Important Note: Hello everyone, because some people can't seem to catch a message. I can't believe I'm going to have to put a disclaimer. In this chapter, I have a few written comments during a particular scene about Yang and the rest of Team RWBY that some people may find offensive given the events of recent episodes of Volume 9.
These comments made are in no way a reflection of my, or anyone else's thoughts on the events that transpired in these episodes. This chapter was finished long before the episode aired, and I'm leaving them in under good faith that a select minority don't get pissy. These comments are meant to be a massive parody reflection of actual istaphoic incels that you'll see on shit like Twitter. If you think it reflects my actual opinions. I'd encourage you to finish the whole chapter before writing a threatening essay that violates the TOS of this site.
for those of you coming to just read a fun chapter I'm sorry that a very loud minority has forced me to do bullshit like this. Enjoy yourselves.
Chapter 23: Burning Grey Flames.
Moon glanced across his dorm room at Akira Starr, or as he went by, Joker. The teenage boy looked at him with a bit of seriousness and mild skepticism as he had been looking around the dorm at Beacon.
"It's uh…do you not think this is awkward?" Moon asked the leader of the Phantom Thieves. "You just kind of barged in here uninvited, I told the council I'd call any of you here if I needed you."
Akira just gave him a cheeky grin. "Technically, I was invited here," he replied. "And, you're one to say awkward. Considering that, by the rules of the Multiverse, you and Sarah are technically my parents from an alternate universe. How do you think I feel looking at you four?"
"You do not need to remind me." Moon replied.
Akira tapped his foot as he looked into his eye. "Look, Moon," he said calmly. "Your Teammates are worried about you. You've put a lot of pressure on yourself coming here. I know you believe that it's your responsibility to finish everything Giygas started with you, but Sarah thinks you aren't being entirely honest with her."
Moon bit down on his lip as The Phantom Thief continued to give him a doubtful look. "I can see that you have been honest with her. That's like the one thing you and my dad had in common. You were always honest when something was wrong. However, I can see that there is something wrong with your own thoughts."
Moon frowned as he twiddled his thumbs. "I…I do…it was about something Sarah said to me and Erick when Dyson died…" he mumbled. "I was talking to that Penny girl yesterday at Ruby's house, and she said a lot about the hunter's duties to be the protectors. And…that just reminded me. Sarah, Erick, and I didn't really ask to be heroes…"
"Cliche much?" Akira asked. "Don't you think many others like us didn't ask to be the same."
"That's easy for you to say." Moon replied, crossing his arms. "Up until…you know. Your parents got their happily ever after. Hell, I could argue you technically did too since you and Ann are still dating, and even then, Willow is still alive, as are Noct and Anthony."
Joker chuckled, making the leader raise his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be laughing at the thought, I know exactly what you've been through. But if I'm being honest, I think my Sapphire would've loved to take the place of the one you brought from Byleth."
Seeing the boy's confused look, the Phantom thief leader continued. "I never knew that my parents were the heroes of legend from back then. Dad was always worried that my sister's and I would get a big head if we did. You know, maybe I could've gotten Ann to go out with me sooner if I had the leverage of him kicking her door down and burning her house down if she didn't."
Seeing Moon's amused face, the Phantom Thief chuckled. "Of course, he was right to assume that, and I'd argue he did the right thing, most of the world doesn't remember my father. But secretly, I think he was always disappointed by giving up the adventurous life. It was always fun to see him do his thing in the palaces."
"I see…" Moon replied. "Of course you do realize."
"Oh I know," Akira replied. "Dad did give up a lot and had gotten weaker too. He, Uncle Anthony, and Noct were always concerned you and Sarah would show up again some day. But he was also quite envious of you, especially when Noct explained how cool the forbidden methods of PSI were. Now, where Noct and Ant were more cautious of the idea of you and Sarah returning, dad always did think there was some good in you. I mean, how bad could you really be if you prayed for their safety?" Moon felt his face burn as the boy gave him a devious smile.
"You know...I've been wondering. Dad always talked smack about you, and I can certainly see a lot of what he said still present in you as I look into your eyes, you know. I think he called you an edgy D character."
"Somehow feels on par for him." Moon chuckled.
"My point being, Moon. I know you all didn't ask to be heroes. But I can't say that you all not being who you are would've allowed the world to give you a break after all. Mom and Dad may have gotten their happily ever after on the surface. But something tells me that they might not have been as content as you might believe having to give up so much for a family and to be together. They love me and my sisters, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised if Willow told me that Dad yearned for a chance to have one last adventure. I mean, he certainly sounded hellbent on coming to look for you at some point. Which is why I brought that."
Moon half-heartedly smiled as the Phantom Thief stood up. "Well…I better get out of here before someone finds me here. Say hi to the rest of your team for me."
"I will…thanks Akira. And tell the Council I'll get in touch with them soon." Moon waved goodbye as the orange portal opened a return of the teenager. Once the portal had closed, he looked down at the coffee table Akira had sat across from, spying an envelope.
To: The Children of Giygas
From: The Chosen 4
"Maybe one day…I'll find the courage to open it." he whispered under his breath.
"GO ON YANG!" Ruby cheered from the crowded stands. "SHOW HIM WHO'S BOSS!"
Yang winked at her teammates in the stand, alongside the rest of Beacon's students who were cheering her on in the Vytal Tournament. Her opponent was Cinder's team member Mercury. Who, like her, was a close range fighter.
"I'd hate to ruin such a pretty face. But I've seen some moves of yours." The gray haired boy snarked at her. "Try not to get too angry there. Smoochums. Don't need you breaking my leg."
She just giggled and rolled her eyes. Hearing the gong to start the round, she immediately used Ember Celica to launch herself forward. Mercury shrugged off and swiftly dodged her attempted punch strike before roundhouse kicked her in the back to launch off her, the boy's legs hurt like no other. Almost felt Metallic? She quickly caught herself, before kicking back. She used her gauntlets to quickly strike the boy.
She jab punched twice before upper cutting and launching the gray haired boy upwards. She looked up and spotted the boy's snarky face, and a barrage of bullets were fired from the soles of his shoes. A few fire dust bullets collided and exploded pushing her into a gravity one, launching her up as Mercury Axe-Kicked her back into the ground.
She recovered and quickly rolled out as Mercury tried to stomp land on top of her, before winding up and moving fire dust into her gauntlet before going into a swift tussle; on contact, the ignition sparked and blew with high power as Mercury was flung back across the stadium. The boy did a few bit of acrobatics to catch and recover himself.
Breathing heavily, Yang looked over at the stats recorder on screen to keep track, both of their auras were listed showing him with the advantage.
She quickly launched herself forward with the ignition and watched as Mercury entered into a blocking position. Remembering a quick flash, she quickly slowed up and waited for the boy to get antsy, Mercury eventually dropped his position and she quickly struck him in the chest.
"Got him," she whispered to herself. With a quick dash forward, she unleashed a flurry of punches in the style Weiss had been working with her on. Before quickly leg sweeping and left hooking the gray haired boy back across the stadium, she felt a satisfied smirk watching as the boy's aura shattered and tumbled against the ground.
"Ladies and gentleman! We have a Winner! Miss Yang Xaio-Long of Beacon Academy!"
A celebratory cheer emerged from the Beacon Group, Yang gave them all a wave.
She turned back to Mercury as he approached her. As she reached for his hand to shake, he quickly withdrew his hand and smacked her across the face before kicking her in the head.
How dare this stupid bitch? She thought to herself. She quickly got up and smashed her fist into him with a combustion ignition from Ember Celica a large explosion surrounded her and Mercury as smoke blew everywhere.
"That's what you get to stupid freak!" She shouted. "How dare you!"
A large gasp from the audience had her blinking, Mercury laid on the ground in front of her, clutching his right leg screaming in absolute agony.
As she looked into the audience, she saw everyone looking shocked and even upset. Confused, she looked at her own teammates, all three of her friends looked horrified at her. She had never seen them look so upset.
YANG XAIO-LONG! REPORT TO OZPIN'S OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Ironwood slammed a fist against the desk of Ozpin's office. "You attacked another huntsmen while they were down and out of aura! You broke his leg!"
"HE ATTACKED ME!" Yang shouted back at the general. "DID YOU NOT SEE HIM GO IN TO SHAKE MY HAND BEFORE ATTACKING ME?!"
"Do not lie to us!" Glynda scowled at her. "Look for yourself!" They pulled up a recording, and Yang watched, instead of Mercury attacking her, he simply went to shake her hand, only to watch as she deliberately punched him in anger and blew him up with fire dust.
Dread seemed to overcome her. "But…But…he attacked me…I know he di-"
Yang looked over at her teammates. Weiss, Blake, and Ruby each looked equally disappointed as the adults did. She looked back to her headmaster.
Ozpin looked between the four girls before looking at the monitor screen, filled with comment after comment. "I find it hard to take your defense seriously Miss Xaio-Long, as does the rest of Remnant by the looks of things." He turned the comment section back to the four girls.
I don't know what the fuck Professor Ozpin is teaching those Beacon Bitches. But I know for a fact I won't be letting my kid go anywhere near that school!
That blond bitch needs to be tried for extreme hate violence! She's supposed to be a Hunter! I wouldn't want her protection if she was the last one alive!
Accountability must be taken. I believe this was done out of extreme hatred for the people of Mistral! But I bet this will get swept under a rug! Now if the girl was a fucking faunus though, I'm sure she'd have already been arrested!
#ExterminateTeamRWBY It's very clear that they are future villains and terrorists of Remnant! Professor Ozpin needs to publicly oust those four girls immediately!
I looked into the background of Team RWBY. They've got a Faunus AND a Schnee on this team? It was fucked from the start!
I heard they've got a Faunus on this team. I bet the blond bitch won't have any accountability taken. Guarantee you she's in some fucking relationship with the Faunus. She'll probably cry sexist and racist at us and play the victim card!
That one girl in red is apparently two years younger?! Ozpin must be on fucking crack dust if he's allowing a minor, a Faunus, a Schnee, and a raging bitch to be parading around the campus.
"The wider world is calling for the four of you to be arrested and thrown in jail." Ozpin replied calmly. "I am very disappointed in you."
"This is absurd! You aren't going to kick us out of Beacon for this!" Weiss snapped.
"Technically, we can't." Ozpin replied. "Jacques Schnee has already taken to the press to publicly denounce Yang and call us out for terrible teaching, saying that you will likely be requesting a transfer immediately. As for Blake, a similar thing applies to White Fang leader Adam Taraus, who will gladly condemn us for punishing you Blake. As for Ruby, she has done nothing wrong."
"And…what about Yang?" Ruby asked, nervously.
"Fortunately for you, we cannot kick you out. As you did not kill Mr. Black. And Cinder, as well as Emerald were kind enough to not press charges against you." Glynda scoffed.
"With that being said, we need to take punishment, so, effective immediately, the four of you are banned from the tournament stadium. We are going to try and wait for this to blow over. As for the meantime, none of you are allowed outside of your dorm room. We will have staff members bring you your food."
The four girls looked between each other.
"It's either you accept that, or…we cave into these…disgusting comments, and kick the four of you out of Beacon right now."
"A-Alright, professor." each member of Team RWBY replied. The four girls walked over to the elevator, and they waited for their sister team JNPR to each step out, the four of them also gave them rather concerned looks as they swapped places.
The three adults each looked at the members of Team JNPR, all of them looked just as concerned.
Pyrrha spoke first. "Professor Ozpin, you aren't…kicking Team RWBY out of Beacon? Are…are you? We know Yang, she wouldn't do this!"
"And she didn't." Ozpin replied. "Miss Xaio-Long gave us exactly what we needed to know. She hallucinated a vision that was not there. In other words, she was brainwashed and puppeteered into doing what she did."
"But…who would do…" Nora started as her voice trailed off.
"I know Moon hates Yang…but…doing something like that…" Jaune also sounded doubtful.
"What you just saw is a consequence of what can happen without your training." Ironwood crossed his arms. "Team MESS are extremely dangerous savages to Remnant. Doing something like this on international TV has caused mass negativity and sadness. We've already gotten several divert calls of Grimm masses surrounding the kingdoms. We've given you, Mrs. Nickos, the powers of the Fall Maiden for this reason. After your battle with my student, Penny Polendina, tomorrow, we will be preparing you four to take the four of them out quietly."
"But…you want to assassinate them?!" Ren sounded doubtful. "That doesn't sound-"
"The integrity, safety, and positivity of Remnant, as well as the trust between our four kingdoms must be given priority over your morals. Once you have removed Team MESS from the world, we can finally announce our capture of criminal mastermind Roman Torchwick, and pin this all on him." Ozpin replied. "We will simply tell the world that Miss Xaio-Long was placed under hypnosis by his semblance. And everything will go back to normal."
"We recommend you all to study those recordings we sent you of their fights. You should know they are not going to go down easily."
Yang sat uncomfortable on the foot of her bunk bed while her own teammates looked between each other. None of them had said anything since they had entered their dorm room.
"You…you guys believe me…right? You know I wouldn't assault anyone unless they attacked me first…right?."
"Duh, Yang! Of course we believe you!" Ruby replied, though she could hear a bit of uncertainty in her sister's voice.
"Yang, you may be hot headed, but you aren't a raging lunatic." Weiss replied.
The three girls looked at Blake, who looked even more uncomfortable. "Yang…I truly would like to believe you…" Their faunus team member said. "But…"
"But what?!..." Weiss snapped. "You know full well Yang would never lie to us."
"It's just…I used to know someone, Adam Taraus, the current leader of the White Fang. We used to be friends, just friends. And…he ended up being the reason I'd leave the White Fang…The world sees his bright intentions for the Faunus after he picks up the pieces from Tyrain. But…he's changed from when I knew him. First skirmishes with the Schnee businesses were accidents, then it turned into self defense. Now that he has the press on his side, he's gotten away with a lot more deliberately harmful stuff, almost as if he now goes out of his way to try and make sure anyone who works for the Schnees in high positions of power gets deliberately taken out, regardless of the status of the employees just doing their jobs."
"And that means?!" Weiss snapped irritably.
"It's just…I've heard this before. What happened feels familiar…and I don't want a repeat of what happened with Adam to happen to you." Looking at the disappointed faces on both Ruby and Weiss, as well as Yang, who looked ready to just fall onto the floor and cry. She rubbed her arm.
"You've never done anything like this before. And I want to trust you." Blake said firmly. "But I need you to look me in my eyes and tell me that HE attacked YOU. Tell me you regret doing what you did."
"That won't be necessary." all four girls jumped as Team MESS appeared in the middle of their room in a flash of pink light.
"Great. Have you four come gloat?" Yang asked, crossing her arms. "I bet you got a kick out of what you all saw, didn't you? Did you come to say I told you so? Because I swear he attacked me first."
"And…we believe you." Moon replied. Much to the four girl's shock.
"You…you do?!" Ruby asked.
"Of course." He replied, his teammates nodded in agreement. "We saw the video, and I know exactly how this happened. Erick pointed it out to me when he zoomed in on your face. Your pupils were both unfocused. Which only happens when you're hallucinating an image that someone deliberately wants you to see."
"And how exactly do you know this?" Blake asked suspiciously.
"Because it's been happening to him." Erick replied. "Ever since we got here, we've told him that the exact same thing happens to Moon when he starts having hallucinations, though, those are created by his dark side. In addition, I believe that your fight with Mercury was rigged."
"Rigged? As in…someone hacked the system and forced the final four randomizers to set up Yang against Mercury and Pyrrha against Penny? Why?"
"That…we aren't quite sure of." Sapphire replied. "Not only that, but we have no evidence to support it. It's all merely guesswork based on the fact that we've seen what happened to Yang, happen to Moon."
"It sounds like you all are making leaps. Insane leaps without much grounds?"
"Are we?" Moon asked. "Think about it like this, your world is inhabited by creatures that feed off of negativity and fear. There is a tournament being broadcast to all four kingdoms, Beacon being the most prestigious of all of them. A student from Mistral, on a team of 3 as one of their members was killed, is intentionally injured by a first year student from said pretentious school on a team consisting of a grade skipper, a Schnee, a faunus, and you, Yang. If someone was looking to maybe…hypothetically start a war or give the Kingdom bad blood, or dare we say invoke the wrath of Grimm this was certainly a way to do it."
"When you say it like that you make it sound like your captain obviously pointing out the stupidity of a plan in a movie." Yang grumbled
"Well, if you thought about all those things? Why don't you go tell Ozpin and Ironwood and bail us out!"
"We…uh…tried that." Sarah replied, her face turning red. "But…he asked us if it was Pokey and Rhea who were responsible…which uh…we can't exactly prove…because neither of them have the ability to make you hallucinate."
"So we're back to square one. Great." Yang blew a bit of golden hair out of her face. "Why would you even tell us all of this in the first place? A simple, we believe you would've been enough if nobody is going to believe your story."
"Eh…we thought mentioning might bring up something. Maybe your or Ruby knew someone who'd gladly try to do something like this and stick back at you over some petty grudge who might've been willing to play puppet to Pokey." Moon shrugged. "I guess if you don't have an answer then we can be on our way."
"Hey…is it just me…or does it sound like there's more than four peopl-"
"And, goodbye!" Moon grabbed his friends and the team of four vanished as Jaune opened the door to Team RWBY's room, making the girls sigh in relief.
"Is uh…everything alright in here, Ruby? Nora said she thought more people were in here?"
"Yeah, Team MESS was just telling us what they thought, they believed Yang was set up by someone. But they don't know who."
The blond leader of Team JNPR frowned. "Oh…okay then. I hope you get this all sorted out soon."
Jaune closed the door and turned back to his teammates, and simply shook his head. Making the three of them found.
"Doesn't look like we'll be able to convince them ourselves."
That's all for this month's chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Firstly, it must be said, because I know someone is going to try. The fictional comments I made up for this fictional story that showed fictional character's responses about the attack of Yang on Mercury are in no way, reflective or parodied of any thought I, or anyone else has about RWBY. This chapter was finished well before the premiere of Volume 9 episode 6. I intend for these comments to come off as nothing more than parody jabs at insane leaps of conspiracy nonsense that are made by actual istaphobic incels with disgusting thoughts of other humans and love to insert politics in places where it isn't necessary in fictional story telling. I debated for a long time about slashing these comments out following the kiss of Bumblebee. But I have decided to leave them in under good faith that people understand these are not reflective of mine, or anyone else's thoughts about RWBY or Bumblebee.
Seriously, if I wanted these comments to come off as legitimate or justified because I wanted Yang to look bad, I would've deliberately not have had the scene that shows you Yang is innocent. But like I keep having to remind some people, I don't hate this show. I wouldn't write fanfiction for it if I did. But that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be critical of things I think could've been done better than how the writers actually did it. If you're going to put something out on the internet, it's open to criticism just as much as praise.
With that being said, I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter. I really enjoyed this section of Volume 3, because I think every part of it was handled quite well. Yeah, some parts of the whole thing don't make a lot of sense, but the show did a great job of characterization the doubt Blake had to Yang when they talked about it after the fact. Even if my particular enjoyment for their characters has faded over the course of the series compared to Ruby and Weiss, that scene was still done really well.
As always, if you have anything you'd like to say, I'm always happy to hear criticism.
See you all, next time ;)