Chapter 31: Some Actual Truth
With high expectations, readers went on the internet to read fan fiction. However, the internet gains great writing powers, and soon seizes control of one story after another, in the name of justice, and peace. The year is After Writing 195. Operation Meteor: In a move to counter the internet's creativity, one writer schemes to write a new story on a website, disguising them as word documents. However, The Draigg does not own RWBY, or anything referenced.
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After leaving Weiss in the room, Yang and Blake made their way further down the hall. The one other place they thought to look for Ruby was in their shared bedroom. As they reached the door, Yang could have sworn she heard muffled sobs coming from the other side.
"Ruby? Are you in there?" Yang asked in a soothing tone. If Ruby really was crying in there, then Yang really needed to be the best she could be right now.
Yang quickly got an answer. "Go away!" Ruby cried from behind the door.
"I'm coming in, Ruby," Yang replied in a firm, but almost motherly tone. She briefly looked at Blake and gave a small nod. Then, she opened the door.
Apparently, in Ruby's despair, she had made part of the room a mess. The dress that she had borrowed from Weiss earlier looked like it was angrily kicked over into the corner. The sheets of the bed that Ruby was lying on were now on the floor. To top off the image, Ruby was lying partially face down, only wearing her under shirt and panties, as she tried to hide her face with a pillow.
"Ruby? I'm coming over there, okay?" Yang asked. It was more for Ruby's comfort than anything.
"I s-said go away!" was Ruby's wail, muffled by the pillow. Yang and Blake didn't listen to her, however, as they moved over to the bed.
Ruby could tell that Yang was only going to come closer and closer, so she scooted to the side of the bed to try and avoid her sister. All that did was provide a place to sit for Yang, as she rested on the side of the bed.
"What happened to you?" Yang tried to get out of Ruby. Ruby didn't respond, and only hid her face into the pillow deeper.
Sighing, Yang said, "I guess you don't want to talk to me right now. Maybe Weiss then…". She thought that maybe her girlfriend might be able to snap out of her funk and be able to help here.
Ruby yanked the pillow off of her face, revealing her heavily bloodshot eyes. "N-no! D-don't bring her in h-here! I c-can't l-let her see me like th-this!" she desperately choked out. More tears welled up in her eyes as she hid her face in the pillow again.
Yang could practically feel the sadness that Ruby was experiencing. Maybe it was a sisterly bond, or perhaps it was just a keen intuition on how to be a good sister. Regardless, Yang wanted to make sure that this sorrow would stop, no matter what.
"Just what the hell did Mr. Schnee say to her?" Yang asked Blake in disbelief. Blake simply shrugged.
Yang's eyes hardened. There was no way that someone could do this to her sister and get away with it! But, where to start? She couldn't confront Mr. Schnee, he had already left. But, what she did have at the condo with them was the closest thing possible: Mr. Victor Brass. He might know something. After all, he was notified of Mr. Schnee's visit before he told everyone else. Maybe there was an ulterior motive at play here.
"Come on," declared Yang, "I think I know where to get some answers,". She stood up from the bed with determination, and walked out of the room. Blake wondered where her girlfriend was going with this as she followed after her.
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Mr. Brass was relaxing in the recliner, watching television, when Yang stomped back into the living room. Blake was right on her heels, looking concerned for what was about to happen.
"Hey, you!" Yang heatedly called out as she pointed directly at Mr. Brass.
"Yeah, what?" he asked in response.
Yang stopped directly in front of the recliner, towering over the seated Mr. Brass. She demanded to know, "Just what the hell was that whole visit about?".
"Hell if I know. Mr. Schnee just wanted to talk to you, I guess," deflected Mr. Brass as she tried to move his head around Yang, who was obstructing his view of the television. Instead of getting his vision filled by the screen, however, Mr. Brass was treated to a view of Yang's pissed off eyes as she yanked him out of the chair to face him directly.
"You damn well know that Schnee was going to show up. Did he tell you what his reason was coming here?" interrogated Yang, through her clenched jaw.
"Hey, hotshot, I don't know what's in the man's head. So, how about you try thinking about calming the hell down, before you do something that you'll regret?" Mr. Brass sneered back, undaunted. He dealt with Mr. Schnee and his cronies pretty often, so Yang wasn't that much of a threat to him.
Yang activated the Ember Celica gauntlet on her right fist and held it up to Mr. Brass' face. "Try that one again, and you won't have a tongue to talk with," she threatened. "Now, do you know if Mr. Schnee had a reason for coming here?" Yang asked once more. Now, she was convinced that Mr. Brass knew something. Why else would he act so defiant right now, if he was normally lax?
"Yang, calm down…" advised Blake as she watched on, scared that the blonde was going to blow off the businessman's head.
"Just answer the question!" Yang snarled to Blake.
"I'm telling you, I'm not hiding anything!" Mr. Brass protested from Yang's grip.
Blake suddenly picked up on something from that sentence. "She never asked you if you were hiding something, she asked you if you knew anything," the cat girl pointed out. She noticed Mr. Brass' eyes widen a little as he realized his slip up.
Yang capitalized on that gaffe. "Well, I guess you ARE hiding something, after all. How about you tell me before I blow out your fucking brains, HUH?!" she interrogated further. She noticed Mr. Brass' eyes briefly flicker to his scroll on the side table before he returned his gaze to her.
"You wouldn't dare," tempted Mr. Brass.
"Wanna bet, fucknuts?! Blake, grab the scroll!" Yang barked to the two. Complying, Blake opened the scroll to see if she could find any information. That was the logical place to have it, after all.
"Just step away from this. You won't like what'll happen if you don't," Mr. Brass half suggested, half spat in Yang's direction. All that served to do was make Yang put her fist closer to his head.
"Blake, what's on there? Check the e-mail, Mr. Schnee must have talked to him through there," Yang said over her shoulder.
Nodding, Blake read through the e-mails. What she initially saw was nothing but boring business stuff, like newsletters or supposedly important documents. However, something caught her eye further down the inbox. It was apparently a conversation between Mr. Brass and someone else. Opening it, she saw what appeared to be an official e-mail address form the Schnee Dust Company main office talking about a report he filed a few days ago. Report? He was supposed to be a medium between the company and the PSA group, not in any real observational capacity.
Scrolling upwards on the e-mail chain, she saw what the report was. Shock wasn't the most descriptive way to tell what she was feeling.
"Y-yang…" she said almost in disbelief as she looked at the report.
"What is it?" Yang asked back.
"He's been spying on us. H-he's been reporting in how we act to Mr. Schnee," Blake stuttered a little as she revealed the e-mail's contents.
Now Mr. Brass was getting worried. Nobody was supposed to find out about this! "W-wait now… I can explain—" he began to say before getting punched by the stomach by Yang's unarmed fist.
"You FUCK! We trusted you!" Yang cried as she kicked Mr. Brass, who had slumped to the ground.
"It's my job, god damn it!" Mr. Brass tried to justify. However, his next words were cut off as Yang began to drag him across the floor by his necktie. He was choked as Yang hauled him outside.
"Yang, wait!" Blake yelled as Yang took Mr. Brass outside.
Yang let go of Mr. Brass' tie, before grabbing him off of the ground and throwing him into the hot-tub. As Mr. Brass tried to climb out, Yang hoped in with him and grabbed his head.
"Don't do it!" cried Blake as she dropped the scroll and ran out of the sliding door.
Her pleas fell onto deaf ears. By now, Yang had forced Mr. Brass' head under the water, hoping to drown him. Yang barely thought about what she was doing anymore. Her anger had clouded her mind to the point that all she kept in her mind was her anger at being the (partial) cause of Weiss' and Ruby's suffering. All she knew now was that the person who violated their privacy and trust needed to pay.
Blake tried to pull Yang away from the man she was trying to kill, but has straining against Yang's furious strength. "Damn it, stop!" she shouted at Yang. Her only choice now was to put Yang into a choke hold, as she noticed the bubbles coming from Mr. Brass' head lessen and lessen.
The murder attempt was halted as Blake managed to choke Yang with her grasp. The blonde's struggling stopped as she quickly wore herself out. Mr. Brass quickly surfaced, gasping for breath. He was incredibly close to being completely drowned.
"Are you alright?" Blake asked to Mr. Brass as he climbed out of the hot-tub.
"Do I look fine?" he shot back angrily. He then sat in a patio chair, reaching into his pocket for a smoke. Pulling out the pack, he realized that all of his cigarettes were soaked. He flung the pack onto the ground, before running a hand through his hair and leaning on an armrest.
"I had no choice in doing it… I need this job, all right? I can't support my daughter otherwise…" Mr. Brass explained. Blake nodded in sympathy. She too had done some questionable things in her past for what she believed was for the best.
"That doesn't make what you did right!" Yang angrily stated as she also climbed out of the hot-tub. Blake, now completely fed up with Yang's behavior, slapped the angry brawler across the face.
"Look at him! He's just a pawn! You would have killed him and destroyed his daughter!" pointed out Blake as she shook Yang by the shoulders.
That slap had cleared Yang's mind, as she now realized what she had been so close to doing. Horrible was the only way to describe how she felt. She was willing to kill a man. Not some black, soulless creature, but a person with feelings and a family. In horror, Yang tried to sit on a nearby chair, but missed and tumbled onto the ground. She elected to stay there as she reflected on what she had done.
"But… why…?" Yang sputtered out towards Mr. Brass. That was the questions he was willing to kill over, so she really needed an answer now to soothe her turbulent soul.
Sighing, Mr. Brass explained further. "The real reason Mr. Schnee sent us in this trip was for me to keep an eye on all of you. The charity thing was just a part of the plan. I couldn't say no, my daughter has no one else, she needs me. If I finished this job without fail, then I would get the money I needed to keep her fed and safe," he dumped on them.
The truth was hard to swallow for the both of Blake and Yang. To be played so easily by being told that they would be doing good charity work was unthinkable before. But now they just didn't know what to do anymore. Maybe they could just take the money that the Schnee Dust Company said they would put in their accounts, but neither felt much like doing that. It might as well have been bribe money. The only reasonable thing to do now was just leave.
"I'm going to call a cab. I can't stay here anymore," Blake announced as she headed inside.
Mr. Brass mumbled mostly to himself, "I can't blame you…". He then looked over to Yang. "Well, you better follow her. She's already made up her mind," he suggested. He was just too damn tried to get angry at the girl who tried to harm him. Mr. Brass really needed a new job.
Yang slowly nodded and stood up. As she walked back into the house, she noticed Mr. Brass put a hand on his face, obscuring it. He grew very silent after that order.
Nothing had gone right this trip.
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The punches just keep on coming, don't they? At this point, I'm not sure whether or not to just change the story description to reflect what happened in the last few chapters. Anyway, be sure to tell me what you think about what just happened in the reviews, or feel free to message me. I'll be sure to respond to that. This is The Draigg, signing off for now.