Miracles of Ancient Wonder [RWBY/Exalted]

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 9.5

~~~​

"Thank you for staying with us after the battle, Miss Rose."

"Thank you for the wonderful service." She waved to the innkeeper as she stepped into the light of day. The air was hot and a muggy, but the little town of Saffron that looked incredible in the morning light. Normally she would've slept in, but something about being outside of a kingdom made her feel like getting up early. Or, maybe that was the blessing she'd wrapped around herself. A doctor needed to rise with the dawn to take care of her patient. "The pancakes were great."

"They're my specialty." The portly man smiled. "And if you can keep Jasper from wearing them, all the better."

Normally, she would've laughed at the sight of a professional Hunter falling into his meals, but the man was only doing that because of the curse. "Did he do better today?"

"Got halfway through his omelet before someone turned the radio on, one word about the hunt and then he just slumped over." The man sighed. "It's a damned shame those devils got to him."

"He should get better soon. Once his Aura's strong enough to break through, he'll be able to get back to a normal meal." She lied through her teeth, masking the slight delay with a giggle. His Aura wouldn't do anything, but the curse of cowardice against the Anathema that she put on him would make him less likely to try and do something about them.

"May Saturn bring this injustice to a swift end." He bowed his head in prayer.

She gave him a short bow when he stopped, certain that his prayer would go unanswered, and stepped into the street, her cloak swishing behind her.

Saffron was a wonderful little town that felt so much like Patch it was hard to think of leaving. It would be so nice to stay, bask in the smell of freshly baked bread, and just protect people. That was the life she'd dreamed about since she was a little girl… and also the life that she would never be able to live.

She'd arrived just before the largest Grimm attack of the season. Without her assistance, the town would have fallen because their chief Huntsman had been incapacitated for weeks. His future held the potential for great good, if only he would give up on chasing the Anathema.

"Miss Rose!" Two voices called out from behind her. "Are you really leaving?"

She twirled around, catching the twins right before they slammed into her.

"Please tell us you'll stay longer, just one more day!" Seok pleaded, his eyes already glistening with tears.

"I'm sorry." She shook her head slowly. No matter how much she might've wanted to stay and save the town from its dark Destiny, there were bigger problems that she needed to tackle. "There are others who need my help."

"But we need your help!" Eun joined in the begging. Or, at least she thought it was Eun.

"Saffron will be fine. You have Mist and Snow don't you?"

"Yeah," they sighed.

"Don't be like that." She ruffled their hair, though she also did agree with the thought.

"But they suck!" Seok raised his fists. "They can't even jump up to the top of the tower!"

"I bet, that when we become Hunters, we can totally kick their butts."

She snickered with a groan at the end. Considering how potent their unawakened Auras sounded, they weren't wrong.

The pair were junior Hunters, just graduated from Beacon almost five years ago, but their skills were bottom of the barrel, just barely good enough to graduate. They could handle every day Grimm, but a real attack would overwhelm them.

"The two of them will keep you safe." Considering the blessings that she left behind, they'd better.

"But..." She dragged out the word, a silly smile appearing on her face. "If you're really that worried. How would you two like to go higher than them?"

She pointed to the top of the clock tower, which was where the Hunter watchman was normally perched.

"Really?!" Their eyes practically sparkled.

"Hold on tight." She lifted them up so they could wrap their arms around her. As soon as they were ready, she held them tight and took off. Luckily, they were standing on a dirt road, because any cobblestones would've shattered for the force.

She twirled as she ascended, the two boys screaming while they did their best to break her ribs. At the top of her jump, her cloak whipped around her, letting them see their town in a new way.

"Woah."

She smiled, looking out over the buildings from the top of their clock tower. The vibrant red leaves of the Forever Fall looked amazing with the morning dew sparkling. It was a good look for the world to have.

She stood up there for as long as their arms held out, then gently landed on the street below. The two stepped back and bowed very low.

"Thank you so much!"

She smiled again and waved them off, with the pair of blessings that she'd constructed attached to their Auras. It was so much easier than anything which would affect a Hunter, which they would become some day if she had anything to say about it. The blessings of heroism that she placed would carry them into their twenties.

The world needed more Hunters like that: young, full of hope, and truthful. She paused and glanced at the window, looking into her natural silver eyes. Or, more accurately, the appearance of how she should be. A little older, and really similar to her mom's academy pictures, but better.

Ruby threw herself onto Bumblebee and revved the engine. She'd picked the bike up before she left Beacon, and not only because it allowed her to move much faster. Bumblebee wasn't hers. Yang had poured her heart and soul into riding and maintaining her precious bike and the energy within his metal still sounded like Yang's.

By using him as a focus, Ruby could feel the ripples that Yang was making.

~~~​

As soon as she was far enough away from the town that no one would see her, Ruby shrugged the mantle of 'Ruby Rose, wandering Aurologist' off and let it fall next to 'Ruby Rose, Huntress'. She'd never imagined that the solution to her biggest problem could be so simple, but also feel so wrong. By… wearing, for lack of a better word, one of her blessings, she could become it… and be remembered. But, it was all a lie, the person that everyone saw was the illusion of the person she created… the person that she wanted to be.

It would have been so easy to just stay there, keeping that little town safe. She could probably do it all by herself.

But, it wouldn't be the best use of her abilities.

Ruby pointed a finger in the air and blasted a small Nevermore away with her finger-gun. She could do so much more than just fight Grimm. She had to do so much more to make up for everything else.

Weiss had been right. She should have stopped, calmed down, and really thought about what was going on. Instead, she'd been charging ahead all semester, chasing goal after goal without considering what the price of achieving them was.

She found out what the investigations were like by forcing herself into one and almost getting Weiss killed.

She found out what Blake and Yang were keeping from her by revealing them to the entire world and hurting Yang worse than anything else.

She stopped the investigations by crippling Vale's ability to fight the Anathema who needed to be fought. The curse was incredibly effective, but she couldn't make it any more selective than it already was.

And now, it seemed like she could finally be remembered, but only if she threw away who she really was and lived a pretend life where no one knew her true self.

Ruby looked at the stars, swerving around a fallen tree reflexively. This journey let her spend time reading them better and see more of what would happen if she didn't intervene. With more knowledge, she would hopefully keep herself from making the same mistakes... again.

The first people she tried using on were her own team.

'Yang shall become someone new.' That one was simple enough to figure out. If Yang wanted to stop running, she'd need to become a new person. Though, she was also a lot foggier than the others.

'Blake shall survive a deadly toxin.' It was a bit more ominous, but the future said that she would survive.

'Weiss shall argue with a Maiden.' Also dangerous, but if any of them were going to convince the goddesses to do something useful, it would be Weiss.

She could've looked at her own future. She probably should've looked at her own, but right now just living her life was good enough. Seeing her own future felt sort of like cheating, but… there was also another problem.

It was not enough to know what the future had in store for her or which of her options she would prefer the outcome of. She also needed to know why that was what she wanted, the secrets that were concealed within her own heart and what was missing from all of the ideas that she considered unacceptable.

They controlled what she could see when it mattered most.

Ruby sighed and checked the time on her scroll. It was getting close to noon. She also had four hundred unread messages, all of which would remain unread. Right now, she couldn't deal with them. What the news said about her was bad enough, she didn't need to add the accusations of betrayal to the list… Or the people who would be begging her to come back. Weiss knew why she couldn't, but Pyrrha, Penny, and her dad all didn't.

That was the sacrifice that she needed to perform to make things right, abandoning her friends and family while they worried about her. Once she found both herself and her sister, she could talk to them again.

Ruby took a deep breath and opened her ears to the music of the world. Bumblebee's Dust engine was the loudest song, it's chaotic notes thundering through the trees until they echoed back at her. But, there were other, quieter patterns which she wouldn't have been able to make out a month ago. Rivers of song meandered across the land, enveloping everything for hundreds of feet at the most narrow sections and only changing course when the terrain did, just like normal rivers.

Where they diverged, people tended to live; where they met, the Grimm held dominion. Mars had called the Grimm a corruption, but this energy felt more natural than much of what she felt in Vale. Were they being created by it or consuming it?

She didn't know and didn't have the time to investigate.

When she saw Weiss again, she'd bring it up. She'd always been good to bounce ideas off of and maybe some of her partner's sorcery could figure out what the energy meant.

But until then, she had a sister to find and a team to rebuild. Everything else could wait.

---​

A/N: This brings us to chapter 60 and what I've been thinking of as the end of book 1.

A lot of people have said that they feel like a time skip was coming and that this felt like the end of volume three. They're entirely correct.

There is going to be a time skip, both in story and in real life. It's been a little over a year and I'm very proud to say that I met my own imposed deadline of a chapter per week for that time. I never imagined I'd be able to write so much in that much time.

But, I need to take a short break.

So, without further ado, thank you so much for reading up to this point. Miracles of Ancient Wonder will be returning the first week of July.

In the meantime, there are some questions that I can answer and a few omakes/alternate scenarios that I might write up, maybe even a sorcerous initiation.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.1

~~~​

Ruby held Crescent Rose to her shoulder, an Ursa in her sights. She focused on the chamber of her weapon, which was empty, and the flow of energy as it led to the end of the barrel. With a quick pulse of her Aura and a pull of the trigger, she forced a unit of violence into existence. The Ursa's head exploded because that was the power of the gun, to connect the barrel with the target and deal death at a distance. Technically speaking, she could've forced the Grimm to be peaceful to her, and her only, but this wasn't a normal group of them, it was a horde that needed to be killed.

Her next three shots cleared the road of greater Grimm and opened a route to the fields surrounding Dōsatsu City. Regular Grimm were barely worth paying attention to, they crumpled under Bumblebee's wheels. Her sister's borrowed bike was every bit the vehicle of a Huntress that Ruby'd expected it to be: strong, tough, and fast.

As she crested a hill, the slate walls of the city took over the skyline. They were tall and built with late Colorless Empire sensibilities, designed at the point where the outlying regions couldn't count on Vale to send them any aid and enemy Aura-wielders were more of a threat than the Grimm. The Cross-Continental Transmit Repeater poked above them, lighting up the evening sky with a brilliant blue glow. It was a beacon of freedom and civilization in the far reaches of the territory Vale claimed. It was also near the last place that Blake and Yang had been spotted.

The fields around the city were coated in the inky blackness of Grimm. Explosions of fire and ice dotted the landscape, the results of the artillery that fired in staccato from the walls while the anti-air guns provided a solid tempo. Their blasts formed a line that the smaller Grimm couldn't cross, an area of denial that would funnel them towards Ruby's target: the whirlwind scything through the horde like a hot knife through butter. She could barely make out a feminine figure, who had to be the area's strongest Huntress, in the center of the winds thanks to all of the debris being thrown around.

Ruby gunned the engine and shifted Crescent Rose to her lance form, the blade rotating to be in line with the shaft. Her front wheel hopped into the air, smashing into an Ursa's back as it fell, and she cleared a path through the sea of monsters. It was easier to cleave through without worrying about hitting the ground if you rode on top of them.

The small tornado dissipated by being shot away from the city as Ruby approached. In the center was a tall, blond woman with a polemace that had a spinning head. Considering the thickness of the white and gold armor she wore, she should be a front liner like Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, and Jaune.

Ruby waved as she approached, slowing to a stop and using Crescent Rose's rifle mode to keep the Grimm back. Her Aura was almost definitely stronger than the woman's, but using too much of her power while wearing the mantle of Ruby Rose, Long-Wandering Huntress, would cause problems. She didn't know what type of problems and wasn't in any rush to find out since thinking about them sent a shiver down her spine.

"Hello there! Glad to see a fellow Academy Huntress entering the fray. I'm Celeste, Guardian of Dōsatsu City." The woman raised her head, ponytail spiraling behind her as she batted a rolling Boarbatusk away. After a moment, noticing the questioning look Ruby was giving her, she continued. "You're from Vale then. I'm the Huntress-Commander of the city, aka Guardian."

"Gotcha. I'm Ruby Rose." She continuously fired, keeping her eyes on their enemies. Though she did catch the slight frown from Celeste. "How did you know I went to Beacon?"

"Only three types of people can cut through Grimm like that: monks, syndicate heavies, and Academy Hunters. No offense, but you really don't seem like the type for the first two."

"Syndicate?"

"Mistral crime families. Ever since that mess at Beacon, they've been moving in along the coast."

"Oh…" Ruby'd have to do something about that if she found them since that was sort of her fault.

"Also, Stahl warned me that a Ruby Rose would be coming our way next. Even though I wasn't expecting you to be that capable from what he said." Celeste pressed a button on her weapon's shaft and fired a wall of razor wind with her next swing. "You couldn't have picked a better time to arrive."

If Ruby hadn't been wearing the scant bits that remained of her crafted identity, no one would have been able to remember her. "Are you low on Hunters?"

"Unfortunately so. The Anathema made sure of that." She spat at an Alpha Beowolf before slamming it across the field. "My junior Guardian was incapacitated after fighting them by the curse on Vale. I sent him to a hospital in the city until he recovers. And the regulars are distracting the rest of the horde in the forest."

"I'm sorry."

After a brief hesitation, Celeste shook her head. "It isn't your fault, but thank you."

Ruby barely resisted the urge to look away. That actually was her fault. "Did he particularly dislike the Anathema?"

"No, but when they came near, he insisted on fighting them," Celeste sighed. "I don't know what they did to him, but he couldn't get out of bed when he returned. Once that happened, the panic set in."

Ruby took a deep breath. What were Blake and Yang doing? She had been sure that they weren't bad people, that was a pretty big part of why she'd cursed Vale, but if they were hurting other people… Then she didn't know what she'd do. "You didn't go with him?"

"I'm not about to leave my city without a Huntress and my children without a mother. I've fought one of those demons before, one who had been active for only a month. It was almost beyond me." The lines of silver in the older woman's hair were obvious now that Ruby was closer. If it wasn't for those, and the cold calmness in her eyes, Ruby wouldn't have guessed her above thirty. "Two that spent most of a semester at Beacon would take an army that I don't have."

"Mmh." Ruby nodded. If it came down to a fight, she wasn't sure if she could take either Blake or Yang despite her not only beating one of the strongest Huntresses at Beacon one on one, but also having only gotten better in the months of searching for her runaway teammates. "Who's manning the cannons then?"

"We have a civilian militia and a squad of combat school graduates. Their Auras may be weak, but their hearts are strong and their aim steady." She pointed over her shoulder at the nearest cannon.

Ruby looked at the wall, quickly calculating the yield and fire-rate of those guns. She had the rounds to turn the tide of the ground fight. "Can I take command of the nearest group? I'll be more effective at range and should coordinate firing zones with them."

"Do you have any experience leading in combat?"

"I was a team leader at Beacon."

Celeste glanced at Ruby, backhanding a Beowolf as it lept at her. She pointed to a section of the wall with her mace. "Head for the east gate and take position on the wall. Command frequency is seventy three point four, I'll let the third know to expect you."

Ruby nodded, glancing at the gate. "One more question. What sort of Elder Grimm are we dealing with?"

This many Grimm would never coordinate without an older, more intelligent Grimm leading it. They would've come in small, easily taken out, groups.

"Ancient Boarbatusk. My scouts say it's almost thirty feet tall at the shoulder. It's still chasing them around the forest."

Ruby dropped the empty magazine from Crescent Rose and slammed one full of Dust rounds in its place. "Gotcha."

~~~​

Several minutes of light combat passed before Celeste heard Ruby's voice over her earpiece.

"Ruby Rose, in position for fire support. Squads two through five, focus our fire on the edges of the battlefield and leave the main arc to me."

"What?" Celeste asked herself, momentarily freezing. The girl didn't think she could provide four cannons worth of fire herself, did she?

"Ruby, are you sure about-" Celeste's question was interrupted by the first shot of the girl's sniper rifle.

A massive Dust explosion, slightly smaller than one of their heavy shells, blossomed within the densest pack of Grimm. A moment later, a second appeared, and a third, and a fourth. The bursts of fiery energy continued until eight in total tore through their enemies. Ruby had in fact outdone four normal cannons worth of damage with what seemed like a single shot.

And then she fired again, a one woman artillery battery.

Celeste turned back to the Grimm, trying to ignore the clustered destruction surrounding her. That had to be the girl's Semblance. No one, not even Atlas' Specialists, would burn through such expensive ammunition that quickly. A single Dust round for a heavy rifle would have cost the same as a nice dinner for her family, so burning through something as advanced as a cluster warhead would be ludicrous. And yet, she couldn't deny its effectiveness.

But, it wouldn't do to rely so much on one so much younger to defend her city.

Celeste pressed a button on the handle of her Typherion. Wind Dust flowed into the head of the mace, spinning it faster and faster. Within seconds, it had been concealed by swirling clouds. Only then did she unleash her Semblance, strengthening the winds and giving them a razor's edge. They encircled her, narrowed until lines of sliced air could be seen, and she became the whirlwind once more.

She rocketed into the waves of Grimm, leaving piles of bodies and limbs in her wake. It was not an efficient combat strategy, as her teachers had told her many times, but it was impossible for the small ones to survive. Someone with a weaker Aura would have lasted minutes, but she was a child of Heroes with a soul to match. She hoped her own children would reach the same heights, but none seemed too interested in fighting.

With two Huntresses on the field, none of the Grimm made it close to the walls. They needed something stronger to push through.

A line of trees swayed to the side, it's steps boomed as they approached, and it revealed itself. The monster was a bit taller than she'd heard.

The great Boarbutusk briefly stopped, then came smashing through the edge of the forest in the roll that its species was so famous for. It dug a deep trench, kicking up mounds of dirt as it charged her. The lesser Grimm caught in front of it were crushed flat, but none of that would matter if it hit the wall.

Celeste pointed her mace away from it and spun more Wind Dust. The gale became strong enough that she was pulled away even with her heavy armor. But before she could move, a scarlet flash appeared in the air in front of it.

Ruby's red cloak whipped in the wind as she held her rifle out. Four Gravity Dust rounds hit it in the side, twisting its path, and one more launched it into the air, several impossible shots considering her position. It spun up, in a clumsy arc, soaring over the field and right into another attack by Ruby. As soon as she'd fired, she'd vanished into a cloud of petals and reappeared in it's path, spinning in the air.

The tip of her weapon caught the Boarbatusk and tore into it. They spun in opposite directions, allowing her the maximum amount of power behind the blow… or was it blows? Ruby was far off and spinning fast enough that it was hard to make out her weapon, but it seemed like there were five blades cutting into the Grimm in succession, as if she was a saw blade.

That all might be explainable by a duplication Semblance along with a martial art or weapon evocation, but it was very odd for someone that young to be so powerful. Stahl would've recognized someone that powerful visiting his town. Then again, he also hadn't seen her in a serious fight.

The massive creature hit the ground in a heap. Two of its legs and one tusk had almost been severed by the assault and yet, it tried to stand again. Ruby landed on its head, weapon pointed at its skull. She fired once, but the bullet deflected off of the monster's mask.

Ruby held a hand toward it, fingers outstretched. She closed them, as if she were grasping something, then pulled back. As her hand moved above her head, long strips were torn from the Grimm, as if she'd yanked wires that ran through its body free. When the last ribbon separated, it began to decompose.

Celeste drummed her fingers on the shaft of her mace. That was a very interesting attack. It was too subtle for sorcery, but could be a martial art. She'd need to look into just what Ruby did after they cleaned up.

Thankfully, finishing off the remaining Grimm was easy.

~~~​

Ruby stepped into the entry hall of Celeste's house with a whistle. "Wow, it's so big. Thanks for inviting me over."

"It's the least I could do for the stranger who saved us." The older woman waved it off and shouted up the stairs, "I'm back and we have a guest."

The house was huge, more twice the size of Ruby's home in Patch, but, if someone had as many kids as the pictures on the wall showed, that made sense. There were five little ones, unless Ruby wasn't counting them right. The pictures closest to the door were the newest, with each line getting closer to baby pictures, and furthest in were what must've teenaged Celeste with her family of... six sisters and…

"Celeste?" Ruby paused in front of an almost full family picture. "What's your maiden name?"

"Hmm?" Celeste stepped behind Ruby and smiled. "Ahh, yeah, I thought that you'd recognize him. Jaune Arc, Hero of Beacon, aka my baby bro."

She pulled the picture off and ran her fingers over the glass. "I'm still Celeste Arc. Forest, my husband, took my name when we married."

"Why aren't you in that picture? And if you're a Huntress, why was Jaune so..." Ruby tried to figure out a nice way to phrase her other question without also sounding weird. "Why didn't he know anything about being a Hunter? When he came to Beacon, he didn't even know what Aura was!"

"You seem to know a lot about a boy so much younger than you."

"I still have friends at Beacon."

"Fair enough. Both of those questions have the same answer. Mom and dad didn't approve of my becoming a Huntress. Maribelle and Flora"- She pointed to the oldest girls -"both know, but as far as the others are concerned, I'm an armorsmith who cares more about her new family than her siblings."

Ruby could sense danger surrounding her next question, but pressed on anyway. Too many of her options were dangerous to ignore such a small amount. "That still doesn't explain his ignorance."

"When I decided to apply to a Hunter Academy, and even worse got in, they pulled the others out of school, moved to a very remote part of Vale, and home schooled them until they went away to college."

"How could they do that to their own kids?"

"I'm sure you've heard about our family legacy of heroism."

Ruby nodded.

"An Arc has lead the fight during every major war in the past century, the good ones and the bad. Papi and mémé were destroyed by what happened during the Faunus Rebellion. Dad says that his parents left to save their kingdom and came back as broken shells who hated their countrymen." Celeste closed her eyes. "They passed away when I was twelve, but I can still remember the way they looked at the Faunus, the regret and shame in their eyes."

Ruby looked at the picture again, then over to one of a happy old couple holding their grand-kids on their shoulders. "That's awful."

"Yeah, but that's how life fell into place." Celeste placed the picture back on the wall.

Ruby waited for a moment. "You should tell them. Now that Jaune's a Huntsman too, well Huntsman-in-training, they can't still be mad and there's no reason why you shouldn't rejoin your family."

She laughed emptily. "You're so young."

That was one of the phrases that Ruby had been tired of half way through her first month at Beacon.

"Maybe your parents are different, but do you really think they'd just accept you back if they spent years thinking that you could hurt your little sisters or brother because your own choices?"

And that was one of the questions still stuck in Ruby's head. Just how would Yang react when Ruby found her? What was dad thinking about?

"Now, that's not a good face for a pretty girl to have." Celeste clapped a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I'm sure that whatever you're thinking of wasn't that bad and they'll still love you."

There was something in the woman's eyes beyond sympathy. Unfortunately, Ruby couldn't quite tell exactly what it was.

"And even if they don't," She pointed to a picture of herself with two little kids on her shoulders. "Once you have one of your own, that won't matter as much."

Ruby flinched at the thought.

Celeste's eyes narrowed. "You don't want children?"

"No!" Ruby shouted. "I'm way too young to even think about something like that and also-" She shuddered at the thought of going through that. "Ugh."

"It's a lot easier before the responsibilities pile up and you can't take several months off without something going wrong. Someone with your talent will be in high demand for her whole life." She crossed her arms and shook her head, eyes never leaving Ruby's face. "Besides, you look like you're at the perfect age."

"What are you-" Ruby cut herself off when her disguise reminded her that freaking out would be out of character. She was currently Ruby Rose, Long-Wandering Huntress and Beacon Graduate, who was in her mid-twenties, not her mid-teens. That didn't make the pushiness not annoying, but it was less of a terrible thought considering her mom was around the age that Ruby currently looked when Ruby'd been born. "Look, I'm not interested in any of that right now. I have much more important things to do, okay?"

Celestre watched her coldly. "Like what brought you so far from Vale?"

"Yeah."

She motioned to continue.

"I'm tracking down the two big Anathema."

"All by yourself? That's suicide."

Ruby shook her head. "No, it isn't."

Celeste grabbed her shoulder. "Listen, you might have just pulled of some crazy techniques earlier, but Anathema like that are no joke. They've beaten entire ships of Specialists."

"I have to."

"Why? You'd be throwing your life away by fighting them." Celeste wasn't saying something and Ruby had a good idea what it was now. The only question that remained, was how to get rid of her suspicion; even though, this identity was so short lived it being suspected of being Anathema wouldn't affect Ruby at all.

Ruby looked to the potential paths this conversation could take and, of course, found that there were none that would leave them both happy. Of course there weren't, there hadn't been any real win-wins since… She couldn't remember how long. At least she could make sure Celeste was less sad.

"It's not that simple." Ruby dropped her head. "One of them was my sister."

Yang still was her sister, as far as Ruby was concerned, but that was what a loyal Huntress would say. It was like what Weiss always did, say just enough to let something think they knew what you were talking about.

The extra emotion vanished from Celeste's eyes. She closed them and ran her fingers over her eyelids. "I'm sorry. That's been a nightmare of mine all of my life... having to Hunt my own family."

"You've fought Anathema before?"

She pointed to a crest on her armor, right above her heart. "Do you know what this is?"

Ruby shook her head.

"What are they teaching at Beacon?" Celeste groaned. "If Jaune comes out not knowing anything about the other kingdoms, I'm going to send a very strongly worded letter to the headmaster… That's still Ozpin, isn't it?"

"You didn't go to Beacon?"

"I'm a Haven girl and this"- she pointed back to the patch -"means that I'm a knight of the Titan's Fist. That's the guild that handles all things Anathema in west Mistral and east Sanus."

The major guilds she remembered, just not their symbols. "I thought they went after really powerful Grimm."

Celeste nodded. "We do those too. 'Any great and powerful foe shall fall to the might of the Titans.'"

"Do you do investigations, like the ones in Vale?"

"Not my responsibility, but we're the guild in charge of them." She narrowed her eyes at Ruby's reaction. "Do you have a problem with that?"

That explained why there was no good end for her and also all of the suspicion. Ruby was Anathema after all. "They're horrible and something that good, moral people shouldn't take part in."

"I wouldn't call all of the interrogators moral, but they're needed to keep all of us safe." Celeste crossed her arms. "The criminal guilds will cover for Anathema if doing so helps them and sometimes they need the information beaten from their lying lips."

"Criminals have guilds? Like, a thieves guild?"

"Oh yeah, they're just not called something that obvious. The Goldenforge is a good example. They're the biggest counterfeiters out there."

"If you know this, why don't you just stop them?"

"It's not that easy. They have a lot of legal business as jewelers and even though we know they make counterfeit bills, most of their members aren't criminals. Also, they have a lot of money that isn't fake to buy off anyone asking too many questions."

It was never as easy as just finding the bad guys and stopping them. Well, it hadn't been before Ruby could cripple organizations. She just needed to know which ones to target and have someone to use as an anchor for the curse. That would be easy, but the number of problems that she could, and wanted to, solve this way was adding up so fast she'd spend all of her Aura and still not be finished.

"Then, why aren't you going after all of the other Anathema in Vale? I heard that three more have been sighted."

"Two reasons. The first is that we haven't finished negotiating with the Vale council, they seem to think that Atlas is enough, and the second is that Dōsatsu City is a major airship port. All sorts of information passes through here."

"So, do you know where the Beacon pair is?"

"You're not going to listen to reason, are you?"

"I need to find her and… do what needs to be done."

Ruby could feel the weight of Celeste's decision and budged it in the right direction. Ruby Rose is not Anathema.

As the woman's Aura righted itself, she said, "After they caused the explosion on Mount Aitan, they were probably last seen in the Thistlebane Forest."

Why they blew up the side of a mountain wasn't first on Ruby's list of questions for Yang, but it was certainly up there. "Probably?"

"We've found six or seven distinct tracks leading into and out of the forest. If I were to bet, I'd say the reports of a blond Anathema arriving at the village in the middle was them, but… none of our scouts have returned since."

"I see." Ruby's ability to be ignored would help out there. If the Grimm had overrun it, she could just force them to be calm while she passed through. If Blake and Yang had actually taken over a town instead of people freaking out when they passed through… Well, she'd deal with that when the time came. "Though, can we talk about something else? Something happier?"

Celeste pursed her lips, clearly considering saying something else. Ruby shoved Celeste's Aura to force her into agreement. "How about pie?"

"Pie?"

"Forest bakes a different pie every time I go to the field as another incentive to come back home safe. I think you deserve a slice considering how much you helped." The older woman grinned. "On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You need to give him a full review of the flavor and tell me what you did to finish the Boarbutusk."

Ruby opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. How was she supposed to explain that she grabbed a hold of the Grimm's future and tore enough out to kill it right now? Then the perfect answer hit her. "Wait, that's two conditions!"

Celeste smiled and stepped further into the house, giving Ruby enough time to think up a good enough description of the technique. All it did was tear off the remaining destiny for her target, but there was no accurate way of explaining how that worked. The pie was also delicious, though not quite sweet enough for Ruby's tastes.

She accepted the offer of a bed in the guest room. Though, it was a little weird that all of Celeste's kids were staying at friends houses even though Celeste shouldn't think Ruby was Anathema anymore.

It was a real shame that Celeste was part of the Mistral Hunters. If she'd been with Vale, Ruby wouldn't have to do anything more and her city would still be safe. In Vale, the investigations were separated from normal duties and people were members of different organizations, so Ruby could curse one without hitting the ability of the other to function. In Mistral, that wasn't the case. Dōsatsu City was going to be down two Hunters until it was safe to release the curses, along with every other city Celeste's guild worked in.

It… should be okay for them to be weakened for now because Blake and Yang were less than a week away. All she needed to do was find them and then she could remove the curses.

But they were awfully good at not being found.

So, in the morning, Ruby sent an email to Haven Academy which let them know that the Titan's Fist Guild would be affected like Vale was, just in case. With that handled, she was off.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.2

~~~​

Weiss closed the document which was both the solution to one of her current headaches and the cause of another. Ruby was the priority target for the Atlas military and as an adviser, Weiss needed to help them find her. By a stroke of fortune, or unexpected guile on Ruby's part, that job was so difficult that she hadn't managed to be certain of who to go after until now.

The Atlas military had, correctly, assumed that Ruby would try to follow Yang and, despite the obvious conflict of interest, she'd been tasked with finding Ruby Rose. According to the kingdom of Vale's birth records, there were one hundred and sixty seven people with the name Ruby Rose. Of those, twelve were confirmed as having an awakened Aura via combat school admissions, martial arts competitions, and, in three cases, a criminal record. What should be been a simple announcement of name and description, followed by a Hunt, was made infinitely more complicated because there seemed to be eighteen different Ruby Roses with Auras seen in eastern Vale over the past few months. Records may be incomplete regarding the outlying town and cities, but they would never be that bad!

To make matters worse, each of the women was clearly identifiable and memorable to all of the people she interacted with and the most noticeable trait of Ruby's was her inability to be remembered. Those that Weiss had pictures of also, despite looking similar to Ruby, each had a different body type and eye colors. The idea that one girl could have so many look-alikes was ridiculous, even disregarding the bandits who were using her name and red cloak to scare weaker Hunters into compliance.

To disguise oneself so well, but never use a false name, would be the height of idiocy. And yet, it was what seemed to have happened. The only blessing her partner had was that the rest of the analysts thought the theory that all of them were her was too stupid to actually be true and were still chasing after other potentials like her using her memory affecting abilities to delude people who looked the same into believing themselves to be her.

The decision paralysis and arguments circled endlessly... until yesterday morning.

A Mistral Huntress had sent Beacon a request for the records of a Ruby Rose who just graduated. She was described as a highly skilled Huntress who was using abilities far beyond what someone her age should have and also invented an entirely new martial art. More importantly, she knew specifics about the curse on Vale that had not been widely discussed. The next day, that same Huntress went quiet as the curse against Anathema investigations spread to her entire guild. Haven Academy received information about the curse existing that same morning from an anonymous email address.

Before anyone could follow up on the report, Ruby vanished into a no-go zone with a very muddy history. It would have been the best chance they had of catching her; however, no one would be able to follow until they had enough Specialists on site to overpower not only Ruby, but also whatever was taking out the scouts. Entire teams of Aura wielders vanishing without a trace normally meant a greater Grimm or Anathema was involved and it wouldn't be the first time that region was found harboring one.

There was something about small towns off of the CCT grid that made them especially prone to either being taken over by Anathema or destroyed by the Grimm. Weiss didn't really understand why people chose to live like that, but inevitably some did.

She grumbled under her breath and switched from that report to the one on Blake and Yang. It wouldn't do her any good getting frustrated by a lack of information or community foolishness… Not that this one was much better.

Though she already knew the result wouldn't be useful, Weiss still re-ran the tracking algorithm she'd been given, and quickly improved upon. It said that Yang was most likely in Atlas City; yesterday it'd been East Vacuo. "Useless."

It had taken all of her gifts, and limited knowledge of what had occurred before the Exalted became Anathema, to figure out that the ramshackle structures leading both to and from the site of the great, green explosion were most likely theirs. Unless Atlas intelligence had been fooled for years, the four of them were the most developed Exalted right now. The blast was too large for a new one; the size had been similar to the last time a Dust freighter went up, but it occurred in a forest instead of the middle of the ocean.

Everyone important in Atlas wanted to know how it happened? The new types of Anathema were the first choices for blame given the color. It was what lead her to them because Ruby's own goddess had shown her just how far reaching her attacks could be last semester when she casually destroyed all of the Grimm for tens of miles.

The click of heels stopped outside of her open door. Weiss looked up to see Coco Adel leaning on the side of the frame. She rapped on the door with the back of her hand. "Got a sec?"

"The door's open." Weiss shrugged. "And even if you aren't one of my students, it is office hours."

"Yeah." She drew the word out and she looked around the office. It was setup in a meticulously organized manner with her research space on one side and desk on the other. "Nice digs, but… How? Why?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"You're a freshmen. How did you wind up the TA for junior level Sorcery?"

Professor Ozpin needed some excuse to give her an office with an encrypted connection. It also just so happened to be right next to Professor Goodwitch's and they shared a very thin wall. Thin enough that she could hear into the Professor's office with a slight amount of focus.

"I passed the exit exam for combat Sorcery over winter break."

"Uh huh?" Coco crossed her arms. "Come on, Schnee. This isn't the first time I've seen someone get a position they logically shouldn't have. What is it? Was your dad trying to get in good with Beacon so he sent them a bunch of free Dust?"

Weiss glanced at the door as she turned some soft music on. Coco closed it, stepped up to the desk, and waited. The music was an incredibly obvious privacy aid, but there were enough more innocuous explanations that she could arrange for why they'd want to do that.

She focused her Essence on her hearing and opened her ears to a spectrum of sounds that no human, and few Faunus, could hear. Some music was overwhelming when she did this, but she'd found a particular song that solely existed in normal frequencies. Right behind it was the sound of a computer running in Professor Goodwitch's office, along with the telltale hum of a microphone that she knew was pointed at her own.

"He was not involved; it was something else."

"Obviously."

"But before I can explain more, can you answer two questions for me?"

"That all depends on what you're asking."

"When was the last time a member of your family was caught helping an Anathema? And, what do you, knowing what you know now, think about it?"

Coco froze. Weiss couldn't see her eyes through the sunglasses, but she was certain that they were darting all around the room, trying to make sense of why she would ask that. "That's a very dangerous question."

"I'm playing a very dangerous game." Weiss folded her hands on her lap and waited while Coco squirmed. Not physically, of course, but Weiss could make out the tension in her brow and the way that her normally relaxed posture had gone rigid.

It was a perfect set of questions, for Weiss, because she didn't care about the exact answers. It was the explanation, more than anything else, that Weiss needed. That would allow her to know whether she could extend more information to someone else who knew some of the truth about the Anathema.

"I don't suppose you'll accept waiting for a better time." Coco glanced at the door and window, the drapes were always closed when Weiss was working.

"You don't have to be too specific." Weiss focused her Essence on her words and inserted another meaning inside of them. 'We can always speak more privately later.'

Coco licked her lips before speaking. "It was a second cousin on my dad's side. An Anathema appeared at her bussines school. She was with the girl when…"

Coco paused, holding Weiss in her gaze. "When whatever happens when an Anathema becomes one happened. They were at a private house and blamed one of the staff, whose body they turned in."

"The Hunter investigating bought that?"

"He bought the hundred thousand lien 'gift' of fine liquor and an introduction to the chief of security at her father's company."

"Amaranth Isle?"

"South beach."

Weiss nodded. It was a small island off the western coast of Mistral known for the beautiful, namesake colored beaches and also being the capital of corporate crime, where everyone and everything had a price.

"Anyway, they didn't stay hidden for long. My cousin traded stocks at twenty percent above market rate for the next month thanks to the Anathema's tips. Her other friends sold her out as soon as the normal Hunters came calling."

Weiss was sorely tempted to comment on how stupid that was, but that would reveal too much of her own hand. "And what did you think of all of that?"

Coco paused for a long while, but Weiss was happy to wait. "The words that best describe her are immoral, heedless, and moron."

"I agree." Weiss waited a moment, making sure to slip the right intonation into her sentence. "Each word very accurately describes not only working with an Anathema like that, but also killing one of her own servants to hide her crimes."

Coco nodded, still tense. "She'd always been… ambitious and willing to do whatever it took to win, but I never would've expected that."

"Coco, have you ever been to the Paramessian? I was thinking of taking Pyrrha there on Saturday." Bringing Coco and Pyrrha to a high class cafe wouldn't cause a stir, unlike the last time she wanted to have a secretive meeting in Vale. While her teammates may be the most individually potent people on Remnant, high-class they were not.

She licked her lips. "I have missed their eclairs. A trip to the city would be wonderful."

"Excellent." Weiss grinned, that had been easier than she expected. Though, she ought to find others who weren't members of high-society to recruit as well.

"Is that all?"

"Well…" Weiss leaned back and forth. "There is one more thing. We need a plausible enough lie for"- she waved a hand at the room -"All of this."

"You need a reason to invite a girl into your office and put on dance music for her?"

"Only if she accepts the offer."

"Hmm…" Coco smirked. "I'm flattered, but not interested. Though… I think I can manage something."

"Very well, I'll trust your judgement." While Coco would undoubtedly do something to try and get back at Weiss, she would be trusting her with far more soon enough.

"Come this way." Coco sauntered over to the door, purposefully throwing as much hip into her walk as she could.

Weiss followed with a roll of the eyes, compared to Yang, this was only moderately distracting. "What will you-"

The door slid open at the same moment that Coco slapped her right on the ass, loud enough to clap even through her skirt. The tall girl growled far too huskily for Weiss to remain calm. "Don't be late this weekend."

"I- Why you!" Weiss yelped as she pushed the blush down.

"Haha, never change, Schnee."

~~~​

Nora rolled from her heels to her toes and took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be a hard talk, or even a really out there one, but it still made her sweat, made her heart race. If… if this worked out, then there would be so much she could do. She'd be safe again! Well, maybe not completely safe, but as long as she was around, then Ren, Jaune, and Pyrrha would be.

"Pyrrha…" she whispered to herself.

Maybe that was the cause of all of her jitters. If Pyrrha wasn't still hung up over Jaune, Nora would swear that she'd been seduced. Not that Nora would really blame her if that was the case, but it wouldn't make any sort of sense. Weiss may be open to stuff… and things... considering the Anathema brainwashing she'd gone through, but Nora was pretty sure that Pyrrha wasn't.

Then again… Nora shook her head and swayed back and forth. She also didn't know what Pyrrha's feelings on that topic were and… And she was stalling. Though, the door was still closed, which meant she was probably really busy and-

It suddenly opened as a red haired boy stepped out.

"Thanks, that spell makes so much more sense now." He waved behind himself, sparing Nora a quick smile as he walked away.

"Just remember, you need a five to three to one Air, Ice, and Lightning Dust mixture for the best result," Weiss said just loudly enough for her voice to echo in the hall. Then, she continued, much softer, "You can come in Nora."

Nora snapped her head around the door. "How did you know it was me?"

"I could hear you speaking to yourself. Is something wrong?" Weiss smiled and waved a hand at the seats in front of her desk.

"Well, you see." Nora kicked the door closed on the way to the chair. She sat down and leaned forward, fingers gripping the edge of the skirt. "There's been a lot of stuff going on lately, ever since we got back from break I haven't been able to focus on classes.

"I just keep thinking about last semester and remembering how I…" Nora paused. Weiss nodded and waited for her to collected her thoughts. "Anyway, I wound up thinking a lot about what exactly I was going to do next year. Then I talked to Ren about what he was doing and that's when I realized something really bad."

Weiss nodded again, meeting Nora's eyes.

"We, that is team JNPR, can kick a lot of butt in all sorts of ways: Ren's practically a martial arts ninja; Pyrrha's, well, Pyrrha; I can bench five of me; and Jaune is… was… getting better. At least before his head swelled from his newfound hero-ness." Nora grimaced. "To be honest it's getting a bit annoying that people are fawning over him like that when he's barely trying to catch up to the rest of us."

"Do you want me to help find him a tutor?"

"No." Nora shook her head wildly. "Well, maybe… probably... Actually, that's not a bad idea, but it's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Weiss nodded again.

"You see, you're one of the smartest people I know and also a good friend, even if you sort of got seduced by evil demons before, and well… now you'll know what to watch out for next time. And I'm not sure how you wound up teaching Sorcery, but that means you really know all the advanced stuff, like how to shoot a ball of molten lava out of your finger." Nora pointed at the wall holding her hand like a gun. "That would be awesome! Anyway speaking of fire, do you remember that first fight with the Anathema lady, not Blake and Yang… The one in the red dress, down at the docks? You know, the one with dark hair and the freaky eyes... that wasn't Ruby."

"Nora, are you going somewhere with this?" There was a twinkle in Weiss' eyes that sent a shiver down Nora's spine.

"Well…" Nora thought about how that fight went, how much she didn't get done, and how they all became so vulnerable so easily. "She did something to us in that fight, something that I'm still not really sure how it worked, but you were the only one who was able to fight back. If it wasn't for you, all of us would be dead."

Weiss slid her chair over to a bookshelf and pulled out a thin book. It was plain, bound in old leather, and missing a title. "That particular spell poses a normally unsolvable riddle to everyone nearby. The true answer can't be taught because it's different for each person. But, if you want to practice and learn more about those riddles, this is a good book. Each page provides a different concept to think about."

Nora took it and flipped to the first page. It was almost entirely blank. "The student asks of his old master, 'How does one win against an opponent stronger than himself?' The master replies 'By not being weaker.'"

She thought about it for a moment. "That doesn't make any sense. How can you not be weaker than someone stronger than you? I guess you could say, by using your Semblance to become stronger, but that doesn't feel right."

"What does feel right about it?"

Nora stared at the book and took a deep breath. This was the sort of stuff the masters of the more spiritual martial arts schools asked. She'd never been any good at them before, but now she was older, more experienced, and… that was it! "By being smarter than them. Strength isn't real strength if you use it at the wrong time. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"Whew, okay. That's sort of neat, but I wasn't really looking for a way to beat that spell. I want to beat all of them!"

Weiss raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Can you teach me how to do Sorcery?"

The smile turned into a smirk with a nod. "Beacon has classes for that. The entirety of sophomore year is normally dedicated to it for those who want to learn."

"Right, but you're super smart and already know how to do it. So, I figured you'd be able to show me how to get started. Do you just start taking control of Dust? And then, like, turn it into other stuff?"

Weiss shook her head and waved a hand. "It isn't as simple as that. There is no single way to teach anyone Sorcery, but everyone can learn it."

"Is this another one of those riddles?"

"Not quite. The path to enlightenment is different for everyone and very personal. It also isn't easy."

"If it lets me keep everyone else safe, then I'll do it. No matter how hard it is."

"That's a good attitude to start with." Weiss pulled out another book and flipped to the second page. A diamond was drawn on the page, with each corner being a picture. Each of the corners also connected to the center, which had a picture of its own. "There are five ordeals that every Sorcerer must pass through."

Nora slammed a fist onto her armrest. "Bring it!"

"I actually suspect, given what you and Ren have been through, that you've already cleared two of the ordeals."

"Okay, so what's next?"

Weiss pointed at the small book again. "Tell me the answer to the question on page forty-nine."

Nora flipped to the end. After a moment of thought, she opened her mouth and raised a finger. There was something blatantly wrong about what Weiss wanted her to do. "There're only forty-eight pages."

"There are patterns in all aspects of the world and you have already experienced a great deal more than most of our peers. This book was written by one who had gone on such a journey, through similar areas, and wished to recount all that she had learned. By finding your own meaning within her's, your own path will become obvious."

"That sounds like... a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo that doesn't really mean anything. Can't I just study a normal book or sit in a lecture?"

Weiss held up a hand and formed an Aura of white light around it. With every second that passed, it grew brighter. "If you merely wanted to launch streams of lava, then there are plenty of simpler options. To be a Sorcerer means that you understand, at an instinctive level, the way different aspects of the world correspond to others. Once you can do that-"

She cut herself off with a flash of light. Nora glanced back and forth trying to figure out what happened, then noticed the snowflakes falling from the ceiling.

"-you'll be able to reshape them to your own design."

Nora gulped as her eyes darted from snowflake to snowflake. "Ohh…"

Weiss pulled Fire Dust around her hand, and with a wave of her fingers, all of them burned away in a flash. "There are other, more esoteric, flavors of energy as well. You'll need to become familiar with them too."

"Okay." Nora nodded and considered what else there could be. "So, what other types are there? Happiness? Terror? Friendship?"

"I'm working on a spell that utilizes the Essence of Serenity to send visions via sympathetic connections."

"Uhh..."

"It will let me speak with people in their dreams by using the invisible connection that all beings share."

"Gotcha... will you be able to send whatever you want in it?"

"The goal is to send every type of sensory input by crafting a specific dream to be received."

Nora nodded. That could be really cool… or even more naughty, though a lady like Weiss probably wouldn't do that to people. "Alright. Why would you make something like that?"

"Think of the potential for sending messages to Hunters in the field. Many stay outside of regions where their scrolls have reception. This would allow them to stay in continuous communication. All of the other, similar, spells have some limitations that make them unsuitable for my purposes." Weiss held up a hand, counting off one by one. "They either have a limit to the amount of information, are insecure, rely on unusual circumstances to deliver the message, or have a very limited range."

Nora nodded, even though she didn't really get it.

"However, all of that can come after you have a greater understanding of the basics."

"Right…" Nora put the book in her lap. "So, once I figure out your riddle, what else would I need to do?"

"You perform your own maintenance on Magnhild, don't you?"

"Yep! It'd have broken a long time ago if I didn't know how to."

"In that case, your knowledge of how Dust interacts with other materials should be good enough." Weiss pulled a second book free, placing it in front of Nora. "This covers many of the more unusual interactions along with what other energies exist and how they're associated. Old rituals are also covered, but those tend to be impractical."

"Okay…" Nora poked at the book which was as thick as a normal textbook. "Am I going to need to know all of those too?"

"Yes. Though they may not be useful anymore, they still teach you about how a spell could be formulated."

Nora gulped. "All right."

"Once you have the knowledge, you'll need to complete the other ordeals. Most of them should not be too difficult, but the final test is the harshest."

Nora nodded, last was always hardest. "Lay it on me."

Weiss' eyes went cold. "Sacrifice."

"What?"

"It is not enough to wish to learn Sorcery, you must give up part of yourself in the process of acquiring the privilege to utilize it."

"Ahh." Nora glanced down at her hands. "So, like, a hand or something? Wait, no, you still have both of those."

"Losing a hand would be appropriate, if its use means that much to you. However, many instead will sacrifice more immaterial items: their beliefs, their relationships, their innocence."

"What'd you give up?"

Weiss closed her eyes and bowed her head. "It was all of them, but primarily the third. As I sought knowledge that had been hidden from me, I saw the truth about the way that my father's company operated; as my own innocence regarding the abuses was torn away, so too was the veil between my soul and the rest of the world."

"Do… Do you have any idea what mine might be?" Nora couldn't keep her eyes focused on her. It was like back in the cafeteria again, right before Weiss was investigated. "Yours sounds like it must've hurt a lot, but also like it was probably a good thing in the end?"

"It probably was, though I didn't think so at the time." Weiss stood up, the field of terror vanishing, and offered Nora a hand. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you what your sacrifice may be, all I can do is make sure that you approach this with full knowledge of what it entails. In order to acquire the power you seek, you must give up a piece of the being that is currently Nora and forge yourself into someone greater.

"With that in mind. Do you still wish to walk this path?"

Nora thought about it for almost a minute. She was… No, not just her. Everyone was entirely vulnerable to this power. It was something that she didn't understand and, from what Weiss was saying, couldn't understand until she had it herself. And to get it, she'd need to become a different person…

That happened once before…

When the Anathema took over her village and called on them to train, some of who she was was lost. She had to give up all of her dreams in service to the cause. But, she came out of that stronger. When she was a member of the town guards, she had food, respect, and a future. It may not have been the dream of secretly being a princess, but it was more than she'd ever known before.

But that hadn't been her choice. She had a strong Aura, so she needed to join the guard. There were no other questions asked.

This was her own choice. If she wanted to do this, then it would be her own hands that tore the piece of herself away.

Nora opened her eyes and grabbed Weiss' hand. "Yeah, I do."

Weiss smiled and pulled her up. "Then get studying. You have the drive and the talent. Though, you may wish to speak with Pyrrha while you're looking into this."

"Why's that?"

"She knows a great deal about the other connections you'll need to learn and also has gone over similar riddles herself."

"Is she trying to learn Sorcery too?"

"No, but she has been working on a sister field."

"Is that why she and Ren have been talking and practicing so much?"

"In part, yes. Both of them can learn a lot of each other and as a team, you can all grow together."

"Thanks, Weiss." Nora smiled. "I'll get started… Right after lunch."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.3

~~~​

Ruby rubbed her eyes until they started hurting and then opened them again. What she was looking at stayed the same.

The 'town' in the middle of the forest was anything but; even though it was technically the right size, towns didn't have gigantic Dust-powered towers that shot lightning at Nevermore flying too close. It was a defensive weapon that Ruby'd never heard of before and she'd looked up a lot of different weapons when designing Crescent Rose. That meant some new technology popping up from nowhere, but Yang had never seemed like the type to do that.

Then again, she did make Ember Celica, tuned Bumblebee by herself, and it had been months seen Ruby saw her. If Ruby could learn how to dream up new knowledge, Yang could figure out how to build a lightning tower. Actually, Blake probably could too, even if she was starting out with less knowledge.

Ruby swapped the Destiny laying on her shoulders, becoming Ruby Rose, Aura Researcher. A wandering Huntress wouldn't exactly be the best choice of identity to walk into an Anathema's town with, even one owned by her teammates. Come to think of it, would they be able to tell who she was? No one else had been able to recognize her identities being basically the same person, even if she used two different ones right in front of them... Hopefully Blake and Yang would be different.

She had to swerve around a number of potholes or fallen branches as she rode. Even though the tower was incredible, the regular roads and houses were desperately in need of work. The outskirts looked just like her hometown in Patch after a bad winter. Which was… really strange. Towns outside of the kingdoms needed some sort of natural defense or heavy fortification, but this one had nothing besides that tower and the unnatural energy flowing from it.

Normally, people lived where there wasn't a lot of hidden power, but this location was at the intersection of a number of different flows. The air was not happy about the heavy, metaphysical wind. Each of its enormous spines dotting the top of the tower added another note to the horrible song that left the entire region sounding muffled, like it was coated in grime. The only real comparison Ruby could make was that it felt as dirty compared to normal air as normal air did to Yu-Shan's.

The people were about as friendly as the angry, gnarled trees that loomed over them. They let her in without any questions, not that they really could have stopped her with no gate, but she certainly didn't feel welcome. She caught someone's eyes peering out of almost every window and could easily hear them stepping outside to watch her as soon as she passed their houses.

She got to a block away from the tower before turning around and catching sight of a small boy. He'd jumped behind a trashcan as soon as she started moving, but his hair was poking out above the lid.

"I can see you." Ruby called out.

He almost stood up, but stopped when she could make out his eyebrows.

"Yes, you, with the red hair, hiding behind the can."

He slowly stood up, so tense he was shaking.

"I don't bite."

"What'd…" He mumbled into the ground. "What'd you want?"

Ruby grimaced, but tried to sound calm and happy. "Hi there, I'm Ruby. I was just wondering who built this... nice tower."

"No one!" He shouted, then back away and covered his mouth. "I mean, no one built it. We've always had it."

"Uh huh." Ruby crossed her arms and waiting for another bolt to shoot out. "And has it always done that?"

The boy paused, looking up at it. After a long wait, he said, "Yes."

"Right." Ruby dragged the word out way too long, but the implication went over his head. "Umm, this is obviously not a normal tower."

She could feel the weight of his decision pressing against the world and gently pushed it so that he would tell her.

"It… I'm not supposed to go near it unless the monsters come and… She wasn't supposed to either, but then she made it better."

"Who wasn't?" Ruby stepped off of the bike and slowly walked toward him.

"That… the lady who… brought the animal with her." The boy stammered, sniffling and shuddering while he looked at the houses surrounding them.

"Animal?"

"The other girl with the ears."

"You mean a Faunus?"

The boy stared at her for a moment before cringing away again. "Oh, yeah. That."

"Can you tell me where they are?" Ruby said softly, smiling down at him despite how much she really wanted to correct him. It wasn't his fault that whoever was teaching him was a terrible person.

He opened his mouth and was about to speak when a man shouted, "Leave the boy alone you witch!"

Ruby glanced over her shoulder at person who just interrupted them. He was old, with completely white hair, and his Aura was weak. Normally, he wouldn't be any sort of threat, but the sword on his belt sang with everything she needed to know. It's nauseating, discordant melody made her blood run hot.

The horrible metal which almost ended her life in the fight with Professor Goodwitch. The metal made from souls that drank any Aura it touched. In its screeching, she could make out a man begging to see his children again.

Ruby looked over her shoulder, voice much colder. "Are you going to answer my questions then?"

"I ain't answering nothing for your type." His hand flickered toward the sword, but he didn't touch it. "And neither is he."

The man looked at the boy and moved his head toward a house. "Get outta here you."

He started scampering away. Ruby didn't stop him. Instead she turned to the older man and laid a hand on Crescent Rose.

"Who was the 'she' that he was about to tell me about?"

"No one. The boy's an idiot. Doesn't know what he's talking about." The man eyed Crescent Rose, but kept his hand away from his own weapon.

Ruby looked at the base of the tower. "Then you won't have any problem with me taking a look at the tower, will you."

This time he grabbed his sword. "It is forbidden for anyone to go in there."

Ruby looked at him, then to the tower, and then back to him. "The kid said you go in then the Grimm show up and I've done a lot of forbidden things. What's one spooky tower?"

"You'll doom us all!" He shouted. "Get your supplies, fuel up your bike, and leave. We don't want or need your kind here."

"What do you think I am?"

"Huntress." He spat on the ground.

He was technically right, but… "Actually, I'm a researcher, not a Huntress."

"Even worse."

"What?"

"A Huntress would at least kill some of the damned Grimm. You 'researchers' just come in, grab whatever you think is 'valuable', and then leave without making us any better off for all of the mess you've made."

Ruby took a deep breath and considered the possible paths this conversation could take. There were a number of interesting branches, but she settled on the one that would lead to the least arguing and pain for everyone. "What do you think about the Anathema?"

To his credit, the shock lasted for barely a second. "Demons, all of'em."

"So, do you know what happened to the blonde Anathema seen coming into the forest? Or any of the scouts that followed her?"

He squeezed his lips shut so hard they turned white.

"I would have noticed if she was out here."

"I thought you said you weren't a Huntress."

"I'm not." Ruby tapped Crescent Rose.

"Uhhh." The man gulped.

"All I want to do is talk to her."

"Th- There's no one like that here." He stomped as other adults started coming out of their houses.

"A town like this wouldn't be able to protect itself. The forest has barely any defensive terrain and the town itself has no fortifications." Ruby glanced away from him briefly, looking at all of the eyes staring at her. "There're more than enough people to draw the Grimm, but you're still here."

"We're a hardy folk, not like you who hide behind walls."

"The boy said that you hide from them in the tower. Who built it?"

"It was made by our ancestors to protect us when you wouldn't! If you keep up this talk of defiling it by going inside..." He unsheathed an inch of blackened steel. "Well, we've dealt with your kind before."

"Don't make a mistake like that." Ruby listened to the others who were coming out of their houses now. Four of them were carrying weapons made of the same material, but none had an Aura even as strong as the worst students at Beacon.

"Please, just leave us be." A heavyset woman aimed a shotgun at Ruby's head. Her Aura was also incredibly weak. "We don't want anymore trouble."

Ruby took a deep breath. She needed to try something else. "Has news of what happened at Beacon reached this far out?"

The crowd paused, glancing at each other. At they murmured, a wind from the tower blew through them.

"What does she mean?"

"The big fight?"

"You went to the city last month."

"I never heard anything."

"Wasn't a Hunter killed in that?"

"We'll be killed if she stays."

"Do you think she's?"

"No, she couldn't be."

"She'll take our savior away from us, just like that poor man was."

"That girl was supposed to be a monster, seven feet tall and wielding a giant scythe."

"They say her hands were dyed red with blood."

"She's wearing a lot of red."

"She'll kill all of us."

"Who?"

"Who's blood?"

"The students she killed."

"The Girl in Red."

All eyes turned back to her and her red cloak fluttering in the wind. The branches of the trees scraped against each other like rustling paper and nails on chalk boards. As the wind moved, it swept through each person, hardening their expressions.

She needed something to counteract whatever that was.

"Please." Ruby interrupted their whispers, grasping a destiny of the Gauntlet in her free hand. It was Ruby Rose, Warrior of Truth, but she could draw on the power now if she needed to. "I just want to talk to her. There's no reason that anything bad would-"

Ruby exploded into a cloud of rose petals as a shot was fired at her. She reformed on top of a porch, shrugging off her current identity. With a flick of one hand, Crescent Rose deployed. Her beak bit through the tiles with a sickening crack. At the same time, Ruby released the energy of the gauntlet and pulsed her Aura hard enough to make the symbol appear, lighting up their faces with a scarlet glow.

The blood drained from the face of the man who tried to shoot her. His hands trembled, clutching his gun so hard that she could make out where he'd broken his fingers before by the way the poorly set bone pressed against his skin.

Ruby locked eyes with him and forced herself not to blink. She tore the destiny to pieces, unleashing the power that had been bound up for months. Its pieces swirled around her as she pushed even more power from her Aura. When her energy erupted, it pushed the wind back and blew away some of what was sitting on the people. "Tell me where my sister is."

The last time she'd done this, it worked on Professor Ozpin. These people were nowhere near as strong. Weapons clattered to the ground, people ran, and Ruby really wished her sense of smell wasn't as good as it was.

The man she'd focused on didn't more. His breathing grew faster and faster until he was practically panting. He raised a finger slowly and pointed at the tower. "S-She's underneath, in the catacombs."

That was another thing that normal towns didn't have.

"Show me where the entrance is."

What remained of the crowd parted for them as they moved, scattering with a lurch whenever a rose petal drifted nearby. Ruby kept her eyes ahead and her face tense. It didn't take long for them to reach a giant metal circle in the ground.

"They went in there." The man grabbed a long rod with a single hand bend from a nearby barrel. The bit at the end looked like a very strange screw. "The Anathema and her beast should be deep inside."

"Don't call her that."

"W-What?"

"Beast." Ruby could forgive a kid for doing that, but not someone old enough to know better.

"Uhhhhhhh…" The rod shook in his hands. "The Faunus then."

"You don't even know her name, do you?"

"N-no."

Ruby wasn't surprised. When she looked at his eyes again, he flinched away. "How do you open it?"

"L-Like this." The man carefully stepped up to the disk and screwed the rod into the side. After it stopped, he leaned into the handle, walking a circle around it instead of just using his arms.

Ruby leaned over as slightly stale air rushed out. The drop was fairly short, she wouldn't need to use the ladder at all. "How you do re-open it?"

"There's a crank inside that's a lot easier to manage."

"Show me."

"What?"

"We're both going down there and you're going to show me how to get out."

He glanced back at the crowd. Ruby tapped her foot. He slunk over to the edge and carefully started going down the ladder. When he was at the bottom and had moved back, Ruby stepped off the edge.

The man yelped, falling on his butt when she landed. He scrambled to his feet, clutching his chest.

"It's right there." He pointed to a large crank that dominated the wall.

Ruby grabbed it with one hand and started turning. The mechanism had good gearing because it wasn't hard to move. Though, from his reaction, she might just be that much stronger than him.

The disk slowly rotated back into place, leaving them with only the light of her Aura to see. Drops of sweat ran down the man's face, only being knocked off by how much he was shaking. He didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes was that of a cornered animal.

When she opened it back up, he kept glancing back to the top.

"You can go, but make sure my bike's safe."

He nodded rapidly, then scampered back up the ladder, taking the rungs two at a time.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ruby slumped against the wall and wiped her eyes. It was easier being hated. There were plenty of reasons to hate her now and if someone was mad at her, she could explain herself or fight back.

She couldn't do anything about people being afraid.

~~~​

Ruby advanced through the catacombs with the red light that only she could see active. The walls were made of dark stone bricks that were fit so close together that she couldn't see the seams. They were dotted with large alcoves, each group spaced three high. There were plenty of coffins stored in them, but the most frequent items were things the living needed.

Dried food, books, jugs of water, and Dust canisters: some of these were stored in every one. A number of bedrolls and mattresses were also laid out, though it would be more than a little creepy to sleep where someone would eventually put a dead body. Then again, if you were already living in a catacomb, maybe that wouldn't be too bad.

It would've given her goosebumps even without the awful feeling energy infusing the hallway. The wind was stronger and it felt like it left a layer of grease behind wherever it blew, even though nothing physical was actually there. It was bad enough that not even the invisible Grimm flies that she could only see when she used this ability were present.

If something was so bad the Grimm didn't want to be around it, she knew that it shouldn't exist.

As she continued, the signs of living people were replaced with more and more coffins, some of them broken open. On occasion, the paths branched, but she always continued along the side with the strongest flow.

It was quiet as she continued, far too quiet. When she was growing up, there were always animals out in the woods. Ruby fell asleep to the sounds of crickets and the occasional car. At Beacon, she had the soft hum of lights and machines. Also all of the people who were constantly moving around.

In these tunnels, the only sounds were those she caused. The scuff of rubber against stone with each step, the rustle of her cloak as each movement made it billow, and her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.

What was she going to say to Blake and Yang? Would they even want to talk to her?

Ruby thought back to the train and the look of horror, of betrayal, on Yang's face. They didn't exactly part on the best terms and… It would be sort of hard to explain everything she'd been doing to help them… Assuming they'd even noticed.

What would they think of that?

She didn't know.

The path continued spiraling in and down while Ruby looked to the future about what she could do. The best result was continuing forward and being honest. That was good.

Eventually, the coffins were replaced by bodies in wrapping and other tools started appearing. Several tiles were marked off with different colors at random. Ruby didn't need to guess what the code was: white checkmarks and purple skulls. Or… were they blue skulls? The red light might make sense with tha-

Ruby stepped between the strands of the world as danger came from to the left. When she reappeared, there was a scorch mark where she'd been. The sharp smell of air that had just been electrified and the echo of a loud crack was all of the evidence she had regarding what happened.

With a sigh, Ruby continued, making sure to be a lot more careful where she stepped. Even though she could easily afford to do that over and over until she reached the end, glowing so brightly that no one could look her in the eye would make talking awkward.

Soon enough, the sounds of rock being scraped reached her. It echoed again and again, quick and precise. Ruby moved faster, using her Semblance to practically fly through the air by turning into rose petals between each step. When she saw the light ahead, she dove for it.

An incredible amount of danger was dodged by stepping outside of the world once more. Ruby spared a glance back, almost twenty feet of hallway had been blackened by the lightning strikes. But that didn't matter to her anymore. She could hear them, just barely. Over the cracks of lightning she could make out someone complaining about rats.

Yeah, traps like these would kill any animals that made it in here.

She ended at the top of a gigantic staircase. It dropped very quickly, each step about twice as tall as it was wide, and at the bottom was a person with long blonde hair. She was crouched over a rune circle on the floor. She growled at the lettering as she formed a new line with a chisel, throwing bright yellow sparks that she ignored as they hit bare skin. "Why isn't it working?"

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, her voice echoing in the giant chamber.

Her feathery wings had vanished from her back, but her hair was more alive than ever before. The ends coiled around her tools, writhing as they lifted them into the air. But, when the blond snapped her head around as she heard Ruby's voice, brilliant green eyes met Ruby's. They burned with a dark fire, lighting up a face that could have been a porcelain doll.

Ruby's breath caught in her throat.

"You…" She gasped. "You aren't my sister."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.4

~~~​

Yang locked her targets in sight as she leaned over the edge of her tower, fingers ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. One hand was covered by Ember Cecilia; the other held only a simple pebble. This was it, the shot that would decide everything.

When the can of soda that she'd tossed hit the ground, she fired. The regular shot flew out exactly like a normal Dust round should, but she ignited the pebble with the fires of hell. Sickly yellow-green flames surrounded the stone as it flew forward, tearing the air into shreds in its wake.

The pebble hit the tree with the force of a freight train, partially uprooting it as the trunk snapped in half and rocketed away. Seconds later, green cracks appeared around the hole the pebble bored into it, growing quickly, and then exploding; just like everything else did when Yang used hellfire, all without making that symbol appear on her forehead.

Yang sighed, there went that excitement. She didn't really want to get caught by Hunters again, but camping in the woods got dull real fast.

All of the fighting and running for her life had awoken something new in her soul. Her fire burned even hotter, as did the weight of everything she did. Every step she took, every word she spoke, every fire she lit: they all felt stronger, heavier, like she was forcing the world to bend to her will just by existing. She should be doing something with that! Well, beyond remaking their camp.

Their base had been an old, abandoned cabin. That was boring so she took it apart and turned it into a short tower that menaced with spikes of blackened iron. It also glowed with an eerie green light from the Dust generator inside, but that was just for dramatic effect.

She could admit, it wasn't the most practical, or spacious, place to live, but they needed a base while they practiced. Also, she'd run out of cabin before she could finish it and there wasn't enough spare metal to make a fourth floor without ruining the aesthetic. Which, surprisingly enough, was very important to making the ambient energy feel like her own Aura.

It also felt right to have a dark tower. She was an evil demon and damn did that thing look like something that a super villain would build. Though, she still didn't really know why it worked. Tialeth's memories guided her hands for most of the work even if they were-

She stood atop the prow of her ship as the ocean of lesser Raksha fell before the might of her new Lightning Ballista. Bolt after bolt was fired by her artillerymen, shattering the waves every time they rose up to rock the ship. Breaths with Flames, the Twilight of her circle, needed the ship to remain steady as he forged raw lightning from the energies around them and froze it in stasis.

She spared a glance at the bolts collected so far. They had five of the fifteen full arcs that needed to be at least ten feet in length according to his design. Perhaps if the Wyld Prince appeared, rather than hiding like a coward, she would have something interesting to kill. But, as it stood, the battle was like watching children play wargames.

A lance of magma erupted from the back of the Prince's largest warbeast. It arched through the air, the first real threat in the battle.

She spread her anima wide, the golden Essence forming a wall that prevented a single drop from landing on the deck. With a single swing of her blade, she cut through the path that the attack came from and ignited every piece of the beast's being with Solar fire.

Tialeth sighed as a Raksha's bolt pierced through the throat of one of her men. They would be here for at least five more hours.

Yang blinked and a burning tree replaced the burning body. Even as strong as she was, even with her now proven ability to reshape the world in her own image, she couldn't hold a candle to the might of the monster in her head. If she had power like that, then she wouldn't just let people die. She'd kill the Grimm, all of them… and then…

Take them all as your own.​

"Shut it." She didn't know what was gonna happen, but it wasn't going to be that and… She just spoke to the demon, again.

"Dammit me, focus." She rubbed her temples and tried to catch her train of thought. Even though the difference between today and the beginning of the semester was ridiculous, impossible; she still had a ton more to learn. She was an unstoppable monster and the worst part was, it felt so right. She was so far beyond her classmates, her dad, and even her Uncle Qrow; but, the memories showed that there was so much further that she could go. She'd never plateau.

That was what Uncle Qrow called it, the point where no matter what you did, you couldn't get any stronger. Veteran Hunters sometimes found a trick to go further, but he'd been there ever since she was little.

That was part of the reason why she'd shot the pebble again and again and again for just over an hour. She needed to know exactly where she was, how much power she had now. All of the academies had machines to measure someone's Aura, but it wasn't like they'd be able to use one of them, so she had to figure out her own tests, just like science class at Signal.

It took a long time for anyone's Aura to recharge if they weren't in a fight, something about how the soul felt the adrenaline coursing through the body and brought out more power; ever since she became Anathema, Yang's came back a lot faster than it had before.

Something was making that aspect of her Aura even stronger beyond the energy flowing around her tower. That helped too, it was almost impossible to not notice how good being here felt.

She could feel little scraps of power, that weren't flavored like her own, constantly whirling around, slowly sinking into her soul. None of them mattered all by itself, but combined, they made it so that she could fire seven pebbles before the mark appeared on her forehead, instead of six. It took forever, but she and Blake had nothing but time while they got closer to the South-Eastern coast.

"Blake…" Yang sighed and looked to the north. Blake had been gone for almost a week already and now Yang was so deep into her own head that she was almost hoping the demon would talk so she had something to distract her.

She waited for a moment; it didn't take the bait.

"Great, just great." Yang sighed and plopped down on a bench she'd acquired from an abandoned park. She brushed the bags of chips free and laid down, staring at the clouds. Without someone to nag her, their camp had become a mess.

She picked a strip of bark from her special food bag and bit down. It had a weird flavor, sort of like bubblegum. Nothing as good as the sweet berries from Western Vale that she'd kept around as long as she could, but it was still alright. She hadn't eaten real food in… Weeks? Months? Chips didn't count. Even after Blake figured out a way to get into cities, they needed to travel as light as possible, so Yang kept up with the weird stuff.

What would Ruby think if she saw this? What would she-

Yang snapped her head up and held herself as still as she could.

A new Aura had entered her domain along with another presence, both slowly approaching her. The first was weak, about as potent as a skilled Hunter, but there was something off about it. It felt more right than a normal person's and more wrong at the same time. The second was… a Grimm.

Yang held her pebble ready as they stepped around the bend in the road.

The Aura belonged to a very small woman. Black hair, brown eyes: Yang guessed Vacuan from her dark skin. She was either a pure martial artist or not a Huntress because she didn't have any weapons on her, except for the towering Alpha Beowolf that was meekly following at her side.

"Good afternoon, my Lady." The woman bowed her head slightly; so did the Beowolf. "Your territory is quite marvelous."

"What?" Yang stared at her. The pupils of the woman's eyes writhed with a shadowy energy. Then she glanced back at the tower. "Umm, thank you? But, I'm not a 'Lady' of any sort."

"My apologies. Is there another title that you hold?"

"I- No! What're you talking about?"

"You are one of the great ones. It is only proper to pay respect where it is owed." She smiled with one of those soft, 'don't worry I'm harmless' smiles that always signaled that knives were about to come out.

"I'm not that great."

"Ahh, but you are." The woman shook her head. "You and your companion hold the potential to reshape a world that has sorely mistreated you. You have been merciful in your dealing with humanity so far, though they do not deserve such favors."

Yang tensed. This woman was just asking for a pebbling. "What are you talking about? I'm a monster that could destroy anything I wanted to. They've done exactly what they should've."

"Should those who would harm you not be destroyed? They sit safe in their cities, afraid of any power that they cannot control. That is why they fear your kind, that is why you are hunted, because they know that you are better." She scratched the Beowolf's head. "Please, do not denigrate yourself so. If you were to leave that hatred behind, then you would truly be free to pursue that which you desire."

Yang searched the woman's dress for any sign of animal parts. She was practically quoting Blake's warnings about the Silver Cult, a group of the White Fang that worshiped the Anathema. But… "You're not White Fang, are you?"

"No, I am not, though I do consider their cause admirable and their actions worthy of praise. They have done more to further the works of the Dark Mistress than any other in recent memory." She continued scritching the Grimm. "Tell me, have you heard of the Walkers in Darkness?"

Yang shook her head, trying not to cringe at the sight of a Beowolf acting like a puppy.

"We are purveyors of the old ways, the methods and techniques that were granted upon Mistral by the Dark Mistress before the Great War. We provided the backbone of Mistral's protection in that day, using our magic to control man's greatest foe and turn them to our own advantage." With a wave of her hand, the Beowolf rolled over like it was waiting for belly scratches. "And do you know what our loyalty was rewarded with?"

Yang shook her head again, though she had a good idea what it might have been.

The woman leaned closer, hissing, "Betrayal. When the last king of Vale triumphed, he dissolved our order and declared our techniques heretical to the good of humanity, just like the Anathema. We sacrificed our lifeblood to protect them and were driven to the ends of Remnant as thanks."

"That… uhh… sucks." Yang wasn't sure what else she could tell the crazy lady who might spill the beans on something important if Yang let her keep talking. From everything she'd done so far, her order deserved everything that happened to them.

"We should have perished. Self-righteous men like that claim to be a Beacon of light for the world, a fitting name for his tyrannical palace. Yet they never realize that they are the ones who cast the largest shadows." She spat more venomously than anything else Yang had ever heard.

Blake and Yang's fights had nothing on that anger.

"We were saved by the mistress' disciples once more. They brought us from the brink of destruction and reforged our order into a blade that serves the true goddess of Remnant." She clasped a hand to her heart and bowed her head. "It is by her will that we were saved and we would love for you to join our family."

"Uh huh." Yang gulped, this was getting weirder by the minute. "And just who is this mistress of yours?"

"The Lady Garbed in a Shroud of Darkness. The Nightmare Queen of a Fallen Land. The Custodian of the Desolate." The woman let her head fall down as she smiled. "She who commands man's nightmares and allows us to control them in turn. She who has provided a refuge for those rejected from proper society. She who will bring vengeance upon those who have denied us our free lives."

"Does this goddess of yours have a name?"

"It is not for me to say. For a lowly member such as myself to speak it is blasphemy."

If she was trying to make this sound good, then she was failing so badly that it was almost funny. Though actually, if Yang didn't know that she was evil and that the Anathema completely deserved to be Hunted down, then the thought of joining up with someone like that would make sense. Under that assumption, cultist lady would have a point.

The woman waved her fingers to a beat and the Beowolf got up. Yang aimed at it, but lowered her arm when it started moving.

Yang rubbed her eyes, just to confirm that what she thought was happening was actually happening... It was.

The Beowolf was dancing a jig.

That was so wrong.

"Okay, so… You can control the Grimm…" Being able to do that would solve so many problems, but...

"One of the many blessings that she has bestowed upon us. That and a place of safety to live, beyond the reach of the Kingdoms. Those places would also welcome one such as yourself with open arms."

That screamed trap louder than anything else Yang'd heard of in a long time, but if they found out what this secret 'blessing' was, then they'd be that much closer to saving everyone. Mistral had controlled Grimm in her favorite war board game and whatever let them do it couldn't be too hard to learn for her and Blake.
'No!'
And the demon was against it, which automatically made her want to do it more, even if that would make the headaches worse.

"Alright… New home and all that… So, where exactly would this place be?"

The woman smiled. "Before you are shown the way, my master would speak with you."

"Uh huh…" If her master was also Anathema, then this could be dangerous. Yang's heart started beating faster with that thought. She and Blake never spared all out anymore because it would risk giving them away. "So where does she want to meet?"

"He." She corrected. "We will wait for you on a cliff overlooking Xūhuàn. The camp should be trivial for one such as yourself to find."

"Gotcha. See you soon." This would've been so much easier to figure out if she had Blake around. Or Weiss… Or Ruby...

~~~​

Blake dropped her backpack to the ground when she caught sight of their 'base'. Yang was sitting at a campfire, which was burning with green flames, roasting some small animal.

"You're back!" Her partner shouted, jumping up from her seat.

"You did it again," Blake said in disbelief.

"Did what?"

"That!" She pointed at the tower of doom which had replaced the nice, comfortable cabin they'd found.

"Oh, yeah." Yang shrugged. "I got bored and it was either this or talk to the demon."

"You know, there are other options, right?"

"Like what?"

"Literally anything else!" Blake threw her hands in the air. "Build a bike, go swimming, punch out a Beowolf: anything besides making another easy to spot tower!"

"This one can't be seen above the trees." Yang paused. "I checked."

"And is it also going to explode?"

"Nope." Yang lied.

Blake crossed her arms.

Yang rubbed the back of her neck and told the truth. "Well… it shouldn't, but I'm really not sure… I'm pretty sure that if it does it'll be smaller."

Blake frowned and shook her head.

"The explosion was delicious?"

"You're not helping your case." Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. "Wait, how can an explosion be delicious?"

"My soul liked absorbing it."

"That doesn't… Whatever."

"Well… How about this then? I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Good."

"I figured it out."

Blake's ears perked up and some of her annoyance flowed away. "You did?"

"Yep." Yang posed with her fists on her hips, smiling brightly. "By building my second tower of villainy, I finally figured out how to make the energy in the air flow and how to absorb it. Then it became a great ball of fire that made my soul burn hotter."

"Please tell me you're not being literal."

"I might be." Yang stuck a finger in her mouth and made a popping sound when she pulled it out.

"This is going to be the berries all over again."

"Hey, those are also delicious."

"They're highly poisonous!"

"Blake." Yang's smile was gone. "What's wrong?"

Blake crossed her arms and turned away from Yang's monstrosity. "The White Fang were recruiting in the city. It's… why I took so long to get back."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Blake fell onto the bench with a loud thump. "We're pretty far from any of the Kingdoms, which is always where they did their best, but this was something else. Their members were half of the militia and the main Huntsman stopped being able to do anything all of a sudden, so now they're also the Hunters."

"That's… Well, it's good that someone's protecting it." Yang sat down beside her and threw an arm over her shoulders.

"They're digging themselves in, making the people dependent on them. If this goes on for too much longer, it'll be theirs."

"What'd you want to do about it? We could go in and take them out."

"No, that's… I... " Blake shook her head. "I spent some time writing up counter-propaganda and giving it to people. That should be enough for now."

"Is it really enough though?" Yang whispered. "I… I've always had sort of a drive to go out and do things, but it's never been as bad as it is right now. There has to be more that we could be doing than just running away from everything."

"Have you figured out how to disguise yourself?"

"I have a good idea about how to do it, but I'm been focusing more on making sure people can't find us." Yang shrugged.

"And building towers."

"And remaking our camp so that the energy around it is mine."

"And all of the exploded trees?"

"Figuring out if my Aura was coming back faster… It is… And not just because of this place."

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Great." Blake sighed. "Anything else?"

"I did all of that with pebbles." Yang pointed over her shoulder at a pile of ash. "I'm pretty sure it'd punch through Auras too, but that's hard to test… Unless... Have you figured out how to be tougher yet?"

"It's hard. None of your explanations made any sense." It was Blake's turn to grimace. Her Aura felt more slippery than stable, which meant the 'just form a wall from it' method didn't work.

"It's the same thing with disguises, but going to see the cultists will probably let me see if my idea works."

"Cultists!" Blake sat straight up.

"Oh, right… The bad news. Some weird cultist sort of showed up at the camp with her Grimm in tow."

"Her Grimm?"

"Yeah, she had a Beowolf controlled somehow. Made it dance and everything."

"That sounds really creepy."

"It was!" Yang leaned over, resting her chin on Blake's shoulder. "But that wasn't the weirdest thing…"

Every sentence of explanation sounded worse and worse. Not only had Yang been discovered by some sort of crazy Grimm whisperer, she also said they'd think about talking again.

Blake held her eyes closed after Yang finished explaining, trying to allow Yang's fingers to make the stress go away. "So, you just said yes?"

"I didn't say anything like that. I just said that I'd be interested in talking to them about it, but needed to convince you." Yang crossed her arms and pouted like she'd just been denied her favorite food: a rare, toxic berry. "Besides, what else do we have to do, practice using our powers more? Once my disguise idea works, there's no point to sticking around."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what is this idea?"

Yang sheepishly grinned. "Going bright again and controlling what I look like when I come back down."

"That's a horrible idea. We spent so much time making sure no one knew where we were."

"I can always make them lose us again tomorrow."

"That's fair, but please don't try to explain it again. The first time gave me a headache trying to imagine it." Blake doubted she would ever really understand how Yang 'made everyone observing them see them travel along all possible paths to their destination', but she was fine with remaining ignorant.

"Actually…" Yang mimed stroking a beard. "If I take the idea and run with it, I might be able to find us a path to the Menagerie that doesn't involve crossing the ocean."

That… Blake could already feel her head throbbing.

"Please don't. We have a good plan: figure out a way to disguise you, then get on a boat. No need to include… whatever that idea is." Blake waved her hand in the air for emphasis. "I also don't think it should include walking into the obvious trap."

"Sure, it's probably a trap, but it also might not be. And I'm… not exactly the type of person who'd be able to figure that out."

"Yang…" Blake grabbed her hand and squeezed. "That's not tr-"

"No, it is. I know what I'm good at and what you're much better at. I'd trust your gut about whether or not we can trust someone over my own any day. You can figure that stuff out with your powers while I can I.D. Anathema or make them listen to us."

That was accurate, but still not how Blake wanted her to phrase it.

"Besides, if it is a trap, then I get to try and disguise myself while we fight off a horde of Hunters."

Blake chuckled. "I don't think Hunters can be a horde."

"They totally can! We just need, ten or more of 'em."

Blake considered them being that surrounded. "That might be a challenging fight."

"Yeah, and if it isn't a trap, then we might figure out how to control the Grimm!"

"Which would only make everyone want to kill us even more."

"If we can make the Grimm kill each other first, it'd be worth it."

"I doubt it would be that easy. If it was, someone else would've by now."

"You're forgetting something." Yang raised a hand to the sky and covered the sun with her palm. "We're probably two of the most powerful Anathema in the history of Remnant. Only Jonathan Argint might've been better and I think I can catch him."

"You might be able to."

Yang squeezed Blake's shoulder. "You'll figure it out eventually."

"I don't want to figure it out. I don't want to think about more death or destruction or hatred."

"You think I wanted to sit in the middle of that Grimm nest until I figured out out to make it more like hell instead? That place felt more wrong than…"

"The thought of Ruby and Cardin dating?"

"Ahh!" Yang shrieked. "Why would you make me imagine that?"

Blake chuckled and smiled at her. "Because of the look on your face."

Yang laughed through her teeth. "Real funny… So… Where did this disguise come from?"

"Uhh." Blake gulped. She was still disguised as the pretty monkey-girl with purple hair from town. "Just someone I met in town."

"Oh? And how exactly did you manage to steal her face, mhmmm?" Yang leaned in, pressing her very hot cheek against Blake's equally warm one.

"Nothing."

"Oh, was it a night club? Did you call her into a corner with you devilish charms and then plant a kiss on her?"

"N-No. She was just…"

"Was just?"

"I was spying on the White Fang at a bar and she thought I was cute."

"Aww." Yang hugged her. "You are cute, no matter which look you're using."

Blake looked away, but leaned into Yang. "Anyway, about this cult."

"They seem so obviously evil that they can't be real."

"That puts another check in the trap column."

"They offered not only a safe place to live and a goddess who accepts us for who we are, but also the ability to control the Grimm."

"Too good to be true…" Blake thought about it for a moment. "Then again, it might also let us kill two birds with one stone."

"Huh?"

"This mystery cult and the White Fang will probably know of each other, if they aren't directly working together."

"Uhh…"

"When you're in a position like that, you take whatever non-enemies you can get. If nothing else, the number of defensible locations outside of towns is so limited that they're probably aware of where the other group's camps are."

"I thought you didn't want to walk into the obvious trap." Yang nudged her in the side.

"I wanted to make sure it was worth springing."

"And?"

"With both of us interrogating? I think we can handle a bunch of problems at once."

Yang laughed. "It's sort of a funny, isn't it. We just need monsters to punch out the other monsters."

"I don't think you'd need to punch any of them that hard."

"I don't know, we need to get them into line. That takes an awfully hard punch." Yang started laughing maniacally.

"Really? That was terrible." Blake rolled her eyes.

"Come on. I haven't had the chance to have fun for… weeks!"

"Hehe. Okay, fine." Blake elbowed Yang and joined in. She needed a good laugh after the past week.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.5

~~~​

"Who are you?" The blonde woman slowly stood up, grabbing a pistol at her side with her hair, but not drawing it.

"I-" Ruby stammered. How was this possible? No normal person would've been able to get past that last trap. Someone like Uncle Qrow might've been able to do it, but there weren't very many Hunters like him.

She mentally kicked herself for ignoring the obvious option and focused on the sounds of the woman's Aura. It was loud, overwhelming, and black. Blake's was similar, though a lot quieter and less purple flavored. The woman was Anathema, which made sense.

"I'm Ruby," Ruby said softly, failing to keep her disappointment from showing. "And I was really hoping you'd be someone else."

"Yang?"

"My sister."

The woman glanced to Ruby's left. There was another Aura over there, slowly moving toward her, but it was a normal Hunter level, non-Anathema, one. "And why would you come here looking for her? It isn't exactly on the beaten path."

"Because she's also Anathema."

"I- I'm not Anathema. The woman drew her weapon and blatantly looked towards her companion. "I'm just an archeologist."

Ruby shook her head. "No, you're Anathema. I can tell."

"You're wrong." Her voices echoed in the chamber in a way that sent shivers down Ruby's spine. "If you value your life you will-"

Ruby stepped between the stands of reality to dodge her words. She reappeared directly behind her, with Crescent Rose's blade resting on the woman's neck. "Don't do that again."

"D-Do what?"

"Whatever you were doing. Your Aura infused your words to make them impossible to resist." There were patterns within every use of Aura. Originally, Ruby thought they were random noise or unique songs for the person, but this one sounded so similar to her own when she forced someone to choose what she wanted.

"I don't…" The woman hesitated. "How do you know this?"

"I can hear it. You probably could too, if you tried."

"You… Then you're also… But there are only two others nearby."

"They're the ones I'm trying to find." Ruby lifted Crescent Rose slightly. "Now, are you going to listen to me or try that again?"

The woman's Aura blazed with power, but she didn't move. It sang with a song of discovery. Even though the notes made Ruby shiver, she didn't move away. It wasn't going to do anything dangerous or she'd get a warning from the future about it.

Something touched her soul. A tendril of darkness snaked along the outside, softly poking her Aura, and she-

"Oh God no. Please no." The woman screamed, hair writhing like a nest of snakes.

"What?" Ruby blinked several times and rolled her neck. Why was it so tight all of a sudden?

"I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Uhh…" Ruby kept Crescent Rose in place in she was about to attack.

The woman shook her head rapidly. "No, no, no. Please no, please don't kill me. I was just trying to help."

Someone fell to the ground behind Ruby. She glanced over her shoulder, not letting the anathema out of sight completely. The strong Aura belonged to a dog faunus who looked a little older than Yang and had a rather large battle-axe raised above her head.

"Maroon, stop! You can't beat her. Neither of us can."

"You don't know that." The Faunus girl snapped.

"Yes, I do." The woman trembled. "She could kill all of us, everyone in town."

"But you're-"

"That doesn't matter! You had to save me from that Hunter and she's-"

"Okay, stop." Ruby interrupted. "What did you just do?"

Both of them went quiet.

"You weren't freaking out like this before you did something to yourself and maybe me. What was it?"

"I-" The Anathema woman couldn't meet her eyes. "I looked into the depths of your soul and saw everything you desire, everything you fear, and everything you want."

Ruby stared at her. What could she possibly have seen that made her react like that?

"Ma'am?"

Ruby lowered Crescent Rose, but didn't put it away. "Don't call me ma'am. You're probably at least six years older than me."

"Of course," she said so fast Ruby almost missed it.

"Petra, who the hell is this?" The Faunus lowered her axe. "Do you know her?"

"Everyone knows her." Petra whispered. "She's the one all of Atlas and Vale is hunting."

The weapon clattered to the floor, followed by the girl's knees. She started speaking very quickly in a language Ruby didn't know, but sounded very familiar.

Ruby waited for a moment, "Okay, what?"

"You are…" The Anathema woman shivered. "Either a savior or a terror depending on who you ask."

"A savior?" Ruby stared at them at a loss for words. "But I'm… I'm the one who broke everything. Your entire village of terrible people is terrified of me… Wait.. No... You're terrified of me too."

"Please don't kill me. I don't want to die again."

"Why would I kill you?" Ruby shouted, throwing her arms into the air. "What could you possibly have done which would make me want to-"

"Imtheonewhomadethevillagersliketheyare." She flinched back and squeaked the words out so quickly that they blurred together.

"What?"

"I-" Petra trembled and dropped her head. "When I came here, they hated the Anathema… Not Hunters. I… I forced them to change who they hated so I could stay safe. "

Rub's blood ran cold. That was actually one of the worst things she could think of doing to someone. The Anathema'd forced them to become people they weren't, effectively killing the person, along with everyone else the new person murdered.

Petra fell back, kicking the ground to scoot away from Ruby. "Please no! I didn't mean it; I just wanted to help them, but I couldn't without the protection. Then they… They killed so many people trying to keep their homes safe."

"The scouts."

She nodded very slowly. "They were dead before I even knew what was happening. I- I don't leave the catacombs often."

This was an Anathema? This was a demon that made normal people quake in their boots and panic so much they drew the Grimm for miles around? This was a champion who wielded the power of gods and could save the world?

Ruby should kill her. She was still a Huntress and... even if the Anathema were people, there were still people who needed to die. She'd taken away the free will of an entire town's worth of people just to protect herself. She turned them into murderers to keep herself from getting caught. But…

Crescent Rose felt so heavy in Ruby's hands. Could she really do it, kill a girl who was begging for her life and another who seemed to be praying to… Okay, people praying to her was really weird, but she could deal with that later.

Ruby glanced back at Petra and- Oh no, now she was tearing up. Ruby clenched her hands until her knuckles hurt. She deserved it, she was an Anathema who corrupted an entire town and accidentally turned them into murderers. But… there was something else in those burning green eyes and wild blond hair.

She was just like Yang had been, when Ruby found out she was Anathema.

"I…" Ruby took a deep breath. She… she couldn't kill Yang back then, even after her sister ended who knew how many people's lives. Sure, they were White Fang and they were trying to kill her friends, but Yang didn't hesitate at all. Ruby shouldn't hesitate when she needed to do something either, but… Did she really need to?

She could look to the future and see what would make either of them happiest or accomplish her goals, but she already knew what that would be for Petra.

What even was best right now? Killing her was what any Huntress would do. It was what Uncle Qrow would do. It was what Yang would do. She made people kill each other, even if she didn't want it to happen, she still did it. Because of that, the villagers would be forever changed, all because of one bad decision that she forced on them.

Even if she didn't know the result would be that bad, it was still her fault. All of that blood was on her hands... All of the people who died as a result of her own actions.

Would it be right if someone killed her for that? Even if she was trying to fix what she'd broken.

Would it be right for them to take revenge? Would they understand that she was just trying to protect her family? Who wouldn't try to protect their sister when the whole world was against her? Even if it hurt so many more.

Ruby stared at the cowering woman in front of her, but it wasn't only Petra that she would be condemning if she continued down this path…

"Can you fix it?" Ruby lowered Crescent Rose.

Petra gulped, eyes wide. "What?"

"Can you undo what you did to them?"

"I- No…" She shook her head very slightly. "I can't undo what I did. I can't make them like they were before. I can't bring the dead back to life."

Ruby honestly didn't know what she would do if that was really possible. If she could go back in time and stop herself, never hurt them in the first place.

"All I can do is figure out how this tower works and use it to make the lives of those who're alive safer."

Would they understand that why she felt that way, why she did what she did? Whether or not the shattered pieces of their relationship could be put back together?

"Can you really make it better for not only them, but also make up for all of the lives you've already taken?"

"If-" The Faunus girl interrupted. She looked at Ruby, dog ears held low, and waited for her to nod before continuing. "If she can find out how this place works, then we'll be free. We won't depend on them for Dust anymore. Anyone could build their own town without living in fear."

Ruby looked at Maroon a lot closer. She was almost entirely covered in finely made armor, but left her right arm bare. A pair of familiar tatoos snaked around her bicep. She was White Fang and if Ruby remembered what Blake told her right, someone fairly high up.

Why were they so similar? How was that fair? Was this also Fate?"

"It's destroying any Grimm that come near."

"That's good. That means it's working right, but the townsfolk need to stay away too. I don't know how to keep them safe from it. Not yet." She looked up at Ruby begging. "Please, at least let me finish researching this tower. I'll tell you anything that I know and-"

"No. You don't need to do that." Ruby looked to the future to make sure she wasn't making a terrible decision. If she killed Petra, then no one else would fall prey to her controlling them. She would also lose the potential that this terrible tower represented, even if it was a disgusting blight on all that was good and decent. If she allowed Petra to live, then anyone else who died as a result of her actions would be Ruby's fault.

Somehow, Petra's face became even paler. "I-I-"

Was this what it was like for Professor Goodwitch every time she had to kill someone who might have been Anathema? Ruby wouldn't wish the knot in the middle of her chest on anyone. She could see the future, but even with that she didn't know if this was the right call. What if it was good for a month or two, even a year, and then she convinced a city to kill itself? Or decided that an entire Kingdom needed to be toppled because its leaders were hurting people…

Ruby held a hand out.

After a moment of hesitation, Petra slowly reached for it.

"Tell me what you've found out so far."

~~~​

Yang propped her head up with one arm, leaning on the table until it creaked. She used the other to sip the bland tea that they'd given her. It wasn't that it was bad exactly, it just lacked the depth of flavor that she'd found in all sorts of natural food… and non-food.

Would other things still be the same as she remembered them?

"Hey." Yang set the cup down with a click. They'd brought out a table with a porcelain top that was way too fancy for a big tent in the middle of the woods. "You have anything stronger?"

"Of course, Miss Xiao-Long." Ross, the leader of the cult, smiled and waved a hand to the side. His Grimm, a small ape that had arms longer than its entire body, loped over to a cabinet. It pulled a bottle of rum out and set it in front of her. "It isn't the finest, but I've found it very good."

Yang took a swig. "It's alright, a little piney."

The man paused for a moment. "Piney?"

"Don't ask." Blake gave Yang an aside glance. At the same time, Yang could hear her voice echoing in her own mind. 'Why would you bring that up?'

'It'll confuse him and throw him off.' Yang swirled the bottle around and took another drink. Blake had her role to play and Yang had hers. "Second's better than the first. You have good taste."

"You're too kind." He smiled again, folding his hands in his lap.

Blake leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees and meeting his eyes. "About this lady garbed in darkness. We'd like to hear more before deciding on anything."

"May the night forever fall upon her shores." He bowed his head briefly. "What do you wish to know of her?"

'Your turn.' Blake messaged Yang as she opened her mouth.

"For one, how do you know that she exists? I don't exactly see much proof of any gods." Yang interrupted as the skeptic; even though, there were memories of gods existing in her head.

He made the Grimm move again. "Is such a miracle not proof enough? She has leant us a fraction of her power to control the enemies of man."

"It is very impressive." Blake nodded.

"Pffff." Yang shook her head. "That could be Sorcery or even a hereditary Semblance."

"Her blessings extend to all of our settlements." The man gestured toward the entrance to his enormous tent. "We do not fear the Grimm, even those who are not under our control. We have no need for patrols or fighters. All that we wish for is to live in peace and harmony."

'That last part of a lie.' Blake spoke into Yang's mind.

"Peace and harmony, huh?" Yang crossed her arms. "You have an awful lot of weapons for something like that."

"A necessary defense. Our camps are places of sanctuary for all those rejected by society: the outcast, the feared, and the powerless." He stood up and opened one of the sides of his tent. A 'camp' the size of a small village was surrounding them. "There are many who have been deemed evil or threats to society merely because of their Semblance or what they look like."

He gave Blake a pleading look.

"When you're pushed to the ends of the world, everyone needs a spear." Blake agreed.

"All that we want, is for you to join our family of the dispossessed." He held his hand over his heart. "There are many who look to you as a source of hope."

"Really? Us? We haven't done anything to make people do that." Yang didn't even have to lie.

"The two of you are Anathema who had not only infiltrated a Hunter academy, but also have survived their attacks for months." The passion in his voice was almost visible, his eyes lighting up with energy. "You are the light at the end of the tunnel, the truth which we have been denied, the shock wave that shatters the world which has abused us."

"Shatters the world…" Yang said under her breath. That certainly felt like something she could do, not that it was really needed. "What's the point of breaking something that's already this broken?"

"The Kingdoms still stand, oppressing those who are different."

"You'd destroy the Kingdoms?"

"Would you not?" He whispered. "They have done more damage to, not only yourself, but all of your people than any other. So long as they stand, we can never be truly free."

'I've heard all of this before.' Blake's mental voice was ice cold.

Yang's blood was pumping, but she needed to keep it in control for more than one reason. 'Are you going to be alright?'

'Give me a moment.' Blake pretended to be uncaring, but Yang could make out the tension in her neck. This was so close the the horror that she'd left behind, but that was why she needed to lie like this. "Even with such power, that wouldn't be easy. I've tried to tear those who would hurt us down before."

"As a member of the White Fang, if I'm not mistaken."

"You're not."

"Then why did you betray and kill so many of your fellow Faunus?"

"She didn't kill them." Yang interrupted before he could hurt Blake any more. "This entire time, she hasn't killed anyone. It's all been me."

He met Yang's eyes, the crystal clear madness within his own threatening to pour out. "If you can shatter those fighting for their own freedom, why would you balk at fighting the slavers and murderers who forced their hands?"

"Because they threatened my friends." And also because they were the murderers who would kill millions if they could.

"And now, those same powers threaten not only yourself, but also your own family."

Yang grabbed her arm rest so hard it splintered. "What're you talking about?"

"The nightmare of Vale who stalks the eastern coast with blood soaked hands. She who has done more to destroy the kingdoms than the entire White Fang." He was smiling. "The Girl in Red… Or, should I say, your sister."

"How do you know that?"

He let his head lull to the side.

Blake broke away from her planned character, her voice taking on a harsh edge that threatened to send goosebumps down Yang's back. "You don't know her. You can't know her. You shouldn't be able to remember her."

"The Dark Mistress has revealed such to us."

"Bullshit." Yang shouted a moment before Blake telepathically confirmed that it was a lie.

If the man was surprised, he didn't let it show. "You have a keen eye."

"How did you really find out about her?" Blake's Aura flared and sent a shiver down Yang's spine.

Ross went pale, pupils dilating until they took over the rest of his eyes. He "L-Lord Tyrian, the Speaker of Darkness, informed me of it when he gave us our mission."

"And how did he find out?" Yang flared her Aura, making the air smell of smoke as she scorched the chair.

"The Lady must have told him."

Yang looked at Blake.

"He's not lying."

Yang took a deep breath and cooled off, though that fire within still burned as hot as ever. "Sorry about that, you know how it goes."

"I-It is no problem, my lady. Lord Tyrion is much the same and likely will be when he finds out that you were contacted first." He shrank back, bowing respectfully. "I promise you, when we find her, we will be sure to provide everything we can for her as well."

"Find her?"

"We were instructed to seek her out and bring her to safety."

"Right." Yang took another swig of rum.

'He wants to kill everyone.' Blake almost made Yang cough up the liqour. 'He hates them even more than Adam did. And… if Ruby doesn't join, then they'd try to kill her too.'

'Welp, there goes any hesitation I had.' Yang finished her drink and gestured toward him with the bottle. "Alright, you've got me. What do we need to do? You obviously have some sort of idea."

He was silent for a moment.

"Come on, you've got to have some plan for dealing with all of this shit."

"Are you certain my lady?"

"Do I look like someone who's going to keep running?" Yang kicked her legs over the edge of the chair and let her lust for a good fight flow freely. Ross' color came back, along with the manic energy in his eyes.

"Of course not." He threw his arms wide. "We will remake this horrid world and purge all who spruned us."

"Damn straight. Lay it on me."

Ross stood up so quickly his chair fell over, making his Grimm open a chest in the corner. He pulled a large map free. "We've been infiltrating a number of nearby towns and cities in preparation for the time to strike. With your power, we could take them in a single night."

He unfurled it. Most of the eastern coast of Sanus was drawn on in some way.

"What do these symbols mean?" Yang pointed at the green circles first.

"Cities that could be taken easily."

"With so few fighters?" Blake asked.

Ross laughed and made the Grimm clap. "We have all of the fighters that we need."

Yang's blood was burning so hot she could feel it in her neck, but they needed to get more out of him. "And the white streaks."

"Places that the White Fang keeps camp. While we may share a common goal, they still do not trust us."

Yang nodded. That was completely understandable. "The purple circles."

"Grimm nests that are safe enough to gather from."

"And the red circles."

"Too dangerous, even for me."

"Mhhh… Well what about-"

The map was incredibly detailed, listing off everything that he knew about in the area. It took the better part of half an hour for them to get everything out of him.

"And so, your leader…" Yang played at not remembering. "T-something."

"Lord Tyrion? What about him?"

"When can we meet him?"

"I do not know. He comes and goes with the breeze, a mystery even to those who serve him."

Blake rolled her eyes. "He's lying."

"I-uhh… He said he would be in Aincrad for quite some time."

"Where's that on the map?" Yang grabbed his arm and pulled it over.

"R-Right here." He tapped one of the green circles. "Though, that is hardly a target which would need-"

"Shhh." Yang shushed him like a little kid. "Now then, Ross, there's something very important that I need you to do."

"What is that?"

"Scream." Yang narrowed her eyes and unleashed her flames.

He didn't scream.

Yang dropped the body and focused on the fires within, gathering power.

"No evil speech?" Blake slid the map into her bag.

"Nah, it'd feel good, but there's something better waiting for me. Something that a little part of me has been begging to do for a long time."

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Blake, we have an entire camp of literally murderous cultists who can control the Grimm and this stupid demon's always wanted me to kick some divine ass." Yang waited for it to chime in, but it was quiet. "I haven't been feeling great for a while and I figure this is close enough to count."

Blake shrugged. "Do you want any help cleaning up?"

"Yeah." Yang took a deep breath, stoking the flames of her Aura. "I'm going loud with this. Keep an eye out for Hunters and make sure there aren't any innocents in my way because I need to send a message. Also, don't let me burn the map."

With a shout that blew the table over, Yang unleashed all of the power she gathered and became a towering pillar of hell-fire. Rage and might poured into her muscles and Aura, making them stronger, harder. Her entire body changed into that of the true demon lurking within.

She threw the tent to the side and stood up, towering over Blake.

Her partner looked up at her, now about waist height. "Well, that'll certainly send a message."

Yang stretched her wings and looked over the camp, searching for any powerful Auras. She had a rampage to get started.



A/N: There will be chapters posted during the next two weeks, but the timing is going to be approximately Friday rather than definitely Friday. I'm traveling across the international dateline and may not have an internet connection at the time I normally post.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.6

~~~​

Pyrrha squirmed against the much too plush cushion as their pastries were delivered. Hers was a small collection of scones and an incredibly rich hot chocolate. She was also fairly certain it cost the same amount as a normal family's monthly food budget. A treat from Weiss, but nothing that she ate would make this conversation easier.

"Thank you." Weiss sipped her tea and nodded to their waitress.

"Do you need anything else, miss?"

"Not at the moment."

"Very well." She flicked a lamp near the door on. "If you find yourself in need, turn this on and I'll be right back."

With another click, the lamp was darkened. Their waitress left and the happy, smiling Weiss disappeared. She was replaced by the cold, calculated girl that Pyrrha had seen far too frequently.

"So, Schnee." Coco sipped her coffee. "What exactly are we talking about?"

"A moment." Weiss held up a hand and turned to Pyrrha. "Are we safe?"

Pyrrha closed her eyes and focused on their surroundings. The metal within the room was easy to pick up. The walls were lined with wires and the tables dotted with small bits, but those were all supposed to be there. When she extended her senses to the fixtures and a little bit past the walls, she found more of what was expected, no computers. "No microphones or other recorders."

"That's a neat trick," Coco said softly.

"It's part of her training." Weiss set a cup down. "An advanced application of her Semblance that will hopefully help with other skills."

"Such as?"

"Pyrrha?"

"Please be as quiet as you can. This is not easy to do." Pyrrha took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, then slowly released. As she took the next, she unleashed her Aura, as if she was awakening someone's. A soft, red glow would be surrounding her, but her eyes were still closed.

Goosebumps ran along her arms and up her back as she pushed her Aura out. She could feel more now, just like her own weapons whenever she fought.

Her chair was old, well worn. Underneath the seat, there was a small crack along the left hand side. With each breath, her weight shifted; with each shift, the crack expanded. She could push her Aura into it, infuse it with her own soul and prevent it from breaking further, but there was no reason to do so.

Pyrrha took longer breaths. A soft tingle appeared in the back of her head. As she exhaled, the tingle moved to her mouth and out. Out. That was what she needed to feel. She needed to be more than just a girl, more than a simple warrior.

She infused the air with her Aura, as if it was a weapon. But it was not a simple piece of metal, designed to accept the Aura of its wielder. It was a wild, endless pool. No matter how much she used, it could always take more.

She pushed further. A second tingle appeared near her. It was warm, but protected. When she pushed against it, it pushed back. Some of the heat mixed with her own as the mingled.

As she pushed more, a second barrier appeared. This one was ice cold and perfect. Pyrrha could tell it was there only because of the lack of any energy near it. But, even finding Weiss was not enough. She needed to move further beyond.

When she reached the door, she couldn't feel her own body any more. There was only her breath, her Aura, and the world around her.

"There's no one outside of the door." Pyrrha spoke so softly she couldn't be sure that it wasn't a thought.

"That was much faster than last time." Weiss snapped her out of the trance with a chill gust across the back of her neck.

"T-Thank you." Pyrrha shivered, gulping down some of her wonderfully warm drink. "I lost myself again."

"It will take time, but you were also accurate, we're safe."

"Okay," Coco leaned forward so she could look over her sunglasses at Pyrrha. "What just happened?"

"I was trying to use my Aura to feel others who were nearby."

"You can do that?"

"Only sort of." Pyrrha lowered her head, heat rising to her cheeks. "It requires so much concentration that I lose track of everything else. The first time I tried it I stopped breathing and I've made sure to only attempt with others nearby since."

"I see." Coco didn't sound, at all, like she really understood. "And you can do that too, Schnee?"

"I can do something similar."

"Is that related to the reason why we're here?"

"No." Weiss took another sip of her tea. "We're here for a different reason."

Coco motioned for Weiss to get on with it.

"Coco," Weiss took a deep breath. Pyrrha knew now that the gesture was all for show, but that didn't mean the show wasn't important. "We are working on an incredibly dangerous project. Before I can say anything else, what do you think of Ruby's speech, right before she fought Professor Goodwitch?"

"While she may be…" Coco paused, pursing her lips. "Factually correct about the Anathema, if she really wanted to help, then she would have stayed at Beacon undercover."

Weiss looked at Pyrrha, nodding slightly.

"That is a… fairly accurate assessment." Pyrrha had a little trouble finding the words, but they were coming to her more easily than normal. "What about her reasons?"

Coco glanced from one of them to the other. "Normally I would say that she'd… gone off the deep end and joined some crazy cult."

Pyrrha couldn't help glaring.

"But." Coco quickly added. "I don't think that either of you would be taking what she said this seriously if that was the case."

"No, we wouldn't. We've both seen proof of what she says." Weiss' fingers glowed with a red light as she conjured an image of Lady Mars onto the table. "When Pyrrha and I followed Ruby into the forest that night, a woman appeared to speak with her."

Pyrrha briefly bowed her head.

"Looks like a powerful Huntress, maybe Anathema." Coco took her sunglasses off to get a good look. "It wouldn't be the first time one's pretended to be a god."

"I'm almost certain that this one was real." Weiss called upon a phantom Ruby and mimed them fighting. "She came down to explain what was happening to Ruby and also train her. She also revealed a number of things that I can only assume were for my or Pyrrha's benefit, rather than Ruby's."

Coco nodded.

"There were many important facts, but here are the main ones." Weiss folded her hands on the table and the room's temperature fell. It wasn't only in Pyrrha's head, the steam coming from their drinks was larger. "One: the source of the Grimm is the Anathema from a very long time ago. Two: the reason why the gods do not involve themselves is that they tasked the Anathema with ruling the world, any problem is theirs to solve. Three: Ruby, or another Anathema, who survives into their second century would be able to destroy the Grimm. Four: If Ruby was to lead Blake and Yang, they could stop the Grimm much sooner."

Pyrrha waited for a moment, then said, "I have worshiped Lady Mars since I was youngl. She presides over all conflict with knowledge of exactly what the future may bring. She appeared to not only tell us this, but also teach Ruby an unparalleled defensive technique 'because it would be necessary.'"

Weiss' Ruby vanished, reappearing outside of what were many different traps. No matter how many attacks came in, or how impossible dodging became, the Ruby was untouched.

"I am fairly certain that Professor Goodwitch would have killed her had she not learned it," Pyrrha continued. "It's an omen. For centuries, we've looked for proof that the gods are there. Ruby has a larger role to play in the future of Remnant, as do Blake and Yang. Lady Mars would not have appeared otherwise."

"Ignoring all of my problems with that logic, let's just say it's right." Coco looked from Pyrrha to Weiss. "What exactly are you going to do about it? We, meaning high society, have known about the potential of the Anathema forever and you don't see anyone clamouring to get one on their side."

"That's just it." Weiss replaced Lady Mars with Yang and Blake. "We already have three on our side. Three girls who wanted nothing more than to become Huntresses to protect humanity. If I was going to be paranoid, I'd worry more about Ruby than either Blake or Yang, but considering how she hasn't left a trail of bodies in her wake, I think she's still safe."

"Which would make you three Anathema and two Huntresses against the rest of the world. Not exactly a winning combination even with their power."

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have other allies." Weiss lied so smoothly Pyrrha would never have caught on if she didn't know the truth.

"Who? The SDC?"

"Close… The Atlas military." Another lie because Pyrrha was sure they wouldn't approve of most of Weiss' plans.

"No."

Weiss smiled and laughed very softly. "I'm glad to say they are."

Pyrrha held her breath. She knew what was coming next and needed to not give anything away. There was an expectation that she would be able to handle a battle on any stage… and for most of her life she'd completely ignored one field because she wasn't very good at it and it made her uncomfortable to participate.

Weiss slid her scroll across the table to Coco. "An observation report about an Anathema that turned himself in."

"It says that he died after… damn, that's way too long to just be confirmation."

"I know for a fact that they have another working for them right now." Weiss was almost completely still, giving nothing away. "You want to know the real reason why I'm teaching junior Sorcery? It's so that I can talk to Atlas about what I've found via a secure connection."

Coco didn't respond for almost a minute. She sat there, pouring over the single report that Weiss would allow her to see, twitching slightly. Pyrrha tried to keep herself as still as possible as well, not giving anything away.

"It's one of the two of you… Nothing else makes sense." Coco glanced from one to the other.

Pyrrha took a deep breath, focused on her muscles, and forced them to be completely still. It was just a different form of meditation.

"Normally, I'd say it's you, Schnee. "Coco continued speaking to the air. "But, it wouldn't make sense for the Atlas military to leave you here. They could easily transfer you into their own programs. If it's Pyrrha, then you would stay behind as their liaison at Beacon. The SDC is already involved in enough of their projects that you'd have some trust from there."

"That's an interesting theory," Weiss said.

"And unlikely. 'The Invincible Girl' wouldn't be able to vanish like you would since she isn't from Atlas. If they wanted her cooperation and she wanted to remain at Beacon, they'd need someone who's in the know, can resist the Anathema, and knows the one in question."

"You're missing one possibility." Pyrrha pointed to Weiss. "She could be working with them for other reasons and recruited me because I know the truth."

"That would require Weiss to have access to top secret documents without being directly involved with one of the…" Coco went quiet for a moment. "Are you still in communication with Ruby, Blake, or Yang?"

"No." Weiss shook her head. "But that will be remedied soon enough."

Coco laughed emptily. "So, this is how the world ends, isn't it? Three teenage girls conspiring about what three other girls could do."

"I wouldn't call it an end," Weiss paused. "Instead, the beginning of a new age."

"That is one of the lessons of Saturn," Pyrrha agreed entirely with the sentiment. "That endings are merely the beginnings of something new."

"I can't believe I'm doing this, but let's make sure it's a good one then." Coco raised her cup. "To a new, better world."

They each drank to the potential.

"So, what do we do next?" Coco set her glass down with a click.

"For now"- Weiss set hers down next to Coco's. -"we wait."

Coco raised an eyebrow.

"Until Ruby meets up with Blake and Yang, and we find a means of communicating with them, all we can do is practice and recruit."

"Got it."

"There are also other students who we were considering approaching," Weiss said. "What are your thoughts on your teammates?"

"Hmm…" Coco adjusted her glasses. "This is going to get interesting. I'll put out some feelers, but can't promise anything."

~~~​

Blake placed enough lien down to more pay for not only her drink, but also all of the information the bartender gave her. "Thank you."

"Pleasure's mine." The ram Faunus swept her glass away. "Just keep an eye out for yourself, Anathema're prowling the woods."

"I'll stay safe." Blake smiled and walked out the door. News of their attack on a camp had reached the city, just like Yang had planned. However, no one knew why they did it, so everyone was assuming the worst.

"I don't think my disguise is working." Yang growled as she stepped next to Blake. She was shorter now and looked… Different enough that Blake was sure she was safe.

"Why?"

"People keep looking at me funny, like they're seconds away from running scared or attacking me."

Blake gaped at her for a moment, then remembered that Yang had never had to deal with this before. "Have you considered what you look like right now?"

"What'd you mean?"

"Yang, you're…" There had to be a way of saying this nicely. "You're what people think of as a stereotypical White Fang member."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. Yang's new form managed to looked exactly like the 'Faunus monsters' from the nightmares of racist humans. Her jet-black horns curved around her head and made the blood red hair look that much more… demonic. She also smelled like blood, which really wasn't helping matters due to the vest of knives they'd looted from the camp.

"Yeah. You're a white jacket and tattoo away from the exact look."

"Huh." Yang paused, glancing around. "Is this always what it's like?"

"Not always, but mostly. That's why I wore my bow for so long."

"Wow, that's terrible."

"That's... an understatement. The way you're being treated is why the White Fang formed in the first place."

Yang looked down and sighed, "One more thing to add to the pile then… How do we fix it?"

"I wish I knew." Blake had spent days trying to figure out how to fix all of the problems with her abilities, but every idea she had was full of downsides she couldn't accept. "Maybe Weiss would be able to figure something out."

"Yeah… We could actually go back to Beacon now. The Vytal festival should be starting up so lots of strangers'll be around. It'd be nice to see her again."

"That's a thought, but we have something important to do out here first." Blake stepped into an alley, waiting to speak until they were out of earshot. "He didn't know who 'Tyrion' was, but he had heard of a new goddess that some of the Silver Cult were talking about."

"Any leads?"

"No names, but he did have a location: an old slaughterhouse near the docks."

"Well, that seems appropriate."

Blake nodded. "You want to do your thing?"

"Heh, you know it." Yang took a deep breath and relaxed. When she looked at Blake, her eyes were a little glazed over with an incredible hunger. "Showtime."

She sauntered into the market eyeing up the stands and licking her lips.

Blake stepped into the darkness, vanishing from sight. She flickered from shadow to shadow as she followed closely.

"Hey there." Yang leaned on the counter, bending over and shaking her butt at Blake while she smiled at the man behind it. "That looks so good."

"Well, uhh, you're welcome to have one." He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Black jumped to right behind him… Yang was looking at his ducks like she was planning to jump on them.

"I'll take two." She grinned, making him flinch.

"Ahh, right away." He pulled one down and placed it in front of her.

Yang tore a leg off and chomped on it, chewing right through the bone.

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. About five people just stepped away from her and one looked like he was about to run.

"That'll be eighty L-"

Yang slapped the money down, continuing to tear away at it. Her eyes were lighting up like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted. "Keep the change."

Ducks in hand, she sauntered off again, loudly savoring every bite. She was also completely ignorant of the other Faunus following her. The lithe boy with a horse-tail was not subtle at all, but Yang completely ignored him.

After almost a minute of walking, the boy tapped Yang on the shoulder.

Yang turned around, still gnawing on a bone, and the glaze vanished from her eyes. "Yes?"

"I-umm…" The boy stammered, scared to death even though Yang only came up to his chest. "I'm sorry for bothering you, but I saw you in the market and thought…"

"And thought what, hmm?" Yang leaned over, giving him a view Blake was all too familiar with.

"Well, thought that if you liked, umm, eating like that so much that I could… Well, that is to say, that…"

"That you know where I can find other people like me?"

He nodded slowly. "Why is a cornered wolf dangerous?"

Blake touched Yang's mind and sent her the correct answer.

"Because the rest of the pack has you cornered." Yang grinned. "So, can I bring a friend?"

"Sure."

"Hey, get out here!" Yang shouted into the air.

Blake jumped down from her perch, landing right next to Yang.

"Ahh-" The boy jumped back, heart beating loudly enough for Blake to hear it.

Blake smiled at him, which made matters worse because her current disguise was a shark Faunus.

"Well…" He nervously laughed, "Let's get going then."

They followed him through the winding alleys to a large townhouse without much talking. The lights were off, but someone still opened the door when he knocked in a strange pattern.

"Rusty?" A human woman peeked out.

"It's me, Carmen. I found two others in the market."

She opened the door slowly, silver crescent amulet glinting in the moonlight. A steel knife held so hard her knuckles were white joined it. "Are you two also adherents of the silver chariot?"

"Yep." Yang chirped.

Blake sighed and elbowed Yang in the side. "May her claws catch the horizon."

Carmen let out a breath, tension flowing away from her. "You shouldn't look so frightened then, Rusty."

"I-umm…" He glanced at them, stammering.

"It's alright. I spooked him earlier." Blake smiled at her, keeping her lips closed.

Carmen shook her head. "These girls don't seem like they'd be any trouble, do they?"

"No ma'am," He mumbled.

"Well then, come on in." She stepped back, holding her arm toward the inside. "The Silver Lady protects all of her children. Though, we have added another goddess to our shrines recently."

"Oh?" Yang stepped up first. "What's she like?"

"A proof that the gods still work directly in this land. A savior of all who have been hurt by the rule of man." Carmen spoke softly, leading them deeper into the dark building. They only stopped when she came to a hallway table with several trays on it. "We had dinner a little while ago, but the desserts are still there. Please help yourself."

Yang immediately devoured two cupcakes. Blake took one to nibble on as they continued.
They only needed to pretend to believe for a little while and there was no reason to turn down food.

The sounds of prayer echoed up from the basement as they walked downstairs. It was also where the house changed from nice and homey to a place where something else was going on. Symbols of Luna dotted the stairwell and hallway, giving it an eerie silver glow in the candle light. When Carmen opened the door to the shrine, Yang froze.

Blake stepped behind her, looked over her head, and also froze.

"I- What?" Yang gasped.

The statue in the corner, the new goddess that they were worshiping, was Yang. The statuette wasn't a great likeness, but the feathered wings, fire, and sigil were unmistakable.

"We can only hope that she blessed our city with safety, just like Dōsatsu City." Carmen bowed her head. That was the first Grimm attack they'd stopped.

'Yang?' Blake tried to make her thought full of warmth.

Yang didn't respond.

'Yang, you need to say something. They're staring.'

"Are you alright?" A little girl looked up at them.

"We're fine." Blake threw an arm around Yang and pulled her in. "It's just… A lot because… We saw her on our trip here."

"You did?" Practically the entire room shouted.

Blake flinched, that might have been the wrong thing to say. "Y-Yeah, it was a while ago, but she… She was flying overhead."

"Where was she coming from?"

"Where was she headed?"

"Was her companion with her?"

Blake took a deep breath, glancing at Yang. Her partner was still not responsive and she needed a story… Well, maybe the first tower explosion would be a good one. It wouldn't even be a complete lie. "Did you heard about that green explosion a few weeks ago? We were hiking at the foot of the mountain where it happened."

A number of people sat down, giving her their full attention.

"We heard a sharp crack from the top of the mountain." Blake drew on her Aura slightly, focusing on how a good story was written. "And then, the world became fire..."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.7

~~~​

Blake looked up as the door of their room slammed open and Yang stumbled in. She was a mess with wild hair and unfocused eyes. Blake snapped the book she'd been working on closed and stepped forward to catch her partner.

"Hiiiiii Blake." Yang practically sang as she fell and rammed her horns into Blake's shoulder. "Ouch, that hurt a little."

"Yang, how much did you drink?"

"A lot, probably about this much." Yang held up a hand, laughing. "I think...?" She shrugged and wrapped her arms around Blake.

"No, there's no way you're like this with only five drinks."

"Not five drinks." Yang shook her head back and forth, tickling Blake's neck with her hair. "Five bottles."

Even with a strong Aura, something like that would've needed medical attention, but Yang could eat things that would actually kill someone, so Blake didn't have too much to worry about. Still, it wasn't great for their disguises to be that blatant though. "If you keep that up, then you'll just wind up with more people worshiping you."

"Blake, nooooo!" Yang shouted, laughing in between each work. "That would be… nooooo."

Blake tried to hold her own laughter in.

"I don't need a drunk cult."

Blake smirked while Yang continued freaking out in a manner too silly to be completely serious. Eventually, Blake grabbed her chin and pulled her head up. "Why did you drink that much?"

"I, uhh…" Yang tried to look away, but Blake didn't let her escape. "You're gonna be mad at me."

"What happened?"

"It was… The cult… The cults?" She leaned over, suddenly becoming incredibly heavy. "Yeah, cults... if this one has so many people there's gotta be others."

Blake shifted her weight so they fell onto the bed instead of the ground. Even though she agreed, pressing Yang on that point wouldn't help anyone. "What was it about them?"

"So, I ran into Carmen in the market and we went out drinking. I thought I could find some more out and she really wanted to talk about me… the real me."

"What did she say?"

"Dumb stuff."

"Yang, I know you're not that far gone." Blake sighed. She could smell the amount of alcohol on Yang's breath and it didn't feel like a real vulnerability. "What did she really say?"

"Okay, fine." Yang held herself still, taking deep breaths and speaking much slower. "A lot of the same stupid stuff. That I've saved so many people, that I gave them hope, that I was a fucking inspiration to their kids! I'm not a-"

Blake brushed Yang's hair away from her face. "Yang, please don't do this."

"No, I- She's not right Blake. I'm a-"

"Hero." Blake cut her off. "You're a hero because you stood against the Kingdoms and won, even if you might also be a demon. You've saved two cities from Grimm attacks"

"I haven't done anything like that."

"Yes, you have. For one, you're still alive. The two of us being at large gives all of the people who've left safety behind a dream. A dream where they can stand up against those who forced them out."

"That doesn't make it right to… worship me."

"Yang, do you know why the Silver Cult is as strong as it is?"

She shook her head.

"When you live outside of the Kingdoms, you need to use every tool you can to survive. The monsters from the Kingdoms, who would be shunned or executed normally, are tolerated as long as they're useful."

"Makes sense."

"If you think about how much they're lacking. Who could be more useful than a friendly Anathema?"

"Working with the Anathema'll kill'em all. Either by punching or by Grimm showing up. That's how it works."

"So would turning them away. And the Anathema are powerful, so powerful that the Kingdoms fear them above all else." Blake knew all too well how happy Adam was when she became one. "The Kingdoms, to everyone who'd fight them, are an insurmountable wall of power."

Yang nodded slowly.

"A deal with a demon, even if it cost them their own lives, would be worthwhile if it also took out their enemies."

"But… They aren't fighting anyone. They're like a giant family that spends their time with the mom baking things for everyone and're completely normal... besides worshiping Anathema." Yang rolled over, laying on her back. She raised a hand up and made a fist as she continued, "Maybe if they were, I don't know, White Fang or something, then they'd have reasons big enough to do it, but..."

"They may not be themselves, but they may also have loved ones who are." Blake grabbed her free hand. "And even if they don't, everyone who can't directly fight might have the same thoughts."

"Yeah…" Yang sighed. "I just… They shouldn't be doing that. I'm not gonna tell them to do something bad, but if they'll worship me, when'll someone really bad come along?"

"Well you could-" Blake stopped herself from suggesting something that could be very bad.

"Well what?" Yang leaned over. After a moment of silence, she poked Blake in the side. "Come on, well what? I know you were thinking about something."

Blake took a deep breath. She was certain that Yang would refuse, which was probably the right call, but didn't know how she would react.

"Blaaaaake." Yang drew out her name until Blake jabbed her.

"Fine." Blake took a deep breath. "If you're so worried about it, there is one way you could make sure they remain good."

Yang blinked at her several times.

"You could reveal yourself to them."

Yang's giggled like an idiot and smiled. "Oh Blake, I didn't know you-"

"Not like that!" Blake shut her up with a quick kiss. "I meant your real self. They'd probably do whatever you wanted, including just sitting around and being nice families."

"But that would be…" Yang drifted away, but Blake could clearly hear what she meant. That would mean enabling them.

"Yang," Blake said softly, running Yang's hair through her fingers. "What do you think we've been doing all of these months?"

"Running away."

"Right, we've been doing a lot of that." Blake took a deep breath. "But, we've also been saving people from the Grimm whenever we can and killing murderous cults. Those are good things to do, right?"

Yang looked like she was about to get sick, but Blake didn't move because she knew it was just an expression. "We're Anathema, no matter what we do, it'll still be bad."

"What do you mean?" They'd danced around this topic over and over.

Yang sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. "Okay, so I have all sorts of demon power. That means that anything I do is demon powered and that makes anything good I want to do really do bad."

"How?"

"Just look at what happened here. We do something good and now completely normal people're worshiping demons." Yang sank down, holding her head in her hands. "It's like Ruby said a while ago 'you can't do bad things and hope good comes from them'. If I use hell power to solve a problem, I'm just adding more bad to the world."

Blake leaned in next to her, laying a hand on her leg. "I don't think that's true. When I believed in the White Fang, we did a lot of things that could be considered bad: disruptive protests, vandalism, fighting policemen. But, I still think that good results came from those technically bad actions."

"Would you do that again now that you have more power?"

"I-" Blake took a moment to consider it. "I don't think so. I could do a lot more to actually fix things now."

Yang stayed quiet.

"I never thought about writing something persuasive enough to change people's minds before." Blake pointed to the book she'd been working on. "It just seemed like a good way to get caught, but now that we can change who we are, I can do it."

"You don't think that could backfire in some way? That it'll just make everything worse for the Faunus?"

"I… I don't know, but everything I wrote for us and Team JNPR at Beacon didn't seem that bad. I was also thinking about what you said a couple of days ago, that you felt restless. I think I feel the same way." It'd been gnawing at her for weeks, but Yang finally put the right words to the tension in Blake's mind. "There has to be something else we can do to help people."

Yang froze for a moment, eyes going wide, then flopped back down immediately. "Can we stop talking about this? The demon's yelling again and I just saw the Anathema fighting wars."

"Sure." Blake curled up next to her. "Just… think about it, alright?"

Yang didn't answer, she just grabbed Blake and pulled her in.

After a long wait, Blake budged her again. "Yang? You don't think I'm bad for wanting to do that do you?"

Yang hugged her tighter. "No, you're good Blake. You won't do bad things. Those'll just happen because we're Anathema, not cuz of you."

"Thanks…" Blake tried to force herself to sleep. She couldn't keep pressing Yang so she needed to take progress wherever she could.

~~~​

Ruby pulled out her scroll amid the lightning strikes. The very top of the tower was the only place where she could get any service and there was a lot that she needed to do.

Her scroll had been off for months at this point and she didn't know what she'd find if she opened it, but it was also long past the point where she could put off what needed to be done.

"Heh, two-thousand unread messages from..." Ruby giggled to herself until she saw the names on them. That changed what she needed to do, there were a lot of messages she needed to write.

---

Heya Penny,

I'm sorry that I haven't been responding to your messages. I spent a lot of time with my scroll off because… well… yeah. But I'm going through them now! There's like three hundred still waiting to be read though so you might've asked me about some things that I haven't gotten the chance to look over just yet.

About Beacon and everything… Please don't be too mad. I mean, if you were really mad I doubt you would've tried to talk to me that much, but I still really hope that we can be friends once all of this is done. The Anathema hunts were wrong. They were brutal, deceitful, and outright evil. Weiss, my partner, almost died because of one of them and that wasn't even the last one she expecting to be put through.

Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, everyone I asked all agreed with me that they were wrong, but they still took part in them and I couldn't find any other way to make them stop. There might've been something else if I waited for years, but I have no idea how many people would be murdered just to find a single Anathema.

But, once I find Blake and Yang, I'll be able to come back to Vale and hopefully put everything that happened behind us.

On happier things, that picture of you and your partner was really funny. I don't know anything about her, but from how she was pulling on your ear, she seems kind of like Weiss, super serious and always bugging you about doing your homework or getting to class on time.

Hehe, classes… I know it was just a little while ago that I was worried about all of that.

I know that we didn't get to talk too much when you were at Beacon, but I really hope that we'll be able to when I get back. You'll need to tell me all about the Vytal Festival. I really wanted to fight in it, but that might be a little unfair now.

Talk to you soon,
Ruby

---

Hey Weiss,

I know that you sent me a couple of messages a little while ago, but I never really responded to them.

I'm really sorry about how I left, but I didn't think that staying around any longer after, well, everything, would be a good idea. I'm pretty sure that most people would've remembered me and even though there were some things I should've told you that Mars said, it would've been bad. My future sense also tells me that I shouldn't send it over this email so, sorry about that too.

I hope everything at Beacon's going good. I kinda left you all alone right after Blake and Yang ran away, which really wasn't the sort of thing that a leader, or a friend, should do, but I couldn't just sit there and let them kill either of them.

I really hope that all of you understand why I did it. I'll be able to explain myself to Blake and Yang since they're pretty close.

I also might've made a mistake recently, but for good reasons.

While I was tracking down Blake and Yang, I ran into another Anathema. She's figured out some way to make a building that kills Grimm through ambient energy. There's soooooo much of it and, even though most of the little towns stay away from the energy flows, it could make everyone safe from the Grimm!

She also did a lot of bad things which probably mean she should be killed, but she didn't mean to. Now, she's trying to make the world better and has a really good chance of doing it.

Even if she killed people by accident, that's something that can be made up for in the future, right?

Hoping everything's good,
Ruby

---

Dad,

I'm so sorry.

I can't imagine how much it must've hurt for me and Yang to vanish without any warning or messages, but I'll be able to make some of it better soon.

I'm not sure if you know about this, but the Anathema are just people. They aren't demons wearing our skin or anything like that. It might be hard to believe me, but Uncle Qrow knows this too. Actually, he knows a lot about everything that's been going on, probably even more than I do at this point.

Anyway, I've almost caught up to Yang. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, but I'm going to bring her back and then we can be a family again.

Assuming you'll have us again. I really hope you will.

Love,
Ruby

---

Hey Blake,

I'm really sorry I didn't try to message you sooner but

---

Ruby tapped her fingers on the sides of her scroll. There wasn't a good reason she hadn't done this sooner. None of her visions of the future had ever mentioned contacting or not contacting Blake and Yang, just not reading her own messages.

---

Hi Yang,

I'm sorry about

---

She paused again. What could she say to them to make up for everything that happened? Was there anything she could say in an email?

Ruby took a deep breath and considered the possibilities. She could see all of the ways that she could meet up with Yang. Some were wonderful, others horrible, but sending a message like this wasn't in the good list.

The others were fine to send though and… They were all things she should've said months ago.

When all of the messages were sent, Ruby jumped off of the tower and let herself fall. She landed right next to Bumblebee. She'd delayed leaving long enough to understand how the tower worked.

She felt for the connection that her sister's bike had with Yang's soul. They were much closer than the last time she'd looked for them. For once, the random path they took seemed to be helping her.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 1.i

~~~​

"Hey, do you know anything about the Anathema from Beacon?"

"No, sorry."

"I can't talk about it."

"..."

"Were you there for the Girl in Red?"

"Who wants to know?"

"You mean the giant?"

"I don't think she was that big, dear."

"That's not what Cye's boy said."

"Please, anything you can give me."

"I heard that one of them seduced half of her class."

"Weren't they White Fang? Or did they fight the White Fang?"

"Was one of them a Faunus?"

"IEven if I did know, that information would be classified."

"How is that classified?! It's all over the internet!"

"Sorry."

"Do you know what her name was?"

"Uhh, it was…"

"Something reddish…"

"Pyrope?"

"Also, classified."

"Look at this picture, the cat Faunus with black hair."

"Okay. She looks like a dirty criminal. No offense."

"Where'd her wings go?"

"I … Don't even."

"Do you know if she was always a Faunus?"

"Was she your girlfriend? I thought she liked girls."

"You know what, forget about it."

...

Sun fell onto a bench with a groan. They were in the middle of downtown Vale and nothing was working. "What is wrong with this city?"

"Maybe asked anyone who walks by with a weapon wasn't the best idea." Neptune joined him, fanning himself with the collar of his signature coat. "I've been trying all morning and I've still got nothing, not even a name."

"What? We've already got her name, it's Blake."

"It is? That doesn't sound red."

"Dude! Were you asking about the Girl in Red again?" Sun threw his arms in the air. "We already know her deal."

"But we don't know who she was or why she did it and she used to be a member of the team with Anathema." Neptune pointed to one of the groups of Atlas soldiers walking around. "They know something, I'm sure of it."

Sun sighed. He already knew why Neptune was so interested in her, it wasn't worth arguing about. Figuring her out wouldn't let him know if Blake was like him back in Vaccuo or actually was Anathema. His money was on the later, but wanted to be sure. "So Atlas… Do you know anyone from Atlas, because I don't?"

"Well there was that girl who really liked Sage, but she didn't come to the festival."

"Just great." Sun leaned forward, holding himself on the bench with his tail. "So we need to find someone from Atlas who's willing to tell us something. That'll be-"

He eyed another group of soldiers patrolling, completely stone faced.

"-real easy…"

"We could always go to Beacon and ask around there."

"Man, they're gonna be so tired of talking about that all of the time and... I really don't want to dig up all those bad memories if I can help it. They were classmates for a semester?"

"Yeah..." Neptune spaced out, head turning to the side as his eyes followed a girl.

She was tall, almost as tall as the guy holding her hand. They looked like one of those couples, super touching and wearing complementary outfits no matter what. And those were some dangerous colors at that. He was all white and gold, from the edges of his armor to his blonde hair. She had a waist length silver ponytail and shiny silver dress.

"Hey, Neptune."

"Yeah?"

"Doesn't that guy's armor look familiar?"

His partner looked to the side and scratched his chin. "It does… But from where?"

Sun jumped off of the bench and started getting closer. "Come on, maybe his face'll tell us something."

Neptune joined in walking right behind them, listening in.

"I think I'm pretty close to figuring it out." The guy tapped the sword on his belt. "I can feel it, right on the edge of my… soul?"

"That's great, Jaune," The girl said with a giggle. "And soul is the right word."

"Yeah, the fire's just… I can almost grab it, but it's like there's a fence in the way. I can push my fingers through, but can never reach it."

"Hmm." She leaned closer, laying her head on his shoulder. "Do you think another late night study session would help?"

"Uhh…" Jaune chuckled and rubbed the side of his neck. "I might, but... I really should spend some time with my team."

"You could finally introduce me and then spend time in your own room."

"Nah, that'd be… super awkward. I'll take the surprise slaps on the butt over a chilly silence any day."

The girl sighed. "I told Pearl to stop doing that."

"It's fine, wierd, but... I just… Yeah."

Sun leaned toward Neptune and whispered, "So, what'd you think?"

"I feel like he's the one we're looking for." Neptune pulled his scroll out and opened a picture from the attack on Beacon. "The guy who stood up to her is named Jaune and his armor matches what the hero was wearing."

"Man, if he's that Jaune, he's gotta know, but…" Sun's heart was beating faster. They finally had a lead.

"You don't want to ruin their date." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah." Sun stared at them. On one hand, this was the best chance they had. On the other, it was kinda of a jerk move. "Maybe we can just follow along until they split up."

"That's sort of creepy."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Hmm." Neptune stroked his non-existent beard again. "Nope."

Sun slowed down so they could get a bit further ahead and he wasn't overhearing everything. "They've gotta stop eventually."

Half an hour later, the couple was still going strong.

"Neptune," Sun sounded like a man who'd spent hours in the desert without any water. " I think we've passed this park three times."

"No… It was four." His partner was fanning himself with the collar of his jacket.

"Oh…" He swiped an apple from a fruit stand with his tail. As soon as they were out of the owner's sight, Sun took a big bite. "Don't they ever get hungry or need the bathroom?!"

"I don't know, but-" Neptune ran his fingers through his hair. "They're turning around."

Jaune looked Sun in the eyes. "So, uhh, are you two following us? We've been wandering in circles for a while."

"Well you see." Sun didn't look at either of them. "No, but sort of and well… Yes, kinda… Yeah, pretty much."

"Why?"

"Are you the Jaune that stared down the Girl in Red?"

"Yeah…" He hesitated for a moment. "Look, if you two want me to sign something for you, not right now."

"What? No, I just wanted to ask you about some stuff at Beacon."

"Uhh, what about? I know there's tour guides."

"So… You knew the Anathema and the Girl in Red, right?"

"Nope, I'm done here." He turned away, grimacing.

"Come on!" Sun threw his arms in the air. "Is there anyone else who does?"

"I really don't want to talk about it." Jaune started walking away. When Sun took a step, his girlfriend drew an inch of her own sword free and glared.

"Dude." Neptune nudged Sun. "Let's just go to Beacon and sleep."

"We were so close." Sun slumped over.

The flight up didn't take too much time. They even had a little daylight left to explore the campus with.

"Now what?" Neptune turned to the side to wink at a girl.

She raised an eyebrow and walked away.

"I'm thinking food. We've been running around all day." Sun gave him a pat on the back. One day it would work, probably when team SSSN was famous for winning the Vytal Festival Tournament.

Neptune nodded and they started off, only stopping when the sound of a camera came from the left.

Sun glanced to the side. There was a cute rabbit Faunus staring at him. "Did you just take a picture of my abs?"

"N-No!" Her cheeks lit up.

"Don't worry, I get it. But if you'd asked"- Sun turned to face her, taking a deep breath to puff his chest out and pointing with both hands. -"I could've given you a much better pose."

"I wasn't doing anything like that!"

"Hmm…" Sun stroked his chin. "You're protesting an awful lot. Right, Neptune?"

"Yeah." He clicked his tongue and winked.

"I swear I wasn't doing that, please."

Sun gave her a half lidded look for a couple second, before cracking up. "I'm just joking. I believe you… on one condition." He grinned as widely as he could.

"Uhh." She started shivering.

"Show us the way to the dining hall."

"I- uhh- right this way." She started walking as soon as she reached them, both joined.

"Thanks." Sun smiled normally. "By the way, I'm Sun and this is Neptune."

"A pleasure." Neptune held his hand out, smiling extra brightly.

She carefully shook it. "Velvet."

"So, are you here to watch or fight?"

"I expect I'll be doing a bit of both."

"Nice. What's your team like?"

"Well..."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant

~

Chapter 2.1

~~~​

Weiss landed in a crouch, blade toward her opponent and her free hand to the side. A cold fire burned within her soul as they fought. With each blow it grew stronger, driving her to further heights. She, of course, kept it quashed. She hadn't spent weeks learning to hide her power just to give it away in a practice spar.

Pyrrha was on her as soon as her knee hit the ground, flinging her shield and launching herself behind it. As she moved, Weiss flicked her sword down and cast a repulsion glyph. Pyrrha continued through, but her shield didn't.

As they clashed, the whir of Coco's minigun sounded and the bullets started flying. Weiss and Pyrrha both needed something to make their spars harder and their newest confidant was happy to provide. As they dueled, she riddled them with bullets.

Weiss blocked those heading toward her with a glyph and occasional blade blow, moving her body with unnatural agility to ensure none landed. Pyrrha bent most of them around her with her Semblance and blocked the remainder with her shield.

The two of the clashed again and again as they each tried to land the first decisive blow. Pyrrha couldn't allow Weiss to get a spell off, which she could even with both Pyrrha and Coco's guns focusing on her. Weiss couldn't let Pyrrha step back to her ideal spear range or close to the point where the larger girl's unarmed skills would dominate.

For several minutes, they danced across the floor, neither committing to a hard enough attack to push through. It was a battle of endurance and grace, one good blow would turn the tide due to that person having less Aura to land one of their own. In a real fight, Weiss would have an overwhelming advantage, so they agreed to go until the visible portion of her Aura fell to the normal tournament standard. The additional, inefficient, energy would not count.

As their bars dwindled lower and lower, Weiss seized her opportunity. With a flick of her sword, she created a repulsion glyph under her feet. A pulse of Essence made it blaze with power and launch her at Pyrrha so quickly that she could only react through instinct. The cold fire pushed outwards, allowing her arm to bend at an unnatural angle, getting the point of her rapier over Pyrrha's shield.

It threatened to go further, re-shape her body. She clamped down on the impulse. There was no need.

Her blow struck true, slamming into Pyrrha's sternum at the same time that an edge bit into her belly. Weiss glanced at the tournament screen. They were at six and five percent respectively, a double knockout that favored Pyrrha.

Clapping erupted from the stands overhead. Weiss snapped her eyes up to the reason they could not go harder even if she wanted to.

"That was simply wonderful!" An orange haired girl was loudly applauding. "Are you two entering the tournament? If so, I do hope to get the chance to face you."

Another girl, this one with blue hair and darker skin, pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can you please hurry? We're going to be late to our next appointment."

"Oh, right." The first girl leapt down, landing very heavily. "Salutations, Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos, and Coco Adel. I'm Penny and I have several questions I would like to ask you... if you have a moment."

Weiss took a breath to recenter herself and stepped toward Penny. "I have some time for you. Miss Penny?"

She drew the end of Penny's name out and gestured to go on.

"Splendid and Miss nothing, just Penny!" The girl completely ignored Weiss' implication and continued, "I suppose I should get right to it then. What do you know about Ruby?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, she's a very interesting person and I *hic* just wanted to know some more about her. I thought it would be best to ask you since you were her partner." Penny smiled, all teeth.

"I see." Weiss focused her Essence into her ears. The distinct sound of two microphones were coming from Penny's hair. They were appropriately prepared for two members of the Atlas Academy's favored tournament team. The only question was, did General Ironwood send them to try and test her or was it someone else in the military who suspected something? "I do know a bit about her, though it is strange that you know that. Most people forget her real name within hours, let alone other facts about her life."

"I- umm- guess that I'm just *hic* lucky?" Penny's smile wavered after the hiccup.

"Do you want some water?"

"No thank you." She didn't hiccup at all.

"Are you sure everything's alright?"

She hesitated, then hiccupped again. "Yes."

"Very well." Those were perhaps the worst lies Weiss had ever heard. "What did you want to know?"

"Umm…" She glanced to her partner. "Well, mostly just things about her. What food does she like? What did she do for fun? Who do-"

"Why?" Weiss cut her off. "She's the most wanted person in the entire world. There's no point to knowing that sort of minutiae."

"I-" Penny looked like she was about to cry. "I think it's important."

Weiss raised an eyebrow, matching Penny's partner's expression. If she was really that interested in Ruby, then she'd likely be able to be turned to Weiss' cause. Though, she may also be too much of a liability to even bring it up with.

"Well I... I think that if… If we want to find her then we should know more about her? Then we'll know what she might be doing?" The girl tried to smile.

"I'm afraid I can't remember a lot that for the same reason that many can't remember Ruby."
Weiss held her face still, adding a second statement for Pyrrha. 'She's got a mic, don't reveal anything important.'

"Oh…" Penny dropped her head. "Professor Goodwitch said that if anyone would know, you would.

Weiss barely maintained stillness. Was it really that easy? No, it couldn't be. "When did you speak with her about this?"

"Just a little while ago. We were coming out of a meeting with-"

Penny's partner loudly cleared her throat. "Penny."

"Oh, sorry. That's classified."

Coco stepped into view, raising an eyebrow at Weiss.

Weiss slightly shook her head and glanced at Coco, then flicked her eyes back to Penny. "It's no problem. I understand."

Coco nodded and stepped ahead of her. "I remember some stuff about her."

"Thank you!" Penny cheered, all hints of sadness immediately vanishing. "I think the first thing I'd want to know is… does she have any hobbies?"

"Umm… Weapons."

"Weapons?"

Pyrrha stepped next to Weiss and leaned in, whispering. "I can feel the microphones, along with a lot of other metal."

"Oh?"

"I think…" Pyrrha hesitated, briefly closing her eyes. "I think most of her body is cybernetic. Certainly more than anyone I've ever heard of."

"Interesting." Weiss had access to some of Atlas' latest research and full body replacements, including sensory organs, were possible. It were so expensive that only top operatives, or incredibly wealthy families, would be able to receive them. If that was true, it would explain the mic, though they couldn't count on there not being a backup recording. "If Ruby knew that, then it could explain her interest."

Weiss stepped back. Penny was engrossed with Coco, but her partner was watching Weiss like a hawk.

"Yeah, I saw her in one of the labs doing a lot of complex work on her scythe for weeks on end. She also had a few questions about how I managed to make my weapon." Coco held her purse out, then shifted it to the enormous gun. "I wasn't able to explain as much about the construction as she would have liked, my Semblance makes it easy."

Penny's eyes suddenly went wide. "So that's why she wanted to see the… *hic* technique for how I used my swords."

"Hmm…" Weiss glanced at her, noting the lack of any swords. "What exactly do you mean by technique?"

"Well-"

Penny's partner cut her off, "That isn't something we should just give out to our enemies in the tournament."

Weiss looked at the girl.

"Ciel Soleil. It's nice to meet you." She nodded towards Weiss.

"I'm not going to be participating in the tournament and would promise to not reveal your secret." Weiss met Ciel's gaze and smiled slightly. "Though I may go to Beacon, Atlas is still my home."

"I see…" Ciel pursed her lips. "We'll need to speak with the other members of my team before saying anything else."

"Of course." Weiss smiled. If she was reacting this poorly, there was no chance. "Would after lunch tomorrow work?"

Ciel checked her scroll. "Penny and I have half an hour free at fourteen hundred."

"I'll meet you both near the fountain then."

"Wow," Penny gaped at them. "Ruby was right. You two are really similar."

"Oh?" Weiss asked.

"Yes! She said that the picture I took of us last week was very…" Penny slowly went quiet.

"Last week?" Weiss and Ciel said at the same time.

Penny looked between them.

"Did Ruby contact you?" Weiss continued, stepping forward. Telling this girl anything was a trap, but Professor Goodwitch, whether she intended it or not, had put in bait too important to not trigger some of it.

Penny hiccupped. "N-No."

"You're certain?" Weiss sent an additional meaning to Pyrrha. 'We need to know what Ruby said.'

Weiss glanced at Pyrrha, then to the others with a raised eyebrow. A moment later, two of the pieces of metal Weiss had hidden within her own jacket moved, pressing against her. That was the signal they agreed on, something Pyrrha could do to confirm or deny an idea without revealing it to anyone else

"Penny." Pyrrha spoke as Weiss wove her Essence into a veil surrounding them all. "Have you spoken to Ruby recently?"

"I *hic* I haven't." Penny stepped back.

Weiss released her power, energy whirling around the group. "You don't need to worry. You're among friends."

"You don't even know her." Ciel crossed her arms as dull silver flashed in her eyes, along with Penny's.

"No, but we do know Ruby." Weiss smiled and advanced, hiding her true meaning between other words. "Very well as a matter of fact."

"You do?" Penny's eyes lit up, still sparkling with silver.

"Yes, she was my teammate for a long time." Weiss continued, sounding slightly sad in her normal voice. 'and the three of us happen to agree with her about the Anathema.'

"You do?!" Both Penny and Ciel shouted, the first excited and the second horrified.

"Please, have you heard from her?" Weiss said sweetly, using another burst of Essence to frighten Ciel so much she'd unable to act in a manner that would displease Weiss. It forced her deep into the larger, and inefficient if she wished to remain hidden, pool of power, but there was plenty remaining.

"Well, she mentioned you a lot in her email and also talked about you a lot."

"When did you speak to her?"

"The week before the… uhhh… right before the… Red night. She told me about what she'd learned about that Anathema-"

"Penny! Y-You-" Ciel started moving. Her entire body was shaking with fear, but she still tried to step forward.

Weiss silenced her with another glare. "Penny, one last question. Are you working with anyone in Atlas?"

"Oh, I shouldn't… but... " She leaned back and forth. "General Ironwood calls me up because I can remember Ruby really easily."

"Thank you." Weiss released both of her effects. Almost all the tension vanished, replaced by both girls blinking.

Penny shivered and stepped back. "I'm sorry *hic*, but I *hic* haven't heard from her."

Coco and Pyrrha reacted slightly, stepping back.

"That's alright." Weiss smiled. "We can talk about other things tomorrow."

Penny paused for a moment. "I… Does that mean you also want to be friends?"

"Sure."

"That is stupendous!" She lept into the air. "I'll be sure to be there! Let's go!"

"Wait, but I…" Ciel turned around as Penny hooked her arm and let herself get dragged away.

After waiting for almost a minute, Coco coughed. "Well… That was illuminating."

"Hmm?"

"You sure it was a good idea to be that obvious?"

Weiss grinned. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about… and neither will they."

Compared to making objects invisible or hiding her own Aura, concealing the memory of others was easy.

"They won't be able to remember most of the conversation." Pyrrha chimed in.

"Mmh, scary," Coco said deadpan. Weiss hadn't expected any other reaction. "Schnee, did you ask me anything embarrassing?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow. She'd actually figured this out after her first talk with Coco, but needed verification of the effect. "You may have mentioned something about a… disreputable job you wished you could try."

She groaned, cheeks lighting up slightly. "Got it. Don't tell anyone about that."

"Of course." Weiss turned back to the door, leaving the topic even though Pyrrha looked interested. "We need to know what she knows."

"Are you going to bring her in as well?" Pyrrha walked to the edge of the room and collected their extra gear.

"No, she'd reveal us by accident." Weiss joined her, using Wind Dust to push Coco's spent casings into a corner. "But we need to know what Ruby told her, back then and recently."

"Why's that?" Coco asked.

"Because Ruby can see the future and makes events conspire so that her desires become reality. For instance, she thought I wanted to take over Beacon. She also wanted to help me." Weiss looked at her allies in a conspiracy brought about by her partner. "And here we are."

"That one's actually scary if you're right."

"Exactly." Weiss sighed. "I want to minimize the chance of her blindsiding us, which means we need to know her intentions."

They had a long period of silence.

"By the way, how has speaking with your teams gone?"

"No deep hatred, but also no knowledge of the truth." Coco shook her head. "Though, Velvet mentioned that there were a few people asking weird questions about Ruby."

"My team's said the same thing, though…" Pyrrha looked away. "We're still getting a lot of questions about stopping her."

Weiss adjusted the tie of her ponytail. "Get me some names. I'll be able to find out how serious they are."

~~~​

Yang dangled her legs over the edge of an abandoned house, looking out at the city. It was the middle of the afternoon and everyone was out and about. Hundreds of people milled under her, living their lives in peace. When she closed her eyes, she could still feel the little points of danger coming from them, the light of their souls.

Most were so small she couldn't really feel them, little dots in the dark ocean surrounding her. Very few were bright enough to overcome the gloom. Blake was the only one easy to find and… she wasn't a threat anymore.

There was something wrong about that. Yang knew Blake could still beat her, even with her newfound burning might. She could see the differences between their ability to fight and just how much Blake was holding back.

So, the threat wasn't really accurate, even though it felt right. What else would make her hair stand on end and her blood pump when she felt it?

It wasn't just the threat they posed to her. It had to be something else, something like the energy flowing around everywhere.

Actually, that could be it. Blake, Weiss, Ruby, and her all had very different feeling Auras. A couple of people at Beacon also had them, but she couldn't remember any in particular. The energy flowing around this city was unlike any of them. It felt… earthy for lack of a better word. The texture was like sandpaper when it touched the edges of her soul.

Just like the center of the Grimm nest that she activated, it also wasn't really moving. The flows trudged along like honey. If she really wanted to, she could use her own Aura to give them a spark and really make something happen. But… when she ignited the energy at the Grimm nest, it blew up after a few weeks of them living there. If that was all it took to kill the Grimm, destroying the areas they seemed to like living in, she'd have done it in a heartbeat. But doing that in a city would be catastrophic if they always exploded…

She'd know in a couple of weeks. If the new tower was still standing, then it might be safe.

Yang glanced down, watching a familiar Aura flare slightly when it fell. It was Cole, one of the older members of… her cult, and his son, Roy.

Roy hopped up onto a wall, laughing at the mud drip off of his dad's face. He was so small, both in body and soul. If his Aura was awake, she'd be worried about either of them fighting a single Beowolf. An explosion like the one she and Blake laughed off would kill both of them.

The explosion had burned with an unnatural fire. A fire that raged so hot that it didn't just burn physical things. When it had engulfed her, she felt the edges of her Aura igniting, rather than shielding her body. It was the purest form of the fire within her soul and… the thought of unleashing that on anyone was… There would be no coming back from that. Unleashing the least of them allowed her to tear through someone's Aura like it wasn't there. She could feel her unused potential practically begging to be released. The flames of sure death which would poison any who felt their touch.

She hadn't gone back to the site of the explosion, but her scroll told her everything she needed to know. The plants which had survived the initial burst had all perished.

How long did she have before she'd need to reach for those flames? How long would it be before she couldn't contain them anymore or just stopped caring about the damage they caused? She only needed to slip up once…

She held a hand up to the sunlight streaming through her fingers. Yellow-green flames danced between her fingers.

What could she do to keep herself from becoming a real monster when everyone around her was already so small? If she wanted to, she could destroy this city without anyone knowing it was her and she'd just started learning how to use that dark energy. If she grabbed ahold of it, how much power could she push into the world and shape it into whatever image she wished…

"What do you mean this is mine?" She stared at the projected landscape on the table.

"The previous holder of your Exaltation stipulated that rulership of his lands would pass to the next bearer." The daimyo, a Terrestrial who was her elder ten times over, smiled and zoomed the projection in. "This is the capital city, where he spent most of his rule."

"But I'm…" She ran her fingers through her hair, grasping at straws. "I'm not a…. Any sort of…"

"Please, Princess Tialeth, your mastery of Essence is still new. Any worries that you have will surely sort themselves out in time."

Her Essence... right. The energy that infused her. She called upon it just like she did when she used a blade and the words she needed became obvious. "It makes little sense for me to command so much territory. My Exaltation was earned through besting a young Terrestrial in the arena. I'm no leader, all I know how to do is fight and show off."

"You have already made a step on the path. And you need not worry about administrations of your orders. This land is yours to lead, your prefects will make sure that it becomes shaped to your desires."

She sighed.

"If you have a message to the girl you fought, I can pass it along. I'll be visiting my fifth great grandniece soon to congratulate her on aiding your rise."

"I… Tell her that she almost had me with the final feint." It wasn't worth arguing with him. If the Deliberative said she was in charge of that land, then she was. "Is there anything I need to decide on right now?"

"There is only one item that needs your immediate attention." He moved the projection again. "Prince Opal of Youth had ordered this land cleared before he perished, but had not specified what is to be built there."

She was the champion of the greatest mortal arena so it would follow that her lands would have an even greater one. "I think…"

She turned as she thought, glancing at the mirrors surrounding her. As her thoughts spun, her caste mark appeared on her brow.



She was so young.

Yang gulped. Visions of her early life were rare, but the face of the monster in her head at that time was so soft, so vulnerable. She'd barely been older than Yang herself and her eyes were full of innocence.

She'd seen a vision of the construction when she was trying to learn to wield the energy flows. It was supposed to be a coliseum that fed on the energy and valor of the fighters within. Some time later, the monster realized that blood would feed it much better and had it remodeled. Even further on, matches to the death became common.

What was to stop Yang from doing the same if she listened to Blake? Telling the cult to not hurting people could easily turn into controlling them 'for their own good', just like the old kings and queens of Vale. She was already unassailable and if Tialeth went that bad with other Anathema to check her...

Why did life have to be so complicated? Why couldn't she just wander around punching Grimm?

Because you are more.​

"Shut up," She muttered under her breath.

Crush them.​

"I said shut up!" Her flames threatened to flare free, but she clamped them down, kept them inside.

I said nothing else.
Destroy them.​

The voices were different.

They're afraid. They're going to kill you.​

Yang looked around frantically. No one was on the roof with her. She breathed rapidly, focusing on her other senses.

There was an Aura above her.

She looked up, nothing was there, but she could still feel its presence. It was terrifying and- Yang clenched her teeth. That felt just like Weiss when she was trying to help them practice.

The Aura pulsed. Goosebumps ran up her spi- She forced them back down.

There was something here, something she couldn't see.

Burn.​

"No… No." She didn't need to take this. She was Anathema, an unstoppable monster.

Find it and kill it!​

For once, she and the demon agreed, but that didn't help her.

"How?" She growled.

Burn it!​

"Not helpful!" Yang dashed to the other side of the roof. The Aura followed her.

Kill.​

It pulsed again and a wave of dread- Yang forced the fear back down, it wasn't real.

Wasn't real… Like a ghost or the energy that no one could see.

But her flames could burn everything...

Yang turned toward it. She could burn flesh, ignite fires that consumed all, and even burn souls. If this thing existing anywhere, she could burn it. She took a deep breath and opened her soul to the burning core within. Invisible heat seeped out of her soul and into her skin.

Her right hand ignited with yellow-green flames, the green was stronger now, but her natural color was still present. Small flies popped into existence, their bodies burning like candles as they flew away from her.

Yang raised a leg into the air and twisted the air around her foot. As she stomped, a pulse of green flames erupted from the roof.

More flies appeared, their bodies shattered by the pulse of energy and burning hatred. They dissolved just like Grimm.

But Yang didn't care about them for her real target was also there.

A floating ball covered in bony protrusions appearing with a screech as its body was engulfed by the fire. The tentacles coming out of its mouth lashed toward Yang, but she ignited her arm and batted them away.

She stepped forward, cracking the roof, and punched. Her unenhanced fist moved through it without any resistance. When her hand was in the center, she ignited it and squeezed.

Her arm sparked from the energy formed around it as it forced the creature's flesh aside. With a mighty pull, she tore the creature's core free and it started dissolving as well.

Yang took a second to watch it before dropping into the back alley. She needed to get back to Blake with the news of… invisible Grimm that affect people's emotions... Holy shit that was bad.

She skid to a stop as the weight of that realization really hit her. She'd never, never heard of anything like that from any Hunter. If… if only the Anathema could do something to them....

"Fuck." She redoubled her speed, blitzing to the end of the alley as quickly as she could and unleashing her own Aura. She wish she could have a fun brawl so much and now the entire crowd would too. The distraction was accomplished as the first punch was thrown.

She sped through the market, tapping people to the side to get them out of her way. Only one blocked her successfully, a pissed off man in a long brown coat who retaliated with a powerful kick. His Aura was strong.

Was he the city's Hunter? She'd been avoiding any powerful Aura just in case.

Yang caught his blow with her gut and let him knock her away. For a moment, it looked like he was going to chase her. Then someone broke an oar over his head and he lept back into the brawl.

Her head pounded and the demon screamed when she turned and ran, but she needed to get to Blake, not have a fun fight.