Yo! Not a ton to say here at the start. Some announcements at the end, including some stuff on the new Discord Server!
Start Chapter 24
When Yang awakens that next morning, she does so in a hotel room all on her lonesome.
They'd gotten three rooms; one for Summer, Tai, and the children, one for Raven, and one for Yang. Frankly, Yang's pretty sure the only reason that Raven hadn't bunked with the others had been that there'd simply not been enough space.
Yang, on the other hand, is the spare. The extra.
She doesn't feel quite as bad about that as she would've yesterday, given she's finally found one of them.
She'd finally found Ruby.
The thought makes her giddy, even as her stomach gurgles angrily at her for reasons unbeknownst to Yang. She staggers to the bathroom, suddenly almost overwhelmed by the feeling.
And then she proceeds to vomit into the toilet.
It takes her a moment to remember the last time this had happened. She'd been trudging along the forests of Mistral alongside Raven, and then…
Then she'd puked up a black, oily substance, the same as she has just now.
It's gross, but… she grimaces, before reaching over towards the counter of the bathroom, and taking up one of the little shampoo bottles. She empties it into the sink, then looks away as she scoops a bit of her own vomit – eugh – into the bottle, before sealing it.
She then washes her hands not once, not twice, but three times. Even then, she still feels unclean.
Still, this has happened twice now. The first time, she'd been willing to write it off as an odd one-off thing, but this time, well…
She doesn't like it. She doesn't like it at all.
She's okay with going through something disgusting if it means she can have answers.
She cleans off the outside of the bottle, before placing it on the counter and taking a shower. She still doesn't feel entirely clean after getting out, but it's better than it had been, at least. She breathes unevenly as she washes her shorter hair, feeling on edge what with the sudden reappearance of that odd, black substance.
She exits out of her hotel room some twenty minutes later with the black liquid in her pocket, and finds Raven waiting for her.
"Yo." She remarks, and Raven nods back at her.
"Your aura fluctuated."
Yang's brow furrows. "What?"
"I mean that earlier, your aura briefly blipped. I felt it across the link via my semblance," Raven explains. "I came to check in on you, but your aura stabilized after that."
Her aura had… dipped? Noticeably enough that Raven of all people had come to check in on her?
That…
Yang purses her lips, debating whether or not to tell Raven about the black vomit she'd expelled yet again.
But when she thinks about it… aside from Ruby, Raven is likely her only real ally in this world at the moment. Even if she still carries a bit of… hesitation towards trusting her birth mother.
"You remember when I threw up when you and I were making our way to Mistral, eight or nine months back?"
Raven nods her head, but her expression darkens. "I do. Did it happen again?"
"Yeah," She sighs out. "And I don't have any clue why."
"You didn't do anything to upset your stomach?"
"Aside from get excited about Ruby? No. It's… random, or at least it feels like it."
Raven grunts out under her breath, seemingly also trying to think about this. "What do you want to do?"
"Well, I dredged some of it up." Yang shows Raven the bottle of gross, oil liquid. "Figured I could at least get it looked at."
Raven nods her head grimly. "We can walk down to the urgent care near here. I'll show you the way."
Yang nods, before realizing that there's something a bit odd about that. "You know your way around Atlas?"
"You really think this is my first time here?" Raven turns to look at Yang out of the corner of her eye as they walk over to Summer's room, and she knocks on the door. "We were Ozpin's problem solvers. We got sent just about anywhere there was a problem, and let me tell you that Atlas was no exception."
"Didn't you get pregnant when you were like…" Yang does some mental math. "How old even are you?"
"Twenty-five."
Yang snorts at the obvious lie. "Yeah, okay."
Raven flips her off, but then quickly retracts the offending finger as the door to Summer's room opens, and a sleepy Yang is there to greet them.
"H'lo." She yawns out. "Did you guys need mom and dad?"
"Not really." Raven answers her, and though Yang is heavily amused at how soft Raven's voice is towards mini-her these days, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to ruin the vibe. "When they wake up, just let them know that Big Yang and I are going out, alright?"
Yang doesn't really like that her name is Big Yang, but given it's just about the only thing they've got in terms of descriptors…
"Okay." Mini-Yang smiles up at her, before leaning forward and hugging Raven. "Have a good day, auntie Raven!"
Raven's lip quivers for a moment, before she reigns herself in. "Thank you. You as well."
The moment the door shuts on them, Raven's turning away, and trudging down the hallway towards the stairs. Yang isn't sure if she's supposed to stay silent, or say something, but for once, she gets the feeling that being her usual self – aka poking at her mother with needling words – would be a not so good idea.
Raven's been… different these past few months. Of course, anyone would show some differences going from living amongst bandits, killers and thieves to having a normal, healthy homelife, but still…
She's soft, now, as much as she tries to pretend that she's not.
"Where to?" Yang decides to break the ice, and Raven snaps out of her own head, seemingly having been lost in thought.
"We're headed west. It's within walking distance."
Yang nods her head, and allows Raven to guide them.
The city of Atlas is, as one might guess, a rather populated place. There are several major districts, with the one that Team RWBY had spent the most time in being the military district, where Atlas Academy, alongside Atlas HQ, had been located.
Currently, they're set up in a much broader district. If Yang had to name it, she'd probably call it the civilian district.
There's a bit of everything here; as high-class as it all is compared to somewhere like Vale. Atlas is pretty much a perpetual rich neighborhood. There are grand mansions dotting every street, bougee hotels, and stores that have their products marked up nearly three to four times what they'd be worth anywhere else, just because they're a part of certain 'luxury brands'.
It's all status to these people, and just from being here a few days, Yang's already starting to figure out how they'd gotten Weiss as they did when they'd first met her at Beacon.
They travel for a few minutes before arriving at the urgent care, and Yang tells them what's been happening. When she mentions that her vomit had been black, the woman examining her pales, and quickly rushes her into the exam room to be checked.
Yang's a bit worried at first, and a bit concerned when they start testing her in about seventy different ways, up until the woman, thirty or so minutes later, comes back with some rather bewildering results.
"Nothing?"
"As far as I can tell," the woman shakes her head, clearly doubting the validity of her own findings. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. Normally, black vomit is a sign of internal bleeding, and is a major problem; potentially life threatening. But… well, the solution you gave to us is… odd."
"In what way?"
"If anything, I'd say it compares more closely to something like necrotic tissue than anything else I might normally expect. Except for the fact that, like I said, there's nothing really wrong with you, as far as we can tell based on the tests we've run."
And they'd run some tests, to put it bluntly. Put things in places that Yang had never ever wanted things.
"This might be related to your lifestyle as a Huntress, perhaps? You might've been injured in a way that affected you internally, led to some internal bleeding, which your body then healed up thanks to your aura."
"I haven't taken any hits recently. I've basically been out of the job as of late."
"Then I've no idea." The woman admitted, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I'll transfer you to another hospital on a recommendation if you'd like, but–"
"No, no, it's fine." Yang shakes her head. "If you don't see anything wrong with me, then I'm game to keep going. I had this happen a few months ago, too."
"You did?" The woman seems more intrigued now. "So, this wasn't an isolated incident?"
"No."
"That's troubling. I'll ask that if you can afford to, take the records the receptionist will hand to you to your local practitioner, and have them monitor your overall health over the course of the next few months. Make sure nothing's wrong that I missed."
Yang nods her head, and she and Raven exit the clinic around twenty minutes later. All in all, they'd been there about two hours
And Yang's mind is moving at a mile a minute.
"What do you make of that?"
"Almost nothing." Raven grunts out. "But if you ask me? You travelling through time and suddenly having these weird phenomena happening to you? I doubt they're unrelated."
"Yeah…" Yang mutters.
"I wish I could disagree."
/
Weiss awakens that next morning to a pressure on her chest, which is odd.
She opens her eyes, and nearly has a heart attack when she sees Neo – or Trivia, she should say – sleeping on top of her stomach, with her arms wrapped around Weiss' body. She covers her mouth just in time to stifle the yelp she'd been about to let out, but unfortunately, it's not enough to keep Trivia from waking up.
The girl looks up at her blearily as she blinks her eyes rapidly, trying to fight against the sleep that's threatening to overtake her once more.
"What are you doing here!?" She hisses out, looking to her side at the bed that Trivia had supposed to be sleeping in. "You're…" She takes a breath, calming her rapidly-beating heart. "You scared me. I apologize."
Trivia's eyes briefly widen, before they sink in on themselves, and she pushes herself up and off of Weiss' chest. Immediately, Weiss recognizes her mistake, but when she goes to reach out to Trivia, she's already gotten off of the bed, and plodded her way back over to her own.
Weiss bites down on her bottom lip, feeling like a horrible person. She's done that twice now, gone a bit too harsh onto Trivia.
It's… it's not Trivia's fault that she's clingy, and a bit odd. It's also not expressly Weiss' fault that she's jumpy whenever the girl is clingy, and a bit odd when around her.
Neo has done some rather frightening things to all of them.
"Trivia," Weiss calls out to her, forgoing her own sleep to make sure the girl doesn't take what she'd said too hard. She doesn't want her to think that Weiss finds her scary. "I didn't mean that you were scary. I meant only that I hadn't expected you to be laying on top of me. You surprised me is all."
Trivia looks back at her with what seems to be doubt upon her features, and Weiss bites down on the inside of her cheek.
"Are you okay, Trivia?"
The girl takes a moment, but she nods her head. It's… not the most convincing motion in the world.
"It's okay if you're not. You don't have to lie."
This time, Trivia nods a bit more fervently, before seemingly growing frustrated, and reaching over towards the nightstand beside her bed. She draws her notepad that Qrow had bought her from off of it, turns on the light beside her – which briefly causes Weiss to squint, having grown quite used to the dark – and begins to scribble something out.
It takes her thirty or so seconds to write down the full thought she wants to communicate. Thirty seconds where anyone else would have been able to have a full back and forth already. Weiss has only been around Trivia for a few days, but she can already tell that such drives the girl crazy.
Because she's a talker; Trivia. Despite the fact that she can't actually speak, she has so much to say. She's just been forced to play the quiet, demure, innocent maiden by her mother and father for their sakes for years, and she's clearly aching for some form of connection.
And it makes Weiss sick.
Neo turns the notepad, and let's Weiss read.
'I'm okay. I just thought that' the next few words are crossed out several times, to the point of being entirely unreadable. 'I was cold.'
It's clearly a lie. Or a half-truth. Weiss feels even worse at having woken the girl up, and made her feel like she hadn't wanted her.
"Okay," She pretends like she believes Trivia. "And…" She debates whether or not she should say what she's planning on saying. Eventually, she just goes for it. "Is that the only reason you came over to sleep with me?"
Trivia's eyes widen, and though Weiss does feel bad, she isn't quite willing to back off here. She wants to know the truth. And she hopes that Trivia will be willing to tell it to her.
She looks down at the notepad in her hand, and places her pen against it a few times. Eventually, she starts to write. It doesn't take her as long this time.
She's nervous about showing Weiss what's written on the paper, however. Weiss is curious, but she's not going to rush her. Not after everything.
Trivia looks away, even as she thrusts the notepad into Weiss' stomach, almost knocking the wind out of her.
Weiss takes up the notepad, and reads from it again.
'I never got to sleep with mom or dad. They never wanted me to.'
Weiss' heart breaks just a little, then. She manages to keep her emotions in check, not showing how much that hurts her to read.
Because she knows.
She knows what that feels like.
Weiss had not gone to school as a child. She'd instead been tutored by some of the very best minds in Atlas, taught everything she'd ever need to know about things such as business, etiquette, and how best to support her older sister. Eventually, when Winter had given up the title of Heiress, Weiss' lessons had shifted away from supportive aspects, and begun to focus more on leadership.
Weiss hadn't hated any of her teachers. They had always been the very best at what they'd done, and that meant that they'd not just known how to teach their material, but how to keep a student engaged with the material as well.
But even so…
Weiss had never really known warmth.
The mansion she had spent almost every waking moment of her life in had always been too cold for her liking. It had always failed to provide Weiss what she really needed.
The maids, the butlers; Klein and, during the early days, Winter… they'd tried their best to give her an actual home life, but the truth of the matter had always been that Weiss hadn't had a family. Even her older sister had begun to take out her frustrations with the company, and their parents, onto Weiss as she'd grown into a teenager.
Looking back, she understands that it's not fair to blame Winter for that. She'd gone through a fairly similar period when she'd first gone to Beacon.
And yet… it's not like it had been Weiss' fault, either.
They'd taught her everything she'd ever need to know regarding the SDC, and her role in it. But they hadn't given her the one thing that humans so desperately required.
Interaction. Stimulation.
Love.
It sounds corny, but science had come to understand more about the human mind, and condition. Things like skin-to-skin contact, hugs, kisses, warmth… these things are important to a humans' survival. A baby can't truly grow without receiving love, affection, and warmth.
She'd had nannies, and maids, and butlers. People who'd been there for her. They'd been there, and they'd been present, and attentive, and tried their best…
But she'd also lost just about all of them over the years. Whether that was in the form of people who'd decided to get jobs elsewhere, or people who'd been fired from the manse, or even a few people who'd been killed in the attack that had taken a few of Weiss' aunts and uncles, curtesy of the White Fang.
From her family, her real family, though…
Weiss is fairly sure she can count the number of any of those things – signs of affection – she'd ever received as a child from them on one hand.
So…
She understands just how damaging a lack of them truly is.
"I see." She murmurs, and she watches as Trivia looks down at the floor below her, not meeting Weiss' eyes.
…
"If you'd like…" She swallows her fears, and her hesitations. If there's one thing Weiss had told herself so very often as a young woman… it's that she would be different.
If she has children one day… then no matter how busy she might be, no matter how hectic her life may become…
"We could sleep together?"
She won't be like them.
She won't be like her own family.
Trivia looks up with such naked hope that Weiss again has to bite down on the urge to sob right away. She nods her head slowly, almost hesitant, despite how much she clearly does want to.
"Alright, well… bring your pillows and blankets over."
Trivia nods her head, even as she turns around, grabs the items Weiss had been talking about, and then scuttles over as Weiss lays back down in her own bed. She hesitates, before climbing in beside Weiss.
Trivia's rather meticulous, it turns out, about setting her pillows up just so, and then fidgeting to get them in place correctly. She does this several times, until, eventually, she's seemingly satisfied. She looks over at Weiss, then, and…
Her eyes, normally pink and brown, go white. Weiss hasn't seen it before, but…
It feels like vulnerability from the normally unflappable Neopolitan. Vulnerability – or perhaps honesty – from a girl who just wants to be loved.
Weiss won't spit on that. She doesn't know how anyone could.
She opens her blanket somewhat, so that Trivia can snuggle into her if she wants. She won't force her, or even say anything to lead her believe she has to. She just wants Trivia to know the option exists.
It takes the girl a moment to really drink in the offer, but slowly, steadily, she adjusts herself so that she's within Weiss' reach. She doesn't move any further.
Weiss isn't quite sure what to do.
Should she reach over, and take hold of her? Should she try and offer comfort? Or should she believe that this is as far as Trivia wants her to take things?
She doesn't know.
But…
She thinks about her own time as a child. How afraid she'd always been of her father, and mother. How that fear had almost extended to Winter on occasion.
She thinks that, if any of them had ever reached out to her…
She might've thought it a trap, and given them an opportunity to prove it hadn't been one.
So…
She slowly, carefully, reaches towards Trivia, giving her all the chance in the world to pull away if she wants to.
She doesn't.
And eventually, Weiss' arms settle around Trivia's body. She hesitates for just a moment before pulling the girl in closer.
She hears Trivia's breaths momentarily stutters, and thinks she's made a mistake, but then… then she settles in, and leans back into Weiss' hold.
She looks up, directly into Weiss' eyes, and there are tears in her own. She smiles, but it's a weak thing, before she leans forward, and presses her wet face into Weiss' chest.
And that's where they lay for a long time after. Weiss' dares not make a move. It's not until five minutes later when Trivia's breaths begin to even out that Weiss realizes the girl has fallen asleep.
Weiss looks down at her, only able to see the top of Trivia's head, but…
She sees the young girl looking so very small, so very trusting.
And Weiss decides in that moment that she'll protect this girl, no matter what.
She won't let anyone make her hurt again. Not when she's put such faith in her. She refuses.
And if she sees herself in Trivia…
Well, that's neither here nor there.
/
They touch down in Mantle to little fanfare, and Jaune takes a moment to get his bearings.
Things are… well, they're a lot better off than they'd been when Jaune had last been there, which is somewhat humorous, given that everyone is currently up in arms about the state of Atlas, and how it has, apparently, gone to the dogs.
But things actually seem much more hopeful than they had when last Jaune had been in Mantle.
The people walk around with life in their eyes. The walls guarding them from the Grimm beyond their borders seem maintained, at least somewhat, and are roamed by guardsmen. The heaters are much newer, and haven't been allowed to slip in terms of overall effectiveness. If anything, Jaune would say he actually feels warm.
Of course, that warmth leaves him when he looks over, and sees Tyrian strolling along beside him without a care in the world.
"What's the plan?" Jaune asks, knowing the man likely has one.
"Well, we've got to get up there," Tyrian points up at Atlas, hanging above them in the sky. "Or perhaps, more specifically, up there."
This time, he's pointing at Amity Colosseum, where the Vytal Festival is held. Jaune feels his stomach drop as he looks up at it.
They have… well, not so great history with Amity.
Pretty much everything they've ever tried to do in and around Amity has failed.
But those are thoughts for another day.
"And how are we going about that?"
"Well," Tyrian walks so animatedly that several people passing by them have to give his arms, wildly swinging, a wide berth in order to not be knocked over. "We could always commandeer a bullhead and crash it up top, stick with the classics,"
"I get the feeling they'd suspect something was up," Jaune rolls his eyes. "Any other brilliant ideas?"
Tyrian laughs. "Oh, several. But you don't seem like you'd like most of them, and unfortunately, my goddess has informed me to try and keep you relatively calm during this expedition."
Jaune's brow furrows. Salem had told Tyrian that? Why?
Is she trying to actually convert him to her side, instead of simply keeping him there by force?
Or is Tyrian just fucking with him? That's just about as likely, to be honest.
"Well, actually," Jaune's remembering back to what Weiss had told him about how they'd gotten into Atlas. "I do have a way in. As uncomfortable as it might be."
He informs Tyrian of his plan – aka to use the same method Ruby and the others had used to get up to Atlas while they'd been there – and expects the man to balk, or laugh. Tyrian is, annoyingly, completely down to recreate the plan, and even seems excited.
Which is to say that they're going to be loading themselves into pneumatic tubes, and blasting themselves up to Atlas.
Frankly, Jaune just hopes he's small enough to actually fit.
Getting in is the only real hard part. Tyrian's evidently in favor of busting their way in, and making a big show of everything. He also suggests sneaking their way in, but Jaune…
Well…
"I have a stupid idea." He turns to Tyrian.
"Ooh, ooh!" The faunus laughs. "How stupid?"
"Very."
"Let's do it!"
/
Fifteen minutes later, Jaune and Tyrian step into the Snow Shoe Shipping building; a subsidiary of the SDC, and where the pneumatic tubes they'll be taking up to Atlas reside.
They do so without any doubt on their faces. Without even stopping to talk to the woman at the front desk. She, to be fair, doesn't try and stop them, either.
That would be because they're wearing outdoor work vests – the bright yellow-green ones – and carrying a ladder between them.
It is, by far, the dumbest thing that Jaune has ever done in his entire life. They're pretending to be workmen who've come to fix something. People who fade into the background, go completely unnoticed, and ultimately disappear without any pomp or circumstance, never to be seen again.
Jaune just wishes that Tyrian would stop smiling and waving at everyone they pass by.
Unfortunately, Jaune doesn't actually know where he's going. He'd just sort of hoped the distribution center – he thinks that's what this is – would really only have so much room for things in it.
But then… would it be so odd for them to ask where they're going?
"Excuse me," Jaune asks of the next person they pass by, who stops and smiles at them. "Sorry to take up your time; which room has the pneumatic tubes in it? We've been sent to work on something in there, but we got turned around."
"Ah, they're finally fixing those fuckin' things, eh?" The man laughs. "Glad to hear it. Can't believe how long it took for them to actually send anyone out."
Tyrian's the one to interject this time. "Well, you know how Atlas is these days about actually getting anything done."
"Tell me about it." The man rolls his eyes, before pointing. "It's down that hall; straight back, and then the second left."
"Thank you." Jaune and Tyrian both tell the man – which never stops feeling weird to him, it's unnerving just how normal Tyrian is capable of seeming – as they start making their way down the hall.
"No problem. Hope you guys have good luck with that!"
Jaune nods back, feeling a bit bad that whatever problem the pneumatic tubes actually have isn't going to be fixed.
They enter into the room to find it deserted, which is just about the best news that Jaune could've asked for. It feels like things are lining up a bit too well for them, but then, everything in here looks like it mostly works automatically, and only requires someone to come in and check the systems every once in a while.
Jaune's a bit upset that his luck is at its best when it's actively benefitting the person trying to destroy the world. It feels just a tad pointed.
"Well…" He walks over to the pneumatic tube, which travels all the way to a different facility up in Atlas.
"Up and at 'em, I suppose."
End Chapter 24
Alright, that was Chapter 24!
Not a ton to say at the moment regarding it! We're getting further into the Atlas Arc. Yang's getting sus about the black vomit, Weiss's heart is growing three sizes, Jaune is having a bad time (as is tradition). Normally, this is where I'd say 'see you guys next week', but I actually wanted to announce that this story now has a Discord Server! I'm sort of expecting most people to not care too too much about that, and that's completely fine! I just received a few requests from people to make one, so I thought I would! To encourage people to join for this first week, I thought I'd go ahead and add the next chapter (chapter 25) onto the discord channel, which you can find on there and read right now just by checking it out!
The link for that is (the thing all links start with) :/ / discord. gg/ uYwsZKw3eT (this is spaced out because Ff dot net doesn't like it if I don't!) Whether or not you're just checking it out to read next week's chapter early, or dropping by to say hi or ask questions about the story, I hope to see you there!
Although, If you want to support me, and get access to the next FIVE chapters of this story right now, far sooner than they'll release on FF or AO3, then consider checking out my Patron! There's an e in there after the r and before the o. I assume you know what I'm talking about, but FF and AO3 don't like me typing that. It's just website dot com /Deferonz! NO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT WILL EVER BE POSTED THERE, this is only early access, just to be clear!
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