#like how does vale look at what happened at mountain glenn and go

[strqyr]

this isn't super serious, but the most unrealistic thing in rwby (to me) is the apparent lack of any preparation for grimm invasion within the kingdoms or... anywhere, really.

where are the bunkers / shelters everyone knows to head to, specifically made for this scenario? where are the monthly tests of alarm systems? the stockpiles of food and medicine? you're living in a place surrounded by monsters who want to kill you and subway tunnels are the best you can do?? do you even want to survive??? /j

like yeah weaving that all in naturally might be difficult, but it's like. it feels like it should be a norm to the characters living in that setting? like someone just randomly mentioning their grimm-proof basement with everything needed to survive for x amount of time bc that's completely normal in the world—especially for those living far away from a city or a town—where you have no idea when, let alone if, the help is going to come.

plus it could make an interesting plot point if all the kingdoms did have these systems in place, but one / some of them got so comfortable with their current situation, believing the grimm could never breach their walls etc, that all of it was eventually de-funded and thus not kept up to date, which then would prove to be a costly mistake on a later date.

[bestworstcase]

I think what strikes me about the razing of Vale is how it directly parallels what Ironwood and Atlas did, but also what VALE did to Mountain Glenn.

After all, Vale also was the reason that Mountain Glenn was doomed in the first place. They abandoned the people of MG to their death under the pretense that they couldn't do anything for them. And it's even worse when you consider the fact that Mountain Glenn had a fully functional underground TRAIN NETWORK that reaches directly under Vale, in parallel to Atlas having cargo ships.

If anything, it proves that Vale DID have the means to save the people of Mountain Glenn by using the trains to take citizens to safety while Huntsmen or soldiers probably could have held the line and stopped the Grimm from following. But they, like Ironwood, chose to abandon them to their fate to save themselves.

After all, the set up of the situation is something like this according to Oobleck:

Mountain Glenn is built. People transferred from Vale to MG. Mountain Glenn has no natural protection, and thus was besieged. MG people go underground.

But here's the thing though: If they went underground, why didn't they just get back onto the underground trains to escape?

It didn't say that the tunnels were swarmed, only that an explosion opened a different cavern that exposed an underground Grimm nest. If anything, it didn't say that this happened immediately either. There's definitely a noticeable gap between when they went underground, vs when the explosion is implied to have happened. They more or less outright stated that "it was a safe haven", and from looking at the background, there were plenty of half-finished underground buildings there that strongly implied that they were able to keep things going for a period of time until they found the Grimm nest.

What it seems like to me is that Vale didn't even attempt to help them evacuate via the underground, and just sealed them up to die.

They were foreshadowing Atlas as early as Volume 2.

So in a dark sense, Salem's destruction of Vale is karma finally coming after the Kingdom of Vale for willingly leaving their former citizens to die in such a horrible fashion.

yeah this is pretty much where my thinking is, especially in light of how important the mountain glenn arc’s character development was in v9 and how—& i was saying this last year while the volume was airing!—in the ever after the girls answered the herbalist’s question (“what are you?”) but didn’t answer oobleck’s (“no, that is what you do; i want to know why you do it”). so there’s this driving sense that the answers are unfinished and that intersects with oobleck’s entry into the narrative at this moment of personal crisis for him in his failure to prevent another mountain glenn. and then a key theme with the mountain glenn arc is that history is important.

“if you can’t learn from it, you’re destined to repeat it.” and “i see lives that could have been saved, but i also see an opportunity—an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy.” on its face, it’s easy to take oobleck’s perspective to mean that he strives to better understand how to fend off the grimm, but oobleck is not the grimm studies professor nor does he express any particular interest or concern on the matter of killing grimm (to the point that the girls get irate with him for not fighting, and he’s the one who tells ruby not to provoke the goliaths).

he teaches HISTORY.

in jaundice we get oobleck talking about the faunus revolution like: this may seem like ancient history to all of you, but it isn’t, it still matters, there isn’t a faunus in this classroom who hasn’t been subjected to discrimination, this kind of hatred and cruelty breeds violence, just look at what happened to the white fang. and then he hits his two most disinterested students with “history is important, if you can’t learn from it, you’re destined to repeat it!”—like. oobleck tries SO HARD to get his students to grasp that the historical faunus revolution and the modern-day white fang are the same. that this is history repeating itself because humankind refuses to learn.

and that sets the stage for mountain glenn. what does it mean that oobleck sees in this wasteland a “dark reminder” of vale’s “greatest failure” and lives that could have been saved and a chance to learn from it to ensure that it won’t ever happen again, and this is what motivates him to BECOME A HISTORY TEACHER, and specifically the kind of history teacher who teaches the faunus revolution by confronting his students with the truth that persecution at human hands is what drove the white fang to violence? what does that say about him? about the failure he sees when he looks at mountain glenn?

more to the point:

the theme of the mountain glenn arc is that we must learn from history to avoid repeating the failures of the past. this is a throughline that runs through the rest of the story: the girls hear what oobleck is trying to teach them, and when the wolves are howling at the door and the general orders them to abandon the people of mantle to save atlas, they refuse. and they stand their ground, and they try, and they save EVERYBODY. the failure to save mountain glenn is not repeated, because oobleck taught them that.

now vale has fallen, and oobleck sits on that refugee ship in abject despair because he feels the weight of his failure crushing down on him—and, narratively, the most important question is, “is he right?”

like, did he fail? is the destruction of vale something that constitutes a failure?

not a defeat—that’s not the same thing. vale suffered a catastrophic defeat. but were there lives that COULD HAVE been saved if the ones who made the decisions had chosen differently? is oobleck standing in team rwby’s shoes, someone who did the very best he could and saved absolutely everyone it was possible to save, or is that ship full of refugees atlas leaving mantle behind to die?

THAT is the crucial question, because the failure of mountain glenn is not that the city fell but rather that there were lives that could have been saved. and that distinction has to be made, because otherwise the lesson that was not learned, the failure in vale’s destruction, is… what? that nowhere is safe? that no amount of geographical advantage or aggressive border defenses can save you from an inexhaustible onslaught? that mountain glenn was doomed from the start and it was naive to think vale could be different?

is rwby that kind of story? no.

mountain glenn was doomed from the start. its eventual destruction by the grimm was inevitable, oobleck says, because the city was established in grimm territory. but there were lives that could have been saved.

atlas and mantle were doomed from the moment ozpin used the staff to raise atlas; it was inevitable that the staff would be used again, by someone, for some reason, and as soon as that happened both cities would be destroyed. but there were no lives that could have been saved, because they saved EVERYONE.

vale, too, was doomed from the moment salem set herself to razing it; by sheer force of inexhaustible numbers and the ability to outlast anything done to her, her destruction of the city was inevitable. but were there lives that could have been saved?

and even more importantly, are there still lives that can be saved?

here’s what oobleck says of mountain glenn:

WEISS: What does history have to do with this? OOBLECK: Why, what a preposterous question, you silly girl! Why, history is the backbone of our very society! …And the liver! And probably the kidneys, if I were to wager. WEISS: And that means...? OOBLECK: The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves, but it is also the location to one of the kingdom's greatest failures! RUBY: Mountain Glenn. YANG: That's right! It was an expansion of Vale... But in the end it was overrun by grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city. OOBLECK: Correct! And now it stands abandoned as a dark reminder.

and:

OOBLECK: Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of grimm! Previously home to thousands of people, working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves! […] OOBLECK: No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: they took up shelter beneath the city, in massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway, and they cut themselves off from the surface! YANG: An underground village? OOBLECK: In a matter of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until... an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb.

and the undercity looks like this:

not even half-finished buildings, at least some of these look like completed structures that are now falling into ruin—and this isn’t some haphazard shantytown cobbled together out of scrap, these are huge high-rise apartment buildings! the mountain glenn undercity lasted a long time, months or perhaps even years given the scale and complexity of construction that was completed before the explosion punched a hole through the cavern walls into a nest of grimm.

the thing that most interests me about oobleck’s account of mountain glenn’s demise, is… like, the sequence of events seems to imply that vale cut the territory off when the upper city was overrun. the people living in mountain glenn “made one last attempt at survival” by retreating into the subway tunnels… which they did not use to evacuate to vale. instead they built an underground city in the cavern surrounding the subway system, and lived for what seems to be quite some time with grimm quite literally nesting on top of them.

think about the nevermore perching on the hard-light dome over amity coliseum. now imagine building a town in the arena and living there, under that nevermore, for a year. that’s what the people of mountain glenn did, instead of using the existing subway system to evacuate to vale. why?

why, in a world where human civilization is so defined by existential terror of the grimm, would they do that, unless they had no other choice? vale “officially” sealed off the tunnels when the undercity was overrun, but…

i mean, we see what happens when you bring thousands of people who’ve just survived the destruction of their homes to a new place: a days-long onslaught of grimm drawn by the refugees. vale isn’t walled. it doesn’t maintain a standing army. if thousands of refugees had flooded into vale after mountain glenn collapsed, the grimm would have been right behind them.

and… mountain glenn was a working-class suburb of vale. the people living there commuted to vale every day to work. they were probably quite poor compared to the average person living in vale—which is another parallel with mantle—could they afford to relocate to vale, if vale refused to provide housing for the mountain glenn refugees? was it a choice between having an apartment and enough food to eat in mountain glenn or being homeless and hungry in vale where everything was astronomically more expensive? were they, like mantle, just “a few city blocks” if vale’s leadership thought of them at all?

history is important. if you can’t learn from it, you’re destined to repeat it.

mountain glenn is vale’s history. did vale learn from that history? i think—narratively, for the purpose of contrast with the fall of atlas—the answer is probably no. and that means salem’s destruction of vale is less dark karmic justice than the wheel of history repeating itself; the city has been overrun.

but—mountain glenn’s people outlived mountain glenn itself, by retreating into caverns and building the undercity. so i think the big question with regard to salem razing vale is whether this is the “as the end drew near” part or the “creating the world’s largest tomb” part of the story. is everyone who didn’t make it onto that ship dead, or are they making one last attempt at survival by retreating into the same tunnels where mountain glenn’s people carved out a safe haven for themselves?

there’s a constant repetition throughout this story of the idea of “beacons of hope” and “safe havens” and this is something i find quite interesting because, obviously, there’s a beacon academy and a haven academy. atlas and shade don’t get rhetorically name-dropped like this, but atlas was a beacon of hope (the city in the sky, promise of a better future!) and the kids are fighting to make shade a safe haven. beacon fell, atlas fell, but haven was saved. it’s closed right now, but it’s still standing and mistral is—as far as we know—weathering the storm. menagerie offers safe haven to the faunus who don’t want to fight, and salem has no plans to attack it.

the mountain glenn undercity was a safe haven, kind of. only no one came to help when help was needed—haven survived because menagerie stood to defend it. shade will survive because mistral and menagerie stand with it. if there are people hiding from salem in the undercity, they’ll survive because shade and mistral and menagerie come to their aid. you see how it gains momentum with every arc of the story? the beacons collapse alone and the havens stand together.

[howlingday]

Soo volume 3 dark au now?

Volume 3? We haven't even gone over 2 yet! That said, let's look at what Volume 2 has. See if we can brainstorm something together.

Best Day Ever - Starting off strong, there are two key events to look into for Volume 2, those being the food fight and the murder of Tukson at the hands of Emerald and Mercury. Granted, Team RWBY are dead before they started, so there's not much to be done on that front. However, I feel like Tukson's death could be an interesting plot point that could be looked into, since he was a deserter of the White Fang.

Welcome to Beacon - This episode features some discussion about the security brought along with the visiting General Ironwood. There's also a scene in the library in which Blake talks about the dock fight, though neither of these happened because, well, Blake and the rest of RWBY are dead. However, this would be a good point to bring in Neptune to meet Jaune, Penny, and Ciel. This episode also has Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury meeting Ruby, showing that they've infiltrated Beacon.

A Minor Hiccup - This episode had RWBY making plans to figure out what's going on in Vale after the dock fight, neither happened because blah. This episode also features the return of Penny and the reveal to Ruby that she isn't human... Which we already covered... Oof...

Painting The Town... - This is probably my favorite episode of V2 simply for the fight against Torchwick! Will something just as epic happen?! ...Probably not, BUT WHO KNOWS?! I don't, but we could maybe do something with this one.

Extracurricular - Pyrrha spars against CRDL and Mercury... Sun gets shot down by Blake for the dance... Jaune "serenades" Weiss... Emerald and Mercury discuss Pyrrha... None of this happens because they're all

Burning The Candle - Another favorite of mine since we have Blake and Yang having their talk (COUGH COUGH ONLY BMBLB MOMENT COUGH COUGH) and Jaune and Ren also have their talk. None of this happens, but I still love this episode, though. BUT the dance does start at the end of the episode.

Dance Dance Infiltration - CAUSE BABY! IT'S TIME YOU MAKE UP YOUR MIIIIIND~! Which doesn't happen, yada yada yada, but we could have Jaune and Penny share a dance with Ciel, though Ms. Soleil probably doesn't know how to dance. Oh, and also Cinder steals classified data.

Field Trip / Search and Destroy / Mountain Glenn / No Brakes /Breach - Ah, now THIS is where things REALLY have to change! It's Team JPC and a Beacon Professor out on a field trip! Which Professor? Where to? And how does it all lead up to the finale?! This might be it's own mini-arc in itself!

But what do you think?

[blazingstar24]

Sci-fi Ironqrow AU Notes Part 1

If you’ve read my Ironqrow fic, u know which AU I’m talking about. I do plan on writing more chapters, but this is just my notes on the whole story so I know where everything is going!

So basics of the AU: It’s RWBY, but in space! And not focused on the kids but centering on Qrow and James, the rest of team STRQ, and Ozpin.

What do each of the Kingdoms look like now? Well they are planets or a collection of planets under the rule of the main kingdom.

Atlas has become the Atlesian Empire. The ruling planet and where the ruler of said Empire resides is the snowy planet Atlas. Under it’s rule is the mining planet Mantle, the icy moon Solitas, and quite a bit of other planets and moons as well.

The Atlesian Empire is still the leader in advancements in tech, which they share with their allies. They are also the most militeristic which does put the others on edge sometimes. However under the rule of the current Crown Prince James Ironwood, the Atlesian Empire has maintained a steady allyship with the Vale Federation

The Vale Federation is under the rule of King Ozpin, who is said to be the descendant of the Great Hero of Vale. The Hero who was able to stop the war between all the “kingdoms”. And who supposedly vanquished the Black Queen. The Vale Federation consists of Beacon, the lush green planet where King Ozpin resides, the dwarf planet Patch, Glenn with it’s mountainous terrain, and many more. The Vale Federation is quite large.

King Ozpin has led a very peaceful rule so far. Which has gained some critics as some feel that Ozpin is too passive when it comes to dealing with the recent attacks coming from members of the White Fang and the rumors that strange monsters, last seen during the Great War, have been attacking people across the galaxy.

Valeians think that Ozpin’s rule is too passive, but they all agree that they rather have him as their king than be part of the Republic of Mistral. Which is under the rule of Leo Lionheart. Except that everyone knows that Lionheart is really just a figurehead. He’s there to deal with the politics between the other rulers, but everyone knows who really runs Mistral.

While the Republic of Mistral is a place of the Arts, it is also the place you go to find a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” to get your dirty work done. The underground call the shots in Mistral. If you have enough lien, you can get anything. While not all of the crime bosses of the galaxy reside in the Republic of Mistral, it’s a good place to start looking for shady behavior

However, if you truly want to live somewhere where pretty much anything goes, the outer rim planets of the Vacuo System is the place to go. The Vacuo system doesn’t have an exact ruling party, but they do have the Vacuo Alliance. Led by Theodore of Shade, he handles disputes that happen in the system that are brought to the Alliance.

Handling disputes really means, Theodore makes his judgement and if anyone wants to challenge that, they have to beat him in combat. It may seem unfair, but this is why Theo is so respected in Vacuo. Strength is everything in the system. It’s how you survive.

At the moment, all four are living in relative peace. Some minor disputes here and there, but all ruling parties are in agreement that none want other war to start again. Which is why every 4 years, each ruler meets on the artifical moon of Vytal, to continue the eras of peace and air out any disputes that may become a problem. (Yes I know it’s every 2 years in the show, but 4 seemed better)

Vytal being the unconquered planet in the Great War. It was sought after by each kingdom during the War and a bloody, vicious battle took place between all four to claim it. Yet, this is also where the conflict ended. On the surface of Vytal, the four leaders signed the peace treaty that would create peace between the kingdoms. The battles that took place on Vytal had changed the surface of the planet drastically, so each kingdom pitched in resources to make an artificial moon as their meeting place.

Current status of the kingdoms:

Tensions are starting to run high all around as the White Fang has been supposedly attacking SDC ships across the galaxy. Yet, that isn’t the real reason why everyone is on edge. There have been rumors and reports that strange creatures have been prowling and attacking people in the Vacuo system. And then the reports started appearing in Vale, in Mistral. Then most surprisingly right after a report of a huge attack on Mantle that left a city decimated by these strange monsters, a terrible accident occurred.

In what was reported as a military accident, James Ironwood, the crown prince of the Atlesian Empire tragically died.(if u haven’t read my fic surprise! He’s actually quite alive) Then quite suddenly after his death, the Atlesian Empire started slowly invading on the Vale Federation’s planets. So now, most of the galaxy is expecting a war to break out soon as everyone is on edge not knowing who or what is behind these attacks.

To make matters worse, rumors have been circling that the culprit behind the attacks is the Black Queen Organization.

The Black Queen Organization was considered a small cult at first during the Great War. Those in the cult worshipped a large pale white witch who called herself a Goddess. Many thought the cult was insignificant, none had ever seen this woman they were worshipping.

But in the midst of the Great War, all kingdoms were suddenly being attacked by the same strange creatures that have been appearing now. Dark, twisted animal-like monsters. Some that could drain you of your will to fight, some that were big enough to decimate an entire squadron of soldiers. Hordes of these creatures were attracted to places of great negativity and gained the moniker of Grimm

The Black Queen Organization had suddenly become a dangerous force in the war. Yet, the Great Hero of Vale managed to unite the kingdoms together to defeat this force and the creatures and all mention of the organization disappeared from the public and into fairytales.

Now, the name has started to spread as the older generation remembers the time of the Great War. While most people believe it to be a fairytale, there are some who believe that the Black Queen Organization was never defeated. Which is adding the tensions between the kingdoms.

Okay more will be coming in part 2 of my notes! But if you have any questions on certain aspects, feel free to ask!

[rwby-grimm-guardians]

RWBY Grimm Guardians Arc 2: Beacon’s Fragile Light Ch XI

Hey, everyone! This is the eleventh chapter of Beacon’s Fragile Light! Here, we head to the main event: the Fall of Beacon! As usual, please enjoy.

Disclaimer: Still own nothing!

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(At the Amity Colosseum)

To say that everyone was up Shit Creek without a paddle would be an understatement. First, Yang’s match with Mercury was almost compromised, Summer’s Grimm instincts were beginning to run rampant, and now Pyrrha’s match with Penny ended horrifically with Penny being destroyed. Ruby, who was investigating Mercury, collapsed to her knees at what she had just witnessed.

Summer hugged her tightly, also shocked by the recent battle. She began rocking the teenager as the young leader started to cry. “I’m sorry....” The former STRQ leader whispered, her voice filled with guilt. She reluctantly turned her attention to Ruby’s scroll, pulling it out and texting the other girls in a group chat. “This is Cres. You...all saw that… Right?” She asked.

Yang texted, “Yeah. Are you two safe?” “Safe, yes.” The former leader replied. Blake texted, “I’m sorry…. I know this isn’t the best time, but Yang, Weiss and I need you and Ember at the fairgrounds.” “On our way.” The blonde replied. “Cres, can you help Ruby?” “I’ll try….” Summer typed, before putting the scroll away. “Ruby…?” She called out. Her daughter’s head shifted slightly towards her, making her tears more visible.

“Ruby… We need to help Yang and our friends…” The elder Rose said, gently helping the young leader to her feet. Ruby wiped her tears away, before nodding and hugging Summer tightly. “Shh…. I got you.” The former STRQ leader whispered, pecking her daughter’s forehead. “I’m always here.” After a few moments, Ruby whispered, “This isn’t fair…” The elder Rose nodded, “Believe me, I know. I agree.”

The two jumped as a Nevermore, carrying several Grimm Sapiens, broke through the safety barrier and into the arena, before it locked eyes with a shocked Pyrrha. Summer growled, before Ruby said, “I’ll help Pyrrha.” Nodding, the red clad woman said, “I’ll take care of the pawns then.” Nodding in agreement, the young leader grabbed one of Floating Array’s swords, duel wielding it with her scythe.

Summer paused as she and Ruby saw the Nevermore being attacked. Turning, the two spotted teams SSSN, CFVY, ABRN, FNKI, alongside Jaune, Nora, and Ren, weapons out. “We got this beast.” Jaune said. Ruby gave a small smile, before nodding at her Weapon Spirit. The former STRQ leader chuckled, “Alright. I’ll make sure that the weaklings don’t interrupt.” before tackling a couple of the Grimm Sapiens to the ground.

As the five teams combined their strengths to conquer the Nevermore, Summer let herself loose, removing her eyepatch and tearing into the Grimm Sapiens and dismembering them. She ripped one in half, tore off another’s head, and proceeded to crush one’s spine, before snapping its neck. She punched a hole through two Grimms’ chest, killing them instantly.

One Grimm Sapien managed to sneak past the red clad woman and run towards Ruby. Summer froze, before moving at inhuman speeds and getting in front of her daughter. She then caught the beast by its arms, tearing them off, before kicking it to the ground. Before it could stand up and attempt to tear out Summer’s throat with its teeth, Ruby shot it in the head, killing it.

After a few moments of silence, the five teams, Ruby, and Summer gave a look over of the arena. The Grimm Sapiens were dead, as well as the Nevermore. The young leader sighed, before looking at the taller woman, “Are you alright?” “Are you?” The red clad woman asked, covered in Grimm blood, only for her daughter to give her a concerned expression. Sighing, the taller woman nodded, “I’m fine. Just tired.”

Ruby eventually nodded, “Your eyepatch is off.” Summer nodded, “We’re gonna need this power.” “Does it….you know. Hurt?” The young leader asked. The taller woman paused, brief tapping her eyelid, before smirking, “Just a bit numb right now.” The two then went over to Pyrrha, who was crying… Understandably so, since she probably believed that she was RESPONSIBLE for Penny’s death.

“Pyrrha…” The taller woman said, feeling her heart twist as the redhead let out a quiet sob. “This is my fault.” She whispered, prompting Ruby to bend down and hold her. “Pyrrha… This is NOT your fault.” The young leader said. “You aren’t responsible for what happened to Penny.” The redhead just looked at the red clad teenager, “How can you just...say that as if…?” “As if we know that truth?” Summer asked, finishing Pyrrha’s question.

Jaune placed a firm, yet gentle hand on his partner’s shoulder. “Pyrrha… We know you well enough to know that you would never do this....to anyone.”” He said gently. “We’ll find the assholes who’re being this.” He then looked at Summer and Ruby, “Right?” Summer gave a gentle smile, placing a hand on the young man’s shoulder, “Definitely.” She hoped that Jaune wasn’t wrong about that.

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(At Beacon Academy....)

“What...do we do now?” Weiss asked, breathing heavily as she almost collapsed to her knees in exhaustion. She, her mother, Blake, and Gambol had been fighting hordes of Grimm, White Fang soldiers, and rogue Atlesian androids for a good while now. Yang was almost there, but the heiress was beginning to worry if she, Ruby, and their Weapon Spirits wouldn’t arrive in time.

Gambol looked around, searching for a means to make a temporary retreat, before hearing the sound of footsteps and voices. Growling on instinct, she turned behind her and drew her blade, only to freeze when she noticed that what she heard were students. Arktis looked behind her and nodded at the elder faunus, “We keep fighting for now.” Blake nodded, “Gambol and I will see if we can derail the White Fang.”  Weiss nodded as the two faunus went in another direction.

After reaching another part of the campus, Blake looked around, “Okay… Where the hell are we going to find the bastard in charge?” A sinister chuckle filled the room, saying, “Now that’s a little rude, don’t you think, Blake?” The teenage faunus froze, feeling her blood go cold as she turned to face the voice she hoped she’d NEVER have to hear again.

Gambol growled, her pupils turning into slits and her nails transforming into panther-like claws. A red-haired bull faunus came out the shadows, causing Blake’s eyes to widen in horror. “Gods… Adam…!” She said, causing the man to smile. “Hello, darling.” He said, giving a very arrogant leer towards the two. “Why and how the fuck are you not dead yet?!” Gambol shouted, furious that the man had the gall to show himself after everything he had done. He smirked, “Now where’s the fun in telling you?”

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(Meanwhile…)

On a nearby rooftop, Cinder and Vampier grinned as they witnessed the chaos and destruction occurring. “Hope you’re getting good footage.” Vampier said to Mercury, who was broadcasting the violence. “Of course! This is fantastic!” He said. Cinder nodded, “Good.” She then turned to observe Emerald, who seemed...unsettled by what she was witnessing. The pyrokinetic sighed, deciding to not bother with Emerald’s emotions for the time being.

In his...or rather, THEIR office, Evergreen and Ozma watched the carnage happening throughout the campus. “We could’ve prevented this…” The brown haired man said in the mindscape that he and Evergreen shared. Evergreen looked at him in both anger and disbelief, “Oh really!? Then what was your ‘PLAN’ for that!?” The immortal soul opened his mouth, but said nothing, before lowering his head in shame and guilt.

Evergreen stayed silent for a few moments, before eventually sighing. “Look at me, Ozma.” He said. The immortal soul looked up at the man in shock. Not ONCE had he heard the headmaster call him by his REAL name. Evergreen took a deep breath, before saying, “I get that you have good intentions...but your actions are NOT supporting them.” The immortal sighed, “Then what do YOU think we should do?”

Evergreen, now in control of his body, grabbed the Long Memory, “You’re gonna sit back.” He then went out the door, saying, “I’M gonna fight back. Which is what we SHOULD have done from the start.” As he exited the building, the headmaster then began searching for Pyrrha. ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this….’ Evergreen thought. He did NOT want the red haired girl to take up the burden of one of the Four Maidens… But now, there WAS no other option left.

The earth beneath him trembled, before he heard the cry of a Wyvern. The dragon-like Grimm erupted from a mountaintop near Mountain Glenn. Even though he’s miles away from it, Evergreen can tell that it’s on route towards Vale, with possibly many lesser Grimm in tow. The headmaster began running faster, knowing that Beacon’s final moments may be drawing near.

As the students are still fighting, Pyrrha noticed the headmaster running towards them, before he came to a stop and began breathing heavily. Summer briefly split up from Ruby and went up to Evergreen and helped him upright. “Professor? What’s the problem?’ Pyrrha asked. Evergreen looked at her, “I need you to come with me…” Summer raised an eyebrow, before Evergreen nodded. “If something happens to her... veuillez la ressusciter en tant qu'esprit d'armes de Jaune.” He said.

Summer’s jaw almost dropped, “You...can’t be serious…!” The headmaster sighed, “Got no choice anymore…” “You...were against this… Right?” The taller woman asked, receiving a nod from Evergreen. “I hate myself for doing this…. But now the Maiden’s power is NEEDED.” The red clad woman opened her mouth to protest, but instead, she sighed, letting the man go. “You better be right about this…” She said. “I will do what I can if the worst happens.” Evergreen nodded, “Thank you.”

“Now then, please come.” The headmaster said. “I’ll try to explain as much as I can to you on the way.” Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, but eventually followed Evergreen. Ren, Nora, and Jaune looked at the two in confusion. “Where are they going?” Nora asked. “I don’t know…” Jaune said. Summer then shouted, “If you want to help them, then follow! That’s the best advice I can give you right now!” She then joined up with Ruby before the blonde teenager could give a response.

Clenching his fists, Jaune gave a nod to his teammates, ‘I’m going to see what’s going on.” He then ran to follow the headmaster and his partner. Cinder smirked from the rooftop. “Looks like things are finally in place.” She said, her eyes glowing. She gave a grin towards Vampier, “Looks like you’ll get your rematch sooner than expected.” The sadistic woman grinned, “Excellent.”

-To Be Continued-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that’s chapter 11! Now then, I suggest going to your regular translating engine (Bing and Google is what I use, personally) and copy-pasting what Evergreen said to Summer in italics on the left side in French.

Have the right side set to English (or your native language) and you will know what Evergreen wants Summer to do.

Now then, the next chapter WILL be graphic in some way. For that, there WILL BE A WARNING. Get it? Got it? Good. Anyway, I’ll see ya later!

[rwbyremnants]

=Chapter 18

“I tried to stop her,” Kali Belladonna snarled at her steering wheel as she drove them outside the Vale city limits. “But she had it locked into her head that this was the only way to resolve the conflict. Didn't want to hear a single thing I had to say!”

As the car went screaming around another corner, Weiss gripped the dashboard with both hands, heart pounding in her throat. She could never remember seeing Blake’s mother in a state like this! Moreover, she was trapped in the car and had no way out other than to hopefully calm her companion. “Please, what's going on? It sounds like a much more sensible solution to me!”

Her amber eyes barely flicked over in Weiss's direction, mostly staying focused on the road. “Oh, yes. Very sensible and safe for everyone involved - other than the two racers! And Hazel, that old coward… always hated fighting, needless bloodshed, and of course this solution would thrill him to death. He literally sighed with relief when Yang suggested it.”

“But it's just a race,” she insisted. “You make it sound as if they're risking life and limb. I know motorcycle accidents happen, but is that really so much worse than getting into an actual fight? Some of those boys had lead pipes! One of our Dragons had a chain - that was scary!”

“Weiss…” With a long sigh, Kali began steering the car around the bend toward the abandoned area in question. “What do you know about Mountain Glenn? Besides that it's close to Vale and no one lives there anymore.”

At least Kali didn't think she was that uninformed. “Well… that the Depression came, and everyone gave up on expanding the city for a while. A lot of potential homes and businesses that were being started are just empty husks now. My father thinks it’s a waste. Why?”

“That's not the whole story.” A motorcycle roaring past them made Kali pause before she continued. “The Mountain Glenn project was abandoned due to the instability of the old mines underneath. The copper veins dried up many decades ago when Merlot Industries plundered it all, but the tunnels are still down there, spiderwebbing under what was once known as Glenn Bluffs. There was a proposal on the table for reinforcing those tunnels with steel beams, trying to salvage their plans to help Vale grow and prosper, but as you say, the Great Depression put a damper on everyone's enthusiasm for the project. There was no strong evidence that building support structures would have made enough of a difference, anyway.”

“Ohhhh,” she breathed, thinking about how frightening it would be for her house to suddenly collapse into the ground. “Well… yes, that really is unfortunate. But I don't understand. What does this have to do with the race?”

“There’s a reason it’s off-limits. Even though a few teenagers occasionally sneak up there to make out with their beaus, it’s unwise. The ground isn’t stable. Especially not for a hundred-something pound girl on top of a six-hundred-pound Harley. Times that by two, and it might just be enough to… well…”

As Kali made a thumbs down gesture very briefly before returning the hand to the wheel, Weiss gulped. That certainly didn’t sound like a “safe alternative” anymore.

Apparently, there was a method to this inter-gang madness. Kali parked on top of a higher bluff amidst quite a few other cars and bikes, one which overlooked the skeleton that was Mountain Glenn. A handful of buildings had begun construction, but the rest were mere concrete foundations. The main road itself was fully built, winding around a fountain that was never finished in the center of the proposed sister city.

At the far end of said road were six bikes. She knew Blake would be down there with Yang, and probably Cinder. Even from that far away, she could see the Huntsman at the “starting line” had blue hair; so it was that boy she would be racing. The other two weren’t recognisable from that distance.

“We can watch everything from up here,” Kali whispered as she grasped Weiss by the waist and easily lifted her up onto the hood of the car. She felt a slight flutter from the thoughtful assistance but tried not to think about it too much.

“I wish I could go down there with her.”

“I know. But if you did, you would only watch the beginning of the race; by the end, Yang would be around some corner and you’d never see her victory.” Her hand flipped in the general direction of where two other bikes were idling; the finish line. “So you see, this is the best seat in the house.”

“Everybody seems to agree with you,” she sighed uncomfortably, glancing around at the dozens and dozens of other gang members gathered there. A small gap separated the two factions, but they were all contented to watch how things played out; no one was threatening to breach the temporary truce. “Maybe there really is honour among thieves.”

“Hmm?” Following her eyes, she smiled a little. “Oh, that. I’ve told you before, Vale is a small town; we can’t afford to tear each other apart over nothing. The rumble was a last resort, and you see that we jumped at the chance not to go through with it.”

Around that time, Emerald wandered over to their seat and leaned against the car on her elbows. “Stepping around on Yang already, huh, Schnee?”

“Jealous, Sustrai?” Kali answered without missing a single beat. Weiss didn't even have time to fully process the question and its implications before Blake's mother was answering. How was her mind that quick?

“Hardly. Well… you are a lovely woman, but I have my hands full.”

“Do you think Yang can do this?” Weiss asked nervously, fingering the zipper of her jacket to give her hands something to do. “I mean… yes, of course she’s a skilled rider, but that doesn’t mean she’s better than her opponent.”

The green-haired girl shrugged a caramel-hued shoulder. Where was her jacket? “If anybody can, it’s Yang. She and Cinder are probably the best of us. Of the ones who are still around, anyway.”

“Still around?”

“Raven,” Kali sighed wearily. “Yang learned from the best. Well… the best at riding motorcycles.”

So many questions blossomed in Weiss’s brain, but she heard the bikes revving and no longer had time to contemplate what exactly had transpired between Blake and Yang’s mothers. Even if she was starting to suspect one hypothesis over others.

Velvet was pacing out in front of the starting line. As the only non-Dragon who had come along for the ride, she was tasked with signalling for the others to start. Her arm raised high in the air, with something white gripped in it - probably a handkerchief, even though they were too far away for Weiss to make it out. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, leaning in closer to squint. She noticed Salem and the leader of the Huntsman - Watts, she thought his name had been - had telescopes.

Then the white thing dropped, and two bikes took off from the starting line.

“YEAH!” Emerald burst out immediately. “Wipe the floor with him!”

“Send her back to the kitchen!” laughed one of the Huntsmen.

“Well!” Weiss said under her breath, offended at the implication that housework was all that women were good for. Even if she knew most women spent all their lives cooking and cleaning, not all of them did.

But their commentary was not important. The two bikes were tearing down the street at breakneck speed. Yang seemed to be at the top of her game, weaving only when necessary - other than one time when she dipped a little too close to her opponent, hoping to throw him off. The boy paid no mind, only barely strafing out of the way and then correcting. They both focused on running a clean race, gunning for the finish line as fast as possible.

The fountain presented the first significant challenge. The two went different ways, favouring the side that they were already on, and looked as if they might collide once rounding the concrete basin - Weiss held her breath again - but they corrected and continued toward the finish line…

And then both swerved to the left.

“What?” Weiss breathed. “What are they doing?!”

“The race isn’t over. See those markers?” Kali pointed to three red cones that had been placed in that intersection. The first was near the center, and the next two led in the direction they had turned. “That’s the course. Have to make it interesting. Idiots.”

“Hey, I think it’s exciting,” Emerald protested with a frown.

“Of course you do. It’s not Cinder risking her life and limb.”

That seemed to silence the other girl. Which confirmed something Weiss had been relatively certain of: Emerald had a thing for the alternately gruff and oily Dragon. Admittedly, Cinder did hold a certain appeal; she was confident, passionate, and loyal to a fault. Never mind how attractive, though most of the Dragons were in one way or another. Even the older, “rougher” ones who were so masculine they were almost handsome instead of beautiful. And Weiss was beginning to realise that was alright.

Meanwhile, the two racers both rounded a couple of turns in quick succession. The boy had nearly lost control during the second one but caught himself just in time. Now they were racing along the edge of town, which wasn’t exactly right at the dropoff but was a little close for Weiss’s comfort level. Also…

A lamppost began to sink. At first, she thought she was imagining it and was annoyed with her mind for trying to distract her from the race itself, but looking again, she was right; it was sinking!

“Look!” she hissed, gesturing to the phenomenon.

“Oh…” Kali sat up a little straighter. “Damn. I really hoped I was wrong about-”

Gulping, she fell silent as an extra roar of engines went up, her attention forcibly returned to the race. Weiss saw they were weaving around trees and brush that had sprung up over the past years since the area had been abandoned and left to Mother Nature. Now, every swerve made Weiss’s pulse seem louder in her ears, every second brought a new sweatdrop to her brow. Were they going to be alright? Even if she cared about Yang more, she didn’t wish any harm on the boy, either.

They raced around another corner. This stretch was a little more straightforward, but she still found herself biting her fingers to keep from crying out.

“YES!” one of the Huntsmen shouted, seeing that the boy was ahead by a nose. But he was on the outside right; the next curve was to the left and it would cost him a few precious fractions of a second. Weiss hopped up from the car, trying to rush toward the edge of the bluff before Kali caught her by the forearm.

“Hey!”

“Don’t!” was all she breathed. It may have saved Weiss’s life; a few of the rocks crumbled from the very edge. Perhaps she would have been safe, and perhaps not; she found it hard to care when Yang was in peril.

The finish line approached. The two drifted in and out of the lead, but it looked like Yang might really have a shot-

The ground gave way. It was unlike anything Weiss had ever seen, and much worse than the lamppost because it was so much closer - and because Yang and the boy were driving on the section in question. This had two very different effects on the two racers. The Huntsman’s bike shot out from under him and he went cartwheeling back into the opening sinkhole. Yang didn’t get caught in the hole itself, but the shaking completely ruined her ability to stay upright - she began to skid across the pavement, and then rolled once separated from her vehicle, bouncing a few times before coming to a stop.

“NO!!!”

Weiss’s shriek echoed off the bluffs, and there was another slight rumble. Nothing more happened; this one was too high, too far removed from the worst of the mining to truly impact its stability. But she didn’t care. Immediately, she began to race toward the dirt road, but Kali caught her around the middle and held her fast.

“Let me go! I need to-”

“I can drive us!” Kali tried to explain. “Weiss, stop struggling, you’re not-”

“I need to GO!”

“We will go together!” Finally, she calmed down enough to take in the words, and she went slack, gaping down at where the others who had been parked at the finish line began to race toward their respective gang members. “Good… alright, good. Get in.”

“No, I’ll drive you,” Emerald told her, face deadly serious as she shrugged back into her jacket and straddled her bike. “Get her there faster. Kali, can you follow?”

The older woman nodded, pushing Weiss toward the bike to help her start moving again. In seconds, they were astride Emerald’s Harley and racing down the dirt trail toward Mountain Glenn, terror gripping her throat all the while. This was awful. Now she understood why Blake’s mother was so against this solution to their petty squabbles over territory; it might only have been two people risking their safety, but each life was precious.

Yang’s was precious. And now…

No one parked as close as they would have before this incident. They didn't want to risk adding to the danger. Once they were relatively close, they began to race toward the crater on foot as fast as they could, Huntsmen and Dragons alike. Luckily, Weiss had some athletic tone or she might have been further back; as it was, she kept pace with some of the younger boys, though they went past Yang toward the hole.

“YANG!” she screamed as tears rolled down her face, crouching over her bruised, bloodied figure. Luckily, she looked whole, but the awful angle at which her right arm was twisted made her feel sick. But that had to wait. “Speak to me! Yang, wake up, wake up!”

By that point, Coco and one of the older Dragons had joined them. The former rolled her until she was straightened out, and the latter patted her cheek, eliciting no response. “Out cold,” she reported.

“We need to get her to a hospital,” Coco breathed, putting her wrist under Yang's nose. “She’s breathing, but she could have a concussion.”

“No hospitals.” Salem had arrived, and was crouching over her from afar - assessing the situation without interfering. “Watts can take a look at her.”

After a moment, the man in question turned to glare at them. “Are you seriously expecting me to deign to stitch up one of your pet bitches? After this stunt you pulled? Obviously, you knew the ground was unstable along the route and rigged this stretch to collapse - because, as anyone could tell, your racer did actually cross the finish line, while ours did not.”

Salem’s eyes narrowed, and the air seemed to drop in temperature within the bluffs. “Her life may hang in the balance, you old fool. Stop grandstanding and get your kit. Or have you been lying about your medical degree all this time?”

Abandoning all hope of them resolving things between them, especially with the way Watts was folding his arms over the lapels of his expensive grey suit, Weiss shot to her feet and begged him, “Please! Sh-she might not make it! I don’t care about… about any of this! Just save her!”

“Really?” he snapped immediately, cold green eyes stabbing down into her soul. “So I should abandon my own boy to save your girl? You really don’t understand loyalty - family. Do you?”

Weiss spared a glance at the hole where they were trying to figure out how to descend, to search for their man. Already, the blonde she had observed him with before was tugging at his hair, tears streaming down his cheeks while some of the others readied a rope, trying to figure out what they might tie it to.

“I’ll go.”

It was Salem who snapped, “What? Go where?”

“I’ll go down there and look for him.” Her shaking finger pointed at the tall man. “If you help Yang, I… I’ll save… the boy who’s down there.”

He was not impressed. “His name is Neptune. As if you care. What good are you to me at all, what can you do that my boys can’t?”

“I’m smaller,” she offered, already stripping off her jacket. “Most of your boys are tall and bulky, and would get stuck in a tight space. And I’m stronger than I look. Please, I can’t- we don’t have time! Just let me do this!”

“Weiss,” Kali whispered, laying a hand on her arm. “This isn’t sound. You’re going to get yourself killed, and when Yang wakes up, that will be the worst news to wake up to.”

“I don’t CARE!” she shouted, shoving her away. There wasn’t time for rational thought. “Just let me save Yang by saving Neptune!”

No one objected further. Her eyes retained a fleeting image of Kali looking completely stricken before she raced over to the edge of the sinkhole, only slowing down when she got near. The blonde boy was still losing his mind, so she addressed his friend with the long red hair hanging into his eyes.

“What do I do?”

“Well, I dunno,” he said in a heavy English accent. Though he wasn’t quite so emotional, he was certainly not left unaffected by his associate’s plight; his voice shook slightly as he continually wiped his hands on his white jeans over and over. “Just… do somethin’, willya?”

“Here,” said another Huntsman with green hair, handing her one end of a rope. With some help, they both fashioned a loop that could work as a harness, and several more men lined up to anchor her at the top. Everyone else remained ringed around the hole, gazing down and hoping to be the first to figure out a better plan.

“Hey, Schnee!”

Glancing up just in time, Weiss caught the gleaming Zippo lighter being hurled at her, the metal stinging her palms. Cinder merely flashed her a fierce look before continuing past the rest of the crowd on her bike toward the ring of Dragons trying to help Yang - giving the sinkhole a wide berth.

“Ready, then?” asked the Brit. Nodding at him and the others, she stepped into the loop and allowed herself to be lowered down.

Luckily, the hole wasn’t deep; it merely looked that way due to shadows. When most of the light from above was blotted out, she flicked the Zippo to life, just barely able to catch what was rising to meet her from below. Once she touched down next to a groaning form, she could breathe a brief sigh of relief.

“You alright down there?” called an unfamiliar voice.

“YES!” she shouted back. “I’m at the bottom! Hold on!”

Weiss didn’t know the first thing about treating an injury victim. Sure, she could feel for a pulse, but that was fairly basic stuff; did he have broken bones? Internal bleeding? She had no way of knowing. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for her to come down there. Coco would have been a better choice, but she was probably still busy tending Yang.

The boy coughed, and she moved to his side, supporting the head and wiping some of the dust from his face. “Hey! I… are you alright? Speak to me!”

“What… oh… are you an angel?”

“Ugh,” she scoffed as she tried to help him up. “Hurry up, we need to get out of here!”

Coughing again, he sat up and clutched his ribs. “Oh my God… everything hurts…” Little by little, she got him crawling toward the rope. “What… what happened?”

“You fell in a hole, goofus. What’s your name?”

“Neptune.”

“Neptune.” That was right; they had said. But it was probably helpful for him to have something else to focus on. “I’m Weiss. And I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Why? You’re… a Dragon…”

“Yang was hurt,” she admitted, voice cracking. “And I… and we needed your Dr. Watts to fix her up, or… or she might-” Her voice cut off and she had to stop for a brief moment to recover. Then she cleared her throat. “So you have to help me by g-getting out of here. Then everyone will be alright. Alright?”

“Alright,” he echoed with a groan as they came to a stop by the rope. “But… I don’t think I can… climb…”

For a moment, Weiss tried to think of how to best secure him. She didn’t know that much about knots, or harnesses. “Why didn’t I take that nautical class at the yacht club?!” she swore at herself.

“Oh… I know… something about that… this loop sucks, though.”

“What?”

Sitting up, he reached for the rope. “Here, let m- whoa, I’m dizzy…”

“What’s going on down there?!” called a voice from above. It wasn’t the British man, so she couldn’t be sure who.

“HANG ON!” she shouted back up, and Neptune flinched, covering his ears for a moment. “Oh, sorry!”

“It’s fine. Here… I’ll show you. This is a bowline knot, and it’s going to be our best friend…”

It actually didn’t take long for him to tie his own harness. Weiss felt highly useless, but she was glad things were working out reasonably well. Before long, a mess of square knots and fisherman’s knots had him wearing what looked like some kind of clandestine rope-lingerie around his pelvis. By this point, he looked exhausted, so she leaned him back against a craggy wall.

“Shh, just rest a moment.” When his breathing evened out, she tried to wipe more sweat and dirt off his face. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

After a moment, he flashed her a weary smile. “I’d… ask if you wanted to get a malted after this, but… I don’t think Sun would appreciate that…”

“Sun? Is that your blonde friend I saw you kissing before?” When he gulped, clearly discomfited that she knew, she waved a hand back and forth. “Please. You do know I’m in the Dragons, right?”

“Oh… so it’s true? Most of you are…”

Eyes narrowing, she said, “Yes, most of us. Why? Are most of the Hunters that way?”

“Not as much as the Dragons. But a few of us.” He tried to sit up a little higher and grunted in sharp pain; Weiss settled him again. “Are you… going with one of them?”

“Yeah.”

“Yang?” When Weiss didn’t answer right away, he nodded. “Now I… get why you jumped down here.”

“I would have, anyway,” she swore vehemently, even while he was chuckling weakly. “Seriously! I don’t want to see anyone get hurt! Don’t be such a pest!”

Neptune tried to keep chuckling, but it turned into a coughing fit. Though she did privately think he deserved it, she still petted along his upper arm until he was able to breathe freely again. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just… hold on until we can get you out of here.”

Weiss tugged on the rope and they began to hoist him up. One of her hands helped push his boot up to take some of the strain off the men at the top, but then he was out of her reach.

And she was alone in the darkness with only a flickering light for company. For a few minutes, she began to worry she would simply die down there. It was a possibility. After all, the only Dragons she found herself truly trusting were Yang, Blake, and Kali, and one of them was unconscious the last time she checked. They were vastly outnumbered. And the Huntsmen had no reason to really keep her alive now that she had finished the job they cared about…

“Hello?” she called up nervously. “Is anybody up thBFF!”

She felt pretty silly for panicking when the pre-tied harness hit her in the mouth.

Once at the top, she saw that both Neptune and Yang were gone. She felt a momentary flare of panic as the other Huntsmen made sure her footing was secure before turning her loose, but Kali was already approaching. That set her at ease that maybe not everything was lost.

“She’s going to be alright. I’ll take you to where they’ll be patching her and the Vasilias boy up.”

“Okay,” she breathed, dazed. “Let’s… let’s go.”

Even as they walked away from the site of the sinkhole, she could hear a few more broken bits of concrete coming loose and toppling into the abyss. Weiss looked back in time to see the men backing away from its confines. Sun was already missing - as was Blake. Along for the ride with those who meant the most to them.

Fresh regret welled up in Weiss at having taken away the one person Blake probably wanted to be with more than anything in the world. Maybe, if she survived her injuries and treatment, they could do something about that.

[vengfulfate]

Both of Them, and Only Them, Ch. 10

Story Summary -   Melanie and Miltiades Malachite have trouble with love. They share everything, and this has either scared people away or made them think their relationship was more open than the twins would wish. Then along came Ruby Rose… could she be the one the sisters have searched for?

Chapters: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine

I apologize to everyone who looks forward to this story for the extended gaps between updates. This is kind of a side project for me. It's getting a chapter now because I haven't settled on my next project yet and wanted to get some writing done. It might get another chapter or two in the next few weeks, or it might not. It all depends on how things go.

Please enjoy!

   ---

The morning came, and neither Weiss nor Ruby knew how to breach the subject. They prepared for their mission around each other in uncomfortable silence. The tension between them only grew along side the silence, and Yang and Blake feared it would boil over badly. As much as they wanted to avoid it, neither of them knew how to get the former ‘BFFs’ to an agreeable conclusion either.

Even the arrival of Zwei, Ruby and Yang’s corgi from Patch, did little to lessen the anxious air. The subject was all that was on their minds, but none of them had to courage to breach it. Not until they were almost on the airship, anyways.

“Hey, Yang?” Ruby asked for her sister to get some words in the air, “What are the details of the mission you guys picked, anyway?”

“Oh yeah, about that…” Yang began cautiously, “We tried to pick a mission that turned out to be restricted to first-years…”

“Then Ozpin came out of nowhere, basically told us he knew exactly what we were up to, and approved us for the restricted mission,” Weiss finished matter-of-factly.

“So… our mission is to actually look for the White Fang?” Ruby asked, confused.

“Not officially,” Blake answered, “But I’m pretty sure that’s what was implied.”

“And… our thing?” Ruby finally directed to Weiss. Getting a conversation out had exactly the effect she hoped. “It won’t get in the way, right?”

“Of course not,” Weiss stated sharply, her classic cold demeanor reemerging.

Yang wouldn’t exactly call it progress, but at least the team knew they would still work efficiently together. It was enough for the team, at least for now.

   ---

Their mission brought them to the ruins of the township of Mountain Glenn. A failed expansion of Vale, Mountain Glenn was a concrete jungle of crumbling buildings and wandering grimm. The concentration of grimm had spiked in recent weeks, which was not unusual on it’s own, but it still lined up with the information Blake had obtained. After a long afternoon with little progress, RWBY and their chaperon set up camp for the night in one of the many collapsed buildings.

Ruby was keeping watch when Doctor Oobleck, their history teacher and huntsmen chaperon clad in safari clothing, approached her. “Good evening, Ms. Rose.”

“Hey, professor,” Ruby greeted in turn in her usual cheerful demeanor.

“Doctor,” Oobleck warned.

“Right, sorry,” Ruby giggled.

“You team is very impressive, for first year students,” Oobleck complemented.

“Thank you!” Ruby smiled. After a pause, she added, “Doctor.”

“But there is a tension here, isn’t there?” the teacher pointed out.

Ruby’s smile failed. “You see it?”

“I do,” Oobleck nodded.

“It won’t get in the way,” Ruby promised, “we’ve talked it over.”

“But not resolved it?” Oobleck pressed further.

Ruby sighed. “Doctor, how do you feel about… polygamy?”

“Hm...” Oobleck thought. That seemed a lot more complicated than what he initially assumed teenagers would argue over. “I believe there is too much negativity in the world deny someone something that makes them happy.”

“One of my team mates doesn’t believe it can be real,” Ruby explained.

“And another is partaking in a polygamous relationship?” Oobleck deduced.

“I am,” Ruby confirmed.

Oobleck couldn’t help but think back on the various observations he had made that day. “Not to be inconsiderate, but Ms. Schnee...?”

Ruby did a double take, panicking for a brief moment. She felt like confirming such was akin to bad mouthing her behind her back. “I… shouldn’t gossip.”

“Of course,” Oobleck nodded, understanding. “I admit I don’t have any advice for you. Much as he may seem it, Professor Ozpin is not omnipotent. Teams are not always a perfect storm of friends and confidants. Being able to work together regardless is part of being an adult.”

“We’re trying,” Ruby nodded. “I just wish I could make her see she’s wrong.”

“She may be wrong in this specific instance, but her fears are not entirely unfounded,” Oobleck defended. “There are those in this world who would prey upon the young, hopeful and niave. If she is concerned for you, it proves that she indeed cares about you.”

Ruby cast her gaze behind her, landing on the heiress’s figure bundled in her sleeping bag. She smiled. “I guess it does. She’ll come around. I can feel it.”

“You are her leader and friend, and would know her better than I,” Oobleck explained, “if you feel as such, I’m sure it will be so.”

“Thank you, professor,” Ruby nodded. Oobleck opened his mouth, but Ruby quickly cut him off, “Doctor! Heh, sorry.”

Oobleck closed his mouth and smiled. With a nod, he left the young leader to resume her watch.

   ---

Weiss gazed over the city with blank eyes. It was her turn to watch camp, but her mind was engulfed by other thoughts. Truth is, she was wide awake when Oobleck prodded Ruby about the tension in the team. She heard the entire conversation, and it gave her plenty to think about. She knew her upbringing was oppressive, to say the least, but there had to be a line somewhere?

“Hey, Weiss?”

Her concerns weren’t baseless, that much Oobleck agreed with

“Um, Weiss?”

But was it really true that Ruby’s relationship could be fine? Healthy, even?

“Weeeiiiiissss?”

Weiss was ready to wait in the wings with an ‘I told you so’, but maybe-

“Weiss!”

“Huh?” Weiss spun around, finally broken from her train of thought.

“Finally,” Ruby sighed in relief, having finally gotten Weiss’s attention. “Are you still tired? We can swap watches if you need more rest.”

“No, I’m fine,” Weiss insisted.

“Alright,” Ruby shrugged, “anyway, I wanted to say I think I noticed something. It’s probably nothing, but I’m gunna go check it out.”

Weiss nodded, “don’t rush into something, okay? Call us if you need us.”

“I will,” Ruby promised.

Weiss nodded and cast her gaze back over the city once more. Ruby may not be a genius, but she was far from stupid. Crescent Rose alone could attest to that. And she is training to be a huntress, so it wasn’t likely the twins had physically overpowered her at any point.

I was ready to standby with an ‘I told you so’, but maybe that’s not how I should be thinking. And it won’t help Ruby should that come to pass. Perhaps I should support her now, and be there for her later if the worst indeed happens. And if it doesn’t happen, if Ruby’s relationship is valid…

“I don’t want to lose her as a friend,” Weiss finished her thought aloud.

The sunrise wasn’t far away, and soon the light and warmth of morning was rousing the sleeping hunters.

“Well!” Oobleck stretched and took a swing from his portable mug, “Who’s ready for a brand new day!?”

“Wait a minute,” Blake looked around, “something’s not right...”

“Yeah, where’s my sister!?” Yang noticed.

“What do you mean?” Weiss asked, “Isn’t she back?”

“Back?” Blake questioned in turn.

“She told me she was going to check something out,” Weiss explained, “and she promised to call in if it turned out to be, well, something. I never got a call.”

“And you didn’t notice she never returned!?” Yang shouted, “How long has she been gone!?”

“Girls!” Oobleck quickly took control of the situation, “now is not the time for anger. Whatever lessons this mistake can teach must be pondered later. First, we resolve the mistake itself. You leader may be in danger, and we must stay calm as we search for her.”

Camp was packed hastily and the group set out with no delay. Blake was the first to spot Crescent Rose, folded on the ground in front of a large sinkhole. Oobleck began a rant about sealed subway lines underneath the township, but Weiss could barely hear it.

She was looking forward to telling Ruby about her change of mind and hopefully mending their friendship, and subsequently the connection with the rest of the team, in the process. Now the girl was in danger and Weiss would regret it the rest of her life if she never got the chance to repair that particular bridge.

“Well, Weiss?” Blake broke through the heiress’s haze of thoughts, “You with us?”

Weiss quickly deduced what they were asking, not that it was very hard. They needed to go down into the dark. Weiss picked up Crescent Rose, steeling her resolve. She looked to the others and nodded, “Let’s go save our fearless leader.”

   ---

Melanie yawned as she leaned across the bar. “Why on earth are we awake again?”

“Because Junior agreed to host a wedding reception and he needed hands,” Miltiades reminded her sister.

“Who the hell has a reception at a nightclub?” Melanie stifled a laugh, “They’re probably under 20. I give them two months.”

“Don’t be rude,” Junior scolded, “They’re paying customers. Well paying customers.”

Melanie sighed. “Can you at least turn that off?” she pointed to the television currently displaying the morning news. “It’s putting me to sleep.”

Junior nodded and picked up the remote.

“Wait!” Miltiades stopped him, staring at the screen.

“What?” Melanie looked up and read the screen.

BREAKING NEWS: Explosion! Huntsmen and Grimm brawl in downtown Vale!

“Holy shit...” Junior read, “Don’t think that’s near us, though.”

“Mel...” Miltiades pointed again as the ‘huntsmen’ came into frame.

Black hair. Combat boots. Red cape. “Ruby!”

Now wide awake, Melanie dashed out of the club. Miltiades made to follow, but stopped short. The less brash twin didn’t want to leave without her boss’s blessing.

“Go,” Junior told her. Miltiades nodded and ran after her sister.

By the time the twins reached the battlefield, the chaos had already passed. Someone in handcuffs was being loaded onto an airship and a tall blonde the twins recognized as a Beacon teacher from the dance was talking to a man in safari gear. Ruby and her team stood close by. Blake spotted the twins first, nudging Ruby’s shoulder.

“Girls!” Ruby’s eyes lit up as she jogged over to them, “what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” Melanie turned it around, “I thought your mission was outside the kingdom, not blowing up downtown Vale!?”

Ruby, perhaps still high on battle adrenaline and victory, giggled.

“What?” Melanie asked, confused.

“I’m sorry,” Ruby continued to grin widely, “but you acting all super concerned like is adorable.”

In another rare display, Melanie stuttered and struggled to respond, simply crossing her arms as her face lit up.

“She does has a point,” Miltiades defended, “What happened?”

“Well...” Ruby searched for where to begin.

Before she could, the three were interrupted by an approaching Weiss. “So,” the heiress cut in, “Which of you is ‘Miltia’?”

The twins shared a silent conversation, quickly deducing this was Weiss. They crossed their arms defensively before Miltiades answered, “I am Miltiades.”

“And I don’t believe I have heard your name?” Weiss looked to the other twin.

“Melanie,” the white twin answered.

“I am Weiss Schnee,” the heiress introduced herself elegantly.

“We figured,” the twins answered in unison.

“Right...” Weiss nodded, slightly unnerved. She pushed through regardless, saying what she wanted to say. “I have made some comments recently that I have come to regret. And I apologize.”

Melanie raised an eyebrow at this while Miltiades cautiously lowered her crossed arms. Ruby placed her hand on her partner’s shoulder. “Weiss?”

Weiss lowered Ruby’s hand before continuing. “The team is trusting Ruby would let us know if anything untoward is happening, and I can’t deny you are making her happy. I won’t attempt to disguise that I still have my doubts… However, I look forward to the three of you proving me wrong.”

“Was that… acceptance?” Melanie looked to her twin.

“It sounded like it to me,” Miltiades answered.

“I knew it!” Ruby drew her partner into a crushing hug, “I knew you’d come around!”

“Off! Ruby, get off!” Weiss panicked, trying to pry herself away. “Get off me! Down! Down!”

Ruby let herself be peeled off, retaining her grin. “You like it.”

The heiress huffed, but made no real rebuttal. Instead, she turned back to the twins. “As much as I’m sure Ruby would love to run away with you right now, we’re still ‘on the clock’, so to speak, until we debrief at Beacon. I’m glad to have finally met the two of you.”

“Wait, we still haven’t heard what happened?” Melanie recalled.

“I’ll call you the second I’m free!” Ruby promised as she and Weiss walked back to their team. “I should be going before Professor Goodwitch gets angry. Well, angry-er. I love you both!”

Melanie frowned at missing the story. Miltiades supplied, “We love you too.”

As Ruby and Weiss fell back in line with the team, Ruby offered a, “Thank you, Weiss.”

Weiss smiled. “I know I don’t show it well, but I do appreciate our friendship. Same with Yang and Blake as well. You constantly show me how to better myself, really better myself and not just… well, you know.”

“Don’t worry, Weiss,” Ruby smirked, “We’ll have you wearin’ PJ pants all weekend with some wicked bedhead like the rest of us lazy commoners before you know it!”

“As if!” Weiss defended. “I will hold on to some decorum, thank you very much! There is a difference between elitism and harmless class.”

“You’re definitely a class act,” Yang jabbed.

Weiss turned to the blonde. “Yang, I-”

“Stop worrying,” Yang cut her off. She flashed a smile for good measure. “Just messin’ with ya, shortstack.”

Weiss returned the smile. “Brute.”

[knightofbalance-13]

Never seen the Simpsons have you?

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/176715386180/one-last-rwde-post-before-i-move-my-rwde-stuffs

The problem with the rushed means of getting to the fall of Beacon.

Dudeblade, I swear to god if you say ‘make them do a One Piece’, I am gonna flip.

“You’re moving shop, huh? Can I ask why?”

Well, Stan, I’ll answer that when I get there. But for now, I just want to talk about why rushing to get to the fall of Beacon was a bad choice.

You know the drill Stan, let me take over.

Ahem-

More like “Why would you ditch the one thing anyone listens to you for?”

“Wait! I want to take a guess as to why! It’s because there wasn’t enough time developing the world and the relationships between characters, right?”

Yep. Like I said in a previous post, the big problem with Pyrrha’s death was the lack of characters that could be affected by her death. Due to this, Pyrrha’s death doesn’t quite hit as hard as most other deaths would.

More like-

“Because it’s something to bitch at the creators isn’t  it?”

“I see. Can you provide an example?”

Well, take Dragonball for example. The original series. Where Krillin dies.

We had journeyed with Krillin, and gotten to know him. He bonded with Goku, Master Roshi, and several other characters. We saw his relationship with Goku go from a rivalry to a genuine friendship between the two.

So when Krillin dies, Goku’s rage is all the more tangible. This wasn’t during the Z era either. Death wasn’t as cheap as it is now. We can feel the rage and sorrow that Goku felt when he went on his rampage.

Or take Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon. In almost all of those games, your player character ends up disappearing. It’s always a heart-wrenching scene. We saw this character grow from a confused human trying to figure out what was going on, to a proud and strong explorer who helped to save the world.

So your partner’s sadness is super relatable. You feel for his sorrow, and even in the fifth installment, where you’re on the other side of the disappearing into light trope, it’s still as heart-wrenching as it always is.

Due to Pyrrha’s lack of development with the rest of the cast, it’s hard to really feel for her when she died. And jaune just up and takes her stuff to upgrade himself. Pyrrha wasn’t just being treated as a prop. She was treated as jaune’s prop.

...

Dudeblade, you’re own examples backfire on you.

Let’s start with the Mystery Dunegon one since that one is the lesser of the two. No, people aren’t related to the parent because of that. We do it because we understand the pain and sorrow of losing someone close to us. And the thing is, if anything, we feel because of the PARTNER character. Really, I couldn’t care less what happened to my guy afterward considering he was being jerked around by me all the time.

Now for the big one:

Namek.

Remember THAT arc Dudeblade? The one where Krillin dies a second time? Thing is, that death is widely considered to be the more powerful of the two due to the struggles and the long ass battle against Freeza as well as the cruelty of Krillin’s death. That is why Goku’s rage is so potent there and why the first Super Saiyan transformation is the most iconic and well executed.

What’s my point in all this?

If you can’t even get your examples, why should we listen to you about a show you will constantly LIE about? Especially since you are comparing Dragon Ball and Pokémon, two juggernauts of human culture, to fucking RWBY, which will be at best a footnote.

Also, P.S. No one else sees Pyrrha as a prop except you people. Kind of goes to show how reductive your thinking is.

“Okay, what about the world though?”

The world is also hard to get attached to. We don’t really explore it. We get infodumps courtesy of the World of Remnant shorts. The little side-series that was made to explain things in the show that the show couldn’t explain by itself.

So is a shit ton of fantasy novels, including fucking Lord of the Rings. Your argument does not work. You don’t get attached to it because that requires some form of basic empathy.

“Well, don’t other series do that too?”

In a sense of things like stats, yes. But it’s like getting a travel brochure from a guy who probably doesn’t know what they’re talking about. At least, when Qrow is doing the narrating. When it’s Ozpin or Salem, there’s a bit of the Unreliable Narrator trope coming into play. We don’t know if the narrator for the Aura WoR was accurate or not, and considering that it said that aura was a passive shield only for the writers to say that you have to actively put it up in volume 5, it’s unlikely that it actually is.

And let me say something else: While yes, it is a smart move to have a character voice their opinions about a place, event, or other aspect of their world- that only applies for character development. In the scenario of wanting to inform the audience, that tactic fails. Take the episodes where Qrow takes over. He provides biased information, and isn’t exactly eloquent or decent information about the things he talks about. He says that a lizard faunus once grew back their tail, but how do we know he wasn’t drunk if/when that happened?

A. That doesn’t disprove anything dumbass. Why would Salem be lying or Ozpin lying? Hell, have either of those two every lied on screen?

B. PASSIVE does not equal SUBCONSCIOUS Dudeblade. I happen to know you are aware of this because you ARGUED this with the Tifa Vs. Yang death battle.

C. What bias is that? I don’t see any reason for Qrow, someone who is KNOWN for brute honesty, to lie or sugarcoat things.

And D. He said he needed a drink AFTERWARDSk, implying he was sober. For someone who claims to be criticial, you seem to miss a lot of little things.

“I see. So these episodes fail at building the world. How do you think it could have been fixed?”

Well, I remember a post that talked about how since the main characters are in a school, they could have done a report on dust to explain it. With Ruby talking about the combat uses, Weiss talking about how it’s mined, Blake talking about how the miners are treated (possibly having points deducted because the point was to research dust, not the workers), and Yang talking about practical uses.- Those aren’t necessarily the ideas reflected in the post I linked to, but I’d think that it would be interesting.

Using a similar idea, they could have also had done the same thing with grimm. With Ruby talking about certain weak points, Weiss talking about certain types, Blake talking about how they function, and Yang providing information on whatever the others missed.

Yeah as I have said:

A. That implies that Beacon’s school system is so fucked up that Beacon students are taught BASIC KNOWLEDGE. As in, shit JAUNE knew.

And B. There isn’t enough time or money. Unless YOU are gonna fund all that extra time out of your own pocket, why should they focus on that and not, say, deliver it to the audience in a cheaper, more entertaining way that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the audience?

“You seem to think that Yang is really smart. Do you want to elaborate on that, or…”

I’ll elaborate enough to point out why Yang is more informative here. She’s smarter than she looks. See, Ruby had to be skipped ahead two years, Weiss had tutors, Blake had to take the entrance exam, jaune cheated his way in, Nora also took the entrance exam, Pyrrha had fame and fortune, and Ren had to do the same as Nora.

See, Raven mentioned an entrance exam. Since she didn’t go to any combat schools of the sort, we can figure out that the entrance exam is there for people who didn’t attend a combat school. This means that Yang is literally the only one of her friends to make it into Beacon the normal way. By studying. I addressed this in a different post of mine actually. In fact, Yang’s grades and study habits are the only ones not to be a plot point (Addressed in this post that I have reblogged). Yang is smart. She could have also had done a project where she talks about the criminal underground, since she has an informant in the form of Junior. She provides some neat (and somber) exposition about Mountain Glenn. She’s a native to Vale. Why not explore the city near Beacon with her?- She could bring her friends too. It’s real easy to hate a character when she isn’t just a pretty face that’s funny apparently.

Yeah and considering you think Jaune is literally retarded and somehow passed himself off as having done it, it must not be hard by your logic.

Also, good job being smart. Bumrushing all your opponents without any strategy or tactic then ‘brute force’, even when one of your opponents will obviously kick your ass. Being smart requires you to actually USE those smarts, hence why I don’t think either one of is particularly smart.

And if you like Yang as who she is, why do you try to scope out anything that you think is like you? Because you don’t actually think Yang is smart, you think YOU’RE smart and Yang is basically the self insert you want.

Oh and this has nothing to do with the subject at hand. So uh, good job getting off topic.

“I have a feeling that Yang being treated as a dumb blonde is a sore spot for you.”

I said in a previous post that I see a lot of myself in her… And not in that way, perverts!

Dudeblade, considering you keep recommending lesbian slave harems as good fanfics, we already know you’re a perv.

And no, no one was thinking that. We know you meant it as ‘Yang must be 100% like me and thus the world must bend to her whim and anything that doesn’t is wrong because she’s my self insert.’

And again, off topic.

So when people insult a character, and reduce them to the baseline character traits, it becomes infuriating.

Blake isn’t a coward for leaving!- She did what anyone else in her position would do!

You mean like say, reducing a father figure down to a single joke?

Or perhaps an honest and well meaning but clumsy guy into a cardboard cutout?

Funny how you do the exact same thing you say is infuriating and yet act like it’s totally irrational.

And let’s get a counter going.

Off Topic: 3

“Dude! You’re getting off-track!- Remember. This is a post about how the worldbuilding was too rushed to make people care about the world.”

Right… Thanks man…

Anyways, another problem with the lack of worldbuilding is well… it’s right there on the tin.

We didn’t get to explore Vale that much. And due to that, it’s hard to sympathize with the city being destroyed. Sure, I feel bad for the people there, but as for their world?- This isn’t like real life, where you can research the city that was just destroyed and feel the sorrow that the people have. Not that I need to. Since Remnant isn’t a world I live in, it’s hard to know if Vale had any historic monuments or orphanages that would make me feel bad if they were destroyed.

Dude, you think anyone gives a shit about the buildings and shit being destroyed in a distaster?

No, they give a shit about the people who are hurt and damaged by it. The fact that you do not understand that concept kind of goes to show how many hoops you’re demanding RWBY jump through.

“Just because you didn’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Though I’ll admit to being disappointed at not seeing more of the city.”

While that’s true, it’s hard to figure out where they fall when it comes to faunus equality. We know that Mistral isn’t a good place from their ‘No Faunus Allowed’ sign… And the White Fang somehow not being fired upon by the Mistral Police on-sight… We can deduce from Ilia’s backstory and Weiss’ retconned racism that Atlas isn’t much better is worse.

Vacuo is arguably the best place for a faunus to stay, since the WoR states that they only care about strength… Though that’s probably iffy since Qrow probably dislikes it since their philosophy is similar to Raven’s, and maybe has a bias. Or maybe he hated it to begin with, and projected Raven’s philosophy onto it.- It’s hard to say.

A. The Fanaus were FORCED onto Menagrie.

B. Qrow LIKES Vacuo for it’s way of life, seeing as it’s based off giving respect instead of demanding it like Raven.

And C. Has it not occurred to you someone can hate a place for factual reasons?

“So thanks to his bias, his description would differ from the actual thing, right?”

In theory. The writers were never known for their cleverness.

No, you’re just know for your irrational bias. They aren’t any more clever than your average writer but you’ll bang your head on a wall until your delusions look like reality.

“But if it did, then wouldn’t some viewers get confused that Qrow’s description is different than the actual thing?”

These are the same viewers that forgot that Miles explicitly said that jaune was based on his younger self when trying to argue against the “jaune is a self-insert” accusation. Some of them anyways. I have a bit more faith in them than that.

And you people are the ones who don’t understand how fucking voice acting works AND that Miles has gone on record hating his past self AND that both Barbara and Lindsay have said similar thing yet never call Ruby or Yang self inserts (despite both being treated better by canon than Jaune.).

I have no faith in you.

“You don’t show it that often.”

I’m a pessimist and a cynic. So far, I haven’t really been given a lot of proof that they acknowledge the retcons.

The lack of characters talking about their world hurts a lot too. And since we got rushed to the Fall of Beacon, we didn’t get to hear other characters’ opinions on the matter. We didn’t get to hear Weiss talk about Atlas, we didn’t get to hear Blake talk about Menagerie, we didn’t get to hear Sun talk about Vacuo or Mistral.

Dudeblade, I’m an optimist by nature and yet you people make me reach Guts levels of cynicism. Go fuck yourself.

As for theseL

Why does it matter? Wouldn’t THESE just be as biased as Qrow and thus be a waste of time according to you? or does it not count until it’s actually done because you just want to bitch.

“To be fair, it’s hard to do that when they didn’t have the time to- Ohhhh………”

Yep. The rush to get to the ‘big overarching plot’ makes it hard to learn about the world. Like… I can easily think of a reason why Junior didn’t call the cops on Yang: It’s because he’s a guy who works with criminals, and he doesn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. It’s not that hard. It would also serve as a means to develop Yang and Junior’s relationship more as well. But no. We can’t get that development for these characters. They have to get to that ‘big overarching plot’ as soon as possible. They didn’t want to create characters, they wanted to create fighting styles. They just wanted to make cool fight scenes, and this hurts the story because that focus made it harder to relate to the characters. You have to dig deep to figure out their characters.

Okay now you’ve pissed me off.

You are blaming Miles and Kerry for MONTY’S issue! You wanted to bitch about this? should have done it about three years ago. Now there is no fucking point other than beating and abusing innocent people.

Also who the fuck cares about Yang and Junior’s relationship? You bitch about Jaune existing for more than five seconds but you want to explore to the relationship with a character that has appeared TWICE in the entire show.

And that goes to show your issue, Dudeblade. If we listen to you, we’d basically still be in Volume 1 just with a bunch of meaningless bullshit and superifical details. All because you don’t know how to write.

People tend to boil characters down to their most basic character attributes.

Ruby is innocent.

Weiss is a tsundere.

Blake is a minority.

Yang is violent.

jaune is a strategist.

Nora is bubbly.

Pyrrha likes jaune.

Ren is quiet.

No detail. No real digging. Just boiling them down to these basic character traits because the writers didn’t bother to give them actual characteristics. And when they did, they chose to put more focus on jaune instead of the characters that the show is named after.

A. *flings him a shovel* Go take that up with Monty, 

B. Dudeblade,people do that because it’s easier to write about them and understand them. My proof: Your aftermath fanfic has ONE character just with about thirty different names. You boil them all down to character traits they may not even have: You don't know what you’re talking about.

And C. most of these are wrong

Ruby is childlike

Weiss is abitch

Yang is Barbara

Jaune is pathetic

Nora is violent

Pyrrha is passive

And Ren is stotic.

Only Blake is right and that’s because you people monopolized that.

Goes to show how LITTLE you actually know about the subject.

So combine a lack of worldbuilding,

Your fault for killing WOR.

a focus on fights instead of story,

*points six feet down.*

a lack of creating actual characters,

No, just a denial of them.

and a rush to get to the ‘big overarching plot,’

Which you would bitch about if they didn’t get to it because abuse.

and you get a mess.

No Dudeblade:

When you have three people with a total of three years writing experience between them with the least experienced and worst suited person in charge, you get RWBY.

And yet you consistently fail to criticize it.

[reid-like-roses]

All I Need - Chapter 3

Read on FF.net

Summary: After the Mountain Glenn plot failed, Roman was imprisoned while Neo escaped. Enraged by Roman’s failure of her plan, Cinder punishes Neo by torturing her, banishing her from her faction and occupying Neo’s hideouts. Now homeless and without a weapon, Neo winds up far from Vale and is trapped in a blizzard. But then she’s saved by the most unlikely of heroes. Post Volume 2 AU

Content Rating: T

Word Count: 5,218

Author’s Note: Post Volume 2 AU where basically none of Volume 3 or beyond happened. Neo is mute in this story and any dialogue from her is implied or inner monologue and will be written in italics.

TRIGGER WARNING!!! Implied torture and implied rape/non-con contained in chapter. If you do not wish to read these events, turn back now.

RWBY and all the characters within are the intellectual property of Rooster Teeth Productions, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Gray Haddock and the late Monty Oum. I am not being compensated in any way for this story and wrote it merely for entertainment purposes.

“You can come out now, sis,” Yang told Ruby as she rolled her eyes at her sister’s behavior. Ruby opened the door fully and tried to exit the closet but she tripped over a bucket and crashed down to the floor with a shrill yell. An avalanche of cleaning supplies, Christmas decorations and old videotapes fell on top of the young reaper. As Ruby struggled to extricate herself from the mess, Yang sighed and shook her head.

“Honestly, I don’t know why you’re so freaked out, Ruby. You really need to chill out,” scolded Yang as she held out a hand to help Ruby up.

“Gee, I dunno, Yang,” snapped Ruby. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the last time we saw her, she was kicking your ass so hard that I’m surprised it’s not still bruised.”

“Language, young lady” Taiyang said as he came downstairs to investigate the loud crash. Ruby muttered something under her breath as she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled a jar down from on top of it labeled ‘Swear Jar.’ She then fished a lien out of her pocket and stuffed it in the jar before returning it to its place.

“Yeah, last time she wiped the floor with me,” muttered Yang bitterly, clearly not fond of the memory Ruby just brought up. “But this isn’t last time. I mean just look at her.”

“Regardless of her current condition,” Taiyang said calmly, holding up both hands to try to appeal for peace between the two sisters, “we still need to have a talk about what’s going to happen with our new guest.”

“I already told you that I’m not going to let you kick her out, Dad.” Yang bristled.

“I know. And I agree with what you said. I let my emotions get the better of me and you’re right, it would be inhumane to kick her out with nowhere to go in weather like this. But we have to stay on our toes because we don’t know how long it’s going to be before her friends come looking for her.”

“I don’t think she’s a threat right now,” said Yang far more calmly than she had been a moment ago. “She had a bit of a breakdown and during it, she told me how she’s lost everything, including her house and all her friends. And I could tell it wasn’t just an act. She’s legitimately at the end of her rope right now.”

“And you believe her?” Ruby asked incredulously.

“Yes, Ruby, I do,” Yang shot back with a scowl.

“I know you want to believe her, Yang," sighed Taiyang wearily, "but the fact remains that she’s not somebody who deserves our trust.”

“I know she doesn’t deserve it but I dunno. I just have this gut feeling about her that she really needs somebody to help her. And I feel like I can do that for her. Maybe we can make her an ally?”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” muttered Ruby just loud enough to be heard by everyone.

“At some point soon,” Taiyang said sharply to counter Ruby’s interruption, “you need to talk to her and get as much information out of her as you can. We need to know why she’s here on Patch and what she was doing before you found her.”

“I’m not going to interrogate her, Dad,” Yang said in annoyance. “She’s not some prisoner. She’s done nothing wrong to us.”

“Does helping crash a train into downtown Vale and letting the city get overrun by Grimm not ring any bells?” Ruby asked sardonically.

“That’s enough, Ruby,” snapped Taiyang as he rounded on his younger daughter. “Upstairs to your room, now.”

“But Daddy!” Ruby protested.

“No buts. Yang and I are trying to have a serious talk about this matter and you’re not contributing anything positive. March upstairs until we’re done.” Ruby huffed in annoyance and stuck her tongue out at Yang who just rolled her eyes. Ruby then stomped loudly upstairs and slammed her door behind her. Taiyang grimaced and shook his head in disappointment. As mature and gifted as Ruby had been to be accepted into Beacon early, sometimes she could still be a teenage brat.

“Anyway,” said Yang to break the silence, “as I said, I’m not going to interrogate her. If you want answers from her so badly, call up Qrow or Ozpin.”

“I really don’t want it to have to come to that if it doesn’t have to,” Taiyang said heavily, worn out from all that had happened in the past day. “I’m hoping that she’ll be willing to talk simply because of what you did for her.”

“Even if she would be willing to talk to me, do you really think she’d give me a straight answer?”

“It’s tough to say. I guess it really depends on how much she wants to protect her allies. If what she told you already is true and she’s acting on her own, I see no reason why she’d lie.” As Yang was about to offer another retort, the smoke alarm suddenly started beeping. “Oh no, I forgot about our dinner!”

Taiyang dashed to the oven and threw open the door to find the roast he was cooking had been badly burned. Acrid smoke poured out and caused Taiyang to start coughing. Yang groaned and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the closet Ruby had been hiding in and quickly doused the flames.

“So, spaghetti then?” Yang asked as she waved her hand to try and clear the smoke from her face. Taiyang simply nodded as he pulled the burnt roast from the oven.

————————————————————————————————-

“Neo? Wake up Neo,” said a cool, menacing female voice. Neo did come to and the first thing she saw was the glinting amber eyes of Cinder Fall. Behind her were her lackeys, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. All three were wearing identical malicious smirks on their faces. Cinder reached up to lightly caress Neo’s face as she spoke again. “I don’t think you understand this game, Neo. If you die, then I can’t keep inflicting pain on you. And I’ve been having so much fun.”

Neo wanted to sign something nasty to her in reply but her hands and ankles were bound and she was unable to move. The cool air hitting her skin made Neo shiver and she realized she was naked. Neo looked down at her body and saw a large amount of scratches, cuts, bruises and dried blood all over her skin.

“I haven’t even gotten to have my turn with the little slut yet,” crooned Mercury, suggestively fiddling with his belt as he said it. “You two ladies have gotten all the fun so far.”

“Please let me know when you plan on doing that so I can be as far away as humanly possible,” growled Emerald. “The last thing I need to see is your disgusting ass in mid coitus.”

“Aw, but Emerald, I need your tips on how to properly fuck this bitch. You seemed to really enjoy making her scream earlier.”

“Quiet you two,” snapped Cinder, letting her fake pleasant façade slip for a second. “You’ll get your chance to get your rocks off Mercury. But there’s more pressing matters to attend to right now. Tell me Neo, have you ever read the works of Shan Yu?”

“Uh, she can’t tell you anything, boss,” interrupted Mercury in befuddlement. “She can’t talk, remember?”

“It’s an expression, you dense moron,” Emerald hissed as she elbowed Mercury in the abdomen hard enough to drive the wind out of him. “Shut up and let Cinder finish.”

“Thank you, Emerald,” said Cinder with a smile. She then walked over to a table nearby and picked up an instrument with lots of sharp, pointy ends on it. Cinder flipped a switch on it and it hummed to life with a threatening buzzing noise. She then sauntered over to Neo and pressed the tip of the device right against her belly button.

“Now, if you haven’t read his works Neo, he was a dictator many centuries ago who had some rather fascinating insights on war and humanity. One of my favorite things he wrote was, ‘Live with a man 40 years. Share his house, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano’s edge. And on that day, you will finally meet the man.’ Now we’ve been associated for a little while, Neo, but you’ve always been hanging around with Roman while I was busy with my plans. And I don’t feel we ever really got the chance to get to know each other. But now that we have all this time to ourselves, I’m dying to meet the real you.”

As Cinder pressed a button that caused the device to stab into her, Neo’s eyes flew open as she woke up in terror. After a frantic few moments of looking around, she realized that she was back in the guest room of the house on Patch. Pain shot through her left leg and she winced as she started unraveling herself from her cocoon of blankets. When Neo finally got to her leg, she was horrified at how mangled it looked. She hadn’t had a chance yet to survey the damage she’d suffered from the beowolves and falling out of the tree.

Neo tried desperately to fight back tears as she heard a small yip come from the floor beside her. She glanced down to see Zwei looking up at her with as much concern as a dog’s face could manage. He ran to the bedroom door then back to where he was, looking between Neo and the door every couple seconds. Neo realized he was asking if he should get help and Neo nodded emphatically at him. Zwei ran back to the door and began scratching at it, barking as loudly as he could. A few moments later, Neo heard heavy footsteps running down the stairs and an instant later, a disheveled looking Yang burst into the room.

“What is it Zwei? What’s wrong?” Zwei ran back over to the bed and put his front paws up on the mattress to draw Yang’s attention to Neo. Yang saw her face screwed up in agony and she quickly moved to Neo’s bedside. “What happened? What do you need?”

“I had a bad dream and I woke up with my leg killing me. Do you have any pain meds?”

“Of course, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Yang dashed back out of the room as Neo laid back down on her pillows. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed the pain before but assumed that she must have just been so numb from the cold that she didn’t notice. A minute later, Yang was back with a handful of pills and a glass of water. Neo took both and quickly downed the pills.

“Thanks,” Neo signed as she set the glass down on the bedside table.

“You’re welcome. Do you need anything else? Should I hang out for a bit?”

“That would be nice.” Yang nodded and went back to the door to close it. She then sat down at the foot of the bed and scanned her eyes over Neo. Yang had been too preoccupied with getting her warm that she hadn’t noticed just how beaten up Neo was. Ugly scars and bruises, both fresh and still healing were all over the skin that Yang could see. Neo shivered as she realized just how cold she was and retreated back under the blankets. But it was still too cold for her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,” replied Yang with a self-satisfied smirk. Neo shot Yang a death glare that Blake would have been impressed by before she resumed signing.

“When I came to, I felt very warm and safe. And then I hit you, which means you must have been close by me. Were you cuddling with me?”

“I mean, if you want to look at it like that, sure.”

“Pervert,” Neo signed with a joking smirk on her face.

“Hey, it wasn’t like that at all, got it?” Yang shot back defensively. “Your body was ice cold and I needed to take every measure I could to keep you alive. So I held onto you all night and made sure you got warm.”

Neo paused for a moment as a deep blush crept over her face. “Would you be willing to do it again?”

“For real?” Yang asked, a blush of her own blooming on her face. “Uh, sure. I could do that again.” Yang pulled the blankets aside and stepped into the bed with Neo. After taking a moment to get herself comfortable, Yang apprehensively snaked her right arm under Neo’s neck and held it close against her. Neo stiffened up as she felt the warmth of Yang creep over her. She suddenly felt very small and helpless as she was wrapped up in the arms of the huntress.

“Are you okay? You’re very tense. Are you sure this is okay?” Neo realized she wasn’t in an optimal position to sign a reply so she pointed to the dry erase board on the bedside table. Yang grabbed it and handed it over to the mute woman.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just never been cuddled with before. At least not as far as I can remember.”

“Torchwick wasn’t much of a touchy-feely kinda guy, eh?”

Neo glared at Yang and quickly wrote back, “Not that it’s any of your business but no, he’s not. And Roman and I never had a relationship like that.”

“Okay, sorry. Didn’t mean tick you off.” The two fell silent again as Neo tried to get used to the feeling of being cuddled. Even though she was still scared to be touched so intimately, the thrill of how good it felt intoxicated her. She buried her head against Yang’s chest and heard her heart beating rapidly. Eventually, Neo reached her arm around Yang’s abdomen and hugged her closer to her.

“You feel really good.” Neo spelled out on Yang’s hip.

“Hey,” giggled Yang as she began to squirm, “watch it! That tickles!”

Neo reluctantly withdrew her arm so she could write and replied, “Sorry. I wish I had a better way to talk to you while keeping my arm around you.”

“It’s fine, you can go back to that. Also, you feel pretty nice too. You’re much warmer than the last time I did this.” Neo placed the board beside her on the bed and returned her arm to around Yang’s torso. They spent a few minutes snuggling, both getting drunk on the feeling of the other’s skin. Even though she was in utter bliss, Neo really had something to tell Yang so she once again picked up the dry erase board.

“I think I’m ready to talk to you now.”

“About your nightmare?” Yang questioned, a little sad that their great cuddle had come to an end.

“No. About me. About how I ended up like this.”

“Yeah?” Yang asked, trying to contain her excitement. “You sure you want to?”

“I’ve got nothing else to lose in my life. I might as well tell my story.”

“Okay, well what do you want to talk about first?”

“Whatever you want to know most about.”

“Well, there’s lots of things I want to know about you,” began Yang slowly, pondering the question. As she thought, her father’s request came back to her mind and she knew what she had to ask first. “But the first thing I should ask about is the one that I’ve been told I need to find out from you. Am I or anyone in my family in danger because you’re here?”

Neo started writing a lengthy response. Yang couldn’t help but be slightly nervous as to what would be waiting for her when Neo was finished. She really hoped that Neo wasn’t just being overdramatic earlier and really meant that she was by herself now. When Neo finished, she passed the board to Yang.

“Not as a direct result of me, no. After the train incident, I was severely punished for Roman’s failure and banished from the faction. I tried to lay low in one of our safehouses but I was captured again and dumped out of a plane. I think they meant for me to drown in the ocean but I ended up here instead. But the point is, anyone I was previously associated with is either imprisoned or considers me an enemy. And none of those individuals know my current whereabouts.”

Yang breathed a small sigh of relief that her family could stop worrying about being in danger from Neo. But Neo had mentioned something she couldn’t help wanting to hear more about. “You said you were punished. How bad was it?”

“It was bad. I’ll just leave it at that.” Neo wrote with a pained grimace on her face as the memories of how she was tortured came back to her. “Cinder probably should have just killed me but she chose to make me suffer instead.”

“Wait, Cinder? You mean that girl from Haven?” Yang asked in shock.

“Yeah, her. The whole thing was her plan. She, Emerald, Mercury and a bunch of pricks I didn’t get to meet are on some big crusade to punish the rest of the kingdoms or some shit like that for all of Mistral’s problems. I don’t know. I wasn’t ever really interested in their bullshit. I just did what I was asked to.”

“Wow. I can’t believe it was them all along. They fought alongside us in Vale. They helped clear out the Grimm. And it was them the whole time?” Neo nodded her head solemnly to confirm Yang’s question. An awkward silence fell between to two for a minute. Yang couldn’t believe what she had just been told. Was she going to have to go through the rest of her time as a huntress not knowing who to trust? Cinder and her friends had been so pleasant but they were the bad guys. Meanwhile, Neo had seemed like a complete monster but Yang was finding out she was nothing of the sort either.

“You still want to talk about me?” Neo wrote and stuck in front of Yang’s glazed over eyes.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” replied Yang, snapping out of her train of thought. “Sorry, that whole thing with Cinder just kind of threw me for a loop. Um, how about this? Were you born mute or did something happen to you that caused it?”

“No, I wasn’t born like this. I haven’t talked since I was a little girl. My parents’ house burned down and killed them but I somehow managed to survive. Ever since then, I haven’t been able to speak.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Where did you go then?”

“None of my other ‘family’ would take me in so I was sent to an orphanage to hopefully get adopted. That’s where I met Roman. His mom died giving birth to him and his dad didn’t want to raise a kid on his own so he just gave him away. He took pity on me and was my protector when we were there. I can’t even count how many times he was beaten for sticking up for me when the people who ran the orphanage or the other kids tried to give me trouble for not speaking.”

“So, did you ever get adopted?”

“No. It became clear to both of us when we hit our teens that we were lost causes and we were sick of all the shit at the orphanage. So, we ran away, just the two of us against the world. I unlocked my aura and learned how to fight and disguise myself. And Roman did all the talking.”

“Is that how you became criminals?”

“Look,” Neo began writing with a stern look at Yang, “you call it being criminals but we were two kids on our own with nothing in the world but each other so we did what we had to to survive. Did we rob people and steal things? Yeah, we did. Would you have done anything differently if you were in the same situation? If it was you and your sister who were homeless street rats, wouldn’t you do the exact same thing?”

“I guess,” admitted Yang begrudgingly. “So, then how’d you get mixed up in the whole take over the world stuff?”

“Roman never really gave me all the details as to what happened. He just told me that this woman came to him with an offer that was too good to pass up. He said that if it worked, we wouldn’t have to worry about being petty thieves ever again. We’d be set for life and all the people in power would get what’s coming to them.”

“Do you regret what you did at all?”

“To a point. Do I regret doing whatever it took to scrape out a living? No. Do I regret getting dragged into business with those assholes? Absolutely. I never wanted any of that. I just wanted to keep living like how we were.”

“What do you think you’re going to do once you’re better?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, ideally, I’d love to find Cinder, break every bone in her body and then chop her up into a billion pieces. But beyond that, I don’t know.”

“Have you ever given thought to being a huntress?” Yang asked her hopefully. “With your fighting skills, you could be a really damn good one.”

“Ah, so that’s your game, is it? You’re gonna see the potential deep down inside me and try to turn me into a good girl, is that right? Turn me into a model citizen and make me renounce all my wicked ways?”

“No, that’s not it,” replied Yang with a guilty tone. She had to admit that the idea had crossed her mind even though she figured it was a lost cause. “I just figured that fighting is what you’re probably best at and why not make a proper career out of it?”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I may not be interested in bringing down Ozpin, Ironwood and all those pricks anymore but believe me when I say that they’re still pricks. And I don’t really care to be one of their lapdogs for bullying the rest of the world into behaving just like them.”

“You’re probably going to have to work with them if you want to get to Cinder so badly. And as good as you are, you’re not going to be able to take her down by yourself.”

“Yeah, I know I’m not good enough to beat them all myself. But I refuse to fight their war for them. If you’re fine with being their little disposable hero, you go right ahead. That’s not how I want to live my life, though.”

“I’m not really interested in that sort of stuff, either. I just want to travel around the world, have some adventures and kill some monsters. And if doing that helps out some people in need, that’s a bonus.”

“You may want that but that’s not what they want for you. And if this war really does end up kicking off, they’re going to drag you into it whether you want to fight or not.”

“Do you really think it’s going to come to that?” Yang asked nervously. “Do you think we’re gonna go to war?”

“It’s tough to say. Cinder and her cronies do have quite a lot of shit together and they’re certainly pissed off at the world enough to try something.”

“Remnant’s been at peace for so long. I can’t imagine what would happen if the kingdoms went to war against each other again.”

“Has it really? I bet your White Fang buddy would have something to say about that.”

“Neo, please,” said Yang in desperation, “you have to do this one thing for me. Promise me that you’ll do whatever you can to make sure that this war doesn’t happen.”

“And why should I help you with anything?”

“I don’t want to have to play this card but I did save your life. I know you don’t owe me anything but please, it would mean everything to me if you can somehow keep us from going to war. I’ve lost too many people in my life already and I don’t want war to take any more. Please, I’m begging you.”

Neo paused for a few moments to consider what Yang was asking for her. Finally, she closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh as she began to write, “Okay, fine. I can’t guarantee that I can stop it. But I’ll give your leaders all the intel I can so that they can maybe put an end to it.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Yang hugged Neo tightly against her and caused a searing surge of pain from Neo’s wounds. Neo frantically flailed against Yang to try and get her to release her. Yang realized what she’d done and quickly backed away from Neo who was gritting her teeth in agony.

“You know I can’t be an informant if I’m broken in half, right?” Neo signed as the pain slowly began to ebb.

“Sorry, I got carried away,” muttered Yang sheepishly. “I should probably go and let you try and get back to sleep, yeah?” Yang went to leave but Neo quickly grabbed onto Yang’s wrist and held onto it tightly. Yang glanced back at Neo and saw she looked as surprised at her actions as Yang was. With her free hand, Neo grabbed her marker and wrote out a message for Yang.

“Please stay?” Yang read the message and then looked to Neo. She looked terrified and Yang wasn’t sure if it was because Yang might leave or because she’d written that note. Yang couldn’t help noting the similarity to Ruby when she was younger and would beg Yang to let her stay in Yang’s bed. Yang then soberly nodded and readjusted herself to how she was lying before. Neo returned her head onto Yang’s chest and listened to her heartbeat again. As strange as it was, just hearing that made Neo feel very safe and protected. Within a few minutes, both girls drifted off to sleep.

————————————————————————————————

Neo panted for breath as she glared at Emerald who was holding Neo’s parasol and malevolently twirling it in her fingers. Neo made a lunge for her but Emerald simply teleported away again and reappeared a few feet to her left. As Neo tried to strike Emerald again, a sudden kick from out of her vision landed right in her stomach and knocked the wind out of her. As Neo struggled for breath, another kick came at her, this time striking her in the jaw. Neo flopped to the ground but immediately tried to get back on her feet. As she raised her head, she saw Mercury standing above her, his leg poised in the air. He then brought his foot down with a smashing axe kick, causing the ground under Neo’s head to crack.

Emerald then hooked Neo by the back of her collar with the crook parasol and pulled Neo into a kneeling position. Through the fog caused by the kicks, Neo could faintly see the glowing eyes of Cinder walking towards her. As her vision fully recovered, Neo noticed the bow in Cinder’s hand with a frightening black arrow cocked back and aimed right at Neo’s heart.

“Tell me Neo, do you believe in destiny?” Cinder asked. But before any sort of answer could be given, the lights suddenly went out. Neo heard an arrow whiz by her face and clatter to the ground.

“Whoa, what happened?” Mercury yelled in surprise. “Everything suddenly went dark!”

“No kidding, genius,” grumbled Emerald. “The power went out. Go check the fusebox and see if it needs a new one.”

“No, wait,” Cinder said with a noticeable twinge of fear, “we must have been found out. Quickly, retreat.” The three villains tried to make their way out of the dark but suddenly Neo could hear blows being landed and grunts of pain. An enraged yell rang out and Neo looked up to see Cinder flashing in and out of light as muzzle blasts illuminated her while loud shotgun shots rang out. After several seconds of being pummeled, Cinder crumpled unconscious to the floor. Before she knew what was happening, Neo was scooped up by a pair of strong, sculpted arms and was being carried princess style away from her captors.

“It’s okay Neo, you’re safe now,” her savior said. Neo broke into a wide smile as she realized that she had been saved by Yang. She threw her arms around Yang’s neck and nuzzled her face against the blonde’s. Yang finally got the two of them out of the room and removed the night vision goggles she’d been wearing. She looked down at Neo who looked very relieved to be out of that mess.

“I always wondered what it would be like to be saved by my hero,” Neo signed to her.

“Yeah? Did I meet your expectations?” Yang asked cheekily.

“More than you ever could have done. I think you deserve a reward.” Neo then readjusted her body until her legs were wrapped around Yang’s torso and she was looking the blonde in the eye. She then pulled Yang in for a passionate kiss. Yang was all too happy to reciprocate as she ran her free hand through Neo’s hair.

“I love you,” Yang whispered against Neo’s lips. Neo shivered as goosebumps erupted down her spine and she slid her head down onto Yang’s shoulder. Yang hugged Neo tightly against her but not too tight as she lightly rubbed Neo’s back.

Neo tilted her head up and said hoarsely into Yang’s ear, “I love you too.”

Neo’s eyes snapped open and she found herself back in Yang’s guest room. Down the hall, Neo could faintly hear the sound of sizzling bacon and the delicious smell of pancakes. She then noticed that Yang was no longer in bed with her and judging by the temperature of the space next to her, she’d been gone for a little while. Neo felt a stray tear leak out of her eye and she sadly placed her hand on the pillow Yang had been using. She then recalled the dream she had been having and her heart fluttered at the memory of kissing Yang. As much as she enjoyed the thought of that happening, Neo had to admit that this was not good. Things were starting to get very complicated for her very fast. And if she didn’t get her emotions in check as soon as possible, she could end up falling for someone she knew she shouldn’t.

[spitfirerose]

RWBY OC: Sven Ursajor

Says she doesn’t care about RWBY but here she is with OCs.

Don’t mind me, just posting some stuff on my characters since it’s about time that I did. It’s just one for now, but I’mma do the whole team. @reduxroyal and @nerdgasrnz ‘cause of that OC love, and it’s nice to share. I wanna be a cool kid too

Sven Ursajor: A seventeen year-old male with a prosthetic right arm and gifted the semblance of ‘Ursa Major’, an ability that grants him strength if allies are in peril, sort of like Yang’s rage button. His bear faunus trait can be seen as the two small ears in his permanent bedhead, so hidden from sight that others often mistake him as human. Sven is the leader of Team SUGR, and takes his role very seriously. His weapon is his metal arm, infused with different types of dusts that allows him to fire attacks, as well as getting close and personal with punches and claws. It’s pretty effective to block with. He’s armed with a brass knuckle on the other, adding ‘oomph’ to those hits. 

His parents, both faunus, were killed in a work incident at the Schnee Dust Company’s factory, though one could easily blame it on their poor treatment of workers and unsafe conditions. Orphaned at a young age, Sven was taken in by the local White Fang, years before the particular faction turned to violence. Being a kindhearted and strong boy, he would look out for the youngest members, as they were often targeted by cruel humans. Never would he fight back, merely protecting them and taking beatings meant for the easy targets. He meets Blake during an incident where a bookstore window had caught her eye, as well as the attention of unruly patrons and owner. They’re rescued by members of their group once the damage is done, Sven shielding the cat faunus, and one of them, Adam, makes a comment that nonviolence ain’t doin’ shit.

Their community resides in the outskirts of Mountain Glenn, Vale’s failed attempt at expansion and crawling with Grimm, preferring to deal with the looming threat of the dark beasts rather than humans. Rumors are spread amongst the children that there’s a monster around that’s stealing things, and is too quick to catch, always managing to slip away. Sven, being the oldest and therefore bravest of the lot, is requested to investigate. It would turn out that this ‘monster’ is no monster at all, simply a very hungry, and very wild, little raccoon faunus girl. A sole survivor of the horror of Mountain Glenn, Una has been on her own for quite some time, and is coaxed out of her tree by Sven’s offer of food. From there, the pair is practically inseparable, Una trusting Sven with her life.

As years go by, so does the restlessness in the White Fang with the change of leaders. Sven is caught up in the gradual changes, assured by new orders that he’s helping keep the younger faunus safe as always. They become more militaristic, more assertive. Sven grew up with the old White Fang, he knows what they’re doing---what he’s being ordered to do--isn’t right. He’s thrown into the ring, thrown into a world of war when all he wanted was peace. He’s trained to become a leader, much like Adam, but complete opposite of the ruthless man. Adam sees his grunts as just that, easily sacrificing them to obtain his goals, whereas Sven cares for teammates and fights alongside them as equals. They’re both sent on missions to steal stuff, and Sven often returns to base injured.

One night, Una asks if what they’re doing is right. Humans are afraid of them. He’s always getting hurt, more than before. He doesn’t know what to answer. She admits that Adam scares her, to which he...can’t disagree. However, she overcomes this fear as she goes to him to become a fighter, her desire to help Sven greater than her uneasiness. She’s being thrown into a dangerous lifestyle, but accepts the risks. It’s kept secret until his latest mission briefing when she’s amongst his assigned team. This hurts Sven more than she’ll ever know, and his resolve to get them out of the White Fang has increased.

Adam knows damn well that it’s a trap, but what better way to motivate their cause by sacrificing a few valued lives? Unbeknownst to Sven and Una and crew, they’re being sent to an untimely demise.

It was just supposed to be a rescue mission. Find the faunus worker hostages in the confines of the Dust Factory, save them, and get out, preferably undetected all the while.

Except there are no hostages, there’s no saving anyone, there’s no getting out, and they’re so detected.

As a wise dude once said, it’s a trap. An ambush, really, and having a giant battle in the middle of a Dust Factory, that’s, y’know, sensitive and highly likely to combust and shit? Things go from 0 to 100 in seconds. There’s a massive explosion and just about everyone dies and/or is dying. It sucks.

Una has lost her legs from having tried to save Sven, and he’s missing an arm. By the power of his semblance (and Deus Ex Machina), does he manage to get them out of there and to home base. Adam plays it off that Humans are dicks and look at their brave sacrifices to their cause, earning many a rallying cry. Sven gets the wakeup call that the White Fang is dangerous and now would be the time to get the fuck out. Where do they get the prosthetics for Sven and Una?? They have connections. No matter, as Adam implies that once they’re all settled into recuperating, that they can rejoin the fight. Yay, propaganda and junk.

Sven waits the second that Una can take her first steps, and they get the hell out of dodge. They go into hiding, and like Blake, default to Beacon Academy as students, and totally not ex-members of the White Fang. It takes a lot of convincing to get Una enrolled, as she is a few years younger. They refuse to be separated. When the rumor comes out do they is (ex) White Fang, Sven doesn’t care what they do to him as long as they keep Una in the school. The guy is riddled with guilt about what’s happened to her.

They do the “Landing Strategy and Team Building” thing. Sven meets a Gwenna. Gwenna is nice and seems to know just where to go, but she can’t fight for jackshit. Luckily, Sven can. He’s nice to her, unlike a certain asshole fox, and accepts that they’re teammates now. It’s not that big a deal to him that she shies from fighting, and encourages her strengths in navigating as he doesn’t know where the relics are. They’re a pretty good team. Small talk is small, as he’s not much for conversation, and she’s timid as hell.

By luck, they’re teamed up with Una and her new partner, Renari, aka Asshole Fox. Team SUGR is formed. Sven is up to the task to keep his team safe, determined to make them all a fine team. Gotta find out what makes them all tick and strategize accordingly. He’s easily the best leader around, and a mentor figure to his teammates. If they get hurt, he’s there to back them up. So much as a cough, and they’re not getting out of bed. He is mama bear.

Little misc. Facts: His hair always looks like he just rolled out of bed. He could probably hibernate in winter if he wanted. He’s always on the lookout for stickers for Una to decorate her legs with. He teaches Gwenna how to fight with her weapons properly, not judging at all. A good, supportive guy. Sven calls Renari out on him being a pain, telling a story of someone he once knew that went nuts with wanting power, White Fang Adam. Being strong isn’t everything. They’re all a team, and are only strong when working together, not belittling their members. He and Una are an unstoppable duo in combat, in sync with another and not needing words.

[crwdby]

CRWDBY Chapter 2: The Mission

“Hey,” It took Yang a second to realize where she was. Yang was at Red Base, and so was Blake. “Yeah, Blake?” Yang asked, and instantly recognized what was happening, and knew what Blake would say next. “Do you ever wonder why we’re here?” Blake asked. Yang took this opportunity to be a part of an important, and philosophical point in the tale of the Reds and Blues. “It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries isn’t it? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a god out there, with some kind of plan for us and stuff?”

The scene suddenly whirls across the canyon to see Nora and Ren on a cliff. Ren looking at Blake and Yang through binoculars.

Nora was becoming impatient, “What are they doing, Ren?” The silent teen took his face away from his binoculars, “What?” Nora restated her question. “I said, What are they doing now?” Ren became irritated with Nora, “Oh my god Nora! I’m getting so sick of you asking that question!” Nora came back with the same amount of sass, “Hey, you have those binoculars and I can’t see squat! Don’t complain about me, because I’m not gonna just sit up here and wait for something to happen.” Ren didn’t want to escalate the argument further so he tried to calm her down, to no effect. “They’re just standing there and talking, Nora. That’s all they ever do, is just stand there and talk. That’s what they were doing last monday. That’s what they were doing when you asked me ten minutes ago. And when you ask, five minutes from now, I’ll still say that they’re still just standing and talking.” Nora, being as nosy as she is, needed to ask one last question. “What’re they talking about?” This bent Ren a little too far, “You know what? I hate you”

The camera whirls back to Yang and Blake. Still, just standing and talking. Like usual.

“Talk about a waste of resources! We should go out and find new and intelligent forms of Grimm. Fight them” Yang said in the middle of a conversation. Blake agreed, “Yeah, that’s why they should put us in charge.” Ruby from somewhere in the base “Ladies! Get over here on the double!” Blake and Yang were startled by Ruby’s sudden call, “Crap, Yes sir!”

   "Yang Jesus Christ wake the fuck up or I'll make you have a dream that you have no hair!" That was what Yang woke up to the next morning, and she knew that it was her friendly AI Church, because no one she knows is that profane. "Stop yelling, I'm up!" Yang yelled out loud, startling her teammates. "Uh, Yang we didn't say anything. Are you hearing things?" Blake asked, still wondering what's gotten into Yang. "Oh, I thought one of you said that if I didn't wake up you'd make me have a bad dream." The blonde replied, 'That was me, dumbass' Church thought making Yang frown a bit. "It looks like you did have a bad dream, Yang." Ruby said, noting Yang's frown.  

Yang got out of bed and got ready for the big day ahead of them, team RWBY gets to choose their very first mission. “Do you know what kind of options we have?” Weiss asked, nervous about how she could complete a mission while dealing with the nonsense that is her team. “I have no idea, but we get to chose as a team!” Ruby said hopefully.

‘Do these missions involve dealing with whatever this Grimm thing is?’ The AI asked Yang. “Of course, missions help rid the world if Grimm. One little bit at a time.” Yang thought. ‘Damn it, those things are scary as hell, like Crunchbite. Which reminds me, if we ever see Tucker again, remind me to call his kid disgusting.’

Yang was the last to use the restroom to get ready and as she exited, she grabbed the stuff she packed last night for the mission. As she did this, both Yang and Church noticed Blake wasn't wearing her bow today. “No bow today, Blake?” Blake calmly replied, “Nope” and the team left for the auditorium for their mission assignment. Church couldn't string enough words to make a sentence and just stuttered. ‘Blake? Why doesn't… Yang, did you…?’ Yang had a hard time holding her laughter in front of her teammates and thought to Church, “You just got pranked, dude. Or as I like to call it, Yang-king your chain!” ‘Fuck you then’ Church snapped, and went offline.

When team RWBY reached the Beacon auditorium, the headmaster and assistant headmaster were on the stage, about to begin a speech of some sort. The assistant started by gathering everyone's attention and then turned it over to the headmaster, Professor Ozpin.  

(Imagine that Ozpin’s speech is here because I'm too lazy to plagiarize it)

The team was more than ready for their mission ahead of them, they just had to pick one. “This is awesome! All we need to do is pick a mission in the southeast, and we're perfect!” The red leader exclaimed as team RWBY searched for missions in the southeast quadrant of Vale. Yang didn't try to hide her excitement, “Yeah! We'll follow them during the day and give them the slip at night!” The AI couldn't control his inner Tucker and said the iconic phrase, “Bow chika bow wow” Yang had to stifle a laugh and she was lucky that no one was looking at her then.

Ruby was the first to notice a mission that fit the team’s needs. “Here it is! Quadrant 5 needs Grimm eliminated!” Everybody agreed, but when the team tried to sign up, the screen read, “First year students are not allowed to take this mission” the team was disappointed, except Church chimed in, ’Hold on give me like five seconds.’ Yang created a small diversion, “Are you sure you spelled it right Ruby?” The team leader was a little offended by the question, “Of course I did, do you doubt my spelling abilities, my dear sister?” Church returned to Yang as Ruby was speaking,’Ok I cleared you guys for this mission, you should also beef up your security. That was way too easy.’ “Why don't you try again, Ruby, just to be sure” Yang asked, curious to see if the little AI actually allowed them to do the mission. Ruby re-entered their team and much to the team's surprise it worked this time. Yang took this as an chance to gloat over her sister, “I thought you entered it right, Ruby?” The young leader was dumbfounded, and so was the rest of the team. All of them tried, and failed, to find an explanation to how the system rejected them, but seemingly changed its mind.

As team RWBY made their way across the expansive courtyard toward the port, Church interrupted Yang’s thoughts. ‘So why does Ruby and the team need to get a mission strictly in the southeast?’ Yang could never get used to the sensation of Church talking, but she continued her step as if nothing happened. “What to do you know about the White Fang?” She thought to Church, who replied, ‘Aren't they a radical group of Faunus fighting for equality?’ Church asked, and Yang responded, “Yeah, and Blake used to be a member of them, but don't tell her you know, and we caught wind of a staging area for the White Fang hideout southeast of here, and that's where we are gonna mess up their plans!” Church used his superior AI mind (Delta) to make a quick calculation and made an observation. ‘From what I can see, the only reasonable place for a criminal staging ground southeast of here is a settlement named Mountain Glenn.’ This gave Yang a little bit of hope that they picked the right spot. “Sweet, that's exactly where we're going! Church was going to respond to his new friend, but was interrupted by Yang’s team.  

“YANG!” A gunshot from Crescent Rose quickly followed her owner’s scream. “Ruby! What did I tell you about blindly firing into the air? You probably just killed an innocent person!” Weiss squealed towards Ruby. “How else were we supposed to get her attention? Tackle her?“ The red head retorted, Weiss huffed and looked away, clearly offended. “Yang, we've been trying to get your attention for three minutes. What's so important that you have to tune us out?” Yang was able to think of a reasonable lie, “Uh… I was just thinking about how this is our first mission! I can't wait to kick some White Fang butt!” Blake could see through the lie, but she needed more time and evidence to prove that something is up with her friend. Blake put this in a mental folder aptly named ‘Proof Something’s Wrong With Yang’ and put it back in her mental filing cabinet.  

The team got to their assigned dock and waited for their airship to take them to Mountain Glenn. After a minute or two of waiting, an airship arrived at the teams dock, and put zipped Professor Oobleck. Team RWBY and Church knew they were in for one hell of a mission.

[bestworstcase]

it’s especially fucking wild paired with the “salem not attacking menagerie / mistral / mantle is her greatest mistake and will be her downfall” reading like—do y’all not hear yourselves turning on a DIME from "salem isn’t doing enough to avoid killing children" to "her consistent pattern of not attacking civilians is evil because it shows how she doesn’t believe they matter."

meanwhile… grimm don’t go after the ships evacuating from beacon. salem plans a surgical strike on haven before students arrive for the fall semester, while the campus is empty. she holds her force of millions of grimm back from completely undefended mantle, and her hound sends wild grimm out of the city before capturing oscar. during the assault on atlas, her grimm herd civilians into the subway stations and then leave them alone. she has no plans to attack menagerie, which has neither an academy nor a military nor any problem with the grimm at all.

“look how you’ve diminished, how you’ve lessened yourself, and for what? these children? this ruined world?”—and the next thing that happens is yang identifies herself as summer’s daughter and salem turns to hazel and announces that she’s going to torture his surrogate sister before touching emerald’s face with magic crackling around her hands for show, inflicting no pain and no injury, until hazel punches her, whereupon the first thing salem does is drop the restraints holding all of “these children” hostage, including the one salem personally dislikes who just helped oscar escape.

it remains to be seen what the situation is in vale, but if the established pattern holds true? salem pushed everyone who didn’t make it onto the refugee ship(s) into a safe zone—the mountain glenn undercity—and is now keeping her grimm away from them. just like she did in atlas when thousands of civilians packed into unguarded subway stations to take shelter. just like in mantle when her hound ordered wild grimm out of the city.

it is not her fault that ozpin’s “warriors” are largely 15-19 year old children who’ve been trained all their lives to serve as combatants. that is on him for designing the system this way.

leans out a window. it is not salem’s fault that oz uses child soldiers to guard his fortresses. it’s not her fault that he made a deliberate strategic choice to recruit children into a war they didn’t even know they’re fighting. (and it certainly isn’t her fault that he’s been getting kids killed in training for decades before she made her first move!)

he has been trying to destroy her for thousands of years while salem lived in exile, not fighting back, until one of those grown-up child soldiers found out the truth and gave her something to fight for. if your defenders are all children because you set up your fortresses to masquerade as schools, if you for decades continually made the choice to use children as unwitting human shields then you don’t get to blame the enemy when children die on the front lines. YOU PUT THEM THERE.