Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Two: Remnant
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Chapter 2.6
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A chill wind stirred up the ash and soot in front of her. Tent poles dotted the field with the charred remnants of the canvas rippling back and forth. No grass remained, leaving only the bodies of the fallen. The sick stench of burning meat lingered in the air, making her wrap her cloak over her mouth. Old dirt from the dust on the road was a much better smell.
Ruby stepped off on Bumblebee and
opened her ears to the sounds of the world.
This camp was wrong in so many ways, but the lingering song of Yang's made it that much worse. She'd torn the natural fabric to pieces and diverted the normal flows of energy from the sky and the land. What should have been a single river was torn to ribbons.
In places, the strings of Fate were still there, frayed instead of being completely destroyed.
The top of the hill, the place where it was most burned was one such place. There had been an enormous tent here. From the scorch marks, she could tell that the battle began here. This was where Yang killed so many people. No, not killed slaughtered…. This wasn't anything close to a fair fight.
There was barely anything left within, which made perfect sense. The only thing remaining was half of a book, the pages all burned. It crumbled to ash as she picked it up.
The threads that once made up the tome were barely there, but she could still grab them. As they tried to fall further, she grasped each and pulled them back together. Before her eyes, the burned pages turned white and then regrew. Just like the damaged sections of the lightning tower she'd spent so many days living in.
With a complete book in her hands, Ruby flipped through the pages. It was about some strange Mistral philosophy. Not useful.
She picked through each of the remaining books, careful to avoid touching the blackened bones surrounding her. Each that she could fix, she did, but none of them brought her closer to an answer.
A skull stared at her while she worked. It sent a shiver down her spine, as if it was glaring at her, blaming her. It was silly, a skull couldn't really affect her, vengeful ghosts weren't real… and even if they were, it would be going after the one who killed them.
"Yang…" Ruby whispered to herself.
Why would Yang do this? What could possibly justify killing so many people? From how the bodies were positioned, several died while running away from her.
She wouldn't find out the answers by standing around, but… she also couldn't just leave this place like this.
Ruby cast a red light around herself, opening her eyes to the unseen. A tremendous number of Grimm bugs were flying around the natural streams of power. She definitely couldn't leave it like that now.
Her soul reached for the wounded river of energy and called out to it. With threads of brilliant red, she tied the streams back together. Within moments, all of the damage had been fixed.
Her eyes caught a single scrap of paper, unearthed by her footsteps.
It grew back to its old form, becoming a very detailed map.
There was a city very close to her and it felt… right.
She hopped onto Bumblebee and set off.
Yang was close, closer than Ruby'd ever managed to get to her before. She just needed to reach out and
find the shortest path.
As she drove from the burned out camp, Ruby tied the sympathy of Yang's bike to the point on the map where she should be. The trees along the road turned into a blur. She drove over hills, past houses, and, finally, into a dark tunnel.
She emerged driving alongside a river, inside of a burning city. The Grimm were rampaging through the streets, moving with more coordination than they should be.
A single shot took out two groups, saving the civilians they were chasing. Many more fell as she blasted down the block.
Yang was close; Ruby could hear the brutal beat of her Aura pulsing from this block.
She had to be killing a lot of…
A green-yellow glow flared from the inside of a building. Ruby focussed on it and felt the Auras inside as they were touched by Yang's heat.
"What is she… Why?" Ruby cringed when
she heard exactly what Yang was doing in there. Yang had always been kind of a flirt, she'd never need to do something like that… Assuming the Yang inside was still her sister.
She kicked off of the bike, deploying Crescent Rose as she landed in front of the door.
There had better be a good reason for this…
~~~
Yang took a breath and then another.
Ruby shoved her weapon forward, "Well?"
Yang glanced down, two of her cultists were pressed against each other off to the side. She opened her mouth once, then closed it. Technically they were listening to what she said. After a deep breath, she shrugged. "Well… I guess it kind of is."
"You…" Ruby stomped, stepping forward. "You killed a bunch of people and also started a-"
Ruby's cheeks blazed red, her eyes locked on Yang's. "A weird sex thing while there's a Grimm attack?!"
"I didn't exactly have a choice and that is not what we were doing!" Yang shouted, wings spreading wide as her Aura flared.
"You were just shouting about being a goddess and I could hear you taking control of them to do..." Ruby held her lips closed, eyes flickering to the groups of people making out. "That!"
Yang took a deep breath, ready to stop them with another order, but... their
hands were off of each other. They were technically listening to her and… that was probably okay? At least, she could wait to correct it. "That's not why I did that."
"Then why? Why would you take advantage of people and-"
A pair of Beowolves burst through the windows.
Yang dug her feet in, ready to charge. Ruby fired.
The round bounced off of Ember Celica and flew straight through the Beowolves' eyes, killing them instantly. It bounced back, whizzing through Yang's hair and sending a shower of sparks onto her back. Yang barely felt them.
Ruby kept Crescent Rose raised.
Yang clenched her fists. "Because they were going to die if I didn't. That bastard"- she pointed at Tyrian's headless corpse-"was holding them hostage so he could kill me and Blake."
Ruby glared at the body. "You swear that's the truth?"
"Yes."
"Who're you to question her?!" an old man suddenly stood up, shouting. He must've been one of the out of towners, since Yang'd never seen him before.
Ruby glanced at him. "What?"
He bowed his head to Yang. "The Goddess just saved all of our lives. So, who the hell are you to-"
"That's enough." Yang cut him off. She appreciated the support, but he wasn't helping. "She's my sister."
His face paled. He shakily bowed to Ruby, not quite as deeply as he had to Yang. "Please forgive me, my lady."
"I-" Ruby stared at him, all of the anger momentarily leaving her as she looked back to Yang. "What? Why would you? I- What am I supposed to do here?"
"What do you mean?"
"He just called you a goddess and now I'm some sort of lady! What have you done to them?"
"I haven't done anything."
"You just did something. I literally heard you take control of their minds so that you could make them… I don't even want to say it."
"I was saving their lives."
"By making them want to-"
"It was the only option left!" Yang cut her off, stomping the ground so hard the building shook. "I didn't force anything else on them. Hell, I only found out about all of this a week ago!"
"Then why do you have… minions? Servants? Haremites? Whatever you call them."
"Lady, umm, Red?" Another man, spoke up, flinching when Ruby turned to him. "We, none of us, knew who she was until five minutes ago. She revealed her glory to us in our time of need to save us. Before that we believed she was just a wandering Faunus girl who worshiped Luna with us. If only we had realized who you were sooner."
"We'd probably all be dead if she didn't," the girl next to him said. "I'm… Uhh, Lady Yang, please forgive our transgressions, we did not realize we were in your presence. As penance we'll give you offerings. What do you prefer for sacrifices?"
Ruby snapped back to Yang. "Sacrifices?"
Yang tried to rub the growing headache out of her temples. "I don't need sacrifices."
"Of course you don't need them! What… what do you want then?" The girl looked like a sad puppy, but she still wasn't listening.
"I don't want- No… This isn't important right now." Yang turned away from them. "I met them after coming to the city and… They're good people. Sure, they worship Anathema, but that's not what really matters. They're a family that welcomed us in when they didn't know who we were and fed us and... They're not bad people, okay.."
"You didn't mess with their heads to make that happen? Make them want to worship you?"
"No! Why would you…"
Yang stopped shouting and watched her sister, really watched her. Even though Ruby was looking at her, she kept slightly glancing away. Her fingers were lightly drumming on the side of her weapon, despite how otherwise ready she was for a fight.
Ruby'd been by herself for months, probably not talking to anyone about anything that was bothering her. As bad as it'd been, Yang at least had Blake with her the entire time.
"Please believe me." Yang softened her voice and tried to pull the fire back in, though there was only so much she could do about that. "The only reason why I did that was to keep them safe."
"From what? If you were fighting something that dangerous, where is it?"
Yang could feel one of the bigger invisible Grimm hovering over her shoulder. She could light it on fire to make it show up, but that might make all of them start attacking again. "This is going to sound kinda crazy, but I swear that I can prove it to you once we're not in this building anymore."
Ruby raised an eyebrow, but nodded.
"Okay, so there's these invisible Grimm bugs that were attacking us-"
"They attack people too?!"
"Wait.. You know about them?"
"Yeah, they were all over the place at Beacon and"- Ruby blinked, back stepping -"Woah! That's- There's so many."
"You can see them? " Yang barely avoided groaning. "You've been able to see them... How long?"
"A few months?"
"And you didn't tell anyone?"
"You mean like how you didn't tell me about any of your stuff?!" Ruby glaring at Yang's wings.
"Deadly invisible Grimm surrounding us are way more important."
"No, they aren't." Ruby clenched her teeth. "Not to me anyway."
"Ruby…" Yang stepped forward, holding a hand out.
"They're just bugs. I watched them for days and they didn't do anything. Even when they did, it was just eating a demon-"
Yang froze. She had so many questions about that... for later.
"-but not you. You three… You lied to me. You lied to me for I don't even know how long!"
"Like six months." Yang mumbled, not looking at her sister. It'd been since the summer.
"Six…" Ruby snapped,
her Aura flaring with power. "You lied to me for six months!"
"What was I supposed to say?" Yang met Ruby's glare,
matching her sister's fire with her own. "Oh hey sis, I sold my soul to a demon last week, but don't worry, everything's just fine."
"Of course not!" Ruby stepped forward. "That'd just be dumb, but you could've explained something."
"When you were all but skipping classes to go after that other Anathema? I don't think so." Yang matched her.
"You're the one who actually skipped classes to track her down!"
"Because she needed to be stopped and both Blake and I were using our Anathema powers to do it."
"And you couldn't have told me you were on some sort of super secret mission?"
"You would've followed us!" Yang loomed over Ruby, practically nose to nose.
"I'm your team leader."
"You're still my babysister and-"
"I am not a baby! I can handle myself." Ruby threw a terrible punch at Yang's face. It was a wide swing and so obvious a novice could dodge it.
Yang caught Ruby's fist, holding it between her fingers. After pulling it down, she growled through clenched teeth. "I didn't know that then and even if I did you would've found out about us and then we'd have to have run away from Beacon even earlier."
"You wouldn't have to have run away." Ruby yanked at her arm, but Yang didn't let her go.
"Yes, I would've. You would know-"
"I wouldn't have told anyone!"
"You would've said something because-"
"No, I wouldn't." Ruby tried to kick off of Yang's stomach, sinking her heels into the same spot where Tyrian poisoned her, but she was too weak.
"Stop being a brat and interrupting me." Yang lifted Ruby up and chucked her at one of the tables, away from any of her people. Her sister crashed through it, getting herself doused with beer and water.
"Stop ignoring what I'm saying."
Ruby vanished, smashing into the side of Yang's head with a flying kick. "I was already arguing with Professor Goodwitch about how everything they did to find them was wrong."
Yang rolled away from the hit, grabbing Ruby's ankle as she moved. "But being Anathema is still wrong."
Ruby slipped free before Yang could slam her to the ground, using her weapon to spin and strike back. "No, it isn't!"
Yang caught the next kick with a punch, the force of her own blow sending Ruby flying, but she fired a Gravity shot to bounce back. "What're you talking about? You- You came here shouting at me because what I did was sick and wrong."
"Exactly, what you did, not what you are." Ruby swung Crescent Rose so quickly the head became a blur. She caught Yang in the side with the heel of it, launching her through a wall.
"What I am?" Yang's Aura flared as she stood up, she held a hand up and summoned
a pulse of force that yanked Ruby to her. It knocked her sister face first into another punch. "I'm a monster, Ruby. Even if I didn't have these goddamn voices in my head shouting at me to be worse, I would still force the world to obey me just by existing. Do you know how easy it would be to just take this entire city over? Rule over it and make everyone bow to my whims?"
"Why don't you do it then, if it's so hard to resist?" Ruby rolled, turning into petals that swarmed Yang.
Another kick snapped Yang's head to the side. She followed it up with an explosion of force and flame.
It wasn't a fair fight, Ruby still didn't know anything about unarmed combat and her only weapon was too lethal to use properly, but it didn't need to be. Yang's blood pounded up as they continued; breaking furniture, shattering floorboards, and terrifying whichever people were paying attention; but she kept her fire quenched.
It wasn't a real fight; it was an argument with fists.
A punch showed the pain, the worry, that they each caused. A body slam was also a bear hug, wanting them to be close, but still wanting them to feel what it was like to be crushed. A throw's meaning was obvious. The weightlessness of being tossed away and the crash when you realized the person you through would always be there was gone.
It was like they were ten and fighting over something dumb like who deleted a save file or borrowing each other clothes returning them ripped. The only difference was this time it wasn't their room that was getting wrecked.
"What about all of the others? The camp you burned to death."
"They're the same as the ones on the ground right now."
Yang shattered a keg with a punch, pinning Ruby by her cloak.
Ruby
split into five and forced her back with a quintuple kick.
"Why did they deserve that? You haven't killed any other Hunters, have you?"
"No! These were different. They aren't Hunter's, they're-"
More Grimm burst in; they were mercilessly slaughtered.
Yang stomped,
sending a flaming shockwave to the door that tore them to ribbons.
Ruby pointed her finger at them,
making their skulls explode like they were shot by a rifle.
Yang followed up by elbowing Ruby, continuing the brawl.
They fought and fought, screaming all of their hurts to each other, until the front of the party was completely destroyed and both were panting.
"Why, Yang?" Ruby vanished into a cloud of rose petals, reappearing with her legs wrapped around Yang's back and Yang's neck in a choke hold. "Why did you do it? Lie to me? Mess with your cult's heads? Slaughter people while they ran away from you?"
Yang's breath caught in her throat. "Because I'm a bad person, Ruby. I'm a bad, selfish jerk who's too scared to face up to how much pain she causes"
"You're not a bad person."
"Yes I am. How could you say that after everything I've done?"
"You… you were trying to do your best."
"Tell that to the people I messed up. Tell that to the families that're going to be broken because of me." Yang let her arms fall down, not fighting anymore. "The White Fang, the people in that camp, even if they were bad, I still hurt everyone else who knew them."
Ruby slid down, wrapping her arms around Yang from behind. "Am I a bad person, Yang?"
"No!" Yang spun, grabbing Ruby's shoulders. "You're… you're the best one of us, the only one who's really good."
"Y-Yang… I." ruby trembled in her hands, eyes glistening. "Everything bad you've done… I've done too. And… and it's so much worse."
"That's not true! It's-"
"Y-You took control of your cult, people who already worshiped you. I took control of all of the Hunters in Vale. I forced them to stop going after Anathema, to stop the investigation and the fighting. All so that you and Blaker would be safe."
"Ruby…"
"And… you've killed what, maybe a hundred people?"
"Something like that."
"I don't know how many I've killed. I don't think I ever will." Ruby balled her hands in Yang's hair. "The Hunters who I stopped… so many of them are in the hospital now because of how much that want to fight Anathema. Their cities, the people they're supposed to protect, I left them defenseless."
"That's not your fault."
"Yes it is! If all of the families that you hurt are your fault, then all of those deaths are mine."
Yang held Ruby tight.
"Should I be killed for what I've done, Yang? I almost did that to another Anathema, someone who had a much better reason."
Yang's fire vanished. All of her heat, all of her anger, doused in an instant.
"N-No, no you shouldn't."
"Then… then neither should you." Ruby looked into Yang's eyes, the bronze sparkes within her own glowing with an unearthly light. "If what we've done is so wrong, then we need to do as much as we can to make up for it."
"There's no way to make it right. Not for the people who could've been convinced to stop and are now dead… or for the people hurt by what happened."
"We need to try. Maybe the wounds will never heal, but that doesn't mean we stop. We keep going until life is better for as many people as we can help."
Ruby's aura pulsed again. "I-I think that if we work together, all of us, I think we might be able to end the Grimm, all of them."
"End the…" Yang looked up, the rest of the world coming back into focus. They were still in the same building, the others either had their eyes glued to her or were trying to hide in a corner. There were still Grimm rampaging outside. "I think, there's something we could do right now."
Ruby perked up, glancing at the door.
An Ursa peeked in. Moments later, it exploded twice. It wouldn't be hard for the two of them to get the entire wedding to safety, even with Yang carrying Blake.
That night, a small green sun eclipsed the moon and the blackened sky became red.
