Yang: Guess who's back!
Hey guys so I just watched the newest episode and I've now got a new favourite. As for Yang's abilities well from the way Ruby explained it that shouldn't be a problem, I can work with it and who is this Neo character? My interest has been peaked RT. Also don't expect every chapter to be this long I'm aiming for 2000-3000 words usually but when you have no internet for two days you find other things to fight off boredom.
I don't own RWBY, I've got no complaints this week... good job RT.
Red glared at her opponents trying to figure out her next move, wondering who the biggest threat was. She frowned, this was the last round and her hand wasn't the best plus each of them had been very quiet and had been keeping their own cards close to their chest. Still she had a good feeling about her next move, smiling she pushed all her chips onto the table.
"I'm going all in," she announced, much to their surprise.
"Ruby are you sure that's wise?" asked Ren confused.
"Yeah Ruby, if you lose all your chips you're out of the game," informed Jaune.
"I knew we shouldn't have let you play," whined Weiss.
Red looked over at Weiss, keeping her poker face up. "Well then I guess you have nothing to worry about, do you Ice Queen?" she teased.
Weiss to her credit didn't take the bait and began looking at Red with her own poker face. After a brief stare down Weiss broke eye contact and placed her cards on the table.
"I fold," came her reply.
Both the males upon seeing the Schnee heiress folding, decided to follow suite and cut their losses. Red smiled, she had been getting these feelings for the entire game and each one had been right so far. However she had only just decided to test it now, earning her a large amount of chips and the ire of her white haired teammate.
"Wait! Ruby what was your hand?" asked Weiss interested.
Giving a knowing smirk Red lay her cards on the table, much to the shock of her friends. Her hand held a pair of tens and nothing else helpful. All of them turned to Red in disbelief, Weiss in particular looked like she was ready to strangle her. 'Hmm she must have had a good hand,' she thought amused.
"Umm Ruby…" began Jaune, "you do know what one pair of tens is worth right?"
"Yep," replied Red, popping the p sound.
"I also know what a bluff is, isn't that right Weiss?" she asked, smirking at the seething heiress.
Ren frowned, "that was a very risky bluff, if even one of us hadn't folded you would have been out of the game," he commented.
"Yeah but I knew if I could convince Weiss, who is the most experienced at the game, to fold you two would as well," replied Red.
The three of them paused as Red began shuffling the deck, looking up she noticed they were staring at her with impressed expressions, even Weiss had a grudging respect in her eyes. Dealing out the cards they got ready for round two, she smiled as the feelings returned and by the end of the game all three of them had lost all their chips to Red.
"So anyone up for another game?" asked an amused Red.
Yang and Blake were walking down the halls of Beacon, to any casual observer it would look like the usual. However to any that took their time they would think it strange that the blonde brawler wasn't with her sister. The two were rarely seen apart from each other and even rarer after Ruby's accident during the duel between Jaune and Cardin. They would also notice that Blake was more being dragged by her partner rather than walking and judging from her expression was not very happy about it. Arriving at their dorm Yang shut the door and let go of Blake who immediately began rubbing her wrists and took a seat on her bed.
"Where's Ruby?" questioned Yang.
Blake glared at her, "she's off playing poker with Weiss," she answered.
"Good then she won't interrupt us. Blake what did you and Ruby talk about the night you ran away?" asked Yang, turning to look Blake in the eye.
The Faunus' eyes widen and a frown grew on her face, "sorry Yang I'm afraid that's private."
Yang glared at Blake, her eyes flashing red for an instant. "Blake I'll cut to the chase here, is it true that she already knew about you being a Faunus and the White Fang?"
Blake meet her furious gaze with an ice cold one of her own. "I don't know what you're talking about," lied the Faunus.
Yang dropped her glare with a sigh. "Did we ever tell you how we knew where to find you that night on the docks?" she asked.
Surprised by the change in topics Blake just shook her head, seeing this Yang began.
"Weiss and I were looking for you when we came across our old friend Penny. You can bet we were surprised when she not only knew you were a Faunus but also a former member of the White Fang. When we asked about it she said that she overheard your conversation with Ruby that night," she said, giving Blake an accusing look.
For her part the Faunus didn't react and instead asked, "You'd trust Penny over your own sister?"
"Normally no," replied Yang. "But when we arrived back to question Ruby she said that she knows where you are, not only that but she knew that Roman would be there as well as the White Fang. In fact she knew exactly what we'd be facing including those Bullheads," informed Yang.
Blake looked shocked at this latest bit of information, "but there's no way Ruby could have known that."
"Exactly there is no way 'Ruby' could have known that, so that begs the question: who have we been spending the past week with?" asked Yang.
Blake looked up at Yang ready to tell her off for saying such a stupid joke, but stopped seeing the blonde's serious expression.
"You serious?" she asked, in disbelief.
Yang's expression softened and she sat down on Weiss's bed deep in thought. "Remember what I said during our discussion?" she asked.
"Well if you think so Yang I'll believe it, after all she is your sister," replied a shocked Weiss.
"Is she?" questioned a depressed Yang, "honestly sometimes it feels like I'm talking to a stranger wearing my sister's skin."
Blake frowned at the memory, "Yang don't you think you're overreacting just a bit? After all losing your memories could change a person."
"Don't give me that amnesia crap! We both know that it's a load of B.S," raged Yang.
"So how do you explain those memory flashes she mentioned?" asked Blake with raised eyebrows.
For the first time in the conversation Yang looked stumped, she hadn't thought of that and all the memories were real she could verify that herself. Seeing her partner begin to calm down Blake decided to offer a compromise.
"Look if you feel that strongly about this then we'll go to the Headmaster about this tomorrow okay? Until then promise that you won't confront Ruby about this, got it?" offered Blake.
Yang didn't respond and instead just got up and left the room without a word, clearly deep in thought. Blake sighed praying that Yang be careful, this was a delicate situation and team RWBY had only just started getting back together again. If this wasn't done right it could destroy team RWBY completely, Blake could only hope Yang knew that.
Red smiled as she walked down the halls of Beacon, a spring in her step. After winning her 6th poker game in a row they had decided to call it quits for the day. The result, she now had enough cafeteria coupons to buy a lifetime supply of cookies and she intended to cash in. As they walked back to their dorms the group ran into Yang who seemed very distant. Sharing a glance between them Red walked up to the blonde and grabbed her on the shoulder.
"Hey sis, you okay?" she asked, concerned.
At the sound of her voice Yang immediately snapped out of her stupor. The blonde then looked at her with one of her rare serious expressions.
"Ruby can we talk? It's important," asked Yang, looking her in the eyes.
'She rarely calls Ruby by her name, this must be serious,' realized Red. Nodding she turned to face the rest of the poker group.
"You guys go on ahead, Yang and I will catch up when we're done here," she said.
Jaune and Ren nodded and continued on their way to the dorms, Weiss looked conflicted and a little concerned but she to left. Upon seeing the others leave Yang grabbed Red's hand, causing her to flinch in pain from her grip, and dragged her into a nearby classroom. Throughout it all a familiar bad feeling began to spread throughout her bones, placing her body on high alert. Red tried to ignore her heart's increased speed and had to constantly keep her hands from reaching for Crescent Rose.
SLAM!
Red jumped as Yang slammed the door shut, her heart threatening to burst from her chest. 'What's going on it's only Yang, why am I reacting like this?' she thought confused. Yang was just standing in front of the door observing her.
"You know 'Ruby' it's very interesting," commented Yang. "I found out that you already knew about Blake's past, then you already knew that Torchwick and his goons were at the docks, as well as exactly what they were using. Secondly you knew that Faunus have night vision, you have a far greater control of your semblance and finally your aura is different," she stated, her hair beginning to glow.
CHACK CHACK
Red stepped back as Yang loaded Ember Celica with red eyes and glowing hair.
"I'll be straight here, you're not Ruby. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?!" demanded Yang advancing.
Red didn't think, if she had then she might have come up with a way to talk her way out of this. Instead she followed the instincts that had saved humans for many years and just ran. Seeing Yang blocking the door Red dived out the window into the hallways before sprinting to get as far away from the blonde as possible. Red began sweating, feeling the heat rising behind her as the blonde closed the distance between them.
"Get back here you imposter!" screamed her pursuer.
Red unfortunately couldn't use her semblance in these enclosed hallways, if she hit the wall at that speed she'd be likely to break her neck aura or no aura. Yang knew it to, taking a quick glance behind her showed the said blonde using her gauntlets to rapidly close the distance between the two of them. Red was so focused on Yang she failed to notice what was in front of her and collided with something hard, causing them both to topple. Quickly getting up she saw that she was surrounded by team CRDL and had crashed into Cardin, hearing the brawler getting closer she didn't even apologized before continuing to flee for her life. Crashing through one of the doors, not even waiting to open it, Red realized she was as good as dead. The room was Prof. Port's classroom which had only one way in and one way out, turning back to the door Red's heart sank. There casually strolling into the rapidly warming room was a very pissed Yang, whom then gave a lightning quick right hook to the face before she could even grab Crescent Rose. Stunned Red could only watch as Yang grabbed her by the throat and brought her fist up, closing her eyes Red awaited the finishing blow.
"You know that's not very nice."
Cardin was having a good day all things considered, he and his team had just gotten back from a successful mission and we're heading to the cafeteria to celebrate. As they were joking with each other Cardin frowned hearing something approaching from behind them. Suddenly something collided with him knocking them both over and causing the wind to be knocked out of him. Angrily he looked down to see what hit him ready to give them a piece of his mind, only to stop seeing Ruby laying on top of him. However before he could say anything she looked behind her before taking off like a speeding bullet, her sister following close behind. Team CRDL looked at each other in confusion as Dove helped Cardin up.
"What was that? A prank gone wrong?" asked Sky.
The others shrugged assuming that was most likely the correct answer, only Cardin frowned. The expression on Yang's face wasn't one that could be caused by a simple prank. That was the expression of true rage and anger he'd seen it before, just after his sister died. Then there was Red's face when she saw Yang, it was fear. Not the childish fear of being caught for doing something wrong but a true fear, one that only showed when your life was honestly in danger.
His face hardening Cardin ran after them calling back to his teammates, "you guys go celebrate without me I'll be there shortly."
As Cardin raced after the two huntresses he grew concerned, what could cause Yang Xiao Long of all people to want to hurt her little sister Ruby? Everyone knew that she was more protective of her younger sister then she was of her hair. Continuing after them he had just come through the broken door to see the blonde punch her sister in the face, with enough force to send her flying into the chairs. Cardin was completely shocked at this sight however he snapped out of it seeing Yang grab her sister by the throat, Ember Celica raised for the final blow. Eyes widening he quickly ran over and grabbed Yang's arm halting her punch.
"You know that's not very nice," he commented.
Before Yang could react he threw an aura infused punch of his own into the back of the brawler's head, sending her crashing into the wall. Cardin ran over to Ruby who was on the floor gasping for breath.
"Come on," he said hoisting her up. "Knowing your sister that won't keep her down for long," grabbing Ruby they ran out of the room.
"Mind telling me why your sister wants your head," asked Cardin as they ran.
Ruby just shook her head, "I need to get out of Beacon, right now."
Cardin stumbled and looked at her in surprise, seeing her fearful expression he nodded.
"I know a way," he said.
Yang woke up to a massive headache, frowning she tried to piece together what'd just happened. 'I had that imposter cornered and beaten then I heard a familiar voice…' her eyes instantly turned red. 'Cardin! That bastard when I get my hands on him he can kiss his family lineage goodbye.' Yang knew she'd screwed up and now the imposter could be anywhere in the school plotting their escape. She sighed, she was going to have to inform the rest of the team what had happened, they were not going to be happy.
Running back to the dorms she saw Blake and Weiss sitting on their beds, quickly informing them of what happened she received an extremely violent tongue lashing from Blake while Weiss seemed to just be in shock.
"Damn it Yang! This is why I said not to confront her about it," screamed Blake.
Blake looked ready to continue her verbal abuse but was interrupted by Weiss. "Look what's done is done, right now we should focus on catching her and that means going to the Headmaster."
Receiving nods from her two teammates they all ran to Ozpin's office, hoping they were not too late.
There were few times that Ozpin could say he ever got angry, being the headmaster of Beacon meant he needed to keep a tight rein on his emotions. However there were times where he was sorely tempted to lash out and vent his frustration. As he listen to Yang's explanation of the events he began to rub his temples attempting to calm his rising temper.
"So let me get this straight Miss Xiao Long, you attacked your sister on the presumption that she wasn't your sister. Then preceded to damage numerous school property and to top it all off she is now running around the school trying to escape," he summarized.
Yang didn't flinch under his gaze and instead met it with one of her own, "with all due respect headmaster I know that wasn't my sister," replied Yang.
Ozpin just sighed and took out his scroll, "Glynda I need you to suspend travel to and from Beacon effective immediately, nothing comes in nothing goes out. Also turn on the GPS tracking in Miss Rose's scroll."
"Of course Headmaster," came the reply from the scroll.
Ozpin turned to look at Yang, "Miss Xiao Long you have no idea what you have just set into motion, hopefully we can salvage this before it's too late."
"Cardin where are we going?" asked Red.
Cardin stopped walking and turned to look at her, "the only way off this academy is through the airships but they will be monitored so we can't use that method," he informed her.
Seeing her hopeless expression he smiled, "but I happen to know another way off this place that's not monitored, not very comfortable though."
Red looked up at him in surprise, "I don't care anything that gets me away from here is good enough for me," she exclaimed.
Nodding Cardin led the two of them into the locker room. Red looked around confused before turning to Cardin who had opened his locker and was in the process of empting it out. Once he was finished he gestured for her to get in.
Seeing her confused expression he explained, "these lockers are rocket propelled Red, remember we learnt about them the first day after initiation."
A smile grew on Red's face, "Cardin you're a genius!"
He smiled before holding out his hand, "one more thing, give me your scroll they can track you with it and if you're serious about getting out of Beacon that will need to be fixed."
Red nodded and handed him her scroll, "alright the timer is set to go off ten minutes after the door closes that should give them enough time to focus on me and let you attract less attention," he instructed.
As Red got into the locker as turned to face him again, "seriously Cardin thanks, I owe you one," she said sincerely.
"No problem we're friends aren't we? Just be careful out there Little Red," he said smirking.
Closing the locker door Cardin walked out of the room, leaving an anxious Red to await her fate.
"Headmaster, Miss Rose's signal is currently moving towards the RWBY dorms," informed Glynda.
Ozpin breathed a sigh of relief, they could still fix this before it got out of hand. He turned to the rest of team RWBY.
"You are to collect your teammate and bring her here, tell her I wish to speak to her about Earth, she will know what I mean," he ordered them.
As they ran back towards their dorm Ozpin sighed, 'another crisis averted, thank God,' he thought relieved. Yet he couldn't escape the feeling that this wasn't over, that there was something he had overlooked.
Suddenly his scroll began to vibrate, looking down he saw it was from Weiss. Ignoring the growing feeling up unrest he answered it.
"Headmaster we have a problem, Ruby isn't here instead it's Cardin, he has Ruby's scroll," informed Weiss.
Ozpin froze, "Miss Schnee bring him to my office immediately and get Miss Xiao Long and Miss Belladonna to bring team JNPR as well. I think it's time for some answers," he instructed them.
"Yes Headmaster," came the reply.
Red braced herself as she heard a rumbling coming from beneath her. Not five seconds later she was extremely grateful she did so as the locker suddenly shot skywards, with her screaming along the way. She was in the air screaming for what seemed like years but in reality was probably only minutes until finally the locker crashed into the ground. The impact would most likely have knocked her out if not for her aura, groaning she opened the locker door and stepped outside and began to kiss the ground. Looking around she noticed that she had landed just outside Vale, seeing no other option she began walking towards the city hoping to reach it before it got dark.
Ozpin's office was never meant to have many people present at the same time and it showed, with both the remainder of team RWBY as well as JNPR and Cardin present.
Ozpin glared at Cardin, "Mr. Winchester if you know the location of Miss Rose it is in both of your best interests to tell me."
Cardin just stood there seemingly unphased by the level of hostility in the room coming from both Ozpin and Yang.
He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know where she is, in fact I didn't even know she was missing," he replied.
Yang grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, "that's bullshit and you know it!" she screamed.
Cardin didn't even seemed phased as he just turned to look back at Ozpin. "Am I done here?" he asked, bored.
Ozpin just sighed and dismissed him, much to Yang's anger. Once the door shut she rounded on the headmaster her hair glowing.
"He's obviously lying why did you let him go!" demanded Yang.
"Because Miss Xiao Long nothing we could have said would have gotten him to talk, for better or worse he is completely loyal to Miss Rose," replied Ozpin, much to everyone's shock.
This was Cardin after all who'd never done anything that wasn't for his own benefit and certainly wouldn't show this kind of commitment to protect someone. Everyone except Ozpin jumped at the sound of his scroll going off, sighing the headmaster answered it, already suspecting the cause for the call.
"Headmaster I thought you'd like to know that one of the lockers was launched during the lockdown," informed Glynda.
"It was Mr. Winchester's wasn't it?" asked Ozpin, making everyone's eyes go wide.
"Yes sir," she replied.
Ozpin gave another sigh, this day was turning out to be one of the worst he'd had in a long time. "Were you able to track its descent?" he asked, not very hopeful.
"Unfortunately not sir, we were too busy tracking Miss Rose's signal and maintaining the lockdown," answered Glynda.
"We can remove the lockdown Glynda, it's safe to assume that Miss Rose is no longer on school grounds," he ordered before hanging up. "Very clever Mr. Winchester, very clever," he muttered, impressed.
Looking up he noticed the confused expressions on their faces, getting up he poured himself another cup of coffee.
"I suppose you all deserve answers about Ruby," began Ozpin as he sat back down.
Taking a sip of coffee he placed the mug down and leaned across his desk, "tell me have any of you heard of the Synchronized Souls theory?" he asked.
Six of them all shook their heads with confused expressions, only Pyrrha seemed to recognize the name.
"It's a hypothetical theory to do with the specific wavelengths of an individual's aura," she said.
Ozpin nodded, "correct Miss Nikos, the theory itself is about the effects that could happen when two individuals with the same aura wavelengths meet. As we know aura is the manifestation of our souls so if two people meet that had the same aura their souls would have to be related in some way, we call these souls Synchronized."
"Now keep in mind this is all theory, as Synchronized Souls have never been proven to exist, until now," reminded Ozpin. "As I understand it, this occurred during Miss Rose's accident during the sparing session, her aura shouldn't have been strong enough to heal her injures and yet the very next day she was up and about as if nothing had ever happened."
"My theory is that both of the souls were in danger of dying at the same time and so each aura sought out the other, trying to consume it to save their hosts. It would seem that Miss Rose's was the more dominant of the two most likely due to her aura being unlocked while her compatriot's was not," explained Ozpin.
"As you are aware aura is not just the manifestation of our souls, they are our souls itself. So in a sense by consuming the aura it absorbed their very soul as well," he continued.
"But Headmaster that's not possible, no two people on Remnant have the same aura," argued Pyrrha.
"Exactly, no two people on Remnant have the same aura however our friend is not from Remnant," he answered.
All of teams RWBY's and JNPR's jaws dropped open at this news. Ozpin got up from his chair and brought something up with his scroll before handing it to them.
"This is a comparison of Miss Rose's aura levels when she just joined Beacon and with her latest sparing session with Miss Xiao Long," he informed them.
Looking down at the scroll both teams were in shock, her aura levels had nearly doubled since the first measurement. There was silence between them as each tried and failed to come up with a logical conclusion for the sudden increase, coughing Ozpin broke the silence and took his scroll back from them.
"What I'm about to tell you is not to leave this room," he ordered.
Receiving nods of understanding from the students he reached into his desk and placed a blue green orb on the table.
"Throughout the history of Remnants there have been unique individuals whose aura was completely different from anything we knew before. Each of these individuals had an instinctive mastery of the aura and semblance that could rival any aura master we know today," informed Ozpin.
'So that's why she could use Ruby's semblance like that,' thought Yang with a frown, remembering their sparing session. Still none of them could have been prepared for the bombshell Ozpin was about to drop on them.
"What has been kept a secret, is that each of these individuals came from another world known only as the 'Earth'," he concluded, holding up the orb.
Yang walked up to the headmaster with glowing hair, "how long have you known?" she asked furious.
"I suspected it when you first brought her to my office, I'd recognize that Earth aura signature anywhere. But I didn't confirm it until she was sent to my office for fighting Mr. Winchester," he confessed.
"Hold on headmaster, didn't you just say they had the same aura, how could you tell the difference?" asked a confused Jaune.
Ozpin gave him an impressed smile before answering, "Think of every person's aura as a different language, in every language you can have different dialects depending on where you come from. This situation is much the same, it is Miss Rose's aura but it has two different accents, her normal Remnant one and hidden very carefully underneath that the Earth-like aura."
"What capabilities does this Earth aura give her?" asked Blake, already planning how to deal with this new threat.
Ozpin frowned, "we've never been able to do a direct study on Earth auras but from reports by both eyewitnesses and our own observations it is clear that their aura works on a fundamentally different level to ours."
He took a deep breath before continuing, "you see our aura quite literally shields us from harm. It does this by healing us, making us stronger and the creation of semblances. However Earth aura instead revolves around recognizing and avoiding the danger entirely."
Noticing their confused expressions he elaborated, "their aura will manifest itself as feeling or instincts that tell her what the best course of action is or enhance her senses to spot threats before they arrive. From what you told me of the Forever Fall incident this aura is now beginning to awaken within her."
"However we have never had someone that has both Remnant and Earth aura so we have no idea what to expect at this point," he finished.
"Surely there must be some of the descendants from these individuals alive today you could study?" asked Weiss.
"Unfortunately not Miss Schnee, the last surviving family, the Oum family, went missing a few years ago," answered the headmaster.
"We can only hope that no one else recognizes the significance of Miss Rose. These Earthlings have always brought change with them, for good or ill," muttered a depressed Ozpin.
"So hungry," moaned Red.
Luckily she'd made it into Vale before nightfall, unluckily she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. Something her groaning stomach wouldn't let her forget. A sweet smell began filling her nose, causing her stomach to rumble even louder. Following it showed a street bakery stall that was full of steaming pastries, causing Red's mouth to water. Walking up to the vendor she began trying to beg and bargain for just one free of charge.
"Please I'm really hungry," she begged.
The man growled pushing her to the ground, "get out of here you filthy street urchin!"
Red felt her temper flare, 'this greedy bastard can't even part with one.' She could just take them and run, he wouldn't catch her Ruby semblance would make sure of that. The question was should she? It was wrong to steal she knew that but she was so hungry. Sighing Red got up ready to walk away, her stomach groaning in protest, when the man made the decision for her.
"I thought I told you to scram!" he roared, slapping her across the face.
"That's it!" screamed Red.
Kicking the vendor in the crotch she jumped over to the register and stole as many notes as she could fit in her pockets before grabbing some pastries and sprinting down the street. Red didn't stop running until she had left the cries of her victim far behind.
"You know it's not very nice to take things that aren't yours," commented an amused voice.
Red's hand immediately went to Crescent Rose as she turned around, "you're one to talk," she shot back.
"Guilty as charged," came the smug response.
"What do you want?" she growled, beginning to unsheathe her scythe.
"Now now no need for that, I've just got a business proposition for you," he continued smiling.
Welp that was a hell of a chapter to kick off the first non-canon arc, don't you think? Poor Ozpin he should have known nothing ever goes according to plan. Ok so I never really understood aura in the show, sometimes it seems like it is sentient, an example being Jaune's aura activating by itself and also Ruby's incomplete control over her Semblance. However Pyrrha explained it as if they were tools possibly controlled by their subconscious, so sorry to anyone that had a problem with it. Anyway hope you guys enjoyed it.