Beta-ed by xenosaiyan
Yang always felt on fire when she used her semblance, when she transformed all the kinetic energy she'd taken during a duel (or within the last hour outside of a duel) into a titanic supercharge of her remaining aura. But even with the actual flames that lit up her majestic golden mane, it was rare that she felt so utterly fried. If it wasn't for that surge of magic adrenaline that'd run through her at the last second, the shock collars would have killed her before she'd had the chance to activate it and get the accelerated (if utterly exhausting) healing factor to kick in.
"I owe you one, Weiss. Or I guess we're even for the docks? Eh. I'll let you say 'I told you so" about this being a trap anyway. Right after I show the bull's lackey that he should run when I see red," she muttered to herself, drawing for her turn. "I activate Graceful Charity! I draw three and discard two!"
Yang quickly surveyed her new arsenal, reevaluating her strategy based on what she'd just witnessed. Apparently, Blake's knowledge of Fusion's rules was outdated, which meant her plan to counter Banesaw's use of it was also bogus. So there was no more reason to play specifically to facilitate her Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell.
She pitched the Return of the Dragon Lords she had and the Tuning Gum she'd drawn, slipping another of her drawn cards into Ember Celica to activate. "Pot of Greed! Two more cards for me!"
"They'll be your last!" Banesaw taunted, the majority of the crowd menacingly cackling along with him as his Gate Guardians Combined dominated the cage's skyline.
"The last I'll need maybe," Yang dangerously scoffed, her crimson eyes observing her new pulls. Despite her bluster, she knew she'd need more than Resonator Command and Follow Wing to win the duel. "I banish Labyrinth Heavy Tank from your graveyard to special summon Bystial Druiswurm from my hand."
A pair of heavy chains shot from Yang's side of the field and across the labyrinth, Banesaw squeaking as they crashed into his duel disk's graveyard, forcing his dark-attribute monster to pull the enemy creature from the opposing duelist's hand and onto the center monster zone. In this case, the enemy creature was a quadrupedal blue dragon with noble golden antlers, thick iron chains bedecking its wings (ATK 2500/DEF 2000).
"Ha! You just can't stop making stupid plays, can you, human? Remember what happened last time you summoned a monster to the same column as one of my facedowns?" Banesaw mocked her, flipping up the card he'd set the previous turn. "Prey of the Jirai Gumo! Devour that loser lizard–"
"Return of the Dragon Lords is in my graveyard. I banish it, and my dragon avoids destruction," Yang shot back, pulling out the spell from her grave slot as a mystical blue aura shielded Bystial Drusiwurm. "Your spider's summoned to your field as a monster, but it can't touch mine."
Banesaw growled. "I stand corrected. I guess you do learn."
"Not really. I'm just gonna burn down everything you try to throw at me, including your little tricks, until you are a greasy smear on my dragon's claw," Yang sneered, pulling out another card from her graveyard. "I banish Wandering King Wildwind to add a Resonator from my deck to my hand. In this case, Vision Resonator. And because I have a Level Five or higher dark monster, he's getting summoned right to the field."
A new Resonator fiend took to the field, this time with a drummer baton and a magic wand in its hand. The hooded imp cackled as bat wings sprouted from the back of its head, a crescent moon sticking out of its back (ATK 400/DEF 400).
"Now then, time for the big guy to finally make an appearance," Yang roared, her blazing hair thrown about as her aura surged with flames. "I tune Level Two Vision Resonator with Level Six Bystial Drusiwurm!"
"What?!" Banesaw exclaimed as Vision Resonator broke into tuner rings and Bystial Drusiwurm dissolved into six twinkling stars. "You still have enough in you for another Synchro Summon!?"
Sure. Though admittedly, her semblance did remove the need for her to be precise about it. Whatever it did to supercharge her aura made what soul energy she had 'richer' than without it, the equivalent of a larger amount of regular aura. It didn't suddenly put her back over the top in a lot of ways and it faded too fast to be useful for a long-term strategy, but if she timed it right, it could do great things.
And it was hers. No magic, no need to be chosen by jerk dragons that didn't think she was good enough, just everyday regular her. Her power, her strength, her pride, her very Burning Soul showed that she'd take no crude from the world. She could take anything it threw at her and dish it back tenfold!
"Stare into the eyes of raging fire! I burn and ignite the ruler's heartbeat that will light the heavens themselves!" Yang chanted, a pillar of light shooting through her assembled tuner rings and level stars, the glow gleaming in her burning crimson eyes. "Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Hot Red Dragon Archfiend!"
A thunderous howl echoed her own roar, her black and red ace descending from the blinding column. The labyrinth walls trembled as the creature that represented her pride and soul as a duelist took its place in the sky (ATK 3000/DEF 2000), staring down Gate Guardians Combined through the air.
"When Vision Resonator is sent to the graveyard, I can add a spell or trap that mentions 'Red Dragon Archfiend' from my deck to my hand. So I'll grab Fiendish Golem," Yang said, snatching the trap card from her deck. "Bystial Bruslwurm also has an effect that activates when it's sent from the field to the graveyard. I target one of your special summoned monsters and send it to the graveyard. So say goodbye to your big bad Gate Guardian knockoff."
Two shadowy chains shot out of Yang's graveyard and flew through the labyrinth, the shadow zipping through the walls recoiling from their trail. When the demonic lengths reached the end of the maze, they danced through the two giant Jirai Gumo spiders and spiked them themselves into the giant feet of Gate Guardians Combined.
"Tidal Surge Defense!" Banesaw shouted.
The blue elemental legs dropped its jaw, a raging river pouring out and obliterating the chains seeking to drag the titan under.
Banesaw chuckled. "Sorry, human. But Gates Guardians Combined can negate effects that target my cards. And it can do it once for each of its pieces. So do you got another three of those Bystial effects?!"
He couldn't see with the labyrinth in his line of sight, but his revelation only made Yang's smirk grow.
"It negates targeting effects, does it? Good," she declared. "Because my Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's effect doesn't target. It just destroys every other attack position monster on the field. Absolute Power Blaze!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend bellowed through the cage, the upper-tier human crowd cheering as the faunus among the stands cowered. Flames burst from its body and coalesced into its jagged paw. The dragon's claw smashed into the ground, its infernal torrent flooding through the labyrinth and exploding out the other side on Banesaw's side of the battlefield.
The two Jirai Gumos pitifully whined for their death knells, the bugs instantly incinerated at the touch of the flames. Gates Guardians Combined lasted slightly longer, folding in its thick thunder elemental arms to try to protect itself. But that only lasted until Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's blaze rose up to its full height, filling the cage with its dominating conflagration.
Yang sneered. "So much for Contact Fusion. Guess the edgelord should go back to the drawing board."
"When Gate Guardians Combined leaves my field, I can summon a Level Eleven or lower 'Gate Guardian' monster from my deck or Extra Deck to replace it, ignoring its summoning conditions."
Yang frowned. "What?"
"And unlucky for you, my leader has gifted me with a well-furnished arsenal," Banesaw bragged. "From my Extra Deck, I summon the fusion monster Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder!"
Twin pillars of water and lightning crashed together and a new elemental emerged from the collision, a towering but hobbling creature made from smashing Sanga and Suijin together, clearly unbalanced and chaotic without Kazejin to act as their connecting torso (ATK 2550/DEF 2300).
"First they Fusion Summon them without an effect and now they're not even Fusion Summoning them. Blake really needs to update her manual," Yang quipped in annoyance. "Still, not like this one's got enough attack to threaten Hot Red Dragon Archfiend."
"You think so?" Banesaw cackled. "Twice per turn, Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder can reduce one of your monster's attack points to a big, fat, zero until the end of this turn. Thunder Tidal Surge!"
The gold and blue elemental guardian lashed out with an enormous whip of water, its upper half shooting crackling electricity into the liquid stream. The torrent struck Hot Red Dragon Archfiend, the gargoyle dragon growling with annoyance more than pain (ATK 0).
"This just until the End Phase, right?" Yang shrugged, placing the two traps from her hand facedown on the field, leaving only one card left in her hand. "Guess you've bought yourself another turn."
"Too bad your pet won't make it that far! The dragon, not the traitor," the masked faunus clarified, a bit awkwardly. "At the start of your Battle Phase, the shadow of my field spell strikes! Labyrinth Wall Shadow targets and destroys one monster on your field with sixteen hundred or less attack points."
"Sixteen hundred?" Yang asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Seems like an awkward number."
"Yeah, I know. Apparently the spell used some of the Wall Shadow monster's structure in its forging process, so it's equal to its own attack points–" Banesaw started to ramble before cutting himself off as he nervously glanced around at the crowd. "I mean, Labyrinth Wall Shadow! Shred her dragon to bits!"
The shadow that'd been skittering around the labyrinth's walls streaked out of Yang's exit, stretching from the maze's walls into a grotesque, horrific creature. The audience gasped and recoiled from the monstrous fiend, its talons stretching as it made to swipe Hot Red Dragon Archfiend down from the sky.
Only for a glob of sickly green gum with a face to suddenly appear on its back, laughing as it stuck the shadowy creature back to its home walls. "Hahahaha!"
"Huh?" Banesaw squeaked. "What's that thing?!"
"Tuning Gum," Yang chuckled, pulling her final Graceful Charity discard from her grave. "By banishing it from my graveyard, I can negate the activation of an effect that targets one of my Synchro Monsters. So Hot Red makes it to my End Phase and gets its attack points back."
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend threw back its head and roared, scarlet flames emanating from its muscular form (ATK 3000).
"Your move, big guy. Your last move before I show just how bad an idea this little scheme of yours with Junior was," Yang threatened. "Best make the most of it."
"What scheme? You're his duelist for this–ah, nevermind. You humans never make sense," Banesaw scoffed, drawing for his turn. He took a moment to examine his new card, probably grinning under his mask as he slid it into his duel disk. "I activate Double Attack! Wind and Thunder!"
"You've got a water and thunder out," Yang dismissively snarked. "Try again for a lien?"
"The spell works when any 'Gate Guardian' monster is out!" Banesaw whined. "It lets me target one card on the field and destroy it! So say goodbye to your dragon! For real this time!"
Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder clapped its hands together, a typhoon filled with spinning lightning charging for Hot Red Dragon Archfiend.
"I activate my continuous trap card, Follow Wing!" Yang said, one of her facedowns rising up. "I target one Synchro Monster I control and as long as this card's on the field, it can't be destroyed by battle or card effect."
Red Hot Dragon Archfiend's wings were elongated with a brilliant golden glow. With one ferocious flap, the incoming typhoon dissipated.
"Grrr, Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder attacks Hot Red Dragon Archfiend!" Banesaw yelled. "I also activate its effect to reduce your monster's attack points to zero until the end of the turn!"
"You think it'll be that easy to take me down?!" Yang roared back. "Follow Wing has another effect! When the monster it's targeting battles a Level Five or higher monster, that monster is automatically destroyed! And my monster gains attack points equal to its attack until the end of the turn."
"What?!"
Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder's opening electro-water whip crashed into Hot Red Dragon Archfiend (ATK 0). But the instant the elemental titan moved in for a full-on attack, the dragon's shining golden wings suddenly elongated into lances and speared it through both sections.
The guardian exploded with a thunderous crash, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's new wings absorbing the shattered essence of its aura body, the dragon pumped up by the surge of power (ATK 2550).
"You done?" Yang snarled. "I can keep humiliating you if you're up for it."
"Condescending human piece of… urgh…" Banesaw groaned. "When Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder leaves the field because of your card, I can summon one of my banished Sanga of the Thunder or Suijin."
"I'd argue it left the field because of your stupidity, but to each their own."
"You don't know when to shut up, do you?!" Banesaw shrieked, a pillar of thunder spawning Sanga above him (ATK 2600/DEF 2200).
"You're the 'strength of the faunus' or whatever," Yang taunted, her crimson eyes glittering with the vindictive glimmer of her flaming hair. "Roll with the punches."
"Grrggaah! Gladly! I banish Riryoku Guardian and Prey of the Jirai Gumo from my graveyard!" Banesaw proclaimed. "This lets me add another Suijin and Kazejin from my deck to my hand!"
"Thrilling," Yang mocked. "Got another triple-decker in your Extra Deck? Or did the big bad bull only give you one?"
Banesaw's huge fingers curled into fists, his shadow writhing across the walls of his labyrinth. His hands inched for his duel disk, towards his sole remaining facedown from the first round. "I don't need another. I've got everything I need right here."
Yang really hoped that was a bluff. While she was confident she could take anything her conniving opponent could throw at her to win the duel. But given the higher voltage of her collars, she wasn't sure she'd survive another jolt, even if it was only a handful of life points. Her semblance's boost to her aura's healing factor was already preoccupied dealing with the catastrophic damage from the previous electrocution.
And as her vision steadily started blurring, it seemed even that was starting to run into its downside.
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"The semblance of Yang Xiao-Long, called Burn by herself and her teachers," Junior remarked, trembling as his gaze remained fixed on her blazing presence on the CCT monitor's screen. "It stores kinetic energy accumulated during a duel to be released at a moment of her choosing, using the energy to temporarily increase the quality of her remaining aura. Symptoms of this 'burning' aura include a decrease in the amount necessary to summon Extra Deck monsters, as well as an increase to the strength and healing factor provided by normal aura. However, this accelerated healing factor also rapidly makes use of her body's nutrients, to the point that it can outweigh the stamina boost provided by the burning aura if it goes on too long or if she's too badly damaged prior."
"So it's best used only in short bursts or it'll burn her out," Weiss surmised. "More importantly though, why do you know all that?!"
Junior scowled. "Some girl swaggers into my place, literally grabs me by the balls, threatens me for information on Raven Branwen, and then beats up me and all my people, wrecks my club, and you think I'm not gonna look into her? I'm an information broker. And Signal's files are a lot less secure than Beacon's."
Weiss furrowed her brow. Raven Branwen? The bandit queen of the Mistral outlands? Why the heck was Yang looking for information on her?
"Stop bothering the boss," Miltia snarked.
"Yeah, you're dealing with us now, Ice Queen," Melanie taunted.
"Why does everyone call me that?" Weiss rolled her eyes.
"I activate Unexpected Dai, letting me special summon a Level Four or lower normal summon from my deck. I choose Melchid the Four-Face Beast," Melanie announced, the girl draped in ghoulish white finery calling forth a fiend made of four masks (ATK 1500/DEF 1200). "Next, I'll normal summon Rogue Doll, and tribute both to special summon Masked Beast Des Gardius."
Melchid and the doll it was briefly joined on the field by morphed into a single misshapen bipedal fiend, a beast with a face of three blue masks and talons made of intricately carved bone (ATK 3300/DEF 2500).
Weiss cocked a surprised but smug eyebrow. "You're playing that?"
"Stronger than your monsters, isn't it?"
"Yes, but its summoning conditions are ridiculously specific. You'd have to get insanely lucky to get both it and a way to get out Melchid or Grand Tiki Elder and another monster out for tributes in your opening hand," Weiss pointed out. "There's a reason no one plays it."
Melanie scowled, flinching back as if she'd been struck. "You sound like mom. Always putting us down, telling us how we should build our decks, how we should duel."
"I'll try to care when you haven't just tried to murder my friend," Weiss drolled. "Besides, tell me, did your luck hold in getting you more useful cards for your hand?"
Melanie pursed her lips, grudgingly slipping her last two cards into her duel disk. "I activate two Mask of Remnants. When they're activated on their own, they're just shuffled back into my deck."
"I'm aware," Weiss smirked, icily turning towards Miltia. "Tasteless has gone. How about you, Tacky?"
"Don't let her get to you, girls," Junior said, dragging himself away from his fearful observation of Yang's duel to shoot his minion duo a comforting grin. "You're both beautiful and your cards are too."
Miltia and Melanie took a moment to meet their boss' gaze, clearly seeing the shuddering fear underneath his facade of encouragement. Yet, they must have seen something genuine there, known some history between the three that Weiss was not privy to because it still made the pair of ostentatious fakes prim up with resolve.
"I draw! I activate Mask of Accused and Mask of Brutality and equip them respectively to Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon and Masked Beast Des Gardius!" Milita announced, grotesque masks spawning on Weiss' dragon and her twin's misshapen fiend (ATK 4300). "Your dragon can no longer attack, and you take five hundred points of damage each of my turns due to Mask of the Accused. And Mask of Brutality–"
"Increases Masked Beast Des Gardius' attack by a thousand. There are other details, but you two aren't going to get more turns, so they're not going to matter," Weiss cut in. "Just like you all really don't matter beyond letting me finally cut loose."
Junior smashed his fist into the CCT monitor's console and glared at Weiss with livid fury. "You don't get to talk to them like that! You don't get to call them worthless!"
"Boss," Melanie carefully spoke up.
"It's okay," Miltia tried to calm him down.
Weiss blinked, her sure oasis of conviction suddenly shimmering like a mirage. "Of course it is. You're just murderous criminals."
"Your friend attacked us! We didn't provoke her, we didn't threaten or cheat her, she just strode in here like she owned the place and put half my people in the hospital!" Junior ranted.
Weiss snorted. "So this is about revenge?"
"No. I went looking for information on her to find out who the crazy blonde looking for Raven Branwen was. The boot on my neck tends to like to know when people are looking for her associates," Junior revealed, fearfully glancing about the spiders skittering around the room's shadows. "But then I saw her Signal files, saw her combat dueling instructor. Saw her father."
"Mr. Xiao-Long? Why would that make you… you…" Weiss trailed off, only to finally put the pieces together in her head. "You're Junior Xiong, aren't you?"
"I almost didn't recognize him when I saw his staff I.D. photo, all smiling and friendly. I see his face every night when I sleep, but it's always so angry. The Sun Dragon of Hell," Junior murmured, his eyes lost and haunted as he spoke. "He came around the rings, never gave us his real name. We didn't care. We treated him fairly. Until one night, he came for us. Not like the police or some hunting duelist working with them, he came for blood. Without provocation, he came to destroy us. He burned half my uncles alive in front of me. My father is still in a coma from the burns his double-tuned demon gave him. I was the only one left to head the family afterward, and I had to bow to the Spider just to keep our rivals from ripping apart everyone I cared about."
Weiss remembered what Blake and Yang had told her of Mr. Xiao-Long's duel with the Blood-Soaked Bull, how he'd spoken of knowing how the bloodthirsty terrorist felt, and desperately tried to get him to walk away from that path. She remembered how Ruby had said that her father had not always been the perfect parent he now strove to be. At the time, she'd had a bit of difficulty imagining how such a kind man could ever have committed sins to be so ashamed of.
"Still," she tried to argue to her foe and herself. "You said this wasn't about revenge."
Junior furiously thrust his finger back at Yang, her blazing mane and burning crimson eyes outright demonic on the monitor's screen. "She! Came after! Us! Just like her old man, she attacked me and mine! I wasn't going looking for some madcap revenge scheme, but then she waltzed in here with you and started making the same kind of demands with the same kind of threats! I don't know Kuriboh dung about what the White Fang is up to and there's no way I could distract Neo to let you two play interrogator with Banesaw without her killing us all, but that blonde devil would have burned down my livelihood, and put my people in the hospital anyway if I hadn't given you two anything! This isn't about revenge. This is self-defense."
Weiss scowled. "And when Mr. Xiao-Long comes for you after finding out you killed his daughter?"
"I'll admit. You finding this place and being able to point the finger at us wasn't part of the plan," Junior confessed. "But I've looked up the old man's medical files. Seems what he did to my family took its toll on him too. I don't imagine his heart will survive the news of his daughter's tragic fate."
That last comment sparked just the last bit of outrage Weiss needed to ram down her emotions and narrow her icy gaze at her enemies. "Neither will you."
"We'll see about that," Miltia challenged. "I lay one card facedown and set a monster in defense mode! Your move!"
"Draw!" Weiss yelled, whipping a card into her hand. "I activate Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's special ability! By using two Overlay Units, it can halve one of your monster's attack points and gain that much power for itself! Treason Discharge!"
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon spread its wings, violet lightning spreading from its embedded stormy orbs and crackling over Masked Beast Des Gardius (ATK 2150). Weiss' sleek black dragon threw its head, its tempestuous strength rising (ATK 4650).
"Next, I'll use Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon's special ability to destroy Masked Beast Des Gardius," Weiss said. "Burst Stream of Destruction!"
Even wearing the Mask of the Accused, Blue-Eyes Alternative Dragon still opened its maw and obliterated Masked Beast Des Gardius in a blinding beam of white lightning.
Leaving behind a torn red mask floating in midair. One that instantly zipped across the field and smashed itself onto Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's face.
"Ha! And you acted so cocky before!" Melanie gloated. "When Masked Beast Des Gardius is destroyed, it equips a Mask of Remnants onto one of your monsters! And I gain control of that–"
A bright cosmic tornado burst up from the floor, its blue solar winds shredding The Mask of Remnants to pieces.
"-monster?" Melanie squeaked.
"A gift from my father," Weiss stated, her voice vexed as she pulled out the Galaxy Cyclone spell that she'd discarded with Graceful Charity from her graveyard. "I banish Galaxy Cyclone from my graveyard and I can destroy a face-up spell on the field. Then I activate Silver's Cry to revive the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my graveyard. I'll also activate my facedown, the continuous spell Vision with Eyes of Blue. I reveal the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my hand and special summon it. Then I return the Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon on my field to the hand and in exchange can summon a Blue-Eyes monster from my hand. I choose Dragon Spirit of White, which is always treated as a Blue-Eyes card."
Mask of the Accused shattered as Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon flashed off the field, replaced by the two regular Blue-Eyes White Dragons (ATK 3000/ DEF 2500) and the ethereal white dragon spirit (ATK 2500/ DEF 2000). The latter draconic specter let out a shrill shriek and shredded Miltia's facedown to pieces.
"What just happened?!" Milita gasped.
"Oh, when Dragon Spirit of White is summoned, it banishes one of your spell or traps," Weiss remarked. "Now it'll attack your monster."
The ghostly dragon dove down and shredded Miltia's facedown monster, the twins' final defense.
"And with that, we're done here," Weiss venomously snarled. "Dark Rebellion, take Tasteless. Blue-Eyes, Tacky."
She snapped her fingers and the three dragons let out ferocious, sundering roars. The two Blue-Eyes White Dragons unleashed a wave of majestic White Lightning on Miltia, while Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon dug a trench through the floor before bashing Melanie into the wall with a Lightning Mandible Charge.
Miltia Malachite: 0 Life Points
Melanie Malachite: 0 Life Points
Winner: Weiss Schnee
Weiss took a moment to breathe in the scene of her victory, her dominating power rushing through her as she towered above her fallen foes, her menagerie of mighty dragons at her side. The Malachite sisters, wretched scumbags who'd tried to kill her dear friend, laid in a broken heap on the ground, their gaudy outfits splayed and scratched up, revealing scars hidden previously by their elaborate dresses.
Scars that looked so very similar to the one that ran down across her eye.
Weiss' hand rose to that scar, her elegant fingers grazing the jagged mark her father's dragon had given her on his command. She recalled how the Malachite twins had spoken of their mother, how skittish their body language had been, like the spiders fleeing to the shadows of the room at that very moment. Just like she once did at even the slightest hint of her father's displeasure.
No, no, no, no! They were trying to murder Yang! They were trying to help Blake, and they were getting in the way of that! They were just a bunch of criminals who tried to murder her friend. No reason for her to be conflicted–
"Miltia! Melanie!" Junior yelled finally pulling away and rushing to the girls. "Are you alright?!"
"We're… we're fine," Miltia groaned.
"Keep your guard up," Melanie gasped. "Don't let… ergh… that blonde bimbo… gah… get away…"
Junior hesitated but made to stand between Weiss and the CCT monitor. The Schnee heiress mentally kicked herself for not taking advantage of his brief distraction to zip over to the console with her semblance and try to shut off the shock collars. But she'd been too consumed by her own infuriatingly conflicted thoughts to move before the gangster deployed his duel disk.
"Don't," she managed to speak, suddenly feeling so very tired despite her panic for Yang's current danger. "You don't want to do this."
"I'm not stupid. I saw what you can do," Junior frowned. "But if I don't try, you turn off that collar and the little Sun Dragon puts as many of me and mine as she can get her hands on in the ground."
He was right. Heck, it was even noble from a certain perspective, one that Weiss found herself able to understand even as she categorically could not allow it to succeed. She had to shut down Yang's shock collar before she took any more damage in her duel with Banesaw and got electrocuted again. She didn't have time for a duel with Junior, even a short one that she dominated like her match with his two minions.
But what else could she do? The Malachites were still defenseless and Junior clearly cared about them dearly. Could she take one of them hostage and threaten him into backing down? That was what her father would do. But that only made Weiss hesitate to do so.
She had to somehow convince Junior that backing down was the best way to ensure the survival of the majority of his people and their livelihood. But how could she do that when Yang's survival was, by her own declaration, a huge roadblock to that?
Perhaps… convince him that there was something worse if she died? Worse than police or huntsmen. But she'd failed in every attempt to intimidate people since she arrived at The Club, and while Yang had succeeded in doing so both in her previous visit and this time, that had only contributed to Junior lashing back at her…
… Yang's previous visit. She was looking for information on Raven Branwen. Why, Weiss had no clue, but in the few photos she'd seen of the masked Mistral bandit queen in newspapers or wanted posters, one of the few distinguishing features was her long, wild mane of jet-black hair. Yang had a similar shaped mane in her father's hair color. It was a long shot of a bluff, but it might be her best chance.
"You don't want to do this," Weiss repeated. "Because if you kill Raven Branwen's daughter, she will come for you. And she will kill every last one of your men."
Junior and the battered Malachite Twins all did a double-take with shock.
"Raven Branwen's daughter?" Melanie blinked.
"That's your bluff?" Miltia disbelievingly asked. "Really?"
"You've met the woman, right?" Weiss inquired. "Remember her hair? Imagine it's blonde like Mr. Xiao-Long and picture it on Yang. Think, why else would a Signal student want information on a Mistral bandit queen?"
"I don't know," Junior shrugged. "Why would a Mistral bandit queen have a kid with a Patch huntsman, give birth to the kid, and then come back to Vale to give him the kid? Seems convoluted and pointless. What would be the benefit?"
"Have you seen Mr. Xiao-Long without a filter of terror and trauma clouding your vision? He is a very muscular and attractive man," Weiss said, grateful that Yang was in the cage fight instead of next to her at the moment. "I'm sure a self-respecting bandit queen would be willing to have a night of unrestrained passion with his… um… muscles?"
"You've never dated anybody, have you?" Miltia surmised.
"I don't think she's even ever flirted with anyone," Melanie said, legitimately pitying.
"My flirting experience or lack thereof is not relevant to this conversation!" Weiss exclaimed, second-guessing not having her Blue-Eyes just eat them. "Look, I wasn't there when it happened! All I know is that Raven Branwen saw a hunky stud of a Signer hunting duelist and got knocked up with Yang! What more do you want–"
"Signer?" Junior gasped. His face, and the Malachite twins', all bleached stark white. "The Sun Dragon of Hell's a Signer?"
"Uh… yes," Weiss replied, cocking an eyebrow. "You know what a Signer is? You really are a good information broker."
Sweat poured down Junior's brow, his body trembled more than even when he'd been watching for Yang's semblance to activate. "The strong live and the weak die. That's the Branwen Tribe code, if The Fallen Signer wanted to have a strong kid, another of her kind would be her first choice."
"Raven Branwen's a Signer–I mean, yes! Exactly that!" Weiss exclaimed. "And what's more dangerous, really? Yang throwing a temper tantrum, or her mom on a warpath for a blood debt?"
Junior didn't even need to take a moment to think about the question. He dashed back to the CCT monitor and yanked down the shock level switch for Yang's collar before grabbing to force Banesaw's the other way.
"Stop!" Weiss shouted. "Leave it off."
"Huh? Why?" Junior stammered. "The longer she enjoys making him squirm, the longer for me and my guys to run away–"
"He wasn't in on this scheme, right?" Weiss inquired.
"He wasn't."
"Then leave it off," Weiss commanded.
"Yeah! Leave it off! What is he leaving off?"
Weiss leapt back and waved her arms about in surprise at the sudden presence at her side. "Ruby! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
Her silver-eyed partner sheepishly grinned back as her red cape stopped fluttering from the speed boost she'd obviously just entered the room with. "Sorry, Weiss."
"How did you find this place?"
"The Club? I've been here before, remember. Though if you mean this secret room with way too many spiders, I never would have found it without that link from Dark Rebellion leading me in," Ruby explained. "So, what's going on? I see Yang's still doing a cage match."
"Yes, but don't worry. I have convinced Mr. Xiong and his associates that it would be unwise to electrocute Yang," Weiss said, attempting to subtly wink at her team leader so she didn't say anything to blow her desperate ruse. "Given that she's 'Raven Branwen's daughter. So you don't need to pull any of your crazy Signer heroics. The issue is solved."
"Signer?" Miltia gasped.
Melanie's eyes widened. "She's a Signer?"
Junior paled in utter horror, panting as he looked up at the ceiling, spiders suddenly descending from the shadows of the underground room.
Meanwhile, Ruby gaped at her white-haired teammate. "Woah! Yang told you about that? She usually keeps that close to the chest."
Weiss quirked her head to the side. "Told me about what?"
"That she's Raven's daughter. I mean, Raven's her bio mom. Our mom was our mom in the ways that really matter. Baking us cookies, taking us to buy our first utility cards, giving us rides on Stardust Dragon–"
"Yang actually is Raven Branwen's daughter?!" Weiss shrieked. "Your dad slept with the Bandit Queen of the Mistral Outlands!?"
Ruby winced. "Ooo, she didn't actually tell you, did she?"
Weiss would have responded with many different expletive variations of the phrase "No, you dolt!".
But her attention was soon occupied elsewhere as Ruby's Signer Mark lit up with a brilliant crimson glow.
Junior let loose a bloodcurdling scream as the CCT monitor console, and its controls for the collars and cage of the underground duel, exploded.
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"I activate my facedown!" Banesaw yelled, his hidden ace rising up.
Yang readied herself to panic… only to spy a familiar spiral of an orange demon and dragon over a blue background. At that point, the furious Beacon Obelisk Blue couldn't keep the shit-eating grin from her lips.
"Polymerization!" Banesaw declared, raising up the Suigin and Kazejin in his hand. "By fusing the two monsters in my hand with the one on my field, I can merge them together to Fusion Summon Guardian Chimera–"
"Hahahaha! Trap card open!" Yang laughed, too jubilant at the irony to notice the hardlight barrier lining the cage's iron bars suddenly fizzling out. "Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell!"
"What's that do?"
"You know, I really am so glad you asked, Baney," Yang continued to cackle, sliding the Resonator Command from her hand into her graveyard to pay the counter trap's cost. "By discarding one of my spells, Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell negates one of your spells and destroys it. Not only that, you can't activate cards of that name for the rest of the duel."
"I can't use Polymerization!" Banesaw exclaimed. "This was your plan from the beginning!"
Yang couldn't dignify that with a response. She was too busy busting a gut with chortling glee, her steadily growing exhaustion diminished by the situation's humor.
"Ugh! I activate Labyrinth Wall Shadow's effect! I place a Kazejin from my deck into my spell and trap card zone," Banesaw growled, a pillar of wind striking down a granting the sealed coffin to his field. "Then I contact fuse Sanga of the Thunder and Kazejin on my field to summon Gate Guardian of Thunder and Wind to my field!"
There was probably some big chant and fusion sequence to bring the floating elemental duo of the upper body and torso (ATK 2500/DEF 2200) to the sky above the labyrinth, but truthfully, Yang was still too busy laughing to catch it.
"Once per turn, Gate Guardian of Thunder and Wind adds a spell or trap that mentions Sanga, Suijin, or Kazejin to my hand from my deck. I choose another copy of Double Attack! Thunder and Wind!" Banesaw announced. "And I'll activate to destroy your Follow Wing!"
Just like before, a tornado laced with lightning surged over the labyrinth to strike at Yang's field. Her face-up trap card was obliterated, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's wings losing their golden shine.
"I end my–"
"Hahaha!"
"Stop laughing!" Banesaw roared. "Take this seriously!"
"Oh, don't worry, I am, big guy," Yang replied, her voice boiling with fury and lethal intent. "You see, you tried to cheat me, which I don't take kindly to on principle."
"Cheat you? What the heck are you talking about–"
"But, more importantly, you're pretty high up in the White Fang. My friends and me, we're gonna be stopping you guys and whatever evil whackjob plan you're cooking up with Torchwick," Yang informed him, nonchalantly drawing for her turn, her crimson eyes gleaming with dangerous fire. "So here's what's gonna happen. My Hot Red Dragon Archfiend is going to obliterate the last of your life points. And then, you're going to tell me everything you know about whatever it was you guys were stealing all that dust for. Or me and my dragon are gonna put you through these cage bars the hard way. Archfiend! Absolute Power Blaze!"
Once more, scarlet flames erupted over Hot Red Dragon Archfiend and surged into its palm before crashing through the labyrinth. The inferno washed over the brick walls and swallowed Gate Guardian of Thunder and Wind, crashing into the bars of the cage. For some reason, the hardlight barrier didn't catch the blaze, the emanating flames turning the metal bars burning orange as they licked at the lower-tier crowd beyond. Faunus and poor humans in the stands, scrambled back, a cry of confusion and fear rising up from them.
"What the… My people!" Banesaw gasped, a column of lightning crashing down in front of him and conjuring Sanga of the Thunder (ATK 2600/ DEF 2200), his fusion apparently having a similar floating effect to his previous ones. "Blondie, something's wrong!"
"For you it is! Trap card open! Fiendish Golem!" Yang shouted, her final facedown flipping up with the image of a gargoyle clutching a glowing red gem. "One monster on the field with two thousand or more attack points is banished until the end of next turn! Which means you're wide open!"
Banesaw scrambled back in dawning dread, his Sanga of the Thunder vanishing in a scarlet glow.
"Battle! Hot Red Dragon Archfiend attacks you directly!" Yang roared, the flames of her golden mane surrounding her in a volcanic halo, her eyes pools of molten raging red. "Molten Scarlet Flare!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend reeled its head back and howled to the heavens. The black and red dragon smashed down from the sky and unleashed a hellish conflagration from its gargoyle maw.
The blazing typhoon washed over the labyrinth like a tsunami of orange and red, the maze and the creeping shadow lurking within burnt to ashes. Beyond it, Banesaw could only scream as the inferno crashed into him, its indomitable force smashing him into the cage behind him, the bars melting as he was bashed onto the outside of the duel floor. The entire audience wailed in horror as the attack crashed into the bleachers beyond, humans and faunus, rich and poor alike stampeding away as they realized the barrier protecting them had vanished.
Banesaw: 0 Life Points
Winner: Yang Xiao-Long
"Now then," Yang said, stalking through a rain of molten metal as the cage melted behind her, both her and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend bearing down on her bested foe. "I know I jumped ahead on the 'putting through the cage the hard way' part, but don't think I'm leaving without that intel."
Banesaw's aura shattered to nothing as he laid groaning on the ground, his Grimm mask cracked to show a hint at the rugged face beneath. He staggered to sit up as much as he could, the screams of the fleeing crowd orchestrating his defiant stare up at the duelist who'd bested him.
"Do your worst, human," he challenged. "I'm not afraid to die for the cause."
"Die? Oh, no need to go that far," Yang assured him, though her scarlet gaze was hardly calming. "Though, you might wish it did by the end of it."
This was bad. While she wouldn't exactly shed any tears about torturing a guy who tried to help Junior electrocute her to death, her semblance's toll on her stamina was starting to kick into overdrive now that the duel was over. And if Uncle Qrow had stressed one thing to her during his anecdotes about interrogating punks for information, it was that physical torture did not work. At best, the victim would just say whatever they could to get the pain to stop, regardless of whether it was true or not. The threat of physical torture, which on its own was psychological torture, could coax useful intel out of people, but it had to be mental leverage, which she didn't have time to cultivate.
She had to scare him to get him to talk. And she needed to scare him fast. Already it was a struggle to keep herself standing tall and intimidating as her balance began to flag.
"Hot Red!" Yang barked.
Her ace monster lit its claw ablaze. With a deafening roar, it screeched its fist down for the ground next to Banesaw, Yang praying to see the bulky faunus flinch before he realized she wasn't actually going to squash him like a bug.
"Rrraaahhhh!"
What she hadn't expected to see was Blue-Eyes White Dragon suddenly appearing in her monster's path. The legendary beast let out its harrowing, distinctive roar, using its wing to catch Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's attack mid-swing.
"What are you doing?!"
Yang whirled around to see Weiss gliding towards her on a line of snow-white glyphs, Myrtenaster deployed and ready for battle as she skated between the stampeding crowd.
"Weiss, you're alright!" Yang smiled, her eyes finally fading to violet with relief. "I was worried when I felt you were dueling. Thanks for the save with Dark Rebellion by the way–"
"What are you doing?" Weiss repeated, horrified as she gestured to the downed Banesaw. "You won! His aura's broken! He's beaten! Why would ever keep attacking him–"
"Mountain Glenn!"
Yang and Weiss turned towards the topic of their discussion, his voice cracked and completely lacking in the resolve he'd shown before. Banesaw had curled up in a ball on the floor, his body turned to keep Blue-Eyes White Dragon out of his sight, his Grimm mask having fallen from his face when he'd moved.
Smashed over the side of his face in electrical burns were three distinctive capital letters: SDC.
Yang didn't know whether it was because of her semblance's toll or not, but she threw up in her mouth a little. Weiss was worse, the so-called Ice Queen paling in horror as her hands flew up to cover her gaping mouth.
"Mountain Glenn! That's all I know! They made me stay here for recruitment and that's where they wanted the new meat sent! That's all I know, I swear!" Banesaw squealed like a scared child, his eyes clenched shut. "Please don't hurt me, Schnee! Please!"
"I… I'm not…" Weiss stammered, feebly reaching out her hand, faltering as the seven-foot behemoth of a faunus squeaked in horror and crawled back, covering his face as he did so. "I'm not going to hurt you–"
"Weiss, look out!" Yang screamed.
The blonde dove and tackled her teammate to the floor, Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend diving down to protect their duelists as a trio of hot plasma blasts crashed into their wings. They even reached out to block the shot fired at Banesaw, but that was only partially deflected, the concussive force flipping the huge faunus and knocking him unconscious.
Yang glared up from where she protectively covered Weiss, spying the same pink and brown-haired woman from the docks, some cartoonish version of Barrel Dragon beside her blowing out smoke from its gun hands.
The short woman tossed away an empty carton of ice cream and eyed Hot Red Dragon Archfiend, glancing between Yang and the monster that was her pride and joy with impish glee. She mockingly applauded them both before she and her monster vanished in shimmering shards of glass.
"That little…" Yang growled before looking down at Weiss with concern. "You okay, Ice Queen?"
"Don't call me that… I'm… It doesn't matter right now," the white-haired girl replied, struggling to hold in tears as she tore her gaze away from the unconscious Banesaw. "We need to get back to Ruby. She's in trouble."
"What? She's here?! What happened to her and Blake's mission?" Yang exclaimed. "You know what, it doesn't matter. Where is she–"
Yang tried to stand, but her limbs failed out from under her. The fire of her semblance died as its toll drove her down to her knees, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's aura body fading from above her.
"Oh, man, I am going to have to eat like Nora to recover after this," Yang groaned, already feeling how she'd burnt through most of her body's calories and reserves. Those shocks dealt more damage than she'd ever had to deal with before.
"Blondie!"
"You think you can wreck our place again?!"
"This is the last time you come after the boss!"
Yang and Weiss looked up to see scores of suited men with red sunglasses fighting through the fleeing audience to get to them. Each of them had duel disks at the ready with decks loaded. And Yang was too exhausted to stand.
Even still, her mind was occupied with panic about what could possibly have happened to her little sister.
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Minutes Before
Ruby threw up her arms to shield her eyes from the explosion of the CCT console. A circle of dark blue flames cut into the monitor and seared through the floor of the hidden room. The shadowy incandescence smacked Weiss and her dragons out of the way, sealing the silver-eyed Signer inside the fiery barrier.
"What the heck? This is like dad's!" Ruby observed, her gaze flickering around the mystical trap that had suddenly sprung on her, the crimson claw of her Signer Mark burning brighter than ever before.
Inside her mind, she could feel Black Rose Dragon's spirit ready for battle, a single sensation filling her chosen duelist: Danger.
She looked across the room at Junior, the only other person in the circle of dark flames with her. A spider had bitten into the back of his neck, the arachnid glowing with an eerie purple shine. The same unnatural light tinged the small-time gangster's eyes, as well as seared a burning spider tattoo into his forearm, the symbol of his parent organization now appearing as a warped version of Ruby's Signer Mark.
"Mom," Melanie whimpered. "Please don't."
"Don't use him," Miltia frightfully continued. "Use the Schnee as your drone. Not him–"
"Hush, dearies," Junior spoke, his inflection altered and his voice overlaid with an additional timbre, an older woman's. "The grown-ups are speaking."
"Ruby, hold on!" Weiss shouted, both Blue-Eyes White Dragons and Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon smashing into the barrier of blue fire, even trying to fly through the air above the blaze only to be mystically deflected. "I'll get you out of there!"
"No. Go help Yang. If she's had to use her semblance in an underground duel, she's gonna need backup soon," Ruby ordered, keeping her eyes locked on Junior, or at least the entity using his body. "I'll handle this."
"Handle me?" the not-Junior chuckled. "Little Signer, you misunderstand the situation."
"Ow!" Weiss yelped, slapping a spider from the back of her neck. "Did that thing just try to bite me?"
Dark Rebellion growled at the bug that tried to attach itself to its duelist, violet sparks flashing from its mandibles and frying the creepy crawler.
Not-Junior cocked an eyebrow at the dark dragon. "Interesting. You're no Signer Dragon, Number, or Legendary Dragon. So how do you have magic to resist me?"
"Weiss!" Ruby commanded. "Go!"
Her partner glanced fretfully between her team leader, the unnatural foe she was now trapped with, and the Malachite sisters' terrified faces. But in the end, she followed orders and sped out of the room, dissipating her dragons so that she could get through the door.
Ruby's gaze narrowed at her new foe, Crescent Rose deploying from her wrist. "Who are you? What are you?"
"You may call me Lil' Miss," the entity replied, giving a flourishing bow that just looked wrong with Junior's body. When she rose up, she tapped the glowing spider attached to Junior's neck. "When my pets sensed a Signer Mark I hadn't encountered before, I just had to make your acquaintance and borrowed Junior's body as a drone to do so."
"That doesn't answer my second question," Ruby said. "What are you?"
Lil' Miss smirked with Junior's stolen lips. "Little Signer, you go to Beacon, do you not? Has Ozpin told you nothing about the history of that mark on your arm?"
"Answer the question," Ruby insisted.
"Very well," Lil' Miss sighed. "I am what you might call… a Dark Signer."
You know, I love crossover fanfiction. Sure, it's easy to screw them up, but when they aren't, you notice little details of each story that can be aligned together to make interesting plot points in a combined narrative. Like RWBY literally having a Spiders organization for a Spider Dark Signer to head. Love it when things line up useful like that.
Two important duels for two members of Team RWBY here. Weiss gets the unwelcome reality check that though there are just plain terrible people in the world like her father, a lot of people she's going to have to stop as a hunting duelist are going to have tragic backstories that she can relate to. She can't just avoid the White Fang and avoid the conflicted feelings she gets from confronting them. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, Yang shows off both the strengths and weaknesses of her current mindset, as her unrestrained fury wins her the duel, but it wouldn't have gotten her the intel that was her actual objective. Meanwhile, the fear she delighted in that fury invoking in Junior just made her life harder and nearly got her killed if not for Weiss.
Now, Ruby faces off with an unexpectedly dangerous foe in the finale of the Investigation Arc that I am relatively sure no one expected her to take on this soon.
Remember to check out and add to this story's TVTROPES PAGE! I check my stories' pages often and I always enjoy it when they grow. :)
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!