A Deathly Silence (RWBY/Drakengard 3)
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
Hm
After this next update, I'm going to call another hiatus. Not a long one, just need a break for a bit and need to free up my schedule a little bit.
Just going to comment on this immediately before I post the update for. No apparent reason. Enjoy the update.
After this next update, I'm going to call another hiatus. Not a long one, just need a break for a bit and need to free up my schedule a little bit.
Just going to comment on this immediately before I post the update for. No apparent reason. Enjoy the update.
Update 455 - Dance with the Dragon
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
[X] Yang needed to realign her Memory and Thought. This state made dodging a nonissue, but her body was lagging behind on anything that wasn't sheer reflex.
It only took a second for Yang to feel the difference. It was hard to describe that difference in a moment of inaction, but she could feel it. Her vision felt a bit more intimate once the magic ended, like she had gone from watching a recording from her own eyes to simply looking forward again.
Though that wasn't entirely accurate. Yang still had a scar sealing one of her eyes shut, courtesy of the bandit knight. Her vision was a bit more restricted now.
She glared down at the War Chief as the force of their fists kept Yang suspended for a split-second. The girl looking up really did look no older than Ruby did. Her reptilian eyes like a snake were slitted even more than before, either due to focus or excitement. There was dust and soot in her hair, intermingling between the strands in a way only possible with someone who lost their Aura for a moment before regaining it somehow. She grinned to reveal teeth like fangs, though Yang noticed now that she was missing a few at the sides.
Yang squeezed the trigger hidden inside Ember Celica, and a Dust Round detonated between the two touching fists. Both fighters were thrown away by the force of the detonation. It was stronger than Yang had been expecting, but that was just because she forgot about the treatment Ruby had given her gauntlet. Kinetic force fuelling the Dust and all that.
As she flew back, Yang's mind moved a mile a minute. How serious was this fight? The War Chief had tanked a shitton of damage and refreshed her Aura, though Yang could see it wasn't full. She beat Raudr while he was moving fast enough that Yang had to try to keep up with her, which said something considering Yang's expertise there. The War Chief didn't fight to kill, but she was also apparently responsible for a lot of destruction.
And from what Raudr and the Wolf Pack had said, she had some cheat that let her beat Raudr once without him even knowing how. Yang wasn't really willing to risk that.
With all that in mind, Yang didn't have all that much regret hitting the hidden switch inside Ember Celica. The traces of dragon bone lined her knuckles, unfolding from their hidden compartments.
When Yang opened a portal to fling herself directly at the War Chief, the other girl was able to stick out her leg before Yang could punch her. But Yang got close enough to slide her hand across the War Chief's forehead, and the cut she opened up bled over the War Chief's left eye.
It wasn't quite blinding an eye entirely, but it would restrict her vision. Now they both had their left eyes fucked up.
"Oi!" The War Chief barked out in frustration. The Aura around her leg flashed and Yang felt an impact, like the motionless leg had kicked her again. She fired Ember Celica behind her to slow her momentum before she hit a pile of rubble and ruin.
When the War Chief spoke again, that initial frustration had shifted into… Something else.
"You hurt me through my Aura." The War Chief realised. "I've never seen anyone else do that."
…She didn't know about Dragon bone? Well, Yang supposed Dragon bones were actually rather rare when you weren't making friends and enemies with people sitting on the top of the world.
The wings of light flapped behind the War Chief once. She stepped forward with a smile, a flash of smoke escaping her grin where her teeth were missing.
Oh. Oh no. Yang really hoped that smoke was all the War Chief had.
The War Chief surged forward and Yang teleported out of her way. The wall Yang had been resting against shattered, and she took a moment to fire through the portal she had moved from. The Dust Round exploded against the War Chief's horn, and before Yang could close the portal the Dragon Faunus lunged through it.
Her hands closed around Yang's throat. The girl's Aura flashed into visibility to keep her airflow unrestricted, and Yang jabbed into the War Chief's shoulder. Even if most of the blows force was absorbed by the War Chief's Aura, the hint of Dragon bone was enough to cut a gash in the arm.
The War Chief roared, and a river of flame emerged from her maw.
Yang tried to push through it, but she couldn't help but freeze up. She barely felt the heat or the lack of oxygen as the shadows danced through the light of the fire. She could see the shapes of her father being impaled, the roar of flame ripping through the sky replaced by the scream that had once fallen from Yang's lips.
There was no thought to her actions as she flailed her fists. She couldn't see where her hands were going, nor could she even really feel the impact. She felt like she was suddenly trapped in a nightmare, trying to force herself awake.
And then she heard a cry of pain that was unfamiliar to her. The flames started to fade, but not before Yang's body fell against the ground. The air was knocked from her lungs as her Aura strained, but it held together.
As the flames died, Yang felt her mind calming down again.
Of fucking course the War Chief had fire breath. Who else had burnt that airship earlier? Yang pulled herself together, taking the strange moment of reprieve to try and think of a plan.
She wasn't using her Aura properly. She muttered the incantation under her breath as she forced the Aura around her hands into spirals, but as she did so she realised the Aura was covering the Dragon bone now. Was that going to interfere with punching through the War Chief's Aura?
The War Chief landed above Yang, a snarl on her lips. The blonde girl looked up and saw why immediately. There were scratched all over the War Chief's face, the consequence of Yang's flailing.
But one of those cuts had gone right over the right eye. The bloody wound above her left eye had been sealed shut by the heat of the flame, but both warriors had a cut blinding an eye now.
An open palm tried to smash down on Yang's face, and she turned into a bird to shrink down. She took a moment to feel the spiralling Aura over her wings that she couldn't feel physically. So the shaped Aura was still there, and when Yang turned back into a human she still had the spirals around her fist.
She planted that fist into the War Chief's shoulder again, aiming for the bloody gash Yang had already left with the Dragon bone in her knuckle. The Aura-drill on Yang's fist stopped against the Aura of the War Chief's arm before the Dragon bone could close against it. Yeah, it wouldn't be that easy.
With her open right eye, Yang saw the wing on the War Chief's right shoulder twist and distort and stab into Yang's side. A simultaneous stab into her left told her that outside of her blocked vision, the same thing was happening. Yang grit her teeth and launched herself upwards, firing Ember Celica into the ground to throw her full body mass into the War Chief.
Once both girls were off the ground, Yang shot Ember Celica upwards. The War Chief's wings cut the projectile in half, but Yang let herself fall through a portal all the same.
Yang looked down briefly as the War Chief propelled herself downwards, smashing into the ground just too slow to follow Yang through the portal. The rubble around her scattered, and Yang saw some of it smash into Raudr's unconscious body. Ow, that's gonna hurt when he-
Wait. Did Raudr's Aura just flash?
Yang saw his body without Aura earlier. She hadn't processed why exactly, but he had the same deal with dust and soot in his clothes and hair the the War Chief did. His Aura was gone, but now it was back. How?
Yang bit back the question as the War Chief turned upwards. Her wings swept aside and shot her upwards. Yang fired Ember Celica downwards, and the War Chief cut the projectile in twain.
Yang kept punching down, her fists moving as fast as she could to fire Ember Celica as fast as possible. One, two, three Dust Rounds were cut in two before Yang opened her portals and let the Dust Rounds disappear into the red sky.
Eight portals opened around the War Chief. Yang saw a moment of concern flicker in her eyes before Dust Rounds emerged from every portal at once. The War Chief cut the Dust to her left, and the projectiles to her right smashed into her body unabated. Dust lingered in the air from the detonations, and Yang tried to take a moment to think out her next move.
Her body was falling through the air still. She didn't want to fall into the other War Chief just yet. She looked upwards and saw a destination. A portal opened for Yang, and she fell upon the broken wrist of the giant mecha lingering overhead.
Alright. This would buy Yang a moment to think. The War Chief wouldn't have seen where the other end of that portal was, so Yang had time to think. What was working for her, what was still effective?
She replayed the images in her head. When the War Chief had been hit, it was from projectiles to the right. Her vision was half-blocked.
But so was Yang's, admittedly. But that didn't matter as much for her, the War Chief didn't seem to use projectiles-
A metre away from Yang, a log pierced into the arm of the mech. Oh, nevermind. The War Chief could throw things. But she still only used massive projectiles, so Yang was still onto something here.
The mecha's arm cracked, and where the log had pierced it the metal started to fall away. Yang rid on that arm and flowed her magical senses into the arm, trying to see if there was anything she could use with this chunk of metal.
She found something. Dust crystals embedded inside the robot's arm, ready to be moved up to the hand. Presumably for some kind of gun. Maybe Yang could do something there. It was a shame these weren't Dust crystals in the ground, if they were she could just use her magic to rip the Dust Crystals out-
A thought occurred. Yang smiled to herself. The Branwen magic was malleable, so she might just make this work.
Yang threw herself off the falling metal. The War Chief was upon her immediately, her wings of light keeping her aloft. Yang saw her arm move, but the punch came from her left so she wasn't able to keep track of it enough to dodge it in time. The punch threw her downwards into the ground once more.
Yang fired Ember Celica upwards, keeping her magical sense on the Dust Round as she did so. A wing of light twisted to try to cut it out of the air, and Yang held her hand aloft before thrusting it to the side.
The Dust Round transformed, the burning light reshaping into a dragon's head. It followed the motion of Yang's hand, darting around the wing of light. When Yang gestured in the other direction, the Dust Dragon followed and closed its fangs into the War Chief's right side.
It almost surprised Yang when the Dust Dragon detonated. She wasn't sure why, considering it was still just a Dust Round. But still, that was a safe bet on her part.
But she didn't have time to enjoy her new trick before the War Chief fell upon her, driving her knees into Yang's stomach. The impact was enough to throw Yang down even faster, and she had to rip a scar of red into the sky of blue to avoid hitting the ground again.
Yang was expecting the War Chief to be flying upwards already when she emerged in the sky above her, but the War Chief was darting to the side instead. Yang took the time to punch downwards, trapping some of her Dust Rounds in portals again while grabbing hold of another with her soul to surge towards the War Chief.
When the War Chief caught the falling chunk of metal out of the air, Yang realised what was about to happen. The huge chunk of metal from the mecha's hand was thrown upwards towards Yang. She disappeared through another portal and hit the ground, but when she looked up again the War Chief was surging towards the metal with her fist drawn back. When she struck upwards, the metal shattered and exploded outwards.
There were a shitton of metal shards falling towards Yang, but she opened a portal and caught the shards before they could cut into her. By the time the metal shards stopped falling around her, she only had a second to close the portal before the War Chief landed next to her again.
The idiot landed with Yang to her right, so her peripheral vision was messed up. Yang swept her arm aside, letting the spirals fall from around her hand to make sure that the Dragon bone cut into her ankle. The War Chief fell backwards and Yang caught her in a portal, letting her fall through the various metal shards that Yang had just caught in the Red Sky.
The War Chief fell out again on Yang's other side, but she wings of light caught her before she hit the ground and stabilised herself on the ground. She closed her fists in a strange way, clenching them until the skin near her knuckles strained to keep the bone in. Then she lashed out, kicking Yang in the ribs with enough force to break bones.
Ah. There was the anti-Aura trick. Nothing else the War Chief had done this fight had hit Yang through her Aura, so it seemed like it was a specific trick the War Chief had to do with intent.
Yang saw the start of smoke around the War-Chief's mouth and opened a portal between the two. She didn't see the flame directly, just the incidental light on either side of the portal. The other portal opened behind the War-Chief to trap them in their own flame, but she shrugged it off entirely. Well, Yang never got burnt by her flames either. She closed the second portal, may as well just catch the flame for later.
But the War Chief just kept breathing, and Yang wasn't willing to leave the portal open too long. Not with the Corpse Goddess still out there. She opened a second portal and threw herself through it, ducking behind a wall before she collapsed every portal.
It took a moment for the extra light to fade, and for the War Chief to speak again.
"What is it about the fire?" The War Chief asked. "Every time I use it, you change. I think I like you better without it."
"Then stop using it." Yang bit back.
"And give up my greatest advantage?" The light exploded from around the corner, coating the wall Yang was hiding behind. Then there was more roaring flame, but the angle was changing. It took Yang a moment to realise that the War Chief was just throwing fire everywhere, in every direction.
Fuck.
Ok, hold on, Yang had this. She only needed to do this again for a second. Her soul reached into the Remnant of the Goddess Seal once more, and Yang misaligned her Memory and Thought once more.
If she could just detach her Memory it would be more convenient. Simply escape the flashbacks by pushing them aside so some other part of her dealt with it while she fought. As it was, Yang wasn't confident enough in this technique to try it. What if she couldn't attach her memory again afterwards?
As it was, it wasn't like Yang was escaping the trauma behind the fire. She looked at it and could feel her heart rate spike, feel pain lacing her forehead. But as detached as it was, it felt like the pain and heartache was happening to someone else.
So she was able to cast her thought aside and open portals all around the War Chief. All her Dust Rounds emerged and she took control of each in turn, shaping them into Dragons and having them circle the War Chief.
The Dragon Faunus looked around, the flame leaving her mouth. Yang could feel the fires around her dying already, so it didn't seem like her Fire Breath lasted long. It occurred to Yang that she was damn lucky that the War Chief didn't get to use the Power of Dragons on everything she did, because if she did Yang would've been burnt to a cinder during the initial fire breath incident.
The first Dust Dragon Yang had move in approached on the War Chief's right, left, the eye she had. She cleaved through it no issue, which meant she was distracted while one descended upon her right side. When that Dust Dragon detonated, it threw her into another two that fell upon her.
The wings of light lashed out blindly, attacking everything around the War Chief. Once the Dust Dragons closest to her were gone, the War Chief started to spin. Their wings spun with them, throwing up enough force that the hair on Yang's body was billowing despite the cover. The Dust Dragons were caught in the vortex, the wing too strong for Yang to pull them out of it. But the wind also disrupted the flame, so-
Yang realigned her Memory and Thought once more. Before she could act, the pain in her heart made her crumble. What the fuck? She was-
Ah fuck, she was using the pseudo-disassociation of that mindset to keep her thoughts away from the trauma response, but her body was still enduring all that. Yang might just give herself a heart attack if she pushed that too far.
But never mind that. Yang ripped open a portal and teleported right next to the War Chief. The incantation slipped from her lips to form a spiral around her fist, and she fired Ember Celica as she punched forward. Her fist moved faster than the Dust Round, and it detonated around Yang's punch.
The Dust Dragons were like a weaker version of the trick she had pulled on Shuck Baskerville, on Yi Xing Shenron. That technique was only a counter, and Yang wasn't willing to let the War Chief hit her hard enough for the counter to be relevant. But if Yang had a similar technique, how much could she recreate without a counter?
The Dust that shattered around her hand also shattered her Aura, but that was fine.That was when Yang was at her strongest .
The scattering Dust shaped itself into a Dragon around Yang's fist as her fist shot upwards, spinning with the flow of the Aura Drill as Yang caught the War Chief in the chin. The spinning War Chief had no balance to brace for the blow, so she was launched upwards into her own tornado. Yang reached out to take control of every Dust Round in the air, every Dust Dragon circling the War Chief, and took advantage of the weakening wind. All the Dust circled in on the girl, and the Dragon's Roar reached out with her magic.
Yang didn't even hear the explosion. There was a heavy silence that made Yang realise she had been deafened. The light was so heavy that it erased light from Yang's vision, everything light enough was dyed a pure white and everything too dark was overshadowed into a sheer black. The silhouette of the War Chief arced in pain, the wings of light painting a shadow across the sky until they burnt away.
Then the light faded, and the bloodied War Chief fell to the earth. She fell to her knees, but she punched downwards to keep her body from falling further. Yang mirrored the motion to stay at roughly the same height as she fell as well.
"It's over ." Yang declared. She bit down on her tongue and focused the Dragon's Roar back into her heart. "I win."
"Yes." The War Chief admitted. "Your Aura broke first, but it was an intentional technique. I lost."
…What was this, a tournament? Why was that her rule?
No, scratch that. Now what? Should Yang knock the War Chief out? Wait for authorities to come and arrest her? A part of Yang's mind wondered if she should go for the kill, but that didn't feel right. The War Chief was beaten and was struggling to stay on her knees, so Yang didn't feel comfortable going for the kill.
This wasn't like it was Cinder or anything.
"To the victor…" The War Chief forced herself through heavy breaths. "Goes the spoils."
She lunged forward suddenly. Yang threw herself back to escape a potential counterattack, so all the War Chief was able to do was tap a finger against Yang's boot.
"Oi!" Yang threw herself backwards to escape the War Chief, firing a Dust Round down to throw the other girl off her. The Dragon Faunus fell to the side, and Yang saw her Aura burn as it protected her foot from the explosion.
…Her Aura?
But her Aura was broken. She broke it herself just now. How-
She propped herself up with one arm and looked to the side. Raudrulf was laying on the ground still, covered in ash that was on top of his Aura but still with soot and dust pressed into his wolfskin cloak. He had been defeated, but he had no wounds and his Aura was up as he lay unconscious.
Raudr once reported that the War Chief was able to defeat him through some unknown means, one where he didn't know what had beaten him.
And Yang had seen the War Chief rejuvenate her own Aura. It had only been a little bit, but she had done it. And in the moment after doing that, she had been weakened.
And now Yang was standing, her Aura rejuvenated after the War Chief had touched her. And as she stood there, Yang realised her rib was no longer broken. That the scar over her eye had faded, and she was looking forward with both eyes.
Oh. Yang knew the trick.
If only she realised it sooner.
She felt her arm falter and her head fall, but her body was unconscious before she hit the ground.
Yang opened her eyes to an unfamiliar rooftop.
She could feel her heartbeat in her brow, but beyond that she didn't feel hurt. She groaned as she tried to sit up, pushing herself up against a wall behind her. She took in her surroundings as she did so. She was resting against what seemed like a really fancy bed, one she could only really compare to the guest house she had stayed at back in Atlas. But even as she looked out to the bedside table, she could see years worth of dust.
It was comfortable, at least. But what else was there?
Yang could see her own Scroll on the bedside table. It was plugged into a charger and then into the wall, but Yang's finger danced across the screen and the No Battery icon came up. Flat. Either the charger was broken, or the wall socket was without power.
Next to the bedside table was what looked like Yang's hoverchair, but…
Well, it was fucked. It had been burnt and crushed and it was a shell of what it used to be. Someone had put it on a stool and covered the back and the seat proper in pillows, but Yang couldn't imagine that being comfortable at all.
Where the fuck was Yang? The last thing she remembered…
Right, she had been in that village. She had been fighting a bandit, the War Chief. She had won, but then the War Chief had done something to knock her out.
A Semblance, Yang would guess. Something the War Chief did. As far as Yang could tell, it could rejuvenate you completely but knocked you out in the process? No, when she used it on herself she had only weakened herself a bit. So it was that it rejuvenated you to a degree, but it risked the unconsciousness. Or something. It didn't matter.
Yang expanded her soul and tried to sense into the world around her. Where was she?
…
Nowhere she knew.
At first, the building seemed fancy enough. Most of it was covered in dust and looked unlived, apart from the cobwebs in the corners. It seemed almost like a castle.
At some point that changed. There was a line in the hall where the dust suddenly ceased to exist, because the hall was being maintained and lived in now. There were still cobwebs in the rooftop, though.
Yang pushed her vision further on until she came to a window. Looking out that window…
Oh. Hm. That was snow.
She was definitely not where she had been before. She had no idea what the geography of Mistral was, but she was either significantly more north, significantly more south, or on top of a mountain taller than any near that one village.
So… Where was she?
She had no idea. Next question. Who would've taken her here?
…Yang had an unfortunate answer to that front.
Her question was answered after a moment more of searching. Yang found herself coming to what looked like a giant feast hall, the sort that historically was used by barbarians and vikings and whatnot. It was big enough that it was hard to take it all in from the inside, so she ignored the edges for the time being.
She could see the War Chief sitting on one of the many big tables, eating meat off an almost cartoonish bone. She had recovered from the battle, even the bloody gash on her shoulder faded away back to normal flesh. She was wearing some sort of plain toga that looked stitched together from various scraps of cloth, so the colours shifted every few inches.
…Well, Yang had been captured apparently.
So now what?
Well Yang wasn't dead yet. The War Chief didn't want her dead. And she had no idea where she was, and for some reason the War Chief had taken the time to bring Yang's hoverchair with her even if it was fucked.
Fuck it, Yang wanted to know what was going on. She ripped open a red portal and rolled over in the bed, falling through the portal to land on the bench opposite to the War Chief.
The girl's snakelike eyes widened as she jumped back, her grip on the comically big bone of meat shifting to hold it like a bat, a puff of smoke escaping out of her maw. It took the War Chief a moment to realise who Yang was again.
"Ah, you're awake!" The War Chief declared, a bit too forcefully. She reminded Yang of an actor. "Welcome to the Hall of the War God! For generations, my fam-"
"Where the fuck am I?" Yang asked.
The War Chief paused. "Welcome to the Hall of the War God! For gen-"
"Why did you kidnap me?" Yang asked. "It's really fucking dirty to trick me by acting like you had lost."
The War Chief paused again. "Welc-"
Yang teleported in front of her face and punched the girl in the face.
"Oi!" The War Chief recoiled back. She rubbed her cheek where Yang had punched her and took a moment to take a bite out of her meat.
It occurred to Yang there that she still had Ember Celica on. The War Chief hadn't even taken her weapon from her?
"Cut the crap." Yang growled. She pulled herself up onto the long benchlike seat behind her as she glared forward.
The War Chief sighed, her eyes darkening. She closed those eyes for a moment, muttered something under her breath, then nodded to herself.
"You did win." The War Chief declared. She put the bone of meat on another table- Not even a plate or anything?- And stepped back towards Yang. "It was simply that the village was a poor place to offer you the reward."
"So you kidnapped me." Yang observed.
"I have taken you to the Hall of-"
"If you go back into the prepared speech I'm punching you again." Yang threatened.
The War Chief paused.
"How the fuck did you even get me here?" Yang asked. "You were beat up as fuck."
"I am no fool." The War Chief smirked. "I simply had to carry you to my secret steel chariot and ride the river back."
…Steel chario- "A boat?"
"Call it what you will." The War Chief shook her head. "Enough of this. You are the victor. And as War Chief, I must fulfil my duty to the victor."
She stepped closer to Yang, more smoke escaping her grasp. Her eyes narrowed with focus. Yang felt a stab of fear down her spine and tried to back away on instinct, but the War Chief lunged forward to take her hands before Yang could do anything meaningful to escape.
With her hands holding Yang in place, the War Chief smiled. Yang tensed and braced herself for whatever the fuck was going to happen next.
She was not anticipating the War Chief stepping one leg back, and falling to a single knee.
"Marry me."
[X] …What?
It only took a second for Yang to feel the difference. It was hard to describe that difference in a moment of inaction, but she could feel it. Her vision felt a bit more intimate once the magic ended, like she had gone from watching a recording from her own eyes to simply looking forward again.
Though that wasn't entirely accurate. Yang still had a scar sealing one of her eyes shut, courtesy of the bandit knight. Her vision was a bit more restricted now.
She glared down at the War Chief as the force of their fists kept Yang suspended for a split-second. The girl looking up really did look no older than Ruby did. Her reptilian eyes like a snake were slitted even more than before, either due to focus or excitement. There was dust and soot in her hair, intermingling between the strands in a way only possible with someone who lost their Aura for a moment before regaining it somehow. She grinned to reveal teeth like fangs, though Yang noticed now that she was missing a few at the sides.
Yang squeezed the trigger hidden inside Ember Celica, and a Dust Round detonated between the two touching fists. Both fighters were thrown away by the force of the detonation. It was stronger than Yang had been expecting, but that was just because she forgot about the treatment Ruby had given her gauntlet. Kinetic force fuelling the Dust and all that.
As she flew back, Yang's mind moved a mile a minute. How serious was this fight? The War Chief had tanked a shitton of damage and refreshed her Aura, though Yang could see it wasn't full. She beat Raudr while he was moving fast enough that Yang had to try to keep up with her, which said something considering Yang's expertise there. The War Chief didn't fight to kill, but she was also apparently responsible for a lot of destruction.
And from what Raudr and the Wolf Pack had said, she had some cheat that let her beat Raudr once without him even knowing how. Yang wasn't really willing to risk that.
With all that in mind, Yang didn't have all that much regret hitting the hidden switch inside Ember Celica. The traces of dragon bone lined her knuckles, unfolding from their hidden compartments.
When Yang opened a portal to fling herself directly at the War Chief, the other girl was able to stick out her leg before Yang could punch her. But Yang got close enough to slide her hand across the War Chief's forehead, and the cut she opened up bled over the War Chief's left eye.
It wasn't quite blinding an eye entirely, but it would restrict her vision. Now they both had their left eyes fucked up.
"Oi!" The War Chief barked out in frustration. The Aura around her leg flashed and Yang felt an impact, like the motionless leg had kicked her again. She fired Ember Celica behind her to slow her momentum before she hit a pile of rubble and ruin.
When the War Chief spoke again, that initial frustration had shifted into… Something else.
"You hurt me through my Aura." The War Chief realised. "I've never seen anyone else do that."
…She didn't know about Dragon bone? Well, Yang supposed Dragon bones were actually rather rare when you weren't making friends and enemies with people sitting on the top of the world.
The wings of light flapped behind the War Chief once. She stepped forward with a smile, a flash of smoke escaping her grin where her teeth were missing.
Oh. Oh no. Yang really hoped that smoke was all the War Chief had.
The War Chief surged forward and Yang teleported out of her way. The wall Yang had been resting against shattered, and she took a moment to fire through the portal she had moved from. The Dust Round exploded against the War Chief's horn, and before Yang could close the portal the Dragon Faunus lunged through it.
Her hands closed around Yang's throat. The girl's Aura flashed into visibility to keep her airflow unrestricted, and Yang jabbed into the War Chief's shoulder. Even if most of the blows force was absorbed by the War Chief's Aura, the hint of Dragon bone was enough to cut a gash in the arm.
The War Chief roared, and a river of flame emerged from her maw.
Yang tried to push through it, but she couldn't help but freeze up. She barely felt the heat or the lack of oxygen as the shadows danced through the light of the fire. She could see the shapes of her father being impaled, the roar of flame ripping through the sky replaced by the scream that had once fallen from Yang's lips.
There was no thought to her actions as she flailed her fists. She couldn't see where her hands were going, nor could she even really feel the impact. She felt like she was suddenly trapped in a nightmare, trying to force herself awake.
And then she heard a cry of pain that was unfamiliar to her. The flames started to fade, but not before Yang's body fell against the ground. The air was knocked from her lungs as her Aura strained, but it held together.
As the flames died, Yang felt her mind calming down again.
Of fucking course the War Chief had fire breath. Who else had burnt that airship earlier? Yang pulled herself together, taking the strange moment of reprieve to try and think of a plan.
She wasn't using her Aura properly. She muttered the incantation under her breath as she forced the Aura around her hands into spirals, but as she did so she realised the Aura was covering the Dragon bone now. Was that going to interfere with punching through the War Chief's Aura?
The War Chief landed above Yang, a snarl on her lips. The blonde girl looked up and saw why immediately. There were scratched all over the War Chief's face, the consequence of Yang's flailing.
But one of those cuts had gone right over the right eye. The bloody wound above her left eye had been sealed shut by the heat of the flame, but both warriors had a cut blinding an eye now.
An open palm tried to smash down on Yang's face, and she turned into a bird to shrink down. She took a moment to feel the spiralling Aura over her wings that she couldn't feel physically. So the shaped Aura was still there, and when Yang turned back into a human she still had the spirals around her fist.
She planted that fist into the War Chief's shoulder again, aiming for the bloody gash Yang had already left with the Dragon bone in her knuckle. The Aura-drill on Yang's fist stopped against the Aura of the War Chief's arm before the Dragon bone could close against it. Yeah, it wouldn't be that easy.
With her open right eye, Yang saw the wing on the War Chief's right shoulder twist and distort and stab into Yang's side. A simultaneous stab into her left told her that outside of her blocked vision, the same thing was happening. Yang grit her teeth and launched herself upwards, firing Ember Celica into the ground to throw her full body mass into the War Chief.
Once both girls were off the ground, Yang shot Ember Celica upwards. The War Chief's wings cut the projectile in half, but Yang let herself fall through a portal all the same.
Yang looked down briefly as the War Chief propelled herself downwards, smashing into the ground just too slow to follow Yang through the portal. The rubble around her scattered, and Yang saw some of it smash into Raudr's unconscious body. Ow, that's gonna hurt when he-
Wait. Did Raudr's Aura just flash?
Yang saw his body without Aura earlier. She hadn't processed why exactly, but he had the same deal with dust and soot in his clothes and hair the the War Chief did. His Aura was gone, but now it was back. How?
Yang bit back the question as the War Chief turned upwards. Her wings swept aside and shot her upwards. Yang fired Ember Celica downwards, and the War Chief cut the projectile in twain.
Yang kept punching down, her fists moving as fast as she could to fire Ember Celica as fast as possible. One, two, three Dust Rounds were cut in two before Yang opened her portals and let the Dust Rounds disappear into the red sky.
Eight portals opened around the War Chief. Yang saw a moment of concern flicker in her eyes before Dust Rounds emerged from every portal at once. The War Chief cut the Dust to her left, and the projectiles to her right smashed into her body unabated. Dust lingered in the air from the detonations, and Yang tried to take a moment to think out her next move.
Her body was falling through the air still. She didn't want to fall into the other War Chief just yet. She looked upwards and saw a destination. A portal opened for Yang, and she fell upon the broken wrist of the giant mecha lingering overhead.
Alright. This would buy Yang a moment to think. The War Chief wouldn't have seen where the other end of that portal was, so Yang had time to think. What was working for her, what was still effective?
She replayed the images in her head. When the War Chief had been hit, it was from projectiles to the right. Her vision was half-blocked.
But so was Yang's, admittedly. But that didn't matter as much for her, the War Chief didn't seem to use projectiles-
A metre away from Yang, a log pierced into the arm of the mech. Oh, nevermind. The War Chief could throw things. But she still only used massive projectiles, so Yang was still onto something here.
The mecha's arm cracked, and where the log had pierced it the metal started to fall away. Yang rid on that arm and flowed her magical senses into the arm, trying to see if there was anything she could use with this chunk of metal.
She found something. Dust crystals embedded inside the robot's arm, ready to be moved up to the hand. Presumably for some kind of gun. Maybe Yang could do something there. It was a shame these weren't Dust crystals in the ground, if they were she could just use her magic to rip the Dust Crystals out-
A thought occurred. Yang smiled to herself. The Branwen magic was malleable, so she might just make this work.
Yang threw herself off the falling metal. The War Chief was upon her immediately, her wings of light keeping her aloft. Yang saw her arm move, but the punch came from her left so she wasn't able to keep track of it enough to dodge it in time. The punch threw her downwards into the ground once more.
Yang fired Ember Celica upwards, keeping her magical sense on the Dust Round as she did so. A wing of light twisted to try to cut it out of the air, and Yang held her hand aloft before thrusting it to the side.
The Dust Round transformed, the burning light reshaping into a dragon's head. It followed the motion of Yang's hand, darting around the wing of light. When Yang gestured in the other direction, the Dust Dragon followed and closed its fangs into the War Chief's right side.
It almost surprised Yang when the Dust Dragon detonated. She wasn't sure why, considering it was still just a Dust Round. But still, that was a safe bet on her part.
But she didn't have time to enjoy her new trick before the War Chief fell upon her, driving her knees into Yang's stomach. The impact was enough to throw Yang down even faster, and she had to rip a scar of red into the sky of blue to avoid hitting the ground again.
Yang was expecting the War Chief to be flying upwards already when she emerged in the sky above her, but the War Chief was darting to the side instead. Yang took the time to punch downwards, trapping some of her Dust Rounds in portals again while grabbing hold of another with her soul to surge towards the War Chief.
When the War Chief caught the falling chunk of metal out of the air, Yang realised what was about to happen. The huge chunk of metal from the mecha's hand was thrown upwards towards Yang. She disappeared through another portal and hit the ground, but when she looked up again the War Chief was surging towards the metal with her fist drawn back. When she struck upwards, the metal shattered and exploded outwards.
There were a shitton of metal shards falling towards Yang, but she opened a portal and caught the shards before they could cut into her. By the time the metal shards stopped falling around her, she only had a second to close the portal before the War Chief landed next to her again.
The idiot landed with Yang to her right, so her peripheral vision was messed up. Yang swept her arm aside, letting the spirals fall from around her hand to make sure that the Dragon bone cut into her ankle. The War Chief fell backwards and Yang caught her in a portal, letting her fall through the various metal shards that Yang had just caught in the Red Sky.
The War Chief fell out again on Yang's other side, but she wings of light caught her before she hit the ground and stabilised herself on the ground. She closed her fists in a strange way, clenching them until the skin near her knuckles strained to keep the bone in. Then she lashed out, kicking Yang in the ribs with enough force to break bones.
Ah. There was the anti-Aura trick. Nothing else the War Chief had done this fight had hit Yang through her Aura, so it seemed like it was a specific trick the War Chief had to do with intent.
Yang saw the start of smoke around the War-Chief's mouth and opened a portal between the two. She didn't see the flame directly, just the incidental light on either side of the portal. The other portal opened behind the War-Chief to trap them in their own flame, but she shrugged it off entirely. Well, Yang never got burnt by her flames either. She closed the second portal, may as well just catch the flame for later.
But the War Chief just kept breathing, and Yang wasn't willing to leave the portal open too long. Not with the Corpse Goddess still out there. She opened a second portal and threw herself through it, ducking behind a wall before she collapsed every portal.
It took a moment for the extra light to fade, and for the War Chief to speak again.
"What is it about the fire?" The War Chief asked. "Every time I use it, you change. I think I like you better without it."
"Then stop using it." Yang bit back.
"And give up my greatest advantage?" The light exploded from around the corner, coating the wall Yang was hiding behind. Then there was more roaring flame, but the angle was changing. It took Yang a moment to realise that the War Chief was just throwing fire everywhere, in every direction.
Fuck.
Ok, hold on, Yang had this. She only needed to do this again for a second. Her soul reached into the Remnant of the Goddess Seal once more, and Yang misaligned her Memory and Thought once more.
If she could just detach her Memory it would be more convenient. Simply escape the flashbacks by pushing them aside so some other part of her dealt with it while she fought. As it was, Yang wasn't confident enough in this technique to try it. What if she couldn't attach her memory again afterwards?
As it was, it wasn't like Yang was escaping the trauma behind the fire. She looked at it and could feel her heart rate spike, feel pain lacing her forehead. But as detached as it was, it felt like the pain and heartache was happening to someone else.
So she was able to cast her thought aside and open portals all around the War Chief. All her Dust Rounds emerged and she took control of each in turn, shaping them into Dragons and having them circle the War Chief.
The Dragon Faunus looked around, the flame leaving her mouth. Yang could feel the fires around her dying already, so it didn't seem like her Fire Breath lasted long. It occurred to Yang that she was damn lucky that the War Chief didn't get to use the Power of Dragons on everything she did, because if she did Yang would've been burnt to a cinder during the initial fire breath incident.
The first Dust Dragon Yang had move in approached on the War Chief's right, left, the eye she had. She cleaved through it no issue, which meant she was distracted while one descended upon her right side. When that Dust Dragon detonated, it threw her into another two that fell upon her.
The wings of light lashed out blindly, attacking everything around the War Chief. Once the Dust Dragons closest to her were gone, the War Chief started to spin. Their wings spun with them, throwing up enough force that the hair on Yang's body was billowing despite the cover. The Dust Dragons were caught in the vortex, the wing too strong for Yang to pull them out of it. But the wind also disrupted the flame, so-
Yang realigned her Memory and Thought once more. Before she could act, the pain in her heart made her crumble. What the fuck? She was-
Ah fuck, she was using the pseudo-disassociation of that mindset to keep her thoughts away from the trauma response, but her body was still enduring all that. Yang might just give herself a heart attack if she pushed that too far.
But never mind that. Yang ripped open a portal and teleported right next to the War Chief. The incantation slipped from her lips to form a spiral around her fist, and she fired Ember Celica as she punched forward. Her fist moved faster than the Dust Round, and it detonated around Yang's punch.
The Dust Dragons were like a weaker version of the trick she had pulled on Shuck Baskerville, on Yi Xing Shenron. That technique was only a counter, and Yang wasn't willing to let the War Chief hit her hard enough for the counter to be relevant. But if Yang had a similar technique, how much could she recreate without a counter?
The Dust that shattered around her hand also shattered her Aura, but that was fine.
The scattering Dust shaped itself into a Dragon around Yang's fist as her fist shot upwards, spinning with the flow of the Aura Drill as Yang caught the War Chief in the chin. The spinning War Chief had no balance to brace for the blow, so she was launched upwards into her own tornado. Yang reached out to take control of every Dust Round in the air, every Dust Dragon circling the War Chief, and took advantage of the weakening wind. All the Dust circled in on the girl, and the Dragon's Roar reached out with her magic.
Yang didn't even hear the explosion. There was a heavy silence that made Yang realise she had been deafened. The light was so heavy that it erased light from Yang's vision, everything light enough was dyed a pure white and everything too dark was overshadowed into a sheer black. The silhouette of the War Chief arced in pain, the wings of light painting a shadow across the sky until they burnt away.
Then the light faded, and the bloodied War Chief fell to the earth. She fell to her knees, but she punched downwards to keep her body from falling further. Yang mirrored the motion to stay at roughly the same height as she fell as well.
"
"Yes." The War Chief admitted. "Your Aura broke first, but it was an intentional technique. I lost."
…What was this, a tournament? Why was that her rule?
No, scratch that. Now what? Should Yang knock the War Chief out? Wait for authorities to come and arrest her? A part of Yang's mind wondered if she should go for the kill, but that didn't feel right. The War Chief was beaten and was struggling to stay on her knees, so Yang didn't feel comfortable going for the kill.
This wasn't like it was Cinder or anything.
"To the victor…" The War Chief forced herself through heavy breaths. "Goes the spoils."
She lunged forward suddenly. Yang threw herself back to escape a potential counterattack, so all the War Chief was able to do was tap a finger against Yang's boot.
"Oi!" Yang threw herself backwards to escape the War Chief, firing a Dust Round down to throw the other girl off her. The Dragon Faunus fell to the side, and Yang saw her Aura burn as it protected her foot from the explosion.
…Her Aura?
But her Aura was broken. She broke it herself just now. How-
She propped herself up with one arm and looked to the side. Raudrulf was laying on the ground still, covered in ash that was on top of his Aura but still with soot and dust pressed into his wolfskin cloak. He had been defeated, but he had no wounds and his Aura was up as he lay unconscious.
Raudr once reported that the War Chief was able to defeat him through some unknown means, one where he didn't know what had beaten him.
And Yang had seen the War Chief rejuvenate her own Aura. It had only been a little bit, but she had done it. And in the moment after doing that, she had been weakened.
And now Yang was standing, her Aura rejuvenated after the War Chief had touched her. And as she stood there, Yang realised her rib was no longer broken. That the scar over her eye had faded, and she was looking forward with both eyes.
Oh. Yang knew the trick.
If only she realised it sooner.
She felt her arm falter and her head fall, but her body was unconscious before she hit the ground.
~~~~~
Yang opened her eyes to an unfamiliar rooftop.
She could feel her heartbeat in her brow, but beyond that she didn't feel hurt. She groaned as she tried to sit up, pushing herself up against a wall behind her. She took in her surroundings as she did so. She was resting against what seemed like a really fancy bed, one she could only really compare to the guest house she had stayed at back in Atlas. But even as she looked out to the bedside table, she could see years worth of dust.
It was comfortable, at least. But what else was there?
Yang could see her own Scroll on the bedside table. It was plugged into a charger and then into the wall, but Yang's finger danced across the screen and the No Battery icon came up. Flat. Either the charger was broken, or the wall socket was without power.
Next to the bedside table was what looked like Yang's hoverchair, but…
Well, it was fucked. It had been burnt and crushed and it was a shell of what it used to be. Someone had put it on a stool and covered the back and the seat proper in pillows, but Yang couldn't imagine that being comfortable at all.
Where the fuck was Yang? The last thing she remembered…
Right, she had been in that village. She had been fighting a bandit, the War Chief. She had won, but then the War Chief had done something to knock her out.
A Semblance, Yang would guess. Something the War Chief did. As far as Yang could tell, it could rejuvenate you completely but knocked you out in the process? No, when she used it on herself she had only weakened herself a bit. So it was that it rejuvenated you to a degree, but it risked the unconsciousness. Or something. It didn't matter.
Yang expanded her soul and tried to sense into the world around her. Where was she?
…
Nowhere she knew.
At first, the building seemed fancy enough. Most of it was covered in dust and looked unlived, apart from the cobwebs in the corners. It seemed almost like a castle.
At some point that changed. There was a line in the hall where the dust suddenly ceased to exist, because the hall was being maintained and lived in now. There were still cobwebs in the rooftop, though.
Yang pushed her vision further on until she came to a window. Looking out that window…
Oh. Hm. That was snow.
She was definitely not where she had been before. She had no idea what the geography of Mistral was, but she was either significantly more north, significantly more south, or on top of a mountain taller than any near that one village.
So… Where was she?
She had no idea. Next question. Who would've taken her here?
…Yang had an unfortunate answer to that front.
Her question was answered after a moment more of searching. Yang found herself coming to what looked like a giant feast hall, the sort that historically was used by barbarians and vikings and whatnot. It was big enough that it was hard to take it all in from the inside, so she ignored the edges for the time being.
She could see the War Chief sitting on one of the many big tables, eating meat off an almost cartoonish bone. She had recovered from the battle, even the bloody gash on her shoulder faded away back to normal flesh. She was wearing some sort of plain toga that looked stitched together from various scraps of cloth, so the colours shifted every few inches.
…Well, Yang had been captured apparently.
So now what?
Well Yang wasn't dead yet. The War Chief didn't want her dead. And she had no idea where she was, and for some reason the War Chief had taken the time to bring Yang's hoverchair with her even if it was fucked.
Fuck it, Yang wanted to know what was going on. She ripped open a red portal and rolled over in the bed, falling through the portal to land on the bench opposite to the War Chief.
The girl's snakelike eyes widened as she jumped back, her grip on the comically big bone of meat shifting to hold it like a bat, a puff of smoke escaping out of her maw. It took the War Chief a moment to realise who Yang was again.
"Ah, you're awake!" The War Chief declared, a bit too forcefully. She reminded Yang of an actor. "Welcome to the Hall of the War God! For generations, my fam-"
"Where the fuck am I?" Yang asked.
The War Chief paused. "Welcome to the Hall of the War God! For gen-"
"Why did you kidnap me?" Yang asked. "It's really fucking dirty to trick me by acting like you had lost."
The War Chief paused again. "Welc-"
Yang teleported in front of her face and punched the girl in the face.
"Oi!" The War Chief recoiled back. She rubbed her cheek where Yang had punched her and took a moment to take a bite out of her meat.
It occurred to Yang there that she still had Ember Celica on. The War Chief hadn't even taken her weapon from her?
"Cut the crap." Yang growled. She pulled herself up onto the long benchlike seat behind her as she glared forward.
The War Chief sighed, her eyes darkening. She closed those eyes for a moment, muttered something under her breath, then nodded to herself.
"You did win." The War Chief declared. She put the bone of meat on another table- Not even a plate or anything?- And stepped back towards Yang. "It was simply that the village was a poor place to offer you the reward."
"So you kidnapped me." Yang observed.
"I have taken you to the Hall of-"
"If you go back into the prepared speech I'm punching you again." Yang threatened.
The War Chief paused.
"How the fuck did you even get me here?" Yang asked. "You were beat up as fuck."
"I am no fool." The War Chief smirked. "I simply had to carry you to my secret steel chariot and ride the river back."
…Steel chario- "A boat?"
"Call it what you will." The War Chief shook her head. "Enough of this. You are the victor. And as War Chief, I must fulfil my duty to the victor."
She stepped closer to Yang, more smoke escaping her grasp. Her eyes narrowed with focus. Yang felt a stab of fear down her spine and tried to back away on instinct, but the War Chief lunged forward to take her hands before Yang could do anything meaningful to escape.
With her hands holding Yang in place, the War Chief smiled. Yang tensed and braced herself for whatever the fuck was going to happen next.
She was not anticipating the War Chief stepping one leg back, and falling to a single knee.
"Marry me."
[X] …What?
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[X] …What?
Abyssal_light
Lord of the light, within thy abyss
- Location
- Coaltown
[X] …What?
secret ship outa nowhere
secret ship outa nowhere
Update 456 - Tower of Strength
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
Ruby Rose stood surrounded by rubble and ruin. If she looked far enough to the side she could see the intact buildings that had escaped the radius of the fight, but her eyes were looking down at the bloodstained ground.
She had heard the report, she knew that was Raudr's blood. But that didn't stop Ruby's mind from conjuring nightmarish what-ifs. This had been where Yang was last seen, where the War Chief had taken her sister, and the bloodstains were heavy.
Yang was gone. Again.
Ruby could feel her nails pushing into her palm. She hadn't cut them in a while, so there was enough there that her Aura was manifesting visibly to keep her from hurting her own hand.
If she stopped to let herself think about it, she wouldn't help but think about Yang's last disappearance. When Yang had gone to talk to a prisoner, and Ruby hears back that the prison warden was dead and both Yang and the prisoner had disappeared. Then she finds out Yang's in Mountain Glenn, a city overrun by Grimm. That separation had nearly driven Ruby to death through anxiety. Ruby didn't know what was worse. When she had no idea where Yang was, and when she knew exactly where Yang was.
And even if that's the only time Yang was taken before, the sisters kept being separated when things were going bad. Ruby's initial kidnapping, what felt like an eternity ago. Zero's attack on Atlas, where Yang and Ruby had been on opposite sides of the city until the very end. There had been a moment during the tournament when Weiss and Yang had their fight interrupted, and Ruby only learnt later that the corpse of Raven Branwen had attacked her sister while they were separated.
…Before Mountain Glenn, one of Cinder's minions had tried to abduct Yang. Ruby had panicked, struck out. Didn't realise the minion's Aura was broken. Ruby held up hands she knew were clean, but she could see the blood coating them all the same.
The first time Ruby had ever killed a person. The only time, given that Cinder had survived the bullet Ruby put in her lung. And even as the phantom memory of blood crawled down Ruby's hand and made her want to tear the skin from her arms until the sensation went away, she couldn't help the thought that wormed through her skull.
If Ruby had to take another life to save Yang from her new abductor, how long would it take her to do it?
A pair of cold arms wrapped around Ruby's upper body, almost over her shoulders but not quite. A weight fell onto Ruby's shoulder, on the wrong side of her body to see the person leaning against her. Not that she needed to see who it was. If the hardness of the body didn't give it away, it was the willingness to engage in physical intimacy.
"Galatea." Ruby let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding.
"Six." Galatea spoke back. "You are distressed."
"I am." Ruby nodded. "I… I need a distraction. Got anything?"
Galatea hummed. For a moment, Ruby wondered if her distraction was going to be an overt show of affection. Galatea surprised her by taking another route.
"I have been investigating tabletop war games on an earlier suggestion and have been looking over both the mechanical rules and lore of Fight Gear Quadmillion Revengeance." Galatea spoke hesitantly, feeling out how Ruby responded to the words. "One of the factions in lore are the Omega Ocelot Legion. They have no unified faction rulebook because their gimmick is that they have infiltrated every other faction simultaneously, and so every rulebook has a few rules about the specific members of the OOL who are in that faction. I feel as if the people writing the lore do not actually have an unified plan for who the OOL are actually loyal to, but the lore texts raise questions of identity and purpose that-"
"Ahem." The voice of Weiss Schnee broke through Galatea's musings. "I don't think it's working. Ruby looks like she's about to dissociate."
"I was paying attention!" Ruby objected.
"No you weren't." Weiss declared. "You were trying but your attention was starting to wander."
"...Maybe." Ruby sighed. "It's hard to keep things out of my head. I'm worried about Yang."
"Perhaps its because I am attempting to explain things based on a fictional setting you have no basis in?" Galatea asked. "Weiss, you try."
Weiss looked around for a moment, turning her gaze upwards. Ruby couldn't bring herself to look up, but she knew what Weiss was looking at.
"This is one of those Super Robot City's you were excited about earlier." Weiss mused. "As I recall, none of these giant robots ever actually fully functioned. The tests failed, but enough of the functions worked that the Kingdom could claim it used to work for the prestige."
"Oh, that's disappointing." Ruby muttered. She could hear footsteps crushing rubble underfoot and looked back to see who was approaching.
The woman was someone Ruby hadn't seen since she had been in Atlas. It was a servant of the Schnee family. Head butler, or something like that? She was rather tall with red eyes that reminded Ruby of Yang when she was angry. Artzin was her name. Ruby couldn't remember her surname. Ruby was just happy to find out she had survived Zero's attack.
"Lady Six." The tall woman declared with a voice that sounded like iron. "I was looking for you."
"Artzin." Weiss was the one that responded. "What are you doing here?"
"I am trying to organise the crisis response we are currently undergoing." Artzin explained. "Since I am acting as a representative for Lady One, I am currently the highest ranking official in Sentinel. I intend to use the authority as I can."
"Do we know where Yang was taken?" Ruby asked. "I… I know there's a lot going on. There were two bandit groups fighting in the town, right? A lot of people need help right now. But…"
"Yang Xiao Long is an important person." Artzin observed. "Your concern is understandable. However, you are by far a more important person. My recommendation is that you take the airship to Mistral immediately."
"No." Ruby surprised herself with how harsh her voice was when she spoke. She took a moment to breath, calm herself. "I'm sorry. But I'm not leaving without Yang."
"I was afraid you would say that." Artzin spoke matter-of-factly. She didn't sigh, but Ruby's brain felt like she probably really wanted to. "I've already been in contact with One. She informed me to tell you that she will organise a rescue effort in Mistral, but also told me that it would have no impact on your decision."
"She's right." Ruby felt kinda bad just admitting that. "I'm sorry. But… I can't."
Yang was gone again. Ruby had no idea what her kidnapper wanted. Yang might already be dead for all Ruby knew, though she refused to entertain that possibility as anything more then academic. The lesser possibilities were much more real threats.
Maybe Yang was being shipped off to the White Fang, or to Cinder. Maybe some other enemy of One's or some other enemy of the Branwen. Maybe the War Chief was keeping her captive as a trophy, or as a hostage that she would cause harm if her demands weren't met.
Who knew how badly Yang was being treated right now?
[X] …What?
The War Chief cleared her throat. "I said: Marry me."
"No, I heard you." Yang shook her head. "What-"
"I do not understand the confusion." The War Chief interrupted. "Are my words unclear? I am only aware of one definition of 'Marry'."
"I-" Yang's words got ahead of her brain and she realised she had no idea where that sentence was going. She bit her lip and forced herself to think before speaking. "We were enemies. How does this come to marriage?"
"You defeated me." The War Chief reiterated. "Ergo I must offer you the prize. My hand, in marriage. As per the customs of War God."
"And why would I want you for a wife?" Yang asked.
"Ah, no, you misunderstand." The War Chief shook her head. "I would be the husband. You would be the wife. That's why it's a prize for the victor."
Yang opened her mouth. Yang closed her mouth. Yang tilted her head.
"Okay." Yang closed her eyes. "Let's, uh. Let's start with the start. I don't know you and you're coming out with a romantic gesture-"
"Romance?" The War Chief tilted their head. "I am flattered, but I am not so easy a woman. I would not offer romance for at least three months into knowing a person."
And now Yang was even more confused. "Why don't you…"
Yang sighed. Why was she even engaging in this discussion?
…Well, she didn't know where she was. Yang should probably just play along until she got a chance to look around and try to escape.
"Why don't you just tell me what marriage means to you." Yang tried.
"It's a marriage." The War Chief spoke as if it was obvious. "You would be the wife, and I would be the husband. You would get to stay in this fine Hall and enjoy feasts and treasures, and I would be permitted to engage in fights in your name and honour."
"...So it's just." Yang mulled the words over in her head. "You want to use me as an excuse to get in fights?"
"Yes!" The War Chief nodded. "And you would be showered in riches. You would be permitted to give orders to me to bring you specific pleasures if need be. Throughout history, those who bore the title of War Chief have given the order to retrieve the most beautiful jewel in the world, a sword which was once used to kill a Dragon, and the sapling of a magical tree- And all three exist within this Hall to this day!"
…That did sound like a pretty good life, to have someone willing to do stuff like-
Wait. no. No distractions. Yang shook her head to clear the thoughts of temptation. "This sound really convenient given that I was kidnapped against my will. For all I know, accepting this offer binds me to this place with magic."
"No, of course not!" The War Chief objected. "You can leave any time you would like!"
"I'd like to leave." Yang informed her.
The War Chief's eyes dulled. She looked down, her face falling. "I… See."
Yang kept staring at her. It couldn't be that easy, could it?
"You, um." The War Chief bit her lip. "Ah! I have yet to walk you through the proper traditions of hospitality!"
Yeah here was the excuse.
"We can continue on the topic of marriage once I have fulfilled my other duties." The War Chief's smile returned suddenly, perhaps a bit forced.. "Come with me, I must show you the Legacy. You cannot make your decision until you are aware of what you would be accepting or refusing, after all!"
She reached out a hand. Yang stared at it.
"Come along, great warrior!" The War Chief declared. "I shall show you-"
"Are you expecting me to walk?" Yang asked.
"Ah." And the smile fell away again. "I, um. Hm. Ah."
Yang's kidnapper stared at her own hand, which she then put by her side. The War Chief's mouth opened and closed several times. She let out a nervous chuckle, dilated eyes darting to look everywhere but at Yang.
…it was pretty strange to know that someone who had kidnapped Yang and raided a village was also this pathetic in person.
"My back!" The War Chief decided eventually. "I shall carry you upon my back, showing off my suitability as a husband by-"
"Or you can get my hoverchair." Yang offered.
"Or I can get your hoverchair." The War Chief nodded. "I shall return shortly."
The War Chief stormed out of the room like she had Grimm on her heels. Yang waited until her footsteps were no longer echoing down the hall before she let out a breath.
Alright. Good. Yang had some time before the War Chief found the hoverchair and realised it was broken beyond repair. That might give Yang some time to figure out what to do.
The first order of business was to make sure the War Chief was as… Strangely harmless as she appeared. Yang reached her soul after the Dragon Faunus, making sure she was actually looking for the hoverchair. If Yang came across a room that looked like it was designed to cook human meat or found Cinder Fall sitting in a room somewhere, then Yang would know she was in more danger than the War Chief let on.
"Ah, before I forget!" The War Chief called down the halls towards Yang. "The metal cloche at the end of the table is hiding several warmed muffins! Feel free to take any you desire, honoured guest!"
…Well, Yang wasn't gonna turn down free food…
Ruby had no way of knowing what horrors Yang was enduring. She needed to save her sister as soon as possible.
The first step of that was trying to figure out where to even go. It couldn't be that hard. The War Chief apparently had a known area of activity, so that narrowed down where Ruby would need to search. That didn't tell her how big the territory was.
She couldn't just run off blindly in one direction, no matter how bad she wanted to. She might run the wrong direction. That knowledge was the only thing that stayed her hand. Instead she followed Artzin back towards the centre of the crisis response effort. There were a lot of injured people. Ruby nearly found herself drifting towards the injured to heal them with her Song, but Neo pulled her away without breaking her invisibility.
…Neo's Song addiction had redoubled after Ruby had healed her arm. It wouldn't be fair to condemn someone to that and then leave. Still…
"Let me know if anyone looks like they might not make it." Ruby muttered to Artzin. "I don't want to get anyone stuck with an addiction, but if my Song is the only thing that can save them…"
"That may not be necessary." Artzin shook her head. "This far from the heart of Mistral, everyone has a strong Aura and an escape plan. It's rare for people to have their Aura broken and get serious injuries and then survive."
…Oh. That was a fair point.
"Most of those who were injured were the bandits who were captured, and Lady Five has already found them." Artzin pointed Ruby to the other side of the street.
There was a large group of bandits dressed as pirates and a few who looked more standard for bandits by Ruby's eye, all handcuffed or tied up or bound in some other way. And a quarter or so down the way of the way down the line, towards the left side of the group, was Five. She was Singing with her hand on the cheek of a bandit who had a lot of strange scars. They almost looked like tattoos, except there was no ink in sight.
Ruby stepped closer, letting her hear Five's voice once she finished Singing.
"So what did you see?" The older Intoner asked. "Where did the War Chief take Yang?"
"I don't know who that is." The bandit whimpered. "I- Please, my leg-"
"You'll get your leg healed when I hear something I like." Five promised the bandit. "Where would the War Chief take Yang?"
"I don't know." The bandit cried. "I- Please, I never even saw this girl, I don't-"
"Well, I suppose I'll let you surprise me." Five smiled. "Tell me something interesting. You have five seconds."
"I…"
"Four." Five raised her hand, showing off four fingers. She lowered one a second later. "Three."
"Rais is interested in you." The bandit answered. "Our boss."
Five paused with her third finger half-lowered. "Oh?"
"I don't know why." The bandit explained. "But the moment she saw your fight footage she shifted everything to look for you."
"Aw, an admirer." Five smiled. "Maybe when we send you back, you can tell her how to pick a nice present for me."
"...Send me…"
Ruby nearly spoke up, but Artzin stepped closer to Ruby and spoke first.
"Lady Five is preparing for the possibility that these bandits may be a problem for more than just this village." Artzin observed. "If Lady One wills it, Lady Five's Song will ensure the loyalties of a few key agents."
Ruby frowned. Was she getting people addicted to the Song on purpose? That was…
No, Ruby couldn't ignore this.
She ran up before Artzin could pull her aside again, tapping Five on the shoulder.
"Oh, hi." Five turned to Ruby. "Any luck with the sister?"
"...No." Ruby looked away. Damn it, she was getting distracted while Yang was-
It didn't matter if Yang was missing. Ruby shouldn't let her worry distract her from this.
"I don't like this." Ruby gestured towards the bandit.
"...Hold on." Five stepped away from the bandit. "Let's talk out of earshot of them, hm?"
She walked off before Ruby could object. Though Ruby wasn't sure if she would have objected. She followed Five around a corner into an alley, out of sight of everyone else.
"What's the problem?" Five asked.
"You're getting people addicted to the Song on purpose, aren't you?" Ruby asked.
Five paused. "Hm. Oh right, you would be against that."
"Anyone would be against that!" Ruby shouted. Five shushed her, but Ruby only dropped her voice a few octaves. "Haven't you seen what happened to Melanie, to Neo? This isn't something we should do to people!"
"These aren't good people, Ruby." Five pointed out. "They're bandits. Murderers. That guy I was healing up there? The townsfolk were pointing him out to me, saying he was giving orders on who to kill. He deserves it."
"It's not about if he deserves it." Ruby glared at Five. "It's about the act of doing it. It's wrong."
Five closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright. I'll stop."
"I don't understand how you can-" Ruby was halfway through an objection before she realised what Five had said. "...Huh? Just like that?"
"You're a better person than me." Five decided. "And I'd rather not give you more reason to hate me. That's just depressing, you know? I can't have fun when I'm thinking about you being mad at me."
"Oh. Um." Ruby wasn't sure the main underlying issue was solved here. Five wasn't stopping because it was right, she was stopping to make Ruby happy. But with the immediate consequences stopped, Ruby was finding her thoughts pulled back to Yang again. "Ok. Thank you."
"No problem." Five smiled. "Well if I'm not doing anything else, I suppose its time we tracked down your sister-"
There was the sound of a throat clearing at the entrance to the alleyway. Ruby turned towards it to see a man in a red wolf cloak. Raudr.
"I think I can help with that." The man declared.
"Oh?" Ruby approached him. "What do you mean?"
"Me and my boys can sense the Branwen portals opening, right?" Raudr observed. Ruby could remember Yang mentioning something like that, but not the details. "It's pretty fuzzy over a big distance, but we all sensed something earlier. Not enough to tell you where, but enough to give you a clue."
"Anything helps." Ruby answered. "Everything."
"North." Raudrulfr declared. "And at an altitude."
"North and high up." Ruby nodded. That gave her something to work with. If she passed it on to… Anyone with a map really, they might be able to find something.
There should be a map on the airship Artzin had come in. Ruby should make her way there.
…It was probably a good idea to check in on the airship anyway. Dyna had holed up in the airship a while ago and had barely spoken to anyone while Ruby was there. She hoped the girl was alright.
She hoped Yang was alright.
She hoped… She hoped everyone was alright.
She couldn't do anything else at the moment.
The War Chief took her time to return after finding the hoverchair damaged beyond repair. Yang was worried for a while, but she hadn't found any indication she was in active danger. No sign that there was any secret plots beyond the War Chief's words.
That still meant that Yang had been kidnapped by a raider and bandit who was unwilling to let Yang leave anytime soon. It wasn't exactly a good situation. But it didn't look like it was going to get any worse anytime soon.
And then the War Chief returned, with a chair that had been tied to a sled.
"It would appear that your hoverchair has had a tragic accident." The War Chief looked mournful. "However! I have found a replacement!"
The Dragon Faunus has a really stupid smile on her face. It was like she thought she'd had the best idea in the world. Yang looked at the sled chair and…
…Well, there were worse options? There were pillows tied to the chair as well. One on the seat itself and one on the top where the back of Yang's neck would go, but there wasn't much stability. It'd probably be easy for Yang to fall off.
And there was no in-built propulsion or way for Yang to move the sled easily. Riding on it would mean having to rely on the War Chief to push her around.
But if she was in danger because of that she could just teleport away. So for now, Yang was just going to play along and prevent the situation getting worse in a predictable way so she could watch out for unpredictable ways.
The War Chief stepped behind Yang and pushed the chair, moving the sled underneath. Yang paused and remembered a trick Starling had taught her once. With her eyes closed, she reached her soul into the chair to try to stick her body to it-
And failed. The sled hit a bump and Yang fell from the chair. Before she hit the ground, the War Chief lunged forward to try to grab Yang. Yang, for her part, just fell through a portal and landed back on the chair.
The War Chief stumbled but straightened herself to her feet. She looked at Yang, and Yang could see the gears turning behind her eyes as she tried to think of a comment. When the War Chief gave up, she moved back behind the sled and considered the issue.
Yang paused and suddenly realised an easier way to ride the sled. She turned into a bird and let her body rest against the pillow.
"How astounding." The War Chief observed. She pushed the sled further, eventually pushing Yang into a room that looked like an entrance lobby of some sort. There was a big door, and there was half-melted snow lining the entrance of the door.
But instead of approaching the door, the War Chief stepped in front of Yang and gestured to the side. There was a statue at the side of the room, a silhouette of a man that was impossible to make out in detail through the damage done by force and by time. Around the feet of the statue were a collection of strange bricks, coloured a faint brown. Each one had an etching of a face in the side.
"This is the…" The War Chief paused, reaching for the words. "Hm. I have not heard its name pronounced since I was four years old. I do not want to mispronounce the word."
…Since she was four?
It occurred to Yang again that the War Chief was only about Ruby's age, and Yang had not seen any sign that any other person lived in this hall.
"It's name doesn't matter!" The War Chief declared eventually. "It's a key part of the Legacy. When you come to the statue with the memory of victory, it rewards you with that memory made manifest."
The War Chief picked up a brick and held it out towards Yang. "Try it."
…Try it?" Yang observed the brick closely for a moment. The face was hard to make out with the etchings, but it looked…
It looked like one of the Wolf Pack, actually. Yang wasn't sure which one, she didn't get a good look at most of them. But she could see the pattern on the top of the head, resembling the wolfskin cloaks.
Yang took a moment to transform back into human form. With an unsure hand, Yang reached out to touch the brick-
-And recoiled away as the memory filled her. The brick fell onto the sled, and the War Chief looked at Yang expectantly.
"What the-" Yang paused, then looked up. "Was that your memory?"
The War Chief laughed.
"Behold, the power of the Leifstone!" The War Chief declared. "A sacred treasure passed down through…"
She trailed off, frowning. "Leifstone? Lightstone? Lifestone? Leafs Tone? Hm."
She paused, then shook her head. "A sacred treasure passed down from War Chief to War Chief for generations! A secret only known to a select few- Ours by divine right."
She sounded like she was reciting a speech again. Yang tried to push it to something productive. "You have a statue that can just… Replay memories?"
The War Chief paused as if listening to Yang's question. "Yes, the Leifstone. It's truly a marvellous thing. It records memories of victory and allows them to be replayed at any time. Not only does this allow victories to be etched into the memory of the world itself, but it allows one to learn from a fight infinitely!"
She was going off on her speech without waiting for Yang's input again at all huh. Well, Yang was learning something new here. The War Chief had said something to Raudr about never being hit by someone she had fought before. This would be why, then? She just replayed the memory until she memorised your fighting style? That's… Powerful.
Really fucking powerful. Oh man Yang wondered if it would work for her-
"But no prize comes without duty." The War Chief continued. "Listen well, young one, for one day this will be your-"
She slapped her hand over her mouth.
"Young one?" Yang tilted her head
"Ignore that part." The War Chief explained. "That's, uh. That's the wrong speech. I forgot to edit it for the audience."
…She was just using speeches that had been given to her once, wasn't she?
"In this case, the duty of the Leifstone is that of the Legacy." The War Chief walked to the door. "Behold!"
She flung the door open and took a step out. The wind outside slammed the doors shut again, directly onto the War Chief's nose.
The Dragon Faunus winced and very visibly bit down on her tongue. Yang paused to give her a moment to compose herself before she spoke.
"So are you gonna push me outside or…"
"Ah!" The War Chief jumped up, then ran behind Yang again. "Of course. You may want to push the door ahead of you."
Yang did so. The wind outside was heavy and there was some light snowfall, but not enough to bother Yang. She felt like maybe it'd bother her more if she was a bird again, so she stayed human and just held onto the back of the chair with her hands once she was past the door.
With the sun overhead peeking through clouds, Yang saw…
A big tower.
She wasn't gonna lie, it was pretty tall. It reached up a few dozen metres, following the mountain to its peak and leaning against the stony cliff-like face of the mountain in the process. Well, in part. After Yang identified how tall it was, she realised how damaged it was.
The circular tower only had one part of it reaching that high. About a third of the perimeter. The rest had crumbled, been burnt and shattered and collapsed at the base of the mountain. Yang could see an effort put to rebuild it already. She could see the moss climbing over old bricks, and she could see the fresh bricks without any moss.
All those fresh bricks were the same brown as the ones the War Chief had given Yang earlier, but the older bricks had a few which were blood red. Yang had to wonder why, but she suspected she already knew the answer.
And then there were the bricks half-buried in the snow. Burnt and damaged and untouched after what must have been years.
"The work of the War Chief." The girl in question declared as she pushed Yang forward. "Through victory, we create memory. Through memory, we create the Legacy. Through the Legacy, we shall build a tower tall enough to reach past heaven itself."
"...Is this why you raid villages?" Yang asked. "Is this why you were attacking people?"
"Yes!" The girl declared. She had so much enthusiasm in her voice, she must have missed the edge of anger and frustration in Yang's voice.
"It will be many more generations before the Legacy is complete." The War Chief sighed. "It was taller once, and complete. Nearly high enough to overtake the mountain's peak. But…"
The words caught in the girls throat.
"...It will be easier to show you." The War Chief decided. She kept pushing Yang forward, towards the tower. "It's a damaged brick, so the full memory is missing, but…"
As she pushed, Yang looked down at the bricks passing beneath her. Other damaged ones, which were being pushed aside by the sled Yang was riding on. After a moment the War Chief stopped to catch her breath, then moved ahead of Yang to kick snow out of the way.
As Yang was frozen in place, she looked to the side and saw a gathering of burnt-black brick that were otherwise mostly intact. Her eyes passed over most of them without a care, but she stopped on one in particular. The etching upon it was familiar, to the point where Yang couldn't bring herself to look away. Yang reached down with her soul to try and get a feeling of the etching, painting the picture in her mind.
It took her a moment to realise why the etching was familiar. It was identical to the face of Ruby Rose.
…No. Not Ruby. That brick was old, and the girl in the etching had two eyes. But there was someone else who looked a lot like Ruby but older, who would have looked more like Ruby when she was younger.
"Zero?" Yang muttered out loud.
"Did you say something?" The War Chief asked as she shoved snow aside.
Yang looked over to the War Chief while still feeling the brick with her soul.
…She could push into it, she thought. See the memory as if she had touched it with her own hand. It'd be an easy way to see if that was really Zero. And if that was Zero, Yang was standing to learn… Something.
[X] Reach out and replay the memory. There was nothing the War Chief could show that was more important than this.
[X] Put it off for a moment. Let the War Chief show what they wanted to show, ask about the etching of Zero afterwards.
She had heard the report, she knew that was Raudr's blood. But that didn't stop Ruby's mind from conjuring nightmarish what-ifs. This had been where Yang was last seen, where the War Chief had taken her sister, and the bloodstains were heavy.
Yang was gone. Again.
Ruby could feel her nails pushing into her palm. She hadn't cut them in a while, so there was enough there that her Aura was manifesting visibly to keep her from hurting her own hand.
If she stopped to let herself think about it, she wouldn't help but think about Yang's last disappearance. When Yang had gone to talk to a prisoner, and Ruby hears back that the prison warden was dead and both Yang and the prisoner had disappeared. Then she finds out Yang's in Mountain Glenn, a city overrun by Grimm. That separation had nearly driven Ruby to death through anxiety. Ruby didn't know what was worse. When she had no idea where Yang was, and when she knew exactly where Yang was.
And even if that's the only time Yang was taken before, the sisters kept being separated when things were going bad. Ruby's initial kidnapping, what felt like an eternity ago. Zero's attack on Atlas, where Yang and Ruby had been on opposite sides of the city until the very end. There had been a moment during the tournament when Weiss and Yang had their fight interrupted, and Ruby only learnt later that the corpse of Raven Branwen had attacked her sister while they were separated.
…Before Mountain Glenn, one of Cinder's minions had tried to abduct Yang. Ruby had panicked, struck out. Didn't realise the minion's Aura was broken. Ruby held up hands she knew were clean, but she could see the blood coating them all the same.
The first time Ruby had ever killed a person. The only time, given that Cinder had survived the bullet Ruby put in her lung. And even as the phantom memory of blood crawled down Ruby's hand and made her want to tear the skin from her arms until the sensation went away, she couldn't help the thought that wormed through her skull.
If Ruby had to take another life to save Yang from her new abductor, how long would it take her to do it?
A pair of cold arms wrapped around Ruby's upper body, almost over her shoulders but not quite. A weight fell onto Ruby's shoulder, on the wrong side of her body to see the person leaning against her. Not that she needed to see who it was. If the hardness of the body didn't give it away, it was the willingness to engage in physical intimacy.
"Galatea." Ruby let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding.
"Six." Galatea spoke back. "You are distressed."
"I am." Ruby nodded. "I… I need a distraction. Got anything?"
Galatea hummed. For a moment, Ruby wondered if her distraction was going to be an overt show of affection. Galatea surprised her by taking another route.
"I have been investigating tabletop war games on an earlier suggestion and have been looking over both the mechanical rules and lore of Fight Gear Quadmillion Revengeance." Galatea spoke hesitantly, feeling out how Ruby responded to the words. "One of the factions in lore are the Omega Ocelot Legion. They have no unified faction rulebook because their gimmick is that they have infiltrated every other faction simultaneously, and so every rulebook has a few rules about the specific members of the OOL who are in that faction. I feel as if the people writing the lore do not actually have an unified plan for who the OOL are actually loyal to, but the lore texts raise questions of identity and purpose that-"
"Ahem." The voice of Weiss Schnee broke through Galatea's musings. "I don't think it's working. Ruby looks like she's about to dissociate."
"I was paying attention!" Ruby objected.
"No you weren't." Weiss declared. "You were trying but your attention was starting to wander."
"...Maybe." Ruby sighed. "It's hard to keep things out of my head. I'm worried about Yang."
"Perhaps its because I am attempting to explain things based on a fictional setting you have no basis in?" Galatea asked. "Weiss, you try."
Weiss looked around for a moment, turning her gaze upwards. Ruby couldn't bring herself to look up, but she knew what Weiss was looking at.
"This is one of those Super Robot City's you were excited about earlier." Weiss mused. "As I recall, none of these giant robots ever actually fully functioned. The tests failed, but enough of the functions worked that the Kingdom could claim it used to work for the prestige."
"Oh, that's disappointing." Ruby muttered. She could hear footsteps crushing rubble underfoot and looked back to see who was approaching.
The woman was someone Ruby hadn't seen since she had been in Atlas. It was a servant of the Schnee family. Head butler, or something like that? She was rather tall with red eyes that reminded Ruby of Yang when she was angry. Artzin was her name. Ruby couldn't remember her surname. Ruby was just happy to find out she had survived Zero's attack.
"Lady Six." The tall woman declared with a voice that sounded like iron. "I was looking for you."
"Artzin." Weiss was the one that responded. "What are you doing here?"
"I am trying to organise the crisis response we are currently undergoing." Artzin explained. "Since I am acting as a representative for Lady One, I am currently the highest ranking official in Sentinel. I intend to use the authority as I can."
"Do we know where Yang was taken?" Ruby asked. "I… I know there's a lot going on. There were two bandit groups fighting in the town, right? A lot of people need help right now. But…"
"Yang Xiao Long is an important person." Artzin observed. "Your concern is understandable. However, you are by far a more important person. My recommendation is that you take the airship to Mistral immediately."
"No." Ruby surprised herself with how harsh her voice was when she spoke. She took a moment to breath, calm herself. "I'm sorry. But I'm not leaving without Yang."
"I was afraid you would say that." Artzin spoke matter-of-factly. She didn't sigh, but Ruby's brain felt like she probably really wanted to. "I've already been in contact with One. She informed me to tell you that she will organise a rescue effort in Mistral, but also told me that it would have no impact on your decision."
"She's right." Ruby felt kinda bad just admitting that. "I'm sorry. But… I can't."
Yang was gone again. Ruby had no idea what her kidnapper wanted. Yang might already be dead for all Ruby knew, though she refused to entertain that possibility as anything more then academic. The lesser possibilities were much more real threats.
Maybe Yang was being shipped off to the White Fang, or to Cinder. Maybe some other enemy of One's or some other enemy of the Branwen. Maybe the War Chief was keeping her captive as a trophy, or as a hostage that she would cause harm if her demands weren't met.
Who knew how badly Yang was being treated right now?
~~~~~
[X] …What?
The War Chief cleared her throat. "I said: Marry me."
"No, I heard you." Yang shook her head. "What-"
"I do not understand the confusion." The War Chief interrupted. "Are my words unclear? I am only aware of one definition of 'Marry'."
"I-" Yang's words got ahead of her brain and she realised she had no idea where that sentence was going. She bit her lip and forced herself to think before speaking. "We were enemies. How does this come to marriage?"
"You defeated me." The War Chief reiterated. "Ergo I must offer you the prize. My hand, in marriage. As per the customs of War God."
"And why would I want you for a wife?" Yang asked.
"Ah, no, you misunderstand." The War Chief shook her head. "I would be the husband. You would be the wife. That's why it's a prize for the victor."
Yang opened her mouth. Yang closed her mouth. Yang tilted her head.
"Okay." Yang closed her eyes. "Let's, uh. Let's start with the start. I don't know you and you're coming out with a romantic gesture-"
"Romance?" The War Chief tilted their head. "I am flattered, but I am not so easy a woman. I would not offer romance for at least three months into knowing a person."
And now Yang was even more confused. "Why don't you…"
Yang sighed. Why was she even engaging in this discussion?
…Well, she didn't know where she was. Yang should probably just play along until she got a chance to look around and try to escape.
"Why don't you just tell me what marriage means to you." Yang tried.
"It's a marriage." The War Chief spoke as if it was obvious. "You would be the wife, and I would be the husband. You would get to stay in this fine Hall and enjoy feasts and treasures, and I would be permitted to engage in fights in your name and honour."
"...So it's just." Yang mulled the words over in her head. "You want to use me as an excuse to get in fights?"
"Yes!" The War Chief nodded. "And you would be showered in riches. You would be permitted to give orders to me to bring you specific pleasures if need be. Throughout history, those who bore the title of War Chief have given the order to retrieve the most beautiful jewel in the world, a sword which was once used to kill a Dragon, and the sapling of a magical tree- And all three exist within this Hall to this day!"
…That did sound like a pretty good life, to have someone willing to do stuff like-
Wait. no. No distractions. Yang shook her head to clear the thoughts of temptation. "This sound really convenient given that I was kidnapped against my will. For all I know, accepting this offer binds me to this place with magic."
"No, of course not!" The War Chief objected. "You can leave any time you would like!"
"I'd like to leave." Yang informed her.
The War Chief's eyes dulled. She looked down, her face falling. "I… See."
Yang kept staring at her. It couldn't be that easy, could it?
"You, um." The War Chief bit her lip. "Ah! I have yet to walk you through the proper traditions of hospitality!"
Yeah here was the excuse.
"We can continue on the topic of marriage once I have fulfilled my other duties." The War Chief's smile returned suddenly, perhaps a bit forced.. "Come with me, I must show you the Legacy. You cannot make your decision until you are aware of what you would be accepting or refusing, after all!"
She reached out a hand. Yang stared at it.
"Come along, great warrior!" The War Chief declared. "I shall show you-"
"Are you expecting me to walk?" Yang asked.
"Ah." And the smile fell away again. "I, um. Hm. Ah."
Yang's kidnapper stared at her own hand, which she then put by her side. The War Chief's mouth opened and closed several times. She let out a nervous chuckle, dilated eyes darting to look everywhere but at Yang.
…it was pretty strange to know that someone who had kidnapped Yang and raided a village was also this pathetic in person.
"My back!" The War Chief decided eventually. "I shall carry you upon my back, showing off my suitability as a husband by-"
"Or you can get my hoverchair." Yang offered.
"Or I can get your hoverchair." The War Chief nodded. "I shall return shortly."
The War Chief stormed out of the room like she had Grimm on her heels. Yang waited until her footsteps were no longer echoing down the hall before she let out a breath.
Alright. Good. Yang had some time before the War Chief found the hoverchair and realised it was broken beyond repair. That might give Yang some time to figure out what to do.
The first order of business was to make sure the War Chief was as… Strangely harmless as she appeared. Yang reached her soul after the Dragon Faunus, making sure she was actually looking for the hoverchair. If Yang came across a room that looked like it was designed to cook human meat or found Cinder Fall sitting in a room somewhere, then Yang would know she was in more danger than the War Chief let on.
"Ah, before I forget!" The War Chief called down the halls towards Yang. "The metal cloche at the end of the table is hiding several warmed muffins! Feel free to take any you desire, honoured guest!"
…Well, Yang wasn't gonna turn down free food…
~~~~~
Ruby had no way of knowing what horrors Yang was enduring. She needed to save her sister as soon as possible.
The first step of that was trying to figure out where to even go. It couldn't be that hard. The War Chief apparently had a known area of activity, so that narrowed down where Ruby would need to search. That didn't tell her how big the territory was.
She couldn't just run off blindly in one direction, no matter how bad she wanted to. She might run the wrong direction. That knowledge was the only thing that stayed her hand. Instead she followed Artzin back towards the centre of the crisis response effort. There were a lot of injured people. Ruby nearly found herself drifting towards the injured to heal them with her Song, but Neo pulled her away without breaking her invisibility.
…Neo's Song addiction had redoubled after Ruby had healed her arm. It wouldn't be fair to condemn someone to that and then leave. Still…
"Let me know if anyone looks like they might not make it." Ruby muttered to Artzin. "I don't want to get anyone stuck with an addiction, but if my Song is the only thing that can save them…"
"That may not be necessary." Artzin shook her head. "This far from the heart of Mistral, everyone has a strong Aura and an escape plan. It's rare for people to have their Aura broken and get serious injuries and then survive."
…Oh. That was a fair point.
"Most of those who were injured were the bandits who were captured, and Lady Five has already found them." Artzin pointed Ruby to the other side of the street.
There was a large group of bandits dressed as pirates and a few who looked more standard for bandits by Ruby's eye, all handcuffed or tied up or bound in some other way. And a quarter or so down the way of the way down the line, towards the left side of the group, was Five. She was Singing with her hand on the cheek of a bandit who had a lot of strange scars. They almost looked like tattoos, except there was no ink in sight.
Ruby stepped closer, letting her hear Five's voice once she finished Singing.
"So what did you see?" The older Intoner asked. "Where did the War Chief take Yang?"
"I don't know who that is." The bandit whimpered. "I- Please, my leg-"
"You'll get your leg healed when I hear something I like." Five promised the bandit. "Where would the War Chief take Yang?"
"I don't know." The bandit cried. "I- Please, I never even saw this girl, I don't-"
"Well, I suppose I'll let you surprise me." Five smiled. "Tell me something interesting. You have five seconds."
"I…"
"Four." Five raised her hand, showing off four fingers. She lowered one a second later. "Three."
"Rais is interested in you." The bandit answered. "Our boss."
Five paused with her third finger half-lowered. "Oh?"
"I don't know why." The bandit explained. "But the moment she saw your fight footage she shifted everything to look for you."
"Aw, an admirer." Five smiled. "Maybe when we send you back, you can tell her how to pick a nice present for me."
"...Send me…"
Ruby nearly spoke up, but Artzin stepped closer to Ruby and spoke first.
"Lady Five is preparing for the possibility that these bandits may be a problem for more than just this village." Artzin observed. "If Lady One wills it, Lady Five's Song will ensure the loyalties of a few key agents."
Ruby frowned. Was she getting people addicted to the Song on purpose? That was…
No, Ruby couldn't ignore this.
She ran up before Artzin could pull her aside again, tapping Five on the shoulder.
"Oh, hi." Five turned to Ruby. "Any luck with the sister?"
"...No." Ruby looked away. Damn it, she was getting distracted while Yang was-
It didn't matter if Yang was missing. Ruby shouldn't let her worry distract her from this.
"I don't like this." Ruby gestured towards the bandit.
"...Hold on." Five stepped away from the bandit. "Let's talk out of earshot of them, hm?"
She walked off before Ruby could object. Though Ruby wasn't sure if she would have objected. She followed Five around a corner into an alley, out of sight of everyone else.
"What's the problem?" Five asked.
"You're getting people addicted to the Song on purpose, aren't you?" Ruby asked.
Five paused. "Hm. Oh right, you would be against that."
"Anyone would be against that!" Ruby shouted. Five shushed her, but Ruby only dropped her voice a few octaves. "Haven't you seen what happened to Melanie, to Neo? This isn't something we should do to people!"
"These aren't good people, Ruby." Five pointed out. "They're bandits. Murderers. That guy I was healing up there? The townsfolk were pointing him out to me, saying he was giving orders on who to kill. He deserves it."
"It's not about if he deserves it." Ruby glared at Five. "It's about the act of doing it. It's wrong."
Five closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright. I'll stop."
"I don't understand how you can-" Ruby was halfway through an objection before she realised what Five had said. "...Huh? Just like that?"
"You're a better person than me." Five decided. "And I'd rather not give you more reason to hate me. That's just depressing, you know? I can't have fun when I'm thinking about you being mad at me."
"Oh. Um." Ruby wasn't sure the main underlying issue was solved here. Five wasn't stopping because it was right, she was stopping to make Ruby happy. But with the immediate consequences stopped, Ruby was finding her thoughts pulled back to Yang again. "Ok. Thank you."
"No problem." Five smiled. "Well if I'm not doing anything else, I suppose its time we tracked down your sister-"
There was the sound of a throat clearing at the entrance to the alleyway. Ruby turned towards it to see a man in a red wolf cloak. Raudr.
"I think I can help with that." The man declared.
"Oh?" Ruby approached him. "What do you mean?"
"Me and my boys can sense the Branwen portals opening, right?" Raudr observed. Ruby could remember Yang mentioning something like that, but not the details. "It's pretty fuzzy over a big distance, but we all sensed something earlier. Not enough to tell you where, but enough to give you a clue."
"Anything helps." Ruby answered. "Everything."
"North." Raudrulfr declared. "And at an altitude."
"North and high up." Ruby nodded. That gave her something to work with. If she passed it on to… Anyone with a map really, they might be able to find something.
There should be a map on the airship Artzin had come in. Ruby should make her way there.
…It was probably a good idea to check in on the airship anyway. Dyna had holed up in the airship a while ago and had barely spoken to anyone while Ruby was there. She hoped the girl was alright.
She hoped Yang was alright.
She hoped… She hoped everyone was alright.
She couldn't do anything else at the moment.
~~~~~
The War Chief took her time to return after finding the hoverchair damaged beyond repair. Yang was worried for a while, but she hadn't found any indication she was in active danger. No sign that there was any secret plots beyond the War Chief's words.
That still meant that Yang had been kidnapped by a raider and bandit who was unwilling to let Yang leave anytime soon. It wasn't exactly a good situation. But it didn't look like it was going to get any worse anytime soon.
And then the War Chief returned, with a chair that had been tied to a sled.
"It would appear that your hoverchair has had a tragic accident." The War Chief looked mournful. "However! I have found a replacement!"
The Dragon Faunus has a really stupid smile on her face. It was like she thought she'd had the best idea in the world. Yang looked at the sled chair and…
…Well, there were worse options? There were pillows tied to the chair as well. One on the seat itself and one on the top where the back of Yang's neck would go, but there wasn't much stability. It'd probably be easy for Yang to fall off.
And there was no in-built propulsion or way for Yang to move the sled easily. Riding on it would mean having to rely on the War Chief to push her around.
But if she was in danger because of that she could just teleport away. So for now, Yang was just going to play along and prevent the situation getting worse in a predictable way so she could watch out for unpredictable ways.
The War Chief stepped behind Yang and pushed the chair, moving the sled underneath. Yang paused and remembered a trick Starling had taught her once. With her eyes closed, she reached her soul into the chair to try to stick her body to it-
And failed. The sled hit a bump and Yang fell from the chair. Before she hit the ground, the War Chief lunged forward to try to grab Yang. Yang, for her part, just fell through a portal and landed back on the chair.
The War Chief stumbled but straightened herself to her feet. She looked at Yang, and Yang could see the gears turning behind her eyes as she tried to think of a comment. When the War Chief gave up, she moved back behind the sled and considered the issue.
Yang paused and suddenly realised an easier way to ride the sled. She turned into a bird and let her body rest against the pillow.
"How astounding." The War Chief observed. She pushed the sled further, eventually pushing Yang into a room that looked like an entrance lobby of some sort. There was a big door, and there was half-melted snow lining the entrance of the door.
But instead of approaching the door, the War Chief stepped in front of Yang and gestured to the side. There was a statue at the side of the room, a silhouette of a man that was impossible to make out in detail through the damage done by force and by time. Around the feet of the statue were a collection of strange bricks, coloured a faint brown. Each one had an etching of a face in the side.
"This is the…" The War Chief paused, reaching for the words. "Hm. I have not heard its name pronounced since I was four years old. I do not want to mispronounce the word."
…Since she was four?
It occurred to Yang again that the War Chief was only about Ruby's age, and Yang had not seen any sign that any other person lived in this hall.
"It's name doesn't matter!" The War Chief declared eventually. "It's a key part of the Legacy. When you come to the statue with the memory of victory, it rewards you with that memory made manifest."
The War Chief picked up a brick and held it out towards Yang. "Try it."
…Try it?" Yang observed the brick closely for a moment. The face was hard to make out with the etchings, but it looked…
It looked like one of the Wolf Pack, actually. Yang wasn't sure which one, she didn't get a good look at most of them. But she could see the pattern on the top of the head, resembling the wolfskin cloaks.
Yang took a moment to transform back into human form. With an unsure hand, Yang reached out to touch the brick-
The warrior in the green wolkskin cloak charged forward, hand turning to claws as he charged. The girl met the charge head-on, her fist meeting the tip of his claws and letting both of their Aura's burn. Both ceased their forward momentum in unison.
With her foe stopped, the girl could get a feel of her foe. This one was… Disappointing. She let the Battle Cry fall from her horns and fill her body, letting it build up within her for a moment, before striking the man in the forehead as hard as she could.
The man stumbled. The Battle Cry shot through his Aura and rattled his brain in his skull. The force of the blow ripped up dust from the earth and blinded the outside world to the two, so nobody saw that the green-cloaked warrior fell instantly.
That gave the girl time to break his Aura with her foot and let her Semblance take him from the battle.
With her foe stopped, the girl could get a feel of her foe. This one was… Disappointing. She let the Battle Cry fall from her horns and fill her body, letting it build up within her for a moment, before striking the man in the forehead as hard as she could.
The man stumbled. The Battle Cry shot through his Aura and rattled his brain in his skull. The force of the blow ripped up dust from the earth and blinded the outside world to the two, so nobody saw that the green-cloaked warrior fell instantly.
That gave the girl time to break his Aura with her foot and let her Semblance take him from the battle.
-And recoiled away as the memory filled her. The brick fell onto the sled, and the War Chief looked at Yang expectantly.
"What the-" Yang paused, then looked up. "Was that your memory?"
The War Chief laughed.
"Behold, the power of the Leifstone!" The War Chief declared. "A sacred treasure passed down through…"
She trailed off, frowning. "Leifstone? Lightstone? Lifestone? Leafs Tone? Hm."
She paused, then shook her head. "A sacred treasure passed down from War Chief to War Chief for generations! A secret only known to a select few- Ours by divine right."
She sounded like she was reciting a speech again. Yang tried to push it to something productive. "You have a statue that can just… Replay memories?"
The War Chief paused as if listening to Yang's question. "Yes, the Leifstone. It's truly a marvellous thing. It records memories of victory and allows them to be replayed at any time. Not only does this allow victories to be etched into the memory of the world itself, but it allows one to learn from a fight infinitely!"
She was going off on her speech without waiting for Yang's input again at all huh. Well, Yang was learning something new here. The War Chief had said something to Raudr about never being hit by someone she had fought before. This would be why, then? She just replayed the memory until she memorised your fighting style? That's… Powerful.
Really fucking powerful. Oh man Yang wondered if it would work for her-
"But no prize comes without duty." The War Chief continued. "Listen well, young one, for one day this will be your-"
She slapped her hand over her mouth.
"Young one?" Yang tilted her head
"Ignore that part." The War Chief explained. "That's, uh. That's the wrong speech. I forgot to edit it for the audience."
…She was just using speeches that had been given to her once, wasn't she?
"In this case, the duty of the Leifstone is that of the Legacy." The War Chief walked to the door. "Behold!"
She flung the door open and took a step out. The wind outside slammed the doors shut again, directly onto the War Chief's nose.
The Dragon Faunus winced and very visibly bit down on her tongue. Yang paused to give her a moment to compose herself before she spoke.
"So are you gonna push me outside or…"
"Ah!" The War Chief jumped up, then ran behind Yang again. "Of course. You may want to push the door ahead of you."
Yang did so. The wind outside was heavy and there was some light snowfall, but not enough to bother Yang. She felt like maybe it'd bother her more if she was a bird again, so she stayed human and just held onto the back of the chair with her hands once she was past the door.
With the sun overhead peeking through clouds, Yang saw…
A big tower.
She wasn't gonna lie, it was pretty tall. It reached up a few dozen metres, following the mountain to its peak and leaning against the stony cliff-like face of the mountain in the process. Well, in part. After Yang identified how tall it was, she realised how damaged it was.
The circular tower only had one part of it reaching that high. About a third of the perimeter. The rest had crumbled, been burnt and shattered and collapsed at the base of the mountain. Yang could see an effort put to rebuild it already. She could see the moss climbing over old bricks, and she could see the fresh bricks without any moss.
All those fresh bricks were the same brown as the ones the War Chief had given Yang earlier, but the older bricks had a few which were blood red. Yang had to wonder why, but she suspected she already knew the answer.
And then there were the bricks half-buried in the snow. Burnt and damaged and untouched after what must have been years.
"The work of the War Chief." The girl in question declared as she pushed Yang forward. "Through victory, we create memory. Through memory, we create the Legacy. Through the Legacy, we shall build a tower tall enough to reach past heaven itself."
"...Is this why you raid villages?" Yang asked. "Is this why you were attacking people?"
"Yes!" The girl declared. She had so much enthusiasm in her voice, she must have missed the edge of anger and frustration in Yang's voice.
"It will be many more generations before the Legacy is complete." The War Chief sighed. "It was taller once, and complete. Nearly high enough to overtake the mountain's peak. But…"
The words caught in the girls throat.
"...It will be easier to show you." The War Chief decided. She kept pushing Yang forward, towards the tower. "It's a damaged brick, so the full memory is missing, but…"
As she pushed, Yang looked down at the bricks passing beneath her. Other damaged ones, which were being pushed aside by the sled Yang was riding on. After a moment the War Chief stopped to catch her breath, then moved ahead of Yang to kick snow out of the way.
As Yang was frozen in place, she looked to the side and saw a gathering of burnt-black brick that were otherwise mostly intact. Her eyes passed over most of them without a care, but she stopped on one in particular. The etching upon it was familiar, to the point where Yang couldn't bring herself to look away. Yang reached down with her soul to try and get a feeling of the etching, painting the picture in her mind.
It took her a moment to realise why the etching was familiar. It was identical to the face of Ruby Rose.
…No. Not Ruby. That brick was old, and the girl in the etching had two eyes. But there was someone else who looked a lot like Ruby but older, who would have looked more like Ruby when she was younger.
"Zero?" Yang muttered out loud.
"Did you say something?" The War Chief asked as she shoved snow aside.
Yang looked over to the War Chief while still feeling the brick with her soul.
…She could push into it, she thought. See the memory as if she had touched it with her own hand. It'd be an easy way to see if that was really Zero. And if that was Zero, Yang was standing to learn… Something.
[X] Reach out and replay the memory. There was nothing the War Chief could show that was more important than this.
[X] Put it off for a moment. Let the War Chief show what they wanted to show, ask about the etching of Zero afterwards.
Last edited:
[X] Reach out and replay the memory. There was nothing the War Chief could show that was more important than this.
ApocalypticFish
Been reflecting lately.
[X] Reach out and replay the memory. There was nothing the War Chief could show that was more important than this.
Update 457 - Not How It's Supposed To Go
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
[X] Reach out and replay the memory. There was nothing the War Chief could show that was more important than this.
With how many enemies Yang had, it wasn't possible for her to keep them all in her head at once. Oh sure she could list them out, she could count down Zero, Cinder, the White Fang, Penny, Satanael…
And those were just the enemies most immediately apparent. If you gave Yang time she could count down the priority list of the White Fang. Blake was sitting on the top of that list with what she did to Winter and Qrow. Doctor Merlot had made Satanael and Shuck Baskerville, and Ruby was taking aim at him. The Dragon of Mistral had given Yang a warning in a dream and Yang was inclined to distrust anyone who came at her out of nowhere to threaten her. Yang could go on.
When you had that many enemies, you had to sort out who you considered the biggest priority at any given moment. Cinder was always a concern because the Corpse Goddess could interfere with Yang's portals. The Grimm were omnipresent, but Yang had to consider them less than Raven until a powerful one came into her view.
The enemy in the room with Yang was almost always the biggest priority.
But not now.
The War Chief had fought Yang, kidnapped her, was keeping her here. She also didn't seem to want to kill Yang, nor did she seem to want anything from Yang apart from keeping her here. Even if she was in the room, Yang didn't need to consider how to handle the War Chief to survive. If Yang had to leave herself vulnerable to the War Chief to head off an attack from Raven, for instance? Yang would do that in a heartbeat, even if she'd prefer to do both.
So here Yang was. The threat in the room wasn't one that was going to kill her if Yang messed up, at least not as far as Yang could tell. And at Yang's feet - Metaphorically - Was something that might be information on another threat. A much bigger threat objectively, but also distant.
So what was the bigger priority? Managing a nonlethal enemy? Or potentially finding information on the most lethal enemy?
It was an easy decision to make.
Yang's soul pushed into the brick-
The world flickered, the rain distorted, and
But Yang could see her perfectly fine. The damaged brick showed her not reality, but that which was remembered. Perhaps the man had seen the other girl before, and thus remembered her face.
She was so much like Ruby that Yang couldn't help but complete the illusion in her mind. If she looked away from that white hair and focused too much on the shape of it, if she looked past the death in her eyes and instead looked only at the silver gleam, if she looked past the scars and bruises underneath her Aura and took in just the shape of her face, if she looked past the way the bones were showing underneath the skin and just looked at the shape of her body…
It wasn't a complete recreation. Even if Yang tried to look past it, each unexpected difference would jar her mind for just a moment and break the illusion. And even without that, she looked older. Not an adult, but older.
But even still. To look at Zero was to look at a mirror of Ruby Rose.
The world flickered again. It was disorientating, to watch a memory through another's eyes when it was fragmented. One moment the man was on his feet, running in pursuit of Zero, and the next
The world distorted
The world distorted
The world distorted, again and again until it was impossible for Yang to be lost in the memory any longer. She had to pick out traces from the fragments left to her. Zero must have run out of weapons after the chakrams, because Yang never saw her using anything but her fists after that-
No, that wasn't entirely true. She kept reaching into her own clothing, but the man kept grappling her wrist to stop her from reaching within. The fight was hard to track with how fragmented it was, but it came to be that Zero was tired, exhausted ,hurt. Things Yang couldn't believe were words to describe Zero.
But then, this Zero fought in a way Yang had never seen. She wasn't killing things instantly. She had used several weapons she had hidden somehow, though she never seemed more than mildly competent with them, she was happy to abandon a spear to strike with a dagger.
It would seem that the Zero of this memory was not the Zero that Yang had seen fight before. She had yet to truly come into her true might.
And in the next fragment
And the memory fell away, and Yang found herself half-buried in the snow.
A pair of hands had taken the collar of Yang's shirt, shaking her and pulling her up.
"What is wrong?" The War Chief seemed frantic. "Are you ill? Do you require medicine?"
"Hey- Hey." Yang grabbed the War Chief's hands to force the other girl to hold her steady. "I'm fine. Hold on."
"What is the matter?" The War Chief asked. "You seem an. Ana. What's the word. The thing where your blood is bad so you pass out randomly."
"Anemic?" Yang wasn't sure that was actually what anemia was, but she seemed to know more than this girl. "No, it's not that. I…"
Yang should maybe not tell her kidnapper that she had magic.
"My foot touched a brick." Yang lied. "I didn't feel it because…"
"I failed to move a brick far enough." The War Chief sighed. "Forgive me."
"It's fine." Yang shook her head. "It was… An interesting vision. I knew the person in that fight, wanted to know more about them. Learnt a few things."
The War Chief paused to look around. Yang pointed out the brick with Zero's visage for her, and the woman picked it up.
"A Blood Memory." The War Chief mused. "A damaged one at that. I'm surprised you're as good as you are. Accidentally touching a damaged memory is disorientating, and even prepared a Blood Memory carries a weight."
"Hn." Yang didn't know what else to say. "Mind putting me back in my chair?"
The War Chief blinked. "Of course! Why, I was just about to do so myself!"
She took a moment to position Yang back on a chair, taking the time to position her legs so they were far from the edge of the sled.
"I shall give you a moment to recover." The Dragon Faunus nodded. She rubbed against her horns for some reason. A stress response? Her eyes did shift after touching her horns, relaxing. "I am curious as to how you heard of the person in that memory, though-"
"I fought them a few months ago." Yang answered. "That's Zero. She broke my spine."
The War Chief froze.
"...Is something the matter?" Yang asked.
The girl reached down to pick up the brick. She brushed off the snow and then tilted it in her hand a few times.
"...What do you hope to gain from this?"
It was Yang's turn to freeze now. The War Chief's voice had turned cold suddenly. She had gone from trying really hard to be a showman to sounding like she had a knife to Yang's throat.
"What-"
"Why even lie?" The girl asked. "What's the point?"
"What do you mean-" Yang bit back on her tongue to try to think through her sentence, but that lasted only a moment. Being called a liar for no reason set her off pretty badly, apparently. "I'm not fucking lying."
"It's a Blood Memory!" The War Chief shook the brick in front of Yang's eyes with a snarl on her lips. "These are only red if the fight ends in death! This woman is dead! Why are you lying to me?"
"What the fucks your problem?" Yang snarled back. In the corner of her mind, she felt something was wrong here. It was like she was looking at a pair of puzzle pieces that fit together, and she'd just need to connect them and she'd understand what was happening here. But Yang was never really one for puzzles. "Why would I lie about the woman whole broke my spine-"
Flames filled Yang's vision, the Aura on her face flared, and her mind faltered.
The heat and orange glow overwhelmed the cold air, and suddenly Yang was back in her memories, back in Atlas. Cinder was there, and her father was-
And then the flames disappeared. Yang had fallen from her chair in the interim, and she could look up at the War Chief to see the smoke around her maw. She had breathed out fire? What the fuck? What a c-
"No…" The War Chief turned away, a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated and staring into nothingness. "I… I didn't mean…"
The words only somewhat fit into Yang's brain. Her body was already acting. Just as the mere sight of flames drove her to mindless, memoryless panic, the idea that someone had used the fire against Yang to hurt her over a pointless fucking argument drove her to mindless rage. It was hardly memoryless, not when Yang seemed so hyperaware of every action she took to carry out that range, but she didn't even need to think of it to do it.
Her portal flickered open and close, and as Yang fell her fist shot forward into the War Chief's face. The girl stumbled back and fell, both human and Faunus falling apart at the exact same time.
Yang had expected retaliation. A fist, or a foot, or more flame. But even as the War Chief stood, she didn't react at all.
That's what broke through Yang's awareness. Her anger at the sudden attack grew muted as she looked up at the younger girl, watched as her face froze contorted in horror.
"This wasn't how this was supposed to go." The War Chief muttered to herself. "This was supposed to be…"
Her hands were shaking. Her hands ran along the horns on her head, but as that did nothing they fell away again. She kept fidgeting. Drew them together and then held them apart. She moved them behind her back, then moved them in front of her and grabbed her opposing biceps.
Even without thinking, those puzzle pieces came together.
The moment Yang had come to the War Chief in the feasting hall, she had been trying to keep up with a performance. A prepared script for a prepared duty, to the point where she responded to interruptions by restarting.
When information she took as fact was challenge, her mind leapt to lies rather than a difference in understanding. When that challenge remained, she turned to violence.
When the girl had failed to give a name to the statue leading to the Legacy, she said she had not heard the word pronounced since she was four years old.
…When was the last time anyone but the War Chief had been in this hall?
When was the last time the girl had interacted with another human that she wasn't actively fighting?
That thought left Yang trapped in her own body as she had to mull it over.
What did it mean, even if Yang was on the right track with that thought? She'd still spat out a fireball at Yang over what was literally nothing, and just thinking that brought back a rush of anger. That was a strong feeling. There was a chance Yang had connected the puzzle entirely wrong here, and even if she had the right picture that didn't change her anger.
There was a cackle of energy. Yang looked back to see the wings of light forming around the War Chief's back, and the girl took flight before Yang could react. She ascended past the ruined tower, rising until she was high enough to be hard to make out as she settled onto the mountain.
Yang took a moment to teleport back into the chair on the sled. Didn't want to accidentally bump into another brick. It was a miracle she'd avoided any either of the times she had fallen since that whole mess started.
…Well now what was she supposed to do?
Sitting out in the snow, Yang looked up to the girl at the mountaintop and tried to think of what to do next.
…Maybe now was a good time to try to escape? Not that Yang knew where she was. She knew the War Chief had a boat somewhere, but Yang hadn't found it while scanning the building with her power. Given the current lack of threat, Yang was wondering if the best plan was just to wait for Ruby to find her.
…Yang wondered how Ruby was doing. It occurred to her suddenly that she didn't even know how long she'd been unconscious. She didn't wake up feeling hungry, but the War Chief's Semblance might've done something there…
[X] This seems like a good place to segue back to Ruby. We can circle back to Yang later.
[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now.
With how many enemies Yang had, it wasn't possible for her to keep them all in her head at once. Oh sure she could list them out, she could count down Zero, Cinder, the White Fang, Penny, Satanael…
And those were just the enemies most immediately apparent. If you gave Yang time she could count down the priority list of the White Fang. Blake was sitting on the top of that list with what she did to Winter and Qrow. Doctor Merlot had made Satanael and Shuck Baskerville, and Ruby was taking aim at him. The Dragon of Mistral had given Yang a warning in a dream and Yang was inclined to distrust anyone who came at her out of nowhere to threaten her. Yang could go on.
When you had that many enemies, you had to sort out who you considered the biggest priority at any given moment. Cinder was always a concern because the Corpse Goddess could interfere with Yang's portals. The Grimm were omnipresent, but Yang had to consider them less than Raven until a powerful one came into her view.
The enemy in the room with Yang was almost always the biggest priority.
But not now.
The War Chief had fought Yang, kidnapped her, was keeping her here. She also didn't seem to want to kill Yang, nor did she seem to want anything from Yang apart from keeping her here. Even if she was in the room, Yang didn't need to consider how to handle the War Chief to survive. If Yang had to leave herself vulnerable to the War Chief to head off an attack from Raven, for instance? Yang would do that in a heartbeat, even if she'd prefer to do both.
So here Yang was. The threat in the room wasn't one that was going to kill her if Yang messed up, at least not as far as Yang could tell. And at Yang's feet - Metaphorically - Was something that might be information on another threat. A much bigger threat objectively, but also distant.
So what was the bigger priority? Managing a nonlethal enemy? Or potentially finding information on the most lethal enemy?
It was an easy decision to make.
Yang's soul pushed into the brick-
The man stood surrounded by stone spires and stalagmites, like fangs and broken teeth shooting out of the bottom jaw of the earth. His fists were bloody, despite his Aura, despite the endless rainfall-
But there were no clouds. If Yang turned her attention to the skies from the man's point of view, she could see no sky at all. If she looked in the corner of his eyes, she could see the world blue and then disappear. The memory was flawed, she knew somehow. The burnt brick was damaged, and the memory it carried damaged all the same.The world flickered, the rain distorted, and
The man buried his fist in a stalagmite, shattering the stone and scattering it to the world around him. A shadow fell from atop the stalagmite as it collapsed, turning their fall into an attack as they brandished the dagger in their hand. The dagger met the man's neck, but his forearm threw aside the silhouette. To see them through the rain was a difficult affair-
But Yang could see her perfectly fine. The damaged brick showed her not reality, but that which was remembered. Perhaps the man had seen the other girl before, and thus remembered her face.
She was so much like Ruby that Yang couldn't help but complete the illusion in her mind. If she looked away from that white hair and focused too much on the shape of it, if she looked past the death in her eyes and instead looked only at the silver gleam, if she looked past the scars and bruises underneath her Aura and took in just the shape of her face, if she looked past the way the bones were showing underneath the skin and just looked at the shape of her body…
It wasn't a complete recreation. Even if Yang tried to look past it, each unexpected difference would jar her mind for just a moment and break the illusion. And even without that, she looked older. Not an adult, but older.
But even still. To look at Zero was to look at a mirror of Ruby Rose.
The man rushed forward and ripped the dagger out of the girl's hands, crushing the steel beneath his fingers once her Aura no longer protected it. A curse tore through the sky; Not aimed at the man, but a way for the girl to release the stress of a losing fight. She turned and ran, her shadow disappearing beneath another spire-
The world flickered again. It was disorientating, to watch a memory through another's eyes when it was fragmented. One moment the man was on his feet, running in pursuit of Zero, and the next
Pain laced through the man's body as he looked up to the sky. The dark clouds, as black as Grimm with thunderous rain, were interrupted by the girl in white. She held a sword in her hand, one that never thinned in length. There was not a tip; The end of the blade was a curve that was almost a flat line in and of itself. Some kind of steam and smoke rose from the blade, and the sound of thunder echoed from the blade as well as the sky.
The girl drove the blade into the man's throat, but his Aura held. Every instant the blade was making contact was like a new thunderbolt was striking the man, electricity flowing through his Aura and burning through it.
The man struck the ground beneath him hard enough to shatter the earth. The woman stumbled, the sword pulling away from his face long enough for him to lunge forward. His fangs closed around the edge of the blade, and as thunder drew directly into his maw he ripped it away from the woman.
His jaw tightened, and this blade shattered as well-
The girl drove the blade into the man's throat, but his Aura held. Every instant the blade was making contact was like a new thunderbolt was striking the man, electricity flowing through his Aura and burning through it.
The man struck the ground beneath him hard enough to shatter the earth. The woman stumbled, the sword pulling away from his face long enough for him to lunge forward. His fangs closed around the edge of the blade, and as thunder drew directly into his maw he ripped it away from the woman.
His jaw tightened, and this blade shattered as well-
The world distorted
And the man caught the fat bladehead of a thin spear with his palm, the tip halting against his Aura as it pierced through a rock pillar. A second later the girl leapt over the pillar, falling upon him again with another dagger that cut the Aura above his ear.
The world distorted
And a pair of chakram flew from behind another spire, just a second out of synch. Multi-bladed circles soaring through the air at such speed that the pattern like an eye in the centre was almost impossible to see. The man shattered both weapons with his fist, punching into their centres to destroy the decoration and let the damage shatter the outer ring.
The world distorted, again and again until it was impossible for Yang to be lost in the memory any longer. She had to pick out traces from the fragments left to her. Zero must have run out of weapons after the chakrams, because Yang never saw her using anything but her fists after that-
No, that wasn't entirely true. She kept reaching into her own clothing, but the man kept grappling her wrist to stop her from reaching within. The fight was hard to track with how fragmented it was, but it came to be that Zero was tired, exhausted ,hurt. Things Yang couldn't believe were words to describe Zero.
But then, this Zero fought in a way Yang had never seen. She wasn't killing things instantly. She had used several weapons she had hidden somehow, though she never seemed more than mildly competent with them, she was happy to abandon a spear to strike with a dagger.
It would seem that the Zero of this memory was not the Zero that Yang had seen fight before. She had yet to truly come into her true might.
And in the next fragment
The man's fist shattered the sound barrier, striking loud enough to be thunder in and of itself. The blow began almost horizontal, but hooked upwards as he swung and caught the girl in the stomach.
The girl's Aura shattered at that fist. She was ripped from her feet, held up by the fist until even doubled over she was at eye-level with her attacker. Blood ripped from her lips, blinding the man for a fraction of a second.
The girl's Aura shattered at that fist. She was ripped from her feet, held up by the fist until even doubled over she was at eye-level with her attacker. Blood ripped from her lips, blinding the man for a fraction of a second.
The sky bled red.
And the man looked down at her as she fell. She wasn't moving, even as the man could do nothing but wipe the blood from his eyes. He looked down to see the girl unmoving, broken. A smile touched his lips as he let the rain wash the blood from his hand-
There was a twitch from below. The man looked down to see the girl's hand disappearing beneath her body, into her clothes. He brought his foot down to kick her over, but her hand emerged before he could strike.
Even as weak as she was, the girl had enough force to fling the grenade upwards. The man cursed her name and kicked off the ground before he could kick the girl, throwing himself back and-
There was a twitch from below. The man looked down to see the girl's hand disappearing beneath her body, into her clothes. He brought his foot down to kick her over, but her hand emerged before he could strike.
Even as weak as she was, the girl had enough force to fling the grenade upwards. The man cursed her name and kicked off the ground before he could kick the girl, throwing himself back and-
And the memory fell away, and Yang found herself half-buried in the snow.
A pair of hands had taken the collar of Yang's shirt, shaking her and pulling her up.
"What is wrong?" The War Chief seemed frantic. "Are you ill? Do you require medicine?"
"Hey- Hey." Yang grabbed the War Chief's hands to force the other girl to hold her steady. "I'm fine. Hold on."
"What is the matter?" The War Chief asked. "You seem an. Ana. What's the word. The thing where your blood is bad so you pass out randomly."
"Anemic?" Yang wasn't sure that was actually what anemia was, but she seemed to know more than this girl. "No, it's not that. I…"
Yang should maybe not tell her kidnapper that she had magic.
"My foot touched a brick." Yang lied. "I didn't feel it because…"
"I failed to move a brick far enough." The War Chief sighed. "Forgive me."
"It's fine." Yang shook her head. "It was… An interesting vision. I knew the person in that fight, wanted to know more about them. Learnt a few things."
The War Chief paused to look around. Yang pointed out the brick with Zero's visage for her, and the woman picked it up.
"A Blood Memory." The War Chief mused. "A damaged one at that. I'm surprised you're as good as you are. Accidentally touching a damaged memory is disorientating, and even prepared a Blood Memory carries a weight."
"Hn." Yang didn't know what else to say. "Mind putting me back in my chair?"
The War Chief blinked. "Of course! Why, I was just about to do so myself!"
She took a moment to position Yang back on a chair, taking the time to position her legs so they were far from the edge of the sled.
"I shall give you a moment to recover." The Dragon Faunus nodded. She rubbed against her horns for some reason. A stress response? Her eyes did shift after touching her horns, relaxing. "I am curious as to how you heard of the person in that memory, though-"
"I fought them a few months ago." Yang answered. "That's Zero. She broke my spine."
The War Chief froze.
"...Is something the matter?" Yang asked.
The girl reached down to pick up the brick. She brushed off the snow and then tilted it in her hand a few times.
"...What do you hope to gain from this?"
It was Yang's turn to freeze now. The War Chief's voice had turned cold suddenly. She had gone from trying really hard to be a showman to sounding like she had a knife to Yang's throat.
"What-"
"Why even lie?" The girl asked. "What's the point?"
"What do you mean-" Yang bit back on her tongue to try to think through her sentence, but that lasted only a moment. Being called a liar for no reason set her off pretty badly, apparently. "I'm not fucking lying."
"It's a Blood Memory!" The War Chief shook the brick in front of Yang's eyes with a snarl on her lips. "These are only red if the fight ends in death! This woman is dead! Why are you lying to me?"
"What the fucks your problem?" Yang snarled back. In the corner of her mind, she felt something was wrong here. It was like she was looking at a pair of puzzle pieces that fit together, and she'd just need to connect them and she'd understand what was happening here. But Yang was never really one for puzzles. "Why would I lie about the woman whole broke my spine-"
Flames filled Yang's vision, the Aura on her face flared, and her mind faltered.
The heat and orange glow overwhelmed the cold air, and suddenly Yang was back in her memories, back in Atlas. Cinder was there, and her father was-
And then the flames disappeared. Yang had fallen from her chair in the interim, and she could look up at the War Chief to see the smoke around her maw. She had breathed out fire? What the fuck? What a c-
"No…" The War Chief turned away, a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated and staring into nothingness. "I… I didn't mean…"
The words only somewhat fit into Yang's brain. Her body was already acting. Just as the mere sight of flames drove her to mindless, memoryless panic, the idea that someone had used the fire against Yang to hurt her over a pointless fucking argument drove her to mindless rage. It was hardly memoryless, not when Yang seemed so hyperaware of every action she took to carry out that range, but she didn't even need to think of it to do it.
Her portal flickered open and close, and as Yang fell her fist shot forward into the War Chief's face. The girl stumbled back and fell, both human and Faunus falling apart at the exact same time.
Yang had expected retaliation. A fist, or a foot, or more flame. But even as the War Chief stood, she didn't react at all.
That's what broke through Yang's awareness. Her anger at the sudden attack grew muted as she looked up at the younger girl, watched as her face froze contorted in horror.
"This wasn't how this was supposed to go." The War Chief muttered to herself. "This was supposed to be…"
Her hands were shaking. Her hands ran along the horns on her head, but as that did nothing they fell away again. She kept fidgeting. Drew them together and then held them apart. She moved them behind her back, then moved them in front of her and grabbed her opposing biceps.
Even without thinking, those puzzle pieces came together.
The moment Yang had come to the War Chief in the feasting hall, she had been trying to keep up with a performance. A prepared script for a prepared duty, to the point where she responded to interruptions by restarting.
When information she took as fact was challenge, her mind leapt to lies rather than a difference in understanding. When that challenge remained, she turned to violence.
When the girl had failed to give a name to the statue leading to the Legacy, she said she had not heard the word pronounced since she was four years old.
…When was the last time anyone but the War Chief had been in this hall?
When was the last time the girl had interacted with another human that she wasn't actively fighting?
That thought left Yang trapped in her own body as she had to mull it over.
What did it mean, even if Yang was on the right track with that thought? She'd still spat out a fireball at Yang over what was literally nothing, and just thinking that brought back a rush of anger. That was a strong feeling. There was a chance Yang had connected the puzzle entirely wrong here, and even if she had the right picture that didn't change her anger.
There was a cackle of energy. Yang looked back to see the wings of light forming around the War Chief's back, and the girl took flight before Yang could react. She ascended past the ruined tower, rising until she was high enough to be hard to make out as she settled onto the mountain.
Yang took a moment to teleport back into the chair on the sled. Didn't want to accidentally bump into another brick. It was a miracle she'd avoided any either of the times she had fallen since that whole mess started.
…Well now what was she supposed to do?
Sitting out in the snow, Yang looked up to the girl at the mountaintop and tried to think of what to do next.
…Maybe now was a good time to try to escape? Not that Yang knew where she was. She knew the War Chief had a boat somewhere, but Yang hadn't found it while scanning the building with her power. Given the current lack of threat, Yang was wondering if the best plan was just to wait for Ruby to find her.
…Yang wondered how Ruby was doing. It occurred to her suddenly that she didn't even know how long she'd been unconscious. She didn't wake up feeling hungry, but the War Chief's Semblance might've done something there…
[X] This seems like a good place to segue back to Ruby. We can circle back to Yang later.
[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now.
[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now.
ApocalypticFish
Been reflecting lately.
[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now.
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
Going to start writing soon, but noting the vote is a tie for now - I'm gonna give people a bit of time to break the tie so I can get some groceries, but if the tie's still up when I get back I'll just flip a coin and edit this post to say which option I'm writing.
EDIT: Flipped coin. Winner is "[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now."
Mildly annoying since in the original update outline that I had to cut in two it did cut to Ruby here, so now I need to think of a new vote option when it does go back to Ruby in (hopefully) the back half of this next update
Edit the second: Copied the wrong vote option but wrote the paragraph that followed with the assumption that I had copied the right vote option so I sure hope I edited this before anyone saw it and thinks I went insane
EDIT: Flipped coin. Winner is "[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now."
Mildly annoying since in the original update outline that I had to cut in two it did cut to Ruby here, so now I need to think of a new vote option when it does go back to Ruby in (hopefully) the back half of this next update
Edit the second: Copied the wrong vote option but wrote the paragraph that followed with the assumption that I had copied the right vote option so I sure hope I edited this before anyone saw it and thinks I went insane
Last edited:
Update 458 - Evening Star
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
[X] No, Ruby's stuff can be the second half of the next record. Finish the Yang bit now.
The snowy white of the mountaintop was broken up for an instant by a flicker of red. Yang Xiao Long fell onto the mountaintop. Her body slipped slightly, but her fists shot through the snow to grab at the rock underneath. It took Yang a moment to reach into the mountain with the magic of the Branwen, holding herself in place the same way Starling taught her with trees.
The War Chief didn't look over at Yang. Yang had to wonder if the Dragon Faunus even noticed that she was there. She was looking off into the distance, into the horizon.
Yang bit her lip as she considered her approach.
What did she want here?
Well, she didn't want the only other person on this mountain to be sulking on the mountaintop instead of. Well, anything. She could maybe explicitly let Yang go or help her leave, for instance. Or continue on showing Yang whatever it was that was so important to her.
It didn't really matter.
Looking across at the War Chief, Yang realised again how young she was. Yang wasn't too much older, but that didn't change how young someone else could look. She had to be around Ruby's age.
…And now that Yang had thought about that, she had to wonder how much that was influencing her actions here.
It wasn't all of it. Yang liked to think she'd do this even without the comparison. There was just something really… Sad, perhaps was the best word. Something really sad about what Yang was starting to put together.
"Hey." Yang called. The War Chief jumped, but the wings of light on her back stabbed into the mountaintop before she could fall.
"Ah, honoured guest!" The girl's voice faltered halfway through her greeting, but she pushed on regardless. "Is the view from our mountain not beautiful? At night, the stars seem so close it is as if you could…"
She trailed off, looking aside. Her voice fell to a volume where Yang was surprised she could hear the girl. "So close… What was it? So…"
Her eyes widened. "Ah! So close you could pluck them from the sky!"
"Is that so?" Yang muttered softly, thinking it over.
She was onto another script. Not just a literal one either. What did the one psychology teacher in Signal say it was? A mental framework for a situation? That kind of script. There was some other word starting with 'S' that would describe it but Yang couldn't remember it.
Point was, even after everything that happened, War Chief was falling back on what she thought was the right thing to say in this situation, without the context of what just happened. Or- No. She was doing this because of what just happened. She had no idea what to say, so she relied on the script of the mountaintop and acted like it was the only context that mattered.
Yang sighed. She knew it was hard to push people when they were like this. It felt like it had been a long time, but her behaviour after her powerlessness when Five kidnapped Ruby had lasted months. Ruby had to corner her to make her talk about it, and even then Yang had felt the briefest of impulses to just run away instead.
Yang didn't have the time to wait months, though.
"Are we gonna talk about what just happened?"
The War Chief froze. Her eyes drifted from the distance back to Yang. She swallowed heavily, her throat bulging slightly. "T-The sunrise from this mountain is to die for. The sunlight reflected from the lake, with the fog of morn-"
"Don't try and change the subject." Yang shook her head. "What just happened? Are you okay?"
The Dragon Faunus closed her eyes. She ran her hand through her fringe, slicking her hair back in the process.
"...Why are you asking me?" All of a sudden her voice was small, weaker. "I'm the one who attacked you."
Yang bit back the response to answer 'That's hardly new'. Her teeth pushed against her lips hard enough for her Aura to spark before she pulled them away.
"Something's clearly wrong here." Yang cut in. "And… It wouldn't sit right by me if I just did nothing."
"No, go away." The War Chief waved one hand in Yang's general direction, though it fell short before it could do anything like pushing. The girl raised her knees and buried her face in them, leaving only her wings of light actually touching the mountain. "You hate me, don't you?"
"No." Yang was surprised at how fast the answer came. She supposed it was true? Watching the War Chief like this made it hard to hold the raids against her. Consequence of Yang not actually seeing any of the War Chief's victims, she supposed. Or perhaps it was the same instinct that made her not hate Five anymore. "Why do you say that?"
"Why were you lying to me?" The War Chief asked. "If you weren't trying to hurt me?"
…Back to this, huh?
Well, Yang had a bit more of the understanding of what was going on now, at least. The shock of the War Chief fleeing led her to think it through.
"You realise one of us could just be wrong, right?" Yang asked. "Like. The girl I saw in that memory looked almost identical to someone I know, but maybe that's just a coincidence. Or maybe the Blood Memories don't work as well as you-"
"They do-" The War Chief was snarling, her head shifting to the side, but she moved her hand to her mouth and forced herself silent before she could finish her sentence. Her teeth bit into her Aura through her kneejerk anger, and it took her a minute to move her hand away again.
"...That's a sore spot for you, huh?" Yang asked. "Mind if I ask about it?"
The War Chief didn't respond.
"...Point is, I'm not trying to hurt you." Yang continued. "I'm not lying. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not being wrong on purpose."
"So then I did hurt you for no reason." The War Chief muttered. "I'm terrible. Father would be ashamed."
Father. First mention of a family member. Part of Yang was curious and wanted to ask, and the rest of Yang was trying to think of how to handle the conversation. Perhaps the two would align soon, but she had other avenues to approach first.
"People lash out when distressed." Yang muttered. "I was telling you to fuck off without even thinking about it. Same issue, just less intense."
"I struck the one I swore myself to!" The War Chief rejected the comfort. Her voice was filled with a potent, self-directed venom. "My duty is to you, and I turned to violence! It is despicable."
"...We don't always get to control that." Yang tried. "If you're feeling ashamed about that, all you can do is try to be better."
The War Chief didn't respond.
…Alright, Yang was out of ideas. "You mentioned your father? What's the story there."
The War Chief tensed at the mere mention of a father. She grumbled wordlessly. Yang couldn't tell if it was a rejection or not.
"You don't want to tell me?" Yang asked. "...What if I tell you about mine first?"
She regretted the words as they left her mouth. But the War Chief turned to her with wide eyes, the pain in them replaced by a mix of confusion and curiosity. Yang could hardly back off now.
"...He died a few months ago." Yang sighed. She looked down to her legs and brushed off some snow that got onto her knee at some point. "So it's a bit hard to talk about him. But how about a trade, a story for a story?"
The War Chief looked at Yang. Serpentine green eyes glimmered in the reflected light on the snow, though little of it peeked through the thin snow clouds.
"I might like that." Admitted the girl. She ran a hand over her horns, and Yang could see the girl relaxing visibly this time.
"My dad…" Yang bit her lip again as she considered where to go with the story. "We had a bit of a rough relationship. My mum disappeared when I was young, too young to remember it. He took it hard, fell apart over a few years. Even adopting my sister only helped him for a little bit. But then he started turning it around, trying to get his life together again."
The War Chief just stared at Yang, refusing to ask questions and forcing Yang to think about what she was going to say next.
"I miss him." Yang admitted. "For a lot of reasons. And… Part of it is I don't know if he knew how much I cared about him."
"Why wouldn't he?" The War Chief asked. A question, but answering it was just was painful.
"Because I hated him for years." Yang admitted. "And I wasn't quiet about it. Once we were good, I never actually vocalised it explicitly. He might've died still thinking I hated him, that I was just playing nice."
The War Chief just kept staring. Yang felt awkward letting it hang in the air like that. Digging into those memories enough to speak was painful, but letting it go uncommented left Yang alone in her head.
"I dunno, maybe." The words didn't mean anything, but she needed to say something. "There was one time I think we maybe circled the point, but…"
"Tell me about it." The War Chief asked.
Good. That gave Yang something to jump off of.
"It would've been… End of last year, I think." Yang answered. "That weird time of year between Christmas and New Years."
"Christmas?" The War Chief tilted her head. Oh god, did she not have- "Nevermind. Continue."
Right.
Yang looked up at the sky. "Would've been a place kinda like this. Not a mountain, but a good view of the sky…"
"You alright, Yang?" Her father's voice called from below.
The girl took her eyes off the stars for a moment to look down. She was perched at the highest possible point she could be near the house. A hill far enough away from home to be out of sight at night, with a pair of trees that reached higher than any other.
Yang had fallen out of the tree once as a kid and broken her Aura entirely on impact. It was stronger now, but that memory came to her as she looked down.
"I'm fine." She answered. "Why?"
"You ran out from dinner pretty fast." The man moved over to the other tree of the pair, taking a moment to grasp the rope that ran down the trunk. Yang was tempted to heckle him, call him a coward for not climbing properly, but the words died on her tongue. "Is something wrong?"
"...Just needed some space." Yang answered. "It's nothing."
"...Yang, I remember what we were talking about when you started eating faster." The man pulled the rope tight and started walking up the tree, his body completely horizontal as he moved up. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No."
Taiyang didn't answer that right away. He was reading the situation right there, at least.
"What happened at dinner?"
"...Dad said he was taking a break from teaching for a while. Ruby asked if it was the same reason he'd stopped a few years ago, when he was depressed. I started thinking about it too much, so I wanted to go out and clear my head."
Taiyang settled onto the tallest branch on the tree he was on, positioned parallel to Yang and only a metre away. They both looked into the same sky and thought about the same stars.
The old man being out here made things more awkward than Yang would've preferred, but leaving would've made it seem like she was madder than she was. She wasn't a piece of glass that would shatter if someone reminded her of the way her dad had failed to be a dad for most of his life. Maybe a while ago, but he'd been… Better, recently.
"The evening star is bright tonight." Taiyang spoke softly. "Hey, did you know that's the same star as the morning star?"
"Yeah, it's just a closeby planet rather than a star or something." Yang didn't particularly care.
"A lot of people put meaning on the stars, y'know." Taiyang continued. "Wherever you look, people assign meaning. One of my favourites is an old piece of Valean folklore."
Yang tried to pay a bit more attention once it became this was becoming a story. It was a habit she tried to get into. Her dad was making an effort to be there, to connect, and if she shut him down then she would be the one at fault.
"Whenever a star stood out to people in those parts, they'd give it a name, assign it a fixture of myth." He continued. "I couldn't point you towards the Bow God's Arrows even if I tried, but the morning star had its own legend."
"Which legend was that?" Yang asked.
"Little Sun Dragon."
That one caught Yang by surprise. She pushed herself up with her arrows, shifted to her side to look at her dad.
"Yeah, like you." Taiyang muttered. "Though it's not a fully accurate translation, I think. Issue with dead languages."
"So I'm named after the evening star, huh?" Yang let herself fall back. "I'm surprised you didn't go for the moon, if that was the case."
"Your mother said the same thing." Taiyang spoke in a light and casual tone, but immediately that piece of information was etched into Yang's heart. She had very little information on her mum. Every little bit was sacred. "But the symbolism is wrong there."
"What's the symbolism you were looking for?" Yang asked. "If you wanted to give me a name that just meant yours but smaller, I'm gonna punch you."
"That'd be fair." Taiyang admitted. "But… Well, the old myth didn't say the Little Sun Dragon was lesser than the Sun, y'know."
Yang bit her tongue, let her father finish speaking.
"It's an old myth we don't have all of anymore." The old man continued. "So we've got more of the ideas and themes than the actual events. The Great Sun Dragon was an old beast that was notable for how ancient he was, in those myths. Omnipresent, but his time was past. The Little Sun Dragon? That one was promise and potential."
He reached his hand towards the evening star, then closed his hand like he might pull it from the sky.
"It's a promise that the next generation would burn brighter, and shine longer." He spoke. "It's come true so far, at least."
Yang 'hmmed'. Neither Xiao Long spoke for a long time.
"...Wish I could've actually shined for you." Taiyang admitted. "The myth's not the same if the example isn't as bright."
"The myth's a myth." Yang dismissed. "It's over. Now isn't."
"Hm." The old man 'hmmed' Yang right back.
"...Think I prefer the morning star to the evening one, y'know." Yang noted. "I dunno, just like how it sounds better."
"Well good news." Taiyang had that tone to his voice. Yang knew exactly what was about to happen. "Now that you've said that, the evening star is a mourning star too!"
Yang kicked over to the side and pushed him out of the tree.
"I do not get it.." The War Chief spoke up again.
"...Mourning as in, mourning for the dead, not morning as in day." Yang explained. "It's a pun."
"But those are two different words." The War Chief pointed out.
"Yeah." Yang nodded. "That's why it's a pun."
"But they're different words? That mean different things?"
Yang closed her eyes. "Pun. Noun. /Pʌn/. A humorous use of a word or phrase that has several meanings or that sounds like another word. Synonym: 'Play on Words'. Compare: 'Wordplay'. Example: 'This is a well-known joke based on a pun: What's black and white and red (= read) all over? A newspaper.'"
"...Huh?" The War Chief blinked.
"I once bet my sister five dollars that I could memorise the dictionary definition of 'Pun'." Yang explained. "Point is the words are different but sound similar and this fact being used for humour is the basis of a pun."
"I see." Based on the look on the War Chief's face she did not see at all.
"It's not a story that really matters, I think." Yang admitted. "But… I dunno, maybe he got the idea I didn't hate him there? I doubt it, though."
"He sounds nice to have known." The War Chief looked away from Yang, bringing her knees closer to her chest again. "I wish…"
She trailed off again.
That phrasing reminded Yang of what she had started to put together.
"Have you been alone for a while?" Yang asked.
The girl didn't react to the question.
"Sorry if I'm overreaching." Yang muttered. "But well, didn't we have an agreement? Story for a story? If it's too much we can cancel, but-"
"No, I'll tell you." The War Chief decided. "My father is…"
Her hand trembled as she spoke.
"...It might be easier if I show you." The War Chief stood, pulling her wings out of the mountain and letting the light fade away. She extended a hand down to Yang. "It will be easier to explain after you've seen the Blood Memory."
Yang looked up at the War Chief's hand. "Hold on."
She opened a portal behind the War Chief and pushed her back. Yang threw herself through the portal a moment later, landing in her chair while the War Chief laid on the ground, limbs spreading in every direction.
"My wife has many talents." The War Chief muttered. She shook her head a moment later. "Not wife, not yet, that's just wishful thinking."
Yang offered a hand down to the War Chief. The Dragon Faunus took it and let Yang pull her up. Her hand lingered in Yang's for perhaps a moment too long before she stepped away.
"I will push you again." The War Chief decided. "I… Would prefer if we were quiet for the time being. We can talk once you have seen what I want to show you."
The girl moved behind Yang to push the sled that the chair was attached to. In the silence, Yang was left alone with her thoughts. She took a moment to look down at the hand the War Chief had taken.
She was feeling a rare sort of satisfaction right now. Not at the contact, but at the War Chief in general. Once the War Chief was distracted and couldn't focus on how upset she had been earlier, she was back to thinking of Yang as someone she wanted to hold dear.
It wasn't just the satisfaction that the War Chief was happy now. It wasn't a romantic thing either, as far as Yang could guess She wouldn't be able to place this satisfaction as much if it was a romantic thing. She'd be a bit disappointed in herself if there was something romantic buried in there, it'd been like an hour.
No, the satisfaction was the same thing Yang felt whenever she made progress in training or getting stronger. It was the same satisfaction she got when Ruby upgraded Ember Celica, or when she honed the Power of Dragons.
The War Chief was powerful, and she had offered to devote herself to Yang. Not in a way Yang thought would be compatible with Yang's own goals, if Yang wanted to leave. But now that the thought had passed Yang's mind, she couldn't help but second guess.
Was that the reason she was so quick to lose her anger at the War Chief? On some subconscious level, she wanted someone to take advantage of that devotion?
It was a good thing that the War Chief was behind Yang. Yang wasn't sure she could look the girl in the eye right now.
[X] Weiss and Galatea, who have been looking at records of the War Chief's activities.
[X] Neo, who has acquired local map data and security footage through what she claims are legal means.
The snowy white of the mountaintop was broken up for an instant by a flicker of red. Yang Xiao Long fell onto the mountaintop. Her body slipped slightly, but her fists shot through the snow to grab at the rock underneath. It took Yang a moment to reach into the mountain with the magic of the Branwen, holding herself in place the same way Starling taught her with trees.
The War Chief didn't look over at Yang. Yang had to wonder if the Dragon Faunus even noticed that she was there. She was looking off into the distance, into the horizon.
Yang bit her lip as she considered her approach.
What did she want here?
Well, she didn't want the only other person on this mountain to be sulking on the mountaintop instead of. Well, anything. She could maybe explicitly let Yang go or help her leave, for instance. Or continue on showing Yang whatever it was that was so important to her.
It didn't really matter.
Looking across at the War Chief, Yang realised again how young she was. Yang wasn't too much older, but that didn't change how young someone else could look. She had to be around Ruby's age.
…And now that Yang had thought about that, she had to wonder how much that was influencing her actions here.
It wasn't all of it. Yang liked to think she'd do this even without the comparison. There was just something really… Sad, perhaps was the best word. Something really sad about what Yang was starting to put together.
"Hey." Yang called. The War Chief jumped, but the wings of light on her back stabbed into the mountaintop before she could fall.
"Ah, honoured guest!" The girl's voice faltered halfway through her greeting, but she pushed on regardless. "Is the view from our mountain not beautiful? At night, the stars seem so close it is as if you could…"
She trailed off, looking aside. Her voice fell to a volume where Yang was surprised she could hear the girl. "So close… What was it? So…"
Her eyes widened. "Ah! So close you could pluck them from the sky!"
"Is that so?" Yang muttered softly, thinking it over.
She was onto another script. Not just a literal one either. What did the one psychology teacher in Signal say it was? A mental framework for a situation? That kind of script. There was some other word starting with 'S' that would describe it but Yang couldn't remember it.
Point was, even after everything that happened, War Chief was falling back on what she thought was the right thing to say in this situation, without the context of what just happened. Or- No. She was doing this because of what just happened. She had no idea what to say, so she relied on the script of the mountaintop and acted like it was the only context that mattered.
Yang sighed. She knew it was hard to push people when they were like this. It felt like it had been a long time, but her behaviour after her powerlessness when Five kidnapped Ruby had lasted months. Ruby had to corner her to make her talk about it, and even then Yang had felt the briefest of impulses to just run away instead.
Yang didn't have the time to wait months, though.
"Are we gonna talk about what just happened?"
The War Chief froze. Her eyes drifted from the distance back to Yang. She swallowed heavily, her throat bulging slightly. "T-The sunrise from this mountain is to die for. The sunlight reflected from the lake, with the fog of morn-"
"Don't try and change the subject." Yang shook her head. "What just happened? Are you okay?"
The Dragon Faunus closed her eyes. She ran her hand through her fringe, slicking her hair back in the process.
"...Why are you asking me?" All of a sudden her voice was small, weaker. "I'm the one who attacked you."
Yang bit back the response to answer 'That's hardly new'. Her teeth pushed against her lips hard enough for her Aura to spark before she pulled them away.
"Something's clearly wrong here." Yang cut in. "And… It wouldn't sit right by me if I just did nothing."
"No, go away." The War Chief waved one hand in Yang's general direction, though it fell short before it could do anything like pushing. The girl raised her knees and buried her face in them, leaving only her wings of light actually touching the mountain. "You hate me, don't you?"
"No." Yang was surprised at how fast the answer came. She supposed it was true? Watching the War Chief like this made it hard to hold the raids against her. Consequence of Yang not actually seeing any of the War Chief's victims, she supposed. Or perhaps it was the same instinct that made her not hate Five anymore. "Why do you say that?"
"Why were you lying to me?" The War Chief asked. "If you weren't trying to hurt me?"
…Back to this, huh?
Well, Yang had a bit more of the understanding of what was going on now, at least. The shock of the War Chief fleeing led her to think it through.
"You realise one of us could just be wrong, right?" Yang asked. "Like. The girl I saw in that memory looked almost identical to someone I know, but maybe that's just a coincidence. Or maybe the Blood Memories don't work as well as you-"
"They do-" The War Chief was snarling, her head shifting to the side, but she moved her hand to her mouth and forced herself silent before she could finish her sentence. Her teeth bit into her Aura through her kneejerk anger, and it took her a minute to move her hand away again.
"...That's a sore spot for you, huh?" Yang asked. "Mind if I ask about it?"
The War Chief didn't respond.
"...Point is, I'm not trying to hurt you." Yang continued. "I'm not lying. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not being wrong on purpose."
"So then I did hurt you for no reason." The War Chief muttered. "I'm terrible. Father would be ashamed."
Father. First mention of a family member. Part of Yang was curious and wanted to ask, and the rest of Yang was trying to think of how to handle the conversation. Perhaps the two would align soon, but she had other avenues to approach first.
"People lash out when distressed." Yang muttered. "I was telling you to fuck off without even thinking about it. Same issue, just less intense."
"I struck the one I swore myself to!" The War Chief rejected the comfort. Her voice was filled with a potent, self-directed venom. "My duty is to you, and I turned to violence! It is despicable."
"...We don't always get to control that." Yang tried. "If you're feeling ashamed about that, all you can do is try to be better."
The War Chief didn't respond.
…Alright, Yang was out of ideas. "You mentioned your father? What's the story there."
The War Chief tensed at the mere mention of a father. She grumbled wordlessly. Yang couldn't tell if it was a rejection or not.
"You don't want to tell me?" Yang asked. "...What if I tell you about mine first?"
She regretted the words as they left her mouth. But the War Chief turned to her with wide eyes, the pain in them replaced by a mix of confusion and curiosity. Yang could hardly back off now.
"...He died a few months ago." Yang sighed. She looked down to her legs and brushed off some snow that got onto her knee at some point. "So it's a bit hard to talk about him. But how about a trade, a story for a story?"
The War Chief looked at Yang. Serpentine green eyes glimmered in the reflected light on the snow, though little of it peeked through the thin snow clouds.
"I might like that." Admitted the girl. She ran a hand over her horns, and Yang could see the girl relaxing visibly this time.
"My dad…" Yang bit her lip again as she considered where to go with the story. "We had a bit of a rough relationship. My mum disappeared when I was young, too young to remember it. He took it hard, fell apart over a few years. Even adopting my sister only helped him for a little bit. But then he started turning it around, trying to get his life together again."
The War Chief just stared at Yang, refusing to ask questions and forcing Yang to think about what she was going to say next.
"I miss him." Yang admitted. "For a lot of reasons. And… Part of it is I don't know if he knew how much I cared about him."
"Why wouldn't he?" The War Chief asked. A question, but answering it was just was painful.
"Because I hated him for years." Yang admitted. "And I wasn't quiet about it. Once we were good, I never actually vocalised it explicitly. He might've died still thinking I hated him, that I was just playing nice."
The War Chief just kept staring. Yang felt awkward letting it hang in the air like that. Digging into those memories enough to speak was painful, but letting it go uncommented left Yang alone in her head.
"I dunno, maybe." The words didn't mean anything, but she needed to say something. "There was one time I think we maybe circled the point, but…"
"Tell me about it." The War Chief asked.
Good. That gave Yang something to jump off of.
"It would've been… End of last year, I think." Yang answered. "That weird time of year between Christmas and New Years."
"Christmas?" The War Chief tilted her head. Oh god, did she not have- "Nevermind. Continue."
Right.
Yang looked up at the sky. "Would've been a place kinda like this. Not a mountain, but a good view of the sky…"
"You alright, Yang?" Her father's voice called from below.
The girl took her eyes off the stars for a moment to look down. She was perched at the highest possible point she could be near the house. A hill far enough away from home to be out of sight at night, with a pair of trees that reached higher than any other.
Yang had fallen out of the tree once as a kid and broken her Aura entirely on impact. It was stronger now, but that memory came to her as she looked down.
"I'm fine." She answered. "Why?"
"You ran out from dinner pretty fast." The man moved over to the other tree of the pair, taking a moment to grasp the rope that ran down the trunk. Yang was tempted to heckle him, call him a coward for not climbing properly, but the words died on her tongue. "Is something wrong?"
"...Just needed some space." Yang answered. "It's nothing."
"...Yang, I remember what we were talking about when you started eating faster." The man pulled the rope tight and started walking up the tree, his body completely horizontal as he moved up. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No."
Taiyang didn't answer that right away. He was reading the situation right there, at least.
"What happened at dinner?"
"...Dad said he was taking a break from teaching for a while. Ruby asked if it was the same reason he'd stopped a few years ago, when he was depressed. I started thinking about it too much, so I wanted to go out and clear my head."
Taiyang settled onto the tallest branch on the tree he was on, positioned parallel to Yang and only a metre away. They both looked into the same sky and thought about the same stars.
The old man being out here made things more awkward than Yang would've preferred, but leaving would've made it seem like she was madder than she was. She wasn't a piece of glass that would shatter if someone reminded her of the way her dad had failed to be a dad for most of his life. Maybe a while ago, but he'd been… Better, recently.
"The evening star is bright tonight." Taiyang spoke softly. "Hey, did you know that's the same star as the morning star?"
"Yeah, it's just a closeby planet rather than a star or something." Yang didn't particularly care.
"A lot of people put meaning on the stars, y'know." Taiyang continued. "Wherever you look, people assign meaning. One of my favourites is an old piece of Valean folklore."
Yang tried to pay a bit more attention once it became this was becoming a story. It was a habit she tried to get into. Her dad was making an effort to be there, to connect, and if she shut him down then she would be the one at fault.
"Whenever a star stood out to people in those parts, they'd give it a name, assign it a fixture of myth." He continued. "I couldn't point you towards the Bow God's Arrows even if I tried, but the morning star had its own legend."
"Which legend was that?" Yang asked.
"Little Sun Dragon."
That one caught Yang by surprise. She pushed herself up with her arrows, shifted to her side to look at her dad.
"Yeah, like you." Taiyang muttered. "Though it's not a fully accurate translation, I think. Issue with dead languages."
"So I'm named after the evening star, huh?" Yang let herself fall back. "I'm surprised you didn't go for the moon, if that was the case."
"Your mother said the same thing." Taiyang spoke in a light and casual tone, but immediately that piece of information was etched into Yang's heart. She had very little information on her mum. Every little bit was sacred. "But the symbolism is wrong there."
"What's the symbolism you were looking for?" Yang asked. "If you wanted to give me a name that just meant yours but smaller, I'm gonna punch you."
"That'd be fair." Taiyang admitted. "But… Well, the old myth didn't say the Little Sun Dragon was lesser than the Sun, y'know."
Yang bit her tongue, let her father finish speaking.
"It's an old myth we don't have all of anymore." The old man continued. "So we've got more of the ideas and themes than the actual events. The Great Sun Dragon was an old beast that was notable for how ancient he was, in those myths. Omnipresent, but his time was past. The Little Sun Dragon? That one was promise and potential."
He reached his hand towards the evening star, then closed his hand like he might pull it from the sky.
"It's a promise that the next generation would burn brighter, and shine longer." He spoke. "It's come true so far, at least."
Yang 'hmmed'. Neither Xiao Long spoke for a long time.
"...Wish I could've actually shined for you." Taiyang admitted. "The myth's not the same if the example isn't as bright."
"The myth's a myth." Yang dismissed. "It's over. Now isn't."
"Hm." The old man 'hmmed' Yang right back.
"...Think I prefer the morning star to the evening one, y'know." Yang noted. "I dunno, just like how it sounds better."
"Well good news." Taiyang had that tone to his voice. Yang knew exactly what was about to happen. "Now that you've said that, the evening star is a mourning star too!"
Yang kicked over to the side and pushed him out of the tree.
"I do not get it.." The War Chief spoke up again.
"...Mourning as in, mourning for the dead, not morning as in day." Yang explained. "It's a pun."
"But those are two different words." The War Chief pointed out.
"Yeah." Yang nodded. "That's why it's a pun."
"But they're different words? That mean different things?"
Yang closed her eyes. "Pun. Noun. /Pʌn/. A humorous use of a word or phrase that has several meanings or that sounds like another word. Synonym: 'Play on Words'. Compare: 'Wordplay'. Example: 'This is a well-known joke based on a pun: What's black and white and red (= read) all over? A newspaper.'"
"...Huh?" The War Chief blinked.
"I once bet my sister five dollars that I could memorise the dictionary definition of 'Pun'." Yang explained. "Point is the words are different but sound similar and this fact being used for humour is the basis of a pun."
"I see." Based on the look on the War Chief's face she did not see at all.
"It's not a story that really matters, I think." Yang admitted. "But… I dunno, maybe he got the idea I didn't hate him there? I doubt it, though."
"He sounds nice to have known." The War Chief looked away from Yang, bringing her knees closer to her chest again. "I wish…"
She trailed off again.
That phrasing reminded Yang of what she had started to put together.
"Have you been alone for a while?" Yang asked.
The girl didn't react to the question.
"Sorry if I'm overreaching." Yang muttered. "But well, didn't we have an agreement? Story for a story? If it's too much we can cancel, but-"
"No, I'll tell you." The War Chief decided. "My father is…"
Her hand trembled as she spoke.
"...It might be easier if I show you." The War Chief stood, pulling her wings out of the mountain and letting the light fade away. She extended a hand down to Yang. "It will be easier to explain after you've seen the Blood Memory."
Yang looked up at the War Chief's hand. "Hold on."
She opened a portal behind the War Chief and pushed her back. Yang threw herself through the portal a moment later, landing in her chair while the War Chief laid on the ground, limbs spreading in every direction.
"My wife has many talents." The War Chief muttered. She shook her head a moment later. "Not wife, not yet, that's just wishful thinking."
Yang offered a hand down to the War Chief. The Dragon Faunus took it and let Yang pull her up. Her hand lingered in Yang's for perhaps a moment too long before she stepped away.
"I will push you again." The War Chief decided. "I… Would prefer if we were quiet for the time being. We can talk once you have seen what I want to show you."
The girl moved behind Yang to push the sled that the chair was attached to. In the silence, Yang was left alone with her thoughts. She took a moment to look down at the hand the War Chief had taken.
She was feeling a rare sort of satisfaction right now. Not at the contact, but at the War Chief in general. Once the War Chief was distracted and couldn't focus on how upset she had been earlier, she was back to thinking of Yang as someone she wanted to hold dear.
It wasn't just the satisfaction that the War Chief was happy now. It wasn't a romantic thing either, as far as Yang could guess She wouldn't be able to place this satisfaction as much if it was a romantic thing. She'd be a bit disappointed in herself if there was something romantic buried in there, it'd been like an hour.
No, the satisfaction was the same thing Yang felt whenever she made progress in training or getting stronger. It was the same satisfaction she got when Ruby upgraded Ember Celica, or when she honed the Power of Dragons.
The War Chief was powerful, and she had offered to devote herself to Yang. Not in a way Yang thought would be compatible with Yang's own goals, if Yang wanted to leave. But now that the thought had passed Yang's mind, she couldn't help but second guess.
Was that the reason she was so quick to lose her anger at the War Chief? On some subconscious level, she wanted someone to take advantage of that devotion?
It was a good thing that the War Chief was behind Yang. Yang wasn't sure she could look the girl in the eye right now.
~~~~~
Some distance away from Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose is trying to track her sister. From whom does she collect data first?[X] Weiss and Galatea, who have been looking at records of the War Chief's activities.
[X] Neo, who has acquired local map data and security footage through what she claims are legal means.
[X] Weiss and Galatea, who have been looking at records of the War Chief's activities
Update 459 - Don't Lose Heart
Mortifer
Embrace your inner lunatic. Fun times guaranteed.
- Location
- Under a rock.
[X] Weiss and Galatea, who have been looking at records of the War Chief's activities.
The cockpit of an Atlesian airship felt more like a war room than the control centre of a great vehicle. There was a big glass windscreen to look out, but it was covered in armoured plates that blocked the view. They could be moved aside if the camera and radar failed, but the view was otherwise unnecessary.
At the centre of the war room was a big round table with a holographic display. Ruby found herself paying more attention to the design of the table rather than the things being displayed. There was a square on the table with its corners touching the perimeter of the circle, divided into a grid that displayed a map of the town around the airship. Maybe the holograms could be used to add a third dimension to the map and show height? There was also a few circular tokens embedded into the sides of the table. Ruby pulled one out and clicked on it a few times, observing as it projected a hologram upwards. First a holographic airship, then a squad of soldiers.
"Ruby." Weiss' voice cut in. "Focus."
"Sorry." Ruby tucked the hologram projector back into the table and looked back at what Weiss was doing. Weiss had still wearing her incognito outfit, Ruby noticed. Surely she had brought one of her usual white dresses with her? Maybe she'd just been too busy to change into it. It wasn't like there was much point being incognito right now anyway.
Ruby pulled her red hood tight around her neck as she forced herself to focus on what Weiss was doing. She had a map open on a screen, the hologram appearing in front of her like a piece of paper that was constantly changing. Depicted on that paper was a map of… A wide area in Mistral, too wide for Ruby to say anything about it beyond that.
A second piece of paper appeared in the holographic space before Weiss. She looked over a news story and dragged a named location from one part of the hologram to the other. A red mark appeared on the map, joining another ten or so that were forming a pattern.
"These are all the villages this War Chief has raided." Weiss scrunched her nose as she spoke, her distaste rather obvious. "This whole area is marked as being a danger zone because of the War Chief, but putting this information on the map like this should be useful."
"Hm." Ruby could somewhat see the pattern. "Can you project the map in three dimensions? We know that Yang's somewhere high up, so…"
Weiss dragged one of the holographic pieces of paper onto the table. Ruby had to wonder how it worked. Was there scanners detecting the movement and adjusting the holograms to fit? Was there hardlight of some kind in the holograms?
It didn't particularly matter. Ruby's thoughts were trying to distract herself. She needed to focus.
Three mountains appeared in the holographic space, reaching high enough that they were cut off by the limit of the holographic projectors.
"If Yang's somewhere high up, then she's on one of these three mountains." Weiss muttered mostly to herself. "But which? Searching a mountain would take some time, and the War Chief might notice an airship hovering on another mountain and use that opportunity to hide Yang. So if we can triangulate the data…"
Weiss brought up the red marks that represented raided villages again. She scowled at the holograms for a while, then sighed.
"This is a lot harder than it looks in the documentaries." Weiss complained. "I don't think this is working. Every time I put in a new data point, it skews the data towards a different mountain being the most likely. Galatea?"
Weiss looked over to the robot girl. Ruby followed her gaze. Galatea was standing with her eyes closed, a cord plugged into the back of her head and leading down to the table.
"I do not believe there is a way to say for certain which of these three mountains Yang would have been taken to." Galatea decided eventually. "The attacked villages are generally within a half-days distance of a water source that can be traced to a lake between the three mountains. Perhaps the War Chief has a boat they use that they keep in that lake, which they then use to approach locations. In that case it would not be possible to find the correct mountain based on the pattern of attacks."
Weiss sighed. "I've been wasting my time, haven't I?"
"It would seem." Galatea confirmed.
Ruby closed her fist around a chunk of her cloak, letting the fabric move between her fingers. Her eye scanned the three mountains. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
"A thought occurs." Galatea declared. "Schnee, a lot of this territory is condemned to Grimm, correct?"
"That's right." Weiss confirmed.
"Look for attempts to build settlements in the territory predating the War Chief's attacks." Galatea advised. "Attempted settlements are rare, so there may not be any, and if there are there would not be many. A village destroyed by Grimm would be easier to take resources from than a living village."
"Well, we don't have any better ideas." Weiss nodded. She paused, then looked at Ruby. "Can you think of anything?"
"What if the War Chief has an airship?" Ruby asked. "What if they're not on any of the mountains, but in the air above them? Or just in that direction but a lot further away?"
"No, the War Chief is almost certainly near those mountains." Weiss shook her head. "Attack patterns line up too well. We're on the right track, Ruby. Don't worry."
"I'm trying."
Maybe Ruby should go outside and try to help Five again. She couldn't wrap her head around all this map analysis stuff and left to her own devices she was getting too into her head. Part of her wanted to try and find a distraction like taking apart Crescent Rose or something, but if she tried to do anything that wasn't helping the situation she would just feel bad about it.
"I can confirm something." Galatea spoke up. "As far as I am able to tell, nobody has ever died from one of the War Chief's raids."
Ruby raised the eyebrow over her uncovered, intact eye. "Huh?"
"It is a suspiciously good track record." Galatea continued. "It makes me wonder if they have a Semblance which allows them to heal people, or some sort of luck manipulation that keeps fights nonlethal. Lives have been ruined by people who have had their homes destroyed, but nobody has ever died. As such, I find it unlikely that the War Chief will have lethal intent with your sister."
"Has the War Chief ever kidnapped anyone before?" Ruby asked.
"...No." Galatea shook her head. "But I do not see why she would break from pattern and kidnap Yang if she was just going to break from pattern and kill Yang later."
Ruby took a deep breath. It wasn't really that convincing, but she knew Yang was alive at least a little bit ago anyway. Raudrulf had sensed a portal, and what were the odds that there was just coincidentally another Branwen there?
Ruby took a moment to look around the room. Weiss was rapidly going through search options to look for information. Galatea still had her eyes closed. Jaune was over in the corner, standing awkwardly to himself. He kept looking like he was about to say something, but he always thought better of it.
"Is Neo back yet?" Ruby asked while looking at Jaune.
"If she is, I haven't seen her." Jaune answered.
Ruby wasn't sure what she was expecting Neo to find. Any information that was known locally but wasn't on a network, she supposed.
The sound of a mechanical whir echoed through the war room. Ruby turned back right in time to see to see Dynamite Baskerville enter the room.
"Hey, Dyna." Ruby was at her side in a flash. As she came to a stop next to the dog Faunus, it became clear that the girl wasn't in a good way. Her eyes were puffy, like she had just been crying. The moment Ruby was within range, Dyna started clinging to her cloak.
"What's wrong?"
Dyna looked up at Ruby. The girl in red could take a guess at what this was broadly about. What else but Yang? The question was what specifically was hitting Dyna right now.
"...She said she'd be back soon." Dyna muttered softly. "I… The last thing she said was that she'd be back soon."
"...Yeah." Ruby didn't actually know what she meant by that. She was mostly just acknowledging the fact that Dyna had spoke. So Yang had said she'd be back soon, had she?
"What if something happens?" Dyna asked. "What if this is like mum again, and the next time I see her…"
"Yang will be fine." Ruby told Dyna. "She's… This isn't the first time she's been taken from me."
It was hard to keep her concentration on Dyna as she spoke.
"It's like Mountain Glenn again." Ruby continued. "I let Yang out of my sight and something happens. There's an attack and Yang's gone, and I don't even know until it's too late. I don't have any idea where she is, I don't know if she's alive, and I don't know why people want out of my sister. And…"
Someone put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. Someone was trying to reassure her. Ruby focused herself and spoke faster, staying ahead of the words.
"But Yang survived that." She forced out. "She managed to get in contact with people. Trapped in a city full of Grimm with enemies hunting her down, with the worst monster I've ever seen coming into existence to hunt her, and Yang survived."
She was supposed to be trying to reassure Dyna, but now it felt more like Ruby was reassuring herself. She steeled herself as she crouched down to get to an equal eye level to Dyna, grasping her hand and meeting her gaze.
"Yang's going to be okay." Ruby was speaking to both Dyna and herself, but she was able to sound like she believed it. "She's strong enough for that."
Dyna looked at Ruby with wide eyes, like she wasn't sure what she was hearing. Ruby squeezed her hands. Dyna closed her eyes and nodded, steeling herself in turn. When her eyes opened, they were filled with a strange conviction. It was not strong, but it was there.
"She'll be okay." Dyna repeated.
Ruby stood up. "We just need to find her."
She turned around to see who it was who tried to reassure her. Judging by the way Jaune was backing away, it was probably him, but Ruby could see that both Galatea and Weiss had started to cross the distance too.
"But we shouldn't keep her waiting." Ruby decided. Sitting around waiting to be told where to go wasn't going to work. It'd kill Ruby before anything else happened. "Once Neo gets here, we set off. If she has information that helps, we plan a route on the way."
"Are you sure?" Weiss asked. "What if the War Chief notices us looking at another mountain-"
"If the War Chief notices us, maybe Yang will too." Ruby answered. "And she can teleport. She has the advantage. Believe in her."
Weiss met Ruby's sole eye. Her expression softened for a moment before she turned away. "I've not been able to find anything. Unless Neo has some good information, we're going to just have to look through the closest mountain and hope that's the one."
"As soon as Neo-"
Ruby was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering. She looked to the side to see Neo standing by her, positioned just at the edge of the blindspot created by Ruby's eyepatch. She was holding up a Scroll towards Ruby.
"You have information?" Weiss asked. Neo nodded. "Pass it to me, I'll put it into the machine."
Neo held up a finger, then stepped closer to Ruby. There was a specific image on the Scroll, with text of a report next to it.
This was something Neo wanted Ruby to see specifically? Ruby took the Scroll and held it up.
Ruby was pretty sure she was looking at some sort of internal report. There was a very clear 'Do Not Publicise Until Investigated' note at the top of the page, which was a bit concerning. Maybe Neo just asked nicely for it? That was probably the best thing to believe.
Beast sighting on the 24th of August.
Oh hey, that was yesterday- Wait, Beast?
The Beast was seen by a scouting party attempting to investigate reports of bandit groups approaching the city. This picture was taken of the Beast moving north. No further communications were received. The scouting party has been reported MIA.
The Beast does not appear to belong to any known genus that has been seen in this location before. This is of great concern. Wild Beasts are known to remain in their territory to avoid conflict. If a Beast is wandering in a territory it has never been before, it is doing so with purpose. The picture appears to contain a humanoid silhouette within the vicinity of the Beast. Current speculation suggests that this is a Pact Partner of unknown motivations.
Based on the report from the scouting party, the Beast appears to be moving North-East. If it is heading North, it is a problem for the Grimm and War Chief to solve. As soon as possible, a messenger should be sent East with a warning.
Ruby would need to scroll down to see anything else from the report, so she looked aside to the image instead. The picture was dark and was taken at a distance, but she could still make out its design. At the very least, she could see it a lot more clearly than she could see of the humanoid shape some distance behind it.
What little light there was reflected from the scales of the Beast, showing off its outline. The Beast itself was reptilian, walking on two legs that didn't appear to end with feat. It's long tail was spiked, its claws like knives.
Ruby had never seen that thing in person, but the description was familiar.
"...Yang had a vision last night, y'know." Ruby muttered. "She told me about it a bit before we left. She saw something she described as looking like that, and she said she'd fought it in the forest earlier."
Ruby passed the Scroll to Weiss.
"Did her vision tell her what it is?" Weiss asked. "Neo wanted to show us, so I assume she was eavesdropping and she thinks it's a problem."
"Yang said the Pact Partner in her vision threatened violence upon her if they met in person." Ruby explained.
"Great, just what we needed." Weiss rolled her eyes. "More enemies."
"Not just more enemies." Ruby drew Weiss' attention. "The Dragon of Mistral."
Weiss blinked. Then Weiss paled. Ruby didn't even know Weiss could get more pale.
"We need to go." Ruby's voice was, for a second, rougher than she would have liked. Almost hoarse. "Maybe they're going somewhere else entirely, but I don't want to risk it. We need to hurry."
As the airship takes off and Galatea looks through the information Neo brought, Ruby notices her companions growing distracted. Perhaps she should talk with one of them while she has the time.
[X] Weiss.
[X] Jaune.
The cockpit of an Atlesian airship felt more like a war room than the control centre of a great vehicle. There was a big glass windscreen to look out, but it was covered in armoured plates that blocked the view. They could be moved aside if the camera and radar failed, but the view was otherwise unnecessary.
At the centre of the war room was a big round table with a holographic display. Ruby found herself paying more attention to the design of the table rather than the things being displayed. There was a square on the table with its corners touching the perimeter of the circle, divided into a grid that displayed a map of the town around the airship. Maybe the holograms could be used to add a third dimension to the map and show height? There was also a few circular tokens embedded into the sides of the table. Ruby pulled one out and clicked on it a few times, observing as it projected a hologram upwards. First a holographic airship, then a squad of soldiers.
"Ruby." Weiss' voice cut in. "Focus."
"Sorry." Ruby tucked the hologram projector back into the table and looked back at what Weiss was doing. Weiss had still wearing her incognito outfit, Ruby noticed. Surely she had brought one of her usual white dresses with her? Maybe she'd just been too busy to change into it. It wasn't like there was much point being incognito right now anyway.
Ruby pulled her red hood tight around her neck as she forced herself to focus on what Weiss was doing. She had a map open on a screen, the hologram appearing in front of her like a piece of paper that was constantly changing. Depicted on that paper was a map of… A wide area in Mistral, too wide for Ruby to say anything about it beyond that.
A second piece of paper appeared in the holographic space before Weiss. She looked over a news story and dragged a named location from one part of the hologram to the other. A red mark appeared on the map, joining another ten or so that were forming a pattern.
"These are all the villages this War Chief has raided." Weiss scrunched her nose as she spoke, her distaste rather obvious. "This whole area is marked as being a danger zone because of the War Chief, but putting this information on the map like this should be useful."
"Hm." Ruby could somewhat see the pattern. "Can you project the map in three dimensions? We know that Yang's somewhere high up, so…"
Weiss dragged one of the holographic pieces of paper onto the table. Ruby had to wonder how it worked. Was there scanners detecting the movement and adjusting the holograms to fit? Was there hardlight of some kind in the holograms?
It didn't particularly matter. Ruby's thoughts were trying to distract herself. She needed to focus.
Three mountains appeared in the holographic space, reaching high enough that they were cut off by the limit of the holographic projectors.
"If Yang's somewhere high up, then she's on one of these three mountains." Weiss muttered mostly to herself. "But which? Searching a mountain would take some time, and the War Chief might notice an airship hovering on another mountain and use that opportunity to hide Yang. So if we can triangulate the data…"
Weiss brought up the red marks that represented raided villages again. She scowled at the holograms for a while, then sighed.
"This is a lot harder than it looks in the documentaries." Weiss complained. "I don't think this is working. Every time I put in a new data point, it skews the data towards a different mountain being the most likely. Galatea?"
Weiss looked over to the robot girl. Ruby followed her gaze. Galatea was standing with her eyes closed, a cord plugged into the back of her head and leading down to the table.
"I do not believe there is a way to say for certain which of these three mountains Yang would have been taken to." Galatea decided eventually. "The attacked villages are generally within a half-days distance of a water source that can be traced to a lake between the three mountains. Perhaps the War Chief has a boat they use that they keep in that lake, which they then use to approach locations. In that case it would not be possible to find the correct mountain based on the pattern of attacks."
Weiss sighed. "I've been wasting my time, haven't I?"
"It would seem." Galatea confirmed.
Ruby closed her fist around a chunk of her cloak, letting the fabric move between her fingers. Her eye scanned the three mountains. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
"A thought occurs." Galatea declared. "Schnee, a lot of this territory is condemned to Grimm, correct?"
"That's right." Weiss confirmed.
"Look for attempts to build settlements in the territory predating the War Chief's attacks." Galatea advised. "Attempted settlements are rare, so there may not be any, and if there are there would not be many. A village destroyed by Grimm would be easier to take resources from than a living village."
"Well, we don't have any better ideas." Weiss nodded. She paused, then looked at Ruby. "Can you think of anything?"
"What if the War Chief has an airship?" Ruby asked. "What if they're not on any of the mountains, but in the air above them? Or just in that direction but a lot further away?"
"No, the War Chief is almost certainly near those mountains." Weiss shook her head. "Attack patterns line up too well. We're on the right track, Ruby. Don't worry."
"I'm trying."
Maybe Ruby should go outside and try to help Five again. She couldn't wrap her head around all this map analysis stuff and left to her own devices she was getting too into her head. Part of her wanted to try and find a distraction like taking apart Crescent Rose or something, but if she tried to do anything that wasn't helping the situation she would just feel bad about it.
"I can confirm something." Galatea spoke up. "As far as I am able to tell, nobody has ever died from one of the War Chief's raids."
Ruby raised the eyebrow over her uncovered, intact eye. "Huh?"
"It is a suspiciously good track record." Galatea continued. "It makes me wonder if they have a Semblance which allows them to heal people, or some sort of luck manipulation that keeps fights nonlethal. Lives have been ruined by people who have had their homes destroyed, but nobody has ever died. As such, I find it unlikely that the War Chief will have lethal intent with your sister."
"Has the War Chief ever kidnapped anyone before?" Ruby asked.
"...No." Galatea shook her head. "But I do not see why she would break from pattern and kidnap Yang if she was just going to break from pattern and kill Yang later."
Ruby took a deep breath. It wasn't really that convincing, but she knew Yang was alive at least a little bit ago anyway. Raudrulf had sensed a portal, and what were the odds that there was just coincidentally another Branwen there?
Ruby took a moment to look around the room. Weiss was rapidly going through search options to look for information. Galatea still had her eyes closed. Jaune was over in the corner, standing awkwardly to himself. He kept looking like he was about to say something, but he always thought better of it.
"Is Neo back yet?" Ruby asked while looking at Jaune.
"If she is, I haven't seen her." Jaune answered.
Ruby wasn't sure what she was expecting Neo to find. Any information that was known locally but wasn't on a network, she supposed.
The sound of a mechanical whir echoed through the war room. Ruby turned back right in time to see to see Dynamite Baskerville enter the room.
"Hey, Dyna." Ruby was at her side in a flash. As she came to a stop next to the dog Faunus, it became clear that the girl wasn't in a good way. Her eyes were puffy, like she had just been crying. The moment Ruby was within range, Dyna started clinging to her cloak.
"What's wrong?"
Dyna looked up at Ruby. The girl in red could take a guess at what this was broadly about. What else but Yang? The question was what specifically was hitting Dyna right now.
"...She said she'd be back soon." Dyna muttered softly. "I… The last thing she said was that she'd be back soon."
"...Yeah." Ruby didn't actually know what she meant by that. She was mostly just acknowledging the fact that Dyna had spoke. So Yang had said she'd be back soon, had she?
"What if something happens?" Dyna asked. "What if this is like mum again, and the next time I see her…"
"Yang will be fine." Ruby told Dyna. "She's… This isn't the first time she's been taken from me."
It was hard to keep her concentration on Dyna as she spoke.
"It's like Mountain Glenn again." Ruby continued. "I let Yang out of my sight and something happens. There's an attack and Yang's gone, and I don't even know until it's too late. I don't have any idea where she is, I don't know if she's alive, and I don't know why people want out of my sister. And…"
Someone put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. Someone was trying to reassure her. Ruby focused herself and spoke faster, staying ahead of the words.
"But Yang survived that." She forced out. "She managed to get in contact with people. Trapped in a city full of Grimm with enemies hunting her down, with the worst monster I've ever seen coming into existence to hunt her, and Yang survived."
She was supposed to be trying to reassure Dyna, but now it felt more like Ruby was reassuring herself. She steeled herself as she crouched down to get to an equal eye level to Dyna, grasping her hand and meeting her gaze.
"Yang's going to be okay." Ruby was speaking to both Dyna and herself, but she was able to sound like she believed it. "She's strong enough for that."
Dyna looked at Ruby with wide eyes, like she wasn't sure what she was hearing. Ruby squeezed her hands. Dyna closed her eyes and nodded, steeling herself in turn. When her eyes opened, they were filled with a strange conviction. It was not strong, but it was there.
"She'll be okay." Dyna repeated.
Ruby stood up. "We just need to find her."
She turned around to see who it was who tried to reassure her. Judging by the way Jaune was backing away, it was probably him, but Ruby could see that both Galatea and Weiss had started to cross the distance too.
"But we shouldn't keep her waiting." Ruby decided. Sitting around waiting to be told where to go wasn't going to work. It'd kill Ruby before anything else happened. "Once Neo gets here, we set off. If she has information that helps, we plan a route on the way."
"Are you sure?" Weiss asked. "What if the War Chief notices us looking at another mountain-"
"If the War Chief notices us, maybe Yang will too." Ruby answered. "And she can teleport. She has the advantage. Believe in her."
Weiss met Ruby's sole eye. Her expression softened for a moment before she turned away. "I've not been able to find anything. Unless Neo has some good information, we're going to just have to look through the closest mountain and hope that's the one."
"As soon as Neo-"
Ruby was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering. She looked to the side to see Neo standing by her, positioned just at the edge of the blindspot created by Ruby's eyepatch. She was holding up a Scroll towards Ruby.
"You have information?" Weiss asked. Neo nodded. "Pass it to me, I'll put it into the machine."
Neo held up a finger, then stepped closer to Ruby. There was a specific image on the Scroll, with text of a report next to it.
This was something Neo wanted Ruby to see specifically? Ruby took the Scroll and held it up.
Ruby was pretty sure she was looking at some sort of internal report. There was a very clear 'Do Not Publicise Until Investigated' note at the top of the page, which was a bit concerning. Maybe Neo just asked nicely for it? That was probably the best thing to believe.
Beast sighting on the 24th of August.
Oh hey, that was yesterday- Wait, Beast?
The Beast was seen by a scouting party attempting to investigate reports of bandit groups approaching the city. This picture was taken of the Beast moving north. No further communications were received. The scouting party has been reported MIA.
The Beast does not appear to belong to any known genus that has been seen in this location before. This is of great concern. Wild Beasts are known to remain in their territory to avoid conflict. If a Beast is wandering in a territory it has never been before, it is doing so with purpose. The picture appears to contain a humanoid silhouette within the vicinity of the Beast. Current speculation suggests that this is a Pact Partner of unknown motivations.
Based on the report from the scouting party, the Beast appears to be moving North-East. If it is heading North, it is a problem for the Grimm and War Chief to solve. As soon as possible, a messenger should be sent East with a warning.
Ruby would need to scroll down to see anything else from the report, so she looked aside to the image instead. The picture was dark and was taken at a distance, but she could still make out its design. At the very least, she could see it a lot more clearly than she could see of the humanoid shape some distance behind it.
What little light there was reflected from the scales of the Beast, showing off its outline. The Beast itself was reptilian, walking on two legs that didn't appear to end with feat. It's long tail was spiked, its claws like knives.
Ruby had never seen that thing in person, but the description was familiar.
"...Yang had a vision last night, y'know." Ruby muttered. "She told me about it a bit before we left. She saw something she described as looking like that, and she said she'd fought it in the forest earlier."
Ruby passed the Scroll to Weiss.
"Did her vision tell her what it is?" Weiss asked. "Neo wanted to show us, so I assume she was eavesdropping and she thinks it's a problem."
"Yang said the Pact Partner in her vision threatened violence upon her if they met in person." Ruby explained.
"Great, just what we needed." Weiss rolled her eyes. "More enemies."
"Not just more enemies." Ruby drew Weiss' attention. "The Dragon of Mistral."
Weiss blinked. Then Weiss paled. Ruby didn't even know Weiss could get more pale.
"We need to go." Ruby's voice was, for a second, rougher than she would have liked. Almost hoarse. "Maybe they're going somewhere else entirely, but I don't want to risk it. We need to hurry."
As the airship takes off and Galatea looks through the information Neo brought, Ruby notices her companions growing distracted. Perhaps she should talk with one of them while she has the time.
[X] Weiss.
[X] Jaune.
[X] Jaune.