Miracles of Ancient Wonder
~
Chapter 3.2
~~~
Ruby and Yang were on deep scouting duty the next day too, though they didn't get to fool around on the second trip. Professor Port had given them a very long route that was full of difficult terrain; which meant that they needed to split up and be serious about it. The next day, he said that Weiss and Blake knew enough to ride without his supervision, so they started rotating positions.
Today, she and Weiss were surveying the cliff with him. It was a windy strip of rock that lacked any vegetation. Driving along it required no thought and just enough attention to remember that it curved occasionally.
They were going almost three hundred miles west, away from the Beowolf horde. That would put them close to the border towers and within sight of Vale's tallest skyscrapers. At least, they would be in sight if the fog ever let up. Right now, she couldn't see the tops of the trees at the bottom of the cliff, let alone buildings which were miles away.
That also made an already boring ride even worse. The view should've been amazing, an endless sea of bright red trees which was dotted with farms and factories. Instead they had a murky soup.
The most interesting thing that had happened was knocking a Creep as far off of the edge as she could, then listening to its screeches as they faded away. Before and after that, everything was more rocks and slight turns.
There was nothing to do besides go forward. She couldn't listen to music thanks to the headset. Trying to listen to the stars didn't work because of how loud both the sun and her engine were. Maybe Yang was doing better.
Ruby changed her channel and tried to sound happier than she was. "Yang?
"What is it?" Her response was unusually terse.
"Are you and Blake having fun?"
"No."
"You still have too many places to hit?"
"Less than yesterday. But yeah, still too many."
"We've gone almost a hundred miles so far and killed a single Creep so… Yay."
"That sucks," Yang grumbled. "Here's my next spot. Yang out."
Ruby sighed. Maybe there was something to be said for making Anathema so bored that they snapped and revealed themselves after all. If she could control people's minds, then doing so would be really tempting right now. Not to do anything really bad, just… Just make them talk about stuff.
She looked over her shoulder.
Professor Port was a little ways behind her, riding smoothly. He was calm, eyes focused on the road ahead. He eased into each movement, using the smallest amount of energy needed. Occasionally, he would tap some control without looking at it, steering with his legs while his arms were folded on his lap. He must've ridden like this hundreds of times.
Weiss was further back and very haggard. She had another bout of crash training yesterday, along with not a lot of sleep. Each of her movements started slowly, then jumped, showing just how tired she was. It made her look around too much and over-correct when she needed to change course. Every half hour or so, she'd mess with her controls to try the legs-only steering option, but inevitably changed it back when she lost her balance.
They'd all practice that tomorrow. It was an important skill for riding combat; even if Weiss, Blake, and Yang wouldn't need it as much because their weapons only needed one hand to use. It also made long trips much easier, which explained why Professor Port was saving it for after they finished the surveying. They wouldn't appreciate the benefit until they had to do it the hard way. Also, the hard way made it worse on Blake and Weiss.
Speaking of that, Ruby changed to Weiss's channel. "Hey, Weiss."
"Yes?" She sounded less exhausted than she looked.
"Uhh, I was just wondering how you were doing."
"As well as can be expected."
"Ahh… Umm..." Ruby tried to think of something nice to say that didn't sound hokey. "You're doing a lot better with your riding!"
"Thank you." She seemed sincere. "Was there anything else?"
"Not really." After a moment Ruby sighed, "Ruby out."
She looked down to her scroll, which was held in a protected display. They were still so far away from the end. Once they got there, they had to ride all of the way back too. Which would take just as long as it did to get out there in the first place. She idly tapped her finger on her scroll for a couple of moments before clicking on 'Hands free mode.' The engine roared as panels deployed.
They lightly pressed into her thighs, shins, and calves. She could feel her footrests and seat shift too, now they rotated. The seat felt a little weird since each half could rotate on its own. She didn't have too much to worry about besides a little discomfort though. Her Aura would keep her tights in one piece if they got pinched by it.
Controlling it was another story. As soon as the panels finished deploying, Ruby turned sharply towards the cliff. She shifted all the way over to the other side and spun around. Her tires squealed on the stone, one slipping and causing her to stutter forward. The force of her turn threatened to rip her from her seat, but the leg panels held her firmly in place. Her second circle was larger, bringing her perilously close to the edge. She straightened out after it, slowly regaining her balance.
Left, right, left, right: she alternated which side her weight was on. Ruby snaked forward, her ATV suddenly accelerating or braking whenever she moved her weight forward or back. She had to hold her arms out to the sides to stop the swaying, but soon enough she was able to go at a semi-steady pace. It was kind of like riding a bike without hands, a really heavy bike.
Even if it was tricky, it was more interesting that just riding normally.
"Hoho, good show, Miss Rose!" Professor Port shouted from right behind her. "Harder than it looks, isn't it?"
"Yeah, eep!" She squeaked as she braked and then shot forward again to avoid getting hit. "I didn't expect him to be so sensitive."
"Hmmm?" He pulled up next to her and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, my ATV. He just feels like a he, you know?"
"I do indeed." He nodded and pulled his blunderbuss-axe free. "To call my sweet Yasha anything else would be a travesty."
"Yea!" Ruby patted Crescent Rose. The movement made her press down with one leg. She swerved towards the cliff, again. "Ahh!"
After another sequence of rapid turning, she evened out. "Whew, ok. I'm all right."
"You'll need some more practice before you can fight like that, but it's a good first attempt."
"Thanks." She grinned and focused on smoothing out her motions for the next few miles. Professor Port continued to ride next to her and keep track of her progress. It was still really jerky, but not as bad as she'd been expecting.
It also gave her enough time to figure out what to do. There was only one option left for her if she wanted to figure anything out.
"Professor Port, can I ask you a question?" Ruby flipped her headset to his channel and whispered into it.
"You already have." He laughed deeply before shaking his head. "Yes you can, Miss Rose."
"Is everything going to be ok?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know… With Weiss and Blake being investigated."
He sighed. "Miss Rose, there are questions that you shouldn't ask."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"We say it for a reason. The more you know, the harder we'll have to be on you."
He looked off into the distance and stroked his mustache. "Many would describe it as the worst day of their lives. Of course, when they're tested, they're normally so young that their first bad relationship will eclipse any unpleasant experience that might happen."
"However, there is no reason to make the investigation more painful than it needs to be. And every scrap of knowledge that you acquire will heighten it."
"Could you at least tell me what's going to happen to Weiss?" Ruby pouted at him. Once more, she couldn't feel an opportunity to push the world into the shape she wanted it.
"No. No, I will not." He looked back at Weiss. "Miss Schnee knows a great deal and you are a very kind person."
"What?"
"Miss Rose." Professor Port locked eyes with her. "What was the first thing you thought about after you figured out how to ride like that?"
"Uhh… That it would make it really easy to use Crescent Rose like this?" Ruby smiled and laughed nervously. He gave her a withering look. She continued holding the smile for a moment before groaning. "That I could let Weiss know and make it a little easier on her."
"Exactly. Your kindness and connection to her mean that you would be one of the least qualified people to oversee an investigation, even if you had learned how to perform them."
Ruby frowned and grumbled under her breath. She could handle doing everything they'd done so far just fine.
"But, that same kindness is why you're a good team leader and will be a wonderful Huntress someday."
She rubbed the side of her neck and turned away, looking out to the mist again.
"If you still want to tell her, I won't interfere." Professor Port pulled ahead of her and smiled.
Ruby leaned back, slowing down until she was next to Weiss.
"Yes?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Weiss, have you ever ridden a bike?"
"No."
Ruby tightened her lips. Maybe this would be harder than she thought.
"A skateboard?"
"No."
"Roller blades?"
"No."
"Uhh… Ice skates?"
"Yes."
Ruby exhaled suddenly. "Whew, ok. So the legs mode is kind of like skating."
"No it isn't. If it were like skating I wouldn't have so many problems with it. It over reacts to every movement, no matter how natural they feel."
"It's not just that. You also need to move your hips, shoulders, and legs either separately-" Ruby shifted her upper body to one side and her lower body to the other, while slightly twisting her hips. She slowly drifted towards Weiss without losing her balance.
"Or all together-" She moved back and forth all at once, snaking her path again. "Depending on what you want to do."
"Do that again." Weiss pursed her lips while watching Ruby's torso very carefully.
"Also, your lady stilts probably aren't helping."
"My what?" Weiss looked at her puzzled.
"Uhh, you heels. Because of the angle they put your foot at, it's much easier for your to rotate your foot pedals back and harder to go further forward so you're losing out on a lot of the range of motion and the rest of your leg is probably moving differently than its expecting."
Ruby poked the menu on her scroll a couple of times. "Come to think of it, there's probably some setting which would compensate for that."
Weiss sighed and nodded. "Very well. In order to control it, I need to sway correctly and use contra body motion when appropriate."
"What?"
"It's a dancing term."
Weiss raised both of her arms and sat up with her posture straight. She lowered her right hand to her scroll and shifted her ATV to leg mode. She steadied into the transition without wildly swinging or breaking.
When she tried to turn, she was shifting and twisting correctly now. Ruby gave her two thumbs up and smiled.
Weiss softly smiled back, her eyes brightening. "Thank you, Ruby."
~~~
Yang slowed her ATV down and leaned to the side. She'd been following this stream for a long time and finally found what she'd been looking for.
There were supposed to be a lot of caves under the Forever Fall, but they hadn't found any entrances so far. She'd been hoping that one of the streams that randomly ended would lead to a cave. The first few she checked didn't work out. One dried up, another turning into a pool of smelly water. This one had its own pit and turned into a tiny waterfall.
Yang walked over to the edge and looked down. She couldn't even make out the bottom thanks to the darkness and the mist. It billowed up and sprayed her face with a refreshing coolness that made her sigh. This was exactly what she needed. Something new and nice. Something to distract her from the endless red plants that looked a little too much like blood if you saw them in the right light.
A memory that she'd pushed away came unbidden to the front of her mind. The grass bled into the water and shifted it to a deep crimson.
It flowed from the fallen gladiator's throat to an Orichalcum edged pit in the center of the arena. The man's life slowly swirled into the depths of her Shining Colosseum of the Dawn's Light. As it fell upon the central altar, the stone around her neck pulsed with power in time with the beating of his heart.
Her glorious champion saluted his Empress. Droplets of blood from his sword splashed onto her, marring the pure white silks she wore. She could have deflected them with ease, but he should never have caused such a situation in the first place.
As punishment for such an insult, his final fight would not be a painless one.
She shrugged the shoulder of her gown off and snapped her fingers. Her favorite concubine and concubinus approached with her sword and shield.
Yang slapped her cheeks and pushed the memory back down. Her eyes burned; she rubbed them as hard as she could. Her mouth tasted of bile; she gasped for air, choking out words between breaths. "No. no, no, no, no, no..." She repeated it again and again, growling more than speaking.
The vision slowly disappeared. The water was just water and the pit just a pit. There was no colosseum, no manse, no slave, no anything! Only the nature surrounding her and the fuzzy white noise in the back of her head. The noise tried to make itself louder again, she slammed it back down.
Yang panted and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She couldn't keep doing that.
She needed someone- NO! - something else, a way to make all of it just go away. Her options were so limited, it wasn't even worth listing them.
She flipped her headset back on and turned to Blake's channel. "Hey. I found something you should see."
"You're twenty miles away."
"I can wait." She was in no condition to drive right now.
"Don't you have more sensors to place?"
"Eh, I'm good." She lied.
"Yang." Blake had a very accusatory tone.
"I'll drive around while you're on your way."
"Yang." This time it had more of an edge. How was she able to tell that Yang was still- Oh right, that thing she said she could do... That was actually kind of annoying.
"I can make up for it later."
Blake sighed and gave up on fighting her. "I'll be there soon. Blake out."
Yang sat down, her back to the pit, and closed her eyes. She could feel those thoughts threatening to break through again. Getting rid of them was impossible, so was staying calm. What she needed was a wall. A mental fortress that would hold everything back.
If only she knew how to build something like that.
Instead she focused on keeping everything even. The trees and grass were red. There were no enemies nearby, no distractions. It went against everything she wanted to do, but right now she couldn't trust her own instincts because she couldn't tell whose instincts they were.
She used all of her focus to keep them down until Blake arrived.
Her partner pulled up next to her and stopped to look down the pit.
"A waterfall," She said deadpan.
"A waterfall!" Yang smiled and stood up. "I'm going in. You want to join me?"
She backed up until she was on the edge of the pit and held out a hand.
Yang focused on the feelings of cool water seeping through her hair and falling on her skin. On the way that the streams fell on her muscles, massaging the knots away. On how they could be hidden by a wall of water and a cloud of steam, left to do whatever they wanted to.
Blake looked at her like she just suggested they eat dung beetles.
Yang frowned. "What are you, afraid of getting wet?"
Blake blinked at her a couple of times before the joke set in. She pinched the bridge of her nose and her bow moved so it was forward and out. After a long sigh, she shook her head and smiled slightly.
Yang was halfway through pulling off her jacket by the time Blake responded. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Hmm, nope." She lied again and waited a moment. Going into the hole was an excellent idea, she just couldn't say why until they were in it.
Blake crossed her arms and gave Yang a look. Maybe she could have fun with this after all.
She tossed her jacket and skirt onto her ATV, then changed her channel to 'Team.'
"Yang here," She announced, getting a wide eyed response from Blake. "I'm going off comms for like five minutes."
"Wait what?" Weiss said.
"Yang, why?" Ruby said at the same time.
"Found a waterfall. I'm jumping into it." Yang pulled her first boot off.
"Miss Xiao Long, you have to place more sensors." Professor Port harrumphed loudly, "You can have fun later."
"Yea, yea, yea, no." She waved a hand back and forth, even though only Blake could see it. "You're hundreds of miles away and I'm going in this hole. Deal. Yang out."
She pulled her headset off and tossed it to the ground before anyone could respond. Yang rolled her neck and sighed, that felt nice.
Blake was frozen in disbelief, mouth hanging slightly open. She opened it some more, exhaled, and shook her head. She didn't say anything.
"You have no idea how much I've wanted to do that," Yang whispered. She was just loud enough for Blake's hidden cat ears to hear her, but the mics couldn't. Blake continued shaking her head.
Yang gave Blake an exhausted smile and waved her over again. She wanted to do a bright and happy one, but that wasn't happening. Not until they were home at least.
Blake walked up to her, stopping just a few feet away. She met Yang's eyes with a smile and a sigh. Blake looked much less tired than she was, but the worry was still there.
She raised an arm, raised a finger to the sky, and shoved Yang back. She windmilled her arms to try and catch her balance. "Ahh."
It was no good, she was going over. On her last rotation Yang grabbed ahold of Blake's wrist and jumped off the edge. Blake tried to resist, but she was no match for Yang's strength.
She pulled Blake into a tight hug, even though her partner tried to squirm out of it. She and Ruby had made a point of trying to get Blake and Weiss used to more physical contact, but it was going very slowly.
Yang wrapped her arms around Blake's back and spun in the air, cheering as they fell. Water splashed over them. It soaked her clothes, and remaining boot, through.
She hit the ground on her back with a huff. Blake bounced off of her chest and landed on top of her. Blake's headset was missing. She must've thrown it off as they fell.
"Heh," Yang laughed. "If you wanted to be on top so badly, you could've just aske-"
Yang cut herself off as soon as she realized what was coming out of her mouth.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! That wasn't-" She stammered until Blake cut her off with a glare.
"Yang. What is this about?"
Yang sighed and pushed herself up. She lowered her head and let the water pound her neck. "I don't know how much more I can take. I'm…"
She raised her head just enough to meet Blake's eyes. "I'm dreaming again. And… It's not just at night anymore."
Blake winced and looked away. "I'm sorry."
"I've needed to use them too." Yang shivered at the memory of that other person's thoughts leeching their way into her mind. "If I hadn't, I would've said some really stupid things."
Blake lowered her head and raised an eyebrow.
"Ok fine, stupider things." Yang raised her arms and shook her head. She let them fall a moment later.
Blake hesitated for a moment, then laid a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
A part of Yang wanted to scream yes, tackle Blake, and deploy Ember Celica. A slightly more sensible part said to just tackle her. She ignored both of them. "Nothing that I'd ask you to do."
"I…" Blake started to speak, then stopped and looked at her own lap.
"Blake… You're the one being investigated right now. I-" Yang grit her teeth and forced another memory back down. "I just need to tough it out."
She inhaled and exhaled slowly, breath growing hotter each time. When it was almost too much, she held a very deep one for ten seconds, then let it out slowly.
Fear was plastered on Blake's face. It wasn't really justified since she would still win.
She should fear you.
Yang shook her head again. "That isn't all I wanted to talk about though."
"You need to be careful around Ruby. She was able to tell when I used my Aura. She thought it was my Semblance… It wasn't."
Blake grimaced. "Yang… That's not something someone should be able to do."
"I know." She spoke through her teeth.
"Ruby… Nothing about what she can do adds up. She has to be-"
"SHE ISN'T ANATHEMA!" Yang shouted and unleashed her Aura. Flames licked her arms, boiling the water as it fell on her. Her hair ignited with power, glowing so brightly that Blake had to squint.
"Ruby isn't like us. She's good." Yang tried to cap her seething anger, but just reduced it to a boil. They'd went over this before they left. Ruby couldn't be Anathema, she just couldn't.
The light died down and her fire retreated, but Yang could still feel it smoldering within her soul. Blake looked at her again, her fear dissipating.
Letting go like this, it felt right. Yang could be honest with Blake in a way she couldn't with anyone else. She could show her the feelings and thoughts she had to hide from everyone else. Most of them anyway, others were best locked away until she could sort her head out. It wasn't completely fair, but they were both damned and Blake had her own problems which Yang was prepared to help her with when they came up.
"There is one way I could help you…" Blake said softly.
"What're you thinking?"
"I could write something for you, something that would argue for calmness and control. Or maybe for channeling your anger to the thoughts themselves." She couldn't meet Yang's eyes. "I'd pour everything I could into it."
Such impudence!
The water hissed as it boiled again. Yang closed her eyes and tried to force it back down. Her fire continued to bubble through.
She opened her eyes again.
She was lounging in her throne room while discussing a new trade agreement. Negotiations were not going well. The young Solar in front of her laced each statement she made with barely concealed derision, implying that she would let her baser instincts control her every action.
The girl wasn't even a tenth of her age. Her 'kingdom' was barely visible on a map of Creation.
Yang dug her nails into her thigh and blinked the vision away.
"Blake, you're asking me to let you mess with my head when it's already this messed up."
"Can you think of anything else that might help?"
Take retribution.
Yang growled. "How can I be sure you won't make it worse?"
"You need to trust me."
Subdue her.
"No."
Blake laid a hand on hers. "You need to trust someone."
Break her spirit.
"No!" Yang didn't know who she was shouting at.
Blake grabbed her hand when she tried to pull away and squeezed. "Then what am I supposed to do? You're going to lose-"
Make her yours.
"Shut up, shut up, shut-" Yang grabbed the fire burning inside of her and let it blaze forth in one mighty shout. "UP!"
She fired a blast of searing flames to the heavens. The explosion of steam forced the falling water away, vaporizing it as heat pushed through faster than it could boil away. Blake let go of her and flickered.
Yang panted as new water fell onto her. The cold seeped into her, quenching her rage. She looked at the shadow in the mist. Blake's eyes were the only color she could see, yellow orbs piercing through the mist and darkness.
"Blake... Do it now. Before I change my mind."
