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(Yang Pov)
"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" The bartender asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh water my dude," I pushed back. I shifted my sunglasses off. "It's hot out."
"Oh okay. Yeah sure," he started filling my glass.
"Ohohoh Are you telling me you're too young to drink? You look like a regular huntress and a beauty at that," a drunkard commented from my immediate left. He got up from his bar stool and paced over to me. The creepy fucker.
"I'm good. Thanks pal."
"Seriously, you're not too bulky, not too lean, you're-"
"Just right?" I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. I've heard."
"And your hair…" he extended his hand toward me. I caught his wrist. I hit him. He bounced off the floor hard and knocked one of his teeth out which fell on the floor.
"Here you are," the bartender slid me my drink. I drained the whole thing as he asked me, "So what brings you out here?"
"I'm looking for someone." I quirked an eyebrow at the barkeep.
"Not many people come out here this far from the kingdom. The only person worth mentioning out here is uh-"
"Raven Branwen," I interrupted.
He flinched away from me like I was wielding an open flame in his face. "Right, right," he breathed. "You don't want to mess with bandits. There is a world of trouble."
"So I hear…" I walked away.
The shady fucker was getting up.
"Hey girlie!" he called through his missing teeth.
"Seriously? This isn't over?" I demanded of him as I mounted my bike. He smirked.
"I heard you're looking for someone," he smiled like a shark.
"Get on," I gestured to my bike. He did. I drove quickly through the Anima wilderness with him riding bitch.
He guided me along by pointing.
"How much further pal?" I asked after a couple of hours.
"This should just about do it."
I pulled to a stop. "You wait here. I'll head ahead and make sure everything is cool." I let him go knowing it was a trap.
But springing the trap may be the fastest way to see Raven.
I stretched and set my glasses on my bike.
A shot rang out which I deflected using my sixth sense.
The fucker walked out of the trees with his help.
"Well little lady I can't believe you were dumb enough to let me lead you here." He smirked again.
"Is this everyone?" I asked him as I glanced at his help.
"Yeah if you don't count all of them back at the camp over there," he pointed out over his shoulder.
"Over there?" I confirmed.
"Uh yeah," he blinked for a moment at my nonchalance. "Now to pay you back for this tooth, we're going to take your bike and you're going to take your beating." He punched an open fist into his palm.
IU took them all down. They really weren't worth mentioning. Then I started walking to Raven's camp. When I arrived at the buried logs I walked right inside. ITwo gruards flanked me but I didn't care. I walked right up to the big tent.
Raven stepped out.
"Mom," I greeted.
"Yang," she smiled at me. "Did you have to be so rough with my men?"
"Yes," I nodded once.
She smirked at me. She reclined slightly. "Well you found me."
"I spent years searching for you but that's not why I'm here. Ruby is in Mistral somewhere with Qrow. You're going to open a portal to her for me."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because we're family." I made a heart over my chest.
"Family," she scoffed. "Only coming around when they need something. I have to say I'm disappointed. You found me after all. Why not put that energy to finding your sister if she means so much to you."
"Because dad told me how your semblance works. Searching anima for Ruby could take ages. Your going to save me time."
"Tai," she swore.
"You can bond with people an dopen portals to them. You have one for dad, one for me, and one for Qrow. He promised to look out for Ruby before she left. I trust him. You're going to open a portal to him and I'll be on my way."
"I have to say its pretty brave of you to waltz in here and ask a favor fo me. However foolish. Take her away."
I punched the first guard who approach dme and he took a tent down. I made eye contact with-
"Weiss!" I shouted. She was locked in a cage.
"Yang!?" She shouted. As I watched she summoned a giant knight which shattere dthe cage and she sprinted over to me.
Back to back we readied to fight our way out. "What is that?" I aske dher.
"Don't worry about it. What are you doing here?" She asked.
"That's my mom and she can take us to Ruby."
"Your mom kidnapped me!?"
"You kidnapped her!?" I shouted at my mom. She sighed heavily.
A thunderbolt struck the earth in front of us.
"Enough!" Raven shouted. "Give the girl her weapon back," she directed a lieutenant. The girl in question tossed Myrtenaster to Weiss who caught it. "You two in my tent now!" Raven continued.
"Why?" I demanded.
"If you're going after your sister you need to know the truth."
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Raven poured us tea in the tent as we sat in front of her.
"So? What's the truth?" I pressed her with folded arms.
Raven took a drink of tea. "You know it's better when it's hot," She murmured.
"You know you're really obnoxious," Weiss bit back.
"The truth is that truth is hard to come by. You know you and your team are the poster children for the academies. Your motives vary but you all joined to make the world a better place. Its adorable."
"It's what huntresses do." I pointed out.
"Not all of them," she returned easily. "Some people are in it for the money and the fame. Some are in it for power. Your uncle and I didn't attend Beacon to become hunters. We did it to kill hunters."
Weiss and I exchanged a look.
"Daddy and Qrow left that part out? Hm?" Raven pressed in on us. "Besides the Grimm the hunters were the only ones capable of ruining our raids. Our tribe needed a counter force. The entrance exams were child play compared to what we'd been through. We were good. Too good. We were so good we caught the attention of Beacon's own headmaster. Ozpin."
"What do you mean?" I demanded.
"Extra training, looking the other way when we broke the rules, extra missions. Sound familiar?"
"What's your point?"
"How much do you know about professor Ozpin? His history?"
"He was a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters at any of the schools." Weiss pointed out.
"That's because he planned it that way. His followers allowed him to become headmaster."
"How would-no, why would anyone do that?" I demanded.
"Because old man Ozpin has a secret. One which would spread terror and fear if anyone knew it."
"What's the big secret?" I wondered.
"The creatures of Grimm have a master named Salem. She can't be stopped. She can't be reasoned with. Only resisted."
"Why should we believe any of this?" I demanded.
"Now you're catching on. You need to question everything. I've seen people come back from the dead. I know the agents of Salem have a mistress. I know magic is real. And I can prove it."
"What?" Wiess wondered.
"You sai dTai told you all about my semblance. Well I doubt he told you what Ozpin did to Qrow and I." As she spoke her form changed into that of a small raven and she flew about the room. To my eyes she transformed back into a person and took a deep breath.
She opened a portal. "Ask your uncle." She bowed her head solemnly and spoke.
"You're letting us go?" I wondered.
"I'm giving you a choice. Stay here. With me. And I'll answer all of your questions and more. We can have a fresh start. Or you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's war against salem. And die like so many others. But can you really trust someone who kept so much from you?"
"All I care about is making my little sister safe."
She sighed. Weiss and I got on my bike to drive through the portal.
"You know if you side with your uncle I may not be as kind the next time we meet."
"You weren't kind this time either." I drove my motorcycle through my mother's gateway without a backwards glance. Weiss clung tight to me as we passed through the swirling shadow.
My uncle was on the other side just as my mother had promised. He was the same as ever except for the chair. My eyes ran down it to his legs, then quickly back up to his face.
Jaune was there too, the two seemed to be sharing a drink on a Mistral vista with a broken piece of wood in Qrow's lap and a flask in one hand.
I missed whatever they had been talking about; guess our entrance had interrupted whatever they were discussing.
I drove the motorcycle to a shuddering stop in front of them and Weiss dismounted behind me. Qrow's face broke into a grin while Jaune just sort of stood there looking gobsmacked. Typical Jaune stuff, really.
Except he was bloodsoaked.
"Uncle Qrow!" I let loose at the sight of the missing limbs. "What happened?"
"It was one fucking fight." He clenched his fist and jaw. I took the moment to really take them in, Jaune looked off from my memory of him at Beacon. His silhouette was different, with a different set of armor and a larger sword across his back. He also looked roughed up a little.
I heard the portal shut behind us. Good riddance.
"And Jaune?" Weiss murmured beside me. "What happened to you?"
He nervously shuffled. Classic Jaune; something else was off, though. "Bit of a bar scuffle. Nothing super serious. Haha." He laughed it off. Or tried to.
It looked serious, though, more serious than any bar scuffle I'd been in, if not as serious as Qrow's missing legs had to be.
"Seriously, what happened to you?" I demanded addressing my uncle. My mother had just given me the run-around for a solid half hour. Maybe I was short of patience.
"Fought this big Grimm, on my own. Didn't go well. Your little sister found me, bought me the chair, and carried me to Mistral. Had some help from this guy, too." He bumped Jaune. "Come on, your sister will be happy to see you. Both of you." Jaune handed his drink to Qrow and got behind the chair and started pushing in what looked like a fairly familiar routine.
Weiss and I exchanged a glance before we followed them inside. The view from the vista was fine and all but I wanted to see my sister.
"I'm back!" Qrow called once he entered the place.
"Be right there!" My sister answered from inside the rustic Mistrali house. Low ceilings and wide rugs with the occasional plant potted here and there all built around a central garden. "No I'm not. Shut up." Ruby said to somebody else out of view.
"Hey-uh-Ruby." Qrow called out again.
Ruby came waltzing out of what must be the kitchen based on the smell, carrying a full tray of tea and biscuits. "We didn't know how much to make so we just-"
To be honest I rather had my fill of the stuff in Raven's tent. Maybe it was for the best then, because when she looked up she dropped the tray, shattering the pieces across the hardwood floor with a slight gasp.
"Yang! I'm s-so sorry I s-should have stayed. I should have talked to you more, I just- I wasn't sure if you wanted me around-" I crossed the distance between us and took my little sister in my arms.
I did my best to silence her tears. "I love you."
She continued to cry. "I love you too."
I turned and gestured to Weiss but she already averted her gaze out of some sense of respect for us. It wasn't needed or wanted from either of us.
"Weiss." Ruby murmured. Together we held out our arms for her and she pranced over to embrace the two of us in a big three way hug.
I noticed Jaune slip by us after hanging his weapons on a clothes rack. He was acting shifty. This spot of affection did not blind my sisterly eye.
When we released it was evidently time to eat. For the rest of us, that was. I could hear a shower running upstairs where Jaune was.
Nora set an enormous bowl of ramen on an inset table and we were sort of expected to tuck in. "It looks so good." Nora let out.
"I know!" My sister squealed back. I was glad she had had somebody to squeal with.
It took me back to Beacon and the food fight I once had there surrounded by these friends. Thinking about that just made me think of Blake, and Pyrrha, too. I did my best to avoid that. I focused on the conversation of new things my friends had gone through. New was good. It was distracting.
Conversation flowed around me about the adventures we'd been on. Weiss told us stories about Atlesian parties and Ruby, Nora, and Ren beguiled me with a tale of tramping across anima.
"So what's up with Jaune?" Weiss asked, she must have been as curious about our missing member as I was suspicious.
"Oh I bet he's just washing up. Hehe." My sister shrugged off. "He was probably pushing Qrow around all day."
"He was covered in blood." I countered.
"Oh well-" Ruby faltered as Jaune entered the room. He sat down next to Weiss. He was out of his new huntsman garb, just wearing a hoodie and some jeans. His new cotton 't' shirt and long pants must have been in the wash.
He gathered a bowl of food only to look up when he must have noticed our attention. "Did I miss something?"
"We were talking about the state you were in." Weiss pointed her chopsticks at him.
"Bar fight, Qrow and I spent the day looking for some of his old hunter buddies."
"Did it go well?" I asked sardonically.
He just laughed. "Not really. All we found were you two. Reports indicate that all or most of them are dead."
"And the bar fight?" Weiss pressed.
"I had aura and the other guy didn't. I didn't know that and one thing led to another."
"Oh Jaune did you-" but he cut Ruby off.
"Hey let's not." Jaune interrupted Ruby. "People are trying to eat."
He took a long drink from that glass he'd been sharing with Qrow. Finished the entire thing in one gulp. I got the sudden sense I wasn't the only one who had had a long day.
"So…" I trailed off. "They were telling us about the Nuckelavee."
Jaune gasped off the last of the alcohol he was drinking. "That's the one that took Qrow's legs. You asked earlier."
"They were telling us you killed it."
He frowned. "Ren killed it."
"After you nearly cut it in two." Ren countered. "You used your semblance and everything."
"Some Grimm are like that, though." Jaune countered. "And I wasn't alone."
"You unlocked your semblance?" Weiss wondered. "What does it do?"
"It well," Jaune thought for a moment. "It makes me change states. Then it makes me stronger and faster and there's a charge I can spend."
"It's better than that!" Nora cried, disparaging her leader. "You make it sound boring."
"Well... you use it once or twice..."
"When Jaune's semblance is active he is stronger and faster this is true, but I've also seen him hover across the ground." Ren butt in with a little clarification. "Then he can spend the charge he has stored up in an attack. That was also true. But it doesn't really do the concept justice."
"I hover?" Jaune asked.
"You know it reminds me a little of yours, Yang." Ruby cut in.
"But mine just makes me stronger."
"And mine isn't tied to my emotions." Jaune clarified. At my look he continued. "Ruby told me a little about yours. Yours sometimes activates when you're angry. I have to hold still and charge mine."
"Holding still in a fight?" I wondered.
"It has its drawbacks." Jaune noded. "It also can activate when I deal or take enough damage, too."
"I said they were similar, not identical! Speaking of, Yang! You have that shiny new arm!"
"Sure it's no replacement for the original thing, though." I stood up and flexed with my new arm. "Trying to make good use of it anyways."
My little sis dashed up to get a closer look. "Ooh. And it's just as strong?"
"Yep." I smirked down at her. So short.
Thud. Nora set her arm on the table. "You wanna bet? Jaune you want in on this?"
"Jaune?" I laughed.
"Oh he might surprise you." Nora rolled her fingers. "I bet I'm more than enough to take you on, anyways."
"Nora please." Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes. She pretty much set in stone that I had to do it with that. "Now's not the time for these sorts of games."
I walked over and set my arm down across from Nora. Despite Nora's words Jaune didn't get in on the action. Instead he was content to root for his teammate from the sidelines.
He was… bigger than before I suppose. Wider soldiers, thicker at the tricep, that sort of thing. The way they all talked about him was like he really had changed. And of course, I could hardly ignore the way he had looked soaked in somebody else's blood and casually drinking with my uncle.
Alarm bells went off for that one.
Mid match, I popped my arm off and the momentum sent Nora cartwheeling into one of the walls. I suppose we were truly lucky she didn't go through it. Oh well no harm, no foul.
She gave a cry and launched the arm back at me and I deftly caught it laughing all the while. Weird shit with Jaune or not it was good to be back. All there was to do with my Dad was eat and crap sometimes.
"Do you mean to tell me we ate all of it?" Nora bursted out. "I wanted another bowl."
Jaune was stacking all of our plates in the center bowl so he could carry it away. He joined late and by the sound of things hadn't been involved in preparing the food.
"Looks like it. I bet there's some more snacks in the kitchen if you're that hungry."
"Hey Jaune," I perked up. "Remember back at Beacon when-"
"If I wanted to remember Beacon I'd go to bed early." Jaune shot back from the doorway.
"What's his deal?" I demanded of the remaining table.
"He does seem a little… off." Weiss added, noting her own two Lien.
"We all have different ways of coping." Ren seemed content to shrug it off. "It's been a long time. I won't confess that Jaune's methods are particularly healthy, but he does get through each day. We've all grown in different ways."
"Maybe I should talk to him." Ruby cut in. "Whatever happened today probably didn't help. Last time-"
"Last time what? Last time he killed someone? That's what he implied." I continued, unabated.
"It was an accident last time. I was there. He used his semblance on a bandit and it just…" Ruby trailed off.
"Oh." I didn't have much to say to that. It was hard to think of Vomit Boy as a killer, but Ruby wouldn't lie about that.
"Besides, if you were Jaune would you want to think about Beacon? All of his memories are tainted by what happened towards the end." Ren continued. "Your uncle's been training him during the weeks we've stayed here and since then he's picked up some of his more… unfortunate habits. We've all changed, though." Ren repeated like a mantra.
"He's not the only person who lost things." I murmured.
"I'm sure you changed as well." Ren continued. "Or looking back would you say that you were perfect. I just wager that Jaune has more reason to look back and be disgusted by what he sees than the rest of us."
"Oh Lord." Weiss put her face in her hands, probably remembering something Neptune-related. Or perhaps even having to do with Ruby if you went back far enough.
"I suppose." I finished. It didn't give him the right to be rude to us. Though thinking back his comment seemed less directed at me and more at himself. I might be taking it a bit personally even now. "I suppose I may be a bit gung-ho."
"You?" Ruby shrugged. "I tried to take on an adult nevermore on the second day of school."
"Well that embarrassment and desire to tell yourself not to be so stupid just shows you're not who you once were and you never will be again."
"I don't know. I was pretty flawless." Nora looked her fingernails over for emphasis.
I snorted. "Even at the dance when you spilled-"
"Yes, especially at the dance!" She shouted over me. "Thank you Yang!"
"How can five kids eating dinner be so loud?"
I turned. It was Jaune, Qrow, and a short boy in farming attire waiting at the kitchen entrance. To my surprise and Ruby's visible disappointment, Jaune was drinking from Qrow's flask.
He shuddered from the alcohol and handed it back to the man in the chair who shook it. "Did you have to take so much?"
"I told you that you don't need as much. You exceeded your weight loss goals, so this would just be too much for you."
"If I wasn't in this chair…"
"You'd do what?" Jaune demanded. "You'd do what? I will dump you on the ground and watch you crawl around. For the sick, twisted pleasure it would bring me and nothing more. You'd do what if you weren't horrifically crippled?"
Different but the same. Different but the same. Well so long as Ruby was alright and mostly uninvolved with whatever was happening to Jaune, I'd be happy.
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"So the maidens? Magic? It's all true?" Weiss demanded of Oscar Pine.
"Miss Xiao Long? Is this more or less what your mother told you?" The boy asked. When it became clear I wasn't answering Weiss did in my stead.
"For the most part."
"You forgot one thing, you forgot to tell them what you did to Qrow and my mother," I bit out.
"That isn't a secret I thought she would give up easily." Oscar smiled. When I frowned at him he sighed. "My ability to reincarnate while a curse does come with a few key benefits. I needed boots on the ground. Eyes to see. I gave your mother and Qrow the ability to be untethered from their earthly forms. I well- I gave them the ability to turn into birds."
"Why would you do something like that? What's the matter with you?" I demanded with a touch of fire.
"Yang, that's enough. We chose this." Qrow interrupted.
I reclined with a shocked expression.
"Now all of you have a choice. If any of you wish to leave, now is the time." Ozpin tapped his cane against the wooden floor.
"I'm staying. But you need to be honest with us. We can't be operating half blind." I demanded.
"Very well," he agreed with a beatific smile.
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-WG