Chapter Forty: Beacon's Fire.
Yang found herself rather enjoying the fact that her girlfriend was a panther Faunus. Not only was the black haired girl rather snuggly when she was cold but Blake actually purred, honest to gods actually purring when she was cozy. The first time she had heard the panther purring Yang had doubted that that was what she was hearing, it wasn't like Blake at all to purr. The blonde knew that Faunus did share some of the idiosyncrasies that their animal counter parts had, she had grown up with a wolf who would howl at the moon when she was younger, but she had never expected Blake to actually purr.
But yet here she was, face buried against her neck, legs twisted around her own pressing up as closely as she could to the body heat Yang radiated, lightly purring away as Yang ran her hand gently through the silky black strands of hair. Every once and a while one of the panther's ears would twitch when Yang's hand strayed to close to them as if they were begging to be touched, but the blonde knew better, the moment she touched Blake's ears the panther would be awake.
On one pass of her hand Yang let it softly glide across Blake's spine, the silk nightgown she wore giving off a slight whisper as her fingers passed. The blonde could feel every ridge and bump of the panther's spine as she continued the motion. Once she passed the middle of Blake's back the girl gave off a small shiver of pleasure and what escaped from her lips almost made Yang squeal with delight, Blake had 'mewed'. It had been soft and the blonde had almost missed it but she had heard it and it caused a goofy grin to light up her face.
She was thankful now that she hadn't gone back to sleep once Weiss and Ruby had left the dorm if she had gone back to sleep she would have missed the cuteness that was sleeping Blake. There was one problem she was facing right now, the much need call of nature and she couldn't really move without waking Blake since the panther had her in a particle strangle hold, but the pressure in her bladder was starting to get to her.
With a defeated sigh Yang slowly began to extract herself from the tight grasp of her girlfriend causing the panther go give off a small growl as she was moved against her will. It took some doing but the blonde finally extracted herself from the clingy black haired girl and rolled out from the sheets before Blake could pull her back. Instantly the panther curled up in on herself to keep warm. Leaning down Yang placed a kiss on Blake's cheek, "I'll be right back Kitten."
Quickly crossing to the bathroom Yang finished her business finally getting much need relief. As she washed her hands the blonde looked up in the mirror and cringed at what she saw. Her hair was a wild mess sticking out at odd angles and looked as if a juvenile Nevermore had taken up residence over night. With a sigh Yang grabbed a brush and quickly attempted to tame her wild locks back into something close to its normal state, she would never be able to get back in bed now that she knew what her hair looked like.
After a few minutes of strong brushing and muttered cursing Yang had her hair back in some state of tame. Nodding happily Yang exited the bathroom back into the darkened dorm, only to spot a flash of amber coming from her shared bed with Blake.
With a smile the blonde skipped over to the bed, "Morning Kitten." She chimed.
"You got up." Blake grouched from under the covers she had thrown over herself, the only thing sticking out was just the tip of her nose. Amber eyes flashed against the small amount of light the curtain let in.
"Yeah sorry, nature called." Yang chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck. "If you'll let me back in I'll make sure you're nice and toasty."
Amber eyes narrowed slightly before a long sigh was let out, "Actually I need to go to and then we should probably get moving." With an even longer sigh the panther pulled back the blankets and crawled off the bed and headed towards the bathroom. Yang let out another chuckle at her girlfriend before stretching her arms up high and twisting back and forth loosing up her muscles before falling forward and began her morning warm up.
When Blake exited the bathroom Yang continued her push ups and sit ups well aware of the amber eyes that followed her every move. "So you want to eat first or get our sparring session over with before Ruby and Weiss show up?"
Blake watched her girlfriend's toned muscles constrict and relax as the blonde did her warm up every appreciative of her figure, "Well I suppose it wouldn't be good to fight on a full stomach, especially considering if you get a lucky gut shot in I'm likely to see what I had or breakfast again and frankly I really don't want that to happen so let's get our sparing session in. We can hook up with Ruby and Weiss after they have their fun."
"Oh don't want to join them?" Yang teased, she had noticed that Blake absolutely hated cold weather.
Blake glared at the blonde who was still on the ground, "No. I hate the snow and everything to do with the cold. Menagerie and Vacuo were both too warm to have snow and I preferred the warmth there."
"Yeah I get that," Yang nodded as she stood up and stretched out her arms again. "Right then off to the arena."
After a quick change, Yang to only slightly longer cloths than what she normally wore and Blake into a much longer and heavier black coat they set off towards the training gym, Blake holding on to Yang's arm trying to absorb the heat the blonde put out. "Man you really don't like the cold." Yang laughed.
"No I hate the cold." Blake muttered into the purple scarf that was wrapped around her neck. "It hurts my ears and causes my nose to run." Yang just shook her head at Blake's disgust of the snow and cold. Once they were inside the building Blake relaxed her grip slightly, she only let go once they reached the locker room and had to remove her jacket and scarf.
Once they had retrieved their weapons they quickly made their way to an empty arena and squared off, "Rules?" Yang asked as she flicked Ember Celica out into position.
"Let's just go for ten minutes," Blake replied as she took her stance, the katana of Gambol Shroud forward and the cleaver in her off hand facing backwards. Yang nodded and punched in the timer on her scroll before starting the count down timer. They eyed each other as the chimes counted down until a loud ding rang out sending Yang into a flurry of motion.
Running forward the blonde fired three shots off towards the panther, one on either side and one to land behind her, hoping to cut off her paths of movement, after all the sparing sessions she had learned that the key to beating Blake was to keep from moving too much. Unfortunately it seemed as if Blake had been counting on her move and dashed forward to met her. Yang was shocked at first, Blake rarely actually headed onto head to head combat preferring to find openings then attack.
Yang threw a quick right jab out trying to throw Blake off whatever plan she had only for Blake to spin on her heel letting the blonde's fist continue past her almost grazing her back, the cleaver of her weapon racing towards her. Yang tried to follow the panther taking a quick step and trying to throw a punch under her extended arm only to strike air once again as Blake dissolved into shadows and Yang felt a quick hit against her legs causing her to stumble off balance.
Blake smirked as Yang tired to regain her footing and kept up the attack, her katana and cleaver slicing through the air in precise arcs keeping the blonde from recovering. She knew she couldn't actually hit Yang, that would only feed her semblance, but if she kept Yang on the back foot then it would only be a matter of time before the blonde fell.
Yang however had come up with a plan in order to help her recover her footing. Waiting for the right swing the blonde kept blocking the incoming slices until she saw what she wanted. Blake swung her cleaver in a low undercut and Yang swung her fist towards the end of the weapon, just as her gauntlet hit the weapon she fired a shot off pushing Blake's attack backwards and causing the panther to stumble.
Taking a few hops back Yang retook her stance and smirked at the panther and then jumped forward again making Blake dissolve into a shadow again, "Getting quick there Kit Cat." Yang pivoted and blocked Blake's next attack.
"Let's see if you can keep up." Blake smirked as she kicked off another shadow trying to get behind Yang.
And so they went for several more minutes, Yang keeping the pressure on her partner while Blake leapt and struck from time to time trying to keep Yang from getting the upper hand. It wasn't until Yang had driven Blake towards the arena wall did the blonde truly strike.
With a thunderous blow the brawler struck the hard concert just as Blake dodged under the strike, sword blade planted against Yang's throat. Both girls paused as the panther smirked up at her partner, "I win."
"Damn." Yang grouched as she pulled her fist free of the wall and grimaced at the hole she had left, "Any chance I can blame Nora for this?"
Blake frowned at the distinctly fist shaped hole but before she could reply both of them were thrown to their feet as the entire building shook and the ground bucked and rocked. A few of the hanging lights broke free of their bolts and fell to the ground with loud crashes sending glass into the air, one hit rather close to the pair. Explosions roared through the air causing their ears to hurt and the heat of the flames that followed licked at their skin.
Once the commotion had calmed Yang slowly raised her head and looked around; the arena they were in was a mess, lights and ceiling beams and tiles littered the ground, a large I-beam that support part of the roof had smashed into the ground and embedded itself deep in the ground, and several of the seats had collapsed to the ground. She could make out the orange glow of flames coming from the other side of the doors and hear the sirens of an alarm blaring outside, a thick black smoke started to form in the air causing Yang to cough.
"Blake!" She called out holding her hand over her mouth.
"Right here Yang." Blake coughed back from under a pile of ceiling tiles. Yang quickly rushed over and pushed the debris off her girlfriend.
"You okay Kitten?" Yang asked, as she quickly looked Blake over for any visible injuries, besides a small gash on her arm the blonde couldn't make out any others.
"Yeah I think so." Blake nodded as she took stalk of herself, her head was pounding and her ears were ringing but other than that everything seemed to be in place. "My Aura took the majority of the blow."
Yang nodded looping her arm under Blake's and held the girl close, "Right well let's find a way out of here before things get worse." Blake nodded as she leaned into Yang. The blonde took a quick look at the wall and a goofy grin crossed her face, "Well I guess I don't have to worry about Goodwitch yelling at me now." Blake sighed in response.
After a few minutes the two found a clear passage out of the training arena, through it was through a large hole in the side of the wall. "What the hell happened?" Yang wondered as she looked around, various buildings had large holes in them and were on fire, there were large craters in several places and students were running out of their building in various states of dress. Outside the sirens were blaring and the sounds of gunfire mixed together in the air.
"There." Blake pointed up into the sky, tracking her finger Yang spotted at least thirty armed bullheads quickly headed towards Beacon. She watched as they launched a wave of missiles towards the campus. Again the air and ground shook as the projectiles impacted and Yang and Blake were tossed forwards as one hit the training arena again.
"Hey don't just stand there." A familiar voice barked out once the pair could hear again, looking up they saw a very peculiar sight. Coco Adel standing tall on a pile of rubble in large baggy cargo pants and a bra. Her hair few around her face in a mess and a furious scowl worked across her lips. "Anyone with heavy projectile weapons make your way to the front and set up an air defense. The rest of you start evacuating civilians to the back of the campus."
The students that had been standing and staring blankly at the attacking bullheads suddenly jumped into action having someone bark orders at them. The fashionista glared for a few more seconds at the incoming bullheads before jumping down off of the pile of rubble and strutted over to Yang and Blake, "You two okay?" She asked gently as she helped them up.
"Yeah." Yang nodded, as she looked Coco up and down, "Deciding on a new combat attire?"
Coco blushed as she looked from the blonde to the panther, "Well if up must know Velvet and I were involved when the first wave of missiles hit and I didn't have time to throw on a proper attire before rushing out, though at least I got some pants on."
Yang blinked a few times before laughing, "You mean Velvet is running around sans pants?" Coco nodded with a smirk, "Oh that's great."
"She wasn't really concerned since she had her lab jacket and that's pretty much a dress on her." Coco shrugged, "Anyways not the time, those bullheads are going to try and land and I saw a group of them peel off toward the east end of the campus so I'm drafting you two to come with me and make sure that that group doesn't flank our front defenders." Both Blake and Yang nodded as they set off towards where Coco had said.
"So any idea who's behind the attack?" Blake asked as they crossed the campus dodging around the debris.
"No idea yet," Coco shook her head, "I've been trying to contact a professor since it started but they must have hit our communication relays in the first wave."
Before either of the other girl's could reply another wave of missiles struck the ground although it was as many as the first few waves, and knocked down a large amount of bricks and concrete into their path. Yang and Blake dove one way while Coco dove another way to avoid the falling rubble cutting them off from each other.
"Damn." Coco cursed from the other side of the pile, "Yang, Blake my way forward is blocked, I'll have to do some back tracking to get to you so head on out, I'll catch up when I can."
"Rodger." Yang nodded, "Let's go Blake." Blake nodded and followed after the blonde as they ran towards the east end of Beacon. After a few minutes and dodging around rubble piles Blake pulled up short when she saw the first of the attacker. A white mask and black hoods covered their faces; it was a look Blake had very familiar with, it was a look Blake once associated with revolution and freedom only for it to turn into hate and terror, the White Fang was attacking Beacon.
Yang had recognized the garbs of the terrorist group and continued running full tilt at them slamming her fist into the face of the nearest Faunus hearing the sickening crunch of bone as she caved his skull in. The blonde paused for a moment as she realized that he didn't have an Aura to absorb her attacks, if there were more of them that didn't have an Aura she was going to have to pull her punches to avoid killing them.
The momentary pause in Yang's movements was all one of the other terrorists needed as he raised his rifle and fired a volley of rounds at the blonde. The sharp impacts on her side brought the brawler out of her thoughts, though the bullets didn't actually do any damage she knew that she would have welts where they had impacted later. Before she could retaliate a black ribbon wrapped around the Faunus neck yanking him away and into a kick from the panther.
Blake was furious. She had long since admitted that the White Fang was nothing but a group of thugs trying to terrorize the world in to doing what they wanted done, killing anyone who stood in their way or became a problem. She had left that life and vowed that she would do everything within her power to protect the innocent people of the world and now three times the White Fang had put people she cared about in danger. Three times they had attacked her new home, her mate, her new life and she was not going to stand for it anymore.
Letting the ribbon slip from around her opponent's neck as he snuck to the ground the panther slammed the back edge of her clever into his neck breaking it with a resounding snap. She knew that only a few of the upper elites in the White Fang had their Aura's unlocked and most of her attacks would kill anyone who didn't have an Aura but frankly she didn't give a damn, if they were going to wear the uniform of terrorists she would put them down like the filth they were.
Yang watched in awe as the panther ran past her, black blades flashing as she jumped from opponent to opponent cutting through them without pause. She knew Blake was lethal having seen her tear through a mob of Grimm but to see her attack people with such fever was something else entirely. She only had another moment to pause before a larger Faunus pushed his way towards Blake and the panther was forced to block as his weapon knocked her back.
Heat sparked off Yang as she charged the Faunus, "Stay away from her!" With a mighty yell the brawler smashed her fist against his shoulder breaking the bone below, it was clear that if they were going to play for keeps then she shouldn't be pulling her punches. The Faunus yell of pain was cut short as Yang sent a thunderous upper cut to his jaw snapping his neck upward snapping his spine in the process.
Blake had recovered from being knocked back and leapt over the blonde and her opponent as he dropped to the ground using his body as a springboard and launched herself at another group of White Fang. As a duo Yang and Blake made short work of the first wave of attackers, Yang sending them flying into they air only for them to meet a quick end at the blades of Blake as she used her shadows to leap about the air.
Once the first group was dealt with Yang and Blake head in the direction they had come from hoping to run into more groups and keep them from reaching Beacon. Just as they reached a clearing they ran across another group, the Faunus leading the group caused Blake to stop.
The lead Faunus raised his hand and stopped the group just on the other side. Taking a few steps out from the group he rested his hand on his sword and smirked at the panther, "Ah just who I was hoping to run across." His voice held just a quiver of rage. "Our dear treacherous whore and her soon to be dead lover. Tell me Blake how does it feel to betray your own race but sleeping with a human?"
"You son of a bitch!" Yang yelled at the Faunus she felt Blake's hand shoot out and stop her from advancing, "You did not just call Blake a whore!"
"Oh but she is." Adam sneered, "You see she was my mate first and then she left me, now she's with you, she broke the bonds of being ones mate and now she's going to pay for that." Blake let out a low growl making Adam chuckle, "Come now Blake do you really think that that's going to scare me? I trained you, taught you how to fight, I know all of your moves, you can't beat me." With a short nod he sent his group of Faunus forward, "Make sure you take them alive, I want to make the traitor watch as we kill her lover."
Through out the redhead's speech Yang's anger grew and grew until the fire inside her would not be held back any longer. Drawing her anger in the blonde closed her eyes and centered herself letting the heat flow through her body, a common misconception that Yang actively promoted was that she needed to be hit or injured fro her semblance to fully awake when the truth was she just needed a fuel. Rage from being hit was just the easiest way of getting that fuel in a battle, but when she was mad enough without injury she use that to fuel her semblance, she could twist her rage and use it to fuel the fire deep inside of her into an inferno that would consume all. The group of Faunus had barely cleared half of the clearing when the blonde opened her eyes.
Gone were the soft gentle lilac irises that often shown with happiness and light, in their stead were the red irises that burned fear into any who faced them. Around the blonde the air ignited causing the snow to melt beneath her feet as she rushed out to meet the charging Faunus, a streak of fire trailing behind her as her hair whipped though the air.
The first Faunus had no time to react as the blonde demon struck out with her fist crushing his ribcage and causing several of the ribs to burst out of his side. She didn't even let his body slump to the ground as she triggered her gauntlet's shotgun and fired through the dead Faunus at the one behind him. The blast of the shotgun bucked the body of the first Faunus into the second just as the rounds tore through her sending them both to the ground.
Yang sidestepped the attack she felt coming from her left side letting the attacker stumble into a upward jab that crushed his larynx leaving him to suffocate on the ground. The blonde was already moving to her next opponent before his body even touched the ground.
By then the Faunus had just watched as three of their comrades fell at the hand of the walking inferno in under five seconds and knew trying to engage in close quarters combat with the blonde would see them dead, unfortunately for them the blonde was more than willing to go to them if they weren't going to come to her.
Yang leapt towards the closest Faunus bringing her first into his gut with a thunderous blow, she could feel something rupture inside is stomach as she shoved him back. An elbow to another Faunus's collar broke bones and sent her screaming to the ground holding the wounded area. A right hook saw another Faunus spinning away his neck at an odd angle. Onward the blonde went sending blow after blow into her opponents, she could hear Blake behind her as the panther took on any that tried to get behind her. When the last Faunus fell Yang turned her gaze towards the redheaded Faunus that had yet to move, his face contorted in rage.
"What's the matter?" Yang taunted, "Are really just a chicken and those horns are for show?" That set Adam off.
With a bellow of rage the bull charged at the blonde, Yang followed his lead and charged at him. She barely had time to see the glint of red causing her to slide just as his red blade passed over her head, she could feel a slight tug to her hair as the sharp blade clipped the ends. Yang just used the bastard touching her hair as extra fuel for her semblance as she swung at him. He brought his blade up quickly again redirecting her swing and tried to slice at her making her dodged to the side, she didn't move quick enough as she felt a slight sting on her shoulder as the blade grazed her cutting effortlessly through her clothes and Aura.
Before Yang could properly react she felt a barrel being shoved into her stomach followed by a heavy blow that caused her to almost double over as he fired. Fortunately the bullet was absorbed by her Aura but the impact caused the air from Yang's lungs to be forced out. A whisper of her Aura caused the blonde to jump back just as the blade once again passed by her, this time grazing across her stomach drawing a long line of blood as it went.
A growl was the only warning they got as Blake jumped in and forced Adam back as she swung her katana at him, "Stay away from her." The panther growled, a deep rumble coming from her throat.
"I'll make you watch as I slit her throat." Adam sneered back as he swung his weapon, the red blade locking with her black. "Then I'll make sure you regret ever leaving me, you'll become the entertainment that my troops need and then when you think you're ready to die I'll give you to my lieutenant to work over, then and only then when you're broken and nothing but a shell of yourself I will permit you to die."
"Not if I kill you first." Blake responded, her voice cold and steady as she glared at the white mask that hid his eyes.
"You can try." Adam challenged.
"Hey douche canoe you forgot about me." Yang yelled as she charged back in hitting him in the gut, his Aura flared as it tried to adsorb the blow but he grunted in pain as he was forced back. "Come on Blakey let's finish this."
"You will never beat me!" Adam yelled as he shot forward. Blake jumped forward again blocking his attack as Yang came in behind and landed another blow to his side. As he recovered Blake was once again there to block his swing letting Yang land her attack. "Enough!" Adam jumped back and took a low stance causing Blake's eyes to widen, she knew what he was going to do and she needed to protect Yang at all costs.
Time seemed to slow down as Blake summoned a shadow using it to propel her forward into the path the attack would take and in front of Yang. She had just enough time to raise her weapons in front of her body hoping to block the majority of the attack as Adam drew his sword.
Yang watched with wide eyes as the Faunus drew his blade in a wide arc, a sensation of a knife passed over her right ankle and left shoulder, behind her branches from the trees fell to the ground as a small trench of dirt was cut up. She watched in horror as Blake's weapons seemed to fall apart and blood erupt from the front of the panther as she sank to the ground.
"BLAKE!" Two voices yelled, one from the blonde and one from the side as Coco ran into the clearing from the side. Yang ran forward and caught her girlfriend as she fell, blood dripping down in a long slice that ran from her left hip to her right shoulder, there were a few places on her torso where the line had stopped but as she held up Blake's arm the blonde could see a cut across her wrist arm that matched the path of the slice.
The fashionista barely paused as she found the attacker who seemed just as shocked as them. Running at full tilt the older girl recognized the Faunus as the one she had sent flying during the attack on Vale and with a wicked grin she drew her bag back before calling out, "Hey fuck face remember me?" The Faunus barely turned as Coco swung her bag forward with all her might, "FORE!" The swing connected directly with the Faunus' face and Coco was rewarded with the oh so satisfying sound of his nose breaking as he was sent spinning backwards through the forest taking down several trees as he went.
Coco only glared at his path satisfied that he would not be returning to battle anytime soon before she turned towards the younger pair, Yang had Blake cradled in her lap as she tried to keep the blood from flowing, "Come on Kitten stay with me."
"Yang we need to get her to the infirmary now." Coco said softly as she approached the pair, she could feel the heat radiating off the blonde and sweat had started to form on her exposed back despite the cold around them, she also notice that the clearing was devoid of snow and the bodies of the White Fang they had encountered littered the ground. "Yang calm down, the heat isn't doing Blake any favors right now." She laid a hand on the blonde only to yank it back from the heat. "YANG XIAO LONG CALM DOWN!" Coco ordered making Yang snap out of her stupor and blink several times. Once the blonde looked up at Coco she saw the lilac irises had returned, "Better now let's get going, Blake need immediate medical attention."
Yang nodded once and gently held the panther against her, "It's going to be alright Kitten, I've got you."
A/N: Hello everyone! So a lot of you are probably wondering what the hell happened to me the past few weeks. Well after one hell of a week before Finals and then an awful Finals week and then Graduation I decided that a very overdue and much needed vacation was in order and so I packed up my bags got in the car and took off and planted my ass on a beach with a cooler full of ice cold drinks and didn't move from that spot until I was sunbaked and throughly relaxed. But now I am back and hoping to be in full production mode within the week. Since I wont be in class my writing time just got extended so I plan to have all of Grimm Reality typed and started on the editing block here soon. Once it is I'll be posting another story that will have three or four of the first chapters of other stories I want to write and based on feedback and possibly a poll (more than likely) I'll start out on another story. Honestly Grimm Reality only has about 20 chapters left because if I put in all of the ideas that I had planned on it feels over extended and drawn out so my goal is to have everything wrapped up by Chapter 60.
With that: Sorry again for the extended absence but thanks for sticking around, please tell me how your holidays went, and may this new year bring you joy and happiness.