Yang Xiao Long
It was probably a pretty routine day for these guys so far. The sun was alone in the sky, no clouds or Grimm to be wary of up there in the endless expanse of blue. A forest brimming with life surrounded their cave, no enemies or creatures of destruction and death in sight. Maybe they were relaxing, shirking guard duties and not bothering with patrols... it wasn't like anyone had found them yet afterall. Plus, they had two guards out front, each of them sporting Rot Blades and Abaddon Bolts, making them ready to handle pretty much anyone that would stumble across their cave turned base.
Well, they did have two guards out front. That standard boring day that was the same as the last? That was about to end.
"So, what was that?" His question made her open one eye and glance to her side, looking at him as she walked. Her hands were on the back of her head, a posture exuding a lazy attitude.
"My innate spell I get from being a Dragon." Yang shrugged with her answer, and Jaune sighed gently, moving his hand up to hold his forehead.
"Out of the four Dragons we have now... why does only one of them have a breath attack...?"
"Well, we don't know what Argus can do yet."
"I'm already making a bet that he won't have one."
Both of Yang's red eyes opened and she looked at him properly now. "What we betting?"
"Yang-" He stopped his sentence and let out a sigh, shaking his head as he sped up a bit and moved ahead of the less serious blonde.
"Jaune? Hey?! What's up??" Yang picked up her pace a little, catching up to him once he stopped moving in a doorway of sorts. The long cave that functioned as a hallway of sorts had opened up to a large open room paved with grey stone bricks and supported with wooden pillars. There was a tinge of magic in the air that masked the walls, clearing giving some kind of protection to them... it wasn't a particularly strong barrier, but it would be enough to keep the wooden beams from burning down from stray fire magic or things like that.
There was a pretty open floor plan, rather then there being more rooms extending off of this one it clearly served as a more general meeting area. A large teleport circle on the floor gave off the idea that no one actually stayed here on a permanent basis, so catching Torchwick here was more lucky then they had first thought. Around the room were spread at least seven White Fang goons, all of whom seemed to be doing their own thing... or, they had been anyway. All the eyes in the room were now on the two blondes who had stopped moving a step into the room, though none of those eyes could exaclty be seen under those masks.
Only two sets of eyes besides Yang and Jaune's own were visible, and the two individuals holding ownership of those particular orbs were currently sitting at one of the many tables. Torchwick was staring at them with a good deal of confusion, his hat sitting on the top of his cane which was resting against the side of the table next to him, and one of his hands holding a cigar most the way up to his lips, but frozen in place by shock before it had reached. The other occupant of the table looked even more confused then Torchwick, her body having stopped mid-bite of what Yang could only assume was Icecream from here. Her eyes were currently each a different colour, one pink, and one brown. Yang smirked a little after seeing Neo, nudging Jaune with her elbow and gesturing to the table with her head.
"Oh... Neo's here-" He held his hand up and pointed it back the way they came. The cave was a straight shot to outside, perfect for sending a signal flare down to communicate to the Hunter's outside.
Yang grabbed his hand, though being with her prosthetic so Jaune only stopped out of his own action rather then her forcing him. "Don't. We can take her."
"You sure?" Jaune seemed hesitant... but when his eyes met Yang's own, he relented without an argument. "Alright-" He put his arm down and they took another step forward.
"Well... my favourite situation. Two blondes come to visit me purely of their own accord." Roman smirked as he stood, putting his hat on with a single toss of it onto his head, and picking his cane up in the same dramatic movement. The item exuded a potent source of mana... Yang could guess it was as well made or possibly even better then Ruby's current scythe... though, there was no way in hell that it was Relic grade. Ruby herself had said her Scythe was a failure, so this cane was probably just a decent Legendary tier weapon.
"Didn't know you swung both ways." Yang returned the banter, but Jaune seemed less enthused... which was a pattern that Yang was sensing.
"I don't, I just assumed that you were both women."
"Well that was a lame clap-back." Honestly Yang was disappointed. "And here I thought you were going to share with Neo."
That actually made Torchwick frown. "Sorry, Blondie. Neo's too young for either of you."
"...what?"
"Nevermind. Are you grunts going to do anything or not??" His yells made all the White Fang agents break out of their daze and quickly stand, ready to fight. Yang glanced at them and didn't even bother raising her defenses, instead she sent off a pulse of magic. Rather then being a spell, it was closer to just a pushing out of one's presence. She had done the same thing before as a Hellhound, with her Berserker eyes in full force she could use it to scare off some low-level Grimm... but as she was now?
Nothing had put a smile on her face quite as big as watching the Grunts run for the secondary exit.
"Well... They did do something." Yang turned and smirked at Jaune, bumping him lightly on the shoulder happily in appreciation of his comment.
"...if you need something done properly... do it yourself." Torchwick let out a sigh and strolled over, moving to the centre of the room and readying himself with a smirk. "Hope you two are ready... I don't dance with amateurs." Neo joined him wordlessly... as expected. Her eyes stayed the same, and Yang couldn't help but smile at the situation.
"So Jaune... who's taking who?" She gave him a happy smile, and the Hero looked between their two opponents cautiously.
"Umm... rock paper scissors...?" He smiled awkwardly and Yang shrugged.
"Sure."
"Are you seriously-"
"Shush! We're busy!" She cut Torchwick off and turned fully to Jaune, assuming the necessary stance for such a game of Legendary skill.
"One, two... three!" They both counted at the same time... and paused briefly as they both displayed the handsign for paper.
"One, two... three!" Both of them went rock this time.
"One, two, three." Paper again.
"Dammit. I really don't wanna fight Neo-"
"Wait... you don't want to fight Neo?"
"Uhh... no...? Why? Do you?"
"I thought we were playing to see who got to fight her."
Jaune let out a sigh and they both turned to their opponents now that that had been sorted out.
"Ok, we're good guys!" She called it out while displaying a big thumbs up, before the room pulsed with another wave of mana as they transformed. Yellow scales with black lining running between them sprouted all over Yangs body, two large wings with five claws on each sprouting from her back and a glistening orange membrane between them. Jaune's skin began to let off an ethereal glow as wisps of mana flowed around him and his body radiated a Holy light.
Yang's red eyes formed into slits, and her smirk focoused on Neo as her wings 'hands' cracked their knuckles over the top of her head. "Alright then... time for round two."
Ruby Schnee
"Emerald-" She moved to stand, but stopped everything the instant the blade in the other woman's hand twitched. It wasn't near Argus's throat, it wasn't even really being held in a threatening way towards him... it just being there was enough of a threat.
"Don't move." Her words were still as dead as before, like all the life had been drained out of her and it was only sheer willpower pushing her through this. "Don't use any magic. Don't transform."
"Ok... ok. I... I won't do anything." Ruby tried her best to give Argus a reassuring smile... but the sweet boy wasn't even scared. Why would he be? He was just smiling away at his mum, while he sat in Aunty Emeralds lap. There wasn't any danger... none his pure and innocent soul could find. "Just... please put the knife down... we... we can just talk... right? Like before." She turned her smile to Emerald, trying her best to stay calm... and failing.
"Ok. Let's talk. I'm going to ask you a question, and you're going to answer."
"Yes! That's a great idea. Ill tell you anything you want." Her anxiety was burning through her body. Ruby could feel every cell in her body like they were on fire, her soul was screaming with every ounce of mana it had... and it was taking all of her willpower to not just charge the woman right now.
"What are the Phrases of the Dragon Formula?" Her words were like hot steel pressed to Ruby's flesh. The burning pain of that question was enough to bring tears to Ruby's eyes.
"I... I can tell you. I just... I'm under a binding contract... I... I just need to remove it first." She tried to be careful with her words... but it was the truth. She had never removed her binding contract with Weiss. The Curse prevented her from telling anyone the Dragon Formula or any of its Phrases... baring Weiss of course... though for some reason Penny hadn't counted for that... perhaps because she had seen the Phrase seconds before Ruby said it?
Emerald was silent for a moment. Ruby could see her working through the options in her head slowly and methodically... like she was considering if it was worth the risk to let Ruby set up the ritual.
"Fine. But work fast." The Queen Consort didn't need any further instruction then that. She quickly turned and grabbed what she needed, just some chalk and whatever nearby Dust she had. The Curse Breaker was pretty complex... but she knew how to make it off by heart, the process was time consuming but easy... she just had to do it faster then usual.
Ruby had practised this enough times for it to be easy, but the pressure of the situation and the anxiety filling her very being were enough to make it near impossible. Every movement felt off, the stress of being watched by the person threatening her child's life was too much for her to handle. All of her instincts were screaming at her to turn back around and rip the woman apart, to do worse to her then she did to Carmine... and Ruby actually wanted that. It was a terrifying thought. Right now... she actually wanted to kill someone, and not cleanly either. Her mind was filled with images of ripping Emerald into pieces, the woman she considered one of her closest friends not even a minute ago was now the person she most wanted to see dead and gone in this world. Ruby had to check to see if she had Pride activated, but she hadn't had that on for nearly a year now... it was scary to know that she was capable of killing someone if it meant protecting her loved ones... or... at least she thought she was.
The ritual was slowly taking shape. Progress was painful and way too slow for either her own or Emeralds liking... and unfortunately, Argus seemed to agree. The young prince was annoyed with the situation. Gone was the laughter and talking from earlier, having been replaced with silence and voices filled with dread... and his Mama wasn't even looking at him anymore! For him? That just wouldn't do... so he sought to fix that.
"Stop struggling." The words were terribly quiet, but Emeralds dead voice couldn't reach Argus without being loud enough for Ruby to hear. She snapped her head around and looked at her poor baby, he was struggling in Emeralds grasp, trying to break free and run over to Ruby... to his parent... to safety. Even if he didn't know he was in danger. "Make him calm down." Emerald's words now directed at Ruby took on the meaning of a threat, even without anything threatening having been said.
"A-Argus... sweetie... buddy... c-calm down... please?" She gave him the best smile she could, kneeling down a bit to look him in the eyes... but unable to come any closer. The seven metres that separated them was a distance Ruby wanted to erase with her mind... her willpower unfortunately not being enough to annihilate the gap between them and wrap her arms around the boy... but she couldn't move. Emerald wouldn't let her get closer.
"Mummy...!" His little voice was full of a plea. Even without seeking her safety, his want to be at her side was enough to fill his eyes with tears as he struggled in Emeralds grasp.
"P-please... Argus... i-its ok. I promise." She couldnt stop her own tears. Every fibre of her being was trying to push her closer. Every scrap of mana and power in her soul was trying to lunge her forward to grab hold of her child and hit Emerald so hard she couldn't breath anymore... but she couldnt move... she couldn't do anything. She couldn't protect him. The tears practically streamed down her face, but her reassuring smile remained... even now, trying her best to calm him.
Finally he started to understand that something was wrong. Seeing Ruby's tears was enough for him to recognise that something was off... that maybe he wasn't safe... and that was just more fuel added to the fire. His struggling got more rampant and fierce, his strength surprising for his age but still nowhere near enough to break from an adult Vampires grasp. His tears fell into full on bawling crying as he yelled for Ruby, for his mummy... for her warmth... for her safety. She kept trying to reassure him but it wasn't working, and her heart broke a bit as he started calling out for his mother instead... Ruby knew that Weiss couldn't hear them from here, and any attempts to try and call for her were bound to just set Emerald off rather then anything else.
"Forget it, just finish the ritual." Red eyes brewed with frustration, and Ruby's own eyes widened as she recognised the emotion. Her body moved faster then she realised, and only after she had turned back to continue working on the ritual... did she remember that Argus was still calling for her.
Her son... her sweet little boy... he was desperately crying and calling for her... and she had literally just turned her back on him. What did he think of that...? Would he remember this...? Would he ever trust her again...? Would he ever seek her safety or warmth now...?
Her eyes became difficult to see through, the tears proving too much for her to handle without wiping them from her face. She decided it didn't matter... even if he never wanted her help again... even if he never wanted her love or protection again... he was going to make it out of this... and Ruby would never let him be in danger again.
Her new determination was enough of a push to finish the ritual, and she had to force herself to move further away from both of them in order to activate it. Stepping into the centre of the circle and sending a pulse of mana through it to turn it on.
The swirling mana and bright glow of the ritual might have been enough for her to make a move, if she was more creative with magic... but even if she was, Ruby wouldn't risk it. Right now, any move she made was a gamble, and her bet would be her child's life. There was no way in hell that she would ever make a bet like that.
The ritual felt like it took hours. A terrible burning feeling passed through her body as it worked and cleaned her soul of the binding contract she had made with Weiss. Now separated from one end, the contract should be completely void, as they were made with two parties in mind.
Ruby stepped closer to them again, getting as close as she could being Emerald adjusted her knife's grip again... and she stopped dead. Her face was marked with dried tears, and her eyes spilled new ones as she watched the boy still struggle in Emeralds hold.
"I'm going to kill you."
She couldn't say the words out loud... she couldn't even use telepathy to say it to her... but it was a promise she made to the Vampire, right here, right now.
One she intended to keep.
"The Formula... get on with it."
"Why are you doing this...?" She couldnt understand... even with her new-found hatred for the woman, trying to think about it was so confusing to her... she... could have sworn they were friends.
"I'm... I'm doing this because... no... it dosent matter... just tell me the Formula."
Ruby gulped... knowing that Emerald was telling her to hand over one of the most dangerous things in the whole world... especially when used with the Abaddon Curse, which Cinder already had. They could turn however many people they wanted into Dragons... and... what scared Ruby more...?
She didn't care.
None of that mattered... not until she had Argus back.
"Nothing else matters... until I know he's ok."
"Potentia... Elementum...-" Ruby felt a strange sensation wash over her... a feeling she was intimately familiar with, but one she couldn't place properly in her state of high stress. "Spiritus..." No, she knew this feeling. It was the presence of a soul she knew well. One she had promised her life and body to... one she trusted more then anyone else... "Superbia..." And one that cared just as much for Argus as she did.
Emerald didn't see it coming. A blade much stronger then her own pierced directly through the back of her head and skewered through her brain like it was poking through a fruit. A rather dainty yet powerful hand grabbed her arm holding her knife, and the appendage quickly froze over with an ice too powerful to allow something much stronger then a Vampire to be able to move. The rapier lodged through her brain was drawn quickly, and without hesitation it was brought back around to slice her neck clean in half, rending her head from her body and letting it fall to the floor with only a moment between the separation and the drop.
Ruby hadn't hesitated. The second the blade met Emeralds flesh for the first time, she was over at them both in a cloud of rose petals. Her arms were around Argus and drawing the boy from the Vampires clutches faster then she had ever moved in her life. She held the innocent prince tight to her body, changing into her half from as she did and quickly wrapping her wings around them both so he couldn't turn and see what was happening... he had been through enough today, he didn't need to see anything more. He cried into her chest, and Ruby was relived that he was still clutching her the same way as he always did... even after all of that, he still just wanted his Mama to keep him safe... which was exaclty what she would do. While his mother cleaned up the trash.
The Rose Dragon was in no state to help the Frost Dragon. Ruby was crying just as much as the poor baby in her arms, and she was doubtful that she'd be letting him go for months... actually years...
Weiss Schnee
"Get up. I know Vampires are more resilient then that." She spat the words out like they were venom, and if she knew any poison magic they probably would have been joined with some of it. Her blade dripped with the filthy blood of this woman, and she would have it professionally cleaned after today to rid it of her.
Weiss had already been in a terrible mood. Stuck in a meeting that had no rhyme or reason to be happening now or really ever... but then a strange feeling had interrupted that. Weiss could recognise the feeling of a contract breaking, she had been in a few that had run their course before... but a binding contract? Those usually only broke when one of the parties who signed it had died... and she could recognise the one she had made with Ruby leaving her soul as it broke. Now, Weiss was smart obviously. She knew that most likely Ruby had just removed it with the Curse Breaker... but that wasn't something she was feeling confident with just leaving as a thought.
Her anxiety had gotten too much for her to handle in only a few seconds, and she was out of the council room in less time then that. Getting to the workshop had been nearly as fast, but it hadn't taken long for her to start hearing Argus's cries... and from there it was all a blur. Less a span of time with concious thought, and more a blind rage filled with blood-lust fueled by parental instincts.
"You know... I normally don't carry my rapier... yet, today? Well... it was unlucky for you wasn't it..." Weiss was already in her half form. Her wings folded against her body and her scales glistening beautifully in the clean white light of the workshop. The only splashes of colour across them was the odd bit of light blue colouring... and a splash of Emeralds crimson blood across her front.
The Vampire didn't respond. Instead her 'corpse' burst into a swarm of bats and black smoke... a familiar sight from all the reports she had seen on Cinders group. The mass of bats and smoke immediately went for the door, which wasn't what Weiss had been expecting. She had expected Emerald to go for Ruby or Argus... hell even something in the workshop... but running? Did she already have what she was here for? Or was she cutting her loses?
The Queen decided that didn't matter, and she didn't waste a second before reacting. A ball of ice froze itself into existence around the swarming smoke and bats, the cloud of magic slamming into the side of the barrier and cracking it slightly. Weiss watched with a cold gaze as the shell refroze, slowly changing from a hollow ball to a complelty solid mass of ice containing a now entombed prisoner. She wanted to smash it. To break it apart in one attack and watch Emerald turn to red paste... but as much as her rage fueled every fibre of her being... she couldn't kill her yet. They had information to get out of her, and Weiss was more then prepared to get it by any means necessary.
But for now? She turned back to her family, Rubys wings still hiding them both in a burrow of seclusion meant to keep everything else out... Weiss couldn't imagine what they were feeling right now, but her own emotions weren't exaclty good either. The rapier previously in her hand dropped to the ground, and she slowly stepped over. Her hands gently pryed open Ruby's wings and her own joined in wrapping around them all as Weiss hugged her wife and child. No words were spoken. She didn't need to say how relieved she was that they were alright... didn't need to express that they were safe now... Ruby knew... and Argus would know as time passed... no words needed to be spoken, and speaking them would be a waste. Besides... Weiss doubted she could open her mouth without a cry of anguish sounding from her before actual coherent words.
She didn't pay attention as the guards moved into the room, but later she would find out that Ozpin had sent them after Weiss hurried out of the council meeting. Emerald had been handled, and everyone else had left the three of them alone in the workshop. Nobody had wanted to be the one to touch the cocoon of Dragons or try to disturb them... lest they be identified as the next threat.
Because that's what Weiss had realised thanks to Emerald. There would always be a next threat to her family. She had to put in the work and effort in order to secure that they were prepared for it... and as her eyes met Ruby's... she realised that the other Dragon was thinking the exact same thing.