RWBY: Avenge Me
Chapter 2: Lick your Wounds
How many more people are going to die, BECAUSE OF YOU!?" – Neo Pyrrha.
What was once a taunt to break the will of a noble soul with doubt would ironically plague the image of the tormentor in another realm.
Yang felt the sun's rays shine on her face through a window, squinting her eyes as she instinctively tried to raise her right arm to block the light. She gasped and awoke in a fright as she felt nothing where her arm used to be, huffing as cold sweat dripped down her face. She wasn't the only one who awoke in a fright, as Blake gave a small scream as she was knocked off her chair by Yang's bed and fell on her back, wincing in slight pain.
"B-Blake!" Yang yelled in shock. The cat faunus instantly leaped up at the sound of her teammate's voice.
"YANG!" Blake hollered as she lunged towards her, wrapping her arms around Yang's neck in a hug almost akin to one of the brawlers Ursa hugs.
"G-Good to *groan* see you too kitty (thought) God is this how Ruby feels all the time?" Yang thought as she struggled to breath. She tried to raise both arms up to pry Blake off her, only to recoil a bit as she looked down to see a bandaged stump where her right arm use to be. Blake noticed her distress and separated, her cat ears going down as she knew what plagued her.
"Wha-What happened to my arm?" Yang asked fearfully. Blake's gaze grew somber, even though she couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved right now for a bitter reason.
"We'll just focus on this for now. Better she doesn't know about her yet." Blake thought with a grimace. This was so hard, keeping an eye on Yang to brace her for both horrible news, but she knew the one about her sister would destroy her more than her arm Adam took because of her.
Yang noticed her bitter look, as well as the bags under her eyes and unkempt hair. It was obvious Blake hadn't slept much, likely to watch over her while she recovered from….this.
"You okay?" Yang asked her but received a denying head shake in response.
"No. It's my fault. All mine." Blake said as tears stung her eyes. Yang got goosebumps as she saw those same painful tears in her eyes as Adam stabbed her, gasping as she saw his face again and heard his blade whoosh, feeling a burn in her arm stump. Her distress wasn't unnoticed by Blake.
"He took your arm to punish me. He wanted to hurt me for leaving the White Fang. I-I'm so sorry." Blake cried. Yang, despite her own pain, pushed it aside to use her one arm to force Blake into another hug, letting her sob into her shoulder for a few minutes before they both separated at the sound of rapid footsteps running down the hall.
"I guess Ruby heard us crying huh? Bet she was worried too." Yang chuckled. Little did she know, Blake's eyes widen in fright as she saw her partners smile, knowing it was about to fall possibly forever as a middle aged blond man with lilac eyes rushed into the room.
"YANG! YOUR AWAKE!" Taiyang yelled as he rushed to his daughter's bedside. Yang smiled warmly, glad to see him despite it not being Ruby.
"Hey daddy." Yang said softly as she saw tears in his eyes, knowing how badly her loss affected him. After he took a moment to collect himself, sharing a few hugs between him, Yang, and Blake out of gratitude, Tai sat down in Blake's chair, the latter leaving to refresh herself. As soon a she left, Yang's expression fell, having held it in for her friend's sake.
"Blake told me what happened. I must have really worried you after what happened at…*Gasp* the school!" Yang cried out in shock.
"Easy sunny dragon! Your Uncle Qrow took you home to patch you up about a week ago. The school is….banged up too. Everyone evacuated, but Grimm are still going after it." Tai sighed.
"How? If no one's there that means no negativity to draw them?" Yang inquired.
"Well, there was a giant dragon Grimm that summoned them with some strange power. Even after Ruby did a number on it-" Tai said before pausing in fright. Yang didn't fail to notice his expression change after mentioning her sister.
"Ruby took on that thing!? Where is she? Is she okay?!" Yang asked in fright. Tai gave off a slight wince at the question. He struggled to open his mouth, unsure what he could say before someone cut him off.
"I can answer that one Firecracker." Qrow said darkly as he entered the room. Tai fixed him a glare in response.
"Not now Qrow." He warned but Qrow beckoned him to leave and let him get it over with. When Tai felt insulted he was asked to leave his own daughter after being driven crazy waiting for Yang to wake up and despite being in mourning.
"Tai…please." Qrow softly pleaded. The Branwen lost his protégé, his sworn niece when he was right there at Beacon. He wanted to be the one to break the news and take the heat from Yang. Reluctantly, Tai sighed as he got up and left, but not before fixing Qrow a bitter glare with his tired eyes.
"Get some rest bro, you need it." Qrow told him firmly, knowing Tai held it all in for too long. As Qrow sat down beside his remaining niece, Yang looked at him with panic all over her face. Qrow sighed as he knew it was just going to get worse.
"Uncle Qrow what happened? Where's Ruby?" Yang asked fearfully.
"Yang…" Qrow said slowly. Yang gasped as she heard him say her name. Anytime he didn't call her Firecracker was when bad news was about to be told.
"No." Yang pleaded, getting an idea where this was going but wanted it to be a lie, some sick joke.
"This isn't easy to tell you but-" Qrow started but Yang pushed his chest slightly in panic and anger.
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!" Yang yelled, tears swelling up in her eyes.
"She didn't make it…I'm sorry." Qrow finally said. Yang was frozen in terror as she heard this, choking on gasps as her face swelled with tears.
For the next hour nothing else was said, only the sound of Yang's sobbing and a few punches smashing holes in the wall from her out of anger and grief.
"WHY!? Why did it have to be her!?" Yang cried into her pillow as Qrow rubbed her back. "Why did she have to go!?"
"She was special Yang." Qrow said.
"Yeah! She was our little angel who wanted to protect everyone because me and them were weak!" Yang cried.
"That too, but she was special because of her eyes." Qrow explained. He went on to tell her how Ruby, like Summer her mom, was descended from a race of silver-eyed warriors. How they could destroy the Grimm with a flash from those eyes. He explained, despite the pain in his gut from doing so, how Ruby used her to freeze the dragon and destroy the other Grimm and Cinder, saving everyone and giving them enough time to evacuate.
"She sacrificed herself to stop Cinder, she killed all those Grimm and save us. At least if she went out, it was like a true huntress." Qrow said. Yang sniffled as she rubbed her wet nose and face with her last arm, something she thought she'd gladly give up as well to have her baby sister back.
"Not "like one" she was one. Just like mom." Yang clarified as she once more cried into her uncles chest.
Outside the door, Blake was laying her back to the wall, listening in on the explanation Qrow had given her once again. She held her hand to her mouth, desperate not to let them hear her own crying as a wave of guilt overcame her hearing this.
"I will destroy everything you love." Adam promised to so, but it was really Cinder who did so. Blake really wanted to run away and go home to her mom and dad and cry into their shoulders too, too hide from those monsters before they hurt her and her friends again. But she knew Yang would need her now more than ever, having lost more than anybody.
"It's so not fair." Blake thought bitterly. She now knew how Ruby always felt now, always feeling the weight to help everyone on her shoulders, especially friends and family. Now she was gone, cut down by this cruel world at the hands of Cinder and her former friends misdeeds. She couldn't help but feel the blood on their hands was on hers as well. They came for Beacon, and Adam and the White Fang came for her too. All there loses were her fault.
"They took Ruby from us...because of me. I-I took away our friend." Blake thought as she assumed a fetal position and cried.
Vale Memorial Hospital
It had been 2 weeks since the fall of Beacon. The hospital had been cramped with tons of injured students, whose wounds were severe even with regenerated aura helping the recovery process. It was honestly a miracle non were dead, as the media pointed out in their reports.
But Pyrrha knew it was no miracle, nor the truth, it was the work of one huntress that saved them all at the cost of her life. An innocent soul that had been eradicated to destroy the Grimm and injure the mastermind of the attack. If not for her sacrifice, many more students and even Pyrrha would have died that night.
"But the cost was too high still." Pyrrha bitterly thought as she finished her physical rehab session. Her cybernetic knee made it heavier to move so she needed to build up more leg muscle to be able to properly walk again. It had other unintended results though; she got some more abs in her thighs and more than once she caught Jaune eyeing them. She couldn't help but snicker a bit, not thinking Jaune was the leg type. But that was the sole time in the hospital she had a bit of a smile on her, something that hadn't gone unnoticed by her teammates, by her boyfriend the most. They had been pestering Pyrrha since her sessions had started to her annoyance. It was bad enough she had lost the use of her leg for a time and had to learn to walk again like a baby, she didn't need to be pitied for it, especially when she needed to do this for someone else's sake.
"Pyrrha…why don't you just take a breather?" Jaune said as he handed her a towel to wipe off her sweat, which she begrudgingly took with a huff. As she sat down in her chair groaning as she washed herself off, Nora got annoyed.
"What's with you lately!? Every time we come here to check on you, you want nothing to do with us?" Nora asked indignantly, but Pyrrha just sighed.
"I don't need distractions while I train." Pyrrha said bitterly. Nora was about to clobber her for that tone but Ren held his hand out to stop her.
"I get it hurt, being praised so long for strength, only to have this happen to you, but there's no need to rush recovery. We only wanted to make it easier for you. You're not weak for trying so hard Pyrrha but you shouldn't kill yourself adjusting to your new leg." Ren explained calmly, but recoiled at Pyrrha's glare. She knew what he was implying, her pride was more wounded than her knee, that she was training for her own sake.
"I'm not doing this because Beacon fell. I need to be stronger to make the one who killed Ruby fall ." Pyrrha said as she walked away in a huff.
Jaune and the others lowered their heads solemnly at the mention of their fallen friend. The funeral they attended a few days ago, and what happened there, was honestly still fresh in their minds.
"What Yang said must have really gotten to her huh?" Nora said sheepishly.
"I think she honestly agrees deep down, she really blamed herself for Ruby." Ren said sadly.
"It should have been me taking that heat, not Pyrrha." Jaune thought solemnly as he saw his girlfriend rub her bruised cheek, still red with a mark from another person who was mourning the loss of their friend. He couldn't actually blame either Yang or Pyrrha for being so bitter right now, he just wished rather than at themselves or each other, they directed it at Jaune himself. If he had only been stronger, more skilled, he could have helped Pyrrha and maybe beaten Cinder and prevented Ruby's sacrifice, prevented the big fight.
Patch 3 days ago.
Yang stood beside Blake and her father on the Cliffside of the island, staring at her mother's grave.
Summer Rose
Kindly I Scatter.
Yang eyed her father, noticing the bags under his bloodshot eyes, smelling he reeked of alcohol like Qrow. He clearly had been drinking the night before the funeral, not that she blamed him. She wanted to drink her pain away as well as Qrow finished carving the message on the second newly formed Tombstone beside Summer's.
Ruby Rose
A True Huntress, Like Her Mother
Yang struggled not to choke on her breath as she read the message. She was very close to collapsing into a crying fit here, the presence of her family and Blake also in mourning being the only thing stopping her.
"Ruby wouldn't want me to cry here. Ruby wouldn't want me to cry here." Yang kept repeating that thought to herself to stay strong as Blake clasped her arm and placed her head on her shoulder, crying in Yang's stead.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could have-" Blake began whispering.
"Don't. Just don't. It wasn't your fault." Yang sternly said silencing the Faunus. But Yang's eyes turned red as she soon caught gaze of someone she felt was responsible for her sister's death walking up with her team.
Qrow sighed as he took a swig of his flask, knowing hell was about to break loose when Yang saw team JNPR arrive with flowers, Pyrrha holding a crutch to keep herself up.
"You have quite the nerve showing yourself here Nikos!" Yang roared, making the gladiator and Blake recoil a bit.
"I-I'm sorry I…I just had to-" Pyrrha whimpered.
"Sorry doesn't bring my sister back!" Yang yelled.
"Yang knock it off! It's not the time." Tai lectured his daughter.
"Not the time to drink either but you two are doing it!" Yang yelled at her father and uncle who sheepishly averted their gazes. Jaune stood between Yang and Pyrrha as Blake tried to hold the former back.
"Yang please. We know your hurting, but we all miss Ruby. We just wanted to give her flowers and-" Jaune tried to calmly say but Yang shoved Blake aside and got up in his face.
"She's not even here really! It's empty like my heart because that bitch let Cinder roast my sister into nothing….wait a minute." Yang roared until she caught sight of something on Pyrrha's waist.
"Crescent Rose? You took my sisters scythe!" Yang yelled as she could no longer keep it in. She shoved Jaune aside and slugged Pyrrha in the jaw, drawing blood from her mouth as she was too scared to raise her aura.
"Now you take her weapon of all things!? You don't have any right to have it or even be here after you got my sister killed!" Yang yelled before a kick to her ribs knocked the wind out of her. Pyrrha stood up with Nora's help after wheezing from the pain in her shin. She shouldn't have used it to kick Yang but was too mad to think.
"I KNOW ALRIGHT! IT'S MY FAULT SHE'S DEAD!" Pyrrha hollered.
Yang grit her teeth as she arose from the ground, eying the gladiator and the scythe with a fury.
"You want it!? Fine keep it!" Pyrrha yelled angrily as she tossed the weapon to Ruby's grave behind Yang.
Jaune winced as he remembered that it didn't take long after that before both girls began tackling and slugging each other like kids at a playground fight. No one intervened at Qrow's request though, having seen the tears in both girls eyes. They had to get this out of the way. Jaune just couldn't help at that moment think how hard this was not just for those girls and Yang's family, but for Weiss as well, the only one who couldn't be here right now. In hindsight she might have been lucky to avoid this hell of mess Yang had made, but did deserve to mourn beside them instead of all alone in Atlas.
In Atlas right now, Weiss was busy locked in her dark room, crouched on her bed holding her legs, sobbing as she eyed a photo frame in front of her showing her with Team RWBY. It was a day they vacationed at the beach, all of them wearing new swimsuits Weiss, or really her dad, had bought for the occasion, all matching their favorite colors. She noticed Ruby's smile as the red-haired maiden hugged Weiss in the photo. Despite the annoyed expression Weiss had on the photo at the time, she rubbed her shoulders as she wished to feel the warmth of her friend just one more time. Yet here she was, confined to a cell in her own home away from home, unable to visit Patch and see Yang or Blake.
"It's so not fair! Why do they get to hug and mourn and I can't?" Weiss yelled to herself. There was no one to hear it anyway. Her parents sure didn't care about how she was feeling, considering they pulled her away to begin with without her input. She eyed the photo of her partner, the only one who ever truly understood the Heiress to a degree, one more time with intense dread before her tears blurred her vision.
"You dolt! Why did I have to let you go?" Weiss cried. She had sent Ruby up to her doom alone. She promised to be the best partner for her yet failed in the worst conceivable way.
Meanwhile,
Team JNPR exited the hospital, packed in their Beacon outfits and armor, with smiles on their faces as they saw Pyrrha smile for once as the warm sunlight blasted her face.
"Feels good to be free huh?" Jaune asked her with a grin and she nodded, flexing her newly healed leg, fit with a red brace circling her knee, showing she had gotten use to it at last.
"Indeed. Now we can finally get back to work." Pyrrha said firmly as she hailed a taxi. Jaune and his team's gazes grew serious at the declaration, remembering their mission.
A while after the fight at that horrible funeral, Qrow had shown up at the hospital where Pyrrha had been treated for her injuries, old and new courtesy of Yang. They had thought he was going to admonish her for picking a fight at his nieces memorial, yet surprised them by giving Ruby's scythe to Pyrrha.
"This will just make it harder for us to heal kid. Just take good care of it, please." Qrow said with a sad sigh.
"I will. I promise." Pyrrha said with a muffle to her voice, still healing from her locked bruised jaw. Qrow saw her firm gaze though and nodded. It was what he needed to know to convince himself of what he was originally reluctant to say next.
"Something tells me you'll be using it soon kiddo." Qrow said darkly.
"What do you mean sir?" Ren asked but Qrow groaned.
"Don't call me sir, I'm not that old. Anyway, what happened at Beacon, what Fall did to my Niece, I got word from my contacts in Vale that Haven Academy might be the next target." Qrow bitterly said making team JNPR double back.
"What!?" Nora yelled.
"You heard me. And Ozpin's still missing so he can't help them. Plus the CCT is still fucked, so I can't get in contact with Ironwood or my other friends over there, so I'm going on a trip." Qrow informed them. Jaune and Pyrrha instantly leaped towards him, getting in his face.
"Take us with you!" The couple said in unison making him chuckle.
"Sorry kids, but I work alone, plus you need to heal, all of you." Qrow said firmly. It wasn't just the danger of his semblance holding them back, it was the fact he saw they were still shaken up by Ruby's passing. Hell, he was still too but he had to press on like he knew she would.
"I just felt they had a right to know. As soon as Invincible girl here heals you should be able to handle those goons this time." Qrow chuckled.
"Don't." Pyrrha whispered catching everyone off-guard at her bitter tone.
"Excuse me?" Qrow asked her.
"Don't call me invincible girl again. If I was this would still be in her hands not mine." Pyrrha groaned as she clutched the scythe. Qrow sighed in sadness as he saw her team hug her in comfort, realizing he treaded on a sensitive matter.
"Sorry, no one is unbeatable kid, I know." Qrow sadly said as he thought of his partner summer and Ruby. "But remember it cuts both ways. You can get even stronger and use that thing to really cut that bitch Cinder when you see her again." Qrow firmly said.
Pyrrha clasped the weapon of her fallen friend in the taxi as they headed for the docks, readying herself for her trip to Haven and that fateful day. The face of her friend's killer still plagued her mind every waking moment, she knew she couldn't rest easy till she proved Qrow right.
"Mark my words. I'll make you pay for what you did to Ruby Fall." Pyrrha thought.
Meanwhile…
In a dark corner of the world where the forest were dead, the dirt in the ground was red from blood that stained it, demonic beasts howled as they felt the agony of a scarred one-armed girl with hair as black as the night sky crawling towards a black and red castle. The only thing keeping them at bay from devouring her was the pale white witch with black veins in her eyes glaring menacingly at them, frightening them into submission.
Cinder herself couldn't help but feel weak in this woman, Salem, presence despite her maiden powers. It wasn't just the fact she was out of energy flying to this dark continent hidden from the mainland, she could feel the power difference between them as she heard the chilling tone of her master.
"You've done well Fall, is what I would say if you returned in one piece rather than in pieces." Salem mockingly said. Despite Cinder's rage at the blow to her pride, which was made worse by the fact she was going to beg for medical treatment, her remaining hand trembled and reminded her of her true purpose for seeking out her master.
"W-What…hell…this?" Cinder choked. A while after that flash attack from Ruby, Cinder felt her throat rotting away like her arm and eye. She could barely speak, hell it was a miracle she could even breath still. Her breath was caught though as she opened her palm up and showed the silver eye she stole from the victor of that clash, seeing Salem's expression darken before a sadistic smirk appeared on her face.
"Interesting. Despite being in shambles, I might be able to put you back together in even better shape with this and a few extra touches." Salem sang softly as she grabbed the eyeball delicately, sensing its power. Cinder's brief smile faded as she was grabbed by the jaw with a freezing cold hand by Salem.
"But I warn you, it won't be painless." Salem said with a smile, one that paled Cinder and froze her in terror for good reason. She knew she was about to experience hell.
Author Notes
Loved the turnout for ch 1 so had to write this immediately. Next time we will have the timeskip where JNPR is training in Mistral woods preparing for battle while still reeling from fight with Yang, whom will be dealing with issues with her dad and Blake at home while still mourning Ruby. Ren will also have issues to be resolved. Also we will have Pyrrha practicing Ruby's scythe to videos like jaune did. Next time in Chapter 3: Facing your Past.