Alright, I'm back. Sorry for the long wait, but as a bonus, this chapter is a fair bit longer than the others. Still not really sure how long I want to make these on average.
Somewhere in the Tangled Shore
The hunter's shotgun cracked, and another acolyte fell dead, its head pierced by a single slug. The guardian flew backwards, leaping off of thin air and onto a high rock behind him, narrowly evading the gnashing claws of a half-dozen thrall that attacked the place he had stood a moment before. A swarm grenade flew from his fingertips, and bright orange seekers tracked their targets, found their marks, and downed them one after another in quick succession. He pulled out his pulse rifle, and it sang as a hail of bullets smashed into two more acolytes, taking aim at him. One fell, but the other was able to dive behind cover, wounded. He spun to his right, seeing a ping on his motion tracker. A knight with a cleaver was approaching him from the flank, raising its blade to tear downwards into him.
The hunter jumped backwards swiftly, then brought his rifle up and fired off a handful of shots into the thing's head. It staggered but did not fall. The guardian drew his own blade, bringing it into a blocking position as the knight swung at him. He parried the strike, then slashed upwards. The blade tore through the hulking thing's arm, and it roared in pain and anger, the cleaver it had been holding dropping to the rocks below. It brought it's other arm around and smashed it into the hunter, and he flew back a few yards and skidded to a halt. He drew his shotgun and blasted a spread of pellets into the thing, and it toppled backwards and fell off the short cliff they had been fighting beside. It was dead before it hit the ground.
A shriek sounded across the area, and the hunter whirled to face the source. A Hive wizard had emerged, and it had quite a few more acolytes and thrall with it. The flying form gestured, and a cloud of corrosive and adhesive gas started to form around the guardian. He cursed, turned, and dove forward, rolling and then dropping back off the ledge in front of him. He barely had time to reload his arsenal before a pair of thrall jumped into his vision. Quickly, he drew is knife, and buried it into one of the bony figures, square in the chest. He then ripped the knife free and slashed it across the other's face. Both fell. He looked around, then, spotting the wizard, twirled the knife in his hands. He focused, and pumped Solar Light into the blade, heating it with the power of nuclear fusion. Despite being made of some of the strongest and most heat-resistant metal around, it was quickly nearly at its melting point, and he hurled it towards his floating opponent. It flew through the distance between them in a fraction of a second, slammed into the thing's barrier, and tore straight through it, it's momentum carrying it to bury itself into the wizard's arm. It screeched and let loose a burst of cyan plasma, crackling with electric energy. Part of the volley hit the hunter's shields, and they broke. He held his sword out and charged forward in counterattack, closing the half the distance with blindingly fast speeds. A thrall lashed out towards him, and a quick strike of his weapon carved through the thing's lower torso. An acolyte in front of him raised its weapon; the sword darted upwards, and it cut through the weapon and most of the acolyte's arm. He jumped, drove his heel into the thing's face, then pushed off. It fell, and he flew straight at the Wizard, which prepared to let loose another volley of plasma.
He swung the sword, and it found its mark, biting through flesh and bone, but not before a ball of plasma the size of his fist struck him square in the chest. It burned through most of his armor, and he felt an intense and painful heat. He crashed to the ground, and rolled onto his back, retrieving the knife he had thrown from the disintegrating corpse of the wizard he had slain. An acolyte took aim at him, but he bit back the pain and lined up his rifle, squeezing off a few shots and downing the would-be sniper. Two thrall charged at him next, and he pulled out his shotgun. One pellet spread downed the first, but the second was too close. The hunter raised his left arm, and yelled out in pain as the thrall's claws sliced through armor, skin, muscle, tendon, and bone. He dragged his right hand across the thing's neck, the knife held in its grasp cutting deeply. The thing fell.
The lightbearer looked around and was relieved to see no more Hive. He holstered his knife, winced, and grabbed hold of his left arm, which hung uselessly. His Ghost appeared, scanning and repairing, working quickly to inspect and fix the damage.
"Glint," he said as his partner worked, "contact Spider. Tell him we've cleared out this area of Hive, like he asked." He gasped as he felt the sinew in his arm mesh back together. The pain faded as if it had never been cut in the first place. Glint bobbed in acknowledgement and opened a channel.
"Ah, my most efficient agent," the voice of an Eliksni sounded over his comms. "I'm glad to hear you found this task so… quick of a job. My salvage teams are out somewhere else, so you're going to bring back the spoils for me. Make sure not to take anything that is rightfully mine for yourself, or… well, you know what could happen to your Ghost. Those ontological charges may be small, but they are quite effective."
Crow gritted his teeth, but didn't say anything. He knew better than that. Glint cut the feed. "Great job, Guardian! Not even a single death that time!" His ghost sounded completely unworried and nonchalant, considering that his life had just been threatened.
"Yeah, well, there wasn't one of those huge monstrosities with the eye-beams. Those things get me almost every time." He strode forward, into the cave from which most of his targets had come. Apparently, a band of Eliksni had been smuggling golden-age tech and other desirable artifacts through here, not wanting to pay the "tax" that Spider demanded from all those bringing goods to trade and sell on his shore. They had used this cave as a hideout. It worked great in one respect; the Spider had never found them. Unfortunately for them, the Hive had, and the resulting fight had attracted some attention. The Eliksni had lost the skirmish, obviously, but their loss was the Spider's gain.
Crow hated working for the Spider. And not just because he threatened Glint all the time. He'd heard stories of the Last Safe City, and he wanted to protect people, Humans and Awoken, not work for some Fallen crime boss way out here on the edge of nowhere.
That being said, there were still some lingering… things between him and other humans. Every time he had come into contact with other Humans or Awoken out here, Lightbearer or not, they reacted badly. Sadness, confusion, or hostility were common responses; many had shot at him, and once he had even been killed. Crow had no idea why they had such a response to him, but he'd learned to keep his helmet on around the other members of humanity. It was a habit by this point.
Crow sighed and looked around the room. Caches and crates left by the now dead Fallen were scattered about. He looked in each one, then gestured to Glint. As he went, the ghost followed behind, and marked each cache of weapons and technology for transmat to the Spider's lair, looking briefly through the contents of each cache. He opened another, marked its contents for transmat, then another, and - wait. This one didn't have any weapons in it. It didn't have any sort of useful technology in it. The only thing inside it was a pile of bones.
Why is there a chest full of- Crow paused. Wait. Could it be? Glint floated over his shoulder. "Glint, is this-?"
"Yes. Yes they are. I'd advise you not to linger too long on them, guardian. Those things have gotten many people killed, or worse." His reef-made shell spun slowly.
"How did the Fallen get these?" Crow picked one of the bones up.
"Guardian, I… really wouldn't. Please."
"It couldn't possibly put us in a worse situation than the one we find ourselves in now."
"Maybe it could, maybe not. Either way, I don't think that's a risk you should take. Put it down, and let's round this stuff up."
The ghost had a point; he usually did. But Crow had to try. So, he wished. He wished that he could be free of that damn Spider. He wished that he could fight alongside heroes, like those in the stories he'd heard of the City. He wished that people would accept him, and work with him. He wished that he could go where he wanted, explore where he wished to, and use what he found for what he wanted to use it for, not give it to some mob boss. He wished that Glint could no longer have to worry about those charges in his shell.
But most of all, he wished that he could finally be able to protect people's lives, not just for someone else's profit.
He waited.
Nothing happened. Crow felt like an idiot. If these things had really worked, could really grant wishes, then no doubt the Fallen here would have used them, and they never would have been caught and killed by the Hive. Stupid.
He tossed the bone back into the pile.
Glint spoke, his voice shaking nervously. "Guardian... did you just…?"
"Yes," Crow practically snarled. "But as you can see, it didn't exactly DO anything. Now let's finish with this salvage and get back to-"
Space and time warped around them, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence.
The Island of Patch
Yang rushed forward to protect Blake. Adam was standing over her, like he had been so many times before. Subconsciously, she understood that this was a dream; that she couldn't change what had happened. But she again felt that rage well up inside of her, felt herself charge forward, and felt sharp pain in her arm. Every time, it would be the same.
Now she saw Cinder, standing over Pyrrha and Ruby. She watched, helpless, as she shot Pyrrha square in the chest with an arrow, then turned to Ruby. Yang's sister looked at her with fear in her eyes, and she could hear the girl's plea.
"Yang! Please, help m-" Cinder rammed a sword straight through her gut, cutting her cry for help short.
Ruby crumpled to the ground, blood pooling around her. She choked and sputtered, and the light in her eyes dimmed and went out. Cinder laughed menacingly in the background.
"No..."
Yang looked around. She saw herself, lying on the ground bleeding from her stump of an arm, helpless. She saw Weiss, in tears, being dragged away from the scene by her father and his SDC goons, too worn out to resist. She saw Blake's guilt consume her as she turned her back on the horrible scene and ran.
They had all failed. And none of them could deal with the consequences.
Yang Xiao Long had faced a choice. Her sister, or her partner. She had thought that it would be better to let Weiss join up with Ruby, and for her to go find Blake. But she'd chosen wrong. And she had lost everything.
Yang woke up.
Her arm was gone. Her sister was dead. And Blake had just… walked away from it all. Even Weiss had been taken back to her home in Atlas. Yang had nothing. Nothing but failure and a cybernetic arm from Atlas. A gift she was certain that she was given out of pity, and not thanks, as had been officially claimed.
She felt empty. She didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want to put on the arm that lay beside her bed, didn't want to try doing anything at all. Without her team, what was the point? Without her SISTER, what was the point?
She closed her eyes, holding back tears. She was tired, despite having just woken up. She avoided sleep as much as possible. She hadn't been conscious for most of that terrible day, but that didn't stop her mind from conjuring up horrible, false memories and throwing them at her relentlessly in her sleep. She knew they were just dreams, but that didn't make her any more comfortable with what they showed.
Yang forced herself to slip out of bed. She dressed herself, which was rather difficult with only one arm.
Of course it is, Yang thought, I don't know why I expected anything else.
Maybe it was time to actually use that arm she'd been sent. Of course it would never be the same as her old one, her real arm, but refusing to use it was getting her nowhere. She needed to recover, and get on with her life.
Yang paused. Do I really need to recover? Do I really want to? She thought, wanting to just slip back under her covers and hide. Do I really DESERVE to, after how spectacularly I failed?
She shook her head, banishing those thoughts. She had to try to get better, if only because it was what Ruby would have wanted. She may have failed her sister, but she still owed her memory enough to try.
She walked over to the arm laying on the nightstand, and picked it up. It fit onto the severed point perfectly - it had been made specially for her, after all. She moved its fingers, surprised at how responsive it felt. The feeling at the tips of her fingers were a bit muted - she couldn't seem to feel textures with them as well as she could with the other hand. That said, it was an impressive show of ingenuity that Atlas had been able to build any feeling into them at all. Yang had no idea how this piece of metal worked, but she figured that had been a difficult piece to figure out.
She curled the new hand into a fist, then unclenched it, walking over to the door and slowly pulling it open. She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where her father, Taiyang Xiao Long, was making something for breakfast. She cleared her throat, and he spun around.
"Yang! You're up! And you've tried on the new arm, I see!"
"Yeah." She crossed to the table and sat down. She put her head in her hands.
"Are you… okay?"
Yang sighed. "I'm... about as good as can be expected be right now." She looked down.
Her father placed a plate and silverware in front of her. Fried eggs. She didn't feel very hungry, but she took a bite anyways.
She couldn't resign herself to despair. She had to fixate on something, or she'd sink into depths that she wasn't sure she could return from.
What would Ruby do? What would Ruby WANT her to do? Keep on living her life, that much was obvious. But Yang felt like she had to do more than that.
The remaining members of team JNPR had set out for Haven Academy, chasing the only lead they had; the fake transcripts that had allowed Cinder and her accomplices into Beacon as students there for the Vytal Tournament. Qrow had gone to protect them; the three still weren't fully registered huntsmen, and they'd lost their strongest teammate.
Had she not been so badly injured and dejected after the battle, she may have gone with them. If she'd survived, Ruby might have gone with them too. It had been too long now; Yang had no idea where they were, or what their plans were, or if they had found anything out. She'd have to settle for the next best thing.
Or… maybe she could try for something better. Getting the team back together. It was a long shot, she knew, but if she could just get Blake and Weiss back and working with her…
She had no idea if Blake would ever come back, and she was equally clueless on how to get Weiss away from her father, or if the heiress even wanted to leave Atlas. Well, Yang thought, I can burn those bridges when I get to them.
Supposedly, Sun had gone after Blake, towards Menagerie. She could go there first, then figure out a plan to get Weiss out of Atlas. After that, she could look for JNPR and Qrow. From there… Well, she'd see the one who had destroyed Beacon, brought Vale to its knees, and killed Penny, Phyrra, and Ruby, to justice. Cinder. Yang felt the hatred boil up inside just at the thought of her.
With that, her mind was made up. She stood up and put down her utensils.
"Yang?"
"I - I have to go."
"Yang, don't be ridiculous, you just got up!" Tai stood up too at that. "What do you even hope to accomplish?"
"Reunite the team, help Qrow, and kill Cinder. Hopefully all three, in that order."
"You can't be serious! This is the first time you've been out of your room for more than a few minutes, and you already want to run off and save the world? You're not thinking straight!"
"Maybe not. But I don't see that changing for a while."
Her father crossed his arms. "Which is why you shouldn't go. Even if those were good ideas, you'd have a hard time accomplishing them. You have to-"
"Stay here? While my team is fractured? While everyone else picks up our slack?"
"Yes! You need to rest more. You deserve to."
"No I don't," Yang whispered. "I failed."
"Yang, listen to yourself. I know you're hurting. Ruby... my poor, precious girl…" Tai sat back down, tears in his eyes. "Yang, I understand what you're feeling right now. Your team's leader is dead, and the others are scattered to the winds. But you going out and getting yourself killed too isn't going to fix any of that."
Her eyes flashed red. "Anything's better than sitting here, just waiting for those monsters to make their next move. And they will, you can count on it."
"Yang, I … Please don't leave. You're all I have left."
Yang's eyes returned to their normal hue, and she walked over to him, wrapping him into a tight embrace. "You know I love you Dad," she whispered, "But I have to do this. I have to. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't. Please don't try to stop me. I'll come back alive; I promise."
She walked out of the room, leaving Tai with his head in his hands. She found Bumblebee in a shed outside, and though the bike hadn't been started up for a long while now, she was able to get it up and running. She rolled it out of the shed, mounted it, and sped off into the distance.
She knew Blake had gone to Menagerie, so she would go there first. She doubted that the Faunus there would be receptive to her, a human, arriving there alone, but she was fine with that. After all, she wasn't planning on staying for very long. She'd only be there for the amount of time it would take for her to knock some sense into her partner. From there, she'd be able to either meet up with Qrow or get Weiss back into the team. But first, she had somewhere to stop.
Yang pulled up to a pair of headstones. One for Summer, and one for Ruby. She hadn't been up here since the new addition. Crescent Rose was displayed on a stand on top of Ruby's grave. Looking at the pair, she thought back to what her father had told her: Your team's leader is dead, and the others are scattered to the winds. But you going out and getting yourself killed too isn't going to fix any of that.
The realization hit her. He wasn't just talking about her team. His team was the same. No, Yang thought, I refuse to let RWBY become the next STRQ.
Yang knelt down. "Hey sis. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. But I'm going to keep on moving, like you'd want me to. I'll keep the team together. I promise you. I don't know if you can still see me from somewhere, wherever you might be, but if you can, I'll make you proud."
She stood up, wiped away the tears that were beginning to well in her eyes, mounted her bike, and took off towards a nearby port. She had a ship to catch.
Elsewhere
Crow opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, looking up at a blue sky. "Ugh. Glint? What happened?"
The construct floated over him. "Congratulations. Your wish worked. Now we have to figure out how deep the pool of toxic sludge you've just thrown us into is."
Crow sat up quickly and looked around.
"I don't mean literally, Guardian. It's just… ugh. That was unbelievably foolish of you," Glint chastised.
"Hey, I know what dragon bones are supposed to do. Did you expect me to just-"
"Guardian, I have it on pretty good authority that your first death was related to an Ahamkara. Never touch one of those things again."
Crow's mouth snapped shut at that.
Glint's shell twisted. "I'm mad at you, but you're still my guardian, so we're in this together. I cross-referenced this place with all my records when you were out. We're not on Earth, or anywhere in the Solar System for that matter."
"Then where are we?"
"Another system? Another galaxy? Another timeline? I don't have a clue. There's a small coastal town nearby, a kilometer or two away, seemingly populated by humans."
"Do we have a sparrow?"
"Yes. Do you want it?"
"No, I'll walk. It'll give me time to think." Crow started off in the direction Glint had indicated. His first death had been from an Ahamkara? Why hadn't glint told him before? He supposed it didn't really matter right now.
The town was full of humans, so he'd keep his helmet on. He had no idea if the humans here would hold the same grudge against him as the ones back home. He doubted it, but he wasn't going to risk it. He'd taken enough risks for one day, no matter how small.
What was this place? A golden age colony? A planet that had humanoids on it somehow by coincidence, through some sort of insane convergent evolution? He had no idea. He also had no idea if there were Fallen, Hive, Cabal, or any other sorts of alien beings here, nor did he know how advanced the technology of this planet was. Were they visited by the Traveller? Did they have Guardians? Crow doubted that.
When they were about halfway to the town, Glint's voice found his ears. "Crow? I've intercepted some traffic on the local network of the town. They're… being attacked, I think."
Crow cursed and summoned his sparrow. Just his luck. The first settlement he found on this planet might be destroyed before he could have a look around. He blasted into view of the town and saw a bunch of strange black creatures streaming into it. "What are those things?"
"Called 'Grimm,' apparently. Mindless creatures attracted to negative emotions."
"Well that… sucks. Do they have Guardians here?"
"No. You get to that 'defense' thing, and don't be too flashy about it. I think we should avoid drawing undue attention to ourselves, for now at least. I'll snoop around, see what information I can find." As Glint's voice cut out, Crow leapt from his sparrow and fired a shotgun blast into the nearest grimm, a wolf-like thing standing on its hind legs. It disintegrated as the pellets ripped through its shadowy form. He rolled as he hit the ground and brought his gun up, firing off one more spread and killing another of the creatures. He toggled his shotgun's second mode and fired off a slug into a large bearlike grimm, then turned and blasted some shots off in quick succession at a few more of the things closing in on him. He drew his Go Figure and started spraying bursts of fire into the pack.
By now they had turned away from the town and were focused on him. That was good. Crow jumped backwards, firing off more bullets as he went. When the approaching swarm got too close for comfort, Crow drew his sword and started cutting through the pack in broad, sweeping strokes. He was quickly thinning their numbers, as there weren't nearly as many of them as it had initially seemed from far off. He took his shotgun back out and reloaded it as swiftly as he could, and two more shots rang out. One of the wolves got too close and jumped on top of him, but he quickly drew his knife slashed through it, killing it. He jumped to his feet and threw the knife at another one of the things, and it buried itself hilt-deep. The monster slumped and crumbled to dust.
Crow drew his pulse and dispatched the last two grimm, facing him, then looked around. Either he had killed them all, or some had run away. He wasn't sure if they had the mental capabilities to do that. Crow holstered his gun, then retrieved his knife and sheathed it. He looked around, searching for more threats. He didn't have to search for long - shortly, a massive scorpion monster emerged from a nearby treeline.
"Glint," Crow muttered, "I'm not sure that I'm gonna be able to beat this one without an excessive display of Light."
"That's fine. Just protect these people and-"
A motorcycle sped from another direction and skidded to a halt nearby.
"Hey, need some help with that Deathstalker?" A young woman with long golden hair and a cybernetic arm dismounted the bike and ran to Crow's side, and took a fighting stance next to him.
"It would be appreciated, yes." Crow raised the sword.
The scorpion rushed towards them. Crow heard a shotgun blast sound beside him, and the girl was launched towards the monster. He raised his own weapon and jumped towards it as well. A massive claw swung towards his head, and he slid under it, cutting upwards towards a joint as it passed inches above his head. The scorpion made a noise, he assumed one of anger or pain, and scuttled back a few meters. The yellow-haired girl was shooting off shotgun shots from her robot arm as well as a gauntlet that she wore on her organic one. She practically danced around, avoiding some blows and deflecting others. It was obvious she'd had extensive training.
Crow drew his own shotgun, and fired off a slug into one of the Deathstalker's eyes. It screeched and reared backwards, striking at him. He rolled out of the way quickly, then jumped towards it, using a double jump for extra momentum. He drove a knife into another one of the scorpion's eyes, then sailed over the top and slashed through its tail with his sword. The top half of it, stinger and all, fell backwards into the grass behind it.
The golden-haired girl had blasted off a few of the thing's legs, immobilizing it. She avoided one of the pincers, and jumped to stand on top of the monster, then punched downwards. Crow walked to the thing's flank and buried his sword deep inside of it. It crumpled to the ground, and started to disintegrate.
The girl jumped off of the disappearing carcass.
"That was quite the impressive display," Crow complimented her training.
"Likewise, stranger. You from around here?"
"No. You?"
"My home's a little way away from here." She paused, then smiled and held out her hand. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, by the way."
Crow didn't take it. She just stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before withdrawing her hand. "Do you… have a name?"
"People call me The Crow."
Yang got a weird look in her eyes at that. "Huh. Strange. I know a Qrow myself."
"Must be a coincidence. What business do you have here?"
"Looking for someone. Taking a ship to Menagerie." Yang looked over to the town. Crow looked too, and saw that it had a port in it.
Crow muttered under his breath. "Glint, what's 'Menagerie'?"
"Apparently there's a subspecies of humanity here called 'faunus'. They have animal characteristics, and seem to face some discrimination from humans. Menagerie is a large island to the south where a large portion of them live, according to what I've found."
They stood there for a few seconds. The girl turned to him. "You know the fight's over, right? You gonna take off that helmet?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Call it a habit. I keep it on."
"Even around people?"
"Especially around people. They generally don't react well to seeing my face." Crow paused. Why had he said that?
The girl looked at him. "Are you a faunus?"
"... Yes." It was a lie, but a good one. It gave him an alibi, and he supposed that there was probably a subset of faunus that had blue skin, in case he ever did decide to expose his face.
"Huh. Sad that people still react that way. You going to Menagerie too?"
"I wasn't. But, since you helped me out, and I've got nothing better to do, I'll go with you. If you'll have me, that is."
She narrowed her eyes at him, as if trying to search out his intentions. "I… I guess. Wasn't planning on having a tag-along."
"A lone human arriving in Menagerie may not be received well. Might be beneficial to be travelling with a non-human."
"Well, maybe. You shouldn't be doing this because you think you owe me something though - I'm sure you could have survived that deathstalker. You don't owe me anything."
"I probably could have." He definitely could have. "But that doesn't change my intentions. I'm here to help, and I'll help you if you'll have me along for the ride."
"Alright then. Strange, but I won't ask questions. Might not need the help, but I'll take it regardless." She grabbed her bike, then turned and started walking it towards the port. "There should be a ship leaving soon. They'd better give us a discount for, well, you know, saving the city and all that."
Hey. I'm not even going to pretend to commit to timing anymore. I'm too inconsistent with my schedule. Just expect about once a week, sometimes slower, sometimes faster. I'll try to write longer chapters between the times with longer waits though, I guess.
Reviews:
Rebiele: Yeah, I had the thing on that delayed the Guest comments. I'm new to this, but It should be off now.
As for ships/pairings, i'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do, but you can at least be assured that if I do decide to do anything of that nature it will be a very small part of the story. Not a major focus or anything.
HaloEmblem: We shall see.
Anyways, thank you all for getting this far. Feedback is appreciated.
