Note: Happy Labor Day to all my USA folks. I salute your labor. I don't salute how long it took to get this chapter out. I really wanted to finish it before August, but I just got a big wall of writer's block. Well, at least it's here now. My ultimate plan is to finish chapter 100 before the world maybe ends at the next election, so here's hoping that goes well. In the meantime, enjoy!
Ruby explained everything she could. She had processed the messages the best she could, and in the gaps, her reasoning was forced to take over. She suspected it didn't matter—the meaning came to her in unwanted thoughts, and they came tumbling out of her mouth without her trying. Weiss continued to hold her, keeping her steady as she had her world broken down. Ruby could feel her shaking as the harsher revelations were revealed. The truth of Y'llari, the Grail, Rosaline, the experiments done within this Vault… how the hell was she supposed to process this all? Penny just stood silently, taking all the information in and occasionally nodding along. She was more intrigued than terrified, wishing to herself that she could see the remnants of these experiments done so that she may learn what came before. As for Coco…
"No fucking way!"
She was having a moment.
"Bullshit. That can't be what really happened."
Coco stormed around the saucer, the inner fluid splashing up rapidly to keep track of her wild footsteps. She held her beret in her hands, twisting to relieve stress. She seethed and ranted, her distrust and shock mutating into something ugly. She still didn't get how Ruby understood a damn word those visions said. She heard nothing but garbled gibberish, and she almost didn't put it past Ruby to make something up. She quickly rejected that theory. Ruby was distraught enough as it was. She wasn't going to lie to them. It just made the truth harder to swallow.
"What is there to not understand?" Penny asked. "The Grail is a Fable weapon that absorbs Souls and leaves depowered shells behind. We are standing within the cradle of Humanity, and we did not even realize it."
"How can you be so calm about this?" Coco asked. "I'm just supposed to believe we're, what? A byproduct? All of Humanity is just some… side effect of some failed attempt to make a weapon."
"I wasn't aware you were religious. I can understand then how this might be shocking."
"I'm not religious. This is worse," Coco confessed. She paused, disbelieving even herself. "How the fuck does this feel even worse…"
Weiss was going through the same troubles. She had long ago rejected the Fables' divinity, but she had always held hope for something greater than herself. A belief in a higher calling was sometimes the only peace in a lifetime of abuse, and when she was younger, praying before the moon and asking it for forgiveness, she could feel comfort knowing she was watched over. All of Atlasian culture depended upon their higher purpose; even outside it, most needed some religion to function, to ward of the existential, creeping dread. Weiss could pretend that even descended from Fables, there was something special about her kind.
That dream was shattered, and with it, the horrifying implications were all she had left.
There was no purpose. No beyond. No goals or blessings. There was no natural law governing their existence. There was nothing.
She, and everyone else that had ever lived, were mistaken.
"We… we need to go."
And yet, she couldn't dwell on that. Their circumstances didn't allow her to. Ruby clawed her way out of her grip and stood up. She was still shaking as she tried to put on a brave face.
"Ruby…"
"We should leave this place. It's… it's a bad idea for us to stay here," Ruby said instinctively.
"Oh, now you think so?" Coco said with a fake laugh. "We should have never come to this death trap in the first place."
"I disagree with that assessment," Penny stated. "Though the conclusions Ruby reached are shocking, they are incredibly valuable to understanding our history."
"Well, I'm glad you got something out of it," Coco groaned.
"We all did," Penny explained. "For all of Human history, people have questioned our origins. We now have definitive proof of how we came to exist. Atlasian historians will spend centuries down here excavating and only learn a fraction of what Ruby has just uncovered for us. Do not tell me this your curiosity isn't slightly piqued?"
"Not really," Coco grunted.
"What a shame," Penny sighed. Her gaze wandered down the tunnel from where they came. To think, she had been down here for days, skirting the edge of revelation for so long, and she had no idea. If Ruby had never come along to rescue her, this entire mission would have been for nothing. Even with the Grail in her possession, she wasn't sure if she would be able to utilize it. Now, with his history unraveled, her purpose could be fulfilled. The list of favors she owed Ruby was stacked high, and she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do to repay her. Yet, Ruby wasn't interested in appeasing her fantasies. She cast Penny a stern look and forcefully shook her head.
"We are leaving," she insisted.
"With the Maiden defeated, I could—"
"No. Penny… just no."
Penny frowned. One of those favors would be paid earlier than she anticipated.
"We should… really tell the others what we found here," Weiss said shakily. "They need to know."
"And how do you think they'll handle it?" Coco asked. It wasn't so much a question as it was a challenge, one that Weiss wasn't sure could be met. Pyrrha would probably have a breakdown. Fox would likely scream. Even Blake, as right as she was in her faithlessness, couldn't have conceived something like this. They were all still concerned about Yang, worried the Maden could return and halt their escape from the Vault. Weiss's heart went out to her friends. She hoped it wouldn't overwhelm them.
She said nothing in response to Coco. The four stood in silence for another minute before continuing to the entrance. It was supposedly waiting for them in the next chamber. They hoped they would see familiar faces.
The air within the storage room was thick. It was a tighter fit than it appeared from the outside, the storage tubes packed so close together that they didn't give themselves room to breathe. Stepping inside, Velvet began to cough. She could feel the room squeezing her, the atmosphere wrapping snugly around her throat. Jaune followed nervously behind her as Fox went ahead.
"Fox, I really don't think this is a good idea," she warned, though he didn't respond. He parked himself in one of the large metal tubes along the wall. He stared at it as if he could see within. Velvet gently approached him and grabbed onto his hand, tugging it. She held herself back from seeing what was within the tube. She knew only that it would hurt her.
Jaune reservations were not as powerful. He wanted to flee as badly as anyone. The longer they spent within this haunted place, the greater risk they incurred. He wanted to reunite with the rest of his team. He wanted to see their faces again. However, as he reluctantly followed Fox and Velvet inside, his curiosity overpowered him. He looked within the tube and saw a different face.
The husk that floated within the cryo-chamber was neither Fable nor man. It was massive by any regular standard, about eight feet in length, but it was brittle and shriveled down to a nub. It roughly resembled a person in proportions, though its arms draped far down past its knees and its ribcage jutted out at an awkward angle. Its skin was stretched thin over its hollow, blue face, its eyes sunken like two black pits, the remnants of its hair only a few loose strands atop its head. It had been stripped of its clothing before being placed into the pod, though it had no sexual characteristics. Still, Jaune felt uncomfortable as his gaze wandered over it as if he was violating its slumber merely by exposing it to light. The thing slept within a vat of clear, bubbling fluid, but aside from gently bobbing in the mixture, it did not move.
Eventually, Velvet turned and saw it as well. Her face went white with fear. She saw all of them; nearly a dozen similar floating corpses, side by side, lining the wall. Surrounding her.
"What… what the hell is that?"
"Beats me," Fox mumbled.
"Is it alive? It can't be, right?" Velvet asked fearfully.
"I mean, it feels alive," Fox stated. He took a step toward the machine.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like… I think it's being kept alive in there," Fox explained.
"Hey, don't get closer!" Jaune begged. Fox stopped in his tracks and turned around.
"Come on, I'm not gonna start poking around."
"Hold on, go back," Velvet insisted. "It can't be alive. It's been thousands of years."
Fox shrugged. "Fables are gods, right? That means they're immortal."
"I don't think it works like that," Velvet shuddered, though she couldn't reject Fox's idea. This place was one of two things. It was either a tomb, and they were truly staring upon the alien burials of a species they didn't understand, or they were in some kind of preservation chamber. The thought sent a shudder up her spine. Something had wanted to keep these… people alive, but their guardians had disappeared long ago. The corpses were stuck floating indefinitely, waiting for a wake-up call that would never arrive. She imagined herself, floating in such a tube, trapped for millennia. Were they awake in there? Could… could they see them right now?
"Okay, cool. We looked around. Let's leave," Jaune insisted.
Fox wandered deeper into the room. "Hold on a second. Maybe there's more."
"More?" Velvet said, aghast. "Fox, we literally have no reason to be here. You're always like this, never knowing when to leave well enough alone."
"Is it really so bad to be curious?"
"Right now? Yes," Velvet said, crossing her arms. She shivered. Why the hell was this room so cold."This is absolutely the worst time to be curious! Our friends are waiting for us. What if they think we've died and they try leaving the Vault without us?"
"What if this place is where the Grail is?" Fox casually retorted. "Maybe it doesn't hurt to look—hey, this one is different." Fox stopped himself in front of the deepest, active cryopod. He could sense the wavering shapes within, though the specifics obviously eluded him. Velvet and Jaune begrudgingly chased him down, and it was them who noticed the change in the figure inside. The withered skin of the new corpse was lilac, the strands of its hair a milky white. What truly separated it was its clothing; unlike the others that had been disrobed before storage, whoever placed this person within their pod could not afford to wait. They wore the same outfit they did when they turned into this hideous thing: a robe of beautiful gold, its color unfaded over the cruel passage of time.
Velvet turned away sharply. "Okay. Seriously… can we go now?"
"Why is this one different?" Fox asked. He approached the pod as close as he could without touching it, tilting his head toward the figure.
"Fox, you are going to break something or worse," Velvet warned him.
"Seriously, why is this one different? Think he was important?" Fox stated. He tried waving at the figure. He didn't know what he expected, but he got absolutely nothing out of it. He smirked. "Maybe I should try waking him up?"
"Man, come on," Jaune sighed.
"Really not funny," Velvet chastised him.
"Take a joke, guys. They're harmless," Fox sighed. "They've been trapped in these things for probably forever. I don't think they could do much even if they did get out."
"Well, you can figure that out by yourself," Velvet said, frustrated. "I'm going back. This place is really freaking me out."
Jaune nodded. "Yeah, I think we should just go."
Fox groaned. "Oh please." To test his theory, he tapped his knuckles several times against the glass. "You guys are scared by a bunch of—"
A blast of hot steam suddenly struck Fox in the face.
"Fox!" Velvet cried.
Fox coughed violently, stumbling backward. The steam came from the inner locks of the cryo-chamber, and when it struck him, it was hot against his flesh. He fell, his face burning, and though Jaune tried to catch him, it was only a moment later that he began to cough as well. The steam quickly filled the room. The cryo-chamber beeped and the fluid started to drain.
"What did you do?"
The steam overwhelmed them. All three began coughing horribly as the living corpse started to tremble. It coated their throats and burned within. It clung to their skin and reeked of rotting flesh. The fluid drained so rapidly from the chamber that they barely had time to react. They didn't even understand what set it off. It was just a simple tap. It shouldn't have reacted…
Fox stumbled, trying to get back to his feet, but he tripped back into the fog. Velvet grabbed the hem of her shirt and placed it over her nose. She tried to look around, but her eyes stung when she opened them. All she could hear was the coughing, the hissing and groaning of machinery. She felt like she was going to puke.
Then, she heard something else.
"Ffhhh… fffhhhgggg…"
Velvet froze in terror. The death rattle reached into her chest, a slow, pained gurgle that filled the room. She heard Jaune and Fox go quiet as well, and the steam no longer affected them, as they refused to so much as breathe. There was a loud thud as a thing fell out of the open cryo-chamber. Its pained groans only grew louder.
She managed to open her eyes, just slightly. She saw it writhing on the floor in front of them: the great uncorpse, sunken, twitching, its hollow eyes looking around the room. For thousands of years, it had slumbered, stuck in its broken and diminished state, and now it had been unceremoniously ripped from its cocoon. It waited on the floor, not reacting to the foreign shells that had awoken it. It was maybe more terrified than they were, but Velvet didn't even consider that. She didn't think of helping the struggling, deformed creature return to its slumber. She only thought to flee.
"Hnnnhhhh… mnmmmn… ggdssssh…"
Velvet turned on her heel suddenly. It was the wrong idea.
The corpse snapped to attention. Its long arm jutted out and grabbed at her shin, tripping her. She screamed in horror, but her lungs were quickly filled by the thick steam. Fox and Jaune panicked. They fell over themselves trying to reach her. Velvet looked back in horror at the grotesque experiment crawling at her. Its sunken eyes were locked to her, its drooling mouth agape and full of dislodged teeth. It tried to scream at her, but it wasn't able to muster more than a rasp. Jaune and Fox quickly recovered and tried to pound away at the creature. Jaune bashed it with his shield, striking the creature in the face. Fox knelt by Velvet's side and stabbed at the creature's fingers with his arm blades. The tips sunk easily into the monster's flesh, cutting through bone without any resistance. The thing's fingers slipped off and Velvet slipped out of its grip. She kicked at its head as she crawled back toward the entrance. The thing recoiled in pain, staring at its discarded digits. Fox used the moment to grab Velvet and pick her up.
"Fox, let's… let's go!" Velvet pleaded. But once again, Fox didn't listen. He had let the pitiful thing out of its cage, and though it appeared it couldn't chase them, he didn't want to take chances. He was going to put it out of its misery. Jaune backed off as he approached it, blades outstretched, ready to plunge the weapons deep into its skull. Yet, the strength of the Fables was still present in the wretched disgrace. In desperation, it swatted at him with its long limb and even weakened, the blow was enough to send Fox flying across the room. He smashed into the glass at the front of the room, rebounding off it and crumbling to the floor in pain. The attack took whatever was left out of his lungs.
Jaune raised his sword, attempting to strike down the creature, but it retaliated. A sudden, wild kick struck him in his wounded shoulder, and it was all it took for his wound to reopen. He clutched the injury, his shield falling to the floor. The failure saw his weakness and lashed out again, pushing him away. It groaned in agony, looking out toward the glass, past the ones who woke it, and toward the Vault. It seemed to beg.
Then, it turned its attention back toward Velvet.
Velvet didn't have her weapons. She couldn't breathe. She could barely see. The disgusting creature lunged toward her, and in her panic, she fell. She tried desperately crawling away on her back, but the monstrosity crawled toward her, enraged, frightened, vengeful. She shuddered, surrounded by the hot steam that singed her skin and left her helpless. The failure seemed to come to life, its movements quickening, chasing her down with intense fervor. Velvet backed herself into a corner, and realizing there was nowhere left to go, she instinctively shut her eyes. Some part of her told her that she deserved this.
The remains of the Fable reached toward her, gasping—and then was silenced as Gambol Shroud pierced clean through the back of its skull.
Velvet opened her eyes as a splatter of dark, congealed blood struck her cheek. Blake stood over the wretched creature, her eyes narrow and dull, staring down at the mess Velvet and her team had created. Her sword poked through the creature's face, and all the remnants of life faded from its body. It collapsed, and with a sharp twist, Blake removed her sword from the thing's head. She cleaned off the blood without a word. She never once looked in Velvet's direction. She sheathed her sword and then left the room as the others recovered.
Fox groaned, rising to his feet as Blake marched past him. She wasn't aware that his foolishness unleashed the monster. If she had known, she wouldn't have put away her sword. She stormed down the ramp, caring little for whatever drama followed her. Fox rested the back of his hand against his back, pressing gently. The creature had more strength than he anticipated, though he was glad the problem was done with. Unfortunately for him, he faced a new adversary, as Velvet marched up to him without a single word, and before he could react, she thwacked him on top of his head.
"Ow!" Fox grunted.
"You are such an idiot," Velvet hissed. "I told you to leave that thing alone!"
"You hit me. Abuse much?"
"And you deserve so much more," Velvet scolded him, thrusting her fists by her sides in frustration. "You entirely ignored my warnings. What is wrong with you?"
"It was an accident, geez. I'm sorry."
"It'll take a lot more than sorry."
"Fine. I'm extra sorry. Happy?"
Velvet thwacked him on the head again, striking him hard with her palm. She didn't normally admit this to herself, but there was really no questioning it anymore: Fox was her least favorite teammate, and she honestly wondered what good he ever contributed to her team. She despised his stupid jokes, his carefree attitude, and his abysmal combat skills, and even after two years of teamwork, she didn't see any promise in him. If she could swap him with a member of Team RWBY or JNPR, she'd probably do it in a heartbeat. After this dumb stunt, she didn't even want to look at him. Fox reached out to her, but she swatted him away and headed out of the room.
Fox sighed, placing his hands on his hips as Jaune approached him. "That was uncalled for, right?"
Jaune didn't answer. He just smiled nervously, and with one final, disgusted glance at the corpse behind him, he left as well. Fox shook his head.
Blake didn't care about any of this. She just wanted to be gone. She hadn't waited for the others to catch up to her, leaping off the side of the ramp to escape the room quickly. She marched past the chain fences and the bold lettering, and she was actually halfway down the corridor before she heard the others finally catch up to her. She heard heavy breathing and was going to ignore it when Velvet's soft voice suddenly made her ears perk up.
"T-Thank you, Blake… for saving me."
Blake quickened her pace. She was so done with this. Velvet's footsteps hurried behind her.
"Truly, I don't know what I would have done without you. I owe you."
Blake said nothing. She passed into the next chamber, the one from which they originally came before finding their dead end. She took another path, her head hung low. And, for some fucking reason, Velvet kept talking to her.
"I… I know you don't like me very much."
No shit.
"And you didn't have to do that."
She shouldn't have.
"I also know that listening to me ramble is the last thing you want right now…"
Then why are you doing it?
"But genuinely, I… I want to do right by you. It's the least I can do. And perhaps there isn't a great way to do it, but I am going to try. I don't want us to hate each other. Well, I don't hate you, but you know what I mean. I want to sort things out between us however I can, and I promise you, I'm going to work so hard to fix this. I'm really sorry for what I've—"
Velvet wasn't sure what word set Blake off, but the assassin whipped around without a second of hesitation. She unsheathed her sword, transformed it, and Velvet jumped in fear as Blake shot a bullet near her feet. The thunder from the pistol was enough to silence the Vault, and Jaune and Fox, who Blake realized were also following behind her, froze in place as the bullet ricocheted off the metal around them. They were lucky to have not been struck, but Blake didn't even react. She cast Velvet a cold stare, and Velvet just stood there, shaking.
"I told you," Blake warned, "Don't. Fucking. Talk to me."
She lowered her weapon and continued her march. Velvet didn't move for a long time. Blake turned the corner and eventually went out of view. Jaune and Fox didn't dare move. Velvet thought about what just happened, realizing how close the bullet was to striking her. She let the shock completely wash over her. Then, she got mad.
Blake didn't feel anything when she reached the end of the corridor and saw what awaited her. Some part of her should have felt something. Recognition. Relief. But everything was muted. The room was exactly the same as she remembered it: star patterns dancing along the walls, a pristine white floor that broke at her feet, a giant, black cube in the room's center, whose function was far less prestigious than she had once assumed. And, lastly, the great doors in the front of the Vault, leading to the surface. She quickly glanced around. None of her teammates were there. Had they been swallowed by the Vault's security, or had she simply beaten them all to the punch? She wasn't sure she cared. There was the exit. She was going there.
She took a single step into the entrance room, and then Velvet opened her mouth.
"You know, I really am trying to fix this."
Blake just ignored her. She could only escalate so far if she didn't. She headed toward the exit, and Velvet decided to follow her closely with every step.
"I understand that being awful to people is your gimmick, but trying to shoot me? Really? Do you really hate me that much?"
"I didn't shoot you," Blake said quickly. "I shot at you."
"Ohhhhhh. What a meaningful difference," Velvet rolled her eyes. She followed Blake past the faded, golden statues and past the large cube, but she didn't relent. "You want to know something, Blake? You may not believe this, but I truly am sorry for what I did. Maybe that's not enough for you—"
"It isn't."
"And fine. You can hate me all you want. But this childish thing of not even speaking to me? Attacking me? You know, I have plenty right to be mad at you, too, but I don't resort to that."
"Mad at me?" Blake asked. She kept her eyes on the exit in front of her, though the temptation to turn around grew stronger by the second.
"You act like I'm the only one with an awful past, but we all know what you've done. You destroyed Beacon. That's my school. My future runs through there. And not just mine, but all of my friends. Those are our lives you endangered—oh, and that's on top of the lives you've actually ended, the people that don't get to live anymore because you decided your best way to settle a grudge."
"You don't know shit about me."
"I know plenty," Velvet snapped. "I know that you are a judgmental, hypocritical, horrible person who is using me as an outlet for all of your own self-hatred. You act like you are this mouthpiece for how to respect the Faunus, but when was the last time you ever helped your people? I have wronged the Faunus, but I have worked every day of my life to make up for the terrible things that I did. I may fail, and I know I mess up, but I really do try to help those I can. All you've ever done is complain about everyone else, and I don't think I've ever seen you go out of your way to help a Faunus in need, or literally anyone in need. You are a murderer, and a coward, and you act like you are so much better than I am, but far more than you'd like to admit, we are the same. So, you can at the very least—"
Blake parked herself in front of the exit. She cocked her head to the side. Velvet stood behind her, put off by her stillness.
"Tell me his name."
Velvet was silent. "What…"
"The Faunus you killed," Blake repeated coldly. "Tell me what his name was. Go on."
Velvet didn't respond. Blake slowly turned around. The bright floor cast strong shadows onto her face, but her golden, vicious eyes were illuminated by her hatred.
"The first person I ever killed was named Pierre Carmen," Blake said sternly. "He was a Huntsmen installed to Menagerie. I saw him beat my father to death in front of me, so I snuck into his house in the middle of the night and slit his throat. He lived alone. The second person I killed was a police officer, James Harmond. He had a family. A wife named Louise and two children: Benjamin and Ronda. My third: Marie Lockhart." She took a step closer to Velvet, seeing the sweat shimmer off her forehead. "I remember all of them. Their names. Their faces. Their lives. I carry every single one of them around with me, and I have for the past five years. And the thing is: every single one of them deserved what they got. God knows they fucking deserved it. They were all monsters, and what you call vengeance is the only justice that would have ever been delivered to them. But I still remember them. I remember what I took from them. That's my fucking burden. Your Faunus. Your first kill: what the hell was his name?"
She and Velvet both knew she didn't have an answer. Blake got right up in Velvet's face, staring down the older Huntress and making her feel as small as she should have been.
"Here's the thing, Velvet," Blake said bitterly. "I don't hate you because you killed a Faunus. It makes me furious, but that's not why I hate you. I hate you because you are selfish. You hid what you did, not because of the consequences, but because you wouldn't be able to stand how other people see you. You let a Faunus be forgotten because you couldn't bear the guilt of what you did, even silently, even if no one had to know other than you, you couldn't fucking do it. You try to act like you are a saint, but I have never tried to pretend I'm a good person. I don't siphon off daddy's money to live a dream that only benefits myself, pretending like little scraps of charity somehow make up for my mistakes. I don't have the privilege of being an activist, of pretending like I know how to fix the world anymore, because I don't. I don't know how to fix anything, but at least I will shut the fuck up and listen when someone tells me I'm wrong. You can't do that. You seek excuses. You hide from yourself as much as you hide from everyone. I hate you, because you are the person that everyone else thinks I am."
Velvet looked away from Blake's vile gaze. It was the wrong move. Blake leaned even closer, and finally allowed herself to shout.
"What's wrong? You don't got anything else to say, little bunny?"
At some point, Jaune and Fox noticed the conflict escalating, and they surrounded her, ready to pull them apart. Their faces were riddled with concern. Blake had already made the first move, and though they didn't want to attack her, they would defend who they thought was the more innocent party. Blake paid them no mind. Blake watched Velvet carefully. She watched and waited for her to make another fucking excuse, for her to abandon any attempt at reconciliation. Part of her hoped Velvet tried to defend herself. She wanted to hear the lies tumble out of her mouth with her loose teeth. After a long pause, Velvet did open her mouth, and Blake leaned even closer, daring her to say the wrong thing.
And it was interrupted by the sound of a panicked scream.
Blake's attention was turned toward one of the many Vault corridors, one that they originally ventured down when they began their cursed journey. The scream was close enough to not get silenced by the Vault's design, and Blake's ears perked up. Velvet herself froze, and even Jaune and Fox were forced to put down their defenses and wait for their guests to arrive. Blake could only see shadows moving quickly down the hall, though she recognized the cry.
"Ha! I got you right where I—ack!"
And that voice… scratchy, obnoxious, and, to her horror, strangely comforting. Blake saw the woman emerge in the distance, bursting from the shadows like a guardian angel. She seemed to fly gracefully from out of the darkness, though Blake quickly realized that she wasn't flying. She had just been thrown. Really fucking hard.
Nora sailed into the middle of the room, crossing the large reception area with ease. She crossed from the broken floorboards to the infinite white and slammed hard into the massive, cubical desk that waited in the room's center. Her sledgehammer clattered by her side. She didn't seem to notice the four standing by the entrance, and she was slow to pick herself off the ground. She had seemingly been through a lot. Her hair was disheveled and her lip was busted. A large contusion had formed on her shoulder, and she clutched her stomach, a deep injury hidden beneath. She had trouble breathing as she slowly climbed back to her feet, and yet, for some godforsaken reason, Blake noticed her toothy, maniacal grin.
"Okay," she muttered under her breath. "That was a lucky hit."
Blake heard more screams coming down the corridor. Before long, she saw Ren tumble into the light, also thrown by an unseen force. He had been trying his hardest to assist Nora, though his efforts had been for nothing. Pyrrha and Yatsu screamed from further in the corridor, unwilling to get physical. Ren slowly rose to his feet as his attacker marched into plain view—and Blake felt her heart stop when she saw her.
She was alive by only a miracle—her body functioning off of sheer adrenaline, fusing together her bones by force of will alone. Every step she took sent shockwaves up her spine, but that only pushed her harder. Her face was contorted into a vicious sneer, and her hair glowed a vibrant white. Golden aura flickered off her torso like solar emissions. Her multi-colored eyes were locked onto Nora, glowing vibrantly as they refused to break contact.
Blake heard the reactions of surprise around her. The shock. The glee, confusion, and dismay. Blake just stood there, tears welling in her eyes. She was seeing a ghost, something that shouldn't be. But the Vault wasn't playing a trick on her. Yang Xiao Long had come back from the dead… and she was fucking pissed.