Note: Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay in updating. We have a few important notes we have to get out of the way.
First of all, we had a really rough month for our mental health. We're better now, but everyone, make sure you are treating your friends well. Be open. Be communicative. Be honest. Help each other. There are a lot of shitty people and hatred in the world, and we should all strive to treat each other better.
Second: Let Us Be Your Poison just passed 90,000 views on AO3. Holy shit. That's crazy. That's one of the most RWBY stories on that platform (not counting all the porn of course. LOTS of porn). We want to thank everyone who has continued to read and support this series, and we hope to continue to grow this sequel to the same heights. Still got a long way to go, but we appreciate everyone who has commented and liked, and chatted with us. People sometimes talk shit about the RWBY FNDM, but you have all been incredibly kind and thoughtful to us in our writing, and we are very thankful.
Third: Speaking of speaking with fans... we have a Discord server now! We encourage everyone to join if you want to talk about our stories and chat with other LUBYP fans. Are there enough LUBYP fans to maintain a Discord server? We don't know! We hope so. We've been told Discord is fun, even though we have the technological capacity of a freshly deveined prawn. Thanks to The_Red_Baron for their help in setting this up for us. Link here: CjAUaGZuBQ
And lastly, RWBY Volume 9 has had some pretty fucked up stuff in it, hasn't it? Ooh, real dark stuff. Well, that's our gimmick! No one out darks us. So, uh, this chapter has some really violent shit in it. Like, maybe the most violent chapter we've ever written. So, just a warning. You'll be fine. Thanks for waiting for us. Enjoy.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck—
A bullet sailed past Yang's head; a wild shot from deep within the sprinting bodies. Yang threw herself back into the room, nearly falling to her knees as she scrambled for safety. Over the clamor of the rumbling footsteps, she heard one of the Spiders shout.
"Watch the head! They want them alive!"
Yang through the door closed and pressed her back against it, holding it firm. Within moments, she felt a gargantuan press, like an immense tidal wave slamming against her spine. She yielded, bracing herself to keep the door in place, the flimsy wood serving as the only protection from being completely overrun. Her multicolored eyes frantically scanned the room, as if an answer would materialize within the trash and disgrace. Yet, there were only bodies, the bloodied carcasses of the slain gang members, her sister, lying in the corner as she spasmed uncontrollably from her corrupted visions, and Penny, a few feet away, locked within Yang's eyesight, frozen, twitching, and screaming.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Penny's face was twisted into some abject terror, green eyes nearly bulging out of her skull, pleading for release. Her head hung at a strange angle, and her fingers seized in half-clenched form. The whining, discordant beeping was like a drill plunging into the darkest pits of her skull and rendered her helpless in a way she could only compare to the first time her father breathed new life into her. Like then, she was now formless, uncontrolled, frothing, and pathetic, a shell that didn't know how to move. Her thoughts, normally precise and smooth, were as malformed as her words, cycling through random processes to save themselves from their torment. Fly. Sword. Swallow. Kick. Mutilate. Divest. Smile. Bow. Divide. Pretend. Defect. Too much. Save. Protect. Save.
Yang could only see the outside of Penny's struggles, and even that was not enough to draw her attention with a horde slamming into her. They rammed the door again and her knees buckled, but she held her ground. Forty men pushing a weak frame was strong, but she was stronger… for now. She needed a plan. Fast. Unfortunately, Ruby could not assist her. If Ruby was there, she would have noticed the window behind the couch that, though boarded, could easily be broken through for a quick escape. Ruby also would have realized that Emerald's Scroll was the source of Penny's malfunction, and with the device just lying there on the discarded mattress, would have blasted it apart to regain an ally. Ruby also probably would have let the goons funnel through the entrance to eliminate their number advantage, or she would have retrieved the heavier fridge and used it as a barricade—or hell, maybe she would have realized that the floors were flimsy enough to blast a hole through to get to another level. Ruby would have noticed all sorts of helpful solutions.
Yang saw none of them. She merely felt the heat on her back and saw her life flashing before her eyes. So, she did what she always did when she felt pressured. She fell back on her worst habit: punching things really hard.
With a ferocious bellow, Yang pulled back from the door, planted her feet, and just as the wood caved inward, she blasted it off its hinges with a single, shotgun-infused punch.
The door flew back, crashing into its targets. Ten bodies stumbled back and collapsed into a pile, their limbs and weapons all clattering on top of each other. They writhed in pain, some trying to push the door off themselves, others lying in pain. The roar of the crowd did not cease. Yang grimaced and took the offensive. She rushed forward, leaning out the door into the hall, enough to see that many of the men had taken steps back to avoid the pile. Yang punched through the air, sending two shotgun blasts into the crowd. She didn't care who she hit or where she hit them, and the sea of bodies was so formless that when she saw spurts of blood she couldn't tell who they belonged to. She saw hands mangle falling bodies. Were they trying to pick each other up after they fell, or just trying to push themselves out of the way? Yang reared back her arm for a third blast but was forced to retreat back into the room as a machete nearly took off her head.
Yang re-entered the room with a frightened gasp. Her attacker leaped after her, vaulting over the bodies blocking the entranceway. His face was screaming mad and he swung his arms wildly, his white hoodie stained from blood and grit. He wasted no time on his assault, swinging once erratically for Yang's head. She deflected with her gauntlets, sparks flying between them. He swung again, backhanded, for her stomach, and she pulled her abs out of the way before the blade hit her. He tried kicking her, and instinctively, she countered with a kick of her own.
Yang hadn't hit another person in months. Not one of flesh anyway. She had punched Ruby a few times as Yin, and she made some light contact with Penny during their initial scuffle. And of course, she hit the Grimm as hard as she possibly could. But in the months since her personalities fused, she had yet to really hit a person. A normal, flesh-and-blood, Auraless, squishy, meaty person. She didn't know what would happen. It was sometimes hard to truly measure her strength compared to a regular person and isolated in Atlas, she was forced to internalize the extent of her powers. Some dark part of her wanted to know what would happen if she wasn't forced to hold anything back, but her imagination was stifled by another part that hoped she would never have to know. Not Yin and Yang. Simply her own better judgments battling against each other.
All this to say that Yang wasn't prepared for when she struck the man's leg with her own, parrying it with just a fraction of her fullest force. She wasn't ready to see his entire leg ripple—and his shin crack so cleanly in two that his entire lower leg bent at a thirty-degree angle, pulverized fragments of bone piercing through his skin and muscle. He collapsed in horrible pain, his screams of rage turning to cries of pity. The machete fell. He reached for his leg, and Yang stood there, feeling nothing, stunned at the raw display of her superior strength. She gazed down at her fingers, astonished by the raw power within them She wasn't allowed to process what she had done. Two more men were frantically climbing over the pile of bodies just outside the door, itself starting to stir. Yang looked down at her hands, then the groaning body of the man she just mutilated, and came to an epiphany, both foolish and inspiring.
They didn't bring enough men.
As two more SPIDERs entered the room, Yang picked up the body of the wounded gang member with ease and hurled it at the assailants. It knocked them back into the pile, and again the bodies collapsed into each other. Yang charged forward after them and jumped into the pile, bringing down two fists like mighty hammers. Whatever meat her gauntlets collided with instantly melted beneath them, and the rest of the bodies around her went flying in any direction, knocking away even more of the goons. The charging hoard held itself back from her onslaught as she rose from the pile. Blood soaked her hands. There were four men beneath her, none of them moving. Their chests, necks and arms were crushed.
The inevitability of her life as a Huntress had come. Yang Xiao Long had taken a life. She didn't have time to mourn them or herself.
A few from the crowd raised their guns toward her as she rose up in the pile of remaining bodies, hoping to take out the unsuspecting student, but she was determined to keep fighting. She rolled into the crowd, the gunfire missing her and instead riddling the corpses of whatever lay at her feet. Yang launched up from her knees and threw herself over the wall of bodies, landing on top of one of them and pounding in his face. Normally, it would be a pity to get herself surrounded, but she trusted that the SPIDERs wouldn't be stupid enough to open fire into a crowd of their own men. Surrounded by goons on all sides, Yang pushed hard against the person closest to her, sending an entire wall of men tumbling to their knees. She turned around and started swinging wildly, hitting out against whatever flesh she could. She struck two men in the face and heard their necks snap beneath her wrist from the sheer impact of her blows.
The remaining goons on the far side of the hallway, those imminently facing her wrath, turned and fled, pushing through themselves to get some space. Most of them, anyway. A set of five all ran up to her, axes and bats in hands, and she met them head-on. The first swung a bat at her head. She ducked and punched him in the chest, shattering his sternum. The second came at her with a vertical swing. She easily stepped around and exploded his liver with knuckles into his side. The third and fourth came simultaneously, more bats, more desperate, untrained swings. She caught one bat, brutalized the other goon first with a punch to blow out his knee and a follow-up into his ribs, then back to the first to slam him into the ground with an overhead swing. The fifth came with a knife. He threw three intense slashes toward her neck. Her speed matched her immense strength, and she dodged with ease. On the fourth swing, she simply grabbed his wrist and twisted, and his whole arm turned the wrong way around as the joints in his elbow dislocated.
She heard movement behind her. People rising. Trying to slip into the room.
"Oh no, you don't!"
Yang whirled around and unloaded several shells into the crowd. The bullets hit their targets. Blood sprayed into Yang's face. Those too close to her saw their limbs flying from their bodies. Others had their bones turn to mist. Each blast from her gauntlets was like a crack of thunder.
Someone grabbed her from behind, trying to pin down her arms. She reared her head backward and shattered their nose. She freed herself from his grasp, and the wounded, bloodied man stumbled backward, she kicked him with all of her might into the crowd, knocking over all on the far side like bowling pins. With a moment of ease, Yang could breathe. Forty-plus men had sprinted at her, thinking they had found an easy target among them. As she now stood in the center of the hallway, at least a third of them were dead or significantly wounded. There were bodies scattered everywhere, yet the hallway was so cramped that most ended up piled on top of one another, limbs fused together to create an unassailable mass. Those who still writhed did so beneath the bodies of their comrades. Those who had weapons had now lost them as they were sent flying away. A few smart goons, those at the back of the pack, had escaped back down the hall and were making their way out of the building, abandoning their mission. Yang wasn't even breathing heavily, and though she was covered in the blood of her enemies, she felt alive in a way she hadn't since her trials at Atlas began.
She cocked her gauntlets again and shouted down at the men around her.
"Come on, motherfuckers! Anyone want some more?"
A few did, as it turned out, but now Yang had the advantage. She stood alone amidst a field of bodies, and she could see her attackers coming. The first rose up from the ground screaming, finding a machete nearby, and charging Yang down. He took one swing at her, which she ducked before delivering two quick blows to his chest. Another to her left. She blocked his punch and his ulna broke on her gauntlets. She kicked out his knees as she staggered back, and with two broken limbs, he fell, taken out of the fight. Another came up behind her. He hesitated before throwing a punch, and Yang easily caught his attempted strike, threw him over her shoulder, and then stomped hard on his stomach.
A hammer of a gun over the sounds of groans and screams. Five o'clock. Yang spun on her heels and shot into the mess of bodies, blasting off a goon's arm before he could pull the trigger on his pistol.
Behind her. Someone picked up a sword. More wild swings. Did any of these men ever learn how to fight? One swing. Two. Three. Four. Not even close. She clapped the sides of his head and his ears ruptured. He crumpled like a doll.
Someone tried getting up to enter the apartment. Shotgun blast from her left. She put him out of his misery.
Her heartbeat was louder than the gunshot.
Two more, attacking with axes. One stumbled over his friend's body before she could swing at her. The one still standing took a swing, but Yang swept out his legs, caving in both of his knees. She grabbed the head of the second one and rammed it into the closest wall, denting the concrete.
Why the hell did Noetal think they weren't ready for this?
A gunshot flew over her head. Her eyes snapped to the left. The poor bastard was still on the ground. His hands were shaking. His aim wasn't true. Hers was.
They were a Huntress. One of the best.
Who else was coming at her? Who else was this fucking stupid? Oh, another one. Crack. Break. His arm shouldn't bend like that.
Compared to these rats, they were a fucking God.
Someone tried to tackle her. He ran straight up to her and charged into her midsection, and she just stood there, unphased by his desperate show of power. She locked her hands around his waist, hoisted him into the air, then unceremoniously dropped him on his head. There was something so satisfying about the way his head bounced off the floor…
They were a Grimm killer. No one else could stand up to them.
Another one down. Come on. Keep coming. Test her. She needed the test.
Not Penny.
Her fists kept moving on their own, striking already dead flesh.
Not Pyrrha.
She needed to make sure they were dead.
Hell, especially not that little bitch, Ruby…
And all at once, Yang's heart stopped. The hallway that was just filled with an eternal roar was now silenced, devoid of all but the meager groans of pain and suffering from those around her. The adrenaline drained from her limbs and the color faded from her face until she was pale and lifeless in the hall, surrounded by those she had hurt. They weren't coming at her again. Maybe they hadn't been coming at her for a while. She looked down at her hands again, covered in so much blood that she couldn't make out the shape of her fingernails.
These people… they were all dead? They killed them. Snuffed out. Just like that? Why… why were they here, again? Why did these people join SPIDER in the first place? Did they have loved ones? Were they going to be missed? Yang's chest became tight. No, she… she had to. They were going to kill her. She had to. It's not her fault. Not her fault at all. She didn't mean…
Those thoughts. That last one. Why was it here? Why now? No, she was over that. Over that part of herself. It couldn't be coming back. She would never hurt Ruby again. She promised. She promised everything. She couldn't. Wait. Just… just wait…
What had she done? What had they done? No. No, no, no, no. She. Not they. She. She was she, and…
Another cry. This one from within the apartment. Ruby and Penny.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Yang pushed every intrusive, horrible thought out of her mind. No time for that. No time at all. They had to get out of here. Yang lurched over the bodies of those she had slain and barreled back into the apartment. For a moment, she feared that she had let someone enter during her rampage, but the bodies were exactly as she had left them. Penny in the corner. Ruby on the floor. Theirs were the only bodies that mattered now. She first rushed to Ruby's side, kneeling down beside her and shaking her.
"Ruby? Ruby!"
She received no response. Ruby's eyes were rolled deep into the back of her head. Whatever terrible vision she was encountering would not let her go until it had finished its job. Though it was easy to get distracted, Yang noticed another sound that had been lost over her battle: the beeping of Emerald's Scroll. It was right there on the mattress next to her, and Yang wasted no time battering the Scroll with her fists until the noise ceased. Penny let out a pained gasp, and all at once she lurched forward, free from her trance.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuu…" Penny's jaw locked shut, and she stumbled briefly before standing up straight. Much of the joy was gone from her face as well. "T-Thank you, Yang. That was… uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable? No shit," Yang growled. "What the hell was that?"
"It was some kind of… huh?" Penny stopped and looked down at her right arm, the same right arm that Yang had torn off in a fight during their first meeting. While the rest of her was working fine, that arm continued to hang stiff by her side. Penny strained, but it refused to move. "That's… problematic."
"Can you move?"
"Not my arm," Penny said. "I don't know what that was."
"Okay, can you still fight?" Yang asked. Penny nodded.
"Yes, I can—" She held out her free hand, but nothing happened. She pushed it out further. Nothing.
"What's wrong?"
"My swords," Penny explained. Yang remembered the several discarded swords in the wall and on the ground. Despite Penny's best efforts, they too refused to obey her. "I think… my weapon systems are still rebooting."
"Weapon systems?" Yang asked. "Okay, what the fuck is going on with you? Just how much of you is actually a machine?"
Penny nervously averted her gaze. "Um… I…"
There was more rumbling from above. Footsteps. Yang groaned. "Screw it. We don't have time for this. I am not fighting another forty people. Can you walk?"
"Y-Yes."
"Then we are getting the hell out of here." Yang hoisted Ruby over her shoulder and hurried toward the door. She glanced back at Penny, the woman whose life she just saved, with the contempt she reserved for her enemies. "Follow me… and don't start any more fights you can't finish."
Penny wanted to argue back. Their top priority should have been going after Emerald. A Huntress never abandoned her mission, and there was still more they needed to discover. However, Yang's glare was enough to make her reconsider. She did not understand what that attack had done to her abilities or how long it would take to fully reset them. She was a far greater asset to Atlas than any document. It wasn't cowardice, she told herself. It was setting clear priorities. And, when she looked at Ruby's distressed eyes, she saw something that her original self might have recognized as guilt.
Penny meekly nodded. Yang was just surprised she knew how to frown.
Yang and Penny hurried back into the hallway, careful as they marched over the remains of their fallen attackers. Penny eyed each of them cautiously as if one would spring up for one final, desperate attack, but Yang kept her eyes forward. Protecting Ruby was her only priority. She re-entered the primary square hallway and looked over the banister. She then turned her gaze up to the darkened ceiling. She saw no one, yet, even if she heard some light footsteps from above. This was their moment. She repositioned Ruby in her arms to support the weight of her head, then with a deep breath, jumped over the ledge three stories to the ground floor. She landed with a grunt, boots leaving a heavy impact on the cheap, decayed flooring, but Ruby remained steady in her arms, unharmed. Her eyes were still rolled back, but her spasms lessened. The poor thing was suffering, and even though it was her fault for falling into Emerald's trap, Yang felt nothing but pity toward her. She couldn't let herself feel anything else.
Penny fell after her, landing more gracefully but still with discordance. Yang started to walk toward the door, but she was held up as Penny collapsed to her knees.
"Hey, we have to go."
"I'm sorry," Penny muttered. "My jets. I just need—"
"Whatever's going on, shake it off and get moving," Yang growled. "Really not the time."
"I'm sorry."
"Apologize when we're not going to die," Yang chastised her. As she saw Penny kneel in the center of the hall, she saw a faint glimmer of light shine above her. "You can't seriously—look out!"
Yang sprinted forward, and Penny was caught unaware, barely glimpsing up before the attack hit. A woman divebombed her from above, spinning down with sharpened, bladed heels, aiming toward Penny's skull, and it was only due to a last-second intervention by Yang that the blades were intercepted on a yellow titanium gauntlet. The woman rested for just a moment on the love, then kicked off, successfully deflected from her target. She flew over Yang's head and landed on her feet, flipping and cartwheeling away before finally skidding to a stop just in front of the main entrance. She glared at Yang from behind dark bangs, and the Huntress instantly realized she was dealing with a very different kind of enemy than the countless underlings she just demolished. Her white clothes were stained equally red from blood that was not her own, and she carried herself with pomp and power unbefitting the building she was forced to hide in. Her bladed heels were professionally crafted, the sign of a former Huntsmen trainee. When she spoke, Yang wasn't sure if she had ever heard someone more condescending.
"So… where do you think you're going?"
Yang heard more clatter from above and glanced up. She saw a second woman, identical to the first only dressed in a more natural red, casually strolling the thin edge of the barrier a floor above. She balanced easily on the thin edge, aided by two long claws on either wrist she used to steady herself. She walked the perimeter of the balcony before stopping above her twin sister and then leaped down to join her in front of the only exit.
"Melanie, who do these people think they are?" asked the clawed one in red.
"I don't know, Miltia, but we should teach them a lesson," said the heeled one in dirtied white.
Penny stood her ground beside Yang, clenching her one working fist. "Please, move aside. We do not wish to cause any more harm."
"Yeah. Move," Yang snarled. "Unless you want to end up like your men."
Melanie whined. "Ugh, those guys were, like, so worthless."
"How much did we pay for them?" Miltia asked.
"I don't remember. These Valians are cheap."
"Cheap and dirty."
Yang narrowed her eyes. "Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?"
"Uh… yeah. You're the RWBY Team," Melanie answered.
"And do you know who we are? We're the Malachite Twins—"
Melanie smacked her twin on the back of the head. "Oh my god, don't tell them."
"They're not gonna tell anyone—"
Melanie smacked her again. "You still don't do it. God."
"Sorry."
As the Twins bickered among themselves, Penny quietly leaned in towards Yang, whispering. "We should charge past them while they are vulnerable. I don't believe either of them is a suitable threat."
Yang, however, kept her eyes glued on the women in front of her. "Nah. Trust me on this: It's the calm ones that tend to be the most dangerous." There was something off about the twin's faces she couldn't quite put together. They were twins, yes, but it shocked Yang just how identical they looked to each other. Even with most twins, there were slight differences in their faces, their height, their hair, something. But aside from their clothes and weapons, the two sisters were perfect clones. Too perfect.
Melanie sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "So, I'm taking the blonde."
"Fine. Just don't hurt her too badly. You never leave any behind for me after."
"No promises."
And without another word, they charged. Even with her instincts, Yang was woefully unprepared for how fast Melanie came at her, and worse, how she launched a killing blow aimed directly at the exposed redhead over Yang's chest. Realizing her sister was in danger, Yang jumped back, avoiding the attack, while Miltia rushed in and cut off Penny from the other side. All at once, the two Huntresses were separated across the hall, prey isolated.
Yang flipped RWBY back over her shoulder, forced to stabilize the unconscious girl with one arm. She cocked her gauntlets and fired toward Melanie, but the SPIDER twin dodged effortlessly around the blast. Punch. Fire again. Another miss. Then another. Then, before Yang could let off a fourth shot, Melanie was on top of her, spinning around and letting loose a backheel kick toward Yang's face. Yang ducked away, but the instant Melanie's foot touched the ground, she readjusted her balance and through another spinning kick with her opposite leg. When Yang battered that away, Melanie threw more in a rapid sequence, each slash pushing Yang back further and further into the corner. Yang tried to intercept the next kick; break her leg before she could land a blow. And yet, a simple stutter step was all it took to catch Yang off-balance, and the dragon received a slash across her stomach for her efforts. The wound barely scraped through her skin, but it stung, and Melanie's rapid-fire footed onslaught showed no signs of slowing.
"Stay still, will you!" Yang growled, firing a shotgun blast directly toward Melanie's head. The criminal queen suddenly dropped down, flat on her back, arms spread gracefully as the bullets sailed over her head. She reared back her legs and kicked Yang again in the stomach, then twirled her legs and kipped up back to her feet before launching herself forward in a cartwheel kick. Her heel caught Yang in the cheek, stripping her skin. Melanie rolled through her landing and threw herself forward again, and again, and again, twisting herself into pretzels, flipping in new and extravagant ways, throwing off her feet at unexpected angles in a dancing, swirling, furious series of slashes. Yang took to blocking the attacks with her gauntlets, and soon the corner of the room was awash in a patterned set of sparks, rhythmically coming one after the other, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, all while Yang tried to hold Ruby as far away from danger as she could.
On the other end of the room, the one-handed Penny did the best she could manage. Miltia was not as fast or as violent as her twin sister, but her claws had greater reach and her fighting style was equally erratic. She hung low to the ground, almost like a panther, stalking her prey before rushing forward with quick slashes to her legs. Penny high stepped away from harm, remaining on the defensive. When she needed to, she would kick away Miltia's claws with her metal feet, and the echoes of the combating metal reached into the highest levels of the apartment complex. Penny tried her weapons. Sword. No. Net. No. Taser. No. Nothing. Why nothing? Rebooting. Seriously. Now?
Forget that. She did what she could. Penny threw her fist forward and slammed it into the ground, narrowly missing Miltia's head. The twin scuttled away like a crab, regrouping as Penny pulled her knuckles from the broken floor, loose rubble spilling from her fingers.
"What's your deal?" Miltia asked discomforted.
"I am a Huntress," Penny responded, a flash of her old cockiness returning to her. "That is my deal."
"Not what I… ugh, whatever."
Miltia grunted and rushed back into the fray, and Penny tried to prepare. She had one fist and two feet. She could work with that. Miltia bounded forward, pulling her claws across her chest before slashing outward toward Penny's head. Penny raised her arm to block and noticed with some horror that the blades, though not perfect, were able to cut an inch deep into her metal wrists. Black fluid pumped out of the open wound, and Penny drew back her hand as she felt it twitch out from under her control. Okay. No hands. She could fight with no hands. Sensing that Penny was vulnerable, Miltia again aimed for her upper body. Penny was flexible, however, and countered Miltia's attempt with a rising knee strike to the chin, knocking the twin back to the ground. Miltia groaned, and as she tried to get up, Penny took full advantage of her prone state. The cybernetic student jumped on top of her, trying to stomp on her face, but the twin rolled to the side—only to be left vulnerable when Penny kicked her hard in the mouth, breaking her lower jaw and kicking out three of her teeth.
Her scream of pain sent a shockwave through Melanie, who relented in her assault to gaze back at her sister.
"Miltia—"
Bad move. With her target finally still, Yang used the final shot loaded in Ember Celica to strike at Melanie's leg, and the limb exploded from the knee down as Yang's fist followed through. Melanie stumbled to the floor, clutching at what remained of her foot, which was now little more than loose hanging muscles flowing out of her dress, connected to her bladed heel by only a few strands of flesh. Yang breathed a sigh of relief as her assailant was vanquished. She readjusted Ruby over her shoulder and checked herself for injuries. Her slashes were little more than scratches, and though they stung like hell, it was nothing Aura couldn't fix. Penny equally sighed in relief, stepping away from Miltia as the bratty twin clutched her mouth in pain.
"That was… unpleasant," she sighed, both of her arms dangling helplessly by her side.
"Yeah. Can we get out of here now?" Yang asked hurriedly. Penny nodded. They really wanted to leave before things got even worse.
"You… you think it's over?"
And of course, things were about to get worse.
Melanie cursed at them as she rolled on the ground, holding her bleeding, stump leg. Miltia crawled over to her sister's side, and the two examined the extent of each other's injuries. Neither was in the shape to fight and yet Melanie, through her gritted teeth and pained expression, still had an air of defiance about her.
"Fuck this," Yang groaned. "Let's go."
"Wait!" Melanie called out to them. "Don't you want to see something cool?"
Yang should have just walked out the door. It was literally right there. She could escape into the cool, Valian winter night. But her fear of what was to come got the better of her, and she turned back to see what Miltia and Melanie Malachite had up their sleeve. The two twins took their fingers and touched themselves; Melanie rested her fingers on her jaw, and Miltia put her hands onto her legs, matching each other's injuries. After a second, nothing happened. Then, their flesh began to shift.
Miltia's injury reformed first. Her nose reformed straight. Her jaw snapped back into place. Three new teeth shoved themselves through her gums and back into position. Melanie's injury took longer, but Yang and Penny could see it happen in careful, graphic detail. The loose muscles entwined and grew. The bone fragments pieced themselves back together, stronger than before. Her skin rapidly developed into new, healthy layers. Within seconds, the twins' injuries had fully vanished, and they flashed each other confident smiles. Together, they jumped back up to their feet, unphased, unharmed, and most terrifyingly, pissed off. Yang and Penny merely stood there, frozen, realizing the door that was so close was still out of reach.
"So," Miltia grinned with her perfect teeth. "Round two?"
The twins charged again, only this time, their strategy had changed. They both rushed toward Penny, hoping to take out the weaker target. Yang tried to blast them away, but she realized too late that her gauntlets were empty. Melanie threw a somersault kick between the two Huntresses to separate them, and then immediately went back on the offensive with her twin. They threw everything they had at the disabled Huntress, and Penny could do little more than retreat as the twins violently staked her across the lobby. Yang, having a moment of clarity, carefully rested Ruby by the door, letting her sister slink against the floor away from danger.
"Stay here," Yang insisted, though she knew she wasn't heard. She rushed over to Penny not a moment too soon. The poor Atlasian Huntress could do little to defend herself without her weapons or her arms. She retreated when she could, dodging what she may, but it was inevitable that the wounds would begin piling up. First a significant slash to her thigh, then a claw to her hip, another claw to her arm, and then two dual kicks into her chest. Each wound caused something new to spark and some dark liquid to spill from her wounds, not blood or oil but some horrid third thing which she did not know its name. Penny stumbled back against a wall, barely able to stand, and Miltia pulled back her claws for a killing blow. She was only just stopped by Yang, who grabbed her arm and threw her far away to the other side of the lobby. She re-engaged with Melanie, her desperation becoming more apparent with each failed attack.
What the hell did they just do to each other? It had to be a healing Semblance of some kind, but she had never heard of a healing Semblance powerful enough to restore limbs. No matter. She just had to put them into the dirt for good. When Melanie threw another kick, Yang intercepted it with one hand and then slammed her elbow down into her knee, bending it backward. Melanie slumped to the floor, but her twin fought back before she could be finished off. Miltia backed Yang away with vicious claw swipes, and then quickly touched her own knee to restore her sister to her proper state. The two of them, rejuvenated, turned their attention to Yang.
Yang was strong. She was fast. Next to Pyrrha, it was arguable she was the most powerful Huntress in Beacon. But the twins were experienced, unpredictable, and seemingly indestructible. They attacked in perfect unison, luring Yang's defenses to one side while the other attacked her weak spots. More and more strikes slipped past her. The cuts in her flesh started piling up. Deep ones. Gashes. Ones that affected her movement and drew blood. Ones that made her heart work overtime. Whenever she landed a counterblow, knocked off a hand, broke a bone, or tore a ligament, no matter what, the twins would simply tap their fingers to their own form and their other would be perfectly restored. Yang didn't understand. Not until an accident. She growled and desperately swung her fist forward. She caught Melanie in the shoulder, bruising it badly, and before Miltia could react, Yang hit her hard in the shoulder as well, bruising the same area.
"Dammit! No!" Melanie gasped. Miltia stumbled backward, both twins clutching their wounded arms as the one in stained white chastised her younger sibling. "You idiot! Don't duplicate a wound!"
It was that word that did Yang in, that made her realize just how horribly hopeless her situation was. The twins' Semblances weren't for healing, not directly. They were duplicating each other's body parts, restoring copies of the other onto their own forms. It was no wonder the two of them looked so similar. How many infinite times had they copied each other's features onto themselves? How far could they push their powers of restoration? Hell, if they wanted to… could one of them bring the other back from the dead?
Yang didn't have answers to that question. She didn't have answers for anything. She was hurt and tired and bleeding far too much. Penny was uselessly stumbling by one of the other walls, bleeding whatever strange blood she had within her. And Ruby…
"Hey! All of you! Stop this!"
That voice was new. Or at least, newer. In Yang's foolishness, she had left her sister abandoned, and while she was distracted by the Malachite Twins, she forgot the one other major presence in the apartments. Her battle with the SPIDERs and the twins had left plenty of time for Emerald Sustrai to recover, find her weapons, stalk the battlefield, and wait for her moment. And waited she did, until the perfect opportunity, when the kids were playing and all was left open and vulnerable. Emerald was now there, having slunk into the lobby like a snake, and she had Ruby in a chokehold, a knife pressed against the unconscious girl's throat. Her red eyes were like poison.
The Malachites' Semblance was a problem that would go unsolved. Yang felt tears coming over her. Not like this… not again…
"Everyone… drop your weapons. Now."
Yang had no bullets. No means. No energy. No choice. She slowly raised her hands into the air and dropped to her knees. Penny, too injured to comply, simply fell onto her face. The twins smirked at each other. The battle was over, not by knockout or kill, but by the weakness of a Huntress's emotions.
Now, the real fun could begin.