Another short part. The next chapter will be released on Halloween. For no reason.
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Weiss wasn't opposed to Emerald reforming. However, she believed that it would be difficult for the former thief to change her ways entirely, considering her prior actions as a member of Cinder's faction. The heiress also believed that her new teammate would need to demonstrate genuine remorse and take responsibility for her past actions before she could 'truly' reform.
Plus, she was a bit peeved about the whole illusion tactic back at Beacon.
"So, you still haven't said what we're doing from the list," Weiss spoke up.
"We're fishing. You ever been?" Emerald asked.
"No." Weiss frowned, not entertaining the idea.
"Oh right...not that many lakes up where you came from, huh?"
"Yeah." Weiss quickly answered.
"...cooooool." Emerald responded a bit sheepishly.
...
The awkwardness was going to kill them before long if neither of them just kept going on like this.
"So, uh. Sorry about...everything." Emerald broke the ice, albeit a little clumsily.
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Are you now?"
"Yes. I had this whole heart to heart with Merc-er, the Wanderer yesterday during the storm. I can have another if you need proof."
"I don't know how to feel about you, honestly." Weiss admitted with a sigh. "I'm glad you're making an effort to change your ways, but this part of me feels like you...got off easy."
"...explain." Emerald furrowed her brow.
"How long have you spent with Salem? I mean exactly. How many years have you served under her? Ben himself said you brought up an illusion of the woman herself when he was ten."
"I've been with her since Cinder approached me and Hope, back when I was 12." Emerald said. "I didn't really do much for the first 2 years..."
"And after that?" Weiss asked.
"After that was taking on the small missions. Scouting the kingdoms, deal with small enough issues that could prove troublesome. Bandits, mercenaries..."
"So, you were a scout. When did you start the real bad stuff?" Weiss asked.
"Okay, stop. Hold on. Albedo and Neo get a free pass, but I don't?" Emerald shot back.
"They willingly surrendered. And helped us escape from Breach's pocket dimension."
"Look, I know you weren't there, but I willingly helped Oscar get away from Monstra. I helped Yang and the others get out of there before Ironwood tried some crazy plan to blow it sky high. I know he had something in mind for it, probably that bomb he threatened Mantle with."
"Did you do that to survive?" Weiss asked. "Did you do it purely out of regret for what you've done?"
"I was...scared," Emerald admitted, "because I learned the truth. We...we asked Jinn a question and she showed us what Salem was hiding from us. We saw her history, how her father kept her locked away in a tower, how she manipulated people to their deaths, even though that wasn't her intention. We saw Ozma free her...and we saw her lose him."
"You saw everything?" Weiss sounded taken aback.
"I always thought she just wanted to raze the kingdoms because they wronged her somewhere along the line. I thought she wanted to rule the world, not destroy it. I had no idea about the Gods, Ozma, their kids..." Emerald went on.
"Their kids?" Weiss asked.
"They had daughters. Four of them, and they could use magic. It wouldn't surprise me if they were the first 'Maidens.'"
"...Ozpin never told us that. Even when he's dying, he's still holding back the whole truth."
"And from there...it just clicked. I realized I wasn't helping someone get some rightly deserved justice or payback, I was helping someone with a death-wish that wanted to take the whole world with her. And Hazel...god, I can't even imagine what Hazel thought as he saw it all unfold."
Weiss was quiet now. Emerald had been sitting with that knowledge for a long while.
"And back to the whole 'joining'. I had no choice. I've been effectively homeless since YOU were being pampered in that stupid mansion of yours. If someone offers you a home in exchange for your services, that's a great deal." Emerald called her out.
"Well...now I don't have that 'stupid mansion' as you put it. It's gone, along with the rest of my home. And I don't even know if my family is still alive because of one stupid expression that Ambrosius took too literally," Weiss fumed.
"Yeah. Good for you." Emerald rolled her eyes. "I don't appreciate the accusations."
"Good for-good for me?!" Weiss yelled.
"No offense, but you really think it's such a big deal? Let's take a look at us. I was born to...I don't even know who. My parents must not have cared that much about me since all my childhood memories were on the streets. Scrounging and surviving off of scraps, pickpocketing people just to get the smallest amount of money I could for a day. When I used my Semblance for the first time, it was during a theft gone wrong. Managed to get away but without the money," Emerald just let all those inner thoughts out. Her tone might've been a bit acidic, but she was doing her damnedest to not let that completely take over the conversation.
"And now let's look at you. You knew both of your parents, and while one of them we can agree is an absolutely wretched excuse for a human being, your mom actually cared enough to get herself and you away from that bastard the earliest chance she got. Good on her, but you didn't really take that much of a hit. You kept your mansion, your wealth, cause your mom remarried. You still had the power, the status, the military even! Cause your new dad was Ironwood, if I remember right." Emerald continued on.
"And if it was possible...I'd wish I could convince my mother not to marry that...that man," Weiss growled.
"Say this much, without Jacques, you wouldn't exis-"
"I meant Ironwood."
"The...general? Why? He's clearly the better person when compared to Jacques," Emerald scoffed. And then she heard one of the fishing rods just snap in half. She turned to see that Weiss was responsible, shaking in barely contained rage.
"He was. He was a kind man, someone who understood how to be an actual father. I remember him reading stories to me before bed, stories like the one we're now stuck in the stupid sequel for. But it was all a mask. He let us see the best while hiding the worst. The Aura Transfer Device, his connection to Rex's parents and what he still decided to do to them…and then the biggest crime, the most recent."
"What...did he do?" Emerald ventured, her flippant attitude vanishing almost immediately.
"General Ironwood...the man I considered a real father was going to abandon Mantle. We stood up to him, so he declared us all enemies of the state. I was a fugitive in my own home. After we escaped the academy and hid in the city, he had the audacity to call me, to try and gaslight me and Penny into agreeing with him!"
"...okay, so we're both different degrees of fucked up." Emerald conceded. "Sorry."
"No…no I think I should be the one apologizing. What you said earlier might have come close to a crossing a line, but at the end of the day I'm the one who instigated this. All because of a grudge I've held since Beacon." Weiss sighed.
"I mean...understandable. I did try to break you down so you would be easy to take out. Albedo and Neo gave you a reason to trust them, you're right. And...I'm hoping you'll let me prove that, too," Emerald said.
"It'll take time. So, a future apology if I'm still a bit 'rough' with you."
"Feels like if anyone's gonna be rough with me, it's gonna be Ruby's uncle or your sister. Or Penny..."
Weiss closed her eyes. "I don't want to think about that right now."
"Right..." Emerald sighed, "Sorry just..."
"It's fine." Weiss quickly said, "Let's just drop it...okay?"
"Agreed," Emerald said, picking up a second rod for the one Weiss snapped in half and changing topics, "So uh...you wanna learn how to? I've tried it once or twice so, I sorta know what I'm doing,"
"I can figure it out. I'm not that backwards." Weiss scoffed.
...so that was a fucking lie.
Somehow, Weiss had managed to practically hook everything but a fish. A basket, a log, one of the ship's masts, and even a Cygnet all found themselves on the other end of the rod.
"...that was-" Emerald started.
"Don't."
Emerald chuckled. "Do you have bait on your hook?"
"No! I...I don't wanna touch the worms!" Weiss said. "Or, whatever the Ever After equivalent of those things are! They're gross!"
"Doesn't Ben regularly turn into a tiny ass frog that eats EVERYTHING?"
"THAT'S DIFFERENT!"
"How?" Emerald asked smugly.
"S-SHUT UP!" Weiss yelled.
Ruby had recovered as much as she could before she, Blake, and Max made their way to the blacksmith's forge that the Cygnet's village sported. A seemingly elderly Cygnet was the one running the place when Max wasn't around. They were still about as short as any other Cygnet, but the usually clean white coat was dirtied with little spots of soot, making the feathers around their hands and some spots around their face black.
"Hello, Xy." Max said. "We have a weapon in need of repair." Blake stepped forward, presenting the two pieces of her weapon.
Xy hummed with interest as he examined the new project.
"Such a beautiful weapon, shame someone had to tarnish it." Xy grumbled.
"He...didn't exactly respect good craftsmanship," Blake said, trying to downplay Mercury's villainy for the sake of the Afteran.
"Despicable." The Cygnet shook its head. "But a quick fix. It shouldn't take too long!"
"Would you mind if...I helped?" Ruby asked.
"Hm? Oh, not at all. It'd go faster if I had some extra hands." Xy beamed, motioning for her to follow.
Ruby nodded and followed the Cygnet into the forge.
"Done this sort of thing before, have you?" Xy asked.
"Once or twice." Ruby answered. "I wasn't all that great at it..."
"Wouldn't call it your purpose then? I'm sure you're still good at it though!" Xy encouraged, placing the broken pieces of Gambol Shroud on a small anvil, "And apologies if everything here's a little, uh, smaller than what you're used to."
Yeah, that wasn't lost on Ruby. What was a normal sized hammer for the Cygnets just seemed fit for a child's hands to a human. Still, it should be nice to get her mind off everything and focus on a hobby of her's.
You know people probably think that's all I am. A weapon-lover. No wonder Ironwood didn't trust me. Ruby narrowed her eyes in frustration. Great, the cruel jabs had returned to pester. But...no, that wasn't right. The voice in her head always referred to itself and her as separate, why would it be talking about itself here? Unless...
That wasn't the voice. That was just her. Ruby shook her head, turning to Xy, ready to help. Now, while Ruby wasn't entirely familiar with the specifics, it looked like the little Afteran was welding Gambol Shroud back together with another substance, almost like kintsugi.
"You know...I think a bit of yellow would be a nice touch for her. She and Yang, the blonde one if you saw her-" Ruby began.
"Ahhh, close are they?" Xy cut her off.
"Very."
"Say no more then. Right over there, second table, should be a crucible and something that looks like a paintbrush? Grab those for me."
"Don't need to fill the crucible or?" Ruby asked.
"What? Oh! Yes, yes. Grab the tongs there as well. Don't want a guest burning themselves here, now do we?" Xy chuckled.
"...yeah." Ruby said, looking down at the weapon.
Did they hand me back my weapon because they thought I'd be happy again to see it? So I could stop being dead weight? Not like I've been dealing with most of the crap around here. Ruby frowned.
She quickly grabbed the tongs, crucible, and paintbrush off the table as her mind swirled with more of those negative thoughts, all her's this time. She took the liberty of grabbing the crucible with the tongs and filling it up, making sure she was taking from the right vat with a quick nod of approval from Xy. Although, she did have to wonder what the paintbrush was for.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, do all of you have a weapon like this? Where'd you even get them?" the blacksmith Cygnet asked.
"...I'd rather not say." Ruby quickly answered.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Would…you mind if I got to see some of the other weapons up close then? If the craftsmanship of this is any indication-" Xy began.
"Yes. I would mind," Ruby shut the little blacksmith down.
"Ah. All ok."
"Sorry to disappoint," the hooded reaper sighed.
All I do is disappoint. No need for an apology. Ruby thought.
"I just...I have an eye for fine craftsmanship, you see. Your feline friend has this, the icy princess has that sword, and the big blonde one has those gauntlets. Before you ask, saw you when you arrived, how couldn't I?"
Ruby looked away. "That's nice."
An event like this should have been filling her with joy. She loved this stuff, but was that past tense becoming more of a reality? Ruby wasn't feeling much, except for fear, anxiety, emptiness...
Was this Salem's plan? To break her so...
She
Sh
s
...
"Are...you alright?" Xy asked, taking note of Ruby's demeanor, her body language.
Ruby didn't respond. She looked broken, like she needed to scream. Oh, God. She was playing right into Salem's plans. She was gonna end up like that guy in the Hound. She was gonna be a monster. She was going to be-
"How's it coming?" Max suddenly interrupted, snapping Ruby out of her train of thought. She quickly put on as "ok" of a face as she could before addressing him.
"Everything's going fine. About to put the pieces together," Ruby nodded. Max discreetly looked to Xy, noting that same worried expression on the Afteran's face.
"That's good, that's good." Max nodded. "...but how are you?"
"I'm fine, Max. Really." Ruby lied.
Not even Xy seemed to buy it, narrowing his eyes as the words left Ruby's mouth. Now, he was no specialist on emotions, but he knew when someone was lying. The Wanderer and Jinxy did plenty of that during their visits, but the former was more off-putting and the latter was a businessman, lying for a profit. But Ruby? This lie seemed...different.
"I'll take your word for it." Max seemingly relented.
"T-thanks." Ruby said, turning to face Xy. He could see it on her face, this shadow of shame. This heavy failure weighing her down, this burden of shouldering something far bigger.
"Let's...finish up here," Xy said, nodding towards Max, as if subtly telling Max there was more going on there. The Rusted Knight nodded back before the Cygnet and Ruby set about finishing up the repairs on the blade. Ruby gently placed the crucible of liquid metal on a table next to the anvil along with the paintbrush. In a truly Afteran line of logic, Xy took the paintbrush and dabbed it into the molten metal. The brush didn't combust, instead taking the metal to its bristles as if it was just normal paint. He then applied a coat of the liquid metal right where Mercury's blast had snapped the blade in half. With the coat applied, Xy motioned for Ruby to place the top shard on the weapon, which she did. Holding it there, Ruby watched as Xy applied a smaller, lighter trail of metal at the breakpoint.
"Almost..." Xy muttered, "Aaaaand there. Just need to cool it now."
Ruby watched on with dull eyes, like a bored student would watch a documentary in class. She felt nothing. Nothing.
It hurt.
Xy took the blade and carefully dipped it into a nearby trough of water, steam rising up as the heat boiled the water with an oddly satisfying hiss. Xy's tail began thumping against the floor, as if he was mentally counting down the seconds he needed for this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. On the tenth, he pulled the blade free and, seemingly, it was good as new. The only difference in the blade now was a single streak of golden metal where the blade was once broken.
"There we are," Xy said.
"Cool." Ruby said dully. "Let's give it back to Blake and...get back to work."
"Uh, r-right," Xy stammered a bit, handing the weapon back to Ruby.
Ruby didn't even admire the handiwork. She just put the weapon back in its sheath, and walked out. Max frowned.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Max asked once Ruby was out earshot.
"Indeed I did." Xy frowned. "That girl has a lot on her mind."
"I've heard what happened...and I can only imagine what's going on in her head," Max sighed.
"Maybe she should-" Xy began.
"No. I'm not suggesting that to her. Not only because she deserves to remain herself, but because...because she's close to my grandson."
"Remember what we've always told you, Knight. The mind may forget, but the heart always remembers."
"I want to step in." Max admitted. "I want to say more, do more but I don't think I really can. I'm still playing catch up with all of them. To them, I've been dead for a long time, and they've accepted it. I want to be a part of their lives again...but none of them are mentally right to fully grasp that."
"I'd say give them time...but with her-" Xy began.
"Ruby. Her name is Ruby."
"But with Ruby...I don't know how much longer she can go on like that."
"I know."
Blake was seated outside on a bench, answering the myriad questions that a trio of Cygnets were asking. There was the obvious repeated question of "What are you?" but she could answer that one confidently now. She was a Huntress, someone who protected those who couldn't protect themselves. That got a few "oohs" and "aahs" from the Afterans. One of them, named Bryk, asked what she protected people from. When Blake answered "monsters and bandits," another Cygnet, named Morty, asked if that made her a knight.
"Well...I guess by your definition, it does," Blake answered.
"What's the toughest monster you've ever fought?" the third Cygnet, Chortle, asked excitedly.
"A monster who thought he could control me." Blake said. "It took a lot of courage, but...I knocked him down with one hit."
"Really?! Maybe you could even take down the Jabberwalker!" Bryk gasped.
"Could you?" Morty asked.
Blake paused. "Not alone. But, with my friends...maybe?"
"You mean the one with the red cape?" Chortle asked.
"And the ones in white and yellow," Blake chuckled a bit.
"Wooooah. I bet you guys are super strong!" Morty cheered.
Ruby had to laugh at that. Blake was being nice, though, saving the unsavory details from their ears. It was a lie. It was all a lie. Everything. Every-
Ruby felt this wave of shame wash over her for getting mad at Blake. That was her friend. Her sister's girlfriend! Someone she could trust. This inner hatred shouldn't be focused on someone else, it should've been focused on Ruby. SHE was the one to blame for everything...
"Oh! Ruby!" Blake noticed her teammate's arrival, "Is it-?"
"All fixed," Ruby nodded, holding the newly repaired weapon to the Faunus. The ninja of the team got up from the bench and carefully moved past the Cygnets to take hold of her trusted blade once more, her eyes drifting to the little streak of yellow in the blade.
"You know kintsugi?"
"Well...it wasn't me. Xy did most of the work."
"But you at least helped?" Blake asked.
"Barely." Ruby sighed.
"Well, it definitely adds something special to my weapon," Blake hummed, looking at the Cygnets. "You see this weapon? It may not look all that strong, but believe me, it cuts through evil like a hot knife through butter. It's got a lot of strength in its swing."
"Where does it come from?" Morty asked.
"I built it. It's something all of the Hunters do when we're old enough. Mine's not really the most advanced, just a foldable sword at the top," Blake answered, demonstrating the blade folding atop the gun portion of her blade, "If you want something really impressive, you should see Crescent Rose."
"Crescent Rose?" Chortle asked.
"We name our weapons since they're extensions of us. Mine's Gambol Shroud and Ruby's is Crescent Rose."
"I'd...I'd rather not show it right now." Ruby said, covering herself up with her cloak. "It's a lot. And...I just don't feel like I should."
That set some alarm bells off in Blake's head. For one, Ruby loved showing off her prized weapon. With all the improvements and upgrades she's packed into that scythe, she'd gladly show it off. But she also remembered the talk she had with Yang and Weiss back at the Garden and her mind immediately jumped to the worst case scenario.
Had she just made things worse?
Ruby looked away, and the Cygnets stared.
"...her weapon must be so cool it can't be seen by our eyes. Or else it'd melt them." One Cygnet suggested.
The other Cygnets ooooh'd and Ruby snickered.
"Let's go with that," the hooded reaper said.
"Y-yeah, that's it," Blake quickly agreed, hoping to correct the mistake she might've just made, "But um, Ruby...could we-?"
"We should probably go do our next task." Ruby cut her off. "We're just doing some patrolling. Nothing...too complicated for us."
"Then, that should give us some time to talk?"
"...yeah." Ruby turned around, and began trudging down the way. Blake said goodbye to the crowd of Cygnets, and caught up to Ruby.
"So...what did you wanna talk about?" Ruby asked, tugging at her hood a bit.
"I just wanted to check in on you. You seem to have-" Blake searched for a good, neutral way to say 'depressed'. "You're walking with more weight on your shoulders."
"Can you blame me? I...keep thinking about Atlas."
"I-" Blake started before sighing, "I think we all are. About Atlas, about everyone who made it through to Vacuo..."
"Blake. Be honest. Do you think we failed?" Ruby asked.
"No. Not at all. I can think of about ten different ways we were in the right for resisting Ironwood's martial law." Blake frowned. "It was either be complicit with his crimes and try to pretend everything was good, leaving Mantle to die...or trying our best without the wide array of resources and help from Atlas."
"We're still kids." Ruby countered. "We've barely got a year and a half of huntress education underneath our wings. I don't feel like a leader. I don't feel like the face of a rebellion. I just feel like shit."
"Using rebellion might be a bit much. We weren't motivated by politics, just by what we thought was right. As for feeling like a leader, you remember what I told you in the generator shack, right? About how you inspired me? You inspired all of us and-"
"But I didn't inspire the people we needed. My message went through and what happened? Nobody answered," Ruby cut Blake off.
"...that we know of." Blake said. "We didn't make it to Vacuo but maybe there was a lot of help already there. Think about who saw the message. You're telling me that you don't think someone like Verdona saw your message and didn't immediately round up a Plumber fleet?"
"Plumber ships are some of the fastest I've ever seen. They should have made it. If she did get a fleet ready, why wasn't it there? Was it some stupid bureaucratic red tape that stopped her?"
"There's always gonna be something to bog success." Blake explained. "For the Faunus, it was corrupt lawmakers too old to compromise with. For Mantle, it was the Atlesian 1%, unable to comprehend the fact a city below them was suffering while they were thriving. And for you...it was Ironwood."
"I still don't get it. I still don't get why he thought Salem would give up. He knew about Breach, about Vilgax, and he thought with everything Salem had, she'd just stop because it's too high?!" Ruby vented.
"He was bullheaded." Blake frowned. "I...knew someone like Ironwood. Someone who wouldn't yield to anyone. He became more and more used to taking extreme measures, increasingly uncaring over who gets hurt in their pursuit of justice...and he lost sight of what he was really fighting for. It's…disappointing, to put it politely."
"But Ironwood still saw Salem as the enemy! We all wanted to keep the Staff out of her hands and NOW she has the Lamp and the Staff! She probably already talked to Ambrosius and made something to help her get...whatever Relic she's going after next! Whatever's in Vacuo probably since she still doesn't have whatever was under Beacon!"
Blake wanted to say 'one worry at a time', but she was starting to see where Ruby's apathy and frustrations were coming from. Ruby had valid concerns, and this separation from the outside world was damaging her confidence as a leader. If they were in Vacuo, Ruby's stress would have been extremely mitigated because she could SEE the results. But here...
Ruby was a mess.
Ben and Yang knew they were here to fix up the storage house and stop a golden egg from being sold off by an enterprising Cygnet or a certain shifty raccoon, but they were thinking it was a small hole in the roof. They were not expecting the egg to be the size of an actual bombshell. Yang looked up at the hole the golden goose egg had left and whistled as she saw the damage, splinters still falling from around the area.
"Ok, so...not as small as I was thinking," the blonde admitted, "Guess the first bit of business is moving...this out of here."
Ben whistled. "Yeeeeep."
The duo stared at it for a few more moments, letting silence fill the air.
Yang nudged Ben. "This is the part where you turn into Four Arms and move it."
"I would if I could, believe me." Ben said. "But...no Four Arms."
"Do you have ANY strong aliens?" Yang asked.
"Uh, well, Ultraviolent sorta counts, but that's more 'blind berserker rage' than strength." Ben frowned. "We could try moving it with that shell guy, though."
"Shell guy?" Yang repeated.
"You'll see what I mean when you see it. Not taking any chances, though. That guy's bigger than this house." Ben huffed. "Which means..."
"We gotta move it by hand," Yang finished.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeep."
Yang and Ben stared at the golden egg for another few seconds.
"This is gonna suck," the blonde brawler sighed.
"Oh, totally," Ben agreed.
"Well at least we know Jinxy or...Clyde won't be able to just take it," Yang said, "the Cygnets don't really look that strong and neither did Jinxy."
"Yeah but they probably have magic so," Ben countered.
"Oh...right. Crap, alright...well..." Yang clapped her hands and cracked her knuckles before marching up to the egg and bending down to try and lift it, "Please tell me you're on the other side."
"I am, I am," Ben confirmed, mentally preparing to lift this egg up.
"Alright, on three, okay?"
"Okay!" Ben called out.
"One...two...thre-" Yang tried to pull the egg up, and nearly threw out her back. "OOOOH. OH. Oh, I hate this."
"Out of everything down here...how has this been the closest thing to killing any of us," Ben muttered.
Yang huffed, before slumping against a wall. "Okay. Let's try rolling it out of here by pushing on one side."
"Yeah. Yeah, that should work," Ben huffed before moving around to join Yang, "On 3 again?"
"Yep. 1...2...3!" Yang shouted, pushing into the egg with everything she had.
And the egg wouldn't budge. Ben and Yang collapsed on the ground. They were fools for trying to move solid gold.
"Ok...so that didn't work," Yang huffed, "God damn it..."
Ben grunted and clamped his eyes shut. "This is not helping my crisis..." He mumbled.
"Is there...is there a guy who's not exactly strong but he can still make this easier? Like, I dunno, Lodestar or something?" Yang asked.
"I don't have him right now." Ben repeated. "Just a bunch of underdogs."
"Ok...like who? Shell guy you said but he's as big as the building so he's out and so's Ultraviolent."
"I turned into Stinkfly when I fought Mercury in the Dunes and then I turned into...I think Terraspin was the name? Big turtle guy that Albedo uses. There's Ditto, Fasttrack and uh, that's all I know, I think. Rest of the icons are just glitchy shapes."
"So uh, maybe just...hit the watch and see what happens?"
"I'm not taking that chance. Especially not with this stupid glitch." Ben shook the watch. "I could end up as Atomix and irradiate the place."
"Atomix is not an underdog," Yang deadpanned.
"Haven't pulled the nuclear option in a while. He's an underdog." Ben joked.
"Har. Har," Yang sighed, "Uh...ok. Maybe we need more than just us. Can you get Ditto?"
"...I don't wanna get crushed." Ben admitted.
"If there's enough of you to spread out the load, it could work. Besides, I'm still gonna be helping."
Ben held up the watch. "You try it. I'm scared to fiddle."
"If you insist," Yang hesitantly reached over and activated the watch. She just gave the dial a spin before stopping it and slamming down on the watch. Ben's humanoid form was replaced by a very weird one. It was short, shorter than Ditto but still taller than Grey Matter. The best way to describe it would be as if you gave sentience to a double-A battery.
"...what." Ben deadpanned.
"I should not have spun it," Yang muttered.
"Why did you spin it?!"
"Force of habit! I've always wanted to do that if I ever wore the watch!"
Ben groaned, rubbing his stubby hands across his face. "Oh, my god."
"What are you? You're...kinda cute." Yang admitted.
"I'm a Nosedeenian. Bellwood Undertown employs these guys as their generators." Ben explained. "It's another electric alien."
"How many electric aliens do you have?"
"I have no idea! Feedback, Shocksquatch, Ampfibian, this guy and who knows who else?!" Ben groaned.
Yang frowned, before looking between the golden egg and the battery alien a few dozen times. Gears were turning.
"Do you know if gold can be electro magnetized?" Yang asked.
"Pure gold? No." Ben frowned.
"But this can't be pure gold. How else is it supposed to hatch?" the blonde gently tapped the egg to emphasize her point.
"This is a fairy tale land. Nothing makes sense." Ben said.
"Just try it," Yang huffed.
Ben rolled his eyes. "If nothing happens...you owe me a smoothie and extra large chili fries when we get back."
"Deal." Yang smirked.
"Ok," Ben sighed, rubbing his hands together and working up a charge between his fingers, "Let's see...if this works!" He thrust both of his hands forward, letting lightning jump from his hands to the egg. The small bolts wrapped around the giant golden egg like ribbons.
Ben grunted as he started to try and lift the egg up. Yang held her breath, waiting for the result.
And to their shock, the egg levitated.
"I knew it!" Yang beamed.
"Huh...first time some logic's actually worked down here," Ben muttered, not even bummed that he lost out on the free smoothie. With the greatest of care, Ben hovered after the egg as he brought it out of the warehouse. With timeouts back, he moved as quickly as he could, taking the egg outside and gently placing it down. Of course, the movement did catch the eye of the would-be business-Afteran Clyde. The little Cygnet poked out from behind a building and spied the golden egg being placed down. There might not have been money in the Ever After, but there were still business opportunities!
Ben levitated it gently to the ground, and huffed. "God, even if I wasn't touching that stupid egg, I could feel the weight."
"And now, you get the easy part," Yang said, picking a nearby toolbox off a crate, "You get to make sure Clyde or Jinxy don't steal it. And if you need a bit of intimidation, just a yell away."
"And you're gonna be fixing up the hole in the roof?" Ben asked.
"As best I can, yeah. How hard can it be?"
"Don't jinx it," Ben smirked.
Yang snickered, but then she paused. She looked past Ben, a look of confusion painted across her face.
"Something wrong?" Ben asked, as he reverted back to human.
"Yeah. Do you...hear that?" Yang asked.
"Hear what?"
"It sounds like...screaming."
"Scream-" Ben began, only to be cut off by a massive crashing sound that echoed throughout the entire village. A crowd of Cygnets came rushing towards them, including Clyde, his selfish machinations put on hold for the time being. After the crash and over the panicked screams of the swan-like Afterans, a cacophony of guttural roars sounded out, roars that sounded all too familiar. Ben and Yang shared a concerned look before rushing into the fray.
If it was what they thought it was, then this entire village was in danger.