Friday, March 18th, 2011
Atlas Flagship, City of Vale
Remnant
"Report." Ironwood intoned stiffly, gently setting aside a ring binder full of analysis and data garnered from every specialist he could after forwarding them every piece of footage he could find of the breach.
Well. Less the breach and more the Maiden who had shown up during the event.
General Ironwood was passingly familiar with the capabilities of the Maidens - but he had never been as focused on one before as this. As powerful as they were, the Maidens weren't capable of dealing with Salem. That meant that they only held two purposes in his mind.
As strategic assets, and keys to access the various relics. They were like highly dangerous bombs. You couldn't really use them for much besides posturiny, and you definitely didn't want your enemies to have access to one.
Taylor Hebert was different.
If the average Maiden - in so far as a Maiden could be average - was an explosive, that girl was like a walking weapon of mass destruction. Brief footage of her capabilities and what little he had been able to garner from interacting with her had shown him that her efforts at the breach were barely even efforts at all. Her aura had barely flickered with the expenditure of power. She could - in all likelihood - apply that level of force continuously and at will, which was somehow only slightly more scary than her absurd precision with such wide area attacks.
Being able to simultaneously snipe hundreds of Grimm across a city sized area was amazing, right up until you realized the other applications of such an ability.
Like, say, on people.
So, while he stuck true to his word to Ozpin, and did his best not to catastrophize, he continuously came back to one singular point.
If she was on their side, Salem would want her.
If she wasn't, they had to be able to stop her.
No matter how much outlandish nonsense she spewed. Actually, especially, given how unbalanced she seemed to be.
"The target has continued to maintain a standard schedule and pattern of behavior consistent with a normal student from Haven Academy preparing for the Vytal Festival. There are brief points when surveillance is impossible, and we have correlated these with sudden disappearances of various low ranking criminals in the area, as well as White Fang holdouts not yet captured by the Asset." Winter rattled off at him in perfect military fashion, before her expression and demeanor shifted - her official duty done.
"Sir, if I may, Cinder Fall's activities are most consistent with someone sent to protect several of the students here. We could better use our resources trying to locate Raven Branwen. We could seek clarification from Leonardo at Haven - it's possible he sent them with a mission in mind." She pointed out.
"No. You can lower surveillance, but I still want to know if something happens with her. We can't go to Leo until we can confirm his loyalties." Ironwood responded tiredly, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Leo - but he didn't get to be a General in the army by failing to do his due diligence. A semi credible accusation had been leveled against the man - so Ironwood would investigate. If it turned out the accusation was false, then great - it was just more proof that the girl was unstable and needed to be contained for her own good.
If the accusations were true though… if they were true, then it meant some of the highest levels of Mistral's politics were subverted.
And that couldn't be allowed to stand - even if he didn't know what he was going to do about it just yet. It wasn't like he could declare an operation in Mistral to clean them up, that would be an act of war.
He wouldn't do that. Yet.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Pine Family Barn, Mistral
(Nexus)
"So, when we come here, is it always gonna be through this barn, or what?" Emmy asked her in this emulation's typical lackadaisical tone of voice.
She had never 'disliked' one of Emmy's forms. Even this one had his charming points, and seemed - overall - to be a good person, if somewhat on the slovenly and chaotic side.
But Taylor would be lying if she said that his casual demeanor and general joking personality didn't occasionally grate on her nerves. She didn't mind that he often went off to do his own thing, or made his own decisions - she even enjoyed knowing that her friend was growing as a person, and had something resembling their own life and friends!
But seeing as how a vast majority of the things this Emulation had instigated, were things that seemingly only existed to annoy, distract, or otherwise shake up her normal daily life, she felt she could be forgiven for being less than pleased by a lot of it.
Driving was fun though. At least, when she was out on the open road and didn't have to worry about driving slower than she could casually jog. There was an art to it that she couldn't quite describe. An economy of motion and control that her powers didn't let her cheat at, at least not completely.
Regardless, she had to shake her head clear of such thoughts before answering him.
"No, but I wanted to check in with Oscar." She responded easily, shrugging at him with one shoulder.
"Bit young for you, but honestly-" He started to say, so she rolled her eyes and casually hurled a bale of hay at him with a wave of her hand and a call to any ambient wind spirits that could hear her to shut him up. It didn't work - it never worked - but it was still satisfying to watch him pretend to 'barely' avoid the projectile while exaggeratedly complaining about it.
"Hey! This is genuine demon leather! Do you know how hard this is to clean?!" He barked, his tone completely lacking in any seriousness despite its content.
"I'm sure I could magic up a solution." She responded dryly, glancing around and making sure to listen for anyone who might be approaching the - until now - empty barn.
To be clear, you are referring to the first Magic here, yes? Ozma asked her.
'First or Third. No offense, but your style of magic works better for me as an on-the-fly combat thing.' She responded automatically.
In the weeks since acquiring him, she had settled into a fairly steady relationship with the man.
He kept things organized for her, and helped her come up with new applications for her powers. It hadn't taken him all that long to figure out Onmyoudo and Runecrafting, and upon his suggestion, she had taken to listing the various forms of Magic she had access to by the order she had received them in.
First, Second, and Third - the First being Onmyoudo, the Second being Ozpin's odd form of sorcery, and the Third being Runecraft.
None taken. I'll consider the problem for a bit, if you don't mind. The old hero said pleasantly, before vanishing into the back of her mind as he tended to when doing… whatever he did to pass the time.
He had mellowed out significantly since her first visit to Remnant, seemingly assured that she both could and would help his home world through the events of his past life. She appreciated the vote of confidence, but wished there was an easier way to earn the local Ozpin's trust.
Things would be a lot easier overall if nobody was giving her a hard time about things like 'collateral damage' and 'public displays of overwhelming force'.
"Yeah, but then it won't have the lemony fresh scent I like." Emmy complained again as the pair made their way to the barn doors and gently shoved them open.
It was evening time here, and the sun was already low in the sky, casting an orange haze over everything around them. Lights were on in the small house between the barn and the fields, and Taylor instantly turned to start heading towards the building - rising into the air as though climbing a set of stairs as she did so. Emmy didn't bother to do even that, simply phasing into his immaterial form and walking through the outer wall of the building - and, presumably, up the stairs to the room she was headed to.
Gently, she knocked on the window leading into Oscar's bedroom, and waited.
"W-who is it?" She heard in the way of a muffled whisper from the other side of the glass - which was covered by a curtain to obscure her view inside.
She could have just teleported in, but she knew better than to surprise the poor kid like that.
…or to walk into a teenage boy's room without knocking.
"Your Dragon God Mother." She responded jokingly.
"…don't you mean my Fairy Godmother?" Oscar whispered back after a long pause to parse the words she had spoken.
"Just one problem, I'm not a fairy. Now let me in." She responded.
Slowly, the curtains slid to one side, and the window gently slid open, revealing Oscar who took a moment to gape at her - since she was standing on air.
"…but you are a dragon?" He asked skeptically.
"Yup. I don't have a bunch of time, just wanted to check on you. But I can stop to tell a story if you want." She said with a grin.
In the back of her head, she really wished she could just bring Oscar back with her to live with Mem and Mun. It'd certainly be safer than where he was now. Unfortunately, she still hadn't quite gotten the hang of stabilizing people from other realities using Gaps. She had a hard time limit for this kind of interaction.
For now.
"Okay… I-I'd like that." The boy said with a blush.
"Bet you would." Emmy said, appearing suddenly behind him.
There was a muffled shriek, and a point where she had to grab the boy to prevent him from falling out the window.
"Was that on purpose?" She asked with annoyance, while Oscar struggled under her right arm like a confused cat.
"Me? Prank someone? Never." Was Emmy's response.
She snorted, deposited Oscar back inside the room, and then slid in herself - closing the window behind her.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
You do realize that my alarm system will be going off right about now. Ozma pointed out as she appeared inside the headmaster's office at Beacon Academy.
'I don't exactly have an inter-dimensional cellphone number for this place.' She pointed out in response.
And so, you believe that setting off my intruder alarm is the correct manner in which to announce your arrival?
'Yes.'
"Hey Emmy, can you watch the elevator? I kinda miss this chair." She said, not bothering to use her typical 'happy skipping' motion since no one was watching.
Did she act like an airhead on purpose? Yes. Was she actually such a bubbly, happy person as to skip really anywhere? No.
But if there was one thing she had learned from Yukari Yakumo, it was that it was never a bad thing to have to deal with thrown off opponents.
"On it." Emmy agreed, phasing through the elevator door and falling straight down to the bottom of the shaft with casual ease.
So it was while sitting with her eyes closed, hands in a relaxed position behind her head when the doors of the elevator finally slid open, revealing General Ironwood, Ozpin, Winter Schnee - who she had only a passing acquaintance with - and Qrow Branwen.
All of whom stared at her like she was an alien.
Probably because she was.
"Sorry it took so long to get back, I was-" She started to say. She had a whole thing planned here. A big grandiose speech about how busy she was, where she could thread in a bunch of true but insane sounding information without any context.
She realized this was becoming both a habit and a hobby for her, but really, a girl had to have some kind of a pastime, and everyone around her insisted that training didn't count.
Unfortunately, as he had so many times since changing emulations, Emmy ruined it by embarrassing her.
"You know, I can see why you think this guy is hot. He's kinda like me!" Emmy said, appearing next to Qrow and sticking one finger beneath his cape to lift it up for inspection.
"I do not-" she started to say heatedly, already regretting ever having mentioned it. It wasn't like she was attracted to the guy, she just had a soft spot for overworked guys like her dad. It wasn't a 'type', it was just empathy!
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Lightened the mood though, right?" He responded, vanishing to walk straight through the entire group, just in time to avoid the initial panicked frenzy as everyone in the elevator abruptly registered the presence of someone they didn't recognize standing alarmingly close to them.
It was surprisingly disorganized, for all that these were some of the best trained people in this world, and she made a mental note to dig up the PRT handbook so she could give Ozpin a crash course on dealing with Strangers.
…There are vanishingly few, if any, beings on this plane capable of qualifying as Strangers. Her headmate pointed out somewhat sullenly.
She ignored him to focus on the situation at hand.
"Sorry, new guy, Emmy is a bit of a punk right now. So!" She said, hopping up from the seat and clapping - to draw their attention to her as much as she could to distract from Emmy's commentary.
"I'm back. I've got some stuff to do, so I won't be sitting in an office with you all day again, but I figured I'd check in." She said.
"…Miss Hebert, you are aware that we have a front door, yes?" Ozpin finally said, gesturing down and away in the direction of the massive castle complex's main entrance.
"Yeah, but it would have probably taken you ages to show up if I went that route." She countered instantly.
She really didn't mean to be rude, but when she said she had a time limit, she meant it. She'd be here a day, maybe two, tops - and she had a lot to accomplish in that span of time.
"Be that as it may–" Ozpin said with a sigh but was spoken over by Ironwood.
"We can't find any record of a Taylor Hebert in any registry–"
"You wouldn't have, given the way my sister operates…" Qrow grumbled.
"--So far, your 'tip' to look out for one Cinder Fall has turned out to be fraudulent. I'm going to have to insist that you return to Atlas with me." Ironwood stated strongly. This earned him a look of surprise from nearly everyone else, so she guessed they hadn't exactly talked it over before he made the decision.
"Two things. One, I cursed Cinder to be a good girl so you wouldn't have spotted her doing anything evil - she'd have just died if she tried. And two - James, I get that you've got a one track mind, and you're the hard man making the hard decisions for the greater good and all - but shut up for a second, and ask yourself this; if I really didn't want to go - how could you make me?" She responded pointedly.
Qrow groaned again, and she made a mental note to clear up that particular misunderstanding as fast as possible. It had been funny at the time, but it was clearly wearing on the man, and she hadn't really intended to cause him so much distress.
Taylor watched with interest as everyone in front of her processed that statement. Winter seemed offended - possibly by the idea that the Atlas military couldn't contain a teenage girl, while Ironwood's gaze sharpened and his non robotic fist tightened noticeably.
Glynda - perhaps due to years of dealing with unruly super powerful teenagers - seemed mildly annoyed at worst, and darkly amused by Ironwood's suffering at best.
Qrow had been a nervous wreck the minute he saw her and nothing she said really changed that, although she did appreciate his imperceptible shift towards Ironwood - like he was going to stop him if need be.
And Ozpin seemed as blank faced and bored as any other time she had encountered the man. Unfortunately for him, she had the inside edge on that one.
I am no doubt currently pondering a way to calm James down while giving the token appearance of controlling you, despite not having any actual ability to do so. Her mental duplicate of the man said placidly.
'You have a lot of very uptight friends, Oz.' She noted dryly.
The constant existential dread will do that to a person.
"Might I make a suggestion?" Ozpin finally stated, breaking the tense silence.
"Sure. I mean, I've got a time limit, but I've mostly got all day." Taylor responded, ignoring Emmy as he popped in and out of existence around the room like a ghost, posing as though he had always been there whenever someone turned to look at him.
To the watchers, it would be like one of those horror games - no matter which direction someone turned, Emmy would be sitting there, pulling books off shelves, waving, pointing at them.
Since Taylor could see him even when he was invisible, she was the only one that got to see him desperately sprinting back and forth in order to maintain the facade.
"Excellent. I, too, find myself curious about the exact extent of your capabilities, so–" he began slowly, and Ironwood perked up at the prospect of support from his friend - only to have his expression sour as he finished.
"Might I interest you in a guest lecturer position?"
Taylor couldn't help herself.
She smiled.
She had no idea why, but for some reason, that made Qrow flinch.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"Students. We have a… guest… today. She will be helping to assess each of you prior to your entry into the Vytal Festival this year. Now, she is a very busy woman and won't be here that often, so I encourage you to make the most of this opportunity." Glynda said diplomatically while Taylor casually glanced around the room.
'It's a concrete box with bleachers and a widescreen on the roof.' Emmy pointed out blithely as he meandered through the seats, invisibly listening to the students gossip.
Taylor… she could remember this. The Combat Cells. She remembered visiting them to adjudicate duels, to train students.
She remembered a lifetime spent teaching, one that she had never actually lived - and some small part of her missed it.
'Only so much you can refurbish an ancient castle for school use.' She answered with a shrug, feeling slightly defensive. It wasn't her castle, but it still sort of felt like it was.
'Yeah, but… come on, look at this place! It's a concrete box! There are bloodstains on it! This looks like the place prison guards bring inmates for bloodsport!' Emmy continued hysterically - like he thought the entire thing was hilarious.
Once again, demonstrating how much he had settled into his role as an annoying older brother.
Lots of people theorized that Taylor got what she 'wanted' when Emmy changed Emulations. The PRT report, she was pretty sure, would rate Emmy as a high ranking Trump power that gave her whatever she needed, whenever she needed it. That would certainly explain her ridiculous luck since getting her power. She always seemed to get just what she needed at just the right time, like some unseen force was planning it for her.
She had her own theories. To her, all of Emmy's forms were different relationships. Ones she could have had. Ones she would never have. Brothers, Sisters, Parents.
And unfortunately, her current 'Older Brother' was kind of a dickhead. Great if she needed him to beat someone up. An absolute menace otherwise. Shaking the thought away, she took the cue Glynda had given her - one which she had actually missed the timing on somewhat in her pondering - and stepped forward.
"Hello everyone. My name is Taylor. Taylor-" She started to say, but was cut off.
"She doesn't look that tough. She's even younger than us!" Someone said, and she paused.
"...Hebert. Who said that? I'll help you first." She said pleasantly, panning her head around to stare directly at Cardin Winchester - who she had somewhat expected this from.
She had taught the boy at one point, after all, and outside of the hazy dreamlike simulation she had encountered him in, he had no reason to even pretend to respect her.
"Mister Winchester, show some respect! Headmaster Ozpin went to great lengths to-" Glynda snapped, but Taylor waved at her so she paused.
"No, no. I get it. You guys go to the greatest school in the world. You think you're the best - or on your way to being the best," She said with a thoughtful humm, before her expression became suddenly sharp and serious.
"Unfortunately, you aren't yet. I am." She explained, with all the patience of an adult speaking to a child who simply couldn't understand that water was wet.
She heard a snort, and some murmuring - along with several pointed looks towards one Pyrrha Nikos, who would otherwise generally be considered one of the greatest fighters in the world.
Then she beckoned at Cardin Winchester, the large boy already wearing his thick metal armor and hefting his warhammer onto one shoulder, like it was a toothpick.
She watched with great patience as he sauntered down the stone steps to reach the arena she was already standing in.
"If you would, Glynda? I promise I'll actually teach him something when he wakes up." She said sweetly, earning a glare from the boy in question. She shrugged apologetically at him. It wasn't her fault he was such a good example.
Glynda frowned at her, but acquiesced, stepping out of the area and gesturing at the wall, which lit up with little glowing bars to represent their remaining Aura pools. It was remarkably game-like, and - in Taylor's opinion - took a lot of the danger out of sparring. It also removed the combatant's ability to accurately judge such things without someone holding their hand.
Not great, and not something she would replicate at her own school.
'You do get that no one is gonna go to a school that treats them the way you think people should learn to fight, right? I wouldn't - you're scary as hell.' Emmy said, accurately pinpointing exactly what she was thinking at the moment.
'I liked you better when you were the other guy.' She grumbled back at him as Glynda began to count down to the beginning of the duel.
'Et tu, brute?' Emmy mocked, placing both his hands over his chest, as if wounded.
Taylor rolled her eyes at him, sighing internally as the countdown ended and Cardin took her gesture to be an opening.
It was, but not for someone so much slower than her.
Which is why she responded by kicking him.
Once.
"You alright over there?" She called after him when he hit a section of hastily vacated bleachers and stopped moving.
Well. He was still sorta moving, but only to breathe.
Which was ideal really.
Taylor shot a glance at the board that displayed aura, wobbling her head from side to side at what she saw. She had been going for a solid fifty percent of his aura - the cut off for a duel to end safely.
She had ended up taking roughly sixty percent off. Not great, but not the worst. She'd work on it.
"So… who's next?" She said with another - more genuine - smile at the crowd of concerned looking students, even as Glynda sighed and levitated Cardin up and over to her with her semblance.
Weird. Why did that make them look more concerned? Oh, hey. Cinder was here. And she was praying. Good for her.
She found God.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"So uh… Taylor…" Ruby said demurely to her, much later in the afternoon, and well after she had finished actually teaching most of the kids. The rest of the class had gone much smoother once she had demonstrated that yes, she could, in fact, obliterate any given one of them individually, or all at once.
Past that point, everyone had been mostly pretty respectful.
Mostly.
Yang Xiao Long - the blond girl from her first trip here - had been more than slightly forceful about wanting to talk to her after class.
And by 'more than slightly forceful', Taylor meant 'had tried to physically lift and take her away'.
It was cute in an annoying kind of way.
'Pffttt hahahah! Oh man, you look ridiculous!' Emmy laughed uproariously at her as she was carried by the four women of Team RWBY directly up a hallway to their dorm room.
She didn't have to let them carry her, but she had a soft spot for these four in particular, so she let it slide.
Mostly.
'Shut up. Not everything is a joke.' She whined at him.
'No, you can't see yourself right now, but this is definitely a joke.' He insisted, continuing to laugh the entire way.
"Yes, Ruby?" She answered with all the dignity of a person who had just been dropped on a bed unceremoniously.
So, not much, but she tried, damn it!
"Um. Are you my sister?!" She blurted out, before gasping and covering her mouth when everyone - the white haired and dainty Weiss, the dark haired and uncomfortable looking Blake, and the unimpressed blond, Yang - turned to look at her.
"Sorry! I just really wanted to know!" She explained quickly.
"...right. So uh, Taylor. My girl, my sistah from another mistah." Yang said, her voice shifting towards a somewhat more aggressive growly tone than her norm.
"I'm not your sister." Taylor said flatly, appreciating the triumphant snort from Weiss as she spoke.
"But Uncle Qrow said-" Ruby blurted.
"I was messing with him. He thought I resembled Yang's mother and jumped to conclusions. I thought it was funny, so I never corrected him." She explained gently, glancing at Yang who seemed to relax slightly at the admission.
"So… you're not related to me at all? You don't know my Mom?" The blond asked pointedly.
"Oh, I know your Mom by reputation. I just don't know her personally." She answered truthfully. She'd never actually seen Raven Branwen, but given that she was in an entirely different dimension, she found it unlikely.
"Aaaaand we're allll friends now. See? Easy as that." Emmy said, appearing in the middle of the group and rubbing her head along with Yang's.
""Hey! Don't touch my hair!"" Both girls barked at once, then paused and stared at each other in surprise.
"...They do actually share some similarities." Weiss pointed out slowly.
"If you remember that they would have had different fathers and squint a bit, they actually do kind of look similar…" Blake added.
"...Why is no one commenting about the teleporting hobo?" Ruby asked, leaning away from Emmy and slowly reaching for her weapon.
As a group, they all turned to stare at Emmy, who shrugged.
"I'm her power." He said, gesturing with a thumb towards Taylor, as though that explained everything.
"Huh. Weird. Do they kind of look like they have the same cheekbones?" Weiss offered, before immediately pivoting back to the previous conversation.
"A little? Yang has a bit more fat on-" Blake replied.
"Hey! She's not my sister! She even said so!" Yang erupted at that, interrupting the conversation angrily. If nothing else, the relief of the moment seemed to have returned her to her typical, more jovial attitude, which Taylor was thankful for.
"Here, I can prove it." Taylor said, omitting the unspoken 'and ruin Raven's day' as unnecessary.
"...How?" Weiss asked suspiciously.
"I can cast a tracking spell to find her, then take us to her?" Taylor offered with a shrug. She didn't know the woman well enough to cast the spell in absentia, but she could damn well use her own daughter as focus to make the spell function.
"Those were… definitely words." Weiss offered.
"Right. The.. alien wizard thing." Yang said weakly. Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Look, do you wanna meet your Mom, or what? I promise she won't even recognize me." Taylor said. It was on the list of things she wanted to do while she was here - help Yang deal with her trauma before she got her arm cut off, that is.
Not that that would happen anyway, but still…
"Yes!" Yang blurted.
"No, guys seriously, why isn't anyone questioning this?!" Ruby insisted, flailing her arms in Emmy's direction.
"Ruby, come on, eyes on the prize." Yang cheered at her.
"I have eyes on a teleporting hobo!" Ruby yelled back.
"He said-"
"I know what he said!"
Taylor ignored them, in favor of casting her spell - and waiting.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Branwen Encampment, Wilderness
(Nexus)
"I didn't think teleportation would be so…" Weiss gestured wordlessly at the Gap behind her as the rest of team RWBY stepped out of it
"Full of malicious demon eyes?" Blake responded, eyeing the receding portal suspiciously.
"I think they're cute. Dunno why everyone hates them…" Taylor grumbled, mostly to herself, but still loud enough to be heard.
"'Cus they're creepy." Yang said with a shrug.
"Uh… guys? Are we gonna ignore these hobos too?" Ruby asked, drawing the group's attention to the large group of men and women, who had drawn weapons and begun to encircle them the second they had stepped free of the Gap, and into the middle of what looked like a walled encampment in the wilderness.
Taylor snorted, made sure she had things under control - and then released her spiritual pressure, sparing her charges its direct effects. The spider that she was told always accompanied any significant amount of her power being released was probably hanging overhead right about now - but she didn't care. It was the easiest way to deal with this many mooks at once.
Even if Leet had made a point of spreading technology around back home that stopped her from doing it as often.
The jerk.
"...Yeah, I guess we are…" Ruby muttered behind her as Taylor slowly started picking her way through the army of mooks, who were now pressed against the ground like a giant was stepping on them.
"...I'm confused. She's definitely used more than one semblance in the last five minutes." Weiss muttered behind her as she walked.
"Maybe some people have more than one?" Ruby offered.
"That's not how--" Weiss turned to snap at her, but was cut off.
"What the hell is going on out here?!" Someone barked, and a thickly muscled woman with lengthy black hair wielding a cavalry saber stepped into view.
Taylor would have made note of Yang's muttered 'Mom', but she herself was too busy staring at the woman.
That… definitely looked like her Mom. If she had spent her entire life lifting weights and fighting Grimm.
…and also being a huge bitch to everyone she met, apparently.
"Yang? What–who are these people? What are you doing here?" The woman - Raven - demanded, stalking towards them like a predator on the hunt.
"I- I mean, I just-" Yang stammered, apparently too overwhelmed by the situation.
"Why'd you leave?" Taylor found herself asking, her mouth moving before her mind had finished processing the distressing similarities Raven Branwen and Annette Hebert shared.
Raven glanced around at her men, all still glued to the floor by her Spiritual Pressure, and then back to Taylor - the very obvious source of the phenomenon. Her body language fully oriented on her, and her blade came up in a line to point at her.
"Release my men. Then we can talk." She said coldly.
Taylor took a moment to compose herself - realizing that Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were looking at her funny, and then slowly retook control of her power, compressing it down until it was no longer suffocating everyone around her.
"See? She doesn't even know who I am." Taylor said, though the strain in her voice was probably very obvious.
"Indeed. As to your question…" Raven answered, and Taylor had to resist the urge to flinch.
This wasn't her mother. It had never been her mother. But looking the way she did… it still bothered her all the same. And she found herself more than slightly invested in what happened next.
"...I couldn't risk you." She said after a minute to think, seeming - to Taylor - smugly satisfied by the admission.
"Risk me? Risk me to what? Mom-" Yang said, taking a step towards the dark haired woman.
"She's lying." Taylor said flatly, staring straight at the woman with her mother's face.
"Do not act as though you know me. I would never abandon my daughter, now that she is strong enough to be with me." Raven insisted.
It was, of course, a lie. Everything Taylor knew about the woman made her sure of it. Her powers, her instincts - all of it agreed. This woman was a liar, and a coward.
"Again. Lie. You were scared of Salem, and you were scared of being a mother. You can teleport to her at will - you have no reason to not have been there." Taylor snapped. At this, Yang turned to her, evidently not fully grasping the meaning of the name Salem, but seemingly putting together something else. The blonde's head ticked from Taylor, to Raven, and back again, as though making a comparison for herself - and a frown bloomed on her face.
A frown that Taylor ignored.
And in retrospect, she really shouldn't have.
"If you know about her, then you should know fighting her is pointless. Come, Yang. I can start training you today." Raven intoned, turning her back on the group and walking away in what she probably thought was a power move. 'I don't even need to watch you', as it were.
Stupid.
The whole thing was just stupid.
It was so stupid that Taylor found herself standing behind the woman and reaching out to grab her shoulder before she knew what she was doing.
It was so stupid that she ignored the cavalry saber in the woman's hands when it swished around to slash at her.
"Oops, almost had a bit of a problem there. You have no idea how close to death you are, huh?" Emmy said, his tone almost annoyed-sounding as the two fingers he had grasped the blade in gently pulled it away from her.
Raven - brilliant woman she was - immediately hit the button on her sword that unclipped the handle for the blade, and slid the entire thing back into its sheath to retrieve another - all while taking a quick step back from the pair.
Taylor didn't bother to follow after her. She had come here to help Yang see that her mother was a horrible person. But seeing her own mother… she couldn't quite bring herself to do so.
"I'll kill her." Taylor said angrily, controlling her temper enough not to literally growl.
"Who-"
"Salem. I'll kill her. Right now." She repeated, cleaving a Gap open and gesturing with her head at it.
"I'll be right back." She said, eyeing the woman.
"And if any of these girls are hurt when I get back, you better not be here when I do." She added without thinking, eyes narrowing into slits and her face shifting into the decidedly unpleasant smile she had inherited from Yukari.
Then she stepped through the Gap, and into Cinder Fall's bedroom.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"Nexus! I-" Cinder blurted out the second Taylor appeared in her bedroom.
"Talk later. Where's Salem right now?" She asked, cutting the woman off and spearing her two compatriots with a look that promised immense violence if they continued to try and draw their weapons.
Well. Weapon, really. Mercury didn't have a weapon - just his prosthetic legs.
"She resides in a castle at the center of the Dark Continent. We have a network of Bullheads that can be tasked to–"
"Don't care. Keep doing what I said and praying." She cut the woman off, stepping through a Gap and back out into the night sky.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Nexus)
"A castle? Seriously, just a giant castle?" Taylor lamented loudly over the howling winds around her.
'I mean, there was no way you could have known, right? Even if every big bad I fight tends to be at the end of a spooky castle…' Emmy said thoughtfully.
'Wait, we own a castle. Are we the big bad?' He blurted out.
"Wha- No! Why would you even think that? I'm a good person!" She countered immediately.
'You're technically hovering over the capital city of a sovereign nation and getting ready to assassinate its queen.' Emmy pointed out. Taylor glanced down below her, to where the excessively creepy castle stood amidst a blasted purple tinged wasteland. She was standing in the sky miles overhead, and even she had to admit the place was kind of scary.
At least it wasn't alive like her castle. Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe she'd ask before destroying it. Just in case.
No reason to cause any collateral damage after all.