HOLY SHIT THIS CHAPTER! WHO'S READY TO SEE A PISSED OFF YANG XIAO LONG?!
You're in luck, then! In this chapter the remaining members of Team RWBY wake up. Some have... a little bit more of a hard time waking than others.
Before we get started, I want to say thank you for giving this story a shot! This is just a side project for me, as I said last time, giving me an extra outlet for creativity. Amnesia is still in the works, and so is Cataclysm. I have some reviews that I want to address, but I'll leave that for the end.
For now, Enjoy!
Yang checked her scroll, something that had become common practice over the last twenty minutes. She was hoping for anyone to pick up her distress beacon. She knew there wouldn't be a notification when she checked, but it was either this, or checking on her slumbering team.
Yang finally figured out, after three or four times of checking, that Ruby would be fine. Her concussion was taken care of by her Aura, which must have left her physically exhausted. This allowed the eldest sibling to breathe easy.
After going over the same routine, checking Ruby, glancing at Weiss and Blake, checking the fire, and lastly her scroll, Yang decided, "I need to move around."
She got up slowly, maneuvering her sister so that she wouldn't wake up, and began to stretch and walk. She made it to the mouth of the cave, and realized what luck she and her team had. Regardless of making it out of the bullhead, they were all relatively ok, and in shelter. She also realized how lucky she was to have found this cave before the rain came. "Probably just raining malaria out there," She thought out loud, "Better in here than out there."
Directly after she finished her sentence, a large clap of thunder boomed overhead, causing Yang to flinch. "Damnit!" The thunder being accompanied by a bright flash of lightning didn't help. "Yeah, way better in here." She said, flipping off the clouds above.
Walking back towards the fire, Yang noticed something...
Blake's hands were twitching.
Not only that, but her eyes clinched tightly shut. "Blake?" Yang called, quietly.
After a moment, there was no response. Yang was about to take a seat next to the fire, when her Faunus partner jerked upwards suddenly, eyes wide open.
Sitting upright, Yang noticed that Blake was breathing heavily, as if she had been running. "Holy shit," Yang greeted, "Welcome back."
"Hey..." Blake said wearily, "Whe- Where did I go?" Yang put both of her hands together and rested them on the side of her face; the ever universal sign of 'sleep'. "Oh. I see. Where are we?"
"A cave in a mountain in the middle of nowhere, next to a swamp infested with Crokolisks." Yang explained easily, "We crashed here, though I can't remember entirely what happened; all I know is that we crashed here and you all were unconscious, forcing me to take action."
Blake looked at her quizzically, "Why do you think your alive right now?" Yang replied to her unspoken question cryptically, with a smile. Blake shrugged it off and sat back, examining her surroundings. "So what woke you up?"
"A giant 'boom'." Blake replied, peering to the sleeping heiress and team leader. "What's their stories?"
"Weiss was knocked out with you and Ruby had a concussion for a little while, but her Aura cleared that up, leaving her exhausted. I'm just letting her sleep this one off for the time being."
Blake nodded and rolled her neck out. "Well, this is interesting." She commented, "Yesterday we were helping a small town clear out some Grimm and now where here. Do we even have a rescue on the way?"
Yang shrugged, "The transponder's up, but no response from anyone. Every channel is silent."
Blake cringed at her words. "Damn," She muttered, "Then we might be her a while?"
"Probably."
"Great, I don't even have anything to read."
Yang laughed, feeling a little sorry for the faunus. "Hey, I know!" She exclaimed, "Ruby's scroll is still in good condition, and she had a ton of books on there!"
Blake was a bit stunned, then realized who Yang was talking about. Their leader was as heavy of a reader as Blake was, and it didn't surprise her one bit that she had such a collection as her Blonde partner described. Blake watched as Yang rummaged around her sister's many pouches, trying to figure out which one had her scroll. It was funny to watch.
"Come on, damnit! Where do you put it?"
"Put what?" A voice called. Yang jumped back a little, realizing the voice came from Ruby. The aforementioned girl sat up and rubbed her eyes, then stared at Yang. "You're not very subtle when you do that, you know? If you wanted to find something on me, you should have just woke me up." She deadpanned, "Now, what do you want?"
"Blake wanted to take a look at your scroll, so she could read some of your books on it."
Ruby blushed, then turned to her faunus teammate and waved, "Yeah, ok sure. Let me ju- Wait... How did you know-?"
"Oh please, you think I actually pay attention to Port? Whenever you pull out that scroll during class I watch you go right to the 'Stories' tab, sis. I know you have them."
"Ok, ok, I'm not denying it... But let me just do a few things first."
"Oh!" Yang shouted, "Something on there that you don't want us to see?"
"Yes." Ruby deadpanned again, "Some stories I'd like to keep hidden is all."
"Aw come on, Rubes! You can-"
"Yang, stop!" Blake almost shouted, "Leave her alone. We all have something in our own personal collection that we'd like to keep private. Ruby has a story she doesn't want us to see, Weiss has a diary..." That comment struck the sisters, but didn't question how Blake knew it.
"You have your... Jour-"
"RUBY!" Yang shouted, wrapping her sister in a headlock,
"It's not like we don't all know, Yang." Blake said, chuckling, "You don't do a very good job of hiding your... ahem, 'Journals'." Yang immediately blushed heavily. Blake and Ruby started to crack up. Yang sighed, and accepted her fate.
"It's ok, I guess. You have my journals and I have your favorite little book, Miss Kitty." Blake, immediately grew wide eyes, was taken aback, mouthing 'How?'. "I like to invade personal privacy every now and again. It's amazing what you can find."
Ruby nodded. "It's true. You can't keep anything from her."
Blake nodded, and accepted her fate now. On a plus side, anything Yang had on her, she had on Yang, twice over. It was an even fight. "So, Ruby," Blake called, "Those stories?"
"Oh! Yeah, sorry." Ruby pulled open her scroll, tapped a few keys, opened the 'stories' tab and tossed it over to Blake. "Enjoy!" Blake nodded in thanks, and began going through the scroll. Ruby was really thorough with what she wanted unseen and what she didn't mind being seen. Quite a few stories were pass code locked.
Rather than trying to break through the codes, Blake decided to run through the unlocked stories. Most of them were fantasy, which Blake preferred anyway. She sat against the wall, losing herself in the false reality.
Yang and Ruby sat and watched Blake for a moment. Then returned to the fire. The two staying silent for so long had bothered both of them, but what could they say? What was there for them to say?
Yang quickly got an idea. Tapping on Ruby's shoulder, she gestured to the young leader that she wanted to have a word, more in private, near the mouth of the cave. That way, the rain would drown out their voices. This conversation definitely would be better in private.
"What's up?" Ruby asked once they got to the mouth of the cave.
"How are you feeling?"
Ruby sighed, "Cut the shit, Yang. You wouldn't bring me over here just ask how I was feeling."
Yang's turn to sigh, "Ok, you got me. How much do you all know? About the... Journals?"
"Oh," Ruby said quietly, "We... Uh, we know enough. I'll leave it at that. I've known since Signal, but they've known for about three months."
"Three months?!" Yang shouted, "No wonder nothing I said fazed any of you! You all... You." She stared at Ruby, with a mild anger in her voice, "You showed them, didn't you?"
"What?!" Ruby shouted back, "How dare you! Just because I know doesn't mean I'd proclaim your dirty laundry to the entire team! I didn't tell them! ... But I was in the room when they found it..." Ruby tried to step away, knowing that she should not have said that.
Yang grabbed Ruby by her shoulders and lifted her off the ground, "That doesn't help your case, you know that, right?" She deadpanned, keeping Ruby at eye level. Ruby nodded, "Good. Now-"
"You wanna talk about me showing them your journal? How about you throwing me under the bus back there with that story bit?" Ruby argued, "You didn't even care for what I felt! You were going to let Blake go through my scroll without even talking to me!"
"It's not like you have something in there that Blake hasn't read before, sis, trust me."
Ruby deflated in her sisters arms, "It's not that. I just have an image to keep up with you guys is all."
Yang, realizing her mistake, pulled Ruby into a hug. A flash of lightning flared outside, causing the two to jump. After the thunder eventually rolled past, the two began laughing. "Hey," Yang said, "I'm sorry. You're right. That journal doesn't really matter anyway, and I didn't really get to ask you if you wanted Blake reading those."
"No, no!" Ruby admonished, "It's ok! When they found your journal I should have taken it from them. Instead I kinda egged them on, convinced them it was ok. I shouldn't have done that."
The two shared an embrace for a long moment. It was quite the spectacle to behold. Blake was intently watching and listening from afar, more than ready to jump in incase Yang got too aggressive, even though Blake knew that they wouldn't hurt each other. Instead, Blake chose to listen.
It was strange to her, why they decided to have this discussion so far away. Private, though as that may have been, they were still very loud. besides that, Blake could hear them easily despite the rain. She wondered what the stories Ruby had in her scroll where that the young leader didn't want Blake to read... Or others for that matter. But the faunus quickly shoved those thoughts out of her mind. 'Everyone has a guilty pleasure.' She mentally reminded herself, 'It's also her privacy... Damnit... Now I have to apologize for the journal.'
The two began walking back, having made up. Blake was impressed; she's seen discrepancies like this that have torn people apart. Each day these sisters impress Blake. The two sat down next to each other around the fire. Laughing, though not saying a word otherwise.
Blake continued to 'read', though her attention was kept towards her teammates. After a moment, she closed the scroll and cleared her throat. "Ruby." She called, tossing the scroll to her leader, "Thanks."
"Your very welcome!" Ruby exclaimed, pocketing her scroll. She turned to her sister, making a gesture, "I'm watching you." Yang just held up her hands defensively. Ruby turned her attention to Blake, who was eyeing the two curiously. "What's up?"
"Oh?" Blake responded, off guard, "Um... Yang, I want to apologize. We never should have gone through your-"
"Stop." Yang demanded. "We've all been through each other's belongings. It's no big deal." She assured. "Let's just drop it and make fun of Weiss for her diary." The others giggled at the prospect. It wasn't everyday they could rip on the ever so loud heiress.
Yang sighed, leaning back. She had been checking her scroll, still finding no messages. It aggravated her beyond reasonable doubt. Still, there was nothing they could do.
Yang laid back, tucking her intertwined hands behind her head, using them as a makeshift pillow, and fell asleep to the chattering of her sister and her partner. It was the first time all day where she could truly rest.
In only a moment, she drifted into a light slumber.
"We've just lost our left engine!" The Pilot exclaimed.
The co-pilot was furiously yelling into the microphone: "Mayday! Mayday! This is Heavy two-four! We've been hit by an unidentified object! I repeat!"
"Pilot! What's going on?" Ruby yelled.
"Left engine is gone! We're going in hard! Brace for impact!"
"This is Heavy Two-Four, attempting emergency landing near the Waldrike (A/N: Pronounced Vall Drake) Mountains! Mayday! Mayday!"
"Cut the lines to the fuel cells or we'll never make it to the ground!" The lead pilot ordered.
The last thing Yang heard was her sisters order, "Everyone, Brace for Impact!"
With a boom from outside, Yang awoke in a jolt. Her breathing was heavy, like she was out of breath. She looked to her right and saw Ruby and Blake, both sitting against the wall, looking at Yang with worry.
"Yang?" Ruby asked in a low, curious voice, "Are you-?"
"Yeah." Yang said, standing up, "Yeah I am. I'm going to go make a quick message. I think I know where we're at!" Before she left, she took a glance and Weiss, "Wake her up too, will ya? Her sleeping for so long is starting to make me nervous." Blake and Ruby complied, moving to the heiress. They began contemplating with each other how to wake her, while Yang went to the mouth of the cave.
The rain was beginning to lighten up, leaving Yang in high spirits. 'If the storm is leaving, maybe we can get some good reception, finally!' She thought.
'This is our chance.' She began furiously typing into her scroll, finally finding the emergency callback to Beacon. She hit a few keys, then began to record a message:
"This is Yang Xiao Long of Team RWBY, hailing anyone! We have crashed in a swamp near the Waldrike Mountains, and have taken shelter in a cave. All team members are accounted for, save the pilots, who are dead. This is the only scroll transmitting this message. If anyone can receive this, please respond." She finished her recording and hit 'send', then a 'repeat' key. This automatically made it so that the scroll would transmit the message without assistance. Yang left the scroll at the mouth of the cave, and put the volume on its highest setting.
'If anything, Blake can hear it.' She assured herself. She also made a mental note to try and visit the teams downed craft. Maybe there was something there that could help.
Not a moment after setting her scroll down, Yang heard the ever so distinct sound of Ruby's Leadership Whistle, then, a thunderous smack, followed by a gasp in pain. Turning, she saw Weiss sitting up, right arm across her body, Ruby on the ground, holding the left side of her face, and Blake over the younger.
Yang didn't need to be told what just happened, and she was pissed.
There are levels of mad with Yang: Aggravated, Angry, Mad, Enraged, and finally, Pissed off. It was rare for her to be past Mad, let alone Angry. With everything that has happened today, this was the stone that set off the rockslide.
This is what pushed her to the pissed off stage.
She ran into the cave, eyes already blood red, "What just happened?!" She demanded, kneeling next to Ruby, across from Blake. She looked to Weiss after examining her leader.
"Your sister-!" Weiss emphasized with anger, "- Just used the her "Whistle of Leadership" or whatever it is to wake me up! I told her to stop with that shit!"
"We tried everything else!" Blake defended, "It was this or-"
Weiss blushed furiously, "REGARDLESS! Who gives you the right to wake me up! Let alone-"
"ENOUGH!" Yang erupted in a full fury, fire and all. "You have been asleep for the entire day! I saved your ass! Hell, I saved ALL OF YOUR ASSES! Finally I catch a break with this damn storm, too, and I come back to you-!" She pointed to Weiss, "Smacking my baby sister across the face for waking you up, WHEN WE MIGHT NEED YOU IN A GOD DAMNED MINUTE?! WHO THE HELL IS STOPPING ME FROM RIPPING YOU APART?!"
Yang's fire was bright and hot enough to vaporize even the darkest of matter. The rest of her team was beyond scared. Ruby had seen this side of Yang, once and only once, and it was right after someone made fun of Summer after her death.
Let's just say that poor soul isn't around anymore.
Ruby stood up, hands in front of her, "Ok, Yang," She said, timidly, "Let's just calm down, here, ok? Please?" She almost pleaded, "I'm ok. Really. And Weiss was in the right to defend herself, anyway. Yes her methods were extreme, yes you have a right to be pissed, but I'm the one who got hit. If anything, I should be the one kicking Weiss' ass right now."
"Hey!" Weiss retorted in an offended tone. Blake nudged her to be quiet, shushing her.
"Please, Yang. Let's let cooler heads prevail here. For me?" Ruby took Yang's fists, trying to unclench them herself. Yang took her death stare off of Weiss and onto Ruby, who met her gaze. When Yang saw the fear in her sisters eyes, she knew she messed up.
"Oh, god..." Was all she said, before Ruby nearly tackled her with a hug, "I- I-!"
"Don't." Ruby deadpanned. "Just, don't."
They kept the embrace for almost five whole minutes. Weiss and Blake were both stunned at what they just witnessed. If Ruby wasn't going to be a huntress then she could damn well be a negotiator.
It was an impressive sight.
After a few moments, the two broke the embrace, nodded to each other, and turned. Yang keeping her eyes on Weiss, who froze with fear.
"Stand up." Yang ordered, standing over the heiress.
"Wha-"
"Stand. Up."
Weiss rose, very fearful that her demise may be imminent. "Whatever deity there may be, please don't let Winter take over the family after me." She prayed. Yang took Weiss by the collar and lifted her off of the ground.
"If I ever, even hear about you striking my sister again, regardless of the context, I will tear. You. Apart. Then I'll mail your dismembered limbs to your family as a warning. Am. I. Understood?"
Weiss nodded, and gave Yang a pleading look. "Good." Yang dropped Weiss and went back to throw more wood into the fire, as the flame was getting quite low (whether it be from Yang taking all of the oxygen with her fire, or the wood losing its kindling).
"So... Uh-" Weiss stuttered, "Does anyone want to explain where we are?"
Yang sighed, throwing a few pieces of wood into the flame, letting it set. "Sit down, Weiss, I have quite the story. Ruby, Blake, you too." Yang ordered, "You need to hear this as much as her."
Well... That was interesting now, wasn't it?
Yeah, don't fuck with Yang... or Ruby while Yang's in earshot.
Now, onto some reviews:
From a guest who wanted no shipping: Sorry, friend, but this will be some practice for me. If it's any consolation, it won't even be considered light shipping. Hell, it might not even be considered shipping, ever. Some people have really high standards for ships.
From anotamous: Good catch! Here's the deal: Someone was going to get concussed. It was inevitable. Originally it was going to be Weiss, then I thought: Wait, the leader is the one who would checking to see what was up, right? it's what leaders do, make sure everything is safe for her team. Poor Ruby just happened to fit the leadership role and stood in the doorway to the cockpit. Now her concussion is gone, thanks to her Aura.
Hell, I'll be honest, I'm not sure if Aura can work with a concussion. Ah, screw it. It does here.
Also, about Cataclysm: For the longest time now, I've been on the verge of just starting over from scratch in 3rd person. I've decided not to. Instead, I'm going to leave it up for a month after I've finished it, redo the story and at the end of the month, trash the original and post the 3rd person story. Unless people tell me to fuck off and not do that, then I'll leave it up and post the 3rd person story.
Finally, I figured out what was missing. So let me explain: So: The swamp is in a valley bellow the mountains. They crashed low on the mountains, which is why it was so easy to get to the ground for Yang. The cave is also at ground level with the swamp.
Just to clear up any confusion.
So, not that those are out of the way, how was it? Dialogue heavy. That's how I role. Next chapter, the rain will clear completely and the team will examine the wreckage. Fun!
Until then, I hoped you enjoyed: I have a couple of busy days ahead of me so a chapter might not show up until Friday, or the weekend. By the weekend I hope to have every story of mine with at least one update! So be ready!
Until Next Time.