Chapter 30: Follow Through

In which both Neo and Blake learn that actions have consequences, though some are sweeter than others.

"Yes."

"I understand."

"It seems she obtained blackmail or something on the Valkyrie girl and used it to force her to attack Ruby Rose. I'm not sure of the details. It's hard to interrogate someone who can't speak."

"Yep."

"Roman Torchwick? By that little runt? So this was to avenge him?"

"Mercury? Seriously? I'm sure I could…"

"As you command. I will be sure to pass along the message."

Emerald ended the audio call. Neopolitan was resting on her bed with her broken arm still wrapped up in a sling, having been cleared from the nurse's office just moments ago, before Emerald called Cinder. Mercury tried not to pay attention to his 'friends,' but he couldn't just turn off his instincts when he was surrounded by people he knew could and would stab him in the back.

Emerald coughed to get their attention. Popping a chip into his mouth, Mercury made sure that she knew he was ignoring.

Emerald coughed again, louder. Ugh.

"What is it, bitch?" he asked snidely.

"Well, asshat, I just got off the phone with the Boss."

"Ah, the Boss. The secret criminal mastermind who's pulling the strings. The mysterious and all powerful woman who hired me and Neopolitan and is definitely not Cinder. Seriously, Em, why the fuck do you insist on the cloak and dagger codenames and shit? I know you're Sage Advice and Cinder is the boss."

"When we're doing anything illegal, we can't let it be traced back to Team Caiman! If someone were to overhear us or see our scrolls and report our real names, our cover in Beacon would be blown." Emerald coughed. "And Cinder isn't the Boss. I-If anyone asks."

"Really? She's not?"

"No!"

"Cinder, the most powerful fighter I've ever seen, isn't the one who intimidated the White Fang, Torchwick (may he Rest in Prison), Neo, me and my dad, and the Valean criminal underground into her control by force?"

"No!"

"Cinder isn't the Boss, who I've heard burned off Torchwick's fingertips as punishment when he left behind prints at a crime scene?"

Emerald's voice wavered. "N-No."

"Em, I caught a brief glimpse of 'the Boss' at a distance one time when she met with my father. She has black hair and yellow eyes with burning flames coming out of them, almost as though she had a fire semblance. Remind you of anyone?"

"Urgh. Mercury, have you ever heard of the phrase plausible deniability?"

"Nah. What is that, some kinda lame food that they serve at Beacon? Shit, did I miss dinner?" He popped another chip in his mouth, then threw one at a frowning Emerald. "C'mon, Sage Advice, lighten up."

"Look, Tin Soldier, it's important that we keep our hands clean while we're in Vale. Cinder specifically ordered me to do that."

Neo leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. The meaning was clear. Why should we care what Cinder ordered you to do?

"Because she left me in charge of you miscreants while she's busy. That means you two–" she pointed at them "– have to do what I say."

"Fine, Lady Second-Best. What orders did Cinder push down your throat that you now intend to regurgitate onto us?"

Emerald's tone remained tauntingly playful, but her words were anything but. "Mercury. Kill Neo."

Mercury put down his chips and exchanged a confused glance with a very worried looking Neopolitan. "W-What?"

"Kill Neo, or the boss cancels the contract with your father Marcus. We'll be sure to let him know he lost our business because of you."

No…NO! Anything but that.

Sorry, Pint Size.

Neo disappeared before Emerald had finished her sentence. It might've caught a stranger unaware, but Mercury knew she could hide, but not run. He kicked his legs up and shot to the left and right of where he'd last seen her. The left shot broke a glass illusion, and Neo tumbled to the floor. In a fair fight, it could've swung in either of their favor, but Neo was nursing a broken arm that was actively sucking away her aura to heal. To make matters worse for her, that Beacon fat-ass had snapped her dominant hand, so she couldn't make use of her latest umbrella-shiv. Mercury, on the other hand, was always armed. Er, Mercury, on the other foot, was always legged.

Mercury slammed his mechanical calf at Neo's throat. The small girl flipped backwards to safety, but without her arm to stabilize her balance, she slipped to the floor in a pathetic heap. Mercury brought a foot down onto her stomach, pressed her to the floor, and fired. Neo was agile but lacked raw strength. Pinned down by a solid metal limb, her tiny fists did little to dislodge Mercury's gun leg as she pummeled it.

The first five shots hit her aura, and the sixth popped her in the gut. Mercury felt a little bad for his make-believe partner as her black haired disguise failed and she returned to the garish mixture of pink and brown (now with a hint of blood red added in), but not bad enough to stop. The first time he got between his father and a contract, he'd lost a leg. Somehow, he hadn't learned his lesson from that. A failed attempt to off his old man managed to complete the set. Neo was cool, but she wasn't worth a nose or a hand or, more likely, a dick.

"Stop. Let her go."

Mercury released his boot from Neo, who silently gasped for breath. It hurt his very soul, if he had one, to take orders from Sustrai, but she had all the power in the situation. Team Caiman belonged to Cinder Fall and, by extension, her little thieving underling. Mercury knew this, she knew this, and she knew that he knew.

"Neo, do you think you've learned your lesson?"

Neo scowled but nodded.

"I don't think you have. How about another, Mercury?"

Mercury aimed his boot.

BANG!

Emerald leaned over Neo, who suddenly seemed much less defiant, and spoke as though she was addressing a petulant child. "Now, Pint Size. I want you to listen to me very, very carefully. You do not matter to the boss' plans. You are completely disposable – my semblance even makes yours redundant. If she wanted to, she could wrangle up some other hired thug to fill your spot in a heartbeat. But Little Red? Now, she's critical. As in, plan-fails-if-she-dies critical. Don't make the mistake of going after her, anyone on her team, or anyone around them ever again."

She tossed a thick pad of bandages onto the floor in front of Neo, who dragged herself forward with one arm to grab them. "Apply pressure and you might just survive the blood loss until your aura kicks back in. I'm glad we had this little chat."

Emerald stood back up and turned to walk out the door. She motioned for Mercury to follow, which he did. Before she left, Emerald stopped in the doorframe and smiled venomously.

"Oh, by the way, the White Fang has eyes on Roman Torchwick in prison. It would be a shame if one of those Faunus were to get angry and take it out on a chauvinistic human pig like him. Keep that in mind before you get some silly notion like killing me or Cinder in our sleep."

"Yang, you do realize I'm on crutches, right? Every step I take is a remorseless and beastly vision of torment the likes of which I've never had the adversity of enduring before as my strength is slowly sapped from my war-torn body."

"Oh, lighten up, kitkat. I saw you balance on your tippy toes to reach a book from the top shelf."

Shoot, Blake had thought the room was empty when she'd done that. After all, she wasn't going to take out Ninjas of Love 4: Katanas Hard as Steel when her team was around. At least Yang didn't seem to realize what book she'd been reaching for.

"By, the way, that cover art with the buff stud holding shuriken over his nipples? Damn, girl! Spicy!"

Shit.

Blake wasn't lying about how hard walking was. Even a few days after what Team Rainbow was calling the Norapocalypse, she still couldn't move on her own. The hospital ward had cleared her as long as she took it easy, used the crutches, and didn't overstretch her legs, but there was no safe place to store her sauciest novels but the top shelf. It had to be done, healing be damned.

"Why did you walk me out all this way at 6am, Yang?"

"Simple, Blake. I've got a surprise for you. Call it a thank you for saving my little sister, heheheh…"

"Is this going to be something racist? Like a ball of yarn or a comically oversized fish?"

"No, this'll be good. Trust me, trust me."

Just to make sure Yang felt guilty, Blake made a show of hobbling as they arrived at their destination. The two teens stood at the front of Beacon, right in front of the stone statue of two hunters standing atop a defeated Grimm. Blake had always liked that statue. The man and woman were wearing full armor and hooded cowls. There was no way to tell whether they were human or Faunus. It was like the distinction didn't matter – all the people of Remnant equal and united against a common enemy.

"So, Blake. I noticed that you've managed to find yourself in a predicament of sorts. With Weiss busy being ravaged by Russel's girthy weiner, and Sun vowing his unending love for Penny, you seem to be in dire lack of a partner for the dance."

"Yaaaaaang. And why would I even be interested in Sun, of all people? Just because he's a Faunus? You racist."

"No need to fret about your femcel-ness, my dear. Now, the time has come for me to ask an important question. Blake Belladonna, would you…"

Yang produced a bright red button from her coat pocket. She placed a finger to the button and grinned impishly.

"…like to…"

Yang pushed the button. The eastern spire of Beacon exploded in a fiery blast. Screams rang out into the cold morning air.

"Wha the–?" Yang looked back at the item in her hand. "Oh, fuck, wrong button!" Fumbling, she reached back into her other pocket and pulled out a second button, this one a slightly brighter shade of red.

"Um, do you want to go to the dance as friends?"

Upon pushing the second button, a flock of balloon shaped like yellow roses floated out from behind the statue.

"Yang, I –"

Sirens began to ring as the screams intensified.

"AAAAAH! OH DUST I'M DYING!"

"Brothers, please make the pain stop! Please, kill me and end my suffering!"

"My leg! My laaaiiiggg!"

"My cabbages!"

Yang looked around nervously. "Um, let's talk somewhere else." She wiped her fingerprints off the first button and tossed it into a nearby bush. Grabbing Blake, she began to whistle inconspicuously and walk at a hurried pace as first responders rushed past them.

One trip to Professor Branwen's empty classroom later, Blake watched as Yang frantically made a scroll call.

"Junior, old buddy old pal! It's Yang. Yeah, the one who tore them both off. Hey, how soon can you forge a passport and get me plane tickets to Vacuo?"

"Yang."

"Gotta go, Junior. Just get to work preparing an evac route for me, if push comes to shove."

"You…want to dance with me?"

"See, that's the thing. I don't."

Blake scrunched her brow. "I don't get it."

"You want to go to the dance with Weiss, but she's taking one for the team – literally, one for Team Adventure. So, with Weiss occupied, we can go to the dance together as friends. You and Weiss can trust me to not catch feels or try to get in the way of your heiress-Faunus forbidden love. It's a surefire way to not Blake any hearts!"

"You're essentially offering to go as my chaperone."

Yang nodded her head up and down. "Or your chastity belt."

Blake sighed. "I suppose it's not the worst plan. I have to go with someone, and if I took anyone else, they might misinterpret it as me confessing feelings to them. Plus, Weiss might get jealous. Or worse, she might think I'm doing it to make her jealous."

"So, are you feline like it's a good idea?"

"It's the perfect solution for everyone…except you."

"Nah, I was just gonna be Beacon's most eligible bachelorette otherwise, or maybe help the Coffees host it. I didn't have a date planned or anything. I guess Dove and I get along well enough, but he's also gotta keep up the ruse – the Rose-Ruse. Russel's okay, but he's also taken. Jeez, that's also a sham date. For fuck's sake, is every cute boy in the school pretending to date someone just to help out Jaune and Pyrrha?" Yang shook her head, her golden hair flopping wildly as she did it. "Never mind. So whaddaya say?"

Blake weighed the pros and cons of taking Yang up on her offer. Honestly, there weren't many cons.

"Sure. I suppose there's nothing untoward with going as friends, especially with your partner."

Yang blinked. "Blake, we're not partners. Weiss is your partner."

"Sorry, I sometimes forget we aren't partners in this one. I mean, I never mix up the folks on JNPR or CRDL since they got split up and entirely rearranged, but Team RWBY's still the four of us, just switched around. It can get confusing."

"Team RWBY? Blake, did Nora's grenade hit your head?"

"Probably. Speaking of that, you said you were doing this to pay me back for saving -snrk- Rhubarb?" Blake just barely held in her laughter. Yang didn't seem to notice.

"Kinda. You took the hit for her, and I couldn't just let that go unrewarded."

"It was something anyone should do. Ruby's too young to get hurt, especially in the crossfire of more experienced fighters. She's not even seventeen."

"Yeah. I'm proud of Rubes for getting into Beacon so young, but I'll always rue the day I heard the news (and not just because Jaune vomited on my shoes right after). To be honest, her coming to Beacon at any age still kind of upsets me."

This was the first time Blake was hearing of this. "You don't want her to be a huntress?"

"Nah. It's her dream, and I support her. I just get squeamish after what happened to Summer. She's proof that even a super huntress isn't invincible."

Blake stared at Yang in confusion. "Summer? Super huntress?"

"My mom," Yang explained. "Technically my stepmom, but I know in my heart she's my mom."

"What was her name?"

"Her name? It…I just said it was Summer, Blake."

"No, I mean your real mom."

"Oh. It's Raven. And again, Summer's my real mom." Yang's eyes narrowed as she turned away from Blake and entered into a staring contest with a taxidermized Ursa. "Raven's nothing more than a surrogate."

"You, uh, want to talk about it? I mean, if it's not too personal…"

"Nah, I'll tell you. I'm not ashamed of it or anything. Rubes knows we're half-sisters, by the way, but please keep the rest under wraps."

Blake sat down in one of the empty stools as Yang's story unfolded.

"The stage is set. Beacon; twenty-odd years ago. Our heroes are none other than a plucky band of promising young huntsmen and huntresses. Among them are Taiyang Xiao-Long, Summer Rose, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen. Now, Qrow and–"

"Wait, Xiao…the heck? Your dad, you mothe– your surrogate, your real mom, and Professor Branwen were all on a team? You mean to tell me that your dad fucked every woman on his team?"

Yang's jaw clenched. "Yeppers. Thanks for reminding me how me and my sister were physically and sexually conceived. I'm glad I get to have that mental image brought to the front of my brain."

"Did he fuck Professor Branwen too?!"

"…yes. Yes, he did. Uncle Qrow is actually Ruby's real mom. Now, can I go on with the tale?"

"Sorry."

"Qrow and Raven were siblings from some kinda pirate tribe or something, and they came–"

"Is that why Rhubarb Rook Rose's initials spell R.R.R.?" Blake put her index finger in a hook and closed one eye. "Like arrrrrrr?"

"Leave the puns to me, Smelladonna."

"Ok, ok. No more interruptions, I promise."

"Where was I? Oh, yeah, the Branwens. So, my maternal grandfather, the pirate king I guess, orders his kids to sneak into Beacon and gather intel on hunters. That's kinda messed up, by the way. Man, what kinda creeps did they have to be to lie about who they were to trick their way into Beacon?" Yang shook her head chidingly. "So messed up."

Blake's ears twitched angrily under her bow.

Buildings away, Jaune coughed.

"So, they join up with Mom and Dad to become Team Stark. Dad and Uncle Qrow told me all about them. Apparently, Mom was some kind of stone-cold bitch as a kid, Raven was more socially awkward than Ruby after growing up on the high seas or whatever, Dad was busy sowing his wild oats with every chick within banging range, and Qrow was…I don't know. He spent a lot of time with Headmaster Ozpin. Probably got molested or something. The four of them were the most dysfunctional team to have ever graced Beacon with their presence, and also the most dangerous. I'm talkin' each-member-better-than-Pyrrha dangerous."

"Fast forward past graduation and a few years on the hunt. Qrow got Stockholm Syndrome and wanted to work exclusively for Ozpin. Mom's on board, but Dad and Raven decided to bail out of the game and get hitched. Nine months later, one bouncing baby Yang pops out. Now here's where things get hairy. Mom was still supposed to be a heartless wretch at this point. She hated Dad and couldn't care less about Qrow, but she and Raven were BFFs – closer than you and me, closer than Ren and Nora, closer than what Penny wants with Weiss. Then, Raven just got up and left."

"Why?"

"Who knows? I certainly don't. The remainder of Team Stark had some theories. Mom thought she ran off on her own to wage war with the Grimm out of a maternal concern for little Yang. Qrow suspected she'd had an affair and couldn't face the music. Dad thinks she just never cared and was planning it all along. Like, oh, my husband and baby are a nice diversion until I get bored, then I'll just move back to my precious little Branwen tribe."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm gonna find her."

"And get the answer?"

"No. I'm gonna kill her."

Yang's eyes burned a light shade of crimson. Blake had seen Yang's red hot fiery rage before, but this was more like a calm, collected anger. It wasn't a roaring boil, just a constant simmer.

"Yang, she's your–"

"Don't say that. Don't call her my mom." Lilac returned, and Yang sighed. "Don't worry, we'll get to the reasons in a minute. So, with Raven gone, Auntie Summer came to help take care of her absentee sister-in-arms' sprog, little old me. Summer's frozen heart melts, and she marries Taiyang. Ruby is born, and the picture becomes all that much more perfect. Qrow and Summer work for Ozpin, Tai raises the kids, and everyone is happy…except Summer. She'd stolen her best friend's husband, daughter, and future. The saddest part was, she always told us Raven would come back. She'd defend her and cry whenever Qrow and Dad insulted her. I don't even know what she thought was going to happen with her and Dad if Raven came back."

"Yang…um. You know that some people, uh, have different…preferences…like Weiss. A-And me."

"No, that wasn't it. Mom romantically loved Dad, and only Dad. That was clear to everyone. And she wasn't into girls – Qrow flat out asked her once, back when he was a stupid bandit hick that didn't know he wasn't supposed to. Mom just missed her best friend and partner. So anyways, it was all going well until one day, Mom disappeared as well." Yang frowned murderously. "She went after Raven."

Blake was afraid to ask, but her curiously was burning wildly. "What happened?"

"Raven wasn't feeling talkative and attacked her. Summer was an astounding huntress, but Raven had apparently become supremely powerful in her missing years. Uncle Qrow tells me Headmaster Ozpin had some connection to Raven's mystic new powers and could find her after she used them. He got there, fought the bitch back, and damn nearly died doing it. That's why he walks with a limp. But for all he did to save Summer, he didn't make it in time." Yang's voice grew hollow. "Summer's body had been burned to ashes. Her solid steel scythe was melted into a fucking puddle. I never even got to say goodbye. Dad wouldn't let me see her skeleton when they put it into the casket."

"Yang, I'm so sorry."

Yang sniffled. "So, yeah. I'm going to kill Raven. Gonna kill her dead. That's why I became a huntress – to get strong enough."

Blake stood up from her seat, hobbled toward Yang on her crutches, and took her hand.

"And I'll help you."

"Blake, it'll be dangerous. I can't ask you to–"

"Trust me, I know my way around a fight. We'll do it together. Because, you know…" Blake laid on the sarcasm thick. "…it's the least I can offer to my darling date for the school dance."

Yang's eyes met Blake's, then she turned her head away.

"T-Thanks, Blake."

Wait, was…was Yang blushing?

Omake

Emerald: Mercury, kill Neo.

Mercury: I won't do it. You can't make me. It's not right, I say, not right!

Emerald: I'll tell Joe.

Mercury: Who's Joe?

Emerald: Joe Daddy, got'em!

Mercury: So anyway, I started blasting.

Omake 2

Yang: Behold, the tragic tale of my deceased mother and the true motivations behind me becoming a huntress.

Blake: lol ur mom gay

Next Chapter: Russel Sprouts – In which those rascals on Team Adventure -hic- play a little game.