Chapter 6: Crimson as Blood
Yang couldn't believe her eyes. There Ruby was, safe and whole as if nothing had happened. She was even dressed in her usual corset and hood. Her only deference to the weather was a long, red scarf.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted happily.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted back. She folded up her scythe and the two ran for each other, all giggles and smiles.
"You got two arms!" Ruby said, sounding surprised and happy.
"You bet I do!" Yang said, flexing. Then she cooed, "Ooh, come here baby sister!" She gathered up Ruby in a big hug and lifted her off the ground.
"Ack!" Ruby exclaimed, squirming in Yang's grip. "Put me down! Put me down!"
"I'm so happy to see you!" Yang said. She set Ruby on the ground and turned to Weiss. "Told you my plan was brilliant."
"Humpf," Weiss said, crossing her arms. She was trying to look indignant, but she couldn't quite keep a smile off her face.
"Weiss? I didn't even see you there!" Ruby said.
"It must run in the family," Weiss said. "It's very nice to see you again."
Ruby ran over to Weiss superhumanly fast, leaving a billow of rose petals in her wake. She latched onto her old partner. "I can't believe you're here too!"
Yang laughed. It was good to see that Ruby's child-like exuberance was still intact.
Eventually, Weiss managed to pry Ruby off herself. She asked, "What are you doing here? We didn't expect to find you back in this alley."
"Oh, well I heard the fight from the street," Ruby said. "I just thought someone was in trouble. I didn't even know it was you guys."
"That's my sister! Always being the hero," Yang said proudly.
Ruby asked, "So what are you guys doing here?"
"Looking for you, silly," Yang said. "I heard from Uncle Qrow you'd come here."
Weiss chimed in, "More specifically, she heard that you'd come alone. Why would you do something so dangerous?"
"We couldn't find any sign of Cinder in Haven, but we know she went there and we're pretty sure she hasn't left," Ruby explained. "When we heard about the White Fang in Atlas we wanted to check it out, but we didn't want to give up looking for Cinder either. Janue and I decided we should split up."
"That doesn't explain why you came all by yourself," Weiss said.
"Well, Jaune wanted to keep looking for Cinder because…because of Pyrrha. And Nora didn't want to go anywhere without Ren," Ruby said. "Besides, if Cinder does show up in Haven, we thought it be better to have more people there to stop her."
"I supposed that does make sense," Weiss said. "But you knew I was here in Atlas. Why didn't you contact me for help?"
"Oh! Well, that is…uh." Ruby looked away and tapped her foot on the ground in an embarrassed fashion. "I was going to, but…but I heard you had your own team now and a new partner and…."
"And what?" Weiss asked, sounding hurt. "You just assumed I wouldn't want to help you out?"
"I guess?" Ruby said reluctantly.
"Ruby Rose, you complete dolt!" Weiss said. "Why would you even think that?"
"I'm sorry, I just…" Ruby stammered. "With everything that's happened…."
Yang said. "Well, what's important is that we're all here now. We can go after the White Fang together!"
"You really want to help me find the White Fang?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah!" Yang said. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Well, I thought after…you know…" Ruby said.
"Don't worry about that. I'm fine," Yang said, waving her hand dismissively.
Weiss snorted. "That's debatable."
"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked sharply.
"I've been very concerned about your behavior," Weiss said. "Quite frankly, you've been acting careless and self-destructive. Just look at what happened tonight."
"Yeah, tonight we found Ruby," Yang said.
"Yes, we did. But to do that, you put us in a position to be ambushed by the White Fang," Weiss said.
"You're worried about that? These guys were scrubs," Yang said, gesturing at the unconscious White Fang that littered the alley.
"Something you didn't know until after they had us cornered," Weiss pointed out. "What if they hadn't been?"
"We handled it. We're fine," Yang said.
"But what if we hadn't?" Weiss asked.
"It doesn't matter. We did!" Yang said. She glared at Weiss and the two of them locked eyes in a contest of wills.
"So…uh…" Ruby said hesitantly. "If the both of you are here, where is Blake? Has anyone seen her?"
"No, we haven't," Yang said a little more forcefully than she'd intended.
"Oh…okay," Ruby said. "So…now what?"
"Now, we worry about stopping the White Fang," Yang said.
Weiss sighed, acquiescing for the moment. She turned to Ruby and asked, "Have you discovered anything about what the White Fang are doing in Atlas?"
"Not really," Ruby admitted. "I heard there was supposed to be some kind of big, super-secret meeting soon, but I can't figure out where or when."
Yang said, "It's probably in an abandoned warehouse. That's where stuff like that usually happens."
Weiss said, "I suppose that is where criminal-types tend to congregate. But that doesn't exactly help. Atlas is a big place. There are a lot of warehouses."
Ruby said, "Maybe one of the guys you fought tonight knows something about it."
Yang pointed at the wolf-faunus. "If any of them know, it'll be him."
"Of course!" Ruby exclaimed. "The one that looks different is always the most important!"
Weiss said, "That literally makes no sense."
"Just trust me," Yang said. She stepped over the wolf-faunus and slapped him a few times on the cheek. "Wakey, wakey sunshine!" She said with faux sweetness.
The wolf-faunus groaned. His head lolled from side to side. Yang grabbed his jacket with her left hand and hauled him into the air.
The wolf-faunus yelped in surprise. Yang slammed him up against the wall and held him there with his feet off the ground. She ripped his grimm mask off of him and squeezed it until the ceramic shattered. Then she slowly opened her fingers one at a time and let the broken shards fall to the ground.
"Do I have your attention?" Yang asked, threateningly.
The wolf-faunus nodded. His eyes were full of fear, but they still held a glimmer of resolve.
"We heard there's going to be a big White Fang get-together," Yang said. "Me and my friends want to know when and where."
The wolf-faunus glanced a Weiss for just a second. He said, "I'm not telling a Schnee nothing."
"You're not talking to a Schnee," Yang said. She pulled the wolf-faunus away from the wall only to forcefully slam him back against it. "You're talking to me."
The wolf-faunus winced from the impact, but he said, "You might as well be a Schnee, love. You're all a bunch of faunus-hating bigots!"
"Don't think you know me!" Yang said. "I don't hate the faunus, just the White Fang."
"That's one and the same thing!" the wolf-faunus said. "I've been in the White Fang a long time. I was there when we tried doing things the nice way. Humans wouldn't stand for that though. You attacked us first. You forced us to get violent. What did we ever do to you?"
"I'll show you exactly what the White Fang did to me!" Yang shouted. She grabbed her glove with her teeth and pulled her prosthetic hand free. She held it up for the wolf-faunus to see. "This is what you did! This is why I hate you!"
"And you deserve so much worse!" The wolf-faunus spat out.
Yang's eyes instantly turned red. She curled her hand into a fist and smashed it into the wall scant millimeters from the wolf-faunus' face. Broken chips of brick and mortar went flying. The wolf-faunus cried out in fear, but Yang wasn't satisfied. She clamped her cybernetic hand over his head and began to squeeze hard.
The wolf-faunus wriggled helplessly in Yang's iron grip. A pained scream rose in his throat as Yang really applied the pressure. It was the most satisfying sound she'd heard in a long time.
Ruby cried out, "Yang! What are you doing?!"
The fear in Ruby's voice made Yang stop. Her grip on the wolf-faunus' head loosened. She'd really been ready to turn his head in to pulp. The realization unnerved her and blunted her anger enough that she could think rationally again.
Yang let out a long breath. Then she grabbed the wolf-faunus' chin and forced him to look her in the eye. "I got this little souvenir trying to save a faunus from the White Fang. So don't try to be all high and mighty with me," she said with icy calm. "Now if the next words out of your mouth aren't when and where the meeting is, I am going to do something very, very unpleasant."
"It's tomorrow!" The wolf-faunus squeaked out. "Tomorrow in the warehouse on Waren Street!"
"Thank you," Yang said. She dropped the wolf-faunus. He landed in a heap on the ground. A swift and sudden kick to the head from Yang rendered him unconscious again.
Yang took a few steps away from Weiss and Ruby. Even with her back to them, she could feel their eyes boring into her.
"Weiss, call the cops," Yang said. "Let them know there's some trash here for them to pick up."
Weiss looked at Yang long and hard before she finally pulled out her scroll and said, "Right."
Ruby walked slowly over to Yang until she was standing side-by-side with her. She asked, "Are you really alright, Sis? You were scaring me there."
"I'm fine," Yang said. "Really."
Yang opened up the throttle on her borrowed motorcycle as she rode back to the Schnee mansion alone. Weiss had elected to call for a chauffeur rather than take another terrifying ride with Yang. She'd added that it would be best for someone to stay behind until the police showed up to collect the White Fang anyway. Ruby had decided to stick with Weiss and hitch a ride back with her.
Yang was taking a very long, very indirect route back. A bike ride usually calmed her down, and right now she felt like she needed a lot of calming. The wolf-faunus had agitated her far more than she would care to admit. It wasn't because of anything he had said or done, but simply because she really did genuinely hate him. She hadn't allowed herself to think about it, but she knew that deep in her gut was a burning hatred for the White Fang and everyone in it. It was a bitter feeling and one that Yang was wholly unfamiliar with. Sure, there were plenty of people she didn't like, but to actually, truly hate someone was new for her.
Yang glanced down at her right hand. She hadn't bothered to put her glove back on. Her prosthetic was naked for the world to see. Looking at it made her angry all over again. It made her think of Blake. She hadn't really realized just how hard she'd been trying to not think about Blake, but now that both Ruby and Weiss were back, it would be impossible not to. Team RWBY without Blake was like a jigsaw puzzle with a single piece missing; you didn't see the picture that the puzzle made, just what wasn't there.
The thing that got to Yang the most, however, was that she didn't know how she even felt about Blake anymore. Did she hate her? Did she love her? Thinking about it just spun her head around in circles until she was ready to punch something.
Yang turned the motorcycle in the direction of the Schnee mansion. The ride wasn't calming her down at all, and Ruby would probably be upset if she wasn't there by the time she got back.
A few minutes later, Yang pulled into the mansion's massive garage. She parked the bike back where she'd found it and carefully re-covered it with the tarp.
Yang left the garage. She figured Ruby and Weiss would be coming in through the front door, so she headed to the grand foyer. When she got there, she pulled out her glove and slipped it back onto her cybernetic hand. She didn't feel comfortable with her mechanical limb exposed.
Yang saw the lights of a car pulling up. She pushed any lingering thoughts about Blake or the White Fang out of her head. Now wasn't the time for them. Her bitterness had almost ruined her reunion with her sister, and she wanted this to be a happy occasion.
Weiss walked in the front door followed by a wide-eyed Ruby. "Wow!" Ruby said. "This place is huge!"
"Just wait until you see the kitchen," Yang called out. "There's a pastry chef on staff."
"Really?" Ruby's face lit up.
Weiss said, "I'll be sure to tell her to bake plenty of strawberry cake."
"Oh Weiss! You're the best partner ever!" Ruby declared.
"Just contact me the next time you need help, and we'll call it even," Weiss said.
"Deal!" Ruby said. She turned to Yang and took on what she probably thought was a serious tone. "Now, my dear sister, we need to talk about how you used Weiss as bait."
"Why does everyone say that like it was a bad thing?" Yang asked.
"Because it was a bad thing!" Ruby said.
Weiss interjected, "I'm glad someone agrees with me."
"Of course she agrees with you," Yang said. "You promised her baked goods."
"If that's what it takes to get someone to see reason, I'll have to hire more pastry chefs," Weiss said. "I'll go tell the staff to prepare a room for you, Ruby. I'm sure you'd like an opportunity to speak with your sister alone. Maybe you can talk some sense into her."
Weiss took her leave and vanished into one of the numerous hallways that branched off of the foyer.
"So…how's Dad?" Ruby asked.
"He's okay," Yang said. "He's really worried about you. We should probably write him a letter to let him know that we're both alright."
"We totally should," Ruby said.
"How are Ren and Nora and Jaune doing?" Yang asked.
"Ren and Nora are fine. They have each other. Jaune is…coping," Ruby said.
"So are you really going to try to talk some sense into me?" Yang asked.
"Nope. I know better than that," Ruby said. "But Weiss is really worried about you. And I guess I am too."
"There's nothing to worry about," Yang insisted.
"Alright. Then there's nothing to worry about," Ruby said.
"Just like that?" Yang asked, surprised.
"Just like that. I believe you," Ruby said. "And if you decide later that there's something you can't handle on your own, me and Weiss will be there for you."
"Ah, you're the best little sister ever," Yang said. She grabbed Ruby in another hug. Ruby didn't squirm or make a fuss this time; she just hugged Yang back.
The sisters stayed in their embrace for almost a full minute before, out of the blue, Ruby said, "I want to see it."
"You want to see what?" Yang asked, breaking off the hug. She didn't quite like the glint in Ruby's eye.
"I want to see your robot arm! I bet it's so cool!" Ruby said. She zipped over to Yang's side and started pawing at her sleeve.
Yang slipped away from Ruby. "Hey! You can't just ask a girl to show you her arm like that!" she said like she'd been scandalized. "You've got to work your way up to that!"
"Come on, Yang!" Ruby whined. She started talking a million miles a minute. "How does it work? Did they give you the specs? Can I take it apart sometime? Oh, is it also a gun? It should also be a gun! Can I put a gun in it?"
"Gah!" Yang said. She started running and playfully shouted, "Weiss! Help! Save me from my sister!"
"Oh no no! You're not getting away from me!" Ruby said. Rose petals scattered everywhere as she chased after Yang.
The hollow foyer of the Schnee mansion was suddenly filled with laughter and giggles as the two sisters played their impromptu game, warming the space with a sense of joy that it had long lacked.
Author's Note: I don't have a lot to say about this chapter that wouldn't constitute a spoiler. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave it at that.
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.