have to put together a Freezerburn fic in the future.
I actually don't agree with Yang's decision to attack the bouncer in this chapter, but it's in keeping with her character. Remember when she assaulted Junior in the Yellow Trailer with basically no provocation? Same kind of thing. You'd better be careful, Yang. You can't solve all of life's problems by punching them in the face. Uh…not that that's foreshadowing or anything…. Probably.
Constructive criticism is always welcome so please feel free to review or comment. If you want to be notified of updates or send me a message, you can find me on tumblr under the name electronicyarn.